Friendly reminder that this blog is pro-choice and if you don’t think everyone should have full control of their own body, then kindly unfollow me right now and go to hell
Hi, new followers! I'd like to add some context and a what you can do onto what I said about Dropout. My ask is open if you want a cool weed auncle to help you navigate your bad feelings right now, but I think most of these thoughts will be... helpful? Contextually resonant? Something to read in front of the microwave?
First, I still think Dropout is a net positive and will stay that way for some time. Before announcing the Rookies crossover, my issues with them were a few people who have had shit takes still being in their good graces (*1 will expand below). But they still give day rates to a lot of people who might get their power turned off without them (improv comedians are not wealthy, y'all, most actors/directors aren't either or not enough to factor in paying their team w/o getting paid themselves, & god help writers).
They let people exist in whatever their identity or shtick is and that's going to remain really important, YES EVEN FOR SILLY STUFF, as shit gets worse. Most of their practices are extremely impressive and some of them are standard setting for the industry. Some of these paychecks will get close to life or death or at least rent or living in someone's sewing room away from all your dreams, especially for queer folks & POC in this media landscape. I would prefer Dropout survive & avoid propaganda in the future than I would to see it crumble while we cackle anime-ly.
Second, WHAT YOU CAN DO - It is absolutely worth canceling & leaving in your cancelation notes OR emailing to say "when my membership is up in x months, I don't feel I can renew" or otherwise say, hey, you're a business. I get it. But this is the line for me and my dollar. I think the most likely situation is that Sam turned a show's need for a game show location into a deal that got the Variety coverage and some of his hardest workers paid. I see merit in that and recognize that any partnership they do will inherently be tainted by the fact that 4 companies own every story now. But I wouldn't have done it with fucking cop comedy (or dramedy or just... bad procedural, idk) & I wouldn't have done it with Nathan Fillion. So that's... both of those things exist.
THIRD...
Third, I don't think that you can expect Brennan to leave or for the group that took that opportunity to turn it down. Maybe I'll find out they own oil mines, but really and truly, these are not rich people. Nowhere I have ever worked has been ethical. The imagined nobility of being broke as shit in the works at WalMart or Target way doesn't actually stop bad things from happening. You may as well get to make good art sometimes & live in a slightly safer, better home and take gigs produced by evil, because your other option is suffering under the do evil corporation in a warehouse or at a cash register. If I have to report to a nepo baby who has no idea what it's like to come from what I come from, I won't pretend for a second that I wouldn't choose Sam Reich and making people laugh over the bosses I've had and the body-breaking, ptsd inducing work I've done.
I think some of you are being really dishonest about how clean your hands are and I don't know that clean hands mean anything but the privilege to do so and the same Puritanical notions that keep us in this cycle repainted for leftist online discourse. I don't think clean hands are useful. I think helpful hands, shaping hands, supporting hands are.
Overall, I wanna say this: You cannot out-suffer the evils of American capitalism. Taking organized shots is good, building mutual aid and community is good. But I think Americans have lost all sense of what that means and think that being willing to suffer is the same thing. I believe most people are doing their best, even if they draw lines where I don't. I do something that would be a no for someone else. If you sit in your room & stare at a dark wall & never consume media again, the CEOs & shareholders will still be evil shitlords. If you quit acting or dancing or improv to work a shitty job that isn't your dream, that CEO is also underpaying you & doing crime & you end up selling stuff from the bad arts company. The hard work is doing your best within the confines of what you need to stay alive and live. It is better to try and hold Dropout accountable while they are still small enough to listen to us than it is to preemptively give up on everything and be cynical at everyone around you.
With all that being said, this might mean I'm done with Dropout. It could mean that for you! Or maybe every month you match your sub amount in legal funds. I don't know. There is no one choice. We don't share one heart. Navigate what you need to navigate. Assume others are doing their best. If you truly believe they aren't, maybe it's time to remove them from your life.
*1 (just if people wanted a concept of this, it doesn't necessarily change my above points)
Caitlin Reilly's brand of humor is "women be stupid" rebranded (she likely has more range than this but this is what did well on TikTok so she committed to it) and she made TikTok sketches about Amber Heard and her legal team at the peak of Depp's DARVO social media campaign. She liked every shitty comment defending her when she was called in & ultimately deleted those posts without speaking on it whatsoever. Her Make Some Noise maybe filmed before that or its possible they don't know. But it really disgusts me she was on a second time. I also have to process that working with Nathan Fillion echoes that. The idea that abuse, coercion, media campaigns against people, are not a big deal. Defending Joss Whedon and making fun of Amber Heard while she's testifying about her SA are both arms of that violence.
