#90% sure i never posted this it is from like two months ago

[mousemannation]

@nick-cassidy (had this in my drafts long enough u have in fact changed usernames) (now it's been in there long enough u changed it BACK) and @shapovalovvs thank u for cursing me to do this but also maybe it is a blessing bc i get to pick so many songs..

Rules: pick a song for each letter of your url and tag that many people (if you can)

(under the cut bc it is lawng)

Movie Screen by Tommy Newport

Overthinking by Orla Gartland

Ultimately by khai dreams

Sans Papiers by Max Herre ft YONII

Earth by Sleeping at Last

maybe i'm afraid by lovelytheband

All American Queen by Ben Platt

n/A by Bring Me The Horizon

Naked in Manhattan by Chappell Roan

Annihilate / Third Eye - mansionz

Tuta Gold by Mahmood

Isle Unto Thyself - Miracle Musical

OG Love Kush p 2 by KAIIT

(The) Night Does Not Belong To God by Sleep Token

by god that was,, challenging skfhskdjf I will not be tagging 14 people bc thats truly heinous lol this is also from saur long ago so u have all maybe done this already.. if u have not though consider urself tagged!

[th3-c0ll3ct3r]

I will be the one to say it, wherever we like this side conclusion or not, she dug this pit herself and Iskall provided the shovel

I've heard speculations of their relationship being a much closer than it appears online, and her deleting her channel to hide any trace of her involvement or his involvement while still keeping the comment on Iskall's channel is the nail in the coffin

The only thing that she has on her Channel right now is 36 comments that the majority tie back to Iskall in some way.

And additionally, I'd personally say it's come to a point of devotion and compassion for each other rather than what a normal "relationship" should be

And I want you all to keep in mind that if Stress isn't Iskall's "long-term girlfriend", then there is a woman out there who found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her with multiple of his employees and also possibly including his female best friend because of the amount of devotion they have to each other

But if Stress is the "long-term girlfriend", then this was a clear act of both devotion or she's been hit with trains worth of clarity and realization but I doubt this is the case because the comment is still up

And there was no single threat in her replies

YouTube's AI detection system will automatically delete replies with a threatening nature of that go against community guidelines before the person sees the reply.

Meaning that at the most cleverly worded insults have slipped through the hundreds of common worth of "You're so goated" and "Miss you too" and "We support you too" (update to make sure this was accurate I just checked it this than two minutes before this post and it is indeed compliments)

90% of her replies a positivity. And a couple months ago I even gave her the benefit of the doubt and said not to speculate on her situation because we didn't know any better. Aka even people who were skeptical like me and many others treats it her with integrity and dignity open till that reply was posted

I cannot speak on whether or not Iskall has gotten the threats he claims, but I always encouraged to not leave death threats, so I would imagine that it's a handful of people who do not have a life

But I could say with Confidence that if she got more than 8 threats, which is still not good but is a less considering the circumstances and general uncontrollable public, I would be mind-blown

So I'm very confident in the notion that she did this out of either realization to which I hope it is, and I hope for her community she seeks professional help because that level of devotion is unhealthy makes a steady bouncy back after some time OR it's another act of devotion

Because if he's in a legal case regarding this issue it is commonly advised to remove any incriminating evidence from social media so that it cannot be used against you; and it would be easy to argue their relationship based purely on her videos. Making the deletion of her channel an act of devotion rather than general clarity hitting her

Which is sad. I've never personally watched Many of Her videos only 30 at the most, but the general consensus of disappointment rather than anger putting her Direction leads me to conclude this is out of character behavior for her. And this would reinforce Iskall's repeated manipulation attempts.

It would mean his manipulation is effective and working.

The only possible way I could ever see people generally being outraged at her is if she was in on it too but that has already been confirmed by many of the victims they were unaware that she was also leaving, and were unaware of her general support.

This or will you find out that she's financially contributing to his legal case, to which I would argue the money would be better spent on therapy

But it just seems that she's digging herself into a pit or into a self destructive montage of being in support of someone who does not deserve it

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

ik the post was from like a week ago but would like to hear your thoughts on jackie and the prescription drug thing because it really isnt discussed!

Absolutely. Jackie has prooooblems and I really wish they were more openly talked about in the fandom.

So there are at least three references to Jackie abusing prescription drugs in canon. I forget what the third is (I might be misremembering it but I'm pretty sure it's there), but the first two are in "Pilot" and "Blood Hive". The reason why Shauna is asleep during the flight is that Jackie has given her Valium, a benzo (its generic name is diazepam) that in the 70s through 90s was commonly prescribed for anxiety and to an extent still is. What's remarkable about this is the casual way everyone involved treats it; this is consistent in how Shauna and Jackie themselves talk about Jackie's drug use, but the scene also establishes that even Jackie's mother doesn't seem to see any need to monitor her teenage daughter's access to her pills. As Jackie puts it, "Swiped these from my mom's medicine cabinet. Valium. She's got, like, a never-ending supply, so I doubt she'll even notice."

A series of questions already arises here, all of which the show is fascinatingly uninterested in answering, possibly because the screenwriters share Shauna and Jackie's flippant attitude (which is generational, as I'll discuss below) but, I think, likely also because what's implied about the Taylor household here is more disturbing if it's not spelled out. Why does Mrs. Taylor have that much of a med lying around at all times? Has Jackie taken the Valium before? If so, why and how often? (Does she, perhaps, use it to get through sex acts with Jeff?)

The second time this comes up is in the scene in which Shauna and Jackie are discussing their respective Wilderness skills as Shauna butchers one of Nat and Travis's first quarries. Almost everyone in the fandom has favorite bits of this scene, which is full of fantastic Shaunajackie lines and moments, so it's surprising to me that this isn't discussed more, but again, the breathtakingly casual delivery probably goes some way towards distracting the viewer from what's actually being communicated. (It could also be that the line in question here comes immediately before "Wowza, Shipman," which understandably steals the show):

Shauna: Remember when Kiffy Schumacher broke her arm right before we were supposed to go to Whipsplash River, and you told her that if she shared her Percocet, we'd all crash bingo at the Elks Lodge instead? Jackie: Wait. Is this a pep talk? Wowza, Shipman. Wow, that is so not your style.

Uh. Girls? You okay there? "Poppin' Percs" is something Kendrick Lamar accused Drake of earlier this month. The company that makes this drug is currently being pounded in court by the Attorneys General of Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, New York, and possibly other states too since the last time I checked. You're talking about like it's Pez.

Percocet is a mixture of oxycodone, which is an opioid, and paracetamol, which is a common over-the-counter painkiller (it's called acetaminophen in the US and a few other countries; it's the active ingredient in Tylenol and Panadol). Unlike Valium, oxy is something I've been on in the past--I, like Kiffy Schumacher, had a badly fucked-up arm a few years ago--so I can speak to how it's currently treated in American medical culture. You're given a very small amount of it at once, you pace yourself taking it and alternate it with over-the-counter painkillers unless absolutely necessary, and if you have any left over when you decide you no longer need it, which I did, you surrender whatever pills you still have on you to the police. I know that the current widely accepted view on drug control is that it's wildly overdone in the US, and I agree with that for the most part, but in this case the tight controls on this sort of painkiller are a regulation that was written in blood. And the opioid epidemic is still ongoing; in fact, in some ways it's worse, since people are using black-market opioids now that are even more dangerous than oxy and its ilk.

I do want to stress that Jackie's pattern of drug use isn't unusual for a teenager; in fact, it's pretty classic. "Adolescents....most commonly reported receiving prescription[s] for free from a friend or relative, although significant proportions of adolescents also used their own prescriptions, purchased drugs from a dealer, or took them from friends or family without asking." (The article linked cites data taken in 2006, when the prescription drug abuse epidemic on whose upward slope Jackie lives had plateaued.) I also want to clarify that the cavalier attitude Shauna and Jackie have towards prescription drugs isn't unique to this category of substances; teenagers in the 1990s were much more blasé about controlled substances in general than they are today, and adolescent prescription drug abuse has declined less than most other categories:

(Note the especially massive drop-off in adolescent cigarette use after the turn of the millennium. Lottie in her kinderwhore-meets-Empire Records party outfit diffidently holding a cig is very much an image from the past these days. And yet this isn't entirely a success story; adolescents who are still engaging in substance abuse are OD'ing a lot more than they were thirty years ago.)

I don't really have a conclusion here, because I just want to encourage the fandom to discuss this aspect of Jackie's character, not necessarily to adopt any particular narrativization or interpretation of it. This, then, is the basics on Jackie and prescription drugs. Poor girl.

[hearteyespierce]

tl;dr — unemployment woes, job hunting and existing as a disabled person sucks. i am open for art commissions and a post is coming soon, but feel free to dm me if you are interested! + status of my latest queer pulp novel cover redraw wip at the end as tax

being unemployed in 2024/2025 sucks, the job market is the worst for workers it’s ever been. i’ve applied to hundreds of jobs the last several months and i even do what all the recruiters on linked in say you need to do of “make a custom tailored resume and cover letter for every job you apply for 😇”/threat.

i make sure i use as many keywords from the job descriptions as possible and even run my resumes/cover letters through ATS scanners and always get around a ~90%+ match to the job description (what is considered a “great” score is apparently 80-85%), and still nothing! My applications are better than they’ve ever been but never has even getting an interview been so difficult.

i applied to a job that i have ten years of experience for in that exact role and they didn’t even want to talk to me — I got a form rejection email. That one was devastating.

and yeah, literally the worst part of all of this is that i’ve been forced to actually use linkedin as an actual social media app instead of just slapping my resume up there and ignoring it as god intended. every day i go online and see the worst takes of all time. i have found some genuinely good people and good opportunities (really hoping the one i’m pursuing right now, it would be so amazing and feel like a gift tbh to be offered this job) but the whole unemployment grind is so soul crushing.

i’ve barely had time to talk to any one who isn’t my partner who lives with me bc i’m using all my battery to try to find a job and try to build a website + portfolio for my art bc unemployment runs out next month so if something doesn’t work out i’m going to need to figure out something. i already lost my health insurance and can’t afford marketplace so i’m just rawdogging it rn as a disabled/chronically ill person, so that’s fun 🙃

but yeah, if you read this far, i am open for commissions — i have a post ready to go, I just need to wait a few days to post it publicly bc one of the examples on it is a surprise gift I did for someone and it’s in the mail to them right now. but if you’re interested, dm me or email killerxqueer@gmail.com and I’ll send you the graphics/info!

and, as promised: remember this pulp cover that was making the rounds LAST january?? yeah i sketched this back then and then. never finished it 😅 but i started painting it a day or two ago and i’m so thrilled with how it’s coming out!

