#2019 holiday bunch

[theonottsbxtch]

Cool for the Summer | LN4

an: i’ve been trying not to just blow up the timeline with a bunch of smau but thanks to @isaadore and @diycriptheory i finally chose one thing to post!

synopsis: in which lando goes to the same resort each summer and he befriends the owners daughter who works there

fc: pinterest!

2019

landonorris

liked by carlossainz55, maxfewtrell, yourusername and 592,362 others

summer break in full swing 🤘

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userone: sun looks good on you

usertwo: look at those back muscles

userthree: WHO is that girl?

landonorris: her name is yn! she works at the resort we stayed at and was our personal guide, check out her dads resort @/resortname

userfour: just yn? 🤔

carlossainz55: why didn’t you invite me cabrón?

landonorris: “i don’t want to go on holiday with you, i see you too much” - do those words sound familiar?

carlossainz55: not at all, who said them?

landonorris: 😑

userfive: yn is us, reading on the beach

2020

landonorris

liked by carlossainz55, yourusername, danielricciardo and 864,436 others

much needed break 😴

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userone: is that yn?!

usertwo: did he meet up with the girl from last summer?!

carlossainz55: i was also on that holiday

landonorris: were you? i must have missed that

carlossainz55: gringo

danielricciardo: there is no way this beats an aussie summer

landonorris: oh but it does

userthree: carlos went on holiday with him 🥲 my carlando heart

yourusername: i was quite enjoying the idea of a summer not working

landonorris: but unfortunately for you, your dad loves me

yourusername: wrong, he loves your money

carlossainz55: lol 😹🫵

userfour: don’t shoot me but landoyn

userfive: 🔫

2021

yourusername

liked by landonorris, carlossainz55, yourbestfriend and 2,371 others

he got some hours in this summer - also check out this vase i started earlier!

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userone: pottery queen

landonorris: child labour

yourusername: you’re 23

landonorris: exaclty 😞

usertwo: each summer i get excited knowing we get landoyn posts

userthree: if they don’t get together i may cry

userfour: and now they kiss

carlossainz55: best boat rider? driver? chauffer? ever!

yourusername: skipper! but thank you :)

carlossainz55: but you don’t skip?

yourusername: it’s a dumb name i know 😭

userfive: it’s the way she’s friends with carlos too

yourbestfriend: @/landonorris how does it feel to steal my best friend each summer?

landonorris: pretty good actually

yourbestfriend: 🔪

2022

landonorris

liked by yourusername, danielricciardo, carlossainz55 and 462,382 others

finally was trusted enough to see how pottery stuff is done

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userone: i come alive once each year for the annual post

usertwo: lando is a summer child

carlossainz55: don’t lie. you paid her €100 to let you in the room

landonorris: that was not meant to be public knowledge

userthree: lando is such a simp bc why did he pay €100 to watch a girl do some pottery

userfour: but it’s not just SOME girl

userfive: it’s THE girl

yourusername: €100 well earned

landonorris: you and i are no longer friends

yourusername: whomp whomp

2023

yourusername

liked by landonorris, yourbestfriend, oscarpiastri and 3,472 others

spent the summer saving the people’s favourite driver from drowning

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userone: thank you for your service

oscarpiastri: not my favourite driver

yourusername: facts me too

carlossainz55: @/landonorris: shots fired

usertwo: parents

userthree: okay maybe not this year but next year 😞

yourbestfriend: *cough* i actually was on lifeguard duty most of the summer

yourusername: shhhh

userfour: help can lando not swim

yourusername: no

landonorris: she’s lying, i can

2024

landonorris

liked by your username, oscarpiastri, mclarenracing and 934,635 others

ahead of the hungary gp i had a personalised helmet created to fit in with the rich culture of the country, following the gp i will put this up to auction for a children’s charity - see you on track!🏎️🏁

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userone: SHUT UP SHUT UP SHE DID NOT

usertwo: i am sick

userthree: landoyn is so real

userfour: 2024 is the year

yourusername: nice helmet! wonder where you got it from?

landonorris: some pretty, talented woman made it for me

yourusername: what a lucky lady, you speak highly of her

landonorris: ☺️

userfive: THÉ COMMA. PRETTY. TALENTED. KILL ME NOW

oscarpiastri: does the artist take commissions for next year?

yourusername: potentially!

landonorris: back off piastri

twitter:

yourusername

liked by landonorris, oscarpiastri, yourbestfriend and 6,422 others

this summer i learnt how to do a handstand

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userone: don’t freak out calm down too late i’m freaking out

landonorris: that’s a headstand actually

yourusername: chat to me when you have a olympic gold medal

usertwo: THIS IS NOT A DRILL

userthree: THE LAST SLIDE

oscarpiastri: photo credits?

yourbestfriend: i took that actually

oscarpiastri: that’s from my sunbed actually

yourbestfriend: we were on the same bed dufus

userfour: 👀

carlossainz55: the son of a bitch did it

userfive: CARLOS HELP

landonorris

liked yourusername, oscarpiastri, carlossainz55 and 937,361 others

i love summer

*tap to load more comments*

userone: I LOVE SUMMER TOO LANDO

usertwo: the way she looks at him 🥹

oscarpiastri: @/yourbestfriend we are feeding the landoyn fans

yourbestfriend: that we are

userthree: someone check in on the landoyn fan base

userfour: miss rabbit has fainted

yourusername: i think i may love summer too 🤭

landonorris: 🥰

yourdad: i approve

[rockethorse]

Stocking Stuffer 1/5: A Bajillion Random Painting Recolours

Happy Holidays to all! While I'm proud that last year I finally managed to achieve a longtime goal of sharing a full TS2 Advent Calendar, I'm simply not gonna be able to pull it off this year. Nonetheless, the holidlay spirit has encouraged me to finish up and share a couple of things before the end of the year! I'll be sharing five little gifts over the next few arbitrary days. First up: A BUNCH of Maxis painting recolours.

One recolour each of A/B/C Stroke (yes, I still enjoy playing with these as three separate paintings) using vintage matchbook covers designed by Saul Bass for The Ohio Match Company.

Two recolours +frames for Abstrutionism; "Poppy Cake" by Adolf Fényes (1910), and then this edit of Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth (1948) to include Bella Goth (the original Tumblr poster has deactivated).

A recolour of Anonymous Masterpiece with these two digital paintings by user chestnutroan featuring their farmer Sim and his two alien daughters.

One recolour of the Arghist Soldier with "Friday Nights" by Deborah DeWit (2006), perfect for your novel-enthusiast Sims' reading nook.

One recolour of City Skyline with a fruit & veg painting by Twitter user snail_soup (you can buy a real print of this too if you like it!)

One recolour of the Fourth Element wall scroll with "From Stardust to Stardust - Raccoon" by user ArtOfMienda.

Four Vegetables recoloured with four deliciously juicy tomato paintings by artist Leah Gardner.

Geometry 101 recoloured with a beautiful palette knife painting by Lynn Boggess.

Two recolours of Grilled Cheese (you all know what Grilled Cheese looks like, c'mon); one vintage ad for Hollywood Diet bread which I cleaned/redrew to remove text/graphics, and then "Cloud Rows" by Ivan Eyre (2004).

In The Beginning (+frame) recoloured with "Little Thief" by Courtney / Trash Kitty Art (also available as an affordable IRL print).

Kitten vs. Yarn (+frame) recoloured with this goache painting by user ieafy.

"Until Tonight" by Mark Grantham (2019) slapped on Lady On Red.

Two recolours of Living Room; "Midwestern Summer Fun" by user ink-the-artist (you may wanna zoom in for a surprise), then "Girl On A Swing" (2000) by Andrew Macara.

One recolour of Marketing Print with the Beatles as drawn by other Beatles. I don't remember who drew who because I'm actually not much of a Beatles fan but I thought these sketches were really darling.

In Memory of Johnny Gnome (+frame) recoloured with a piece by Emma Roulette.

A recolour of My First Holiday with art from Twitter user heikala_art.

On Pointed Toes (+frame) recoloured with this digital painting by Twitter user catwheezie.

I fell in love with this Guinness ad so I tweaked it from the photo to fit on the Route 66 poster, then made an accompanying Simlish option.

A single Scruffles recolour (+frame) with this adorable cow illustration by Twitter user poodlewool.

Four recolours of the Sim Noir pop art print; three pieces by Al Parker I found through this Tweet (with some English removed) and then an edit of the original painting to look passingly familiar...

Two recolours (+frames) of Snoozing Enemies; "The Cat on the Pillow" by Adolf von Becker, and "Sleeping Sasha" by Lena Rivo.

