#treating digital media like traditional media

[meimi-haneoka]

Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Special Chapter: Comments and Analysis

WELCOME BACK, CCS FAAAAAAAAAAAANSSS!!!!!

Oh my god 3 months went already by from that December 1st and chapter 80, didn't they?? Feels like yesterday 🙈But we're finally here, finally ready for the release of the definitive, last SPECIAL CHAPTER of Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card!!!! After this, no more CCS for at least a while!!

Why do you see me so euphoric?? WELL, THERE IS MORE THAN ONE VERY GOOD REASON 😂 But let's not jump the gun and let's introduce this post properly: this time around, I won't be posting pictures to "illustrate" the analysis/commentary, because this special chapter was treated differently from the other ones. It didn't get, in fact, a free release on CLAMP's Youtube channel, in any language, and wasn't even uploaded for digital purchase on Comic Days like all the rest of the chapters. The only way to obtain it was via the April issue of Nakayoshi, either with the physical or digital version. Since it is clear to me their intention to keep this gem of a special chapter away from the internet jungle, and since lately I used only the screenshots from Youtube to illustrate my analysis, this time around I won't be posting anything (aside from the color page, which was released by the official account themselves).

AND! I won't be mixing analysis and summary, because I have already conveniently prepared some screenshots with a detailed summary of the chapter for the people who were curious to know, but didn't get to see the chapter yet or did see it but couldn't read Japanese. I have already posted these screenshots on my Twitter account, and I'll put them here too under the cut (please don't repost them around or in other social media), so you can immediately get a broad view on the content of the chapter (I don't have to point out translation mistakes, haha 😅), and then, afterwards, I'll write my commentary. And there is SO MUCH to say!!

But before starting, we can't break the tradition right at the LAST ROUND of our chapter commentaries, right?? So off we go, with the GIF OF THE MONTH!!

Yes, I think this is the GIF that can represent this chapter the most. 😂

The Color Page

This special chapter is composed of 33 pages, and of course I can't avoid starting my commentary precisely from the color page!!

I admit it, I hoped for a color spread with the four main characters of Clear Card (hence, including Kaito and Akiho too), but since the other two appeared with their own color page just in chapter 79, we'll gladly take this single color page with SyaoSaku too!! ❤️ The JP text reads "We've been together till now, and we will always be! Featuring a long-awaited special chapter!!" Syaosaku look absolutely adorable....and so, so happy!! Looking at us, from a wreath made of cherry blossoms, of course dressed in their image colors pink and green, in a "pair look"...I think their shiny smiles conquered the hearts of the entire fandom (saw many comments about it) and it is certainly a perfect introduction to a chapter that is, indeed, completely made of this happy, leisurely, warm atmosphere. I feel like it tastes even better, after all the anxiety they made us go through, right? I'm pretty sure that was CLAMP's goal all along, giving us this little reward after all the hard situations they've put their characters through. This color page looks like Sakura and Syaoran are saying "goodbye" to us, holding their hands in a lover's hold, but seeing them so cute and happy definitely soothes the sad feeling 🥲 Until we meet again...hopefully!

Letters From Around The World

But it's when the chapter starts that we get our first surprise: the time skip is of one entire year!!! We left our little heroes at the end of the first year of Tomoeda Middle school, ready to go in spring break and then start the second year...here, Sakura says she's in her spring break of the next year, ready to become a 9th grader!!! I almost couldn't believe they actually went that far, I knew from CLAMP's podcast that there was a timeskip, but I expected just some months! Although....I have to say the characters don't look that different, Mokona said she made them a tiny bit older and she kept true to that, because it's barely visible! 🤭 But if you compare them with how they looked at the middle of the story, of course the difference is visible.

I was so happy to see that the chapter started right away with a letter from Akiho: a letter or a videocall was definitely among the type of content I wanted to see in this chapter, because of course I still was quite preoccupied about the difficult journey Akiho and Kaito embarked on, so I wanted to see how they were faring. The amount of letters Sakura accumulated over the span of this year tells me that they moved around quite a lot, and she had always something to share with her "long-distance sister" 🤭 Kero praising Akiho's skills and even feeling some sort of "reverence" for her insane talent to find all the crazy and rare books was so funny and nice!! 😂Sakura is adorable, feeling all proud about the talent of her "sister" 🤭 Loved that they actually mentioned the place where Akiho and Kaito are currently at!! (cause they didn't reveal where they'd go first, in chapter 80, and I guess we'll never know). I appreciated SO SO much that they let us see that Akiho didn't drop, but actually continued to practice her sewing skills like she was doing before everything went down the drain with the Alice in Clockland play: moreover, finding out later that this skill is also helping her greatly with the true ambition of her life made me incredibly satisfied. How cute of her to send outfits for Kero and Suppy, even from far away??

I was quite surprised to find out that Akiho sends all the rare books to Eriol, and then laughed my as* off at Kero saying he's selling them off (the way Kero phrases it in JP makes it look a QUITE shady activity 😂). This shows there's a continued collaboration between the "group" in England and YunaAki, and it's very nice. They're not only "taking" support from Eriol, Akiho also does return the favor, providing Eriol with the books he needs.

And then....got really emotional to know that Kaito wrote a letter to Sakura, back when they left one year ago 🥲 I DID feel like some kind of acknowledgement or apology from Kaito to Sakura was missing from chapter 80 (but honestly, with everything they had to explain, where they could fit that?) and so this little mention completely fixed that sense of "he made a mess and barely managed to apologize to Akiho before leaving". Kaito isn't an ass*ole so of course he would've done something like that, and a letter seems perfect for an introvert boy of few words like him. I imagine the letter wasn't really long either. The little moon on the sealing wax...❤️The fact that Sakura is storing that single letter together with Akiho's letters in a specific box makes me almost cry. She cares for those two so, so much! 😭 Sakura wishes to receive more letters from Kaito and I really hope he will open up to her along the way, because he could benefit ENORMOUSLY from her advices and perspective! Also THANK YOU CLAMP for giving us a little "still" of those two next to eachother from the moment when they were leaving Tomoeda, with the suitcases and all 🥲that last faraway shot of all four of them together in chapter 80 was so great, but I wanted to see them like this too!

The SyaoSaku Date

Aaaaaand then we get to the long awaited, craved, coveted SYAOSAKU DATE!!! 🤣 I can't count how many people I've seen wishing for this....to be honest I was going to be ok with any kind of sweet moment between the two, but gotta admit that a carefree afternoon watching a stage play and then taking refreshment at a café gives this sense of normal, complete fun that was missing a bit for them. They are dressed in a very fancy way (loved that Sakura isn't wearing her usual long one-pieces but something different, with puff shorts! A sign of her growing up?) and even though they're not exactly wearing a "pair look" (too corny, maybe?), they are well matching eachother's outfits. And of course we find out that Tomoyo made Sakura's cute outfit and even the decorations on Syaoran's collar! The fact she was the one asking Syaoran to wear them at the date is kinda funny, like some sort of guidance into looking like a couple, thanks to the matching decorations! Tomoyo really takes care of everything....yes....everything. 🥲 The mention of Sakura's wedding dress of course made me go "OH MY GOD" and made me realize that if Tomoyo is already mentioning that.......we aren't *that* far away from that day (I always imagined SyaoSaku marrying early, since they're soulmates and got together so young!! 😆). Truly an emotional, sweet moment that was reinforced by Tomoyo's tender expression in the flashback. Her resolution to devote herself to learn to design even normal everyday outfits, or date outfits, everything that could accompany her dear Sakura everyday, reminded me that Tomoyo found her very own way to be with Sakura, and she's perfectly content with that. Tomoyo's happiness is seeing Sakura happy, and she will do anything to achieve that. ✨

Syaoran and Kaito's Friendship

And then my blushy blushy Sakura changes topic and suddenly throws me on the floor in a fit of laughter, because seeing Syaoran's confused look while he was trying to make sense of the pictures Kaito sent him on his phone WAS HONESTLY PRICELESS. 😆 My god, how long have I wished to see them like this? Moving their timid steps into a friendship (since their girlfriends are like sisters and Sakura literally saved Kaito's derriere), being their awkward dorky selves...they surprisingly get along so well and Syaoran doesn't seem to hold resentment towards him, which is GREAT for me!! He's learning from Sakura to just let go of hard feelings, when you've found out the person who acted in an oppositive way was just in a very desperate situation and had actually no ill intentions. And that makes me incredibly happy. Kaito needs all the support he can get, to make the right decisions in his life, and I can totally see him finding a particular connection with Syaoran, due to how they're both moon boys, who would give their life for the person they love. I think precisely for this, precisely because Syaoran can understand to a degree Kaito's situation and behavior, he wouldn't feel judged and would feel more free to establish a connection with him. I was k*lled with laughter and endearment when I saw that Syaoran felt confused, but still tried to understand Kaito's peculiar way of communicating with him 😂 And guess what? I think he doesn't realize it, but he's totally starting to get it! 😂The way our wolfie boy snaps that picture IMMEDIATELY as the cat passes by, and how he only framed the ear, really shows how in the end he's speaking "the same language" as Kaito 😂 Seeing Sakura so excitedly think to herself that the two became such good friends made me scream "SAME SAKURA-CHAN, SAME!!!" 😂 All in all, seeing these two having such a relaxed, comfortable date talking about their friends and stuff that happened lately made me completely feel that one year that elapsed, and now they act totally like a couple that's been dating for quite some time. 😊 Ooooh thank you sensei, really. Thank you so much for this scene. 🙏

The Moon Is Really Beautiful, Right?

