#because it Is going to be 100 over 80 and also i could just buy a blood pressure machine and do that in my home. then they’ve put aside a 30

[abnerkrill]

fantastic rebuttal to "writers don't deserve better pay because the stuff they write is terrible/unoriginal", full thread here

(to explain, the "Unknown" under his name is from a add-on bot detector; it usually can assign a percentage likelihood that a user is a human being and not a bot, but I think the blue check system disrupted the add-on so it says "Unknown" underneath his name now.)

[image id under the read more:

May 7, 2023 tweet thread from Tom Vaughan @/storyandplot

With #WGAStrong rightfully in the spotlight this week, I've seen some less-than-sympathetic comments focusing on the lack of originality in our projects. This is a fair criticism of the system, but not the writers. A quick history of how we got here (thread emoji)

The first thing to understand is that Hollywood has NOT run out of new ideas. The studio’s preference for I.P. has nothing to do with regurgitating ideas and everything to do with MARKETING.

The late 60s-70s is generally considered the artistic high of the studio system. Ironically, many contribute this to corporations buying up the studios! The corporations knew they had no idea how to run a movie studio, so... they put creative people in charge.

This is how you got the run of so many great films the studios would never make today. They also took bigger chances on young, promising talent (the first "film school generation" of filmmakers.)

But with the success of JAWS and STAR WARS, the corporations demanded more of those kinds of hits. The creative folks insisted such things were unpredictable, and the business folks said let's make them less so.

(Sidenote: This was also the same time a completely different phenomenon was happening. A/C was becoming the norm for theatres, making summer movie-going much more attractive.)

Over the next decade, more and more MBAs and marketing people gained influence in the studio system. Being business folks, huge hits were not a creative problem as much as a product/marketing problem.

The 80s is when the “high concept” became pre-eminent because it narrowed a sales pitch to one sentence, a trailer, and a poster. This made everyone a marketing agent for a movie because everyone could explain what it was about!

In the 90s, marketing became just as important as the film itself (reflected in their respective budgets) when Hollywood discovered they could profit from fifty years of pre-existing awareness for old TV shows and movies.

This allowed the marketing department to move away from pitching a movie and convincing you to go see it (lower success rate), to simple “audience awareness” and building anticipation. (higher success rate.)

The audience knew what THE FLINSTONES the movie was. They just needed to know the casting and when it opened. No one needed to have the remake of GODZILLA explained to them. They just needed to know when it opened.

The marketing department prefers AWARNESS over SELLING because awareness is something you can throw money at. Selling is harder, and it’s less predictable. This is why franchises are so valuable.

Whenever someone says, “That’s something I can sell!” It’s usually something that can sell itself. What they mean is, "I just have to let people know about this!"

Hollywoods's reliance on property the audience is already familiar with is 100% because... the audience is already familiar with it. It is easier to market the product and this increases its chances of success.

This focus on I.P. has become so pervasive, many, including executives themselves, have forgotten WHY it's valuable. They'll option an unknown comic BECAUSE it's I.P., forgetting that it's unknown and lacks the main asset of I.P.

Writers do love writing on an I.P. that means something to them. Every Star Wars fan who became a filmmaker would love to work in that universe. But we do not love it more than our own original work. We would always rather work on that.

So when you see another remake, or reboot, or adaptation, and think, "Can't they come up with something new?"

Remember, the answer is yes. Yes, we can. And we want to. You can blame the market or the marketing, but either way, the widespread production of truly original content is just not the studio business model we're in right now. #WGAStrong

end ID.]

#wga #wga strike #NOW WITH TRANSCRIPT PEOPLE REBLOG THIS ONE

[fdelopera]

Antisemites are going mask-off. And we Jews see you.

So some shit for brains antisemite sent me this message the other day. This is one of several antisemitic Anons I've gotten recently, but this one is the most blatant.

My first response was to taunt them. I thought of writing something like this:

"Hey, you fucking loser, you forgot the part of your Nazi script where you try to deny that the Holocaust happened. Lame ass motherfucker, you can't even get your own lies right. Next time you try harassing a Jew online, at least try to tow the Nazi party line, you white supremacist. Also, you fucking COWARD, how dare you come to my inbox on Anonymous. If you’re going to tell me you wish I would die in a Nazi gas chamber, at least have the common courtesy to tell me your username so I know who I am blocking."

But then, I thought: No. That's not how to respond. Because that's not what this is about.

I mean, don’t get me wrong. Making fun of a stupid a Nazi by telling them that they forgot to deny the Holocaust when they decided to harass me for being a Jew — that is gallows humor of the darkest kind. But a morbidly glib zinger of a reply doesn’t actually address the real issue here.

The real issue is that a lot of you with antisemitic tendencies have been going completely mask-off the last few weeks, and you have been diving headfirst into Jew-hatred.

You are finally feeling liberated to speak the Jew-hating words that you have been dying to say.

You have been practically champing at the bit to tell a Jew that you wished there would be another Holocaust so you could get rid of all those millions of "bad Jews" that you don’t like, and now you feel liberated to scream those words from the rooftops.

Over the last few weeks, we Jews have been watching you, some of you that we considered to be friends, and we’ve seen many of you turn on us and spit out the most vile, hateful things about us.

And we know exactly what you will be doing when the next Nazi craze spreads like wildfire from country to country, throughout cities and towns.

You like to claim that you would have been punching Nazis in the face during World War II. You like to claim that you would have protected us. Some of you even like to claim that you would have sheltered us, like the heroes who hid Anne Frank.

But we know better.

No. That’s all just romantic bullshit that some of you like to tell yourselves to make yourselves feel important.

In reality, you would have been deciding who is a "good Jew" and who is a "bad Jew." You would have been deciding who you should rat out to the police for a reward. You wouldn’t be protecting us! You would be saying, "I really don't like that Jew. I’m going to go tell the Gestapo about them." Or worse, you would be saying, "Oh, that Jew over there, they’re just an animal. They’re barely human. The Nazis can kill them, I don’t care."

Most of the people who turned against their Jewish neighbors in Nazi occupied Europe weren't monstrous, inhuman beasts. Most of them were people, just like you, who had been conditioned to hate Jews by nearly two thousand years of Christian antisemitism coupled with a targeted campaign of white supremacist propaganda. This widespread antisemitism allowed the Nazis to transform an irrational and enculturated feeling of distrust towards Jews into a feeling of intense hatred, where gentiles demonized Jewish people and blamed "those Jews" for all the bad things that were happening in the world.

And the white supremacists are doing it again. And YOU are falling for their trap. Again!

Don't you get it? This is the oldest trick in the book! Periods of antisemitic violence usually erupt every 70-100 years or so, after most of the Jewish elders who hold the living memory of the last genocide have all passed away. And the Holocaust was 80 years ago. And here we are. Again.

And just like the Christians in Europe who turned on their Jewish neighbors, you are starting to turn on us.

You buy into antisemitic conspiracy theories, just like the white supremacists do.

You stand in the streets, screaming "gas the Jews" and "die Jews die."

You sound like the Proud Boys. You sound like Nazis. Do you even hear yourselves???

You pretend that all Jews are all a monolith and a hive mind, and you try to convince yourselves that we are all a proxy for the fucking Israeli government, which the vast majority of Jews fucking despise. If we could, trust me, most of us would strangle Netanyahu with our bare hands.

You celebrate Jewish deaths because you have convinced yourselves that killing a random Jewish civilian is "just the same" as killing Netanyahu, because you have manipulated yourselves into believing that all Jews are the Israeli government.

And you don't see how fucking STUPID that is!!

Jewish people are no more the Israeli government than YOU are YOUR government.

A people are NOT their government.

According to Tumblr statistics, nearly half of you reading this will be from the US. Shall I blame YOU personally for the actions of the US government? Of course fucking not! And you'd better fucking not blame random Jews for Netanyahu!

And some of you Jew-haters, in pretending that Jews are all a monolith and a hive mind, even say vile, antisemitic shit like, "Looks like the Jews are becoming the Nazis."

You choose those words carefully, twisting the Shoah, our greatest tragedy, into a knife. You try to weaponize the slaughter of our people against us. You try to reduce the 6 million of us who were murdered into a white supremacist meme.

YOU SOUND LIKE THE FUCKERS AT A TRUMP RALLY, FOR FUCKS SAKE. DO YOU EVEN HEAR YOURSELVES???

And you do that to dehumanize us. You do that to feel morally superior. You do that to feel less uncomfortable when you laugh at our deaths.

But we know that WE are not becoming Nazis. But YOU are. The reason you say that shit about us is because YOU are projecting YOUR insecurities onto us.

Because you know that you are slowly, insidiously being coopted by the Nazi ideology of David Duke and Richard Spencer.

