#2021 same numbers as 2012. coincidence?? i think NOT

[grichel]

okay *buys clexacon badges*

ladies we are GOING to clexacon 2021, dead fucking serious, you are going with me

[swiftgronmasterpost]

Late Stage Swiftgron Part 1

Update from November 2021 - I really don’t believe much of this is meaningful at all.  I don’t think they’re sitting around referencing one another on social media or anything but some of Dianna’s interactions with Karlie are interesting Dianna shows up explicitly in Taylor’s life a couple more times so I’m leaving these sections here.;

From here on out everything but the 2014 AMAs and Dianna’s somewhat shocking appearance at Taylor’s 2019 SNL performance are just odd social media shenanigans (or subtweets) between the two, and Taylor appearing to release at least one more song about Dianna (Babe in 2018) (and let’s be honest you can make a strong argument for The 1 being about Dianna as well other post 1989 songs.)

Some of this might be complete crack or coincidence but as you all know I want this to be the most thorough Swiftgron document possible.  

If anything it proves they both certainly still have similar interests and they really do seem to be in touch.

There are some interactions claimed by others to be Swiftgron related that I’m not going to include because they’re just a bit too reachy for me (though I completely support the theorizing!) but in general, if I personally can see the hint of a Swiftgron connection, I’m going to include it here. Draw your own conclusions and take everything, particularly the alleged subtweets/social media shenanigans, with a grain of salt.

And yes there’s tons of Kaylor and other Gaylor/Gaygron content that will be left out of this segment because this masterpost is focused on Swiftgron.  Someday it would be cool to make a giant masterpost/timeline that documents all of it, but for now it’s just going to be Swiftgron stuff. August 26, 2014 - Dianna tweets, and then deletes “Withdrawals, clearly…we had fun.” 

There’s no screen shot of this tweet but some retweets/responses of it remain:

If Dianna is indeed referencing the song Clean (in which their relationship is compared to an addiction hence, “withdrawals” from it) then Taylor would have had to give her advanced knowledge of the song since 1989 did not come out until October 2014.

Taylor did claim she ran 1989 by the muse that inspired it and they were both in LA in late August 2014. Maybe this is when.

November 1, 2014 - Taylor posts about Clean

November 19, 2014 - The 2014 AMAs Kaylorgron Explosion Extravaganza:

Taylor, Karlie, and Dianna are at the event.  Taylor and Karlie are clearly on a date and Dianna is there to present Sam Smith’s performance of I’m not the only one.  Dianna seems a bit out of her element/gloomy when interviewed on the red carpet and Taylor flexes Karlie hard, dancing with her throughout the night and even sitting on her lap during an interview.

Click here for photos, video, gifs, and a live L chat reaction to the night.

December 28, 2014 - The writer for the tv show The Originals, Carina Mackenzie, tweeted that 1989 was about Dianna:

It’s of course notable that someone in the industry is “confirming” Swiftgron on main (particularly before gaylor went mainstream with Kaylor being so obvious in 2015/2016) however what’s even more interesting and notable about this tweet is that an actor named Michael Trevino was on the show The Originals and he dated Jenna Ushkowitz from 2011-2014.

Not only that but Michael was at Dianna’s 26th birthday when Taylor was in attendance as well.

It’s possible that Michael witnessed Swiftgron in real life and spilled a bit to the writer of the TV show he was on.

January 5, 2015 - Taylor likes a Swiftgron related post on Tumblr of Dianna saying she’d go on the road with Taylor and carry her bags at the Giffoni Film Festival in 2012:

February 9, 2015 - Style is released as a single

February 13, 2015 - The Kaylor “Best Friends” on a road trip Vogue Spread comes out.  You’re probably familiar with it but if you aren’t google it.  It’s incredibly romantic and pda filled.

The Style music video is released on this day as well.

