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kyidyl · 3 years

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Kyidyl Explains Bones - Part 3

Well, I had this halfway done and then TUMBLR ATE IT, so let me start again. UGH.

(These posts are collected under the KyidylBones tag. Do with that information what you will, lol.)

So what are we getting into today? Sex determination!

Ethical Note: I’m adding this bc not everyone who sees this post saw my post yesterday and this is important info, especially on Tumblr. Anthropologists of all stripes are well aware that sex and gender are extremely complicated. Trust me, we know. But we still do sex determination for a few reasons. First, because missing persons databases are arranged on a male/female binary, and if we’re comparing a set of remains to that database to identify the remains then we need that info. Second, demographic info for populations that have disappeared is important, even if those populations are historical. This might shock you (<--sarcasm), but written records are usually either lacking or inaccurate. Third, if we know the sex of the skeleton we can compare that to the grave goods and learn some interesting cultural things, including possibly being trans, because none of the signs of being trans survive physically in the skeleton. So I am going to be using male/female binary language, but it isn’t to exclude the wide variety of sexes and genders that don’t exist on that binary, it’s because it’s what I’ve got to work with. And if you have questions about this, feel free to ask, but please be respectful.

Alright, so there are some vocab words for today’s post and I had them all nicely written out in an easy to read paragraph, but it got eaten, so I’m just gonna present them in list fashion this time:

Characteristic - All physical markers of human variation exist on a spectrum because humans are varied and we invented the categories to begin with. If something is characteristic of, say, a male? It means that it is very, very distinctly male. It matches the stereotypical expectation of what you’d see in a male. It’s a standard for an obvious example of a given thing.

Landmark - A landmark on your bones is a feature of the bones that is always in the same place. We use this to help us identify a bone and to help us know what side it is on. IE, your lesser trochanter is a bump on your femur (thigh bone) that is on the inside towards the back. It’s always in that spot, so we know which direction it should face and ergo which side it would be on. Landmarks are unique to the bone in question.

Foramen - A hole on a bone. The big one in your skull that your spinal cord goes through is the foramen magnum and it literally means big hole. But there are a lot of little ones all over your skeleton so your nerves and blood vessels can do to your skeleton what the weirwood did to Bryden Rivers. I said what I said. ;)

Bilateral - Both sides. Humans have bilateral symmetry and so one side is symmetrical (externally and WRT your skeleton, but not always your organs.) to the other. You can split us down the middle and the two sides are basically the same.

Ok, so there’s another set of terms that you need to know, but I’m going to be copying and pasting this into every post going forward so I’m making it separate. Anyone who works with any kind of anatomy uses these terms to be very specific about the location of something on the body. They are:

Anterior/Posterior - Front and back respectively. I remember them because my mom used to say posterior when she didn’t want to say butt, and because A comes before P the way front comes before back. Sometimes people say dorsal and ventral, and I remember that because a dorsal fin is on a whale’s back.

Proximal/Distal - Near and far vertically in relationship to the center of your body. I remember it because one end of the bone is in close proximity to me and the other one is distant.

Medial/Lateral - Near and far horizontally in relationship to the center of your body. I remember it because medial is closer to the middle of my body, and lateral isn’t medial. Also, if you are reading left to right L comes before M and you’d get to a lateral body part before a medial one.

So, where to begin? How do we know what sex people were assigned at birth from just their skeleton? Let’s start with what everyone is most familiar with:

The Pelvis

The pelvis of an adult human is a really common thing for an archaeologist to find. And by the time we find it, it’s usually in three pieces (excluding your tailbone aka last vertebra). Your left and right hip bones, called the innominates, and your sacrum. Mind you, the pelvis is made up of a number of bones, but they all fuse in adulthood except these three (fun fact: I’m so used to using the individual names for them that I had to *google* the word innominate.), so this is what we usually find. If it’s a kid, they still survive well because they’re thick, heavy bones, but they aren’t fused. Another fun fact, the bumps of bone that you feel under your ass are called your ischium and I’m only telling you that because I think it’s a fun word to say. Your hop bones, like the actual entirety of the flat bladed part at the top, that’s called the Illium. I like that word too. Aaanyway, here’s a human pelvis:

(Source)

These are actual bone specimens in the top down view, both are women, but they are of different ethnic origin.

(Source)

This is a cast (IE, plastic), front view of a male pelvis.

You can see those 3 pieces I’m talking about. The only joint there that remains unfused is the sacroiliac joint, IE, where the two halves of the pelvis join the sacrum. However! You sacrum is technically a series of fused vertebrae and your spinal cord runs almost all the way to the very tip. There are some conditions which cause these not to fuse, or to not fuse properly, or to not properly encase the spinal cord and it causes all KINDS of issues. But anyway, yeah, your sacrum is a really tough hunk of bone because it carries a lot of weight. The bit in the front is called the pubic symphysis and, despite what certain tumblr posts would have you believe, having children does NOT leave a notch on the inner side of it from the muscle tearing away tiny chunks of the bone. In fact, it is hotly debated whether or not pregnancy leaves behind any skeletal evidence at all.

Alright, so basically speaking, females make da babies and males don’t, so the different equipment is differently shaped......

.....wait, no, that’s not right. Let’s back up. Male and female humans are differently proportioned and their center of gravity is, on average, different. This is the whole thing about men having upper body strength and women having thighs that can crush watermelons. This is on *average* (I will be saying a lot about averages in these posts.) true. And so the physics of the forces exerted on your bones is different. Males are top-heavy, and so their pelvis is shaped in response to their gate and muscle structure because the pelvis supports and distributes the weight of your entire body. And bipedalism means that the shape of the pelvis is very, very different depending on the weight distribution. These changes to the pelvis are really obvious, which is why we can tell from just a few bones whether or not a hominin was bipedal. It changes the *entire* body.

It is true though that the pelvis of a female is different than a male, because a female pelvis has to be able to support the weight of a developing child while still allowing the individual to walk. So the interaction of average size, a uterus, and the bipedal gate means that male and female pelvises are a different shape.

Here is a comparison:

(Source)

So firstly, that angle is called the sub-public angle, and because a females pelvis is wider and flatter than a male’s (when viewed from the front) it’s wider in the front. This also gives any babies more room. Secondly, you can see the difference in the tilt of the sacrum - in the female you can’t see the tailbone. This, again, is due to the confluence of weight distribution and the necessity of passing a baby’s head through that space. It would be a lot harder to push it out if you had a tailbone in the way. Lastly, you can see that the shape of the circle when you look top down and bottom up are different - wider on the woman because of the same reasons I’ve already mentioned. There is one more major difference between the male and female pelvis, and that’s the sciatic notch:

(Source)

Characteristic of male on the left, intermediate in the middle, and female on the right (and dang, she was young, too.). Thinner is male, wider is female. Usually you can fit your thumb in a female’s notch but barely or not at all in a male. I personally find the subpubic arch and the sciatic notch the easiest to use because, fun fact #2, those 3 sections are a bitch to hold together with your hands and that makes it hard to see the other shapes. The amount of sacrums and pelvic bones I’ve accidentally dropped while trying to determine sex....it’s a lot, ok? It’s a lot. I only have two hands and pelvises are big.

There are also several less obvious ways of determining sex from a skeleton, so you guys should definitely visit the source for the above image because they go into it deeper and there are several excellent images of public bones.

So how else do we determine sex? The next easiest way is from the skull, because the features are distinct and skulls survive well.

The Skull

In my opinion the easiest landmark to use on a skull for sex determination is the jaw. There are several features of the jaw that can be used here - and, mind you, when determining sex we measure every small and large sex-linked feature according to a scale and then average it all out. We never look at any single thing (although sometimes the individual has something so characteristic that you can’t help it. The individual in my position has a brow like a neanderthal, so it was pretty obvious.). Anyway, there are several features here but the easiest is to look at the shape of the lateral distal posterior portion of the jaw. It’s called the masseteric tuberosity. Basically, it’s a little bit of bone that sticks out of the back of your jaw. It’s one of the attachment points of the masseter aka chewing muscles attach. Because males have stronger muscles pulling on that part of the jaw and exerting more force, it flares out further for them when you look at it from the front, like this:

(Source)

It’s that sticky-outy thing thing that I circled in red. Here is an example of the same thing on females:

(Source)

Female jaws are rounder, and so that bit is less defined, flares out less, and is not as sharp as it is on males. And this is a reminder that these measures aren’t absolutes - humans have a lot of variance in them. The female asian and the male on the right both have somewhat atypical structures, while the female european and the two other males have a very characteristic structure.

The two other easiest to identify are the shape of the brown line and the shape of the chin (the mental protuberance). Here is an image of the comparison:

(Source: Pinterest, but this images are from the Human Bone Manual text that I use and I used this image so I wouldn’t have to make my own. :P)

You can see in the profile that the female skull has a higher, more vertical forehead with less pronounced brow ridges. If you look, you can also see that her chin protrudes less in profile, and is softer and less pronounced in the frontal view. The angle under her teeth is less severe.

So these three things, the chin, the brow, and the jaw, are the easiest to identify the most likely to be characteristic of the sex of the individual. But, if you compare the images I’ve used here you’ll also notice that there are other differences in the skull. Females have more of a slope to the bottom of their jaw, the bump on the back of their heads (the occipital protuberance) tends to be far less pronounced; and this is the case for all muscle attachments generally speaking. On average, males are more easily able to build muscle mass and are larger, and so their muscles pull harder on their skeletons and create larger muscle attachments. The round, blunt thing to the right of the back of the jaw that sticks out from the skull (the mastoid process), is also at a different angle and is larger in males. This is another case of the muscles being bigger and stronger - the mastoid process is where several of your jaw and neck muscles attach.

There you have it, then. The easiest ways to tell the sex of a skeleton. :)

This post has been approved by Gage the science doggo:

#science #anthropology #skeletons #human remains #human skeletons #education #KyidylBones #archaeology #bioarchaeology #humans #bones #human bones

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intheseautumnhands · 2 years

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Top 5 either albums, or (if you keep them/this is applicable) things that you would love to own but will never buy because they're expensive and/or frivolous. Sorry if that's too specific lol

( ask my top 5 anything ) Nah, it works! :D top 5 albums:

So I am trying to think of albums where I love the whole album, not just love half the songs and skip half the songs, as with a lot of albums. (Even if I like the artist generally, there does tend to be favorite songs I'll go straight to and ones I'm more meh on. Like Aims by Vienna Teng -- my favorite songs on it are some of my all-time favorites, but I think I can count on one hand how many times I've heard Oh Mama No.) So none of these may necessarily contain my all-time favorite music from the artist, or have the songs I'd point to as favorites, but they're overall the ones where I will listen to, if not every song every listen, all but one or two.

Also, I decided musicals are cheating, because they're in a different category altogether. XD

- Enneagram, Sleeping at Last. This is... technically an EP, so maybe cheating, but it's longer than some of the official albums I love, so I'm gonna count it. Six of the nine songs on here were on my top 100 this year. Sleeping at Last destroys my heart and then pieces it back together with careful, loving focus and then lets me lay down with my head in their musical, metaphorical lap and strokes my hair while singing me to sleep. Space is also good for this, but every. fucking. song. on Enneagram does it at least once. Every one.

- Mischief, SJ Tucker. I tend to skip less on Sooj's albums to begin with, but I would not skip a single one on this. It's got some of her absolute best songs (seriously, Ravens in the Library, Cheshire Kitten, Love Lies, Neptune, Girl With a Lion's Tail, Witchka, To My Valentine, and D&D, all coming from the same goddamn album how the hell does she do it), it makes you cry and then laugh, it's just such a great package altogether.

- High as Hope, Florence and the Machine. I don't think there's a single song on this album that doesn't give me chills. It's just one amazing song right after the other. I've listened to it as a coherent whole less than most of these, but probably listened to each individual song more often than a lot of the others.

- Ruin, the Amazing Devil. The most recent listen, but while the other two have songs that I like but am less likely to listen to every time, I think I would listen to every single song on this one on repeat at any given time.

- Chime, Dessa. Dessa is actually one of the few artist whose first three albums all fit the criteria here, but Chime is probably one of the albums I've listened to most as an album... ever. Period. Every song is so goddamn good. Each one of the first five songs would be serious contenders for the best song I've ever heard, in particular. Shrimp is great out of context, but makes such a fun little upbeat break in the album that it's even better that way. I love this album so much.

things I'd love to own, but would never get myself because expensive/frivolous:

- you know that thing they do when they auction off props or clothing from a tv show sometimes? There are absolutely properties where I'd love to own stuff from it, but I am never gonna have that kind of money. And the clothes would never fit me, so that's just useless.

