#I've had these over 20 years now back when you could find them cheap from school surplus warehouses

[so-i-did-this-thing]

Finally organized & labeled the damn thing!

... but ugh, I hate the stark white, guess I need to weather the little cards now 🫠

[nothing0fnothing]

Hey! So I have some lived experience in being poor and mentally ill I had to learn the hard way in my adulthood after growing up with abusive neglectful narcissistic parents. Maybe it will help someone else.

1. Instant pot. Crock pot. Rice cooker. You only need one, but all 3 are versatile, can use very little electricity to run, and are perfect to dump ingredients into and come back later to a healthy, cooked dinner.

You can research which is best for you by looking up "crock pot recipes" "rice cooker meals" to get a feel for what types of meals you can prepare in each and how it's purposes can best fit your cooking style.

2. Get your electronics secondhand. Phone companies make so much off of poor people bc they contract us into pay plans that mean that by the time our phones are needing replacing, we've paid for it 2 or more times over. Consider going Sim only and getting your phone secondhand.

Websites like backmarket and envirophone sell refurbished phones, tablets, laptops, smart watches, TVs, consoles, headphones, all sorts like new and for a fraction of the price point you'd usually get them at. I've not bought an electronic new since 2015 and the products I get refurbished last just as long as if I'd bought them new. Plus it's better for the environment. Even if I had money I don't think I'd go back to buying new honestly.

3. Static charger. If you're Autistic and can't sit still, like me you might be finding that the first thing to go on your electronics is your charge port. It's really annoying because it's not a cheap fix and I have had to replace phones early when they won't charge any more.

Last year my girlfriend and I got static chargers. It's an adapter that sits in your phone/tablets charger slot that magnetically connects to a universal charger. Its great for us because now everything rechargeable (phones/tablets, but also headphones, game controllers, keyboards/mouses) takes the same cable. It's really handy, but for me the best part is that the adapter doesn't move. So even if I'm fidgeting with my phone on charge it won't wear down the charger pins over time. We paid £20 for 3 and it's paid for itself because I've not had to take my phone for it's yearly fix since I got it.

4. Make a cozy space outside of bed. As a bedrotting girlie I know the allure of just saying "fuck it" and curling up in bed is so strong. I also know that when I do it for days at a time my sleep quality gets worse, my days blur together and my mental health gets so much worse. Especially if I'm working, watching TV, eating all my meals and doing my hobbies all from my bed.

One thing that helps me break up the bedrotting and at least helps me get some decent sleep so I might wake up feeling better tomorrow, is having a cozy spot that isn't in bed I can spend at least some of my day in.

For me, it's the couch in my living room. I've furnished it with pillows, blankets, and a little coffee table I can rest my stuff on so I can feel as comfy as I do in bed, but not actually be in bed most of the day. For You it could be a book nook, or a floor bed, or a desk with a chair in your bedroom.

5. Giant water bottle. This one is really simple. We need 8 glasses of water a day to be healthy and hydrated. Basically nobody depressed has the energy to fill up a glass of water 8 times a day. If you can get a water bottle that holds 2 litres (65oz) of water, now you only need to fill one drinking vessel once a day to be healthy and hydrated.

It's really simple and sill but it honestly saved my life. I buy those drink flavor packets because I drink more when it tastes nice. Is it as healthy as plain water? No. Is it healthier than no water? Yes. Easy peasy.

My bottle is from Meoky, its the 64oz stainless steel camping bottle with a flip straw I got for under £20. I like it because it keeps my water cold and I'd rather walk on hot coals than take a sip without a straw, but I've bought same size BPA free plastic bottles for like £3 and they have lasted me 2-3 years too so the budget options are absolutely worth it too.

6. Reconsider what's worth getting second hand. Generally when thinking about buying secondhand we mean clothes at the thrift, and that's great, but buying pre loved can be anything, and you can buy some high ticket items at an affordable price point that way.

If I ever want an appliance I always look second hand first. My rice cooker is secondhand and it is my favourite appliance. I've also bought a popcorn maker for a fraction of the price I'd buy it new, and I'm looking for a Kitchen Aid mixer for no more than a third the price they usually sell at. My vanity houses my shark air styler, I got it refurbished second hand and it was like new when I bought it. I use it every day and it still has so much wear in it.

Generally, the bigger and heavier something is, the closer to free you can get it, because the people getting rid of it just want it gone. If you ever need a washing machine or some furniture, look on gumtree or local no buy groups first. Type "free ___" followed by where you live into Google to get an idea whats available. If you're furnishing a space it's very likely you can get everything you need for the cost of the van you hired to collect it all.

7. Frozen vegetables. Fresh produce is getting more expensive and because we neurodivergent and mentally ill people can have a habit of letting fresh produce rot in the fridge, wasting money and making more mess to clean up, it's usually not worth it. The thing is, frozen produce is cheaper because it is picked in season, healther because it is frozen at optimum ripeness, and can be safely stored in your freezer for months, it's so worth doing.

They're usually pre-cut and can generally just be chucked into your dish frozen to defrost while cooking, making them easy and accessible. You can buy mixed vegetable packs (in the UK the most common is sweetcorn/peas/carrots and broccoli/cauliflower/) for some variety too, which I like to just dump a portion into soups or broths for some added vitamins.

8. Medication delivery. I've been medicated for mental illness for years, and a regular problem I used to have was I would neglect going to pick up my meds because I was depressed, then I'd run out and be unable to collect them because the lack of meds was making me more depressed.

Now however, I'm signed up with an online pharmacy. They processes my prescriptions exactly the same way any other pharmacy would and dispense them through the post in a box that fits through my letterbox. I never have to leave the house for meds again which is actually a lifesaver, the shipping is super cheap, like free for 3 day delivery and £2.99 for next day, and it's all processed through a super simple app that I only have to use like one a month when I request my refill.

It's so worth it and if you struggle to get out like me I absolutely recommend it. In the UK it's called Lloyd's Direct Pharmacy, but I'm sure it's a service you can find in other places of the world too.

9. Laundry separation is a lie. Which isn't a big deal for people who don't care about throwing money away on extra loads or people who have the spoons to faff around separating their clothes arbitrarily, but for poor neurodivergent people, it is.

So here's the thing, the rules of separating laundry by colour came about when clothes were made of all natural materials that would stick to each other when agitated and natural dyes that would run in water. Nowadays, clothes are made of synthetic or blended materials that can handle the friction of a modern machine and synthetic dyes that hold up to basically anything. 99% of clothes on the market, and therefore probably 99% of your wardrobe, is polycotton or some other poly-blend. So generally, everything you have can just all go in together on a warm wash.

Now, if you have woolen, linen or cashmere pieces, you should be separating them and following the care instructions on the label, but everything else, just shove it in mate, nothing bad will happen.

10. Protein powder. Protein powder is cheap, it's stored dry to it basically never goes bad, it's obviously protein so it's a really good addition to your diet, it tastes of whatever flavour you buy it in so it's a good meal substitute if you're depressed and your appetite is low, and it comes together really easily.

I usually get it in big tubs because they're cheaper per gram that way and I just add them to my coffee/hot chocolate for a boost or stir it into some Greek yogurt for a quick healthy snack. Thats actually my favourite way to get protein in because it's like 2 minutes and it covers up that sour taste yogurt has. I've also stirred it into milk for my cereal to varying success but it's good because the fat in the milk and the carbs and fortified vitamins in the cereal make it basically a meal. If I'm struggling for breakfast I usually add a scoop or two to an instant porridge pot and I have a ready to eat nutritional meal ready in the time it takes to boil the kettle.

[loveroftoomanyfandoms]

Angel of God, My Guardian Dear Chapter 3: Matt

Rating: Explicit (18+, MINORS DNI)

Pairing: Matt Murdock x F!Reader

Story Summary: While speaking at a local school for visually impaired youth, Matt runs into his childhood best friend, with whom he lost touch almost 20 years prior.

Warnings/Tags: None.

Word Count: ~3,400

A/N: Getting ready to earn our rating, friends. 😏

Knock-tap-tap-knock tap-tap-knock knock knock-tap-knock-knock!

Matt grinned as he heard the secret knock he and Y/N had used when they were kids on his door. He walked over to the door and opened it. "You remembered it." 

"Of course I did," Y/N replied.

Matt stepped out of the doorway. "Come on in."

He waited until Y/N had stepped inside and closed the door behind her, then wrapped his arms around her in a hug. "Hi."

Y/N melted into him, tilting her face up towards his. "Hi."

Matt gave her a soft, slow kiss. "Hi."

Y/N giggled, nuzzling his nose with hers. "Mmm, hi."

Matt gave her another quick peck before letting go and stepping back. "Dinner will be ready in a minute. Want anything to drink while we wait? I've got beer, wine, water, soda…"

"Water is fine."

Matt walked over to his refrigerator and grabbed two bottles of water, then handed one to Y/N. "Here you go."

He gestured towards his couch. "Wanna sit for a minute while we wait for dinner?"

"Yeah, sure."

They moved over to Matt's living area and sat facing each other.

"I like the new designer sunglasses," Y/N said. "Very chic."

Matt huffed out a laugh. "Quite the upgrade from the cheap dollar-store pair I used to wear, huh?"

Y/N hummed. "I dunno, I always thought those had looked fine on you. I do really like these though. They suit your face shape a bit better than your old ones did."

Matt bit his lip. "Actually, do you mind if I take them off? I don't usually wear my glasses at home but I wasn't sure if you'd still be comfortable with it."

"No, of course I don't mind. Never bothered me before, why should it now?"

Matt took his glasses off and set them on his coffee table, then turned back towards Y/N.

He had never really worn his sunglasses whenever he and Y/N were alone -- about 3 months into their friendship he had accidentally misplaced them in his room and had been frantically searching for them when Y/N had walked in. "What's wrong?" Y/N had asked.

"My sunglasses," Matt had replied, fumbling around the small desk that was the only other furniture in the room besides his bed and the bedside table where he usually kept them. "I can't find my sunglasses."

Y/N had taken his hand and sat him down in the chair next to his desk. "Here, it's okay, I'll find them for you."

After searching for a few minutes, she had located Matt's glasses under his bed. "You know," she had said as she handed them to him, "you don't have to wear them when it's just us if you don't want to."

Matt had turned towards her, his brow furrowing. Most people had seemed uncomfortable around him when he wasn't wearing his sunglasses -- but then again, he was very quickly learning that Y/N wasn't most people. "Really?"

"Yeah. Your eyes are really pretty. I like them."

"Okay. Thanks."

Y/N was the only person Matt had ever truly felt comfortable around without his glasses -- just another reason he was sure she had to have been an angel.

He could feel her eyes on him now. "What? Is there something on my face?"

Y/N huffed out a soft laugh. "Oh, no, I'm sorry."

She reached out and cupped Matt's cheeks in her hands, tracing her thumbs underneath his eyes. "I'd forgotten just how beautiful your eyes are. Got lost in them for a second."

Matt felt his face heat. God, I love her.

Y/N gave him a gentle kiss between his eyes before letting him go. "So, how was your day?"

Matt smiled. "It was good. How was yours?"

"Good. Had a lot of kids from Lavelle sign up for library service today, and even got a few interested adults."

"That's great."

Y/N took a sip of her water. "I noticed you're not a patron."

Matt shook his head. "I don't have a lot of time to read these days."

Y/N tsked. "Well that's sad." 

"I probably should sign up though, shouldn't I? Especially if I'm dating one of the librarians."

Y/N giggled. "You don't have to, Matty, I was just surprised you weren't a patron, especially since I know how much you used to like listening to me read to you when we were kids."

That's because it was you reading to me, Matt thought. 

He grinned and shook his head. "No, I want to. What do I need to do to get signed up?"

"Well, I can either bring you an application or we can pull it up online and print it out, but either way I'll help you fill it out.  Or if you've got time one day you can come by and sign up in person."

"Would I get to see you? Because that would definitely work for me."

Y/N let out a light laugh. "Actually, yes. While I am the children's librarian, I also handle adult patrons whose last names begin with the letter M, so when you come in I'll be the one to assist you. Just let me know when you'll be coming by and I can get everything together."

"How about tomorrow? We can grab lunch and I'll get signed up while I'm dropping you off."

"Yeah, that sounds good."

Matt grinned. "So that means you'll be my own personal librarian, right?"

Y/N laughed. "Of sorts. You'll just have to share me with about 500 other patrons."

"Mmm, I guess I can do that." Matt wrapped his arms around her waist. "As long as I'd be your favorite."

Y/N pretended to think for a moment. "Well, I dunno, considering it'd be a toss-up between a 98-year-old former actress and my, um, my…" Y/N paused.

Matt licked his lips nervously. While he knew that he and Y/N were on the same page as far as dating went, he still wasn't sure if she was ready to label their relationship, especially since it was so new. Worth a shot though. "Your… boyfriend?"

Y/N hummed thoughtfully and slid a hand up Matt's torso to rest on his chest, right where the cross she had given him still rested. "Well I was going to say 'best friend turned love of my life', but considering you've been the love of my life pretty much since the moment we met, yeah. Let's go with 'boyfriend'."

Matt grinned. "Hmm. Well yeah, I don't know if I can compete with a 98-year-old former actress. I bet she's got some really interesting life stories."

"Well now, hang on, while Ms. McSwinney does have a lot of interesting life stories, I know for a fact that you do too, especially since I was personally involved in the making of several of them… and I plan on being involved in a lot more." 

Matt nuzzled Y/N's nose with his. "Will you still read to me?"

Y/N reached up and caressed his cheek with the hand that wasn't currently still resting on his chest. "Of course. Some of my favorite memories were of us in the library at St. Agnes… you laying with your head in my lap while I stroked your hair and read aloud to you from some of our favorite books. In fact, I brought my copy of The Crucible if you want me to start making good on my offer to read that one to you."

Matt shook his head. "Mmm, as nice as that sounds, maybe next time? I kinda had other plans for us after dinner."

"Oh really? And what kind of plans are those , Mr. Murdock?"

Matt grinned at Y/N's teasingly suggestive tone. While he did hope that they'd be getting naked later, he had a surprise for her beforehand. "You'll see."

He bit his lip. "But speaking of being involved in the making of some of my more interesting life stories, Foggy wants to meet you."

"Foggy… your business partner?"

Matt nodded.

"Yeah, ok. Just tell me when."

"How about Tuesday evening? He and I and our former office assistant Karen all get together at Josie's Bar for drinks after work. Also, how would you like to go visit my mother with me? We can go to Mass together on Sunday and talk to her afterwards."

"Yeah, both sound fine. It'll actually be really great to see Sister Maggie again, and it'll be nice to meet your partner."

Matt smiled. He knew that his mother would be delighted to see Y/N as well and would be happy to see that they were finally together. "Great. I'll let Foggy and Karen know about Tuesday, and I know for sure that my mother will be happy to see you again too."

"Um, so speaking of meeting each other's friends and families, I usually Zoom with Aunt Ruth on Sunday afternoon after she gets back from Mass around 1 o'clock or so, so would you want to join me this week so I can introduce you?" Y/N sounded hesitant, as if she thought Matt would refuse. 

Matt hadn't formally met Y/N's aunt when she had come to pick Y/N up 19 years ago, which wasn't surprising considering what the woman had thought of him at the time. He just hoped she had eventually changed her mind or was at least willing to give him a chance now. "Yeah, okay."

"Great."

Matt turned towards his oven as the timer went off. "That'll be dinner."

He gave her a quick kiss then stood. "Ready to eat?"

"Yeah, ready when you are."

Matt took the casserole he had baked out of the oven, then they served themselves and sat at Matt's table. 

"Mmm," Y/N said as she took a bite. "This is delicious."

"Thanks."

