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Somebody stole my bag. I had to whoop his ass.

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Daredevil in 1st ep: Kickin' ass and taking names.

Jessica Jones in 1st ep: Kickin' ass and taking names.

Luke Cage in 1st ep: Aggressively sipping tea trying to mind his own business.

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mood board

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When you’re trying to hold your tears in but life gets too much

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So we’re doin this again huh. We’re just, we’re gonna start the fake outrage train day fuckin 1. Merry War on Christmas

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The Simpsons

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Masterpost of Writing Advice

For a full and updated list of writing advice, click here. All advice is by Marina Montenegro and originally posted on Writing the Words blog. (This list is updated to include August’s Romance section)

Getting Started

Prewriting 101 Setting Up Your Space Starting Again (if you’ve stopped) Where to Start Writing the Beginning Writing What You Don’t Know 5 Truths About Being A Writer

Characters:

Character Building Non-Binary Characters Writing A Hero Writing Non-Humans Writing Women 5 Ways to Name Your Character 5 More Ways to Name Your Character

Dialogue:

Dialogue Improving Dialogue: Eliminate Exposition

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo Tips & Tricks for NaNoWriMo

Planning & Outlines

How to Start Outlining Is My Idea Good Enough? Should you Outline? 7 Things to Do Before You Start

Plot:

Details Fight Scenes Sex Scenes Sexual Assault in Literature Story Arcs

Publishing:

When and Where to Publish Rejection Letters

Romance:  *new!*

LGB Relationships Romantic Subplots Writing a Romance Novel

Setting:

Description When Setting Really Matters

World Building:

Creating World Maps World Building

Other

Editing Making Time to Write Point Of View Prologues Why I Write Writers Block Writing with Sound 5 Signs You Treat Your Reader Like an Idiot

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This is the best “Character Creation” sheet I’ve ever found. You can find the full document, for free, here. 

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The Defenders :

Luke Cage: is invulnerable

Jessica Jones: has super strength

Danny Rand: has the power of the Iron Fist

Matthew Murdock: has two sticks and determination

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Love this little dude! ❤ #puppylove #puppy #dogsofinstagram #goldenretrieverpuppy #goldenretriever #fluffypuppy #dogblr

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I’ve mentioned Splitwise here before, but let me say again what a fucking miracle this site/app is. What does it do? It helps you track your finances—and remind your shitty roommates to pay up. Say you buy groceries for the apartment and spend $50. You can add that into Splitwise and it will automatically determine how much your roommate owes you, and at the end of the month (or more often), it lets you settle up. It’s like the scorekeeper you always needed for that roommate that “forgets” to pay you or “will get you back next time.” Don’t put up with that shit. Track every expense to the penny and get your due.

It’s also a great way to track personal spending! Just put your expenses in throughout the month and it’ll break them down into cool charts for you and tell you where all your money went. This way, you can see what trash you are and figure out where to cut back.

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“You know, the only thing I remember from Sunday school is the martyrs… the saints, the saviours… they all end up the same way. Bloody and alone.”

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There's a new puppy at work! He's cute, but damn- he's teething & prefers to chew on humans. #dogsofinstagram #puppy #goldenretriversofinstagram #goldenretrieverpuppy #wetnose #warmheart #fluffball #squee

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Review: Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

People generally don’t react well to horrific events. Only in recent years has the personal torment of PTSD come to light, and there are still some cases where years of therapy do nothing. Though the majority of PTSD sufferers are war veterans, other circumstances have led many down the same dark road. Olympus Has Fallen is a film that uses terrorism to push one normal, albeit regretful man into a situation with little to no options. This isn’t a groundbreaking premise, nor does it show theatergoers a world unfamiliar to them. Still, there is a nostalgic quality about Olympus that is rarely seen nowadays, and this old trip back to the action flicks we remember fondly makes for a good 120 minutes.

Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is part of the secret service team that guards U.S. President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart), First Lady Margaret Asher (Ashley Judd), and their son Connor (Finley Jacobsen). There is a comfortable rapport between Mike and the first family; they act like old friends and joke endlessly. On a routine trip out of Camp David, inclement weather causes the presidential limousine to slide on black ice and crash through a bridge guardrail. Mike jumps into action immediately, but despite his efforts, the First Lady cannot be reached in time and plunges into the frigid waters below. The President is devastated over the loss of his wife and Mike spirals into a world of guilt and self-loathing. Months later, Mike is working a desk job, far from the reflex-heavy duties of his former detail.

