can you guys guess which movie i watched today 🤭

*(it was classic anime movie vampire hunter d: bloodlust (2000))

It is so inspiring hearing about your weight loss :) i was wondering if you had any particular weight loss tips you’d like to share? I went through a period of weight loss myself, but have lately gained back a lot of what I’ve lost and I’d like to know if there’s anything that helped you get back on the wagon. Love your blog btw!

Don’t be too hard on yourself, its rough out here especially in the US. it’s easy to accidentally slip up and gain 15 pounds just by eating a lil extra every day.

Some things that helped me:

Intermittent fasting, only a 13 hour window though. The 16:8 was too much for me and with women it can screw with your hormones if you’re not careful.

Drinking lots of water. Like a ton. I put those hydration multiplier electrolyte packets in my water as well.

Get good quality sleep. I got some Brooklinen sheets and they are 100% worth it. Definitely improved my sleep quality. I also have a really nice down duvet and an Egyptian cotton cover for it. I also have a silk eye mask and a silk pillowcase from Slip that I love. Sleep is extremely important.

Get 10k steps a day or at least just walk as much as you can. I’m sedentary a lot for school/work/etc. so I absolutely have to get out and walk and get moving. Even if you just aim for a mile or two a day it’ll greatly help.

If you don’t want to lift weights that’s okay. It’s not for everyone. I used to be super into powerlifting and got pretty muscular but it doesn’t excite me like it used to. I do a mix now of walking, jogging, pilates, rollerblading, cycling, kickboxing, swimming, yoga, ice skating, and weightlifting. That way I’m never bored and the variety allows me to choose what I want to do.

Consistency is key. Doing 4 workouts a week at a light/medium intensity is better than doing 1-2 a week of super high intensity and burning yourself out. Every little bit helps.

I do a full body stretch every day. This is super important. Our bodies get so stiff during the day. If you don’t stretch this can lead to injuries when you try to do other things.

I love the sauna (and hot yoga too). If you can find and afford a gym that has a sauna, I would highly recommend. Sometimes I will just go and walk on the treadmill for 30-45 minutes and watch YouTube videos and then sit in the sauna. It’s the best.

Make sure you’re not deficient in anything. Take a complete multivitamin and get blood work done. I was severely deficient in vitamin D and it was making me depressed. Once I took a supplement, got more sun and got my levels up it really helped my overall health.

Cut out grains, sugar, junk food, fried foods, etc. and just eat real foods. Anything with a long ingredient list usually isn’t a good idea. It’ll take a minute to get used to it but once you start eating almost exclusively vegetables, fruits, proteins, and healthy fats you won’t miss it. I have such a big sweet tooth sometimes I’ll have to eat like five servings of berries with a few tablespoons of honey just to satisfy it, but that’s better than ice cream or candy any day.

Don’t deprive or starve yourself. I eat as healthy as I can manage 80-90% of the time. But every once and a while I will eat a huge plate of pasta, gelato, tiramisu, croissants, those types of foods that I love. It’s not helpful to punish yourself and you gotta live a little.

I got a smart scale in my bathroom, the one I got is from FitIndex. It has an app that connects to your phone and it syncs to other health apps. it shows you body fat, muscle mass, water weight, everything. Honestly super triggering at first because I felt called out lol but now I step on it once a week just to make sure I’m on the right track.

You do not need a gym membership to workout. YouTube is the best. I love Yoga with Adrienne, MadFit, Move with Nicole, Charlie Follows, Vicky Justiz, and there’s a bunch of others. Find what you like and try to stick with it as much as you can.

Rest is super important. Don’t run yourself ragged. If you’re sore don’t force yourself to workout.

MyFitnessPal is super helpful. If you have a history of disordered eating this might not be for you but it’s good to be conscious of what you’re eating. Figure out what you need to lose fat/maintain/gain muscle and then track to see where you’re at and adjust accordingly.

Eat more protein. Protein, healthy fats, and fiber keep you full. You will be starving if you eat only salads. Fruit smoothies with protein, protein oats, salmon, yogurt, eggs, etc.

Get cute workout gear. It makes it more fun for me to workout with my pink towels, my pink hydroflask, my lululemon yoga mat, I have a baby blue jumprope and pink dumbbells and pastel colored resistance bands for at home workouts. A lot of my workout clothes are from lululemon, alo yoga, free people, and aerie. I have some of those blender bottles in cute colors for preworkout, protein powder, super greens powder, electrolyte mixes, etc. Some of this stuff is pricy but I’d rather be investing in my health than paying medical bills down the road so it’s 100% worth it to me.

The only way to see permanent change is to make it a lifestyle. Unfortunately you can’t just go back to eating unhealthy foods once you hit a certain goal. Those models who say they live exclusively off of pizza and pasta and cheeseburgers are lying through their teeth. It’s perfectly healthy to have days off where you indulge or don’t exercise but most of the time you’ll have to find ways to eat healthy and exercise and prioritize your health.

So Dafuq had an interview with one of the ST theory channels, specifically EliteCameraman, which I know quite a few of you do not bother watching because of the AI voiceover. So uh, yeah, I watched it for you so you don't have to. I'll say this, Elite Cameraman and Dafuq do actually keep in contact with each other, so these are actual messages from Dafuq himself. Any personal thoughts I interject below will be marked with || thought || and is not part of the interview

[ID:A series of Discord messages between EliteCameraman and Dafuq?!Boom!

EliteCameraman: First let's start with more general questions and after these I'll move on to more specific questions about the next episode Which episode are you most hyped for in the foreseeable future? Dafuq?!Boom!: 73, 74, 77, 80 are all fire episodes tbh

EliteCameraman: Also you said that we'll be getting more episodes compared to before after episode 79 and since now that season 24 is starting how do you think the upload schedule will be and how long the average episode length will be because the last couple episodes before 71 were quite the long episodes. Dafuq?!Boom!: I was expecting the episodes to come out faster, but stress after 70 pushed hard, so I started of slow and still going quite slow. I'm also trying to improve combat in the episodes which I think takes quite some time. I think at some point soon episodes will be rolling out faster.

EliteCameraman: Who is your favorite character in skibidi toilet? Dafuq?!Boom!: I have multiple

EliteCameraman: Are you excited for any new characters that you'll be introducing like the detective cameraman who was in the secret scenes? ||from the full season 23 video|| Dafuq?!Boom!: There's many more old and new characters coming in very soon.

||I skipped a troll question here. it wasn't that relevant, but it was about some fake troll scenes dafuq made about the naked microwave man||

EliteCameraman: blud must be trolling How do you think the astro toilets will effect the power scales? because from what we've seen so far they seem like they can actually hold off against the titans but it looks like they have a different plan. Dafuq?!Boom!: We have yet to see the strongest yet.

EliteCameraman: A lot of people have been wondering about simp cameraman ||browncoat cameraman|| and if he'll ever return. And as you know I'm quite a fan of simp toilet because of his incredible beliefs. Can you give us some info about if he'll return and if he does, will he still side with the alliance or join the dark side. Dafuq?!Boom: I have some interesting plans for him. ||so browncoat confirmed as not dead?!||

EliteCameraman: (crying skull emoji) Did you ever see a theory that guessed everything correctly even stuff that we haven't seen yet? Dafuq?!Boom!: No theories have guessed entire plot correctly, but partially some were very close

EliteCameraman: How long will episode 72 be? Dafuq?!Boom!: 3-4 minutes EliteCameraman: damn blud's been grinding fr fr This episode truly will be a new beginning for the series for the first time ever we got a conclusion for one of the evil characters and the last battle really had some crazy consequences. Do you think people are ready for what's about to come? Dafuq?!Boom: Y'all ain't ready.

EliteCameraman: You said we won't be seeing the titans in episode 72, are we going to see a different P.O.V from the last fight in the bunker once again or is it fully uncharted territory from now on. Dafuq?!Boom: Not bunker, but with territory of Alpha-Hills complex (huge territory).

EliteCameraman: We saw that all the titans have suffered some damage, normally whenever they go back to the bases for repairs it takes them about 10 to 20 episodes to come back, will it be the same or will we see them getting fixed on the fly just like how they got upgraded on episode 69 part 2? Dafuq?!Boom!: Now that the Alliance is dominating and pushing Skibidi Toilets, they don't have plans to retreat. Unless something truly unexpected happens.

||that doesn't sound ominous at all||

EliteCameraman: Also about the astro toilets, how was the claw astro toilet able to speak English while we haven't seen any other toilet speak normally? Does it have to do with their helmets because they all seem to have helmets and we don't know their uses. Dafuq?!Boom!: Skibidi Toilets posses all earthly languages. They just chose to speak on their superior, far more complex "skibidi" language. EliteCameraman: Thx for the answers bruh, now Imma leak it all.

