#Bud Brothers Unlimited Series

[rosetan]

Bud Brothers Unlimited Series Baby's Breath 2013 Dahil sa vintage wine ng kliyenteng Hapon, nalasing si Ging-ging at nawala ang hiya at pinakawalan ang lihim na pagnanasa kay Aldis. Nakainom din ito kaya pinatulan siya. Ang resulta: trending topic siya ngayon ng mga tsismosa ng bayan: Atin-atin lang ‘to ha? Si Ging-ging buntis. Ang masaklap, totoo ang tsismis. Ang mas masaklap doon: hindi siya pakakasalan ni Aldis dahil hindi naman daw siya nito mahal. To save her pride, she declared war against her baby’s daddy. Ni kuko ng anak niya, hindi niya ipapahipo kay Aldis!

[mobius-prime]

169. Sonic the Hedgehog #101

Welcome to the once-planned hundredth issue, everyone, and there's something at the end of it that has made me lose my freaking mind. You know my penchant for calculating meticulously every tidbit of information that the comic gives us about thing like square miles/kilometers, planet size, orbital height and whatnot. It's become almost something of a running joke in this series. Well, we've hit the peak. After this issue, absolutely nothing that the comic throws at us anymore can possibly compare. Just. You. Wait.

Altered States

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Frank Gagliardo

We left off last issue with Sonic realizing to his horror that Nate is still trapped within Robotropolis. He rushes back toward the city to try to save him, but before he gets there the energy dome goes up once more, causing him to bounce back off it painfully. And right as he does… everything changes. Suddenly, he and Tails once again have their classic designs, and find themselves facing down… Metal Robotnik?

The world appears to have strangely shifted sideways into an alternate reality based on the Sonic OVA. Sonic and Tails work together to battle Metal Robotnik so they can enter Robotropolis and save the princess (Princess Sara, that is), and along the way Knuckles, in his trademark cowboy hat from the movie, hops in to offer his help as well. Unfortunately, they all become cornered… but then reality shifts again. This time, Sonic finds himself witnessing the betrothal of Sally Acorn to Knuckles, with both King Max and Locke happily commemorating the union of the two families after seven years of an official alliance. No one is roboticized, and there appears to be no sign of a war or of Robotnik. Sonic becomes upset at the proceedings and races off, wondering how things came this far.

He heads to Uncle Chuck's chili dog restaurant to have a heart to heart with him, during which time we find out that ten years ago Julian's coup was nipped in the bud before it even began, with the only casualty of the whole affair ultimately being Sonic's father, who was still roboticized from Julian's sabotage. Apparently in this reality, the entire kingdom has been at peace ever since, and everyone has been happy except for Sonic, who feels, as he puts it, like just "the kid who's dad is a 'bot." Uncle Chuck encourages him to still treasure his unofficial ties to Sally, and once again… reality shifts. This time, Sonic and Sally have been cornered at the edge of a building by Robotnik while on a mission, and while pretending to surrender, end up jumping off the building, straight into the path of an airship flown by their friends, who rush to save them.

As they fly off triumphantly, both Sonic and Sally are suddenly overcome with a strange feeling that none of this is right. Sally recounts a dream she had about being engaged to Knuckles, as well as having an older brother and still-living parents, all of which Sonic can remember as well. As they puzzle over how they somehow remember the same events, reality shifts yet again. Sonic finds himself standing alone in a room, with tears gently dripping from his face onto a photo of Sally, marking another rare occasion of Sonic actually shedding tears. His roboticized parents come to retrieve him, and he sadly walks outside… into a funeral party.

As he and his friends mourn over Sally's death, Sonic finds himself suddenly overcome by strange memories - memories of defeating Robotnik, and of kissing a very-much-alive Sally after her miraculous recovery from her injuries from the fall. He stands up, announcing to everyone that Sally isn't actually dead, and as they doubt his mental health he continues to insist that it's true, that he and everyone else, including Sally, have just escaped Robotropolis with the Robians and are returning to Knothole - and all at once, reality rights itself. He finds himself staring at all his friends just outside the energy dome over Robotropolis, and everyone stirs, feeling as though they've all been dreaming. Sonic wonders if Eggman is behind all those weird reality shifts, but Nate informs him that it's not, that Eggman wouldn't work with a plan that's so scattered and that the random nature of the shifts indicates that whoever is behind it isn't fully in control of what's happening. Sonic realizes this isn't the correct reality either, as Nate shouldn't be here with them, and as Nate worries that these shifts could cause reality itself to become unstable, in a single moment Nate morphs into Uncle Chuck, finally bringing reality back to the way it should be… with Nate still trapped inside the city.

And thus, the band leaves the city and heads back to their own village, sadly leaving Nate behind, remembered as the hero who saved them all.

Reboot

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Dawn Best Colors: Frank G.

So who exactly was behind all those reality shifts, then? Well, of course, it was the work of Green Knuckles! Back on board the Dark Legion's battleship, Julie-Su privately confronts Knuckles about his decision to ally himself with the Legion, demanding he explain himself. He surprises her by saying that in the end, Tobor's death influenced his decision - that Tobor died full of anger and hatred, and he felt it all, up to the moment of impact.

Despite Julie-Su's misgivings, Knuckles asks Dimitri for advice on controlling his newfound powers, to which Dimitri reminds him that now that he's essentially a living Chaos Emerald, his powers are almost unlimited. Knuckles then gets the idea that he could possibly travel through time, to prevent any of the negative events of the past centuries from taking place at all, and despite Dimitri warning him that not even he himself had wanted to try something so risky, Knuckles is able to bring himself back to the very day that the Floating Island was first raised from the land. Realizing that everything bad that ever happened could be traced back to the island being created in the first place, he uses his powers to destroy the comet before it can hit, so that the scientists never have to raise the island at all. He finds himself confused why he still exists at all, considering that this should have solved everything, but then out of nowhere, a massive earthquake hits, knocking him off his feet…

He suddenly comes to back on the battleship, as though nothing happened. Dimitri again warns him about the foolishness of trying to change the past, but Knuckles simply calls him a coward and prepares to try again. Dimitri reveals that as far as he knows, there's only three junctions within time where he stands a chance at actually fixing things, and the comet strike was the first, so Knuckles decides he's going to go back to the other two junctions, leaving us on a cliffhanger.

Whoo, those were some pretty intense stories, right? Well, we're not done yet! It's been a long time since we got extra supplemental material like a map or a character profile, but we get both in this issue! First up we have a character profile for Sally Acorn, most of which is just a recap of previous events and is therefore mostly known to us, but which is still worth going over. It's noteworthy that both this and the next page were, though not credited, clearly written by Penders - it has his art and writing style all over it, and furthermore Sally's page has a big ol' picture of her making out with Geoffrey even though that weird era has long since passed us by. Furthermore, he's decided to make up his own various units of measurement without actually giving us a translation for them into real-world units, meaning we have to do a bit of math and guesswork. Sally's height is given as "73 marks," and her weight as "6.5 stone." We don't have any real-world units to compare these measurements to, but what we do have is Sonic's height and weight from the games. He has a later data file for himself, so using his measurements from that later file and comparing them to his measurements from the games, assuming they're equivalent, one mark is worth about 1.43 cm or 0.56 inches, and one stone is worth 4.86 kg or 10.69 lbs. From that, we can easily find Sally's height and weight in real-world units. She's about 104 cm tall or 3′5″, and weighs around 31.5 kg or 69.5 lbs. That seems reasonable, especially given the small stature of most Mobians.

Sally's birthday is also given as the 186th day of the year. On Mobius, the year length is the same as ours, but they don't appear to use months, merely marking the passing of time throughout the year by counting the days. Converting this to something we can understand, this means that Sally was born on July 5. The only other really noteworthy thing in the profile is the statement that she began to officially lead the resistance against Robotnik at the age of thirteen, and that "more than a year later" Julayla died and she acquired Nicole. Now we know when those events happened - just before the Sonic In Your Face special. This would mean that, if she and Sonic are sixteen now, it's been two full years since that issue. I know continuity has always been a little weird in this series concerning how much time takes place in between major events, but two years seems about right, and seems to fall in line with what I've estimated earlier, if she and the others were only around fourteen during the majority of the first two eras. If anything, it's really nice that time actually passes over the course of the comic, whereas the games often seem to take place in some kind of nebulous world where time doesn't really progress and Sonic is forever fifteen.

And now, we come to the second data file: the Floating Island.

I've included the whole page, because we are going to need all of it. I first overlaid this map with the previous one that we were given in the first issue of the Knuckles miniseries to check how well it held up, and to my surprise it matches up perfectly, even down to the most minor of locations - Penders must have traced this map directly from the other one, and just flipped it on its side. The only big differences are the location of Mount Thunder, which was not mentioned at all on the previous map, and the gray area at the right side, which is what the island lost due to the hit from the quantum beam. Right off the bat, we're given the surface area of the island. It used to be 57.75 square metrons, but after the quantum beam it it's been reduced to 41.35 square metrons. That's a reduction of almost 30% in size! I dunno about you, but that gray area does not look like 30% of the total landmass to me. But whatever - all they lost was uninhabited desert, so it doesn't affect the plot much and we can just chalk it up to a small discrepancy or something.

But this does bring us to the very important question of, how much is a metron, exactly? Well, we know from my previous calculations that the surface area of the island is (or rather, was) 2,325 square miles or 6,022 square km in area. Now, calculating the length of a metron in proportion to a mile or kilometer is a lot harder when all you have to work off of are equivalent elliptical areas, so I contracted my math-genius girlfriend for help on this one, and through the power of overcomplicated diagrams, frantic internet searches, cobbled-together formulas, and shameless guesswork we ended up with this: there are roughly 6.34 miles, or 10.14 km, to one metron. Fair enough! This wouldn't be a problem, if it wasn't for the next two measurements given. Mount Thunder, according to this data file, is 1.79 metrons high, which translated into real-world units makes it a whopping 11.35 miles, or 18.15 km, high at its peak. I know it's a bit cliché to use Mount Everest as a reference for Tall Things, but this mountain would be over twice as high as Everest if that is the case. And things only get even more ridiculous when you take a look at its "orbital height" of 6.83 metrons. Congratulations, Ken Penders, now I know you were never bothering to pay attention to scale. Forget our old outdated estimate of the island floating only eight miles high, because this translates to the island consistently floating 43.3 miles, or 69.3 km, off the surface of the goddamned planet! Do you have any idea how high that is?! That is smack dab in the middle of the mesosphere, far above the ozone layer, right around the height at which meteors start burning up on entry into Earth's atmosphere. That is almost twice as high as weather balloons float before they burst due to the difference in pressure. The temperature at that height would be around -60°C, or -76°F, which is almost exactly equal to the average temperature that Antarctica regularly experiences in its coldest locations and seasons. Breathable air straight up doesn't exist at that altitude. This one just blows every other previous absurd measurement out of the water. This is the thing that makes it clear, once and for all, that despite apparently being invested enough in this universe now to be creating fictional units of measurement for it, Kenders still can't bother to try to actually make sense of what he's created. Granted, this is by far one of the least objectionable things to emerge from his work, but as someone who pays a great deal of attention to these kinds of small details in worldbuilding, these kinds of errors are glaring. They're also hilarious, and I will continue to document every single one for posterity because this ongoing saga is probably the best thing to come out of me rereading this series by far.

Ultimately, the rest of the information related in the data file is either already known to us, such as the explanation of the island's history, or largely worthless. There are no real-world measurements provided to compare to "datrons," meaning that the "3.2" number given for the island's orbital period is indecipherable. If there were a comparable unit given, and if we were told which direction the island orbits (east-to-west or west-to-east) then I would probably have spent even more of my time calculating its average speed, as well as just how much longer or shorter a day is on the Floating Island due to its orbit, but that's just not possible for now, unfortunately. But the two data files in this issue are far from the last we'll see, so expect more analyses and calculations like this in the near future, cause lord knows I can't get enough of doing 'em.

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of August 21st, 2019

Best of this Week: Tony Stark: Iron Man #15 (Legacy #615) - Dan Slott, Jim Zub, Juanan Ramirez, Francesco Manna, Edgar Delgado and Joe Caramagna

Tony Stark may not be the man he says he is anymore.

Since the landmark 600th issue of Iron Man, Tony Stark hasn’t been entirely sure that he is actually himself and not just a strange collection of nanobots and machines strung together in the form of the billionaire tech wizard. After the horrible incident surrounding eScape, Tony Stark’s virtual reality world, leads to the deaths of a few people and millions or more in property damage, Tony has to take the stand and address what exactly happened. 

He’s grilled pretty thoroughly on what an AI is and how much was his responsibility vs. how much can be blamed on Controller, the supervillain who hacked into the supposedly secure network and caused all of this damage. Overseeing the hearing is a surprising character from another mechanical superheroes past. Senator Miles Brickman, a character that originally appeared as something of an anti-machine/anti-AI character in the pages of Machine Man’s original series, it livid and irate at Tony Stark. Showing a bit of prejudice in his questioning, he asks has Tony Stark ever made any changes to his body using technology, then follows by asking “Can you prove that you’re not some form of artificial intelligence?”

