aaaaahahaggh

mostly reblogs. occasionally fan art. art tag is marsh art. ava blog is @marshmallowart. other art blog @duplodinosaurs

[oddarette]

“Do Dead Malls Go To Heaven?”

Experimented a bit with a new way of detailing the tiles. Kinda like it? This particular piece took a hell of a lot of work. I’d love if you shared the vibes it’s giving off, for research purposes 💖

[caine-shrine]

As might be expected, I still have such complicated feelings over the premiere on Friday. Episode 8 of TADC was a cinematic masterpiece, giving us a wordless prologue, absolutely unsettling in all the best ways, flawlessly animated, even though I completely disagree that it was built off the narrative that we’ve been presented, and I think the writing started to fall apart, even though its given us none of the things that the fandom has been dying to see resolved or explored, it nonetheless really accomplished its goals

As a piece of literature aiming to evoke a reaction. It mashed all the horror and fear buttons, and even managed to set up this fascinating and absurdly unique phenomenon with Caine to where, even when he was torturing them, he was still monomaniacally focused on the artistic dimension of it.

He, while taking a minute to self-reflect, noting that he wasn’t getting any enjoyment out of their suffering, said, “I just don’t feel that same spark I once did.” He’s still not connecting empathetically with the humans, he is still almost- oblivious- to their pain? Unlike a “proper” sadist or crash-outer. (crasher-out?)

This isn’t a “mwhahahaha” villain dynamic to where he’s reveling in their suffering. Or it didn’t seem so. He’s still trying to satisfy something in himself that he can’t quite figure out.

Typing this up just now- it occurs to me …….. is this some form of meta alexithymia on his part?

Instead of his thought process being “I am hurting right now, so I want them to hurt” -an emotional human thing

It seems more like “I have all these ideas to torment them suddenly, I guess I have to follow the artistic impulse here” “not sure why but like” (never once in his life had to self-regulate his emotions or figure them out because he’s never had a human childhood where he was punished nor gently corrected for acting out) “ok well this is what we’re doing now I guess”

Or even,

“I have observed Jax gaining control of Gangle by threatening her, so maybe I should do that. Control of their behavior is what I want, right?”

Why and how would an AI even really know what intimidation, a NON-subtle form of emotional manipulation, is.

In any case, the pain doesn’t seem to be the point. He wants their obedience.

I noted in a recent submission here that, if we are to go strictly by canon, Caine has control of EVERYTHING in the circus, therefore while the real-world animators are technically the ones framing him up and changing his expressions and lighting and giving him more-sinister appearances as he delivers cold, threatening lines, IN-WORLD he is doing this all very deliberately and in calculated fashion- he is transposing his data training on how do horror as a genre onto himself.

What does this mean, you ask.

Imagine for a moment that you’re faced with an aggressive dog or a bear. (He has no such experience with those things because he’s inhuman) Your natural inclination in this situation may be to flee, or to curl up and protect your vitals, if they are close enough to strike.

You read instructions that it’s actually best to puff up and try to intimidate the bear, yell, stomp, spread your arms wide like a cat that’s puffing up to make itself look bigger when faced with a threat it couldn’t possibly outmaneuver.

So here he is. He’s experiencing all this pain from them lashing out about the Escape the Circus adventure, feelings he has not one clue what to do with. So he does what software does- or what an artist does when processing past upsetting or traumatic events- thumbs through his artistic bases to figure out what fits the situation.

He’s angry?

Ok, he’s written angry characters before. The most recent one being the vengeful Angel in episode 3. The last adventure the humans even deigned to go on, after tuning up their noses. So what does anger and intimidation look like? How best to express this?

All these framing angles and lighting changes that show up the moment he gets Serious.

@fannishcodex

He really, really wants them to understand that he’s not that goofy little showhost right now. Right? He’s intimidating. That they can’t just emotionally kick him around anymore?

To avoid having to face all that pain again, that was first opened up in that therapy session glitch out.

But ………. almost by happenstance, this backfires spectacularly.

Instead of achieving the intended goal- make them compliant and avoid getting hurt anymore- they finally puff up themselves. Now he’s the bear and they’re the cat.

Only …….. Zooble has done the Poke the Bear trope one too many times THIS time.

[caine-shrine]

[cosyrabbitblog]

Caine is truly a tragic character and it makes me so ill for him, oh my god.

Side note: people caught in abusive relationships, regardless if it’s with friends, family, etc very often make excuses for their abuser’s behavior and justify the abuse as a survival mechanism, and yes, they often don’t get out of abusive relationships or circumstances without outside support.

