Deramin

Very queer, unfortunately here, getting used to it (he/him). Void screaming, media analysis spoilers, GY!BE, Dropout, & Critical Role. Independet media enjoyer. Resource management communist survival city builder enthusiest. OTDDeramin in another life. Deramin on AO3.

[deramin2]

Deramin's Queer Film Lists Master Stash.

I love queer films and shows. My pandemic hobby was to become much more intentional about watching queer films, researching them, learning the history, etc.

I started with a focus on 20th century films in particular so I could get a handle on how queer cinema as a distinct cultural genre formed, and what later films were in dialogue with.

I've also made an intentional effort to look for diverse queer films. Abled cis gay white men from rich countries are over-represented, and while I also appreciate those stories, I want to cast the net much wider and get a varied diet. I look for WLW films specifically, films by and about racialized people, and films from many parts of the world.

As a snapshot, in the last couple weeks I've watched or rewatched The Watermelon Women (1996), Rafiki (2018), D.E.B.S. (2004), Trans (1994), Frida (2002), and Frida (2024).

I hope these lists can break you out of constantly being disappointed by mainstream films primarily targeted towards straight people. That's a bleak existence and you can go better. You've got to start looking to independent films to find the good stuff.

Deramin’s Queer Film Stash

My big list of queer films I've seen. Some are technically not queer, or iffily so, but have such cultural proximity they should be included anyway. I have watched all of these.

Deramin's Queer Film Stash

My big list of queer films I've seen. Some are technically not queer, or iffily so, but have such cultural proximity they should be included

Queer Happy Endings

Stories aren't traumaporn about being miserable forever because you're queer. I have watched all of these.

Queer Happy Endings

Stories aren't traumaporn about being miserable forever because you're queer.

Deramin’s Women Loving Women Film Stash

Films about women who love women. Some are about relationships specifically, and some are about wlw lives or being is situations. I've watched over 3/4ths of these films and intend to see all of them.

Deramin's Women Loving Women Film Stash

Films about women who love women. Some are about relationships specifically, and some are about wlw lives or being is situations.

Deramin’s Transgender Film Stash

Films about trans people and our experiences.

Deramin's Transgender Film Stash

Films about trans people and our experiences.

Queer History and Biopics

Films about queer history and the real people that drove it.

Queer History and Biopics

Films about queer history and the real people that drove it.

[dramatic-dolphin]

people are so fucking weird about uncontacted tribes/peoples oh my goddddd you are not making it out of the colonialist mindset

[dramatic-dolphin]

fun fact uncontacted peoples are not ignorant they are fully aware of the "outside world" and are CHOOSING not to have contact because they (rightly) feel it would add no value to their lives and place them in an exploited position. it's voluntary. they are isolated on purpose.

[dramatic-dolphin]

sentinelese people aren't like some ignorant noble savages, or actual savages who are all about warfare and killing (wildly racist take i see very often), they are literally regular ass fucking people who have seen the exploitation of their neighbors (other andamanese people) AND the massive disease outbreaks caused by contact, and decided they want no part in that. they are literally regular people choosing to survive. that's it.

[dramatic-dolphin]

glad that this is getting traction, but if you're saying things like "yeah, and they are right! modern society is a curse! they are living The Right Way and are more enlightened have better lives than us!" you are also the people i'm talking about. sorry. they are regular people living regular lives. please internalize this fact and stop exoticizing.

[pangur-and-grim]

we are good friends

[warranty-voider]

cat looked easy to draw

[babushkaat]

[luxiomahariel]

[halondrus]

oh me? I lost my penis when I ignored the "Don't touch the machinery" sign. you know how it is

[halondrus]

you all hate me and my penis. I mean penisnt

[halondrus]

I made the mistake of looking at this while taking an order over the headset at work and started laughing really hard and had to gather myself for a second and my coworkers kept trying to look at my phone to see what I was laughing at

[halondrus]

nearly ran a redlight thinking about >penis ripped off by penis gnomes on my way home from work

[virtualgirladvance]

putting this post on every machine from now on thank you

[official-penis-posts]

Penwas :(

[pillowspace]

Just saw an AI generated image of a leaf sheep sea slug with AI generated information on it, don’t you dare AI generate my beautiful daughter ever again

[pillowspace]

[pillowspace]

(these photos are real) They have to put my daughter through AI because they can’t handle her true beauty

[plantnerderyallday]

This is for new foragers, like my coworker:

'Medicinal' does NOT mean 'good for you and safe to eat all the time'. A plant being 'medicinal' does NOT mean that eating it, without any idea of WHY and HOW it's considered medicinal, is a good idea. It is UNWISE to consume a plant that has a long history of use in a way that DOES NOT have a long history of use.

