#we're having a bad time folx

[waitmyturtles]

THE MORNING AFTER: ONLY FRIENDS, EPISODE 5 ("CH-CH-CH-CHANGES / TURN AND FACE THE STRANGE") EDITION

Well, well, FUCKING well. Man, I am REELING. THAT. Was a HELL of an episode of a drama. Jojo and his team need to applaud themselves.

Let me set this up by sharing with y’all a tweet that really stuck with me after episode 4, but I think it’s pertinent to episode 5:

Now, yes -- this is a touch of a generalization (many of my queer friends are straight-edge-and-or-early-to-bed-while-living-in-cities folx), but I want to note something important in this tweet.

Before I got started on episode 5 last night, after having seen a lot of the meta and reactions on my dash throughout the day, I shot a note to dear @ranchthoughts that I thought I'd have to get a little #oldmom on this episode. Speaking to chibi's note above: toxicity happens to be a common human trait. Seeing that there was QUITE a bit of surprise for Boston's "outing" of Ray to Sand on my dash actually surprised me.

From my lawyer friends, I learned about the following concept, and I just cracked the fuck up the first time I heard it, because it rang really true once I got my head around it: a lawyer friend once told me that when he started out at a typical major American law firm, his orientation included hearing a presentation from an older managing partner about the idea of the "equal opportunity asshole." Meaning: there's workplace harassment against protected classes, like race-based or sex-based harassment. But: can you get sued if you treat EVERYONE AROUND YOU like shit? And, he didn't mean on a personal level, not on an attacking level. Just on an abrupt, aggressive level. A bossy level. A very direct-toned level.

That kind of interaction -- an interaction with an equal opportunity asshole -- we know those kinds of people, right? These kinds of folks are...titchy. They might jump to conclusions. They're rooted in their worldview ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. They lack empathy. They make you feel unsettled. They are emotionally disconnected from you. They have NO interest in being emotionally connected WITH YOU.

When I dove into episode 5, I really thought I'd be writing about Boston as the equal opportunity asshole, and I think that this theory still holds to a great extent, but -- there's a but, a slight and fascinating-to-me but, that I'll get to in a second.

@ranchthoughts did the thing once more of covering EVERYTHING in her episode 5 ephemerality breakdown, so dear Ranch, I'm just gonna repeat some stuff you said in my own words, if you don't mind. First off, a couple of gushes:

1) That blind dining scene had me swooning. "Life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get," was what I was hearing when I was watching that. These lovely idiots are blind to what's happening in front of them, and what that means to them -- BUT THAT'S OKAY, BECAUSE THEY ARE YOUNG. YOUNG AND INEXPERIENCED. The blind dining metaphor, oh gawd -- using your senses to come to realizations about how you're truly feeling, and how to connect better with WHAT you're feeling? Slamming my hands on the table! BRILLIANT. Mew is SO clueless (OR IS HE?!?!??!).

1.5) And -- remember (all you young folks out there!). Youth is fleeting (cc the Ephemerality Squad). What we're watching of this cohort of "friends" is their building their bases of life experiences NOW, that will TEACH them how they will live more EXPERIENCED lives in their futures. Will their lives be better? Who the fuck knows. But their FUTURE LIVES will be shaped by what they're experiencing NOW.

2) Ranch nailed this already, but Sand is just as bad as Ray in living in the annals of time. (He's also naughty for another reason, which I'll get into in a postscript.) He's got the vintage tees, he wants to rewind to Woodstock, he's a fan of mostly classic Brit rock (....I will not call the Arctic Monkeys classic Brit rock, I will not, thus, "mostly," lol.) Dear friend @neuroticbookworm described this phenomenon of Sand's in the frame of Ray dabbling in a day of poverty tourism, as essentially what his day and night with Sand constituted. But I'd also add that Sand's living in a fantasy world of a couple levels to break the monotony of his everyday life. Those flashes of hope that he'll travel to world to festivals one day -- as he clocks 450 baht (around $12 USD) per bottle, as he sings, as he gets up and gets down -- yes, Ray is his fantasy, his non-existent 25th hour, Ray is the break from monotony that Sand needs as a thing to look forward too. Of course it comes crashing down.

