#biggest bamboozle of my life | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

livingjust2beoverdramatizing · 3 months

Text

FLU GAME: ✨PART 2✨

hey, not my fault i love this song!

part 1

#real story: i spent so much time making this and when i saved it says “a file with this name already exist”#biggest bamboozle of my life #but it's so nice and my first one didn't do well anyway so here is another one for flu game fans #but i actually do really really really like this song #oh and if you're wondering why it has painted elements this time it's because i found my drawing pen #end of story #fob #fall out boy #poster design #smfs #lyrics #poster #graphic design #fob smfs #flu game #so much for stardust

180 notes · View notes

sonechkaandthedynamos · 7 months

Text

why is having a social life so expensiveeee

#my biggest expenses apart from rent and health care because germany has an insurance provider system and not a tax-based state system #(i feel bamboozled' how is this 'free' healthcare)#so anyway my biggest expenses apart from those are food and going out #but i can save a lot of money on food if i plan and budget really well #it's not a nice way to live but it's doabel #doable #but a social life however

7 notes · View notes

mvltisstuff · 10 months

Note

hi hi

idk if you’re accepting requests but if you are pls could i request an evan buckley where he has a gf/wife and a baby but the 118 doesn’t know, and maybe one day reader/kid is injured and they either turn up at the fire house or the 118 is called to the scene and buck has to come clean about his secret wife/gf and kid?

thank you bestie, i love your writing <3

lover - e.b

summary: request

evan buckley x reader

gif from @eddiemunsens

a/n: what tswift album do u guys think the 118 are 🤭 also what happens to yn is inspired by an episode of s19 that i love sm it’s so funny :))

buck knew the second y/n got pregnant that he wasn’t leaving. two years of dating is a short time to have a child, but they loved each other more than anyone. they knew they could give a child a good life, so they went with it.

all three of them moved to la, so buck could work with the LAFD and y/n could get to a higher position at work. their life there was immaculate. their little family was thriving, so buck put a ring on her finger. he didn’t even hesitate to buy the biggest one he saw, because he loved y/n the second he met her, and he emotionally couldn’t wait anymore. the words husband and wife rang in his ears, making him drop a dumbfounded grin.

no one at work knew, he didn’t really know what they thought of him. his team knew he was too fine to not have anyone, so they figured he was just with some girls here and there. the last thing they expected was a child and a fiancé along with it. it never came up in conversation, but buck still didn’t bother. he didn’t want to face any judgement from people that he didn’t already get from his family. the constant scrutiny about his age and his girl was exhausting.

now, neither of them would’ve changed it for the world. buck can’t imagine himself happier or in a life without them. it hurts him to even consider what would happen if y/n and his little boy weren’t there. he always gazed at them playing, sometimes just wanting to observe their brilliance.

buck knew he would have to explain to his team that he’s married, and that doesn’t mean he’s ashamed. he wants the world to know, but he doesn’t want y/n to be hurt by opinions from other people. he didn’t realize how soon he would have to until the alarm rang and until dispatch came through with the address. it was their house. the house where buck and y/n raised their son and the one where either could be hurt. every single scenario waved over buck, making him panic more by the second.

“you good, kid?” bobby asks, taking note of his bouncing knee.

“uh.. yeah! yeah, i’m fine,” he lies. buck hasn’t been with them for more than a year, so they just pass it along, not knowing any better. buck climbs out of the truck, grabbing a few tools before sprinting toward the house. now, the teams more alarmed. what is it about this house is making him act like a maniac?

“y/n?” buck calls out, running around trying to find her.

“kitchen!” she yells out, sounded distressed which only makes buck move even quicker. when he walks in, he immediately notices her leaning over the sink, her hand in the disposal. bobby and the rest of his crew walk in behind him, the four of them standing in the kitchen staring at her. “well?”

“oh-“ bobby moves, starting to gather some more tools out of his bag.

“what the hell happened?”

“i dropped my ring down, and i was trying to make him lunch,” she nods to the baby, sitting on the floor happily, clearly having no idea what’s happening. “i don’t even know why i tried to grab it, like some idiot!”

“hey,” buck says, walking over to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. “you’ll be fine, y/s/n is fine, yeah?” she looks up at him and nods, brushing her hair with her free hand.

“should we know the kids name too?” chim asks, giving buck a completely bamboozled expression. y/n passes buck the same face as hen walks over to check her hand. buck can’t get around it this time, and he wants them to know for once.

“um, guys,” he starts. “this is my fiancé, y/n and my son.”

“your what?” hen shouts, peeking her head out from behind y/n’s shoulder. she gives hen an awkward smile and buck stands there stiffly, worried about their reaction. everyone looks around at each other in shock that buck has his own family, and they didn’t even know.

“why didn’t you tell us?” bobby wonders.

“because i didn’t know how you’d react! i’ve heard it all from my parents, i didn’t need any more.”

“buck, we would’ve welcomed you no matter what your home life is. we’d love to get to know you and your family despite how it might’ve happened,” hen tells him, kindly. buck is confronted with immediate love, something he’s not to familiar with other than when his shifts end and he’s in y/n’s arms again. he’s surprised to say the least. he expected at lease some judgement, but there was nothing of the sort in the room.

“i’m thrilled you’re all having a nice moment here,” y/n interrupts. “but can we maybe get my hand out of my sink?”

buck and bobby pull the cabinets open and start drilling at the pipes underneath. buck secures the ring in his fingers before beaming up at y/n, showing her that he found it. “i got it!” he replies excitedly. “thank god, i don’t know if i have insurance for this thing. cost me my left leg,” he whispers to bobby. once they fully disconnect the system, hen slowly drags her bloody hand out and wraps it up. she hisses at the contact of the gauze and antiseptics. chimney starts to clean up the rest of the supplies, as hen treats the wound.

“so,” chimney begins. “when’s the wedding?”

“time and place, chim,” hen tells him. “time and place. but, yeah, are we invited?”

“yes,” buck says, obviously. “you’re invited.” he moves over to scoop his baby off the ground, carrying him over to his friends. they all speak to him in their little baby voices, and y/n watches with a shining smile on her face. buck knows he did the right thing, but he wishes he didn’t wait as long. now, he is certain that he has two solid families.

2K notes · View notes

0h0possum · 4 months

Text

Codywan Headcanon/AU that lives rent free in my head

I think my favorite codywan headcanon/AU is that they are just so good at being professional and discreet when they need to, for literal years, that no one knows they are a thing.

Like my favorite idea of codywan is that they both agree their duties and obligations come first. Honestly they kinda deal with it like a business contract. They sit down and agree: yes they have feelings for each other, yes they want to be together, yes they want as much as a relationship as they can get now since they both never know when one of them might die, yes they need to put their war duties first, yes Obi-wan will always put his Jedi duties first, yes Cody will always put protecting and creating a future for his brothers first, yes the will keep this relationship under raps as it could be under scrutiny for breaking GAR and Jedi rules, yes they will only act as a couple when off duty.

They are just the opposite of Anakin and Padme, no one knows about them. Cody and Obi-wan aren’t trying to hide it per say, they just are so good at being The Commander and The General that no one would ever think they were anything but professional coworkers and maybe friends. Even if there are signs they may be more, their friends and family overlook them because ‘Cody’s too strict about following the regs to be interested in a relationship’ or ‘Obi-wan is too focused on being a model Jedi and following the Code to be in a relationship’.

They are too good at balancing their lives and being ‘The Unproblematic Couple™’.

