#I started like end of august and now it’s almost mid october

[gatheryepens]

Alex and Henry are making me feel some type of way 🫠🫠

[agent-calivide]

IEYTD Dates

I’m pretty sure the IEYTD franchise all takes place over the course of like a year, if not a few months, and frankly, I feel so bad for Agent Phoenix. Imagine going through all of that in such a short window of time!

While it’s hard to get exact, precise dates, we can finagle a rough guesstimate out with information in game (my favorite type!)

So, we know that Seat of Power took place on July 30th due to Solaris sending an email basically asking what the everloving fuck was going down on earth that lead to such erratic targeting (it was Phoenix)

And we know that the agent gets on the death engine soon after Seat of Power as Handler is really surprised that the team in decryption already got the intel to them. But we also know there’s a window of a few days between Seat of Power and the Death Engine, as there’s an E-Mail from Professor X-Ray that was sent on August 1st

Now, this would make things messy, as X-Ray is implied to be dead before Seat of Power, but thanks to this being z-mail, we can make an assumption that this was a scheduled email that was written before X-Ray’s death, set up to be sent out when there was a shipment of orange juice to the Death Engine. And, thanks to the juice in the Agent’s shuttle, it’s safe to assume it’s likely August 1st when the Death Engine takes place. It probably isn’t later than that because the orange juice shipment was most likely on the personnel shuttle that was being sent up with Solaris’ assistant. We know she was expecting them because she’s not surprised by their presence, in fact she’s implied to be expecting them in her dialogue.

Then in IEYTD 2, we get a year.

1967.

I’ll be honest, this detail has always bugged me because just because it was carved in that year doesn’t mean it necessarily confirms that’s when IEYTD 2 takes place, but more on that later-

Regardless the year, we get a day confirmation on the clap-board in Safe and Sound, August 22nd

And we know it’s almost certainly the same August thanks to what we know about the EOD.

They don’t have the budget for vacations or real plants or bereavement for the Handlers, so they almost certainly wouldn’t give the agent A YEAR of medical leave. And we also know that there aren’t any missions between the Death Engine and IEYTD 2 because Handler says “we can’t let Zoraxis know you survived your last mission”

Phoenix gets AT MOST 16 days to recover if they arrived at the Death Engine the day that z-mail was sent out on August 1st, and only 15 if it was the 2nd.

Then on to IEYTD 3

Now, the week and day is hard to find, but we do get a license that is implied to be administered at a temporary license in:

1967. The same year as what was written under the desk in Stage Fright in IEYTD 2z

Now, do I have a whole mold math post that basically says it’s 7-15 days on the generous end? Yes. Do I also know that’s shaky evidence? Yes.

BUT, we also have real locations. Many of the locations have set weather that doesn’t have much shifting, but there’s ONE level where the weather shifts greatly from summer to autumn. And that’s in Operation Blindspot!

Reginald says that Prism was lost on the interstate heading across Bering Strait. For those who don’t know (like I didn’t) Bering Strait is in Alaska, where while they have temperate summers, when it gets cold, it gets cold. And fast. On average, Bering Strait’s snowfall starts in September and really takes off in October, so it’s most likely that IEYTD 3 takes place in early to mid September, as while it’s cloudy, there’s no indicators that it’s freezing, something Schell would have put in if they wanted to like in Cold Shoulder.

So the Agent goes from a normal, maybe even rookie agent, to Agent Phoenix, protector of the world and famous EOD agent in the span of approximately 2 months. I do not envy them, that sounds like hell

[dreamtydraw]

Hey guys little post to say that basically I’m burned out.

I spent two months drawings almost daily non stop ( made more than 200 rendered artworks and god know how many doodles ) worked on my games and my merch because money was complicated and all of this is finally getting to me as I approach the start of my second year in animation school.

I’ll try to take a small break of social media ( by that I mean take a break from serious posting and minimize my time online the best i can )

This probably won’t be that noticeable here but i felt like it was important to mention that as of right now I’m tired and a bit overwhelmed.

I’ll still work on my comissions and other projects that dosen’t change, what I’ll probably stop is anything related to promoting / giving infos about my games and my merch.

Talking about merch ! The kofi shop will close in 2 days ( august 30 in the afternoon) after that i’ll take some time for the manufacture and i’ll make sure to prepare and send everyone’s packages in october. The shop itself won’t re open before end of october at best / mid November.

Here is a list of products that won’t be returning after the shop closing :

-Our life keychains

-The arcana keychains

-My candy love stickers

-Eldarya stickers

-Last legacy stickers

This is definitive so if you want to grab one of them you have 48h

For any questions my ask box is open else i thank you for attention and rassure you that it’s okay to sometimes feeling down and that there is no need to worry for me.

Tons of love and wishing everyone a good day.

[cowboylikeghost]

Ranking of Taylor Swift albums by seasons (north hemisphere) *ೃ༄

Summer TS albums:

⊱Debut: beginning of summer, Spring just ended and it's the start of the first hot days of the year with some rainy mornings.

⊱1989: July, beginning of August. You left somewhere with your family or friends, probably at the beach. If not, then it's the time of party and going out. It's hot as hell, you don't sleep so good, but the days are so worth it.

⊱Folklore: it's mid august, you came back from your vacation and/or stop going out. You're resting and make the most of the last days of summer break. Beginning of September, you're sad summer is ending but kinda excited for the start of the new school year/ year at college.

Autumn TS albums:

⊱Fearless: Transition from summer to Autumn, it's doesn't really feel like fall and it's still cool outside. School/College as begun, but it's not too serious yet. The trees start to get yellow-ish.

⊱Red: October/November, it's Autumn, the trees loose their leaves, the mornings are chilly and foggy. Halloween happend, you partied and/or watched scary movies. Assignments start to pile-up, and you start studying for exams. It's time for apple and cinnamon tea and late study night while the sun set at 5pm.

⊱Reputation/Midnight: December, it's cold and dark and it probably snowed a little. At night everything frost, you probably have to scratch your car's windscreen a few times. It's also finals seasons, which means you probably haven't seen your friends in a while. December feels hopeless, but that is until christmas seasons!!! The shops start to decorate and there's pretty lights everywhere, it gives you hope in these dark times. During break you spend time with family and/or friends, and you celebrate the New year.

