#P296

[bloopitynoot]

Reading TGCF: Chapter Nine

For those who don't know, I am reading TGCF for the first time and sharing my thoughts!

If you have not read it, there will be spoilers! Consider this a warning.

Also- if you want to follow along, I am aiming to post updates daily. You can find all the posts in the tag Bloopitynoot reads TGCF. You can also check out the intro post for context on my read BUT if you followed along with my SVSSS read, the rules and vibe are the same.

I was debating aloud today which tea I should have when my partner stopped me. She looked me dead in the eye and said, "you know which tea you want" and ofc she was correct. We both had masala chai with milk and sugar.

I will drink all of it until my pot of spices run out. I stand that this is peak winter tea.

Tea aside- let's go chapter nine!

(first off- ignore all of my penmanship in this photo, I had to refill my pen partway through this page so it's looking a little bit rough LOL).

And we have the ship name in the title! I hope cute things happen this chapter :'3 p279

I am absolutely NOT into this garden face's tongue!!! What the fuck p279

My guy, a secondary location is really never a good sign. Those soldiers of Banyue are intense! p281

Why am I over here feeling bad for the garden face. Poor guy has been sort-of-dead for so long, seeing his own body now is causing him body dysmorphia. pp282-283

This pit is actually horrific. They definitely get tossed in here, no question about this chapter's plot, but OMG it's built so terribly- hanging corpse and all. p286

ofc Xie Lian is over here sacrificing himself without a thought first. p288

Well shit. The traitor wasn't A-zhao. Based on the sound they made, this kid is probably super dead t the bottom of this pit. p289

My heart! oh no, sweet baby. Xie Lian's reaction to San Lang jumping into the pit :((((((((((((( p292

I am assuming San Lang has left the building and Hua Cheng is here now. The way he caught Xie Lian- SO CUTE. p296

Xie Lian: Hey san lang, can you put me down? "San Lang": no. Xie Lian: ?? "San Lang": it's dirty. p298

"It's not important whether you are human or not" :'3 my heeeaaaart p299

oof. okay and then after these sweet words he immediately hits him with a "friendship shouldn't be determined by..." my guy. This man wants you as his husband. p300

ooo! The intrigue! Who actually are the two wandering the streets of Banyue if the Preceptor of Banyue is with them rn. p302

I love Hualian and the Banyue General trauma bonding over the preceptor of Banyue right now. Both of them united by the same enemy. p305

This is what I absolutely love about MXTX. She makes such interesting morally grey stories and characters. I love how she so often makes the "villain" of the story, in this case right now general Kemo, feel straight forward until they really aren't. Once you get to the "villain's" side of the story you're like- huh I see what you did, why you did it, and how it makes sense. Like this guy was really just protecting his family the only way he new how to, or was even able to. pp310-311. I just love how complicated everyone is and how rounded each character- even if they are the grossest garden face man- are.

omg. I thought the situation with the "General's tomb" was just a coincidental story not that it actually was Xie Lian LOL oh no. p318

Not the Hua Xie! Meanwhile San Lang is probably swooning that this guy took his name. p319

Xie Lian: I was so embarrassed that I felt the need to fake my own death. like same bro XD been there. p321

Okay but now I'm curious as to why the snakes no longer obey her. As a side but also on this page, I do hope Fu Yao has some character growth. This kid takes everything at face value when there is clearly a fuck ton more going on. pp325-326 I do not think this girl is evil!

NO THANK YOU! :((((((((( The highly poisonous snake rain!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOPE. p327

Fu Yao my boy, please think things through

This guy is getting mad at the wrong people and about to narc on Hua Cheng.

I am not ready for the next two chapters. They are the last two in the book and I have a sneaking suspicion shit is about to get fucked.

[brynberrycomic]

p296

[saffordscellar]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Anthropologie Sparrow Cardigan XS 100 Merino Wool Hooded Cream Pleated Belted.

[coolgang1957]

赤いマントとジャージのヒーローが先代ヒーローと青春の悩みをぶつけ合うアオハル物語

13桁ISBN9784569903514 アオハルやなぁ😄 今どき高校生の低いイメージを、 ホントかウソかわからんままに 聞かされて踊らされてる おっちゃんには、 こんな子たちが居ることに 新鮮さと希望を感じます。 クスッとさせられるシーンもあり、 悩みまくる姿も 優しさ滲み出す場面も楽しい。 ヒーローはこんな大事なことも さらっと言ってのけます。 「自分と戦ったり、 自分を守ったりするのが、 一番、難しいよな」（p296） 初読作家さんでいい人見つけました😄 芥川賞あげたい。

[wjdexclusives]

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14k Yellow Gold

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Amorphous Diamond Simulants

Diamond Total Carat Weight (TCW)

1 Ct

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Round

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Synthetic

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D

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Width

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1.5mm

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5175

Stock#: WJD P296-4-1352900

[nevasliteratuurblog]

Hallo daar

In hfdstk 5(p296-315) stoppen ze na de grens over te zijn kort om cigaretten en bier te kopen, verheugd over de lage prijzen. Rond 7u 's morgens arriveren ze in Sabinas Hidalgo. De groep is blij op land te zijn dat ze nog voor zichzelf moeten ontdekken.

