#Napoleon V was the first napoleon to get a car

[napolebonasacc]

Equestrian Portraits of Napoléon

Napoléon I

Napoléon II

Napoléon III

Napoléon IV

Napoléon V

[livefuntravelposts]

Best of Monaco

Monaco is  a small State that  sits on the breathtaking French Riviera and is headed by a crown Prince – the Prince of Monaco.  It severely lacks  in size but  certainly makes up for it in style and elegance –famously regognized as the world’s  most affluent country in the world endowed with a lavishness of nature. Kati has been there, partied with the rich and famous and has great memories of Monaco. Stretching along the French coastline, Monaco is flanked by France on one side and brushes the magnificent Mediterranean Sea on the other. This gorgeous and dazzling country is considered the most glamourous stretch of land in Europe.  Home to hundreds of the wealthiest personalities in Europe, Monaco is one of the affluent destinations preferred by casino lovers and gamblers. Renowned for its lavish and sumptuous lifestyle, this spectacular country also plays host to some fantastic natural scenery, brilliant old-school architectural landmarks, and unbelievably captivating tourist attractions. One exciting attraction you will notice when you visit is the steep, rugged promontory overlooking the Mediterranean sea, nicknamed "Le Rocher." (the Rock). On the same note, Monaco is not all about nature; it is also known for its extravagance, gambling, fine things, car racing, and romantic fairy tales. Even though words are not enough to describe the alluring beauty of Monaco, let's have a look at a few cities that you should consider while planning your trip to this trendy country.

  Beautiful places to visit in Monaco

Monaco-Ville (Le Rocher)

With a name that is similar to its country, Monaco-Ville city-state lies on a coastal peninsula stretching jutting towards the Mediterranean Sea, filling itself with a spectacular, endless nostalgia. Also known as "The Rock." Monaco- Ville is a town where you can get to feel the various medieval remnants that uphold Monacos's fascinating and majestic history. This historic town gives you a chance to stroll through the ancient pedestrian streets and alleyways giving you a perfect aura of the Old Town. As you awe-inspire yourself with the beautiful architecture, be sure to pass by the Prince's Palaces, also know as "The Palais Princier.". This magnificent fortress was used as the official residence by the Grimaldis family. Make sure you check out Place du Palais, a ceremonial site with palace guards, and be mesmerized with spectacular guard changing shift performance. Besides that, you can explore the St Nicholas Cathedral - a Roman church where you will find Monaco's ruling family's remains. Other notable attractions  comprise; “Princess Grace Botanical Garden|,” “The Museum of the Chapel of Visitation,” and “François Grimaldi Statue.” You can check out these hotels  Le Meridien Beach Plaza, Columbus Hotel Monaco, and  Hotel de France for accommodation.  

Monte Carlo

Renowned for its fantastic climate, Monte Carlo is one of Monaco's must-visit destinations. This city-state is dotted with numerous casinos and prides itself on having the only public beach in Monaco. For the best experience, start by visiting the Napoleon Museum, which showcases antiques that belong to Napoleon I, a French Emperor. As you hop from museum to museum, you will be treated to some fascinating views of authentic ancient and modern architecture covered with some beautiful sculptures and mural paintings. Visit the popular  Opera de Monte Carlo ("Salle Garnier") for a taste of French musical performances. Sports lovers must visit the famous F1 Grand Prix circuit for some perfect –picture moment. Be sure not to forget your camera. The Casino de Monte Carlo is another great  attraction that you shouldn’t  miss. Thanks to its heritage, iconic decor, and a vast array of table games and slot machines, the Casino de Monte Carlo tends to entice global clients. This renowned Casino has been renovated over the centuries to get to where it is right now. Even though we do not encourage gambling, you have to visit this iconic Casino for a perfect Monte Carlo experience.

  Café de Paris

Café de Paris is adjacent the Casino de Monte Carlo, sitting on an open terrace with a beautiful ambience, where you can see and be seen quite openly while in Monte Carlo. It’s a riveting place to be any time of the day, with the sun kissing on your chics at dawn, and  warm rays caressing your back at dusk.  The urbane café has slot machines on the outdoor terraces, for the smokers. Smoking is not allowed  inside Monaco casinos. The machine to aim for on this terrace is ‘Aliens .v. Predators’.  Immerse yourself in elegance and fine dining at this classic café , you’ll be spoilt for choice with their fantastic cuisines, fine wine and  a breathtaking view from the terrace facing the only casino in town.

  Jardin Exotique

Occupying such a small space of earth land, Monaco crams in wonderful magical  gardens. Floating high up at the entrance Jardin Exotique drops almost vertical down the rock face, making it quite cumbersome to clamber over. But  if you must, its well worth the effort, since the view from up there  is absolutely ravishing! Immerse yourself in a topnotch collection of prickly pear cactus and moist delicate flowers. The flora dates back hundreds of years back and have grown massively, you’ll feel like you’re  wandering through a dense forest in New Mexico with the exception of  the stunning  New Mexico sea views.  Beach lovers can explore the Monte Carlo Harbor, visit the Oceanographic Museum or opt to relax by the beach. You can also opt for a sightseeing adventure by boarding a yacht Cruise or taking a Bateau Bus (water taxi). You can check out these hotels  Port Palace, Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort, and  Novotel Monte Carlo for accommodation.

  La Condamine

Sitting at the southwest corner of Monaco, La Condamine is known as Monaco's business city-state and spans across the Port Hercule region that's usually full of luxury yachts. This district is distinctively upmarket but has a calm relaxing feel, and is a fantastic place to explore for a few hours. Experience the Intriguing mix of colorful history and modern culture that makes Monaco so unique. While sauntering through the beautiful walkway in Princess Caroline District, you can visit some the local cafes offering fresh food and drinks, go shopping, or better yet, visit the open-air swimming pool and have fun gliding down the twisty water slide. Other must-see attractions include the Condamine Market, the Monaco harbor, and Princess Antoinette Park. You can check out these places for accommodation: Chateau Eza, Hotel La Perouse Nice Baie des Anges, and Hotel Juana.

  Les Révoires

Positioned in the north-west part of the country, Les Revoires is considered the smallest city-state in Monaco. Les Revoires is known for its steep Inclines that offer picturesque views. Don't forget to take photos of the beautiful "Rock of Monaco" (Monolith) and the Mediterranean waters' stunning view. When visiting Mount Agel, you can pass through Chemin des Revoires for some breathtaking views of the city and Mediterranean sea. Don’t miss out on  the "Exotic Garden of Monaco. " (Jardin Exotique de Monaco), which is full of different plants and animal species. While still in Les Revoires, you can visit the Museum of Prehistoric Anthropology for some history lessons. You can check out these hotels, Le saint paul, Chateau De la Chevre D Or, and  Le Mas de Pierre, for accommodation.

  La Colle

Just like Fontviella, La Colle city-state is one of Monaco's heavily populated areas - not to mention that it is among the smallest districts in Monaco in terms of land and Population. La Colle prides itself on having the only hospital in Monaco, "Princess Grace Hospital." There are lots of places to see and enjoy around La Colle-Sur-Loup. If you enjoy hiking or riding, La Colle-Sur-Loup is an area where numerous secret gems are waiting to be discovered.  Even though La Colle is considered an Industrial area, machine lovers will be thrilled touring some very top-notch auto manufacturing factories like Venturi and Voxan. Other notable landmarks to visit include The Village of Fools, an amusement park for kids, Canyon Forest, an adventure park, and Escoffier Museum of Culinary Arts. You can check out these places for accommodation: La Bastide Gourmande, Hotel La Grande Bastide, and Domaine du Mas de Pierre Hotel & Resort.  

Larvotto

Considered by many to be a Monte Carlo sister, Larvotto sits on Monaco's coastline's eastern side. Larvotte has a free to all public beach that shares a border with Monte Carlo. But unlike many beaches in Monaco, Larvotte beach is made up of pebbles rather than sand. Although Larvotte beach is man-made, it is famous for its clean crystal-like waters, coastal charm, and an aura that's hard to compete with. You can start by exploring one of the most expensive streets to rent, "Princess Grace Avenue." Which is full of tall buildings facing the gorgeous view of the sea".while there, you can pass by the Japanese Garden for some picture taking before heading to Larvotto beach. Some of the pursuits that might fascinate you while at the beach include water-skiing, sea kayaking, and motor-boat riding. You can opt for a bike ride along the "Promenade des Anglais" coastal walkway in the evening. Besides that, you can decide to relax in one of the luxurious restaurants enjoy some French cuisine. For accommodation, you can check out these places Hotel le Prejoly, Residence Belle Plage, and Mandarina Hotel by Actisource.

  Les Moneghetti

Your trip to Monaco will not be complete without exploring its northern central region that is stacked with a gorgeous view of beautiful villas and apartments. First of all, you need to visit Moneghetti, a relaxing garden that prides itself on having the only railway station "Gare de Monaco-Monte-Carlo" in Monaco. While at the Moneghetti, you can head down to the Theatre des Muses for some excruciating afternoon performance. Adventure lovers can cross over to the motor racing arena for some action-packed evening at the Formula 1 Grand Prix track. Other notable attractions include the Sacred Heart, the parish church which houses the scouts association of Monaco. Another landmark not to be forgotten is the "Compagnie des Carabiniers du Prince," a military infantry barrack that trains foreign soldiers. You can check out these places for accommodation: Monaco Penthouse Le Cesar, Vrbo Property and, Hôtel Hermitage Monte-Carlo.

  Our Final Word

Though not our typical destination, Monaco is definitely worth a visit.  Scores of vacationers  visit Monaco to experience the charming vibe of the French sea coast. Believed to be a luxurious destination in Europe, Monaco evokes an air of opulent wealth with its elegant five-star resorts, private yachts, luxury fashion shops, and state of the art restaurants. Monaco is mostly visited as a day-trip from Nice, which is about 30-Minutes away by train. it offers a great road trip ambience for countryside  sightseeing while touring on the French Azur. One of the best destinations Europe!

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[personalityisnice]

Some Thoughts on Dealing With Intrusive.....Thoughts.

Some thoughts I threw together while I was working on a more in-depth analysis for this episode.

Well, Thomas isn't okay today. Looks like Virgil's not the only one with dark circles under his eyes this episode.

Oh my God, Logan's shriek and Virgil and Patton's reaction to it.

I'd be willing to bet Logan's "What are you talk-what are you talk-what are you talking about" was a take that didn’t go according to plan that they kept. Good call, if so. 

I remember that movie. Mostly for the fact that I was fed up even then with the whole "woman has the gall to spend all her time at work and to not start a family" conceit. And for Jon Heder, whose role in this was his first after Napoleon Dynamite.

Yeah, the sound fading out is a really cool effect. It fits with someone who's gotten no sleep, and captures perfectly that feeling where an intrusive thought sort of...blocks out everything else that's going on around you.

The fingers popping out from behind the tv? Genuinely unsettling. Honest to god though, it took me way too long to realize a new Side had arrived. To be fair, my guess was that Thomas’s intrusive thoughts would be visualized as hallucinations throughout the video for us, the viewers. So I figured that's all the manic looking dude behind the tv was.

First thing I did upon realizing we had a new Side was check his color scheme. So yep, looks like the rainbow theory is all but confirmed. And now I'm going to be thinking of the last dude as Orange Julius until he's shows up and gives us his actual name..

Dude's got a bit of a Snidely whiplash Freddie Mercury thing going on.

Everybody give props to rainbow-sides for semi-predicting this Dark Side.

Damn, I was half-right. I figured we'd get a villain song, but with all three of the Others after they'd all been introduced. But it makes sense that if any of them were going to have one alone, it'd be this guy, seeing as he's Roman's creative counterpart.

Seems I was right about the snake going for back up. Also, yeah I could see already how this episode was going to earn that warning at the beginning of it.

"I'm really stupid right now." I have never related to this man more. And damn I felt bad for him this episode. Dealing with intrusive thoughts and almost no sleep? Someone hug him. Character!Joan, climb out of your coffin, get over there and hug him!

Huh. The creative thoughts Thomas rejected. That's interesting. I doubted that you could make a whole character just out of intrusive thoughts, but those two concepts together work pretty well.

The whole initial argument between Thomas and The Duke feels weirdly meta considering what Joan has said about this episode.

Oooh, I've heard of the white bear experiments. Try it at home! Fun for the kids! Also, I think the fact that the subject of repression keeps being broached could be an interesting sign of where the story is going.

The Others are just Patton's problem children. Prove me wrong.

Can't say I agree with Thomas about creativity. By that logic, no one who ever writes, paints, or sings about anything negative is creative. And we sort of need that stuff, as a society. Given Logan lampshades Thomas's black and white thinking, my guess is that's going to be part of his arc going forward.

The Duke's eyes when he says “Demented” are amazing.

"That....is something Joan would do." I'm cackling.

Yeah, this dude's definitley more than a little reminiscent of our Prince...

There might come a point where the crew delves into it and makes it not funny anymore, but for now I find Logan's repeated dismissal of Thomas' s friends and family strangely hilarious for some reason.

You know, I was already getting sleazy agent vibes from Deceit, but that whole Taylor Swift pitch makes me see it in this guy too. Some one write that AU, please.

Thomas's philosophy about creativity is interesting. But just a little sad. Thomas is focused on making things that'll make other people happy. Making himself happy with his work doesn't seem to even occur to him.

Also, pleasant or not, that first metaphor didn't make any sense.

I'm loving all Virgil's little jabs throughout. Yeah, he knew this guy.

Does the Duke share his curse word with Roman? Now I'm picturing them each wishing each other a Merry Bitchmas.

And we have more of the Others jabbing at Virgil. Looks like that's not just a Deceit thing.

Interesting that Patton (and by extension, Thomas) defines "being a good person" as putting others before himself.

I love how absolutely unimpressed Logan is with The Duke throughout.

Oh my God. Does anybody know who those actors are? Because they deserve some commendation for that, the poor bastards.

The Duke's face when he says "large, sharp knife" is amazing.

"Not acting on every thought that he has isn't faking anything." Yes, thank you Logan.

"Ooh, how fun! You know who could help us with that?" "No! One of you is enough!" Oh my God, yes. I like how Thomas is sleep deprived and out of sorts and still manages a "No, this is all we're doing today, shut that shit down right now, Mister. Or I will turn this car around."

Interesting that Patton is so opposed to lying but has ongoing problems with repression.

Aw, Logan looking out for Thomas and getting the others to listen to him.