Hank Green gave repeated lukewarm, nothing statements about the genocide in Palestine & took too long to do it. I don't care for his dorky do-gooder shtick regardless & that combined with cowardice doesn't leave any respect for him in my heart. In both these situations, I don't know if there are convos calling them in or who knows what. So while I'll be vocal every time they turn back up, I don't want to push for trotting people out and publicly shaming them for bad takes because statistically we will all be a stupid asshole about something at some point.
I didn't want the PJO show to fail. Of course I wanted a series so special to my childhood to have a good adaptation, and I wanted to see my favorite scenes realized on the screen.
What's funny about the show is that it set out to fail. I said it before but Percy Jackson is not a mainstream name--not in the way Harry Potter or Star Wars or even Hunger Games is--in one critical area: Merchandising.
When I was a kid I remember seeing a middle-aged man happily enjoying Sea of Monsters. The first five books are very approachable to a reader of any age.
But a giant fandom that's only book fans can't sell character's faces on a tshirt at walmart. There's no visual element to market beyond the covers, and it has very little iconic symbols and a generic trident pales in comparison to the simple-yet-effective Deathly Hallows.
So this show set itself up for failure in one big way: It alienated a large portion of its fans right off the bat in just how it chose to treat us.
Aggressive and incendiary marketing focusing on the casting as if every naysayer is a racist or making mountains out of molehills. Creating negative controversy instead of showing us positive press with amazing trailers, acting, scores, and writing. All they had was rage bait, and it disrespected so much of its potential audience in doing so. They had this entitlement as if we should all be grateful that the show exists at all, as if, so long as it was not the films, we'd embrace it. And they were wrong.
But it also lacks identity. The show is neither Harry Potter nor Hunger Games, in that it cannot commit to either being a kid's story with child protagonists and all the wacky nonsense and whimsy and humor that comes with it (in terms of Philosopher's Stone not Half-Blood Prince), nor can it be an adult story with child protagonists with drama, seriousness, and politics.
Yet it's trying to be both, and Percy Jackson is a kids story, with story beats that, from time to time, make kids think.
The series ages and matures with its protagonist (and its readers, when it was being published). He's not the 16-year-old general of the demigod army accidentally getting campers killed with his powers in Lightning Thief. In book 1, they go get directions from a talking pink poodle (notably missing from both adaptations). Do you remember Gladiola? Rick doesn't. I didn't even have to look it up.
It could do both. ATLA did both. We went from penguin sledding to Gyatso's corpse in the middle of a mass grave in 3 episodes, and then right back to surfing on a giant unagi to impress Aang's fangirls.
PJOTV does not have nearly the same caliber of writers to walk that line.
So if it can't cater to adults wanting something either superficially adult in language and violence, or deeply in its messages and themes, it won't win over an adult who wasn't already a fan. If it can't cater to children, because these "child" characters are talking and acting like 18 year old romantasy characters, and all the colors and whimsy and fun is gone, children who didn't already care, won't.
So you're left with just the pre-existing book fans, and only the fans who will accept anything fed to them and voice no criticisms or complaints.
Disney, above all else, cares about money. If PJOTV gets cancelled however long down the line because its not getting enough views, they'll only have themselves to blame.
please please please do NOT give up on medicating your adhd because you have a bad experience during your first attempts. finding the right medication/dosage combo takes trial and error, but it can feel like a MIRACLE once you do.
Being medicated isn’t for everyone, but it is a powerful tool in our toolbox. and I am seeing way too many people giving up that option prematurely, because they are unware that:
there are different medication options. they do not all have the same side effects, and not all are amphetamines
dosage matters. if you are discontinuing bc of side effects, consider trying a lower dose first
a good doctor will be willing to work with you to find a regime that works
finding the right meds/dosage combo will take trial and error. and it will be worth it once you do.
Also, once you find something that works, KEEP TAKING IT!!
I know that’s such a “duh” statement but so so many people assume the high they feel for the first few days on a stimulant that works is how it’s always going to be and it’s not. Once your brain gets used to the new “normal” on meds, you lose that high feeling and get to a “hey, I can actually get shit done, lookit that” kind of place.
It amazes me how many people never had anyone explain that to them. I’ve been on some sort of SSRI for the last 20 years so when I started Adderall I knew what to expect. I had so many people (in a group for ADHD) tell me that the “holy shit look at me go!!!” feeling would wear off and it would stop working after a week or two and I had to walk them through just how wrong they were and quite a few had no idea that that feeling isn’t supposed to last long term. 🤦🏼♀️
I explained it like this:
Your unmedicated brain is used to operating at a 4 on a good day. It sucks, you’re all over the place, a hot mess. Then you get on a medication that works (antidepressant, stimulant, non-stimulant, whatever) and the first few days are incredible! You can’t believe that this is how it’s supposed to be! Your brain is now holding steady at an 8 or 9 and you are one productive bitch! But then your brain gets used to operating at an 8 or 9 and it becomes your new normal. It’s harder to recognize that the medication is still working because there’s no noticeable high anymore. You get bummed because you assume it’s not working and you either request a med change or a bump in dosage. Then 8 months later you’re frustrated and depressed because you’ve maxed out on the dosage of whatever med it is and you think nothing is going to work but really you’ve unknowingly self sabotaged.
