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rongzhi · 1 year

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I fell into the Shen Yun/Fa Lun Gong trap and am so mad at myself for that. Scale me on stupidity and warn your followers, they gotta hear it.

I would not call victims of cults stupid so therefore be free of the scale!! Reasonable and intelligent people are still susceptible to falling into cults, falling for scams, MLMs, etc. If you do not know much about anything related to Falun Gong's beliefs or the stories they tell (cough make up coughcough) through Shen Yun, then it is easy to get reeled in.

It doesn't help that a lot of the English language info that pops up when you Google Falun Gong/Shen Yun is positive, to the point that even the Falun Gong Wikipedia page paints them as a mostly innocuous spiritual group persecuted by the Evil CCP. They really like to play up this angle, by the way, and sadly for many people in the west, they hear the part where they're forbidden by the CPC and think that automatically means Falun Gong is good and everything they say must be true.

Anyway.

Here are some pieces for others to look at if you're interested and haven't seen them yet:

Video sources

if you're an audio/visual person.

Personally I think the papers/articles are more informative and less annoying (The second video is a video essay whose creators I can only describe as "probably spend a lot of time on liberal Twitter" and "clearly learned everything they know about China from Reddit")

youtube

^2020 release date (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzlMQyM8p74) ↳ Includes interviews of both Falun Gong and former Falun Gong figures. If you're like me, the condescending Englishman POV will make you roll your eyes at least once.

youtube

^2021 release date (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzlMQyM8p74) ↳ sort of gives an overview about Falun Gong from an outsider POV, but the narrator uncritically repeats some of the persecution claims made by Falun Gong (esp. the organ harvesting claims, which are most likely not true imo), and by Amnesty International...via Falun Gong advocates. I honestly wouldn't bother to link this video as a source except it seems like one of the bigger ones that show up in a Youtube search, and they do touch on a lot of sources. Their research just seems really shallow and their commentary on the issue is rudimentary to the point of being unnecessary tbh.

Papers/Articles

ExposingTheFalunGong.org (via wayback machine), a website created by the child of former members ↳ This site includes more description of actual belief, which might better inform you on why they are/can be harmful

Stepping Into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun (The New Yorker, 2019)

The Obscure Newspaper Fueling the Far-Right in Europe (The New Republic, 2019) ↳ This is mostly about The Epoch Times, which is a Falun Gong funded newspaper and mouthpiece.

A Burning Faith in the Master: Interpreting the 1.23 Incident (paper hosted by JSTOR, 2018) (Google Drive link if you're out of JSTOR articles this month) ↳ The 1/23 Incident was an incident where multiple Falun Gong practitioners interpreted words by Li Hongzhi (FLG's founder) to mean they should self-immolate at Tiananmen Square

#text #answered ask #falun gong #religion #long post

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megabuild · 2 months

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wait I'm so curious what are the four 'sects' of mcyt ?

full disclaimer: this is something i've been thinking up myself largely based on my own personal experience with each aspect of the fandom, so if people want to correct things or add on, i'd be happy to see it! having said that,

this ⤴️ is a condensed look at my fandom crit autism. largely fuelled by the people's want to label mcyt fandom as one single united fandom when that is far from the case- never mind that plenty of smps has vastly different audience, eg. a preteen who's just getting into 3rd life after watching hermitcraft as a kid is not going to be rubbing shoulders with hardcore fans of epic smp, even within fandoms of singular smps there are still vast differences between the areas of discussion- leading to this labelling of four "sects"! there are other areas ofc, such as insta and tiktok, but i would consider these the main areas where mcyt is discussed (at least for hermitcraft/3l, which is my personal focus- i know dsmp was big on tiktok with cosplayers(?) but can't speak to it much) in depth, as well as the main areas ccs may look to in order to understand their fandom.

it's a massive simplification but the categories are as follows; ability to interact directly with ccs (and if the cc is likely to respond), ability to engage with criticism (both valid crit and more negative commentary, veering into hate), ability to engage with characterisation (as in, accepting that cubito is separate from cc, and what level they will accept that it- this also goes for shipping/nsfw content) and the primary age group (because that is in part relevant when dealing with youtube comments.)

to me this especially matters not just for ccs but for people within fandom to understand where certain sentiments (especially irt negative commentary) is coming from and how they can solve that- too often i see people on here picking fights over perceived negativity when it actuality that largely comes from reddit and yt. that's not to say it isn't possible here, but it is certainly less of an issue imo.

#anon #asks #meta

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melrodrigo · 10 months

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Tardy, part 5

Tara Carpenter x Fem!Reader

Summary: There’s incriminating evidence against you, what will Tara believe?

Warnings: Scream levels of violence, swearing, angst, jealous Tara

Word Count: 2.3k

A/N: Hey babes, I know I said I’d stop the angst… but yk, the angst goblin took over. Also!! thank you for 400 followers <33 lurb all y’all

"Why did they find your DNA at the crime scene?"

Your eyes almost bulge out at her statement. "What? What are you talking about?"

You move forward but she recoils; like being around you scares her.

She stares at you, eyes hard. There's something else swimming in her eyes too; it looks like regret.

You stop in place, trying not to startle her. You get it; you do. It must be hard to trust anyone, after what Tara's been through. The fact she even agreed to be your girlfriend was a surprise; a pleasant one at that, but a surprise.

Nevertheless, it still feels like a stab in the heart when she takes another step back.

"Tara," You say gently, "I know you're suspicious, and you have every right to be. I'm just begging you right now to believe me. I had nothing to do with this, and I never will."

She's still stiff, that's obvious, but you see her eyes soften just the tiniest bit. It’s in the slight crinkle at the tips of her eyes.

"I like you so much Tar, I'd never do anything to hurt you." You say, voice starting to choke up by the end of your statement. Your eyes are wide and pleading

Tara stares at you for a long time. Far too long for comfort, and then-

"Okay."

You breathe a sigh of relief, your heart swelling immediately. You step forward again, and Tara doesn't back away.

You're both silent as you take Tara in a bear hug, holding on for dear life. Her breathing is steady against yours.

"But if I ever find something more suspicious about you; I won't let you go so easy. It won't be pretty." She whispers, tone menacing.

You gulp

Tara's unhappy with you; if that wasn't obvious enough from your last interaction.

You've tried to approach her 5 different times in the past few days. She's all shrugs and quiet snappy comments.

She does an amazing job at avoiding you, considering the fact that you guys live together. Well practically, anyway.

She manages to be out all day every day with Sam and turns the lights off in your shared bedroom the minute you enter. The only time she doesn't shy away from you is when she needs a quick release.

Hurt isn't the word to describe how you feel, it's more of a stinging, nagging feeling.

You'd trust Tara with your life, did she not trust hers with you?

It's starting to take a toll on you, the pushing away, the irritable quips; the only wanting you around when she wants to fuck.

It's not like you could contact your friends and leave...well you could, but that would only be putting them in danger. You didn’t want to be the reason for anyone's inconvenience.

Though in the midst of it all, an unexpected friendship had blossomed between you and Ethan.

You'll admit, it started in a nerdy type of way. You were sitting in the apartment, watching a show on your phone in fascination. The rest of the group was also with you; but watching the tv, munching on the pizza you'd ordered.

They all acted the same around you, which leads you to believe Sam and Tara haven’t told them yet.

Well, maybe Tara does still care about me a little bit.

"No way! Is that Dylan Is In Trouble?" Ethan exclaims from behind you, catching sight of the YouTuber you'd been watching.

