#Evolve 93

[smbevolved]

SMB Linktree

Dear animators, puppeteers, stop motion creators, or just anyone who likes to create, a new reanimated project needs YOUR help! A group of individuals are trying to recreate the 1993 Super Mario Bros Movie but they need animators and creators to help them with the scenes, so whether you liked the movie and want to create it in your own style or hated it and want to either have fun with it or make it better, this your chance!

Scenes are available now so hurry before they get snatched and be a part of this awesome assignment! Their social media will be below.

https://linktr.ee/marioevolved?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=0926c102-ab9d-41f3-9906-0194dd9dd50a

[mixelation]

*devil on your shoulder voice* what if you went into a really detailed rant about why you hate the earth is space australia posts

>:(

common themes i don't like:

"oooh humans scawwy because PREDATORS" - shut the fuck up. you're being childish. are you aware that YOU are also prey in the right circumstances? predator-prey dynamics are diverse and often shifting (look up "intraguild predation"). you are literally making interspecific interactions less interesting by doing this

"pack bonding" - this isn't a thing. this isn't a term i can find used outside of this specific genre of post and a couple of dog training books. it has no biological or sociological basis. i asked a psychologist about it and they said y'all are wrong

why are we making posts hyping up humans, only to write those posts as terrified of interacting with the incredible diversity of human behaviors and attitudes and cultures. like in these posts humans are all universally "bonding" with strange creatures and acting like physical tanks in pressing situations. if the point was a love letter to humanity you'd think you'd get actual characters representing different facets of humanity instead of a single caricature

speaking of which, why are we romanticizing human traits which are not universal. yes, some humans can [physical feat] but many cannot. why do so many posts seem to be gloating over a "feat" i'm like 93% sure the OP cannot do

i hatehatehate the format of them as an alien having a conversation with a human, where the human calmly explains something about earth (almost always poorly/inaccurately) while the alien freaks out. i hate how 50% of the sentences either begin or end with the phrase "but yeah" because the writer doesn't know how to conclude a thought when they're waxing poetic about a topic they have a very shallow knowledge on

posts often don't seem to realize they're implying absurd things about how aliens work. like i just read one about how earth is ultra diverse, implying aliens have very low biodiversity, and earth is shocking for the aliens. however, if true, without the ongoing coevolutionary arms race provided by a diverse environment, how did the aliens evolve to the point where they have space travel? i want to know about how THAT planet works, not read someone on tumblr recite a bunch of lukewarm biology facts they only kind of half know

also why are there so many scenarios where the aliens meet their downfall because they just.... didn't do any observations/research before doing something? and it's never a clever thing like "they observed for years but missed X for Y reason." it's always just like "....and then they were dumb and we were so clever and smartbrained!!!"

idk why tumblr is obsessed with taxonomy but they get especially bad at it when aliens come up. guys. the aliens would use different systems because they have a separate evolutionary history. or if they used the same system--- why?! how did THAT happen???? see my point about implying absurd things about aliens

"isn't science terrifying" - NO IT'S NOT, THAT'S JUST HOW THINGS ARE???? i hate this attitude and i find it boring. also no offense but i don't get the appeal of writing aliens shaking in their boots at the idea of [earth thing] instead of being excited to find a cool knew thing. like why go into space if you're not enthused by finding out new things and getting to learn about how the universe works. why is the interest in otherworldly biology never mutual. why is it so important to you that aliens be afraid of us and humans be the most specialest darlings in the universe

back to the "conversation" format. i know most people are not scientists so there's no reason to know this, but. most biologists know a lot about one thing and not a lot about everything else. your intro bio professor seems like they know a lot because they know intro bio and you do not. if you started asking in depth questions about, idk, the wrong type of fungus or something, they'd tap out. so it drives me batty when "scientist" characters are written like they're genuinely trying to explain something where most biologists would be like "uh, well, that's not my area of expertise--" like yes I understand part of the appeal of those posts is that some people just like listing things that they know. however one thing that i know is how biologists tend to talk and you're hurting me

[bullet-prooflove]

Hello!

22. You're my heart and my home

For Mitch Keller please 😊

Tagging: @kmc1989 @dolphs-darling @watermeezer @queenslandlover-93

Companion piece to:

Love Song - Mitch doesn't expect to see you in his bar after all this time.

Clean - Mitch asks you why you're back in town.

With You - Mitch reflects on your past.

Sunshine (NSFW) - You've always been the sunshine in Mitch's life.

It’s the next morning that Mitch asks you the question that’s been playing on his mind all night. You’re operating the coffee machine behind the bar, wearing nothing but his button up shirt when he tugs on his jeans and wraps his arms around you, cradling your close.

“How’s your back?” You ask him, waiting for the beans to brew as he buries his face into the curve of your throat.

“A little stiff.” He mumbles into the curve of your throat. “But that’s pretty good considering we spent the night fucking on the couch.”

Three times you’d ruined him, to say he’s feeling it this morning is an understatement. He needs a hot shower to loosen up some of his muscles but he needs to know…

“Why did you come home?” He asks you. “Why now?”

You lean back against him, sighing as you tip sugar into his coffee mug.

“I saw a Youtube video of you playing a couple of weeks ago.” You say quietly. “You looked clean, happy, healthy. I guess I wanted to see…”

You trail off but Mitch can read between the lines. You wanted to see if it was real, if he’d really kicked the habit or if it was just one of his good days.

“You’ve always been my heart.” You say softly as you turn in his arms to face him. Your palms come to rest on his bare chest, fingertips brushing over the scars etched into his skin from his days in the arena. “You will always be my heart but you know I can’t be around that.”

