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#i'm being sued for $10k
dukeofankh · 2 months
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Trying to find progressive masculine community is so exhausting.
I've flipped through local men's groups, trying to find places to explore masculinity in a chill, progressive setting. First of all, they mostly seem to be modelled after AA, and like, my gender isn't a debilitating addiction, it's part of my identity actually, but also, the invite and description of the event have maybe a short paragraph tops actually waving vaguely in the direction of what the purpose of the group is, and then ten to twenty paragraphs breaking down the rules. One spent longer talking about the hand signals he would use to direct conversation than he did describing what the conversation would be about. Another had a full paragraph explaining that if the group thought you were evading what they thought your "real" problem was, they'd probably "call you to take accountability". Like...I don't even know who these people are yet and they're already letting me know that they view it as their right, no, their duty, to bully me into seeing things their way. Like, this is in the invite.
...and this warning is there instead of any sort of breakdown of like, I dunno. Whether you should be a feminist to show up. Whether it was a safe space for queer men. What the hell they wanted to talk about. Joining a men's space is on some level inherently submitting yourself to the authority of the leaders of that group, and you don't usually get a particularly clear breakdown of what the values and goals of those leaders are, because on some level the answer is always going to be "whatever I want"
And like, unfortunately you do need to filter men to build a men's space. You do need to remove or chastise men who act in ways that are toxic or disruptive or misogynistic. If you don't things turn into an MRA chapter pretty quick. But the sort of emergency powers that leadership takes on as a result of that...just kind of naturally end up reproducing masculine heirarchies.
MensLib, the only online community of progressive dudes talking about masculinity that I'm aware of, is...on Reddit. So there is a moderator system. In theory, a moderator is there to...moderate. This is a space where people are going to be talking, and mods are there to make sure things don't get too toxic or off topic.
The issue is that, on some level, that is technically a leadership position. In a sub trying to rehabilitate masculinity. So you've got a bunch of folks who view themselves as the leaders of this bastion of goodness standing against the depredations of the misogynistic internet, guiding the hapless smooth-brain neophytes towards The True Way.
In practice, this looks like 95 percent of the posts submitted for the subreddit being rejected. That isn't hyperbole. On average, the sub has about one new post per day. Almost all posts directly relating a personal experience are deleted immediately, in favour of articles written about masculinity in traditional media publications, which are considered more trustworthy than the sus lived experiences of the guys in the sub. The post I wrote here about the effect of purity culture on male sexual shame that's sitting at about 15K notes was based on a 10K word post I wrote for Reddit that was deleted because "I didn't cite any sources to prove that there is a link between purity culture and male sexual shame, or that my experience was anything more than anecdotal". I get comments deleted on a regular basis, and after paragraphs of protesting in modmail that my comments are both fully in line with feminism and not against the rules, the mods have just finally told me that the rules don't actually drive their actions as a team. They delete anything they feel leads the conversation in a direction they personally feel is unproductive. The rule cited at the time of deletion is really just the broad category of why they decided to hit the button that says nobody is allowed to read what I wrote.
The issue is kind of twofold. First of all, progressive men do not trust other men. A good dude knows that he, individually, is a good person, but literally any other man external to him is on thin ice. Do you really want to tie your wagon to that guy? Do you trust him, really? How do you tell the difference between a guy criticizing an article because it's factually incorrect and criticising it because a woman wrote it? Probably best to play it safe and delete it. Weight of the odds, he's probably a misogynist, right? This is the internet.
And thats the other half of it. If you view yourself as part of the leadership of The Good Guys, and you're getting hatemail from incels and facists all day, you get to the point where most of the time people challenge your authority it's because they're a terrible person. It is very, very easy to get to the point where someone challenging you is seen as evidence that they are a bad person. And now someone is challenging you (and therefore bad), in an environment where you are in charge, and you have a "make your opponent disappear" button.
I know. A Reddit mod was rude to me and now I'm butthurt. It's petty and stupid. I'm just feeling like there's nowhere else to really go, and I'm pretty despondent that literally every space I've seen that even looks like it might be for progressive men has the same deeply hierarchical structure and constant status-oriented squabbling as patriarchal spaces.
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onehelluvacritic · 2 months
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It's confirmed that SpindleHorse has no HR team.
What this article says:
You need a small dedicated to HR or have someone with a background in HR. There are college degrees dedicated to Human resources.
Other businesses outsource their HR model and they have experts who deals with employee issues when they show up.
HR manages the people, from compliance issues, regulation checking (they have to make sure they follow the law because workers are protected, down to payment and when they go on break, to vacay hours, everything.) HR focuses on hiring, developing, engaging and resolving internal conflict.
The absence of HR puts a business into the risk of not only violating employment laws, but they can get sued.
Without HR, the business is in risk of being faced with discrimination and harassment lawsuits. I'm not a lawyer so I don't know exactly what could be grounds for a discrimination lawsuit, or harassment for SpindleHorse. They could run into one in the future if they don't get an HR team.
Businesses that operate without an HR department risk litigation. (Taking legal action.) Even if there's fair pay, equal employment opportunity or positive business culture.
Company discrimination lawsuits happen frequently in the US.
Grounds for discrimination lawsuit, include: Claim of discrimination on protected groups, or factors like disability, nationality, sex, (sexual harassment, and pregnancy bias) age, race, colour, religon, and retaliation and equal pay act, (EEOC,n.d)
Companies charged with these kind of cases risk serious fines. Giant fines.