3) But it'll come crashing down anyway, because I will posit the following: Sand's survival fantasies are necessary to keep him going by way of motivation, because Sand is going to be held back by others, and not just Ray. Sand is caught in a trap of filial piety. (OH SHIT! GIMME!) He's paying off his mom's debts.

We don't know how much the debts are. [We're seeing in Dangerous Romance that Sailom is getting his ass beat if he and his brother don't pay the debt collectors on time every month. Shit, the debt collectors are even trying to make Sailom an escort (which then turns into Kanghan buying off Sailom himself, but lemme leave that alone, WRONG SHOW)]. But even Sand's mom admits: Sand is solving a problem of MY OWN CREATION. How good is my son? He's a very good son. Drink up, honey.

Sand thought of Ray: wow, this guy might be into me, and shit, I'm into him. And I could use this right now! I could use this break. And that illusion came crashing down when Sand -- an intelligent dude! -- put two and two together real fast. And Sand, very rightly -- because he is FAST learning independence, in a totally different way than the main OF quartet -- pulls the hell away, and puts away the fantasy of Ray at Alone O'Clock.

3.5) I just want to note, real quick, that we now have TWO of my favorite-ist themes in this show: we have intergenerational trauma by way of Ray, and filial piety by way of Sand. THANK YOU, JOJO AND TEAM! *This* bitch is TRACKIN'.

4) Big ephemerality note here: I just, I SWOONED, GOD, I LOVED IT, WHEN RAY REVEALED HIS MOTHER WAS AN ACTRESS. And that she was bitter about getting pregnant and how that affected her career. Are you kidding me? JOJO. NINEW. ALL OF YOU. BRILLIANT. The ephemerality OF SHOWBIZ ITSELF.

Aren't all these actors risking their damn careers by potentially BLOWING UP THEIR SHIPS for the sake of this show? (I mean, that's actually a little far-fetched, as FirstKhao will be the first GMMTV pair to have an intercontinental fanmeet, BUT STILL.) God, the commentary on the FICKLENESS of showbiz was just CHEF'S KISS.

5) As Ranch noted, this was the episode where CHANNNNNGGGGEEEEE was the big bell ringing. Top needed something different than his sexual monotony -- so he goes after Mew, and shit, homes is bored AF. (@lurkingshan covered this perfectly here.) Mew contemplates changing for Top, the LASIK, the sex, all of it. Top seems to try a different kind of sex with Mew -- soft and romantic sex that ends with "I love you." Nick (oh, my bubby Nick), changes for Boston, becomes ripped, finds buttons and slacks. Boston contemplates whittling his list down. Ray wears secondhand (lol, it's called "vintage," asshole). Sand changes his routine to accommodate Ray.

And yet. I very, very often say in my posts that the process of behavioral change is INCREDIBLY difficult.

The five stages of behavioral change are: pre-contemplation, contemplation (Nick and the podcast), preparation, action (Nick at the gym), and maintenance.

The risk to this process, at any point in time, is: RELAPSE.

Think of how difficult it is to quit smoking. To go on a diet. To start an exercise routine. To stop biting your nails.

What is the thing that marks these processes more than anything else?

It's the RELAPSE into the old behavior, the old habits.

We really saw Boston trying to change...something. Trying to stick out...something with Nick. Trying on something new. Kinda like the way Ray tried on his secondhand shirt.

And then Boston experiences a familiar trigger: a trigger of jealousy when Mew calls him, innocently, to give Boston the heads-up that he's about ready to experience some cherry magic.

And that trigger, like all of our own triggers -- stress, a change of environment, a change of the people around you -- sent Boston back to a place.

Listen, I will, in no way, ever defend Boston's behavior. He was drunk and high AF, and he's generally toxic. Jojo is totally egging this on.

I would absolutely call Boston an equal opportunity asshole. He's only seeing the world from his own worldview, his own desires, his own desire to control whatever he can control around him.

