occasionally subtle
Stranger Things
d e v o n
Misplaced Lens Cap
blake kathryn
No title available
we're not kids anymore.
Product Placement
Show & Tell
trying on a metaphor
gracie abrams
Noah Kahan
bliss lane
pixel skylines
2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year
ojovivo
shark vs the universe
noise dept.
Xuebing Du
Love Begins
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@maximinimaximus
me, staring down ao3: ok i’m desperate for fic about this pairing but like… how desperate
You’re not desperate until you’re staring at fanfiction.net
Your not desperate till you’re staring down live journal.
You’re not desperate until you’re staring at a blank document
GLORIOUS!
Seeing people I know and like using AI is making me understand the protagonists of those old time sci fi dystopia's.
"Oh I don't normally use AI, I just wanted it to plan my trip"
You lived on this planet for decades, you know what you like, there are hundreds of websites where you can type into any search engine " things to do in [area]" and have at least a hundred different options.
"Oh I only use it so I can figure out what to make during the week with what I have"
The most popular website as you type in "recipes" into google have sections where you click dinner- quick and easy and those usually rely on staples + 1 or 2 items. I found 30 recipes on chicken alone.
"I had a writing idea, so I typed a few sentences into Chat GPT and I was able to write 20 pages with it."
Youdidn'twriteit.Youdidn'twriteit.youdidn'twriteit.youdidn'twriteit.YOUDIDN'TWRITEIT.YOUDIDN'TWRITEIT.YOUDIDN'TWRITEIT.
upgrades??
well at least longer legs, and more fighty.
Even if I'm hoping they go back to their adorable little clank versions again latter.
I so want the Castle and the Train to be under the hats, controlling the clanks Ratatouille-style.
Sometimes I remember that Tarvek is his actually his middle name. & if you have forgotten, have fun with this reminder!
Tarvek's father was Aaronev VI, but he seems to have gone by "Wilhelm'"on a personal level. This makes sense, as it sounds as if "Aaronev" was a dynastic name. Given that Wilhelm was the sovereign(-ish) ruler of a city-state in central Europa, the form of address would be (His/Her) Serene Highness.
Additionally, Tarvek has a claim on the Lightning Crown of the Storm King, Andronicus Valois. The Valois were French, and those of royal blood (a prince(sse) du sang) were also accorded the style "Most Serene Highness". (Whether Tarvek being related through the female line disqualifies him is another matter - Salic Law is annoying.)
All that being said, I have long assumed that Tarvek's formal title (after Wilhelm's death) would be:
His Most Serene Highness, Aaronev VII Tarvek, Prince of Sturmhalten.
They semi-cancelled Timothee Chalamet for simply saying he found opera and ballet boring, by the way.
How does Hollywood work these days?
Being a bit of a naive, foolish young man and (wrongfully) calling opera and ballet irrelevant?
“You must apologise immediately! No Oscar for you.”
Acknowledging you stole terrified teenage girls from their bedrooms?
“Eh, you get a pass.”
Kidnapping teenage girls seems kind of worse than being stupid and uncultured, in the grand scheme of things.
”Well, Tim is dating a Kardashian sister.”
Embarrassing as it is, this other man admitted to war crimes.
The important part of the Vimes theory of monarchy is that it actually applies to every power structure, every organization
Is the person at the top good?
What about their underlings? They all have to be good too
It’s why Carrot never actually outs himself as the king, but it’s equally important to every other part of the watch series and Ankh Morpork itself
And Vetinari is its strongest adherent
See, Ankh Morpork only works the way it does because of the presence of four key players:
- Vetinari
- Vimes
- Carrot
- Lady Sybil Ramkin
(You could make an argument for Colon and Nobby too but I digress)
Without all four of these people, and their interpersonal reactions, the well ordered and prosperous city we see later on couldn’t exist
You can tell, because it very literally didn’t until Carrot arrived, and a dragon showed up to coincidentally introduce Vimes to Lady Sybil
Ankh Morpork was a mess and a hotbed of crime and fuckery, and you never saw many species other than humans; always one or two, but as thriving subcultures? As the influential business owners and captains of industry dwarves and trolls became?
