the thing about my thematic irritation with Suzanne’s little new add ons is it like… makes it so strange to return to how earth shatteringly good the universe original series actually was, how endlessly messy the characters and moral dilemmas were. I was talking with a friend about how just awful and gut wrenching the fact all the kids Katniss has to kill or be killed by are in so many ways exactly like here, like even the careers may be given certain advantages but they’re really just thrown into the same win or loose hell of it all. Kill or die. How interesting and meaty people like Cato really are
like hell I did not need president snows woobie backstory I DID if we were going to horrid moral places need a serious unpacking of the systematic terror of the careers and the idea of there being “tribute families” like you don’t get to starve! In exchange you will be marked from birth as a human sacrifice and trained to do nothing but kill other children. Cato and clove literally have the “you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me” backstory
like the narrative structure of how the careers very much are the villains of katniss’s personal survival and therefor the first book but not the story in general, it’s so fascinating and chewy
the careers as a concept are just so fascinatingly chewy too because a) amazing example of how “privilege” discourse works when YES there are some people with certain advantages over others - and in this case it is literally that the career districts are “better fed” so the bar is literally on the ground - but that doesn’t mean everyone isn’t strapped to the conveyor belt for the Death Machine or that they’re not fundamentally still Districts rather than the Capitol
B) it’s also very the ones that walk away from omelas in the sense that the career districts all chose to play the randomized child murder death in such a different way than the other districts because in the others EVERYONE’s children have this random risk of having to go get murdered on live tv whereas the career districts have decided to on purpose set some people’s children apart so the rest don’t have to live with the constant threat of being murdered. Here are the children who will do the murder and/or be murdered, including, very possibly, each other!!!!! And they’re lucky and special for it too! They’re (in theory) happy to be here! Yay them!
Yes, and also The Hunger Games was great because it made us look at systemic issues.
President Snow being a massive hypocrite who cares about the terrible murder of the girl he wants to bang then does the exact same thing to generation after generation of children should shock no one. We know this story. Most of us have lived this story.
How many of us haven't experienced a double standard, whether because we were the loved one who got preferential treatment or because we saw that person get a free pass on the same thing that fucked us over? How many of us haven't felt the terrible bolt of self-awareness after falling prey to bias ourselves? It's not the thought-provoking premise that makes you stay up at night The Hunger Games was.
Because The Hunger Games was thought-provoking!
The Hunger Games dropped us in an exaggeratedly fucked-up world that we rejected as viscerally as Katniss, and then it showed us the glitz. The parties.
The Capitol people who enjoy the show like it's all prime entertainment and treat it like the tributes should be honored to be there. Of course the Games are great fun! And what other opportunity do these people have to get to the Capitol? They would never be privileged enough to enjoy the riches and the glamour without that brutal system. Of course they are salivating at the opportunity to kill each other for it! Why, they volunteered for this. After all, what would they do in their backwards little places otherwise? Starve?
...And suddenly Murder Fantasy Land is uncomfortably familiar.
It kinda pisses me off now, because the idea of a book focusing on the careers had never occurred to me and now I can see the thematic continuation and how you could explore systemic issues with it and...
Give me the book about the tribute family where dad is an anxious wreck because marrying in meant that he and his parents don't face the threat of starvation anymore, but now he's looking at his wife smiling as she hands a knife to their firstborn and indulgently tells him that he may volunteer this year, "But only if you complete all your training to standard!" and it's too late for regrets.
Give me the book about the victors who get ridiculed for being traumatized. They won! They are living the dream! If they are anything other than deliriously happy about the life they get to live now they are pathetic and weak. This is what they fought and killed and bled for. They got the prize. Of course it's everything they ever wanted.
Give me the book about the girl with an eating disorder who throws up most of what she eats because no matter how much she trains, they will never pick her out of the pool of volunteer career tributes because she's fat.
(And also because that food was paid for with her little sister's blood)
(And also because she trained so desperately to get to the Games so she would get to make the same sacrifice that the Capitol representative will never pick her, because the Games are rigged in favour of District One and she's too good)
It's such a good concept?? So many angles to take! Like, what it must be like, to live in District Two but not be from a career family. Your children are (almost) guaranteed to live. But the whole family is living below the poverty line, and you can see the well-off (no you can't, the Capitol is way farther than that, but you don't actually know what well-off actually means) eat three square meals a day, and have nice, clean clothes that are never obviously mended. What a horrifying feeling it must be, to envy the kind of people who would sacrifice their children for their own comfort.
Fl reincarnates into the body of the main villain's sister but she knows he's a misunderstood villain who's always been in love with og!fl so she decides to set them up.
Unknown to her, og!ml(still ml), og!fl's childhood friend, is also a transmigrated person who wants no part in this love triangle fiasco and actively encourages her to pursue the villain.
Unfortunately both of their matchmaking plans clash and both think they’re trying to ruin the other's plans (fl thinks ml is in love with og!fl and ml thinks fl is a villainous sister trying to seperate the villain and og'fl).
I feel like this would evolve into og!fl and villain pulling a Uno Reverse Card and setting them up. Because with a (presumably) better family life thanks to his supportive sister the original villain wouldn't be so desperate for love he'd latch on to og!fl and with a childhood friend bizarrely convinced that she should date That Random Guy og!fl would probably be put off at the idea of jumping into a relationship Just Because, particularly with a guy that doesn't seem that into her either.
But they would be down to make a fun new friend they can fake date to get their friend/family off their back and use their "dates" as planning session to get those two to finally do something about their belligerent sexual tension
the Detective Conan movies are genuinely so buckwild because a) they are considered anime-only, so nothing substantial can actually change the status quo, b) there is such a large cast of required characters who must show up and play a small part in the plot, and c) everything is dictated by the Rule of Cool. so at this point that you have subplots such as "a rich girl rides around in a helicopter (carrying military grade weaponry) trying to stop her crush from confessing his love to someone else", and "this group of children arrive to take a quiz, ride in a hot air balloon, and yeet a skateboard at our protagonist not to be seen in the movie again", and also "there's an ancient treasure that is maybe also a weapon that could have won WWII for the Japanese" and then it all wraps up with a swordfight on top of a flying plane and a character confessing his love to his crush which she doesn't hear because of a flashbang dropped by the aforementioned rich girl's butler out of their helicopter.
and then the credits roll and nothing has actually changed for the characters except in the last two minutes it's revealed that a character who has been dead for decades both in and out of canon is actually alive
and then it's also the highest grossing film in Japan
I've only seen people insanely hyping up this movie, to the point I watched it even though I had already lost interest in the Conan movies (because they don't advance the plot and are generally action flicks with almost to no mystery that are then never mentioned again), just because the Cousin Reveal implied there might be... character relationships? I wasn't looking for anything as ambitious as a character arc, but perhaps a smidgeon of emotional depth? You know, the logical route to take when you can't advance plot??
