Chilchuck Timbs 👞
Me: oh wow, it’s really busy here at work, I should start doing something that isn’t my responsibility just to help out, maybe I can skip my break today, or stay a little—
My inner Chilchuk Tims: Your job description has your responsibility and includes hours worked and breaks. Stick to it unless they want to pay you more. No job is your friend no matter how much you like it.
“oh no, my audience has begun to guess the big twists of my story and are accurately predicting what will happen!”
incorrect response: write the rest of the story to be as twisty, shocking and counter to expectations as possible, regardless of whether this is a logical or satisfying way for the plot to go
correct response:
can someone elaborate on the “make hoax” and “post angry tweet about “leak”“ part. i’m stupid and don’t understand things
sure!
(you’re not stupid. I posted this thinking it would amuse a handful of mutuals who all knew the context and that would be about it, so I didn’t think about providing any other explanation. I had no idea it would spread this far.)
I’ll start from the very beginning just to be thorough. so this is Alex Hirsch, creator and head writer of Gravity Falls, a show which had a big focus on mystery, conspiracies, codes and ciphers, etc. the whole plot is kicked off by one of the main characters finding a mysterious old journal in the woods, which detailed all kinds of weird and supernatural things, but then ended abruptly with the author saying they had to hide the journal because they were being watched. the central driving mystery of the show, therefore, was the question of who wrote the journal and what happened to them.
now, the thing about Gravity Falls is that, while it must be said that the writers weren’t always quite as sure of their plans as we tend to like to think they are, it is very much a fair play mystery, with legitimate clues to what was going on. but the writers were caught off guard by how quickly the show attracted a dedicated audience, including a lot of people outside the primary presumed demographic, who started solving the clues faster than expected. so some of the fans were able to correctly guess who the author was before it was revealed in the show, and the theory started spreading. this put the writers in something of a panic, because this was THE mystery that the whole story revolved around, with ¾ of the show building up to the dramatic reveal in the middle of season 2. they wanted it to be a mystery that could be figured out, sure, but they weren’t prepared for people to solve it so far in advance of when it was planned to be revealed, which would have really taken away from the big moment. they weren’t going to change the main story itself, but having been caught unaware by how much attention the fans were paying, they wanted to up the ante and make the mystery more complex to solve going forward–but first they needed to buy some time and throw the fandom off the scent for a little longer.
hence, Alex’s plan as described above. they whipped up a fake shot that appears to give away the identity of the author as being another character in the show, put it on a screen in the studio as if it was a real animation frame, took a picture of it, and ‘leaked’ it online. it was initially decided to be a hoax (albeit, I think, presumed to be a hoax originating from outside the production team), until Alex posted this tweet:
…before quickly deleting it (though not so quickly that it didn’t get seen, of course).
it worked well enough to distract most people for a while, and wasn’t revealed as a hoax until a year later, when an episode aired that definitively proved that the supposed screenshot could never have happened, at which point Alex owned up to the whole thing as seen in the tweet above. by then the episode with the real reveal wasn’t far off, and while people did still work it out ahead of time, it was more of an “OH MY GOD I KNEW IT!” moment than a “booooooring, we’ve known that for ages” moment, which of course was what the writers wanted all along.
personally I find this a fascinating approach to dealing with the problem of spoilers, because it doesn’t affect the story itself at all; if you watch Gravity Falls today–or if you were watching it when it aired without any significant contact with the fandom–you’d never know about it. ultimately, the problem the writers were facing wasn’t that some people might guess the answer to the mystery–they never wanted to make it completely impossible to predict–so much as it was that they hadn’t designed the story to stand up to so many people working on the puzzle together, which resulted in a sort of total output of puzzle-solving ability that far outstripped the capability of any one solo human being. so their solution is something that’s very much targeted toward delaying that group problem-solving, without actually affecting the experience of any individual person watching the show.
plus, it’s very in keeping with the overall tone of the show.
and now you know!
if your audience guesses the ending of your story
don’t:
- change the ending
do:
- gaslight them
He's very handsome but every time I look at him my first thought is "who took your eyebrows, who did this to you".
the citizens of Vienna looking at the Loos building
Absolutely the most creative and obtuse way anyone's roasted my boy, thank you
I don’t like the way people speak about Neanderthals. They were humans too. They buried their loved ones in intricate ways with grave goods. They had graveyards. They cared for the sick and disabled members of their groups when they could. They raised and loved their children. Their culture had a degrees of gender equality not evident in other hunter-gather groups. They made soup. They were highly intelligent like their early modern human counterparts, they just didn’t have the benefit of cumulative knowledge like humans now do.
