#Last post from 2018! Now to start queueing up 2019!

[drfrogphd]

Dva - Published: Dec 29, 2018

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Drug companies defend vaccine monopolies in face of global outcry (Washington Post) Abdul Muktadir, the chief executive of Bangladeshi pharmaceutical maker Incepta, has emailed executives of Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax offering his company’s help. He said he has enough capacity to fill vials for 600 million to 800 million doses of coronavirus vaccine a year to distribute throughout Asia. He never heard back from any of them. The lack of interest has left Muktadir worried about prolonged coronavirus exposure for millions of citizens of Bangladesh and other low-income nations throughout Asia and Africa who are at the back of the global queue for shots. Drug companies have rebuffed entreaties to face the emergency by sharing their proprietary technology more freely with companies in developing nations. The companies are lobbying the Biden administration and other members of the World Trade Organization against any erosion of their monopolies on individual coronavirus vaccines that are worth billions of dollars in annual sales. The fights over vaccine supply are not just over a moral duty of Western nations to prevent deaths and illness overseas. Lack of supply and lopsided distribution threaten to leave entire continents open as breeding grounds for coronavirus mutations. Those variants, if they prove resistant to vaccines, could spread anywhere in the world, including in Western countries that have been vaccinated first.

Colorado marks latest mass tragedy after 10 killed (AP) A shooting at a crowded Colorado supermarket that killed 10 people, including the first police officer to arrive, sent terrorized shoppers and workers scrambling for safety and stunned a state that has grieved several mass killings. A lone suspect was in custody, authorities said. The attack in Boulder, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Denver and home to the University of Colorado, stunned a state that has seen several mass shootings, including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting. Monday’s midafternoon attack was the seventh mass killing this year in the U.S., following the March 16 shooting that left eight people dead at three Atlanta-area massage businesses, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

COVID-19 strikes Brazil’s Congress as third senator dies (Reuters) A third senator has died of COVID-19 in Brazil, raising questions around precautions taken in the country’s Congress where as many as one-in-three lawmakers has been infected with the virus devastating Latin America’s largest nation. Senator Major Olimpio, a former policeman who backed and later fell out with far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, was declared brain dead on Thursday by doctors at a Sao Paulo hospital where he had been in intensive care for three weeks. Brazil has become the epicenter of the pandemic, with by far the highest current daily death toll anywhere in the world. “People are very scared, and they are afraid to go to work,” said Silvio Ribas, a press secretary for Senator Lasier Martins, a 78-year-old politician who was released from hospital on Thursday after two weeks fighting COVID-19. At least 145 of the 513 members of the lower house have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past 12 months, along with 31 of 81 senators, according to a survey by news portal Poder360.

Spain hopes number of foreign tourists will rebound to half pre-pandemic level this year (AP) Spain hopes the number of foreign tourists visiting its sun-kissed islands and picturesque villages can rebound this year to half pre-pandemic levels, Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said on Monday. “Maybe the ideal goal is ... to get half of the tourists we had in 2019. This, for the industry, would be an achievement,” she said in an event held by Europa Press news agency. In 2019, Spain had the world’s second highest number of foreign visitors at more than 80 million. This plummeted by more than 80% to 19 million tourists in 2020, the lowest level since 1969, as a result of the travel restrictions imposed to curb the pandemic. Tourism accounted for around 12% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 and one job in eight.

Court orders French celebrity magazine to pay homeless man €40,000 (Le Parisien/France) Since its founding in 1949, the iconic French weekly Paris Match has published countless photos of the rich and powerful—and every now and then, a paparazzi shot might cost them. Last week, instead, the magazine was ordered to pay serious money to a homeless man for running a photograph of him without his permission. A court in Nanterre, west of Paris, ordered Paris Match to pay 40,000 euros to the man for running his picture. “Everyone, no matter their degree of celebrity, their wealth, their present or future occupation, has a right to privacy and enjoys exclusive right over their image which allows them to oppose its use […] without prior authorization,” the court wrote in its decision. The photo, published without the man’s consent in January 2018, showed the unnamed 48-year-old smoking crack cocaine on a metro platform in the French capital’s 18th arrondissement. Unlike other people in the photograph, his face was unblurred, the daily Le Parisien reports. Alerted by friends who recognized him in the Paris Match article, the homeless man sued the magazine: In May 2019, the magazine was ordered to pay him 10,000 euros in damages, but failed to remove the photograph from its website and app, resulting in an additional 30,000-euro fine last week. Le Parisien quoted the man as saying that he used some of the money to “help out friends” and that he now may be able “to get [his] wife and children back.”

Merkel Seeks Four-Week Lockdown Extension in German Setback (Bloomberg) Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed keeping German lockdown restrictions in force for another four weeks after Covid-19 cases rose beyond a level that may prompt government action to avoid health-care overload. The plan would extend and slightly tighten existing curbs through April 18, according to a chancellery draft seen by Bloomberg. Merkel and regional government leaders will discuss the proposals on Monday during talks on how to proceed with the lockdown amid an upward curve of infections in Europe’s biggest economy.

Russia’s top diplomat starts China visit with call to reduce U.S. dollar use (Reuters) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov began a visit to China on Monday with a call for Moscow and Beijing to reduce their dependence on the U.S. dollar and Western payment systems to push back against what he called the West’s ideological agenda. Lavrov, on a two-day visit to China, is expected to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart at a time when both countries’ ties with the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden are badly strained. U.S. and Chinese officials on Friday concluded what Washington called “tough and direct” talks in Alaska, while Russia’s ambassador arrived back in Moscow on Sunday for consultations after Biden said he believed President Vladimir Putin was a killer. Russia is also braced for a new round of U.S. sanctions over what Washington says was its meddling in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, which Moscow denies. Speaking to Chinese media before the start of his visit, Lavrov said Moscow and Beijing were compelled to develop independently of Washington in order to thwart what he said were U.S. attempts to curb their technological development. “We need to reduce sanctions risks by bolstering our technological independence, by switching to payments in our national currencies and global currencies that serve as an alternative to the dollar,” Lavrov said, according to a transcript of his interview released on Monday. “We need to move away from using international payment systems controlled by the West.”

Turkey’s turmoil (Foreign Policy) U.S. President Joe Biden joined with Europe to condemn Turkey over its decision to annul its ratification of an international treaty on preventing violence against women. Turkey’s exit from the treaty, known as the Istanbul Convention, brought thousands to Turkey’s streets in protest of the move. Turkey was one of the initial signatories and the first nation to ratify the convention. In a White House statement, Biden called the action “deeply dissappointing” and a “disheartening step backward.” The Turkish presidency released a statement on Sunday saying the convention had been “hijacked by a group of people attempting to normalize homosexuality.” Turkey’s currency was also rocked on Saturday after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fired central bank governor Naci Agbal. The Turkish lira fell 15 percent against the U.S. dollar after the news broke.

In Myanmar’s hinterland, army uproots ethnic Karen villagers (AP) In the jungles of southeast Myanmar, the army was shooting and otherwise oppressing civilians long before last month’s military coup. This largely unseen repression continues even now. In the country’s remote southeast, an army offensive has driven as many as 8,000 ethnic Karen people to flee their homes in what aid groups say is the worst upheaval there for nearly 10 years. They’re now living in the jungle, with fears growing for their health and security, and no prospect of an early return. This crisis in the borderlands has been overshadowed by the deadly crackdown on the mass movement protesting the military’s takeover of power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. But it also is a reminder of the brutal force Myanmar’s army has long used against civilians, and in particular the country’s ethnic minorities.

Think Covid’s Messed Up Your Travel Plans? Try Getting Into China. (NYT) Leave your partner and children behind. Quarantine for up to a month. Get inoculated with a Covid-19 vaccine from China, if you can find one. And prepare yourself for an anal swab. For the past year, people trying to go to China have run into some of the world’s most formidable barriers to entry. To stop the coronavirus, China bans tourists and short-term business travelers outright, and it sets tough standards for all other foreigners, even those who have lived there for years. The restrictions have hampered the operations of many companies, separated families and upended the lives of thousands of international students. Global companies say their ranks of foreign workers in the country have dwindled sharply. At a time of strained tensions with the United States and other countries, China is keeping itself safe from the pandemic. At the same time, it risks further isolating its economy, the world’s second-largest, at a moment when its major trade partners are emerging from their own self-imposed slumps. Other countries have their own travel restrictions, though few are as tight.

Dozens of towns isolated by flooding in Australian state (AP) Hundreds of people have been rescued from floodwaters that have isolated dozens of towns in Australia’s most populous state New South Wales and forced thousands to evacuate their homes as record rain continues to inundate the country’s east coast. Around 18,000 people had been evacuated from flooding in New South Wales by Monday and emergency services feared up to 54,000 people could be displaced with rain forecast to continue until Wednesday. A year ago, vast swathes of New South Wales had been charred by unprecedented wildfires following years of drought that gripped most of the state. Some of the same areas were now being by inundated by one-in-50-year and one-in-100-year rain events. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said up to 38 parts of the state had been declared natural disaster areas. “I don’t know any time in our state’s history where we have had these extreme weather conditions in such quick succession in the middle of a pandemic,” Berejiklian told reporters. “So, they are challenging times for New South Wales.”

Israel revokes permit of Palestinian foreign minister (Washington Post) Israel on Sunday revoked the VIP permit of the Palestinian foreign minister after he returned to the West Bank from a trip to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Israeli and Palestinian officials confirmed. The move appeared to be Israeli retaliation for Palestinian support for the ICC’s war crimes investigation against Israel. A Palestinian official said Foreign Minister Riad Malki was stopped Sunday as he entered the West Bank from Jordan through the Israeli-controlled crossing. Malki’s VIP card was seized, the official said. Losing the VIP status makes it harder for him to move through Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank, and traveling abroad will require Israeli permission. The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, announced earlier this month that she was opening an investigation into possible war crimes by Israel committed in the occupied West Bank and blockaded Gaza Strip.

Small, cheap spy satellites mean there’s no hiding place (Economist) In the middle of last year, Ecuadorians watched with concern as 340 foreign boats, most of them Chinese, fished just outside the Exclusive Economic Zone (eez) around their country’s westernmost province, the Galapagos Islands. The law of the sea requires such vessels to carry gps-based automatic identification systems (ais) that broadcast where they are, and to keep those systems switched on. Some boats, however, failed to comply. This regular radio silence stoked fears that the boats concerned were sneaking into Ecuador’s waters to plunder its fish. Both local officials and China’s ambassador to Ecuador denied this, and said all the boats were sticking to the rules. In October, however, HawkEye 360, a satellite operator based in Virginia, announced it had detected vessels inside Ecuador’s eez on 14 occasions when the boats in question were not transmitting ais. HawkEye’s satellites could pinpoint these renegades by listening for faint signals emanating from their navigation radars and radio communications. HawkEye’s satellites are so-called smallsats, about the size of a large microwave oven. They are therefore cheap to build and launch. HawkEye deployed its first cluster, of three of them, in 2018. They are now in an orbit that takes them over both of Earth’s poles. This means that, as the planet revolves beneath them, every point on its surface can be monitored at regular intervals. Quilty Analytics, a research firm in Florida, expects the number of radio-frequency (rf) intelligence satellites of this sort in orbit to multiply from a dozen at the beginning of January to more than 60 by the end of next year.

Whoopsie, container overboard (Wired) Since November, at least 2,980 containers have fallen off cargo ships in the Pacific Ocean, in at least six incidents that have outfitted Davy Jones’ Locker with stocks of vacuum cleaners, frozen shrimp, some Kate Spade swag and more. Rising imports and bad weather have led to the above-typical cargo losses, as the 2,980 lost in the past few months is over twice the annual amount lost from 2008 to 2019. Bad weather is the main cause: the Essen attributed its 750 lost containers to “heavy seas,” the Eindhoven lost 260 containers after a blackout in the middle of a storm, and the Apus lost over 1,800 containers in gale force winds and large swells, one of the worst losses ever.

[tjkiahgb]

On August 13th, 2018, at 8:20 PM, TJ Kippen performed a basketball-themed apology rap for Buffy Driscoll and completed his redemption arc. In doing so, he became a full and complete hashtag good boi and fulfilled this blog’s ridiculous destiny.

This post is scheduled to go up on August 13th, 2019, at 8:20 PM. It only feels right that I retire this blog on the one year anniversary of that moment.

Okay. It’s not that dramatic. I’m not deleting my account or logging out forever or anything. I’ll be around. I’ll check in and like some posts and hang out like the kid who graduated high school but won’t leave. He keeps coming back and acting chummy with the teachers and it’s like, doesn’t he have better stuff to do?

The point is, my queue is depleted, my drafts are empty. I don’t have a shift in fandoms planned. I don’t have anything planned. It’s time for me to turn my attention to other things and stop thinking about this show and writing about it and working on this blog.

So that’s basically the tl;dr of this whole deal. I’m going to write some rambling personal stuff so if you don’t care, which most people probably won’t, then thanks for reading and thanks for all the memories. It’s been fun.

Okay, lemme ramble. And if you’ve read this blog for a while, you’ve probably heard some of this already, but whatever, this is my goodbye post.

