What Farming Items In Mmorpgs Has Taught Me: I Used To Think Using Ice Trays To Make Ice Cubes Was Free

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did you know public libraries are free and beautiful

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Fuck it, I didn't want to make a post on this but it's bugging the hell out of me so let's exorcize the thought.

Lilo and Stitch is an extremely good children's movie. I've been working at a daycare for over five years now, and out of all the children's movies I've shown to an auidence of twenty or so school-age kids (i.e. between the ages of 5 and 12), the only movie that's held their attention as well as Lilo and Stitch is The Emperor's New Groove, and the only one that's held it better is An American Tail. Of those three, Lilo and Stitch has won the vote of "what movie we will watch" the most. It not only entertains kids, but emotionally captivates them from start to finish, because it very thoroughly understands how to engage children on their level. It's a smart, tightly written children's movie.

The feat of story-telling genius it pulls of lies in its ability to reach both where children's imaginations want to go and where their lived real-world experiences lie - most children's movies focus on one or the other, but Lilo and Stitch dives deep into both. On the imagination side, there's Stitch's whole plotline of being a little alien monster being chased by other weirdo aliens onto earth because they want to stop him from running amok and causing havoc (which, of course, happens anyway in fun cartoony comedy/action spectacle). On the real-world side, you have Lilo's plotline of being a troubled little girl who has an abundance of very real problems that, like an actual child, she struggles to comprehend and deal with, as well as the many adults in her life that care about her to some degree but all struggle to fully understand her. Kids want to be Stitch and run amok and cause cartoony havoc. Kids, even the least-troubled kids, relate to Lilo, because all of them have been in a similar situation as her at least once in their lives.

Balancing these two very different stories, with very different tones and scopes to their respective conflicts, is a hard writing task, but Lilo and Stitch manages to do it in a way that seems effortless with one very powerful trick. The two plots are direct mirrors to each other, complete with the characters involved in each having foils in the respective plot. To break it down:

Stitch, the wild and destructive alien gremlin who everyone has labeled as a crime against existence, is Lilo, the troubled young girl who's viewed as a "problem child" by all the adults in her life. In both plotlines, Stitch and Lilo are facing the threat of being "taken away" from the life they know because they act out, and in both plotlines, we see that this is an unfathomably cruel thing to do to them and will not actually solve the problems they have.

Dr. Jumbaa, the mad scientist who made Stitch because making monsters is what mad scientists do, and who had no intentions of ever being nurturing or parental to anything or anyone in his life, is Nani, Lilo's older sister whose parents died when she was young and now is forced to act as a parental substitute despite not being mentally or emotionally prepared for that responsibility yet. Both Dr. Jumbaa and Nani are trying to get their respective wild children in line with what society wants them to be, and both are struggling hard with it because they in turn have a lot of growing to do before they can actually accomplish that.

Pleakley, the nebbish alien bureaucrat who ends up being assigned to help Dr. Jumbaa despite being mostly uninvolved in creating the whole Stitch situation, is David, the nice but mostly ineffectual guy who's crushing on Nani and wants to help her but doesn't really have much he can provide except emotional support. Ultimately Pleakley and David prove that said emotional support is a lot more helpful than it seems on the surface, as they give Jumbaa and Nani respectively a lot of the pushes they need to become better in their parental roles.

The Grand Councilwoman, who runs the society of aliens that is trying to banish Stitch forever for his crime of existing, is Cobra Bubbles, the Child Protective Services agent who is in charge of deciding whether or not Lilo needs to be taken away from her home forever for, ostensibly, her own good. Both are well-intentioned and stern, with a desire to follow the rules of society and do what procedure says is the most humane thing to do in this situation, but both lack the understanding of Stitch/Lilo's situation to actually help until the end of the movie.

Finally, we have Captain Gantu, the enforcer of the Galactic Council who is a mean, aggressive, sadistic brute but is viewed as a "good guy" by society because he plays by its rules (well, when he knows can't get away with breaking them, anyway), who is the counterpart of Myrtle, the mean, aggressive, sadistic schoolyard bully who is viewed as a "good kid" by other adults because she plays by the rules they established (well, when she knows she can't get away with breaking them, anyway). Both Gantu and Myrtle are, in truth, much nastier in temperament than Stitch and Lilo, but are better at hiding it in front of others and so get away with it, and often make Stitch and Lilo look worse in the eyes of others by provoking them to violence and then playing the victim about it - in fact, both even have the same line, "Does this look infected to you?", which they say after goading their respective wild-child victims into biting them.