You’d had your own issues with drugs in the past. It started with a little coke before one of your shows and evolved into an addiction that left you ‘trading favours’ in barroom bathrooms for a fix. You’d been clean for over a year when he met you, preforming on a stage not far from here whilst he’d still been rodeoing. It had been love at first sight.

“I promise you.” He whispers, cradling your face between his hands. “I’m as committed to my sobriety as I am to you, that hasn’t changed.”

“Good, because I want to stay this time.” You say, your fingers threading through the hair at the nape of his neck as you draw him closer. “I want to stay, right here with you.”

Love Mitch? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

Interested in supporting me? Join my Patreon for Bonus Content!

Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[pokemonshelterstories]

How do competitive battlers afford to care for and handle these big, dangerous Pokemon?

I saw a tournament recently in Alola where one of the competitors was using a Dondozo, and I can't fathom how hard it would be just to keep a Pokemon fed every day let alone everything else that goes with Pokemon ownership!

i'm actually taking a course on this topic next semester, so i've gotten a headstart on my readings haha.

so this is an issue that is actually a pretty common complaint about high-level battling. while it's true that a very skilled trainer could theoretically compete at top levels regardless of which pokemon they use, the truth of the matter is that almost all champion-level trainers who have been entered into a hall of fame come from upper-middle to upper class families.

there's a lot that goes into training pokemon from an economic perspective. part of this goes into the sheer amount of money it takes to provide for the average pokemon. while many regions are fortunate enough to have free pokemon center access and subsidized preventative/emergency care, there is still a cost associated with veterinary care for pokemon. there's also the matter of feeding, providing proper enrichment, maintaining a suitable environment, grooming...in paldea, it costs about ₽150000 a year on average to keep a maschiff in good condition just as a pet. this cost only rises as pokemon evolve and get bigger, have more intensive care needs, and eat more. if you have, say, a garchomp? you're looking at closer two million poké a year WITHOUT accounting for the extra expenses associated with raising a battling pokemon. most people can't afford to maintain that.

of course, that's just for providing for the pokemon's physical needs. it doesnt take into account things like having the time and money to travel to competitions, or learning how to train a pokemon not just for obedience but for battle. being able to spend hours a day training or to go to a trainer's school or a battle academy just isn't feasible for most people. in galar, where all gym challengers have to register ahead of the season and it's therefore possible to keep track of how many reach the end, data shows that roughly 78% of challengers fail to earn their 3rd badge, and 93% fail to earn their 6th. battling is hard- i'm an expert in pokemon training, and i'm still not very good at it- and there's absolutely a socioeconomic hurdle to competitive training. which stinks, because there's a lot of prestige tied to things like entering the hall of fame, and there's definitely an aspect of judgment in some pokemon training circles if you don't battle.

sorry for going on so long about that, haha...i have a LOT of feelings about competitive battling (especially looking at official pokemon leagues). while im thankfully in a good place financially now, there was a time in my life that i was couch surfing, and i could barely afford to keep myself fed, let alone a pokemon...i can't imagine how it would feel like to be a kid who wants to battle but can't because they don't have the means.

[mssarahmorgan]

Book 93 of 2024: A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

I absolutely loved The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, and even though most of the characters from the first book don't appear in this sequel, it does not disappoint. It's got all the warmth of the first book, just following a different band of weirdos on a different quest. In this one, Lovelace, the AI who evolved into Lovey in the last book, has been rebooted and downloaded into a body (and taken the name Sidra). She's living with Pepper, an engineer with her own past. We alternate between the present, where Sidra is trying to adjust to living in a body, and the past, where we see where Pepper came from. I loved it. Rich characters, fantastic worldbuilding, big questions about life. And I'm obsessed with the device where Sidra's body is programmed to give her imagery to convey the feeling food or drink might give an organic person. Amazing.

What to read next: Really different tone, but for another sci-fi with great characters and a super cool device that takes advantage of the setting, check out The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei.

[sugar-grigri]

This chapter confirms that Fake!CSM is the CSM Devil

According to me, according to me, according to me!!! Fujimoto will surely trample this theory but that doesn't stop a little effort of interpretation is always fun

Fujimoto's writing (I'm beginning to understand the character) consists of references, whether to previous chapters or the use of symbolism. Several draw through this part 2, I had evoked the one of the cat, there is also... the birds and the dawn.

You will see that all this has a link with Fake!CSM and proves to me that he is indeed the CSM demon. When he mentioned the sunrise, it automatically reminded me of chapter 111 when Yuko died.

Fujimoto wanted to emphasize the time of day, the morning... without any of our dear characters being awake yet: the dawn marked by the awakening and the singing of the day birds. Fake! CSM appeared at this moment to attack Yuko in order to decapitate her

Now let's think by symbolism.

The bird symbolizes social cohesion at the moment, tying in with others. It was initiated by Bucky, whom Asa hates not for his demonic nature but because he was appreciated by all. Bucky that she continues to crush whether it is when she makes an immoral choice, or when she closes herself in solitude: her nightmare, the social rejection. This is logical since, after the death of this mascot, Asa was harassed.

In the chapter of Yuko's death, there is a preponderance of birds surrounding her, symbolizing the fact that she still has a link with Asa whom she has just left. But these birds might have a connection to Fake! CSM as well.

According to the CSM Devil theory, CSM is as much admired as feared.

This would have given rise to CSM Devil the fake CSM.

There are several points in Chapter 128 that support this theory:

the size of his chainsaws and his size at all. Much larger. As if he was an exacerbated CSM, sublimated in horror.

