Chases Chickens

Hi, I'm Alisa! An illustrator and visual development artist with a deep love for storyboarding, film, food, and adorable chubby chickens. Welcome! 

[not-the-blue]

oh you're in a horror film/book and your phone died/has no bars? how boring. I think phones in horror SHOULD work. they should ding only to have the protagonist check and find nothing. they should get calls from somebody you don't know but is still somehow in your contacts. google maps should lead you to one place, no matter what address you type in.

phones are such a big part of our daily lives, removing them from horror removes the horror from our experience. what if the horror felt like it could happen to you, right here, right now? what if it felt like it was already happening?

[glorious-spoon]

call 911 and something that is definitely not a person picks up.

call 911 and get an operator only for the call to become increasingly weirder and more sinister until you realize that whatever picked up is not there to help.

text messages from someone who's dead. voicemails that sound like dead air until you turn the volume all the way up.

emergency alerts for weather that doesn't happen on earth.

[adhdedrn]

Your phone rings - but it's your phone number on the screen. You answer it, but all you hear is heavy, laboured breathing. You go to say something, only to hear your voice on the other end tell you "It's too late," and hang up.

You get a message from a number you don't recognise. It's a picture of you from behind. You turn and see there's nobody there. When you look back at your phone, you see the sender has sent another text - "Sorry, wrong number."

Your phone rings - it's a private number. You answer it, only to feel the sensation of something licking your ear.

You wake up to find a voicemail. You play it back, only to hear an autotuned version of your own voice reciting a Bible passage - 1 Peter 2: 18-20.

You get an emergency alert. It says "I'm sorry."

[roach-works]

every time you try to call anyone, the version of you that didn't get trapped in the hell maze picks up instead, and she's getting increasingly scared and angry to hear from you

[1percentcharge]

Pirate jokes

[the-cassquatch]

Ok but like. What the fuck is there to do on the internet anymore?

Idk when I was younger, you could just go and go and find exciting new websites full of whatever cool things you wanted to explore. An overabundance of ways to occupy your time online.

Now, it's just... Social media. That's it. Social media and news sites. And I'm tired of social media and I'm tired of the news.

Am I just like completely inept at finding new things or has the internet just fallen apart that much with the problems of SEO and web 3.0 turning everything into a same-site prison?

[dj-of-the-coven]

Long collection of resources under the cut.

You're right that the internet is smaller than it used to be, but there's still some cool stuff left in the corners. I'd recommend checking checking out Neocities if you haven't--it's an independent web hosting platform like Geocities of the old web, and there are hundreds of interesting and active pages discoverable both through their search function and through web buttons (links attached to small pictures with the title of a website) within the websites themselves. Here are three examples of web buttons you may find in link pages:

Most Neocities websites have link pages or button collections with anywhere from tens to hundreds of these. Don't be afraid to explore!

If you're looking for something more like a search engine, I can point you towards Marginalia. It's not a particularly smart engine, but it's perfectly usable if you've ever been taught to use search engines back when they were mostly run through keywords instead of full sentence comprehension. There's also an "about" and "tips" section on the front page with more information. The algorithm of Marginalia can be filtered by the user to allow, disallow, or require JavaScript depending on your needs, plus there are filters designed specifically to prioritize web 1.0 sites or mostly text-based ones. It is possible to search for modern websites with it, but it can return websites from just about any decade (since the invention of the web, obviously) so long as they contain the information you're looking for. For example, here are some random interesting sites I've found using Marginalia:

Native Languages of the Americas: Native American Cultures

BASIC HTML COMPETENCY IS THE NEW PUNK FOLK EXPLOSION!

Earthbound Text Labs by Bill Eager

The possibilities for discovery are truly endless.

Now you might want to know about directories. These make browsing for websites easier, but require you to read through and judge which ones to visit, as there aren't algorithms ranking the sites besides the whim of whoever coded the directory. Some of them have themes, others don't. Here are two that I've used:

Yesterlinks Directory

Ichigo Directory

Directories can be harder to come by just by surfing the net, but they aren't impossible to find. Many personal websites have their own directories of interesting sites hidden within them.

Webrings are similar to directories, but are actually more community-based. You have to register your website to be a part of a webring, usually by sending an email to whoever runs it and meeting some kind of entry criteria. For example, my personal website used to be a part of a webring called Sweet Dreams, which was for websites that heavily utilize color palettes and images of cute things, particularly sweets. Webrings will give you access to a widget upon entry that allow visitors and other members to browse between the registered websites in a massive ring, ergo, where the term gets its name. Webrings can have any theme or criteria for entry. If you can make a website about it, you can find a webring for it.