- a massage chair. Not as good as, like, a proper massage by a person, but it does help. I could not afford it, and I have nowhere to put it, so it's not going to happen, but man do I dream of it.

- signed copies of some of my favorite poetry books. There have been ones where I was tempted, but as it is I don't even buy them at full price, I wait for them to go on sale. That additional five or ten dollars isn't much, but it feels like a ridiculous amount for something that doesn't really add much altogether.

- the last two here fall under 'I'd like to hope someday I will, but realistically, no' -- really good video editing software. There's no point right now cause my computer can't run it anyway. But god do I want to try vidding again.

- similarly, a keyboard. I would love to get one and learn to play, but I haven't got a lot of space for it, I'd worry about the noise in my household, i'd probably not actually keep up with it because my motivation is low, and I just don't see it being something I'm willing to do at any point.

#memething

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purplesurveys · 3 years

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1157

survey by hxcsingingsk8r

Phone Scavenger Hunt

First off, what phone do you have? I have an iPhone 8.

And what provider do you use? It’s a local one you wouldn’t know about, called Globe.

How long have you had your current phone? I can’t remember if it would be 3 or 4 years this 2021. Either way, it’s definitely been a while and I’ve been itching to upgrade. It’s too early to make such a big purchase, though.

Do you have any cases for it? Describe them. I have a clear case that I bought last year. Before that, I had a pink Otterbox case that I managed to destroy even though Otterbox is normally known for its durability. I just have a very unique ability to wreck everything I’ve ever owned lol.

How old were you when you got your first cellphone? I was technically 6, but it was meant to be a present for my 7th birthday. We threw a birthday party a month in advance because my dad had to fly back abroad for work before my actual birthday, but we wanted him to be present at the celebration so we decided throwing a party early was the best route.

What about your first smartphone? [If the answer is different] It was an iPhone 5S.

How old are you now? Dunno what this has to do with the theme of the survey but I am now 22.

Okay, move onto the scavenger hunt part

What is your lock screen picture of? It’s of Kim Seon Ho at a restaurant, lmao.

Home screen? It’s one of the shots from a recent promotional photoshoot Hayley did for Good Dye Young.

How many pictures are thre currently on your phone? This question just made me so anxious hahaha. I have way too many photos; and upon checking, it turns out I currently have 6,266. My god do I need to clean up my camera roll this weekend.

How many videos? I have 227. I have no idea it’s gotten to be this many; I barely use my phone to take videos. I’ll go ahead and delete some of them right now, just to give my phone (and its storage) space to breathe.

What is your most recent picture of? It’s a work thing...I guess I’ll explain it so it can make more sense. So one of our clients has got this Lent campaign going on, and to spread word about it we’ve tapped a handful of food bloggers to try out the offers themselves and post about their experience on social media. Now that we’re in the middle of Holy Week they’ve gone ahead and uploaded their own posts, and I’m in charge of taking screenshots so I can show to the client that the execution had been successful.

And the most recent video? It’s a private vlog. Every Sunday, or at least every other Sunday I take a few minutes to sit down and do a weekly video thing where I talk about my ~mental~ and ~emotional~ status, and it’s basically a way to be in touch with myself and keep track of my progress. Who knows, maybe I’ll actually get to uploading them one day.

Do you have any albums? If so, of what? Yeah. I have one for Cooper, one for Kimi, and a bunch of tiny albums I’ve made where I compiled 4–5 photos of friends to post on their birthdays.

What pictures have you favorited? I have a lot of favorited photos. There’s no required category for me to label them as such.

Do you have any shared albums with friends or family or work? No. I’m not sure if I can do that, or how to do it if it is allowed.

Do you have any alarms set? For what time and for what occasions? I have a bunch of alarms but only because they’re archived into the Clock app and I just haven’t gotten around to deleting them. When I was still new at my work, I used to have alarms set for certain work tasks I have to take note of every week – but now that I’ve gotten into the groove of things, I don’t need the alarms to be reminded about them anymore.

Check your weather app, what is the weather and temperature where you live? It says ‘Mostly Clear’ and shows a temperature of 26ºC.

Do you have the YouTube app? Do you have your own channel? I do have the app and my own account, but I never use it to post videos. It’s nice to have my own channel so that my homepage can be tailored to my interests.

Do you have an email app? Which one do you use? I just have the default Email app that comes with iOS, but I never use it because it’s so wonky. It doesn’t refresh new emails and it takes forever when it does, and it doesn’t always show the full thread of email conversations. If I absolutely need to check my email for something I usually have to pull out my laptop.

Does it say that there is an update available on your phone or any apps? Yes, it reminds me everyday hahaha. I don’t update unless Apple has been planning a big revamp with new features, though; and if the updates are just to address bugs, I disregard the reminders.

Go into your contacts, how many contacts do you have total? It says I have 178.

Name all of your contacts under the letter M: Feels a tad bit invasive, so I’ll just name five people I have under M: Lui, Kim, Patrice, Danika, and Andi.

Name all of your contacts under the letter U: I don’t have anyone under U.

Do you have any contacts that are businesses rather than people? Which ones? No, I don’t really use text to contact businesses. If I wanted to inquire or order from one, I usually head to their social media page.

Go into your notes, how many notes do you have saved? This is another one I have a hoarding problem with lol. My phone says I currently have 561 notes, though I’m fairly certain the biggest chunk of it comes from minutes I’ve taken down from work meetings. It was a whole lot less when I was still in school.

What kinds of things do you save in your notes? Like I said, I use Notes for taking down minutes from meetings. There are also a few surveys on there, from times I didn’t have internet and couldn’t post them on here.

Do you have any voice memos saved? What of? Yep. Some of them were recordings I had to do for journalism classes I was assigned to do voiceovers; some are interviews, also from my journ class; and the rest are of me rambling.

Do you ever use the calculator app? Pretty frequently for work.

Do you ever use the Maps app? Not really. If I needed directions, I would check out Waze for that.

Do you have any health/fitness apps? Which ones? I still have the Nike Training app from the very brief time I wanted to start working out earlier this year.

Do you have the Instacart app? The what now? I’ve never even heard of that.

What about a delivery service like Postmates, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Doordash? I have the McDelivery app for McDonald’s, but I also have other general delivery apps like Grab, Lalamove, and Transportify.

Do you have something like Venmo, Cashapp, or Paypal? I have the Paypal app but I never use it. I also have a couple of e-wallet apps just in case I’d have to use them as a payment method, since some businesses I purchase from prefer certain ones. Ultimately, though, I use Grab’s mobile wallet the most often.

Do you use Bitmoji? I think I did before? I never used it all that regularly though. Didn’t see the point.

What other keyboards do you use besides English? Any? Filipino, Korean, and Emoji.

Which social media network apps do you have? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr, TikTok, and Snapchat. So I guess I have all the main ones?

If you have Instagram, what is your handle and how many followers? I have a very private one I only use for work. I didn’t want it to have any followers but at present there’s Angela (because she asked to follow it this week) and Bea (idk why).

What do you typically post on the various social media platforms? The only ones I regularly post on are Twitter and Facebook, and on either I share life updates (if there are any) and memes; though on Facebook I have to watch out what kind of memes I share and make sure they aren’t too offensive because I’m friends with relatives, workmates, and media on there lmao. But on Twitter, I basically have no filter.

Do you make TikTok videos? I don’t make any myself, but I do enjoy going through the app.

Do you only add people you know on Facebook? Yes, for the most part. I’ve taken to adding people as long as they’re from UP or my high school even though I’ve never met them as well, but if I sense that they only added me to try and sell me insurance OR try to get me into MLM, then it’s an instant unfriend for me.

Do you have an app that tracks Instagram followers? No, because I don’t need to track my Instagram followers. I’m off the radar as off the radar gets.

Do you have a Snapchat? Yeah, it’s still on my phone just because but I literally never touch it anymore.

Do you ever take selfies with filters? What app's filters do you use? Eh, just before. I don’t really take selfies anymore, period.

Do you use any apps like Depop or Poshmark or Etsy? No. Out of these three I’ve only ever heard of Etsy, too.

What messengers do you use to talk to people? Any besides just texting? I have Messenger to stay in touch with family and friends; Whatsapp and Viber for work; and Telegram just in case my friends want to play games.

Do you have any photo editing apps? Which ones? I have this app called Foodie that has some pretty filters. Otherwise, since I’m not on Instagram anyway I’m never on the lookout for photo editing apps; no one ever filters their photos on Facebook and Twitter lol.

Do you have any games? Which ones? I do have a ton of games on my phone. I never play any of them, but I keep them just in case I get bored enough to start revisiting them. I have word games, drinking games, games similar to Heads Up! where one person will have to guess the word on the screen while the phone is on their forehead, and gimmicky games like 1010! and Candy Crush haha.

Do you have any rideshare apps like Lyft or Uber? I have Grab, which is a rideshare, parcel delivery, food delivery, and online grocery app all in one.

Now go to the actual phone app, whose phone numbers are saved as favorites? I don’t tag any of my contacts as favorites.

Who was your most recent outgoing call to? I can’t recognize the number, so it was probably a Transportify driver that I called to give him directions to my house.

Who was your most recent incoming call from? I also can’t recognize the number, but this time he was most likely a Grab driver.

Who was your most recent missed call from? Again, can’t recognize the number HAHAA

Why did you miss that call? On purpose? Were you sleeping? Busy? My phone is on silent 24/7, so I must have missed it while I was working.

Who is your most recent voicemail from and what's it regarding? We don’t have voicemail in the Philippines.

What was the last thing you Googled or searched on your phone? Candle tunneling and how to fix it.

What music app do you use? Apple Music? Spotify? Something else? I use Spotify, but I also availed of a 3-month trial on Apple Music earlier this year just because. I think it’s supposed to end soon but I have no plans to shift.

What playlists have you made on there? I have playlists called, “robyn discovers kpop,” “winding down,” “angst,” “not my loss,” and my personal favorite, “paramore but fuck you.”

Lastly, what is the most recent song/album you've added to your collection? What Type of X - Jessi.

#survey #surveys

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noctisfishing · 3 years

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2020 Wrap-Up and 2021 Wishes

I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to do this or not, but I decided, why not? Even though this year was pretty wild for everyone in various ways, I want to celebrate my writing progress and accomplishments, and share with you what I wish for in 2021.

I’ve already posted a similar post on Reddit, although this one has a more detailed breakdown and includes my fic titles! I won’t link any of the fics mentioned, but you can visit my FFN or AO3 pages to find them. You can also click through my Welcome Post or find them all listed here (if you’re on desktop) (*every project I talk about can be found somewhere on my Tumblr :D)

Click below for some nice Fic Stats!! (mostly wordcounts and rambling!!)

Preview: I wrote a good amount of words, got some nice progress on some long fics, churned out dozens of ficlets!! Plus: What’s on my fic mind for 2021, and a short bit about other personal wins.

Before I ramble with numbers, I think we can all agree that we should say goodbye to 2020 this way:

Now, the numbers you’ll see are close approximations to how much I’ve written this year. I’m including works that I’ve published on AO3, FFN, Tumblr, and Reddit, and also works unpublished (and will post probably next year).

So, here it is:

Total Wordcount: 107,662 words!

Dang, I wrote a lot more than I thought. I think there was one year that I wrote 200,000 in a year and I’ve always set that number as my standard. But I’m still pretty happy with this year’s number! I think I’ll make 100K my “soft goal” for 2021 given how topsy-turvy life can go but it would be awesome to hit 200K again :)

And now, we break it down:

Completed Works (54,432 words)

2 Multi-Chaptered Fics (10,353 words)

Both happen to be Sorato! I posted the last chapter of The Sound of His Goodbye back in March (I started the fic late 2019), and I posted all of The Last One Wins towards the end of November. Both gave me reminders earlier and later on in the year that I can complete fics, haha! It’s possible!!! \o/

38 Ficlets/Scenes (19,667 words)

“Ficlets” don’t typically have a wordcount but are generally less than 1,000 words. I’d have to say that the impact of quitting my job, moving back home, and the pandemic brought on major changes and responsibilities that I had to adapt to. Simpler, smaller scale ideas were easier on my basket case of a mind and kept me writing, and that is most likely why for most of the year my inspiration was more drawn toward different little scenes. I got to write for and explore six new fandoms outside of Digimon which is cool!

When I say “scenes,” I mean those that either didn’t fit in the (slightly) larger works I’ve published, or those for future projects (which technically shouldn’t be counted as “complete” but I had to stick them somewhere :P).

