#I finished millenial dragon just now

[guiltygearxrd2]

“Hey Hal, how’s one piece going?”

“To be loved is to be immortal”

[bloody-wonder]

starting new series (part two)

oops looks like i started ten more new series so here's another super long bookish post🫢

the series that was so good i'm prioritizing it this year is her instruments by mca hogarth (book one: earthrise). set in the same universe as my beloved cozy sci fi about an interspecies qpp, the dreamhealers, earthrise is a story about a down on her luck captain of a trading spaceship who gets roped into Wacky Hijinks after rescuing a space elf nobleman from space pirates. reese eddings has major stressed millenial going through the quarter life crisis energy so i related to her big time. her crew includes: a lion skunk centauroid, a giant bird that communicates in two word phrases and a pair of horny cat twins. yes, that vintage space opera cover doesn't want you to know it's actually a furry book lol. however, it's not about getting sexy with furries - it's about getting unsexy with space elves. speaking of whomst.

hirianthial is a tall blonde aristocratic space elf doctor and you can't touch him bc that would be too hot and inappropriate (and also he'll read your mind). reese hates him on sight bc he's a beautiful fairytale prince and she's a messy 30+yo who may or may not have been drowning her sorrows in binging space elf romance novels by the dozen. major "how dare you come to me now when i am this" scene from the last unicorn vibes. wouldn't it be embarrassing if reese's ulcer burst from anxiety and bad eating habits while they're being chased by the pirates and mr perfect had to operate on her esophagus? what a unique meet cute would that be!

lol to sum it up: i ship it, the furry crew ships it, reese is kicking and screaming refusing to accept that she's the heroine in a romance book, hirianthial manages to maintain his space elf mystique and keep calling her "lady" despite the fact that she's being a horrible little gremlin towards him and taking out all her issues on this poor man. the pacing of the romance is extremely slow, just the way i like it. one could even say this first book doesn't at all contain what an average romance reader would call "romance" - it's more about hirianthial becoming part of the crew during their various misadventures and reese learning to accept that fact. and about the horrors of meeting a very hot guy who is able to know all your deepest insecurities just from touching you. i can't blame reese, i would be cranky too😅

☝️that's me throwing away whatever you were planning to read next and bringing her instruments to your attention

series i'm going to continue next year (or whenever somebody finds time to finish writing his series):

a targaryen history by george rr martin (book one: fire & blood). as you might know, asoiaf is my favorite fantasy series of all time but i was hesitant to read this prequel lore book bc i was afraid i wouldn't like grrm's writing as much now that i've become much more well-read in fantasy and, more importantly, bc i didn't like the first season of hotd. luckily it turns out my appreciation for grrm's writing and worldbuilding is as strong as ever and maaan i just love the targaryens. i just think they're neat. they just want to marry brother to sister, you know🙂 i surprised myself by how much i enjoyed the history book format of fire & blood with its successive generations of kings and queens, multiple unreliable narrators and versions of events, trying to make sense of long gone triumphs and tragedies in hindsight. which i think is also the reason i didn't vibe with the show - it takes away this sweeping epic scope of the book, the weight of the centuries, the unrelenting pendulum of time, with individual fates nothing but blades of grass ground under the wheels of history etc etc and doesn't, in my opinion, manage to compensate for it by fleshing out the protagonists of the dance of the dragons enough for me to be able to get invested in their personal stories. i hope i'll like the second season more but i'm gonna keep my expectations low for now. i mean, it doesn't even have mushroom🍄‍🟫

the neapolitan novels by elena ferrante (book one: my brilliant friend). didn't expect to like this one so much either. most of it is good but not great - a very truthful depiction of girlhood and adolescent female friendships with their camaraderies and rivalries, a good exploration of struggling to access education as a way out of poverty, an atmospheric setting in the 50s naples - but then near the end there's a chapter where the author manages to encapsulate the characters' journeys and throw into relief the themes of the book so masterfully in so few words, using such simple yet impactful visual metaphors, i literally froze while listening to it in the audiobook and then paused whatever i was doing to sit down and reread it with my own eyes. i'm not a prose girlie so i'm rarely so impressed by an isolated piece of writing (the last time it happened was the epilogue of assassin's apprentice, as far as i remember). anyways, i obviously can't discuss it further bc of spoilers but to put it briefly ferrante succeeded in getting to the core of that special bond you shared with your teenage best friend and somehow managed to distill the essence of girlhood friendships into one single scene. chapter 57: if you know - you know🫠

the alexander trilogy by mary renault (book one: fire from heaven). when i finished the lymond chronicles several people recced mary renault's books to me bc they're also queer historical novels written around the same time (so 60-70s) - but having read the charioteer and now this first alexander book i conclude that those are their only similarities. dunnett's writing style couldn't be more different from renault's and, to be completely honest, i find the latter one extremely boring. madeline miller is actually a much better comp for renault (including the questionable depiction of female characters), except the song of achilles could at least be more explicit about the queer love story. not that i'm measuring the quality of these books by how smutty they are - in fact, the only thing i liked in fire from heaven was how renault managed to write around the scenes of gay sex while also making sure we know what's happening. anyways, normally i would just dnf a series where i was so unimpressed with the first book but as far as i understand the persian boy is really the main course here so i'll read that and then, who am i kidding, i will also read the last book in the trilogy bc of completionism. and tbh i'm not yet ready to let go of the image of myself as an elegant dark academia girlie reading classy mary renault books about ancient greece🧐

series i'm maybe going to continue sometime in the future:

london calling by alexis hall (book one: boyfriend material). enjoyed this first book much more than i expected, given that cartoon cover contemporary romance is very much out of my comfort zone and fake dating is one of my most disliked tropes. ig i just like the british humor of it all and that it really felt like those old nostalgic romcoms hall says he was inspired by. i would've liked to see oliver grapple more with how his parents fucked him up but maybe this is explored more in the sequel? which i'm hesitant to read bc it has an abysmal average rating on goodreads😬 i mean it could mean anything: maybe people are correct in that this story didn't need a sequel or maybe we're just unused to there being more to love stories after the characters get together, including more problems. alexis hall is a total discovery for me this year, i think i trust him to make it good, esp given that there really aren't any queer romance series like this out there, focused on a couple going through all the conventional stages of a relationship (dating, marriage, parenthood). but on the other hand i'd really like to hear an opinion from someone i know. so: did any of you read husband material? did you hate it too?👀

chrestomanci by diana wynne jones (book one: charmed life). this was just fine. i like wynne jones' writing and humor but i think this is the kind of book you should've read as a kid. as an adult i can't connect to its themes and characters anymore but what i can do with my adult brain is discern fatphobia🫤 seriously, this is the third time i see fatphobia in wynne jones' books - just small things that upset me and take me out of the story. wtf mam. anyways, i didn't think this book had anything interesting to offer, compared to howl's moving castle with its iconic characters or fire and hemlock with its wtf did i just read, so i was ready to dnf this series but then just the other day i saw a tumblr poll of people voting for their favorite chrestomanci book and the lives of christopher chant won in a landslide. so ig i'll read that just to be sure and then probably move on to the dalemark quartet or smth. i have an inkling i'd like a chrestomanci book focused on a different (cooler) protag more but i'm not going to prioritize it.

the tarot sequence by kd edwards (book one: the last sun). okay this one is a big maybe. like i mentioned before, i just don't like urban fantasy but i decided to try this series nevertheless bc it's so popular on queer booklr and i like to be in the know. and indeed the only thing i'm mildly intrigued by is the slowburn bodyguard romance - so slow in fact that the main guy has a completely different love interest in the first book. will i suffer through chapters upon chapters of boring urban fantasy politics just for the sake of this romance tho? not any time soon.

series i'm not going to continue:

the saint of steel by t kingfisher (book one: paladin's grace). i'm starting to suspect t kingfisher is not our blessed niche tumblr fantasy but in fact their barbarous mainstream award winning fantasy. what in the name of heterosexual lucifer was this?? lol i mean it's not a bad book or anything, ig i just didn't vibe with the religious aspect of the worldbuilding and, more importantly, the romance here is the textbook example of what i dislike in this genre: just two people being horny for each other from the moment they meet. i mean ik this is what it's like for allosexuals irl but when i see this in a book it just seems like lazy writing. the book opens with the most ridiculous meet cute ever (suffice it to say, nobody's esophagus was even involved) and if i were a normal person i would've dnfed right then and there but i forced myself to trudge through pages and pages of these two repressed middle aged people lusting after each other in cursive. which i understand is very relatable content for some readers but ig i could confirm yet again that hetero women's fantasies are not my fantasies. i finally finished it yesterday and picked up her intruments book two right away as a palate cleanser bc, as me and my book bestie like to joke, i don't want any romance in my romance lol. i was somewhat underwhelmed by thornhedge last year so i'm not really interested in kingfisher's novellas either. ig i could try other books from the white rat universe, the ones not focused on horny paladins, but maybe i shoud just accept that this author is not for me🤷‍♀️

the adventures of amina al-sirafi by shannon chakraborty. the city of brass was one of the most disappointing books i read last year but i wanted to give this author another try bc on paper her newest book seemed like the most up my alley story ever: potc are my favorite movies of all time, i completely support the middle aged woman protag agenda and if there is a thing i liked about chakraborty's writing it's that she's not afraid of setting her stories in the real historical periods of our own world and doing the research accordingly instead of just being "inspired" by foreign cultures and time periods. so i was very determined to like this book but unfortunately it didn't work out. you see, in a good fantasy adventure novel characters, plot and worlbuilding work in unison to tell a cohesive story - here on the other hand these three elements felt separate from each other. the characters seemed more like those tumblr posts showing little oc arts and listing their character traits under them than full-fledged dynamic fictional people with a function in the story. their motivation to go on an adventure and to move the plot forward, as it were, never seemed personal and important enough for me to be invested in their success. instead of serving the plot, the worldbuilding and the lore chakraborty researched and constructed so painstakingly derailed the story more often than not. as a result, halfway through the book i'm still waiting for the author to make me care about this team of misfits and the random girl they're searching but instead i'm hit over the head with the bird people island. sigh. but the biggest disappointment was ofc the demon husband😑 you can do so many sexy things with a problematic demon husband but ig chakraborty just has a unique talent for coming up with sexy ideas and bad boy love interests and then making them completely unsexy in her books. well ig i successfully confirmed this author is not for me and i won't try any of her books anymore.

the scholomance by naomi novik (book one: a deadly education). this book was released right around the time i started watching booktube so i vividly remember the controversy surrounding it. at first everybody seemed to hate it but later, when the sequels came out, there was a new wave of readers who liked the series a lot. i'm a big fan of spinning silver and uprooted (not to mention novik's work in otw) and i'm not immune to gritty magic schools by any means so i decided to give it a go. sadly, this turned out to be another dud. i have a sneaking suspicion this story was a much better piece of fiction in its past life as a drarry fanfic, before novik frankensteined it into a perfunctorily diverse, heteronormative, commercialized ya version of hp. i couldn't appreciate the worldbuilding bc it was delivered through a series of the most aggressive exposition dumps ever so the concept of this edgy school that wants to kill you just seemed silly to me. the romance was meh and the fact that i recently read in other lands that does a similar pseudo-hero/pseudo-villain dynamic much better didn't do it any favors either. i liked the abrasive personality of the main character but not so much as to force myself to continue this series in case it gets better. i'll start reading novik's dragon books instead.