Way back in October of 2017, I came across a post on a website for TV news that said “Disney Channel to Feature Its First Gay Main Character in Andi Mack Season 2″. I didn’t know what Andi Mack was, and I hadn’t watched Disney Channel in well over a decade. I remembered reading about the two moms on Good Luck Charlie when it happened, but I also remembered that it was, you know, mostly nothing. A lot of controversy for what was just a quick little thing. But this headline noted that it was a Main Character. And I’m reading the article and it’s talking about how he’s going to have this journey in season two and the producers had talked to GLAAD and other groups to get it right, and I’m like, wow, this is pretty cool, this really seems like they’re putting some respect into this. (I’m also thinking about how much young, closeted me would’ve killed for something like this.)

So I set my DVR to record it not knowing what to expect. Mostly thinking it was just going to be your standard Disney Channel show: cheesy and corny and bad jokes, but I’ll catch the coming out scene and it’ll be cool to see how they handle it and that’ll probably be that.

And then I’m watching the episode and I’m like, this is... not bad? In fact, more than not bad, this is way better than it has any right to be. And then I got to the coming out scene, which was so well done, and I’m just... shocked. This is like Pixar. Like, it’s for kids, but I can watch it as an adult and pick up on themes and subtleties. This is not like the shows from my childhood. Where was this show when I was growing up?

Next thing I know I’m watching the next episode. And the next one. And I’m starting to care for these characters. I can forgive a lot of issues with plot if I care about the characters and what this show did, maybe as well as any show on television, is made you care for the characters, from top to bottom.

So now I’m watching the show regularly. At some point, I went back and binged through season one on DisneyNow. I’m in, as a casual viewer at this point at least.

And then I get to 2.11, and the swing scene happens, and I watch it wordlessly, and it ends, and I feel like I’m losing my mind. I could not believe what I just saw. I thought for sure this show was just going to have a couple of coming out scenes and that would be the end of it. Had I really just watched a scene that was hinting at a gay romance?

I wanted so badly to talk about it with someone else to see if they were seeing what I was seeing, but, as you may not be surprised to learn, none of my adult friends were watching Andi Mack. So I started looking around online. And I eventually found my way here, to this site, to the tag. And people were seeing what I was seeing. And people were excited about it, and I was like, okay, cool, I might’ve found my community.

So I started lurking around here. And I would check in after 2.12 and 2.13, and I was really starting to enjoy it. Most of the stuff I watch that I care about I’ll watch with friends or family and talk about it with them, so I never really thought being a part of a fandom would be worthwhile. Plus, I’d hear about shipping wars and other nonsense like that, and I’m like, I’m not going to make an account to argue with people over fictional characters’ relationships.

But what I was finding about this community was that it was more positive than that. There were arguments, sure. You’re going to get them in any group of people. But for the most part, people just seemed happy. They were posting theories and memes and gifs and jokes and fanfics. And they were celebrating the characters and developments. I don’t know if that’s special to the Andi Mack fandom or not, but it seemed special to me.

That’s around when I started thinking about making an account, during that hiatus between 2A and 2B. But I was like, do I want to commit to this? What’s the point of my account? What do I want to say? And at some point in the hiatus, I was checking the tag, and I saw a gifset. It was by an account, since deleted and gone, but who, at the time, was very prominent in the fandom. And the gifset was all about attacking Tyrus. It was trying to take everything nice about what had happened between TJ and Cyrus and stomp on it. Tyrus was like a little baby ship at this point. People were just starting to get into it, the numbers weren’t that big. There wasn’t even really a name for the ship back then. The Tyrus tag was mostly that professional wrestler and the CJ tag was even worse. And this account had decided they were going to use their platform to try and make this small group of people in the fandom feel bad about liking their ship. I just remember thinking, why? Why be like that? It just seemed so unnecessary. And for the briefest of moments, I thought, okay, maybe I’ll make an account to be a troll and argue this stuff. And then I was like, nah, that’s just going to make the tag worse. When you see someone trying to ruin things for other people, you can give them attention and power, or you can just do your own thing.

So what I decided to do instead was to make an account that would add to the positivity I had been seeing. To just be one of the many voices doing fun stuff to drown out the bad. I could put out dumb posts to hopefully make people laugh, or eventually start writing recaps to give people something to do after watching the episode. There wasn’t really any bigger goal than that. Kill some time while celebrating the show and making the tag a more fun place, if only incrementally.

I’d like to think I did that. That I haven’t written or made too many things that have bummed people out and that most of my posts have hopefully made things better for people who wanted to hang out on here and talk about the show.

That’s all. At the end of everything, that was all. Just try to leave a net-positive wherever you go.

So that’s why I joined tumblr. Here’s why I stayed.

I am an unemployed writer. I’m an employed something else, but I would like to be an employed writer and I am currently not. And what that really means is I’m an unread writer. It means I write stuff and I try to convince people to read it and buy it, but most of the time they don’t. Most of the time, my stuff sits around waiting and hoping to be read. And when that’s the case, you can start to feel doubt.

What I didn’t realize when I started this account was that I would also be getting positivity back. I mean, I probably should have. It was the whole reason I started this, because I liked the positivity here. I guess I just didn’t expect it to be returned to me.

But it has. It has tremendously. Just writing this silly stuff that I do and putting it out there and getting feedback on it has meant so much to me. People saying something I’ve written is funny or interesting or just saying that they enjoyed it is such a confidence boost. You feel like, okay, people like my jokes or the way I think or whatever. There’s an audience for me somewhere. People who will get me. I just need to stick with it.

That’s what you all have been for me this last year and a half. More than just making this a fun place to share our love of this show, you’ve made this a place for me to feel seen.

I try not to tie too much of my self-esteem to the amount of interaction my posts get. (Seriously, don’t do that, it can be really unhealthy. I’m like, if a post flops, it flops. No biggie. Move on to the next one.) But every note I do get on something I’ve written lets me know I’ve done something right. The reblogs, the likes, the follows, the nice messages in my inbox, the comments on the posts. Any of it. All of it. It lets me know I’ve been read. It makes me feel like I’ve made a connection. And that means the world to me.

So thank you, to any and all of you who participated in this thing with me. Thank you for reading. Thank you for being a part of my experience on here. Thank you for being so cool that I wanted to join your group in the first place and thank you for being so great afterwards that I’m eternally happy I did.

It’s meant more to me than you could possibly know.

Keep the positivity.

- Jay

[pcssessicn]

☆ . · . miguel bernardeau, twenty-one, male, he / him . · . ☆ fitzwilliam 'fitz' phénix-alvarez lives in that huge mansion over there! no, not that one. look for white stucco walls & terracotta shingles and that’ll be it. the nhl defenseman has offered occasional glimpses of soft yellow walls and an impressive collection of plants in the background of social media posts, but all of that is nothing compared to seeing the opulence in person. they’ve remained protective as ever since moving to tercet court two months ago, but it seems like they might’ve gotten a little more mistrustful too. maybe that’s why they’re rumored to have such a distant relationship with everyone else who lives on this street. ☆ . · . ooc info: ollie, they / them, 21, est . · . ☆ career claim: cale ma/kar.

BASICS

Full name: Fitzwilliam Phénix-Alvarez Nickname: Fitz Birth date: September 29th Languages: English, Spanish, Quebecois Francois Hometown: 

PHYSICAL

Age: 21 Weight: 196 lbs Height: 6′2″ Body build: athletic, lean Eye color: grey-blue Faceclaim: Miguel Bernardeau Glasses or contacts: neither 

Tattoos: a raven in flight over his left shoulder blade, monochromatic vines winding up his left bicep

Scars: most predominantly a thin scar near the base of his neck where a skate slashed him when he was fourteen ; several other smaller scars of less note, especially on his hands --- much less noticeable

PERSONALITY

Good personality traits: observant, calculating, protective Bad personality traits: mistrustful, dishonest, aggressive 

Fitz comes across as very confident and in control, and at ease in his skin. The truth couldn’t be farther from it. He works hard to put forward the easy front he does --- and some days he can’t tell which one is more real. He has a dishonest smile that masquerades as honest, and a tendency to manipulate those around him when necessary to shed suspicion off himself. He can be almost charming at times, at least extremely amiable. Despite all this, Fitz is not rash or impulsive -- in fact everything he does is carefully calculated, though he goes to great lengths so it does not come across as so. The one place he feels truly effortless is on the ice.

He finds it hard to truly allow people close to him and to really see beyond the most superficial layers of himself. Furthermore, there is a deep-seated fear of not being enough and being forgotten ; he finds it easier to not let anyone close so there’s less chance of this happening.

THE STORY ( i rly was gunna try to write this nice and eloquently but... u get this instead 😔 )

— fitz was born to up and coming spanish actress reyna alvarez in chicago. the result of a messy one-night stand, but reyna ultimately decided to keep the baby. he is indeed named after fitzwilliam darcy from pride and prejudice bc his mother’s first breakout role was in a film adaptation of the book and she loved the book after reading it. how unfortunate for him.

— his birth father was never in the picture, but the man he would come to know as his father came into the picture a year or so after his birth. already one of the top architects in north america, paul robert phenix was in chicago for a conference and he and reyna fell in love. fitz has been told it’s was all very romantic. so then the happy family moved to pittsburgh where his father’s architecture firm was based.

— despite growing up with two parents who raked in a fair amount of cash, they made sure nothing was just given to fitz. they’d both had their humble beginnings and big believers in tough love, they made sure not to spoil their son. they did however make sure he was sheltered from the media when it poked around and the two things they did pay for without question were his education and sports.

— he started playing hockey when he was six after seeing a pens game on tv while they were out at dinner and knowing he just had to do it --- and never stopped. he got recruited to the us national team development program when he was sixteen and spent his last two years of high school in michigan living with a billet family most do who are with the program, which gave him a huge sense of “normalcy.” but really he was far from normal, his development taking great steps over those two years leading up to his draft year.

— queue the cale ma/kar career claim lads aka all the hockey development & logistics u can probably skip if u don’t care laksdjf: 

 one year before graduation and a draft, he vocally committed to playing at university of massachusetts - amherst. he went fourth overall to the la kings in the 2017 draft ( yeah technically irl that pick belonged to the avs but sh ), and proceeded to remain loyal to his commitment and play two years at umass despite his new top five prospect status. he was put into a first pair role from the start of his freshman year ( 2017-18 ), was a huge part in bringing the umass team up from the bottom of the standings. he plays for team usa in world juniors 2017 and 2018.

his sophomore year ( 2018-19 ), they make it all the way to the frozen four. fitz gets announced as the hobey baker winner and the day after they get knocked out of the tournament. not long after that he signs his entry contract with the kings and finishes out the season with them. he scores his first nhl goal on his first shot in game 3 of the first round of playoffs irl the kings don’t make playoffs but again shh. they get knocked out in the first round and fitz goes home and trains harder than ever.

he come back to kings training camp the next season ( 2019-20 ) more determined than ever to make the team. he does so out of camp and has an incredible rookie campaign. he gets injured in december and misses a few games but is back mid-january. fitz is given the calder ( award that goes to the best rookie in the nhl ) at the end of the season. technically cale hasn’t won this yet but we all know he will.

— la is a bustling city and fitz is a fan of one night stands : he just doesn’t feel like he has time for a relationship and hookups scratch that itch. he’s not an asshole about it, really. there is typically that understanding that this is a one time, no strings attached thing. but this one girl he sleeps with in march obviously does not get this memo and continues to not get the memo. she starts seriously stalking him in the following months and eventually he gets a restraining order against her ( use ur imagination kids ). he’s not really comfortable staying in his own apartment downtown for the time being though after he still sees her around. he stays with a teammate until the season ends, which then brings us to his connection to tercet court.

— paul robert phenix, now world reknowned architect, had a hand in designing several of the homes on tercet court, including one in the style of old money spanish mediterrianian villas that he designed with his wife in mind to be their new home. fitz’s mother had loved the house and moved in for a few years after the court opened but with her taking fewer roles up in the movie industry and getting exceedingly more lonely, she decided to embrace the more nomadic livestyle of her husband and moved out about a year and a half ago. since then the home stood vacant ( though certainly still cared for by several paid landscapers and maids ) until fitz’s dilemma arose a few months ago.

— a few phone calls and a begrudging agreement to pay the extremely steep taxes on the place for the year ( again, tough love and fitz may be a pro-athlete but he’s still making less than a million a year with his entry level contract ), and fitz moved in about two months ago ( say mid-may ).

MISC

— tri-lingual. father is french-canadian and his mother is spanish. needless to say he grew up a little confused. that worked itself out soon enough though. uses he uses quebois french in-season kind of frequently to talk to a couple teammates. really only uses his spanish to talk to his mother and family.

— since moving in fitz has filled the mansion with plants. he absolutely does not seem like a plant guy but he is... absolutely loves it. his major at umass was kinesology bc he thought it would be the most helpful and knew he wasn’t going to graduate but he snuck in some out-of-major classes on horticulture. truly just likes plants a lot. they don’t judge him.

— probably set up his own puck shooting pad in the backyard. why not there’s enough space. he had to retrieve a couple pucks from the bottom of the pool though which has been good incentive to not miss the net lmao. he also has revamped one of the rooms in the house to have synthetic ice.

— runs in the morning before it gets hot. skates a few days of the week in the afternoon. home gym in the house is definitely a perk but he prefers to work out with others because it feels more productive.

— probably drives like. a range rover.

