#we're one of the biggest systems in the US so that might be the difference

[fulgursmediaanalysisdrama]

Nihilism is a positive, life affirming philosophy. Something my christian mother couldn't, or didn't want to, understand

And Schoppenhauer is interesting but only worth anything when you conclude he is wrong

Berserk as a Nietzschean Tragedy — Art, Morality, Affirmation by Jonas Čeika

#when I was 16 in the face of my friends still being close to christian morality and therefore by extension fascist thought (something I was #incapable of naming back then and only fully getting out of in my 20s after falling out with all of them) #I invented the term of ''positive Nihilism'' on my own. this in turn was a thought that spread throughout our very depressed and more #hopeless shunned by other students friend group and synergized well with the hedonistic freedom we gained by getting old enough to buy #alcohol and other drugs. but didn't lead to all of us moving away from moralistic and judgy world views. for most it only changed #what the rules and who worthy targets of morality and judginess were #and influenced by this bad philosophy taught in school and right wing influencers having the biggest presence online I also #didn't manage to free myself from christian moralistic and fascist world views. even if I developed an #understanding of how racism and science were related at the time and thought myself to be a true liberal (I wasn't) ( andthat's kinda true #for essentially all liberals. because they denie collective action for the greater good. and thereby denie that collective action for the #bad can already exist. implicitly without any great plot to be necessary #and I used the terms bad and good here. but not to describe any conviction of anyone. to describe a result of action/inaction taken #back then I struggled heavily with self worth because there wasn't any system in which I could get ranked that affirmed #my worth or my virtues. my talents. because it can't. and if there was it would need to denie someone else's value #that's inevitable. being good at something is great but has no implications on other people #alone for the fact that they might have different standards. different goals #the complexity of humanity and the inability of us to weigh one another against each other. to compare ourselves amongst one another #is what truly reveals the worth of each and every one of us. we're alive and nothing can be worth more. so we should strive to keep everyon #around as long as they want to be around. and we should always denie anyone who wants to denie others ability and right to live #and I'm not some Kantian Idiot believing that the laws of nature mandate you aren't allowed to kill yourself or something #I'm just here to say even if I hate you I'd rather you're alive so that I can decide not to talk to you than for you to be dead. #someone else will love you and cherish every moment with you and I'll love that you're spending that time together. #I kinda lost the thread and my brain is producing thoughts I wanna write down but can't make sense off or put into words. #I don't know what the thoughts are myself. I forgot at least one of them after formulating it correctly because there were so many #kissing you (only if you want to/allow it) #Youtube

[sophieinwonderland]

I'm pro-endo, but I do think that the term "sysmed" is transphobic. I know that anti-endos who force a medicalized view of plurality are harmful, but they will never compare to the harm that transmeds did, and will never even come close to the harm caused by medicalizing transness. "Sysmeds" aren't the result of a vaguely homophobic ideology that strips away the bodily autonomy of gay trans people due to our supposed "fetish" for "real" gay people. Sysmeds aren't what forces people to jump through so many extra hoops for necessary medical care like transmeds are. Sysmeds aren't what gives me a strong fear of the irl gay and/or trans community. As bad as some anti-endo might be, please don't call them a sysmed.

Personally, I feel a lot of the differences you highlight are more due to the scale of the communities.

I've interacted with and seen so many pro-endo and mixed origin DID systems who are scared to interact with online DID communities. Even posting in DID tags here on Tumblr is something many pro-endos with DID are terrified too.

And the only reason this doesn't transfer to IRL plural communities as much... is because there really aren't IRL plural communities yet.

Systems are fakeclaimed so much that most systems don't feel safe coming out IRL, and organization is difficult. But I believe that's going to change which only increases their potential for harming the community. But even putting aside the potential future harm, I feel you're understating the harm already caused to the plural and DID communities.

But to discuss this, it's important to acknowledge that there is a larger divide here than just being pro and anti-endo.

The hatred for groups like The Plural Association isn't simply born of endophobia, but of a larger medicalist philosophy. For this reason, the word "sysmed" is more than just about the comparison. For a few common philosophies included in that framework:

Parts Language is treated as objective fact, and systems who don't use parts language are shamed for it. For the few system medicalists who believe endogenic plurality might exist, this is used as a dividing line. "Endogenic systems are people but CDD systems are part, so therefore we're different." The problem with this is that it erases the many systems who identify as people. Remember: CDD systems identified as different people FIRST, and were later labeled as only parts by psychiatrists.

The biggest threat to CDD systems is people pretending to be systems. The myth that there are a ton of people faking out there faking DID, and therefore making it harder to be diagnosed, is everywhere in these spaces.

The Shame Criterion. Some questionable studies were conducted into diagnosed systems that were deemed to be "imitative DID." The claim is that one difference between "imitative DID" and "genuine" DID is that people with genuine DID are ashamed of their symptoms. These have been passed around in system medicalist spaces, and raised suspicion towards any systems who are too proud or overt. (This is harmful to any attempt at plural rights because it immediately casts doubt on any systems who aren't ashamed enough. It also ignores that people who are isolated without a community of people with similar experiences will be more ashamed than those who have people with similar experiences.)

Dismissing Mixed Origin systems as endogenic. This, while tied to the endogenic question, isn't about it directly. Individuals that believe in endogenic plurality and think it should be kept separate are sure to keep mixed origin systems on the "endogenic" side. They would prefer people with spiritual beliefs about their systemhood, even if diagnosed with DID, to not be allowed into DID spaces. This is a direct threat to the ability of these systems to seek medical care for their disorders.

For all of these reasons and more, the term "sysmed" is about a larger philosophical divide between them and the inclusive plural community than just whether endogenic systems exist or not.

More than just harassment and bullying online, if doctors are aware of and listening to medicalist rhetoric, this could further harm CDD systems who seek diagnosis, reinforcing the myth that there's a DID fad and systems seeking help are jumping on a trend.

The McLean Hospital video that fakeclaimed diagnosed DID systems on TikTok for not being ashamed enough of their systems was PROMOTED here on Tumblr and reblogged by system medicalists, as well as posted to sysmed hubs like r/systemscringe.

This was a video that was deemed so harmful by the institution that posted it that they took it down the next day, but that hasn't stopped others from using it and spreading it as an example of a wave of DID fakers.

This directly resulted in DID TikTokers facing harassment.

And it could make doctors even more hesitant to diagnose people with DID because of the perceived influx of fakers.

It's impossible to measure the impact of system medicalists spreading the video, or the impact of their other rhetoric, but the fact is that their beliefs and the content they spread further stigmatizes all systems who don't conform perfectly to what's perceived as the medical model, and supports ideas that make it more difficult for many systems who would benefit from medical treatment to get it.

#syscourse #pro endo #pro endogenic #psychiatry #psychology #system medicalism #sysmeds #system discourse #sysblr #systems #multiplicity #endogenic #actually a system

[crownmemes]

Supernatural & Paranormal Sentences, Vol. 3

(Sentences from various sources for muses exploring the unexplained. Adjust phrasing where needed)

"These sightings only occur on nights when there's a full moon, which tells me something."

"It happened just the way you said it would. How did you know?"

"What's the matter? Don't you believe in miracles?"

"The truth is out there. Maybe you should find it for yourself."

"You can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality."

"The human mind delights in grand conceptions of supernatural beings."

"The crimes we are investigating are paranormal, I can say that with absolute conviction."

"There are things you just don't know."

"Why can't you just go for the simple answer?"

"What would you do if you were a werewolf?"

"Lost time is a common symptom of close proximity to anti-gravity propulsion systems."

"We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue."

"You never believed in any of this stuff. This paranormal or whatever you call it. So, what changed your mind?"

"If you're waiting for my usual theory as to that is going on, I don't have one."

"Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, only in contradiction to what we know of it."

"I'm delusional? Did you just hear yourself?"

"You just jump at whatever explanation is the wildest and most far-fetched, don't you?"

"I don't buy your hollow threats."

"I have seen my share of the hideous, of the disgusting, and the repellent, but you are the most perfect expression I will ever see of all that is vile and hateful in life."

"What are you saying you believe now?"

"I believe that you will find all of your answers. You will find the answers to the biggest mysteries, and I will be there when you do."

"This isn't my life anymore. I'm done chasing monsters in the dark."

"Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else."

"There has to be a scientific explanation for this."

"Don't go looking for something you don't want to find."

"Have you considered that something else might be going on here?"

"The way I look at it, calling something paranormal is just a way of avoiding a real explanation."

"Are you monitoring my life? Bugging my phones?"

"Human logic doesn't apply to me."

"You have to believe me. Nobody else on this whole damn planet does or ever will."

"What are you even after out there? Do you ever even think about that?"

"If you look too hard, you can go mad, but if you continue to look, you become liberated."

"Just because there's magic in one place doesn't mean there's magic in every place."

"It's easier to believe in monsters out there in the world than to accept that the real monsters dwell within us."

"It's hard to believe in something when you can't understand it."

"The guy that we're after knows what it's like to have died and be dragged back."

"No, it doesn't matter that aliens from out of space have no genitalia - they still have groins, and they shouldn't be kicked there!"

"I'm not suggesting anything. I think the facts speak for themselves."

"Ghosts are benevolent entities. Mostly."

"What does that tell you? That I'm crazy, or that I'm right?"

"Next thing I know, you're going to tell me I'm the crazy one."

"What is this? Another one of your whacko conspiracy theories?"

"If there were secret experiments going on here, I wouldn't tell you."

"You have no idea about true evil."

"The conspiracy is not to hide the existence of extraterrestrials; it's to make people believe in it so completely that they question nothing."

"Without proof, we're nothing more than conspiracy mongers."