Tony initially tries to dance around the question, but upon being reminded that he’s under oath, reveals that it is actually quite possible as his body was put back together cell by cell while he was in his coma. This shocks everyone, from Rhodey to Bethany Cabe, his head of security at Stark Unlimited, and even his brother Arno Stark who is watching the hearing from his office at Baintronics, the rival technology company.

AI Tony calls for a recess after a few snarky lines as we cut to Vision and Wonder Man arriving at Avengers mansion, thinking they’ve been called to assist in Tony’s hearing. Immediately some red flags might want to be set off with the characters involved, especially when Jarvis lets them in and soon after betrays them with a large piece of metal embedded in the back of his head with a familiar design. 

Things start to heat up as Brickman produces the Tony Stark AI that was used by Riri Williams while Tony was in a coma and asks does this fully functioning, autonomous copy have legal rights and responsibilities. What makes me so uncomfortable about this scene is that it plays on the fear of the unknown.

Brickman has tried to have Machine Man destroyed in the past and even knowing that Tony Stark has saved the world in the past, he’s not willing to consider that he still has right once it’s admitted that he may not be fully human anymore. In a way it mirrors some of our own discussions as it pertains to AI and whether or not we’ll allow them autonomy once they become advanced enough for it. There’s a whole discussion for sex robots that no one is qute ready for just yet.

The Wasp, Janet van Dyne, flies through a robot protest on her way to meet Tony for lunch and catches him talking to Tony AI. Tony AI agrees to be loaded into the Iron Man suit and they all fly off when suddenly they’re met with a gross amalgamation of Vision and Wonder Man fused together. Ramirez’s art makes him look so horrifying with only half of Wonder Man’s luxurious hair and cracking skin that’s as red as Vision’s. He rushes at Tony in a rage and promises to rip the human and AI halves of him apart, displaying an anger that neither character has ever presented. 

In the middle of their fight, Jarvis appears and zaps Janet, who was knocked out of the fight during the initial rush. He places her in his pocket and leaves thereafter. Tony and WonderVision continue their fight, destroying the robot protestors in the process. Tony realizes that they only way to stop them is to use a localized EMP which will also kill Tony AI. The technological Tony isn’t fazed and just tells Tony to kiss Jan a bunch and feel vaguely bad about it later.

Unfortunately, this leaves Tony in the middle of the carnage. He’s surrounded by broken robots, likely to take the blame for all of it and realizes that Jocasta was right, he only sees everything as data. He breathes a small sigh that he’s still alive and that WonderVision didn’t take Janet… until he can’t find her. We then cut to the surprising return of The Avengers greatest enemy as his new gambit to destroy Tony Stark and spark a new machine age is in full effect.

What I liked most about this issue is that Tony’s mistakes really catch up to him in a bad way. He’s always managed to skate by the skin of his teeth when his machines have gone haywire. While Brickman was being an asshole for the trial, he made a good point in that we don’t quite know if we can trust this Tony. Given what we as the audience know thus far, he’s falling hard. Almost going back to the drink, questioning his own existence, not even having the trust of the brother that’s been by his side since his appearance in the mid 2000s (in this universe).

And that ending, finally seeing the seeds of what’s been sewn for months now starting to take form, is always fun. I had wondered what happened to this character since Infinity Wars (2018) and I can’t wait to see where exactly this story is going to go and what the repercussions of that event will be. I also can’t wait to see how exactly he’ll scar Tony and his extended family now that he’s returned. High recommend!

---------------------------------------------------

Things were looking up for Otto Octavius. He had found a nice woman and was slowly falling in love, he had mended fences with Anna-Maria in a way. After the events of War of the Realms, he was a respected and loved hero in San Francisco and then it all came crashing down.

Runner Up: The Superior Spider-Man #10 (Legacy #43) - Christos Gage, Mike Hawthorne, Wade von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles

After taking the lovely Emma on a swing through the city, The Spider-Man of San Francisco goes on to visit the child he saved all the way back in issue #4 and help his new adoptive parents get custody of him. These small moments of warmness are a far cry from the maniacal nature that we were once accustomed to from Octavius. Bellaire colors most these scenes in a nice, warm orange. Giving us this feeling of joy and some happiness for Otto… at least until he’s discussing having a child with Emma and she alerts him to the news report that asks if the SF Spider-Man is really Otto Octavius. 

Things start to spiral even further as Spider-Man is interviewed and dances around the question and the Brothers Grimm acknowledge that he hired them for some temp work if they went straight, alluding to the first arc of the book. Otto is furious, Anna-Maria gives him snark and Emma tells him that he needs to face things head on, getting in front of it all. He can prove that he’s changed. Unfortunately, Anna-Maria brings up the kid as an example of someone who he’s helped and he swings to the apartment to find the foster parents angry and the child sad that he lied. Normally Otto wouldn't think twice about lying to someone or omitting information, but looking into that child's eyes as he began to cry, Otto reveals that he lied because he wanted the kid to like him and they hug. 

Soon after, Otto is called back to Horizon University where he is known as Professor Tolliver. Max Modell is waiting for him as he's received an email telling him that Tolliver is actually Otto Octavius. Surprisingly to Otto, Max already knew. Max Modell may act like a goof, but he's not considered one of the brightest minds in Marvel for no reason. He ran a DNA test to confirm soon after his emergence and gave "Tolliver" a chance to prove himself a changed man and given that he has, he's been trying to help clear his name. 

With Max's security footage and his own enhanced suit, Otto is able to determine that it was actually Spiders-Man that sent all of the incriminating data to everyone. Once Spiders-Man realizes he's caught, the thousands of spiders that make up his form reconstitute until Ock defeats him and compresses the former Peter Parker's consciousness into one Spider-Body. After some pushing, Spiders-Man reveals that it was Norman Osborn's idea. This Norman Osborn, however, is from another dimension where he's the Spider Totem and his main enemy was a Green Goblin Peter Parker, if I remember right. 

Spiders-Man also tells Otto that Norman is in his own dimension, safe from harm. During the events of Spider-Geddon, the Web of Fate was destroyed, making dimensional travel much harder for Spider people. Octavius hits a wall until Anna-Maria comes out that she's saved a bit of Terrax's energy from the first arc in the Living Brain robot, in case Otto ever reverted. This makes him sink even lower, but ultimately he understands and tries to use the power to make a portal...only Norman planned for this and over loads the machine, causing it to destroy the building almost killing everyone inside if not for Otto. 

Otto manages to save Max and Anna-Maria, but is swiftly defeated and left for dead by Norman who was there the entire time. When Otto asks why Norman is doing this, he responds in the most Norman Osborn way possible by saying, "You insulted me."

Just when Otto Octavius was finding his place in the world as a hero, forces mostly belong his control have made their move in an effort to derail him. Otto finally seems happy, even helping out a young child that he absolutely has no obligation to and starting a budding new relationship with an older woman that's just as smart as he. Things were going well, he even got a key to the city for crying out loud!

But, as fate befalls all Spiders, his terrible actions in the past are coming back to haunt him. Who's to say that Mephisto doesn't have a little bit of a hand in this as well? We can only hope things turn out well for Otto in the end, but not before Norman makes things much, much worse.

[cordonianchoicesqueen]

Rewritten: The Royal Romance: Wine Cellar (Part 15)

A/N: Thanks so much for the great feedback on my last chapter!

Summary: After hanging out with Liam in his hot tub, Riley joins Drake for a quick drink in Olivia’s wine cellar.

Choices Chapter: Book One, Chapter Eight [diamond scene]

Disclaimer: Characters and main storyline from Pixelberry’s Choices.

Word Count: 1500+ (just a short one!)

Warnings: none

Link to Full Series: Rewritten

Tags: @krsnlove @cora-nova

Wine Cellar

I was definitely doing the walk of shame heading back to my room from my rendezvous with Prince Liam in his hot tub that night. Although nothing “un-savoury” had occurred, my dress was crinkled and damp from snow plus my hair was out of place and soaking wet from dipping in and out of the water. I snuck along the corridors, holding my heels, trying to avoid the squeaky floorboards. As I reached the top of the staircase to continue down the hall to my room I spotted another figure sneaking through the eerily quiet chateaux in the foyer. Drake’s footsteps were much louder than mine, even though he was definitely attempting to be quiet. It didn’t help that he was carrying a bottle of whiskey and some glasses so that every couple of steps he made a suitably loud clinking noise. Leaning over the bannister, I stage whispered, “Where exactly are you off to, young man?”

My voice startled him and he almost dropped his whiskey. He looked up, fear in his eyes, that immediately disappeared when he saw who the voice had come from. “Thank God that’s you, Brooks,” he whispered back. “That didn’t answer my question!” I replied, still trying to keep my voice down. “I told you. Olivia has an incredible wine cellar. Come have a drink?” he shook his bottle of whiskey at me, temptingly. It wasn’t a difficult decision to join him. I was starting to find Drake’s company somewhat tolerable… plus, I was still so awake from my time with Liam, I knew going back to my room would just entail staring at the ceiling for a few hours. A drink was the perfect way to lull me to sleep. I shrugged at him and, quietly, made my way down the stairs. I followed him into the kitchen and then down a spiral staircase into the wine cellar. The walls were made of beautiful stone work and there were more bottles of wine than I could count. There were a couple of tables throughout the room, which I presumed were there for wine tastings before events. Drake set us up at a table closer to the back so that our voices wouldn’t carry back up into the kitchen. He placed down his whiskey tumblers and grabbed a couple of crystal glasses from the side of the room. Silently, as I took a seat, he perused the shelves and picked out a bottle of red. I was glad that he was already tipsy enough not to notice my current state of dress. “Don’t think this one will be missed,” he muttered, uncorking it and pouring us both a glass. “I didn’t take you for a thief,” I teased. He laughed, “that shows just how much you don’t know me, Brooks.” “You do seem to make it quite difficult for people to know you,” I said, as he took a seat next to me. I sipped my wine and my taste buds lit up with the flavour. I couldn’t imagine growing up in a world with unlimited access to delicious, expensive booze instead of living off cheap grain vodka at University and stealing liquors you don’t even like from your parent’s stash. “Well,” Drake said, sipping his wine, “you saw how Olivia, a person who knows me, treated me the other day. No point letting anyone in so that they can use it against me later.” “I’ve, also, seen how Liam treats you… and wouldn’t you say he knows you better?” I questioned. “You’ve got a point,” he said, downing the rest of the glass. “I’m not really one for wine, more of a whiskey guy.” “So, you break into Olivia’s wine cellar to drink your own whiskey?” I laughed. “Tell me, doesn’t it feel great to be somewhere Olivia wouldn’t want you to. Drinking her booze?” he smiled, pouring us glasses of whiskey. He had me there. Sitting in what was technically her hot tub with Liam had felt somewhat thrilling. Now, sat with Drake felt like a somewhat diluted version but he was right. After Olivia’s display at the ball… kissing Liam… in front of everyone… I would drink all her booze if I liked. I raised my glass, “To Olivia.” Drake laughed, clinking my glass with his own, “To Olivia.” We sat in silence for a moment, letting the alcohol warm us from the inside. It was strange just how comfortable I was in silence with Drake. I let the booze take over my body, feeling myself become more and more tipsy. “I’ve got to say,” he finally said, “it’s refreshing to have someone break the rules with me.” I smiled, “I don’t know why you put yourself through all this noble stuff if you don’t enjoy it.” “It’s for Liam… it’s always been for him. He’s like a brother to me and he likes to have me around to keep him grounded, to be his confidant when he feels like he can’t trust anyone else around him. I feel like I owe him so much. This is the least I can do,” he shrugged, staring into the bottom of his glass. “I’m sure he appreciates it,” I said, finishing my drink. “He better,” he poured us some more. “I mean, sometimes I look at you… and I see this wide-eyed baby deer who just stumbled into the hunter’s campsite…” “I can handle myself,” I said, indignant. He smiled, “I’m sure you can… you just don’t know these people like I do.” “You keep saying that but not really explaining what you mean,” I complained. “People like us… we are dispensable to the court. They don’t care about us and to pretend they do is to be ignorant,” he huffed, taking another huge gulp of whiskey. I rolled my eyes, “who broke your heart, dude? Which of the ladies on the court hurt you so badly?” “Ha,” he said dryly. “None of the women here would give me a second glance. Regardless of the fact that I am not remotely attracted to any of them and that they are all here for Liam. I would never get in the way of Liam picking his wife.” “You’re such a liar. I’m even attracted to a fair few of the women here and I’m like 75% sure I’m straight,” I giggled. “All I will say is that they were all awful to my sister… so I guess you could say she was the one who broke my heart… they made life hell for her, so much so that she had to leave court… and she won’t even talk to me because I chose to stay…” he said, looking away. Drake was doing everything he could to hide his emotions from me. I felt flattered that he was willing to share an intimate part of himself with me but at the same time didn’t know how to comfort him. I wanted to make his pain go away. To take away years of abuse from the people around him. To tell him everything would be okay. Yet, I couldn’t do that. I didn’t know everything would be okay. I placed a hand on top of his, lacing my fingers through his calloused hands. Although rough, my hand seemed to fit perfectly with his. I tried my best not to slur when I said, “I would tell you that I’m sorry but I’m sorry doesn’t do anything. Nothing is fair about how you are treated here and if I become Queen I will do everything in my power to make sure that you are never sat at the rejects table in the back with cold soup again.” He looked up at me through his floppy, brunette hair that needed a brush. His eyes were filled with emotion, so mixed up that I couldn’t read what it meant. “You’re a unique one, I’ll give you that Brooks,” he said. “You’re so frustrating but… forget it.” He shook his head. The moment was over and I quickly drew my hand back as if it had been burnt.   “How about a shot of whiskey?” I smiled. He immediately topped up our glasses and we drank. The whiskey snaked, warm, down the back of my throat with a slight burn as I exhaled. I snuck a look at Drake and could tell that he was now, also, significantly drunk. “All the nobles think about are the big events. The grand balls, the press appearances, the banquets… they don’t even realise that the moments that matter the most are all the ones they’re missing in between. Moments like now. Two commoners, drinking some cheap whiskey,” he placed the empty cup on the table. “Now, it’s getting late and I don’t want you getting into trouble.” “That’s thoughtful of you,” I giggled almost falling off my chair. He stood up, mockingly bowing, “I’m a gentleman, even if not one by birth.” I got up and curtsied deeply to him, “Thanks for the drink and the chat.” “You’re very welcome,” he replied. I walked back over to the spiral staircase and, then, turned back. He was staring back at me in a way I hadn’t seen him do before. It made me feel vulnerable and safe all at once. I waved meekly and scaled the stairs, trying not to trip on the way back to my room in my drunken haze.