— offensive defenseman. likes to jump up in the rush and is good at break out passes as well as zone entry. earned his place quarterbacking the first powerplay towards the end of the season. he can be quite physical when he needs to be though and don’t ever go after his goalie. ( his nhl.com player page )

— he’s not a recluse by any means, but he has no desire to built connections in tercet court so probably hasn’t actively reached out. they’re likely to have met outside of the small community or if your character forcibly came and introduced themselves. or if they knew each other already mayhaps??

— oh and he’s bi. like really really bi. obv not advertised given his career path but he’s not having some crisis over it either. it just is. probably has a stack of nda’s next to the condoms ready to go at anytime alsdkfj.

OOC

hey lads. i’m ollie !! for those around for round 1.0 of this rp i played alya ( the sports photog ). i am back and this time going back to what i do best : playing hockey boys 😔😔😔.

[monstersandmaw]

Patreon Tier Reshuffle in February and General 2020 Developments...

I gave my Patrons first look at this post, since some of the changes will affect their tiers (only to add content though!). Now I’m posting most of it to Tumblr for you to look at and perhaps have a think about...

It’s a long post, and I’m sorry for that...

First of all, I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who’s supporting me on Patreon, whether you’re a long-time supporter or you just joined. I know it's a big deal to give your heard-earned cash to someone on the internet and am well aware of the responsibility I have and what an honour it is to be on the receiving end of your generosity and support. So, yes. Thank you more than I can probably ever express.

Secondly, a reminder that all tiers have access to our chilled out Discord server forever. We’ve got a channel for sharing photos of pets, for general chat, for monsters, for sharing artwork of all kinds, a library to share your own stories, an nsfw chat, recipes etc., so hopefully there’s something for everyone, but there’s no pressure to be active if you’d rather not be! There’s also an ongoing DnD game with some of the folks on there too, which is fun!

It might be worth joining the server anyway because I have plans for a new perk which will involve Discord (see below), and I also occasionally run ‘Discord Drabbles’ where I ask for prompts on Discord from folks, which you might have seen posted on Patreon from time to time.  

Now, finally, round to the topic of this post!

I’ve been thinking about how to make sure that every tier gets the most that I can give them for their money, so I’m going to do a little reshuffle. It will start in February, and I’ve made sure that I’m pretty much just adding stuff to each tier, so you won’t miss out in the reshuffle.  

Here are the new things I’m running only on Patreon from February 2020 in addition to everything else (see below):  

Sculpt This!

Patrons can submit artwork or detailed descriptions (a creature/monster, a character, an object) to a designated ‘Sculpt This!’ channel on Discord, and I will pick one to sculpt once a month. I will create a post on Patreon with the artwork and the artist’s name (and a link to their page/site if they have one, and photos of my final sculpture based on their design. That will be available to everyone from the $1 tier upwards.  

For those on the $5 tier upwards, a short video will be available, featuring footage of the sculpting process itself.  

If the person whose art I use is on the $20 tier or upwards, I will post them the sculpture if they’d like it. 

Trope Tuesdays!

A poll will go up prior to Tuesday, with a list of common tropes (notably from the world of fanfic – things like ‘coffee shop’, ‘bed-sharing’, ‘enemies to lovers’, ‘5 times +1’ etc. etc.) and the winning trope from that poll will be the theme for a short story to be posted on a Tuesday.  

I’m aiming for these short stories to be a variety of fluffy and steamy, available to everyone from the $1 tier up.  

Character Letters

$10 and up patrons can request a letter once a month from their favourite characters from any of my stories (providing I wasn’t using someone else's OC for a commission or the like). This can be sent as a PDF by email and/or posted publicly to Patreon only (not Tumblr), with the option to remove the name if you’d rather remain anonymous.  

$20 and up patrons can request a hand-written letter once a month from their favourite character, again with the option to have the text posted to Patreon or not, and with their name, or not.  

Commissions 

I'm still in two minds about opening these up on here because I got absolutely exhausted – mentally and physically – at the end of 2019 and I’m only just recharging again. I had said I would open them up to patrons only in January 2020, and I may yet do that. If I do, I will create 5 slots, and a maximum of 5k words per story initially, and see how that goes. I realise that’s a small number of slots, but it’s still a lot of work for me on top of the rest of the Patreon commitments. I hope you understand, but I know a number of you responded in a poll to say you’d be interested in commissions from me again.

$10 patrons receive 5% off the first 5000 words of writing commissions, and $20 receive 10% off the first 5000 words of commissions.  

Continuing rewards:  

Monthly story – the monthly exclusive story will still be available for $5 and up (some of these stories have been known to go up to 10k words and be in multiple parts – think Kieran the satyr’s story from October 2018!)

Early release – I will continue to offer all Tumblr stories (except paid commissions from non-patrons and giveaways/specials) on early release – minimum of 4 days, sometimes longer.  

Polls – help me decide what to write next

Character bios and artwork

Future things I hope to bring in later this year:

Gaming with Ghosti

I hope to do some streaming via Twitch of me playing things either on the PS4 (like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey or we could do a special Dragon Age: Inquisition playthrough together), or from PC which could include a number of games, from Witcher III (I still haven’t played much) to Mass Effect, chilled out Minecraft sessions, and a huge number of other games which you could choose to inflict on me and watch me flail around in.

Hopefully Mr. Ghosti could join in too and laugh along with you and just generally have a chilled out time. This would probably happen at the weekend, but I’d have to look into the logistics of it if there’s enough interest.  

Discount for Patrons on my Etsy shop

It’s actually live right now, but I haven’t got anything listed yet as I’m unsure of the last few things I need to get in place, but once I’ve got things up on there, I’ll make an announcement and give patrons a special discount code to use in case there’s anything you’d like to buy, from jewellery to polymer clay charms/sculptures.  

More Q&A type things and video content

Some of you seemed to enjoy the video I did answering your questions, so I could always do more of this, if there are things you’d like to ask! It could be about anything, not just writing. If there’s interest, I’ll look into it.

More milestone giveaways and mystery ‘lucky dip’ giveaways

I love sharing things with you, so when I hit 200 patrons, I’ll have to think up something special, and in the meantime, maybe I’ll do some more giveaways for you.

If there’s something that you would like to see that you think I could put up on Patreon for you, then please get in touch! I’m always looking for ideas

All tier rewards will be as follows from February 2020:

Brand new items in bold, and slight changes in italics:

(putting in a ‘keep reading’ because it’s getting silly now...)

Shadows:  

access to the Patreon-only Discord

access to the ‘Trope Tuesdays’ poll and story

access to the ‘Sculpt This!’ posts

access to some character profiles, aesthetics, polls, and story ideas

small discount on my etsy store (when it opens)

and my undying gratitude!

Pixies and Goblins – all of the above, plus:

one Patreon-exclusive monster story per month

access to the ‘Sculpt This!’ process video

access to the extra, long-running story, released once a month (Werewolf story - coming soon!)

early access for all Tumblr monster stories (excluding paid commissions)

the ‘what’s next?’ poll to help me decide what monster or reader to write

Elves – all of the above, plus:

you can request a letter once a month from your favourite character of mine! This can be sent as a PDF by email and/or posted publicly to Patreon only, with the option to remove the name if you’d rather remain anonymous.

entry into the monthly 3k word story commission – if you are chosen (at random) from the Elves tier (and above) you can have a 3k word story of your choosing written for you

access to ‘Writer’s Corner’, featuring occasional blog posts about writing and workshop goings-on

small work-in-progress previews from both my monster stories and my original fantasy fiction ‘Weaver of Threads’

5% off the first 5000 words of writing commissions, and priority placement in the commissions queue

Orcs – all of the above, plus:

you can also request a letter once a month from your favourite character, but yours can also be hand-written and posted to you if you’d like! You also have the option of it being posted to Patreon or not. 

One short story (maximum 1500 words) with a monster and reader of your choice per month (by request only), included within your subscription

A PDF version of any monster story I’ve written and published on Patreon or Tumblr (by request, and sent by email)

10% off the first 5000 words of a writing commission

if your design was selected in the ‘Sculpt This!’ feature, I can post the finished sculpture to you, if you’d like to have it.

Dragons – all of the above, plus:

One 5000 word story of your choosing will be written for you per month (no fanfiction) as a thank you for your patronage (by request only)

Entry into the monthly top tiers free story draw but your story is 4k words instead of 3k

20% off the first 5000 words of a writing commission

A character with a name of your choosing (upon approval!) will be added to a monster story

Priority on jewellery and metalwork commissions and a larger discount on my Etsy store (when that opens)

Kaiju – all of the above, plus:

if you win the random free commission, yours is 5k words instead of 3k!

One 7000 word story of your choosing will be written for you per month (no fanfiction) as a thank you for your patronage (by request only)

One hand written letter of thanks (I have nice handwriting, don’t worry!) sent to you by post, including a little short story

25% off the first 5000 words of a writing commission

30% discount on jewellery and metalwork commissions

Dedication by name in any published work (let me know if you wish to remain anonymous)

Hope you’re excited, and don’t forget that you can always get in touch with me on any of my platforms – Patreon, Tumblr, Discord. If you want to share something but also want to remain anonymous, just send an anon to Tumblr and ask me not to post it. 

__

| Masterlist | Patreon | Ko-fi | Writing Commissions |

[themotorsportblog]

Renault’s Spare Seat: Six Surprise Contenders

The driver merry-go-round at Renault continues as their return to Formula One fails to impress. From Kevin Magnussen, to Carlos Sainz, to Nico Hulkenberg and now Daniel Ricciardo, they’ve had some of the most established and talented drivers in the sport and been unable to make it work with any of them. Who’s next for Cyril Abiteboul and the Enstone outfit? Let’s have a look at some different options for the team going forward:

Sergey Sirotkin

Sirotkin, who is one of the most forgettable F1 drivers of the last decade, only makes this list because he was Renault’s test and reserve driver in 2016, 2017 and 2019.

In 2018 he spent a year trundling around behind Lance Stroll at the back of the grid for Williams, and didn’t deliver any standout performances, only scoring a single point all season.

He’s finished third in the GP2 Series standings twice, in 2015 and 2016, evidently the team clearly believe in his abilities, as seen by rehiring him after his doomed stint at Williams.

At 24 he still has time on his side; however, I would really be questioning Renault’s decision-making skills should he get the drive.

Sebastien Buemi

Former Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi hasn’t started an F1 race since the end of 2011, but he still remains in the F1 frame with his testing duties at Red Bull.

The reason Buemi features on his list is his experience in F1 that’s now lasted for over a decade and his good working relationship with Renault from his time in Formula E with e.dams, who are now partnered with Nissan - who partner with Renault through the Nissan-Renault Alliance.

A two-time World Endurance Champion and Formula E Champion Buemi undoubtedly has talent but was overshadowed in his final F1 season by teammate Jaime Alguersuari and with only 55 starts to his name he might not have the experience Renault are looking for to partner Esteban Ocon.

In addition to this, with the uncertainty of many motorsport calendars this year it might be harder for the team to tempt the Swiss driver away from his current commitments in favour of F1.

Luca Ghiotto

Teammate to Renault Young Driver Guanyu Zhou last season, 2020 is already confirmed to be Luca Ghiotto’s last year in F2.

The Italian was able to challenge Nyck De Vries and Nicholas Latifi for the title last year, but is the only one of the three that hasn’t been able to move up a step in the motorsport pyramid.

He finished third in the Championship and took four wins along the way and if he can repeat that with a team brand new to the category this year in Hitech then he should be at the front of the queue for a promotion.

Daniil Kvyat

Both Alpha Tauri drivers are under pressure to perform this year with Sergio Sette Camara joining the Red Bull set up as a reserve driver.

Red Bull will be keen to promote the Brazilian to race seat in 2021 following his impressive exploits in F2 over the last few years, meaning an Alpha Tauri seat is potentially at risk.

Pierre Gasly has been Red Bull’s golden boy for a long time and despite his unsuccessful first promotion he is probably more likely to be retained than Kvyat.

It’s harsh on Kvyat who had outperformed Albon but was overlooked for the promotion to the senior team and he took an impressive podium at Hockenheim last year.

However, his experience could be just what Renault need, and gives the Russian a fresh start in a race seat out of the Red Bull programme, and I’m sure he’d give Renault the longevity and commitment they’re looking for if it keeps him in F1.

Jean-Eric Vergne

From a current Red Bull junior driver to a former one.

Jean-Eric Vergne has made numerous appearances in the F1 paddock since he left for Formula E at the end of 2014, having been overlooked for a promotion to Red Bull twice in two seasons.

He was undoubtedly a talented driver, and he has shown that by becoming the only two-time champion in the history of Formula E and this could be enough to tempt Renault to make a move for him if none of their young drivers are ready and the driver market isn’t offering up anyone good enough.

Alongside his impressive CV, if the French manufacturer wants an all French driver line-up it’s between Vergne or Grosjean as to who gets the seat.

Whilst Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas could also be in the frame if rumours are to be believed, I personally think Vettel would be the wrong move and will probably retire at the end of the season.

Renault have shown interest in Bottas before, but his movements will firmly depend on whether Mercedes want to keep him on or promote George Russell next year.

Who do you think will get the seat? Are any of these drivers have a realistic chance of getting the drive? Let me know!