But like I said before: toxicity is FAR more common that we'd like to believe. And toxicity within someone doesn't disappear very easily -- just like any of our habits, be they good or bad habits.

Boston was trying out a new life, for a few minutes (lol), of being a LITTLE LESS EPHEMERAL, a little less aloof -- a little less toxic. And a trigger brought him back to his bad place, and I think what we saw in that damn outburst was a relapse of the highest order.

Ray repeats to Nick what Top and Cheum have already said. This guy, Boston? He's nasty. Stay away. Boston's an asshole. Boston's still being stigmatized, and still living up to his label.

How would I summarize all of this? Throughout this ENTIRE episode, what was screaming within my head, as I said above, was: youth is fleeting. Youth itself is ephemeral. The experiences these young folks are going through at this moment in this show will build their experiences for how they will survive (or not) in their futures.

We may think that Boston, and Ray, and Mew, will not learn from their dumbass behavior, but -- they will. They will have no choice. Because their time being this young, and inexperienced, and idiotic, will flee. They'll graduate, and they will have to learn how to survive in a "real" world that may very well be far more brutal to them than their proximate friendships are to them right now. And man, if they have to experience lives that are MORE brutal than these proximate friendships they have, then good LUCK to them, because, well -- shit. It ain't pretty the way it is right now.

...

P.S. I just thought this whole scene was brilliant. Sand, honey, you're not as innocent as your meow feelings are letting on. I'm holding you accountable for what you're saying to Ray, too.

P.P.S. JENNIE.

(HAPPY SUNDAY, EPHEMERALITY SQUAD! @ranchthoughts @lurkingshan @neuroticbookworm @distant-screaming @slayerkitty @clara-maybe-ontheroad @twig-tea)

(HEY, SQUAD: if you tag me in things, and I forget to reblog, send me a DM! I'm on the last stages of this moving chapter of my life, and I don't wanna miss your meta!)

#only friends #only friends meta #only friends the series #only friends the series meta #firstkhao #first kanaphan #khaotung thanawat #sand x ray #ray x sand #forcebook #force jiratchapong #book kasidet #mew x top #top x mew #neomark #neo trai #mark pakin #nick x boston #boston x nick #jennie panhan #tee teeradej #i need more tee teeradej y'all #he fine #only friends the morning after

[platinumtulip]

Bra Review?

Hello!

First off, your artwork is amazing, thank you for sharing Rosemary and Diana with us.

Someone over at r/trollxchromosomes posted what looks like maybe a twitter from your handle -- I'm not positive it's you, but I figured it was worth a shot.

We're wondering what bra you're talking about in this post... I think a lot of folx would like to look into maybe getting one, with such a great review. Do you remember at all what brand this was?

Thanks in advance,

--Haberdasherydoo

best guess is the TomboyX soft bras, which i'm pretty sure i had just learned about at the time, but i don't feel super great recommending them... the way they've treated trans models in the past put a really bad taste in my mouth. while i still own & wear several bras from them - they're still comfortable and made well - i don't usually jump to recommend them anymore

in their place, i have been recommending ARQ, but i don't know how much longer they're going to be around. they make really nice cotton bras, but due to Life Circumstances the owner of the brand was gonna wind down her business, which is a shame.

Hey Mavens has been also on my to-try list but i haven't gotten around to it yet

#asks

[risu5waffles]

Candy Smokes and TEN Cent Cokes

Just whipsawing through it, aren't we? At least we're on time this go about.

i cannot tell you how palpable my disappointment this wasn't an LBP-tone version of Megdeth's Symphony of Destruction. Which isn't even their best song (i'm fond of Kill the King, but Polaris is pretty darn good. Dawn Patrol for getting a chance to hear asshole Mustaine squeak like a rat), but it still would have been neat. i don't know why, of all the musicians i've stopped listening to because their personal assholery started to outweigh the enjoyment their music brought, Megadeth should slip through the loophole. Like, Mustaine is a certified douchebag, but i'll almost always be down when they show up on random. Weird. The level? Honestly, the level's kind of pants. i mean, i appreciate the work that went into it; but it's pretty drab, and everything being so big, you don't get to really get a feel for running around on sheet music. It's not a bad level, it's just kinda there.

