#why was the production value so fucking high

[citrlet]

very sad this morning seeing Ryan and Shane leaving youtube to start yet another exclusive subscription service :/

#this is a monumentally shitty idea #then entire comment section is UNIFIED ive never seen that before akfjsks #i had to say that early accessing like cc makers do here would have been way better #but now at this point the damage is done and a lot of people feel disappointed that they seem to care more about the money #and honestly i dont think they produce enough content to justify a whole new service #i love the mcelroys way more and what they do is so much better #youtube already has a built in tier sevice why cant they just do that??? #anyway i have so many thoughts on this #i honestly watched ryan and shane way more than when they were on buzzfeed #i watched for their dynamic and how fucking funny they are together not for the quality of the shows #so many people do not understand that people watch them for them not for high value production is #first matpat then jacksepticeye soon and now this :/ #im DREADING the day gab smolders inevitability retires because shes my comfort youtuber she and her content has gotten me #through some of my worst moments #ill shut up now #someone tell me how many dislikes their announcement has on yt im so curious akfkska #oh also and its like dont they get their fanbase is mostly young people who probably cant afford another streaming service #on top of bills and the cost of living now??

[mnikhowozu]

whenever i see people describe house of wax or malignant as “bad movies” or “so bad they’re good” i really just question what their definition of good is, what bad is, and also if they’ve seen as many horror movies as i have.

like it’s actually apparently pretty fucking hard to make a halfway decent horror film, especially a slasher film with a twist. there is clearly so much care into character design, set design, cinematography, and most importantly, actually decent writing. 85% of horror films i watch are really stupid, have bad effects, are overdone, or the acting is absolutely and truly abysmal. it’s hard to hit the sweet spot.

as far as house of wax and malignant go, as slasher films, they’re extremely successful in creating an original and interesting concept and retaining the camp that often came with genre classics such as the friday the 13th  and nightmare on elm street franchises (to just name a few).

above all else, the writing holds up reasonably. you’d be surprised how many films with good production value & acting struggle with having a beginning, middle, and satisfying end. there are a lot that just kind of fall apart in the middle, or leave the end so open that there is no real conclusion or satisfaction.

#misc: personal text #sorry this is wordy but like #im sooooo tired of people calling purposefully campy/corny films 'bad' #the same goes for repo. pet fucking peeve honestly #like its a good film. the writing holds up. #just bc the production value is low #and the movie is silly and corny #does not make it bad #if you'd watched as many movies as i have #you would know #that soooo many films just #FALL APART #like they either don't have an ending or #the whole concept is so stupid that it's just like #why. what. #like go watch the bye-bye man that shit is BAD #and thats not even the worst ive watched recently #the deep house is another good example of a like #very high concept film with reasonable acting #VERY HIGH production value #but the plot is just. the writing really falls apart #its rlly like TCM underwater but it doesn't follow through well enough #im a firm believer in good film having a satisfying (or reasonably satisfying) ending #like literally just follow a 3 act structure y'all #my goodness.

[chipped-chimera]

So I have to go get a brain MRI lol.

Don't worry it's not serious, this is prep for rTMS (wikipedia linked) - part of me has been kind of waiting for a brain MRI like? Oh that bastard up there? Hate him. LEMMIE LOOK AT IT. LET ME SEE THE BASTARD.

Anyway in today's dose of late stage capitalism/tech dystopia, I asked about the side effects (vaguely remember there's a seizure risk but it's a during treatment thing, so if they stop it stops) and the receptionist giving me the breakdown said it was low and generally very user friendly -

So much so in fact, that the US (I think she said it was the US army, not ours) army does it on their snipers to improve concentration! ... and there's also a clinic in Japan where you can go get it done before work ... to improve ... concentration.

Yeah you bet I stopped her right there with a: Oh wow ... you can really see what kind of world we live in with that one, huh. 💀

Uh anyway wish me luck that I fall in ... whatever success percentage they use currently (I swear to god it used to be 80% but now it's looking like 50-65% :/) and that the government foots a huge chunk of it because I was classed with treatment resistant depression about four medications ago (I'm on my 6th I think) and that the pay gap is within my family's budget because lmao I can't pay that ever

#kerytalk #depression #medical #idk trying to warning tag but this is vague af anyway so 🤷‍♀️ #tech dystopia #something something expensive because it's for the rich and they're using it as a goddamn high tech version of a coffee before work #I'm gonna yeet this entire planet I stg #you all need to go in the naughty corner. Which is outside. Where the grass and nature is #your value shouldn't be inherently measured by your level of productivity under the capitalist machine #yeah you see why I like cyberpunk and johnny so much? #this has been a tag rant #like yeah it's gonna be expensive as fuck and I'm aware of privilage and shit but dude I'm currently paying a near 90 AUD every month #for my fucking antidepressant #because it's not 'on the special government subsidy list' for some reason #this was my last resort med and it's the only one that SORTA works #doesn't stop the depression sink but does cut down on the turnaround time

[harrowharkwife]

ooooogh wife and i have been watching PLL for the first time and we've been slowly watching it a couple episodes at a time. 'cause it's way too dramatic to just watch one! there's too many cliffhangers! especially the little A-pov clips at the end of each ep, they really suck you into the next episode. so like the secret is you GOTTA pop an edible first so that you can suspend your disbelief and ignore any plot holes, makes for a way less stressful and crazy viewing experience. however when utilizing this technique at a certain point you simply become Too high to follow the bonkers-ass plot anymore, so? 2-3 episodes at a time it is. so like it's taken us a LONG time to make our way through the show but we're like rapidly approaching the end of S5... i know Some spoilers but not everything, all i know is that we are practically knocking on the door of the dollhouse plotline and i cannot WAIT im so excited

#yes there's like so many fucking issues with this show... but also like it's so surprisingly ACAB #for being a 2010s teen mystery show Mostly about white women #Spencer literally just broke up with her boyfriend bc he became a cop and immediately turned into a massive asshole we stan #I'm so pissed that it's over bc he did NOT deserve a redemption arc & getting shot was NOT enough to put him back in my good graces #but the s4 plotline where crusty dusty musty freakazoid creepazoid predator man Ezra was actually villainized? #that was DELICIOUS oh my god... listen when this shows good it's really Fucking good #also for it being a teen show the production value is like unusually high. like this Could very easily *look* like a CW show #but instead they put their whole PLLussy into it and the set pieces are incredible #that fucking shot of the oil barrel in the storage locker? when they thought it was mona? #holy shit that image has been like seared into my fucking brain #like why was that scarier and more viscerally upsetting for me than like 99% of the horror movies ive watched #edit: to clarify! Ezra was never in my good graces to begin with and he never will be. id run that man over in a heartbeat. fuck him #also omg the paralleling they're doing right now between Ali and Mona... honest to god narrative foils? in MY teen mystery show?!? #it's more likely than you think!

