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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 months

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Tabs give me superpowers

Berliners: Otherland has added a second date (Jan 28) for my book-talk after the first one sold out - book now!

"Lifehacking" is in pretty bad odor these days, and with good reason: a once-useful catch-all for describing how to make things easier has become a pit of productivity porn, grifter hustling, and anodyne advice wreathed in superlatives and transformed into SEO-compliant listicles.

But I was there when lifehacking was born, and I'm here to tell you, it wasn't always thus. Lifehacking attained liftoff exactly 19 years and 348 days ago, on Feb 11, 2004, when Danny O'Brien presented "Life Hacks: Tech Secrets of Overprolific Alpha Geeks" at the 0'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (aka ETCON). I was there, and I took notes:

https://craphound.com/lifehacksetcon04.txt

O'Brien's inspiration was his social circle, in which people he knew to be no smarter or better or motivated than anyone else in that group were somehow able to do much more than their peers, in some specific domain. O'Brien delved deeply into these peoples' lives and discovered that each of them had merely ("merely!") gotten very good at using one or two tools to automate things that would otherwise take up a lot of their time.

These "hacks" freed up their practitioners to focus on things that mattered more to them. They accomplished the goal set out in David Allen's Getting Things Done: to make a conscious choice about which things you are going to fail to do today, rather than defaulting to doing the things that are easy and trivial, at the expense of the things that matter, but are more complicated:

https://gettingthingsdone.com/what-is-gtd/

One trait all those lifehacks shared: everyone who created a little hack was faintly embarrassed by it, and assumed that others who learned about their tricks would find them trivial or foolish. O'Brien changed the world by showing that other people were, in fact, delighted and excited to learn about their peers' cool little tricks.

(Unfortunately, this eventually opened the floodgates of overheated posts about some miraculous hack that turned out to indeed be silly and trivial or even actively bad, but that wasn't O'Brien's fault!)

I'm one of those people whom others perceive as very "productive." There are some objective metrics on which this is true: I wrote nine books during lockdown, for example. Like the lifehackers O'Brien documented in 2004, I have lots of little hacks that aren't merely a way of getting more done – they're a way to make sure that I get the stuff that matters to me (taking care of my family and my health, and writing books) done.

A lot of these lifehacks boil down to making your life easier. There's a spot on our kitchen counter where I put e-waste. Whenever I go out to the car, I carry any e-waste out and put it in a bag in the trunk. Any time I'm near our city dump, I stop and throw the bag into their e-waste bin. This is now a habit, and habits are things you get for free: I spend zero time thinking about e-waste, which means I have more time to think about things that matter (and our e-waste still ends up in the right place).

There's other ways I use habits to make my life easier: after many years, I learned how to write every day:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/22/walking-the-plank/

For longer-form works like novels, I "leave myself a rough edge," finishing the day's work in the middle of a sentence. That way I get a few words for free the next day, meaning I never start the day's work wondering which words I'll type:

https://locusmag.com/2014/01/cory-doctorow-cheap-writing-tricks/

One of the most powerful habits I've cultivated is to have a group of daily tabs that I open in a new browser every morning. The meat of this tab group is websites I want to check in with every day, either because they don't have RSS feeds, or because I want to make sure I never miss an update.

This tab-group habit started before RSS was widespread, when most of the websites I wanted to check in on every day didn't have feeds yet, and for many years, this group was just a set of daily reads. But over the years, I started throwing things in the tab-group that I needed to stay on top of.

My daily tabs are in a folder called "unfucked rota" (they were originally in a folder called "rota," which got corrupted and had to be reconstructed in a folder I called "fucked rota," until I finally took a couple hours off and got it in good running order, hence "unfucked rota"). As I type this, "unfucked rota" contains more than a hundred websites I visit every morning, but it also contains:

The edit-history pages for four Wikipedia entries I'm watching;

Chronological feeds of my books on Amazon and Audible, to catch counterfeits as they are posted;

The parent notification portal for my kid's school;

The mileage history for the airline I flew on yesterday (I'll delete this once the flight is posted);

The credit card history for a card I reported a fraudulent charge on (I'll delete this once the refund is posted);

The sell-pages for three products that are out of stock (I'll delete these once the products are in stock and ordered);

A bookmarked newest-first Ebay search for a shirt I like that has been discontinued by the manufacturer;

The new-survey-completed pages for my last two Kickstarters;

The courier tracking page for an item being shipped sea-freight to me from Asia.

The tail end of this unfucked rota changes all the time, but as you can tell, it's got a lot of stuff that would be time-consuming to build a whole new system to track, but which has a web-page that can be easily added to a daily, habitual check-in and then removed when it's not relevant anymore.

Some of these things have email notifiers or RSS feeds, but those are too easy to lose in the noise. I generally delete email from ecommerce sites unread, since 99.99% of the messages they send me are unsolicited marketing nonsense, not the "notify me when this is back in stock" message I do want to see (same goes for my kid's school, which sends me fifty unimportant messages for every message that I must reply to).

Most of the internet is still on the web, which means it can be bookmarked, which means that it takes me one second to add it to the group of things I'm staying on top of, and one second to remove from that group. I get up in the morning, middle-click the "unfucked rota" item in my bookmarks pane, make a cup of coffee, and then sit down and race through those tabs, close-close-close.

It takes less than a second to scan a tab to see if it's changed (and if I close a tab too quickly, the ctrl-shift-T "unclose" shortcut is there in muscle-memory, another habit). The whole process takes between one and 15 minutes (depending on whether there's anything useful and new in one of those tabs).

Tabs, like lifehacks, are also in bad odor. Everyone stresses about how many tabs they have open. It's even inspired Rusty Foster's excellent newsletter, Today In Tabs:

https://www.todayintabs.com/

But this is a very different way to think about tabs. Rather than opening a window full of tabs that need your detailed, once-off attention later, this method is about using groups of tabs so that you can pay cursory, frequent attention to them.