[ns-imagines]

What they drive

141 Guys x domestic/everyday life

SFW | Word Count: 1.4k | Headcannons

**Long post with lots of pictures!

A/N: I dunno much about cars but I always wonder what the boys would be driving. See what they’re picking me up in for date night… this is just for fun and highlights the modern life they have outside of missions. Also the gif of Soap falling on the car took me out lmao. Not requested. -Kiv

John Price

A man who takes pride in his vehicles. He has two Chevy trucks. A nice truck for everyday use and a project truck. The perfect person to talk to if you are thinking of purchasing a car or truck. Price has got the “dealership scam” game down. You'll be leaving the lot with a good deal.

The project car being a 1985 Chevy C10. Price is always going on about how “this is every man's dream car to work on”. He says it everytime he opens the garage. Without fail! It's got a classic blue color with a few rust spots but, nothing a good layer of paint can't fix. Its the 90s car from the movies. Nothing else to say about it!

Ahh the project car. Price works on it when he can. Set up a lawn chair, get a glass of lemonade, and just watch that man work. Sometimes hell even explain to you what he’s doing. That is if you can even pay attention. There’s something so attractive about a man talking about what he’s passionate about all sweaty with a nice pump. HEY, wipe that drool off your face.

Price’s personal truck is nice. It gets him from point A to B. Everything on it is stock. He’ll always tell you hes gonna sell it once his project car has been fixed. But there’s still quite a lot to do on the project car. Its a 2012 Chevy Silverado in cherry black with a covered bed. Good on gas and can pull a trailer or boat! He doesn’t invest money in it for other than maintenance costs.

It smells specifically like “Lakeside Morning” from Bath and Body works car scents. The packaging is what got him. It was honestly super cute when he read the package out loud. “Smells like: Cool, Sweet, Fresh, and alone time on the dock” followed by a shrug and him throwing it into his cart. Does he even fish?

Oh, whenever he turns a corner in the Silverado theres a thud coming from the bed. Its a cooler that has been there FOREVER. He swears he’s going to take it out. Price brought it when 141 met for a cook out and some beers a few months ago.

-

Kyle “Gaz” Garrick

Don’t ask about the APR please. Kyle is going to use this bad girl till it breaks. Its his dream car. Price took him away from base to get a better rate for it! Its fast its speedy its a 2015 Ford Shelby GT350. Oh yeah racing stripes and all. He got it wrapped in a matte ocean blue. Im talking leather seats, tinted windows, and custom wheel.

Kyle loves this car and will always offer to pick you up. Ur always going to be passenger princess. Kyle always drives up reallll slow, rev the engine a little, and rolls down the window to smile big at you. He gets the door for you when you are both approaching the car. Don’t test him. He will literally sprint to get the door for you. An actual cutiepie

Hes so damn cute when it comes to long drives. Hand on your thigh and singing to the music together. Expect spontaneous trips!! He doesn’t even know where you guys are headed today.

Loves to speed up when there no cars in front of him. That feeling of the car pushing into you the sear is his favorite. Kyle is definitely the type to lightly bang on the steering wheel and go “Wooooooo” when returning to the normal speed limit. Hehe. Hope it didn’t freak you out too much. You will without a doubt get a few reassuring thigh squeezes.

Classic Black Ice scent. Cant go wrong with it! Its his car’s signature sent if you ask him. Kyle keeps his car clean. Theres a few half empty water bottles in the back but never straight up trash. He makes sure to buy the premium wipes for the interior. Like I said that car is his baby. Ugh did i mention the sound system?! Its absolutely amazing. You can feel the bass in your bones. Literally sounds like you’re in an air pod pro.

-

John “Soap” Mactavish

His car is the hangout car. Like if were going out with boys were taking Soaps car. He drives a pearl colored 2020 Honda Accord. He ordered the under the seat lights and everything. Its actually a vibe in there. The music changes the lights or he has an app on his phone to change the color. Another amazing sound system tbh.

Similar to Gaz the glovebox in the car is yours. He even puts stuff in there for you as a surprise :,). Sweet baby Johnny. Like one time you got in the car like usual and opened the glovebox to grab chapstick or some perfume/cologne and sitting on the car instruction manual was a bag/box of ur favorite snack. When you looked back over, Johnny was looking back at you with a big derpy smile.

Since his car is the hangout car it can get messy pretty easily. He has to do “trash runs” to empty the random things people leave in his car. Dont get it wrong, It isnt nasty with random food left behind!! Soap has tried those like little trash cans on Amazon but they always end up lost under the back seats.

Johnny always goes with New Car Smell. He doesn’t have a specific brand he likes he just gets whatever’s at the gas station at the time. He also has the bad habit of never locking his car. Soap swears he always forgets to but you think its just a habit at this point.

CEO of spontaneous trips. You would never believe how much camping stuff his car can hold. Soap will give him car encouraging words as it struggles to go up the hills to the hike or camping site. He always keeps an emergency box under the passenger seat. Its shaped like tackle box. It has a first aid kit, some portable batteries with chargers, flares, and an emergency flash light. Last time you both went camping he was so excited to show you the random hatchet he bought. He keeps it in the trunk for no reason. I mean, he cant have it in the barracks so you suppose it makes sense.

-

Simon “Ghost” Riley

Simon currently owns two bikes. Hes in the process of selling his old one. Which is a chameleon purple painted 2006 Suzuki GSXR600 with 750 cc. It gave him a good year and half off rides. He took care of it and rode it to its top speeds. It has a scuff on the side from when he tried to do a wheelie but, he was going to slow and had to jump off before it fell to its side. Your heart sunk when it happened. Ghost was super embarrassed because he thought he had it down. He’ll never tell you though.

After a long deployment where he was getting quite a big of hazard pay (extra pay when you’re in a dangerous location) he saved it all up. As soon as he got back he bought a black 2021 Honda Rebel 1100 DCT. This bike is fast but it’s more for cursing. Trust that he’ll ride it to its max speed at least once for the adrenaline rush.

Bought you a matching jacket. He wont say anything about it being matching but you noticed almost after putting it on. Best part about riding is when you get to wrap your arms around his waist. Simon always makes sure to take it slow especially if you get nervous on bikes. Don’t even try to do your hair. He wont move the bike unless you have the right gear on. Ghost doesn’t wanna lose you from an accident.

You are probably wondering what he does when it rains… or maybe you already knew he chooses to ride anyway. I promise though that after a ride in the rain he will slightly complain about how wet the road was. It makes you worry because so much could happen with one slip. Simon will always reassure you that he’s an experienced rider. If you pick him up in your car he won’t be upset. Definitely wont say no to a free and dry ride!

[odinsblog]

[re: this this post and this post]

Let’s keep it 💯: Joe Biden did a terrible fucking job of managing post-COVID healthcare. And before I anger all of the but-he-was-better-than-the-alternative liberals, yeah, sure, he is better than Trump, but that is a laughably low bar. Aim higher, demand fucking better from our elected leaders.

So a while back I agreed that today I would take someone to get their latest COVID shot, but I got a frantic phone call from them saying that they don’t have the money to pay for their shot and they are uninsured and don’t qualify for Obamacare. And I was like, “No dude, you can get your shot for free at CVS or Walgreens or someplace like that,” and just to reassure them, I called CVS (with them on the phone), and unfortunately we learned that CVS is now charging $166 per vaccination shot.

After a little digging, I did find some places that offer free vacations, but they have long ass lines and limited hours of availability that don’t match up with my friend’s work schedule … so I’m gonna bite the bullet and just pay for their shot myself.

I am so mf mad rn.

This is what happens when you elect conservative ass “Democrats” who side with big pharmaceutical companies like Gilead and value cAPitALism over people’s health.

Vaccines should be fucking free. All vaccines. Every fucking one of them. And I mean free to anyone who wants them. Periodt.

And just because I know how annoyingly asinine sycophantic liberals can get if you aren’t constantly and profusely praising whoever the democratic president is, lemme remind you that not only did Biden declare, “The pandemic is over - Back to normal, back to work!” while walking around without a mask at an international car show, but in capitulating to conservatives, Biden also made an unprecedented change to America’s immigration policy by forcing asylum seekers to wait in other countries until we get around to processing their paperwork, and Biden also deported a shit ton of non-European asylum seekers (especially Haitians; see also: Title 42).

And Biden proudly and repeatedly announcing that he is a “proud Zionist” as he allowed funded Israel’s genocide against Palestinians was probably not too helpful for Harris defeating Trump. And now that I think about it, waiting so damn long to step aside for Kamala to run wasn’t very helpful either—she had about 100 days to run a campaign against Trump (and I’m not saying her campaign was perfect, but Biden’s waiting so damn long absolutely hobbled her).

And speaking of waiting too long, Biden constantly waiting to arm Ukraine wasn’t thee most helpful thing either—like damn, what’s the difference between arming them with long range weapons now (when you have only 2 months left in your term), versus arming Ukrainians 2 fucking years ago when it would have made a bigger difference, and would have saved more Ukrainians?? If it’s safe to arm them now, then it was probably safe to arm them at the beginning of Putin’s colonialist war of aggression.