Stiller Life (+frame) recoloured with this oil painting of McDonalds by artist Noah Verrier.

Two recolours (+frames) of Stumped Hound; "Shadow" by Tianyi Zhou and "cat falling off table" by user anasauruss.

The Muse recoloured with this Juxtapoz magazine cover by artist Josh Courlas.

And lastly, three recolours of Untitled (the Bella Goth pop art painting) with works by Hiroshi Nagai.

Download All Paintings @ SFS

[cozyhearthyarnworks]

Hey there, new folks!

Since we just got to 1K followers today (and got a bunch of you at once!), it seems like a good time to update our "About Us" information ✨ We're always happy to answer questions about our work and projects, and we have regular polls to gather feedback as well as answering questions in tags, reblogs, and replies.

WELCOME TO OUR COZY HEARTH

Hi everyone! Hopefully you’re finding what you’re looking for here. It’s our goal, above anything else, to make people feel welcome, warm, and happy. Cozy Hearth Yarn Works hand-makes yarn crafts that are just right for you. Knitting was the original soul and inspiration of CHYW, but we’ve since pivoted into pattern design, hand-dyed yarn, hand-dyed spinning fiber, and more offerings to come. We’ve made custom commissions since the fall of 2015, and we opened our store some time after. We started selling yarn in the fall of 2019, fiber in the fall of 2022, and handspun yarn in the beginning of 2024! We’ve been through a lot of changes in the years since we started, and we’re proud to keep existing as a trans & disabled owned business.

WHAT DO WE DO?

We sell yarn in five different forms! We started with dyed-to-order designed & themed colorways, currently the Dathanna Colorway Series. We also offer ready-to-ship: limited edition colorways designed for seasonal holidays, one-of-a-kind skeins, and discounted “not-quite” skeins. In addition to these yarns dyed on commercially spun bases, we also sell handspun yarn, either in single skeins listed on the website or in larger batches ordered as custom commissions.

We sell spinning fiber currently in combed top form, in several different breeds of wool. We’re excited to diversify our fiber offerings, so please, if you have hopes/dreams/requests, don’t be shy about letting us know!

We sell knitting patterns through both Ravelry and Payhip - select the Knitting Patterns page on our menu for a full library of links. You can also buy pattern kits from our Products page, which ship with all the needed yarn and a printed copy of the pattern.

WHO ARE WE?

Kit (he/him) – born in 1989, homemaker and hearthkeeper, cat parent to Fiyero. Loves reading, music, coffee, lace, and interestingly textured yarns. Designer of patterns, yarns, and colorways. Runs all social media outlets for CHYW – if you’re talking to someone, it’s probably me!

Em (they/them) – born in 1991, baker and calligrapher, cat parent to Isaac. Loves podcasts, books, coffee, cabling, and high-definition yarns. Bookkeeping, shipping and logistics expert – a behind-the-scenes wizard who keeps us running!

[sidemenxyn]

Fellas podcast

Calfreezy x Y/n (afab) (reader grew up with Ethan and reader is apart of the sidemen)

Tw: mentions of drinking, language, mentions of inappropriate drugs (weed), you all being a bunch of hooligans, mentions of harassment,

Y/n is normal text, Chip is bold, Calfreezy is italic and Proddy is bold and italic

–—–

“Welcome back to the fellas podcast, hope you are comfy and ready to listen to some juicy gossip. as today me and Chip will be talking my one and only girlfriend!” Calfreezy presents.

You smiled and waved towards the many cameras in front of you “hey, guys!” Chip firstly asked “would you like a beverage? Y/n?” You smiled “eh, yeah please.” Cal asked “do you want a Stella or some gin?” You asked “you have gin? If so then yes please.” He nodded and started pouring you a drink.

Chip spoke “Y/n can you do a little introduction on yourself, for those who may not know you.” You smiled “of course, I’m Y/n, you may know me from either the sidemen or being with Cal. I’m a YouTuber and streamer.” The boys nodded. Chip announced “todays podcast we decided to shake things up a little. As we have asked some fans on your instagram account what they’d like to know about you and us.” You nodded.

Cal was handed the phone and quickly scrolled for a question. He read “ok, how did Y/n become a sidewoman?” You answered “so I grew up with Ethan, his mum and my mum also grew up together. I supported him into doing YouTube and then I met all the boys and they thought I’d be a good person to add to the group. So yeah! Grew up with behz.” Chip asked “does both mothers stay in contact?” You nodded “yeah, I mean they support each other through every step in their lives. That’s why I truly believe that if you find the right friend they can grow old with you.” The two boys nodded.

It was now Chip’s turn, he asked “this is for Y/n, what’s it like going on a lads holiday?.” You smiled already thinking about the memories “it’s amazing, sometimes I even forget I’m the only girl if it’s a sidemen holiday or just a ‘lads holiday’. Like most girls probably wouldn’t even think of being the only girl. But because I grew up with you all I’m able to say ‘fuck it’ and go on a lads holiday.” Cal chirped in “yeah, even before we dated it was as if you were ‘one of the lads’ like sometimes me and Harry would be doing drinking challenges or shot together and by the end of the night we’d all be shit faced.” You gasped “oh I have a story! From a lads holiday.” Everyone chuckled at the way you seemed to be so happy to tell your story.

“Right, so this was in Mykonos back in like 2019. So we were all out clubbing as usual, this night I wore my first like nice dress. Cause you know me I’m not the one to wear dresses casually or anything. So anyways, I was dancing and I could feel someone behind me right? So I moved out the way thinking they wanted to pass by, but the placed a hand on my hip.” “What?!” “No way” “yeah! So I looked around and saw Ethan and Tobi at the bar, so I headed over there. And the guy followed me. Cause he stood next to me by the bar. Ethan saw I was a bit annoyed and taken back so he asked ‘you alright?’ And I tilted my head towards the guy and mouthed ‘creep’. So you know Ethan he became protective.” “Oh god!” “As he should” “so he asked like ‘are you with her’ to see what he’d say and of course he said ‘yeah, she’s my girl’.” “Ew what the fuck!” “Nah that’s actually vile!”

“Yeah! Anyways, so cause you all know I don’t take shit from no one so I said ‘no I’m not, I don’t even fucking know you.’ Then he got a bit angry and Ethan said ‘mate she’s with me so if your bothering her, leave her alone’ and then I felt his hand on my waist again so I shoved his hand off and told him ‘get the fuck off of me’ and then out of no wear he slapped me in the face!” “Fuck off, he didn’t?” “Shit really?” You nodded “yeah, so you know what I did?” “What?” “Are we gonna have a girl boss moment?” You smirked and nodded “yeah, I fucking punched him in the face then kicked him in the crouch.” The boys mouths dropped to the floor, shocked by your reply. You continued “yeah, then he tried slapping my me but Ethan managed to stop it and Tobi pulled me away.” The boys were gobsmacked. “Mad right?” “Yeah!” “What happened after that?” “Me and Tobi went back to the hotel cause I don’t know why that guys hand was so heavy but it made my nose bleed. So we went back cause Tobi didn’t want to stay long as it was quite far into the night, well early morning. So we chilled at the hotel.”

After your story, Cal picked up the phone again “right! This person wants to know how Y/n and myself got together.” You smiled “Cal do you wanna tell your side?” He nodded “well, right, so basically as you know I’m close friends with Ethan so that meant I’m also close friends with Y/n. Like she came withe the package sorta deal. But we got along really well, and after moving out of the second house me and Bog offered her to move in with Harry, Lux and I. And obviously she said yes and then I grew feeling for her, in 2018 we went on our first date and then things escalated and now we are dating.” You smiled and said “yeah, so when I moved in a had down the same thing, the longer I stayed the more I grew closer to Cal and grew more feelings. Before we were even dating I’d say like a few months before dating we’d do the like kissing on the forehead and a hug. Like yeah I’d hug all the boys but these were the hugs like you’d do with your partner. We’d also like do what we’d loosely call ‘dates’ where if Harry and Lux were out I’d make him wear face masks and we’d cuddle and watch a movie type of thing.” Chip said “so what did all the boys think of it all?” You answered “honestly I’m pretty sure Harry and Lux had placed bets on who’s ask out who and what month we’d end up dating.” Chip and the boys were laughing. Cal mentioned “pretty sure Harry won too! Like only for the asking who out though.” You laughed.

Proddy asked “are you two living together now still?” You nodded and Cal spoke “yeah, it’s still Y/n, Harry and myself.” You giggled “Harry is like our non-biological child. He’s always pointing out that he’s a third wheel constantly, but he’ll deny moving out so.. yeah.” You all had a laugh.

