😵‍💫

He/Him | Maybe the real treasure was the friends we made along the way

[😵‍💫 @WutIsLove]

The Strokes were legendary

[Khao Mortadios @KhaoMortadios]

Everyone hates it when their opponent just leaves the game before it's over, so I've been trying to find ways to soften the blow a little bit. #fightinggame #gamemaker #indiedev

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

I mentioned that my garage door was making a sound.

An American immediately said, "I got a guy."

He did not ask what the sound was. He did not ask what kind of door. He produced a guy on the basis of the word garage.

I asked who the guy was.

He said, "Just a guy."

He did not have a company name. He had a first name and a phone number in his phone saved as "Mike Garage."

That is the contact name. Mike Garage. As though Garage is his surname. As though there is a family.

I asked how he found this guy.

"My brother-in-law used him."

I asked if the brother-in-law was satisfied.

He thought about it. Then he said, "He's still standing."

The house is still standing. That is the entire review.

Inside I said: THEY DO NOT KEEP RECORDS. THEY KEEP LOYALTIES.

I called Mike Garage. He answered from inside a vehicle. There was wind. He said he could come Tuesday between eleven and four.

Between eleven and four. A window of five hours. In my country this would be a scandal. Here it is generous. He gave me a window at all. Some guys do not give you a window. Some guys say "Tuesday" and that is the whole appointment.

He came at 1:40.

He fixed it in twenty minutes. He charged me less than I expected and he did not take a card, only cash or an app I had never heard of.

Before leaving he looked at my water heater, which I had not mentioned, and said, "That's gonna go."

I asked when.

"Couple years."

I asked what I should do.

He said, "I'll give you a guy."

He gave me a guy. Mike Garage has a guy. The guy has a guy. There is a network beneath this country made entirely of men named after their function, and none of them advertise, and all of them are busy.

Inside I said: THERE IS A SECOND NATION HERE. IT HAS NO SIGNS. IT IS ENTERED ONLY BY INTRODUCTION.

I have been given four guys since.

I have a guy for trees.

I did not know I needed a guy for trees.

I have trees now, apparently. They are my responsibility. A man named Rick told me so and then left.

[skum @skumnut]

THE ELDEN RING NOTHING RUN END IS NEAR. World first Godfrey kill using Nothing. The attempt took 3 hours 55 minutes and I got hit a single time

BARE FIST No flasks No shields No armor No talismans No buffs No spells No physick No torrent No consumables No equipment EVER

Climb

[Ayzaa @Ayzacoder]

If you have a Gmail account, you need to read this.

Google's AI now scans your emails and attachments, bank statements, tax files, medical letters, all of it. It turned on by default, and there's a class-action lawsuit over how.

Here are 5 moves to shut it off, the switch is hidden in two places:

[Andrea 🐈‍⬛ @oatmilkAndrea]

Noo way Rae sremmurd was being fr about “No Type”

[Soup IS ARTFIGHTING @soupistein]

I boycott every business that does this. Small businesses also

[hb @h3xenbrenner2]

even if you paused your game to be somewhere?

[😵‍💫 @WutIsLove]

@oatmilkAndrea

[kayos @kayos_o]

She going in there with zero context brah #LAAAAARPPP

[Madonna @Madonna]

Hillary gonna Snatch that Presidency so Watch out!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸She's A GIRL GONE WILD!💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻❤️🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🎉🎉🎉

[😵‍💫 @WutIsLove]

Ceiling fan club HA

[Dr Shrimp Puerto Rico ☘️🇧🇷🇲🇽🔻 @LadPsycho]

The most badass thing about Parasyte's manga is how the mangaka drops this banger quote about US presidency

[Berwyn Choobs @sabatonfan69]

*does a big jump*

Breadwinning gf working late: wow 😊 big one

Me: maybe my biggest one yet

Her: yup (huge swig of wine)

Me: did u ever play elder scrolls oblivion

Her: no

Me: that sucks. I wish that could be my job. Why do u have ur gun out

Her: no reason

*jumps* ok

[dom von gym (shitposten bis zum bitteren ende) @dom_vom_gym]

Leo the call is yours

[stib @EvenMoreSteve]

@Wario64

[LeBron James @KingJames]

Racism is the only thing he's Fantastic 4(fantastic for), cause that's how he gets his rock off, he's orange. Sheesh @Eminem!! 🔥🔥✊🏾🔥🔥#United

