Network

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I did look into trying to get tickets for the NYCC live show on the resale, but now I have instead booked a visit to the Critical Role pop-up shop that's going to be in Soho earlier in the month, and booked hotel and train to have two full days in New York. Though I'll have to go up late on Saturday, since SDCC returning registration's that day!
Still haven't booked with Fios. My sister was not up to coming over here this weekend, and while I might try the website by myself again, I'd need a very high-spoons day for that, and those are few and far between right now. It has not helped that situation that the burners on our stove have now started to fail, and to top it off, my headphones stopped working properly today-though at least ordering that replacement was a quick and easy task. But now that I kind of want to get the whole thing done before this trip, that might be enough motivation to order it next weekend if she can't make it here before then.

[ SECRET POST #6828 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6828 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 24 secrets from Secret Submission Post #975.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Entry tags:

第四年第二百五十天

部首
囗 part 3
困, sleepy/in trouble/to imprison; 围, to surround; 固, hard/solid ( pinyin )
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?cdqrad=31

语法
接 vs 接到
https://www.chineseboost.com/grammar/jie1-jie1dao4-answer-receive/

词汇
愿望, desire; 志愿, to volunteer/to wish; 志愿者, a volunteer ( pinyin )
https://mandarinbean.com/new-hsk-3-word-list/

Guardian:
你已经被包围了, you are already surrounded
我们接到匿名举报提供了详尽确凿的证据, we received an anonymous phone call with solid evidence
我就帮你实现愿望, I'll help you make your dream come true

Me:
今晚我干不下去了，太困了。
你怎么一直不接我的电话？

Entry tags:

Glimpses (Transformers [Bay Movies], Mikaela Banes & Scion [OC])

Title: Glimpses
Fandom: Transformers [Bay Movies]
Pairing/Characters: Mikaela Banes & Scion [OC]
Content Notes: None
Prompt: September Fifteen - 4 catches 7 doing something unexpected

( Mikaela had not gone out of her way )

Rebetika.

Posted by languagehat

https://languagehat.com/rebetika/

https://languagehat.com/?p=18268

I find it hard to believe I’ve never posted about rebetika, since not only do I love the music (when I was in Athens I sought out a dusty record store where I could buy some LPs I then had to lug back to New York) but the word itself is very interesting. For one thing, there’s no unanimity on how to spell it; Wikipedia has it under Rebetiko (“plural rebetika […], occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico), while the OED (entry from 2002) has it s.v. rebetika (sadly, it’s not in M-W or AHD under any spelling). Here’s the OED definition, which is quite discursive:

A style of Greek popular song, characterized by lyrics depicting urban and underworld themes, a passionate vocal style, and an ensemble accompaniment played esp. on stringed instruments such as the violin, bouzouki, etc.; (with plural agreement) the songs themselves. Also (in form rebetiko): a song in this style. Frequently attributive.

First recorded commercially in Turkey before the First World War (1914–18), rebetika is assumed to have long existed (under various other generic names) as an oral tradition in Mediterranean seaports and prisons. Following the Greco–Turkish war of 1919–22, the genre became associated with the numerous Anatolian refugees settling in Athens. Extensively recorded and performed in the 1920s and 1930s, notably by immigrants from Asia Minor, Piraeus bouzouki players, and Greek Americans, rebetika also became known in English as ‘Greek Blues’ or ‘Piraeus Blues’.

But it’s the etymology that makes it a must-post, and happily Martin Schwartz has sent me a recent article of his on the subject. First I’ll provide the OED version:

< modern Greek ρεμπέτικα, plural of ρεμπέτικο eastern-style song of urban low life, use as noun of neuter singular of ρεμπέτικος of vagabonds or rebels, probably < ρεμπέτης rebetis n. + ‑ικος ‑ic suffix.

Notes
On the further etymology, compare note at rebetis n.
The forms with ‑mb‑ arise from the influence of an idiosyncratic transliteration of the modern Greek (in which the sequence ‑μπ‑ normally represents b), originally in G. Holst Road to Rembetika (1975).

(I think of it as rembetika because I was introduced to it by that Gail Holst book, which I recommend.) Now to Martin’s “A rebetic roundup: people, songs, words, and whatnot” (published as ch. 27 of The SOAS Rebetiko Reader); I’ll quote some bits and urge you to visit the link for more:

Today the adjective “rebetika”, as used by the majority of Greeks, refers to urban Greek music of the earlier half of the 20th century, and is associated with lyrics reflecting lower class culture – drugs, thugs, drink, pimps, prisons, poverty, illness, alienation and thwarted love – although the wide range of the genre makes it describable as an urban popular music, with a déclassé aspect. Indeed, its songs, which are for the most part based on several fixed dance rhythms, played an important role in the Greater Athenian recording and nightclub scene from shortly after the 1922 Asia Minor Catastrophe well into the 1950s and to some extent later. The term “rebetika” has, to shifting degrees, been applied to two successive but overlapping chronological varieties. The first, from ca. 1923 to 1937, is characterised by musical styles, instruments, and vocal techniques continuing, or much influenced by, those of the Greeks of Turkey, chiefly of Smyrna and Constantinople, and including material of Turkish origin. The second, from the early 1930s into the 1950s, while thematically and choreographically related to the first, featured the bouzouki, an earthier singing style, and an increasingly Greco-European profile. […]

Although I am marginally a “rebetologist”, my central discipline is as an etymologist, historical linguistics being my chief academic activity. It is from this perspective, with the aid of some “rebetological” data, that I shall address the history of the terms rebétis and rebétiko / rebétika.

A preliminary notice: I use the transcription rebétika as representing the pronunciation used by most Greeks, as against the often encountered “rembetika”; in Greek spelling, μπ (mp) is necessary to indicate the sound /b/, and in this instance the μ (m) is silent, but wrongly present as a frequent transcription into Latin letters.

After dismissing some other theories (deriving it from alleged Pre-Modern Turkish rebet asker, Greek rébelos ‘a rebel,’ and Arabic ribaṭ), he continues:

The most fruitful direction for our linguistic quest is to proceed from Ancient Greek PEMB- (rhemb-, Mod. Gr. remv-) ‘to wander’, which gives re(m)b- (with-μπ-) in various Late and Modern Greek verbs and nouns referring to loafing, laziness, relaxed enjoyment, etc.; see Gauntlett 1982: p. 90, fn. 51. With the base rebet- itself is the word rebéta found in several literary attestations from 1871 onward as an argot term in Smyrna and Constantinople for ‘a lower-class neighborhood populated by criminals’ (from ‘unruly place’, as still used in 1895 by N. Georgiadis for the festivals [pane(gh)iria] in Silivri). It is interesting that when in 1918 the Constantinopolitan N. Sofron, writing sketches of everyday life in his city, took as a nom de plume Rebétos derived from rebéta in its older usage, and not from rebétis, which shows that the latter form was not yet common. For rebétis, the first occurrence (date unclear to me) seems to be in Nikolaos G. Politis’ serial ethnographic volumes called Paradoseis, in which a character named Giannis the Rebétis figures, although nothing informative is said of him, and, as we shall see, rebétis is not found again until 1923. […]