If there's a lack of HR and in cases of a toxic culture, employees can file lawsuits on personal injures, which are common. They can be covered under compensation insurance.
The presence of an HR, guarantees a culture of employee safety, they would be responsible to respond to issues and ensure workers are trained on safety to avoid massive fines caused by employer negligence.
Workers can sue for overtime, especially non salaried ones; thus, challenges in paying overtime. No HR available means that employees run rogue, thus there is challenges in paying overtime. When employees face discrimination, they might consider filing charges, especially when treated fairly and if they are part of a protected class.
If employees suffer reduced hours, termination, no promotion, they can file charges. HR would take responsibility to prove that those particular actions are undertaken and they followed the law, while explaining why those actions were taken for legitimate business reasons.
Litigation on harassment can take many forms, like bullying, or sexual harassment from management or from a supervisor.
No paper trail because HR doesn't exist for SpindleHorse.
No workers handbook because HR doesn't exist for SpindleHorse.
A lack of HR can violate the Department of Labor. (DOL) the business can attract fines due to non-compliance isseus. DOL investigators located across the United States who ALSO work under the Wage and Hour Division are guided by the Fair Standard act. These investigators collect information on hours, wages, and other employment conditions to determine the companies law compliance.
These investigators can find violations, they will recommend changes to make the business comply. Willful DOL violations may be impeached criminally and attract fines up to 10k.
DOL prohibits the sale or shipment of production violates overtime pay, minimum wage or child labour.
Business running without HR risk fines and non comp issues with Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA violations are no joke)
The highest cost associated with a OSHA violation is damaged reputation, because people will know it's not safe to work at that company.
Under US immigration and Customs Enforcement law, the employer has to verify employment eligibility, identify all the people they employ and document that the data is accurate
There's a lot of information.. but in a nutshell.. SpindleHorse might be in for a world of shit.
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sizzlingpatrolfox · 8 months
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Don't you think pjms theories are too much of a reach? I don't think the company is sabotaging Jimin or that Bang/Scooter hate Jimin. There's not enough evidence to affirm those things to me. The company is just inefficient, stupid and money hungry. They are in a position to give better support to Bts solo songs that are not tied to western producers, they just don't want to spend money because a bts solo has some degree of success guaranteed anyway.
I have stanned idols who sued their company, who shaded their company until they left. And Jimin doesn't do those things. He complained about the MVs, but that's about it. He looks happy, he jokes around with staff. To me he is not being mistreated, it just looks like it because they company is incompent.
No, I don't think everything is a reach. I don't think they particularly hate Jimin, it's not personal. It's just that Jimin wasn't who they were planning on investing in, and they had other things to prove and he unfortunately stepped in their way. I even think they would've done the same to any other member, of course not everyone has the star quality Jimin has.
They're not incompetent. You don't build a multi billion dollar company if you're incompetent, for god's sake. You're naive and everyone thinking the same is naive or playing dumb. A lot of what they did for Jungkook's promo they already did it for BTS as a group before; they actually did more for Jungkook than they even did for BTS. They've always known what to do, they just didn't do it for anyone else. And even if some things slipped out of their hands, fans have been tagging them and asking them to fix it and they never did. Even though they fixed everything people complained about regarding seven.
What do you mean to say, that from April to July they learned everything didn't learn in 10 years? Because that's the time between like crazy and seven; 3 months. How does that make sense? Even more, the moment Jungkook was in that studio booth, they were already planning everything for seven. So, did they learn everything between March 24th and April 7th?
All solo releases had a settled and agreed on budget by the company. I doubt the members get involved with numbers; it's the company who decides on the budget. But even knowing and understanding that, some things are hard to understand still.
Jimin didn't get 6 videos because it was "irrational" but rookie group new jeans got 6 videos. Jungkook is going to get at least 2 more when he releases his album, and I don't even have to talk about predictions but present day is enough: there's like 10 visualizers (I think it's more than that now because I keep getting the notifications) for this one single and those videos cost money too.
I get that the physical CDs that the fans have been asking for cost money, but here's the thing.. they were sold out in the first or second week. So they never planned on restocking anyways, they manufactured a certain amount that got sold out in the first week and they never restocked because they were never planning on manufacturing more. Now, Jungkook has a month worth of CDs stock, I heard that the they stocked 38k CDs a couple of days ago and I believe the first stock was 10k, and since then they've restocked like 4 times so I'm sure they're already around the 100k CDs sold. I would even bet you that if they run out of their initial stock, they will manufacture more CDs if necessary for this single.
The same is happening to other BTS releases, by the way. They've been sold out for months and they're only restocking for Jungkook. It wasn't an exaggeration when I said all the money the 7 have earned is solely going into Jungkook's career. I will keep saying that because it's a fact.
By not restocking those CDs, they're limiting their support for their own artists. But they're also limiting the support fans can give them, because how can they buy if the product is not available. And that is sabotage, no matter the reason behind.
You say "They are in a position to give better support to Bts solo songs that are not tied to western producers, they just don't want to" well exactly, and that is not incompetence. They just don't want to.
"Demand, impact" bla bla bla. If they were to restock 50k CDs of like crazy, they will sell all. And they know that. It's not that they're scared they'll manufacture and ship CDs and make no revenue; they know there's demand, they just don't want to do it.