Given his vocabulary, and his annunciatory manner of address, he also seems to prove a certain intelligence, yet another trait that makes him more powerful over Denji whose contrast is operated by the fact that he wants to take Asa's ass with him. Not to mention the fact that people today may fear Chainsaw Man more than chainsaws per se.

Mostly ironically, the door which is a symbolism that follows Denji enormously is more beautiful, better presented. As if it were his best version in every way, even in terms of the horror that surrounds CSM. An ironic way for Fujimoto to tell us that the trauma will be even worse, and that it evolves. No matter what form it takes.

But why talk about the dawn? What does it have to do with birds? Is he an ally and an enemy?

If Fujimoto refers to the dawn, it is first of all to push to the reading of chapter 111. In this one Yuko confides first of all to Asa: I dreamed of becoming Chainsaw Man! This already inserts the image of following the steps of the hero. To become like him.

Yuko is killed for 2 reasons in my opinion:

Denji in itself had not finished the "job". The goal of a demon is that we fear him because his strength will be proportional. So he has to look invincible.

A reason that can't be conscious: Yuko's impertinence to have taken herself for Chainsaw Man. Her usurper having recalled his rank, by eliminating her.

The birds in chapter 111 would then not only echo the relationship between Asa and Yuko. But would also serve to initiate the theme of social relationships... but para-social. CSM Devil is the result of this fear and paranoia around Chainsaw Man.

And the dawn? Is it simply a symbolism that acts as a hint to the reader as Fujimoto did with the mention of the "bad movies" in chapters 39 and 93? Fujimoto is not content to make the symbolism simply a hint, the dawn must have a meaning. The bad movies foreshadowed the conflict of ideology between Makima and Denji, one wanting their extermination, the other accepting them as a part of existence. Symbolizing the evils of society.

The dawn for me, will be the image that will be associated in itself with CSM Devil. When the dawn submerges, CSM sleeps. The purpose of CSM Devil is not to claim its own existence. It is only meant to act when CSM is inactive, symbolized by sleep.

That's why CSM Devil helps Denji in this chapter. His goal is not to kill or replace Chainsaw Man immediately.

Because he is not Chainsaw Man himself, which is his vector and his reason for being. He's not an enemy, I wouldn't say an ally either, but his interest is that CSM continues to exist.

If I say that he is not an ally it is because I think that in the long term he would like to replace him in order not to depend on him. To devour him, when he has enough strength. And to do that, he has to create fear. And CSM must continue to exist. He is what fuels it. Fake! CSM is a long-term enemy, or a deuteragonist not only of this arc. And that whoever after Asa is another antagonist.

As such, part 1 and part 2 follow each other with the same theme. Love, okay... Relationship with others, okay... But above all: identity.

Who is Chainsaw Man? The teenager that nobody knows in the back? Or the bloodthirsty demon who feeds on fear?

[brainstirfry]

im making a thread of things that happened in the wolverine's canonical lifespan. Cause they had movie that was supposed to be his ORIGIN story, but it gave 5 minutes to one experience in his childhood and 45 cumulative seconds to like THREE major wars he was in. So just to highlight how rich this character COULD be with culture across actual CENTURIES here's some shit that Logan Howlett lived through since he was born in the year of our lord, 1832. (By the way, as of earlier this month, that makes him 192 years old cause I think some people just wanted him to have the same birthday as hugh jackman which is great and I support it but I also can't find any evidence that it's actually true.) the last note I will make is that 1832 is neither the date supported by the comics and I've heard that it's not even true for Origins, but it's the most commonly cited and I think it will all be okay. it will all be okay in time. Oh yeah, and spoilers for x men origins Wolverine.

- For historical background, 1801 in America saw the election of Thomas Jefferson, who was the THIRD ever president of the US, so just for context the revolutionary war was just under 30 years prior and the events of Hamilton the musical will shake out within 3 years.

- Anyways in Canada after the American revolution the British split the territory in half, upper and lower Canada and all the British loyalists in the North American colonies went up there. 20 years after the split was the war of 1812.

- Washington Irving was alive during what would be Logan's parents? Time? which I mention because I think Beast would quote him and it would send Logan into a flashback that's the only reason

FROM HERE OUT Logan was probably alive for these things:

- Charles Darwin visits the Galápagos Islands in 1835 but it's hard to say how that really fits in with there being 'evolved' mutants but it's an interesting thought.

- Telegraphs were being widely used by the 1840s. Cool

- there's the Great famine in Ireland late 1840s which kicks off a lot of immigration to the US, in time for the gold rush starting around 1848. Also during this period Edgar Allan Poe hits national fame

- Ok finally getting to the First fucking thing we even see in Origins after the initial opening scene. This is being shown WHILE credits are rolling: the civil war. (1861-65) (Idk if him and Victor are still living in Canada at this point or if they've emigrated to the US after being on the run(?) but it doesn't really matter since Canadians did fight in the war regardless, mostly on the union side, obviously. By this time, they're both certifiably adults. Also Abraham Lincoln is assassinated.

- the late 1870s had graham bell's telephone and Edison's lightbulb. And wax cylinders for music on phonographs. Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana in the summer of 1876

- 1886 I wrote "statue of liberty put up. damn."

- 1890's: Wounded Knee, Carnegie hall OPENS, Sherlock Holmes first appears in a newspaper. kinda thought that was interesting. 93 there's a depression in America that foreshadows the Great Depression, then oh this one is important,

- 1894 has the first motorcycle production in the US! wow.. later Logan will buy his favorite '48 panhead "new off the line"

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Oh venus fly traps are very cool, they live / exist in a very (very very very very very) small area of north/south carolina (Its like a 60 mile radius of Wilmington NC) now a days its slightly larger but not really, theres a bog/swamp in florida that has a naturalized group of them but yeah the original range is the costal swamps of North/ South Carolina. Which is why they evolved to be carnivorous plants due to lack of nitrogen in the soil! They still get pollinated their flower is just like way above it! They can also become un-carnivorous if someone owns it and has too much nitrogen itll stop eating insects but still grow the traps because those functionally are like leaves, they grow new ones as needed!