End ID]

TF Rise of the Beasts: A Basic Guide to Writing/Drawing for Fashion in 1994

Someone sent me a message that has now disappeared (!!) which was asking for some tips on what was stylish in 1994, for the purposes of writing a time period accurate ROTB fic.

I'm sorry I don't remember their username otherwise I'd tag them, but I figured I'd provide some notes here just in case anyone else might find it helpful for ROTB fic writing or fanart! :)

1994 Style: The Coolest Magazines

So as far as I remember, there were three big fashion/culture magazines at the time:

Sassy Magazine - This one was aimed mostly at women, but was hugely popular and would be a good place to look for styles for Elena!

i-D Magazine - This is a British publication but had international distribution by the 90s. Most of their early 90s issues featured fashion shoots from both large brands and indie fashion houses, with an emphasis on styling outfits. The articles were pretty good, and covered pop culture, music, and other similar topics. This one includes styles for both men and women, and was one of the only mainstream magazines to include what would now be recognised as queer fashion (they featured Boy George etc. as cover models, too).

The Face - This one is also British but had international distribution, mostly in large cities like LA and New York (which means it's fine to reference for ROTB's setting). Similar to i-D, it featured articles on fashion, music, culture, and highlighted some subculture styles which were harder to find in other more popular magazines like Vogue at the time. This included more "casual" outfits being featured, typically as part of style guides. This one had men and women's fashion, and also featured queer celebrities or genderbending style!

And of course, any magazines from 1994 would be good to look through-- Just keep in mind that magazines like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, etc. were primarily aimed at women only (most of the menswear mags for fashion were still finding their audience at this time), and typically only featured higher end fashion, so not a lot of it was actually reflective of what people were wearing on the street.

Look at Sewing Patterns!

For the best idea of fashion and style in terms of what the average person was wearing in 1994, look up sewing patterns!

Simplicity and McCall's brand sewing patterns provide the best idea of what most people were wearing on a day to day basis.

General Style Notes

Patterned vests were in style for all genders. Typically this was layered over a long sleeved shirt or turtleneck. Some guys would just wear a vest over a tank top or even just by itself, but that was more rare. The backs of the vests were typically left plain, so the pattern was often only on the front of the vest. Some vests were made of velvet, or thickly embroidered fabric.

Denim!!! Oh my god, people loved denim. Denim everything. Double denim (jeans and a jean jacket or a denim shirt) was a popular look, although this started to taper off gradually. Usually this was styled with a patterned vest, scarf, or accessorised with a felt or denim hat.

In terms of fit, everything was slightly long, or slightly baggy. Sometimes both. Coats were baggy in the arm and shoulder, which was a carry over from the 80s trend of shoulder pads. Shoulder pads persisted into 1995-1998, mostly in women's wear, although men's jackets and suits often had high or wide shoulders too.

1994 is where fuzzy fabrics and nylon/synthetic fabrics started getting popular; This is most noticeable in the windbreaker trend, in which a lot of windbreakers were nylon/polyester or made of textured cotton/poly blends.

Quick note on early 90s synthetic fabrics: They hadn't gotten the textures quite right yet, so even though there were some minor improvements on the late 80s synth textiles, most of these fabrics were still terribly scratchy and somewhat uncomfortable to wear, unless you had a long sleeved garment underneath. This is why you might see a lot of people wearing multiple layers of long sleeved shirts or jackets, even though it might seem excessive!

90s synthetic fabrics tended to be scratchy and crinkly, and could actually cause skin irritation in some people if you were sweating a lot--Which is why you mostly see winter clothing made out of this stuff, they were intended to only be worn in layers. Most 90s jackets that used synthetic fabrics were shell jackets, meaning only the outer layer was synthetic and the lining was either polyester or cotton in most cases.

Popular department store brands were Tommy Hilfiger, United Colours of Benetton, Moschino, and Burberry.

Popular department stores were Dillards, Burdines, JC Penny, Macy's, and Bloomingdales.

Popular runways in 1994 were Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood, which were partially influenced by 80s punk and the new Grunge trend.

Bucket hats for adults were starting to become more popular, but they were already popular in children's wear, so Kris could have a bucket hat!

Facial piercings were not common, although they were starting to get a little more popular around this time. Typically this was only a nose piercing-- Anything other than that would get you stared at and judged pretty harshly. Only subcultures like goths or punks had multiple facial piercings, or lip rings/eyebrow piercings, for the most part.

Tattoos were also less common, unless you were in a particular style subculture.

Belts were a very popular accessory, with large belts and belted coats being super popular. Thinner belts were often worn two at a time, or a thin belt with an extra long end left hanging down out of a beltloop. Most jeans were worn belted, with the shirt tucked in.

There was a fine line between fitted and baggy and just looking messy-- This is why belts were so popular, as it helped create more shaping to big coats and shirts. This became less of a thing as the bagginess went out of style, but for a while a lot of people wore belts out of habit, even after clothing trends switched over to being more fitted.

Flannel shirts became huge amongst all genders, and were typically tied at the waist and not buttoned or left fully open. Men would wear flannel shirts tied at the waist, with a solid block colour t-shirt underneath.

Graphic tees existed, but were not actually as popular as they are today; They were considered more of a kid/teenager thing. Band shirts were ever-popular, though! The print technology/quality at the time was a little rough, so expect any graphic tees to deteriorate quickly after a couple washes-- It was normal to see most letters/designs very patchy or flaking apart on graphic tees, which is part of why so few of them survive in vintage stores today unless they were printed in a more high end way.

Patterned fabrics were big as a statement piece, and not just for vests. A patterned shirt or jacket would be paired with block colours, and typically any accessories would be made out of the same patterned fabric so they'd match. For women's wear, headbands and scrunchies would be made to match a shirt or jacket. For men's wear, a belt would sometimes be made out of the same fabric as a patterned shirt.

Converse shoes remained ever-classic, and were one of the most popular sneaker/trainer brands. Nike was also super popular. Kris might have had some light-up Nikes, as they were a top item for kid's clothing. "Street shoes" in general were pretty popular as part of an athletic and every day look. High tops were the most popular, but platform sneakers started to get pretty popular, too.

Short shorts and baggy shorts!!! For all genders! This was the summer look of 1994, tank top and patterned shorts with a long sleeve t-shirt tied at the waist over top. Knee length baggy shorts in patterned fabrics were super popular. Short shorts were typically for the workout/jogging crowd, but were fairly popular outside of that during summers.

Knits were pretty popular, especially with synthetic wool and acrylic textiles becoming more common. Patterned sweaters/jumpers and chunky knits were among the top sellers, but this started to taper off a bit towards the mid-90s as it was a hold over trend from the late 80s. They still remained a commonly worn item, though.

In terms of sunglasses, funky tint lenses were starting to get popular, with blue, yellow, pink, and green tint lenses in bottlecap sunglasses or round lenses being a significant trend for a while. Round lenses for sunglasses were fashionable, but people also wore Ray Ban Aviators as a style classic. Smaller lenses were getting more and more popular in general, leading to oval glasses with wire frames becoming a common glasses frame style for both sunglasses and regular prescription wear. This was in contrast to the 80s, were large plastic chunky frames were popular.

The trend of making everything a little longer and baggier than it needed to be applied to most clothing items, including pants/trousers-- Jeans were often cut a little long, so rolling up the cuffs made a come back for a while, and yes, patterned baggy puffy trousers were popular for a couple seasons (although 1994 would have been near the end of that trend).

In terms of fine textured hair, feathered and fluffy hair was the goal, with volume being the biggest consideration for all genders. For black hair, Bantu knots got pretty popular for a while (you can see this reflected in some film/media well into the late 90s/early 2000s), and natural hairstyles were starting to make a big come back in contrast to the highly permed 80s.

For accessories, headbands, hats, and necklaces/bracelets were the big ones (as belts became less popular over time). Earrings tended to be plain hoops/studs or big chunky statement earrings, with very few options in between. Clip-on earrings were still really popular at this time. Fake small hoop earrings were also worn, instead of getting multiple ear piercings. For men, ties and scarves were the key accessories. Digital watches became popular accessories for all genders, and were part of both casual and professional wear.

Socks! White or black, almost always cotton. Sometimes white with a couple stripes at the top. Leg warmers were more of an 80s thing, although in some areas they were still worn in 1994, typically only as part of gym gear by this time but sometimes outside of that. Knee high socks started getting popular (especially paired with shorts or skirts), and socks in weird colours or patterns also started getting more popular, but they weren't super common and tended to be hard to find or more expensive. White socks with lace tops were popular among little girls and teens, whereas the sporty striped socks were more often found in men's departments.

Leggings as they exist today were not a thing outside of the gym, same with yoga pants-- Instead, it was just tights. Thick, relatively uncomfortable tights. These were usually office wear or for special occasions, or when someone felt like dressing nicely. The skin colour ones mostly went out of fashion for casual wear and were mostly for office attire; Thick black tights that you couldn't see through were the default for most casual outfits around this time. Some people still wore the skin colour ones for casual outfits, but the black ones were seen as more stylish for most of what was in style.