#rp meme #rp memes #roleplay meme #roleplay memes #rp prompts #roleplay prompts #sentence starters #supernatural; #assorted;

[astarions-musings]

Our system spent this morning browsing some online plural communities, and it brought us down a little to hear about all the struggles and hardships that a lot of systems are going through. So I wanted to send some good vibes and positive experiences with our plurality out into the world, so a few people out there can be reassured and reminded that there's a happy life ahead of you. Being the change I want to see in the world, and all that ❤️

Our system is coming up on the third anniversary of our plural awakening, after many years of learning to support and nurture the different 'parts of ourselves' before we realised that we're actually separate people. And with every year that passes, our system becomes more comfortable, more interconnected, more mutually supportive, more welcoming for new headmates, and generally more comfortable to spend our lives together with. Our life in the external world has gradually become more peaceful and stress-free as well, so I honestly think our fourth year of plurality is gonna be our best one yet ❤️

Our system is very large (somewhere between hundreds or thousands of people), with one 'designed driver' (our less hierarchical phrase for a host) who's usually in the fronting room by default, a rotating cast of 20-50 headmates who currently feel like spending time at the front, a large number of people who want to generally vibe near the co-front and enjoy the life we're sharing together, and a very large number of anonymous headmates chilling in the background and doing their own thing. Our designated driver often ends up front-stuck in public spaces (as our form of masking), but in private and around people we feel safe around, we can switch on demand within one or two seconds. In the course of an average day, lots of us might come to the front for a while (to listen to some music, watch a fun show, spend time out in nature), then tag out for a while and enjoy the ride while our designated driver handles everyday life. Music is especially helpful for facilitating those switches, since we can either listen to our own playlists as a fronting anchor if we want to vibe at the front for a while, or put our system-wide playlist on shuffle and use that as rapid-fire fronting triggers to help a wide range of people to enjoy time near the front for a while. Honestly, music is one of the biggest things for our system's mental health ❤️

At this point in time, our system's internal community is doing pretty well. Most of us are broadly in agreement about our values and ideals, with a shared goal to live a peaceful and stress-free life where our young ones can live safely and our trauma holders can slowly unwind. Sometimes there's friction here and there about the execution of those goals (such as people who want to work hard towards building a happy life for us, clashing with people who want to slow down and rest), but I don't think intentional harm or conflict is something that really happens for us. It's sometimes tricky to navigate situations where people have clashing needs (such as spending time with our family vs. avoiding our past abusers), but every day, our system has more and more practice with navigating those situations. Most of the time, our day-to-day struggles are stuff like "There's 1000 different hobbies we could be spending time on, and different people want to enjoy different things." Living as a family unit can be tricky sometimes, but when our biggest challenges are "How do we share the front to have fun today?", it really puts things in perspective ❤️

Also, we're feeling more and more welcome in our social life with every passing day. We're out as plural around all of our friends, in our workplace (which is unusually plural-inclusive), in most of our local social groups, and with a couple of choice family members that we trust with that information. We have a whole bunch of plural friends online, and a couple of systems that we hang out with in person on a regular basis. Our system has a bunch of wonderful relationships with other plural systems, in which each of us individually can have our own wonderful relationships, as well as our system-wide connections with the people we trust. It would be nice if we had even more opportunities to front openly as ourselves, but those are slowly getting more and more common, with each passing day. It's tough sometimes, but it's also really wonderful as well ❤️

I don't have anything specific in mind for this post, and I honestly have no idea who might need to hear this right now. But I just want to share some positivity with the rest of the plural community, in case someone needs a reminder that it's not all doom-and-gloom. Y'all can have a good life together. Y'all can enjoy yourselves together. And eventually, your day-to-day challenges will be as simple as sharing the remote and agreeing as a group about how y'all want to enjoy yourselves today. There's a good life ahead of you, and I want you to remember that ❤️

#plural #pluralgang #plurality #plural system #plural positivity #traumagenic system #endo safe #pro endo #pluralpunk #plural community #aston's musings

[joyce-stick]

Suzume Isn't Gay, But We Liked It Anyway

Despite not being as gay as Shinkai might have tried to make it during its development, Suzume is still quite a good film which we enjoyed immensely on account of its characters, compelling narrative, visual beauty, thought-provoking themes, and the improvements observed over Shinkai's previous two films. So this an essay about Suzume, about why it's good, what its themes are, and our glowing recommendation.

Transcript under the cut.

Previous video essay/transcript: Audrey's Best Girls Winter 2023

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Citations!

Baron, Reuben. “Director Makoto Shinkai on the Anime Artistry of Suzume - Exclusive Interview.” Looper, Static Media, 12 Apr. 2023, https://www.looper.com/1254434/director-makoto-shinkai-anime-artistry-suzume-exclusive-interview/.

Brzeski, Patrick. “Makoto Shinkai on How Anime Blockbuster 'Suzume' Reflects the Current State of Japan: ‘the Most Honest Expression I Could Put on Screen.’” The Hollywood Reporter, Penske Media Corporation, 7 Mar. 2023, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/makoto-shinkai-interview-suzume-anime-berlin-2023-1235329404/.

Pulliam-Moore, Charles. “Makoto Shinkai Wants Suzume to Build a Bridge of Memory between Generations.” The Verge, Vox Media, 15 Apr. 2023, https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/15/23678724/makoto-shinkai-suzume-interview.

Jackson, Destiny. “Director Makoto Shinkai on the Tender Resonance and Maturity of Making 'Suzume': ‘I Think about How to Dig Deeper so I Can Emotionally Move People in My Vicinity.’” Deadline, Penske Media Corporation, 15 Apr. 2023, https://deadline.com/2023/04/suzume-makoto-shinkai-japanese-anime-weathering-with-you-your-name-1235325691/.

https://twitter.com/ao8l22/status/1513116464210919425

https://twitter.com/moogy0/status/1592346490315640836

I had a few good reasons to assume I would hate Suzume.

We've seen three of Shinkai’s films. Yes, those three. We liked Your Name quite a bit when we saw it in theaters, but its flaws became apparent on a rewatch a few years later. We did not like Weathering With You, which made its flaws apparent to us rather immediately. Never watched it since watching it the first time, but, I don't know, maybe we'll go back to it.Still, thinking about that film had us pissed off for a little while, although we're less pissed off now, for reasons we might get to later. So, when we went to watch Suzume, I was reasonably expecting to hate it, or, even worse, enjoy it, while seeing some intractable flaw in it that ticked me off immensely about it.

And… I found none! I mean, maybe I'll think of one later, but my current opinion of Suzume, as I write this hours after having seen it, (and speak it, 'bout a couple days after having written this) is that it was a pretty good film with a lot of breathtaking visuals, funny moments, some emotional bits, and no real huge flaws to speak of. In fact, not only does this film lack the biggest flaws of its predecessors, it's also got a few things about it that I appreciate more.

First thing I liked immediately: Girl. I mean, her name, is the title. It's no secret that we of the joystick system appreciate beautiful anime girls, and this particular such beautiful anime girl is good, both as the protagonist of the film who does all the proactive things to save the guy, which is different from the last two movies where the guy did all the stuff. I'm not gonna pretend like Shinkai is suddenly some kind of feminist icon now for correctly giving a female character some goddamn agency, but: it's a nice touch for us personally, given that… we like girls. It helps that Suzume is emotional and interesting and funny and has a pretty good arc through the movie and her voice actress does a good job- no, we did not watch the dub. I'll probably talk a bit more about her later, but I think she's good.

I think it's important to mention with regards to this girl, that she was, apparently, supposed to be gay. This information came to light in the English speaking anime community after a Japanese entertainment journalist tweeted a tweet sayin’ as much, and then professional translator Moogy went and tweeted about it in turn, citing this journalist as a source. I can’t find that this chain goes back any further than that, although I tried to out of personal interest, because, if I had, then I would’ve been able to write that into the Wikipedia page- which, I DID CHECK, and it briefly mentions that -

Okay, so, since writing that, another, Wikipedia-admissible, source, in the English language, emerged, in which Shinkai is interviewed, and confirms this to be true. So as such, I added that information to the article, with that source. Look. There it is! And it’s still there, probably, unless someone removed it while I was making the video.

In this interview, the interviewer asks Shinkai directly about this, and he says, “I’m surprised you know it! I’ve only told Japanese interviewers about it!” Clearly Shinkai is unaware of the power of Moogy. So, he goes onto say, that, yes, it was his initial idea for a companion, and that the theoretical character who Souta replaced would’ve been Suzume’s onee-san crush; that’s how I’m taking this whole ‘sisterhood romance’ thing. He thought he’d done enough with the boy meets girl thing, and he wanted to try doing something else.

His producer rejected it, because, in Shinkai’s translated words, “You may be tired of these romantic stories, but your audience loves it,” which, I believe, is a polite way of saying “I don’t think a gay film will sell.” The chair thing was chosen to “not make it too much of a romance”.

Shinkai further says— and this part kinda gets me— that he doesn’t think the story would’ve changed if it had been gay, or if Suzume had been a boy or non-binary or whatever. Quote:

“It's not necessarily the context of male/female; it's about a human overcoming something. In my future films as well, I want to focus on that human story as opposed to too much commentary on gender or sex.”

So, my reading of this response, and, take this with a grain of salt because it’s only my personal interpretation, is that while Shinkai was interested in making a gay film as a change of pace, he did not consider it important enough to insist on. There were other things he wanted to make the movie about, and he didn’t want to die on the gay hill.

And, y’know, that’s a shame, but I think it’s fair enough. I would have liked to see the alternate timeline where no one stopped him from making the film gay, but if it wasn’t already clear, I like the film that we got, and I don’t fault Shinkai for having other priorities as a director, like, for instance, getting his film funded and keeping his job. And honestly, I can halfway see the merit in not making it a gay film, because then it’d be a lot harder to, y’know, address the themes, without addressing whatever gay discourse there’d be that overshadows the themes.

I don’t say this to be like, “ooh, the film would’ve just been gay and that would’ve been bad,” it would’ve been good for the film to be gay, I just mean that a lot of the time people are more concerned about there being representation rather than the quality of the story in which the representation exists and it becomes the gay thing, rather than, the thing that happens to be gay, and that’s not always great. I mean, I guess we are getting a little bit of that just off of the knowledge that the film could have been gay, but at least I don’t have to think about talking about it too much past this point, because it’s, y’know, not actually in the film.

Shinkai said other stuff, too, I guess, about the animation and how the characters have different color palettes for daytime and evening and night scenes, which explains the very convincingly presented amusement park scene, that happens at night! So that was interesting.

Anyway, that’s the addendum I have about that, I’m gonna go back to the rest of this:

I have no idea if this would've been good for the film or not, but we have a different video being written about gay pandering, so, let’s move on then I guess!

The second thing that we liked was the film's opening minutes. And to explain why this is, I need to give a bit of context, I think. So, in short, after the 2011 nuclear meltdown and earthquake that irreversibly forever changed Japan and the life of all the people living there (and also delayed Madoka Magica's finale), Shinkai apparently decided that he wanted to make a bunch of films about it. About three so far, to be exact. Which, y'know, is not a bad motivation for making films. It's certainly a better motivation than I had to write this video

So, as such, his last three films are a novel fusion of wacky comedy, coming of age romantic melodrama, and disaster film. Your Name and Weathering With You had really slow buildups to the disaster part of the disaster film, to the point that mentioning it is almost a spoiler, but I'm going to assume it isn't because everyone has now seen those films. So they have a whole first half where it's just kind of weird supernatural romantic comedy slice of life hijinks but then it abruptly tone shifts in the second half.