"So did you learn how to cook in college?"

Matt nodded with a smile. "I couldn't just live on take-out and ramen, so I kind of had to."

Y/N laughed. "Yeah, that was one good thing about living at home during college. Aunt Ruth and I took turns making dinner."

They continued talking while they ate and once they were finished Matt cleared their plates.

"Okay, so…" Matt said as they walked back into his living area, "I have something for you."

He picked up the note he had written to Y/N the night before she had left St. Agnes. "You weren't the only one who kept old letters."

Y/N gasped. "Is that --"

Matt nodded. "The letter I wrote you right before you left. I had hidden it with all the notes I got from you when we were kids and just remembered that I still had it after I got home last night."

"Will you read it to me?"

Matt nodded. "If you want." 

He unfolded it and set it on his coffee table.

"Dear Y/N," he began, "There's so much I want to say to you that I don't even know where to begin, but since you're leaving tomorrow to go live with your aunt I need to at least try to put some of it into words.

You're not even gone yet but I already miss you, angel. I miss the sound of your voice while you're reading to me, the feel of your fingers gently carding through my hair when you're calming me down whenever I'm overwhelmed, and the combination of the rhythm of your heartbeat and steady breathing while we lay in each other's arms on the nights when one of us sneaks into the other's room because we can't sleep.

I know I've always been able to tell you everything, but there's one thing that I haven't ever found the courage to… at least, not while you were awake, anyway. I can't even begin to count the number of times I've whispered it to you while you were asleep in my arms.

So here goes, my biggest secret coming to light: I'm in love with you.

Yeah, you read that right, angel. I'm in love with you, and it scares the hell out of me. You're the best thing I ever could've hoped for when I arrived at St. Agnes 8 years ago and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but as much as I want it, I know I'm not even remotely worthy enough to ask for your love in return.

If you don't feel the same way, we can just forget I wrote you this letter and go on like we always have been. I'd rather have you in my life as my platonic best friend than not at all. 

But if by some miracle you do feel the same (and even though I don't deserve it, God, how I hope you do) then I promise you that I will spend every day of the rest of my life trying to prove myself worthy of you. 

I love you, Y/N. Hopefully one day I'll get the chance to tell you in person.

Forever yours, 

Matt"

"You thought you weren't good enough for me?" Y/N said after a few moments of silence.

Matt shook his head as he turned to face her. "You were always so gentle, and caring, and kind, and loving, and -- and, well, angelic, and it was like my grandmother always said, 'Murdock boys have the devil in them', so…" He trailed off.

Y/N scoffed. "So, what? You figured you'd atone for whatever imaginary sins you thought you'd committed by not allowing yourself to be loved in return?" 

"Actually it was more like I was afraid I'd corrupt you."

"Corrupt me? What the --" Y/N sounded frustrated. "How could you 'corrupt' me when you were literally the answer to my prayers, Matthew?"

Matt furrowed his brow in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Y/N let out a deep sigh. "I guess I actually did keep a couple of secrets from you, because a few days before you arrived at St. Agnes I asked God to send me a friend, someone around my age with whom I could sit and read or talk and laugh -- someone with whom I could share my deepest thoughts and desires. I never would've thought that He'd answer my prayer so quickly, but as soon as I saw you I knew you were the one I had asked for."

Matt sucked in a breath. He'd always assumed that Y/N had been bored and just wanted someone to talk to that first day. He'd had no idea that she had actually prayed for someone and had believed that he had been the answer to her prayers.

He shook his head. "How could you possibly have been so sure it was me?"

Y/N reached up and cupped Matt's face in her hands, smoothing his eyebrows with her thumbs. "Because I specifically asked God to send me someone special, someone unlike anyone else I had ever met."

Matt swallowed, trying to keep his voice even. "Well, I certainly was different, wasn't I?"

Y/N gave him a gentle kiss. "You are everything I ever could have hoped for, Matt."

Matt's heart squeezed at the certainty in her tone. " Y/N."

Y/N snuggled up against his side. "Do you think we would've eventually gotten together when we were kids had I not left?"

"I would have hoped so." Matt turned and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. "Before we found out you were leaving I had promised myself that if I hadn't already done it, that I'd tell you how I felt on my 18th birthday." 

Y/N let out a light laugh. "Hoping to score a good birthday present?"

Matt shook his head with a chuckle. "Only if it'd have been you, angel. I knew I'd be leaving for college soon after that, so I'd either just have to deal with the sting of rejection for a few months or I'd at least be able to spend a few months with you as my girlfriend before we would only be able to get together on weekends until you had also graduated and joined me at school… assuming you had decided to go to the same college as me."

Y/N trailed a finger down Matt's chest. "Mmm, that would've been fun. Sneaking around even more than we already did, making out when we were supposed to be studying or while we were alone in the library when I was reading to you, actually doing what Sister Bernadette thought we were up to…"

Matt huffed out a laugh. "As much as I wanted to, I probably would've waited for that last part, at least until we were no longer both at St. Agnes. Can't promise what would've happened once I got you alone in my dorm room, though."

Y/N let out a chuckle of her own. "Yeah, now that I think about it it probably would've actually felt really weird hooking up in our bedrooms at St. Agnes."

"Still would've been a lot of making out though."

"Oh, absolutely." 

Matt smiled softly. "Before you left I used to imagine what our life together would be like after St. Agnes." 

"Oh?" Y/N snuggled back up against him. "Do tell, Mr. Murdock."

"Well, having assumed that I had finally worked up the nerve to tell you that I was in love with you and also having assumed that you had felt the same, since you'd just be starting college we'd probably live in separate dorms for the first few years even though we'd probably spend more time together than apart, so by the time you'd be a junior and I'd be a senior I'd ask you about moving in together. Presuming you'd say yes, we'd get an apartment and spend the year in domestic bliss, then I'd graduate and start law school while you finished up the final year of your bachelor's program."

Matt paused. "By the time you'd graduate with your bachelor's degree I'd be ready to propose, so I'd plan something special like take you on vacation disguised as a graduation celebration or something like that. Then when the moment was right I'd get down on one knee and ask you to spend the rest of your life with me as my wife. We'd finish school, get married, have a few kids, and live happily ever after, me as a successful attorney and you as a successful… well, librarian, I suppose."

Y/N sucked in a breath. "I'd have said yes, you know. To all of it."

Matt sighed. "I know, angel." Hopefully you'll still say yes when the time comes.

"Speaking of making out, I, um, I have a surprise for you too. I mean, it's actually pretty stupid, but…"

Matt heard Y/N rummage through her purse and pull something out, then he heard the soft 'pop' of a plastic cap being taken off of a tube before the scent of coconut filled his nose.

A smile spread across his face as he recognized the lip balm Y/N had worn as a kid. "Is that what I think it is?"

Y/N huffed out a light laugh. "Maybe. Why don't you kiss me and find out?"

Matt cupped her face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers.

Holy shit. He had been right -- Y/N's lips did taste amazing. He slid his hands down her arms and around her waist, savoring the combination of coconut and Y/N as Y/N deepened the kiss. 

Matt pulled her closer, one hand moving to slide up under the skirt of the silk dress she wore in order to grip her thigh.

Y/N let out a whimper into his mouth as Matt pulled her into his lap.

Heat and desire raced through Matt's blood. He wanted to hear Y/N make that noise over and over again… preferably while he was buried deep inside her.

He groaned as Y/N ground down against him, the scent of her arousal filling his nose and making his head spin. "Fuck, Y/N… "

Y/N ground down against him again. "Take me to bed, Matty, baby, please."

Shit. How could he deny his angel anything when she asked so sweetly? "Hold on to me."

Y/N linked her arms around him as he stood and carried her to his bedroom, intent on showing her just how much he loved her.

[sparkanonymous]

Found the other part of the season. Let's go!

⚠️ Spoilers for episodes 11-20!

Episode 11: The Shape of Motion

I know I've already said both of these things, but; ugh, back in the land of killjoys, and I like this funky little bop in the administration.

Why would they put that out into the world in front of the people that give them jobs? Sure, they're finding their life really boring (because it fucking is), but like... that seems really dumb.

I like how Sora and Arin are hiding their faces with pieces of paper, but still keep their hoods on and have the gi on as well. They're very clearly ninja, but no one notices.

More Lloyd visions.

Why'd Wyldfyre take out that thing from her hair? She looks... kinda weird without it.

Lol they so stupid

They took dragon horns? That must have hurt like hell.

On screen death? That's kinda ballsy.

The Craglings being there but not saying a word is so odd.

Ah, man, Rapton came back!

I mean, he did say that he still hated the ninja, so idk why Lloyd ever thought he had switched sides.

Rapton reminds me of a more evil Grunkle Stanley.

Lloyd, that's rude to say to a source dragon lol

It seems odd that the Ninjago Dragons Rising writers would tie the very existence of Ninjago to source dragons. It kinda just feels like a cheap way of making these dragons far more important than the regular ones, especially when this was never previously mentioned within the original series.

Tournament of Elements mentioned.

I'm gonna be honest, I thought this episode would have more to do with grief and Kai, considering her was lost last episode. Yeah, nearly all of the ninja have dealt with grief multiple times over, but you're telling me that not one of them, not even Nya, is especially sad at the concept that Kai could possibly never come back? I might've missed an episode or something, but I swear this is in order...

Episode 12: Enter the City of Temples

Euphrasia's really cute. I hope these next few episodes have ore to do with her.

Yay, Geo!

When was invisible man introduced?

Beatrix is back.

Why are those little dragons giving scrolls to so many random people?

Why wasn't Wyldfyre considered a "real ninja"?

Here we go; Kai grief!

Why didn't Sora know about this friend of Arin's before the merge? She's known for at least 5 years now; this had to have come up in conversation at some point before now.

Ah, so Zane was learning Rising Dragon technique. That was epic.

I know I should've asked already, but... where's Cole?

Lol, Lloyd being surprised when they said no to his request.

Zane getting ready to fight only to be stopped by the girl dragon master. Ugh, he's so cute.

Oh, there's Cole!

Lmao Zane you're such an asshole sometimes. Euphrasia is there, dummy 🫶

I like the ninja with the bandanas. But they skimped out on Cole; wasn't he the first to wear a bandana a long ass time ago?

"The solution is you... go away." I like this guy. He's funny.

The elemental master of shade just... being there. Lmao

They're gonna be banned for life.

Now I'm wondering why they weren't invited... there's gotta be some screwy reason.

If Sora is the elemental power of tech (however that's an element in any way) does that mean she could potentially fuck with Zane? Sounds more like something Jay would end up doing, but idk.

It's funny how the person raised by dragons (Wyldfyre) is arguing with someone who used to be scared of them (Cole). "Dragons are the safest and most solid thing to stand on ever-" My guy, you are arguing with the master of earth. She would have totally made fun of him if she had known him back in season 1 of the original series lol

Bleckt is gonna kill this kid.

Woah, Roby is totally hitting on Wyldfyre. Wow.

Oh, he says "jk" out loud... ohhh...

Ah, so the friend before the merge that was only just mentioned this episode - Frak - randomly appears... do they have an elemental power?

Episode 13: They Gather for the Feast

Ah a backstory for Arin and Frak.

Why do they keep bringing up Arin's Zane haircut.

Frak's got good taste if his favorite was Cole.

The element of quake? I mean... I guess?

Cole thanking Frak for teaching Arin to bake. That's gonna do wonders for him lol

Oh, does he like Nya? Please don't end up being a creepy crush like Jay...

Poor Bleckt...

I'm kinda surprised Zane hasn't told Roby to shut up or something.

So... do Wyldfyre and Roby become an actual thing? Or is Roby gonna be a massive douche?

Oh, man... someone's gonna steal that winning cup and take everyone's elemental powers... probably Beatrix...

Aw, of course snail leader guy is master of plants!

Of course Cole goes rushing towards the food lol

This is definitely giving some strong tournament of element vibes... at least kinda. There's definitely a lot of changes so far, but I can still somewhat feel it...

Ooh, so Jordana is somewhat possessed? It must've taken a lot for her to even try to ask for help, especially from Sora.

Oh my god, is there even gonna be a tournament? There's way too much tension and there's just no way that no one is gonna get kicked out of it.

Oh, that's Xeatrix? Why is she literally just a clone of Beatrix?

Wait, wasn't she given a scroll and allowed entrance at the beginning of last episode? I'm confused.

Where's Geo? He's an elemental master.

Lol Nya realizing how awkward Jay made things at random dinners.

Zane having to close the door after Wyldfyre came in.

Man, they seriously tried to kill Lloyd.

Lloyd, you've been close to unmasking this guy so many times. Just defeat them.

Why would Lloyd pick up the weapon?

So they sent out multiple bots, but none of them were successful? Wow, what a waste of bot.

Oh, was it all a ploy to get rid of the snail guy? How dare they... I have a feeling it was Bleckt, since he showed distaste in the snail guy's flowers, but that could obviously just be a way to get everyone off the scent trail. (I love this guy, but I cannot for the life of me remember his name.)

Okay, but if he did do it, why the hell would he just... admit all of that?

Wait, would Jay show up? I would've thought that he would've stayed in land killjoy, even with the invitation. He said in an earlier episode that no one was supposed to know he had lightning powers, so...

Episode 14: Inside The Maze

Backstory time?

Poor Cole, being traumatized by dance.

I think Cole is pretending not to know the steps just to try and get out of it lol

I like Jaya to an extent. They don't bring me joy like my non-canon ships do. They actually make me kinda... cringe? At least in this episode, because what the hell was that? Idk

We know Jay's been missing since the merge. This has been repeated... a lot the last season.

Zant-tanz. That's snail guy's name. I'm gonna forget it again.

Why are all of the other teams wearing the same uniform, but the main cast of ninja are allowed to wear their regular outfits?

Why did Sora flinch when Arin's hand whipped out? She knows he would never hurt her.

Him missing his parents is gonna be even stronger than it was before, isn't it?

Aw, Wyldfyre is so cute when she has a crush.

Why's Ryu so peeved?

The fact that Cole and Geo found each other by reaching for the same piece of fruit and touching hands... that's romance trope number 1, man.

Ugh, Geo and Cole are so adorable.

Jordana totally saw Sora's cat ears lol

Uh oh. Frak is gonna be a reason for Arin to feel like he can't trust Sora, because she's totally gonna warn him, but Arin said that Frak was his best friend, so he's gonna trust him over her. Or I'm looking too far into it, and this is me guessing something that's more likely to show up in a fanfic.

Are they allowed to set up things like that in the guest rooms? I know it's a way for Nya to try and let go of her grief, or for hope to find Kai and Jay, but I feel like that's gonna stripped down and it's gonna make her really upset.

Having the elemental power of bubbles must kinda suck. Bubble ares far too fragile to be powerful in any way.

Poor Zane... he's gonna get his ass handed to him.

"Now, Zane; if you would-" So they can control if there power is taken? Or was Roby just saying that?

Ugh... poor Zane. He dearly misses his power.

I thought because the guy was quick it would make things on him fade more quickly, including Zane's ice just melting into a puddle. But since Sora's pointing out, it must be fishy?

"Maybe Wyldfyre's right." Dude you dispelled by they shouldn't use rising dragon technique before. You're just salty that one of your teammates lost. I thought you said it didn't matter if you won?

Of course, Nya's next.

Wait, Jay? Why would he even show up?

So Nya's gonna lose.

Why is Geo being focused on here for his reactions? Did Cole tell him about Jay or what?

Okay, I don't care if Nya cares deeply for Jay. She would still beat the shit out of him if duty called, and duty is calling!

Okay, but wouldn't that count as cheating? What?

I like how the other ninja are totally encouraging Wyldfyre's bragging.

So now Nya gets the power of lightning... That's gonna fuck with her.

