Art Fight Time!

How many classics do I have to read before I'm allowed to stop? Like I was forced to read the Great Gatsby in school and it was literally the worst book I ever read. If I read two more off the classics list, can I stop and read stuff I actually like again?

I cannot tell if you’re being intentionally dense or if your reading comprehension is so abysmal this post made you believe I was metaphorically holding you at gunpoint and forcing you to read Moby Dick.

It is your right not to like The Great Gatsby, I know I am in a minority of people who did enjoy it. It is your right to decide not to explore the works of older writers like Jane Austin and Mary Shelley and William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde but it does not mean these works are fucking bad and we should stop encouraging people to read them. The concept of classics is a wide swatch of history spanning the entirety of written language, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to contemporary classics like The Great Gatsby. It is so narrow-sighted to condemn them all and a disservice to you. You are well within your rights to remain in your comfort zone and only read a certain genre of contemporary fiction but there is a vast literary world out there waiting for discovery.

Marcelat Sakobi of Democratic Republic of Congo, at the end of the women’s round of 32 boxing match against Uzbekistan's Sitora Turdibekova, made a strong gesture to raise awareness of the ongoing genocide in the DR Congo by placing her hand in front of her mouth and pointing two fingers at her temple.

Resources for Congo:

Friends of Congo

Panzi Foundation

War Child

CammeDRCongo

Genocide Watch

A guide to the decades-long conflict in DR Congo

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Industrial mining of cobalt and copper for rechargeable batteries is leading to grievous human rights abuses.

An explanation thread from 2019.

Books on Congo.

Feel free to let me know of other resources to add.

The people of Gaza are asking for YOUR help today. Here are some VETTED campaigns you should donate to and share widely.

(may 23rd):

Help Almoghrabi family to evacuate Gaza strip (@amjad20011) - Amjad needs to evacuate with his wife and his son, who isn't even 3 years old.

Support Ruba's family's urgent evacuation (@rubashaban) - Ruba's family are lacking the basic necessities of life; she has an elderly father who desperately needs to be evacuated.

Save little Yusuf and his family (@ahmednabubake) - Yusuf is in an intensive care unit fighting for his life in Gaza; he needs urgent evacuation alongside his family.

Help Belal and his family to evacuate from Gaza (@alaajshaat) - Belal has lost too much to this war and needs to support himself and his family.

Help Ahmed's family evacuate (@malkzaeem) - Ahmed needs to save his wife, 4 children, and severely injured father.

Help Ezzideen Shehab and his family evacuate (@helpezzideen) - Ezzideen, a young doctor, and his parents, siblings, and young brother Mazen urgently need to evacuate.

Help Iman’s family find safety (@imaneyad) - Iman has a family of 7 who need to find safety.

Support three orphaned children and their mother (@abedbahlool) - TW Graphic image. Asmaa is a mother of three and lost her husband due to the aggression.

Help save Bassam and his family (@lailashaqoura) - Bassam has five young children and has already lost 9 members of his wife's family.

Save Firas' family (@prosolitudeeee) - Firas is a of two children, a 10-month-old boy and a two-year-old girl, who are in need of safe haven in Egypt.

Help Hani's family evacuate (@skatehani) - A Palestinian skater trying to evacuate 10 members of his family.

Help Omar evacuate (@omarsobhi) - Omar is a 20 year old Palestinian student who wants to save himself and his family from this genocide.

Help Tahseen and his family (@tahseenmush) - Tahseen and his family are from northern Gaza and need urgent help to survive this genocide.

Help Nader's family to evacuate from Gaza (@nadershoshaa) - Nader and his family, consisting of six members, are currently displaced in the south; help them evacuate and survive.

Marah needs to save her family (@marahsalem) - Marah is trying to get reunited with her family, which consists of 5 members who need to urgently evacuate.

Help Mahmoud's family evacuate (@mahmoud0qassas) - Mahmoud and his family need to get to Egypt. His brother in law needs medical attention ASAP.