9 One-Shots (24,412 words)

Day 6 Prompt of Takari Week just barely made it to be counted as a One-Shot, but the rest in this category are all Taiora: six for Taiora Week, as well as The Princess and the Dragon, and Colors in Distance. The Color Shot was actually sitting unfinished in my drafts for a few months so I’m glad I found the motivation to finish it before the year’s end. The other fics were inspired by prompts with deadlines - this was the first year I’ve participated and completed those and I’m happy I did them!

Works in Progress (53,230 words)

I’ve posted one new chapter each for Digital Recovery (4,770 words) and Tsukiakari (2,292 words) and I had the hope of working more on both of these this year! But you know, this year was tough (see also why I threw so many ficlets at my readers). I had three huge ongoing longfics and I made the decision to set these aside and put my main focus on one of those so as not to overwhelm myself. These fics are mostly planned out. They just need to be written more! We’ve got a long way to go with both of these.

Just One Drink (10,131 words) was.. probably my most popular fic this year, lol. I don’t see this one being too long (I would be surprised if it goes past 50K) but I see myself continue to update this next year. ;)

And let’s talk about The Spark of Dawn (DoreDore Adventure Part II) (24,316 words). This was my chosen longfic to focus on this year, as evidenced by the wordcount, and even the number of chapters I’ve posted - three with 10,659 words total. This fic also carried me through July’s Camp NaNoWriMo where I reached my word count goal of 12,000 words. I think two chapters from that event ended up being posted, and there are still 13,657 words’ worth of content yet to be published. Overall, I think half of this story has been written out (including the content I haven’t posted yet) but that being said, this fic remains as one of my priorities to finish before moving along to my other WIPs!

Here’s a list of the rest of my unpublished works:

Untitled Taiorato Fic (1,433 words)

More Taiora Snapshots (2,454 words)

The Girl Who Stands Out (7,834 words) - This one is a Mimato, and should show up really soon. ;)

2021 Wishes: My main wish is for me to *keep writing*!

I’m already making some pretty elaborate spreadsheets for myself to help track my personal writing and reader stats. Hopefully they help motivate me in my writing progress in 2021!

Toward the end of the year, I felt the need to “clear out” my plot bunnies folder and realized that fics from few ideas weren’t going to be as long as I initially thought. That’s where The Last One Wins came from, as well as The Girl Who Stands Out. I think once the latter is all written out, I will work more on DoreDore and see where it goes.

I want to tackle my “Write Your Melody” prompts, because since I’ve written them I feel obligated to. XD I’m sure there will be room for more ficlets and one-shots in next year’s endeavors; while it’s ideal to work on one big longfic until it’s done, I know for a fact that I’ll need writing breaks along the way.

Other Personal Wins (Not Writing-Related): This year, left a job and living situation that took a toll on my mental health. I also started to learn R and SQL programming languages. I was asked to be a moderator of one of my favorite communities! I made new friendships and a few of my friendships grew. And I found joy and comfort in things I hadn’t been able to in years’ past. I had a fair share of rough moments this year, but looking back at my small wins gave me reminders of the good I have. <3

If you made it to the end of this post, GO YOU. I’m optimistic that next year will bring more good things. I hope to continue remembering to take time to breathe and rest, and keep talking to my friends and loved ones. Many of my wishes are for long-term goals/projects in general, but rather than setting year-end deadlines, I want to focus on just working on them, my efforts varying between chipping away at them little by little, or hardcore-drop-everything-and-spend-the-weekend.

Anyway, thank you for reading! I wish you all the best as we head toward a new year. <3

#noct musings #end of year wrap up #2020 #noctiswriting #writing progress update

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shadowsong26fic · 3 years

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Lavinia. PLease please please Lavinia. (And also Specter and Infernalis would be cool to learn a bit about.)

Full Name: Lavinia Palpatine Gender and Sexuality: Female; bi Pronouns: She/her Ethnicity/Species: Human; white. Birthplace and Birthdate: She was born on Coruscant, and she turns twenty a week or two before the Battle of Endor. Guilty Pleasures: Probably the closest thing is her baking hobby. It’s something that’s entirely hers. Phobias: As she puts it, she does not like walking into a room unprepared/without the information she needs to navigate through it. What They Would Be Famous For: Well, I mean. She’s Palpatine’s only child. That’s famous right there. And then she earns some fame in her own right once she’s in her late teens/an Adult and starts working towards her own agenda. What They Would Get Arrested For: [redacted for spoilers] or slicing/hacking. See above re: compulsive need for information; she learned how to get into classified databases pretty early on. Her father is aware of it; it’s sort of the...this may be apocryphal, but you know how Spartan boys were punished for getting caught stealing, not for actually stealing? This is in service of what he wants from her, so as long as she does it correctly/subtly/covers her tracks, she can get away with it. But if she got caught... OC You Ship Them With: ...I don’t actually ship her with any of my OCs, I don’t think. I ship her with a couple canon characters, but. Her tastes in men tend to run to older men who are Charming and Clever/sort of sideways thinkers and maybe just a little Devious, but generally good men underneath. Her tastes in women tend to run to women around her age who have vibrant/upbeat personalities and are a bit more straightforward in their approach to problems. ...not sure I’m explaining that right, but she definitely is attracted to different things in men than women. In all cases, though, she tends to be drawn to people who are more gregarious/extraverted/etc. than she is/complement certain aspects of her personality (she uh. Overthinks things. A Lot) OC Most Likely To Murder Them: ...hm, good question. I guess I’d say Druthi/Moonshot, except she’d be more likely to try and capture Lani alive. Favorite Movie/Book Genre: She doesn’t really read a lot for pleasure, more for Research Purposes--for example, to track trends or get a handle on how someone she’s trying to observe/manipulate thinks. But I think she’d like detective novels if she did. Make a game of trying to figure it out before the detective does. Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: Twist Endings for the sake of Twist Endings/Shock Twists that serve no other purpose than to be a Shocking Twist. That whole thing about not liking to be unprepared? If you hold back information to feel Clever that’s Cheating and Very Annoying and she Does Not Approve. Talents and/or Powers: She’s got a pretty good memory, and is very good at reading people and tailoring her approach to them based on what she observes and what she wants from them (at least, when it’s for Work, so to speak; she’s kind of terrible at people/making friends on her own). Also, she is a Force-adept, of course, though her training has been very carefully managed--she has not been taught to use a lightsaber and her telekinesis is minimal. In general, she tends to rely on more passive/observational abilities, supplemented by mundane manipulation and the occasional mind trick, rather than a lot of Active Force Use. I mentioned this in my last answer, about Padawan Reshti, but I have this general Concept about how a particular Force-adept’s abilities skew, with things generally grouped into three categories: manipulation/perception of space and/or the physical world; perception and/or manipulation of the minds and/or emotions of other beings; and perception and/or manipulation of time. Every Force-adept has at least some ability in all three categories, but most skew towards one or the other. By both training and inclination, Lani is heavily skewed towards minds/emotions; something like 10/80/10 or 15/75/10. Why Someone Might Love Them: Because she has a strong sense of Duty and is trying to survive in a pretty awful situation without losing all her mental autonomy and, for lack of a better word, humanity. Why Someone Might Hate Them: Again with the self-indulgent OCs, lol. Plus, she occupies a pretty central place in the story/as one of Luke’s closest friends in Precipice, and...well, we’ll see how people respond once her focus and priorities start to expand beyond her father and his expectations of her. How They Change: Without getting too spoilery...well, that sense of Duty I mentioned relates to the fact that she knows full well she was created to be a valuable tool in service of the government/galaxy/Empire. As she gets older and her priorities begin to expand as I mentioned in the last answer, her perspective on what that means starts to shift. Why You Love Them: Because she fits into A Lot of archetypes I love, lol. This kind of driven-by-duty, especially coupled with Politics and Spycraft as opposed to the more Action Girl type thing.

(ETA: I just remembered that a while ago--like...almost two years ago, lol--I filled out another meme about Lani. There are sort of...sideways/oblique/technical spoilers in that and it also talks about a bunch of AUs/spinoffs, but if you want more detailed information about her then you can check it out. ...and now I should probably stop editing this post for Clarification/additional details that you may not even see because it’s been...several hours since I first posted it...)

And a cointoss gave you Specter! So let’s talk about him.

Full Name: Darth Specter; I actually haven’t come up with his name prior to being recruited by Palpatine <.< Gender and Sexuality: Male; I honestly haven’t really thought much about him in a romantic/sexual relationship context? He strikes me as a disaster bi though. Pronouns: He/him. Ethnicity/Species: Togruta Birthplace and Birthdate: He grew up in either the Coruscant underbelly or a very similar slum district on another heavily urbanized planet. He was most likely born there. He’s about sixteen when Palpatine brings him in not long after RotS. Guilty Pleasures: He chooses not to feel guilty about his pleasures, lol. But, given his background and where he ended up, it’s probably something like candy/pastries--sweet food with an element of Luxury. Phobias: Not measuring up. What They Would Be Famous For: Being a Sith Lord/assassin. What They Would Get Arrested For: Theft and likely assault before being recruited; murder after. ...and probably also theft. OC You Ship Them With: None. OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Ooooh, good question. I mean, like...there are Many people who would probably murder him if they got the chance. But then there’s also a question of murder vs. death in combat, so...yeah, I’m not totally sure. Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Action movies. He’s kind of a cliche that way, lol. Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: ...you know, I don’t actually think he has one? But probably villains Wasting Time Monologuing. Talents and/or Powers: Stealth, theft, Violence. He skews slightly towards Physical on the scale I mentioned above, something along the lines of 50/35/15. Why Someone Might Love Them: He’s set up as a parallel to that particular blend of arrogance and low-self-esteem/Need for Validation that Anakin has, which can be either endearing or extremely frustrating. Why Someone Might Hate Them: See above XD How They Change: He...doesn’t really, sadly. He never gets a chance to grow out of this teenage intensity. :( He probably would’ve mellowed out some as he grew older, if he hadn’t died when he did. Why You Love Them: Because he is a clingy needy stabby Disaster with this earnest intensity and, like, I find it endearing, lol.

Ask me about my OCs!

#asked #answered #disneydreamlights #shadowsong writes star wars

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runawaykotaro · 5 years

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do you have any gintama fanfic recommendations?

Yeah I do!! A lot actually because when i first got into gintama i literally went through all of ao3 and read every story i thought was interesting

so here they are, broken up by category:

Gen:

Pandemonium by Xparrot: THE gintama fic rec. it’s a bit dated since it was written a full like, three years before the shogun assassination arc, so Takasugi’s characterization in particular is like. off. But the story still holds up AMAZINGLY. It’s got yorozuya feels, great writing, and a structure that reads like an easily believable serious gintama arc. (Actually, writing this makes me want to go back and reread it)

Withholding Care by Izanyas: This one….. I LOVED. IT’S GREAT. It’s got a great vibe. It’s in character and beautifully written with great banter and really striking character interactions. There’s implied Takagin, but I’m putting it in the gen category since you don’t have to read it that way if you want to.

Absence by Dearfriendicanfly: REALLY COOL character introspection piece. I love the insight that it gives into the way that Shoyou and Gintoki play off each other. It really speaks to gintama’s themes

Volcanolanche by naye: With the vacation arc crew minus the shogun and plus kyuubei back together, this is another one that reads like an actual gintama arc, complete with a fitting gintama arc ending. It’s got a lot of good funny moments as well as some more harrowing moments. I like this author’s take on the characters too.

Antigravity by UnidentifiedPie: SO. Neat. A really cool AU that features the joui war taking an alternative course; the earth was destroyed during the joui war, and the story follows a much younger Gintoki after he picks up an also-much-younger Kagura. It’s great- there are so many yorozuya family feels (Shinpachi shows up too) and Otose also plays a big role (always a plus) The latest chapter ended on a cliffhanger though so watch out for that.

Rainy Days are Best Spent at Home by UnidentifiedPie: AGAIN, yorozuya family feels. Just the best.

Shippy:

Whatever a sun will always sing by Eddiac: Takazura, Ginzura. Great, melancholy prose. This fic is a huge inspiration to me. The progression is poetic, the feelings are vivid, and the author is great at choosing which things to say outright and which things to leave implied.

Creature Comforts by Mangemouth: Ginzura, Stray Cats arc aftermath. this one is SO fucking funny to me. Like, ‘quote it to myself in my head when i’m walking to class and start laughing out loud’ funny. It’s got a great casual dynamic between Gintoki and Zura- and in the technical respect, I love how the author uses Otose’s perspective at the end.

The Most Important Things are Sometimes the Stupidest by Dearfriendicanfly: Konhiji. SUPER great character analysis that takes into account all of the absolute best parts of Hijikata and Kondo’s relationship.

