Ok, now that we’ve had a week to think about it, here’s another, more S1-ish fix it (as the last one was desperate and had issues…but let’s be honest, so did the “season”.)
$LAYYYTER

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YOU ARE THE REASON

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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
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@obliquitywrites
Ok, now that we’ve had a week to think about it, here’s another, more S1-ish fix it (as the last one was desperate and had issues…but let’s be honest, so did the “season”.)
I can't tell anyone what to like or not like, but as far as the season 3 "finale" being something Sir Terry would have written or endorsed -- a position I've actually seen expressed more than once -- I offer the last paragraphs of Good Omens, The Book.
If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boy and his dog and his friends. And a summer that never ends. And if you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot... no, imagine a sneaker, laces trailing, kicking a pebble; imagine a stick, to poke at interesting things, and throw for a dog that may or may not decide to retrieve it; imagine a tuneless whistle, pounding some luckless popular song into insensibility; imagine a figure, half angel, half devil, all human... Slouching hopefully towards Tadfield. ...for ever.
I submit humbly that that ending is not the voice of a writer (the interview in the illustrated tie-in edition specifies that "the kids mostly originated with Terry") who would ultimately be down with annihilation as the Only Solution To The Problems Of The World.
Bonus reminder: I'm betting this passage is Terry's ("vanload of hippies on a blotterful of Owsley's Old Original" has that ring to it). I ask you, does it describe a character who would only a few years later in story time -- after sixty centuries of ups and downs -- (1) wallow indefinitely in a drunken sulk, and then (2) tell God to finish erasing the world, including himself and his best friend, and start over?
Because, underneath it all, Crowley was an optimist. If there was one rock-hard certainty that had sustained him through the bad times -- he thought briefly of the fourteenth century -- then it was utter surety that he would come out on top; that the universe would look after him. Okay, so Hell was down on him. So the world was ending. So the Cold War was over and the Great War was starting for real. So the odds against him were higher than a vanload of hippies on a blotterful of Owsley's Old Original. There was still a chance.
That is all.
I've been spending a week telling myself that the ending of Good Omens S3 didn't affect me because the only canon boys for me are the ones in the book, but...
that's probably untrue because I also seem to have written a whole fanfic just to retcon it.
I don't consider this a fix-it fic, it's more of a I DARE YOU TO PROVE THIS DIDN'T ACTUALLY HAPPEN fic.
So here you go, spoilers under the cut:
“Satire is meant to ridicule power. If you are laughing at people who are hurting, it's not satire, it's bullying.”
Terry Pratchett
"Coca-Cola made an AI ad!"
"McDonald's releases AI Christmas commercial!!"
Don't care didn't ask plus here's a beautifully animated ad for a French supermarket that was made by actual artists
TO ANYONE WHO USES DISCORD- FOUR AI SCRAPING BOTS HAVE BEEN SECRETLY ADDED TO YOUR SERVERS WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT
Saw this going around and tested it myself, and I can confirm that this is unfortunately legit. Four hidden bots have been placed in any existing or newly created Discord server that are harvesting data, images, and most concerningly, one seems to be a face swap bot.
Due to them being invisible, banning them from your servers isn't possible without their ID's, which I've typed out for easy access.
1153984868804468756 1288638725869535283 1090660574196674713 1104973139257081909
Banning is done with the /ban command with each string pasted in one at a time. Four ban commands in total.
Image proof below and further information. This was in my PERSONAL server that has existed for +5 years. Discord is harvesting your shit without your consent, fight back.
Hey so in case you're like me and wondered: Can you ban members without them being in the server?
The answer is yes, you absolutely can! It'll look like this - the numbers you paste will be what's "banned"
However my sibling tried this in her servers and found that One of them was NOT a string of numbers, like so:
And for clarity it isn't a difference in user or device, this is what she got elsewhere:
So if you ban these numbers and the message shows the actual username? Pretty sure that means they were in there.
Very unpleasant way to check the veracity of this post but hopefully this is a helpful tip for anyone who was concerned - my sib would have No Reason to add these in herself and didn't have any clue it was in there.
