Wife got sick, so I had to take over Christmas dinner. I haven't done duck in a min so I'm sure it's overcooked but I'm happy with the crispy skin.

• Roast duck (glazed)

• Potatoes au gratin

• Roast baby potatoes

• Roast garlic broccoli

• Blanched broccoli

• Maple carrots

• Rolls (not from scratch)

Merry Christmas again straggots!

I'm extremely poor :c

But I swear on God our lord I'll never cheat on you or leave you. I'm as loyal as they come c:

!friendsofcinnamoroll

!catholics !christians Merry Christmas! It's been a long day for me, haven't had (or rather, didn't want to because I have better things to do on Christmas) a chance to write this up earlier in the day. I went to the vigil Mass with my family so I'll post those readings.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

First Reading

For Zion's sake I will not be silent,

    for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,

until her vindication shines forth like the dawn

    and her victory like a burning torch.

Nations shall behold your vindication,

    and all the kings your glory;

you shall be called by a new name

    pronounced by the mouth of the LORD.

You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD,

    a royal diadem held by your God.

No more shall people call you "Forsaken,"

    or your land "Desolate,"

but you shall be called "My Delight,"

    and your land "Espoused."

For the LORD delights in you

    and makes your land his spouse.

As a young man marries a virgin,

    your Builder shall marry you;

and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride

    so shall your God rejoice in you.

-Isaiah 62:1-5

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Responsorial Psalm

R. (2a) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

I have made a covenant with my chosen one,

I have sworn to David my servant:

Forever will I confirm your posterity

and establish your throne for all generations.

R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;

in the light of your countenance, O LORD, they walk.

At your name they rejoice all the day,

and through your justice they are exalted.

R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

He shall say of me, "You are my father,

my God, the rock, my savior."

Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,

and my covenant with him stands firm.

R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

-Psalms 89:4-5, 16-17, 27, 29

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Second Reading

When Paul reached Antioch in Pisidia and entered the synagogue,

he stood up, motioned with his hand, and said,

"Fellow Israelites and you others who are God-fearing, listen.

The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors

and exalted the people during their sojourn in the

land of Egypt.

With uplifted arm he led them out of it.

Then he removed Saul and raised up David as king;

of him he testified,

'I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart;

he will carry out my every wish.'

From this man's descendants God, according to his promise,

has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus.

John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance

to all the people of Israel;

and as John was completing his course, he would say,

'What do you suppose that I am? I am not he.

Behold, one is coming after me;

I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.'"

-Acts 13:16-17, 22-25

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Responsorial Psalm

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Tomorrow the wickedness of the earth will be destroyed:

the Savior of the world will reign over us.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gospel

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,

the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham became the father of Isaac,

Isaac the father of Jacob,

Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah,

whose mother was Tamar.

Perez became the father of Hezron,

Hezron the father of Ram,

Ram the father of Amminadab.

Amminadab became the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

Salmon the father of Boaz,

whose mother was Rahab.

Boaz became the father of Obed,

whose mother was Ruth.

Obed became the father of Jesse,

Jesse the father of David the king.

David became the father of Solomon,

whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.

Solomon became the father of Rehoboam,

Rehoboam the father of Abijah,

Abijah the father of Asaph.

Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat,

Jehoshaphat the father of Joram,

Joram the father of Uzziah.

Uzziah became the father of Jotham,

Jotham the father of Ahaz,

Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh,

Manasseh the father of Amos,

Amos the father of Josiah.

Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers

at the time of the Babylonian exile.

After the Babylonian exile,

Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel,

Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

Zerubbabel the father of Abiud.

Abiud became the father of Eliakim,

Eliakim the father of Azor,

Azor the father of Zadok.

Zadok became the father of Achim,

Achim the father of Eliud,

Eliud the father of Eleazar.

Eleazar became the father of Matthan,

Matthan the father of Jacob,

Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.

Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.