It’s Polite To Bring KFC as an Apology for Trying to Kill Your Hosts on Christmas by Dearfriendicanfly: Takagin. I don’t think i can quite describe my feelings about this fic in words, especially not after 703. it’s just [incomprehensible groaning] I love this fic. It’s so. Heartwarming. It’s got a perfect aura of quiet hope. read this and pretend that this happened instead of 703.

Don’t judge a book by its cover by Lucienna: TsukkiSacchi, Ginzura. Sarutobi’s pov narration was so good, and it’s a two for two for my favorite gintama pairings. Definitely invokes the laugh rule too.

A good ending by Corvidity: Ginzura. This is everything i’ve ever wanted. The yorozuya + zura feelings are strong, and I LOVE zura’s characterization so much. It hits even harder because it feels like something that could happen after canon NOW. (I just reread this as i was typing up the recommendation and now i’m crying please read this)

Yorozuya got run over by a reindeer by Guycecil: Ginzura. More Yorozuya + Zura feelings, because I absolutely know what I’m about. This is such a fun seasonal piece it makes me wish that it was Christmas.

Rated M:

Fight on a Monday, Cry on a Tuesday, Throw Up on a Wednesday, but Always Laugh on Saturday and Sunday by Mangemouth: Ginzura. Would I even be a ginzura stan if i didn’t put Fight on a Monday in my recommendations? I’m not going to lie, the first couple of times I tried to read it I didn’t get past the ‘Gin-chan you brought me a mommy!’- calling zura the yorozuya mom is a pet peeve of mine, lol. But I’m so glad that I actually gave this a chance. The banter was AMAZING, the narration is HILARIOUS, and the PROSE. Oh my god. This is one of those fics that I go back to every couple of months just to reread.

Don’t ask questions if you’re not prepared for the answers by Deargodwhatisthatthing: Takazura. ALKSJDFLKSDJLFKJ THIS CRACKS ME UP EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I READ IT. The only really explicit part is at the beginning, after that it’s mostly just dirty jokes. But I swear to god it is one of the funniest fics I’ve ever read.

Authors:

All of these people are already featured on this post but I want to give blanket recommendations, so if you’re looking for more, you should check out these people:

Corvidity, Dearfriendicanfly, Mangemouth, Unidentifiedpie, Eddiac

So this is by no means an exhaustive list of all of the fics that I’ve read and enjoyed but I’m pretty sure I covered most of my favorites!! Hope this helps

#new years cards #fic #i literally could not tag all of the characters even if i wanted to #Oh a general disclaimer though: A lot of these i read when i was 16 and just got into Gintama so that carries related risks

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shortqueershakespeare · 4 years

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ALL QUESTIONS!! ALLLLL (except the one you said you were uncomfy answering ofc)

welcome to my daily essay procrastination (dw it is getting done I've just written like 1000 words and I need a break from literature type writing lol)

1: Full name - Robin, not sharing the rest (like I said)

2: Age - 21

3: 3 Fears - Abandonment, clowns, sleep paralysis

4: 3 things I love - Theatre, languages, my puppy

5: 4 turns on - Being dominated, lip biting, gentle physical contact, increasing physical contact

6: 4 turns off - I genuinely don't know rn can u tell its been a while since I got laid lol, so I guess, being a dick, using certain terms for body parts,

7: My best friend - Char is prob my best friend!! we currently communicate exclusively through animal crossing post lol

8: Sexual orientation - Right this is somewhat challenging still but I'm gonna go gay

9: My best first date - Would you believe I've only really been on two? I can't remember the first one v well but I'd be inclined to say that because all that first love shit was great

10: How tall am I - 5' 3" i think??

11: What do I miss - uni

12: What time were I born - I actually don't know exactly but it was definitely the afternoon

13: Favourite color - Baby blue

14: Do I have a crush - Yup

15: Favourite quote - "The universe is seeming really huge right now. I need something to hold on to."

16: Favourite place - I've got a few, a corner in the orchard at Hom, the nook under my window in my room, the bench up on the hill where I walk the dog

17: Favourite food - Stir fry

18: Do I use sarcasm - I think I was fluent in sarcasm before I was in English tbh

19: What am I listening to right now - Right technically I cheated bc I just skipped a couple songs, but Bad Habit by Ben Platt and the puppy's snores

20: First thing I notice in new person - Smile or voice

21: Shoe size - 4 i think

22: Eye color - blue

23: Hair color - a literal rainbow

24: Favourite style of clothing - uhhh does generally gay count??

25: Ever done a prank call? - nope

27: Meaning behind my URL - one of my friends once called me the shakespeare of nicknames as my other friend called my such a slytherin so i mashed them up

28: Favourite movie - Moana atm, non animated either Let It Snow or Pitch Perfect

29: Favourite song - Obv this changes a lot but the last few days, Wonderland by Taylor Swift

30: Favourite band - Stornoway

31: How I feel right now - Too damn warm and a lil sleepy

32: Someone I love - my sister

33: My current relationship status - furiously single

34: My relationship with my parents - good

35: Favourite holiday - when my friend and i went to austria at the end of year 13

36: Tattoos and piercing i have - zero

37: Tattoos and piercing i want - I want a few transition tattoos, a dodie lyric, something in russian, something watercolour

38: The reason I joined Tumblr - Originally because it was 2013 and my friends and I were v much the typical tumblr demographic, this one to vent feelings about some shitty situations

39: Do I and my last ex hate each other? - Pretty sure they both hate me, I don't hate them, but I hate how things worked out

40: Do I ever get “good morning” or “good night ” texts? - Sometimes yeah

41: Have I ever kissed the last person you texted? - Nope

42: When did I last hold hands? - Probably when I last went clubbing?

43: How long does it take me to get ready in the morning? - Depends, I have to put T on, once i'm actually out of bed probably 15 minutes

44: Have You shaved your legs in the past three days? - nope

45: Where am I right now? - on my sofa in my kitchen

46: If I were drunk & can’t stand, who’s taking care of me? - depends where i am, home city it'd be katherine, clubbing in cam, jules probably or char, drinking just in cam, umme or porters

47: Do I like my music loud or at a reasonable level? - reasonable

48: Do I live with my Mom and Dad? - usually mostly with mum, currently exclusively with dad because quarantine

49: Am I excited for anything? - getting this damn essay done and sleeping

50: Do I have someone of the opposite sex I can tell everything to? - yep

51: How often do I wear a fake smile? - not that often i don't think, but i am very good at hiding my emotions if i decide to

52: When was the last time I hugged someone? - like 6 hours ago?

53: What if the last person I kissed was kissing someone else right in front of me? - not at all unexpected tbh

54: Is there anyone I trust even though I should not? - not at the moment, i think i've managed to stop trusting the person who would've fit this category

55: What is something I disliked about today? - my sister got super stressed and cried and i just wanted to make everything okay

56: If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? - ben platt

57: What do I think about most? - rn animal crossing or work

58: What’s my strangest talent? - i don't think i have one

59: Do I have any strange phobias? - nope

60: Do I prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? - both, i love taking photos and i love having photos of me at important times

61: What was the last lie I told? - god probably something dumb like no i absolutely did not just steal your cup of tea

62: Do I prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? video chatting

63: Do I believe in ghosts? How about aliens? - no, yes

64: Do I believe in magic? - no

65: Do I believe in luck? - yes

66: What’s the weather like right now? - decent I think?? it's like 2 am so idk

67: What was the last book I’ve read? - What Is to Be Done? by Chernyshevsky

68: Do I like the smell of gasoline? - Fuck no

69: Do I have any nicknames? - Bob, Bobbin, Robs, Rob, Stink, Little'un

70: What was the worst injury I’ve ever had? - that would probably be me getting a fish hook stuck in my thumb lollll

71: Do I spend money or save it? - both

72: Can I touch my nose with a tongue? - the fact that this said a tongue and not my tongue is... unsettling.. but yes

73: Is there anything pink in 10 feet from me? - yes

74: Favourite animal? - elephant

75: What was I doing last night at 12 AM? - writing the essay lol

76: What do I think is Satan’s last name is? - morningstar i watch too much lucifer lol

77: What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it? - rain by ben platt

78: How can you win my heart? - hug me when i'm sad, send me things that make you think of me

79: What would I want to be written on my tombstone? - he was there for me

80: What is my favorite word? - mousse

81: My top 5 blogs on tumblr - okay so i have five blogs and am so tempted to just list those but sewing-and-showtunes, aeternumregina, oneoveroneisone, ballym, xx-thedarklord-xx

82: If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say? - STAY THE FUCK INDOORS

83: Do I have any relatives in jail? - no

84: I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power? - shapeshifting

85: What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on? - do i like myself

86: What is my current desktop picture? - hamilton and laurens lol 8

7: Had sex? - yes

88: Bought condoms? - yes

89: Gotten pregnant? - no

90: Failed a class? - yes

91: Kissed a boy? - yes

92: Kissed a girl? - yes

93: Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain? - yes

94: Had job? - yes

95: Left the house without my wallet? - yes

96: Bullied someone on the internet? - no

97: Had sex in public? - yes

98: Played on a sports team? - yes

99: Smoked weed? - yes

100: Did drugs? - no

101: Smoked cigarettes? - yes

102: Drank alcohol? - yes

103: Am I a vegetarian/vegan? - no

104: Been overweight? - no

105: Been underweight? - no

106: Been to a wedding? - no

107: Been on the computer for 5 hours straight? - yes

108: Watched TV for 5 hours straight? - yes

109: Been outside my home country? - yes

110: Gotten my heart broken? - yes

111: Been to a professional sports game? - no

112: Broken a bone? - no

113: Cut myself? - yes

114: Been to prom? - no

115: Been in airplane? - yes

116: Fly by helicopter? - no

117: What concerts have I been to? - dodie, stornoway, show of hands

118: Had a crush on someone of the same sex? - yes

119: Learned another language? - yes

120: Wore make up? - yes

121: Lost my virginity before I was 18? - yes

122: Had oral sex? - yes

123: Dyed my hair? - yes

124: Voted in a presidential election? - i'm british

125: Rode in an ambulance? - yes

126: Had a surgery? - not unless my fish hook extraction counts

127: Met someone famous? - yes

128: Stalked someone on a social network? - yes

129: Peed outside? - yes

130: Been fishing? - FISH HOOK YES I HAVE I NEVER WILL AGAIN

131: Helped with charity? - yes

132: Been rejected by a crush? - yes

133: Broken a mirror? - no

134: What do I want for birthday? - a boyfriend lol, or tbh for quarantine to be over

135: How many kids do I want and what will be their names? - oh lord who knows, i like the name scottie and archie for girls

136: Was I named after anyone? - my middle name is after my gran

137: Do I like my handwriting? - ehhhh

138: What was my favourite toy as a child? - my teddy bear

139: Favourite Tv Show? - Crazy Ex Girlfriend

140: Where do I want to live when older? - Berlin, Cambridge or London

141: Play any musical instrument? - used to play the violin v poorly

142: One of my scars, how did I get it? - fish hook or pets

143: Favourite pizza topping? - pepperoni

144: Am I afraid of the dark? - no

145: Am I afraid of heights? - sort of

146: Have I ever got caught sneaking out or doing anything bad? - don't think so

147: Have I ever tried my hardest and then gotten disappointed in the end? - yes

148: What I’m really bad at - currently? being motivated

149: What my greatest achievements are - getting into my uni, finally finding an antidepressant that works, coming out

150: The meanest thing somebody has ever said to me - oh yikes it's way too late at night to open that can of worms

151: What I’d do if I won in a lottery - pay for my damn top surgery

152: What do I like about myself - I'm empathetic

153: My closest Tumblr friend - @oneoveroneisone

154: Something I fantasise about - going to pride abroad

155: Any question you’d like? - I'm gonna pass this to the anons, ask me questions?

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evilisk-played · 4 years

Text

Labyrinthine December Part Final: Stat the Leftovers

...I just noticed that I added way too much TP to Okuu. Oops lol

Anyway, it’s time to finally address the last three postgame characters. In terms of LoT’s maingame, I’ve just been bumbling about and making huge mistakes like “buffing MND for my DEF tanks”, “buffing MAG for MND tanks like Iku”, “buffing both stats for composite attackers like Cirno” and other goofs.

For the postgame, there’s a statting guide I’ve been relying on for from MotK. It has been very, very good, since it has turned Mystia into a dungeon sweeping goddess and in the few cases I’ve not followed it (like Kanako having a MAG / HP spread of bonuses), it hasn’t turned out well.