You can find part one of this shortlist here: https://themotorsportblog.tumblr.com/post/618186589932290048/renaults-spare-seat-the-usual-suspects

Follow me on Twitter @Luke2Wallace

[johannesviii]

Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2009

20 to 21 years old. And so the 2000s end, not with a whimper, but with an explosion of upbeat, great pop songs.

Only one third of these lists left to make!

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

First to second and final year of my Master degree in Contemporary History. Also got two summer jobs that year. I was basically only researching and writing my master thesis at this point and trying to survive on a 50€ per month budget to pay for transport, clothes, driving lessons, and food apart from one meal a day. Needless to say, some corners had to be cut and my health wasn’t the best. I was also trying to register to pass some concours d’Etat to be a government worker considering there was 0% chance I’d be able to find a job otherwise with my qualifications and my mother had been trying to find an excuse to throw me out for more than four years at this point. Basically I was broke, stressed out and in panic mode.

Thank god, the music was mostly energetic and upbeat on the radio. I can’t imagine what my mood would have been like if the charts had been as horribly depressed as in 2018 or 2019.

This was also the year when my favorite music reviewer ever, Todd In The Shadows, started to make his first videos, so you might think his lists are going to influence mine, but as it turns out we have very, very different tastes for the most part (I mean come on, the guy hates Depeche Mode), so... not so much. But he helped me discover a lot of songs I would have ignored otherwise, so yeah, godspeed, Todd.

It should be mentioned that the two songs that I wanted to put at the top of this list before looking at the actual year-end lists turned out to be non-elligible and that is extremely frustrating. Obviously, as I mentioned in the previous post, there’s Life In Technicolor II by Coldplay, which has an incredibly fitting name since it’s one of their most colorful songs ever. But I’m not even sure I would have put it at #1 since this was the year of Mika’s second album, and oh my god, We Are Golden was FANTASTIC. It’s my absolute favorite song from the guy, the music video is incredibly fun, and I listened to that shit on a loop as soon as it dropped.

I usually don’t put such large links for non-elligible songs but the fact this isn’t elligible is nothing short of criminal. Check it out if you’ve never heard it.

As for albums from bands I liked... eh. Lacuna Coil dropped Shallow Life, which was not as good as KarmaCode, Pet Shop Boys dropped Yes which wasn’t nearly as good as Fundamental, Depeche Mode dropped Sounds of the Universe which was DEFINITELY not as good as Playing the Angel (I liked Wrong, though. But it’s not elligible), Eminem released Relapse which was joyless and pretty bad and he was kinda dead to me at that point (even if it wasn’t as terrible as Encore AND he had that song with Drake that was very good), Placebo released Battle for the Sun which was pretty great but still not as good as their previous two albums, Paradise Lost had Faith Divides Us Faith Unites Us and basically same thing there, and Indochine had La République des Météors which is imho their worst record in the past twenty years, by far.

Long story short, every single one of the bands and artists I loved who released an album that year let me down (except Placebo, maybe).

And then VNV Nation released Of Faith, Power And Glory, I listened to it, and suddenly I had a new favorite band, and everything was good and beautiful in the world again. Album of the year for me, hands down.

With that out of the way, a few honorable mentio-HOLY SHIT HOW MANY OF THESE ARE THERE, WTF

Replay (Iyaz) - A perfectly good and innocent little earworm.

Run This Town (Rihanna) - I don’t like the original very much (Kanye’s verse is atrocious) but I've had a mashup of it with Bach’s Tocatta & Fugue in D minor (yes you read that right) on my mp3 player for years now, so this has to count. The mashup is called Run This Town In D Minor. It’s one of my favorite mashups ever. I even made fanart of it once! Look it up if you can, the original video has apparently disappeared.

Circus (Britney Spears) - You know it’s a good year for pop when even Britney Spears makes music I like.

Magnificent (U2) - Wait, even U2 was making decent music? I had zero use for them since at that point Linkin Park had more or less taken over their ecological-musical niche of “mainstream epic-sounding pop-rock music with tortured vocals and Emotions(tm)” but that one was still kinda nice.

Même Pas Fatigué (Magic System & Khaled) - I’ve said that before and I’ll say it again but they always bring a smile to my face and I don’t get why it’s ‘cool’ to hate their songs in my country. Yeah, they often sound the same, but I’d listen to ten similar-sounding Magic System songs in a heartbeat whereas you’d have to pay me to listen to ten similar-sounding Nickelback songs.

Day n Nite (Kid Cudi) - This had a tendency to get stuck in my head, but not at all in an unpleasant way.

21 Guns (Green Day) - Much better than I remembered.

When Love Takes Over (David Guetta), Stereo Love (Edward Maya ft Vika Jigulina), Evacuate the Dancefloor (Cascada) - That year was full of catchy, stupid, energetic songs, wasn’t it?

Greenlight (John Legend) - If I had better taste, this would be on the list. Alas, you’re reading the top 10s of someone who once put Blue (Eiffel 65) in a #1 spot, so yeah.

In Your Hands (Charlie Winston) - Same thing, basically.

Like a Hobo (Charlie Winston) - “Like a hobo from a broken home, nothing’s gonna stop me”, said this very useful song. Now is a good time to remind you that my nickname at the public university was The Hobo. So yeah. I liked this song a lot and I still do.

Forever (Drake) - Drake and Eminem are both amazing on this track. Unfortunately there’s also Kanye West and Lil Wayne on it. But. Like. “I'm Hannibal Lecter so just in case you're thinking of saving face / You ain't gonna have no face to save”. Dude. Duuuuuude.

You Found Me & Never Say Never (The Fray) - Did I mention I really, really liked this band. I think I did. Several times.

Paparazzi & Love Game (Lady Gaga) - Would both have had a chance to land on the list without the incredible amount of great, catchy tunes that year had to offer.

C’est Dans l’Air (Mylène Farmer) - Mylène Farmer had THREE singles on the French year-end list and this is the ONLY one I like. Good electro, mediocre verses but a great chorus (and a weird and kind of hilarious music video). Basically a song saying we’re all going to die and she can only sing about it. It’s strange, it’s a bit dark in a fun way, but it’s sadly not enough to land on the list, and it was the last cut from it.

Phew. Making this list was like a Hunger Games of catchy, upbeat, stupid songs to find which one was the best. It’s not #1 but I’m still shocked I had to put it so high.

But first, the runner ups.

10 - Fire Burning (Sean Kingston)

US: #33 / FR: Not on the list

Yes, ALL these honorable mentions were kicked out to give the last spot on the list to this guy and a chorus that goes “somebody call 911, shawty fire burning on the dance floor, WOAH!”.

The fact that I don’t feel bad about it means this was the right pick for that spot.

9 - Rain (Mika)

US: Not on the list / FR: #22

Anybody else thinks Mika looks like the Fourth Doctor on this screenshot from the music video or is it just me?

Anyway. So yeah, as I said, We Are Golden would have topped this list if it had been elligible. Sadly, it isn’t, but Rain is. I don’t like it nearly as much as We Are Golden, but what can I say. It’s still Mika. I’ll take whatever I can.

8 - I Gotta Feeling (Black Eyed Peas)

US: #4 / FR: #17

I lost about 80% of the respect I had for this song the day I realised its untouchable, marvellous beat was very probably stolen from Take a Dive. I still love it though. Had a few actual parties in 2010 and early 2011 and this was garanteed to make everyone dance, even people like me who don’t know how to dance.

And then the dancefloor died instantly anytime anyone tried to put Boom Boom Pow on because it’s impossible to dance on that one. But that’s another story.

7 - Poker Face (Lady Gaga)

US: #2 / FR: #5

Needless to say this was absolutely everywhere and overplayed to death and beyond, and the fact I still wanted to listen to it and put it on my playlists really tells you how good I thought it was (and still is).

6 - Ça m’énerve (Helmut Fritz)

US: Not on the list / FR: #1 (...yes.)

This is a novelty song with a singer pretending to have a thick German accent, complaining about various things in France, like the fact he doesn’t fit the dress code for a club, that he wanted to buy a sweater with “Rock” written on it but it’s out of stock, that some girls can fit in a size 34 blue jean and not him, that there’s a queue of people trying to buy macarons at the Ladurée shop, and so on. And every time he concludes “that gets on my nerves”, said in a very flat tone. Here’s a translation.

It was overplayed as f█ck here. Think Despacito levels of overplay. But the beat is great and it’s still hysterical after having heard it about a hundred times that year.

Fun fact, while I was making this list and relistening to this song, my s.o said “haha that sounds great! What is it?” and I stared at him in disbelief. Somehow, he was completely serious. That’s like someone escaping the Great Macarena Onslaught Of 1996. What happened. How.

5 - Waking Up In Vegas (Katy Perry)

US: #36 / FR: Not on the list

Again, I must remind you that my s.o is a Katy Perry fan and that I’ve heard this song even more than the average radio listener did at the time, and it’s STILL #5 on this list. What can I say. It’s a ton of fun and one of my favorite songs from her.

4 - New Divide (Linkin Park)

US: #61 / FR: Not on the list

Is this their best song? Not by a f█cking mile. I thought it would be much lower when I started to make this specific list, but what can I say. Linkin Park is like that one old friend that you kept no contact with for years, and once you meet them again, it’s like they never left. Who cares if that wasn’t nearly as good as Numb or In the End? Not me, that’s for sure.

Also, “In every loss in every lie / In every truth that you deny / And each regret and each goodbye / Was a mistake too great to hide / And your voice was all I heard / That I get what I deserve”. Holy shit, dude.

3 - Good Girls Go Bad (Cobra Starship)

US: #43 / FR: Not on the list

BEHOLD. THE ONLY SURVIVOR OF THE 2009 ‘CATCHY UPBEAT STUPID SONGS’ HUNGER GAMES. THE CATCHIEST, UPBEAT-IEST, STUPIDEST OF THEM ALL. HERE IT IS AT LAST.

The thing I love about this is that it’s a song made by nerds for nerds and that the singer looks and sounds completely non-threatening. As Todd said in his own list back in the day, “that guy couldn’t make good MILK go bad” and that’s what’s so endearing about the song, I think.

Also yes, this is, in fact, placed above Linkin Park.

2 - Use Somebody (Kings of Leon)

US: #14 / FR: Not on the list

This was my #1 at first. I LOVED it. I even bought the album, even though, as you know, my funds were very low that year. That music is soaring. It’s majestic. Well, the lyrics aren’t that majestic and soaring, it’s about loving someone and trying to catch their attention, but the rest? Damn this is intense. It was also elligible for the 2010 list, by the way, where I ALSO wondered if it should be #1, but in both cases, it wasn’t meant to be.

And so this list of 2009 hit songs comes to a close.

It began with the forging of the Great 2009 Upbeat Songs. Three were given to the Punk Rock hits. Seven to the Dance Tracks. And nine, nine songs were gifted to the Radio Friendly Pop Songs, which above all else desired power.

But they were all deceived, for another song was made. Deep in the forgotten land of Synth Pop, in his Parents’ Basement, the Dark Lord Adam Young forged a master song, and into this song he poured his joy, his talent and his will to dominate all charts.

One song to rule them all.

1 - Fireflies (Owl City)

US: #60 / FR: Not on the list (76 the next year)

I know. It’s a meme nowadays. But still. Have you any idea how satisfying a song with an initial beat that looks like small pulsing yellow and blue lights in the dark ACTUALLY titled “Fireflies” is? How gentle it all sounds and looks, even when the music soars? The number of drawings and paintings I made just based on the colors of THAT song? It’s like a synth pop version of one of my favorite Mike Oldfield tunes ever, Weightless.

And then, on top of all the rest, how relatable was that guy’s body language and general attitude?? Before even knowing he was on the spectrum I was like “oh BIG mood.”

Also following his twitter was one of the best decisions I ever made.

So yeah. I would have loved to put Coldplay or Mika in that #1 spot, but I’m not too mad about it thanks to this wonderful little song and its author. Such a shame Deer in the Headlights and Alligator Sky aren’t elligible for the 2011 list.

Next up: Johannes finally moves out and finds a great job and starts living a little, plus here’s a #1 that will be difficult to justify

[asouthernprincessupnorth]

Sweetener Tour, 19 September 2019, Sheffield

Hi guys! You can guess from the title what this post is about: Ariana Grande’s Sweetener Tour! I went to her concert with a very dear friend, Nabil, and let me tell you that it was amazing.

So, we bought the tickets way back in December 2018, if I’m not mistaken. When I found out that Ariana was coming to the UK, I thought I just had to see her at least once. Me and Nabil looked at her schedule and when I found out she was coming to f-ing Sheffield, I just knew that there is no way I could possibly miss out on it. I mean, Sheffield, of all places!

I got up as early as I could on the day of the ticket sales and within a minute that the tickets were being sold, I couldn’t get any. I kept on refreshing the page until it showed I could get two tickets on the f-ing Gold Circle, which is basically the most expensive ticket category (but not as expensive as VIP-Meet & Greet). After hastily agreeing with Nabil, I clicked on the purchase. Yep, I bought a very, very expensive concert ticket.