2024 reading updates | goodreads

[talenlee]

May 2023 Wrapup

May’s over! We got there, everybody. That’s one more May in the books that won’t be hurting anybody any more. Just eleven more months before you see millenials busting out the Justin Timberlake memes again. It did bring an annual tradition of finding time to make at least one article making fun of Star Wars to run on May the 4th.

On the Game Pile, I decided to talk about some stuff I really liked, just plain and simple, things I liked, this month:

Lunark, a kickstarter step-platformer about playing furries who steal the moon, not joking

Flamecraft, a kickstarter board game about helping cute dragons find the best way to help people with their day

Tide Breaker, a TTRPG about cinematic pulp adventure that doesn’t rely on the centering of whiteness

The release of the Magic: the Gathering set Scourge, which marks my 20 year anniversary of playing Magic: The Gathering, meaning I have now been playing as long as the average player has been alive

The Story Pile meanwhile brings

The Owl House Finale, where a really good show got a really good send-off. I wish people could talk about the episodes for what they show and how good it is.

My Hero Academia, Season 4 and 5, which is where the multinational juggernaut of the largest superhero franchise not owned by Disney kinda just puttered around and made a few decent episodes of an extremely mid show

The Johnny Series, where Fox and I talked about the trilogy of books by Terry Pratchett that don’t have anything to do with the Discworld. No really!

15 Minutes, a movie about ooo, what if people have cameras all the time, why they’d record crimes and the police would be powerless to stop them woooo and the courts would be on their siiiide

Good articles

As for other articles, I’ve done a bunch of stuff on worldbuilding. There were three articles about the spooky province of the Szudetken (1, 2, 3), and their seven six kingdoms on the far side of a propaganda veil. I wrote also about the Cow People of Kyranou, who are in fact, not cow people. I asked about the importance of droids as slaves in Star Wars. I wrote about how in One Stone, there’s magic but it relates heavily to the nature of things you can do with goo. I also wrote about magic systems that unconsciously or consciously encourage eugenics when you can have a Person of Mass Destruction.

This month I tried a sticker design rather than a T-shirt. The idea was to try and invoke a presidential campaign sticker, the kind that get left on a car well after they matter, because who cares about taking them off? The reference is the two protagonists of major anime franchises in the west in 2006, who were both named Haruhi: Haruhi Suzumiya of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Haruhi Fujioka of Ouran High School Host Club.

This is the kind of thing I find a funny joke for myself, and I don’t imagine anyone else will ever be interested in. I think I did a good job getting the aesthetic of a political bumper sticker down, with the firm font and the spacing designed to equalise the two differently-lengthed names. Also, the rose and SOS club symbols were originally reduced from screencaps, traced over for most of the shapes, then upscaled by one of them online upscaling programs that calls itself ‘AI’ and I think is probably just throwing the processes from someone else’s computer at it.

It’s the end of the semester for one of my classes, and one has only a few days left. It’s a tough one to handle because one of those two classes featured a body of students who I’ve been teaching for three to four years finish their degrees and recognise that this was not only their last class for the semester, but their last class. This meant there was an afternoon session of them sitting down and reflecting with me both on their upcoming project, but on what it’s been like to be my student since the Uni first started doing remote learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of them talked about how she hadn’t encountered a teacher taking executive dysfunction seriously. I know I spoke pretty frankly to those 2020 classes about the importance of respecting your own limits at that point in time — about how forcing yourself to work when you couldn’t was going to make worse work than doing it later. This got her started on some stuff, and we wound up at a conversation about how neurotypicality is kinda a very small, agreed upon box and it’s useful to have the tools to know how you relate to that box.

I’m really going to miss these students. I liked teaching them. But that’s a gift too. I get to remember them and I get to miss them. I don’t have to follow them on their fretting about getting a job or the next stage now they have a degree or how their final exams work out. I just need to mark their work and remember them. Hopefully I’ll find out one day that a student I taught did something amazing. That’d be neat. I’m confident they’ll all do something good, just don’t know what form that takes.

It’s weird to have this memory sticking out for me because really, the defining feeling I have at this point in the month, right now, is failure. Failure at keeping on top of things, failure at doing things the right way, failure at doing things for the right reason. Every day is a long ongoing quest to argue against a voice that for the past few years has been telling me I’m not good enough and let me tell you this month that voice has been winning.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Diary #Meta

[canaryatlaw]