Thus the total number of generations

from Abraham to David

is fourteen generations;

from David to the Babylonian exile,

fourteen generations;

from the Babylonian exile to the Christ,

fourteen generations.

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.

When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,

but before they lived together,

she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.

Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,

yet unwilling to expose her to shame,

decided to divorce her quietly.

Such was his intention when, behold,

the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,

"Joseph, son of David,

do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.

For it is through the Holy Spirit

that this child has been conceived in her.

She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,

because he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill

what the Lord had said through the prophet:

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

    and they shall name him Emmanuel, 

which means "God is with us."

When Joseph awoke,

he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him

and took his wife into his home.

He had no relations with her until she bore a son,

and he named him Jesus.

-Matthew 1:1-25

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I've drank too much eggnog to attempt writing a sermon lmao

And why is it Better off Ted?

american !christmaschads go to bed after goombling, Santa will be here soon

talkative moth

— guoh (@guoh.bsky.social) 2024-12-12T09:15:18.016Z

We've been testing this for over a week now and we've pretty much figured it out. Reply here and I'll add you to the chat.

Here are a few clips from one of our games.

I try to make @pm-me-manifestos lose all his money goombling so he can't buy a star, but my plan backfires spectacularly:

@Hohoshrexual rolls a 1 and ends up losing it all in the next 2 turns:

Literally right after this clip, @pm-me-manifestos wins this minigame by guessing blindly (1/27 chance):

As we all wake up to the reality that our president will once again be a lying, stealing, insurrecting nazi fascist felon, we have to acknowledge that America as we know it is over. Even through holidays and times when we should be happy - Christmas, Juneteenth, etc. - we always must have it in the back of our minds that a few things are now true:

• Free American elections are a thing of the past,

• Anyone can and will be found at their front door and arrested for speaking out against the Drumpf regime,

• If you're a trans person you will likely be disappeared by 2028,

• Any time there is a hero (like Luigi) they will simply be jailed and silenced because that's what the regime wants.

So as you're having Christmas dinner with your families or whoever know that it's all short lived. Rest today, make plans tomorrow. This country is over, and any joy to be found will soon be squashed.

/u/NotABotABotNotABot, Merry Christmas! The fascist Nazis are in your walls.

!project2025

Edit: People keep claiming this is a "troll" or a bot or parody. Do you think it's appropriate to troll about America turning into a country that is literally as bad as South Sudan for trans people, women, etc.? If so, then sure, this is a troll. Wake up. We are in for the worst four years that any country has ever experienced ever.

AfD leader Alice Weidel and her Sri Lankan wife Sarah Bossard pic.twitter.com/m3EFbmkdAF

— Constantin von Hoffmeister (@constantinvonh) December 23, 2024

Muh based brown lesbian

Scrotes mad

I got X a book on home-brewing beer and Y an Irish-language novel since he's fully fluent (jelly ong). I've hung out out with them before, they've been going steady for about a few years now so

!besties

Bonus: what, if any, is the relationship between postmodernism and existentialism?

Please please please let people be able to steal my wife doujin style

some related threads from other chud central subs

Notice how it's only "anti woke" mentioned and not both. And how they call bg3 "woke at the end. Something NONE of the "anti woke" spaces I've been in have even called it. Yea that mod is insane guess that sub is dead. RIP

Edit: new sub is up. (Not by me) /r/FreeGamingMemes

Edit 2 THE NEW CRAZY MOD WAS ALREADY SUSPENDEDLOLOLOL

!reportmaxxers may want to claim the sub on reddit request, all my aged accounts got yeeted in the Luigi Operation

https://old.reddit.com/r/Asmongold/comments/1hlhwuq/rgamingmemes_moderators_were_suddenly_removed/

https://old.reddit.com/r/Asmongold/comments/1hlh86u/rgamingmemes_just_got_invaded/

!g*mers

is GaymerGayte Finally Kill?