BUT! The real reason why CLAMP will always have my heart and my gratitude is hidden in the next scene. 😂

Oh my god, the screams I've belted out when I saw them. And when I've read THAT. But let's go in order, let's go in order and not jump the gun! We're in Germany, Akiho and Kaito now seem to be living in an apartment in a nice building! They're still talking in keigo, and still calling eachother "Akiho-san" and "Kaito-san". 😊

Kaito SMILES genuinely at the picture Syaoran sent him!! And answers, to an observant Akiho, that he's having fun!! 😭HIM! The one who couldn't understand what was fun in interacting with others!!! He looks honestly so radiant and happy, a sign that his mental recovery is going strong. And that he's slowly expanding his "trusted people" network. 🥲🙏Also, he looks younger than ever!!! 😂

It made me INCREDIBLY HAPPY to see that Akiho didn't drop the "hobby" she had started in chapter 26 (ages ago!!), remember this scene?

I remember how much I loved to know she had started learning how to do this, because together with my friends, at the time, we all thought this could easily become her aspiration in life......and guess what?? CLAMP confirmed she wants to take on a job revolving around books and book repairing!! This is all canon!! T___T oh my happy tears.... There's a sense of pride in seeing that this journey for Akiho isn't only revolving around finding the cure for Kaito's shortened lifespan (which hurt his body terribly) and restarting his "stopped time", or finding Momo and the Alice in Clockland book, but she's also got the mental resolution to do something for herself, for what she wants to do in life, something that is completely disconnected from Kaito. Again, I cannot reiterate enough how this girl doesn't have an unhealthy codependent relationship with Kaito, and she's completely capable of thinking about her own future, aspirations and wishes. She wants him with her, and she could never live happily without him, but the love of her life isn't the only thing that exists for her. It is incredibly satisfying to see her working hard for her own future, where she'll be able to contribute (especially financially) to their livelihood. I can see Kaito helping her and assisting her with that. The other day I was dreaming away with my friends about Kaito and Akiho managing a "book cafè" together somewhere, how impossibly sweet that would be?

Seeing this volitive, ambitious, strong-willed Akiho once again filled my heart immensely. And I wasn't the only one, apparently.....

Oh god, you have no idea of the SHRIEKS I belted out when I saw Kaito saying "the moon is really beautiful, right?" in full daylight. Like. It is absolutely unmistakable at this point what kind of love he feels for her, and while I always knew, I'm sure the character took his own sweet time and personal introspection to reach that conclusion. If you remember, I've always said it and reiterated it at the end of chapter 80: Kaito won't understand things overnight, it will take a long time. And one year, at that age, is enough of a long time to come to terms with one's feelings and understanding what exactly they mean. They lived all that time together as two "equals", no more butler/boss bullsh*t, so they had even more opportunities to see eachother's true colors. And Kaito couldn't help but fall even more in love with Akiho, to the point that seeing her working so excitedly for her future made him gently overflow with that feeling....and said that sweet quote of Natsume Soseki that we all know, by now, what it means. I think the mere fact that what made his heart explode was seeing her so independent and strong, is a good sign that Kaito's love for her is the healthy and supportive kind, too. He doesn't love her and feels attracted to her soul because she's a weaker, younger, malleable being that he can dominate (as a toxic relationship would portray), but at the contrary, because she's free and strong and wonderful on her own. The more he sees her shining, the more that feeling grows. Throughout this scene, he looks at her and talks to her in such an intensely sweet way, you can totally see he's smitten with her.

The most popular reply to someone who confesses with "the moon is beautiful" is the equivalent of "I could die for you/I can die happy now", in Japanese. And Kaito had been unconsciously replying that way, with his actions, the whole damn time during the serialization of Clear Card. But since he took it way too literally, things were really heading to tragedy. Nobody wanted him to die for real, and yet, subconsciously, that was the only way he had found to give outlet to an enormous amount of feels that he couldn't express (because it wasn't appropriate, and nobody would ever love him, and he only caused her pain, and he had to let go of Akiho anyway at the end of it).

So considering all of THAT, this "I love you very much" he said now (he added とても, "very", like Akiho did ❤️) in this way, makes me think even more "yes, you finally understood what was the best way to convey it!" and therefore, it represents another character development for our moon boy. 🥲

There's debate over whether he had already understood what Akiho had meant, in chapter 48. I stand firmly by my convinction that, even if he was informed of the Japanese folklore tale around it, he quickly dismissed it as "no, she's meaning it literally for the moon", since he couldn't really believe that anyone would ever take interest in him, and was sure he would've always been alone. Otherwise, if he really understood and believed that Akiho was in love with him, I don't think he could've ever said that "I thought you didn't need me to be happy". It doesn't make sense. But everything that happened at the fake moon, and all her angry tears, and all her resolution to find a way to cure him, made him finally see that she really meant it in that way. ❤️So his own acceptance and introspection could finally start, and....it brought to this. ❤️ If you want to know more about the popular phrase "the moon is beautiful, right?", I invite you to check my first Clear Card Trivia post, focused on the literary and musical references portrayed throughout this story!

And LOL, I couldn't help but noticing several things in how this scene played out: first, he immediately "runs away" blabbering about the breakfast being ready, a very similar way to how he "ran away" in chapter 52 when Akiho could see right through him and was trying to express her support and feelings to him. This is definitely an indication (taking into consideration also how he acted when he was little) that the reason why Kaito walked away back then, slamming the door, had a sprinkle of embarrassment embedded in it, too. Yeah. I mean, look at the face he's making here, just before he notices, puzzled, that his hand is shaking:

He's smiling so tenderly, among the pain he's feeling because of his poor health. He even laughs! He's happy he heard that! But he just couldn't stay hearing any longer, back then. Now, in this scene of the special chapter, he literally throws "the bomb" and runs away without hearing her answer or reaction 😂😂😂this is definitely embarrassment, and I'd like to think there's even a hint of teasing streak that I've always seen between the lines in his personality. It came out particularly with Syaoran and Momo, but Akiho isn't excluded from this dynamic! 😂

And excuse me, but Akiho's reaction literally made me roll on the floor laughing!! 😂The poor girl is probably so used to live abroad, and Japanese folklore isn't probably coming up immediately in her mind anymore, despite it's a phrase SHE used HERSELF back then! 😂Or maybe it's because she didn't really expect it from him, and so she took a moment to connect the dots. Either way, it was extremely funny! And I can't absolutely avoid pointing out how our girl isn't blushing like mad anymore, but just slightly.... I mean. It must have been quite clear to her too, by now, that her feelings were in some kind "reciprocated", be it for what Sakura said back at the fake moon, his decision to go back to her, and his decision to reveal his true name, hence giving her his most vulnerable part of himself... This isn't a shock for her, and she probably waited patiently, patiently, for him to finally say something like this. So maybe, more than embarrassed, she's surprised that the day finally came! 🥲 Goodness. This really puts all my worries to rest, Akiho will truly be happy. And it makes total sense that CLAMP made him say this now, and not at the end of chapter 80. As I said, more time was needed. This entire scene leaves me with a sweet, soft, comfortable feeling, and it's totally how I've always imagined their relationship to be. Also....no more of that "he loves her as a daughter/sister" crap, not canon-wise at least. 😊

One last thing I have to point out about this scene, which curiously reconnects everything together, is that recently CLAMP have announced the themes to which their upcoming exhibition will revolve around: among them, there's LOVE (of course!), and among the decorations surrounding the featured character on the key visual (Sakura, for now, but there's at least another one coming!) there are a couple of birds too. Birds are, in this sense, a symbol of love in CLAMP's language. I couldn't really help but noticing all the birds flying outside the window next to Akiho, the moment Kaito says that "the moon is really beautiful, right?". Basically, CLAMP were trying to scream it all over the place, however they could. 😂

"Momo-san?!"

It was so nice to see Yukito and Kero-chan gossiping about Touya right in his face, with the complete intention to tease him 😂in that sense, Yukito really seems like a sweet and harmless character, but don't be fooled! His teasing power is over 9000!! 😂Touya's killing glare made me crack up! He's so done for, now that both Kero and Yukito can tease him in the open! 😂😂😂

But please, please, let me scream about MOMO!!! Oh my god I would've never accepted a special chapter that didn't feature her!! Aaaaahhh I'm so glad to see that she's fine 🥲 The conversation between her and Sakura made clear to me that she isn't that free to move how I imagined her to be. Certainly, she decides where to go and who the book stays with (and when to leave), but the impartiality imposed on her role doesn't allow her to act freely like she wants, unless she pays a price. And she decided to pay a price, not to see Akiho and Kaito, but to go and thank Sakura herself first. Because, as her "those kids" suggests, she of course still feels some kind of maternal instinct towards them, and as any mother would do, she wants to thank Sakura from the bottom of her heart for having helped and saved those two. Even her body language (the position of her hands) portrays that. And excuse me, but I A B S O L U T E L Y loved how CLAMP clarified once and for all, addressing directly the complaints of their own fandom, that Sakura wasn't forcingly dragged into a matter that wasn't related to her. Everything she did, she decided to do it because she felt it touched her personally. From the moment she became Akiho's friend and came to care for her, everything that happened and everything that she was involved with was related to her too. This wasn't "somebody else's business" anymore. Because Akiho is one of her most beloved friends, no matter how "fast" that happened. Some relationships bloom almost immediately, because the connection is just that strong. And so, this turned into just another expression of "your happiness is my happiness", with Sakura acting according to what her heart suggested. As Kaito is Akiho's most beloved person, Sakura couldn't help but care for him too, because doing so would've made her friend happy, in a wonderful "circulation of love".