So when the war ends and they defeat Palpatine, save Anakin and get the clones rights (because we only Stan happy endings in this Codywan house), they both agree mutually to take a break.

Cody takes time to find himself away from the GAR and being The Commander. He spends time with his brothers and helping them all find their feet once they leave the GAR. He helps build a life for them all, while also taking time to find who he is besides a soldier.

Obi-wan spends time reconnecting with Anakin and Ahsoka, making amends with both of them. Getting to finally return to being a peacekeeper and not a General at war. I imagine he would maybe step down from the council to just be a simple Jedi. Not Master of Sorensu, youngest ever High council member, The Negotiator, General, or Sith Killer.

After their short break they agree to start meeting up again, seeing if they still feel the way they did about each other when not in the stressful environment of war and an army setting. But, lo and behold, they still of course love each other. (All the while everyone just assumes it’s Obi-wan and Cody meeting up as ex. Coworkers. They used to be the best of FRIENDS during the war)

After Obi-wan sees Anakin is fine (living with his wife and kids) and the rest of the Order isn’t in dire need of his help, and Cody sees his brothers are finding their feet in the world without need of his leadership, they both just decide they’ve been dating long enough (a few year during and after the war) and they’ve put other duties ahead of theirs relationship long enough.

They just fucking get married and buy a house. Obi-wan leaves the order and Cody moves away from his brother. And they just get married.

WHICH COMES OUT OF NOWHERE TO EVERYONE ELSE. Everyone’s like “??!!!”, “since when have you two ever been together?!”

And fucking Obi-wan and Cody (with biggest deadpan older brother energy) just say “oh yeah, since like the middle of the war? We thought you guys knew? It just never came up in conversation?”

Just absolutely bamboozling everyone in their lives. Rex and Anakin both are like “YoU nEvEr ThOuGhT tO tElL mE? YoUr BrOtHeR?”. Cue Obi-wan and Cody vaguely shrugging and saying ‘there were more important things going on’.

But yeah I just like the idea of Cody and Obi-wan jump scaring their families with their relationship.

341 notes · View notes

i-rate-horse-games · 10 months

Text

rating Star Stable Online

Star Stable Online is a MMORPG! its plot seems to get pretty wild!

upon discovering that Fish was an option in the drop down name creators, i cackled with joy. this is Rusty Fishfish and Futurefish

our goal in this world was to become Fish. one glorious leap into the ocean showed us that it would be harder than anticipated, due to having taken a ‘dangerous’ fall. luckily it doesn’t seem like horses can be injured, even though the screen flashes red if you trip while jumping.

i joined right after the new character models became available. i think they’re pretty neat! some of the body types looked androgynous to me, but the game calls you a girl regardless. but you can still buy facial hair in the shop!

the world is a nice size! it’s scaled small enough that you feel like you’re going places even when your horse is physically moving a little slow, and the world is big enough that there’s plenty to explore while still being small enough that you see other players going about their lives pretty frequently.

speaking of other players! shout out to @ro-sso for warning me to never open the global chat. i did! i asked how to get hay after very rapidly forgetting what i had just learned. three people told me it grew on a farm. i said Ok. when i did find the hay (in a shop) i told the chat i had been betrayed and bamboozled and they said “BAHAHAHAHAHA”. later i used the Say chat to ask for help finding a championship that was starting soon, and everyone nearby was very helpful. you win some you lose some

quests seem to be the biggest part of the game! they’re how you get player and horse exp and level up and get better stats for competing. a lot of the quests i did felt very tedious. lots of riding back and forth and delivering messages and so forth. the worst ones involved herding horses that kept splitting into smaller groups and running around a mall doing errands for a sketchy guy. my favorite quests were the ones where i got to open my backpack and drag a tool onto something, which felt like playing Nancy Drew. there was also one where we got to follow the visible smell of pumpkin pie on a trail to a little cottage, and it was nighttime so there were cricket sounds as well!

there’s so much love and soul packed into this world! there’s a pony who was elected mayor! there’s a pirate themed race that has music just similar enough to the Pirates of the Carribean music to remind you of it while also remaining distinct! there’s a riding club that “wears pink and not only on wednesdays.”! there’s a girl with a pet owl named Toby who says “Even though he blathers about it, Toby loves bugs.” there’s vague sounds of people talking in areas with lots of NPCs! there’s a kid with a hot air balloon who takes you up to the cloud kingdom! he has a pet frog who can ride on your head! there’s an emo electric violinist who was really funny! you can get a kitten for your saddlebag! the music is pretty decent!

the clothes very strongly remind me of being 12. something about the slightly awkward way the clothes fit is nostalgic. there were also lots of flower crowns for the summer solstice!

a huge point for this game is that it has its own pride festival!

there’s just something about going to a new place and seeing rainbow flags everywhere, especially after the horrors of horse isle 3. i hear this game also has canon lesbian characters! this does make it even funnier that all players are assigned Cowgirl at login

the one thing that really surprised me is that if you play without a membership, you are apparently trapped in a demo version, and the rest of the game is locked behind a paywall. this sprang up on me after i started running out of quests. the game told me to level up to unlock more main quests, but the only way to get player exp was to do quests, and i pretty much ran out. this concept is really foreign to me, since every game like this that i’ve played before, the membership made your life much easier and more posh, but free players could still get a lot out of the game. games like club penguin, pixie hollow, animal jam, etc. it’s only about $5 a month, though, with a permanent membership option for over 50 dollars. i have not purchased it, but if I ever do, i will update my rating. :)

while googling the above problem to figure out what was going on, i learned that there's no level cap and there's seasonal events that give EXP, so even if you've finished the whole game, there can still be players more powerful than you with better stats dominating the competition. that seems ! a little rough! they also said that after you beat the game, there's not much left to do. hopefully the fun part is the journey and not the destination!

all in all, though, we did it. we became Fish.

and that makes it all worth it.

i’m rating Star Stable Online 4.5 out of 5 stars!

★★★★✬

please feel free to submit horse games or ask me to reevaluate! next up is Alicia Online!

#star stable online #sso #horse game #ssoblr

88 notes · View notes

here-to-reboog · 7 months

Text

I have just been informed that whenever I mention any character’s name from Thomas, my wonderful friend @whymustyouhurtmeinthisway immediately imagines Henry no matter what engine I say. Which makes me think about how everyone would react:

Thomas: Mostly confused, but not really offended at first. They look nothing alike at all. He’s just trying to figure out any possible reason to no avail and it drives him nuts for a few hours before he moves on to something else and remembers it some time later, rinse and repeat the process

Edward: He’s not offended, he takes it as a compliment because what else are you supposed to do, and Henry’s a good guy so it works out. He is perplexed at how he could be confused for Henry though but doesn’t give it much thought

Henry: He’s flattered that he’s the first engine to come to mind, he’s a bit proud of it and you know what let him be, poor guy has been through it let him enjoy life. Unsure of exactly why he’s the first thought though (it’s because he’s my favourite)

Gordon: Absolutely livid. With how stubborn and prideful he is I can just imagine him complaining all day. All the “I’m the biggest and the best so it should’ve been me” talk. Understandably everyone gets really tired of this really quick, he only stops when Edward tells him to shut up

James: Bamboozled. Flabbergasted. Bewildered. God forbid someone hears the name “James” and imagines literally any colour other than red. Full on pinning papers to a cork board and connecting them with yarn level investigation as to why he isn’t the first thought. It consumes his every waking thought for better or for worse until someone knocks some sense into him and makes him realize that he’s overanalyzing the situation far too much

Percy: You couldn’t pay him to care. He and Henry are both green engines anyway so he can understand how someone who isn’t very familiar or is bad with names could confuse Henry for him

Toby: He’d just laugh at the absurdity of it, then realize that it’s serious. He’d laugh again and does not really care.

