Smidgingtonblogs

Reading Writing and Fangirling - this is my life right now

[smidgingtonblogs]

So I finally got to see Hadestown yesterday, which I've wanted to do for years.

Today, I open Tumblr for the first time in months and see very second post us about Hadestown.

What's up with that?

[chaumas-deactivated20240115]

Work vacuum died. This is the fifth one since I started working here five years ago.

The first one died because my coworker vacuumed up rocks.

The second one died because my coworker vacuumed up rocks.

The third one died because my coworker vacuumed up rocks.

The fourth one died for unknown reasons that involved my coworker vacuuming up rocks.

The fifth one died a few minutes ago and it was a big mystery and my coworker was like “oh I don’t know what happened it just overtaxed for some reason” so I looked inside the hose and—get this—it was jammed with rocks.

He keeps buying bigger and more expensive vacuums and complaining about how shitty and faulty the last ones were and every time I suggest something like “what if you didn’t vacuum up rocks” he’s like oh no it is the vacuums who are wrong.

[chaumas-deactivated20240115]

hey guys guess what happened again just now

[smidgingtonblogs]

[salmonella-destroyer-of-worlds]

[minimarsbar]

@smidgingtonblogs

[smidgingtonblogs]

How could you, Pluto?

[smidgingtonblogs]

So it's 3am and I can't go to sleep because I'm freezing and I can't warm up because my jumper needs to dry in the dryer and I have work in 6 hours. How are y'all?

[smidgingtonblogs]

I have a lot of thoughts and takes on the live action Avatar. Like, a lot. But one i really need to get out of my system right now is Sokka. I really feel like they striped so much of his character away. And the point this became clear to me was when he encountered the Face Stealer.

Already, they had stepped away the sexism that in the original show Sokka had to learn to outgrow and be better from. And that's... fine. It's a choice. At least they were going to instead focus on other aspects of his character, right? Right?

They then give Sokka the new arc of learning to believe in himself, which again is... fine. Except they really half-assed it. The one moment they had to show us this new arc, to drive it home that Sokka has crippling self doubt and trauma that he needs all the seasons to work on and overcome, was when meeting the Face Stealer Koh. Let's see how they did.

We start off strong by seeing Katara's darkest moment, the night her mother was killed. Katara saw it happen, may have even been the reason for it. Like damn, that's extremely traumatic. And she's still a child. We now understand Katara's anger and drive.

Then we get Sokka's darkest moment. One time, after a rite of passage went wrong, Sokka's dad didn't believe in him. That's it. He was even really nice about it, hoping Sokka would get better in the future, he just wasn't ready NOW. Like, what? How is this Sokka's darkest moment, when shortly after this would have been the night Sokka also lost his mother? It's so weak when compared to Katara literally watching her mother burn to death. And such a disservice to Sokka's character. Sokka's self doubt was present in the ordinal show too, and was tied to his inability to do anything when the Fire Nation raided his home.

Sokka's darkest moment should have been that night. Imagine that night playing out from Sokka's point of view. The raid begins. Sokka is too young to fight, but he wants to help. Hakoda doesn't want him to fight, and asked him to gather the other children and run. Sokka doesn't understand but does so anyway. He gets the other children away, they bunker down in an ice cave to wait out the raid, and that's when Sokka realises that his baby sister Katara isn't there. Where is Katara? Then Koh turns up and attacks.

This change would put Sokka's trauma on the same level as Katara's, it's stronger, and says a lot more about his character. We now understand why he is so protective of Katara, he almost lost her before. We understand his self doubt and trauma without other characters standing around stating it out loud. You can then back up this trauma by showing Sokka heedlessly running into danger to protect others, because he felt so ashamed on the night of the raid when Hakoda made him run and hide. He was a child, he didn't understand why Hakoda asked him to do that. And that could be Sokka's lesson.

If you're going down this route with Sokka, commit. When you stripe away an entire arc from a character, replace it with something stronger.

[willofdpeople]

Aang: All life is sacred. I cannot, and will not, compromise my values. I mustn't take even just one life. Even if it's a monster's life, my philosophy – my culture's philosophy – is to avoid taking life at all costs. As much as you'll try to drill it in me, it's not who I am. I'm not going to kill the a single living creature, not even the Fire Lord.

Meanwhile, Sokka:

[smidgingtonblogs]

Man, what a cute meet for Comms. Guy and Engine Guy.

[calder]

vegans make peace with honey

no shut up do it

[calder]

vegans will pretend not to hear when natives tell them their agave products are unsustainable because they have whimsical feelings about, and i cannot stress this enough, the freedom of hive insects

Honey is literally murder but go off

[kasaron]

Prove it.

They literally puke their guts up to make your honey

[kasaron]

I have not seen any evidence tonsugges they are harmed or die in the process of production. They do regurgitate the nectar as part of the process to concentrate it into honey (an interesting process) but they do not suffer any injury during this process. If they did, the cost to produce honey, which is done naturally as a measure to survive over winter and through times of lower availability, would outweigh the benefits. If you kill several bees to produce enough honey to make one more bee, It makes no sense. Any animal that did that would die, even with human intervention.