= = =

Okuu:

This one’s a no brainer, Okuu needs MAG boosts. Okuu is no tank: I think a tank can have *only* one bad affinity, maybe two. Okuu has *three* bad affinities, however, and top it off, her attacks actually weaken herself (Chen style), and she offers no support so yeah, her defensive stats are not getting the bonuses. As for offensive stats: Okuu only uses MAG.

I suppose you could make an argument for upping SPD, but I’m not about to make that one now. So we’re settling with MAG. And now, without further ado

Final Stats:

HP: 50k. This is not great. Her contemporaries in this category are... Chen, Orin, Sanae and Tenshi. Her contemporaries in the general character type of “tanky MND attacker” (which includes Eirin, Alice and Mokou) all have much, much higher health than her.

MAG: 74k currently. I think, pre-bonuses, her stat was like 40k, so this is a huge bump. Except for Marisa who is sitting at sub-90k (with extra skillpoints put into MAG), this puts her above MAG leaders such as Kaguya (69k), Alice (67k), Patchy (65k) and Kanako (64k).

DEF and MND: These sit at 25k and 26k respectively. It is fully worth noting that in relation to other tanky MND attackers, this is right around Mokou’s level (except that Mokou has shitty defenses so this is really not good). For comparison, Alice sits around 26k for DEF... but has 43k for MND. This stat is inflated by my main-game statting though. Eirin is at a firm, balanced 39k / 38k spread, but I’ve specifically been cultivating that balanced spread.

SPD: 1044 SPD ain’t bad. It definitely means she’s not slow, though with the exception of Suwako, she’s in the SPD class you typically see a lot of hardier characters in.

Overall Impressions: I don’t really know about her as an addition. My biggest issue is that there’s no shortage of MYS attackers (Marisa, Yuuka, Rumia, Reisen) or FIR attackers (Yuugi, Mokou, Alice, Orin). She’s not even the only FIR and MYS attacker, as Flandre exists, though she is infinitely safer to use than Flandre is. I also feel there’s a good chance I don’t end up using her since we’re at the endgame and I’d rather stick to the characters I know.

Thankfully, a New Game+ does exist for Labyrinth of Touhou 1 so I might get more use out of her there.

= = =

Keine:

Looking at her raw stats and abilities;

Keine has good HP growth, followed by okay SP, ATK and DEF growth. MND and SPD aren't bad choices. She doesn't use EVA or MAG but they're bad choices anyway.

Keine has two ATK spells and three buffing spells. Her ATK spells operate like Alice, in that her first spell targets DEF while her second spell targets MND. Her three buffs cover ATK, MAG and DEF. It's worth noting that Keine doesn't benefit from MAG, and Keine also can't cover MND, her defensive weak spot.

The play notes on the Wiki mention that she's got good HP growth, good affinities and her offensive buffs are pretty unique. Off the top of my head, this seems about right: Reisen, Maribel, Okuu and Chen can only buff themselves, Sanae and Iku can only buff one at a time, and Ran's buff is very slow. She’s only “competing” with Ran in this space, and Ran is used more for back row buffing, not front row.

I’ll admit that the offensive buffs are very, very appealing to me. While her ability to target DEF and MND with non-elemental spells are certainly interesting, I’d probably need to invest into her ATK stat for it to do good damage. And since I always, always, always put priority on survivability for my buffers, all I can say is...

Welcome to the party, DEF-build Keine! I look forward to utilizing your buffs.

Final Stats

HP: 73k. They weren’t kidding about her HP growth. 70k is about where all my good supports sit (Yukari, Ran) and it’s just below HP growth powerhouses like Meiling, Yuugi, Sakuya and Remilia. Though technically not as impressive as the tanks, considering her upcoming stats, her HP is actually quite good. She’s certainly not going down without a good hit.

DEF: 48k. Make way for a new Queen in the DEF category. With bonuses, her DEF got bumped from 29k to 48k. Like I mentioned before, her HP might not be so great, but her DEF puts most other tanks to shame. It’s well above Sakuya (40k), slightly above Remilia (46k) and just below Meiling (50k). She’s far below Yuugi but Yuugi cracks under certain magical, elemental attacks. She’s got a similar MND weakpoint, but between the better SPD and affinities, she’s never as vulnerable as Yuugi can be in certain situations.

SPD: 1070 SPD. Again, not slow, but not particularly fast. Also again: much better than Yuugi’s SPD.

Overall Impressions: It’s a bummer that we’ve been fighting a streak of MND targeting bosses, because Keine seems like she’d be useful in plenty of other fights. I’ll try to fit her into my party when I return to this game, though like with Okuu, I’ll get more time to experiment in NG+ next time

= = =

Yuuka

Yuuka seems like she can be built as an attacker or as a tank with support. In terms of raw stats, her current maxed stats would be:

HP: 59k SP: 1100 ATK: 24k DEF: 32k MAG: 47k MND: 23k SPD: 837 Her affinities are solid, except for NTR (which is good) and FIR (which is bad)

In terms of raw stats, she’s pretty similar off to Kanako. Their SP’s and SPD are quite similar. While Kanako has a more even spread of DEF and MND, Yuuka’s is skewed towards DEF. I can’t compare MAG or HP since both have been manipulated for Kanako, though I know Yuuka has better, natural HP.

In terms of abilities, Yuuka has a concentration of NTR spells with one big MYS spell (which is her own version of Master Spark that is weaker, but targets groups). Her first spell is just a short delay attack spell, while her second and third spells are group spells with healing and rebuffing properties.

Yuuka has a short delay attack spell. It's not much though

Her second spell is a MAG-based attack spell that also happens to heal the entire party... this is amazing on first glance, until I realize it’s a percentage based heal (a la Eirin).

Her third spell is another attack spell that heals stat debuffs (but only by half). Gonna be real though

Her final spell is Master Spark. It's slightly weaker, but it also hits groups of enemies.

...It’s kind of hard to pinpoint what Yuuka’s specialty is. Having an extra Master Spark around is great, but idk, that feels kind of like overkill. Her support abilities are definitely a bit underwhelming; 10% of all HP is nothing. And I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again; enemy debuffs have never been particularly intimidating to me, so a skill that halves them doesn’t seem great.

If I had to pinpoint anything unique about her, it’s the fact that she’s a NTR specialist. NTR is the second most underrepresented affinity. Your NTR characters are just Wriggle (a PSN attacker), Minoriko (a MND tank and healer), Suwako (a glass cannon) and Tenshi (a balanced tank) and of the group, only Suwako could be described as a dedicated attacker.

Yuuka can at least work as a secondary NTR attacker with more reliable group attacking spells. I’m not sure if any of the upcoming bosses will be weak to NTR but I do know a bunch of bosses in the maingame that she’d be clutch to have (cough Eientei cough). And I think that without affinities, she’s a tank with minimal support a la Yuugi (Flower Shot is fast, and group healing and rebuffing is probably useful SOMEWHERE).

...Man, this still hasn’t helped me decide where her points should go into. Time to test some things... If I put all 310 bonus stats into each stat, here is what I roughly get...

PURE DEF BUILD: With all her bonuses put into DEF, Yuuka’s DEF stat reaches 51k. This puts her at higher than everyone but Yuugi, though her HP stat is far less impressive overall. I’m not sure I like this tbh.

SPLIT HP / DEF BUILD: With a 155 balance of HP and DEF, you get 72k HP and 41k DEF. This spread isn’t much better. A close comparison here is Sakuya, who has 40k DEF, consistently good affinities and SPD and... way more HP than Yuuka. I’m not sure I like this.

PURE MAG BUILD: With all her bonuses into MAG, she’s basically at Okuu levels of MAG which is impressive. Except for in the SPD category, she’s hardier than Okuu overall.

...Screw it, I’m gonna go with Yuuka being Master Spark 2.0. This is endgame anyway, I’ll have all of NG+ (when I unlock it) to give “Yuuka the NTR Tank” a fair shake. Here’s how she looks (with her stats boosted to Marisa levels)

And for comparison, here is what Marisa’s MAG stat is like

Hmm. I guess Yuuka’s MAG growth just ain’t as good as Marisa (I actually split Marisa’s bonuses into MAG / SP during the main game, so the fact that Yuuka isn’t even *close* with a pure MAG build is really telling).

But whatever, I’ll have the two Master Sparks, with the large fries and drink

...And with that Labyrinthine December is officially done!

I’ll probably clean up the remainder of the game at some point next year (I’ll post about it when I do, of course). Not sure whether I’ll be doing a Labyrinth of Touhou 1, New Game+ run or a ‘blind’ Labyrinth of Touhou 2 run next December, but I’m looking forward to continuing this series of games!

#labyrinthine december #labyrinth of touhou

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painted-starlight · 7 years

Text

Why does Mother Gothel Want to Stay Young?

Warning: Super Long Post and some swearing

An in depth analysis why Mother Gothel’s motivation to stay young doesn’t make any sense.

No seriously why does Mother Gothel want to stay young forever?

Vanity as a flaw is an old stereotype to pit young women against older women. But this sole motivation doesn’t really hold up when we compare her to other Disney Villains. The reason I say this is because there is a certain level of complexity that villains in Disney hold. Little things like character quirks, their occupation, their background, their ethnicity can give the audience subtle clues about why they at the way they do.

For example, villains with a deep and shallow level of complexity would have to fulfill certain qualifications (note: I got a lot of helpful information on creating villains from Letterpile.com’s “Three Steps to Creating a Complex Villain”. I suggest you take a look, since I got a lot of my information on how Disney Villains are formed from this piece.):

1) What does the audience know about them from what is shown? Their environment, their disposition, interactions with the hero, etc. Things we can see, and are shown.

2) What is implied by the story about who they were before the events of the movie? Basically what’s not shown but what can be reasonably assumed by the audience. (Off screen mentions don’t count because film is a visual medium and what a villain does must be shown to audience in order to establish them as a threat.)

3) Are their motivations understandable? Not an excuse mind you, and sometimes they aren’t relate-able (which is fine depending on their level of complexity. Not all villains have to have full backstories). But do their struggles parallel the hero in some way?

An effective Disney villain doesn’t always follow these rules or answer these questions since so many are different. But here are a few:

Dr. Facilier from the “Princess and the Frog”

Complex/Sympathetic Human Villain

We don’t know that much about Dr. Facilier, but what the audience is shown let’s fill in the clues. He is most likely had struggles financially, and is a victim of the racist system of Jim Crow. He had a mother, so there is a familial aspect to his life.

Dr. Facilier is an understandable villain, because he has been denied the opportunity to prosper while the white upper class that practiced slavery lives in mansions. This is one of the most sympathetic villains Disney has created, and his struggles parallel Tiana’s since they both are black people living in a racist system.

That doesn’t mean he isn’t a villain, but the small moment of sheer hopelessness he has in the beginning (during “Down in New Orleans” ) while watching the descendant of slave owner ride around in a car make him a complex villain.

Scar from the “Lion King”

Complex/Unsympathetic Non-Human Villain

Scar is a complex villain in the Lion King, but he’s not sympathetic. He is resentful of his position as the beta-male. He is smarmy, manipulative, and petulant. What we are shown is the level of his hatred of Mufasa leads him to murder his brother. It is Shakespearean, and his hostile takeover of the Pride Lands is driven by his selfishness. The failure of his reign is due to a lack of foresight and planning. Once he got what he wanted, he was a pretty shitty king.

Scar is an effective villain because of his environment, his character quirks, and sarcasm make him memorable. He is antisocial and is shown lounging around alone while the celebration of his nephews birth takes place. His character animation is distinctive, and shows the audience his personality.

There are supplementary books that shine a light on his past, but since most people have seen the first film we can’t really count that.

Maleficent

Simple/Effective Humanoid Villain

Maleficent is not complex. She doesn’t need to be because her character’s actions are consistent with the rules of the world she lives in. She wasn’t invited to a party so she cursed the host’s baby. Because she is a faerie, she doesn’t abide by certain human etiquette (or at least she doesn’t use etiquette when dealing with people who don’t take the time to use it for her).

The rules are different. She’s not like Scar from the Lion King who is aware of certain rules and technically a part of the social structure. The Lion pride has a hierarchy of their own and a society with different nuances. While he is a social climber, Maleficent is a wild card that can come in at any moment and tear up the place.

If she were human and had these powers, the audience would probably wonder what her deal is, but since she acts more like a force of nature and a Western audience is used to tales of gods and supernatural creatures with strange morals, it makes sense. Considering how the other three faeries are more or less clueless about how real humans act, this idea is consistent and not necessarily speculative to assume that that is just how faeries act.

So where does Mother Gothel fit into this?