Personally, I'd say even if you are still worried about misinfo/fearmongering/etc from this post, think of it this way - worst case scenario is you're banning a bot you'll never use or need. Not a person, a bot. There's no real damage done playing it safe and running the ban commands through, aside from maybe losing some time doing so.
Best of luck everyone.
Wishing I'd seen this more quickly - Had to take these things out of a lot of creative spaces just now. I'm not convinced that the username only shows up if they were in there, but I do think it's better safe than sorry, especially when peoples' art is involved.
@quidnunc-life @inkvoices @alistrawrites
@returnsnull7404 hey this is VERY much real I just took all of them off my discord
what the actual fuck
one of them was on my personal server and ALL OF THEM were on our writing server
When the script prompt generator gives you dinosaurs, cowboys, and Jumanji.
Big thanks to @obliquitywrites for the writing panel at Ineffable Con. I learned a lot, and was inspired to take a crack (har har) at script writing for the first time.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
𓆙 The Guardian Of My Hall 𓆃
✩ a poem for TIC 6 prompt from the writing workshop of @obliquitywrites ╰➤ the prompt: an AU based on The Picture of Dorian Gray, genre: Victorian Adventure (Yes, I completely ignored the fact it was supposed to be a script. I'm a demon, I don't obey rules. X)
There's an ethereal picture in a case, A halo of curls, an angel with grace. I wonder why it's hidden in the dark room, Covered in cobwebs like an image of gloom.
I often find myself sneaking down the staircase Just to catch a glimpse of that fascinating face. The stormy blue eyes give me chills, He looks so gorgeous in a cravat and frills.
My lank fingers itch to reach out and trace The lovely delicate lines of the white lace. He looks like a lord in all of his glory, I want to be a part of his Victorian story.
All I can do is to take him to my place, Hang him between the plants and the bookcase Right in the middle of the blank wall, Let him be the guardian of my hall.
⭒
AO3 link – kudos &/or comments are very welcome X
~Silvie⭒
Tl;dr how you can personally make Neil Gaiman lose money (and not be a jerk to others.)
I see a lot of folks upset that NG will financially benefit from residuals and other compensation surrounding his involvement in the adaptation of Sandman and Good Omens (and he will.) But the answer isn’t “rage at the fans who are so emotionally attached to their blorbos because they grieve differently, and then somehow NG will be financially punished.” That’s lower-class/middle-class thinking. NG is too rich and financially diversified to really be hurt by little boycott or a couple of show cancellations (though said cancellations can cause life-changing poverty to the little guys who signed contracts and turned down other opportunities before all of this came out. Boy does NG love women in poverty 🤮)
So if you want to substantially reduce the wealth of someone at NG’s financial level—you need to do it with professional services fees.
Details below the cut:
Utility for downloading fanfiction in bulk from the Archive of Our Own - nianeyna/ao3downloader
Well folks I've been sitting on this little script for ages and finally decided to just go ahead and publish it. What does it do?
you can enter any ao3 link - for example, to your bookmarks or an author's works page - and automatically download all the works and series that are linked from that page in the format of your choice. if there are multiple pages, the script will page through results for you until there are no more fics to download
you can check your fanfic-savin' folder for unfinished fics and automatically update them if there are new chapters. you can also check for new fics in series!
if you're a dinosaur who uses Pinboard, you can back up all the Pinboard bookmarks you have that link to ao3
don't worry about crashing ao3 with this! this baby takes forever to run, guaranteed. anyway ao3 won't let me download stuff too fast even if I wanted to so it's quite safe
I've been working on this for about two years and it's finally in a state where it does everything I want and isn't breaking every two seconds, so I thought it was time to share! I hope y'all get some use out of it.
note: this is a standalone desktop app that DOES NOT DO ANYTHING aside from automate clicking on buttons on the ao3 website. Everything this script does, can be done by hand using ao3's regular features. It is just a utility to facilitate personal backups for offline reading - there's no website or server, I have no access to or indeed interest in the fics other people download using this. No plagiarism is happening here, please don't come after me.
---
2024 update
This is now a fairly mature project that I've been maintaining for quite a while (3 years?? omg), so let's do an FAQ
Question 1: Wait, a python script? That's scary! I don't know anything about running python scripts!
