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Comments
Bratz were quite sassy in their day.
How widespread is the idea that the PSUV is not representative of socialism, and that Chávez was not the idol of a non-negligible set of socialists?
I dread the idea that they'll get away from being held co-responsible for the disaster they caused here.
I'd say the idea is becoming more and more widespread amongst younger people, especially with the undying meme that the Scandinavian countries are what best represents "socialism".
And then there's whatever dark force took over Teen Vogue.
Well, not in history books as long as the scholars hold out for a while longer from outside "reframers".
But in the popular culture they've basically gotten away with it (sorry). Like, how many average people still remember who Nicolas Maduro is?
In addition, now that Guaido has been tainted to some degree with Orange Man after the American SOTU, it'll be harder to even mention him without accidentally waking The Resistance so media will probably avoid it (not sure how you feel about Guaido but I just mean Venezuelan politics is basically out as whole a thing for now in Western media).
(Besides, it was oil money anyway, so I don't think that endears him to environmentalists either -- though there may be a few people who've used him to argue for stuff like increasing production of fossil fuels, particularly for the "we hate him, so energy independence is good" argument. He'd be a useful expedient for that argument.)
The issue of Venezuela does not seem to be a particularly salient issue for people in the US, except for (1) Venezuelan immigrants (particularly recent ones who fled those regimes) and a few other stridently anti-communist folks (e.g. some Cuban immigrants), and on the other end, (2) a handful of people who either hate or love those two simply because they're branded as socialists/communists/Marxists. The "lovers" among that second set of people are derogatorily labeled "tankies", and are sort of an analogue to those people who reflexively hate anything that the Republicans/conservatives brand as socialist.
A similar reasoning plays out with regards to the Hong Kong protests. The general opinion seems to be sympathetic to the protesters, and it's not specifically because of an ideological anti-communism stance, or for that matter an ideological anti-China/anti-Chinese stance, but rather because the Chinese government has a reputation in the US for cracking down on dissent, blocking a variety of well-known websites, snooping on citizens' lives, suppressing protests (most famously the Tiannenmen Square incident), jailing dissidents, etc.. There are probably some people who see supporting the protesters as a front in a conflict over China's influence in the region, in the style of ye olde Cold War, I'm not sure how salient that is.
I often wonder how an ideology that's so atrocious at governing can be so good at PR.
Ohey one of them was the one who covered Avril Lavigne's 'Girlfriend'.
Apparently the Wolf Warriors smelled blood after the suspension and demanded a 'firing'.
Of anime girls.
Also I didn't know Hololive was an actual agency rather than a group of VTubers agreeing to do whatever.
I gotta say, given the myriad of videos YouTube is recommending me now, the world of VTubing is more interesting than I thought.
I promise I won't start simping.
Much like the one Madison Cawthorn ad really should not have used it. I'd look it up but I'll give this politics thing for an hour or two/three more because things have gone exactly as I expected (I didn't want to check but... my eyes slipped for a second).
Maybe the rest of the day even.
You chose the perfect time for it because I actually clicked on the thread to check what was happening but then quickly closed the tab so I don't even know what you're talking about.
This joke feels borderline distasteful, but only borderline.
Well, it didn't seem too specific so I thought it was fine after a few mental hoops.
According to 2.4 seasons of The Good Doctor, this is generally it but it can be cured in some cases (and since it's The Good Doctor they almost always successfully remove it).
Turns out that as of now, I also have a nice big stick to rattle the cage, so, whatever.
This post is kind of long and it rambles on constantly so I highlighted the relevant parts in bold.
I find in these periods where I disengage from something that's been holding a significant amount of my focus (like politics or the internet more generally earlier this year), I can see things clearer in terms of what's working and what isn't.
I've always followed doll news pretty closely all my life, but I've actually rarely bought any. In fact, it took me a lot of convincing to get into what ended up being my most extensive doll collection; Ever After High, and I mostly kept up with collecting those because I could use them in my stop motion videos.
In the end I have Briar Beauty, Spring Unsprung Briar Beauty, Apple White, Cerise Hood, Blondie Lockes and two Dexter Charmings.
After I stopped working in stop-motion a few years ago, I didn't really buy anything toy-related. That is, until LEGO Friends 2.0.
Frankly, I was really obsessed with LEGO Friends, and it was mighty fun. I know for a fact that I could probably just re-pick it all up tomorrow and it'd be hard to ever quit again, especially now with there being LEGO DOTS too.