Colour palette: You had three main options -- Denim, Block Brights, and Earth Tones. There were of course other options, but these three are probably the most common. Pastels and block brights were especially popular for kids.

Makeup trended towards natural looks or Earth tones. Burgundy shades were popular lip colours, and browns were popular eyeshadows. If you wanted to look cutting edge, you went for metallic eyeshadows in blues, with a sharp orange-red lip colour-- But this was not an every day look! Blush was used, but sparingly, unless you were going out for an event. Subcultures had their own distinct makeup preferences, which did not generally permeate popular style guides. The modern internet makeup guru culture did not exist, and most people got their makeup advice from magazines, close friends, or TV shows. Avon makeup was popular, as was Clinique. Drug store brands included Eckerds, which was an affordable option if you couldn't go to a department store.

For perfumes, CK One and Tommy were among the most popular. Calvin Klein was a mainstay in perfumes, following the success of their perfume Obsession in 1985, which is a scent that most people will associate with that decade! A lot of people continued to use it well into the 90s.

This is all I can think of at the moment, but I wouldn't mind adding more if this was helpful or interesting for anyone! :)

Hiii I’m back! It's been a pretty stressful and busy time at work, so I'm less online than usual, but still learning finnish daily! It's actually being my saving grace: getting to detach myself from work,routine and stress and just putting my head into something completely different that I enjoy doing. Putting a read more because I wrote a lot here:

I've been progressing with my exercise book, and learned how to express the need to do something 'i have to...' and also the imperative tense. Really useful stuff. I also finally finished trascribing all puhekieli 'basic rules' on my notebook!

Some new stuff in my daily learning routine:

I started listening to podcasts and short stories! I was a bit intimidated at first, but now I've been enjoying doing it every day when I am cooking, cleaning the house or even when drawing/working. I'm listening to a beginner's podcast and can basically understand a good 80% of it, which is making me feel so proud and motivated hahaha. The crazy thing is that even if I don't understand a couple of new words, I can follow the conversation and the topic and I always know what the host is talking about, it's crazy. I'll definitely continue listening to podcasts and stories daily because I think it's helping A LOT and truly making me feel like I'm making huge progress and my brain is enlarging lol.

I started using LingQ! The importing videos/podcasts feature is super useful, and I imported some videos in finnish from youtubers I found and having LingQ generate subtitles in finnish for me and translation in english, so I can study them is so useful. That way I can exercise listening to more puhekieli and expand my vocabulary. It helps that the videos are super fun and entertaining themselves, so I genuinely want to know what's happening hahaha. (one was a Sims4 house building video, another one a travelling vlog)

I tried writing some 'stories' for the first time, this is also an advice I heard from a video, that helps with getting your brain used to constructing sentences and phrases. I already did this in a smaller way, writing very short sentences practicing different grammar rules to commit them to memory, but this exercise really makes you put more effort into building longer and slightly more articulated sentences, like phrases you'd say to someone when having a chat, or thinking out loud. I decided to pick some random themes and just write what I can about them! The pink underlined words/verbs/adverbs are things I had to look up because I didn't know how to say yet. I think this is a pretty fun and creative exercise to do though, and I can see how it can make your brain faster at producing sentences on the long run :) It will be fun to keep doing this when my vocabulary grows and I can say more stuff! (I saw a writing exercise idea on tumblr that was describing your Dnd characters and something about their personality/stories, and I really want to do that!)

Overall, I'm feeling really good and motivated. I remember feeling a bit stuck a month ago, and now that feeling is gone, and I feel like I improved a lot. I really think implementing new exercises like the written stories exercise and especially listening a lot has been so useful and important into me feeling like I'm growing more in this language. I'm really glad I fought my inner doubt and saboteur and just did it. I also gander at posts written in finnish here on tumblr and realized I understand a good 70/80% of what's written in there. Sometimes more or less, depending on how long the post is or how specific the words used are. But that's pretty crazy to me and really satisfying!

Also, if you need some inspiration for your language learning journey or some good tips (like the listening to podcasts and writing stories I'm currently doing), please watch this video! It really inspired me to keep going in my journey :)

I feel like I should start this post by saying that I greatly enjoyed the final episode. I love all the improvements made from the manga and that Eren/Armin specifically, I did not expected it to hit me so hard (the new dialogue is amazing and there's so much to unpack there. Armin's voice actor delivered like she had never before. I could feel all the disbelief and pain).

With that being said, I do undertand why many people don't like or feel satisfaction with the ending. AOT really brought in three different ideologies for solutions to a world conflict that is too complex. At the end, all of those ideologies won some but not all.

The Rumbling (Eren) did succeeded. Maybe it didn't kill all humanity outside the walls, but it did kill 80% which is HUGE. Paradis island survived for many decades but it ultimately fell due to human conflict (this conflict is very vague. Was it the world taking revenge on them, or was it a war caused by anyother conflict, maybe due to resources?). Eren won in a way, yet lost the freedom he craved the most.

Then we have the Euthanasia plan (Zeke). Eldians did continued to reproduced but the problem of the titans was eradicated. Eldians are now humans with no special powers to either oppress or defend themselves. Now, this is not exactly what Zeke wanted to do but it is as close as it gets to his wish of eradicate Eldians. He kinda won but not really. And in his final moments, he found the relief he thought about.

Then we have the Peace Talks (Armin). Althought we don't know with persuasion what happened after the Rumbling, the anime as left us with a hopeful (if not canon by the last images) end where Historia and the Alliance are on the same page of seeking out peace withouth murdering each other. Absolute peace will never be accomplished but that idea shouldn't undermine doing their best to keep peace for as long as possible. Armin won in a way too.

And maybe this was the best way to end the series. The conflict is too big and too complex and one absolute solution would never be accomplished because there are so many opinions in the world we can't all be on the same page. Just like the fandom with the ending.

"house of anubis has bad writing"

so i have a bit of a pet peeve when it comes to critical discussions about tv, and i'm going to use house of anubis as a vehicle through which to talk about it since i think it's a very good case study of this particular problem.

it's pretty simple: "x has bad writing"

saying something has "good writing" in passing is fine -- not every conversation needs MLA citations -- but for the sake of this post not being a million words long to account for every nuance possible, let's discount those situations and suppose that this is in the context of an extended critical discussion about something, and specifically calling out the "writing" as the culprit.

the funny thing about "writing" is a lot of the time, that...isn't what's being identified in a statement like this. this is where i'm going to start talking about house of anubis so i can give you an actual example

house of anubis has what i would call strong writing for most of its run, with a few notable exceptions (that i'd like to note are localized, specific problems!). when i say this, i'm thinking about specific parameters: the coherency and structure of the story, the pacing, the tone, the consistency and fidelity of the characterization, the quality of the dialogue (doing everything possible to only consider the words themselves, not the performances from the actors), and bells and whistles/creative choices that elevate it past functional narrative and into a piece of art. that is writing.

things that aren't writing that have a huge impact on how the writing/story is digested and are heavily influential creative choices in their own right BUT are literally just. not writing. that get commonly conflated with writing: ACTOR PERFORMANCES (i would write this one 100 times if it made a difference), shot composition, editing (both cut-to-cut and structural editing), and in some cases production design (so sets/props/costumes).

house of anubis is a great case study for this because oftentimes (especially in this VERY cynical phase of pop culture we're in) people conflate things that are earnest, low budget, or camp (especially when talking about elements in the "not writing" category) with "badness" when, while you don't have to like it, if you changed the lens through which you observed them, "bad" would be...not apt as a description. that being said, house of anubis isn't a great case study just because it's camp, but because, as the strongest example here, sometimes the performances are just Not Good. i will not name names (especially since everyone has their moments/odd line reads AND you can see clear improvement over time). but hopefully you know what i mean. it CAN affect your opinion of the story as a whole in a way that like...okay if you were watching season one for the first time as an adult, i wouldn't blame you for being turned off by the pilot, or hell, even a solid 80% of the entire first season.

i've attempted hoa watches with rl friends 3 times now, very recently finished s1 with someone actually, and noticed that more often than not, it was the acting (either because it's a very characteristic/camp/borderline theatrical style that takes getting used to or because it's...roughest at the beginning) that was turning them off. sometimes that was highlighting existing writing issues, but especially during arcs like the play/patricia's kidnapping that are structurally sound, perceived "cheesiness" in the acting would leach into the perception of the writing. we actually skipped the first 5 episodes entirely to try and mitigate the parts that are a bit hard to sit through without prior investment (i showed them the recap portion of the video essay i'm working on instead because they'd seen the pilot before and quote "could not handle that again" LMAO) but i noticed something interesting: while it took them a while to come around to fully enjoying the show, there was a period before that where i could tell that something shifted -- they were invested in the story, but they were still reacting like we were watching a neil breen movie. once the acting picked up, "oh this is garbage" (affectionate) turned to "wait a minute this is good."