They also NEED FIRE! Its the only way its seeds germinate!

Theyre also ENDANGERED! Theres roughly 300,000 (per a survey in 2019) of them in its native area. Which from the last full survey of them back in 1979 which said theres about 4,500,000 of them thats a 93% REDUCTION of their population. and the areas that it now populates only 21/70 sites they are found point towards being viable for the future.

Im just very passionate about venus fly traps, i have lots of family from north carolina so things from there are special to me. ���️

Whawhawhaaat!!! Man, this is awesome! Thank you so much anon, I don't know much anything about venus flytraps but now I do! In my mind, venus flytraps were sort of like a fictional plant, even though I knew they were real as I've seen them for myself, they're just so... I don't know how to say it. Intangible, often talked about separately from the world we inhabit? I never knew where they actually grew, or if they're flowering plants, or that they need fire to germinate their seeds!!! Like, that's a real plant! Now that this connection to the places and ecosystems it inhabits has been established in my mind does it actually become cooler :D

How sad that they are endangered though! Must be a combination of habitat loss and perhaps overharvesting, since they are popular plants and probably popular to own too :/ I hope that there are protective measures taken to conserve this unique plant and its valuable ecosystem; coastal swamps and wetlands in general are so important! At the end of the day raising awareness is very important and that's what you did anon, thank you again :)

[cads-the-cat]

Eepies, i got a treat for you. Playlists inspired by each Sleep Token Member!

They contain songs that match their vibe, where the title matches the person, songs that I've seen used in video edits of them and just other fun stuff and things that relate to them with lots of submissions from Sleep Token fans over on my IG. None of them contain any songs of from their old/other projects so it's safe and spoiler free 😁 but what they all contain is Ocean Eyes by Billie Eilish because they all have such pretty blue eyes🫠

Vessel - it started out fun and ends really sad but I've mixed up the order so prepare for an emotional rollercoaster that will give you whiplash (it's maybe 7% fun and 93% sad british man music)

ii - this one was a bit hard to figure out but it does work for him. It's kind of a short one just like him😂😘 (I'm still looking for UK dance music suggestions because he cites them as inspiration in the drumeo interview and i don't know much about it)

iii - ngl one of the best playlists ever. Unhinged, chaotic, all over the place just like iii. Absolute life of a party. If you ever need some hyping up, this is the one for you

ivy - how do you make a playlist with vibes as cool and chill as iv? Don't really know, can't lie that it was a bit of a struggle. Why is Gasolina on the playlist? That's a really good question that i cannot answer. Why is there rap music on this playlist? Because someone on tiktok calls ivy 'soundcloud rapper bf' and i can 100% see it. Anyway, enjoy

Anyway, if you have any suggestions, send them my way and I'll add them♡

Thanks to all the people who have submitted stuff so far and come up with things i couldn't and make those playlists an experience. The playlists will always be evolving and new stuff added

[pastelearthling65]

100 reasons to stay alive

1. to make your parents/others/yourself proud

2. to conquer your fears

3. to see your family/friends again

4. to see your Favorite artist live

5. to listen to music again

6. to experience a new culture

7. to make new friends

8. to inspire

9. to have your own children 

10. to adopt your own pet

11. to make yourself proud

12. to meet your idols

13. to laugh until you cry

14. to feel tears of happiness

15. to eat your favorite food

16. to see your siblings grow

17. to pass school

18. to get tattoo

19. to smile until your cheeks hurt

20. to meet your internet friends

21. to find someone who loves you like you deserve

22. to eat ice cream on a hot day

23. to drink hot chocolate on a cold day

24. to see untouched snow in the morning

25. to see a sunset that sets the sky on fire

26. to see stars light up the sky

27. to read a book that changes your life

28. to see the flowers in the spring

29. to see the leaves change from green to brown

30. to travel abroad

31. to learn a new language

32. to learn to draw

33. to tell others your story in the hopes of helping them

34. Puppy kisses.

35. Baby kisses (the open mouthed kind when they smack their lips on your cheek).

36. Swear words and the release you feel when you say them.

37. Trampolines.

38. Ice cream.

39. Stargazing.

40. Cloud watching.

41. Taking a shower and then sleeping in clean sheets.

42. Receiving thoughtful gifts.

43. To hear “I saw this and thought of you."

44. The feeling you get when someone you love says, “I love you."

45. The relief you feel after crying.

46. Sunshine.

47. The feeling you get when someone is listening to you/giving you their full attention.

48. Your future wedding.

49. Your favorite candy bar.

50. New clothes.

51. Witty puns.

52. Really good bread.

53. Holding your child in your arms for the first time.

54. Completing a milestone (aka going to college, graduating college, getting married, getting your dream job.)

55. The kind of dreams where you wake up and can’t stop smiling.

56. The smell before and after it rains

57. The sound of rain against a rooftop.

58. The feeling you get when you’re dancing.

59. The person (or people) that mean the most to you. Stay alive for them.

60. Trying out new recipes.

61. The feeling you get when your favorite song comes on the radio.

62. The rush you get when you step onto a stage.

63. You have to share your voice and talents and knowledge with the world because they are so valuable.

64.Breakfast in bed.

