Just finished my first spooky cross stitch of the season. It honestly wasn't so hard on the eyes until the last two colors, and then... ouch.

The (free!) pattern is Lost, based on a design by BlindCherub.

how to keep following people when a major social platform implodes

(...and you don't want to join 20 new websites)

First, get an RSS reader*-- here are some free options:

Desktop: Feedbro (browser extension), Fraidycat** (browser extension/web), Thunderbird, Dreamwidth (web)

Android: Feeder

iOS/Mac: NetNewsWire

You'll be able to make a custom feed to follow blogs, webcomics, social media feeds, podcasts, news, and other stuff on the web all in one place. To follow something, find its "feed URL"-- often marked by an icon that looks like this ↓-- and paste it into your reader of choice as a new feed.

Some feed URLs for social media/other sites:

Tumblr: Use username.tumblr.com/rss or username.tumblr.com/tagged/my%20art/rss to follow a blog's "my art" tag (as an example)

Cohost: Use username.cohost.org/rss/public

Mastodon: Use instance.url/@­username.rss

Deviantart: Info here

Spacehey: Info here

Youtube: Go to a channel in a web browser, view page source, and use Ctrl-F/Command-F to find a link that starts with "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id="

Reddit: Info here

Lemmy: At the top of a community's main page, there's a small RSS link next to where you sort posts/comments.

Some additions thanks to @innumerablewounds:

Dreamwidth: https://username.dreamwidth.org/rss (users can opt out of this).

Ao3: Tags have an "RSS Feed" button.

Bluesky: Add /rss to the end of a URL.

Neocities: https://neocities.org/site/username.rss

Sites that won't work all that great:

Twitter: Feedbro and Fraidycat** may be able to use Twitter profile URLs as feed URLs. Otherwise, use nitter.net/username/rss (or other Nitter instance) Public Nitter instances are dead/dying, and Twitter is now very hostile to pretty much anything that makes it easy to generate an RSS feed. For popular accounts, try this workaround using Google News...?

Instagram: Feedbro may be able to use Instagram profile and hashtag URLs as feed URLs. Check Feedbro's "scan interval" setting-- you could be rate limited or temporarily IP banned from Instagram if it makes requests too often!

Facebook: Feedbro may be able to use public Facebook group/page URLs as feed URLs, but see the warnings for Instagram.

Threads: Come on.

Also see how to find the RSS feed URL for almost any site. Try using public RSS-Bridge instances or Happyou Final Scraper to generate feeds for sites that don't have them (Pillowfort, Patreon, etc).

*You can set up your subscriptions in one reader and import them into another by exporting an OPML file. **Fraidycat's intended use is following a lot of people across different sites, so it's well-suited for this post and I'd recommend keeping an eye on it-- but I didn't recommend it initially because I had some issues with it, and it hasn't been updated in a while. The last time I used it, it didn't have a setting to change how often it makes requests to websites, causing me to get IP banned from Twitter and Instagram...

no but i can't stop about eddie finding queering the map and being overwhelmed by the amount of stories that resonate with him.

it starts with buck, because of course it does.

buck comes into the station one day, rambling about this site he found online. he's still figuring out bisexuality for himself and has been going down a rabbit hole ever since, reading endless articles and reddit stories and experiences told from so many people.

and something about it, about this particular site, catches eddie's attention. he really can't stop thinking about it, wondering if people from el paso would have any of those pins. if anyone from the place he grew up in, was raised in, ever felt like him.

he can't stop wondering if maybe he was never as alone as he thought he was.

when he gets home, he decides to look for himself— it takes him a while. there's too many black pins and he doesn't quite know how to navigate the huge map on his screen. it takes him a few minutes to get the hang of it.

but when he does— oh, when he does.

right there in el paso, people from the same streets he once rode his bike in, are sharing his experiences. fellow soldiers in the same base eddie trained at.

eddie reads these sacred, secret little messages and feels his heart expand more and more with every each one of them.

some of them makes him laugh and chuckle, teary eyed but amused, like "even the army has gays," and "from one gay cowboy to another."

others, nake him falter. make his bretah hitch inside his chest. make something beautiful and fragile and orecious uncurl from the deepest depths of his soul. make him feel seen in a way he isn't sure he's quite ready to.

messages like— "you're not the only one," and "you'll be okay." "the heaven the people from this town speak of, is not a heaven i wanna be sent to." "i should've told him when i had the chance." "stuck in a warzone, thinking about how i wasted so much time and now i might not make it home to him."

messages that hit a little too close to home. from soldiers still in the closet, struggling to accept themselves and living a lie.

messages from dumb teenagers, scared of the future— just like eddie had been once.

messages from people braver than he ever could be, sharing the stories of how they came out to their families and moved across the country to be able to live their truest selves.

eddie spends hours and hours just reading post after post, goingbthrough as many lins as he can and drinking them in as a dying, thirsting man in the middle of the driest desert. he reads until the light from the comouter makes his head hurt and his eyes burn everytime he blinks.

at the end, before closing the tab, he decides to put on his own note.

📍not sure if I'll ever be ready to say it out loud, but I love him. i'm too late. I've lost my chance. this changes nothing, my heart is still in his hands.

he clicks on add and feels the tiniest amount of weight lifting from his shoulders.

I'd been seeing videos on Tiktok and Youtube about how younger Gen Z & Gen Alpha were demonstrating low computer literacy & below benchmark reading & writing skills, but-- like with many things on the internet-- I assumed most of what I read and watched was exaggerated. Hell, even if things were as bad as people were saying, it would be at least ~5 years before I started seeing the problem in higher education.