We don’t have to go through the whole video but one egg I just have to note is the cave pictured in the MV is in Morocco the same country Dianna seemed to flee to after Swiftgron was outed:

February 14, 2015 - Dianna tweets 143 remember those days (for some reason it has not been deleted) seemingly in response to the Kaylor vogue shoot:

143 is a code that means “I love you” that originated from Mister Rogers.  Both Taylor and Dianna have publicly shown that they are fans of his.  Taylor has even made certain songs 3 minutes and 41 seconds long seemingly referring to this number and wore a Mister Rogers pin on a jacket for a photoshoot once.

Here’s a bit more in depth analysis on the significance of the 143 post.

This tweet is how we know that it is 100% in Dianna’s character to occasionally subtweet Taylor and why a lot of this social media analysis has been done.  

February 16, 2015 - Just two days later Dianna attends a fashion show in which Karlie walks and is noted to “have kept a smirk on her face” during.  Dianna doesn’t clap at the end of the show and looks miserable in photos of the event:

February 17, 2015 - Taylor releases Wonderland

I’m going to pause here and discuss the song Wonderland for a brief moment because it is some of the most incredibly airtight evidence for Swiftgron available.

Dianna’s favorite book of all time is Alice in Wonderland.  She brought it up in interviews all the time, tweeted about it, auctioned off a signed copy of it for charity, her private Tumblr and instagram account are called whosirmesir which is a reference to it, her private Tumblr is filled with reblogs about Alice, and her public Tumblr was called fell down the rabbit hole.

So the fact that Taylor writes an entire song describing a relationship through the lens of and packing full of references to Alice in Wonderland is incredibly interesting.

Let’s take a look at some of these lyrics:

Flashing lights and we, took a wrong turn and we Fell down the rabbit hole (literally Dianna’s tumblr name and url)

Didn't you flash your green eyes at me (Dianna is famous for her beautiful almost hypnotic green eyes and yes they are green)

Haven't you heard what becomes of curious minds (queer coded)

Too in love to think straight (queer coded)

But there were strangers watching And whispers turned to talking And talking turned to screams (seems to reference when they were outed) You searched the world for something else (Dianna very publicly went travelling around the world right after April 2013 when they seem to break up)

Taylor literally put Dianna’s Tumblr URL in the song.  Frankly I’m kind of shocked she released this song at all it is so obviously and clearly about Dianna.  Truly a Swiftgron anthem!

Back to the timeline...

March 8, 2015 - Taylor posts Flamingos for her dad’s birthday:

The caption was “Happy Birthday, Dad. Thanks for all the unconditional love, sarcastic comments, and interesting Christmas presents.”

May 1, 2015 - Dianna posts a flamingo for her birthday (post is now deleted):

The caption was “This is 29. Spoiled rotten. Funny enough, at work they were painting the hallways white and the roses (hallway doors) red, then I actually went to Wonderland (@AliceUnderLdn) and came home to a surprise flamingo. Here we go. Another year around the sun…feeling lucky and loved and loved and lucky.”

Taylor also gave Emily, another rumored ex, a flamingo bandana for her birthday.  i also think it’s odd that Dianna mentions Wonderland specifically in the post.

January 15, 2016 - Dianna’s engagement to Winston is announced and Kaylors notice Taylor is liking sad posts on Tumblr including several posts related to Clean:

November 7, 2016 - Lorde’s birthday party where Kaylor is together in public for the last time for 20 months.

January 5, 2017 - Claire (who is still very close with Taylor) comments on one of Dianna’s Instagram posts):

March 2, 2017 - Dianna posts her James Dean inStyle UK photo to Instagram:

This is actually the second time she has posted this as a throwback photo.  She also posted it on February 4, 2016 with simply the caption “TBT” and did not include the “rebel without a clue” bit which is a reference to James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause). She’s never posted the same TBT photo twice before or after this (as of the writing of this post in October 2020).

It I may be permitted to go real far out on a limb here it’s almost as if she wanted people to connect that photo of her in the UK InStyle magazine to James Dean.  James Dean is of course the way Taylor describes her lover in the song Style.  

At any rate it’s very odd that it’s the only photo she’s posted twice whether it’s related to Taylor or not.