alright, well today was interesting. it started at like, 8:10 am when I woke up to a phone call from the amazon prime delivery person delivering my computer cable, saying the door wouldn’t open (it’s the door to a fucking apartment building?? it’s locked???) and if she should just leave the package there, and I said yes just leave it there, which is why I specifically spelled out in the delivery instructions to just leave it at the door and not interrupt my sleep....ugh. whatever. I went back to sleep and woke back up to my alarm at 9:45 since I was supposed to do a phone interview at 10 but I was hella tired because I couldn’t fall asleep last night AGAIN, so I kinda was in and out of sleep for a few minutes until the call came. I proceeding to give a phone interview while I was still half asleep and laying in bed, but it ended with them wanting to do an in person interview with me tomorrow, so I guess that’s good. The position is interesting, it’s with the ABA as a pro bono coordinator of sorts working with military cases and helping them find lawyers to take on their cases, ranging from all sorts of different types of law. It’s not something that like, I’m dying to do, but it would be more steady than my current gig and the salary would be better because I’d at least be doing 40 hours a week of work which is more than I’m doing now (I think they said the salary was around $55K, which is fine with me) so that would be cool. It would also look better on my resume going forward just because it would be more public interest focused work, especially if I wanted to get in with a nonprofit that does pro bono work. so that could be good. I am slightly anxious about like, if I got a more conventional job I wouldn’t have the freedom I have now to take trips whenever I want, but they did ask about scheduled vacations and I told them about SDCC and Dragon Con (and possibly LA for KCon there, but that would probably only be one day missed) so that’s helpful at least. but yeah we’ll see, I don’t like, have my heart set on it or anything, if it happens it happens, if not oh well. Once we finished I had to convince myself to actually get out of bed and not go back to sleep, which I managed to do with some coaxing and reminding of how much shit I had to get done. So I got up and had some breakfast, started doing laundry, went on my computer for a bit and then started working. I’m still working on the statement of facts, mostly cleaning it up and finding the proper cites for all the info (it tends to be easier to work backwards by writing out the important parts from a summary and then going back and finding the cites for them in the record rather than combing through a 750 page record in order to determine what’s important). So that took a while, with trips up and down to do laundry. I had to call my chiropractor’s office when they opened at noon because when I cancelled on Thursday due to the ER situation I hadn’t had any future appointments scheduled, but they were able to get me in the 5 pm slot for tonight where I’d been scheduled, so that worked perfectly. Around 4:30 I started getting ready and then walked over there. I’m building up a really good rapport with the PT guy there, you can tell he’s like, very much enjoying the fact that I’m playing soccer now and wants to know all the details about the games and such and is always giving me tips, and it’s nice, it brings a little more entertainment to the session. Rest of it went well, afterwards I walked down the street to the grocery store to grab a few things. When I was checking out my total came to $23.19 and right after the cashier said the number he launched into a Monsters Inc. reference “2319! we have a 2319!” and him, the bagger, and I all dissolved into laughter. it was a small moment that just left me like man, people can shit on millenials all they want, I love my generation. Anyway. I went home afterwards and spent a while chilling out and icing my back, and then called my parents for a bit and mostly just ranted about everything I’m mad about, starting with the children at the border situation and telling them I’m seriously considering up and moving to Texas at this point, and then evolving into abortion because my mom has been getting involved with the local pro-life campaign so I was just telling her you know, legislation isn’t the solution here, if we really want to reduce abortions we need to treat the systemic issues that cause a need for them, and that will actually reduce numbers rather than blanket bans that only put women’s health in danger and spark a gigantic backlash. And I know she knows much of this and is actively working on a project to help provide housing for young pregnant women who might otherwise have chosen abortion, I just feel the need to make sure she’s thinking about these things. I know everything’s in a huge uproar about the issue right now and I won’t get too far into this mostly for the sake of time as it’s almost 3 am, but my experience with both the pro-life and pro-choice camps has led me to believe what may be an unpopular opinion- but the majority of people who consider themselves “pro-life” are not women hating monsters, but truly want to do what’s best for women, they just disagree with how to get there. And I’ve been saying this for years now, but there’s so much vitriol between the two camps right now and just constant demonization of the other that makes any actual progress on addressing issues that would actually improve the lives of young would-be mothers, which should be the goal of both sides, but they can’t stop bickering long enough to come together to accomplish it. I know it’s a very complicated issue and I could talk your ear off for way longer than that about it, but as someone who considered themselves very pro-life for a number of years but has since distanced myself from the movement significantly, I feel like I have a unique perspective on things. Anyway. I also ranted about parents not accepting their gay children and how that drives up suicide rates, which I know is something my mom is not very keen on talking about but I keep reminding her about it and just not going to let it ignore it. so it was a bit of a loaded phone call, but overall it was good. Once that was done I got back to work for another two hours or so before stopping for the night and watching some Anthony Bourdain since twitter had declared today “Bourdain Day” since today was his birthday. Once I finished a few episodes of that I went to get ready for bed but had to fold and put away all my laundry first, and then showered and then had to do all my pills for the week, all of which took forever and is why it’s now almost 3 am when I’m finally getting to write this. I think that covers most everything that was important about the day, so I’m going to leave it at that and hopefully get some sleep now. Goodnight my dears. Sleep tight.

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

for the "three" sentence AU thing: Brainy, Alex, & James -- renaissance festival actors XD

Well folks, I tried.

...

This is not the first time that Alex has covered for Kara in a pinch--her sister owes her about a dozen favors, for all of the times Alex has hastily stepped in to take care of whatever weird...’volunteer thing’ Kara has agreed to.

This is, though, the first time she’s had to cover for Kara in tights.

“I’m going to kill her,” Alex grumbles, scowling down at the small guitar-like instrument that was apparently part of Kara’s whole ‘bit.’ “Or purposefully screw up her Starbucks order.”

“You’ll probably want to keep the ‘modern day’ stuff to a minimum,” James suggests helpfully. He’s scrubbing at a dull spot on his otherwise gleaming plate armor. “Guests don’t like it when you break the illusion.”

“The illusion’s already broken,” she says, gesturing to the lute. “They’re gonna know I’m not a ‘real bard,’ the minute I try to play this thing,” Alex finished bluntly. James isn’t bothered by her tone; he hasn’t known Alex as long as he’s known Kara, but Kara had warned him ahead of time, that Alex would be...less than happy, to discover just where her sister had been picking up a few extra bucks on the weekends.

“Why can’t she tend bar, like all of the other underemployed Millenials?” Alex gripes as she stands to follow James. He tosses his rag onto the bench, and gestures towards the entrance of the tent, ready to show her around the fairgrounds.

“You can blame Winn,” he says. “He’s the one who started it.”

“Yeah, and then he moved to the other side of the country,” Alex adds, tugging at the collar of her shirt. It’s hot outside, and the fairgrounds are basically dirt and asphalt. Though, she has to admit that the collection of medieval-themed structures and booths do a good job of hiding the fact that, five months out of the year, this place is little more than an empty, dusty parking lot. “So I can’t even punch him in the arm.”