Special mention for the scene with pregnant Lilie, oh my god I didn't really expect this either. How long ago I wrote that Tumblr post about cosmos flowers and the origin of Akiho's name? A couple of weeks ago? It's like CLAMP answered my curiosity, with this scene. I still keep my interpretation in my heart, but I also love the logic "it is a flower that keeps the same name in many countries". Of course. "Wherever you'll go, you'll always be your unique self". (And now I want to cry, mama's heart is so big😭) The way Lilie keeps her hands over her womb made me tear up. The ring isn't there anymore, a sign that she probably already gave it to Momo (understandably, since once Akiho would be born, she wouldn't really have much time left). The baby bump isn't that noticeable, probably because she's at the beginning of her pregnancy. Who knows if she kept seeing little Kaito while she was pregnant. 🥲Who knows if in the scene where she's telling him about how wonderful it is to have something you love, especially a person, she was already pregnant with Akiho. 🥲

Momo and Sakura's final words made me understand that Momo cannot go back to Akiho and Kaito till the circumstances and the moment is right. Whether it depends on Akiho's wish, or the right cosmic arrangement, it's surely not in the short term. Especially considering the limited scope of Momo's agency. It cannot come from Momo (unless she pays a huge price), it needs to come from them, strongly enough. I also want to think that, again as an acquired mother figure, Momo wants those two to find their own way, identity and figure out their relationship on their own, without her interference. I'm sure she's keeping an eye on them from faraway, though. 🥲Even though this still feels bittersweet because I wanted to see them reuniting in canon so badly, it gave me lots of hope for the future. Momo is just waiting for the right moment, and she'll be ready to embrace them when the time is right. Maybe, who knows, we'll see that reunion in another series or in a special publication in the future?

The End

And then....the final scene 🥲NOW it is finally clear what Ohkawa meant in that one Twitter Space, when she mentioned that there was a reason why they never featured Sakura's birthday!!! THEY NEEDED TO KEEP THE EXCLUSIVITY FOR THIS!! 😂 I'm so glad they did, really...it's so sweet to see her reaching 14 years old (the "standard age" of many shoujo heroines! 😂) and seeing Syaoran giving her a present, with that strikingly sweet smile full of love...but most importantly....the breathtaking final double spread 🥲🥲🥲🥲 The way she pulls his hand close to her chest, to her heart, while saying that Syaoran will be forever and ever her most important and special person.....really, this chapter is meant to k*ll us all with feels!🥲and I love how CLAMP keep finding ways to portray their physical displays of affection without resorting to the classic, most wanted (but also probably considered not appropriate yet) "kiss". The very final page is a direct parallel of a page from chapter one, where Sakura was going to school alone and looked back down the street to admire the cherry blossoms in full bloom.

Now, she's not alone anymore, but actually hugging the love of her life on her special day! Really, what a wonderful and fulfilling way to give the final touch to this amazing story! 🥲 Her very last line also contributed to this. Sakura leaves us again, 24 years after the first ending, with words of positivity for the future, and love for her important people. This wraps everything up nicely, but it still keeps things quite "open-ended", hopefully in the eventuality to return to this wonderful series in the future. Sakura is growing up, as CLAMP wished, and it might be possible to see her dealing with more "grown-up" situations, magic and non-magic wise. But one thing is for sure, her relationship with her loved ones will always take top priority. ❤️

Well well well, we came to the end of this looooooong commentary for this special chapter too. I can't help but thank once again all of you who followed my posts all these years, and commented with your POVs on the story.

As I've said multiple times, Cardcaptor Sakura gave me so much ever since I was a kid, and this sequel was no exception. This special chapter, in particular, overflowed with things I wanted to see, and I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking so. I once again want to congratulate CLAMP for wrapping everything up nicely, and thank them from the bottom of my heart for these almost 8 years of emotional journey. 🙏

See you around with my other tumblr posts, and let's look forward to the release of volume 16 on April 1st, and hopefully, news about the anime sequel of Clear Card!!

#cardcaptor sakura #card captor sakura #clear card arc #ccsakura #ccs spoilers #sakura kinomoto #syaoran li #akiho shinomoto #yuna d. kaito #syaosaku #yunaaki #special chapter #translation differences #how come this post is so freaking long even without translation differences? #well dammit I had A LOT TO SAY #and even some itches to scratch #aaaah the satisfaction #😊so happy

[maxs-grimoire]

Hi!

So I'm a (minor) young witch and I want to learn how to get into hellenism. I'm looking to pray to Aphrodite, Ares, and Dionysus particularly, but also Hestia, Thanatos, and Hera!

I kinda want to be discreet about it, because my mom is very Christian lol.

Thank you for the help!

- Anon Ziggy

Hello! I like your little Anon tag, that's kinda cool! This post will be broken into two parts, the first is about Hellenism and how to get into it, and the second part about broom closet witchcraft.

==-🏺HOW TO GET INTO HELLENISM🏺-==

--=-==-=--What is Hellenic Polytheism?--=-==-=--

Hellenic Polytheism is the modern recreation of Hellenism, the ancient Greek religion. It is an open pantheon/practice, and anyone can get into it.

Hellenic Polytheism is a partially animistic religion, believing in nature spirits and treating all things with respect, including plants and inanimate things found in nature (rocks, the wind, water, etc.). The Hellenic Pantheon is made up of these nature spirits, the Twelve Olympians (link), the cthonic deities, and the lesser gods.

I recommend looking at this webpage to learn about traditional Greek religion. Keep in mind that while it's 100% okay to not do things exactly as they were done in the past, it is important to keep things in mind the cultural context and history of Hellenic Polytheism.

--=-==-=--How do I start?--=-==-=--

"Step one" on becoming a Hellenic Polytheist is to decide how you want to go about worship. Do you want to worship Greek deities, or do you want to work with them (link , link)? What is your view on cleansing yourself before interacting with the gods? Do you want to work with every god and deity from the Greek pantheon, or just a select few? Figuring these things out will give you a place to start.

As I mentioned above, some people decide to cleanse themselves before interacting with the gods. It isn't necessary, but it is a huge sign of respect. You can go about this the traditional way, by making khernips (link), or just by washing your hands and face.

The next big step would be to research the deities you want to work with. Find out what appropriate offerings are (like bay leaves for Apollon), their mythology, festivals for them (Aphrodisia for Aphrodite), associations with them (mint and Hades), and any customs that are common with them (honoring Hestia first and last).

I would also learn or at least read their traditional hymns and media (poems, plays, etc.) created for them. You can even make some for them yourself!

As for praying, here is a great video on praying in Hellenism, here is a great video on altars, and here is a good one on offerings.

--=-==-=--🤫 Secret Witch Tips 🤫--=-==-=--

This post is already a million words long, so we're going to rapid fire some broom closet witch tips.

Travel altars! These can be made in an Altoids tin, a small box, a shoe box, or anything else! Let me know if you need ideas on small things to go into a travel/mini/hidden altar.

Digital worship! Check out this post on virtual worship

Subtle witchcraft. Can be done through glamour magic, art magic, kitchen witchery, affirmations, taking care of nature, or any other small form of magic that makes you feel centered, connected to the earth and universe around you, or honors your guides and deities.

Get plants! Taking care of plants is a great witchy thing to do, and you can dedicate a plant to a deity and take care of the plant as an offering to them

Get e-books, read articles, watch videos, and listen to podcasts on witchcraft.

--=-==-=--=--=-==-=--

#witchcraft #witchblr #pagan witch #hellenic pagan #witch #other witchy #hellenic polytheism #witches #apollo #hellenism #digital witchcraft #green witch #hearth witch #witchcraft 101 #witchythings #witch community #witchy #maxtalk #witch tips #hestia #hellenic worship #hellenic deities #hellenic gods #hellenism 101 #hellenic polythiest #helpol

[thepastisalreadywritten]

(CNN) — Jack Latham was on a mission to photograph farms in Vietnam — not the country’s sprawling plantations or rice terraces but its “click farms.”

Last year, the British photographer spent a month in the capital Hanoi documenting some of the shadowy enterprises that help clients artificially boost online traffic and social media engagement in the hope of manipulating algorithms and user perceptions.

The resulting images, which feature in his new book “Beggar’s Honey,” provide rare insight into the workshops that hire low-paid workers to cultivate likes, comments and shares for businesses and individuals globally.

“When most people are on social media, they want nothing but attention — they’re begging for it,” Latham said in a phone interview, explaining his book’s title.