It's been so long since anyone had a real conversation with you, your head snaps to him and you nod excitedly.

He rounds the couch to sit beside you, look on his face childlike.

"I love Dylan Is In Trouble, did you watch the recent commentary yet?" He asks as he sits down.

You tilt your phone so he can see clearly, "What do you think this is?" You tease.

He smiles sheepishly, the bottom of his neck starting to turn red.

He seems a little embarrassed after this, and you're scared he might've taken your teasing the wrong way.

"My favorite videos of his are Gone Girl and the Harry Potter marathon." You say.

His eyes light up again almost immediately. They resemble a pug in the way they look like they'll almost fall out his head.

"Me too!"

"Do you wanna watch it together?" You offer, taking an airpod from your ear and handing it to the boy.

He takes it happily, smiling softly.

It turns out Ethan and you have quite a lot in common. He's cute, and nice, and doesn't treat you like scum on earth; which is better than whatever everybody else has been doing.

It's movie night tonight, the first one Tara will be at since the fight. You've been trying to calm your nerves all day, but the shaky hands and weak knees are a dead giveaway to how you’re really feeling.

"Dude! You're going to be fine." Ethan reassures, watching you pace from one corner of the room to another; hands around your head.

You’ve told Ethan a little about your fight with Tara, and he’s been your rock ever since.

"God, this is stupid. I should just skip movie night." You say, flopping onto the bed.

Ethan groans, grabs your hand, and drags you up and out of the room you were currently hidden in.

You do feel a little better with Ethan by your side, chatting his ass off to distract you. It kind of works.

He grabs your attention even more when he talks about Elizabeth Olsen. Now that was one hell of a topic to get your mind off Tara.

You're so submerged in the conversation by the time you get to the couch that you don't even notice her enter and sit on the couch; the farthest seat away from you as possible.

You couldn’t care less, at that point.

Ethan blabs on about how much he'd like to do things you aren’t nasty enough to repeat to the scarlet witch.

You punch his shoulder lightly, and scowl.

"Dude, uncool. You talk about my wife like that?" You muse, raising an eyebrow.

You're so caught up in the teasing you forget about how loud you are. The room goes quiet, and unbeknownst to you all eyes turn to Tara.

She's no longer ignoring you, she's staring straight at your hand; that’s still touching Ethan's arm, glaring daggers.

Ethan coughs when he sees Tara and tries to signal to you that she looks less than unhappy. You don't seem to understand, only laugh harder and show Ethan your lock screen.

"You know, there's a reason why Ms. Lizzie Olsen is my lock screen." You snicker, but you're interrupted by a scoff from across the room.

Now you realize that everything's gone silent. You furrow your eyebrows, peer at Tara.

She looks absolutely livid.

You roll your eyes, so you weren't allowed to have any fun while she's mad at you?

Fuck that, this is the most you've laughed in ages.

You stand up, grab Ethan's hand and lead him over to your shared room. Tara stares.

"Dude! Get your hands off me, Tara's looking at me like she's about to kill me!" Ethan whispers, hushed and hurried.

You look back at him, eyes determined.

"That's the point." And you lean forward to press a kiss on his cheek, making sure everyone in the living room can see you.

You're too worked up to care at the moment, if this is what it takes to make Tara talk to you again; you'd happily do it a million times over.

"Oh god, I'm dying today." He squeaks, ears beet red.

You guys get to the room, and it takes Tara 1...2...

-before the door bursts open, her eyes wild. She looks incandescent with rage.

"Get. Out." She practically sneers at Ethan, and damn that boy doesn't have a single independent bone in his body because he leaves so quickly you think he might trip on his own legs.

The moment he's gone Tara surges at you, backing you up into the wall harshly, fiddling with the buttons of your pants.

As much as you want her, this isn’t what you had planned for.

"No, Tara." You mumble, lightly using your hands to shove the smaller girl away.

"Shut up, I need you right now." She says as she slips her hands underneath your shirt and lets them roam all around your body shamelessly.

You shove harder this time.

"I said no, Tara." Your voice is hard, and this time Tara pulls back, apprehension on her face.

You walk to the door, and stand in front of it; blocking Tara from running away.

"I need you to talk to me." You whisper, tone hard.

Tara fakes a confused expression, averting her eyes from your gaze.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I've forgiven you already." She says, voice high.

You scoff, cross your arms against your chest.

"You've forgiven me but you don't trust me. You've been ignoring me all week, and the only time you even touch me is when you want to have sex. It's like I'm not even your girlfriend anymore!" You yell, pent-up anger spilling out of you before you can stop it.

Tara's dead silent for a moment. The air feels electric. She's staring at you with fire in her eyes.

"Maybe you shouldn't be my girlfriend."

She whispers it, but it sounds about a million times louder than anything else right now.

The room suddenly feels hollow and empty. Tara's saying something but it sounds muffled.

You feel tears start to threaten their way out of your eyes, and you turn away; determined not to cry in front of her.

"...but I can't trust anyone right now, not even you." is the rest of what she says.

You scoff.

"I thought you'd at least have a little more faith in me, I mean, your sister's DNA was found there too!"

Tara fidgets on her feet, looking like she'd rather do anything than stand in front of you.

"But Sam's my sister." She says softly, looking down at her feet.

It's all too much, all at once. You feel bile rising in your throat, your heart heavier than it's ever been; thumping at a million miles per hour.

"YN, wait-" Tara reaches as you grab open the door and rush out. You need to go somewhere, anywhere that isn't here.

"Wait, dude, where are you going?" Ethan starts, trying to get you to stay; stumbling over his own feet.

"Out." You snap, shooting him a dirty look. You know he doesn't deserve it, but everything's so hectic and shitty that you couldn't care less about how he feels.

It looks like he's about to say something else but you speak before he can even start.

"Don't think about following me."

And then you walk out, leaving everyone in the room staring in awkward silence.

The music is blaring loud enough for you to drown your thoughts, the only thing present in your mind is the feeling of the beat and the melody.

Perfect.

You prop your arms on the balcony railing of the pub and stare into the darkness of the night.

There are at least 20 different text messages from Ethan and two from Tara. You scowl as you see it, bitter bitter feeling in your heart.

It's kind of nice actually, being away from the group. Not thinking about Tara, not thinking about anything.

You hear a shuffle from behind you, assume it's someone pushing the glass door onto the balcony to smoke.

You don't turn around, just lay your head in your hands as you enjoy the view.

A piercing pain shoots right up your body, and you faintly feel something slide out of you.

It's numbing at first, and you turn slowly; in shock. You look down at your shoulder blade, the same side of your body you were sliced; and see that the wound has reopened.

"Huh." You mutter, looking up to see none other than Ghostface stalking in front of you.

He looks smaller than you remember.

You tut, it's not like you weren't expecting Ghostface to come to find you. You were in a horror movie after all; isn't the first rule not to split up?

"So....are you going to just stand there like a coward or are you going to finish the job?" You taunt, watching as Ghostface's palms turn into fists.

You get a little kick out of it, heart jumping with adrenaline.

Ghostface rushes forward, gripping both sides of your arms; holding tight. It hurts your just infected stab wound.

As much as you'd like to die at the moment, there's still a teeny weeny bit of you that wants to hold on and kill this son of a bitch. So he'll never hurt another soul again, he'll never hurt your Tara.

You grab at his face, but he's quicker. He swerves your flying fists, head butting your chest.

It takes you a minute to catch your breath again, Ghostface takes the opportunity to stab your stomach; twisting and churning your skin into itself.