In a world full of administrative burdens, where firms and institutions play the "sure, we'll do that, but you're going to have to track our progress" game to get out of living up to their obligations, this method is a powerful countermeasure:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/02/02/david-graebers-the-utopia-of-rules-on-technology-stupidity-and-the-secret-joys-of-bureaucracy/

My little tab habit is so incredibly useful, such a powerful way to seize back time and power from powerful actors who impose burdens on me, that I sometimes forget how, for other people, tabs are a symptom of a life that's spiraling out of control. For me, a couple hundred tabs are a symbol of a couple hundred tasks that I'm totally on top of, a symbol of control wrestled back from others who are hostile to my interests.

This isn't how tabs were "meant" to be used, of course. It's an example of the kind of "innovation" that comes from users repurposing things in ways their designers didn't necessarily anticipate or intend.

This is what Jonathan Zittrain meant by "generative" technology back in 2008, when he published his incredibly prescient The Future of the Internet: And How To Stop It:

https://memex.craphound.com/2008/07/22/zittrains-the-future-of-the-internet-how-to-save-the-internet-from-the-internet/

For Zittrain, "generativity" was the property of some technologies that let its users generate new, useful tools and solutions for themselves (this is very different from "generative AI!")

Zittrain described how "curated" computing systems, like mobile devices that relied on apps that couldn't be adapted by their users, were dead ends for generativity. 15 years later, the dismal world of apps has proven him right:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/24/everything-not-mandatory/#is-prohibited

To the extent that "lifehacking" is about doing more, rather than being more deliberate about what you accomplish, it can be harmful. I am not immune to the failure modes of lifehacking:

https://locusmag.com/2017/11/cory-doctorow-how-to-do-everything-lifehacking-considered-harmful/

But overall, using tabs as something I close, rather than something I open, is a source of comfort and calm for me. For one thing, ripping through a group of tabs every morning means that I don't have to worry about missing something if I go too fast. I'll get another chance tomorrow:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/27/probably/

Decades ago, Dori Smith dubbed her pioneering blog her "#Backup Brain":

https://web.archive.org/web/20020120231027/http://www.backupbrain.com/

At their best, our systems – be they physical, like a spot on the counter where the e-waste goes, or digital, like a tab-group – are "congitive prostheses." They allow us to move important things from the highly contested, busy and precious space between our ears and out there into the world:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method/

Like those lifehackers that O'Brien studied for his presentation in 2004, I confess to feeling a little silly about telling you all about this. For me, this habit of decades is so ingrained that it feels trivial and obvious. And yet, when I look at people in my life struggling to stay on top of a million nagging administrative tasks that could be easily watched through a morning's flick through a tab-group, I can't help but think that maybe some of you will find a useful idea or two in my unfucked rota.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/25/today-in-tabs/#unfucked-rota

#pluralistic #productivity #life hacks #mozilla #firefox #open web #systems #getting things done #externalized memory #outboard brain #generativitiy

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softesttangerines · 6 months

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Mihawk is literally the definition of that meme "i protected my peace a little too hard and now i have 2 friends and 0 hoes and i only leave the house for work and go to bed at 8"

Except the two friends are literally people he's stuck with, aka buggy and crocoman, and the zero hoes used to be one potential hoe, aka shanks but once again, he protected his peace a bit too much. Work used to be slice pirates out of boredom and now with cross guild it's hunt the marines because I'm petty af.

#mishanks #cross guild #one piece #opla #mihawk #shanks #dracule mihawk #akagami no shanks #buggy the clown #sir crocodile #the two friends before cross guild also used to be zoro & perona as his kids but that was temporary n he ended up once again with 0 friends

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anodymalion · 2 months

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Oh man oh man I just saw an Outer Wilds fanart done in the style of a tarot card and I had to immediately drop everything I was doing to think through what an all-Outer-Wilds version of the major arcana would be. I think I have it, it's under the read more because it's long and also there are major major spoilers (unsurprisingly).

0. The Fool: The Hatchling This one is easy. The hatchling is at the beginning of their journey, stepping into the unknown.

1. The Magician: Pye Bringing intention and direction, choosing a path, and channeling cosmic power - yeah I think Pye of “science compels us to explode the sun” fame fits this pretty perfectly.

2. The High Priestess: The Nomai Statues Ok, I kinda struggled with this one, but I think it works. Hidden knowledge, dealing with the mind, the subsconscious vs conscious, veils between worlds. The statues are mysterious and they transmit your knowledge to your previous selves. That fits decently well and also I don’t have a better idea.

3. The Empress: Timber Hearth Ok, I really struggled with this one. I’m going for the themes of creation, life, nature, and nurturing by choosing Timber Hearth since it is literally where life in the solar system grew. I'm not happy with this but whatever.

4. The Emperor: The Vault Authority, establishment, control to the point of domination. They sealed the Prisoner in the vault for defying the system. Plus the Vault looks cool and imposing so we have that going for us.

5. The Hierophant: Solanum Connecting to the past, passing on wisdom, initiation into a spiritual practice (aka reaching the QM). Yeah this is Solanum.

6. The Lovers: Nomai Graveyard (Emotional damage pt 1) I’m so so sorry but it works so well. What says love besides holding your friends close as you all asphyxiate to death?

7. The Chariot: Your Ship Maybe this one is a little too literal but I still think it fits. Determination and drive, knowing where you want to go, overcoming obstacles. Also it's literally your ship. It works.

8. Strength: Chert I’m going to be honest.... Chert is here because they were the only traveler that didn’t have a card that clearly fit, and I couldn’t leave only them out when I gave all the other travelers cards, and I didn’t have another idea for what Strength should be. Hand-wavy explanation: view Strength as getting to the core of confronting your fear and anger and pain and coming out the other side, and, well, Chert having a existential breakdown and then coming to a place of calm acceptance about the inevitability of death sort of… fits…. look just pretend this one makes sense and let’s move along quickly -

9. The Hermit: Feldspar Self-explanatory. The literal solitude, yeah, but also Feldspar is this mentor figure who guides you on your journey, and is apparently happy to just sit and chill in the nightmare hell that is Dark Bramble. It works.