“Guess you’re gonna have to go back to the Starbucks sabotage,” James smiles. Alex raises an eyebrow.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to mention stuff like that.”

“We aren’t,” James says. “Honestly...you might just want to avoid interacting with the guests. Kara’s shift is only a few hours...” his voice trails off, and he fumbles for a moment, trying to get at something under his armor. He finally manages to pull out his cell phone. “Speaking of...I gotta start my shift.”

“Great,” Alex mutters.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine,” James assures her, giving her a pat on the shoulder. He turns to go, and calls over his shoulder, “just have fun with it!”

Alex scowls.

“Right,” she says. “Fun.” She can think of nothing worse than wandering the sweltering fairgrounds, just waiting for some family to wander up and request a 16th century poem.

She eyes the nearby booths, and wonders if there’s a rule against bards drinking on the job.

Then, out of nowhere, “Ah, Good Mistress Kemp!” Alex whirls, startled by the appearance of a complete stranger, who seemingly has no concept of ‘personal space.’ “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day...” the stranger blinks at her, having finally seen her face. 

“...You’re not Kara,” he says.

“No, I’m not,” Alex replies.

The stranger clears his throat, and takes a step back. “My apologies,” he says. “An....acquaintance of mine works here. I mistook you for her.”

Alex nods, narrowing her eyes. He looks like he’s maybe closer to Kara’s age than her own, dressed in a period-appropriate white shirt and bright blue tunic, his dark pushed back from his face. “No problem,” she tells him. Then adds, “Kara’s my sister. She...had other plans this weekend. I’m helping out.”

“Oh! You are Alexandra then. Or. Alex, rather.” He says, looking at her expectantly. When she doesn’t answer, he clarifies. “You do prefer Alex, do you not?”

“I...yes. I do. Yes.” Alex nods quickly, but she’s still reeling. She has no clue who this guy is, and she doesn’t like that he seems to know her. “And...you are...?”

“Barney. Of Avon.” he says, bowing low. When he straightens, he adds, “it is a Shakespeare joke.”

“...Got it.”

“And the name of my 12th level Orc in Dungeons and Dragons. Kara seemed to enjoy it. It made her laugh.”

“Yeah it’s...it’s very punny.”

“You are not laughing.”

“You know...I think I’m needed over at the...the thing,” she gestures in a direction at random. 

“...The...turkey leg booth.”

“Uh-huh,” she says, already backing away. “I’ll tell Kara you said hi.”

“Please do!” he says, smiling for the first time since the conversation began. And, though Alex found their entire exchange entirely off-putting, she has to admit, he has a nice smile. “Oh! And these. Please, if you would, give her these.”

He hands her a small drawstring bag. She stares at it, confused.

“I realize that perhaps flowers would be more socially acceptable,” ‘Barney’ says, clasping his hands behind his back. “But. Kara mentioned once she planned to take up gardening. So I brought her seeds.” Alex just nods. “It is another joke. You may laugh, if you would like.”

“Ah...haa...” she manages.

“I bid thee farewell!” He shouts suddenly, spinning on his heel and walking away. Alex stares after him for a moment...and then hastily fumbles for her cell phone.

“Hey. Bards don’t use phones!” a random guests hassles her as he walks by.

“They do when they’re on break,” Alex replies, which gets him to shut up. 

She types out a quick message, smirking. There will be no need to sabotage her sister’s coffee now. Not when she has ample fuel with which to tease her.

So. You and Barney, huh? 

[ratchet-says-i-needed-that]

Tagged meme

FINALLY AFTER WEEKS I FINISHED THIS. thank you for whoever tagged me

Okay, I was tagged by two different people so I’m just putting it all onto one post

okay first person

I was tagged by @almighty-hail

1.       What is your stance on the statement that every person’s opinion is important?

I would like to say yes, but it really isn’t. If your opinion is against any group of marginalized people or you think your opinion matters more than that said marginalized group over their own voices, then it’s not valid. I don’t care about freedom of speech, any homophoic, biphobic, terfs, transphobic, racists, and all that, your opinions mean jackshit to me. While if you’re straight, cis, or white, your opinions on poc, trans people and LGBT+ do not matter more than any poc, trans and LGBT, it just doesn’t. Support it, go for it but don’t talk over those voices or act like your say should included just as much.

2.       What do you think made humans believe in the afterlife?

I’m not religious so it’s hard to say,I think kind of because people do believe in afterlife to feel better about lost ones and let them think about death, because a lot of us fear death because of the uncertainty of it. I do sometimes think about hey, it would be nice. Or if hey, maybe it’s reincarnation and karma that sounds nice, but the thing I don’t know any thing and what happens. It could anything, but I just don’t know.

3.       Is tragedy a necessary part of human evolution?

Yes. Because I think we grow a lot from experiences and tragedy is one of  experiences in life

4.       Should political ideas be portrayed in fictional universes?

Definitely, especially in shows and media for older adults, one of the things I love transformers is it is partly about politics and oppression in many contexts and I think if a lot of fictional universes, it could be written to

5.       What’s your opinion on the multiverse theory?

I suppose it’s possible, I don’t really think too much about it

6.       Give me an interesting fact.

Er I once had a pet rooster that was named Lucky because he was the only that hatched and had a limped foot. Like that rooster let me hold him and everything

7.       Is portraying a crime in intellectual (artistic) depictions the same as committing it?

I would say no but It depend because even if it’s still fiction it can still have an impact on people’s lives. And it depends how it is written and it’s really blurred between what is being written and your reality if it’s done badly that while it isn’t the same as committing it, it depending shouldn’t be there. I’m not sure if I’m making sense

8.       Do you think online interactions have the same level of importance to a person’s life experiences as real life interactions? Is this different for baby boomers/generation X? What about millenials/generation Y?a

I mean a lot of good people I’ve met, some of them have been my closest best friends and now I don’t know what to do without them. I think so, because while not everyone, but people like my dad for example don’t understand it like I do and see my friendships on online as somewhat less.