"Fucking hell." You manage out and use the last of your strength to uppercut as hard as you can, and you're almost sure you feel your knuckles crack under the pressure.

It takes him off guard, stumbling back onto the railing. You curse when you see he doesn't fall off the goddamn balcony.

You clutch your bleeding arm, throw the bottle of whiskey you were drinking at Ghostface as hard as you can, and run.

Run. Run. Run.

You sprint through the crowd of people, pushing and kicking your way through. Not a single one of them gives a single shit about your bleeding arm, or the fact that you're panting so heavily you'd resemble a dog.

You're so caught up in avoiding bodies you don't realize you literally slam into someone.

Big brown wild eyes stare back at you, and you gasp. He’s covered in cuts from top to bottom, face battered and bloody.

It couldn't be...

"Ethan?" You breathe out.

#tardy #tara carpenter #tara carpenter x reader #jenna ortega x reader #jenna ortega #scream vi #mine

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askdiscordwhooves · 4 months

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Ask Discord Whooves has come to its conclusion, and that means the posts below this point contain major spoilers for the story! This post will also have the author's final comments below a 'read more' to avoid spoilers. In this commentary, I will talk about new details about the story, such as what the future looks like in this universe and clearing up some lore.

If you wish to read from the beginning, you can start from the first page here!

Or, if you were in the middle of reading and wish to start where you left off, go to the table of contents here!

Also for consideration, you can read the prequel blog @lovestruck-derpy and the side blog @askthetimemaster to get more insight on the story. It is recommended you read Lovestruck Derpy first, then Ask The Time Master after you've read Discord Whooves.

Other side blogs involved in the story that can be read after everything else for a little more insight are as follows:

@tantamount-time-turner @torchwoodv @valtavia

Thank you for being interested in the story, I hope you enjoy your read!

!!AUTHOR FINAL COMMENTS BELOW!!

It would be appreciated if people who have read the blog to its end read this post and give their input on the overall story via comment or reblog, or sending the author @jitterbugjive a comment via ask or submission.

Surprise, everyone! Coach is The Doctor's next life!

This was the original plan from the very start of when I made Coach. Look, here's some proof, the plush I had commissioned of him has a cutie mark!

For those who don't know who (Pony) Coach is, you can read a bunch of asks sent to him here and get to know him, and for those who do know him you can re-read with context:

[Coach at The-Character-Lounge]

Now, I know I've moved on and made Coach a human and his own character for my current main project, My Magic Grandpa, but that was because I loved him as a character so much that I couldn't just end him after Discord Whooves.

He and his Granddaughter Suzie have paranormal fantasy adventures in the 90s starting in Oregon. You can read the comic which has been updating for 4 years here: http://www.mymagicgrandpa.com OR http://www.mymagicgrandpa.net for better phone viewing.

If you want more Doctor Whooves content from me, consider following the youtube series "Doctor Whooves and Assistant", where I am the head writer and voice actor for Derpy. It is still active and hopefully will be for quite some time.

I also want people to know about three more of my original projects,”Bedeviled Dotty” ( @bedeviled-dotty), “Once Upon a Calamity” ( @nightmaretales) and “WTF? I’m a Magical Girl’s Familiar?!” (@magicalgirlsfamiliar) Two of which I want to start updating in 2024 and one that's been updating for a few years now.

OUAC has been around for a very long time, it’s a collection of familiar but twisted fairy tales and it has been on hiatus for years because of my other projects taking priority. I'm excited to be bringing it back.

WTF?MGF meanwhile is an adult dark comedy magical girl comic combined with an apocalyptic outbreak scenario. Its pilot will launch in January of 2024 and the comic will begin properly in 2025.

“Bedeviled Dotty” has been going for a few years now, and is a story about a magical anthro rabbit who makes a deal with a kitsune in order to obtain the love of her professor.

I highly encourage people to check them out!

Now about The Doctor version of Coach! When he first regenerated, he was ecstatic to have a small nose!

Not only that but he had a new appreciation for life and took on a life to the fullest attitude. He also cast away the identity of 'The Doctor', letting himself become his own as 'Coach' because he considers himself a referee to the universe and a sort of life coach to whoever he encounters. (Those that can stand him of course) He loves interacting with others, but he can be impatient and snippy at times and quite pushy without meaning to. He also has a hard time reading others' emotions, and can only think in context of how he would feel. This is because in this life he has something akin to ASD that he's unaware of, and it's a huge challenge for him because of how much he wants to help and entertain others.

He likes to use sports words and phrases in his vocabulary, which would be his quirk. He also collects sports equipment and uses them for experiments and inventions, though he doesn't really like sports themselves.

One of the last things Derpy said to him before she died was that she had no regrets, and neither should he. So in his next life, as Coach, he took this very seriously and is always moving forward with no regrets. This can make him seem heartless at times because of how easily he leaves things behind, but he always needs to be on the move and needs to change things up because he's teaming with chaos magic.

That's right, the chaos energy stayed with him, but it manifested in a more controllable form because he became a unicorn. He can't use normal unicorn spells, a lot of his magic has a mind of its own. It will often do as asked, but it will do it in random ways. 'Open a locked door' for example could mean unlocking the door, or turning the door into popcorn. One of his first magic mishaps was transmogrifying his sonic screwdriver into a golf club. It still functions the same, just has a different shape now.

Coach spent about 60 years exploring on his own and taking on temporary companions that he'd keep a distance from so chances of anything bad happening to them would be less. But he eventually longs to see his Grandaughter, Tootsie Flute, and wants to take her on adventures with him, feeling like it would be a good do-over from the old Doctor's life. He fondly calls her Suzie because of reminiscing about the memories of Susan from the 1st Doctor days. While Suzie is often exasperated with him, she is also fascinated with him and the things he shows her. She has to keep their adventures a secret though, because Coach is scared to face his old family again and disappoint them. He doesn't want to see them without being able to understand them any more, it would break his hearts.

In order to take Suzie on adventures with him, they find a rogue changeling to replace her at home.

Speaking of changelings, he keeps in contact with [Tantamount Doctor], who has since started his own hive and is now a Royal. He gets much adored offerings of cheese from Coach.

The Doctor also never really felt like there was a right time to approach The Master’s daughter, Eighth Note. He kept feeling like it would ruin her otherwise good life to introduce her to time and space like that. She grew up to be a nurse in a maternity ward, her beautiful voice soothing babies as she would sing to them. Perhaps she has a little hypnotic influence from her father?

But Coach meanwhile with his no regrets attitude charged right in to take her on as a temporary companion to show her the ropes of being a Time Lord and having a TARDIS of her own. Needless to say, she’s trouble for Coach, as she can be a huge tease and she enjoys flustering the poor guy who just doesn’t want the Master to come back from the grave to kill him. It’s all in good fun for her and never serious, though, so nothing of an intimate nature really happens between them.

Finally, whenever Coach regenerated which wouldn't be for a long time, it would be because the chaos magic would become too unstable and the only way he can stay alive is to regenerate into a draconequus. Which gives us -drumroll-

Pandemonium!

Pandemonium is on the chaotic good alignment and he finds a way to bring back Gallopfrey and allow the true pony Doctor and Master to exist. He playfully antagonizes them and tries to keep them on a good path as best he can.

And that's pretty much how the whole thing ends!

