my top 10 posts of 2023!

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Normally I just post about movies but I'm a software engineer by trade so I've got opinions on programming too.

Apparently it's a month of code or something because my dash is filled with people trying to learn Python. And that's great, because Python is a good language with a lot of support and job opportunities. I've just got some scattered thoughts that I thought I'd write down.

Python abstracts a number of useful concepts. It makes it easier to use, but it also means that if you don't understand the concepts then things might go wrong in ways you didn't expect. Memory management and pointer logic is so damn annoying, but you need to understand them. I learned these concepts by learning C++, hopefully there's an easier way these days.

Data structures and algorithms are the bread and butter of any real work (and they're pretty much all that come up in interviews) and they're language agnostic. If you don't know how to traverse a linked list, how to use recursion, what a hash map is for, etc. then you don't really know how to program. You'll pretty much never need to implement any of them from scratch, but you should know when to use them; think of them like building blocks in a Lego set.

Learning a new language is a hell of a lot easier after your first one. Going from Python to Java is mostly just syntax differences. Even "harder" languages like C++ mostly just mean more boilerplate while doing the same things. Learning a new spoken language in is hard, but learning a new programming language is generally closer to learning some new slang or a new accent. Lists in Python are called Vectors in C++, just like how french fries are called chips in London. If you know all the underlying concepts that are common to most programming languages then it's not a huge jump to a new one, at least if you're only doing all the most common stuff. (You will get tripped up by some of the minor differences though. Popping an item off of a stack in Python returns the element, but in Java it returns nothing. You have to read it with Top first. Definitely had a program fail due to that issue).

The above is not true for new paradigms. Python, C++ and Java are all iterative languages. You move to something functional like Haskell and you need a completely different way of thinking. Javascript (not in any way related to Java) has callbacks and I still don't quite have a good handle on them. Hardware languages like VHDL are all synchronous; every line of code in a program runs at the same time! That's a new way of thinking.

Python is stereotyped as a scripting language good only for glue programming or prototypes. It's excellent at those, but I've worked at a number of (successful) startups that all were Python on the backend. Python is robust enough and fast enough to be used for basically anything at this point, except maybe for embedded programming. If you do need the fastest speed possible then you can still drop in some raw C++ for the places you need it (one place I worked at had one very important piece of code in C++ because even milliseconds mattered there, but everything else was Python). The speed differences between Python and C++ are so much smaller these days that you only need them at the scale of the really big companies. It makes sense for Google to use C++ (and they use their own version of it to boot), but any company with less than 100 engineers is probably better off with Python in almost all cases. Honestly thought the best programming language is the one you like, and the one that you're good at.

Design patterns mostly don't matter. They really were only created to make up for language failures of C++; in the original design patterns book 17 of the 23 patterns were just core features of other contemporary languages like LISP. C++ was just really popular while also being kinda bad, so they were necessary. I don't think I've ever once thought about consciously using a design pattern since even before I graduated. Object oriented design is mostly in the same place. You'll use classes because it's a useful way to structure things but multiple inheritance and polymorphism and all the other terms you've learned really don't come into play too often and when they do you use the simplest possible form of them. Code should be simple and easy to understand so make it as simple as possible. As far as inheritance the most I'm willing to do is to have a class with abstract functions (i.e. classes where some functions are empty but are expected to be filled out by the child class) but even then there are usually good alternatives to this.

Related to the above: simple is best. Simple is elegant. If you solve a problem with 4000 lines of code using a bunch of esoteric data structures and language quirks, but someone else did it in 10 then I'll pick the 10. On the other hand a one liner function that requires a lot of unpacking, like a Python function with a bunch of nested lambdas, might be easier to read if you split it up a bit more. Time to read and understand the code is the most important metric, more important than runtime or memory use. You can optimize for the other two later if you have to, but simple has to prevail for the first pass otherwise it's going to be hard for other people to understand. In fact, it'll be hard for you to understand too when you come back to it 3 months later without any context.

Note that I've cut a few things for simplicity. For example: VHDL doesn't quite require every line to run at the same time, but it's still a major paradigm of the language that isn't present in most other languages.

Ok that was a lot to read. I guess I have more to say about programming than I thought. But the core ideas are: Python is pretty good, other languages don't need to be scary, learn your data structures and algorithms and above all keep your code simple and clean.

☕️theatre? You've had interesting opinions on the couple of plays you've mentioned...

Big topic!!

Btw, I signed up for another round of drama 'classes', so very relevant.

I love theater, been introduced to it as a child and I think it really should be a bigger part of children's education, way more widespread. I want drama clubs to be as essential for any schools libraries (arts general to be funded better as well). Schools should cooperate with local theaters and get children to see plays several times a year etc, starting from puppetry and up to weird, experimental stuff.

Community theaters should also be funded and where there aren't any comrades should come together and start one. Honestly, this is not me trying to elevate theater as the most important art form or something, it's not better or worse than others, but it is essentially an opportunity for all ages to play pretend and involve their whole body in silliness and healthy tomfoolery. That's aside from the power of storytelling and outreach and shakespeare in prisons and all of that highly important yada yada, we all know and love that. We should do more of it. To be honest, I don't really get the snarky comments about theater kids (though people who focus heavily on european theatre and DO try to elevate it as supreme art form etc of course are at risk of letting their discrimination sully their art, you know).

And I firmly believe that there should be theaters for all occasions and all expectations of what genre of even it is – like with restaurants, sometimes you want a fancy meal and sometimes you want street food. Theater should 100% be versatile and accessible, it should include much more ethnic and body diversity and I think age/gender/race-blind castings are a great idea as long as everyone involved is not making 'guy in a dress' type of joke underneath.

The plays I've seen recently were Translations – a very popular play in Ireland, and a Ukrainian production was an interesting twist on it. I think I have a post on it somewhere in this attic of my blog.

The more recent one I saw just last month was And Then There None – I wrote a post but it was a rambling mess and I deleted it. I like the story (am aware of the racist original name and Christie's general issues with racism and orientalism) but also Christie truly killed the story when she rewrote it as a play with a happy ending. It becomes a vaguely thiller-esque comedy basically, and early films based on it treat it exactly this way. They play I saw didn't do that, but I feel like the play is still not the best medium for this particular story, it was rushed and the descent into paranoid madness feels very artificial. Actors were okay, it was the packed itinerary of deaths that was rushing them along. They made a couple of characters gay, and idk, it was fine, but also comedied them down. I don't know how I feel about this. It could have been better. Stage design was good. Also I'm heavily biased about this piece because the best production so far that I've seen has been a ussr 2-part movie that hits every point and is evisceratingly good, so it's hard to top. I have more feelings about the book itself but I should get a separate ask to ramble about that.

alicia, my beloved! would you do me a great favour and answer some of these?

🤡🛒🌌🎶🙋‍♀️💖🤗🧠 (tell me about our boy klaus)

(also i 100% rbed that post in hopes that it'll give me an excuse to pester all my writer friends with questions, mission accomplished! 😈)

🤡 - What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

Ella, bestie - there's so many. I mean not all of them are laugh-out-loud funny, but they always bring a little smile to my face. I think Caroline pushes Klaus into a pool in Into Eternity? That's a good one. But I think most the more funny exchanges happen in The Big Bad Wolf. Somehow that fic turned into crack along the way and honestly it ran away from me. My OCs are just really fun to write. Probably the scene that made me laugh the most in that, was the bacon scene. With the lunar cycles. And then later on Klaus throwing Kol's phone out the car window because he caught him texting Rebekah about the new information. Scenes with Titus, Klaus' horse, and Sam's raven Loki also hit the top spots. Sorry, I just can't choose one.

🛒 - What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

Found family. Or a sense of family or brotherhood in general. I have no idea why. It's just too wholesome to leave out. Also probably an element of spookiness and horror, because I'm edgy like that, and I like my settings/characters a little dark, a little violent.

✨ - Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

Okay so there's no constellation emoji on the original ask list so I'm assuming you meant this one? I don't know, maybe I'm just blind but I can't find it.

So. A compliment.

Will you accept 'I write good'? Lmao I don't know.

🎶 - Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

I actually have a few playlists on youtube that I set aside for writing. My brain is really sense-minded, so like when I put that music on it knows it's time to write. I've got a klaroline playlist, which are basically klaroline music vids, and also playlists for my fics. And then sometimes I just freestyle, listen to anything that comes on. I need to share the songs I listen to for TBBW at some point cause they are amazing. Here Come the Wolves by Lola Blanc screams Chapter 1. And then I Know Your Secrets by Tommee Profitt (feat. Liv Ash) is definitely Chapter 12. I remember listening to Running With The Wolves by Aurora for Chapter 13 a lot.

🙋‍♀️ - Do any irl people know you write fanfic?

Yes. Sort of. A close friend knows. Though I have not shared my ao3 name nor my fics and do not intend to lol.

💖 - What made you start writing? 