GaymerGayte is kill but not Gaymers - 32 votes

!poll_voters

!chuds

!nonchuds

!kino

I know I keep saying I'm going to leave but I just have to write this piece because I was inspired by @kaamrev's post about the closing of the Rapport. The truth is I have a shitload to say about journ*lism in general and the South African journ*lism scene but some of it would result in me doxxing myself, and quite honestly, most of it isn't interesting if you've never been in the space. I also have a funny story of how I fricked up so badly I almost caused a long-running newspaper publication to close down permanently, but I'd rather push that memory back to the dark recesses of my psyche.

With that said, I never fricked up as badly as the who we'll be discussing today - Verashni Pillay. This is pretty much South Africa's version of G*mergate, and it caused waves internationally. My post will be organised as such:

1. What is Huffpost?

2. Who is Verashni Pillay?

3. Verashni does a hate speech

4. Verashni is in trouble

5. Conclusion

What is Huffington Post

If you're familiar with online journ*lism, you'll have come across Huffpost. It is a left-leaning publication that aims to be hip and trendy while delivering the news. Not all their content is "news" and it also features a lot of clickbait pop culture slop. It's really a terrible site. The site almost died but it was purchased by Buzzfeed in 2020. It was during this time that the site experienced mass layoffs and the Canadian arm of the business was closed down.

Go on the front page right now and see the slop they post. From experience in the media industry, I can easily tell that it is a content mill that you shouldn't trust at all. I can spot the SEO tricks and the common tactics used to increase engagement and exploit the writers. Take a random article on the front page:

The headline is stuffed full of trending keywords. They had to fit in "elon musk" and "obama" to improve SEO on Google. Secondly, the writer never had to leave their desk to write the article. It's literally a longpost based on a Tweet by Elon Musk. All it does is report on the Tweet and the responses to the Tweet. I can promise you @kaamrev puts more effort into his posts than the writer of this article did.

You can also tell it's a content mill by looking at the writer's profile page.

This is someone pooping out three articles a fricking day. 100% he has a quota to meet and he's grinding away trying to achieve it. There is no way you're going to deliver quality journ*lism when you've got to write three fricking articles every day. The only way you achieve that is by writing slop.

The worst part of Huffpost is the writing. They've been bought by Buzzfeed, as I've mentioned, and they write in that "BuzzFeed" voice. You know exactly what I'm talking about. They use Black People Twitter slang and it's incredibly cringy when you see the author is a generic white dude.

Elon Musk is getting cooked on social media for equating the policies of Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany party to the U.S. Democratic Party at the start of Barack Obama's presidency, after Musk recently pointed to the AfD as Germany's only hope.

Yasss! Elon Musk is cooked! Fricking kill me.

Who is Verashni Pillay

For some reason, a lot of young people in South Africa want to become journ*lists. It's mostly young people who know nothing about the job market, are probably above average writers, and are highly opinionated. The truth is that once you're in the business, it's all about SEO and meeting quotas, and most importantly, YOU DON'T NEED A FRICKING JOURN*LISM DEGREE TO DO JOURN*LISM. So many idiots get scammed into a journ*lism degree that is utterly useless when all that matters is your portfolio. Instead of going into debt paying university fees, you're better off freelance writing and building up a portfolio to work your way to a permanent position (jk those don't exist anymore it's freelancers all the way down, journos don't get permanent jobs lol).

If you're in South Africa, for a long time, Rhodes University was THE place to go to study journ*lism. It had a very, very strong reputation for being a good journ*lism university and for anyone who wanted to become a journ*list it was assumed you'd be going to Rhodes.

+++++

Quick Notes from Holly!

So I attended Rhodes University, got my Masters Degree in English there and also wasted 3 years trying to get my PhD only to fail (I'm currently doing my PhD at a different university while working). I was fricked over by my supervisor majorly and I had a lecturer bully me so hard I attempted suicide, but that's a story for another day. Rhodes used to be a fun university. I arrived in 2014, which was right around the decline of the university.