This is actually, I think, the source of both of these films' major issues. It's kinda cool to watch them the first time and then see the story's tone shift when the mid movie plot twist happens, introducing the big disaster scenario aspect of the story along with it, but the drawback to that approach is that you have, in essence, a movie whose plot twist is that it becomes a different movie. This both contributes to the odd tonal whiplash and also means that the supernatural disaster part of the film is weaker and not as well fleshed out as it could be.

Suzume, on the other hand, smartly introduces the main conflict of the story in the first act of the movie. This choice is good. The serious existential threat to Japan stuff that the film is about is the immediate focus of the film. This allows for a more balanced tone, as then the movie can comfortably use its comedic parts to add levity to its treatment of that harrowing topic, rather than the existential stuff comin' in like a sledgehammer to break a previously comfortable tone- which, I should say, IS a thing you can do, and IS a valid choice to tell a story, I just don’t think it was necessarily a choice that Shinkai handled well before. The pacing is much improved, as the supernatural aspects of the film are more evenly developed and the story has more time to explain itself. Mostly. There's like one scene I don't get. I’ll get to it?

Anyway, the end result of this choice is that Suzume feels like a much more focused and complete film, rather than two halves of different films. Aaaaaand, I appreciate this! A lot. I can see this choice maybe maybe maybe making the movie less interesting to some people, because it's paced more like a normal movie than Shinkai's other previous two romantic comedy disaster movies, but, hey, I think it's nice that Shinkai seems to be growing as an artist and a writer and a filmmaker, who made a normal movie that didn’t leave us confused, and disoriented, and confused, about what it’s about

Other things I like… I like the visuals. The animations and backgrounds and visual effects and the CG are all pretty fire. Suzume is generally a really beautiful film! We all knew this, but, really, it's really good. I like the chair thing. I like the way that the chair is animated. Apparently the animation of the chair was inspired by Luxo Jr., y’know, the Pixar short that became the origin of the Pixar lamp, and… yeah, I can see it. It definitely does have that old Pixar vibe of “inanimate object moving like a very real human inanimate object” that that has. I just like the way the legs move, and the way it emotes so convincingly with these subtle but credible motions.

There’s one scene involving a roller coaster that- that scene is incredible, that’s definitely one of the most visually novel sequences in all of Shinkai’s films that we’ve seen. I like the character design of the guy, Souta, also? When he’s not a chair, I mean. I dunno. The last two guy characters in the last Shinkai films looked like generic anime boys, but this guy looks like the kind of guy who I can believe a woman would find attractive. I like the look of his hair, I like how grizzled he is, I like his long gray coat, I like that you can look at this tired hunk of a man and immediately see that he’s been places and that he’s carrying some shit with him. Bonus points for that he looks like one of the Monogatari exorcists.

As for Suzume! Well, her design is maybe a bit generic, but… she’s a girl. It’s not like our standards are too high for girls. She’s supposed to be an ordinary girl, and, y’know, in this movie contrasting with this dude and then this chair, that works out well. And also, I appreciate that she rotates her outfits throughout the movie. My headmates and I love to see a woman change her clothes, not necessarily directly. I’m just saying, that denim jacket thing she had going on in Kobe, and when she lost her shoes in Tokyo and then borrowed Souta’s boots? Specifically borrowing the boots, because, the only pair of shoes that we own looks like this:

It’s a small thing, but like, Shinkai couldn’t make Suzume gay. Widespread trans representation in anime is a bit far off. I might well be eating off the floor conjuring table scraps pointing at a woman in a man’s shoes and saying “oi, isn’t it gender?” But like, 1, it’s a woman wearing a man’s shoes, and 2, yes, it is gender. And we like the gender. You cannot stop us! We did get to see the movie a second time with a friend, (thank you for seeing the movie with us, and reviewing our script!) and she insisted that the boots are femme coded, and, we disagree, unfortunately. I’m sorry, we cannot see these boots as anything but gender.

However! It is Shinkai’s fault that Onimai exists. That scene in Onimai is definitely influenced by that scene in Your Name. We know this because Nekotofu said so in interviews. Onimai is very good and based and funny, and this is a fact upon which I, and all of my headmates, equally quite agree. It’s nice to agree on something with all of yourself. SPEAKING, of the opening scene in Your Name:

Shinkai did not sexualize Suzume. So, if you hated that scene of Your Name, there’s none of that! There’s no chair peeping on Suzume or anything like that. So, if that knowledge helps you somehow, now you know.

Long story short. Should you watch Suzume. Well, yes obviously. By the time this video comes out, or, by the time you're seeing it, its theatrical run might be over, but like, if it’s not, then, yes, I recommend going and seeing it, like, today. And if it is, then remember to see it whenever it’s on blu-ray or streaming services or your local cat-themed anime distributor. Shinkai made a normal movie. I hope he makes an abnormally good movie next time. I believe in this man. Again. Somewhat. It’s not like it really matters what I say or think, but I do also hope that his next movie is just gay. I won’t matter, to me, or, to us, if his next movie is just a carbon copy of Suzume, but gay. I mean, he got away with making a heterosexual Your Name once after making the heterosexual Your Name. There is nothing stopping him. Except for the pigheaded businessmen who he may have to argue with.

Anyways, that’s that, I guess I’m going to talk more specifically about the plot now, so, if you didn’t see the movie, then, leave, now, if you care. If you did see the movie, or do not plan to see the movie, then, uh, don’t leave. Please. I’m going to put the Patreon credits here. It is not the end of the video. Please do not leave.

Intermission for extra thoughts and Patreon credits!

Hello everyone. This is Audrey, of the joystick system. The name of the brain that I’m the lead woman of. We’re still a plural system, as I’ve not forgotten, thanks to Luci and all my headmates.

As I already think I said, we saw Suzume a second time with a friend. As of this speaking, it continues to play in movie theaters, at least where we are, although it’s not showing nearly as often and probably not in as many places. Nonetheless, if it’s still playing in your area, I obviously very much recommend it. If you have the time and money to see it a second time after seeing it the first time, I think you should see it a second time. Because it’s good!

One thing I’d really like to change about this video, overall, is the tone of it. I think it came off way too much as “oh yeah, Suzume’s actually pretty good”, because I walked in with muted expectations, and then walked out feeling like it was pretty good but also kind of waiting for it to hit me that it’s actually bad… And, no, no, it’s an absolutely fantastic film and I imagine is probably going to line up with our top 5 movies of the year. Although, it’s not like we watch a lot of movies, so it probably won’t have too stiff of a competition. A different friend of ours saw it, and they absolutely loved it and had a lot of really good things to say that just made us like it more- so, yeah, no, Suzume is fantastic. Please watch Suzume. If you can.

I think I also should say, I disagree pretty strongly with the assertion that Suzume is “the same film” as Your Name and Weathering With You. As I’ve already said, the structure is much more cohesive in how it introduces the plot without the plot becoming the plot twist of the plot, and also there’s just a lot of improvements on writing and characterization and storytelling and the film is generally much more tonally consistent than either Your Name or Weathering With You. Sure, it’s a similar overall plot to both of those films, but I think there’s just as much merit in iterating on old ideas as there is in introducing new ones, and Suzume does a healthy amount of both. Maybe it’s a remake of the same movie, but if that’s so, Suzume is definitely the best version of that movie, and I think the growth Shinkai went through as a director and writer to get there is crystal clear.

And as I hope I’m about to make clear, the thematic weight of the film is much stronger as well. The decreased focus on the romance subplot helped a whole lot in that regard, I think, to bring the themes into greater focus, and like, gosh, is the film REALLY THEMATICALLY GOOD on top of being so well structured and written and visually spectacular. I walked into Suzume expecting it to be bad, I spent like two weeks while writing the script and making the video trying to think of flaws in this movie, and I can really only think of like two, which are one, that it’s not gay, and two, that some minor plot details are maybe a small bit inscrutable.

But neither of those things actively bring the film down! It’s just great! And, if we had the time to watch the film a third time and then do a complete rewrite of the script, I’d probably change the tone I took with it, but y’know what, I gotta say a thing, I’ve left people waiting long enough, this movie won’t be in theaters forever, so, it’s good enough, and good enough is perfectly good enough.

Also. The music was really good. It was a lot less intrusive than in Your Name and Weathering With You. Those two films really love going all ham on their mid-movie insert song sequences? In Suzume, the music is, the musical score, which is really really good and is used really extremely effectively in, specifically the chair chase scene, and the amusement park scene, and the opening of the film, and the big Tokyo scene, and really the whole film. It was just really very good.

And, other than that, I think I mentioned everything I wanted to mention in the script, so, uh yeah, that's that!

So, before we get back to the video, channel housekeeping. I don’t think we’re going to be able to keep doing videos, at least not regularly, as things are going. If you’re not already aware of the disaster life we lead, we’ve been aimlessly floating around quasi-homeless and unemployed, for about our entire adult life, and spent around three years crashing at a friend’s place, for longer than we should’ve been because of executive dysfunction, burnout, and general mental illness. And also money.

Most of the stuff we’ve been making our videos with, including our desktop PC, was stuff we got before we were quasi-disowned by our parents, almost, uh, six (note: four or five) years ago? and the rest of it is stuff we have, very not hyperbolically, emptied our bank account for because we kinda needed it. So, if that stuff breaks, and it’s going to eventually, we’ll be on even more hiatus until further notice. Obviously this is pretty untenable, so, we’re going to have to try to get a job, and I don’t see great odds of that working out for our transgender neurodivergent failwomanchild self, and it’s obviously going to mean we have less time to make videos and write things. Naturally the stress of our unstable situation has already been doing that job, but. Y’know.

So, if you want to help even our odds: Ko-fi or Patreon. That is currently our only steady source of income, and even a little bit extra would make a pretty big difference for us day-to-day. You can send us monthly donations through either, although, they take a smaller cut on Ko-fi, so, there’s that. Ko-fi is also the place for giving us money one time as opposed to regularly.

As for what you get out of this, well, besides the obvious your name here and access to our discord, you will earn our gratitude and also we will feel indebted to you, which will lead us to try our best to keep making things. And also if you ever encounter us in person, we’ll give you a hug, if you want one, as long as you’re not, like, creepy about it.

Is that everything? Um. Yeah. That is everything. Here's all the names of all the important people who...

Thanks to our generous Patreon backers:

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And, that’s that. Thanks to all of you, named onscreen and vocally, and also those of you not named but who’ve been watching, or encouraging us personally, for your support. Now, back to the normal part of the video. Spoilers for Suzume from here on, obviously.