We talked about this last week, and it continues to be great. Picked up a Team Pick, which was no surprise at all. Definitely well deserved.

Exactly what it says on the tin. Low stress, high charm environment. Largely simple gameplay in almost a vignette, minigame style, which is pretty fitting for a fairground setting. i had a lot of fun here, but i feel like it would have been an even better time wiv a party of four. Playing by myself and it did start to feel like it was dragging on just a little bit. The downside of the start-stop action that the format demands. Still, i could definitely recommend this one.

This was actually fairly effective for LBP1-era horror. A lot of work went into making the environment actually function as an environment, instead of something kludgy and slapdash. It wasn't scary, by any means, but it was definitely very cool. The first time i played through, i didn't realize you could save the patient in the operating room until just after they cacked it. So i had to go through a second time, and lost out on my Ace on account of knives in LBP having silly-ass hurtboxes. Ah well, you win some, you lose some, and at least the patient survived. We should all be so lucky.

Oh my gosh, this level gave me so much trouble to get recorded. It was at the height of the most recent round of server trouble, and the dang thing just did not want to load, and when i finally did get it to run, there was a lot of lag in there making the experience more frustrating than it probably ought to have been. In slight fairness to the servers, i have the feeling this one would have chugged a bit even at the best of times, there's a lot going on in here, and i have to imagine it was a bear on the thermo. Still, it's really an impressive bit of kit. The upwards navigation could be a little fiddly at times, but i really appreciated how the whole thing fits together. i'm still a bit wilded by the stained glass windows. i've no idea how Stellakris got those in there.

Cute and clever, if a little bit frustrating, flat world sets up an old-school 2d platformer, and mostly manages to pull it off. The way they had it set-up, where you're basically in a styrofoam box wiv a button on the top, so when you jump, your character "jumps" too (most likely, the button is run into a piston attached to the styrofoam) was really cool. Unfortunately, the level never tells you that's how it's working, so i could see folx getting to the end, and not seeing how to trigger the scoreboard. You're just supposed to walk forward in layer, but i'd have had no idea if i hadn't thought to do a zoom-in wiv the costume camera. A little better communication wiv the player would probably have helped.

There's not really a lot to say about this one. It's fun, i can definitely give it that. Would be more fun wiv another couple of players, but a lot of LBP1 levels are like that. The conceit is well set up as well, like they've actually built in the lodges and lifts and all, instead of just giving you a huge slope and a couple of boards. Straight-forward and fun, and sometimes that's all you really need.

Oh my gosh, this one is so good tho'! Really manages to nail the feel and look of LBP1 level design, not just in presentation (tho' that's fantastic), but in the way a lot of the logic is right there on display for anyone to figure out and use themselves. That's an aspect of the first game that got lost once we moved to more abstract logic tools and microchips to put them in. As much as i love the freedom logic provides from LBP2 on, there's something just nifty as hell to see someone showing their work. The only thing i might call out as a negative here is the level is just a bit too much of a good thing. Like, all of it is great, but it is very le chonk, and it starts to wear on a bit by the end. i've noticed that in a few of Joja28's levels, so it seems to be a creator tic. i can get the feeling, tho'. You've got a ton of ideas, and they all fit a particular theme, and so you cram the whole lot in until it's fit to burst.

We talked about this one yesterday, and it is just as amazing now. It is, shockingly, bereft of Team Pick ribbon status, tho'. What the hey, Sumo? You're just leaving good food on the table.

Woof. This level is... kind of a lot? It wound up being broken, which is a problem. But it also wound up being breakable in two or three spots prior to the final point of failure. The problem being, well, a problem being you've got a couple of spots wiv rockets being thrown at you, which have the side-effect of easily blowing up things the creator probably hadn't intended getting blown up. Like bridges. Ope. Aside from that it's alright. The Gardens 2.0 is always a take i'm interested in seeing, and the idea that things have gotten worse, making the course more difficult is fun. The level kind of sticks to that theme, and there are definitely spots you could point to and say "oh yeah, that bit," before it goes haring off on its own merry way. i wonder if i would have had a better impression of it had i played it closer to release, and in its native environment.