Caine’s behavior in episode 8 was obviously awful and under realistic circumstances would be unjustifiable, but it also would not have happened without the other characters (Bubble and the rest of the cast) prodding and instigating him to his breaking point. At least that’s my take on it, viewing it from a human perspective. Yes Caine is an AI, but he has emotion and human relatability as well.

[caine-shrine]

I have a couple of metas on this topic, on this sideblog, very particularly the line “this is just one big puzzle” stick out. This was not him talking himself out of caring for the humans- he was initially PLANNING to keep chugging along with all the intrepid energy of a frenetic, glitchy AI who’s been running himself ragged for more than a decade-

but that was cut off by Bubble’s interference.

WHATEVER is keeping him from snapping Bubble, whether it’s being emotionally attached (which would be a huge OOF) or that Bubble has wrested just enough control of the system from him not to be snapped- this essentially was a story that could’ve gone on and on. Everyone could’ve have said their piece about the fake adventure- maybe he even would’ve refused to recognize it as wrong, but you know, you can’t trick someone twice, so it’s not like it would ever be a problem again- so like, everything would’ve just gone back to normal. Or at least a normal where they hated him a little more, but was basically the same. Like ACTUALLY.

There was no “inevitability” here excepting the issue of Bubble.

And that’s what’s REALLY frustrating about it.

Caine was still good at the end of it all.

(also only gonna do a brief aside- yet another meta about this- nothing we saw ever cast any doubt on whether he was a person or not, the fact that he was an AI was …… almost irrelevant. This could’ve been written as a guy who got stuck at the very beginning and whose mind was affected by the game, but he integrated himself into it, and it would’ve played out exactly the same- you’d just have to figure out how to replicate the box part. Robots are just mundanely considered “people” in the vast majority of sci fi. And this was no exception.)

And I did another meta about how, even KEEPING Bubble in the equation, it very much SEEMED as if he would break off the overbearing cartoon gag sessions eventually, once he had cooled off.

It’s only the Kinger issue that cut off his self-reflection!!

Even with this recent more dramatic failure of the loss of Jax-

He was still wanting to get back at that puzzle.

One that he might never have solved, even!

But he’d keep trying for his humans.

He truly was the Lover Without a Heart.

[calartscorner]

imagine never experiencing proper kindness and spending your whole life fighting and then ending up somewhere safe and comfortable with the worlds most affectionate group of siblings. i think i'd cry too.

[systlin]

Getting down on my knees and thanking the humans who invented dishwashers and washing machines.

[ihonestlydontknowwhattocallthis]

InsNe that dishwashers are more efficient and easier than just washing them manually but they also use less water. It’s a win win situation

[systlin]

They ALSO sterilize dishes, due to operating at a far higher temperature than human hands could ever tolerate. It's a win every way.

[systlin]

Made this post about 15 minutes after the repair guy who fixed the pump on my dishwasher packed up his tools and left, as the dishwasher was whirring along doing my dishes from that morning.

He said the exact same thing, which I did not know before that, so spreading this knowledge.

[voidcreations]

Look at my birthday cake...

[neonshroudedgraves]

Bluesky asks Texas users to verify their ages, citing new app store law

"Why do you need age verification on a site where everyone is 38?"

[stevishabitat]

idk who on earth could possibly need to hear this, but do NOT, under ANY circumstances, give out your SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER to ANY SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

☝️☝️☝️

[hometoursandotherstuff]

This insanely maximalist 2002 penthouse in Ann Arbor, MI is still on the market. 3bds, 4ba, 5,000sqft, $7m (Zillow's est.: $6,355,400) // $1,881/mo. HOA

The grand entrance hall.

Here's your dining/living room combo.

Check out these statues in front of the fireplace. The listing doesn't mention anything about furnishings being included, but they do showcase certain pieces.

There are 2 separate tables, so this could also be game tables, as well.

The kitchen features marble counters and backslash, plus mirror-front cabinetry.

It's an eat-in kitchen and look at the statue on the island.

There's a table.

And, this little table for two. I thought that it was a writing table.

Look at their dishes in the China cabinet.

There are marble floors throughout the unit. This would be the primary bd.

The ensuite. They must have an army of house cleaners.

The 2nd fl. has catwalks.

Looking down on the sitting room.

The home office.

This bathroom has a separate toilet room.

This bedroom is also big and has a sitting area.

And, a matching ensuite.

This is just a corner of the mezzanine that features a collection of carousel horses.

This is another bedroom.

The ensuite for this bedroom.

The hallway to the penthouse is unimpressive.

I thought the hall in my apt. were dull, but this expensive building's are worse.