When I started Discord Whooves, I was in a pretty dark place. I was bitter, angry, feeling like I had to fill peoples' expectations without really having anything special of my own. Discord Whooves started as a vent blog because A. The Brony fandom's constant pressure on me as a well known voice actor for Derpy, which made me bitter about her, B. Because I was upset I was getting known more for my voice than my main talent, drawing, on top of feeling dysphoric about my feminine voice, and C. The expectations that were on me reflected on how I acted, and I wanted to do something dark without my old name attached to it to prove I could do something interesting besides PG rated radio plays. I gained a lot more popularity than I thought I ever would, and had so much support, and as JitterbugJive I got to be myself without any expectations. It helped me come out eventually not only as BaldDumboRat, but as a transgender male.

Popularity sadly got to my head, it caused a lot of stress and a lot of outbursts and when I started my mod blog I was a very calm person who brushed things off. But more and more people started to pick fights with me and I felt the need to defend myself. This was also during a time I made another vent blog that was for dealing with the abuse I'd been through in the past, so I was facing a lot of demons at the time and could be triggered easily.

And then I had my bi-polar manic episode that made me literally insane for months, which threw me in to a year long depression that destroyed my art for a good while (It looked really really awful during that time, a lot of people noticed it) but the good thing about it was that it got me in touch with a therapist and got me diagnosed not only bi-polar 1 but PTSD, which was a shock to me but it made a lot of sense. I got a PTSD service dog, anxiety medication, bi-polar medication, and while the year of depression sucked I slowly got to pull myself back together and reflect on who I'd been. With anxiety meds I wasn't getting as angry any more, and therapy was helping me properly cope with the past and with the popularity issues. I wanted to be a better person, and I became one.

I even decided to take on a career path where I could help other people like me and like Discord Doctor, becoming a peer wellness specialist to help those experiencing mental illness and addiction. I use my own experiences to connect with them, give them hope, and show them they are not alone and there are people who do understand what they're going through who will help them. The training I went through ended up changing a lot of aspects of how Discord Whooves was treated moving forward, giving him a more realistic journey and showing people a very true message of hope and recovery. And the only reason I'm where I am now is because of experiencing that first psychotic episode that made me reach out for help.

I had two psychotic episodes in the span of Discord Whooves’ run, and they gave me a first hand experience of what it’s like to completely lose control of your own actions. I hurt people, I caused a lot of damage, and I had to face the consequences of those actions. And because of this, I had personal knowledge of what it’s like to come out of such a horrible state, and all the guilt and fear that comes with it. The Doctor’s journey suddenly became so much more personal to me, because I’d been there. And his journey of recovery is to show that despite everything, there’s still hope. Recovery is possible.

Something else my mania did was lead me to the idea of My Magic Grandpa, because my head came up with so many crazy ideas that I wanted to use and I was looking for a lot of inspiration during my depression that it all started coming together. And thus Coach and Suzie evolved into humans in their own story, because I didn't entirely want Discord Whooves to end where Coach and Suzie only just begins. And now they can continue on in their own way, in my own way, and I can let go of a blog about depression and anger and instead make a story about growth and inspiration.

In a way, it's like I regenerated with The Doctor, and I hope people can appreciate that and continue to support me.

I want to thank all the people who have worked with me on this project, be it for crossover, to contribute guest art, to Warden and Lauren and a handful of other people who helped me write the story and brought fantastic characters into it. I couldn’t have gotten this far without you, and the story would be in a much worse place now if it weren’t for everyone’s help.

Thank you all for staying with me on this 12 year journey. Looking back, I've made some dumb mistakes, but I learned a lot from them and your dedication helped me stick to my guns and end my first large scale project! It hit some bumps but dammit I made it happen and I am so happy I did! Now I hope people will check out my other projects that were linked above. I will still produce pony content on @the-character-lounge on occasion when I have the time and motivation.

I want to continue to bring everyone compelling stories that will tug at their emotions, and I don't plan on disappearing. So if you want to continue this journey with me, to see what Coach and Suzie have evolved into, please give my other works a follow!

Thank you, everyone! Your comments on this post in particular would be greatly appreciated! What did you think of the story as a whole? What do you think of Coach being the Doctor’s new life? Are there things you were expecting or wished would be different? How would you have ended the story? Did you enjoy the finale? Did you have a theory that Coach was The Doctor? Who was your favorite character? Favorite moment? Least favorite moment? I want to know! Please talk about it!

#spoilers #warning #discord whooves #author

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cochart · 2 months

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One thing that struck me as interesting recently is the almost unreasonable trust people have for ChatGPT.

Recently, I ran across a Youtube video where the creator was talking about how she asked ChatGPT this and that and how convenient it was. This was strange to me as a simple Google search is able to do the same thing.

For example, this is what I get when I search a question "Is Rigel hotter than Betelgeuse?" Google tells me that indeed Rigel is hotter than Betelgeuse. It also tells me that the info comes from the New Mexico State University website which I'd say is pretty trustworthy. So I don't see how using ChatGPT to ask such questions is easier or faster.

But there is a difference--that difference being that with ChatGPT, you're being "told" the information. Basically, you feel more catered to. When you use Google search, you feel like you're foraging for information. When you use ChatGPT, you feel like you have an assistant. There is a feeling of having something mysteriously intelligent answering your question for you.

I've also seen people who post delighted screenshots of ChatGPT telling them something they wanted to hear whether it's a snarky remark about their ex-boyfriend or a smart-ish commentary on sexism. People are free to find enjoyment in anything as long as it doesn't hurt other people, but what I found so interesting was how happy these people were that it was ChatGPT that told them this or that. It's one thing to feel happy and encouraged by a specific engineer you admire saying that she wishes for a future where more women enter STEM, but why does it matter if a machine-learning algorithm spews out a sentence--probably synthesized from millions of words it scraped from people who said something similar--that you like? How is it more meaningful than, say, a fortune you randomly drew?

Here's fortune that I drew. It's from Kanda Shrine if I remember correctly. It says I'm very lucky moneywise. My friend made fun of me saying that the fortune was correct because I didn't find any merch I wanted on that day which meant I spent much less than I planned to. Anyway, ChatGPT saying whatever means no more to me than a random fortune I can buy from a shrine. I'd even say it means less than a fortune from a shrine since a shrine at least has some cultural significance. Also, it might mean something for spiritual people (Perhaps ChatGPT fans are techno-spiritual?)

My conclusion is that we shouldn't let techbros fool us into thinking that these algorithmic tools are intelligent in any capacity. The language surrounding these tools treat them as though they're independent, intelligent entities which they're not. I know a lot of my followers--you Tolkien fans--are passionate about language, so you'd know what I'm talking about. Language is a powerful tool. Right now, it's being used to mask the theft and lies of these tech capitalists. But we shouldn't let ourselves be fooled.

#coch talk

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echoarts03 · 6 months

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REMEMBER, VIDEO GAME FANS!

You don't have to of played a game to be fan.

Perhaps you don't have the money for that $60 steam game, or you dont have a VR headset to play that one game you really wanna play. Maybe playing horror games aren't your thing, but it's easier for you to watch someone else play it.

As long as you're a fan, as long as you love the game or series, you are still a fan. NOBODY can tell you you're not.

Wikipedia defines a fan as the following: A fan or fanatic, sometimes also termed an aficionado or enthusiast, is a person who exhibits strong interest or admiration for something or somebody.

As long as you enjoy something, and it makes you happy, you are a fan.

I do a LOT of Cuphead art, but did you know it took me 5 months to finally be able to get the money to play the game and it's DLC? Yet everyone still loved my art, and I know literally the stupidest of fun facts about it.