that is the difference between bad writing and bad [something else].

this is a post about how house of anubis has good writing more than anything, but i do have to talk about the actual bad writing to make this point. early s1 has a particular type of writing flaw that's both INCREDIBLY interesting to break down, requires good writing ability to make in the first place, and unfortunately, is a KILLER for interest in a show like house of anubis, especially when it's taken out of its original context of being released every couple weeks in runs of 4 days of a new episode each night (which side note: COOLEST release schedule i've ever seen a show do. BRING THIS BACK) and binged instead.

quick interjection because i realized that how i define the plots in this show is not at all universal and i haven't talked about it before/released that damn video yet so you won't know what i'm talking about: until episode 9, season 1 has TWO A plots -- whatever nina/fabian/amber are doing (A1), and whatever patricia's doing (A2). at episode 9, they converge, so it's a more conventional singular A plot, but the reason i insist on it being 2 A plots before that instead of the show having an A/B/C/D plot and then A/B/C is a) for clarity's sake since the other plots don't change at all so why shift their categorization b) calling patricia's plot the D plot so you don't have to do that would imply it's the least important when it's easily the MOST important (it gets all the coolest reveals let's be real) + the C plot usually changes every episode/couple of episodes so putting a long-running plot after what is usually just a runner in the hierarchy makes things needlessly complicated c) they DIRECTLY converge in a way that's well telegraphed from the start. you KNOW whatever nina's doing is related to what patricia's doing from the pilot, and that's good.

so let's be real here: the A1 plot kinda sucks. not because the content itself is bad on its face -- that part of the writing is fine -- but because the individual scenes and what information they drip-feed the audience are poorly paced. the most egregious scene is the one in episode 5(!!!! FIVE) where fabian finally notices the eye of horus in the stair railing (by getting his shoelace caught on the doorknob somehow -- don't get me started), shows nina, and they come to the EARTH-SHATTERING realization that robert frobisher-smythe was really interested in egypt! 💀 it's not so much about them...coming to an obvious conclusion...even if that was what caused my ??? kneejerk reaction, but more that we spent an entire scene on this information (that even to a kid wouldnt bear stating), and it's not the first (nor the last) time that something like this happens in the A1 plot. meanwhile, in the A2 plot, patricia is learning something LEGITIMATELY earth-shattering once or twice a scene, and with multiple scenes in an episode for her, it's difficult for the A1 plot to keep up in terms of intrigue/information weight. the audience can tell that nina's the main character and that whatever she's doing is the "main point," but it gets increasingly difficult to make that case when patricia is getting gangstalked while they're visiting sarah over and over without learning anything new.

the real rub here isn't even in the comparison itself but in the fact that they're still, ultimately, both the A plot, and the characters in each need to get to specific places in the information they have/things they've experienced before their plots can converge properly at victor kidnapping rufus. when you compare them, there's a discrepancy pretty quick: patricia has way more things she has to piece together than sibuna do. thus, the sibuna plotline is artificially sandbagged with repetitive scenes, reveals that don't deserve the fanfare they get relative to the actual content of the reveal, and contrivances (see: fabian shoelace doorknob scenario) so it won't outpace things going on in patricia's plot and undermine the reveals there. when you add in how the B/C plots tie in and have impacts on the A plots or vice versa, it makes sense that something would end up being sacrificed in the pacing department. it seems kinda nuts that it'd be A1, but at a certain point of fiddling with events/moving stuff around, i can see why it had to be A1 that got this treatment.

i'll add that while it was airing, i didn't mind that and even liked how things felt ""sort of normal"/not that supernatural relative to where it was going to end up for a WHILE so when, say, the elixir is introduced and alfie gets trapped in the cellar and they REALLY start using their effects budget, it feels like a considerable shift in the setting. a mystery story that lets you get used to some sense of normal first before yanking the rug out from under you is the best kind, but striking a balance between "something weird is going on here that needs my urgent attention" and "but it's still not THAT weird" so the reveal is both shocking but entirely appropriate and satisfying is VERY difficult. (it's also a move that improves the rewatch at the expense of the initial watch, which i can't help but have a soft spot for as a certified Pretentious Bitch.) that's what i mean by it being a problem that comes from a good writer -- they're trying something! it might not be working perfectly but they're trying and to me, that's far more interesting than technically "clean" but very unambitious writing! but i digress lol

something neat that scene i ragged on early does do is the presentation of the information, though, and it makes me trust this was a particularly thorny structural issue and not amateurish writing. it seems to us that the takeaway is that they need to look into egyptian mythological sources for further information, and that the rollers likely belonged to the frobisher-smythe family. what ends up actually being relevant, though, is a) the naming of the eye of horus for the scene later where rufus asks patricia to look for them (specifically the locket, as we find out later, but he doesn't give that away, same as the scene not giving away why it used the eye of horus in the railing to clarify ^ the above dubiously useful information) and b) the subversion of the audience's attention. i'm not sure if this was intentional, but there's something magical about the way it primes the audience to be dismissive of nina and fabian's discoveries and investigative ability early on. for one, it makes the scenes where nina makes fun of amber for investigating every nook and cranny extra ironic in a way that i love (yes! giving your prototypical blank slate audience insert main character hints of a personality that ends up commenting on the nature of blank slate characters/how their behavior would actually come off if they were real people later down the line!), it makes the audience more likely to get invested in making connections/speculation independent of the characters solving the mystery (audience engagement is critical in a good mystery!), and by hiding the "most important information" in plain sight, it reinforces the illusion that this is a living, breathing world where everything is interconnected in unexpected ways. sure, it's cheesy and may feel cheap, but through that, it hits something real.

to sum up, i can see why if you're just turning this show on expecting a straightforward supernatural teen drama you wouldn't see this stuff first (especially since that genre is predominately cynical in tone right now and house of anubis is reminiscient at first blush of the type of show that a lot of other shows in the genre are...making up a guy like and parodying (badly)) and feel inclined to call it bad, especially without watching season 2. if you're someone new to the show, hi! i hope i haven't scared you off! if you don't mind spoilers, i did a writeup about a scene in late s2 that's an example of both good acting and EXCELLENT writing, both in dialogue but most importantly on a structural level. while it is a standout phenomenal scene, it's only that good because of the writing around it supporting that level of subtext in the first place, and the bones of that are present even in early s1.

i'm holding myself back from writing about cynical vs. earnest media because that's better saved for another post (specifically the fabled s3 writeup i will do someday i promise), but i cannot overstate how much of an impact that has on this, too. to state that conclusion as concisely as my verbose ass can manage: you need both cynical and earnest media in your media diet, elsewise your taste and critical skills will just Be Bad. too much cynical media, in particular, can trend towards a lack of appreciation for the earnest media it needs as reference material to respond to, and at that point, you're just adulating hatred ("intelligence") over loving, y'know, love. earnest media can suck, but at the very least, it's less insufferable to argue with.

(also, sidebar that's been said a million times, but these are TEENAGERS!! so many teenagers on tv are written like adults who make bad decisions, but there's an inherent corniness to being a teen that IS sorta "cringe," and you can't take that out without ruining the experience. i'm a super risk-averse person, but i'd be willing to bet a considerable amount of money that if you wrote up some early-ish s1 dialogue in script format (incl. action lines, etc.) of a scene with all kids and compared that to a scene of just adults, so stripping out the performances/keeping those from interfering in your interpretation, the dialogue that comes off "cringe" would read like perfectly fine, age appropriate language/cadence. i HEAVILY respect a show that doesn't pretty that up, even at the risk of coming off "amateurish.")

in conclusion, i asked my friend when their opinion of the show shifted from essentially "well i'm having fun watching it with you at least" to "ok wait a minute this is actually good," and they said the last four episodes of s1. while i'd place the "officially Good" marker for myself somewhere around episode 9, maybe a little later, i can see exactly why it'd be far later (and at that point specifically) for someone else, particularly someone that hasn't taken...extensive notes on every single moment of s1 and poured over them like it was my job for a solid couple years.

episode 23 and onward has: jerome and alfie getting more complex material to work with AND get to play off one another (and thus two of the show's best actors get to show us that), the rube-goldberg-machineification of the plotlines is setting in (the scene where mick and mara are playfighting while doing the dishes (as a result of their relationship turmoil up to this point??) and spill water on victor right when jerome chases alfie into the kitchen with the drawings of the ankh pieces?!?!?!??!?! LIKE!!! YOU CAN'T CALL THAT BAD WRITING...); reveals are paying off; stakes are high without spiraling out of control; actors in general are refining what elements of their characters work the best/need highlighting; beyond that the characters have weathered enough conflicts that their choices are cropping up to be consistent and solid characterization with a direction; it's clear that this is a campy endeavor with writing chops to back up the cheese.

the way that manifested in my friend's reaction was "wow, that was a good scene." "wait, that was acted really well. everyone did a good job there." "oh my god, they're not. theyre not doing this. oh my god, they are."

that is the essence of house of anubis, i think. it's not for everyone, but "bad writing?" a bit unfair, if you ask me.

