i want a gay-coded-villain-coded hero. everything about their aesthetics says that they are evil and gay, but technically speaking their behavior is never anything less than noble and helpful, albeit in a weirdly sinister way.
tape casette recorders are compatible with literally every. single. thing. im out here living in 2095.
things you can record (audio only), simply by lying to your computer, telling it that the tape recorder is actually a set of headphones:
- discord call
- podcast
- documentary
- radio and internet radio
- music, from any source. without having to download it at all.
- music you make on virtual pianos/etc
- noteworthy news items (fireside esque, interviews, huge events)
- stand-up comedy
- rented or borrowed media
- any other sound your pc can produce
and with a VCR you could do all of this AND have the visuals as well… but an audio cassette recorder is a good place to start, since they’re small and simple. I would not recommend a boombox, because those are large and nowadays all very, very bad quality.
Now you may be saying “how is any of this helpful, I want a digital file…” here’s the fucking magic. You go into Audacity (free program), and lie to it that the tape recorder is really a microphone. Then you hit record on Audacity, and hit play on the tape, and let it play at regular speed. Trim and export the digital file, and you’re doing gangbusters. You’re cooking with gas. You’re thinking with portals. You’ve won the internet.
Congratulations, you can “pirate”* anything you want, and literally no one can catch you, because you’re not downloading in the traditional sense. You’re streaming to an external device, and that device is recording what it receives. It’s exactly like taping a live tv show to a VHS. This is a very low-key and non-strenuous task for the computer, since your tape recorder does all the work.
*Is this piracy? No. Well- it’s time shifting. Sort of. Tell it to my Steely Dan albums. Tell it to my The Sims: Hot Date VG Soundtrack album.
–
Sigh.
Okay, on the vanishingly slim chance that anyone who follows me does not already know this:
AO3 does not have an official app. AO3 will never have an official app.
The reason is that apps require a lot of money to develop and maintain, money that could be better spent on more servers and other shit AO3 actually needs.
The other reason is that the Apple store won’t allow “adult” apps, and AO3 hosts explicit content and has no intention of censoring itself.
There have been plenty of “AO3 apps” before and will be again. Most are sleazy cash grabs you don’t want to give your login info to. A few are nonprofit labors of love by fans. (Please don’t harass people about their apps without checking which type they are. JUST SAYING.)
As someone who archive-locks their work, I would prefer it you logged in in your browser and did not miss out on The Good Shit™ that is archive locked. It’s going to be disproportionately the good shit because the reasons one locks are:
- weird porn
- to avoid bullies (see reason 1)
- because one is a fandom Old who likes to keep your shit within fandom (which doesn’t always mean better writing, but there’s a certain trend that way)
If you want a fake app, just download another browser, make a shortcut to your preferred AO3 search terms, and stick it on your homescreen with an AO3 icon. Use that browser only for AO3.
Kids at this school are playing a game.
They run around aimlessly and then someone yells: "KNOCK KNOCK"
"WHOS THERE," they all respond in unison.
The knocker can say what they want here- who their best friend is, what kind of day it's going to be, declare themselves an independent country, or whatever nonsense kids are up to.
But there are two other options. One is make a new rule. "Hop on one leg!" "Stick out your tongue!"
Option two:
"KNOCK KNOCK"
"WHOS THERE?"
"COVID!"
Covid then chases the kids around until they tag someone, then they both chase kids around, then they try to tag as many kids as they can.
A space is designated 'home' and they cant get tagged there. When the covid kids cant tag anyone else, the game restarts.
So the nature of humanity is that every so often someone reinvents Ring Around The Rosie.
Oh boy I can't wait to see the season premiere of 'My Mom Sold Me To One Direction', that one's a true classic
Shit like this makes me glad that AO3 exists because:
1: they just admitted that they got nothing, a d can't be bothered to properly pay writers for new, original so they're gonna adapt some fanfic.
2: has the Wattpad TOS changed? If it hasn't it will, so get the fuck out of dodge before you have to accept the new TOS, because any bet there will be some sketch af clause that let's them use the stories on Wattpad AND NOT PAY A SINGLE CENT TO THE CREATOR.
3: since I see so much idiocy about AO3 lately (latest was something about how they support things like pedophilia, rape, etc. when it was literally authors tagging triggers in their fics), now's as good a time as any to bang on this drum again: AO3 IS NON-PROFIT AND DOESN'T PULL SHIT LIKE THIS.
To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)
Dir. Beeban Kidron
This was such a formative movie
This shit was revolutionary for the mid-90s. Among other things it helped me understand that transgender and cross-dressing were completely separate things.
To this day, I am in awe of the fact that Patrick Swayze not only campaigned hard to get the audition, not only auditioned in dress and makeup, but spent most of the day leading up to the audition walking around LA in dress and makeup.