Bonus:

Friend: any time you say a character’s name, I just imagine the big green one

Me: Henry?

Friend: yeah him

Me: but you remembered who Spencer was?

Friend: who the fuck is Spencer

#ttte #ttte edward #ttte henry #ttte gordon #ttte thomas #ttte james #ttte percy #ttte toby #thomas the tank engine #thomas and friends #trains #shit post #ttte headcanon #ttte spencer

48 notes · View notes

leoparduscolocola · 3 months

Text

hey, it's me. i'm not coming back to tumblr permanently, but i figured i'd post this here as a virtual diary entry of sorts (and because i don't know anyone irl that wants to talk about cetaceans at the moment). maybe this post will change people's minds, or at least get them thinking. this isn't directed at anyone or anything; it's more to clear my mind and hopefully inform others about orca captivity, seaworld, etc.

the past six months have been very difficult for me. i'm doing better now, but i'm just not at the place in life i thought i would be at right now. throughout my struggles, one of my biggest sustainers has been my passion for animals, and orcas have been my predominant obsession for a while now. the felidae family, especially lions, will always have my heart—they're the first animal i fell in love with, and they will always be incredibly fascinating and awe-inspiring to me. however, orcas have seized hold of me in a way that i can't really describe. everything i've learned about them has blown me away, from their uniquely stable, mostly nonviolent and matriarchal social structure to their incredibly diverse hunting techniques to their cultural behaviors to the wide diversity of their physical appearance. i just love them so much.

as such, it is inevitable that i would encounter debates about captivity in the course of my internet travels in search of ever more information about these animals. for most of my life, i was unapologetically pro seaworld, viewing them as no different from any other zoo or aquarium and their critics as simply having been bamboozled by the film blackfish (although i staunchly refused to actually watch the film until a few months ago, only listening to how seaworld and its supporters depicted the film to me). by the time i started this blog, i had grown more critical of them, as reflected in my pinned post. at that time, i was more critical of killer whale captivity in general than of seaworld specifically. however, after i had to leave my former college in the middle of the semester due to my mental health, i found myself with a lot of time on my hands before the start of the semester at my new college, so i started doing some more research. as a history nerd, i have always been interested in the history of human interactions with wildlife, and the history of human interaction with orcas is unique from an anthrozoological perspective. i became particularly interested in the era just before and after the release of blackfish in 2013—how seaworld, the scientific community, the animal advocacy community, and the public at large responded, and the lasting reverberations of that era today. i fired up the wayback machine and began painstakingly examining any website i could find from that era that had to do with that topic, from awesomeocean.com to seaworldofhurt.com (neither of which are credible sources, btw: awesome ocean is basically a seaworld-funded buzzfeed clone and seaworld of hurt is run by peta). what i found blew me away in the worst way possible.

the website i spent the most time on was askseaworld.com/ask.seaworldcares.com (https://web.archive.org/web/20160110084856/http://ask.seaworldcares.com/). i cross-checked the information posted there with a little-known website i urge everyone to check out, https://www.seaworldfactcheck.com/ (which i didn't have to use the wayback machine to access, because seaworld has attempted to purge pretty much everything related to the blackfish era from their websites whereas anticap websites haven't). only a handful of the sheer volume of questions they received were fact-checked by seaworldfactcheck, so i had to check a lot of them myself. i was flabbergasted by the responses seaworld posted on askseaworld. they ranged from just your typical corporate pr messaging to outright lies. a common thread running through all of them was a complete refusal to admit that they ever did anything wrong in their entire history. that's something that the entire zoological field has trouble doing, but never had i seen it on such clear display. for example, they audaciously claimed that kohana's calves weren't inbred, and that the degree of relatedness between kohana and her calves' father, keto, is standard practice in ex situ breeding programs. meanwhile, the aza says that inbreeding is to be avoided here and here. additionally, these two pages, while they focus on pedigree dogs, stress that a coefficient of inbreeding (the likelihood of having identical alleles from a common ancestor on both sides of the pedigree) over 5% leads to problems, and kohana's calves had an inbreeding coefficient of 6.25%. i'm no geneticist, but sw's response to that question is questionable, to say the least. when asked about the whales they captured from the wild, they only used the word "collected", which came across to me as corporate doublespeak attempting to obfuscate the trauma and utter cruelty of ripping these complex, cultural, family-oriented animals from their families permanently for the primary purpose of entertainment—which, regardless of their current messaging, was undeniably the purpose of seaworld when it was founded (see page 9 of that link, which is also an incredibly well-researched and well-referenced argument against marine mammals in captivity that cannot be dismissed out of hand just because it comes from an anticap source). they refused to offer even a semblance of regret for how those captures were carried out—even a halfhearted "society's standards for animal welfare were different back then" or "at the time, we had no idea how this sort of thing could impact these animals" would be better than what they said, which was simply that "those were a long time ago". ok, but just because we didn't know it was wrong back then doesn't mean it wasn't wrong. it was just as wrong then as it was now, and seaworld doesn't even say it would be wrong for them to do so now; they just repeat the same line over and over about their last captures being decades ago.

however, none of these are as bad as the askseaworld response that appalled me the most. it genuinely made me question every positive thing i had ever heard about seaworld. unlike most of the questions, the name of the person who asked it was not stated, giving the impression that seaworld perhaps posed it to itself as a sort of preemptive strike. this was their response:

this is one of the most unacceptable and heartrending things i have ever seen written by any person or entity related to animals. nonhuman animals are not a monolith; there are millions of species of animals out there, each one with its own unique behaviors, social structures (or lack of social structures), role in the broader web of life, and ways of thinking. to suggest that the social dynamics of all the animals in the world are so similar that they can be crammed into the word "most" is utterly presumptuous and incorrect. at the risk of sounding like a vegan activist, i will dare to say that this statement enforces a harmful anthropocentric worldview that implies that humans are the only species that could experience distress at the loss of a loved one. by declaring that most animals just get over a member of their social group dying without a second thought, seaworld dismisses years upon years of science revealing the social lives of animals from cows to rabbits to, yes, orcas. including parents in this statement is especially ironic, considering that mother orcas undeniably demonstrate some of the strongest bonds with their children in the animal kingdom, arguably even stronger than humans—after all, when's the last time you met a human who has never left their mother's side their whole life? with this statement, seaworld revealed a callous indifference to the rich inner lives of their animals, focusing on the grief their human employees feel when an orca under their care dies over the far greater grief the orcas themselves probably feel when a member of their actual family dies. orcas have inherent worth and dignity and that deserves to be acknowledged, not dismissed so we can all go back to empathizing with the trainers. i'm not dismissing the trainers' grief in any way; i'm not trying to say the reverse of what seaworld said. rather, i'm saying that their grief shouldn't be seen as more important or more valid than the grief of the orcas.

some might say that this single response, no doubt composed with the help of a public relations firm, should not be taken as representative of seaworld or its trainers as a whole. to that, i would say that while individual employees (i.e., orca trainers) of seaworld may not agree with this statement, it can be presumed that this is or was at the time the official stance of the corporation that is seaworld parks and entertainment, incorporated. personally, i do not think it is possible to separate support for the trainers from support from the larger corporation running the show, as financially supporting seaworld inevitably supports the corporation (which has asked its employees to do some pretty unethical things) and its stakeholders, not just its employees. customers' money is not going into the pockets of trainers; it's going into the corporation first and foremost to pay the CEO and stakeholders before a paltry amount per dollar is redistributed at the company's whim to their trainers and rescue efforts.