10. The Wheel of Fortune: The Advanced Warp Core in the ATP Change, fate, turning points, cycles - and the breaking of cycles. This is another easy one.

11. Justice: The Prisoner There are a lot of ways you can interpret this. You have the Prisoner defying their society’s rules in an attempt to do what is right, and the strangers believing they were dispensing justice by imprisoning them but actually causing harm. The more I think about this one the more I like it.

12. The Hanged Man: Gabbro Another easy one. Taking a pause to rest, passivity, acceptance, independence, seeing things differently. Plus you even get the literal imagery of them hanging on the hammock, floating in zero-g. This is a slam dunk.

13. Death: The skull + flower from the Strangers’ visions of the Eye Letting go to allow the world to change and let new things grow is literally what this vision is about. Plus it’s a skull! I mean it’s right there.

14. Temperance: Riebeck Steadiness, moderation, plus the duality of Riebeck being terrified of space but still choosing to go out into it.

15. The Devil: The Eye Signal Blocker Destruction, complicity in oppression, avoiding accountability, confronting fear (or avoiding doing so). Oh yeah I’m so on board with this being the Eye Signal Blocker.

16. The Tower: The Interloper (Emotional damage part 2). The destruction of the status quo, disaster, tragedy, upheaval. There is no question here.

17. The Star: The Eye Searching for purpose, navigating a path, themes of renewal. Plus it even kinda has a star-like shape. It’s the Eye.

18. The Moon: The Quantum Moon Look, sometimes the literal choice works. Mystery, secrets, illusions? Yeah, that’s QM alright.

19. The Sun: The Sun Who could have seen this one coming??? ….The thing is… the meaning of the tarot Sun card absolutely doesn’t match the purpose the sun plays in Outer Wilds. But there is nothing else that could be the sun. It’s the sun!

20. Judgement: The Campfire in the Starry Forest Facing yourself, facing the truth, acceptance, ultimately letting go so that you can reach the end. Yeah.

21. The World: The Big Bang The end, and the beginning.

#I *need* to learn to draw fr so I can do this aghhhh #outer wilds #outer wilds spoilers #echoes of the eye

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still-a-morosexual-help · 1 year

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Remember this post where someone asked whether Mammon's prefered magic style was "lightning" and I compiled all the canon times where Mammon was associated with fire?

Remember how in this post I spoke about how intensely supportive Mammon & MC are of each others' plans/ideas?

Remember how canonically Mammon was willing to join MC if they turned evil because "my place of belonging is beside you"?

Remember how Mammon has called MC his "partner" or "partner in crime" at least thrice now?

Remember how (depending on the players' choices) between 1 event & the main storyline MC has nearly (purposefully) set 3 different people on fire? (Little D No. 2, human who kidnapped Diavolo & tried to shoot Belphie, Mephisto) with absolutely zero (0) regret

Anyway,

canon(?)

Fire Demon! Mammon & Arsonist! MC

aka Lucifer's worst nightmare

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r1-jw-lover · 8 months

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Official John Wick Major Arcana tarot cards featuring Chapter 4 characters

Art by Julien Rico Jr, in collaboration with Lionsgate.

Sources: nerdsloveart, behance

Image descriptions below the cut:

[Start ID: 22 images featuring characters and locations from the movie "John Wick: Chapter 4" as Major Arcana tarot cards. The drawings are in black and white against a sandy beige background, and has plenty of circle motives. Roman numerals are at the top, their corresponding card title at the bottom, and the movie title "John Wick: Chapter 4" on the bottom left margin.

0: The number zero, or unnumbered, tarot card features Killa Harkan played by Scott Adkins as "The Fool". Killa is holding a 2 of spades between two fingers while giving a smug smile that shows off his set of golden teeth. He wears a ring on his right hand and the other hand is holding a stack of cards. Behind Killa is a minimalistic design resembling a casino token with details such as the diamond and clover symbols, as well as the numbers on the dice. In front of Killa is a table with two piling stacks of casino tokens, a gun, and the shadow of John Wick's head looming over a large portion of the table.

1: The number one tarot card features The Tracker or Mr. Nobody played by Shamier Anderson as "The Magician". Mr. Nobody has a smug expression on his face and is holding his rifle in a way that lets it rest slung over his shoulder. By his side is Mr. Nobody's Belgian Malinois. The backdrop consists of simplistic, grayish graphics of map vectors cropped into several circles of different sizes. There is a white-coloured infinity symbol on top of Mr. Nobody's head.

2: The number two tarot card features Rooney, aka The Ballerina, who first appeared in "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum", as "The High Priestess". Rooney's back is facing towards us as she's performing a ballet move on a circular stage. Rooney is wearing a white crown and a dress that shows the cross tattoo on her back. In the backdrop, where Rooney's face is looking towards, are curtains with the initials "JW" written on the far ends of the frame.

3: The number three tarot card features Katia played by Natalia Tena as "The Empress". With a cool expression on her face, Katia is leaning forward against a set of railings, giving off a domineering aura. Katia is wearing a metallic necklace and a cross on her neck. Behind Katia is the crest of the Ruska Roma and a line in Russian circling around it.

4: The number four tarot card features The Bowery King played by Laurence Fishburne as "The Emperor". The Bowery King is sitting on a throne, but behind him is a pair of eyes staring menacingly at us. In front of him is a logo design with the same pair of eyes, though rendered smaller and appear less menacing, with an X crossed in between and a horizontal line capping the top of the X. At the Bowery King's feet, a few pigeons are shown in the foreground while the Brooklyn Bridge appear in the background.

5: The number five tarot card features The Elder as "The Hierophant". Behind the Elder is an Islamic floral design which extends into a more geometrical pattern. Standing in the background are two of the Elder's men.

