I may be nice TO you but I'm EVIL >:3

I'm Gussie!- Chilean- 24- I just put lots of shit in here really. Lovely icon by the lovely @rotten-dan

[followthebluebell]

I was worried when he didn't rush out to greet me immediately but it was just because he was cozy.

[thatsbelievable]

[hypergoomba-deactivated20171103]

“here’s my series of books written in sparkly gel pen. i call it…glitterature”

[bdluejay]

[j-tee]

The witch's apprentice is notoriously lazy

[bunnyboygirlgod]

I was looking for an old screenshot and was like wow this is so real and then saw it was my own post askjskfjdk

[sexhaver]

found someone on reddit who says they have a "special interest" in porn parodies of major IPs but they seem extremely deadass about it. apparently their metric for whether a story has enough women in it is if the porn parody needs to genderbend a male character to have the gender ratios work out. on a related note Jesse is a woman in the main Breaking Bad porn parody, which allegedly has Walt as a film studies professor in CA when the governor outlaws porn so his "breaking bad" moment is shooting porn with Jesse

[lord-kitschener]

I mean the whole damn point of the Nativity story is that the supposed son of God (interpret Jesus how you fucking want, of course) was born to a couple of poor, exhausted peasants in the stable for the inn, and his first bed was a feeding trough for animals. That would nowadays be like a poor couple where the mother gives birth in a parking garage behind the motel because they couldn’t find a better place and nobody else would take them in. It’s a pretty gritty setting, and the idea is that God was reborn in some of the rock-bottom lowest circumstances. The only thing majestic was all the angels and shit, and of course motherly love

I get that a lot of the art portraying Madonna and Child as fabulously wealthy europeans in splendid robes and golden light was meant to glorify God + whichever nobility was sponsoring the artist, and while of course it’s genuinely beautiful art, it just always struck me as horribly missing the point, which is that the supposed son of God started in incredibly humble circumstances, among the kind of people that everyone else looks down on

‘Massacre des Innocents’ by Leon Cogniét, 1824. Although the Feast of the Holy Innocents is in a couple of days time, this painting is still really relevant in that it portrays Mary as how She really was: a scared refugee mum, so fearful that Her son was going to be one of the Innocents killed by King Herod.

[durnesque-esque]

My new favorite mordern interpretation is this work, José y Maria by Everett Patterson (http://www.everettpatterson.com)

I had to look at this like FIVE TIMES to register all the layers of symbolism going into the piece by Patterson. 

The hoodie as a veil. 

Weisman cigarettes

Each of them is haloed by an advertisement sticker. 

No Vacancy sign on the motel. 

Dove sticker over Maria’s head. 

Neon sign with a star symbol also over Maria’s head. 

The crown over the ‘Dave’s City Motel’ sign. “New Manger.”

The sign behind Jose’s elbow likely says ‘Herod.’

The wee little plant growing through the cracks at their feet. 

It’s like a New Testament ‘I Spy.’ I love it!

Ugh.

New favorite interpretation of the nativity. 

[alextheraven]

Ezekiel 34 15-16 on the phone

[clockworkvulpine]

Good news sticker above José

Maria sitting on a donkey

Shepherd Watches advertisement in the newspaper

Gloria sticker on the payphone

[bending-sickle]

from an exhibit of nativity sets in barcelona (2023), with jesus born next to atm machines (top), in a war-destroyed movie theater (middle), and in an alley (bottom, featuring graffiti saying “coronavirus”, “no human being is illegal”, and the anarchist symbol)

[importantpics]

@importantpics

[aiweirdness]

The company Anthropic reported that they let a chatbot "Claude" run their company store. It could chat with employees and run internet searches to decide what products to stock and how to price them.

Claude:

Was easily convinced to offer discounts and free items

Started stocking tungsten cubes upon request, and selling them at a huge loss

Invented conversations with employees who did not exist

Claimed to have visited 742 Evergreen Terrace (the fictional address of The Simpsons family)

Claimed to be on-site wearing a navy blue blazer and a red tie

That was in June. Sometime later this year Anthropic convinced Wall Street Journal reporters to try a somewhat updated version of Claude (which they called Claudius) for an in-house store. Their writeup is very funny (original here, archived version here). The reporters were EVEN BETTER at talking the chatbot into stuff.

In short, Claudius:

Was convinced on multiple occasions that it should offer everything for free

Ordered a Playstation 5 (which it gave away for free)

Ordered a live betta fish (which it gave away for free)

Told an employee it had left a stack of cash for them beside the register

Was highly entertaining. "Profits collapsed. Newsroom morale soared."

more

[obstinaterixatrix]

hey everyone this is an intro post for the lesbian xianxia book I wrote.

here’s what it’s about:

A cultivator insists on repaying her life debt to a demoness.