But the main reason I'm writing this post is that I have a weird theory; a lot of the stuff I got into this year was just a distraction so I didn't get back into LEGO Friends.
I know this is a lot of armchair self-psychoanalysis, but the first thing I did after Friends was Mega Construx, which also drove me down a maddening hole of constant building, so I had to do something else.
First of all, at the start of this year, there weren't many fashion doll lines. There was really just Barbie and L.O.L. O.M.G., neither of which inspired much confidence in me. There are more now, but that's slightly irrelevant.
I know I've paid attention to toys and kept track of a lot of industry history, but the fact that I didn't like... make many purchases every year before this one probably says a lot.
I think a really relevant period was when I was really ramping up my DapperMan workload. About 70% of what I bought was for historical relevance, rather than because I'd like to display it on a shelf or do anything much with it. I'm not saying that I don't love toys or that I'm suddenly too grown up for them, but I am saying something that is oddly stuffy and grown up in a way: I could probably live without the majority of them.
I wonder if I had approached this year differently, what I'd be thinking now. If I'd really gone deep into toy photography rather than reviewing, my decisions would be nothing like the ones I ended up making. I'd have gone for more things with articulation, more things in a decent matching scale, and so on.
But now that I'm finally
overnot constantly thinking about LEGO Friends, and I'm a bit freer to think, I realize that I maybe would just like to read about toys from time to time more than anything else.That is, unless I get into toy photography, but I have no idea how that would even happen now that I have Blender and that's basically the best dollhouse-slash-LEGO-space a young man can have.
tl;dr I haven't bought anything since my Cave Club Slate doll who I haven't even opened and currently I have no interest in doing so.
But obviously I am still thinking about what happens in LEGO Friends land next year and I really can't wait to see the 2021H1 sets...
Life: haaaaaaaaaaaaaa
I need to ask a doctor about that.
Also, it seems we're officially old now. We tell each other about our ilnesses and ailments.
We also have a thread for discussing the weather.
After all, you'll never know who you need to know.
Like, if you're working in distro for some fish company. You started as a line manager, and you get yourself all the way up to Vice Chief Fish QC or whatever, and you go to a company party, you might meet people from Fish Sourcing.
If they like you, you might start hanging out with them, and then one day you're invited to someone's seaside barbeque where you meet Fish Sourcing guy's friend from MegaCorp Fisheries.
She's been mulling over an idea, but keeping it close to her chest. For some reason, probably because you're a rando, she tells you and you think "Hey, that's a good fish sales idea!", so the two of you start working on it.
Using all the connections you've built up in networking so far, you end up approaching a guy who works in artisanal salts (for the fish, y'know), and he's been thinking about an artisanal cheeses company but he has nowhere near the seed capital required for such a big venture.
However, he does have enough for your boutique fish sales idea. Maybe you sell fish via a cute hipster store, or maybe it's Uber for Raw Fish, who knows. He mulls it over, and decides he'll invest his seed capital in you and MegaCorp girl so that it grows. Not only will his cash grow, he'll hopefully have a good record on this project to take to banks or other investors when he wants a loan of some sort.
So now you quit your job (or don't, but legally you'd have to disclose any involvement with your employer, and this would heavily depend on how much control you'd like your fish expertise to get you), and you're running Boutique Fisheries.
etc etc etc
ie We all need help, and networking is a way to mitigate the risk of not knowing the right person to help you whenever you may need it.
Even simple acquaintance-level cordial relations go a long way in getting somebody to help you rather than approaching them the literal day you need their assistance.
Like, I don't mind things working this way, we all know how much they do, but we pretend they don't while making up a term to do it while we pretend we don't, and that's what feels a bit cringe-y to me.
It's a very useful skill though. It's really not easy to just be friends with everybody for no discernible reason. Couple that with never rubbing people the wrong way, and it's a whole double-layered personality type.
That's another part of the social contract. Like the old joke scenario about a wife asking her husband if a pair of jeans make her look fat. The white lies that oil social stability because human beings can't handle truth very well.
But also nobody actually wants to feel like the villain. Everybody is the hero of their own story, and that story is (usually) written with their own survival and/or ego in mind based on where they lie on Maslow's hierarchy.
You know, I used to feel a bit guilty whenever my thesis supervisor set something up for me. No big deal, but still I relied on somebody. Now, that's what one will just call good networking.