6: The number six tarot card features John and Helen Wick, played by Keanu Reeves and Bridget Moynahan, as "The Lovers". John and Helen are smiling brightly towards each other in front of a New York night cityscape backdrop, with the Empire States building separating them at the centre. Above John and Helen is a silhouette of them pressed against each other about to kiss in front of a bright sun with the Brooklyn bridge in the background.

7: The number seven tarot card features John Wick driving his 1971 Plymouth Barracuda as "The Chariot". There is a bullet mark on the front glass pane of John Wick's car. On top is a closeup of John Wick surrounded by a circle of road markings and bullet marks.

8: The number eight tarot card features Charon played by Lance Reddick as "Strength". On top of Charon's head is the infinity symbol, and behind is a design reminiscent of a timepiece neatly decorated with knives, guns and bullets in a circle. Further behind is a faded image of the reverse side of the Gold Coin. Filling the bottom of the frame is the New York cityscape backdrop illuminated by the sun.

9: The number nine tarot card features Caine played by Donnie Yen as "The Hermit". Caine wears sunglasses and is holding a cane in his left hand and a pistol in his right. Caine's head is illuminated by a circle of bright light, which is surrounded by a dimmer, slightly bigger circle with Japanese wave patterns and then large protruding rays of black. In the backdrop are two winding trees along with a city landscape of Osaka, but they are overshadowed by Caine's black rays.

10: The number ten tarot card features L’Arc de Triomphe as "The Wheel of Fortune". The location is illustrated in such a way that looks like a clock, with the monument at the centre and twelve roads leading towards it. Surrounding the Arc de Triomphe are the letters from John Wick's name arranged in the exact order of north-west, north-east, south-west, south-east, west, north, east and south directions.

11: The number eleven tarot card features The Harbinger played by Clancy Brown as "Justice". The whole illustration is framed as if the Harbinger is contained inside an hourglass, with a half-body portrait of the Harbinger at the top and a full-body silhouette of him forming at the bottom from the sand flowing downwards. Behind the Harbinger's portrait is the Latin quote, "si vis pacem, para bellum", whereas next to the Harbinger's silhouette is a crescent moon. Along the sides of the hourglass outside are two duel pistols facing opposite directions on each side.

12: The number twelve tarot card features Koji Shimazu played by Hiroyuki Sanada as "The Hanged Man". Except for his feet, Koji is portrayed as an vertically-inverted reflection of himself on a pool of water. Koji is holding a katana and his head is surrounded by a circle of dim light and a brighter, slightly larger circle made of Japanese wave patterns. As seen in the reflection, behind him are cherry blossom trees and the Osaka city landscape.

13: The number thirteen tarot card features John Wick, aka the Baba Yaga, played by Keanu Reeves as "Death". John Wick is holding a pair of nunchucks in his right hand. Behind John Wick is a city landscape of Osaka lighted by the moon while his head is surrounded by a row of skull pictograms and two rows of bullets. There is also an faded image of the reverse side of the Gold Coin behind John Wick.

14: The number fourteen tarot card features Winston played by Ian McShane as "Temperance". Winston is holding up a wine glass with a capital C labelled on it, and there are multiple swords projecting from his back like wings. Behind Winston is the hotel name "Continental" and numerous halos of various fonts and patterns, along with the cityscape of New York, with the Statue of Liberty and the Empire States building in sight.

15: The number fifteen tarot card features The Marquis, Vincent Bisset de Gramont, played by Bill Skarsgård as "The Devil". Behind the Marquis is his signature emblem with two black knives crossed behind his head. The emblem is surrounded by two rows of knives. In the background is the night cityscape of Paris with the Eiffel Tower in view, illuminated by a moon that is surrounded by a snake or serpent that's chasing its own tail.

16: The number sixteen tarot card features the New York Continental Hotel as "The Tower". The top floors of the Continental Hotel are being set on fire as the small dark silhouette of John Wick and the debris carried along fall from its rooftop.

17: The number seventeen tarot card features Akira played by Rina Sawayama as "The Star". Illuminating behind Akira is a star resembling a six-pointed shuriken with two Japanese stork paintings on its left and right, which is further surrounded by a circle of alternating arrow fletchings and four-pointed shuriken. Akira is holding a bow and arrow and standing tall as the bodies of two men lie dead around her. In the background are the branches of cherry blossom trees and the sun or moon shining behind Akira.

18: The number eighteen tarot card features John Wick's and Mr. Nobody's dogs as "The Moon". The two dogs are staring up at the crescent moon, which is shaped as if John Wick's head is covering portions of the full moon. Surrounding the crescent moon are small stars and a illustration of the cycle of the moon phases. The two dogs are sitting on a road leading into an ambiguous city landscape in the background.

19: The number nineteen tarot card features the Sacré-Coeur as "The Sun". The rays of the sun spread out far and wide as wisps of clouds drifts behind the giant church. A dark silhouette of John Wick can be seen on the top open window of the Sacré-Coeur.

20: The number twenty tarot card features Chidi played by Marko Zaror as "Judgement". Behind Chidi is the emblem of the Marquis with a black knife cutting across behind his head. Below Chidi are the High Table's heavily armoured soldiers who are backdropped by a big splatter of sandy beige.

21: The number twenty-one tarot card features John Wick as "The World". John Wick's back is facing towards us with his head glancing back, showing us his face. Overlayed on top of him is his surname "Wick" with the "I" replaced by a bright silhouette of a walking John Wick. A circle of bullets surrounds John Wick and bullet marks scatter around him as the emblems of the High Table, the Marquis, the Adjudicator, and the Gold Coin fill all four corners of the frame.

./End ID]

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rlyehtaxidermist · 4 months

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shikigami divide by zero

ran: IEEE 754 floating point NaN

chen: unhandled exception. reverts to Kitty due to operating system fault.

aka: that one british guy who asserts that he's "solved" the "impossible" "problem" of 0/0 by defining it as A Number with a symbol he made up and that this will somehow solve quantum gravity despite being completely mathematically useless

#yakumo aka

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juliaandthephantoms · 1 year

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Time for my annual "winning performance according to the official Winning Song Guidelines", aka the Love, Love, Peace, Peace Ranking. This one's gonna be fun.

