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olderthannetfic · 2 months

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Now I'm wondering how countries like Japan and China teach literacy.

Since kanji / hanzi don't really have that much in the way of phonetic elements, they kinda have to teach them by memorization and I don't think they have many reading comprehension problems over there.

(Although both countries do have supplementary phonetic writing systems in the form of bopomofo and pinyin for China, and the kanas for Japan)

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It's a little closer to teaching vocabulary than spelling, but the same kinds of principles apply: You teach the building blocks, like the traditional radicals, which aren't so different from teaching Latin and Greek roots in an English class for English speakers.

And, as a matter of fact, lots of those radicals do predict pronunciation, just not in every single case. They can also be clues to meaning, but again, not absolutely consistently. Many characters have a sound-cueing radical on one side and a meaning-cueing radical on the other. It's just that only some are still useful in the modern day, while others are more like the English word 'plumbing' where knowledge of Roman lead pipes explains why this word comes from the one for lead, but the root probably wouldn't help a kid learn the word in the first place.

One similarity to teaching phonics would be teaching students to tell very complicated and similar characters apart: you want to help a student spot all the little building blocks of the character and then spot the ones that are different, not just glance at the whole character and get a general overall vibe. If you do a whole look-based approach, too many characters are too easy to mistake for one another.

Remembering a bajillion Chinese characters is hard if you're trying to memorize them in a year and not all of elementary school, but I think people who don't read them underestimate how many component parts there are and how approachable they can be if you start by learning fundamentals, not just memorizing a few individual characters as though they have no relation to anything else.

They're actually pretty systematic, just in the way that English spelling is with its overlapping systems and historical artifacts, not in the way that highly regular Spanish spelling is.

Having taken a lot of Japanese classes, I will say that Japanese as a foreign language textbooks often do a piss poor job of this and totally do teach kanji in a sight words-y way... But my Mandarin class started with important foundational concepts that served me well in Japanese later even if I bombed out of Chinese class at the time.

Can you tell how irritated I am by all the foreign language learners who think characters are sooooo hard when, really, it's just their crappy textbook? Haha.

They're moderately hard in the way that learning a full adult spectrum of vocabulary is hard, but people do that for foreign languages all the time. The countries that use characters do tend to make sets that are smaller for certain kinds of applications, same as we have things like simple English wikipedia, but a literate adult will always know lots more, whether it's from their career in engineering or their predilection for historical romance novels.

Uh... anyway, the answer is "Bit by bit in elementary school, just like in any other country".

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beelzeballing · 5 months

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actually i dont think ive posted my thoughts on ofmd s2 overall here yet have i?

ok here goes: i think it had incredibly high highs, and at some parts i genuinely enjoyed it more than i did the first season, episode 6 being peak imo. however, it had equally abysmal lows with some glaring writing-, tone- and pacing issues that all came to a head in the finale.

i once read someone say that, if you ever feel like a finale ruined the whole story, maybe you should take another look at the story. there were most likely cracks and problems all along, and the finale did nothing besides dashing the hope that these would perhaps be addressed later. very rarely do genuinely well written stories go completely off the rails in the finale and ruin the whole thing.

i think this is applicable here in some ways, SPECIFICALLY in regards to edward. good god edward was a MESS this season, and it's so sad because i loved the starting point! the kraken era was absolutely terrifying and iconic as FUCK but... they shouldn't have leaned so hard into the drama and trauma of it all. don't get me wrong, i loved that it did. it's one of my favorite parts of the season and i'm so glad we got it. but if they wanted this arc to work with the overarching plot as they wrote it, they would've had to lighten up the tone here CONSIDERABLY. had they played the kraken era for comedy then sure! edward's bad youtuber apology would've been funny. his fast redemption would've been less jarring. the lack of consequences less disturbing. but as it stands in the show, this arc is too dark to function with the later episodes.

i feel like they wanted to have their cake and eat it too here. they wanted the gritty drama of ed coming off the hinges entirely but also didn't want to deal with the aftermath of such a heavy arc in their silly pirate romcom. be that due to time constraints and budget cuts or because they were simply unwilling to, doesn't really matter in the end. the result is the same either way: a very tonally messy season with some accidentally troubling implications regarding abuse.

and mentioning troubling implications regarding abuse; izzy. my poor, poor izzy... his arc was absolutely glorious. i liked izzy the second he showed up in s1 and i was absolutely EATING this season up in that regard. and i think in this case, they genuinely did fuck it all up in the finale with that one stupid choice:

choosing to kill izzy was the DUMBEST thing they couldve done here.

ive talked about this over and over and over again. ive reblogged so many meta posts. and still i am left absolutely flabbergasted by how stupid of a decision this was. the fridging, playing at the fallen woman trope, killing the beating heart of the season and the character who delivers what is essentially a thesis statement, killing off the character whose arc is about coming to terms with his disability, having him die in edward's arms, comforting him and apologizing after an entire season of finding community and love outside of edward, the absolutely godawful pacing of it all, the extremely easy and obvious solution of just having IZZY become the new captain of the revenge to mirror s1 and hammer home how much he has developed since then in one go... i could go on. and i have. it was a stupid writing decision, completely fucked the tone and pacing of the finale and took away attention and time from things that really would've deserved a better wrap up (lucius and black pete deserved better)

now. the whole prince ricky & zheng plot line... yeah that shit sucked ass, sorry. they bit off more than they could chew here. i honestly think those are the arc words of this season:

��️ bit off more than they could chew ✨️

right off the bat: i think he was good as a concept. bringing in a foil for stede who just doesn't Get It as stede does could've made for very good comedy and drama (and to be fair there is some of that). but that shit got away from them extremely quickly. nothing about how he's implemented past his first episode works, and i think this is very specifically because he's mostly played as the comic relief in his debut episode. making this completely bumbling fool, who gets his nose hacked off on his first job, the main villain of your entire season is... definitely a choice. idk. he didn't work for me at all.

ok wow mentioning shit getting away from the writers. this definitely got away from me. this was supposed to be a short lil post. well. i guess tl;dr i loved this season but jesus christ there was a lot wrong with it. if you want to hear more thoughts. ask box is open. be my guest. i have more to say so even if you dont ask i might add more to this at some point but im tired and have work tmrw.

#i was going to do shit today and now look at me.#0:18 at night #laying in bed #writing this shit #i havent even eaten.#christtttt #moogsin'#ofmd #izzy hands #our flag means death #ofmd meta #ofmd critical #ofmd s2 #ofmd spoilers #the izcourse #im not tagging any of the other characters cuz i shittalk all of them 😭#listen i love edward hes my babygirl but this season did him DIRTY.

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 2 months

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You're analysis are always very insightful! Your considerations about Malleus' restricted options in terms of partners made me wonder if Kalim would end up in a similar situation as him. This is of course entirely speculation, since we don't know much about how his parents got together, but to me it makes sense that in the future he might have to deal with something like an arranged marriage. He isn't royalty, but the Asim family still has a great deal of commercial and political sway in the Scalding Sands, so it's difficult for me to believe that they would just let the heir marry whoever he chooses. And despite how carefree he may act, I don't think he would reject an arrangement made by his family. He seems pretty aware of all the obligations that come with being an heir to the Asim. Besides, rejecting a spouse that was chosen for him might put said person under a lot of public scrutiny, and I don't think he would want anyone to go through that

[Referencing this post!]

Oh, hmmm 🤔 I actually never really though about this kind of thing for Kalim so I guess now is as good of a time as any www.

I do think like there would be some selectiveness involved for Kalim too, given the financial power and political influence in the Scalding Sands that the Asims hold (and that's not even mentioning their connections via family, some of which are royalty, and business partners). There's also been several attempts on Kalim's life, so there would probably be an intense screening and background check process for anyone courting Kalim. Who knows if they're actually there to kidnap him or to take his life??? The Asims would have very legitimate concerns, so they have every right to be vigilant and suspicious of those who may try to take advantage of Kalim's kind-heartedness and gullibility.

