Terrible, Beautiful Sparks in Space

how to manage your money so you aren't broke at 40

In 2021, Swarovski (the company that makes the very sparkly crystals you see in certain jewelry, on figure-skaters' twinkliest outfits, on red carpet dresses), decided they didn't want the grubby fingers of small-time jewelers, clothing designers and costumers and crafters on their shiny beads and rhinestones anymore. They decided to limit their sales to "luxury" and couture creators, not girls who sell stuff on Etsy. The tenor of their press release on the subject was snide and insulting. Resellers (like your favorite bead shop) would no longer be allowed to carry their product; the average Jane on the street would not be able to purchase them. You could only get them if you had an authorized business agreement that bound you to very strict brand behavior. And those of us who still had good stock of the crystals would no longer be "permitted" to use the brand's name in our listings for sale.

Every bead shop and craft supply place and many, many small clothing makers--wedding shops, prom and dancing dress suppliers, the sort of salt of the Earth mom and pop time machines of shops that are the backbone of the field--scrambled to find something that could replace them. The last of the stock dwindled quickly, all of us grabbing what we could get while there was any chance of it, and then it was gone and we no longer had any access.

I was Big Pissed about it at the time. It was just so goddamn stuck-up, when wholesalers and indie jewelers had made them so much money, when some people I knew--when *I!*--had been brand-loyal for decades. But with no recourse, everyone pivoted fairly quickly, most of us to Preciosa Crystals. Those are Czech, quite sparkly, and considerably less expensive than Swarovski. The faceting method they use is different, but not worse; any differences are hardly noticeable when you're seeing them as a hundred pinpoints of light.

Well, out of nowhere, Swarovski just dropped this: https://www.harmanbeads.com/swarovski-brand-policy-update

"Effective June 1, 2026, Swarovski updated the distribution and brand usage policies introduced in 2021. Businesses may now purchase Swarovski Crystals without signing a Brand Control Agreement, and Authorized Distribution Partners may once again sell Swarovski Crystals to resellers, including bead stores and online retailers. Businesses may also use the Swarovski brand name when following Swarovski’s Proper Use Guidelines. Designers, manufacturers, artists, brands, retailers, and resellers are now eligible to purchase Swarovski Crystals through authorized distribution channels."

They want us back. A lot of the companies who could have kept a brand relationship with them also have swapped to Preciosa, over the last half-decade, in solidarity with indie creators and out of a sour awareness that it could be them, next. And it doesn't hurt that Preciosa was able to expand their line quite a bit now that everyone who wanted sparkle had no choice but to go to them.

And I'm not seeing nearly anyone who intends to return. The feeling is, "Y'all told us to fuck off! Off we fucked! And now, that's what you can do, too!" I'm seeing a lot of "How many of us did you stab in the back?" comments from the people whose money they're hoping to attract.

cost of education acting as class barrier

exploitation of graduate workers

colonialist past and present

ties to military industrial complex

danger of power structure entrenching and justifying orthodox views on social issues

criticisms of academia that get made:

An interesting game where you are presented with 10 artifacts from the MET. You have to place where the artifact is from and what time period it is from. Each artifact scores up to 10,000 points, and you lose points the further away your guess is and how far off in time you are. You can only play once a day. Thanks to @baebeylik for showing this to me.

Today I scored really well. Yesterday ... not so much.

Basically, Mr grifter announced that he might be getting into the collecting side of yugioh, which would lead to the scalping hell that now plagues the Pokémon and One Piece TCGs

As a joke, MBTYugioh gave them pointers on what to “invest in”, recommending some of the WORST shit products that this game released in the years

He then followed up with a tongue-in-cheek, clearly trolling video recommending shit like Legendary Duelists sets, Duelist of Deep and Synchro Storm, and the Platinum cards, and exclusive COINS before ending the video with “Don’t invest in yugioh. You will lose money due to this game’s reprint policies”

Like, it was very obvious for anyone with half-a-brain cell and is familiar with Yugioh that the video is a joke

BUT a bunch of scalping bots took the video at face value and bought out these doodoo, worthless products immediately after his fuckass video came out

The Worm

The Stack

The Notifications

The Aloe Plant

The Lotion

The Comments

The Haters

The Plug

Juice

The Cashier

WTF!!