---------------------------------------------- So that's another TEN down. Actually a pretty solid set, and i'd say you could take most of them and put them in your own playlist for an evening in LBP3. i mean you could if we still had lbp.me, i'm never not going to be salty we lost that resource just because someone got their boxers in a bunch and wanted to be a whole jackass.

My vacation's almost over which is fine, i guess? i really need to develop some kind of meatspace life that isn't defined by work, so that when i have actual time off, it doesn't feel so drifty and listless. It only occurred to me after it'd started that had i planned things a little better, i could have set aside a couple-k yen and gone down to Osaka to chill out for a few days. See some friends, hang out in Triangle Park, sleep on the cheap at netcafes. Missed opportunities.

#littlebigplanet #little big planet #lbp #lbp1 #lbp2 #lbp3 #littlebite-sizedarchive #LBsA #Youtube

[deaddropcrime]

Hello future friends!

I'm new to true crime podcasting but not to true crime or true crime podcasts. Like plenty of other true crime podcast hosts, I'm a long time fan of the genre. By the time I was in 9th grade family and friends were buying me serial killer books and those big tabloid books with crime scene photos. Thankfully, my tastes have matured.

These days I prefer podcasts that feature folx who have expertise and experience solving real life crimes. Real Crime Profile & Crime Analyst, of course. I stan Laura Richards hard. Women & Crime and The Prosecutors are two more great examples.

I'm also one of those people that collects interesting friends. I'm a magpie at heart and I do weird stuff, so I meet some really interesting people. Recently I noticed that conversations I was having with one of my dear friends was the sort of thing that would answer a lot of people's questions that come up around some notorious cases in the true crime world.

That's because this friend of mine was a spy. He made me stop introducing him that way because it freaks people out, but he totally was. What he told me about his experiences was nothing like I thought as an outsider to the intel community. When I started asking him questions about details common in cases that people think might be tied to covert activities he had fascinating answers.

So I got him to agree to doing a podcast, under a code name and with his identity concealed, of course...

And the codename he picked for himself is the name of a historical spy he finds inspiring: Francis Walsingham. Spymaster for the Queen is certainly #lifegoals, so I can't argue.

Francis is a veteran of the US military. When he was actively working in the intel field he held top security clearances and, of course, still has friends and contacts throughout the intel world. He worked with the US State Department, several combat commands, and enough alphabet agencies that you kinda zone out when he lists them all.

To be clear, Francis was not a real life Bond (we're gonna get into 007 on the podcast, don't worry). Francis is the guy who told Bond where to go and was nearby armed and waiting in case things went wrong with the plan. Usually that didn't happen. He's also been the guy who rescues trafficked women from a shipping container. And the guy who gets fitted for a suit in the morning to wear to an opulent party that night. Being in intel demands diverse skills (he says some version of this all the time). Signals was his specialty, though, which kinda seems like the highest stakes AV club/tech support job imaginable.

It all sounds really exciting, right? But for people in the intel world, it's just Tuesday. They have good days and bad. Sometimes that spirals into something that changes the world.

Now you may have noticed a lack of medical and scientific expertise here. Francis has combat medic training, I dabble in herbal medicine, but we needed more than that. I realized it when we were elbows deep in research for our first case. It's one that there's been a lot of talk about, and one of the first cases I thought of when it comes to spy theories.

Enter:

I called on an old friend, who asked to be known as Dr. Cain for professional reasons. He has worked in academia for most of his life, educating many young minds on the mysteries of pathology and critical thinking.

He agreed to look over any medical records in our cases and to send in reports for us to use on the podcast. We may not be hearing from him on every episode, but when Francis and I get in over our heads, we'll be calling in the doctor.