No
Vetinari, the man on top of the pile, couldn’t finish shaping the city into a neat and well running machine without an additional stabilizing force; something outside the guilds to keep the law, and he did not have that in the alcoholic Vimes
Vimes could not reform first himself and then the watch without the combination of optimistic ideals and muscle to back them up (physical or social) that Carrot and Lady Sybil brought; without them, the watch was something to step over
Carrot couldn’t grow to understand the complexity of the city or the moral problems of control without a cynical, experienced Vimes to show him just why kings don’t solve everything
And Lady Sybil never had a reason to push for the betterment of her city until she directly met someone who wanted more, and would do anything to get it
If any one of them hadn’t stepped up and done their own thing, in their own way, none of it would have worked
By Men At Arms, the second watch book, Vimes is already seeing how many doors Lady Sybil opens for him. He can demand entry to the Assassin’s Guild because he owns the fucking land it’s built on
Lady Sybil knows Vetinari by his first name, and her little address book is the strongest tool in the arsenal of persuasion on the whole Disc
Sam Vimes persuades her the goblins need to be cared for, but Sybil Ramkin persuades the world
Sweet, uncynical Carrot arrives in Ankh Morpork believing you stop thieving by arresting the head of the thieves’ guild - and then fucking does it
It doesn’t work, because he doesn’t understand the mechanism yet, but it makes a point
Carrot is a narrative force that the flow of the Discworld curves around, just like Granny Weatherwax (and he was raised in the Ramtops by Lancre, they probably met)
He’s got the strength of ten because his heart is pure and his muscles thicc and finally, finally, Vimes has met someone who can actually back up all the ideals he’s left to rot in the bottom of a bottle
With Carrot in the watch, why can’t they arrest a dragon? Who’s going to stop them? He’s not just a brick shithouse, he’s a likeable brick shithouse and everyone wants to see what he’ll do next
Carrot? Carrot cares about people, about all people
He’s ready to speak for the people with no voices, and more importantly he’s ready to shut up and listen to those people about what they need
He’s the idealistic core of the modern watch
Lady Sybil pours in funding, respectability, power, and woe betide a single noble in the city who wants to talk down to her husband’s watch
She’s the backbone that gives those ideals staying power
Vimes has already seen what happens when they fail, and seen enough of human nature not to trust a damn thing, and knows how important it is to have true accountability
Compared to Vetinari, he’s almost as idealistic as Carrot, but he has the taste of reality
He’s the determination, the unshakeable core of militant decency who, if he can, will always stand
Vetinari likes to think that everyone is utterly awful all of them time, and often he’s proven right. But he knows the power of narrative, the power of a true Good Man, especially one with the right support
He knows what people need to thrive, and how to best use their potential
He’s the shepherd of it all, the city and watch combined, and any shepherd will tell you the difference a well trained sheepdog makes
Even if it’s a terrier
That’s why it never works that way in real life
“Organized crime” means something very different in the real world, and we need a lot more than just four good people to hold society together
It only takes one corrupt person and the result is cronyism and worse
Oh but I will! @ananimatedagreement this is for you
So the other four, they have all shaped the city with some degree of intentionality, defined by their priorities as people
But could you have the modern Ankh Morpork without Sergeant Colon and Corporal Nobbs?
Well, from the later books, it would rather seem you could. They don’t offer a lot to the watch books once the watch reaches a certain size (although I’m pretty sure Nobby is in the most books, the only challenger being Detritus?)