So I'm reading Utopia For Realists

This book feels very frustrating to read because he talks about social phenomena, wonders aloud about them, then puts forth his conclusions - and it feels like he's missing a huge piece of the social phenomenon, and as a result, I'm wondering if his conclusion is flawed. And it's infuriating!

Most recent example I've read so far: he talks about the history of the Reduced Hours Work Week (4 day work week, 15-hour work week, etc), noting the rise in popularity of the idea in the twentieth century, then the sudden halt of progress in making the idea reality, noting that women entered the workforce in the 80s (attributing it solely to "the feminist revolution") and workers in the Netherlands ("the nation with the shortest workweek in the world" he claims) being expected to be on-call more and more in the 2000s. He presents these things without any context or commentary, as if they were just an incidental finding in 'our modern life'. Like, 'gosh, everyone wanted a shorter work week but then women entered the workforce and now everyone is just required to work more hours! Crazy stuff, huh?'

Along with this, it really feels like he's looking at populations in a country as one unified whole, wealth-wise. So, for example, he makes claims several times to the tune of, 'the US is several times as wealthy [today, in 2014] as in XYZ time." So he goes on to ask aloud, 'how are Americans so wealthy and yet so overworked and stressed?'

And like. It feels like there's this huge elephant in the room he's missing: why is he not addressing the presence of and effect of stagnant wages and skyrocketing rent/grocery/daycare/medical costs when talking about these social problems he's addressing? Why is he not addressing Regan's empowering of corporations to be as greedy as possible i mean the effect of Trickle Down Economics on the US economy? Why is he not addressing the fact that 1% of Americans hold, what, 99% of the wealth in the USA? Why isn't he addressing the decline of unions? Why does he make it sound like 'the people' loved these ideas then turned away from them, when it was more likely 'the people' have always loved these ideas and it's corporations who hated them and gained enough power to stamp the ideas out? I know that the term 'enshittification' didn't exist when this book was published but I can feel the absence of the idea like a cardboard cutout in almost every argument he makes. Has the US econonomic situation really gotten so much exponentially worse in the last decade that these problems are only clearly visible now vs 2014???? I read his book and all I can think is, the problem is unchecked corporate greed, the problem is corporations being allowed to grind people up for profit, the problem is the government being allowed to treat the poor as less than human because "people can only be poor if they're bad people, and bad people don't deserve any help".

Like. I can accept that I am probably not the target audience for this book. I already believe that laziness does not exist, and if we give people UBI and more leisure time people will be happier, healthier, and more 'productive' (i.e. do the things they actually want to do). I already believe whole-heartedly that to improve the health of the population, poverty must be alleviated, and to alleviate poverty, you just gotta give people enough money to live on with no strings attached. I am convinced that we need to crack down on corporate greed, but I'm absolutely overwhelmed with how much legal power corporations have in the USA. I feel utterly defeated by how my corporate employer treats the entirety of their workforce (cutting the budget at my hospital while the CEO of the head corporation makes 395 times the median wage of non-C-suite employees), how much bitching and moaning and furious lobbying they'd do if they had to comply with a four-day workweek or even a four- or six-hour workday for all employees. And if that got passed into law they'd find a way to make an exemption for nurses, so nurses would have to keep working 12- and 14-hour days. Mega corporations - unchecked corporate greed - monopolies - are a fucking tumor on the human race, but shrinking them would fundamentally alter our economy as we know it.

I guess this book is frustrating to read because it feels like he's trying to convince regular people that these ideas are good. Which is admirable! If I would've read this book in 2014 it would've blown my mind. Convincing people that helping the poor helps everyone is very admirable! And I suppose if enough regular people become convinced of these ideas, then there will be more power on our legislature to actually implement them. It's just frustrating to me that he's utterly ignoring the presence and effect of corporate greed. And he's not necessarily addressing the people who have the power to get the ball rolling on these changes.

Some 20,000 Georgians staged a "March for Europe" Sunday, calling on the government to scrap a controversial "foreign influence" bill which the EU has warned would undermine Tbilisi's European aspirations.

There have been mass anti-government protests since mid-April, when the ruling Georgian Dream party reintroduced plans to pass a law critics say resembles Russian legislation used to silence dissent.

Waves of similar street protests -- during which police used tear gas and water cannon against demonstrators -- forced the party to drop a similar measure in 2023.

Police have again clashed with protesters during the latest rallies.

On Sunday evening -- before staging what organisers called a "March for Europe" -- at least 20,000 people turned out at Tbilisi's central Republic Square, according to an AFP estimate.

The kilometre-long procession, which featured a huge EU flag at its head, stretched out along Tbilisi's main thoroughfare towards parliament.

"I am here to protect Georgia's European future," said 19-year-old Lasha Chkheidze. "No to Russia, no to the Russian law, yes to Europe."

The rally was organised by around 100 Georgian rights groups and opposition parties, which have until now kept a low profile at the youth-dominated daily protests.

"The authorities, which have reintroduced the Russian bill, are going beyond the constitutional framework and changing the country's orientation, betraying the unwavering will of the people," the organisers said in a statement.

At one point during the largely peaceful rally, demonstrators attempted to break through a police cordon outside the parliament building to hoist an EU flag there, an AFP journalist witnessed.

Police used pepper spray without warning.

The interior ministry said in a statement that "the protest turned violent" and that "demonstrators physically and verbally confronted law enforcement."

Past midnight, hundreds of riot police were deployed in the area.

'Further away from EU' 

To counter days of anti-government protests, Georgia's ruling party announced its own rally on Monday, when a parliamentary committee is set to hold a second reading of the bill.

If adopted, the law would require any independent NGO and media organisation receiving more than 20 percent of its funding from abroad to register as an "organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power".

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili -- who is at loggerheads with the ruling party -- has said she will veto the law.

But Georgian Dream holds a commanding majority in the legislature, allowing it to pass laws and to vote down a presidential veto without needing the support of any opposition MPs.

Georgia's bid for membership of the EU and NATO is enshrined in its constitution and -- according to opinion polls -- supported by more than 80 percent of the population.

Georgian Dream insists it is staunchly pro-European and that the proposed law aims only to "boost transparency" of the foreign funding of NGOs.

But critics accuse it of steering the former Soviet republic toward closer ties with Russia.

"This law, as well as this government, are incompatible with Georgia's historic choice to be an EU member," the leader of the opposition Akhali party, Nika Gvaramia, told AFP at the protest.

EU chief Charles Michel has said the bill "is not consistent" with Georgia's bid for EU membership. It "will bring Georgia further away from the EU and not closer", he said.

In December, the EU granted Georgia official candidate status.

But before membership talks can be formally launched, Tbilisi will have to reform its judicial and electoral systems, reduce political polarisation, improve press freedom and curtail the power of oligarchs, said Brussels.

Once seen as leading the democratic transformation of ex-Soviet countries, Georgia has in recent years been criticised for perceived democratic backsliding.

Thoughts on Yoonmin Suchwita

Just a quickie write up of my first impressions as I'm slammed with deadlines at work today.

Of course Park Jimin brought Yoongi a birthday cake and serenaded him. Of course he did.

How touching to learn Yoongi bought Jimin his first alcoholic drink to help him through his soulmate dumpling fight!

Early in the year Jimin was in a huge funk and drank a lot (I WONDER WHAT COULD BE THE REASON), but then he snapped out of it for Las Vegas and spent 10 months obsessively working on his album, in which he realized how good he's had it, where he needs to improve, and what he really wants. Amazing creative growth.

So, clearly Yoonmin enjoy pulling each other's pigtails. Hearing Yoongi tease Jimin that he didn't have the body to go shirtless any more... not gonna lie, I sucked in a sharp breath. I am super sensitive to this because of my own disordered eating in the past as a dancer, and I know how Jimin gets dragged online damned near every day for being "Pigman." Frankly, Yoongi should know it, too. But Jimin seemed totally unbothered and they do razz each other about everything, so I'm gonna try and let this go.

The other thing I'm going to try and let go is how hard folks are going to lean into Jimin saying Letter was a fan song. Yes, it was an Easter egg for fans, and yes, he does love us. No, that song is not FOR us and anyone with half a brain gets what is being coded. But I'm not gonna argue about it any more than I'm going to argue about the placement of a J over an M tattoo that keeps being retouched while the others are neglected. If you want plausible deniability, Jikook will always give it to you. Have at it.

Anyway, I was so moved by all the wonderful things Yoongi said, in between teasing Jimin--how proud he was of Jimin, how hard he worked, practicing every single day, that he was a genius, that he always knew Jimin had the unique voice to be a great singer, that he wanted Jimin on his team from day one... that of course he will come to the music shows to support Jimin. Yoongi doesn't typically gush so this warmed my heart.