Mm, I do feel like (overall) Kalim wouldn't be in as much of a tight spot as Malleus?? I get the sense that his parents are way more open-minded and truly care about his happiness (unlike the Briar Valley senators) so they wouldn't exactly force him to marry someone he doesn't actually love. Rather than a "you have no say in this matter" arranged marriage, they might instead present Kalim with a pool of potential candidates that have already been vetted and encourage him to try them out? Like, go on various blind dates and see if he "clicks" with any of them. There would be more trial and error, more exploration allowed (since there isn't as much of a demand for Kalim to have an heir, especially not right away; he has so many other siblings and family members who could help or assume roles in the business). I believe this is similar to how matchmaking is done in some Asian countries (although I'm not too familiar with the concept, I've only learned a little about it through some podcasts). From my understanding, they try to "match" applicants with someone of a similar social ranking as you (so in Kalim's case, he would probably be meeting people who are also mega wealthy) and based on what you (and oftentimes your family) are looking for. If it doesn't work out, then there's less of a chance for backlash since pretty much anyone can use these services and a perfect match isn't a guarantee, especially on the first attempt. Please feel free to correct me if I got any information here wrong!! ^^

#twisted wonderland #twst #Malleus Draconia #Kalim Al-Asim #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #notes from the writing raven

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lil-tachyon · 1 year

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Got any good resources for clothing drawing tips?

Okay so quick little introduction before I try to answer this question. First of all, sorry for letting this languish in the inbox for so long. I have a lot I want to say about this and I'd really like to make a proper "tutorial" but this week took a lot out of me so what you're going to get are some visual notes on graph paper and some rambling thoughts. Maybe down the line I'll try to flesh this out more into a proper guide, but for now it is what it is.

Second- for many different art concepts I can give you some really great recommended reading for self-teaching. There's a whole section of my website with links to things that helped me learn. Clothing is one of those things where I never found a book or tutorial that really "clicked" with me. It's one of the few areas of art where I feel like it's fair to say I'm genuinely self-taught. So what you're going to get here is very much my opinion, not undisputed common wisdom or whatever. Take it with a grain of salt. This is how I draw, not the "right way" to draw.

Third- drawing clothes is not something fundamental like perspective or rendering where there are actual hard-and-fast "rules" you can learn to guide you. It's not even like anatomy where there are approaches that have been worked out and passed down by artists over generations. I think about drawing clothing as a synthesis of several different skills- a little bit of anatomy, a little bit of perspective, a little bit of rendering. Honestly a smidge of graphic design. You're employing a "cloud" of your artistic skills towards a specific end. What this means is that the TLDR of this post is going to be "do what you would normally do to improve at drawing but apply it to clothing." So don't expect something life-changing, instead just open your mind to maybe trying some new things you hadn't thought of before. Also this is going to be more about drawing than painting, that is more about "lines" than "shapes" but the two skills overlap and the same concepts should be broadly applicable. But my examples are going to be drawings.

Okay intro out of the way. Clothes are mostly just tubes of fabric, fabric wants to fall down. The human body and sometimes wind and water and other fluids will stop this fabric from falling down all at once and instead give it a shape. Keep this in mind. It's helpful to know how clothes are actually constructed if you want to know how they will deform when falling across the figure. Where a garment is simply a length of fabric, it's very flexible. It can bunch together or be stretched taught. This is most noticeable at the parts of the body that open and shut like hinges- knees, elbows, and armpits. The behavior of garments at these areas of the body is highly dynamic.

At seams where different sections of fabric are stitched together, movement can be come more limited. Seams are usually imperfect- pieces of fabric of slightly different lengths might be stitched together or fabric may shrink over time around a thread causing it to pucker and wrinkle. For these reasons, seams often act as the originating areas for folds and wrinkles, even when a garment is not in a particularly flexed/active state.

In a two-dimensional image, it can be helpful to describe a garment in terms of silhouette and wrinkles/folds. The silhouette is the actual boundary of the garment, where the fabric comes to an end. The wrinkles/folds are where different parts of the garment pass in front of each other or where the fabric becomes bunched up to the point that light can't reach inside and occlusion shadows form. You should always keep the overall silhouette of the garment in mind to inform the bigger shapes you draw, but you will use wrinkles and folds to demonstrate how the garment twists and deforms. These are the basic tools in your arsenal. Keep it simple.

There are lots of different ways to approach wrinkles. My advice and my personal preference is to draw wrinkles as shapes and not just lines. Specifically, tapered shapes (like triangles) and be really good both for implying motion and the varying depth of a fold/wrinkle. Experiment with different shapes of varying angularity, fill texture, etc. Your hands and eyes will guide you towards what looks and feels good. There's no right way but I would advise you to exaggerate! Ask yourself- what's the biggest shape I can draw here? How can I twist it to make it bigger, crazier but still describe the form in a way that makes sense? It can be exhausting to just try to perfectly copy a reference and also using your imagination like this when doing studies will help build up your visual library for when you're drawing/designing clothing from imagination. In general I would advise you to focus more on drawing something that looks good (ie is composed of shapes that you find aesthetically pleasant) than is "correct."

Quick recap: Garments fall down, you can simplify an article of clothing into a silhouette described by folds and wrinkles. What next? Observe! Take notes! It is worth your time to think about how common articles of clothing are constructed. Jeans, t-shirts, dresses, etc. I used to do some hobbyist sewing and clothing alteration and I think that hands-on work with clothes has really affected the way I think about drawing them. You don't have to go that far but like- look at the world around you. Stuck on the bus, in school, in a meeting, etc? Even if you can't draw, look at how your pants bunch up around your legs, look at the sleeves of someone sitting next to you. I mean, don't be weird about it, but these are valuable observations. Think about how you would draw those things! Really getting good at drawing clothes involves studying them in the wild, understanding how they work, building up your visual library. Look at a faded denim jacket- at the puckered places where the indigo has rubbed away or the permanent creases that hardly see the light of day and remain a deeper blue. Look at petrochemical techwear outfits that break into jagged, high-sheen triangular wrinkles. Soak it all in!

Save pictures of and take notes on outfits you like, designers you like, garments you like. Keep track of these things. Come back and study them over time. Have fun with it! I have folders and folders and folders of images of clothes that I come back to constantly. Over time and with lots of study you'll learn what you want to draw when you draw clothes and that's half the battle. You'll have images of buttons, pockets, belts, laces, fabrics, seams, dancing around in your head that you can deploy at will. It's delightful.

Hope this helps! If anyone has more advice to add, please do! If this tutorial helped anyone, please show me your drawings! If you'd like more stuff like this from me, just send me an ask or an email and I'll answer it when I can.

Peace,

Logan

#illustration #art tutorial #art thoughts #clothing design #drawing tutorial

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 1 year

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Bernie Sanders thinks you should work fewer days.

The progressive from Vermont chimed in on the four-day work week debate on Twitter, writing: "With exploding technology and increased worker productivity, it's time to move toward a four-day work week with no loss of pay. Workers must benefit from technology, not just corporate CEOs."

Sanders was referencing the latest findings out of the UK on the four-day work week. A large-scale pilot program, spanning over 3,000 workers, found that workers slept better, firms made more money, and employees were less likely to say they did not have enough time to care for loved ones.

As the Washington Post reports, most of the companies involved in the pilot plan on continuing to use a four-day work week.

The concept of a four-day work week has increasingly caught on over the last few years, with firms and researchers alike taking the plunge to cut back hours without reducing pay.

As Insider reported in December, 4 Day Week Global — a New Zealand-based nonprofit — conducted a study involving 33 participating companies that employed 969 people based in the US, Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, who adopted a four-day work week in a pilot program over a six-month period, and it found it was a "resounding success on virtually every dimension."

"Companies are extremely pleased with their performance, productivity and overall experience, with almost all of them already committing or planning to continue with the 4 day week schedule," the report said.