There remains the question of the newly emerged earliest literary occurrence of “rebetiko” as connected with this designation on the record labels, and the relationship of rebétis to both, which gets us back to our linguistic inquiry. Vlisidis’ material indeed disproves the idea that the term “rebetiko” on record labels was (as proposed by Panos Savvopoulos) just an invention on the part of the recording companies. As Vlisidis indicates, the record labels from 1912-1913 bearing the characterisation “rebétiko” drew on a word which was current at the time. However, Vlisidis’ further proposal, that the literary material which calls itself rebétiko/a was reflected by these discs is problematic. The underclass nature of the diction, as well as the thematics of the four poems which are called “rebétiko / rebétika”, differ dramatically from what we find for the two 1912/13 light love songs called “rebétiko” on the record labels, and also from the many subsequent recordings bearing that epithet on the label. […]

We now have enough material to offer a solution to the problem of the term rebétiko. A linguistic approach would also involve distinguishing between and then reconciling the various usages of what are in fact complexly related words, rebéta, rebétiko, and rebétis. As a mannerism first used literarily in 1912, rebétiko would be an adjectival invention, ‘pertaining to the rebéta’, i.e. ‘that which belongs to the underclass realm’. From popular magazines of the period (cf. Vlisidis), it would have been noticed by Greeks involved in the recording industry, who however took it to be derived from the verb re(m)bo etc. referring to rambles, indolent or relaxed enjoyment, the word thereby providing for the categorisation of discs a trendy-sounding designation of miscellaneous light songs, such as we find in “Aponia” and “Tiki Tiki Tak”. Toward the mid-1920s, however, with the emergence of rebétis for a member of a lower-class subculture, music pertaining to the latter world began to enter the miscellaneous industrial category, explaining the diverse and contradictory range of recordings labeled “rebétiko”.

This now calls for an account of the origin of rebétis. Politis’ obscure attestation of rebétis may reflect a temporary neologism based on one hand on rebéta (cf. Georgiadis’ 1918 rebétos) and on the other hand constituting a regular derivation with -étis from the verb root ré(m)b-, see Gauntlett 1982, pp. 90-91 for parallels; note however that such a derivation is not “undermined” by nouns with -étis yielding adjectives with -etikós vs. the accentuation of rebétiko, which precedes, and is NOT derived from rebétis. For the formation of the more conclusive 1923 attestation of rebétis by “Smyrnios”, one has, alongside a deverbal explanation of rebétis, the possibility of a “back-formation” from rebétiko ‘pertaining to the underclass realm’. Given the 1923 attestation of rebétis and its continuation by Markos in his 1933 “O Harmanis” [The drug-deprived one], Pikros’ 1925 mention of rebéta as in effect the feminine equivalent of rebétis seems suspicious; one would rather expect rebétisa (cf. ghóis [Anc. Gr. góēs] ‘sorcerer’: ghóisa ‘sorceress’ continuing the ancient fem. suffix -issa), which is found canonically in our songs. Given that rebétis itself was still only marginally attested, perhaps Pikros had misunderstood a phrase with the probably already obsolescent rebéta ‘lower-class milieu’, taking the latter as its female personification, or, in a context referring to a group of people, he misinterpreted rebétes as a plural of rebéta rather than of rebétis.

There’s much more (e.g., “It is possible that the suffixation of rebétis was supported by a traditional underclass word of the same semantic field, serétis ‘tough guy’, of Turkish origin”), but I will reluctantly stop quoting and send you to the link. I just want to add something about the difficult issue of nasal + consonant clusters and how to transliterate them. Peter Mackridge, in his excellent 1987 The Modern Greek Language (Amazon, Internet Archive), writes:

To begin with the combinations of nasal + consonant that existed in traditional demotic, some dialects always pronounced the nasal fully, others always omitted it completely, while others displayed a certain variety. Grammarians, on the other hand, have taught that these combinations should be pronounced with or without the nasal according to whether the nasal was present in an earlier version of the word […]. With the rise of literacy, however, speakers have usually treated every instance […] alike, that is, either always with or always without the nasal, according to each speaker’s idiolect. Furthermore, it cannot be expected that speakers will know the etymological origin of all the words they use.

Most scholars now seem to have settled on nasalless versions, but I confess it makes me uneasy, since I always think of the Greek script with its nasals. I also have to point out that my two bilingual dictionaries, D. N. Stavropoulos’s Oxford English-Greek Learner’s Dictionary and J. T. Pring’s Oxford Dictionary of Modern Greek, handle these words very differently; the former has ρεμπέτης ‘outcast, scamp, rebetis’ and ρεμπέτικος ‘of/from a rebetis,’ while the latter has only ρεμπέτικο ‘sort of popular song in oriental style.’ And as I look at those entries, I note the following word in each: Stavropoulos has ρεμπούπλικα ‘trilby, homburg, felt hat,’ whereas Pring has ρε(μ)πούμπλικα ‘trilby or homburg hat’ (Wiktionary has it as ρεπούμπλικα). Truly Greek is a land of contrasts.

https://languagehat.com/rebetika/

https://languagehat.com/?p=18268

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Gavilan's 2025 Wishlist

Username: Gavilan
AO3 Username: Gavilan
Does your account accept gifts? Yes

( Gavilan's wishlist )

Comment below to leave a gift for this wishlist! Gift comments can be anonymous or signed in. Comments are screened until reveals on 6 October (Reunion Festival).

All gifts must be posted in or linked in comments. If you like, you can post transformative works to the AO3 collection. If your gift doesn't meet AO3's terms of service (picspams, etc.) and is too big to fit in a comment, you can post to Googledocs, set the security to "anyone with the link", and link to the work in the wishlist comments. Other hosting (Tumblr, etc.) is also fine as long as the gift is only visible with a direct link. In any case, please leave a link to the gift in the comments here.

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How to Turn On Apple's New 'Wrist Flick' Gesture in watchOS 26

Posted by Michelle Ehrhardt

https://lifehacker.com/tech/how-to-turn-on-apples-new-wrist-flick-feature-in-watchos-26?utm_medium=RSS

In 2023, Apple introduced the Double Tap feature for Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2. This allows a user to perform common actions, like answering or starting a song, simply by quickly tapping their thumb and index finger together twice. It was an intuitive way to confirm when you wanted to do something on your watch without tapping a tiny touchscreen button, but what if you wanted to dismiss something? Now, with the release of watchOS 26, Wrist Flick is here to solve that problem.

Also available on Apple Watch Series 9 (and higher) as well as Apple Watch Ultra 2 (and higher), Wrist Flick is kind of like Double Tap’s evil twin. If you get a notification you don’t like, or a call you want to mute, now you can quickly twist your wrist to dismiss it, like you’re tossing it into a garbage bin.