Thomas's religious influences were the elephant in the room that I wasn't sure they were going to point out. This is a really intriguing path we're going down, here.

The idea of thought "being a precursor" to action gives a fascinating new perspective on Thomas in general and on the events of S v. S in particular.

Is that why Logan started using "figuritively"? His dealings with the Duke?

Him giving his name away so quickly fits with the character’s impulsive nature. But of course he had to use it to dig at Virgil.

I LIVE for Logan's comments physically affecting Remus.

"S@#%!" Someone give this boy a nap.

Yeah, that screaming....that was definitley just like an intrusive thought.

As soon as they were checking if he was gone I knew exactly what was going to happen. Also, I love how Logan speaks like he's got a lot of experience dealing with this guy.

I also really love the boys see-sawing between genuine horror and just plain old exasperation at Remus's antics. Thomas: *sigh* Shut up.

I relate so much to that moving car thing. For me it's jumping off of high places. I never really thought of that as an intrusive thought, though. More like morbid curiosity. But it's popped up for so many years I'm kind of over it.

How great it is that as Logan describes Remus as a screaming child on a airplane the Side gets more immature and desperate for attention.

Good God I love Logan when he gets all quiet and gentle like this. It's always such a nice surprise considering how brusque he normally is.

Yay, personal growth for Patton.

Virgil's whole speech....! It sort of sounds like Joan speaking to their own intrusive thoughts through him. Which makes the whole thing that much more heartfelt.

Yay, Roman's back. And he's learned some things himself.

I think I'll have more to say about Logan in another post. In the meantime...

God that fun house mirror thing....I need to say more about Roman in another post too. Remus's existence has given us some really interesting insights into Roman.

Listening to the music while Virgil was talking I was actually thinking, "Holy shit, is he going to tell him?" And there we go. It's canon now, and god knows what's going to happen now that Thomas knows. In any case, the Others don’t have that to hang over Virgil’s head anymore.

Whelp, those are my thoughts for now. I have a post I’m cooking up dealing with character analysis in particular and episode analysis in general. Check it out!

[grimelords]

My September playlist is here, 37 songs from opera to bossa nova to a song about marrying Tom Collins to thank him for the sips. I’m hopeful there’ll be at least one thing in here you’ll enjoy

Been Drinkin’ Water Out Of Hollow Log - Mississippi Fred McDowell: I love this song because every other version I’ve ever heard sings it as ‘I’ve been drinking muddy water, sleeping in a hollow log’, but straight up drinking out of the log sounds so much better. Also I just found out that this version I’ve loved for years was the original Alan Lomax recording and not a later one like I’d assumed, which is nice!

Tom Collins - The Sloppy Boys: I have not been able to get this song out of my head since I heard it. “I sent an edible arrangement to my travel agent because they had free booze on the carnival cruise” is a masterpiece of rhyme and the way he screams “hold him in my grips!” is just perfect.

What Means Of Witchery - Gospel: This is a perfect song. I think it’s criminal that Gospel aren’t more widely known and I think I’ve decided to make it my life mission to spread the word. The gospel of Gospel if you will. You don’t have to. I had a long daydream a little while ago about transcribing the drums in this song, which feels like an unresolved brain problem but exemplifies just how much I love it.

A Saint Among Madmen - Helen Of Troy: This is the band the drummer from Gospel was in before Gospel and they’re really really good. This sort of spoken word song is hard to pull off without sounding totally corny and I think him being so low in the mix really helps. It reminds me of some early At The Drive-In instrumental wise. The way it finally kicks off, and the sort of yelping desperate tone to the screams in the second half is just so satisfying.

shimripl casual - Autechre: Another cut I enjoyed from Autechre’s immense new album as I work on comprehending it. I like this song because it sounds like a field recording of a prototype mechanical swamp.

New Rules - Dua Lipa: This song feels like it deserves a marching band. There's just so much going on rhythmically, the dancehall rhythm at the centre of it is constantly augmented by all sorts of other percussion, the great snare work throughout, the perfectly formed tiny fill that introduces the chorus, it's just an absolute feast. I only found out the other day that the guy who produced this, Ian Kirkpatrick, also did Bad Liar - what a year for Ian!

My Girls - Tears For Fears: Hey Tears For Fears did a cover of My Girls by Animal Collective and this might be controversial but I think it's better than the original. It tightens up the structure and differentiates the sections a bit, so that it changes from a slow building jam into an odd pop song. They also draw out the harmonies more so that you really notice how funny it is to sing 'my father's graaave' over and over in a big bass under everything.

Crosses - Zero 7 and Jose Gonzales: Sia's career from before she was world-famous Sia is so interesting because she had like a full 15 years of being notable around the world in a bunch of different ways before it all coalesced into Big Sia. She was a backing vocalist in Jamiraquai's band for god's sake. She also was the de facto vocalist of this downtempo band Zero 7 for three albums, but she's not on this song but Jose Gonzales also sang on about half the songs on this album is! This is a remix/cover of his solo song Crosses but this version really shows the song in a whole different light to the original.

Napoleon Solo - At The Drive-In: Years ago in high school one of about 5 videos I had on my iPod was this version of Napoleon Solo from 2001 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nlfmqsx1r0 and I would watch it over and over and over. It's also a good example of why Cedric's lyrics are like they are. He just talks like that. He says things like 'they had the acme weight dropped on them' to describe his friends who died in a car crash and you just have to go along with it.

Act Three: No. 27 - A Real Slow Drag - Scott Joplin: Did you know Scott Joplin, the man behind everyone's favourite song The Entertainer, wrote TWO operas?? Because I didn't. One of them is unfairly lost to history but the other, Treemonisha, was written in 1911 but not properly performed until the Joplin renaissance in 1972. This is the big finale and it's partly because of the performance but partly because of the way he wrote it but it feels a lot more modern than any other operas I've heard from the era. Even though it is mostly a march, it feels like melodically and structurally he's drawing on pre-blues and gospel music in a way that presages rock and roll and the influence it's had on all music since - it feels more like a musical than an opera.

Celia - Cults: Cults have a new EP and it's an entirely different sound for them. Pounding, dark, Ochestral Manouveurs In The Dark type synths under their best lyrics in a long time.

Sharp Dressed Man - Xiu Xiu: Xiu Xiu did this ZZ Top cover for The AV club and I absolutely love it. It sounds like Queens Of The Stone Age if Josh Homme’s charisma stat overflowed and reset back to 0. This recording they did later is is great but the original video is even better https://youtu.be/0SG6yDSbtxULazy 

Nina - Greg Phillinganes: This was a recommendation from my friend and yours @megapope and thank god he did because I've had it stuck in my head all month. Written by Donald Fagen from Steely Dan for Michael Jackson's keyboard player's solo album, a true behind-the-scenes hit.

Gobbledigook - Sigur Ros: I was thinking about how after Takk Sigur Ros got so big and famous and rich off advertising money for their beautiful music and then made the best move possible and pivoted abruptly away from ethereal graceful floating melodies hung from the moon by a gossamer string to good old fashioned stompers made of wood. This is another in my very short playlist of songs like this and The Dodos first album where the driving rhythm plus acoustic guitars are the centre of it all. A little genre that I think has a lot left in it to explore.

Betty Dreams Of Green Men - Guerilla Toss: This feels like the energy drink version of Aqua by Eurythmics from last month's playlist. This sounds like BATS to me and I'm excited because there's not enough music like this around. Extremely energetic power music about some kind of 1950s alien invasion.

#NeverUseTheInternetAgain - Homeboy Sandman and Edan: I love this song. It starts out with a sentiment everyone can agree on (facebook sucks, the internet is bad) and quickly veers into 50 year old man gripes (GPS has ruined everyone's sense of direction? you should order pizza over the phone? match.com??) but it's got such conviction in the hook that I'm sold anyway and have pledged to #neverusetheinternetagain.

Vanishing Hour - Helen Of Troy: This is another Helen Of Troy song but it basically sounds like an unheard Gospel song, which is incredible new for me; the guy who will never stop tracking down every cassette and live recording they ever did. I don't know how the membership of Helen Of Troy went beyond sharing a drummer but the vocalist of Gospel is unmistakably in the mix here and it sounds fantastic.

Canon x Love S.O.S. - Justice: Another great cut from Justice's new sort of live album. This whole album has really made me appreciate Love S.O.S. a lot more. It comes back two or three times and I'm grateful every time. It's a perfect glam rock sentiment. Sending a love ambulance because there's a love emergency happening.

Mariners Apartment Complex - Lana Del Rey: I feel like we don't deserve new Lana yet. I'm so grateful but I'm still getting over Lust For Life and she's going to do this to me? Amazing.

I Got Cash - Brooklyn Funk Essentials: Another @megapope find. Perhaps the most powerful song I've ever heard, in the sense that I feel like I'm being personally admonished throughout. The power structures at play here are towering and the beat.. it's funky.

Pray - Jungle: Jungle flat out released five (5) singles before their album came out and they were all so amazing that I was worried they wouldn't have anything left for the actual album but guess what: the whole thing is absolutely gold, and especially this last song Pray. The feeling I get from the hook into the big drop feels like being dropped bodily into a big tub of honey, if there was a way that that could feel good instead of terrifying. It’s just luscious.

Sad Rude Future Dude - Ball Park Music: I googled “haven’t had a friend in years” trying to remember what this song was called and became instantly suicidal at the sheer amount of reddit threads that phrase returned. Which is I suppose exactly what this song’s about: posting on reddit about how the internet has ruined my relationships and brain, but in a very upbeat, singalong way. This song is a good example of how a dynamic drummer can completely elevate a song to another level.

Knuck If You Buck - Crime Mobb: Knuckle up if you're buck wild it's Crime Mobb. The best named crew since Ruff Sqwad. The two women in this (Princess and Diamond) absolutely carry the whole song. Everyone else has got such a mopey boring flow but they both come in so lively and so aggressive you cannot get away from it. Is there a more powerful opener than "I come in the club, shaking my dreads, throwing these bows and busting these heads"? Is there a better line in general than "Crime Mob, it ain't no stopping, it be like Saddam Hussein, Hitler and Osama Bin Laden"?

Deixa - Toquinho: I'm quickly becoming one of these 'the end is near' sandwich board guys grabbing people on the street and yelling at them except about bossa nova. It is criminal how much this whole genre has been reduced to funny elevator music or The Girl From Ipanema as ironic intermission music when it has stuff like this to offer us. I really recommend this whole album, I've been obsessed with it over the last couple weeks and it's just breathtaking start to finish.

The Way - Friends: This band's spotify page is good because it's full of absolutely no-name recordings of Blank And Friends that have fucked up their tagging. Anyway I have never heard a song like this, and I didn't think it was possible to use big 80s pinch harmonic guitars like this but they pulled it off in an absolutely beautiful way.

Mass Grave - Health and Soccer Mommy: Corrin Roddick of Purity Ring produced this new Health song which brings the degrees of separation between Health and Katy Perry down to a thrilling 1 since Purity Ring did two songs on her new album. This really does sound like Health covering a Purity Ring song and that's excellent news in my book. I don't know much about Soccer Mommy but this song has definitely inspired me to check her out so I'll undoubtedly report back on that next month.

(two circles) - Boredoms: I only just made the connection that Yamantaka Eye from Boredoms is the same Eye from from Hanatarash who famously drove a bulldozer through the back wall of a venue as part of a performance. Which I mention only because it really exemplifies just how much of a change of direction Vision Creation Newsun is from all that, just ten years later he's in a totally different direction of building something beautiful instead of tearing music (and buildings) apart at the seams. Nobody knows how to describe this album, it's space rock it's post rock it's experimental but it has something that a lot of that music doesn't - positivity. This whole album is a sun-worshipping positive fever without ever feeling lost or meandering.

Centreline - Ava Luna: I'm mad at this song. At about 1:15 they do an extremely satisfying thing sing the 'line' in 'centre line' in a deep bass and it sounds great. Then every other time that section comes around they either don't sing it or there's something else going on that obscures it and it blueballs you for the whole rest of the song. Other than that it's good, but i'm at war with this song.

Venice Bitch - Lana Del Rey: I am so excited that Lana Del Rey is finally embracing the most often ignored part of americana and facilitating a jam band. This is the last thing I would expect from Jack Antonoff but he did amazingly. It sounds closer to Ultraviolence era than anything else she's done and I'm just plain excited to see what the album is going to be like if this is any indication.

Act 1 Scene 4: This Is Monstrous, Wozzeck! - Alban Berg: I found an english version of Wozzeck and it's one of the best opera recordings I've ever heard. It's just plain mixed and recorded well, which is a rarity when a lot of opera recordings seem like they just hung a single mic somewhere at the back of the theatre and pressed the button. Anyway here's the good bit from Wozzeck where Wozzeck goes to the doctor and the doctor yells at him for "Pissing! Pissing there on the pavement!" See, opera’s fun!

Pop Roll Flow - Clypso: I heard this song on Unearthed when they had Nick Littlemore from Pnau guest programming and I love it. It feels brand new and very familiar at the same time, every sound in it is in absolute hypercolour, and the verse vocal sounds like a cool insect is singing at me. What's not to love!

I Might Survive - Architecture In Helsinki: I always feel like Arcitechture In Helsinki are poised to make like Portugal The Man and have an international superhit off their seventh album. They have been consistently reinventing their brain of weirdo-pop every single album for 15 years now and it feels like they've still got so much more to give. This song especially deserved to be a hit in my opinion, it's pop perfection and I've come around from hating to completely loving the little 'than alive baby!' adlib near the end.

Angels - The xx: My two best friends got married to each other this month and it was beautiful. What's more, she picked the perfect song to walk down the aisle to. I'm so happy to see two of the people I love the most in love with each other, and also when I drove them to their suite after the reception my phone accidentally started playing Merzbow's new album which was good.

Jesus Was A Cross Maker - Judee Sill: I'm so glad I found out about this album. Judee Sill had a crazy life, and her wiki page is a ride but unlike a lot of musicians with a back story her music stand alone - unique, rich and beautiful. Tightly structured and thoughtfully composed for such hippy-dippy christian mythology themes, and melodically beautiful even when her voice isn't quite up to the task. It really does feel like the spirit was moving through her. This song in particular is amazing I have been straight up listening to it on repeat. The phrasing is insane, the self-harmonised vocals sound like they're phasing in a very cool way, the violins break into a Bach figure halfway through - it's just amazing. I cannot stop listening. I've also started a playlist of this, Jesus Is A Dying Bedmaker by John Fahey and Jesus Came To My Brithday Party by The Middle East so I'm absolutely 'on one' as the kids say.