Chip read “Do Y/n and Cal have any plans about having babies and if so how many?” You smiled “yes, just not yet.” Cal nodded “yeah, we’ve agreed either two or three. Depends on how Y/n feels.” Chip awed at the small comment. Proddy asked “what gender do you wish the children would be?” Cal spoke first “I honestly wouldn’t mind as long as they have a close bond and look out for each other. Also if I have a girl I want them to be like Y/n when their older, like they’re able to defend for themselves if needed. Like I’d like them to have someone there for them but like..” “like if they need to they can fight back or speak their mind.” “Yeah exactly.” “Yeah, I’d personally would like to to be boy, girl then boy. But I too honestly couldn’t care for gender like I grew up with what? Four brothers. That’s how I learnt to fend for myself. Bro the amount of batery I’ve been through.” You all laugh “like it was play fighting obviously but the constant need to know what I was doing. Like Eli the middle brother, constantly knocking on my door just wanting to chill or like Jack my youngest brother. He constantly wanted to go out in my car and get maccies.” “I can vouch for Y/n, her household is never quiet. Like bro when we’d go visit, or even for the holidays. Cause we were dating especially from Jack Y/n would just always got the ‘YouTube couple, omg I ship!’.” You were laughing constantly at the memories, Cal was the best with your brothers it was as if they’d known him their whole lives.

Chip had the phone in his hand and asked “when do you think Cal and Y/n will get married?” You smirked “soon I hope!” Cal smiled “yeah soon, waiting for the perfect time.” Chip said “who’s your best men and bridesmaids gonna be?” The boys looked at your first “well, obviously Faith I grew up with her she’ll probably be my maid of honour. Then it will be Talia, Y/f/n, Y/f/n and Freya.” The boys listened as you said everyone’s names then Cal spoke “I’ll, have Chip, Harry, uh Ethan, Lux.”

You asked “can I pick a question??” The boys nodded and Chip handed the phone over to you. As you scrolled one caught your eye “any drama from when you’d used to go to school? Like drama you were involved in?” you and the boys got excited to explain your stories. Chip spoke “Y/n you look like you’ve got a bunch.” You laughed “I very much do, me and Faith were the ones who knew everyone’s drama!” You added “ok what do you want to know?” Proddy asked “everything!” “I’ve heard some of them and they are wild!!” “Oh lord we are in for a good one!” You clears your throat “ok, firstly I want to say I won’t be using their real names, I’ll use fruit as their names” you chuckled “ok, so let’s say? Strawberry right, strawberry was the same age as me and we were 15 when this happened it was the thing of the year. Well she got pregnant but didn’t know who the dad was!” “No way?!?” “Omg!!”. You added “also this girl orange, well orange and I had a fight! Like full of fist fight!” “Who won?” “Me, not being full of myself but she did not stand a chance!” “Was that when you were professionally boxing?” “You did boxing?” “Yeah, I still do! Grew up on the sport.” “Trust me you don’t want to mess with her!” Chip asked “what happened after?” “Well, she tried going for another round, like this time I just knew she would try ragging on my hair cause she did it last time. So I just put her in a head lock.” “A proper head lock?” “Nah just one so she could get me as much cause I knew I’d probably get kicked out if I did do a proper head lock.”

You listen to the rest of the stories the boys told you and the listeners. After a while it was the end of the podcast, you sign off “thank you for listen to our stories and gossip, if you enjoyed make sure to follow and share. Have a good day!”

Later that day, Cal was on his computer as you laid in your shears bed. Huddled up on the bed wearing his hoodie and your favourite type of joggers aka Callum’s joggers.

You turned over facing him as he sat at his desk, you asked “how long will you be?” He turned to you “just finishing this bit and I’m done.” You smiled as he finished up whatever he seemed to be doing on the computer. Once he turn off his computer screen, he crawled into bed with you and pulled you into him. He turned the tv on as you snuggled into your loving boyfriend. Cal asked “what we watching love?” You hummed “maybe we could watch the new Brassic?” He smiled “yeah, I enjoyed that.” You commented “yeah, honestly the boys remind me of brassic besides the crime and weed.” “Yeah I get you like the personalities.” “Yeah!” So that was the plan. You two cuddled together and watched Brassic all night long. Later after you were done watching the show you both went to sleep holding each other closely.

–—–

If you’d like to see more you can follow or heart my posts if you’d like! If you’d like me to crest something you’d like me to write then ask away! I’m more than happy to make stories you guys ask me! So if you’d like ask and hopefully I can get it up quick for you guys to read! Have a good day/night! 🫶

[sassyfrassboss]

Omid's Twitter archive. So first, the algorithms are all fucked up (thanks, Elon!) so nothing's showing in order. (I did an advanced search on his account for a date range because the guy is a prolific tweeter and I'm not about to spend the next 45 million hours scrolling down go 2019.

December 2019 - It's a mixed bag. He was not tweeting a whole lot about the Sussexes. (My guess is that he wasn't talking to Meghan then.) Most of his tweets are reposting royal news (Cambridge engagements and BRF holiday wishes). He was talking to fans a lot in a "thanks for the support" kind of way. He was also subtweeting other reporters with a bunch of "you're putting words in my mouth" / "that's false, I never said that" / "you're taking things out of context" comments. He was also promoting Heirpods a lot. When William announced Earthshot, Scobie started posting a lot about climate change. He appealed to his followers to donate to Australian wildfire relief.

His first tweet about the Sussexes in January 2020 was reposting that picture of Harry and Archie in Canada that Meghan published to overshadow William's Earthshot announcement.) The next tweet about the Sussexes appears to be an announcement on January 6th that Harry and Meghan were going to the Canadian embassy to thank them for their vacation.

He did not tweet anything about Megxit until Meghan and Harry's website went up. No comments or retweets about Dan whatsface megxit scoop, not even denials or "this is absurd" like he did today. **This tells me that Scobie wasn't in Meghan's pocket before Megxit and he wasn't aware that she was leaking to Dan.

Contrasting this to his tweets today/this week about RadarOnline's scoop: he's definitely in Meghan's pocket and he's definitely trying to calm everyone down and move the conversation away from divorce.

My theory is that he has something juicy in Endgame that he wants attention for concerning the state of their marriage or Meghan's panicking about it and she wants the conversation changed because usually whenever Scobie brings the Waleses and Yorks into the conversation like this, it's to bury something Meghan did.

You are a rockstar for this!!!

He also Tweeted the other day about Charles' coronation and how it didn't bring in that much money...

So Dan Wooton has hinted more than once that he got the Megxit information from Omid himself...so this is very interesting. I wonder what the deal is there?

I know that Meghan was irate that the news leaked because they thought they could bully Charles and TQ into the 1/2 in and out deal.

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 11.26.2024

I did not finish chapter 9/52 and there's no way I'm gonna today, so I'm just gonna go ahead and call this week. I certainly worked on it. My current workflow is that I have a document called "temp", and I put the current chapter and all its mess in there, and when it's done, I paste it into the "rough draft" document, put any scrap I want to save into the scrapheap at the bottom of my "notes" document, and then start clean with the next chapter. Right now, the temp doc is over 3k words, but I've really been flailing with what to do with this chapter, so it's three-quarters of fight scene and a bunch of half abandoned scraps of conversation and now Ichigo and Renji are expositing at each other and I'm about ready to throw the whole thing in a dumpster. Anyway, I'm not going to count any of that as progress for this week; it'll get counted when the chapter is finished, which is my goal for next week.

That doesn't mean no progress, tho! Earlier in the week I wrote a 2k Inuzuri vignette, just because I was thinking about it and wanted to write it. It was so pleasant and fun to write and people have been very nice to me about it, and honestly, it's got me fucked up a little, because writing is so rarely like that for me these days. I've had this fear, roughly since I started writing Bleach fanfic in 2019, that I was going to eventually run out of ideas, at which point I guess I assumed I would just quit or something? I don't know. What has happened instead is that, when the random bolts of inspiration began to get farther and fewer between, I've learned to create story concepts and to craft them into a finished product. And, like, that's a cool skill! I am proud of my ability to do it! But it's also, like, work, like a fucking job. And the result is that I spend a lot of time writing things I want to be written, and very little time writing things I actually want to write. I used to at least have parts of my stories that I was looking forward to writing, and that's not even really true anymore. Sometimes I happen to have fun while I am writing things, but looking out ahead pretty much just feels like a slog. I've known that this was happening for quite some time, and I've tried various things to fix it and none of them have helped. I can't stop, though, because the only thing I really want to do is read fanfic, and the amount that is being written to my tastes and interests is a very small fraction of my appetite for it, so my only recourse is to write it myself. Anyway, at least I had fun for two days this week! That's something!

