happy lunar new year !!
The Cloud Buns wish you a Year of the Rabbit filled with Good Fortune, Prosperity and Happiness! 🐇🐰
For people who don't know: despite what you might see on social media, Year of the Hare/Rabbit hasn't started yet. This is because CNY/LNY goes by the Chinese Lunar Calendar, NOT the Gregorian calendar. It will start in about 3 weeks. CNY/LNY of 2023 is on January 22.
On the Chinese Lunar Calendar, today (12/31/2022) is the Ninth Day of the Twelfth Month in the year Renyin (壬寅年腊月初九). Due to time zone differences, in China right now it's 1/1/2023 so it's Tenth Day of the Twelfth Month in the year Renyin (壬寅年腊月初十). We are still in the Twelfth Month, not even at half yet.
#celebrating the new year during a never ending pandemic like
HOME ALONE 2: LOST IN NEW YORK 1992 | dir. Chris Columbus
Fanfiction Authors: HEADS UP
(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)
An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:
(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)
I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:
IF YOU ARE A FANFIC AUTHOR WITH LONG AND/OR POPULAR WORKS, PLEASE CHECK AMAZON TO SEE IF YOUR STORIES HAVE BEEN PIRATED.
You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:
HOW TO FILE A COPYRIGHT COMPLAINT FOR STOLEN WORK ON AMAZON.COM:
First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.
- Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.
- Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.
- In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.
- In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:
I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.
- In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.
- Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.
Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!
NOTE: All of the above also applies to Amazon products featuring stolen artwork, etc., so fan artists should check too!
transgambit
Idk if they did this in the USA too, but in the netherlands they set up a sound system on a Dominos pizza scooter and everytime it drove it would make sounds like mmmmmMMMM Dominos! mmmMMMM tasty tasty (in dutch that's lekker lekker) mmmmMMMM PIZZA! and if it was waiting with the motor running it'd go dominosdominosdominosdominos all in a human voice
i read this message in the middle of the night and legit thought i was imagining it
transgambit
i keep thinking about thjs and laughing ao hard my stomach hurts
here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n17B_uFF4cA
for the love of god please watch the video i am in stiches
did strong bad make this
I lost it at the video but then got to the strongbad comment and I’m still laughing as I type this, omg
Art installation called ‘Dancing Souls’ | source
Immediately reminded me of this scene:
I’m just saying...
According to Know Your Meme, on August 18th, 2005, Erwin Beekveld brought forth this work into the world. HAPPY TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY, THEY’RE TAKING THE HOBBITS TO ISENGARD.
sheds a single tear
every august 18th my notifications break and i go, fuck, tumblr has failed me once again, but it hasn’t. it hasn’t failed me. it’s just the taking the hobbits to isengard-iversary. happy 12 years
a very important holiday amongst my people
FIFTEEN YEARS BABY
HELL YEAH 🤘🤘🤘
Well…….it’s back. I still love this.
Year 17 of this epicness. I will reblog this every year.
god i fucking love venn diagrams
I cackled so hard at this! I love it!
Rest in peace Nichelle Nichols, December 28th 1932- July 31st 2022
“Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away. Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration.” - nichellenicholsofficial
To the woman that inspired countless girls and people of color, we will never forget you.
You will always be in our hearts.
Thank you for going where no woman had gone before.
Nichelle Nichols 1932- 2022
Absolute sweetheart, I’ll never be over him, my unquestionable favorite. Happy birthday, Luo Yunxi. <3 罗云熙, 生日快乐. <3
I doubt we might get Force Ghost Qui-Gon Jinn…
…BECAUSE I’M ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED WE WILL GET FORCE GHOST QUI-GON JINN. IT’S JUST A MATTER OF WHEN!
Obi-Wan has been asking for his Master repeatedly. He keeps asking for him. An episode began with him asking for his Master. The very opening recap of this emotional masterpiece-mess included Yoda telling Obi-Wan “in your solitude on Tatooine, training I have for you” and they kept going with mentioning that whole thing with “how to commune with him.” Obi-Wan hasn’t called upon the Force in ten years now, but he clearly has called for his Master.