She’s not complex, but she’s a human character that requires a reason for her to act the way she does. Her just being controlling, manipulative and occaisionally falsely charming has nothing to do with who she is because those are things that any villain can do. Who is Mother Gothel? Why does she do the things she do?

Does she fear death?

Not really.

The film tries to tie in beauty with life and old age with imminent death in a really strange way. Just because you’re old doesn’t mean that as soon as you turn sixty that death is coming for you. Just because you’re young doesn’t mean that it’s going to be your best years.

How does her being young translate into a fear of death exactly?

It doesn’t make any sense from we know (very very little) of Gothel’s backstory. No subtle hints of backstory, no references to past marriages, partners, children, or even something she might have done that could raise an eyebrow. What does she even DO while Rapunzel is in the tower?

We have no idea where she goes, what she does, why she needs to be young to do it, etc.

During Mother Knows Best, she references some things like the plague, but the rest is just shit she made up and few disappearing acts. How does this factor into her character exactly? Was she a magician or a performer at some point?

The reason why I ask is because if it’s true, what does that have to do with her staying young forever or a fear of death? It could be that she was performer and her acts rely on her being immortal or looking a certain way, but that makes no sense because everyone and their grandma apparently knows about a magic flower that makes people stay young forever and they made a big deal out of it. And she seems reaaaaly secretive. Like she doesn’t want anyone to know who she is.

But what does she do when Rapunzel is in the tower???

Apparently she just walks around doing nothing. Like, what’s the point of her being young at all? If she were hiding from the palace guards that’s fine but why was she so obsessed with being young BEFORE the king and queen took the flower?

If she were really afraid of dying she would be obsessed with not getting sick, or being injured.She can’t be afraid of dying or getting seriously hurt since she scales a friggin tower every three days from a fall that could KILL her.

The only thing that she seems to love is beauty and youth. But why? There’s no actual reason given. There’s no hint of sibling rivalry, or showing her being self conscious in front of other women because there are barely any other women in this movie.

The only woman/girl she even talks to is Rapunzel. And that’s not a good frame of reference because she actively manipulates her and has complete and total control over her/her environment. She has full control and it’s all an act.

When she’s technically “out of control” of Rapunzel, she still doesn’t seem to talk from experience. She is literally a caricature at points, mostly there to oppose Rapunzel and be the “Older Woman” who jealous of Rapunzel’s beauty.

She isn’t paralleled with Rapunzel properly either. Usually a villain should be more than just a physical opposite to the hero. Her character arc should want the same thing as Rapunzel, and she does for a small part. They both want control of Rapunzel and her choices.

But other than that, it kind of falls flat. Flynn/Eugene drives Rapunzel’s story and he pretty much becomes the center of her universe other than the floating lanterns. Mother Gothel internally has almost nothing for the audience to hold onto. She has no understandable motivations (no matter how twisted a villains motivation is, the audience needs to know what IT IS), and she parallel’s Rapunzel in the most basic, shallow way. Physically. And that’s not enough for a human character.

So what T*ngled is trying to say is this is guess:

Mother Gothel wants to stay young because all women want to be youthful for no real reason. Just cause! When your young you stay young forever and never get old or injured. If you’re an older woman, you aren’t pretty anymore and you might as well be dust in the wind. (Unless of course you’re a white disney princess or her youthful looking mother lol)

???????

Mother Gothel from T*angled

Mother Gothel is Simple/Unrelatable in the Disney Villain category. She’s basically on par with Clayton from Tarzan. Very one note, and there for opposition, a caricature.

Simple in terms of characterization and the barrier between her as a villain and the audience.

Unrelatable because of the missing elements of shown or implied backstory. Not enough information other than surface traits given to the audience.

#long post #disney #tangled crit #animation #anti tangled

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propshophannah · 7 years

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Part 1: So I'm reading the mixed race/mixed ethnicity threads and I couldn't help but relate a lot to the struggles. I'm half Mexican half Asian (I'm saying Asian here instead of a country because at least I know what to label it under these ridiculous categories) but I really hate it when I have to mark down what I am even though I'm not sure what the Mexican "race" is? Like, I know I'm biracial but is the other non-Asian part white? (Cuz I do not look white at all, and neither does

Part 2: the Mexican half of my family) but Hispanic is technically considered white? The worst part is when the dumb boxes say like “African, non-Hispanic” “Asian, non-Hispanic” “Hispanic” but no single box to choose for me (Asian-Hispanic) Like, race and ethnicity are not excludable?! At least I’m seeing more opportunities to check more boxes but still sorta confused and stuff…

—

So Hispanic is a loaded term, and it’s used in so many different ways, to mean and designate so many different things.

And here is where this gets complicated: In the U.S., Hispanic and Latino are an ethnicity and not a race. (But racially, the U.S. says we can racially identify as whatever the heck we want! Keep reading.)

And some would argue that there are decent reasons for that. Reasons such as there are many different races that fit within that designation. And there are some that argue that not having adequate space (a label) for people to racially identify as hispanic or latino is an erasure of them and their existence.

Several civil rights groups have spoken out about this because it is so problematic. For people on all sides of the argument. Because Spanish/European colonists came, they commit systematic genocide of three entire native nations (and irrevocably changed the rest), they enslaved them, bred them (with whomever they wanted), raped them, worked them to death, imposed their culture and the Spanish language on them etc.

So now Latin America is very very very mixed. Therefore the U.S. Census Bureau defines “Hispanic” as:

“People who identify with the terms “Hispanic” or “Latino” are those who classify themselves in one of the specific Hispanic or Latino categories listed on the decennial census questionnaire and various Census Bureau survey questionnaires – “Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano” or ”Puerto Rican” or “Cuban” – as well as those who indicate that they are “another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin.“ Origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person’s ancestors before their arrival in the United States. People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be of any race.”

Yes, you read that correctly. We can be of any race. Not to dumb this argument down, or sound like a complete asshole, but the U.S. government is basically saying that South American history is so complicated, they they don’t want to deal with picking it apart to decide who gets a racial designation. “Let them be whoever they want to be because it’s in their bloodline somewhere.” Which is a gross dumbing down of what Census Bureau means….but it’s not completely incorrect either.

The U.S. Census Bureau also says:

“The racial categories included in the census questionnaire generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country and not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically.”

Pause here because race doesn’t exist in an empirical, measurable sense, right? Any college professor/educated person will tell you that. BUT the effects of race are very very VERY measurable. Therefore race exists in a real, tangible way.

Last thought, if we could get an anthropological definition of racial categories, it would 100% be the only one worth using because it would take into account all the nuance.

Moving on!

“In addition, it is recognized that the categories of the race item include racial and national origin or sociocultural groups. People may choose to report more than one race to indicate their racial mixture, such as “American Indian” and “White.” People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be of any race.

OMB requires five minimum categories: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.”

“White – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.”

Bet you (and probably Trump) didn’t know that about people from the Middle East!

“Black or African American – A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.

American Indian or Alaska Native – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.

Asian – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.”

“… An individual’s response to the race question is based upon self-identification. The Census Bureau does not tell individuals which boxes to mark or what heritage to write in. For the first time in Census 2000, individuals were presented with the option to self-identify with more than one race and this continued with the 2010 Census. People who identify with more than one race may choose to provide multiple races in response to the race question. For example, if a respondent identifies as "Asian” and “White,” they may respond to the question on race by checking the appropriate boxes that describe their racial identities and/or writing in these identities on the spaces provided.”

I feel like so much of my identity can be summed up as “In the space provided.” LOL

This doesn’t help right? Because PLENTY of us racially identify as Latino or Hispanic. But if that’s not on the list, I can’t choose it. ALSO, they pretty much told everyone not on the list that they can identify however the heck they want. Because they decided to ignore a huge chunk of the world. (And there are absolutely political reasons for why so much of planet Earth is left off the Census/fails to exist to the U.S. government.)

So the point to this, is that you, my friend, are not the only confused one. And as far as I’m concerned the U.S. government gave us all permission to racially identify however the hell we want. Go forth a be…white, or black, or Asian, or whatever side of the bed you work up on. But yes, this is fucked up, and confusing, and it’s just one more way that people who are not black and not white have been kept from the conversation on race and racism…because how can we say you’re being racist, if we, ourselves, were never afforded a race?

#mixed race #latin america #US Census #In the space provided

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whattoputonyourface · 7 years

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Makeup Brushes: Sorry, You Need Them

I hate makeup brushes. They all seem more expensive than they should be and they're the least fun beauty item to buy. Buying brushes in sephora or the drugstore beauty aisle feels like going to the grocery store and only buying cutlery. It's so boring! Let me eat with my hands!! Unfortunately, like cutlery, using them is sort of a necessary part of being considered fuckable by polite society. Sorry, I don't make the rules.

The good news is, the average person wearing the average amount of makeup doesn't need that many brushes. I always disregard the descriptions of what they're supposed to be used for when I'm brush shopping. They always say every single one of them is for a really specific purpose to trick you into thinking you need 9000 different ones. To continue the food metaphors, buying a million brushes that each do one specific thing is like filling your kitchen with novelty waffle irons when you don't even have a refrigerator (can you tell I'm hungry?).

you don't need this.

There are two basic types of brushes: synthetic fiber and natural fiber. Synthetic fiber brushes don't absorb product, so they're perfect for cream and liquid products. Natural fiber brushes are pretty much just for powder. You can use a synthetic brush for powder, too, but don't use a natural brush for cream or your application will be patchy and your brush will be fucked up, since some of the product will get absorbed into the hair. You don't need both types of brushes for all of the categories I'm going to list, just think about which types of products you tend to use where. For example, I mostly use creams and liquids on my face, so most of my face brushes are synthetic, but my eye brushes are mostly natural since most of my eyeshadow is powder.

Anyway, here's what you need:

Eye brushes

#1. A dense brush to lay down color

any of these will work. don't think too hard.

The more densely packed the bristles of a brush, the more product it's going to pick up. You want something pretty dense and pretty small to place your eyeshadow exactly where you want it to go. Don't think too hard about it - just get something that puts a reasonable amount of eyeshadow on your face. This is one of the main areas the beauty industry likes to bleed us dry. There are literally dozens of brush shapes that all do exactly the same thing. I think it's a conspiracy to keep women poor. I am the Alex Jones of eyeshadow brushes.

#2: A loose, tapered brush to blend

this one is from sephora. I own it. It was 10 dollars. It's fine!

This is what you use to blend out the color you just put down. You want it to be tapered so it will fit nicely and precisely in your eyelid crease or in the outer corner of your eye to soften harsh lines. This brush is also useful for applying powder to small areas of the face, which I'll talk about below.

#3: A small, angled eyeliner/eyebrow brush (buy two if you don't want to wash it every time you put on makeup)

you could also get one this size that goes straight across, but I think the angled one is more versatile because you can use it if you get ambitious and decide to try to do a winged eyeliner (lol good luck)

You use this one to apply, smooth out, or smudge powder or cream eyeliner (or eyeshadow you're pretending is eyeliner, because you're a grown, independent woman who doesn't need to buy eyeliner just because the patriarchy and the teenage ulta employee wearing a cut crease at 10am say you should). I also use one of these to fill in my eyebrows. It's annoying to use the same brush for both because halfway through your makeup application you have to wash it, so I bought two. They go on sale at sephora for 5 bucks pretty often. The main thing to look for is that it's super thin. The thinner it is, the more control you have over where your eyeliner goes (even though no one except God can truly have control over where eyeliner goes. Sometimes it goes everywhere no matter what, and that's when you know you have fallen from His favor.)

And that's pretty much it for eyes! You can certainly buy more - tiny pinpoint brushes for detail work (if you get inspired by that ulta employee's cut crease, for example), angled fluffy brushes to distribute color progressively while blending etc, but there's really no need unless you want to.

Face Brushes #1. A Beauty Blender (not technically a brush, but way better than a brush)

fuck these fucking things.

Oh my God. I'm so mad about these stupid fucking things. I'm their slave. There really is nothing that works as well as a beauty blender to blend cream or liquid products, and they're 20 fucking dollars and only last three months. It's such a racket. I assume the beauty blender people own the only Pink Sponge mine in the world or something, because every other sponge kind of sucks. Sometimes when I'm poor I use this Real Techniques sponge that's like, 1/3rd the price but really only works about 1/2 as well. Anyway, you use this by getting it soaked with water, wringing it out, and then using it to blend liquids and creams with a patting motion. I basically punch myself in the face with it because I'm so mad about spending 20 dollars on a fucking sponge every time I use it. I will never be free from its tyranny. It's really good though. Sorry.