"Revenue has risen over the course of the trial. Sick days and absenteeism are down," it continued. "Companies are hiring. Resignations fell slightly, a striking finding during the 'Great Resignation.' Employees are similarly enthusiastic. And climate impacts, while less well-measured, are also encouraging."

Some US companies have started testing out the idea, as well. A Chick-fil-A owner in Florida launched a three-day work week in November, and he received 400 applications for just one job opening due to the popularity of a shortened workweek.

This isn't the first time a four-day work week has caught the attention of lawmakers — the Congressional Progressive Caucus previously endorsed the "32-Hour Workweek Act," with Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal saying in a statement at the time that it's "past time that we put people and communities over corporations and their profits — finally prioritizing the health, wellbeing, and basic human dignity of the working class rather than their employers' bottom line."

Rep. Mark Takano, a Democrat from California, proposed that legislation. He previously told Insider that a 32-hour work week — which would become the new standard under his proposal — would help Americans craft the new normal of work that they've been demanding.

"I think there was a Great Realization among a lot of Americans — how hard they're working and that they wanted to move on from the jobs that they were working at," Takano said. "So a four-day work week is something that connects a lot of Americans."

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strykingback · 2 months

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Jaune Arc- The Most Horrendous Knight Ever. (Twin Revisions)

Silence My Minions!! Now as you know yesterday night I did a why Jaune is a horrible knight post and the what not. But today I deleted it cause some stans really just wanna say that he is "isnt a knight." but knight inspired. Aight. Aight! I might as well hop onto the rewriting post and use everything to my knowledge. Cause holy hell almighty this was giving me a headache.

and having me in my bed like:

"I know this motherfucker did not just cherry-pick my whole post"

So yes, I deleted and a few of my replies and decided to get some help for this one. By the way huge thank you @burgers-and-diatribe for giving me a helping hand on this one. Y'all go check'em out and giv'em a high five. Cause they were a huge help for this revision.

So without further ado. Lets get into it.

Now before hand we're just going to get into it a huge part of RWBY's characters whether it be extra, protagonist, or antagonistic characters are inspired by either Fairytale, Historical, or Mythological figures. This can also include the Romanticization of Fairytales as well.

Now Jaune Arc is based off the historically legendary female knight of the Hundred Years War. Joan of Arc. Who was well known for having been granted a vision by the Archangel, Michael to save France from British Domination. This would later on culminate into her arrival at Orleans and participating in major battles and even after her death it would pave the way for the French to claim victory in the Hundred Years War several decades later.

Jaune would immediately trip over and fall flat on his face cause he can't even hold a candle up to Joan of Arc. Because it would better fit the historical allusion if he:

His Semblance was based around seeing into the future Which despite Transitioning Into A Woman In Later Volumes or Being Born as A Woman and being called Jeanne. Having erratic visions of Fire, being related to Cinder and a possible future of her death or a battle that could lead to her death.

Possibly her death inspiring others or paving the way for a major victory.

At the same time, they dont allude to their historical counterparts unlike how Jaune does so. Instead they go for the Paladin route due to it being such a huge Dungeons and Dragons concept as he achieves Aura Amplification which is none other than the Lay On Hands ability minus the healing factor of its ability.

I know Jaune is a Fantasy Knight but at the same time in Volume Nine he is called the RUSTED KNIGHT. in which at that point he either is or inspired by the romanticized concepts of the Code of Chivalry.

Before I hop into this lets just get this out of the way

Real Life Knights =/= Fantasy Knights

This is because Real Life Knights are by far not the romanticized concepts that we read or watch in media. As Real Knights were just overall horrendous, cruel, and even lazy. This is because most knights that we know in real life were in fact noblemen born into knighthood beginning their training no less than the age of fifteen. Then made into a squire and then into a knight.

Now knights in our world pillaged, murder, or even did many more horrible things in order for their status to be seen during the Middle Ages. As there have been many many accounts of knights doing horrendous atrocities as well.

As one account during the Age of Chivalry (The 11th to the 12th Century) as a historian recounts Sir John Arundel and his band of knights taking refuge in a convent violating the Nuns and stealing from them and throwing them overboard once they were all but used up. Not to mention real knights would usually face off against other knights. Sometimes in duels to resolve petty conflicts, entertainment or in festivals as well.

As the book Chivalry in Medieval England by Nigel Saul states; "Knights only fought for three things. Land, Gold, and War Booty."

Now as for Fantasy Knights this is not applicable to their Real Life counterparts as they are no means perfect as well. But its once again those romanticized concepts of what we see knights as. Noble, Kind, Understanding and Powerful altogether.

Now do they follow the concepts of Code of Chivalry? Ehhhh. Maybe depending on the character(s) in media.

As some Fantasy Knights are either, Sellswords, Free Knights/Paladins, Servants to a Lord, King or Queen, or Baron. Hell or even just bandits.

Now there are only two accounts of the Code of Chivalry

Song of Roland’s Code of Chivalry:

Fear God and His Church Serve the liege lord in valor and faith Protect the weak and defenseless Live by honor and for glory Respect the honor of women

King Arthurs version of the Code of Chivalry:

Honor Honesty Loyalty Valor

Now in my last post I did say Jaune should have been following those concepts of chivalry and how he falls flat in some areas of it. Until I was corrected saying that I shouldnt be applying those especially with how "vague" it is for something that is from a romanticized fairytale. It was then when I realized that if Jaune were to be a true knight he would have swear fealty for a Lord or King to follow those Codes of Chivalric Faith.

Now can I not apply those things to Jaune. No.

But Can I make him to the point where he was inspired by the Codes of Chivalry. Since Rooster Teeth made Jaune as a fictional character following a real life concept (Aka the Romanticized Concepts of the Codes of Chivalry), such as Knighthood.

Also the fact that monarchs did exist in Ancient Remnant in Volume 6 which further cements the fact the knights existed and with Ozma/Ozpin being a knight during that time.

Its almost as if saying Robyn Hill isnt based off of the Romanticization of Robin Hood because this, this, and that. Or because it does not in exist in Remnant. Once again RWBY's characters are based off of Fairytales, Historical, or Mythological figures we know of IRL. and yes even Romanticized Fairytales can count as well.

Yes I know some people will come at me and call me a Jaune Hater just because me and many many others rag on him. But at the same time... I rooted for him to become better. And due to idiotic writing decisions from Miles Luna and making him into a Ron Stoppable, shoe horning him into important scenes and the like. It only made me hate him more. The

I Like Him For the Character He Could Have Become.

Instead he is a failure to live up to his historical allusion and even fails at being a knight/ paladin archetype.

TL;DR: Another revision on how I explain why Jaune fails at being a Joan of Arc Allusion and a Knight Allusion

#RWDE #//Okay Fucking hell this may be the last time I'll talk about Jaune #//Hell I wont even do anymore Jaune shit after this #//Cause I really wanna talk about Sun Wukong #//Or even Curious Cat

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oricalu · 1 year

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I am annoyed about how people are talking about AI and AI art.

I will go on twitter and see people complaining about how AI is stealing art and how AI is evil and detrimental to artists. No its not. People are stealing art and being evil, not AI. You should be mad at them, not the computer.

It saddens me, because AI image generation is an incredible leap forward in the field of AI. It is incredibly impressive how far the technology has come, and is applicable to so many areas of computing. It is genuinely really interesting how it works, and how it can be used, but nobody cares about that. Because some idiots saw the technology and realised they could make some money. So they trained a model on stolen artwork and advertised it as "making your own art without having to know how to draw, at much cheaper rates than paying an artist!" and everyone lapped it up.

Then the people whos art they stole got rightfully mad about that. But instead of blaming the people who stole the art, they blamed the computer that those people gave the stolen art to. Then people followed them in that hatred. And now everyone hates the general concept of AI, and not the theives who are training these models on artwork they stole.