Intermission over!!!

Okay, so, spoilers.

Plot of this movie! I’m just gonna steal bits of the Wikipedia summary, because I don’t want to write a plot summary myself and get waylaid.

Suzume Iwato is a 17-year-old high school girl who lives with her maternal aunt in Kyushu. One night, she dreams of searching for her mother (who, it's inferred later, died in a tsunami) as a child in a ruined neighborhood. The next morning, while headed for school, Suzume encounters a young man searching for abandoned areas with doors. He then is cursed to turn into a chair by a kitty cat who desires love and she runs away from home with him, and he explains that these doors in all these abandoned places are doors to an alternate dimension that occasionally let out supernatural beings called worms that do earthquakes, and they need to do the right rituals to close the door properly. So their journey across Japan to prevent the earthquakes and also get Souta back out of being a chair, thusly begins.

First of all, I think that Shinkai did an excellent job conveying the pain of losing one’s mother. I say this, because, uh, we have also lost our mother, and grieved her loss. She’s not dead, in case you’re wondering, she’s just a worthless piece of human garbage. So, I guess it’s a little perverse to compare our being estranged from our shitty nuclear family as a result of the events of our entire life up until we were twenty to Suzume losing her single mom in a natural disaster when she was four, but I can’t pretend that the former experience did not lend itself to us empathizing with her, in general. Like, we did definitely cry. That’s a thing that we did.

I also like how cleanly the movie conveys this information within a few minutes. Like, you get the opening sequence of the small Suzume searching for her mother in the Ever After, and then she wakes up a seventeen year old, and you hear her address the woman who is her guardian by that woman’s first name, and it immediately clicks, "ohhhh… orphan, got it, got it, got it," and yeah. In contrast to the previous two films where Shinkai took half the damn movie establishing what these characters’ lives and their relationships with their friends and relatives were like, this kind of storytelling efficiency (which, is present throughout the film, in establishing Souta's relationships as well) is impressive.

And like I said, I like the immediacy with which the plot begins, with Suzume meeting Souta, being asked about the ruins, and then going to check them out herself. I like that there's not a whole album of insert songs in this movie, no fancy opening cinematic, no big deal montage, just a smash cut to the opening title card while Souta and Suzume are trying to close the door in the old bathhouse. It's clean. It's real good.

So, then Suzume tries to patch Souta up when he gets injured, and then he gets cursed by this cat to become a chair, and then the movie gets further good! Suzume runs away from home to help Chair Souta capture this important cat that's supposed to be keeping the earthquakes from happening. And this greatly aggrieves her aunt Tamaki, who's just been trying her best her whole life and everything and I will say, um-

I'm going to get to that!

So, one thing I have to say specifically- I had not read any details about Suzume's plot or interviews from Shinkai before seeing it, and I kind of got the whole deal immediately with everywhere that an earthquake comes out of being an abandoned place of gathering. A closed bathhouse, school, amusement park. This all feels very harrowing to see onscreen- as an American! even though it's clearly intended as commentary on Japan's population decline, because, uh, have you heard of dead malls

If they ever do an American live action version of Suzume, it'll be about them visiting abandoned shopping malls, probably. please do not do that

But yeah, like, we live in Portland, Oregon, and compared to having grown up in pre-covid Philadelphia most of our life, post-covid Portland feels like a ghost town. Like, it's not actually, there's obviously still people who live here, and I don't mean that derogatorily because we love Portland and we'd like to keep living here, if possible, not the least because we get easy access to HRT. But like, there's a lot of closed and abandoned places in Portland, so many empty areas and business that have been boarded up and closed to the point that at times, wandering through downtown Portland almost feels like living in an open world video game where most of the buildings don't have designed interiors.

Places that all clearly closed within the last three or four years, with their signage up and everything. Places that are left in stasis to lie disused or else be reclaimed by the homeless until the homeless get chased out by the cops. It's all just really… eughf. It makes us sad to see this place, this whole country really, be stuck in this kind of disgusting degradation while our government fails to provide for us, let alone adapt to the challenges ahead of us, just leaves all these places where people lived, where people are living, now, to stagnate and stand like zombies of a past we can't go back to

There’s a scene in Heathers, one of our favorite movies of all time, where the main antagonist J.D. has a whole emotional reflection on how the stability of this franchised commercial convenience store enterprise has kept him feeling like there’s continuity in his life, and like, yeah, that’s kind of a feeling.

[Video ID: J.D. (played by Christian Slater), a black haired edgy looking teenage boy of about 16-17 wearing a long black jacket, paces about the convenience store "Snappy Snack Shack", speaking in an affected hard to place accent, to Veronica Sawyer (played by Winona Ryder), a brown-haired teenage girl of around the same age, who is wearing a grey dress that exposes her shoulders accompanied by a blue flower brooch on her chest, and black overalls)]

Veronica: I see you know your convenience speak pretty well.

J.D.: Yeah, well, uh, I've been moved around all my life. Dallas. Baton Rouge, Vegas... Sherwood, Ohio. There's always been a Snappy Snack Shack. Any town, any time, pop a ham and cheese in the microwave and feast on a Turbo Dog. Keeps me sane.

Veronica: Really?

Like, it’s eugh, because, obviously as an anticapitalist, we kinda dislike these sorts of places, the shopping centers, the strip malls, the gas stations, we're against all of this bullshit on principle these places are all kind of intensely hostile to… life, in general.

But also, these places are a part of the world we live in, and they are stable! Relatively. They are kind of the only way we've known the world to be. And it’s sad to see that stability be ever so more greatly upset by the pandemic and the… everything, with nothing on the horizon to replace it. And if and when we see this kind of stability disappear completely, it’ll be sad, even if it’s replaced by something better. We’ll probably miss something about wandering these gross, heavily commercialized disgustingly homogenized nightmare places that’ve been cannibalizing our communities this whole time. Yeah, we hate it, but... it’s where we live, and we’re not immune to nostalgia.

Nostalgia is just a nicer word for grief

And this same very such eughf feeling is very much echoed in Suzume. There’s this deep and palpable grief for these places and the people who used to live here felt in this film, and inherent in expressing that grief is Shinkai’s expression of the, y’know, important stage of grief, i.e., acceptance. Because, to close the doors, Suzume and Souta have to not just, close it, but also think of all the feelings and experiences of the people who used to live in these places, and then… let go.

When the amusement park scene happens, the ferris wheel starts moving, and Suzume is drawn in by the image of the ghosts of the people who once rode it, Souta starts yelling for her to stop, to not go in- not the least because she can’t see what she’s doing and is putting herself in danger, but also because she cannot go back. Those people who used to sit in that ferris wheel, laughing, crying, living, in this place, cannot come back. Suzume can’t go back. This past can’t be gone back to.

Okay, so, one thing I missed when I saw the film the second time. When Suzume was drawn into the Ever After through the ferris wheel door, she was seeing herself of the future in there, and that, was foreshadowing the end of the film. I’m keeping this part anyway because the emotional impact of that scene was still as described even if this plot foreshadowing bit was something I missed the first time seeing the film.

I read a few English language interview articles with Shinkai talking about Suzume right after seeing the film, both because I wanted clarification before I ran my mouth on two things. 1, I wanted clarification on what the cat wanted. I’ll get to him. 2, I wanted to be sure my interpretation of the doors thing was on point, which it was. Shinkai talks in one of these interviews about how when covid was happening and Japan was still trying to have the Olympics happen, it felt really irresponsible and bad, and he did not agree with this. He says, and I quote,

“You were opening this new door and not sure of what’s on the other side without bringing closure or understanding or coming to terms with what’s behind you. I want to say a lot of the Japanese population felt the same way. There was this kind of awkward air about us, and it really wasn’t time to open new doors without first reflecting on what came before us.”

And like, yeah, I agree. I just really, really agree with this. It is indeed what I took away from the film before I read this interview. Suzume spends this entire movie reflecting on the past and trying to grow beyond that and ultimately the one door that she opens, on purpose, is the one that she decides to open intentionally after reflecting on what brought her to this point and deciding what she needs to do and

Eugghhhh

I’m just saying, it worked. It really did work. For us, at least.

Now, to be clear: Japan and the United States are two different countries, and, while there are similarities in how the pandemic left our societies, they're ultimately two different societies, and I don't really know jack shit about Japanese society- I'm just relating, my feelings, of my experience, uh, our experience, as an American, to the feelings that we took away from Suzume.

And... even if I understand this all right. If the people who need to see this sort of message saw it, or, like, took that away, or acted on it when it did... that’d be nice, but ultimately I don’t think that Suzume will move any politician or other person in power making these decisions in Japan, or any country, enough, or in the right ways, to have any impact on policy. But y’know, Shinkai’s just a guy making movies, and I’m just one of the various split personalities of a deranged F-list anime YouTuber, so whatever. Such is life. It’s at least a nice sentiment.

So, the other things, in no particular order. I did cry a bit when Daijin, the cat, got sucked up back into the keystone. He’s hard to like at the start of the film, for, y’know, the reasons why he is, but ultimately when you consider that like… he’s been trapped that way, the same way as Souta spends trapped as a chair, for years? Centuries, for all we goddamn know? Once that clicks, it’s really hard to not empathize with him. And yeah, he might be a god now, I guess, but who knows if he was a person before, or, what even, and just, I think, I think if you spend god knows how long as a sacred relic keeping Japan from being destroyed by earthquakes, you at least, at least, maybe, maybe deserve, if nothing else, a little pet.

[pets microphone]

that was your little pet.

In one of the other interviews Shinkai did, he talked about how Souta becoming a chair, and also a Keystone sealing away the earthquakes, is intended as a metaphor for the experience of pandemic lockdown. It’s not a directly equivalent analogy, but, like, it does make sense! Souta is being forced into a position of being confined, to keep this dangerous and virtually uncontrollable force of nature under control, for the greater good and long-term preservation of society. And when you consider that Daijin was in the same position for gosh knows how the hell long, it makes it a lot easier to empathize with him! He wasn’t being malicious, exactly, not, willfully anyway, he knew that vacating his position was putting everyone else at risk, but, he did it anyway cause he just kinda snapped, like, fuck this, I want to go outside! That does make a lot of sense! Also it sticks out, also, when Suzume screams at Daijin, because that’s, y’know. It’s a whole scene. I feel like I want to say something about this! But I can't really land on anything to say about it? But yeah.