I was very wrong.

Of the many applications I've read this application season, only %6 percent demonstrated would I would consider a college-level mastery of language & grammar. The students writing these applications have been enrolled in university for at least two years, and have taken all fundamental courses. This means they've had classes dedicated to reading, writing, and literature analysis, and yet!

There are sentences I have to read over and over again to discern intent. Circular arguments that offer no actual substance. Errors in spelling and capitalization that spellcheck should've flagged.

At a glance, it's easy to trace this issue back to two things:

The state of education in the United States is abhorrent. Instructors are not paid enough, so schools-- particularly public schools-- take whatever instructors they can find.

COVID. The two year long gap in education, especially in high school, left many students struggling to keep up.

But I think there's a third culprit-- something I mentioned earlier in this post. A lack of computer literacy.

This subject has been covered extensively by multiple news outlets like the Washington Post and Raconteur, but as someone seeing it firsthand I wanted to add my voice to the rising chorus of concerned educators begging you to pay attention.

As the interface we use to engage with technology becomes more user friendly, the knowledge we need to access our files, photos, programs, & data becomes less and less important. Why do I need to know about directories if I can search my files in Windows (are you searching in Windows? Are you sure? Do you know what that bar you're typing into is part of? Where it's looking)? Maybe you don't have any files on your computer at all-- maybe they're on the cloud through OneDrive, or backed up through Google. Some of you reading this may know exactly where and how your files are stored. Many of you probably don't, and that's okay. For most people, being able to access a file in as short a time as possible is what they prioritize.

The problem is, when you as a consumer are only using a tool, you are intrinsically limited by the functions that tool is advertised to have. Worse yet, when the tool fails or is insufficient for what you need, you have no way of working outside of that tool. You'll need to consult an expert, which is usually expensive.

When you as a consumer understand a tool, your options are limitless. You can break it apart and put it back together in just the way you like, or you can identify what parts of the tool you need and search for more accessible or affordable options that focus more on your specific use-case.

The problem-- and to be clear, I do not blame Gen Z & Gen Alpha for what I'm about to outline-- is that this user-friendly interface has fostered a culture that no longer troubleshoots. If something on the computer doesn't work well, it's the computer's fault. It's UI should be more intuitive, and it it's not operating as expected, it's broken. What I'm seeing more and more of is that if something's broken, students stop there. They believe there's nothing they can do. They don't actively seek out solutions, they don't take to Google, they don't hop on Reddit to ask around; they just... stop. The gap in knowledge between where they stand and where they need to be to begin troubleshooting seems to wide and inaccessible (because the fundamental structure of files/directories is unknown to many) that they don't begin.

This isn't demonstrative of a lack of critical thinking, but without the drive to troubleshoot the number of opportunities to develop those critical thinking skills are greatly diminished. How do you communicate an issue to someone online? How do look for specific information? How do you determine whether that information is specifically helpful to you? If it isn't, what part of it is? This process fosters so many skills that I believe are at least partially linked to the ability to read and write effectively, and for so many of my students it feels like a complete non-starter.

We need basic computer classes back in schools. We need typing classes, we need digital media classes, we need classes that talk about computers outside of learning to code. Students need every opportunity to develop critical thinking skills and the ability to self-reflect & self correct, and in an age of misinformation & portable technology, it's more important now than ever.

A few tips for new Tumblr users wanting to write here

Yo if you're here from Reddit or Twitter or some other site and just wanted to give this a shot you may have seen some blogs that are dedicated to writing headcanons or short fics or even original works for their own OCs and you may be thinking "hey I wanna give that a shot! I like to write!" then I have some tips to make it easier on you and people who see your content.

1. First off, if you're writing a pretty long piece the you should probably put it under a read more, it'll look like this on mobile

and this on desktop

or you can write :readmore: on a line by itself and press enter.

2. Now if you're gonna write for a whole bunch of different fandoms and you wanna make a master list then I suggest making an actual list with the fandoms you write for and then making more lists with the actual content as a you go along because you can only have 100 links in one post (I know that sounds like a lot but as someone who has around 300 Transformers things written trust me you fill up a post quicker than you expect, especially if you take requests from other people). The way I typically do it is like this

The first pic is the MASTER master list that lists everything I write for and when they're underlined like that it means they're links. The second pic is after clicking the G1 link, it's a separate post that has the actual fics and headcanon links. Note the 6/100 in the tags, this is how I keep up with how many things I've added. You can of course just use the numbers options from here

or just number them manually from your keyboard like I'm doing with this post. Adding links has no barring on what else you add to the post so you can add yourself some fancy header or divider pics if you want.

3. Adding links! Links can look like this https://www.tumblr.com/wingwaver/721887224846778368/test-post-for-reasons?source=share or like this https://wingwaver.tumblr.com/post/721887224846778368/test-post-for-reasons depending on whether you're linking from mobile or desktop/browser Just highlight the text you wanna add a link to and a the little chain will move to the end, click it and paste your url you want to link to and press add link, then press post/save draft/save (whatever the blue button says)

Now you've successfully linked a post to another post!

