Latest Posts by pikz3l - Page 3
I went to the DC Pen Show in August and ordered a custom pen!
This time I spent my hour perusing the custom corner. Purchased a blank from Turnt Co, then walked around taking a look at shops that would make custom designs.
Came across Little Hollow Customs and loved chatting with them. They were new to me but it was fun putting faith and my dollars in on a small business to get something unique for me.
This is significant. The Onion, who hands down has been one of the best satires available making poignant articles even with humor bought out one of the worst propaganda machines out there. If you really don't know who Alex Jones is, he's the evil guy who tormented the families who lost little kids when they were murdered in their school in 2012. This vile human kept accusing these families of being actors and faking the whole thing to the extent that people who listened to his show, purposefully harassed these families. Even just thinking about this again has me sobbing.
Every time there is another mass shooting, The Onion also posts their now infamous article 'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.
This guy and his "media empire" deserves to be torn apart. But it's not the end goal. It's just another battle against misinformation and violence in this country. But it's a win.
Yes! I had a concept for something like this but I don't know how to code. I'm glad someone built this.
I had wanted this because I wanted a way to clean up my digital remains when I die. But considering how social media is (insert all sorts of descriptors), it's like living in a hoarder's house after a while.
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2024-opinion-biden-harris-accomplishment-data/
"In the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, the polls are tight and their policy plans are underwhelming. But there is another way to compare their ability to do the job that gets far too little attention: Both candidates have a record to run on — and the data tell their own story."
Even though it's past election day, it's still a good thing to inform people what has been happening. Even as I talked with some folks the day after, I realized pretty quickly that there's a lot of people who don't know what's going on in the country when it comes to the topics that people like to blow up about. Also, DO NOT FORGET that the president is the figurehead, it's all the people they employ that do all the work. If you voted at all, you were voting for a staff of people, not just one person.
I just want to highlight a few graphs.
Btwn year 2-3 of Trump, it was already increasing, that's right before COVID became a thing. Trump's approach to life is emboldening violence.
Again, Trump didn't do anything spectacular besides being on par with most other presidencies, until the administration truly failed. Biden's administration blew the past 3 presidents out of the water. And yet people are still crying over the economy.
Speaking of economy, the article highlights there were proposals to try to reign in price gouging. Some folks might be familiar with the concept of rent control and the like. It was disappointing that these things were not enabled. But for conservatives, it's something they don't want to hear because they don't want to let the government manage business but cry out why the government is not managing business.
I'm just going to copy/paste what the article has for this one:
Presidents love to take credit for a booming market and disavow a sagging one. The truth is they have little to do with either.
Still, some policies are better for asset prices than others, even if it’s difficult to quantify how much. Trump wants to extend the 2017 tax cuts and lower corporate taxes, which could boost spending and corporate earnings, pushing stocks higher. On the flipside, his proposed tariffs could hurt companies, particularly if US multinationals face retaliatory levies.
Harris wants to raise corporate taxes and steer that money to workers and families as tax credits and support for first-time homebuyers. Companies would presumably be worse off from higher taxes, although putting money in consumers’ pockets is generally good for business. The risk for fixed income is clearer: Both Harris and Trump’s proposals are likely to result in higher deficits and debt, which could stoke inflation and force the Fed to raise rates, giving bonds a whacking.
Most likely, though, what drives markets will have little to do with these plans.
The day after the election, of course I heard from the mouths that don't care that the stock was booming. That's because stocks are speculation and really just operate off perception. The people who are in dire need of funds don't have stocks. Those are the people who will get no benefit from increased stocks and yet they see it and think it's great when it only serves a few.
Don't forget, taxes fund the functioning of government. It's absolutely needed. Do you want taxes to come from you or from big corporations?
Honestly, no administration is perfect. But after this abysmal election, I'm not going to shut up about being informed of what's really going on. The truth of how this country is performing and making sure that people are asking the right questions. I already have some questions out of this report, such as what's going on at the state level? The federal level can only do so much. As an example, taxes at the state and city levels can help mitigate and perform better for their own community.
And if we work to better our own communities, maybe that can help funnel up.
I needed this pep talk. I went to work too, to know who are the type of people I interact with.
Women who didn't vote because they aren't "political".
The non white males who were happy that the stock price went up.
The youngest voting age group that thought both were bad or listen to Rogan.
It was a tiny subset and there were a few who were just as disappointed as I was. But overall, a lot of it was the fact that people didn't understand the stakes. Didn't understand what they were looking at.
Honestly, we should make voting mandatory. I believe Australia has that rule. "Free country" my ass if you think it's freedom not to vote. Everybody has to deal with the aftermath of an election. I was dumb like that too once.
Thanks for this because I am spiraling.
this'll be my last post for the night. it looks bleak right now and it feels like the world might end and i do not blame you for feeling that way. i kind of feel like that too to be honest, but numbers are just numbers and land is just land. the results maps you're looking ar are not 100% accurate.
please please please just walk away from this. you'll wake up tomorrow and we'll all probably be crying, for good or bad reasons. i am begging you all to get away from the screen and sleep if you can because if you're starting to spiral then this is not good for you.
i sound like a broken record and i apologize but i repeat it because it's true: no matter how bleak it seems, no matter how badly this may or may not turn out, we can push through this. get some rest. wake up and keep living no matter what. i believe in you.
wake up and keep living. no. matter. what.
goodnight and good luck. sending my warmth out to all of you. <333
(psst have some more cat pics!!! you all really liked the other ones so here's some loafs to ease your mind. i'll see you all tomorrow.)
anyway my hot take is that the modern night-of live reporting model is bad and probably should be illegal. democracy is not a spectator sport and the fact that news outlets are allowed to exploit partial vote counts for ratings is ghoulish. there is nothing you can learn the night of a major election that has greater value than waiting the several days to a week that it will take, and always has taken, for the final vote totals to be established
@giftober 2024 | Day #20: Crowded
You are the lucky class chosen for this year's Battle Royale! Now I'm going to explain the rules. Listen carefully, then fight correctly and cheerfully.