9.       If someone commits several acts of evil, then swears to change themselves and become a force of good, or even become pacifistic, should they be punished, or given a second chance? Do you have a third option?

I think a third opinion, I think there should some form of punishment or consequence if there hasn’t already been in place but I do think people could change. And it depends on the act, is it murder or just stealing.

 10.   If you could choose a superpower, which would it be? Any superpower qualifies, but understand that once you have it, the more obvious your superpower, the more you might be ostracized or hunted for it.

Shaping shifting because I think I would be cool, especially if that turns out to be turning into any animal or dragon you want.

 11.   Did these questions stress you? Don’t worry, here’s an easy question: What fictional character has stuck with you most so far in your life?

Nah it’s fine. Er Ratchet, I love him in tfp, the first major show that got me into the fandom but then I love him in tfa and mtmte as well and I don’t know he’s my favourite character and I love him a lot and I can relate to him a lot I guess. *looks at Lost light 13* Jro, don’t hurt him

And i got tagged by @tilallareimagined

1.       How important does a person have to be before they’re considered assassinated instead of murdered?

I always see assassination as being more political or have some form of leadership so I think that level of impatience

2.       Why do you have to “put your two cents in”… but it’s only a penny for your thoughts?” Where’s that extra penny going?

It’s saving up in order to put your two cents in somewhere else.

3.       Can you cry underwater?

I have no idea but that sounds painful

4.       Why is it that people say they “slept like a baby” when babies wake up like every two hours?        

It depends on the baby because I was one of those babies that like from the start could basically sleep all night without waking. So maybe babies like I was make that expression.

 5.       What does water taste like? Without saying ‘like water’.

Refreshing and bland at the same time

 6.       You know how most packages say “Open here” What is the protocol if the package says, “Open somewhere else?”

I don’t know, if it’s a package for me I would open it anyway I want or can, mostly the hard way

7.       Is your perception of reality akin to other people’s experience of reality?

As part of my program at university, I needed to take a philosophy class which make me both confuse and doubt it and it still does. So I have no idea, I do think some perceptions definitely not but I have no idea

8.       Do you shape your own fate?

I think so but I will admit what I do is influenced by the people around me.

9.       Is human morality learned?

I think so, while some people **looks at the shitty ass people out there** apparently didn’t learn it. But I do think most of us do learn mortality and pick it.

10.   How will the apocalypse look like?

Hopefully with aliens, or robots or alien robots.

11.   What’s the single most important issue the world needs to address?

There are so many issues but I think a lot of issues stem from lack of compassion for others. I guess that.

**cracks knuckles** let’s see how many lame ass questions I can come up with at midnight

1.       Favourite Chocolate Bar?

2.       Was there a thing you enjoyed when you were a preteen (tv, comic, book) but can’t understand how you like it then?

3.       Favourite incarnation of Optimus? If you have one?

4.       If there was one thing, you could change in the bay movies what would it be?

5.       Favourite thing you know from the 1980’s

6.       Opinion on Country music?

7.       Would you rather drink a glass of milk or a can of coke?

8.       Where do you think the missing socks from your laundry disappear off too?

9.       You rather have 5 cats or 5 lizards?

10.   Is the right to freedom of all sentinel beings correct?

11.   I’m tired and refuse to sleep, are you?

I’ll tag

@quartizinerose @rainbow-rally-ace @optimusprimesdaughter @teechew

@thenonsenseoftransformers @beanbrigade @gayspaced @nekokyo119 idk who else

[pilot-kun]

☀️ KTown Night Market in LA ☀️

This is so long; I didn't think it was going to be this long. So sorry.

I went to the KTown Night Market in LA on Saturday, and I wanted to write about it because it was really an enjoyable experience. So the KTown Night Market is a event in Koreatown that happens every summer. I don't know how long the people who organize the event have been doing it (this was my second time going), but it's just one of the night markets that occur during the summer in Southern California. The KTown Night Market happens over the course of two days (Friday and Saturday, and it runs from 5pm-11pm on Friday/2pm-11pm on Saturday. They also have an after party thing, but I don't go to those because I'm not really a club kind of person. Anyways the KTNM showcases different clothing brands, jewelery, cosmetics, food, drinks, games, music (all predominantly Korean, but Asian in general). It's pretty cool. I originally wanted to attend on Friday because Enik's band Fyke was going to be playing as well as BeWhy, but my family wanted to celebrate Father's Day on Friday so Saturday was the only day I could go.

So Saturday rolled around, and for some reason whoever controls the weather decided it would be a fine and dandy idea to MAKE IT HOT AS HELL SO EARLY IN THE MORNING. Anyways, once my friend Irene showed up at my house we left to take the metro to LA. The train ride was long, but it didn't feel that way. Once we finally got off the metro we had to walk a couple of blocks to the school where the night market was being held. I was sweating by the time we got there; it was kinda terrible. So we arrived at like 2:40 or so. We had to show the staff our tickets and get our bags checked by security before we could go into the school grounds. [Aside: the guys checking the tickets were very cute haha.] Once we walked through that and the school gates, there were girls standing with boxes of coconut chips, and they handed Irene and me two bags each. At the entrance (this sort of upward slope that led to the school and their field), there were a couple of tents; one tent was to purchase the admission tickets for the people who hadn't gotten them online. Another was actually a table filled with little cardstock flyers for G Dragon's upcoming MOTTE tour in the States. Next to the table was this huge photo op screen thing with GD's face on in in red, white and black. Next to that area was a couple of tents that were for a tutoring service, fruit snacks, and something else I can't remember. As we walked up, there were people handing out candies and flyers for stuff. The candies were good.

