Rand's ramblings

Mostly I created this to follow other people; but I do on occasion post things. Rarely.

[aomitois]

rb and tag your favorite song that's not in english, japanese or korean

[cloudabserk]

comforting head bonk to make up for my feeble human lifespan

[anistarrose]

As Aromantic Visibility Day (June 5th) approaches this year, friendly reminder from an aroace: it's Aromantic Visibility Day, not "Aroace" Visibility Day! Not all aromantics are also asexual — there are aromantics who are allosexual (aroallos for short), aromantics who don't separately label their sexual orientation at all, and aromantics whose sexual orientation doesn't fit into an ace/allo binary, as well as likely even more aros who don't fit into "aroace" for even more reasons — and all of them are equally included in Aromantic Visibility Day, because they are equally aromantic! In fact, those aros who aren't ace are disproportionately erased and in need of visibility, even more than aroaces are (which is really saying something, because aroace visibility itself is already terrible), so including them in Aromantic Visibility Day is vital, and using the correct name for the occasion instead of calling it an "aroace day" is a start.

Overall: again, speaking as an aroace myself, we aroaces will not be offended if you just call Aromantic Visibility Day the thing it is actually called! I care about sharing this upcoming day with my fellow aros, so stop excluding them, even accidentally! We aroaces celebrate this day but it is not for us exclusively!

[yeomanrand]

Where my brain has been today...the Rock Concept Album version.

Despite something 16-year-old me was told, Pink Floyd's The Wall is a violent movie. However, for all it's horrorshow and weird weird amounts of camp, it's really a meditiation on generational trauma, unhealed wounds, the legacy of abuse, and how the cycle continues. Behold, the violence inherent in the system! the Narrator cries, and our eyes are seared by it in so many different ways.

I think I could successfully make an argument that movie Tommy is actually a variant of Hamlet, in which young Hamlet is even younger when his father dies, murdered by his mother and her current paramour, with Tommy there -- and Tommy himself becomes the ghost, haunting the narrative with the spell they cast upon him "What about the boy?" and also see trauma, generational trauma, unhealed wounds, etc. etc. etc though Tommy misses much of The Wall's violence. Not all of it, by any means.

Anyway. How's all youse?

[almondmilkbitch]

superbat is a bad ship name. it should be manman

[macguffinandco]

What's So Good About The Bad Year?

Loads of things, but I (Sasha) want to talk about my favourite thing about The Bad Year, which is all the different ways you can play it.

So, The Bad Year is a collection of 53 system-neutral, one-page horror investigation adventures that look like this:

All the clues and the links between them are on one side of the page, with a more detailed breakdown on the other. The idea is you can open it to any double page spread and be able to run that adventure with everything you need right in front of you.

But wait! There's more!

There's also a small section at the bottom of the clue map called "Links" which lists every recurring storyline, NPC and location that features in the mystery, along with the page numbers of every other mystery they appear in. So you can easily find all the entries in one of 7 (seven!) recurring plots and run them as mini-campaigns (or just pick one recurring NPC and follow them through the course of their own really bad year, if you want).

One of those plots - THE GRAND OCCULTATION - is basically the A-plot of the whole book. It's told over 13 adventures, so you can easily run it as monthly sessions over a year, and it explains why exactly this year is so very bad.

BUT WAIT! There's even more!

You can, of course, run each one of the 53 adventures, one after the other, to get the full, year-long, interconnected detailed campaign. And, if you start it and end it in Halloween week, every single adventure will be themed to the actual week of the calendar year that you play it in.

The planning that's gone into this book is wild and there are some intense spreadsheets behind it. Both the clue map format and the one-shots-but-also-interconnected-campaign were @jonnywaistcoat's idea and I am endlessly impressed with them. I think everyone else should be impressed with them too. Maybe check out our Kickstarter if you think it sounds as cool as I do.

The Bad Year

53 horror investigation adventures for any RPG system, playable as one-shot mysteries, concise arcs or a year-long interwoven campaign.

[naamahdarling]

Jonny, Sasha, I'm going to make this work for the Magical Kitties Save The Day system. I'll find a way.

Works for any rules set?

Let's make 'em all housecats!

[isbergillustration]

Prideful Awooing

[odyver]

alright I've got to do some quick math to explain attitudes towards AI to my boss.

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

please rb for larger sample size!

Question 1/3

What is your age, and do you feel AI is a net positive or net negative in our lives today?

under 18, AI is a net positive

under 18, AI is a net negative

18-29, AI is a net positive

18-29, AI is a net negative

30-45, AI is a net positive

30-45, AI is a net negative

46-60, AI is a net positive

46-60, AI is a net negative

over 60, AI is a net postive

over 60, AI is a net negative

Remaining time: 4 days 3 hours

[odyver]

Question 2/3

How often do you visit or interact with museums/archives (whether in person or online)?