I actually can't remember when I didn't write in some shape or form. I've been writing since I was a small kid, in like primary school. Probably Year 4? Maybe even Year 3? I would have been like 7 maybe. I basically remember watching the movie of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, and little kid me thought, oh I want to write a book! And so I started writing a book called the Dragon and the Peach. I think the plot involved a dragon called Sapphira, who like goes on this quest and eats a magical peach that makes her strong and powerful so she can defeat the villain. That story eventually evolved into a different, more complex plot as I got older, with more characters and backstories. By Year 6 I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. And then in my teens I found fanfiction and well, here I am, ten years later, still writing fanfiction lol. Nothing really made me start writing. I guess Dahl's books inspired me originally, I really loved them as a kid, but nothing made me do it. No one pushed me to do it, or said I'd be good at it. For me writing has always been a calling. I really had no choice but answer.

🤗 - What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

Read. Write. That's it. Read as much as you can, because that's the finest teacher of how to write. Literally. You'll find whatever genres and tropes you prefer to read will start popping up in your writing without even realising it. And when you do write, keep writing, even when you get writer's block - even if its 200 words per day or 200 words after weeks of nothing, at least its no longer a blank page. Write while figuring out how to plot, how to characterise, how to build up tension. Don't be ashamed of stuff you wrote a year ago because it sucks - it doesn't suck, you've just improved since then and now you can write better. It's a victory, not a defeat. And don't write for anyone else but yourself. Like I said before, writing is a calling. It's bleeding words onto a page because you have to get it out or you'll go crazy. You are your first reader. So write for you.

🧠 - Pick a character, and I'll tell you my favourite headcanon for them.

So. Klausy. Neeklous. Our boy Klaus. What headcanons do I have for him, hmm? 🤔

[I'm trying to think of one I haven't told you, it's a challenge]

Okay I have one. Not sure if I've included this in a fic yet, but a headcanon I love is that Klaus steals artwork from galleries and museums for kicks and replaces them with copies he painted before the originals are noticed as missing. The galleries and museums around the world have yet to catch on. He thinks its funny. Compulsion gets boring after the first few centuries, after all.

All numbers for bobert blease

OKAY i'm normal about bobby pendragon

My first impression of them:

i think the very first time i read when i was like 8 iwas like this guy is sooo me. and on reread when i was 13 i was like this guy's a loser !!! but i love him

When I think I truly started to like them:

umm i don't know. i think only after i'd read the whole series and took in everything that happened to him

A song that reminds me of them:

smells like teen spirit

How many people I ship them with:

i don't want to repeat myself a bunch but it's really just spader. i don't dislike other ships but bobbyspader numero uno

My favorite ship of them:

BOBBYSPADER NUMERO UNO‼️

My least favorite ship of them:

um (looks around) sd . generally i'm not really an enemies to lovers guy

A quote of them that you remember:

MAN THAT SUIT IS JUST WICKED COOL

Your favorite outfit of them:

this is a tangent but isn't it kind of funny that i'm trying so hard to answer these outfit questions when they were obviously written with anything that's not a book in mind. anyway my answer is the weird little tunic and cape he's wearing in my icon

Your least favorite outfit of them:

i don't know. i don't think it's really applicable since he didn't get to choose most of his clothes

Describe the character in one sentence:

What’s the first thing you think about when thinking about the character?:

"yo"

Sexuality hc:

well i think he's bisexual

Your favorite friendship they have:

mark actually !!!! is the curse of the nature of the series that we don't get very many moments between them

Best storyline they had:

actually i think it's raven rise .... the way he starts the book so deep in denial and escapism and has to come back from the depths and get back in the fight. yeah

Worst storyline they had:

i'm really unsure what these two questions mean by "storyline" exactly but anyway it's no secret that i don't like the rivers of zadaa very much so i guess that's my answer

A childhood headcanon:

ah i'm not great at thinking of headcanons off the top of my head

How do you think they were as a kid? (Like, were they shy, noisy, wild, etc):

much like he is as a teenager, very friendly and outgoing

The most random ship you've seen people have with them:

siry 😭

A weird headcanon:

he eats chapstick

When do you think they were at their happiest?:

i feel like it's a cop out to say before the war so maybe on ibara for a second when he truly convinced himself the war was over

When do you think they were at their lowest?:

right after he killed naymeer

Future headcanon:

such is the nature of pendragon that most of the characters don't get to do anything post-canon. i guess i could say i always liked the idea that the travelers were reincarnated instead of going to solara

What do you think is a secret they have that they never told anyone?:

hmm i don't really have an answer for this one

When do you think they acted the most ooc:

ehhh you know this is kind of a hard question for me because it takes a lot for me to consider a character's canon actions "out of character"

When do you think they were being "themselves" the most?:

again i feel like it's a cop out to say before the series started so maybe cloral

If they could meet a character from another show/movie/etc, who would be the most fun for them to meet?:

i promise i know characters that aren't from dj machale books but i always like to group together all the djm protagonists in my head like they have a club or support group so yeah any of them. that is marsh and coop from morpheus (i think they both count), tucker from sylo, and marcus from the library

The most unnecessary thing they ever did?:

all of his unnecessary sarcastic comments

How do you think they would be as a parent? (and if they are a parent, how do you think they would be if they weren't?):

i think he would be really protective but also very playful with his kids. he'd play sports with them all the time obviously

The funniest scene they had?:

the one in raven rise where he wakes up and sd is there

Tagged by: @lithugraph thank you dear <3

What book are you currently reading?

I finished the last pages of Different Seasons by Stephen King today, a collection of novellas featuring Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the novella the film The Shawshank Redemption is based on, and, man, it reminded me why I love Stephen King so much.

What’s your favorite movie you saw in theaters this year?

Did I even watch a movie in theaters this year? lol. Okay, I remembered - The Batman, which I liked a lot (but I'm a Batman fangirl, so no surprises there).

What do you usually wear?

Jeans and a blouse or shirt, a hoodie on top if I'm cold. But I also really love dresses in summer.

How tall are you?

168 cm, so 5’5” for you Americans :P

What’s your Star Sign? Do you share a birthday with a celebrity or a historical event? 

Scorpio! I share my birthday with Emma Stone and Ethan Hawke, among others. No interesting historical events.

Do you go by your name or a nick-name?

Usually my name, but my closest childhood friends and my sister have a nick-name they sometimes use :)

Did you grow up to become what you wanted to be when you were a child?

Nope. I wanted to be an actress :P Though, as I also wanted to be an author, you could say that I'm getting closer to that dream (very, very slowly).

Are you in a relationship? If not, who is your crush if you have one?

Yes! Three years and going strong.

What’s something you’re good at vs. something you’re bad at?

I like to imagine writing and drawing are skills I'm better at than your average guy/girl and I'm exceptionally good at worrying about stuff and feeling stressed :P Bad - I'm clumsy, so the opposite of that. Also throwing a ball.

Dogs or cats?

Cats!

If you draw/write, or create in any way, what’s your favorite picture/favorite line/favorite etc. from something you created this year?

Art I hate as soon as I post it, though I have lots of written lines I adore :)

I really like the opening lines of Desperate Times:

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Obi-Wan had always considered the saying somewhat cliché, an excuse to justify whatever cruel or little thought-out plan was set in motion. How did you recognize desperate times? Weren’t all measures desperate if taken in a state of despair? How did you decide on the measures to be taken, whether desperate or not? And, in the end, would history prove them right?

He still didn’t know the answers to those questions. However, for the first time maybe, he found himself whispering those words with relief, for they were short and comfortable, and they offered an explanation he could cling to when ignoring what his heart was telling him. They dampened the regret. They made it easier, when, in reality, nothing was easy at all.

Also, most of the epilogue of What You Are And What You'll Never Be.

What’s something you would like to create content for?

I have a Bridgerton fanfiction in progress feat. Anthony and whump (I have a thing for smug male leads getting knocked down a peg), though I doubt I'll get many readers :P Also, maybe, Jesus Christ Superstar.

What’s something you’re currently obsessed with? 

Josh Young as Judas in the broadway revival of Jesus Christ Superstar. Damn, that man can sing.

What’s something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year?

The My Chemical Romance concert I couldn't go to because it was postponed on short notice and the new date didn't work for me :))

What’s a hidden talent of yours?

I hope it's my singing skills :P

Are you religious?     

I was confirmed, but I don't really practice it, so I guess not so much. Though, I do like the general sentiments of helping one's neighbour.

What’s something you wish to have at this moment?

My bachelor's thesis done :( But I'm on schedule, so that's something.

Tagging: (Don't feel obligated to do this of course) @buzzingbugger @jovialkidbonktrashsh @currently-kraken @rosesnblueberries @sparkie96 @willshowerthots @kratosfan6632466 and whoever else wants to do this :)

A     PRIVATE   AND   SELECTIVE      BLOG      FEATURING         FINNICK ODAIR     FROM    THE HUNGER GAMES FRANCHISE.      LARGELY    HEADCANON    BASED     WITH     PERSONAL     INTERPRETATIONS. MACY, SHE / HER, 24. 

﹏         /  [ 1. ]  prompts     ៸៸     [ 2. ]   aes    ៸៸

rules below !

