this is the account I follow and like from since it is my primary :)
Here youāll find funny memes, gifs, and screenshots from fandoms that I like but don't want to clutter my other blogs. also sometimes just some rambling! Iād love it if you talked to me about it!
fair warning that this is my one social media where i can shout into the void and only strangers will hear me, so there will be some bitching and moaning in the mix!
currently posting// mostly gacha games
previously posting// dragon age: the veilguard (enda ārookā de riva)
talk to me about ZENLESS ZONE ZERO, HONKAI STAR RAIL and WUTHERING WAVES!
talk to me about GENSHIN IMPACT if you want to hear me bitch and moan and miss how it used to be!
if you're a sims blog, find me here:
my sims lookbooks and simspo: @lovedaysims
cc finds: @zie-ccfinds
ā¦..not even six hours later i got an offer of a well paying full time long-term job with free room and board in queens in nyc, allowing me independence and a way to escape an abusive situation and an unhealthy environment
likes charge reblogs cast, folks, this is the good luck post
the last time I reblogged this post right before I got a great job, in a permanent work-from-home position, with benefits, retirement, and a salary literally 3x what I was making before, doing something I really like.Ā
Just shouting some personal sad sack-ery into the voidā¦
Having OCD fucking sucks.
In recent years my OCD has hyper fixated on my healthānot in the way of pushing me to be healthier but in the way of every random āsymptomā my body experiences is a sign of something much worse. The best part being that most of these symptoms are anxiety oriented or worsened therebyāso not only do I not know whether they were caused by anxiety, but they stick around as long as Iām anxious about it, which is fucking interminably when you fucking hyperfixate on it and canāt think about anything else.
This time itās shortness of breath. I havenāt breathed easily in 3 days ā¦ except when Iām successfully so distracted that Iām not thinking about it, which I canāt seem to make happen on purpose.
Itās so exhausting. It genuinely hampers everything about my life and I am just so so tired.
Cried myself to sleep because Iām just so tired of being at constant war with my own mind and body.
Itās extra exhausting because nobody understands. And I feel like no one cares. But thatās just another thing right? They care. But what are they supposed to do? What could they say that would āproveā they care? Itās never good enough to convince my brain. Which just feels even more lonely and isolating.
Iām just so fucking unhappy.
Best of all, insurance through my work is all fucked up right now so weāve all been avoiding going to the doctor. So even if this actually is something this time, wtf am I supposed to do about it?
I hold genshin impact near and dear to my heart having played since the very beginning so unfortunately I do have to bitch about it constantly lol
Soā¦ itās that time again! Thoughts on Luna VI belowā¦
Itās justā¦ is it not bonkers that the Temple of Space is THE title screen and has been the whole damn time, but it only gets a world quest, not a main quest? I loaded up the game post update and was like, wait, where is the main quest? (I donāt watch the livestreams anymore so maybe it was stated.) But considering that past world quests have important information but ARENāT important to the story (I know this is a debatable point, but itās true that you donāt have to play the world quests to proceed in the main story) itās really bizarre to me. I would never have guessed that the title screen location was justā¦ somewhere you can go. Not somewhere the grand and epic main story takes you.
Even more, why do I care about Zeitlind and her sister? This has to be the fourth or fifth time (or more) that hoyo has shoehorned a Random Tragic Young Lady into the plot to basically take the spotlight. Why is this world quest not more about learning who used to rule this place, who trapped us and our sister? Why is what should be a major expansion and lore drop focused onā¦ yet another random girl? Why do I care about finding her possessions that got scattered and each, individually, meant nothing to me? I just found the whole thing so bizarre. Her identical sister also traveled to the temple and confronted Melanta (Mylanta lol)? Said sister then got free (how?) andā¦faked her death? Then Zeitlind comes seeking her and wasā¦low key suicidal? Was I completely misreading that? Then we just hear on and on about how great her sister was, and how sheās def still alive and Zeitlind will forgive her, but genuinely was she not SUICIDAL thinking sheās completely alone in the world??