Me and Nabil went to the venue as soon as queuing was allowed by the Arena and we spent at least three-and-a-half to four hours in the queue. Was it worth it? It was. We got into the Standing area but I just knew that our Gold Circle tickets should’ve gotten us closer to the stage so I basically ran to the edge of the Standing area, showed our Gold wristbands to the security guards, and got ourselves into the f-ing Gold Circle. I ran and managed to stand on the second-to-front row. Let me tell you this: it felt awesome. Me and Nabil got slightly separated because he went to buy us some water (which each cost f-ing £2.50) and when he returned, two girls and a mother already stood behind me. But it’s okay. He was still very close to me and we managed to chat a bit during the concert. Also, so many young girls (preteens and even a child barely five years old) going there with their mummies and daddies. Wow.

Social House and Ella Mai opened the concert. I honestly loved Social House! I’d never heard their music apart from their collaboration with Ariana on Boyfriend but they had such positive, great energy and were very engaging with the audience. I might’ve not known any of their songs but when they left the stage, I knew that they made me want to listen to their EP. Ella Mai had a very beautiful voice but, sadly, I felt she wasn’t very engaging. The stage was rather circular/oval-shaped, with the central void being filled with VIP audience and the outer parts of the circle surrounded by Gold Circle (yes, I’m terrible at describing visual stuff in English). However, Ella stayed only on the main stage with the musicians and did not go around on the circular part, which made things less engaging (at least in my opinion).

Warning: The part about Ariana is very much all over the place.

Now. Now. Ariana. The songstress herself. Good God. She opened with the intro raindrops (an angel cried), and the crowds just went mad, including yours truly. We basically screamed and sang along and I saw that the stage was still empty but the visuals were starting. Oh. The visuals were very much all about the sun and stars and moon. When she started raindrops, it looked as though there was an eclipse or something.

And then, she rose up from the ground with her dancers in a very, very familiar setting: God is a woman as seen on the MTV VMAs 2018. Spread across a dining table, as though it was a reinterpretation of The Last Supper. And she sang. She had a very beautiful, very clear voice. I noticed, however, that the mic might not have been super clear because whenever she said anything that wasn’t her song lyrics (like when she greeted the audience or said something about the song no tears left to cry several songs after God is a woman), I couldn’t really hear what she said. Either that or she wasn’t very good in her pronunciation (this is actually one of the quite valid critiques of her vocal/singing. Yes, I love and adore Ariana but I also agree that sometimes she doesn’t enunciate well).

Anyway. I had a very, very magical 90 minutes listening and watching Ariana’s performance. She was generally energetic, fun, and engaging. She was appreciative of her band and her backup dancers, whom I think she genuinely sees as her friends. Ariana’s vocals, though, are the star of the show. Of course, what else do you expect from her? Every time she hit a high note it made me feel like I was being choked because how did she do it???? And she killed it. I’m pretty sure at some point I heard a whistle note from her, though it wasn’t as flexible as Mariah Carey’s had been in her prime. This isn’t a bad thing, though. It’s great that Ariana can do whistle notes, doesn’t mean she has to do it in the most vocally-acrobatic style because God knows stretching it too far can affect your other vocal abilities.

I loved every part of it, of course, but I really loved her performance of NASA. I guess that’s because it’s my favourite song off thank u, next. To be honest, lots of the songs were kind of a blur to me but in a good way: I couldn’t remember exactly how she did it because I was just so happy with singing and screaming at the top of my lungs. I hope that’s a good sign, though. Anyway. NASA was such a great performance and I honestly remember not being able to properly record a video of it because my phone’s camera is absolute crap and Ariana’s position onstage wasn’t strategic to mine. Still, I was like, f it I’ll sing my lungs out because that is what I want to do. I screamed so loud when she sang: “I’mma need space, I’mma need space”.

And also needy. I loved, loved, loved that song. needy is such a mood and I know it was a song of vulnerability but damn, I sang and screamed. It felt like pouring my heart out. I guess that’s exactly why thank u, next is my favourite Ariana album: it speaks to me. And when she sang, I know that she was singing what my heart felt, too. And it’s an amazing feeling.

Of course, no Ariana show would be complete without some sexy choreography, like in Side to Side and Into You. I sang and screamed but... mostly it was a blur. Again. I feel like because those songs are, so sorry to say this, generic provocative songs, it did not make me feel super connected or anything. It was fun to sing them and dance to them but wasn’t the most wow this is amazing OMG feeling. I did, however, enjoy break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored. Her vocals in that are amazing, oddly enough for that kind of song.

I also fell so much in love with R.E.M. I later found out it was at first a Beyonce song but Ariana made it a very, very lovely song. It’s actually very much like a lullaby and it’s such a sweet, sweet love song that sways your heart.

This has gone way, way too long (just like the intro of in my head, which wasn’t sung at the concert but used during an interval). Now. The grande finale: thank u, next. I recorded the whole performance and it actually made me feel rather emotional. I can’t possibly imagine singing the names of my exes every night for a year of touring, one of whom died of drug overdose and the other you thought you were going to marry. But Ariana sang it well. And again, I felt very connected to how she sang it. It’s not about whether you have as many exes as she does or anything: it’s about connecting on the understanding that you could take a lesson from the people in your past. And she closed the show with dances of love and pride.

So. I loved every second of it. It was worth every penny that I spent on it (though I would’ve loved if she’d sung for an extra 30 minutes lolz). It’s definitely something that I’ll remember for as long as I live, and I’m just ever so grateful that of all the places, I chose Sheffield and so did she, both in 2018. She delivered a beautiful, fun, entertaining performance and it was such an amazing way to close my postgraduate studies (sort of). It’s incredibly strong of her to embrace her vulnerability and create something that connects with others.

[annakie]

Continued Notes on a Blog Cleanup

I started doing this a couple of weeks ago, I’m still doing it even though I’ve now passed the place I was trying to get to to find a thing awhile ago.  

But now I’m in March of 2013, closing in on two years of blog cleaned up.

I’m on page 1811 of 2968 (working backwards) with 15 posts per page.  My guesstimates are that since I started posting the blog cleanup I’ve generated about 100 posts, that’s probably a little on the low side, but it’s a workable number.  When I started I had 3021 pages of blog, so adding in about 7 more pages worth of blogs since then, that means I’ve deleted about 60 pages worth of my bog, or somewhere around 900 posts.

Sounds about right.

Anyway, here’s a bunch more thoughts on tumblr in general, this blog cleanup, and a Doctor Who Nostalgia Rewatch.

What’s crazy is that about 1/3rd of my entire blog was done in the first 18 months of its creation.  It’s now over 8 years old, but I hit the 2000th page back around November 2012, when the blog was made in May, 2011.  

I’m just now getting to the point in the blog where I kept a pretty full and steady queue in the first few months of 2013, so things move faster now instead of like 100 posts per day untagged like the early days.  And I didn’t post at all for most of the last couple of months of 2017 and early 2018 so, there’s a few-months gap there, eventually. But I figure... why stop the nostalgia tour now.  Mostly because I’m finding things I want to organize better.  I’m also finding a lot of  edits or personal posts I made and didn’t tag properly in the time period I’m covering right now. 

When all this is done, I’ll probably do a mass blog export again, now that I’m happier with the contents.  Tumblr ain’t gonna be around forever, y’all.

Still, deleting a lot of stuff.  Posts are being deleted for

Being out of date, like “Hey this game is on sale, go buy it!” or “SIGN THIS PETITION AGAINST CISPA!” or “The new season of Parks and Rec starts September 23rd" (of 2013 or whatever).  

Sometimes for being a reblog of a thing that I only marginally ever cared about and no longer do at all.  

Things that have now been proven false, or false alarms, or things we no longer have to worry about for whatever reason.  

“Hoooo boy it’s 2019 and now THAT sure turned out to be a bad take!” (”Guys, this new show called House of Cards is on!  It stars the AMAZING KEVIN SPACEY, I LOVE HIM!”  OK that wasn’t verbatim but close, and Yikes.)

Still, the cringiest of the cringe.  But there’s a lot less of that now, which is nice.  I at some point over the beginning of 2013 started doing a lot more tagging of my own posts so the tags are a much nicer place to look than some of the terrible other-people’s tags.  Although I’m still only tagging at like 60 - 70% of the time.

Observations:

What takes the longest is adding tags to posts.  So for the most part tags are only getting added to things I made.  About 45% of which are personal posts, and about 45% of which are mass effect creations posts, so far.  About 10% are things I think I may want to find again someday, though a lot of those things are being put in the “reblogging really old stuff” queue.

The blog is like, 30% Doctor Who, 40% Mass Effect and 30% Psych/Elementary/Leverage/Misc now.  It’s better.

I JUST started getting really to the part where I contributed a little more to the ME/DW fandoms besides yelling at hate-taggers.  Still.  Mid-2013 me is still doing that on occasion.  Although now it’s sometimes about Kaidan Alenko instead of just Martha Jones.  I’m still kind of torn about how I feel about all that now.  I’d say that it’s funny how there doesn’t seem to be a lot of it on tumblr these days.  Now it feels like we all have more important things to fight about.  Also, tumblr is, you know, on life support.

It feels like my blog liked and watched Supernatural longer than I did in reality?  It felt like a short flirtation to me, there continues to be supernatural content on my blog for over a year now.  Pretty sure I stopped watching mid-season 9 so maybe that’ll stop soon.  Still, way less than the general population of tumblr it felt like at the time.

People with names like 221BTardisImpala really were the worst about tagging their hate and other stupid stuff.

I’d somehow forgotten about that terrible, gross post twisting Kaidan into an “abuser” for stupid stuff like “He brought a bottle of alcohol (you know, the one Shepard bought him?) to Shepard’s quarters!” and “He did a bad thing at 17!” (and clearly the person we are at 17 is the same person he was at 34.) and and just the most asinine reasoning applied, and tagged.   The whole “I gotta tear down characters other people like to make my fave the REAL WINNER” is just... ugh.  I got back to that post and honestly, am still thinking I should have deleted the whole thing.

I’ve picked another few tags on controversial characters that I love like Jacob Taylor and scrolled through, and like I posted earlier about Martha Jones, hate tagging in general seems to just... not happen that much anymore, even after scrolling back a year or two in those tags.  That makes tumblr a nicer place to be. I know we still see the occasional like, shitty shakarian shipper in the Kaidan Alenko tag (and again, that is a very small % of overall shakarian shippers) but it’s nothing like what it used to be.

It won’t be long until the WTNV explosion happens on tumblr, or maybe it had already started at this point.  It took me a few months to catch on.  And then I’m gonna listen to it and love it, and ask for rec’s for more podcasts, then I’m gonna get into Thrilling Adventure Hour and the blog is gonna become a much more positive place.  Looking forward to getting to all that.

Does anyone know if there’s a theme or script that lets you add tags from your dash or main blog page without editing a post?  I’d go back and do this again to tag some more good reblogged posts, I think.  I’d probably have also deleted more stuff if I could have done it from my blog without going into editing. :p

Seriously though, tumblr feels like such a different place now.  It’s... quieter.  It feels almost like empty nest syndrome around here.  Or maybe I’m just curating my own experience so much better.  But again, when I do go look at other people’s blogs from posts I’ve reblogged, like almost none of them are still active.  Although it’s also surprising the number that died just like, in the last year.

Another interesting thing has been... watching the rise and fall of a personal friendship through the first few years of the blog.  Back then there were a few people who I was really close to, mostly online.  I can feel the main friendship I had with that person slipping away as their life changed significantly starting the previous few months from where I am in that blog.  And honestly, I did my own part of leaving them behind when I gained a whole new group of close friends from TAH.  We’re still like, facebook friends, but it’s a reminder of how fluid online friendships can be.  

Doctor Who Rewatch Thoughts:

I am going to catch up on my blog before I run out of Doctor Who to watch, I think.  Considering things are starting to take a lot less “grooming” now on the cleanup.

I’m now about to embark on Silence in the Library.  Am I ready to see River Song die again?  No.  I am not.  This will be the first time I watch these episodes in years, probably since Matt Smith was around?  Definitely since The Husbands of River Song.  This... will be difficult.

Hoo boy Voyage of the Damned was bad, I’d forgotten how bad.  Not Fear Her bad but, pretty bad. Though I was amused that there was a character named Foon.  For some reason that word had always triggered something in my mind when they called the world that on Hello From the Magic Tavern and now I know why.

Martha Jones, still awesome in Season 4.  Donna Noble shines brightly.  Although I’d forgotten how much weaker the first half of her season is than the very good second half.

That was the first time I’d watched The Fires of Pompeii since Capaldi took over.  Funnily, I felt like his character got more Twelve-Like as the episode went on somehow.  The long scene between just Ten and Capladi’s character was neat to watch in retrospective.

[todaysbiggesthits]

The Exam

Best Music Moment of 2019

BC: Three straight hours of this

in my Chapman Ryder Cup match with Code  -The Robert M. Chennault Playlist in my Ryder Cup match with Laser  -Vampire Weekend's "M79" with Parks and Rec theme interlude in Pawnee Peytonville with my babe  -Late night music game with JD and Chaps this Fall  -My kids competing for best air guitar solo to Daft Punk's "Digital Love"  -The Stones soundtracking Raceday morning with Counterfeit Kenny and the Kennel Boys 

Codem: -Picking up the keys after closing on #our house and listening to Arden's dreams for the pad while listening to the songs that brought us together in the first place. -Perched in the balcony of Park West watching Chromatics live and in person. -The Chapman format playlist that Brendon and I put together.  It was just one song on repeat.  Xtal - Aphex Twin -Plugging in my klipsch's for the first time in the new house to listen to elliott smith on the day of his death. the sound of his discography wafting throughout the whole house was a true delight.