Rappers Convention - Harlem World Crew: another thanks to @megapope for bringing this incredible moment to my attention. A very early rap song that was recorded in the middle of the Iranian hostage crisis and helpfully gives a complete breakdown of the situation in the opening verse before getting back to basics and detailing how much they love partying for the remaining 5 minutes. Music is truly incredible. 

I Need A Lover - John Mellencamp: I'm learning a lot about John Mellencamp this week. Apparently this song was originally on the album 'A Biography' in 78 that didn't get a release in the US because his first album did so badly, but I Need A Lover was a top ten hit here in Australia and was thusly included on his next album a year later and blew up in the US. The other surprising thing is the album version, this version, has a fully two minute long intro before it gets to the song.

High (feat. Elton John) - Young Thug: The Lil' Nutsack song that makes Dewey Cox famous again in Walk Hard is real now and it's good as fuck.​

listen here

[rose-of-pollux]

The Skull Cove Lighthouse Affair (MFU fic), part 4 / 4

Title: The Skull Cove Lighthouse Affair Rating: PG13 (for action/danger) Chapter summary: Napoleon and Illya solve the mystery--but a malevolent spirit has reason for them not to reveal the truth. Notes: This version of the fic (cross-posted to AO3) is light slash; if you prefer reading gen, there is a gen version on ff.net.

                                        Act IV: The Insatiable Greed

It took them some time to get back down the stairs and outside to where the others were gathered, but, as they arrived, Fusco’s car was already being gently laid back onto the ground.  Despite this, Fusco scrambled out of the vehicle, still staring at it with a mix of horror and frustration.

“What happened!?” Illya asked.

“I don’t know!” Fusco bellowed.  “I was trying to get through the fog, and, all of a sudden, the car started floating!”

“Look at where the car is pointed, though,” Napoleon indicated.  “Right towards the cliff.  You’d have ended up a ghost yourself if this one hadn’t intervened!”

Fusco grumbled something under his breath; Napoleon ignored him and turned to Hawthorne.

“We didn’t really find anything up at the top; there is one other place I wanted to look at, and that was at the bottom of the cliff—is there a trail that leads down there?”

“There is,” Hawthorne said. “But I’d advise against it in the fog, too—it’s pretty steep, even on the trail.”

“I say we forget that, Napoleon,” Illya said.  “We’d be just as foolish as Fusco if we knowingly attempted that.”

Fusco glared at him, but Illya ignored him; Napoleon, of course, agreed with Illya, and then changed his inquiry.

“Do you happen to know the exact spot where the ship went down?” he asked.

“I do—not that it matters on a day as foggy as this, though—you won’t be able to see a thing,” Hawthorne sighed.  “But on clear days, you can actually see the shipwreck under the water from the top of the lighthouse.  …It’s a humbling experience—especially when the ghost ship rises from the spot, according to the thrill seekers.”  He sighed. “And it doesn’t look like Junior and I will get away like we usually do—so we’ll be around with you when the ghost ship rises again.”

“So the ghost ship…” Illya began.  “It rises on Halloween and… goes back down again by morning?”

“Just before dawn,” James Jr said, with a nod.  “Apparently, at exactly the same time it sunk a hundred years ago.”

Lotte shuddered.

Schuler attempted to look through the fog, but gave up.

“Well, the ship will be visible through the fog, I’m sure,” he said.  “Guess there’s nothing to do but sit around and wait for dark.”

Lotte turned and ran back inside, much to the concern of her sister, who followed her.  Napoleon and Illya also went inside.

“Are you alright?” Napoleon asked.

“No.  I wish to leave this place,” Lotte said.

“If it is a small consolation, the spirit of the lighthouse keeper is not a malevolent one,” Illya pointed out.  “As you saw, he saved Fusco from his own stupidity.”

Lotte sighed and nodded; she had to agree with that.

“Illya’s right,” Napoleon said.  “We’re perfectly safe in the lighthouse; this place is as solid as a rock--”

To demonstrate, he struck the central support column with his fist, which the stairwell was wrapped around, and was startled and distracted by a hollow clank.  Illya and the sisters also stared at the column in confusion.

“…Well, maybe not as solid as I thought,” Napoleon said.

“Why would this central column be hollow?” Illya wondered aloud.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Napoleon said.  He turned to the Rigassi sisters.  “Ladies, I highly recommend staying in your room if you want to feel safe; we’ll investigate the mystery behind this central column.”

The girls nodded and went back to their room as Napoleon and Illya inspected the central column as they ascended the spiral staircase.

“There’s only one reason why a central column would be hollow, Napoleon,” Illya said.  “And that is to conceal something within it.”

“And if there’s something hidden in it, there has to be some way to get to it,” Napoleon agreed.

If there was something hidden, then it was well-hidden, however; as the duo continued to ascend the staircase, there didn’t appear to a way into the column, and soon, they were back at the light at the top—and the column did not continue into it.

“…Well, that didn’t make any sense at all…” Napoleon said.  “Were we wrong?”

Illya paused for a moment, mulling things over.  Absently, he kicked at the old, dusty carpet that covered the floor.  Napoleon wrinkled his nose as dust filled the air, and he was about to say something when he looked down and noticed something through one of the threadbare patches of the carpet.

“Hang on…” he said, kneeling down in front of the spot.  He frowned for a moment, and then knocked on the floor.

It, too, gave out a hollow sound; his eyes widened as he exchanged a glance with Illya, whose eyebrows arched in surprise.

Without even needing to say a word, the two of them pulled the carpet back, revealing a thinly-cut trapdoor in the floor.

“There is the entry,” Illya said, as he pried it open.  He shined a flashlight down into the open pillar—sure enough, it was hollow all the way through.  Moving the flashlight around revealed a series of metal rungs built into the side of the pillar.

“This must go to some sort of secret cellar down there,” Napoleon said.  “I think I want to climb down and take a look…”

“I would advise against it,” Illya said.  “But if you must, I wouldn’t trust this old ladder that is built into it; I have an extendable grappling hook in our supplies.  I suggest we use that to climb down.

Napoleon considered this for a moment, and then nodded.

“Good idea,” he said. “But let’s act nonchalant—we don’t want the other guests realizing what we’re up to.”

“…How nonchalant can you look carry a grappling hook?”

Fortunately, they didn’t run into the other guests—the sisters were in their room, and the others were still trying to figure out what had happened to Fusco’s car outside.

Using the grappling hook, Napoleon clambered down into the hollow central column; he was keeping track of the floors, and paused once he realized they had certainly gone below the ground floor.

The central passageway continued for another 20 feet before Napoleon’s feet hit the ground; looking around with a flashlight, he saw that there was an underground tunnel that led downward, further into the cliff.

“Hey, Illya, it looks like we’ll be able to get to the bottom of the cliff after all!”

“Why do I get the feeling that this isn’t coincidental?” Illya replied, as he joined Napoleon and saw the tunnel.

“Because I’m sure it isn’t, too,” Napoleon said.  “I think we may have found the key to this whole thing…”

The tunnel looped around and continued downward into the cliff; it was almost a half hour before it began to level off—and water soon was covering the floor of the tunnel.

“The tide affects the water level,” Illya realized, checking his watch.  “See?  The tide is coming in now—would you rather come back later, Napoleon?”

Napoleon frowned.

“Let’s see how much deeper it gets,” he said.  “I think I’m okay for now--”

No sooner had he said that than he tripped over something and fell on his face into the water.  Illya hastily helped him up as he gasped for breath.

“Okay, nevermind, let’s go back,” Napoleon sputtered.  “Ugh… Well, here’s another suit for the laundromat.”  He scowled at the wet mud and sand that now covered him.

Illya gave him a sympathetic look and glanced down to see what exactly Napoleon had tripped over.

“Napoleon!”

He aimed his flashlight in the water, showing what was once a small, wooden boat—now no more than chunks of rotten wood.

“Someone had been using this tunnel,” Napoleon said, forgetting about his muddy clothes in an instant.  “But I wonder…”  He trailed off as his flashlight caught the remains of letters carved into part of the wooden boat.  “‘W…y…v…’”

“The Wyvern!?” Illya exclaimed.

“It’s the lifeboat that Purser Smith must have taken!” Napoleon said, continuing to shine his flashlight around the pieces of the lifeboat.  “Huh…  What were the odds that the storm would send his lifeboat right into this cave…?”  He trailed off again as his flashlight beam caught something else in and amongst the rotten wood—something mostly buried in the silt and mud, but still giving off an unmistakable shine…

Napoleon reached into the muck and pulled out a gold bar, covered in the gunk, but still very much a treasure.  Illya’s eyes widened at the sight of it.

“The odds of the storm sending the lifeboat here by chance are not as likely now,” he said.  He snapped his fingers.  “Napoleon, do you remember Adams’s log?  ‘I pray they will be able to make it safely, especially with that heavy cargo.’  Gold, Napoleon—they were carrying gold!”

“No wonder they were willing to risk the storm to bring it in,” Napoleon said.  He then frowned.  “Then… that means that…  Lying just off of the coast here is possibly…”

“…A fortune in century-old gold,” Illya finished.  His eyes widened.  “Napoleon, can I speculate on a possible scenario?”

“Speculate away…”

“Whenever merchant ships were carrying gold, there were, generally, very few people who knew about it—for reasons of safety.”

“Obviously,” Napoleon agreed.  “In a case like this, the less who would know, the better.”

“Exactly,” Illya said. “The captain would know—and he would trust his first mate with this information, too.  Keeper Adams seems to have known, as well, given the log entry, plus the fact that the shipping company would have been questioning him about the wreck later in order to find out what happened to their gold—unless the gold was off the ledgers, but, even so, Adams knew the captain well enough to be privy to the contents of the cargo.  Other than the three of them, there would be no one else who would know in the event that things on the voyage go smoothly.”

“…But things didn’t go smoothly; most of the crew got sick, including the first mate,” Napoleon recalled.  “I see where you’re going with this—Captain Sturges had to let Purser Smith in on the secret of the cargo…”

“…And, somehow, Purser Smith becomes the sole survivor of the crew,” Illya finished.  “With gold in hand, apparently, right into this tunnel.”

“And this tunnel goes all the way to the top of the lighthouse…” Napoleon realized.

The two exchanged glances.

“The light that went out!” they exclaimed, in unison.

“…Bozhe moi���” Illya gasped.  “Then it wasn’t Adams’s fault at all—Purser Smith sabotaged the lighthouse out of greed!”

Napoleon nodded.

“He grabbed some of the gold and took off in the lifeboat—probably couldn’t take as much as he wanted since it would be too heavy,” Napoleon theorized.  “Either he knew about this tunnel, or just ended up in it by happenstance from the storm.  Regardless of how he got here and found out where it led, he decided to take advantage of it.”

“He probably did not intend to have the ship sink,” Illya said.  “At least, I would hope that was the case—perhaps he just wanted to run it aground, so that he could retrieve more gold later…”

“But the ship sank; it would have caused quite a stir—so many people milling around, including press and investigators…” Napoleon said.  “Smith wouldn’t have had a chance to dive for the gold, Adams probably stuck around for long hours out of guilt, and the new keeper probably stayed extra hours, too, just to be vigilant and make sure nothing happened on his watch.”

“But then the place was abandoned,” Illya said.  “Why did he not go for the gold then?”

“Maybe whoever ordered the shipment hired divers to collect it before Smith could,” Napoleon suggested. “But I feel like that would have been mentioned in the logs…  Maybe Smith did go for the gold afterwards, who knows.  At any rate, at least Adams has been vindicated…”  Napoleon trailed off, slapping his forehead.  “Vindicate!  It wasn’t about the wind at all!”

“What?”

“What I thought I heard Adams say—he wasn’t saying ‘Wind hates me,’ he was saying ‘Vindicate me!’ He goes to visit Captain Sturges’s ghost at the shipwreck—Sturges probably told him about Smith’s betrayal!”

Illya paused.

“Then… do you suppose that the spirit who took Schuler’s camera and polaroids of Adams’s footprints was Smith—trying to keep us from finding out the truth?” he asked, putting the pieces together.

“That must be it; there’s no one else who would benefit from Adams taking the blame for the shipwreck,” Napoleon said.  “But why would Smith be haunting this place if he eventually got his gold?”

They glanced at the gold bar in Napoleon’s hand, and then out the tunnel—towards the cliffside and the ocean.

“Perhaps he did not get the gold,” Illya said.  “Perhaps he never got the chance—or perhaps he drowned trying to get it.  Regardless of the reason, Smith never got to enjoy the gold.”

“That must have driven him crazy—in life, and after,” Napoleon mused.  “Well, there’s nothing we can do about that—let’s get back up there and let everyone know the truth.  Maybe then, Adams will finally be able to cross over once the truth of his story is out.”

Illya nodded and moved to follow Napoleon back the way they had come, but a sudden gust of wind that was abnormally chill-inducing blew back at them with such a force that they could not proceed down the tunnel.

“What’s going on!?” Illya demanded.

“I don’t think Purser Smith appreciates the truth getting out,” Napoleon scowled, and he furiously addressed the spirit.  “Hey! It’s over!  It’s been a hundred years—and everything you did was for nothing! Let this whole thing go, and let Adams and the rest of the Wyvern crew cross over!”

The chill wind blew with a greater force, sending Napoleon flying backward into the rising water.

“Napoleon--!”

Illya swam after him, helping him stay afloat.

“What now…?” Napoleon said, looking at rising water with concern.  “We can’t go back—and the tide is coming in…”

“…He means to drown us…” Illya said, going pale; Napoleon followed suit.  “So many deaths are on his hands already—two more mean nothing at this point.”

“Should we try and rush past him again and try to get back up the tunnel?” Napoleon asked.

“It is not a force from this world; we’ll never make it,” Illya said.  He looked behind him, at the exit to the sea that was rapidly being closed off by water.  “We shall have to swim for it, Napoleon; it’s our only chance.”

Napoleon exhaled, cursing his weak swimming skills.

“I will help you,” Illya assured him, giving him an encouraging kiss.

Napoleon nodded, kissing him back, and the two of them swam—against the rising tide, out into the water.