The way Yoongi kept insisting Jimin come appear on stage while he's on tour and Jimin eventually agreeing that he will. (Roo is going to try very, very hard not to hope he will come to Newark. More than likely Jimin will visit Yoongi on a stage is Asia and that's cool. It's all cool. If Roo saw Park Jimin in person this April, she would combust.)

It was made clear that the members are responsible for their solo promotions and have a heavy say in their albums so I hope that kills any rumors that the company is forcing a narrative or picking favorites. Everything is unfolding how the Tannies wish it to and that's good enough for me to get behind it.

I love how Jimin said that there's no difference between Park Jimin and Jimin of BTS--how he wants to keep going as a team until they are in their 80s--how what he looks forward to most is getting back together in 2025.

Also the way he kept hinting at another album (and the way Yoongi called him out on that--Yoongi pulled no punches, goddamn.)

It was adorable the way they made each other giggle about product placements, fan calls, fan challenges and the like. These two. I'm so glad Yoongi has Jimin and the other members to get silly with. And Jimin laughed til he cried. It was healing to see.

I love that they keep in touch with Jin, that they bring Jin mulhue, that they are happy he's at a healthy weight now.

I'm a little thrown about Yoongi mentioning grandkids but then bisexuals exist and there's been rumors he's dating a woman for a while now. I am not going to dig into it because that's his business. If Yoongi wants a family someday, awesome sauce. If Yoongi doesn't, awesome sauce. I mean this sincerely--I support all 7 wherever they go on their journeys. Even if Jikook don't end up together, I'll be sad about it, but I'm still in this Bangtan shit for life. I'm OT7, and Jimin ult biased, then a Jikook supporter. I happen to believe that Jikook are very much together but being very careful about showing that openly, but if you think otherwise, or it ends up being otherwise, that's honestly okay.

I will just say I'm loving that Yoongi gave Jimin a gift of pillow mist spray in Jungkook's and Jimin's favorite scent of lavender.

Mostly just happy to see our boys so happy.

PS. The bottles in this shot are signed by Jin and Hobi. *wibble*

Did anything good happen in 2023? Yes!!

Sometimes, we all need a reminder that the world is not in a death spiral. This is a wonderful article from the Washington Post that shows huge and promising developments and it's worth reading.

Research has indicated that uplifting news can provide an emotional buffer against distressing news and feelings of hopelessness — and even encourage optimism or action. So, in that spirit, here are some of the more uplifting developments you may have missed this year.

The WHO approved an effective new malaria vaccine.

In October, the World Health Organization approved a malaria vaccine — only the second time a vaccine against the potentially deadly disease has been created. The WHO said it expects the vaccine, which costs $2-$4 per dose and has been shown to reduce symptomatic cases by 75 percent after three doses within a year, to be available by the middle of 2024.

More than 600,000 people died of malaria in 2021, with children under 5 representing 80 percent of malaria deaths in Africa. The United States reports about 2,000 malaria cases every year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, with the majority of them contracted abroad.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO, said the announcement gave him“great pleasure. ... I used to dream of the day when we would have a safe and effective vaccine against malaria. Now, we have two.”

The FDA approved a groundbreaking pill to treat postpartum depression

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration also approved a number of potentially life-changing drugs, including a first-of-its-kind pill to treat postpartum depression, which affects up to 1 in 5 women. The severe and debilitating condition can cause pregnant and new mothers to experience intense hopelessness and, in rare cases, psychosis — and it can last for years.

The new drug is taken once a day for two weeks and, unlike the existing treatment of an IV injection that may take as long as 60 hours to administer in a health-care setting, it can be taken at home — greatly improving accessibility, especially for parents caring for a newborn.

While experts say the drug may not be suitable for all women with the condition and won’t be able to treat all aspects of a new mother’s mental health, they argue that the drug is nonetheless a convenient and fast-acting treatment, and is particularly useful in the early days after a birth, when parents and babies start bonding.

Two sickle cell disease treatments gained approval

In December, the FDA also approved two therapies for sickle cell disease, a rare and debilitating condition that affects around 100,000 Americans, most of them Black. The disease causes extreme, constant pain and can drastically cut the life span of those affected.

The new treatments are both gene therapies that have been shown in clinical trials to stop severe pain crises for most patients: One uses a harmless virus to insert a gene into the patient’s stem cells, while the other is the first medical treatment to be based on the gene-editing tool CRISPR.

Both are intensive, expensive procedures — and require chemotherapy, which has significant side effects. But patients who have received the treatments have spoken of its profoundly beneficial impact on their lives.Jimi Olaghere, a father of three who likened the pain caused by the disease to glass shards sawing back and forth inside his veins, said that after years of being unable to sleep at night because of pain, he has energy again, and that the treatment has enabled him for the first time to plan for a future with his family.

We learned more about dementia and memory loss — and how to prevent them

Scientists also made progress in understanding one of the biggest health concerns for countries with aging populations — dementia, which can have a devastating impact, robbing people of the ability to engage in daily tasks.

While there is no proven cure for dementia, scientific research has continued to find that there many steps we can take to reduce the risk of developing dementia.

One study published this year suggested that lifestyle habits, including regular mental and physical activity, eating a healthful diet, and regular social contact were linked with a slower rate of memory decline. Another found that living in areas with more natural green spaces was associated with lower rates of hospital admissions for diseases including dementia, while separate research indicated that the use of hearing aids could cut the risk of cognitive decline by nearly half.

The FDA also gave full approval, for the first time, to a drug that modestly slows Alzheimer’s disease. While difficult questions about safety, effectiveness and cost remain, many neurologists say that having a drug that slows Alzheimer’s is nonetheless a milestone after years of failed trials.

After 20 years, countries agreed a treaty to protect the ocean

Human health wasn’t the only area to see improvements this year. Even as scientists voiced concern about the state of Earth’s health, there were some positive steps to protect the planet.

In May, more than 190 countries agreed a major deal to protect the biodiversity of the world’s oceans outside of national borders, after more than two decades of talks. The United Nations adopted the treaty in June.

At present, only 1.2 percent of the high seas — which make up two-thirds of the planet’s ocean surface — are protected, leaving large stretches at risk from rising temperatures, overfishing, pollution, mining and other threats. The deal will allow nations to start creating new marine protection areas in the high seas for the first time, although it still may be years before U.N. member states formally adopt the agreement and are able to begin the process of designating the new zones. Even then, enforcement may be difficult.

But the agreement has been welcomed as a much-needed start on the path to protecting 30 percent of the planet’s land and sea by the year 2030, a goal announced at a U.N. biodiversity summit in late 2022.

Brazil deforestation falls after reaching 15-year high

Last year, The Post published a series of storiesshowing the fast pace of destruction of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest under then-President Jair Bolsonaro. During his presidency, the rate of deforestation of the Amazon rose to a 15-year high, and those responsible for the destruction acted with impunity.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to the presidency in January this year. His first six months in office showed positive signs, as authorities drove thousands of illegal gold miners from Indigenous lands, and the government said deforestation dropped by 50 percent.

There are questions about how likely the president is to reach his goal of ending deforestation by 2030, especially given government plans for a large-scale railway project and to pave a 540-mile highway. And deforestation isn’t the only environmental issue facing Brazil, which has come under scrutiny for its reliance on oil as it announced plans to align itself with a coalition of major oil-producing nations, OPEC Plus.

But European countries and the United States have once again offered to restart funding — which was suspended under Bolsonaro — to help end deforestation in the Amazon. Resuming the program would be a significant step for a rainforest that stores billions of tons of carbon and pulls millions more out of the atmosphere every year.

Even in a year of difficult news, moments of humanity shone through

While suffering across the world may have dominated the headlines in 2023, this year also reminded us that kindness and generosity exist, even amid crises and tragedy.

In March, after tornadoes devastated Mississippi, a group of Ukrainian refugees made a 16-hour journey to distribute water to victims of the disaster. Many had only just arrived in the United States — and still had immigration forms to fill in or job interviews to prepare for — but hoped to help a community they felt faced a struggle similar to theirs.

“When they stop what they’re going through to help someone else in need, that to me is the definition of love,” Corie Jones, the deputy director of Volunteer Mississippi, told The Post.

And in October, as police officer Arizbeth Dionisio Ambrosio was clearing debris after Hurricane Otis swept Mexico, she came across a woman with a crying, hungry baby. Ambrosio, who was breastfeeding her own 1-year-old, offered to nurse the baby and was able to soothe the infant — a moment of empathy that was praised around the world, and led to her receiving a promotion.

Ambrosio told The Post she didn’t consider what she did to be anything heroic or out of the ordinary. “It was what I needed to do and I did it,” she said. “When you are in a situation like that, you do not think whether to help or not. ... I felt peace because I was with the baby giving him what he needed at the moment

Find the full story here.

