kennie

(they/them)

[blue @bluewmist]

You need boredom. A lot of it. Start by going on walks without music. No stimulation. No distractions of any kind. If you learn to sit with your own thoughts, for long enough, in time they will start serving you. You'll start having ideas once again. You'll start developing an extreme sense of clarity that will shift you into the next stage of your life. All by being bored, which is pretty insane.

[Daniel Ahmad @ZhugeEX]

US soldiers can play GTA VI for 4 days if they agree to reenlist for a minimum of two years and up to six years.

Very normal.

[Ali @AliKh1886]

Really Interesting study findings: A child’s academic success is more closely linked to their levels of reading for pleasure than their socioeconomic background & reading has more of a positive impact on young people’s cognitive development than whether their parent has a degree.

[Leke @nonamme145]

I think reading books does this too

[Div 🦂 @Divyaadu]

I hate these discussions because as someone who grew up traveling and living in many places—meeting all walks of life…I’ve learned from a young age that no one’s religion or story is above the next. The idea that you want to convince another person of YOUR faith is a lack of maturity and low intelligence. The ability to understand that multiple things can co-exist and be true is the thought of a highly intelligent and complex person. Being THIS one-sided harms not only to those around you but yourself.

No one has to believe what you believe especially when it doesn’t affect you in anyway. You fear differences and that’s the biggest issue here. Truthfully, this amount of judgement and condemnation isn’t even “God like”. It’s all ego. God by the Christian standard would be deeply disappointed in you for being this way.

[Renzo™ @fwrenzo1]

The "Public Library" is one of the last places you can exist without spending money, and they're being systematically defunded. It's not an accident, it's the elimination of public space that doesn't require a transaction. They want every moment of your life to generate revenue for someone.

[滿帖子乖謬之言觀汝似有瘋症 @remmettmaxwell]

one of the twists in real world AI is that, in scifi, it was assumed that the danger would be that we'd raise the machine to the level of a human soul. but to be honest, it seems we're most in danger of debasing the human soul to the level of machine.

[Martha Ahumuza @MarthaAhumuza]

It's also interesting how they get to decide what counts as an "intellectual" conversation in the first place. More often than not "intellectual" just means topics they're interested in or already knowledgeable about. They often mistake their interests for intelligence itself.

[Pyramid Chad @pyrameadhead]

This is like being a meth head and asking someone who's never done meth how they're going to get through their day without meth

[Alabama Revolutionary🌹✊🏾 @TerrellLeftist]

And this is exactly why I don’t fuck with the whole bonnet ban conversation. It was never just about “professionalism.” A lot of it is rooted in people’s distaste and disdain for seeing products made specifically for Black hair worn in public.

Those women were staying at a hotel. They came downstairs early in the morning, wearing pajamas and bonnets, to eat the continental breakfast and mind their business. Instead, a grown man walked up filming, mocking, and harassing them as if they had done something wrong. They were not at work, in a courtroom, at a formal event, or bothering anyone. They were simply trying to eat breakfast.

That reaction proves the point. The moment some people see a Black woman in a bonnet or a Black man in a durag, they automatically start making assumptions about their character, class, intelligence, cleanliness, and self-respect. Even other Black people look at them with disgust and start talking down on them.

Wearing a bonnet outside does not justify humiliation, harassment, or public shaming. The fact that a harmless piece of hair protection can trigger this much anger says far more about the people doing the judging than it does about the person wearing it.

[yearnie mac @KNGSHxT]

Banning anything that doesn’t impede education is targeted harassment.