I’m sorry, yes, I voted for him (and Kamala), but Joe Biden was a shitty ass president. I do not want another Republican-lite, cop loving “Democrat” who values chasing conservative white voters more than trying to listen to and at least pretend to placate the Democratic base.

At the end of the day, Joe Biden will have helped move the Democratic Party further right, just as Bill Clinton did in the 90s.

Oh, and remember when Biden promised to waive copyright patents so that other countries could make their own COVID vaccines? He never did that, did he?? But many of y’all insisted on giving him credit just for saying that he would. But he didn’t.

If Biden had any damn nads, and if he wasn’t sO addicted to following all the rules that Republicans have and will continue breaking, he would go buck wild in his last two months and forgive all student debt, pardon people, and just do whatever good he can while he still has the power to do so.

Anyway, I said what tf I said.

If you don’t like it, you know where the block button is.

[this-world-will-rememeber-me]

Why you shouldn’t joke about Ed Crowder. (An unfortunate rant)

I won’t be sharing the persons username, please don’t share it if you know it but I just wanted to talk about it since although it may have been like 90 years ago but it’s still an issue that is very relevant now.

Key:

Purple = Info Source

Blue = Wikipedia Page

All mentions to the musical are referring to the uk versions (Tour/West End) unless specified

Before I actually start I just want to put out there that I talk about SA, Abuse and violence in general in this post.

This post also isn’t me defending the gangs actions, i’ve spoken about this before and people have told me i’m apparently defending them when that is not the purpose, this is simply just to educate people of what happened to these VERY REAL PEOPLE. Not just musical characters.

Who was Ed Crowder?

Ed Crowder was initially serving a sentence for Bank Robbery up to 99 years and was also believed to have been behind a prison break at Ferguson State Farm where 35 convicts had escaped. As of June 26 1927, 23 convicts had been recaptured and a guard called Will Ruder (if i read it correctly) was killed during the prison break. On May 6 1929, Crowder and another inmate had escaped from solitary confinement but ultimately was recaptured. Here are two articles taking about the events.

Ed Crowder’s name is only said twice in the musical and it is never said what exactly he did to Clyde however, if you watch the UK Tour version, after Clyde receives his sentence to Eastham State Penitentiary/Farm you can see him push his head in between two of the cell bars and then a man approaches him from behind. This man is most likely Crowder judging by how Clyde literally screams after. In West End, you don’t physically see him screaming or see Ed but you can hear him screaming during the blackout before Raise a Little Hell.

What did Crowder do to Clyde in Prison??

Ed Crowder used to prey on Clyde. Quite literally. Barrow was quite small his entire life, according to William Daniel ‘W.D’ Jones, “he was only about 5 feet, six inches tall and he weighed no more than 135 pounds.” It’s believed that Clyde was between 125-135 pounds. Crowder on the other hand was 6 foot and weighed 200 pounds. For most of Clyde’s time in the prison, Crowder had harassed him. Barrow was s3xually assulted and beat by Crowder and possibly other inmates.

Despite Barrow reporting it to the guards several times, nothing was ever done about it. considering it was around sometime around 1930-1931 when this was happening to him, incidents like this in prisons were incredibly common. Guards simply didn’t see any point in doing anything. Most of the guards were amused at how Barrow was being tormented. Some guards even joining with beating him.

Ralph Fults, a member of the Barrow Gang who was also at Eastham at the time, claimed he watched barrow “change from a schoolboy to a rattlesnake”.

Alongside not being helped by the people who were meant to be the good guys in situations like this, Barrow also was teased by other inmates. One example of someone who teased him was Wade Hampton McNabb, an Inmate Building Tender in Eastham Building 1. He was in was the same building as Clyde, despite Barrow not hearing what was being said at the time it was a motive for something the Barrow Gang did around 3 years and 2 months later which I’ll come back to.

Raise a Little Hell

The song Raise a Little Hell takes place on October 29/30th 1931 (the wording of the news report confused me so i’m not exactly sure) and is about Clyde’s plan to end the abuse he is being subjected to in prision. Towards the end of the song, Barrow completes the murder by (although it isn’t exactly said it’s pretty obvious) beating and crushing Crowder’s skull with a Lead Pipe.

Top two gifs by @dontyouknowemma-itsyou ! Bottom gif by @noxexistant

Note about continuity: Although in the Proshot it shows that Clyde got the pipe from his bed, in the West End/UK tour version, he is shown to get the pipe from another inmate. Clyde actually got the pipe on his way back inside from the outside work they were made to do in the prison and hid it in his trousers.

Although, yes, Clyde did kill him, another inmate called Aubrey Scalley took the blame for the murder. The article about Crowder’s death mentions he was stabbed 15 times, Scalley was the one who stabbed him.

“One of the men left his bunk and went back to the rear part of the building” refers to Clyde. Apparently he somehow lured Crowder to the area and that’s how it all went down.

For reference, here’s a picture of Eastham Building 1 (1930). The murder happened just behind the furthest pillar.

Wade Hampton McNabb

This is a separate murder from Crowder. It happened on April 3rd 1934, 50 days before Bonnie & Clyde were ambushed and killed.

During Clyde’s time at Eastham, McNabb would call him his “Prison Wife” without him knowing. Not much longer than two years after his early release from prison Clyde found out what McNabb had said about him and whilst McNabb was on a 60 day furlough he was found dead with his face down somewhere between Texas and Louisiana. Apparently he looked like he had been kneeling down like he was saying a prayer before being hit in the back of the head and a gun being emptied into his head. Read a newspaper article about it here.

Joseph Conger Palmer (Usually just referred to as Joe Palmer) was the one to actually kill McNabb.

Palmer was executed by Electric Chair alongside Raymond Hamilton on May 10th 1934 for the murder of Prison Guard Major Joe Crowson. Crowson was shot 11 times on January 16th 1934 with a rifle and machine gun, he survived for 11 days after before dying due to his wounds.

My point is, maybe don’t make jokes about literal SA. If it isn’t meant to be harmful, still just don’t say it. SA is still a very real issue that happens daily and can be incredibly traumatic. Whether you’re joking about a criminal or not. just don’t. <3

[thisaintascenereviews]

Yellowcard - Southern Air (Twelfth Anniversary Retrospective) [Featuring @jakeh2987]

In the summer of 2012, I dove headfirst into the genre of pop-punk. I was familiar with the genre already, having already been a fan of bands like Paramore, Fall Out Boy, and Blink-182, and having heard some stuff from New Found Glory, Man Overboard, and some other random bands, the album that opened the floodgates was 2011’s Under Soil & Dirt by The Story So Far. That album really introduced me to the genre, and I was head over heels for it. I needed something new to listen to, because I was getting bored with metalcore and post-hardcore, but that album opened up a whole new world to me. It came out in 2011, but I think I found it in the summer of 2012, because I remember finding it later.

That summer also happened to have four major pop-punk releases, although they were major to me. All Time Low first dropped Don’t Panic, which was a return to form for the band after going to a major label, but then in the span of two weeks, With The Punches and I Call Fives dropped their debut albums, then Yellowcard dropped Southern Air. I was familiar with them, knowing the title track to 2003’s Ocean Avenue, but that was it. I heard “Always Summer” a few months before the album came out, and I really enjoyed that song, so I made a note to check out the whole thing. Sure enough, Southern Air ended up being one of my favorite albums of the year.

The album turns twelve this year, and I wish I would have done a 10-year retrospective on it a couple of years ago, but better late than never, right? This is an album that means a lot to me, not only for being one of the first pop-punk albums that I got into, but it still holds up all these years later. This record means a lot to me, especially for the sense of nostalgia I get every time I listen to it, but I’m not here to talk about this album alone. I’m bringing along my buddy Jake to talk about this album, as he’s a big Yellowcard fan. I couldn’t imagine talking about it this with anyone else, so to kick things off, what’s your history with Yellowcard, as well as this album?

Firstly, thanks for having me back to do this! I'm always down to talk about Yellowcard; they're the band I credit most with really getting my foot in the door as far as my love of music goes. Ocean Avenue was the very first album I ever bought in the summer of 2006, and I just fell head over heels for it. It was really one of the first times I could call music "mine," so to speak, because up until then, I'd listen to whatever my family was listening to, and that was a lot of 80s hair metal or the boy bands of the 90s and early 2000s. Funnily enough, though, I didn't keep up with Yellowcard, or pop-punk as a whole, until much later in life. My music tastes kind of shifted a bit after I discovered Linkin Park, and eventually I got into a lot of the super big hard rock bands of that era, like Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin. Yellowcard wasn't particularly on my radar for a long time, until one day in 2012. I was in an FYE, just browsing the new releases when I saw there was a new Yellowcard album out that week. I remember thinking "Aw man, I loved Ocean Avenue, I should check this out for kicks!" So, I bought Southern Air that day, and I had no idea that this band was about to change my life again. We'll get into more about what works about this album, both on its own and in terms of Yelllowcard's discography, but man, hearing this thing for the first time hit me like a wave of nostalgia; six years afrer I discovered Ocean Avenue, it was like I was catching up with an old friend, and we picked up right where we left off.

You’re absolutely welcome, man! I’m glad to have you aboard for this, because I know you’re a huge fan of Yellowcard, especially being the band that got you into music. I can completely relate with having music that feels like “yours,” and that’s what Fall Out Boy’s Infinity On High was that album for me (despite listening to a few other albums before then, but that’s the one that stuck). Southern Air came out at the right time for me, because I was just getting into the genre throughout that summer, and after hearing a lot about them, I figured I’d check it out, but I didn’t realize how important that album would end up being, especially all of these years later. It’s always awesome when bands can make you feel like you’re catching up with an old friend, especially after them coming back after so long, whether you haven’t listened to them in so long, or they hadn’t released an album in years. That’s how I felt when Fall Out Boy finally came back last year, but I digress. Before we talk about this album, I think we need some context as to where the band was at the time, because there was a lot going on with them for the last few years before this thing. I listened to this as a stand-alone album, but what was the context surrounding this album and what makes it so important in their discography?