4. Tagging! To get your fics and headcanons seen to build an audience you usually wanna tag the stuff correctly. If you're posting a fic about Miles Edgeworth and Phoenix Wright from Ace Attorney then you'll tag it with #Ace Attorney, #Miles Edgeworth, and #Phoenix Wright in the tags area. But it's also a good idea to mention if it's a ship or general fic in the tags too. If so then putting ship names and #Miles Edgeworth x Phoenix Wright and #Miles Edgeworth/Phoenix Wright in the tags will help everyone know this is a ship fic. Tagging with characters or fandoms that aren't apart of the fic just clogs the tags for people looking for content of said characters and fandoms so it's very looked down on here and will likely get some of your stuff reported for spam so only use the relevant tags. Also tagging for triggers can be tricky here because of how fucky tumblr is but please don't tag censor tags. Tagging things like #a**** or #a*use or even #abu$e doesn't work here because people who have #abuse blacklisted will be able to see this content because it wasn't tagged properly. Also if you're writing for OCs or reader inserts it's common courtesy to tag those appropriately too. Someone looking for a reader insert may not want to read an OC and vice versa. Also many people filter those out so try to add tags like #x reader, #*fandom name* x reader, and #*character name* x reader for easier filtering. Also people cruise those tags too so it'll help people who fo want to read that content find your stuff!

Hi, r/CuratedTumblr!

I know we've been sharing usernames on Reddit, but I have friends using this idea for something else, so I'm going to steal it.

If you want to find other people from r/CuratedTumblr, look at the notes of this post. If you want other people from r/CuratedTumblr to find you, like, comment, or reblog, so you'll be visible in the notes.

Please steal this idea for other subreddits, and @ me if you do.

Edit: It's been a few weeks, so here's what I've learned:

Follow this account: Only I will be able to see this. I'll follow back with my main account, but people coming to this post won't see it. Great option for lurkers. Also, having it in your followed tumblrs functions like a bookmark.

Reply to this post: People coming to this post will be able to mouse over your username and then click "follow" on a hover menu. Good, but liking it is more convenient for people looking for people to follow.

Reblog this post: People coming to this post will be able to mouse over your username and then click "follow" on a hover menu. People who follow you will see this post, and more of our Curated brothers, sisters, and siblings will know where to find us.

Reblog this post with #curatedtumblr or #r/curatedtumblr: People coming to this post will be able to mouse over your username and then click "follow" on a hover menu. People who follow you will see this post. People who search for curatedtumblr will see this post. More of our Curated brothers, sisters, and siblings will know where to find us.

Like this post: Your username goes on the likes list, with "follow" next to it. I recommend this, because it's faster to go down that list clicking "follow" than the "mouseover then follow." Some Tumblr layouts show the things you've liked, so replies might be a better option for lurkers.

Link this post or this account on r/curatedtumblr while the admins are forcing the mods to keep it open: People on r/curatedtumblr will see this post, and more of our brothers, sisters, and siblings will know where to find us.

Link this post on r/tumblr: I don't know, but let's try it.

Fuck u/spez with a cactus: I don't know, but let's try it.

Hi! Hope you’re having a wonderful day today cuz it is STORMING where I’m at and it got me thinking about more fluffy moments with fragile reader and dottore. Like what is dinner like with him or his segments?

I remember a long time ago I read this Reddit post about how a crow broke her beak in an accident 8 years ago and her mate patiently fed her since.

And it got me thinking about fragile reader not being able to eat much due to their illness and so dottore has to aid them by assisting them with their meals.

“I’m sorry”

“What for dearest?”

“For making you have to feed me…I can’t help but feel bad since you have other duties to attend to”

“Well, you cooked for me plenty of times back at the academia. Did you not have other studies to attend to as well?”

“Yeah…”

“Did you want me to feel bad then?”

“Of course not”

“Then why should this be any different? You and I assist each other in our own way, and once you get back on your feet…it will feel no different”

YESSSS..... oh my the fluff is adorable! <3 You do need help with meals, for whatever reason it may be - shaky hands, trouble swallowing, struggling to find motivation, etc - but that is why Dottore and the segments are with you, especially on the bad days. Though you always feel bad that they have to waste their valuable time with you, helping you do something that should be easy but it's not, they always make sure to reassure you that it's no problem. Even on days when you struggle to even take a few bites. When it tastes like nothing.

Maybe you'll get a flick to the forehead too, just to get it into that brain of yours, about how he'll stay to the very end. Just like how you did the same for him in the Akademiya! He'd always bring up examples of helpful things you did back then (the extent of his memory makes you a bit warm) despite your own business. Not just cooking, but fulfilling his own requests and helping around the dorm/his research. You didn't have to do all that for him, and when his younger self questioned you about it, what was your response? Because you wanted to, you'd say with a smile. So, it is no different for him now, it is because he wants to (with the addition of his love for you, but that doesn't need to be said out loud.) So don't worry about the frivolous things and focus on eating.

I imagine even though the segments don't need to eat, reader still tries to feed them some of their food, to get the whole homely dinner part of it - you don't take no for an answer so they do give in eventually. (They definitely prefer the dessert part of dinner.) Dottore on the other hand, would prefer to focus entirely on you rather than fulfill his dietary needs, which you don't like of course - one, because obviously you don't want him skipping meals, and two, it'd be a nice feeling, an old married couple eating dinner together. And so, though he really doesn't understand your point, if it'll help you eat some more, he'll do it. It brings back memories from centuries ago, the two of you snacking on something cheap for dinner because you were too lazy to cook for once, but it was still quite delicious since it was shared between the two of you.

sometimes the state of the world makes me want to go outside and scream as loud as i can for help. sometimes it makes me want to crawl deep into a hole and never come back out again. sometimes it makes me want to fall to my knees and sob uncontrollably. sometimes it seems so hopeless that i cant see any better alternative other than just disappearing.

so much evil and destruction and suffering-- and for what?

what is it all for?

for the latest popular billionare to take a 13 minute flight? for the newest remake of a movie that changed my life to get turned into mindless sludge? for a never-before-seen species of animal to be discovered, then pronounced extinct the very next week? for millions of people to go broke for having cancer?