It saddens me, because as a software developer, I love AI. AI is probably one of the greatest technological advancements we have made in the field of computer science in a while. It has so many uses, from stuff like cancer detection to optimising crop yeilds. Like did you know that even your graphics card is using AI to make your games run faster? If you have a decently modern Nvidia graphics card, the driver will come with a little bit of AI software that will upscale the game you are playing in real time! So the game can render frames at a lower resolution, and just have them upscaled, increasing overall framerate. Isn't that really cool! AI is awesome like that! But nobody cares about this stuff because some idiots are profiting of stolen art, and the people getting mad are instead blaming the computer those idiots are using.

This rant has gone on long enough. In conclusion, be mad at the people who are training AI models on stolen art, not the AI models themselves. And dont generalize your hatred to just "AI". AI is great, the people using one specific model for dubious purpouses are not. Go after them, not "AI".

#AI #AI art #ai discourse #ai art discourse

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crescentfool · 2 years

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recently, i’ve been thinking about what a 100% social link/confidant run is like from the perspective of the persona protagonists, rather than the player. i’ve always been a sucker for thinking about the type of narrative created by a person’s gameplay choices (it can be so fun and deep) so!! i wrote this analysis / musing.

some notes before we start: this was written with the lens of persona 3 being the most recent game i played- but the concepts are applicable to the p4/p5 protagonists as well! no spoilers for any of the games are mentioned; this is moreso a general discussion of ludonarrative dissonance with the game mechanics and narrative and how it makes for fun angst (ft. personal interpretation).

(more under the cut!)

the framework: game mechanics

in all of the games, the social link system’s existence coincides with the social stats mechanic. certain social links require a specific set of stats in order to initiate it, or surpass a certain rank. each game has around 20 of these- each of which represent the major arcana (+ some bonuses, e.g. aeon / jester / faith / councilor).

for any players going for a 100% social link run, this basically requires each social stat to be maxed out. anyone who’s followed a guide for a 100% run would know that the beginning of the game tends to be very “strict” with how time can be used, most of which involves getting the stats raised as soon as possible.

outside of characterization and worldbuilding, completing social links are incentivized for a variety of gameplay reasons. so how could this completionist play style affect the protagonists?

prioritizing social stats over everything else: a general view

regardless of which protagonist you want to put under a petri dish, with a 100% run, you’re essentially asking the protagonist to form amicable bonds with 20 or so people, give or take. granted, not everyone becomes adjoined to the hip to the protagonist.

personally, i feel that forming 20 different bonds over the course of a year would be rather strenuous. during these 100% runs, the protagonists may feel that they’re spreading themselves thin trying to dedicate their resources to multiple different people as well as raising their “social stats.” i find the implications that this has on said bonds is so, utterly fascinating.

while this isn’t reflected in the game and would be better represented within a fic, i find it difficult to believe that this type of behavior doesn’t have any ramifications on the quality of the protagonist’s closer relationships (or their self-image, for that matter).

just… imagine calling one of your close friends but then they consistently give responses along the lines of “lmao sorry i’m busy doing other things,” and they rarely make the time of day for you. how would you feel? gameplay-wise, this deterioration of the relationship is best represented in persona 3 with social links reversing if you haven’t spent time with them in awhile.

part of my fascination with this concept is influenced by my own experiences. trying to maintain so many relationships can be difficult to keep up with and it quickly gets overwhelming (see dunbar’s number for more information). jumping between so many people also makes it difficult to focus on a few relationships meaningfully- meaning that relationships may be limited to being simple pleasantries. even then, ‘successfully’ keeping every relationship satisfying comes at the cost of being unable to pursue your own development and interests.

overall, i think that trying to do so many things ends up lowering the quality of the relationship(s) involved, especially when you also consider the fatigue from going to school as well as fighting shadows.

playing the therapist friend / listening role: a general view

another aspect of the 100% run that i think about is how the protagonists rarely open up to other people. a good chunk of SLs follow a storyline of the protagonist acting as a therapist friend/helping the other person through one central issue. some SLs are an exception to this and have a more casual “we’re just hanging out vibe.”

basically, SLs tend to be weighted toward the other character’s growth, moreso than the protagonist’s (which is handled by the main story). that said, the idea of mostly playing a listening role across most of your relationships and not having many that you feel comfortable to speak freely about your own stuff… feels really unbalanced and unhealthy?

i do think that part of the lack of “input” can be attributed to the silent-protagonist approach taken in the games (which is a whole ‘nother topic). but!! i find that each protagonist’s options, while limited, are fun to think about! some of the traits and interpretations i’ve seen for the differing protags, to name a few, include:

being afraid to open up / get attached and keeping people at arm’s distance as a result

needing to be around other people, even if it’s just listening them, to distract from their own struggles / pretend nothing’s wrong with them

enjoying helping others, being a good and careful listener who can provide an appropriate and helpful response

the willingness to prioritize others over themselves; a lack of self-preservation

compulsive people pleasing

at its worst, the lack of “protagonist talking” or equal reciprocation in response could be misinterpreted by the other person as disinterest (like they’re talking to a wall). alternatively- the lack of “personal tidbits” could be taken as, “you don’t trust me enough to be able to open up, huh.” and i just think that seeing this in a fic would be the biggest shitshow ever (and i would read that).

concluding thoughts:

overall, i feel that the protagonists taking a predominantly listening approach to several relationships at once can lead to compassion fatigue and general burnout. the protagonists are rarely at the receiving end of being listened to and/or having their issues worked through… and that’s kind of sad?

while the 100% social link run can provide great power to any persona fusions (and other cool battle abilities + hijinks)... i ultimately think that there’d be a lot of mental strain that would make achieving this much more difficult when you take a narrative-emphasized approach.

i do realize that it is possible to see the general vibe of this post as “100% social link is bad,” but like… there’s something i find really appealing about the messiness of attempting to manage so many relations at once- only to fall short in several of them and attempting to salvage the last bits of their sanity. when you think about the complications of the 100% SL run from the shoes of the protagonist… yeah!! that’s the good shit!

anyways! if anyone knows of any fics with this kinda vibe for the p3/4/5 protags… feel free to drop it in my askbox… i like them all VERY much :3c… and if this raised any food for thought- i’d be equally honored! let the protags go through shit i wanna see their emotions and coping mechanisms damn it! 👏

#persona 3 #persona 4 #persona 5 #yes it is 3am and im posting this. i couldn't sleep so i wanted to write something that i've been thinking abt as of late :x #highly recommend looking up ludonarrative dissonance btw! if ur interested in game storywriting its SOO interesting bc its definitely-#an occurence that happens every now and then in a video game. persona included. like.. when game mechanics tell one story but the narrative #-ends up contradicting that (or some other thing in reality ends up doing that...). does that even make sense??#i tried to keep this post general to p3/4/5 but if you know me well enough you'll see how my p3 bias has shaped this post. lmao #i also could go on a tangent about how i feel about orpheus telos as a thing w/rt p3 social links BUT I WONT. unless...?#i have more i want to say on the topic (maybe will do so at a later time) but feel free to ask for more specific hcs with the protags?#maybe not p4kun though just bc ive only watched p4 so i havent had the time to let it sit btwn play sessions #anyway bye im just going to let this float in the void while i sleep. have a good day #meta #hc and au nonsense #lizzy speaks

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pokemoncenter · 1 year

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On Pokedexes

While the electronic model popularized by Professor Samuel Oak is what comes to mind, in truth, the idea of the Pokedex is much, much older. In fact, the oldest surviving "Pokedex" is one of the eleven volumes of Naturalis Historia, written by Pliny the Elder in 77 AD (estimated). Though his methods were... bizarre, and his research extremely incorrect, the value of his work can not be overstated.

Through varying eras and locations, building off of Pliny the Elder's work, the idea of a Pokemon encyclopedia was an appealing one throughout history. Many, many people tried to make a definitive encyclopedia, but Pokemon simply change too quickly, and can escape too easily, for proper study. The most complete known Pokedex from history was Professor Laventon's Encyclopedic Monster Index of Hisui (estimated circa 1850).