Do you have any sources which suggest otherwise? I’d be interested to hear of this (relatively publicly available) information was false or misunderstood.

Bee farmers use whats called a honey maker. It’s a crude devices. It similar to a meat grinder. They force the bees in and grind them up. What comes out is a paste. That paste is later filtered into what we know as honey

[hematite2]

This is the funniest thing I’ve ever read

[leonardo-nierman]

@zoologicallyobsessed please show us pics of your bee grinder

[gemstone-gynoid]

they might be falsely thinking about a honey extractor machine. but all these do is you place the beehive frames inside and a motor rotates it at a speed that removes the honey, which is then tapped through a tap at the bottom. 

[darkenedyeastextract]

…do they think they put bees in that and spin them around until they vomit…?

[demonius-darkblade]

bee carnival

[yeah-yeah-beebiss-1]

bad and naughty bees get put into the b e e c e n t r i f u g e to extract their honey

[bastlynn]

Vegans coming after beekeepers is one of my major teeth grinding annoyances. For many reasons, because there’s so many lies. And to go one step further because it’s such a waste. You see, the strongest vegan argument is that they don’t want to exploit animals or take from them without their consent.

… but… Bees consent. NO. I’M NOT KIDDING.

How? Bee hives aren’t kept on leashes. They’re outside, the bees can travel miles every day. They follow their queen. Who is also outside, not on a leash, and can travel miles every day. If she doesn’t like the hive for any reason - for example: it got too hot, too cold, too messy, too filled with sugary stuff and they need more space… then the queen leaves. And with her the hive.

The queen stays in the hive because the hive is the best place to live. Period. Done. End of. If the hive is staying with the beekeeper it’s because the keeper is doing their job correctly and keeping them happy because the bees can, and do, leave bad beekeepers.

Of all the animals we have domesticated as livestock, bees are the ones you can most easily argue are consenting participants in their keeping.

[alicentsgf]

[mystical-mew]

Here it is. The bee post is back

[korrasera]

I feel compelled to explain the misconception part for anyone who doesn’t know anything about beekeeping and finds any of this confusing. This might be a little redundant, but I’m scratching an itch.

Harvesting honey does not murder bees.

The device pictured above does not mash up bees or their hives.

There’s no ethical concern when it comes to eating honey, it’s totally ethical as food is concerned.

Bees manufacture honey using pollen. They store it in the cells of their hive, where it’s used as food for the colony, particularly the larvae growing into the next generation of bees.

When you harvest honey, you remove parts of the hive that are being used to store the honey, without taking any bees along for the ride. Those parts of the hive are then put into a device, like the centrifugal extractor shown above by gemstone-gynoid, where the parts are spun really fast to pull extract the honey. The honey gets collected on the walls of the extractor, drips down, and can then be filtered and bottled for human use.

So.

It turns out that bees love making honey and can make more of it than they’d ever need. It also turns out that beekeepers taking care of hives and harvesting their honey keeps bees healthy and thriving, more so than they’d normally accomplish on their own. And we really need bees healthy and thriving because they help us grow an astonishing amount of food by pollinating plants.

Like, there’s no need to have a conversation about this, anyone who claims that harvesting honey requires that you kill bees is lying. Either they don’t know anything about beekeeping and are just repeating a lie someone else told them, or they know that they’re lying and they’re just straight up trying to deceive people. Neither is a good look.

[ariaste]

And just one more point of clarification – “cells of the hive” doesn’t mean the anatomical cells of the bees’ bodies, it means the little holes in the honeycomb of the physical structure of the hives, which they build using beeswax. Think of it like a bee pantry. They put their honey in the pantry, but since they’re working hard every day, they often make wayyyyyy too much of it. So the beekeepers come along and take the extra honeycomb that the bees don’t need and aren’t going to use, but they leave plenty behind for the bees to eat. Additionally, if anything happens to the hive’s honey supplies in the winter, the beekeepers can supplement their food by either giving some honey back or giving them sugar water. Also, fun fact! When beekeepers extract the honey from the comb, they often leave all their equipment out afterwards so the bees can come along and clean up, re-collecting any traces of honey or wax left behind, which get put back into the hive and recycled. Any leftover waste (dirt and grime from old comb, for example, or bees that died natural deaths of old age) makes great fertilizer for the plants that produce the pollen the bees make next year. No waste!

Vegans, the bees are not going to stop making honey if they’re left to their own devices in the wild. The bees are just doing a thing that bees do. Eating honey is not exploitation, it’s sustainability. That said, if you’re still worried about the ethics, I’d recommend looking up some local beekeepers/honey farms in your area and reaching out to them for more education! I’ve known a lot of beekeepers that are really excited about doing education and outreach to teach people about the importance of pollinators, the partnership between bees and beekeepers, and the process of how honey is collected. Some honey farms will even give you a tour of their process so you can see in person how it’s made and that it’s not a harmful or exploitative process for the bees at all! (and of course eating local honey gives you an amazing connection to your local environment, both spiritually and physically?? like apparently eating local honey can help with seasonal allergies??? it’s really cool)

[smidgingtonblogs]

I feel like a lot of peoples research into bee-keeping began and ended with The Bee Movie.

