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Katherina

@kathysly

I managed to completely forget that the new season of The Witcher was coming out today

I was like wow lots of new gifs on the dash today, did they release a new trailer?

NOPE

I love the generational gap between emoji usage. Anyone over 50 sees 🙃 and thinks "silly time! whee 🙃", whereas the rest of us immediately hear, verbatim, "they ask you how you are, and you just have to say that you're fine, when you're not really fine, but you just can't get into it because they would ne--"

Flying the flag upside down is a distress signal

it bears repeating in a more gentle manner but in the nicest way possible, there is a really issue with discrepancy when you talk about issues happening in different countries. when it’s anti-trans/gay laws in north america and western europe, it becomes “genocide”. when other countries, like mine, have jail and death penalties for being gay explicitly, it becomes a matter of “oh it’s illegal there” and sometimes, insidiously, “that’s just how they are, they’re less progressive.” and i need you all to know this is white supremacy talking and i, a gay person living in a country under the threat of death penalty, am as much of a victim as you are.

"And in an instant I understood. There’s no… difference between the present and the future, no other me that will suffer the indignity of death while I live on. It’s all a single moment, and there’s… there’s no difference between that last moment that ushers us out into oblivion and the one we experience now."

-Mag 094-Dead Woman Walking; Statment of Georgina Barker

i've gotten so used to getting my news for the fucking destiel meme especially in the last week that my first reaction to seeing this

is to say "oh no" out loud to my empty room

yeah yeah opening a fic and "he would not fucking say that" but what about you open the fic and "he would fucking say that". what about that pure feeling of euphoria when it's exactly right the way you like it

personally i think there should have been at least one episode where sokka collects aang and zuko and is like, “looks like we’re running low on supplies.  time for a GUYS-ONLY field trip.  three days of hunting and fishing and polishing our swords.  y’know, manly warrior stuff.  (aang, sotto voce: actually sokka i’m a vegetarian as you know–)  you girls have fun sitting around braiding your hair and talking about your crushesand then the entire episode is just zuko and sokka lying around by a river, plucking blades of grass and staring up at the stars confiding in each other their deepest feelings and most secret insecurities while aang braids flower crowns, and whenever the screen cuts back to katara and toph and suki, they’re fighting and screaming and hacking away at river pirates and evil spirits and legions of assassins and hired mercenaries with swords.  you know, as girls do.

and when the boys finally drag themselves back to camp (they stayed up way too late discussing what true leadership really means and whether or not power always corrupts)  they find suki and toph and katara lounging around with black eyes and fresh bruises and bloodstained weapons and sokka shrieks, “what were you guys DOING while we were gone???”  and karata just shugs innocently and says in her sweetest voice, “oh, you know.  just girly things”

they are absolutely still wearing the crowns and they don’t have a single fish to show for their efforts

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i did it

Does anyone have an update on where things are at with the writers strike? It's disappeared from my various feeds and algorithms.

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The writers' strike is ongoing and the studios are still not returning to the negotiating table. Unfortunately a lot of the coverage has tapered off because we're on 50+ days of striking and it's not new anymore. The last strike in 2007 lasted 100 days, so don't be surprised if this strike lasts as long, or even longer.

The biggest recent news is that the Directors' Guild of America (DGA) voted to ratify their new agreement with the studios (article from June 23), and it appears likely that the actors' guild (SAG-AFTRA) will also take a deal instead of striking (article from June 24). Although this is disappointing news, it's completely expected. During previous strikes, the WGA held its own without other unions going on strike. Which is to say—don't be disheartened by the news that there won't be a triple strike. The WGA is strong enough!

Please keep vocally supporting the WGA online to keep the pressure on the studios & to keep WGA members motivated and encouraged! There are many ongoing donation drives, such as the Star Trek fan snack squad (Twitter account required to DM the organizer) and the Our Flag Means Death snack squad (opens the PayPal fundraising page—no Twitter required). There's a longer list of ongoing donation drives here.

The Entertainment Community Fund is also always accepting donations to support entertainment workers affected by the strike. Please boost and encourage your friends to keep supporting the strike. Hashtag #IStandWithTheWGA #DoTheWriteThing to boost the cause!

Hi, WGA strike captain here, and I just want to say that the other unions taking contracts is NOT disappointing news. I feel like a lot of people are forgetting that the point of this isn’t to take a strike, it’s to get a good deal.

DGA, we can quibble over whether it’s a good deal or not. (I personally think everyone got too excited about a triple strike summer and forgot that the DGA was simply never going to strike)

But SAG-AFTRA? They got an absolutely killer strike authorization vote. They walked into negotiations with a loaded gun. That plus the fact that with everything shut down most actors aren’t working right now anyway, their leadership is incentivized to hold out for a deal with everything they want in it. Many of those demands overlap with ours, especially concerns about AI, which SAG membership is VERY fired up about.

If SAG gets a great deal with everything they want, then that’s GOOD for us. If the AMPTP were still fucking with them the way they fucked with us, “rejected our offer, refused to counter,” then that means the AMPTP isn’t feeling the pain of strike and doesn’t care how long this strike goes and is happy to stonewall indefinitely. But if they’re giving into the actors? Fuckkkk they’re hurting and this means they might actually come back to the table with us and negotiate in good faith finally. And if SAG gets strong language about AI, you bet your ass we’re going to argue for the same thing.

The DGA built on the writers strike to get a better deal. SAG is hopefully building on the writers strike and what DGA got to get an even better deal. And we’re hopefully going to build on our strike and what DGA and SAG got to get an even better deal. We’re all working together!

The point is not to strike, the point is to get a good deal. I think SAG will, and in my opinion that’s a massive win for us.

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"Stop saying 15 year olds with weird interests are cringe, they're 15" this is true however you should also stop saying adults with weird interests are cringe because who gives a shit

To wit:

I want to share some wisdom from my high school art teacher.

In my AP Art class, there was a girl who was just starting to experiment with mixed media. At this point she was still playing around, trying to decide what direction she wanted to go with her portfolio. So one critique day, she brought in an abstract canvas with some rhinestone highlights and painted and real peacock feathers. She loved sparkles and peacock feathers so she thought she’d try introducing them a *little*. And after everyone had given some input, the teacher gave her his advice, VERY roughly paraphrased here:

“So here’s the thing… I do not like this style. These are just elements that do not speak to me personally, but I see that you like them, and you’re doing interesting things with them.

“My biggest critique is, I only merely *dislike* this piece. I want you to make me HATE it. Go crazy with the things that you like. Don’t hold back trying to make it palatable to people like me. Because I am NEVER going to like it. And if the audience does not like it, it should drive them crazy seeing how much YOU love it.”

Her portfolio was chock full of neon colors and glitter and rhinestones and splashes of peacock feathers and it was a delight. Our teacher despised every piece lol, but she got great marks and I think even won some awards. And more importantly, she was happy and proud of the results. Because she didn’t limit herself by trying to appeal to people who were never going to enjoy what she enjoyed.

Takeaway here: be as cringe as you want. Don’t limit yourself based on other ppl’s tastes. They’re not you, and you are incredible 💕