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st ajora says trans rights

@ae2501maeth.smallbird.social

670 followers 270 following 2.3K posts

tara "tara wrist" hillegeist. i dabble. (once, i moonlighted as a dragon golem vtuber for a time. one day i shall do so again.) if you're here you're here for 1 of 3 things: media criticism, dialectical materialism, or unhinged reposts of what i like.

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st ajora says trans rights @ae2501maeth.smallbird.social · Mar 18

ae/2501/maeth. do you know what the difference is between someone society treats as real and someone they treat as fictional? it's whether they experience consequences for how they use them. they can do anything they want to you if they know you don't really exist. so: do you know if you're real?

the doll's hand taken away: "2501". a place of safety, of certainty.

the doll's hand, pointing now, again: "maeth."

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⛩エビチョコ🍫 @ebichoco99.bsky.social · 8h

之前的工作！
#Arknights

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Patlabor Screenshots @patlaborscreenshot.bsky.social · 3h

WXIII: Patlabor the Movie 3

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kash @thisiskashmir.com · 10h

Hey sweet thang,

This is your reminder that every living thing in the world slows down during these next months. You’re not lazy cuz you’re doing less. It’s okay that the early darkness makes you tired (it’s supposed to).

Humans the only ones who keep fighting against the natural patterns of life.

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Abigail "Dollfucker" Dollfucker @dollfucker.bsky.social · 1d

Warframe is such a deeply funny game

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Contingent Magazine @contingent-mag.bsky.social · 7h

A few years ago, we did a series called Personal Pan Histories. Each piece came with a recipe by the author. We didn't ask people to pitch simple comfort foods, but they did. Anyway, it's a good time to revisit a series of six pieces about what food means to us.

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daniel s. @self.agency · 7h

"uh we investigated ourselves and only then destroyed the evidence"

Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social · 9h

JUST IN: Feds explain how CBP vehicle involved in collision that led to woman being shot & criminally charged was moved from Chicago to Maine and then partially repaired while it was evidence in a criminal case. Doc www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

MartinezGovFlg110325

www.documentcloud.org

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st ajora says trans rights @ae2501maeth.smallbird.social · 7h

made mistake of rewatching AotC to get that. reminded me, unfortunately, to me, the damn thing still holds up as a deeply idiosyncratic work of cinematic art; no matter how much the rest of me finds SW as a whole dreadfully unbearable to endure - it remains a transmission from the fever dimension.

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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 8h

It also means that anyone who gets entry to that class (i.e. through scholarships) should bend to class interests. The goal is to "get out" not to lift up.

Chomsky said this exact thing about "elite" media.

omnomtom @omnomtom.bsky.social · 10h

WP just raging about Mamdani being a class traitor to the moneyed class. Implicit in their statement is that it's good and normal for anyone born into wealth (even relatively modest wealth, not just billionaires) to adopt a worldview of "fuck you got mine" and resist improving the lives of the poor.

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st ajora says trans rights @ae2501maeth.smallbird.social · 8h

chancellor sheev palpatine has just endorsed the campaign of andrew cuomo

ian mcdiarmid as chancellor palpatine, standing in the galactic senate chamber, in a still frame from STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES

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Jess Morrissette @decafjedi.com · 1d

"How Do Adventurers Die?"

Source: QuestBusters, March 1988.

An infographic summarizing how adventurers die.

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Triple-Q @triple-q.bsky.social · 1d

So the Simpsons Theme cover in Fortnite was made in 2019 by a random non-union orchestra, right?

It turns out... Disney has made a whole SLEW of non-union ripoff song covers for licensing. You can even select "non-union" when you search for songs on their website

screencap of the Non-Union recording of the Simpsons theme from the Disney Music Licensing website

https://www.disneymusiclicensing.com/master/MTk3OTMyOTg3LTgxODdkOA

search results for "non-union" on the Disney Music Licensing website

https://www.disneymusiclicensing.com/search/eJxVkstugzAQRX%2BlmjVV1OeCZRZdVYrUxyqqIuNMwIof1DapEPK_dwwGzALZc8_YmmMxgENmefOFVjkojz9FFkAJ2uj7TgujoYCKOfz%2BeKd0N_XsKGTcR7rJnLF%2B31NmUeKNaY4wX3uwohax_bcT_Ho3hUQbUTeSPg_lhUmHc_%2BbQHmOg4EXXsZ7mPXCeRd3surUaczXsmv5WnDmmTT1SXeqQhvzGy2TTY3ajueu2P8Ze45bZcy4bs8BPcolzvFJOqMuDTSAYp6eqW%2BRbKQxDiGkvj1VJHIcppL4PHw1kYdQrGwVSvRxQ7eSqeUpb1lMEnzOYWaX8EuOZ%2BPEXsPyAxzaxdSN3phdByH8A03fw8g