And perhaps somewhere deep down, you feel uneasy about it. So you accuse Jews of being a monolith, a hive mind, and then you say stupid antisemitic shit like, "Maybe the Jews are the Nazis after all."

And you say that to yourselves so that you can turn off your empathy and celebrate as you watch us die.

What a disgusting way to try to absolve yourselves of YOUR guilt.

And we Jews are watching you. We’re watching you very carefully. And when the dust settles, you will have found that we have vanished from your life.

Very soon, you won’t see us again.

And no, that won't be because we'll be walking into the gas chambers, as much as you'd like us to, like some historical movie about the Holocaust that you watched when you were a child but turned off halfway through because you just didn't care.

NEVER AGAIN MEANS NEVER AGAIN.

As much as we know that you ENJOY watching our deaths (sanitized, of course, with a blur filter over the video so that you don’t have to feel too guilty about watching us being tortured and murdered), that’s not the reason you won’t be seeing us again.

The reason you won’t be seeing us again is because we will be walking out of YOUR life.

You have lost us as friends, and you might not even know it yet.

We are gone from your life, because we know that we can’t trust you.

We know that when the Nazis come to our community and march down the street hoisting their swastikas and doing their Sieg Heils (I've seen it with my own eyes) … when the Nazis harass us Jews in the street (I've seen it with my own eyes) … when the Nazis SHOOT US DEAD (it happened at a synagogue a block away from my synagogue, and many of those who saw it will never open their eyes again) — we know you won’t help us.

You will shove us into the line of fire.

And we know that you’ll absolve your conscience, so you won’t feel too bad about our deaths. You’ll tell yourselves, “It’s okay. Why should I have protected that one? That one was a bad Jew.”

We Jews see you. We see your hypocrisy on full display.

And we are telling you this:

If you see Jewish civilians being tortured and murdered, no matter what country they are from, and your first response is to CELEBRATE … if your first response is to post memes that say shit like, "The Jews fucked around and found out" … if your first response is to say that mass murdering Jews is "brutal but justified" … if your first response is to behave like a Q-Anon believer or a MAGA-hat wearing Republican and treat all Jews like we're a monolith, a hive mind…

When THAT is your response to seeing a tragedy unfolding, you are a FAILED ally, and a FAILED advocate.

You are an antisemite.

But mostly, you are just a really horrible, shitty person.

And we don’t want you in our life.

#jumblr #judaism #jewish #jewblr #a message to the next person who sends antisemitic bullshit to my inbox - at least don't be a fucking coward about it! #sending anon harassment like this is the most chickenshit thing you can do #and no i won't be turning off anon so that if there are more cowards who want to send anon messages i'll be able to block them #oh and as always i'll be monitoring the comments and if anyone posts antisemitic bullshit here i will be reporting and blocking you #antisemitism tw #holocaust tw #shoah tw #nazi tw

[omgthatdress]

Re-living my childhood and working on doing a fashion history spam of the American Girl dolls!

Oh my god I can’t begin to tell you what a huge part of my childhood those dolls were. Before I go on, let me clarify my family’s financial circumstance growing up: I was a pretty solidly middle-class only child. I definitely wasn’t rich, but my mom was willing to spend a lot of money on buying me a shitload of American Girl stuff because A.) she thought they were cool, and B.) they provided a much smarter alternative to Barbies. And when I grew up and got too old for them, I was able to give my stuff over to my younger cousins.

Looking at what the brand has to offer now, it’s pretty clear that the brand has changed over time and that the emphasis has gone from the historical dolls to the modern ones. Honestly, that’s not a 100% terrible thing. I fully embrace change as a part of the universe, and if it’s a part of the survival of the brand, so be it. As long as the historical dolls remain in tact and the brand integrity is respected. And for the most part, until very recent years, it looks like it has been.

Mattel bought the American Girl brand in 1998, and from then on, you can see the brand shifting away from the original five dolls. I’m going to get waaay more into this with the spam, but really, the historical dolls until very recently have actually remained pretty great. If there’s one really broad critique I could give, it’s that the overall color palette skews towards the modern, with a lot of very bright colors and a heavy emphasis on pink, but when taken individually, the pieces remain very accurate.

HERE’S THE THING! In 2016, a new historical girl was released: Maryellen, repping the 1950s. She’s blonde and has blue eyes, following shortly on Julie, who repped the 1970s and also had blonde hair and blue eyes. You can kind of see a theme developing here. The girls from the 30s, 50, 70s, 80s, and 90s are all blonde with blue eyes. You’d think that girls in the 20th century were only blondes. But anyway I’m getting away from the point. Maryellen was released with only TWO books! The fuck?! Maryellen’s collection remained the same very immersive collection that I love about the brand, but clearly, shit’s changing.

The next historical dolls, Nenea (repping Hawaii after Pearl Harbor), Melody (repping Black girls, Motown, and civil rights in the 60s), Courtney (repping blonde hair blue eyed girls with 80s nostalgia and very little historical engagement), Claudie, (Black girl in the 1920s Harlem Renaissance) and Isabelle and Nicki (again blonde girls repping 90s nostalgia with little historical engagement) all only have two books. The brand has LITERALLY been diminished. The books were an equally important part of the playset, not only providing context for the garments and objects you were playing with, providing REAL, often complex lessons about history, making history feel real and relatable, but they fleshed out the girls, their lives, and the worlds they lived in. They made what you were playing with more than just a playset, more than just a dollhouse or Barbie accessories, they were a whole universe for girls to explore.

Like I said at the beginning, I didn’t grow up rich. I definitely had more privilege than others out there, but I still wasn’t the rich kid villain from a 90s kids movie. I had a lot of American Girl shit because my mom saw the value in the brand and was willing to spend a lot of money on it in a way that she wouldn’t be willing to spend a lot of money on Barbies.

Honestly, I don’t know the toy industry, I don’t know what little girls today want out of their dolls. I know that times change, and that what’s beloved in one generation isn’t necessarily going to be carry over to the next. But I find it hard to believe that little girls straight up no longer are interested in history, and that moms no longer want to give their daughters toys that will actually teach them things. I’ve read a lot of articles about how the brand is struggling, and I don’t think it’s a generational divide. Mattel has fucked up the brand, and I am not just saying that out of Boomer toxic nostalgia that says that everything from the past is GOOD, everything today is BAD, and that anything that changes is inherently not only bad but a personal insult. The stuff that made these expensive dolls worth buying just isn’t there.

#American Girl #American Girls

[sassyfrassboss]

I wasn’t a huge fan of Meghan — didn’t even know who she was when the KP statement came out, even though I had been into Suits the first season — but I fell more in the camp of “Harry seems happy so she must be cool! Let’s support her!”

They announced the engagement and I was still on board. Even told my boss that I’d be taking some time off in the spring (thinking they’d do the royal thing and marry on a Friday). Watched the engagement interview, thought they were cute together, they were having fun with it. Cool, cool, cool. Realized I would be in London two months after the wedding, got super excited, planned to buy some of the memorabilia.

But then they announced they were marrying on a Saturday, for the Americans back home, and it’s starting at 12pm too, for the Americans back home…that’s kinda weird, prioritizing a television broadcast for 300 million strangers over family traditions but you do you, I guess.

Then the perfume ads with the $60K see-through gown that she’s never worn again showed up and I noped out of there faster than a bank robber in a getaway car.

Which is about the same time I discovered the Daily Mail comments section, kept reading about these “three blind mice” on tumblr and fired up the old blog to find out what was going on and found my people. Then they started getting weird too and I found the calmer, more critical-thinky, more rational side of *waves hand at everything* with Plant and Soap, who eventually led me to you, Empress, Honey, Helena, and a few others.

(Also I didn’t buy the H&M memorabilia when I was in London, and I even did the Windsor Castle, KP, and BP staterooms tours. I remember walking into the one of the gift shops and the shelves were so overcrowded with H&M wedding stuff. It was so obvious nothing was moving and no one was buying. One of the shop girls told me that the Royal Collection had overestimated the interest in H&M - the projections were based on Will and Kate’s collections with adjustments for US sales because of Meghan - and the RCT was really scrambling to sell it off so everything was like 80% discounted. Eugenie and Jack got a much smaller order of their collection and was actually selling better than H&M’s, even full priced.)

Then the perfume ads with the $60K see-through gown that she’s never worn again showed up and I noped out of there faster than a bank robber in a getaway car.

You KILLED me with this! DYING laughing. My dog got worried i was laughing so hard hahahaha!

Since I didn't like her straight away but it was hard to find people that felt the way I did at the time I actually googled "people who hate Meghan Markle" and Tumblr popped up. I created a blog (shut that one down and created this one) and the rest is history as you say.

I will say 2017-2018 on here was WILD!

