i always click the "track package" button as soon as i get the email. "oh boy i wonder where my package is!" warehouse.
τυρὸς δ’ οὐ λείπει μ’ οὔτ’ ἐν θέρει οὔτ’ ἐν ὀπώρᾳ, οὐ χειμῶνος ἄκρω·
"But cheese does not abandon me, neither in summer nor in autumn, nor at the end of winter:"
--Theocritus Idyll XI.36-7
a court of thorns and roses. ballad of songbirds and snakes. bowl of macaroni and cheese
nothing funnier to me than when AI does math wrong. like I get why it happens, it's a language model that's treating the numbers you feed it as words rather than integers and then giving you an answer based on how those words typically appear in a block of text instead of actually performing a calculation. but the one thing computers are genuinely incredible at. you fucked up a perfectly good calculator is what you did, look at it it's got hallucinations
It looks like today is going to be a night of checking up with my friends to see which ones of them are now unemployed… Tumblr seems to have been hit hard
It looks like developers, both web and mobile, are the biggest group in the 280 people laid off
I'll be honest guys, life without a few little obsessions just isn't worth it
all roads unfortunately lead back to tumblr
Coronabeth is such a freak, I love her. She's the kind of girl who points a gun at herself and threatens to pull the trigger if you won't hold the other end of her leash. Nothing but respect for my unhinged bimbo baby terrorist. I hope Ianthe totally succeeds in making her the undead queen of the universe.
[transcription of the above image] DISCIPLINE AS PLEASURE IN CREATIVE PRACTICE 1. FIND PLEASURE AND SATISFACTION IN SHOWING UP CONSISTENTLY REGARDLESS OF YOUR PRODUCTIVITY OR QUALITY OF OUTPUT. PLEASURE IS IN THE INTEGRITY.
2. PRACTICE SHOWING UP - THE MOMENTUM AND COMPLETION WILL INEVITABLY FOLLOW.
3. THE FEELING OF RESISTANCE IS NATURAL, IS A FLEETING TEMPORARY STATE, AND SHOULD NOT CAUSE SHAME.
4. THERE IS PLEASURE IN RIDING THE WAVE OF RESISTANCE AND ALCHEMIZING THAT ENERGETIC BLOCK INTO A SWEET, DELICIOUS FLOW.
5. YOUR PRACTICE IS AN ONGOING CONVERSATION AND RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR MUSES, YOUR GENIUS, YOUR IDEAS, THE UNIVERSE. ARE YOU BEING A MINDFUL PARTNER AND CO-CREATOR?
YUMI SAKUGAWA
As far as I’m concerned, the single most radical change from journal fandom is the idea that fandom is primarily a space for kids.
*shakes cane* in MY day, teen fans pretended to be adults while we walked uphill both ways!
stupid idea for a MDZS fanmade visual novel:
you play as jin zixuan. after a long series of various events and misunderstandings, you come to understand that your acquaintance jiang yanli, who you once wrote off as average, is in fact a perfect soul who you desperately want to marry. the only problem now is that she 1. is still convinced that you hate her, 2. probably hates your loser ass too, and 3. is surrounded by men and women who are far more qualified to date her than you are. #1 and #2 can hopefully be resolved eventually with enough time, effort, and apologies.....but #3 seems to render that impossible, since if you're not careful any one of these "more qualified" bachelor/ettes might snap her up first!!!!!
you immediately identifies wei wuxian as your biggest threat, because from your (jin zixuan's) pov, wei wuxian is jiang yanli's male childhood friend who she super dotes on. after seeing how close they are, you are initially almost ready to give up - except then you find out that lan wangji is gay and in love with wei wuxian, and thus realize that you can eliminate wei wuxian as a threat if wangxian get together.
you then realize that this also applies to everyone else you see as a romantic threat. so, because you are a problem solver, you come up with a solution: before any of jiang yanli's friends can make a move on her, you will find a way to pair them all off with each other. that way, they will all be too busy dating each other and your path to yanli's heart will be (relatively) clear.
so instead of being a dating sim, the objective of the visual novel is to help all the various side couples involving yanli's friends get together, so none of them can threaten xuanli.
ideally, the game will let you freely choose which couples to push together, so there will be a wide variety of routes and endings.
("jiang yanli's friends" in this game is just the set that includes all the mdzs characters more commonly shipped with each other. jiang cheng is there, but he's yanli's brother so he's not a threat. so zixuan's strategy for him is just to keep him available on the side, so he can be paired up with whoever's left over after all the other matches have been made but is still a high enough threat.)
jin zixuan's threat assessments (accuracy not guaranteed):
extremely high:
- wei wuxian
high:
- nie mingjue (bc of his muscles)
- lan xichen (bc he's popular)
- wen qing (bc even straight girls would go lesbian for her)
medium:
- wen ning (he seems too timid for dating)
- nie huaisang (he seems more interested in hookups than dating)
- jin guangyao (my own half-brother wouldnt betray me....right?)
low:
- mianmian (she's my friend so she wouldn't betray me. also she seems interested in someone else (mr. mianmian))
- lan wangji (gay, uninterested in women)
- su minshan (too much of a hater)
- jiang cheng (brother)
conditions for victory:
- wei wuxian must be paired with someone.
