#and there is a pretty specific niche of What People Will Buy and What I actually Have Time to Create i have to fall into and its just a bit | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

am-i-the-asshole-official · 4 months

Note

AITA for scamming my ex out of an extremely valuable virtual pet?

🐓🥤to recognize. This might be a very long post with a lot of added context for a very niche hobby and a very small actual conflict.

I religiously play a virtual pet site called Chicken Smoothie. It's a pretty old site as far as virtual pet games go, starting back in 2008, so there is a pretty solid established site economy. Just for some context, Every pet on the site has a rarity, ranging from "OMG So Common" to "OMG So Rare", being the most common and most rare respectively. But there are rarities within those rarities, where some OMGSRs can be worth more than others based on species and demand. For example, an OMGSR dog from 2008 will be worth more than an OMGSR rat from 2008 despite being the same highest rarity and year, because people prefer the dogs over rats. These pets can get extremely valuable. You can't sell them for real money (according to site rules, but of course there's a black market), but the site has its own virtual currency you can buy (with real money) and trade for called Chicken Dollars, and you can also trade a valuable pet for other valuable pets. It gets very complicated, with the community coming up with its own set of value terms each pet can have. I'm not getting into specifics there, that's not important.

Every year, on December 18th, CS has gift boxes you can adopt from. These gift boxes can contain any rare pet from any previous year, including special "Unreleased pets" that you can only get from these Dec 18th boxes, with a very slim chance. These unreleased pets are some of the most valuable and rarest in the game.

Recently, I had seen my ex posting on the forums. I didn't know he had an account, he had made it within this year, long after I got the fuck away from him, and I only knew it was him because he uses the same username everywhere. This person had groomed me, physically abused me when we were together (we no longer live anywhere near each other, thankfully) and has always been emotionally manipulative. He does not know I play, and he wouldn't recognize my account as me. I took a note of his account and left it be for a while, until December 18th hit and I took a peek at what he had got. And what he got was one of the new Unreleased pets, which currently at the time of writing this only looks like a box of cereal. (Most pets on the site have growth stages.) And even better, all his groups were open for trade, so I took a chance and sent an extremely terrible trade. I told him that this pet would only be a recent rare, and I offered him a "Very Rare" rarity (but not very valuable) pet from 2018, telling him I was overpaying. (In the CS community, this is known as Ninjaing, and it's Not A Good Thing To Do). I didn't expect him to accept it, I at least thought he'd be smart enough to ask in the trade advice thread that is literally pinned on the home page for December 18th, but he didn't. He took my word for it and accepted the trade, and now I own an unreleased pet that will eventually end up as an OMGSR.

What I did was not a bannable offence. He will not get his unreleased pet back. The CS mods are laughable at worst, incompetent at best, and don't do anything to stop scamming. They have an "eh, sucks to be you, sorry, be smarter next time" mentality when people get scammed (Which is insane because there are literal single digit aged children allowed on this site!!!)

After taking a bit to think about it, I do feel a bit guilty because I really would not do this in any other circumstances. I hate scamming. I did what I did out of anger and contempt, and I do feel a bit guilty because in essence, I scammed a new player that didn't have much else and didn't know any better.

I'm still keeping that unreleased cereal box no matter what though

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole #chicken smoothie

802 notes · View notes

loganlermanstanaccount · 4 months

Text

RM! Miguel O'Hara headcanons (SFW)

(Wattpad) Series Masterlist, Main Masterlist

College roommate!Miguel O'Hara x reader

summary: In light of the most recent chapter of my college au fic, Rigor mortis; here are some headcanons I have for this version of Miguel <3 .

warnings: none, just fluff :)

a/n: trying to get out of bad writer's block with some drabbles. looking through my asks and making my way through them rn!

wc: 0.5k

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He's meant to wear reading glasses but literally never does. You see him squinting at shit all over the apartment, and it only really clicks when you catch him early in the morning (because I know he wakes up at disgusting hours in the day to be productive) and he's got a pair on.

He gives amazing gifts. I feel like he's really detail oriented so he'll take forever to choose meaningful gifts. Not even necessarily expensive; just something that shows he pays attention to conversations: like that item of clothing you loved but can’t afford, something super specific for your hobbies, a whole bunch of books you like because you just mentioned a specific author or genre you love.

Conversely, he's the kind of person that's really difficult to buy gifts for. Everything that he could possibly want, he'll just buy for himself; his interests are too niche for you to buy him tools and things; and he'd give you absolutely bs answers when you ask him straight up. You'd be like, hey, I know your birthday’s soon, what do you want; and he'll say oh, I just want you to be happy, or I have everything I need right here, baby. And you'll be like ok cool, is that yes or a no on the ipad?

Coffee addict. Has all the expensive machines and fancy filters. He lives pretty modestly, but it is the one thing he'll really invest in.

Similarly, will collect old tech and gadgets just to fiddle around with. He has a box of junk underneath his bed that lowkey he’s been building up since he was a kid. I feel like he was such a curious kid and all his tías and tíos would pinch his cheeks and pat his head and give him all their old junk because he shows an interest.

Sleeps like a dad on the couch. Especially after a long day. He stretches out on the sofa like a cat with his hand on bare belly and it is simultaneously super fucking funny and kind of hot??? Like you can see his happy trail and that peek of tan skin and you just knoww that v line is sharp asf.

He talks to himself. Especially after a frustrating day, and it's pretty funny to watch. He becomes so animated and will have a whole ass conversation with himself whilst chopping veg, or something. He'd wave the knife around, playing both sides of a situation. It helps him to decompress and logically reason with difficult problems. It's something he will 10000% deny if you bring it up.

He's funny. Not necessarily laugh out loud, quippy one liners; but he has a super dry sense of humor. He's fond of a deadpan, and will often play it straight whilst saying something ridiculous. I feel like no-one usually gets when he's being sarcastic, but for some reason you do, and it makes his eyes go wide the first time. Like you catch something he says under his breath and laugh; and he's stuttering because people don't usually have the same kind of humor as him.

long story short, he's a big ol' softie. more bark than bite :)

#i luv him #miguel o'hara x reader #across the spiderverse #rigor mortis 😼#miguel o'hara #miguel o hara x reader #spiderman 2099 #kat_writes😼#fluff #miguel o'hara headcanons

452 notes · View notes

hillbillyoracle · 3 months

Text

You Should Get A Radio

I want to convince you to get a radio. It can be a pretty cheap one - you can sometimes thrift them even - just something to listen to the music and shows that are literally streaming completely for free all around you right this very moment.

Libraries get a lot of love - deservedly so. They are such a frugal resource for entertainment and the community at large. I would argue that radio is very similar.

Find New Music

Radio can introduce you to music you never would have run across otherwise. Spotify and the like have a goal of getting you to listen for as long as possible. This incentivizes the alorgithm picking your music recs to stay very safely within your known listening profile. But since a radio station is broadcasting to a large number of people, not you individually, you're more likely to run into music you personally wouldn't have picked but actually enjoy.

Not to mention that if you're in the US at least, you're very likely within range of a public broadcasting station which not only has local and national news, but various music shows as well - World Cafe is a treasure. College radio stations, if you have one nearby by, can be hit or miss, but in general, it is a great way to find local and very niche music you wouldn't hear played anywhere else. If you're in a city, you very likely have a couple of hyperlocal low power FM stations - many who serve communities who don't speak English and who have their own unique music programming. I also enjoy a lot of the adult contemporary and "oldies" stations I can get near me.

The Ads Aren't Targeted

On most stations, you'll hear some ads. Some stations you'll hear more than a few. But none of those ads are based on an ever growing mass of information being collected about you and your listening habits to decide what specific ad you're most likely to actually act on. They're just...an ad. When you turn it off, it can't follow you around until you actually buy it.

Also, if you're listening to local stations, a lot of the ads are for local businesses in your community; places owned by your neighbors and the people you live with. For me, it's been a nice way to be reminded of what places exist in my community since I usually go to my regular haunts and nothing else.