The reason she wanted the US audience was so she could have more "viewers" than William and Catherine did. Had nothing to do with her wanting her fellow Americans to tune in and everything to do with her having to have it bigger and better than Catherine. Hence the massive amounts of memorabilia left over. I bet they demanded more items or the same amount be created as for William and Catherine. Also, remember this was when Harry and Meghan were CONVINCED that they were the STARS of the BRF and everyone else was boiling with jealousy over how amazing Meghan was at her new role and she was the best pre-duchess to ever duchess and all the others were just plain ole jelly. So it stands to reason that Meghan 100% believed her face would outsell Catherine's.

[delopsia]

how much of the truck do you think Rhett has replaced over the years? (maybe the better question is what hasnt been replaced at this point) like do you think hes completely rebuilt the transmission and engine? is there a point that he will give up on it? or do you think hes the person that will say that as long as the seat is the same one its the same truck? cuz it isnt going to last forever because that truck is how old and its also been a farm truck all its life. regardless of what state we are all living in now its safe to say that the Wyoming winters have taken a toll on the truck in the form of rust and wear and tear. if he rusts through the frame (a death sentence for vehicles) will he buy the same make in model that has had an easier life and just take his transmission and engine (he just put those in less than 80,000 miles ago god danmit!!) out and put it into the one with the good frame. i think if he ever does throw the towel in on the truck hes going to keep the seat and put it in his room in the house because theres too many memories on that seat for the thruple

I am so happy that someone is asking me about the trucks because I have put so much unnecessary thought and work into them. But Rhett's truck... Jesus Christ, it is the bane of my existence. I cannot figure out what year it is, and it's been driving me up the wall, but I'll admit I've been using this sale listing as a reference.

I'm in trouble if this truck ever sells.

That old truck has close to 225,000 miles on it at this point; it's practically gone everywhere, and for some damn reason, it's still alive and kicking. Had about 100,000 miles when Rhett bought it, and he's driven it to all hell ever since.

He's replaced the front and rear wheel hubs three times now. Had to put in new ball joints, and rust essentially forced him to replace the transmission, fuel, and brake lines after a couple of years. Shortly after that, the transmission failed and forced Rhett to gather a few buddies to help him rebuild it. But it's been a lot of small fixes here and there, the forgettable things that take an afternoon, and that's it.

The old truck was built to last, and even though nobody is 100% sure where it spent its early years, it's been well taken care of. If there's an odd noise or it starts to act out of character, the problem is located and found within the week. It's always best to fix the issue when its small, rather than wait until it gets worse.

Trucks last on the Abbott ranch. Royal's vehicle is older than Rhett's, and it's still alive and kicking! I haven't done a ton of research into what Royal drives, but I think it's an '80s GMC C/K Sierra Classic.

Honorary comparisons.

Nifty how Rhett and his Dad both seem to have Sierra's, lmao.

Regardless, it's an old truck. If Royal's truck can make it, so can Rhett's

Unless it becomes a money pit that can't stand to run for more than a few hours at a time, then Rhett's going to be hanging onto it. He could replace the whole vehicle over the course of time and still believe it's the exact same truck. But if it does fail, he'd likely go with another older-model truck with a bench seat. Maybe not the same make and model, but he'd be happy to bring home another in a different color.

As of the "current time" in the story, the Sierra is living herself a nice little life in the garage. Her Pavement Princess era, if you want me to start sounding cripplingly Gen-Z. Rhett's new work requires a lot of trailer pulling and things that the Sierra just couldn't keep up with, which means a new truck!

In Whispers In The Dark, I vaguely hinted that Rhett left the Sierra in Wyoming for a period of time because he'd bought a new truck after moving out.

This was the truck!

A 2019 Ford F-350 that I picked out back in February and simply never mentioned to anyone 😭 it never made sense to mention the exact make and model, so it got reduced to "Rhett's other truck."

After the Sierra comes home, she gets to become the official date night vehicle, alongside Bob's. It's her only job now!

I haven't mentioned a ton about Bob's truck, but since we're already on the topic, he's got a 2021 Toyota Tundra in the color Midnight Black Metallic. I exclusively picked this truck for him because some models come with a front-row bench seat.

Who would have thought that I'd have so much truck lore 🧍‍♂️

#rhett abbott #bob floyd x reader x rhett abbott #hawthorn au #bob floyd

[sleepless-translation]

Phantom Troupe Drama CD English Translation-Track 07&08

CD : HUNTER×HUNTER～Next Episode Scene 3 幻影旅団 (Link)

Since track 7 is short I decided to combine them both.

Disclaimer:

This is a fun bonus content from the 1999 anime that I decided to translate because I want others to enjoy it too (´꒳`)♡ Do note that some of the characters might act in an unusual comedic manner.

Summary:

Track 07. その頃のクロロ “That time with Chrollo” starts at 23.02

During the requiem something unexpected happens to Chrollo.

Track 08. オークションは大人の楽しみ “Auctions are adult’s pleasure” starts at 23.52

During the auction in York New, Hisoka and some of the other troupe members are selling their own prized possessions. Chaos ensues.

07.

[Chrollo] Uvo-san, can you hear us? We dedicate this requiem to you.

[Dramatic sounds of crashing and banging]

[Chrollo] Uvo-san...Oh? Huh?! Uh-oh! I’m falling! U-Uvo-san!!!

[Uvogin] Boss...What are we going to do if you don't survive the requiem? ════════ End of track ════════

08.

[Auctioneer] Sold for 7 million! Let’s continue.

[Shizuku] Next is..This? Copy it please.

[Kortopi] Okay. Gallery fake.

[Shizuku] Okay. Paku, you hold it.

[Pakunoda Okay-okay

[Auctioneer] Starting price is 1 million.

[Hisoka] This is boring. Is there nothing entertaining to do?

[Auctioneer] Sold for 7 million. Congratulations!

[Machi] But, it’s true what they say about how money goes to where money is. Spending all those cash...

[Shizuku] Yep. They could even reach one billion. Just one after another.

[Hisoka] Money..? Money, huh? That’s it!

[Machi] What’s up with you? Shouting all of a sudden.

[Hisoka] I came up with a great idea.

[Machi] A great idea?

[Hisoka] I'm going to join the auction too.

[Machi] Huh? Do they have something you want?

[Hisoka] Nope. I’m going to put something up for sale instead.

[Shizuku & Machi] Huh?

[Auctioneer] Alright! The next item is from The Phantom Troupe’s member number 4. An extremely rare item in the entire world, written down by Hisoka. A collection of poems called “I want to gouge your eyes out.” The starting price is 50 million!

[Machi] Expensive!

[Bidders] 55 million! 57 million! 80 million! 90 million! 92 million! 96 million!

[Auctioneer] Sold for 96 million! Congratulations!

[Machi] For that garbage looking thing. What even-

[Shizuku] Those last bids went up pretty close.

[Hisoka] Urk. It didn’t reach 100 million.

[Machi] I still don’t think it was anything special even if you were able to sell it.

[Hisoka] I was going to publish it if it sold for over 100 million.

[Machi] You even thought that far.

[Phinks] Alright. In that case I’ll sell mine too.

[Auctioneer] Well then, let’s continue! Another item from the Phantom troupe! This time it’s something Phinks has worn up until September 1st...That thing!

[Phinks]   How much will It be...

[Auctioneer] Sold for 2.5 million!

[Phinks] Cheap!

[Feitan] Well, what you expect.

[Shizuku] Franklin, what are you going to auction?

[Franklin] Me? What I’m auctioning...? maybe my finger?

[Shalnark] You can auction off your finger, but the thing is, will it sell?

[Auctioneer] Well, everyone. Finally it has come to the almighty hidden gem for today’s event!

[Phinks] What is it?

[Auctioneer] The brigade Goddesses who wandered through York New! From bloody massacre to cleaning up messes and patching up injuries! But even these Goddesses also had their own dainty feminine days. Here is the evidence! This time the amazing items are Machi’s loose socks and Shizuku’s spare glasses!

[Other members] What?!

[Machi] As expected you have a spare.

[Shizuku] I figured I'd sell something with this much value.

[Auctioneer] Starting price is 100 million!

[Bidders 1.5 billion! 1.6 billion! 

[Shalnark] 1.8 billion!

[Machi] Shal?!

[Franklin] 2.0 billion.

[Feitan] 2.3 billion.

[Phinks] 2.7 billion!

[Hisoka] So this is where we compete...5 billion!

*Kapow*

[Machi] What the heck are you guys doing?!

[Phinks] What do you mean? We won’t let these commoners have those valuable items so we...

[Hisoka] Are buying it.

[Machi] Hey.

[Auctioneer] Well, we’ve reached 5 billion. Any other bids? How about it? If there isn't any then it will be sold for 5 billion to Hisoka-

[Kortopi] I’ll bid 10 billion.