Winter TS albums:

⊱Midnight: Christmas break ended, and you're back to class. The euphoria from the festivities is still there and you're excited to see your friends. The New Year is symbol for change and new opportunities, you're hopeful and start to daydream about the cooler seasons.

⊱Evermore: As the excitement for christmas and new year start to wear off, january feels hollow. February isn't much better, Valentine's day lighten it up a little, but it doesn't take long before the apathy and yearning for vitamine D come back. It's a time for reflection and observation. The semester as begun and it's time to go back to your studies.

⊱The Tortured Poets Department: February as ended, it's March, which mean it's almost spring! The days are getting cooler, beanies and gloves are back in the closet. The trees are still naked but you can fell the change in the air.

Spring TS albums:

⊱Speak Now: It's Spring! The days are getting longer, and the first burds are here. You might feel a bit nostalgic of the christmas seasons but the excitement for spring and summer is bigger. You fall in love with nature all over again. Easter day is here, and the stores are all decorated in pastel colors and bunnies are everywhere, you can't stop thinking about all the chocolates you're gonna eat.

⊱Lover: It's well into april, jun is almost there, all the flowers are blooming, the days are long again and the sun start to hit in the right way. You can't wait for summer and summer break. After eating and showering, you spend your evening drinking tea and reading outside. You start to go out again. It's fun. Life feels good.

Disclaimer: this is my interpretation of the albums, obviously it will be different for everyone. I understand that these interpretations came from a priviledge life. Thank u and be kind. ♡︎

[katsuizu-stuff]

childhood friends! (pt. 2)

Okay before you read this you’ll have to read this post childhood friends! to understand

Now I can being, so I got a comment asking me if I can put the memories/childhood in order by seasons and since this sounds like fun and a challenge and also because I’m still bored then I’ll definitely do it. So this is the chronological order of seasons/months it will go by (to me at least)

I’ll be using the same pictures and putting them in the same order as the previous post

So there are four seasons spring, summer, fall, winter

Spring: March, April, May

Summer: June, July, August

Fall: September, October, November

Winter: December, January, February

Going by the seasons along with the months then I’ll like to say that Bakugo and Deku have known each other since they were 3yrs. old and most likely met during the summer due to the fact at Bakugo is calling Deku by his first name “Izuku” probably at the local playground they are seen playing in

This shows Bakugo in a pair of pants and a long sleeve along with Izuku wearing a hoodie. This season must be summer during the month of August (most likely the mid’s of or end of August) so right now both Bakugo and Deku would both be the age of 3yrs. old

If they met during the summer then obviously fall and winter have gone by making it a whole year gone by.

When the other kids finally came and started to hanging out with them it must be the very beginnings of spring and the very beginnings of March

I’m calling it that way because all the kids are seen wearing short sleeves and shorts and it’s a sunny day with clouds and a blue sky

All the kids started to hang out together basically for almost a whole year since they must have spent spring, summer, fall and of course winter. It’s evident because in one memory they are shown to wear short sleeves and shorts and the next Bakugo is shown wearing a puffy vest jacket and long sleeves, Deku is wearing a jacket and the other kid is wearing a jacket and scarf

(I had to rearrange this photo because the first one I posted was for simply showcasing all the kids hang out together)

Basically now both Bakugo and Deku are the age of 4yrs. old due to Bakugo’s birthday being in spring the month of April and Deku’s birthday being in Summer the month of July

And when this came next, when Bakugo discovered the meaning of Izuku and Bakugo started to call him by “Deku” no longer by “Izuku”

Spring and the very beginnings of March came around again, due to the fact of the kids clothing and the blue sky

And the next memory we get is of Bakugo getting his quirk

This means that Bakugo has been calling Izuku “Deku” for a whole month now and since it’s said that kids get their quirks at the age of 5 then at this point when Bakugo got his quirk it was still spring and the month of April since Bakugo’s birthday is April 20th.

By this point in time, when we see both Bakugo and Deku spending time alone together, it should be summer. Making Bakugo 5yrs. old and Deku still being 4yrs. old because when we get this scene Deku says, “Wow! You’re so lucky! Your quirk is amazing Kacchan! When I get mine I hope it’s just as cool.” meaning it still hasn’t been July which is Deku’s birth month

The next scene in this chronological order I’ve put together is Deku, Bakugo and the whole class finding out that Deku is quirkless meaning it’s during the summer and since they are wearing their school uniforms then this must be the month during August

So now both Bakugo and Deku are officially 5yrs. old and Bakugo has his quirk and Deku doesn’t

And when we get to the classic scene of the river then it must be spring again thus meaning that Bakugo is now 6yrs. old and Deku is still 5yrs. old

During those three spring months March, April, May somewhere between those months the river scene happened and from then forward it’s when Bakugo and the other kids started to bully/pick on Deku

And I can make this make sense because there’s a scene where Deku is hiding behind a tree as if he definitely doesn’t want to be seen by Bakugo most likely making it the season of summer in the month of August since they are wearing their backpacks

Anyways… that’s basically what I think of the whole seasons/months and the chronological order I put Bakugo’s and Deku’s childhood together is

(so yeah… how do you feel knowing Bakugo and Deku have known each other since they were 3yrs. old?)

[likeadevils]

which albums do you think took the shortest amount of time to put together? i think that evermore was very quick (only two or three months?), am i right in thinking that lover and folklore were pretty quick too?

evermore was super quick! there were about five songs written from october-december, but about 12 songs were written in about a month, between mid august and mid september. which is just crazy. like that’s more songs than the standard edition of debut like that’s insane

the bulk of folklore was written in two months, between may and june, though the jack songs were mostly written between march and april, with some pre pandemic songs (my tears in dec 2019 and trying in jan/feb 2020)

midnights was a bit more spread out— high infidelity and would’ve could’ve should’ve were written in march 2021, i believe bigger than the whole sky and snow on the beach were in early 2022– but still the bulk of it came together in november/december 2021, making it a year in total but mostly done in two months.

rep took almost exactly a year— she starts writing it in september 2016 and finishes in september 2017. the bulk of the album was likely finished by july 2017 though, so it goes was just a super last minute addition.

lover was recorded in about four months— the bulk of the album was between november 2018 and february 2019. there are some exceptions, like death by a thousand cuts in late april and likely london boy in early june, and maybe a few jack songs throughout 2018, but we don’t know for sure which. she was also probably stockpiling songs a bit before jumping into the studio, but we don’t know for sure.