Budget and money aside, there's still important things they could've done, important things they could still do that they don't need money for.
There's no need to for budget to combine a song's streams or let people know about change in a chart rules. The English and Korean versions were released combined, it gained streams the following two days simply because it's a good song, and it hit #1 on global. The day after it was #1, the numbers were split and thus affecting its chart position. It's almost like for three days it didn't matter but it mattered the moment it was #1, because that was the debut they had planned for a different member. Seven, of course, combined from the begining and still no problems.
Spotify customer service said the label was in charge of combining songs, that they could do it if the label asked. I wasn't sure if I believed them at first, because sometimes databases get messed up and also Spotify customer service is kinda bad. But for several reasons, one being that issue with Post Malone's song, and the other being scooter's attempt at changing the number of streams for seven after its debut, I believe them now and I'm sure that if hybe wanted to, they could.
They didn't need budget to let people know about the change in the chart rules. They didn't care to, they didn't want to announce it until Yoongi had a song out. I don't know if you remember, but this is how things played out:
-> like crazy predicted between #4 - #6 for the second week
-> announcement that 100k+ sales were deducted from the total sold that week
-> a couple of hours later: instagram posts about Jungkook "making history" with bangpd and scooter
-> bangpd on the cover of billboard magazine the next week
If you think all of that was a coincidence, you do you.
And they didn't need budget to let people know what happened to those 100k sales. They still haven't given any explanation on that.
Did they need budget to put like crazy on this is BTS playlist? Did they need to hear Jimin say he wants to be a giant popstar?
None of that has anything to do with personal aspirations the members might have and it has everything to do with management. And no, I don't believe they're incompetent.
I said this earlier this year and I still stand by it:
There is no doubt it was Jimin who decided for who long he'd promote and what activitites. Of course, I'm not ignoring that Yoongi's release was stepping on Jimin's tail, so I also think Jimin could've been somewhat obliged to cram everything into a few days because he knew Yoongi was next.
I know Jimin decided on the shows and performances he went to; Jimin always been tied emotionally to their Korean fans, and he's always respected and honored them; during the pandemic and for festa 2022 he mentioned several times wanting to do music shows. He's had a good relationship with Jimmy Fallon for years, he chose to go to his show because he likes him. I never expected Jimin to go to live lounge as well as I don't expect Jungkook to ever do a stage like set me free pt2 or even like crazy.
I could consider -I have considered- the option that everything was just bad luck or something and that after knowing it was possible to have such a debut like Jimin, hybe he wanted a piece of the cake and to seriously take credit for success like that, so they decided to go all out for JK (this is where personal aspirations come into play), making sure that everyone knew who were the people involved. Because everyone knows who's behind seven. Even Jungkook won't miss any opportunity to talk about receiving the song and being granted this chance. He literally said his life changed because they gave him this song.
I mean...
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But there are two things that won't let me really commit to the possibility that all happened by chance; one being all the mediaplay around JK since early 2022. Two, and the most relevant to me it's that Jungkook seemingly never worked on his album. He said that he wasn't doing anything, that he had no plans, told people to not wait for him. I'm sure you know everything. It's not like they suddenly decided to give him a song and then a full english album, no. They've been planning this for a while, and he probably knew about the plans and that's why he wasn't really working on anything.
Maybe you're new to the fandom, but one of the years BTS went to the Grammys, I think it was 2020, a CEO went with them and he placed himself in every photo next to them. In one photo, he even moved Jungkook out of the center so he could be the center of the photo in the freaking red carpet.
That same man, along with BangPd would give interview after interview talking about how they know how to create the next BTS, because they allegedly have some kind of formula. Formula was the word they always used. Armys always got so mad about those statements, saying BTS can't be imitated and that BTS is what it is because of the members and not because of the company. Most armys who remember that, who read those interviews aren't in the fandom anymore. The people in the fandom now don't know, and don't care.
This whole thing, for more than a year, has reeked of the same ideology.
You know that they are fame and money hungry, yet don't consider the possibility that they might do everything they can to get exactly that.
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babstheyaga · 6 months
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Little life update/Where I've been:
Things are going well for me lately. I finally managed to get a car, I got proper anxiety meds... But there's also some down sides.
My doctor is really concerned about my heart, so I have a appointment Monday to get a heart monitor that I'm going to have to wear for a week.
I also got denied SSI again, but my lawyer says that the judge who reviewed my case is known for being a very very bad person towards anyone born in the 2000s, so uh - we're suing them and taking it to federal court, because even my disability attorney was completely baffled how I didn't get it with my severe line of medical history.
Some of the upsides are my parents are trying to help me earn money, and because I'm only able to do small bits of work each week without the risk of possible hospitalization from stress, I get 200 dollars each month from them. As you would imagine, 200 doesn't go very far.
Outside of all of that, I have total loss of all inspiration to write. I really have no idea where my days go anymore. Maybe it's these new anxiety meds, but I feel completely zombified. I feel like I've totally lost touch with creativity. I can't even play games right now, no Stardew, no Overwatch, no writing, I can barely even sit for more than 10 minutes at a time to watch something on YouTube.
Saying the words "Depression episode" in front of my family is very dangerous, because they're automatic response is to shove me into the hospital for the next maybe 2 weeks. So I'm always very wary on outright saying my bipolar is acting up again and I'm depressed.