Frugal and Fun

Radios can be pretty cheap. I see them in thrift stores pretty regularly around here and you might be able to try Marketplace for one. Mine was a birthday gift and I paid a little more to upgrade the antena later. Mine uses rechargeable batteries but I think they make ones that are just straight up rechargeable now.

Since I can't control the music, I'm not turning to it to skip through music or pick a different playlist or look up a given artist I want to hear because I just remembered they existed. I'm more present, whether I'm just listening to the show or pairing it with something else (recently it's been knitting or solitaire games).

Similar to the way that libraries can be one way you decrease your reliance on subscription culture, radio is another. Especially for public broadcasting stations, the programming is always changing, there are new shows every week, and there are often ways for you to get involved. It's another form of entertainment that often gets overlooked.

It's Screen Free

Not much to say here. It's just a big plus to me. I'm trying to take more breaks from screens and make the time I do spend on screens less addictive. I like that I can throw on a radio station and listen to a show without ever having to resist the urge to check email or something.

Vital in Emergencies

Have you thought of how you'd get information during an emergency if the internet goes out? Radio is a great option and still regularly saves lives. In the event of emergencies, local radio stations are often some of the very first people to get information on where shelters are being set up, where resoruces are being distributed, and how to stay safe through the course of the event. Depending on the event, emergency managers will actually bring in radio equipment to keep broadcasting going if there's been damage to a tower and even set up temporary/mobile station up to get the word out if there's not a local station they can partner with.

On days when the weather isn't looking so great, I often have the weather band radio turned on so I can get the latest NWS forecasts and hear when a watch is issued - phones usually only get warnings unless you go out of your way to sign up for more. And out where I live, I usually don't even get those since cell signal is spotty.

It's a great investment in your safety that you can also enjoy whenever.

Conclusion

Buy a radio. Especially if you're looking to get away from subscriptions and cut costs. You can own your radio - you can't own Spotify. It's also just something I think everyone should have since it's such a vital resource in emergencies.

ETA: I am a young millinial. I grew up with radio and remember a time before the internet so I'm not saying any of this as if I'm discovering it. It's more I've been not only enjoying it a lot lately but reminded that a lot of people aren't aware of everything it offers so I wanted to share that in case it was news to anyone.

#I don't know what to tag this #radio #frugal #social sobriety #low screen #no screen #it's just a very good idea okay #cord cutting

383 notes · View notes

piosplayhouse · 1 month

Text

Niche fandom happenings to take your mind after whatever stuffs happening in your fandom:

So as you can probably deduce, the model horse collecting hobby is made up mostly of older people. The hobby has been well established since the dawn of the Internet and I've talked a few times about how it's difficult to find some older resources about it/its history because of how every other link you click on which used to lead to a hobbyist artist's angelfire blog now is just a dead link or worse, bought out by some ad company sitting on the URL. Up until recently, a huge portion of hobby talk still relied on now-defunct Yahoo groups; now most have moved to either forums like Model Horse Blab or private Facebook groups. Individually most of these are pretty decentralized, but since model collecting by nature is a hobby that requires a significant amount of financial interaction (buying, trading, selling, commissioning, etc.), there has to be some kind of centralized marketplace for people to pitch their goods to as many corners of the hobby as possible.

Enter Model Horse Sales Pages (MH$P), a, well, site where people can post sales pages for model horses and accessories. It's an old fashioned sales pages site from the 2000s with a somewhat shitty layout but unparalleled detailed search functions-- to order things from a seller, you'd have to personally email them to negotiate for their listing. Though this seems somewhat inconvenient to our modern senses used to one click payments and speedy delivery, MH$P is undoubtedly a pillar of the model horse community.

... So that's why people are scrambling as it's allegedly been hacked and taken down for the foreseeable future. Worrying about personal information aside, now fans are left to wonder: what's the alternative? Well, the first one is of course eBay, which many hobbyists already use. However, eBay is obviously less catered to model horse hobbyists and is therefore a bit harder to search if you're deep in the hobby and can't be assed to look through 4000 "plastic horse" titled listings to find the 2008 SR glossy xX Devilish Girlfriend++ Thoroughbred you want. MH$P occupied a specific niche for long time fans looking for grails.

So what are our alternatives for people in the hobby looking to buy from others in the hobby? Well, there's a few decentralized official dealers like Chelsea's Model Horses or Triple Mountain who you can consign older models to, but going through a middleman takes time and you have much less freedom in your personal listings. Alternatively, you could go grassroots and post listings in Facebook groups and on forums, but those have reaches limited to the members of those specific, often small, groups, and it can be hard to move stock that way. So now people are looking for a backup marketplace platform, both for the current situation and longtime health of the hobby. But imagine my surprise when I went on Model Horse Blab and saw people suggesting an alternative site kickstarted by

STAR STABLE ONLINE YOUTUBER DENIS/DENISE WISESTORM. Denis has been a controversial figure in the SSO fandom (though there's pretty much no uncontroversial ssotubers especially on ssoblr because clickbaiting and weird reactionary takes are like the bread and butter of that side of the fandom) who's been called out for having some alt-right homophobic views in the past, as well as for his abject and unproductive negativity towards improvements made on the game. He's a lps customizer and pretty prolific breyer collector, though, so his drive to create a model trading and selling platform makes sense at least. But still! Why him!!!!!!

#breyer #ssoblr

48 notes · View notes

sister-lucifer · 11 months

Text

what’s wrong with you based on your favorite batman villain

(don’t take these too seriously)

(sequel to this post)

The Riddler: Holy shit shut the fuck up for two seconds PLEASE. i know you have a touch of the tism and crave to derail every conversation to talk about your special interest but no one else is having fun. this is why you don’t have any friends. You also have a very niche and the second most expensive taste in clothing so you only have like 3 outfits to mix and match. You either dress like you’re going to the Met Gala or like a dad on vacation, no in between

The Penguin: STOP FUCKING IMPULSE BUYING!!! YOU HAVE TOO MANY TRINKETS!!! YOU DONT NEED IT JUST BECAUSE ITS PRETTY!!!! You have the most expensive taste in clothing, especially victorian undergarments, and spend an embarrassing amount of money to dress like a vampire. And stop being so hard on your body. It might not always be the perfect image of what you want, but it’s doing its best, even if you have to help it out a bit.

Harley Quinn: Sweetheart, I promise you are more than just your sex appeal. I know you grew up around misogyny and were raised to be a housewife but you’re free now!! Well…you would be if you stopped picking the shittiest men. A relationship does not define you, stop settling for assholes because you feel ashamed for being single. Have you tried dating a woman? No, seriously, try it. You deserve it

The Joker: Stop using your humor to deflect from your trauma, i bet your back hurts from carrying the weight of being the funniest person in your friend group. You’re a big time maximalist who spends an hour picking out a hundred accessories to wear and wind up being late because you couldn’t choose which kandi bracelets were best for the occasion. You’re still holding on to the last shreds of your teenage edgelord phase. Also clean your damn room and throw away those old drink cans, nasty ass

Catwoman: How does it feel to be the sexiest person in the room at any given time? Not good, I bet, since you struggle to make friends because of how often they wind up to only be after your body. Sorry you can’t catch a break. You’re probably still carrying money saving habits you got from your parents when you were a kid even though you don’t need to now. Also please try wearing a color besides black, it’s almost summer, you’re gonna die of heatstroke. Nice eyeliner though

Poison Ivy: Dude, so many people are crushing on you rn, how do you not see this?! You’re so hot but soooo emotionally unavailable, christ. A boy in middle school said something uncomfortable to you once which was then reinforced by the misogynistic micro aggressions you were subject to as a teenager and it’s kinda tainted your entire view of the male gender, which is fair but also kinda sucks.