Bronco: My 6-year-old discovering Green Day.  My 9-year-old discovering Metallica.  Both discoveries have awakened something in them that is hilarious and awesome to behold.  And seeing Tool was pretty flaming awesome.

JD: March: Realizing I’d never heard this Stones song, nodding along to the opening riff, and exploding into my biggest laugh of the year at the first line.

June: The Joni Mitchell performance in the Rolling Thunder Review documentary on Netflix. June: Catching the Thom Yorke Anima short film at the IMAX theater on the Upper West Side. July: Code and I getting a perfect 99 score on the greatest rendition of “Emotional Rescue” karaoke you’ll ever see. October: Playing the music game WAY too deep into the night with BC and Chap (look for the next day’s hangover on my worst moments list).

Chap: Patrick Stickles singing "I'm sorry dad no I'm not making this up" to his dad in the audience.

Nasty: Listening to music at BOB. Nothing but jams that whole weekend. Driving in with Laser - GOOGLE MUSIC JAMS. Trip to the casino - JAMS. Hanging out on the deck - JAMS. Driving to the course with Blazer Black - Fuck Buttons - Sweet Love for Planet Earth aka JAMS. In the cart with Code - JAMS. Driving Chappy and Sfreddo to the rental car - JAMS (but quietly).

Larse: Greta Thunberg speech dubbed to metal

Best Shows Seent in 2019

Nasty: The Killers @ Summerfest. Hot Fuss will always be an all-time favorite album and Mr. Brightside is the best pop song of our lifetime, IMO. Also, my wife loves them which is about the only band in middle of the venn diagram. 

Larse: The Lonely Island at Summerfest

BC: Dead & Company

JD: 1. The Rapture at Music Hall of Williamsburg 2. Viagra Boys at Bowery Ballroom 3. The Strokes and Parkay Boys at the All Points East fest in London with drunk lads screaming along to the guitar parts 4. B Boys at Union Pool 5. Titus Andronicus at Bowery Ballroom 6. Avey Tare at Market Hotel 7. Tame Impala at MSG 8. Weeping Icon at Elsewhere 9. Priests at Elsewhere

Code: interpol - chicago theater illuminati hotties - hideout it looks sad - subT downstairs robyn - riviera steve malkmus - art institute eleventh dream day - hideout colleen green - sleeping village swearin' - lincoln hall surf curse - subT shura - the bottle

Chap: TA was the only show I saw. It was great!

Bronco: All of them.  They were each great in their own way.  Aside from Tool I was able to interact with the band members at each of the shows.  One I didn't have a ticket for and scored one at the door.  One was in the tiniest venue I've seen a show at.  One had a surprisingly entertaining opening act.  And Tool surprised me with how much I enjoyed an arena show despite being so far away I couldn't see the facial features of the band members.  And there was SOOOOOOO much weed being smoked in the Garden that night.  And I was with a few good buddies.  And I was able to sell my fourth ticket for twice what I paid, simulatenously covering me and my fourth friend who had to bail because his life sucks because his wife sucks. 

Confession of 2019

Nasty: I consume more music at my cushy, suburban OrangeTheory workout classes than in my own free time. S/O to Coach Vanessa for having some Girl Talk on her playlists. 

Codem: i had more fun listening to stuff that i already knew about than stuff that was coming out.

BC: I saw a Yacht Rock cover band and didn't hate it -I succumbed to social pressure and saw DMB -I didn't realize until the last minute that my favorite album was released in 2018 (Wild Nothing). Removing it greatly reduced my loyalty to my list.

Bronco: I'm losing my edge.  I enjoyed way more lady singer bands this year than in any other year.

Chap:  Couldn't get my shit together on the tracks list so just posted a random playlist

Larse: Not really a confession but more of a TIL (today I learned), but Raphael Saadiq was an original member of Tony! Toni! Tone!

Biggest Disappointment of 2019

Bin: The National @ Summerfest. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "the frontman was completely detached, even confessing at one point that he was excited to get back home to his family. The result was an incredibly depressing show — which, given the band's dour songs, is really saying something." ... Huge Bummer.

BC: Didn't see nearly enough shows with nearly enough of yous 

Chap: Sturgill Simpson... unlistenable!

Bronco: Baroness.

Laser: Modest Mouse opening for The Black Keys

Code: i was really messed up by dave berman's passing. i had tickets to see him play at the end of august. it was going to be my first catching him live and in concert. i had waited for this moment since i picked up american water back in 2003.  two weeks before he was supposed to come through town, he up and died.  also, much less of a bummer, the chromatics show in miami that Arden and i were going to attend got canceled two days before the show.

Most Overrated of 2019

Nasty: Kanye's shoes

Chap: LEGACY! LEGACY! – Jamila Woods seems to have been highly regarded? Not my thing

BC: FKA Twigs

Bronco: Baroness.

JD: Big Thief

Code: cancel culture

Larse: Mayor Pete

Make it Stop 2019

Chap: In my house, the Nutcracker Suite. It's great, until the 300th time that day.

Nasty: Cage the Elephant (but children, instead of elephant, and in real life, not the band)

BC: Lizzo 

Code: lizzo

JD: Memes

Larse: Trump

Bronco: News

Biggest TBH Regret of 2019

Chap: Can't seem to get to more than one show per year; Jessica Pratt in a church by my old place

JD: Missin’ dat Pratt yet Nick!

BC: Should've listened to the Kanye album.  Should've spent more time with the Deerhunter record.

Rotty: Skipping CHVRCHES at Summerfest

Code: another year with no fog party

Nasty: Not going to Indy 500. lol jk.

Bronco: I didn't buy tickets to a few shows I would've liked to have seen.  One of them I went to the venue and didn't get in.  That bummed me out, but I crossed the street and had a few beers by myself for good measure, so it wasn't a total loss.

Detective Murtaugh of 2019

JD: Everything.

Bronco: Shows that don't start until 10pm. That Girl Band show nearly wrecked me.

Chap: How much I loved Bruce Springsteen's adult contemporary western-themed old-man album.

BC: The ten seconds I lasted with 1000 GECS

Nasty: For the life of me - I cannot figure out how to operate the "play next" queue on these apps. 

Laser: Lizzo at Summerfest - lot of younglings running around; people were racist towards Lizzo's security guards, she vowed not to come back to MKE, one of the most segregated cities in America :(

Resolution for 2019 Status

Laser: — How It Went: Who can even remember this shit...I'm sure it was that I'd do better at keeping track or listen to more shit people suggest and I'm sure I failed.

BC: Listen to one new album a week; reboot the Classic Album Review Club How It Went:  Noooot toooo gooooood

Code: catch ovlov, pictureplane, washer, chromatics, EMA and colleen green live this year. How It Went: i saw chromatics and colleen green. last i checked .400 gets you into cooperstown.

JD: Greater consciousness of how I’m using my attention - an ineffectual and meaningless protest of the ways the world is burning down in pursuit of it. How It Went: Not bad! I especially nailed the “ineffectual and meaningless” part.

Chap: Learn Piano; Guilt Joe Dons into finally inviting me to a concert. How It Went: Learned some piano but got to busy for it... Couldn't guilt JD to invite me anywhere but I DID invite him to a show! The same one I went to! With him!

Bronco: Read more 'classic’ books. I didn’t read many of them, even in school (especially in school? Never could read a book I was told to read). But I’m leaning in the sci-fi direction of 'classics’. I just read Dune this summer, and wrapped up Fahrenheit 451 the other day. I’m feeling an unexplained need to beef up my nerd credentials and this seems the way to accomplish it. How It Went: Nope.  Fell back in to zombie-apocalypse genre series that I've been reading for a while. But I am currently reading arch-nerd Neal Stephenson's "Fall; or, Dodge in Hell". It's almost 900 pages, I feel like I've been reading for months now, and because I'm a stupidly slow reader, I read only before going to bed, and can only make it 10 minutes before falling asleep and hitting myself in the face with my phone, I'm only 25% of the way through. But man is it painting a creepy yet eerily plausible scene of the near future. Guy just knows how to write.

Nasty: Hope last year I was smart enough to leave this blank. (editor’s note: [removes shoes, pets cat, puts on slippers, retires to favorite easy chair, sips martini, slowly pulls reading glasses out of cardigan pocket, dusts them off, loads todaysbiggesthits.tumblr.com, scrolls to ‘Resolution for 2019’] “Nasty: I’m sticking with it - get to NY for a show with JD.”)

Resolution for 2020

BC: See Phish in 2020

Codem: i'm making it easier this year. catch ovlov, washer, EMA and colleen green live this year. bonus points: see dom's much anticipated return to the stage.

Bronco: Build a vinyl collection. I know I dumped on Brendon for suggesting he press copies of Carpet Affair, but my kid's getting way into music and listening to it on his own (via Alexa in my bedroom which is super fucking annoying), so we're getting him his own record player and I think it's going to be a cool activity to go record store diving for whatever classics we can scrounge up.

JD: Get to more shows. Take more aimless strolls spinning tunes.

Bin: Send an email about music on the TBH! thread. 

Larse: None

Chap: Eh I'm cool

Most Anticipated of 2020

Code: my man dom said that he is coming back to the world this year. i have to believe that he'll keep his word. i'm thinking 2020 is going to be the year for chromatics' Tommy.

Chap: TWOD, Perfume Genius, Jason Isbell

BC: Huey Lewis and the News, Tame Impala, Run the Jewels

Bronco: Kvelertak and Mastodon, maybe some surprise extra Tool material?

JD: Working Men’s Club

Nasty: Spotify getting Jay-Z's catalog back. 

[angelcatsiel]

ok no one wants to ask me any questions from the posts I reblogged recently but I’m going to fucking talk about rubbish anyway and no one can stop me. I love the sound of my own voice too much. Ok a brief summary of my decade by year (a lil depressing, slight trigger warning in the middle and some vague nsfw/kink mentions)

2010: ok so I started this decade 13 years old, somehow a hell of a lot smarter than I am now, in high school (jesus christ that feels like a lifetime ago), with a Bright Future ahead of me, apparently, due to my good grades and perfect behaviour. Was that even real? 

2011: Started my final year at high school. I was very scared. I actually loved school, I did well at most of it, absolutely loved tests and exams (I know, what a nerd) and loved my friends.

2012: Left school and cried a lot. Had my first panic attack. I have vivid memories of standing on the school field just after completing our final exam, listening to a happy song on my old MP3 player (I’m not saying which song you guys will laugh), and crying because I didn’t want to go. I started college and the downhill spiral began. Didn’t make any real friends. It was harder to go in every day. I’d always been shy but this was different.

2013: Self harmed for the first time ever in January. Parents found out in April. Started seeing a therapist. College kept getting worse. First suicide attempt. Most of the year is a bit of a blur. Started watching supernatural in the summer.

2014: More self harming and suicide attempts. Had to go to hospital once for stitches. It was a rough year. Had to drop most of my college course but still managed to somehow complete it, without the extended part of my qualification I’d originally signed up for. Went to my first ever convention, asylum 13, and met Richard Speight Jr! Also got my first job, working at a riding school.

2015: The WORST year, though there were good things. Met Misha for the first time, and also met Jared and Jensen! Went to Wolf’s Bane 3. Left with the worst case of post-con blues I’d ever had that just didn’t go away. Went to Asylum 15 several months later feeling absolutely no better. Even at my happiest, having a great time at A15, it wasn’t worth the pain. Things got bad. Did some bad things. Was totally 100% convinced that I was already dead. Not sure how I survived.

2016: Most of it was rough. Held on only for PurCon in Germany. Misha Collins saved my life. Felt like he paid special attention to me even though I didn’t tell him any of my story (told him I’d had a tough year at his autograph but I had this feeling before that). He even stopped me after my photo op and pulled me back just to smile at me and say ‘goodbye’ so earnestly. Felt like some sort of sign. I stayed alive. Met one of my best friends in Germany too for the first time, and had my first (actually wanted) kiss with her! FINALLY stopped getting the numb, dead inside feeling I’d had since wolf’s bane last year, right towards the end. I’d almost forgotten what emotions felt like. I still felt like shit but I could breathe again. Also ended the year by getting on a plane on my own, a huge achievement, and got a job at a cinema!

2017: THE SEX YEAR. Lost my virginity early in the year. Discovered my love for kink. Had a temporary sort of Dom/sub relationship for a few months. Went to HVFF in London and met my current boyfriend for the first time, in the queue for John Barrowman. Had LOADS of kinky sex. Went from self harming every single day to every couple of months. Started gaining some self confidence. Had a BIG fallout with my dad (he found out about the sex lmao) which was tough. Got in my first ever proper relationship.

2018: Probably the first year I found myself genuinely glad I had survived the last several. Self harm reduced even more. Spent most of my time flying back and forth seeing my boyfriend. Moved to Ireland in the summer, that was HUGE. I was moving away from my family. It was amazing and terrifying. Learned to cook. Relationship with parents (particularly my dad) improved massively.