#2. A small multitasking blender brush

so boring. That's why it's good. Not too dense or too loose, not too big or too small. I use a brush like this to apply powder to concentrated areas, ie to apply powder blush, contour, or bronzer, or to put translucent powder under my eyes. If you need to put powder in an even smaller area, just use the loose tapered brush I talked about before (I also use that one for highlighting my cheekbones and doing a nose contour if I'm going full hoebag). If you need to put powder on a bigger area or blend something out more, you need...

#3. A big fluffy powder brush

This is the truth Big Powder doesn't want you to know This is what you use if you want a light application of powder all over the place, ie when using a setting/finishing powder. Get a medium sized one so you can use it just on your T zone if you want, and so you can use it to finish blending blush or (in particular) bronzer.

Again, there's a bunch of other stuff you can get if you want. Fan brushes are cool for putting on highlighter and contour. kabuki brushes are good if you use powder foundation. But this really should cover it.

How Gross Can I Let Them Get?

If you're just using them on yourself, are good about only appying makeup to clean skin, and aren't having breakouts, you can let them get pretty gross. I don't clean my brushes that much. When I do, I usually use shampoo, and then use conditioner on my natural hair brushes. I basically only ever wash my brushes when I've embarked on some doomed crusade for self improvement - they get washed on Day 1 of the juice cleanse, basically. I do wash my beauty blender every time I use it though, and I make sure to air dry it in open air, otherwise it can get moldy.

A neat trick I learned from some tween on youtube for getting color off an eyeshadow brush: buy a hair donut, and wipe the brush on it to get all the color off before dipping into your next eyeshadow. I'd never even heard of a "hair donut" until tweens, but they have much to teach us.

How much money do I have to spend on them?

The nicer the brush, the more easily you'll be able to apply your products, and the less time you'll have to spend blending. However, you can get cheap ones that work just fine with a little elbow grease. The e.l.f. pro line (the ones in the black packaging, skip the white ones) is cheap and you can buy it everywhere. Real Techniques and It Cosmetics are also good for the money, as is the sephora house brand (most of my brushes are from there). If you can afford it, buy your brushes one at a time rather than in a value set or kit. Sets are almost always lower quality than single brushes. Also, don't let youtube fool you - Morphe is a waste of money. They're just private labeled Crown brushes from China. You could spend several hundred dollars on beautiful handmade Japanese brushes from chikuhodo or hakuhodo if you want to, but please get me one for teaching you all of this if you do!

#makeup #makeup brushes #makeup 101 #beauty advice #makeup advice #e.l.f.#beauty blender #sephora #chikuhodo #hakuhodo #real techniques #it cosmetics #morphe #crown brush #how to know you've fallen out of God's favor

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imnoexpertblog · 5 years

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Look Good, Feel Good

5/9/18

It would make perfect sense that as I am writing the Health and Beauty blog I am CRAVING EVERYTHING BAD FOR ME EVER. I’m usually craving-free unless it’s shark week. But I currently could go for all the fast food, all the chocolate, all the fried stuff. Hopefully writing this will pull me out of that state. I have a long list of things to cover in this category and it’s so hard to only pick a few to start with! Interesting stuff coming for sure.

Ever heard of Olly? The vitamins? Well if you haven’t, you’re missing out. After a little bit of time on third shift, my body started to reject sleeping during the day. It was weird because it was going fine initially, then not so much after a little while. Now it really just depends on the day or how much noise is being made near/in my apartment building. Anyway, falling asleep has never been my problem. It’s staying asleep that I just can’t seem to master most days. I started researching vitamins and supplements that might help me, but also isn’t entirely melatonin. If you take too much of it, your body can potentially stop making it on its own and that just sounds scary to me. I came across Olly Restful Sleep gummies. I looked on the Olly website, Amazon, and on Target and the reviews were mostly 4 stars and 5 stars. People were claiming it cured their insomnia after years of searching for a fix. I saw that people were a fan of it helping you fall asleep as well as stay asleep, which was my whole goal. The taste reviews were also positive! They are a “blackberry zen” flavor. I was thinking this stuff might be gold in the form of a purple gummy. These gummies are also a mixture of melatonin (for the healthy sleep-cycle), L-theanine (to encourage calmness), and botanicals (to soothe and relax). I liked everything I was reading so I ordered them for $11.99 on Amazon. I figured if they don’t work, I didn’t break the bank over it. I looked at other vitamins they offer and I also bought the Vitamin D gummies. I thought if I sleep all day and the sun goes down soon after I wake up, there is no way I am getting enough sunlight. I was also sold on them as soon as I saw that they were lemon flavored. I am obsessed with lemon. So, I bought both and continued to look at all the Olly vitamins. I eventually added Flawless Complexion and Undeniable Beauty to my cart on a regular basis. Flawless Complexion has kept my face very clear since having quit tanning. They are flavored “berry fresh” and consist of vitamin A and E antioxidants (to support clear skin), zinc and selenium minerals (for new skin regeneration and cell detox), and a bunch of botanicals for odetoxification). Undeniable Beauty is flavored “grapefruit glam” and consists of biotin (for growth of hair, skin and nails), vitamin C (for collagen production), and borage oil (for naturally occurring GLA). I like these 4 and can see results, so I will keep at it. I take the vitamin D every day. I take the sleep gummies at the beginning of my work week when it is most difficult to get back to day-sleeping (after having slept through the night with Baby over the weekend). I rotate the other two every other day to avoid overkill and gutrot. I have tried the Goodbye Stress ones as well as the Vibrant Skin, too. I cut the Vibrant Skin because I disliked the texture and I already take 2 vitamins for my skin. The Goodbye Stress vitamins didn’t seem to do anything for me. Reviews claim otherwise for some, which is great for them, but I didn’t see a difference myself. There are more for energy, probiotics, digestion, daily vitamins, etc. Olly also carries smoothie/shake mixes and now granola bars! I’m excited to try more of their products.

Keep Calm and Detox. I was feeling puffy after drinking one weekend (I was probably just dramatic, it was the first time I drank two nights in a row and I fully regretted that. If you know me, you know that I rarely drink) so I went searching for a detox tea. I wanted to make sure I was getting something legitimate and something reviewed well. These detox teas can be scams, part of fad diets, have the wrong ingredients, or can possibly just not work. Being on a budget, Zero Tea 14 Day Detox Tea caught my attention being only $15 for a 14 day package. The reviews were promising (4.5 stars for almost 900 reviews). It has organic rooibos, cinnamon, green tea, nutmeg, cloves, red peppercorn, orange peels, and cornflower. Most importantly (to me) it does not have any laxatives in it, natural or otherwise. It claimed to boost your metabolism and energy, promote proper digestion, reduce bloating and inflammation, and to detoxify of course. Plus, everyone was raving about the taste. Taste is a big thing for me because I am really not much of a tea drinker. I think it tastes dirty most of the time. Pushing that fact aside, I trusted what these people were saying and I ordered it. I started it the day after it arrived, steeping the bag in 8 oz. of water for 5 minutes and drinking it upon waking up (it also recommends drinking 8 oz. of water before the tea, as well). I really was okay with how it tasted! It was kind of cider-ish and also citrus-y. Technical terms, LOL. I lost 2.4 pounds in those 14 days and I truly felt it did what it claimed to. I felt great the whole two weeks, was less puffy, even had great skin the whole time, lost those couple pounds, had energy, and it curbed my appetite and cravings. I got a little coupon inside the bag stating that if I gave them a review, I would get a free bag! Baby and I are going to split it and both do 7 days with our free bag. I’m excited!

I have never been one to spend a lot of money on much of anything, but make-up especially. I was at Wal-Mart with Baby a couple weeks ago and we passed an end-cap with boxes full of make-up. They all were under $10, worth much more, and had about five items in each! You can bet I was immediately interested. Budget friendly make-up? Uh, yes please. I have a recent obsession with highlight so the Walmart Beauty Favorites Box: Glow For It was all I could look at. It comes with Covergirl Vitalist Healthy Glow Highlighter, Found Coconut Sheet Mask, Milani Make it Dewy Setting Spray, Hard Candy Rose Gold Highlighter, and Wet N Wild MegaGlo Highlighting Powder. Maybe it’s a little overboard to use the three highlighters and the setting spray all together but I do. Every. Day. They also have Time For Eyes and Latest in Lips for the Beauty Boxes. There are three Hair Favorites Boxes as well; Refresh Renew Extend, Love My Curls, and Naturally Inspired. I am very close to buying the Naturally Inspired Hair Box. Give these cheap boxes a look!

Okay. My struggle this week (and/or this past.. few months). I am back to the gym. Reluctantly. Again. I was going regularly in February and I was really proud of myself! Then I got deathly ill and didn’t go for about a week. That is understandable. But that is what did it for me, getting sick knocked me right off saddle. My main motivator now is that Baby and I get discounts on our memberships at Western Racquet if we go a certain amount of times each month. Otherwise, it’s not cheap. I always heard good things about that place but always knew how expensive it was. I wasn’t interested in spending more than $20 a month, which was what I paid at Planet Fitness. Baby’s friend gave him a two-week trial at Western and he LOVED IT. He knew he was going to sign up right away. He then had me do a two-week trial. It’s very nice in there, don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t hooked though until I used the steam room and showers. HOLY MOLY. I never showered at Planet Fitness when I worked out there. There was nothing special about the showers or locker room there and I usually prefer to shower at home. But. Steaming changed the game for me. I had no idea how great it feels or how amazing it would be for my skin. The showers have hair/body soap dispensers and they even have little changing sections in each of them! Western provides towels, Q-tips, tampons, cotton balls, lotion, mouthwash, hair driers, SO MUCH STUFF. I don’t use the sauna but they have one of those too! I think having all of that is definitely worth the membership. Text WRFC to 95577 for a free two-week trial if you live in the area! Back to my struggle though, I really don’t feel like working out lately. My body just doesn’t want to sleep through the day these past couple weeks and I’m not sure what to do about it. Lacking the energy I would have if I slept enough is holding me back for sure. I’m just going to keep pushing myself to get to the gym, taking my Olly sleep gummies, forcing myself back to sleep every time I wake up, and look into ‘sleepy’ teas to potentially knock me out. If you have any tips, let me know! I already have black-out curtains and sleep with an eye-mask. Ya girl is TIRED.

I hope you survive Hump Day! I look forward to our next requested blog; anxiety in relationships. I’m off to sleep soon, wish me luck!

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nchyinotes · 6 years

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Blockchain and the Law Workshop @ UCL

April 26 2018

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/events/2018/apr/blockchain-and-law?mc_cid=d361c2bb54&mc_eid=f20555d56f

“The workshop deals with emergent economic, political and legal phenomena in the field of FinTech. It pursues two distinct goals. First, it intends to generate awareness and facilitate a better understanding of the actors, phenomena and dynamics of the new financial order. Second, it explores the political and legal implications of financial and technological innovation based on blockchain technology. These debates will constitute the basis of an edited volume that introduces practitioners and researchers to the regulatory and political challenges of blockchain technologies and its diverse uses.”

Thoughts: To be honest, I found this quite dry. Even though I knew the layout of this event, I still think I expected this to be more of a lecture style and cohesive delivery of material that everyone agreed on, which obviously is never what panel events are like. But I still found that the content was very scattered, information was repeated, and some of the information seemed quite generic. I was definitely not impressed with the speaker that spent most of her presentation talking about AI and its implications - just seemed like she recycled an old presentation and somehow thought it would fit into a workshop specifically about blockchain?? Though I did learn overall, it just wasn’t very consistent or necessarily what I thought I’d get out of this session. Some things I found especially helpful: the three token types explained (by multiple different people haha), the comparison between token launches and other types of funding, and Prof. Ioannis Lianos’s insights on regulatory challenges.

NOTES

Panel 1: Fintech and Blockchain: State of play of the industry

Julian Leitloff, Co-founder & CEO of Fractal Blockchain

Deutsch bank background

Equity crowdfunding

Similar

investors are young and male

Interests of people investing have similar interests: product driven (i need to use this), return driven (privacy), cause driven (i care so much about data privacy)

Similar funding dynamics: Most of the funds are allocated right at the start - people make up their minds before the actual launch

Inherently different

International

More like a currency valuation - the token value does not depend on revenues, isn’t the same as just equity. → tokens not dependent on revenues but on usage (return token ←→ utility token)

Open and transparent way to fundraise for open source projects - token launches

Building this international community is really hard to do - actual international capital market

166 nationals involved

Components of a token launch

Florian Glatz, President of the German blockchain association (Bundesblock)

Thomas Bertani, CEO of Oraclize and EIDOO

Leading data delivery (connection between blockchain applications + any other context)

99% of the market cause started early

Eg. decentralised insurance (delay / smart contracts?), gambling games (implementing lotteries), exchange scalability

HMRC policy paper - vat exemption?