The Scarecrow: Daddy issues, daddy issues everywhere. He was scary as fuck, wasn’t he? Your fear was valid. You really love to analyze people which wouldn’t be an issue if you could actually be subtle about it. Stop staring, you creep. Also, that flannel doesn’t look as good as you think it does, you look like a depressed lumberjack. Like please just buy a cardigan. Halloween is your favorite holiday and you get really annoying about it around mid august. And remember to brush your fuckin hair for gods sake

The Mad Hatter: You get like…reeeeaaaally weird about your crushes, man. Like whatever you’re doing it’s not normal. You can just talk to them, you know. You have the weirdest sexual interests but they’re more so hyper specific and niche than gross or unsettling. That’s better, I guess? You gotta leave your headspace and live in reality for a bit, man. I know it kinda sucks, but there are real people here! Also you’re short. Gross

#batman #batman rogues #the riddler #edward nygma #the penguin #oswald cobblepot #harley quinn #harleen quinzel #the joker #the scarecrow #jonathan crane #mad hatter #jervis tetch #poison ivy #pamela isley #catwoman #selina kyle

244 notes · View notes

literary-illuminati · 5 months

Text

Book Review 65 – System Collapse by Martha Wells

I’ve had this on preorder long enough to have entirely forgotten about it by the time I got the email that it’s available for pickup – but thanks to the magic of an extremely obliging local book store, I was still able to pick up and read the entire thing before it’s technically released. So score one for buying indie, I guess.

The book is set directly after Network Effect – directly directly, to the point where I needed to look up a plot summary to remind myself what the situation was – following our beloved rogue and rampant SecUnit, ART, and their assorted humans as they try to convince an abandoned and alien-contaminated colony’s inhabitants to trust them and accept evacuation with them (and also go along with the colonial charter they’re forging) rather than the indenture offers the corporate mission also on site are offering. Along the way there’s hacking, shuttle chases, gunfights, and plot-critical media curation.

Mostly though it’s about Murderbot having PTSD (on account of all the horrible trauma in Network Effect specifically, and also just its life generally) and absolutely zero idea how to cope. After a false memory/panic attack makes it crash out of nowhere it spends the majority of the book terrified that it’s going to crash or freeze up at some vital moment and get everyone killed, dealing with constant alien-related paranoia, and generally second-guessing itself and feeling useless and depressed. Absolutely no one around it has any idea how to deal with this, and their awkward attempts to be supporting are both endearing and entirely unhelpful.

Anyway, this is a Murderbot novel. Do you like Murderbot? Then you will like this. Do you not know the series? Then by god start with All Systems Red none of this will make any sense at all without context. Do you dislike murderbot? I mean hateread as you like but it is largely more of the same, don’t expect any series-saving twists for you.

It’s kind of absurd to call the series ‘cozy fantasy’ – by the end of the book SecUnit is down several extremities and bleeding out on the floor (as is traditional by this point) – but I feel like the series fills about the same emotional niche for me as like say Becky Chambers does for people with normal tolerances for low-tension sentimentality. The setting is a horrible dystopia and the plots are full of violence and trauma, but all that is more or less set dressing to stories that are actually about SecUnit making connections and deciding at a tortuously slow pace what sort of life it wants to have (usually several hours after commuting itself without thinking) while consistently running into the best possible friends and forming mutually affectionate relationships it absolutely did not want. It’s a story about fun, low-tension character dynamics, corporate kill teams aside.

I am being entirely sincere when I say the fact that SecUnit has no idea what it wants or what its doing is a selling point. In the same way, the fact that there’s never any real ~breakthrough~ or moment of sudden recovery is absolutely key to the book working. The story closes with it being hopeful and doing better but from any remotely reasonable baseline still being pretty far from ‘okay’ (in much the same way, it is utterly vital to the whole series that it has absolutely zero angst over ‘not being human’ or pinochle syndrome and only cares about ‘not being normal’ insofar as its had to work really hard on some automated scripts for walking and idle motions to pass as human while doing infiltration work).

Anyway, speaking of character dynamics – look, I’ve always been the first to roll my eyes when people complain about not being able to keep tracks or large casts. But every time I open one of these books, I realize I have only the vaguest idea who the vast majority of the (human) supporting cast is. Not really an issue with actually following the story, but I’m absolutely certain I’m missing out on some things.

The non-human supporting cast are great though. ART best spaceship, and I cared significantly more about the colony’s central control computer than any of the actual colonists. I’m like 70% sure this is intentional.

Stepping back, it’s interesting how the series’ setting has evolved over time. In All Systems Red the universe around SecUnit was incredibly broadly sketched, generic sci f playing with space opera and cyberpunk tropes it pretty much relied upon readers already being familiar with. This never exactly stops – especially for the aesthetics and technology, the book has a profound lack of interest in the specifics of what ‘projectile weapons’ look like or how spaceships work beyond the convenience of plot – but as the books go on the world definitely gets more specific and also broader. You can mostly blame ART for this, I think – there’s a definite shift in the tone of the setting when you introduce an institution like the University with power like it can throw around, and more generally make active resistance to and subversion to the corporate status quo a plausible and fruitful endeavour.

All this to say that there’s an offhand mention at one point about ‘intracorporate violence’ increasing and the system being increasingly unstable, and I’m curious what Wells is going to do with that going forward. Especially with the book’s final resolution and the status quo it sets up going forward.

Anyway like I said, it’s murderbot. This is the 7th book in the series. If you’re considering reading it you’ll probably love it.

#book review #system collapse #murderbot #martha wells #sff

77 notes · View notes

doberbutts · 1 year

Note

Sorry if this is dumb, but if you don't mind me asking, what's the difference between "Weekend Warrior Bullshit" and someone there to actually work their dogs? I'm asking because as someone in a working breed who's considering getting into breeding these dogs in the future, I seriously want them to be able to do what they were created to do. But if I can't do that without living on a farm with cattle and sheep, for example, I'll happily leave breeding to the people who actually need these dogs to put food on the table as I think that's what's best.

Well it's not to say that people who can't truly work their working breeds shouldn't breed. I'm a weekend warrior bullshitter myself so there's obviously a lot of market for dogs who only really do that.

Basically, almost anything that you can earn a title for is "weekend warrior bullshit". IGP, herding trials, hunt tests, those are great sports but they are not necessarily "real work" when discussing what truly qualifies as work.

Dogs who hunt with their owners for sustenance, dogs who move livestock on an actual farm, police and military dogs, those are "real work".

I've discussed several times in the past how it irritates me that people are so hung up on titles titles titles. Don't get me wrong, I like sports, so if I want to buy a dog to play sports I'm buying a dog from titled parents and from breeders who pursue titles. And I do think titles are one avenue of proving your dog can do the work- in an ideal world the dogs doing the "real work" should easily be able to title. Otherwise, unfortunately, you're relying on someone's word and people tend to lie or be willfully ignorant to the realities of their breeding programs.

However... I grew up pretty Appalachian. Most people did not buy food from the store but hunted and farmed it themselves, or worked out community exchange with their neighbors. This is also due to religious pressure in my specific part of the Appalachians but I've found similar experiences up and down the mountain range. Proving your dog can pass a couple weekend hunt tests is great and all but that doesn't prove that your dog can be out in the woods with you sunup to sundown for the entirety of the hunting season to ensure your family eats that winter. Your dog chasing sheep in a pen for 15 minutes at a time doesn't prove your dog can reliably keep the flock in line yearround with predators, new additions, and births complicating matters.

And it irks me, and others like me, when people say "well MY dog is FIELD CHAMPION TITLED so his worth at playing hunting every other weekend is SUPERIOR to your untitled dog that literally keeps you alive in the winter". Like thanks I think we come from two different planets actually.

That being said, there's plenty of crossover, people who DO use their dogs to keep them alive that ALSO play at sports. And unfortunately the easiest way to meet them is to go to sporting events and talk to people and see who is doing it off the field in real settings vs who just shows up on the weekends.