i tell my mother that i wont be able to afford a house. she says "no, you will." i tell my counselor that my government wants to kill me. she says "that's not true." i tell my teachers i don't see a point in doing well in school because i wont be able to get a job anyway, even if i have a college degree. they tell me "no, you'll get a job. school is still important." i email my senators begging them to stop funding the genocide in Palestine. i get a copy-pasted email back with a history lesson about why that wont happen. one million people died from COVID last Christmas and i'm the only one at my school still wearing a mask. my future as an artist was ripped from my hands in less than two years and pretty soon i wont be able to share anything about my art at all. i'm half mexican, but everybody says i'm "too white" to be a "real mexican". its been four years and i'm nowhere closer to understanding my gender identity than i was at the start. tumblr has been my only safe space for three years and now that KOSA might pass this week, where will i go?

and all the while, through all of this conflict-- people are still falling in love for the first time and rescuing kittens off the street and watching their children take their first steps and getting married and making fun little indie games and building elaborate cosplays of their favorite character and making the most heart-touchingly beautiful pieces of art you've ever seen and meeting lifelong friends and cooking amazingly delicious food and playing children's games and weaving baskets from pine needles and taking care of livestock and collecting little knick-knacks and having the best day of their lives and writing their first line of code and learning to play instruments and hatching baby birds and posting a 100K word thesis about a show they really like and uploading song covers for 19 people on Youtube to listen to and pushing the boundaries of what science can accomplish and discussing moral philosophies in the comment section of a Reddit post and feeling truly seen in the eyes of another human being for the first time in their lives and growing old surrounded by the people they love.

the future is uncertain, but the world will go on. the winds will still blow and the tides will still flow. people will continue to find joy in this hell and fight for it with everything they have.

so don't give up.

"don't give up," i tell myself.

"don't give up," i tell you.

"don't give up," i scream into the sky.

there is always something to keep going for. if you cannot find it in yourself, find it in others. find it in the people in your life and the people you see online. find it in the good of humanity you know to exist.

find it. keep fighting. don't give up.

HSR THEORIES - PENACONY ANALYSIS

I guess I'm late to the game, but I'm normally a lore gremlin for Xianzhou lore, not Penacony lore. Anyways, don't expect something very elaborate, but you'll be able to find :

Reflection on the period based on history (Penal Colony)

Reflection on the period based on fashion (NPC in trailers)

Reflection on the period based on architecture (Art Deco)

Reflection on the period based on cultural shift (Railway Mania, Department Stores)

Reflection on lore based on Literature (Jules Vernes, Herman Melville)

Reflection on lore based on Philosophy (Idealism, Utilitarianism, Transcendental Idealism)

Everything under the cut as always since I tend to babble.

The name "Penacony" possibly comes from the phrase "penal colony".

I'm certainly not the first to make the connection, but "Penal Colony" inevitably brings to mind Australia. This idea of "Space Australia" is also reinforced by the names for the characters we know at the moment, with a very clear English etymology : Sunday, Robin, Gallagher, Firefly.

The use of Australia as a "penal colony" by England took place after the American War of Independence, so we start with a period around 1780 to ~1870.

We didn't get to see a lot of NPC outfits in this very short clip, but what little there is could actually correspond to a period like this. However, we had a little more hints in Honkai Star Rail - Penacony Trailer | Game Awards 2023, where we see Acheron at the reception of the Reverie hotel :

This NPC in particular is interesting, because of her gloves. It's called "evening gloves" or "opera gloves". They were popular during the Napoleonic period (1800-1825) but were also very fashionable in the last two decades of the 19th century, i.e. 1880-1900 and before WWI, i.e up to 1910.

In terms of temporality, it is also important to note what concerns the architecture of Penacony.

It was noted on Reddit that the style of architecture could be reminiscent of the French Art Deco style, an architectural movement predominant in the 1910s to 1920s. Art Deco is said to have represented "luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress", so quite fitting for Penacony. Key features were : geometric/sleek designs, bold colors, luxurious materials, things that we find in the previews.

We'll have to wait to see more from Penacony, but it might be interesting to see if there is also any inspiration from the previous movement, Art Nouveau 🤔

Another architectural thing :

Look up and see the metal tracks crisscrossing the skyscrapers and the Spheroids rapidly rolling along them. They are the most visible means of transportation in this dreamscape metropolis and guide guests to each and every place around the city. [x]

This part about the Spheroids is interesting, because during this period (starting from 1825, with a peak in the 1840s), there was in France and England what we called the Railway Mania.

This is a point of interest because the Railway Mania saw the the arrival of the railroads in Paris. When it happened, this caused another major cultural shift : the rise of Department Stores. There is even a well-known french novel on the subject, called Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies' Delight) by Emile Zola.

The end of the 19th century is also the period of birth of modern advertising and given the number of things that we see plastered all over Penacony, I think I can say that we are on the right track/period.

So, in terms of rough "era", we can go from 1780 to ~1920, so mostly the 19th century (1800-1900).

Speaking of period culture and Penacony in general, we currently have a Relic Set which I will use for the rest of the post: Penacony's Dream-Seeking Tracks

Opening a window no longer show a view of the stars in the deep sky, but of the city's shifting streams of light and shadows, holding up the constant echoes of giant clocks and theaters.

Okay, let's start with some details that I only noticed because I come from a literary studies background. I'm not going to lie to you, it's far-fetched, but stay with me, I promise it's interesting.

Giant clocks and theaters made me think "steampunk" works, whose setting are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era (~1837 to 1900, so right in our period). One of the pioneering writers of the genre, “proto-steampunk” so to speak, is Jules Vernes, considered one of the "father of science fiction".