[Other members] What in the?! 

[Auctioneer] So no other bid? Since there isn’t any. Sold for 10 billion! Congratulations!

[Kortopi] Alright!

[Other members] Don’t go “alright” on us!

[Machi] No way. Kortopi..?

[Shizuku] That was unexpected.

[Auctioneer] This has been a very exciting time for us. Now, the following item is the last one from the troupe.

[Feitan] Whose?

[Auctioneer] Pakunoda, who is the very definition of "the troupe’s intel woman." She refused to be outdone by the young girls and participated in the auction herself. The item is this leopard-printed bathrobe that she wore last night!

[Pakunoda] Ahahaha~If these guys were that enthusiastic before, they would have been more so for me this time around. ...Hm? Huh?

[Auctioneer] What’s wrong everyone? This is still a rare item you know.

[Pakunoda] What do you mean by “still”, huh?

[Franklin] Hmm. Can’t help her case.

[Auctioneer] Umm. Let's just get going! Since the person in question has high hopes for this, the starting price is 100 million, just like the previous item! … Uh...We’ll start with 50 Million! 

[Pakunoda] Hey! Who told you to lower the price?!

[Auctioneer] 25 million! 10 million! 7 million? 3 million?!

[Auctioneer] Ooh! Someone raised their hand! Sold for 3 million! Thank you very much! I’m truly in your debt! You are a real man!!! 

[Pakunoda] Enough with the gratitude! Don’t clap! Ugh! How come mine failed?!

[Hisoka] That’s…

[Other members] Because you’re old. 

[Pakunoda] *shrieks*

[Machi] Paku is broken.

[Shalnark] You guys are merciless!

…

[Phinks] So...compared to Paku mine is even cheaper, what does that make me?

[Franklin] How would I know? ════════ End of track ════════

TL Notes & Commentary:

Ok but I've always wondered did Chrollo, or the building he’s in get hit by a helicopter? 😭

I had to omit some of the things that the auctioneer said because I couldn’t hear through the loud background noise, but I managed to get the important parts out. This one was hard so I really hope I got them right. If you noticed any mistakes please talk to me about it!

#hunter x hunter #hxh 1999 #phantom troupe #genei ryodan #chrollo #chrollo lucilfer #hisoka #shalnark #feitan #phinks #pakunoda #uvogin #kortopi #hxh machi #hxh shizuku #hxh franklin #drama cd #hxh drama cd #translation #english translation

[beehindblueeyes]

Time period: Video Cassettes and other home media

This is possibly my last one for a while. Both because I feel like I’m stepping into territory I’ve already mentioned and because I’m fading interests. If you’re new here… these posts are sort of designed for the people who “can’t do time period” I’m basically giving you some cool common facts about the time so hopefully it’s a bit easier. Im a nitpicky person when It comes to my own stuff but I don’t expect you to be the 100% correct fic person either. All posts of this kind are tagged under time period and writing ref so they should be easy to find :)

This seems like a ‘no duh’ but tvs as they are now simply did not exist. No flat screens. They’re CRT or older. They’re HUGE and bulky but also have a relatively small screen at the same time. As we progressed into the 80s the side panel mainly shrank and the screen grew. (Also see, wood! Wood grain. I keep saying it was everywhere. It was everywhere.)

You may hear parents say “oh when I grew up we had three channels” etc which was mainly true. There was a limited number of Chanel’s for YEARS until cable came around and even then it was more a premium service and it was the late 80s , early 90s when it was more widely adopted.

With these big tvs with limited tvs and sometimes faulty service there’s a lot of myths to come with that. Like if you hit it a few times on top stuff with come back, or bending the bunny ears that you still see in some cartoons. Or ‘hey if we flush all the toilets at once…’ (this one’s more of a kid logic thing but the ritual and oh if I stand like this or do that is the same)

Now we come to video cassettes which is the more common spread name for a VHS tape that was still used well into the 90s. I think it’s a much more recent thing that we started just saying VHS, more common names were: Video cassette, video tapes, tapes, home video etc ;

They also do NOT work like dvds. If it’s re wound it should play from the beginning. They’ll be studio logos and a few adds or trailers and then the movie just starts. No menu! This being said movies were also limited to a time so they could fit on tape (this is one of the reasons old movies rarely go over a hour and a half). If they’re two hours or longer there’s double and sometimes triple tapes (once one ends you have to put in the next)

Be kind, rewind. There’s nothing automatic about it you have to manually or stores will fine you— or whoever watches it next in your house will fucking clobber you. It takes forever! (You don’t know the pain of being a kid in the early 2000s waiting for the little mermaid to finish rewinding).

Also this is purely speculatory on my part but I assume the reason renting tapes was a lot more common was because they were pretty expensive at the time. Like $30 (which is half of a video game today, they used to be like $7) someone who was alive at the time please correct me.

Physical media mania, again self explanatory. No streaming. No touch screen. No iPods. You buy records, cassettes, 8tracks, have a machine that plays them. Stereos — big family ones— were usually 3-4 parts (you see the towers or stacked machines in old movies.) there’s personal portable ones like walkmans or big boombox types.

No smart boards in the class. We see it in the movie. Teacher would have to get a projector, wheel it in and show the slides from a slide machine or one where you can place work over it. (Only the image isn’t half as crisp as in the movie) but writing on the chalkboard and pull down maps were more common. If a movie was being shown they’d wheel in a movie projector and place it down the middle isle of students. There’s no Disney + for your encanto kids

#the black phone #black phone #the black phone 2022 #time period post #time period #writing ref #writing reference #70s #80s #90s #physical media #video store #video rental #vhs #casette

[randomvarious]

Technotronic - "Pump Up the Jam" 1989 House / Hip-House / Eurodance / New Beat / Eurohouse

Here we go, folks; it's the big one. Belgian dance project Technotronic's legendary debut single, 1989's "Pump Up the Jam," is, whether you like it or not, one of the most important songs in the history of music. And that's because it was the *very first* house track to ever *massively* cross over onto the American pop charts, managing to peak at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, while also dominating many other charts across the globe as well. And in retrospect, as far as the music itself went, it wasn't really anything all that new; but for people who were completely unaware of the underground house tracks that had been pumping out of Chicago since the mid-80s, this song sounded like it could have been shot out of a cannon from Neptune, before incidentally puncturing our very own troposphere. Like, do you know what the #1 song in all of America was when this thing hit its eventual peak in January of 1990? Michael Bolton's "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You." So, imagine getting bludgeoned by that literal one-two punch on your contemporary hit radio station in the dead of winter thirty-three years ago. Nothing like that had *ever* happened before.

Now, yesterday I got into Technotronic's biggest ever controversy, which was that the lycra-clad girl in the iconically curious and candy-colored music video, who was the same person that appeared exclusively in the group's album art, and who also even went on TV multiple times to perform the group's lone hit herself, was actually a lip-syncing model named Felly who didn't even speak any English. But I'm not going to be relitigating much of that in this post today.

What I am going to be doing, however, is digging into how this track itself came to be made, because there really is quite a long and interesting backstory to it, and it doesn't even begin with anyone who was actually in Technotronic.

See, the tale of how "Pump Up the Jam" first came to fruition actually starts in Chicago in 1988, with this house track here by the legendary Farley "Jackmaster" Funk called "The Acid Life." Trip on this tune and you'll immediately hear where Technotronic derived one of the most recognizable intros in the history of contemporary music from:

The rippling rhythm of the acid bass pulsations? And the idea to set them between incessantly rattling, pressure-cooked hi-hats too? All of this was actually Farley's invention. Crazy, right?

Now, as far as I can tell, Farley was never officially credited on any of Technotronic's own records as a songwriter for "Pump Up the Jam," but according to a very informative Google-Translated Belgian article I was able to find, he still did end up receiving gains from it 🤘.

But this was really just a starting point for the song. After its first few bars, producer Jo Bogaert would end up taking his tune in a very different direction from that of Farley's. And the first sign was the little taste of string synth that he gave that would later go on to define a piece of Technotronic's own sound.

Now, Jo Bogaert had already become something of a successful musician in Belgium before he'd ever even met the other members of Technotronic. He was a pioneer of this genre that was pretty much only popular in Belgium called new beat, with a trio of hits between '87 and '88 that were released under the moniker of Nux Nemo: "Hiroshima," "Chinatown," and "Asian Fair."

But at a certain point, his productions would end up seeing diminishing returns from the record-buying public, and, as a result, his own label, Clip Records, had found itself struggling too. Bogaert had another idea though, and it was fueled by Farley "Jackmaster" Funk's "Acid Life." He, like so many other European musicians, had a dream of actually breaking big in America. And he would end up using part of an American record to actually do it.