I think the whole thing with Suzume needing to sacrifice Souta midway through the movie is really well done. It’s extremely funny to me that Shinkai apparently thought to stress this point of the movie as how important it is for her to make this difficult choice because of how people criticized Weathering With You for not really being meaningfully critical of the consequence of Hodaka un-sacrificing Hina? And also that Hina never really gets a choice in being un-sacrificed, far as I remember, so... [whispers] that’s a little unintentionally sexist,

but whatever. I’d have to watch the film again, and I don’t feel like doing that right now

Suzume’s aunt, Tamaki. I do like her. She’s a pretty level-headed guardian, as guardians go. I like that when she finds Suzume and Serizawa in the car, and sees that going to this door is important to Suzume, she’s not immediately like, “fuck your feelings, we’re going home”? She’s curious about the child under her care. She’s concerned in a way that she’s willing to not only go all the way to Tokyo, but also to follow Suzume the rest of the way to see what's up because she clearly understands, logically, that even if she doesn’t know what it is that’s compelled Suzume to go this distance, it must be something that she needs to sort the fuck out in order to move on with her life, and that’s kinda good?

Although I should note that while she clearly sees the pragmatic value in not fighting Suzume on this, she’s also pretty reluctant to. She has a line where she’s like to Serizawa while Suzume is asleep, let’s turn the fuck around and go back, she’ll give up. So, y’know, Tamaki’s at least more open-minded than our mom was!

Speaking of that. There’s this one scene in the film, where Tamaki loses her shit at Suzume. Goes on screaming on about how she hates Suzume and wants her life back, and then she runs off to Serizawa being all like “I think I’m losing it,” and it’s a whole thing. On our first viewing, this scene felt a little out of nowhere. It was a whole sudden shock to have this intense scene happen and then also its pivot back into the magical realism aspects of the film with the black cat’s appearance, which confused us a bit cause I don’t think that was really explained at all.

But, watching the film a second time, and seeing the arc of Tamaki’s frustration reaching its peak with the benefit of hindsight, it made more sense that she’d come to a rope’s end and flip out like this. She’s been chasing her niece all across Japan, she’s ridden for several hours in a busted convertible in the rain, she doesn’t even have a proper explanation, her coworker has raised to her that this might be a kidnapping scheme- I get it. It’s a scene that I get.

I still do not understand the role of the large black cat though. Our friend agreed that that part didn’t make a whole lot of sense. So, that didn’t change.

I think the reason why it felt out of nowhere to us the first time is because it was entirely too familiar to our real life experience. In the middle of Tamaki’s rant, Suzume responds by saying, “but you said, ‘you’re my daughter,’” referring to when Tamaki first took her in, and said that. And Tamaki snaps back, “I never said that.” Our mother also did this exact thing, vehemently denying that she said and did things that we definitely remembered her saying and doing. (There's a word for this, it's... it's called gaslighting!) Living with someone who denies you this much, who makes you question your memory and your sanity and your general perception of the world this much, by forcing their own grief onto you like this, is just… really, simply, awful.

Throughout our childhood, we heard our mom say similar shit to us numerous times. That we were a horrible incorrigible child, that she hated us for ruining her family, that she wished she’d aborted us— all those sorts of things. The tone of Tamaki’s unadulterated rage in this dialogue was all too familiar to those memories. So, yeah, on both viewings, we were, very uncomfortable. Even knowing it was coming the second time around, it kinda caused us to actively recoil in our seat, to the point that our friend who we were seeing it with noticed our reaction and held out a stuffed animal she’d brought with her for us to pet.

So, um, yeah, that specific scene may or may not have triggered the PTSD that we may or may not have.

Tamaki does apologize for this later!

And she also, debatably, gets a bit of a pass for this since she’s not Suzume’s mother, and thus cannot reasonably wish that she had aborted Suzume, but can instead wish that she’d not done the unambiguously good deed of keeping Suzume out of the Japanese child welfare system, which, I can’t imagine is a good experience for a child. I don’t imagine any country’s child welfare system under capitalism to be a good experience for a child, but, y’know.  Well, we’re also kind of entirely opposed to the traditional family structure and the basic premise of parents in general, because giving only one or two people total power over a vulnerable young human life is not an ethical tradition to have in any case, but… eugh. That’s something for some other video.

In an interview with Deadline, Shinkai talks about this scene, specifically quoting the “give me back my life” part, and he says that on some level, all parents feel that way to their kids. And that while he acknowledges that it isn’t by any means acceptable to ever say that kind of stuff to a child, it is, y’know, a feeling that is there that he poured into it, and that he wanted to be there, for the parents in the audience who ever felt that way and regretted it. This is how we found out that Makoto Shinkai is apparently not single and does in fact have a child.

He also says, in this other interview with the Verge, that, he wanted the film to provide for an opportunity for people of different generations to emotionally connect with each other. So, in that context, I really understand why this scene is here. It’s serving the purpose of setting up that emotional bridge, that door between Suzume and Tamaki, these characters of two different generations who ultimately come to understand one another, with the hope that audiences in a similar emotional position might come away from the film having felt some sense of healing by way of, y’know, getting that. And also Shinkai talks about how the idealized nuclear family structure is not a thing that’s tenable or possible for a lot of families in Japanese society, and, it’s not very tenable for a lot of people in American society either!

So I recognize the intent of this scene. I think it’s commendable, even. If there is a parent and child out there who saw Suzume together on whom this had the intended impact, I think that that’s wonderful. I sincerely hope that they exist!

Even still… we, were a child, who regularly had this sort of thing said to our face by our real life mother, and tried, in good faith, many times over the years, to repair our increasingly fraught relationship with her, and failed. I am deeply, regrettably cynical about familial relationships because of our traumatic experience with our own family. Our mother is not the sort of person who would come to meaningfully empathize with us through seeing this film.

And we really fucking hate her, so… yeah, this scene is difficult to watch. It’s difficult for us personally to feel any sympathy for Tamaki when she’s saying that kind of stuff to Suzume, and once it was over I could only really kind of feel glad that it was over.

But! It’s not like it’s the film’s fault that our parents were bad. I don’t think our reaction was intended. It just happened! It just happens sometimes that different people other than who the thing was written for react to things differently. That doesn’t make the scene bad, or any less valuable to include. And I do think that Tamaki’s relationship with Suzume is portrayed pretty well and with a surprising degree of nuance! It’s good! Tamaki is a good character and she means well! And I do like what Shinkai said in that Verge interview about wanting to portray other family structures.

However I think that their relationship would work better if she was gay, because honestly, that entire “get out of my life” speech would hit a lot more and probably work a lot better in the context of being directed at a gay teenager rather than an assumed heterosexual one. But, hey, we thought we were heterosexual for most of our life, so, who’s to say much of anything!

Was there anything else I forgot to talk about? Um…

We cried at the end of the film, both times we saw it!

And also, while this film couldn’t have improved our relationship with our mother, it did serve as a very good bonding experience with our friend. I’m really glad we took her to see it. She really liked the scenes where Suzume sits and steps on Souta as a chair, that that was clever, that they took the opportunity to get away with that with him as a chair. And she also agreed that the chair in general was really well portrayed visually. She also cried! at the end. the heterosexual chair film made a lesbian cry. uh, two lesbians, cry. I’m not going to say anything more than that.

Thank you to everyone who watched this entire video. I have an excuse to do a bad job editing it now because there’s not that much footage of Suzume available and it’s all gonna get me copyright striked anyway

To summarize, Suzume Good. Suzume. Watch Suzume. I’ve been Audrey of the joystick system, and I did not hate Suzume. Thank you. Goodnight

#suzume #suzume no tojimari #suzume spoilers #video essay #youtube #joyce-stick #joystick system #your name #weathering with you

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Something Something Phangirl Meets Discworld

Back when I was an undergrad, I had procrastinated a couple of first-year core classes (required stuff that has jack shit to do with your major but is supposed to make you a "well-rounded student" for everyone who wasn't educated in the US) to the point where we were at the beginning of year four, we took a couple over the summer, but now we're staring down having to take Art Appreciation for an entire final term and I did not WANT to. So instead I took a two-week intensive "Wintermester" art appreciation course in a classroom whose carpets squished in Fairbanks, Alaska in December. The fact that it didn't become a horror movie is a miracle. BUT. YOU GUYS. This class introduced me to The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall, and thanks to how awesome that was, I finally went out and got the one Witches novel I hadn't bothered with at that point. Let's talk Maskerade.

Maskerade might be the Discworld book with which I've had the most dynamic relationship because I am currently what I would consider a "fallen" or "lapsed" theatre kid. However, when I picked up Maskerade for the first time, I was a "desperately trying to hold on to theatre with both hands and both feet despite ongoing and worsening health issues and a school theatre that has nearly succeeded in killing me three separate times but I don't want to let go" theatre kid. So on first read, I loved Agnes, I loved Nanny and Granny, Greebo is never not a standout, and I was fully over here like, "YES, THEATRE IS THE MIRACLE OF A THOUSAND THINGS FAILING TO GO WRONG!" I wasn't a huge fan of how Christine was characterized, and frankly I found the art/business dichotomy irksome.

I was barely 22 and an idiot. I have since grown some.

On subsequent reads in and beyond graduate school, I can see the love behind the pointed critiques, and I had run into the odd Christine or two, so I was far more willing to sympathize with Agnes--the single point of sensibility and practicality in a flamboyantly dramatical cats system that is often toxic. And while I liked the Nanny, Granny, and Enrico Basilica subplot on initial reads, now it is perhaps my entirely favorite part of the book. Adding the managed chaos that is the Witches to a theatre is amazing, and we get some really fantastic insights into how Nanny and Granny can leverage witchcraft beyond Lancre. It has a different flavor in Ankh Morpork, and what that ends up meaning for Walter Plinge is literally the difference between life and death.

The loving parodic use of theatrical tropes and traditions is honestly delightful throughout. I realize that saying, "Hey, so Sir Terry Pratchett was kind of amazing" on the internet is the oldest of old news, but honestly it bears repeating because Discworld is incredible.

Nanny Ogg's cookbook manages to be both hilarious and a scathing indictment of how poorly authors are paid--something that honestly just keeps gettting MORE relevant. I also love the low-key Producers-eqsue mixed with Shakespearean twinning aspects of having Nanny be the writer and Granny the accountant foiling off of Salzella and Bucket. Like, had their positions been reversed, the Ankh Morpork Opera House would have been flush with cash practically overnight and the cookbook would have ended up scammed. It's a really lovely, subtle little peice of foiling that 1000% was not required to make this book great, but I love that it's there.