[claudiamatossilva]

Hilda by Duane Bryers

[badkidgorgug]

More Hilda!!

[themockingcrows]

in this family we love and support Hilda.

[i-am-the-narwhal]

Yes! Hilda!

[luidilovins]

What i love about this artist’s depictions of women is even the sexualized ones the woman is always genuinely happy and enjoying herself. Frolicking or making funny faces, she’s living her life and looking sexy while doing it, not sitting in a sexual pose for the audience’s view.

[squish-this]

I always forget about Hilda and am so pleased when she randomly shows up on my dash. Always makes my day

[snailfarts]

I love Hilda so much and I want her to be happy

[numinous-queer]

My favorite thing is how Hilda is always doing something and having a BLAST! She’s not posing coyly for anyone, she’s having her own adventures and it’s not about the viewer at all

[rosellacwrites]

Always reblog Hilda!

[sumi-sprite]

HILDA MY LOVE

[smidgingtonblogs]

What is Hilda and why am I suddenly in love with her?

[minimarsbar]

Saw Seed FREEDOM tonight with my sister, who's never seen the show or it's sequel. I did try to give her a brief rundown of the plot but I couldn't even get half of Seed, there's so much stuff. My sister said it would be fine though.

After the movie, as we were leaving, she said to me maybe the movie should've had a recap of the show.

My response was immediate.

[smidgingtonblogs]

In my defence, I think I did quite well keeping up...

[the-interuniversal-geometer]

Little fucking guy alert!!

[smidgingtonblogs]

I want 100 of them. Like right now.

[stuck-inasmalltown]

i don’t mean to be political, but what if everyone had basic human rights

[trainsgenderfoxgirl2816]

Even people who’s vibes are off

[predatory-lesbians]

even people who’s vibes are off

[cubemagnet14-deactivated2025100]

Errmmmmm aksually 🤓☝️ its whose but otherwise yes

[predatory-lesbians]

even this asshole

[curieklei]

[bokkerijder-deactivated20240624]

pro-AI in the sense of "they taught a bread scanning computer to recognize cancer cells" etc etc

against AI in the sense of "we stole artwork from hundreds to thousands of artists, didn't credit them and didn't financially compensate them"

[justasunflowerseed-deactivated2]

pro-AI in the sense of "use it for jobs that are near impossible or highly taxing of humans"

against AI in the sense of "use it to replace human creativity in fields built on human creativity"

[e350tb]

I'm going to very boldly make an unpopular opinion and say that making a Pirates of the Caribbean film with a new cast is probably a good idea.

Like, the Depp fans are saying that 'you can't do it without Depp,' but he was one of the worst elements of the fifth movie, and wasn't great in the fourth either. And since they're never going to bring back Norrington and make the entire series about him, this is probably the best they can do.

Besides, what're they meant to do? Say 'no more movies about pirates because Johnny Depp doesn't want to do them?' Come on, man.

[smidgingtonblogs]

Oh no. The nostalgic man doesn't want to do the movie any more. Guess that means no more movies.

[imthebentley]

Ineffable Parents

// OOC a sec. I know it's a lot of ifs: but what if they were parents and what if their children were the Bookshop and the Bentley and what if they were child shaped - what then?//

[smidgingtonblogs]

Are the tapes bebop?

[grahamkennedy-deactivated202411]

“Australia Day” is almost over and I haven’t even seen the photo of Burnum Burnum planting the Aboriginal flag on the cliffs of Dover and claiming Britain for the Indigenous people of Australia on my dash yet

[starseneyes]

A Matter of Principle: Rejecting ChatGPT

This week has been a really difficult one on a number of levels, but chiefly because my primary client has decided to embrace ChatGPT. This may not seem like that bad an issue to you, but it's devastating to me because I see it for what it is—regurgitated plagiarism.

I'm not a fancy writer. I've published articles and even once wrote a cookbook for a nonprofit. But I am a copywriter, a Digital Marketer, a screenwriter and novelist who hopes someday to make something out of those pursuits. And I don't think this is an issue of writers versus technology, but rather principle versus plagiarism.

I don't see AI as inevitable. I see it as a choice that we can make, and I choose not to feed into it, not to endorse it, not to proliferate the idea that there is somehow any "intelligence" at work.

Writers' work fed the machine. Without permission. Without payment. Without proper protocols. I refuse to work alongside it.

So, for the first time in seven years, I put in a job application today. I had to update my resume and rewrite my cover letter.

I wasn't planning to jump in so soon to a job search, but a friend sent me something that would be a perfect fit that was posted 5 hours before I asked for suggestions.

So, I took a leap and gave it a try. Nothing may come of it. I may be hunting for a while before I find something to replace my current situation. But I refuse to give in against my principles.

I made that mistake early in my career when I was so afraid of not being able to feed my family, I would take any abuse and roll with anything that came my way. I decided then that I would never allow that, again. Because, who are we if we don't stand for what is right?

It's scarier this way. But, oh, it feels so much better. So much truer.

Onward.