So, with his near-reproduction of the open from "The Acid Life" to kick off his own tune, he ended up cobbling together a similar pair of raw, absolute stompers and pressing them to a 12-inch. Both tracks sampled some dialogue from Eddie Murphy's Delirious set, and under the alias of Pro 24's, Bogaert would title this record...wait for it... "Technotronic."

And these two tunes would end up serving as the blueprint for what would later become "Pump Up the Jam."

Now, "Technotronic" didn't do too badly in Belgium, but the CEO at one of the country's biggest labels, ARS Records, thought that it could maybe become a much bigger hit if Bogaert had agreed to make some changes to it. There was a fusion genre that set party rap lyrics to house beats that was gaining popularity in other countries called hip-house, and he thought Bogaert's song could be retooled into a smash if he followed that formula.

But creating a hip-house record would require the talents of a rapper, and Bogaert didn't seem to personally know any. However, he had heard from someone about this sixteen year-old biracial girl originally from Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) named Ya Kid K, who was in a crew called Fresh Beat Productions, and who also had her heart set on recording an album. And as Ya Kid K likes to half-jokingly put it herself, she also happened to be the *only* female black MC in all of Belgium at that time too 😅.

So Bogaert sent out demos to some Belgian rappers and, fortunately, Ya Kid K ended up answering his call. She would take about fifteen minutes to write some inanely hooky lines over his track and then it would take another twenty minutes to record the whole thing itself. The first words out of her mouth ended up being "pump up the jam," so that's what they decided to call their song. They could've called it something like "Make My Day" instead, given how many times that that line was repeated, but M/A/R/R/S had a pretty big hit in "Pump Up the Volume" a couple years prior too, so Bogaert and Ya Kid K were probably trying to chase some of that tune's glory as well.

Bogaert would then release the record on his own Clip label under the name of Technotronik and take it to ARS. And upon hearing it, they were very impressed, but they also said that if they were to pick up the record, the vocalist would also have to be the star, and Ya Kid K didn't want to be in a music video or on an album cover. So, without her knowledge, they went and enlisted Felly to fill those roles instead.

ARS then released the record, and a bunch of labels in other countries picked it up too, and then, miraculously, this song was everywhere. Finally, there was this throbbingly weird and super catchy house tune with a very boisterous vocal that was awkwardly commanding us all to have a good time on the dancefloor; and it came equipped with rap lyrics that you could easily anthemically chant and a beat that you could seriously dance your ass off to as well, as Felly and some other kid would put on display for us in the music video themselves. Clearly, ARS was onto something with their vision for this earworm.

Now, were there better produced house tracks out there than this one in 1989 and 1990? Unquestionably. But because it happened to be unleashed upon a public that was largely unaware of house music altogether, this is the one that just so happened to really break down the barrier that was continually keeping house separate from pop.

And not long after "Pump Up the Jam" conquered, Madonna would drop "Vogue," a song that really managed to successfully mesh pop with house, and even featured a spoken-word rap on it too. It's not to say that Madonna was directly influenced by "Pump Up the Jam" to cut her own house track, but the extremely wide acceptance of Technotronic's debut single over the prior handful of months appeared to lay the groundwork for "Vogue" to then subsequently reign as the undisputed song of the summer for 1990. The door for dance music to finally make its return to the American mainstream for the first time since disco had died had finally been opened, and this unexpected triumph from Belgium seems to be the one that really kickstarted the whole trend. Jo Bogaert's dream of making a big American hit had come true, and Madonna, who loved working out to "Pump Up the Jam" herself, would take his group on her Blonde Ambition world tour as the opening act, with Ya Kid K as Technotronic's rightful frontwoman.

More fun videos here.

#house #house music #hip house #hip hop #rap #old school hip hop #old school rap #eurodance #euro dance #new beat #eurohouse #euro house #dance #dance music #electronic #electronic music #music #80s #80s music #80's #80's music

[sundaysplayzone]

Commonly Asked Questions.

I get asked the same 3-5 questions all the time, so I thought I might make this new lil pinned post to help everyone out! But first, I want to thank you all for visiting my blog!

Do you take requests?

No, I do not.

Are your commission open?

Yes currently! Honestly now a days they’re almost always open. You can check them out on my website HERE!

Are you okay with gift art?

Of course! I would be flattered! If you’d like, you can find most of my characters here on toyhouse (I promise to update it soon!)!

How do you get the retro/vhs effects on your art?

I actually made a tutorial on that here! But honestly at the end of the day it’s a lot of “I plug this picture into several different apps and video editing software.” I wish I could give you a simple answer, but there is no easy way to do it that’s the same every time. I rarely if ever do it the same way back to back. Some colors look better when edited in Photoshop, some in Photomosh Pro. I pay almost $100 a month to have access to all of the software I use to make these effects because it’s part of my job. But luckily you can find so many free tutorials and apps out there, you just need to be curious and try new things!

What do you use to draw?

Another vague answer whoo! Sorry, but I use so many things to draw! But usually it’s sketch/ink/color/shade in Paint Tool Sai, and then move it to Photoshop to add the background, effects and details. I also use Procreate and Clip Studio from time to time. When it comes to traditional, it’s usually standard cardstock or a mixed media sketchbook. Then I draw and color with microns, copic pens, jelly rollers/gel pens, prisma colored markers and copic markers. 

Did you draw the backgrounds in your art? And if you use screenshots, where do you get them?

In the majority of my pictures, I use screenshots from old cartoons. I get these screenshots from the shows themselves. My friend is kind enough to set up a program that takes snapshots hundreds of times during the show. Then when the episode is over, they send them to me. I then spend HOURS, going through thousands of images and delete all but the good pieces. A majority of the time they take a lot of editing to be usable. I have to clean them up, remove character and scale the images.

This isn’t always the case however! I do often draw my own backgrounds! If you ever want to know, feel free to ask!

As for the more aesthetic/abstract backgrounds, I make those myself! I spent far too much money buying licenses and rights to use tons of different patterns and vectors. With those, I love recreating authentic backgrounds in the style of those seen in the 80s and 90s!

I see you draw a lot of Transformation/Chubby/(insert common movie trope here). Are you a fetish artist?

No, I am not a fetish artist. Do I draw art that might be someone’s fetish? Do I take commissions from people with a fetish for this subject matter? Yes, of course. But people need to realize, furry characters alone are a kink to some people. For me the difference is in how it’s drawn. And I personally do not draw my art in a way that sexualizes the piece.

I love drawing transformation scenes, people being swallowed by a monster, extra big tummies, but not because it’s something that I find hot. I just like drawing fun scenes. I get bored of just drawing a character standing in place all the time. I like drawing wacky scenes! 

A lot of my love for these come from cartoons. Edmund getting turned into a cat in Rock a Doodle. Hercules getting swallowed by the hydra. Kaa hypnotizing... everyone xD It’s just a story telling tool and sometimes it’s fun to draw! I’m not into hypno but I do like drawing big, colorful eyes. I’m just whatever about tf but I love drawing the swirling magic effects and the character changing from human to animal. It’s just cool to me!

In short, when I draw these things, it’s like I get to draw scenes from cartoons and movies in my style. It’s so wonderful to attempt to emulate some of the effects and details they used in movies from my childhood. It’s not about the hand changing into a paw for me, it’s the magical sparkles and how it’s so bright and vibrant compared to everything else. Where you see it go from hand to paw, that’s what I love drawing about tf art! Or being able to exaggerate the body and make a character look weighty by making them really round. Getting to draw a comically big mouth, giving a fun and interesting perspective shot. I think that stuff is so neat! Because it’s art!

I don’t care if it is someone’s fetish. I’m not drawing it in a way that’s sexual. Heck, it even says I wont in my TOS! Everything is G-PG here in Sunday’s Playzone! I’m not here to make that kind of content. It’s okay if adults have fetishes, and so long as you and others aren’t sexualizing my art, all is well!

[pluckyredhead]

jayroy for the meme

who hogs the duvet

Jason, 100%. Listen. One of these men wears a leather jacket over kevlar, and the other one doesn't own anything with sleeves. Who do you think is always cold?

who texts/rings to check how their day is going

Roy, because he is a chatterbox and also needs a lot of validation.

who’s the most creative when it comes to gifts

Jason, because his love languages are all non-verbal gift-giving and caretaking. (THE WATCH COMIC. ;_; )

who gets up first in the morning

Roy, to get Lian ready for school.

who suggests new things in bed

ROY LOL. I don't think anyone expected a different answer here! Jason is eager but inexperienced, Roy has plans and schemes.

who cries at movies

Mostly neither of them, but there is a specific genre of sad children's movie (The Land Before Time, Lilo and Stitch, Dumbo) that will instantly reduce Roy to a weepy puddle. Lian's fine with them but he has to leave the room during "Baby Mine."

who gives unprompted massages

Honestly probably both of them? Not even for sexy reasons, they both just constantly need PT.

who fusses over the other when they’re sick

Absolutely Jason. See above re: caretaking being his love language (and like...rationally he knows that as a small child he could not have saved his mom from being "sick," but that instinctive panic and Need To Fix is never going to go away entirely).

who gets jealous easiest

Jason. He has very little that is his and he doesn't like to share it.

who has the most embarrassing taste in music

So I have this thing where I tend to associate characters with music either from around their debuts, or crucial moments in their history. To me, Roy's musical tastes skew towards the 60s and 70s, his early Titans/Snowbirds/Great Frog years - so a lot of classic rock, folk, soul, etc. Pretty universally recognized as "cool" music. (With some nostalgic love for 40s swing and blues, which he canonically listened to growing up with Ollie.)