And instead there was just... "let's throw all the characters together and somehow manage not to make them interact" Like. Why was Momiji in this movie. Why were the Shounen Tantei Dan in this movie. Why was Okita in this movie. Hell, for that matter, why was Heiji in this movie??
The plot centered Kid! The final "reveal" (in the fucking stinger, by the time it came around I had genuinely forgotten that was the whole reason I even watched it in the first place) was about his family! But nope. He was barely in the movie. Why give your characters emotional depth when you can have Heiji trying and failing to confess to Kazuha for the 5425235th time?
And the worst part is that KID carried the emotional core of the film. While everybody else in the main cast treated everything like another day at work (save for the romantic struggles, but those were even more soulless than Gosho's usual hamfisted comphet, and that's saying something) he was flying at the seams at getting a glimpse of a connection to his father, seeing Nakamori get shot and having Heiji see his face. Why the hell weren't we following him???
The thing about the swords and the weapon was... Look, I'll say it. It was boring. It could have maybe been entertaining in a Detective Conan "this doesn't make sense but I'm having fun" way, but we didn't get a proper mystery, there was barely any deducing and everybody involved in the case was an asshole. The most sympathetic people in that whole mess were the culprit and his son! And even then only the son could (very arguably) be called not an asshole. I don't care about any of this people! Why are we watching them ruin their own lives and everybody else around them instead of getting Shinichi and KID interactions? Or at least some backstory about Toichi so we can flesh out his connection to Kaito? Perhaps even take away some of the mystique from his legend in preparation for the reveal that he's alive?
Anyway, sorry about the rant, I was just very, very disappointed in this movie. I don't know if I'd go far enough to call it the worst Conan movie I've ever seen (Eleventh Striker is another yawner, but then again at least it doesn't squeeze in every other damn character and their dog) but it was definetely the one that crushed my expectations the most.
genuinely wild to me when I go to someone's house and we watch TV or listen to music or something and there are ads. I haven't seen an ad in my home since 2005. what do you mean you haven't set up multiple layers of digital infrastructure to banish corporate messaging to oblivion before it manifests? listen, this is important. this is the 21st century version of carving sigils on the wall to deny entry to demons or wearing bells to ward off the Unseelie. come on give me your router admin password and I'll show you how to cast a protective spell of Get Thee Tae Fuck, Capital
Okay, here we go! I'm gonna try and put this in order from least to most technical knowledge required. I'm not responsible if you accidentally create SkyNet etc.
Level 1: browser extensions
This one is basically impossible to get wrong, or at least to get wrong badly enough that it causes any problems.
Get Firefox, or a Firefox fork like Waterfox. If you use a fork, make sure it's one that will let you use add-ons. On a PC, pretty much any Firefox fork will take add-ons, but on mobile devices, many don't. Iceraven is one that does.
Get the add-ons uBlock Origin, YouTube Sponsorblock (if you use YouTube), and FBCleaner (if you use Facebook).
uBlock Origin comes with a built-in list of filters to block ads and trackers, but you can add your own filters to block any specific element of a website you don't like. You know those goddamn floating frames on fandom.com sites that block half the screen? Now you can zap 'em.
Sponsorblock uses crowdsourced timestamps to automatically skip sponsor spots and self-promotion in YouTube videos. Never listen to anyone say "hit like and subscribe" or "Raid Shadow Legends" again.
FBCleaner hides all content from your feed except posts from people, groups, and pages you've actually chosen to follow.
Level 2: leaving enshittified services
The software that's become standard over the years in a lot of fields is steadily selling more of your data, showing you more ads, and pushing you to buy more expensive subscriptions. Time to tell them to get fucked.
Dump Adobe apps for Affinity or Krita. Drop Microsoft for LibreOffice. Change your default search engine from Google to DuckDuckGo or Qwant. Use OpenStreetMaps instead of Google or Apple Maps.
Level 3: network-level DNS fuckery
DNS, or Domain Name Service, is the thing that tells your computer where www.website.com is actually located. By hacking your network's DNS you can force it to tell your devices that ad-hosting domains don't exist at all. Some of the steps on this one can get pretty technical, but because you're doing all the difficult stuff on a dedicated device, you can't really fuck up anything that seriously.
Get yourself a Raspberry Pi (a cheap older one like a model 3B will work just fine for this purpose), and follow a guide like this one to get it set up running AdGuard Home. AdGuard, like uBlock, has built-in filter lists, but you can also add your own if there are specific domains you want to block.
Once it's up and running, you'll need to change the DNS settings on your router to point to your AdGuard service. This is different for every router but will always start with logging into the admin panel with a password printed on a little sticker somewhere on the router.
With that done, every time a device on your home network looks for ads.website.com, it'll get back a message that says "sorry, can't find it", so it won't be able to load any ads.
Level 4: Android-specific DNS fuckery
Because AdGuard runs on your home network, it can't block ads on your phone when you're away from home - and what's worse, your phone will sometimes remember the addresses it got when you were out and about, and ads will get past your AdGuard wall even when you're home.
To avoid this, get AdAway for DNS-based ad-blocking directly on your phone. The easy, but less seamless, way of using AdAway is the "local VPN mode", which doesn't require you to do any mucking about with your phone's operating system.
Level 5: automated media piracy
The best way to stop seeing ads on all your streaming services is to stop using streaming services. There are loads of ways to do this, but the best ones involve setting up what's called an "arr stack" (Google that for setup guides) along with nzbget and a usenet account. Most of the time you'll want to set this stuff up on a dedicated device - an old laptop gathering dust in the closet is a great option, or you can grab something used from a charity shop or a local electronics recycler.
The great thing about usenet is that unlike with torrents, you don't have to do any sharing from your computer, so you're in a lot less legal jeopardy - legally speaking, distributing pirated content is waaayyy more serious than accessing it. I pay about £3 a month for a secure, high-bandwidth usenet service.
Once you start getting your own collection of media on your own computer, use the open-source media library manager Jellyfin to browse and play things from basically any device.
Oh, and don't be a dick. Pirate all you want from big corporations, but please pay independent small-time creators for their work.