GENERAL

18+ only.    mutually exclusive.     softblock when breaking mutuals.

formatting doesn’t matter to me.     just cut your posts,   and do not use a picture/screenshot as your reply.

DNI.

do not interact if you are a multi and primarily use east asian fcs    ( especially if they are korean )    because that screams fetishization to me;    write historical or real muses;     use youtubers/influencers as fcs;     and/or soley focus on sexual nsfw.

CONTENT & TAGGING

i don’t use tw tagging format,   and i only tag overtly graphic and explicit content.

this blog will have implied sexual nsfw content.     smutting will likely not happen unless we’re close and it will never be on dash.     

all potentially triggering content from the franchise are to be expected here. you know what you can and can't handle.

finnick is a victim of forced prostitution and sexual assault. do not follow if you don't want to read about it because it is a prevalent theme to his character.

SHIPPING & DIVERGENCES

this blog is multiship,   and i do not default - ship finnick and annie. i felt like they didn't have development from the books nor movies, so it'd require plotting and chemistry from my wps to go forth with a romantic dynamic for them.     that being said,   romance is typically not top priority for me and i tend to prefer other forms of dynamics:     antagonistic,   platonic,   familial,   etc.

physical divergence(s): finnick's actor is recast and ethnically japanese, with black hair. the golden motifs come from his persona and smile ;p ( still got green eyes, though it's dark and stormy emerald rather than the light foamy seagreen as described. it changes in lighting. he also has gone blonde at some point post - victory. )

divergence [ 1 ]: finnick and annie were together shortly, but ended it amicably prior to the 75th reaping. he loves and cares for her deeply, it's just not currently romantic. whether or not they get married for propo is up to whichever dynamic my wps and i decide, but i default to no marriage.

divergence [ 2 ]: finnick is left behind and brutalized by the mutts, but not killed. he manages to scarcely make it out alive ( i'm delusional and that's my canon )

WRITER & CREDITS

i’m macy,   24,   she/her.     i don't even know if i'll be active tbh but ................ we are here <3 discord avail if u ask!

About post!

Name: Malcolm

Pronouns: He/Him

Dere type: Kuudere/Dandere

Likes: Anime, writing, RPGs, coding, coffee, psychological horror, manga and puzzles

Anime I like: Mob Psycho 100, The Disastrous Life Of Saiki-K, Ouran High School Host Club, Serial Experiments Lain, Bungo Stray Dogs, Parasyte, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Tokyo Ghoul, Death Note, Monster, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, Assassination Classroom, Sailor Moon, Death Parade, CardCaptor Sakura and Komi Can't Communicate

Other shows: Bob's Burgers, South Park, Malcolm In The Middle, Daria, Gravity Falls and Over The Garden Wall

Movies: All Ghibli films, Mrs Doubtfire, The Craft, Return Of The Jedi, The Matrix, Mean Girls, Addams Family Values, Beetlejuice, The Lost Boys, Fight Club and American Psycho

Video games: Stick of Truth, Final Fantasy 7 (1997), Ocarina of Time, Doki Doki Literature Club!, Earthbound, all Resident Evil games, Super Castlevania 4 and Professor Layton

Musical artists: Lemon Demon, The Cure, The Smiths, Weezer, The Smashing Pumpkins, Joy Division, Radiohead, Bo Burnham, Asian Kung-Fu Generation, They Might Be Giants, Weird Al Yankovic, MSI and Will Wood

Books: Earthlings (Sayaka Murata), The Tell-Tale Heart (Edgar Allan Poe), Convenience Store Woman (Sayaka Murata) and Battle Royale (Koushun Takami)

Before You Interact:

-I am obsessive with my interests and will go on long talks/rants about them, sorry if this is annoying.

-I am very blunt and will just say what I think, often without thinking. If I say something rude, please tell me, I most likely didn't know that I said anything wrong.

-I struggle with telling tone through text, so use tone tags.

-I don't use trigger warnings.

-I'm shy and terrible at starting conversation, so I won't talk to you first. If you're interested in being friends, please be the first to interact.

-You can vent to me about anything, but I'm bad at comforting people, if I sound unempathetic it isn't intentional, I just don't know what to say.

Do Not Interact:

-Racists, homophobes, transphobes, etc

-Incredibly religious people

-Anyone who ships real people

-Anyone who has a typing quirk (1t'$ @nn0y1ng)

-Brags about mental illnesses

-TCC

Thin-Ice:

-My Chemical Romance fans (bad experiences)

-Soukoku shippers

-Style shippers

-Harry Potter fans

-Hunger Games fans

Top Kins:

-Kusuo Saiki (The Disastrous Life Of Saiki-K)

-Lain Iwakura (Serial Experiments Lain)

-Edogawa Ranpo (BSD)

-Rei Ayanami (Evangelion)

-Edgar Allan Poe (BSD)

omg i hope this is okay to ask, i swear it's so hard to find other graphic designers to ask questions to, do you have any tips of how to build up your portfolio before you have had an official freelance or general design job? i've obviously been making edits and did things for my school work, but i'm terrified to dip my feet into actually working so i'm gathering as much info as possible lol!

hi! more than okay to ask! i'm still learning as i go along but here are some things that helped me when i didn't have much client work:

make up your own projects! depending on what kind of design you want to get into - you could use a generator to come up with a plot for a movie/book and then design the cover for that. Or make up a fake company to design the logo for etc! I'd put these under a 'personal projects' section and state that you made them up for practice (unless you're a good liar and can get away with pretending they were actually real, i'm sure lots of people do that lol)

ask friends and family if they need anything designed - you can treat this as client work and it's also a good way to figure out what you like designing if you're not sure yet! i've designed so many random things for friends which i don't think i would've tried making otherwise

i started out using a website called 99Designs - i wouldn't neccessarily recommend this (the amount of work you'll do for little, if any, money is ridiculous. and especially now it is full of AI "art") BUT it did get me a lot of work in the beginning! I still check it to see if anything interesting has been posted, and I'll view it just as practice, if i get any money it's just a bonus!

i use behance.net instead of having an actual portfolio website - you get a lot more people viewing it and other artists engaging with your work! a lot of people use dribbble too :)

show your work - include pictures of the design process, sketches of ideas, different variations of the design before you decided on the final one etc, and write about the process too! especially if you're applying to full time jobs, most places will want to know that you have a way of working and are good at managing your time etc

this is off the top of my head but i hope it's helpful! i think the main thing is include everything you love - whether it's actual client work, school work or a fun little fan edit :) quite a lot of my freelance work came about bc people saw my taylor edits!

Hallow-Watch: Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995) Watched:  10/02/2023 Format:  Criterion Viewing:  Second Director:  Ernest Dickerson I didn't have HBO during most of the years when Tales From the Crypt was on television, so I was aware of the show, but didn't catch it very often.  In general, I wasn't really wired for it at the time (I wasn't into horror), but in 1995, I was sort of going to see everything that came out.   My memory of the movie is that it's... fine.  It seems like maybe it could have been better, and a 90 minute run-time, even with Crypt Keeper book-ends, was still maybe a bit much and at some point, you feel like you get it, and this could have been 75 or 80 minutes.  The show was usually 30+ minutes, so you're essentially doing tight stories built on ironic twists, the hand of fate, etc...  the kind of stuff you may be familiar with from any number of anthology shows that preceded it. Here, they needed to tell a longer story, and so we get a bit of an actioner on top of the horror, and a larger cast.  And what a cast!  How weird. I only really remembered Billy Zane, but we also have a very young Jada Pinkett (pre-Smith), Thomas Haden Church, CCH Pounder, William Sadler, Dick Miller, Charles Fleischer, Brenda Bakke and Traci Bingham is in there somewhere as a "Party Babe".  It seems like the studio was like "hey, we're doing a Tales from the Crypt movie, and-" and everyone said "yes!". The basic set-up is that William Sadler plays a guy on the run from an hilarious Billy Zane, who is a sort of Demon-guy.  Sadler is protecting "the key" which will turn Earth back to a pre-"let there be light" state and release demons and darkness onto the world.  He's trapped in a hotel (they keep calling a motel) built out of an old church along with the employees and residents of the motel, as well as some cops. You've seen similar before as the cast bickers and fights and has their own little arcs and desires, which are exploited by Zane who uses their inner-most desires to get inside their heads and physically into the motel.  And he's funny and charming as he does so. The movie takes place in just a few locations over a single night, which helps wrangle the story, characters and budget.  And makes for good horror-stuff. There's a sort of post-80's/ we've-seen-Evil Dead 2 approach to some of it, and it's a pleasure to see so much done with puppets, creature design and practical FX.  The demons running around are given animal-like legs I can't believe the actors could walk on, but they even climb stairs.  There's some gore, but it's not, like, endless.  It's more of a punchline and tone setting. All-in-all, it's a fun movie.  I'm not sure the format of Tales from the Crypt begs for a movie-length treatment, but it did make me think - there's no reason Max couldn't revive this show.  Horror does great, in general, and it would be terrific to see stuff that relies on the sorts of plot twists and ghoulish morality tales that made TV horror and sci-fi work for decades.  I don't know how much more I can get from another zombie-based TV show taking place in a world where they've never seen a zombie TV show before. And, of course, it's kinda nice to have the Crypt Keeper making fun of the proceedings and the horrible fates of the characters instead of insisting this should all be taken very seriously, indeed.  I'm a firm believer in the horror-host, from Elvira to Crypt Keeper to Count Floyd.   https://ift.tt/OG3LR4f via The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/D2JW9IH October 03, 2023 at 09:49AM