I don't feel depressed. I have no desire to do anything bad, but that's just the thing, I have no desire to do anything at all.
I swear I'm not saying this to get sympathy from anyone, I just feel like with my stories kinda blowing up a lot within the past month or so, I feel like I need to explain things to you guys.
My bff always tells me whenever I'm super depressed, "Go to bed, you'll feel better tomorrow." And each day I'm hoping the feeling better tomorrow will come. I know it will. I'll get out of this in like three weeks tops.
I have like over 20 inboxes right now, and I'm super sorry I can't keep up with them, I'm doing my best to not lose my sanity.
I might need a small break from writing all of my ongoing stories for a couple weeks, I may work on a few one-shots because I'm desperately trying to refresh my mind with creativity.
Sometimes the only way for me to get out of a depression episode is to force myself out of it, so I might try some new small one-shots to give myself a little kick in the butt to get outta this whole bologna thing.
I'm kinda super into the idea of regular TF atm, like nonhuman, so if any of you guys have any cool ideas, send them my way and I'll take a gander at them, maybe do like a quick 7-10k one-shot. I think that would be very refreshing for me work on.
I love you guys, sorry for the weird vent, I'm doing fine I promise, nothing to worry about. Please don't pity me or try to comfort me, I've dealt with Bipolar disorder since I was diagnosed at like 12, so trust me, I'm fine. I love you again, ttyl
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nieded · 4 months
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Where is your hot take on Vegas and the manhole cover I need to know.
Hoo boy! Okay, so I'm going to put this all behind a cut for spoilers sake, but I have a lot of feelings about the Las Vegas GP.
Cons:
Let's talk about the fucking manhole cover. This isn't the first street race Formula 1 has ever done. I don't understand how such an oversight happened. Actually, no, I do know. They were so focused on milking Las Vegas for money that they didn't actually pay attention to the details on the track. Not only did they not secure the manhole covers, they also didn't anticipate that it would be cold in Las Vegas at midnight. They went from passing out from heat exhaustion in Qatar to worrying about needing hand warmers in their gloves and wondering if their tires would come up to temperature during qualifying in Las Vegas. Mind blowing. Imagine being the president of the FIA from Saudi Arabia which is mostly desert and not knowing that it would be cold if you decided to run qualifying at midnight. What was the issue with the drains anyway? F1 cars are designed to create downforce through aerodynamics which basically helps the car stay on the ground and not go flying when they take these corners. Las Vegas is made up of slow speed corners, but 'slow speeds' is relative. They are still going insanely fast. Most of the cars ran really low downforce so they could maximize speed down the Strip, but they still produce a ton. This creates sort of like a suction between the chassis of the car and the ground. The vacuum between the bottom of the car and the tarmac was so powerful that it ripped the drain out of the road and right into the bottom of Sainz's car. This was 100% preventable. After two instances with Ocon and Sainz's car, they had to repair 140 drains which took 5 hours! Insane. AND THEN they gave Sainz a 10 place grid penalty because he need to replace his battery outside of his allotted amount for the season after it got damaged by the drain cover. The stewards claimed that because there was no rule anticipating this issue, they were not allowed to make exceptions.
But this wasn't the only thing wrong with the Las Vegas GP. Prior to the event, they jacked ticket prices up from 2,000 to 20,000 a ticket. They also blocked out the windows of hotel rooms, casinos, and bridges so people couldn't spectate for free (not that the hotels were inexpensive either). They anticipated a huge turnout and ended up having to drop prices rapidly as the date approached because they didn't sell the way they thought they would. Kudos to the fans, though, because I hear a bunch of fans tore down the barriers and privacy screens. Love it! But imagine paying 10k for a ticket. Then you sit outside at 1:30 in the morning waiting for FP2 to start and get kicked out of the grandstands because of the repairs, and then they don't actually let you watch FP2, you know, that thing you spend thousands of dollars on to see. Formula 1 is being sued by fans, btw. Daniel Ricciardo was the most excited for Las Vegas. He claims he manifested it, and it was so exciting to know that he was going to be able to race (despite being in the draggiest car on the grid and obviously not doing well in the race), and he was pleading with F1 to not treat Las Vegas like an event just for the 1%. I really hope F1 learned something from this experience because it was extremely exclusionary. Some US citizens did the math and found out it was cheaper to fly to Monza than it was to attend Las Vegas.
Another big con was the road surface. Formula 1's calendar runs a lot longer than any other racing series, but on earlier race weekends, multiple events are going on at the same time, like F2, F3, Formula Academy, Moto GP... The road surface is usually prepared before the weekend starts, and then as all the events happen, the cars lay rubber down on the track which increases grip. Las Vegas happened after all the other series were finished, so there weren't any other cars improving the grip of the race track, which in turn made the course extremely slippery. You pair that with the cold temperatures, and it made the track unsafe to drive on. In addition, Hamilton's car spilled oil on the track, and the marshalls did not do a good enough job to clean up the spill, which caused a huge spinout between multiple drivers on Turn 1 of the race, ruining so many drivers' day.
The last con was just the time of day the event took place on, but I don't actually know how they would solve this problem. All the session took place in the middle of the night. Like I said, FP2 was supposed to start at 1:30 AM. Vegas is really the only street course where they couldn't shut down traffic for the whole weekend because the Strip is vital to the economy of the city, but again, it was really cold during all the sessions, and it fucked with the drivers and crews' sleep schedules. Oof. I don't watch the races live, so it didn't really affect me, and it probably benefited everyone in Europe who typically has to get up at 4 in the morning for any other North American event, but it was exhausting for everyone working the race.
