Since the Ides of March are almost upon us, here is a short story reimagining the Life and Death of Julius Caesar as a Western.
Title: Mercury in Retrograde
Word Count: 1031 words
Pairings: Brutus/Caesar, Brutus/Cassius
Literally every problem we have would’ve been solved by now if we as a species went into fleshy biotech instead of machines early on
why would we need cars if I have heelies built into my feet as dope retractable bone spurs. why would we have food crisis if we could photosynthesis with backpack-organs. Blow up your iPad today
subjective perspective =/= unreliable narration
like. i am holding you gently by the face. listen to me. all narration will reflect a subjective experience. this is not the same as an unreliable narrator. the unreliable narrator lacks credibility for a specific reason - they’re an exaggerator, they’re insane, they’re a joker, they’re an outright liar. a character whose view of things is merely coloured by their backstory and experiences is not inherently unreliable, simply subjective. an unreliable narrator is intentionally or significantly altering the truth, to position the audience deliberately. it’s a specific literary device, not a default in POV storytelling.
adding to this to say that a subjective narrator (most narrators fall in this category) is the conduit through which the reader discovers the story. it will never make sense for the subjective narrator to have ALL the information immediately — as they discover things, so does the reader. yes, the reader may realise things before the narrator, and that’s okay! it still doesn’t make them unreliable. remember that you (the reader) are not within the narrative, and are able to step back and view all the details in a way the character can’t.
in some cases, this is totally intentional! when the reader/audience knows something that the narrator (or other characters) doesn’t, that is called dramatic irony. it is a device most often used in the theatre, but can be used in books as well. again, the use of dramatic irony does not mean the narrator is unreliable!
in identifying an unreliable narrator, ask yourself if the character has an agenda. what would the character gain by manipulating the way the story is told? if there is no agenda at play, then the narrator is merely subjective, not unreliable.
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.
Anonymous asked:
hold on a fucking second. delaware is a state?? i thought it was a river? or is the river more important than the state? why don't i know this? (i should mention i don't like in america, i'm just confused)
dear-ao3 answered:
there is delaware (state) and delaware (river)
both are equally strange
the state is a tiny little cryptid thing
the rive is a monster that spans new york, pennsylvania, new jersey and delaware. also washington crossed it once and that was like kinda a big deal i guess. like crossing the rubicon in rome.
the state tries to me more important with its “im the first state!!!” bs (seriously its even on the fucking license plates) but we all know. its the river.
THATS TUPPERWARE
i thought delaware was a place in ohio? why are there so many things named delaware?
delaware is too powerful
what the fuck
Wait what? I thought Delaware was a store with building supplies. Like paint, wood, nails and stuff?
I know home depot, but dude I don't know anything about America mad have never been there. Are you sure there is not a some sort of store called something close to Delaware!?!
.....ace hardware....?
this post has only been around for a few hours but could very well be a world heritage post
but at what cost
This post launched at 8am PST on 12 Feb 2021. The above conversation has happened in 3 hours.
he WHAT? i thought he was from. w. wait. ???
delaware stole the presidents shoelaces for clout and became too powerful
From the UK- and what do you mean Delaware isn't a type of ceramic?
it is now
@hellsite-hall-of-fame is it too early?
Isn’t delaware what they make computers on???
software ??
I think they meant Dell Ware, a specific computer type. We had a Dell computer once.
I thought Delaware was that famous singer they spoofed in Zootopia.
oh i thought delaware was that one british singer lady, you know, the one from chasing pavements
that's fucking adele
isn’t delaware that place you go when you die
youre thinking of superhell and all of you are going there
how the fuck did any of you come to the conclusions you all made
we live in america?
I thought Delaware was that food delivery service that keeps interrupting youtube videos with their ads when I'm trying to have a good time
..... are you talking about Doordash???
Isn't Delawere the name of that one girl in the song that goes "Hey there, Delawere"? She's from NYC or something.
Pausing here to point out that op is “dear-AO3″ and now I’m wondering if Delaware fanfic would be categorized as RSF (real state fic) or AU (alternate unitedstates)
stop i do not want to think about this
Isn’t Delaware that SPN ship that exploded the internet
Everyone on this post:
I love that the “no, that’s [x]” meme is making a comeback here and only here and nobody has any idea what’s going on
Keep up the good work, we can make poor OP have a melt down yet.
Isn't delaware that one brand of pizza that's like "it's not delivery, it's delaware."
isn't delaware the god of the sea
Isn't Delaware the name of that guy who painted the Mona Lisa?
delaware is that one evil cyborg guy that has a son named Luke and a red laser sword
Thats Darth Vader. Im pretty sure Delaware is that other red-laser sword guy. You know. The one that stabbed Qui-Gon.
what have i created
I usually only reblog older posts, but this definitely deserves to be in every tumblr hall of fame
this post has only existed for 8 days.
This is fantastic because it goes great with my theory that Delaware only exists for tax purposes. Like, all the states really only exists for Tax Purposes, but Delaware is particularly fake because back in 2012 I got lost in the Alleged Delaware Area looking trying to get to a family reunion, but every time I pulled over for directions, I would ask what the hell state I was in now, and I went through Mayland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey AND Virginia and I never fucking found Delaware but I did eventually find the Family Reunion and earned the repsepct of my then-prospective- Great-Grandmother-In-Law by saving her favorite grandchildren from a furious oceangoing horse so I’m convinced that not only is the state a purely legal construct, they didn’t even dedicate any landmass to it, or it’s a gov’t blackzone where the carnivorous horses live.
World Heritage Post
fun fact, i actually drove through delaware on this posts 6 month birthday. i hate it here.
This post literally fills me with life,tysm.
This post confused the heck out of me, I don't even know what's going on in this post, why the hell am I rebloging it?
It's not Delaware it's...
we should bring back the supernatural fandom somehow having an extremely specific gif for literally every occasion though
i know you guys are still out there. i know you still have your .gif folders. don't pretend you're not.
you. you get it.
For fanfic readers only. How often do you think authors receive kudos and/or comments on their library of published AO3 fics (think multiple stories over ~many~ years worth of inventory)
Dailey on active fandoms (regardless of last publication date)
Weekly on active fandoms (regardless of last publication date)
Monthly on active fandoms (regardless of last publication date)
Only within the first month of latest publication date (older fics are moot)
Only within the first week of latest publication date (older fics are moot)
Only within the first 48 hours of latest publication date (older fics are moot)
I'm a fanfic author and would like to see the results
I recognise that many people might want to choose a "depends" option but I'm here for ballparks, not individual bases. Please choose what best fits your assumptions out of these. And if you need to, assume the authors' skill levels are better, not worse. We're talking decent to great writers since most authors who've been around for a long time to build up their inventory are usually more skilled than not.
“Ken wouldn’t do that to Barbie, it’s out of character!” Babes, that is the point.
Ken and his discovery of the patriarchy and the way it changes him is the exact same as what happens with adolescent boys. You have these guys who were so close to you, wether through friendship or family become people that they aren’t due to both peer pressure and the desire to hold power. Especially with the whole “podcast bro” thing he had going on in the Ken Dojo Casa House scene, Ken represents all the boys that lean into the patriarchy and change for the worst.
Ken was always so sweet, he was stupid and lovable and would do anything for Barbie. Then he got roped into toxic masculinity and all of a sudden he was cruel and pretentious. This is the same path that many of the guys I was friends with as a kid fell down. Barbie represents growing up as a woman and Ken represents growing up as a man.