April 25, 2017 - Fans notice Dianna is having her script tattoo removed:

This is significant because a part of the tattoo was dedicated to Alice in Wonderland - it said “We’re all mad here” 

Tattoo removal is a years long process:

So it’s possible she started getting it removed around the time that Wonderland came out.

It’s also possible part of the tattoo was dedicated to Lea (the part that said “here I am”) so this whole removal situation is very interesting.

In 2019 she was still getting it removed and commented this at a Cafe Carlyle session:

"i was like i don't know i wanna explain all my tattoos or the one that i'm getting removed on my side...you know you're like...WHATEVER we're stopping we're moving on"

February 13, 2018 - Dianna attends the Carolina Herrera fashion show, so does Karlie. Dianna is introduced to Karlie by Derek Blasberg and very audibly calls Karlie “gorgeoouusss” as they meet. 

Kayda play “Gorgeous” by Taylor Swift.

Click here to keep reading!

[theotherjourney7]

“The Week In Tory returns for the second time in 4 days.

The weeks grow shorter, but the days last forever...

1. The consultant who advised the government to look for "alternative arrangements" on the Irish Border is in line for a £200m contract if alternative arrangements go ahead.

But to facilitate this, the government has to break international law with the Internal Market Bill (IMB)

Nobody can tell us what the "alternative arrangements" are, but the IMB passed through parliament anyway.

2. The UK’s highest-ranking law officer in Scotland resigned over the IMB

& The UK’s special envoy on media freedom, Amal Clooney (yes, that one) quit over IMB

3. The former (Tory appointed) ambassador to USA said the IMB was "hugely damaging to our international reputation"

4. Those snowflake liberal Remoaners Toby Young, Peter Hitchens and Tim Montgomerie turned on the govt over IMB. As did every living former-Prime Minister.

5. Joe Biden said there would be no UK/US Trade Deal if the IMB went ahead

But, Iain Duncan Smith said "we don’t need lectures" from Joe Biden

Trump’s special envoy to Northern Ireland also said there would be no Trade Deal

Apparently, Iain Duncan Smith does need lectures. Who knew?

6. Oh, and IMB also includes a provision allowing the government to break absolutely any law, absolutely any time!!!!!

7. Unrelated, I’m sure, but the number of "problem drinkers" in England doubled this year

So the government cut funding to alcohol addiction services

8. Dominic Raab, whose job it is to understand the Good Friday Agreement, admitted he hasn’t read the Good Friday Agreement

His excuse is: "it’s not a novel". True. Novels tend to be longer than 35 pages, aren't vital to solving conflicts that killed 3600 people

9. The Prime Minister, who literally voted to break a deal he signed with the EU, said the EU was "not negotiating in good faith"

The next morning, Northern Ireland minister and arch memo-misser Brandon Lewis went on TV and said "I believe the EU is negotiating in good faith"

10. It was revealed the Smart Freight System to handle post-Brexit trade won’t be ready until at least April 2021.

That’s at least 4 months without a freight handling system, during the time of year we rely on food imports the most

11. The Road Haulage Association said a meeting with Michael Gove to discuss border checks provided "no clarity" and was "a washout"

12. An official report says 2-day queues at Dover in January are "a certainty"

So the government closed a Covid test site in Kent, to convert it into a lorry park, in what experts (well, me) are calling "the world’s shittest game of whack-a-mole"

13. The government said people would be fined £1000 if they don’t self-isolate after getting a positive test

And then all tests ran out in the 10 worst-hit Covid hotspots

And then all home testing kits ran out, nationally

And then the website for booking tests broke, and just showed a series of error messages.