Level 6: fucking with Android
Android phones are a lot more locked-down than they used to be, but depending on the device you own you can still do a lot of messing around under the hood. Note that if you get something wrong while doing this, there is always the possibility that it will turn your device into a paperweight.
Before you buy a device, check where it sits on the Bootloader Unlock Wall of Shame. Once you've bought it, check the xda-developer forums for guides on how to unlock it and "root" it (gain admin access) with Magisk.
Once Magisk is installed, you can add modules to do all sorts of cool stuff, including using AdAway in "root mode" which makes it basically invisible.
You can also install YouTube ReVanced, which will do all the ad- and sponsor blocking stuff we took care of in your Windows browser a few paragraphs ago. Be careful: there are a lot of fake sites out there pretending they're associated with the ReVanced project which might be injecting malware into their downloads. This Reddit post has the official instructions and links.
Also, try out the modded version of Facebook from APKmoddone, which will block most of the same shit as the FBcleaner add-on from earlier. There's always a possibility that modified apps like this are doing something dodgy, but I've never had any issues with this one personally.
Level 7: fucking with Windows
This one is scary because it can seriously fuck up your shit if something goes wrong, but some really cool people have actually made it very simple to strip all the bloat, ads, and spyware out of Windows. The tool I use is ReviOS. Start reading at https://www.revi.cc/docs. Basically, you'll need to download a tool called AME Wizard and the ReviOS "playbook" that tells AME what to do. Read the documentation before you do any of this.
Level 8: switching to Linux
I'm not going to pretend this is an option for everyone. Half the software I use on a weekly basis isn't available on Linux. But if you can switch? Do it. These days, Ubuntu - one of the most popular flavours of Linux - is built with people switching from Windows in mind, and a lot of things will be pretty intuitive. It also has great documentation and a huge community you can go to for help if you're confused about stuff.
And that, friends, is a comprehensive approach to banishing the demons of capitalism from your home!
Anyway, I've been losing my mind over yonaga_san's amazing Akai Shuuichi x Furuya Rei fic "Your hand on my throat" and I was going to scream about it on @floofiestboy's DMs, but tumblr has decided to be A Functioning Website so I am left with no way to interact with their tumblr but posting things on my own blog and hoping they see their @s like an animal.
(Yes, I watch Detective Conan. No, I am not ashamed of this. Anyone who still follows me should know I am a fan of wasted-potential trash like that the most. The fic is genuinely amazing and I highly recommend it)
So. The AU. It's a time travel, "we don't really know how the WPS characters got here but professor Agasa thinks the place they appeared is in front of whoever has the strongest emotional connection to them" sort of deal.
This fails to thrill Masumi, the person they appeared in front of.
(It later turns out that Masumi is the second-strongest emotional connection, she just happened to be in the same general direction as Shuuichi, but he was too far from Tokyo and therefore the handwavy source of the time travel. It also turns out only Rei's emotional connections count towards this because he's the only one still alive at this moment in time <- this second part is discovered pretty quickly)
The WPS quintet is at first most concerned with their impending deaths (except for apparentely Zero, which none of them would have bet on. No shade on their bestie's skills! But he's pretty reckless. Matsuda in particular is bitter that apparentely his recklessness will bite him in the ass and mister "picks fights like other people pick flowers" is fine) and Masumi helps them figure out how to avoid them with minimal grumbling. Considering Shinichi was involved in three out of four cases they manage to get strategies in place to avoid Matsuda, Hagiwara and Date's deaths pretty quickly, after which she comments that she knows how Hiro died AND how to avoid it. This plus her being provably Rei's strongest emotional connection leads to a fair amount of teasing about craddle robbing.
Masumi laughs at this. It's not amused.
She lambasts Rei for being a cold-blooded murderer that killed her brother and tells them all that he's a pathetic, lonely and cold asshole whose strongest emotional connection is with someone who wants him to rot in prison for the rest of his life.
The lads, of course, protest that Rei would never. Masumi points at Hiro. With two fingers extended, like she's shaping a gun.
"My brother was a FBI agent. He went undercover in the same criminal organization as Morofushi and Furuya. When Morofushi's cover was blown, he didn't know who my brother was or that he was trying to help him. My brother had to choose between his cover and Morofushi's life. It was a tragedy."
Masumi then turns to look at Rei, still smilingly furious and with her finger gun pointed at Hiro.
"You knew exactly who my brother was. You were still undercover, and my brother was not. He managed to escape his cover being blown and stay hidden. He cooperated with you. He trusted you. And you lured him out of hiding and put a bullet in his head."
In the ringing silence that follows, Matsuda tries to ask Zero to tell them that he wouldn't do that. Zero fails to reassure anybody, particularly himself.
It endears him not at all to Masumi.
At this point Shinichi, who had been studiously scrutinizing the diagrams of the bombs that would have killed Hagiwara and Matsuda in order to avoid all possible eye contact, suggests going to see Adult Rei, just in case he knows something else about the WPS guys' deaths. Or something. Away. From Masumi.
(When Hagiwara haltingly suggests he might have an explanation about Masumi's brother she insists on tagging along, so that's an excruciatingly awkward walk for everyone)
They find Rei on The River, but not obviously having a mental breakdown, which tricks everyone into thinking he's fine.
(Shinichi might have noticed something, but he physically couldn't stand the pressure anymore and fled in the middle of their walk because he "remembered" that Takagi-keiji totally told him he could copy the files of old cases he worked on and that would be so helpful to have for Matsuda, Hagiwara and Date, right? So glad we all agree! <- he ran away too fast for anybody to object)
Masumi greets Rei in a very inflammatory way, blaming him for her brother's death. Rei takes this very calmly and denies none of it, which makes the lads loudly protest. Rei simply asks Masumi what she wants. She scoff-laughs that she wants nothing from him.
At which point Rei excuses himself because he needs to go to the hospital. The fact that he has only acknowledged Masumi until this point hits them all like a ton of bricks and she has to be like "You are not hallucinating"
"You got five people to dress up like me and my old police academy yearmates? I supposse it's an admirable effort, but it seems unnecessarily complicated, don't you think?"
Masumi is very wrong-footed about Rei being so calm about what he thinks is either proof of mental disturbance in his part or an elaborate murder attempt in hers. Certain Suspicious about Adult Rei's mental state are raised among the WPS quintet.
Meanwhile, as soon as Shinichi escaped The Most Stressful Class Reunion he picked up his phone and started live-blogging the whole thing to Shuukichi. His logic is that he's only 75% sure Shuukichi is as chill about his brother's murder as he appears, but if nothing else he might manage to calm Masumi down.
