I Want To Say “I Think Modern NYC Is A Lot Less Dark And A Lot Less Conduisive To Some Of The BF Realities

Beautiful

WINNER

have you ever heard a sadder bonjour

Superman or: How I Stopped Being Apathetic And Learned To Love The Big Blue Boy Scout:

Last year when I finally watched Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, I was blown away. Not just because it was an incredible movie (in my opinion), but because Zack had done something which I thought unlikely to happen. He made me care for the character of Superman. For as long as I can remember, I was always apathetic to Superman. No strong opinions one way or another. I’d seen the Reeves’ movies when I was younger an, aside from that; I cared very little for the character. I suppose it may have had something to do with the idea in pop culture that he is just this nearly indestructible God who can’t be killed (bar Kryptonite) and is just a boy scout. Even when I first got into superheroes when I was twelve, I immediately fell in love with Batman.I thought it was awesome how a guy, who has no superpowers and who witnessed a horrifying ordeal, became the hero he is. Hence the reason why I only saw Man of Steel last year instead of when it first came out in 2013. Now I love the character, thanks to Zack and co. Yet his Superman is polarizing to say the least; just look at its Rotten Tomatoes score of 55%. Many people will say it’s “grimdark” (To slightly misquote Charlie Brooker “Anyone who combines words like grim and dark to make grimdark is just a funt.”) and isn’t the real Superman because he’s not smiling. Which I assure you, he does. People don’t like this take on Superman as it’s nothing like the Superman of yesteryear. The Superman of their childhood. And hear in lies the crux of the problem with the character of Superman. He’s not been allowed to evolve in the media and within popular culture as much as a certain other DC character. Batman. Just think about it.Since 1966, Batman has appeared in nine films including this years Justice League; it’s sequel and Matt Reeve’s Batman movie in 2019. Not to mention the eight or so animated shows and their subsequent movies. Superman, on the other hand has appeared in seven movies including this years Justice League, it’s sequel and Man of Steel 2. Plus an animated series.Between 1966 and last years Batman v Superman:Dawn of Justice, Batman has gone from: campy to dark back to campy to gritty realism and then back to dark. Apart from the gap between the ‘66 movie and the ‘89 movie, the longest gap between Batman movies was between 1997 and 2005. Eight years, Compare that to Superman IV:The Quest for Peace and Superman Returns which had a twenty-year gap between the two. My point is that the gaps between Batman movies are so small that it allows the audience to familiarize themselves with a new iteration of the character with each reboot.Hence, the reason Bale’s Batman is so popular. Batman has evolved in the public eye.The twenty-year gap between Superman IV and Superman Returns meant that a lot of people grew up with one iteration of Superman meaning Reeves became the de-facto Superman, anything other than this was not the real Superman, and that was bolstered by Superman Returns which was a continuation of the Reeves movies (but with a new cast). Then along comes Zack Snyder who gives us a slightly different take on the character which most people are not used to. He portrays Superman as a character who has flaws and who isn’t perfect. A person who’s trying to find his place in our world.Yet unlike Batman, whenever there’s a new take on the character most are well like and few aren’t *cough* Clooney *cough*, Snyder’s version is disliked and as stated before, not the true Superman. I feel the twenty-year gap between Superman IV and Superman Returns has actually harmed the image of Superman within popular culture. Now maybe this was down to WB who think that Superman isn’t as much of a bankable character as Batman, who knows. But at the end of the day,to quote BvS, “The fact is, maybe he’s not some sort of devil or Jesus character. Maybe he’s just a guy trying to do the right thing.“Superman is a more interesting character than most people would believe. Just because Snyder’s Superman isn’t like Reeves or doesn’t smile 24/7, it doesn’t make him any less Superman. 

If anything is true, it’s that Charles will always care for Carlos (and vice versa)

“I feel sorry for Carlos... I’m sorry for him… I feel sorry that for Carlos that means he dropped out of the points.”

OMG!!! Crusty shepherd's pie?!?! Where have you been all my life!??!?

I have only ever known Shepherd's pie as "Pâté chinois", our lovely Quebecer dish, which I LOVE. But now I am sitting here, reading your explanation @scriptfoodie, wondering what are those versions of which I have never heard a word?!?? Must look into the history of Shepherd's pie!

Hey foodie! Can you talk a little bit about different approaches to shepherd's pie? I've heard there are differences but I don't really know what they are. Thankeeee!! xoxoScripty