Bij een tankstation ontmoet Sal een jongen genaamd Victor. Hij zegt dat hij meiden(prostituees) en marihuana voor de groep kan halen. Victor stapt in de auto en de groep rijd naar zijn huis. Sal was bezorgd over wat Victors moeder zou zeggen maar hij zei dat zij het voor hem haalde.

Ze rookten daar Marihuana met Victor en zijn broers. Later bracht Victor ze naar een bordeel waar ze met de prostituees dansten en sex mee hadden.

Laatst bracht Victor ze naar een badhuis waar de bende douchte. Victor was triest dat de rest weg moest. Dean bood aan om Victor mee te nemen naar de VS maar hij weigerde.

[nusumigaki]

証明は、数学者の旅行談のようなものだ。

[lasha-burch]

საღამოობით მე ვიცვლწბოდი,სამყარო კი - არა .

[goodgrammaritan]

Favorite Lines from Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious series:

Truly Devious

p18: Her parents had no idea that you could meet people outside of school and it wasn't freaky and the internet was the way of finding your people.

p40: Where her books were, she was... Get the books right and the rest will follow.

p42: His voice was deep and smooth and rich, like what gravy might sound like if gravy could talk. (Which, luckily, it cannot. Gravy might have a nice voice, but the conversation would probably be dull.)

p366: "Here's the thing. You've gone kind of psycho. I have never willingly gone to a dance in my life. But I am doing this because you are my friend, okay? And something is wrong with you. I don't want to go to this, obviously. And you don't want to go to this. I'm doing this for you, for your own good. This is the one and only time I'm offering to do something like this. Sometimes you have to leave the fucking Shire, Frodo. If we're friends, get up, and come with me now. And you should take this seriously, because you are kind of losing friends all over the place." -Nate

The Vanishing Stair

p21: "My parents have a sign hanging in the bathroom that I think sums it up," Stevie said. "It says 'Believe in yourself.' Have you considered believing in yourself? I can send you that quote on top of a pic of a sunset. Would that help?"

p54: So much of anxiety was anxiety about having anxiety.

p72: ...and she decided she was going to become an autumn person here. Flannel was okay. Apples were fine. Pumpkins were the watermelons of fall. Were these the thoughts autumn people had?

p205: This was like she'd gone through a stargate into the life of some parallel universe Stevie. She was used to feelings that butted up against each other, the way that anxiety brought bad excitement. She could handle that now because she knew the feeling. This was something like good nausea, which made no sense, and therefore she was back to anxiety and its bad excitement, except there was a new chemical level.

p331: Vi was sitting on a pile of wood, gazing at their girlfriend with an undisguised You look hot with your tools look.

p331: "That...is a lot of snow," Janelle said approvingly. "You probably don't like snow, right?"

"Oh, I like it," Nate said. "Snow makes it socially acceptable to stay in."

The Hand on the Wall

*SPOILERS-ish*

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

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

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

p276: "I guess no one found this before because no one pulls on statue toes that often."

"Just another way our generation is lazy," [David] said.

p276: "Why not have your own underground grotto with a swan boat? What are you, poor?" -David

p279: There was a real entombing problem at Ellingham Academy.

p296: Anxiety does not ask your permission. Anxiety does not come when expected. It's very rude. It barges in at the strangest moments, stopping all activity, focusing everything on itself. It sucks the air out of your lungs and scrambles the world.

[lukomorye]

Katherine Henderson (p296) Katherine Henderson.

[indianachitect]

P296 🔥25'x50' North facing House 🔥1200Sqft 🤩Residential House 🤩Indian Architect

[bloopitynoot]

Reading SVSSS: Chapter 21

For those who don't know, I am reading SVSSS for the first time and sharing my thoughts!

If you have not read it, there will be spoilers! Consider this a warning.

Also- if you want to follow along, I am aiming to post updates daily. You can find all the posts in the tag bloopitynoot reads SVSSS. You can also check out the intro post for context on my read.

The last chapter of the story?!?!?!

I will be continuing my notes into the extras-already decided when I started book 1. Once those extras are done though,- pls pls pls I will accept any fanfic recs. I am absolutely ready to get lost in the sauce for the next several months. Send me your absolute favs! I will read the shit out of them.