1989 was another stockpiling album— she did this love in 2012, a couple songs jan 2013, and then that aforementioned stockpiling period while she’s on tour, and then a big rush in oct/nov 2013, and then another rush in jan/feb 2014. it sounds like now that we don’t talk came fairly late in the process though, possibly as late as fall 2014, which would make it a two year long writing period, but as far as the original album goes, about a year and a half.

red was also about a year and a half— we have all too well being finalized in march 2011 (after being started in dec 2010), and then 22 and i knew you were trouble in june 2012. there are probably some outliers— stay stay stay might’ve been as early as summer 2010, some stuff on the vault might’ve gone up until september 2012– but that’s at most about two years of consistent writing and recording.

if we’re counting sparks fly (halloween 2006) then it took four years to write speak now, but excluding sparks fly georg the earliest song we know for sure was if this was a movie in april 2009, and then it ended with the story of us in june 2010, which is a little over a year. she was likely writing songs for speak now earlier in 2009 though, making it her standard year and a half, but we just don’t know for sure. the recording process was also spread out throughout both years— the first session for the album was in march 2009, and the orchestra sections were the last thing recorded, in july 2010.

fearless had two big recording sessions, in december 2007 and march 2008, so recording wise the album came together super quickly. that being said, if we just take the first and last songs written for the album, fearless has a pretty big stretch— she had stuff from the vault from like 2005, and then come in with the rain in september 2006, and white horse in december 2006. and then the last song is similarly up for interpretation, with forever and always in late september 2008, and mr perfectly fine in march 2009. so even though it came together very quickly once she got in the studio, counting the vault it was four years to write it, making it one of the longest timeframes, but standard edition is still a fairly long two years.

and then debut! i’m a bit more hazy on debut’s timeline, but a perfectly good heart was written sometime in 2003, and should’ve said no was the last thing written and recorded, on august 10, 2006, making it about three years.

so it’s pretty much an exercise in counting— the earlier and album came in her career, the longer it took her to make it, until we get to post pandemic where she’s busting out almost complete albums in two month periods (ts11 looks like it’s bucking that trend though, so let’s see!!)

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Okay, I'm still stuck on how funny it is that Andy Zaltzman got Daniel Kitson to appear on TV just by calling him to say he's in the bath. To which Daniel Kitson responded by being confused about why Andy called to tell him this, which I think means, according to this clip from Daniel Kitson's 2007 stand-up show, that in the last 17 years, Andy Zaltzman has still not managed to crack the exclusive list of Kitson friends:

(Arguably, by the rules set out in that stand-up clip, Kitson being confused as to why Andy had called to tell him something like that means they are not friends, and therefore Andy did not correctly complete the task, which said he had to call a friend.)

Though you'll notice that clip did list John Oliver among Kitson's friends, which makes sense, as anyone who enjoyed their phone call on Taskmaster might enjoy hearing the last time that Andy Zaltzman and Daniel Kitson interacted in a piece of media that was recorded and released in an official capacity. That would be the Bugle episode that had highlights from the Political Animal reunion show that Zaltzman and Oliver did at Edinburgh 2011, where Kitson came in on one of their sketches to, very aptly, play the role of God:

Fun fact: Kitson was reprising a role here. Political Animal is a mixed-bill night, where the double act of [Andy] Zaltzman and [John] Oliver compered with little sketches and stand-up bits between other comedians who did political material, which ran in London and Edinburgh starting in 2003. Kitson used to perform at this sometimes, and there's a review of it from 2004 that says Daniel Kitson guest starred as the role of God in their God-based sketch. In 2011, John Oliver came back to Edinburgh after years in the States, for a few Political Animal reunion gigs, and they apparently decided to use the same guest star for the sketch.

I am aware that I have infodumped all of this information onto Tumblr before, but there are now a lot more people on Tumblr who are interested in Andy Zaltzman than there were the last time I wrote about this one, so I'm doing it again.

Anyway, Ed Gamble said on the podcast that that Taskmaster phone call was Daniel Kitson's first time on TV since Phoenix Nights. Phoenix Nights ended in 2002, and Ed Gamble's almost right; Kitson is a very very good live comedian who appeared on that one sitcom early in his career, hated it, and has avoided TV work ever since. Which is why Andy sneaking him onto Taskmaster via a phone call was significant/very funny.

However, Ed Gamble wasn't quite correct when he said it was his first time on TV since Phoenix Nights. Kitson's been on TV a very small number of times since 2002, and the most recent time he was on a TV show in any capacity (specifically TV, which wouldn't count the Eugene Mirman documentary, as that was a movie) would have been 2012, when BBC Scotland aired a four-part documentary about the late-night show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival called Late 'n' Live. Kitson compered that show for years in the early-to-mid-00s. I'm pretty sure his first year compering there was 2000, based on this 2001 review that says he did it "last year". And he was doing it until around 2007, which I say only to have an excuse to post one of my favourite comedy historical relic pictures, of the blackboard outside Late 'n' Live that listed the lineup, on the last night of the 2007 festival:

That picture is slightly relevant to this post, in that the theme of this post is "Kitson and Zaltzman", and that is a picture from an earlier time they worked together, as Andy occasionally went by the nickname Zaltor. A name he sometimes used on The Bugle as well, and I didn't realize until I saw this picture that he was using it since before The Bugle started (this was from August 2007, The Bugle started in October 2007).

Anyway. The Late 'n' Live documentary mini-series used archive footage of Kitson in a couple of the episodes. Most of that footage was recorded before the end of Phoenix Nights, but it aired in 2012, meaning that technically, this is an example of Ed Gamble being wrong to say that Taskmaster was his first time on TV since Phoenix Nights. Actually, that phone call was Kitson's first time on TV since this:

Thank you, Andy Zaltzman, for giving me a tenuous excuse to post a video of Kitson, Adam Hills, and Ross Noble dragging drunk Johnny Vegas off a stage in 2001. That's all I really want to do with my blog, actually. I'm just here to educate people about what everyone in the Chocolate Milk Gang was doing in 2001.