Illya was, of course, true to his word, refusing to let go of his partner.  A few times, they did end up, briefly, underwater, and they saw a glimpse of the wreck of the Wyvern off in the distance.  Once they finally made it to the shoreline, they glanced at each other, both of them exhausted from their efforts—as well as the grim truth of what had happened that night a hundred years ago.

So much death and devastation, and for what?  Bars of yellow metal?  Were they really worth the lives of so many innocent men?  And yet, this was just one example—gold and the greed it caused had been the motive for plots upon plots throughout the course of history—and would likely continue for centuries to come.

After catching their breath, Illya spoke again.

“We need to make our way up the cliffside path; the tide will continue to rise,” he said.

“Smith will try to stop us,” Napoleon realized.  “You heard what Hawthorne said; in this fog, the trek is going to be dangerous.”

“At least we have some amount of daylight,” Illya sighed.

No sooner had he said that than the entire area around the lighthouse and the cliff was surrounded in darkness.

“What!?” Illya exclaimed in frustration.  He aimed a flashlight at his watch.  “It’s only noon!”

“His powers will be stronger in the dark,” Napoleon realized.  “He’s giving himself an edge!”

“He can do what he wishes—we are not going to drown here!” Illya fumed.  “I vowed after last year—I will not let anything from the supernatural world take you away from me! My love—our love—is stronger than his greed!”

He kissed Napoleon again, and the darkness around the immediate area around them lifted slightly.

“…I think you’re on to something here, Illya,” Napoleon said, after they broke apart.

“You aren’t just saying that to kiss me again, are you?”

“No… well, mostly no,” Napoleon admitted.  “But look; our kiss did this—lifted the darkness a bit.  I think even part of the fog has thinned around us, too…”

Illya nodded.

“Let’s go, Dorogoy.”

It was a slow journey up the cliffside path—Smith sent everything he could at them to stop them, or send them tumbling down the cliff—darkness, wind, fog, and rain.  But they stuck together, reaffirming their trust and love, and these acts of true love were enough to lighten the area and clear it of the malice-infected elements.

It was as they were nearly two-thirds up the hill that they paused; coming at them from the opposite end of the path was the blue ghost light Napoleon had seen in the lighthouse when they had arrived the night before—and following the light were Schuler, the Rigassi sisters, Hawthorne, his son, and even Fusco.

“I see them!” Lotte cried, pointing at Napoleon and Illya.

They hastened down the path as quickly as they could.

“What’s this?” Napoleon asked.

“You never came back from inspecting the pillar,” Lotte said, a slight quiver in her voice.  “And then everything was covered in darkness. Gina and me, we told Signore Hawthorne and Signore Schuler for help—and then this appeared…”

She indicated the ghost light.

“We remembered what you said about this one not being evil,” Gina added.  “So we all agreed to follow him, in the hopes he would lead us to you.”

“Yes, this is the ghost of the lighthouse keeper,” Napoleon said.  “Who wrongly thought that he was responsible for the wreck of the Wyvern…”

The wind and darkness howled around them again, and Napoleon glared furiously at the greedy spirit.

“Look, I told you—it’s over!  The power of love that Illya and I have is stronger than you can ever handle!  And it’s not just the two of us—look around you, Smith!  Look at these people who came to help us, when they haven’t even known us for 24 hours yet!  They didn’t do this out of greed—this is a goodness that your dark heart can’t touch!”

For a brief moment, a dark, shadowy mass appeared, which then formed into the shape of a person—features were visible in the shadow: a face, bearing a furious expression.

“It’s over, Smith,” Napoleon said, again.  “And your time is up.”

“Do svidaniya,” Illya said, nodding, holding Napoleon’s hand.

Smith let out a frustrated, angry roar, leaped into the air, and plunged into the water—in the direction of the shipwreck, bound by his greed for gold.

The darkness around them dissipated—and then the fog lifted, too.  The weather was a clear, fall morning, just as pleasant as could be.

The ghost light now also took a human shape—Adams, as he had looked in life.

“Thank you, my friends,” he said.  “For clearing my name.  It happened as you suspected—Smith betrayed Sturges and the crew, and led me to think that I had been responsible for the shipwreck.  Sturges and the others never let him claim the gold in life—and now, he will continue in death to claim it, but in vain.”

“It seems to me a fitting punishment,” Illya said.  “He will not be able to cross over until he finally learns to curb his greed.”

“But what about you?” Napoleon asked Adams.

“Now, I may finally rest—but I will wait until tonight, for when my good friend Sturges raises the ghost ship, I will join him—for they, too, were bound to this place until the truth came out.”  He managed a weary smile.  “I would be honored if you stayed here until tonight to see us off.”

Napoleon looked to Illya with a questioning look; the blond sighed, but managed a wan smile.

“Very well,” he said. “It can’t hurt.”

“Si…  We, too, will stay,” Lotte said, causing everyone to look at her in surprise. Gina looked thrilled, exchanging a glance with James Jr.

“Well, you bet I’m staying!” Schuler added.  “Hey, think I can get an interview with you, Mr. Adams?  Sir?  It’d be my first ghost interview--”

“Look, I really have places I need to be, so I’m going to have to turn down this little invitation,” Fusco said, gruffly.  He looked back at Napoleon and Illya, and managed a nod.  “You two did good,” he admitted, and then went back to his car and drove off.

“…He’ll never admit it,” Hawthorne said.  “But I think he really was worried about you boys when you went missing.”

“Well, I do grow on a person,” Napoleon boasted.

Illya just rolled his eyes.

                                               ***********************

There was little ceremony or fanfare that night; Adams had regaled them with tales from a century ago until Captain Sturges and crew emerged from the water on a ghostly version of the Wyvern.

Adams thanked them again and walked out to join them, embracing Sturges’s spirit in joyous relief. And then, as the crew on board waved farewell, they vanished, ship and all—their souls at rest, at last.

By morning, they had gone their separate ways—the Rigassi sisters were on their way to Brooklyn by train while Napoleon and Illya headed to Manhattan by car, aiming to have U.N.C.L.E. track down the rightful owner of the gold and eventually return it to them; Schuler had extended his stay at the bed and breakfast to write out his next book on the story of the Wyvern while everything was still fresh in his mind.

“You know,” Napoleon said, as they sailed along the highway. “Aside from the part where we almost got stuck in that tunnel with the tide coming it, it wasn’t a horrible adventure after all.”

“…I have to agree,” Illya admitted.  “Stingy Jack was far worse.  Most of the spirits were blameless, and the one malevolent one never stood a chance against us.”

“I wonder if he’ll ever let go of his greed…” Napoleon mused.  “Well, even if he does, his fate isn’t so great—with all the lives he took and his lack of remorse, even if he did cross over, he’d end up with old Mr. Zero. He’s probably best off where he is—as an example of what happens when greed consumes you.”

Illya nodded.

“Very true,” he said. “You know I have always opted for living a simple life.”

“Well, comfort and luxury aren’t inherently bad things.”

“Of course not,” Illya agreed.  “I will not look gift horses in the mouth—but I would be sure that others less fortunate than myself would get a chance to benefit from them, as well.  And while I may roll my eyes at your penchant for the luxuries of life, I know that your heart is pure and will not be tainted by greed, for you put human lives ahead of riches—that was where Smith went wrong.”

“Everything I have, everything I have a birthright to…  I’d give them all up in a heartbeat for you,” Napoleon promised.

“I know you would,” Illya said.  “And I do not take that lightly.”  He smiled. “You know I do not wear my heart on my sleeve, but I must say this--I do love you very much, Napoleon, and I know I am a wealthy man solely because I have you in my life.”

“Likewise, Illya,” Napoleon said, smiling back.  “I love you, too.”

A partnership and love as strong as theirs was truly the most valuable treasure that could ever exist.

                                                    The End

[imjustthemechanic]

Natalie Jones and the Golden Ship

Part 1/? - A Meeting at the Palace Part 2/? - Curry Talk Part 3/? - Princess Sitamun

Operation Move the Mummy gets underway, and Natasha meets a rather intriguing man on the train.

It was nearly a month later, towards the end of October with the weather unseasonably cold, when the CAAP gathered again at Folkestone.  They arrived in time to see the coffin of Sitamun loaded onto the train to go through the Chunnel.

There wasn’t very much to see.  When Nat and Allen had gone to the museum, the coffin had been on display inside a temperature-controlled glass case with guards on either side of it.  It was one of the most precious things in the entire collection, some thirty-five hundred years old and carved from a single enormous block of alabaster.  The hieroglyphics that decorated the outside were gilded and inlaid with semi-precious stones, and even in the dim lighting and surrounded by other priceless artefacts, it was breathtaking.

The mummy inside hadn’t fared as well as its container.  Princess Sitamun had been unwrapped at a Victorian party, and her various custodians over the years had kept her in attics, garden sheds, and even a smoking lounge before the museum finally got charge of her.  Rather than being black and leathery, like mummies were supposed to, she was grayish-brown and covered with frayed cracks, like fake leather that had been left out in the elements.  Conservators in Egypt were eager to have a look at her, hoping that their expertise and their country’s dry climate could stop her deteriorating any further.

None of this was visible from the train station in Folkestone, though.  Sitamun and her magnificent sarcophagus had been carefully packed up in an enormous crate that was now being lifted, very slowly and gently, by a crane.  A few reporters were taking pictures while more men waited nervously on the platform to guide the load into the cargo car.

“I wouldn’t like to be any of those guys,” Clint observed as they stood on a balcony to watch.  “The Post said the mummy’s insured for sixty million pounds.  No pressure, huh?”

“Does the insurance cover curses?” asked Sam.  “Or is that just how the company’s planning to get out of paying if anything happens?”

Sharon, always ready to look things up, was reading something on her phone.  “It better,” she said, “because according to Wikipedia this particular mummy is extremely cursed.”

“Really?”  Sam leaned to look over her shoulder.

“Yeah.  They’ve got a whole list of victims here,” Sharon said, her thumb flicking as she scrolled down.  “Okay, so after it was stolen from Egypt by Napoleon’s troops in 1799, the mummy was brought to England in the 1840’s by a guy called Nicolas Desrosiers.  He suddenly died a week later, and the mummy disappeared, but it turned up again in 1865 in the collection of a guy named Sir Richard Hart.  He announced he would be putting it on display, then fell from a horse and broke his neck the very next day.”

“It didn’t kill anybody in the twenty years in between,” Sam observed.

“Yeah, but then it made up for lost time,” said Sharon.  “Hart left the mummy to his daughter Evelyn, who died in childbirth the next year, along with her infant son.  It then belonged to her husband, who’s supposed to have choked to death on a grape.  He left it to his brother, who had a heart attack at the funeral, and his widow was so scared of it she immediately sold it to another collector, who developed a gambling addiction, bet the mummy and lost, and hanged himself.  The guy who won it from him supposedly had his house burn down and the coffin was the only thing that survived the fire.  By 1900 it was supposed to have killed over twenty people and its last owner donated it to the museum.  It didn’t do him any good, since he was mugged and shot the day after.”

“Yikes,” said Allen.

“How much of that is true?” Natasha asked.  Wikipedia, after all, was something anyone could edit.

“I have no idea,” said Sharon.  “A lot of these people have their own articles so they must have really existed, and it looks like none of them after Hart owned the mummy longer than ten years before something awful happened.”

“Life was short and dangerous back then,” Nat pointed out.

“It was indeed,” Sir Stephen agreed.  “Particularly for women.  The Abbess at Rogsey told me once that for a woman to bear a child required more courage than for a knight to go into battle, for the risk to her life was greater.”  Nobody else was looking in the right direction, but Natasha saw him put a hand on Sharon’s back.

“What about the museum?” asked Nat.  “It’s had her more than a century.  Did anything happen there?”

“Looks like no,” said Sharon.  “The list ends there.  So if there’s a curse, I guess it’s only invoked when the mummy is privately owned.”

“I guess I wouldn’t want anyone showing off my corpse, either,” said Sam.

Very slowly, the crane set the crate containing the coffin down on the train car.  Men moved in to strap it down.  The guy who’d been running the crane stepped down out of the cab, tottering as if he were about to fall over.  A co-worker clapped him on the back, shook his hand, and handed him a bottle of beer.

That was the CAAP’s cue to leave their vantage point and board the passenger cars.  They grabbed their coats and carry-ons, and headed down the stairs.

“Even if the mummy does decide to get up and cause trouble, it’ll have a hard time getting out of its coffin with all those crates and straps around it,” Sam observed as they descended.

“In movies mummies don’t tend to care about those things,” said Nat.  “I’d be more worried that if she tries she’ll just disintegrate.  She looked in pretty bad shape when Allen and I saw her.”

On the platform, the group split in two to board the train.  Sir Stephen, Sharon, and Sam went on the car behind the mummy, while Nat, Clint, and Allen were on the one in front.  Other than them, the cars were almost empty.  No commuters or vacation-goers were allowed on this train, just the mummy and a variety of specialists, guards, and conservators who were there to look after it, and a few reporters who’d gotten special permission from the museums in both London and Cairo to cover the move.

People weren’t normally allowed weapons of any sort on the Chunnel trains, but the guards had guns, and Sharon’s police revolver was in its holster under her jacket.  Clint had also brought his archery equipment, having upgraded from Robin Hood’s medieval longbow to a modern Hoyt Buffalo.  He settled down in a window seat, and put the bow and quiver next to him.

“New arrows,” Allen realized, pointing to them.  Clint used several different types all identifiable to the touch by the texture of the fletching.  Today there were several unfamiliar types.

“Yeah, I hit up those kids at Shrivenham for some more of the trick ones,” Clint said.  “At first I figured exploding arrows would take care of a mummy, no trouble, but then I remembered we’re gonna be in a tunnel under the ocean.  You don’t want a fire in there.  So instead, I got these.”  He pulled one out and held it up, showing a capsule of something in place of a head.  “Liquid nitrogen.  It’ll freeze the mummy solid, and we can just smash it.”

“Smart,” said Natasha, nodding.  “Although the Egyptians will never forgive us.”  She and Allen sat down in the row behind Clint.

“They’ll still get their coffin back,” said Clint.  “That’s the expensive part.  I also got this, for the boat ride.”  The mummy, train car and all, would be loaded on a cargo ship for the journey from Istanbul to Cairo.  Clint showed them an arrow with a fishhook tip.

“What’s that?” Nat asked.

“A fishing arrow, obviously!” said Clint.  “You fire it into the water, and when something bites, it’s got a line to reel it back in!”

Natasha laughed.  “You really think you’re gonna use that?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s damn cool,” Clint replied, sliding it back into his quiver.