[imsobadatnicknames2]

How can you consider yourself any sort of leftist when you defend AI art bullshit? You literally simp for AI techbros and have the gall to pretend you're against big corporations?? Get fucked

I don't "defend" AI art. I think a particular old post of mine that a lot of people tend to read in bad faith must be making the rounds again lmao.

Took me a good while to reply to this because you know what? I decided to make something positive out of this and use this as an opportunity to outline what I ACTUALLY believe about AI art. If anyone seeing this decides to read it in good or bad faith... Welp, your choice I guess.

I have several criticisms of the way the proliferation of AI art generators and LLMs is making a lot of things worse. Some of these are things I have voiced in the past, some of these are things I haven't until now:

Most image and text AI generators are fine-tuned to produce nothing but the most agreeable, generically pretty content slop, pretty much immediately squandering their potential to be used as genuinely interesting artistic tools with anything to offer in terms of a unique aesthetic experience (AI video still manages to look bizarre and interesting but it's getting there too)

In the entertainment industry and a lot of other fields, AI image generation is getting incorporated into production pipelines in ways that lead to the immiseration of working artists, being used to justify either lower wages or straight-up layoffs, and this is something that needs to be fought against. That's why I unconditionally supported the SAG-AFTRA strikes last year and will unconditionally support any collective action to address AI art as a concrete labor issue

In most fields where it's being integrated, AI art is vastly inferior to human artists in any use case where you need anything other than to make a superficially pretty picture really fast. If you need to do anything like ask for revisions or minor corrections, give very specific descriptions of how objects and people are interacting with each other, or just like. generate several pictures of the same thing and have them stay consistent with each other, you NEED human artists and it's preposterous to think they can be replaced by AI.

There is a lot of art of the internet that consists of the most generically pretty, cookie-cutter anime waifu-adjacent slop that has zero artistic or emotional value to either the people seeing it or the person churning it out, and while this certainly was A Thing before the advent of AI art generators, generative AI has made it extremely easy to become the kind of person who churns it out and floods online art spaces with it.

Similarly, LLMs make it extremely easy to generate massive volumes of texts, pages, articles, listicles and what have you that are generic vapid SEO-friendly pap at best and bizzarre nonsense misinformation at worst, drowning useful information in a sea of vapid noise and rendering internet searches increasingly useless.

The way LLMs are being incorporated into customer service and similar services not only, again, encourages further immiseration of customer service workers, but it's also completely useless for most customers.

A very annoyingly vocal part the population of AI art enthusiasts, fanatics and promoters do tend to talk about it in a way that directly or indirectly demeans the merit and skill of human artists and implies that they think of anyone who sees anything worthwile in the process of creation itself rather than the end product as stupid or deluded.

So you can probably tell by now that I don't hold AI art or writing in very high regard. However (and here's the part that'll get me called an AI techbro, or get people telling me that I'm just jealous of REAL artists because I lack the drive to create art of my own, or whatever else) I do have some criticisms of the way people have been responding to it, and have voiced such criticisms in the past.

I think a lot of the opposition to AI art has critstallized around unexamined gut reactions, whipping up a moral panic, and pressure to outwardly display an acceptable level of disdain for it. And in particular I think this climate has made a lot of people very prone to either uncritically entertain and adopt regressive ideas about Intellectual Propety, OR reveal previously held regressive ideas about Intellectual Property that are now suddenly more socially acceptable to express:

(I wanna preface this section by stating that I'm a staunch intellectual property abolitionist for the same reason I'm a private property abolitionist. If you think the existence of intellectual property is a good thing, a lot of my ideas about a lot of stuff are gonna be unpalatable to you. Not much I can do about it.)

A lot of people are suddenly throwing their support behind any proposal that promises stricter copyright regulations to combat AI art, when a lot of these also have the potential to severely udnermine fair use laws and fuck over a lot of independent artist for the benefit of big companies.

It was very worrying to see a lot of fanfic authors in particular clap for the George R R Martin OpenAI lawsuit because well... a lot of them don't realize that fanfic is a hobby that's in a position that's VERY legally precarious at best, that legally speaking using someone else's characters in your fanfic is a much of a violation of copyright law as stright up stealing entire passages, and that any regulation that can be used against the latter can be extended against the former.

Similarly, a lot of artists were cheering for the lawsuit against AI art models trained to mimic the style of specific artists. Which I agree is an extremely scummy thinbg to do (just like a human artist making a living from ripping off someone else's work is also extremely scummy), but I don't think every scummy act necessarily needs to be punishable by law, and some of them would in fact leave people worse off if they were. All this to say: If you are an artist, and ESPECIALLY a fan artist, trust me. You DON'T wanna live in a world where there's precedent for people's artstyles to be considered intellectual property in any legally enforceable way. I know you wanna hurt AI art people but this is one avenue that's not worth it.

Especially worrying to me as an indie musician has been to see people mention the strict copyright laws of the music industry as a positive thing that they wanna emulate. "this would never happen in the music industry because they value their artists copyright" idk maybe this is a the grass is greener type of situation but I'm telling you, you DON'T wanna live in a world where copyright law in the visual arts world works the way it does in the music industry. It's not worth it.