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

The Forgotten Daughter by Caroline Warfield

The Ashmead Heirs #3

 Historical romance that is a bit different with  both hero and heroine not of the upper class but both worthy of their story being told.

 What I liked:

* Frances “Fanny” Hancock: illegitimate daughter the Earl of Clarion, older half-sister to Wil and Amy, sole caretaker of her siblings after the death of her mother and stepfather, handling a financial mess, a budding author, in need of a hero

* Eli Benson: steward for the Earl of Clarion, good with numbers, good with puzzles, son of an inn keeper, brother of the illegitimate son of the Earl of Clarion, has a married sister, the go-to person for most everything, smart, intrepid

* That the lead characters were “commoners”

* Watching the relationship develop between Fanny and Ian

* Wil & Amy: younger siblings of Fanny

* Seeing how the families of Fanny and Ian worked together and took Fanny and her siblings in

* The Barbary Coast Pirates tie-in

* That there were a few foes to vanquish

* That the mystery of who wanted to kidnap Fanny was figured out and dealt with handily

* That I read the work of a new-to-me author I would gladly read again

* The writing, plot, and complexity of the story

* How it all came together for the couple at the end

* Wondering about the stories that came before and the next one in the series that will star the Earl of Clarion-David

* All of it except…

 What I didn’t like:

* The stepfather and the way his behavior impacted Fanny and her siblings

* The kidnapping ring, what they were up to, and the misery they created

* Having to say goodbye to interesting characters even though I have a feeling I will see them again

 Thank you to NetGalley and Dragonblade for the ARC – This is my honest review

 4-5

    BLURB

 Fanny’s worthless father forgot her entirely. The earl’s steward plans to make it right; if only he can avoid falling in love with her while he does. Welcome to book 3 in the fabulous series The Ashmead Heirs by bestselling author Caroline Warfield! When the old Earl of Clarion leaves a will with bequests for all his children, legitimate and not, listing each and their mothers by name, he complicated the lives of many in the village of Ashmead and beyond. One of them was left out. She is the third of The Ashmead Heirs. Frances Hancock always knew she was a bastard. She didn’t know her father was an earl until her mother died. The information came just in time. She and her mother’s younger children were about to be homeless. She needs help. Fast. What she wants is a hero. Eli Benson, the Earl of Clarion’s steward, took great pride in cleaning up the mess left behind by the old earl’s will. When a dainty but ferocious young woman with the earl’s hair and eyes comes demanding help, his heart sinks. She isn’t in the will. She was forgotten entirely. And the estate is just getting its finances back in order. But he knows a moral obligation when he sees one. He may not be her idea of a hero, but people count on him to fix things. He’s good at it. Falling in love with her will only complicate things. Eli will solve her problems or die trying. It may come to that. Read Free in Kindle Unlimited! The Ashmead Heirs The Wayward Son The Defiant Daughter The Forgotten Daughter The Upright Son

[siva3155]

500+ TOP VERBAL REASONING Objective Questions and Answers

VERBAL REASONING Multiple Choice Questions :-

1. In some code "BASKET" is written as "5$3%#1”. "TRIED" is written as "14*#2". How is "STEER" written in the same code? a) 3@114 b) 31##4 c) 3*#41 d) 13#44 2. In certain code the word DISTURB is written as DTWVUKF. How will you write word SAMIR in this code. a) TKOCU b) UCOKT c) KLMNO d) KPCTU 3. A boy had 27 apples. He ate all but 10. How many is he left with? a) 10 b) 16 c) 17 d) 0 4. Observe the below series carefully. What will be the missing part? UCD, VEF, WGH, ____, YKL a) VIJ b) XIJ c) AIJ d) PIJ 5. Observe the below series carefully. What will be the missing part? AMM, BOO, CQQ, _____, EUU" a) SRR b) GSS c) DSS d) IIT 6. Count the number of pairs where the same letter is shown as capital and lower case letter. k s d q K S D Q a) 1 b) 2 c) 3 d) 4 7. Ganesh is not as good a driver as kumar. who is better driver?" a) Ganesh b) Kumar 8. Which word has same meaning that extends to or includes the meaning of all others? a) truck b) cycle c) vehicle d) car 9. The word outside the bracket will go with only four of the words inside the brackets to make longer words. Which one word will it not go with? super( market, star, his, man) a) market b) star c) his d) man 10. Simple means the same as a) equal b) difficult c) very d) easy

VERBAL REASONING MCQs 1. Only those who work hard will enjoy the __________ later a) Suckcess b) succes c) sucess d) success 2. The word outside the bracket will go with only four of the words inside the brackets to make longer words. Which one word will it not go with? Land (lady, lord, car, slide) a) lady b) lord c) car d) slide 3. Pencil is to write as eraser is to a) pen b) ink c) scale d) erase 4. RAPID means a) quick b) fast c) speedy d) all of above 5. Which word describes all other words? a) milk b) rice c) food d) tomato 6. Count the number of pairs where the same letter is shown as capital and lower case letter. t b 3 a T K S A a) 0 b) 1 c) 2 7. Ram is better at cricket then Shyam. Who is better cricketer? a) Ram b) Shyam 8. Plane is to pilot as jeep is to a) Vehicle b) Tyres c) Driver d) Fireman 9. The word outside the bracket will go with only four of the words inside the brackets to make longer words. Which one word will it not go with? Con (tent, sent, man, jibe, verge) a) tent b) sent c) man d) jibe 10. Which word describes all other words? a) Blue b) Color c) Green d) Orange Answers 1) d, 2) c, 3) d, 4) d, 5) c, 6) c, 7) a, 8) c, 9) d, 10) b 1. The school ___________ is very intelligent. a) Principal b) Principle c) Princepal d) Princeple 2. White socks and shoes are ____________ on friday. a) necessery b) necessary c) necesary d) necesarry 3. Which is the below sentences is correct? a) Ram was the eldest of two brothers. b) Ram was the elder of two brothers. c) Ram was more elder than his brother. d) Ram was more older than his brother. 4. Samir has smaller car than Jatin. Who has bigger car? a) Samir b) Jatin 5. Count the number of pairs where the same letter is shown as capital: a k t l B k t l a) 0 b) 1 c) 2 d) 3 6. BCB DED FGF HIH ___ a) JKJ b) JKH c) AJI d) JHJ 7. Which word does NOT belong with the others? a) leopard b) puma c) giraffe d) lion 8. Choose the word that names a necessary part of the below word - "Book" a) fiction b) page numbers c) pictures d) pages 9. Pen is to poet as needle is to a) tailor b) overcoat c) sewing d) thread 10. At the baseball game, Ram was sitting in seat 253. Rita was sitting to the right of Ram in seat 254. In the seat to the left of Ram was Kapil. Kumar was sitting to the left of Kapil. Which seat is Kumar sitting in? a) 251 b) 254 c) 255 d) 256 Answers 1) a, 2) a, 3) b, 4) b, 5) a, 6) a, 7) c, 8) d, 9) a, 10) a 1. JAK KBL LCM MDN _____ a) OEP b) PFQ c) NFO d) NEO 2. Which word does NOT belong with the others? a) rose b) bud c) lily d) daisy 3. Choose the word that names a necessary part of the below word - "Shoe" a) running b) leather c) sole d) laces 4. Optimist is to cheerful as pessimist is to a) mean b) gloomy c) petty d) pity 5. Four friends in the sixth grade were sharing a pizza. They decided that the oldest friend would get the extra piece. Ganesh is two months older than Samir, who is three months younger than Nikhil. Kapil is one month older than Samir. Who should get the extra piece of pizza? a) Ganesh b) Samir c) Nikhil d) Kapil 6. FAG GAF HAI IAH ____ a) JAI b) HAK c) IAK d) JAK 7. Which word does NOT belong with the others? a) car b) steering c) wheel d) seats e) tire 8. Choose the word that names a necessary part of the below word - "swimming" a) pool b) swim fins c) life jacket d) water 9. Oar is to rowboat as foot is to a) brisk walking b) skateboard c) athletic shoes d) jumping 10. "FU is to HS, so IR is to:" a) KP b) KL c) KM d) KN Answers 1) d, 2) b, 3) c, 4) b, 5) c, 6) d, 7) a, 8) d, 9) b, 10) a 1. SCD TEF UGH ____ WKL a) VIJ b) UJI c) CMJ d) IJJ 2. Which word does NOT belong with the others? a) cornea b) pupil c) lens d) vision 3. Choose the word that names a necessary part of the below word - "Knowledge" a) teacher b) school c) textbook d) school bag 4. Window is to pane as book is to a) novel b) binding c) page d) cover 5. WT is to DG, so UR is to a) FT b) QR c) FI d) TF 6. QPO NML KJI _____ EDC a) HGF b) CAF c) JKL d) GHF 7. Which word does NOT belong with the others? a) chapter b) index c) page numbers d) book 8. Choose the word that names a necessary part of the below word - “purchase" a) trade b) stock c) bank d) gain 9. Cup is to coffee as bowl is to a) dish b) soup c) spoon d) coke 10. BE is to DH, so EH is to a) US b) UK c) JP d) GK Answers 1) a, 2) d, 3) a, 4) c, 5) c, 6) a, 7) d, 8) d, 9) b, 10) d 1. Individual is to group as Grapes is to a) groups b) crowd c) bunch d) bucket 2. Newspaper : Press :: Cloth : ? a) boutique b) mill c) company d) fibre 3. Rupee : India :: Peso : ? a) Mexico b) China c) Japan d) Brazil 4. Conscience : Wrong :: Police : ? a) robbers b) army c) crime d) wrong 5. Wax is related to Grease in the same way as Milk is related to ….. a) bread b) curd c) calcium d) none of above 6. Rita is faster than Gary. Who is slower? a) Rita b) Gary c) Ram 7. Ramesh is younger than Rishika. Who is older? a) Rishika b) Ramesh 8. Ganesh has a longer car then John. Who has a short car? a) Ganesh b) John 9. Geeta is not as good a cook as Mary. Who is better cook? a) Mary b) Geeta 10. Sarika is fairer than Susan. Who is fairer? a) Susan b) Sarika Answers 1) c, 2) b, 3) a, 4) c, 5) b, 6) b, 7) a, 8) b, 9) a, 10) b 1. Several is to few Common is to a) fare b) fair c) rare d) commoner 2. PAEDIATRICIAN is to CHILD as PODIATRIST is to a) gums b) foot c) stomach d) hand 3. Amit, Piyush, Rita, Xara, Sita and Zara are sitting in a row. Rita is sitting to the left of Amit. Sita and Zara are in the centre. Amit and Piyush are at the ends. Who is to the right of Piyush ? a) Amit b) Xara c) Sita d) Zara 4. Five girls are sitting on a bench to be photographed. Raman is to the left of Rajat and to the right of Raghav. Rishi is to the right of Rajat. Reeta is between Rajat and Rishi. Who is second from the left in photograph ? a) Reeta b) Rishi c) Raghav d) Raman 5. Six friends are sitting in a circle and are facing the centre of the circle. Girija is between Hitesh and Kartik. Guru is between Rakesh and Lalit. Hitesh and Rakesh are opposite to each other. Who are the neighbours of Rakesh ? a) Hitesh and Girija b) Girija and Guru c) Guru and Kartik d) Lalit and Guru 6. If A=4, B=1, C=8, D=9, E=13 then solve the below query: A+B+C = a) 3 b) 6 c) 13 d) 14 7. Find next alphabets in the series: CQ DQ EP FP GO a) EW b) IP c) HP d) HO 8. AB is to CD as RS is to a) TU b) VW c) EF d) GH 9. Big is to (small orange color) as long is to (short kiwi blue ) If Big is to small then long is to a) kiwi b) blue c) short 10. If a=2, B=9, C=8, D=9, E=10 then solve the below query: D+C-A= a) 3 b) 6 c) 15 d) 14 Answers 1) c, 2) b, 3) b, 4) d, 5) c, 6) c, 7) d, 8) a, 9) c, 10) c Choose the correct synonyms: 1. Best A) least B) worst C) finest D) longest 2. Ill A) sick B) well C) good D) happy 3. Joy A) toy B) delight C) misery D) unlucky 4. Fresh A) tired B) stale C) new D) less 5. Beautiful A) pretty B) ugly C) great D) lakme 6. Success A) unsuccessful B) failure C) money D) victory 7. Strong A) weak B) gentle C) powerful D) mild 8. Seldom A) rarely B) often C) frequently D) daily 9. Friendly A) good B) hostile C) enemy D) affectionate 10. Fast A) slow B) quick C) hungry D) loose Answers 1) c, 2) a, 3) b, 4) c, 5) a, 6) d, 7) c, 8) a, 9) d, 10) b Choose the correct antonyms: 1. Best A) good B) worst C) finest D) longest 2. Ill A) well B) sick C) vomit D) happy 3. Joy A) toy B) delight C) misery D) unlucky 4. Fresh A) refresh B) stale C) new D) less 5. Beautiful A) pretty B) chanel C) great D) ugly 6. Success A) unlimited B) money C) failure D) victory 7. Strong A) weak B) curent C) powerful D) mind 8. Seldom A) rarely B) often C) infrequently D) absent 9. Friendly A) good B) affectionate C) energy D) hostile 10. Fast A) slow B) quick C) hungry D) lack Answers 1) b, 2) a, 3) c, 4) b, 5) d, 6) c, 7) a, 8) b, 9) d, 10) a VERBAL REASONING Questions and Answers pdf download Read the full article