A couple more people got on board, including one man who came and took a seat right across the aisle from Natasha and Allen.  He was in his thirties, with blue eyes and short brown hair, and a bit of beard stubble.  He was wearing a blue jacket and carrying a sports bag, and he put both of them into the overhead compartment before sitting down and leaning across the aisle to talk to Natasha.

“You’re Dr. Jones, right?” he asked.  His accent was American.

“Yes, that’s me,” said Nat.

The man offered a hand.  “I’m Jim Barnes from the New York Times.  I’m covering the story.”

“Nice to meet you,” Natasha said guardedly.  Internally she was bracing herself.  Reporters who talked to her were interested in one of two things – either her past as a spy, or, in the last week or so, the story of Sitamun’s curse.

“They’re talking about this all the way to New York?” asked Allen.

“They sure are,” said Barnes.  “We’ve got a lot of Egyptian stuff in the Museum of Natural History and in the Met, and people are worried we’ll be expected to do the same kind of ‘gesture’ for Egypt as the Brits are.  The Bugle had a headline demanding to know if we’ll have to send back Cleopatra’s Needle next.”

“I don’t know anything about that,” Natasha said.  “I’m an archaeologist, not a politician.”

“Mm-hm.”  Barnes pulled out a digital recorder.  “Well, would you mind telling me, as an archaeologist, who was Princess Sitamun and how she ended up in England?  I figure that’s a way more interesting and education angle on this than any of the curse stuff or the politics.”

Nat relaxed a little.  “Sure,” she said.   “Although I’m not an Egyptologist, so this is just what I’ve managed to learn from textbooks and the people at the V&A.”

“That’s all right,” said Barnes.  “Tell me.”

As the train pulled out of the station and headed into the yawning mouth of the Chunnel, Nat decided to begin at the beginning.  “Well,” she said, “Sitamun was the daughter of a pharaoh of the seventeenth dynasty, around 1580 BCE.  We don’t know very much about her.  She married her brother Ahmose, who was supposed to be next in line for the throne, but she died before he was crowned…”

Barnes seemed honestly interested in what she was telling him, asking questions and nodding along – but halfway through her impromptu lecture, she heard snoring, and looked over to see that Clint had fallen asleep.

“Am I that dull?” asked Nat.

“No, you’re not.”  Barnes touched her arm and smiled at her.  “Not at all.  Keep talking.”

As they rumbled along in the dark, Nat found herself wondering what Sir Stephen, Sharon, and Sam were doing or talking about in the car ahead.  Sir Stephen would probably be interested in the Chunnel – among the first things he’d commented on about the future was what ingenious engineers the people here were.  The idea of a tunnel under the English Channel was one he’d probably find both impressive and terrifying, since it theoretically left the islands open to invasion from the mainland.  That had been one of the main objections to building it, since the idea was first proposed in the nineteenth century.

“So if you don’t believe in mummy curses,” Barnes said, “what are you doing here?  Because that’s what all the tabloids are talking about – the UK government is so scared of the mummy’s curse they sent along the people who defeated Totenkopf.”

Nat sighed.  “We’re a precaution,” she said.  “They’re just trying to plan for everything.”

“Are you going all the way to Egypt?” Jim asked next.

“We’re planning to,” she said.  “All the way to meet Dr. Mostafa in Cairo.”

Barnes nodded.  “I’ve been to Cairo before, actually,” he said, giving her a cockeyed smile.  “I know a couple of places there.  Maybe once we arrive and you’re done with your mummy-sitting and I’m done with my article-writing, you could come and have a drink with me?”

[mmeaninglessnamee]

Every movie I have seen (as of August 2018)

Here’s every movie I have ever seen, at least the ones I’ve remembered, I know I’m missing some.

Moneyball

Harold Lloyd – Safety last

Marx Brothers:  A night at the Opera

Marx Brothers:  A day at the races

Marx Brothers:  a day at the circus

October Sky

Monty Python’s Holy Grail

Monty Python’s Meaning of Life

Monty Python’s Life of Brian

The Fugitive

Field of dreams

Major league

2001 a space odyssey

Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory

Galaxy Quest

Star Trek The Motion Picture

Star Trek the Wrath of Khan

Star Trek the Search for Spock

Star Trek the Voyage Home

Star Trek the Final Frontier

Star Trek The Final Frontier

Star Trek Generations

Star Trek First Contact

Star Trek Insurrection

Star Trek Nemesis

Star Trek (Reboot)

Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Beyond

Spaceballs

Blazing Saddles

Young Frankenstein

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Invictus

Shrek

The great escape

Big

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Home Alone

Where eagles dare

Rocky

Happy Gilmore

E.T.

War of the worlds (2005)

The Avengers

Captain America

Ed Wood

Plan 9 from Outer Space

The Sidehackers [MST3K]

Manos: the Hands of Fate [MST3K]

Juno

Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Arc

Indiana Jones The Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones Last Crusade

Indiana Jones The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (1989)

The Hobbit (animated)

The Lord of the rings pt . 1 (animated)

The Lord of the rings pt . 2 (animated)

The Hobbit 1

The Hobbit 2

The Hobbit 3

TLOTR Fellowship

TLOTR Two Towers

TLOTR ROTK

Star Wars IV

Star Wars V

Star Wars VI

Star Wars I

Star Wars II

Star Wars III

Star Wars VII

Star Wars VIII

Harry Potter 1

Harry Potter 2

Harry Potter 3

Harry Potter 4

Harry Potter 5

Harry Potter 7-1

Harry Potter 7-2

Ben Hur (original)

Ben Hur (1959)

Fantasia

Fantasia 2000

Spy Kids

Spy Kids 2

Spy Kids 3

Pirates of the Caribbean

Pirates of the Caribbean 2

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Blues Brothers

Anchorman

The Big Lewbowski

Mad Max Fury Road

Mad Max (Original)

Interstellar

The Martian

Finding Nemo

Toy Story

Toy Story 2

Toy Story 3

Monsters Inc.

Up

A Bug’s Life

The Incredibles

Frozen

Ratatouille

Wall-E

Dunkirk

National Lampoon’s Family Vacation

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

The Santa Clause

The Santa Clause 2

It’s A Wonderful Life

Miracle on 34th Street

Gideon’s Trumpet

V for Vendetta

Napoleon Dynamite

Elf

Olive the Other Reindeer

Superman

Superman 2

Man of Steel

Spiderman 3: Edgelord Peter Chronicles

To Kill a Mockingbird

Ocean’s 11

Men in Black

Men in Black 2

Slumdog Millionaire

My Cousin Vinnie

Transformers

Shawn of the dead

Jurassic Park

The Lost World

Jurassic Park 3

Jurassic World

Mrs Brisbee and the Rats of Nimh

High School Musical

Midnight in Paris

Godzilla vs Mothra or some shit like that, it had GZ and Mothra in it, ok?

(American) Godzilla

Back to the Future

Back to the Future 2

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight Rises

Tootsie

Alien vs Predator

Casablanca

The Prestige

The Terminal

12 Angry Men

Minority Report

James Bond Live and Let Die

James Bond Casino Royale

James Bond Skyfall

Airplane

Airplane 2

Naked Gun

Naked Gun 2 ½

Naked Gun 33 1/3

Pink Panther

Inception

King Kong (Peter Jackson)

Hotel Rwanda

Groundhog Day

Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters 2

Ghostbusters (female reboot)

Caddyshack

Pan’s Labyrinth

Night at the Museum

The 3 Musketeers

Paul Blart Mall Cop

Cloud Atlas

The Sandlot

Armageddon

The Road to El Dorado

Chicken Run

Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Madagascar

She’s the Man

101 Dalmatians

20,000 leagues under the sea

Zorro (original)

The Absent-minded professor

Mary Poppins

Herbie the Love Bug

Herbie 2

My Side of the Mountain

Race to Witch Mountain

The Wizard of Oz

The Wiz

Honey I shrunk the kids

Honey we shrunk ourselves

Honey I blew up the baby

Cool Runnings

Angels in the Outfield

Field of Dreams

The Lion King 1 ½

The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride

Inspector Gadget

The Princess Bride

Treasure Planet

The Rookie

The Simpsons Movie

Pokemon the first movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back

Pokemon 2000

Pokemon 3 Spell of the Unown

Pokemon 4ever

Pokemon  Heroes

Pokemon Mewtwo Returns (technically a special, not a movie)

Pokemon Jirachi Wish Maker

Pokemon the rise of Darkrai

Pokemon Giratina and the Sky Warrior

Pokemon Arceus and the Jewel of Life

Pokemon Black

Pokemon White (80% the same as Pokemon Black)

Pokemon Kyurem vs the Swords of Justice (and that’s the most recent one I’ve watched)

Ice Age

Ice Age 2

Ice Age 3

Prometheus

Iron Man 1

North by Northwest

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Captain America

Ratatoulle

Love Live the School Idol Movie

Your Name (Kimi no Na Wa)

The Garden of Words

5 Centimeters per Second

The Place Promised in our Early Days

Voices of a Distant Star

Children who chase Lost Voices/Journey to Agartha (Hoshi o ou kodomo)

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Howl’s Moving Castle

Kiki’s Delivery Service

Princess Mononoke

A Silent Voice

Napping Princess [Ancien & the Magic Tablet]

Interstella 5555

Marie and the Witch’s Flower

The Sting

Apollo 13

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Rear Window

The Birds

This is Spinal Tap

The Iron Giant

The Hunger Games

Supersize Me

Africa Screams

Office Space

Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Freaky Friday (remake verson)

National Treasure

National Treasure 2: Sean Bean dies this time

The Da Vinci Code

Angels and Demons

A Christmas carol (old version)

A Christmas carol (the one with Patrick Stewart)

A Christmas Story

Oz the Great and Powerful

The Wizard of Oz 3: Dorothy Goes to Hell (cinemassacre)

Taken

Kung Fu Panda

Super 8

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Talledega Nights

Crocodile Dundee

Crocodile Dundee 2

Romancing the Stone

Like Mike

Space Jam

Looney Toons Back in Action

Scooby Doo Ghoul School

Scooby Doo Reluctant Werewolf

Scooby Doo on Zombie Island

Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost

Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders

School of Rock

The Polar Express

The Bad News Bears (original)

The Dream Team

The Gods must be Crazy

The Gods must be Crazy 2

American Tale

The Dark Crystal

My Friend Martin (Animated MLK jr. history lesson thing)

Jakob the Liar (Holocaust story about a man in a ghetto claiming he has a radio, remake of a 70’s east german version of the same story)

The Devil’s Arithmetic

Man of Marble (1977) (Polish film)

Doctor Strange

Wonder Woman

U2 3D

A Hard Day’s Night

Help!

The Beatles: Eight Days A Week (touring documentary, 2016)

Yellow Submarine

UHF

Stop Making Sense

Mama Mia!

Valerian and the City of 1000 Planets

Il Boom

Lost in Translation

House of Flying Daggers

Edge of Tomorrow

Pacific Rim

The Post

Arrival

Evan Almighty

Bruce Almighty

Ace Ventura Animal Detective

Ace Venture Pet Detective

Despicable Me

Get Smart

Over the Hedge

March of Penguins

The African Queen

Girl, Interrupted

Gandhi

Around the World in 80 Days (Jackie Chan version)

Chicago (the musical)

Hugo

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Osmosis Jones

Cars

Les Miserables (2012)

Singing in the Rain

West Side Story

Mary Poppins

The General (Buster Keaton)

Little Big Man

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

O Brother Where Art Thou

Beowulf (2007)

Crash

The Maltese Falcon

The African Queen

The Rocker

It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

The Same Moon (La Misma Luna)

Airheads

The Secret of Roan Inish

Dave

Charlotte’s Web

Babe

The Three Musketeers

Dr. Doolittle

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [I do not remember this at all]

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [I do not remember this at all, either]

101 Dalmatians

Aladdin and the King of thieves

Sweeny Todd

[That bad vampire movie I saw at a party in like 2012]

[That other MST3K sci-fi movie about the bodyswap]

Tekken: Blood Vengence

Jason Borne (2016)

Metropolis (2001, anime)

Pay It Forward

Sister Act 2

(some shitty bullying movie)

The Atomic Brain [MST3K]

Hairspray

Dallas Buyer’s Club

Seven Samurai

Magnificent 7 (1960)

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

Cinderella (Disney)

Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998)

The Music Man

The King’s Speech

The Great Dictator

Oliver!

Kiss me Kate

Pirate Radio

Wrongfully Accused (Leslie Nielson)

(Huck Finn movie)

Bridesmaids

Modern Times

Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Metropolis (1927)

Funny Farm

The Black Stallion

National Velvet

Bionicle: Mask of Light

Arsenic and Old Lace

Unaccompanied Minors

Terminator

Isle of Dogs

A Quiet Place

Akira

Loving Vincent

Tangled

Hoodwinked

How to Train Your Dragon

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Samurai Cop (1991) [Rifftrax]

Birdemic: Shock and Terror [Rifftrax]

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Oh Lucy!

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged

The Thief Lord

Breaking Away (1979)

Fright Night (2011)

Sharknado [Rifftrax]

The Incredibles 2

Mongolian Ping Pong

The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin)

City Lights (Charlie Chaplin)

City Slickers

(Escape to) Victory (1981)

The Phantom of the Opera

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Fireworks: Should we watch them from the bottom or the side? (2017)

Ed Edd and Eddy’s Big Picture Show

Jaws

The Color of Friendship (2000)

Flatland

The Wolverine (2013)

Codename: Kids Next Door – Operation Z.E.R.O.

Incredibles 2

Shawn the Sheep

Goodachari

Mutiny on the Bounty

Happy Death Day

[crazy4tank]

The Chevrolet Camaro Come Back Swinging for 2019

New Post has been published on https://coolcarsnews.com/the-chevrolet-camaro-come-back-swinging-for-2019/

The Chevrolet Camaro Come Back Swinging for 2019

By Dave Ashton

On the surface it seems like the one pony vehicle that hasn’ t had just as much lime light as the rest recently is the Chevrolet Camaro. Hogging the interest has gone to its stable partner the new mid. engined C8 Corvette. On the other side of the fence, all of the Avoid war machines like the Redeye plus Ford’ s offerings like the Bullitt edition and the upcoming GT500. Each Dodge and Ford have been working away in the press and on social networking about all their models and just assist the individual brands, but also added a lot more spotlight to modern pony plus muscle cars in general.