Battle Royale (2000)
Let's keep going.
Ben, think about your daughter.
Think about her as a teenager. And she comes to you. "Daddy, I need your help. I'm pregnant. And it was an adult you know."
Or think about her as woman, happily married and she tells you that you will be a grandfather. But several months in, the fetus isn’t viable. "Daddy, I need your help, the doctors won't do anything until I'm the one dying." As she's left in pain for hours or days as her body rejects the fetus without medical support.
And the only response you have is, "I did this to you too."
Or like a hypocritical coward you run her to a state that protected her body autonomy because you made yourself rich bamboozling people into your toxic rhetoric. At the end, your daughter still suffered your actions.
I got on this romantasy kick this year. It's been highly entertaining. I still don't get all the tropes but the enemies to lovers thing has been pretty wide in intensity.
Perhaps I'm still stuck being practical in some relationships, but when someone is abusing you or straight up tried to murder you, I find that really hard to find believable to get a romance out of it. Two series I've touched on so far that I can think of, Broken Bonds and I just started Zodiac Academy.
Broken Bonds started me off on this journey, and at first I was a bit 🙃 when it came to North and Nox. Honestly, none of their behavior is actually excusable on how they treat Oleander. But over the range of books I've now read, including the first book in Zodiac Academy it seems kind of tame in retrospect.
I've essentially spoiled some of it myself looking at the ZA hashtags, but seriously the abuse is top level in book one (the last event in the book for goodlord!) and I'm supposed to believe the FMCs still end up with some of these fools? Lol. (Ok, Orion actually seems redeemable for the same scene)
I'm still going to read the series because the setting is a bit insane which in turn is again, entertaining. It's fantasy, but hard pressed to actually see it as romance. Just because characters are sexy and hookup, isn’t that opposite of romance? It's more of a lustasy type story.
I do admit that I almost never read romance stories at all because they seemed boring and all the men were described like Fabio. ACOTAR has reached that level of boring romance by the end of book three.
The story ended in book 3 and I'm trying to power through the holiday filler episode. Feyre and Rhysand are in their plateau, which is why couples like Cassian and Nesta became more interesting. But is this how typical romance novels are structured? It's funny that Tamlin is so vilified because yeah, he was too controlling with Feyre and became the revengeful ex, he actually regretted his actions and tried to make amends to an extent and as far as I could see then left her alone. Compared to the FMC in ZA drowned by 4 hot men, this girl was almost dead and this is still going to turn into some relationship?? Lol.
It seems to me that if the FMC ends up with the abuser, it's hot and acceptable but if they aren't then yeah the MC was a total trash pile. Look, I love suspending belief for a fun story but I'm cracking up here.
This. This. This.
Headlines across eight years. Who you vote for really does matter. None of these headlines delve into the Boar's Head listeria outbreak because I can only post ten photos in one post. But the slaughter house self regulate headline? Yup, that's why.
This gifset got me to watch this show. I'm still a sucker for preppy drama and romance.
Maxton Hall: The World Between Us
S01E03: Exposed
This person's photos are amazing. All different sides of Tokyo. I enjoy favorite some of these as inspiration settings for some of my stories.
these are actually so stunning!! might be some of my new favorite artworks, the details are insane and also so beautiful <3
artist @giannyfili on instagram!!
"Always" - Severus Snape - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 E...
OK Youtube, you are sharing some interesting shorts with me lately. Some of these edits are awesome. Also been listening to synthwave and I think this person did a nice edit here with the music.
Professor McGonagall Protects Hogwarts | Harry Potter and the Deathly Ha...
Professor McGonogall was definitely a favorite character out of the whole Harry Potter series. I loved Dame Maggie Smith in everything she’s acted in, such an understated actress. I watched this today after not seeing this movie since it came out in the theater and cried. She will be missed.
The song is catchy, but I really just loved the backflips. Rock on.
Satellites for Sale by NASA on The Commons Via Flickr: Astronaut Dale A. Gardner, having just completed the major portion of his second extravehicular activity (EVA) period in three days, holds up a "For Sale" sign referring to the two satellites, Palapa B-2 and Westar 6 that they retrieved from orbit after their Payload Assist Modules (PAM) failed to fire. Astronaut Joseph P. Allen IV, who also participated in the two EVAs, is reflected in Gardner's helmet visor. A portion of each of two recovered satellites is in the lower right corner, with Westar 6 nearer Discovery's aft. NASA Media Usage Guidelines Credit: NASA Image Number: 51A-104-049 Date: November 14, 1984
I found the most expensive paperbacks I've ever seen. I haven't read either but hopefully I can pick it up at the library.
I, for one, am happy these actors feel comfortable being loud about how much you and your friend suck. If you’re doing something so against that show as voting for a rapist convicted felon who wants to end democracy, what did you expect? Especially from those women?
Actors being loud about how these assholes are NOT welcome makes fandom safer for a lot more people who deserve to be there.
Maybe your fav actor hating you for your bigoted politics should be a cause for reflection about what’s gone so wrong in your life. You know, if this bothers you so much.