For example, Andy Zaltzman got nominated for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award in Edinburgh that year. Oh, and he stood around incredibly awkwardly on the last night of Late 'n' Live in 2001, while a guy who used to be in that band with Phil Nichol sang a song about Edinburgh, and this video doesn't show it but I've seen a longer version of it where at the beginning, Adam Hills calls all the comedians onto the stage, and you can see Daniel Kitson immediately walk off stage and not return, while everyone else works their way up there:

Kitson's not in that video since he'd fucked off before it started, but you can spot Andy with his bright red hair and bright red shirt in several shots, also various people like Shaparak Khorsandi, Adam Hills, Dara O'Briain, Jason Byrne.

Most of this post is just me dumping pointless information about my inexplicably obsessive interest in Chocolate Milk Gang comedy, and no one else needs to follow it - but seriously, anyone who hasn't heard it before should listen to that Bugle sketch that I posted up there, it's a great one.

[t0bester]

My friend and I got really high last night and wrote this insane fan fiction about Patton accidentally eating Virgil’s forever weed brownie and it’s the most insane shit my brain has ever come up with. So anyways this is which part of said fic I assign you based on your birth month.

January: Armin from Attack on Titan showing up out of nowhere explaining that he’s not a girl. Patton yells out “Hey there Amen!” (As in what you would say after a prayer) and then dies

February: the writing style changing mid way through. Like it goes from normal writing, then I started writing like it was a script, then I went back to normal at the end

March: the end note being “did you like it?” and nothing else

April: Roman calling Dream (as in the MCYT) a wench, then killing him

May: Virgil almost being late for the fan fiction

June: at one point I referred to Virgil as Patton’s “Purple Menace”

July: Patton getting high and “rolling around like a crab”. Crabs do not roll idfk where I came up with this

August: the entirety of this specific paragraph: “OH NO!" Virgil screamed, running past Roman like the dramatic ass bitch he is. "MY FOREVER WEED BROWNIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!DX" "Your WHAT?" Logan screamed."YOUR WHaaaaaaaaaAT?????" "you heard me..... I know you did....." Virgil turned away with a dramatic hand over his forehead. Auther doesnt hate Virgil this shit is just so funny. Soz.

September: Logan and Janus having beef. I later explain that they are not in a poly relationship with Patton, I just can’t decide which ship I like more.

October: Dream being summoned by Heatwaves by Glass Animals

November: Virgil singing Ballet of Mona Lisa by P!ATD, but I make sure everyone knows that it sounds terrible over Heatwaves

December: At the end it’s revealed that Patton isn’t dead, but they accidentally buried him alive with Dream so now he’s stuck having to listen to Dream explain how he didn’t cheat in his speed runs for all of eternity and he cries a little bit because of it

[aestheticaashes]

actually screw it yeah update post time, buckle up cuz life has literally been insane since The Move initially started and we're gonna sorta cliffnotes this shit starting with stuff i have probably already talked about

✩ got a job offer across the country at the beginning of august, accepted, ended up not making it out of state in time to actually start it due to some transport issues

✩ started heading out at the end of september (finally) alongside my parents, shitass car overheated so hard we couldn't go further, parents headed out and we stuck around where we broke down in my parents' rv which was also having trouble

✩ left the rv mid-october to head back to stay with some family back 'home', been here since

✩ got a job while waiting for parents to be able to help at least me get where we were going and get a job so i can get my husband out there too, lasted two weeks before life problems + my shitty mental health made me quit for Actual Straight-Up Safety Reasons

✩ have spent this entire time being pissed off and trying not to be ungrateful for what i've got but it's difficult because MAN does the family who's letting us stay here make me want to commit crimes. love them to bits but we have. vastly different needs and views.

✩ just like. imagine being a grandparent who is constantly like "are you guys eating enough? do you need help?" while making food that you have been informed your grandchild's husband cannot eat for Health Reasons, and then getting upset that your grandchild gets irritated about the fact you're offering them food their husband cannot eat. she's trying but it's just. frustrating.

✩ got the flu for the first time ever and it knocked me on my fucking ass for almost two weeks, still sort of getting over it almost three weeks after the symptoms fully stopped. when i say i literally lost 10 pounds i couldn't afford to lose i am serious. i couldn't eat fucken ANYTHING it was horrible

✩ have a flight booked to get out of state on Feb 10th!! + have job interviews set up already, so things are looking up, busy packing and cleaning up and making sure my husband (and best friend who is staying with us) will manage to survive without me as i am the only one with Real Life Adult Experience out of the group for a lot of reasons

✩ and i think that's it? idk there's been A Lot and i don't feel like getting into it in detail at this point lmao, it'll edge way too close to me venting

✩ anyways i'm still offering commissions!! just now it's more "pay what you want" because i certainly have time to write i just have trouble working on stuff that's For Me at the moment lol

[notpoliticalcarrot]

Y'know, this year was complete bull shit.

January, ended up getting back with my gf after a bunch of drama happened on my birthday making me just not talk to literally anyone.

Friend#1 was just hecka sad for some reason and didnt wanna talk to anyone sadly.

Febuary, made RubyTV, childs birthday sometime then, not much happened...oh right also a bunch-o-drama happened for no fucking reason.

March, MARCH BREAK :DDDDDDDD...got so fucking sick for no damn reason.

Girlfriends birthday on march break, had to force myself to be okay when i was deadly sick 2 days before her birthday.

what comes after march ? right.

APRIL.

Stupid friend#2 was a dick. unfreidned them. asshole. hecka more drama happened.

feel like i shouldnt say more then that.

MAY.

only teacher i really liked said he was moving away in the summer, its also his birthday sometime soon.

dRaMa.

june, last month of school, pride month, not being able to do anything for it because of my lack of...aaaammmmmm...forgot how to say it but i lack in shit.