To try it out, first install watchOS 26 on your Apple Watch. Using a paired iPhone with iOS 26 installed, open the Apple Watch app, navigate to General > Software Update, and start the upgrade to the new version of watchOS. Alternatively, you can simply ensure Automatic Updates are enabled, and so long as your iPhone has iOS 26, your watch will simply choose a time to update on its own while charging (likely overnight).

Then, once watchOS 26 is installed, put on your watch and navigate to Settings > Gestures. Toggle on Wrist Flick.

That’s it. You’ll simply need to wait for a notification or call to come in, or for a timer you want to silence to go off, and you’ll be able to turn it off with a quick flick of the wrist. It might take some practice, but essentially, you want to quickly rotate your wrist away from your body, as seen on this page on Apple’s website.

Used together with Double Tap, the goal is that you won’t need to fiddle with your watch’s touchscreen for most basic activities anymore, so you won’t have to interrupt your workout (or, if you’re like me, you’re leisurely sit on the subway) by tapping away at it. The only limitation is that, while Double Tap has some basic mapping functions that let you customize what exactly it does, Wrist Flick currently doesn’t offer that level of control, instead sticking to Apple’s default “dismissing” behavior. That means you won’t be able to use it to, say, go back one tile in your Smart Stack, like how you can set Double Tap to advance you by one tile. Here’s hoping Apple expands its functionality soon.

https://lifehacker.com/tech/how-to-turn-on-apples-new-wrist-flick-feature-in-watchos-26?utm_medium=RSS

Spotify Free Tier to Let Users Play the Songs They Want

Posted by Stephen Johnson

https://lifehacker.com/tech/spotify-free-tier-upgrades?utm_medium=RSS

Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source.

Spotify is finally giving its free-tier customers a feature that’s been requested since the music streaming platform launched nearly 20 years ago: the ability to listen to any song they choose. That's right: The days of searching for a song, then hitting “skip” until it rolls around on a Spotify-generated playlist are over.

Free-tier users can choose songs in three ways: through the search function, by clicking on any song from the Spotify interface, or by clicking on a link shared by other users. Free-tier users can also listen to podcasts through Spotify, and create and listen to playlists too. Spotify's previous "six skips per hour" rule also appears to be no more.

There are still limitations to Spotify’s free accounts, of course. The most obvious is that you still have to listen to ads. Free users will also face a cap on how many minutes of music they can listen to on demand, won’t be able to queue tracks, and won’t be able to access Spotify’s “AI DJ” feature. (No great loss; trust me.)

They also won't have access to another new Spotify feature exclusive to paid accounts: lossless audio.

Premium Spotify customers to get lossless audio

"Premium" Spotify perks are improving too. The first, most important upgrade in the long-awaited launch of lossless audio on the service. Lossless audio (streaming files that are bit-for-bit copies of the source material) is rolling out to over 50 Spotify markets from now through October.

Premium users will also be able to send private messaging, to make music-sharing easier, and add and customize transitions between songs within a playlist.

The changes make Spotify more competitive

The upgrades to both levels of Spotify’s service aren’t really about making life better for users; they’re about staying relevant and profitable in a crowded and ever-changing marketplace. The hope from Spotify is to increase ad revenue by increasing the number of ears listening to ads, entice more free users to upgrade to pay services, and shed fewer customers who leave for other services.

Until the change, Spotify’s free tier was close to a radio service—you could listen to music that you kind of wanted to hear, maybe, if you also put up with frequent ads. This model may have made sense when streaming was newer, but more and more younger users are turning to YouTube, where you can listen to whatever song you want (and see a video for it) on demand, and for free. And young people are discovering music on TikTok, not on Spotify.

Changes to Spotify’s premium service are aimed at the more “mature” listener. Lossless audio doesn’t make a ton of difference without decent headphones or speakers. But “our music is lossless” has long been a selling point for Apple Music and Tidal, but it won’t be anymore.

https://lifehacker.com/tech/spotify-free-tier-upgrades?utm_medium=RSS

Entry tags:

Monday Word: Judder

judder [juhd-er]

verb

1. to vibrate violently

examples
1. According to the report, the pilot tried to correct the deviation but was met with a "significant judder" from the nose gear. "Plane left runway due to bearing failure - report," BBC, 24 Oct 2024
2. 'It will be one hundred and four degrees today,' remarked Rangwalla as they juddered along the potholed access road leading out of the Air Force Colony within which Inspector Chopra lived. The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan.

origin
First recorded in 1925–30; origin uncertain; perhaps j(olt) or j(erk) + (sh)udder

Catskill Game Farm: Explore the Ruins of America’s Once-Largest Private Zoo

Posted by Matthew Christopher

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/catskill-game-farm

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I met Cathy Ballone outside the entrance of the abandoned zoo she and her husband, Ben, had recently purchased. Over the ticket kiosk in the parking lot was a sign that read “Catskill Game Farm” and, beneath it in smaller letters, “Fun for the Whole Family.” The gate we passed through still bore the shadow of the hand-painted giraffe that had once adorned it. What remained inside was a mystery.

I knew much had been removed after the Catskill Game Farm closed. The animals, of course, were all gone, and the amusement park rides had been auctioned off. As we passed by dozens of pens, huts, and cages, I found it hard to figure out what would constitute a “good” photograph of this place—something that would communicate its spirit. I was used to photographing the architecture of large buildings, but aside from the mid-sized giraffe house and rhino enclosure, most of what remained was small and obscured by weeds.

As we passed a little stand that had once held a cauldron tourists could take photos of their children in, my confidence wavered. You can’t photograph what isn’t there. Cathy, a petite dynamo whose eyes sparkled with kindness and determination, told me about the plans they had for the site: a bed and breakfast, a campsite/RV park, maybe music festivals. It seemed like a tall order. Before it was abandoned, the Catskill Game Farm had grown to a staggering 914 acres, with 136 open to the public at its peak. Cathy and Ben had purchased around 200 of these acres but with no regular maintenance, the sprawling park had become overgrown. I couldn’t see how they would manage.

Pinning down when the Catskill Game Farm opened is harder than you might expect. Most sources say 1933, but founder Roland Lindemann told the Tucson Daily Citizen in 1959 that it was 1945. A sign in the park implies it was 1939. Maddening for a historian! What’s certain is that Lindemann began with a private collection of various species of deer on his farm in Catskill, New York. As his menagerie grew, he started selling and trading animals and eventually opened the property to paying guests. Visitors came to see bison, buffalo, yaks, llamas, alpacas, camels, antelopes, mountain lions, goats, and several exotic varieties of deer.

The Game Farm was located in the perfect spot for growth: it was easily accessible to visitors from New York City and neighboring states, and the Catskill region was a flourishing vacation destination that was only growing more popular in the postwar years. By 1950, it welcomed 200,000 visitors a year and hosted attractions such as dancing bears and a meadow where guests could bottle-feed free-roaming baby deer and goats. Lindemann used his success to fund conservation efforts, believing nurturing the public’s love of wildlife could inspire efforts to protect species endangered by colonialism and war. In 1958, the Department of Agriculture recognized it as the first privately owned zoo in the United States.

