randalltier-deactivated20230711
Barbie and the Nine-dashed line
I started writing a giant post about this and then I was like, I’m not going to do the work. It’s exhausting to have my job and fandom space collide.
So here’s a series of links you can familiarize yourself with. This isn’t for someone who doesn’t give a shit about geopolitics in their Barbie; I’m not writing for you. This is for someone who’s curious about what it is and wants to know more about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines_v._China - this is a wiki link on the case Philippines v. China. It is an arbitration case brought by the Philippines against China under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, which was both ratified by the Philippines and China) concerning issues in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), including the nine-dash line introduced by China since 1947. You can see a summary of the ruling on the right-hand side of the wiki page. For the full transcript, I encourage you to read it at https://pca-cpa.org/en/cases/7/ which has transcripts of the arbitration. China did not participate in this arbitration.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-dash_line - this is a wiki link on the Nine-dash line. https://thediplomat.com/2016/06/what-does-the-nine-dash-line-actually-mean/ here’s an opinion on the Nine-dash line. Here’s another by ARCGIS, which is a mapping software company: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/4791710315c54e6fb963e10496faa4db . Note that there’s plenty of literature written about this, I encourage you to go and read more if you want to familiarize yourself with it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea - here’s a wiki link primer on the UNCLOS. If you want to read the entire text, which I always suggest for everyone, here’s a link to it: https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetailsIII.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XXI-6&chapter=21&Temp=mtdsg3&clang=_en
My guess is that this part of Barbie was outsourced to an animation studio and nobody out in the NA part of this production had anyone of colour look it over and say “hey, this might be contentious.” It’s not going to get pulled or censored before it hits the theatres because it’ll make money, it’ll be up to different countries (like Vietnam, for example) to make the judgment call so that the NA producers don’t have to.
fealle reblogged
i have a 21,300 word fic and it’s never ending .................... ..... .i need an editor
i know it’s probably temporary just because of ~how things are~ but it is kind of nice that bluesky doesn’t have ads - for now. like the amount of long ads and endless tweets i’ve been recommended is so terrible. this website, once you activate filters against it, becomes slow and unwieldy on top of just being difficult to use.
so far i’m enjoying it quietly there but i know eventually the ads will come back and it’s gonna be ugly again ... i really wish we can be rid of ads altogether, on mobile and on your browser.
fealle reblogged
Sewing Machines & Planned Obsolescence
I've got these two sewing machines, made about 100 years apart. An old treadle machine from around 1920-1930, that I pulled out of the trash on a rainy day, and a new Brother sewing machine from around 2020.
I've always known planned obsolescence was a thing, but I never knew just how insidious it was till I started looking at these two side by side.
I wasn't feeling hopeful at first that I'd actually be able to fix the old one, I found it in the trash at 2 am in a thunderstorm. It was rusty, dusty, soggy, squeaky, missing parts, and 100 years old.
How do you even find specialized parts 100 years later? Well, easily, it turns out. The manufacturers at the time didn't just make parts backwards compatible to be consistent across the years, but also interchangeable across brands! Imagine that today, being able to grab a part from an old iPhone to fix your Android.
Anyway, 6 months into having them both, I can confidently say that my busted up trash machine is far better than my new one, or any consumer-grade sewing machine on the market.
Old Machine Guts
The old machine? Can sew through a pile of leather thicker than my fingers like it's nothing. (it's actually terrifying and I treat it like a power tool - I'll never sew drunk on that thing because I'm genuinely afraid it'd sew through a finger!) At high speeds, it's well balanced and doesn't shake. The parts are all metal, attached by standard flathead screws, designed to be simple and strong, and easily reachable behind large access doors. The tools I need to work on it? A screwdriver and oil. Lost my screwdriver? That's OK, a knife works too.
New Machine Guts
The new machine's skipping stitches now that the plastic parts are starting to wear out. It's always throwing software errors, and it damn near shakes itself apart at top speed. Look at it's innards - I could barely fit a boriscope camera that's about as thick as spaghetti in there let alone my fingers. Very little is attached with standard screws.