Now, you might be wondering about social media alternatives. I can't offer much, but I can nudge you towards the idea of forums. Here's one I found that could really use some traffic. I also browse a bit on MelonLand forum, which is actually closed right now--it's currently closed on Mondays--but on any other day of the week, you can find a fun community there dedicated to web revival. You can find it through MelonLand's main page. I'd also recommend checking out SpaceHey, which is a MySpace clone that's customizable and easy to use.

I hope this is of some help to you. The internet may feel less magical than it used to be, but that doesn't mean that the spark has completely died out. These types of indie websites need more attention if we ever hope to reverse the damage done to the internet by centralization and corporate interest. People are trying to make the web a cooler place to be, but we're going to have to do the work of finding and interacting with these projects in order to get them off the ground someday.

[xerxestexastoast]

ALSO you should consider browsing Virtual Pet List and seeing if there are any pet sites you might be interested in playing. There is a whole genre of browser games right under your nose

[sotosot]

YOU CAN READ A WEBCOMIC! Here's one. I explore trading cards! I like browsing through PKMNCards for high quality art and learning about old sets. Scryfall fulfills the same purpose for MTG. I love browsing the art in my free time!

Music Map is a great way to find new music to listen to. It's not always great, but gives me a lot to make my own choice on what to listen to next. Heck, Bandcamp always gives me new releases to preview new songs, admire new artwork, and learn about new artists.

At 5PM I can check the new Fortnite item shop! It's like my daily zodiac cause I usually have a vague idea of what's coming next.

So much cool stuff to do!

[lemonemenom]

I'm starting to get smile lines.

How lovely to have smiled so often that happiness permanently etches itself into your face

[lemonemenom]

How metal to have lived a life where your face now pre-warns people not to fuck with you

[lemonemenom]

How resilient to have cared so strongly that empathy is now visibly displayed on your face

[one-weird-mammal-a-day]

Please observer the bush dog aka the organic dachshund

They have been observed! My favorite canid! Dog if bear + weasel!

[catchymemes]

[littlenobodys-corner]

[adrienaline-rushed-art]

ok so people are making fun of this but adding this with other anti-global warming tactics will work

This isn’t adding ice just for the sake of denial, it’s adding to the Earth’s albedo. This in turn actually makes the Earth’s climate cooler, and then more ice will be produced naturally because of this.

It isn’t a process we need to continue forever, in fact it’s one that needs to be calculated so that we don’t do it TOO MUCH. The only worry would be cooling down too much.

So yes, this is a good idea. It simply isn’t the only thing we should do because we still have gross pollution.

[the-adhd-society]

For the love of god do it . anything just do it. Give us hope.

[beatrice-otter]

Here’s the thing: Most environmental catastrophes humans have ever or are currently creating can be fixed. It’s not just a matter of “oh no, things are ruined, and maybe we can stop the degradation so that things don’t get any worse, but we’re stuck with how things are.” There are some things we can’t do, like bringing back extinct species. But there are a lot of other things we can definitely do, many of which are being done right now. The problem is that most of our willpower and effort is spent on bullshit tiny things that won’t solve the problem (individual recycling, etc.) and not on the large-scale things that can and will make a large-scale difference.

Ice caps are melting? Guess what! We know how to make ice. It’s not that hard. Designing mostly-automated robot ships to go to the poles and rebuild the ice caps is well within our current technical capabilities. We just need to fund it.

Deforestation on a massive scale? Destruction of other biomes? Guess what! We know how to plant trees. We know how to plant grasslands. We know how to take barren, lifeless land and turn it back into a viable biome. It’s not that hard. In a lot of cases, if there’s neighboring areas where that biome still exists, all you have to do is dump a few tons of biomass (plant clippings, food waste, etc.) on the barren land and stand back and wait. The biomass will provide nutrients and keep the topsoil from blowing away, and the plants and animals from the neighboring biome will move in. In two decades, even if you don’t do anything besides dumping the biomass on it, you won’t be able to tell what was the barren area and what was the still-existing biome.

Coral reefs dying? Now, coral reefs are a bit more fragile than most biomes, but guess what! We still know how to replant/rebuild them, and in fact are working on that in places affected by coral reef die-off! And we’re learning how to do it better every day.

Desertification? Guess what! We know how to turn desert back into green space. They’re doing it on a large scale in China and sub-Saharan Africa. There are several different techniques, none of which are even very technology-intensive. It takes money and time and labor, but it’s perfectly doable. We know this because we’ve done it.

Plastic in the ecosystem, particularly in the ocean? Guess what! There’s a lot of people working on this, both on “how to remove plastic from the ocean” and “how to reuse/recycle it more efficiently.” And the techniques are improving by leaps and bounds every year. This is a solvable problem. These are all solvable problems.