I did some art tutorials this week, and I think at this point I am putting off drawing my Christmas card in hopes that I will run out of time and then have an excuse not to do it at all. 🙃

Sorry to be kind of a bummer this week. I'm also wrapped up in holiday off-my-schedule anxiety, so I've had a headache+ low grade nausea for the last three days, which I pretty much expect to persist through the entire month of December.

GOAL PROGRESS: This week, +1979 words, which gives me 14,150/20,000 = 71% of my year-end goal, with 5 weeks to go.

[alakeeffectgirl]

cruisequarries PART TWO

PART ONE What did we get up to yesterday? 2018? Okay. I will put everything behind a spoiler cut again (there are more pictures/a video today).

Actually, let's rewind just a little, for some Fallout premiere pictures just because.

Paris, July 12th:

London, July 13th:

Seoul, July 16th (according to the designer's website, the hanbok Heather is wearing was designed as a wedding dress, mmhmm)...

I love this picture because they're making those faces at Chris. Here's the bit of Tom making Heather cry in Tokyo:

I highly recommend listening to Tom & Chris commentary track on Fallout, which starts with McQ introducing himself as the writer/director and then Tom introducing himself - as McQ's friend. After the Fallout press tour wraps up, work starts in earnest on Top Gun: Maverick, which Tom and McQ have been discussing - idly, on McQ's part - for years now. "Our relationship is one long conversation about movies," indeed.

While TGM is filming, pre-production is also happening on MI:DR, which McQ has signed on to direct. (These two are usually juggling at least two projects at a time, and really it's probably more like five projects at a time.)

In January of 2019, they're all back in LA so Tom and McQ can pick up some awards.

The McQuarries also go to a premiere and look fantastic (I love McQ's suit):

Tom and McQ go to Ukraine to scout Dead Reckoning locations later in 2019, meet President Zelenskyy, and McQ gets to put his arm around Tom for once instead of their usual other way around.

OH NO I ALMOST FORGOT - at the end of 2019, Tom took the whole McQ clan with him to Las Vegas to see Lady Gaga and ask her to write the TGM song. [cries in 'that's his family']

Production ramps up on DR - and then unfortunately, as we all know, COVID. Most of the cast and crew were in Venice when everything shut down, but Tom hadn't arrived yet.

Production resumes in Rome in October (their production struggles/trying to keep everyone employed/Tom rightfully yelling at people to follow protocols because a lot of jobs depend on them is all well documented), and then moves to Venice. Heather and the dogs are also part of this traveling band.

This isn't six feet apart, dudes...

Production breaks for the holidays, and resumes in Abi Dhabi for the airport/desert sequences, and also one of my favorite pictures of Tom and Heather, just for her expression.

Train sequence filming in Yorkshire in April of 2021, that's Heather in the blue coat:

DR production then breaks for a bit over the summer so Tom can take all his friends to Wimbledon, go to several car things, and make McQ watch football (the soccer version).

DR filming resumes in the fall/winter. Heather goes with to South Africa and they rent out what is basically an adults-only hotel (and save it from having to close!), for part of their stay. I love this picture because Gypsy looks so long-suffering:

OKAY IT'S 2022 NOW, time for the Top Gun: Maverick premiere tour to start - finally! (Do any of these people SLEEP? No. I think it's well-documented that Tom Cruise does not sleep, which is part of what makes him Tom Cruise, but also this means he calls McQ at two in the morning to talk about movies. There's a podcast somewhere where McQ says he thinks Tom might sleep "between the 2:05 email and the 2:40 email", or something along those lines.) (After getting back from South Africa, there was a bunch of test screening stuff for TGM, which is why there are those parking garage pictures. Wouldn't the movie be done, you'd think, since it was supposed to be out in 2020? COVID gave them a reason to tinker with it even more.) The San Diego premiere on the USS MIdway (all the McQs were there, but there aren't any good pictures):

Then Tom went to Mexico, and McQ went home to London for a few days before Tom returned, and they went to the Royal Windsor horse show together.

THEN EVERYONE WENT TO CANNES. Sorry I have just a shitty screencap with a watermark here but alas tumblr only lets you put one video per post. Tom and McQ stopped to get their picture taken en route to the actual photocall and Tom made Heather come back and be in the pictures with them. There is video here.

Cannes, of course, was amazing. I have garbage homemade gifs but they're too big for tumblr (also they're garbage) but all the Cannes red carpet footage is available on YouTube, here and here. (Worth it for Heather, tbh.)

They went straight from Cannes - on Tom's helicopter - back to London for the Royal premiere. Where the McQuarries looked amazing and McQ wore his McQ shoes.

And the after party, because heaven forbid they not all ride in the same car:

And then the McQuarries got a slight break, while Tom went to do more TGM press. But he was back in London by the end of June, and they went on what can only be described as a string of dates. First, they went to the Rolling Stones concert at Hyde Park.

McQ was on Tom's other side, but he's only visible in video (the Daily Mail might be garbage but they do come through with the media).

Then Tom and Heather went to The Eagles show at Hyde Park:

And they all went to see Adele - also at Hyde Park. (The woman in the pink sweater is Tom's CAA agent Maha Dakhil Jackson - I found the picture where you can see Heather over Tom's shoulder.)

Then for Tom's birthday, they went to the F1 British Grand Prix (with some other TGM folks, but they aren't three steps behind Tom like the McQuarries are).

Oh no, we're not done. Tom takes Heather to Wimbledon, where she holds his sunglasses (not visible in this picture).

McQ did not go with, as he was recording a Light the Fuse podcast - which he surprise-dialled in a bunch of DR folks - and his final surprise was Tom. Who was still at Wimbledon with Heather. McQ calls Heather to get Tom, and Heather plays dumb and is like, "oh I don't know where he is, did you try calling him?" and Chris says he already told the podcast guys that they were together. So Tom does his segment from the car he's in with Heather, and his part is only supposed to be like ten minutes but he talks for about forty-five and this includes telling the world they basically all live together. Then they went out to dinner!

And the next day they all went to Wimbledon with Maha and her husband.

I'm stopping here because this is already SO LONG and 2023 is going to be wild just by itself! PART THREE

[letsgethaunted]

Hauntie of the Week!

@afterplaidshirtdays

Name: Laura

From: Texas

Started listening to LGH from the very beginning! 2019

What is your favorite episode of the pod? honestly probably the Dyatlov Pass episode. I know it's the very first one, but I think about it ALLLL the time. It changed me on a molecular level.

Tell us something haunted! Personal haunting, favorite haunted story, etc. In the house I grew up in, I could hear "distant party voices" only in specific spots in the house. My dad could hear them too. We don't know where they came from. But they sounded muffled and it was a bunch of voices, as if people were at a party in another room. We were the only people to have lived in that house.

What hobbies do you have? I moderate this blog! I also am learning to crochet, I play guitar, and enjoy caring for my plants. Does being a Swiftie count as a hobby? I think it does. (most Swiftie-posting on this blog is from me!)

Favorite music: Taylor, duh. But also really into Maisie Peters, Fall Out Boy, and Sara Bareilles.

Favorite movie: Oooh this one is tough. Legally Blonde, Pride and Prejudice (2005), and The Holiday.

Favorite show: s u p e r n a t u r a l (I suffer from Dean Winchester Derangement Syndrome)

What's a personal positive haunting that's happened to you? It can be something small! A personal positive haunting would be back in February when my friend and I got second-chance Eras Tour tickets! Ticketmaster is My Enemy so the whole experience was haunted, but that was a positive part! The photo of me is from the concert. :)

Do you have any pets? yes! I have two cats, a black cat named Sophie and a cinnamon roll named Minnie.

What's a fun fact about you? I took figure skating lessons as a kid!

Is there a charity, non-profit, or cause you'd like to shout out? The Orphan Kitten Club! Orphan Kitten Club’s mission is to build innovative programs that save the lives of the tiniest and most vulnerable felines. Check them out at orphankittenclub.org today!

Are you a content creator? alas, I am not.

Anything else you'd like to share? luv u haunties <3

Do you want to be the next Hauntie of the Week?

[multiphandommess]

Trouble In Paradise

Requested by @wosoobsessed

Request: Thank you so much! Could I possibly have one where Natasha and the reader go on holiday together maybe somewhere like Australia. And they’ve both been working a lot so they haven’t been spending a lot of time together ,but in the time they have spent together they’ve been arguing about little things cus they’re both tired. But when they get there Natasha starts doing work on her laptop and is just acting rlly disconnected and it’s results in them having an argument. But really Natasha is planning on proposing so that’s why she’s been so busy. And then the next day they make up and then in the evening Natasha proposes to the reader and it’s all cute. Sorry if this is too long. But thank you anyway!!