Remember Spheroids ? : "Spheroids are regarded as both vehicles and as toys in the land of dreams. However, few remember that the Spheroids are actually imprisonment cages — the vehicle towards dreams are tools originally used for locking up prisoners."

One of Jules Vernes' best-known novels is Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, a science-fiction aventure novel the majority of which takes place aboard the Nautilus, a submarine belonging to Captain Nemo. And interesting thing, "he also tells his new passengers that his secret existence means he cannot let them leave — they must remain on board permanently" ; They are prisoners in the Nautilus.

On another point, Jules Vernes is also considered as having had a strong influence on the surrealist movement "in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to leader André Breton, to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality", or surreality"." Quite fitting for our dream planet.

For the next one... Well. I have no excuse for this one, it's even more far-fetched. But so, we remain in the literary universe.

The water from the spring turn into a giant whale and swim through the halls.

Giant whale made me think of one thing almost immediately : Moby Dick, by Herman Mellville, published in 1851 (once again in our era of interest). Moby Dick is a "sea novel" centered around the figure of the hunt of a whale. It's main themes are the limits of knowledge, fate and free will, nature and man, race, fellowship, and enslavement, madness and religion [x].

I wont copy and paste the whole shtick but I send you check again The Family description from the Data Bank.

With that, we're done with literature... so it's time to move on to something else wonderful and terrible, the greatest enemy of my high school years (when you have to do it for 8 hours a week, it quickly becomes tiring), I named: PHILOSOPHY.

For a transcendent experience, for an inspirational excitement, for the soothing of worries and wounds — guests of the highest caliber come to surrender their pain in exchange for peace and tranquility

I'm not going to dwell on that for too long, quite honestly. I'll just... put that here for you to do whatever the fuck you want with it.

Idealism : "Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical idealism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, spirit, or consciousness; that reality is entirely a mental construct; or that ideas are the highest form of reality or have the greatest claim to being considered "real"

At some unknown point in time, the small cells cut off access to reality, but people's consciousnesses became linked in dreams. In the midnight bell, that shared dream seemed so real, reflecting the sheer hypocrisy of reality.

Utilitarianism : "a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for the affected individuals. In other words, utilitarian ideas encourage actions that ensure the greatest good for the greatest number."

Those who follow the "Harmony" Path admire understanding, support, and cooperative behavior.

In addition to all previously "said", one of the greatest thinkers of the time, who is also the one at the origin of the definition of transcendent, is Immanuel Kant. His best known work is Critique of Pure Reason (1781), with which "he aims to reach a decision about "the possibility or impossibility of metaphysics".

Metaphysics "is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality. This includes the first principles of: being or existence, identity, change, space and time, cause and effect, necessity, actuality, and possibility."

This work was the founding work of a philosophical doctrine known under the name of Transcendental Idealism. I'll spare you the convoluted explanations but look at that :

The scenery gradually becomes more and more incredulous, and the senses feel as if one has been lifted by silk. [...] The guests finally realize that they were never awake, but are instead witnessing Penacony's true nature in a dream — a place where time stops in a neverending dreamscape.

"Kant means that his philosophical approach to knowledge transcends mere consideration of sensory evidence and requires an understanding of the mind's innate modes of processing that sensory evidence".

"Kant outlines how space and time are pure forms of human intuition contributed by our own faculty of sensibility. Space and time do not have an existence "outside" of us, but are the "subjective" forms of our sensibility".

So I was perusing Reddit and came across this older post about the supposed leaked DLC endgame content from 2022. I had seen some of said leaked content at the time, and I knew there were mentions of Goro and Tokyo and potentially having to sell out Vik, but I took all of it with a grain of salt because these things are often unreliable. (And a good thing I did seeing as how the Phantom Liberty ending is completely different, and this would have been a huge disappointment if my heart had been set on it.)

But y'all, if this was actually on the table for a potential ending for the DLC, I feel SO ROBBED.

Quoted from the Reddit post:

So it turns out that this new ending isn't an actual new ending, but instead just a new path for The Devil ending. Basically, what happens is that if you complete Songbird's questline and gain her trust, she will give you a cure for the relic. After you agree to help Hanako, confront Yorinobu, head up to Arasaka's orbital facility, and remove the biochip from your head, Songbird's cure will begin to activate, and it will begin healing V's brain and nervous system. What happens next is determined by whether or not you saved Takemura's life during the Search and Destroy quest. You will secretly be given a test by Hanako to prove your loyalty and professionalism. What that test is is determined by what happened in the aforementioned quest. If you do save Takemura's life, Takemura will come to tell you about the surgery's success. He will then ask you to do one more job for Araska. This test is to find where Vik is and mark his location for Arasaka, as Vik is a loose end because of his knowledge of the biochip. If you complete this mission, Hanako will then appear and try to reassure that nothing bad will happen to Vik as long as he doesn't cause problems for Arasaka. If you did everything correctly, she will then offer you a job as the head of her security detail. If you accept this offer, you will move with her to Tokyo and once again become an Arasaka employee. If you don't, then you'll just stay in Night City and Takemura will be disappointed in you. You can also say some very mean things to Takemura during this exchange. No matter which of these options you choose, all of V's friends will end up hating her for working with Arasaka. There's also some interesting dialogue if V decides to work with Hanako. V will mention how she doesn't want to return to her old life and how, for the first time in her entire life, V feels like she knows where she's going and what she wants. Hanako will reply to V by stating that a luxurious lifestyle that V could never have previously imagined awaits her in Tokyo. If you did not save Takemura's life, Hellman will come to tell you that the surgery was a success, but will then try to convince you that Hanako is actually planning to kill both of you as you and Hellman are now loose ends. He will tell you that his previous deal with Kang Tao is still on the table, and that he has a shuttle prepared that can take you and him to Kang Tao. He will try and urge you to join Kang Tao with him. If you refuse to go with him to Kang Tao, Hanako will appear and reveal that this entire conversation was actually a test to see if you would betray Arasaka. Hellman further explains that due to V's actions, Hellman couldn't even join Kang Tao anymore if he wanted to and that he's essentially stuck working for Arasaka. Hanako will compliment your professionalism and will then offer you a job as the head of her security, just like in the Takemura ending.