BUT THERE WERE SOME PROS! I know I just complained a lot, but Vegas did exceed expectations in some way.
There were a lot of overtaking and the really cold track temperatures did shake things up quite a bit. Ferrari, who has struggled with overheating their tires all year, was able to keep their tires in the right temperature pocket, giving them a big advantage. Despite Red Bull winning again, there was still a big fight that it made it interesting to watch instead of Max sailing 30+ seconds ahead of everyone else. Charles had real potential to win the race until the safety car that gave Red Bull a free pit stop. Qualifying had the weirdest line up as lower performing teams excelled, like Haas. There was also a lot of worry that because the track was so narrow, there wouldn't be a lot of opportunity for overtaking, but there were at least two good spots (including the DRS zone), and we saw way more battles than anticipated.
And well, that's really the only pro. It's a big pro, though, and gives me hope for future Las Vegas GPs. It has the potential to be an excellent race, an excellent weekend, and an excellent fan experience if they can fix the very large and preventable issues from this weekend.
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eleanorfenyxwrites · 22 days
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FTH 2024
Fandom Trumps Hate bidding is live as of today and this feels like a good time to tell y'all that I'm offering two gift works this year! I had to skip last year as I had just way too much going on, and while I guess technically I'm still just as busy I really missed writing as much last year so I'm prioritizing it now. But anyway - my offerings! Here's the link to my offering page itself if you'd like to look there or think about donating, but for the full breakdown (and a bit of explanation) click the readmore 😌
So as I said I'm offering two works this year, one 5-10k words and the other 10-20k words. The minimum bid for the smaller fic is $5 and for the longer one it's $15. My ships/tags/special interests/etc. are the same for both, and for those of you who are familiar with what I write I'm sure you can guess what they are lol but I'll put it all here anyway!
Ships I will write (and they are listed in order of personal preference for writing): 3zun (or any pairing within it), Wangxian, Chengqing, Xuanli, Junior Quartet
Especially interested in: Fix-its, AU's (specifics can be discussed), Canon Divergence, Slice of Life, Fluff, Angst with Comfort, Smut, Gender Fuckery™, Rule 63/Cisswap
Ships I don't want to write: SongXueXiao or any pairing involving Su She, Wen Chao, Wen Xu, or Jin Guangshan.
Unwilling to address: Angst with No Comfort, Bathroom Kinks, Underage, Rape (I can make exceptions at my discretion depending on context)
Other notes: I can be fairly flexible! I've worked before with a bidder who wanted an extra written for one of their own stories, I can write requested extras or missing scenes for any of my existing stories/universes, or we can come up with something completely new. I prefer specific prompts, but please allow me some wiggle-room for my own interpretations, we're working on this as a team!
Special interests: F/F ships, Poly ships, Genderswap/genderbending, Canonically trans or nonbinary characters, Trans or nonbinary interpretations of canon characters
This year I've chosen to select specific charities I'd like donations to go towards, and I chose ones that take international donations and that focus their efforts on people of color, children/youths, and LGBTQ+ issues.
Organizations this auction benefits:
In Our Own Voice ["...lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national and regional levels in our fight to secure Reproductive Justice for all women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals..."]
Middle East Children's Alliance ["...organization working for the rights and the well-being of children in the Middle East...They are currently responding to the Gaza crisis with medical supplies and emergency assistance for displaced families."]
Never Again Action ["A Jewish-led mobilization against the persecution, detention, and deportation of immigrants in the United States, NAA takes on campaigns against detention centers and ICE training programs, and organizes mutual aid and deportation defense."]
Sherlock's Homes Foundation ["...provides housing, employment opportunities, and a loving support system for homeless LGBTQ+ young adults so that they can live fearlessly as their authentic selves..."]
And that's it really! I'm really excited to be doing FTH again, I loved it the first time and I love feeling like this ridiculous hobby does some material good in the world in a way that's a bit more targeted and magnified than the writing usually does on its own. Financial contributions to good causes isn't something I've been capable of managing in a very long time, but I can spend my time writing a thank you gift for those who can and do ❤
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silviakundera · 1 year
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Till the End of the Moon ep 1 reaction
goth aesthetic is ON POINT in the opening. i support everything this devil god is trying to be. Sincerely want his lipstick shade.
but wait, 10K years ago all the gods died to kill 1 devil dude. and then now another one just knocked on the 3 realms' door like hi?? sorry to be late to the party, had to gas up the car and took a wrong turn at the solar system.
sounds strange but ok. and loving how it's the end of the world(s) & the immortal sects are still wholly devoted to the aesthetic as well - elaborate & delicate hairstyles and jewelry. Nobodies whites are dirty until they're dead. Yes, they're being invaded but they LOOK GOOD while getting pitiously crushed.
the creepy eyeball god-slaughtering crossbow thing 👌 👌 his sky-slashing sword 👌 👌
This is why I watch xanxia. Outrageous visuals and pretty people bleeding & causing unnecessary drama.