“With social media, our attention is a product for advertisers and marketers.”

In the 2000s, the growing popularity of social media sites — including Facebook and Twitter, now called X — created a new market for well-curated digital profiles, with companies and brands vying to maximize visibility and influence.

Though it is unclear when click farms began proliferating, tech experts warned about “virtual gang masters” operating them from low-income countries as early as 2007.

In the following decades, click farms exploded in number — particularly in Asia, where they can be found across India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, and beyond.

Regulations have often failed to keep pace: While some countries, like China, have attempted to crack down on operations (the China Advertising Association banned the use of click farms for commercial gain in 2020), they continue to flourish around the continent, especially in places where low labor and electricity costs make it affordable to power hundreds of devices simultaneously.

‘Like Silicon Valley startups’

Latham’s project took him to five click farms in Vietnam.

(The click farmers he hoped to photograph in Hong Kong “got cold feet,” he said, and pandemic-related travel restrictions dashed his plans to document the practice in mainland China).

On the outskirts of Hanoi, Latham visited workshops operating from residential properties and hotels.

Some had a traditional setup with hundreds of manually operated phones, while others used a newer, compact method called “box farming” — a phrase used by the click farmers Latham visited — where several phones, without screens and batteries, are wired together and linked to a computer interface.

Latham said one of the click farms he visited was a family-run business, though the others appeared more like a tech companies.

Most workers were in their 20s and 30s, he added.

“They all looked like Silicon Valley startups,” he said. “There was a tremendous amount of hardware … whole walls of phones.”

Some of Latham’s photos depict — albeit anonymously — workers tasked with harvesting clicks.

In one image, a man is seen stationed amid a sea of gadgets in what appears to be a lonely and monotonous task.

“It only takes one person to control large amounts of phones,” Latham said. “One person can very quickly (do the work of) 10,000. It’s both solitary and crowded.”

At the farms Lathan visited, individuals were usually in charge of a particular social media platforms.

For instance, one “farmer” would be responsible for mass posting and commenting on Facebook accounts, or setting up YouTube platforms where they post and watch videos on loop.

The photographer added that TikTok is now the most popular platform at the click farms he visited.

The click farmers Latham spoke to mostly advertised their services online for less than one cent per click, view or interaction.

And despite the fraudulent nature of their tasks, they seemed to treat it like just another job, the photographer said.

‘There was an understanding they were just providing a service,” he added. “There wasn’t a shadiness. What they’re offering is shortcuts.”

Deceptive perception

Across its 134 pages, “Beggar’s Honey” includes a collection of abstract photographs — some seductive, others contemplative — depicting videos that appeared on Latham’s TikTok feed.

He included them in the book to represent the kind of content he saw being boosted by click farms.

But many of his photos focus on the hardware used to manipulate social media —webs of wires, phones and computers.

“A lot of my work is about conspiracies,” Latham said. ” Trying to ‘document the machines used to spread disinformation’ is the tagline of the project. The bigger picture is often the thing we don’t see.”

Click farms around the world are also used to amplify political messages and spread disinformation during elections.

In 2016, Cambodia’s then-prime minister Hun Sen was accused of buying Facebook friends and likes, which according to the BBC he denied, while shadowy operations in North Macedonia were found to have spread pro-Donald Trump posts and articles during that year’s US presidential election.

While researching, Latham said he found that algorithms — a topic of his previous book, “Latent Bloom” — often recommended videos that he said got increasingly “extreme” with each click.

“If you only digest a diet of that, it’s a matter of time you become diabetically conspiratorial,” he said.

“The spreading of disinformation is the worst thing. It happens in your pocket, not newspapers, and it’s terrifying that it’s tailored to your kind of neurosis.”

Hoping to raise awareness of the phenomenon and its dangers, Latham is planning to exhibit his own home version of a click farm — a small box with several phones attached to a computer interface — at the 2024 Images Vevey Festival in Switzerland.

He bought the gadget in Vietnam for the equivalent of about $1,000 and has occasionally experimented with it on his social media accounts.

On Instagram, Latham’s photos usually attract anywhere from a few dozen to couple hundred likes.

But when he deployed his personal click farm to announce his latest book, the post generated more than 6,600 likes.

The photographer wants people to realize that there’s more to what they see on social media — and that metrics aren’t a measurement of authenticity.

“When people are better equipped with knowledge of how things work, they can make more informed decisions,” he said.

“Beggar’s Honey,” co-published by Here Press and Images Vevey, is available now.

#Jack Latham #click farms #box farms #Hanoi #Vietnam #Beggar’s Honey #box farming #social media #algorithms #user perception #trolls #PR #marketing #advertising #likes #comments #shares #digital profiles #virtual gang masters #bots #spam #China Advertising Association #click farmers #mass post #disinformation #misinformation #fake news #metrics

[coldalbion]

Like Covid, climate change will force more artists away from traditional opportunities for community and inspiration. The pandemic turned drag Twitch streamer DEERE into a full-timer; as a makeup artist, her gigs vanished. So she focused on her passions: drag, horror games, and streaming. Early in the pandemic, comedian Jenny Yang created and hosted Comedy Crossing, a twice-monthly standup show streamed over Zoom from inside the game Animal Crossing. Throughout 2020, it raised more than $40,000 for Black Lives Matter. “I’m in this industry and have dedicated my life to it because I want to be part of a conversation,” she says. “To me the collective conversation is what makes life meaningful.” BOARLORD is an indie game developer who “pivoted to porn” (and Patreon) during the pandemic after working in tech, where she discovered “the naked hatred they all have for cultural production.” It was there she found her place. “I am not trying to capture the largest audience. I’m being hyper-specific, sometimes to my detriment," she says of her work. Or, to put it another way, DEERE, Yang, and BOARLORD all found their own ways of seizing the means of production, of audience-building. It's the same thing Black Girl Nerds CEO Jamie Broadnax discovered live-tweeting Scandal years earlier. “I didn’t know I was building a community,” Broadnax says. “I was tired of waiting for a seat at the table, so I built my own table.” The appeal of becoming one’s own studio head is obvious. “Take TikTok,” says Clifton. “You have teens with a more polished presence online than most companies, who have become TikTok experts seemingly overnight, and their work just keeps getting more and more professional-grade.” But in a world where everyone is a brand, no one can be a star. And influencers have discovered what porn performers already knew: Platforms are fickle. Content guidelines, corporate ownership, and payment structures can change overnight, without explanation. Much like humans have permanently altered and unsettled the natural world, online ecosystems for fans and creators have experienced rolling shocks in response to technology. Just as users find another den, it’s burned down. The story of the internet is the story of America itself: a seemingly limitless landscape transformed into a shopping mall populated by the same handful of brands, products, and voices. MacDonald tells me that what’s important about pornography isn’t what it can tell us about entertainment but what it can tell us about how platforms will treat people in the future. “Porn workers are the canaries in the coal mine. They are the first ones to be censored, demonetized, deprioritized in recommender systems, shadow-banned,” MacDonald says. And their vulnerability will soon be everyone’s. “Porn workers are at the bleeding edge of showing that if we don’t address this unilaterally and quickly, next it will be queer video gamers, and after that it will be certain political opinions, and that is alarming. That should concern everyone.” To understand how the American media landscape fractured, one must first understand the brands that forged it. According to Faris Yakob, cofounder of creative consultancy Genius Steals and author of Paid Attention, advertisers created the neutral “view from nowhere” voice in media. In the 19th and 20th centuries, national brands looking to grow customers wouldn’t partner with biased publications. But everything changed when ad tech arrived. “People started tagging their digital media buys so it wouldn’t appear next to topics like homosexuality, or Covid, to avoid getting into clusters,” Yakob says. “But that means that the news isn’t being funded. If you can pick and choose what topics to fund in news, you can distort what is being reported on, to some degree.”

This a fantastic article that touches on so much

#sag aftra #writers strike #queer #media

[havoc-bloom]

Meet The Havocbringer :]

Welcome to the House of The Havocbringer!

(GIFs from Dreams of An Insomniac and Welcome Home. Userbox made by @treats-icon-collection)

Unsure how I haven’t made an introductory post before, but hello! My name is Havoc, artisanal shitposter, artist, horror fanatic, and fanfic writer extraordinaire!

I upload and reblog pretty much anything that interests me; art, stories, memes, heritage posts, you name it. I also make my own OC art and stories! Here’s some facts about me:

My sexuality and gender are unlabeled ❤️

I use they/it/he pronouns 🧡

I am a minor (16 years old) 💛

I have autism and anxiety 💚

I’ve been doing digital art for over four years now and traditional for much longer, cheers to more years of masterpieces! 💙

I am obsessed with the horror genre, FNAF was my introduction and I’ve been hooked ever since 💜

I am completely open to DMs and messages! I’d love to hear what y’all think! 💗

Current Hyperfixations/Media I Like!

Dreams of An Insomniac (analog horror series)

Welcome Home! (ARG)

Pizza Tower (video game)

Hollow Knight (video game)

Will Wood/Will Wood and The Tapeworms (singer/songwriter)

Hawaii Part II (album)

Dialtown (video game)

Scarecrow / Jonathan Crane (DCU)

Transformers: Prime (TV Show)

Kin List:

Mortimer Gray (Dreams of An Insomniac)

Wally Darling (Welcome Home)

Quirrel (Hollow Knight)

That’s all I can really say about little ol’ me! Have a great time in the House of The Havocbringer!