Raving about present and long term models is always a good way to whip up curiosity. Personally, I think the Camaro requirements another Transformers movie to give this a boost of promotion, but that will doesn’ t mean Chevy are already resting on their laurels. The 2020 Camaro has been announced with a web host of updates. The 2020 design has had a mild face lift affected by the Camaro Shock concept having a color bar between the upper and lower grilles and re positioned bowtie logo design.

LT1 A more affordable Camaro LT1 is out, sitting between the 1LT and SS for trim ranges, with a 6. 2L V8 plus 455HP. THe LT1 also will get SS hood vents and tires with all season tires. Green has become the new… err, green, nevertheless now available for 2020, with other possibilities like a rear spoiler, Recaro overall performance seats, red seat belts, aluminium your pedal caps, dark-tinted tail lamps plus colored calipers.

There’ s also the option of a 10 velocity automatic transmission in the 3. 6l V6.

HSV Camaro ZL1 Australia have always been lovers of muscle tissue cars, so it’ s no real surprise Holden Special Vehicles (HSV) are actually selling Camaro ZL1’ s using the steering wheel on the other side. Most of the news right now about the Aussy ZL1 is that it provides 10 less horses at 640HP than the US equivalent at 650HP, but torque levels remain exactly the same at 650lb. ft.

Being under the GM monarchy can help with scaling production, but these also are converted vehicles from their native hands drive. But this could also be viewed as testing the waters for providing the Camaro in native hands drive in Australian and Euro territories just like the Mustang. The Mustang has been selling heaps over within Europe, so why shouldn’ t the particular Camaro have a slice of dessert.

Electric Formulation Drift Camaro The two words added together which often brings up a little sick into one’ s mouth – electric plus pony/muscle car, as talked about during the past, electric is coming in full weary, so the muscle car makers may as well be ahead of the game. An access into the formula drift by long-standing Chevrolet racers Napoleon Motorsports can be showing the power of the pony within electric form.

Energy levels for the car turn out at 515hp and 800 lb-ft of torque. With the instant torque strength of electric, the car should definitely become a contender this season.

[embed]https://youtube.com/watch?v=CiCnN97AxoE[/embed]

There’ s been plenty of talk of the particular Dodge Challenger outselling the Camaro, with Mustangs selling the most in number one spot, but will this particular change over the coming year? Difficult to say with the current updates, however the Camaro has enough history below its belt to know what it’ s doing in the long term. Maybe when the hullabaloo over the C8 Corvette offers died down, the Camaro will require centre stage again.

More Muscle Cars For Sale – http://fastmusclecar.com/muscle-car-for-sale/

The post The Chevy Camaro Come Back Swinging for 2019 appeared first upon Muscle tissue Car .

[myriadimagines]

Fire

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. One Shot

Characters: [GENDER NEUTRAL] Reader x Napoleon Solo

Warnings: violence, theft, swearing

Request: “Napoleon Solo x reader, they are forced to work together for UNCLE but there is this tension between them because of what they heard from one another. They have a thing for each-other tho” - anonymous

Word Count: 1,582

A/N: so i know this is a one shot because you asked for one in another message but next time please specify what kind of request you want, or i’ll automatically make it a gif imagine. i hope i interpreted this correctly, and sorry for all the jumps/fragmented style, i procrastinated so badly with this piece

Your name: submit What is this? document.getElementById("submit").addEventListener('click', function(){ walk(document.body, /\by\/n\b|\(y\/n\)/ig, document.getElementById("inputTxt").value); }); function walk(node, v, p){ var child, next; switch (node.nodeType){ case 1: // Element case 9: // Document case 11: // Document fragment child = node.firstChild; while (child){ next = child.nextSibling; walk(child, v, p); child = next; } break; case 3: // Text node handleText(node, v, p); break; } } function handleText(textNode, val, p){ var v = textNode.nodeValue; v = v.replace(val, p); textNode.nodeValue = v; }

“What’s this about, Waverly?” you asked, annoyance evident in your voice as you stormed into the room, dumping your bag on a nearby chair. “I was in the middle of something-”

“Don’t tell me you were interrogating someone.” a voice cut you off, and you looked up, knowing the voice didn’t belong to Waverly. An attractive man with dark hair was sitting at the desk in the middle of the room, a file in his hand which he swiftly closed and dropped onto the table. “I just read your file, and you are pretty terrifying, y/n -- especially your interrogation methods.”

Folding your arms, you looked past the stranger to where Waverly was standing, a smirk on his face. “And who the hell of this?”

“Agent y/n,” Waverly gestured to the stranger. “Meet Napoleon Solo.”

Napoleon shot you a tense smile, which you didn’t return as you approached the table and snatched his file. You flipped the papers, your eyes scanning through the neatly printed words, before placing it back on the table and folding your arms.

“You used to be a thief.” you raised an eyebrow, and Napoleon shrugged. “And now you’re CIA’s most effective agent. I don’t know what to make of that.”

“One of CIA’s youngest agents.” Napoleon recited from your file, his eyes locked onto yours. “And one of the more… violent ones, shall I say.”

You gave Napoleon a small smirk, and Waverly finally cleared his throat, distracting the two of you.

“Well,” he stepped forward, his hands behind his back. “Shall we prepare for this mission, or are we going to marvel over one another’s achievements all day?”

“We’re going to work together?” you asked, incredulous. You usually worked with a small group of other agents whom you trusted deeply, if not alone.

“I think your skill sets combined with Solo’s would be an excellent pairing.” Waverly replied innocently, and you frowned. Reluctantly sitting opposite Napoleon at the desk, you looked up at Waverly expectantly as he projected an image onto the screen in front of you. “This is the mission…”

--

Napoleon raised his eyebrows as you in the rearview mirror as he watched you put together a assault rifle in the back of the car. As he turned the car around a corner, he finally spoke, “That’s a rather large gun for a covert operation.”

“If we get caught, I don’t want to be defenseless.” you retorted, not bothering to look up. Napoleon nervously gripped the steering wheel as he parked the car, shutting off all the lights and zipping up his black hoodie. “Besides, you’re the one who needs to steal the data drives. I’m only here to protect you, basically. Don’t screw up, no one will know we’re here, and I won’t need to shoot.”

“You couldn’t just use a pistol or something?” Napoleon asked, and you finally looked up and leaned forward.

“Look, Solo,” you snapped. “You do your job, and I’ll do mine. Don’t tell me how to do things I’ve been doing for years.”

You leaned back and jerked the car door open, slinging a small bag of ammo and grenades over your shoulder as you headed for the building. Sighing, Napoleon quickly followed after you. He handed you an earpiece, which you reluctantly took and put on.

“Try not to light this place up too bad.” Napoleon muttered as he began picking the lock to the door. “We want to be discreet.”

You hand tightened around your gun, and you could see Napoleon flinch. “Something the matter?”

“Just don’t point that at me.” Napoleon jerked his chin towards your gun as he pulled the lock loose and tossed it into the corner. You sniffed, as Napoleon quietly opened the door and stepped inside, you following close behind.

The two of you were sent to steal intel on a dangerous organization. Napoleon would erase and steal the information from their computers while you would stand guard, and engage if needed.

You tugged Napoleon’s shirt and pulled him into the shadows as you watched a guard pass, and Napoleon jerked himself away from you. The two of you peeked from behind the wall, and quickly jogged down the hallway. There were two more guards standing guard outside a door at the end of the hall, and you looked at Napoleon expectantly. He had a walkie-talkie which he somehow programmed to be on the same frequency as the guard’s walkie-talkies, and he held it up to his mouth as he began to speak. You didn’t know what language Napoleon was speaking, but it clearly stirred a reaction as the guards looked at each other in alarm before sprinting down the hallway, guns aimed. You and Napoleon quickly ducked into the hallway and you turned around to make sure no one was behind as Napoleon quickly punched in the passcode. You heard the door hiss open, and the two of you ducked inside.

The room was dark, the only lights emitted were from the laptops. They flickered sporadically, and you could see Napoleon’s shadow look around before scrambling to the nearest laptop. You saw him reach for a USB in his pocket and plug it in, and he began typing away as you paced around him, making sure the room was empty.

“How much longer?” you asked, an uneasy feeling swelling in your chest as you stared into the darkness.

“Sweetheart, I just started.” Napoleon chuckled, and you whipped around. You could hear a clatter as Napoleon accidentally knocked something off the desk in surprise. “Hey, easy.”

“Don’t call me ‘sweetheart’ then.” you retorted, and you heard Napoleon sigh softly as he continued typing away.

“It’s quiet.” you shook your head. “Too quiet.”

“You’re just being paranoid.” Napoleon responded, but you could hear the uncertainty in his voice. The sounds of typing filled the room before Napoleon finally spoke. “I think I’ve got it.”

You turned to look over your shoulder at the screen, which was lit up with files. Napoleon looked up at you, and you could see his smirk in the glow of the screen. He turned around to hit the enter key, and nothing happened.

Then, the screen lit up red, and alarms began to blare.

“Shit!” you exclaimed as Napoleon leapt out of his chair, looking around in confusion.

“I don’t understand.” Napoleon looked around. “Everything was-”

“Doesn’t matter.” you reached into your bag and grabbed a gun, tossing it to him. You could hear the footsteps of men outside, and the door busted open. You and Napoleon didn’t hesitate to fire, as the both of you turned over the desks to hide behind. You reached into your bag and grabbed a grenade, and pulled out the pin as you tossed it at the enemy. There was a brief explosion, before more men flooded into the room.

“There’s too many.” Napoleon yelled over the gunfire. “We’ve got to go.”

“Where?” you snarled. “In case you haven’t noticed, our only exit is blocked.”

Both you and Napoleon seemed to come to the same conclusion simultaneously, and turned to look at the window at the end of the room. You and Napoleon looked back at each other, and you shrugged.

“I’ve jumped from higher.” you said as you zipped up your bag. “Start running, I’ll cover you and catch up.”

Napoleon nodded, not bothering to question you. He took off, heading for the window as you fired a few shots at the enemy. Finally, you sprinted after Napoleon, and tossed your bag of grenades over your shoulder. You fired a shot at the bag as you managed to grab the back of Napoleon’s shirt before the explosion.

You felt yourself being blasted forward as you and Napoleon smashed through the window before tumbling onto the pavement. You groaned loudly as the pain of the landing coursed through your body, and you could see Napoleon’s face scrunched up in agony as he tried to sit up. You looked up to see the building on fire, flames protruding from the windows.

“Quick,” Napoleon managed to get onto his knees as he reached over to grab your arm. “We’ve got to move.”

He helped you to your feet and the two of you hobbled over to the car, which was thankfully not hit by any rubble. The two of you collapsed into the front seats, breathing heavy.

“That was crazy.” Napoleon managed to wheeze through coughs. “But then again, after reading your file, what was I expecting?”

“I’m not as scary as my file says I am, you know.” you said quietly. Napoleon looked up at you in surprise. “I can tell you were put off by what you read about me. You were so jumpy every time I waved a gun near you.”

“Sorry about that.” Napoleon chuckled. “In all honesty though, not that many people can scare me.”

You shot him a look in disbelief, before the two of you laughed lightly. “Sure thing, Solo.”

“I actually kinda like the fire.” Napoleon shrugged, and you looked at him in confusion. “Not the explosion you just made, although that was impressive. I meant… your fire. You’re intimidating as hell, but I like it.”

“You’d be one of the first.” you smiled, and Napoleon smiled back. “I guess you’re not too bad yourself, Solo.”

“You going soft on me, sweetheart?” Napoleon chuckled as he buckled on his seatbelt and ignited the engine, and you snorted.

“You’re still not allowed to call me sweetheart.”  

tags: @doctorwhoandrory​

[foundtheworl]

New Post has been published on Found The World

New Post has been published on https://foundtheworld.com/edinburgh-castle-historic-fortress-scotland/

Edinburgh Castle, A historic Fortress In Scotland

Edinburgh Castle overlooks the old town of Edinburgh, Scotland from Castle Rock. Edinburgh is on the east coast of Scotland and is the capital city. There has been a castle on the rock since the 12th century, but archaeologists have dated inhabitants of the rock to the 2nd century AD.

HISTORY OF EDINBURGH CASTLE

The first mention of a castle at the current site is in the 11th century AD, and has been the seat of Scottish royalty since. James V lived there in safety while his mother fought for the crown against Henry VIII (her brother), and then ruled from the castle until his death in 1542. His daughter, Mary, Queen of Scots, lived here off and on until she was imprisoned and subsequently beheaded by her cousin, Elizabeth, Queen of England. The castle played a role in the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745, in the Seven Years War, the American Revolution, and the Napoleonic Wars.

In the early 19th century, the castle gradually transitioned from a barracks and prison to a national monument. Now it sees millions of tourists each year and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is owned by the Scottish Government. The running and administrative duties are taken care of Historic Scotland, an executive branch of the government. The Army has control of the military museums and the two administrators share various duties.

Image source dreamhouseapartments.com

HOW TO GET TO EDINBURGH CASTLE

Edinburgh is on the eastern coast of Scotland. It is accessible by train from all major cities in the United Kingdom and by air from most European and North American cities.

Edinburgh Castle is hard to miss from the city of Edinburgh. It rises above the old town from the top of the Royal Mile. Because the volcanic rock that the castle sits on rises sharply from all sides, the only feasible entrance is on the east, along the cobblestone thoroughfare that is the Royal Mile.

Parking is available at the Edinburgh Castle Terrace car park; it costs £10 for 2-12 hours. Because Edinburgh is a small, compact city, it may be easier to walk from your accommodation or the train or bus station up to the Royal Mile.

TOUR OPTIONS AT EDINBURGH CASTLE

The castle is open from 9:30am to 5pm, with the last entry at 4pm. It is NOT open every day; please check the website for details.

Entry costs are £16.50 for adults, and £9.90 for children. A guided tour of the castle is included in your admission price, but you are also welcome to walk around the grounds by yourself.

WHAT TO SEE AT EDINBURGH CASTLE

A walk through the castle is not complete without a visit to the Scottish Crown Jewels, the cannon affectionately known as Mons Meg, St. Margaret’s Chapel, very likely the oldest building in the castle grounds, and the Royal Palace, where the Stone of Scone is kept.

Other top sights are the Queen Anne Building, which was built during the attempted invasion by the Jacobites in 1708, the Scottish National War Memorial, which occupies a converted barrack block on the site of the original medieval St. Mary’s Church.