This is compounded of course by breeds whose jobs no longer exist or are no longer legal. As the swiss mountain dog breeds were beginning to spread to other countries, the tractor was invented. Suddenly no one needs a workhorse of a dog because a tractor is cheaper and more reliable due to being a machine. So what was already a very niche thing became so abysmally rare that these breeds almost disappeared entirely, and only survive today due to enthusiasts and sports. Some breeds fell out of favor for their historic use- no one uses purebred danes for boar hunting anymore and the very few dane crosses are dramatically outnumbered by easier, cheaper, hardier breeds and mixes. Dog fighting and animal baiting is illegal so gladiator breeds can do sports, become pets, or get a new purpose. Some breeds we don't have a solid consensus on their use- what was the techichi, the landrace that became chihuahua, used for? No one knows because the people who made them went through multiple genocides and the few that are left don't want to talk to colonizers (which, like, fair).

So it's not so much "you must work your dog x amount in order to breed" but rather "if you are looking for real historic work, your first task is seperating those who do it for fun vs those who do it to survive, AND understand there's a lot of overlap here"

215 notes · View notes

princesssascha · 2 months

Text

The best thing to invest in (aka yourself)

I'm sure everyone has thought about their current or future finances many times, and I'm also sure that you'd love to make a lot of money. Sure, you can spend hours searching the internet for the best business idea or the best college majors that you are not even interested in, but how about taking the easy route? A low risk, high reward and easy way to be financially free. Isn't that just a dream?

One of the most recent as well as most popular ways to earn money is investing. Although it can be a great way to earn money, 99% of the time it will only make you a lot of money if you're already rich! But there is one thing that you can invest in that will never fail you, yet no one talks about it. YOURSELF. The most valuable thing in the universe.

Define your goals

Ask yourself: What are your goals? If you want to be a business owner, learn skills that will be helpful in that field, for example marketing, so you can advertise your products, which will increase your revenue. Once you decide what your goal is research what skills are valuable and educate yourself of those topics.

But what if I don't know what I want to do?

That's completely fine! Instead of thinking about a specific niche, think about what you want your life to look like in general. Do you want to earn a lot of money? Google some of the most paying jobs. Do you value creativity in your work field? There are jobs for that too! It's ok if you can't find something that intrigues you. It's a journey and you don't need to find something that you'll do for the rest of your life right away.

Learn about money

Something that you can do regardless of what you want to achieve in life is learning about money! Unfortunately, most people don't know much about it except that it can buy you things. I can assure you that if you spend even just one week learning about this topic, you will know more than 90% of people. Robert Kiyosaki, who wrote the best seller "rich dad poor dad", is a great author that can teach you a lot about finance. I highly recommend all of his books, I'm sure you'll find something that peaks your interest.

Courses & school

Whether you are in school or not, you need to educate yourself! Everything can be monetized. Literally everything. We live in incredible times where if you just have a phone and access to the internet EVERYTHING you could want to learn can be learned online for free. Just go on YouTube and search something along the lines of (topic) 101, (topic) masterguide, etc. the possibilities are endless and I assure you that you will find something. If you don't mind spending money for courses try skillshare to unlock all courses available on their site or Udemy, they often do 80% off sales so you can get their courses for like $5.

Learn languages

I can't stress this enough! This is probably one of the best things you can do for yourself! Learning a new language can open so many doors for you! It can help you get a higher paying job, give you countless new opportunities and help you meet incredible people who speak that language. There are no right or wrong languages to choose, but in case you have no idea what you want, here are some of the most important factors:

Amount of speakers: This will be your main factor if your main goal is to reach as many people as possible, for any reason. This includes languages such as: Spanish, French, English (duh), or if you're up for a challenge: Hindi, Mandarin or Arabic.

Enjoyment: I think this should be important to everyone. You can't learn a language if you don't enjoy it. Try to learn the basics and see if you like how it sounds and how it feels.

Travel/domicile: if you know your dream is to move to a different country, where another language is spoken, it might be a good idea to learn it. Also, if you're interested in some country's culture you might also find it to be a great reason to learn it.

Job opportunities: although, as I mentioned above, pretty much every single language will give you many opportunities, it might vary depending on where you live and what your field of work is, for example if you live in the US, the most beneficial languages for you to learn will be English and Spanish. If you work in a company that works with Japanese companies, then Japanese might be a good choice for you. Of course, the most popular languages will have benefits pretty much anywhere in the world.

Other ways to invest in urself

Honestly, it would be difficult to fit all the resources in this post since that would make it ridiculously long, and I want to include many things so that everyone can find something that they enjoy, so I will make a whole different post about all of this in the future, because of that reason I will briefly go over a few other ways to grow:

Read

Reading is incredible! It has countless health benefits and it is a great way to learn about new things or expand your vocabulary. And no, you don't need to read educational books, although it sure is even more helpful. If you want to learn new words reading any book at all could help. I can say that as someone who grew up constantly reading people are often shocked at my vocabulary (in my native language), even since I was 5 years old, so yes, it works.

Mindful scrolling

Instead of just sitting on your phone all day watching stupid videos, pay attention to what content you're consuming and how long you spend on your phone.

Self care

I'm sure you guys already know that, so treat this as a reminder. Take care of yourself! And remember, looking out together can help you a lot in life. So put that face mask on, buy that new perfume you like and most importantly - prioritize your health!

Now you know exactly what you need to set yourself up for success. No more excuses!

38 notes · View notes

badboyportrait · 10 months

Text

i don't know if this is too niche or personal, but as someone also from a "doomed" city with a perpetually grim future, i really love how RGG has portrayed kamurocho. in tachibana's penthouse, we're introduced to it as a beautiful glittering cityscape. when kiryu hangs out with nishiki, it's a maze of rundown buildings but the best ramen, if you know where to look. it's got a wide network of homeless people who see all. it's got scumbag billionaires and it's overrun with gang violence. yet every substory shows us NPCs with full lives despite kamurocho always threatening to collapse.

and it always is in danger. the tojo clan is ripping it apart for both kiryu and makoto in Y0. it blows up once in YK2 and almost does it a second time at the end. kiryu always comes back because some motherfucker is like "the tojo clan and kamurocho are in danger, we need your help". that's like, what it feels like? shit will happen on the news and it'll always be personal. no matter how far away you move - for kiryu, okinawa, nagoya, etc - it always holds on. it never leaves. this city and its doom will always be wrapped tightly around your heart.

but everyone's seen a tragic city. it's all over our stories. but kamurocho, despite it all, is still so lovingly rendered. kiryu can duck into alleyways and find a burger joint. he can buy ridiculously specific things at don quiote. he can play pocket circuit, he can go to arcades, he can play pool. it's a shithole of a city overrun with gang violence and poverty but it's still so full of life. despite everything you can still race cars and buy gifts for pretty women and invite your friends to karaoke. despite everything, you can still live.

like yeah, the devs probably didn't mean to appeal to this incredibly specific heartache, but i love kamurocho so much anyway. every time i run around it, it feels like home. it's a fucking disaster but it's my, and so many other characters', disaster.

to conclude, have a quote from daigo at the end of YK2.

[Image ID: A shirtless Daigo Dojima from Yakuza Kiwami 2. He's a young man with dark hair and a toned body, and he looks determined. At the bottom of the screencap, the subtitles read "Some might say I have no right saying it, but I love this city." End ID.]

#yakuza #ryu ga gotoku #kiryu kazuma #dojima daigo #kamurocho #man what do i even tag this as #chatter #ykz series #img id

81 notes · View notes

thedeathwitchescats · 3 months

Note

Do you have any ideas/headcannons about Renee/Andrew/Neil ?