So, after they put out Ocean Avenue, and that album catipulted them into siccess, they put out two more albums, 2006's Lights and Sounds and 2007's Paper Walls. Both of those albums I I feel are very good or even great (Paper Walls in particular I think is actually pretty underrated), but they didn't do as well sales-wise or in terms of fan enthusiasm as Ocean Avenue did, and that, combined with the members wanting to take a break for various life reasons, led to a hiatus in 2008. That would last until 2010, and then they would release their comeback album, When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes. I often think because Southern Air is so beloved and turned out so well, this album gets overlooked, but thinking about it for this piece, it almost feels like a beta test for what would come next. When You're Through Thinking really reignited the love for Yellowcard both for the members themselves and for the fanbase, and they had such a great time making that album, it ended up being a pretty quick turnaround to get to Southern Air in 2012. And boy did it pay off for them; Southern Air ended up debuting in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, their highest charting album since Lights and Sounds in 2006, and the fanbase was universally happy and loving the album. I think outside of Ocean Avenue, many fans would consider Southern Air to be the best thing they've ever done, and honestly, I can't really argue against that. I think you said this when we first started talking about doing this, but it really is a lightning-in-a-bottle type of album. Let's get into why this thing works as well as it does.

Yeah, Southern Air is one of those “lightning in a bottle” kind of albums where everything fits so perfectly into place, and there’s no way that it could ever be replicated. Every moving part came together in such a perfect way to make something that is truly one of a kind, and Southern Air is just one of those albums for me. Even without any context going into this, you can hear a renewed sense of energy and vigor that the band seemingly hadn’t had in so long. There’s so much energy here, minus for what I argue to be the emotional crux of the album (and one of the most heart wrenching and unique pop-punk songs I’ve ever heard, even 12 years later), but you can tell they were having a blast working on this, and aside from When You’re Through Thinking, this truly feels like a return to form, so to speak. This isn’t just one of my favorite albums of 2012, but it’s one of my favorite pop-punk albums, period. A lot of the genre is youthful in tone, and it’s not meant to be so timeless, but I’ve found that this album has only aged better with time, both for its music and its lyricism. It just keeps getting better after every year. If anything, this album retains the youthful spirit of their earlier work, but there’s a sense of maturity and growing up that lingers throughout it. I was a year out of high school when this album came out, and I didn’t have any idea what I was doing with my life, but this album felt so relatable to me, because one of its biggest themes is getting older and feeling lost, and that’s a theme I still relate to all these years later. What do you think, though? What makes this album work so well for you?

You know, I think you really hit the nail on the head when you talked about the youthful energy mixed with this almost world-weary maturity that makes Southern Air work so well and why it's held up as well as it has. The themes of growing up yet feeling uncertain of where life is going or being afraid to take that next step I think is something almost anyone can relate to, especially at our age. So often, there's this pressure to have it all figured out by the time you hit your 30s, and as someone who turns 32 in December, this album really cuts to the heart of that. "Here I Am Alive" is the song that really drives this home for me; it's a song about being unsure of what's ahead, but ultimately being okay with that and being ready to take that on. You alluded to it earlier, but we also gotta talk about the song "Ten," because man, what a gut-punch this one was when I first heard it, and even still now. The song was written about vocalist Ryan Key's then-girlfriend suffering a tragic miscarriage, and when I was listening to the album again for this, I had this thought about this song that I hadn't really thought of before; it's an incredibly emotional song on its own, but within the context of the album, it's a sort of flip on its themes, talking about what could have been and being heartbroken that he'll never get to experience those things with his unborn child.

But even outside of all that, the band as a whole is just in top form here. Southern Air was actually the last album (not counting the acoustic version of Ocean Avenue they would release a year later to celebrate its 10th anniversary) featuring their longtime drummer Longineu Parsons III, and you can tell he's having an absolute blast on this thing. There are so many cool little drum fills he does on this album that always get me hyped when I hear them. The band's secret weapon, violinist Sean Mackin, also has plenty of moments to shine; that solo he has on "Always Summer" really brings that song home. And vocalist Ryan Key had never sounded better than this to that point. I always really liked Key as a vocalist, but here, he's still got that youthful energy in his delivery, but he'd also really improved as a vocalist, and he really sells the emotions in these lyrics, especially on the aforementioned "Ten."

Ryan Key is certainly an integral part on why this album works, and I already mentioned the lyrics a bit, as well as the themes of growing up, getting older, and wondering where you’re going and where your life could be headed, but “Ten” is what I referred to as the emotional crux of the album, especially for what you said about the song flipping those themes about an unborn child and what he would be missing out on by not being born into this world. Miscarriages are a very taboo topic already, and certainly not spoken of in the pop-punk scene, but it brings a lot of the themes of the album together. Key as a vocalist is a big part of why this album works as well as it does, because he’s got such an energetic and invigorating delivery that sucks you into his woes and revelry. His delivery is youthful, but world weary, so it has that nice balance between jaded and naive.

The rest of the band is killer, too, and I think this album works so well for me, personally, because it’s the perfect distillation of their sound, but a modernized and mature version of it, albeit at the time, anyway. I also think they made this album knowing full well they would never be a full-fledged pop-punk band, and it might seem to be a farewell to their old sound, at least until their latest EP from 2023. Even then, that EP certainly does not try to top their classic material, let alone this album. Their last couple albums before their hiatus were some of their more adventurous albums, and they dove into stuff that they hadn’t done before, so this feels like a farewell to their youth, both literally and metaphorically.

Before we close this out, I have one final question to ask, and we can discuss a bit — I know you said was a fan favorite, but where do you rank this among their body of work, let alone would this be a good album to recommend someone new to th band? Personally, this is my favorite Yellowcard album, both for its nostalgia and musicianship. Ocean Avenue is a close second, but I don’t have that nostalgia for it the way I do with this one. I also would say this album is perfect for new fans, because of its immediate sound, and its very mature and adult themes.

It's interesting, because while I think I'll always put Ocean Avenue above anything else because it was *the* album for me, I can't really argue against Southern Air being their magnum opus. It has all the best parts of what makes this band so special, and it's packaged in a modern coat of paint that, like you said, is a pretty good way for someone to get into them. Not to discredit their other work, either, but I do think Suothern Air and Ocean Avenue are at the top, and then it's kind of the rest of their discography. But you know, it's gotta be pretty damn cool to know you've made two classic albums that have stood and will continue to stand the test of time, in two different eras of your career, no less! I will say, though, for this album especially, I think When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes is an important album in that it was a launching pad for what we'd get with Southern Air, and without that initial comeback, we're not sitting here today talking about this album. And for their later mateial, I'm more mixed on Lift A Sail, and their self-titled album is probably not gonna have quite the same impact now that it's not their final release, but they're all very soldi in their own ways and worth a listen. I'm hoping the Childhood Eyes EP ends up being much like When You're Through Thinking, in that it's a great first step for what will come next.

Ocean Avenue is always going to be their biggest album, just for how important it was to the 00s pop-punk scene, but Southern Air has that maturity that Ocean Avenue doesn’t. It doesn’t make that album bad, by any means, but Southern Air hit me at the right time. That’s the best way to go out talking about this album, though — Yellowcard have one hell of a legacy. They dropped two classic albums in a ten-year period, as well as many other albums people love, and how bands can say they have two, let alone one, classic albums under their belt? I’m excited for their future, especially if their future material is anything like Childhood Eyes. That’s a great stepping stone, especially in the way that When You’re Through Thinking was. It’s good they’re back, because the pop-punk scene was missing one of its best bands, even if their later stuff doesn’t quite have the same critical appeal as their earlier stuff. As always, though, it was a real pleasure talking with you about an album we love! There’s never any time I wouldn’t want to talk about this album.

Thank you again for having me! This has been such a great time, revisiting this album in general and thinking about it and talking about it like this. I can't wait to see what we get up to next!

[thecurioustale]

A week ago I listened to an audio-only NASA press conference about the Boeing Starliner situation. (Their new Starliner spacecraft is on a crewed test flight to the International Space Station and both it and its crew has been stranded there for months due to technical problems.) It was a pretty demoralizing press conference, because there were no actual announcements to be made, most of the questions by the press were disingenuous "Gotcha!" questions looking for a scandal, and, perhaps most discouragingly of all, NASA's mostly-midlevel officials at the conference fell well short of the candor and technical specifics that I hope for and have long come to expect from NASA.

Today, there was another press conference. This one was night and day better! It was considerably longer, televised, featured a full slate of high-ranking NASA officials, who had major news to announce (the stranded crew members will not be returning home on Starliner), and spoke with great candor and technical detail in response to mostly good questions from the press. In fact it wasn't till halfway through the press conference runtime, at 50 minutes, that the first stupid question came in (from FOX News of course). I was genuinely glued to my seat for the entire hour-and-a-half, and I came away from the press conference, as someone who does not follow this stuff as closely as I would like to, with a much better understanding of the current situation.

I liked it enough that I figured I'd post it here for you to watch, if you want to. I don't have any specific question or timestamp to point you to; really it's just a matter of whether you want to watch NASA talk for 90 minutes about a stranded spaceship.

The NASA Administrator position (the head of the agency) is a political appointment, and hearing them speak can always be a little bit cringeworthy, but this Administrator, former FL Senator Bill Nelson, acquitted himself well and reminded me in a favorable way of some of the top people at the Observatory back when I lived out there. And the actual technical people (i.e. most of the rest of the panel) did a great job, and of course there are always those one or two nerds at these things who are just deep Lv. ** institutional wizards who are capable of providing endless good information to the public on a vast array of topics. We had a couple of them on this panel, and it was a pleasure to listen to them speak ! Also cool to see that the lone female panel member happens to be the head of the ISS program (one of the plum portfolios in NASA for sure), though she didn't get to talk much as Starliner's problems mostly run through other departments of the agency.