So if you’re crushed by the weight of the coming environmental catastrophe … don’t be. These are all solvable problems! We can stop things from getting worse, and we can fix the things we’ve broken. The issue is political, not practical.

On the political side, of course, is the need to tighten up environmental regulations across the globe. (What’s the statistic, that 90% of pollution is caused by 100 corporations?) And then of course, we need to fund these programs on a large enough scale.

In some ways the political aspect is the hardest, but consider this: we are at a tipping point. Things are changing about the way politicians talk about climate change and ecological degradation. More ordinary people are concerned about this, which means more pressure on politicians. One of the ways that things are changing is that people–even conservatives–are starting to talk about “job opportunities in new green fields” and switching the conversation so that it’s not “rainforest vs. jobs” makes political action a lot more possible. And no, it’s not going to happen on its own, but it can happen.

This is a solvable problem.

[izze-bizzle]

I *needed* this. Climate change has had me feeling SO helpless, having a list of things that can actually potentially be done is beautiful

[macleod]

Climate change is a technological problem. This statement does not exclude social problems, but the core of the matter is that the fastest most effective way to solving this crisis is through technology.

[nenya-kanadka]

The corporate bastards WANT you to despair because if we all give up, we stop being a thorn in their side. If people know it’s not hopeless and there’s actually specific things that can be done & will make a huge difference? We’ll keep giving them shit.

Don’t despair. Don’t give up.

(Remember the hole in the ozone layer? And how it’s shrinking now? YEAH!)

[mulderscully]

it's not anti feminist to enjoy ryan gosling's performance of ken. if i make a little joke abt him it's just a little joke and it's wild to even have to make that disclaimer after all the awesome insightful conversations about womanhood this film has sparked! you can enjoy the comedy of the film, because if not why is it even in there?

[imhereonthekitchenfloor]

Barbie movie: what if men were treated like women?

Also Barbie movie: what if women realized this and tried to give men equal rights?

Also also Barbie movie: what if men are just role-playing into the idea of the patriarchy but also feel stifled by it? Everyone deserves equality

Men: The Barbie movie is about hating men🤯

[theonethatyoudreamof]

the barbie movie really said "give me back my girlhood it was mine first" and i've never wanted to go back to being a girl playing with dolls on the living room floor more than right then

[joyful-soul-collector]

I've seen a lot of people talking about how Barbie talks about how the patriarchy affects women and how well it does that, so I wanna talk about how Barbie talks about how the patriarchy affects men and how well it does that. Because it does that really well tbh.

At the beginning of the movie, it's made very clear that the Kens are constantly competing with each other, and trying to prove their worth, their Ken-ness, to both the Barbies, and more importantly, to the other Kens. In fact, multiple times through the movie it's shown that Ken seems to find the opinions of other Kens as a motivator for him to do things. He tries to show off to Barbie only after he sees the other Kens saying hi to her. He only starts dancing with Barbie when he sees the other Kens dancing with her. He only goes with her to the Real World after another Ken accuses him of cowardice and he decides to prove him wrong. Barbie says "Ken's not cool!" and Ken responds "He is to me."

This shows so damn well what the patriarchy is like for men. Because for the Kens it's not necessarily about Barbie, it's about what other Kens think of you. Being a man you are constantly, incessantly trying so damn hard to prove to the other men around you that you are a man, the manliest man to ever man, the best Ken to ever Ken. Literally doing backflips trying to prove yourself. And this is before patriarchy is even officially introduced to the story, there's no undertone of power yet, this is just what it's like to be a man around other men. It's toxic masculinity.

And when the patriarchy is introduced, that's increased tenfold. At first it looks like they've banded together to take power, but really they're still competing with each other, they're just doing it differently. Rather than competing to see who can get Barbie to fall in love with them, they're competing to see who can be the manliest, have the manliest stuff, wear the manliest clothes, have the manliest house and decorations.

And then they literally go to war. War is considered one of the few places where it's socially accepted for men to be more emotional, form deep and personal bonds with other men, and that's exactly what happens in the movie. They go to war, and there's an entire song where they bond and learn not to fight with each other anymore.

And that I think is the message from the Kens. For men, the way the patriarchy affects them is it forces constant competition and animosity, even around people that are supposed to be your friends. It makes it impossible to express your feelings unless they're with a romantic partner, and all of this turns you into a pent up ball of emotions with nowhere to go.

Which means that the message is: In order to fix the way the patriarchy oppresses men, men need to learn how to form close bonds with people, especially other men. Because like Barbie said to Ken, he needs to discover who he is without her. Men have learned to lean on women as a crutch, using them to figure out how to Be A Person and express emotions in a healthy way, but this can very quickly turn into a woman feeling like she needs too be his mother and teach him how to do these things. And Ken was 100% doing this, or at least he was trying to throughout the movie. Ken was so desperate for Barbie to be in love with him, not necessarily because he loved her, but because he needed a person he could just exist as himself around. Because he couldn't do that with the other Kens, the only person he could be himself around was Barbie.

