Fun and Fancy Free

[Fun and Fancy Free]

[sabertoothwalrus]

for those who don’t remember, “mole interest” was an experiment I did 2 years ago because I wanted to test what causes tags to go trending on tumblr. My hypothesis was that all it takes is one (1) post blowing up in an established tag to make the entire tag trend.

I had randomly generated 2 words, which is where “mole interest” came from. I failed to consider that by generating a new tag, it wouldn’t have had enough posts already in it to prove what I now call “the mole interest effect”.

But now it does.

In 2023, we said “fuck it” a la mythbusters and ended up doing whatever it took to get #mole interest to trend. And it did. And it happened to be September 11th that day, and we managed to get #mole interest to trend ABOVE #9/11.

So, in the name of science, I ask you to reblog just this post. Let’s put the mole interest effect to the test.

[sabertoothwalrus]

you guys have gotten this to 20k in 2 and a half hours that’s insane

it’s still not trending! so far this could mean:

1. 20k is not enough for one post to make a tag trend, but it could be possible with more notes
2. All the other trending tags have more activity in general at the moment, but the mole interest effect could work on a particularly slow day
3. I was wrong, and the mole interest effect isn’t a thing! It happens sometimes. But a disproven hypothesis doesn’t mean the experiment “failed”! Being wrong is still a learning opportunity. You guys are helping me collect (mole) interesting data regardless!

[Fun and Fancy Free]

[tyrantisterror]

The core appeal of Willy Wonka is that he's a nigh-omnipotent maniac who uses his near limitless powers over reality to trick shitty people into killing themselves. You can't make him the protagonist of a whimsical coming of age tale - you have to treat him like Jason Voorhees, or Dracula, or any other horror icon. Give him some new victims and new interesting kills and set him loose, that's all audiences want.

[bcomic-blog]

I feel like I watched a somewhat different movie...

[tyrantisterror]

[fluidstatick]

Gene lobbied hard for Wonka to be introduced as a feeble limping old man who suddenly falls into a forward somersault and leaps to his feet, because "from that moment on the audience won't know if he can be trusted." On a related note: the director told Gene what would happen during the boat scene, but none of the other actors were prepared; to this day, none of them are sure what he ad libbed and what was scripted.

My favorite detail, though, is his performance of Pure Imagination. On the surface, the song is charming and inviting, but if you look closely at him throughout the scene, you'll notice that Gene never blinks. He looks around, down at his feet, up at the trees; his eyes never fully close. He moves erratically, stuttering up and down the steps of the chocolate room. The lyrics are warm and friendly, but his face is blank. He bows to permit his visitors to run amok, but his posture is stiff. He helps Violet and Mike reach a couple of treats, but there is no joy in the gesture. The final post-chorus feels like a dirge, a threat, and a warning, all at once; Wonka sits in repose under a tree, but his eyes are glassy and dispassionate. "There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination; / living there / you'll be free / if you truly / wish / to be.......... "

Fantasy in excess, like anything else, will destroy you; that's the real message of Gene Wilder's Wonka. He taunts his guests with unrepentant disdain, and doesn't care if they live or die. He toys with their emotions, their safety, and their grip on reality, feeling no regret or remorse, no pity, no compassion. Fantasy is colorful and compelling, but it's false, and ultimately empty. Wonka is a walking maladaptive daydream, and as far as I'm concerned, that's the real reason the 1971 film has endured in the culture for so long.

[Fun and Fancy Free]

[bookrat]

Some more little guys for sale~

Keep reading

[Fun and Fancy Free]

[hollowboobtheory]

[emmaubler]

This little girl decided she wanted to showcase her ice skating by donning her chicken jockey inflatable and performing to "Holding Out for a Hero." Amazing.

[Fun and Fancy Free]

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

let's put Scooby and the gang in a genuine horror movie situation, i wanna see what these freaks are truly capable of

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

"didn't they already do this with—" no. put them in a slasher film. put them in a BLOODBATH. put this van full of weirdoes in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre scenario i have FAITH in them

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

THEY'D DO WELL IN SAW

[batneko]

okay I'm thinking about this

not Saw specifically but a slasher with a legit body count. Summer camp slashers are overplayed but I think it really works because it's the type of thing the Scooby gang WOULD get caught up in.

like some of the counselors didn't show up (got got) so the head counselor calls his younger cousin to see if him and his friends can fill in last minute. They show up and they're a bunch of nerds, one of them even has an anxiety dog, and they don't have a big role at first. It seems like the movie is setting them up as cannon fodder.

and then the deaths start and suddenly the nerds are locked the fuck in. The little one with the glasses actually fixed the phone line and is taking stock of all their supplies in case the vehicles go out. The counselor's cousin who seemed like a himbo has set up a perimeter and made makeshift alarms for all the doors and windows, knows all the entry points. The anxious one and his dog are keeping the mood up with the snacks and activities that were supposed to be for the kids, making sure nobody panics and starts making dumb decisions. Somebody tried to grab the redhead and she flipped him over and had him zip-tied before anybody noticed. Weren't they a D&D group or something? What is happening???

[Fun and Fancy Free]

[laserbobcat]

Unrelated, Best Boy Hank Green made a cute, no subscription, not invasive and full of malwares app.

It's a cute lil app that helps you step away from your phone and leave it alone for a time you set, to stay away from distraction. If you pick up the phone, the knitting lil bean loses all of his knitting... So if you say "I'm setting down my phone for half an hour so I can efficiently clean the table and bag up the trash" it helps resisting the call of the screen. Because you can't make the bean sad. The bean is too cute.

Focus Friend By Hank Green

Focus Friend By Hank Green

4th place in the downloads jfc. I think people are starved for simple and honest softwares with no evils schemes and data stealing

[carolofthebell]

1st place, above chatGPT at the moment!!!