In addition to learning that a plant is edible, you need to learn how it is eaten, what part is eaten, when it's harvested, and how to harvest it sustainably and in a way that supports its continued existence (unless it's invasive). If people only eat the ripe berries as food, then don't eat unripe berries. Don't. Eat. Unripe. Berries. UNLESS! There's! precedent! For that plant!

I know there's this idea going around that Americans only eat sweet or salty things, and that we've eliminated bitter things from our diet, and we should thus be eating more bitter things. But! Bitter things are bitter for a reason, and sometimes that reason is poison! Some of them are medicinally useful at the correct dose, but! You need to know what that is! You need to be doing it on purpose! DO NOT! Assume that bitter means that it's good for you!

[deramin2]

The fallen rule of toxicology is : The dose makes the poison.

Eating something as a food is a different dose of it than taking it as a medicine. And even then there may be limits.

The legumes known as cicerchia (Lathyrus sativus) are a great green fertilizer plant and drought resistant in ways that make them some of the last crops to die. They can be really nutritious in limited quantities and were vital to the survival of people in places like Puglia, Italy where the weather and political rule have a history of instability. The umpteenth ruling class conquering your lands as a strategic military point and steal all your food plunging you into an artificial famine are notably less likely to eat your beans with paralyzing neurotoxins.

See, that “limited quantities” of cicerchia is doing the heavy lifting because the legumes are toxic and they will kill your in horrible, horrible ways if they’re your main source of protein for too long. Sometimes it’s a gamble between the cicerchia toxins and the starvation so you just take your chances. In good times they’re apparently quite tasty and can be part of a traditional diet. Because the cultural knowledge of that limit is passed down.

Lima beans are also toxic if not boiled for 30 minutes (U.S. cultivars may be as low as 10 minutes, but it’s safer to not fuck around with it.) A fact you might not be aware of if you’ve only had them canned or frozen where they’re pre-cooked and you can safely do things line microwave then a few minutes. Because someone else in society was doing something you didn’t notice to prevent a food safety issue you weren’t even aware of. Lima beans are really healthy when prepared correctly and are full of cyanide when raw. Something home gardeners sometimes find out the hard way, especially with all the raw foods health influencers.

Know how to prepare things before you put them in your mouth. Unluckier ancestors than you have already figured this out. Meticulous scientists or other knowledge guardians have figured it out even more precisely. Foraging is older than agriculture and doesn’t have the benefit of deliberately breeding out poisons.

Medicine is often just deliberately poisoning yourself in just the right way at just the right amounts to fend off some other issue. Get it wrong and it could injure or kill you whether it’s a plant or refined.

[no-sharks-on-the-sun]

[no-sharks-on-the-sun]

they killed him for this

[argumate]

so much crime discourse is implicitly predicated on there being an ontological distinction between Criminals and Ordinary People that the justice system should be able to immediately intuit by mystical introspection, like why would you let Criminals out on bail? why would you put Ordinary People on trial? if police already knew who was guilty in advance then their actions really would look even more perverse than they already are!

[rampagingpoet]

"Bail Reform" is one of the big Conservative tough-on-crime talking points in Canada right now, and it's something I'd love to see more statistics on.

Right-wing newspapers report every day that someone, somewhere committed° a new crime while out on bail. And yeah that's bad - but what are the actual numbers? Canada's population isn't that high, but there are still 40 million of us. P(is on bail & committed a crime) could be literally one in a million and there'd still be forty people to pick from to find the most sensational anecdote.

It only makes sense if we throw "innocent until proven guilty" right out and just kind of blithely assume that if the police arrested someone they must have done it. Then again the people pushing this don't seem to believe in trials or even "having served one's time" - they're up in arms every time a violent offender's sentence is up and they're back in the community. Because people can never be given the benefit of the doubt and prison can't fix Ontological Criminality Syndrome.

° No innocent until proven guilty in these articles, can't stand by the bedrock cornerstone of our legal system and make it sound useless at the same time.