So theatre kid phangirl me wasn't the biggest fan of this book, but grown-ass adult me with a little more life on her claims this as one of her top five all-time favorite Discworld books. I'm going to leave it here and realtively spoiler-free for those of you who might be on the fence about picking up the book. I highly recommend that you do, but I also recommend watching The Phantom of the Opera (either the Royal Albert Hall one or an actual stage production; don't START with the movie) before reading Maskerade, just to fully get the levels of allusion, parody, and homage.

#terry pratchett #sir terry pratchett #discworld #maskerade #the witches #granny weatherwax #nanny ogg #agnes nitt #phantom of the opera #absurdist fantasy #books & libraries #books and reading #books and novels #books #book recommendations

[faytelumos]

Found this from @lexiklecksi and decided I wanted to do it.

Then I waited for forever to fill it out and forgot what the little title for this game was, haha!

---

1) What motivates you to write?

For one thing, I feel like it's my best skill. Back when I got started, well over a decade ago, it was experiencing all of these stories I loved that inspired the desire to become a part of the magic.

Deep down, I have stories to share. It's always nice when a lot of people see my stories and like them, but my biggest goal is to get those stories to the people who need them. It feels deep-seeded, and I know if everything stopped tomorrow, one of my biggest regrets would be that I wasn't able to get my Story out to people it might have helped.

2) A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud of; if not, share a line of someone else's work that you love (just be sure to credit).

It's been a month and I cannot for the life of me think of a story line I'm especially happy with, so have my favorite ever poem, which is by Robert Frost, recited from memory:

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

3) Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them and what are they like?

Maybe Ræs. He's a mess of a person, honestly, but in a realistic way. He doesn't really have tact when it comes to sensitive matters, he comes off as abrasive, he's angry, he doesn't really know what he's doing, and he's got some ingrained biases he doesn't want to face. But he's trying his hardest, and I think, despite all of the rough starts and choppy interactions, he comes to realize that the people he meets in this story really truly care about him in a way he hasn't seen since he was a little kid.

4) What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

The feverish inspiration of a new character or plot development. I love it to death when I can't stop thinking about something, when I'm fifteen chapters away from this scene but I've written it in my head ten times already, when every song I hear is about them or this. It's fleeting, and even if it weren't, I couldn't survive an extended period of this, but it's the chemical I crave when making my way through a project.

5) What part of writing do you think you're best at? (Stroke your own ego, it's okay.)

Internal monologues. I'm really good at thought processes and being in a character's head. Moving from thought to thought, reaching conclusions and using them to fuel the next process, I feel like I really have that idea down.

6) What is something in the writeblr community that is most enjoyable?

The comradery. We're all a bunch of writers and we love reading. Since a lot of my work is currently in the hero/villain community, there's a lot of passing around of the same tropes we all love, and I definitely enjoy that, too.

7) A writing tool/device that help you with writing (i.e. text to speech, a program, etc.).

I don't use much except a word processor. I use one on my phone and a different one on my computer, but both of them have the ability to make folders and reorganize documents, which I use liberally.

8) A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story (it could be the magic system, a particular place, a law, etc.).

In my first book, there is a sense of that same-old fantasy setting, where everyone's wearing frocks and going to the river to do laundry. But then, here and there, I'm able to sneak in hints of technology. There are steam engine trains. There are chemical heaters so people can have hot baths indoors. There are disinfectants and surgery procedures. There are certain things that remain in the past as we see it (no printing presses, no personal transportation), but the world is different enough to be somewhat unique.

9) What piece of advice would you give to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

Write for yourself. If you're feeling burnt out, stop the projects that are draining you and just write for only yourself. Write some really self-indulgent fanfic or poetry that you know will never see the light of day. Write an unhinged essay on why A and B would never do that (or why, no matter what, they always would have) and tuck it straight into your pocket. Remeber why you started writing, or if you're new, really truly be kind to yourself and realize that you are learning a new skill and it can be bumpy.

Writing is such a personal and intimate expression, and if you're having trouble baring yourself to even a hypothetical world, then curl up and let your heart bleed in private for awhile.

10) Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters.

@the-modern-typewriter is actually a big part of the reason I even started a writeblr. Other folks I love to see are @surplus-of-sarcasm, @those-damn-snippets, @the-phasea-kalogria, @thepenultimateword, @sternenmeerkind, and @unorganisedalienrubbish, @robin-parravel, @bryansartbooth, @thelazywitchphotographer, @why-am-i-on-this-website-anyway, @pebbles-pile, @severalonions, @thepromiscuousfinger, @alltimelowing, @canonicallyshort, and @perfecthologrambluebird.

(Obviously these tags are no pressure because some of them don't follow me and several of them don't post writing.)

#tag game #writeblr #oc: Raes #this took me forever to fill out #sorry for the shotgun of random tags but I love you all <3

[dreamywakes]

Producer: Betta we need you to answer some questions so the potential contestants can get to know you better.

Betta: Alright, I'll just sit down right here then.

You don't want to change into swimwear?

Nah, that'll take too long. Now you had questions?

What's your ideal type?

I'm not a fan of ideals. Let's be honest, no one is perfect. I guess I've always had an interest in the mysterious types.

What was your last relationship like?

Don't even get me started. We meet when I went to college and I thought things were going well. They even moved to Sulani to be with me after college. That's when things changed. It's like they were a different person all of a sudden. I don't want to go into much detail about it. It was rough for a while.

We've heard you're like a celebrity here in Sulani. What is that like?

It sucks. The Lace's aren't your everyday celebrity that people love here in Sulani. People look at us like we're some kind of gods. Some worship the ground we work on... literally. Imagine having no social life because your supposed to spend your whole life protecting the land. Leave me out of it. I'm not some kind of hero who'll risk their life for people who, in the end, doesn't even actually care about them.

If that's your way of thinking then what is your relationship with your family life?

I'm a disgrace to the whole family. At least that's what they think of me. They'd never say it out loud, obviously. Though that might change when this airs. I've never actual expressed my hatred of the system to the public. My siblings say that I'll disappoint the people at some point. So, it might as well be now before someone comes on this show expecting someone I'm not. Simply put, mom and dad aren't my biggest fans. My siblings are so stuck on being protectors of the island that they don't even stop to think about my beliefs. In all honesty, I feel bad for them.

If not your family, then who is your biggest supporter?

My best friend from college. Her name is Candy and she has been my cheerleader since the day I meet her. She's bright and cheerful with a protective side to her. Her opinion is important to me, so don't be surprised if she shows up at some point. She'll put everyone to the test.

What do you think of supernaturals?

I find them interesting. There is so much to learn about them and they all seem to have a mysterious aura to them. Or at least that's how they always came off to me. You know, some consider us Lace's to be supernatural beings due to our powers. I personally don't think seeing spirits is that big of a deal.

Why did you decide to be the next Bachelorette?

Isn't it obvious? I want to find love. A true love that lasts. I'm hoping to find my forever. I believe in soulmates. There's someone out there for everyone. I want to find my someone. Even if the means are a little untraditional.

CUT- that was good Betta.

Oh we're done here. Can I get up now?

Oh no, we're going to have to take promotional pictures first. Can you pose for us?

#Betting on Betta #ts4 #ts4 bachelorette challenge #berry sims #the sims 4 #betta bc #the sims 4 bachelorette challenge

[askagamedev]

Isn't another issue with Live Service Games the fact that a game that wants you to play it consistently bumps up against other games that have the same need in a slightly different way than "one and done" experiences or even unchanging multiplayer games? Sort of how the vast majority of MMOs cannot compete with WoW, and so many tried and failed to dethrone DOTA and LoL? In contrast, successful visual novel games seem to lift up other visual novel games, but that seems less true for Live Service.

You may be making a very common mistake here - the goal for a given game isn't necessarily to dethrone the genre leader. The goal for most live service games is to attract a sufficiently-large audience so as to sustain continued development costs and earn a reasonable profit. This is why, despite the vast majority of MMOGs not dethroning WoW, games like FF14, Runescape, Path of Exile, Warframe, Lost Ark, ESO, Guild Wars 2, EVE Online, SWTOR, ROBLOX, Black Desert Online, and New World are still continuing to sustain themselves. Sure, League might be the biggest MOBA out there, but there's still DOTA 2, Smite, Arena of Valor, and Pokemon Unite. Setting the bar for success at utter dominance of a genre isn't really feasible. What most live service games aim for isn't unconditional victory, it's sustainable profitability. That's a lot more reasonable as success criteria.

The reason live service games are so attractive is because they are more likely to be sustainable. It costs a lot more resources to develop and build the first bunch of game systems and content than it does the post-launch systems and content. The reason for this is because we don't know exactly what works and what doesn't the first time around, so we have to do a lot of experimentation, tool building, and make a lot of adjustments as we figure out what it is we're doing. Once we have the tools and systems built and earned enough experience using those tools and systems, it's a lot easier and cheaper to create more content with those tools and systems than it is to dump all of those systems and tools to start over fresh on a new game. Some genres lend themselves more to keeping the same tools and features for each game, but most players expect new games to have more new features, new systems, and new content than expanding an existing game. The expectations are lower for an existing game.

You're right in that live service games tend not to share audiences as well as other games. This is because most players have a finite amount of time and attention to play. This is why live service games are often called lifestyle games - it's just a game that their audiences play all the time. You're also right in that live service games don't work for every kind of game. It's just important to note that live service games are extremely attractive to publishers because a successful live service game is worth much, much more than a successful single-sale game. The successful single sale game nets a spike in revenue and the desperate hope that the next game the team builds will do as well or better. A successful live service game means reliable and sustained income for at least a year (possibly longer) after launch. That kind of reliable revenue stream is extremely attractive to businesses and investors.

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#live updates #continued development #live service #the business of video games

[spanishskulduggery]

How can I tell when something like nos is a direct object or an indirect object? Aren't they the same?

I think I understand what you're saying. To answer your question, yes and no. They're the same word - nos, but they technically equate to different things linguistically

If you're asking if it really makes a difference, it doesn't in the sense that it's always nos for "us", but they are ~ technically ~ different fulfilling different functions.