The zoo’s popularity endured into the 1980s, but as air travel became cheaper, the Catskills lost their luster as a tourist destination. In 1989 Lindemann sold the zoo to his daughter, Kathie Schultz, and her husband, Jurgen—an animal importer and exporter with ties to the “canned hunt” industry, in which animals are sold to be shot by trophy “hunters” at point blank range. The New York Times later reported that over 150 animals from the farm had been shipped to Texas, and their fate afterwards was unclear. Other zoos stopped trading with the Catskill Game Farm. Citing “mounting financial difficulties, dropping attendance, and legal regulations," the Catskill Game Farm was closed on Columbus Day 2006. Protests erupted as many animals were sold off to hunters. Attractions were auctioned, and the park fell silent.

Cathy and Ben Ballone bought the site in 2012, two years before I met them in 2014. I returned often to teach photo workshops and document their progress. At first, I didn’t know how to photograph what was, essentially, absence. Gradually, I came to realize that the subject wasn’t grand architecture, but rather the beauty of the landscape, slowly reclaiming what had once been the source of thousands of fond memories. Moss crept over a miniature golf course, its booth dappled in sunlight. A Kodak kiosk stood beside the crumbling plaster remains of the fairy-tale nursery.

My favorite memory from my first visit was when Cathy invited me into the Lindemanns’ old home—part office, part residence. It was falling apart, but inside were shelves of souvenirs and uniforms. The attic was treacherous, full of gaping holes, but also full of treasures: coloring books, toys, postcards, hand painted signs. Cathy warned me to stay near the stairs, but, as she poked around, she kept sharing her discoveries. Soon we were both rooting through the mess. It felt like we were uncovering something magical. Someone else who bought the property might have considered it all trash, and it was clear to me then how much the Catskill Game Farm meant to Cathy. She wanted to repurpose it for a new future, but honoring the former zoo’s past while doing so was an essential part of the process.

Bringing the Catskill Game Farm back to life wasn’t easy. It couldn’t—and wouldn’t—be a zoo again. It was remote, the region no longer a tourism magnet. The Ballones cleared paths and debris and opened for tent camping, chipping away at the project while Cathy continued her day job as a wedding planner. Years passed without securing the funding they needed, and I could see Cathy’s faith in their ability to complete their plan was starting to flicker. Many of the guests who attended my photo workshops confided that they wanted to see the Ballones’ vision realized, but it just seemed like too much work. I felt the same way: I cared about the Ballones, but rehabilitating even one of the buildings was a daunting and expensive task.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the Ballones secured an angel investor for the project, and work began transforming the Giraffe House into a bed and breakfast. Witnessing the rather barren building as it was transformed into a stylish inn was the best kind of surprise, and I was shocked by their progress every time I visited. Ben’s skill as a carpenter and Cathy’s knack for design were proudly displayed during a visit in 2019 as work neared completion. Guest rooms were animal-themed, and mementos of the zoo’s past were everywhere. Cathy was excited for the grand opening in 2020. Then the pandemic hit.

For a moment, it appeared all might be lost. But in another twist, the Ballones sold the property, turning a handsome profit and paying off their investors. Maybe, in a different timeline, they would have kept the inn and operated it themselves. But in ours, they walked away with the satisfaction of having finished what they started. The Longneck Inn still welcomes guests today, and visitors can explore the Catskill Game Farm’s remains on their own.

Most restoration stories don’t end like this. The work is too hard. The costs are too high. Even when their ideas are beautiful, reality often wears people down. It’s easy to become cynical, to call these efforts pipe dreams to shield yourself from disappointment.

But I’ve learned that skepticism shouldn’t eclipse hope. Sometimes, hard work and determination really do win out. The Ballones proved all the doubters wrong. They brought something extraordinary back to life—and reminded me why I keep seeking out places like this. They showed that even in the face of daunting odds, sometimes the dreamers manage to come out on top.

For more Catskill Game Farm photos and history, including an interview with Cathy Ballone, visit Abandoned America.

Matthew Christopher is a writer and photographer who has explored abandoned locations across the globe for more than two decades, chronicling many of the lost landmarks in our midst. You can find more of his work on his website, Abandoned America, or listen to his Abandoned America podcast.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/catskill-game-farm

-Style Pizza

https://xkcd.com/3142/

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Coming Home - Just B

Entry tags:

016: Neon; Stray Kids; New (Old) Position (Seo Changbin, Lee Felix)

Creator:

andersenmom
Title: New (Old) Position
Rating: T
Type: Fic
Size/length/word count etc.: 1263
Prompt: 016: Neon
Fandom/Ship: Stray Kids; Seo Changbin, Lee Felix
Notes/Warnings: Light mention of death.
Summary Changbin needs a new job. He didn’t expect to meet an old client at the interview. Purely aside from how he feels about that client.

Find the table with the list of fics here

The First Eight Settings to Change After Installing iOS 26

Posted by Michelle Ehrhardt

https://lifehacker.com/tech/settings-to-change-after-installing-ios-26?utm_medium=RSS

Apple’s iOS 26 drops today, and with it comes a bunch of small tweaks and improvements to how your iPhone works. The catch? A lot of them are opt-in, so you need to turn them on before you can reap their benefits. Here are the settings you should turn on after updating your iPhone to Apple’s latest operating system, although note that some of them require an iPhone 15 Pro or later, as they rely on Apple Intelligence.

Adaptive battery mode

If you’re like me, you can never decide whether it’s worth it to swap your phone over to Battery Saver mode. Now, if you have an iPhone 15 Pro or above, your iPhone can make the decision for you.

Apple’s new Adaptive Power mode uses Apple Intelligence to intelligently determine when your battery usage is running higher than usual, and makes small tweaks to bring it back under control. These might include slightly dimming your display or slowing down less important tasks, like those that are running in the background or are particularly intensive. Then, once your phone’s been on an even keel for a while, it’ll start turning things back to normal. Think of it as a less aggressive “low power” mode that only affects certain processes, and can make adjustments based on more than your phone’s remaining charge. To try it out, simply navigate to Settings > Battery > Power Mode. Just don’t forget to turn it back off if you find its compromises aren’t worth the extra battery life.

Turn on call screening

Credit: Apple

I’ll be honest—I barely pick up phone calls anymore. Instead, I usually prefer to wait until after the call, and then call back if the caller was someone I knew or if it was important enough to leave a message. This usually works out for me, but I’ll admit, sometimes I do feel a bit bad for leaving people who call me in the lurch, especially if it turns out they had a good reason to dial me up. That’s where Apple’s new Call Screening feature comes in.

This one doesn’t require Apple Intelligence, so it’ll work on any iPhone running iOS 26. Simply open your Settings, then under Apps, tap Phone and look for the Screen Unknown Callers option.

You’ll have three choices. Never will work just like before, with calls ringing for a bit before they go to your Recents list. But now, you’ve got two additional options you can choose instead.