Meanwhile I associate Jason with the early 80s, so like...early Michael Jackson and Madonna, "Total Eclipse of the Heart," the Flashdance soundtrack. I firmly believe that to this day he thinks "Open Arms" by Journey is the most romantic song ever recorded. He's right, but yeah, the answer here is Jason.

who collects something unusual

What's more unusual, ancient weapons or vintage books?

who takes the longest to get ready

I think they're both pretty quick! The vigilante lifestyle trained them well.

who is the most tidy and organised

Jason. He is a Bat (and not one of the ones who was used to servants), he is orderly.

who gets most excited about the holidays

Roy. Jason doesn't like to get excited about anything in case it's a trap.

who is the big spoon/little spoon

They switch off, but mostly Jason is the big spoon, because he likes to cling and Roy likes to be clung to.

who gets most competitive when playing games and/or sports

Both of them, they're awful. The only reason no one has broken a bone is because Roy also thinks Jason's hot when he gets competitive so the game usually gets derailed by sex.

who starts the most arguments

Stupid arguments over nothing: Roy. Actual fights: Jason.

who suggests that they buy a pet

Lian. Frequently.

what couple traditions they have

Cleaning their gear after a mission. I'm serious.

what tv shows they watch together

Honestly, I watch so little TV that I am going to be terrible at answering this question for every pairing. I think they're more likely to put on something mindless and zone out when they get back from patrol at 3 am and need to decompress than anything where they need to follow a narrative. Probably cooking show reruns.

what other couple they hang out with

Kyle and Connor, when Kyle's on Earth. Yes, Jason and Kyle still hate each other. It's very entertaining.

how they spend time together as a couple

Raising Lian, fighting crime, Roy being ridiculous and Jason trying to pretend he's not charmed by it.

who made the first move

Roy made a very long series of incrementally tiny moves that Jason didn't notice. Jason made the one big move that actually got them together.

who brings flowers home

Roy, but it doesn't count because Dinah owns a florist shop and he got them for free.

who is the best cook

I think fandom has a pretty definitive answer for this one. ;)

#meme #jason todd #red hood #roy harper #arsenal

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi Steph, I hope you’re well. I also hope this message isn’t hurtful in any way. See, I’m not even 25 yet, but I struggle with shame at the idea that I’m still on tumblr and reading fanfic. It just doesn’t feel grownup or mature enough. It feels like I should get over it. It may seem like a childish concern but the level of distress and shame it causes me is significant. Have you ever felt the same way ? How did you overcome it ? Much love to you.

Hey Nonny *HUGS*

Listen: The idea that fandom should be discarded when you get older is UTTER FUCKING BOLLOCKS, and the majority of people shitting on older fandom folks and trying to make people feel bad about it are either too young to comprehend that there's no magic door you go through in your 20's and suddenly you lose interest in everything you enjoyed and pop out on the other side in a suit and tie, or "high and mighty" ass-twats who think they're better than everyone else, that everything except for what they like is “cringe” and are the same folks who think sports fandoms aren’t weird-as-fuck either.

They don't understand who keeps fandoms alive. They don't understand that the creators of the media they consume are also adults over 30 (this one ALWAYS confused me... like... who they fuck do they think wrote the content they currently enjoy in the first place???). They don't get that not everything is made for them specifically, and that people are allowed to enjoy different things.

They don't understand that being an adult doesn't mean losing a part of yourself, nor losing the things that make you happy.

And they CERTAINLY don't comprehend that it's fantastic being an adult in a fandom. I can now afford a Funko collection, or buy those prints I wanted, collect comics, create the art I enjoy, interact with people who share my interests, and play video games without rage quitting because now I enjoy the challenge that they present to me.

And, ESPECIALLY in this day and age of the entire world falling apart, obligations having to take precedence over yourself, and jobs working us so much that it’s nigh impossible to have free time anymore, we adults need things that make us happy, to help us make sense of the world, to help us escape it for just a little while, because honestly once you have to deal with real life again, it can sometimes really suck.

I've written and reblogged posts about this very thing in the past that you can check out, before I get to my main point and answer your actual question:

MY POSTS:

Fandom Twitter seems so ageist, I see why you don’t like it (with reply from JBaillier)

REPLY: I’m a 33 year old nurse, I come to fandom to escape

HATE REPLY (to a different ask): That other Anon is right, it’s weird you’re almost 40

REPLY to REPLY: Don’t let the ageism get to you

REPLY to REPLY: Don’t listen to that other anon

REPLY to REPLY to REPLY: Anons are mean

REPLY to REPLY: I’m 18 and it makes me mad people are ageist

OTHERS' POSTS

On Fandoms, Age and Gender

On Fanart and Fanfiction: When Are you Going to Stop It?

Ageism in Fandom

Ignore the Fun Police as you Age

Your Fave Author is over 30

You only need to like a thing to be a fan of it

Ageism in fandom, 27 is too old?

ALL THAT SAID, finally, Nonny, I can’t 100% relate to how you feel because I was fortunate enough to have family and friends who encouraged me and my interests given my affinity for art and my initial desire to be an animator. Of course I had the occasional adult belittle me, AND I still keep my fandom life VERY much separated from my personal and work lives, AND I also hyperfixate on fandom things so I’m always “weird”, so in that regard I have felt shame. But when I got into my late 20′s and early 30′s, I suddenly realized that those people who shat on me for liking the things that I do were just miserable people themselves, who had very little interests of their own, and their impact on my life is literally a blip of a moment in a life that could be 80 years long. Suddenly it didn’t make sense to me to stop doing things I enjoyed and be shameful of that stuff, because there’s so little in my life these days that makes me happy, and my Stuff and Things™ are precious to me. Sure, I still have a Personal Life, Private Life, Work Life, and Fandom Life that all vaguely connect together but are for the most-part kept separated, but it’s not out of shame, it’s out of “my job doesn’t need to know what I do in my off hours because it’s none of their business”. It’s worked for me, and perhaps it can work for you.

I mean, who wants to essentially go to work 40+ hours a week, pay bills, do essential and obligatory tasks and chores, try to stay alive, and then in what little free time one has and just.... do nothing? I genuinely do feel sad for people who feel like they have to abandon what they once loved... it must make life feel very lonely and very unfulfilling. For me, I do all of the adulty things mentioned above, plus I watch movies, I draw, I write, I maintain a blog that fulfills me, I read, I collect stuff, and I play video games. I can’t afford to travel nor do I have any partner/s in my life, so it’s these little things that make me happy. And once I realized that, it was easier to let go of any residual shame I still had.

Don’t ever stop enjoying fandom. No one does... Conventions of any sort would never exist without fandom. Sherlock Holmes is still a relevant literary figure because people STILL adapt it over a century later. Sports live on forever and no one ever shames those people, right? Like, I don’t GET football or hockey or the fandoms surrounding them, and I don’t GET enjoying a sport I’m not actively participating in, but sports isn’t my thing, ergo, not my place to shame someone else for it. 

As one post put it up above there: a LARGE chunk of your favourite fic authors are in their 40s/50s/60s. Fandom is multigenerational and no shame should ever be had about reading fan fiction. I don’t make it a secret anymore that the only literature I read is fanfic. Quite frankly, it’s easier for me to consume because the worlds are already established, and I just get to read about what the toys I love are doing in the sandbox this time from someone ELSE’S perspective.

*HUGS* Please don’t feel shame, Lovely. It will take time, but once you realize how insignificant other people-who-you-barely-know’s opinion really is, you genuinely do stop caring what other people think. Literally just a blip.

*HUGS* Please take care, Nonny. I hope my words comforted you at least just a little bit.  

#steph replies #chatting with nonnies #my advice #about me #fandom life #fandoms are the best #seriously

[20dollarlolita]

Why not do a coord breakdown, I guess? Here's what I wore today.

With some Bodyline shoes that--wait for it--had fallen apart and needed to be put back together. (Bodyline shoes I've had to do that with, 5/7).