So Shuukichi arrives at The River to find his sister upset and confused, his brother-in-law(?) quietly but obviously breaking down and five very unnerved recent police academy graduates who frankly deserve none of this. He goes through the stages of grief in one fell swoop, because:
Nobody told Masumi about The Family Curse.
The guy Shuuichi was amazingly obviously crushing on apparentely loved him back (Good job, nii-san /genuine)
The guy Shuuichi was amazingly obviously crushing on doesn't know about The Family Curse either (Good job, nii-san /sarcastic)
Masumi and brother-in-law(?) are seven seconds to breakdown.
Shuukichi has no way to contact his definitely-alive brother because the asshole has either not bothered to buy another phone or not bothered to call/message anybody in the family.
(Also, the fabric of space-time might be in jeopardy, but that's a minor concern at this point)
"Ah. I see nobody told you about Nii-san's condition"
"Condition?" Masumi asks, too rattled by so many shocks that she can't even be surprised by Shuukichi's random appearence. Or maybe she has already deduced what Shinichi did. Shuukichi has faith in her abilities, but he wouldn't judge her if it's the former.
"We left Britain a few months before you were born" Shuukichi starts, trying to frantically calculate how much to tell and how so that he doesn't make things worse, give too much information to the five wild cards that are going back to the past at some point in the next week at best estimate or accidentally cross the line from misleading to straight-up lying to Masumi -her punches hurt. It's a good thing his outward presentation is always a little bit frazzled, and it's on purpose for occasions such as this. "A week before we got on the plane for Japan we went to visit grandpa. It was Nii-san and I's first time seeing him, and I honestly don't think Mom wanted us to go, but we couldn't bring him with us so we went" <- This visit to grandpa is my one true deviation from floof's AU, mostly there in the name of traumatizing Shuukichi (sorry, Shuukichi)
"Grandfather had spent decades in bed and at first I wasn't sure he was even aware that we were there. However, just when Mom finished giving him our goodbyes he managed to get enough energy together to speak. He begged us to kill him."
Shuukichi smiles at the striken expressions that greet this pronouncement. So far, so good.
"Nii-san didn't say anything, but he started smoking almost immediately afterwards. I really thought you knew this Masumi, I'm sorry. Euthanasia is as illegal in Japan as it is in Britain and the US" A statement that has almost no bearing on what they are actually talking about, but only Masumi should know that. Shuukichi is going to have to apologize and give her the actual explanation later. As well as find a way to contact Shuuichi and make him give his beau The Explanation, because otherwise he really might kill himself, and if that happens Shuuichi will absolutely do his best to pull a Romeo and Juliet. It would be unnecessarily upsetting for everyone.
"Are you saying- But Shuu-nii wouldn't..."
Shuukichi smiles. "You were right earlier. Nii-san would have had no reason to leave the house without his disguise, much less towards a place full of criminals. The circumstances were obviously planned." he turns towards Rei, who has been coiling tighter and tighter in an honestly worrying way. "Only, it wasn't your plan, was it?"
"What does that matter?!" Rei finally explodes. "I put the idea in his head! I should have known what he was planning! It was obvious! I still shot!"
The WPS quintet is horrified. Shuukichi feels the weirdly parental urge to pat their heads.
"Nii-san knew his whole life that he probably had a future of suffering waiting for him. Dying this way, quick and easy, contributing to ending the Organization he had dedicated his life to fighting... It was probably the ending he felt most satisfied with" Shuukichi speaks with audible bitterness, though only he himself is aware that what he's actually bitter about is that it didn't work and Shuukichi will eventually have to choose between letting his brother suffer or trying to find a way to kill him.
"He was perfectly healthy!" Rei wails, because of course he'd be inconveniently perceptive on top of everything else. Nii-san sure knows how to pick them. "He could have had years of living a good life if it wasn't for me"
(His young version is seriously considering trying to convince Hiro to quit the force and become farmers. And perhaps a vow of celibacy, considering the Vibes he's getting from his older self)
Anyway, they manage to get Rei to air out all that poison that's been festering inside of him ("He killed you, Hiro. He killed you, and I could never forgive him. Or myself") and get him kinda-stable. The next few days are spent with everybody trying to Process (TM), while Shuukichi apparentely goes back to his matches like normal (he's frantically trying to send out coded messages using his most important matches so Shuuichi will Get His Ass Here). Rei actually asks Masumi a couple of times if she wants him dead and her responses range from "Unlike you, I am not a murderer" (very angry) to "What would the point of that be? Haven't there already been too many deaths?" (very sad) to "Nii-san wanted you to live. So it's your responsibility to live" (most of the way to acceptance)
And then Shuuichi finally appears. He got Shuukichi's message. Masumi, who had asked for space as she processed things and has actually spent most of this time with Adult Rei and the WPS lads because she's actually been very worried about them all, has not.
(She isn't thrilled to find out about The Family Curse this way, but Shuukichi manages to avoid a punch)
Rei straight-up faints. It's a combination of lack of sleep, stress, dehydration and the mother of all shocks, but it's thankfully not heart failure. The hospital said so.
Young Rei is aghast at this tragic romance drama his life was apparentely destined to become. His friends desperately want to make fun of him for it, but they are mostly just thankful at least one hideously tragic and avoidable death was... avoided. All of them, by unspoken agreement, refuse to think too hard on how.
The rest of the week until they go back to their own time is spent being quietly aghast at how besotted Zero's koibito (write it like enemy, pronounce it like lover) is. Hiro literally begs them on his hands and knees to just forget about him and be happy, for the love of everything that's holy, you can finally be together, just be happy and forgive yourselves, he's begging here.
okay hi i just went thru the steps to make this my default search engine and you can do it too (and its much better than having products be the first thing everywhere)
so basically, first, go to that link: https://udm14.com <- this is important. keep it in one tab.
then, search something in the search engine. it can just be something random. 'abc' for example. the link in the search bar should be something like this: https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=abc <- you should keep this link, but replace the 'abc' part with '%s'. it should look like this: https://www.google.com/search?udm=14&q=%s
(you honestly can just go straight to the settings step having copied the links in bold from here if you like)
OKAY now you have the important links. don't be put off by the 'google' in the link since its just a google extension, its not a full-on other browser. its fine.
now go into chrome -> settings -> search engine -> manage search engines and site search. in site search, press 'add' and place those details i mentioned earlier: the name, the first link, and then the second.
when that's done, you'll notice the link under 'site search'. press the three dots next to it and press 'set as default' :)
and just in case my explanation was a little tricky, here is a photo tutorial <3
and there you have it!! hope this made sense yall <333
Here is exactly what the "&udm=14" add-on does. It switches the results of your search over automatically to the 'Web' tab, sparing you Google's generative AI results in the initial 'All' tab.