And then the government said the system was under strain because people were asking for tests when they didn’t know they were infected

So [deep breath] you must self-isolate after getting a test that doesn’t exist, and you can only get a test if you already know the result

14. Naturally, honesty no-fly-zone Home Office Secretary Priti Patel went on Radio 4 and announced tests were available everywhere and there were "no problems getting tests"

Same day - same hour, in fact - Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the testing system "has huge problems"

Jacob Rees-Mogg, who simply cannot shut up about fish, said we should stop the "endless carping" about not being tested for a fatal infection

15.Prime Minister Boris Johnson went on national TV and announced a "£100bn moonshot" approach to Covid, which would test "10m people per day"

Three days later, in front of a Parliamentary Committee, said he "didn’t recognise" the figure of 10m a day

And it was reported his half-brother is on the board of the business that would get most of the £100bn budget, which I’m sure is just a massive coincidence

Officials branded the moonshot as "Moonfuck"

16. And then Health Secretary Matt Hancock had to ask other cabinet ministers to stop referring to him as "Matt WankCock"

Despite appearances, these are not 7 year old boys

17. Food news, and Tory MP Douglas Ross said "I have seen the difference free school meals can make, and I want to make sure nobody falls through the cracks"

Douglas Ross voted against free school meals

18. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said we cannot put punitive restrictions on food imports from the EU (to force them to give up on Ireland), or we will starve

And then, minutes later, he agreed with a Brexiter MP who said we SHOULD put punitive restrictions on food imports from the EU

19. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said "I venerate our civil service" after sacking the innocent heads of multiple departments to protect friends including Gavin Williamson and Dominic Cummings. And as a result, people leaving the civil service rose 14% in a year

20. Planning-ahead news: an international conglomerate pulled out of a £16bn power project because the government hasn’t performed its part of the deal for the last 20 months

21. Funding cuts since 2010 meant the government had to inject £700m to prevent further education going bankrupt

22. This week it was found the government– which last week voted not to implement the recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry – has also failed to deliver its promise to remove the same dangerous cladding from at least 2000 tower blocks. Sleep well.

And then the government said files on Grenfell were "lost forever", after a laptop was wiped. Because everything is always stored on a single laptop. We all know this.

The government runs G-Cloud, its own dedicated cloud backup service, which has been active since 2012. So... yeah.

23. At a committee in parliament, an MP read out the Covid test figures. Dido Harding, in charge of testing, said “I’m sorry, that’s just not true, I don’t know where that number is from”

It was from her own report. Page 8. In bold type.

Dido Harding said "nobody could predict" a rise in demand for testing

Government scientists predicted it, and in a July report sent to Dido Harding – maybe it was a different one? - said "July and Aug must be a period of intense preparation for a September resurgence in Covid"

Oh, and standard advice says the NHS must always prepare for cold and respiratory infections to spike immediately after the return to school in September

Dido Harding wasted £13m on a "world-beating" testing app that cost £12.3m more than the German app, and didn’t work

She is now in charge of the test-and-trace service which has collapsed completely

So naturally, it was reported the government wants to sack the head of NHS England and install Dido Harding instead. Let's make the most of that successful record, eh?

24. In June the government tweeted "grab a drink and raise a glass, pubs are reopening"

The Prime Minister said "it is your patriotic duty to go out and enjoy yourselves"

This week they said the public is responsible, and "people going to the pub fuelled the rise in Covid"

So the government closed pubs at 10pm, because it’s well-known viruses only pop out for last orders.

25. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government "threw a protective ring around care homes"

A leaked document said care homes are now being asked to accept patients who are known to have Covid

26. Hospitals were banned from launching their own testing regime for staff and patience because… nope, nobody knows why. Just because.

27. There hasn’t been a meeting of COBRA (the government’s committee for national emergencies, headed by the Prime Minister) since 10th May

28. As Covid infections surged, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said restrictions are increasing, and pointed to a chart showing the government has "moved to alert level 3". Level 3 is "a gradual relaxing of restrictions". Not only can't he remember his own alert system, he can't even read it.