FCA sandbox program

Sterling-backed ERC20 token - allowed to issue sterling pound tokens on the public chain in a regulated manner (using digital identity cards to send payments would facilitate the KYC process on both business and usersides: onboarding of new users into blockchain space). Simple P2P payments without intermediaries.

technical complexities

Uncertainty around value of the coin

Switzerland is moving really fast, and encouraging new startups. Guidelines from FINMA (for financial licenses)

Exchanges: centralised / decentralised

Change one crypto to another, huge implications in regulation because operator in one case is actually holding on to the money VS exchange operator is just facilitating transfer + has no way to steal money or instruct money to move in a way not approved

Wallets: custodial/non custodial → implications

Still not defined

Custodial: If you are a provider of a wallet, and you are custodial provider (can prevent user to spend independently money), you will need a license for KYC

Non custodial: Technical service (can just download and run software themselves) → technically impossible to do KYC

ICO/tokens: classification of tokens, requirements

Robert Kilian, General Counsel, N26

Traditional fintech / fintech bank - 850/900k customers, v small bank, but have to report to 20 regulatory authorities on a daily basis

What’s especially interesting is solutions around digital identity services & Regulatory reporting (there’s a whole world to discover), beyond payments

Every authority has working groups + understands the business models

2 main hurdles

Blockchain based payments (cryptos + settlement systems/target 2) are not very widely accepted on european market, problem in every B2C business

Tech capacities & solutions are all very early stage, need to step up in regards with bringing specialised blockchain fintechs with other banks/fintechs. How you can put them into other solutions/technologies

Ben Whitby, Director of Compliance, TokenCard

Was at HSBC

Prepaid card platform built on ethereum to realise/extract value of ethereum/TLC?? token into Fiat, enabling that through mastercard and other issuers

Built on decentralised - you are holding those assets and they’re under your control (vs custodian wallet or bank, where custodian holds those assets)

SSL technology is driving public/private key infrastructure

Transactions you operate on an ethereum network can be seen by anybody, except your name isn’t associated with it (its your wallet’s address)

People can send you information/tokens if they have your wallet’s address, you can’t stop that. Operators can’t stop it either. [ie. terrorist sending them in]

Need some mechanism of sanctions

Data that is provided to blockchain is open + transparent

Lots of talk about scanning your documents (raw files) on to the blockchain for a digital identity: problem, because once your identity info is on blockchain, even though its encrypted, encryption deteriorates over time + as computer gets more sophisticated. I wouldn’t put anything on it that you ultimately wouldn’t mind being made public.

Youport, sovereign, UN’s 2020 -- will all push forward digital identities, in 2-3 years will probably have to use them

DLT vs public chains

DLT: Reduce operational cost, T+10 seconds. Barriers to entry here are v v significant, good for existing players

Public: support entrepreneurial activity. Enter into an ecosystem and grow your chain

Tokens: evolution of where we are in society, fractional capabilities are game changing, and transacting at near 0 costs, with massively increased trust because you know assets are going to go from point a-b

V important to determine difference between utility and payment tokens

Shouldn’t regulate tokens with yesterday’s regulations

Structure it properly and not hamper the innovation

Personally doesnt use internet banking lol

Sending photos on email/internet is horrible

Risk cannot be delegated - due diligence is important

Panel

Startups are working on quantam computing resistant encryption

People will eventually move to decentralised, non custodial solution

Hackable point is overdone - because systems develop overtime. You never store data on the blockchain, only metadata (??).

Blockhchain is the only proof you have of the timestamp? can’t remove it

Blockchain is the only censorship resistant mechanism that exists today - internet is censored by the government

Liquid assets - can easily sell, more appealing to investors

ICO vs equity funding

ICO: upsides - international market, easy access. Downsides - Technical capacity (wallet, install this, get to know this to the customers, which is a huge process), security

Panel 2: Blockchain and Fintech: Emerging legal issues

Victoria Birch, Partner, Norton Rose Fullbright

For AI to be accepted in any given market, it needs to be perceived by participants in the market as meeting minimum ethical/legal standards

Why are ethical values important?

Humans make decisions against a background of implicit societal ethical norms

AI is capable of autonomous decision making

AI is trained on past data and live operational date and takes on societal norms

Liability, reputation

Eg. HR decisions

Legal risks: supply chain impact, civil liabilities, consumer impact, contractual implications, criminal liability, regulatory breach, human rights/reputation, data privacy, etc

Smart contracts and stuff

Michael McKee, Partner, DLA Piper

European banking authority has defined virtual currency (digital representation used as a means of exchange and can be transferred/stored/traded electronically, not issued by a public authority, not necessarily attached to a fiat currency) - doesn’t have a backer and is decentralised, often are cryptographically secured

3 different categories - not necessarily legal

Payment (ie. bitcoin) - do not entail any claims on their issuers.

Are they money?

Problem with terminology

Store of value - Don’t function well as store of value, lots of volatility

Means of payment - not widely accepted

Unit of account - no

Utility - designed to give their holders access to blockchain powered services/platform, don’t generally create an issue for financial services regulators

Asset - attract most attention from regulators, usually associated with ICOs, that represent debt/equity claim. Offer some interest in profitability of the project - v similar to traditional securities.

Regulatory rationales?

Lots of abusive behaviour has been associated with eg. ICOs

Capacity to manipulate the market, ponzi schemes

ML and terrorism

Retail investors ?

Reducing transaction costs

Risk to global financial system

Forms of regulation

Top down - how people expect

Bottom up - typically industry led

Businesses policing risk - not so much regulation but business decisions by big players in payments world (lloyds bank)

Recent legal and regulatory developments

Supranational level: financial stability board (to G20), european commission action plan, IMF

US is ahead of the game:

CFTC dived in early (regarded as a commodity from a securities perspective, and a property from tax POV)

token issuers and exchanges are “money transmitters” (register and comply with AML/KYC)

FCC has taken very tough stance on ICO - if its an ICO its regarded as a security

Case by case approach (v british), more nuanced in different ICOs (utility vs those that have a more security slant)

Tax: not subject to VAT, but yes to income/corporate gains tax

Germany - the opposite approach to US/UK (capital gains don’t apply, VAT does apply, because they are treated as means of payment)

EU: 4th money laundering directive includes electronic stuff

China takes hostile approach, cracked down on crypto exchanges, banned ICOs

Russia not so hostile, but has a draft bill on digital assets that states that digital financial assets aren’t legal means of payment

Challenges

Protecting retail investors

Internationally harmonised rules?

Whether integration or isolation in cryptos from traditional financial systems

Energy consumption - does this one huge downside outweigh all the rest?

Dr. Philipp Hacker, Humboldt University Berlin

Crypto securities regulation: ICOs under EU financial law

5B (ICO) vs 200M (VC) - blockchain fundraising in 2017

What you want is to avoid a US class action lawsuit (Tezos ICO - securities class action. Personally liable). 7 ICOs are facing this.

EU doesn’t have class action laws

3 archetypes of tokens:

Currency - not securities (exception of “instruments of payment), possibly subject to payment services regulation (PSD2)

investment (assets) - eg. DAO. prospectus regulation, free put option, crypto bank run

Utility - eg. filecoin, comparable to shares in companies (or securitised debt?). Disclosure duties and withdrawal rights, free put option, cryptobank run.

Negotiability (+)

Voting rights (+/-)

Future cash flow / dividends (-)

Possible appreciation in value (+)

Is this enough? 1 / 2 revenues. Two possibilities and zero case law:

1. Enough if expectations of profit raised by promotional materials

2. Generally not enough → financial risks stem from product functionality risks, better addressed by consumer law. Exception if AIV clearly dominates consumptive aspects.

Generally not securities → advantage for ICO system in EU

Recommendations:

Internal: Safe harbour for tokens - disclosure requirements

External: international convention

Dr. Deni Mantzari, University of Reading

Dr Anna Donovan, UCL Laws

Panel

Corporate governance - deep governance issues in open source/DLT communities

Light touch approach, compliant ?? regime

Algorithmic fairness paper

Singapore is the blockchain disneyland

Courts role (vs regulation) in liability - US/singapore

AI liability - victorian cases about when your horse loses control lol

EU courts probably going to get involved, and they’re quite experienced in dealing with technological change

Growing role for expert witnesses with tech background

Common law places them well in responding sensibly with traditional principles that have manifested themselves in new ??

Panel 3: Fintech, Blockchain and the Law: Regulatory Challenges

Dr Matteo Aquilina, Financial Conduct Authority

Talking about blockchain: 1. cryptos, 2. DLT in general

Consumer protection, market integrity, competition in interest of consumers

Cooperates with financial stability part (bank of england) [FB/PC]

Money has 3 core functions

Roughly 60% of BTC transactions are for illegal (years ago, when it was more niche)

ICOs vs standard capital raising - information asymmetry + uncertainty (company is so young) are extreme

Advantages: Improving organisational resilience, improve transparency, efficiency / removing intermediaries / saving costs in existing services

DLT as a game changer not in reforming old services, but eliminating/creating a completely new service

FCA as a whole is a believer in this technology, but we shouldn’t underestimate the risks (esp in consumer protection area + competition in future)

Regulatory sandbox

Dr. Tomaso Aste, Chair, UCL Center of Blockchain Technology (CBT)

Blockchain for regulation

Transactions are verified by a large community, community verification is hard to tamper, verified recorded immutable history of fair play reduces reputation?? → trust

A coordination technology that can create efficient marketplaces from illiquid environments that are not naturally connected and trustworthy

Use cases - Maison Project

Enabling real time regulatory reporting

Enabling a mortgage switching service

Limitations

Basic motor of blockchain is consensus - super inefficient

Consensus requires community validation

Information must be accessible to all network participants

In most cases, this is not affordable - Conflicts with proprietary rights on data, privacy, security

Reliable time stamping?

Research is needed

Prof. Ioannis Lianos, UCL Faculty of Laws

2 main views of regulation

Public interest - who are we protecting? Investors, consumers, etc

Private interest - new competitors to the market?

2 main issues:

1) What is a regulatory problem to be solved? Market failure

Privacy as a theoretical issue - as the equality parameter of competition (after microsoft linkedin merger)

But blockchain doesn’t bring up risk for privacy issues in comparison to digital platforms

Competition authorities often focus on horizontal - potential entrants + substitutes

But also suppliers and buyers are part of this thing

^ looking at porters 5 forces

Competition authorities duty to protect and promote competition and innovation

What about fairness?

Architectural advantage of various companies being able to influence ecosystem (incl. regulators) in a way that is in favour of their own interest. Narratives out there serve particular actors.

Blockchain → bottlenecks? (network effects/externalities)

Ethereum as indisputable platform of choice for tokens

Mining - highly concentrated, 5 operators control 85% of hash power

GDPR’s right to be forgotten vs blockchain immutability

Adaptive algorithms? Harder to deal with learning algorithms

Schumpeterian approaches ←→ imperfect competition

Permissionless innovation - experimentalism - principle of precaution

Currently missing from regulator’s approach: lots of interaction/collab with firms, but not much public consultation (for other stakeholders POV, like consumers)

Self regulation of industry - probably in the form of rating agencies

2) Different tools that regulators have at their disposal

Robert Kilian, General Counsel, N26

Prof. Iris Chiu, UCL Laws

Ben Whitby, Director of Compliance, TokenCard

Panel

EU financial law is heavily based on model of centralised systems (commercial registers)

See what other technologies we have that are decentralised (eg. cloud) - pretty much the same problems (IT, DP, financial regulation)

Public consultation is key, esp in financial regulation / new tech / entrepreneurship

Public chains are the ones that are going to enable innovation, DLT is great for incumbents to strip out costs n such

Crypto assets are borderless in nature, so needs more international coordination

Pittsburgh g20 OTT space - clear guideline

Utility + currency tokens don’t act like securities, consumer law is probably better

Primary (great ambiguity in asset tokens - should be regulated, not be treated like a financial offering) + secondary market (what sort of trading markets are we promoting and whether that is in line with what consumers want) dimension of ICOs

Regulators do engage with public - publishing many discussion papers

Blockchain will enable a much more competitive enviro

Competition authority should promote more Interoperability standards (open banking), more transparency in the market might encourage collusion?

1844 railways act

Regulators get blamed whether they regulate or not

V wait and see - probably foreclosure of one of the big platforms not giving access to a competitor

Functionally equivalent in law

#law #tech #blockchain #UCL #2018 #london #event

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