Your biggest struggles are going to be 3rd person because they don't use the same object pronouns. If you're trying to tell the difference between "cases", it's going to depend on the actual verb you're using

A quick example:

Nos llevaron al aeropuerto. = They brought us to the airport. [direct object "us"] Nos enviaron las flores. = They sent us flowers. [indirect object "us"]

And not to mention reflexives [me, te, se, nos, os], where you might see nos casamos "we got married" / "we're getting married" [casamos is the present tense nosotros and also preterite nosotros, so it could read as either depending on context]

-

Direct objects, or the "accusative case" if you're studying languages with case systems, are when you act on someone/something "directly" - they are things you do things to. What makes this more confusing is that there are times when people will use the indirect objects for 3rd person [le, les] instead of the direct objects [lo, la, los, las] as a matter of politeness

Direct objects are me, te, lo, la, los, las, nos, os

As an example: es un placer conocerlo "it's nice to meet you" is usted masculine, es un placer conocerla "it's nice to meet you" usted feminine, or es un placer conocerle "it's nice to meet you" but more formal and unisex

Verbs that frequently take direct objects (with people) are ones like juzgar "to judge", pegar "to hit/punch", patear "to kick", asesinar "to murder", castigar "to punish", lastimar "to hurt", ver "to see", nombrar "to nominate", llevar "to take/carry/give someone a ride", querer "to love", amar "to love", ayudar "to help", buscar "to look for", or encontrar "to find"

This isn't all of them of course, and depending on circumstances you might see a more formal le/les used instead of the direct objects

Because of the ambiguous nature of direct objects with people taking possibly indirect object pronouns, people are generally more forgiving than you'd think... it might sound a bit off or too formal at times, but it's not like you're not getting your point across

If you're interested in the actual linguistics of it, you can read up on leísmo but it's not very exciting literature. In laymen's terms, some verbs could take either, you kinda just sound more polite; in my textbooks they included both options

-

Indirect objects are MUCH easier to spot because they usually come with a direct object in the sentence

Indirect objects - or dative case - are "to whom" or "for whom" something is done. Because of the "indirectness" you're often going to see these with things being brought to someone or taken away from someone in some sense - dar "to give" and quitar "to remove" can both take indirect objects

Indirect objects are me, te, le, les, nos, os

They include all of the gustar type verbs [though with some caveats*], and verbs like mandar "to send/order", enviar "to send", exigir "to demand", preguntar "to question", hablar "to speak to (someone)", escribir "to write to (someone)", ofrecer "to offer", servir "to serve", traer "to bring to (someone)", pedir "to request", sugerir "to suggest", and others

*Note: It depends on the functions of the verbs. A verb like encantar for example usually takes indirect objects like le encanta "he/she really likes it". It could also take a direct object but the meaning is different, encantar algo / a alguien means "to enchant" or "to cast a spell on someone" literally, so depending on how you mean it and how much "agency" someone has you could make the case for it to be direct or indirect

...And remember, indirect objects often have a direct object there too so you can usually figure out what you're dealing with

That first example: nos enviaron las flores "they sent us flowers"; the nos shows the recipient [indirect object], but the thing actually receiving the action of being "sent" is "flowers" so it's the direct object

In other words:

Nos enviaron... = They sent to us... Enviaron flores. = They sent flowers. Las enviaron. = They sent them. [direct object] Nos enviaron las flores. = They sent us the flowers. Nos las enviaron. = They sent them to us.

In a sentence like nos las enviaron [which is a bit awkward but not impossible], the las is there for las flores as the direct object pronoun, while nos "to us" implies the recipient

...

Luckily though, you don't see direct and indirect objects together when they're me + te or something like that... sort of like me llevaron a ti "they brought me to you", is how you'd word something like that

At least when it comes to indirect objects, Spanish likes things to be very easily understood

#asks #langblr #Spanish #language #learning spanish #la gramatica #long post #direct objects #indirect objects

[the-alice-killer]

Being able to work together as a system, especially a polyfrag system is really hard but we've found kind of a little motivator for ourselves to keep going

A lot of alters struggle with working together just due to feeling like they're not doing enough for the system. That's one of the biggest issues we have is alters just not feeling good enough about their existence because they don't fit well into any role they've tried to perform.

But, we've started referring to all of us as parts of a story, and that's honestly helped. Our best way to explain it is that while we all are different and do things our own ways, we're all writing a page in the same book. All of us are adding our own touch to the story that's unfolding before us. And sometimes that touch is just acknowledging you're part of it for a reason, even if you never write more than that to your side of the story. But by acknowledging that, you're saying you're a part of it no matter what else and everyone is happy that you're here.

Some of our pages of the story are longer than others, but they wouldn't exist alone. Each page, paragraph, sentence, even just a word, is important to the story no matter how insignificant it can feel compared to the rest.

That's how we've been working through those feelings with alters who feel that way so maybe it might help someone else too?

#flaire (⭐) #did system #did/osdd #did osdd #polyfragmented system #polyfrag system #cdd system #system stuff

[bitchwholikesrobots]

Heyo!!! pinned post time yippeeeee

(definitely do NOT check my #bitchart tag and reblog literally every single one of my drawings haha that would be terrrrible wowwww)

(Also DEFINITELY do not go follow @askthewheatleyverse and send me a million asks nooooo)

❗DISCLAIMER ❗

This intro might be changed and/or outdated at any point. I am a teenager and still figuring myself out. This is literally the identity crisis stage of life. Dont be alarmed if Im completely different tomorrow pls :)

My name is Bitch, and you can't stop me. :) (Alternate names include Gunnar, Demonic and Static)

I am a minor. I can interact with adults but like. don't. be a creep, the block and report button is there for a reason bud

NSFW accounts are unwelcome. get out pls :D

Bisexual and has a VERY fucked up gender. What's my gender? WHO KNOWS BITCH IT SURE IS IN EXISTANCE

I can draw. Sometimes. And also write. S. Sometimes not really

I like to like. Write up media analyses however you say it and reviews so watch out for those. I'm not like a professional critic or anything though. I just have a lot of thoughts about silly funne robors

I'll probably post a lot of stuff about my OCs, they'll be tagged and shit but watch out for THOSE absolute jumpscares. And also maybe interact and reblog anf gib your thoughts too because that'd be very encouraging and wowowo,,,

Wheatley not stupid truther. Have a. Lot of thoughts about that but I'm gonna keep them to myself so I don't get mauled

We're a system, I'm gonna be the main one posting on here but if there's ever anybody else we'll tag them!! :)

WE DO NOT ACCEPT CRINGE CULTURE HERE. FUCK YOU DRAWS FURRY ART DRAWS FURRY ART DRAWS FURRY ART

Pronoun list: He/It/They/Terror/Flame/Wheat/Burn/Bit/Gear/Vil/Claw/Cloud/Corrupt/Devil/Creature/Dae/Death/Fright, probably more. Use whatever you want i don't have prefs mostly

Interests list: Portal 2 (biggest interest, very important to me!!!), FNAF, The Sun And Moon Show, Bendy, Inscryption/The Hex/Pony Island, Spiderverse, Phoenix Wright (have only gotten through the first game so far, working on the second), TAWOG, Among us (i am aware of how funny that is), HLVRAI/RTVS, Team Fortress 2, Garten Of Banban (fuck the euphoric brothers), Adventure Time, Tattletail, and Billie Bust Up!

Weird brain things I have: Autism, ADHD, Anxiety, Depression, DID, RSD, Misophonia, the point is my brain said fuck you and gave me every disorder known to man. I might also have BPD, but I am not sure yet and need to look into it more.

Anyways come hang out with me if you feel like you're ready for the torment

(You can also check out my A03 here. They’re just for funsies and writing practice :) )

#time to tag 50 million different fucking fandoms dear god- #portal #portal 2 #fnaf #five nights at freddy's #fnaf: sb #fnaf security breach #security breach #tsams #the sun and moon show #bendy #BATIM #BATDR #bendy and the ink machine #bendy and the dark revival #inscryption #the hex #pony island #spiderverse #spiderman #spiderman into the spiderverse #spiderman across the spiderverse #phoenix wright #phoenix wright ace attorney #ace attorney #tawog #the amazing world of gumball

[leodonewiththeworld]

I rewrote Baruto?

Ok so I'm not the biggest fan of Baruto. It's probably my least favorite thing on this planet. But it got me thinking, what if I re wrote a better version of "The Next Generation."

Here are my bullet points!

Naruto and Sasuke die at the end of Shippuden.

If we keep Naruto and Sasuke in the series we're just going to butcher their characters. We saw how well the nurfing the strongest ninja in all of the WORLD, went in Baruto.

Make it way longer in the future, 20-30 years in the future.

Let's separate ourselves from the original Kanoha 13. Make their children the teachers and some of them elders. We can keep Sakura as the head of the Medical nin. This way we can fully separate ourselves from the events of the original.

Shikamaru is Hokage.

Shikamaru being older and literally THE smartest person ever would be a great choice. It would also be him both completing Naruto's dream and getting character development.

To our new main character, Naruto and Sasuke are ideals. They want to achieve their level of power.

It's still the next generation, so we can't completely ignore the events of the original. But having satues and folk tails about Naruto and Sasuke. Having them appear as heros and gods to the average people is much better than destroying their characters.

Ōtsutski clan. We can still bring them into the narrative but as a bigger threat.

No Naruto and Sasuke meaning they are an even bigger threat than they where in Baruto. We can use a similar plot line to Baruto but make changes according to the rest of the bullet points.

We can keep the ninja teams and add our protagonist to team 7. Without konohamaru because his team should be ino-shika-cho.

It's tradition, trust me on this.

We go more into the clan and village conflict.

The village massacred the uzamaki and the leaf village massacred the Uchiha. We can go more in depth to their fear of people in power over them.

Make our protagonist a low class member of the Hyoga clan.

The only surviving ocular clan in kanoha with a history of using a horrible class system? The perfect breeding place for an overpowered protagonist with trauma. We can also use this to provide more information about the Clans and why their afraid of them. As well as the awful conditions in the Hyoga clan that wasn't explored in Naruto.

The antagonist is from another village.

Our new Sasuke can be from a different village. Make a program where children from different villages create new teams. We can go into village espeianage and the misuse of the Shinobi system.

Our Antagonist can be willingly abandoned and being used as a spy for a different village.

This can bread external and internal conflict as they are made to fight against each other because of village conflict. This also breeds a similar aspect between main characters as one is willingly abandoned and the other is both neglected and used.

Our main characters have one half of Kurama.

The leaf village shanobi could have sealed Kurama away in the valley of the end. Due to their inability to find a new suitable host they could seal him inside one of the broken statues or brake his chakra in half on either shattered statue. Leaving both with a new link and power, creating a new soulmate link.

That's as far as I've thought, I might add more and if you have any new suggestions do share with the class.