Yosof's family needs to evacuate (@yosofzaeem) - Yosof’s family needs to evacuate urgently; member of their family needs medical attention.

This list is supposed to call you to action. Please do not scroll past without contributing. Choose at least one fundraiser to support today. $5 can save lives. If you cannot donate, share these campaigns.

Looking for more campaigns?

My biggest tip for fanfic writers is this: if you get a character's mannerisms and speech pattern down, you can make them do pretty much whatever you want and it'll feel in character.

Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?

What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?

Worry less about whether a character would do something, and more about how they'd sound while doing it.

I want to die in Gaza. I'm not very interested in my life, but please don't let me see my sisters and brothers die in front of me. Please help us evacuate them from Gaza. There isn't much money left to evacuate them. Please donate and share the campaign..

gofundme.com

Donate to Save Maliha family: Urgent Evacuation Fund, organized by Dina Maliha

Hello, I am Nora Maliha from the devastated Gaza Strip. I am 24 years old, stud… Dina Maliha needs your support for Save Maliha family: Urge

current mantra

Do any of u have decent recipes that are like 5 ingredients (not including spices) and take 45 mins or less to prepare i gotta stop eating sandwiches for dinner

haikyuu is soooooo…… everything. it’s so good it makes you want to do stuff and motivates you enough to realize that you have to begin somewhere and that everything is worth a try and maybe you’re lonely now but something better is coming, or maybe you’re not the best at that one thing you’re doing but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy it, or maybe you feel like you’re behind everyone else but your path is yours to walk and it’s different from the path of those you compare yourself to, and maybe you think you’re never going to make it but you’re going to bloom after trials and tribulations, and maybe you won’t shine the way you expected to but shining isn’t limited to grand gestures and grand jobs and grand dreams and

The end of 2024 has proven that 2025 seems to be a huge year for donghua and I’m gripping everyone to give all these donghua besides just the most popular ones a chance!!!:

Link Click, Yingdu arc: releasing December 27, 2024

Nezha 2, sequel to Nezha 2019 aka Nezha zhi motong jiangshi, confirmed for January 2025

To Be Hero X, likely April 2025 release (I hope people will also support the version with Chinese VAs! 🙏)

Lord of the Mysteries, 2025 summer release—accompanied by more good news: the novel has officially entered the British Library and it will also be translated into English by Yen Press

False Memory, series version, confirmed 2025 release

I am making this post because False Memory just released its new trailer and I am very much so looking forward to it! The series started as an indie short before growing into a bigger thing, much like Fog Hill of Five Elements and The Legend of Luo Xiaohei and Alita’s Trial. We’ve thus been waiting a couple years for news so this is really exciting, especially after it recently got a Twitter account!!

Bonuses:

Ya She, released a couple months ago but late enough into 2024 I’d still love for more people to check it out!

Scissor Seven, another one that’s had its newest season out for a while now, but I assume that for those who have Netflix, it hasn’t been officially English subbed or dubbed yet. We’re also still getting trailers for its game!:

I Am What I Am 2, released Dec 14, 2024 in China!

Reminder that Mo Dao Zu Shi is now on Crunchyroll! They may have removed it from Tencent’s donghua YouTube channel for this, so definitely go support it if you do have Crunchyroll!

Some children’s donghua have also recently released, including news of the new Balala the Fairies season and the other magical girls show, Rainbow Crew! The latter is confirmed for an official release in English.

The Yi Ren Zhi Xia game is also coming soon to global, and Fox Spirit Matchmaker even updated their OP recently after quite a long time of silence.

And speaking of silence, even the long-awaited SVSSS donghua saw some movement recently!?