65. Getting a middle seat in the movie theater.

66. Breakfast for dinner (because it’s so much better at night than in the morning).

67. Pray (if you are religious) 

68. Forgiveness.

69. Water balloon fights.

70. New books by your favorite authors.

71. Fireflies.

72. Birthdays.

73. Realizing that someone loves you.

74. Spending the day with someone like you.

75. Opportunity to create meaningful and lasting relationships.

76. Potential to learn, grow, and evolve as a person.

77. Joy and happiness in the little things.

78. The power to inspire others.

79. The ability to create art, music, and other forms of self-expression.

80. To explore different cultures, traditions, and ways of life.

81. To make a positive impact on the environment and help protect the planet.

82. Experience the joys of parenthood and raise a family.

83. Learn new things and develop new skills.

84. Create a legacy that will outlive you.

85. Being wrapped up in a warm bed.

86. Cuddles

87. Holding hands.

88. The kind of hugs when you can feel a weight being lifted off your shoulders. The kind of hug where your breath syncs with the other person’s, and you feel like the only two people in the world.

89. Singing off key with your best friends.

90. Road trips.

91. Spontaneous adventures.

92. The feeling of sand beneath your toes.

93. The feeling when the first ocean wave rolls up and envelops your toes and ankles and knees.

94. Thunderstorms.

95. Your first (or hundredth) trip to Disneyland.

96. The taste of your favorite food.

97. The child-like feeling you get on Christmas morning.

98. The day when everything finally goes your way.

99. Compliments and praise.

100. to look on this moment in 10 years time and realize you did it.

Ps : Never forget you are a beautiful person 💕 Life is so beautiful so live, live like no one else exist, live for yourself, don't care of bad people, you are strong

[brokehorrorfan]

Land of the Dead will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray on October 15 via Scream Factory. The 2005 zombie film is the fourth installment in George A. Romero's landmark zombie saga, following Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead.

Simon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento, Robert Joy, and Eugene Clark star. Genre favorites Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, Tom Savini, and Greg Nicotero make cameos.

Both the unrated and theatrical cuts have been newly restored in 4K from the original camera negative. The 4K disc features Dolby Vision. Special features are listed below.

Disc 1 - 4K UHD:

Unrated cut (97 minutes)

Audio commentary by writer/director George A. Romero, producer Peter Grunwald, and editor Michael Doherty

Audio commentary by zombie performers Matt Blazi, Glena Chao, Michael Felsher, and Rob Mayr

Disc 2 - Blu-ray:

Unrated cut (97 minutes)

Audio commentary by writer/director George A. Romero, producer Peter Grunwald, and editor Michael Doherty

Audio commentary by zombie performers Matt Blazi, Glena Chao, Michael Felsher, and Rob Mayr

Undead Again: The Making of Land of the Dead

Bringing The Dead To Life

Scenes of Carnage

Zombie Effects: From Green Screen to Finished Scene

Scream Test – CGI test

Bringing the Storyboards to Life

A Day with the Living Dead hosted by John Leguizamo

When Shaun Met George

Disc 3 - Blu-ray:

Theatrical cut (93 minutes)

Interview with actor John Leguizamo

Interview with actor Robert Joy

Interview with actor Pedro Miguel Arce

Four of the Apocalypse – Interview with actors Eugene Clark, Jennifer Baxter, Boyd Banks, and Jasmin Geljo

Dream of the Dead - Documentary with optional commentary by director Roy Frumkes

Deleted footage from Dream of the Dead

Deleted scenes

Theatrical trailer

A new society has been built by a band of ruthless opportunists, who live inside a luxurious skyscraper, high above the less fortunate citizens who must eke out a hard life on the streets below. With the survival of the city at stake, a group of mercenaries is called into action to protect the living from the evolving army of the dead waiting outside the city walls.

Pre-order Land of the Dead.

[pianokantzart]

Current State: Hooked On The Brothers

Welcome! This used to be an art blog, but it has recently evolved into a Super Mario Brothers appreciation blog. I often draw things, and happen to have a few comics in the works

Heart of Chaos

A Movie-Verse AU of the ending of Super Paper Mario. (Here is a link with more information about the events leading up to the comic) Pages: Title Page / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 & 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 & 20 / 21 & 22 / 23 / 24 & 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 & 30 / 31 & 32 / 33 / 34 / 35 / 36 / 37 / 38 / 39 / 40 /

41 & 42 / 43 / 44 / 45 / 46 & 47 / 48 / 49 & 50 / 51 / 52 & 53 / 54 / 55 / 56 & 57 / 58 & 59 / 60 / 61 & 62 / 63 / 64 / 65 & 66 / 67 & 68 / 69 / 70 / 71 / 72 / 73 / 74 / 75 / 76 / 77 / 78 / 79 / 80 / 81 / 82 / 83 / 84 / 85 / 86 / 87 / 88 / 89 / 90 / 91 & 92 / 93 / 94 / 95 /...

Pages 1-10: X Pages 11-20: X Pages 21-30: X Pages 31-40: X Pages 41-50: X Pages 51-60: X Pages 61-70: X Pages 71-80: X Pages 81-90: X

Hideaway:

Some emotional angst/comfort that takes place after the events of The Super Mario Bros Movie.

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / ...

I also write sometimes. My fics can be found on Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mollykittykat I also did a few essays on the Mario Movie. Here is a masterpost of the different scenes I’ve written on (beware of spoilers)

[covid-safer-hotties]

COVID surging in California, nears two-year summer high. ‘Almost everybody has it’ - Published July 29, 2024

If it seems like many people around you are getting COVID-19, you’re not alone.

Federal data show coronavirus levels in California’s wastewater are surging to levels not seen in summertime since 2022, indicating a wide and worsening spread of COVID.