They’re usually there for a punchline, to underscore a particularly silly bit of thinking Pratchett wants to challenge, and to bluff and bluster through the plot guarding important buildings
But the entire plot of Jingo relied just as heavily on them as it did Carrot, Vimes, and Vetinari
And their reward for their work in Jingo is to set up the traffic department that starts us off meeting All Jolson in the Fifth Elephant, and that is mentioned pretty continuously after
Fred and Nobby are dinosaurs in the modern watch because, as Vetinari has witnessed firsthand, they do not strengthen the city by their ideals, their morality, or their agency
They are the living, moving elements of story, and in the Discworld that is an extremely powerful thing
Even Vimes notes that the combination of luck and gossip the two have access to is uncanny and cannot be replicated by young, well trained new recruits
Oh, they provide an important aspect of grounding, cynicism, and cheerful, harmless criminality that keeps the watch balanced against Carrot’s idealism and Sybil’s moral certitude
Their work training the early watch members is sure to have trickled down, especially in knowing where to mump a good beer and when to keep your ears open and your mouth full
Without their influence in the decided grey areas of life, Carrot might have easily stayed trapped in his black and white thinking, just taking Vimes’ cynicism on board to decide which side is which
But Nobby and Colon are first and foremost movers of the plot in the same way Rincewind was repeatedly selected for adventure, only slightly more willingly than our original unlucky wizzard
They bumble into just the wrong place at just the wrong moment, finding pots in cigars or suspiciously jumpy candle merchants, just happening to find the answer to mysteries that really couldn’t have been solved in time without them
They’re Sir Pterry’s expys, crucial to the successes that allowed our Big Four to shape Ankh Morpork and also the world, but not by filling any specific niche
They’re the duct tape of the world, utility players for when you just need a touch of the Lady to get the last clues into place, and she most certainly counts them amongst her pieces
Moist von Lipwig is a fun late addition that pretty much comes in around the time Colon and Nobby’s obvious influence is waning, though the odds that he’s Vetinari’s only snatched angel are slim to none
He’s just the fun, interesting, dramatic one with a touch of Plot that turns out to be much more useful than previously expected
Moist needed to come in once the groundwork had been done; he couldn’t have set a baseline, but in the growing Ankh Morpork where maybe you could carry a package to the post office without it being stolen?
In a world where people have already been learning to think differently than their parents did about trolls, dwarves, the undead, and most of all cops?
Moist can take the Ankh Morpork that Carrot, Sybil, Vimes, and Vetinari have built and run with it, taking it further and faster with the areas that they couldn’t touch alone
He’s physically younger than the lot of them for the reason; in the same way that Colon and Nobby are the old guard, Moist is the future
He becomes a key ally of Dorfl’s quest for golem independence, because while Dorfl gave them freedom, independence, and a revolution, Moist gives them jobs, money, and good publicity
The golems that were already working to become free get their first public facing jobs on the street working for the post office, because that job was every bit as dangerous as pumping poison
The goblins need almost exactly the opposite, taking to the clackstowers to be away from people to do their work, but you can immediately see the change in perception
The goblin is useful, the goblin is safe
Moist has something actually rather similar to Colon and Nobby - the heart of the people
Colon and Nobby read the heart, they’re its reflection in the street
Moist can rewrite it and change its mind
Well, Klaus now has indisputable proof that:
Tarvek DOESN'T share his late, unlamented father's allegiance to Lucrezia
Agatha is NOT a copy of the Other (though she was in the past)
Gil is NOT wasped
Lucrezia's monologuing is very helpful, actually. It'll help to clear the air before the gang pin Klaus down long enough to have a heart to heart.
> turns on my computer
> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default
> opens my email
> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default
> launches a software
> disables a new AI fea
Honestly, at this point, if you're still bitching about AI but not moving to open-source and nonprofit software/tech/services, you deserve it. Shut up or stop using it. Those of us who've put in the effort to switch to non-evil tech are sick of the purposeless whining.
I've been nicely letting everyone suggest open source on this post because it might genuinely be useful to someone but because you've decided to be a condescending little bastard- this might be a hard concept to grasp, but some of us actually have jobs. Some of those jobs also provide us with computers equipped with an OS we have zero say over, to use software we also have zero say over. Kindly get off your high horse and suck my dick.
As someone who has worked in IT for the past 17 years, I'd also like to say that there is often a higher barrier of entry for open-source software / operating systems when it comes to technical knowledge and ability, and those who can't jump that barrier still deserve to not have AI programs installed on their devices without their knowledge or consent. Someone who struggles with Windows is not going to be able to just hop into Linux, especially when they probably have other things going on in their lives and don't have the time to sit down and learn a brand new operating system. Someone who doesn't even recognize that there are different browsers, much less open-source ones that aren't Chromium forks, isn't going to be able to seek out one they can both a.) safely download, b.) install, and c.) use instead of the shortcut they know as The Internet.
And sure, you can dismiss these people as lazy, as stupid, as being elderly and so who cares. But from my 17 years of experience, I can tell you that technical instinct and ability varies widely across the entire adult spectrum. And I can also tell you that people have different strengths, and that just because someone isn't good with computers doesn't mean they aren't smart as hell.