Hey scripty, great question! Oooooh Shepherds pie, Shepherds pie!!! This is my bf’s absolute fave so you can imagine how many times and different ways I’ve made it! For starters you can go with or without a crust AND there are different kinds of crusts to choose from. Some will go with puff pastry which I don’t personally recommend because they tend to go soggy so quickly. A pate brisee (savory tart crust) would be up to the task but I prefer the buttery flakiness found in regular old pie crust. I make mine with ice cold vodka for extra crispness but that’s another topic for another day. Once I’ve decided whether or not I feel like making a crust I move on to my meat. Chicken, beef and turkey always work well in Shepherds pies and don’t break the bank. The meat can be ground or cubed but I prefer medium to small sized cubes, steak trimmings if I can find them. I toss the meat with a little flour before browning and it ends up making a nice gravy at the bottom. It IS meant to be a “poor man’s dish” but there’s no rule that says you can’t use fish or seafood or whatever as long as the proper alterations are made. Change up the seasoning, lower the cooking temp and maybe try something like pureed cauliflower in place of potatoes? The limit does not exist! Traditional mix-ins include peas, carrots, corn and onion but WHY settle for those when you have the cornucopia of vegetables to choose from? Turnips, parsnips, pumpkin, beans, greens, potatoes, tomatoes- YOU NAAAAME IT!!!!! (I’m so sry I can’t let that die, yet) I like to top my Shepherds pie with pureed potatoes instead of mashed because they’re so smooth and silky and it’s easier to mix in the cheese, that way. Some prefer to sprinkle their cheese on top if they decide to use any at all but every time I see a thick, heavy layer of congealed cheddar on top of perfectly made potatoes I… just… I just die a little inside. Once the pie is finished I let the whole thing brown under my broiler so the potatoes can develop those sexy little crispy bits we all know and love. So there you have it, my $.02 on the phenomenal dish that is Shepherds pie!

An Open Letter to Tumblr about the Adult Content Ban and How it is Hurting Your Users:

Recently, Tumblr was removed from the Apple app store due to an incident involving child pornography. This incident is incredibly unfortunate, but it doesn’t stand alone. Tumblr was also removed from the app store due to the large influx of porn bots and pornographic spam, users claiming to be proud to be pedophiles, blatant Nazism, racists who are not deleted for sending hate and harassing users, and more. I myself reported someone for harassing me, but because I had blocked the person and couldn’t access the messages where they harassed me, they were still able to send me anonymous asks. Your support staff, with back doors to the website (presumably), claimed they could not access the messages, and I was left SOL. Many features on this website do nothing to actually protect your users from harassment, racism, homophobia, transphobia, Nazis, pedophiles, predators, porn bots, and more. 

You claim in your statement to us that you “have been working on these problems for a long time”. This is blatantly untrue. Please do not lie to us and patronize us. We’ve been here. We’ve seen you do nothing over, and over, and over again. 

We complained to you for months and months about the rampant porn bots, and you did nothing except add a report button on mobile which only reported sensitive content or spam at best. You could have addressed this problem with an effective algorithm, but you did not. We complained to you about being harassed and sent hate speech for being LGBT+, and you did nothing. We complained to you about blogs being randomly deleted, and sometimes you’ve restored them, other times you have not. We complained to you that there were people proudly claiming to be “Minor Attracted Persons”, or pedophiles, and you did nothing. We complained to you about people proudly claiming to be white supremacists, and you did nothing. All of these things are “against the community guidelines”, and yet over and over, you have not found effective ways to handle these problems or suppress the feeling of welcome that these users claim to get here. You have had a long time to work on these problems, but you haven’t addressed them. To say you have is untrue. 

 Multiple other social networking websites, such as Wordpress, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and others have effectively dealt with rampant pornography, racism, pedophilia, and other problems without causing massive issues for their users who are not misusing the platform. They are continuing to find new, effective ways to deal with these issues without causing problems for their userbase as a whole.  There is no reason that you are unable to do this effectively other than that you wanted to do it quickly. You have once again chosen your stock holders over your users. And we have had enough. 

You have already started to ban “Adult” content with a new algorithm. Here are screenshots of just a fraction of the posts you have flagged as containing adult content:

Your new system of simply tackling everything at once is not working. At all. And each of these screenshots is proof of your utter incompetence. None of these posts contain pornographic acts, “female nipples”, or any community violation of any kind. 

We, the users, have been asking you for months to deal with these problems - particularly, the porn bots and bots that spam. In order to block a bot from a side blog, I have to do it manually, even though they are in my side blog’s feed. This is a huge issue for mobile - only users. They keep cropping up in droves, taking over our posts and tricking google into making it look like a legitimate blog linked to a pornographic website. We have complained to you for months and months now, and your solution to simply “ban all adult content” is ineffective. I agree that children should not be able to access pornography - but this is not how you tackle a porn bot problem. Your system is utterly useless, allows for racists, pedophiles, porn bots, and Nazis to remain untouched. It also harms sex workers and real people who may use this website for some forms of adult content responsibly. Moreover, as seen above, it harms plenty of users who have in no way violated your terms of service.

 If you keep this up, you threaten your website and company as a whole. Many of us are backing up our blogs and planning places to go to. 

You already have a content filter for “sensitive” content (content inappropriate for younger viewers). You could have improved this, instead of attacking your entire user base. It seems to be a very lazy “solution”, if you could call it one at all, and one that harms your entire userbase.

If you are going to keep this filter in place and make Tumblr, a website that has never been known for being family friendly and has never claimed to be, you are going to lose millions of your users. We are already planning our exodus. It isn’t hard to follow. Censor us, and we will go somewhere else. That is not a threat. It is a promise. 

Sincerely, 

The users of your website. 

@staff @support

That time I decided to indulge a bit.. #MaleFashionMagazine

He said I’m tired of everything (not you Charles 🥰)

Anyone has that clip where Charles is actually filmed doing this?

Charles really loves a Carlos close up

This 😭

I’m gonna miss the Swiss team

„congratulations on your first podium! your mercedes team“

mercedes employee is carrying a bag filled with champagne bottles over to the sauber garage because sauber doesn‘t have enough