Get everyone's attention She's literally lying on the floor. Groundbreaking. 0/1

Drums! There has to be drums, +1 for gorgeous topless men and/or a grandmother Nope. Though at least literally every other drummer on stage looked stoked to be there 0/2

Using an old traditional folklore instrument, +1 for an old man, +1 if he has a beard Unless her body counts as an old traditional folklore instrument it's zero points from me 0/3

A violin Would probably be hard to use one with those fingernails anyway but she DOES mention one 0.5/1

Add A DJ who pretends to scratch She scratched the screen a few times I guess? 0/1

Costumes, something that the viewers will notice Her hair was giving me Na'vi vibes 0.5/1

The song is about love or peace I'll give her that 1/1

2/10 not really off to a good start, let's see about the execution

Let the song beginn with passion There was some heavy breathing and I guess you could say she was going for seductive passion? 1/1

Let the wind begin to flow As far as I could tell no wind 0/1

Look into the TV camera It was pretty hard to follow with the camerawork and her eyes looked mostly closed on close ups but I think there was an attempt 1/1

Smile She was smiling after the music was over so 0.5/1

Fill the stage with light The screens above and below her in addition to the flashes made for some interesting lightning design 1/1

Dancers will join us No additional dancers, just Loreen by herself 0/1

Old women baking bread Again no bread this year. As a German I'd walk through fire and trough rain for some but Loreen was too focused on her tattoo 0/1

A man in a hamster wheel Sounded like she was spinning the person she was singing about like a hamster wheel in her head but nothing on stage 0/1

Our hands will touch She probably wanted to touch someone but there was only a screen 0/1

We change the key The chorus picks up a bit so props for that 1/1

It begins to snow No sudden weather changes 0/1

Burning fake piano I'll never get over this. Where is the fire? 0/2

Russian man on skates Russia is still banned from the stage entirely 0/1

Party for everybody Going by the reaction of the crowd during the announcement of the votes I'd say the party was for someone else 0/1

More tricks in the hamster wheel Maybe her tattoo was of a hamster wheel but we'll never know 0/1

End result:

6.5/26

Devastating. The jury should really check the Official Guidelines next year before voting. That's all I can say.

Here's the results for Kalush Orchestra and here's how Måneskin did

#esc23 #esc 2023 #eurovision #eurovision song contest #esc #love love peace peace rating #for disclaimer reasons this post is mostly a joke but this year i'm very salty #maybe I'll do finland too just for fun and because he won according to the votes that actually count in my heart

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starified-lizzy · 27 days

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WE HAVE GOTTEN THIS GAME

Things i like:

-the cutscene for the intro to the "weekend" week (aka vs Darnell)

-THE FREEPLAY MENU

-the Erect difficulty as a whole (i made a joke saying that the crack they bought was given to BF in Blammed's erect difficulty lmfao)

-THE NEW CHART EDITOR HOLY FUCK ITS SO PLEASING

-…… Nightmare difficulty…. What the fuck does that mean????

Things that I dislike/reccommend a fix for: -Darnell's week keeps crashing after the first song. I was only ever able to play the second song once out of three attempts, the final song zero(0) times. Other's have said they experienced a similar issue.

-WHAT IN THE EVER LOVING FUCK DID THEY DO TO MY BOY "WINTER-HORROR LAND"??? IT'S HARD CHART IS FUCKED UP. THEY FUCKING RUINED IT- I HAD TO GO IN AND FIX IT MYSELF

-no Ghosttapping (or a really shitty ghosttapping mechanic) not too upset with this one, just something i noticed

-no timebar

All in all;

WE HAVE RECIEVED THIS GAME

#fnf #friday night funkin #WERE GETTING THIS GAME #fnf update #fnf news #fnf darnell #fnf nene

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animeisforanimation · 26 days

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Dune x Trigun

Is it just me or are there zero (0) crossover fanfics?

And like, probably that’s reasonable as the two desert worlds overlap too much while the narratives do too little. However! If we look beyond the first two novels and delve into the God Emperor with sprinkles of Children the opportunities are infinite:

First of all: plant are derived from sand worms, so the two concepts overlap and mix together.

Vash and Knives are Ghanima and Leto II but with a sprinkle of Alia and Paul and also a twist: Knives DO merge with Vash during one of their confrontations

The rest of their fights / talks are in their mindscape

in his godhood Knives/Vash is not omnipotent, but has immense plant powers, the memories of ancestors get replaced with minds of Zazie (aka plants/worms) and Vash

let me eleborate: KNIVES AS LETO II A GIANT WORM GOD RULER OF THE UNIVERSE but there’s is still Vash in him slowly regaining control like a reverse of baron Vladimir changing Alia.

In trigun turms it’s Noah ark: Knivse’s body has shifted and Vash is under his control (for a time being)

Nicholas is Duncan. Ghola Duncan? Probably (here I can’t but think of Lenipes’ two Wolfwood aka Padre and his clone). Not sure if he should suffer from being a murder, from not being human, being a man out of time or all of the above altogether. God. They fall into each other perfectly!

Milly as knives’s bride Hwi (a perfect understanding person, sunshine incarnate but probably minus her disturbing birth and upbringing? Or at least toned down). She’d kinda be the one to wake Vash (sorry, Meryl, my love! It should be your role, but…)

Meryl is Siona. The Answer to all the questions. The woman so strong willed that she’ll never ever stop chasing the God.

Eye of Michael is Bene Gesserit. (What does it imply? The order is no longer only women? Or Trans Wolfwood and Livio? Dunno)

Roberto is Hvi’s dad whose name I don’t remember but who jumped out of the tower in the most impressive way.

Elindira is Moneo (does this make her Meryl’s parent? I guess? Just for the lol factor)

Legato is just there, I guess. Representing those who believe in the God.