[argumate]

yeah I feel that being mad about bail is closely related to being mad about immigration because it stems from a similar mindset, where you can obviously sort people into Good and Bad and so letting the Bad people roam free on the streets is something you would only do for perverse reasons because you want to destroy society.

but of course if you are detained without bail or your family member is deported then obviously that's government overreach, the bureaucratic nanny state punishing Good people as if they were Bad for its own nefarious reasons.

now ideally we would have a perfect oracle that would guide all decisions towards the most optimal outcome, but failing that we have a messy mix of institutions and cultural norms and political arguments and the result will always be a tradeoff that we hope functions well enough to keep making progress towards a society that sucks less.

[ralfmaximus]

Years ago back when I worked in cubicle land, we were hiring junior software developers. They didn’t have to have a ton of experience, just a willingness to learn, and some demonstration of their software skills. Like: show me a program you wrote (any language) or a web site you designed. Anything.

And there was this one guy I talked with who seemed super sharp, but had virtually zero experience writing software. When it came time to do the show-n-tell part of the interview he whips out his laptop, brings up a website, and spins it around to show me what he made.

A website of tiny ceramic frogs.

Not for sale. Just… all these ceramic frogs, organized into categories. Frogs on bicycles, frogs with hats, frogs sitting on lily pads. It was a virtual museum of ceramic frogs in web form.

I scrolled through his online collection of frogs, slightly baffled.

“This is your website?” I asked finally.

“Yep!”

“You coded this yourself?” I popped into view-source mode and poked around some incredibly well-formatted, well-commented html. I nodded slowly. This guy was meticulous.

“Yep!”

“So… where’d all the frogs come from?”

“I made those too,” he says, beaming. 

And while I’m processing this he rummages in his bag and pulls out a little ceramic frog working at a computer terminal. He places it on the table before us, next to the laptop.

“And THIS one,” he says, “I made for you! As a thank you for the interview.”

It was adorable. I hired him on the spot. I mean, why not? Worst case he’d wash out in 90 days and we’d hire somebody else. He turned out to be one of the best developers on our team. 

And yes, his cubicle was loaded with ceramic frogs.

[moveslikekeithrichards]

the role of the person in the passenger seat is not only navigator but secretary as well. you have to type up the drivers messages to random ladies on facebook about cbd cream & google whether that billy joel song was the theme song for that show or not

[moveslikekeithrichards]

you also have to provide a henchmans disdainful scowl at whoever the driver is flipping off in the target parking lot

[the-apocrypha]

other assorted roles may include

retrieval team for objects in the backseat

custodian of the parking garage tickets

"All clear my way"

en-route dining concierge

announcing "Horses!" when there are horses

[lynx-girl]

Don't forget the Tommy Gun

[help-my-ocs-breached-containmen]

You should never forget the Tommy Gun

[worldheritagepostorganization]

World Heritage Post

[transgenderfabianseacaster]

💥💥💥‼️‼️‼️

[ghostintheclawmachine]

As someone who collects a LOT of physical media but doesn’t make a lot of money, I want to share the rule that keeps my wallet from crying out in despair every time I enter a store. I don’t remember who I got this from, but thank you whoever you are because it has been a game-changer when it comes to building a large collection without breaking the bank.

The $1 per hour rule. It’s exactly what it says on the tin. If I’m purchasing physical media, I consider it good value if I can expect to get at least one hour of enjoyment for every dollar I spend on it.

I don’t remember what I spent on BG3, but I know it was a good deal because I’ve logged 600 hours in it. Hades II costs $30, and I was more than happy to pay that because I know I’ll play it for at least 30 hours. When I add books to my library, I almost exclusively buy used books that cost under $5 because 5 hours is a good average estimate for how long it takes me to finish a novel.

Will there be a treat you splurge on every now and then? Of course, but $1 per hour is a good standard to stick to if you want to responsibly build a dragon's hoard of physical media.

[bitchesgetriches]

This is a way better way of expressing it than I've seen before. It's mathy, it's clear, it's easy to remember.

Anyway we took way longer to say something similar in this one: Ask the Bitches: How Can I Absolve Myself of Financial Guilt Over My Pricey PS4? 

[deramin2]

Amazing Digital Circus Finale spoilers:

Observation from my partner:

The other characters by the end were in wacky circus circus adventures they had some control over. Meanwhile Jax was still in I Saw The TV Glow (2024) because his imprint was of someone he fundamentally couldn't be without losing it, but couldn't change into who he needed to be as an imprint. Abstracting to a pillow fort is much better than the basement, much like retiring the person you thought you had to be with care more than banishment.