Anyway, I'm doing this breakdown because I actually put a decent amount of thought into this coord and I'd like to just share that. This coordinate had to fact the Sacramento Summer Convention problem: it is like 100F (38c) on a normal Sac summer day.

Part a) the dress. So one of those things that I do to keep budget lolita in line is that I put restrictions on what I buy. For example, I don't buy dresses that are over $100 unless it's a very specific circumstance. And my recent one is that I'm not going to buy dresses unless I can get a matching hair accessory. So when someone on the 20dollarlolita pattern school discord (message me if you want me to post a new link for that) pointed out that Closet Child had this for like $80 with the headdress, felt like it was suitable for using the lolita fund on. With my current job, I just make a point to save a little from each pay check to occasionally buy new lolita just because it's a deal. I don't have serious dream dresses because I don't want to give myself permission to spend a ton of money on a dress because it's "fulfilling a dream," so I just have a fund for "ooh I like that and I have enough". Having this level of flexible income isn't a thing that I've had until a couple of years ago, so I'm very grateful to have it now.

This is Meta's Princess Wardrobe Lace-Up JSK, which was originally sold in a set with a blouse and socks and a bag. It's often called "Lace Up Doll" because that's what Meta sometimes called it when it was released. It's a really cool textured fabric and unlined in the bodice. The fabric is almost a gauze texture, but it's 100% cotton with an unlined bodice, and that means it's suitable for Sacramento in the summer. This dress was sold in two different lengths, which is the Mid Length and the Mini Length, and I did not check which one I was getting when I bought it from Closet Child. I have the Mini Length.

I'm honestly really bad at hair accessories. I had neon pink hair for so long where the hair basically was the accessory, so I could get away with it, but now I've started to have to get more serious about my hair wear. That's part of my new policy with getting the matching hair accessories. Anyway, I don't wear flat things like rectangle headdresses too much, and this one was wider than I'm used to. I got a bit tripped up in it, to be honest, and you'll see.

Part 2) A theme. So there's a TON of historical time periods within lolita, even within certain sub-sections. You can identify the difference between 2010 sweet and 2016 sweet very easily. One of the major differences is the usage of synthetic and sheer fabrics, which is a newer development in lolita. In my early days of lolita, raschel lace overlays were realllllly pushing it in terms of edgy. Your fabrics were opaque, your lace was plain, your necklines were high and your elastic was minimal. My first thought was that this was that flat headdresses were common in old school, so I could try styling this more with old(er) school accessories. We'd do a nice plain chunky heel and a solid blouse. Solid blouse loses points on, "it' Sac in the Summer" but hey, indoor con, hope I don't get covid again, we can wear the solid blouse. We can pair this with some knee-high socks and get kind of an old school vibe.

So many of y'all are familiar with the selfie mirror I've been using for like a decade now. Well, this time, I didn't even need to get down the hall to know that my idea didn't work:

Pardon the piles of stuff. Y'all know how I am at this point.

so

I got this far away and knew how much this wasn't working. This was also the point where I learned that there was a mini length and a mid length for this skirt.

So, having armed myself with the information that this styling didn't work, we have to ask what will work. The first thing that I knew was that I wanted an underskirt of some kind, because that was like my entire ass on display there. The gap between my socks and the hem of my skirt was much too large.

This is one of those cases where building a lolita wardrobe like a magpie can be really helpful. If you just kind of add things to your arsenal because you like them and think they might work with lolita, you'll have a plan B to change into.

I know what underskirt I have is actually a vintage petticoat. I knew for a fact that it was my only underskirt, and that it's a large tulle lace ruffle. If I put this in my coord, then any thought about old-school influences is out. And if that's out, well, let's lean pretty heavily into that being out.

So, we break out the sheer blouse, thank fuck, because it's Sac Summer, and now we need to think about balance again. I have a sheer blouse, and I have a semi-sheer ruffle hanging out of the bottom of my dress. If I do opaque socks, that's going to put a lot of heavyness into the bottom of the look, and throw off the balance.

So, we get lace tights to match the lace blouse. One of the nice things about lolita is that balance being such a heavy part of it, certain things will just grow their way into being what you need. You just have to learn its language.

I should probably to bed because my seroquel is going to kick in. Welcome to #pinkafterdark everyone. I'm going to keep writing.

Anyhow, I felt like this made a more mature looking coordinate. These also allowed me to wear these Bodyline shoes instead of my similar Demonia ones, because the Bodyline ones are just a little bit more comfortable and I've already got an ankle problem to deal with.

There's a lot of different ways to coordinate a similar look, and if you study different time periods in lolita, you can find inspiration for how to get a coherent look through time periods.

Part III) The Rest. Okay. There were some things that I knew I wanted to accessorize this with. Notably, I have a small battery-powered sewing machine that I wanted to carry like a purse. If a Usakumya Pouchette is a purse, then a children's toy on a cross body strap can be a purse, right? Unfortunately, this wasn't ready by the time of the convention, so it didn't happen. The other things I'd bought specifically for this coord was jewelry in the shape of scissors. I have a little necklace and some cute earrings that are scissors.

And then I had the section that I'm always bad at, which I'm going to call Is This The Kitchen Sink? 2.0. This is the section when I look at a coord and have to decide what's missing. I have some sad little wrist cuffs that I made, which were a good choice for getting my wrists covered and extending the level of detail down to my hands. I have a couple of pretty good generic stretch bracelets that I will stick on a lot of coords. I need to get into having coordinate-specific jewelry, but today was not that day.

And then I have that choker necklace. This is such a weird thing for me, because four years ago that would not have flown in lolita and would have been ita as hell. And nothing really changed in lolita to make it acceptable. What changed was mainstream fashion, where chokers once again became acceptable jewelry for everyday wear. I just thought it was an interesting case of one fashion lending change to another. I kind of tried it on as a half-attempt to figure out what was going on in the coord, and I felt like it really worked. YMMV but I was very fond of it. Lace up choker to match Lace-Up Doll, right?

Everyone's heard of my "faking it" card, where you can kind of get away with some things not being perfectly lolita if you coordinate them properly. You only get so many in a given coord, and I might have used one on this, but I really liked the result.

Part 7) Conclusion. I've said before that you can have an amazing outfit that you love, and have it miss the lolita mark. It not being lolita does not mean that you have to love it any less. Even if you intended it to be lolita, if it didn't read as that, well, that's a bummer, but you can still love it as an outfit.

I think what I don't talk about enough is how you can have an outfit that checks all the lolita boxes, and have it be perfectly fine, but if you have to add a little change or a little something extra to make you absolutely love it, well, that's also important. Loving an outfit doesn't make it lolita but doing something to make you love your lolita outfit can still make it better.

I had a moment where I saw my reflection in a window and realized that I looked exactly like I wanted lolita fashion to look on me when I first started. That was so cool.

So yeah, there you go, just wnating to let everyone know that when you start thinking that you're going to get knocked out by your bipoarl pills you should probably put off finishing th epost until morning.

G'night.

#20dollarcoordposts #20dollarlolita #outfit of the day #Sacanime #Lolita coordinate #metamorphose temps de fille #Bittersweet lolita #Lolita help

[teamfreewill2pointo]

I'm sorry, but could you break down the maths of cons for me?

I did a rough count of seat numbers and came up with 700.

I read elsewhere that J2 got the same for a convention as their salary, which was rumoured to be 175k.

I also read that actors kept the autograph and photo money.

There are a fair few actors at a convention, who need to be paid and have their travel.

There doesn't seem to be enough money in it.

Would you mind breaking down the revenue streams and who gets what?

also, is it me or are the venues getting smaller. I only see these on YouTube and the older stages seem much bigger.

Thank you....and merry Christmas.

J2 have a base fee of 300k each, which means they don't show up unless guaranteed that amount by the con organizers.

They get that money through a percentage of ticket sales, photo ops, autos, and m&gs.

The number of tickets sold depends on the con. Some sell a lot more than others. I don't know the percentages they get, but I know it's more for ops/autos/m&gs than tickets.

When guestimating their photo fees, let's say it's 50% (it's way higher) at almost $200 a pop for their solos and selling 300, that's at least $100x300=30k just for their solos. They used to sell out every con. Now that they are appearing on both Saturday and Sunday, CE will sell more photo ops if they have the time to fit it into the schedule. So not selling out at recent cons doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't selling 300. It could mean that they are selling 300, but there's an extra 50 available because J2 have the time to do it now.

I don't know the current numbers for the various ops, although I am very curious. If you go to the op table to buy more ops, you can peep the current number of tickets sold, but only if ops are still available to be sold. You can also sit in the theater and see how many numbers are called for each group. I know that J2 is the biggest money maker and usually goes over 300 sold if they have the time in the schedule.