Okay, why would Nya tell him that? In front of so many people. First, he wasn't gonna say it back, because he doesn't have his memories so it feels weird for her to say that anyway. Second, the second hand embarrassment is strong with this one...

Why would Kai and Bonzle try to talk to this person? Wouldn't they warn the rest of the forbidden 5 and get them into trouble?

What the hell is Ryu supposed to do with this connection?

Episode 15: United We Fall

So is this a vision? Or a flashback?

Why is Cinder smiling like that? That must mean Raz is lying.

Ah, it was a flashback.

So I was wrong when I thought it was Arin who's goodness would be killed off. It was Jay off screen.

Uh oh... So Arin will go out looking for Jay while the others compete in the tournament, Jay will bring him down with him, and Arin will still not be able to find his parents.

Holy shit, Nya nearly obliterated Zane.

This tournament thing could totally be used to be a cool video game.

Cole's so proud of Lloyd.

Wyldfyre's gonna get her ass beat and she's gonna feel so guilty when she loses.

Of course they didn't prohibit the gong of shattering. Most people probably didn't even know it existed. It should have been disqualified as soon as they pulled it out, though.

Of course Cinder's doing that. Well, bye, Wyldfyre.

Zane protecting his fellow ninja. It's cute, but I bet he was recording the whole interaction and could have shown it off.

Whoa, Geo interacting with part of the main ninja group.

Uh oh, Arin and Ryu are so gonna get kicked out...

Oh, Raz is gonna manipulate Arin...

Why would Arin believe that? He knows he can't trust Raz, so there's no reason for him to believe a word that comes out of his mouth. Unless there's some sort of coincidence that leads him to believe it.

Also, the fact that we have only 4 episodes of the season left... they're cramming a lot of this information into the finale and hopefully promising a season 3.

Episode 16: Truth and Lies

if that was Raz's goal the whole time, then he wouldn't have been in Imperium all those years ago, before Beatrix and Xeatrix's father was killed.

Yeah, Raz is full of shit. But he knows he's gotten into Arin's brain.

Couldn't Cole just bust down the cave in himself?

"Master Wu did say; unity can save us." "Do you think he was talking about driving through a rock wall?!" Cole and Nya duo on the top lol

Zane just gently putting a hand on Lloyd's arm to congratulate him.

So Sora's gonna tell the truth about Arin failing his object spinjitzu during the time he needed it to work most, and that's what's gonna make Arin believe every word Raz says? Wow.

Poor Euphrasia.

Arin is gonna trust Frak all the way down to joining Raz...

That just sounds evil, Frak.

Op, here we go.

Lloyd and invisible man duo. I didn't realize they were friends...

Cole being slightly insulted by the "flirts with dirt" line lol

Of course Frak is going against his idol.

So did Raz pay them to make obstacles that would clearly benefit his team or something?

No you don't Raz.

How many monasteries are there gonna be?

Episode 17: The Sword Shatters

Kai dogging on Jay lmao

Y'know considering Bonzle is with Kai, they haven't given her much to do.

Zane, don't say cringe ever again.

At least Lloyd's aware of his chances against Xeatrix.

I like how Geo is helping Roby with his little statue.

Ah so Roby is definitely a bad guy.

Wait, was that Frak's pie?

I like how Cole is helping Frak out. It's nice.

Poor Frak... although, I feel like this'll lead him to trying to help defeat Raz in the end.

Arin, that's the worst way to phrase that question when around someone who is obviously crushing on him.

Yay, good job Geo!

Oh, no, poor Geo...

Why would Lloyd hit her in the direction of the sword he didn't want her to grab?

Lloyd's visions are definitely driving him crazy.

One hit with a giant sword is enough to take Lloyd out? How powerful was that sword?

Episode 18: Clues and Suspects

What was up with that sword? Why did it knock him into a coma?

Even Geo in the background is pissed.

Why are Wyldfyre's words enough to get a rise out of Xeatrix? They were kind of lame...

Also, why wouldn't they have blocked Xeatrix's powers while in the cuffs? Wasn't there a vengestone concept a long time ago that did that exact thing?

Except Sora didn't turn on Arin. Sure, it hurt his feelings that Sora didn't fully believe in his power, but they were in crisis mode at that point and couldn't afford a slip up. She helped him, regardless of how little it may make Arin feel. I feel like this whole thing could've been better written, like if they had been given a longer season, they could fully make Arin not trust Sora for various reasons. But since they were given 20 episodes, and wanted to split up the season a little at 10, they didn't have enough time to write out this arc, and now it makes Arin look really childish. (Yeah, they were making him childish to begin with, but now it's just getting worse.)

I really like Arin, but this whole trust arc makes me not like him very much.

Okay, so is Mr. Frohicky watching Fritz and Spitz? I mean, I don't know who else would, but still.

Good, at least Frak knows better, even if he trusts Raz.

Cole is so proud of Sora having his powers.

Does Raz really believe this is the way to defeat the ninja? He's losing his allies with the way he's doing this. I thought he was supposed to be cunning and smart.

Wyldfyre and Roby's relationship is complicated and... kinda cute?

There's no way Bleckt didn't notice that...

You're just now getting that feeling, Arin?

Take a wild guess, Arin.

This sucks for Lloyd just because now he has to deal with his visions without being able to escape them.

Nevermind. The source dragon saved him from them.

Bad at improv? I thought Cole made those quips on the spot in the original series.

Yep, it's definitely Bleckt. He's not making it subtle.

So Cole's gonna steal the mech that was potentially his mother's. I wonder how that'll go.

Is that our first look at what Lily looks like? Or did I miss something by not watching the last few seasons of the original series? Still, I like how - even in canon - Cole never truly escapes his mother.

Still a load of bullshit that Cole was able to do that, but whatever.

Episode 19: The Final Game

Oh, now I finally get it. There's only 3 of the forbidden 5 that are banished because one of them was actually allowed to escape while the other somehow managed to possess Jordana. Maybe Sora will slowly figure that out?

Who else could it be, Cole?

Woah, Wu's voice.

No way did Wu actually cause it. He probably just thinks he did out of guilt... or maybe he did. I'm usually wrong about my guesses.

"Hydration recommended." That's not my Zane. He would not have said it like that. Give his personality back.

Man I like how Wyldfyre got the answers by throwing the book down and having exposition walk right up to her.

Sora's definitely gonna get her ass handed to her.

Of course Sora figured out to do that.

Can Roby even read that language?

Prediction for next episode: Arin's gonna somehow betray the ninja and join Raz for literally no reason.

Episode 20: Elements of Betrayal

(I'm probably not gonna have as many notes now that we're at the end.)

Did you ever doubt that, Arin?

Here we go with Arin's betrayal...

As cringe as it is, Roby and Wyldfyre are so silly.

Kai coming back with Bonzle. Epic.

Kai must be so confused lol

And there he goes...

Cole should've tackled Bonzle in a big ol' hug too.

Sora dragging Lloyd off.

For Wyldfyre's sake, I do hope that Roby comes back in a future season, if there is one.

That source dragon blade is pretty cool.

Well, if Raz can't bring him back to his parents, what then? Will Arin just... go into hiding? I mean, what else would he be able to do? If the ninja can't do it, and Raz can't do it, then no one can. Unless we're introduced to new guys in this potential new season.

I really do think that Arin's kind of an idiot, but... whatever gives us more plot.

That's all! I'll post the finished pieces as soon as they're don, so... probably this weekend.

Dragons Rising: Season 2

I'm a little bit more nervous to watch season 2; I like watching things that make me feel happy, and from the brief spoilers I've gotten about this season, this is probably gonna be more sad than anything... But I'll try.

I will be continuing to work on the two pieces I was working on before, so check the bottom of this post if you want to see my progress! (This goes for my season 1 notes post, too, by the way.)

⚠️ Spoilers for episodes 1-5!

Divider by cafekitsune

Episode 1: The Blood Moon

New Jordana look, huh? I don't really like it right now, but I can grow to get used to it.

So are the lines on her face just... permanent?

Good to know Raz has night vision.

Jordana is clearly scared about all of this... I wonder how long it will take for her to switch sides.

The bad guys always seem too distracted, intentionally taking their time to get to their targets. I kinda understand why it was that way for the little phone video in the beginning of the episode, since it's such a cramped space to work with and the movements might cause motion sickness. But with every other fight? No.

Wow, Ryu grew up quite fast.

Fugidove? In 2024?

Holy fuck, the news reporter remembered Pixal? Most of the ninja didn't even remember her. Actually, practically nobody in Ninjago city. He's either a super fan, or the writers completely forgot that fact for this season.

Is Intelligent George a parody on someone? I can't tell.

Did Sora really have to spell that out? Did they just... not think that that people watching the second season had already watched the first? I feel like spelling it out like that will make people not want to go back and rewatch the first season to see what they missed.

Also, with how much bigger Ryu is, I would've thought more time had passed. The way Sora had said that line makes it sound like she just unlocked her true potential instead of it being like... a few months ago or something.

Okay, so now we're on the "Arin really wants elemental powers" thing. He seemed mostly fine with that last season. What changed?

Arin, if you're looking for someone to be talking about those still lost in the merge, why the hell would you watch a Youtuber who only wants to talk about the ninja to sell merch? There are plenty of people that you could talk to; the people you're currently around would be far better to talk to about this. I know that they don't have the solution right now, but they are far more likely to come up with one before a fucking Youtuber.

Sora and Arin are such good friends. Even if their interests are completely different, they still partake in the other's activities, especially when the other is looking blue.

Poor Frohicky, lol

Zane would have already heard and figured out these figures of speech back in like... season 1 or 2. But he's still cute. I like that Kai and Zane are playing the video game together.

The layout of this game makes me think of the TMNT arcade game. Nice touch.

Hm... so Lloyd's getting more visions... or he's having a nightmare... or both?

So... Zane and Sora are gonna get taken down. Is Arin going to rebel, betray them? Beatrix is clearly coming back, which I figured would happen after she disappeared into that merge-quake at the end of last season.

Wu watching over his nephew is nice, but... where's Garmadon? Sure, Wu is probably more iconic and a better teacher, but Garmadon is Lloyd's father. I want to see him again... would he have the same golden glow that Wu's ghost does, or would he have a purple glow or be a purple void?

Also, where's Nya? I don't think I've seen her at all this episode.

Why is Arin's voice so soft now? It's like he's constantly whispering into the mic?

Kreel not even denying that she tried to make their mech explode back in episode 1 lol

Wait is the junkyard ghost Wu?

Wow, that was a small investigation montage.

I like Ryu's teenage model over the baby one, but he reminds me a little too much of Toothless.

That old lady shaming those throwing away a good dragon... but not taking the dragon? Oh, come on; she would've totally tried to take Ryu back home with her. It's an old lady thing.

Oh my god, Arin stop self-pitying; this is not the time.

Arin, they will be proud of you; you're a ninja.

Lloyd's gonna have a heart attack.

Woah, the camera during this fight is really wobbly. It actually feels like Arin, Sora, and Ryu are in danger.

The actual panic in Lloyd's voice.

Give me the smoke guy's name. I need it. He's really cool.

Episode 2: Shattered Dreams

Wait, the writers of destiny are still a thing? I would've thought that they would have disbanded after it was proven that writing the future didn't actually mean anything.

Their idea of fun is bagels? Yeah, I can see it.

Wait, so their entire religion isn't completely founded on made up bullshit?

Lloyd, why would you drink that?

Sora, you sound like Raven Queen.

Arin, that's robot-ist. In front of Zane? Really?

Y'all are in broad daylight. So much for being ninja.

Everybody judging Sora's graffiti, including Zane lmao

Hitting Zane in the head with a non-magic teapot lmfao

The Gong of Shattering is such a terrible name.

Poor Arin, lol

Oh, no. This is Arin's undoing. He's gonna hit the gong in order to try and get an elemental power, he'll turn evil, and then fight beside Raz. I'm calling it now!

I really enjoy Percival's character now. He's learning, he's helping out, and he seems to be kinder than when he was under Beatrix's rule. I think the rebellion was good for him.

The Master Writer was so scared, he didn't even try to run. Wow. Anyone will let the bad guys overthrow them, huh.

Euphrasia should seriously train with the other ninja; she's far too weak to be looking after a kingdom alone. (Yes, I know that they're making all the ninja really bad at fighting to make it look like the smoke ninja is way stronger than them, but still.)

It's not called the Blood Moon for anything good. Is it ever?

You're supposed to be sneaky; that glowing green spinjitzu is not sneaky in any way.

Why did Euphrasia have to say that? She could have looked relieved instead of saying that terribly said "Thank goodness your okay!"

Zane, that doesn't answer shit. A written language can't look evil. That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard.

Should Euphrasia even be here to save the Master Writer? She's using a crutch. Actually, does literally everybody have to be here for this? Bigger groups are hard to be stealthy with, and most of them aren't really being useful. They should've picked three to go in while everyone else stays behind as back up.

So Raz was the reason the worms turned evil last season. Hm...

I'm still not over it. Why is Ryu here? It should've been Lloyd, Arin, and Zane; Lloyd because he needs to confirm his visions, Arin because he's really foreshadowing something, and Zane to confirm the stupid language thing. Euphrasia would've been a good choice to bring if she wasn't using a crutch. Everyone else is just... here for no fucking reason except to just listen to the Master Writer. They're not really hiding, so any of the wolf-masked characters could easily find them. They didn't bother animating anyone except Lloyd and Arin going up the wall; they all just kinda teleported. This is bothering me so bad. (Not everyone has to be here to listen. The three that would've gone could've spread the information off screen so it didn't become too repetitive.)

See, I fucking told you. Now Lloyd's having another panic attack.

Why did the gong only affect the wolf-masks? Is the detail I missed that they have to be wearing the wolf mask to be affected by the gong? That seems dumb.

Lmao Kai

Woah, Zane glitching.

Episode 3: Beyond the Phantasm Cave

Wait, where did Kai's mech come from?

Of course when Lloyd asks for an answer, the source dragons come.

Wow, that source dragon from season 1 is so convincing, he convinced the other source dragons within seconds.

Why wouldn't Sora believe Lloyd after all of this?

Aw, Kai checking on Wyldfyre.

Nya, you trained under Wu for how long? You would know that, yes. He would bring you guys somewhere based on half-understood dreams.

Why is Zane always the one to keep an eye on the ship? Ugh.

"Now it sounds like the rotor sneezed!" Lmao Lloyd

It's sweet that Sora and Arin are talking to each other about fond memories, but... why? This came out of nowhere, and they just arrived at their destination. The writing here feels a little clunky.

Aw, now they all have grappling hooks.

Wow it sure took those snake things a while to come out to try and kill them.

Uh oh, Kai's powers not working very well...

Is this like the future telling ice thing in the original series?

Sora that is quite clearly static. How the hell did you think that was Kai?

Oh man, it's all their worst fears...

Oh, shit... The Jaya thing I've seen fanart for.

Poor fucking Nya... this is foreshadowing.

They have airjitzu. They could take the jump a lot more carefully.

Episode 4: Force From The East

Ooh, finally! Back to Cole.

God, Geo and Cole are so fruity.

That was a mouthful of exposition. They could've had a mini flashback of that moment from last season when Cole left and followed Wu. Sure, Geo didn't see that, but this show has never shied away from showing other character's perspectives during flashback sequences told by another character.

Geo being worried about Cole.

They're such an artistic family.

Bonzle is gonna make Geo panic.

Kai and Nya working together is sweet.

Me, too, Arin. Me, too.

The dragon speaking English instead of using telepathy or whatever.

"Should we... ask them what they want?" "Sure. What do you want?" *Gets obliterated* Lmao

Geo's so silly.