OH i also think friend#1 came back...then lied about something and i felt hurt.

august, baybe setted a cat missy/miss gibson :3

then was lied to by my own fucking gf about something i dont wanna talk about, MID BAYBE SETTING MISSY.

very hurt.

also think i started talking to friend#1 again because i really do love them...

september. terrible. just. terrible. broke up with gf.

more fights.

drama.

october, okaayy. fine, nothing really happened, halloween did ig ? really boring though.

november, already terrible, miss friend#1 a whole lot more for some reason ?

birthday month.

almost the end of the year, yyyyaaayyyy :)

december, we have yet to see.

so, there, thought your year mightve been worse. sorry. no one asked for this, but i wanted to say. i will stop talking about my problems now since usually i hate doing that.

[mikimeiko]

To the East! Day 1&2 - from Milan to Puglia

It's time to go visit the easternmost train station in Italy, the last one!

Since Italy is really slanted the easternmost station is also pretty far south, so I decided to leave immediately after work, go as far south as I could in one afternoon, and then cover the rest of the distance on Saturday. I'm once again using regional trains with the 3 days train pass, so it's gonna take a lot of trains and a lot of time, but it's also gonna be pretty cheap.

So first train is Milano>Bologna (pretty chill, not too crowded; kind of a boring line that I've traveled a thousand times but it's a windy sunny day and you can see the mountains near lake Garda from Parma which is... impressive).

So many people in Bologna station! I don't have enough time to find something to eat ;_;

Train 2: Bologna>Ancona is packed (I thought the train started from Bologna but it actually came from Piacenza), I had to stand for about the first hour D: When the train gets to the coast is already dark, and I'm a little sad that I can't see the sea (the rail is SO CLOSE to the sea in this part!)

My hotel is literally on the other side of the road from the station XD very nice since it's kinda late and I'm very tired.