We're on a new platform with a totally different audience...we have to prove ourselves all over again...convince a totally new group of people to think we're funny and worth your attention....so allow me to drop some of my "A" material....the funniest thing I got.......here goes....... jeef berky
jeef berky
probably the funniest panel ever. “chilchuck always says i’m sick in the head and threatens me.” that s so funny
I get a lot of entertainment thinking about how containers are used in video games sometimes.
People are talking about how reading Dungeon Meshi gives them an internal monologue Senshi for eating properly I think we all need to adopt an internal monologue Chilchuck at work. Like the boat is literally sinking and he's just watching it happen because he's on his lunch break.
This is the Union Chilchuck, reblog him to affirm your own worth as a worker and entitlement to regular breaks
self portrait. i forgot hold a hold a pencil for a second there and i also cooked an egg so its a bit later than 3 am now
It is actually way better for 100 addicts to get their fix on pain pills than a single person in pain go without. I call this the "Torture is bad" principle. You should be able to get the good stuff forever after a single doctor's visit. If you're worried about addicts fund rehab centers and needle exchanges instead of torturing people.
Among other things if you can't use the legit market you turn to the black market anyway.
if you're worried about addiction, build a society where people get their basic needs met, including pain management.
i hope this essay isn't unwelcome but i wanted to expand on a previous reblog which mentions turning to the black market: denying people controlled medication out of fear of the addict boogieman literally directly creates and worsens addiction.
as someone who spent a lot of time in hard reduction oriented communities for substance use, one thing you notice real quick: a lot of people with a substance problem have that problem because they were denied or never given access to medical care for a whatever problem the drugs are compensating for (esp common for women, queer people, disabled people, poc, and ofc the poor/uninsured)
and it makes a lot of sense if you think on it for 5 seconds. i'll give two examples off the top of my head.
person A has severe ADHD and/or narcolepsy. they cannot maintain a job without medication, but either cannot afford to jump through diagnostic hoops, or did so and were denied medication anyway. they could say "aw damn" and risk losing their home, families, etc to their untreated illness, or they could go to the black market.
now, these prices are around 5 years old (but i doubt it's gotten cheaper), but lemme break down the logistics:
adderall can be cheap if you live near a college campus or tech city, but on e-markets it'll run you anywhere from .25-$1 per mg in pill form, which could be around $5-30 per dose. long acting stuff like vyvanse is more expensive, and we're boldly assuming the pills are real and correctly dosed.
speed paste availability varies by country but outside of europe it's not common or cheap, and it's not gonna be as potent as pharmacy grade amphetamine
meth, however, is cheap (anywhere from 20-50 per gram), widely available, long lasting, and potent enough to dose as low as 5mg. thats like 15 cents a dose. the drawback? meth is a lot more compulsive, addictive, and neurotoxic than the stuff you'd get at the pharmacy, is often cut or poorly synthesised, has nasty side effects, and is probably a lot stronger than most people need (desoxyn exists, but is rarely prescribed)
easy to see how someone just trying to self medicate could end up with a problem, yeah?
a similar issue crops up with theoretical person b. person b has chronic pain, but either had their medication taken from them due to DEA browbeating their doctor, or was never given anything stronger than tylenol because they were assumed to be faking. if it's a choice between suffering and breaking some laws, the choice is clear. so you go looking for pain meds.
pills advertised as being real (which are often pressed anyway) will often run you at LEAST $1 per mg, often more if it's something like morphine or diluadid (codeine is also weirdly expensive bc it's a meme drug), that could be $100s per day if you need multiple doses.
heroins a little cheaper and stronger, around $100 per gram, which is cheaper than pills
then there's fentanyl. strong, cheap, long lasting, wildly available, and significantly more clear headed and less "high" than most opiates. you can get fentanyl presses for $5 a piece that will last most people a day or more. cheaper in bulk. powder varies wildly. but fentanyl is strong, difficult to accurately dose at home, and builds tolerance/dependence quickly. and once you have physical dependence, missing a dose means flu like symptoms or worse for a week or more.