❌(DNI under the cut)❌

DNI and Trigger List:

Dream stans / Dream SMP

Boyfriends (webcomic)

18+ or NSFW

Hyperrealistic/real images of spiders and maggots (severe arachnophobia!! And maggots really gross me out)

Bigots, racists, homophobes, transphobes, enbyphobes, people who disrespect neopronouns or xenoidentities, etc.

#introduction #introducing myself #pinned post #meet the creator

[crash476]

As someone who works for an actual archive I can say with 100% confidence that AO3 is NOT an archive. It is a social media sight, therefore OTW is obliged to moderate LIKE A SOCIAL MEDIA SIGHT

Archives are usually seen as the final repository for documents and artifacts deemed to have historical value from the perspective of an archive. If AO3 was operating as a traditional archive (and there’s plenty that are run by non-profit orgs, community groups, etc. with little to no government backing) then they would just take on the collections from soon to be defunct fan sights and forums. This is incredibly important work as we are staring down the barrel of a digital dark age. Media companies have shown they have no regard for letting people have access to their IP and are willing to scrap completed work for a tax write off. Backwards compatibility has at best been an afterthought of tech companies, trapping critically important information on now defunct hardware. Hell, one massive solar flare and digital media is gone.

The problem from my perspective is that AO3 wants to be an archive AND a social media sight. Not only does it collect fan work that would otherwise be lost, but users are allowed to post their own work. I mean, I use AO3 to post my fics, it has the biggest platform right now and I like how you can organize your fics. But as an assistant archivist, you can’t have your cake and eat it to.

As a final repository for documents and artifacts, we have to vet and do research on the accessions that come to us. We are constantly trying to engage with our collections, giving them descriptions and context. It’s a sort of afterlife for these documents and artifacts, because aside from our preservation efforts, we archivists and technicians don’t add to the finished document. It’s treated as a completed. There’s no more editing to do. We do, also, get to choose what the public sees. In an ideal world, there’s no restrictions to any information, but working in a government archive, we have privacy and confidentiality policies that dictate how and when archival material can be seen. And we don’t keep everything, coming from the information management site. There’s a lot of docs that get destroyed immediately or after a certain amount of time.

If I had the ability, I would have the archive part of AO3 separate from a hosting site for ongoing fics. If a fic hasn’t been updated after a certain amount of time, then it should be added to the archive with a descriptor like “incomplete”. All the while the ongoing fic hosting side is moderated like any other web forum, blog, or fic hosting site.

This is all a long preamble for me to say that as a SOCIAL MEDIA site, AO3 is obliged to moderate users. When it comes to prejudice in all its form, you got to be on top of it. It’s like running a bar: most people are here for a good time, but you got to have boundaries. If someone gets to plastered or gets belligerent, you toss them out. And to invoke the old punk bar story, you have to toss out bad actors immediately, even if they seem nice. Because once they get comfortable, they bring in their likeminded crew and take over. AO3′s got a bad racism problem, fandom as a whole is rotten with prejudice, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying to be better.

#ao3 #ao3 racism #fanfic racism #fandom racism #ao3 is not an archive #ao3 is a social media site

[enarei]

it's funny because e-readers occupy this category of computer that currently fills a use case niche enough that not many people mind its limitations, but that statement is circular, people accept that this device will only ever be able to fill a small niche, in this case, serving as a compromise between a physical book and a full-blown tablet/computer w/ touchscreen, because there hasn't been any effort into expanding what that compromise means. and imo this sucks because it really limits the potential of people leveraging the things e-readers were originally touted for, namely the non-LCD screen and its relative robustness compared to a traditional smartphone.

part of it could be attributed to how the primary drawback of the screen technology only made it suitable for a few things smartphones didn't excel at around the same time, it became stagnant as something that solved a few problems (LCDs) with something that solved a lot of other problems with something else (desktops). despite a phone or a tablet being a lot more practical than a book, they're also inherently distracting to a lot of people, there's always a dozen apps running in the background, it rings, it flashes notifications, it vibrates, and of course, the screen causes eye-strain after long periods. e-readers were popularized as something that married the "dumbness" of paper, and the practicality of digital media, online connectivity, storage, weight, and so on. in its infancy, there was legitimately no point in making a device capable of handling complex media or applications that would make it more comparable in function to a smartphone or tablet, because the screen simply couldn't refresh quickly enough to display it. marketing those limitations as something that aligned it further to a real book made perfect sense, as if you tried to use it for anything else, you would be frustrated by its sluggishness, but more importantly, it helped to distinguish it further from things people already owned.

but like, 15 years on from when the first Kindle was released, the hardware limitations that might've prevented them from having some manner of flexibility that might've brought them closer to other mobile devices at the time, the ability to browse the web, or install third party applications, are mostly irrelevant. the relative uselessness of most e-readers is not because e-ink technology is still too finicky to make consuming anything other than ebooks a pleasant experience, but because the concept of the "e-reader" itself has shifted from a media device with a specialized screen, designed for document reading in general, to solely being an entry-point to a particular storefront.

(like, I realize the tone of this may sound almost conspirational, but consider the first e-readers also doubled as music players. sure, the resolution was SHIT, but they often had more features than what is available today, more than two decades later! it would only be more recently that them being "dumb"/exclusively capable of one thing would be touted as a feature.)

even if more people might be interested in the devices themselves if they were capable of more, say, downloading manga scanlations, reading dynasty-scans without hassle (telling that this is the demographic I first think of), if they allowed more user freedom, easier connectivity and means to fetch files from the internet; treating it more like an actual computer, which it is, might harm long term sales on the proprietary storefront. to Amazon, which practically holds a monopoly on e-readers, the Kindle is a medium for selling books, it doesn't need to be capable of any more than that, the user interface being incredibly anemic, the browser still being experimental after a decade, the inability to export highlights, the laughable epub/cbz support, these are conscious design choices, rather than technical compromises. and they unfortunately exert enough influence on the concept of what an e-reader is supposed to provide that the drawbacks of using Kindles for reading comics, PDFs, or other non-DRM documents aren't apparent for most people, and this is reflected in nearly every other manufacturer (Kobo is barely better)

and it doesn't have to be that way. obviously. obviously this is the point of the post. e-ink is such a cool technology. there are android based e-ink tablets but they cost like $600 dollars for no reason. but more importantly, a middle ground between a full-blown android OS and a lightweight linux interface that doesn't suck is totally possible. please hack your Kindle if you can. install Koreader. read yuri doujin for hours without getting headaches. do it now.

[svsssartreblogs]

Welcome to @svsssartreblogs Art Event for Our (and Binghe's) Favorite Shizun's DeathBirthday on September 21st, 2022!

The anniversary of Shen Yuan's death is coming up - and this is also the date fandom treats as his birthday, since it's the day he transmigrated to become Shen Qingqiu! With that in mind, welcome to our first-ever birthdeath day event on SVSSSartreblogs to celebrate.

HOW do we celebrate?

Why - make art, of course! Everyone would love to see your celebratory artwork - and I'll reblog it, too!

You're welcome to create whatever you'd like (even fics or other types of fanworks) but! I will only reblog works that fit our usual reblogging criteria: OP-made artwork in traditional or digital media. I occasionally will also reblog photomanipulations but only if they're very transformative (as in, a great deal of art creation would be necessary to make them). (To be clear, photo manipulation, gif making, etc., are all absolutely amazing skills, but there's just so much content for this fandom that I have set some limits on what I will and won't reblog - apologies).

Want to get involved? We'd love to have you! Make your artwork, post it on September 20th, September 21st, or September 22nd, 2022, and tag #svsssartreblogevents, and maybe give us a follow so you can see everyone else's amazing work, too!

We look forward to seeing what you create!

Graphic by me (and I'm terrible at making graphics). Artwork is official art released for Shen Qingqiu's deathbirthday last year.

Want to see the full calendar of danmei character and actor birthdays I've put together? It's here! I'll add to it as I'm able and as I join more fandoms and learn more character birthdays.

#mod post #svsssartreblogevents

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Over the weekend, a story came out of Brussels that many may have missed. The twenty-seven member states of the European Union reached an agreement on a new law requiring big online platforms, including social-media companies, to police hate speech and disinformation more effectively. Under the E.U.’s Digital Services Act, European governments now have the power to ask Web platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to remove any content that promotes terrorism, hate speech, child sexual abuse, or commercial scams. The platforms will also be obliged to prevent the “manipulation of services having an impact on democratic processes and public security.”

“The time of big online platforms behaving like they are ‘too big to care’ is coming to an end,” Thierry Breton, the E.U.’s commissioner for the internal market, declared. If the European authorities see a surge of online disinformation during a crisis, such as the ongoing war in Ukraine, they will be able to order social-media companies to take “proportionate and effective measures” to counter the threat. Although the new E.U. agreement stops short of treating online platforms the same as traditional publishers (which may be legally liable for intentionally false content about specific individuals and companies), it will force them to provide users with “an easy and effective way” to flag harmful content, so that it can be removed. The platforms will also be subject to annual audits by European regulators on their efforts to counter disinformation and other abuses. Platforms that violate the new law can be fined billions of dollars, and repeat offenders may even be banned from doing business in the E.U.