Rhodes has a reputation of being a bit of a party university, and it's extremely liberal. It is also known for the National Arts Festival which is held every year. The university is located in Grahamstown which is a small town almost entirely dependent on the university for its economy. I was in Grahamstown when COVID-19 hit. Students studied from home so the university was practically empty. As a result, several businesses shut down and the entire town was financially crippled.

Fortunately, I don't live there anymore because the town can't even provide water or electricity to its residents, resulting in mass protests. I mean, they literally go weeks without any water.

I would not recommend anyone go to Rhodes University these days. It's a dead university in a dead town. Also, due to Rhodes's liberal approach to academia, they allow you to mix and match your degree however you want, allowing you to create a custom degree of your choice. I know a couple of universities in the USA like Evergreen do this shit as well. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD NEVER DO THIS. If you're going to university, get a degree with a set curriculum that allows you to specialize in a skill that is in demand. Nobody wants a generalist who majored in Psychology and History, or a weirdo who decided to major in Math and English. Anyone hiring is going to take one look, think "what the frick is this shit", and move on to someone who has clearly specialized in a specific task.

Dear lord if there's any advice I can give it's that university is not there for you to follow your passions. There is nothing passionate in a university setting. YOU'RE THERE TO SECURE THE BAG. Pick a degree that is in demand. If you want to go the artistic route, university is not the place to go. You're better off independently working on a portfolio.

Last point I want to make about Rhodes. The lecturers get paid SHIT. It's actually funny how poorly they are paid. Just look at this shit:

A fricking full-blown lecturer is only netting about $25K. Why the frick would you move to a town with no water to earn peanuts?!?!

+++++

Verashni Pillay attended Rhodes University where she earned her degree in Journ*lism. Verashni quickly proved herself to be quite the ambitious journ*list and she wrote for a number of popular South African publications including News24 and the Mail & Guardian. She has won a number of prestigious awards for her journ*lism. I'm not going to list them all because quite frankly I don't care. All that matters is that she was a journ*list of note in South Africa and she worked her way up to eventually become editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post in South Africa.

Verashni Does a Hate Speech

Verashni's woes began when she allowed a blog to be published titled "Could It Be Time To Deny White Men The Franchise?". You can still find the blog post online. The author's name is Shelley Garland and the author basically argues that white men should not be given the right to vote, and that their assets should be forcibly redistributed.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170414001415/www.huffingtonpost.co.za/shelley-garland/could-it-be-time-to-deny-white-men-the-franchise_a_22036640/

For the sake of stirring drama and outrage, I'll post a few choice quotes here

If white men no longer had the vote, the progressive cause would be strengthened. It would not be necessary to deny white men indefinitely – the denial of the vote to white men for 20 years (just less than a generation) would go some way to seeing a decline in the influence of reactionary and neo-liberal ideology in the world. The influence of reckless white males were one of the primary reasons that led to the Great Recession which began in 2008. This would also strike a blow against toxic white masculinity, one that is long needed.

A withholding of the franchise from white males, along with the passing of legislation in this period to redistribute some of their assets, will also, to a degree, act as the reparations for slavery, colonialism, and apartheid, which the world is crying out for to be paid.

Although this may seem unfair and unjust, allowing white males to continue to call the shots politically and economically, following their actions over the past 500 years, is the greater injustice.

Almost immediately, the article garnered widespread attention both locally and internationally. It got so big that fricking Jordan Peterson commented on it:

Locally, many groups cried racism and attacked Huffpost for publishing the piece. Afriforum, a group focused on the rights of Afrikaaners, accused Verashni Pillay and Huffpost of hate speech.

https://mg.co.za/article/2017-07-31-fake-huffpost-blog-could-see-white-men-pulled-out-of-voting-queues-afriforum/

This did not deter Verashni and amidst the controversy, she fully defended the piece. Thanks to the wayback machine, we still have access to the article.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170414225013/https://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/2017/04/14/this-blog-on-white-men-is-going-viral-heres-our-response_a_22039753/

A few quotes from Verashni to make you seethe:

Garland's underlying analysis about the uneven distribution of wealth and power in the world is pretty standard for feminist theory. It has been espoused in many different ways by feminist writers and theorists for decades now. In that sense, there was nothing in the article that should have shocked or surprised anybody (or so we thought.)