Finally; Cole comes to the rescue!

Bonzle's hiding something... I'm not sure what just yet. But she knew that they could leave when they previously couldn't.

Why does Zane have a Frohicky plushie? I'm so confused.

Why isn't Cole surprised to see Zane?

"- why do you have a frog-man-doll?" "It is a long and barely comprehensible story." I love them.

So that's why I thought the Glacier reunion was so... weird and terrible. They're in the middle of a chase scene.

I like how Zane tries to decipher what the problem is by examining his face... I'm so normal about this pairing, I swear.

I like how this episode is split into the stuff that Lloyd and crew were doing and Cole and family were doing, but I focus on just the Cole and family stuff. Mostly just Cole and Geo. They're family is really sweet and care about one another so deeply. Fritz and Spitz need more to do, though; they're kinda just... kids in the middle of everything, but they seem to be as strong and fast as the rest of their family, so... idk

Episode 5: The Spell at the Waterfall

Ah, the Zane and Frohicky side of the plot.

I understand what Frohicky is trying to accomplish, but Zane has already gone to him if he has a problem with the things he's doing. That's just the kind of guy Zane is. This tactic might have worked better with Kai or Lloyd.

Zane whacking the bad guy with the stupid fucking doll lmao

Why wouldn't Bonzle have told them earlier? Lmao what a mouthful.

Oh, so that kinda makes sense... kinda. For Bonzle to know when the could leave. But she would've sensed that opening a long time ago, and probably would have looked more worried throughout the beginning of last episode.

See? The entire Cole and Geo family is artistic.

Bonzle met Master Wu?!

Kai and Nya are so epic.

So, wait. i thought Wu would have taken her to meet the ninja, but I guess not?

Aw, Cole and Geo getting emotional about Bonzle's story.

"This reminds of the old days. Count me in." "That's what I'm talking about." Ugh... I love them too much...

So is one of the source dragons helping Raz? Or am I going crazy?

Of course, there are some critics I have. But I'm liking this so far, even with how often Lloyd was getting panicked and the amount of foreshadowing to future episodes I was getting. Still a little nervous about what's coming, though...

Current Progress:

[chucksfavouriteprophet]

The Girl Can Bite Too, You Know - Part 3

Dean Winchester x (Female) Reader

Summary: While trying to keep your business afloat, you get caught in the crossfire of a Winchester hunt and have no choice but to get involved. Some time after your first run-in with the boys, you unexpectedly meet again and they are shocked to see how things have changed.

Warnings: Some slight violence but practically nothing, this is just a little filler before the big stuff gets going.

Word count: 2,609

| Part 1 | Part 2 |

- One Year Later -

The past few weeks had been tedious for Dean, and he was dying to get out of the bunker and find a bar. Problem was, both him and Sam were on the run from the police again, meaning they couldn't exactly show their faces in any old joint.

"C'mon man, one night isn't gonna hurt," Dean begged his brother. "I'm sick of this cheap whisky and no offence, but you're not really the type I would usually choose to chat up."

"Ew Dean, gross," Sam grunted, screwing up his face and shaking his head. "Look, I know you've got itchy feet so I've been doing some digging myself. Garth suggested some roadhouse a few towns over; he's never been but he's heard it's pretty quiet and seems to be a haunt for local hunters. If you're that desperate, why not give that place a try?"

Dean frowned. "Theres a roadhouse a few towns over? You sure, Sammy?" Sam shrugged and held up his hands defensively.

"Hey, I'm only the messenger. You think Garth's having you on?"

It was Dean's turn to shrug now. "No, but I find it hard to imagine there would be a sweet little hunter base just down the road that we haven't discovered yet, don't you?"

Sam turned back to the computer, running a hand through his hair. "I don't know man, like I said, it's meant to be pretty lowkey. Plus, we have kinda been a preoccupied lately so I wouldn't be surprised if slipped past the radar - hey!" He jumped as the laptop lid came slamming down, narrowly missing trapping his fingers.

"Saddle up baby brother, it's time to go get us a proper drink." Dean spun round, flinging his jacket round his shoulders before throwing Sam's in his direction. Sam shook his head with a chuckle. If he was being honest with himself, he too had felt cooped up in the bunker and was interested in getting to know some other local hunters if possible. Moments later, the bunker was plunged into darkness, the only sound being Baby as Dean wheel-spun her out of the garage. Foot on the gas, AC/DC blaring from the radio, the brothers drove with the windows down, enjoying the cool September air. Living in a windowless underground bunker always made them appreciate fresh air when they could get it. Sam related Garth's directions to Dean, and within 20 minutes they were tumbling down an unmade road just out of town.

"Damn, no wonder we never found this place. Someone needs to relay this road." Dean grumbled, taking it slow so not to damage the Impala's suspension. Sam glanced nervously out the window, starting to question if in fact Garth had been having them on. This place was deserted, nothing in sight.

"Dean, look. There." He motioned forward, pointing at an old wooden sign standing at an angle to the side of the road. There was no writing on it, just a symbol - what appeared to be a devils trap in a circle with a diagonal line through it.

"No demons," chuckled Dean. "Very clever signage." He took a sharp right at the sign, tumbling down a windy lane that was hidden from the main road by bushes. It wound round to the left, coming parallel with road they had previously been on, before opening up into a large square area of gravel lit by a low floodlight. The lot was busy with trucks and vans, some of which Sam and Dean recognised as belonging to fellow hunters. They swung in a space towards the back, climbing out and taking in their surroundings.

The parking lot was positioned behind a square wooden building, painted jet black, with heavy blinds across the windows that did well to dim the lights that were on inside. A path ran round to the other side of the building, which showed the reminisce of an old, smaller parking area with access directly off the main road. However, it was clear to see this was no longer used; the potholes were treacherous and branches covered the track to prevent anyone from entering from the original route. Dean paused for a second, glancing up at the front of the dark building.

"Hey, you recognise this place?" He questioned his brother. "I feel like we've been here before."

Sam was focusing intensely on the big oak door positioned in the centre of the building. "I know what you mean." He replied, head tilted slightly. "I know this door from somewhere. But it can't be - that place was way easier to get to, we didn't have to stumble down some civvy-proof track. Plus, the place I'm thinking of wasn't a hunter's bar, it was just an ordinary joint."

Dean shrugged. "Maybe it changed. C'mon, lets go see, it's clearly busy." He pushed past his brother, opening the heavy door inwards and stepping into the warm room, aroma filled with burgers and beer.

"Hey, what was that place called again?" Sam questioned behind him. "Someone's bar, wasn't it? A girl's name, Sally's, or Abby's maybe..."

"Y/N's." Dean breathed, frozen to the spot. A space before him at the bar had just cleared, and he saw you immediately. You hadn't changed; still the same confident body language, hair tied back messily, towel thrown across your shoulder, just like you had been the night you'd met.

Sam chucked. "I don't believe it! Y/N, hey!" He made his way straight towards the bar, Dean following him awkwardly a few steps behind.

You paused when you heard the voice, your back to him as you mixed a drink behind the bar. No, it couldn't be. Surely not. After all this time, all this effort...they were back. You gulped, grasping the glass tighter to stop your fingers trembling so visibly as you turned around.

"Well well well, if it isn't Agents Slovak and Kiedis. Hows the latest album coming along, boys?" You grinned, trying not to make your awe show. A year, it had taken them to walk back into your bar. Or rather 12 months, 4 weeks and 3 days, but who was counting? They hadn't changed much; sure, Sam's hair seemed a little longer, but he was still staggeringly tall and gawky. Dean didn't look any different, although his eyes did seem more serious now, and they'd both earned a few more scars since you'd last seen them. You wondered what sort of horrors they'd seen in the past year, and had to shove away the urge to leap over the bar and embrace them tightly.

Dean had shaken himself clean of his shock by now, and pulled up a stool to sit besides his brother. "Wow Y/N, I like what you've done with the place. That new parking lot grew a bit, huh?"

You smiled at him as you fixed them a drink. "Yeah well, you two opened my eyes to a new kinda clientele, so this ones on the house. Since I started catering for hunters businesses really picked up, but I gotta keep this place a little more subtle now, see." The boys thanked you for their drinks as you moved to top up the empties that had been pushed towards you by your other regulars.

"Yeah, well you're doing a great job at that. We can't believe we didn't know about this place until now." Sam laughed and you shrugged, glancing down at your feet. Dammit Y/N, how long had you waited for this day, and now you were acting like a complete fool?

Dean took a glimpse round the joint, trying to remember back to what it was like that day they'd busted those werewolves. The layout was pretty much the same, with a few more tables thrown in the mix, but the lighting was darker and more pictures were up on the walls. By the door there was a wooden board with initials etched all over it carved with a knife.

"You'll have to add yourselves to that," you nodded in the direction he was glancing in. "It's custom. Every new hunter to drink here has to make their mark." Dean gave you a grin before downing the rest of his whisky. "Hey, you still got those friends of yours out back?" He queried. You rolled your eyes as you gave him a refill. "They even got headstones now. Real talking point in the smoking area, I tell you. Old Robbie over there even made me plaque for them at Christmas." The brothers chuckled, struggling to get their heads around how much you'd changed. Sure, they'd been pleasantly surprised at how well you taken to learning about the supernatural, but they never expected you to make a living out of it as well.

It wasn't long before you had to excuse yourself to tend to other customers, refilling drinks and entertaining their classic manspreading banter. Sometimes you wondered if it was worth hiring some more bartenders to help with the load, but every time you decided it wasn't worth it. You'd have to explain what these people did in order for them not to freak out whenever a regular came in busted from a fight, and there was no way you'd try keep it a secret from anyone. Part of the appeal of Y/N's Bar was the fact that no one had to keep their life a secret. Hunters could come for a drink and catch up with each other, sharing their latest hunts and interests without worrying the wrong ears might overhear. Besides, most of these guys were rowdy men who needed to let their hair down. Not many girls would be able to bat off the misogynistic comments and remarks as easily as you could.

Meanwhile, Dean couldn't keep his eyes off you. He was dying to know more - how had you managed to find out so much about the hunting world? Had something else happened after him and Sam had left? If so, why hadn't he heard from you? Sure, they'd only been living in the bunker a few months now, but how come he hadn't realised how close it was to this place? The elder Winchester couldn't stop wondering as he stood alongside his brother making general chit chat to the other hunters, some of whom he'd met before, others who he'd heard about, and some new rookies who were delighted to finally get to meet the famous Winchester brothers.

The conversation was much the same for you. As the bar filled up, everyone wanted to know how you knew Sam and Dean, and couldn't help but share the rumours they'd heard about them. You smiled through gritted teeth, willing them to shut up and just leave. Truthfully, you wanted everyone to leave, except the brothers. I mean, that was the reason why you ran the place like you did, right?

"Pull yourself together, girl," you mumbled to yourself. Glancing up you caught the eye of the huge portrait of your Dad, still hanging in it's central place above the bar. The one man who had been through it all with you, even if only in spirit. "Don't worry Pop, I'm not gonna let myself go all stupid over two stupid boys. I promise." Taking a deep breath, you turned back around just in time to catch Dean gazing over at you. Catching his eye, you blushed, giving him a nod before carrying on with your job. Dammit, why did you have to be so damn awkward all the time?

Weirdly, Dean felt the same way. Usually chatting up girls was a walk in the park for him, but there was something about you that intimidated him. Maybe it was the casual way you'd managed to turn your bar into a hunters haven right under his nose, or maybe it was just the stunningly sexy and confident way you carried yourself. He threw back another glass of liquid sprit before leaving his brother engrossed in conversation with another local hunter and slid round the bar towards you. "Old man still standing strong, I see," he lent on the table behind you, shrinking back slightly as he made you jump.

"Oh yeah, haha," you mumbled clumsily, trying to recompose yourself. "I don't know what he'd think about me opening up his old place to a bunch of supernatural hunters, but I like to imagine he'd think it was entrepreneurial or something." You dodged round Dean with your head down, not trusting yourself not to glance up into those shockingly green eyes you remembered all too well. If you did, you were afraid you'd never look away. You moved back round behind the safety of the bar as Dean moved with you, pivoting to perch in front of you.

"So, you hunt now too?" He questioned, making you snort with laughter.

"God no. I just monetise the alcoholism that comes with the job." You gave him a quick wink, glancing away swiftly. Do not make eye contact Y/N, you repeated to yourself.

"That's a safe bet," Dean replied. He was about to continue when a raucous behind caught his attention, as well as everyone else's at the bar. Across the room, a burley hunter had pushed another back into the table, sending beer glasses shattering on the ground and a chair to topple over dramatically. He grabbed the other man by the shirt collar, pulling him up onto the table and raising a fist. Dean immediately went to lurch towards the fight, but he was beaten to it. Before the chair had even hit the ground you'd made it across the room in two long strides, twisting the arm of the burley man and pinning him against the wall with a knee to the balls. The man cried out in pain, collapsing in on himself.

"That's your final warning, Frank. I want you out of my bar in 30 seconds, and I don't want you back until you've killed at least three rugarus. You need to get that violence out of your system, and I ain't gonna have you do that by messing up your fellow hunters in my joint." You scooped up the empty glass and threw the truck keys from the table over your shoulder to land as his feet. Dean nodded slowly at you with a grin on his face as you walked back round the bar.

"Wow, that was impressive. You practically flew across the room there. Nice moves, too."

You shook your head as you started washing out the glass. "Dude, I'm a lone girl working in bar that attracts predominately anger-fuelled men. I can handle myself pretty neatly. The girl can bite too, you know."

"Damn straight you can," Dean remembered back to that night with the werewolves. Even now he was still impressed with the way you held your own when faced with a gang of greedy pups.

He spent the rest of the night quietly observing you, while you did the same. After last orders, he and Sam hugged you goodbye, passing on their phone numbers in case you ever needed anything. Dean was pretty sure you wouldn't, but it still made him feel better. The drive back to the bunker was peaceful, the trip out having fulfilled its purpose. Sam had enjoyed chatting away with other hunters and was elated to tell Dean about the latest news he'd caught up on. Dean was just happy at the warm feeling spreading through his chest at having seen you again. For different reasons, they were both sure Y'N's Bar was about to become their regular place.

| Part 4 |

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

Goddamn it Kyra I wasn't even interested in the Lego Lokis before, but now that you've so rudely posted pics of the options I'm probably going to have to buy some. So, couple questions: I'm not familiar with the website you linked to (it doesn't help that I'm on my phone lol) - do you get them from that site or just Aliexpress? I've kind of poked around there but I don't think I've ever actually bought anything - do you have links to those ones you bought or any tips for finding them on the site? (or like. using the site in general without getting scammed or something? Idk much about it other than stuff being low priced lol).