Ironically, the E.U. members adopted the new measures only days before the board of directors of Twitter entered into an agreement to sell the company to Elon Musk, a self-styled defender of free speech and a vigorous opponent of government regulation, for about forty-four billion dollars. “The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders,” Bret Taylor, Twitter’s chairman, who is also the co-C.E.O. of the software company Salesforce, said in a statement.

Evidently, financial considerations overrode any reservations that the members of Twitter’s board may have had about selling the company to Musk, who has frequently criticized its management and demanded changes in how the site operates. Musk’s bid of fifty-four dollars and twenty cents a share represents a premium of close to forty per cent over the firm’s stock price on April 1st, immediately before he disclosed that he had acquired a nine-per-cent stake in the company. But, even though the financial logic of the deal is straightforward, the implications of Musk taking control of Twitter are, from a broader perspective, potentially highly problematic, especially since he still hasn’t answered some pressing questions about his intentions for the site, including whether he plans to allow Donald Trump back onto it.

In a statement on Monday, Musk said that he wanted “to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.” These aren’t necessarily bad ideas. Allowing users to edit tweets and authenticating their identities could conceivably improve Twitter. The idea of opening up Twitter’s algorithm also sounds benign, although it could clash with the goal of defeating the bots, because once the spammers know Twitter’s formula for serving up tweets they may be better able to game it.

But none of Musk’s suggestions addressed the fundamental issue of which approach Twitter will now take toward content moderation. Will the company maintain the heavy investments in artificial intelligence and human monitors that it has made in recent years? Will it expand these monitoring efforts as demanded by the new European law? Or will it move in the other direction, dismantling them and allowing the return of former users it had suspended or banned, particularly Trump?

Based on the signs so far, the answer to the last question is yes, Trump and others who have been banned will return. Even though Trump currently insists that he won’t return even if he is invited—he has his own social-media app to promote—many of his supporters are openly celebrating the news of Musk’s takeover. During a staff meeting on Monday, a Twitter employee asked Parag Agrawal, the firm’s chief executive, whether Trump would be allowed back. “We constantly evolve our policies,” Agrawal replied. “Once the deal closes, we don’t know what direction this company will go in.”

Based on some of his public statements, Musk seems intent on taking Twitter back to the not at all distant era when social media was a free-for-all. “I do think that we want to be just very reluctant to delete things,” he said, in an interview earlier this month. If Twitter does go in this direction, it could encounter pushback from corporate advertisers that don’t like being associated with disinformation, incitement, and controversy. Musk has suggested that Twitter should grow its subscriptions base to become less dependent on advertisers, but it’s not clear how many people would pay to use the site, especially if its contents are largely unfiltered.

Musk has also said that his pursuit of Twitter is driven by the desire to protect free speech and “help freedomn in the world” rather than to make money. These are fine-sounding words, but it sometimes seems as if Musk’s notion of free speech amounts to attacking and lampooning anybody who challenges him, including the financial regulators who charged him with securities fraud and fined him twenty million dollars for tweeting misleading information in 2018 about a possible buyout of Tesla. “Even as Twitter’s board on Monday was debating his offer . . . Mr. Musk was setting the tone for his leadership by tweeting that Securities and Exchange Commission officials were ‘shameless puppets,’ ” Greg Bensinger, a member of the Times’ editorial board, noted. Last week, Musk used his Twitter account, which has about eighty-five million followers, to try fat-shaming Bill Gates, whom he also accused of speculating against Tesla’s stock.

In a column for the Guardian, Robert Reich, a former U.S. Secretary of Labor, argued that Musk’s real goal in purchasing Twitter is to create a position for himself where he is unaccountable to anything, from laws to market competition. Whether that’s entirely accurate or not, the pending takeover provides yet another confirmation that Congress needs to treat the big online platforms like the social utilities they are, and regulate them. A first step would be to pass the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee, on a bipartisan basis, in January. This legislation would prohibit dominant platforms, such as Amazon and Google, from exploiting their market power to boost their own products by discriminating against their competitors.

Regulating content in a manner consistent with protecting free speech may be a trickier proposition, but the E.U. has just provided a road map for how it could be done: by putting the onus on social-media companies to monitor and remove harmful content, and hit them with big fines if they don’t. The Digital Services Act is “nothing short of a paradigm shift in tech regulation,” Benb Scott, the executive director of the advocacy group Reset, told the Associated Press. “It’s the first major attempt to set rules and standards for algorithmic systems in digital media markets.”

Musk would surely object to the U.S. adopting a regulatory system like the one that the Europeans are drawing up, but that’s too bad. The health of the Internet—and, most important, democracy—is too significant to leave to one man, no matter how rich he is.

#us politics #news #the new yorker #2022 #elon musk #twitter #european union #Digital Services Act #Thierry Breton #Bret Taylor #Salesforce #donald trump #Parag Agrawal #tesla #the guardian #robert reich #American Innovation and Choice Online Act #senate judiciary committee #Benb Scott #Reset #associated press

[pfenniged]

Hellooooo :) For the sleepover asks: do you have any book/song/movie/tv/literally anything recommendations? I always see you reblogging cool stuff for different fandoms 🤭

Okay, I do, but this is the most random assortment of my recent favourite media/music, but hopefully someone can pick out something from this (And thanks, babe <3):

Books:

Wham! George Michael and Me by Andrew Ridgeley:

In 1975 Andrew took a shy new boy at school under his wing. They instantly hit it off, and their boyhood escapades at Bushy Meads School built a bond that was never broken. The duo found themselves riding an astonishing roller coaster of success, taking them all over the world. They made and broke iconic records, they were treated like gods, but they stayed true to their friendship and ultimately to themselves. It was a party that seemed as if it would never end. And then it did, in front of tens of thousands of tearful fans at Wembley Stadium in 1986.

Andrew’s memoir covers in wonderful detail those years, up until that last iconic concert: the scrapes, the laughs, the relationships, the good, and the bad. It’s a unique and one-and-only time to remember that era, that band, and those boys.

Digital Minimalism: Choosing A Focused Life in A Noisy World by Cal Newport:

Digital minimalists are all around us. They're the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without furtive glances at their phones. They can get lost in a good book, a woodworking project, or a leisurely morning run. They can have fun with friends and family without the obsessive urge to document the experience. They stay informed about the news of the day, but don't feel overwhelmed by it. They don't experience "fear of missing out" because they already know which activities provide them meaning and satisfaction.

Now, Newport gives us a name for this quiet movement, and makes a persuasive case for its urgency in our tech-saturated world. Common sense tips, like turning off notifications, or occasional rituals like observing a digital sabbath, don't go far enough in helping us take back control of our technological lives, and attempts to unplug completely are complicated by the demands of family, friends and work. What we need instead is a thoughtful method to decide what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions.

(I've been feeling burned out from tech lately with work, and I'm trying to pull back as much as I can from using screens every moment of the day).

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton:

Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark! A Vagrant, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beaton, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, Katie heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush―part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can’t find it in the homeland they love so much. Katie encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet is never discussed.

Beaton’s natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, northern lights, and boreal forest. Her first full length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.

(I had to go to Alberta to get my training completed, and I experienced a lot of the similar themes explored in this graphic novel. Might be stupidly Canadian for some, but a great graphic novel overall).

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore:

Discover the gripping and inspiring true story of The Radium Girls, a groundbreaking work by acclaimed author Kate Moore. Immerse yourself in this compelling narrative that unravels the extraordinary lives of these fearless women who fought against all odds.

The Curies' newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright in the otherwise dark years of the First World War.

Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive―until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

Songs:

You Deserve an Oscar by Matt Maltese

Love and War in Your Twenties by Jordan Searcy

Wham Rap! by Wham!

Everything She Wants by Wham!

She's Got a Way by Billy Joel

Movies:

The Wham! Documentary on Netflix was just a hell of a lot of fun, and inspired me reading both Andrew Ridgeley's memoir and get into more of Wham's music.

Good Will Hunting: It's the first time I properly watched it through, and loved it.

TV:

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: I wasn't a fan of the first season, but the crossover and musical episodes (Plus adding James T. Kirk, spoilers), has really brought it around for me.

#this is the most random assortment of fandoms but THERE YA GO PRINCESS #<3 #softguarnere #personal

[kouhsuu]

hii hello who are you whats your lore!!

MY LORE okay that's a new one

*THIS IS GONNA BE LONG AND RAMBLY*

Who I am? 17 year old genderfluid digital and traditional artist 👍

For my lore as an artist: My dad is a painter so from a very young age i was surrounded by art materials literally taking up half our small living room because of the easles, giant canvas rolls, wood, cabinets full of paints and brushes, etc.

Essentially I was very encouraged by him to draw lol, and it also came out of me just finding art so much fun in general. I knew that if I got good enough at it I could draw almost anything I wanted if i pushed myself to learn.

