An amoeba blogs

Once Upon A Time...: onecaneverhaveenoughsocks: thestarsinyoureyesshine: obesitycore: the...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:29:02 -0700

Once Upon A Time...: onecaneverhaveenoughsocks: thestarsinyoureyesshine: obesitycore: the...:

thestarsinyoureyesshine:

obesitycore:

the really shitty thing about being told that youre smart your whole entire life is that as soon as you dont understand something you just kind of completely shut down and his this big shitty crisis because maybe…

captainnaamerica: faggoat: the thing that really worked about harry, hermione, and ron was that...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:32:11 -0700

captainnaamerica:

faggoat:

the thing that really worked about harry, hermione, and ron was that they were all the uncomfortable third friend

bless j. k. rowling

"I also think the role of the assistant has changed since Steven Moffat started overseeing Doctor..."

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:29:35 -0700

“I also think the role of the assistant has changed since Steven Moffat started overseeing Doctor Who. Rose, Martha and Donna were chosen to travel with the Doctor because they showed in one way or another that they were smart and up to the challenge. Amy and Clara both come to the Doctor first and foremost as mysteries. Amy is the little girl who grew up with a rift in time in her bedroom wall, who doesn’t know why she doesn’t have parents. She spends many episodes being mystically both pregnant and not pregnant but doesn’t know a thing about it and all our information about it comes through the Doctor. What the fuck is that?
Some version of Clara dies on screen twice before she is taken on as the assistant, and it seems like the Doctor takes up with her to find out why. In both cases, the woman is not of interest for her character or her abilities, but for some fundamental mystery in her being. The mystery isn’t even a secret she’s keeping, something over which she has control- it’s something she does not know about, that the Doctor must puzzle out in his own mind. It’s not about her- it’s about what’s wrong with her. When Steven Moffat took over Doctor Who, women became a problem.”

- What is wrong with Doctor Who? (via zelda-fistgerald)

Things about New!Who that I couldn’t explain why felt wrong.

(via bloggingthetrench)

heatherbat: stunningpicture: ‘Cause people seem to only post...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 23:57:16 -0700

heatherbat:

stunningpicture:

‘Cause people seem to only post the 20-something Audrey Hepburn.

Audrey Hepburn was the granddaughter of a baron, the daughter of a nazi sympathizer, spent her teens doing ballet to secretly raise money for the dutch resistance against the nazis, and spent her post-film career as a goodwill ambassador of UNICEF, winning the presidential medal of freedom for her efforts.

…and history remembers her as pretty.

hewhocontrolsthedice: pleasingbuttocks: newturkdad: guys...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 23:46:22 -0700

hewhocontrolsthedice:

pleasingbuttocks:

newturkdad:

guys PLEASE do not buy the xbox one

do not buy any video game console that is so anti consumer and one that shuts out small video game retailers

I actually went on the official site and I read the rules

this is actually accurate, very accurate

microsoft: ruining everything with several companies, electronics, and applications at a time.

edwardspoonhands: “You all” shall henceforth be known as the...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 23:38:01 -0700

edwardspoonhands:

“You all” shall henceforth be known as the “Kentucky Compromise.”

Also, for people who doubt my ability to unironically say “y’all” Central Florida is indeed green…just not…super green.

Hah…super green…

Anyway…more fascinating linguistic maps here.

There should be a little purple bubble around Berkeley with “Folks”.

sukipants: edwardspoonhands: So tomorrow marks the day when we...

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 20:19:09 -0700

sukipants:

edwardspoonhands:

So tomorrow marks the day when we all have to switch over to the YouTube OneChannel design. I just switched the Vlogbrothers page over. The banner is temporary but, otherwise, this is roughly what you will be seeing now at youtube.com/vlogbrothers.

I don’t love this, which I have made no secret of. I did not love the last channel design either, but I prefer it to this. I’ve heard a lot of people, however, saying that they do prefer this design.

So I’m going to take off my YouTuber hat, ignore what bothers me about it from a content creator perspective, and just focus on the design. These are the comments I would give if a design team brought me this design for an important product my business was working on.