I've seen at least one person compare AI art model training to music sampling and say "there's a reason why they cracked down on sampling" as if the death of sampling due to stricter copyright laws was a good thing and not literally one of the worst things to happen in the history of music which nearly destroyed several primarily black music genres. Of course this is anecdotal because it's just One Guy I Saw Once, but you can see what I mean about how uncritical support for copyright law as a tool against AI can lead people to adopt increasingly regressive ideas about copyright.

Similarly, I've seen at least one person go "you know what? Collages should be considered art theft too, fuck you" over an argument where someone else compared AI art to collages. Again, same point as above.

Similarly, I take issue with the way a lot of people seem EXTREMELY personally invested in proving AI art is Not Real Art. I not only find this discussion unproductive, but also similarly dangerously prone to validating very reactionary ideas about The Nature Of Art that shouldn't really be entertained. Also it's a discussion rife with intellectual dishonesty and unevenly applied definition as standards.

When a lot of people present the argument of AI art not being art because the definition of art is this and that, they try to pretend that this is the definition of art the've always operated under and believed in, even when a lot of the time it's blatantly obvious that they're constructing their definition on the spot and deliberately trying to do so in such a way that it doesn't include AI art.

They never succeed at it, btw. I've seen several dozen different "AI art isn't art because art is [definition]". I've seen exactly zero of those where trying to seriously apply that definition in any context outside of trying to prove AI art isn't art doesn't end up in it accidentally excluding one or more non-AI artforms, usually reflecting the author's blindspots with regard to the different forms of artistic expression.

(However, this is moot because, again, these are rarely definitions that these people actually believe in or adhere to outside of trying to win "Is AI art real art?" discussions.)

Especially worrying when the definition they construct is built around stuff like Effort or Skill or Dedication or The Divine Human Spirit. You would not be happy about the kinds of art that have traditionally been excluded from Real Art using similar definitions.

Seriously when everyone was celebrating that the Catholic Church came out to say AI art isn't real art and sharing it as if it was validating and not Extremely Worrying that the arguments they'd been using against AI art sounded nearly identical to things TradCaths believe I was like. Well alright :T You can make all the "I never thought I'd die fighting side by side with a catholic" legolas and gimli memes you want, but it won't change the fact that the argument being made by the catholic church was a profoundly conservative one and nearly identical to arguments used to dismiss the artistic merit of certain forms of "degenerate" art and everyone was just uncritically sharing it, completely unconcerned with what kind of worldview they were lending validity to by sharing it.

Remember when the discourse about the Gay Sex cats pic was going on? One of the things I remember the most from that time was when someone went "Tell me a definition of art that excludes this picture without also excluding Fountain by Duchamp" and how just. Literally no one was able to do it. A LOT of people tried to argue some variation of "Well, Fountain is art and this image isn't because what turns fountain into art is Intent. Duchamp's choice to show a urinal at an art gallery as if it was art confers it an element of artistic intent that this image lacks" when like. Didn't by that same logic OP's choice to post the image on tumblr as if it was art also confer it artistic intent in the same way? Didn't that argument actually kinda end up accidentally validating the artistic status of every piece of AI art ever posted on social media? That moment it clicked for me that a lot of these definitions require applying certain concepts extremely selectively in order to make sense for the people using them.

A lot of people also try to argue it isn't Real Art based on the fact that most AI art is vapid but like. If being vapid definitionally excludes something from being art you're going to have to exclude a whooole lot of stuff along with it. AI art is vapid. A lot of art is too, I don't think this argument works either.

Like, look, I'm not really invested in trying to argue in favor of The Artistic Merits of AI art but I also find it extremely hard to ignore how trying to categorically define AI art as Not Real Art not only is unproductive but also requires either a) applying certain parts of your definition of art extremely selectively, b) constructing a definition of art so convoluted and full of weird caveats as to be functionally useless, or c) validating extremely reactionary conservative ideas about what Real Art is.

Some stray thoughts that don't fit any of the above sections.

I've occassionally seen people respond to AI art being used for shitposts like "A lot of people have affordable commissions, you could have paid someone like $30 to draw this for you instead of using the plagiarism algorithm and exploiting the work of real artists" and sorry but if you consider paying an artist a rate that amounts to like $5 for several hours of work a LESS exploitative alternative I think you've got something fucked up going on with your priorities.

Also it's kinda funny when people comment on the aforementioned shitposts with some variation of "see, the usage of AI art robs it of all humor because the thing that makes shitposts funny is when you consider the fact that someone would spend so much time and effort in something so stupid" because like. Yeah that is part of the humor SOMETIMES but also people share and laugh at low effort shitposts all the time. Again you're constructing a definition that you don't actually believe in anywhere outside of this type of conversations. Just say you don't like that it's AI art because you think it's morally wrong and stop being disingenuous.

So yeah, this is pretty much everything I believe about the topic.

I don't "defend" AI art, but my opposition to it is firmly rooted in my principles, and that means I refuse to uncritically accept any anti-AI art argument that goes against those same principles.

If you think not accepting and parroting every Anti-AI art argument I encounter because some of them are ideologically rooted in things I disagree with makes me indistinguishable from "AI techbros" you're working under a fucked up dichotomy.

[theharlotofferelden]

Gonna need to put Mary Kirby + other long time staff being fired into perspective because this isn't a recent development. Bioware has been plagued with issues for well over a decade, and it's not just because of EA.

When Gaider decided to move on from Dragon Age in 2014, everyone thought it was just because he wanted to move onto a different project. He ended up leaving the company completely in 2016 after working on Anthem for a bit, and it was later reported that staff on the project had issues with his writing. He didn't mention why he left Bioware until very recently in a long twitter thread detailing that, while Bioware is a company known for its storytelling and characters, upper management went from valuing its writers to quietly resenting them, and feeling as though the writing were "holding the company back."