Once we got up the ramp to the right of us was an open area filled with about nine or ten food trucks; there was Japanese food, Korean food, churros, and some other food stuff. We decided that we weren't going to check those out yet, so I showed Irene the other side of the KTNM set up. That area had food/drink tents, clothing/cosmetics tents, carnival games, the main stage, eating area, porta-potties, a Toyota tent, and an area that was later going to be used for the SLam Dunk Contest. Also because we got there at like 2:40, some of the vendors were still setting up their booths, so we didn't get to see some of the tents until later. We walked up and down the tents that were already set up, and they were pretty cool. There were a couple of clothing ones that had some nice clothes, and I wish I could remember the brands because there was one tent that had a pink shirt with the word 'crybaby' written on the left chest area in red cursive font. I really wanted to buy it, but then I said I would come back for it ( I never did, and I'm kinda bummed about it). Then were were some jewlery tents. One of the tents was handing out samples of a ginseng energy drink, and they gave Irene and me a bottle. I thought I wouldn't like it, but it was pretty good; it also lasted me the rest of the time we were there. We passed a couple of tents that were not set up, and then I saw the Choice Music tent. Choice Music is one of the two K-Pop stores in LA, and they're always so chill with their customers; I love going to their store, and I was super glad they were there. Shout out the Choice Gang! Anyways, I basically beelined my way there because I had been wanting to buy VIXX's album, but then I was bummed because they didn't have that album (Choice Music why'd you let me down like that?? I trusted you! I'm kidding though, they always come through.) The girl at the tent let me know that the album was available at the store and they only had brought the VIXX lightstick with them. We moved on from that tent to the cosmetics tents next to Choice Music's tent. TONY MOLY had a good set up, and the girls running the tent were so nice! We had been struggling to open the ginseng drinks, and one of the girls in the tent opened it for us! They also showed us this peach hand lotion that I wanted to buy ( I wanted to buy like 98% of the stuff there. Let's be real about it). I didn't end up buying it either.

We moved on to the food tents, but, just as we turned the corner to go to those tents, I saw the KORELIMITED tent. Now I had entered a contest to win a set of limited edition pins that they made in collaboration with the KTNM; it was a South Korean flag pin and a small rectangle pin that had 'KTOWN' on it; that KTOWN pin also glows in the dark. I didn't win the contest, but I really wanted those pins, so once I saw the tent I was crossing my fingers that they hadn't sold out the night before. THANKFULLY they still had some left, so I bought a set. They're so nice and are now pinned to my backpack! After that Irene and I went to the food stands. I decided to make Irene try Tteokbokki/Spicy Rice Cakes, so we bought that and some drinks and went to go sit in the eating area. It was a bunch of tables under a tarpe, and the main stage was facing it. We sat all the way in the back because most of the tables were full already. The wasn't anything going on at the stage during that time, so we just ate the food and chilled. The rice cakes were so delicious and spicy (my mouth is watering just thinking about it), and the ladies in the tent put a lot of sauce in the container so that made them even better. The only thing with the spicy rice cakes is that they also come with fish cake, and both Irene and I don't like fish, so we ate everything but the fish cake. As we were eating, Victoria Loi (she was the MC for both nights along with Insoo Choi) came up to the stage and announced that they were going to start the performances. A couple minutes passed before a guy came up on stage. His name was Leo Xia, and he was really amazing. Like he came up on the stage with his guitar and just shredded for a bit to test out the sound I think, but once he started singing OH MY GOD. His voice was just so wonderful. It reminded me of the singers you would hear in a coffee shop: slightly raspy but soothing sort of voice. He sang/rapped a song off of his upcoming EP Hyphenated; he killed it. The lyrics were also pretty cool because they were about his experience as an Asian and as a person who lived in Beijing for a large part of his life before returning to the U.S. Once he finished that song, he spoke a bit about the stuff mentioned above and then asked if anyone loved memes. Me being the idiot I am, shot my hand up in the air along with a couple other people. He then sang the 'Apple Pen' song. That was interesting. Nice, but interesting. Once he finished that song he asked people to give him three words; using those three words, Leo was going to try to make up a song on the spot. Someone shouted out bulgogi. Then someone else said kimchi. The last thing was break-ups. So he began singing about how he was with his significant other and they didn't want bulgogi they wanted tacos, and the whole song he sang about tacos and bulgogi because he had forgotten that he was supposed to be singing about kimchi. It was a funny song, overall. Irene and I left after that song to go explore more of the food tents because we had only gone to the one stand before.