The symmetry of these two plotlines allows them to actually feed into each other and build each other up instead of fighting each other for screentime. The fantastical nature of Stitch's plot adds whimsy to the far more realistic problems that Lilo faces so they don't get too heavy for the children in the audience, while the very real struggles of Lilo in her plotline bleed over into Stitch's plot and make both very emotionally poignant. When both plotlines hit their shared climax, they reach children on a emotional level few other movies can match - the terror of Lilo being taken away from her family, and the emotional complexity of that problem (Cobra Bubbles pointing to Lilo's ruined house and shouting at Nani, "IS THIS WHAT LILO NEEDS?" is so starkly real and heart-breaking), is matched and echoed in the visual splendor and mania of the spectacular no-way-this-is-going-to-work chase scene where Stitch, Nani, Jumbaa, and Pleakley all team up to rescue Lilo from Gantu.

The arcs of the characters all more or less line up. Nani confronts her own failures to be a guardian and parent to Lilo and resolves to do better and learn from her mistakes. Jumbaa, who through most of the movie protests to be evil and uncaring, nonetheless comes to not only care for Pleakley, but more importantly for Stitch too, and ends up assuming the role he never wanted but nonetheless forced himself into from the start: he is Stitch's family. Hell, the moment that reveals this is really clever - Stitch goes out into the wilderness to try and re-enact a scene from a storybook of The Ugly Duckling, hoping, in a very childish way, that his family will show up and love him. Jumbaa arrives and, coldly but not particularly cruelly, tells Stitch that he has no family - that Stitch wasn't born, but created in a lab by Jumbaa himself. But in that moment Jumbaa is proving himself wrong - because Stitch's creator, his parent, DID show up, and did exactly what happens in the story by telling Stitch the truth of what he is. It can't be a surprise, then, that later in the movie Jumbaa ends up deciding to side with Stitch, to help him save Lilo, and to stay on Earth with his child.

David and Pleakley go from being pushed away by Nani and Jumbaa respectively to essentially becoming their partners in the family. The Grand Councilwoman and Cobra Bubbles finally see how cruel their initial solution of isolating Stitch and Lilo from their family would be, and bend the rules they are supposed to enforce to protect and support this weird found family instead of breaking it apart. Gantu and Myrtle are recognized for the assholes they are and face comeuppance in the form of comedic slapstick pratfalls. And most importantly, Stitch and Lilo both get the emotional support and understanding they need to thrive and live happy lives as children should be allowed to do. It's like poetry, it rhymes.

It's a very precise, smartly written movie. It's a delicate balancing act of tone and emotions, with a very strong theme about the need for family and understanding that hits children in their hearts and imaginations. It's extremely well structured.

...

So it'd be kind of colossally fucking stupid to remake it and start fucking around with the core structure of it, chopping out pieces and completely altering others, with no real purpose beyond "Well, the executives thought it might be better if we did this."

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📢📢📢

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So last month I got hit by a car and died right. Which I didn't initially realize until I watched some guy haul my body into his pickup and drive off. Which, being that it's deep in rural Michigan, I assume means my body will make some venison jerky and maybe some wall decoration, and I'll be resigned to being one of hundreds of deer ghosts floating around Saginaw, which is w/e. But then I find out the guy works at a taxidermy shop or something, and he's actually pretty good at stuffing and mounting deer carcasses, which I come to find out when I find myself face to face with my old body in the shop window. So naturally, I figure since ghosts need to possess something to interact with the living world and etc etc etc the most logical thing to do is to possess my own body, since it's basically a statue of myself. And a little surprisingly, it actually fits like a glove. Like, since it's my body, it feels like stepping right back into place. So I get out of town and back to my herd, eventually. And that's where the trouble starts coming into it, because after I get settled again, I don't know how to explain to everyone else what feels so weird. Like since I can move my body and do everything I used to do, it's functionally the same, like nothing happened. Or it SHOULD be, so I don't know how to explain how it's NOT. But it's just hard to explain it to someone who's never been hit by a truck I guess

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i say this in all seriousness, a great way to resist the broad cultural shift of devaluing curiosity and critical thinking is to play my favorite game, Hey What Is That Thing

you play it while walking around with friends and if you see something and don't know what it is or wonder why its there, you stop and point and say Hey What Is That Thing. and everyone speculates about it. googling it is allowed but preferably after spending several minutes guessing or asking a passerby about it

weird structures, ambiguous signs, unfamiliar car modifications, anything that you can't immediately understand its function. eight times out of ten, someone in the group actually knows, and now you know!