as i processed this response, i decided to do some more research into the anti-cap side of things. i found that, despite seaworld's constant claims that they are a science-based organization, i could not find a wild orca biologist (meaning somebody who researched orcas exclusively in the wild, without a personal connection to seaworld or any other captive entity) who supported keeping orcas in captivity in general or seaworld specifically. of course, i don't know all of the wild orca biologists in the world, so i could be missing somebody, but all of the big names who conducted the most groundbreaking research on orcas in their natural habitats condemn orca captivity, as these links show: michael bigg, alexandra morton, ken balcom, deborah giles, naomi rose, paul spong, erich hoyt, and ingrid visser. these are not peta activists—they are experts in their field with phds and decades of experience! pro-caps often accuse anti-caps of only listening to their emotions instead of science, but how is it valid to dismiss all of these esteemed scientists as being biased when their research and experiences in the field with orcas are the reason why they are against captivity? seaworld tends to portray itself as objective and rational and their opponents as emotional and irrational, but how can all of these orca experts who have nothing to gain financially from opposing seaworld be completely incorrect when it comes to captivity and the corporation that profits off of having them in captivity be completely correct? the most praise directed towards orca captivity from a wild orca researcher i could find was robert pittman referring to them as "sacrifical animals" who display obvious signs of poor welfare but need to be kept in captivity anyway so the public will fall in love with their species; hardly a glowing endorsement. in her presentation at the california coastal commission, naomi rose said something (starting at 10:36) that really opened my eyes. she said that she does not believe that seaworld and its trainers are being intentionally cruel to their animals, but that they simply do not understand them: "if they don't know what normal is, then they cannot know what abnormal is." she's saying that in order to build a solid foundational understanding of a species' normal behavior, one must spend as much time as possible observing that species in its normal, evolutionary, default way of living, i.e. "the wild". without doing this sort of firsthand research or drawing upon the scientific literature produced by those who have, one cannot claim that an animal of this species in totally abnormal conditions is displaying normal behavior. the aim of captivity for any species should be to replicate an animal's normal way of living as much as possible to allow the optimal amount of normal behaviors to be expressed, and what the scientists i have mentioned claim is that orca captivity is failing at replicating this way of living.

the institution of orca captivity in its current form takes away almost all elements of what would be considered an orca's normal lifestyle, from hunting to staying in their matrilines to communicating with other orca pods to moving large distances on a daily basis to choosing who they mate with and when to experiencing changes in water depth, light level, pressure, salinity, currents, waves, and weather. they destroy their teeth , exhibit increased aggression levels with each other (compared to their remarkably stable social structure in their natural habitat), and experience dorsal fin collapse, a phenomenon that seaworld has declared has no implications for these animals' well-being despite conducting zero research on it (seriously, imagine if all male lions' manes fell out in captivity and zoos shrugged their shoulders and said it was fine without ever exploring why). manmade enrichment and training can supplement this, but in my opinion it can never replace it entirely because these animals live such active and complex lives in the wild. basically the only natural thing that they are allowed to do in captivity is breed (but again, they can't always choose when they mate and with whom). i and the above scientists believe that orcas' welfare is already so compromised in captivity that removing this element is worth it to protect future orcas from having to endure this and to reduce demand for wild captures as genetic diversity in breeding programs runs out (to my knowledge less than 30 orcas worldwide are part of captive breeding programs) and, as we're seeing in china, new parks opening demand more orcas faster than they can be born. more and more and more breeding (chimelong has been breeding especially rapidly, forcing katenka to have 3 calves in just under four years when a wild orca would only have one calf in that time frame, and shanghai and kamogawa sea world are breeding as well) does not quell the need for wild captures; it drives it. the success of seaworld parks in the usa is likely a major factor in why businesspeople in other countries (china, russia) have started majorly investing in capturing orcas in the past decade.

that brings me to something that has really disturbed me lately. over the months since chimelong spaceship opened in china, i have seen a continual backwards shift in what the pro-cap community has considered acceptable. the number of pro-caps that i have seen praising chimelong while giving mere lip service to the fact that most of their orcas were traumatically ripped from their families is astounding. you cannot praise a facility while ignoring the source of their animals, and you cannot condemn the fact that these orcas were wild-caught while throwing your support behind the industry driving demand for these captures. i highly doubt people come to a theme park that is literally shaped like a giant spaceship with any intention of being educated or supporting conservation; they come there to be entertained, just as people came to seaworld solely to be entertained for much of its history. also, pro-caps must not ignore the fact that spaceship's parent company, chimelong, operates a deplorable circus, chimelong international circus, that abuses wild animals and forces them to perform dangerous and demeaning tricks. chimelong also operates zhuhai chimelong ocean kingdom, at which cruelty and neglect have been documented (china cetacean alliance may be connected to animal rights groups, but that doesn't mean the results of their investigations are completely invalid). this report about chimelong and shanghai, including concerning animal behavior and misinformation being spread by chimelong trainers, is also incredibly concerning. even if no outright orca abuse has been recorded at shanghai, chimelong, or other new facilities yet, it is still concerning that their sister facilities engage in such blatant abuse with other animals. if three out of four restaurants in a chain have been caught on camera serving moldy, spoiled food to their customers, it's a pretty safe bet that the fourth one will eventually be caught doing so too.

anyways, that about wraps up what is by far the longest post i have ever made on tumblr. nobody i know irl really cares about cetacean captivity, so i wanted to vent here. i am not the most anti-cap anti-cap out there for cetaceans, but i definitely am more so than i used to be. heck, i'm not even universally opposed to something like the whale sanctuary project being constructed—wikie, inouk, and keijo are likely going to be transferred out of marineland antibes soon, and even though the sanctuary model is totally unproven, i can't help but feel that their welfare would be better there than at the places they are rumored to have been sold to: kobe suma sea world, kamogawa sea world, and port of nagoya public aquarium. the former two feature tank complexes that are barely bigger than tokitae's infamous "whale bowl", and kamogawa still does waterwork. also, it is rumored that marineland antibes wants to split up their orcas between these facilities, which wouldn't happen at the wsp and would make the stress of the move even worse. however, i absolutely cannot stand the wsp's messaging; they spread a lot of poor-quality information. as many others have said before, the sanctuary model could be super risky, and it's doubtful they could construct it in time if the french government allows the orcas to be moved, considering marineland antibes wanted these orcas gone yesterday. as usual, captive orcas are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

however, i want to make one thing clear: i'm not an expert or a scientist, nor do i wish to portray myself as such. i'm just a bored college student who is obsessed with animals and has too much time on her hands. i try to get as much of my information from experts and scientists as possible, but i do not claim to be an expert and i'm always willing to learn from the scientific literature and from people who can engage in respectful discussion. in regards to captive orcas, i would certainly love to be wrong.

#katherine speaks #orcas #orca #killer whale #killer whales #seaworld #cetacean #cetaceans #zoology #animal welfare #chimelong spaceship #shanghai haichang ocean park #cetacean captivity #orca captivity

13 notes · View notes

hoaxk · 3 months

Note

4, 19 + 30 for tell me which muse ?!

𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐋 𝐌𝐄 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄 ! meme . . .

4. Which of your muses is more likely to eat something even if it has fallen on a dirty floor?

Each of the members is gripping a makeshift pointer in their hands; Juul a chopstick, Charlie a very notably chewed pencil ( he didn’t forget to passionately mention Shrimp chewed on it, not him! ) and Harin a toy lightsaber she stole from one of the kids. Juul and Charlie glance at each other, while Harin mindlessly points at Juul.

“Jasmine, for sure. She’d eat it off the sidewalk.” At this, Juul jerks her head at the youngest, whining: “Nooooooooo … The answer’s Charlie obviously. “

Charlie, of course, saw this coming from a mile away and is, as always, ready to throw everyone and himself under the bus.

“First of all, I saw Harin scooping up a melted cheese from the floor in the company’s ground floor where everyone and I mean LITERALLY everyone walks through. Girl could have just, I don’t know, not to that.”

Harin quickly cuts him off to defend her pride, “ —— it barely touched the ground! I caught it mid-air like a fucking Flash or something — “ which immediately changes Charlie’s direct line of thoughts, he adds indignantly: “ Flash? Since when do you prefer DC over Marvel? You are a Marvel fan, what are you saying — “

Juul doesn’t even bother to jump into their bickering, she just ends the segment with: “We’re all gross and mainly eat off the floor. NEXT QUESTION!”

19. Which of your muses is the most likely to survive an apocalypse?

No thoughts, heads empty, all of them point at Harin (yes, Harin too). Jasmine explains her choice proudly, “She is a badass! She doesn’t take anybody’s shit and she would be a great leader of a survival community. “ She trails off, thinking out loud, “Maybe kind of like Negan —— “

Harin, offensively bamboozled, starts: “ WHAT?! ARE YOU CRAZY? I AM FAR MORE PLEASANT THAN HIM AND ——”

“——And she would also bite everyone and give them rabies, so there’s that.” Charlie concludes and before the video cuts, viewers can see Harin aiming for his left knee with her lightsaber.

30. Which of your muses is the biggest pet person? How many pet did they have in their life?

Harin with an adorable little smile points the lightsaber at herself. The others have different opinions as they both point at Charlie. He looks at Juul’s answer, satisfied, but looking at Harin makes his face contort into a grimace. There’s something not quite right …

“Harin, babe, I think you’re more of an animal person. I’m more of a pet person.” To which Harin raises an eyebrow, somewhat exhausted by Charlie’s thinking. Before she can react though, he is quick to give an explanation.

“ Animals are like wild and free and self-succificent while pets are so dependent on their owners. So I think you are an animal and I’m a pet.”

Juul chirps, “That wasn’t the question, Char.”

Charlie defensively: “I know, Jas. I haven’t finished my explanation. Okay, so do you agree Harin?” Her shoulders fall up and down, a variant of a yes.

“So I had pets, city animals, all my life. Had like eight or ten hamsters, three bunnies and had this weird mouse thing, what do you call it —— “ Charlie searches for help in his band mate’s faces.

“ Rat? “ Asks Juul.

“ Chinchilla? “ Tries Harin.

Charlie shakes his head, discontented. They try again.

“ Gerbil? “

Harin points a finger at Charlie, a triumphant expression on her face, “GUINEA PIG!”

Juul and Charlie look at her with a “guinea pig looks nothing like a mouse, you dumbass” expression. Charlie waves his hand dismissively.

“I dunno. Let’s drop it, it was kind of like a Gerbil. “ It was common degu is written in subtitles. “ Then we had tarantulas and fishes, oh and a dog ! “

The production and editors cut this segment off with a black screen where He started listing each of the 25 tarantulas names and then Harin listed every farm animal she took care of and their names too is written.

#ʚїɞ ˖ › ▹ welcome to the family jewels.#ʚїɞ ˖ › ▹ harin writings.#ʚїɞ ˖ › ▹ charlie writings.#ʚїɞ ˖ › ▹ juul writings.#fictional idol community #fictional idol group #(thank u for sending in 🥺🥺🥺 this got too long i was excited! they are fun to write together kdlflg)

7 notes · View notes

queenelsa567 · 1 month

Text

i saw this post (I think on tiktok, for the life of me i cannot find it) that said that Mor’s power being truth might actually mean that she has the power to make anyone else believe that what she says is true

babes.

this! is! what! i! want!!!!!

Mor villain arc is everything to me. like i want everyone around her to believe that her power is that she can always find the truth or always tells the truth and then they get bamboozled. i want this woman to lie constantly.

tbh, i’m not the biggest Mor fan rn for a variety of reasons. primarily it’s because we don’t know a ton about her and i think the way she looks down on the women in the CoN for being in a bad position (that she was once in!) doesn’t really sit right with me.

but a Mor villain arc!!!!!! (SJM would never, but this plot line would in fact be my lifeblood if it ever happened.)

#morrigan #acotar #morrigan villain arc #Mor villain arc #Mor’s truth power #headcanon???#lmk what you think bc I think this person on tiktok was on to something

5 notes · View notes

disappointingyet · 3 months

Text

American Fiction

Director Cord Jefferson Stars Jeffrey Wright, Sterling K Brown, Leslie Uggams, Tracee Ellis Ross USA 2023 Language English 1hr 57mins Colour

Affectionate portrait of a bourgeois family? Gleeful satire of people desperate to endorse diversity? How about both at once, successfully?

There’s a mixed blessing for the smart film with an attention-grabbing pitch. It simplifies selling the movie, both to distributors and the audience: ‘It’s the one in which…’ ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve heard about that one…’ But it can reduce the movie to something it isn’t really – in this case, you might be surprised to find that American Fiction spends more time on two brothers and a sister dealing with an aged parent than satirising white people’s stupid ideas of what authentic black stories are. I’d say that this movie is closer to The Savages, an excellent but under-seen film with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as middle-aged siblings trying to cope with their difficult father than, say, Spike Lee’s raging satire Bamboozled.

Yet the catchy ‘about’ sticks, and I’m not in a position to criticise that. Watching the film, I was wondering if the family stuff had been added by writer-director Cord Jefferson because I didn’t remember it from Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, from which American Fiction is adapted. But no, the blurb on the back of the book describes it ‘as a profoundly moving story of family turmoil’ – so it’s clearly there, but my mind had only held on to pointedly satirical part of the plot.

Thelonious ‘Monk’ Ellison (played in the movie by Jeffrey Wright) is a curmudgeonly academic and writer whose attitude towards his students is becoming unacceptable to the university in California where he works (for those who like to check on fiction’s relationship to life, Everett teaches at USC.) Meanwhile, his agent (John Ortiz) is struggling to find a publisher for Monk’s latest highbrow novel. And over in Boston, his widowed mother (Leslie Uggams) is acting erratically, and his sister and brother are both feeling the financial and other impacts of divorce.

American Fiction is, then, effectively two films in one – a comedy-drama about a troubled (but not unloving) upper-middle-class family and a satire about a snobbish novelist who writes a spoof tale from the hood that (of course) is taken for the real thing. That’s an incredibly tricky mix to get right and at least a few people have been wrong-footed by the movie – ‘what’s all this family-reckoning-with-trauma stuff? Where’s the skewering of the white literary scene I was promised?’

I mean, that’s certainly there, it’s just sharing story space with eg, a tour of a care home the mother might move to. But that’s not just OK, it’s a positive, because the family stuff is great, particularly Sterling K Brown as Monk’s brother Clifford, voraciously making up for lost time after coming out in his forties.