29. Despite travel restrictions, it was reported the Prime Minister flew off for a long weekend in Perugia, where his friend the Russian billionaire Evgeny Lebedev lives. He denies it, but the airport has his landing documents. So either he’s lying or... no, that’s the end of that sentence

30. In June the government spent £500m on a GPS satellite system to replace the one we lose due to Brexit

In July it was reported "we bought the wrong satellites"

This week the government cancelled the programme and began asking the EU if we can keep on using their GPS system

31. A cross-party committee of MPs found nurse-Ratched cosplayer Home Office Secretary Priti Patel "bases immigration policies on anecdotes and prejudice"

It found her dept has "no idea" what its annual spending achieves, and referred to "the wreckage that [Patel’s department’s] ignorance caused"

She is one of the favourites to replace Prime Minister Johnson

32. This is because it was reported the Prime Minister is thinking of quitting because he’s worried about his personal finances: the poor man has to "pay tax", "buy his own food" and "support 4 of his 6 children". Oh, the humanity!

33. And Jonathan Aitken – look him up – continues to get privileged access to parliament despite a ban on MPs who have served more than a year in prison. Which he did. And it was hilarious.

34. And finally, because he always needs a guest appearance, Chris Grayling, the man who awarded a ferry contract to a company with no ships, has got a £100k appointment to advise ports”-Russ

[super-famicom-star-inactive]

Friday Special #13

March 12, 2021

Hello friendos, and welcome back to another Friday Special!

Since this is the infamous number thirteen, why not take a look into what is considered to be one of the most cursed video game franchises of all time?

For today’s topic, we will be focusing our attention to the EA Sports franchise of Madden NFL, perhaps the most famous football franchise of all time and how it spawned the notorious “Madden Curse”.

So let’s start with the franchise’s history.

The very first Madden NFL game was released all the way back in 1988 under its original name John Madden Football. It was named as such as EA’s Trip Hawkins approached John Madden himself in 1984, hoping to use his name and likeness to create a line of football games. Madden agreed only if the game be as realistic as possible to the actual sport, hence why it took four years to produce. Problems arose when hardware limitations would cause the systems to crash and it got so bad that they even hired Bethesda Softworks (yes, that Bethesda) to help with the project at one point, however they later quit after a year and a legal battle ensued between EA and Bethesda Softworks over the failure of producing new versions of the latter’s Gridiron! football game, which added on to the delay and production costs to make the game. The game John Madden Football was finally released on  June 1, 1988 for the Apple II, MS-DOS, and Commodore 64 and 128.

All of the pain that the development team went through paid off as John Madden Football (or Madden ‘88 as it’s known today for distinguishing itself) went to be a very popular title for home computers. It was so popular that it was released for the SEGA Genesis two years later. John Madden II was released back on MS-DOS in 1991 before going back to console with the Genesis, starting a trend where the games would be flipped back and forth depending on the market and consoles available. The last time that the games would be called John Madden Football would in 1992 as John Madden Football ‘93 was the last one. The reason for the name change to the famous Madden NFL name that we’re familiar with is because EA bought the rights to use official NFL teams and players.

Every single year since, like clockwork, a new Madden NFL would be released for the current generations of consoles and PC.

This would a rather normal sports franchise had it not been for the “curse” that surrounded the franchise since its very conception.

So when did the “Madden Curse” become a thing?

So in the early 2000s, John Madden retired from football, which left the door open for EA to see about making a few changes to the product design of their Madden NFL games, most notably being the cover art. In 2000, Eddie George of the Tennessee Titans was chosen for the cover of Madden NFL 2001, representing the new change.

Nothing to see here.

It wasn’t until the next year that things started to get a little spooky when Daunte Culpepper of the Minnesota Vikings was put on the cover of Madden NFL 2002. His career started going south when, after achieving 4,000+ yards 33 touchdowns and landing on the cover, suffered bad turnover rates, bad interceptions and lack of touchdowns before a back injury took him out in the 11th game of the 2001 season.

At the time it was seen as a coincidence.

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was featured on the cover of Madden NFL 2004. That following season, he fractured his right fibula during the game against the Baltimore Ravens. He then only played in the last 5 games after acquiring the injury which caused the Atlanta Falcons to lose enough games that they missed the playoffs, coming out of the 2004 season with 5-11.

The rumor mill regarding the “Madden Curse” started to gain traction but it wasn’t until the third incident when the media started taking it seriously reporting on it.