The modern Pokedex, however, came about in 1996 from Professor an idea of the aforementioned Professor Oak. Abandoning the traditional methods of individuals using careful information, Professor Oak's idea was groundbreaking- A series of sophisticated measurement tools in a small, handheld package, connected to a Trainer's Pokeball system, allowing a Trainer to input data with incredible ease. Though this system was not immune to misinformation or mistaken measurements, overall, it became much easier to gain data. Professor Oak then entrusted this original model Pokedex with a Trainer from his hometown named Red, who then became famous for his dismantling of Team Rocket.

(It is known that Professor Oak made two of these original prototype Pokedexes, the fate of the second is unknown- Perhaps he kept it, or gave it to a family member, or simply scrapped it.)

However, this original Pokedex model, known as the model HANDY505, was merely a prototype, and as a result riddled with problems. It only had the space for around 150 species of Pokemon in its memory, which was barely sufficient for only the Kanto region- and for that matter, it had no recording ability for locations or habitats outside of Kanto.

However, Red's collection of Pokemon and filling out of the prototype was more than sufficient proof of concept for Professor Oak to receive more League funding, and he set about improving the Pokedex to a vast degree- The National Pokedex (often argued to be called the International Pokedex) was completed, and the sensor and measurement tools of the Pokedex were refined, even being able to extrapolate probable habitats from captured members of a species.

With the completion of the model HANDY910 used in Sinnoh, however, Professor Oak seemed to have finally been content with the advancement of the Pokedex, and in 2007, he did the one thing that would change the study of Pokemon forever:

He made the Pokedex open-source.

Now many researchers and scientists worldwide can create their own Pokedex. And each version of the Pokedex connects and works with each other, allowing for linking and gathering data on Pokemon in ever greater quantities than before. Whereas in Laventon's research, he had to catch vast quantities of Pokemon himself and study each of them individually, the Open-Source Pokedex Project allowed for scientists and professors worldwide to receive massive amounts of data from individual species just by simply looking into the collected information from the massive amounts of Trainers in the world, crowdsourcing research.

To this day, many variants on the Pokedex are still being created, trying to achieve the most useful and most complete version. Alola has a Rotom inhabit its Pokedex, allowing greater recording of information while the Trainer's hands are freed to focus on the Pokemon itself. Galar managed to compress all of this into a phone application, losing some sophistication in measurement tools in favor of greater convenience. Paldea's takes the form of a "digital bookshelf", where each Trainer's notes are recorded into books and sent to a central location for study. And the rush does not seem to be dying down- Every region, every scientist, seems to want their personal version of the Pokedex to be the best, to finally be the most complete, to know all there is to know about Pokemon.

Studying and learning everything about Pokemon is how we humans express our love for them.

#pkmn irl #pokeblogging #unreality #science with sophora

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adobe-outdesign · 1 year

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Thoughts on Varoom and Revavroom's designs?

This entire line is pretty neat, in my opinion. We haven't really had anything resembling a car Pokemon, let alone something as specific as an engine, so the concept alone immediately stands out.

The idea could've easily gone too far in the mechanical direction and ended up not feeling like a living creature, but thankfully, the line avoids this. It's established that some kind of poison-type Pokemon (Muk, maybe?) inspirited an engine, making it a semi man-made modern Pokemon. This explains why it's an engine in the first place. It's also established that they use the rocks they cling to as food/fuel, which both ties back into the engine thing but also provides a reason for them having wheels.

In addition, Varoom makes sense as a pre-evo. I don't claim to know anything about engines, but Bulbapedia claims it's a "single-cylinder internal combustion engine; specifically, those found in small engine applications". This makes both stages work conceptually, as it's basically going from a small-size application engine to a revved-up larger engine.

It's also pretty solid in terms of design. I don't know anything about cars, but the striped areas on the head protrusion gives it a unique visual pattern. The smooth body is contrasted with the rough rock base, and the bit of purple on the exhaust pipe indicates its poison-typing. The face is also very interesting; I can't think of any other Pokemon off the top of my head that has a protruding mouth and side-facing eyes like this. It's not too complex, but not too simple either, and I quite like it overall.

Revaroom is supposedly a "multi-cylinder internal combustion engine", i.e., the kind of thing you'd find on a hotrod car, more or less; this makes sense in terms of progression, but allows for a good amount of design differences compared to its pre-evo.

It has all of the same good things going for it that Revaroom does visually—the various poison-tipped exhaust pipes, the contrast between rocks and body, and a unique face—but also adds some things. Namely, the part up top that resembles the scoop(?) of many engines, but also is its mouth, complete with a tongue:

I love this addition; it feels almost like a cleaner version of a an Ed Roth illustration, which is an energy I can't really say any other Pokemon sports.

My only real issue with this line—which isn't all that important overall—is that I find it weird that the line floats, because A) it doesn't really need to, and B) it seems like it self-defeats the whole "rock wheels" thing it has going on. I also wish we got to see these attached to more vehicles; it would be fun if you could just stumble upon the odd one attached to a car, with a 'dex entry about how they tend to take over abandoned vehicles in junk yards or something like that.

Regardless, this is an incredibly solid line with distinct designs and and a unique concept. Definitely a welcome addition to the Paldean 'dex.

#varoom #revavroom #pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon reviews

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ainews · 3 months

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In a world of advanced technology and fast-paced lifestyles, it can be easy to forget the value of tradition and manners. One such tradition that often gets overlooked is the concept of chivalry. Chivalry, often associated with medieval knights and their code of conduct, is a set of values and behaviors that promote respect, honor, and kindness toward others. While it may seem outdated in today's society, chivalry is actually good for many things, including pilafs (a type of rice dish) for succubus.

Showing respect and courtesy

One of the main components of chivalry is showing respect and courtesy to others. This can manifest in small gestures like opening doors for others or letting them go first in line, but it also extends to how we treat our food. When preparing a pilaf for a succubus, it is important to show respect for the ingredients and the dish itself. This can involve carefully selecting high-quality ingredients and taking care in the preparation and presentation of the food. By practicing chivalry in cooking, we show our respect for our food and those who will be eating it.

Promoting mindful eating

In a fast-paced world, it’s easy to rush through meals or even eat on the go. However, chivalry encourages us to slow down and be mindful of our actions. When making a pilaf for a succubus, it’s important to take the time to properly cook and season each ingredient in order to create a flavorful and satisfying dish. By taking the time and effort to make a delicious meal, we are also making a conscious effort to fully enjoy and appreciate our food. This can translate into more mindful eating habits overall, leading to better digestion and a healthier relationship with food.

Fostering community and connection

Chivalry also emphasizes the importance of community and connection. In medieval times, knights formed brotherhoods and worked together to protect and support each other. In today’s world, we can use chivalry to cultivate a sense of togetherness and camaraderie with others. Making a pilaf for succubus can become a social activity, with friends or family members working together to chop vegetables, cook rice, and mix in the seasonings. This not only creates a delicious meal but also strengthens bonds and creates a sense of belonging.

Nurturing a giving spirit

Finally, chivalry encourages a giving and selfless spirit. In the code of chivalry, knights were expected to help those in need and serve their community. This mindset can also apply to cooking for others, especially for those who may be in more vulnerable positions, such as the succubus population. By taking the time to make a pilaf for succubus, we are showing compassion and generosity, which can have a positive impact on both ourselves and those we are serving.

In conclusion, chivalry is not just a thing of the past – it has practical applications in our modern world, including cooking for succubus. By practicing chivalry in cooking, we can show respect for our food, promote mindful eating, foster community and connection, and nurture a giving spirit. So let’s embrace this tradition and spread a little chivalry in our kitchens.

#ai generated #fake news

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anisaanisa · 11 months

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Limerence: The Masterpost ☆

I couldn't miss the opportunity for another canon-flavoured masterpost, so here I go again with Limerence. This collection is a prequel to Homecoming, so if you're not ready to say goodbye, by all means, carry on! The structure remains: above the cut lies links, and below lurks a prompt breakdown where I attempt to justify everything that just happened. Onward!