This is the best question anyone has ever asked me because absolutely yes I do. Ill keep this to [mostly] canon compliant ones for simplicity. Apologies in advance

Renee and Andrew started dating relatively soon after he went to Palmetto and told no one about it. For Renee it was mostly to avoid judgement and for Andrew it was because he didnt care about other peoples opinions. Wymack, Abby and Bee know though. Bee because Andrew told her, Abby because Renee told her and Wymack because Wymack knows everything

I always still pictured Andrew as being biromantic but still not sexually attracted to women, and Renee was saving herself for marriage ((after she was born again obviously))

When Neil appeared Andrew was immediately infatuated, but still very suspiscious, and Renee was also warry, the two of them had many deep discussions on the roof about whether they could trust him or not

((Imagine a world where Renee sometimes went with the monsters to Colombia, and also Andrew hadnt stopped Nikky from making advances on Neil for this one to make sense)) Renee was there for Neils first night at Columbia and she was the one who told Andrew that Nikky kissed Neil unconsensually ((no Nikky slander in this post, i am well aware my opinions of this man are niche)) and it was after this that Andrew made a conscious effort to get Nikky to stop making Neil uncomfy

Renee was the first person that Andrew let hug him after he left the Spear household, it was during his first year midterms, he was stressed and riddled with medicated anxiety. Renee asked if she could give him a hug because it helps her to calm down and after that Andrew started to breathe easier and decided that, when asked and with granted permission ofc, he kind of liked hugs

Andrew figures out that he is head over heels for Neil pretty early on and has a conversation with Renee about it. She tells him that she also seems to have feelings for Neil and they decide that they are going to slowly approach him and try to figure him out. Cut to the convo at the store where Renee is getting Andrew a bday gift and Neil is there, Renee tells Neil some details of their situation ((being that Andrew is gay but that they are still together because they have a very deep bond and sex isnt important to either of them)) And Neil is confused but understands and supports. Renee tells Andrew that she genuinely can not figure out what is up with Neil and Andrew decides to leave it alone ((in Andrew fashion which equates to calling Neil family, giving him a key and calling it home, letting Neil drive his car, putting Neil on his insurance for his new car, giving Neil an entire new wardrobe- you know, normal shit))

Also in this world Renee was the one who has Andrews other key, not Nikky

Renee and Neil actually start formulating a relationship while Andrew is in easthaven (("you took his car and now your taking his girl" or whatever it was specifically that Nikky said i cant remember atm)) And when Neil goes to the nest she knows as well as Kevin. She tries to stop him but after he tells her it is to protect Andrew she nods solemnly and tells him to take hers/andrews knives to keep himself safe

When Neil gets out Renee picks him up from Wymacks apartment and is angry and upset and that is when she kisses him, gently as to not hurt him buy fierce enough to get her point across. She breaks down and tells him everything and says that she never should have let him go. Neil is stunned and doesnt know how to react. This is when the upperclassmen ((who were all scattered around because theyre in Renees dorm room)) find out about Andrew and Renee

When Andrew comes back and is very obviously traumatized Neil decides not to push the issue and to let Andrew be the one to approach him

Renee starts going to Columbia with them weekly now that their secret is out. Her and Neil dance while Andrew watches protectively. Renee is still a very traumatized individual but she has softer edges about pda and physical touch. Her and Neil kiss in the crowd and Andrew realizes he is done for

"Doesnt mean i wouldnt blow you" happens in front of Renee instead of Kevin and she is proud ((if not a tiny bit shocked))

Andrew and Neils first kiss on the rooftop is short and Andrew talks to Renee who assures him that Neil would have said something if he was hurt and Andrew, who didnt know he was capable of regret, finds himself regretting it all

Neil and Andrew start working on communicating, because all good relationships have communication even the "not relationships"

Right up until Neil starts getting spooky count downs and ominous bloody messages from papa dearest, then communication is a little limited

Andrew and Renee know that there is something going on with Neil and are worried but he wont say anything about it and is acting normal, if not happier

When Baltimore happens he tells Andrew "thank you, you were amazing" and he tells Renee "get to the bus safe" before he disappears into the crowd ominously

Renee didnt stop Andrew from choking the life out of Kevin and called Jean in a blind panic to see if he knew anything

Kevin started speaking and she reasoned that Jean didnt know anything

Renee was just as angry as Andrew and all but told him to kill Kevin before she reigned herself in, clutching her cross and praying that her sweet, dumbass redhead would get home safe

Instead of wymack ((mostly because I never saw the physics of that one)) it was Renee who was handcuffed to Andrew and neither of them slowed down the second they realized where Neil was

Neil fell into Renees chest while Andrew checked his injuries and Renee about lost her damn mind when Allison mentioned the bet but kept her calm because Neil was there and he was safe

The FBI relented and let the two of them tag along with Neil and when he signed his name, "Neil Josten" he took a deep breath and allowed Nathaneil to die peacefully in his mind, because Neil was free in a way Nathaneil never could be

Renee understood that look, Natalie had to do the same, tucked away in a corner and put to rest in a mental grave. They shared a look of deep understanding

After everything is said and done its still andrew and neil and Renee and Andrew and neil and Renee and all three of them combined and their special and happy and they keep each other sane

During the girls last year there is endless teasing and quips made about the three of them but they couldnt care less because its their last year and they are going to make the most of it

Andrew and Aaron have it out and both of them decide to chose their "nothings" over each other, and because of this Renee takes Aarons place in the monsters

Andrew and Aaron start building their relationship from the ground up, and its hard, but he has both his *everythings* there to keep him sane

Andrew and Renee change their last names to "josten" because they fought so hard for that name and technically three people cant get married

Speaking of marriage, Dan and Matt get married in Dans last year and Renee and Allison are bridesmaids, Neil and Andrew are groomsmen. The three of them dance and congratulate the happy couple

They win championships that year and, mostly just to fuck with the crowd, Neil and Renee each kiss Andrews cheek right before they walk off court. Its fun and silly and they celebrate afterwards and care so deeply for each other

When Renee leaves it hits hard, she calls and texts as much as she can but its hard. Neil loses a little bit of his spark and Andrew cant help but miss their other third

Neil and Andrew start sparing and essentially dont leave each others side

Matt is also having a time of it with the girls being gone, and during this year its that Matt moves into Andrew and Neils dorm officially

Kevin transfers to the Trojans with Jean and Jeremy and is happier there, and theyre all happy for him

During Andrews last year Neil all but loses his mind

Renee officially retires from exy that year and moves back to Palmetto state to help with the transition because she knows its hitting both of them pretty hard

Andrew is anxious and cant decide whether he wants to keep playing exy, or go straight into law

Neil doesnt know what he is going to do for a year without either of them and is constantly in a state of panic

Both Andrew and Renee try their hardest to keep the rabbit sane because they know how scary the thought of being alone is and Neil will absolutely never be alone

When Andrew graduates Renee and Neil make one of those obnoxious signs and all the foxes show up for support and its bittersweet but mostly amazing

They also win championships that year again, Andrew locked the goal down for the entire game and wymack was so proud, even though he only had one of his kids left in the coup ((I would say nest but considering the fandom...))

Neils fifth year is hard

Andrew decided to retire his exy racket and go straight into law, finally selling the Columbia house and getting a better place about an hour outside Palmetto

Renee joins the peace corps ((to be honest I only kind of know what they do so bear with me apologies)) and is overseas for a little over two years

Neil goes home to Andrew every weekend ((their partying days behind them and their movie marathon days ahead)) and both of them call Renee every day

When Neil graduates Renee gets leave for a weekend and flys in to celebrate with them

Its one of the best weekends they had ever had

When Renee retires ((from what I can tell its usually two years of required service but correct me if Im wrong)) the three of them move in together in their little home outside Palmetto and are happy

Neil plays professionally for about 10 years, Renee starts teaching, Andrew is a lawyer

Its perfect

Andrew and Renee still spar, and Neil still runs every morning

Renee makes a pot of coffee before he gets back and they never run out of sugar despite andrews best attempts

Renee teaches Neil how to make cookies because Andrew burns every batch he touches almost

They watch all the foxes on TV and rep Allisons athlesiure brand every where they go essentially

The foxes have Thanksgiving all together at their house every year because as Wymack gets older flying is bad for his heart

Its the off season of the year Neil finally retired ((now a math professor)) that they announce to their family that Renee is pregnant