It would appear that perhaps much of the outcry derives from a very poor reading of the article -- or perhaps none at all.

So in response she basically shits on her readers telling them denying white men the vote is pretty normal feminist theory.

Verashni is in trouble

Well, a big plot twist emerged. Shelley Garland does not exist! The whole thing was a fricking prank written by a white man! Not just a white man, but a fucing full-blooded Boer named fricking Marius Roodt. That's a peak mayo name! Roodt wrote the piece to prove that there was little fact-checking done in South African journ*lism and so he wrote a piece where he intentionally inserted errors and he got fricking published! He made an absolute fool of Huffpost, and he's not fricking sorry about it.

https://www.news24.com/news24/i-do-not-regret-it-huffpost-fake-blogger-20170525

Eventually, the backlash got so bad that the article was taken down and an apology was issued.

https://web.archive.org/web/20181205145757/https://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/2017/04/14/this-blog-on-white-men-is-going-viral-heres-our-response_a_22039753/

But this wasn't just a thrashing on social media. There were legal consequences to face as well. The South Africa's Press Ombud found that the article amounted to hate speech, resulting in Verashni stepping down from her position as editor-in-chief.

Since the incident, Verashni has taken on the role of the victim and has framed herself as a victim of online hate mobs. This is ironic as she tried to stir hate mobs against white men. She is just getting what she tried to dish out to others. When speaking on the matter, Verashni brings up many of the criticisms of modern journ*lism that I've brought up and she confesses that the site is basically a clickbait content mill where writers are stretched to meet insane quotas.

"He targeted a stretched newsroom that was being asked to do way too much with too little resources: we were being asked to publish 30 unique pieces of content a day in addition to wire stories and international content from the other HuffPost sites. We had three junior reporters and were refused sub-editors, despite my warning that we would run into legal trouble given the rate at which we were publishing. In addition, the editorial team was under enormous pressure from management to produce traffic and clicks."

https://themediaonline.co.za/2017/08/verashni-pillay-opens-up-about-her-hate-speech-appeal-victory/

She has also released a Ted Talk about her experience and how she got shamed because of the piece.

Quite honestly, it's an annoying video to watch. She hides behind the fact that she is a female BIPOC and argues that her identity is the reason she was attacked, and not the fact that she published an anti-democratic article arguing that white men should not be allowed to vote.

Conclusion

Verashni was knocked down but she's not out for the count. She currently works at radio station POWER 98.7. I have no knowledge of the station or what it does, and I'm not in the mood to research it. Did she learn anything from the experience? In my opinion, no. I don't think she understands or accepts that she published disgusting hate speech. That blog post should have never been published and it was only possible because

a) THE EDITORS ACTUALLY WANT TO STRIP WHITE MEN OF THE RIGHT TO VOTE

b) Huffpost is a content mill that cares more about clicks than facts.

For this reason alone you should never read Huffpost. It's inaccurate garbage mass produced for clicks. So what do you think of Verashni's story? Do you think she got what she deserved? Or was she the victim of a mean prank?

Tfw you still don't have a furry rdrama bf/gf to pamper and spoil you

The manga in question is "It's a Little Late, but I've Fallen in Love with My Childhood Friend" (imasara desu ga osananajimi wo suki ni natte shimaimashita).

The story initially starts out as this extremely cutesy story of a highschool girl realising she's fallen for her childhood friend and her subsequent efforts at getting closer to said childhood friend. Now, when I say this starts out cutesy I'm not exaggerating. It's very cutesy and full of fluff . It feels like the type of manga where the MC and her crush holding hands would be treated as a major romantic development.