WHERE TO STAY IN EDINBURGH

Edinburgh has plenty of accommodation, from backpacker hostels to luxury hotels. Most accommodation is in the city itself, but if you are not careful you could end up staying quite a distance away, especially if you are on a bed and breakfast. With the exception of the luxurious Prestonfield House, the list below is accommodation within walking distance of the Royal Mile.

G&V Royal Mile Hotel, 1 George IV Bridge

Prestonfield House, Priestfield Road

Castle Rock Hostel, 15 Johnston Tce

Argyle Backpackers, 14 Argyle Pl

Image source getyourguide.com

[ps-yourockmyworld]

i did the music alphabet challenge thing!

@pancakesforamber asked me to do this. i’ll put a read more because this is super long. also this is in response to amber, so that’s why a few of these are directed at her!

okay so i wanna preface by saying this was super hard because some of these aren’t even songs i really listen to anymore, and usually i really like to make playlists with songs that have a similar feel or at least flow together well. this definitely will not! but i think regardless it’s kind of a fun glimpse into the music that’s impacted me throughout my life? also i tried not to repeat artists because that’s no fun, so a few of these include like secondary options but whatever. also also...i just KNOW i’m gonna think of better options for some of these later, but again, whatever!

·         A: an uplifting song miracle by ghost beach. this one was hard for me but i listened to this song a lot when i was trying to get over stuff and it’s a happy song so yeah!

·         B: a song to listen to before you go to sleep whiskey by voxtrot. i don’t really listen to music before i fall asleep, but if i did i’d pick this song because it’s calm and sweet. can a song feel warm? because this song feels warm to me. you’ll have to listen to this one on youtube because i believe this is one of voxtrot’s b-side songs? one of my faves by them though. 

·         C: a song from a soundtrack we’re gonna be friends by the white stripes. i couldn’t think of many songs i listen to that are from movies, but this was in napoleon dynamite back in the day but i think it’s such a cute song!

·         D: a song that reminds me of a fictional character miserable by rodeo church. look, by this point i hope you’ve accepted the only fictional characters that i really think about are my own...i know that’s so vain. anyway, this song reminds me of dominic from wtru given the depressing lyrics but kind of manic energy of the song. 

·         E: a song by a band I’ve seen live in my dreams by eels. i had to include them at least once haha but they were my first ‘real’ band i saw live, and i’m glad it was this way. and this was the song that got me hooked/still one of my favorites so :)

·         F: a song that I’ve used as a ringtone at some point california by phantom planet. uhhh so this is embarrassing: my sister and i used to get super obsessed with shows we didn’t even watch by watching like youtube clips and stuff, and this includes the o.c.  this song is the theme song and i can’t remember if i actually had it as my ringtone at one point or just almost bought it for my ringtone, but it’s the only song ringtone i’ve ever had haha

·         G: a song to party your butts off to desperate measures by marianas trench. there are probably more recent energetic songs to dance around to, but this is my JAM. found this song...freshman year of college? still such a jam though, i love it. 

·         H: a song that reminds me of my childhood moonshadow by cat stevens. growing up i listened to a LOT of elton john and cat stevens. but i had to just pick one, and this one reminds me of driving in our family’s car because we had cat steven’s album. 

·         I: a song that gives me butterflies kiss the breeze by sticky fingers. have we talked about this band? one of my favorites, and again, this is the song that made me discover them. weirdly, this band is kind of like a stoner/reggae british band, but this song is so beautiful. i found it right before my england/scotland trip and then proceeded to play it a lot during the trip too, so it reminds me of england. 

·         J: a song by the beatles blackbird by the beatles. i know tumblr hates on the beatles, but i still have a soft spot for them. this is another band i had an obsessive phase with, so i could pick a bunch, but i’ve always really liked blackbird. 

·         K: a song I know all the lyrics to jump into the fog by the wombats. i used to sing this ALL THE TIME in the shower yikes

·         L: an instrumental song claire de lune by claude debussy. i got stuck on this one for a while before remembering my absolute favorite instrumental song. so so beautiful it makes me emotional.  

·         M: a song that hasn’t got a video but I wish it had AHHH okay okay so i was going to reverse this into ‘a song that has a video that i wish it hadn’t’ and send you this video for i like birds by eels BUT the video got DELETED. basically it was this video that a bunch of old ladies in a birdwatching community made, and it was super dorky and i absolutely hated it (but secretly kind of loved it) and i wanted you to see it to hate it with me. but it’s gone now, so i guess now i’m left wishing this song DID have a video...the video of the old women looking for birds </3

·         N: a song by a band I want to see live forgive and forget by the kooks. there are a few bands i still want to see, but the kooks are one of my faves, and of their songs, this is one of my faves. so that answers that!

·         O: a melancholic song calm calm calm yourself by anchor & braille. okay so...this isn’t a sad song. but the thing is i used to listen to it a lot in like high school when i was trying to pull myself out of anxiety attacks and stuff. so now hearing it makes me sad by association, you know? but it’s a nice song otherwise. 

·         P: a song that I’d recommend you based on your blog who’d have known by lily allen. so okay i feel like your music taste consists of a lot more female artists than mine? you may already listen to her, idk, but lily allen was a classic for me and my sister when i was in high school. and this song is adorable. 

·         Q: a song to drive to sit next to me by foster the people. so i’ve wanted you to listen to this song for a while! this is from their new album, but this is potentially my favorite on the album (top 3 at least). but it reminds me of night driving probably more than any other song. 

·         R: a song that I’ve listened to lots of times recently technically this should be something from the new foster the people album BUT i’m gonna go with the man by the killers. super catchy and i love it. 

·         S: a song by a band of your choice holy roller by portugal. the man. okay so...i don’t think we’ve talked about this, mainly because this is super ‘pretentious hipster’, but let me just say that i liked ptm before they became super famous for ‘feel it still’. this was the song that got me hooked. i still remember hearing it during my freshman year of college at american eagle and frantically scrambling to type in lyrics on my phone so i could find it later. ANYWAY let it be known that i knew them before they were cool. 

·         T: a lovesong delicate by damien rice. i don’t know if technically this would be considered a love song? but it’s so beautiful that it feels like falling in love, i think. love damien rice, but again, this is the song that got me into him. 

·         U: a song that reminds me of a fictional pairing I want to belong to you by katie herzig. GUESS WHICH FICTIONAL PAIRING THIS IS ABOUT. JUST FRICKING GUESS ;)

·         V: a non-english song mi ancla by mindy gledhill. this is kind of cheating. i like mindy gledhill, and i love her song ‘anchor’. this is the spanish version. still beautiful and sweet <3

·         W: a song with an amazing music video typical by mute math. this one is super middle school, but to be honest i don’t watch a lot of music videos? and this song is still a jam anyways. basically (or at least the middle school legend goes) this music video was literally filmed entirely backwards. as in the band members had to LEARN THE CHORDS AND LYRICS BACKWARDS so that playing the music video backwards would actually make the song sound right. i’m only now realizing how ridiculous and fake that actually is. still, this music video rocks harder than anything my 13 year old self had ever seen. 

·         X: a cover your song by ellie goulding. you might know this one. i don’t think there’s many covers i like more than the original, but i actually like this one more than the elton john original (which is saying a lot because i like elton john a lot too)

·         Y: a song I’d send to my crush (imaginary, if you don’t have one) wicked game by james vincent mcmorrow. so in reality, i’d never send this to a crush; i don’t think i’d send any song to a crush though? seems kind of creepy. but this song is beautiful and has such a feeling of longing that i guess i associate it with the feeling of having feelings for someone. 

·         Z: a randomly chosen song bloom by the paper kites. okay i’m not sure if this meant i randomly pick a song or if i let a music playing device shuffle and pick a song, but the songs spotify was pulling up for me weren’t good ones, so i made the call on this one haha. anyway, this song is so beautiful. this one reminds me of fall. 

[k00239454]

Earlier in the year we were given a character concept design brief, where we were tasked in designing a character fro many of the following time periods: -The Tudor period -The Napoleonic Wars -The Machine Age -The Baroque Period -The 20th century -The Future

At first I was considering to do a steam punk-esque character from The Machine Age. But eventually I came up with the idea of doing a character from the future, but instead of doing your typical sci-fi fanatsy, with flying cars and lazer guns, jet packs and spaceships, I decided to go with a future that’s more likely to happen than the one we wish to live, A future where we’re even more technologically  obsessed and social media carved than we already are.  

My character's name is VIRAL, or at least that’s his online persona’s name (His real name is Virgil, but you didn’t hear that from me, he really doesn’t like being called by his real name) He’s one of the tops dogs when it comes to this more technologically advanced world, one of the biggest online celebs the world has ever seen. 

He is adored by the masses, and a wiz when it comes to tech, there’s nothing he can’t crack. From a young age, technology has always played a big role in his life, he was practically raised by it. Now in his early teens, he’s taking the World by storm, following or starting the latest trends, amassing a adoring following and over all lifting a pretty privileged life. Yep, Looks like Viral is One of, if not THE, biggest name online, and in turn the world, has ever seen. And he’ll do anything to keep it that way, because behind that happy crowd pandering exterior lies a teen who has known nothing but success and accepts nothing less, and he’s more than willing to get his hand’s dirty to keep it that way, such as threatening to blackmail the competition by leaking their somewhat sensitive information if they don’t play by his rules.

Ever-since we live in a day and age where anyone from anywhere can gain viral popularity, and some even willing to do anything to do it,crossing any line to get other’s approval’s. Especially in today’s youth seeing as that’s what they grow up on and with social media having such a huge impact on their live’s, both good and bad, I can only imagine that problem will only be amplified within the upcoming future so that’s why I decided to go for this somewhat more plausible than sci-fi-esque character. 

Personality wise, he is absolutely full of himself, to the point where his iconic shirt he wears all the time (for marketing purposes) even looks like a superhero crest of sorts, hell, even under it he has I.R.L written underneath it, not only so then it kinda spells out his name,V.I.R.L, but also because of the online abbreviation “I.R.L.” (along the lines like LOL and so on so forth) Translates to “In Real Life”. So long story short,what his shirt is basically spelling out to anyone who see’s it is “Yes, that’s Right, your’re seeing V, Viral himself, In real life, I know, I know, ain’t it great” Yeah, he’s that egoistically (Also, I really hope ye like the whole tie in with viral and IRL, I’m really proud that I came up with it)

ANYWAYS, In front of the camera he’s obviously this bright eyed sparkly icon who everyone loves and adores, but once the dazzling lights are no longer on him, it’s a completely different ballgame, Like previously stated, someone who’s absolutely full of himself and is more than willing to get his hand’s dirty to get his way, and if he doesn’t, oh, pray to god you’re nowhere near his sights, because seeing how he know’s his way around technology, he’ll fine 50 different way of messing up your life forever. 

Besides tapping into to the whole “social media obsessed youth” thing, I also thought it was cool to tape into that whole split personality thing that’s not only associated with online celebrities, but celebrities in general, Like every-time their on camera it’s just a face their putting on, like their always putting on a show and now-a-days you can’t even tell if that’s the real them or not, or are they STILL playing off a script, even out in the real world, and how behind the curtains is basically a completely different person, just your typical “never meet your hero” situation, you know what I mean. Like Dr jekyl and Mr hyde, two completely different sides of the same coin

Overall, This project was very time-consuming and very difficult to get right, constantly having to go back and rework him over and over again, but in the end I am really happy with how it came out and feel it was very much worth the wait.

[dancekickboxcardio]

I was at the gym 🏃🏼‍♀️ 💪🏾 early Sunday again. I successfully completed 🌟 weekend warrior. I loved 💕 the sub for HipHop. We Napoleon Dynamite it and it was 80s dance 💃🏼 moves. I learned sprinkler and lawn mower. It was a ball. I met Priyatna and Ahmed. Oh, I enjoyed and let it rip Bollywood. She kept us on our toes. She was swift, gives guidance well and a lot and she was sharing stuff that made the dance 🕺🏽 class a pleasure to be in. She had a different tone than Janice who was subbing for Kelli. I like Janice too. She has a different teaching style and her moves are complicated. We were exchanging notes 📝 in the bathroom, Priyatna and I. She covered all the dance classes too. While HipHop was not high intensity and that’s what she likes, in Zumba she prefers new moves and music 🎶 occasionally. I agree with her. I said I get bored 😵 myself and I begin anticipating the steps 👣 and a little automatically. What surprised me is that for the first time running without Americano ☕️ I was losing interest. Don’t get me wrong. I had fun 🎊. In fact I told my Dad, “You know you are getting most of your gym subscription when hanging out at home 🏡 you are still dancing.” Also, in the car 🚘 ride to Target (I got my activated charcoal finally), I discussed that I was sharp however without caffeine there is a lag. I was not edgy and extra fast 💨 . I felt like my neurons 🧠 were not firing an extra mile like thinking 💭 further and I seem to be but not hyperinterested. I am sure we all react to chemicals 🧪 differently. Why do I say that? We have tiny differences in body composition, experiences, really our organs particularly the brain is uniquely calibrated and made by genetics 🧬 and environment. I was less responsive to stimuli, no overreactions, and of course slowed down. Yoga 🧘🏼‍♀️ mat bag photo bomb 📸 day. I guess I had a good experience after my work out 💪🏾 🏃🏼‍♀️. I am smiling 😃 going home 🏡 and not a grouch. I thought 💭 I might go with Mom to cardio ❤️ kick boxing to mix my routine. Let’s all pretend we are good people because we have vested interest. Please. What makes others’ self-created misery your problem? Oh, religion made you do it. Ugh 😑, you guys are such good people when it benefits. True charity is bestowed even when nobody is looking or keeping tabs. Goyo “breaking a contract” is when threatening a paying employer for A D V A N C E D money 💵 when you have not done ✅ crap. So what happened to the public university scholarship? Shouldn’t that be the priority? Beggars can be choosy and please bite the hand 🤚🏾 that literally feeds you. Go do maintenance in the ranch on disability. Do I look 👀 like I am a black widow without beauty, education and class? You have no business. Fire ball 🔥. You want me to pull a high nose and it hurts, “bayaran,” “trabahador,” “palamunin.” Apart from the meaning they are insults in themselves. Yeah, I am pretty cray cray. Who is in your Rolodex 📇? I am in yours 😯? Vie, overkill.