It’s adorable! I love my bean, I’m so proud of their socks. They work so hard!

It’s like practicing healthy boundaries, but with myself.

[leebrontide]

Reblog to make ChatGPT loose to a cute knitting bean.

[edenfenixblogs]

@will-write-for-food this is one of the things I was gonna talk to you about!!!

[hroethvitnir]

I'll tell you what I appreciate here: no data collection. Since I've started making the effort to check data privacy, I am deeply disturbed by how bad many of the biggest apps are.

Focus Friend:

ALT

vs the widely recommended Forest Focus:

ALT

vs this recommended app, with >10M downloads: Finch: Self-Care Pet

ALT

😑 Is all data collection malevolent? No. Am I now extremely resistant to sharing sweet fuck all because I'm sick of being data mined? Yes.

[beyondthisdarkhouse]

I really appreciate how Hank and John Green think about systems and profits and business. They have very clear ideas of the good they want to achieve (like producing SciShow and Crash Course History to make solid, reliable educational videos that help supplement and boost learning for kids who are trying to achieve in high school when their school might not have the resources they need)

And then instead of railing against how the world hasn't made achieving those things easy (which is an injustice, don't get me wrong) they just... focus on solving the problem of how to get it funded and built. Look at the issue, see who's trying to fix it and what they're doing, look for the gaps in the system, and select one that you have the skills to address.

(Hank posted a really good video yesterday called Don't Follow Your Dreams, Follow Your Tools, which was both a reminder of the mindset that's benefited me most but has slipped from my grasp lately, and a fresh perspective on how to play to your strengths.)

There are actually a lot of people like them out there, whose work isn't flashy or immediately noticeable, but who, as the poet* says,

jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

*Marge Piercy

[Fun and Fancy Free]

[paxopalotls]

It's @invisobang season baby!

Very excited to finally share my pieces for this year. I got to collaborate with the incredibly talented @ladylynse and @mysteryhat21art!

Check out Bait and Switch on Ao3 and FFNet! And keep an eye out for the second piece I did (which I will be posting when the chapter it's in is released!)

Part 1 | Part 2

Also be sure to give Mystery's piece for the collab a look while you're at it!

[Fun and Fancy Free]

[depsidase]

[Fun and Fancy Free]

[bastart13]

What I’d give for one of the Cinderella remakes to go into how when you’re in an isolated and abusive situation, sometimes you need to be saved and you’re not weak if you can’t escape by yourself

I’ve never been a fan of bad faith reinterpretations of fairy tales, especially ones which flatten the originals into “princesses is saved by a prince and nothing else”, to then go #girlboss. The princess can save herself because she’s a strong female character! (Implying if you’re in a bad situation, it’s because you’re not strong enough to get out)

[amozon28]

Also the concept of the Prince over the course of like… a couple hours hanging out with Cinderella  going from ‘Haha nice I really like you’ to ‘oh fuck i can tell from context clues alone that your home situation is FUCKED UP’   it’s good shit   ‘I have just met you but ON GOD I’m gonna get you out of there beautiful mystery woman’   cinderella  makes desperately yelling into the night ‘how can I find you again!??!’ when she’s taking off that much more poignant really

[scyllascriptor]

He’s been trained to read the room. To read the context clues. To read politics and scheming and planning and people. He’s a Prince, it’s either that or accidentally drink poison by age 15. And he reads her and …

She’s impossibly wealthy. The dress isn’t a fabric he can recognize, but it’s beaded with cut diamonds, faintly milky opals that shimmer with a rainbow, little pale aquamarines, and somewhere are little bells gently ringing with each step - he’s a Prince and he can’t afford to dress like that. The slippers ring too … there is nothing like that crafted by the hands of humans. That’s fairy stuff. She has an in with them that eclipses royal politics. She is powerful in the Old Ways.

All this wraps around the poorest woman he’s ever seen in his entire life, and he’s seen some very, very, poor people in his time.

Poor in money, but poor in “oh you poor thing!” as well. This is someone who has been robbed blind. This is someone who carried themselves waiting for the lash, for a browbeating, for harsh, cruel, abrupt, punishment.

He expects her to be haughty, or hard, or meek or… something else… but she’s just nice. She’s just … nice.

The rigid posture comes out of his back, his tongue unsticks. She’s like sitting by the embers of a low, calm, fire. He feels warmed and rested simply speaking to her. He wonders if it’s magic, and it might be, but if it is it is magic that is her own.

And that terrifies him, because he’s trained to see these things and he knows someone with a cruel hand is waiting to douse her, and snuff her, and beat the last glimmer out of her shining eyes - eyes that put that dress to shame and and and and… she’s gone.

Oh god, she’s gone. It will be all over her sweet, kind, warm face that she transgressed and … oh god they’ll kill her, whoever they are. This will embarrass them and if there’s anything he knows, it’s that you don’t humiliate someone who has power over you and walk away unscathed.

And all he has is a fairy slipper that will only ever fit her foot (it’s not merely shoe size, it’s a kind of spiritual fit as well), and the vain hope that he can keep such a bright light from burning out. It doesn’t even touch his heart that what he’s feeling is a kind of pure philia, not until it enraptures him soul to bones, all at once. Oh god, oh no, oh shit… he’s reached well above his station, but…he can try to be good and worthy.

The way he sees it, sometimes even the strongest people can be brought low and need just… a little help. She had enough in her to do whatever she had to do to free herself of those evil relations if she had to, but she shouldn’t have to. There’s no glory in blood. Sometimes it’s okay for the ending to be happily ever after.

[Fun and Fancy Free]

[animentality]