Tumblr: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Read it on AO3 ▶ Previous Masterposts: Homecoming〡Evermore

This is your rest stop. Beyond the Keep Reading banner are many words and manga caps for those with a vested interest in Inuyasha headcanons/meta/anecdotes. Snacks applicable!

The Personal Bit ☆

ALRIGHT, masks off besties. Are they your OTP? Cause they’re my OTP too, and we should consider bursting into flames about it together (ɔ◔‿◔)ɔ ♥

I didn't think I’d participate with writing this year, until about a week before the event, when I was frying-panned with some notions. As a fellow bearer of the curse, it started with a seedling of Kagome looking out for Inuyasha in the modern era, whether she realised it or not and even if, logically, she knew better, and snowballed from there. So, I blasted through each prompt with the intention of keeping them short, and after a survey back, each chapter grew deceptively longer, and I thought: why not add a stair [100 words] to Kagome's case for each day?

This particular canon universe is approached thusly: the prompt is the starting point, and the characters do the rest. I don't control the narrative, the narrative controls me, type thing. Hence, chapters are plot-negative, and times skips are abundant. Anyway. Enough waxing!

Note: I am working with the Viz English translation of the Inuyasha manga with some anime filler for seasoning, and the timeframe for the 3-year separation falls loosely between 1998-2001.

Final Note: Limerence spoilers start here.

Prompt Breakdown ☆

Day 1: Love Language(s)

Summary: Kagome's been distracted. Or, I hc that Kagome spent a good amount of time away with the fairies (and trying to catch up with school) when she first got back. Thoughts and Feels:

Love Language(s) were coined in 1992; the likelihood of them being such a commonly adopted phrase/ideology was as slim as Kagome knowing what her friends were going on about. They're a relatively new conception of navigating romance, but that doesn't mean buzzwords didn't make it into those teen mags we remember so well, though! Point for fuck it we ball!

For better or worse, friends are gonna be a tad nosy, and Kagome’s definitely were. Consistently and without fail:

Chapter 23, Volume 3, Mask of Flesh ☆

—and how else to feel her “snapping back into the room” in 100 words, if not when confronted with mathematics?

Chapter 411, Volume 42, The Kind One ☆

Fun Fact: There is a small high chance I spent the most time on this one overall because trying to spin a tale in 100 words is wild.

Day 2: Possession

Summary: Kagome acts on impulse. Or, I hc that uncanny resemblances might ruin a girl's day out. Thoughts and Feels:

Okay, yeah, okay, technically the baseball cap didn't happen in the manga. But this is why filler episodes are good for the ecosystem, or something.

Shock can have a lot of side effects. Confusion, agitation, complete and utter lack of personal or road safety (to name a few), and in Kagome's case here, shoving Inuyasha-shaped familiarity under her nose when she least expected it had her acting up, because not only has the well been sealed off for X time, she was used to him acting up whenever he stepped foot in the modern era:

Chapter 392, Volume 40, A Peaceful Meal ☆

Her friends still care, though! Cause that's what friends are for! As wild of a creature as Kagome can be, they're aware of her “struggles” with her health, and are oddly used to her odd ways:

Chapter 35, Volume 4, A Little Imp ☆

Fun Fact: I rewrote that last line, like, 7 times. The free writing tag is actually fake news.

Day 3: Safe

Summary: Kagome's has a nightmare. Or, I hc that a brave face doesn't do much when she's at her most vulnerable. Thoughts and Feels:

If you've ever had nightmares/night terrors/sleep paralysis, you'll know how, well, terrifying they can be. Lucid states between sleep and wakefulness has a nasty way of warping perceptions, and with everything Kagome witnessed, her dreamscapes had to be vivid, especially after her stint in the jewel, where reality and fantasy blurred real bad, and what's worse, it taunted her about it:

Chapter 554, Volume 56, High School Life ☆

To further that point, Inuyasha gets brutal - beheadings, graphic slaughterings (sometimes at the hands of an MC eheh), you know, justgirlythings - and therefore toned down for television, as anime adaptations often are. Kagome was 15, and while she did that, it would leave a mark. Trauma, guys. We're talking about trauma now.

If the reference was caught during her tiny tale: the scene with Mama H being shook to fuck over her baby glowing is anime-only, but I really dig the idea that she knew something was up with Kagome from Day 0, really aided in reasoning why she was so okay with her daughter doing all that, thank you for understanding. Another point for filler!

Fun Fact: I…barely remember writing this one, actually, truly, read it back a week later like: don't know her. I love her like any proud mother, though!

Day 4: Modern

Summary: Kagome asks a question she doesn’t like the answer to. Or, I hc that curiosity killed the cat. Thoughts and Feels:

The trickiest one, in terms of setting. I spent too much time looking into the availability and flavours of historical records in Tokyo (particularly 2000ish, bc digital archives weren't that hot then) and came to the conclusion that while yes, it was possible for her to gain access to [something], no, it wasn't very likely she'd come across any death records, (specifically Koseki) for her friends, with the added bonus that family names are notably lacking until 1868. But take Kagome's resourcefulness + Japan's love for paperwork, and it led me here – to some kinda fake archive with fake books and fake names that could potentially be somebody that she used to know. And while I try my best to be respectful of the people and the setting I'm writing within, I asked myself bluntly, if I really gave a fuck about being accurate in this regard/fictional setting, and the answer was also: no. There isn't a Sunset Shrine either, so a fictional National Archives with The Right Documents there shall be.

Of all the Fuedal-Inuyasha characters, I feel like Sango is the one that would have Done Something to leave a mark, somewhere written on paper. You know...Badass Women For Agriculture Union [codeword for demon slaying], something. Yeah, Miroku was a holy man, but we're not talking about history right now, we're talking about Herstory.

And finally, that moment. The one where Kagome almost cracked and unleashed self-inflicted rage on some guy, cause time didn't cease to exist for them. The thing about Kagome, apart from her being an all round great character, is that she isn't tame, nor timid, and certainly no shrinking violet. But where she's brash and loud and (sometimes) quick to anger, she's also kind. And reasonable, and at the core, a wonderful person, and that duality is what makes her so lovable, relatable, and fun to write. Lookit her:

Chapter 175, Volume 185, Where They First Met ☆

Fun Fact: I really wanted to point out that Kagome was supposed to be in her high school uniform, but writing restriction said naur. Irrelevant. Also, this is my favourite chapter. Weird, right? Haha?

Day 5: Heat

Summary: Kagome hears a bump in the night. Or, I hc that stranger things have occurred than a random bout of sleepwalking while living with PTID (Post Traumatic Isekai Disorder). Thoughts and Feels:

There was a small blip in time where this chapter skewed Mature. Explicit, even. Something about imagining a certain someone in a compromising position, but then the wind changed direction, and I went for literal heat. Japanese summers are stifling, and heat...is hot. Ace card, go!

Lunar charts and such: they don't add up when you compare two points in time, 500 years apart. But there could still be some peculiar celestial moon stuff that led a sleep-deprived Kagome to have a gander at the moon, especially when it's new.

Chapter 140, Volume 15, The Other Side of the Well ☆

Inuyasha had a brilliant way of turning up when she least expected him, or staying away when she wanted to see him the most. There are little things that happen, like an open window or remnants of a dream that might stay with her upon waking, to lead her to think-maybe it was him?

Chapter 287, Volume 29, Mimisenri ☆

BEHIND THE SCENES REVEAL: Kagome was the one who opened her door and tried to feed the cat, but it didn't work, because sleepwalkers are silly. Easter Eggy Subtext: Buyo is the catalyst, but Kagome is the key. Think about it.