Because the truth is, the first dose worked perfectly, but your squirrelly ADHD brain is so used to searching for the next dopamine hit that you failed to recognize that you were able to get through the tasks you needed to just fine. You weren’t hyperfocused on researching the nuances of plant breeding, you didn’t spend 5 hours in executive dysfunction while staring at your vacuum, you actually remembered to thaw out chicken for dinner. You missed all of that because you were looking for that high feeling that you had at first.
So, how does one figure out if the med is working or not when you can’t tell because your brain is a dopamine fiend? Personally, I make daily “ta-da” lists. Not lists of things I need to do, but lists of things I did. Before meds, I’d have maybe 5 things on a ta-da list. After meds, I’d have 15-20 things on my list! So it does work, even if I don’t feel like I’m on cloud 9 when I take it.
Tl:dr Your brain is a fucking liar and your medication is likely working even if you don’t feel like it is anymore.
^^^^^^ i’ve had this experience too. not realizing that the meds are working once ‘working’ becomes your new normal is, unfortunately, a reason many of us start skipping medication. hint: the results are not good!!!
also a shout-out to 90s/00s kids who were over-medicated by their doctors & parents (widespread phenomenon).
I hope you are brave enough to explore your options as an adult. I am giving you full permission to firmly state your concerns to your healthcare providers and to insist on a low starting dose if side effects are your major worry.
okay so genuine question because I just saw someone else's post about the term allies (in reference to queer spaces)
are we not all allies?
like, hear me out. I'm bi, so I am apart of the community, but like. I'm not trans or genderfluid or poly, but I obviously support everyone else. I am an ally for trans people. I am an ally for lesbians, and gay guys and for aro/ace people. kinda like all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares, yk?
hey yall, if we teach kids that in order to improve they should focus on bettering themselves independently rather than compare themselves to others and not to focus on whoever is #1. why is that what we're doing? so focused on maga and needing a 'strong leader who looks good to other countries.' kinda the exact opposite of what we wanna be teaching here folks
in another life we're all on the playground sitting by the fence in the grass together and we all have eachother. maybe not here but somewhere it wasn't like this.
legally blonde, went through a period where I always had it on when doing homework in high-school, and I had a lot of homework. I've watched that movie a lot
i think theres a lot to be said about the queer community online and the echo chambers that are created within it, and i think the fact that "bullying straight people for being straight is in fact a dick move" is a hot take really says more than anything else
if there was ever some sort of forced identity reveal for Clark, having his powers go haywire and make his eyes start burning red suddenly out of nowhere is 100% the way to go.
He’s just talking to Lois in the bullpen one day, surrounded by coworkers, and suddenly just goes weird still. Lois sees the beginning of red in each of his pupils and ducks out of the way just in time for the lasers to tear into the wall behind her.
When she turns around, Clark is ashen, desperately clenching his own eyes shut. His eyelids burn bright red, every single vein in his face lit up like the worst kind of Christmas tree. And without a word, he flies away, snapping through the bullpen and out a nearby window before he can hurt anyone else.
In 1947, an British flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago, Chile reported their status over Morse code as "ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 HRS STENDEC". That last word is nonsense, so the tower asked for clarification. They repeated: STENDEC. STENDEC.
They were never heard from again. 11 people vanished, apparently along with their plane, and the only clue is that last word.
one of my favorite parts about Percy being Obviously Bi™ is he doesn't universally describe one gender as attractive. Like he doesn't just say all girls are cute and guys are just okay or whatever or vice versa. No, he has specific girls he finds pretty and specific guys he finds pretty, and he voices that opinion.
For example - Clarisse? Thalia? Meh. Even Silena, who is canonically very pretty, Percy is relatively neutral on. But Annabeth? Rachel? Calypso? 100%. And based on differences in descriptions like that we can tell when Percy is attracted to somebody versus isn't. He calls everybody else in Beckendorf's cabin ugly and then waxes poetic about how hot Beckendorf is specifically. He'll describe most guys as just "eh" with plain physical descriptors but every time he sees Luke he feels the need to specify that Luke is extremely hot while being very evil and how much he hates Luke's stupid very very pretty face. love that for you Percy. great work.
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