I'm gonna be fighting this battle over Elizabeth Swann and the actual NUANCE that people refuse to allow her to have until the day I die, ISTG, and I'm not even sorry.

"ew gross why is Elizabeth Turner on land and wearing a DRESS, with a KID, in the epilogue of the third PotC movie?!"

that is. literally what she wanted this whole time

she's adventurous, but she was kidnapped onto the Black Pearl, then did basically everything else that she did in that movie for the express purpose of saving Will

second movie! she and Will are about to get married and live happily ever after, presumably pirate-free, when Cutler Beckett fucks things up. then Will gets sent off to get the compass and she follows- again, intending primarily to save him. she takes an interest in not letting the East India Company become superpowered rulers of the sea at the end, but that, too, is a quest with a specific goal. not just "gallivant around swashing and buckling as a Pirate King." and that carries her through Stranger Tides, coupled with Will Oh My God Stop Being In PerilTM

even BECOMING the Pirate King was something she kind of fell into because the Brethren Court needed to act and not just sit around in a stalemate

I'm not saying the girl wasn't into pirates and adventure on her own- from an early age, she definitely was. but "be safe, get home, marry Will, have his babies" seems to have been the agenda from the start

Going back to watch in theaters historically-inspired fantasy movies from the early 2000's like Lord if the Rings and Curse of the Black Pearl has been interesting, because the design elements that pop out at me on these big-screen re-watches the most aren't the ones I expect. I expect the sound to blow me away again, or the scale of the larger set pieces. But nope! For some reason what has stood out to me the MOST lately, has been the details in the textiles the costuming departments used for their characters' wardrobes. Maybe it's because of trends in modern costuming for fantasy and period settings, I don't know? But there's just something about the textures of the costumes in these movies that just look especially gorgeous to me and feel so impressive when I come back to these movies in a cinematic setting.

Like I could not stop staring during these rewatches at like... the embroidery in Theoden's clothing, or the chosen stitches on the shirts for the hobbits and Aragorn's ranger getup, or how well the suede fabric and earthy colors complement each other in Legolas' jerkin etc.

And I'm still kind of obsessed with how LotR's costuming in particular looks so exceptional even 20 years later, down to the precise weaves they invented for some of the textiles. WETA was given something like two years of pre-production to just design and craft things. And like not everything was done in pre-production, obviously, and LotR wasn't a production without hitches or having to race the clock. But there was that period early on where the artists were given time to work, and it really comes through in the final product that I get the sense isn't really possible as often, before or since.

One thing that I also especially can't get over is how Hollywood executives of the early 00's saw the box office returns LotR was pulling in, along with the unprecedented way the films were shot concurrently, and went "Hey, let's do that too!" Then tried to replicate it with other productions, but wanted to do it while SKIPPING THAT EXTENDED PRE-PRODUCTION PHASE. And then they acted surprise when a movie (1) either didn't return the same results at the box office as LotR or (2) absolutely burnt out the entire cast and crew from treating them like creative output machines.

Like when Marvel was running at full-steam and the rest of Hollywood all decided they too need a Multiverse but Immediately? It was literally just a herewegoagain.meme moment, because it's the exact same problems from 20 years ago, just Round 2 or 3 or whatever.

And they're gonna do it again with AI, and the next thing, and the next thing, because investors do not care about the craft itself, it's always about Product and Returns. And I hate that so much for the creatives working in these industries.

Anyway, point is costumers are amazing to me, and I wish them all the time, money, and respect they deserve to make their craft the vision they have in their heads. I'm sure many would LOVE to be able to create costumes on the level of LotR, have the talent and passion for it, and just aren't given the resources they need to do it.

Also every lower-level person in costuming that is doing minute detailing like bead work? I love you. I could never be you. You astound me.

mutuals let's sit at the end of the dock and splash our feet in the water while we watch the sunset

It's been kind of hitting me on delay just how much is about to change with this job loss. I do think overall this is gonna be a good opportunity for positive change--I genuinely believe I can get much better pay wherever I'll be heading. Which obviously will be really great, if it does happen.

Even so, it's been hitting me really hard starting yesterday what I'm also losing, specifically when it comes to my coworkers and managers. We got the news early Friday morning. And I think since it hit us all so unexpectedly, we mostly all just kinda wordlessly agreed to collectively tap out of the work day early and take the weekend to think and process things. So, coming into work after the weekend and having our morning meeting was the first time we could see each other again after the news and hear each other's voices, talk about what's on our To-Do Lists.

Everyone's very emotional, and it both compounds and helps the grief to be experiencing it together, for a few more weeks.

The pay wasn't the Best at this job compared to what I could be making. But the people I worked with and for have been some of the most genuinely kind and collaborative people, who made sure my work served me and my family, not the other way around.

These are the people I rode out the pandemic with. This is the crew I banded together with to defend and recover from an infiltration. I've stayed up late nights on-call, and supported this team during hardware overhauls and data center moves. These were the managers who would give me off-the-books PTO whenever overtime calls became necessary, because they understood that none of us are robots. They have supported me through family tragedy, and enabled me to start crossing major things off my bucket list, like taking two week trips to other countries even when our teams were small and the work was tight.