[John @sohelpmegosh]

It’s unfortunate that there’s still Black people that think we can good behavior & respectability politics our way out of racism

[lai 🫐 @darklaei]

i miss when romantasy was not an official genre and there were actually good fantasy books with romance subplots coming out instead of the slop that has saturated the market

[Beam 🩵 @beamofpearlaqua]

WOWOWOWOW. KATARA AS THE LITERAL OCEAN AND AANG AS THE SKY?!?!?? WOW

[ay🌙 stable boy luffy au 📍 @lawtransfalgar]

it is not lost on me that people do not appreciate the writing of aang's prolonged grief about his people in the middle of one of the most horrific genocides of our generation

[T. Bernadetti @MrsRoyKeaneo]

WATCH THIS! Engineers storm the stage in protest against Amazon's use of AI in the ongoing 🇵🇸 genocide

"When Amazon employees say something against project Nimbus you fire them!"

Watch how his face drops! He's there to promote AI yet goes into screensaver mode when confronted

[Will 🦥 Menaker @willmenaker]

One of the most evil things imaginable to me

[Ree @ree_tweeting]

This is one of those montages you see in disaster movies but it's happening and no-one is doing anything about it

[KT @artkaisucks]

to be a trans guy growing up as a little girl

[Katsuhiro Harada @Harada_TEKKEN]

For me, this is already a story from a career that spans the past 31 years.

I’m probably one of the people in the game industry who has traveled to the largest number of countries and actually met local fan communities in person. So honestly, I’ve been influenced by people and cultures from all over the world. More than race itself, I think I’ve always been influenced by “regional culture” and “organizational culture.”

One of the most fascinating moments involving your culture happened in 2019, when I revealed Leroy Smith. (The visual design wasn’t mine, but the original character concept was.)

Right after the reveal, I received this message from the American fan community:

“Can we… can we invite you to the cookout for making an awesome character like this?”

Now, as someone from my generation in Japan, I was actually considered relatively good at reading and writing English. By then I’d already been to North America over 50 times, had maintained the English I learned for university entrance exams, and had been communicating with people on Twitter in English long before translation apps became useful, let alone AI translation.

But honestly… when I saw that sentence, I had absolutely no idea what it meant.

In fact, my very first reaction was:

“Oh no… I’m finished.”

Here’s why.

Back then I was frequently arguing against articles spreading hate toward video games, and I kept seeing people replying with the word “cooked.”

As you know, “cooked” can mean you’re done, finished, or completely destroyed. I also often saw “roasted.” Because of that, I honestly assumed “cookout” was just an even stronger version of “cooked.”

So for one terrifying moment, I read it as:

“Hey… we… we… can invite you to a party where we’re going to beat you up and roast you?”

Even though I thought I knew America pretty well, I genuinely wondered if I’d somehow pressed some invisible cultural button that I wasn’t supposed to touch.

Later, I had another misunderstanding. People kept calling me:

“You are the fxxking GOAT.”

And for about two or three years I honestly thought,

“Damn… here’s another guy calling me ‘a fxxking goat… this animal bastard.’ Better ignore the bait.”

Some people even replied with 🐐 emojis, so I genuinely believed they were insulting me by calling me an animal.

Because of misunderstandings like that, I seriously thought:

“Man… getting our characters accepted by Americans is really difficult. They might actually be even more sensitive than Japanese people in many ways. We need to study their culture much more.”

Anyway, back to the cookout story.

Eventually someone explained that a “cookout” in the African American community is actually one of the highest compliments possible—basically saying:

“You’re someone we’d trust enough to invite to our close-knit family BBQ, where only real friends and loved ones are welcome.”

That explanation was a huge relief.

Then they started showing me BBQ equipment and ingredients…

…and I was absolutely shocked that everything was several times bigger than what we have in Japan.

Sure, I expected the smoker grills to be huge. But even the tongs and spatulas were enormous, and the meat looked like something I’d only ever seen as loot in an MMORPG.

Looking back now, I honestly regret not immediately flying to the U.S. and accepting an invitation to one of those community cookouts.

That really was the perfect opportunity.

Anyway… I’ve wandered way off topic.

Of course I can’t claim that I fully understand what you call Black culture. But if we’re talking about the parts that have genuinely influenced me, the cookout story is certainly one of them.

And the people in these photos have also had a significant influence on me. (I’d like to include many more, but I’ll limit it to four photos.)