Deconstructing baseless Harry Potter arguments #1: Harmony Edition

There’s a very helpful account on instagram (this instagram page merely gathers toxic harmony shippers, they don’t ship Harmione or hate all Harmione shippers, please don’t send them hate, show them love and support) where you can essentially find stupid fucking bashers who make baseless arguments. I’m all for Harmione shippers, as long as they don’t denounce Romione, bash Ron and just peacefully co-exist. To my pleasure, such people are out there: they just dont seem to be seen as often as the ones that are not nice. Maybe all I see is the mean people and the majority is nice, but in this post, I am attacking those who make baseless claims and bash Ron/Romione/Hinny/Ginny. I don’t myself hate all Harmione shippers. On top of that, as a Romione/Ron fan, i do acknowledge Ron’s character flaws along with Hermione’s and I hold them on the same pedestal.

This is copied directly from my own instagram page, granger.weasley_ on ig.

Anyways let's get deconstructing

1)

rebuttal:

Yeah okay mf; maybe don’t compare real-life relationships with fucking fictional ones. Your relationship going wrong has nothing to do with Ron/Hermione. It has everything to do with you and your ex: the *real life* people involved in it.

2)

rebuttal:

The weird subreddits and discord servers also seem to have a lot of die-hard Harmione “non-canon” shippers. They bash Ron and Romione (along with Ginny and Hinny) with a burning passion without any objective sense of remorse. They ignore all the merits of Ron’s character and bash him to push their agenda. They can’t even do so much as fucking acknowledge any of Hermione’s character flaws but still somehow manage to fixate on that one time when 11 year old Ron just shit-talked one line while Hermione had just publicly humiliated him in front of the Charms class and practically shouted at him for doing the spell wrong just before. I personally don’t because Hermione was 11 too and wasn’t that good at social cues that early on, which is more than okay. Neither am I.

Only a few people in the Romione fandom bash Hermione. And it’s not like Harmione shippers (most, not all!) don’t bash Ron and Ginny remorselessly, right? The fucking hypocrisy.

If someone considers Ron as the best member of the trio, it is their own opinion and not a fact. I do that. If you consider Harry and Hermione as the best member of the trio or in the whole wizarding world, most people don’t give a flying fuck and probably won’t argue with you because it is simply an opinion. That will only happen when you pass that off as a fact.

Statistically speaking, most (not FUCKING all) Harmione moments are in the movies. The weird dance scene especially. The passionate kiss that happens in Ron’s vision, shit like that. Ron is pushed to the sidelines in the last set of movies while Harry and Hermione show each other endless love and support. “I’ll go with you”. The books on the other hand, describe Harry and Hermione as siblings multiple times, with very little Harmione references.

3)

rebuttal:

So you don't want us to fixate on the large majority of Harmione shippers who do the exact same thing, just kissing Hermione's and Harry's ass and hating on Ron. However you will fixate on people who are most likely not EVEN bashing or hating but pointing out a few character flaws in Hermione in a fair and unbiased way. I would know, I'm a huge fan of Hermione as an individual character (in the books). The only criticism I've seen of Hermione to this day has not been bashing. In the comment section of my own fics (shameless plug) I've seen some Hermione bashing. On an ao3 comment section. And I've seen so damn fucking many people bashing Ron, Ginny, the Weasleys etc. and garner tens and thousands of upvotes on quora.

What does Ron even need excusing for? The running away incident and Krum. What does Hermione need excusing for? Canaries, contributing to Ron's insecurities by making him jealous through Cormac and Krum even though she didn't even like them (especially not Cormac, she fucking hated him). Ron wore a locket that literally highlighted his fatal flaw (insecurity) in an echo chamber. Harry kept getting annoyed when Ron wanted to check in on his family. Harry asked Ron to leave; Ron didn't say that shit in the books about Harry's parents being dead: that was plain shock value.

And sorry for repeating myself but I have seen quite a few Harmione shippers bash Ron and Ginny and excuse every single thing Harry and Hermione have done.

4)

37 upvotes on this weird comment that makes no sense? Echo chamber alert! You know what us Romione/Ron fans all have in common? We have never experienced such an echo chamber. I made a pro Ron/Romione post on reddit and got a considerable amount of people who bashed Ron and Romione in the comments.

The amount of Hermione haters is very few compared to Ron bashers. Nobody hates Hermione for being independent, determined, etc. We dislike perfect movie Hermione who’s an unrealistic image of females and seems like some sort of agenda than a real woman. Most Romione shippers/Ron fans and book fans in general (except for you apparently) dislike movie Hermione and still are fans of realistic book Hermione. Most, not all. In general, we do not claim anyone who does the exact same thing to Harry and Hermione that these sorts of Harmione shippers do to Ron, Romione, Hinny and Ginny. I say this on the behalf of all Romione shippers and Ron fans.

Ron's not a bitchy lay-about drama causing loser. That's Steve Kloves's movie Ron. In the books Ron is realistic and simplistic and apologizes whenever he causes problems. He acts up substantially twice in a span of 7 years where he is also a hormone-fuelled teenager.

This is so contradictory and juxtaposed to the point of near delusion. First you talk about how Romione shippers bash Hermione and then you bash Ron as a Harmione shipper. Mate, fighting fire with fire will get you called a hypocrite. Fix yourself.

5)

So the movies are fine when they work according to your agenda? And yes how dare he add such a (fake) chemistry fuelled moment between Harry and Hermione while defeating the entire purpose and groundwork for Romione, the sadness caused by Ron leaving and so many more things? Those Harmione moments you mention seem friendship -esque more than anything else.

Steve Kloves's moments ruined many things while just paying fan service to the Harmione fans he'd birthed through years in the course of 6 movies where he showed Ron as a, how you so eloquently describe it, lay - about drama causing bitchy loser, Harry as one dimensional and Hermione as a zero - dimensional Mary Sue who might as well be the main titular character. Obviously Harmione fans such as yourself don't see the problem with it as it fits your narrative

6)

We do care about Harry and Hermione at large. Most Romione shippers rightfully bash Draco, Pansy, etc. not particularly Harry and Hermione, that's quite rare. Harry and Hermione can get along without Ron as friends. Ron and Harry can also get along without. Hermione as friend. So can Hermione and Ron without Harry as friends or more. I don't understand your point and how what you said is any different than Romione or Ronarry’s friendship.

7)

Constant arguing is not what they do. They bicker, they apologize, and sometimes they just do it for the heck of it. They are argumentative teenager. Opposites attract doesn't work in the sense of fire and ice, it works in the case of Brownie and ice-cream. Ron is passionate, laid back and insecure. Hermione's passionate, a workaholic and not as insecure. Ron can help her get calm and composed and get her to give herself a break. Hermione can motivate Ron and re - enforce his confidence.

It wouldn't be step incest. Harry and Ginny do not regard each other as siblings. They do not look similar whatsoever. And a Harmione shipper also bashes Hinny and Ginny along with Ron and Romione? Checks out

" that fucked up Harmony" hahaha. What?

8)

Are you literally going to date someone on the basis of what Harry Potter ships they prefer? That is so shallow end depraved. Your Harry Potter ship preferences should not be the groundwork for your dating life. Please understand that. Harry Potter is a fictional world which is not real. Hogwarts doesn't exist. Magic doesn't exist. I sound like a Dursley but that's what it is: a fictional realm with fictional character. I would personally not give a fuck if my best friend or significant other was a Harmione shipper. In the case of them being a Ron basher, I would ignore it as if it was just a minor inconvenience and something we wouldn't be discussing and that's how it should be with you. Fuck BuzzFeed, your opinion on what Harry Potter ship / character is your favorite says squat about your personality and relationship with others in a romantic or platonic context. But who cares? Live your life however you want. I'll be stoic.

9)

It's not opposites attract rubbish or high school opposites attract. Ron and Hermione aren't polar opposites like I said, they are a bit different but similar too in many ways. They have a lot more in common than Harry and Hermione. Ron and Harry have the most in common. Both Ron and Hermione are passionate, loving, argumentative, caring, etc. Your argument lacks substance. It's biased trash. And what does “obhwf " mean?

---------------------------------

at the end of the day, i’m just an annoyed teenager. I try my best to be open-minded to people but only as long as they are too. I tried to use my brain more than my feelings for this post. 

I haven't seen KP discourse in the tag since that person who said it was bad representation of LGBTQ+ people and had a problem with the way queer men present their sexuality 🙄 but I won't get into that. The only other posts I've seen are people who are complaining that it isn't serious and don't like the comedy of the show while others were complaining during the first episode (on Twitter) that it was too serious, that they didn't like Kinn, etc., ironically.