Shaun Alexander of the Seattle Seahawks was chosen for the 2007 edition of Madden NFL and, before being given that honor, had one of the best seasons as a player during the 2005 season with 28 touchdowns and 1,880 yards. After being on the cover however, his luck ran out when he fractured the 4th metatarsal in his foot causing him to miss six starts (he had only missed one out of 64 starts previously before his cover appearance) and missed the 1,000 mark for yards for the first time since the 2000 season. His stats continued to plumment until his eventual retirement. He has been quoted as saying “Do you want to be hurt and on the cover, or just hurt?"

The “Madden Curse” would kick in again for Troy Polamalu for the 2009 edition, who played for the Pittsburg Steelers at the time during the 2009-2010 season and suffered from a torn ACL, which caused him to miss the majority of the season. His counterpart on the cover, Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals, fared much better but we’ll get to his side later.

Two years later for the 2012 edition, Peyton Hillis was chosen because of his breakout season with 1,117 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2011. After his appearance however, in the next season, he only played in 10 games and started 9 due to several injuries such as a sprained hip, strep throat, and hamstring injuries. He ended the season with 3 touchdowns and 577 yards. 

The latest in negativity surrounding the “Madden Curse” was in the form of Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots for the 2017 edition. Gronkowski first dealt with a hamstring injury that caused him to sit out of the first few games of the season that progressively got worse as the season went on. A blow from Seattle safety Earl Thomas III pulled him out of the game and he never recovered enough to bring him back in to play. There is a positive end to the story in that his team the Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl LI that year so he had the honor of being the first cover athlete to win at the Super Bowl. 

Despite the mystery and fear surrounding the “Madden Curse”, there were several instances that resulted in counterexamples.

Larry Fitzgerald back in 2009 was picked to be on the cover alongside Troy Polamalu for the 2010 edition. Unlike Polamalu’s bad luck, Fitzgerald played in all 16 games and caught a league high of 13 touchdowns, naming him to the Pro Bowl. The “Madden Curse” did catch up with him a little as he suffered a rib injury that caused him to miss the Pro Bowl. 

For the 2013 edition, Calvin Johnson of the Detroit Lions was picked for the cover because of his stellar record All-Pro Season in 2011 with 1,681 yards, 16 touchdowns and another Pro Selection. Unfortunately, the next season was not as great as he admitted to playing with broken fingers (ouch). 

Tom Brady was selected for the 2018 edition representing the New York Patriots after Rob Gronkowski represented the same team the previous year. Brady had the honor of being the oldest MVP on record and 4,577 yards and 32 touchdowns as he led the Patriots to a 13-3, allowing another Super Bowl win. 

Patrick Mahomes is the most recent counterexample for the 2020 edition where he first suffered a dislocated knee in Game 7 of the 2020 season, remaining out for three weeks afterward. Despite the setback, he still maintained a decent season with 26 touchdowns and 4,031 yards before guiding the Kansas City Chiefs to winning Super Bowl LIV against the San Francisco 49ers 31-20, winnning the title of Super Bowl MVP.

When will the “Madden Curse strike again? Only time and fate can tell at this point. 

Thoughts From The Head

So I’m gonna be real with all of you, I never cared much for sport-themed video games besides the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series and Wii Sports. Sports is not really my thing. I do get fascinated, however, when stuff like this pops up because how much it impacted both the video game industry as well as the sports entertainment industry. For crying out loud, the media continues to hype it up every time an incident happens despite it being played off as a hoax. This “curse” in question has even made quite a few players weary of it, but there have also been others that have passed it off as a joke. It’s even gotten so serious that even fans have petitioned for their favorite players not to get picked, fearing the worst. 

Freaky stuff but that’s sports for ya.

So do y’all think about all of this? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Thank you for reading!

[theofficialfurryloser]

Random Thought Of The Day # 1

So people thought that the world was going to end in 2012 right? But get this, 2012 has the same numbers as 2021. Coincidence? I think not!