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st ajora says trans rights @ae2501maeth.smallbird.social · 9h

sorry. just. imagining charles bronson sheepishly explaining to a kid "uh, no one's ever gotten me a present before" broke something that shouldn't have solidified in me and now i'm leaking all over my face

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Cinephilia & Beyond @cinephiliabeyond.org · 11h

On the occasion of his birthday, we remember the legendary Charles Bronson.

Want to hear an amazing story? 12-year-old Kurt Russell went skateboarding with Charles Bronson:

www.vice.com/en/article/k...

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julie muncy @julie.radiantarray.io · 1d

i didn't have a lot to do today so in response to a very reasonable, straightforward question i wrote a microessay that functions as a close reading of the narrative voice in the item descriptions of dark souls.

julie muncy @julie.radiantarray.io · 1d

yeah, no, fair. and i know you're not being an asshole. but my answer is, uh, well, it's longer than i can fit so here's what you're getting, because i think you're asking an interesting question and i appreciate this

1/4: well, no-- i don't think you're supposed to assume that the information is diegetic as such (that is, that it exists *in the game world*.) but that to me raises some interesting questions about its role in the narrative of these games, though i will grant that not a lot of them take advantage of those questions. my example of the original dark souls, though, is one that i think *does.*

so, we assume it's non diagetic. great. that means it's being imposed upon the game world from outside, presumably for an outside observer-- us, the player. so what, narratively, does this extra-diagetic intrusion signify?

i think the generally assumed answer for games is that it's intended to either 1) represent what the player character knows but the *player* would not (ie, in-universe knowledge) or 2) it represents diagetic knowledge translated into a non-diagetic form-- ie, procedural knowledge, things like tutorials-- how to jump, how to run, how to drink the sunny delight.

2/4: but what's interesting to me is that the voice of these descriptions-- as you point out-- does not seem to neatly map to either of those assumptions. as you say, Hollows are ignorant as fact of biology, and forgetfulness is a fundamental part of their whole deal. What's more, these item descriptions seem to operate from an unstable place of knowledge where they, at times, know basic facts about the world and setting that even most *informed* people in it would not know-- like there are a couple item descriptions that spoil the twist regarding Gwynevere and Anor Londo, extremely privileged knowledge. Yet the voice or voices of these descriptions don't seem to *always* know these things. They ask questions they don't have answers to. The knowledge being drawn from is not a stable, unmoving thing.

Likewise, they don't neatly graft into the second assumed role, either, as they are, as many people will gladly point out, often *extremely unhelpful for the player.* Lore without context, questions without answers, snapshots of history with no heuristics with which to understand them. People have spent their entire careers as critics and entertainers trying to turn these disparate, barely useful scraps of information into a traditional plot or world, with clear diminishing returns-- gaps that are entirely unfillable. if these are tutorials, they're bad tutorials. and if these are histories, they're written by a maniac.

3/4: so, then, we have text that 1) is not meant to represent the player character's perspective, 2) *does* however seem to largely graft to an in-universe perspective, albeit an unstable one and 3) does not serve a clear utility.

a literary reading of this brings us to the idea of something like what some James Joyce scholars call the Arranger in the novel Ulysses-- an unexplained presence, that seems to exist simultaneously inside and outside the story, which regularly intrudes upon the surface level narrative. Sometimes to provide local color, sometimes to provide gameplay hints, sometimes to casually drop massive secrets about the true order of the fictional world. But never in a manner that is easily explicated.

was this intended? Hell if i know. But I do think-- at least in this specific text-- it is an incredibly clever and interesting thing. It further enforces the sense of Lordran's instability, both as a place within a fictional world that is falling apart and in its role *as a fiction itself.* As a story, told to us the player, and also perpetuated by systems that exist within the diegetic world.

4/4: and from there, that's a reading you can take to a lot of places. to thinking about the historiography of dark souls' world, to the story's themes of reproduction & rebirth as a fundamentally degenerative process, to a wacky deconstructive reading about the ability of game worlds to create meaning at all. and that's why i'm inclined to define the method as epistolary fiction, at least in this specific instance-- because if you take it seriously as a thing the text is doing, you find a surprising amount of meat on those bones.