I've ALSO never played FNAFs 3 or 4, but if you sat me down in front of the games for the first time and told me to uncover their secrets, I wouldn't even struggle; I'd know exactly where to look to find those stupid secrets, or those 8-bit minigames.

Enjoy games however you want, because people who call you a "fake fan" are just a bunch of idiots who want to make you feel bad for not spending $60 on that one game you can't afford, when Youtube can provide you with plenty of gameplay videos with no commentary that you can watch.

Keep being nerds, ya nerds! o7

#five nights at freddy's #fnaf #cuphead #video games #pc games #mobile games #gamer #steam games #videogame #gaming #game

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edenslice · 5 months

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#crowley would be the most toxic talkshitter chismosa ass streamer ever i know it. like it's a miracle he hasnt been banned yet etc

you GET IT 🔥🔥🔥

YES 🔥🔥🔥 crowley curses a minimum 15 times in one sentence. he does jschlatt style "rating my follower's rooms/presentations" streams and goes into cardiac arrest at how unhinged his community is but he's not allowed to complain because he's Worse.

he either streams for 50 minutes doing nothing but ratting out his new subs ("maggotparty50 i would say thanks for the 24 months, quote unquote, but you literally just spent so much money on me and you'll never get it back you stupid fucking wanker. thanks though 'ppreciate it") OR he streams for 7 hours straight drunk and high out of his mind no commentary subs/bits off.

there's one memorable stream where he watched cooking videos made by other people and would constantly pile on it saying his "angel could do MUCH better than that" and started a twitter argument over a) who the hell is angel and b) who the FUCK would willingly date this wanker.

he gets nominated in the just chatting and gaming categories and hasnt won ever. his vods are never saved too and those who manage to save it / upload it on youtube gets copyright striked in a day no matter what edits those fans/archivists make.

#sorry this got long streamer crowley is just SO funny to me #i love ur art btw u get me so well MWA #asks #crowley #good omens #ineffable streamers

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dnphobe · 3 months

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i am so deeply fascinated by the specific culture of internet fame and the conflation of the brand and the personal that happens as the result of a form of fame uniquely reliant on (perceived) interpersonal connection rather than a specific professional output. and dan and phil are one of the only not-deeply-depressing examples bc they have semi-successfully escaped their original personas while still retaining boundaries with their audience. the straight man/fool schtick is still a part of their dynamic (bert and ernie fr) but they're able to be so tongue in cheek about it at this stage it's very interesting to me

it's like. such a specific thing. because to equate dan and phil to comediens (the closest comparison i can find to their careers but from traditional media. or even radio personalities (something they actually were for years)....i don't know anything about those people's personal lives, at least not until there's a scandal that breaks everyone's view of them because it doesn't match with their stage personas.

but dan and phil's jobs, and the majority of online public figures, pretty much Require some degree of personalisation. there's possibilities for that Not to happen, like with people who Just post short films, or even the comparatively more recent rise of video essayists (and before that commentary youtubers) where the focus is very much on a Topic. but the very First youtuber boom (compared to youtube Video boom) was very much. person sits in front of camera and tells you about their life. and that's what those youtubers did. except in all the ways they didn't both because they had to be entertaining and many Real things are simply...not entertaining or interesting to people who don't know you. so you exaggerate who you are and stretch the truth of the stories you tell. and second of all because...who Wants strangers to know them personally? i don't. there's things my closest friends don't know about me. because i don't Feel like sharing those things (i will clarify here i am a painfully private person who hates being perceived for no real reason. but i'm sure Everyone goes through this to some degree.

and YES. dan and phil have indeed semi-successfully escaped those personas and i feel like there's a lot of youtubers we can't say that about. like yes their audience isn't as big as it used to be, but i feel like next to none of that is because of people disliking the shedding of persona. i largely put it down to the following things: the passage of time. all 'celebrities' level of fame fluctuates, largely with a rise then fall, but potential for a rise again; tied to the passage of time many people consider dan and phil to be a part of their 'cringy' teenhood and haven't given their newer eras a chance due to their own internalised shame, and; yeah, a Large aspect of the phandom was the Mystery. Are they Gay, are they Together, Why won't they Tell us they are Gay and Together. then they told us they're gay and told us they're Not gonna tell us concretely they're together. I don't LIKE admitting this because those of us here are like. here for more than 'phan' (or out of genuine appreciation for their relationship rather than treating it as something to get to the Bottom of), but this Is proven by the numbers their click bait videos did.

that was a a tangent. now i am going to go on another one and theorize on Why dan and phil have gotten through their rebranding(s) largely unscathed:

so first of all the parasocialisation or whatever you want to call it in the fandom was. Always more intense than even many other similar fanbases. except it wasn't i Feel like i know you from your on screen persona. it was i Feel like i know you Past your persona and i know this persona isn't You. which makes us sound tinhat as hell, like oh we know you Better than the things you show us? except we were right (phannie mantra tbh). like there's a reason people were fighting tooth and nail for phil to say 'fuck' for so long and it's not because we were interested in seeing him be something different than he was, but because we were perfectly aware he was a man around the age of 30 who can and does say swears and we wanted him to be Him with us. in many ways we Always wanted them to shed the personas.

second of all, they timed shedding their personas Very well. they started doing it after tatinof, which, while many of us were still young we were getting Older and changing a lot ourselves. so we were adjusted to change in the way we wouldn't have been before. and they dropped it even more Post coming out, and, i mean, how are you gonna be mad about that? their sexuality is in a way very tangled up in the personas, and as a largely LGBT+ fandom we wanted them to be able to express this part of them they've been holding back freely, and if that comes with dropping Other facades then, well, the closet is a hell of a drug. like. of Course they are going to change after a Big Change. which is another thing. they always Communicated they were about to change. whether that's dan making a whole video on a rebrand and changing his hair, or post-baking universe, or post-coming out.

but mostly i think it's this: dan and phil CULTIVATED their audience. they learned not to surprise us with the backlash from tabinof's sudden announcement and then would pepper in hints for any project and any change months-years in advance. and if you didn't like the hints you were getting? you could leave. only here for the mystery? here's the line of what you're gonna get, you can leave. but the people who stayed are people who Stayed. they have a staying power where it wasn't just...trading in one group of kids for another when the first group ages out, or being left to flounder after the first group ages out. and the second they stopped having a young audience, they stopped trying to Appeal to a young audience when they stopped having one, locking those doors. and i think that maturing with us was very important bc look if they Were still in those 2015 personas? i wouldn't be here. i'd be like...thanks but i am too old for this. so, conversely to everything, i think shedding those personas was, in a way, only BENEFICIAL to them

does any of this makes sense lmao

#sorry for this essay hdjdjdkdl #i feel like i didn't even cover all ur points which i wish i did bc they are all So interesting #but 'ry shut up' kicked in #but i love talking abt their personas and perception and the evolution of it all #thank u for sending this to lil ole me!#asks

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eruhamster · 2 months

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james somerton apparently left a suicide note on some social media of his and hasnt been heard from and twitter has been trending about it all day because the conversation seems caught between 'oh well we hope he didnt commit suicide but no one is at fault for that' and 'hbomb is a woke devil and killed this guy. i only care because i hate hbomb' and like

it's legitimately so fascinating how hard it is for people to see any sort of middle-ground. that a guy making huge amounts of money, over $30k/mo on patreon, to create hours-long, snarky videos exposing people for their actions, who clearly knows these videos are done in a way that they incite a harassment campaign every time... and who continued to bring somerton up on twitter ... might be at least partially culpable if it turns out somerton did commit suicide.