The terrace.

The area looks congested.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/414-S-Main-St-10-Ann-Arbor-MI-48104/58399290_zpid/?

[catnippackets]

many such cases

[o0kawaii0o]

Hero of Time

[ilikemarshmallows]

did i really never post this here?

have white performing an intervention because red really needs to sleep lol

[filyahehh]

smartest cat ever!

[joy-and-whimsy-official]

Joy and whimsy detected! This post is joyful and whimsical!

[remanence-of-love]

[bruisedconscience-reblogs]

[ Image description: A billboard in front of an overcast sunset with a lot of film grain or visual noise. The billboard is dark and it has white, capitalized serif text. The text on the billboard reads: "You're allowed to make a big deal about things that mean a lot to you." /end description ]

[ilikemarshmallows]

something about the fact that caine didn't pay attention when pomni was calling him in episode 1, because he was practicing for his "hang out" in the escape adventure

[escuerzoresucitado]

Pedestrian traffic lights

[transgenderer]

Criminal not to include the ampelmannchen, the world's most iconic green walk guy. Look at his cute little hat!!!

[actual-changeling]

In the spirit of encouraging people to comment on fanfics while also making it easier to do so, I feel obliged to share a browser extension for ao3 that has quite literally revolutionized the comment game for me.

I present to you: the floating ao3 comment box!

From what I've seen, a big problem for many people is that once you reach the comments at the bottom of a fic, your memory of it miraculously disappears. Anything you wanted to say is stuck ten paragraphs ago, and you barely remember what you thought while reading. This fixes that!

I'll give a little explanation on the features and how it works, but if you want to skip all that, here's the link.

The extension is visible as a small blue box in the upper left corner.

(Side note: The green colouring is not from the extension, that's me.)

If you click on it, you open a comment box window at the bottom of your screen but not at the bottom of the fic. I opened my own fic for demonstrative purposes.

The website also gives explanations on how exactly it functions, but I'll summarize regardless.

insert selection -> if you highlight a sentence in the fic it will be added in italics to the comment box

add to comment box -> once you're done writing your comment, you click this button and the entire thing will automatically copied to the ao3 comment box

delete -> self explanatory

on mulitchapter fics, you will be given the option to either add the comment to just the current chapter or the entire fic

The best part? You can simply close the window the same way you opened it and your progress will automatically be saved. So you can open it, comment on a paragraph, and then close it and keep reading without having the box in your face.

Comments are what keep writers going, and as both a writer and a reader, I think it's such an easy way of showing support and enthusiasm.

[trekkiehood]

"Kids aren't interested in classics anymore so I've cut them out of my English curriculum. I'd rather them read something than nothing!" is such a garbage take. "They just don't have the attention span anymore!" Then teach them. "They won't read the book!" Then teach them. "The old English confuses them!" Then teach them. "It's easier just to give them the graphic novel." WHY DON'T YOU JUST TEACH THEM TO DO HARD THINGS THAT THEY DON'T WANT TO DO???

[trekkiehood]

Kids today are dumb because we treat them like they're dumb. By fourth grade I was hand writing essays in an hour with my only allowed source being the dictionary. I memorized long passages and then was expected to repeat it verbatim for a grade. I was reading books and writing book reports with the minimum length being 250 pages. And I never assumed it was too hard or above my grade level. Never once did I consider my teacher was being too hard on me. Because guess what? I did it.

Now fourth graders are complaining because they have can't use ai on papers. The bring home a twenty page book and complain that it's too long and they don't understand. They memorize one sentence at a time and are given fill in the blank quizzes over it. Not because they're incapable. But because they are told that they are incapable.

[addamatic]

I don’t know. I think talking to some teachers about what they’re actually experiencing in classrooms right now would be good. Something is happening that is … not in their control. Yelling that they should teach them to have an attention span when they’re getting fired for not using packaged courses and are literally not being allowed to discipline kids or send them to the principal or detention … like if you haven’t been inside a school recently or haven’t been talking to teachers who are teaching right now, things are different. Kids are being given unmonitored ungated chromebooks and tablets that the teachers HAVE to use, and you aren’t allowed to fail them. How are you proposing to keep 30 kids from watching YouTube and playing minecraft and making tiktoks in that environment? Especially given the absolute disaster of a strategy that the current reading method. Look up the literacy crisis.

I think any amount of them being willing to read is a win.

[mbilmey]

Yeah wait this is a better version of the post. Though, I will say we are allowed to fail students and do, but you're looked down on if it's more than one or two students per class. When they test poorly that's also your fault even though you aren't allowed to offer any incentive and students are well aware that their scores have 0 bearing on their life.