When they started working with Frostbite they encountered so many technical problems with it because it was specifically designed for FPS games. They were literally designing the tools they needed to work on both Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect Andromeda while they were working on those games. Darrah (or perhaps Laidlaw, I forget which) even acknowledged when he was interviewed by Jason Schreier for Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, that this is a big industry no-no. But Bioware was put in a hard spot to either work with Frostbite or use the Eclipse engine that DAO was designed on (which I'm assuming would've required developing the engine and toolkit further to bring the graphics up to industry standards). So they ended up working with Frostbite which resulted in a fuckton of issues both for Dragon Age Inquisition and Mass Effect Andromeda, because the teams behind both projects had to design their own tools.

With the added stress of the toolkit also came the toxic work environment, departments that were perpetually understaffed, directors leaving and new writers coming in with different visions for the project, time mismanagement where they spent too much time on "high concept" gameplay, not having a clear vision for the game, resentments between studios, inexperience with coordinating video calls across multiple studios, the resultant mandatory crunch, etc. All of this is mentioned in this article about Mass Effect Andromeda's production cycle and this article about Anthem's.

Casey Hudson and Gérard Lehiany left Bioware in 2014 right in the middle of production on Andromeda (Casey rejoined the company as general manager in 2017, but left again in 2020). David Gaider left in 2016 in the middle of production on Anthem, as did Aaryn Flynn who left before the game was shipped in 2019. Mike Laidlaw left in 2017 and left production of Dragon Age Dreadwolf in Mark Darrah's hands, who left in the middle of its production in 2020. Matt Goldman (creative director for Dreadwolf) left the following year. Mac Walters (production director on Dreadwolf) who's been with the company for over 19 years left in January of this year. Are you seeing the pattern here?

I don't doubt that EA has influence over Bioware considering the recent layoffs appear related to the announcement back in March that EA would lay off 6% of its workforce. But it's clear there's something deeper that's going on at Bioware, and it's really not good.

When veteran senior staff are leaving one by one along with other long time staff, and it's been reported that the studio has a toxic work environment with management issues that make crunch necessary, there is something deeply wrong with the company and how things are being run. This is a sinking ship, and in all likelihood everyone is betting on keeping the company afloat with the success of Dragon Age Dreadwolf and/or the next Mass Effects game.

I want to say something more about how broadly the mainstream AAA video games industry is abusive and how incredibly fucked up their practices of layoffs have been normalized, but this is already pretty long. What I will say is that I'm not claiming this means DA4 or the next ME game is going to tank. It sure as fuck doesn't look good for it, but despite my grievances with Dragon Age, I do want the game to be successful and for Bioware to keep doing what they're doing.

And honestly, whether those games do well or not is really besides the point. Something is wrong at Bioware, whether it's the company itself or the fact it's owned by EA, and it can't be solved with mass layoffs. This is a cultural problem within the company itself, and it's very unlikely to be addressed considering how MEA failing seems to have done little to change how things are being run right now.

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #mass effect #mass effect andromeda #bioware #bioware critical #ea critical #dragon age dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #da4 #i was gonna reply to another post but decided to just make my own because i have a lot of shit to say

[bitchesgetriches]

Getting a job:

How to Write a Resume so You Actually Have a Prayer of Getting Hired

How to Write a Cover Letter like You Actually Want the Job

Ask the Bitches: What the Hell Else Can I Do to Get a Job?

How to Frame Volunteering on Your Resume When You’ve Never Had a Job

How To Get Ready For a Job Interview: Prep Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

Common Job Interview Questions and How to Answer Them with the Confidence of a Mediocre White Dude

10 Questions You Should Never Be Asked in a Job Interview

What to Wear (and What Not to Wear) to a Job Interview

What to Do When You’re Asked About Your Salary Requirements in a Job Interview

How NOT to Determine Your Salary

How to Find Remote Work: On Getting the Elusive Work-From-Home Job

High School Students Have No Way of Knowing What Career to Choose. Why Do We Make Them Do It Anyway?

The Actually Helpful, Nuanced, Non-Bullshit Way to Choose a Future Career

Myers-Briggs Personalities and Income: What Your Type Says About Your Salary

I Just Applied for a Job. How (And When) Should I Follow Up?

Our Best Secrets for a Successful, Strategic, and SHORT Job Search

Season 2, Episode 11: “I Tripped and Fell into a Career I Don’t like. How Do I Reinvent Myself?”

Freelancing and side jobs:

Should Artists Ever Work for Free?

Stop Undervaluing Your Freelance Work, You Darling Fool

Romanticizing the Side Hustle: When 1 Job Isn’t Enough

The Ugly Truth About Unpaid Internships

Freelancer, Protect Thyself… With a Fair Contract

Ask the Bitches: My Boss Won’t Give Me a Contract and I’m Freaking Out

I Lost My Job and It Might Be the Best Worst Thing That’s Ever Happened to Me

Becoming a Millennial Entrepreneur (in the Midst of a Pandemic) with Katelyn Magnuson

11 Awful Mistakes I Made as a Self-Employed Freelancer, and How YOU Can Avoid Them

Workplace benefits:

Workplace Benefits and Other Cool Side Effects of Employment

Your School or Workplace Benefits Might Include Cool Free Stuff

Your Yearly Free Medical Care Checklist

Dafuq Is a Retirement Plan and Why Do You Need One?

How to Save for Retirement When You Make Less Than $30,000 a Year

Season 2, Episode 6: “Someone Offered to Mentor Me! How Do I Be a Non-Sucky Mentee?”

Navigating the workplace:

My Secret Weapon for Preparing for Awkward Boss Confrontations

Are You Working on the Next Fyre Festival?: Identifying a Toxic Workplace

Woke at Work: How to Inject Your Values into Your Boring, Lame-Ass Job

Can Looking Weird at Work Be Good for Your Career?

Why Is Short Hair Controversial? An Examination of Expensive, Annoying Beauty Standards

Season 1, Episode 1: “Should I Tell My Boss I’m Looking for Another Job?”

You WILL Regret Accepting Your Coworker’s Social Media Friend Request

Season 1, Episode 5: “I Don’t Love My Job, but It Pays Well. Should I Quit—or Tough It Out?”

Season 2, Episode 7: “How Do I Throw My Incompetent Coworkers under the Bus?”