Andrew is terrified he is going to be a bad father, Neil doesnt know where to start and Renee has faith that it is all going to be okay

They never check to see whos kid it is biologically ((though the odds are its probably neils)) because it doesnt matter

Their prescious twins are brought into the world with three parents, four grandparents and more aunts and uncles than any one kid can count

Renee was often sick while she was pregnant and neil researched every method to help with nausea possible

He got Kevin ((who also eventually retired from exy and because a sports dietitian)) to help him find recipes that she could actually eat

Andrew was very protective while she was carrying and if she even so much as looked at a door handle it became a race between him and neil

Her water broke while her and Neil were coming home from a long day of teaching, Andrew was still at the office

Neil took on andrews approach to driving during their trip to the hospital and held her hand every step of the way

Andrew got there just in the nick of time, pressing a kiss to her forehead and taking her other hand, making eye contact with neil as she pushed out the first of the twins

It was a short labor and each of the boys held a baby, foreheads touching and ankles crossed, as Renee took a much needed nap

All of the foxes flew/drove in to see the babies and the three of them

It was a special time

It was surprisingly Neil who taught their kids how to bake cookies, the same recipie that Renee taught him

Andrew and neil get breakfast tacos every Saturday morning at their favorite little food truck while Renee and the kids sleep

Neil goes to church with Renee and their kids every Sunday, while Andrew works

He can never fully heal from his religious trauma, but he knows its important to Renee and he knows that Neil has found a comfort in God as well ((i can never decide if I headcannon Neil as Christian or atheist but today its christian))

A few months before the twins were born Andrew stopped wearing his armbands all together, the knives having long since made their disappearance

And he, in an age appropriate way ofc, teaches their kids what his scars were and reminds them to talk to someone and never feel like their only resort is to hurt themselves

They love each other so dearly and they love their kids so much and its special and happy and they love their lives

When the three of them die their cremated together and the twins each take a smaller urn for their respective mantles to hold

#i have more but i also have classwork so please enjoy this haphazard list of things i have thought about the three of them over the years #i hope this makes sense #aftg #andrew and neil #andrew neil and renee #neil and renee #renee and andrew #andrew minyard #renee walker #neil josten #all for the game headcannons #im so sorry if this was too long/not what you meant 😭#🪓

14 notes · View notes

bcolfanfic · 23 hours

Note

everytime i listen to picture me better by weyes blood i can't help but think of young vets buck and bucky. my heart hurt everytime i think of those boys. you've written them so perfectly. <3

what are some songs you associate with either of them?

heyy sorry it took me so long to get to this (and everything else in my box)- it’s finals szn at my law school and my brain is gonna be at like- total capacity till next thursday at 5pm central time. buttttt. i am big music as a story mood setter person so lotsss of thoughts. gonna focus on young vets au here, but i can make another similar post for show canon if ppl like this? im biggg into oldies music so that would actually be fun to me!

disclaimer: re: the young vets au the “veterans” part of the story takes place starting in august 2021 after the us pulled out of afghanistan. If you see a song and think “but wait that didn't come out until this year so they couldn't listen to that in 2022/2023” simply work with me here and don’t think that <3 LOL.

bucky

biggg zach bryan person and i think in general really likes that specific niche of “new age” country music. gets *irritated* by the hardcore conservative military country music lmfao, those vets that go hard in the sand for songs like courtesy of the red white and blue? not his people. that song gives him hives. also a big fleetwood mac guy, just scratches an itch on his brain. likes florence + the machine too.

east side of sorrow - zach bryan

i lost friends in the august heat / at night it was God I'd always meet / i said, "Lord, won't you bring me home? / i've got women in the west i wanna hold

oklahoma smokeshow - zach bryan

there's so much whiskey in his coke it'll make her nose bend / but she swears that his love is a damn God send / she's known God since she was a child

el dorado - zach bryan

you used to say you'd settle down / but that kind girl from school in town /she was gone before you got back home

to El Dorado, hell if I know if you're still alive /there's a note in the glovebox in your drive / El Dorado, hell if they know the difference in a hero / and a man i wish was still by my side

burn, burn, burn - zach bryan

i wanna be a child climbin' trees somewhere / breathin' in the fresh outside air / before I knew this life was unkind

you should probably leave - chris stapleton

sun on your skin, 6 am /and i been watchin' you sleep / and honey, i'm so afraid you're gonna wake up and say / that you should probably leave

me against the mountain - ian munsick

it’s me against the mountain / most days the mountain wins / but i’ll meet you tonight my love or i’ll meet my end / either way an angel’s waitin when i fought this fight

painkillers - rainbow kitten surprise

living just comes with a bit of heartache / heartache comes with a bit of young faith / faith stays young till your heart get broken / hope grows up to become someday / i never hurt no one and no one will ever hurt me / i believe i believe i believe i believe

motorcycle - colter wall

well, i figure i'll buy me a motorcycle / wrap her pretty little frame around a telephone pole / ride her off a mountain like old arlo

physco - jack kittel

don't hand me johnny's pup, mama / 'cause i might squeeze him too tight / i'm having crazy dreams again, mama

go your own way - fleetwood mac

if i could / baby, i’d give you my world / open up / everything's waiting for you

third eye - florence + the machine

i'm the same / i'm the same / i'm trying to change

astrovan - mt. joy

he said son you're famous in heaven / maybe you're famous in heaven / maybe there is no heaven / maybe we're all along together now / but i don't wanna see those tears again / you know Jesus drives an astrovan

gold dust woman - fleetwood mac

take your silver spoon, dig your grave / heartless challenge / pick your path and i'll pray

all these things that i’ve done - the killers

i got soul / but i'm not a solider

between me and you - brandon flowers

the first time that i saw your face / time stood still / i found my place / now i'm watching it tear out of my arm

gale

listens to zach bryan for bucky but his country music niche is more on the tyler childers side of things. likes older music too bc it’s what his mom would play around the house and he finds it comforting. i think he likes pop music more than bucky does lol, bucky ribs him a lil about some of it but he finds it endearing. the taste they share the most i think is the fleetwood mac and the killers/brandon flowers stuff.

follow you to virgie - tyler childers

back when all us boys were tryin' / to make sense of all these string / i can see her in the corner / singing along to all our crazy dreams

coal - tyler childers

so sometimes, i imagine that I'm getting pretty close to hell / and in my darkest hour, i cry out to the Lord / he says, "keep on a-mining, boy, 'cause that's why you were born

nose on the grindstone - tyler childers

well daddy, i've been tryin', i just can't catch a break / there's too much in this world that i can't seem to shake / but i remember your words, lord, they bring me the chills / keep your nose on the grindstone and out of the pills

folsom prison blues - johnny cash

i bet there's rich folks eatin' from a fancy dinning car /they're prob'ly drinkin' coffee and smoking big cigars / well i know i had it comin' i know i can't be free / but those people keep a movin' and that's what tortures me

old rugged cross - alan jackson (i’ve made a woowoo post about this before/bucky being gale’s cross to carry but. in my mind he listens to this on the drive home when bucky’s in the hospital. has to pull over to cry a lil. sweet boy.)

to the old rugged cross i will ever be true / it's shame and reproach gladly bear

where we’ll never grow old - johnny cash

when our work here is done / and our life's crown is won / and out troubles and trials are o'er / all our sorrows will end / and our voices will blend / with the loved ones who've gone on before

(sittin on’) the dock of the bay - otis redding

sittin' here resting my bones / and this loneliness won't leave me alone / it's two thousand miles i roamed / just to make this dock my home

wouldn’t it be nice - the beach boys

oh we could be married / and then we'd be happy / woudn't it be nice?

the chain - fleetwood mac

listen to the wind blow, down comes the night / running in the shadows / damn your love / damn your lies

romeo and juliet - the killers

i can't do the talk like the talk on the TV / and i can't do a love song like the way it's meant to be / i can't do everything but i'd do anything for you / i can't do anything except be in love with you

xo - beyonce

in the darkest night hour (in the darkest night hour) / i'll search through the crowd (i'll search through the crowd) / your face is all that i see / i'll give you everything

if i ain't got you - alicia keys

said nothing in this whole wide world don't mean a thing / if i ain't got you with me, baby

sweet escape - gwen stefani

come on let's bounce / counting on you to turn me around / instead of clowning around / let's look for some common ground

come on over baby - christina aguilera

now baby don't be shy / you better cross the line / i'm gonna love you right / all i want is you

the clock was tickin’ - brandon flowers

jackie flips the pages and she dreams little dreams / a cottage in the country built with real wood beams / there's a baby in the bedroom, he's starting to scream / she holds him though he probably won't remember it

#young vets au #buck x bucky #masters of the air #clegan #buckbucky

16 notes · View notes

ell-vellan · 5 months

Text

You know what I miss?