(view of the station from the entrance of my hotel that I took the next morning)

~~~

The train I'm supposed to take from Ancona leaves at 11:45, but checkout from the hotel is at 10:00, so I get on an earlier train shares the first half of the line with the one with Pescara, and stop somewhere along the line (Ancona is a big city, and the city center is quite far from the station - also I visited it last summer, and I might as well take a look at somewhere else!).

So train 3: Ancona>Ascoli Piceno (but not really).

(See what I meant? The sea is JUST THERE)

I decided to stop in Grottammare, mostly because I've never been there and the station is pretty close to the sea. The old town is up the hill and it looks very pretty, but I don't have much time so I just stay in the seaside area.

(It's almost November and I wish I brought a short sleeved t-shirt. Most things are closed because the season is over but actually it feels like mid September and the effect is jarring)

Train 4: Grottammare>Pescara is a bit fuller, and I end up in a backward facing seat with only half a window. It doesn't look that different than when I did this route in August, but it is a little greener, and the beaches that were covered in beach umbrellas are now properly visible.

I have a very short time in Pescara to change trains, no time at all to visit anything, but honestly I didn't like it that much last time so that's fine by me. From here I'm basically tracing back the journey I made on the first day of my third leg of the Grand Tour of Italy last summer: same stops, same trains, very different time of day.

Train 5: Pescara>Termoli. The sun is on the other side of the train now, and the sea is SO blue.

I have about an hour in Termoli before the next train, so I get something to eat later and go looking for an ice-cream in the center. In the entire corso there was not one gelateria open. I get that it's the end of October but... Really? No ice cream?

Train 6: Termoli>Foggia. The Molisan coast south of Termoli is one of the wildest, least "developed" in the entire Adriatic coast. Lots of pines, just very long stretches with no building in sight. Beautiful and interesting, compared to everything else (or maybe I should say - compared to what's north of it. Because now that I think about it Puglia also has similar coastlines I think).

And yes, it is not summer and it's SO CLEAR! All the green intermingled with the dark terrain it's just amazingly beautiful. If you want to visit Puglia autumn might be the best season (not if you want to swim in the sea though XD)

All I know about Foggia is that it's been mostly destroyed during WWII and rebuilt hastily, and it's considered one of the ugliest cities kn Puglia. Sadly the train station is quite far from the city center proper and I don't have a lot of time, so I only see the entrance of the Villa (the biggest municipal park) and a bit of a promenade.

Train 7: Foggia to Bari. I'm starting to feel the travel fatigue. I'm ready to be at my destination, but I won't be there for at least another 3 hours probably more. Also it's dark, and the train is older and not very comfortable so meh. Train 7 morphs into train 8 when we get to Bari central station (of course the least comfortable train would be the one that I have to take twice XD). Just an hour, plus 10 minutes waiting for the bus, plus ten minutes on the bus and I'm finally at my uncle's house. It's been A Day. Can't wait to go to sleep XD

[nexusvcrti]

TVDU TIMELINE IN MY CANON

This tends to be one of the most controversial topics out there, but since canon has confirmed that season 4 of Legacies takes place 3 years after season 5 of The Originals, I'm going to map out what that means in the timeline of what we see on the show with my personal canon. The timeline on the show (particularly Legacies) is just… super compacted, so if anyone hasn’t watched Legacies or actually cares about spoilers… beware. (note: This is revised based off the original meta I posted here.)

If you pay attention to the words and the dialogue in the show, they actually drop a fair number of hints as to the passage of time during the episodes. In the past, I always assumed that it followed the same timeline as most shows, where each season is roughly equivalent to one year, and with episode air dates matching with what’s happening canonically on the show, but it’s actually not the case in Legacies. Between the pandemic and general wonky primetime airing schedules, the timeline is a little more difficult to follow and not spelled out so neatly. 

Examples of the above include early S1 where the first few episodes are literally happening over the course of several days, maybe two weeks. There’s a few times the characters say things like “yesterday” or “a few days ago” or “last week” in their dialogue which I use to track the timeline.

Starting from the top, S5 tells us that Hope is 15 at the time that all of that plays out, and there’s an unknown time jump between the end of TO and the beginning of Legacies. In my canon, she is 15, almost 16 when the end of TO occurs and she loses her father and uncle. She takes the summer off from the school to grieve, while also learning to control her wolf side, and she is 16 when she rejoins the school, but she also spends half a year being a loner and watching Cutthroat Kitchen in her room. S1 begins while Hope is a few months shy of her 17th birthday on May 2.

Like I mentioned above, the first few episodes of S1 happen very quickly (going to find Raf and Landon, Landon stealing the knife, the dragon, the football game, the discovery of the monsters, the twins’ birthday). These all happen in a matter of days, maybe two weeks at the most. When the Honor Council stuff is happening, Lizzie asks Raf to the twins’ birthday “on Friday”, so we know it’s coming up quick. And the twins’ birthday is the first real date that we have confirmed on the show. So 1x06 is occurring on March 15. The next real “date” we have is in 1x12, where we know the school is on spring break. Now idk about y’all but in the States and when I was in school, the latest spring break ever seemed to be was like early/mid-April? So it sounds like the gap between 1x06 and 1x12 is a handful of weeks at most, which makes sense. During this time is the whole part where Hope goes and gets Landon back, the djinni episode, and the slug debacle. As far as the passage of time goes, there isn’t a lot of it during these plot points. S1 plays out over the course of like... three months, and Hope throws herself into Malivore right before her 17th birthday.

S2 picks back up at the beginning of the next school year and Hope crawls out of Malivore probably in August? Since it's after the Fourth of July but before the school year starts. Unfortunately, events like the Miss Mystic Falls Pageant and Founders Day don’t actually have set dates in canon so it’s difficult to tell what the passage of time is supposed to be like. However, we do know that 2x08 (the Santa episode) occurs in October. So the first half of S2 takes place over the course of a month or so? After that, the next hint of time that we get is the culmination of the season, where Dark Josie intends to push up the Merge timeline and do it on the twins’ birthday of that year. So we’re back to March 15 of the next year, and two seasons have passed in the span of one in-canon year. 

Now this is where the timeline gets even MORE messed up because of the pandemic and the weird airing schedules. But 3x01-3x04 were always supposed to be part of S2, so that’s where I’m putting it. Given the reactions by Alyssa and the rest of the witches in 3x01, not that much time has passed since Dark Josie was banished, there is again urgency with Raf’s problem, the musical, and then the final confrontation with the Necromancer where she loses Landon. 

There is likely another time jump after 3x04, because Kaleb references Sheriff Mac moving to Savannah with Maya, and Josie is working on her transfer over to MFHS. I’m guessing that most public schools aren’t going to handle transfer requests at the end of the school year, so it sounds like we’re back to the end of the summer again by the time 3x05 happens. This also makes sense in context of what’s happening in the A plot, where Hope is losing herself in her search for Landon, which probably would actually take months. However, once she finds the Monkey’s Paw and Cleo enters the picture, things begin to pick up again. Hope has also turned 18 during this period.

Now I’ll be perfectly frank, I only sat through S3 once and I still haven't fully watched the back half of S4 so I’m not as in tune with those episodes as much as I am with the others, but again, it does feel like time moves quickly in S3. With the monsters constantly coming and the appearance of golem Landon to push along the narrative, I can believe that this happens over the course of a few months, taking us to maybe November or December of that year, approximately a year and a half since S1 began. And of course, once Mali-Landon leaves, everything kicks up a notch. Like with S2, 4x01-4x04 were meant to be part of S3, and that’s where it makes sense narratively. 

Hope makes the realization that she needs to become the tribrid in the Star Wars episode, and everything from that point on shoehorns her into that plot. Again, we don’t have direct dates or events to mark the passage of time, but just going off what happens in canon, from the time they wake up from the vision quest to the end of 4x04, I don’t think there are any days where the Squad is just taking a break and lounging around (with the exception of 4x03, but I wouldn’t call that lounging around). 