😇😇😇

putting the rest behind a cut because oops this got long

OKAY SO the cool thing about knockoff Lego figures is that a) there are a ton of them, so you can probably find multiple versions of most characters, and b) they're super cheap, so if you do end up getting ripped off, you're probably only out a few bucks. plus if you don't get ripped off, you feel like a genius, because authentic Lego minifigs tend to cost way more than they should (and if you get them online, you probably don't have a good way to know that they're authentic) and here you are getting something just as good or better for way less.

the site I was getting pictures from is HeroBloks, which I only just discovered myself a couple days ago; it looks like mostly it's good for tracking your collection (and learning more about bootleg Lego minifigs in general, maybe--I didn't really realize until now how many different companies there are making Lego-like minifigs) rather than buying, with individual pages including sale links that are only mildly useful. like, the extremely sad TVA Loki has an AliExpress search link that apparently just searches for "blocks," which is the least helpful search term imaginable; the eBay link uses "xinh+xh1745+loki (tva)" as the search term and that's definitely better, although it doesn't actually turn up anything. maybe that one's too new to be widely available yet, I don't know. (I hope that's the case. I need him and his sad little face to come and live with me.)

anyway--eBay is a possible source. searching for "loki minifigure" gets me results for several of the new ones I’ve been seeing, and they all seem to be shipping from Japan or South Korea. the problem is they're all selling for $4.99 plus $7.49 shipping each, which is...more than I want to spend on something I know is a knockoff of some kind when I don't know anything about the quality control and I'm not guaranteed to get what's in the picture. (here's another listing asking $40 total for all 8 figures I bought yesterday, which is actually a better price, and I'd probably end up doing that if I hadn't found them elsewhere, but that's because I have a problem.)

this is why I like AliExpress, because the risks are slightly higher but the prices tend to be much lower, even with shipping prices having gone up a bit over the last couple years. as I understand it, the site is basically just a huge marketplace for tons of different sellers in Asia, like if eBay only allowed fixed-price listings and it was based in China. the vast majority of the site reads like it went through Google Translate, because it probably did. you can find...basically anything there. I have no idea if any of it's authentic. (I also don't know anything about how or where any of the knockoff stuff is made, so...there is that.) I would not, for instance, drop $300 on a Hot Toys Loki from here, even though I absolutely would have the option to do so, for the obvious reason that I'm not going to risk that much money on an item that might be a cheap knockoff or could arrive broken. there is, in general, a solid possibility of breakable things arriving broken, because decent packaging costs more. cheap shipping will be slow (by which I mean like...up to 90 days), and most purchases either won't have tracking at all or won't have accurate tracking, so this is absolutely not a place to buy anything you want to get quickly. you also don't want to just buy something and forget about it, because there are (variable but generous) time limits past which you can't get a refund if you don't receive your items. the site's UI is...mostly functional. you often have to get a little creative with your search terms to find what you want (and sometimes you won’t find what you want through searching, but through looking at related items on the pages of things that aren’t quite what you want or are what you want but aren’t a good price). you will, absolutely, come across a lot of stolen art on things like pins, t-shirts, stickers, and phone cases, which you might not realize until you see something you recognize from a fanartist you like, and obviously that sucks. listing photos are nearly always stock photos, so in many cases they won't tell you anything about the item you're actually getting. you know the Wish app, and all the crazy things people get from that? you can find all the same stuff on AliExpress, at similar levels of quality.

however, if you approach it keeping all that in mind, it can be a great resource. I can't make any guarantees about the site's safety, but to the best of my knowledge it's secure and I've never had any weird charges show up after buying something. it's also my understanding that Alibaba, the parent company, is more or less the Chinese equivalent of Amazon in terms of the amount of business it does, which would probably be pretty tough if customer data were routinely being exposed to thieves, you know? I've also successfully gotten several refunds for items that never arrived, which actually hasn't happened all that often--but knowing that it can happen and that the return period expires, I’ll check back on the site if it seems like it’s been an unusually long time and I’ll make a reminder for myself of the deadline so I can contact the seller in time if necessary.

so the way I shop there is, I don't buy expensive or fragile things in general, because I recognize there's a nonzero chance I'll get a cheap knockoff, or something that was broken in transit because the seller tossed it in a box with no padding and called it good, or sometimes nothing at all. but like eBay, the sellers and items have ratings and reviews from customers, so that helps avoid some risk. items with lots of reviews tend to include at least a few customer photos, which are great for getting a better idea of what the thing you're buying actually looks like. I took a bit of a risk last year buying a Hot Toys (or the equivalent, I actually have no idea) Steve Rogers head for about $20, for instance, but I wasn't super worried about it because the customer photos looked good, the seller I used had a lot of sales and a lot of good ratings, and it was still a lot less than I would've paid for an authentic Hot Toys Steve Rogers head--and in fact he got here just fine and he looked fantastic. I also spent about $20 for a knockoff Iron Studios Loki statue, because in that case it was like...yep I’d love the real thing, nope I’m not willing to spend hundreds of dollars on it, yep I am willing to spend $20 on something that doesn’t look quite as nice but still looks good enough for me in the customer photos. well, and I’ve also bought knockoffs I knew would look bad, because they were cheap and I want all the Lokis and I have enough of an addiction that all the Lokis does in fact sometimes mean “even ones that look really bad” to me.

anyway, uh, Lego-type minifigs. this is an especially good area to go knockoff, because--okay, apparently I can’t link to a page of HeroBloks search results for some reason, but it’s the best resource I’ve found for this type of thing that isn’t just authentic Lego figures. but if you go there and do a search for “loki” you’ll get a bunch of results and you’ll see that they come from like...9 or 10 different brands. Lego specifically has only four Loki options: Avengers Loki in black, Avengers Loki in gray for some reason (which, frankly, looks like a cheap knockoff but isn’t), movie-inaccurate Ragnarok Loki with the blue outfit and the full helmet, an ugly Classic Loki, and a mostly green Loki from I guess the first Thor movie (and then I think they’re going to release a TVA Loki, a Sylvie, and a Throg). all those other results--all those different outfits from every single Loki appearance, and different variations on those outfits, nearly all of them more screen-accurate and/or detailed than the Lego versions--are technically knockoffs. they’re better and you can buy them for way less. (I mean, a lot of them are new so I don’t have them yet, but I do have frost giant Loki, better Ragnarok Loki, better Avengers Loki, opera Loki who actually has another face that’s half-Jotun, and at least one chrome-helmet option, and they all look basically like the photos. so I think I can reasonably expect most of the new ones to look basically like their photos too.) 

for reasons that I don’t understand aside from a vague guess that it’s copyright-related, AliExpress pretty much no longer shows full pictures of Lego-type figures in their listings--instead, you have to pick just based on the heads. this is a problem when lots of heads look very similar to each other! luckily, the listings also typically have the actual serial numbers for each figure, as do the HeroBloks listings, so you can cross-reference them to see what you’re really getting. for instance let’s take this listing because it’s cheap and it offers most of the Loki figures that are currently available. say you’re interested in one of the horn-less Lokis. there are...let’s see, five of them, but you have no idea what they actually look like aside from slightly different facial expressions and maybe weapons. however, the first one listed says XH1359 for its color...and what do you know, 1359 is the serial number for this Loki by a company called Xinh. okay cool, how about the last one? the “color” is listed as WM2182--and yes, HeroBloks has a listing for a Ragnarok Loki from World Minifigures with the serial number 2182. (I just ordered all 8 of the new World Minifigures ones yesterday, so again, I can’t personally guarantee yet that they’ll look as good in person as in the pictures--but I think they probably will, and more importantly they cost a whole dollar each.) and if HeroBloks doesn’t have a particular figure, you can probably find something useful just by googling the serial number.

I specifically bought from this listing yesterday because they currently have a bit of a sale going and a deal for free shipping if you buy 10 figures, and I wanted a couple duplicates, so it worked out to be the cheapest option. the same store has another listing for a bunch more Marvel characters, including a couple more Lokis I already had, so it should be pretty easy to get the free shipping so the figures are less than a dollar each and you’re only risking about $10. if you’d rather try one or two and see how it goes, it looks like this listing is probably the cheapest, with figures currently going for a little over a dollar each once you add shipping (although it’s totally possible shipping is more for me because Alaska).

that’s...probably already way more information than you really wanted, but I hope at least some of it makes sense. feel free to ask other specific questions if they come up--I might not be able to give answers exactly, but I can probably tell you what my experience has been, which is better than nothing.

[lissysagdollhouse]

The Saga of the Three Samanthas (long post)

The 1st Samantha (no pics in this section, sorry)

My first ever doll when I was 10 was a Samantha purchased at the American Girl Place NYC. I grew up very poor, even though we lived only a few hours from the city by train going there was a major event and It was quite the undertaking by my mother to make it happen. She took me and my best friend, and let me pick out any doll. I can't say how I chose Samantha. I was overwhelmed with the choices, I had read all the books and every doll in the collection had at one point or another been my must have, but honestly I never thought I'd get one at all. Anyway I chose Samantha, for whatever reason it was love at first sight. I was ecstatic, and I made her walk on the streets of NY in her little rubber shoes, I'll always remember that moment. It was the kind of wonderful moment I didn't have a lot in my childhood. I wish I had a picture of 1st Samantha. She was my cherished friend but life changes. Fast forward several years and I've gotten a scholarship to a 4 year college (an opportunity neither of my parents had) and I need money for books and other essentials which my parents can't help with, so as one of the only things of value I had I sold Samantha.

The 2nd Samantha

Life moves on, the money helped but I missed Sam. I spent entirely too much time on ebay hoping I'd find her there, even though I couldn't afford to buy her even if I did. A few years later my adult collection started when the same childhood best friend who was there the day I got the 1st Sam gifted me my 2nd. She was a doll from both our childhoods as said friend had gotten her from a family friend whose daughter outgrew her shortly after 1st Samantha. She was over 20 years old by that time and needed a lot of work. She was my first attempted doll repair and I messed it up so bad. In trying to repaint her face I stained half of it red she looked like she had a terrible sunburn. I now know I could probably have removed the marks, but at the time I thought she was ruined and was very upset. But she ended up inspiring a very creative custom. I'd read Rit dye could dye vinyl and was so curious if I could dye a whole doll. The answer is yes, meet Órfhlaith

I dyed her purple and molded elf ears out of air dry clay, and gave her new custom eyes from dollofakind on etsy.

Here she is hanging out with her horse Sir Kenneth, as named by my best friend.

The 3rd Samantha

If you saw my last post you've already met her. She was a super lucky find, I got her for $30 in her full meet and the only problem was her wig had been cut. So I gave her 2nd Samantha's wig and she became the centerpiece of my new collection which has grown considerably since then. I love finding cheap dolls and bringing them back to life, all inspired by Samantha in her many forms.

[freckleslikestars]

A few months back we had a 20th anniversary party at work. The whole thing - venue hire, bar tab, catering, cake, decorations, live music, DJ, casino tables, magician and photo booth - cost over £10,000. And I just remember thinking at the time that that was over eight months of my rent.

It was roaring 20s themed (because who doesn't love a cliche party theme) and when the couple celebrating, three of their four kids (apparently the seventeen y.o. and her girlfriend declined their invitation) and their son's partner rocked up, an hour late, they were all in 20s garb. She and the four kids were in gorgeous outfits - flapper dresses for her and the two girls, and tuxes for their son and his enby partner. Sidenote: she'd made the youngest daughter's (14) dress and paraded the poor girl around all night to her friends, going, 'Look at this dress I made, isn't it wonderful?' and this kid looked so uncomfortable and miserable. Anyway, we have four people in elegant clothes. But what about her husband? you know those iconic striped bathing suits from the early 1900s? he was in a bad cheap costume store one of those, and the dude spent the whole evening looking humiliated, made worse only by the fact that his wife kept going 'oh I didn't even make him wear it. i mean, I did find it and order it for him, and I did suggest he wear it, but he said yes without much convincing.' also, every single guest seemed to be her friend, not his. all the gifts were for her. they were all 'my friend from uni' or 'my friend from work'. none of them were 'our friends' or 'his friend'

Anyway. They turn up an hour late and then about half an hour later the rest of their guests turn up and nobody, not one single person, is in fancy dress. and oh, my god, the hissy fit this woman threw because "does nobody read an invite anymore?" now, the thing is, someone brought an invite with them and I read it and...there was no mention of fancy dress. all it said was that it was roaring 20s themed, which I wouldn't necessarily go 'oh that means I should dress up'.

but her yelling at all of her friends - people who'd traveled quite a way to be there, and had bought expensive gifts for her - was not the worst thing, no, it just gives you a good idea of this woman's personality. That prize goes to the temper tantrum she had at about half eleven. Now, it's important to know that the latest you can book my workplace is midnight. we're in a residential area so our liquor and music licenses only go to midnight - we can apply for three extensions a year if need be, but we have to also get permission from our landlord, which he won't give. and this is stated clearly in the contract you sign if you hire the venue. so it gets to half eleven and the band pass over to the DJ to round the night out and she starts kicking off. Because, remember how I said they turned up an hour late? somehow she decided that because they'd arrived an hour late, they deserved to stay an hour late. which...is not how it works.

So she's standing there in the middle of the room yelling at my boss because 'well I've paid for five hours so I have the right to five hours' which...she got five hours, it's just that she wasn't there for the first hour - which isn't our fault. So she then starts trying to bargain with us. Says 'I'll pay your staff and another hour of venue hire if you stay open for another hour'

this is impractical for many reasons. the biggest being that our licence would have run out, so she could in theory stay, but she couldn't have alcohol or music. nor, I believe, could the casino tables have been used, though I can't quite remember on that one. obviously, she didn't want that. she wanted alcohol and she wanted music and she'd pay the fine if we were caught for exceeding our license.

now, that's where we all kind of laughed our heads off, because the penalty, depending on various factors, for selling alcohol out of licensed hours, can be up to six months in prison and/or a fine of up to £20,000. twenty thousand pounds. I mean, that's...about two years of my wages. And at that she kind of blanches and goes 'oh, well, obviously, we'd split the fine 50/50' ma'am... no. and when we go...mmmm, no, if you were to somehow make us stay open, you would be paying the full find, love, she kicks off again, because 'well, it would hardly be my fault if you got caught breaking the law.'

like it was genuinely the most cyclical but also grossly wealthy-person argument. but also I think a lot of people at the party kind of realised just how out of touch this woman, their supposed friend, was with reality, given how poorly she'd treated them, the staff, and her family, throughout the night.

You really don’t realize how disconnected from reality rich people are until you have to work for them bro, like I just had a woman start crying because I told her that the leather recliners she wants to order would take 2 weeks to ship and she goes “We just finished our custom home theater room and I have a get together this weekend and I have kitchen chairs in there. do you have any idea what thats like?” HELLO????

[courtneyyharper]

10 Christmas Gifts ‘for her’ if you’re completely clueless

Since it's apparently time to start thinking about that time of year I thought I'd jump on and attempt to give you some help in an attempt to spark​ some ideas. Whether you're using this list for ideas for your other half, your mum or sister, or even if you are that person that likes something on this list why don't you send it over as a wee hint... the irony of this is that I've banned my boyfriend from looking at this list as there's a few spoilers on here for his gifts! (Hope he enjoys a wee eyeshadow palette😬).

So let’s start...

1. AIRPODS

I'm sure this will be a big gift this year and a perfect gift if you know they'll be getting a new phone or laptop! Perfect for a music lover or just the person that always needs to have the next big thing! I'd recommend planning to get a pair of these bad boys from Amazon or Currys during the Black Friday sale.

2. STUDIO LIGHT

A gift my mum got me unexpectedly a few years back and I haven't looked back. Not just for the MUA or photography student in your life but even just for every day make up application and I know my friends always use mine for checking their outfits or taking selfies before a night out! I've shown in the product photo how you can get a full sized one or a desk sized one easily on Amazon, your choice. Along this line would also be a Hollywood mirror, the big vanity mirrors with the bright lights installed but they can be hard to source as they're so popular and you need to make sure they're the bright studio lights. Top tip would just be to check the dimensions so you know what you're getting.

3. POLAROID CAMERA

I wanna say this is a cult favourite. I don't know many girls who don't have one of these now but if your gift recipient is one of them then it'd be a great gift! They're a great idea for Christmas, birthdays and anniversaries because it means you can capture the memories and of course ironically take a photo of the polaroid with your phone and post it to Instagram!! They come in a variety of colours and you can purchase accessories and refillable polaroid packs for other special occasions after, making it the gift that keeps on giving.