There's no way to please everyone.

If people read the novel, they would understand that the chaos and Porsche fucking everything up, and the guards not liking him, and Tankhun's character in general, is exactly how it started in the book. Obviously the whole water thing, pantsing Ken, and the mermaid thing weren't there, so some things aren't exactly as in the book, but that's to be expected. It's a TV series and they need to fill in the time whilst also not diving too deep into the plot since its only episode 2 of 14, like, people need to chill.

People not liking the show because its comedic or they don't like (or understand 👀 full shade intended) Porsche's character... the best you can do is block them. I think the reason people are very protective about this show is because people have already been shitting on it since before it even aired. If you were in the tag before March 2nd you know... and on top of that, people have been waiting for this series for 1 or 2 years and then it got dropped, so people have gone through a rollercoaster with this series and to get it to even air on our screens after so much uncertainty has made people a little hostile with any criticism against the show (Apo, Porsche's actor even got depressed, I heard, and left the country to decompress with Mile, Kinn's actor after the show got dropped by the previous production company. So imagine, it been rough for everyone).

That's not to say the hostility is justified, but I think if people are only hate watching the show, then others have the right to tell you to fuck off. Don't dampen the excitement for others. If you're hate watching it either keep it in your blog or tag it #KPcriticism or #antikinnporsche or whatever, people just need to chill with the hate, the show's only just begun.

Firstly, hot DAMN asks got long this isn't a knock on you Anon I'm just surprised b/c the last time I used tumblr asks could only be like 200 words lmao this is WILD I'm impressed damn tumblr y'all finally were annoyed to death by users to give us something

ok on to the ask:

some things aren't exactly as in the book, but that's to be expected. It's a TV series and they need to fill in the time whilst also not diving too deep into the plot since its only episode 2 of 14, like, people need to chill.

so here's a thing folks need to understand, things will change in adaptions because you are changing the medium in which the story is being told.

The Producers is a good example, originally it's a film, then it was adapted into a musical. I recommend Sideways video on the subject (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXjK50kEgvo) but to sum up his thesis: one of the reasons the Mulan live action movie sucked is it didn't replace any of the music with moments of equal emotional weight. In adaptions you also have to account for things like audience expectations.

Kinnporsche's novel is intended for Thai readers, not international readers. Kinnporsche the TV adaption, is clearly intended for both a Thai audience, but also a broader international audience. So adjustments have to be made to take that into account. Also, you tend to have more hands involved with film productions over book ones (speaking from experience on all of this btw).

Novel changes are to be expected simply b/c internal monologues aren't really en vogue anymore in film save for rare cases, so all the internal thoughts of Porsche you'd get in the novel have to be cut.

(Apo, Porsche's actor even got depressed, I heard, and left the country to decompress with Mile, Kinn's actor after the show got dropped by the previous production company. So imagine, it been rough for everyone).

JFC I didn't know that and that's horrible I hope Apo is ok no, depression is no joke.

That's not to say the hostility is justified, but I think if people are only hate watching the show, then others have the right to tell you to fuck off. Don't dampen the excitement for others. If you're hate watching it either keep it in your blog or tag it #KPcriticism or #antikinnporsche or whatever, people just need to chill with the hate, the show's only just begun.

yeah I agree with this. Like, I'm not gonna stop anyone from disliking KP like honestly who fucking cares you don't like a show trust you aren't changing the world by not liking KP nor liking KP. I think folks have all the right in the word to not like KP and talk about why they don't like KP. It's your blog man.

But that's the thing, either keep it on your blog aka tagless, or tag it something outside of the main tags so fans don't have to see it.

Like, ok I don't like the show 1000 Stars, nor To My Star two shows I know are like really popular in BL spaces. I have my reasons for not liking these shows. But even if I did ever get the firey chaotic urge to write an essay on why I don't like these show I wouldn't post it in the fucking main tags.

Why? Why would I? Fans who love the show are in those tags! Why am I coming into their house while they're chilling, having a good time, enjoying their party to bust down the door and say "well actually your chips and dip suck balls and your punch taste like mildew".

Idk about how others grew up but that's a quick ass way to get my ass dog walked lmao it's picking a fight - however unintentional - for no reason. Just invite a new tag! KPcritical or KPNegative or whatever it's all good.

And it's not even like you can't have disagreements in fandom, I didn't agree with a take that Porsche is depressed but the user and I were really cordial about it b/c we're both fans and we just enjoy the show. No big! But folks are posting outright just negative shit or hate watching the show and posting it in the tags like, my dude, keep that snaps on your blog there's no reason to tag it and if you tag it to organize your blog just do so with different tags cause otherwise you're unintentionally bringing the party down. And the rest of us are just trying to jam.

Wha-? Now people are labeling muns who just play devil's advocate and don't have strong feelings either way about what other people write? I didn't sign up to be a 'proshipper' just for not caring what other people ship. I don't care about a lot of things. Why the label for this particular thing? It sounds so dumb, like a way to yank in more muns who just want to mind their own business into drama and 'sides'. I agree with your post, I'm just angry at the rpc for being babies. And the labels...

I'm always angry at the RPC for being babies and the labels, it's alright, Anon.

I believe (and I could be wrong, because for the most part, I tried to stay out of any and all fandom-related things for years and years - I just want to enjoy the movie/shows/books, I don't need or want to discourse about that shit, you know?) that all of those terms originated in fandom, outside/predating transfer to the RPC.

I know when I encountered them initially, it was in fandom, not the RPC part of fandom...and at that time, it was just the label of people being "antis." A label they gave themselves by, literally, asserting themselves as "anti-character here-."

It's been my supposition that the RPC's transition to being more canon character and fandom-based than OC-preferred led to an organic transfer of more fandom-specific terminology (and behaviors). As places like twitter and tumblr became hubs of fandom and RPCs, they brought tags to the table. While that is an absolutely wonderful thing, it also means that we all started out tagging things with good intentions, only meant to be tags. You could tag something, pulling from a random fandom here, "anti-Daryl Dixon" from TWD and the plethora of fans who love that character could block it. It was a peacekeeping measure at that state, not a flag for discourse and drama.

Tag-language influencing and becoming an organic part of language, in general, is a whole other, though fascinating, topic, so I'm going to just leave that there. The point is, it happened.

And unfortunately, you quickly got people popping "anti-whatever" in their bios and blog descriptions. Not as a means of allowing others to avoid it, but as a means of making it really clear that they despised the character, fandom, ship, whatever. With purity culture 3.5 hitting in earnest, the reasons for despising those things became raised stakes. It wasn't a basis of simply disliking them anymore - you needed a dissertation how this thing was morally objectionable and destroying the world. Anyone disagreeing with you, by that logic, is morally reprehensible themselves and must be stopped. Raised stakes.

Actions cause reactions, too. People started making it clear that they were "pro" whatever, too. These became opposing designations, and honestly, I'm not sure who started up "proshipper" first. I only know I saw it being used negatively first, that doesn't mean it happened that way! What I've seen has been the entire ship/write/like what you want crowd being given that label negatively and taking it up themselves in the same way people are given to take up a lot of things they've been negatively called.

By "what I've seen," I don't just mean witnessing it happening in the wild lol it happened to me, as well. I reblogged a post about how shipping wasn't activism, and got an anon informing me that I was a disgusting proshipper (every time I reblog that, I get at least one person popping off in my RP inboxes, actually, it hasn't slowed down any). At which point, I, too, was very much like, I'm a what now? Yes, I am okay with shipping? What the hell is this person even on about?

So, it's my theory that in response to the anti movement, some people stated that they were "pro-ship and let ship" and thus...we got to be "disgusting proshippers."

Regardless, it absolutely is just another way of labeling people in order to single them out and/or keep feeding drama, yes.

And again, I feel you. I know labels, good, bad, reclaimed, whatever, seem to give a lot of people a grounded sense of identity, but I've always been uncomfortable with them. I don't understand the need for them, even if I get that they make others feel a certain way. I just want to feel the way I do, be the person I am, and have that person engaged with based singularly on my actions.

It's alright if someone else wants to freely label themselves in a way they feel is positive (though, I do wish that younger people, especially in the queer community didn't have this batshit pressure to do so, and correctly, the first time), but they've always felt threatening and restrictive to me.

As such, having people create and bestow a label on me for the purpose of designating me a problem is kind of an uncomfortable realization of why I feel negative about them. I don't like it, and it's part of why I don't like the bullshit of making this distinction in DNIs. By doing so, they're literally as hell singling people out...with a negative label they gave them for the criminal act of feeling like it's absurd to police fiction, instead, expecting adults to behave like adults when engaging with fiction and each other.

It's honestly forcing hostility and drama, when the point of being ship/write/like and let ship/write/like is not having that hostility and drama. It's merely a live and let live mentality, that's what y'all are attacking! The labeling is a rotting cherry on top that is so indicative of this same, legitimately problematic, behavior that goes on in the extremism I talked about in the post you referenced. It's...gross, let's just say that.