“We are seeing ... a definite, definite surge,” said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

The surge is clearly apparent in doctor’s offices and clinics where people are seeking outpatient treatment, Hudson said. But, thankfully, not many people are having to be hospitalized because of COVID-19 at this point.

“The wastewater numbers are still headed up. So we’re definitely seeing more and more cases,” Hudson said.

She urged people to test for COVID-19 if they have respiratory symptoms.

“If you have cough-and-cold symptoms, at this point, living in Los Angeles, you should really think that they are COVID until proven otherwise,” she said.

This latest surge is being fueled in large part by the FLiRT variants — a collection of highly transmissible sibling strains that have out-muscled last winter’s dominant strain, JN.1.

In particular, one of the FLiRT strains, known as KP.3.1.1, “has really taken off,” Hudson said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that that strain accounted for 17.7% of coronavirus samples nationwide for the two-week period that ended July 20, up from 6.8% for the prior comparable period.

At that rate of growth, that strain is likely to become increasingly dominant in the next few weeks, Hudson said. “So, unfortunately, I think we are going to see a lot more cases.”

Coronavirus levels in California sewage are considered “very high” for a third consecutive week, the CDC said Friday. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia — home to nearly 3 in 4 Americans — have either “high” or “very high” coronavirus levels in wastewater.

For the seven-day period that ended July 20, the most recent data available, coronavirus levels in California wastewater were at 93% of the peak from the summer of 2022. They’ve already exceeded last summer’s height.

And there are indications that this summer’s COVID-19 wave might have some staying power. Coronavirus levels in California wastewater have been “high” or “very high” for seven straight weeks, with no sign of cresting. The wave from the summer of 2022 played out over 16 weeks during which viral levels were “high” or “very high,” and last summer’s wave lasted eight weeks.

The proliferation of the FLiRT variants may lengthen this summer’s surge, experts say, since they show a particular knack for immune evasion.

“It does seem like we are spitting out more and more variants a lot more quickly, and that’s probably to be expected,” Hudson said. “This virus is still very, very new to humans, and the virus wants to live, and the way that it lives is by evading immunity” — circumventing people’s defenses by evolving in a way to keep the chain of infection going.

Also, “things are pretty much back to normal,” Hudson said, with many people abandoning their once-cautious pandemic behaviors.

Even at the Olympics in Paris, COVID-19 is now treated like any other respiratory illness. The protocol among infected athletes is — if they’re feeling well enough to train — to have them wear masks, isolate when they’re not training and avoid certain communal areas such as the gym.

Regions across California are reporting high coronavirus levels in sewage. In the San Francisco Bay Area, San José and Palo Alto have generally had high coronavirus levels since the end of May. Fresno County health officials said last week that coronavirus levels were high across the San Joaquin Valley.

The rate at which California’s COVID-19 tests are turning up positive has now exceeded last summer’s peak. For the seven-day period that ended July 22, 13.8% of coronavirus tests came back positive. That exceeds last summer’s maximum of 13.1%.

Anecdotally, there are many reports of people getting COVID-19 from events including weddings, work meetings and flights, causing symptoms strong enough to make them miserable for days. Some have been surprised by nastier symptoms this time around compared with earlier bouts of COVID-19, although there are no indications that the latest subvariants result in more severe illness overall.

Those who are older or immunocompromised remain at highest risk.

Read the rest at either link! (You don't have to hop a paywall at the covidsafehotties archive!)

[sappy-cappy]

Legendborn Big 3 but make it Littlest Pet Shop

(Based on their vibes)

I keep getting Littlest Pet Shop tiktoks on my for you page and I have no idea why (I keep liking and saving them 🤭). So, naturally it evolved into me doing this instead of writing. Yay!!!

Bree - Tibetan Mastiff (#93) from 2017

This one especially reminds me of Bree towards the beginning of the series. I want to give her a hug 🥺

Sel - Doberman (#92) from 2006

Protective...extremely loyal...the "scary dog" stereotype...and the eyes??? Oh I cooked with this one I fear

Nick - Retriever (#21) from 2006

If anyone is a golden retriever, it's Nick. It fits him so well. Just look at him! LOOK!!!!

Oh and also I didn't intentionally make them all dogs it just ended up like that 🤷‍♀️ anyways Alexa play I bet on losing dogs by mitski

[justforbooks]

Edna O’Brien

Novelist who scandalised her native Ireland with The Country Girls, and explored the lives of women who love and suffer

Before Edna O’Brien, Irish female writers tended to come from the preserve of the “big house” or enjoyed the kind of privilege that made a life of writing possible. And by and large, their books dealt with genteel themes and conformed to recognisable genres and narrative forms.

When O’Brien’s first novel, The Country Girls, was published in 1960, all that changed. As her friend and peer Philip Roth remarked: “While Joyce, in Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist, was the first Irish Catholic to make his experience and surroundings recognisable, ‘the world of Nora Barnacle’ had to wait for the fiction of Edna O’Brien.”

Written in exile in London, The Country Girls brought O’Brien, who has died aged 93, to international attention.

The reception in Ireland was largely hostile due to the book’s frank portrayal of female sexuality and desire. It was denounced as a “slur on Irish womanhood” and banned, as were several subsequent books. The notoriety established an enduring public persona – the glamorous and worldly, convent-educated libertine – which sometimes worked to the detriment of O’Brien’s reputation as a serious and committed writer. For decades, her name operated as a byword for transgression and subversion, particularly for women.

In addition to more than two dozen novels and short story collections, O’Brien produced numerous plays, a couple of memoirs, children’s books and a collection of poems. The largely first person, linear narratives of her early novels evolved into a consciously experimental style in the 1970s and 80s. A Pagan Place (1970) is written in the second person singular: Night (1972) is a single sustained monologue.