a few examples from me and my friends the past few weeks: "why is there a piece of plywood sticking out of that pond in a way that looks intentional?" (its a ramp so squirrels that fall in to the pond can climb out) • "my boss keeps insisting i take a vacation of nine days or more, thats so specific" (you work at a bank, banks make employees take vacation in long chunks so if youre stealing or committing fraud, itll be more obvious) • "why does this brick wall have random wooden blocks in it" (theres actually several reasons why this could be but we asked and it was so you could nail stuff to the wall) • "most of these old factories we drive past have tinted windows, was that just for style?" (fun fact the factory owners realized that blue light keeps people awake, much like screen light does now, so they tinted the windows blue to keep workers alert and make them work longer hours)

been playing this game for a long time and ive learned (and taught) a fuckton about zoning laws, local history, utilities (did you know you can just go to your local water treatment plant and ask for a tour and if they have a spare intern theyll just give you a tour!!!) and a whole lot of fun trivia. and now suddenly you're paying more attention when youre walking around, thinking about the reasons behind every design choice in the place you live that used to just be background noise. and it fuckin rules.

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The central joke of the Ulysses Ogre meme hinges on the Ogre holding themselves to unreasonable standards by expecting to fully grasp one of the most famously difficult works of the 20th Century after only a single reading, which just doesn't work if you substitute your favourite video game, because frankly, your favourite video game is not Ulysses – but to be fair, the overwhelming majority of books are not Ulysses either. There's probably a video game somewhere out there that's as textually challenging as Ulysses, and it's probably some random-ass RPG Maker game from 2006 with an author whose name is a dick joke and a present fandom of approximately eleven people.

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🇺🇸massive recall of food, baking ingredients, and cosmetics due to insanitary conditions, filth, and rat shit contamination🇺🇸

over 150 items being recalled, including some intended for babies. the FDA warns that all products held or distributed by this company may be dangerous.

this recall is so bad that you need to clean and sanitize anything that has even touched the outside of these products.

the recall link may move in the future. this recall has its own special FDA page right now because the FDA issued an advisory immediately after inspection, before a recall could even be issued. the findings of the inspection were just THAT fucking disgusting.

June 3, 2025 On May 27, 2025, Pan-African Food Distributors initiated a recall of various products it sells. FDA continues to have concerns for all products held and distributed by Pan-African Food Distributors due to the insanitary conditions observed at the facility during a routine FDA inspection, including a rodent infestation and numerous rodent droppings on multiple product containers. FDA is advising consumers and retailers not to use, eat, sell, or serve cosmetic and food products distributed by Pan-African Food Distributors of Louisville, Kentucky. FDA is working with the firm and their direct customers to remove all products of concern from the market. More information will be provided in this alert as it becomes available.

some emphasis mine.

the distribution center was inspected, the FDA found a massive rodent infestation, and they shut that shit down. literally, they found a ton of rodent shit all over the products. although the distribution center is in kentucky, these products may have been distributed nationwide.

pan-african food distributors is also doing business as (dba) east africa boutique, LLC.

the FDA says more updates will be issued about this. because this one is a big deal.

Products held under insanitary conditions and contaminated with filth could pose a serious health risk, potentially leading to various illnesses, including leptospirosis, hantavirus infection, salmonellosis, yersiniosis, E.coli infection, and rat-bite fever. People should contact their healthcare provider if they suspect they have developed symptoms as a result of eating or using these products.

some emphasis mine.

the risks here are varied and bad. bad bad. bad and potentially deadly. if you have used or eaten or even held these products and experience symptoms, GO TO A DOCTOR!