I get verrry engrossed learning anything creative and visual, whether it be making my own website, sewing, sculpting, video editing, 3d modelling, painting, woodworking, etc it's all SO! MUCH! FUN!! I also have to specify visual creativity because oh boy can i not stand trying to make music as much as i want to.

In school I was very obviously the art kid and one of the weird kids, but luckily never got bullied because i was charismatic enough and generally there weren't major major assholes at my schools somehow. I usually was involved with the special programs in my schools because of my enthusiasm to learn and participate, so I got an opportunity to enroll into an early scholarship program for LaGuardia art school in middle school which... i ended up turning down because i thought it would be too much work being in a college like that... which honestly only kind of regret because honestly now i'd rather get into drafting and architecture.

Speaking of drafting and architecture! The reason my dad became a painter is because my grandma couldn't afford to send him to school to become an architect, so he pushed me to go into the field as well now that I have the opportunity. I didn't really feel like it but it seemed kind of interesting designing buildings because if i knew how buildings were made, i could more accurately put detail into my art xD Most decisions I make are to improve my own artwork because it's my life and soul, and luckily i ended up getting interested into working with more drafting.

My first social media i posted art on was google plus, then came deviantart, then came youtube, then twitter, and now tumblr (and cohost & itaku). I still use twitter but my main account (@/hamunako) is essentially inactive, I don't care enough to keep posting there nor do i have the motivation NOR do i want to have the anxiety to feel like I have to keep posting because uh oh people wont interact with me otherwise!!!!! Now I just use a private account with less than 25 followers and its the best. I made this Tumblr account though just in case twitter finally deleted itself off of the face of the planet, and also because i've always wanted to figure out how tumblr works & instagram confused me even more than tumblr...

As for why i've been drawing SOOOO much lonely wolf treat lately??? Short answer: ADHD (possible autism too?), Long answer: A long long time ago I watched manlybadasshero's playthrough of lonely wolf treat and loved it, then i forgot about it until i went on itch a while ago and saw that nami had posted mochi in frosting so I was like WOAH THERE'S STILL NEW CHAPTERS?! I got even more into it when it turned out one of my new friends ALSO had played lonely wolf treat so we drew the characters and it allllll spiraled from there.

Can't think of anything else interesting to share regarding my lore but yeah!!! Also I take commissions, just message me and i'll show what I can do and my prices! Don't have a formal post yet but i'll get to it at some point, i'm not very formal in the first place xP

#long post #kouhsuu lore #ask #asks

[riverandpeakventures]

How AI Is Transforming Digital Marketing: A Deep Dive

In today's fast-paced digital landscape, staying ahead of the curve is not just an option; it's a necessity. For digital marketers, this means constantly adapting to new technologies and trends to ensure that they can connect with their audience effectively. One such game-changer that's reshaping the digital marketing landscape is Artificial Intelligence (AI). In this blog, we'll take a deep dive into how AI is transforming digital marketing.

Understanding Artificial Intelligence

Before we delve into its impact, let's briefly understand what AI is. AI refers to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. These tasks include problem-solving, learning, understanding natural language, and recognizing patterns.

Personalization at Scale

One of the most significant ways AI is transforming digital marketing is through hyper-personalization. Traditional marketing approaches often treated all customers similarly, but AI allows marketers to create personalized experiences at scale. AI analyzes vast amounts of data to understand consumer behavior, preferences, and habits. With this information, marketers can tailor content, recommendations, and offers to each individual, increasing engagement and conversion rates.

Enhanced Customer Insights

AI-powered analytics tools provide marketers with unprecedented insights into customer behavior. By tracking and analyzing user interactions with websites, emails, and social media, AI can uncover hidden patterns and trends. This valuable data enables marketers to make data-driven decisions, refine their strategies, and create content that resonates with their target audience.

Chatbots and Customer Support

Chatbots are becoming an integral part of customer support in the digital age. Powered by AI, chatbots can handle routine customer inquiries, provide product recommendations, and even complete transactions. They are available 24/7, improving customer service and freeing up human agents to focus on more complex issues.

Content Creation and Curation

AI is revolutionizing content creation. From generating product descriptions to writing news articles and blog posts, AI-driven algorithms can produce high-quality content quickly and efficiently. Additionally, AI helps in content curation by identifying trending topics and suggesting relevant articles for sharing on social media or inclusion in newsletters.

Predictive Analytics

AI can forecast future trends and customer behaviors through predictive analytics. By analyzing historical data, AI algorithms can make predictions about which marketing strategies are likely to succeed. This enables marketers to allocate resources more effectively and anticipate customer needs.

Ad Campaign Optimization

In the realm of digital advertising, AI-powered algorithms are optimizing ad campaigns like never before. They analyze user data in real-time to adjust ad placements, bids, and targeting to maximize ROI. This level of optimization ensures that marketing budgets are spent efficiently.

Final Thoughts

Artificial Intelligence is not just a buzzword; it's a transformative force in digital marketing. By leveraging AI, marketers can enhance personalization, gain deeper insights, improve customer support, streamline content creation, make data-driven decisions, and optimize ad campaigns. As the digital marketing landscape continues to evolve, embracing AI is not just an option—it's the path to staying competitive and relevant in the digital age. So, if you're a digital marketer, now is the time to explore and integrate AI into your strategies and campaigns. It's the future, and it's here to stay.

#digital marketing #artificial intelligence #ai #digital media #digital illustration #business growth #marketing

[nickgerlich]

Sweet Pie And By

Unexpected guests these days is probably a rarity, thanks to our always-on communication channels. It’s easy to let folks know in advance. But trust me, in ye olden days it was a very real possibility that your long lost cousins might just wind up on your front porch unannounced. Worse yet, it was dinner time, and you had only baked one pie.

Being the nice person you are, you welcomed them inside with open arms, and set out a few more plates. But what to do about that pie? You had planned on it being enough for your family, not anyone else, and there isn’t time to bake another.So you do what you have to do: slice it into smaller pieces.

The pie metaphor is a perfect one for when it comes to displaying information, whether it is sales, demographics, budgets, or whatever. And ever since digital marketing became a thing in the last 30 years, it applied even more so. You see, back when I took my first marketing course at university, that topic had not really been considered, and all that marketers had to consider were print, broadcast, and outdoor. When digital arrived, it meant there were unexpected guests at the table.

As I explain to my students, the advertising pie did not get bigger just because there were more places to spend it. No, it meant that the slices got smaller. Now that we have had quite a few years of juggling both traditional and digital marketing, we can see trends at work, because unlike when serving food to yourself and guests, there is no reason to expect that both traditional and digital will be treated as equals.

And the trend is definitely pointing toward digital these days, with digital growing 8.7% in 2Q, and traditional shrinking 4.1%.

That’s not to say that traditional will go away any time soon, although I suspect it will continue to decline in allocations. After all, Baby Boomers will be fading into the sunset, replaced by tech-savvy Gen-Zers who tilt toward digital. Still, there will likely always be a place for traditional media to some extent.

We may stream most or all of our content these days, but unless you opt for the premium package, you’re still going to be seeing ads. Outdoor still works, and is far safer than the driver playing with his phone. While newspapers are in steep decline, magazines are holding their own.

Digital’s hunger, though, is allowing it to get more of the pie, and that hunger is turned into eyeballs who might just reach for their wallet. It’s all about spending your money wisely, not equally.

In fact, digital will account for 68% of ad spending this year, with Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon accounting for 59% of all ad spending. Think about that. These three companies—social, search, and stuff—are really just giant ad agencies masquerading as household words.

Naturally, ad budgets will ebb and flow from year to year, based on corporate needs, the state of the economy, and so forth. It’s just that now, still a mere three decades since the current era began, the paradigm shift keeps shifting. When two out of three ad dollars are spent on platforms that did not exist until recently, you can begin to appreciate just how much of a tidal shift there has been.

Now you know why traditional media—God love ‘em—are nervous. If a traditional media outlet has not yet found a way to offer digital options, they may be out of business soon. Clinging only to the old school is a recipe for short-term demise. Sure, there will be people who read a newspaper and watch linear broadcast television until their dying day, but the number of those people is dwindling fast. Remember, they are being replaced by Gen-Zers, who have no attachments to ink smudges on their fingers or having to watch a show when it airs.

And me, I just love having a ring side seat to it all. I have loved being in the middle of all this change, from my very first course in 1977, to teaching it starting in 1983, all the way to the present. Let the evolution—of marketing, of me, of you—continue. And when the next unexpected guest shows up, because you know that something new will come along in this field, then welcome it inside and set another place at the table.

Dr “Slice It Thinner” Gerlich

Audio Blog

#marketing #advertising #media #digital

[kenyatta]

In the 15 years since its founding, KnowYourMeme has established itself as the ultimate authority on the jokes, turns of phrase and images that gain currency online. Its writers and editors treat every viral nugget as modern history to be recorded for future civilizations, like a digital Rosetta Stone. 

Looking through its archives, one can trace the shifts of the social-media age, from Facebook’s early dominance to the rise of TikTok. Some of the earliest entries explain jokes that feel lightyears removed from modern discourse, such as LOLcats—the height of 2010s humor, perhaps, but now hallmarks of “millennial cringe.” 

[...]