And it's infuriating. I'm an engineer - there's no damn reason to make high-wear parts out of plastic. Or put them in places they can't be reached to replace. There's no reason to make your mechanism so unbalanced it's reaching the point of failure before reaching it's own design speed. (Oh yeah there is, it's corporate greed)
100 years, and your standard home sewing machine has gone from a beast of a machine that can be pulled out of the literal waterlogged trash and repaired - to a machine that eats itself if you sew anything but delicate fast-fashion fabrics that are also designed to fall apart in a few years.
Looking for something modern built to the standard that was set 100 years ago? I'd be looking at industrial machines that are going for thousands of dollars... Used on craigslist. I don't even want to know what they'd cost new.
We have the technology and knowledge to manufacture "old" sewing machines still. Hell, even better, sewing machines with the mechanical design quality of the old ones, but with more modern features. It would be so easy - at a technical level to start building things well again. Hell, it's easier to fabricate something sturdy than engineer something to fail at just the right time. (I have half a mind to see if any of my meche friends with machine shops want to help me fabricate an actually good modern machine lol)
We need to push for right-to-repair laws, and legislation against planned obsolescence. Because it's honestly shocking how corporate greed has downright sabotaged good design. They're selling us utter shit, and expecting us to come back for more every financial quarter? I'm over it.
fealle reblogged
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s credits have almost exclusively Japanese people in them; but one name sticks out:
By searching around, people have found this forum post from 2007:
Follow your dreams.
reblog if ur proud of corey
He got a promotion for Tears of the Kingdom!!
Source: twitter.com
fealle reblogged
not reading wips feels anti-fanfiction to me. and i don't mean that in a "so you're a bad person if you don't read them" kinda way. do what you want. but i also feel, that you are completely missing the point. with fanfiction you're supposed to come along for the ride. the epic highs and lows of highschool football. the comment sections. the conversations. the theories. the "sorry i didn't update last week i was abducted by aliens and then my cat got stuck in a tree." LIKE. if you just want a story that's fully finished and polished go to a bookstore. fanfic is an EXPERIENCE. and ALSO. participating in the process is part of the way you make fanfic writing worth while. it's part of how you thank authors. like why would anyone write fanfiction if no one was going to interact with them until it was done? it again feels like a way that fanfiction is being eaten by consumer culture. you're waiting for your product. but this is supposed to be a club. you don't turn up to drama club like "where's my play bitch?" NO ma'am. we're supposed to paint these cardboard trees together. ok. i may have lost control of this metaphor. BUT YOU GET IT.
Lol. I always wanted to say something like this, but was always like, but what if people think it's self-serving? Finally, I'm old enough to say, people will think what they want anyway, so whatever, who cares.
I'm a chronic maxi stories writer, we're talking 100k+, 200k+, and on it goes. I post them as WIPs because it's a huge amount of work, and I need the food -- the reaction, the interaction, too. Isn't that why we write fanfiction and not originals? To share the process of creation? To not be left alone to the solitary torture that is writing?
And when people say 'I'll wait for her to finish before I read' and 'I'll wait for her to finish to rec,' tbh, I feel... devalued. Like my work is worthless in its incomplete form. Like I'm not worthy of their time unless I can provide them with a full meal in one go. Like I'm being judged and found wanting.
I know, I know. People do that for their own reasons that have nothing to do with me. But that's what it feels like anyway.
And then they come to consume the completed product, and they be like, 'Good job!' And I be like, '... ... thanks?' When what I'm really thinking is this:
'I'm happy you enjoyed it, it's just that this was a JOURNEY, that you opted out of. You weren't there with me, with US, you weren't sitting in the same boat, fighting off monsters and threatening to lock THE couple in a cave somewhere until they sorted their shit out, you didn't get drunk with us around a campfire, didn't scare yourself to bits with your own ghost pranks. You just stopped by my living room to look at the rocks and pics that we brought back. You're welcome to. I'm happy to have you. Enjoy. It's just -- we could have used an extra pair of hands or an extra set of eyes, and you could have come with and chose not to. No biggie, we've all made it. Just, yeah.'
I'm not talking obviously about the people who only find the story after it's done. That's fair. I myself frequently stumble onto the evidence of such journeys by the time they become cave paintings. Such is life.
As a reader, I understand why people don't want to read WIPs. I do. But on a human level, I... don't. I mean I do, but I don't. Was that self-serving? Well, who cares anyway.
Source: oneletterwords.com