And I can also say, again, that it really doesn't matter.
Companies like Microsoft and Google sneaking AI software into devices and software without the consent of those using the software or devices is wrong. It's invasive and raises major security concerns. People should not have to learn entirely new operating systems to escape this nonsense. It's an unreasonable expectation, and it fails to hold companies like Microsoft and Google accountable for their malicious behavior.
Just watched Adam Conover (of Adam Ruins Everything) make such a solid point that I think we should spread far and wide. Yes, having AI write your emails is lazy, sure, but people love being lazy. We need to really emphasize that sending AI emails (or using AI responses on social media, or publishing AI flyers, or or or) is rude.
It's rude. You're making someone take their time to read something you couldn't bother to write. You're telling them they were so unimportant you couldn't be bothered to actually take the time to say something yourself. And frankly, you're lying about it while you're at it.
It's rude.
It's not just rude to make me read something you didn't want to write. It is that you expect me to respond to your email written by Claude. You don't even want me to talk to you. You want me to talk to Claude so that you can make Claude respond for you. It is rude to expect me to talk to a chatbot when I wanted to talk to you.
It is also rude for you to receive correspondence or documents from me and have your chatbot of choice determine what to do with them without them ever being examined by a person, whether the chatbot also writes a response for you or not.
Remember when joining fandom as a younger person meant lurking for a bit and figuring out the vibe and etiquette instead of coming in on day one and calling people weirdos for liking weirdo shit in the weirdo factory.
Fucking hell.
This disrespects the characters, the story, the author, the entire point of the book, and every single trans Discworld fan.
Context, for my non Discworld followers: Monstrous Regiment is a book which plays with the trope of "girl dresses as not to join the army", in which the protagonist slowly realises she's not the only one; all the other new recruits of her squad are similarly disguising themselves. Shenanigans ensue, and at the end of the book it's revealed a lot of the military higher ups are actually women with a facade of maleness, putting on the part so they can do their duty.
Sergeant Jackrum is also one of the people who ran away as a girl to join the army, but unlike the others he doesn't wear a facade. It's entirely himself. He is canonically a trans man. He doesn't want to leave the military and return to civilian life, cos he doesn't want to re enter the closet and live as a woman, and his squad's like oi mate you're literally sergeant fuckin Jackrum, there ain't a kid in this kingdom who hasn't heard of you in all your decades of service. Return to the family you left behind, the kid you birthed doesn't need to know you're trans, you can just say you're the guy who fathered that kid. Go be a grandpa and be happy.
To misgender him in any way is spitting in the face of the author, fans, and story. It's upsetting.
I also noted when I listened to the most recent Monstrous Regiment audiobook that they used the misgendering version for the recording.
I just did some quick research, though, and it looks like they may have gone back and fixed it? I'll have to listen to the audiobook again to see if that is indeed the case.
EDIT: Nope, still the wrong pronouns. However, in my search I also came across something interesting: there's two versions up on Audible. One released 2/23/23, published by Transworld Digital and one released 9/25/23, published by Harper. Both exactly the same length, both with the same narrator/cast. The Harper edition is the one that I have. But I think, the Transworld Digital one is the correct one.
Simply because I had to use address trickery to purchase Nightwatch's audiobook back in 2023, and it, too, was published by Transworld Digital. I think I'm going to spend a little extra money soon and buy that version and see if it's correct.
EDIT 2: Yep. Transworld Digital does not misgender Jackrum, but you have to spoof the address to make Audible think you're living in the UK to buy it.
The FBI cut the phone lines during the 1977 disability rights sit-in. Then they turned off the hot water.
They locked the doors from the outside. One hundred and fifty people were trapped on the fourth floor. Half of them used wheelchairs. The government assumed they would leave.
Kitty Cone was thirty-three. She had muscular dystrophy. Her muscles were failing, but her logistics were flawless. She knew how to organize people.
The federal government had promised to sign regulations protecting disabled Americans from discrimination. The policy was known as Section 504. They printed the promise on paper. Then they stalled. Without a signature, it was just typography.
The protesters entered the regional Health, Education, and Welfare building in San Francisco on a Tuesday morning. They took the elevators to the director's office. They brought sleeping bags and catheters. They informed the staff they were not leaving until the law was signed.