Something experimental I tried with oil pastel????"?" Was feeling pretty awful so I tried drawing something with oil pastel for fun. Felt a little better👍

Unedited ver + kind of my thoughts behind this drawing under this cut.

Uhhhh also a very messy explanation on what I was thinking when I drew this sorry if my sentences are jumbled. If you don't wanna read it here's a very short summary: "I've been thinking alot ever since I'm getting older and I want to stop thinking and go back to being some naive child I used to be."

I made like a whole essay about my thoughts it's okay if you don't wanna read it💀

I guess this whole drawing was my way of expressing how I felt knowing I'm growing older. Ever since I turned 16 and being a teacher's child loved by many, the only thing I started thinking about is my worth in many stuff like work potential, art potential and academic potential???? Idk how to explain it but I'm only thinking about my worth in all aspects to make sure I maintain a perfect student image. Ever since I kept thinking about my worth, everything got really worse especially during exams. I get beyond dissapointed and I'd cry lots when I get below 70 or 60. Worse if I get below 80 in language (both in my native language) and arts. It's like I was pointing a gun at myself, mess up once and I'd die. Because that's what it's like with my mom. She gets VERY disappointed if I get below those score and she'd constantly shame me and say she would've taken my friend (who's smarter than me) as her daughter instead of me. I kind of hate her since she only thinks about money and fame.

17 years old I'm starting to think about more and more about myself. What if I'm too childish to people around me? What if I were to put my teacher's child image to shame? What if my mother gets disappointed at me again for the smallest things? I studied and studied alot to be a perfect child to her, making sure I maintain a perfect score and stuff in arts and all. But of course she still gets disappointed if I didn't get am 80 or 85 or whatever. Worst part is I'm literally every teacher's hope, especially my arts teacher that knows about my skills and stuff. Everything started to feel like a mess from here. I started to enjoy the things I once enjoyed less, I started to hate the way I act, I started to hate the way I keep on trying knowing my mother will be disappointed anyways. It's gotten bad I attempted like twice that year and even almost had an urge to get some pills to see if I can get some sort of relief after almost a whole year messed up. But at least I'm still alive and 'healthy' so there's that yippee🎉. Also I'm envious with my irl friend circle's art skills and how their paintings are better than me so I've been trying to isolate myself from them. My friends became an example in art paintings TWICE and it's usually me so I've gotten so envious and mentally losing it a little. Even my friend that's ass in drawing got a compliment instead of me. Also my art teacher told me that I was being 'cocky and prideful' when I wasn't making any progress in my painting during some art improvement program for the art students. I would've screamed at him about how I was feeling but it'll give a bad image of me since I'm a prime example so I stayed quiet and skipped my at class the rest of the day. It's getting exhausting and now I'm losing motivation to paint or even draw for myself.

And 2024 I'm kind of technically 18 all my thoughts are only getting worse. My emotions are a bit out of control, probably worse than last year and I'm feeling exhausted and tired for the start of 2024. Currently taking a HUGE exam before I graduate highschool and it literally decides my future, of course my mother plays the part as the one that pressures me and guilt trips me. Arts exam is coming soon and my mind is in absolute shambles. The only thing I think is if it'll be good enough and if I'll be able to make one of the few most perfect paintings out of the other 30k whatever whatever candidates out there. Knowing there's people better than me I'm getting tired in wanting to even pick up my brush. Hell even looking at an empty drawing paper makes me go haywire and eat the paper because I feel like it.

Now I'm rethinking about my whole life after I became 16, and I kind of wished I wasn't pressuring myself so much for the sake of validation and some words of affection and praise from my classmates or parents or teachers. I think joining the art class in my school made me graduate highschool mentally exhausted and overwhelmed at my hobby that I used to really cherish and was passionate about. Now I'm just really wishing I could turn back time and be a kid again so I can relax a little. At least a little.

How do I stop procrastinating getting my life together. I'm not sure if you understand what I mean....as in how do I stop procrastinating getting out of my comfor zone to do better

U r such a big inspiration to me

Hi lovely ❣️ You're already well on your way since you're asking this question! ☺️ So you can continue in this thread and identify/remind yourself of the things you want MORE than you want comfort*. You can go much further when running towards a goal instead of away from an "undesirable" state. This also helps guard against burnout! When you keep your goals in sight, you're able to take the breaks you need between working towards them because you feel secure in the knowledge that you won't fall off your train of improvement because this truly matters to you 😌

*- There may be some things that are not worth prioritizing over certain key comforts, e.g. long-term health, spending enough time with loved ones, etc., and that's okay. (Personally, I take this as a sign to stay in my comfort zone a while longer. With time, I'll get even more used to it — find new ways to optimize, delegate, etc. — then I'll know I'm ready to move on.)

So, now that we have the mentality to start making changes, we can put systems in place to actually get our lives together ✨ The details of your systems should be specific to what you want to achieve, but one piece of general advice I often hear is "work backwards from your goals." I personally don't like to do this 😅 If I plan this way, I know I'm setting myself up for failure because of the HUGE starting friction — figuring out every step of the way before I even start? And what happens if I learn something along the way and decide to change my plan anyway? What I highly recommend instead is to know your end goal and then determine the smallest step you can take in the right trajectory. My biggest gains have come from some of my smallest, but intentional efforts, kept consistent over time precisely because they're so easy to maintain. (80-20 rule!)

And finally, even if you're not comfortable sharing your progress with others either online or IRL (though I highly encourage you to!!), do continue to surround yourself with people who inspire you, who have similar goals and/or work ethic to what you want for yourself, etc. Getting your life together is a major undertaking, and while not necessary, moral support can make it that much easier.

I hope I understood what you meant correctly and that this helps you at least get started! I'm rooting for youuu 💐 and my inbox/dms are always open if you want more ideas or just some encouragement 🤗

Begging you to tell us also about when oxygen nearly sterilized the planet. You have a hypnotic writing style

Stop, please! I'm married!

Hokay, so, a fucktillion years ago (well, between 4 and 2.5 billion years, but at a certain point of imponderability all those big numbers look the same, so let's stick with the funny one, yeah?) nothing alive on earth had ever heard of "free elemental oxygen". They metabolized food anaerobically - by fermentation or CrP hydrolysis or maybe even simple glycolysis, as was the style at the time. The specifics are a bit conjectural, since microbial membrane proteins don't fossilize terribly well, but we have enough anaerobes kicking around to get an idea of what our ancestors probably had to work with.

Not this kind of fermentation, but it gives you an idea of what's up. Thanks, Wikimedia Commons!

Now, breaking food down into energy is one thing, but what about getting it in the first place? Well, the best way is to borrow some energy from the environment and use it to "cook" simple chemicals into more complex ones you can break back down. Basically translating environmental energy you can't use into a form which you can. The earliest way to do this was probably a form of chemosynthesis.

I won't bore you with the details, but this early chemosynthesis would have been...weird. The important part is that the process probably took hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide, broke them apart, and recombined the Choice Bits into sugar. Unfortunately, that process would have needed the Weird Earth Chemicals (energy source) and the stupid-high temperatures belching out of hydrothermal vents in order to work, and even then it was slow as hell! There was room for improvement

At some point, some plucky little microbe went "hey, if I use light to excite a pigment, I can use the electrons shot off that pigment to blast hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide apart instead of waiting on Weird Hot Slow Earth Chemicals!" This was huge. The fundamental principle was still basically the same: 12H2S + 6CO2 -> C6H12O6 + 12S + 6H20, but it was faster and easier than ever! Plus it made the earth purple!

There's a joke about Prince in here, I just know it. Thanks, Wikimedia Commons!

But, as is the running theme...we can do better.

Around 2.5 billion years ago, a tiny, subtle mutation arose. A minute riff on the existing form of photosynthesis played out in the genome of one lineage of microbe or another. One that was terribly advantageous: instead of using hydrogen sulfide - which needs to come from marine volcanoes or other microbes' waste - as a hydrogen source, these guys could use water. You know, the stuff that's everywhere. It was H U G E. These new cyanobacteria (so-called because instead of being purple, they're...well...cyan) rapidly began to dominate the marine microbial ecosystem.

However, this nifty new metabolism had a little problem: the byproduct of mashing water and carbon dioxide into sugar was oxygen.

If you've ever seen that post about how "oxygen is secretly killing us", know that it's not a joke. Oxygen is so horrifically electronegative that it freely oxidizes (hence the name) just about anything with an even remotely positive charge. If you're alive, uncontrolled oxidation is very very bad. And in a geological eyeblink, global oxygen levels went from this:

To THIS:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

This may not look like much, but if you've ever spritzed a little Barkeeper's Friend into a 100-gallon fishtank by accident while cleaning up the marine biology classroom you're interning for, you know just how dangerous a little of something can be (and yes, I still feel absolutely terrible, don't @ me). It's hard to quantify because...you know...bacteria don't fossilize too good...but based on isotopic analysis of Archaean sedimentary rock and paleontological technomagic, it's estimated that the oxygenation of the atmosphere killed off some 80% of Earth's microbial biomass. It was that bad.