Sexual Harassment: How to Identify and Fight It in the Workplace

Getting a raise:

Salary Range: Are You Asking for Enough?

A Millennial’s Guide to Growing Your Salary

The First Time I Asked for a Raise

You Need to Ask for a Fucking Raise

Should You Increase Your Salary or Decrease Your Spending?

Getting a promotion:

Santa Isn’t Coming and Neither Is Your Promotion: How To Get Promoted

How I Chessmastered Myself Into a Promotion at Work

Job Hopping vs. Career Loyalty by the Numbers

The Fascinating Results of Our Job Hopping vs. Career Loyalty Poll

I Hate My Job and I Don’t Know How To Leave It: A Confession

A New Job, a New Day, a New Life, and I’m Feeling Good

Season 1, Episode 9: “I’ve Given up on My Dream Career. Where Do I Go From Here?”

Working remotely

How to Successfully Work from Home Without Losing Your Goddamn Mind (Or Your Job)

How to Find Remote Work: On Getting the Elusive Work-From-Home Job

8 Genres of Productivity Music (Plus Our Secret Stash of Personal Favorites)

My 25 Secrets to Successfully Working from Home with ADHD

#resume #cover letter #job search #job hunt #getting a job #get a job #career advice #job search advice #job #freelancing

[morlock-holmes]

Notice in the post below that the only named task that the OP struggled with is homework?

Now, people diagnosed with ADHD or similar disorders often do struggle with tasks that we might actually want to do, but almost always, the diagnosis is linked in everyone's mind to an inability to do homework.

But homework is fucking bullshit.

I really think it's absurd to ignore that fact when talking about how you complete tasks.

"Gosh, my kid seems to have a lot of trouble focusing on dull make-work which I force him to do for two hours every single day, why could this be?"

I spent literally as little time in school as I could and still graduate. As in, by my junior or senior year the principal sat me down and said, "If you skip anymore school we aren't going to be able to graduate you from High School."

And yet... When I bothered to go, I got good grades. I did generally quite well on tests and did eventually graduate. I'm quite proud of that as an act of self-mastery but it does raise the question:

Why was so much energy spent on trying to get me to go to school for all that time when I was demonstrably able to get the benefits with literal years less work than they wanted me to put in?

Why was so much time spent trying to devote those years to schoolwork when it simply wasn't necessary for me to learn?

Homework is a microcosm of that whole question. I always wanted to know,

"So, if I can skip 60% of the homework and still get an "A" on the test, why do you try to force me to do it?"

And to this day I have never gotten a good answer.

So: I saw no value in most of my homework and that hasn't changed to this day.

So, here's a pop quiz for the people wondering why their kids with diagnoses don't do their homework no matter what planning and techniques adults supply them with:

What would your kid have to do to spend less of their valuable time on homework?

"Well, if they just knuckled down and got it done..."

BZZT! WRONG! You get a "D-" on this test and I really hope you apply yourself more to the next one, you have so much potential...

If they "forget about it" then they have to do even less.

Now, of course that means that your kid is in a state of constant stress from avoidance. They are thinking, "Man, I'm going to get in so much trouble for not doing this, but I just can't seem to force myself to do it, and anyway I don't fucking want to."

You think that they'd be better off spending two stressful hours on their homework and then being able to relax the rest of the time. They feel like they'll be happier not doing it at all and feeling a vague undercurrent of stress as they go about their leisure time.

What's the third option if they want to spend less time on homework?

Oh, nothing? Is it nothing whatsoever until they graduate from school?

This is infuriatingly counter-productive. We spend literal years teaching ADHD kids that avoidance and procrastination are the only ways to exert control over their lives in the face of unpleasant situations imposed from outside.

Now, in point of fact this is absolutely not the case for adult life, which offers a plethora of ways to reduce pointless make-work imposed on you by outside authorities and, in any case, rarely bothers to impose two hours per day of unpaid, unrewarding make-work on people anyway.

How much of the difficulty ADHD people have with cleaning the toilet or whatever is because psychologically, they still think of it as homework? Cleaning the toilet is not homework; it rewards you with a clean toilet at the end and it's entirely possible to defer it, or hire someone else to do it, or find shortcuts. But if the major psychological task of your childhood is homework, maybe it might take quite a long time to think that there could even be anything aside from homework?

#psychology #homework #Parents get so uneasy when I say that kids are right to avoid homework #But a lot of the time they are! #ADHD #executive dysfunction

[chungledown-bimothy]

i'm not even that much of a watcher guy and am flabbergasted at the people talking shit? especially by saying it's worse dropout???

the first episodes of new seasons are going to be uploaded to youtube for free. just like dropout does. it's everything we celebrate dropout doing why are y'all being so fucking weird about watcher doing it?

for them to keep making things, they've gotta be able to afford to, you know, pay their employees and bills. that's how things work.

and you can't criticize youtube's horrible advertising practices (which you should) and then complain when creators take another path.

y'all we should be PRAISING watcher for doing this, like we praise dropout for how they run things, not shitting on them because you feel entitled to free (and very high production value) content.

#watcher #when i said dropout 2 i meant that as a compliment

[swabian-princess]

The Cheatcode

Hello Ladies,

I’ve found the cheat code when it comes to hypergamy! You’ll only need a little start capital…not that much, only around 1-2k.

You need to rebuild your entire wardrobe. Yes. Throw out your crop tops and your leggings. No high value man wants a woman that is dressed like a yoga teacher all day. I don’t care if you’re only 21. Buy all those long skirts and button up tops and don’t even think about purchasing a bag cheaper than 500 dollars.

Think about what you can do in terms of your appearance. Maybe a nose job or a skinny BBL? If you’re lucky you can get away with only lip fillers.

Only speak about feminine stuff. Home decor. How you’re planning to homeschool your children. Let the man talk about masculine things like politics or finances.

Are you still reading? Well…I have a surprise for you…

…there is no such thing as a cheatcode.

Sorry, but I need to rant a little bit.

I’m so fucking annoyed at posts like this. There is currently and likely never will be a cheatcode for hypergamy.