Two things I wish they had said at the panel but never did: First of all, whether or not this Starliner crewed test flight is eventually classified as a "Loss of Mission," the crew is still alive and for the time being the vessel is intact and operational. A lot of the questions sort of insinuated that the mission is a failure because Starliner won't be bringing its people home, but, given that the NASA policy of having two crewed spaceflight providers is a redundancy matter (and this was briefly touched on in the conference), having things play out this way, so that one provider will be picking up the slack from another, is a big learning opportunity for all parties involved and goes right to the heart of what NASA is developing this redundancy for. It's a big setback for Boeing, but they'll be able to overcome it if they want to put the money and institutional bandwidth into it, and, if they do, it'll be a huge part of their business basically forever into the future, as the spaceflight market is only going to grow.

And the other thing I wished they had said is that, contrary to how some of the press' questions framed things, it is hardly a bad outcome for the stranded astronauts that they are going to end up spending eight months in space instead of the eight days originally planned. They have been absorbed into the current ISS crew and are already in their new roles. They're probably head over heels to get such a rare opportunity! There are only a few dozen ISS crew slots left before the station's planned decommissioning in the 2030s. And they're heading back on a Dragon spacecraft, so the elevated safety concerns about Starliner are a nonissue for them.

One final note: I am very excited for Sierra, another entry into the American spaceflight industry. They are gearing up to begin providing cargo capacity to the ISS, and they have big ambitions for their future spaceflight goals. SpaceX, Elon Musk's company, is currently the only reliable human spaceflight capability in NASA's commercial spaceflight program, but that is likely to change within the next twenty years, and I for one will be relieved when someone like Musk no longer holds that monopoly.

Caption: YouTube link of NASA press conference on the decision to not to send Starliner astronauts back home on the Starliner spacecraft.

[isawken]

haha heyyyyy jesties

this year has been rough stuff. and the problem is nothing life shattering has happened so i don’t even get to have a spectacular mental breakdown. it’s just been a lot of grind and disappointment and struggle to keep up or have any energy to do anything other than the bare minimum. to everyone who reached out to me with love or kindness or memes and waited weeks or more for a response i love you. and i’m so sorry for my total absence of personhood. i’ve never gotten a dm even if it’s just a silly post and an “i thought of you” that i didn’t like. and your patience with me is appreciated more than you know.

i have some stuff i want to work on. some hobbies i want to pick up again. some friendships i want to recultivate. some pieces of my life i want to try to rekindle. i used to have so much creative energy and impulse. did you know i used to make zines? i fuckin loved making zines. the tactile experience of cutting up thick paper and punching holes and using thread to bind em and filling it with vague thoughts and little collages and splashes of acrylic paint. that shit ruled. about a month ago i tried making one for the first time in years. i cut up some old paper and dusted off the ol' hole punch. this time instead of my usual embroidery thread i used necklace chain to bind it. i was proud of that idea. when it came time to put stuff in it i choked. i had no creative thought. i forced myself to cover the first page with orange and yellow crayola markers. but that was it. i had nothing other than that. just hasty sloppy color thoughtlessly and restlessly thrown down. a dull background promised to a more interesting foreground that never came.

that shit did not rule.

in 1883 in pecos texas the first recorded rodeo takes place. in 2001 rob smets attends the PBR world finals in jeans and a sports jersey bearing sponsor logos. in 1780 joseph grimaldi makes his stage debut at 2 years old at london’s famed drury lane. in the many, many years before any white person ever laid eyes on it, a man in what you’d now call northern arizona paints his body in black and white stripes and puts corn husks in his hair. in 1557 ivan the terrible acts as pallbearer to a man who walked naked in the streets of moscow, even in the dead of winter. 1568 the gelosi acting company coalesces in italy to perform the hot new style of live improv entertainment. in 2017 the ringling bro’s circus performs its last show, 146 years after the titular brothers first formed it. all of these moments (and more!) live in my head rolling around like marbles and one day i’ll tell you all why.

i’ve been on mood stabilizers for so long it’s hard for me to tell if this has just been a really long depressive swing or if this is just how i am now. if this is just what getting older is like. i don’t really think it is. i am like 90% sure this will not last. but the two questions that follow are always 1. how do i get out of it, and 2. what if it is tho xD?

i recently went down to southeastern ohio to visit my family. went up the mountain at 1 am saturday night to help my gramma grab the 8 year old boy she’s been helping to take care of from his strung out mother. the next day i saw my various other relations, aunts and cousins however many times removed. i hung out with my second cousin. same age as me, with two twin girls, 4 years old. she’s a great mom. and enjoys it, too. got a decent husband with a good job. obviously i don’t know her struggles. not like we talk often. but she seemed overall pleased when she spoke about her life. i told her about my work from home job and my loving partner of 8 years and my plans for the future. she told me i was living the dream. and like. i kind of am. so why do i wake up every morning in various states of hangover (it's the mental illness)

i live in one of the cloudiest cities in these united states. my house is about 500 square feet. it’s dark at 5pm now. i already miss the sun. i want to get sunburned again. i want to be sweaty. i want to put talcum powder in my skort. i want to get through this winter without having to rub snow on my face to stave off more serious impulses. i want to check the 5 items off my to do list.

all of my want is like a song stuck in my head.

i miss that stickbug meme

i should dress up like a clown again

maybe tomorrow i’ll just lay under my weighted blanket for 5 hours

or maybe i’ll actually do something i like to do and feel good and real and human about it. who knows. only time will tell. and in the meantime. thanks if you read this <3

[gutwrenchflowerbomb]

This post is just me sort of rambling about the thoughts surrounding my new job so feel free to scroll past.

New workspace. This machine was installed a few weeks ago and a few of use were trained in it but I am the primary operator. They haven’t installed my work table yet so I’ve been using that cart. I’m two months into the drastic change in careers and it’s been strange - not just the obvious difference in what I’m actually doing but the shift as well. I don’t have weird start and ends times that change daily. But my set shift begins at 5am, meaning that I’m waking up at 3:30am. That’s the middle of the witching hour. I keep expecting to sit up and see some kind of demon ghost thing looking shocked like “the fuck you doing awake?”

But I’m less stressed, I think. I miss my clients dearly but now I no longer have to be responsible for the lives of 12 people. I can actually focus on myself. And the fact that I can do this job while wearing headphones has allowed me to catch up on podcasts and shit I’d long abandoned due to lack of time/energy. I’ve even made it a goal to listen to at least one new album a day from an artist I like but only know a song or two. I have 10 hours a day to fill so it’s not that hard to do. (I’m open to suggestions btw so if you have a fav band/album you think more people should hear, let me know! I don’t really *hate* any genre, except 90% of the new bro country shit)

My medical insurance kicks in on July 1st, so I can finally go to the doctor and dentist. They’ve had some overtime available that I’ve taken advantage of, and will continue to do so as long as it’s there. Mostly because I need all the money I can get and also - I don’t mind the work. It feels good to be physically doing stuff. I’m not like, building houses or anything but there I’m for sure getting more movement than I was previously. The ONLY downside so far of this job is that it’s very hard to regulate the temperature. I’ve had to buy my own fan to bring in and honestly I’m about to get a second one so I can have it blowing on my from both sides. Ya girl STAYS hot.

I’ve been staying with my mom and it’s been rough. We don’t have the most loving relationship, she gets on my goddamn nerves but I try not to get to frustrated with her because it will only make things worse. Maybe one day I’ll write some essays about it, as my upbringing with her was anything but “normal” but I digress.

The most challenging thing has been the lack of *silence* in the house. Before, I had my roommates. Ut they were hardly home when I was and then they had their room upstairs. We never really got in each others space. Here, that’s not possible. I’m literally sleeping on a twin bed that’s been set up in the dining room since it’s a tiny 750sq ft one bedroom house. And my mom nor Mo work, so they NEVER LEAVE. And neither of them have much variety in the food they eat so I’ve had to adapt to eating much of the same bland poor southern shit I grew up with. Which is good occasionally but man. I can’t wait to have my own kitchen again and cook some Indian food. Or Mediterranean.

My goal is to have my own place by the first of August. Thats plenty of time to have the money for the first few months plus deposit. The biggest issue is not knowing what’s gonna be on the market. Rent, while not nearly as high as places like Chicago and Austin and huge cities like that, it’s still unreasonable for a single income person. Especially when that income is just under 40k a year, pre tax.

Anyway, my hope is that once I get moved into my own place I can finally have the energy and focus to do more creative shit. I have TONS of ideas written down but with no space to do any of them, it’s been depressing. I’ve got buttons and magnets and silly shit all in my big ass head. And not all of it is wrestling related.

Alright I’m gonna stop now. But yeah if anyone read all this I apologize haha. It’s not my usual shit of making jokes about AEW and posting too many pics of Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy.

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

9, 14, 15? ✨

Thank you for the Asks!

9. Write a recommendation of someone else's fic you enjoyed!

@theredheadedcaptain finished her long fic Celestial Storms almost exactly 1 year ago. This was the story that made me first fall in love with her story telling.

It's a beautiful post Endgame J/C romance with a robust ensemble cast (and some thoroughly engaging original characters!) It follows J/C through a new mission, an encounter with old enemies, and introduces a well handled interpersonal conflict that speaks to class tensions between former Maquis and other edge-of-the-Federation characters and the Earth-centric human Starfleet characters. In short I loved everything about it. The action and adventure, the political undertones and social commentary and the romance - omg the romance! It is a can't miss long fic!

14. Is there a character or ship you were so sure you would never write/draw but now you've changed your mind?

I struggled conceptualizing Seven of Nine when I first started writing Voyager fic. She seemed like a canonical mess of contradictions - first because of how the costuming objectified her in an extremely uncomfortable way - and then how the narrative really didnt deal well with how it must have felt being sexualized - by crewmates and her doctor and aliens - having just barely left the borg where her body was something that was probably only conceptualized in strictly functional terms (its own kind of objectification). All of her voyager era romance plotlines really squicked me for a long time (dont let me fall into my Doctor/Seven rant 😆)

And then two things happened.