The debt to Joyce, whom O’Brien revered and was able to quote at length from memory, was obvious. Like Joyce, she understood how the cadences, rhythms and syntax of English as it is spoken in Ireland could be used to liberate narrative from its empirical impulse and, among other things, give voice to female subjectivity. But her themes were entirely her own.

In 1983, the writer and journalist Nuala O’Faolain wrote: “Edna O’Brien is not a writer within a conscious literature. She owes nothing to any predecessor or to any tradition. She is a writer with one theme, women who love and suffer.”

From the 90s onwards, O’Brien consciously expanded her range in a quartet of books that dealt with the massive social, political and economic changes that were sweeping through Ireland, themes largely ignored by other Irish writers.

The first of these, House of Splendid Isolation (1994), dealt with the Troubles via the relationship between a fugitive Republican, McGreevy (based on the Republican paramilitary Dominic McGlinchey, whom she interviewed at Portlaoise prison), and an elderly woman, Josie, whom he takes hostage. In the same year, she interviewed Gerry Adams for the New York Times and in 1995 published an open letter in the Independent calling on the then leader of the Labour party, Tony Blair, to open up a dialogue with Republicans.

In Ireland and England, O’Brien’s involvement in political activity and her perceived sympathy for the Republican movement led to widespread criticism – in the Guardian she was described by Edward Pearce as “the Barbara Cartland of long-distance republicanism”. By insisting that dialogue is the necessary first step of any conflict resolution, O’Brien did no more than anticipate the zeitgeist.

In subsequent books, O’Brien fictionalised divisive events that an increasingly prosperous Ireland would sooner have ignored. The real story of a 14-year-old rape victim who had been stopped, by law, from leaving Ireland for an abortion became Down By the River (1996). Generally speaking, these books were poorly reviewed in the UK and Ireland. Many of O’Brien’s severest critics were the same people who found her intervention in politics offensive and she was routinely accused of being out of touch with modern Ireland.

Her 2002 book, In the Forest, was based on a notorious triple murder in County Clare. O’Brien’s fictional killer, O’Kane, descends into madness and violence via a life of exclusion and abuse. Writing about the novel in the Irish Times, Fintan O’Toole painted the actual events as beyond human comprehension while at the same time excoriating O’Brien: “...(the events) did not and do not have a public meaning... there is simply no artistic need for so close an intrusion into other people’s grief.”

There is an irony here: the Ireland that had been scandalised by the antics of Baba and Kate in The Country Girls was still unable to confront the ugly underbelly of a society in which poverty, the degradation of women, violence and routine abuse had been endemic for decades.

There is an urgent, heightened quality to these books – their narratives strain as they shuttle back and forth across space and time. Chapters are routinely no more than two pages long, staccato dialogue sits cheek by jowl with descriptive passages of extraordinary vividness and terseness. Reviewing O’Brien’s The Little Red Chairs (2016) in the New Yorker, James Wood described her late style as one that “mixes and reinvents inherited forms, blithely shifts from third-person to first-person narration, reproduces dreams and dramatic monologues”.

O’Brien put this style to great use in her biography of James Joyce (1999). It is still by far the best short introduction to the writer, his works and life. Such was O’Brien’s ability to weave her own words in and around those of Joyce that when the manuscript was submitted to the prickly Joyce estate for approval no changes or deletions were requested.

The daughter of Lena (nee Cleary) and Michael O’Brien, Edna was born in the village of Tuamgraney, County Clare, into a newly independent Ireland where church and state conspired to control all aspects of women’s lives and bodies. Her family had the trappings of wealth – they lived in a large house with a gate lodge, kept horses and employed farm workers – but money was scarce.

Her father’s unsuccessful horse breeding, gambling and alcoholism maintained a constant level of tension in the house, which often erupted into violence. Her mother’s love for her bordered on the obsessional – Edna was the youngest by five years of four children. Decades later, Lena’s frequent letters to her exiled daughter in London, many of which admonished Edna for her writing and lifestyle, ended with the hope that they would be buried together.

O’Brien claimed that the only books in her childhood home were bloodstock manuals and the Bible, and she often made reference to her mother’s visceral fear of writing. Her turbulent childhood remained a constant touchstone in her fiction, as did the landscape of County Clare. She was educated at the Convent of Mercy in Loughrea, where she excelled at the sciences – her English teacher found her assignments “too exuberant” – and she enrolled in a pharmaceutical college in Dublin, working part-time in a chemist shop.

She met the Irish-Czech writer Ernest Gébler, eloped with him and subsequently married him, against her parents’ wishes, in the summer of 1954. In 1960, the couple and their two sons, Carlo and Sasha, moved to London, where O’Brien was engaged by the publishers Hutchinson to undertake manuscript reports. Iain Hamilton, who ran Hutchinson, was sufficiently impressed with her efforts that he and Blanche Knopf advanced £25 each to get her to write a novel. The Country Girls was written in three weeks.

O’Brien’s success led to strain on her marriage with Gébler and it broke down in 1966. As with her childhood, it provided a rich seam for her writing. She engaged in a successful three-year custody battle for her sons – she had walked out in the middle of cooking dinner one evening – and this included making an undertaking before a court that she would never let her sons see her 1965 novel, August Is a Wicked Month. The acrimony with Gébler continued – he claimed that he had largely written her early books.