Don’t believe those feminity influencers – most of them aren’t even married or have bagged a billionaire. Don’t buy books from these people and don’t give them money for strange online classes, that claim you’ll meet a billionaire within a five step program.

The truth is, wether you like it or not, that only very few woman will marry into high society and even fewer will stay in those circles.

I don’t know if you get it but those men are only human and want a honest connection with their partner. (Well, I’m sure there are men that really only care about looks but is this really a man you would like to marry? Even if he’s the richest man on the planet?)

Hypergamy is work. Hard fucking work.

Many of you seem to think that those men only fuck you and look at you. What do you do if you can’t fuck because you’re on a gala or his mothers birthday dinner? You’ll have to open your mouth and start talking.

I’m like 98% sure that you could be a grenade in bed and the most beautiful woman that ever walked on earth, if you can’t hold a conversation for longer than a minute, you won’t be succesful.

I am not that beautiful myself, I’m average with a few nice features but I can entertain my boyfriend for hours just talking about my day. I can discuss current politics with him and talk about his business without googling every second phrase.

He loves to spend time with me because he likes how I make him feel. I make him feel welcomed in his home, I make sure to listen to his problems and about what brings him joy. I am the first person he wants to call when he has a hard or a very succesful day because he know that my reactions are always honest and genuine. I won’t just tell him what he wants to hear – I tell him my opinion.  

Another thing that bugs me, is that those feminity influencers make relationships seem like the only things to do are shopping, taking vacations and going out to eat.

Honestly it’s fucking hard to be with a high value man.

High value man = very full schedule.

My boyfriend works from 5:30am to 7pm and sometimes even longer. When he comes home he wants to shower, eat something and talk to me.

I prepare his meals and clean the house while he’s at work. I do grocerie shopping and laundry, I iron his clothes and order his skin and haircare products.

He doesn’t expect me in a full face of makeup and a bodycon dress with heels when he gets home but he wants me to be clean and freshly showered. He want’s no drama and he expects that I know my place – beside him.

A relationship is work, especially if you’re in one with a man that works 80+ hours a week. Don’t expect endless shopping trips with him or a nice dinner every day. There is a reason why he has money – he works for it and his working hours are usually very long.

Okay, thats all I have for now.

Bye Bye

Selene

#hypergamous mindset #baby heaux #heaux #heaux tips #high maintenance #high maintenance heaux #hypergamous woman #hypergamy #leveled up woman #leveled up mindset #my rants #life rant #hyper feminine #high class #spoiled heaux #spoiled baby #spoiled gf #trophy wives #leveling up #leveling up journey #leveling up tips #trophy wive in training #hypergamyblr #hypergamy advice #sugar heaux

[bengiyo]

Hi Ben!

I saw Vee from You're My Sky in your most misunderstood characters list and now I'm curious, what's your opinion on this series as a whole? Gifs tell me that it has a high production value, great cinematography and Suar in it, so I'm quite tempted to give it a go. But it's rarely talked about so... is it really worth a watch?

I love You're My Sky because it was the first show to follow in the wake of I Told Sunset About You and try to bring rich color, engaging cinematography, and and structured presentation of character dynamics after ITSAY. It's also a sports BL that takes its sports portion super seriously. It's also the show you should watch if you like when the younger guy is pursuing the older guy, because that's true for all three couples.

The show has three couples in it, and I really liked how the show kept all three couples at about the same moment emotionally throughout the entire runtime. It meant that we sometimes wouldn't see one of the side couples for a while, but I much prefer that to having the couples be in really different places and throw off the emotional tone of an episode.

Our primary pairing is between Thorn and Tupfah. They are childhood friends. Thorn followed Tupfah to his college after a few years and was confused why Tupfah no longer plays basketball. Theirs is a friends-to-lovers story where Thorn has been pining for a long time.

This show let us also see them spend time as a couple and face real complications that a couple of two aspiring professional athletes would face, including availability for college practice and potentially ending up with different clubs. There's also a great deal of examination of the kinds of coaching environments athletes might suffer or thrive under.

The second couple, Saen and Aii, aren't a sports couple, but Aii is older and graduating. He's focused on leaving Thailand and pursuing a professional career in Japan. In them you get a determined, sociable younger pursuer and a standoffish older interest.

I really liked where they went with this couple because we got to see a grandmother giving a knowing smirk when she enters the bedroom after their first night together, and we see them deal with the impending stress of being in a long-distance relationship for likely years.

I wrote about Vee in the ask you mentioned, but to reiterate, Vee is assigned to work with his sister's boyfriend on the track team. Vee, being the flirty little shit he is, teases Dome and is having a good time until it gets way too serious for both of them and he's having a panic attack in the middle of a race.

Their story is compelling because it doesn't end in success on screen. The social politics of their attraction make it impossible for them to consummate this romance under the current circumstances, and the show explores how this choice impacted the sister as well.

And then there's the basketball! This show does so much cool shit with the camera and the frame around the basketball itself. It also has a robust supporting cast in the basketball team. There's a beautiful scene of the whole team giving space to Thorn and Fah to figure out something important, and there's another lovely scene where they talk about gender identity.

Truly, as a man who enjoys sports and sports dramas, they did not fuck around when it came to doing the sports portion of this. The only other BL I remember being this serious about the sports was maybe Project S: Spike. Almost all the gifs are going to be the romance stuff, but the sports stuff in this show is well done.

I'm a big fan of this project, and I think it has some of my favorite presentations of masculinity in genre. I will probably rewatch it after I finish this UWMA rewatch.

Thanks for the ask!