Mia POV

“Nat? Come on, we’re gonna miss our Uber if you don’t hurry your happy ass up,” I yelled to my girlfriend. I was standing in front of our door, my bags packed for our trip. Natasha is taking me on a trip to Australia, our first trip together in over 2 years where neither of us plans to work. I started to make my way to our shared bedroom when my beautiful (and slow) girlfriend met me halfway. Despite only wearing casual clothes, just a pair of black jeans, my hoodie, a flannel over the sweatshirt, and a pair of boots, she looked ethereal. She is only slightly smaller than me but the hoodie she was wearing is a bit oversized on me so she looked tiny in the article of clothing. 

“Alright, alright. Don’t get your panties in a bunch, I’m ready,” She joked, putting her bags next to mine, “Well come on! What was that about us being late?” she said with a smirk. About 10 minutes later, we were finally in the Uber and on the way to the airport. She had her headphones on and was scrolling on her phone but she was still listening as I told her about a new directing job one of my friends got. I met Natasha nearly 10 years ago when I was still in film school and was interning with one of the directors on Orange Is The New Black. I wanted to work on horror films but a crime show with some violence was the closest I could get at the time, though I don’t regret it at all. After striking up a conversation during a short break between takes, we became friends. I ended up working on the show until they ended it, creating a family-like bond between me and the cast and crew. In early 2019, after our last shoot day wrapped, Natasha showed up at my door (more than) slightly drunk and stated her feelings towards me in an adorably intoxicated way. She stayed over that night and we went on our first date the next day. It’s been 4 years since that date and I couldn’t be happier. I broke out of my thoughts as I got caught staring. “I see that my face is very interesting, but what’s got you all smiley?” She asked.

My face turned red, “Just thinking of you, baby,” I replied. 

“Ok, slow down there with the flattery.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes playfully. Our driver pulled up to the airport, and we got out. We checked our bags and went through security. I turned to look at Nat with a slight pout, “I’m hungry.”

She wrapped her arm around my shoulder, “Well, let’s go fix that, hun,” she checked her watch, “We got time.” She began steering me towards the various restaurants and places to get food, allowing me to make the final choice. 

-Time Skip-

We had a layover in Texas and decided to get food and drinks from the bar as it was a few hours later. I got a burger, Natasha got nachos, and we got a beer. Conversations flowed smoothly as we talked about anything from job offers to new movies releasing soon, even to our plans for the holidays. I had begun to infodump about a new horror movie I had seen when I looked over to see Nat staring at me as she was drinking, both intrigued by what I was talking about and shamelessly checking me out. I blushed but continued talking. Horror wasn’t Natasha’s favorite genre, but she still enjoyed it and enjoyed hearing my excitement talking about it. We sat there for a few hours until our next flight. The only downside of traveling to Sydney was the amount of time spent traveling. I was fully planning on passing out both on the plane and at our hotel when we got there. She hadn’t told me where in Sydney we were staying. I was a bit tipsy after a few drinks and was very tired after our day of traveling, so as we waited at the terminal, I laid my head on Nat’s shoulder and drifted off. About 20 minutes later, she gently shook me awake. “M? It’s time to get up, darling. They’re boarding. You can sleep on the plane, this next flight is over 12 hours,” She told me as I sat up and stretched. On the plane, I rested against Natasha again, and after we took off, she pulled me more into her. This was a little shocking as she wasn’t nearly as touchy as I was but I still accepted the affection.

 Many hours, movies, and snacks later, we arrived in Sydney. We left Texas at 10 p.m. and got to Sydney at about noon. Natasha had rented a car for the trip and after putting our bags in the back, she started towards our hotel. When we got there, I was shocked. The building was giant and beautiful (this is where they’re staying). I immediately took off my shoes and flopped onto the bed. Nat laughed lightly at my antics and put our stuff away before joining me on the bed. She pulled me into her and we sat in a comfortable silence as we both fell asleep. When woke up, it was dark out. I woke up first, got up, used the restroom, and changed into something new and not worn for over 20 hours straight. I turned back around to see my girlfriend staring at me. “What do you think you're looking at?” I asked with a smirk. 

She mirrored my expression and replied, “Admiring my love.”

“You trying to get into my pants, Lyonne?” I joked.

“Always, beautiful,” She replied, as she stood up and walked over to me. She wrapped her arms around my waist from behind and kissed my neck. I turned around in her hold and leaned my head against her shoulder. I breathed in her scent, a woodsy, musky scent mixed with the slight lingering scent of cigarettes. She had quit earlier this year but the smell still stuck to some of her shirts. She walked away from me to change as well and one of my siblings texted me. As I replied to my sister, Nat walked up next to me. “You wanna go get dinner?” She asked. 

“Sure. Just let me finish texting Luna back and I’ll be ready,” I responded. She nodded in acknowledgment and walked to put her shoes on. I sent the text, slipped on my shoes, and went to grab my wallet when Nat pulled me back.

“I’m paying so you don’t need your wallet, love,” She told me.

“How thoughtful,” I replied and kissed her cheek, “Thank you, Bubba.” She grabbed my jaw and planted a kiss on my lips before leading me out the door. She took me to a steakhouse and an ice cream shop for dessert. I paid my gratitude through kisses and the atmosphere was peaceful and loving.

-Time Skip-

So, we have been in Sydney for a couple of days, and for the past couple of days, Natasha hasn’t been herself. She is extra affectionate and then just blows me off for a little bit. She also isn’t nearly as talkative nor has she seemed like her normal funny self. She’s been closed off and it’s honestly, kind of bumming me out. But I had been determined to make this trip better and remained optimistic. Well, that is until the 4th day. I woke up to an empty bed, something that had become more and more normal on this trip, and I got up to go find my partner. I found her working on her laptop, and this set me over the edge. “Really, Natasha?” I asked annoyed, as I rolled my eyes. She looked up at me, shocked. I rarely ever used her full name when talking to her and when I did, it was never in an annoyed tone. “You promised me that you wouldn’t work on this trip at all! And maybe I would have less of a problem with it if you weren’t actively pushing me away! You barely even look my way anymore! Did I do something? You seemed fine before we left,” I ranted, more than a little bit angry. Nat looked a bit stunned at my sudden outburst. 

“N-no. You didn’t do anything. I just need to finish this thing and then we can go do something,” She said, trying to comfort me. 

“It’s fine, Natasha. Don’t let me stop your work. I’m going out, so I’ll be back later,” I said, not wanting to hear a half-assed explanation. I quickly changed and walked towards to door. Natasha was waiting by the door looking like a kicked puppy. “Nat, move. I just need to leave for a little bit to clear my head so I don’t say something I don’t mean,” I told her, still outwardly mad. She frowned but still wouldn’t meet my eyes as I walked out of the door. I went to a local coffee shop and stayed there for a few hours. Natasha tried to call me a few times but I ignored them all and turned off my phone. As I turned my phone back on, I saw one text from her. It said ‘Let me make it up to you by letting me take you out to dinner tonight, ok? We’ll go to a nice restaurant. I’m getting ready now so that you don’t have to see me before dinner. We can meet at the restaurant and I’ll leave you the car so you can drive. I love you, angel. I’m sorry. I hope you meet me.’ I couldn’t say no to dinner, I wanted an explanation. So I got up, threw my cup away, and walked back to our hotel room. I walked into the empty room and started to get ready. I put on my outfit (either a black suit or a black dress, whichever you want) and finished fixing my appearance. I got the car keys and walked out to the car. Inside the car, on the dash, there was a letter. My name was scrawled on the front in Natasha’s slightly messy writing. It had the address of the restaurant as well as another apology. The restaurant was about 20 minutes from the hotel and looked beautiful and high-end. I parked and got out and saw my girlfriend wearing a beautiful black dress. She didn’t wear them very often but she always looked stunning in them; even more so now as the sun was setting behind us, covering her in golden hour lighting. She smiled as I walked up to her and linked her arm with mine. We walked in and were seated quickly. They took our orders and we were sitting in a tense silence.

Natasha spoke first, “Alright before you spend this whole night glaring at me, let me explain. The reason that I was on my computer was because I was working out the pickup time details for this…” She trails off, reaching into her bag and pulling out a ring box. She opened it to reveal a beautiful engagement ring. “I had been looking for the perfect ring for a while and when I found this one, I fell in love. I was already planning on taking you somewhere and when I found out that it was made in Australia, I knew it was a match made in heaven. But, I’m still sorry. I promised absolutely no work and I still had my focus on my screens instead of you, so I don’t want you to feel bad, you didn’t ruin anything and I’m not upset,” She finished, and my face was bright red and my mouth opened. Despite her saying it wasn’t a big deal, I still felt terrible.