This was a man who could sing, dance, act, ride a horse, fight, and walk in heels, he had nothing to prove to anyone, and he is MISSED.
Okay, I’m not done feeling about this.
If you’re younger, you may not know Patrick Swayze; he was Taken From Us in 2009. But Patrick Swayze was an icon of masculinity. Men were willing to watch romantic movies because Patrick Swayze was in them.
Patrick Swayze was fucking beefcake.
And this man didn’t just agree to do a movie where the only time he’s not actually in drag is the first three minutes, which involve stepping out of the shower, doing make up, and getting Dressed. He has ONE LINE that is delivered in a man’s voice, and it’s not during those three minutes.
And if you watch those three minutes, you see a stark difference between his portrayal of Miss Vida Bohéme and Wesley Snipes as Noxeema Jackson. (I am not criticizing Snipes’ performance. They were different roles.) Noxeema was a comedy character. Chi-Chi was a comedy character. But Miss Vida Bohéme was a dramatic role, played by a dramatic powerhouse.
When Vida sits down in front of the mirror, she sees a man. And she doesn’t like it.
Then she puts her hair up, and her face lights up.
“Ready or not,” she says. “Here comes Mama.”
And while Noxeema is having fun with her transformation (at one point breaking into a giggling fit after putting on pantyhose), Vida is simply taking pleasure in bringing out her true self. And when she’s done, she sees this:
And you can FEEL her pride.
All of this from an actor who, up to this point, walked on to the screen and dripped testosterone.
It matters that this happened in 1995. It wouldn’t fly today, wouldn’t be the right choice, we’ve moved past it, but it mattered and was important that it happened the way it happened today. It’s one of the stepping stones.
Someone replied to one of our recent posts:
“Agree with most of this but would like to point out that a part of the push to make Pride less sexual is to make it a safe space for queer children and to help straights realize being queer isn’t just about fetishes.“
(The person is not tagged because I don’t want to send any hate to them, and the reply isn’t being responded to directly because Tumblr has made that near impossible)
When I came out, my mom told me I couldn’t tell my little sister because it was too sexual.
Later, I moved to the “Big City”, what I hoped to be a haven for queer people. I was with one of the first queer friends my wife and I had made in the city, we had just watched their wrestling debut, and had gone to their apartment afterwards with a group of strangers. Some this group our friend had told us behind the scenes were much more right wing causing our friend to keep parts of their queer identity under wraps.
Our friend suddenly turned to us and began scolding us, telling me and my wife that one of their coworkers at the city Pride Centre had approached them and told them that she had seen me and my wife kiss, and we needed to cut it out with the PDA.
I nodded in front of this group of strangers and when I could no longer hold my tears back I excused myself to the bathroom, cried and waited there until it was no longer obvious I had been crying. We hurried out.
The kiss in question was a goodbye kiss, as my wife went back to campus, and I don’t remember it. I have always been rather shy with PDA and don’t think it could have been much more than a peck. The coworker later told our friend that she was going through a bad breakup and our friend later explained that this was actually the reason for the complaint.
I have never felt safe in queer spaces since. Talking to the same friend later, they asked me and my wife to chaperone the Queer Prom and without thinking I assured them we would make sure not to hold hands or dance while we were there so it would stay “a safe space for children”.
When I was a child, I stumbled into a pride parade and was shocked and upset by the men in gold short shorts. My uncle apologized for letting me see something so sexual and awful.
Every single thing queer people do is “about fetishes” to people who hate queerness. Being less sexual is not going to change that.
I had seen short shorts before. I would see them again, and no one would apologize for that. The thing I was being kept “safe” from was not overly sexual behaviour, and considering there are already laws against indecent exposure, the same is true for children now.
Keeping theoretical children safe has been the justification for the continuing genocide against queer people all around the globe, so this rhetoric is not harmless. It has been used to put queer people in labour camps and slaughter them.
I have nothing to prove to “straights” and I was the “queer child” who was horrified by the pride parades. As an adult, the discomfort I felt at seeing queer people existing happily and authentically in short shorts, is not something I needed to be kept safe from.
This nonsense is nothing more or less than the same moral panic that has killed queer people throughout history.
The only thing you do when you take away stepping stone identities or, worse, directly attack these identities, is take away language that is helping people ease into who they are.
Also stepping stone identities hurt absolutely no one! Someone identifying as ~star gender~ and then later deciding they’re trans hurts absolutely no one. Same thing with a teenager identifying as ace and then deciding they’re bi (or vice versa because that happens so much more).
I also want to point out that gay/lesbian are huge stepping stone identities for a lot of trans people–and that’s not a bad thing. People easing into the water is not more or less valid than you cannonballing into the deep end of sexuality at age two. Like…let people be comfortable. It has a zero percent chance of hurting you ever.