Not since Oscar Wilde had an Irish émigré in London lived such a flamboyant life. O’Brien moved in an international celebrity set and spent extended periods in the US, where she enjoyed a large following. Her friends included Jane Fonda, Jackie Kennedy, Samuel Beckett, Mick Jagger, Francis Bacon, Ted Hughes, Princess Margaret, Ian McKellen and Harold Pinter. In 1972, she was described in the Longford report on pornography as a “purveyor of insidiously pornographic and perverted views on sex”. She took LSD with RD Laing, a disastrous experiment that unhinged her mind for a year. She was a regular at the White House St Patrick’s Day party, and posed for Bill Brandt and David Hockney.

Although O’Brien’s professional career coincided with feminism, she had an awkward relationship with the movement. Her independence provided an early example for those seeking greater equality with men, but many were uncomfortable with the concentration on love in her early books and the fact that many of her female characters could be characterised as victims.

O’Brien was routinely referred to as “the Irish Colette”. It was difficult to square a statement such as “I am obsessed by love, by the need of it and the near impossibility of it …” with the impulse in early feminism for independence and activism. But, while O’Brien’s female protagonists might not provide ready standard-bearers, that was never really her project.

The fine short story The Love Object (1968) perhaps offers a deeper insight into her real motivation. An impassioned affair between a television announcer, Martha, and a “famous”, happily married, lawyer ends badly and Martha reaches suicidal depths. As she slowly, gradually recovers from the affair she finds herself falling in love with the memory of the lover more deeply than ever she had been while he was available to her. The story ends with these lines: “I suppose you wonder why I torment myself like this with details of his presence but I need it, I cannot let go of him now, because if I did, all our happiness and my subsequent pain – I cannot vouch for his – will all have been nothing, and nothing is a dreadful thing to hang on to.” More Proust than Colette.

Casual sexism is commonplace in writing about female writers and O’Brien suffered more than most in this regard. Profiles and reviews of her books concentrated on her looks, her poetic manner of speaking, her accent, speculation about lovers, often at the expense of her writing.

It is hard to imagine Seamus Heaney, John Banville or Colm Tóibín being written about in this way. As she wryly commented: “It’s assumed that in order to be a serious writer, you have to look like the back of a bus.” Because she was regarded as a scandalous woman, it was assumed that all of her female characters were thinly disguised autobiography.

This charge simultaneously relegates autobiographical writing to a secondary category and implies that women’s experience is unworthy of “serious” literature. O’Brien is on record as saying: “Whether a novel is autobiographical or not does not matter. What is important is the truth in it and the way that truth is expressed.”

Although the final decade of O’Brien’s life was marred with ill-health, she continued to write. At the same time, the critical response to her work (and appreciation of her career) underwent a significant shift. It is perhaps ironic that the wholly positive reception of writers such as Eimear McBride, Anne Enright and Anna Burns, all of whom owe a significant debt to O’Brien, created an atmosphere in which the older writer could be reassessed. In Ireland, she was given the title Saoi, the highest honour of the Aosdána, in 2015. In 2018 she was made an honorary dame and in 2021 a commander of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Her late novels continued to explore familiar territory – the control of women and their bodies, the treacherous and all pervasive workings of patriarchy, the impossibility of love, the violation of innocence, exile and abandonment – but with a renewed vigour and urgency.

She was drawn to ever more horrific material, and the writing style became sparer and sharper. Reviewing Girl (2019), O’Brien’s reimagining of the 276 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram jihadists in 2014, in the Guardian, Alex Clark wrote, “There is the blend of economy and lyricism, vignettes tumbling over one another to disorient and energise the reader. There is the intense focus on the emotional lives of women on the sharp end of mental and physical incarceration or constraint, broadening out to sketch in the patriarchal and theocratic structures that hold them there.”

The theme of exile is as old as writing itself. For many Irish writers, it seems to be a prerequisite but for O’Brien it had a particularity that transcended her physical separation from Ireland. From an early age, she perceived her own femininity as a form of exile. She fervently believed that true art could only be produced out of pain, rupture and displacement.

In 1976, in her semi-autobiographical Mother Ireland, she wrote: “I live out of Ireland because something in me warns me that I might stop if I lived there, that I might cease to feel what it has meant to have such a heritage, might grow placid when in fact I want yet again and for indefinable reasons to trace that same route, that trenchant childhood route, in the hope of finding some clue that will, or would, or could, make possible the leap that would restore one to one’s original place and state of consciousness, to the radical innocence of the moment just before birth.”

O’Brien is survived by her sons.

🔔 Josephine Edna O’Brien, writer, born 15 December 1930; died 27 July 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[mariopokemonuniverse]

Pokémon Personality Profiles: #93 Haunter (Halloween Special)

After evolving from Gastly, Haunter remain among the most feared Ghost type Pokémon. They hate bright lights, so they spend the daytime in caves and dark buildings. Once night falls, Haunter leave their refuges in search of human and Pokémon victims. Their favorite nights are moonless ones without artificial lights, when no potential prey can see them.

Now having visible hands, Haunter can use them to make humans trip and fall while it is invisible, or beckon those who have lost their way. Once within range, a Haunter licks its target with its large, gaseous, and cold tongue to paralyze them in endless shaking. Rather than voraciously absorb life energy like Gastly, Haunter savors its time as the victim grows weaker over the course of days, until their soul has been fully consumed.

On occasion, a Haunter may befriend a Pokémon Trainer instead of seeing them as prey, and Haunter that have been successfully tamed turn to a life of pranks for both scaring and entertaining people. They carefully preserve the memories of deceased human friends and remain loyal to them, as souls that have not been fed on may be reborn as Gastly someday.

With a Trainer friend, Haunter love being out on Halloween night to get candy or greet and entertain trick-or-treaters; while other untamed Haunter go on the hunt for lost children in the dark of night after the festivities.