There is entirely too much going on. There are dozens of images on this page, several hundred words, and over twenty individual graphically distinct areas.

There is no anchor for the eyes. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do when I arrive at this page.

Cut down on the amount of information. I don’t need to see view counts for every video or have the option to subscribe to a channel (that isn’t this channel) without leaving the page.

Three column layouts are very difficult to pull off, there needs to be significant visual distinction for them to not appear cluttered and overwhelming, but that has not been achieved or even, apparently, attempted.

I know that people worked hard on this. I know that I am not a top-level manager or designer. I know that YouTube has goals that it is attempting to achieve here, and it’s perfectly possible that this design has increased the metrics that they would like to see increased. In that respect, it is likely that the designers did their jobs and achieved what YouTube set out to achieve.

But it feels like a step back from a user interface perspective.

Also, these are not my complaints as a creator…which have much more to do with how I think Nerdfighteria feels about the Vlogbrothers channel and how Nerdfighters want to interact with my content. That’s a discussion for another time.

If you’ve got further comments or ideas or feel differently (I would love to hear from people who like the new design) I’ll be perusing the reblogs.

Absolutely agree, it’s frustratingly busy/cluttered. Prefer the simpler, large playlist of recent videos, that’s what I’m there for!

demonhunting: squirtle-stahp: ryanroasts: HELLO BOYS I HAVE A QUESTION CAN YOU FEEL OUR BOOBS...

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 21:42:07 -0700

demonhunting:

squirtle-stahp:

ryanroasts:

HELLO BOYS I HAVE A QUESTION CAN YOU FEEL OUR BOOBS WHEN WE DO THE HUG

WE CAN FEEL YOUR BOOBS WHEN YOU WE DO THE HUG SORRY

thank you for this information now what do i do with this information

it’s super awkward because I’m like, I don’t know how to act in this situation, will I crush them?

Special Guest Edition: The Hawkeye Initiative IRL!

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 09:48:01 -0700

thehawkeyeinitiative:

05/15/2013 Update:
BROSIE Goes Viral

Original Post:
I recently received an email from an anonymous fan sharing how she pulled a Hawkeye Initiative themed prank on her CEO to illustrate a problem with some artwork.
My personal compliments to her and her accomplice on a mission well done; they perfectly took the concept of The Hawkeye Initiative one step farther, and effected actual change. I hope this gives you as much of a laugh as it did me (the artwork is currently my desktop), and inspires you to be unafraid to stand up and take action in your own awesome way.

Now, excuse me while I go play my new favorite mech game. :)
-Skjaldmeyja

AnonymousFan8675309:

I work with an all-female team of data scientists, in the gaming industry. This makes me the professional equivalent of Amelia Earhart riding the Loch Ness Monster.

I love my job. Our company in particular is great. Firstly, our game (HAWKEN) is beautiful and people love it. Secondly, half of our executive branch is female. Half of them are punk rock, and all of them are badassed. Our gender awareness standards, compared to the industry at large, are top shelf. We are talking Amelia Earhart in Atlantis, at a five star resort, getting a mani-pedi from Jensen Ackles. I have it good.

For the last six months of my tenure at Meteor Entertainment, there has been only one thing I did not love about my job. This
picture:

Our CEO loves this picture. It is to all appearances his favorite piece of comic art for the game. He had it blown up poster-sized, framed, and displayed on the out-facing wall of his office. There, it looms over the front room like a ship’s figurehead. It is the first thing workers and visitors see when they enter the building and the last thing they see when they leave. This little lady’s undermeats have been the open- and close- parens to my work world for the last six months.

I loathe this picture.

Why do I loathe it? How, you ask, can I stay mad at a sweet young belle who has so obviously taken a break from her important welding to offer me a piping hot cup of coffee and/or a vigorous hand job? (And probably, given her apparent safety consciousness, simultaneously?) If you don’t already know the answer, you might want to check out things like #1ReasonWhy, and the Bechdel Test, and also this, and this, and this and this, and all these other things. (And while we’re talking you should check out this other bullshit right here.)

