A disorganized mess (Like my desk, but online and public

Now, every time I wake up about three am, knowing I have to get up at 6.45, instead of stressing and panicking about how my day is going to be sleep deprived and miserable, I just tell myself 'Time to activate Mythbusters Protocol' and lie there with my eyes closed safe in the knowledge that I am measurably reducing later feelings of exhaustion.

And when this happens, about 70% of the time the reduction of guilt and stress means I actually do fall back asleep, so all in all instead of getting only three or four hours sleep, I get five to six and a half.

Said people meanwhile will get really confused by the concept that movies that aren't documentaries could shape the mainstream understanding of a certain topic while having based their entire knowledge of dinosaurs on the Jurassic Park movies. It's also not a fair take to try and absolve Ridley Scott from any inaccuracy problems on that basis when he himself fully leans into the historical aspect of his work when it's convenient for him, the man is being interviewed by mainstream media saying Napoleon was like Hitler but sure that movie being nonsense won't damage people's understanding of the early 19th century.

today’s obsession is ancient tattoos, in particular the s-curved floral-antlered deer of the Siberian Ice Maiden and Scythian Chieftain. 

it’s such a heavily used trope in modern media (off the top of my head I can think of Pokemon, Annihilation, Bambi, Snow White and the Huntsman, etc) and why wouldn’t it be! antlers look like branches, branches look like antlers, it’s only natural to pair them

but it makes me strangely emotional that our brains have always worked this way, and been drawn to the same imagery over and over again. 

[ID: An art nouveau building’s top floor from the outside; decorative capitals top the building and set into an archway clearly meant for it is a painting of a woman in medieval robes, holding a sword blade-downward. Carved underneath in marble relief is the word “Giustizia”.] 

One of the cool buildings I saw in Rome, which I didn’t get to photograph well or write much about at the time, was the building across from the Great Synagogue, the Villino Astengo. This is a photo (not mine) of a painting on the top floor exterior; one of the reasons I researched the building was this mural and the one across from it showing Scienza. You can see both paintings plus a number of fascinating architectural touches here. Legge and Verita (Law and Truth) are paintings I didn’t see and I’m not sure can be photographed based on where the wall they’re painted on is situated. 

Wikipedia tells us it was built as a show of wealth by a pair of brothers, Giulio and Carlo Astengo, on the edge of Rome’s Jewish ghetto, which by the time it was built was being uh, urban renovated? Basically the city had been doing public works to stop the constant flooding from the Tiber overflowing, and once that was under control the Ghetto was a lot more appealing as a place to build and reside. (I couldn’t determine in basic googling if the Astengo brothers were Jewish but I’m guessing not based on their social status in Italy.) 

NOTP: the opposite of an OTP (One True Pairing). It is a ship a fan strongly dislikes. The word is a portmanteau of ‘no’ and ‘OTP’ and thus is not a contraction of any particular phrase.

Squick: anything that is a deep-seated, visceral turn-off. Squicks may be shared by many fans or be specific to one; one person’s kink may be another person’s squick.

YKINMKATO, or kink-tomato: Your Kink Is Not My Kink, And That’s Okay: used to indicate support for fannish diversity and to distinguish between disapproval or kink shaming and simply having different taste.

DLDR: Don’t Like, Don’t Read: a phrase used to warn against complaints about an aspect of fic or meta. A “live and let live” philosophy of fandom, which places the responsability for avoiding content one doesn’t want to see on the side of the fanwork consumer, rather that on the creator’s.

SALS: Ship And Let Ship: similar to the above specifically about shipping tastes.

YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary: a phrase used to acknowledge that any given individual’s personal opinion on the topic at hand may differ due to their own tastes, standards, values, experiences, etc.

As the OP points out, all of these crucially imply no moral judgment of what they’re designing.

Are you surprised? Fandoms have become notorious anti-writer spaces. Studios love you guys. They can cut the budgets, cut the number of writers, cut the wages of the writers, and you guys always blame the writers. “The writers ruined the show!” It’s never “the studios ruined the show.”

I hate to break it to you: more than half the shows you complain were “ruined by the writers”, were ruined by the studios. Studios cut the scenes and arcs you were excited for. Studios cut the budget of the show, or even raise the budget of the show and force a “bigger, louder, bolder” tone on shows that were unexpected hits (this is where we get “the Netflix look” on every show post-Stranger Things and Queen’s Gambit).

You guys do not do your research. Half your fanfics are tagged with bad faith digs at the writers, when a few searches would reveal how strapped that show was and how poorly the writers were treated. Writers are being given a single week to write each episode—I’m not kidding, one-week-per-episode is one of the reasons for the strike. How are good arcs and scenes supposed to happen under that time limit, with a max of only four writers?

Tumblr, the self-proclaimed “pro-union, pro-worker, pro-artist” site is also a major fandom site. You guys rarely practice good faith consumer etiquette for television and film writers, because your fandom salt always turns you against writers. And studios love you for it.

Yeah, individual writers do create bad writing from time to time. But so do painters, chefs, and musicians. Directors and actors sometimes refuse to film certain scenes or follow a show’s projected style and arc, and the writers always get the crap for a bad performance or a poorly directed episode. This isn’t to blame actors or directors; it’s to point out that you guys have one villain, and it’s always the writers. You guys never give writers the same grace you give animators, designers, directors, actors, composers, and editors.