A fun fact! There's other udms too, like "&udm=2" for 'Images', "&udm=12" for 'News', "&udm=18" for 'Forums', and so on. It's not really more convenient, but as of this date, typing these in make me feel like a real nerdy guy heeheehe
Do you know anything i can donate to for palestine that's not the gofundmes because the idea of having to choose who needs my money more is just. scary to me they all need it 3: maybe there's a thing that splits/distributes money evenly???? idk but help would be appreciated
Gazafunds actually deals with this anxiety and makes a decision for you if you want. Their home page has a spotlighted fundraiser and the code consider things like how close the gfm is to finishing, when the most recent donation is, etc. So it's randomized to help as many people as possible.
There's also @helpgazachildren which if you donate, you can help multiple people at once since it's a whole mutual aid fund, or at least close to it. Hussam distributes money to people who need it when he's asked.
To any Europeans reading, please consider sharing this fundraiser with your friends and family.
It's for @bilal-salah0, a 22 year old Palestinian refugee who, while trying to raise funds for his family in Gaza, is facing the possibility of an imminent deportation from Germany. It might happen as early as next week, which is why his fundraiser is so urgent.
I of course encourage everyone who can to share and donate, but I especially think us Europeans, with the current and terrifying uptick in anti-immigration rhetoric and violence, have an extra responsibility of helping Bilal.
For more information on Bilal's current situation, please read this post from one of his friends.
So, in SVSSS, Shen Yuan makes a few really interesting assumptions when he sits down to speak properly to Airplane Bro for the first time. The first assumption is that Shang Qinghua is a transmigrator. Two of the other assumptions he makes, connected to this first one, arguably contradict each other slightly in fascinating ways. (I will put the full relevant scene fragment / quotation from these chapters under the cut at the end.)
Shen Yuan's assumption that Shang Qinghua is a transmigrator appears to be built first and foremost on the fact that he heard SQH say, "WTF!" during the conference. Shen Yuan also reveals: "At the time, Shen Qingqiu hadn’t heard him particularly clearly, so he hadn’t paid it any mind. But afterward, the more he’d thought about it, the more suspicious he’d grown." (Ch5)
So, Shen Yuan belatedly decides that he hadn't misheard this one accidental slip during a chaotic attack that damaged him both physically and emotionally. He definitely heard that correctly! He's confident enough that he invites Shang Qinghua over to his house and then immediately and calmly accuses his fellow peak lord of treason. Shen Yuan very casually says: "How was it inadequate? You clearly overexerted yourself. You even found demonic creatures like the ghost-head spiders, Nu Yuan Chan, and bone eagles—none of which ever enter the Human Realm of their own volition. How could Shixiong rebuke you for inadequacy?" (Ch4)
Shang Qinghua sputters, jumps to his feet, turns red, blusters with offense, sneers, brushes Shen Yuan's hand away.
"“Why wouldn’t I? I have a clear conscience. Why would I fear a false accusation?” With a sneer, Shang Qinghua brushed away his hand.
“Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky?” asked Shen Qingqiu." (Ch4)
When Shen Yuan says Airplane Bro's ID, Shang Qinghua pauses and says, “You… How do you know my ID?” (Ch4) And the scene immediately switches from a confrontation between two peak lords regarding treason to a transmigration reveal.
But hey, let's go back to that first version of the scene! What if Shang Qinghua hadn't been a transmigrator? Shen Yuan must have mentally reviewed what happened at the conference and all of their previous encounters, but he still could have been wrong in this assumption. He might have misheard and misinterpreted.
In which case, throwing out Airplane's ID wouldn't have stopped the scene and Shen Yuan would now have to deal with a belligerent traitor who 1) isn't admitting to what he did and/or 2) may turn violent in self-defense. Shen Yuan even admits: "He’d only wanted to study Shang Qinghua’s reaction to this name to determine if he had also read Proud Immortal Demon Way—but given his reaction…he wasn’t just a reader, was he?!" (Ch4) Shen Yuan has no proof of Shang Qinghua's crimes and everyone thinks he's out of his mind with grief, probably searching for someone to blame, though Yue Qingyuan might indulgently open an investigation anyway and might actually end up finding something.
If this had been Original Shang Qinghua, this confrontation could have broken out into a fight. It was reckless. But I'm not reading it as "recklessly stupid" so much as "recklessly aggressive".
If Shen Yuan had been focused purely on revealing a fellow transmigrator, he could have opened this conversation with something like, "Have you ever heard of the writer 'Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky'?" And whatever answer he received then would have told him if he was dealing with a fellow transmigrator, who could be disarmed by this revelation, or if he was dealing with Original Shang Qinghua, who would just be confused and might try to kill him later for knowing too much. Once he had that information in hand, Shen Yuan could go from there.
But no, Shen Yuan opens with Shang Qinghua's crimes first. Which makes me suspect that he is angry with the man for causing the disaster at the Immortal Alliance Conference. If Shang Qinghua hadn't let in the demons, Shen Yuan wouldn't have been forced to push Luo Binghe into the Endless Abyss. I personally don't think that Shen Yuan would have minded here if this confrontation had turned violent. He's perfectly capable of dealing out violence. He's a pretty good fighter, even with the Without A Cure issue, and with his confidence here... I'm going to assume that Shen Yuan thinks he could take Shang Qinghua in a fight. He may be right.
He's probably also confident that Yue Qingyuan would side with him if he had to kill a fellow peak lord (a traitor) in self-defense. I agree with this assessment. I think Shen Qingqiu's reputation would take a hard hit, as would Cang Qiong, but Shang Qinghua is a traitor here. If they could find any proof whatsoever, then the other peak lords would probably begrudgingly go along with this story.
To be clear, I don't think that Shen Yuan is entering into this conversation thinking about killing Shang Qinghua. I think he would attempt capture first. But he IS entering into this conversation resolved to either 1) unmask Shang Qinghua as a transmigrator or 2) unmask Shang Qinghua as a traitor and accomplice to murder. If Shen Yuan is wrong, he cannot take this accusation back. He is either finding a "friend from his hometown" or he is making a very serious enemy here. If Original Shang Qinghua manages to pretend he's innocent and shake off these accusations, clearing any trial Cang Qiong holds for him, then he's presumably going to be secretly gunning for Shen Qingqiu from then on.