[therealimintobooks]

Chutes and Ladder: A Silicon Valley Mystery by Marc Jedel #BookTour https://ift.tt/2THXFte

About the Book

Chutes and Ladder: A Silicon Valley Mystery

Cozy Mystery 2nd in Series BGM Press (March 12, 2019) Print Length: 195 pages ASIN: B07NFDYZX8

Dead friend. Free fall. Girl Scouts. Can Uncle Marty untangle the mystery before things really get out of control? Juggling a budding relationship, demanding job, and mischievous nieces, Marty Golden struggled to keep his head above water — even before his friend’s death. Trying his best to be a good boyfriend and fun uncle, Marty had his own ideas for the weekend until his cunning sister tricked him again. Convinced his friend’s death was no accident, Marty tries to summon superhero powers but merely manages to bumble along as an amateur sleuth. When Marty’s cousin shows up, she wreaks havoc with his plans and pulls him into yet another mystery. As threats blossom, Marty doubles down now that his family’s involved. Besides, it’s poor manners to let your friend’s death go unsolved. Can Marty figure out what happened before a killer, or his imagination, gets to him? Chutes and Ladder is the second novel in a refreshingly modern mystery series set in Silicon Valley. If you like clever humor and wacky side characters, you’ll love this twisty mystery.

Character Post from Megan Tran, niece of protagonist Marty Golden, in Chutes and Ladder.

Recently I caught up with Megan, the young niece of Marty Golden. Although Marty is the protagonist in my new humorous, cozy mystery book, Chutes and Ladder: A Silicon Valley Mystery, I thought Megan’s perspective might be interesting.

Marc (author): Hi, Megan. Thanks for talking to me.

Megan: [looking at phone] Yup.

Marc (author): What do you want to be when you grow up?

Megan: I keep changing my mind. Before, I wanted to be a race car driver. They can drive their cars as fast as they want and don’t get tickets on the highway like my mom. Last month, I thought I wanted to be a nurse because they help people get better and they can tell visitors what to do. I’m good at telling people what to do.

Marc (author): So, have you changed your mind?

Megan: Yes. [looking up]. Now I want to be a doctor. I saw this woman doctor help some boy on an airplane. That was really cool. And, she got to stand up and walk around even though the flight attendant told me I had to sit down. Doctors get to be in charge. That’s more me.

Marc (author): I understand your Uncle Marty had a crazy week. Have you talked to him?

Megan: Why does everyone want to know about him? He went on a Girl Scout camping trip, found some dead guy, and then rushed around all week trying to figure out what happened. Big deal! Everything is always super crazy for me. Try being a little sister around here, why don’t you? Last week was Halloween and Uncle Marty kept messing up our plans. This Saturday is my birthday party. I can’t decide if I want it to be a Herbie the Love Bug party like ‘Sunshine’, my mom’s old car, or Frankenstein Monsters. My mom’s getting angry that I can’t decide. What do you think?

Marc (author): Oh yeah. Marty mentioned that to me. Happy Birthday. So, how old will you be?

Megan: Did he tell you to ask me that? He doesn’t remember how old I am and he’s always asking me. Ooh, it makes me mad. Uncles should remember how old their nieces are, shouldn’t they?

Marc (author): Yes they should. But your Uncle Marty isn’t all bad, right? Didn’t he get you this new puppy, Buddy?

Megan: [squeals and hugs Buddy] Yes! That was so amazing. I love Buddy. He’s our new Labrador puppy, but he already weighs like sixty pounds. I told Uncle Marty Buddy would be my best friend. [Hugs Buddy]. But, my mom doesn’t always like him. Buddy can be a troublemaker.

Marc (author): What’s he done this time?

Megan: Well, nothing today. That I know of. So far. But last week, he escaped out of his dog crate, jumped on the stove and turned on the gas. The firefighters had to come to the house. Three fire trucks! Buddy was unconscious on the floor. Mom says we’re lucky there wasn’t an explosion. And our neighbor won’t walk near our house now. It’s super funny. She parks her car down the street and she’s sniffing the air when she rushes out of her house.

Marc (author): Have you read my new book, Chutes and Ladder? It’s about your uncle and you’re even in it.

Megan: [looks up from her phone] What?

Marc (author): My books. Have you read them?

Megan: Nah, I like to watch YouTube videos. Your covers are cool, though. Maybe I’ll read them later. Is it about me? You know it would be funny if it’s about me.

Marc (author): Yes, it sure would be funny. But they’re more about Uncle Marty and how he solves the mysteries while juggling his work, his family, his girlfriend, and not getting killed.

Megan: Doesn’t sound like something for me. Hey, Buddy, come back here. [Runs off after dog.]

Marc (author): Well, I guess that’s all we’ll get from Megan today.

For the adult readers out there, my books, Chutes and Ladder and Uncle and Ants, are humorous murder mysteries. Silicon Valley is not your typical cozy mystery locale and Marty Golden doesn’t fit the normal profile of a mystery protagonist. Despite finding himself thrust into challenging situations, Marty isn’t exactly hero material. He has a wonderful combination of wit, irreverent humor and sarcasm mixed in with nerdy insecurities, absent-mindedness, and fumbling but effective amateur sleuthing skills. With an active inner voice and not a lot of advanced planning, he throws himself into solving problems. Sometimes, he even succeeds.

Chutes and Ladder, book 2 in the Silicon Valley Mystery series, can be read standalone. It and Uncle and Ants are free to Kindle Unlimited readers and will have special pricing during the Great Escapes Tour so be sure to buy them today at Amazon. For more about my books or me, please visit www.marcjedel.com.

About the Author

For most of my life, I’ve been inventing stories. Some, especially when I was young, involved my sister as the villain. As my sister’s brother for her entire life, I’m highly qualified to tell the tale of this evolving, quirky sibling relationship.

My writing skills were honed in years of marketing leadership positions in Silicon Valley. While my high tech marketing roles involved crafting plenty of fiction, we called this marketing collateral, emails, and ads.

The publication of my first novel, Uncle and Ants, gave me permission to claim “author” as my job. This leads to way more interesting discussions than answering “marketing.”

My family would tell you that Marty’s character isn’t much of a stretch of the imagination for me, but I proudly resemble that remark.

Like Marty, I live in Silicon Valley and can’t believe that otherwise normal people would willingly jump out of an airplane and call it fun. Unlike Marty, I have a wonderful wife and a neurotic but sweet, small dog, who is often the first to weigh in on the humor in my writing.

Author Links

Email: marc@marcjedel.com

Website: www.marcjedel.com

FaceBook: www.facebook.com/MarcJedel.Author

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mjedel/

GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/18403497.Marc_Jedel

BookBub: www.bookbub.com/profile/marc-jedel

Purchase Link Amazon

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[hell-and-pepsi]

what is a tagged can you eat it

I guess I was tagged by @ilwinsgarden ? That was a surprise, people don’t tag me in stuff too often, thank you very much!

Rules: Answer all the questions, then add one of your own, and tag as many people as there are questions

1) Coke or Pepsi? I never drank coke in my life. I tried Pepsi once so I guess Pepsi.

2) Disney or Dreamworks? I’d say Dreamworks, especially since my brother is a huge fan of How to Train your Dragon

3) Coffee or Tea? Tea, in all forms and quantities - from a cheap-arse tea bag put in a bucket of hot water to exquisite brands prepared by the rules of the Chinese traditional tea ceremonies

4) Books or movies? First read the book, then watch the movie based on it. Never vice versa (except if the book is really crappy compared to the movie)

5) Windows or mac? Windows! Also doors. Illuminators. Ceiling lights. Ventilation vents. If you can punch a hole through a wall, that’s nice too.

6) D.C. or Marvel? Not a fan of either.

7) Xbox or PlayStation? Never had neither of them.

8) Dragon age or mass effect? I never played neither of them and I don’t even have friends that played any of these :(

9) Night owl or early riser? Early riser. If you can manage to, which doesn’t happen to often to me unfortunately.

10) Cards or chess? I can barely play any card games, I don’t even know the names of the card suits in Russian (but I know them perfectly in English because Homestuck.) So chess, even though I haven’t played chess either in a very long time.

11) Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate any time.

12) Vans or converse? I don’t care much for fashion so either is fine

13) Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash, or Adaar? Low Sorbian? Volapük? Or are those not weird language names?

14) Fluff or angst? Both. Both is good. 

15) Beach or forest? Um. Have you looked at my username. Well, I guess you should just look at it again

16) Dogs or cats? Cats! Especially my cat, Sebastian. Though dogs are cool as well.

17) Clear skies or rain? Clear sky! I am basically a reverse vampire, I can’t live without a blue sky and a bright sun up above. Also, stars at night *_*

18) Cooking or eating out? I’m broke, so cooking.

19) Spicy or mild food? I like spicy. But honestly, it all depends on the ability of the cook. Mild food can be very tasty too if done right.

20) Halloween/Samhain or solstice/yule/Christmas? @ilwinsgarden while answering this question said that they don’t celebrate Hallowe’en in Czech Republic and I relate - we don’t celebrate it in Russia as well save for the occasional shop sell. 

But here we go even more extreme - we don’t celebrate Christmas either! In the Soviet times the main winter celebration shifted to New Year’s Eve, and that’s what we celebrate mainly up to this day. Christmas is a religious holiday solely, and moreover, because Russia is mainly an Orthodox Christian country and not a Prothestantic/Catholic/Anglican one, we celebrate Christmas two weeks later than Catholics (January the 7th).

Actually, even putting cultural differences aside, I don’t like the themes of both holidays. The modern media has generalized and cheapened them so that Hallowe’en is merely pumpkin spice and costumes instead of being a spiritual day, and Christmas is merely presents and trees instead of an important Christian milestone. I guess I enjoy Christmas a little bit more.

21) Would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot? Uhhh, that’s a tough one! But I am actually often a little too cold (including today), so if I choose a little too hot perhaps it can cancel it out? :D

22) If you could have a superpower what would it be? There are so many choices! Super intellengence would be helpful. Teleportation would allow me to travel anywhere in the world for free. If I could create plant life or accelerate its speed of growth, I could end famine.

23) Animation or live action? Both have their perks. Currently I’m more invested in animation, but I would really like to explore live action movies and even create ones myself.

24) Paragon or renegade? Okay, so I learnt a new English word today! Paragon, huh. And as much as I love the sound of that word I choose renegade. I’m a rebel by nature.

25) Bath or shower? Showers are cooler and more eco-friendly, but when you’re tired all you want is a nice hot bath. So both once again, depending on your state.

26) Team Cap or team Ironman? Like I said above, I’m not a fan of Marvel.

27) Fantasy or sci-fi? Don’t make me choose like this! But when I was younger I definitely enjoyed sci-fi more, and I know there’s still a lot of classic authors for me to explore.

28) Do you have 3 or 4 favorite quotes if so what are they? Oh boy, you came for a treat. “Fears are caused by a lack of understanding. And in the world we live in, you have unlimited information out there. There’s no reason you should be afraid of anything”  - Ethoslab, my most favourite Youtuber and Minecrafter ever. I don’t remember the exact episode, but I believe it was in his Let’s Play series around 390-410 ish, when he was building Sandy City.

“I mean, I know you want it to stay pleasant around here, but — there are so many things … that are so much better. Like silly, or sexy, or dangerous … or brave. And every one of those things is in you all the time, if you just have the guts to look for them.”  - Bud Parker, from the movie Pleasantville. Go watch it. It’s a true piece of art. I watched it in my English class in detail and it was absolutely delightful and amazing and so, so true.