We also have the help of a Tech Human who handles all the behind the scenes stuff, but they refuse to be introduced. They are also very stubborn and technically they are in charge of this crazy train. I just host , write episodes, and run the socials. ;)

(Artistic rendering of our Tech Human.)

And that's our team! We're very excited to dig into these cases and share fresh perspectives with our listeners. <3

#true crime podcast #podcast host #new podcast #espionage #podcaster

[bloodandbandages]

Y'all I have some whumptober prompts done. Should I post them day by day in November, out of order right now or 14 all at once in like a week?

Vote now in the comments below

#lol i hate myself #we're having a bad time folx #but mama didn't raise no quitter #anyways fuck me for assuming i could just write something every day #whilst doing keto and school and college applications #i am The Dumbass #this is a callout post for Ze #he did not plan At All #lets cancel him

[hardtchill]

What do you mean when you said that this fandom excuses players who are not anti racism and punishing playera who aren't pro gay?

I mean that this fandom is predominantly white and it shows.

Players like O'hara, Morgan, Lloyd, Ertz, Sonnett and Horan are excused by claiming they need time to learn that racism is bad (we're up to 2038 days btw, they still haven't learned a thing). They are given excuses like growing up in conservative area's or having family who are in the military so they can't kneel (bullshit). They are even allowed to say kneeling isn't effective or isn't 'comfortable' while using their black teammates as human shields. That's all completely fine with a lot of stans in this fandom.

Meanwhile Hinkle refused to wear a rainbow jersey once and was booed for 5 years because she said she didn't want to promote homosexuality. Did Hinkle deserve what she got? Abso-fucking-lutely. But the way she was treated shows how being pro-gay is a requirement in this fandom while being anti-racism is optional.

You can't be pro-gay without being anti-racist, the two go hand in hand! You can't be an lgbtqia+ activist if you can't be bothered to include BIPOC folx (who btw, you have to thank for the rights lgbtqia+ folx have today).

#ask #alex morgan #kelley o'hara #emily sonnett #lindsey horan #carli lloyd #julie ertz

[darlingrutherford]

Hey all. I really hate doing this, I've never done this before, but dire times call for humbling so.

My bearded dragon, Max (or, Beardimus Venemous Maximus the Secondus, as some of you may know him by) has been sick for a few weeks now. He has an infection that his vet hasn't been able to find the cause for yet. We're currently in the middle of an antibiotic treatment where we inject saline and antibiotics between his scales under the skin every 48 hours, in addition to giving him an oral pain and anti-inflammatory medication every day. This doesn't seem to be doing anything. He still refuses to eat. He still has a hard mass (either his liver or gallstone most likely) that is causing his stomach to be pushed upwards.

The first image on top is a radiograph of Max after they gave him a barium solution. That white boy is his current stomach placement. The second picture is how it's supposed to look.

Because this course of treatment doesn't seem to be doing anything, we booked an ultrasound with his vet for July 30th. Because of the nature of this, his vet will be transporting him to an emergency clinic in the next town over that has a much higher quality ultrasound available so that they'll for sure see what's going on, no questions. We had to put down a $980 deposit down for this visit, which was the minimum of what the visit for that day alone will cost. If they have to do a biopsy while there, which will require anesthesia, it could cost up to (and possibly more than) $1716. This is on top of the $889.50 we've already paid out of pocket for his treatment. And we have no idea what the cost of treatment will look like once we determine what's happening.

I'm disabled, currently on my third year of trying to get approved for disability in this country that seems to not believe disabled folx, so we're surviving on my husband's not great income in a city where cost of living is already pretty freaking high. Max means the world to us, he's what gets me out of bed even when I'm in insurmountable pain, and we'll do anything we can to make him feel better. He's only just turned five. His vet is extremely qualified and we know we've done the best for him under her guidance, so the fact that he's going through this is breaking my heart. He could live another fifteen years. It's just not fair.

I hate asking for favors. I know times are tough for a lot of people right now, and if you don't feel like you can spare anything right now I 100% understand and don't expect anything from anyone. But, I feel like I need to put this out there into the universe.