Now if I could get a confirmed 2025 release for White Cat Legend season 3 (and maybe God Troubles Me and Lie Huo Jiao Chou and Fei Ren Zai and All Saints Street and The Legend of Luo Xiaohei and Wo Jia Dashixiong Naozi You Keng etc…)), I could die a happy man (gender-neutral)—after watching all of these newly released donghua shows and films and seasons, of course ahaha. 🙏

For more news and info on donghua, you can check here:

Google Docs

Donghua Recommendations

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Quick Intro to the owner of this list, Kuku (kuku88 aka kukuandkookie) Current Releases: shows I like or have heard good

There’s a bunch of new donghua information in the above document that came from 2024, even though they don’t have official release dates yet! Including but not limited to:

The announcement and PV of Call-Up Girls, based on a baihe manhua

The announcement of a Nirvana in Fire donghua, based on the danmei novel with a famous cdrama adaptation (with the manhua having recently gotten an official English license via Aloha Comics)

Trailer and announcement for 《向火而生》, based on Shui Qian Cheng’s danmei novel Blazing Armour

More announcements for Jing Wei Qing Shang, based on the popular baihe novel

Trailer for The Story of Rong Song, a spin-off of the famous Big Fish and Begonia movie

and many, many more…!

Hope everyone can join me in watching more donghua for 2025!! :D

The day is finally here...

My favorite chapters of Dr. Stone have been animated!

I'm so glad anime-onlys finally get to see these chapters.

I'll talk a little more about why these chapters matter a lot to me under the cut, specifically more about Xeno's character. I've been able to digest these chapters for almost 5 years, so I would say I am a certified Xeno expert. I'd read it if you want to understand Xeno's character more, it'll make his future actions make more sense to y'all.

Don't worry, there's no spoilers.

The most important aspect of Xeno's character is who he was before, who he was when he first met Senku. Xeno wasn't born a bad person, he became one over time, as he grew up he felt like his dreams were taken from him. He always had some authoritarian tendencies, but those tendencies were brought forth the more he became shackled by authority.

His true passion is science, all of his wants are motivated by his selfish drive to do as much science as possible, no matter the financial and ethical barriers.

Xeno first met Senku when he was 10, Xeno being 20-21. They were online friends for 9 years, so they both got to see each other grow up.

Senku's drive to save humanity was instilled in him because he rejected Xeno's crumbling ethics. His trip to Africa, his studying biology and topics far beyond rocket science, was because he knew people like Xeno posed a threat to humanity. He knew he would have to counter mad scientists from a very young age.

Xeno and Senku are meant to be mirrors of each other, this shows in Xeno's design. I will say I am very proud because I figured this out years ago before Boichi (the manga artist of Dr. Stone) confirmed it several days ago.

Both Xeno and Senku represent the quest for knowledge by oneself because they feel like nobody will be as passionate while carrying the torch. Xeno decided to become a dictator because he felt like he could be the only one willing to sacrifice morality for the sake of human scientific progress, while Senku felt like he could be the only one willing to do everything possible to save every human on Earth.

(Notice the difference in their eyes, Xeno's don't shine. This becomes more important symbolically later. This theme is brought up again and again.)

In summary, Xeno is a passionate person who lost all hope in humanity because of the barriers that were placed in front of him. He is arrogant, controlling, and has sinister motivations.

Senku is the scientist of light, while Xeno is the scientist of the dark. Senku is selfless, Xeno is selfish. Senku studied science in the hopes of progressing science at the benefit of everyone, while Xeno studied science in the hopes of progressing science at the benefit of himself - his curiosity.

As I've grown up alongside Dr. Stone, I've noticed the shift in my own character. I love Dr. Stone because it is all about wanting to learn as much as possible. I find that very relatable. Like Senku, I loved reading books on quantum theory and chemical biology when I was little - although I was like Taiju, I rarely understood it. But I continued to read regardless because I just wanted to know everything, I was and am endlessly curious.

I found myself relating to Senku after I first caught up to Dr. Stone in January 2020, but over time I have begun to understand Xeno further - most people are not curious. They feel no passion for learning more and the importance of building upon existing human knowledge, even if it could help many. Sometimes we need great, powerful people, to drive humanity forward even at the cost of one's moral character.