I do think Shen Yuan starts this confrontation off being angry - angry at Shang Qinghua, angry at himself, angry at the situation - underneath his calm. I think he's ready for a fight if necessary. I kind of think he might want one on some level. I think he's feeling a little reckless in his fresh grief and loneliness.
Because the other option is that Shen Yuan entered this conversation unprepared for the possibility of being wrong about there being another transmigrator and getting a really bad reaction from Original Shang Qinghua, and I'd really like to think that he's smarter than that. Shen Yuan can be pretty clever. It is totally possible that he is just not thinking beyond his assumption here, though. Shen Yuan can also get caught up in his own ideas and emotions sometimes.
I think this would make a fun Alternate Canon / Canon Divergence AU: "Shen Yuan is completely wrong about Shang Qinghua being a transmigrator and has just revealed to Original Shang Qinghua that he knows what the man did. Uh oh."
ANYWAY! That's just the first assumption that Shen Yuan makes: Shang Qinghua is another transmigrator. Connected to this first assumption are a couple other assumptions about this other transmigrator that are both also really interesting.
The second assumption is this: "As the one who’d masterminded the event (or the logistics of it), Shang Qinghua was subject to the irresistible pressure of the plot[.]" (Ch5) Shen Yuan assumes that the plot forced Airplane Bro to smuggle these beasts into the Immortal Alliance Conference, much like he himself was forced to push Luo Binghe into the Endless Abyss.
I would have to go check the Airplane extras to be sure, but we don't know that this is true. I do remember from the Airplane extras that the System would have been cool with Airplane Bro killing Mobei-Jun, who is arguably an incredibly important character to many PIDW plotlines. I've often interpreted this as Airplane Bro having far more freedom to make his own decisions. We the audience do know that the System forced Airplane Bro to stay with Cang Qiong Mountain Sect and to become the head disciple of An Ding Peak. We don't know for sure that the System put pressure on Shang Qinghua to make the invasion of the Immortal Alliance Conference happen. It's implied when Shang Qinghua gets the return home feature from the System that he doesn't see it often.
Shen Yuan doesn't know these things. Shen Yuan is assuming here their transmigration experiences are very similar. Shen Yuan doesn't really directly ask.
Personally, I do think that the System was involved somehow, even if Airplane Bro's consequences for failure or disobedience weren't nearly so dreadful. With a second transmigrator and their desires in the mix, and the beginning of the real plot with Luo Binghe, it's possible that System put more restrictions on Airplane Bro and locked him onto this path (freeing him after the original outline with the romance deviation is complete). I personally headcanon that Airplane Bro could have wriggled out of the Immortal Alliance Conference without any serious punishment from the System, because I think it's funny if Shen Yuan's most hated event could have suddenly not happened if only Airplane Bro had decided not to do it, but I think that that Airplane Bro didn't try to buck the System because 1) he was generally okay with keeping the plot on track and 2) he was unwilling to challenge Mobei-Jun by resisting any orders on this front. He chose to save Mobei-Jun, now he has to live with that.
Shen Yuan doesn't seriously take Airplane Bro to task for all of the deaths and injuries at the Immortal Alliance Conference. I think a large part of this is that Shen Yuan not-unreasonably assumes Airplane Bro was forced into doing it by the System and Shen Yuan simply doesn't really interrogate Airplane Bro thoroughly to be sure. I think he unconsciously wants this assumption to be true in part because that means there's someone who really understands what he was forced to do to Luo Binghe, he's invested in the Endless Abyss being necessary, but also because now he isn't alone generally and has someone to help him fake his death. Shen Yuan is first and foremost out to save his own skin at this point in the story.
To be clear, I think it's very reasonable for Shen Yuan to assume another transmigrator is also being strictly forced to follow the plot. He doesn't know Shang Qinghua is the author at first. He doesn't know just how different their transmigration experiences have been. The assumption is valid. It's just not actually certain.
The third assumption by Shen Yuan here is what really stood out to me during my reread. It's what made me start thinking more seriously about this confrontation and its setup. Shen Yuan thinks to himself: "As the one who’d masterminded the event (or the logistics of it), Shang Qinghua was subject to the irresistible pressure of the plot—yet he hadn’t released the Black Moon Rhinoceros-Python that should have starred in numerous scenes. This was suspicious in itself, but if you considered the possibility that he had failed to do this intentionally in order to hinder the development of the plot—to sever the tragedy of Luo Binghe’s fall into the Endless Abyss at its roots—it made sense." (Ch5)
In the original PIDW, a Black Moon Rhinoceros-Python appeared at the Immortal Alliance Conference, and opened the Endless Abyss with its spatial-rift-creating scream. Mobei-Jun does it in SVSSS, appearing hundreds of chapters early. (I wrote a long meta piece on how I think Luo Binghe's seal works, and why it had to be something or someone with space-manipulation powers breaking it. It's under the "luo binghe demonic seal" tag.)
Shen Yuan noticed that the Black Moon Rhinoceros-Python failed to appear and also decided that Shang Qinghua was genuinely surprised by Mobei-Jun's appearance instead. Shen Yuan assumes here that the Black Moon Rhinoceros-Python's absence was an intentional act on the Shang Qinghua transmigrator's part in order to stop Luo Binghe's fall into the Endless Abyss. This is a WILD assumption. It's possible that Shang Qinghua just failed to get one. It's possible that there was one somewhere else in Jue Di Gorge, but they simply didn't run into the creature.
It's also possible that Shen Yuan is right. Maybe Airplane Bro decided to quietly remove the Black Moon Rhinoceros-Python from the conference, single-handedly preventing 1) Luo Binghe's demonic seal from being broken and 2) the Endless Abyss from being opened. Maybe he thought the System would overlook this until it was too late? But something about this interference made Mobei-Jun suspicious and he showed up to investigate instead.
Or Shang Qinghua organized Mobei-Jun's appearance and interference somehow, because MBJ breaks the demonic seal cleanly in SVSSS, whereas PIDW Binghe needed the Xin Mo sword to completely remove the seal only partially broken by the Black Moon Rhinoceros-Python. We really don't know what Shang Qinghua was doing. Or what Mobei-Jun was doing.
I think this assumption is fascinating, because Airplane Bro being able to omit the BMRP kind of contradicts the assumption that he was forced by the System to ruin the conference. Not completely, of course. Shen Yuan may be assuming that Shang Qinghua's System-given quest spoke of beasts generally, rather than the BMRP specifically, and Shang Qinghua was trying to work futilely around the System's wording in order to prevent Luo Binghe's fall. It's possible that the System did not tell Shang Qinghua directly to ensure the opening of the Endless Abyss. The System may have only demanded that he assist in the demonic invasion generally.
