Much Contrived

Welcome to my unpopular opinions blog.

[pixelfun20]

Anyone Interested in a Small Hetalia Server?

A friend of mine and I have been discussing some ideas for a Hetalia-centric server. It would be writing-oriented, with some other spaces for artists and discussions about the series and characters. All (non-problematic) ships are accepted, but the server itself wouldn’t be shipping-oriented. Our main goal would be meeting other Hetalia fans and making a fun, yet educated environment to engage with the series respectfully. 

Of course, there would be limitations in place. Right now, we’re thinking of harsh limitations on discussion of modern (post 1950s) politics, when it comes to the characters, would be a good idea. I.E., no discussions of what America thinks about his 2016 President, etc etc. No bigotry would be allowed, obviously.

My friend and I have experience with servers, so we are confident in our abilities to mod. We mostly just want a chill place where we can learn about history and have fun with this trope! Please interact if you are interested; suggestions are also welcome. 

Crossing the fingers to hope that this passes 5 notes haha. We aren’t looking for a massive server, but 5 people at the very least showing interest would be our minimum. Reblogs are more than welcome :)

[fivenightsatsuffering]

Just some sketches for human Glamrock Chica design. Thinking about coloring her later.

[beanie-op]

Just a few winter Alfonse/Anna headcanons that keep me warm, part one:

▪︎Anna's first time meeting the king and queen was during a winter festival. Sharena and Alfonse had already met Anna and were occasionally visiting the towns to see her, but Alfonse had quietly pleaded to all a trip to her mother's tavern... He had a gift for her that he wanted to see opened.

▪︎Anna is actually huge on yuletide shopping. She will pinch ever penny but make sure that the heroes of the Order have the most festive and decorative time of all... For incentive of course... Alfonse always passively threatens to reveal just how into the Holiday spirit she actually is, especially when he's the one getting dragged around and carrying all of her purchases.

▪︎Anna is very unphased by the cold which stesses out Kiran + Askr Siblings. Alfonse always carries a winter cloak specifically for her and will drape it over her whenever he sees fit. She insists it slows her down but appreciates the sentiment.

▪︎Alfonse's gift always takes the longest for Anna to figure out, but it's always something that seems simple upon first glance but is actually very meaningful. She usually goes for gifts that show that she does listen to him and his musings. Even when he thinks she, Sharena and Kiran have begun to tune him out.

[askr-deactivated20230503]

Seriously some of these are actually really cute

[beanie-op]

Because those who are summoned have an innate need to protect and serve the one who summoned them, Kiran is always poised to protect Anna. For awhile this never processed to her and it confused the Askr trio as to why Kiran always moves to keep Anna out of harms way or will put themselves at harm to keep her safe.

It wasn't until Kiran pointed it out that Anna even noticed. It still frustates her a bit because she can handle herself... But it does mean a lot to her her, especially since Kiran has admitted that they only lightly feel compulsed to protect her. They actually deeply care about Anna and want to protect her themselves.

[beanie-op]

In light of my new S Support of Anna and Alfonse, I am now making shipping content for them

This is a warning.

[itskyalenotkyle]

When ya man’s choking but it makes a good beat

[queernigga]

i love black ppl.

[eclecticblkgirl]

I will reblog this every time I see it

[hashtagartistlife]

I CAN’T BELIEVE SHOKUGEKI DID THAT ™

[dankmemeuniversity]

[ralfmaximus]

There’s a reason for this: recipes cannot be copyright protected unless accompanied by “substantial literary expression”.

I’m sure a lot of recipe authors hate writing that crap too, but unless the polite fiction is maintained their work gets sucked up & monetized relentlessly by bots, without crediting or compensating the creator.

MY primary gripe is how boring the ‘anecdotes’ are. Why not write about werewolves instead? Where the only protection against the hideous slavering beasts are these scrumptious lemon blueberry tarts?

Or how this recipe was handed down by Cthulhu itself 20,000 years ago! But with certain ingredients mistranslated to avoid uttering forbidden words! And NOW, for the first time in recorded history–  

Or how this recipe for chicken enchiladas absolutely defies replicator programming so we’ve time-travelled back to 2021 to obtain unborgified chicken DNA to resequence the replicators buuuuut since we’re here now, might as well have a copy of this awesome recipe…

Makes about as much damn sense as some of the crap I read on recipe sites.

[lew-basnight]

I am having ideas.

[bramblepatch]

Yeah, but is there a reason why the additional material has to come before the actual recipe? Why they can’t at least tell me how hot to preheat the oven before they launch into their life story?

[vaspider]

Because they get paid by the ads on the page so they need you to scroll past them. The ads pay people for their labor so they can give you free-to-you words.

