Wow. It's Bright.

The Amur Leopard and Clouded Leopard (which recently celebrated its 50th cub born at the zoo!)

The Sumatran Tiger

The Red Ruffed Lemur and Ring-Tailed Lemur

The Cotton-Top Tamarin and White-Cheeked Gibbon

The Colobus Monkey and De Brazza’s Monkey

And the Mexican Spider Monkey!

It's never done that before so I looked it up and turns out Roku TVs have added all sorts of creepy things in the privacy section since I last checked.

One of which being they take screenshots from what you're watching and send them to third parties to identify it.

Fucking hell! Remember when every fucking device in your life wasn't a spy implanted in your home and working against your interests to try and sell your data? Remember how nice that was??

Remember when the TV was just a tool that would play the things you plugged into it?

But you can just plug all sorts of things into the HDMI port on a largeish computer monitor. I personally use the chromecast I've had for 10 years, or my laptop. I can also plug in my DVD player or switch. And the monitor I have also has an audio out 3.5mm jack so I can plug some computer speakers in. I'm shopping for a reciever so I can switch audio inputs a little easier and play music off my computer/ancient iPod without unplugging everything. But only the switch and chromecast are connected to the internet.

like this is not a Big Flaw to me, mostly bc it doesn’t tend to cause That Much harm (his people-pleasing tendencies ironically do much worse numbers), and a lot of other characters are more Actively Callous or Cruel as opposed to his general obliviousness, so i tend to find it easier to forgive/not be so pressed about.

but something that comes up from time to time is that i do think he can be kind of… casually insensitive without totally realizing? when rachel kisses him at the lima bean, and one way or another, he realizes/expresses he’s not into it—he tells her that very casually and kind of? doesn’t seem to have any real concern that it might hurt her feelings? she did know he previously identified as gay tbf, and i think he has the right to explore, and the right to ultimately realize he doesn’t feel that way about her. but this did also involve someone else who is a person with feelings, who he chose to go on a date with. and while i had my plentiful criticisms of kurt this ep, one point he does make that i do genuinely think is valid is that it’s not fair to lead rachel on. i don’t think blaine intended to, and it’s not like he extends/draws it out, but i could see how someone in rachel’s position would feel that way.

and if rachel was not, well, Herself and just excited to have something to write about lol, i do think this could have have been hurtful, and i don’t think that would have been wholly unfair? particularly because he’s just like “cool thanks hold my spot in line will ya, i’ve gotta go to the bathroom” lmao?? (she also doesn’t, she leaves, which is. really funny lmao.)

The second time I heard about it and realized that it was serious, I just stared at the screen for a good minute.

Why?

Because the "You can wager on anything and everything--wars, death tolls, conflicts, anything, there's no subject too taboo to put money on" concept was not new to me.

Where I'd run into it before, however, was in fiction.

Specifically, the Star Wars Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy written in the late 1990s.

Where it was deliberately done as a plot and setting point showing the corruption and inhumanity of the seedy underbelly of Imperial society--the sort of environment that the Star Wars bounty hunters moved in. It was deliberately shown as corrupt, rife with insider trading, betting manipulation, and cruelty.

And now it's real.

@thewolvesrunwild, the money comes from the people who lose their bets.

In one case, there have already been death threats against one reporter, because his (accurate) reporting would have made a bunch of gamblers lose a LOT of money.

and a lot of that probably has to do with the fact that it’s just about the kindest rejection there ever was, and you almost can’t really even call it one lmao. i do think blaine was kind of putting up the boundary of “hey i need to sort my shit out a little and figure out what i feel and what’s going on with me”, especially because he seems genuinely surprised by kurt’s confession/question. which, after this ep, fair lmao!

but like. his rejection (or what have you) includes him emphasizing to kurt that he really cares about him and that he doesn’t want to screw anything up with them.

maybe especially having his own ego bruised by the jeremiah of it all, i think blaine is trying so so hard to be gentle here, and it just feels less like a rejection or squirmyawkwardbad scene and more like two people having a frank, honest, emotionally open conversation.