obviously somerton needed to be deplatformed, obviously his plagiarism needed to be exposed, but hbomb's videos like the plagiarism video essentially function as the new Content Cop and go out of their way to incite harassment and hatred of the person for their actions, rather than only bringing the actions to light. these videos of his are so long because they hammer home "look how bad a person this person is! don't you hate him? look at each and every shitty thing he did! isn't he so shitty?!" - the plagiarism video specifically being long because it did that on top of going "and look at this even SHITTIER guy!" multiple times until you reached the final 'most shitty guy' of james somerton.

and it even struck me back then how malicious that video was when i couldn't make it past the internet historian part, because he began that section by saying how he personally doesn't like the guy, and then went on to compare entire paragraphs of text that were nothing alike, and 'expose' this guy for what really amounts to a minor citation issue that was dealt with privately and reuploaded without an issue - he was exposing a guy for 'plagiarism' that was already handled and removed, because he didn't like him. and then went on to go and push on to expose an entirely different guy as 'even shittier!!!' - you can't so recklessly be making malicious videos like that and not be criticized for being the cause of a mental health crisis.

it is very fascinating to me that no one really wants to think about what everyone on the internet hating you can do to a person. but maybe that'd mean people would have to think about their role in somerton's death (if he did die, that is), and that's not a can of worms a lot of people are interested in unpacking.

it's really reminiscent to me of celebrity journalism of the 2000s. stuff like TMZ, tabloids, paparazzi are all understood today as having caused many mental health crises in their time. the digital version of it, youtube 'journalists' and the following commentary youtubers and twitter dogpiles can just as easily cause that same issue. this should not be controversial to say. it's common sense.

#james somerton #hbomberguy

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poemsfor-her · 7 months

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GLOW UP QUIDE 𖹭⠀࣭⠀ֹ⠀͡꒱

I. THE INNER ME

— When you think of the word "glow up" , your mind automatically thinks of changing your appearence, right? For me the beauty is in our soul. If you think nasty and degrading thoughts of yourself that can be damaging in so many ways.

let's get some things clear here:

First of all, beauty standards always change, as trends come and go, and you will never be enough "pretty" for someone; because beauty is subjective and you might be the dream person for someone and for someone not. which is ok! there are so many beautiful flowers. i personally perfer tulips and peonies, but someone might prefer roses or sunflowers. that doesn't make a flower less beautiful because every flower is beautiful in it's own way.

— do you know yourself? we spend so much time trying to know others, but do we even know ourselves? go on pinterest and find some questions to ask yourself. here are some:

1. what qualities do i like about myself?

2. what qualities of others do i admire?

3. what am i scared of?

4. what would i like my mornings to look like?

5. who inspires me?

if someone asks me any of these questions i would answer them all in a second, because i know myself.

— SHADOW WORK. Grab a pen and a journal, go on pinterest and search "shadow work prompts". I Personally, don't know much about this subject, but i know it's talked about by many people i look up to. It helped them heal from trauma.

some videos i suggest you watch that helped me so much in changing my mindset:

why you'll never be pretty enough - zoe unlimited.

you don't need to glow up, our obssesion with glow up culture needs to STOP.

tiktok is DESTROYING YOUR IDENTITY.

what type of pretty you are.

— I suggest watching every commentary video of zoeunlimited. Her videos changed my views on various topics.

II. THERE IS NOTHING TO CHANGE

— you are perfect just the way you are. embrace yourself. there is only one you in this world. many women look the same to me these days and it's a tiring and sad thing. Everyone is following the standard that is going to probably change in a month. As Hwasa said "I am my own beauty standard" and thank you Hwasa for that!

Embrace your features, look for makeup that suits your face shape and eyes. I know that eyeliner doesn't work with my eyes so i don't apply it. I also know that a lot of bronzer doesn't suit me.

Wear whatever you like and don't be afraid to express yourself.

When it comes to exercising, ALWAYS DO IT FOR YOURSELF. Think of it as: "My body deserves to be healthy"

strech when you wake up, do yoga, workout or go for a walk/run. whatever you like!

eat healthy but don't pressure yourself too much. have it balanced. you can eat a healthy meal but that doesn't mean you can't eat a cake. BALANCE IS EVERYTHING.

my favorite fitness youtubers:

lily sabri

yoga with bird

mady morrison

emi wong

III. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

— if you follow my posts you know how much i respect and talk about education and it's importance. As my favorite saying goes "BEAUTY IS DANGEROUS, BUT INTELLIGENCE IS LETHAL." I stand by this!!!! READ BOOKS, FOCUS ON YOUR STUDYING, WRITE, PAINT, LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE AND DRAW.

here are some book suggestions:

i who have never known men

the great gatsby

the prophet

my body

the art of war

search some famous musicians or artists and get to know their work. i seriously find this so attractive.

watch documentaries.

watch news, read articles and just generally know what is happening in the world.

get to know your country's history.

watch some iconic movies.

beauty fades, but knowledge always stays.

that's it! if you have some questions send me an ask ♡

with love, t

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quanticq · 7 months

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Hey Q! Sorry for bothering you, but for some reason I can no longer find any of your tik tok accounts 😭 Did they get deleted or something?

Hi this is Q! I’m coming out of the woodwork to address this, since I did went radio silent out of the blue so it’s not a bother at all

The short answer is Yes, I deleted my tiktok

Yes delete not deactivate, I’m not coming back to That app or IG or Twt, I deleted my socials except here and YouTube, I honestly felt so overwhelmed with everything, I realized I’m not even posting for myself anymore there. A lots of people crossed my boundaries time and time again I felt so helpless, bitter with myself. I guess I was just overwhelmed with the attention I got; both positive and negatives ones.

Im done and I want to start over so that’s why I’m here and on YouTube, I already posted some of these on my community tab on YT but here’s what I have in mind for the future of the content I want to create: more detail under the cut, and also;

CW: very brief mention of spiraling, harm inflict oneself or others, paranoia, etc

•Long-form content: my attention span is a bit messed up from consuming and making short-form content to the point where I can’t focus in university. I want to create something meaningful. It’s not that my previous content was not meaningful, no. I had fun and no time is wasted when I have fun, it was warm… but as I mentioned earlier, I just felt this lingering bitterness the longer I stayed making those short-form content. It really felt like I was on the verge of losing it. Especially with how the bigger following I have the less people think of me as a person than just another content creator you see on the internet,

I want to create long-form content, I’m so tired of forcing myself to generate 15 second content. On tiktok it just feels like I’m just creating and not really connecting. I want to try something new, maybe create an open space for meaningful discussion in the comments. I don’t think I can stand another copy-paste tiktok comment anymore. You know what I meant if you’re frequent on that app.

•Art Content with Commentary: and don’t worry this won’t be those petty artist drama issue, but I will still cover anything serious

it could be love letters or video essays ranging from fan fictions, fandom culture, the art scene and so much more. I may even share a bit of my personal life, this will be self indulgent after all! I want to make it fun for myself and as well to those who comes across my channel. I really REALLY want to create a genuine following.

On tiktok it’s so easy to gain following but not so easy to retain them, it’s mostly because of the algorithm and the FYP feature there.