Now we know that there is no timeskip between 4x04 and 4x05 because Lizzie directly alludes to the night before in her opener, so everything that’s happened since the beginning of the show has now occurred within something like two years (not the four I was assuming up until now). Again, with the urgency of the plot, Hope is not just sitting around and twiddling her fingers once the threat of Triad comes up, and the Squad is not waiting for Hope to come back. Hope’s actions include learning about Triad, having her misadventures with Clarke, Salvatore Idol at the school, her confrontation with actual Triad and Aurora, and her confrontations with Lizzie. Similarly, there is no time jump between 4x09 and 4x10, as the episode tells us. All of this is happening in a span of weeks, not months. 

All that said, by the time she has gone through the events of Legacies and is struggling with her humanity, about three years have passed since Hayley, Klaus and Elijah died, and about two years have passed since S1 starts. Hope was 16 at the time S1 begins (having turned 16 a little while after the S5 finale of TO, and taking the summer off to grieve, and mostly spending the first half of the year in her room watching Cutthroat Kitchen by herself or recruiting with Alaric. She is just about to turn 17 by the time she jumps into Malivore, actually turns 17 while in Malivore, and a few months shy of her 19th, when she has her first death in 4x03. 

This functionally doesn't change much of how I was playing Hope before. I've always played that she is 18 when she fully activates her tribrid side, permanently sealing her at that age. The only real difference is that she doesn't take a gap year between her parents' death / the new school year, just probably the last month of school and summer break. She returns that fall, but remains a recluse until February or March of the following year, which is when S1 of Legacies begins. It does mean she's only had her wolf for a handful of months, so her control is not nearly as stable as what we see in the pilot (aka easily shifting back and forth at will) and will likely play a role in her early characterization.

[of-canes-and-manes]

005: Coming Back From Covid

It took nearly three years of the pandemic and two near misses, but I finally caught covid in mid October. I still haven’t figured out how exactly it happened, as I only leave the house for doctor appointments and rehearsals with a local community band. But happened it did, and I’ve been out for the last month while trying to recover.

To be completely honest, I didn’t even notice I had covid at first. I had helped my mom move hay bales from the trailer into the hay loft on a Saturday morning, and paid no mind to the soreness in my body for the two days after that, nor to the difficulty I was having getting around. After all, that had been the first time I had helped with hay in some five odd years, as well as the most physical activity I had attempted since becoming physically disabled. It was entirely within the realm of normal symptoms for me to be physically exhausted, and I even considered helping with hay a success because I wasn’t anywhere near the amount of fatigue I used to experience from significantly less intense activities.

But the following Tuesday, I woke up at three in the morning drenched in sweat. I had spent the whole night tossing and turning, which isn’t unusual on its own, but never before had I woken up to soaked pajamas and bedsheets. As I stripped my bed and changed my sheets, it finally occurred to me that my symptoms were not just my usual post-exertional malaise from helping with hay; as it turns out, night sweats are a symptom of covid, and I tested positive that evening.

And so, that was the first day of what became three weeks of quarantining.

Truthfully, I enjoyed my quarantine, especially that first week before I began feeling symptoms above and beyond my usual chronic fatigue. Despite my best efforts, I had been rapidly approaching burnout territory via trying to do too much, even after I had already pared down my life to better suit my disabilities in August. I was just still stuffing too many activities into every day, vying for a sense of satisfaction I hadn’t felt in weeks, and rather than feeling fulfilled, all I got was misery.

So when I ended up hyperfixating on a new fandom right at the beginning of my quarantine, I finally allowed myself to stop and rest. I spent every waking moment of those first nine days reading fanfiction, and I made it through a million words by the time I started feeling sick. Even once I began feeling symptoms, I continued reading, and I ended up having not only the time of my life, but the break I so desperately needed.

The feeling sick came about a week after I tested positive, and once it did, it really hit me. I woke up sore all over, well above and beyond my usual morning aches and pains, and though I had been congested for a week by that point, finally my nose began to run. As I started going through a box of tissues every other day, my breathing got worse, until I felt like I had been swimming underwater. I stopped being able to brush the horses, and then I wasn’t able to keep up with basic self care, never mind all the housework I try to do.

A week and a half after I first tested positive, I had to go to the ER. It was a Thursday, I was still testing positive, and I felt worse and worse with each passing day. I had tried to get a hold of my primary care doctor, but never heard back. Luckily, the ER sent me home a few hours later with a steroid to help my lungs, but I still received instructions to return if I continued to worsen.

The steroid worked. After a week of that, I finally started feeling better, though the congestion stayed the same despite my best efforts. I was able to schedule a telehealth appointment with my primary care doctor a week after my ER visit, and was sent an antibiotic in the event that I had managed to contract a sinus infection. With the antibiotic in my system, the congestion began to improve, then returned to normal. I was finally, blessedly feeling almost entirely normal again.

It’s now been over a month since I first tested positive; I’m once again negative and no longer actively sick. My breathing is normal and all things considered, I’m back to my pre-covid health. But I’m feeling a fatigue that isn’t anything like the usual chronic fatigue I’ve experienced since 2016, and this fatigue has slowed me down something fierce. I still haven’t been able to get back to brushing the horses regularly, I haven’t ridden in weeks, and I have yet to figure out how I’ll prepare my garden for winter.

I’m hoping that with enough time and rest, I’ll regain the stamina I had pre-covid. In the meantime, I’ve been exploring hobbies and interests that I hadn’t before had the opportunity to, and discovering more of myself along the way. I thought that if my capacity for activity was reduced any more than it had been before covid, I’d lose everything I ever held dear. It is with great pleasure that I can say that that didn’t happen, and I’ve even found that I have no desire to return to the hectic life I had prior to catching covid.

That said, I’m very much so looking forward to the day I can get back on Tim and resume riding! It will come, hopefully sooner rather than later, but whenever it does, I will be ready for it.

May your day be filled with peace and joy

[letterstomyfuturedaughterr]

8/14/24 Summertime Sadness

Hey Kiddo,

I'm back after a long and fun summer of living it up. Italian dinner parties, showering Tia Escely and her little one on the way, TAYLOR SWIFT IN GERMANY, camping in Denmark with Omi, going to the ocean despite the cold water temps, surprising Aunt Rachel for her engagement party, weddings, weekly homegrown tomatoes, slowing down, friends. It's been a packed summer. I went into it with the mindset of saying no to very little, being spontaneous, living my best DINK life hot girl brat summer (these are cool things we used to say in Summer 2024, and by 'we' I mean the youths).

It's mid August now. The pace of life is slowing down, weather is getting warmer and drier as we prepare for San Diego summer part 2 and chillier weather teases the rest of the country. Yes, I am already thinking about pumpkins and decorating for my favorite transition season. These weeks where we're no longer in the fixed summer nor the mutable fall have always been the hardest for me. There's so much to look forward to in these -ber months, and at the same time we're saying goodbye to strong sun and pool days and tourist season. I'm ready and I'm not.

This looming motherhood feels similar. I'm ready and I'm not.

It's such a truly bizarre thing to intentionally choose parenthood. Especially when your life is really great, you're super happy and finally have a handle on life. I can see why young people adopt the fuck-around-and-find-out-method. It's so wildly different to do it now, older, and by choice. It's also so strange to hold space for the women in my life who have these same thoughts and have decided not to fuck with those beautiful things. I get it. It seems weird to want to do it. But I do genuinely want to.

I can say 'I want to have a baby' or 'I want to raise a little human with Michael'. It's been harder to see, or even say, 'I want to be a mom'. I'm scared to say that out loud, it feels too powerful of a statement. There's so few examples of motherhood the way I want to do it, and lots of examples of how I don't want to do it. It's felt hard to trust that I can be that example, I can lead that. But I've never done it before how can I??