And I'm really sorry that it makes you upset, too! You don't have to label yourself, you can reject that and refuse to engage with those using it in this negative way. That makes me feel considerably less annoyed and disturbed! I'll totally joke about it, as I do fall into the designated parameters of being both "proship" and "anti-anti," but I don't actually label myself thus. I only consider myself a reasonable adult who has better and more serious shit going on than to worry about what fiction someone else is writing or enjoying.

Just...do be aware that, like myself and others, you're likely to be labeled if one of these hostile parties sees you reblog the "wrong" thing or make the "wrong" statement. You are being labeled in those DNIs for your viewpoint of wishing to avoid absurd drama. So, I'd advise, for your peace of mind, to try to avoid blogs stating that they're "anti" anything but drama/bullying etc., or who feel it necessary to put up those DNIs. You are who they're talking about, they just don't know it because you're not labeling yourself or being otherwise obvious about it :/

Try your best to avoid that changing, you deserve to peacefully enjoy RP! As disturbing as it is, as rightfully upset about it as you are, maybe it's a good thing you found out? In this way, I mean. Without someone bringing it to your inbox hatefully. Now you know what it means, that they mean you, and you can stay away from it! Try to look at it that way - there will always be people weirdly desperate to make their drama hobby everyone else's problem, you can only make an effort to stay out of it if you know what to look for, right?

I hope any of this made you feel better about the fresh hell that is the RPC lol keep doing you, Anon! You're not the problem, infantile drama mongers are <3

the first half of the ask post you didn't reblog because you're doing them all anyways

Thanks, me!

1. coffee mugs, teacups, wine glasses, water bottles, or soda cans?Option 7, None of the above: highball glass. I looked up the glassware model I like; apparently the manufacturer calls them “nordic cooler glasses.” I much prefer glassware made of glass to any other type, and dislike the ridges/patterns on a lot of drinking glasses. Yep, I’m this picky.

2. chocolate bars or lollipops?Chocolate. I like chocolate’s texture and the way it melts, and I don’t like eating bits of paper.

3. bubblegum or cotton candy?Cotton candy. Bubblegum is gross.

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you?Uhh… hm. “Smart,” probably, which wasn’t particularly helpful. They probably had a bunch more to say but I don’t remember what anymore.

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups?I like this ask post! As mentioned, glass cups. I like how soda cans feel in the hand but the drinking experience is just alright. Plastic is just unpleasant.

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear?I had to google “boho” and I’m still not super clear on what it encompasses, but it seems kinda neat! Also I have no idea what grunge really means. If I had a feminine body and thus felt like dressing up, I’d definitely pick boho out of the google image results of each of those terms.

7. earbuds or headphones?Both; if I wear either for too long I switch to the other for comfort. But I’m at least somewhat an audio enthusiast, so I could go on for a long time here. Ex:

The soundstage of open-back headphones is really unparalleled for one. Apple’s earpods/airpods actually fit me and have basically no microphonics, which usually are a big issue with IEMs for me, plus their resolution on the high end is surprisingly great.

Insert the rest of this discussion here.

8. movies or tv shows?I watch either of these not from seeking them out but from circumstance, but often wind up liking them. I’m one of those people who thinks, “I’d watch that,” and then never watches whatever that was. So I don’t really know which I do or would prefer.

9. favorite smell in the summer?Uh… hm. That’s a really good question. What’s most interesting about it, I think, is just the list of smells people associate with a season. Of course there’s environmental ones like rain, but for summer I assume you have to go with, I dunno, fair food or something like that.

Anyway, no idea! I can’t think of a lot of meaningful smells that aren’t food, honestly.

10. game you were best at in p.e.?I remember enjoying capture the flag a lot. I dunno if I was actually good at it, though. I did have pretty good short-duration speed, so I was a decent defender. I don’t really remember what else we did.

11. what you have for breakfast on an average day?Nothing. (I don’t like most American breakfast foods much, though that’s not why.)

12. name of your favorite playlist?I called it “the playlist which is entirely fire” because why not. Alternately, the playlist with all of my music is just named after me.

13. lanyard or key ring?Key ring; I’m not a… yeah actually that joke would only work for people who went to my high school and follow this blog (hi Xander).

14. favorite non-chocolate candy?That’s also a really good question and I’m positive I have an answer, but I can’t think of it. I eat candy once every like 3 months, so it doesn’t exactly come to mind easily. The candied pecans I just tried are pretty good, though. Insert reference to my halloween fanfiction.

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment?Y'know how there are some things that you remember deciding at one point were your favorite, but don’t remember well enough to properly consider now? A lot of my favorite pieces of media are like that, but I have at least some confidence in the decision I made at the time. Not so much here. I remember thinking with surprise that I enjoyed The Mill on the Floss when I read it in class, so that’s what comes to mind, but I think it’s the wrong answer. I’m pretty sure there are some books I really enjoy that I’ve forgotten were originally for class. Random example that I think is also wrong: The Hobbit. The Giver is pretty darn good, too. Fahrenheit 451. I don’t remember this being the case but we might have read A Wrinkle in Time in a class. Et cetera.

Wait, no, actually, I figured it out: Island of the Blue Dolphins. (Which, actually, goes in the “this might be too much of a childrens’ book to enjoy rereading” category along with Summerland, The Great Tree of Avalon, The Marino Mission, What the Moon Saw, The Secret of Platform 13, and Island of the Aunts, all of which I loved at the time of reading. And potentially also The Book Thief, although I doubt it. Can you tell I like award-winning children’s books, though?)

16. most comfortable position to sit in?With crossed legs or on my feet, which people seem to find weird.

17. most frequently worn pair of shoes?I only have one regularly-used pair of shoes.

18. ideal weather?Still. I can’t stand wind of any kind. A range of temperatures is nice (not too hot; not *too* cold but snow is pretty so I’ll allow a wide range in that direction.)

19. sleeping position?In a ball, or at least partially curled up.

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)?I haven’t written on paper in like a decade. I had to recently in order to leave a sticky note on something and had actual trouble making it legible. Essentially everything I write is on this 2013 Macbook Pro keyboard.

21. obsession from childhood?Um… existentialism? The pretend world my sisters’ and my stuffed animals lived in? Popular science topics and things from video game worlds, all of which went into said pretend world? Jet aircraft? Algebra and geometry puzzles? Configuring laptop computers?

22. role model?John Green. People who can communicate/present things effectively.

23. strange habits?I’m sure I have a ton. I’m not going to delay posting this to come up with any, but I’ll think about it. But especially if we’re using western society as the ‘norm’ for the sake of the question, I think there’s a ton of stuff I do that’d surprise people.

24. favorite crystal?Hm. I like the colorless ones like diamond, I guess? I just generally like gemstones, especially in fiction when they have powers. Oh, how’s this: I tend to like crystals that are (semi)transparent, so they have depth to them and change appearance as they’re rotated.

The other weird, mostly-unrelated thing that comes to mind is when I made a necklace for my best friend in elementary school and spent a lot of effort picking out the right sort of pendant, but I don’t think it was actually a crystal. (I often wonder what it would’ve been like if I hadn’t moved; I bet we’d still be close.)

25. first song you remember hearing?Neat question! I have no memory of a particular song being the first. My parents played music a lot when I was little, so a lot of their CD collection makes me think, “I’ve been listening to this since far before I noticed that I was.” The most recent one of those I heard and wrote down was Cathedral of the Pines by Tim Janis.

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather?…complain about the heat? :D Hm, I don’t have a lot of outdoor hobbies.

27. favorite activity to do in cold weather?…complain about the cold? :P I do like to ski somewhat. And I like hot cocoa.

28. five songs to describe you?

Eric’s Song – Vienna Teng

Doubt – Ruby Day

…hm. Looking through my playlists and the #media tag on this blog, there’s a ton of songs that I like, and where that fact tells you something about my taste in music, but it’s hard to find songs whose content particularly tells you something. Let’s just go with songs I find some meaning or relevance in?

Laughing With – Regina Spektor

Rainbow Connection – Kermit the Frog/various covers

Okay, I ran out of songs with particular meaning; let’s finish up with one whose meaning is arguably a lack of particular meaning?

Both Sides Now – Joni Mitchell

29. best way to bond with you?Talking, I guess. Boring answer, maybe, but I think most bonding experiences I’ve had were just two people talking about something important.

30. places that you find sacred?My elementary school? Is that a weird answer?

Other than that… a lot of places, really. Depending how you use “sacred,” I think it could apply in my mind to lots of unique places, especially natural-wonder type things.

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names?I haven’t got one. None of my clothes are things I’ve picked out to look good, honestly. The thing that makes me feel more “ready to go out and kick ass than usual” is, like, bringing a phone charger with me in case I run out of battery in the process of whatever ass kicking it’s going to be, and that’s not an outfit thing.

32. top five favorite vines?Remember vine? Good times.

1. A Legendary Argument (https://vine.co/v/enUmZjLFgw2/); the “just do it” “no” one

Yeah, that’s it. I don’t know of any other ones.