On Tiktok most content that would get featured as an artist there would be creative work has to be either; more than exceptional which is pressuring enough already to consistent posters, straight up suggestive content shown to minors (tiktok doesn’t really have a blocked keywords feature but it’s so disheartening to see these creators intentionally not using the sensitive warning since it could limit their reach significantly) oh yes we can’t forget the negativity surrounding beginner artists or “art lore”

All of this cesspool of negativity, it’s a whole can of worms but it will be one of my prominent topics that I wish to discuss in my future art commentaries. I hope you guys are looking forward to those! I might bring in a few people or so to talk about it with me

and finally;

•Streaming: I used to do a lot of streams during the weekends on the clock app and it was super fun! I want to bring that back but that would have to wait since I’m unfamiliar with some features on YouTube, and I’m aware that YT does not have a discoverable feature for stream but that’s alright, I want to start something small first.

In short; I’ll figure it out! just need some baby steps before I start streaming again.

I apologize for deleting everything out of the blue, if I’m gonna be honest it was partially planned because I’ve been thinking about deleting my tiktok, twitter and Instagram for a while now but how it happened? In my breakdown I realized that I don’t want anyone to see me spiral, especially now that I realized how young my audience are, I’m not sure how that happened but I guess posting fandom contents does attract the young ones somehow inevitably, even though my content is nowhere near as suggestive, but I do talk about serious topics from time to time… but I digress, its not fair for them to deal with me if they see me spiral publicly,

it is especially not fair to them to console me. When I was younger than 14, I’ve been in a position where I have to talk down someone who was older, maybe 4-5 years older than me, from harming themselves or anyone, it was traumatizing and unpleasant. I don’t wish for anyone to go through that, it’s very painful.

It’s been… hard for me to ground myself. Ive been seeing things through a kaleidoscope of emotions; I was trying to focus on everything but it’s just too overwhelming so eventually I cracked. But please don’t worry I’ve been doing better now, after some time away from my online persona, and of course spending time with my beloved girlfriend, I see things much more clearly now.

Thank you to anyone who read this and much so appreciate those who understand where I’m coming from

Also now that I think of it can my stuff be considered as lost media now? Amazing! But please don’t be sad the fun I had was genuine!

Thank you again to those who genuinely enjoyed my content on tiktok but it’s time for me to try my hand at something new, I will still be dwelling in my creative headspace just.. away from public for now,

if you’re looking forward for my future post, make sure to check out my YouTube! I still have a lot I need to cook hehe, this is one of the few!

More post soon, Bye bye! -Q

#vent #mental health #mentions of unhealthy habits #I’m not sure how to tag these but I’ll try my best!#social media #q myers #tiktok #burnt out #creative fatigue #sorry for the rant #rant #content creator #art community

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sunniedesi · 2 months

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Future Diary Radio TL

Here’s the (long time coming) update on the Future Diary Radio CDs! I’m sorry it took so long to finish this project, as always, school has me on a chokehold, but I’m glad to say the translations are finally done! In case you missed the original post, the Future Diary Radio CDs are an obscure piece of media from Future Diary that include commentary from some of the show’s voice actors, regarding their experiences voicing the characters and opinions about the series. You can now find the three tracks with the translated subtitles on my Youtube channel (daisynilla) or on the links down below. Special thanks to @iwanpepsu, @syrpai and @the-chosen-blood-teller for helping me gather the tracks from the radio CDs.

youtube

And on a semi-related note, I also wanted to use this post to comment on a couple of things that came up while doing research for this project.

1. In all of the three Radio CDs, the voice actors mention something about a live concert that happened at Shibuya AX on July 29th. I'm not sure how well-known this concert and the music featured in it are among the fandom, but given how much it is talked about in the radio CDs (and how much information I gathered on it incidentally), I figure I should make a separate post dedicated to that. Especially because of… this:

2. On one of the Radio CDs, there was a mention of the DVD cast commentaries done by the Japanese voice actors. I don't own the DVD, but I was accidentally sent the audio for these Japanese cast commentaries in response to my last post about the Radio CDs. For my sanity’s sake, I’m not translating this, (I feel like the radio CDs are a good enough stand-in for the cast commentaries) but given its mention, I wanted to provide some of the context surrounding it. Like your regular cast commentaries on any DVD’s bonus features, the voice actors share their comments of the show as they watch the episodes. The order of the voice actors featured in each episode goes as follows:

Episodes 1-2: feature commentary from Misuzu Togashi (Yukki’s VA) and Tomosa Murata (Yuno’s VA).

Episodes 3-5: Aizawa Mai (Minene’s VA, ps her voice is so high it caught me off guard), Kawahara Yoshihisa (12th’s VA) and Sendai Eri (Tsubaki’s VA).

Episodes 6-8: Sanada Asami (Reisuke’s VA) and Mizuhara Kaoru (Rea’s VA).

Episodes 9-11: Ishida Akira (Akise’s VA), Matsuoka Yuki (Hinata’s VA) and Hiramatsu Hirokazu (10th’s VA).

Episodes 12-14: Ishii Makoto (Nishijima’s VA) and Tanaka Masahiko (Kurusu’s VA).

Episodes 15-17: Seki Tomokazu (Marco’s VA) and Kuwatani Natsuko (Ai’s VA).

Episodes 18-20: Yukana (Mao’s VA) and Shiraishi Minoru (Kousaka’s VA).

Episodes 21-23: Inada Tetsu (Ryuji’s VA, aka 11th’s secretary) and Konno Hiromi (8th’s VA).

Episodes 24-26: Domon Jin (3rd’s VA) and Honda Manami (MurMur’s VA).

(Also, I'm pretty sure the English version of the DVD includes cast commentaries too, but I don't know if those are the Japanese cast commentaries with translated subtitles or if it's commentary from the American cast… probably the latter, but I guess I’ll have to look a little deeper into that.)

#future diary #mirai nikki #sakae esuno #the future diary #yuno gasai #anime #yandere #radio CD #cast commentaries #voice acting #anime voice acting

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enlightenedrobot · 25 days

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So here’s a project I’ve not advertised at all. No Requests: Live! From the Tavern is an Adult focused Edutainment series focused on discussing Art, Music, and Media. Each episode is broken up into segments that work together in a playlist including various other videos on Youtube. This means Music Videos, short films, and other video essays, curated together with extra commentary from the host of the show, Tavern Barz.

That’s a weird and unnecessarily complicated format, why are you doing this?

It’s really easy in this day and age to use Youtube videos as a replacement for other content. I mean, why watch a two hour movie when you can watch a 20 minute recap?

This is a bad habit. Critique is important aspect to a good media diet, but a diet consisting solely of critique misses the point completely. In order to talk about media, we must also experience it.

This format means we don’t directly compete with the art featured. Rather, Tavern Barz acts as a museum curator, and the other media in the playlists serve as the actual art itself. The original videos will get their view, and… as a nice little bonus, I get to avoid the copyright bots.

Why are you using a cartoon?

I mean, I’m an animator. I don’t know what else to tell you. Why does the Chocolate guy use chocolate when clay will last longer?

But also, I don’t really have any desire to host the show as myself. There’s a hundred and ten other Youtubers who will get on camera to talk about stuff, and like, I don’t have the room for that.

Besides, Tavern is a character distinct from me. As a writer, I have full control over the narrative I want to tell, and placing myself in the center of that just feels weird. Tavern’s allowed to act and be weird and hypocritical. Tavern is allowed to grow as a character in ways you can’t really depict through the lens of literal documentary filmmaking.

So that Cyclops character isn’t just your rantsona vtuber avatar?

I mean, in a very literal sense, Tavern is a Vtuber. They are a virtual character serving as the host for a real show on Youtube.

But Tavern’s also an OC with lore and a planned Story Arc. The pilot is admittedly pretty bare bones with all this, but I intent to incorporate more story elements as the series goes on.

