Shipping is now BANNED until you are ok with a character not being interested in romance
There are a lot of people who start creative projects with no business or financial plan, because "who cares, it isn't important, we'll figure that out later". And you can't let yourself become that person. Not because I'm a sneering finance bro who thinks your woke animated youtube series wont make money, but because if you don't you'll wind up financially exploiting your friends for years
Look, it's none of my business if you wanna work yourself to the bone for no money so you can make your dream project a reality. I think you shouldn't, but also let's be real that's basically a rite of passage for young creatives. But as soon as you start involving other people? You need a plan. You need to be able to compensate them for their time, and you need to have it in writing
head in my hands, as someone who does extensive freelance TTRPG work - an industry in which the vast majority of those involved are doing it as a passion project/side hustle, and in which many people are friends with those they work for and with:
if you are doing any creative project with someone else in which money will be involved, make a contract. Doesn't need to be super formal. Get something laid out in writing that very clearly indicates what the person you are asking to do something is responsible for, the timeline in which they're expected to complete it, and the compensation they'll get for doing so.
"oh but we've been best friends since eighth grade" make a fucking contract.
"oh but this probably won't make much money anyway" make a fucking contract.
"oh but I don't know all that legalese" there are tons of pretty accessible templates available online if you research, just make sure it's one that suits your needs and you understand what's in it (it can be written in normal language without legalese, as long as it's clear), and make a fucking contract.
I've heard horror stories about this shit destroying projects, friendships, livelihoods, and in most cases the fallout could have been avoided (or at least mitigated) by having a clear legally binding document about everyone's responsibilities and compensation from the get-go. Do not assign someone work without a contract or some form of written agreement; do not work without a contract or some form of written agreement. please for the love of god.
Especially with summers getting hotter and dryer in a lot of places, solar panels in agricultural fields is a really good idea. Sheltering vegetables from the hottest, driest time of the day will help them grow better. Cows and sheep and such seek out shelter from the sun. I think I recall reading that they found higher biodiversity in pastures that had solar panels because of the shelter they provide.
I'd like to see a very hard push for solar covered parking; people can be massive shitheads about any kind of power generation, but nobody objects to covered parking
Genuinely insane how I got an autism diagnosis as a little girl before they realized I needed prescription glasses.
I was squinting at literally everything further than 4 feet away.
spamton falling on the ground face first and accidentally making another dark fountain with his nose
male gaze is not 'when person look sexy' or 'when misogynist make film'
death of the author is not 'miku wrote this'
I don't think you have to read either essay to grasp the basic concepts
death of the author means that once a work is complete, what the author believes it to mean is irrelevant to critical analysis of what's in the text. it means when analysing the meaning of a text you prioritise reader interpretation above author intention, and that an interpretation can hold valid meaning even if it's utterly unintentional on the part of the person who created the thing. it doesn't mean 'i can ignore that the person who made this is a bigot' - it may in fact often mean 'this piece of art holds a lot of bigoted meanings that the author probably wasn't intentionally trying to convey but did anyway, and it's worth addressing that on its own terms regardless of whether the author recognises it's there.' it's important to understand because most artists are not consciously and vocally aware of all the possible meanings of their art, and because art is communal and interpretive. and because what somebody thinks they mean, what you think somebody means, and what a text is saying to you are three entirely different things and it's important to be able to tell the difference.
male gaze is a cinematographic theory on how films construct subjectivity (ie who you identify with and who you look at). it argues that film language assumes that the watcher is a (cis straight white hegemonically normative) man, and treats men as relatable subjects and women as unknowable objects - men as people with interior lives and women as things to be looked at or interacted with but not related to. this includes sexual objectification and voyeurism, but it doesn't mean 'finding a lady sexy' or 'looking with a sexual lens', it means the ways in which visual languages strip women of interiority and encourage us to understand only men as relatable people. it's important to understand this because not all related gaze theories are sexual in nature and if you can't get a grip on male gaze beyond 'sexual imagery', you're really going to struggle with concepts of white or abled or cis subjectivities.