And what's so great about the end of the movie is that the Kens did eventually figure out how to form close bonds with each other! They went to war, argued and fought, but by the end of the song they were holding hands, kissing each other on the cheek, telling each other they were enough. Even when Ken is up in the dreamhouse, crying and saying that he looks stupid, all the other Kens start shouting back up to him, saying that he looks cool. And Ken responds by giving one of his new friends his coat, which was clearly very important to him.

What the Kens did, that's what men in the real world need to do. They need to form close bonds with other men and stop competing with each other. Hopefully not by going to war the way the Kens did, Barbie isn't a blueprint for solving the patriarchy lol.

I'd be happy to do it through a song though.

[alpaca-clouds]

The Barbie Movie shows really one thing...

Which is, that some men are utterly unable to differenciate between "men" and "the patriarchy". (To be fair, some women somehow do not manage that either.)

Spoilers!

I mean, the movie is not subtle at all. It just goes in there saying: "Patriarchy is bad. Even for men." While also saying: "Actually, Matriarchy is not that great either." Like, it is right there in the movie. There is not even that much of a metaphor going on. The movie has a fucking narrator, just to clear up any misunderstandings.

Yet, somehow all those whiny movie review blokes all just hear "Men are bad", because they are entirely unable to differenciate between patriarchy and men. As if men were non-existent under any other form of organizing society.

And we actually get it pretty much called out how under patriarchy men still exist within constant competition with each other, because they gotta define themselves by what they have instead of who they are. They are not worth anything on their own. But their entire worth is defined by what they have. Their house. Their car. Their job. Their girlfriend. They need other things to reinforce their value, because the system is devaluing them as people.

But yeah, sure. The movie is "anti-men"... Totally. 🙄

[ilikegaypeople73-deactivated202]

anyone else think that Barbie was gonna like apply for a job and not go see a gynecologist???

[andloveisenough]

i wanna know what greta gerwig was thinking when she made depression barbie wear sweatpants all day and watch pride and prejudice for the 27th time because that made me feel seen like no other barbie ever could

[socialist-microwave-laser]

the oceangate situation is really funny but i do want to take a moment to look at the fact that five people of their own volition decide to go two miles under the sea in something controlled by a $30 xbox controller with no beacon or way to navigate, go missing, and immediately a massive search effort is underway with people anxiously combing the ocean for any sign of these chucklefucks, but the greek coast guard capsized a boat full of hundreds of migrants, killing 80 with over 500 people still counted as missing, and the eu won't even investigate

you can and should hate rich people, but you also need to show up for the oppressed

[sufferingandasense]

the eu has blood on their hands <3

[yharnamsnewslug]

Mediterranean countries are also trying to make it illegal to aid any immigrant coming through boats, btw, which also means getting arrested for saving someone from drowning at fucking sea.

[prideprejudce]

this whole oceangate submarine fiasco has actually led to a lot of interesting talks and debates about the grey area of human empathy vs the inclination to recoil at the bizarre behaviors of the ultra wealthy and how people struggle with both ideas and is actually very interesting to watch play out in different types of people

[prideprejudce]

like this whole disaster is not some neatly packaged black and white situation and it’s normal to feel both empathy for human life and anger or disgust for how difference in wealth truly divides the lives that we live in this world

[soberscientistlife]

I keep posting about this because it really shows what our country is all about.

[prokopetz]

I think the long-running fandom argument over whether The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is "grimdark" or not – e.g., yes it is, because it has tropes X, Y and Z, no it isn't, because what it does with those tropes is so deeply silly, etc. – is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what a genre of media is.

Like, yes, genres of media typically have checklists of tropes, but a checklist of tropes isn't what a genre is. A genre of media is a dialogue, consisting of creators borrowing from and responding to and criticising each other. Insofar as it's possible to draw lines between genres at all, those lines are drawn between works that are participating in the conversation and works that aren't.

In this sense, Twilight Princess is absolutely a work of early 2000s dark fantasy – even a conventional one, in some respects. It's participating in the conversation, it's got something to say about it, and it's engaging with the tropes of contemporary dark fantasy in very specific and intentional ways. Those ways happen to be goofy as fuck.

[prokopetz]

"But doesn't that make it a parody of dark fantasy" no, because it's not particularly making fun of its source material. It's 100% serious in its goofiness. It gives us a story whose central dynamic involves a mute werewolf in a platonic D/s relationship with a goblin catgirl and expects the player to experience genuine pathos for these people, and it frequently succeeds. That it's unhinged doesn't mean it's not sincere.