Have you been honest, I love this idea. Am I going to write that? Not really. Maybe just eleborate on the plot? Maybe not even that. But I needed to get that out of my system.

PS - oh. I just realized I got my Knives/Milly into twins/Milly which is weird. But also there is Wolfwood/Meryl and of course Vashwood but Knives is there too (in Dune Leto is OBSESSED with Duncan. Revives the man times and times again even though he tries to kill him all the time)??? God that’s messy xD

#trigun #trigun stampede #trigun maximum #dune #god emperor of dune #some stupid crossover ideas #ps #god emperor is bonkers #and kinda stupid #and women are written horribly #but they are still very interesting and there are a lot of them #I love and hate dune tbh

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satoriberry · 7 months

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IMMOVABLE OBJECT VS. UNSTOPPABLE FORCE(S); WHICH ONE OF THEM WINS? THAT'S RIGHT. LOVE!! - tokimitsu aoshi

-`♡´- resume: the laws of physics can not be disobeyed. unless your friends feel like doing so. then you can twist them as much as you like.

-`♡´- heads up: so much cutie patootieness omg its toki my love my angel my babygirl he was made for me i want to marry him i want to protect him i need to KISS HIM THESE ARENT EVEN WARNINGS ANYMORE. reader has hair (type not specified). takes place during chapter 150 shibuya outing (aka bestest chapter ong) in the uhhh the arcade!! :D very toki-centric (95% his POV)!! btw this scenario is soooo unserious i had fun with this ngl

-`♡´- berry's note: omg i love aoshi so much he's my everything <333 he's so.....*dreamily sighs* you people DO NOT GET IT!!!! HE'S EVERYTHING FOR ME HES MY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

you were so beautiful. so fucking beautiful.

he felt like a creep staring at you like this from afar but any closer and he'll most definitely regurgitate the black coffee he had earlier.

you weren't aware of him, both a sad and convenient thing. you seemed to be having a really fun conversation with your friends, boldly talking with exaggerated body language. you looked like the fun kind; the kind of person to tell a joke that'll have everybody choking, punching each other's arms and coughing. the kind of person he wants to be. or be with. it depends really.

he assumed you'd said something mind-boggling because right after saying it, your friends collectively gasped with varying levels of amusement. that made him snap out of his rêverie and go back to watching four of his friends display a concerning lack of rhythm at DDR, while the others winced or held in their laughter.

well, he was in no lack of bustling conversations himself, what with the rivals-turned-friends that he's currently with. still, it doesn't soothe the ache in his heart. the ache to be sociable, spontaneous, easy-going, calm, funny, witty or even just uncaring if that meant not being constantly on edge about everything.

gazing at his friends, he felt a bitter taste in his mouth. they were all essentially... perfect.

reo - who was stomping arrows with 0 coordination - was the blueprint of the ideal human, yukimiya and aryu looked like magazine cover features in the making, nagi possessed this aura of nonchalance that really sticks with you, and bachira could say anything and everything with zero shame or regret. he didn't have any of that. and he hated that.

he hated himself for that. and he hated that others probably disliked him for the same reasons.

"ahhhh, come on, no negativity. now's not the time," mumbling to himself, he placed his hands on either side of his face, slightly smushing his cheeks, adding some adorableness to his somewhat sombre expression. he turned his head back to you. you had started a game of air hockey with your friends and from where you were standing, he could admire you even better.

the benefit that came with being quiet is being discreet, and that allowed him to notice a number of tiny things about you. your rapidly changing expressions, your eyes (that he had come to be particularly fond of in the last 4 minutes) that darted in all directions to catch the puck and the habit you had of readjusting your bag's strap across your torso. was it a tic? he wondered if you two shared any negative qualities, thinking it'll help him feel more normal, then realised that's a horrible way of thinking about a pretty stranger.

he started to beat himself mentally, punishing his brain and imagination for trying to ruin your possibly perfect character; you didn't deserve that. he didn't deserve to be thinking about you like this, you probably had a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, or just someone in your life that'll laugh at a loser like him for wanting to imagine a chance with you.

he heard the game-over buzzer of the air hockey machine start to sound out. you and your friend lost, and the winning pair declared a rematch. he watched you and your group talk a bit before they all started to walk away. they were heading towards the token machine to get some more, and you stayed to look after the bags they had left on the floor. pulling out your phone, you started scrolling through your gallery to waste time.

you looked so peaceful, he so badly wanted to know what you were thinking of. for no particular reason, just to have an inner scope into your brain. hands still on his face, he gazed at your tranquil being through his thick lashes as his head was still a bit lowered. he probably looked a little silly like this, like a kindergartener ("tokimitsu!") admiring his first crush playing in mud ("hey tokimitsu!"), but you made him feel so many butterflies by just ("tokimitsu?") being ther-

"TOKIMITSU!!" "AH!? WHAT? WHAT IS IT? I'M SORRY FOR WHAT I DID EVEN THOUGH I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!". he apologized for... nothing in particular to karasu, who had an unnerved expression plastered on his face, and next to him stood yukimiya with one eyebrow raised. he could see from his peripheral view that reo, bachira, isagi and otoya were almost done with their round of DDR.