POV: you're in the Archaean and about to do a war crime.

Eventually , the descendants of the oxygen-tolerant microbes evolved the ability to harness oxygen's horrific destructive power to help them metabolize food more efficiently. WAY more efficiently. Instead of making sugar from water and CO2 and fermenting it to alcohol, they could use oxygen to break that sugar back down into water and CO2. That's an absolutely ridiculous amount of energy. Life on earth sped the FUCK UP. Everything started living, eating, reproducing, and dying at a more rapid pace than ever, but untold microbial biodiversity was lost forever.

If you take one thing away from this post or my Methanosarcina addition to the Lystrosaurus post, let it be this: If you're an organism on earth who enjoys being not-extinct, DON'T FUCK WITH THE ATMOSPHERE.

This will be long and personal, so you can feel free to scroll past it.

Good things of 2023:

Grandmother’s 80th birthday; we had a celebration in a restaurant with family and her friends. Almost 50 people!

Morrie’s live stream Flesh Odyssey at his birthday (4th March)

My best friend @vinidra visited in March and I remember getting wasted and listening to Black Sabbath and Def Leppard till 3am. And watching that one 1989 Aerosmith live! Wasn’t there Dir en grey stream on GALACAA? I think we got access from a friend and watched that too.

On April 1st Morrie’s fan club Reveries opened on BitFan application – with foreign fans finally being able to join. It is a pricey affair, but the consistency and amount of content he brings every single day is so worth it. I love being a Reverie and having near direct contact with Morrie and the fans. So grateful for this community.

Right after Easter, on April 12th, we got BUCK-TICK’s new album. No one would predict it would be the last release before Sakurai passing away… It’s a solid record and ワルキューレの騎行 will forever be one of my favourite songs.

April was such a good month for me – on 18th I got the news I got promoted to a team leader. So, following a big raise for 2022 performance, I got another big raise with role change. Feeling like I’m finally getting the money I deserve for my hard work. The role is difficult and very challenging, but also satisfying and I enjoy what I do. It helped me a lot with improving my communication skills, standing up for myself and feeling confident with my decisions.

End of April was my friend Karin visiting, we went to Metallica symphonic concert in philharmonic and had amazing time overall during the long May weekend.

In May I came out to my co-workers and I was met with so much support I’m still overwhelmed. Being able to feel like I can be 100% myself at work is amazing. You don’t realise you need it until you get this freedom.

May 23rd was Boris live in Warsaw. I reconnected with an old friend and had amazing time with him during the gig. The show itself was everything I ever wanted from Boris – perfectly heavy and fast. Being front row surely contributed to that. My mission was to wait for the band after the show and talk to Atsuo and I succeeded! Got a picture with the band ant all. All possible thanks to a mutual friend of the band and mine.

May 31st – Def Leppard and Motley Crue in Krakow! Again hanging out with @vinidra and his friend. The show… let’s say Motley Crue was meh, though visual and female dancers were incredible. But Def Leppard was there to save the night, it was incredible and I had so so so much fun! Can’t wait to see them again live.

In June I visited Karin in Krynica Morska. It’s a very thin piece of land with sea at one side and huge lake on the other. I loved the beach walks there and hearing the waves at night, when falling asleep.

Also in June my close friend had a major surgery. So brave of her to decide to undergo it and I’m even more happy that she’s made steady recovery, now having no regrets.

June 20th was the day Josh Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet came out! I’m always happy learning that musicians I love are just as queer as me.

And by end of June DEAD END has re-issued all four albums from 80s: DEAD LINE, Ghost Of Romance, shambara and ZERO. Got them all, in true collector spirit.

July 21st Greta Van Fleet released a new album. I wasn’t stoked about it at first but of course – the more I listened to it, the more I fell in love with it. It’s probably my favourite album of the year.

I didn’t do anything special for my birthday on August 12th, but the following week I was flying to Cologne for a week to stay with my best friend. We did a lot of furniture and home decor shopping for the new house she moved into. We went to cinema to see Metallica’s live stream, and otherwise just had good time being lazy. Oh! And I helped her pick out and buy her first guitar. Love the visit in huge 4-story music shop in Cologne.

In September I’ve volunteered to take dogs from a shelter for walks for a day. I want to do it again.

On September 27th Morrie released another solo album Solitudes I. I feel like I didn’t listen to it enough this year, but this is miles better than Ballad D to me.

October 15th was election day in Poland and this was incredible – how many people showed up. For the first time I had to stand in the queue to vote. And we won. Fascist right wing government was overthrown. I have some home things will finally get better in my country.

Fast forward to November 5th – after a lot of trouble I made it to Hamburg and met with a friend I’ve know for years, but never had a chance to see in person. Had amazing time! It’s incredible to have such dedicated Morrie fan so close and be able to talk about music for couple of hours without feeling tired.

November 6th – I also finally met my close friend, we’ve never seen each other before. She’s such a lovely human being. She introduced me to Greta Van Fleet, so it felt only right to gift her a ticket to their show. The live was amazing, the most beautiful show I’ve ever been to. I will never get over how talented those young guys are.

From Nov 7th to 11th I was staying with my friend in Bielefeld. Met her cutest Siamese cat Bibi!

And last thing worth mentioning – I got the courage to go to company winter party and I actually had fun. I don’t remember when was the last time I simply wanted to have fun and when was the last time I danced. My whole body hurt after that night, but I really loved it. Oh, and I stole the neon flamingo lamp. Worth it.

(Really long ask ahead i’m sorry!) I think your thoughts on dick and his similarities vs differences to bruce are so interesting! Personally i’m wondering how much of NTT played an influence on this kind of characterization bc i’ve never fully finished ntt but i read like nearly all the pre-80s batman 1940 issues lol and dick very much was portrayed as more idealistic than bruce in some ways while more no-nonsense (? For lack of better word) in other ways, like when it comes to batman easing up a little on selina for romance reasons LOL. Though ofc dick totally turns into - well, a dick - in team books, as i grow older i find myself far more compelled by a potential story of an 18 yr old who seemed to have the whole weight of the world on his shoulders (by his own perception) and breaking under his own impractically strong sense of duty and sky-high expectations for others, then realizing as he grows older that it doesn’t have to be that way esp after seeing the perspectives of characters like kory, wally, joey, roy, etc. Like personally as someone who never really had a huge interest in NTT anyway, i’m surprised at how desperately people want to hold on to the characterization of dick when he was 18-19 and never letting him grow past that, like it’s so difficult for me to believe that at age 25 he would be the same uptight controlling kid that he was at 19. Maybe i’m biased though bc i was like one of those insufferable INTJ internet stereotypes as a teenager, and while that worldview did bring me achievements i’m proud of like the fact that i’m in med school rn studying what i love, i still know that at age 22 i have changed SO much from when i was 18 and i can’t imagine any reasonably mature or normally-functioning person (let alone someone high-functioning like dick) not doing the same lol. Especially since dick is the kind of person who would literally die if he’s not constantly growing and evolving past his faults bc of his insufferable perfectionism, idk how he’d be willfully blind to the negative effects of his worldview in early NTT and refuse to grow from there. He even has a quote that’s like “i’ve spent years as a student of my own behavior” which i always found highly encouraging bc i know he really does want to improve himself even at his worst. It reminds me of that Marcus Aurelius quote: “if someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, i shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone; the harm is to persist in one’s own self-deception and ignorance.” But what are your thoughts? (Thank you for reading all this 🥹)

oh i absolutely agree! i cannot tell you how many times i think about the person i was a couple years ago and who i am now like i cringe so much omg.. maturity is an ever persistent process even if we don't recognize its effects immediately and it absolutely is crazy to think that anyone would remain in such a static state of mind for several years on end. esp when like you said dick is someone who wants to be better! so despite his several hypocrisies it is nonetheless in his best interests to look internally and analyze and evolve. and i feel like that very much could have happened had there been any actual segue between dick's breakup with kory and his re-entry into the batfam. i don't think there was much of a connection between these two sets of writers at all and so what you got is what felt like two very distinct parts of dick's life that didn't necessarily reveal a bridge point. so it's not entirely unrealistic that dick may grow to be the person (at least to some extent) that bat canon portrayed him to be in the years that followed but i certainly think as it stands it felt unearned and like all of his issues explored in ntt were conveniently swept to the side without any semblance of closure (albeit i do think some of these issues are addressed in outsiders '03 but in that dickheaded way that winick explores things generally. so i'm not sure it's the kind of closure people actually want). it's very sad and ig that's what people cling to more than anything. it's not that they're opposed to him growing to be a better person but that they're opposed to a version of dick who feels like he sprung out of nothing