Which is to say, the family scenes are not just ‘funny too’, the biggest laughs we had watching the film came from the interaction between the Clifford and Monk and Monk and Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross). The writing here is so sharp, so precise, so spot-on. Yes, there are also a few moments of emotional realisation, but as with The Holdovers, I’m working on being less prickly about this kind of stuff – it’s good to feel, too.

This is Cord Jefferson’s debut as a director, but it doesn’t feel like a first film at all. It’s very assured, walks that tonal tightrope perfectly, marshals the cast well. Maybe that Jefferson doesn’t feel like a first-timer is not surprising seeing as he’s not young (he’s 42) and has a ton of experience writing for TV. But he’s not even got any screenplay credits for a movie. So this is extremely impressive.

Along with Wright, Brown and Ross, there’s good work from Erika Alexander* as the Ellisons’ attractive neighbour plus Adam Brody as a slimy movie director – with this and Fleishman Is In Trouble, he’s finding a groove as a glib sleazeball.

I was expecting to quite like American Fiction – as it turned out, I loved it. *I spent too much time watching the movie trying to figure out what I recognised her from – which was playing Rza's mom in Wu-Tang: An American Saga.

#american fiction #jeffrey wright

3 notes · View notes

antimonyandthyme · 2 years

Note

ohhhh my god, would you mind elucidating more on the superhero au (I also *adore* people underestimating seb and Finding Out)

Anon are you familiar with The Boys at all? Buckle up!

In this world Redbull, Ferrari, Mercedes etc are superhero companies. They have a team of supes and they're competing with each other for market share, fame, and arbitrary points. Who even gives the points? Who knows?

Charles is Ferrari's superstar (art imitates life etc etc). He's a fire elemental. Unfortunately, he hasn't yet got the memo that the superhero life ain't entirely about saving people; it's about smiling for the camera and looking good and stocks and about being good product. He got into trouble with Management after setting fire to a drug trafficking ring in a purposely malignant way.

He meets Seb. Ferrari's ex-golden boy. Who all too soon discovered he wasn't about that supe bullshit. People Fucked Around with Seb and they Found Out. Seb Does Not Toe The Line. He's the biggest PR and diplomatic nightmare Ferrari’s ever had to deal with. They shaft him. Except he's a little too valuable to throw away entirely. He now trains the delinquents--that's how Seb and Charles meet.

Seb's powers are a mystery. Charles is bamboozled by them. He's weaving a tornado of fire and Seb walks through it like he's made of ballistic nylon or something. Hand to hand combat-wise Charles is abysmal, because he's never had an opponent who could get this close. But Seb is ridiculously strong, stupidly fast. Charles ends every training session sore and wounded and just that bit more starstruck.

("The point is not to be starstruck, kid," Seb says wearily. "Haven't you learned that by now?")

Ferrari realizes what a catch they now have in the form of a disgruntled ex-hero and a rising star. Ratings go through the roof. They send Seb and Charles out on missions. It's a merry disaster. Seb sees it for the babysitting job it is. Charles wants desperately to prove himself. In doing so he melts ice skating rinks. He can't help it. Seb is unwillingly endeared.

They encounter an opponent who is Seb's natural counter. Oh my god. Who could it be? I don't know you tell me anon. Charles discovers Seb isn't as invulnerable as he seems. It's not pretty. Charles unlocks a Jean Grey kinda meltdown with Seb in his arms. Seb's delirious from the blood loss and the pain but he thinks Charles has never looked this good, with a crown of flames haloing his head, and the fire of god in his eyes.

Something like that!

#athy texts #sebchal #fanfic #rpf #superhero au

58 notes · View notes

dlamp-dictator · 1 year

Text

Not-So-Quick Thoughts on Ideal City

Okay, finished up Ideal City a lot faster than I thought I would, at least this first batch of stages. Got a few more days until the EX-stages starts happening and while I’m riding this momentum I might as well cover my general thoughts and first impressions on the story and event as a whole. Overall I think this is was quaint and entertaining story. I’m very thankful it’s not as long as some of the bigger events like Stultifera Navis or Near Light, but an event focusing on Gavial probably wouldn’t be that long anyway considering how straightforward she is as a character, and I find this a very nice sequel to The Great Chief Returns. Gameplay-wise things were... fine. I was gritting my teeth a little at IC-9, but it was manageable when remembered Decel Binders exist and I have an E2 Angelina.

But before I get ahead of myself, the synopsis:

Some time after the events of The Great Chief Returns Gavial gets an emergency letter from Tomimi explaining that Acahualla was under threat of a coming calamity and needed to get back to her homeland ASAP in order to save it from destruction. Taking the letter at face value she immediately grabs Eunectes and makes her design combat gear for the trip, because given the urgency Acahualla doesn’t need a healer, it needs a warrior to save it from a coming doom...

Only for the letter to be exaggerate, the calamity being practically a middle worry involving the Durin city under Acahualla, and Gavial being extremely pissed that was bamboozled... at least... until the calamity is actually revealed soon after arriving to the apparent Ideal City of Zeruertza.

Story

Overall I loved the story and find it a good continuation of the themes in The Great Chief Returns. Where that event asked the question of modernization and moving a society forward at the cost of its culture and tradition, Ideal City asks -through Pozemka & Gavial- if it’s right to cling to a preferred culture even at the risk of its destruction and seems to answer that it isn’t. At least that’s my take on the story. This was actually something I’ve been wanting to see discuss in Arknights for awhile now, to see a general clash of cultures and beliefs between two different groups outside of just playing it off for comedy or making it a one-off moment, and I really like the discussions had within the story.

I think the biggest surprise was just how nuanced of an answer I got during the story, coming from High Priest of all things. To summarize his point, no one culture of belief system is superior to another, while people will have their preferences and can make some objective claims about the pros of their culture it’s impossible and outright arrogant to think one’s way of life is objectively better than the other. In context to the story, while Durin society may be easygoing, relaxed, and even innocent to an extent, it doesn’t mean that way of life is inherently superior to the wilder, more violent, might-makes-right society of Acahualla. Eunectes herself explains that Durin society, while more peaceful and calmer, would be completely incompatible with most of Acahualla society. It really feels like everyone in the event showed a more thoughtful side to themselves...

Well, sans Elysium, but he had plenty of nuance in Stultifera Navis, so I’ll give him a pass.

Oddly enough, I have no real thoughts on Minimalist/Stitch. I can appreciate his story of being an introvert in an extroverted society struggling to get out of his shell. As an introvert myself I honestly feel for the guy, especially with all the pressure he puts on himself and freaking out when approached by so much kindness and understanding, fearful of wanting to actually reach out and accept the hands held out to him. It’s a feeling I’ve struggled with a few times myself.

But... he’s... also kind of a little shit and so opinionated and dismissive of everyone else that I wanted Gavial to sock him four times over.

I think he’s written well, but the thing about reading someone being self-destructive and wrapped up in themselves, as realistic as it may be, is that it’s also annoying watching them whine, complain, and whinge about shit no one else cares about save for them, and for very stupid reasons at that. Again, good character and the fact that I feel this way about him is more a good thing than anything.

Gameplay

I have some real mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, it’s not the absolute hell that was Stultifera Navis with it’s dodging enemies that required Lappland and Jaye, bullshit nethersea brand buffs, and The Amalgam. The maps were pretty easy to clear and the self-driving car mechanic honestly felt optional at times, and save for IC-9 I ran into no trouble whatever. The enemies with high dodge only have it temporarily and can be silenced by Lappland besides, the handful of machine enemies could be melted by arts, and smart cars were... there. A nice addition and fun to mess with, but overall unneeded until IC-9.