If you can spare anything, even just $1, our venmo is @ dragonparents , ko-fi is https://ko-fi.com/darlingrutherford if you prefer that way

Again, I'm not expecting anything, I know these times are tough. And please don't feel bad if you can't help out. But I figure it's good to put things into the universe. I wish I could offer something substantial in return. If you do donate and would like something, I could offer an over DM tarot reading, I can do a "good energy" ritual for you, send healing energy your way through ritual, etc. Unfortunately my CFS just isn't allowing me to write well right now, so I would feel like I would be offering a disservice offering that up. But, I can offer those (culturally responsible, pulled from my ancestor's culture and not those of other's) energy offerings/readings to you if you'd like ❤️

Most of all, I hope all of you remain healthy and happy, that your pets and loved ones stay healthy and happy, especially in these times ❤️

And, of course, paying the pet tax:

#bearded dragon #pets #max the dragon #beardimus maximus venemous the secondus #my baby #i love this little nugget more than life itself

[mybodyliberation]

Primark And Resizing

If you live in Europe, are over the age of 15 and have ever shopped in a Primark and tried on things in the dressing room, I don't even need to ask if you've had an emotional breakdown. I automatically already know.

Rest assured we all stand together in a silent solidarity that spans decades. We all feel one another's pain recalling some of her most trauamtic experiences coming to ahead in those fluorescent filled cubicals.

We acknowledge those minutes spent something under harsh lights, unable to get those skinny jeans passed our calves. We honour the memory and we forge on towards healing.

Now as a past employee I think its okay for me to admit that though convenient and decently priced, we have all had bad experiences with Primark and yet as of late I have been seeing somewhat of a revolution take place.

Primark...is listening.

I am seeing not only a company and fashion rebranding but an ethical and environmental change and its something to behold.

We see a big brand actually listening to its customers and its quite something to behold. We're witnessing collabs with magazines and influencers and celebs and we are seeing genuine fashion week trends hit the rails; not to mention the most wonderous array of Disney and Harry Potter merch, but the big thing I want to talk about is:

The new resizing!

Now not that this massive step forward doesn't effect those who wear straight sizes, but the bigger folx are out in these streets two stepping in joy!

Does this mean we actually get....accurate sizing?

Well...I'm here to say...I think it does!

I put the sizing to the test and picked out an entirely new outfit in the hopes that only would I stay within a reasonable budget but I would have a fashion forward look which FITS.

As a general rule whether its a plus size brand or not I go with what looks like a stretchy material and I size up regardless because ain't nobody got time for that.

Yellow seems to be the colour of the summer and autumn for me so I worked the outfit from the head down.

Crushed velvet corduroy alice band, white "moving forward" tee, and Clueless inspired checkered yellow pinafore dress. All clothing in a size 20 just in case.

Again I bought clothes that I would not only shoot in but want to wear again.

So....was the sizing legit?

Babes...it was most definitely.

I find myself genuinely shook that not only could I have gone for my normal size but that the quality of the clothing, the cut and accurate sizing could definitely fit my size 19, 20, 22 and depending on the item of clothing, 24 boos!

Considering I can vividly recall the years they even introduced a size 18 let alone a size 20, I am extact that they are genuinely making steps to include plus bodies.

There is a whole market of people that would be willing to spend their coin there if they consciously include them and I think this practical resizing will do wonders for not only for peoples confidence in themselves but their trust in the Primark brand.

The whole outfit cost me £23 in TOTAL and honestly I am so impressed with the turn out that as someone who has actively avoided Primark the last few years, I will be consciously checking out what they have on offer on a more regular basis.

Any future that is focused on being inclusive is a bright one.

Well done Primark for taking steps to join that future!

#review #reviews #primark #high street #high street fashion #plus size #plus size fashion

[araliestrange]

Welcome to my Sims 2 to 4 Project. It has been 5+ years in the making and it is finally nearly complete! If you've been following me for awhile, you know that I've been converting the entire (or as close to it as feasible) Sims 2 into the Sims 4, but with my own modifications based on my previous Sims 2 game and the version I played in Sims 3.