So here we are, in this weird in between in between. It's like 7th grade, the middle of middle. Firmly decided on yes, starting to try, definitely okay if it takes a little bit of time, terrified it could be a one and done situation. Ready. Not ready at all. I wonder if that's parenthood period.

Writing to you helps. I've been writing these posts for almost a year. I started in October 2023, and I've fallen short of my goal of once a week. That said, I'm really feeling drawn back. I always feel like I have so much to say but so little to write. I need to work on seeing myself in this format. I'm going to try to be more consistent.

I've been reading the book Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day by Kaitlin B. Curtice and she writes "When I dream and imagine the world to come, I do it because I believe that those who came before brought me to this moment and those who come after me will take us beyond it". I feel this deeply in my bones, the hope for a better world that will come with you. The big moments are where I feel ready. It's the in bewtween that feel more scary. But that is where life lies, in the grey. The in between. The post summer not quite yet fall. The end of August.

Love always,

[kylekozmikdeluxo]

Welp, there goes another Halloween/spoopy season. October is my favorite time of the year, but it's starting to feel like a Charlie Brown football as life has gotten very *very* hard for me over the past couple of years: COVID, moving out, watching people I've known and loved my whole life being marched down a right-wing maga anti-lgbtqia rabbit hole, and still trying to settle into my new life. It's still lonely at the moment, with very little opportunities. New no job, no friends outside of the internet made, etc.... But I have to keep pressing ahead, no matter how grim the country looks to be in a year and no matter what's going on close to home...

I mean, November 1st - today - is Samhain. The Gaelic festival that ends the harvest season. And really, that's all it is... Why does widespread love of spoopy stuff end after October 31st? When there's a whole month ahead of us that's, weather-wise, as beautiful as October and full of autumnal stuff?

Capitalism.

What ever Halloween's origins may be, I feel it's largely been commodified much like Christmas... And hell, most holidays, let's be real here. In that it's just this capitalist rush-rush-rush of stuff to buy, things to do. Like, Christmas stuff was on the store shelves at the beginning of October this year. Whenever I went into, say, a Walmart or a Kohl's... Christmas stuff... Everywhere. In early October. This is a personal attack.

I know that not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving, but we have a whole-ass month ahead of us. Like, can we CHILL with the Christmas stuff already? If you want to celebrate it this early, go right ahead! That's awesome that you can happily be in the spirit this early. I technically start feeling ghoulish around the end of August, maybe mid-September... But I feel like the mass-market just pushes it aggressively on us. I want to enjoy November for its beautiful weather and colors and aesthetics, you know? What if I still want my Halloween decorations up? What if I still want to watch horror movies?

Technically, I can. Plus, there have been horror movies that were released in November. A couple recent examples I can think of are OVERLORD and FREAKY. I saw the former in theaters during a snowstorm, lol. We have a horror movie literally called THANKSGIVING opening in a few weeks. Hell, one of the all-time Halloween classics, OVER THE GARDEN WALL, began airing in early November the year it was released. Maybe there is no date. Time is just a construct, and the lot of us weirdo hearts out there who love the creepy stuff just keep going. Even well after Halloween.

But there's a sense of loneliness to it, I feel. After the world packs up, and trades jack-o-lanterns for sleigh bells, that initial high of everyone being in on that stuff during what I feel is - weather-wise - the most beautiful time of year... It feels kinda desolate afterwards. Like a desert, almost. Like, after Halloween, wouldn't it be cool if wherever you lived did more freaky-themed events, fun stuff, and other things? Just in case you might've missed the boat (like I did this year, I was busy last week) or had a crappy Halloween day (like I did)? Like, November is the perfect month to keep that going.

Even when you start feeling merry and holly jolly, there's still a rushed-ness to everything. Maybe it's because I'm in my 30s now, but everything feels so fast... It's kinda scary sometimes. I understand working and having a job, and keeping up with my creative endeavors. I know I have some situations I have to figure out, and anxiety demons to overpower, but part of me also wishes that things weren't so hectic. Ya know? All the holidays, really. All the times of year, just rushing rushing by...

[consistent-self-destruction]

just realized this is my hundredth post so that's cool 😭

anyways, currently in a pretty upsetting predicament! so ever since i was 9, my mom's been relaxing my hair - and around the start of high school, i started asking her top stop relaxing it and let me grow it natural. it's been an argument and sore spot between us for years, and she never took me seriously. she's been forcing me to relax it anyway even though i don't want to. but now that i've started college, i've made it a mission to take independence and control over my life and appearance and autonomy over my hair is apart of that. so far it's been rocky but decent. my mom gave me crochet braids to start the semester that lasted me until mid october. then we took them out and braided my hair up for a temporary wig moment that lasted me from the end of october to early/mid november ish. and then (this was a big turning point for), i bought faux locs off of amazon and booked my first ever hair appointment with a stylist and friend on my campus. it was my first time ever letting someone other than my mom do my hair, and she was pretty upset - but things ended up okay because my mom admitted to liking the locs anyway. when i came home for break, i took the locs down and ive had my hair out ever since, not really doing anything with it because i haven't had anywhere to go. essentially - since the end of august (and even before that actually because i had braids for the summer), i've had my hair in only protective styles, so it has grown out a LOT. i thought my mom and i were in hesitant agreeance that i could let my hair continue to grow naturally and eventually cut the dead ends, but just a few hours ago, she told me that she's going to relax it. obviously i'm not gonna let her, i absolutely refuse. it has been years of bullshit and now that i've finally gone this long growing my hair out? i refuse to give in and let her take control again. especially because she only wants to do it for the sake of her pride, and making things easier on herself even though it's MY hair and MY choice which she completely disregards. either way though, now i'm completely on my own and i don't know what to do! because she wants to relax it and won't budge, she's not gonna braid my hair so i wont have any protective style for when i go back on campus. my mom has done my hair my entire life and never really let me learn how to do it on my own and always kept the hair products, tools, and resources locked up in her room. the same is true even now. i dont know how to braid at ALL and i don't have any of my own hair products, tools, or resources. i don't have the money to splurge on any either, or buy any hair and book an appointment. essentially i have zero support, zero knowledge, and zero resources. i really have no clue what i'm going to do. i figured i might take some of her stuff back with me that i've been using - this conditioner spray, a water spray bottle, an almost-empty hair moisturizer, a hard brush, a detangling brush, a wide tooth comb, edge brush, rattail comb, edge control, and styler gel. on my own i have some pins and a blue patterned hair scarf. i did this one style on my own once that my bestfriend told me to try where i pulled all my hair back and slicked it down, did my edges, and wrapped my hair in the scarf - putting the scarf in a low bun and having the top of it on my head be pulled back enough so my hair in the front could peek-a-boo. it was cute and i liked it! but that scarf doesn't go with everything :/ and i'm not confident yet to where my hair without a scarf because when i pull it all back, the length is hardly enough to make a decent bun or ponytail and it's embarrassing. and i definitely can't wear it straight out / down because of the difference in texture between my natural roots and permed ends. so with that, im even thinking about just cutting off the dead ends so i can take my mom's curling cream and wear my hair down confidently without dead damaged ends. especially because if i don't cut it, i'll have to wear my hair slicked back - which means i'll only wear it with the one scarf i own that doesn’t match anything in my wardrobe. it's really just all frustrating because i just want to feel pretty and confident. my hair is such a big insecurity and it's really frustrating to feel helpless and stuck about it. i don't know. i'll talk to my bestfriend about it in the morning and see what happens, but right now i'm just really sad cause i don't know what to do and i just wanna feel pretty.

- 1.11.23 | 5:43 AM -