Frankly, none of this is new in the slightest but all the magic is cool af so I'm pleased.
back in the past, it's still all the expected beats but amusing when she tries to fly and then, crap, mortals only WALK gdi and did this body ever exercise? no martial arts?? and i can't even summon artifacts???? also apparently she transported into a cdrama plot as the evil 2nd female lead (see: Romance of a Twin Flower), except Su Su time traveled to commit murder & save the universe. no time for love dr jones.
lmao i know i know that Tantai Jin having "an evil bone" is a Thing in chinese fantasy but all the talk about it makes me giggle like a preteen
hmmm so she could replace someone who lived in that time. And there's prince lin who looks like her sect brother. Guessing we'll run into more. I wonder if there will ever be an explanation why there are dopplegangers of them 500 years ago. Just random unexplained xanxia weirdness or plot relevance.
ultimately everything in the series will likely be full of the standard tropes but so far in ep 1 the tropes are executed well. I was entertained!
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winterbirb · 3 months
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Happy new year, y'all!
Quick update for the anon who sent accusations about aristotels—given a lack of any followup evidence, I had someone I trust go through their tag for anything fitting the accusations, and I have come to the conclusion that guilt cannot be proved, and more importantly, they should not be held to American taboos. I mean, I got into an apparently quite heated conversation about the importance of cultural context, I'm not going to go back on my word now. Think before you discourse.
And further, I am not the person to judge someone for not being 100% acceptable vanilla. I would be throwing stones from a house of glass cards; although I don't talk about most of those cards, I do, uh. Write Edward Snowden RPF. So.
Speaking of, chapter 13 is out! It's not actually any more of my own writing, as I couldn't figure out how to structure the May 7th meeting while incorporating my Official Sources. So I just put the primary sources in their own chapter, and I'm in the middle of trying to write the POVs for that chapter.
(Yeah, that's right, we're talking about my fic now. Teehee)
Unfortunately I write slowly (and delete things if I find a source they contradict, which is what happened to about 10k words of ch. 13 attempts), but eventually I'll finish up this fic, which will go through the end of July 2013 (Ed accepts asylum the first of August). I've casually dropped one reference to the top secret negotiations, and Bill and Jake will make appearances later in this fic, but that whole shebang is going to be in a later story (I wish I could just have it all written right now, it's so important, especially the Kerry-Lavrov axis! But alas, I'm more GRR Martin than Stephen King).
I'm introducing the Kerry-Lavrov axis in this fic (which chap 13-14 are particularly meant to do), but the payoff is going to come in the sequel, which is going to be from Aug-Sept (or -Oct bc of the government shutdown) and cover the Syria chemical strikes (I think Assad was framed, in case you're wondering. It's actually very fucking annoying trying to write about this stuff because I was happy having no opinion on the matter, but if I was going to write Obama and Putin talking about it, I kind of have to review the evidence 😔). Mid-september is UNGA, and Sept 30th is when Obama reveals to Bibi the secret US meetings with Iran. These events should resolve the Putin-Obama tension and bring us to the next phase of the story (admittedly, I don't know where to go after that; I'm thinking shorter stories, vignettes of interactions)
Anyway. Here's a link. Rn it's at 32k words, but a good chunk of those are primary/secondary sources.
Forgot to mention—though this is primarily about relationships, I don't (so far) have explicit ships, although Su/Kho is tagged. I'm leaving things implied for the time being bc it isn't the point (the importance of relationship axes still works around friendship-trust). So if that squicks you out, dw.
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notasimpleslater · 7 months
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ok I'm not going to dwell on this for obvious reasons, but that article + Ethan coming off of priv made me think some things and I'd like to just get them off my chest... Basically that article provided absolutely nothing new and just rehashed the same stuff the PR machine has been pumping out for 2 months, which doesn't make sense considering there was no new news for a long time. Which leads me to believe that either 1) Ari/Ethan want to go public with their relationship, or know that pap pics
are coming soon (this is more likely considering how recently Ari and Ethan were both in NYC); or 2) Ari's team is finally getting it's shit together, maybe she's got someone new in charge of this scandal, and they wanted to put out one blanket statement under this new leadership to start them out cohesively. i think this is equally as likely since even though her album re-release, perfume and makeup launches have been generally recieved well by fans, if you click on any news piece about her 99% of the time the #1 comment is something about spongebob or her being a homewrecker and the new damage control team needs to establish themselves sort of publicly but also secretly, if that makes sense. and as for ethan coming off of priv, that leads me to three theories: either 1) he's hired someone to completely overtake his socials (prob an experienced PR manager who is gonna be handling everything that gets posted to that account from now on); 2) he's contractually obligated to post things for wicked/spamalot and those teams have basically enforced his contract, forcing him to come off of priv, or 3) he and ari have broken up. tbh i think him and ari breaking up would be enough for him to come off of private, since as soon as that news breaks all of the people who were only following him bc they were invested in the scandal will likely leave him alone. i mean he's gained 10k followers since he came off priv and the number is growing literally by the second, does anyone know if that's how it works when you come off of priv with a bunch of follow requests, or do they all get added at once? other than that article there's been no news so a bunch of people flooding him today doesn't make sense, but seeing how the number is going up bit by bit instead of all at once is making me sus. either way i think that either the news that ethan and ari are broken up, or something very big in terms of their relationship is coming.
Good morning anon! Thanks for sharing because I've been having some thoughts as well.
I'm gonna answer this in parts just to make it a little easier.