Consumers should check their homes for food and cosmetic products distributed by Pan-African Food Distributors and discard all products. If you do not know if your product was distributed by Pan-African Food Distributors, throw it away. Additionally, consumers should carefully clean and sanitize surfaces that could have come in contact with potentially contaminated products.

clean and sanitize ANYTHING these products have touched!!! if you are not sure if your item is part of this recall, the FDA says the risks here are so bad that you should just throw it away!

recalled items include baby food, baking ingredients, various types of flours, soaps, shampoo, lotion, baby powder, and so much more. this list contains over 150 recalled items. so check under the cut for the list, or visit the link at the top of this post.

formatted in

product name - lot code/batch (when listed) - expiration date (when listed)

recalled food items:

Super Sembe Maize Flour (10 kg) May 2025

Kinazi - Cassava Flour Lot Code: 002952 04 OCT 2026

Cassava FuFu (10 Kg) 2024-2026

Cassava FuFu (20 Kg)

Farina 1 (50 lb.) Lot Code: 506602

Peanut Flour (50 lb.) 01 FEB 2026

Akanozo (12 x1 cases) Lot: F50FA048

Huza – Fermented Sorghum (1 kg) 21 DEC 2025 and 25 APR 2025

Nootri Family 04/04/2025, and 05/04/2025, 6/10/2025

Nootri Baby Lot: CIBK240329 20/09/2025

Nootri Toto Lot: CPI240411 03/10/2025

Red Sorghum Flour 01 Jan 2026

Mixed Porridge Flour 01 Jan 2026

Soybean Flour 01 Jan 2026

Akenza – Dried Ground Cassava leaves

Akanozo – Wheat Flour (1 kg) Batch# SDFA431 25 APR 26

Akanozo – Soybean Flour Batch # K5YFA 20 APR 2025

Akanozo – Sorghum Flour Lot Code: SDFA434 11 AUG 2026

Akanozo – Composite Flour Lot Code: COFA788 13 AUG 2026

Akanozo – Roasted Wheat Flour Batch # RWHFA013 14 AUG 2026

Huza – Millet Flour May 27, 2025

Akanozo – Fine Millet Flour (1 kg) Batch # MIFA578 10 AUG 2026

Akanozo – Composite Flour Batch # COFA788 13 AUG 2026

Huza – Wheat Flour 05 06 2025

Super Cereal Plus – Fortified Corn Soya Blend Batch #: 07BBE02/2026, 11BBE08/2026

Pan African Foods Distribution Inc – White Corn Flour (10 kg): 04/04/2027

Sujata – Multi grains flour 13 SEP 2025

Akanoze Fou Fou 10 SEP 2026

F. Garcia Corn Meal 10/2025

Pan African Foods Distribution Inc – White Corn Flour 04/01/2027

Pan African Foods Distribution Inc – Beans 05/2026

recalled cosmetics:

Dover-Elegance Skin Lightening Cream 03/2026

Roberts Glycerine 03/2027

Movit- Baby Oil 03/2026

Movit- Body Cream 03/2026

Dudu-osun-Black Soap (no expiry Date or lot information)

Super Curl Activator Gel (no expiry Date or lot information)

Movit-Curl Activator Gel 01/2027

Sleeping Baby-Perfumed Petroleum Jelly 20/10/2026

Movit-Jelly 200g 0059J16 02/2028

Movit-Jelly 425g 021PJ17, 009PJ01, 03/2028, 02/2028

Movit-Shampoo 1-L 020N526 12/2026

Gel 018HJ30 02/2028

Movit-Baby Junior Petroleum 200g 022J1327 01/2025

Movit-Baby Junior Petroleum 425g 013J1318 02/2028

Movit-Miss Beauty Glycerin 008W24 01/2027

Movit Curling Hair Lotion 003CC20 01/2027

Setting Hair Lotion 0025 C16 01/2027

Sleeping Baby-Baby Oil (no expiry or lot information)

Movit Radiant Hair Vitalizer 009RHV03 01/2028

Sante-Petroleum Jelly 09/2026

Claire-Cocoa Butter Lotion 02/04/26

Claire-Body Milk 24/04/26

Black Pearl Powder Hair Dye (no expiry or lot information)

Nina Family-Soap 04/2029

Sousana Glycerine 15/01/2026

Imperial Leather-Lotion Active 02/2026

Imperial Leather-Lotion Japanese Spa 04/2026

Imperial Leather-Lotion Uplifting 01/2027

Mama Bebe Jelly 05/2027

Sante Pure-Petroleum Jelly 200g 21/12/26

Sante Pure-Petroleum Jelly 100g 08/2024

Sante Pure-Petroleum Jelly 250g 05/2027

Claire-Talcum Powder 19/04/2026

Imperial Leather Bath Soap (no expiry or lot information)