#answered #you're my sky #thai bl

[fanonical]

Just a quick check, as I got your blog as the "similar to a blog you follow" on a HP blog; what's your views on Harry Potter currently? I searched your blog and found posts from 2020 about the series, but also ones about how Rowling sucks, and obviously the flag in your pfp is a bit of a give-away, but I'd like to be kind of sure. Sorry to bother.

hi! when i started this blog, back in the Obama administration, i was in high school, and i was a teenage openly trans fan of harry potter. these were the days before she was an open, raving transmisogynist spending all her money on furthering the terf agenda (or at least, not publicly). obviously we knew that there were other problems with the series, and we were, as fans often are, very critical of the source material; to me and Jamie (the other co-runner of this blog) that's actually an integral part of what fandom means. we'd even by then heard the rumours that she was a terf, but ultimately we found that unsurprising; we were both trans, it was like 2015, we were under no impression that most of the creators of the things we liked were transphobic. most people are transphobic; even now, when in american liberal culture where it is "in" to say you are not transphobic, i guarantee you most people creating our favorite fandoms are transphobic (i mean, it's not like there's a wealth of transgender superheroes, anime protags, videogame characters, etc. is it?) whether they realise it or not. this didn't trouble us because she wasn't, at the time, publicly using her platform to give this value a voice, and harry potter was just a Thing Everybody Was Into -- like doctor who, or your favorite sport, or halo or whatever.

anyway, as time progressed, the blog's followership grew and eventually i was relying on money i earn from my part writing on here, so it wasn't an option to just quit immediately when she went mask full off. and again -- we were two british trans people, we were being very loud and open about our upset and dismay over her bullshit, and by this point, had a following of over 100,000, so it just felt more productive to keep that internal critical fandom perspective & help others see why they shouldn't give her any monetary support.

we changed to a more general fandom blog theme during lockdown, when i could focus on streaming more & earn a bit from that, so it wasn't as scary to suddenly have thousands of people decide they didn't want to give me money any more because i no longer was comfortable being associated with her legacy.

ultimately, i feel proud for staying as an openly critical voice in the fandom for as long as i did -- multiple people have come to me since and told me they think the only reason harry potter isn't a notable fandom on this website any more is because we spent so much time warning people away & convincing people to abandon the fandom when we eventually left for good.

i straight up spent the last couple years saying "i fucking hate us making harry potter posts but you guys show up and reblog them & that gives me spon money through humble bundle and a tranny gotta eat"

tbh, i don't even really think that "being a fan" of something was endorsement of the work or creator at all until it became so indistinguishable from being a consumerist identity (rather than a subcultural one) which i feel like is pretty recently, and honestly, Harry Potter & the YA tidal wave in its wake are probably a pretty big part in that, but that's kind of a different discussion.

[braxiatel]

Goodtimeswithscar is a sexyman and I will prove it to you

If you are still on the fence I encourage you to look at the sexypedia - a wikipedia dedicated to tumblr sexymen - and checking out their tropes page. Scar meets 35/62 on a list where recent winner of the tumblr sexyman poll Cecil Palmer of WTNW fame only has 8 listed on his character page!

35!

Scar is Textbook, and if you need proof I have gone through all the tropes and explained why they apply to him!

VOTE SCAR!

4th Wall Blurring: This one is arguable due to the nature of the medium but I’ll include it

Animal Theming: See: animal hybrid headcanons and designs. Cat Scar, panda Scar, hyena Scar, avian Scar - they’re everywhere!

Angst: That cactus ring… magic mountain. need I say more? This boy has angst. 

Bait: *gestures at the shirtless skins*

Capitalist: she sells sea shells on the sea shore but the value of these shells will fall due to the laws of supply and demand no one wants to buy shells cause there’s loads on the sand step one you must create a sense of scarcity 

Chaoslord: HotGuy! [snipes you for no good reason]

Criminal: shells will sell much better if the people think they’re rare you see bear with me take as many shells as you can find and hide them on an island stockpile them high until they’re rarer than the price of diamond

Con Artist: step two gotta make the people think that they want them really fucking want them hit ‘em like Bronson influencers product placement if you haven’t got a shell then you’re just a fucking waste man

Dealmaker: three it’s monopoly invest inside some property start a corporation make a logo do it properly shells must sell that will be your new philosophy swallow all your morals they’re a poor man’s quality

Distinctive Voice: I do not need to make any arguments here. Have you heard him???

Quotable Catchphrase(s): well hello there, scarred for life, “a-ma-zing”, etc.

Distinctive Laugh: I think I autism stole Scar’s laughter (whoops) so I’m giving him this one too, but also that gigle is just very good and we all know it, right?

Dominating: from the trope description: “Characters who assert their power over others. Could be through manipulation, magic, smugness, or force of personality.” Yes. 

Duality: Convex did not put their whole entire vexussies into that possession storyline for us to forget about it. 

Egotistical: This one is arguable and a question of characterisation, but I think that we can all agree that on some levels, yes. 

Eldritch: From the trope description: “Since the typical sexyman is a tall mostly human looking pale twink, in a vast majority of the cases the eldritch is a heavy implication lying just under the surface.” Hello? Vex Scar?? 

Gay: See subsection: 

LGBTQ+ Coded: That cactus ring. Mumbo “eye candy” Jumbo. The season 7 mayoral race. Concorp. His jolly rancher arc. This man has so many boyfriends. 

Girlboss: listen I think a lot of characters who aren’t traditional girlbosses get called so, but with Scar I think it’s accurate okay. Did Scar utilize girl power effectively when he and Cub were blatant war profetiers during the season 6 civil war? yes. Absolutely. Girlboss. 

Glowing Neon: vex blue anyone?

Hot-headed: Don’t let his calm exterior fool you. Remember. Scar when someone steals his horse: *sets their whole entire house on fire*. 

Intelligence: yes but also see subsection

Smartdumb: Okay listen. Scar is Smart. Scar is very smart. And I specifically have to make sure you know I am talking character only here because cc!Scar seems to me to be a Very intelligent person with a wide field of knowledge. But uhm. c!Scar dies so much and so often in ways that are completely unavoidable. He does silly things without thinking of the consequences. I have seen enough people calling him a himbo (beloathed term) enough times that I do not need to argue this point. He is smart but also babygirl Why are you like this.

Johnlocked: “When two characters are shipped extensively by fans despite the pairing not necessarily being canon (or even present) in the original work.” it started out with a cactus ring how did it end up like this, it was only a cactus ring, it was only a cactus ring

Knifemurder: Hotguy! [snipes you a second time] 

Magnificent Bastard: This Is The Whole Point. Scar oozes charisma even when he is the villain and that’s why he is so beloved. He is smart, he is stylish, he is charming, even while he is killng you. This is the point. 