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consumptive slaughterhouse angel @direlog.bsky.social · 18h

we made her out of the same stuff God's made out of. don't know what it's called, but they had to bury the volunteers who handled it under the mountain

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Joseph @hyperbrachydios.bsky.social · Oct 2

final boss of this character type

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st ajora says trans rights @ae2501maeth.smallbird.social · 9h

my assumption was absolutely that it was an intentional joke by their designer slash handler slash owner at their dignity's expense and the fact that only they'd know that unless said weapon got the yearning enough to check was part of the whole gag of the post, anyway

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CZEdwards @czedwards.bsky.social · 12h

Thread. Important one.

It’s in everyone’s best interest to see how the sausage is made, and in doing so, how it becomes a manipulated product by the time it reaches the reader.

Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 13h

I am so upset.

Last week Time Magazine solicited a piece from me on Zohran Mamdani & anti-Muslim hate. I pitched a framing re the dehumanization of Muslims & how Mamdani’s inclusive, socialist campaign in its content resists that. They agreed. I wrote the piece. 1/

Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 2d

To be asked to write about racism only to be racially aggressed in the editing process is a new level unlocked I have to say.

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Minovsky @minovskyarticle.bsky.social · 10h

Overheard at a store:

"Don't you already have like...$100 worth of Funko Pops?"

"Do you realize how few Funkos that is?"

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Rahawa Haile @rahawahaile.bsky.social · 10h

Ask any of your favorite Black women writers from a decade ago why their bylines stopped appearing, and you’ll likely hear the same response: There is no place for us in media. In TV. In publishing or academia. For the majority of us, there’s no place but gone.

Lex McMenamin (they/them) @leximcmenamin.com · 11h

thank you for all the support; the statement from our union is now live here with some more reporting.

now that this is public I can confirm that the majority of today’s layoffs were women of color. there are no longer any Black women working at Teen Vogue.

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Return of the Cmonstermacques @cmonmaque.bsky.social · 10h

If you don’t think “serial sex pest who cost the state 60 million in sexual harassment lawsuits and then lost a primary and still went on to deliver one of the most bigoted campaigns since George Wallace as an independent” qualifies as “villain”, then you don’t have a working definition of the word.

Brian Mann @brianmannadk.bsky.social · 14h

Thread: Look I know it's easier cognitively to just have good guys and villains, but a lot of you folks are just not dealing in facts. Andrew Cuomo was a centrist, sure, and he fought a lot with Democrats. But he also pushed some of the most progressive state policies of his era. A partial list. 1/

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Steve Kiviat @dcsuburbanite.bsky.social · 12h

RIP @ 73 Lo Borges, the Brazilian songwriting collaborator of Milton Nasciemento on much of the 1971 recorded, 1972 released Clube da Esquina, and part of the collective w/ that name who melded Brazilian sounds w/ Beatles, baroque pop, psych & jazz pop. He also recorded solo albums.

KFAI On-Air Playlist @kfai.fm · 13h

Now playing on Upside Down: "O Trem Azul" by Lô Borges

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May “Bunny” Peterson 🦄 (Mostly Updates ) @goddessblade.bsky.social · 11h

An easy way to make sense of cishet guys being into femboys and that "not being gay" is that the core of what's always stigmatized "gay" is feminization, not same-sex activity in itself.

Male same-sex activity in a masculinizing context has always been a lot more socially acceptable.

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jessica harvey @jessiscah23.bsky.social · 13h

another bump on this despite my better efforts since *waves hands around* present circumstances make it a LITTLE HARD for poverty bitches to obtain food atm 🥹

jessica harvey @jessiscah23.bsky.social · 20d

things getting a little tight on food & essentials, so throwing up the link again.

managed to get somewhere stable & most of my property replaced (ty to all help <3); currently just holding out on passport processing, and I'm finally out of this place...

www.paypal.com/paypalme/jes...

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By-the-Bywater @bythebywater.bsky.social · 17h

Episode 80 is live! This time we talked about what #Tolkien viewed as one of his core 'Great Tales' and the one with the most personal resonance, Beren and Lúthien. Plus, cats. Really big cats. Episode art by @vandroidhelsing.bsky.social as ever! megaphonic.fm/bythebywater...

80. What If This Housecat Was Actually Really Big? | By-The-Bywater

On Beren and Lúthien.

megaphonic.fm

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