The uncertainty of finding another boss, another team that cares for each other the way we have is the thing I hate most.

I also genuinely enjoy the work I do for this company. I had projects I was excited to be working on. I had plans for things I wanted to do to "upgrade" our office and make it viable for sub-leasing. My co-worker and I just got done overhauling our deployment infrastructure and were about to start a round of aggressive security patches.

And now it's just... done. Permanently incomplete. Cut off in the middle of my nurturing for something better to come.

I cried yesterday.

Change is often good, but it still is hard when it's not on your terms.

Hallo friends!

In a few weeks, the business I've worked at for the last 10 years is permanently shutting its doors. To help my prospects as I hunt for a new job, I'm retaking the CCNA and some CompTIA certifications to make sure I'm up-to-date with other job candidates. These exams cost several hundreds of dollars to take apiece, and I would prefer to use as much of my savings for rent as possible, until I've got a new job lined up.

So! I have started a Ko-Fi to help take out some of the bite of these costs. I need to get a feel on how this all works, but once I've done so there's a good chance I will open up commissions soon.

If you are interested in supporting, here is my page!

And if money isn't an option right now, I would love some good vibes, prayers or whatever else you believe in and can spare, if you are willing.

Thank you!

I'm digging up old posts from the the Pirates trilogy writers on their forums, and found this gorgeous gem:

WoG doesn't ultimately matter in fandom, but I sure do love when it lines up with my own interpretations of the source material.

verified ways to send aid to gaza directly

Help a Palestinian family directly:

gazafunds.com - Donate directly to a Palestinian family in urgent need of evacuation, medical attention, food, rebuilding homes/businesses etc. (Spotlights 1 verified gfm at a time so if you don't know who/where to donate to just go here and donate to the one they show you!)

Help provide tents (urgent):

The Sameer Project: Currently providing tents for displaced families in Gaza (emergency bc tents in Rafah are being burned as we speak) (paypal) (gfm)

Food, cash & essentials:

Care for Gaza: Working on the ground in Gaza to distribute food, cash, medicine & other essentials to displaced families. (paypal) (gfm)

Direct Aid for Gaza: also working on the ground in Gaza to distribute food, cash & other daily essential suppliess to displaced families. (paypal) (gfm)

Water:

Gaza Municipality's water project: The official Municipality of Gaza needs help rebuilding the water infrastructure in Gaza City to restore access to clean water and waste management services for the people of Gaza. (This campaign only has a couple of weeks left but it's still only at 15%!)

eSIMs (urgent):

guide to buy & send esims for gaza

crips for esims for gaza: If you don't know how to buy esims or don't have the capacity to manage them (e.g. topping up regularly), this team of volunteers are collecting funds to buy & manage gaza esims regularly

Medical Aid

Palestine Red Crescent Society: Provides emergency medical and ambulance services and humanitarian relief on the ground in Gaza e.g. rescuing and treating the wounded.

Art by: Henry James Garrett

Here's a website where Palestine GoFundMes are vetted and shared that you can send out to people. The url is gazafunds.com

Easy to use and simple. Just share the site whenever someone asks for GFMs for Palestine.

Quick links: Register to vote | Check if you have accepted photo ID | Apply for a Voter Authority Certificate

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The UK general election is on Thursday, 4th July.

You need to register to vote before Tuesday, 18th June.

It usually takes about 5 minutes. You'll be asked for your National Insurance number, but you can still register if you do not have one.

You can register to vote anonymously if you're concerned about your name and address appearing on the electoral register for safety reasons.

Register at https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.

You'll need to show photo ID when voting in person.

Check if you have accepted photo ID at https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/photo-id-youll-need.

If you don't have photo ID, you have until 5pm on Wednesday, 26th June to apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate.

Apply at https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate.

Decided to totally repaint this and YAHOO I'm finally happy with it. I might go back and redo her hand so it's got better, more painterly shading but for now...

This is my current cover for my post-CotBP filler fic The Best-Laid Plans, which is an in-progress hella-long fic charting Elizabeth and Will's courtship.

I like the idea that Elizabeth didn’t teach Henry how to fight because of angst reasons. Like as soon as she saw him pick up a sword she got flashbacks of Will, and instantly swatted it out of his hands. What can I say? I love misery.

Glad you can vibe with that

To me it's too impractical and contradictory for it to make sense. Like it's easier imo for her to believe Will got stabbed specifically BECAUSE he was disarmed--if he'd had his sword handy maybe he could have deflected enough to get stabbed in the shoulder instead etc So I more see her becoming almost obsessed with making sure Henry is never caught off guard like that.

And I also still am into the Pre-DMTNT canon of her being actively involved in piracy. The retcons don't work for me.

why is anthony bourdain always bullying those gay vampires. is this the interview