But these assumptions still bump up against each other in interesting ways, to me, even if they don't directly contradict each other. Shen Yuan thinks that pushing Luo Binghe into the Endless Abyss was demanded by the plot, but he also thinks Shang Qinghua's meddling with the BMRP could have stopped it somehow? Or that Shang Qinghua simply tried to stop it by removing a necesssary plot device and the System compensated with Mobei-Jun, because Luo Binghe's fall is an inevitable event? Shen Yuan thinks Shang Qinghua was forced to release beasts on the conference, causing a great deal of death and injury, but he also assumes that Shang Qinghua was able to pick the beasts on some level. Maybe he's assuming that Mobei-Jun picked the beasts and Shang Qinghua simply got rid of the BMRP somehow?
It makes way more sense that Mobei-Jun both collected the beasts and released them into the conference, using his spatial manipulation powers, and Shang Qinghua only helped with intelligence and keys to the security. Shen Yuan comments on how dangerous these creatures are. I really don't think that Shang Qinghua collected them personally or put them into Jue Di Gorge personally; I think that would have been pretty dangerous and that lots of people on An Ding Peak and beyond would have noticed during event planning and setup. And if Mobei-Jun did most of the work (and entered the conference properly himself in SVSSS, rather than just disappearing without being seen in PIDW, I assume), then I don't really see how Shang Qinghua could have done much of anything to stop a BMRP from getting in. Maybe he asked Mobei-Jun to avoid BMRPs, please, and that made Mobei-Jun suspicious?
My assumption here is honestly that Shen Yuan isn't thinking too hard about what Shang Qinghua is personally responsible for, because he just doesn't want to think about it. If this is Original Shang Qinghua, Shen Yuan can bring him to justice. If this is a fellow transmigrator, then Shen Yuan has an accomplice / friend. He's trying to move forward so he doesn't have to look back.
I don't think his assumption that Airplane Bro got rid of the BMRP on purpose is out of nowhere. I think it's pretty reasonable to assume another transmigrator, if there is one, might have been seeking to change the plot for the better somehow and the System didn't allow it. I just think this particular assumption is a little wild, because Shen Yuan doesn't really confirm it. (I haven't thoroughly reread the whole scene. I could be wrong about this.) Shen Yuan and Airplane Bro go on to have a different transmigrator argument, distracted by the revelation that this is the author and not another reader, and Shen Yuan doesn't try to confirm his theories. He doesn't ask Shang Qinghua if his wild (if plausible) assumption is actually correct. Like Shen Yuan doesn't really want to know for certain whether or not they could have changed things.
But, anyway, wow, that assumption is an interesting and funny Canon Divergence AU plot! What if Airplane Bro quietly removed the Black Moon Rhinoceros-Python from his traitorous invasion, and Mobei-Jun didn't show up instead, so Luo Binghe's seal simply didn't break and the Endless Abyss never opened? Would the System still demand that Shen Qingqiu push Luo Binghe into an Endless Abyss that isn't here? Would the System glitch? Would the System simply have to recalculate because it wasn't specific about what it needed Shang Qinghua to make happen here? Would the System just let Shen Yuan and Luo Binghe go back to Cang Qiong again?
~
RELEVANT QUOTATION (end of "Chapter 4: Conference" into the very beginning of "Chapter 5: Bai Lu"):
Shang Qinghua said nothing but sighed along with him. “Ah, Luo-shizhi was a heroic youth, such a pity. Those demons brought such disaster upon us; they are truly hateful. The whole world mourns with us. Shen-shixiong, my condolences.”
“If Shang-shidi truly felt it was a pity, this tragedy would not have occurred,” Shen Qingqiu said faintly.
At this, Shang Qinghua stiffened. After a moment, he seamlessly smoothed things over with a smile. “What does Shen-shixiong mean by that? Is he rebuking our An Ding Peak for inadequate administration? If so, Shidi should truly apologize.”
Shen Qingqiu refilled his teacup. “How was it inadequate? You clearly overexerted yourself. You even found demonic creatures like the ghost-head spiders, Nu Yuan Chan, and bone eagles—none of which ever enter the Human Realm of their own volition. How could Shixiong rebuke you for inadequacy?”
“Peak Lord Shen—to make such outrageous accusations!” Shang Qinghua shot to his feet, his face rapidly changing colors.
Shen Qingqiu put his hand on Shang Qinghua’s shoulder. “Why is Shang-shidi getting so excited?” he asked solemnly. “Let’s sit down and talk. Let me say something. Do you dare respond?”
“Why wouldn’t I? I have a clear conscience. Why would I fear a false accusation?” With a sneer, Shang Qinghua brushed away his hand.
“Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky?” asked Shen Qingqiu.
In that instant, it was like a bolt of lightning from the heavens had struck Shang Qinghua in the head, rendering him unable to speak.
After a long time, he managed to stammer out, “You… How do you know my ID?”
In that moment, it was like Shen Qingqiu had also been burnt to a crisp by the aforementioned bolt of lightning.
He’d only wanted to study Shang Qinghua’s reaction to this name to determine if he had also read Proud Immortal Demon Way—but given his reaction…he wasn’t just a reader, was he?!
After three long seconds, Shen Qingqiu jumped on him.
“It’s you?! How could I not know your ID after reading your entire fucking novel?! If you hadn’t let something slip when Mobei-Jun appeared, I really never would have known what hole you’d really crawled out of, ‘Great Master’!”
Volume 1, Chapter 4: Conference
The moment Shang Qinghua had seen Mobei-Jun suddenly appear, he had accidentally let out a “WTF!”
At the time, Shen Qingqiu hadn’t heard him particularly clearly, so he hadn’t paid it any mind. But afterward, the more he’d thought about it, the more suspicious he’d grown.
As the one who’d masterminded the event (or the logistics of it), Shang Qinghua was subject to the irresistible pressure of the plot—yet he hadn’t released the Black Moon Rhinoceros-Python that should have starred in numerous scenes. This was suspicious in itself, but if you considered the possibility that he had failed to do this intentionally in order to hinder the development of the plot—to sever the tragedy of Luo Binghe’s fall into the Endless Abyss at its roots—it made sense.
My favorite part about this is that the whole Immortal Alliance Conference plot doesn't improve either Mobei Jun or Shang Qinghua's situations in any way.