(1) Picard came out and Seven had a queer romantic arc with Raffi.

(2) I met my wife, who had been a neurodivergent closeted teen in a much more social-norms-concious community than I'd grown up in, talking to me about how shed intensely studied and tried to emulate traditionally feminine things and had boyfriends as a way to "fit in" without actually knowing how it was supposed to feel

And suddenly a lot of things that never used to click with me about Seven - confusion about attraction and dating and insistence on performing heteronormatic romantic gestures as if dating was some essential part of being an individual - all of those offputting sexist storylines from the Voyager era looked a lot more like queer and neurodivergent coded behaviors.

And then Seven became a lot more intriguing and understandable to me on rewatches (Queer and Neurodiverent being neither of the things the original 90s character creators probably indented when they stuck her in the catsuit and had the Doctor give her social lessons)  And shes now become a lot more fun to write now that I have an interpretation of her that jives with me.

15. Have you noticed your style change over time?

I dont know if i could pin point any one thing. but its like... I enjoy my own writing a lot more in the past 3-4 years than I did before. i feel more confident about it. A lot of that was rebuilding a writing community around me on discord (losing the in person one I had in college had me floundering for a while) and the second part was finding a planning process that worked for me - ive become a lot more confident that i can outline an idea, put it in a drawer and know that i can pick it up a few weeks or months later and have a solid blueprint for how to write that story.

Ive also gotten more concise and more conscious of a story's scope (i can finish a long fic in about 80-90k rather than 200k). And ive also gotten a lot more comfortable with the creative ebb and flow i tend to go through. just generally a lot more confident and comfortable with my craft. i know thats not the specific question but its definitely had a positive impact on my overall storytelling too.

[thesinglesjukebox]

BEYONCÉ - "MY HOUSE"

Beyoncé drops too late for the Jukebox revival? Never mind, Wayne’s made sure we’re across it…

[5.43]

Aaron Bergstrom: It can be disorienting to remember that Beyoncé exists on the same plane of existence as the rest of us. After all, she's the alien superstar. She's one of one. Imagine Beyoncé eating a sandwich. It's not like she doesn't have influences, or contemporaries, but she's taken great pains to create a personal aesthetic of otherworldly perfection, and to position her most recent albums as self-contained objects that arrived fully formed, the product of a singular genius. She is above us, beyond us. Then you hear the first thirty seconds of "My House" and you realize, "Oh. Right. Houston." Beyoncé is from Houston. She comes from a lineage that is Southern, Texan, and influenced by identifiable strains of late-'90s and early-'00s hip hop. She does it better than pretty much anyone else, and by the end of the song she has transformed those fairly mainstream reference points into something that probably only she could make, but still. Real person, from Houston. Probably eats sandwiches. [8]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: We tend to grade artists on a curve after a certain point. Beyoncé has been making hits since two months before I was born -- how am I supposed to compare her to anyone aside from her? In this context "My House" is too much and not enough all at once. Beyond its literal status as an end credits song, the song still feels like a multilayered rehash -- emulating not only the thrills of Renaissance but also her long tradition of tossed off, post-album cycle excursions in swag rap. "My House" is fun but in its own way slightly threadbare -- it piles on boasts and hooks with an almost haphazard glee, with little regard to how these parts hold together. It's impressive, but only to the extent that "My House" feels like Beyoncé operating at roughly 50 percent of her usual capacity. [6]

Alex Ostroff: A slightly less fluid version of the "Pure/Honey" trick of stitching together two disparate songs. "Pure" started off as a cunty ballroom track, then shifted into the impeccable Vanity 6 riff of "Honey" -- and, importantly, Beyoncé convincingly embodied both modes perfectly. "My House" begins as aggressive rap and pivots into a minimal blippy-bloopy house track. Historically -- since at least a decade ago -- one would expect Bey to pull off the first half of this off more easily than the second. But after immersing herself in the sounds of Renaissance, she's more compelling imperiously telling the audience to get the fuck up out her house over top of chanting vogue crowds and gospel choirs. The first section has promise, but I can't help but wish the instrumental loop was a Homecoming-style marching band with a full drumline and a bunch of tubas instead of synths. Mostly, it makes me wish that Act II fulfills the promise of that "I Been On (Remix)" with Bun B, Scarface, et al. by giving us an entire chopped and screwed Houston rap album of Bey spitting fire. [7]

Nortey Dowuona: The drum programming on this starts off frustratingly bad. If it had been done by an actual drum line before cutting the coals, it would sound good, rather than demo arrangements done to prepare for the rehearsals. The actual arrangement below the chant sounds good -- it's just so flat it can't move, pump or jam. The mediocre choir chorus does work a cappella - it sounds full by at least four voices and ends on a warm note -- and the delicious bass stab towards the back end of the song does help, but it's already too late. This is why we rehearse, and why some songs have good ideas but don't make the album. Would you take off "Plastic Off the Sofa" for this? [3]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang:

Alien Superstar [10]

Heated [10]

Pure/Honey [10]

Plastic off the Sofa [9]

I'm that Girl [9]

Cuff It [9]

Cozy [9]

Virgo's Groove [8]

America Has a Problem [8]

Break My Soul [8]

Church Girl [8]

Thique [8]

Energy [8]

My House [7]

Move [7]

All Up in Your Mind [7]

Summer Renaissance [7]

*Subject to change [7]

Katherine St Asaph: One producer Beyoncé continually re-hires is The-Dream, even as her former, once-feted collaborators disappear from her unsparingly curated house. Hey, about that, remember how he was accused of assaulting his pregnant ex-girlfriend last decade? But it's not like this was enjoyable before I knew who produced it, either. [3]

Will Adams: Basically Renaissance's "7/11": a throwaway track, only mildly fun, ultimately a distraction from its otherwise exquisite parent album. That alone is enough of a disappointment from Beyoncé; in light of recent pushback, though, a lyric like "let's heal the world, one beautiful action at a time" makes it that much more eyebrow-raising. [4]

Taylor Alatorre: When I was young, I used to annoy my dad all the time during TV commercial breaks, asking why McDonald's or Coca-Coca had to run advertisements when every living person on the planet already knows what they are. Of course, at the age of seven, I had no knowledge of concepts like brand perception, market share, consumer loyalty -- for me the only purpose of an ad was to inform you that a product exists. However, there is something to the idea that companies often devote an excessive share of resources to marketing and PR as opposed to improving the quality of their goods and services, so maybe my seven-year-old self wasn't completely off-base. It is in that spirit that I ask: why does Beyoncé need to release a song like this when she is Already Beyoncé? [3]

Alfred Soto: Enough already. [5]

Brad Shoup: She's most believable on "get the fuck up out of my house": she strings the vogue and Dirty South sounds together like a top-of-the-line security system. I guess anything could be a revolution if you're the sun. [5]

Ian Mathers: I think the thing that most surprised me about "My House" is that it doesn't just sound like an end credits song, it sounds like a whole bunch of them. The part where the track downshifts feels just like when the credits cut from the maximalist, triumphant "credits song" that tends to get promoted as such to another track (usually by another artist, or maybe even just from the score). You can practically hear it switching to the part where each line of the credits has like four people in a row. But, crucially, it sounds like it does so for one hell of a movie. [8]

Micha Cavaseno: Y'know, of all the nostalgia ticks for Beyoncé to hit on a recent single... I wouldn't exactly have figured we'd get proto-crunk Atlanta Rap in the style of Hitman Sammy Sam while doing the cadence of Chuck Roberts to be something she'd go for. Transitioning it into electro-house rather than indulging in a brief detour over to Atlanta Bass is understandable, but I can't help but that might've been a perfect piece de résistance. Nevertheless, it's perfectly solid music that features Knowles really continuing to rely on dancefloor rollers instead of pop smashes or R&B storms to keep her concerts heavily anchored. She's clearly transitioned into a touring event rather than a mainstream presence, and it makes perfect sense the more she transitions into her "mother" stage: career, personal life, Beyhive Queen analogies, the gay icon definition... whatever perception you prefer. Beyoncé is now a force to herself in the way that few pop stars are lucky to solidify themselves as, and Knowles knows that her ship runs on fuel and showcase, less on staking and striving. [6]

David Moore: I didn't begrudge Renaissance its world-beating rep, but at the same time there was something inaccessible to me about the project; the whole thing seemed like if you ever tried to really touch it, someone would brusquely remind you to stay behind the rope. More than any other celebrity archetype, Beyoncé reminds me of a television star of the '90s who made the prestige move to cinema and never looked back, even as television and cinema merged into the same formless blob of Engaging Artistic Narrative Content: she's like George Clooney or Jennifer Aniston, carrying the torch of a pop culture upward mobility that everyone says they've moved past even though they still treat the legacy holdouts with the reverence of a bygone era. Of course, Beyoncé's music is usually much better than anything George Clooney or Jennifer Aniston does. (Usually.) [5]

Oliver Maier: A microcosm of the Renaissance experience: expertly put together, more structurally inventive and surprising than the vast majority of pop music currently doing the rounds, never electrifying. [6]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[thestobingirlie]

So much fic seems to miss how different things were in the 80s compared to now (also seem to forget how long ago stranger things is set... like season 1 is set 40 years ago this year.)

One thing I notice it a lot in is the talking about video/ the setting with Steve and Robin working at family video and just how home media worked.

First part of it, you can always tell when someone only grew up with dvd/ bluray/ video on demand. Because VHS did not have home menus, scene selection, or an additional features menu. You put the tape in and the only options were play, pause, fast forward or rewind. And when people write DVD instead of VHS for what family video offer. Like that format did not come out until the mid 90's and didn't overtake VHS until the early-mid 2000's, which lead to the monstrosities that were the combo DVD/VHS player. (I even saw one fic where Steve and Robin had to rewind returned DVD's. That is just not how it works.)