“I’m so so sorry-”

“No. No apologizing, you did nothing wrong. Now, time for the age-old question,” She joked, trying to make me feel better, “I would get on one knee, but I don’t think that your anxiety wants that in public, so imagine it. Mia Davis, the love of my life, the person I met while filming a criminal lesbian porno, the person who has always been there for me, will you please marry me?”

“Of course, crazy! Did you really think there would be another answer?! I love you!” I exclaimed. She hugged me, slipped the ring on my finger, and kissed me. 

As we sat back down, she answered me, “To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure that you would say yes after this morning,” she told me, looking sheepish.

“Baby, couples fight, you know this. I know we don’t very often, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop loving you,” I said, smiling at her. The rest of the night went amazing and I was lucky enough to go back to our hotel, with my fiance.

[sarahlancashire]

random question time ✨ favourite movie? (or if you don't do favourites then a good movie you would recommend to someone) And if they were remaking it/never made it and you could recast/cast it, who would you chose? Would you change director/dp? Maybe change a soundtrack? (kinda build-a-bearmovie question I guess :)))

thank you! i'm really terrible at choosing favourites, i have like a collection of favourites for each oddly specific genre i like lmao (apart from rebecca which stands alone) so let's see:

favourite gothic daphne du maurier adaptation: rebecca (1940)

favourite lesbian angst films: daphne, losing chase, the night watch, the hours, the children's hour, ammonite

favourite lesbian non-angst films: g*po (the title is a slur 😒 also it is quite angsty but it's a rly good film with a happy ending about a girl who falls in love with pauline mclynn, which, same), late bloomers

favourite nineties romcoms: you've got mail, while you were sleeping

favourite eighties classics: overboard, romancing the stone, trading places

favourite musical films: hello, dolly!, the sound of music, white christmas

favourite period dramas: little women (2019), miss pettigrew lives for a day, mrs. harris goes to paris, their finest

other favourite dramas: the children act, the history boys, the lake house, military wives

other favourite comedies: about time, a bunch of amateurs, the best exotic marigold hotel, cold comfort farm, the first wives club, love actually, the holiday

animated favourites: beauty and the beast, monsters inc., the incredibles, kiki's delivery service, only yesterday, spirited away, the sword in the stone, treasure planet

[swgohgamer]

WEEK 52: Couple of big headlines this week. First, I finished the Beskar Mando journey, which is something I started over a year ago, before taking a hiatus. Feels good to finally cross that one off the top of my-do list. I still need 30 more ship blueprints to 7-star the Razor Crest, and those are hard to come by, so I guess I can take my time leveling up the character. I’m moving my energy resources toward farming up the other bounty hunter ships so that I can finish the Millennium Falcon journey. Hard node ship farms are suuuper slow. Good news is, the bounty hunter pilot characters are all relic 5, and that happened slightly ahead of schedule thanks to the other big development this week…

…lightspeed bundles are back! Well, at least some of them. And I ended up buying every single one that came out this week. In hindsight the Starkiller one was way too pricey at $50, and I probably could have done without the Padme bundle. But both had relic characters who are part of my farming plan. There was a lot in those bundles overall that I wish I hadn’t spent time farming, but that’s how they get ya. Well played yet again, CG, well played.

The lightspeed bundles first came out when I was taking a break from the game, so I didn’t realize just how many of those had been released back then. If they end up,re-releasing all of them, we might have a bunch more to go. Makes sense that they would do that as we get closer to the holidays, when people are in a more spendy mood.

Anyway, adding all those relic characters really shook up the roster. I’m almost glad we’re in between Grand Arena seasons, because I need to work on mods & even figure out optimal squad compositions for all these guys. I’m short on omega ability mats & zetas too. I do have enough for my next omicron, but I’m not sure who should get it. According to Hotutils, my best bet is Mara Jade or Embo. I had been thinking of putting it on Poggle for TW, but my guild hasn’t had enough members sign up for TW the past few weeks, so I’ve been hesitating. Right now we’re up to 33 members & over 90GP, so hopefully soon we’ll be back in business there.

I went back to the Easy difficulty level for Conquest, which has been a breeze so far with all these new relics. I want to get to the final red crate this time. If I can do that, then I’ll give Normal another try next time.

I got my TIE pilot to G12, and I’m putting my fleet energy toward G13 there. Once that’s done, I’ve already got enough relic mats to bump him right up to R5, which is a requirement for Executor. The other relic requirements will take more work, but it’s only 3 more characters.

I guess since this is “week 52,” I should do a bit of a retrospective. The account is more like 5 years old (started in 2019), but I was very casual for the first few years. Didn’t really look up any strategies, just kind of opened the game when I felt like it & tapped on quests. Then in March 2022, about 2.5 years ago, I bought the hyperdrive bundle (back when it was $100, you’re welcome CG) and started this tumblr. I had less than 900k GP & was in the process of building up a Phoenix squad to get Palpatine & Thrawn. I decided at that time that I’d just work my way through the journey guides, & continued from Palpatine & Thrawn to GMY, Artoo, BB-8, Padme, CLS, Rey, and started Beskar Mando around September ‘22. But then I put the game down and didn’t pick it back up until June ‘24. So that was almost a two-year hiatus.

A bunch of different factors in my personal life caused me to drop the game for a while, which I won’t go into here other than to say that one big difference is that on “Week 30” when I came back, I had been sober for a little over a year, and still am today. And the only reason I mention that here is because I feel like there’s a marked difference between my play style post-hiatus, where I’m getting better results, and sobriety is a big part of that. (The other part being that I pivoted from strictly following the journey guides to following a path that’s closer to YouTuber Ahnaldt101’s 2024 farming guide, which is much more productive.) I guess what I’m saying is, I know the week numbering that I do at the beginning of each post is a little confusing, but it’s less about tracking actual time than it is about tracking progress. I don’t really expect anyone to read these anyway - it’s just a little hobby - but if you’re reading this and you’re struggling with a substance addiction, I see you.

[jake-fieldsrp]

full name — Jake Kyrie Fields

faceclaim — Mason Gooding

gender & pronouns — Male & He/Him

sexuality — Bisexual

age & birthday —  32 & January 31, 1992

Zodiac — Aquarius ☼ , Aries ☾, Scorpio↑

occupation — Musician/unemployed

hometown — Merrock, ME

living — The Suburbs

~Biographical Stuff~

Grew up the second oldest in a crew of 4 kids (WC, Jake, twins Jasmine & Jackson) to Robin and Henry Fields in Merrock.

Sort of picturesque, always with all the support his family, they're a tight bunch.

Always had a ying and yang personality, social butterfly when he wants to be and just as easily reclusive and find joy in being alone too.

Was into sports like his brother much more when younger - still maintains a work out routine and will play the occasional pick up game here and there.

Was a theater kid in hs, ditched the football for a drum set. (And this is what you missed on Glee!) Formed a band with some buddies - Tried & True Down Dickies (don't ask) and played all over Merrock (even the bars where ofc they were served, oop)

School and studies never really interested Jake. He loved to read though, could be found reading musician biographies, to the classics. Almost always had a book on him. But school outside friends, and the social aspect he was pretty bored.

Jake was a partier for sure, the social butterfly in him had him making and keeping friends pretty easy and of all walks. Weekends were consistent parties. He experimented with drugs and drinking early.

In high school he met his first love, a wild, crazy and turbulent relationship with Mena Serrano ensued. The kind of relationship Jake wouldn't have thought real outside the movies. Fire and Ice to a tee.

In 2010 he graduated high school and almost immediately (k like, a month or two) into summer just before all his friends were off to respective colleges or starting up jobs in Merrock, Jake and the TTDD's hopped in the old Ford Windstar they'd piled their earnings together to buy and head to the Big Apple.

Over the years and a handful of band members down, new people and the music scene Jake and 3 others started an indie rock band Bleached Bush (who knows what the intentions are there mmkay) and actually grew a small following, even touring bars and small venues.

One year back in Merrock for the holidays— as the two do have a constant push and pull relationship, unable to fully quit one another — he had gotten Mena pregnant. He knew, but he had obligations back in New York. So, he left. As many a time before. By 2019 he had a son, Mateo.

Mateo's 5 now and Jake has never met him. (Trust there's a lot of backlash and inner fam. turmoil over this decision.)

The band broke up— members fell into relationships, opted for different career choices, had kids of their own — just no more room for a side gig that seemed to be going nowhere anymore.