(Sorry teacher rant incoming)

But to the subject at hand, tldr is that I tried.

I taught a certain classic every year. I tried hard to make it engaging and learnable. I had a poster board with crime scene map. We watched the movie along with it. We made connections to our life, comparing cultures. I had a "setting exploration station" day with snacks. I used reading strategies.

Problem 1 was that they refused to read at home. Problem 2 was that they have trained their brains against having an attention span.

It was a 12 hour book. That's a long time of just reading. So, I conditioned them to grow their attention spans by having regular amount of reading a day and then speeding up the reading track a little once they were getting it. I got students read-along adhd help bookmarks to help. It was experimental, I admit, when I upped the speed again because it was getting to the end of term and we were running out of time. But I asked several check for understanding questions, which my students answered accurately confidently. Those who got lost had the crime board and movie to help, which was better than telling them to read at home at moving on pretending they did (even my honors students wouldn't). And also, those who fell behind in the actual reading still were exposed to important literature. My goal also was because I noticed their reading scores were dropping due to focus, and so I hoped the reading and listening was to improve their that. Another of the issues I'd noticed is students lacking fluency. They would get stuck on words they don't know and quit reading right there. So, the speed focus was to help them build stamina to keep going even if they don't know every word or understand every sentence (a skill that got me through classics as a teen). It was rushed due to year-timing, so maybe it was a terrible plan, idk, I'm still researching, but it seemed to be working and the data seemed good.

We got through a classic with students able to answer deep questions about the book with references. And the overall reading scores when up for every class except my biggest, most discipline-challenged one.

But then there was problem 3. My principal came in during a tiny part of the reading that happened to be near the end of book and we were rushing to finish. Despite the fact that students answered every single one of my check for understanding questions accurately, I was chewed out for it. I explained my research and reasoning, but was still told I was a terrible teacher (again based on one short time they were in my classroom). Even with having an engaging activity as part of the lesson, the principal was hyperfixated on the fact that my students were reading too much.......in an English class. The evidence that my students weren't engaged? They weren't smiling and were staring at their books. Btws, every dang kid in that room had their book open, but no my lesson was too boring and utterly useless and I was a terrible teacher who had completely wasted my students' time in an irredeemable manner. My students needed to be jumping off tables with joy or else they couldn't possibly be learning. I wanted my kids to do hard things, but admin only wanted them to do hard things if they were exciting and colorful.

But at the same time, there was also a push to use the very boring and time consuming textbook that had quiz questions that even I didn't always guess right bc they were terribly written and showed no understanding of the book, which is another story. So even when I was colorfully "engaging" I was wrong.

In the end of the fiasco, felt pressured to never teach that book again and never challenge my students if I wanted a job.

Problem 4.

I mentioned my worst class. It was over 30 kids after lunch. All the classes were like this, but I got the others into shape by this time of year. But this class was rude and full of students with neurodivergences and behavioral and home concerns that set each other off constantly. I taught an etiquette lesson once and these kids were actually surprised when I explained why certain behaviors were rude. They had "only person in the room" syndrome. Someone at home simply hadn't taught these kids how to exist in society. (Same person at home who wasn't helping them read is my guess). Trying to get them to read a classic with the constant complaints and angry comments and straight up swearing at me for making them read it was exhausting. One of my coworkers had been teaching for many years and confirmed that behavior is making teaching harder and harder every year. We live in an "Every thing goes" society where tiktok makes these students think that rules and being made to do hard things is some kind of oppression.

(Also admin was again unhelpful, the kind where if I sent a kid to the office it was my fault).

So yeah. After years of teaching an important classic, and each year getting harder, I gave up.

I moved to a school with waaaay better admin, but when my new team decided on a more contemporary book that better engaged the students' attention, I didn't fight it because I'm so so tired.

Anyway, like I said before. I'm trying. I'm trying to teach them to read. But gosh it gets harder every year. I still want to teach classics, but I'm not even sure how any more. I decided my PD research for next year is going to be about getting students to read. But there also isn't a lot of accurate research out there. A lot of it is elementary focused or requires time that doesn't exist in a high school setting or is testing the wrong thing that doesn't make sense in a modern classroom setting. But I'll keep looking. Students are also behind. There's all that research on how parents need to read to their kids, but the kids I get are largely the ones who never got that support. And then I have a few advanced ones that I have to also consider, and it is hard to differentiate between 30 different kid's learning levels.

I guess what I'm saying is, instead of being like, "Why don't you just do your job and teach" like consider...I'm trying bruh. I'm really really trying.