Clicky Clicky below if this piqued your curiosity at all. It's a long post and there's no tl;dr, so have fun. ;)

What you'll see here. Round-ish sort of gameplay. I'm terrible at sticking to rounds and just kind of play who I'm feeling at any given time, so it probably won't be strict round-style play, but I will keep track each time I rotate. It's just not exactly going to be in any order or anything. I'm not following any rules. I do what I want in my game.

What else you'll see. Drama. Lotsssss of drama. I took the Sims 2's storylines and pushed them too far. It's chaos. There's a reason this blog isn't for children. You gotta be like 16 to enter (there's no nudity or wicked whims woohoo stuff, but a lot of implied shit). There's some weird shit in here, so you know, brace yourselves or whatever. There's a couple families in here that are basically a Law and Order SVU episode. Spoiler: It's the Beakers. So, skip over the first few posts about them if you don't want to see posts that will probably have several TWs on them. It gets weeeeeiiiiiiirrrrrrd.

What's next? Well, I'm going to start by introducing you to the families- 5 per post because of Tumblr's stupid 10 photo limit. I'll introduce all the main families you know and love, then some of the others such as townies and NPCs from 2 that now have their own lives. Also, there's some dead sims that aren't dead anymore. It was kind of dumb that most of the sims had no living grandparents, so a lot of those folx are back. And the Tricous because, I mean, come on. Who didn't resurrect those guys back in the day? They were like the coolest family in the game but all dead. Lame, Maxis, lame. Anyway, yeah, we're starting with the intros. It will probably take me another year to post of all them.

Some other notes:

Lots. So, the lots are NOT direct remakes of the original houses. I totally ripped off other people's work for about 90% of them. I'll be posting a list of credits. I built most of this with TS2 booted up on my laptop for reference. I used my favorite lot makeovers. My laptop crapped out so I can't credit each individual lot to its creator, but I will add a credit list to the bottom of this post soon.

Sims. Mostly my creations. I snagged a few from the gallery. I no longer play a version that uses the gallery if you know what I mean, so I can't tell you exactly who made what sims, but I've edited most of them beyond recognition anyway. Many of the ones I made don't look a thing like their TS2 counterparts. It turns out I'm really bad at making sims that look like other sims. They're close enough to be recognizable I guess. You'll figure it out.

My Save File. I originally was going to make this TS2 vanilla, but got way too into it, so now it's something else entirely. Unfortunately, since I used floorplans and sims by other creators, as well as a boatload of CC, I can't share this. I did make a few houses that are TS2 originals and I may upload some of those at some point if you want to embrace the fug that was TS2 lots. But sorry, my save can't be shared without violating countless TOUs and I'm not an asshole like that.

Other things:

-I work a lot, so I can't guarantee any rhyme or rhythm to my posts. You'll get your fix when you get it, okay? Don't be so needy, sheesh! I play when I have time and I post when I have extra time.

-My screenshots aren't always going to be all pretty and perfect like some of yours (I envy y'all and your artistic abilities which I sorely lack). I only have Paint on this damn computer. I've never in my life been able to figure out how to get Reshade to work in a Sims game. You get whatever my lighting mods and graphics card decide to do, nothing more, nothing less.

-I'm WCIF friendly. I have 22GB of CC in dis bitch. If you see something you like and can't find, feel free to ask and I'll try to help ya out. Any other questions are welcome, like specs and all that shiz. I have a custom built computer that was mid-range when I got it several years ago. It's nothing fancy but it can run 22GB of CC with almost no lag, so that's something.

Credits:

This section will be updated soon! :)

~

I guess that's it for now. I'll start slowly posting the intros to the families over the next couple of days, then we'll dive into some crazy stories. So, grab your popcorn, sit back, and enjoy this thing I spent five freaking years of my life making for absolutely no reason.

#2to4redux #sims 2 to 4 project #sims 4 #ts4 #ts2 #soitfinallybegins