On the other hand, IC-9 was a bitch to figure out.

Again, not on the level of The Amalgam, but I swear they just make goddamn essays worth of skills and abilities for that damned cube. That cube ain’t even a thing that’s discussed in the story outside of the livestream event, if you even count that.

Something I feel like I should explain is that I stopped bothering to look at guides these past few months when doing maps now. Not out of pride or some belief that I know better (Lord knows I’m a small-brain dumbass at times in these maps), but because 90% of the guides all now require either Thorns, Ch’en Alter, or Silverash, and I only have one of those three raised and even then I don’t raise meta operators unless I’m really struggling or they get a really hot skin.

That said, I figured out the trick after a few failed attempts.

I used Angelina’s S2 to essentially freeze the cube in place, had Lappland on her S1 since the cube had a high physical resistance, and had Saria holding the blue box with another defender and Blaze while on her S2 while spamming the hell out of the smart car and it’s healing/ASP buff over my units. It did the trick.I had to go meta, but my meta.

Conclusion

Overall I’m liking the event. I hope we get more like it, shorter, simpler stories with decent arcs and themes that don’t take 6+ hours to finish. I’m looking forward to the next summer event, here’s hoping it’s something just as fun... and that coming Texas event will be worth all the hype as I save up pulls.

Anyway, be seeing you folks later.

#arknights #your dictator is speaking

23 notes · View notes

nizar-dreams · 4 months

Text

If Only You Believe in Miracles So Would I Summary

"The Department of Magical Education has twisted Albus Dumbledore's arm and have required the Headmaster to get a second teacher for each core subjects at Hogwarts. Severus Snape almost weeps with relief at the news. But the school year is not without other far interesting events. With young Harry Potter starting his first year at Hogwarts, new (surprisingly competent) teachers, a suspicious Albus, and a rare and powerful artifact hidden inside the school, Severus wonders if he ends up trading less homework for even more stresses in his life."

Okay listen, this story was birthed for many reasons. My continued obsession with Severus Snape, my anger at Albus fucking Dumbledore, and the incompetency of (Wizarding) Government. But the biggest one, which bamboozles me the most, is the lack of teachers for Hogwarts.

Think. About. It.

If you have gone to a school of around 400 students, you and I are aware that at this many students, you still have at least two to three teachers per core subject. Why? Because it is a foolish notion to believe that 1 (one) teacher can even handle teaching all 400 students in one week without seriously sacrificing student education and how much you actually teach them and what they have to self study. Which, as someone who's already graduated high school nearly two years ago, self study was not my strongest suits at all unless I liked the class and teacher.

As someone who observed my own teachers and how they handled various class sizes (choir was the easiest to see as Jazz was the smallest, but we'd easily have 25+ students for regular choir and that was... ridiculous for my teacher to handle somedays.) I can confidently say, that teaching two Hogwart Houses that are easily 20-30 students per house, which means a classroom of 40-60 students, is absolutely bat shit insane.

And then you have to be a Head of House as well? Or if you're McGonagall, you're also Deputy Headmistress and having to cover for Albus bloody Dumbledore because the Headmaster has a second job as a politician and the current Minister Of Magic is an idiot? I would be sobbing and burnt out by the end of the first month. I would need a Time-Turner just to have some sleep and me time.

Or if you're Snape, you're trying to save a child from getting himself killed, while playing spy, while playing evil teacher who favours his snakes, while also having to deal with children trying to blow themselves or their classmates up in his classroom. Because potions is a dangerous art, and children, especially the first and second years, are idiots. And especially whoever decided that Gryffindors and Slytherins get to spend potions in the same classroom. Together.

Whoever makes that schedule is an idiot, or horribly optimisitc.

But as you can see that is such a ridiculous amount of pressure to put on a single teacher that teaches the core subjects at Hogwarts for virtually all 7 years. So. This story was created. The Department of Magical Education finally got the memo and were like "wow are kids are kinda... fucking stupid compared to Ilvermorny, Beauxbaton, and Durmstrang... that's mad embarassing" and told Albus that he had to get more teachers and that was not negotiable. Except for history. They don't exactly care about history it seems. (I also lowkey forgot about it, but I think it makes sense that they already have a 'nonpayed' teacher so why bother with an actual one? Don't worry some parent will make a fuss about it or something, and a good portion of the teachers are good with history anyway so its all finnneee)

Well. Here we are. I have thus 'hired' 6 additional teachers besides Quirrel. 6 competent adults who take their jobs pretty seriously. I actually love all of them, they have their quirks, and I tried diversifying the staff as much as I could without it being forced.

For instance, our new transfiguration teacher is an older gentleman, 61 years old, who studied at Beauxbaton, and from Denmark. Our Herbology teacher is a young Scottish woman, barely 28 with a boyish charm, and is subtley bisexual. Our charms teacher is 35, and they use neutral pronouns and have an otherworldly appearance with big eyes and bronzed skin. My main character, our additional potions teacher, is 41, Salvadoran-American, and gay. Our astronomy teacher is a striking Irish woman who learned at Ireland's school, Erehnoll. And lastly our other DADA teacher is a woman born in El Salvador, 37, and has lived a very interesting life since.

We're branching out, alright. Like yeah I could branch further, but already some of the canon characters who could be considered as simply 'British White' will probs not be just that. And this is just the first year with new teachers. Maybe another year if results are good, I could introduce more. (It's so many characters to jugle but I think I am doing admirably. But I think for now, the current cast is already better then years prior. If I do add more teachers, it'll be for history for sure.)

For now, this is why I made this story. That it was absurd to leave the 6 out of 7 of the core subjects to a singular teacher. I would be in tears, really. I do go more in details on the ridiculousness of this all in the story, but here I am giving you a sneak preview at a lot of my thoughts on the subject that get dramatic and also distorted through character POVs. I think it'll be fun to read it from one of the characters, it makes me smile. They seem the type to be sarcastic and dramatic in their thoughts while exasperated to the 10th power.

I can't wait for Janurary 1st. I'm so excited for you all to see the chaos.

2 notes · View notes

dreaminginthedeepsouth · 11 months

Text

[Steve Brodner]\

* * * *

[Learning to Say F- It to the Trump FlimFlam]

A few of you wrote in in response to my post on the sheer “normalness,” the “mundaneness” of the prosecution of Donald Trump. You took me to task, arguing that this is all far from normal. It’s a crisis, in fact. Nothing about Trump’s time on the political stage is normal.

I think we are speaking past each other.

Donald Trump was and is a continuing crisis for the American republic. I would never deny that. I’ve made this claim central to almost everything I’ve written about him going back almost eight years. But managing our own emotional and cognitive equilibrium is central to handling someone like Donald Trump. That is both to live in a sane and ethical way while he marauds through our political life and because bending reality is central to the kind of threat he presents.

At a political rally yesterday Trump said this prosecution represented the “final battle.” The threat of violence in that statement speaks for itself. But this is Trump’s basic pattern. Everything is the final battle, the biggest this or that ever, the biggest surprise, the biggest hoax, the final showdown. It’s this hyped up, florid moral state that keeps his supporters spellbound and his foes constantly guessing and often off-balance.