33. most used phrase in your phone?I… don’t know how to tell. That sounds like a cool thing to figure out but I dunno how to see that.

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head?None, thank god.

35. average time you fall asleep?Too late.

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing?No idea.

37. suitcase or duffel bag?I don’t really know what context to think of this question in. Like, is there a time both would be valid options? Anyway, suitcase. Honorable mention: backpack.

38. lemonade or tea?I only like either of these in moderation. Usually I’d say lemonade, but lately I’ve been disliking acidic drinks more than usual, so maybe I’ll say tea. Actually, what I like is chrysanthemum tea, which you can get at dim sum places sometimes.

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie?I’ll go with lemon cake. I can only eat a really small amount of lemon meringue. If someone made more of a lemon meringue tart with a really thin layer of lemon (maybe 10mm or a bit less) and a lot of crust and meringue, that could be really good though.

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school?If “bad” counts as “weird,” let’s just say it involved sexual misconduct.

41. last person you texted?My dad (a link to instructions to get free in-flight wifi; nothing interesting).

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets?I prefer to put stuff in pants pockets so I have them if I take off my jacket, but then my pants fall down because I have no hips and my pants are all regular-person sized.

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket?I immediately crossed off everything except hoodie and cardigan. With a different body I’d definitely pick cardigan.

44. favorite scent for soap?Unscented.

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero?Eh, I mean, I think they all have potential. I’d pick sci-fi or fantasy over superhero; print comics have never interested me at all, though I’m sure there’s interesting stuff in there too.

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in?I feel like it’s just whatever you’re used to, honestly.

47. favorite type of cheese?Maybe fresh mozzarella? Either way, it’s going to be something people who really like cheese would barely count as cheese.

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be?If I were a fruit… not to take it too literally, but I can’t think of a better way to interpret it. Um… a ground cherry, because it’s cute and has a place to hide in.

49. what saying or quote do you live by?“Hope is the correct response to the human condition.”

There are probably better ones that correspond to things I live by more, but that’s the one I have a quote for. Guess who it’s by? I’ll give you one guess.

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have?Not sure. Show of the Weekend (@outsidextra) definitely wins “hardest laugh that I can remember recently” though.

º 50 Questions for your Sim º

Thank you for the tag, @izayoichan​ (:

So, here you have c: Since I haven’t posted anything about this girl I will do it with her (: so you can know her a little better ~

1: How old is your sim? She have 125 years, but will have 126 soon~

2. When is your sim’s birthday? In the Asmodian calendar, her birthday it’s the thirteen new moon of the second Umbral. In the human calendar her birthday it’s on June 19.

3. What is your sim’s zodiac sign? Asmodians don’t have a sign, so using her human birthday she is Gemini

4. What is your sim’s ethnicity? She is an Asmodian (a mix between a demon and a nightmare)

5. Does your sim have any nicknames? Ross but only Jekyll and her parents call her like that or a very close friend.

6. Do they have a job? If so what is it? She is the Queen of the Nightmare Kingdom.

7. Where does your sim live? Burning Canyon, Elyos.

8.Who does your sim live with? With her three Guardians, Hyde, Jekyll, and Vincent.

9. What environment did your sims grow up in (strict, loving, cold etc.)? Stric, since the day she was born she started to learn how to be a Queen.

10. What are your sim’s favorite food? Pufferfish nigiri and any spicy and/or mortal kind of food.

11. What is your sim’s favorite drink? Coffee, she could drink it all day.

12. If they have one what is your sim’s favorite color? Purple

13. Does your sim believe in any clichés (like love at first sight, etc)? She believes in Karma(?

14. What is your sim’s sexuality? Asmodians don’t have something like that, they love who they heart decided.

15. What is your sim’s gender identity? Female with some boyish days~

16. Is your sim type a or type b? X

17. Is your sim introverted or extroverted? Both? She can be very introverted with new people but she gets along with them she can be very, very extroverted.

18. What is your sims favorite woohoo position? As she said, “position doesn’t really matter if you know what you are doing.”

19. Is your sim a pet person? If so what is their favorite animal? There are no animals in Elyos, but just by looking at the other dimensions, she decided she like Pigs.

20. Does your sim have a best friend? Yup, her guardian Vincent.

21. What is/was your sim’s favorite school subject? None, she didn't’ went to school, but she had a lot of classes and neither of them was her favorite.

22. Is/was your sim a high, mid or low achiever in school? She would have been a high achiever.

23. Are they planning to go or have they already been to college? If so, what would be or what was their major? I have no idea. Something related to politic or war (?)

24. What are your sims political beliefs (if they have them)? Asmodian ones~

25. What is one thing your sims wants to do before they die? Make a peace agreement with the enemy kingdom.

26. Does your sim have a favorite TV show (cable) and/or movie?  She loves Thirteen ghosts

27. Is your sim a Netflix viewer? If so what are their top 3 shows. She doesn’t watch too much TV (hard to get signal in the NK) 

28. Does your sim like books? If so what’s their favorite one? She read a lot! and have too many favorites books, to name one The king killer Chronicle.

29. Does your sim enjoy video games, if so what is their favorite one and do they play on PC or console? She likes to watch other people playing but she doesn’t like to lose so its better if she stays away from games.

30. What is your sim’s personal style? Gothic, I think.

31. Does your sim have a lucky charm? Her mother’s ring (:

32. Is your sim religious? Nop

33. What kind of music does your sim listen to and who is their favorite artist? She loves classic, instrumental music. 

34. Is your sim a festive person? If so what’s their favorite holiday? They don’t have holidays in the Nightmare Kingdom, so she doesn’t really know any.

35. What is your sim’s favorite type of weather? Whatever has a high temperature like a volcano.

36. Does your sim prefer to start fights or finish them? Both, depending on who, where and why.

37. Does your sim have a dream job? She already have it so it’s not a dream.

38. Does your sim have any siblings? No

39. Does your sim get along with their family? Mostly with her mother, they used to be together all the time.

40 What is your sims favorite hobby? Gardening, she likes flowers (:

41. What does your sim look for in a romantic partner? That she/he don’t let her down or lie to her.

42. What is a secret about your sim? She looks very tough, but that’s just a shell to protect her broken self. After all, a Queen needs to be a good image for her people, so her soft side it’s sealed deep inside her. Same as her romantic side.

43. What is a wish your sim has? Stop the neverending war and be free to leave her royal duties.

44. What is a flaw your sim has?  Deadly pride.

45. How do others generally perceive your sim? Like a really though and strict person with high pride. But her real friends know that she can be kind, and excessive loyal with people she cares about.

46. Does your sim have a greatest achievement? If so what is it? Not yet, but she really wants peace for her Kingdom.

47. If they have one, what is your sim’s greatest regret? Carrying the Ultima by herself, which will cost her life someday.

48. Does your sim have a favorite emoji? 😈

49. Does your sim use simstagram? If so what’s their @? She doesn’t even have a phone~

50. What is the last text your sim sent (and who did they text)? “Kyllie, please, can you take all these clothes from my bed? I just need to go sleep.” Ross to Jekyll. She doesn’t have a phone, they use astral projections (:

I don’t know who to tag, so feel free to do it if you want (: ♥

SPIRITUALITY VS. RELIGION (part 1)

DISCLAIMER:

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to put DOWN any specific religion or faith. I don’t expect to change anyone’s religion or perspective overnight, if at all. I like to meet people where they are, and I believe that anything that personally brings you peace and faith, is good for YOU. However, I’m often asked why I no longer consider myself to be a Christian, though I do believe in God and Jesus, (just not in the same way that I once did before). And usually, when I first explain this to people that are still grounded in their religious Faith, I’m met with a response of shock, or confusion. So, I’d like to share how, and a little bit of “why” my perspective on religion as a whole has changed throughout the course of many years.

HYPOCRICY

Now, I think I’d be lying to say that I’ve never ONCE been hypocritical in life. I think this is regular human behavior, seeing as though we can ALL be fickle, and change perspectives and thoughts often. However, when I grew up in the church, I saw this more than usual. I grew up going to an all black Christian church, filled with upper middle-class Blacks, some could even say many of them were the “snobby” type. (Just painting a picture on what my church was like.) I went to Sunday school, and sang, “Jesus Loves Me”, the whole shebang. Yes, I grew up completely devoted in my faith, like most Christians. 

But, ironically, some of these Christians were some of the meanest and judgmental people I have ever met. The people who went to church daily, were usually the meanest. And even as a small child I would always wonder why this was. Guilt? Shame? Covering up their “sins”? They would be so mean and cruel to others, then walk right in the church and go praise the Lord. 

In my eyes, this was equivalent to the “mean girls” in high school or college making “Women Empowerment”, posters, after a full day of spreading lies, and ganging up on the women that didn't “fit in”. 

Or, the high school basketball player that Is praised for being the star athlete, even after a string of sexual assault allegations, that many turn their heads to, because well, he’s just “too good” at what he does. We’ve all witnessed hypocrisy, but the question is, “How far does it go?” My answer? VERY far. 