"DUDE? CAN YOU ANSWER WHEN WE CALL YO-" "karasu, stop yelling. we're in public." "suck my dick. anyway, are you okay, man? what were you looking at?". tokimitsu didn't respond to that, stuttering, "haaa, it's nothing really. just lost in my thoughts. hehe," but his eyes betrayed him by darting in your direction against his will, making the two boys follow his line of sight.

karasu immediately started to chuckle with a bewildered expression. "tokimitsu, were you CHECKING OUT that girl? i didn't know you had it in you. i have to say, dude, i'm proud of you. you're finally turning into a man."

with a newfound sense of shame, tokimitsu started to defend his image, replying, "c-checking her out? no, i-i-i was just admiring her. I MEAN! no. i wasn't staring at her. she's just a girl y'know- NOT THAT IT'S A BAD THING TO BE JUST A NORMAL PERSON. I DON'T KNOW HER, I SWEAR. I MEAN....". of course, any person with eyes could see that he was totally fibbing. behind them, the other guys started to group around the three after hearing the words "tokimitsu" and "checking out" and "girl". it's just those things that you NEVER hear in the same sentence.

bachira was the first to join in on the fun, asking, "what's going on?" "NOTHI-" "SHUT UP YOU! guys. form a circle."

with a strong shove, tokimitsu was pushed aside by karasu who forced everyone into a circle where he was clearly mumbling god knows what in a mischievous manner. after a few moments and a couple nods, like a hivemind, they all raised their heads and looked at him with something peculiar in their eyes.

he didn't like that. not even a bit.

"umm, what's going on?," he inquired timidly, feeling that nothing good was about to happen. karasu was the first to move towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder with his head down. "we're sorry for everything." confused, tokimitsu stared at him with an almost innocent sort of confusion. "huh." "nagi, bachira, yukimiya. do your thing."

before tokimitsu could register what's going on, he felt 6 arms wrap around his torso and both arms. following that, otoya and reo joined, placing their hands on his chest and stomach to push him backwards in a combined effort. to say he was lost and and confused was an understandment. why were they dragging him away like a captive?

then it dawned on him. they're trying to drag him to you.

they're forcing him to speak to you.

in the microsecond that this realisation hit him, he immediately forced his feet into the ground and tried to slip his arms out of their grasp, which, considering just how jacked he was, proved quite easier than expected. their grip on him started to falter but they seemed to persevere, desperately trying to make this work. grunting, they doubled the force and accelerated their movements, forcing him to take backward steps. when he noticed that the DDR machines were leaving his sight, that's when the panic really started to settle in.

"COME ON GUYS, JUST LET ME GO! THIS ISN'T FUNNY! I DON'T WANT THIS, JUST PLEASE, LET ME GO, I'M BEGGING!," he began to somewhat shriek while grabbing at their sleeves or their hands and trying to rid himself of them with no avail. "NO! WE'RE DOING THIS FOR YOU!" "BUT I CAN'T, I DON'T WANT IT."

on any normal day, you would've waited for your friends with no concerns or worries in the world, but when there's a group of boys hauling another boy in what seemed to be your exact direction, you assumed you had to be ready for whatever was about to happen. however, a blue haired boy speedwalked from behind and past them, reaching you in a few seconds' time. he stuck out his hand, you understood he wanted to shake yours.

reciprocating the gesture, he shook your hand and spoke, "karasu tabito. no time for formalities. okay, see, here's the thing," he swiftly put his arm around your back and obliged you to look at tokimitsu being held captive and inching closer to you. "ya' see that guy? the one with the blue backpack? yeah, exactly, the one with the red and green sweater. see, he sooo has the hots for you, he thinks you're really pretty. but unfortunately, he's too much of a coward to do anything so we're delivering him to you. do with that what you will."

he removed his arm and placed them on his hips, watching his mastermind plan come to fruition. you, on the other hand, got the gist of what's going on but you couldn't exactly say you weren't still lost. after some more yelling and resisting, the five guys managed to displace tokimitsu and have him right in front of you. turning him around so he would be face forward, he promptly stopped his movements after seeing that you were right there. right in front of him. gazing at him with confusion but very bright amusement.

he felt his mouth dry up, words stuck at back of his throat with no way of coming out. not in these conditions, not after you watched him get hauled like some freak. karasu winked at him before heading off, followed by the others who gave him thumbs up and whisper-yelled encouraging words.

you watched them leave, then turned your head to gaze at tokimitsu, taking in the redness of his face and the shock in his green, doe eyes. they were really mesmerising. you gave him a grin with your eyebrows raised. "hey."

that simple word made him crumble, sending him into overdrive. your voice was sweeter than anything he had imagined it to be. he tried to muster the courage to speak but miserably failed, stuttering and falling over nonsensical syllables. he gave up in no time, burying his face in his hands, closing his eyes and imagining himself elsewhere far, far away.

he expected you to snarl and ditch him or to even spit harsh words for wasting your time like this. but you did none of those.

he felt a few gentle taps on one of his hands, compelling him to peer at you through his fingers. you wore a good-natured smile on your face, looking content rather than annoyed. "i get it, really. i get super anxious over certain things too. but your friend already told me about what you want to say to me."

oh oh. that couldn't be good. he pressed his hands further into his skin without looking away, waiting for the oncoming rejection and getting turned down.

"you're really cute yourself. and handsome. whichever you like more. could you give me your hand?"

was this real? were you real? no. you had to be an angel of some sort. mindlessly removing both hands from his face and sticking one out, he watched as you took out a ballpoint pen from your bag's outer pocket and scribbled something on his palm.

you lifted your eyes and spoke, "my LINE username. we'll talk on there. is that okay with you?," he retracted his hand to read your handle, noticing the smiley next to where you scribbled. he nodded shyily, not closing his palm so he doesn't sweat off his only method of reconnecting with you. you graced him with another toothy grin before turning around to see your friends waving at you. ah. you had to leave.

you spun around to look at him one last time, waving and taking slow steps backwards. noticing that, he finally uttered his first words to you, "w-wait! what's...what's your name?," determined to put a name on your perfect being. your smile grew a bit more, then you answered, "(last name). (last name) (first name). and you are?"

"tokimitsu. tokimitsu a-aoshi."

"well then, i'll learn more about you later, tokimitsu. bye!" you spun on your foot, speedwalking to where your friends stood. he watched you tell them something that made them all look up and peer at him, then giggle in a very teenage girl fashion, before exiting the arcade, you with them.

tokimitsu stood for a few more seconds before staring down at the palm you had previously gripped with your tender hands. the reality of what just took place hit him harder than anything, the astonishment he was feeling not helping his heart's dangerous rhythm.

he didn't hesitate to immediately copy your LINE user on a piece of paper, since he could never underestimate his sweaty palms. rewriting it, he found himself imitating you and drawing a fun doodle next to your username. except, he didn't draw a smiley like you did.

he drew a heart instead.