It is wise not to participate in the reality distortion field the man whips up about him. This man is not the President. Yes, he is a leading candidate for President. But he declared his candidacy when he did to a great degree because he knew these charges were coming. Before the indictment and now more expansively in the indictment, it’s clear that these are far from technical violations of the law. They show a willful theft of government secrets, ongoing deception about the theft, continued efforts to deceive federal agents trying to recover the government’s secret documents. The conduct is so brazen and over the top that it would be virtually impossible for any prosecuting authority to decline to prosecute other than on the basis of Trump’s status giving him immunity from the law or for fear of the violence of his supporters.

Everyone knows these basic facts. His supporters can pretend otherwise. But they know it. So this is a normal and inevitable result of Trump’s own conduct. I refuse to pretend otherwise or indulge the charade that anyone who wants to argue the point doesn’t realize all of this is true. At heart they simply think Trump is different. He’s the leader. The law doesn’t apply to him. He’s too important for the law to apply to him. Since that is their position I’ll wait for them to say it out loud.

Will Trump diehards commit acts of violence? Maybe. But I’m going to wait to see them do it. I’m not going to pump up the psychic tenor of the moment based on what they hint they might do on Twitter. When a Freedom Caucus dead-ender like Clay Higgins hints at mobilizing a Trump guerrilla army I am going to properly refer to him as another terror-inciting degenerate and basically say, “Go for it.” That’s not taunt or bravado. It’s just a refusal to get psyched out. If that’s what you need to do, do it and we’ll go from there. I will assume federal authorities are taking all necessary precautions. And that’s it. If there’s another version of those feral goons plotting to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, federal authorities will arrest them.

It’s important to react to each development on the merits and not get ahead of it.

Trump’s indictment is very straightforward and unsurprising. I’m not going to get waylaid or bamboozled into pretending otherwise.

[Josh Marshall :: Talking Points Memo]

#TPM #Talking Points Memo #TFG #Josh Marshall #Steve Brodner #political #arraigment day

3 notes · View notes

halftiredobsessions · 2 years

Note

down bad for seer huh 😔

SJDJSHKSJSKSJSK IS THIS ABOUT THE ASK MEME OR DID YOU JUST SEE MY TAGS 😭

listen I’m gonna pretend it’s the ask meme because YES I am down bad and I want to talkramble about him

However I don’t pay much attention to the lore and I trust myself so little I actually made an entire Apex AU where I can say the Legends do anything because the game is populated by androids, so I’m gonna do the ask meme based on an ✨android✨ I made of Seer I like so in case any of my takes are stinky it’s not, Him him. You get it right. I’ve had a bad day,

so anyway A: realistic headcanon, Nines (he has the Aces High skin my beloved) is very attentive. He notices minuscule changes in your heartbeat and uses that to gauge how you’re feeling and how he should proceed; in his relationships, he is very understanding and patient.

This also applies to situational awareness? It’s hard to catch Nines off-guard (looking at you, Rev, get down from the ceiling) and, I know his tactical gets bamboozled by Mirage’s kit but the Ult does make decoy footsteps White instead of yellow and I love the idea of Seer always winning the “cup game”.

B: not realistic but funny, Seer doesn’t take his hat off. Like ever. This is technically a distinction between Nines and Seer, as Nines will take his hat off at the dining table/during a meal but Seer will not. Simplest reason why is that he doesn’t want someone *cough*Octane*cough* to take it, or perhaps it fits into the whole Outcast thing, you know? Either way, thing is glued to his head.

C: heart-crushing and awful! I’m really not sure what to say here. Sometimes with characters I’ll add a little trauma, you know, for projection or Flavor, but Something about Seer makes that difficult. Maybe because I can’t imagine much bothering him? With Nines, his biggest problem might come from a potential relationship, where his patience backfires; if his love isn’t ready for a relationship yet, he will wait for them, no matter how long it takes for them to be ready. I can imagine that would lead to loneliness.

With Seer himself, of course, you could argue the whole “being an outcast”/“being called cursed” thing hurts more than he lets off, and silently he constantly feels like an outsider amongst his peers, unable to truly relate to anyone... whiiich is where the ~projection~ comes in.

D: unrealistic! Literally all of my headcanons about the Legends fit into this one. Maybe? It’s subjective. The most unrealistic thing about Nines in particular is how Aggressive he can be. Part of this is based off of my play-style, where I’m trying to keep up with my friends that like to push, and I’m less Ambushing and more Hauling ass to delete someone with a Spitfire. In the AU, this translates to Nines being Very ready to quickdraw with his Wingman and threaten your life, Provided you’ve threatened his friends first.

I’m not sure if I see Seer himself as being aggressive or, possessive. My friend and I have played around with the idea that, if someone he liked were to interact with others, he would Stare as a way to express jealousy. Probably Unrealistic, though.

#thank you for the ask!#sorry it took me a bit to answer #why am I so insecure about my takes?#simple! I’m insecure about everything!#but anyway I finally found a loophole #apex legends #apex legends seer #obi edolasim #just for fun #apex headcanons #ok ily have a nice day 🧡

2 notes · View notes

daquanshell · 1 month

Text

Crimes of Adolescence

I took a few days off from publishing on here to really work on more stuff behind the scenes, the kinds of things that will improve my personal life and, by extension, improve my ability to consistently and completely engage in client builder activities. I've really come to terms with the fact that the environment in which you work is just as important as the nature of the work itself, and I'm past the point where I "try to save a few bucks" by working in less than ideal conditions, since saving money seems to equate to wasting time, and I feel like I've wasted plenty of time in the entirety of my 20s.

In addition to that, I feel like my exposure is wildly imbalanced, as it feels like I have little exposure to the market and absurdly high exposure to stimuli that serve to do little more than bamboozle my enthusiasm, divide my focus, and make it nigh impossible to build or maintain the professional image I desire.

Becoming a Ghost

As the title of this blog post would imply, my current objective is to become a "ghost", which, rather than being an actual person, is more of the archetype of a character.

The character is groomed, well-dressed, successful in business, married with children, and can pass a background check. The idea of the character is to appear put together on the surface and to maintain a specific persona in public appearances. I used to think that the surface was less important than the content, but recently, I've learned that the surface is objectively more important than the content.

The contents are important, obviously, but the surface is what determines our reactions; it is what catches or evades our attention. The surface is the first line of defense for preventing unwanted attraction and the first line of offense when seeking to elicit a desired response.

In Theory vs. Practice

This character is slightly different in theory than they are in practice. The most significant difference is that theory accounts for the entirety of the character's lifecycle, whereas practice only really accounts for the parts that are visible. Think of this like "movie magic", unless it happens on camera, there shouldn't be too much thought put into it, yet when the cameras are on, maximum effort is given.

For example, if you live alone and do not participate in things like video calls and streaming in your home, then there is no real need to physically dress up or get into costume. If you don't actually have to make any mass or direct communications, then you effectively don't have to get into character at all, so it's important to understand when you have to "turn it on and off". Personally, I think characters you can turn off are better, since they are less demanding, which is the biggest reason why I feel the need to make a massive change to my character.

Idealism

I'm holding on to the idea that all will go well. That in a few months I'll have not only no desire to look back, but an impenetrable defense in doing so. Anyone who "knew the old me", is effectively a stranger, and should be a referral. I have to make a greater effort to make my business less personal, while still retaining that personal touch.

When I say less personal, I really mean not personal at all. Factual is more like it, with the rare joke or personal anecdote. Maybe doing something like, quoting my past life,

"Easy Day"

"I'm not mad at you"

"I'm not going to hold you"

Employing Nostalgia and Deja vu.

0 notes