2019: Moved into an actual house. Got a cat. Really focused on my mental health. Self harmed maybe 2 or 3 times in the entire year? Physical health decided to go massively downhill though, bc life is a bitch. Got a therapist in Ireland, had many hospital appointments, had to buy a walking stick since the weak shaking episodes that have happened occasionally over the last few years have gotten a lot worse. Doctors can’t find any cause for my constant anaemia and I’m pretty much always in pain. Got diagnosed with GERD. Looking into the other stuff. Still a hell of a lot happier than I used to be though. These difficulties are nothing compared to the mental pain of a few years ago. Very proud of how far I’ve come and in general I’m super happy. Never thought it was possible.

Current plans for next decade: Investigating health issues further, being kinder to myself. Disney World this year, possibly Canada and my first and most likely only Creation con next year. Possibly/probably marriage at some point (whaaaaaat). Hopefully travelling to some other places, definitely planning on Germany again!

In conclusion, decade started great, went to shit, then went back uphill again and ended on a pretty good note (though the state of the world is a biiiiiiiiit of a worry). As long as we overthrow all the billionaires in the next decade and fix our shitty system, I’ll be happy.

Start of decade (earliest I could find, 2011, alongside my baby sister):

End of decade, 2019:

[fymonsta-x]

[ADMIN] Happy 2019!

FY!MX is back with a new face and lots of new additions!

NEW LAYOUT: we opted for a permanent black and white layout to keep a minimalist, clean theme that matches MONSTA X’s monochromatic image. We also opted for a smaller mosaic for the header and cut the Twitter bar in half (from 14 to 6 images), keeping the blog lighter, without needing to load such a big amount of images.

New Navigation

ABOUT: About FY!MX | About MX

‘About FY!MX’ page has been added!

‘About MX’ has a new look! Each member has now their very own page, with a lot of new content added!

EVENTS: 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019

FOR MONBEBE: Fan Mail | Fan Cafe | Fan Projects | Purchase | Tutorials

LINKS: Awards | Achievements | Fan sites | Filmography | Discography | Music Shows | Performances | Videography

‘Discography’ and ‘Fan sites’ pages have been redesigned!

‘Music shows’, ‘Achievements’ and ‘Awards’ pages have been updated accordingly, as well as the ‘Fan Cafe’ page!

‘Videography’ and ‘Filmography’ pages have finally been added to our blog!

Blog Survey

We launched a survey to hear your opinion on the blog and we’ve come to the following conclusions:

Previews

When asked if you enjoy previews being posted on FYMX, whereas 87,7% of you replied positively, 9% replied negatively. Even though the conclusion seems obvious, it’s important for us to acknowledge that not everyone appreciates previews.

We’ve decided to fix the amount of rounds of previews we post: just 3 rounds or less. Previews are crucial in order to pinpoint where the group stands in its activities during a schedule, so they can’t be completely disregarded from an updates blog.

If you need or absolutely have to, you can mute the tag p: preview.

Fan-taken pictures

We asked you if you’d prefer to see only fan-taken pictures with HQ links (or not). Whereas 69,3% replied no, 30,7% replied yes. The percentages here are a lot more significant than on the previous topic.

First of all, we would like to explain how the process of reposting pictures goes: we copy an image directly from Twitter and we post it on Tumblr. However, whereas Twitter eats up some of the original quality, Tumblr makes it even worse.

Because MONSTA X fan sites do not hold a culture of posting HQ links often, forcing fan-taken pictures to rely on HQ links would most likely cut about 90% of the activity on the blog. So we chose to keep posting fan-taken pictures the same way we’ve always have, which is something we can do, and that simultaneously keeps the blog active.

We did learn, however, that you are aware of how low quality some of the pictures come off on Tumblr. We try to upload the HQ links whenever we can (HQ links might take months to come, if they ever come), but please understand that is entirely out of our control to always give you HQ content.

We also try to add new fan sites every day, fan sites that we notice that update often. We search on the MONSTA X tags regularly and we pick fan sites that upload in good quality (and that allow their content to be reposted, of course). It might not seem much, but we count with an average of 20 fan sites per member. That’s a lot of content!

Queue

One of your suggestions caught our attention, regarding the “unorganised” way we post fan taken pictures.

Our queue runs once everyday, organised chronologically (from newest to oldest event, from youngest member to oldest member), at a specific time, for two reasons: the first one, because MONSTA X are (desirably) asleep at that time, and so are their fan sites. For us, this means we can gather all the content everyone posted during the day and just release everything while they sleep, without having to worry about MONSTA X being awake posting real time updates.

The second one relates to the fact that South Korean nighttime also coincides with the time the two main admins, the most active members, come back home from classes/work. It gives us enough time to queue, organise, then release all that content, so we can keep the blog active everyday.

We also read that we don’t post enough fan taken pictures, or that we avoid specific members. Because this survey was made at a time MONSTA X weren’t promoting, it’s very likely for you to conclude content isn’t enough.

During MONSTA X’s breaks (which last, realistically, three days at best), sometimes we can only gather up to 10 fan taken pictures every day; sometimes, some member’s lists aren’t updated for three days. During their promotions, we can gather up to 200 fan taken pictures daily.

On this note, please also keep in mind that we don’t control the amount of fan sites each member has, or the amount of pictures each one posts. We don’t avoid any member as we are gladly open to fan sites suggestions, if you feel like you don’t see that member enough.

Birthdays

Someone suggested we don’t spam on birthdays. Please keep in mind these are actual unreleased HQ pictures that are being released in light of the birthday celebration of a certain member, once every year.

Captions

Someone brought to our attention that including the original content in Korean/Japanese makes posts a bit too long, especially on mobile. We’ve decided to exclude the original captions from now on and include the translations only!

Schedule

Some of you asked — and have been asking — for us to post monthly schedules for MONSTA X. We get MONSTA X’s schedule from their official fan cafe, where Starship updates it weekly, when they don’t update the events on the day. It is impossible for us to give you a monthly schedule because Starship will always add more schedules than announced beforehand. If you wish to find all of MONSTA X’s past schedules, you can use our tag p: schedule.

OT7 Tag

By request, we’ve also decided to add a more specific tag for MONSTA X as the entire group, making it easier for you to look for group pictures on the blog! We’ll start adding #ot7 to the group posts!

Finally, thank you for all your kind, warm messages! We’re always open to new ideas and add new things to our blog. Thank you so much for always supporting us and, of course, MONSTA X! ❤️

[pkmnjesus]

| P J Blog DIRECT > ...sort of? :p

Good day everyone! Today all I just wanted to do is provide a tumblr schedule update like what I did last year but only this time I’ll do it less frequently. This is just for my own reference to look back on as I journal and organize content I wish to publish in the future. Feel free to ignore or scroll pass this if you don't really care (which is probably 90% of you, since most of y’all only care what I reblog and not really what I make with my posts lol I CRI EVR TYM x’P).

If you’ve seen the schedule I posted for for 2019, I have only added 4 major postings for this year in which one of them I have already fulfilled (my 3,000 follower special M21 movie review). As for the others, the PokéAni Rewind will still be set by the end of the year and I’m excited to say that it will be covering the Sword & Shield anime some in time in late Fall. For my Digimon series appreciation, the goal is to post it in August near Odaiba Memorial Day. With the announcement of the new Digimon Adventure 2020 movie, I was thinking maybe delaying it to 2020 to include that, but I don’t want to move it again since this was originally supposed to happen last year. Now the thing I wanted to address is the P J 5th Tumblr blogaversary follower appreciation post that I originally wanted to post in May, but due lack of time and my busy schedule with my new job, I wasn’t able to finish my drafts on time. I decided I am going to move this to 2020, next year, simply as a follower appreciation post for two reasons, 1. I felt like I already did a 5th anniversary special (as “P J” not the tumblr blog) 2. I didn’t want to leave out some awesome followers that followed me just this year (2019) that deserve a shoutout too, so I will include them in my 2020 post (hopefully 2020 followers don’t influence me to move it again lol).

NEXT, another big update I wanted to address...y’all remember PokéAni Trivia Tuesday? I did say that would it back some time in Spring, and Spring ain’t over yet :) That’s right, it’s making a return THIS WEEK, BUT! This blog series will now be moved to Thursdays to make a bigger gap for new PokéAni episodes that air on Sundays in Japan, and in case if I ever do occasional Monday Madness Media. It’s fitting to be on Thursdays now, since it was the former time-slotted when new Pokéani episodes aired in Japan. And yes, I will still continue to do MMM posts, but it will come occasionally (still on Mondays of course) just like I do with my Super Smash Showcase (I plan to upload more vids on that hopefully) and P J eats posts whenever I have the time or the urge to do so. Doing PTT every week is already taking up my weekly, so I feel like I shouldn’t be doing MMM weekly especially seeing how much people actually read those posts. It ain’t worth it the effort. Like before, I won’t be posting on certain weeks due to a holiday or a personal busy reason. I want to say thanks again for those that have followed my new side blog @pokeaniepisodes that I launched at the start of the year. I’m amazed I’m close to 800 followers in just 6 months! If for some reason still don’t know, I post all of my new #pokeani content over there, and no longer here in the main blog (though I still reblog some of my side-blogs posts here from time-to-time!). I am also planning to showcase and reblog some PTT content on the side-blog there in future starting with trivia #1 because it is technically #pokeani content, but I will still first post it here in the main blog. Lastly, I feel like with this new direction of my blog, I don’t see myself doing #TPJ Takeover post queues in my blog that much as I used to do more in 2017-2018. I still won’t count it out for I may just schedule hourly posts if I am ever on the road traveling or days where I feel like I should make-up for zero activity on certain days. Either way, I will rarely do this from here on out but I’ll still include this in my schedule (I still have yet to do one this year lol).

And that’s end of my update log! Right now, to hype up the renamed PokéAni Trivia Thursday blog series this Thursday, today, I am going to be reblogging my five of my favorite trivia posts from last year which are my Global Tour posts in where I cite multiple facts about the Pokémon anime in many countries all over that have aired or showed the series in any way. If you’re one of my new followers starting late 2018, and if you aren’t from the United States (or Japan) where the anime is popularly known to air, you definitely gotta check it out and see if your country is one of the ones I mentioned on those posts. I will be spreading them out in different times throughout the day, so it doesn’t spam the dash with full of long posts (including this one haha). Until next update, PEACE!

[ibroughtthisonmyselfpixels]

Countertimeline, per Baines

Here’s one more thing before the pinnacle AR queue begins - and it’s not a reblogged positivity post this time! 

I put together this little timeline around the beginning of August 2018. It was when I was starting to write Intermission 2, and round about the time of the release of another timeline by Jack in relation to two of its most subtle players. (Keeping it vague in case there’s still people who haven’t seen the SoS finale yet.) People said they’d be interested in seeing it, so if you’re caught up with the project or don’t fear spoilers and wanna get into the nitty gritty of it, go behind the cut. 

1962: Patrick and Jennifer are born. 

November 2nd, 1968: Estelle Buonarroti is born. 

February 13th, 1971: Colby Lane is born.

1984: Patrick and Jennifer are married, becoming Baines - not sure which one is nee.

They are both circa twenty-two.

June 20th, 1990: birth of Cathy and Veronica Baines to Patrick and Jennifer. 

They are both circa twenty-eight.

March 1991: Estelle and Colby are married.

Estelle is twenty-two; Colby is twenty, having dropped out of a tech degree.

May 20th, 1991: birth of Lauro Wilkerson to Lynn and Cid

July 6th, 1992: birth of Deacon Wilkerson

May 20th, 1993: birth of Melody Vivian Buonarotti to Estelle and Colby

Estelle is twenty four and a half; Colby is twenty-two.

October 18th, 1993: birth of Jase Wilkerson

I’m aware this contradicts something stated in Lorelei’s first ten facts post that says Jase is a few years her senior… but then again, so have a lot of things in that post been contradicted as time continues to pass. I may need to post an updated version.

Summer, let’s say June, 2001: Melody meets the Wilkerson family as the latter move into the lot around the corner from her house. Cathy and Veronica are ten going on eleven; Lauro ten, Deacon eight going on nine, Melody eight, and Jase seven. 

Patrick and Jennifer are circa thirty-nine. Estelle is thirty-two, Colby thirtyish.

In September 2001, they would respectively be in the sixth, fifth, fourth, third, and second grades.

The Baines twins, the oldest of the bunch, officially age to teenagers on June 20th, 2003. At this point, Lauro is twelve, Deacon ten (eleven-siding), Melody also ten (nine-siding), and Jase nine.

Patrick and Jennifer are circa forty-one. Estelle is thirty-four, Colby thirty-two.

Jase, the youngest of the bunch, officially ages to teenager on October 18th, 2006. At this point, the Baines twins are sixteen, Lauro is fifteen, Deacon fourteen, and Melody thirteen.

Patrick and Jennifer are circa forty-four. Estelle is thirty-seven, Colby thirty-five.

Since Veronica is Melody’s girlfriend for the last three months in Sunset Valley, the latest point she and Melody could become a couple would be March, since Jack has pinpointed a June graduation, and after that the twins would turn eighteen and go off to college (I’m guessing out of state). At earliest, March 14th or so, Veronica would be seventeen years and almost nine months, and Melody fourteen years and almost ten months.

This means that Melody would be a teenager for about two years before leaving the Buonarotti house, giving the Wilkersons plenty of time to formulate their suspicions. 