“I never let school interfere with my education.”  - (incorrect, I think) Mark Twain. Sums my feeling about school perfectly.

“Every moment is the moment, and everything you lose, you lose forever.”  - my teacher. He told us once to remember this saying very carefully, even if we don’t understand it fully, because there may come a time where it will be very, very true for us. It is one of those quotes that you do not memorize, but which memorizes you instead.

29) YouTube or Netflix? I don’t have a Netflix account and I don’t even know whether the site is available in my country. But I spend endless hours on Youtube.

30) Harry Potter or Percy Jackson? Look at my nickname and my avatar yet again... plus I never quite got into Percy Jackson. I think I only read one book. Its fans make cool fanart though, with many different ships.

31) When do you feel accomplished? When I do something that’s supposed to be “in my field” and I do excellent on it. Also, contrariwise, when I have to go through something I’m scared or unexperienced to do and perform well.

32) Star Wars or Star Trek? Okay, please don’t kill me for this, but I never watched a Star Wars movie in my life. I also didn’t watch Star Trek, but I relate to it a little bit more because I’m a fan of Doctor Who which is a show from the same time. Plus Star Trek is responsible for a lot of modern sci-fi tropes, its fans started the modern fanfiction culture (including the concept of shipping), and it’s a historical and innovative piece in general.

33) Paperback books or hardcover books? I don’t have a strong opinion of this, and I read books online mostly nowadays. In my experience, different kinds of books are more prone to being in a hardcover or in paperback. Both of those types can be very enjoyable.

34) Fantastic beasts or Cursed child? Seen/read neither. (I feel so ignorant while answering those... haven’t seen that, haven’t read that...) But from what I saw and heard, especially from my little brother, Cursed Child is a hectic fanfiction piece somehow gone canon (and Rowling had barely to do with it anyway) and Fantastic Beasts is, well, a fantastic piece of work. Also Americans got their own Potter movie. (like A Very Potter musical wasn’t enough)

35) Rock or pop music? My music taste is dictated by artist, not style. That being said, nowadays I have more favourites in pop than rock.

36) What is the most important thing in your life? Keeping close to my principles/morals. Expressing those principles and morals in one way or another, because I find it something important to show to other people. Trying to help the people I call my friends. Trying to make sense in this big mess of things we call the world.

37) Mountains or sea/ocean? Tough question again! But I guess I’ve been to the sea like, thrice in my life, and never been to the mountains, so sea/ocean.

38) How do you express yourself? Mostly in words and sometimes in action. But my ultimate goal is to create content through which I could successfully express my view of the world.

39) What’s the first book/film that really counted to you? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. When I was little I never cried at books at movies. But there was something in chapter 34 (where Harry has learn the truth about himself and goes to the Forbidden Forest to be killed by Voldemort) that made me shed my very first tear. The name of the chapter was The Forest Again, so, well, you can see how big of an impact it was for me.

40) What’s your element (air, water, etc.)? I want to be the Avatar! :D But seriously, I can’t really choose. By my star sign, Leo, it’s fire.

41) If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? Is “everywhere” an option?

42) If you had any job in the world, what would it be? A teacher in a school that is actually a good school. Not that those exist. Or a cartoon/anime/movie director/screenwriter.

43) If you were granted three wishes, what would they be? I guess all unlimited wishes hacks are banned, so:

1) World piece 2) Unlimited food to end world famine 3) Unlimited eco-friendly power source to end (most of) the world’s ecological problems.

44) If you had to eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Pizza! Because you can put anything on a pizza.

45) What’s currently the most pressing issue on your mind, and what’s stopping you from fixing it? Is “everything” an option” [2]? But seriously, it’s probably my unpreparement for the uncoming exams and the search for my future career. The first one is caused by just lazyness and the boringness/objective unimportance of the exams, and the second time always takes time, naturally. So they are pressing, but at the same time I don’t worry too much at “failing” them.

46) What is your dream companion animal? A cat! Or a cool bird, like a jay or an oreole.

47) Raptors or songbirds? Raptor songbirds. Just imagine.

48) Do you think there is life on other planets in universe? “Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. “ Arthur C. Clarke sums my opinion on this pretty welI

Woah, that’s a lot of questions! It also took me a lot of time to answer them, it’s super late for me now. Here’s my question:

49: If you knew you were going to die in 24 hours, what would be some of the things that you do?

And I can’t possibly tag 49 people, so here’s just some: @polyglotplatypus, @kuufox, @artisticprotector, @cultureklub, @crap-iccioso,  @glannniglaepur, @stefan-stefansson, @moonpaw17, @klavierr, @antialiasis, @johannesviii and basically anyone else who wants to do this. And if you don’t want to do it, of course you’re not obliged in any way. @ilwinsgarden thank you so much for tagging me once again!

[rosetan]

Bud Brothers Unlimited Series Guido 2013 Nagising na lang isang umaga si Guido na tatay na siya ng isang baby gil. Pero hindi niya alam kung sino ang nanay ng bata. Sa pagtuklas sa misteryo ng pagkatao ng anak niya, hiningi niya ang tulong ni Madam Sonia. Ang kaso, nang makita ng matagal nang dalaga si Sonia ang anak niya, natuwa ito. Nabuhay yata ang mammary glands nito at gusto na rin nitong magkaanak, sa pamamagitan niya. Anakan daw niya ito, sa lalong madaling-panahon. May prinsipyo siyang lalaki, hindi siya basta-basta magbibigay ng semilya kahit pa maiksing-maiksi ang damit at ovulating in the next room si Sonia. Hindi talaga. Promise. So help me, God.

[chrisstevenson]

First Nations Tribes Matter Too.

After spellbinding the readers by his fabulous imagination in Screamcatcher: Web World, Chris Stevenson, who writes this series by a pen name (Christy J. Breedlove), released the second book of the Scremcatcher series, Screamcatcher – Dream Chasers. Both the books of the Screamcatcher series have created an alternate world that leaves the characters and the readers gasping for air. So, when I got a chance to pick the brains of the very talented Chris Stevenson, I knew it was an opportunity of a lifetime. Join the conversation and get ready to be amazed.

Screamcatcher is one of my favorite series. Nobody could have ever imagined using an innocent-looking dream-catcher as a source of unleashing havoc. How did you come up with this idea? Any interesting story behind the making of this mind-blowing series.

It all started with a dream catcher. This iconic item, which is rightfully ingrained in Indian lore, is a dream symbol respected by the culture that created it. It is mystifying, an enigma that that prods the imagination. Legends about the dream catcher are passed down from multiple tribes. There are variations, but the one fact that can be agreed upon is that it is a nightmare entrapment device, designed to sift through evil thoughts and images and only allow pleasant and peaceful dreams to enter into the consciousness of the sleeper.

I wondered what would happen to a very ancient dream catcher that was topped off with dreams and nightmares. What if the nightmares became too sick or deathly? What if the web strings could not hold any more visions? Would the dream catcher melt, burst, vanish, implode? I reasoned that something would have to give if too much evil was allowed to congregate inside of its structure. I found nothing on the Internet that offered a solution to this problem—I might have missed a relevant story, but nothing stood out to me. Stephen King had a story called Dream Catcher, but I found nothing in it that was similar to what I had in mind. So I took it upon myself to answer such a burning question.

Like too much death on a battlefield could inundate the immediate location with lost and angry spirits, so could a dream catcher hold no more of its fill of sheer terror without morphing into something else, or opening up a lost and forbidden existence. What would it be like to be caught up in another world inside the webs of a dream catcher, and how would you get out? What would this world look like? How could it be navigated? What was the source of the exit, and what was inside of it that threatened your existence? Screamcatcher: Web World, the first in the series, was my answer. I can only hope that I have done it justice.

Your knowledge of Native American Indian culture is evident in many instances. I am sure the readers would love to know more about the subject. How do you know so much about the culture? Is it personal experience or an inclination toward the culture?

It’s primarily researched, and not very much. I’ve always known about the emotional feelings that the First Nations Tribes has/had about their plight and contact with the white man. I knew about their reverent association with nature and the environment. I owe a lot of it to memories from the Boy Scouts of America–about signs, riddles, plants, hunting, and the environment. I’m Scotch/Irish and I’ve never had any tribal friends.

I DID research the construction of the Dream Catcher and what it was made out of. I winged the rest of it, hoping that I was at least on target with what I had to say about them. The Albert White Feather Pike speech at the beginning of the book (about the sad state of the world) were my words straight from my heart. Nothing was quoted. I did not want to ram Indian lore, heritage, and legend down the throat of the reader. There’s just enough to make it sympathetic and interesting.

While we are talking about Native American culture, do you have a favorite legend from any of their mythologies?

Obviously, the Dream Catcher Legend. It was just fascinating to me, filled with whimsy and magic. And the hand-crafted charms are so varied from one type to another; they are just gorgeous works of art, and I mean that by saying the originals that were crafted in the very beginning with gems, beads, and real Eagle feathers. And I’ll be honest, I have NO idea how far the Dream Catcher legend goes back in time. I’m also intrigued by the sweat lodge, and how it is supposed to purify the soul. The legend of the Skinwalker scares me, and I touch upon that just a tiny bit in the last book, Screamcatcher: The Shimmering Eye.

You can remove this question if you do not wish to discuss your pen name This one is for budding authors. Many of the first time authors struggle with the idea of using a pen name. While a majority considers using one only if they are writing a memoir and do not wish to be identified, a few others wish to use one to avoid prejudices based on gender or nationality. Regardless of their reasons, what is your opinion on using a pen name? Is there a formal procedure involved in registering a pen name against your legal name?

I’m a guy and I used a female pen name for my young adult books. I know, pretty strange. Why? Women, I believe, are more prone to writing about true emotions, with truth and accuracy, than men. Especially in romance and young adult, where sometimes a softer touch is needed. Women comprise 65% of all book purchases and they are also the majority of readers. Truly, women are more apt to buy a romance or young adult novel from a woman, in my experience. So I thought that if the “general reading public” saw a female pen name, they might make a spontaneous buy and trust the material. But I always admitted everywhere that the two authors were one and the same–Me. My fans, friends, and readership knew that.

The problem with adopting a pen name is that you have a brand new author out there making a debut, so it is hugely difficult to build a readership in that pen name. No legal problems, not even in contracts. But I must say that two author names have to be merged into one in places like Amazon, GoodReads, and other sites–it gets really tangled and confusing. For budding writers? If you are publishing 10 or more books per year and one genre is romance and the other is science fiction, then two authors just might work. It also depends on how many genres you write in and how many books you have out there. My advice is to go with one name–keep it simple just starting out.

Did you always want to be an author? How did you get into it?

I actually started late, reading, and writing when I was 26 years old. My early writing accomplishment were multiple hits within a few years: In my first year of writing back in 1987, I wrote three SF short stories that were accepted by major slick magazines which qualified me for the Science Fiction Writers of America, and at the same time achieved a Finalist award in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. This recognition garnered me a top gun SF agent at the time, Richard Curtis Associates. My first novel went to John Badham (Director) and the Producers, the Cohen Brothers. It was an extreme honor to be considered. The writer who beat me out of contention for a feature movie (as well as the book), was Michael Crichton’snJurassic Park. My book was called Dinothon.

A year after that I published two best-selling non-fiction books and landed on radio, TV, in every library in the U.S., and hundreds of newspapers. This was at a time when small and mid-sized press paid nice advances and had unlimited distribution.

I have been trying to catch that lightning in a bottle ever since. My YA dystopian novel, The Girl They Sold to the Moon won the grand prize in a publisher’s YA novel writing contest, went to a small auction, and got tagged for a film option. My latest release, Screamcatcher: Web World, just currently won Best YA title of 2019 in the N.N. Light Book Awards contest. I have 13 titles appearing on Amazon, with three more slated for publication. I guess I should stick to Young Adult, which I do love BTW

I have picked out your next book Earth Angel, and I am pretty excited about reading it. Would you like to share anything about the book: plot, character, inspiration?

Not much to tell really, and it’s not terribly original, but I’m guessing at that. I just wondered what would happen if a person had an eye transplant, and that eye came from a gifted medium who really saw a fourth dimension or alternate world through her vision? If that transplanted eye allowed you to see a different world, what in the heck could you possibly see and how would it affect you emotionally? You would either have a superpower, or you would end up going insane. How could a power like that possibly help you in catching a serial killer? Those were the questions I asked. Hey, glad you are looking forward to it!

Who is your favorite character in Screamcatcher series? Did any real-life person inspire this particular character?

My favorite character, modeled in name and personality after my sister, Jory Post, is Jory Pike. Jory Pike’s physical attributes are modeled after my last girlfriend in Las Vegas. I had many reviewers and some beta readers tell me, “Hey! You have Katniss here, in The Hunger Games!” I did not know who they were talking about until I just recently read the THG series. Then I thought, OMG! My girl is Katness!

And to top it off, I wrote my book before The Hunger Games came out, but mine was not published before hers. My gal IS native American, though. And I’m proud that the female side of me came out with an Indian teenage girl who takes the lead in a portal fantasy thriller. Rarely, if ever, do you see teenage, female North American Indians in a book, especially in the lead role. Talk about POC (people of color), well, I thought I’d give it to them in spades.