on the other hand — jeremiah is definitely supposed to be at least 18 right? realistically as a junior manager seems more likely that he’s at least in his early twenties, but whichever way, he notes blaine is underage and he’s not.

and i don’t want to be all “there’s no reason for an adult/older figure to be hanging out with him” because even in real life that’s not true! there are Boundaries that should be there (and fwiw jeremiah is not the one crossing them as far as we can see in this ep!) but there are tons of reasons that might happen that aren’t inappropriate. he could be a family friend (though in which case: YIKES), he could be someone blaine met at some lgbt+ meet-up (seems less likely considering the conservatism of the show/state, but hey, maybe westerville is supposed to be generally a little more progressive than lima in tbe show) and trying to act as a sort of queer mentor for blaine. he could be a tutor? like, i feel like he would have said that when he noted they got coffee twice, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility. he could just be some guy blaine met at a football game or somewhere out in the wild and they both didn’t realize how old the other was, casually got coffee, and then jeremiah realized? i don’t think blaine would actively lie about his age but he does present himself in that very Tiny Adult way and i could see him not thinking about it too hard/even if he does know how old jeremiah is, thinking he’s Mature Enough for an older relationship and jeremiah Gets That. (which is, you know, not an ideal or safe mindset for him lmao)

there is also the possibility that jeremiah knew blaine liked him and kind of enjoyed the attention/was playing into it a little but never had intentions of pursuing it further because he knew blaine was underage? which is much grosser.

The owner of this particular plantation had it built by slaves for 3 years. Every brick was handmade. Over 120,000 bricks on 2,000+ acres of land (this place was huge.) The clay used for the bricks came from the Mississippi River. The majority of the slaves are buried under the Levees and water. Some are buried with their Masters. Not allowed to live with them but could be dead with them.

Before you enter the house, there’s a list of slaves who lived here including their age and how much they were purchased for. 124 total. Some slaves were worth as little as $25. As young as 5 years old.

On this particular plantation, the owner was big on punishment…he used noise making neck restraints. Imagine three 4lb balls around your neck with bells inside. Children were restrained by ankle locks that connected between their ankles.

This was a sugar cane plantation, one the worst practices to involve slaves because of its danger. A lot of slaves were decapitated, amputees and killed from the fields and machinery. A lot of kids lost their lives creating sugar. Speaking of children, a child stood in the living room and operated the fan with a string while guests ate dinner. As young as 3 years old.

Here’s what shook me even further: Before the Civil War, a lot of slave owners were going in debt and could not afford their properties and were not producing enough cotton and sugar to maintain their lifestyles. Slaves were used as HUMAN CREDIT CARDS. Slaves were a guaranteed line of credit. You could get HALF of your property’s value depending on how many healthy and able slaves you owned.

My people were human credit cards and lines of credit to BANKS. We were property. We were labeled as equipment and nothing more.

There is no such thing as a good slave owner. They owned my PEOPLE and used them as checks and balances. This cycle continues with prison and brutality. I do not want to hear shit about “Why can only Black people say this or that?” I don’t want to hear shit about “we’re all human.”

SOME of the enslaved names, ages, race and purchase price.

The living room.

Interior.

The dining room. That piece hanging above the table is ORIGINAL to the house. That’s the fan that a slave as young as 3 years old had to operate manually with a string.

The view from the balcony in the main hallway. This is how they looked over the slaves while they worked in the yard.

*sigh* Names of the enslaved that occupied the shacks. Children included. Their names are written inside one of the shacks. I’m not sure if there are other names inside other shacks because I could only handle 2. After I saw the punishment equipment, I left.

Slave Shacks. These are NOT the original shacks. These were built to imitate them.

Slaves for Sale Ads.

The landscape of Slavery throughout the United States in 1860. JUST 1860. Let that sink in.

Note: The last time the home was OWNED by a Louisiana citizen was 1972. This is her original bedroom, her lipstick is STILL on the dresser. This is why the house has been updated since slavery times because it was occupied up until 1972. Regardless, this used to be where house slaves slept.