Impy

Impy

@impchan.bsky.social

Former Webcomic Editor Agender, queer, polyamorous, disabled, neurodivergent Quaker currently living in South Korea

1.1K followers62 following1.1K posts

The thing that drove me away from cable and towards streaming was this: I hated ads. Ads ruined my viewing experience so much that I was no longer willing to pay for it. The thing that will drive me away from specific streaming services is this: I don't want to have to pay more for less.

The streaming services I have now are almost exclusively independent services. Dropout, Beacon, VLDL... Comparatively small groups making their own content, and plenty of it. Their subscription fees are affordable, and the hours of new interesting viewing per month are well worth the price.

Impy reposted

The best flex businesses could do right now is credit their artists and graphic designers to hype being human-made. This could be the biggest boon to artist credit since DC Comics beat an anti-werewolf censorship law by crediting Marv Wolfman.

The fantasy setting I just spent all day DMing not only includes sex workers, it includes robust social and medical support for sex workers. It includes this because one ambitious cleric started the Temple of Ecstatic Communion like 300 years ago, resulting in enduring and enthusiastic approval.

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Further improvements for sex workers came about with the reincorporation of guilds, about 30 years ago in this setting. The Alluring League of Fleeting Companions now ensures that sex workers are able to set their own terms for their work, like for safety and pricing. They also provide training!

This setting is far from a utopia. There are significant social, economic, and technological challenges in the city state where players are finding ways to be heroes. But in this one respect, I do think I built it better than our real world. It's a different paradigm entirely.

The fantasy setting I just spent all day DMing not only includes sex workers, it includes robust social and medical support for sex workers. It includes this because one ambitious cleric started the Temple of Ecstatic Communion like 300 years ago, resulting in enduring and enthusiastic approval.

In DnD rules, clerics start being able to cure diseases at very low levels. It became standard practice in the church to cure STIs, not just for sex workers but for everyone. This effectively wiped STIs out, because there stopped being enough infected patients to spread them.

Impy reposted

I love sex workers and I love furries and I love trans people and I love nsfw creators and all the people that first came to bluesky and made this site into what it is. The same people the devs of this site actively hate and keep trying to get rid of. May they never be swept away. Give them hell.

Yeah, shows that last for 30-40 episodes are just plain better than this 8 episodes 2 years apart model that Netflix is doing. Surely, SURELY, it must be possible to finance and produce real, juicy seasons of shows? Give the writers room to maneuver, they can do so much with it!

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And in terms of publishing, well... Viewers can marathon 8 episodes in a day. Many do! They only need one month of subscription to do that. But publish 24 episodes at 2 a week for 12 weeks, and you've got three months of subscription fees out of it. That seems like it'd be better, right?

This is not a new idea. It's how TV used to work. Whatever the reason people started turning to Netflix instead, I suspect the root cause was NOT that they wanted shorter seasons.

Yeah, shows that last for 30-40 episodes are just plain better than this 8 episodes 2 years apart model that Netflix is doing. Surely, SURELY, it must be possible to finance and produce real, juicy seasons of shows? Give the writers room to maneuver, they can do so much with it!

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It's not that you can't tell a brilliant, concentrated story in a short season. It's that you can't do anything OTHER than a concentrated story in one. So you end up with stories that NEED to be multiple short seasons, and audiences too frustrated to put up with waiting. Just make longer shows!

I'm not a producer, maybe one can tell me... Is it really any more cost effective to produce 24 episodes in the 8 episode season model than in a 24 episode season model? It seems like the logistics of organizing to shoot 8 episodes at a time a year or more apart would be more difficult & expensive??

Yeah, shows that last for 30-40 episodes are just plain better than this 8 episodes 2 years apart model that Netflix is doing. Surely, SURELY, it must be possible to finance and produce real, juicy seasons of shows? Give the writers room to maneuver, they can do so much with it!

I've been watching a bunch of Chinese dramas lately. They're usually single seasons, but 40 episodes long, give or take. With that comes intricate plots, space to breathe and process the emotional action, and time to develop the characters and relationships. 8 episodes is too TIGHT for all that.

Please talk to your parents about their estates. I know it sucks. I know it's a deeply uncomfortable discussion to have, and feels like maybe they'd think you care more about their money than about them if you bring it up. But this sort of thing can ruin you, and your parents DON'T want that.

if millennials could afford homes this wouldnt be a problem but this is going to hit the generation like a truck

This policy is abusive and wrong. It can be challenged in court, but that takes time and money and quite possibly national organization. In the short term, life insurance and negotiating hospital bills as low as possible is probably your best bet? I'm not an expert, perhaps one could weigh in.

Impy reposted

Replying to @ryanestrada.com

We used to hide the fact that the "Anjeon City" in the book was actually Changwon because the history we were telling wasn't exactly positive but the mayor gave us an award for telling the story and the city is celebrating it so we will say so proudly.