“I think it is important for people to understand that memes—like all forms of folklore—are meaningful and worth understanding as expressions of cultural concerns,” says Merrill Kaplan, a professor of folklore and Scandinavian studies at the Ohio State University. “We joke, spread rumors and meme about the things we think are important. You can learn a lot about what a society is thinking by looking at their memes.” In her 2013 textbook “Tradition in the 21st Century,” she cited KnowYourMeme seven times in a single chapter. 

[...]

Now even the Library of Congress treats KnowYourMeme as a scholarly source. The American Folklife Center, a subsidiary of the library, has been preserving the data from the site as part of its “Web Cultures Web Archive”—focused on sociocultural traditions of the smartphone era—since 2014. 

#know your meme #internet culture #memes

[scribl1ta]

Here it is, more process photos for my drawing❤️💚🤎(please ignore my lecture notes on the first slide unless you’re into surrealism through the ears of somebody who was definitely thinking about where to go get a little treat after class the whole time!) I decided to do this because I wanted to make a traditional drawing where the end goal wasn’t to finish it digitally. I noticed all my recent traditional art was just in preparation for something else, so I wasn’t ever motivated to use all the skills that are important in drawing on paper. I used the most pompous memorial designs from Westminster Abbey as inspiration and references for the pose. For the inscription on the base of the sculpture, I tried some different lines from Tibullus 84 and ended up just going with the first, since it’s way easier to read and less gross. The poem, like the statue in my drawing, is dedicated to Priapus. The concept also based on Satyricon 82 where Encolpius lies about being in the army and is betrayed by his white shoes, because I wanted to work on my design for him and I love drawing Roman armor. I decided to take advantage of working in traditional media as much as I could, so I included some sequins and used paint and markers in the background, and I collaged everything together so that I could work in a larger scale and swap out different parts of the composition. The finished drawing is a little grubby because I kept it in my sketchbook for a month🥴anyway… it was a nice experiment, even though I really missed the flexibility I have in digital art, especially now that part of the shrine is puke colored forever. Lastly and a little irrelevantly, I want to add a thank you for supporting my most recent sketchbook post. Even though I love sharing them and I’m always proud of them, my sketches are usually the most private/personal drawings, and it just gave me a lot of happiness to see that. Double digit notes are a lot for this little Dean Pelton fan account ok😭😭

#traditional art #traditional drawing #colored pencil drawing #Ancient Rome #antiquity #classical antiquity #Roman armor #drawing process #traditional drawing process #character art #character design #satyricon #traditional illustration #illustration

[abookishdreamer]

Character Intro: The Litae (Kingdom of Ichor)

from top to bottom: Lití, Katharina, & Ikesía

Nicknames- The Holy Trilogy by Hermes

The Saintly Sisters by Dione

Mothers of Prayers by the people of Olympius

Age(s)- late 40's to late 30's (immortal)

Location- Hearthwood neighborhood, New Olympus

Personalities- The sisters share core values they hold dear of pious conservatism in favor in duty of traditional values & social institutions like patriotism, family values, and religious traditions. Being the oldest, the leadership role comes naturally to Lití, likining herself as the "anchor" of the family. Being the middle sibling, Katharina is quite neurotic while Ikesía is a hopeful optimist. Above all else, being mothers and protecting the religious integrity of Olympius is important to them. They're all asexual & single.

The Litae have the standard abilities of a goddess except shapeshifting. Their other powers/abilities include photokinesis, having an eidetic memory (can recite all religious texts), ambrosia manipulation, purification (of different materials & objects), truth sense, blessing bestowment (temporarily), and inducing feelings of piety, mercy, & forgiveness in others.

Even though the sisters have a suite apartment at the royal palace on Mt. Olympus, they prefer living next door to each other in three houses near a cul-de-sac in the Hearthwood neighborhood of New Olympus. They generally love the family aesthetic with the seemingly low crime rate being an added bonus! Their houses share similar interior designs with cotton furniture, large kitchen islands, woven rugs, hardwood floors, a fireplace, framed inspirational quotes as well as spacious backyards & gardens. They like the fact that one of them can walk a few feet to see the other. The sisters often rotate where they'll have dinner. The sisters each have a pet/companion- a griffin, the three of them having the majestic creatures since they were fledgelings! Lití's griffin is named Goldcrest, Katharina's is named Sundancer, and Ikesía's is named Aurelia. The griffins are usually their mode of transportation.

The Litae decided to have children on their own through the use of Gaia's fertility services. Lití has a son Epidotes (god of purity). Katharina has a daughter Pompe (goddess of rites) while Ikesía has a daughter Telete (goddess of prayers). The sisters are very involved in their children's lives almost to a fault. They push forward to make sure the kids have the best possible start in life. They want them to be happy of course, but also well rounded, respectable, & traditional.

They don't like visual media and music with strong violence, coarse language, nudity, and explicit sexual content.

They rarely partake in alcohol except a glass of white wine every once in a while. They do not partake in illicit drugs. Lití thinks that smoking cigarettes is the nastiest bad habit ever. Her go-to drinks include iced tea, cafe au laits, and a small coconut banana splash from The Roasted Bean. Ikesía likes lemon infused sparkling water & large iced chai lattes while Katharina likes mango smoothies, coconut water, green tea, and large vanilla iced coffees.

The Litae oversees the records for all the offerings and sacrifices ever recieved by the deities. They've been shifting from the information being recorded on scrolls to digitizing them. For this reason, they have enlisted the help of Techne (goddess of arts, crafts, & invention).

The sisters dress in minimalist conservative style clothing, keeping their makeup subtle & natural looking. They keep their nails short, neat, and expertly manicured.

Ikesía loves using the honey & magnolia body oil for her skin. Lití attributes her skin health to cocoa butter while Katharina prefers the use of almond oil.

Lití's favorite frozen treat is banana ice cream, opting for an olympian sized cup when at The Frozen Spoon. Katharina likes coconut sorbet while Ikesía likes salted caramel ice cream topped with crushed pecans.

The Litae's main "job" are being ministers at the Eleutherus Cathedral, the largest church ever built in New Olympus! They also work alongside Zeus and Eusebeia (Bea) (goddess of piety, loyalty, duty, & filial respect); in part with establishing content for her faith based conservative TV network. The sisters also surprisingly work well with the goddess Atë. For other means of income the sisters have their own charity organization as well as writing for Hearthside magazine. They're also a co-author team of wholesome & uplifting romance novels that explores the greater themes of family and community. They also model for/endorse Cleanstream, LipCalm, & White Lily Gallery.

The sisters will stop by at The Bread Box for lunch, prefering it over Olympic Chef. Katharina likes the curried cauliflower quinoa salad while Ikesía likes the tropical kale salad (with creamy coconut curry dressing) along with a small corn chowder. Lití likes the baked mac n' cheese sandwich (on sourdough bread).

In the pantheon they're friends with Hestia (goddess of the hearth), Pistis (goddess of trust, reliability, & good faith), Soteria (goddess of safety), Eunostos (goddess of the flour mill), Peitharchia (goddess of obedience & discipline), Themis (Titaness of justice), Eudaimonia (goddess of happiness), Penia (goddess of poverty), Apheleia (goddess of simplicity), Ptocheia (goddess of beggary), Promylaia, Aletheia (goddess of truth), Praxidike (goddess of judicial punishment), Pathos (god of emotion), and Aeschyne (goddess of modesty & honor). The deities they don't like is a long list including Kakia (goddess of vice & moral wrongdoing), Hybris (goddess of insolence, hubris, & reckless pride), Apate (goddess of fraud & deception), and Dyssebeia (Bess) (goddess of ungodliness & impeity).

Katharina loves using the Glory's Crown almond & shea butter hair creme for her twist outs. Lití likes the rice water clarifying shampoo while Ikesía likes the honey curling custard.

The sisters love planning family vacations for the six of them. Their last one was to the state of Achaea where they went to the Achaean Beignet Festival!

The Litae have a joint Fatestagram account where they mainly post inspirational quotes & livestreams of them performing sermons.

Katharina's favorite Olmorfia nail polish is "Sheer Fantasy." Lití likes "Clear as Cotton" while Ikesía likes "Blanc Blanche."

Lití has recently been to a breadmaking class!

Ikesía's favorite desserts from Hollyhock's Bakery are the honey cake & cream puffs (with a generous dusting of powdered sugar). Lití likes the sweet potato pie while Katharina likes the bougatsa.

Katharina has just gotten out of a long term long distance relationship with Olympos, one of The Ourea.

Ikesía has been enjoying her newfound friendship with the god of honor. She enjoys his company & has wondered on occassion if there could be more between them, but hasn't brought up the topic due to fear of how he would react to her asexuality.

In their free time the sisters enjoys horseback riding, cooking, knitting, baking, journaling, bike riding, pottery, gardening, swimming, basketball, yoga, tennis, going to museums, reading, and spending time with their children.

Katharina's go-to dish is rice & gravy with biscuits and porkchops. Lití is known for her pastitsio while Ikesía is known for her fasolada.

"A day without prayer is a day without blessing, and a life without prayer is a life without power."

#ocs #my ocs #oc characters #my characters #oc intro #character intro #oc introduction #character introduction #modern greek mythology #modern greek gods #greek myth retellings #greek goddesses #greek goddess #original characters #greek mythology #greek pantheon