With the expense of the city becoming much more noticeable at 32, and no band. And no income to even send that $100 in April to Mateo, Jake's bit the bullet, tail tucked between his legs back to Merrock. ~Random Stuff~

Has a bit of that Mainard accent - especially when drinking, naturally it comes out more.

Is tatted - almost a full sleeve on his left arm. His right leg covered. His first (probably stupidly so) Mena on his right shoulder. He did get Mateo's name tattoo'd under his collarbone.

Gravitated to the drums first probably mostly because it got out a lot of that pent up energy.

Never had any issues with labeling his sexuality - he's been attracted to both guys and girls. Has had experiences with both, never felt the real need to define himself in that regard.

For now he's living in his old bedroom back at his parents house in the burbs.

While in NY, along with odd bartending jobs here and there, Jake did some modeling for art students to really make ends meet. ~Connections~

High School friends/hook ups/enemies - skies the limit there. Anything we can concoct.

Bandmates - why not? could be fun

Exes/FWB - obvious

People he met in NY - all walks of life, again skies the limit.

Those he met on the road - met at a show, had a wild and crazy night.

Later in life friends/enemies - those he met coming back to Merrock for the holidays.

Those upset with him - its no secret he did Mena and Meteo dirty. Come @ him.

Legit down for anything, if there’s ideas toss them out. On dash chem is my favorite and just love winging it too! I’ll fill this all out more as time goes on for sure!

p.s. idk what happened w the bullets; tumblah just not working for moi. i gave up.

[iantimony]

didn't poast last week so this is a two-week extravaganza post! con: got roped into DMing dnd pro: none of these fools have read mdzs so i can steal plots from there. hope the party is ready to be lead on a quest by a disembodied arm!

listening: oh shit SO many things. i will not be linking to all of them.

depeche mode: basically just their top songs on spotify, not any specific album. strong shoutout to 'shake the disease' and 'wrong' (which featured in my secret samol post!)

disturbed: ditto

franz ferdinand: albums 'hits to the head' and 'tonight'. throwbacks

phoenix: 'wolfgang amadeus phoenix' ditto throwback

inxs: 'x' DITTO throwback. doesn't hit the same as when i first listened to em years ago unfortunately

streetlight manifesto: album 'somewhere in the between'

boy and bear: 'harlequin dream'

sammy rae: 'let's throw a party', 'the good life', and their 'everybody wants to rule the world' cover

hozier: 'wasteland baby' and 'unreal unearth'

paramore: album 'this is why'

grizzly bear: 'veckatimiest' and 'painted ruins'

haken: their newest album 'fauna' because i'm thinking about whether or not to go to one of their shows in feb (leaning towards yes right now)

my SO's pinecore playlist

shosty symphony no 5 (<3)

and, finally, a lot of borodin symphony no. 1 in e flat and the last two movements of rimsky-korsakov golden cockerel because that's what the youth orchestra i'm volunteering with is playing right now haha

for podcasts, i've listened to the new counter/weight prequel eps! i'm so charmed to see these characters again. i still haven't finished millenium break holiday special because i lost my spot when a bunch of an episode played without sound by accident so i finally went and scrubbed back to the beginning of the episode (it's the second to last part) so by next week i will FINALLY be out of holiday special zone.

reading: finished rereading tgcf lol,,, in loving memory of square checkbox: apparently apple is switching to circle ones? hateful wikipedia page for kessler syndrome my friend @celestialtourguide sent me a dm to ask about a few of the characters in this manuscript and i was immediately charmed by it. it's so pretty, i loved the informational blurbs, just really cool stuff. it was already on waybackmachine but i've gone ahead and updated it.

watching: kurtis conner looksmaxxing. weird little subculture peek. rewatched sideways' why the music in cats 2019 is worse than you thought because my roommate was interested. this led us to the same channel's why avatar has the most ironic soundtrack of all time because roommate misread ironic as iconic and she really likes that movie. no accounting for taste, but aight. much more interesting than i thought it would be. that video then lead us to tony hinnigan's woodwind demos because hell fuckin yes. big-ass panpipes.

i've been keeping up on dunmeshi anime in little watch sessions with my SO, and also am working through kill la kill with him! i've seen it before but he has not so i'm really enjoying that.

playing: fallow.

making: i managed to finish my secret samol gift in time for reveal day!!! comics are fuckin hard dude!!!! i don't know if i'll be doing it again but it was a fun challenge. i decided to use a New App for some reason instead of procreate because procreate has not been hitting right and i wanted comic half tone brushes for this project. app is called sketchbook, it's an orange icon with a pencil on it. shrug! it's fine! i'll probably keep using it for a bit. started working on an english paper piecing project! soliciting tips for that because right now my method is: cut out hexagon using pattern piece i made to be 1/4 in larger all around than the template, gluestick template onto hexagon, baste edges down neatly, whip-stitch right sides together. remove template once all six sides have something attached. i'm sure there's a better way to streamline this process, i'll have to experiment. this will end up as a dice bag i think.

finally, pottery starts again this week! so next week will have some of that in here

eating: ah beans i did not do a good job keeping track of this. uh. made the ground pork & cabbage thing again because my roommate got SO much napa cabbage for making kimchi and we had a shitload left over. napa cabbage isn't as good as a more standard cabbage for this imo, standard cabbage tends to be a little sweeter i think once it's cooked in? idk. had some stage 5 mental illness moments last week trying to cook dinner on a very short time scale with lots of other shit to do, following a recipe because fucking of course my roommate wanted me to cook with a recipe that night. anyways.

misc: like said at the top, somehow i managed to sign up for Another Activity god damn it. so now every saturday evening i run dnd. tl;dr i'm in a group irl that meets biweekly, someone who i give a lift to for that was complaining in the car that their other online group's dm ragequit after his encounter wasn't well-balanced (skill issue) and before thinking about it i just was like oh well i could probably step in if you need! god damn ittttt lol i have missed dming so it should be fun. i vibe checked them for a session 0 last week and they seem chill and honestly shouldn't be too much work on my end, especially if i yoink plots from mdzs ha ha ha. other than that, all is basically well. i've settled back into a schedule, applied for some summer positions (!), and absolutely hate the amount of busy work in one of my two classes. yippee

[hannahwatcheshorror]

CUJO (1983)

😿DOG DIES (duh), 💁‍♀️Strong Female Lead

The dog actor who played Cujo was phenomenal and I totally believed in his whole good boy gone bad (with rabies) routine. Much like the book, the movie is all about sitting and waiting which is a little boring to watch at times. This is a classic film about a classic King book so worth a watch but then I’d tell you the book is worth a read first (though be warned the content is rougher than the movie). It was nice to see the characters come to life and our strong female lead take care of her son and the dog.

⭐⭐⭐.5

Trigger Warning Sexual Abuse, Spinning Camera, Child Seizure, Mild Child Death

(SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK as well which ends differently from the movie if that matters to you (it matters to me))

I said to myself after a few drinks, I said, “Fuck it, let’s watch CUJO, lets watch this baby die, fuck this baby.” but really I am so sad for this child. I just came from an outdoor movie party where we were supposed to watch a spooky Halloween movie but instead we watched SING because a bunch of children were there and they wanted to watch SING, okay? So, yeah, I like kids and appreciate that they get their way even when I, an adult, want to watch a spooky movie during my favorite holiday month. BUT I don’t know when and where King decided that Tad was toast and I JUST WANNA TALK TO HIM ABOUT IT, OKAY? (No I will not put my knife down) 

ANYWAY. We barely get to meet Cujo before the rabies. The movie starts with him chasing a rabbit into the bat den and getting bitten. Sad! Tragic! For many reasons! I mean, that is also how the book basically starts but still! I am sad! (This isn’t a “comparing the movie to the book” review just like MISERY but still, I can’t help myself) Rabies is a wild sickness of brain rot and Cujo was/is a loyal dog but the disease is stronger than any dog or man will ever be. Poor bub. This is a cautionary tale. Please vaccinate your pets!

They did a really good job making a friendly dog look scary, the attacks are really alarming and feel like the animal is vicious even though if you really look you can catch the actor dog wagging his tail (dog actors will often do that when they are proud they are doing a good job, which is just precious). But this is a welcome turn of events because Church from PET SEMATARY 2019 just looked dirty and that didn’t make for a scary cat, just bad grooming (which can be scary), and while Cujo is certainly dirty, the watery eyes and overall energy he brings gives him the rabid touch that is so terrifying for this film in particular.

Cujo turns rabid by the time his boy and the mother are out of town and Cuj disposes of the father and his shady friend before our main characters Donna and Tad are unfortunate enough to roll their broken down car into the purebreds path. This is one of the more brutal Stephen King stories because of the waiting, the inaction, which is the best choice, but it is so painful. I can only compare it to GERALD’S GAME but even then she had plans going constantly, here it is just the brutality of the Maine Sun on their car.