I've always thought that in SVSSS Mobei Jun appeared because he was weirded out that Shang Qinghua was invested in anything, especially something as useless for them as an attack on a bunch of disciples who have all of their teachers within shouting distance and actively monitoring the situation.
The plan makes zero sense from start to finish. What exactly were they trying to accomplish? Getting ALL of the cultivation sects to unite against them? Because that's how you get all the cultivation sects to unite against a common enemy. If they ever found out who arranged things they would have been in Some Deep Shit.
Now, in PIDW Mobei Jun is angry, holds a deep grudge against cultivators and both fears and resents his relationship with Shang Qinghua, who is an opportunistic parasite forever demanding concessions in return for his service and has already risen as far as he can rise in his sect while Mobei Jun is still a mere prince, so he's liable to try and get rid of his unsavory "employer" any minute now. It makes sense for those two to dare each other to ever-more self-destructive schemes in an attempt to sever their fucked-up relationship while causing as much collateral damage as possible. They are bitter enough that neither would be particularly picky over whether the collateral damage were demons or cultivators.
That would also explain why PIDW!Mobei Jun never appeared himself: a single whiff of his presence and OG!Shang Qinghua would have LOUDLY "discovered" him.
But SVSSS Mobei Jun has none of this context. To him, Shang Qinghua is a bizarrely devoted servant who never wants anything for himself. Why, him even demonstrating interest in anything aside from Mobei Jun's comfort is strange! Which is very nice for Mobei's ego, but has made the courting phase of the romance novel they are totally living out in his mind stall frustratingly. And lo! Finally something Shang Qinghua is demonstrating interest in! A... plan to attack the Immortal Alliance Conference.
W H Y
I like to imagine Mobei Jun only even brought up the idea as a "LOL, look what a pathetic attempt to get me killed from one of my rivals. Who would actually use this idea? That's how you get killed by the sects. Let's laugh together at this idiot who clearly thinks everybody is just as gullible as him" And now Shang Qinghua is planning this with even more bizarre fervor than usual. And looks weirdly invested in it. His only stipulation / request is that no Black Moon Rhinoceros Pythons are used. Mobei Jun wasn't planning to. Mobei Jun doesn't really know how to break it to Shang Qinghua that he wasn't planning to do any of that, actually.
One of those going-over-the-fandom's-head memes about Shuro Dungeonmeshi being hopelessly infatuated with Falin and loathing Laios even though they have basically identical personalities where the direct takeaway is "lol, Shuro is dumb" and the part going over the reader's head is "people decide whether your autistic traits are charming quirks or red flags based on whether they find you fuckable".
The takeaway I got from that situation was actually that Shuro never knew Falin. Both Touden siblings learned to mask early and well, but Laios liked Shuro and thus inflicted his true personality on him. Marcille wasn't surprised that Falin was enthusiastic about the monster food thing, but Shuro seemed to think of Falin as the party's quiet, graceful healer who always soothed tempers when her brother put his foot in his mouth. Which says to me she thought of him as "coworker" and "brother's friend" and ignored him otherwise. And that would still be a treatment that he'd project all sort of nonsense into, considering unlike her brother Falin doesn't hate people and is generally affectionate. If she hugged Senshi despite having only met him once I don't doubt she did the same to her party, which was composed of Chilchuck (who would look like a child to Shuro), two women (look me in the eye and tell me that Shuro knows what lesbians are) and her brother.
Something something the thing Shuro hates most about Laios is a flaw they share something something.
Hey there's this thing going around and I know I'm helping it spread but also I like it when I get asks so it can't be the worst thing. Do not feel like you have to do this. Reject authority.
List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals and followers
Me like me followers
The fucking slenderverse all of a sudden LoL
Making comics
The immaculate amount of fandom things I'm in
Aaaaaaaannnnnnddddddddddd
My friends
Wa..
(it's a little trend thing @corvidaecorvidae @itzr4v3n @the-living-embodiment-of-moss @withereddd-rxsie @breadsticktoast @froggieboi39 @fernstarsblog @bear-man74 @sillyandoofy @atlasss22)
This one is arguably very personal because I have no idea if other aros feel the same – but I've seen too many stories about a character being rejected where the person doing the rejecting is (accidentally or not) implied to be some sort of "bad guy" or "the one who has it easier", so I guess I had an itch to show my side.
Aromantic people and alloromantic people have such different views on what "true love" is that it's not about one or the other being "in the wrong" – it's just one big compatibility issue. All I can say is – as an aromantic, being confessed to romantically IS what leaves me heartbroken, for such reasons. Hopefully there will be a broader understanding of this in the future.
ARC Review: The Chosen One's Best Friend by Lynette Bacon Nguyen
4.5/5 ⭐: A trope -twisting story about boundaries, friendship, and respect
I've reviewed several books by Lynette now and she's continuing to write great fantasy protagonists that scrutinize the standards of their genre. Definitely check out this book if you want some side -character love and urban fantasy shenanigans! You can read the full review on my blog.
I know you have all probably seen the esims for gaza posts circulating. Some of you have probably looked at them and thought maybe you should help out, but have weighed up the daunting process of signing up for something you're unfamiliar with vs. the gut-wrenching scale of the things people are going through on the ground right now, and you've put it off or questioned whether it will make enough of a difference vs. some other future kind of activism you could put that $6+ towards. I'm not calling you out or scolding you, it is natural to feel conflicted and ambivalent about the multiple calls for aid that you are seeing on social media.
but consider this: what would you do if you suddenly had to leave your home? how would you cope? how would you begin to plan where to go next, or figure out what to do to take care of yourself? most likely you would reach reflexively for your phone.
telecoms access is not a petty luxury in 2024. a loaded esim means the ability to call family members and find out where they are and whether they're safe, and whether they need anything you can provide for them. it means access to maps and regular updates on the situation unfolding around you. it means you can look up whether it's safe to drink rain water, or how to tie a type of knot you've never had to think about before, or how to treat an injury without medical supplies. it means the ability to tell people outside the situation what you are seeing, what you are feeling, what you are thinking. it is an absolutely crucial resource. and it starts at $6 for 7 days.
many many people have observed that internet access is changing the way the world understands genocide. internet access is life or death, and it is shaping modern history in front of you. and it starts at $6 for 7 days.
please, please visit gazaesims.com and spend 5 minutes and $6 to change the way this plays out for everyone.
if you are not sure how or are not able to purchase an esim directly you can donate to Crips for eSims for Gaza's campaign. it is a reputable project of Alice Wong, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Jane Shi.