Stop being so obsessed what other people find comfortable. You look like a micromanaging dork. It’s embarrassing how much you care what other people call themselves.
Also? All identities could be a stepping stone identity
Someone could think they’re a lesbian before realizing they’re aro. Someone could think they’re binary trans before realizing they’re gendervoid. Someone could think they’re Sapphic before realizing they’re a gay man.
Weird identities aren’t the only identities that can turn out to be someone’s stepping stone identity.
Someone identifying as star gender and it not being a stepping stone is also fine! And that person can be an adult, doesn’t need to be a teenager or young. Star gender also falls under the nonbinary and trans umbrellas so if someone wants to identify as star gender and trans thats not an issue.
an-unexpected-trollogy shouted:
I like the idea behind cottagecore (running off into the woods, living off the land) but hate the way people implement it (having sheep or coats in a place where that is not the native fauna, gardening things which are not native flora, etc.) and have some issue with the idea of solarpunk (though good in theory, i don't think the solution to climate change is 'build more technologies with already finite resources'). wondering if there is a sort of... decolonizecore? foragecore? focusing on native plants and animals, hunting and gathering, uprooting invasive species (eg: mustard plants in northern america, which have grown rampant. but are also edible!) and trying to help dwingling native insects or birds make a comeback.
also the cottagecore aesthetic feels so isolationist, where if we learned anything from 2020 it should be that community is deeply important to our survival as a species. cottagecore also still feels like it separates people from the land, when the opposite should be true. don't know if there are any "aesthetics" like that, just wondered your opinion on if a type of movement like that could work (also without culturally appropriating other indigenous peoples, who do sometimes live this way?)
I think you’ve correctly identified the problems behind cottage core (I assume you also saw that post with the video I shared?) but you might want to give solar punk a second look. Good, smart, solar punk is not about building more technology that relies on finite things like batteries and copper. It focuses on recycling and using renewable materials.
I am not uncritical of solar punk, I often find it to be too naive and optimistic in it’s approach to big issues. Because it is focused on optimism, ‘home grown internet!’ posts travel much faster than posts about the fact that our supplies of the minerals that power our computers are finite and we need to be less digital in a sustainable future. But I believe these issues can be fixed and are not inherent to solarpunk, while cottage core has some mayor issues.. well.. at it’s core. (sorry)
In my opinion, any person that isn’t indigenous should be super super careful adopting decolonization as an 'aesthetic’. You’re very quick to run into romantication and fetishization. The idea that indigenous people once had all the answers and all we have to do is return to that falls into that.
On top of that, I’d be wary of any ’we need to return to exactly how it once was’ mindset as that is going to be as unrealistic as an 'unlimited growth’ mindset. We can not sustain 7 billion people on hunting and gathering, and I am not up for genocide as part of my utopia. Also, the climate is changing and will continue to change for a while. Ecosystems will shift and the same area will no longer be able to support the plants it once did. Any utopia that rejects technology entirely also ends up majorly screwing over disabled people.
If you do want to explore a decolonized utopia, start listening to an abundance of indigenous voices, especially indigenous ecologists, scientists, engineers.All in all, a more hopeful vision of the future needs to find a balance between technology and ecosystems, keeping the technology that keeps us alive and makes our society accessible, discarding the technology that drives us to extinction. It also needs to have a realistic idea of how finite resources are and how fucked our planet will get for at least a century or two. I don’t think solarpunk ticks all those boxes, but I think it’s a pretty good step in that direction.
I’ve seen this new trend of girls posting videos like “I hate my boyfriend for bringing all of his stupid boy things into our apartment when we moved in together 🙄” and then pictures of his hot wheels collection or a Halloween skeleton or an extremely cool pirate flag. Give him to me you do not deserve him.
Buckle up, folks. I’ve got a lot to say on this…
I’m not one of those guys who subscribes to the “Man Cave” idea. That theory that once you’re in a relationship, you’re required to forfeit 99% of your own home and be grateful to have one room in which you can be yourself and have your own possessions on display. I think if you’re in a relationship, you have a right to make your home reflect your personality and interests as much your partner does. I’ve run into a couple of instances where a woman thinking a man has no right to his own possessions has not gone over so well and it was hysterical.
I once knew a guy who worked in the telemarketing department of a company I worked at. One Friday night after work, he told me about how he ended up breaking up with his girlfriend.
This guy was like me, very clean and orderly and liked things a certain way but he wasn’t volatile about it or anything. He and his girlfriend decide to have a weekend sleepover at his house, a trial run in his mind for moving in together. She showed up and the red flags sprang up immediately. “Where’s your bag?” he asks. “For a weekend? I don’t need one.” she says. His mind reels. “So you’re not gonna change clothes…or shower…or brush your teeth…?” “No. Why would I do that in just a couple of days?” He tries to be okay about it but then she starts “cooking” and the kitchen looks like a war zone. Then there’s the fact that her B.O. seems to get stronger by the hour.