A lot of the time I think people don't understand is how new accessible home video/ home media was. Like when Steve and Robin start at family video, VHS was less than a decade old. Home video that was accessible and available to the masses only really came about with Betamax in 75 and VHS in 76. And because of that it was expensive, which is why rental stores were such a big thing. In the mid 80's a normal single-tape VHS could easily cost $80-$90, which is the equivalent of over $200. When Back To The Future was released on VHS in 86 it cost $80. So when its written that someone (often Eddie) has rented the same movie a few times, and they have Steve or Robin say that it would be cheaper to buy a copy, it just doesn't make sense.

Then its the time between theatrical release and home release. It could easily be a year between theatrical release and VHS release (Using BTTF again, theatrical release date was July 3rd 1985, VHS release was May 22nd 1986. So nearly 11 months.) And film companies didn't just release their entire back catalogue onto VHS right away. They looked at what was in demand. (Disney didn't finish releasing their "classics" onto VHS until well into the 90's). The one I see people getting wrong the most in fic is The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Now I could see Robin and Eddie loving Rocky Horror, but they probably weren't all that aware of it. It was released in 75, but it wasn't available on VHS until 87 in the UK, and 1990 in the US, and it wasn't broadcast on TV until 93. Yes, there were midnight screenings in a lot of cities, but it was rated R, and they just might not have heard of it. (Sorry, but Rocky Horror is my other hyperfixation/ special interest and I could talk about it for hours on end). But, yeah, unless they'd managed to get hold of a bootleg copy, they probably hadn't seen it.

Sorry for the long ask, but this is just something that bugs me a little, because it would take just a few seconds to google it to find out if what they've written actually makes sense with the time it's set.

i read a fic that mentioned they were all watching a dvd and i literally stopped reading the fic. it just totally took me out of it.

obviously if you’re younger you won’t know as much about vhs, but it’s not that hard to find out (also, someone had to rewind dvds??? come on man, never having actually seen a vhs, sure. but have these people never watched a dvd??)

$80? that’s so expensive! i had no idea! i do love how you know so much about this tho lmao

people focus on the rocky horror picture show too much. i think it’s the only queer media they know from around the 80s, and while it’s fun, i really don’t think robin/steve/eddie would’ve known much about it, and if they did watch it, would probably be post st canon.

don’t worry about long asks! small things like that bug me too lol, especially because they’re so small it would take two seconds to look it up! but i guess if you’ve never really experienced 80s shit, you don’t even know you have to look stuff up.

[a-iya]

Hiiii ( ﾉ^ω^)ﾉ

Firstly, AHHHHHHHH I'm so glad you're watching Bungou Stray Dogs and you're enjoying it!!!

Secondly, I'm very curious about your favorite characters and ships from BSD 🧐

omg hiiii!! thank you for popping by the inbox 🥺

i was actually *just* looking thru my bsd tag (cause i wanted to see what i'd reblogged before without having watched it yet) and i saw that i reblogged a skk art from you in april of last year and tagged "i seriously should start this soon." lo and behold, it took a good 9 months before i actually did... (it's like haikyuu all over again with the horrible turnaround time) 😩 but better late than never!

i think i put off on starting it because my sister and one of my other friends told me they tried it and couldn't get into it. but once i started i was immediately in love!! i knew dazai was gonna be like gojo where like the handsome slightly older mentor guy kinda steals the show (i remember when i first started seeing bsd around the internet, the only memorable character was dazai. like i didn't even know who atsushi was) but yeah the dynamic between kunikida and dazai even in the first episode was sooo funny i was so confused as to how my sister and my friend dropped it?? i could've been hyperfixating and scouring the web for bsd content this whole time if i'd started earlier bruh i'm so mad

i'm trying not to overwhelm the dash with all my bsd posting but my queue has been 200+ posts since finishing the show a few weeks ago and over half of it is bsd. i thought i'd get through it faster actually since each season only has around 12 eps and there's only one movie, but i'm glad i took the time to savor all of it because it's *chef's kiss*

sorry i hate to be that recipe page that goes into a full backstory before getting into the actual recipe BUT this is indeed a loaded question. so hard because i love a lot of the characters but of course some more than others. will try to be brief with explanations but no promises lol

characters

absolutely love

ranpo: he is a talented, smart boy and he knows it!! his unapologetic-ness about who he is is so lovable. i can't believe this guy is also levi from aot 💀 there's definitely a resemblance with takeda-sensei though. but anyway, character design is top tier, his personality might be considered annoying to some but i enjoy how unconventional he is and he absolutely deserves all the respect and love he gets!!

chuuya: he's so cool when you first get introduced to him and the chemistry with dazai is insane. the back track they play for corruption is uNmatCHED. truly enhances his vibe 10x (he is so cool ahhh 😭). i might also be biased because he has the same va as jean from aot who i'm also in love with so there's that but he's such a fiery character and he stands out. i enjoy his character so much i can't really explain it

sigma: i kept seeing this name before i got to know him in S5 and i always thought he was going to be a major villain but he's actually so relatable??? like the anxiety, the lack of direction/purpose he feels in life, the desire to have something to protect, the wanting to belong somewhere. confused 90% of the time. this man just needs a hug, some direction, and a real friend. i love his color palette, the half-white, half-lavender is so pretty (they're some of my fav colors so)

really like

kunikida: a good man. gives me nanami vibes. a single mom who works two jobs and probably one of the only reasons the ADA can stay in business lmao. well-deserved second-in-command position. high standards for everyone and for himself which i appreciate. does what's right even when the world is working against him. where are the guys like him irl 😭

dazai: the most unserious man on the planet but somehow has one of the most op abilities. gojo energy for sure. but the person he became after odasaku is so admirable. i love how even though he is mostly a clown, he still plays his part (which happens to be huge in the org) and takes being a good person seriously

yosano: a badass, but not uncaring at all. she's seen some horrible shit, but i love how she was able to work through all the trauma that she endured (when she was literally!! a preteen!!) and still came out the other side a wonderful human being. i'm glad she had the ADA and all the support they gave to help her heal properly. the butterflies are such a beautiful motif for her. she deserves the world honestly

kenji: my son. he is so cute and wholesome. he is a simple boy with a simple way of life and it's so funny to me that the ADA is like a side gig for him. my favorite country bumpkin <3

fukuzawa: father to everyone in the agency basically. i think his integrity, strength in his beliefs, and ability to uphold his ideals makes people naturally gravitate toward him, and thus what makes him an optimal leader. i loved his backstory and the introspection he did to realize he needed to change. and how taking in ranpo was the catalyst for a very symbiotic and lovely relationship. he is caring and despite having seen/done many horrible things, he never lets go of his humanity, but instead wants to protect others because of it. i appreciate that

edgar allan poe: just a fanboy at heart. it's so funny to me how he has all these resources and is actually so powerful because of his ability, his connections, and his smarts, but at the end of the day, he mostly just wants to hang out with karl and ranpo 😭 the social anxiety is also relatable (getting scared at his own phone ringing cause "no one ever calls me" is such a mood) LMAO

hirotsu: a man of few words but large presence. i think he's the type of guy who does bad things but deep down is a good person. and he's loyal to the org but mostly to those he grows to care about. i also like his voice a lot!! could literally lull me to sleep, it's very relaxing

mori: i don't love his ability/whatever the situation is with the little girl elise, and i also don't condone a lot of the things we learned about his past (and ESP his abuse of yosano) BUT. i think he's a very interesting character and definitely a charismatic and effective leader. he's smart and thinks about things carefully. ultimately, his understanding and beliefs about what a leader is is what gets him the respect of all those in the port mafia and i respect that too. i also enjoy how he's voiced!! i think his va does a great job of portraying his calm demeanor/calculating nature. he understands proper bedside manner i suppose

like but only in dynamic with others

kyoka (with atsushi): the cutest!! but i feel like other than like her initiation where she does show some personality (and violent tendencies lmao), after she officially joins the agency, she's mostly just atsushi's sidekick who may or may not have a crush on him. but i love how much they care for each other. i feel like it's neither romantic nor platonic, but like both? but also neither. a secret third thing LMAO

bram (with the lil girl aya): i recognized nanami's va immediately!! and the situation he was in when we first meet him is tragic but also sooo funny 😭 i'm pretty sure one of the first bsd things i reblogged was of him and this scene lmao. i don't feel any sort of way about him, but when i saw how he interacted with the little girl 🥺 ahhh

fyodor (with dazai): he's what i would deem a psychopath, and probably what dazai could've been if he continued doing bad stuff. but i also feel like he's a lot more sinister and ruthless than dazai, so when they're having conversations in their shared jail cell it's so funny because they talk so casually about really messed up things, but also kinda creepy because of how deep they can get into each other's minds (because their brains are cut from the same cloth)

atsushi/akutagawa: individually, i am okay with both of them but i'm not in love with them or anything. put together, i still don't see dazai's vision of them being the "new twin dark" but it is pretty cool to see when they do cooperate with one another (on the very rare occasion lol). although i feel like it's mostly akutagawa that's unwillling. idk if it's just the animation style but their character designs look kinda similar?? in terms of build and face at least. the symmetry and the red/black and blue/white contrast in the show does scratch an itch for me though. it's so satisfying to see them fight together

jono/tecchou: at first i didn't understand these two,,.,. and i wasn't a fan of jono cause he was weirdly sadistic?? which sucked cause i normally love the characters his va plays. but yeah i couldn't get a read on this guy and he was also oddly sinister and unlikable imo. and tecchou is just a himbo. like REALLY stupid (which is kinda funny, but also like damn if this man was left stranded on an island by himself or something he would die within a day. zero common sense or survival instinct [unless it comes to fighting of course]). after tecchou's confession about jono though, and him conceding to kenji, and ALSO jono defying his superior to do the right thing (was not expecting that given his personality.,,.), i warmed up to both of them a little bit more. seems like they do care about each other after all (despite jono's outward distaste towards tecchou lmao)