Today I am back on my tea- this is a lady grey latte :'3

LET'S GOOOOO

Oh man. Thank fuck Shan Qinghua is okay, but Tianlang-jun is looking REAL rough. p272

Not snake boy! him too! p274

Mobei-Jun coming in to save his man 👏 Get it! p276

This story is so annoying. The "big bad" was never even evil. The man just wanted to hang out in the human realm, read poetry, and vibe but the humans were the ones being awful. This story was driven by nonsense the entire time at least in MMDZS the fake evil one was still being orchestrated by an actual evil one. This was just a bunch of fuckery and racism. p277

LOL when I read the big "fight" I was thinking- that's it? Literally all this build up for the fastest fight?? Then two paragraphs later SQQ also said "that's it?"p279 I really do feel bad for Tianlang-jun. He was done so dirty in this. (I do want a buttload of fanfic where he get's a better life and also works to actively set his son up LOL Tianlang-jun biggest Bingqiu shipper).

I still cannot get over that Zhuzhi-lang's mother straight up fucked a snake. p280

Why did this reveal have to be worse :((((( The fact that LBH's mom actually likely cared for Tianlang-jun but was imprisoned by the OPM, was too late to get to Tianlang-jun, and forced to drink poison. :((( uuuuuuuugh. p282-283

Holy shit! Luo Binghe is the one who is actually powering the realm merge!!! p286

Baby Luo Binghe this behaviour is so toxic :'( p289-291

Are you kidding me. :( Why Yue Qingyuan!!! Xuan Su actively drains his life force whenever he uses it. p296

and we get the reveal that Yue Qingyuan was the pal who promised to come back and save Shen Jiu. uuuugh my heart, why am I so emotional about this. p297

The most bittersweet system notifications rn, so upsetting. Bro is about to lose the only things he's grown to care about in this second life and they are just listing achievements for what pp298-299

I know Yue Qingyuan is in a bad way but I really am rooting for him. Good on SQQ for not giving YQY his last wish. I need this softy to pull through. p301

Oh no! BInghe is hallucinating now :(((((( the sword has totally fucked him with demonic qi. :((( p307

I always love when we get a scenario pusher- it really "pushes" SQQ's boundaries p307

OMG. Well. That's not a small scenario pusher!!!! What is it with MXTX always having her male protags fuck dry 🤮🤮 This is not cute, and I totally understand it is a "fuck or die" scenario but omg RIP SQQ's asshole. How is this both kind of tender and absolutely horrific :((((((( 🤮🤮 pp310-311

This is actually so terrible :( my heart what the fuck :( Luo Binghe reached out, wanting to touch him but also not daring to. His hand remained frozen in midair as he muttered, "Shi...zun?" Once he heard Luo Binghe call him "Shizun" as normal, Shen Qingqiu seemed to come alive, and he gasped in a breath. Unfortunately, due to how strained this breath was, it almost sounded like a sob. Luo Binghe was stunned, "Shizun...what...What did I do?" p314

aaaaand the Jade Guanyin :(((((((( p315

Bless the system for getting me out of the choke hold that this scene had me in. I truly thought everyone was about to die. pp318-320

I'm dead LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL I clocked it many chapters ago with my jokes that SQQ was actually changing the genre and was really the bawdy love interest. He really did though XD ahahahaha p323

Thank fuck everyone (at least LBH and SQQ) are alive! I thought they would have killed LBH afterwards or with the state of his mental health, he would kill himself but thankfully he is not dead. p327

YAY! We have Yue Qingyuan alive as well! p329

Incredible. Shen Qinghua wanted this ending as well but decided to sell out for finances. Bless that this guy got to see his favorable ending play out LOL p333

oh!!! Tianlang-jun is also alive!! p335

My heart! SQQ to LBH " Of course what this master most wanted to see first was you!" p339

We hit the end of the main story!

Some final thoughts- that felt really abrupt. Like it just ended very fast. These two really have a strange relationship (I am sure more happens in the extras but as is stands it is still so ambiguous). Nary a real declaration of love, and their intimate moments were all fabricated by other situations or a product of deceit. I am excited to dig into the extras to see more about their relationship.