On a day like any other, the White House is suddenly attacked by a group of vigilantes. Multiple explosions happen in quick succession and the entire landscape is devastated within minutes. Mike watches the drama unfold from his high-rise window and races to the street in an attempt to do something. Every tactic for defending the crown jewel of DC proves futile, and before long, the militants force their way inside to take the President and his immediate staff hostage. Mike sneaks in undetected but knows virtually nothing about the terrorist group or why the attack has happened. Nevertheless, the leader of the organization, Kang (Rick Yune), has made himself and his demands known to the government. Failure to comply means the President’s execution – and time is running short.

I mentioned earlier that this premise is somewhat old. It’s true – we have seen this before. The idea of the government being attacked and threatened with extinction has been around for a while. It has even played out in UFO-based films. Our film-going intuition tells us that somehow, everything will be okay. We never actually imagine an outcome where the enemy wins and the United States is reduced to ashes. It just isn’t part of our psyche. Something big is going to happen; someone will rise and lead us to victory. They have to; America doesn’t lose! Well, that sentiment might be fine for the movies, but real life has taught us that an attack can always be imminent.  Whatever sense of security we may have, the fragility of it all is very frightening. Olympus Has Fallen preys on this fear. The opening sequence demonstrates how quickly a situation can escalate, and the second opening sequence shows how quickly our world can fall apart.

What made this film work, for me, is the fact that it summoned the ghost of films past. Think back on the most beloved action films of the 80s and 90s, films like First Blood and its sequel, where Sylvester Stallone managed to defeat the entire Vietnamese army singlehandedly. Sure, such an idea is ludicrous and could not happen in a world that depends on logic, but we never batted an eye. This is similar to how Mike Banning in Olympus maneuvered through the underground mazes and hidden tunnels of the White House. Do we care that any terrorist cell smart enough to infiltrate the United States in seconds would probably never allow itself to be unraveled by one man? Ehh…why bother with details like that? That isn’t the reason we’re watching the movie in the first place; we’re watching because we know Gerard Butler is going to unleash the fury of Hell – and we want to see it happen.

The promotion for Olympus Has Fallen isn’t doing the film any favors. In fact, when I first began hearing about this film and saw the first trailer, I thought nothing of it. I wasn’t enticed to see it and I certainly didn’t care enough to read more about it. Its placement in the barrage of trailers fired at the audience was haphazard; and aside from some solemn imagery like the U.S. flag being thrown to the ground like an old sock, Olympus looked as though it would be forgotten almost immediately. Looks can be deceiving.

For his part, Gerard Butler was a great action star. I enjoyed his performance here and had no trouble believing him. Some actors simply cannot fit certain roles no matter how perfect Hollywood believes them to be. Butler seems effortless here and even gives us a few moments of levity without compromising the mood of the plot. My audience was extremely vocal during a lot of the action sequences, which obviously made the whole experience more entertaining.

Olympus succeeds on the big screen, so I recommend seeing it in the theater rather than waiting for the DVD. If you’re on the fence about which road to take, I hope I just pushed you over to the right side.

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It’s hard to capture an old friend in one anecdote, but I’ll try. The time is two a.m., and Stoya and I are smoking outside an East Village bar. A mink hangs from her shoulders. The streetlights catch her feline cheekbones like a kiss. Stoya tells me about the mid–19th century prima ballerina Emma Livry. In an era when dancers routinely caught fire from stage lights, Livry refused to destroy the ethereality of her art by soaking her tutu in flame retardant. When she died of burns, she had no regrets. Stoya notes that panic about safety often focuses on the bodies, and the choices, of young women. She wonders why no one thought to move the lights.

Sex Activist Stoya Is the Leader Porn Needs Now (via wilwheaton)

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I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve….Secondly, to celebrate my birthday. Cheers again. I should say: OUR birthday. For it is, of course, also the birthday of my heir and nephew, Frodo.

Happy Birthday Bilbo and Frodo Baggins! Happy Hobbit Day!