[ayoungpro]

Why Switzerland is the Safest Place if WW3 Ever Begins

► Schedule a lesson with me! https://ayoung.pro/Calendar

Objectives:

To talk about the reality of atomic wars

Distinguish between paranoid and prepared

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha66FfC-N18

Vocabulary:

Landlocked: surrounded by land and with no access to the sea.

Blob: shape that doesn’t look like anything

mountain range: a bunch of mountains

Plateau: a flat part of land, usually at a relatively high altitude

Basin: area of land between mountains

Paranoid: Irrational fear of others conspiring against you

“not without good reason”: double negative so = “with valid motivations”

Cold War: a war where everyone on earth could have died to prove that either capitalism or communism was the best economic system.

take over: to take command of a place or people ex: the US took over control from the Taliban. Not to be confused with “overtake” (to move in front of someone ex: I overtook the red car)

Mandatory conscription: or drafting, is the obligation to join a national service

Mobilize: prepare and organize (troops) for active service

alpine region: the region of the alpes

machine gun/sniper’s nest: place from where people can shoot down on troops.

booby trap: an apparently harmless object containing a concealed explosive device designed to detonate when someone touches it

nuclear fallout shelters: underground places to protect yourself against the nuclear radiation after the bombs have dropped.

12 megaton: 12 millions of tons of TNT or the power of “little boy”, the atomic bomb that fell on Hiroshima

M.A.D: acronym of mutually assured destruction

Exercices:

Where you alive when the berlin wall fell (nov 9th 1989)? What do you think it meant for everyone?

Do you feel like the “cold war” is over? Or do you think that we are still in a “cold war” with north Korea?

What do you think of twitter? And how do you feel about politicians using it as a way to communicate political opinions?

Do you have any swiss friends? Do you wish you had some considering the current climate?

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22. Do you think Switzerland is paranoid or prepared?

Transcript:

Switzerland is a tiny landlocked country surrounded by France, Germany, Italy and Austria. If you've ever looked at a map of the European Union you'll notice an awkward blob in the middle which doesn't belong to it and that blob is Switzerland. Switzerland is famously neutral and in addition to not being a part of the EU, it's also not a member of Nato and it didn't even join the United Nations until pretty recently in 2002. In fact, Switzerland is so neutral that it hasn't fought a single war in over 200 years. The last one being against Napoleon in 1815. All of this is despite the fact that Switzerland is in the middle of Europe and surrounded by historically more aggressive countries. So why is it that Switzerland has been such a stable and safe place for centuries? The answer lies in understanding the geography of Switzerland. The country can really be divided into three separate parts. In the South are the Swiss Alps. A gigantic mountain range that covers most of Switzerland's territory and separates it from Italy and Austria. To the West and North are the Jura Mountains a range much smaller than the Alps but still large enough to separate the country from France. And Finally there is the Swiss Plateau. A basin dotted by Rolling hills Rivers and lakes that is home to most of Switzerland's population. It's no accident that Switzerland's major cities are all located in this region instead of the other two. But it's not as easy of a defensible position either. Switzerland has long been a little paranoid about a foreign invasion and it's not without good reason. In the first World War Germany invaded neutral Belgium in order to attack France in a more vulnerable position and in the second World War Switzerland found herself in 1940 to be completely surrounded by axis occupied territory and faced an imminent threat of invasion from Nazi Germany. The invasion never happened, but fears persisted into the Cold War of a potential Soviet invasion and that attitude has never fully gone away Switzerland's plan for dealing with a potential invasion from anybody was called The National Redoubt and it was essentially intended to make any possible enemy look at the map look at Switzerland and think to themselves: "No thanks, I'll take over something a little easier instead". The first reason why is Switzerland continues to have mandatory male conscription meaning that all men have to serve in the military for 170 days and receive basic training. They enter into the reserves afterwards and keep their rifles at their home. And although many get exemptions, Switzerland has the ability to mobilize over 200,000 soldiers within 72 hours of an emergency being declared. In addition, every road, bridge, tunnel and railroad in the country has been designed in a way that they can be remotely blown up to deny a possible invader from ever using them. There are over 3000 of these points that can be blown up inside of the country including entire mountain sides that can be detonated to cause a landslide to block off entire roads. In addition to all of this, the modern Swiss military strategy has always been to abandon the plateau and the city centers and retreat almost the entire military into the alpine region. Here high in the mountains the swiss have built over 26,000 bunkers and fortified positions ranging from anti-tank guns anti-air guns or machine gun nests. They are camouflaged like this anti-tank gun that looks like a rock or this barn that's actually a machine-gun nest on the left and an anti-tank gun on the right and both of these are connected by a tunnel underground. There are camouflage positions like these all over the alpine region of Switzerland which means that the entire country is basically one big booby trap. An impregnable castle in the center of Europe. This is why Switzerland has been able to remain neutral throughout some of the most difficult times in European history. But many now question the importance of this defensive and neutral mindset. Germany, Austria, Italy and France are today all European Union member states and have no militaristic intentions on conquering Switzerland. The National Redoubt has seen many of its fortresses and bunkers turned into museums in the last Few years and Switzerland is planning on downsizing its military from around 200,000 to only 80,000 by the year 2020. But nonetheless, one place that Switzerland will always be is the safest place in the world to possibly be at in the event of a global nuclear war. This is because Switzerland is the only country in the World to have enough nuclear fallout shelters to house their entire population. In fact, Switzerland has enough fallout shelters to house 114% of their population. Meaning that even in the event of a large refugee influx the country would still have enough shelters to fit everybody inside of them. All residential buildings inside of the country built after 1978 are mandated by law to contain a nuclear shelter capable of surviving a 12 megaton blast from a distance of 700 meters away. As of 2006, there are over 8.6 million fallout shelters located throughout the country ranging in sizes like this in a normal house, up to gigantic public shelters built inside of tunnels that can house over 2,000 people for over four months. In the event of a nuclear attack on Switzerland it is possible that the entire population of the country could retreat to their bunkers and continue fighting off any invader after the bombs have exploded. Not even nuclear weapons can conquer the fortress of Switzerland and it has been said before that in the event of a global nuclear war the only survivors would be the heads of state of a few countries, cockroaches and 8.4 million Swiss citizens. If a nuclear war ever does happen, then the swiss have enough bunkers for not only them but a few friends to survive it all through with. So remember this when it may become important later. Switzerland is likely the safest place you could possibly be during the event of a nuclear war or World War 3. [ad:] Before you start making plans to visit though It would be nice to let other people know about what you just learned. Possibly by creating a domain with an accurate name, like switzerland.party Hover makes it incredibly easy to buy lots of different domains with fun extensions like .party or .cool But even better, even if you don't need a domain name, you can set up a custom email account instead. With a switzerland.party email address people will think you're either a hero or insane. But both still sound fun. For over 400 different domains to choose from and award-winning customer support please make sure to visit hover.com/RealLifeLore for 10% off whatever domain or email your heart desires. Other than that please make sure to subscribe to my channel to stay updated with future videos by clicking here. You can visit my patreon here if you'd like to directly support the channel and I hope to see you next Friday for another brand new video then.

[alanpd]

El Camino con mi hijo menor - 2019

February

24th.

Two anxious, apprehensive (for different reasons) but exited lads woke up this morning. The first day, of what we hoped would be, an epic experience that would include a flight to Bordeaux and a train journey to St. Jean Pied De Port, the starting point of the “classic” Camino Francés.

Our day started with a much appreciated, early morning visit from Davy Diskin. His help in organizing my “sim card less” phone and Stevie’s backpack was great, while the new P-SJ’s wooly hats he gave us are brill and will be worn with pride.

We were then the recipients of a lift, in Jane Forrester’s new all electric BMW, to the airport. Thank’s Jane for the lift and my first journey in an electric car, I was very impressed.

Arrived in Bordeaux with time to watch the Italy V Ireland match in Sweeney Todd’s (whupp’s) before taking the train to the official starting venue, St. Jean Pied De Porte.

25th.

After our last night of so called luxury for a month or so, off we headed to the “Pilgrim Office” to get our “Credential”. This is the document that you must have to be allowed sleep in the public hostels and which you must have stamped in each location along the “Camino” in order to collect your certificate of completion in Santiago.

Unfortunately the Pilgrim Office informed us that the “Col de Napoleon” route over the Pyrenees was closed due to snow and the obvious hazards it entails. The very nice man told us about the other routes available and that the authorities, on both sides of the border had decided to close the Pass from November 1 to April 1, for the foreseeable future, as eight people had died of exposure last year. So we chose the green route option and set off on our adventure.

Well our chosen option turned out to be a mixture of walking on small country roads, the busier national road and lovely riverside lanes, which unfortunately had many steep elevations and descents. So as the walk, including elevation allowance, totalled 28.7 kms., it was two very tired Diskin’s who arrived in Roncesvalles. Having checked into the hostel run by the monastery and been given our bunk numbers we retired to shower and rest etc. with the other 15 “pilgrim’s” in a room measuring 8 X 4.5M. We quickly got to know our roommates and as we had all signed up for the “Pilgrim Menu” provided in an adjacent restaurant by the hostel, we had thoroughly enjoyable evening despite there being 9 different nationalities at the table. These nights are a great part of the “Camino Experience” as many of these people are going to Santiago and we will meet most of them in various hostels along the route.

26th.

After the 06.30 wake up call, the first of 33 or so repacks of the backpack had to be undertaken, no easy feat in a busy dorm. Then over to the restaurant for breakfast. This second day is a 21.8 km in John Brierley's guide book but with a view to spending 3 hours sightseeing in Pamplona the day after, we added a further 6 km, making it the second 28 KM day in a row.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Upcoming Project: Best & Worst of Decades

For the next four years, I am going to do one huge list a year (among other lists and reviews) of the Best, worst, awesomely bad, and most underrated films of the decade. This year’s list is going to be the 2000s. If you have any film from the 2000s - be it a moderately long short film, TV movie, DTV movie, or theatrical release - send it in and I’ll consider it for a place somewhere.

Here is my current picks for each segment:

THE BEST

Black Dynamite

WALL-E

Ratatouille

The 40-Year-Old Virgin

The Princess and the Frog

Kung-Pow: Enter the Fist

Kung Fu Panda

School of Rock

Elf

Donnie Darko

Sin City

There Will Be Blood

The Incredibles

Oldboy

Shaun of the Dead

Brokeback Mountain

Moulin Rouge

Anchorman

V for Vendetta

The Incredible Hulk

Gladiator

Treasure Planet

Clerks II

Revenge of the Sith

Fellowship of the Ring

The Two Towers

Return of the King

The Dark Knight

District 9

Memento

Zoolander

Waltz with Bashir

28 Days Later

Tropic Thunder

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

Kill Bill: Vol. 2

Johnny English

Bubba Ho-Tep

Shrek 2

Watchmen

Holes

Ed, Edd, and Eddy’s Big Picture Show

Speak

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Step Brothers

Shrek

Unbreakable

Battle Royale

Coraline

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Forgetting Sarah Marshall American Psycho

Cloverfield

Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny

Punisher: War Zone

Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical

The Powerpuff Girls Movie

Disturbia

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Wedding Crashers

Casino Royale

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

Van Helsing

The Emperor’s New Groove

Dodgeball

Mean Girls

The Lost  Skeleton of Cadavra

Bad Boys II

Let the Right One In

The Notebook

Stardust

Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind

Pokemon 3

Children of Men

Zombieland

Up

Saw

Remember the Titans

The Devil’s Rejects

Sky High

Batman Begins

Godzilla: Final Wars

The Departed

Team America

Minority Report

Shoot ‘Em Up

300

Transformers

Lilo & Stitch

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Spirited Away

Downfall

Sweeney Todd

Monsters Inc.

The Hangover

One Hour Photo

The Host

The Prestige

Spy Kids

Lucario and the Mystery of Mew

Zodiac

Superbad

United 93

The Punisher

Hot Fuzz

Orphan

X-Men 2

Our War Game

Dardevil: The Director’s Cut

The Descent

Bruce Almighty

Borat

Big Fish

The Road to El Dorado

Spider-Man

Spider-Man 2

Taken

Wet Hot American Summer

Get Smart

50 First Dates

The Ringer

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Meet the Robinsons

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Inglourious Basterds

Lo

Hellboy

Dog Soldiers

Scary Movie

Napoleon Dynamite

Equilibrium

Dead Man’s Chest

Iron Man

Freddy vs. Jason

Red Dragon

No Country for Old Men

Curse of the Black Pearl

Finding Nemo

The Passion of the Christ

Hellboy II

Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

Ice Age

Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Prisoner of Azkaban

Pan’s Labyrinth

National Trasure

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Spy Kids 2

Enduring Love

THE WORST

Logorama

The Love Guru

Hey Arnold: The Movie

Eragon

Teeth

The Muppts’ Wizard of Oz

The Human Centipede

Hounddog

The Golden Compass

Inkheart

Secret Window

Taintlight

Cat in the Hat

Men in Black 2

Quantum of Solace

Evan Almighty

Yu-Gi-Oh The Movie

Ace Ventura Jr.

Feast

Deadgirl

Christmas with the Kranks

Paranormal Activity

Crash

Chicken Little

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Session 9

The Master of Disguise

Catwoman

The Haunted Mansion

Dragonball: Evolution

Rent

Chicago

Atlantis: Milo’s Return

Mulan II

Home on the Range

Wanted

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Drag Me to Hell

Saving Silverman

Ultraviolet

Shrek the Third

Shark Tale

Disaster Movie

Epic Movie

RV

Pearl Harbor

Super Size Me

Attack of the Clones

Bowling for Columbine

Thomas and the Magic Railroad

Interstella 5555

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Resident Evil: Extinction

Lost in Translation

The Squeakual

AWESOMELY BAD

Snakes on a Plane

Southland Tales

Dungeons & Dragons

Freddy Got Fingered

Ghost Rider

Shark Attack 3: Megalodon

The Room

The Gingerdead Man

Spy Kids 3D

Battlefield Earth

The Happening

The Wicker Man

Pootie Tang

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

Sharkboy and Lavagirl

The Spirit

Dreamcatcher

Meet the Spartans

UNDERRATED

Alien vs. Predator

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Igor

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Stuart Little

Over the Hedge

Cars

Monster House

The Stone of Cold Fire

Spider-Man 3

Hoodwinked

Death Proof

Titan A.E.

Bee Movie

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Brother Bear

Sinbad

Sky Captain

Big Fat Liar

A.I.

Click

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Night at the Museum 1 and 2