- everyone from the high-risk group is paired off.
- a maximum of 1 person from the medium-risk group is left unpaired; everyone else from the medium-risk group is paired off.
- yanli approval score (explained below) is above a certain threshold.
you do not need to pair up anyone from the low-risk group in order to win; the low-risk group is there purely to help you. pairing off people in the high- and medium-risk group is necessary not because they are actually a threat to xuanli, but rather because jin zixuan will only feel secure enough to confess once almost all of his perceived romantic rivals have been removed.
some game notes:
- throuples are allowed.
- while wangxian is the most straightforward way to eliminate wei wuxian as a threat, the game also allows for other wei wuxian pairings. in other words, you as the player can betray lan wangji by pairing wei wuxian up with someone else instead - in which case the game is still winnable (ie. jin zixuan can still get together with jiang yanli, which is the victory condition), but you also unlock a special CG of lan wangji crying.
- the achievement of the victory condition is decided not just by whether or not you successfully pair everyone else up, but also by a hidden metric called the yanli approval score. this is calculated by your interactions with wei wuxian, jiang cheng, and jiang yanli herself as the game continues: if you are kind to them, then the score goes up, and if you are rude to them, then the score goes down. if your yanli approval score is low enough upon the game's end, then yanli will still refuse to date zixuan even if you've successfully paired everyone else off.
- notably, attempting to pair jiang cheng up with someone and then failing nets you a severe yanli approval score demerit, while successfully pairing up jiang cheng with someone nets you a high yanli approval score increase. interestingly, pairing chengxian together nets you the highest increase in yanli approval score.
- if you get nielan together and then do not pair up jin guangyao with anyone, then the game gives you the option of putting in the hard work to help him network. it is highly recommended that you take this option, as if you do not, jin guangyao will expose to jiang yanli everything you as jin zixuan have done in the least flattering terms possible, which will make yanli unwilling to date zixuan and will net you a game over.
- if you get xiyao together and then do not pair up nie mingjue with anyone, then the game gives you the option of putting in the hard work to find him a hobby. it is highly recommended that you take this option, as if you do not, nie huaisang will push jin zixuan into the traffic and you will get a game over.
- if you intend on pairing up jiang cheng with anyone other than wei wuxian himself, then wei wuxian will run interference against you; a successful strategy therefore must include anti-wei-wuxian measures. this remains true even if you previously helped wangxian get together, because wei wuxian is an ungrateful bastard.
- if you intend on pairing up jiang cheng with lan xichen, then both wei wuxian and lan wangji will run interference. because of this, the xicheng route is probably the hardest route involving jiang cheng in the entire game; to compensate for this, the xicheng route also has the second-most CGs (after wangxian).
- if you get jin guangyao together with someone, then he will offer his assistance to you for the rest of the game. this translates into additional stats, intel, and information on who likes who the most, which will make the rest of your run easier.
- if you get nie mingjue together with someone, then nie huaisang will offer his assistance to you for the rest of the game as well. nie huaisang offers the same assistance as jin guangyao above, but he also includes his own commentary and opinions.
- you (as jin zixuan) cannot date anyone else. sorry zixuan x other shippers, this is a xuanli game.
What is the main reason you keep your nails short?*
- play an instrument
- play a sport
- a hobby/craft that requires it (sewing, baking, woodworking ect.)
- practicality in everyday life
- practicality/requirement for work
- medical reason
- bite nails short
- sex related reason
- other/nuance
- long nails button
*short as in level with or shorter than your fingertip
If it’s from force of habit from childhood (or similar), choose the option that was the main reason before it was habit
*short as in level with or shorter than your fingertip
If it’s from force of habit from childhood (or similar), choose the option that was the main reason before it was habit
Sexiest Old Man Tournament: FINALS!
It all comes down to this... Who is hotter!?
Pictish drip was insane. Look at this choker:
[ID: screenshot of a tiktok with text that reads: "have you seen" - No I haven't. I've watched 6 films in my entire life and finished 2 shows. I don't understand that reference and I don't know who that actor is. End ID]
Listen, folks, I also hate generative AI and do not think it is an effective accomodation, but if your argument against it is "Oh, you think [task] is hard? What a stupid idiot baby!" then I'm sorry to say that is Literally Just Ableism. Please think about what you are saying. The point should be that it doesn't actually work to solve the problems that people are struggling with, not that they're wrong for struggling in the first place.