4. VINYL PLAYERS

Another gift that keeps on giving. If they're a real music lover and always have Spotify going in their room, and with the lack of concerts this year, this would be a very thoughtful gift. You can get these lads pretty cheap on Amazon or fork out for the pricey ones from UO. The only downside is that the actual Vinyl records themselves is where this gifts will cost you the most, but at least you'll always have an idea for next years present.

5. FOREVER ROSES

Now these guys can be quite boujee and I remember them being really popular a few years ago. If you type 'forever roses' into google or, probably better yet, Instagram you'll get a lot of companies selling gift sets of these specially preserved roses that can last for years. An incredibly romantic and surprising gift, this one can cost you big bucks but if you shop around enough you can get single roses for around £20 or major bunches for a few hundred but it's sure to win you major brownie points.

6. LUSH

This is the standard gift and perfect for a Christmas Eve bath. If you couldn't come up with this present on your own then please pay close attention to this blog because oh buddy you will need it! There are so many gift boxes to choose from at Lush and the great thing is you can't go wrong with any of them. Not to worry if you don't have a bath too because I also have you covered with these Lush sprays which are sooo good that you won't need to work out what their favourite perfume is for the third year in a row. (Also a great brand to support for its morals which is a bonus!!)

7. BLANKETS

Not only perfect for those cosy Winter and lockdown nights but also a great home decor item that is so popular on Instagram! These massive knit blankets can get incredibly pricey online, ranging from 20ish quid for a tiny one to a few hundred for the massive ones, so if you're willing to pay that then go ahead but top tip is to have a look in Home Bargains because they had these guys in all year for £25 and even Primark Home had a few in recently but I'd get ahead of the game for this one before they sell out...

8. JEWELLERY

Now I'm not a massive jewellery fan myself but some girls just go ga-ga for a princess ring. If you're wondering if your girlfriend/sister/daughter is one of them you can identify these people by their less-than-subtle 'just gonna post this here xx' social media posts sharing the Pandora sales. I know most boys get scared to choose jewellery in case the person 'doesn't like it' blah blah but chances are unless they've told you somethng they specifically want or you've been missing some massive hints (ie. ring photos 'accidentally' sent to you) then they'll appreciate literally anything you choose. It's the idea you've went and chosen something specifically for them more than the item itself that matters. If you like it, they'll like it more. The big site is Pandora and many sites like it will have 'Christmas Gift Guide' sections to make it super easy for you. Top tip: you could do a wee price low-high if this is just an add-on gift and although it's horrible to say they will most likely look it up and check how much you spent on it... sorry about that!

9. EYESHADOW PALETTE

Now this is one you will most likely skip over because it feels like delving into a massive jungle with no map and no water and actually no shoes and no clue whatsoever of where to start. That's what boys feel like trying to buy girls make up and I really can't blame you. In fact, if you haven't been told exactly what to buy then who could blame you but if you're really looking to impress and go the extra mile and know they like make up then I'm going to attempt to help you as best I can and try and keep it really simple! So, first of all you'll need to somehow have a look at their collection when they're getting ready or be super stealthy and just double check they don't have the palette you're going to get them.

This is important. Right, so question one is do they watch YouTubers do make up? Because if they do then simply find out who they watch and check if that influencer has a palette or collab with a makeup brand because then your job is done for you!! If they've told you all about the James Charles/Tatti/Jefree Starr drama that encapsulated YouTube in the past then find out who's side they support because all three of those guys have palettes! James Charles x Morphe Artistry palette, Tatti has her own brand, or if they came out supporting Jeffree Starr and Shane Dawson in the whole fiasco then the Jeffree Starr 'Conspiracy palette' is for you. To each their own. These two main palettes I've featured on the left below for you to have a look at.

The top right palette is the new HUDA Beauty Naughty Nude palette and it's the one I'd go for if you're really unsure still! It's a new release so doubtful they have it and there's no crazy colours so can be used by everyone. It would be my top recommendation for make up this Christmas.

The three below that are all YouTuber/Influencer collabs with makeup brands that have been pretty popular this year. From the left: BPerfect x Stacey Marie Carnival III Love Tahiti Palette is one to get if you know they love doing colourful and adventurous looks, middle: Carli Bybel Palette x Anastasia Beverly Hills and far right: BPerfect x Jah Makeup Artist Clientele Palette are both perfect for more simple looks or if they don't go wild with colour and are both from big brands so will be very much appreciated!

God, this really could have been its own post where I explained it a bit better but alas...

10. HAIR CURLERS/WAVER

Maybe they're not as into makeup and prefer hair, or maybe they just love both? Then a Beauty Works hair styler would be a boujee gift for them. So, for this you can do the standard version of the products (gold) or you can do the newer versions in the collab with Molly Mae (pink). It's up to you. These products are pricey but great quality. First is the hair curler (Professional styler) which is great if both you and they love their hair curly, and you can't go wrong with Molly Mae's signature bouncy curls. The second option is a new trend in hair his year, The Waver, which creates the mermaid waves that I've pictured Molly Mae wearing below (and yes boys they’re different than curls) and a great gift if they already have the curler. Top tip: is to get these lads while ASOS have 20% off because you're grabbing yourself a bargain or if you're really on a budget many brands do these products without the hefty price tag.

BONUS: GIFT ADVENT CALENDER

This year there is a major boom in the idea of gift advent calendars, so behind every door is a small gift instead of chocolate. Now what would be super adorable is to buy advent boxes online and fill them yourself with personalised gifts but luckily many brands have brought out their own versions! The best one I have saw so far this year is this PrettyLittleThing beauty calendar but it has been sold out for some time now! ASOS etc. are doing their own versions and there have even been adorable versions in the likes of HomeBargains and B&Ms where you can get candle or even alcohol versions.

Well, I hope this helped even a little bit! If you're really on the ball you'll have noticed I haven't included anything like the staple Primark pyjamas or everything seems catered towards girlfriends or 'for her' but not to worry I've many more versions planned, including 'for him', 'on a budget', and 'how to dress up your present'!

Happy (very early) Christmas!🎁🎄

[tellywoodtrash]

Hi TT! So, this is out of the blue but I've been planning to get a cat and asking every single I know who owns a cat if I should. Would you recommend it?

Oh hello anon!

I personally did not plan to get Chandler. I just found him, abandoned in a stairwell, with a broken leg. I played with him a little and started to leave (coz I was super superrrrrrrrr late for work!), but he kept following me no matter how many times I put him back in the spot I found him. So I just took it as a sign that we were meant to find each other, and took him home. My parents weren’t thrilled, but I made a biggggggggg fuss until they agreed. (And now, he’s the preferred child in the house over me!!!!!!!)

The most important thing I would tell you is that please know that being a responsible pet owner is not sunshine and rainbows and frolicking through meadows all the time. It takes quite a bit of financial resources and patience. It’s very much like having a permanent toddler, that’s dependent on you for their whole life. Food, litter, vet bills, they can add up. They may unintentionally cause damage around the house. You will need to spay/neuter them to ensure that they don’t have behavioural issues caused by hormones. Cats are nocturnal creatures and can keep waking you periodically at night. We moved countries, and unfortunately, lots of people abandon pets in such cases; but we couldn’t even dream of doing that to Chandler, and so went through considerable paperwork and expenses to bring him with us to India. If you’re going on vacations, you must ensure a sitter/boarding service to look after them for when you’re gone. A healthy cat, if well taken care of, can live well into its late teens, so be aware that you will have to provide these things long-term. Please do not take on the responsibility of a pet if you think you’re not ready to be in it for the long haul. Even though they’re a different species, they are very much family. If you wouldn’t treat a human member of the family in a certain manner, then you shouldn’t do it to the pet either. They’re defenseless creatures who are completely dependent on you for their survival and well-being, and you should take that responsibility very seriously.

Another thing about cats is that they’re generally not as physically demonstrative with their affection as dogs are. (Varies from cat to cat, depending on their individual personality.) The instagram cats constantly cuddling and doing cute shit with their owners are pretty much like everything else on insta: heavily curated moments just to show the pretty side. But cats do show their love in lots of other ways. They hang out with you/follow you around while you do stuff. They can be very playful and trained to play simple games (Chandler loves hide and seek! The cat my roomies and I had while I was doing my Masters could play fetch as well as any dog!) They can sense when you’re sad or sick, and come sit with you to comfort you. (When my dad was diagnosed with cancer, Chandler didn’t leave his side all day. He even knew which parts of the body were sensitive and was careful to never brush up there. It was a great comfort for my dad, even with all the pain he was in.) They’re very intelligent and curious creatures, and honestly, you don’t need a TV in the house when you can just spend hours watching them do their delightful cat things. (I love to watch Chandler groom himself, trying to reach ridiculous places like the back of his hind leg knee!)

Another good side is that they’re quite low maintenance animals, both physically and emotionally. They thrive indoors (live longer that way than outdoor cats!) and are chill about hanging out alone for a few hours with no issues. You don’t need to walk them or anything, they just need some mental stimulation and small cheap things around the house to keep them entertained/exercised. (Don’t bother buying expensive toys, they’ll always prefer batting around a paper ball/random length of string to the fancy toy.) So ideal pets if you’re a working person. Also, they’re generally very clean creatures, so you don’t have the usual dog type issues of them routinely getting into muck and all dirty and needing to bathe them often. Note: if it’s a longhaired breed, you will have to regularly brush them to get rid of the extra fluff so that you don’t have hairballs all around the place (including inside the cat, which they’ll periodically puke up!) In any case, be ready to have everything you own covered in fur! It’s just an unavoidable part of having a pet. But generally, they’re very easygoing chill little buddies who are more like silly, not-so-independent roommates, once they’ve reached adulthood (in about a year or so.)

I personally find having a cat really really wonderful. I can’t imagine life without one anymore. Not counting my mom, Chandler is literally the most important living being on this planet to me. When I’m outside the house, I can’t wait to get back to him (and he comes running with a loudddd greeting and gives me a 10 minute sniffdown to explore the smells of the outside world.) He actively helps with my depression/anxiety (on some hard work days, I used to drive 20 minutes to go home on my lunch breaks just to see him for 10 minutes and feel better.) He’s generally not a big one for petting/cuddles (just about tolerates it for like a minute before running away) but still sneaks into my bed every morning when I’m sleeping and winds himself around my feet and falls asleep there. I love irritating him for fun, and we play-fight every day like real siblings do, till my mom comes and breaks it up. (He swipes and bites, but is always mindful to do it in a way that won’t hurt me much. He has never ever injured me on purpose.) It’s really really really lovely to have the trust and love of a creature with no agendas or conditional expectations. So in short, YES I do recommend it: all the work and minor annoyances are really worth it. It’s lowkey like parenting, coz you raise this little thing and get to see it develop into its own personality, and have wonderful love and companionship for years. Very fulfilling and good for the heart. 

I hope you make a good, informed decision, anon; and that if you do get a kitty, have many many wonderful years with your furbaby!!!!!!!! (PLEASE SEND ME PICS!!!!!!!!!!)

PS - All the cats I’ve lived/hung out with longterm:

Chandler. My baby, actual love of my life.

Ria (short for SangRIA. My roommate liked drinking. A lot.) Aforementioned fetch player extraordinaire.

Pepper. Cat of coursemates. As an introvert, I wasn’t much for socializing, but I’d make myself get out on a weekly basis, just to hang out with this cat!

Nala (grey tabby) and Monkey (orange). I took a whole extra week of vacation time to stay with my friend (in pink) because she was a newish cat mom and needed a little help getting them settled in. Totallllllllllllllllllll cuddlebugs, who didn’t leave my side the whole time I was there!

[emmagoldman42]

Indigenous people organizing for their human rights followed by ICE raids on them 🤔

Repost:

“I've been doing a bit of research on the companies that were raided this past week in MS. All six chicken processing companies have wealthy white owners, none of who have (yet) been charged criminally for knowingly hiring undocumented workers (and they did know, because all participate in the E-Verify program).

Here's some information about the largest company and the worst offender: Koch Foods, Inc. (no relation to the Koch brothers).

The CEO and president is Joseph C. Grendys, a 58 year old white man worth $3.3B.

Koch processes more than 50 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken per week, slaughtering 12 million chickens per week. Koch Foods, Inc. processes Wal-Mart's "Great Value" buffalo wings, chicken strips, chicken tenders and popcorn chicken, Burger King's chicken nuggets and other private-label brands at grocery stores, such as Kroger and Aldi (Archer Farms). https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-confidential-chicken-billionaire-1026-biz-20141024-column.html

Koch Foods, Inc. was raided under the Bush administration in 2007 for knowingly hiring undocumented workers, and they had to pay a fine of $536K in 2010: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-immigration-koch-idUSN2825845020070828

Apparently that fine wasn't enough of a deterrent for them, because they continued to hire undocumented workers. Why? Grendys' comment in the above-linked Chicago Tribune article explains the practice: maintaining a good labor force is very difficult and employee turnover is high.

They have also been targets of numerous allegations of egregious workplace conditions where Hispanic workers, particularly those without documentation were subjected to hostile and unsafe work conditions. Some of the proven allegations include denying workers bathroom breaks, sexually harassing and assaulting the female Hispanic workers, and harassing employees who attempted to unionize, including firing them and/or threatening them with ICE referrals.

One worker complained: "What I didn't like is they would yell at us and tell us we're good for nothing and we didn't know how to work, and sometimes they wouldn't even let us leave to go home when we were sick,"

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/06/us/union-organizers-at-poultry-plants-in-south-find-newly-sympathetic-ears.html

The work is grueling enough, but Koch Foods supervisors required workers to "chop" the chickens at a rate of 42-chickens-a-minute. "That pace means that many workers make 18,000 cuts during their eight-hour shifts as they prepare breasts, wings, tenders and cutlets for restaurants and consumers. If they couldn't keep up, or got injured, they were fired."

Also, the EEOC found on several occasions that the workplace conditions were dangerous and violated numerous safety laws. This resulted in injuries such as amputations and even death.

https://news.bloombergenvironment.com/safety/koch-foods-cited-for-amputation-hazards-at-georgia-plant http://src.bna.com/vWr

https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/region4/01252018

Koch Foods, Inc. even had to pay one employee $1.9M for unsafe working conditions that led to the amputation of several fingers: https://www.wattagnet.com/articles/32273-jury-rules-against-koch-foods-in-injured-worker-case

Here's one of the most egregious things Koch Foods, Inc. did. They not only knowingly hired undocumented workers (recruiting many from Texas border towns), they used their undocumented status to control and exploit them. A federal criminal investigation found that supervisors would often falsely tell undocumented workers that they'd received a "no-match" letter indicating a problem with their social security number, and for $700 the company could get them a new SSN.

And yet, it's not the company that gets charged criminally, it's the poor and vulnerable (and recruited!) undocumented workers: https://www.journal-news.com/news/sheriff-jones-encouraged-them-the-raids-butler-county/aGsNHxQCJQVJmnK522l0iL/#

These workers made about $7.80 an hour, but if they worked in a darkened room where thousands of live chickens poured down a chute where workers grabbed them and killed them, and then hung them on a hook (about 40 per minute), they got $1 more per hour. If they worked in the "chopping" room, they got 50 cents more per hour.

Now, here's the suspicious part. In 2015 workers started organizing a union and Koch Foods, Inc. did everything they could (including outright harassment and firing organizing employees) to stop the action: http://ufcw75.org/2015/02/12/illegally-fired-workers-win-settlement-from-koch-foods/

And in 2016, the EEOC filed a lawsuit against Koch for paying all Hispanic females significantly less than males, while giving them more work, and then firing them for complaining: https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/9-30-19c.cfm

But in 2018, Koch lost a huge EEOC case for the overt sexual harassment of Hispanic female workers (mostly undocumented). This amounted to sexual harassment and assault as male supervisors felt free to grope and verbally harass the most vulnerable workers in the plant: https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/8-1-18b.cfm

Are you suspicious that the targeted raid was planned apparently right after they lost this large EEOC complaint? Me too.

