Nerd Squad

Fanblog, about anything and everything. This is mostly a dumping ground for whatever has caught my fascination most recently - please do not expect consistency. Avril/Avi ~ she/her ~ female ~ bisexual ~ 24

[animentality]

[its-jesster]

The Fool: Beginnings, Freedom, Innocence

[prokopetz]

Something I see getting overlooked a lot when discussing queercoding in historical media is that in many cases it's not evidence that the writers secretly shipped it; it was aimed at straight dudes specifically to freak them out. Depicting a male villain as sexually interested in a male hero reads as horror to the cishet male audience. Like, Venom didn't spend years and years being blatantly characterised as Spider-Man's creepy stalker ex because Marvel's writers were all closeted yaoi fans. That was meant to be scary – which of course doesn't mean you can't read it differently, but don't give them credit they don't deserve!

[eclipxium]

so many "period" films come out but they always gotta have A-list celebrities and it's like. idk if you want to make something super atmospheric and immersive its hard for me to believe in what youre showing me when you have like. tom holland. im not gonna be like oh thats a guy from ancient greece im gonna be like Thats Tom Holland

[peredain]

[id: a 4 panel meme redraw. the panels are labeled "it's ok to ask for help", "you're not a burden", "murder is okay", and "your feelings matter". the panels feature drawings respectively of csevet aisava, cala and beshelar (together), csethiro ceredin, and maia drazhar]

i can't find the original post that inspired this but... i just had to draw it

[peredain]

redraw of this with maia...

[peredain]

danivada, a maza, a lord, and the first of the drazhada. lots of no-description characters today!

[dittography-direwolf]

Totally normal for a legitimate for-profit company to refuse to reclaim or stop running their products even after they're no longer being paid to do so. I'm sure it's very normal to just keep running your service for free when your contract's been terminated. Spending money to continue running cameras that supposedly no one is looking at is definitely not an indicator they are just run by the federal government to spy on everyone and only a wacko conspiracy theorist would think so.

[sexboobomb]

I want to learn more exclamations that aren’t strictly just religious stuff. “Jesus Christ” this, “oh my god” that, nah I want something fresh.

What are some of y’all’s favorite exclamations that aren’t about god?

[sexboobomb]

first submission and we're already off to a fantastic start. absolutely love this one thank you

[sexboobomb]

ok its time for the challenge round now we want nominations that arent about sex either actually

[mbrainspaz]

had a friend who used to make new ones up on the spot. The only one that stuck with me was 'good golly jelly beans'. If something catastrophic happens I go for 'that's not ideal.'

[foldingfittedsheets]

@chekhovs-tantrum

Absolutely not letting you leave these in the tags.

[cosmonautroger]

Jenny Bloomfield, Rear View Sunset

[targetedknowledge]

[anotherknifeinmyhands]

[TRANSCRIPT:

Mafia dude: BOSS! We found out who the mole is! It’s polyamorous Tony.

Mafia leader: that rat fuck! I want him dead! I want his wife dead! I want his wife dead! I want his wife dead! I want his wi-

END TRANSCRIPT]

[rbtlvr]

i love media that has a twist thats so well foreshadowed that once you know you can go back through it and literally EVERY SINGLE THING takes on a new meaning. its so awesome

[yujateaandpi]

Having a lot of feelings about Ryland “you don’t even have a dog” Grace to beloved Uncle Grace pipeline.

[chthonic-companion]

The rockettes. Made from modeling foam and aluminum foil.

[yujateaandpi]

YOU MAKE ROCKY BABIES??

YOU USE HUMAN HANDS MAKE ART CREATE ROCKY BABIES SO BEAUTIFUL???

AMAZE AMAZE AMAZE!!!

[dragon-in-a-fez]

so much of the "research" on "phones bad" is just statisticians congratulating themselves in a circle

[dragon-in-a-fez]

example: I am right now reading an article on "phubbing", which is apparently the term for ignoring people you're with in order to pay attention to your phone. we'll slide right past the claim that this is a normal word people use.

the authors have developed a "phubbing scale" and demonstrated that it has strong correlation with the existing "maladaptive technology use" scale. from this, they conclude the "phubbing scale" is a valid and useful metric.

the "maladaptive technology use" scale, if you go and read that paper, has shown strong correlation with the "problematic smartphone application use" construct.

have you caught the problem yet? nowhere has it been proven that scoring high on any of this is actually bad for you.

imagine someone told you "if the ground is wet it probably rained recently". then you talked to someone about rain and they said "if it rained recently there were probably clouds". yeah okay sounds reasonable. then all three of these people told you their research proves clouds, rain, and wet ground are all signs of demonic possession in giraffes. you'd be like hold up, I think you lost me somewhere

[ollievion]

I don’t need a study to know using my phone makes me feel like shit

[dragon-in-a-fez]

do different things on your phone then. I'm guessing you haven't written off paper as a technology just because tax forms make you want to cry

[weeknightbrutal-deactivated2026]

It's fair to be skeptical of research into problematic mobile phone usage on the basis that while some studies have shown it to be correlated with anxiety, insomnia, and depression, correlation is not causation and it is difficult to establish a causal relationship when studying this kind of problem. It's also fair to be skeptical of psych research in general due to the problems that are pervasive in the field.

But being not just skeptical but confident that you've debunked all the extant research on the basis that...the dumb statisticians never even bothered to check if this was actually bad for you LMFAO IDIOTS is just plain anti-intellectual though.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

> spend 5 years getting a PhD in youth and digital media

> express annoyance with a common failing of academic writing in your field

> get called anti-intellectual

[dragon-in-a-fez]

now reading a paper where the researcher:

asked students to volunteer to take a "screen-free challenge" where they didn't use electronic devices in class for a semester

recorded students' views on the challenge at the end of the course, and found that most of the students who participated had positive views while most of the students who didn't participate had negative views

completely ignored that this might just mean "people who thought something was a bad idea didn't do it", and instead concluded "the screen-free challenge leads to more positive views on the learning experience"

I'm getting whiplash from all the looking into the camera I am doing here

[allore]

Just to clarify, they only recorded the students’ views at the end of the study?? They didn’t ask the students what they expected at the beginning or ask why they participated??

That seems like such a basic step to mitigate your #3!

[dragon-in-a-fez]

the thing you have to understand is that "screens bad" research gets published so easily you can basically make every research mistake ever invented and be fine

[jadeandquartzes]

please watch private nightmares. it's so good.

[littlebosslady7]

via Alex's instastory.