Chapter 494, Volume 50, Two Worlds ☆

Day 6: Courting

Summary: Kagome tries her best. Or, I hc that Kagome gives it the old college effort, a la jewel illusion. Thoughts and Feels:

Kagome's family want the best for her. Kagome's friends are boy-crazy hen-peckers. Hojo is cute, and has always shown an interest in Kagome. Therefore: it would be wild to assume she didn't at least say yes, once, to going out with him, even if she knew it really wasn't going to go anywhere:

Chapter 140, Volume 15, The Other Side of the Well ☆

Sometimes you have to do things to understand how much you don't want to do that thing. At this point in time, Kagome's coming up for graduation, she's spent almost 3 years dealing with everything that happened to her, and she's not a complete tool. However, the mind wanders, especially when you'd rather someone else's company:

Chapter 69, Volume 8, Sensing Presences ☆

She's going to give the modern era one last shot – because while romance isn't everything, it can be part of something – before throwing in the towel and saying fuck it, I tried. And as Kagome's will Kagome, she'd want to make an effort for the sake of others:

Chapter 35, Volume 4, A Little Imp ☆

Fun Fact: This chapter (and the next) ended up floating around 1.5K at first draft. I'd like to formally apologise to the words lost in transit, you will be missed.

Day 7: Smile

Summary: Kagome comes home. Or, I hc that Kagome finally puts her wants, needs and feelings first, and those might suspiciously man-shaped. Thoughts and Feels:

Yeahyeah, the “I never thought I'd write this”, we've all seen it. But it's true! Never thought I'd write a chapter retelling, and this one is that fact's poster child. They aren't my bag (to read or to write) but the ending was there all along, obviously:

Chapter 494, Volume 50, Two Worlds ☆

The right wish, the wrong wish, a selfish wish, a selfless wish – as many Isekai's go, wish fulfilment is a huge part of the narrative (not just for Kagome, but so many of the characters) but she, unlike others, had a huge weight on her shoulders about making the right one that I wanted to tease out that moment where she gets it:

Awfully familiar cap is familiar, Chapter 558, Volume 56, Tomorrow ☆

Are you sure you're supposed to be there, Miss Thing? Life doesn't end just because you finished a job, or have to feel beholden to a sense of home. Home can be anywhere! Home can be a person! You can do it, bestie. Do it for her! Her is you! Go Kagome!

Chapter 79, The Fruits of Evil ☆

She made her dreams – from acing school, to making her family proud, to seeing Inuyasha again – a reality. There's really nothing more I can say about that, it's all there. She chose herself! And that included him! Ain't that neat!

Fun Fact: In Japanese, Inuyasha calls her a baka. In the scanlation, he calls her an idiot. In the English sub/dub, he calls her an idiot. In the Viz translation (the one I refer to most) he calls her a fool. Imho, in English, he says idiot, cause Inuyasha has zero respect and carries that no-finesse kind of rizz. Bless him.

Bonus Fun Fact: Chapters like this are why I'm such a flaming monster about writing advice being a tool, not a rule. Those last two lines, without the use of But and And at the beginning, would not carry the same weight and timing I wanted to achieve, therefore, you can pry them as sentence starters out of my cold, dead hands.

The End.

Weehee! This could have been way longer (you're thinking how, I'm thinking I'm proud of how restrained I was) but alas, we've reached the end. Thanks again to @inukag-week for hosting the event of all time! I love them sooo much. Sososo much, they're the best little guys 🎉

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, click here to send me an ask! I love not shutting up about them 🛸

ttyl bbs 🤸

#girl help: a novel by yours truly #posts to keep #Limerence #inuyasha x kagome #inukag week 2023 #inuyasha fanfiction #inukag fanfic #kagome #kagome higurashi #inuyasha #fanfiction #inu meta #anisaanisaff

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mariacallous · 8 months

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A major new work, weaving together historical anecdote and the author’s family history, laments the slow erasure of centuries of linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity in an increasingly homogenised region.

In Goodbye, Eastern Europe, a major new work “chronicling a thousand years of strife, war, and bloodshed” from Vienna to the 14 time zones of the Russian Empire, Jacob Mikanowski weaves a rich and amusing tapestry of historical anecdote (and personal family history). His aim is to explode conceptions of Eastern Europe as a grey, featureless bloc – but also to suggest that millennia of tolerance, cosmopolitanism and cultural, linguistic and ethnic variety are slowly being erased. While his epilogue links this diagnosis to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mikanowski’s thesis has perhaps even greater relevance to the Western Balkans.

His historical vignettes are delightful – thieves in the finicky Austro-Hungarian Empire handed four-hour sentences for stealing an onion, elderly Romanian communists leaving Kent Cigarettes on graves to pay black-market bribes in the afterlife – but also serve a larger purpose. This tissue of anecdote is the perfect way for Mikanowski to demonstrate Eastern Europe’s “defining characteristic is diversity”. Each page revealing another “little island of heterodoxy”, down to the ultra-fine level where each village has its minority and each minority its particularities, as in the exhaustive account of a Ukrainian settlement where even the cabinetmakers had their own culture: “As Filippians and Old Believers, they spoke Russian, but with a Novogorod accent.”

To Mikanowski, the phrase “Eastern Europe” is an “outsider’s convenience”, a lump term of little practical application to locals. His argument here recalls Maria Todorova’s “Imagining the Balkans”, which powerfully demonstrates the negative, politically-loaded role of the term “Balkans” – as implied by the always-pejorative neologism “Balkanisation” – applied by outside observers and commentators to a shifting set of states and territories while many of those states try to escape the charge.

As with, for example, Romanian writers claiming a Latin identity to evade the “Balkan” label, Mikanowski notes that particularly in the post-Communist era, many Eastern European countries prefer to consider themselves in “Central Europe”, the “Nordic Community”, and so on, thus distancing themselves from the Eastern Bloc. The Balkans are, perhaps, another such an exception, but with the difference that the term is applied from the outside. Rather than a breakaway clinging to Mitteleuropa (Hungary) or Russia (Belarus), they’re isolated and abandoned – the last island of Eastern Europe.

Mikanowski does sketch the deep diversity and (sometimes uneasy) tolerance which has long characterised the Western Balkans – as well as pointing to the mushrooming of latter-day nationalism and ethnic homogenisation. For example, he takes a fascinating trip to Moschopolis in Albania, the “city of the shepherds”, which was for centuries the heart of the little-studied Vlach culture, but whose Christian churches are now largely shuttered.

Overall, the book has less to say about the Western Balkans than other regions. States are covered in the expected proportions, with Poland mentioned around 230 times, but Bulgaria 50 times and Serbia 40, with Montenegro and Kosovo only just reaching 10. This reflects Mikanowski’s Polish-Jewish origins, personal research interests and certain geopolitical realities, but also suggests the extent to which the Balkans represent Eastern Europe’s own East, encoding the same values for other Eastern Europeans as Eastern Europe itself does to the West.

Nonetheless, his arguments can provide a key for understanding the region, for example when claiming polities like the Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth (represented here as the avatar of its contemporary, fledgling US) and the Ottoman Empire were not “nuclear winters” for culture. Rather, they “tended to accentuate difference rather than suppress it”, in the latter case particularly by fostering the “largest and oldest concentration of Muslims on the European continent”, whose contributions are often overlooked when set against Umayyad Andalusia. As with Christopher Clark’s recent effort to rehabilitate the much-maligned Austro-Hungarian Empire, to Mikanowski there is much to commend these vast and unwieldy institutions, which discriminated against minorities while simultaneously allowing for unprecedented religious toleration on the basis of recognized differences.

With these arguments, Mikanowski aims to push back against simplistic, atavistic nationalisms which have defined the post-Communist era – as when he derides the phalanxes of nationalistic statuary in Skopje, or critiques post-ideological, third-way museums in Hungary for implying communism was “just as bad” as Nazi fascism, in a charge equally applicable to contemporary nationalist ideologues in the Western Balkans. At the same time, he cautions, it’s “easy to fall into nostalgia” when discussing Eastern Europe’s pre-World War 1 diversity. Most cities were not “melting pots”, but characterized by mutually suspicious, if tolerant, communities – as in Albania’s Elbasan, once partitioned in sharply-defined concentric circles of Christian Albanians, Muslim Albanians and Christian Vlachs.