Alright, so what’s the lore then?

Tavern Barz is the Cycloptic owner of the Tavern Barz Tavern, a fifth dimensional divebar thar exists all across Time and Space. After several eternities of service, Tavern thinks they know it all.

This is not true.

Is this project family friendly?

Not really. The main character is a bartender, so there's a lot of alcohol focus. Plus, a lot of the featured videos will also contain plenty of adult themes.

The pilot is pretty mild. There's some swearing, but nothing too serious. But the non original videos might have adult themes. I have some later episodes planned, including one focused on The Male Gaze, and in those cases, I can't in good conscience recommend these videos to minors.

All in all, I like to call the tone of the project comfortably adult. I'm not going out of my way to be edgy, but I'm also not censoring myself. If this were an actual TV series, it's probably be TV-14. Edgier than the Simpsons, not as edgy as Rick and Morty, so about the level of Futurama.

When will this project release?

April, 2024. As of the time of this writing, the first episode is basically finished except for the credits, but I also need sometime to compile my sources, write descriptions, and make some thumbnails, as well as advertise the project.

Follow Me on this Account if you wanna keep up with the project. You can also see my other links at https://norequestslive.carrd.co/

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phoenixyfriend · 9 months

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Ko-Fi prompt from @dirigibird:

I've been looking at investment options but I don't want to be messing around too much with the stock market, and a co-worker suggested exchange traded funds. Would love to know your opinions!

LEGALLY NECESSARY DISCLAIMER: I am not a licensed financial advisor, and it is illegal for me to advise anyone on investment in securities like stocks. My commentary here is merely opinion, not financial advice, and I urge you to not make any decisions with regards to securities investments based on my opinions, or without consulting a licensed advisor. I am also going to be talking this all over from an American POV, which means some of these things may not apply elsewhere.

So instead of letting you know what to pick or how to organize your securities, I'm going to go through the definitions of what various investment funds are, how they compare functionally, and maybe rant about how I disagree with the stock market on a fundamental ethical level if I have word count left over.

If you want more information, and are okay with jargon, I'd suggest hitting up investopedia. That is where I will be double-checking most of my information for this one.

I also encourage folks who know more about the stock market specifically to jump in! I like to think I'm good at research and explaining things, but I'm still liable to make mistakes.

Mutual Funds: A mutual fund is a pool of money and resources from multiple individuals (often vast numbers of people, actually) being put together and managed as a group by investment specialists. The primary appeal of these is that the money is professionally managed, but not personally so; it gives smaller investors access to professional money managers that they would not have access to on their own, at cheaper rates than if they tried to hire one for just their own assets. The secondary appeal is that, due to the sheer number of people, and thus capital, that is being invested at once, the money can be invested in a wide variety of industries, and is generally more stable than investing in just one company or industry. Low risk, low reward, but overall at least mostly reliable. Retirement plans are often invested in mutual funds by employer choice, through companies like Fidelity or John Hancock.

Hedge Funds: A hedge fund is a high risk, high reward mutual fund. Investors are generally wealthy, and have the room and safety to lose large amounts of money on an investment that has no promise of success, especially since money cannot be withdrawn at will, but must remain in the fund for a period of time following investment. It gets its name from "hedging your bets," as part of the strategy is to invest in the opposition of the fund's focus in order to ensure that there is a backup plan to salvage at least some money if the main plan backfires. Other strategies are also on the riskier side, often planning to take advantage of ongoing events like buyouts, mergers, incumbent bankruptcy, and shorting stocks (that's the one that caused the gamestop incident).

Private Equity: Private equity is... a nightmare that got its own incredibly good Hasan Minhaj episode of Patriot Act, so if you've got 20 minutes, an interest in comedically-delivered, easily-digestible, Real Information, and an internet connection, take a watch of that one. (If it's not available on YouTube in your country, it's originally from Netflix, or you can probably access it by VPN.) Private equity companies are effectively hedge funds that purchase entire companies, rebuild them in one way or another, and then sell them at (hopefully) a profit. Very often, the companies purchased by private equity are very negatively impacted, especially if the private equity group is a Vulture Fund. Sometimes, it's by taking it apart to sell off; sometimes it's by just bleeding it for cash until there's nothing left. Sometimes, it's taking over a hospital and overcharging the patients while also abusing the staff! (Glaucomflecken has a lot of videos on the topic of private equity in the medical industry, check him out.)

Venture Capital: In contrast to private equity, which purchases more mature companies, venture capital is focused on startups, or small businesses that have growth potential. These are the kinds of hedge funds that are like a whole group that you'd see some random tv character calling an Angel Investor (they're not actually the same thing, but they overlap by a lot). I'd hesitantly call these less ethically dubious than private equity, but I'm still suspicious.

And finally, to answer your question on what ETFs are and how they fit into the above.

Exchange Traded Funds: ETFs are... sort of like a mutual fund. Sort of. You are, to some extent, pooling your money... ish.

An ETF is like a stock that is made out of partial stocks. So instead of paying $100 for stock A, and not getting stocks B/C/D that all cost the same, you buy $100 of the ETF, which is $25 each of stocks A/B/C/D. You are getting a quarter of a unit of stock, which isn't normally an option, but because you are purchasing through an ETF that officially already bought those Whole stocks, you can now purchase the partial stocks through them.

They buy the whole stocks, then they resell you mixes of those stocks. They still officially own the whole stocks themselves, but you now own parts of the stocks. Basically, you own "stock" in a company that owns stock in other companies, and in that process you own partial stocks in those other companies.

I'm going to re-explain this using fruit.

Imagine you can buy apples, oranges, melons, grapes, etc. You can also buy fruit cups. You can only buy the individual fruits in big batches or you can pool your money with a few other people, hand it to a chef. The chef will decide which fruits look like they'll taste the best by lunch time, buy a bunch of those fruit pallets with your combined money, and plan out the best possible fruit salad for you to share with a bunch of people once lunch rolls around.

You could also buy a fruit cup. You don't have a lot of control over what's already in the fruit cup, but there are a few different mixes available--that one has strawberries, but that one over there uses kiwi, and the other one that way has pineapple--and you can pick which mix you want. It's a pretty small fruit cup, and it's predesigned, but you can choose the one you want without having to pool money with everyone else. You just first have to let someone else design the fruit cups you choose from, and you don't know which ones are probably going to survive the best to lunch time unless you ask a chef (which defeats the purpose of buying a fruit cup instead of pooling your money, and asking the chef costs money).

That's the ETF. The ETF is the fruit cup.

The upside is that you can now just track the prices of your fruit cup, instead of tracking the prices of four different fruits, and so if the price of one fruit drops, you can just... let the other three buoy it.

Of course, in the real world, there are more than just four stocks involved in an ETF. This part of the Investopedia article lists a few examples, and they're usually themed and involve anywhere from 30 (DOW Jones) to thousands (Russell) of shares by stock type, or by commodity/industry. So with the ETF, you can invest in an entire industry, like technology, and just keep track of that single "stock" in the industry game.

They do cost less in brokerage/management fees than regular mutual funds, and they have a slightly lower liquidity (slower to cash out). There also exist actively managed ETFs, which are basically mutual funds for ETFs. You are paying the chef to buy you premade fruit cups.

(Prompt me on ko-fi!)

#economics #stock market #etfs #etf #mutual funds #hedge funds #venture capital #private equity #capitalism #phoenix talks #ko fi #ko fi prompts #economics prompts

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