Frequently (multiple times per month)

Often (multiple times per year)

Occasionally (a couple times per year)

Rarely (once every couple of years)

Never :(

Remaining time: 4 days 3 hours

[odyver]

Question 3/3

If you saw a museum was using AI in exhibits, marketing, research, etc., would you be more or less inclined to visit that museum?

under 18, more inclined

under 18, less inclined

18-29, more inclined

18-29, less inclined

30-45, more inclined

30-45, less inclined

46-60, more inclined

46-60, less inclined

over 60, more inclined

over 60, less inclined

Remaining time: 4 days 3 hours

Thank you for helping with this data collection. Please rb for as big a sample as possible!

🫶

[slothful-rabbit]

I laughed so fucking hard at this

[potatochipship]

[the-semicolonoscopy]

“What the fuck do you think freedom means, Earl?” is right up there with “Harold, they’re lesbians.”

[the-semicolonoscopy]

Reblogging for pride month.

[the-semicolonoscopy]

Bringing this one back again for pride month.

[fresh-bag-of-ham]

Copyright governs who has the "right" to produce and distribute "copies" of books/music/movies/creative works. This is where fair use doctrine applies, because most creative works are referential by nature.

Weird Al is allowed to parody everything because he's operating under copyright law, not trademark law.

Trademark governs who can "trade" under what "mark" i.e. the brand identity of a company. Companies don't own their trademarked word forever, but they maintain the exclusive right to sell things under that brand in their specific market sector. Patagonia doesn't own the name of a geographical region, they just own the right to be the only company using that name to sell clothing and outdoor gear.

A drag queen name can be a parody of a clothing and outdoor gear company.

A company's trademarked logo can be used in parody creative works, with more leeway if it's not for commercial purposes. Trademark parody is allowed! Patagonia has been aware of and allowed Pattie Gonia's trademark parody for years.

Trademarks are specific to market sector. Actress Chase Infiniti could start a makeup line named after herself and her trademark would not infringe on the Infiniti car brand because they are different markets and there is no risk of confusion. Pattie Gonia could probably trademark her name to sell frozen veggie burgers and Patagonia would not care.

Drag queen Jan Sport did a collab with JanSport bags. What Jan Sport almost certainly did not do is independently apply to register "Jan Sport" as a trademark in order to sell bags on her own, because that would infringe on JanSport's own trademark in the bag market sector.

What Pattie Gonia is not allowed to do -- the thing that Pattie Gonia actually did do and is being sued for -- is apply to register "Pattie Gonia" as a trademark to sell clothing, because apparently Pattie is in talks with North Face and HydroFlask to sell "Pattie Gonia"-branded gear. These companies probably won't finalize anything unless Pattie shows that she actually owns the trademark. Unfortunately, "Patagonia" is already a registered trademark in the clothing market sector, and these two names are too similar to exist in the same sector (see: "likelihood of confusion" legal standard).

Your drag queen name can parody a clothing company. You can parody the trademarked logo of a clothing company. But you cannot use the same name to then go on to also become a clothing company.

In order to maintain their own trademark, Patagonia must sue for trademark infringement. If they don't sue, and Pattie Gonia gets her own trademark, Pattie could sue Patagonia for infringement on her trademark. You can see why Patagonia won't be dropping this suit no matter how much you harass them.

Yes, Pattie's legal fees to fight this will cost more than the $1 she's being sued for. Pattie could also not fight this, withdraw her trademark application, not spend any money, and carry on being an environmental activist drag queen named Pattie Gonia. She would probably be better off making nice with Patagonia in the hopes of a Jan Sport-esque deal where Pattie designs an exclusive fabric and Patagonia maintains the trademark, but apparently Pattie's legal team has been sassing off to Patagonia in their communications for years, has applied for a trademark they should 100% know they'll never get, and has now decided to play the victim on social media just in time for Pride month, so I don't know how likely that is. I guess we'll see!

[sexshopshenanigans]

This is mostly correct, but I’d like to offer a small correction. The product deal with Hydroflask and North Face apparently occurred in 2022, and HydroFlask got Patagonia involved to make sure everything was in the clear. It seems like Patagonia was very agreeable about everything at the time, and only asked that Pattie Gonia and her partners avoid using the Patagonia logo and font or similar images, and to avoid putting the words “Pattie Gonia” on any products. This is the email exchange from 2022, from the recent Patagonia trademark complaint, including Pattie Gonia apparently agreeing to the limitations.