Let’s settle on May 17th 2008, or at least week beginning May 12th 2008, for when Melody discloses things to Jase and he gets Estelle taken in for police questioning/custody. Melody will be very close to fifteen; meanwhile, the twins are seventeen-and-ten, Lauro sixteen, Deacon fifteen, and Jase himself fourteen-and-a-half. 

Patrick and Jennifer are circa forty-six. Estelle is thirty-nine, Colby thirty-seven.

By the time Melody is in Bridgeport and Lorelei, the twins will be eighteen, Lauro seventeen, and Deacon sixteen. 

It’ll be January 2009 or 2010 by the time Jase takes part in the student exchange. Assuming the former, they will both be fifteen.

As of the day the SoS MM BC ends (26th May 2019): Veronica is almost twenty-nine (Cathy ‘died’ at twenty-seven, and the Cathybot is technically perpetually twenty-six), Jase just turned twenty-eight, Deacon is twenty-six himself but will be twenty-seven in less than two months, Lorelei just turned twenty-six herself, and Jase and Pal are married and expecting at twenty-five-and-a-half. 

Patrick and Jennifer are circa fifty-seven. Estelle is fifty and finally showing her age, Colby forty-eight.

Also, Lyra’s thirty now.

[djseaward]

festival magic + my top 5 films seen at this year’s KVIFF

ahoj all, i’ve been in the middle of summer camps (sotiredomg) just wanted to pop in after our annual trip to karlovy vary for the film festival. even if it took me all dang week to finish this post.

in case you’re new around here: hi, i’m cynthia and i like to have film festival vacations in beautiful hilly spa towns where we get up at 6am to go stand in box office queues!

joking aside, we're getting into a real routine when it comes to this festival, but the most notable change this year is when we arrived to the box office on thursday shortly after getting in, we bought our friday tickets and then were asked if we would like to also purchase saturday tickets as well. normally this does not happen, as you're only allowed to buy tickets for that day and the next, but thanks to this little change, we had only two early mornings of queuing! it was incredible. lots of sleep, a good amount of relaxation.

this year was a little different too as we both agreed to only see three films a day instead of four or even five. i know this might seem like crazy talk to anyone who has not attended a film festival, but when our vacation is solely based around going to the festival... you see movies. i have found, however, that more than three films a day is too much. even though you might have the time in your schedule, by the fourth movie you're just sort of ready to go home and also not very able to synthesize and think and discuss the films. (the same reason why i never binge-watch tv shows)

so, three films a day it was. another change that we just figured out and will implement next time is actually spreading those three films over the entire day rather than watching the films, for example: at 13:00, then 16:00, and finally 19:00. this was our schedule for about two days of the festival and even though we had the morning to relax, it was rather difficult finding the time to power-walk across town to the next theater or barely having time to even grab a sandwich on the way.

every year gets more and more laid-back, and learning these little tweaks make it all the more enjoyable. besides the films themselves, i enjoyed (as ever!) trying all the different waters from the various prameny (springs) with my little ceramic sippy-cup (very characteristic of the spa-triangle region of the czech republic). on the hottest day of the year so far, sunday the 30th, we took a lovely walk in the forest south of the city right after buying our tickets that morning and it was such a nice way to have a break from sitting in the kino. we walked along a trail called the goethova stezka, and it was just really lovely. there are just countless trails around karlovy vary and i love exploring a new area every year.

i also really enjoyed the photography exhibition on the first floor of hotel thermal, hanging out at the various pop-up lounges (like the mall.cz and ceska televize zones), and seeing my picture in the festival denik newspaper (above) one morning. who would've thunk. my biggest twitter moment since the time that michael b. jordan retweeted me. just let me bask in my fame... for one more minute. (megan rapinoe pose)

on the last night in vary after we got out of our last screening (a new german film, systemsprenger) at národní dům, we walked back from masaryka street towards our flat near karlovy vary theater and the sky was just the most beautiful rosy, peachy hue. it was like magic was blanketing the city - so romantic. we found a wine bar nestled in a little alley and toasted to the start of july with glasses of prosecco. it seemed like one of those "european magic" moments, the sort of moment i remember from before i moved to europe. the sort of situation that makes you want to live there. a great end to a great festival.

lunch of the festival: one of the bowls from lékárna (above), all the way up at masaryka 47 . after male bistro apparently closed earlier this year and baguette boulevard has long left the vary scene (sniffle), my tummy was aching for some veggie-friendly health food and lékárna certainly filled the void. the spicy chickpea bowl with their house tahini, veggies and other deliciousness kept me going through a long travel day.

without any further ado, my top five films seen! i can highly recommend any one of these films if you get the chance to see them in the next year...

5) jan palach (2018, czech republic)

i feel like this film is basically a must-see especially for foreigners living in the czech republic who require a bit more background to fully take in what happened with jan palach during the prague spring (soviet invasion) of 1968. was very cool to get to see the cast and crew of the film as well at this screening.

  4) a white, white day (2019, iceland)

if you have seen any icelandic films, you would know the brilliant ingvar sigurdsson (above) who kills it in this film like all the rest. the story takes place in a remote icelandic town - deals with love, loss, stages of grieving, pain manifesting in anger and destruction, and more. it’s got to be the best icelandic film of the  year. the little girl who plays the granddaughter really makes the film, as well.

3) stitches (2019, serbia)

did you know that between the 1970′s and now, serbia has been dealing with a newborn-kidnapping crisis?  this conspiracy (who is doing this?!) that the government would rather like to keep under wraps has been surfacing in recent years, and that’s generally what this movie is about: a mother (a seamstress) who will stop at nothing to find her kidnapped son, stolen from her at birth and sold to another couple by hospital personnel eighteen years before. it starts slow but certainly builds and has you hanging on every moment.

2) monos (2019, columbia)

i had a hunch this film would be good and it surpassed even my high expectations. basically, it’s a loose lord of the flies scenario: eight kids, conscripted into the military are holding court on a stunning mountaintop living a life virtually away from all adults and are expected to watch over one milk cow... and one hostage: a forty-something american doctor. i don’t know what else to tell you about this one besides just “see it”, it’s brilliant and nearly devoid of flaws.

1) parasite (2019, south korea)

another banger from bong joon-ho (did we actually expect anything else?) of previous films like the host, snowpiercer, and 2017′s okja. parasite somehow manages to be even more epic than those three. the director himself even stated that the less information you have going into the screening, the better and i’d have to agree, but prepare for what is a drama, thriller and comedy all in one. it premiered at cannes this year and won the palme d’or so that’s sort of saying something. look out for this one!

see you next year, karlovy vary! and see the rest of you next week.

ps, past KVIFF accounts can all be seen here! it’s a lifestyle.

[the-trees-have-spirits]

In mid-April of 2019, I discovered I’ve been a green witch for my entire life. I found myself wanting to learn as much about this new part of my identity as I possibly could, and to discover what I could do with it. This weekly post is to help with exactly that - to serve as a focus, a single place to compile all my thoughts, my learnings, my findings, my discoveries and realizations.

May 15th, 2019

There’s more here than I would normally write in just one week - this is to catch up on the last month.

What I’ve Tried

I tried aura reading for the very first time on Thursday, on my own hand. Most of it was clear and unreadable, but I did catch tiny glimpses of a deep blue. On my very first attempt!!  

I’m trying to make charging my morning tea a daily habit. It’s not perfected - I often forget to charge it, forget to notice results, and have a hard time focusing on visualizing. Drinking tea - and even being interested in it! - is such a new interest for me too, so there’s still much progress to be made. 

I’m also trying to make thanking the earth and the sky upon my first steps outside a daily habit, but I’m having an even harder time remembering to do that. It’s worth noting though - it was raining pretty hard the first morning I tried. I got to my car and started driving to work - and nearly immediately, the rain stopped. Like, completely. It would have been the kind of rain that makes it hard to see while driving, otherwise. But it was clear for the entire length of my drive. And it picked back up again almost right after I got to the office. That, sent chills down my spine.

I was on the local Renaissance Faire grounds on Saturday for the first time since the season ended last fall, and while there I visited one of my favorite shops for old time’s sake - what I thought was primarily an incense shop, built into a forest thicket. I had no idea that it was actually a witchcraft supply shop, until I walked into it this time knowing what I do now. The walls were crowded with herbs for sale, and loose leaf teas, and mortars and pestals, and essential oils, along with so many different kinds and scents of incense.. I wanted to stay for so much longer, and appreciate everything, maybe ask some questions of the shopkeepers, maybe even buy some things.. but I’m still in the broom closet, and I was with Tyler at the time.

I also discovered the Faire’s tea shop for the very first time, and actually DID buy some tea from that lovely, lovely shop. I also bought a diffuser, so I can play with loose leaf tea right alongside bagged tea. And there is a beautiful garden in the back of that shop for anyone to enjoy, and let me tell you, when the weather isn’t cold and rainy, and I’m back for the regular Faire season come August, I am going to spend so much time getting to know that garden.

I also noticed that there are so many other witchy shops at the Faire that I had no idea were the real thing. The herb shop, the tea shop, a candle and lantern shop, multiple jewelry and clothing shops, another shop selling I don’t even remember what but is inside another thicket, but at this one the thicket is the shop, with walls made of leaves and branches, instead of a shop getting built inside a thicket.. I cannot wait until August so I can take a closer look around, and see what exactly has been under my nose this whole time.

What I’ve Learned

Oh, many, many things already. It has technically been a month, and I haven’t been recording anything in that time until now. So to save myself the stress of trying to just remember everything, I’m just going to list what I’ve learned in the last week, and anything else as it comes up. 

My aura is deep blue. Or, at least it was Thursday afternoon. I’m not sure if it’s a permanent color, or if it changes from moment to moment. A quick google search turns up this as its meaning: 

If your aura energy is blue, you're intuitive, and you love helping people. You remain calm during a crisis. Others lean on you for support. Royal blue aura: This means you are a highly developed spiritual intuitive or clairvoyant.

How about that shit. I wouldn’t say I’m “highly developed”... but that potential is absolutely there. It is raw and untamed and I have had run-ins with powerful spiritual experiences before. 

I swear there’s some kind of magic in music. I listened to a Harry Potter ambient video on YouTube on Monday evening as background noise, the first time I poked into anything Harry Potter since learning I’m a witch, and that took me on a ride. The emotions I felt were unreal. I don’t even get that emotional anymore listening to the soundtracks just by themselves. ... there was something about that mix. I wonder what that power is, whether it’s something in me or something in the music, and what other ways it can come to call. It is unlikely I’m just making too much of it.. one of the very first things I’ve learned is that there is no such thing as coincidence.

How I’m Learning

I started off doing a little bit of googling, and haunting a Facebook group I’m a member of called DIY Witches. But now I’ve moved to mostly following and creeping on fellow witchy blogs, so if I like A WHOLE TON of your old posts at once, that’s why. Don’t mind me, I’m just collecting posts to reblog and keep, once I get to them in my likes to add to my queue. 

Honestly, Tumblr witchcraft is SO MUCH MORE informative and varied - and not to mention woke - than anything I’d yet seen anywhere else. You are my people. I am going to learn so much here. 

My Situation

I am 28 years old, work as a project manager at a full-time office job, and live in a rented townhouse with my boyfriend, Tyler. We moved in together July of 2018, have been together for almost four years now (four years in August!), and have been seriously talking about engagement. We have not been without our hiccups of varying severity, but we always work on understanding each other and finding a compromise, and things always work out in the end. I love him with all my heart and can’t imagine my life being spent with anyone else. 

I was living in my parents’ house prior to moving last July. So, this is the very first time I’m living on my own, and dealing with all the responsibilities of adulthood on top of working a full-time job, home management, and dedicating time to my relationship. Finding time for myself and my multitudes of hobbies (I have so many) has been one of my biggest challenges, and highest priorities. And I’m happy to say I’ve been mostly successful in it. I’ve even been balancing a semi-good social life with it all.  

With all that said, finding the time - but mostly, the energy - to devote entirely to witchcraft is something I have only barely begun to address. With everything else that takes up my time, and the balance I only just seemed to discover, I have not yet figured out how to add this as well. 

And perhaps the more detrimental factor is Tyler. He doesn’t believe in anything in this vein at all, and in fact has been known to make fun of it on a regular basis. It’s entirely possible it’s because he’s understanding it incorrectly, and generally just doesn’t believe in any kind of spirituality. But currently, I am not comfortable talking to him about it at all. Maybe someday I’ll talk to him about it, and reveal what I am and what I feel, and help him learn and better understand. Maybe. But for right now, I have to keep anything I do quiet, private, and hidden.

Luckily, though, I’ve already been incorporating my love for trees and all things green into every aspect of my life for the last several years. I have made no effort to hide it. I thought it was just me “living my aesthetic.” Turns out it all meant so much more than that. And, hey - it can make it really easy to disguise things that are actually witchy as just “part of my aesthetic.” So I may actually be able to do some things without being discovered. 😊

My Story

This is something that will have to wait for another post. This one is already long enough. But, just you wait. This story reveals everything, and why my blog name is what it is. 🌳 💖 ✨

This Week’s Witchcraft Posts

Energetic Healing: Waterbending Style

Browse my tags: #witchcraft [useful] ❀ #witchy [aesthetic]