But come chapter 21, disaster strikes.

It is revealed that one of the side characters had been fricking our MC's object of affection . Yep, this is no longer a manga about two cutesy virgins getting closer to each other. Then the POV entirely shifts towards the side girl and it becomes a depressing story of how this girl is fricking our guy in order to distract herself from her fricked up family situation . This is a complete tonal shift from how the manga was for the past 20 or so chapters.

Suffice to say the fans were not pleased ( as you can guess from 10x increase in comments on mangadex for chapter 21 ). The show gets bombared with negative reviews taking its ratings from an impressive 9 to a 6 with people making accounts just to shit on the author .

Some comments from the chapter 21 meltdown thread. :meltdown

WHAT THE FRICK

Hey, I just said that.

Why would you introduce conflict in an already perfect wholesome series? Wtf author?

Oh wait, it's the same fricking author who did white album 2, no surprise.

Apparently, this author has done it before .

The Maruto classic

Bro, frick this guy

More

Everytime a manga post gets like 100 comments in 2 hours it's either the death of a shonen jump character, someone confessing, or problematic shit suddenly happen outta nowhere lmao

Lmao I saw the post at 3 hours and over 700 upmarseys and thought, "oh shit she must've confessed this chapter." Boy was I wrong

___

uhhh, was this really necessary?

The short and simple answer is no. Of course it's a common route for romance to take, though common shouldn't be conflated with good. Fricking heck it just sucks.

___

Is she actually a girlfailure if the world (author) actively shits on her?

She is now a girlsurvivor

Put thru the bs of her friends and the author

___

Well, was nice while it lasted, will drop it here. What a shit development. Throwing a wholesome story out the window with just an unnecessary love triangle drama. Sad to see.

Exactly. On top of it the premise didn't hint any of this. Rather the premise had been set on a short wholesome romcom. So the drama was really unexpected and this chapter is so sudden.

The seethe continues into subsequent chapters months afterwards.

If the author wanted to write this story why did they bother with the first 20 chapters?

___

We've gone off the rails but I'm committed to seeing where we are going

Surely not a train wreck... right?

___

I guess joke is on me for expecting a romcom???

___

Somehow, it keeps getting worse. I'm hopping off. This isn't even a train wreck I want to see.

___

I feel like I've been NTRed out of a wholesome story. I'll never trust again.

___

this is some hot trash

Like I've read through a lot but this tonal shift into some bootleg Boy's Abyss (surprising since Boy's Abyss was... something too) is so butt. How do you pivot something this badly.

From chapter 25 discussions .

All these just makes me feel awful for Hikari, darn

She deserves better. Mangaka cooked and burned down the kitchen

Shouldve drawn hentai tbh

Normally I'd be appalled by the suggestion.

But for once I agree completely.

___

It's over

___

Hikari bros, our cope?

___

I genuinely believe the author's intentions partly included setting fans on fire about whom to support.

From chapter 27 discussions.

Author is cooking, but its kind of indian street food.

He's using gutter oil.

___

This has turned into a whole different story that the title don't fit anymore

___

I'm a little late here but I just started and caught up to this manga in one fell swoop and I'm fricking fuming. somebody, anybody, give me spoilers... there's a light novel right? someone has to have read it right? won't anyone put me out of my misery?

Similar reactions on Mangadex .

https://mangadex.org/title/cf1c93cc-4bb5-4311-b926-0f02ad123ad2

/a/utists react

https://desuarchive.org/a/thread/269799330/#269799330

NTR is the law of the world, simple as that.

heartbreaking, praying she goes postal

I might actually pick up this manga if this happens.

Lmao

Childhoodfriends only exist to get BTFO by the new girl that comes out of nowhere

TRVKE

!anime !kino discuss. Thoughts on NTR in anime/manga ?