Also, in case you're wondering, Koch Foods, Inc. doesn't just discriminate against Hispanic workers, the company discriminates against black farmers as well: https://www.propublica.org/article/how-a-top-chicken-company-cut-off-black-farmers-one-by-one#

They abuse the chickens too: https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-mercy-for-animals-chickens-1120-biz-20141119-story.html

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/11/19/animal-rights-group-claims-abuse-by-koch-foods-chick-fil-a/

And these seven companies aren't the only ones engaged in the practice of recruiting undocumented workers (because they are an easily manipulated and stable workforce). In 2001 Tyson Chicken executives were charged for recruiting undocumented workers from Mexico, and then providing them with fake identification (the workers thought their IDs were real, and were later charged criminally for having false identification papers.)

Despite clear-cut evidence, the case was dismissed in 2003, and no company has been criminally charged since (apparently it's bad for U.S. business).

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/20/us/tyson-foods-indicted-in-plan-to-smuggle-illegal-workers.html

It was later discovered Tyson executives paid bribes to government officials, prior to the charges being dropped. In response to the bribery the DOJ fined the company $5.2 million, but did not bring criminal charges.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/business/11tyson.html

Apparently Tyson execs didn't learn their lesson either, because they were back at it in 2010!:

https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-fraud/legacy/2013/05/06/02-10-11tyson_foods_dpa.pdf

This is nothing more than slavery. The more vulnerable and desperate the worker, the better. Recruit undocumented workers, give them fake identification, work them to the point of grave injury or death, and then cry "America First!" and fire them if they complain. Then INS/ICE can come in screaming "we're a land of laws!" and charge the undocumented workers with violating U.S. immigration laws, while letting the companies slide (better for the economy, right?). The companies can then start all over with a new crop of scared and vulnerable workers, and the problem of unionization and demands for better workplace conditions is gone..

But hey, I hope everyone (especially the anti-immigration folks out there) enjoys their cheap chicken wings..."

https://truthout.org/video/mississippi-ice-raids-targeted-workers-who-fought-for-better-conditions/

[sewertour]

Note: I wrote this exactly 6 years and am bringing it back, since I just got back from my 2019 cruise (page count: 0!)

Writing Workshop at Sea for One or My New Expensive Hobby

I am a terrible writer.

Not that my syntax is any more clunky, my stories any less interesting or my prose as equally tortured than the average scribe's, but my writing frequency is infrequently fecund. For me, writing is hard. And after years of wall staring self-analysis, I've decided my troubles stem from the fact that the very act of writing makes me think. Hard. Very very hard.

And since thinking hurts my brain, and my brain does not enjoy painful experiences, spends time focusing me on other cognitive tasks that have more immediate rewards, like reading an email, eating a pint of ice cream or staring into a middle distance thinking about all the awesome things you could be doing. When I finally make the effort to concentrate on writing, I start by planning to write.

There are all kinds of plans to make. There's different medium to mediate, places to pontificate, and scuttlebutt to schedule. And by the time that's settled, I'm suddenly hungry and have to deal with that crisis immediately. Before scratching no more than a few words, I suddenly have the urge to check my phone which reminds me that it's essential I watch TV. Then the day's over and I start to despair my lack of word count, but there's always tomorrow and tomorrow.

So for 2013 I decided that I was going to spend a big chunk of my work vacation time leading the romantic life of a non-professional writer. This way, I wouldn't have to hole up in a dank garret worrying about where I was going to get my next bottle of MD 20/20, or worry about any distractions at all except for the glow of the blank page.

Unfortunately, I knew holing up at home wouldn't work. First off, there would be too many distractions and besides, it wasn't working now on evenings and weekends, so why would it if I had a whole week or two? I needed to go on more than a metaphysical writer's journey, I needed a place to unhook from reality, and the Internet. I'm really bad about the Internet.

My first thought was to book time at a writer's colony in the mountains. Away from the internet and worldly distractions is traditional, but a quick search on the internet revealed a sad truth. Not only were these retreats expensive, but for some of them I would not only have to do some cooking and cleaning, but listen to other people's touchy-feely paper revelations and talk about how it made me feel. Ugh.

Maybe I just need to find a cheap hotel that feeds me whenever I want. What about Vegas? Still too distracting for me. But what if you took a vegas-style hotel, leached it of all hope and placed it somewhere far from the prying hands of a national government and the internet? That would be a writer's paradise. And that would be a cruise ship.

It's a jail cell without the shivving - a monastery without the religion - a lonely shack surrounded by nature, but with a doctor on standby. There would be an unsuspecting audience for my karaoke and an ever present army to prepare my snacks 24 hours a day. And if you're willing to take the least popular routes available, all of this can be yours for a very low, low price.

To many people, a cruise is synonymous with fun. There's a certain appeal to sitting around all day by a pool, eating at the buffet, and then at night soaking up all the bountiful light entertainment. But it's not really for me. Distraction-free living is like a form of prison and makes me anxious. That's why I have a smartphone. But on a cruise, where the internet comes at a Great Cost - around 75 cents a minute unless you get it in bulk - I'll only have writing to keep me entertained. Or I'll go crazy.

So here I am, in the middle of the ocean writing this thing you're reading instead of watching a movie, cruising Twitter or attending a comedy hypnotist show that bills itself as one of the greatest in the world. But there may be time for that on the ship tomorrow. It's a whole day at sea and my head is already pounding like crazy just anticipating typing more of this out.

And so far, I've not only managed to knock out a few pages, contemplated throwing myself overboard and seen a few places along the way, but I lost 14 lbs. (It may have more to do with the endless pacing from anxiety than healthful living, but I'll take it.)

Want to lose weight, make friends, combat Internet addiction and writer's block? Form your own Workshop at Sea! Or better yet, pay me to make your writing dreams come true and I'll organize a bunch of you to come on a boat with me and tell each other our mediocre scribblings are, 'On the Write Track'? Because after spending nearly a month at sea, guru-ing seems like a more fun than struggling with this stuff alone, finally freeing me to enjoy myself by the pool until that drives me crazy too.

[pbandjesse]

My hair is continuing to not do anything I want it to be doing. I don't know if I want to get it cut and have it shorter like it was over the summer or do I want them growing it out. It's just an awkward length and it doesn't want to lay correctly and now that I have the heat on I feel like maybe it's getting drier to? I don't know.

It was a nice day off though. I'm glad that this new job is going to let me have my Mornings in general. I mean I'm still going to have some days where I'm at to BMI but I have the whole morning off tomorrow and I'm really excited about that.

I slept okay last night. I woke up this morning around 9 and went to the grocery store pretty quickly after I got up. I really just wanted to be Cosi all day. So I was just in that fleece and leggings and socks. Still a cute look. I got eggs and some other things. Picked up ice coffee for James since he would be coming right to my apartment after his shift. I went home and I made an egg sandwich and soon enough James was on his way over.

He got here and told me he actually forgot to bring a change of clothes. Silly. He should just start leaving at least one change of clothes here. But I had jammies for him at least and he could be warm in those. He went to take a shower and we went to lay down after that. Watch some videos. He fell asleep for a couple minutes. But as soon as the videos stop playing I was out. I slept for maybe an hour and a half. I feel bad that he didn't get a nap at all especially because he was going to work at the theater tonight. But he doesn't nap as easy as I do.

We got out a bed before 1 and went to the work on our pumpkins. I do not have very many knives. Which was a problem. And my little tiny pumpkins just would not carve. They were too hard for the knives to go through that I do have. So James carved his pumpkin and I helped him get the guts out. While I painted mine. I still think I'm going to go back and paint like a little bats or something on top of the colors I did. But I think they look very pretty.

After that we went in the kitchen and I made some stewed apples. He had taken the skin off for me. And I boiled them in apple cider. And then we used Grands rolls to make this kind of apple roll butter thing. It didn't come out as good as I was hoping but I still like it. I'm going to eat the rest of it over the week. I think next time I would rather use like a crescent roll or something lighter like drop biscuit rolls or something.

We hang out for a little bit longer. We're both on our phones and on the couch. It was just nice being together. But soon enough he had to go home and get ready for his shift. So he left after helping me bring up a keter from the basement. I briefly fell down the stairs. I was okay mostly just scared myself.

Soon after he left I got dressed enough to go outside. I wanted to get us hats that we can wear at constellation and on the steel side sites. Because they want us to wear either a dark blue or a black hat. I went down to the harbor and went to the Forever 21 because I know they have cheap ass there. I got a very cute hat that has little kitty ears and I got him just a thick knitted one. Mostly the kitty or one is probably not going to be appropriate. But I really really like it so I wanted it and I got it. It makes me happy. It was good to bike for a little bit. But I headed home pretty quickly after that.

I got to work some stuff for my first day tomorrow.I'm having the kids make portfolios to keep their art in. So because I don't think that there's much cardboard I can use at the school I took apart a bunch of boxes I have here. I only have enough to make 11 right now. And I'm going to have 20 students. Which is better than the 25 I thought I was going to have. So that's a silver lining. But I'm happy with the progress that I made and I even made a bunch of circles for buttons to close the portfolios. So tomorrow I just have to find some more cardboard basically. And James said he would look while he was at the theater tonight. That actually took me a really long time to cut them all out though. Over an hour. But that was also some of the figuring it out and once I had the size down it was really just sitting in cutting. But some of them I had to kind of Frankenstein together with tape and small pieces.

I'm excited to start teaching. Like I know I've already met some of the kids but I'm really excited to get to know all of them and learn their names cuz right now I don't know them all. And I know there's going to be some drama with a couple of the girls that apparently don't get along. But I think in general it's going to be really good. I really hope that they are on board and it goes well. I know having to change teachers can suck and I hope that they can feel positive about me and Fitsum.

I spent some time down there and just kind of working on stuff. I I had forgotten that you cannot have both of the space heaters on at the same time. Because I was downstairs and all of a sudden all the power went off. And had to go into the laundry room and find my breaker box. But at least I know that the small heater works well in my studio and the radiator type heater works well in the living room. They're both really took the chill out of the room and made it much more comfortable to be working. I hope going forward that between all of my curtains and everything I'm not uncomfortable like I was last year. I do have to figure out a window covering system. I don't want to do those plastic sheets again. I'm thinking a shower curtain would work better and still let light in while being thicker than the Saran Wrap I essentially used last year. We'll see. I'm going to go to the Dollar General sometime this week.

At like 7 I biked over to CVS to look for new Tupperware containers for lunches. Didn't have any luck there. So I went over to the Rite Aid. I had better luck but not exactly what I wanted. I got two containers. But I'm happy with them. I still think I'm going to go back to the CVS in the harbor and get the round ones that I saw that were a good price the other day. Something I really need to get as a new bike light. James says he's going to give me his back one but I don't think it works very well. But it feels very weird being out when it's dark out even though it was only 7 and I really just want to feel safe while I'm biking if I'm going to go out at all. For now I just stayed on the sidewalk.

I took a shower and got changed. I repacked my overnight bag have more stuff that I needed and was missing. I made outfits for the week. And fix my panda bag that I ripped the strap off by accident. And now I'm just laying in bed. James is supposed to come back tonight but I really think it's going to do depending on when the show gets out. Though I always like when he's here. I hope you guys all have a good night. Wish me luck tomorrow. I think it's going to go really well but it's the first time with some of these kids at all and that can be scary for everyone. Sleep well.

[charles747]

I am truly livid that the retail chain I work for, decided to have this big meeting, telling us this wonderful news that will change our lives, for it to be that the company is now employee owned, which is essentially a retirement plan, which I will not go into the details of here, but once you reach sixty-five, you get a potentially large sum of money. Which is great, for anybody who wants to waste their lives away destroying their backs, knees, and sanity of having to work retail for a well to do community, but right now? Jack shit. You don't actually own anything, no decision making power is in your hands, it's still your same bosses, still the same dirt cheap pay, same schedule, same everything. But they go on about how this will change the way you view the store, it will make you want to work, plan for the future. They backfilled the accounts that we will eventually take some share of with millions of dollars. Meanwhile, everybody we hire is either in or just out of highschool, and couldn't give less of a fuck about it, especially since you aren't elligable to start until you are at least 21 to begin the two year wait to be 20% vested. I'm 26 and couldn't give a fuck! If they had the millions laying around to backfill this, they had the millions to give everybody in that room, at least down to the assistant managers like me, a $5 raise. But instead they opted for this ridiculous carrot on a stick, to try and hold onto people without giving them anything. We can't get anybody to stay longer than a few months, and I don't blame any of these people for passing on a shit job for shit hours for minimum wage with nothing to make it stand out from any other job, that will pay the same amount to start with. I've been there for over five years, goddamn just give me something n o w that will pay off for me n o w. I need more money to get out of this house n o w, to live my life b e f o r e I'm fucking 65. Do anything that does not make me feel replacable. Fuck they must be disgusted with the idea of paying anybody who isn't a department manager something they could truly live on. Staying there has had it's benefits, in vacation time, healthcare (that I've never used, so I don't know the quality) and raises. But it's just not enough, and I don't think it ever will be. I am not in a tough position, I live with my parents and have had the opportunity to save a lot of money for when I need it someday for years, but I can't do this forever. I feel like a burden.

Sincerely, an asshole who needs to get off his ass and find something else~

[vivalamusaine]

I've always had this headcanon where Maruis and Cosette are each other's first love, and it's as sickening cute as it is in the book and everyone thinks they'll be together forever. Then they both realize they're bi and not actually in love anymore (two separate discoveries). They break up, stay BFFs and fall in love with other people. (namely Courf and Ep)

Hey, this speaks to me on a veeeery personal level, friend. This post will be long and have feelings and stuff.

June.

Cosette had been thinking about things for months. Unpleasant things, things that made her mood change and her mouth curve downwards in an uncharacteristic mope.

She could deny and try to pretend for as long as she wanted. But when it really came down to the quiet moments like these, she knew in her heart that her relationship with Marius had run its course. They felt much more like friends than lovers, more like roommates than cohabiting partners.

The worst thing about it was that everybody perceived them as perfect. She’d lost count at the amount of times somebody had aww’d in their general direction, described them as goals or told them they were perfect for each other.

But they weren’t, and it hurt- but Cosette was sick of pretending. She was also sick of fantasising about dates with other, pretend people. 

It was an awful call of judgement, to make such a sudden decision to break things off over a petty squabble over dinner. But it wasn’t the little thing that broke her, it was the collection of little things that became a mountain of one big unspoken thing. She was unhappy, and they had stopped bringing out the best in each other a long time ago.

There was crying and frustrated arguments and desperate attempts for each of the other to understand what they were saying, but by 9:00PM that night, they were done.

Marius & Cosette the perfect couple were no more.

Marius and Cosette the individuals were just beginning. 

When Marius came to Courfeyrac’s door, eyes red and slightly swollen, an overnight bag clutched tightly in his arms and a broken look upon his face, Courfeyrac didn’t need to ask him what had happened. Instead, like any good friend, he offered him a place on his couch and a kind ear to ramble to.

“I’m never going to find anybody else as perfect as her.” He said in between sobs. Courfeyrac’s heart broke for him, and he lent a comforting touch to Marius’ shoulder.

“Marius,” Courfeyrac said with his patented ‘everything will be okay’ smile. “You’re perfect, you have nothing to worry about. You’ll find your perfect match.”

As Marius moved onto another insecurity, Courfeyrac’s smile faded only slightly.

He thought sadly how unfortunate it was, that Marius would never know those words were not of empty comfort from a friend who just wanted to make their other friend happy. Instead they were words spoken genuinely, from a man who’d been hiding an unrequited crush for his dear friend.