First is Silence, which will turn off your ringer for calls from unsaved numbers, then send them to Voicemail and display them in the Recents list. Essentially, it just cuts out the middle-man of having to wait for the caller to give up before you move on with figuring out what they wanted.

But the more exciting addition is Ask Reason for Calling. Choose this, and your iPhone will pick up calls from unsaved numbers for you, then ask the caller a few questions about their reason for calling. You’ll see a transcript of their answers on screen, and then you’ll be able to choose whether you want to pick up.

It’s a clever trick, and should make me feel a little less bad for anyone who tries to chat with me over the phone. I do wish it worked for Contacts as well, to be honest, but I can understand why my family might not be enthused to call me and get a robot secretary instead.

Try out the new ringtones

With iOS 26, Apple’s added a few new default ringtones to pick from. Six are variations of the classic “Reflection” ringtone, but there’s also a new one called “Little Bird.” You can find them all under Settings > Sound & Haptics > Ringtone, or check out the embeds below to hear them for yourself.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Personally, “Bouyant” is probably my favorite, although my colleague Jake Peterson likes “Dreamer” the most. I’ll probably still stick with my custom ringtone, but if you’d rather not bother downloading a ringtone manually, you now have more choice than ever.

Fix Liquid Glass

This next one is technically about turning a feature off instead of turning it on, but I couldn’t ignore it. With iOS 26, Apple’s redesigned its design language to focus on transparency, and not everyone’s a fan. If you remember the transparent bezels Microsoft added to app windows in Windows Vista, it’s a lot like that, but more aggressive. Essentially, instead of showing a solid background, many buttons and overlays will now appear clear, allowing a blurred version of whatever is underneath them to bleed through.

Luckily, there’s a pre-existing accessibility control that essentially sets your iPhone back to how it was before. Simply navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size, then toggle on Reduce Transparency. This will bring back solid background across your entire iPhone, which you can see in effect here. Notice how the play button no longer allows blurred album artwork to bleed into it? If you prefer that flatter, more contrast-y look, this could be for you.

Custom backgrounds in iMessage

This one’s just fun. Now, in iMessage, you set custom backgrounds for your conversations and group chats on a per-chat basis. These include presets, like Water and Sky, but you can also pick solid colors, choose a photo from your library, or if you have an iPhone 15 Pro or above, generate a background using Apple Intelligence.

To get started, open a chat, click its title towards the top of the page, then choose Backgrounds.

Note that your chosen background will appear for everyone in the chat, but if you don’t like a background someone else set, you don’t have to live with it. Go to Settings > Apps > Messages and disable Conversation Backgrounds to turn the feature off.

Notification summaries for news

If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or above, Apple is actually bringing back a previously deleted feature with iOS 26: Notification summaries for news and entertainment apps.

These initially launched in the iOS 18.3 beta, but were quickly pulled after Apple’s AI had misrepresented some major BBC headlines, including one about United Healthcare shooting suspect Luigi Mangione.

Now, Apple is confident enough to bring these notification summaries back, although with a new warning that says “Summarization may change the meaning of the original headlines. Verify information.”

If you’re comfortable with that, according to my colleagues over at CNET, you don’t have to do much to turn them on. Apple will actually greet you with a splash screen once you download the iOS 26 update, which will ask your preferences for which apps will get notification summaries. You’ll have three options, and you can select as many as you wish. All other apps will summarize notifications from non-social apps, like Maps, while Communication & Social will throw in notification summaries for apps like TikTok and Mail. These were available already. What’s new (again) is the News & Entertainment option, which will add notification summaries for apps including BBC or Netflix.

Simply make your choices, and you’re good to go. If you change your mind later, you can adjust your summaries under Settings > Notifications > Summarize Notifications. You can also adjust notification summaries on a per-app basis here, which isn’t available in the splash screen you get after installing iOS 26.

Get clear icons in iOS 26

Credit: Apple

Let’s say you actually like Liquid Glass, but think it doesn’t go far enough. In that case, you might want to turn your icons clear too, so you can see your background through them. I promise I won’t judge.

To turn your app icons clear in iOS 26, simply long press on your home screen’s background until your apps start jiggling. Then, tap Edit in the top-left corner, followed by Customize. Then, choose Clear. You can also choose between Clear Light or Clear Dark, with the dark mode opting for a more subdued tint.

This will make your app icons look like frosted glass, similar to iOS 26’s new lock screen clock. You do you.

(If you’re like me, you might prefer the new Tinted Light Mode option instead, which finally allows you to set a custom color for your app icons’ graphical elements alongside a bright background. You can find it in the Tinted option next to Clear while selecting your app icon appearance).

New ways to customize your lock screen

iOS 26 gives you more control over how your phone looks while locked than ever before. To get started, lock your phone, then press the power button, tap and hold on the lock screen, and tap Customize.

First off, you can now adjust the size of your clock by grabbing one of its corners and dragging it down, although this will only work with certain fonts.

Second, you can now justify your widgets box to the bottom of the lock screen, as well as add an Apple Music search widget to it, if you like. If you actually start playing something, you’ll notice it’ll enable a large Now Playing interface that shows album art.

Finally, there’s support for Spatial Scenes. When selecting a Photo wallpaper, you can now tap on a small icon of a mountain and a sun to separate the photo’s subject from the background. Now, when moving your iPhone, the subject will move with it, to help them pop. Your clock might also move to fill up space in the photo, including slightly behind the subject, to help give an illusion of depth. Or, your widgets might automatically shift to the bottom of the screen if placed elsewhere, to better frame the photo subject.

Other settings you can enable

There’s plenty more you can do to make iOS 26 truly yours. If the above changes aren’t enough for you, here are 36 other tweaks you can make to get the most out of your iPhone’s new operating system.

https://lifehacker.com/tech/settings-to-change-after-installing-ios-26?utm_medium=RSS

Current Mood: tired

Entry tags:

FIC: Moving to the Sun (Avengers, Steve/Tony, E)

Moving to the Sun (26709 words) by Sineala
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Avengers (Comics), New Avengers (Marvel Comics)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Characters: Steve Rogers, Tony Stark
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Getting Together, Project Wideawake (Marvel), Extremis (Marvel), whatever the exact opposite of Body Horror is, Sexual Roleplay, Cuddling & Snuggling, Comic Book Science, Comic: New Avengers Vol. 1 (2004), Fix-It for Comic: Iron Man/Captain America: Casualties of War Vol. 1 (2006), Marvel Comic Event: Civil War (2006), Fix-It for Marvel Comic Event: Civil War (2006), Hopeful Ending
Summary: When Steve agreed to meet Tony at the mansion to talk, he never imagined that Tony would abandon Registration and join him. He never imagined that Tony would end up in bed with him, either.