About the article coming out: I think the biggest reason for an article like this (with no new info) coming out is because Ariana has new management now. Whether or not the info in the article is true remains to be seen, but like you said it seems like her team is trying to get their act together.
About Ethan coming off private: Oof, that would make me really sad if he hired someone else to run his socials lol! I think the most likely scenario are one (or both) of the second two options. Spamalot begins previews on October 31, so rehearsals are prob gonna start within the next couple of weeks. His rapidly growing following is very strange, as I'm typing this he's at 109K. I think what you said about his follow requests being added after coming off private is correct because no one seems to have noticed that he's public now. I noticed he was public in the evening (I live in EST timezone for reference), and his following just started gradually growing since then.
I have a feeling that something big might be coming out soon.
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contraspem--spero · 3 months
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...So let's sum it up, why don't we.
1. Ukrainian Ministry of Science and Education announced closing roughly 45% of universities in Ukraine because "there are too many universities and not enough students"
2. At the same time, they want there to be less students because they cancel the type of scholarship that covers your entire university fee; instead we'll have scholarship system that "covers up to 60% of study cost" (optimistically: we all know that's not gonna happen, let's be real)
2.1 Government-approved teachers and educators come forward openly stating that higher education should be "a ticket into high society", and are speaking in favor of "american-style" student loan higher education costs.
3. There still will be full tuition scholarships for professions of "necessary jobs for the country", such as teachers, doctors, etc. No definite list of what those jobs are, exactly, as of yet. However, those who receive full tuition will be obligated to work at least 3 years at their government-assigned job place. (So, no work in private clinics, no private schools - at least). This is presented as government "graciously" offering graduates their "first workplace". Afaik, no info how the said workplace is chosen, if it's possible to pick one that you're comfortable with or live close by. Rumors about it being mostly rural/underdeveloped areas with government offering place of residence, but I've only heard it once so I not convinced.
Which is, yk, the USSR-style system. USSR? The totalitarian country responsible for cultural and physical genocide of Ukrainians and countless other nations? The country Ukraine has been publicly decrying for years and trying to destroy all connections to? So I guess we're planning to destroy architecture and monuments from USSR, but at the same time we're returning back to the totalitarian system of communist dream prof education system and it's all fine and dandy?
3.1 If you fail to complete the contract that obligates you to work at least those 3 years, you will be sued and will have to return the money the government allegedly spent on "educating" you, including social and academic scholarships. No precedent has been set in case of lost of ability or death of the contracted graduate yet.
4. At the same time, the Ministry has announced they'll be making enrolling into university "more difficult" starting this year; I think this means less students accepted in general?
5. Multiple universities currently protest being "fused" into One, Bigger University (at least on paper) for alleged efficiency; this included a naval engineering university being fused with a pedagogical university, and a prestigious but smaller pedagogical university being fused with it's much worse performing neighbour and RIVAL.
6. All the while, education reform in Ukraine is staggering. They're announcing High School reform while our 6th, 7th graders still lack proper textbooks with updated material (which will be on the exams), and no data on when or if they will receive them. The program changes so often the teachers can't keep up and sometimes is outright incorrect.
7. The average salary of a newly employed/fresh graduate teacher is around 6k. You know how much groceries cost? Around 1k on the essentials, much more if you have special dietary needs like me (up to 3k). Then there's rent and utilities. Teachers with experience will get up to 10k, plus some bonuses, but it highly varies in region; my teacher once told me she received "just barely enough to live on" despite working for 20k years, so I'm guessing somewhere in 6-7k, too.
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I'm tired.
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maxwell-demon · 2 years
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Okayyyyyyyyy since Google images search has changed a bunch of shit on the app about being harder to save pics... I kind of wonder if changing the gifs here to mp4s is in the same efforts? Everyone is getting sued for copyright so they're making shit harder to save. If that's the case I'm gonna literally die. I Have to have no less than 10k photos of my faves saved on my phone at any given time for my own stability.
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stylesinthewild · 7 years
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Harry Styles // Behind The Album
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nibnabs · 2 years
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do u have tips for getting a first car?
Yes! I usually deal with third party sellers, like people selling their own vehicles, but a big thing regardless is service records. If a dealership won't give you a vehicles service records, that's sketchy.
Ask a lot of questions, like "Last oil change?" "How long have you had the car out of curiosity?" "No problems passing emissions?"
Check the tread on the tires. If it's really low, consider the fact that you may be spending a couple hundred dollars replacing them sooner than later.
If you have one or have the option to borrow/get one, an OBD reader will show you any codes that the engine may presently have. People will clear the warning and act like nothing is wrong.
If someone gets annoyed that you're asking questions or want to possibly read the engine with an OBD, that's a little sus to be honest. People selling their car should be more than happy to answer your questions. Just be polite about it, that's really the only way to deal with people like that. If they throw a huge piss fit, it's not worth it.
One of the biggest things is to do your research! If you find a type of car or a specific manufacturer that you like, look into problems those cars typically have, how much they're going for in dealerships and third party.
Kelly Blue Book is a huge tool to utilize to help you realize if a price is fair or not. Someone may try to sell a car for 10K that's really only worth 7K.
I don't know diddly squat about dealerships honestly. I bought my truck from used truck dealership but I was so on cloud nine that I didn't even think about it, I just signed.