Still hard to say if this was ever actually a possibility, but either way: given that this was stuff found in spring 2022 and at one point Cyberpunk was supposed to have 2 expansions, I'm guessing this content had been long cut/reworked by the time it was leaked.

This honestly would have been the perfect canon ending for Valerie, from the angst of having to sell out a friend to finally being able to fully own her corporate shill proclivities, and as happy and content as I am to fully live in my own headcanons at this point, I would have loved to see this one in action.

So, I'm queer. Write lots of queer characters. But I'm young, and all my characters are either in the present or future. A character I'm making has come across me, and the setting they're in is in the past (1998 USA, to be exact). How do I write their life and experiences realistically? 'Cause it definitely wasn't all sunshine and rainbows like it is now!

Writing an LGBTQ+ Character in a Past Decade

In order to write the life experiences of an LGBTQ+ character realistically, relevant to decade/era, you'll need to research what things were like for LGBTQ+ people in that specific era and location. Location is vitally important because while there may have been great forward strides for LGBTQ+ people since then in some places, in other places, things are about the same now as they were in the 90s, and in other places (due to the rise in anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment and policies in right-wing politics) things are actually worse. So, you will need to research things like:

-- public sentiment toward LGBTQ+ people in that place/time -- political sentiment/policy toward LGBTQ+ people in place/time

Since 1998 wasn't actually that long ago, you can try someplace like Reddit or online writing groups/forums to see if you can find LGBTQ+ people who lived in your character's location in the late 90s and ask what it was like, how are things better/worse now, etc.

You can also try posing this question to one of the following blogs who might be able to point you toward good resources for your character's specific location:

Rainbow Writing Writing LGBTQ+ Characters How to Write LGBTQ+ Characters Your Book Could Be Gayer

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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It's that time of the year again when you don't know whether to read the course materials or stalk your new professors online to see what they're like before you meet them in person so here's what I think we'd find if we stalked the Hogwarts teachers (of course, in an alternate modern reality where they had social media and internet that worked near magic). More under the cut:

Albus Dumbledore - the classic profile of a headmaster; lots of bragging about his school's results, not much about him personally; his Facebook profile picture is him with a Facebook Banner that says "Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus"

Minerva Mcgonagall - her profile picture is a cat but just a few know that it's actually her in her animagus form; she mostly shares cozy posts and quotes that make her feel inspired that day

Filius Flitwick - he doesn't have a profile pic; in fact he doesn't post or shares anything, his social media profiles are strictly for communication purposes

Severus Snape - this man is a ghost, on purpose; at the first glance he's just another boomer with no concept of social media whatsoever but what you don't know is that he's lurking on other platforms using his favourite username @/thehalfbloodprince; if you knew where to look for him, you'd find him on reddit where he keeps himself informed and where he gets to vent by commenting on morronic outtakes; otherwise his only "official" platform he's on is LinkedIn but with no profile pic, obviously

Rubeus Hagrid - his profile pic is him and Buckbeak; lots of content about magical creatures; he doesn't actually post about it, he just shares those posts

Pomona Sprout - her profiles are filled with the plants she grows; even her profile pic is one depicting a screaming mandrake; she thought it looked cute

And that's on the regular Hogwarts professors. Now a special mention to Lucius Malfoy who has an Instagram profile aesthetically pleasing and color coordinated. This man dresses for the camera so there are lots of pictures with him and other people; his posts are also like travel journal logs, pay attention to them and you'll be able to figure out his next event.

Also Narcissa keeps a pretty minimalist but cute Instagram profile, also color coordinated like her husband's (she actually taught him that). She's really proud of Draco so there are mostly pictures with the two of them or faceless pictures of things that she found aesthetically pleasing.

Hello I realize this isn't necessarily the platform so completely understand if you ignore this! Wondering if you can provide a brief overview of what's going on with the popular WT creators? I get mixed information and you seem to have a lot of knowledge. (Snailords, Mongie, RS, Ephemerys, Uruchan. I heard about the Snailords dog and fan blasting stuff and Ephemerys possibly being inappropriate with minor fans. Really hoping Uru hasn't done anything.)

I'm not really gonna ignore your question but I will address it sort of? Because like... I'm gonna go off on a tangent here so bear with me, but I think a lot of people see my analysis / "callout" posts here and assume that's what this blog is for, but like? Not really? Like I certainly do that here at times when it's something that's really eating at me and I have to get out of my system, I love analyzing works I used to enjoy or otherwise have strong feelings about (ex. I never liked Big Ethel Energy but I'm miffed that it exists at all so I can't resist talking about it lmao) and I'm obviously VERY verbose about it, but I draw the line with actively seeking out stuff that's controversial or ripe for criticism just for the sake of creating 'content'. I'm one person who started this blog to mostly talk about LO, I'm not a monolith or solid source on everything to do with Webtoons and there are other people talking about these things in far more detail than I could :' )

With that said, I'm aware of the Snailords situation because of how often it's been brought up in the /r/webtoons sub (and I used to read their work years ago, before they were on Webtoons), and when it comes to RS and Mongie, I'm simply a former fan of their comics and I didn't realize the problems with them until their series jumped the shark and I had a chance to go "wait a second-" so I have that degree of "investment" that fans have have which spurs me on to talk about (and criticize) their work. It doesn't occur in a bubble.