(I'm gonna show my age here with this very specific and niche memory but bear with me. Or don't, whatever!)

Back when I was a kid, middle/high school ish, I frequented Gaia Online. I'm not even sure how to really describe that site (if you remember it, help me out here) but it was mainly an anime-esque forums where people could make different communities about a million different things, but it wasn't just forums. You had an anime avatar that followed you around the site, a currency you used to buy dress up items for your avatar, mini games and a a marketplace. Pretty sure there was some kind of stock market.

This was my online home for years.

I landed, somehow, on the Adoptables forums. Shops, technically, for people to "adopt" pets and then roleplay with them together. Some were original make believe worlds - one of the more popular I can remember was a world of wolf packs with their own lore and setting.

Specifically I remember being active on the Lion King RP forums called I think Shadows of Africa? The artists who ran them would sell colored lineart of lions in the style of the movie, with a little info card that displayed their name and the owner (you).

You couldn't roleplay with other people until you officially had a character through purchase, gift, or contest prize.

Each lion was unique and people gave them names from African languages (that was a rule). People formed entire prides and had special forums just for them, with rosters of who had what character, where you could "hang out" with others in your pride. Your lion would be able to age from cub to teen to adult after you had roleplayed a certain amount of time and applied for it with the artists. Your characters could find mates and breed and the artists would (for Gaia currency) remix the "DNA" of your two characters and you'd get a random number of cubs you could "give away" to friends or even hold contests for others who wanted to play.

I was just thinking about these communities and how much I loved everyone there. How much work these artists put into these communities, often without any real compensation except for pretend money. How elaborate they were. Giant games of pretend with strangers online. I did SO much writing on those RP forums, I actually feel in retrospect like it was a safe place to cut my teeth on writing and it was literally from the point of view from an OC Lion King character.

And there were so many shops like this.

I'm sure there was toxicity in some aspects of these communities, but I don't remember it, at least not to the level of toxicity the Internet gets to now. Maybe it's my rose colored glasses.

But every Christmas, these Adoptables shops would open up for people to Secret Santa gifts to your friends: a randomly colored gift, the .jpg or whatever sent to your inbox, that you could post in your profile or your journal. And on Christmas day, the artists would update all those images, and the wrapped gift would be replaced by a unique pet, randomly created for you by whatever colorists were working for the shop.

Like YES okay I understand how very childish it sounds now. Maybe even cringe.

But I've never found another sort of community like it. (Maybe discord, idk, I was too old and busy to get into discord when it came out.) So many artists doing so much work, just for others to play with pretend pets with their online friends and write silly stories about them together. These were people making dozens, hundreds of unique designs by hand, as far as I'm aware. Their workload had to be stressful. They were probably doing this in between studying or working real jobs.

But to this day, every Christmas, I think about those Secret Santa gifts. And every year I miss that excitement of logging in first thing to see all your gifts 'magically' hatch into adorable little creatures that were unique and yours.

This post doesn't have a point except I'm in my mid-30s and I still miss my online friends that I used to play pretend lions with in middle school. And nothing else has quite matched the very specific excitement of those secret Santa gifts becoming 'real' on Christmas.

And I'm so, so thankful to all the people - likely college students and adults - who did all this work just for fun. And I wanted to share this memory of some old communities that I still think back on fondly. I hope they're doing well in life, wherever they are.

#sorry it's holiday season and I'm nostalgic #i realize gaia online still exists but it's not the same :/#you cant ever go home again really #gaia online #just millennial things lol #if you have any idea what im talking about PLEASE tell me bc sometimes it feels like a fever dream

15 notes · View notes

captainclickycat · 2 months

Text

You know I think I’ve just put my finger on one of the things about why it annoys me so much when people on the internet try to turn personal preferences with queer media in particular into like… a morality contest or social hierarchy or act like there’s a right and wrong option for which thing you like better.

Because when I was growing up, non-niche queer media was pretty rare, relatively speaking. It wasn’t nonexistent, and god knows we’ve still got some way to go to this day, but there’s a very strong contrast now I think between the amount of casually-presented and diverse queer representation that spans over a variety of genres and what we had to choose from back then. When I was a teenager, this kind of variety felt like a bit of a pipe dream.

So now we’ve actually got more variety and more genres and we’re at least making some progress towards being a little bit spoilt for choice (which is unequivocally a good thing) and now many of us actually have half a chance of reading a book or watching a show or film or playing a game or whatever that appeals to us based specifically on our personal tastes, and still has queer themes and characters. It’s not “either queer stuff or stuff that aligns with my tastes” anymore, or at least not as much as it used to be.

So, hooray! This is the desired outcome! (Or at least a step in the right direction.) But then instead of going “oh great, more choice now :)” some people are now trying to limit our options again instead, and act like they’re being progressive.

“Ooh you should watch this queer show instead of that one, because that one is cringe. Because that one is problematic [even though the show I prefer has its own share of ideological flaws but somehow I consider it redeemable in a way that the other one isn’t, and this definitely doesn’t come down to the fact that I just prefer it on a personal level, no sir.]” “Oo why are you invested in this particular show, there are other queer shows, watch those instead” as if they’re interchangeable. As if it’s as simple as buying store brand instead of the more expensive brand because hey, it tastes the same. As if “queer” is a genre and that should be all you need. If something ticks all these particular progressive boxes you should like it and if it doesn’t you should dislike it, what do you mean it’s more complicated than that?

And naturally media that’s “problematic” in some ways can never ever be progressive in other ways. It can’t handle some things well and some things poorly and there can never be an open and honest discussion about that which ultimately ends with some people still enjoying “problematic” things. It can’t be nuanced, because that would be too complicated! There’s no baby, we need to just throw away all that nasty bathwater.

Anyway I ran out of steam a little here but I do want to state in clear terms that if you say anything along the lines of “omg how can you vote for that show on the tumblr fandom poll, that’s the CRINGE option” I’m picturing you as a snotty nine-year-old and nothing you can say will convince me not to. So, you know. Make of that what you will.

#does this make sense?#it was sitting in my drafts for a while and I had a few drinks while composing it #I like to think it does tho

10 notes · View notes

least-carpet · 1 year

Text

MDZS characters and Western astrology: Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng

I was thinking about the pure comedy of Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian, and Jin Ling all being Scorpios (genuinely fucking hilarious move by Ms. MXTX) and was like: but what is the rest of everyone's chart?? (I was also like is this too niche? but I assume this fandom is full of other queer people and some of y'all must also be into astrology, right? Right?)

That's biting off way, way more than I can chew. HOWEVER. Some Big Three placements (sun, moon, rising) seem more reasonable. (Has someone done this already? Is there consensus?)

Does it make sense to analyze this work through the lens of Western (rather than Eastern) astrology? Probably not! This is just for fun. Take it with many, many grains of salt.

TL;DR I think Wei Wuxian has a Gemini rising and a Sagittarius moon to go with his confirmed Scorpio sun, and that Jiang Cheng has a Capricorn rising and a Cancer moon to go with his confirmed Scorpio sun. If you're an astrology fan then you know that I'm saying WWX is wildly annoying and Jiang Cheng is a champion grudge-holder from hell. Still thinking about Lan Wangji.