Cables

The ATM

Insomnia

Hydration

The Washer

The Baggie

The Nap

The Clown

The Application

Media

oh! the space needle is a cute mascot base for seattle’s MLB team! i wonder how they managed to communicate that in a big foam costume?

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Louis: Does he ask our pity? He can walk in the sunlight, whereas we, foul creatures of darkness as we are, are forever barred from God’s kindly li –

"The Daleks" 10/10 Yep that's them.

"The Dalek Invasion of Earth" 8/10 Just a little marked down because the story isn't about the Invasion per se. That already happened. "The Dalek Occupation of Earth" would be more precise.

"The Chase" 9/10 It is about that but that is also a game show.

"The Daleks' Master Plan" 7/10 They're doing a bunch of stuff in this. The title implies only one plan. Need more clarification.

"Power of the Daleks" 10/10 great double meaning

"The Evil of the Daleks" 7/10 not wrong but also any Dalek story could be called this.

"Day of the Daleks" 5/10 There are at least two different days in play in this story.

"Planet of the Daleks" 3/10 That would be Skaro actually, whereas this takes place on Spiridon

"Death to the Daleks" 6/10 I like the imperative voice here but the story fails to deliver on this intention.

"Genesis of the Daleks" 10/10 That is exactly what happens.

"Destiny of the Daleks" 2/10 bears very little relation to anything going on here. Fundamentally a backward-looking story, and these sleepy ramshackle Daleks don't seem destined for much of anything, frankly.

"Resurrection of the Daleks" 2/10 Really misses the mark. There is a resurrection in this story but it's pretty unambiguously not of the Daleks. "Resurrection of Davros" would be a more accurate title. Or even better "The Resurrection of Davros by the Coward Eric Saward"

"Revelation of the Daleks" 2/10 Once again the verb in the title is fulfilled by Davros, not the Daleks! Sure hope someone got fired for that blunder!

"Remembrance of the Daleks" 4/10 Not much better I'm afraid. It is a nostalgic story so Remembrance is at least vaguely relevant, but it's not really the Daleks either being remembered or doing the remembering.

"Dalek" 10/10. Clean, simple, right on the money. That's a Dalek alright.

"Bad Wolf". 3/10 And we whiff it again. While the phrase "Bad Wolf" is indeed central to the cliffhanger reveal, it's not related to the Daleks, or to anything at all. It's a self-fulfilling tautology. The actual words are irrelevant. Could have been anything.

"The Parting of the Ways" 9/10 now this is more like it. Not only are there multiple partings of ways between multiple characters, every atom in every Dalek parts ways from every other! That's so much parting!

"Doomsday" 6/10 Again points off for vagueness. This could be about anything.

"Daleks in Manhattan" 10/10 There they are!

"Evolution of the Daleks" 8/10 doesn't succeed but that is what they're going for

"The Stolen Earth" 9/10 Yep that happens!

"Journey's End" 4/10 Come on. Literally the only person whose "Journey" Ends is Donna and that of course gets reversed. Vague and inaccurate.

"Victory of the Daleks" 5/10 sure they achieve their stayed goal in this one episode but thats pretty well undermined by the fact that nobody likes these Daleks and they get retconned out of existence within a couple years

"Asylum of the Daleks" 9/10 Straightforward. Only knocking a point off because there doesn't seem to be much mental health care going on here

"Into the Dalek" 10/10 that is what happens!

The Magician's Apprentice 4/10 We're stretching here. Name based on a one-time gag and not related to the Daleks anyway

The Witch's Familiar 6/10 this one is set up better but still isn't about Daleks

"Resolution" 7/10 A New Year's Resolution is made! But it's something the Doctor would have done anyway

"Revolution of the Daleks" 0/10 This is complete nonsense. The Daleks are cops and then the other Daleks come in to be cops to the cop Daleks. Nothing is revolutionary about this. Nothing

"Eve of the Daleks" 9/10 Yeah this one works. It's New Year's Eve and there's Daleks.

Evil of the Daleks: title clearly a reference to the Dalek Factor which is, indeed, the distilled 'evil' of the Daleks. Deserves to be bumped up.

Remembrance of the Daleks: I believe this one is actually using a more archaic sense of the word 'remembrance':

Something which serves to remember; a memento, a memorial, a souvenir, a token; a memorandum or note of something to be remembered.