Imperial Leather-Lotion 04/2026

Sousana Glycerine 17/04/26

Sante-Soap 04/2029, 11/2028

American Dream Cocoa Butter Cream 500ml 02/2026

Claire Cream 04/2026

Vague-Liquid Wash 26/03/26

Sousana-Glycerine Cream 25/03/26

Zote-Pink Soap 11734624300

Malaika Petroleum Jelly 23/04/2027

Sleeping Beauty-Perfumed Petroleum Jelly 500g 3/2/27

Sleeping Beauty-Perfumed Petroleum Jelly 250g 7/11/26

Family Care-Perfumed Petroleum Jelly 500g 03-2029

Sleeping Beauty-Perfumed Petroleum Jelly, mixed sizes Jan 2027

Sleeping Baby – Jelly: BATCH DATE: OCT 2024

Paw Paw – Clarifying Cream (300 mL) 24271 04/2027

Femco Sarl – Cream (no expiry or lot information)

Malaika – Cream (200 mg) 24271 04/2027

Mama Bebe – Baby Jelly 24198 05/2027

Epiderm-Cream (15 g) 04/2027

Aboniki Balm AB0324J

Rico-Clair Plus L112301

Movit Hair Spray 001M5504

Movit Hair Food 031AH01

Pure White Cream AABC

Uniparco – Cosmetic Gold Lotion CCAB 13/01/2026

BB Clear Lightening Cream 320 ml 01/12/2026

BB Clear Lotion 300 ml

Natures Secrete Soap 06 06 30 01/12/2026

Movit Baby Powder 01/2026

Clinic Clear Cream Jar 330 gr 12/2024

Clinic Clear Lotion 500 ml

Clinic Clear Oil 125 ml

Clinic Clear Soap 225 g

Diprosom Cream 03/2025

Sexy Body Powder Perfume 04/2025

Movit Hair Lotion 12/2025

Movit Nail Polish Removal 03/2024

Clinic Clear Soap 04/2026

Dettol Soap 02/2025, 07/2025

Movit – Lemon Crème 05/2026

Neoprosone Gel 03/2025

Caratone Oil 11/2024

Caratone Cream C047152

Caratone Brightening Soap 02/2029

Caratone Crème Clarifionte 06/2027

Caratone Lotion 10/2027

Clear Therapy Purete 07/2027

Body Luxe Body Cream 11/2025

Body Luxe Body Cream 02/2026

Dettol Glycerine Soap 09/2026

Dettol Liquid Soap 03/2026

Family Care Petroleum Jelly 12/2028

Sleeping Baby – Baby Powder 08/11/2026

Movit – Hair Food 06/2026

Paw Paw Shower Gel 08/2026

Vaseline Blue Seal 13 09 2026

Caro White-Coconut Oil 05/2029

Caro White-Tube Cream 01/2025

Caro White-Cream 11/2026

Caro White-Body Lotion 02/2027

White Secrete – Lightening Body Cream 09/2027

Amara Lotion 06/2028

White Secrete Lotion 03/2027

White Secrete Body & Face Lotion 03/2027

White Secrete Oil 04/2027

White Secrete Serum 10/2026

Hemani Black Seals Oil 01/2026

Carotone Gift Pack 05/2027

Radiant-Hair Spray 02/2028

Movit Petroleum Jelly 02/2028

Radiant Shampoo 12/2025

Radiant Hair Vitalization (no expiry or lot information)

Salima 09/2025

African Black Soap (no expiry or lot information)

Lebidjanaise – Toilet Soap 08/2026

Perle Clair Cream 14/03/2026

Clairman Soap 05/2028

Coco pulp Soap 13/09/2026

Rinju-Lotion 04/2026

Cantu Oil

Claire Men 03/2025

BioClaire Cream (no expiry or lot information)

Remy Lotion 09/2027

Huile De Beaute 04/2023

Rinju-Body and Hand Cream 07/2027

Razac Hand and Body Lotion 08/2027

only items related to pan-african food distributors inc/east africa boutique LLC are being recalled. if you have these types of items and know for sure that they came from another distributor, they are not part of the recall. but again, this is so fucking dangerous that if you are unsure, throw it out and clean and sanitize everything that touched the inside or outside of these products.

also note: as mentioned at the top, this recall may have its link moved, and will likely at least have an additional link for the recall. what the FDA found was so fucking disgusting that they actually issued a special advisory before the recall was initiated.

this post may be updated in the future, either under the read more or in reblogs, as new information comes out. if you want to keep up with this, bookmark the recall link and/or check the notes every now and then!

stay safe and take care!

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