May we get a sneak peek into your next WIP?

The third and last book in the Screamcatcher series (The Shimmering Eye) is modeled after the true story of the most haunted property in the United States–Skinwalker Ranch. I devised my own version of the paranormal activity out there, and even contacted George Knapp, an investigative reporter out of Las Vegas, and host of Coast to Coast radio. I asked his permission to write my own fictional account of such a place, without busting his copyright or anything else. He is the documentary narrator and book author of The Hunt for the Skinwalker. George gave me the thumbs up and wished me well. So I tossed my teenage Badlands Paranormal Society into the ranch and brought hell and damnation down on them. The third book in the Screamcatcher series will be out sometime this summer.

Thank you so much for answering the questions. Can’t wait to see more of your work soon!

More places where you can find Chris Stevenson:

Amazon Page:  https://www.amazon.com/Chris-Harold-Stevenson/e/B001K8UUBK

Christy’s Website:  https://christysyoungadultfabuliers.com/

Blog:  http://guerrillawarfareforwriters.blogspot.com/

[graceandgrooves]

Anantha Dance Production Series…………..

Anantha-1 was a dance production series showcasing beauty, elegance, creativity, as well as infinite possibilities of Bharatnatyam, Indian Folk Dances, Rabindra Nruthya, Manipuri And Kathak. All of this without forsaking fundamentals.

Idea of Anantha was implanted in 2018 January when we had faced some challenges that opened doors to other possibilities. First announcements were made to public in various medias from Nov 2, 2018 and onwards. Every year it just happens that as Grace And Grooves LLC plan their annual programs/recitals and they come out so beautiful that it ends up in dance productions with and without dance-musical dramas.

But the idea of dance recital was not enough for Bharatnatyam and Indian Folk Students after getting ready for 30-45 mins with all that make-up and costume.

As students excel in dance forms, they needed something fun and exciting to rule over the stage. These students not only wanted clear understanding of possibilities within the dance form but to be creative(and safely) was other challenge. So, Anantha Production Series it was!

With straight background comes unlimited (Anantha) creativity. Thus, the name of “Anantha” was given to this dance production series with each dance showcasing unlimited possibilities in each dance forms. The name and concept is inspired from several dance productions of her mom, teachers, gurus, exponents and her own dance institutes such as Daksha V Joshi, Mrinalini Sarabhai, Daksha M Joshi, Tanjore Brothers Original Margam, Kalakshetra Foundation, Natyavihar Kalakendra, Malathi Iyengar. This intense training for over 34 years has given a shape to Hetal’s own dance creations within exclusive Indian Dance Forms and Bharatanatyam. Some dances have also received exclusive copyright permissions to republish under the name of Hetal Nagaraj and some have received competition awards early this year and years before as well. 

Anantha-1 opened its door with some her elite students such as Ashna Pethe and The Setty Siblings who are in advance trainings from years now and Rinku Das-a budding artist of Dallas-Forth, Texas. Anantha was also a major event for Grace And Grooves LLC as their intern choreographers, performing team got every opportunity to be creative under the supervision, direction of Hetal Nagaraj and yet feel challenged without forsaking fundamentals of each dance form. All of it with full safety on practicing it in the right way. It is not about perfection, it is about doing it right.

Hetal Nagaraj is artistic director of Grace And Grooves LLC.  This is her 4th dance program in a row showcasing A Grade Indian Dance Productions with each dance as a reflection of her experiences, trainings and now the degrees. It has been peculiarity of Hetal that her dances include Nritta, Natya and Nruthya as its basic components with balance of Tandav and Lasyam. Each dance of her has a name along with dance themes that are full of life, happiness, thankfulness, blessings and above all beautiful costumes that she herself designs. All the students have so much fun learning and practicing for Anantha during their regular class hours itself. It is not like you pay and you get to be part of it. It is what they learned, they showcase.

No outside students were allowed to perform or take trainings or as part of freelance dancers. Anantha Dance Production Series is about Grace And Grooves LLC students and their team only.

From students who wanted the thrill got it covered along with students who wanted the fun of natyam alone still staying in their respective dance forms. Hetal picks them by hand for this dance production and not everybody is able to make it to this. This is Hetal Nagaraj’s VERY FIRST exclusive dance production for Indian Dance Forms and A Tribute to Rabindranath Tagore Famous poem which as a matter of fact matched to our production name. Who said dance forms are boring..Not at Grace And Grooves!

Congratulations to Students Samarth Setty(Age 11) and Tejawini(Adults) for completing their entire Bharatanatyam margam in Anantha-1 by performing back to back for straight 3 hours from Pushpanjali, Allaripu, Jatiswaram, Thillana, Group-Shabdam, Creative Bharatanatyam, Copyright Bharatanatyam, and Rabindra Nruthya as well.

At Grace And Grooves, we aim to make sure you understand everything you see while we are just doing our job. Every beautiful thing under this sky has a name and so do the dances. From the thrill of nritta, beauty as in lasyam, fun of natyam, devotion as in bhakti and tapasya as in training, power as in shakti of tandav and possibilities as in Anantha- the infinite and we are still in same dance form 🙂

Anantha-1 Dance Production happened in Plano Courtyard Theater, Plano-Texas on Jan 27, 2019 and was made possible by Dhamaal Events in association with Grace Effects ( Gopal S and Dinesh Kumar for photography and videography services).

Big Shout Out To These Young Teenagers who had their paid student assignments at Anantha-1. Aditya Sangole as our South Technician and Emcee Yashika Nabar for our dance production Anantha-1.

Anantha Dance Production is next scheduled in March 2020.

Thillana, Shabdam by Hetal Nagaraj

Jatiswaram and Pushpanjali by Hetal Nagaraj

Rabindra Nruthya, Allaripu by Hetal Nagaraja

Indian Folk Dances, Dances of East India

Indian Folk Dances from North Indian

Indian Folk Dances from South by Performing Team with their own choreography…congratulations!!

Indian Folk Dances from the Western India

Congratulations Samarth Setty And Tejaswini for completing their entire Bharatantyam Margam in one show

Call NOW because time and tides wait for none…. 972 979 2559.

Website : www.graceandgrooves.com

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/GraceAndGrooves

Twitter : https://twitter.com/GraceAndGrooves

Youtube Channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSbZYIr0EPzrfPNzH_0FcVw

Exclusive Copyrights by Reach Media for Hetal Joshi Nagaraj| Grace & Grooves | Grace Creations | Grace And Grooves | Nruthyakala Dance Academy | Mirchi Dance Academy | Kalasri Classical Dance Academy : 2012-2019.  

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.  

#hetaljoshim #graceandgrooves #ananthaseries

Anantha Dance Production Series Anantha Dance Production Series.............. Anantha-1 was a dance production series showcasing beauty, elegance, creativity, as well as infinite possibilities of Bharatnatyam, Indian Folk Dances, Rabindra Nruthya, Manipuri And Kathak.

[itsworn]

Behind the Scenes in 1956: Hot Rods Are TV Stars on “The Life of Riley,” Corvettes Win First Championship, and Ernie McAfee’s Death Ends Pebble Beach Road Race

One face kept coming into view while researching 1956’s magazines, movies, television programs, and digitized black-and-white negatives in the Petersen Publishing Co. photo archive. Like a reverse Clark Kent who ducks into a phone booth and comes out wearing business attire, Wally Parks made it his mission to stand up for truth, justice, and the American way of recycling cast-off frames, bodies, and engines into loud, low, menacing contraptions that scared the crap out of decent citizens. “Early hot rodders were perceived as the gang bangers of their time,” he’d explain in later decades.

Mere months after Hollywood introduces John and Jane Q. Public to knife-wielding, suicidal hot rodders driving off cliffs, the real-life Jim Stark is really dead. What little is left of James Dean’s tin-foil Porsche-factory race car is being repurposed for the show circuit, accompanied by scary signage inaccurately blaming excessive speed (instead of Donald Turnupseed’s lane-crossing ’50 Ford mild custom). Hot on the heels of Rebel Without a Cause, Hollywood hurries teen-exploitation films such as Hot Rod Girl (“Teenage Terrorists Tearing up the Streets!”). Politicians worldwide are seizing on the previous September’s mass decapitation of France’s sports-car fans and a rash of U.S. stock-car deaths as a no-lose campaign issue, demonizing auto racing as an unnecessary evil threatening constituents’ safety. The International Association of Police Chiefs is lobbying local law enforcement and governments to shut down dragstrips, preaching that organized competition only encourages and increases racing in the streets. Californians’ outcry in the wake of Ernie McAfee’s fatal crash ends the Pebble Beach road race.

As if such intense opposition wasn’t challenge enough for anyone charged with running the National Hot Rod Association or HOT ROD magazine, Wally was both of those guys. There he is on network television, congratulating Chester A. Riley for helping clean-cut hot rodders get their own dragstrip (to be NHRA-sanctioned, naturally). Here’s another of his HRM editorials ripping shameless politicians, shortsighted cops, or unethical promoters for reinforcing unfair misconceptions. The Mobil Oil–financed Safety Safari is another brainstorm to be managed: Wally’s carload of Johnny Appleseeds, crisscrossing the country all summer on a shoestring budget. There’s also his National Drag Championships in Kansas City, now living up to its name by drawing entrants all the way from Hawaii Territory. One night later, the event’s founder and director is back inside of that conservative suit, on stage, amidst the classiest trophy presentation ever associated with America’s youngest form of auto racing.

Perhaps never before or since the mid-’50s has our hobby faced truly existential threats on so many fronts. Between crises, there was also a little publication called HOT ROD to put together each month. Parks must’ve been relieved to see this season end, but he’d soon be tested as never before by two political decisions: an industrywide agreement to end corporate racing sponsorship, and Wally’s own ban of fuels other than pump gasoline. The next round of archive images will bring us behind the scenes to places and people photographed in 1957, but seldom or never seen in print.

Contrary to the episode title “Juvenile Delinquent,” hot rods and young hot rodders were positively presented in a 1955 episode of The Life of Riley, the popular sitcom starring William Bendix and Wesley Morgan as father and son. To our knowledge, this image has previously appeared only as a postage-stamp-sized, closely cropped inset within HRM’s feature on Jim Griepsma’s cool coupe. Sixty-two years after loaning the car to the cause, Jim still owns the ’34. (See Dec. ’56 HRM.)

None of our L.A. sources was able to name this guy, but the search unexpectedly produced history worth mentioning about North Hollywood’s C-T Automotive (behind photographer), the crankshaft company’s sprint car, even the roller rink beyond. American Hot Rod Foundation curator Jim Miller enlisted the memory of Dave Sweeney, who joined C-T a few months after Al Paloczy stopped by in January to cover an Ardun buildup. (See July ’57 HRM.) Sweeney assured us that the mystery man is not driver Art Bisch, who went on to dominate the tough California Racing Association this season in Number 22 (10 wins in 27 meets—including six straight—and the ’56 CRA championship). Dave also described a private test track that C-T partners Clem TeBow and Don Clark carved out of the adjoining Department of Water and Power easement, utilizing two huge towers as inside turn markers. Longtime resident Kay Akers recognized the huge Quonset hut on the other side as a repurposed WWII warehouse built to store aircraft parts. Her brother in law skated there in the early ’50s. A remodel application dated April 1954 states that the rink accommodated 1387 folks. Unlike just about every other war-era structure in SoCal, this one still stands. Alas, we’re left to wonder who this young man was, and why Paloczy posed him for just this one frame. The race car got us wondering whether Tony Nancy, who lived in the area and almost surely patronized C-T, numbered his roadsters and dragsters “22 Jr.” in tribute.

It’s easy to see why Lee Woods, a Trend Inc.-Petersen Publishing Co. switchboard operator, often doubled as a model for photographic director Bob D’Olivo. She’d be in her mid-to-late eighties today.

National Roadster Show founder Al Slonaker’s spirited signs immediately identify the Oakland Exposition Building. Though the Petersen monthlies rarely devoted much space to the event itself, countless car features were shot before and after in the parking lot. HRM’s Eric Rickman took the annual opportunity for a working vacation in his hometown. This favorite view came through an office window. It was during the second Oakland show, six years earlier, that Tom Medley “discovered” the local freelance photographer and camera-store employee peddling circle-track prints in a booth. At Stroker’s urging, Bob Petersen offered a job setting up an in-house photo lab at then-Trend, Inc. Rick stuck around for 42 years, retiring in 1992.

Besides being HRM’s editor and NHRA’s president, the multitalented, tireless Wally Parks wasn’t above gettin’ down ’n’ dirty for a cool composition. At Daytona, he and the lens might’ve both needed baths after the unidentified roadster continued fishtailing this way during NASCAR’s straight-line acceleration trials. (See July ’56 HRM; May ’56 Motor Life.)

Before NASCAR’S speed trials officially opened, promoter Bill France Sr. made a pass in one of Zora Arkus-Duntov’s factory race cars. The Corvette fleet went head to head with T-birds in Production racing for the first time in the flying mile (after which the fastest of both breeds were disqualified in teardown for overboring). Chevy pilots John Fitch and Betty Skelton clocked two-way averages of 145 and 137 mph, respectively. Zora himself led the charge in a streamlined, 150-mph unlimited entry.