#naruto #naruto uzumaki #anti boruto #naruto shippuden #baruto #pro sasuke #sasuke #Sakura #Sauke Uchiha #naruto shitposting #baruto next generation #kwaki

[theexclusivestory]

Discovering Jupiter: The Biggest Planet Explained

In the huge space filled with stars and galaxies, there's one special planet that really stands out i.e. Jupiter. It's the biggest planet in our solar system and has fascinated people for a long time. Named after the most powerful god in ancient Roman mythology, Jupiter is incredibly beautiful and mysterious. In this article, we'll take a closer look at Jupiter, learning more about what makes it so fascinating and why it's important for our understanding of space.

Jupiter: The Biggest Planet in Our Solar System

Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. It's huge, more than 11 times wider than Earth. It's super heavy, too, about 318 times heavier than Earth. Because of its size, Jupiter has a strong pull that affects how other things move around it in space.

Jupiter has a big storm called the Great Red Spot. It's been there for a very long time, showing us how wild Jupiter's weather can be. This storm is even bigger than our whole planet Earth! It's like a giant symbol of how Jupiter's atmosphere is always changing and full of storms.

The Composition and Structure of Jupiter

Jupiter is made mostly of hydrogen and helium, which are very common elements in space. Inside Jupiter, there's a heavy center surrounded by layers of different forms of hydrogen and gas. Unlike planets like Earth, Jupiter doesn't have a solid surface under its cloudy atmosphere.

Jupiter has a mix of gases in its air like hydrogen, helium, methane, and ammonia. These gases create colorful bands of clouds on Jupiter's surface. These bands look like stripes of light and dark. They form because Jupiter spins really fast, causing strong winds and storms in its atmosphere.

Jupiter's Moons: The Companions of the Giant Planet

Jupiter has a bunch of moons, with at least 79 that we know of. But four of them are extra special and were found by a guy named Galileo Galilei in 1610. These moons are called the Galilean moons, and their names are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They're really interesting and important in our solar system.

Io is a moon close to Jupiter, and it's famous for having lots of active volcanoes on its surface. Europa, another moon of Jupiter, has a smooth, icy covering, and scientists think there might be an ocean beneath it that could support life. Ganymede, the biggest moon in our solar system, has its own magnetic field and many different types of landscapes. Callisto, also orbiting Jupiter, is very old and has lots of craters, which helps scientists learn about the past of our solar system.

The Eye of Jupiter: Unveiling the Great Red Spot

The Great Red Spot is a huge storm on Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. It's been going on for a very long time and is a famous part of Jupiter's atmosphere. People sometimes call it the "Eye of Jupiter" because it looks like a big eye in pictures.

The Great Red Spot is a huge swirling storm on Jupiter that spins in the opposite direction to storms on Earth. People have known about it for over 400 years, since the 1600s. Scientists have been amazed by how long it has lasted and how it keeps changing.

The Great Red Spot on Jupiter isn't always the same shade of red. Sometimes it's more of a light pink, while other times it's a deep crimson. This color change happens because of different chemicals in Jupiter's atmosphere. Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly what these chemicals are and how they make the spot look so red.

The Great Red Spot is a huge storm on Jupiter, bigger than Earth. It's about 1.3 times wider than our planet. The winds inside it can be super fast, up to 400 miles per hour. It's one of the strongest and longest-lasting storms in our solar system.

Scientists believe that the Great Red Spot on Jupiter stays around because of a mix of things. Jupiter spins really fast, it has heat inside, and its different layers of air interact with each other. But we're not exactly sure how these things keep the storm going or why it acts the way it does. That's why we need to keep studying and exploring Jupiter to find out more.

In the last few years, missions like NASA's Juno spacecraft have given us amazing new information about Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its atmosphere. Scientists are studying the storm's shape, how it moves, and how it affects other things in Jupiter's atmosphere. They want to learn more about why this storm has lasted so long and how Jupiter's weather works.

The Great Red Spot on Jupiter shows how powerful the planet is and how it changes over time. It's like a big storm that's been going on for a long time. But it's not just a storm; it's also a symbol of how fascinating Jupiter is and how much we still don't know about it. By studying Jupiter and its cool features, like the Eye of Jupiter, we can learn more about this huge planet and space in general. It's like solving a big puzzle that helps us understand the amazing things in the universe better. Read More.

#science #astronomy #space #universe #education #physics #ar 3595 #sol #sunspot #sunspot number #jupiter #planets #outer space #solar system #sky #night #night sky #stars #moon #milky way #astrophotography

[malbecmusings]

Juneau, Alaska

July 26 & 27 - A warning that was stressed over and over and over by guides we talked to while planning this trip: DO NOT underestimate the bears. A grizzly has a sense of smell exponentially better than a bloodhound. With the ability of said 1,000lb plus behemoth to hit 40, yes f-o-r-t-y, miles an hour for up to 2 miles nonstop, shit could hit the fan faster than you could imagine. The prep we've done, including for a potential unfriendly wildlife encounter could be a book in itself. We're all carrying bear spray; the boy scout and I are each carrying a different type (potency/volume vs range). Everyone is also carrying chest holsters with big bore handguns, and yes, praying we don't have to use them.

My first thought this morning was one of of gratitude for not having any large, nosey critters come into camp in the middle of the night. My second thought was about how good I felt. We spent for-effin-ever trying out different tens, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads before we found a combo that we liked. Although it was in the 50's we stayed warm and didn't wake up feeling like we had spent the night sleeping on rocks, which is exactly what we had done.

Half our party was already up having coffee around the fire when I unzipped the tent to assess the world. The clouds were pretty low so there wasn't a need to get in a hurry. While everyone primarily responsible for flying is instrument rated, meaning we could get up and call for a clearance to fly into Juneau.... why?

Instead of rushing to get everything packed up, we decided to make a big breakfast and chill while we waited for the weather to lift. There wasn't as much concern about cooking this morning because we'd all be up and *might* be able to see or hear something coming. Our resident chefs went wild and made the biggest, best tasting breakfast burritos and pancakes I've ever had. My contribution to the feast was virgin Bloody Marys which were almost as good as the high test variety.

The ceilings lifted by the time we finished breakfast, got everything cleaned up, and the planes packed. We flew upriver in search of more gravel bars to do touch and go's on. I made two full stop landings in a slight crosswind that even I was proud of. It pays to sleep with know a good CFI.

Juneau holds the distinction of being one of only two state capitols that are wholly inaccessible by an outside road system. In addition to being a government town, it's also tourist central, with a yearly average visitor count of more than a million tourists. That's a lot, especially considering the metro population is barely 36K. But, it is stunning. Turn in any direction and you'll find mountains, the ocean, glaciers, and wildlife within arms reach.

We got lucky and found a VRBO big enough to house all of us rather than staying at a hotel. Bonus points for it being close to the airport. Our host was quick to recommend the Salmon Bake for dinner. Her instructions were to dress warm and go hungry. Imagine a rustic outdoor Cracker Barrel buffet. It was a bit very touristy, but isn't that the point? You can belly up to the bar, chill around a campfire and roast marshmallows, pan for gold, shop for stuff (of course), and enjoy an "Alaskan experience" while feasting on pretty decent food. Two tips: get a table by the creek if you can and get the glazed salmon.

Juneau Part II: We had a chill night and crashed early because we had a fishing charter scheduled this morning. Another cool, beautiful but wet morning. To hopefully minimize the risk of a lung issue flareup, I broke out both the layered cold weather and foul weather gear. It took two boats to haul all of us and the better part of an hour to reach the fishing grounds, which looked an awful lot like ALL the water we passed before reaching that spot. Our guides were amazing though. Between us, we caught a literal boatload of halibut, salmon, and rockfish surrounded by some of the most mind blowing scenery imaginable. The guides are going to process everything except what we saved for dinner and ship it to us when we get home.

We were planning to hike up to Mendenhall Glacier when we got back but pulling all these fish up from the bottom of the damn ocean wore us out. Instead we built a fire in the fire-pit, had a few drinks, and enjoyed a chill night. Tomorrow we head north again for another few nights off the grid. Our first stop will be the town of Cordova where we'll refuel and provision before heading to a Forest Service cabin on Hinchinbrook Island.

#acwm #alaska 2023

[lazaruspiss]

North Gotham: Part Two

Robinson Park Plaza: Robinson Park Plaza is located in Gotham City's biggest park. The plaza has existed since the end of the 1800s, when the plaza was built for the Gotham City World's Fair. Since many citizens have moved across the bridge when the city expanded, the plaza hasn't seen as much foot traffic as it once has. But the residents of North Gotham have used this opportunity to organize small shows and events to bring the families of the neighborhood together. I like to go there from time to time to clear my head. Seeing people milling about happily reminds me of what we're fighting for. Sadly, things are different there at night as criminals are known to roam the plaza. I've tried to put a stop to it multiple times, but the minimum police presence in the area makes that task difficult to achieve.

St. Faustina Church: Despite the bigger St. Joseph church to the west and the Gotham Cathedral in the Historical district, St. Faustina is one of the most important churches in the city. It is where most public funerals are held. Funeral services for many of Gotham City's mayors were held there, before their burial in the cemetery across the street. The church is also frequented by some of Gotham's crime Families - like the Falcones and the Maronis. It's one of the only places in the city where the two clans agreed not to shed blood. Firefly tried to burn down the church at Jim's funeral but was quickly taken into custody as there were over two hundred officers in and around the church that day.

I remember that. There were so many uniforms at the funeral that they managed to take down Firefly within minutes. It was one of the only times when Batman DIDN'T have to intervene. - D. G.

St. Joseph Church: The St. Joseph church in North Gotham was one of the first churches built by the original settlers. They even tried building a system of catacombs underneath the church but gave up shortly after because they didn't have the resources necessary to excavate that deep into the earth. I considered using the few tunnels they managed to dig out for a time but decided against it after doing some seismic tests. Lucius and I decided to collapse the tunnels' entrances as a precaution, under cover of a New Year's Eve fireworks. Not only has it made that part of the neighborhood safer, but it will also prevent anyone from using the tunnels for criminal activities.

Arkham Asylum: Arkham Asylum, located on Mercey Island, served Gotham City for over a century. It was originally a family mansion, built by Cyrus Pinkney, that was later converted into a psychiatric hospital. It saw many subsequent additions and upgrades, including a reconfiguration that would allow it to house Gotham's more dangerous criminals, permitting "special containment" for metahumans like Clayface and Mr. Freeze. Arkham Asylum was condemned some years ago due to critical structural integrity flaws that made the building unsafe, with most of its inmates transferred to Blackgate Penitentiary right before several sections of it collapsed. I've long wondered if an altercation with Bane a year prior which resulted in underwater micro quakes near the island might have been the genesis of the building's collapse.

#gotham knights #Locations (GK) #North Gotham (GK)