Marked Canon/Fanon Divergence: “Sexymen with a large gap between how they are in the original work (Canon) and how they are commonly portrayed in fanworks (Fanon)” see : the fake crystals vs Scar actually having magic, the abs being painted on vs shirtless Scar everywhere, etc.

Monster Features: vex scar vex scar vex scar

Nonhuman: like the vex thing is literally canon it’s not fanon those cons sure did vex 

Pale Twink: We could have done many things with this collection of blocks people, and yet my dash is full of shirtless twinks/twunks every day ending with a y. Curious. 

Perpetual Smiler: Okay listen this is partially the nature of the medium but also 1) that is a distinctive smile and 2) have you see the fanworks? 

Power: This man tried to sell fake magic crystals and we all just decided he can do magic. He was an elf once and now fae/elf Scar headcanons are everywhere. 

Scars: I- I’m not explaining myself here. yes??? 

Tall: I can think of one, maybe two portrayals of Scar that have made him short. 

Theme Song: four expand, expand, expand clear forest make land fresh blood on hands five why just shells why limit yourself she sells seashells sell oil as well six guns sell stocks sell diamonds sell rocks sell water to a fish sell the time to a clock seven press on the gas take your foot off the brakes then run to be the president of the united states eight big smile mate big wave that's great now the truth is overrated tell lies out the gate nine polarise the people controversy is the game it don't matter if they hate you if they all say your name ten the world is yours step out on a stage to a round of applause uou're a liar a cheat a devil a whore and you sell seashells on the seashore

Unkempt: so those rugged life series Scars, huh? 

Villain: Scar has been the villain several times and has a Long list of crimes to his name

Technically Antagonist: see 3rd life

Villain Protagonist: unreliable narrator Scar my beloved. I love how he just *does terrible things edited to make him look like he’s just a silly little guy having some harmless fun*

Well-Dressed: Hmmm I wonder why waggon/tycoon Scar routinely wins every Scar skin poll. Also he has enough outfits to include these sub categories too: 

Suitguy: “Characters who typically wear formalwear, specifically suits. Often includes waistcoats, top hats, bowties, and pinstripes. Other neckwear may also be worn.” Again. The tycoon skin really lives rent free in all out minds, huh?

Long Coat/Cape/Robe/Etc: bathrobe wizard Scar my beloved but also do you know how many thirst trap last life Scars I’ve seen?? 

White Twink Humanization: He is made out of blocks in canon. We did not need to make him like this and yet we did. 

White Hair: last life Scar beloved by many <3

VOTE SCAR!

#I hope this makes sense I am sick today so brain is no #mcyt #mcytblr sexyman #mcytblr sexyman poll #goodtimeswithscar #gtws #hermitblr #hermitcraft #trafficblr #3rd life smp #last life smp #double life smp

[lesbianralzarek]

anybody else get a mild rage response from seeing vault boy? these days, even when its not being used in an advertisement, it still feels like im being advertised to. when vault boy works narratively (as in, outside of skill illustrations), it does so through irony and juxtaposition. the diagetic ads were fucked up, and that was the point. you werent supposed to want to Buy Product, the important part was showing us the values of the society that produced it. now the irony is gone. its just ads. bold-faced. theyre usually not even diagetic, its just ads

id explain why thats so fucked up, but tumblr is the ublock origin webbed site so yall get me already. something something critique of hyperconsumption being declawed, repackaged, and its aesthetics sold back to you endlessly at increasingly high costs. you know the drill

#fallout

[spoken-outofturn]

Damn. I understand the want to not have to rely on advertising so much. I understand Ryan’s want to make high quality content.

But at that point, seek out a new opportunity that has a fan base willing to pay for no adverts and a fan base the cares about the production value.

The backbone of their community is YouTube watchers. Most who will never pay even for YouTube because we can’t be assed. Whether it be a price point thing, a principles thing, whatever. I don’t care about them advertising things, that’s what yt is. I don’t care about the amount of money put into production, I’m just there for the goofy boys. The down to earth boys. Which I think is why this feels like a slap in the face a bit, to call 60/72 bucks a year affordable for “anyone and everyone.” Especially in the face of so many fucking streamers.

But if you’re going to put up a paywall for me to watch your content I’m sorry but I’m out. I cannot follow you this one last time.

#idk man. idk #I think Steven really just wants to make his own shows without worrying about them not getting the views to support them on yt #and Ryan seems to really want to produce like films or genuine tv shows #but Shane? #idk I find it hard to think he was really on board with this #but anyways #those are just my thoughts #watcher #steven lim #ryan bergara #shane medej #watcher entertainment

[sequencefairy]

I'm just. continuously boggled at the entitlement. they've been saying FOR YEARS that they want to make content with higher production value and more creators and then all these folks out here saying they want just Shane and Ryan filmed with an iphone?? personal taste is personal taste, but they have been telling us since the BEGINNING that's not what they want to make!! what kind of joyless shills would they be if they compromised what they're passionate about to cater to a bunch of whiny toddlers throwing a tantrum??? and this is what folks are calling "greed" and "a betrayal" WHOmST are they betraying??? I just WHAT the ACTUAL ahhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHH!!!!

it is not and has never been a surprise that they wanted to make high-quality, tv-caliber content.

i cannot believe that now, when they are finally in a position to really push for that - and like, let's be so for serious rn: the pandemic HAMSTRUNG THEM - people are really out here like "oh we just want low-quality zoom calls actually."

Well. I don't. I wanna watch good shows. I wanna watch these guys grow and evolve as people who write, produce and deliver the high-quality TV that they wanna make. That's why I'm subbed. That's why I joined the patreon in the fucking first place, the day Watcher launched in 2020.

They're people. They have creative goals and visions. And I'm sorry to the people who prefer that they stagnate and never do anything new, but they don't want that and I don't want it either.

#jess answers #anonymouse