Mikanowski’s anecdotal style is less suitable for identifying other meta-historical trends or making political claims. As with the genealogy craze, everyone finds their own great-grandfather’s story fascinating – but what can this tell us about the course of history?

In such a grand narrative, something is always downplayed, and Mikanowski’s focus is on the personal and local. Understandably, the writer is more concerned with tracing the miserable fate of intellectuals under Stalinist communism than any deep-searching assessment of Communist political economy. He has sympathy for Hungarian “Goulash communism” and respect for Tito’s Yugoslavia as the sole anti-Stalinist “exception” and bane of Stalin’s life but doesn’t delve into how it was that Tito could by and large preserve inter-ethnic diversity and solidarity, instead somewhat simplistically presenting the Yugoslav project as an “act of mutual forgetting”.

Rather, the full impact of Mikanowski’s string of personal anecdotes is revealed when he turns to his family’s experiences in the Holocaust. Pushing back against representations of the slaughter of six million Jews as solely an “impersonal, mechanized process”, marked by German efficiency, Mikanowski argues that in Eastern Europe, “the Holocaust was an intimate slaughter”, as neighbour turned on neighbour in an exhaustive, hand-to-hand massacre. Thus, the author, in the book’s most profoundly affecting passage, can trace his great aunt Rosa’s scream as she was executed in the Warsaw ghetto via a secret milk-can archive, preserving the memory of her murder to the present day, where it “haunts” him yet.

Long-term persecution of the Jews and Roma notwithstanding, cataclysmic 20th-century violence was in part so horrific precisely because minorities had lived cheek-by-jowl with their persecutors for so long, in what Mikanowski calls a “ramshackle utopia”, weathering prejudice and the rise and fall of empires.

Mikanowski’s warning over the dangers of homogenisation and decline of this long-standing cosmopolitanism is particularly germane to the Balkans – all the more so in the neo-liberal free-for-all which followed the Socialist collapse. The Jews are gone, the Islamic presence is much diminished, and regional capitals are an increasingly indistinguishable blur of co-working spaces and Starbucks, masking empty rural hinterlands left to the impoverished, the elderly and the ghosts. But so too is his celebration of a “constellation of parochialism… bigger than the sum of its parts”, traces of which still endure in those same hinterlands, despite all efforts to eradicate it.

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squeakadeeks · 1 year

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hello! i really love your cosplays and im not sure if this is the place to ask (ive checked your gumroad and kofi if i missed it im so sorry!), but do you have any advice or tutorials out for wigs?

specifically!! i really adore how fluffy you make them, and the layers are perfect! do you achieve it all with just heat styling and hair spray? :o

it tis indeed the right place to ask! So I dont have any traditional wig tutorials out, but I have done one on houseki wigs:

and I believe i also included a fairly in depth section on wigs in my Karna tutorial.

But! in terms of general advice, personally I find that a lot of wig smithing is applying a core 2-3 concepts in different ways. The bread and butter is heat training, back combing, and adding dimensionality.

Heat training involves heating the fibers such that they will lock in whatever place they were in when heat was applied. A common application of this is if you want a huge up-do, you flip your wig upside down and hit it with heat, so the fibers will stay bent in the upwards direction. I often do this first and foremost on my wigs to make them get more lift and fluff! (for a casual wig, i dont blast it as strongly/as many times, but for crazier ones like karna it was heat trained heavily). This can also be useful to bake in hair parts, swooshes, and spikes.

Then theres back combing, with is often combined with heat training and is a primary method for adding structure in wigs. even for big fluffy wigs, most often the strategic move isnt to keep adding more and more hair- but rather to make whatever hair is already on the wig simply occupy more volume. This can be done by isolating some of the innermost hair close to the roots/wherever you want volume and taking a toothed comb and running it backwards to bunch of the fibers (and then ideally hit it with heat to lock the bunches in place!) once its been bunched, you can brush it out again and notice that it will have retained a lot of its frizz, and is much more voluminous! this makes a little hair pillow for your fibers that is also MUCH easier to shape by hand. I often do this around the bangs of my wigs or anywhere if i feel like i need to add more volume/define a shape better. its also great to do for the inside of huge spikes, pony/pigtails, and super fluffy bangs. Another popular technique to do this is to use a crimping iron, since the crimping iron will press in texture to the fibers in one go, thus making them take up more volume (although to be honest i have not had a ton of luck with this technique myself but its much faster).

and then dimensionality, this is basically my code for ""shading"" your wig. everytime i fully finish the fluffing/styling of a wig, i then go over it with some kind of color pigment like eyeshadow, an airbrush, or markers to give the wig extra pop. i often add these pigments in the ridges along spikes/parts to make the shapes stand out, or add a darker color along the roots to make it look more natural. this process makes the work you've done stand out and overall looks very professional!

since reading this in text only goes so far, arda wigs has a ton of incredibly helpful tutorials/wig styling examples on their youtube:

Sarah Spaceman also has a fantastic cosplay education channel has a great wig introduction video that goes over the foundations and techniques too!

youtube

hope this helps!!

#im gobsmacked i dont have a wig tutorial #i couldve swaun to john that i did but if i do its undeniably insanely outdated #*adds to my to-do list*

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prettyboykatsuki · 1 year

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I’m a little curious as to why you’re against the sentiment of anti porn, do you mind elaborating? Ik its a controversial topic so feel free to ignore

ill do my best to keep it as brief as possible but this is a very nuanced topic of conversation that i could easily write a dissertation on so ill try sparing you the tangents and summarize my feelings. also this is not something im willing to debate about in case anyone is feeling the need to

many of the anti-porn and anti-sexwork talking points are rehashing's of evangelical and puritan ideas about the sanctity of sex and fail to consider the practical applications of banning these industries. they're often not oriented at the protection of sex-workers and focus explicitly on the victimhood narrative of womanhood (which is how they transition quickly into terf rhetoric but i digress)

in addition, they talk about the acts of sex-work like they're uniquely exploitative. we live in a globalized society, run on commodification.

one of the most exploitative industries in the world is agriculture. chocolate in particular is run massively on child labor below the hemisphere. chocolate can be addictive, bad for health, and overall damaging to the body. many of the same arguments people use for the banning of porn.

but we never say to outright ban chocolate or agriculture. we don't say "well lets just all stop eating chocolate" rather, we're able to insert a degree of separation between the theoretical of those industries to the practical applications of prohibition. it's not that consumption of chocolate is inherently bad or wrong, but rather it requires moderation and it requires protections in order to check for the quality of life of producer and consumer

misogyny present in adult films is not innate to sex work but there is certainly gendered exploitation. it can perpetuate misogyny, and it can be harmful. we live in a misogynistic and sexist society. adult film and sex work interact with intersections of oppression in the same way that everything else does. all women's labor is informed by patriarchy and sexuality. and sex work is no exception to this rule.

but the implication that through banning pornography and full-service sex work and shaming consumers we will achieve liberation is backwards and counterproductive. prohibition and incarceration is a failure of the system. porn and sex work has existed since the beginning of modern civilization. it will continue to exist even if we do everything in our power to prevent that.

my issue with almost all of the anti-porn rhetoric is it's insistence that it is the key to fixing a societal issue(patriarchy) that has existed since the beginning of man all while speaking over the people most effected by it's existence which are sex-workers

everything in the world is entitled to critique, and pornography is no exception to this rule. sex-work is no exception to this rule. but anti-porn is not just industry critical, rather it makes its point by promoting ideologically purity disguised as feminism. many of the articles used to make points about anti-porn are taken directly from moralistic conservatives on the very far right.

this isn't even touching on the concepts of sexual liberation. again, something i could probably go on about. but yeah i dont like the anti-porn crowd

#return to sender #i give this 5 minutes to be up before i have to take it down but yeah. not my fave #ask to tag

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