Then we finish the world quest andā¦learn nothing. Nothing. We ask Melanta about our sibling and they donāt answer. Iām actually more appalled the more I think about it. What was the point? This place is the title screen!!! Itās the first thing we saw when starting the game and the first thing we see every time we boot it up! And all we got for our trek through it is a handful of random NPCs weāll probably never see again and some lore that, frankly, I didnāt understand why I was supposed to care about.
In terms of the map and gameplay, I did enjoy the puzzles and traversal mechanics, etc. but the individual āislandsā felt more like one of the summer getaway patches somehow. There was no real sense of danger or urgency. Even when one NPC is ākilled,ā heās not really. And they even know that at the time so they laugh at him for being dramatic in his ādeath.ā It is just so bizarre to me. I genuinely feel like I expected some absolute nuclear bomb of a lore drop and got pop rocks instead.
To be fair, Iāve said before and will continue to own the fact that Iām just not smart or patient enough to draw all the connections in the lore, and while I would like my hand held a little more I do understand how that would feel like dumbing down to the lore hunters and people who appreciate the depth of the game (though I personally would argue, gently, that hiding a lot of the lore in notes and intentionally vague and obscure-ified language does not equate to depthā¦even while acknowledging the game does have a deep lore). All that said, I just felt like I didnāt learn anything that makes this place feel as significant as it should.
Which seems to be a theme, right? Everything that happened with Dottore didnāt feel as significant as it should (the man turned himself into a god!! Though Iām sure heāll be back). And this insistence on random oh-so-tragic NPCs being the focus of expansions like this just makes me genuinely not care about the NPCs. Why are we not here alone, or with someone important from Mondstadt? The answer has to be that they didnāt want to shell out for the VA work, right?
IDK, man. Iāve seen people say itās completely separate but to me the CATACLYSMIC drop in quality and QOL aligns exactly with Miliastra Wonderland. I have to think thereās a connection there with money sunk in and how little effort seems to be put into the actual game anymore.
Iām not usually this person about VA recasts because Things Happen and usually it ends up fine, and honestly I donāt mind Weltās new VA at allā¦ but the further it goes the more I really dislike Caelusās (EN) VA
Absolutely no hate to the VA himself but it is just not hitting for me at all. The line reads have a weird, slow cadence that donāt seem to fit whatās actually being said.
It doesnāt help that hoyo is really investing into having their MCs be voiced with far more frequency so it feels like Iām constantly having to hear it lol
I know this is peak Worst Genshin Gamer vibes and Iām sorry but GIVE ME A FUCKING SKIP SCENE BUTTON
I genuinely could not give less of a fuck about all the lore and conversation around this FUNGUS PHOTOGRAPHY GAME
genuinely my fucking god
Specifically the genshin impact team at hoyo: i can appreciate that youāre trying to add depth and lore to any given task but everything you do right now is pissing me the fuck off
Can someone explain to me why I keep seeing people refer to Endmin as āEndmin Aā? I am GUESSING it has to do with various versions/incarnations but i do not get it lol
Been watching a playthrough of Resident Evil Requiem (i am no good at horror games but I LOVE watching them, especially RE games) and not only am I really enjoying it in general, but I am so amazed by Graceās VA (Angela SantāAlbano). She is doing such an incredible and believable job and from her IMDb, this is her FIRST VA job. Really incredible work.
I found this twitter post to be an interesting take on the Trailblazer as a main character, in response to a user saying they wish the TB had more of a personality and that they donāt feel they connect to the TB.
The responder is adamant regarding the TBās growth over time. I really found it interesting because (not in a hater way) I personally havenāt seen that growth at all. In fact, I agree more with the first user, that the TB feels like more of a blank slate - potentially intended to feel like a stand-in for the player.
Hoyo did similarly with the Traveler, and I honestly do feel like the biggest impact of the āpersonalityā both player characters develop is moreso hoyo being willing to shell out to have more of their lines be voiced, rather than the Trailblazer (as in the linked post) growing more comfortable and confident and talking more.