I have NO idea what's up with Ephemerys and Uruchan, like I deadass don't know who those people are so your guess is as good as mine ╮(￣ω￣;)╭ (I googled them after reading this though, I know their series and have heard great things about Purple Hyacinth and a lot of "meh" stuff about UnOrdinary) So you won't catch me talking about them here unless I genuinely decide to give them a try LOL (and I've said my peace about reading stuff just for the sake of criticizing it, I ain't about that, I want to make room for things that bring me joy, too <3) That said, if you search for these creators via reddit and communities like it, you'll undoubtedly find the info you're looking for ! (when I googled Uruchan it seems like most of people's issues with them is that UnOrdinary has gone down the tubes in terms of quality, nothing really controversial about Uruchan specifically though from what I can tell).

EDIT: upon further clarification from OP, there isn't in fact anything worth noting, so we're clearing up for the record now!

Literally outside of my hyperfixation on LO and other Webtoon-specific topics that fall into my lap through the run of a day (like whatever I see going on in the /r/webtoons sub and other webcomic communities), I'm still like, a normal person who isn't aware of every single thing going on and so I'm not gonna ever be able to cover every controversy and piece of gossip out there. I wouldn't want that, either, balance is crucial.

I do think it's sorta sweet though that people enjoy my takes on LO and comics like it so much that they want to hear my opinions on other works, especially ones that they have opinions on and want to hear my take. But I'm still just one person. I don't read everything and I don't have an opinion about everything, I don't need to :' )

She's 37???? I get we can enjoy stories and books at any age! I'm 24 and my sister, who also loves these books and enjoy is 41, she's a big Elucien! But if she ever behaved this way, I'd never be able to look at her the same, guess not everyone grows up, because I can't even wrap my head around someone who's married, with kids like my sister is, busy with work, and other responsibilities caring about strangers on the interent, and instigating drama online over unless they are miserable and need validation and a Karen.

Misery loves company and she must be given the evidence of her history of trolling and bullying on Twitter FIRST all because of imaginary characters. The evidence doesn't lie, she's been doing this unprovoked for a long ass time.

Anyways - I bet you anything she already has a burner account to stalk hate you) so hi !!! If you're reading this, get help Karen! Maybe you'll be less miserable and won't need validation from Twitter. ♥️

Good luck on your exams!

She’s not the one who is 37. It’s another one on TikTok who kept harassing me under one of my posts 😭😭

But there are other ones on Reddit who would always like be so rude for no fucking reason and then just taking one scroll through the Reddit i find that they have a fucking husband and kids like what the fuck why are you doing this?

Terry's Birthday: Fandom, the Internet, and Citations

Or, a too long, too in depth essay on a fictional character's birthday

If you aren't thinking I'm a total nerd by the time you're done reading this than you didn't really read this. But, let's start at the beginning. Recently I posted a timeline I made for "Batman Beyond" and in the time since I made that post there's been something I've seen pop up in tags which I'd never heard of before. A few people were saying that Terry's birthday is August 18th. I was really interested in the source of this claim because I had no recollection of ever seeing it anywhere before now. I looked it up on google (as you do) and found this date scattered around the internet. Case closed, right? But I quickly realized there was a consistent problem on every site I came across. None of them cited a source for Terry's alleged August 18th birthday.

Just look it up yourself and you'll find that the date is ubiquitous across the internet. Yet, as far as I can tell after all my research, it's also completely unconfirmed. I mean, I may have missed something, but if I have than someone else is going to have to point it out to me. I also made a post prior to this one asking people to cite a source for Terry's birthday and no one has so far. You can have a look at that post if you want to know what I consider a good source on this subject. In any case, if this date or any other had been confirmed in any piece of media or in an interview with any DC creator involved in Batman Beyond than I think I would have found a citation for that source somewhere by now.

Right now it kind of seems like August 18th is fanon that's been recycled into "canon". This seems to have happened through a process of source-less wikipedia edits being parroted across reddit threads, sites featuring profiles of comic heroes, other wikis, etc. The less popular June 27th birthday for Terry seems to have gone through the same process. Here are links to some of these sites: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

As my research continued I came across some possible witness testimony of the first mentions of these birthdates:

a.) In this archived thread from the DCAU wiki, in quotations below, I've copied an excerpt of an exchange between two users that I feel is most relevant to this post (emphasis mine):

"So, I've noticed lately that a lot of different sites have been stating Terry's birthday to be August 18th with various years attached to the date. The earliest mention of which I could find is an edit to his wikipedia page in 2008 (which prior to the change stated his birthday was June 27th). I don't remember a mention of when he was born on the show or tie-in comics, and the third volume of comics didn't come out until 2010, so would anyone here know where these dates originate from? -- ReachingForRevolution (talk) 17:48, September 26, 2013 (UTC)"

"I've done some extensive timeline research, and I never came across a good source for those dates. All I saw was a wikipedia edit war with those two dates, but neither is correct AFAIK. The most cited year of birth is 2023, which is speculation as well, but there's at least some foundation for that. --Tupka217 17:56, September 26, 2013 (UTC)"

b.) A similar claim was made in this thread. The relevant excerpt, written by the user "Yojimbo" on October 16, 2023, is in quotations below (emphasis mine):

"No official birth date was ever given.

