Sunday Samplers are a “lightning round” of different subjects, whatever I feel like talking about, no matter how random or trivial or rambling. They’ll make appearances whenever I feel like it, but it’ll always be a Sunday.
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It’s hard to go completely cold turkey on social media. I still lurk every so often on Bluesky, mostly just to see how bad it’s gotten. And believe me, it’s gotten BAD. I haven’t checked in on any of my old mutuals (I don’t feel like being jumpscared by more diaper porn and/or Holocaust denialism from them), but when I see someone higher-profile that I used to follow, it’s usually them posting the most annoyingly online thing you’ll see. And the site’s default “Discover” algorithm isn’t even safe anymore; it used to be deceptively nice, nothing but posts about nature photos & cute pets, but now it too has succumbed to stridency. But sometimes, you just wanna peek in on particular feeds.
There’s a couple that I still check around once a week or so, and while they’re susceptible to Bluesky-itis, there’s occasionally a little glimmer of wit or relatability. This one popped up on two of those feeds. The ace one is usually either fanart (which I may or may not recognize) or rehashed Ace Discourse (Now With More Internal Gatekeeping) that was exhausting a decade ago. The Jonny Quest feed is either people bitching that a show from the 60s doesn’t meet their Zillennial standards of progressivism, people talking about a certain hot vomit Adult Swim show, or people discovering that one Comico issue with the Dave Stevens Jade cover (look it up & you’ll probably understand why; this, along with older gay men crushing on Race, is a much-needed break from the first two). While Xwitter has the opposite alignment problem, at least it has 90% less bizarre [as]holes derailing any & every mention of JQ and way less weird moralistic “if you like this, it can ONLY be cuz you’re an evil bigot” discussion.
Most recently, a supposed YTer (who barely produces anything) I gave up on following and who considers a shitty adult animation show “a perfect masterpiece” was threatening to do a video on the behind-the-scenes shitshow of Real Adventures’ production, and… no. Not you. PLEASE. You’ll get a better idea of what happened with the TV Tropes trivia page on TRAJQ & its reference links (and y’all know how I feel about TV Tropes). At the very least, it won’t end with more verbal onanism for one of the most Reddit-y shows ever made like her video would. Of course, that’s assuming she’d actually make it in the first place…
But popping up on both of these was this little observation, which happens to be highly relevant to yours truly…
Most importantly, this suggests that there’s more than one of us.
Finding this is the equivalent of finding one random diamond that somehow wound up in the poop trough at a dairy farm. That you fell in cuz you were bored & felt like taking the scenic route through a barn for some reason.
Now if only I could find some more TRAJQ fans who like S2 more, realize that it’s not supposed to be The Jessie Show Starring Jessie (Cuz Jessie Can Do Anything), and really don’t care about shipping… Damn, that’d be a miracle at this point.
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“Gee, Mela, you’re sure one to rag on others’ productivity creating stuff for the internet! When’s that next chapter coming? (insert annoying emoji here)”
Yeah, but here’s the difference:
I don’t have a Patreon that I rely on as a steady income source for my output.
I don’t have a following for my output. Not even hate-readers.
I DO have a full-time job with a commute, since being a creator isn’t (and couldn’t be) my main money source. I also have obligations to my aging parents that eat up my weekends, so time & energy to create like I used to have simply aren’t as plentiful.
I do have a Ko-fi account, but I don’t really bother sharing it cuz I know my output isn’t really worth it, quality or quantity. But the thing is, I’m realistic about my stuff. I know nothing I’m putting out is worth it, time- or money-wise. So trying to act like it’s a second job and definitely worth others’ resources would be, at minimum, irresponsible of me.
But if you’re gonna fart around without actually making stuff, living equally off a barely updated Patreon & perpetual mutual aid appeals, well… sorry, but I am gonna rag on you. I’m too self-aware & practical to be okay with myself if I tried to operate like that. Mutual aid during tough times is one thing, but this isn’t that. At best, it feels like being completely devoid of self-awareness of one’s ability to deliver what’s promised; at worst, it’s an active con. I wanna be charitable and assume the former, but I’ve seen too many online scams (or things that functioned identically to deliberate scams) to be too charitable.
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In keeping with this post’s apparent theme, I am currently figuring out a way to adjust this pattern…
… into this character.
Not sure when I’m going to actually do it, since I have roughly seven dozen WIPs going at any given time, but it’s definitely something that I’ve wanted to do for a while now. I just need to get decent enough at crochet to feel confident tweaking patterns.
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Shortly after writing that first part, Bluesky and/or Incognito Mode decided that it just will NOT allow screenshotting anymore. Which is a shame, cuz I saw what may be the best example of what I find so absolutely revolting about VB & its fanbase - namely, that they're PROUD to be absolute fuckups who refuse to improve.
Imagine needing your absolute failure as a human being validated. To need a faux-sensitive "adult" cartoon to tell that it's okay that you're burned out & miserable & unlikable. Imagine viewing that state of being as acceptable enough to BE validated in the first place, instead of fucking FIXED. As much as I hate validation culture, it serves a point for people who are targeted because of something innate like racial background or orientation or a disability. It is NOT necessary for "you're a complete fuckup who refuses to improve even slightly", and THAT'S what these guys keep celebrating about it. That's what they find empowering. That and probably the child molester redemption arc.
One of my drafts has a character give the following dialogue:
"There are three types of Adult Swim fans," Eugene said. "The smallest group are the normal people who just want to watch a show. They're maybe one-fifth of the people you'll see talking about it. But the other four-fifths? They're one big unshowered mass. And out of that mass, half don't shower cuz they're afraid being clean will turn them into a soyboy beta cuck. The other half don't shower cuz they think hygiene was invented by ableist colonizers. Doesn't matter if it's JUST the Toonami people or JUST the comedy people or JUST the cartoon people. If you don't smell 'em coming, you'll hear 'em. And wish you hadn't."
You know how they say 'write what you know'? That observation is an example of just that. I just wish that the VB assholes got even a fraction of the smoke that Rick & Morty fans got, cuz it's overdue.
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Well, there goes another session about venting over something I like that the world keeps insisting I should hate and that got mutilated into something that’s actively revolting to appease those that exist solely to frustrate & annoy me. I see less of them since I cut out actively using the sky site, but dammit, they still find a way to get on my last nerve. It’s all they have at this point.
Anyway, here’s the first violets of the spring. Hearty little beauts. Perfect flower to represent NJ.
See y’all whenever.
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