Answer: You don't need to! When I published this program I knew that there would be people who would want to use it that did not know anything about running python scripts. To that end I have provided extremely detailed instructions (accessible at the link above), which have been fine-tuned over the last three years to make them as absolutely easy to follow as possible. Not only do you not need to know anything about python scripts to use this program, you don't even need to know anything about computers at all. Try it and see! ;)
Hungry for Good Omens 3 crumbs of information? Let’s see what I’ve found and speculate a bit about cast members, filming locations, and… trees! As always, please tag accordingly, share only with the fans consenting to know potential spoilers, and get yourself something to drink since it’s going to be a longer read.
You think I'd let you all down? I heard the call and I answered.
Yes, Con O'Neill is joining us this June at The New Uni-Con (though he probably will be wearing a shirt).
Con will be joining us for photo ops, panels and all the Meet & Greets. And for an added bonus, you can get 10% off weekend tickets with the code payday-yayday until noon tomorrow (UK time).
WRITING RESOURCES
Black Sails edition
Black Sails resources
Black Sails episodes transcripts
Black Sails wiki : terminologies
Black Sails wiki : locations
Black Sails wiki : characters
Black Sails wiki : objects
Black Sails wiki : events
Pirate flags in Black Sails
The Walrus reference images
Nautical terms
Age of Sail glossary
Nomad Sailing glossary
NauticEd glossary
Safety Harbor Boat Club glossary
Wikipedia glossary
Pirate & Seafaring Expressions
+ Term for easing up sails in a heavy storm + What is a Shanty
Historical context
Age of Sail
Republic of Pirates
History of the Bahamas
Pirates havens in the Golden Age of Piracy
Eleutheran Adventurers (first Bahamas colony)
Queen Anne's War (1702-1713)
List of wars involving Great Britain (18th century)
Act of Settlement 1701 (Great Britain's crown succession law)
Maps
Islands of the Bahamas & their pirate history
Pirates havens (Spanish Main & West Indies)
Island of New Providence (circa 1700-1750)
Spanish Main and West Indies (circa 1720)
Ships
Ship of the line
Man o' war
Sixth-rate (frigate like the Walrus)
Types of sailing vessels
Ship diagram (rigging & sails)
Ship diagram (rigging & hull)
Staysail
How to operate a cannon in the Age of Sail (video)
Sailing ship armament
The Constitution gun deck
Careening in the Age of Sail
The swinging bed of the sailor
Food on ships
Sailing
Sea routes calculator
Travel time in Black Sails
Crossing the Atlantic in the 18th century
Wind belts of the Atlantic Ocean
Money, jobs & economy
Pirate money : doubloons & pieces of eight
Spanish dollar (= pieces of eight)
Cost to outfit & run a pirate ship
Price of a ship
Wage and prices
Wrecking
Contraband trade in the Caribbean
Mercantilism (economic policy in the colonies)
South Sea Company
Plantations in the 18th century
Other
18th century names
POST WILL BE UPDATED AS I FIND NEW INFORMATION
Got very excited at the thrift store the other day because I found a green parrot plushie, which I have wanted for a while for Treasure Island/Black Sails reasons. 🦜💸 Took that baby HOME for $5!! I noticed it has a battery compartment at the bottom, but no clue as to what it does. I fumbled around with it, shaking it, squeezing it, trying to figure out how to make it go, but it just made garbled noises. I assumed its speakers were just broken and laughed at it... but then it repeated my laugh back to me. OFC IT PARROTS NOISES Anyways I took the next logical step.
[Video Description: A green parrot plush toy sits on a speaker next to a computer screen with a clip of Flint from Black Sails. The clips plays and Flint screams, "What the fuck did you think was going to happen?!" The parrot repeats the audio, but higher pitched, while doing a little dance. The person taking the video giggles and the parrots repeats that too.]
if you're subscribed to Microsoft word, you probably received an email recently saying they're upping their prices. Like, a lot. ($9.99/month instead of $6.99)
guess what though? you can log into your account, click Cancel Subscription, and get the option to continue your subscription at the same price WITHOUT their bullshit AI.