[duardius]

clarendon

the original «clarendon» was registered by the firm thorowgood & co. of london, in 1845, while under the direction of robert besley; & was cut by besley’s partner benjamin fox at their fann street foundry*. «The type was an Egyptian with bracketed serifs and fulfilled a demand for a bold face suitable for dictionary work. It was so successful that the word Clarendon for a heavy type has become part of the common language. There had been types of similar design before Besley’s, which went under the name of Ionic.» [talbot baines reed (a.f. johnson, ed.), A History of the Old English Letter Foundries, faber & faber, london, 1952, p296].  of clarendon theodore low de vinne tells us: «Clarendon, a popular variety of condensed antique, was first made for the Clarendon Press of Oxford, to serve as a display letter in a mass of text-type, and for side headings in dictionaries and books of reference.» [Plain Printing Types, the century co., nyc, 1902, p331.] de vinne gives a taxonomy of  «antique» faces: «Antique differs from roman [he means old-face roman] in the boldness of its lines: stem, serif, and so-called hair-line are always of greater thickness. … The intent of the designer was to produce, for purpose of display, a bolder style that should be as distinct and easily read as that of the old lapidary characters. For this reason it was called antique by some founders and egyptian by others.»  (cp. ‹antique | egyptian›) according to de vinne square serif is a characteristic of a strict antique, but ionic antique has bracketed serifs & «has large face, open counters»;  & a further square serif variant, the doric antique, «has features of roman» [ibid., p323-5]—added confusion as doric was «the Caslon name for Sans Serif» [reed, op.cit., p251], & i can discover no doric antiques in the bruce’s new-york type-foundry (de vinne’s main supplier) specimen book of 1869.  nicolette gray considers clarendon & ionic to denote the same type style: «Besley’s letter, in its slightly compressed form became the normal, but it was certainly not the first Ionic letter. The Ionic is an Egyptian with the slab serif bracketed and a definite differentiation between the thick and thin strokes. … In 1842 Caslon have an upper and in 1843 a lower case with the characteristics fully developed, but of normal width, and retaining the Egyptian E and F, without serifs to the middle arm.» [XIXth Century Ornamented Types and Title Pages, faber & faber, london, 1937, p51].  jan tschichold concurs with gray (some details muddled): «The fully developed ‘Clarendon’ dates from the year 1843 [ionic dates from 1843, clarendon was 1845]. The first form of this type, called ‘Ionic’ — quite similar to the Clarendon by the Haas Type Foundry depicted here — was cast by Henry Caslon, Type Foundry [sic], London.»  [Treasury of Alphabets and Lettering, Rheinhold, New York, 1966, p233]. the hass’sche schriftgiesserei [münchenstein, switzerland] clarendon was drawn by hermann eidenbenz in 1951. the illustration above is tschicholds [ibid., p199]. for another clarendon revival vide ‹volta›.

* the foundry founded by robert thorne in 1808, & acquired by william thorowgood at auction in 1820. robert besley became a partner in the firm c. 1838 at which time the foundry became styled thorowgood & co. upon thorowgood’s retirement the firm continued as robert besley & co, besley’s partner being his punch-cutter benjamin fox. in 1861 charles reed joined the firm, & the firm continued as reed & fox. after the death of fox in 1877 the firm continued as sir charles reed & sons, with talbots baines reed as sole proprietor until his death in 1893. operating until 1905 as a limited company, the material was finally acquired by stephenson, blake & co. [op. cit., pp 194 & 296-7.]

[thatgirlonstage]

Reading Challenge

Book: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Read: p296-331, 70% of goal

Favorite Passage:

“The circus bothers him.

It bothers him most at times like this, in the bottom of the brandy bottle and the quiet of the night. It is not terribly late, the night is fairly young in circus terms, but the silence is already heavy.”

Ongoing reading projects:

Bolded means I read the most recent update today! Strikethrough means I’m caught up and waiting for an update. Plain text means I’ve fallen behind, or that I’m in the process of reading through it.

Original Webcomics:

Aerial Magic | Ava’s Demon | Awaken | Beyond the Canopy | The Boy Who Fell | Cucumber Quest | Damn it all to Hell | Hearstopper | Monsterkind | Namesake | Paranatural | Springtime of Yuuth | Wilde Life

Fan comics:

Blue Paladin’s Journey | SVTFOE Ship War AU | The Tale of Tashi and Nima | Wavelength AU

Manga/Print Comics:

Boku no Hero Academia | Boku no Hero Academia: Illegals | Providence | Sandman

[tristaml]

H p296

[my-underline]

만년

다자이 오사무

"소설을 시시하다고는 생각하지 않아. 내겐 그저 좀 미적지근할 뿐이야. 단 한 줄의 진실을 말하려고 100페이지의 분위기를 꾸미거든." 나는 어렵사리 거듭 깊이 생각하면서 대답했다. "정말이지 말은 짧을수록 좋아. 그것만으로 믿음을 줄 수 있다면.” p9

사물의 이름이란 그게 어울리는 이름이라면 굳이 묻지 않더라도 절로 알게 되는 법이다. 나는 내 피부로 들었다. 멍하니 물상을 응시하고 있노라면, 그 물상의 언어가 내 피부를 간지럽힌다. 예를 들면, 엉겅퀴. 나쁜 이름은 아무런 반응도 없다. 여러 번 들어도, 도무지 이해하기 힘들었던 이름도 있다. 예를 들면, 사람. p296