قصر الحمراء في غرناطة، الأندلس.

Excerpts from the official reports by the United Nations Independent Commission refering to findings about events in Ukraine since 24 February 2022.

The mother of a man executed in Kyiv Province stated: "I still wake up at night, stand in the dark and scream, call for my son and cry out of pain"."

"The attacks occurred when civilians were trying to evacuate or while carrying out routine activities. In all the cases, the victims were wearing civilian clothes, were not armed, and were driving civilian cars, some with signs “children” on the windows. [...] The Commission interviewed survivors of attacks, as well as witnesses and relatives of those who were killed, and reviewed footage showing yet more damaged cars on this highway. [...] Some of them seemed deliberate, for example when soldiers opened fire on civilian cars that posed no risk because they had stopped or were driving away from them."

"Rapes were committed at gunpoint, with extreme brutality and with acts of torture, such as beatings and strangling. Perpetrators at times threatened to kill the victim or her family, if she resisted. In some cases, more than one soldier raped the same victim, or rape of the same victim was committed several times. In one incident, the victim was pregnant and begged, in vain, the soldiers to spare her; she had a miscarriage a few days later. Perpetrators also, in some instances, executed or tortured husbands and other male relatives. Family members, including children, were sometimes forced to watch perpetrators rape their loved ones."

"In Kyiv Province, in March 2022, two Russian soldiers entered a home, raped a 22-year-old woman several times, committed acts of sexual violence on her husband and forced the couple to have sexual intercourse in their presence. Then one of the soldiers forced their 4-year-old daughter to perform oral sex on him [...] In another village, Russian armed forces took a woman out of her house and forced her to go to a neighbouring house, where one of the soldiers of the Russian armed forces had shot dead a man who had tried to defend his wife. Two soldiers took both women to another house that served as their base. The soldiers proceeded to different rooms to rape and sexually assault the two women."

"The Commission confirmed cases of sexual violence in which Russian armed forces raped girls when entering or occupying civilian homes. Further, a 4-year-old girl could hear her mother screaming while she was raped in the adjacent room."

The extensive use of explosive weapons has caused immediate and long-lasting trauma and damage and has severely disrupted people's lives, forcing them to flee or live in fear. One older woman, who fled as hostilities raged in the Kharkiv area, told the Commission: "I don't live, I just exist; I have nothing left in my soul".

"Those who stayed were exposed to explosions and air raid sirens, and many witnessed traumatic events, including the killing or maiming of parents and loved ones. Parents, family members and aid workers described how all these factors had had a deep psychological effect on children. Some are afraid of loud noises, of being alone and of men, particularly men in uniform. [...] After an attack with explosive weapons in a residential area of Kharkiv a mother described how the attack had impacted her daughter, saying "she is very traumatized and will only sleep in the corridor; she also goes to the corridor every time she hears sirens during the daytime and starts to shake"."

"The Commission has documented patterns of wilful killings, unlawful confinement, torture, rape, and unlawful transfers of detainees in the areas that came under the control of Russian authorities in Ukraine. Violations were also committed against persons deported from Ukraine to the Russian Federation."

"Furthermore, when Russian authorities controlled areas during longer periods of time, they established dedicated detention facilities, used more diverse methods of torture, and in addition, targeted persons who refused to cooperate."

"[...] after initial detention in Ukraine, individuals were forcibly transferred and unlawfully deported through Belarus, or directly, to the Russian Federation [...] In the Russian Federation, victims were further held in detention facilities. [...] Many people are still missing from the areas that were under the occupation of Russian armed forces. [...] While relatives have received confirmation that some of them are in detention in the Russian Federation, the fate of many is still unknown."

"In the Russian Federation, confinement at times started with an abusive “acceptance procedure”. Victims reported electric shocks with a taser, beatings with a baton, suffocation with plastic bags, and forced nudity in front of others. A former detainee underwent beatings as a “punishment for speaking Ukrainian” and for “not remembering the lyrics of the anthem of the Russian Federation”. One woman said that she passed out a few times from beatings, but perpetrators woke her up to continue."

"The soldiers degraded and violated the dignity of the detainees. There was very limited access to food and water, and close to no access to medical care [...] In the yard, the soldiers randomly shot near the victims to scare them. Ten older persons died during the confinement as a result of the inhumane conditions [...] The Commission visited the basement and saw the writings of the confined victims on the wall listing the names of those who had died."

"Ukrainian and Russian officials have declared that hundreds of thousands of children have been transferred from Ukraine to the Russian Federation since 24 February 2022 [...] Parents or children told the Commission that during the children’s stay in the Russian Federation or in Russian-controlled areas in Ukraine, on some occasions, social services told the children that they would be placed in institutions, accommodated in foster families, or be adopted. Parents also told the Commission that in some places of transfer children wore dirty clothes, were screamed at, and called names. Meals were poor and some children with disabilities did not receive adequate care and medication. Children expressed a profound fear of being permanently separated from parents, guardians, or relatives."