That's right, the new, higher price is actually a different subscription that includes AI that everyone is being opted into by force! What a cool and fun product that clearly everyone wants.
you can also choose to buy Word 2024 without AI for a single lump sum that will be yours in perpetuity, with no updates, for one computer.
Check your subscription if you need Word for work! Don't get duped into paying for something you might not even want
Also, reminder that Word 2007 still installs just fine on Windows 11 and can do damn near everything Word 2024 does.
Full Office 2007 installation media here.
With these added bonuses:
No frequent updates that prevent you from using the thing while it updates
No AI grammar/spell check (it's all local, baby!)
No nag screens about sharing everything with OneDrive
Runs screamingly fast on modern computers
Free to use, since Microsoft doesn't give a shit
The only downside I can recall is that working with PDF files is a bit frustrating and requires additional steps. But if all you need is DOC or DOCX it's great.
Important information on how to change your Facebook preferences to remove targeted ads, advertising sharing, and data mining. This way Facebook can’t make any money off you. Thank you John Oliver for your service!
How to Change Your Meta Settings | Make yourself less valuable to Meta. Brought to you by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Stede's instrument (long)
No, not like that; get your mind out of the gutter. Or don't, whatever, I'm not the boss of you, but actually I mean this:
Is it a harpsichord? A piano? Or what? I didn't know, so I determined to find out! Read on!
First to get the technical stuff out of the way: there have been many many types of stringed keyboard instruments through the ages. Some, like harpsichords and virginals (YEP that's the name), pluck the strings. Some, like clavichords and pianos, hit the strings with hammers. Some even play like violins, bowing the strings with revolving cylinders!
So which is it? Let's look at what we can see: this is a five-octave instrument, from F to F. It's squat, boxy, and rectangular, and completely open underneath. You can juuuuust make out in that first picture that there appear to be pedals at the center back. The keyboard cover folds back on hinges (we only ever see it open) and there appears to be no music rack. In the scene above where Wee John is playing it (love that for him), we do hear harpsichord sounds, but I'm going to ignore that because it's easy to say they added that in post.
I want to focus on the shape and the fact that it's open underneath. These qualities are very distinctive, and they gave me a lot of trouble, because they prove that it is in fact NONE of the instruments named above. NONE of those construction methods look like they would work here, for one huge reason:
Where the heck would the strings go?
A spinet piano is a rectangle, but the body goes down to the ground in order to accommodate vertically-mounted strings.
Image from EuroPianosNaples.com
Grand pianos and large harpsichords have their strings mounted horizontally, but that's what gives them their characteristic triangle shape. Bass strings are long--even if your keyboard is only five octaves!
Image from ColonialWilliamsburg.org
Smaller instruments like clavichords and virginals did have horizontal strings in a rectangular case. But you still needed a lot of room for them, so the keyboards were quite small and off to the side, as such:
Image from JC-Neupert.de
So yeah, none of those could be what Stede has. It just has no room for strings! Other non-string options included metal bars struck by hammers, like in a celesta:
Image from Yamaha.com
--but you can see those take up just as much, if not more, space.
Well, then. How about an organ? Now we're on to something. Pushing or pulling air across a bank of reeds can be done at practically any size, from a harmonica to an accordion to a pipe organ that fills a church. Harmoniums, historically very popular, can fit on tables or in your lap, and in the mid-1800s, Carhart and Needham invented a type of harmonium called a melodeon (or a "melodeon organ" to differentiate from the handheld version), which looked like this:
Image from HarpGallery.com
BINGO. This is OBVIOUSLY what Stede has in his quarters. (Minus the music rack.) And yeah, it wasn't invented yet but we all know that's no impediment in the OFMD-verse. And as a bonus, this explains how Wee John is "playing" it in the scene! If you don't pump the pedal, no air circulates and no sound is created. Which I imagine is a godsend on a tv set, really. No worrying about matching/cutting around the dialogue--all you have to do is throw a totally incongruous harpsichord sound over it in the edit. :)
So I consider this mystery solved! It's a melodeon! An ye wish, go ye forth and fanfic accordingly!