[bonesbuckleup]

Also, a lot of that stuff is not actually written for users–it’s written for Google and for SEO. You research how people are looking up Baked Brie recipes (brie appetizers, baked cheese recipe, etc, etc) and then saturate for those keywords (but the right ones, and not too many or too clustered together, and definitely not too few) so that Google ranks your Baked Brie recipe above the other Baked Brie recipes.

Short version–google assigns websites scores based on Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness, aka E-A-T. Those essays before your recipe? They up your E-A-T ranking just by existing.

TLDR; the essay is for google, it is not for you, feel free to skip it.

[turnintolight-deactivated202304]

What’s more is that recipe bloggers probably hate writing these things too.

They just have no chance of picking up Google searches if they /don’t/ do it - unless you’re Food Network or something with really high authority, the text in a recipe alone is way too short to rank well. And it almost needs to be off-topic as well.

To expand on the E-A-T thing, Google goes beyond keyword use and has it’s own algorithms to figure our what’s a “quality result” for any given search. Generally, it sees longer content as more useful (so recipes alone are way too short). It also likes to see topic depth, and Google weighs this up based on ‘semantic keywords’.

Semantic keywords are those that are topically linked to a search term - for instance, for ‘baked brie’ semantic keywords could be 'cheeseboard’ 'appetizers’ 'fruit and nuts’ and so on.

Google has learned through experience that these words are topically connected - so if your baked brie recipe doesn’t also mention 'cheeseboard’, Google sees less topic relevance and depth compared to a recipe that does. And you need a whole bunch of semantic keywords for Google to find the bigger picture as top quality content - so recipe bloggers need a spiel that isn’t 100% on topic to actually work in those semantic keywords.

Of course, bloggers will also be trying to pick up different search queries and cast a wider net than 'baked brie recipe’ as well:

This way they’ll get more traffic than JUST people searching 'baked brie recipe’.

It’s a really interesting example of how technology products are shaping how people can communicate with each other. The basic idea of a recipe has served us well enough for yonks but now Google says 'that’s not enough information to be useful’.

Google is essentially designed to serve up the most useful content for a searcher but is using an imperfect model to do that, and in the process it’s creating thing we all find monumentally annoying, including the bloggers themselves. Nobody is winning here.

TLDR: Recipes with the blogger’s life story attached can’t be abolished because Google likes them. Even the bloggers don’t have a choice any more.

[ghostly-light]

All of this is true and important. SEO and monetisation depend heavily on lengthy posts; copyright protection depends on additional content. Advertisers have actively penalised the use of “Jump To Recipe” buttons in the past.

But every time this conversation rolls around, with people deriding the bloggers upon whom they rely for free recipes rather than buying cookbooks or subscribing to paid sites, I’m struck by another point:

Recipe bloggers are overwhelmingly women, frequently homemakers and/or mothers.

And the people so upset about what they post on their own blogs are telling these women to shut up, get back to the kitchen, and give them what they want. Stop wasting my time telling your stories and talking about your life, no-one wants to hear that, just get (a recipe for) dinner on the table.

I find that very thought-provoking, indeed.

[iamoutofideas]

just heard the austin powers theme playing faintly somewhere in the house, I’m the only one here

[iamoutofideas]

[flatchest]

[beanie-op]

Anyone interested in a Homestuck/Hiveswap Servers geared towards adult fans? Its not for NSFW content or nefarious purposes, it's jusy mainly for fans who grew up with Homestuck and wanna relive the nostalgia of the trainwreck we experienced during our childhood.

If you're interested like this post of dm me for a link.

[khianavy]

Hello, I'm opening commissions if any of you are interested. Specifics are in the photos or at the carrd! Feel free to hmu if you have questions. Shares/reblogs are very appreciated!

[beanie-op]

Noelle has 100% every Kingdom Hearts game, and yet Berdly still mansplains the plot to her.

[ewweryn]

sowy

[beanie-op]

Been thinking about making a Homestuck and Hiveswap server for no other reason than a lot of the ones I am in keep blacklisting all of my favorite ships and I just wanna chat about it with someone.

If anyone is interested in that then reply or shoot me a message and I'll probably link you!

[goodzillo-deactivated20220127]

scooby doo taught us that the real monster was daphne for keeping a smooth talking limp wrist twunk like fred in a straight relationship when he was born to cruise literally designed to suck and fuck

[artgroupie]

it was the 60s and she was helping him stay safe by agreeing to be his beard. daphne is an ally and probably a lesbian

[beanie-op]

Not y'all saying Fred is a twunk. Y'all he is definitely a Hunk, don't rewrite history now.