Itās interesting. For whatever reason, I feel like the first userāI donāt feel particularly connected to the TB. I feel like the characters around them are more interesting and have more depth. I think they also suffered from their role in AmphoreusāItās possibly an unfair take, but I just kept getting the feeling they were being singled out and put on a pedestal for nothing. Everyone else suffered greatly and for millions of cycles, countless years, but the Trailblazer is heralded as a hero. Iām not saying theyāre not, just that it felt strangely unearned (to me).
There was a moment, toward the endā¦ i believe just before the final battle against Irontomb (or what we thought would be). I wish i could remember the specifics, but everyone else had said a bunch of āweā statements, and the TB said something to the effect of āIāll do this for everyone!ā (Definitely a paraphrase, sorry). I remember looking at the speech options, all of them some variation of āi,ā and thinking, just you?? Everyone else is throwing everything they have at this but just you are doing the thing? I know thatās not a fair take either given itās just one line but it still felt so forced. To me personally, the role of the TB at all in Amphoreus felt a little forced, a little shoehorned. It seemed like everything they were doing would have made more sense for, say, Phainon.
Iām imagining if this were a book that got submitted to an editor, the editor would come back with āit feels like the TB and Phainon are trying to fulfill the same narrative role here. Can one of these characters be removed?ā
I know itās a little more nuanced than that, and I know thereās certain things that position the TB as the main hero. But it still just felt a little bit unearned to me, and I still struggle to connect with the TB as a character. I can see how people would be defensive/protective over the characterization of their favorite MC so I donāt blame the above poster for feeling how they feel, but I do feel like itās a bit of a rose-colored personal interpretation rather than whatās actually on the page, so to speak.
Iām finally caught up on HSRāI wanted to be prepared for 4.0.
Amphoreus was genuinely an incredible story, but it took me this long to get through because, honestly, I feel like hoyoās storytelling leaves something to be desired. Even at the very, very end, I feel like what was hoyo trying to leave no stone unturned actually felt like Amphoreus overstaying its welcome a little, if you feel me.
(Iām also crushed that after all that, we didnāt really save Amphoreus? We saved its story, and the cosmos, but not Amphoreus itself? Heartbreaking!!)
Iāve said it before and Iām possibly also just revealing my own wanting brainpower but the way hoyo delivers information and lore is so bloated and vague at times that I donāt feel like I actually absorb or understand it.
That was especially the case with the finality mission. I think for me specifically at least itās been way too long since Penacony so I was struggling to even figure out what was new information and what actually contradicted what we knew. I still donāt really get it, except that we didnāt know about Constanceās presence and that of the Swarm.
Other than those two revelations Iām really struggling to figure out what we learned or what was contradicted. Iām also honestly not at all clear on what happened to Firefly which is probably just me being dumb butā¦
She ādiedā in front of us, the life leaving her eyes, but thenā¦
Something happened? Something related to the Finality and the Trailblazer?
Then we woke up with a picture of her and SW texting is to tell us FF woke up?
Sorry to admit to being dumb but I genuinely donāt get it. Did she only die in the dream? Did she die but we changed her destiny, and thatās why she only woke up now after Constance took us on a jaunt down memory lane?
Iām also not clear on (i blame this one on hoyo being intentionally vague) what in the world any of these memories had to do with Amphoreus. Why was Constance told to cremate them just for our next trip? Something about Destruction not looking at us too early but we waltzed right into Destruction, right?