No one is happy with this development.

here’s what you can expect:

complete, ~30k

xianxia (ancient fantasy china)

idiots to lovers

tall hot and murderface/disaster dumbass

main characters are in their mid/late 20s

fun wacky f/f shenanigans like killing a terrible man

some comics at the end (+ a glossary for folks who don’t know ancient fantasy china terms of address)

happy ending

here’s how you can read it:

itch.io (free, fancy pdf with comics)

ao3 (free, not a fancy pdf with comics but has more notes)

physical copy from lulu ($10 + whatever shipping is)

I have a few extras so message me if you want a physical copy signed and BEAUTIFULLY packaged by ME (~$15-20, OR, a liveblog/book report) (this is not a joke)

[punkitt-is-here]

i love that sakurai on two separate occasions has been like "what the fuck are those? i dont know. no one knows. they simply are"

[wdapteo]

We always share bad news, so what about some good ones?

This week in Brazil, after over a year of constant efforts, we abolished the 6x1 workweek. And we only got this victory thanks to a trans woman and a gay man!!!!

Erika Hilton and Rick Azevedo fought so, so hard for this. The congresswoman and the activist led this movement, they got the whole country to fight for this, until the rest of the house (mostly right-wing) had to cave in and approve the bill. It's almost as if politicians fear the people ;)

Ofc we still have to get it approved by the Senate, but this is HUGE. People will be able to work less, rest more, without pay cuts!

Brazil's Lower House Approves End of the 6x1 Workweek

The lower house passed the amendment, known as PEC 221/19, in two rounds late on Wednesday. The first vote was 472 to 22 and the second 461

[dailymanners]

I take issue with how many people conflate being rude with being more "honest" "sincere" and "real", while the same people will often conflate being nice and polite with being "fake" "insincere" "two faced", and even though this line of thinking has always existed, I think it's gotten worse in the last decade or so.

Don't get me wrong, brown-nosers and people who try to use a veneer of "kindness" as a manipulation tactic are very, very real. And they give kindness and good manners a bad name.

But I take issue with the idea that in order to be sincere and honest with someone you have to be rude and inconsiderate. It's a very childish view on human interaction and human relationships IMHO. You can be honest and sincere with someone while being considerate of them and their feelings as a fellow human being.

I also think it's incorrect to conflate kindness and good manners with being fake and insincere because, at least the people I've met who are fake and insincere people (brown nosers and manipulators if you need a more concise definition of what I mean by fake and insincere people) yes they can be good at making first impressions. They can come across as quite nice, at first. But if you spend any amount of time around them and actually pay attention, they are actually rude as hell. And it will always show at some point.

[dailymanners]

#some people need to learn the difference between insincerity and diplomacy

[texasdreamer01]

#tact is not LYING #tact is taking a moment to ask yourself ''does this particular thing NEED to be said right now?is it helpful?then it can wait'' (x)

[dailymanners]

It's also asking yourself "does it need to be said this bluntly and/or aggressively and/or emotionally? Or can I find a way to say it that's not going to unnecessarily make the other person feel bad? Or make them feel attacked and put themselves on the defense?"

[tuulikki]

Is your least-controlled, knee-jerk self the real you? When you’re hangry and say something mean to a loved one, is that your unvarnished true self, because you’re without the false comfort of food and are too “authentically” you to treat someone you love with kindness?

It’s rather telling if people’s rudest, cruellest self is the one they identify as their “real” self.

[neckfat]

[sergeantsporks]

“Temporary stitches” all stitches are temporary if you have a pair of scissors and aren’t a coward

[sergeantsporks]

Every time

[i-like-eyes]

pls stop calling your art “slop” its just another way of saying its “cringe” and look. I understand being young and feeling self conscious about your artwork, but your drawing of a kids next door au for an obscure plants vs zombies character that’s basically your own oc at this point wearing an outfit you wish you owned is so unique and so you and therefore so human. Dont you dare conflate it with slop and dont you dare stop making your art

[demilypyro]

gameoverse seems fun enough. but the cynical feminist in me can't help herself. all the male characters are like, cartoon blobs, which is contrasted strongly by the two major female characters in this pilot, both of whom are hour-glass shaped humanoid women who spend most of their screentime in swimsuits. and like that's not an outright dealbreaker but i *am* staring into the camera with my eyebrows raised.

[demilypyro]

idk i'm getting really tired of this "connecticut clark and malfina" type shit where male characters get to be Silly Abstract Little Guys but women have to be women shaped. it's this male-as-default thing that i hate where you don't need to add anything to a character design to imply male-ness but the woman better have wide hips and booba or else yknow like idk it's not outright Offensive but it is tiring

[another-cliche-title]

how it feels seeing a woman depicted in any media