Alternative powerplants of the future grabbed readers from the beginnings of both Motor Trend (established 1949) and Motor Life (previously Hop Up and Motor Life, since 1952). Turbines seemed to have the edge in futuristic propulsion in the mid-’50s. Chrysler got a car running in 1954, followed the next year by both GM and Ford. Production prospects brightened after this ’56 Chrysler crossed the country in four days (including five hours spent R&Ring the engine at a Winslow, Arizona, dealership after an air-intake casting cracked). An engineer in the back seat monitored 45 different parts of the engine. Unleaded gasoline, which returned 13-14 mpg at a steady 50 mph, might’ve made its magazine debut here as fuel for a new car. (See June ’56 MT & ML.)

Go-karts were invented for full-sized people, as demonstrated by beefy contributor Ray Brock. The frame was found on a Rickman roll labeled “Pre-Indy,” suggesting that two of hot rodding’s most-famous photojournalists crossed paths during Rick’s annual springtime tour of Indy-car shops. Brock was not yet a PPC staffer, but his byline began appearing regularly in the magazines this year.

Corvette’s most-impressive outing to date was overshadowed by Ernie McAfee’s fatal crash on the same day near Monterey, California. This single frame among the three rolls that Paul Sorber exposed is the only frame we found of the tragedy that shut down the Pebble Beach Road Races after this final April 22, 1956, event (won by Carroll Shelby in a Ferrari). Skid marks reported to be as long as 125 feet suggested that McAfee, a Ferrari distributor and skilled driver, missed a downshift entering a turn at 100-plus mph, locked up his brakes, and slammed into one of many trees lining scenic 17 Mile Drive. The 4.4 Ferrari was owned by Union Oil Co. heir Bill Doheny, who always requested entry numbers containing “76” (e.g., 276 here). Incredibly, the wreck was rebuilt, raced, and reportedly survives in a private collection. Meanwhile, a factory Corvette’s finest outing on a road course saw Dr. Dick Thompson win C-Production and lead the favored Mercedes 300SLs and Jaguar XKs for several laps in the overall feature before fading along with the car’s drum brakes.

Refreshed with new blood, two new cars (which Wally Parks undoubtedly charmed out of Plymouth Division), and a trailer relettered “Safety” where it previously read “Drag,” NHRA’s third national tour got off to its smoothest start yet. Newcomers Don Doeckel, John Rucker, and Dick Scritchfield joined returning team leader Bud Coons for what proved to be the final Safari (details to come in our 1957 series installment). Ray Brock photographed the launch in the vast parking lot that served the world’s largest occupied indoor structure, L.A.’s Pan Pacific Auditorium (previously pictured in Part Two of this series, May ’18).

HRM and NHRA secretary Barbara Livingston, one of Bob Petersen’s earliest employees, came aboard to assist Wally Parks and never stopped. The future Barbara Parks often described typing up the first NHRA membership cards (possibly on the typewriter pictured).

Contrasting “rail” styles illustrate why the super-light slingshot of Louie Aubrey (later known as Bill Crossley) was consistently among California’s quickest and fastest dragsters. Wayne King, a fellow Smokers of Bakersfield member, identified the far-lane car at Madera (California) and also in the famous club’s logo. None of our expert sources could ID the brave soul atop the Swiss-cheesy rails. (Enjoy Smokers and March Meet history at smokersdragracing.wordpress.com. Annual membership, with full club benefits, is now open to anyone sending $60 to the Smokers, P.O. Box 22288, Bakersfield, CA 93390-2288.)

Bob D’Olivo, PPC’s longtime photographic director, is a regular and invaluable source of company history. He can’t identify the buttocks, but instantly recognized the other guy: “Colin Creitz was one of my staff photographers, using the copy stand that I built [for shooting “copy negs” of a print or artwork —Ed.]. They’re also using my own Kodak view camera. Pete’s photo lab had next to nothing to use when I went to work there [in 1952].”

In their off hours, PPC photographer Bob D’Olivo and HRM tech editor Racer Brown (pictured) teamed up to campaign what is probably the winningest project car in company history, and maybe the most significant. Bill Pollack went nearly undefeated in California Sports Car Club meets, but SCCA driver Dick Thompson made history by giving Corvette its first national championship this season. Thompson needed two ’56 Corvettes to accumulate the necessary C-Production points, alternating between this factory-prepped car in western events and a Detroit-based fraternal twin back east. After Pollack subsequently crashed out of a Cal Club meet, smashing up one fender, a grateful Chevrolet Engineering offered D’Olivo the Corvette and all spares—for $1,400! However, a wounded race car was the last thing needed by a young family man with his first child and mortgage. Instead, Chevy transported the operation to an independent racer who would crash and burn the roadster in 1957. Body-shop-owner Chuck Porter later told D’Olivo that he’d scrapped everything but its rollbar. (See Oct. ’56, Jan. ’11, July ’16 HRM.)

Backstage access doesn’t get much better than the playing field during an NFL game, presumably at halftime. Staff shooter Al Paloczy returned from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum with action shots of various Rams and Washington Redskins, plus three frames of these overdressed ticket pullers. Sorry, we can identify neither the gent nor a young woman whom uncouth football fans of that unenlightened era might’ve referred to as a “blonde bombshell.” Company archivist Thomas Voehringer wild-guesses that she may be Diana Dors, “the British Marilyn Monroe.” (If you know the story and e-mail editor Hardin promptly, maybe Mr. Ed. will publish one of her other angles, along with your letter.)

Rather than challenge the severely chopped, super-swoopy Studebakers in a brutal Competition Coupe class, Lou Bingham temporarily and nicely restored the stock profile required of a legal Class-C Coupe/Sedan at Bonneville. A flathead Merc pulled him to 111.24 mph, fifth in class.

Streamlining is where you find it. Some druggist between Lee Christian’s hometown of Lubbock, Texas, and Kansas City couldn’t have imagined that his missing poster (promoting mucus-melting Super Anahist with Thonzidel) was traveling 108.56 mph at the second NHRA National Championship Drags. After cleaning up the nose, Christian’s Olds-powered Deuce trophied in B/Altered. Constructed just in time for the previous year’s Drag Safari stop, the host track might’ve been the first purpose-built, commercial, paved operation east of California. (See Nov. ’56 HRM, R&C; Jan. ’18 HRD.)

Since NHRA’s 1951 beginnings as a car-club organization, cofounder-president Wally Parks consistently exceeded public and corporate expectations. This September, he reserved Kansas City’s classy Municipal Auditorium Music Hall for the post-Nationals trophy presentation, hired an orchestra, and booked well-known entertainer-TV host Walter O’Keefe (center, with cards in jacket pocket) as emcee. Another area in which NHRA outshone all rivals was servicing sponsors, as evidenced by Safari supporter Socony Mobil’s prominent backdrop signage. The oil giant dispatched an executive to assist “starlet Barbara Huffman” with presenting the Top Eliminator and National Champion awards to Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Heath (behind engine). The Oklahoma rail’s mid-10-second consistency prevailed in the last Nationals allowing fuels other than gasoline until 1964.

His boss’s decision to launch a periodical titled Water World meant that Petersen’s lead photographer would be getting wet. Bob D’Olivo remembers this day well: “That’s the beak and tail of the 88- pound sailfish I caught in La Paz with 20-pound line, using spin tackle—a world record, but I didn’t know it! A record could only be verified with the entire catch, and the rest was long gone when I found out. I saved the remains to be mounted.”

Wally Parks had a face—and a speech—for every occasion. Photographer D’Olivo, a PPC colleague from 1952 until Wally quit to run NHRA fulltime in 1963, never ceased to be amazed at the man’s ability to deliver convincing, entertaining speeches with little-to-no notice. The suit and tie were standard equipment for the man most responsible for polishing public perceptions of hot rodders and straight-line racers.

Hmmm, wonder why such a super-light, well-ventilated racing seat never caught on—or appeared in magazine coverage? All we found was a handwritten November 6th entry into the PPC photo lab’s film log attributing the roll to Dean Batchelor and the Palm Springs road race.

Freelancer and lakes-racer Dean Batchelor (right) was among the very few well-known writers never affiliated with PPC. Here, Dean traded exposures with D’Olivo during an after-hours shindig at Petersen’s Hollywood Blvd. headquarters. (“He got the raised eyebrow when he flipped the So-Cal streamliner at El Mirage in 1950,” advised historian Greg Sharp.) That expansive forehead on the left is instantly identifiable as Ray Brock’s, but none of our surviving sources recognized the guy in the tie.

The same, 12-shot roll that contained D’Olivo’s party pictures gave us this handy accessory, complete with burning L&M cigarette. A magnet evidently secured it to the Tri-Five dash.

Early tracks were often situated on active municipal airports. To keep the peace with well-connected local pilots, strip officials stopped the show for landings and take-offs. NHRA’s rules committee chose this late-season meet at Morrow Field in Colton, California, to introduce a class for Detroit’s new “super stock” (HRM’s quotes) cars. None showed up here, ironically, but the revised A/Stock (14.99 or fewer pounds per advertised horsepower) would be adopted nationally in 1957, then further evolve into the first Super Stock class in 1958 (at 12.59 lbs./hp). (See Feb. ’57 HRM.)

Few feature vehicles in history have commanded more than one PPC feature session. Jim Griepsma’s coupe is probably the only one photographed thrice in the same year, counting HRM’s coverage during The Life of Riley filming. Still owned by Griepsma, the chopped, channeled coupe rides on a ’34 sedan frame dropped 9 inches in front and 7 in back. While the assembled customs suggest some outdoor show, the absence of spectators and a November 26th log entry reading “Car Features-Car Craft” might indicate an exclusive gathering arranged for the magazine.

This TV version of Norm Grabowski’s revolutionary T-bucket sold countless scale-model kits for Revell (“Kookie’s Hot Rod”) and fullsize kits by Speedway Motors (“Kookie Kar”). The roadster pickup’s movie appearances date to 1955, when Norm and brother Donald were building Hollywood sets. By 1957, it had graced the covers of both HRM and Car Craft, and appeared in a famous Life magazine photo from Bob’s Big Boy. In the 1958-1959 television seasons, Warner Brothers’ 77 Sunset Strip series and teen-idol Edd “Kookie” Byrnes made this final version the world’s most-famous hot rod. (See Oct. ’55 HRM; Apr. ’57 CC.)

Yes, you old-timers have seen the shot before, albeit cropped to drop out scenery that looks like El Mirage dry lake. HRM tech editor Racer Brown was at the wheel. His subsequent cover story stated that this stock, McCulloch-supercharged Golden Hawk “outperforms almost all production cars … without resorting to a long list of sometimes-unobtainable powerplant options.” During a series of Lions Drag Strip passes, the 275hp, 3,700-pounder averaged 16.72 seconds and 82.3 mph. (See Mar. ’57 HRM)

In what’s believed to be the first formal photo shoot for the Rod & Custom Dream Truck, owner-editor Spence Murray’s chopped, channeled, sectioned ’54 Chevy was still in primer and lacking horizontal rear wings this December. Freelancer James E. Potter (aka James Richards) was behind the camera; model Nancy Palmer, in front. Four images from this December session showed up first in Motor Trend, followed by others in a Petersen “one-shot”—but none in R&C, for some reason. (See Mar. ’57 MT; Custom Cars 1958 Annual; Fawcett’s Best Hot Rods No. 3.)

None of these still-camera setups actually made The Life of Riley episode except the last scene depicted, in which a stiff, expressionless Wally Parks has a four-word speaking part (“How do you do?”). Jim Griepsma’s ’34 Ford made just one, fleeting appearance onscreen—peeling out of a driveway, to the certain dismay of NHRA’s image-conscious president—but scored the HOT ROD cover, plus an inside feature dated by the coupe’s previous powerplant, a flathead Ford. The pictured Deuce of Don Hudson, destined to evolve into the famous Tom McMullen roadster, is one of four hot rods shown on TV. (See Dec. ’56 HRM; watch youtube.com/watch?v=xq8n0x3-RMs.)

The post Behind the Scenes in 1956: Hot Rods Are TV Stars on “The Life of Riley,” Corvettes Win First Championship, and Ernie McAfee’s Death Ends Pebble Beach Road Race appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network http://www.hotrod.com/articles/behind-scenes-1956-hot-rods-tv-stars-life-riley-corvettes-win-first-championship-ernie-mcafees-death-ends-pebble-beach-road-race/ via IFTTT

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AK Monthly Recap: February 2017

After a quiet January, I got back to the road in February with two trips that were out of the norm for me. A trip to Florida and a cruise — two very typical American vacations, but not the usual kind of trip I take. Even so, I had a blast on both trips!

Best of all, these were trips with friends — a road trip through Florida with Cailin and a cruise through the Caribbean with Jeremy.

Punctuated with some fun times at home in New York, it made for a very satisfying month. Here’s everything I got up to in February!

Destinations Visited

New York, New York

Orlando, Islamorada, Key Largo, Tavernier, Marathon, Key West, and Miami, Florida

Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Favorite Destinations

Key West is one of my new favorite places in the United States!

San Juan is a fabulous city and I was happy to return.

And I’m just discovering how awesome Miami Beach can be.