By sunset, the police surrounded the exits. Kitty sat near the windows. She organized the floor plan. She assigned committees for security and sanitation. She kept her medication in a small cooler.
According to federal memorandums released decades later, the strategy to end the occupation relied on medical attrition. The building was not equipped for long-term habitation. The FBI calculated that a population requiring ventilators, specialized diets, and daily medical aides would voluntarily evacuate if the environment became sufficiently hostile. They instituted a blockade.
The blockade went into effect immediately. No food deliveries allowed. No medical supplies permitted through the lobby. Guards stood at the main doors checking identification.
Kitty's muscles deteriorated faster under the physical strain. She couldn't walk. When the phone lines went dead, the fourth floor lost contact with the press. The government waited for the quiet.
Kitty dropped to the floor. She realized the barricades were designed for standing adults. The police had blocked the hallways at waist height. They hadn't blocked the linoleum.
The floors were covered in cigarette ash and spilled coffee. She dragged her body through it. She crawled under the barricades to reach the restricted elevator shafts and unguarded offices.
She carried notes in her pockets. She found a single working payphone the FBI missed. She called the local news desks. She called the mayor's office.
She crawled back. When her arms failed, someone pulled her by her ankles. The Black Panthers heard the news reports. They crossed the police lines with hot meals. The FBI could not stop them without a riot.
They shut off the elevators, so she crawled.
The occupation lasted twenty-five days. It remains the longest non-violent occupation of a federal building in American history. On April 28, the Secretary of HEW signed the regulations without a single alteration.
The protesters left the building the next morning. They went back to their apartments. The Rehabilitation Act regulations laid the groundwork for every accessibility law that followed. The HEW building still stands on United Nations Plaza. The elevators run on a schedule. The doors are heavy glass.
Kitty Cone: the woman who crawled under the barricades.
Source: Kitty Cone's oral history, Bancroft Library.
Verified via: National Museum of American History.
(Some details summarized for brevity.)
why is this post completely broken in every way imaginable
Broken notes… deactivated account… removed image….
Finally, we have them all.
In addition: OP’s name is just… gone. No “[insert username]-deactivated[insert a bunch of numbers]” as is the standard for deactivated blogs.
Just the world “deactivated.” Look upon their post, ye mighty, and despair.
It’ll be almost impossible to find this post unless it wanders across your dash.
HERE WE ARE Y'ALL.
Gotta reblog this everytime I see it
"Right....got it..."
Girl Genius
by Phil Foglio; Kaja Foglio and Cheyenne Wright
Airship
It is an extremely satisfying page, especially in contrast to how this kind of 'compulsive sleaze' character is usually treated in fiction. You get them irritatingly often, usually played for a kind of comedy that tries to excuse their actions; they may get slapped or hammered for their antics, but it rarely has any lasting consequences. It is, implicitly, harmless.
Martellus is a great take on the formula, and this page in particular, because the story acknowledges that people like this are often socially/heirarchically powerful and therefore actual threats. At the same time when he pulls this shit he provokes serious violence in response, and then the focus shifts to immediate sympathy and concern for Agatha, while Martellus' actually learns the lesson. It's not an, 'oh you' moment to be brushed off with a bit of slapstick.
"Here's a dangerous man who disrespects your boundaries. Now watch as it backfires on him while everybody makes sure you're okay, and any time he complains he gets thumped and told it serves him right, until he actually has to change his ways, and people still won't trust him because they remember what he did."
Oh, what lovely catharsis.
Wednesday's page: Agatha's expression in the last panel concerned me.
My immediate thought was "When did we last actually SEE the time stop device? Who had it?" And so I dove into the archives to find out. (Woe is me; I spent an hour rereading some Girl Genius.) Turns out Gil was the last one holding it, on the page for 24th March 2025, where the Trio are discussing how to use it against the monster.
Not that it mattered, in the end, since the first panel on Friday was this:
BUT, I'm bringing this up because my little reread reminded me of something - we haven't seen Bohrlaikha "on screen" for over a year. (Specifically, this page from 22nd January 2025.)
So my question is: When is Chekhov's Clank going to slice her way back into the narrative?