Hi, Dreamwidth! I know I have not been around in a while -- I have been having a lot of migraines -- but, here, I finally finished a story for the Dodged A Bullet 616 Steve/Tony Civil War exchange. This was not actually the story I intended to write, because I did not finish that one -- once again, I have been having a lot of migraines -- but I did finish this one. Not the other one, so my WIP pile is at a net zero, but I tried.

iOS 26 Finally Gives the iPhone a Real Fitness App

Posted by Beth Skwarecki

https://lifehacker.com/health/ios-26-gives-the-iphone-a-real-fitness-app?utm_medium=RSS

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

With the launch of iOS 26, Apple has added a bunch of new features to the Fitness app—features that it has been sorely missing. Finally, you can track a workout from your phone without an Apple Watch, and you can pair a bluetooth heart rate monitor to your phone to get heart rate data. And though it seems like a small change, Apple Watch users will love the fact that you can now create and edit custom workouts on your phone.

How to get the new Fitness updates

The new features in the Fitness app are part of iOS 26, which comes out today. (That’s the version with the controversial “liquid glass” look, but you can turn it off if you hate it.) To install it, go to Settings, General, and then tap Software Update.

Once you've, you’ll find that the Fitness app has a new tab at the bottom, labeled Workout. This is where you’ll find the fun stuff.

How to track a workout from the Apple Fitness app (with or without a watch)

Workout selection screen and in-workout screen

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

In the Workout tab, you’ll see a variety of workout types that you can start just by tapping the play button. Outdoor Run, Outdoor Walk, Outdoor Cycle, and Hiking are available for everyone. To access the other workout types, like Indoor Run, Indoor Cycle, Yoga, High Intensity Interval Training, and Traditional Strength Training, you’ll need to pair a heart rate monitor.

(The idea seems to be that the app needs some kind of data to track. If you run outdoors, GPS data tells the app how far and how fast you’re running. If you’re on a treadmill, it’s got nothing to go on—unless it has a device telling it your heart rate.)

So what counts as a heart rate data source? I had success with:

An Apple Watch (of course)
Powerbeats Pro 2 (with the heart rate feature enabled—check your Powerbeats settings if yours isn’t showing up)
A third-party Bluetooth heart rate monitor (specifically my trusty Coospo)

I did four short runs today: three testing each of the above, plus one with just the phone by itself and no heart rate monitor. Each of the four tracked my speed and distance, made a map of where I’d been, and (if there was a heart rate monitor paired) recorded my heart rate data. I was able to view these workouts afterward from the Sessions card on the Summary tab, where Apple Watch-only workouts would normally be found.

To be clear, the three workouts I did without the Apple Watch did not require the watch at all. I left it behind in my car, and was able to track these workouts just fine.

How to mirror your workouts from Apple Watch on your phone

in-workout: Apple Watch screenshot on left, iPhone screenshot on right.

Apple Watch screenshot on left, iPhone screenshot on right. (I did my best to take these at the same time...I was close, OK?) Credit: Beth Skwarecki

The new mirrored workouts just work. You can start a workout from the Fitness app, or from your phone, and either way you get a Live Activity on your phone’s lock screen. Tap that, and you’ll see a screen in the Fitness app that shows the same data you see on your watch.

This can be handy for cardio machines especially—set your phone in front of you, and look at that instead of having to take your hand off the handlebars and turn your wrist to see how many seconds you have left in your interval.

If you don’t see the workout view on your phone, swipe right from the workout screen on your watch and select View to enable it.

How to create custom Apple Watch workouts on your phone

Credit: Beth Skwarecki

The Apple Watch already had a feature where you could create custom workouts, or set yourself a goal for a workout (like running for a certain amount of time, or racing your past self on a favorite route). Now, that’s all available in the fitness app.

To find it, go to the Workout tab of the Fitness app. instead of hitting the triangle play button on your phone to start a workout, tap the timer icon. This takes you to the screen with routes, goals, and custom workouts.

I had never before bothered with the custom workouts since they were so annoying to access on the watch, but today I created a short interval workout and ran it as part of my testing. (One thing to know: You need to create a work interval and a rest interval before creating a repeat loop—some apps have you do this in the opposite order, which tripped me up.)

In total, these new features make the Apple Fitness app a lot more useful. You no longer need a third-party app to use a Bluetooth heart rate monitor or to track a simple run around the neighborhood. It's now a real workout app, rather than just something you open to check how many times you’ve closed your rings.

https://lifehacker.com/health/ios-26-gives-the-iphone-a-real-fitness-app?utm_medium=RSS

Current Mood: blank

Entry tags:

WinterHawk Bingo - Round 6

( You're about to view content that the journal owner has marked as possibly inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18. )

Entry tags:

fic: you and me, we're ready for the major leagues

DO NOT JUDGE ME please

you and me, we're ready for the major leagues (12706 words) by Lirazel
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Pitt (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Melissa "Mel" King/Frank Langdon
Characters: Frank Langdon, Melissa "Mel" King, The Pitt (TV) Ensemble
Additional Tags: Post-Season/Series 01, Backstory, Divorced Frank Langdon, Pining, Getting Together, frank has a thing for nerdy girls (which is really just another way of saying 'passionate women')
Summary:

“Does she know?” Cassie asks.

“No. Fuck, I hope not.” The thought of Mel having any idea of the cesspool of emotion inside him terrifies him. He knows her well enough to be pretty sure that she wouldn’t be disgusted or scared, but she might feel pressure, feel awkward. She might pull away. He’d rather die.

“Four more months. Are you going to tell her?”

He can’t even begin to answer that.

'Clanker,' 'Dwerking,' and Other Gen Z and Gen Alpha Slang You Might Need Help Decoding

Posted by Stephen Johnson

https://lifehacker.com/entertainment/guide-to-gen-z-and-gen-alpha-slang?utm_medium=RSS

If constantly being mogged by sigmas has you feeling like a fuhuhluhtoogan, and you have no idea what any of that means, you've come to the right place. This glossary aims to define and explain popular slang words and phrases of Generation Z (usually defined as people born between 1997 and 2012) and Generation A (anyone born between 2012 and now) so you'll know what the hell people are talking about.

A word of warning: If you aren't of those generations, and/or you need an online list to know what slang words mean, you should not say them aloud, unless you're trying to be embarrassing.

New entries

6-7 (or 67): This piece of Generation Alpha brainrot slang doesn't mean anything. It's just funny to some people to say "6-7," especially in answer to any question involving numbers. Ex: "Q: What time is it? A: six-seveeen."

6-7 Weekend: A weekend in which Saturday falls on the 6th day of the month and Sunday on the 7th.

Chopped: Ugly. Chopped is often applied to someone's face or outfit, but anything that isn't aesthetically pleasing could be called "chopped," as could anything that is generally not good, like an awkward situation.

Crash out: To have an intense emotional outburst, usually accompanied by impulsive behavior. Crashing out is often due to being overwhelmed or overly frustrated.

Dih: Algo speak for “dick.” (See "Algo speak.")

Mason (or Mason 6-7 kid): A "Mason 6-7 Kid" or "Mason" is a stereotypical male member of Generation Alpha. Mason kids are known for their love of baseball-inspired fashion (caps and shorts), their "ice cream" haircut, and for repeating brainrot slang like "6-7."