RELIGION

Notice, when the Fourth of July comes around, many people of color like to jump on the bandwagon of, “This is not our holiday, it didn’t benefit us in any way.” But turn around and tell those same people of color that Christianity is not truly our religion, and you will most likely be met with contempt or dismay. At this point, you may even have several devout Christians telling you how you must repent to be “saved”, and how you MUST be a devil worshipper, or lack the force of God within your life. Personally, I don’t think it’s healthy to believe in anything, that will make you not even WANT to acknowledge another point of view. At that point, I feel like you can’t be as rooted in your faith as you think, if listening to a different opinion triggers you to that extent. I can listen to other points of views all day, but it won’t have me questioning my own, though I am open. I actually find this mentality to “not listen”, to be very brainwashing and limiting.

MEETING PEOPLE WHERE THEY ARE

If someone tells me, “God will bring me what I want.”

“Jesus is so good to me.”

(Though I don’t see God and Jesus as being one and the same.)

I can agree, I’m not going to sit and debate them on every little thing, though I don’t necessarily feel that God “brings you things” either, I will meet that person where they are, and agree. I just accept that I have my own understanding of what that means. I can even go to Christian church, and still feel motivation, because I take what I need from it. Even though I see it slightly differently, I don’t seek to make things that difficult. I can understand where they are, and what they mean. 

I love to learn and study different religions, from Christianity to Buddhism. One thing I find most interesting is how SIMILAR, most religions actually are. See, even though I’m not a Christian, I can still appreciate Christian pastors, I can even read general Bible passages and quotes, that give me inspiration, and it’s not because I’m being “fake”, but I know how to take what I need from things.

For instance, Bible versus, and evangelists that preach general messages like: 

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud…”

I can accept this, because I see truth in this statement. But when it comes to certain theology that is taught in Christianity, like Mary being a virgin, or Jesus being God’s “only son”, this I cannot relate to. I think these certain theologies keep people very stagnant (in my opinion), as these are not statements that truly make sense.

I don’t believe that Mary was a virgin, I believe that she had a baby the same way any other woman does, by being impregnated, by a man. I don’t believe in Eve biting the apple, etc. etc. I also don’t believe that Jesus was God’s “only son”, nor do I believe that he was GOD. I believe that the history of “Jesus”, (that was not even truly his name), has been extremely white-washed and manipulated, in most history books that we read today. And I believe that the man we know today as Jesus, was someone that came to this earth, and used all the faculties of God, to his best ability, just as we all can. And that religion teaches you that you can’t, or don’t have the ability to use the full potential of God, just as Jesus did. And this leads to one thing for many people: stagnation.

JESUS WAS BLACK?

Sometimes, I ask Black Christians, “Do you see no issues in worshipping a “White Jesus?”

Many times, they see no problem with this. Most will tell me that they don’t care, just as long as the story of Jesus lives on. And I find this to be more than a little problematic. Now, I’m not saying that Christianity or The Bible is a lie, (I like to make this very clear). 

However, the man we know today as Jesus, was actually based on a man from Ethiopian theology (He was Black). And it wasn’t until the religion was white-washed, changed, and brought to us by Europeans, that Jesus was represented as being white. Not only was Jesus pictured as a white man, but certain ways of thinking were also added into the Bible to create submission, and a sense of “humility” for black slaves at the time. So that they would learn not to fight back, and stay meek and “humble”.

This is part of the reason that it irks me in modern days times, when black people CONSTANTLY speak on how humble we should all be. It sends chills up my spine. And if you think about it, almost all of the original African theologies teach blacks that they were gods and goddesses. But this history has been erased from people of color. And knowing this history, in many ways, makes it hard to not find certain parts of Christianity to be very problematic.

CONCEPTS THAT KEEP YOU STAGNANT

Jesus died for our sins: I feel like many Christians use this as a crutch. If I’m being completely honest, some of the most mean-spirited people I know are the “holier than thou”, type Christians. I’m talking about the ones that feel the need to post Bile versus all day every day, and for a while I didn’t know why, but then it started to make sense. See, this very statement will cause many to think that because a man supposedly died for you, that all your sins are forgiven. 

AGAIN, I can’t tell people not to believe in this, however, common spirituality teaches you that what you do comes back to you. If you’d like to feel forgiven by your deity, that’s great. But it fails to teach you that each and every one of your actions has a consequence, and that what you do, will eventually come back to you. These are Universal laws.

PRAYING TO A WHITE JESUS 

Many people will tell you, “Oh, it doesn’t matter what race Jesus is, as long as we can learn the message he was trying to send. This is not true. If that was the case you WOULD see pictures of a black Jesus, in white churches, often. You’d see Jesus pictured in almost every nationality in America, but do you? Let’s be real. 

This is a subliminally brainwashing tactic, that most “don’t care about”, but it affects you more than you can realize. 

WHAT IF I TOLD YOU THE HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS WERE BLACK?

YOU’D HAVE SEVERAL PEOPLE RIOTING THE STREETS, IF THIS WERE EVEN THOUGHT TO BE A CONCEPT.

Think about it, would it be okay for The Holocaust survivors to be pictured as black, in movies, and popular TV shows? Would Jewish people be ok with representing Anne Frank, as a black woman? And do you mean to tell me that this wouldn’t be detrimental as hell to the Jewish community? It’s funny, you always have to bring up The Holocaust, for certain people to truly put this into perspective, even when it comes to slavery. Most people are now coming to terms with the fact that representing Egyptians as white, in movies, is extremely volatile and wrong. But mention that Jesus should be pictured as black, and not white, and you’re met with contempt. I don’t understand it.

When I was a Christian, and grew up going to church, I always felt somewhat excluded, especially if I decided to question ANYTHING. In my heart, this didn’t feel right. Especially growing up in an environment where many around me would preach “love and understanding”. These were the same people that screamed to the top of their lungs that they, “loved the Lord,” except… I felt no love.

I noticed that most Christians were taught to shun, and REJECT, REJECT, REJECT — anything that didn’t fit the Christian narrative. This was a theme that followed me throughout my life, not necessarily just in church, but it started here, for me. And most people grew up being religious, just as I was, could it be a coincidence? Personally, I felt very little love in the church, mostly judgement. 

“GOD TOLD ME, HE WHISPERED TO ME”

“God told me to patient, He whispered in my ear and told me,” the church would say.

But I couldn’t hear Him, I never heard Him. As a child, I would always wonder if my ears were broken. Was God speaking to everyone but me? And then, one day I realized, God was very real, but He wasn’t outside of me. I couldn’t find Him in the sky, or in any MAN. 

God is not man, and in my opinion, saying this is almost insulting. Then one day I realized, God was very real, but he was not outside of ME.

I started to truly believe this, and watched my world change, my power grow, and my reality shift. I couldn’t believe what was happening. It was in this very moment that I started to FEEL, HEAR, and SEE God all around me…

I wasn’t crazy, I was just looking for God in all the wrong places— when he was WITHIN me, all along.

I felt the most disconnected from God than I had probably ever felt when I was Christian. Because this religion taught me to pray outwardly, and look to a God outside of myself. Up in the sky. To plead, and beg to a man that I saw frequently in books….. and in churches, a white man at that. And so many of us wonder why in some ways we are conditioned to think that white is better (even if it is subconsciously).

COMFORTABLE ILLUSIONS

I think letting go of the illusion that God is a separate entity than yourself is hard for most, because it involves taking a little more accountability for your life.

Everything around you, or that is going on in your life, YOU are creating, because you are that powerful. To think you are simply a mere mortal, walking this earth with no say so in your life, can be comforting to some. And it’s hard to admit, that everything in your life, you are somehow creating, because again, accountability! 

 “WHITE IS BETTER”

The way some of us straighten our hair, wear weave, or do our makeup, shows that brainwashing is still alive and well. If you think the pictures of White Jesus all around you, have nothing to do with this, I can’t help you.

Even the music that we listen to, that sadly puts our own race down. (Most top execs are white Jews, they push this music to our communities, and we are fine with it.)

The way we worship money and diamonds, and only see wealth as success? People of color have been SIMULATED to adopt capitalistic mentality, that was never ours to begin with, which is why we as a people have always struggled to “keep up”. 

 ACCOUNTABILITY

Will I stop listening to the music and stop straightening my hair? Probably not any time soon. And this shows you just how powerful the conditioning truly is, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting to know the truth, about why everything happens. 

Knowledge is the best tool, whether you always use the tool, or not, you can always be aware of where things stem from. I think it’s easy to point the finger in this society of who isn’t “really doing good”, or not “practicing what they preach”, and I try really hard not to be that person. Because I realize we are all flawed. And still brainwashed by the matrix. 

I grew up going to Sunday school, believing that Jesus and God were one in the same, etc. And it honestly took me a lot of unlearning, for me to even start to see MY truth. We are all at different places in life, so whatever you believe is YOUR truth, and I nor anyone else can take that away from you. But I will say, life takes a turn when you set out to look for THE truth, and never look back.