[teaboot]

There is a reality not so far from our own in which Ratitouille (2007) was filmed as an avant-garde conceptual horror akin to Eraserhead (1977)

[teaboot]

There is a young American man in France. His mother has passed away. He has few friends, and works the thankless job of a bus boy in a prestigious restaurant, but dreams of becoming a chef despite having very little skill.

He returns one night to his humble apartment, which is known to have vermin, and comes across a rat, which he could easily kill or set loose on the street.

But the rat- it is special. It seems to speak to him. Promises him every little thing he desires- talent, fame, and fortune. Recognition and esteem like he has only ever seen from afar; fine company like the wealthy men and women whose scraps he picks at over the sink.

Put me on your head, the rat says. Put me on your head and think of nothing.

It is strange at first, yes. Strange to feel another take control of his life and live it better than he ever could. To see miraculous things created with his own two hands, to feel his feet move in graceful and fantastic ways with a confidence he has never had.

But the rat delivers as he had promised: he receives promotions, notoriety, admiration. He is noticed. Envied. Every day is a waking dream, rubbing elbows with beautiful women and handsome men and influential personalities who lavish him with praise. It is addictive, this lifestyle- never mind that he is only ever truly conscious of it as a passenger of in own brain.

It is when he has reached heights few can ever conceive, with all that the rat had ever promised- a beautiful wife in a beautiful house with all the world in his palm, in possession of all the wealth and success a man could ever want, that the rat says that it is leaving.

Leaving? The rat cannot leave. Everything he is, the rat has provided.

"I have delivered on our bargain", the rat says. "I have brought to you all that you have ever dreamed. What more could you desire? I must live my own life, now."

The man is furious. He is terrified. He destroys the rat, in all of the ways that a rat can be destroyed, until nothing is left of it but a fine smear of marinara sauce.

He returns to the restaurant the next day moving like the shell of something hollowed-out and brittle. He cooks well- his fingers remember the movements, his eyes recognize the patterns, his mouth knows without his asking what orders to speak and what platitudes make patrons smile pleasantly with their straight white teeth.

He retains the talents of the rat. The charm of the rat. All the worldly pleasures the rat had provided him.

Still, it seems, he is little more than a vessel for the talents of the rat.

But the rat is gone.

What remains of the man?

[teaboot]

You see my vision

[deramin2]

I'm always weirded out by normal movie theaters. This uncanny valley feeling that this is almost what a movie theater is but all the details are wrong.

There's no cheerful ticket clerk, just digital kiosks or signs to go to concessions for tickets. The ticket taker has the vibe of a bouncer.

All the snacks are boring corporate normie shit. There's no kombucha. Not even national brands. Low sugar options are plastic bottle black tea & water. No reusable drink mugs. The popcorn is bad and tastes like plastic. It's all more expensive than the movie for chemically treated cardboard & sugar.

The theaters are cavernous while the sound is too loud & poorly mixed.

There are no quirky local ads just creepy national ones or ones for the theater you're already in. The ads play for 40 fucking minutes after the movie showtime.

The movies advertized are all creepy garbage that makes me recoil. There's no queer films being advertized. Everything is uncritical nostalgia bait and misogyny. There aren't even any queer films, ones by by racialized filmmakers, ones about disability, and hardly even ones by women. Plus the women actors have all been made to look like dolls instead of people.

The kids movies being advertized all have really gross tones that seem hell bent on reinforcing the worst instincts of kids before they're helped to grow into thoughtful, introspective, caring beings who consider others. It's like these films actually want self-justified bullying and ignorance to happen??

Kids deserve so much better than that. I started comprehending how creepy and unpleasant these kinds of movies are when I was four and there's a bunch of adults laughing at it like it's normal?? People are really out here living like this?

It's like this thing that mimics your dear friend the movie theater & everyone keeps calling it a movie theater, but it's all wrong! That's an imposter!

There are two really good independent movie theaters in town & they have ruined me for trying to endure corporate theaters with their high quality.

[diamantefangs]

[xeansicemane]

This is kinda ominous ngl

[vexwerewolf]

Gotta compliment him on his reflexes. No hesitation. Just described exactly what he was seeing, regardless of what it was.

[wherefore-whinnies]

[VD: A weatherman is giving a report and pointing to a map, saying "feel like temperatures really take a tumble too, because after the storm-" before he is interrupted by the screen going black and then displaying a picture of some baby spinach. He says, "um," then immediately points to the screen and confidently announces, "this is baby spinach." /End VD]