again, you see how this would fast track someone to addiction?
and i know what you're thinking: what about people doing drugs for fun for real?
well, being honest: most people don't develop addictions from occasional recreational usage, and the ones that do are often self medicating for depression or anxiety or trauma or existential dread. there are some drugs that are significantly MORE recreational if you happen to have anxiety. even if there's a guy out there who really just loves doing drugs and is 100% well adjusted and is just addicted for the lulz: i don't care. that guy still deserves access to safe, accurately dosed, transparently labelled drugs. (this isn't even getting into queer drug culture either bc this is long enough but you'd be surprised how many drugs were banned bc they were popular in queer clubs)
"but why would society continue doing something that very obviously is creating the problem it claims to be fighting?"
simple! many governments (namely the US) want disabled, poor, queer, and brown people to spend their lives working in private prisons or drop dead! denying them access to safe medical/recreational drugs, fast tracking addiction (by creating a situation in which the most accessible options are the most high risk, stigmatised, and heavily criminalised substances on the market), and then dehumanising addicts/drug users to the point even self proclaimed leftists often have no sympathy for them is a quick and convenient way to accomplish exactly that.
anyway i just kind of wrote this essay because i feel like people who have never been in this situation don't understand how someone can wind up addicted to a "scary" drug like meth or fentanyl, you hear a lot of people talk about it like those are "extreme" drugs no "normal" person would ever knowingly try, or that people would only use them if they didn't understand the risks or are Stupid (and therefore "deserve" any harmful side effects) and that's just not true. the fact of the matter is these Spooky Scary Substances are often the cheapest and most accessible options on the market, and if you can't afford to jump through medical hoops, you probably can't afford the Expensive black market options either. and i thought breaking down the pricing and logistics and providing real world examples might put things into perspective, because honestly you probably won't hear it from anyone else.
In a fair and equitable medical system (which means medical access not only without financial barriers, but also without provider bias, with pain and subjective experiences taken seriously, without medical racism/sexism/ableism/sizeism/classism/queerphobia/ageism), the total number of people using opioids would increase, not decrease, at least in the short-to-medium term*. Because people suffering from chronic pain for years would finally get access to treatment.
Success shouldn't look like "fewer people on opioids," it should look like "fewer people suffering."
*In the long term, total opioid use might decrease as we got better at treating/preventing illnesses and injuries from developing into chronic pain in the first place.
Anyway, the notes are full of people doing my favorite thing -- arguing that a problem is medical, not social, and then citing examples of social problems. "Opioids have side effects that make people sick" is a medical problem. "Opioids cause people to lose their jobs and become homeless and get arrested" is a social problem, because society decides things like who gets housing and who gets arrested, and we could just have universal housing and not arrest nonviolent people instead.
Sleepy Eepy Mareepy
I cannot put into words how much I Fucking Loathe the fact that when you search something on youtube now it will randomly intersperse blocks of "people also watched" and "for you" into the results. That's not what I searched for, youtube. I typed in a search query because I wanted to see search results, not random unrelated garbage you have placed in my way apparently to either inconvenience me or force me to scroll further for actual results. I despise your wretched little games and every time I see it I can only instantly close the tab as I am overcome with the urge to burn something down.
"I despise your wretched little games" perfectly conveys how I feel about the entire algorithm/attention economy
They also refuse to actually show the parameters you searched for. If you sort by “upload date,” the first few videos might be more recent ones by upload date, but anything past that you’ll find a video that was uploaded five years ago, then five months ago, then three years ago, etc, which—NO! That’s NOT WHAT I ASKED FOR!! PUT THEM IN ORDER!!!
Also sometimes the “people also watched” bullcrap will not only be entirely unrelated, it will also be videos with violent, sometimes outright triggering thumbnails. I’ve gotten some AWFUL unrelated video thumbnails just when searching for video game music videos.
whatever our souls are made of, you and me are going to end up stuck in the same ice hole
oh fuck this is a really good hill i gotta die on this
rich people seeing mount everest
wikipedia Tell me about this man's personal life
wikipedia Tell me if this man’s gay