Wei Wuxian

I don't think he has a lot of earth placements, if any. My guy is brilliant, dynamic, impulsive, and completely shitty at managing practical stuff and long-term consequences. He's also otherwise pretty well-balanced, so I think he likely has one of each of the other element. Scorpio provides a fixed water sign. I would guess that he has Gemini as his rising sign and Sagittarius as his moon sign.

I love a big Gemini placement, but they are incredibly annoying. Charming-annoying, outgoing annoying, won't shut the fuck up annoying. This also means that his rising sign would trine Lan Wangji's sun sign, which is a generally harmonious aspect. Gemini is a mutable air sign.

I think his moon sign has to be a fire sign, and I want to say that it's Sagittarius. This would put it into his 7th house of committed partnerships. I feel like it's suitable there for a variety of reasons. But truthfully, this pick is purely based on vibes. Sagittarius is idealistic, likes to lead through teaching, and is the fire sign most prone to just straight-up escaping if feelings gets too real. The avoidance and idealism are linked; the desire to maintain distance comes from the desire to maintain the idealism, which might not survive conflict or intimacy. IME they're also wild-ass party animals who love a drink and hold it well (said with the greatest affection and admiration). Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign. That said, I would also buy Aries or Leo.

For more about Gemini risings, check out Alice Sparkly Kat's breakdown here.

Jiang Cheng

Contrary to Wei Wuxian, I would guess that his chart is a lot less balanced. He's shrewd, grounded, and effective. He's also got Big Fucking Feelings. With that in mind, I think his moon sign is another water sign (water ruling the emotions) and his rising sign is an earth sign. Specifically I think his moon is in Cancer (the cardinal water sign) and his rising sign is Capricorn (the cardinal earth sign).

The Cancer moon-Scorpio sun combo is a pretty brutal one-two hit. Congratulations, you now have every feeling and you will get over them precisely never! The other important thing to know about the moon is it sometimes represents the mother; Cancer is additionally ruled by the moon; in my experience, people with notable Cancer placements have particularly significant, overdetermining relationships with their mothers. With the rising sign I've picked, it'll be in the 7th house of committed partnerships—which, uh, his mother's relationship to his father and how that relationship is explained to him absolutely affects how he understands partnership. That's why dude is still fucking single when it would make a lot more political sense for him to marry and have a kid. He experiences partnerships through the lens of his mother's disparagement, humiliation, and rejection, because he's always been identified with her by his family. I digress.

Anyway, now that we have a person who has comically huge feelings, how do we account for his political success? I think his rising sign is Capricorn. Out of the earth signs, Taurus is too lazy (I say, with my own Taurus rising—Nie Huaisang is also a Taurus sun) and too slow getting started. Virgo is too idealistic, it loves a system, it wants things to be simple. It has incredible hustle but what I've noticed about people with big Virgo placements is that they struggle with the disjunct of how they think things should work and how things actually work. It also is a sign with a tendency to wilfully impose itself on others. Capricorn, meanwhile, is pragmatic, strives for self-control, and is sensitive to boundaries. This also puts his sun in his eleventh house, which is the house of the collective. Jiang Cheng's life trajectory is public leadership, which he's born to, groomed for, and sacrifices hugely in pursuit of.

Alice Sparkly Kat also wrote a breakdown for Capricorn risings.

I wanted to put Lan Wangji in here, too, but I'm still rotating him around in my brain... I kind of think he might have both an Aquarius rising and an Aquarius sun. He has big Saturnian energy.

#jiang cheng #wei wuxian #yunmeng shuangjie #those two PLUS jin ling being scorpios... amazing #mdzs astrology headcanons #just making up facts about my blorbos. don't mind me #mdzs +#astrology #least-carpet thoughts

32 notes · View notes

likehephaestionwhodied · 11 months

Note

Can you pretty please make a history of leather lesbians post? Your reblog about lesther daddies made me cry because it was so full of love and respect.

I'm gonna start with the bad news, which is no I can't. That post and the specifics of that post come from 1. being a leatherman and 2. months of intense research prepping to write my master's thesis. And so that is full of academic history. And I'm not knocking non-academic history; I rely on non-academic community history for my thesis; almost entirely, there is very little academic history on the community. But that's the thing, it's community history and I've never been a member of that community.

This is not good or bad news, but because of the nature of some leather spaces, particularly the ones I write about in my thesis, there is very little if any, cross-over of gay men and lesbian leather. THIS DOES NOT MEAN IT DOES NOT HAPPEN but this is why I know very little.

During the 70s there was an anti-sex push that affected gay leathermen and leather lesbians differently. Leather lesbians were in the trenches fighting for their right to also be feminists because there was a huge feminist movement that all sex is bad, particularly sex that looks like or is heterosexual sex and leather/SM is abuse etc. etc. Which is a dynamic that is different from what leathermen are looking at which is more "we should try to be like heterosexuals and stop having so much weird sex"

The good news is I do have some things you could read if you want to get a rudimentary grasp of lesbian leather history.

Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice edited by Mark Thompson. This is a collection of essays by leatherfolk, by virtue of the editor being a gay leatherman there's an over-representation of gay men in this collection but there are essays by lesbians. Gayle Rubin [who we're gonna talk more about later] writes about a fisting club for gay men but she talks about when Lesbians and women in general were included. But there are other essays by lesbians about lesbians.

Coming to Power: Writings and Graphics on Lesbian S/M Edited by members of SAMOIS a lesbian/feminst S/M Organization. This is going to be probably the most helpful to anyone looking for a historical grounding in Lesbian leather. It's not a text on the history of leather rather, it's a primary source, these are leather lesbians talking about their experence. The unfortunate thing is, and you'll run into this a lot with niche community groups, it's hard to get your hands on. You're looking at 150-200 dollars if you want to buy the third edition. But I found it on accident in my university's library, so you might be able to find it in your local academic library (I am in the middle of Nebraska so there's a little bit of hope for you, too where ever you are.) OR you might be able to get it through interlibrary loan, there might also be like PDF copies floating around.

There are two people I'll point you towards as being the two people I know that have written on this subject.

Patrick Califia: Patrick is a trans man who, in the late 70s and early 80s prior to identifying as a trans man, was a big name in the San Francisco lesbian leather community. He is featured three times in Coming to Power and has an essay in Leatherfolk he is referenced in a lot of the gay male press as being the lesbian point of contact, also an erotica writer. So his early stuff might be helpful.

Gayle Rubin: If you are want to read heavy academia about queers in general, Rubin is who you should start with. She essentially invents Queer Theory with her article "Thinking Sex." the most pertinent article for my answer to you is "The Leather Menace" The title itself is a derivative of "lavender menace," and it plays with this theme that you see over and over and over again across the queer leather community of being a marginalized community inside an already marginalized community.

Rubin also wrote one of the best academic pieces on the gay male leather community The Valley of the Kings, it was never published and exists in only two places, Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan and Chicago at the Leather Archives and Museum. I have not gotten to read it in full. Someday I'll grow the balls to email her and ask her if there's an easier way to read it.

If you read these anthologies, goggle these women, google the organizations they mention. I know absolutely nothing about Dykes on Bikes but surely someone's written some kind of history about them.

If you have the chance go to The Leather Archives and Museum, there's a heavy emphasis on gay leathermen, but it is a community archive for all the leather community.

The thing about digging for the history of this community is there is no published "here is the history of the leather community" you have to read this person's memoir and the clippings you could find of this or that publication and someone's history of this that or some other organization.

I'm sure if some 50-year-old Leather Dyke comes across this, it'll be met with, "Okay, kid you have no idea what you're talking about." and to her and everyone else, I'd say, "yeah, no, I don't have a clue." this is just where I would start if I wanted to dig into this topic.

#long post #queer history #bc that's who I am now

20 notes · View notes