SDIYBT: An acronym for "start digging in your butt, twin," this brainrot phrase doesn't mean anything. Some people just think it's funny to say.

Sendy and “Let’s get sendy": Sendy is an adjective based on the older rock-climbing and extreme sports slang phrase "send it." A shortened version of "ascend it," "send it" is said right before one is about to do something challenging. "Sendy" describes a person who is prone to doing bold things. "Let's get sendy" means something like "Let's get wild." It's been adopted by brainrot fans, so it's often repeated with no meaning meant to be attached.

304: Hoe. (Type "304" on a calculator and turn it upside down.)

4+4: Ate. Four plus four is eight, or "ate." (See "ate.")

80/20 Rule: An axiom in online incel spaces, the 80/20 is the idea that 80% of women only date the "top" 20% of men.

Algo speak: Coded language used to bypass online content moderation. Examples: "regarded" used instead of "retarded" and "unalive" instead of "kill."

Alpha male: Taken from animal ethology, an alpha male is the dominant member of a group of males, or just a male who is in charge. (See "beta male" and "sigma male.")

Ate/eat: Done very well, often regarding clothing. e.g.: "You ate that outfit." See also: "serving."

Aura: Someone who is mysterious and cool is said to "have aura."

Aura farming: Depending on the context, “aura farming” can refer to a person who does something cool without trying or someone who is trying too hard to appear cool.

Baddie: A bad/wild girl. Meant as a compliment.

Baka: Japanese word meaning “crazy" or “foolish.” Used mainly in the anime community.

Based: Independent in a cool way.

Bed-rotting: Staying in bed all day. You may know it as “lazing around.” (See "Hurkle-durkle.")

Beta male: A beta male, or just "beta," is a weaker, subservient male. (See "alpha male" and "sigma male.")

Boombayah: A euphemism for “having sex.” It’s used mostly online, often to defeat censorship algorithms.

Bop: A girl who sleeps around. Also: a great song.

Boysober: Someone who has sworn off sex, relationships, and/or dating.

Brain-rot: A description of the overuse of stupid slang. See also: “Skibidi.” Also used to describe the effects of being overly online.

Brat: The contemporary meaning of "brat" is an adjective describing a person who is edgy, imperfect, and confident. It was coined by pop star Charli XCX who defined it as "that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes. Who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown."

Bruzz: Bros. Part of the -uzz family of slang words. See "Huzz" and "-uzz."

Bubba truck: A lifted or otherwise modified pick-up truck.

Bussin': Very good or excellent.

Cap: A lie. Often used to say "no cap."

Cake: Butt, especially a nice butt.

Chad: An attractive man; an “alpha male.” See "Giga-Chad."

Chat: A reference to streamers addressing their chat windows aloud. Saying “chat” in real life is an ironic joke.

Chud: A physically unappealing person. Sometimes used for a man who holds right-wing views.

Clanker: A slur aimed at robots and AI agents pretending to be human.

Coomer: A man who masturbates too often.

Corn: “Corn” is algo-speak that means “porn.” Used in online spaces where the word might cause your account to be flagged or banned.

Coworker-core: A catch-all description for things that are unfunny or uninteresting in a way that appeals to older people.

Dead: Past tense of having died laughing. If someone responds to a joke with "dead" or a skull emoji, they find it funny.

Deadass: Seriously. Used like, "I am deadass not lying."

Delulu: Delusional.

Deriod: A combination of "dick" and "period," deriod refers to men seeming to experience the mood swings commonly associated with women's menstrual cycles.

Doomer: A person who is overly negative and/or cynical.

Drip: A fashionable or stylish look.

Dwerking: A male-centric variation of twerking. A sexually suggestive dancing characterized by rapid, repeated hip thrusts and shaking of the dick. Other variants include "pwerking" and "bwerking" where the "p" and "b" stand for pussy and boobs.

Edgar: A variation of the Caesar haircut worn especially among Hispanic males. Also refers to the kind of person who wears the haircut.

Fambushing: A combination of "family" and "ambushing," fambushing refers to young people checking where their parents are on location-sharing apps so they can get free food—if you see mom at Chipotle, you ask for a burrito.

Fanum tax: The theft of food between friends. Named for streamer Fanum, known for “taxing” his friends by taking bites of their meals or stealing fries.

Fax, no printer: Telling the truth. Since "fax and "facts" are pronounced the same, this is a colorful way of saying "facts, no cap."

Fent-fold: A description of the bent-over posture of people nodding on heavy drugs.

Fit: Short for "outfit."

Fuhuhluhtoogan: Supposedly from Baltimore slang, this is a nonsense word used so people will ask what it means but never receive an answer. Often paired with "Jittleyang."

Gamer dent: The temporary indentation left on someone’s hair or skin after wearing headphones for too long.

Geeker: Someone who uses a lot of drugs.

Giga-Chad: A Chad among Chads.

Glaze: To overly praise someone, often insincerely, or with the hope of getting something in return.

Gleek: An older slang term that is gaining prominence lately, gleeking describes squirting saliva from under the tongue.

Glizzy: Hot dog. "Glizzy" was originally slang for Glock or gun, but came to mean hot dog based on the hot dog shape of a Glock's magazine.

Green fn: An interjection one might used when someone does something cool or impressive. Often used ironically.

Gooner: A man who goons. (See "gooning.")

Goonette: A woman who goons. (See "gooning.")

Gooning: Extended masturbation without orgasm done for the purpose of entering an altered state of consciousness. (See "gooner," "goonette.")

Gyatt or Gyat: Once an interjection used when seeing someone sexy, like “god-DAMN,” “gyatt” has come to mean “attractive booty.”

Hewwo: An overly cute way of saying "hello." Usually used online, and often ironically.

HGS: Abbreviation for "home girls" used in comment sections.

Hozier yell: Named for singer/songwriter Andrew Hozier, a "Hozier yell" refers to the sound one makes when experiencing a peak, climactic, and/or awe-inspiring moment.

Hurkle-durkle: Based on an archaic Scottish word, “hurkle-durkle” means to lounge in bed after it is time to get up. See also: “bed-rotting."

Huzz: -uzz slang for "hoes." See "bruzz" and "-uzz."

"It's giving": Used to convey that something has a specific vibe. Example: "That dude texts you every 10 minutes; it's giving desperate."

"It's so over": The situation is hopeless. The opposite of "we're so back." See also: "Doomer."

IWEL: This comment-section acronym is short for "I wouldn't even lie." Sometimes written as "IWL."

Jelqing: The use of stretching or weights in an attempt to increase penis size.

Jit: A kid. Used ironically online.

Jittleyang: Supposedly from Baltimore slang, this is a nonsense word used so people will ask what it means but never receive an answer. See also: "Fuhuhluhtoogan."

JOMO: A play on FOMO (fear of missing out) JOMO is an acronym that stands for “joy of missing out.”