Highlights

Having fun at Universal Orlando. Universal Studios was the main reason for our Florida trip. Cailin is an ambassador for the park, and part of her partnership is that she gets to bring friends with her to experience the park for themselves. She kindly invited me and I was happy to join her. We had a great time!

Some of the highlights: throwing out beads on a Mardi Gras float, going to the actual Moe’s Tavern from The Simpsons, wearing our hot pink BEST FRIENDS shirts, experiencing The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (and doing a hilarious Bertie Botts Roulette video on Facebook live!), having breakfast with the Minions, riding The Mummy over and over (flying around in the dark, fiery explosions, Brendan Fraser demanding a cup of coffee — what’s not to love?), and THE FOOD. Seriously. I did not have high expectations for the food at Universal but the restaurants at CityWalk were excellent, especially Antojitos. They made the best salmon over sweet potatoes…

Road tripping down the Keys. The Florida Keys were amazing and both fulfilled and defied my expectations. They were absolutely beautiful, gritty in all the right ways, and surprisingly a lot like New Hampshire…

Having a little too much fun in Key West. Let’s just say that at age 32, Key West is for me what San Juan del Sur was at 30, Vang Vieng was at 26, Las Vegas was at 23…it’s a fun place. And wild. And incredibly beautiful and historical as well, but still — this is a place where you come for fun. The highlight was our sunset cruise with a bunch of rowdy Boston sports fans and unlimited rosé…

Trying all the key lime pie. This was my major diet fail this month — but I did eat clean otherwise. Cailin and I decided to go on a quest to find the best key lime pie in the Florida Keys and we sampled eight different top recommended pies across the archipelago. Stay tuned for a post on the best slices!

Kicking back in South Beach. We had two nights in Miami at the end of our trip and decided to just chill out — we ate ceviche, relaxed on the beach, and vegged out at the W’s pool.

Enjoying my first cruise ever. Jeremy kindly invited me to join him on a weeklong cruise on the Carnival Vista. The cruise was split between February and March, so it seems a bit weird only writing about the first half of it here. I’m still on it as I write this, and I’m having a blast. It did take some getting used to (it was SO OVERWHELMING at first!) but once I found my zone (balcony, adults-only deck, fitness center, spa, and sushi bar), I was happy as a clam. And my favorite part was getting to know the staff. I’ll be writing more about my introduction to cruising in the future, so stay tuned.

An awesome catamaran ride in Grand Turk. We booked only one official shore excursion and it was a good one — a catamaran ride with snorkeling and a visit to a private beach. The water in Grand Turk is an UNREAL shade of blue and the beaches are fine white sand — Jeremy and I definitely chose the perfect excursion.

Revisiting Old San Juan. Jeremy and I had both been to San Juan previously, so this day was about wandering the town, revisiting some of our favorite places, and taking photos. Puerto Rico is a fantastic place and I’d love to return for a third time and see new spots (Culebrita, yo vengo!).

Meeting up with blogger buds for the first time. This month I met Hannah and Adam from Getting Stamped at Universal Orlando and Gloria from The Blog Abroad came to visit me in Harlem! It’s so nice to meet blogger friends in real life.

I also got some nice plane views over New York en route to Orlando. So pretty!

Challenges

As far as months go, there were no major personal challenges, and for that I am grateful.

From the “learn from my mistakes” files — Cailin and I decided to save money and have me be the sole driver on our Florida road trip, but we really should have paid more and shared the driving. Orlando to Islamorada took six hours and was a slog, especially through traffic around Miami!

Post of the Month

You may have noticed publishing was much lighter than usual this month. I only have one non-recap post, but it’s a good one: Where to Stay in Barcelona: Best Neighborhoods and Accommodation

Most Popular Instagram Photo

This is a bit of a misnomer — my actual most popular Instagram photo was the recipient of roughly 2,000 fake likes from a spammer that has started targeting me and a host of other travel bloggers. (Their method: give 2k bogus likes “as a gift” and then ask us to sign up for their paid service. No thanks. Plenty of travel bloggers use bots to artificially inflate their Instagram numbers, but I refuse to play that game.)

But this is the most popular photo minus the spamming — one of Key West’s legendary sunsets.

For real-time updates from my travels, follow me on Instagram and Snapchat at adventurouskate!

What I Read This Month

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins (2016). Kathleen Collins was one of the first prominent black female filmmakers, and she died in her 40s in the 1980s. This collection of short stories she wrote was only recently found among her belongings and published last year. Some stories read like poetry, some like prose, some like plays.

More than anything, this book is about how black women love and the sacrifices they make as a result. I loved these stories of women who fell in love, women who stayed by their cheating men, women who attempted to carve out a life of their own. You could call it a companion piece to Beyonce’s Lemonade. It’s a relatively quick read and one that I highly recommend. Category: A book by a person of color.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (2016). I was afraid to read this book for a long time, despite its stellar reviews. I tend to avoid books about confronting death and grief (the same reason why I haven’t read Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking), and I didn’t know how I would handle reading about a brilliant young neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal cancer. This book is about how he evaluates his life prior to diagnosis and his outlook afterward. I shouldn’t have avoided it.

This book is written so beautifully. The best memoirs are fascinating stories that are told well, and this absolutely fits the bill. Dr. Kalanithi wrestled with whether to become a doctor or a writer, and tentatively planned on leaving medicine to focus on writing later in life. But what a way to leave the world — this book is a treasure. I read it in one sitting. I’m grateful that I got to know Dr. Kalanithi, if only posthumously. Category: A book about a difficult topic.

What We Do Now: Standing Your Ground in Trump’s America by various authors (2017). This book, obviously published quickly following the 2016 election, is a collection of essays by liberal leaders talking about what needs to be done in the resistance against Donald Trump. Some of the authors include Elizabeth Warren, Paul Krugman, Bernie Sanders, and the first Somali-American legislator, Ilhan Omar.

I had read a handful of the essays before, including Warren’s and Krugman’s. Everything was organized by topic, from LGBT rights to the environment. And honestly, this is a very preaching-to-the-choir book, especially if you’re a liberal who follows the news, but I enjoyed reading it nonetheless and got some new insights. Category: A book with multiple authors.

Wendy Darling, Volume II: Seas by Colleen Oakes (2016). My cousin Colleen is an incredibly prolific author and the mind behind two young adult series of retold fairy tales. My favorite books of hers so far are the Wendy Darling books — a dark retelling of Peter Pan from Wendy’s point of view. These books are visually lush and much more mature.

In the first book, Wendy realizes that both Neverland and Peter Pan are far more sinister than they appear, and she escapes with her brother Michael. In the second, she joins Captain Hook and his crew as they sail Neverland, trying to stop Peter Pan with the help of bloodthirsty mermaids and deranged fairies. And if Peter Pan was sexy in the first book, CAPTAIN HOOK was sexy in the second! I love Colleen’s view of Neverland! Category: A book involving a mythical creature.

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (1934). I’ve actually never read a book by Agatha Christie in my life (!) but I needed a book that’s becoming a movie this year, and I got excited when I saw that not only is Murder on the Orient Express going to be a movie in December, but Leslie Odom Jr. (a.k.a. Aaron Burr from Hamilton) will be in it! It has an awesome cast: directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh with Odom, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer, Josh Gad, Willem Dafoe, and DAME JUDI MOTHERFUCKING DENCH.

This iconic mystery takes place on the Orient Express from Istanbul to Calais in the 1930s. A passenger is murdered and the train gets stuck in a snowstorm, which means the murderer is one of the passengers in the car. Good thing detective Hercule Poirot is on board and is able to deduce who the killer is.

One thing I didn’t expect…the surprising amount of casual racism about Italians and Italian-Americans. According to one character, the Italian must be the murderer because Italians love to stab people…That said, it’s a reminder that Italians and Irish were once treated with the prejudice and scorn that Muslims, Latinos, and Africans receive in America today. I’m eager to see how they modernize the film. Category: A book that’s becoming a movie in 2017.

What I Listened To This Month

“Etunnel” by Primary feat. Gaeko. Another one of Spotify’s picks for me (seriously, Spotify knows my tastes inside and out), this is a lovely Korean electronic/hip-hop song with a touch of Burt Bacharach. Give it a listen; I bet you’ll love it!

Fun fact: I didn’t even know it was Korean until I looked it up just now…

What I Watched This Month

I’ve started watching Santa Clarita Diet on Netflix. This comedy stars Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant as boring-yet-happy realtor couple living in the suburbs with a teenage daughter — until one day Barrymore’s character suddenly turns into a zombie and starts eating people.

It’s not the sharpest or most cutting-edge comedy of all time, but it’s wacky and I love it! The cast is great, and it has a very sweet message of doing everything you can to protect your family, even if that means killing people you can’t stand in order to eat them.

What I Cooked This Month

No pics, but I am cooking these turkey spinach burgers all the time. They’re super healthy and a good source of protein, and I love making four at once so I have a few ready to go in the fridge! Plus, they look like Oscar the Grouch.

Four pieces of advice: 1) This recipe calls for a truly insane amount of spinach — just go with it. 2) Be very gentle when mixing the turkey; if you mash it too hard it will be too dense. 3) They will fall apart if you grill them, so bake them in a glass dish. 4) Top them with avocado or guacamole — it’s the best! Avocado is my main substitute for cheese these days, and I find it just as satisfying.

Fitness Update

I’m still working hard on my fitness and I think I’ve been making progress at a much faster rate lately. Something has shifted — I work harder and better and am feeling great!

That said, this was also my first month traveling since starting my fitness regimen, and it was challenging to keep up workouts and eat well on the road. I could have done better with both, but I’m glad neither trip turned into a gluttonous free-for-all, as it would have in the past.

I tried two new classes this month — Pon de Flo with Oneika, and IMAXShift with Beth. Pon de Flo is a Caribbean dance class in SoHo that includes HIIT segments — think Zumba but with more push-ups. IMAXShift is a spin class in front of an IMAX screen located in DUMBO — you ride through space and lasers and the sky.

I only lost a few pounds in February, but I don’t mind — according to my body analysis I’m gaining a ton of muscle, which is heavier and cancels out a lot of fat loss. Weight isn’t as important as you think. More important is that I look and feel different — especially in my face, my upper arms and my thighs. And I’ve lost three inches off my waist since December.

Also a bonus: I went bathing suit shopping and found three suits that I loved and felt great in!

Coming Up in March 2017

I have a few more days on the cruise at the beginning of March, and beyond that, I have no travel plans scheduled in March. Which, once again, is great. I feel like I’m actually starting to live my goal of traveling 25% of the time or less.

I do have a lot I want to do in New York this month, including visiting the new Golden Girls cafe in Washington Heights, so stay tuned for more local coverage!

Plus, Cailin is coming to stay for a few days (amusingly, she’ll already be at my place when I get back from the cruise). I’m also looking forward to hosting my book group at my apartment, which is shockingly the first time I’ve invited more than two people into my apartment simultaneously!

What’s coming up for you in March? Share away!

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Bud Brothers Unlimited Series Badong 2013 “Atsay-killer” ang naging bansag ng lahat kay Badong nang biglan niyang patulan ang maid nilang si Doray. Pero hindi alam ng lahat, maging ni Doray mismo, na hindi atsay ang turing niya rito. Kinakapatid niya ang babae at inihabilin ito sa kanya ng yumao nitong ama. Iyon nga lang, hindi niya napigilang “salakayin” ang pinababantayan sa kanya. At nagbunga ang “pananalakay” niya. Wala namang problema. Handang-handa siyang panagutan ang responsibilidad. Pero si Doray, umepal. “Nagbabayad lang ako ng utang-na-loob sa ‘yo! Alam ko na, na ikaw ang nagpapaaral sa akin. Tumatanaw lang ako ng utang-na-loob kaya kita pinatulan, Badong.” Ang sakit n’on.

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Bud Brothers Unlimited Series Corgy 2013 Nang makilala si Corgy ng kaibigan ni Lupe ay napakanta ito ng “The Search is Over”. Hindi naman ito masisi ni Lupe. Out of this world kasi ang kaguwapuhan ng lalaki. Maginoo pa ito. Kaya tinulungan niya ang kaibigan na mapasagot si Corgy. Pero nabalitaan niya, siya raw ang type nito. Kinilig siya. At sa isang resort, isinugal ni Lupe hindi lang ang friendship, pati puso’t kaliliwa niya. Ipinagkaloob niya ang lahat-lahat kay Corgy. Subalit pagkatapos niyon, iniwasan na siya nito. Maging magkaibigan na lang daw sila. Anyare?

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Bud Brothers Unlimited Series Rook 2013 Napasugod sa basurahan si Laurel dahil may nagtapon doon ng mga damit niya. Pikit-matang nag-dive siya sa dumpsete at muntik nang malunod sa basua. Mabuti na lang at may nakakita sa kuyukot niya at naisipan nitong sagipin siya sa mga nabubulok at di-nabubulok. Si Rook. Simula noon, hindi na siya tinantanan ng matatamis na boladas at malalagkit na titig nito. Malas nito. Allergic siya sa mga mambobola. Kakain na lang siya ng panis na bubog with uod kaysa maniwala kay Rook. Pero nang mangailangan ito ng pekeng pregnant girlfriend, guess who kung sino ang pumapel?