So at our office holiday party, while our CEO was having everyone in the company sign it, I stand there grinding my teeth into tiny shards. Until, suddenly, it came to me: a vision.

And so it came to be that I approached Sam Kirk, a wickedly funny co-worker who shared my sentiment. Sam, turns out, is a very talented artist who can be bribed-slash-inspired using a medley of feminist indignation, hysterical giggling, and two $90 bottles of añejo tequila.

A month-and-a-half later, our vision was a reality. I give you:
Bro-sie The Riveter.

I want to make it completely clear that everything in this prank that required actual talent was done by Sam. Find this, and more of Sam’s art, at TheRealSamKirk.com.

We blew (ahem) Brosie up poster sized. We framed him. And then, at 7:30 on Monday, April 1st, we snuck into our CEO’s office and switched them.

I stood in the entryway, dizzy with joy. It was glorious. There Brosie stood, proud, nipples testing the air like young gophers in springtime, the post-apocalyptic breeze gently swaying his banana hammock. Brosie said, loud and proud: “Get ready, world! I am here to lubricate your joints and tighten your socket.”

I basically spend the next few hours having a joy-induced neurological episode.

As the morning progressed, Brosie (ahem) revealed himself to our co-workers. The air resounded with startled, suppressed gargles of mingled joy and horror. Some take pictures. Some instantly turn and flee. Several men blush and grin in vindicated solidarity. Several women ask us for prints. At this point I am in total rapture. This is the moment I have been dreaming about for six months.

Yet somehow everyone in the office manages to keep quiet about it. Until, finally, our CEO arrives.

We hear a loud: “What the hell is this?!” And then all goes quiet. Ten minutes pass. We panic.

We are both suddenly and painfully aware that we have, in fact, just punked the CEO of our company. He is by all accounts an awesome dude. He is also a late-50s ex-army guy who happens to determine our employment futures in an at-will state. Meep.

Twenty more minutes pass. And then our CEO comes up to my desk, taps me on the shoulder, and says this:

“That was a brilliant prank. You called me on exactly the bullshit I need to be called on. I put up pictures of half-naked girls around the office all the time and I never think about it. I’m taking you and Sam to lunch. And after that, we’re going to hang both prints, side by side.”

Ruby Underboob and Brosie the Riveter, together at last

Yeah. That happened.

This wonderful experience has taught me two things that I hope to carry with me for the rest of my career in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and in gaming. It taught me this:

Lots of men (like Sam) are already sympathetic to the stupid, constant crap women put up with in gaming/STEM, and they are ready and willing to call that crap onto the carpet.

And, most importantly, many of the guys who are behind that stupid, constant crap are totally decent, open-minded human beings who just don’t realize they’re doing it. You know how sometimes you don’t realize how much you and your girlfriend are talking about shoes or menstruation until some dude walks into the room? Well sometimes guys don’t realize how much they’re talking about titties.

We just haven’t been around enough for them to notice.

There is only one solution to that, ladies. Bust out your baby-Gap tee and your protective welding goggles, and let’s turn this damn industry into the environment we want it to be. It’s hard work, and yes, there are a couple genuine assholes along the way. But if Ruby Underboob can brave the occasional droplet of molten metal, so can we.

Speaking from experience, it’s worth it.

—K2

About our CEO, Mark Long:

Mark has a long and storied history with, among other things, research, games and comic art. He’s a partner in the RoqlaRue gallery in Seattle, representing “chick art.” Mark considers himself a feminist activist. He is proud to have created a graphic novel trilogy with Nick Sagan (Carl’s son) that features a female hero so strong, Hillary Swank is attached to star as her.

Mark and I are now in an open dialogue about gender in comics and gaming.

growing up is realizing that every single one of your problems is caused by you being a fucking...

Fri, 31 May 2013 22:40:35 -0700

growing up is realizing that every single one of your problems is caused by you being a fucking idiot

hashtag white privilege

kimrom: Anita Sarkeesian makes some very intelligent...

Thu, 30 May 2013 21:18:51 -0700

kimrom:

Anita Sarkeesian makes some very intelligent observations about how women are systematically victimized as a tool to harm male protagonists. Despite her less impactful acting sequences (used to underline her smart commentary) this was absolutely worth 25 minutes. Very few things on YouTube are.

