Posts made by Kestrel

Sometimes, researching a compelling concept for a MU* helps you discover really cool facts about the people, industries, countries and histories you're tying your character to.

@macha said in For anyone who might be struggling with the hallmark holiday too:

And oh hey. My sister just posted a picture of her, my stepmom, and my other sister all together and posing this morning.

Fuck.

My family likes to act like I'm crazy because I decline to pretend that an abusive family member wasn't abusive, and that I'm unreasonable for wanting nothing to do with them now that I'm no longer obligated.

So that's most of my family photos, but I am much happier and healthier opting out.

Snowpiercer is an enjoyable show, but it’s nowhere near the masterpiece that Bong Joon-ho’s film was.

It kinda makes me wonder how stupid showrunners must think American audiences are, since the major difference I noticed between the movie and the show is how obtusely the writers felt the need to spell out all the themes in as literal a fashion as possible.

In the movie, they show the protagonist moving from left to right as he progresses through the social classes of the train. They jump straight into class warfare without explaining or ever even directly mentioning the word “class”. They just assume you get it.

In the show every other spoken line is ‘eat the rich!’ and ‘this train is a fortress to class!’ Like no shit Sherlock, we understood that by your ragged clothes and their jewellery.

They also dumbed down a lot of the moral complexity and erased any room for guesswork in the narrative. The movie sets up the dominos and reveals the missing pieces gradually; the show just tells you everything you need to know upfront because it seems to assume you’d be too confused and frustrated otherwise.

So anyway I recommend the show, but watch the movie first. (Or even instead.)

Hello yes this is my daughter Andromeda.

I love my silly stupid dog. She is my first dog. I never knew just how much joy a dog could bring to my life until now. I feel like I have joined a top secret exclusive club because surely if everyone knew how awesome dogs are then everyone would have one?

I still love cats just as much for different reasons, but this dog has brought more positive change to my life than any medication I've ever been on.

There’s no ‘Bad TV’ thread so I’ll just share this here and offer an empathic HBO can go fly a kite.

@coin said in Dead Celebrities 2021 Edition:

Helen McCrory.

Jreg is a political satirist with a focus on radical ideologies vs their more moderate counterparts vs centrism.

• Best episode of his centricide series. (Works as a standalone.)
• Political Compass Rap
• 'Addressing Allegations That I Have Ties to the Far Right'

Seeing friends all play nice together.

I think one of my favourite things to do in MU* communities is matchmake. I meet one cool person and then I meet another cool person and I'm like, you guys are both cool, you should be cool together!

So when I walk in on them RPing together without me later and feel like I might've had something to do with it, that makes me happy, especially if it's in a community where people don't tend to be as trusting or open to meeting new people generally.

I like Disenchantment way more than I ever expected to.

So I've watched the Simpsons and Futurama too. They were funny. I was down for a new Matt Groening show as a meaningless distraction.

But it actually has really good story, too. That pleasantly surprised me. Season 3 even has a tastefully done, respectful queer storyline, although romance isn't generally at the centre of the show. Solid female lead, adult humour, lighthearted while still being emotionally impactful. I didn't feel the need to binge it, I savoured it over a period of weeks whenever I had half an hour to spare and sweeten up my day. I recommend.

Watching the master at work.

When you see someone doing a really cool thing and you're like, wow. And first of all, you're happy 'cause you get to be there with them, participating in this very cool thing they're doing. But secondly, you get inspired and feel like you're learning something and think, 'How can I use this?'

When you start RPing with Person A

And then Person B, who you know is OOCly friends with Person A, starts seeking you out for RP some time after that.

I assume they're gossiping about me and obviously saying good things to each other.

Feels good man.

Queen's Gambit got me into chess.

Also, it's a good show and Anya Taylor-Joy is excellent.

Well I just finished binging season 7 of the 100. The first three episodes took me a full month to sit through because they were so confusing and weird. After watching episode #4, it took me just 2 days to finish the 12 episodes left. It picked up hella steam and started explaining a lot in a way that finally felt like actual sci-fi instead of fantasy nonsense. I wasn't buying the whole anomaly arc until they actually explained what the anomaly was, and then I was hooked.

My conclusions. (Some mild spoilers.)

***=Really mild though honestly***

Friends you can RP IC friendship with, those are alright I guess.

But friends you can RP bitter rivalries, skullduggery, unexpected twists and sporting conflict with?

(It's no wonder I'm playing so much Among Us.)

Been writing poetry lately.

It's something I used to love doing when I was a teenager, and then I think at some point I stopped because I decided it wasn't all that cool and I was embarrassed of seeming angsty or edgy or emo or whatever. Even though like, maybe I had a reason to be feeling this way, and having this form of expression wasn't just cathartic for me, but a skill I could've nurtured and kept developing.

As an adult, realising some of my friends write poetry and feeling some pangs of jealousy towards them for their lack of shame in their obvious talent, and wondering if I could still be as good as they are if I hadn't shunned this hobby out of self-consciousness, I have some regrets. And even for a while after realising that, I still just kept insisting I'm not good at poetry, and that I don't want to waste my time or theirs with subpar underdeveloped attempts to change that.

It's very freeing to let go of that. Turns out this is something I enjoy, regardless of whether it's "good", and prose doesn't have to be my only form of creative expression.

Rest in Power.

Speaking of diaper babies, I think the weird cringe-horror surrounding copious amounts of milk is, inexplicably, my favourite part of the show.

I binge-watched the first season with someone and every time a scene crops up involving that I start cracking up laughing while yelling, 'WHAT! WHAT THE FUCK?'

Well my life recently fell apart and I am sad.

Also I've never felt more inspired, my creativity is through the roof and all I want to do all day every day now is write, write, write.

Happiness is the enemy of creativity. And that makes me confused, and sad.

@SixRegrets said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

'Cancel culture' is nothing more than the right's latest replacement for 'political correctness'. If you act like an asshole, you should expect consequences. Contra's bigoted bullshit re: transmedicalism and being best buddies with Buck Angel are more than reason enough for the rest of the transgender community to 'cancel' her.

Except ContraPoints never said anything transmedicalist, nor was she aware with Buck Angel's views at the time of asking him to voice one line in her video (after he approached her saying he was a fan and suggesting for a collaboration), nor are they best buds, having never communicated prior to that point.

And even if none of that was true, and she was, indeed, a transmedicalist best bud of Buck Angel, it doesn't justify the targeted harassment campaign and hate mob she received, or that endured by anyone she's ever been associated with for failing to publicly cancel their friend over a single misstep.

ContraPoints never asked to be on a pedestal, but that's where society puts marginalised voices when they speak up, expecting them to now act as a token representation of their entire community. (She has repeatedly said she doesn't want this.) A single crack in that pedestal gets the hatred they endure amplified, and now not only are they not the best, goodest angel in the world, they're the worst evil demon bitch monster who must be destroyed. This is purity politics and it's shit for everyone involved, especially since it almost always targets people who are actually trying, and it disproportionately affects marginalised voices rather than hegemonic normies. Has anyone cancelled Brad Pitt for, I don't know, not going out of his way to speak up for gay rights and Black Lives Matter or something? No. Even Stephen King has to say the literal bare minimum of "trans women are women" for people to clap and hail him as a hero despite a long history of being a bumbling boomer with foot-in-mouth disease.