If they sell 20 m&g seats at $500 each, that's 10k. I dunno the percentage they keep, but probably over 50% and they split the J2.

The autos are usually rolled into gold. I have no idea how many of those sell when sold individually.

In addition to the assigned seats with numbers, there are also GA seats. These seats are not assigned and there's no way to know online how many are sold unless you have access to Creation's data. If you go there in person, you can count them.

If I recall correctly (I haven't been to a con in months, and I wasn't counting the seats when I was there), the GA setup was equivalent to or greater than the other sections combined. Now, this doesn't mean that every seat was filled, but based on the cons that I've attended, I estimate that they sell at least half GA for every assigned seat. It also varied from con to con, with some cons having more GA sections.

For NJ con, there's over $325k in gold, $57k in silver, $47k for copper and $35k for preferred single day sold so far. That's $464k not including GA. GA weekend is $249. Fri is $70, Sat $80, and Sunday $100. There's a lot more people on Sundays and I don't know what percentage of people in the theater on Sunday only bought tickets for that day.

If your estimate of 700 seats is correct and we say GA was half that and everyone in GA bought Sunday only tickets, we're looking at 35k for GA, but that's a huge underestimate.

There's also the auction for VIP and the cast gets a cut of that.

I know they were concerned about Burbank and worried that they would lose money on it. It's interesting that they dropped the gold so much for SFcon.

300k/con is a really high price and the reason that you typically don't see both Js at conventions outside the US.

#jensen ackles #jared padalecki #creation #creation cons #money #spn cons #supernatural #spn

[luvingspence]

MATCHING HALLOWEEN COSTUMES WITH STEVIE!!!!!

costumes would he go for??? modern day or not!

okay so i have two ideas or this!!! it 100% depends on if he’s still in his king steve era or not!! (completely ignore the fact that these movies and their release dates don’t match up with the strenger things timeline)

he did risky business with nancy which was a super low effort costume, when he’s in his king steve era he probably won’t go all out because he still needs to be a cool guy regardless if its halloween or not

1. the matrix, i’ve never seen it but it’s low effort, just all black, he’d probably only have to buy a leather jacket and thats it!! but it’s also cute and reasonably recognisable, plus you’re both gonna look super hot.

like you’re wearing leather, boy is not gonna be able to keep his hands off you. he’s gonna go feral.

2. SLOANE AND FERRIS!!! this is literally my favourite 80s movie ever, i’d 100% force him to do this whether he likes it or not

if he weren’t in his king steve era add dustin could tag along as cameron if he wants

it’s a cute, funny, light-hearted (aside from camerons shitty dad) movie, it’s casual too which i think he’d love it!

now for the cuter costumes :(((

1. he’d go feral over u in the daphne dress, especially you’re basing your costume off of sarah-michelle gellar’s daphne

LIKE THE BOOTS??? SO CUTE :(

i think steve is more of a daphne tbh but costume wise he obviously has to be fred! and the rest of the group can tag along as other characters, he’d love it sm😭

2. peach <3 so cute so pink literally adorable i wish i had a bf to be mario life isn’t fair

for steve this costume can be more low effort, just a red shirt, blue jeans or overalls and then a hat, anything convenient and comfy, steve’s gonna like it

but for u? whether or not u want to go low effort with just a pink mini dress and cheap tiara OR you wanna go all out with the jewel, satin dress, crown, and cute ass makeup he’s gonna help u find the right costume, he’d even help u put it together if u needed it! <3

it’d be so adorable :(

#steve harrington #stranger things #steve harrington x reader #joe keery #stranger things s4 #kacey talks <3

[robinbuckleyluvr]

hii! i loved your robin’s headcanons and i was thinking, maybe you could write how would an ideal date look like for robin? (it can be a one shot or a headcanons however you prefer)

love you!!

thank you so much for requesting! sorry for getting back to you so late, i was freaking out over the fact that this is my first request LOL but i’m glad you liked my other headcanons! i hope u like this as well <3

-

⊹˚˖⁺ Robin's Ideal Date!

masterlist | requests

Summary: just some cute headcanons on what i think robin's ideal date would be like!

Warnings: none

Notes: thank you again for requesting! i might write an actual one shot for this later on, or even another version of this, so stay tuned! and lmk what u think!

this by @yorluver is what i talk about towards the end, i absolutely loved it and it kinda inspired that last bit so!!

i will begin by saying i think robin would like to do something in private

idk i just feel she would rather be able to actually do stuff with you without being afraid someone will judge you and all

so

drum roll please…

her ideal date would be something like a movie night at her house!

to start this off

i feel like after getting over the initial awkward stage in the relationship

she would be really touchy

she would love to at least hold your hand when shes with you

which is maybe the most she can do in public as it’s the 80’s yk

so watching a movie together would be her ideal date.

now i know everyone on tumblr writes about this

but i just really love this headcanon<3

it’s just so robin!

she would spend HOURS trying to pick out the perfect movie to watch

and would not shut up about it

(the movie and the date)

steve would get annoyed of her unceasing rambling

and would be like

"just pick out a movie, robin! im sure she'll be fine with whatever-"

"you don't get it, steve!"

but on the inside he’s glad she’s happy

moving on

she would go OVERBOARD in preparing for the date

she would buy lots of food and stuff she knows you like

and maybe even rent out your fav movie in case it goes badly..

now what would happen during the date?

she would either

A- be super nervous about it

B- A.

so true right

anyway

throughout the movie she will keep looking at you to see if you’re having a good time

and ask you stuff like

“are you comfortable?”

“do you need another pillow? or a blanket?”

“are you cold?”

“do you want something to drink? or more food?”

“is this movie good? i could change it if you’d like, my parents might have-“

she will not rest until she knows you are 100% comfy and i stand by that.

but overall she would love watching something with you

and i feel like during the movie she will also like shyly grab your hand

or put her head on your shoulder

or she’d just silently look at you

but if you catch her she wouldn’t admit it!

“robin are you okay? are you.. looking at me?”

“what? no? i’m just.. looking out the window!”

“robin… there are no windows behind me?”

“oh my god did you see what just happened in the movie? right, you didn’t, because you were talking about windows!”

gotta work on those lying skills robin…

overall she’d just do a bunch of cute stuff like that!

she’s the type of gf who will always ask before doing anything

even if you’ve been dating for a while

i read this the other day and it was so cute i died, which is why i added that!

now what happens after the movie is over?

she will spend like a whole bunch of time ranting about what she liked and what she didn’t.

and she’ll make sure you can voice in your opinions too!

but in the end

(as i’ve said before)

it doesn’t matter if the movie was absolute crap

or if it was the best movie of all time

she will just be super glad to have been able to spend time with you

and show you how much she loves you!!

#robin buckley #robin buckley x reader #reader insert #robin buckley x you #stranger things #fluff #robin buckley fluff #stranger things headcanons #robin buckley imagine #headcanon #movies #maya hawke #pride #date night #steve harrington #dating headcanons #joe keery #i love robin buckley #she’s so adorable #request #stranger things imagine

[mywheelieweirdlife]

This is a scream into the void that I would love to give the Australian Government right now for a thousand reasons that I'm not mentioning...

But I had a terrifying episode about a month ago where it looked like I had a stroke.

I went and did the testing and haven't been back to my GP.

Why? Because the water bill came on top of other expenses and I lost my medical funds and no longer could afford to spend $75+ to see my gp.

I could barely afford the $12 for my meds.

Oh and you know what else is super fun?

They're about to up the cost to see my gp again.

Australia wide, it's now going up to over $100 to see your gp.

(And they wonder why the ER is flooded with 'non-emergency' cases.)

But I am literally going to have to search my ass off for a cheaper and closer gp or hilariously, switch entirely over to the private clinic that's cheaper but further away and realistically gives me better care tbh.

But it's exhausting. It's exhausting looking at my budget every month going 'fuck I overspent on food again, but if I didn't buy these very specific things I would be a fuckton sicker' and questioning what's worth it.

I end up spending at least $102 every time I have a general appointment and spending $80-90 for my private ones. Including meds.

Like, at this point, it going up another $30 when the cost of living is rising so fast we can't keep up as is and I am not making income yet and am terrified that I won't make enough fast enough anyway when it does start coming in because I am dreadful at sales and it's a job that I fuvking hate but is a good portion of my job…

I'm just exhausted and bordering on mental health crisis just from financial stress alone. It's so hard and just so stressful and shit.

Also, fuck the liberal party, the Labour Party needs to pull their shit together, and shout out to the greens for actually doing something politically when Dutton is being a racist ableist pig and Bill Shorten is going down a eugenics route.

Honestly, these old white abled bodied privileged white assholes in parliament are making me lose my shit more and more every day and I would like to remind everyone that calling your local members and being a voice that is loud and stubborn in both public and private makes a world of difference and we have to fight together.