Nothing will convince me that writers, director, actors, everyone involved is going to continually feature Obi-Wan calling for Qui-Gon’s guidance, advice, or just him, and NOT deliver the payoff for this. It’s GOING to happen. We know we’re going to get that moment that will make us all burst into insta-sobs. We just don’t know when. It could be the opening scene of the next episode. It could be the very last scene of the entire series (would it be amazing if Obi-Wan FINALLY hearing his Master’s voice in the final scene and THAT is what renews Obi-Wan’s faith, not just in his purpose, his life, but also in the Force itself? I think him hearing Qui-Gon again will be the spark to rekindle hope in Obi-Wan and give him the strength, guidance, and surety to carry on and turn him into the Obi-Wan we see when he howls like a krayt dragon in the Junland Wastes to rescue Luke!)! Force Ghost Qui-Gon could appear ANYWHERE between the opening of the next episode and the very last moments of the series, and it doesn’t matter.
I’m TELLING YOU, IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN! We (and Obi-Wan) WILL get Force Ghost Qui-Gon. It’s just a matter of when now. And I think we’re all simultaneously completely ready and not ready at all for that scene.
After last week’s episode, I’m just more and more certain it’s going to happen.
Just thinking about how Obi-Wan hasn’t used the Force for the last ten years until he softened Leia’s fall and he looked not only like he was struggling to call on the Force, but also that to do so after so long without it physically, mentally, psychologically hurt him…It just hurts the viewers to put all of that together. His shame is so great at his perceived failure and guilt with Anakin and the Fall of the Jedi Order and Rise of the Empire. None of these are his fault, but Obi-Wan carries the guilt and shame of the entire galaxy on his shoulders and spirit to his detriment and harm. Because of that guilt and shame, his self-inflicted punishment is not to touch the Force, because when he did so, he brought about so much pain. Therefore, his pain is nothing if he could bear it in place of those left. He cuts himself off from everything and everyone, and not only because he is in exile, but from so much of himself and the very core and essence of who and what he is: Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
“It’s just Ben, now.” While we all love Hermit Ben Kenobi, crazy old wizard of the Junland Waste and the Dune Sea, this is not who he is fundamentally. He is Obi-Wan Kenobi, a person and name he hasn’t felt truly like (already) “in a long time.” He even tells Bail that he isn’t the same person he knew.
Because he’s not! This isn’t Obi-Wan Kenobi. This is a man who is living in darkness for the last ten years. This is a man who hasn’t touched the Force in the last ten years. This is a man who, while he tells Leia that feeling the Force is like the feeling of safety when turning on a light in the darkness. He can tell her this, but it is even sadder to realize that he hasn’t felt that safety, that security, and that calm peace because he has been living in darkness. That is why he is insistent on “it’s Ben now.” Not entirely because he is trying to hide, but because he no longer feels like himself, he no longer recognizes himself, and therefore can’t call himself Obi-Wan Kenobi.
And THAT is why he hasn’t been able to commune with his Master. That is why Qui-Gon hasn’t answered him yet. Maybe a part of Obi-Wan feared succeeding in contacting his Master again. If Obi-Wan only sees everything as his fault, as his failure, as his guilt to bear, he couldn’t bear it if Qui-Gon agreed with that. While he is calling out for his Master’s guidance and help in the voice of a young, lost Padawan, he doesn’t truly want an answer. And he wouldn’t get one since he clearly hasn’t been reaching or calling Qui-Gon by touching the Force and connecting to his Master through the Force. Doing so would be too painful, too agonizing, especially if Qui-Gon agreed with his own poor self-image of guilt, shame, and failure.
But this last episode, we see Ben visually look a little bit more like Obi-Wan in his clothing. We see Ben touch the Force with less painful backlash, coming closer to Obi-Wan’s control of the Force. We see Ben shakily remember his lightsaber technique and posture and gain a little bit more of Obi-Wan’s skill and confidence again. We see Ben arrive to save Leia in a room shrouded in darkness and light up his saber in that darkness to literally become the brightest thing in the room not only for Leia but for himself. That moment is Ben finally taking a huge step (literally and figuratively) out of the darkness he’d been suffocating himself with and into the light again. We are watching Ben regain the hope Obi-Wan lost. We are watching Ben become Obi-Wan again.
And only when this happens, only when Ben becomes Obi-Wan again, the embodiment of Hope and Light, will he FINALLY get an answer to his repeated, “Master Qui-Gon? Master?”
The Kenobi finale is tomorrow, and if I don’t get to see Force Ghost Qui-Gon Jinn, I will lose my mind..
...and if we finally DO get to see Force Ghost Qui-Gon Jinn, I will lose my mind in a completely different way...like an instant-endlessly-sobbing kind of way.
Either way: I’m not ready at all!
If you’re over 30 and write and/or read fan fiction, reblog!