Jugg: To grab quickly or to steal.

"Learn Chinese": Sports slang directed at failing players. They are in danger of being sent to play in China, so they should "learn Chinese."

Looksmaxxing: Maximizing one’s physical attractiveness through personal grooming, working out, and dressing stylishly. See also: “-maxxing.”

-maxxing: A suffix used with any word to indicate trying to improve. Seeing your friends could be called "friendmaxxing," working out could be called "gymmaxxing," making jokes could be called "jestermaxxing," etc.

Mid: Average, bland, expected.

Mewing: A facial exercise meant to strengthen the jawline.

Mirror sex: Using a mirror to watch yourself have sex.

Mog: To be more attractive than someone, usually in an intentional or aggressive way. Example: "I was rizzing up this girl, but he walked in and totally mogged me."

"My 90 in a 30": A song played while driving that inspires speeding.

Neurospicy: A different way of saying “neuro-divergent.”

NPC: Non-player character. Originally describing video game characters, NPC is now used on the internet to mean people who don't think for themselves.

Opp: Short for "opposition." Someone who is out to get you. An enemy.

Performative male: An insult for young men whose tastes, hobbies, and lifestyle are seen as a performance aimed at obtaining societal approval, especially the approval of young women.

Pink cocaine: Also known as "pink snow," pink cocaine is slang for a powdered drug mixture that usually contains some combination of ketamine, MDMA, meth, opioids, and other substances.

Pole: A gun. See "up pole."

"Press F for respect:" In 2014 video game Call of Duty: Advanced Warfighter, the player attends a funeral and a prompt is given that reads "Press F to pay respects." Now, a singular "F" in a chat window indicates respect. It's usually ironic.

Regarded: “Regarded” is algo-speak for “retarded."

"Reheating your own nachos:" This slang phrase comes from cultural critics in online fandom communities. It refers to performers and/or artists whose new works are seen as trying to recapture what was good about their previous artistic output. It's not always negative; it's possible to successfully reheat your own nachos.

Rizz: As a noun, "rizz" means charisma. As a verb, "rizz" or "rizz up" means attracting someone with your charisma.

Serve: Wearing a particularly stylish outfit. See also: "ate."

Serve cunt: To act in a powerfully and unapologetically feminine way; to slay.

Sharking: Looking for people to hook up with.

Sigma male: An internet-created male classification, a "sigma male" is as dominant as an alpha male, but is outside the male hierarchy, i.e.: a lone wolf. Originally used seriously, the concept was so widely derided it's now almost always used ironically. (See "Alpha male" and "Beta male.")

Skibidi: Named after “Skibidi Toilet,” a popular series of YouTube videos, “skibidi” itself has no specific meaning, beyond ridiculing the overuse of slang itself. See “brain-rot.”

Skrt: Onomatopoetic word for the sound of tires squealing upon acceleration.

Snatched: Very attractive and/or flawlessly styled.

Spawn point: Mother. Based on the spot you start in a video game.

Spoopy: Spooky.

Striker: Stolen/no-title car.

Surf Dracula: A hyper-specific phrase that describes "prestige" television series. The joke is that if there were an older TV show called "Surf Dracula," Dracula would be surfing in every episode, but modern shows would make the whole first season about how Dracula got his surfboard.

Sweat: A person who tries too hard, usually used in reference to video games. The adjective form is "sweaty."

SYBAU: An online acronym that stands for “shut your bitch ass up.”

Tradwife: Believer in traditional married gender roles.

Treatler (and Treatlerite): "Treatler" and "Treatlerite" are online insults that combine "treat" and "Hitler" to refer to entitled users of services like Doordash or Uber Eats who regard luxury delivery services as a human right, and don't consider the hardships of the people who do the work that makes "private taxis for burritos" possible.

TS: TS originally was AAVE shorthand for "this shit," but it is often used to just mean "this."

Turnt: Excited or intoxicated, or excitedly intoxicated.

Unc: Short for "uncle," used to describe slightly older people. Example: "The class of 2024 are unc-status to the class of 2028." See "yunc."

-uzz: -uzz slang words use "uzz" at the end of any word, so "bros" becomes "bruzz," "hoes" becomes "huzz," "granny" becomes "gruzz," etc.

Up pole: To raise a gun.

Twelve: Police.

Twin: Best friend.

"We're so back": Opposite of "it's so over."

Wojack: The name of a style of internet drawings used to quickly stereotype someone. See this post for a full explanation of the Wojak universe.

Yapping: Describes a presentational style often seen on online streams of talking a lot and/or quickly while not saying anything worthwhile.

Yeet: To quickly and/or forcibly eject.

Yunc: Yunc is a variation of "unc." In AAVE, a "yn" is a "young n-word." So "yunc" means something like "young uncle," or a person who may be young but has uncle vibes or unc status.

Zoomer Perm: A curly on top, short on the sides haircut popular among young people.

https://lifehacker.com/entertainment/guide-to-gen-z-and-gen-alpha-slang?utm_medium=RSS

Entry tags:

Eternal Sapphtember #350

Girls who are drenched

Joe Cain’s Grave in Mobile, Alabama

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/joe-cain-grave-mobile

Grave of Joseph Stillwell Cain Jr. (October 10, 1832 – April 17, 1904)

When talking to a resident of Mobile, Alabama, about Mardi Gras, you might find yourself on the receiving end of a history lesson. Though the holiday is often associated with New Orleans, the first documented celebration in America was in 1703 by French settlers at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff, which grew into the city of Mobile.

Although most folks who aren’t from the area may never have heard of Joe Cain, almost every Mobile citizen knows about his legacy in reviving Mardi Gras.

Joe Cain was a Confederate veteran and Mobile was under Union occupation post-Civil War. To insult the occupying U.S. Army, Cain dressed as a Chickasaw chief calling himself Slacabamorinico, and paraded through the streets of Mobile. Cain’s efforts helped revive the city’s Carnival tradition, and he is regarded as the founder of Mobile’s modern-day Mardi Gras celebration. His legacy lives on through Joe Cain Day, celebrated on the Sunday before Mardi Gras in Mobile.

Cain died in 1904 and was buried in Bayou La Batre. In 1966, Julian Lee Rayford arranged to have Cain reburied in the poet’s corner of the Church Street Graveyard, along with his wife, Elizabeth.

Thanks to the work of Rayford and the publicity campaign, Joe Cain Day is an important part of the Mardi Gras celebration and parade. The added tradition of Cain’s Merry Widows adds an air of enjoyable lighthearted pleasure to the celebration. Cain’s Widows dress in funereal black, with veils, visit his grave, lay a wreath, and wail in mourning. Afterward, they lead a procession to Cain’s former home on Augusta Street, where they offer a toast and eulogy.

Cain’s gravestone identifies him as “the heart and soul of Mardi Gras in Mobile.” Located just inside the graveyard entrance, the grave receives annual visits during Mardi Gras and can often be found adorned with trinkets from the Merry Widows.

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