THERE WAS SO MUCH FOOD. I WANTED TO BUY IT ALL, BUT MONEY. They had food tents with Korean dumplings, the spicy rice cakes, popcorn chicken, seafood skewers, gimbap, tacos, ramen, those ice-cream ball things that make you look like you're a dragon or possibly a brewing cauldron. Also almost every tent sold boba drinks; I was in heaven haha. Irene was going to buy something, but then we decided to check out the food trucks before we chose anything. By this time, there were way more people wandering about. Irene ended up buying a boba drink from the first food truck that sold it (she was super thirsty at this point, so I don't blame her). She wanted to take some pictures, so we took photos (I took photos of her actually) against a grey wall by the trash cans (so classy haha). Then we went back to the other food tents because I wanted a drink from one of those tents. We ended up watching some guys practice dunking on the small court there in prep for the Slam Dunk Contest later in the evening. We stood there for maybe five minutes before we moved to the food tents. We came across these two tents that sold drinks in really cool containters. One had different kind of drinks in glass grenade containters, and the other one placed drinks in plastic lightbulb looking containters. Since the place with the lightbulb drink offered a combo with popcorn chicken and I was hungry, I bought my drink from there. Then, because we are millenials and this is the type of stuff we do, we went to take pictures of our stuff. There were a couple of photo "walls" that the KTNM had set up around the field. I say "walls" because they were those banner things with trendy patterns and logos etc. So we took pictures at those ( I took pictures of Irene and made her hold my food so I could take pictures of it). Then we went back to the eating area, but since more people has shown up, there were no seats. We ended up going to this quad area of the school. It was across the entrance of the KTNM and behind a flower shop's tent and the information tent (which was handing out Pocky that I forgot to snag/ I forgot to get a lot of things that day). We sat on these stone benches in the shade and eat (this was good because the Sun was out in FULl FORCE TRYING TO SCORCH US ALIVE). There were other people there as well just chilling and eating. We took a couple more pictures there and just hung out while we ate. From the area we were at we could hear the music they were playing from the main stage ( it was always either a Big Bang song or a GD song). A couple minutes later they started some sort of competiton, but, since we weren't near the stage, I don't know what it was of. The KTNM is cool, but we had been there since two (and it was around six or so), and Irene had to be back at her house by 8, so after eating the popcorn chicken we decided it was time to head back home. We did though take a quick detour to take some more pictures, and to stop by the music store so that I could buy Shangri-La and another Suho SUM pin. THEN we went home.

Overall, the KTown Night Market is so much fun, and it's such a great event. It's a good place to try out new and delicious foods/drinks, listen to some amazing music, shop for clothes, cosmetics,etc, and just have a good time. I really love going because I rarely go out during the summer, and this is just one of those events that's super chill and enjoyable to attend. It really is worth going to; you don't have to stay there the whole time, if you don't want to, you can come and go, and it's a two day event, so if you can't go one day,go the other day. I had such a good time last Saturday, and I honestly look forward to going to other night markets, if I can. Thanks to all of the people involved in organizing the event; it was such a blast! If anyone read up to this point, you're a trooper! I hope you enjoyed reading!

[numbersbythebook]

175 and 38

written by Will Schumaker

There is a direct connection between the number 175 and the number 666.

Bible verse 666 is about Abraham dying at age 175.

Genesis 25:7 And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years.

The number 666 is infamous because of this verse.  There are 175 verses left in the Bible after this verse.

Revelation 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

According to the Bible Wheel database, this is the first verse that has a word with a gematria of 175 in it.

Genesis 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Whales in the above verse is Strong’s H8577.  H8577 is translated as “dragon” 21 times, “serpen”t 21 times, “whale” 3 times and “sea monster” 1 time.

So Genesis 1:21 is the first verse that has a word with a gematria of 175 appearing in it and the first time H8577 is used which usually is used to describe our adversary satan whose beast is numbered 666 in revelation.

So what is the connection between 175 and 666?  What does it mean?  My thoughts are two-fold.  

One, we have to live with 666 during our time here on earth.  Just as Abraham was a sojourner, so are we.  Our true home is the promised land of the Kingdom of God.  Second, when the House of God is finished, then 666 will be made manifest, all those who chose the world over Jesus.

I want to show some other connections through 175 and 38 that seem to point to why I believe what I believe.

This is Bible verse 175. The Ark is about salvation in Christ.

Genesis 7:15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.

Notice the phrase “breath of life”.  That phrase is used for the first time in verse 38.

Geesisn 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Recall that Sarah died at age 127

Genesis 23:1 And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah.

Abraham is 10 years older than Sarah so he is 137 at the death of Sarah.  When Sarah dies Abraham buys a plot of land in Machpelah, later known as Hebron.  This is where the three patriarchs and matriarchs are buried minus Rachel.

This purchase was extremely important because it is the first time that Abraham, or anyone of the promise, owned a piece of the Promised Land.

Genesis 23:17 And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure

Genesis 23:18 Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city

Genesis 23:19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.

So in my mind Abraham received a piece of the promise that God had made to him at age 137.  He bought a parcel of land.  38 years later he died and was buried there.  But for Abraham death should be viewed as an entrance into the promise.  He will receive the “breath of life” that verse 38 and verse 175 allude to and he will be resurrected into the promised land.

The Bible describes his death as very pleasant.  He lived a good, full life, and was gathered to his people.

Genesis 25:8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.

In the New Testament Jesus heals a man that was lame for 38 years. John 5:5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years

John 5:9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

John 5:9 is verse 175 of the gospel of John.  On the Sabbath he was made whole after 38 years.  

Although Abraham followed God faithfully, he won’t be whole - have his resurrected body - until he is resurrected on the Sabbath -referring to the millenial reign of Christ.

What further seals the deal on this, at least to me, is that this happened at the sheep gate.

John 5:2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.

The sheep gate is used for the first time in this verse with a gematria of 4375.

Nehemiah 3:1 Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brethren the priests, and they builded the sheep gate; they sanctified it, and set up the doors of it; even unto the tower of Meah they sanctified it, unto the tower of Hananeel.

Strong’s H4375 = Machpelah.  Again Machpelah is where Abraham bought the first piece of the promised land and 38 years later he was buried. Machpelah also has a strongs text of 175, matching the age of Abrahams life.

The other 38 year story within the Bible is of course the time from when Israel was supposed to enter the promised land to when they actually did.

Deuteronomy 2:14 And the space in which we came from Kadeshbarnea, until we were come over the brook Zered, was thirty and eight years; until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host, as the LORD sware unto them.

This again parallels the concept of 38 years of trials and tribulations and then you enter the promised land and are made whole. Also just as Abraham bought a piece of the promised land at the beginning of the 38 years, Israel got to taste a piece of the promised land with grapes, pomegranites and figs.

Numbers 13:23 And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.