not to like make a huge fucking post about shit that’s been talked to death but it really genuinely scares me how many straight girls think it’s normal to just… not like your partner. like they think it’s normal and okay for their boyfriends to openly think they’re stupid and annoying and to be totally derisive about their interests and for them not to be friends or have things in common or enjoy each other’s personalities or encourage their interests? you are supposed to be friends with the person you’re in love with. you are supposed to want to talk to them about the things that make them happy. you do not have to settle for people who treat your entire personality as a burden outside of what you do to cater to them.
real talk basically every older lesbian i’ve ever spoken to has said that this is why it took them so long to figure out they were gay. they thought it was normal to just flat-out dislike being with their husbands. they thought that sex with men was supposed to be unpleasant, even painful and disgusting. they thought they were supposed to just put up with emotionally neglectful or even mentally/physically abusive relationships for years and years and years. they thought they were supposed to feel romantically (and sexually) unfulfilled, and trapped, and lonely, and turn to other women for comfort in the face of how unhappy their marriages were.
Loki sighed. He extracted his fingers from the leaves of the aconite flowers and said, “How many times must I tell you? I’m not a witch.”
“Then why do you dress like one?” The young boy trundled out from the edge of the trees, disregarding all the signs – the skulls, the bog, the line of thorns, and the poisonous plants that Loki had circled around his home to warn people away.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Loki said. “Haven’t the villagers told you it’s dangerous?”
“My mum says you’re alright,” Thor said. He came close to Loki, grinning, and held aloft the basket in his arms. “She made scones!”
Loki looked at him as if he were particularly daft.
Thor stood in a dark and shadowy part of the forest, where the trees grew spindly and grey. The grass grew in black patches, often with nettles that caught and scratched at one’s legs. Wolves prowled its boundaries, and the only birds which nested here were ravens and crows which cawed ominously in the daytime.
Loki’s cottage was the one spot of green, hidden far and deeper into the forest than any sane and self-preserving person should venture. Loki’s home was the one place where the trees grew lush and green; where the grasses swelled with flowers and ferns. Berries grew from the bushes, and Loki’s garden of herbs and flowers prospered, painting subtle colors around his small and cozy wooden abode. This was the one place in the deep forest where sunlight broke through the trees, and the light illuminated Loki as well as Thor, when he approached.
Thor, in every lifetime, was never particularly self-preserving. It was for this reason that the boy came to stand beside Loki without any care, not minding the glare Loki set upon him.
Thor flipped open the cloth covering the basket. The smell of fresh and warm baked goods wafted into the clearing. Inside the basket were an array of beautifully-baked scones, golden brown and speckled with nuts and dried fruits. They were enticing enough to make any mouth water, including Loki’s. Thor grinned up at Loki. “I told you I’d bring you some, right?”
“You did,” Loki said, “despite my clearly telling you that you should not venture here again until you were older.”
“I am older,” Thor rebutted. “By a week!”
Loki rolled his eyes heavenward. “You never do what’s best for you, you silly boy.”
“It’s not like you’ll hurt me.”
“I could eat you.” Loki bared his teeth in a wicked smile.
“Why would you do that when you could be eating these scones, instead?”
Loki stared down at Thor. Thor stared back, so utterly trusting, and so utterly determined. The only thing that could stop him would probably be Loki throwing him into the bog. “Fine,” Loki conceded, sighing. He opened the door to his cottage with a flick of magic. “Then come inside. We shall take them with tea.”
(Second of my entries to my self-inflicted challenge, 100 Lifetimes.)
You know how some people like to say that
physical media is dead and streaming is the future? Well, Apple is
doing a pretty good job right now of proving that theory well and truly
wrong.
Reports have started to emerge of Apple completely deleting films
from iTunes accounts even when they’ve been bought, not merely rented.
And when people complain about this, they’re receiving an astonishing
message from Apple telling them that iTunes is just a “store front,” and
so Apple isn’t to blame if a film studio decides it no longer wants to
make its titles available on iTunes.
Even worse, it seems that if bought film titles are removed from your
account you may not even be entitled to get a refund for them. When an
iTunes user in Canada complained to Apple that their initial offer of a
free $5.99 rental hardly seemed suitable recompense for him having three
bought films summarily removed from his account, Apple replied that
“our ability to offer refunds diminishes over time. Hence your purchases
doesn’t meet the conditions for a refund.”
The Canadian user was offered a further two free rentals as
compensation. But, of course, as well as being far less in monetary
terms than the films user had bought, having short-term rental rights to
a film is very different indeed from owning a film.
While I’m hearing from others who fortunately did get a refund for
their deleted films, the bottom line in all this is that Apple appears
to be openly saying that if you buy a film on iTunes, you don’t really
own it at all. It may only stick around in your iTunes account for as
long as the studio who really owns it decides it wants it to stick
around in your iTunes account.
The Canadian user suffering this issue was pointed to this page of Apple legalese in the response where he was told that he wasn’t entitled to compensation for his lost purchases.
I’m also starting to receive reports today of the recent return of
another major issue with iTunes movies: the downgrading of 4K HDR films
to HD. This started happening in 2017, just after the Apple TV 4K
launched, as reported here.
At that point Apple suggested that there was some sort of labeling
issue (where films said they were HD on their header page, but played as
4K) that they managed to (largely) fix. And it seems that the return of
this issue may still be responsible for some of the “lost” 4K movies
Apple TV 4K users are seeing now.
This doesn’t seem to explain all of the 4K to HD switches, though. It seems that some are down to Apple’s
original policy of offering free HD to 4K upgrades of films no longer
applying to titles bought in HD outside of iTunes. Say, via the
iTunes-compatible Movies Anywhere platform. Though I am recently hearing
from people saying that films bought on other iTunes-compatible
platforms in 4K are also now only appearing in HD on iTunes.
In fact, I have even been contacted just today by an iTunes user who
tells me that dozens of films he owns in iTunes — many of which were
actually bought in iTunes — have stepped back on his Apple TV 4K to HD,
having previously being available in 4K. This includes titles that are
still available in 4K on VUDU.
It’s worth noting that the specific incident of films being
completely deleted I refer to in this article happened in Canada; it’s
possible that iTunes users in the U.S. and elsewhere haven’t experienced
the same issue (yet…) due to differences in film rights between
different territories.
But actually these sorts of regional rights differences merely
underline the fundamental point Apple seems to be doing its best to
confirm right now: That the only way you can be sure you own anything is
if you’re physically holding it in your hand.
I’ve asked Apple for comment on these iTunes issues, and will provide
an update if they come back with anything worth sharing. In the
meantime, though, if you’ve experienced either films you bought
disappearing entirely from iTunes, or films that once appeared in 4K now
only appearing in HD, please let me know (with details, if possible, of
whether you bought the title from within iTunes or via another
compatible platform) via the Twitter account shown at the bottom of this
article.
You don’t own anything that has DRM – not movies, not ebooks, nothing.
here’s to the kids that use fictional characters as a way of coping. here’s to the kids that stay up late crying to their favourite characters. here’s to the kids that imagine their favourite character by their side when they’re experiencing bad anxiety in public. here’s to the kids that need works of fiction to keep on surviving.
+ shoutout to adults who cope in this way too. life doesn’t become easy just because you’ve grown up.
Loki is the Philosopher King 