The new conflict is from Pattie Gonia using the Patagonia imagery and the Pattie Gonia name on her own merchandise. This is the email Patagonia sent, with the images they feel conflict with the 2022 agreement.

Pattie responded to that by disagreeing that she had broken any agreement, and also obliquely threatening to expose Patagonia for making tactical gear for the US military?

It’s possible that Patagonia understood the terms from 2022 to be a good-faith ongoing agreement about keeping the brands separate, and Pattie interpreted it as an agreement limited to the now-ended North Face and Hydroflask collaboration. It’s also possible that Pattie Gonia didn’t believe she was actually agreeing to anything at all, since her responses were very neutral, though positive in tone, up until 2025. The email chain does, however, show what I think is a very clear effort on Patagonia’s part to protect their trademark while also showing support and goodwill towards Pattie in her use of the Pattie Gonia stage persona.

[scarlet-rosepetals]

Reblogging this because I think it provides an interesting explanation of the legal side of this whole mess, but to be clear the Only Correct Reaction here is to understand that copyright and trademark are Fucking Stupid, not to get out your torches and pitchforks to defend teh poor innocent cowpowation from a scawy yucky-wucky dwag queen.

Pattie selling shit with her stage name on it Really Obviously isn’t going to have any negative effect on the continued lining of Patagonia CEO pockets, as if that even fucking matters, and no amount of waxing poetic about “well they have to 🥺🥺🥺” is going to make me say anything other than “fucking stupid if true then”.

Y’all gotta stop jumping to defend corpos just because blah blah trademarks blah blah copyrights. As the famous post implies y’all are not temporarily embarrassed vivzipops.

[fresh-bag-of-ham]

You will struggle to defend Pattie Gonia with the argument that "trademarks are fucking stupid" when this all started because Pattie applied for a trademark of her own.

In terms of whose pockets are being lined:

Rather than selling the company or taking it public, Mr. Chouinard, his wife and two adult children have transferred their ownership of Patagonia, valued at about $3 billion, to a specially designed trust and a nonprofit organization. They were created to preserve the company’s independence and ensure that all of its profits — some $100 million a year — are used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the globe.

The unusual move comes at a moment of growing scrutiny for billionaires and corporations, whose rhetoric about making the world a better place is often overshadowed by their contributions to the very problems they claim to want to solve.

At the same time, Mr. Chouinard’s relinquishment of the family fortune is in keeping with his longstanding disregard for business norms, and his lifelong love for the environment.

(NYT Gift Link)

Since 2022, 100% of Patagonia's profits have gone to climate and environmental causes. They have completely restructured the ownership of the company so that this will continue in perpetuity.

I like Pattie Gonia and I admire her environmental activism, but Patagonia's $100 million toward climate causes every year forever has orders of magnitude more impact. I support Patagonia maintaining its trademark however necessary to continue this work, and it is actually deeply distasteful to me that Pattie is willing to spin this routine trademark suit as "a corporation trying to erase an activist" when there is very obviously no path to legal victory and the only possible outcome is reputational damage to the only major corporation literally ever that has been singularly, intentionally, innovatively, and against all odds structured to give a fuck. Patagonia is a unicorn among corporations and we are starting a smear campaign against it for what. Selling slightly different t-shirts? Crab bucket ass activism.

[thepioden]

@friendlyneighborhoodmadscientist

[capybaralovers]

[prokopetz]

It's not my cats' dice-stealing habit that surprises me, but that they have preferences. One favours classic ivory-white but doesn't care how many sides they have, the other is indifferent to colour but prefers d12s and d20s, I suspect because they rattle more loudly when swatted. I have dice snob cats.

[yeomanrand]

It isn't just your cats! My baby has never noticed the dice, but the Elder Statescat goes absolutely mad over d12s, and was very sad when she lost my d100 (aka the golf ball) somewhere that I haven't found yet.

[theoreocat]

[theoreocat]

Sometimes it’s possible to have too much determination.

[sonneillonv-deactivated20220218]

I was waiting for the payoff and I was NOT disappointed

[larkiethings]

LET THE CROSS STITCH HIT THE FLOOR

[larkiethings]

Have a pattern link I guess if you want

[thebestworstidea]

let the cross stitch be decor

[yayxstitch]

I FOUND IT FINALLY!

[ihni]

Tell me an inside joke between you and a friend, without context.

[ihni]

I beg of everyone to read the tags to this post, as they are all random and hilarious and read kind of like a poem, if the poem was written by someone who was on a lot of drugs.

[alexseanchai]

...Lady Capulet is twenty-six.

[image: surprised Pikachu says what the fuck.]

[yeomanrand]

Prev: But we *do* know that Juliet is her only child, because we are told that after Juliet her womb was too injured to provide other heirs.

[dumpsterfire620]