Donna tries to leave once and gets wrecked by the dog, in front of Tad, which is horrifying for him to see, and of course then she is having the issue of contracting rabies probably, but no time for that because it is still time to SURVIVE this ordeal. All the while the husband is off trying to clean up an ad campaign disaster which is a big deal for him but absolutely not a big deal when you are literally fighting for your life. AND THE FACT THAT THE COP DOESN’T call in that there is blood on the doors of Donna’s vehicle right away is such a stupid move. I hate it and cannot believe it and missed it in the book but see it clearly in the movie and it is so obvious and STUPID. Also the movie randomly brings up the plot of the Camber family but never does anything with it which is a real shame, it is like they ran out of time with their own film. 

Okay. I have watched the end and now we have gone RADICALLY off book. And I gotta say. I don’t know how to feel. I am glad that there was a happy ending, but in that same breath it isn’t what the original story had in mind so I don’t really like the change. The movie literally ended on a freeze frame of the family all together, hell, Donna even found the gun and used it on Cujo, which was certainly not part of the book. It was actually specifically mentioned in the book that she didn’t know the location of the dropped service weapon that would have aided her so heavily but AGAIN, this is not a direct comparison, just bringing up some things of note.

This story was intended to be a tragedy, a cautionary tale of how so many bad choices can lead to something so terrible, but instead this movie ends with a miracle. I’m not sure that it works as well that way. Before it had this horrible weight to it and now the film ends on this light happy note and you go on with your day, when the book ended I was shell-shocked. Maybe the ending doesn’t need to be upsetting but it should be powerful and I think they undercut themselves by changing a Stephen King ending.

[theuniversitychallengereview]

Dopamining

Yesterday I listened to a podcast about dopamine and the other 'feel-good' brain hormones oxytocin, seratonin and endorphins. It feels kind of like cheating to include endorphins as a single thing when there are actually a bunch of different endorphins, but it means you get to use the cool acronym DOSE so I can't begrudge the neuroscientists too much for it. Or should it be the neuropsychologists? The brain people.

We all know that we are on our phones far too much, and yet we continue to be on our phones far too much.

The little dopmaine hit you get from reading a tweet or scrolling TikTok or watching a hundred Instagram reels is a lot easier to get than the satisfaction you get from reading a book or practicing guitar, and it staves off the boredom that arises if you just sit there with, god forbid, nothing to do but think.

But you are never satisfied when you stop watching the Instagram reels, or when you finish a session of playing 5-minute blitz chess matches while waiting for the bus. You always want more. If you've played five matches you want to play five more. If you've watched thirty reels you want to watch thirty more.

This feeling then carries over into the moments when we are not on our phones too, because we have crashed our supply of dopamine meaning that it is harder to achieve the non-phone-based things we want to do, like cooking dinner or building a spreadsheet. So we go back on our phone and order something from Deliveroo then play a few more games of chess while we're waiting for the food to arrive.

We started the day with the intention of planning a holiday and assembling a bookshelf, but after we woke up and spent twenty minutes on YouTube shorts there was no motivation left for anything else.

Why, then, am I telling you this when I have posted this article on Twitter with the intention of hijacking your attention for the brief fix of a University Challenge review?

Because I am part of the problem too.

I am trying to steal your dopamine for my own selfish social media ambitions, to steal your motivation and get you hooked on these reviews just like Facebook is. The only difference is that I haven't used your data to become a billionaire.

So if you've come to me from Twitter then get off here now - leave your phone and your headphones behind and go find the nearest tree. Stare at it, touch it if you like, then come back and tell me how you feel.

Ah, I forgot one step - subscribe to the blog so that you don't need to rely on Twitter's increasingly spiteful algorithm to find me. Instead I will arrive fully formed in your email inbox and you can read me at your leisure.

Sign up for The University Challenge Review

Next week we can deal with oxytocin, but for now, let's get on with the episode.

Darwin College, Cambridge vs Birkbeck.

This is Darwin's third appearance on the Challenge, losing a tight semi-final to St Edmund Hall on their debut in 2019. Birkbeck won the trophy in 2003, but didn't appear again until 2020, and they have made two quarter-finals since then

Here's your first starter for ten

Darwin captain Whitaker takes the opening points with Where Angels Fear To Tread, setting the tone for the rest of the match. His team is made up of three women, and the Birkbeck team also has two women, meaning that the men are numerically outnumbered, which is quite a rare occurrence.

The picture starter also goes to Whitaker. That's three for him - it's going to get more difficult to keep trackas the show goes on.

Van Onzenoort bounces back for Birkbeck with elasticity, and they mixed up their answers on glass-making processes, giving super-cooling twice rather than tempering and annealing. A second for Van Onzenoort wins Birkbeck a bonus set on Sicilian foods, including one on cakes which Skidmore isn't much help on because he's 'not that into cakes'.

Hamilton gives Whitaker his fourth starter of the night, and Max Factor (who was apparently a real person, after whom the makeup brand is named) continues his streak.

Evans takes the music starter with Frank Sinatra, but they can't maintain the momentum and Whitaker returns with David Hume.

Van Onzenoort keeps Birkbeck in it with Bayes, and Evans grabs the second picture starter to close the gap even further. When Moorthy takes her first points with All Quiet on the Western Front they are only 25-points behind.

Whitakeover

But it is at this stage that Whitaker takes complete control of the match for Darwin, with four starters back to back on a wide variety of subjects (Venus, Albanian refugees in Italy, Salisbury Cathedral and the 800s).

Have you been counting? I might have missed one out so I'll just tell you - he finished with eleven (11!) starters, which is the highest of the series so far.

He was also the only person on his team to get a starter, which might be a record of some sort. Look out for him in the next round!

Darwin 205 - 110 Birkbeck

I hadn't realised quite how impressive Whitaker was until I saw all of his plaudits on social media, but eleven starters is a stonking performance, and Birkbeck couldn't keep up with him at all.

In fact, his points from starters alone would have tied Birkbeck's total.

See you next week (by which time you'll all have subscribed so you don't have to crash your dopamine supplies on Twitter) for Durham vs Oriel, a rematch of the 2000 Grand Final.

[albonoooo]

thank you for the tag @borntogayz <3

star sign: pisces

favourite holiday: christmas (for the cozy vibes and food)

last meal: rice and stir-fried veggies

current favourite musician: this changes daily, but lately i've been listening to a lot of palaye royale (damn you, liquid) and nostalgic 2000s music like britney spears, beyoncé, christina aguilera and the pussycat dolls.

last music listened to: i'm listening to palaye royale as i'm typing this.

last movie watched: drei haselnüsse für aschenbrödel (which is the same answer i gave in a tag game a few weeks ago lol)

last tv show watched: it's been months since i've watched any show, but i think it's the witcher.

last book/fic finished: the last book i finished is to kill a kingdom by alexandra christo (only took me one and a half years). i'm not sure about the last fic, probably something from the kinkmeme idk.

last book/fic abandoned: the last book i abandoned (for now) is bleak house by charles dickens. i technically had to read it for a seminar, but it's just too fucking long. as for fics, i don't really "abandon" any, i just keep them in my library (marked for later section) until i get to them, whenever that may be.

currently reading: as per the previously mentioned older tag game, i'm still reading the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde. since my last answer, i have made zero progress.

last thing researched for writing/art/hyperfixation: does frantically looking for the right pictures of alex albon in red bull gear as well as articles about him leaving/them sacking him at 3am count?

favourite online fandom memory: honestly just discovering that there was fanfiction beyond x reader stuff was eye-opening. the first few m/m k-pop fics i read had such a huge impact on me, i can still recite the plot down to the smallest details.

favourite old fandom you wish would drag you back in/have a resurgence: it's not old per se, but the pedro pascal girlies (gn) seem to be having a great time atm. i had my pedro moment in 2019/2020 when i watched triple frontier for the first six times, but maybe i should revisit that.

favourite thing you enjoy that never had an active or big fandom, but you wish it did: i've been thinking about this for ten minutes, i can't think of anything. if something comes to my mind later, i'll just add it then. EDIT: my best friend and i have an unhealthy obsession with the film napola (more specifically, max riemelt in it. the film itself is quite dark), but barely anyone even knows it. devastating.

tempting project you're trying to rein in/don't have time for: i'm currently trying to learn how to make web weaves because i have a bunch of ideas, but uni comes first unfortunately.

zero pressure tags in case you want to do this: @wanderingblindly @piastrisms @hrhgeorgerussell @bright-and-burning @liamlawsonlesbian