There was a wikipedia edit war in the 2000s but no source was ever given for either disputed date, June 27, 2023 and August 18, 2023."

As I've travelled down this rabbit hole, I've begun to suspect I won't be able to find exactly where it began, but this is as close as I've gotten. Allegedly, sometime around 2008, there was an edit war on Terry McGinnis' wikipedia page between at least two users over the birthdates of June 27th and August 18th. Now, how or why that edit war even started, I don't know. Why those dates, I also don't know. What I do know is that August 18th is the birthdate that gained the most popularity in the end and spread across the internet.

I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes with this post or call anyone out, really. If anything, this post exists because the subject was interesting to me and I've found the journey enjoyable. If you want to say Terry's birthday is June 27th or August 18th, then please do. Fandom is about fun, not perfectly sourced and cited dissertations on fictional teenagers' birthdays...unless, of course, that sort of thing is fun for you. I know I've loved every minute researching for and writing this...because I'm a massive nerd...but I certainly don't adhere to a strict reading of the timeline myself which is something I plan on covering in an upcoming addendum to my timeline.

In summary, my own research has produced no officially confirmed birthday for Terry McGinnis. This leads me to believe that August 18th and June 27th are fanon birthdates. It may be that I've just not found the citation for one or the other of these dates so I'm open to anyone who can provide me a good source. But really, none of this matters in the grand scheme of things, although it's interesting to see the way user edited/moderated wikis can sometimes bring less clarity rather than more. I'm sure this isn't the only example of that. Assuming I'm right and these birthdates are fanon, I wouldn't consider this a cautionary tale or anything so dramatic. Instead, I'd say this was a case study in the interaction between fandom collated information about fictional works as it exists across the internet and why the adage, "cite your sources", will never die...or something like that...

went hiking ;]

i took myself and my little sister hiking recently, wanted to share some of the photos i guess

now it'll be more of my thoughts and feelings and other stuff that's probaly not important for you, if you're here for the cc - new infant stuff is being made, so stay tuned!

so I really feel like I've matured a lot, it's been one hell of a ride if you ask me about this year. Frankly speaking i've lost any meaning in my life, like at all, i didn't know what was I doing, who I was, where was I being and thoughts of future seemed so irrational, because there wasn't even any point of living till that time. I just couldn't see future for myself. In january I got diagnosed with CPTSD and things kind of started making sense in terms of my behavior, coping mechanisms, escapism etc. I've started reading reddit posts of people telling their stories of how they've coped with this diagnosis. I guess i never really fully moved on from it, so it mostly still taunts me when i suddenly remember that ah yes, i'm actually forever mentally ill, nice. But I just started to move on you know? obviously not without any help, first of all I started taking antidepressants, then my close ones were there in my toughest times, because the hardest and at the same time most familiar feeling is feeling lonely, like you'll never have someone who understands you, like you have so many relatives and people around your life, but at the same time you're so alone in your head and feelings to the point it suffocates you so much, that crying isn't even possible any longer.

What struck me the most when antidepressants started working (sadly only after 5 months from the moment they were prescribed) is that I never in my entire life felt so... alive??? I really can't remember the last time I've actually felt so balanced, I started having thoughts again (it was so shocking for me that in the beginning i actually had some big issues with sleeping, cause my mind just didn't know how to go to sleep when you're actually able to think), i got all those feelings of love back, that i never knew i was robbed of. Like i would look at my cat and actually start crying just from how much i loved her (now im just extremely happy seeing her hehe), I would look at my absolutely normal patreon/tumblr profile and get so emotional looking at how many lovely people like what i do and support me.

But this leads to another very sad thought that haunts me sometimes, that actually the way I was living all this time wasn't normal, it wasn't my quirk or character type or some other shit I would hear when talked about the way I was feeling (or rather feeling nothing). Like all this time I was always blaming myself. This really made me cry at first. Actually lots of things made me cry when I started my healing journey (now I just don't cry, it's an antidepressant thing).

Only after antidepressants started working all the other "normal" things started helping me cope with anxiety and feeling of loss and sadness like "oh just go for a walk", "start exercising", "journal", "drink more water and eat healthy". You now the shit people that never experienced depression tell you and it's not their fault they don't understand. Honestly it's actually insanely lucky for them, that they don't understand.

So writing all of the above I wanted to say that please, don't be hard on yourself, it's not your fault that you're that way, but unfortunately it's only you who can actually trully help yourself. Even if it seems like there's no point in doing anything and life seems meaningless, remember that there still can be things worth living for, even the smallest ones like who's gonna pet all the doggies and kitties??? or who will download all the most prettiest loveliest most perfectly done clothes by the best creator (me) on patreon/tumblr ever????hehehe. Life is unfortunately meaningless, if you don't give any meaning to it, and it's not your fault that you can't find it, just give yourself time.

I'm absolutely not even remotely close to healing (and honestly I don't even know if it's really possible with CPTSD), but I'm definitely feeling better. Actually I'm feeling kind of down right now, but that's ok!! Because well I'm sure sad for a reason and I'm just trying my best to embrace it and fully feel sad I guess, so I can move on and feel peaceful again, until a new emotion comes and I'll try to feel it again, because that's what apparently humans do as I've learned after taking antidepressants.

Hey, you've read all the way to here, woah, you know that I'm proud of you? And not just beacuse you've read my stupid thoughts, but just because you're here with us, you're very strong and I'm very proud of you.

stay safe, love you all to the moon and back, 

your silly girl, Ame <3