#lizzy chrome

For those who haven't heard, YouTube is becoming increasingly frustrating for creators, to the point of being almost unusable (sometimes literally, if you violate guidelines even by mistake).

First, censorship is getting downright ludicrous. Have you wondered why so many YouTubers are using the phrase "un-alived" in their videos? It's because the word "kill" can get you penalized now. As well as even more random words, like "hacking." That's not even mentioning the fickle algorithms and bot-moderators that seemingly flag content almost at random. How some "vulgar" videos and creators have managed to stay up remains a mystery, but it seems to be a coin toss of sheer luck with the mod-bots. And that's just the icing on the cake.

If your video or entire channel is demonetized, shadow-banned, or ban-banned, appealing the decision often takes months. Getting a human to look at your case is nearly impossible. And even if you succeed and do get your video/channel back, it could happen all over again at the drop of a pin.

Worse, if your YouTube account gets in trouble, it can unfairly affect other people. I recently read an account on Reddit by someone who was permanently banned from YouTube, because they logged into their account using a laptop belonging to a relative who'd gotten himself banned, and the YouTube bots thought it was the relative ban-evading. Other people have been banned for "containing content from a banned channel." Even if they didn't. (What if you just upload a clip from a movie or video game, that some banned person had also uploaded their own clip of?) This kind of Big Brother monitoring is also making some creators uncomfortable.

Long story short, I'm having serious second-thoughts about relying on YouTube to host my videos, particularly where they involve my face, my voice, or other people's artwork. Generic fan re-cuts and music videos are another story. I'll probably still post those. But the more serious creative videos, I'm less certain about when it comes to YouTube.

My own website:

I've never made my own website before, but I've been planning to get around to it for years. My original plan was to wait until I was selling art regularly and/or after I'd published something. But now, I just want to have a place to host my own content, on my own terms. The focus would be artwork, writing, and creative videos.

I'm uncertain how monetizing said website would work, but I do know that you can design a site so that only certain parts of it are monetized, while other parts are not. I would not monetize the videos that your artwork appears in, or the page of the website that they appear on.

Other video-sharing sites:

I'm not likely to go near TikTok, for the various controversies and risks involved. I'm also staying far away from Odysee, after checking the site out for myself and being absolutely disgusted by the racism and hate-speech.

Sites I am likely to share the videos on:

Vimeo

Dailymotion

Instagram

Bluesky

Facebook

Tumblr

Mastodon (maybe)

X (Very big "maybe")

Please let me know if there is any popular video-sharing site where you wouldn't want me sharing the video(s) featuring your art.

By the late 1910s, poor Cindy is struggling to maintain the hope that she promised her parents she'd never give up, as she is worked to exhaustion by her abusive stepfamily. With the limitations placed on both the poor and women, she knows that her only realistic way out of this hellhole is through marriage. With her natural beauty and charm, she’s confident she could score a wealthy man, if she just had some way of worming herself into one of those upper-class social gatherings...and into something nice to wear. It seems impossible... But then Cindy starts to notice some surprising upgrades in her stepfamily's lives. She's carrying and cleaning luxury items that would be pricey even for her filthy-rich relatives. Without revealing how much she's learning, Cindy gradually worms information from her stepmother and stepsisters about how they're affording all these things, and becomes familiar with the growing system of Credit—"Buy now, pay later." Credit Unions have been opened since the early 1900s, and as of 1914, Western Union and some department stores have begun issuing the first ever credit cards. The doorway Cindy needs to set her plan in motion has just opened before her, like magic. 

While out running errands, Cindy looks around and realizes that social mobility is exploding all around her. Immigrants are fleeing persecution and starting new lives here in America. The African American community is undergoing a cultural revolution of art and music. The number of high school students in the country has doubled, and more and more of them are going on to college. To top it all off, women are finally about to win the right to vote.

Relying heavily on the advice of magazine columnist “the Fairy Godmother,” Cindy learns that the most important thing in winning over others is “it,” and all “it” is, is confidence. Clara Bow demonstrates on the silent screen, and Cindy practices dancing to the radio whenever her step-family isn’t looking (much to the chagrin of her rodent friends, who scramble to get out of her way). “It” finally all pays off when the most eligible bachelor in Manhattan throws a Gatsby-worthy New Year's ball at his mansion, on the eve of Prohibition. This December 31 of 1919, Charles "Charming" Prince's courtyard is lined with pumpkins full of alcohol that will only be legal for a few more hours.  The party is a wild display of extravagance and decadence that Jay Gatsby would envy. But the most enthusiastic dancer is a girl who no one knows. She must come from an incredibly wealthy background, with all her extravagant jewels and sequins. She belts it out on top of the pumpkin kegs to the roaring cheers of guests and servants alike, kicking her heels in a pair of art-deco glass shoes. The smitten heir jumps up onto the pumpkins to dance with her, and suddenly Cindy forgets all about money.

In the crowd below, Cindy’s stepmother narrows her eyes suspiciously, while her two daughters burry their heads in some pumpkin kegs.

Before Charming can get the girl’s name, the clock strikes midnight…and an ambush of FBI agents burst from their hiding places around the mansion’s grounds, hollering, “This is a raid!” Prohibition is now officially in effect. Feathers and sequins fly through the air as guests tear across the courtyard. Coppers are hacking the pumpkin kegs to pieces with axes, spilling their contents onto the brick paths below. Cindy’s stepmother tries to bribe the police lieutenant, while the stepsisters catch booze from the wrecked pumpkins in their bucket hats.  Charming searches frantically for his dance partner, but Cindy has already taken off in her rented limo.

The next morning, no one from the party seems to know the mysterious woman. Did 200 drunken dancers all hallucinate the same girl? 

Then, finally, among the overturned furniture and smashed pumpkins, Charming’s butler finds an art-deco glass slipper—the largest purchase on Cindy’s new credit card.

A/N: I've lost track how many times I've tweaked and updated this one. I'm sorry to say that Cinderella is my least favorite Disney heroine; I respect her importance to the franchise, but good grief is she bland. Of all the Cinderella flapper pictures on the internet, mine is probably the lamest, and I'm okay with that now. Any style I could have gone with, I did better with a more interesting character. Baggy dress with curls and a scarf? Megara. Sheer, sparkly glass-theme? Too similar to Elsa's snowflake-and-ice motif. The cute pink dress? Lottie La Bouffe and Katrina Van Tassell. The art-deco slippers are about the only thing I could do to set Cindy apart.