For Love of Writing

"It's really easy to get elected to the county board of supervisors because nobody thinks those elections are important, but actually they're responsible for all kinds of critical stuff, like the water supply for the whole area. If you want an easy in to concrete political power, run for the board of supervisors."

Amazon made their service worse, to force people to pay for Prime.

Nowadays, if you order from Amazon, there is a week long delay before your package is shipped. (on purpose)

I remember when orders would ship out the same day. (I remember - it was real)

YouTube didn't used to have ads. Now, ads play in the middle of videos. (it's worse than TV ever was)

The best can opener I have owned is over 40 years old. Modern ones just don't hold up as well. (The ones I bought new broke ages ago)

The bread machine my mom got for her wedding lasted 30 years. It's been replaced twice in the last 5 years. (How can you fuck this up?)

The cardboard tubes in the middle of toilet paper rolls have gotten larger. (This too?) Companies increasing the price of the product while selling you less. (REALLY?)

It sounds crazy. (it's the truth) When you talk about it, YOU sound crazy. (it's true)

Even when people believe you (do they really), all they can say is "it sucks". (it's too big) Because the problem is so big, so pervasive, what can we even DO about it???

To get the necessary laws written and passed, we need politicians, to get the politicians elected we need information campaigns, to fund campaigns we need money, and all the money is being hoarded by the people profiting from enshittification. (it sounds so fake)

This stuff was at its peak in 2023 when my last business of ferrets got old and Tux was dying of kidney failure and Kit was dying of IBD. Nothing radicalizes you more than buying the exact same brand of paper towels (Bounty, which I've ragequit), using the exact same amount, and suddenly having diarrhea soak onto your fingers every time because the paper towels are now only 60% as thick as they were last week. And this stuff has just continued since then.

It's sometimes shocking to me how many people don't notice the degradation of quality. (I have a food allergy so I have to check food labels every time; I know a lot of people don't.)

That's it. That's my answer. Endor.

THIS.  Not only is Barbossa far more of a Proper (Cinematic) Pirate than Jack (with the outgrown Errol Flynn hair to prove it!), but he absolutely plays the role of Hades in Curse of the Black Pearl.

While Elizabeth first boards the Black Pearl (here functioning as both Hades’ chariot and Charon’s ferry) more or less voluntarily, Barbossa/Hades does indeed kidnap her and take her to the “land of the dead”—the Isla de Muerta.  The Black Pearl also serves as a kind of limbo, holding men halfway between death and life.  Much like Pluto of old, CotBP!Barbossa is strongly associated with both wealth and death, even more so than the other pirates.  When they get to the “Underworld”, we see that the cursed crew members require a blood sacrifice to regain (permanent) corporeality, paralleling the shades Odysseus encounters who require blood to regain the ability to speak (Odyssey 11.24-50).

By the time At World’s End rolls around, Elizabeth has begun to catch up to Barbossa in terms of piracy and command.  She visits another, more literal Underworld at Barbossa’s side; he knows the way, and she has more than learned from her previous experiences.  It was Elizabeth thinking more piratically—thinking like Barbossa—that made the trip to the Locker necessary, after all.

In the end, she eclipses Barbossa in power and is crowned King, with her own beloved ferrying souls between worlds as she sails the seven seas.  Like Persephone, Elizabeth straddles worlds and holds power in both, and it was Barbossa/Hades who first helped her get there.

I’ll blame a lot of factors for why people don’t really seem to understand the dynamics of these four characters. First of all, Jack is not the protagonist (the failing of OST is, in my opinion, that they forgot this little detail). Will and Elizabeth are the protagonists. Jack and Barbossa are secondary supporting characters, whose purpose in the plot is to drive the development of those two. Their influences on Will and Elizabeth are very specific. And when you analyze the relationships, you definitely see a very distinct pairing up. Will and Jack, Elizabeth and Barbossa.

Will needed Jack, because Will needed to learn how to put himself first sometimes, needed to learn to see things from more than one angle and that things aren’t as black and white as they seem. Will needed to see someone strange and confident and dangerous who could inexplicably do good things, who had a good heart (and, originally, Jack absolutely did; the fourth and fifth movies absolutely decimated this aspect of his character, and I will die mad about it) but was still able to be a little selfish. Because Will? Will had no concept of selfishness. Will was perfectly ready to sit and pine over Elizabeth for the rest of his life, to let a lazy, sloppy drunk take credit for all his hard work, to fade into the background and let life happen around him. That was how things were supposed to be. That was how the world worked. Black and white. Right and wrong. At least once more, Miss Swann, as always. I practice three hours a day so that when I meet a pirate, I can kill it. My father was a good man. Will is a good man, but he needs to learn to be a bit of a pirate. A bit selfish. A bit dangerous. And in the end, Will is cursed to captain the Dutchman, a twisted take on the immortality Jack has sought. His companions are dead men, his ship is a ghost. He is a legend. So, in a way, he surpasses Jack.

Elizabeth, though? Elizabeth had no need for lessons on shades of grey. Elizabeth likes pirate stories. Elizabeth loves the blacksmith’s apprentice, and flirts openly with him in front of her own father. Elizabeth is constrained, not by her desires, but by her station, by expectations. By love for her father, because it’s obvious in the film that her desire to please him is out of love, not obligation. What Elizabeth needs is to be shown how to take what you want. How to choose the rules you wish to follow, and hang the rest. She’s a natural leader, born into a world where no one would ever let her lead. Jack is a lot of things, but a leader, he is not. He inspires no loyalty, except in the form of debts to be paid. He keeps secrets from his crew, tells them nothing, trusts no one, and in return no one trusts him. Barbossa, meanwhile, was able to win over all but one member of Jack’s own crew and get them to turn on him. Barbossa had these men follow him for ten years, trusting that in the end, he would save them. Barbossa inspires confidence. He’s honest with his men, and honestly no crueler than is necessary to keep pirates in line. This is why Elizabeth is the King, because she respected Barbossa, watched him, learned from him. And, yes, surpassed him.