Please hoyo i know not everyone needs their hands held but I feel like i only ever have the vaguest grasp of wtf is going on lmao
EDIT: THIS IS A CARRD NOW! it's updated and organized!!
use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.
use firefox or librewolf (open-source fork of firefox) instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).
use mega instead of google drive
get rid of bloatware
use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite
get free stuff with the help of r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH, r/piracy and r/roms
use trakt (for shows and movies), letterboxd (just movies), or TMB instead of IMDB (owned by amazon).
use storygraph instead of goodreads (owned by amazon).
use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions
use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp
make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge
use search for a cause, ecosia, or ocean hero to support the environment instead of google
use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)
use flashpoint to play archived online flash games
find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books
burn your music onto cds
use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe
use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, or tuta instead of gmail
remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X
remove bloatware on samsung X
use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta
use project gutenberg for free public domain books, and librivox for public domain books and audiobooks
use the seal app (android only) to download video and audio
use ellipsus instead of microsoft word or google docs
use mastodon instead of twitter
use peertube to create a network of small video hosting providers (disclaimer: not a 1:1 alternative to youtube)
use threema and signal for encrypted communication, on mobile and desktop
use qwant and startpage for secure internet browsers
use syncthing to securely transfer files between devices
learn how to jailbreak your kindle/ereader if you have one (wiki and video walkthrough)
use riseupās email and VPN for secure communication (aimed towards activists)
use cryptpad and collabora instead of the microsoft office suite
use google takeout to export the data on your google account
use library extension to look for books on online stores and find them at your library
remove paywalls with removepaywalls
install the open-source adblocker ublock origin
install sponsorblock to skip sponsored segments on youtube videos
use bookfinder to look for the cheapest available listings of books, including textbooks
learn a language through mango (duolingo laid off some of its employees and now relies on AI translations) for free with a library card or through your school
edit photos with photopea
edit pdfs with foxit and sumatrapdf
download music with doubledouble
take notes offline and collaborate securely with obsidian
for android tv, use smarttube and cloudstream (ad-free, open-source)
change your OS to linux
changelog:
removed ground news (uses AI to summarize articles)
removed unroll.me (sells your data)
removed proton mail and drive (AI assistant feature, claims of CEO Andy Yen supporting Trump, please DM if you have proof I can add here)
removed NCH suite (only has very basic free features, puts watermark on anything saved)
notes:
this post blew up while I wasnāt looking (the end of my semester was hellish, and i recently came back from a 3-week family vacation). thanks so much for all the suggestions! <3
i included Ecosia because of their financial transparency. Itās physically impossible that they plant a tree for every search, but their profits still go towards projects including reforestation and solar energy. i view their actions as a net-positive
feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3
I adore Nicoleās design, it really brings to mind like old-school light cleric or healer from old animes or fantasy RPGs. And itās sooo cute that she is such a chatterbox despite not being able to speak out loud.
Iām seeing a bunch of posts that make me think most USAmericans donāt know about The No Surprises Act.
It was passed in 2021 (thank you Biden) and essentially states that if you donāt have insurance or your insurance doesnāt cover a service you need (or want) you are entitled to a Good Faith Estimate of the cost of care. (If your insurance does cover the service, you should be able to estimate the cost of care based on your deductible and co-pay.)
As a healthcare provider who does not accept any insurance, I am very careful to not violate The No Surprises Act. Why? Because for every penny more than $400 that the Good Faith Estimate was āoffā (or if it wasnāt provided), you are entitled to a refund for that amount.
Yāall. Ask for a Good Faith Estimate. Get it in writing. Compare it to what you are paying. If you are not provided an estimate or if itās wrong by more than $400, demand a refund.
Iām reforging this for the second time in five minutes because I needed to add that part of this is also about what your health insurance provider is required to do. Theyāre required to tell you what your out of pocket cost will be. If you contact them and they say actually they donāt know but your copay is X%, you can ask them to call the provider and get the codes they plan to use to bill for your services. If the provider is in network theyāll have negotiated rates in place so the insurer will know exactly how much you can be charged for that service and then they have to tell you. No surprise huge medical bills even if you are insured.
Adding onto this. If you have a surgical procedure that involves anesthesia, the No Surprises Act also accounts here. Most anesthesia companies/providers are OON (out of network) with most, if not all insurances. If your service is performed in an in-network facility, they are REQUIRED to bill as in-network due to this law.
