loverboy

one’s character has no impact on whether they were/are a victim or not, victim status is not something that is only afforded to the palatable.

It can also be found on Google Drive here and on Bluesky here.

I understand why comphet Margaret is such a popular HC, but personally as a woman who on occasion dates men there's something very important to me personally about her attraction to men being genuine (standard disclaimer of Interpret Her However You Want These Are My Personal Thoughts On Things)

Margaret's arc is largely about the balance between being a compassionate and loving person who has a lot of warmth, and being someone who wants and demands respect. This is reflected in both her relationships and her career. The fact that neither the men she wants to be with nor the army let her have both.

There's something really painful about wanting to connect with someone, to share intimacy, and to have a sexual relationship, and knowing that in having that you are expected to give up being treated with respect and dignity. The men she loves and wants to be seen by as an equal cannot do both. She wants to believe men can both love & respect her because she wants a loving relationship as an equal but they constantly let her down.

Note from Janet: “Baby Tim went to wake up Jack, but ended up falling asleep while trying.”

This reminds me of a story...

In the social media boom of the 2010s, I was a social media professional (a new career thanks to this very tumblr account and a short-lived career because I like my mental health).

Back then, it was obvious what platforms companies needed to be on: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. Becase that’s where their customers and potential customers were.

Then, there came a rumbling through the profession. Our colleagues were told we had to be on Google+, it was going to be the new king social platform.

A lot of social media pros got their companies or clients to jump in with both feet. Some of us, however, took a beat and asked a simple question: “Who told you Google+ was necessary?"

We asked this because it felt like the reverse process of what had come before. Previous platforms grew into something first. No one could have predicted what a cultural juggernaut Tumblr became, the result of a sense of community among the users that formed organically and was fostered by the staff. Twitter started as a place where people dropped clever one-line jokes and became the largest and most critical breaking news outlet in the world (RIP Twitter).

But, in the case of Google+, no one seemed to be rushing to the platform. The user base was nearly non-existent. Yet, the buzz that it would be the next big thing was loud and, for that reason, many comapnies started official accounts and shifted a part of their social strategy to the platform. But still, if the numbers weren’t there, who was saying this?

The source of this new push to join Google+, it turned out, inevitably led back to Google. Yes, upper level Google staff had been telling tech bros, investors, and tastemakers Google+ was the future of social media. That trickled down to us plebes, the ones who would dutifully fulfill the prophecy.

Needless to say, it wasn’t the future of social media. It was a trainwreck that saw its few actual users spend 3-5 seconds per day on the platform compared to the hours per day people spent on Facebook.

Now, the “buyer’s remorse” over AI we’re seeing from all of these corporations feels very similar. It’s not users saying we need AI in every goddamn fucking thing, it’s AI companies. They're pushing a product tech overlords claim is the solution to a host of non-existent problems. And the companies got in line.

The difference this time is two-fold: Us plebes and commoners are fighting back and the companies that bought in are losing money. (At least a Google+ account was free.)

But, the truly shocking revelation is how fucking gullible these big CEOs are. They were told by AI salesmen that their already successful product will only continue to succeed if they bake in AI.

And what happened? One super fun example is how Google touted themselves as the best search engine in the world. Now, the first result on any search is an AI summary, followed with this warning in very small print:

That seems like a pretty clear admission that Google is not a reliable search engine any more.

So, I guess the moral of this story is: If you want to sell something for millions of dollars that no one needs, talk to a CEO.

it's the same as when Ruthye begs to be let out of the cage and talk to Krem, crying and begging please I don't want to die please I'll be good I'll be so good just don't let me die I'm small I'm harmless I'm a little girl I can't hurt you please and then she beats the crap out of the guard

and he paused for a second and then said, “when you’ve been taught from a young age that crying is weak and you should train yourself never to cry for any reason, you assume that everyone else has trained themselves too, so anyone who cries has to be doing it on purpose. it took me a long time to realize that wasn’t true.”

Happy birthday to Lyudmila Pavlichenko (born July 12, 1916), Soviet sniper in World War II, with 309 confirmed kills.