I had never considered that one dimensional portrayal of female characters from so many different angles - and I’m already firing up the previous episode.

Photo

Sun, 26 May 2013 21:56:33 -0700

fandomsandfeminism: typette: I remember posting somewhere once...

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:20:37 -0700

fandomsandfeminism:

typette:

I remember posting somewhere once in a thread about why girls aren’t exploited in animation anymore where some guy said, “all the disney girls are drawn to be generally attractive, but I don’t think there are any eye-candy men… or are there? Are there any Disney men that lots of girls like?” and I mentioned Roger. Tons of girls replied agreeing with me and the original guy was like “wait, Roger? from 101 Dalmatians? What’s attractive about him, he’s tall and lanky and has a big nose, he isn’t muscley at all! Wouldn’t you all prefer Gaston or something? Or do you girls think his big nose is indicative of something else?” and I was like “no, you idiot, he’s a silly, goofy guy who likes animals and can play a bunch of instruments, that’s why he’s attractive. What’s the matter with you? Gaston, seriously?”

This is why we need more girls in animation. And more guys like Roger apparently.

This is why I laugh my ass of whenever dudes talk about how men are “objectified” by the media too. Because 9 times out of 10, what men think is “women objectifying men” are characters like Gaston.

And Gaston is NOT a woman-driven fantasy. Gaston is a male wish fulfillment fantasy. Gaston is not what women want, he is what men want to be. He is hyper-masculinity to an extreme degree, dripping with sexism and testosterone. The fact that men think that Gaston is what women want says an awful lot about those men.

While I don’t want to generalize, female fans tend to prefer a very different kind of male hero. We like the Rogers, the Milos, the Hercules. Genuinely kind, often awkward men who are sometimes vulnerable and respectful to women.

Yes, this is a generalization. I own up to that. But I think it’s important to remember that there is often VERY big difference between what MEN want to be and what women WANT in our media.

buzzfeedlgbt: Google Search Equates Gayest With Worst

Wed, 22 May 2013 23:14:46 -0700

buzzfeedlgbt:

Google Search Equates Gayest With Worst

coelasquid: I see you wrote a lot of words here well tell you what I’m gonna pick about 75% of them...

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:08:22 -0700

coelasquid:

I see you wrote a lot of words here well tell you what I’m gonna pick about 75% of them to read and form my opinions based on those.

mach712: celeryandhummus: (x) kristen loves women and she...

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:31:02 -0700

mach712:

celeryandhummus:

(x)

kristen loves women and she doesn’t take shit

It’s wonderful how much of this game she is not playing.

tessaviolet: shinoddddd: ラバーダックの空気が一夜で抜けた NOOOOOOOOOOOO

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:29:26 -0700

tessaviolet:

shinoddddd:

ラバーダックの空気が一夜で抜けた

NOOOOOOOOOOOO

thecakebar: Apple Pie Cookies Tutorial {click link for full...

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:35:50 -0700

thecakebar:

Apple Pie Cookies Tutorial {click link for full recipe and tutorial}

thisgingerisback: Angelina Jolie announces a double mastectomy to save her life, people get fucking...

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:33:41 -0700

thisgingerisback:

Angelina Jolie announces a double mastectomy to save her life, people get fucking pissed and act like she’s lost everything that’s made her worthwhile in the first place, AND YOU WONDER WHY I FUCKING HATE THE “SAVE THE BOOBIES” TROPE.

BECAUSE NO ONE ACTUALLY GIVES A FUCK ABOUT THE WOMAN’S LIFE. WOMEN JUST HAPPEN TO BE ATTACHED TO A PAIR OF BREASTS. WOMEN AREN’T WORTH SAVING—BUT YOU BET YOUR ASS THE PUBLIC WILL BE IN A RIOT IF A GOOD PAIR OF TITS IS IN DANGER.

voldy92: wealldraw: do you ever just this is like one of my...

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:24:04 -0700

voldy92:

wealldraw:

do you ever just

this is like one of my favorite things ever on the internet