in terms of ships!! other than chuuya and dazai (there is simply no heterosexual explanation for their relationship. i was watching dead apple and my sister happened to be hanging around so she caught the part where chuuya comes back to punch dazai in the face to save him and she was just floored at how gay that whole thing was), i don't ship anyone super hardcore. one thing i love is that all the characters have really good dynamics with each other, and i really enjoy the playful nature that the ADA has within themselves but also with others outside the organization (except kunikida and fukuzawa, of course, who are pretty serious. but they have all my respect for being the parents that hold down the fort)

ships/dynamics

chuuya/dazai: see above. when we first meet chuuya, the two of them already give off such divorced energy i just. love them (as does everyone else lmao). their fighting chemistry is unmatched because they know each other like the back of their own hands. it drives me insane

kunikida/dazai: very obvious they have a typical bickering kind of dynamic but after seeing how well they work together despite their very different personalities, 1) so much respect to kunikida for putting up with dazai's bullshit on the daily and 2) i don't really see them as being personal friends per se, but their relationship is a lot deeper than that of just coworkers. seeing the respect they have for each other and them being able to recognize each other's strengths and weaknesses and predict their actions in high pressure situations is so uGHSDLKJE

fyodor/dazai: they match each other's freak in the worst ways. like it's scary but also fascinating at the same time. the fact that their character designs are also really similar just makes for a very entertaining watch. when sigma was like "oh god am i the only normal one in this room" i laughed sooo hard. cause he really was the only one there who wasn't insane 😭 fyodor/dazai's va's are also doma (upper 2) and akaza (upper 3) in demon slayer so it's just crazy to hear their dialogue but in such a different context

ranpo/fukuzawa: fukuzawa is ranpo's father i don't care what anyone else says. their backstory episodes were some of the first i went back to rewatch because i loved their dynamic and the ADA origin story so much. they really did have what the other person needed and it was so satisfying to see fukuzawa gain perspective and meaning in his life again (thru being ranpo's guardian figure), and to see ranpo receive some guidance and care through someone who cares about him after his own parents were no longer in the picture. they have such a great personal relationship but also work really well together and it's just so wholesome

ranpo/yosano: THEY!! i know the entire ADA is basically found family for everyone but in my mind, ranpo and yosano are the special son/daughter duo that fukuzawa specifically adopted/raised essentially. both of their backstories about how they were recruited into the ADA are so touching, esp his involvement in hers. i always saw ranpo as autistic (which explains his lack of tact sometimes) but despite that, he treated yosano with such care when they were trying to get her to join like. it was so moving i almost cried when i watched the first time. when i rewatched again i cried fr. to be clear i don't ship them romantically, i think they're closer to siblings tbh but either way they are so special to me and deserve all the love in the world

ranpo/poe: i really love how we very quickly find out that poe is not some evil enemy mastermind but just a major ranpo fanboy. and then they become besties and go on adventures and engage in shenanigans together

atsushi/akutagawa: like i mentioned earlier, this duo came out of left field for me personally. like i had no idea they would later be forced to work together when i initially started watching. tbh i still don't completely see the chemistry but i get whiffs of it here and there and i'm like okay... i can kind of picture dazai's vision-ish... but i think i still need some convincing. the visuals for both of them in the show, however, are spectacular. symmetry, color(/palette) contrast are >>>>

kenji/tecchou: they are literally the "wanna be friends?" "okay" dynamic come to life. they're both such simple human beings like. pure of heart, dumb of ass. it's so unexpected but it totally works

jono/tecchou: see above. i feel like on jono's side, their relationship dynamic is a reluctant kind of companionship lmao. maybe akin to that of siblings? whereas for tecchou, i think he just likes jono mostly because they are the only ones in their group that are equals (tachihara too i guess kinda but he's away most of the time so they don't work together a lot), he needs jono's guidance (because he is dumb), and he doesn't mind jono's company. he's a bit like a puppy in that regard. that's just my take on it at least

bram/lil girl: they were so cute together. i love how soft he is with her and how protective of her he becomes as the plot progresses. and i love how she doesn't see him as any different from anyone else (despite him being literally half a body connected to a sword) and how from him, she gets the validation that she so desperately seeks. they are so <3

yosano/tachihara: they didn't really get much interaction other than the confrontation part about her being the one who "killed" her brother but like... surely he thought about it some more right? like she was literally 11 and held there against her will. no different than the brother himself. and her mental state was deteriorating just as bad as the actual soldiers on the battlefield. it makes me so mad that tachihara blames it on her entirely. not necessarily a dynamic i enjoyed but i would've liked to see more of them after that whole arc. especially since he ended up sparing her anyway (though i don't think she deserved death and i don't think he gets to decide whether or not to punish her with death for what happened to his brother??). i think yosano deserves an apology if anything. or at least a chance to hash things out with tachihara. maybe they could've been friends idk

as always, i welcome your thoughts and commentary but understand that essays require quite a bit of mental energy to process so. definitely feel free to add your fav characters and ships!! i know skk and sskk and ranpoe are some of your go-to's since i've seen your reblogs about them, but i'm curious to know if there are any more characters/dynamics you enjoy that aren't brought up as much in fandom!

i'm very glad i started the show. even if not as much or as often as other fandoms on my dash, seeing bsd consistently definitely piqued/maintained my interest in watching and i knew i'd be in for a good time once i stepped in so thank YOU for that!! and thanks for the ask <3

[heymomhowdoi]

Hey Mom: How Do I Get Ready For Prom?

Where Can I Get A Prom Dress?

Prom dresses are everywhere it seems: from bridal shops, to second hand clothing stores. If you are looking to wear a dress to prom, you have a few options: you can thrift a dress, buy one new, rent a dress, or even make one yourself!

If you're looking to buy one new, oftentimes you can find them at bridal salons. Go with some friends or a trusted adult and try on some gowns! The prices for these dresses might be a bit high, and if you're paying for it yourself, you might want to see if the store has the option to use a payment plan. This will allow you to pay off your dress in increments.

Some stores also allow for renting prom dresses, which is a lot cheaper. Maybe look around and see which stores allow for renting. This means you are allowed to take the dress, but you have to return it by a certain date, kind of like a library book!

If you're looking to make your own dress, head on down to your local sewing/craft shop, like JoAnns or Michaels, and see what patterns they have. My local JoAnns has a large filing cabinet filled with both old and new Simplicity patterns, so you never know what you'll find. Pick out a nice fabric (or two) and the supplies you will need to bring your creation together. I'd also suggest getting a sewing dummy, to make things easier.

With dresses, there are many different silhouettes to choose from, all of which look very different on different body types. Here's a good chart to get a feel for what kind of dress you might want to look for depending on your body type. I found this on my Pinterest ages ago, and I keep it saved for sewing projects. However, feel free to wear whatever you feel you look good in!

Makeup

Now, there are two avenues which can be used to do prom makeup: either you can get it done professionally, or do it yourself. If you choose the professional route, you're going to want to call months in advance to see if they can squeeze you in. If you're out of luck, you'll want to learn how to do it yourself.

There are so many makeup tutorials on Youtube that can help you with this dilemma, so feel free to check those out. I will be updating this post when I am finally able to do my own makeup tutorial. But for now, I can give some simple pointers: use a good primer on your face before you do anything, make sure that your concealer and foundation match your skintone (your concealer should be 1-2 shades lighter), make sure the eyeshadow you use is either a nude (skin) tone, or the color of your suit/dress, and a little makeup goes a long way!

Here's a few good tutorials for prom makeup (thank you to all these creators and artists for making videos):

Hair

Prom hair is one of those things where it keeps waxing and waning on whether it should be elaborate or not. Current trends seem to be waning towards a more simple look trend, while back in the 90's and mid 2010s, prom hair was extravagant, wild, and down right intricate. Thankfully, we're not in that era at all anymore, and a lot of looks can be done at home.

However, if you want a professional to do your hair, book an appointment the day of prom with a stylist! Make sure you do so in advance, though. Some hair dressers might allow last minute appointments, but make sure they are able to see you the day of prom.

Nails

For a number of people, pre-prom prep comes with a mani-pedi, in which they get their nails done. In order to get this straightened out, you can either book an appointment with a nail salon, or do them yourself! Here is a lovely article from ELLE Magazine as to what to expect from a nail appointment.

If you don't want to go to the nail salon, or they are booked right now, go to your local beauty store/Walmart/Dollar Store and find a polish the color of your ensemble. If you ensemble has multiple colors, pick one of the complimentary ones included in your dress/tux and go from there. When applying nail polish, only apply 3 swipes of the brush. Anything less might be too sheer, anything beyond that will look gummy or too thick. Set with a nail protective coat and voila! Add some nail gems or a glitter top coat if you're looking to dazzle!

Pre-Prom Activities (Dinner, Limo, etc).

A number of people who go to prom with a group tend to go out to eat beforehand, and/or ride in a limo to prom. If this is your plan, check your local restaurants to see if you can book a reservation for the night of prom, specifically 1-2 hours beforehand depending how far it is from the venue. This will allow for proper travel time after dinner to make it to the party on time!

Limos are a different deal altogether: I'd suggest asking a parent for permission and then going from there. After your wish is okay'd by a guardian, check out where your nearest limo rental company is and give them a ring. The dealership will be able to help from there on out.

If you have a date, you might be expected to buy them a corsage (if you're AMAB) or a boutonniere (if you're AFAB). A corsage is a wristlet that has flowers on it. A boutonniere is a little bundle of flowers that is pinned to the lapel of a suit. You can pre-order these at a local florist, or buy artificial ones at craft stores. If you want to make your own, here's a tutorial on how to do that. Here's a resource on boutonnieres.

And there you have it! Prom can be so fun once all the stress is over with. I hope you have fun at the party, but please come home safely and do not drink and drive. Mom will be waiting up for you with a hot cup of tea, excited to hear about what happened there! Love, Mom.