[TayZonday @TayZonday]

BIG PICTURE REASONS WHY "CHOCOLATE RAIN" WENT VIRAL:
• With no algorithms, the Internet was driven by novelty, not loyalty. Weirdness wins novelty.
• Myspace was #1 in social media. YouTube was unproven and Facebook had just opened up beyond colleges. YouTube needed a "model home" for what its cultural real estate meant.
• One person uploading a video that thousands of strangers parodied became YouTube's behavioral "model home." No other platform had that social dynamic.
• Soulja Boy, Chris Crocker, and other talented creators had viral YouTube videos that got widely parodied. "Chocolate Rain" became identified with a type of "shareholder safe" virality. YouTube's human editors promoted it on the front page.
• YouTube was an unproven business for both Google and creators. The idea of creators earning Internet money was not mainstream. I was added in round two of YouTube's experimental Partner Program. I believe round one had about thirty creators.
• Television remained the eight-hundred-pound media gorilla. Viacom's billion-dollar copyright lawsuit was an existential YouTube threat just as the first YouTube videos went viral. The fact that "Chocolate Rain" began on YouTube and transitioned to me being on CNN, Jimmy Kimmel, discussed by Carson Daly and dozens of other celebrities... came at a time when YouTube needed a Rosetta Stone. They needed to translate a massively subsidized, high-risk venture into understandable cultural value. "Chocolate Rain" became a stenographer of YouTube crossing over. I got parodied on South Park, Saturday Night Live, nominated for a People's Choice Award, sang with Boyz II Men on Tosh.0 etc.
HOW DID "CHOCOLATE RAIN" GO VIRAL?:
• "Chocolate Rain" was rushed to completion in April of 2007 since I had another song ("Love," made with Kooby) featured on YouTube's front page and wanted other new content. It sat at around 30,000 views until summer.
• "Chocolate Rain" got posted on Digg in July of 2007, an early Reddit-style social bookmark site. Someone saw it there and posted it on 4chan.
• 4chan worked to meme "Chocolate Rain," "Numa Numa," Rick Astley, and other things. In 2007, 4chan was dominantly "Howard Stern liberal." Being offensive, outrageous, and highly speech-tolerant used to be identified with leftist, avant-garde identity. My first inkling that "Chocolate Rain" was going viral was 4chan prank-calling Tom Green's self-produced show and the caller busting out singing "Chocolate Rain!"
MORE FACTORS IN "CHOCOLATE RAIN" GOING VIRAL:
• YouTube had no stereo sound in early 2007. I posted a free "Chocolate Rain" MP3 download, with a giant video banner announcing it, purely to circumvent this. I wanted my songs heard in stereo.
• "Chocolate Rain" begins with an instrumental and loops. This, combined with the MP3 download, made parodies easy. This was totally unplanned luck. It's like it was made to be parodied.
• I looked like Janet Jackson, moved like Mr. Bean, and sounded like Barry White. Not trying to mean-girl myself, just being blunt. I was a unique combination of attributes but also not self-aware. Social internet video of everyday life was a new experience. Like, "If that guy is singing 'Chocolate Rain,' what's MY neighbor doing?" Everyday life was transforming into a democratic video content frontier nobody had given much prior thought to.
• It's worth noting that 2007 was before mainstream mobile Internet video consumption. YouTube was overwhelmingly consumed on desktop computers and laptops. The later shift to engagement-optimized and loyalty-optimized social video was heavily influenced by phones.
PERSONAL FACTORS WHY "CHOCOLATE RAIN" WENT VIRAL:
• I built a bedsheet box in my living room to sing "Chocolate Rain" in because I'm agoraphobic. That's the opposite of claustrophobic. Boundaries supercharge me. It also turns out that lots of people have bedsheets to hang up.
• I moved stiffly and sang "Chocolate Rain" with elongated vowels because of dyspraxia, a neurological movement difficulty tied to me being autistic (first diagnosed at age sixteen).
• "Chocolate Rain" musically captured my tendency towards echolalia and echopraxia — repetition and reinvocation of speech and behavior. These are adaptations to being a partially verbal autistic who has to blend-in with speaking society. They also help in making catchy songs.

[Steven @StevenWallaby]

this might be the shot of the decade