Impy reposted

Even though "that's AI" has become an insult, I told my 19 y.o. that I guessed probably 85% of the kids at his university were using AI. He said that sounded right. (1) See below, I was correct! (2) I think about this every time I see an anecdote ~saying "the kids hate AI, they're gonna be fine."

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Protests and public condemnation are not enough, because you cannot shame the shameless into good behavior. Voting might not be enough, either, since much of the opposition is just as shameless and unwilling to impose consequences (but we should absolutely still vote).

Thor Benson@thorbenson.bsky.social

The Ilhan Omar stuff is grotesque and feels worthy of impeachment by itself

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If we can't even get our neighbors to pull together and decide what kind of people we want to be and what kind of abuses of power we will NOT allow, then as a country we are quite simply fucked.

I feel hopeful about the extent to which this has already been shifting. But impeachment has not succeeded, no matter how deserved. I do not think it CAN succeed at this point without significant threats to the careers of those responsible for carrying it out. Federal politics are too insulated.

Protests and public condemnation are not enough, because you cannot shame the shameless into good behavior. Voting might not be enough, either, since much of the opposition is just as shameless and unwilling to impose consequences (but we should absolutely still vote).

Thor Benson@thorbenson.bsky.social

The Ilhan Omar stuff is grotesque and feels worthy of impeachment by itself

I suspect that any lasting change or improvement in American life will ultimately have to begin in local governments. Even just getting one HOA at a time to shift their priorities towards serving their communities and increasing living rather than resale value would make a massive difference.

I would like everyone to please witness this poster I saw near the subway this morning. It is actually a very reasonable warning to people to be careful about increased crow aggression, but it looks like nothing so much as a wanted poster for a crow due to Bird Crimes.

I did not see Bukangi, but I did see an enormous number of people who ALSO failed to see Bukangi but were all very friendly and polite and having a lovely afternoon together, and in a way that was just as good while being simultaneously, of course, fairly disappointing.

Impy@impchan.bsky.social

I have made plans to take my parents to see Bukangi tomorrow... So probably it will swim back to the ocean tonight, right? I do think it's very sweet that Korea has just been like, "Okay, I guess we all just have a shark now. We are all collectively adopting it because it doesn't want to leave."

Impy reposted

I usually design my business cards to be conversation-starters. But at after too many endless awkward discussions at recent events, I realized I needed a new type of card. The conversation-ender.

I have made plans to take my parents to see Bukangi tomorrow... So probably it will swim back to the ocean tonight, right? I do think it's very sweet that Korea has just been like, "Okay, I guess we all just have a shark now. We are all collectively adopting it because it doesn't want to leave."

Today I learned that when my 74 year old mother updated her phone, the people at TMobile never disconnected or factory reset the old one. Also, the new phone has unavoidable AI features that will send notifications every fucking minute until you log in and agree to the TOS just to turn them off.

We have now reset all her passwords, logged her in, and made sure she had roaming turned on, all so she could have network access to be able to summon a cab to help my 81 year old father go explore a tourist site. Why don't I go? Because it's my 20th wedding anniversary and I need time to feel sad.

My friend was visiting and while we did not go to see Busan's new, apparently determinedly self-domesticating shark (it swam into a canal and now WILL NOT leave)... she DID sing about it. And now every time I hear about Bukangi, I hear in my head that awful refrain, "Busan shark ddururu dduru..."

I have decided, I think, to name the little cat shaped spoon rest that lives beside my coffee maker so that I always have somewhere to set my stirring spoon, and the bright side of living alone is that absolutely nobody can stop me. Henceforth his name shall be Purrcalator.

For the record, Michael would not actually have tried to stop me. He would have done a few very eloquently dubious eyebrow wiggles, though. Maybe patted my head, too. I miss him very much.

I'm down for everyone to get a universal basic income. I still want to see every model erased and every data center destroyed. You don't get to rob us and then just pay us so you can keep doing it. The models and data hoards have to go, and the harm has to stop. That is what justice looks like.

UBI Works@ubiworks.bsky.social

Universal training data. Universal dividend.

My favorite thing about my new microwave is that it has a built in ADHD defense function. If you forget to open it and remove your food when the timer goes off, then after a minute it will beep again LOUDER. It will keep doing this at intervals until you pay attention and get your food.

I have given this cat playtime, and gooshy, and kibble, and fresh water, and a clean litterbox, and multiple rounds of steppies, and even standing up over the shoulder cuddles (which he only rarely even wants). So WHY is he still meowing in my doorway at 2am? What more can he possibly need?!

Signs point to him wanting me to step on him some more. He has ignored the kibble and water even when reminded they exist but he keeps leading me to the kitchen and then flopping down at my feet, which is how he usually asks for steppies. He's just being EXTRA insistent about it now.