July.

The last month had been incredibly difficult for Cosette. People always expected the person who initiated the break up to be more okay than the breakee, but for Cosette it was as though she’d lost a large part of herself.

It had taken almost all of her energy and self restraint to not reach out to Marius and break their mutual agreement of no contact. It was hard to adjust to the change. She had invested almost every day for the past 5 years into him, into them. To suddenly not have Marius to talk to was the biggest challenge of them all. Sometimes she just wanted to reach out to him, and tell him about the silly dog she’d seen on the street. Only to pause and remember, she had no right to do that anymore. 

White noise was all that was left, and all she was owed.

It had been a month now, and it wasn’t as hard anymore. There were nights where it would get lonely, but ultimately she didn’t regret her decision, and she found herself quite enjoying her time alone. 

She had finally decided it was time to come out of her homebody cocoon she’d built for herself by taking a trip to the nearest thrift shop for more knitting supplies. She was absentmindedly wasting time rifling through old vinyl records when her attention was caught.

“Eponine?” She said before thinking, and Eponine turned around to face, clearly she had not intended to see anybody she knew here.

“Oh, hey.” she replied, walking over to her.

“I haven’t seen you around in ages.” Cosette said, filling in the awkward silence. “You stopped going to meetings.”

Eponine rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish look. “Yeah, I um. I was busy. It was never on when I could go.”

The truth of the matter was that it was getting far too painful for Eponine to keep coming back and seeing Marius and Cosette so perfectly in love. She admittingly didn’t know why it had bothered her so much- she’d gotten over her crush on Marius a long time ago. But for some reason seeing them both together brought out something incredibly ugly in her. An untameable monster of petty envy and jealousy.

Cosette nodded. “I actually haven’t been lately either.” she admitted. It had been precisely a month since she’d last attended. She shot Eponine a grin. “Poor Musichetta must be sick of being stuck to deal with all those boys alone.”

Eponine laughed at this, a sound Cosette was fond to hear more of. She found herself grinning from ear to ear- the first time another person had made her genuinely smile in a month. 

“So, how’s Marius?” Eponine asked politely, and Cosette felt herself outwardly flinch. This was the conversation she had been dreading to have. A conversation that would possibly follow her for months on end, considering the amount of people they’d woved their lives into over the course of their relationship.

“We’ve actually broken up.” Cosette said looking down at the old unamed vinyl in her hands. The uneasiness in her stomach swelling slightly.

“Oh,” Eponine said sounding genuinely shocked. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Cosette said, forcing herself to look at Eponine’s eyes- her wonderfully gorgeous eyes- and smile despite the overpowering feeling of wanting to flee and hide in her bedroom for another month. “It’s for the better.”

They continued to talk, even after making their small amount of purchases and leaving the thrift shop, when they rounded the corner of the street where they needed to go their separate ways, neither of them seemed enthused to be leaving the others presence.

“You know,” Eponine said, a little uncertainly. “Enjolras still sends me those meeting invites like clockwork. There’s one on tonight if you wanted to go.”

Cosette thought about seeing Marius again, in a room with their mutual friends. She couldn’t do it. Not yet anyway.

Eponine seemed to know the answer before Cosette had a chance to think of an excuse. “Or if you’d prefer, I’ve got a cheap bottle of wine and a boxset of trashy TV at my apartment.”

Cosette smiled at Eponine. “I’d like that a lot.” She replied. 

August.

Marius hated moving. With the exception of the time he moved in with Cosette, every time he had moved his life had been a personal tragedy. He had been crashing on Courfeyrac’s couch for a month now, and regrettably it was time he moved on.

Especially because he felt that he had crossed an unspoken boundary, and cursed his hopeless romantic heart, for making him fall so quickly and so easily in love.

“You’re going?” Courfeyrac asked when he broke the news. “But why?”

“I just... Think it’s time I stop bothering you.”

“You’re not bothering me!” Courfeyrac said letting out a sort of desperate sounding laugh. “I told you that you can stay as long as you want and I meant it.”

“It’s not-” Marius sighed, he didn’t want to explain it to Courfeyrac whilst he was still under his roof. 

“Did I do something?” Courfeyrac asked uncertainly. Marius looked at him sadly. Took in his overgrown and luscious hair, the cute freckles clustered at the end of his nose and the pout that was threatening to form on his face.

“You haven’t done anything.” Marius replied dejectedly. “I just- I think I have feelings for you and I don’t want to make things weird by staying here. I need our friendship too much for that.”

When Marius finally found the courage to look up at his soon to be ex-roommate.

“Wait- so you’re not straight?” Courfeyrac asked.

“I- I don’t think so? I like you, so-”

“You’re not straight and you like me?!” Courfeyrac asked, his voice becoming high pitched.

“Yes?” 

Courfeyrac was laughing in relief as Marius frowned at him. This was a conversation he would rather be having when he’d secured another place to stay and wouldn’t have to be subjected to an awkward night in his company.

“Marius?” Courfeyrac said after a while. “You’re more than welcome to stay here with me, as long as you are comfortable with the fact, that I have feelings for you too.”

“Then why were you laughing?” Marius asked with relief.

“Because Bossuet owes me 20 euros.”

September.

It was a rare day of warmth and sunniness- Courfeyrac’s favourite weather, and a well needed break from the pre-Autumn chill. Marius couldn’t help the smile he found upon his face as the took what was supposed to be a leisurely stroll through the park. Nothing was ever leisurely with Courfeyrac though, he was getting excited at every little thing and taking Marius by the hand and dragging him over to join him in excitement.

Marius couldn’t even pretend to be annoyed by this. This last month had been the happiest he had been in a long time. He had never felt more like himself in Courfeyrac’s company.

“Marius!” A voice called out to him, he turned to see for the first time since their breakup, Cosette, waving to him from a picnic blanket. Eponine was sat comfortably beside her in sunglasses and shorts.

He approached her whilst Courfeyrac busied himself at the ice cream stand, and was surprised and oddly glad to find that it didn’t hurt to see her happy, and from the way she was leaning against Eponine, with somebody else.

“Hi.” He said, and as awkward and uncomfortable as it was, it was also liberating.

“Hi.” She said back. Eponine muttered an excuse about ice cream, and left to join Courfeyrac on the other end of the park.

The small talk that followed was short and to the point. By the time Courfeyrac and Eponine had made their way back over, Marius and Cosette were laughing with each other.

When it was time for Marius and Courfeyrac to depart, Cosette gave Marius a tight hug.

“I’m glad you’re happy.” Marius said to her, and meant it.

“Me too.” Cosette said with a grin. “Friends?”

Marius smiled back at her. “Friends.”

[scripthistory]

Hello! I'm not sure how much you know about the 1848-50 California gold rush, but as a native Californian, I've always been fascinated by the topic. My question is multifaceted. For one: how big would miners plots of land along the various rivers be, and would people actually live on the same plots that they mined for gold? Also, what would it be like for a young woman and/or young men and children in an area like this?

Hello there! Well, aren’t you in luck because we have the Archivist from @scriptlibrarian answering this one! The Archivist has also studied history and has got your back so just read on!

There is gold in them darn hills!

Quick history of the California Gold Rush.  In 1848, John Marshal found flecks of gold in the American River, just below the Sierra Nevadas, in Coloma California, while building a water powered sawmill for John Sutter.

Just days after he discovered the gold, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican-American War, giving California to the United States and essentially the gold.

The discovery of Gold shaped California into the state is today.  California saw the largest migration influx in the history of the United States.  In 1848 there was roughly 157,000 people in California (150,000 Natives, 6,500 Spanish/Mexican, 700 American/Non-Native).  Within 20 months the Non-Native Population soared to 100,000 and by the mid 1850’s was past 300,000.  This massive population influx put California on fast track to Statehood, and with the Compromise of 1850 California was allowed into the Union, just two years after the land was acquired, as a Free State - leading a imbalance in Free vs Slave States.  

So now that we got background history established let’s look at your questions.

How big would miner’s plots of land along the various rivers be…

I admit, I dug around for this information and beyond going into deep dark storage and digging out (pun intended) my books from school … the best answer I could find is - depends.

Yeah I hate that also.

A miner would first have to  Staking a Claim, which involves first the discovery of a valuable mineral in quantities that a “prudent man” would invest time and expenses to recover them. Then mark the claim boundaries, with wooden posts, capped steel posts, both of which must be four feet tall, or stone cairns, which must be three feet tall. Then filing a claim with the land management agency (USFS or BLM), and the local county registrar.   

There are four types of Land Claims, a miner could make:

Placer (minerals free of the local bedrock, and deposited in benches or streams) - This would be your typical visual of Gold Miners.  Bent over a stream with a pan, looking for flexs or small nuggets of gold. 

Lode (minerals in place in the mother rock) - next stage up.  The Miner has a section off shoot of the river, and is breaking up the rocks looking for veins of gold.

Tunnel (a location for a proposed tunnel which claims all veins discovered during the driving of it) - This would be someone with enough capital to start mining operation looking for gold, and could hire workers.

Millsite (a maximum five acre site for processing ore) - This is a full on organization, that is mining not just gold, but other minerals as well.  Has a team of miners, and likely a full town surrounding it to supplement the miners.

So if your character would need to find the gold, stake out his claim, then register it.  Depending on how much gold found, expense to work the land, and fees for the register - would determine the size of his land claim.

Would your character live in the same spot as they mine?

Yes, they would have a camp with a tent and supplies near by, so they could work their claim dawn to dusk.  They did this for a variety of reasons:

Ease of access to the claim.  The last thing anyone wanted to do was hike in and out of the area, wasting precious time traveling when they could be mining.

Protecting their assets.  If they are away from their claim, someone could sneak in and mine the area, or re stake the claim stating it was abandoned.

Also, what would it be like for a young woman and/or young men and children in an area like this?

The Gold Rush was not really a place for children. It was a brutal work, and a very lonely existence.  Many men left their families behind in hopes of making it rich to bring back the gold to them.   

That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t women in the camps.  

At one point there was a call out to women to go to California, because there was a fear men would do ‘untold’ things without the calm and stable influence of a woman (not many headed the call).

There were wives that worked the claims with their husbands, and likely even a few who took over the claim after he died.  Though this was dangerous as she would be on her own, and had very little rights to the land.  

Most of the women seen in or around the camps were washers, cooks, those seeking out a living for their family.  These women came with their husbands, fathers, brothers and ended up making the money for the family to survive, while the men panned for gold.

By the 1850’s there were roughly 1000 women working in and around the mines, but they were still a small part of the population, and  by the 1860’s they were less than 19% of the population of California.

A good resource to look into the role women played in the Gold Rush would be They Saw the Elephant: Woman in the Gold Rush by JoAnn Levy.

Now as for young men, it would depend on what you mean by young men?  

There were many teenage boys out in the fields, either they came with their father or ran away from home. The Gold Rush was an opportunity to make it rich fast, and men from all walks of life, old and young found their way to California.

Children were less likely in the mines or panning for gold.  If the whole family was in the gold fields, the younger kids would be with mom, helping with cooking, washing, etc.  Older boys maybe 12ish would be with dad.  There are not many accounts, but it didn’t mean they weren’t there.  

William Tecumseh Sherman - the future Civil War General, worked in San Francisco during the Gold Rush as a banker, and had his two young sons with him during the time, while his wife and daughter stayed back East.  Now this was in the city and not the gold fields.  Women, kids and families were very common in San Francisco.

In contrast Ulysses S. Grant was in the Army at the time, stationed in the gold fields and had left his family behind.  This also led to him being discharged from the Army, because of his drinking problem, as he had never done well being away from his wife, Julia.

Irony both men would come together a decade later, a friendship that some say changed the world.  But that is another essay.

Some interesting facts about the Gold Rush that could be helpful.

The Gold Rush attracted immigrants from around the world, by 1850 more than 25 percent of California’s population had been born outside the United States. As the amount of available gold began to dwindle, miners increasingly fought one another for profits and anti-immigrant tensions soared. In 1850 California’s legislature passed a Foreign Miner’s tax, which levied a monthly fee of $20 on non-citizens, the equivalent of more than $500 in today’s money. That bill was eventually repealed, but was replaced with another in 1852 that expressly singled out Chinese miners, charging them $2 ($80 today) a month. Violence against foreign miners increased as well, and beatings, rapes and even murders became commonplace. However no ethnic group suffered more than California’s Native Americans. Before the Gold Rush, its native population numbered roughly 300,000. Within 20 years, more than 100,000 would be dead. Most died from disease or mining-related accidents, but more than 4,000 were murdered by enraged miners.

Early sections of San Francisco were built out of ships abandoned by prospectors. The Gold Rush conjures up images of thousands of “’49ers” heading west in wagons to strike it rich in California, but many of the first prospectors actually arrived by ship. Within months, San Francisco’s port was teeming with boats that had been abandoned after their passengers, and crew headed inland to hunt for gold. As the formerly tiny town began to boom, demand for lumber increased dramatically, and the ships were dismantled and sold as construction material. Hundreds of houses, banks, saloons, hotels, jails and other structures were built out of the abandoned ships, while others were used as landfill. Today, more than 150 years after the Gold Rush began, archeologists and preservations continue to find relics, sometimes even entire ships, beneath the streets of the City by the Bay.  Map of where ships can be found in San Francisco

Mining wasn’t cheap! Most of the men who flocked to northern California arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs. Once there, they needed to buy food and supplies, which San Francisco’s merchants were all too willing to provide for a cost. Stuck in a remote region, far from home, many prospectors coughed up most of their hard-earned money for the most basic supplies. At the height of the boom in 1849, prospectors could expect prices sure to cause sticker shock: A single egg could cost the equivalent of $25 in today’s money, coffee went for more than $100 per pound and replacing a pair of worn out boots could set you back more than $2,500.

The merchant’s made the money not the miners.  As the boom continued, more and more men got out of the gold-hunting business and began to open businesses catering to newly arrived prospectors. In fact, some of America’s greatest industrialists got their start in the Gold Rush. Philip Armour, who would later found a meatpacking empire in Chicago, made a fortune operating the sluices that controlled the flow of water into the rivers being mined. Before John Studebaker built one of America’s great automobile fortunes, he manufactured wheelbarrows for Gold Rush miners. And two entrepreneurial bankers named Henry Wells and William Fargo moved west to open an office in San Francisco, an enterprise that soon grew to become one of America’s premier banking institutions. One of the biggest mercantile success stories was that of Levi Strauss. A German-born tailor, Strauss arrived in San Francisco in 1850 with plans to open a store selling canvas tarps and wagon coverings to the miners. After hearing that sturdy work pants, ones that could withstand the punishing 16-hour days regularly put in by miners, were more in demand, he shifted gears, opening a store in downtown San Francisco that would eventually become a manufacturing empire, producing Levi’s denim jeans.

And to prove how fate is fickle - the man who’s name will always be associated with the California Gold Rush - John Sutter - died in poverty.  As news had spread about the discovery of gold on his property, within months, most of his workers had abandoned him to search for gold themselves, while thousands of other prospectors overran and destroyed much of his land and equipment. Faced with mounting debts, Sutter was forced to deed his land to one of his sons, who used it to create a new settlement called Sacramento. Sutter Sr. was furious—he had hoped the town would be named after him—but he had more pressing concerns. Nearly bankrupt, he began a decades-long campaign to have the U.S. government reimburse him for his financial losses, to no avail. While thousands became rich off his former land, a bitter Sutter retired to Pennsylvania and died.

I hope this information is helpful, and will give you some insight of the world during the California Gold Rush.

Some great sources to check out:

Women in the Gold Rush

Summary of Gold Mining Techniques

Articles on the Gold Rush

History Channel’s Gold Rush