Ask about warranties when you drive off the lot, but don't let them bully you into one if you don't want it. Don't be afraid to ask to test drive a bunch of vehicles. They want the commission, they'll help you out.
(One big benefit of having a friend that worked at a dealership was being about to sneakily drive the new trucks. It was very fun)
I'm speaking from my general experience, but everyone is different! Hopefully this is helpful to you :>
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tofiveohfive · 4 years
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heeey do you honestly think the fandom's losing interest in fanfics? :/ even if they're more plot driven than yours? i'm having mixed feelings abt publishing mine even if i still have a long way to go
oh, bub. i almost don’t want to answer this ask, because, to be honest, i’m kind of drenched in bitterness where this matter is concerned. take my words with a grain of salt, okay? 
i don’t think the fandom is losing interest in fanfics. what i think is that people are very selective regarding the writers they support. more often than not, it’s authors who already have big stories, vastly known amongst the fandom. whenever such authors publish stories, it doesn’t take long till their fics hit 10k hits and whatnot. when it comes to different types of content, we have big platforms that do their best to support less known artists (i.e. DT, SU, TE, SE and HS). the same doesn’t really happen with fics. there are a few blogs who help to promote the stories, but it’s nowhere near the reach these other platforms have. i’m not excluding myself from guilt here, because i certainly haven’t supported other writers the way i should’ve and i’m trying to change that, but, yeah. 
that being said, i don’t think it should stop you from writing/posting your story. lbh, most of the time we’re writing for ourselves. we have these characters & this particular setting in mind and we just want to have fun imagining how everything would play out. on top of that, even if the response is not as great as you wish it would be, a single comment from a random reader has the power to brighten your day, yk? if even one person cares, if at least one person tells you how inspired/happy they were because of your work, i think that can be rewarding enough. 
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pop-punklouis · 7 years
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i'm not one to say anything about people's sexuality, but that bryan stars video seems so forced and cliche. Plus, where his channel is now and how much disrespect he's gotten it just seems so fake but maybe i'm wrong
I totally get where you’re coming from. I had similar thoughts. **disclaimer** I don’t believe Bryan faked his sexuality for a video and no matter how bad of a person I believe him to be, I do applaud him for coming out I know that isn’t an easy thing to do especially having a platform. buuuuuut it is very convenient, I agree.
1) Bryan Stars channel has been a dying channel for a while now. It started losing interest once his interviews halted. Then he created My Digital Escape which did help his channel boost a bit and give him better promotion until that fell through. Now his channel and even social media presence is dwindling. He’s losing thousands of followers a month on both twitter and youtube. His youtube videos are barely even getting 10k views nowadays which is a big sign of a dying channel since he has over 700k followers. Those with only 50-70k followers are garnering more views than him.
2) When the members of My Digital Escape came out and exposed him for the disingenuous man he is which took a dominos effect and included many other people exposing bryan for the conniving, manipulative, and awful person he is… his reputation (what rep he had left) clearly tanked. That peaked when he decided to bring MDE back as MDE 2.0 with a whole new group without the original members’ consent just to scrape for relevancy because MDE was the only thing he had going for him.
3) His image changes. He would consistently change his appearance and tastes and even video content to appeal to his audience which was the demographic of probably 12-16 yr olds who are into the “emo” scene. It did not sit well with people that he was dressing and making videos marketed to young girls being a man in his late 20’s- including hanging out with minors at the time to give him more cred.
4) He was so desperate that he created a shit EP with the most generic lyrics and generic sound to get quick grabs at profit and relevancy like many of the MDE members had. Of course Tyler Hagen tried suing him over his profit of that EP because he wrote most of the songs. That, again, was exposed through videos and texts.
5) His channel is essentially a vlog/challenge channel. It’s clickbait and unoriginal material to try and pick up any views or shares. As anyone can see by scanning his youtube channel, he is getting sometimes less than 5k views now.
So, is it too convenient that he decided to post his coming out video during this whole time period? Is it too convenient to use his coming out as something to platform him and know that he would garner a lot of views for it? Is it too convenient that he spliced his video to 10 minutes exactly so he could include more ads on his video to generate more revenue for himself? Is it too convenient that him coming out might be something he thinks will cause his hate and reputation dissipate because of his sexuality? Think what you will on it, but my personal opinion is that he was scrambling for ideas and panicking over his dying channel and thought posting a coming out video would garner him support and views.
Do i think he exploited his sexuality to try and lift his youtube channel and image? Yes. Do I think he just decided to fake a coming out for views? No. I’m happy the guy could come out, and I have no problem with him for being gay. I do not have issues with him over his sexuality at all. But, if he thinks his sexuality will change everything he has done prior and who he is as a person now, then he’s mistaken because most people who know of him don’t despise him for whatever sexuality he is. They despise him for the person he is and how he’s shown his ass over the past year.
His channel is dying. The little media presence he has is dwindling. He posted a coming out video. Coincidence? Convenient? Calculated?Bad timing? you decide. *shrug*
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topicprinter · 4 years
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Throwaway for obvious reasons.I'm a solo founder that runs a medium sized blog (250k/monthly visits). It brings in about 10k/month in revenue.Today I received a certified letter (the mailman asked me to sign the receipt form) with a notice that my LLC is being sued for not complying with the ADA, as apparently my site is not blind friendly!?What do I do here? I don't have insurance for this. Lawyers are expensive. Advice please!
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