-`♡´- berry's post-writing note: TOKIMITSUUUUUUUUUU YOU ARE MY EVERYTHINGGGGGG AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I LOVE HIM SO MUCHHHHH THE THINGS I WOULD FOR YOUUU and to you hehehe ANYWAYYYYYYY hope you guys enjoyed reading this cause i enjoyed writing this bitch ong i COOKED and if you guys don't think so uhhhhh skill issue i love anything that has to do with tokimitsu aoshi!! born march 21st favourite food eel doesn't like cream-based foo- BTW IF you're thinking "hmmm reader was supposed to play a rematch HAHAHA IMPLICIT PLOT POINT: your friends were like "fuck it we dont want that anymore call reader over so we can dip" HAHAHAHA YOU DIDNT EXPECT THAT DID YOU!!

#berry.writes <3 #blue lock #blue lock x reader #bllk x reader #blue lock x you #bllk x you #tokimitsu x reader #tokimitsu aoshi x reader #tokimitsu aoshi #aoshi tokimitsu #blue lock scenarios #blue lock imagines

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flare-the-pyrowing · 10 months

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FROGS FROGS FROGS FROGS FROGS

Aka a ninja, a monk, and a confused punchy boi.

(Ramblings under the cut)

Hehehe artists commentary time. Cause idk I wanna talk about it.

This took me a long time ngl. I mean part of that was a took a break and then had to actively make myself sit down and finish it, which I don't regret.

This was the first time I've drawn Ranno and Liligator (as well as greninja from the front), so between that and the character spacing, posing, lineart, the fact I didn't have an actual lineart pen for most of this, and attempted color matching (cough cough perfectionist cough), it was a challenge. Dude color matching Liligator's blue was really frustrating for a while, but I'm happy with how it turned out. And its As Close As I Can Get™. Ranno's bubbles gave me hell when I started coloring them. I swatched a lot of potential strategies before I tried on the sketch, so eventually it worked out and I think they work pretty good. I've drawn greninja a couple times cause they're my main in ssbu, but MAN. Drawing them from the front. Not doing that again anytime soon I'm doing just great with a three quarters angle thanks. I still think their face looks off, but I redrew their eyes at least 50 times and had to just Leave It if I ever wanted to continue.

Despite all of that, I had such a clear image of this idea in my head so I went and put it on paper. Honestly this was really fun and I like having a project I can chip away at for a couple days.

Anyway here's some alt versions cause I wanna put them here.

W/o question mark

Individual frogs (can you tell I went from left to right lol)

And I know absolutely zero (0) people care but if you wanna use these for icons you can just credit me ig.

Seeya

#left to right this is #greninja #pokémon #ranno #rivals of aether #and #Liligator #cassette beasts #traditional art #on paper #colored pencil #frogs #i love frog designs sm #art #my art #late night post #gn yall

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qqueenofhades · 10 months

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I just saw an article that said like half of trump supporters would vote for someone else if given a good option, and now all I want is someone else to get the nomination but have Trump refuse to drop out so he splits the vote. I would love nothing more than for the republicans to get 0 electoral votes…well that’s not quite true, what I would really love more than anything is for republicans to get 0 votes in general, but unless all of them forget when the election is and forget to vote for themselves that seems unlikely 😂

Basically, there is about 30 to 35% of America that is just outrageously cruel, racist, stupid, evil, and anti-everything (science, medicine, progress, voting, reason, education, history, civic society, gay people, women, non-white non-Christians, immigrants, anything that is not a fascist white nationalist theocracy) and they are beyond help. They will go down with Trump and his awful cronies to the bitter end, because they think that the primary function of government is to punish their enemies and nothing else. There is no public, social, or economic policy you can offer that will ever appeal to them, because they don't care. Nothing matters as much to them as Hurting The Other. In other words, they suck, and they are loud, dangerous, and militant, but they are not by any means the majority, they consistently suffer when their views are exposed to the mainstream public, and candidates backed by them have been regularly defeated in general elections, because they are just too extreme.

Then there are the rest of the Republican voters, who like low taxes, guns, and "small government" (aka that which doesn't run any risk of helping black people), but aren't quite the militant deranged TrumpCultists. They want a less openly criminal or at least slightly more palatable "moderate" old school GOP alternative, which has absolutely zero chance of getting past the primary-voting rancid shitgibbons mentioned above. We often get various thinkpieces wondering whether the indictments will strip these voters away from Trump, and yes, on the one hand, it is possible -- if, and only if, someone apart from him is the nominee, which for many reasons is deeply unlikely. If it is not, then anyone thinking that Republican voters will vote for anyone other than the Republican candidate, i.e. Trump, is kidding themselves. These people show up every election and vote for every R-name on the ballot. The fact that Democrats have to be wrangled and argued at so hard to do the same is one reason among many that we are in our present mess.

It is true that Trump is barely statistically viable as a candidate at this point, two-thirds of Americans think the charges (especially the J6 charges) against him are serious, and a plurality think he should suspend his presidential campaign (he won't, since it is his last chance to keep from going to jail for probably the rest of his life). It's also true that post-Dobbs, Democrats and Democratic-voting independents have been incredibly more motivated to turn out, and that Trump has never won the popular vote in any election (he only won in 2016, as we all painfully recall, because of the Electoral College). The Republicans have also consistently underperformed in every election since the Greasy Orange God King came along, and this trend is only accelerating.

None of that, again, means that we are safe or can relax or let our guard down about 2024, but it does mean that the only way these shitbags can win is by cheating up the wazoo, which they always try to do. There legitimately are not enough Americans who actually support their heinous crap to properly vote for them otherwise, and if nothing else, we can and should take comfort in that.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts #the giant orange monster

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