The last straw comes towards the end of the weekend when she walks around his place, eyes his Elvis Presley memorabilia collection and says “If I lived here, all this Elvis shit would get set out for trash, I’m not wasting space on all that.” When it finally comes time for her to go back home, she says “This was fun! Can’t wait to do it again.” “Yeah, about that…” and he dumped her in his own driveway.
He said if he had to choose between hygiene and an Elvis collection he’s built for years and her, he’s gonna be happier being single, cleaner and having his collectibles around than he would be with her.
Another instance happened when I had a garage sale and one of the things I was selling was a talking football player action figure from the 90s that someone had bought me under the presumption that because I was boy, I was into sports (I was not). The action figure was brand new in the box because that was how little I cared about playing with it despite my mother’s best attempts. A woman shows up, sees the action figure and loses her shit.
“Oh God, I am so sick of seeing these! My husband has the whole set and all I want to do is throw them in the trash!” A guy at the sale overhears this and says “Well, I’m sure your husband has a list of things that he’d like to get rid of that you’re partial to but he doesn’t say anything because that’s the give and take of being in a relationship” She blows him off and says “I should be the one to decide what goes in the house and what he can buy, THAT is how marriage works for ME.” The guy changes his argument. “Maybe on your husband’s list of shit that needs to go, you should be at the top of the list…” Everyone else at the garage sale (including me) was now watching silently and wondering when the throw down would happen…
“What did you say?”, she asks him a bit taken back. “I said if I was him, I wouldn’t take that shit that somehow being married to you means forfeiture of my belongings and personality and substituting it all for your bullshit. I’d sooner throw you out than my action figures.” After picking her jaw up off my driveway, the woman hurumphs and storms back to her car. I high-five the guy for making an excellent point after she leaves.
I have a lot of collectibles myself and am currently in the creative habit of going through my childhood Power Rangers and Pokémon toys and putting the ones I absolutely want to keep in shadow boxes and hanging them on the wall as conversation pieces and selling the rest.
I have Funko Pops. I have lunchboxes. I have special edition magazines and comic books in floater frames on the wall. I have more books than I have time to count or read. I have tub after tub of Halloween and Christmas decorations because that’s my favorite time of year. I would never throw all of this stuff away because I’ve purged plenty already and kept what I wanted to keep. It’s all a reflection of my personality and my story. If someone came into my life and said our life together would mean giving all of this up and doing what he wanted, I would consider that a toxic situation and I would end it before I got in too deep.
Men, gay or straight, can find themselves in toxic, abusive relationships, this is not a phenomenon only experienced by women. It just seems that way because men, especially straight men, rarely speak up about it and mistakenly settle on what they assume is some unchangable default result of being in a relationship. It’s not.
I would never move in with someone and tell them to throw everything out that has been a part of them or spoken to who they are in order to make room for me. I am all about organizing and making a space feel cozy, functional and fun and would go out of my way to make sure we both had space for our things and our personalities and stories. One does not have to overshadow or overpower the other in order to make a relationship between two people work.
So, the next time someone says “It’s me or the Star Wars action figures on that one shelf that aren’t bothering anyone but I hate that that shelf isn’t all about me anyway” say “May The Force not hit you in the ass on the way out” as you show them the door.
My dad broke up with the girlfriend he had when he was 20ish because she said "the motorcycle goes or I go". And not because she genuinely didn't like motorcycles, no! Because a friend of hers told her bf to get rid of the bike or lose her, and that guy choose the girl. Dad's ex saw it as a power play she could pull on my dad as well. He turned her out on the spot.
I used to think guys just didn’t have any interests?? Or hobbies?? Because of all those images of homes where the wife designs everything and there’s basically no touch of the husband there anywhere, and how it was implied that that’s “normal”.
I just reblogged this but then I thought and I just have to make this addition?
Yeah, that last comment, that's how fucked up our society has gotten, because men have to conceal or hide or at best get ONE room to put their stuff in, and even then it's treated as terrible and regressive and should not be allowed. The 'Man Cave' aka the one space in a person's house where they're allowed to express themselves and their hobbies and it's treated as a terrible thing because he's 'excluding' his wife from it, while the things that are in there are NOT ALLOWED ANYWHERE ELSE.
We have allowed people to brainwash us into two dumb ideas, one that men are expected to give up everything that they love for their significant others, and the second that it's a burden on women that they have to determine how everything is in the household. Because that is also how it is in so many cases.
Felt this meme would be important here.
The meme is perfect here and this thread as a whole makes me realise how screwed up society is and also how happy I am to not be living in such a household