#Rachel's Chart Chat

[unicornery]

A few weeks ago, I did a Chart Chat all about the pop songs used in the movie Wet Hot American Summer, for an episode that came out on August 19th (aka the day after the Last Day of Camp. It's a Monday show, I did what I could)

Check it out! Special thanks to @laughterkey for important research assistance <3

[r2-d2-soon]

Five songs I've listened to recently.

Many songs from Rachel's Chart Chat Playlist.

[edelfie]

#𝓣𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗘! wannabe chart topper.

there is a certain sense of degradation and shame that comes with being a well-known industry figure not for what you create, but for how terrible you seem to be at it. no matter what genre or style it seems you just haven’t got the midas touch. your friends aren’t gonna let that stop you from doing the thing you love—no, not creating music, silly! publicly shaming your exes through song!

or, there is no better cure for heartache than money, revenge, and clout (in that order).

POST CREDITS! —

There's a heavy sigh that escapes Asahi's lips as he closes out from the group chat. Normally the mood isn't so...dour, and the seldom times it is it appears to be a product of his own doing. Yet to see you, especially, so downtrodden upset him. Asahi knows that everyone becomes sad for one reason or another, naturally, but the ever-confident Y/N L/N being insecure? Unfathomable, he declares.

From the day he met you, you have been a rock. Not just in his life, but also in his idealized version of you. Of everyone in the group, you had one of the bigger personalities—it was hard to know for sure if yours was the biggest when Tendou is being...Tendou. Regardless, you always carried yourself like you knew you could buy the entirety of Japan with your pocket change.

You couldn’t, of course—you didn’t even come close. But the unwavering confidence you held in that you could was admirable, if not slightly arrogant. In Asahi’s mind though, it took a certain type of person to be selfish, headstrong, self-centered. And to pull it off so well that he didn’t even hate them? He had to give flowers where they’re due.

And if you're none of those things, you're a damn good actor—and maybe that's part of your "star power" too. You had him fooled, and he's sure you'll fool the entire world too. So, with a bit of selfishness, he'll continue to remain by your side and push you into the limelight so he can bask in that aura once more. Even when he knows it isn't real.

You are a rock, the one which holds their entire rag-tag group together. You are the post in which the ship hauls their anchor upon. You are the jagged edges which cut through those who earn your ire, drawing blood. You are softened by the crashing tides which erode at your exterior. You really are special, and he can't imagine you being anyone else.

"Oi, are you still listening?"

Asahi snaps to attention. He had completely forgot he was on the phone with Yuu, so absorbed with his thoughts. The lack of sleep was also likely to blame as he teetered from left to right, eyes hovering open just a crack. Still, he makes a great effort to not look like he was totally spacing out.

"Ah, yeah I am! Sorry..."

"Right," Yuu drags the word on for a few seconds "Anyways, like I was saying..."

NOTES! —

Rise and shine (ursine)! Today is a new day, and I'm aiming to double post today, so be on the lookout for that! Ah, but don't hold me accountable if I don't either—I get out from my classes late today and commute in peak traffic, so the second chapter may be released wayyyy later today or not at all (until tomorrow that is wkwk). Anyways, today's fundraiser goes towards supporting Rachel Pikrel-Hawkins and her children in Colorado.

Rachel's ex husband, Michael Hawkins, is a retired police sergeant and convicted felon and sex offender for the continuous rape and sexual assault of his daughter and two adopted daughters. However, he is free from custody while Rachel is in jail for objecting to court-ordered reunification therapy between Michael and two of their sons. The case is beyond horrifying and revolting, and I recommend reading into it further in the description of the GoFundMe page. If you are able to assist Rachel in paying for attorneys to defend her and her children in court, please consider donating here and sharing their story with others.

If you’ve noticed, the “blind items” section looks different today! That’s because it’s supposed to be an in-universe bonus section for gossip and rumors, usually about what happened in the screenshots. However for this conversation, obviously nobody is telling any gossip pages about this, so I replaced it with “Post Credits”! Now whenever there are no blind items, this section will appear instead and will detail the inner thoughts, feelings, and opinions of the characters—or, just anything that didn't make the cut. These are all still canonical, but weren't included in the chapter for a platitude of reasons (conflicting pov, limited time, etc.) Please take these crumbs of writing as a sign of my gratitude for all you readers!

PREV + MASTERLIST + NEXT

© all rights reserved—edelfie (2024) // do not plagiarize, modify, copy, use, translate, or repost my work on other sites without permission

[born-to-lose]

the “we will never charge for m&g” was Exactly what the stevie for prez thing was referencing he’s literally a man of the people he’s king shit he’s telling us all his stories on metal sludge and caring about his fans.. literally the best

I had zero context of this post but I knew y'all were right. He really is king shit, I wanna meet him so bad but who knows maybe I'll just hang outside the venue and chat with him without even going to the concert itself so I don't start a fistfight with the staff lmao. Like who's gonna care. The train station is right across the street, it could be a coincidence. I need to read more of Metal Sludge again (the only article I remember vividly is the penis chart), he's doing the lord's work. We want Stevie Rachelle's Murica 🦅🇺🇲🦅🇺🇲🦅🇺🇲

[sarockradio]

"SATURDAY BREAKFAST"

with Julie Reynolds.

SATURDAY MORNING’S 6AM

This week:

We are joined by GANGgajang’s front man Mark Callaghan.

The wire will tell you what you need to know about the senate’s recommendations on dental care.

A story on where we physically will be working in the future.

The Culinary Archive podcast talks about Soy Beans and it’s many uses you may not have known.

Jana Firestone from the Curious Life brings you her final instalment from her chat with Playschool’s Rachel Coopes.

We’ll be playing the Weekly AMRAP chart topper.

..and Murph will countdown the Top 5.

Join us.

"SATURDAY BREAKFAST"

with Julie Reynolds.

SATURDAY MORNING’S 6AM

Listen Live @ https://www.sarock.com.au

SA ROCK RADIO

For more podcast’s visit: https://www.sarock.com.au/podcasts.html

[espnnews2h]

Lore Olympus on Webtoon: Rachel Smythe Interview

Lore Olympus on Webtoon: Rachel Smythe Interview

Image: Webtoon The romantic dramedy between the gods will be heating up in season three of Lore Olympus. io9 chatted with creator and Eisner winner Rachel Smythe about what’s next for the popular Webtoon weekly appointment release that leads the charts in digital reading content and book lists. As we head into 2023 after Lore Olympus’ epic season two conclusion back in August, and are still in…

[unicornery]

The last ten minutes of the People Are The Enemy podcast is my segment, Rachel’s Chart Chat. Please have a listen!! I go back to 2/14/2022

Here’s the link or you can get it wherever you get podcasts! The most recent one is on the Can’t Hardly Wait soundtrack!

I don't know if anyone will find this valuable but I want to see your art and your writing and your music and everything!!! I want to hear!! I want to comment on it and find out more about it!! This is the joy of being alive

[bellafragolina]

(Chat)

OC Rachel would absolutely be bros for life with Renee! Refering to the charts it'd Be My Friend with potential to be Besties in time. Crush Central indeed, Renee's got a similar sense of humor and a common interest in art, plus she's really kind and beautiful too. There's a decent chance for Rachel's feelings to turn romantic, and she's crush prone herself, often falling hard and fast for people she's fairly close too (she's a bi/panromantic demisexual like IRL me). And even if they stay platonic, Renee would be regarded as a very adorable and important friend.

Alas, Rachel has some sensory issues, hence her dislike of bright light (she'll struggle to keep her eyes open and get headaches after awhile) and strong smells (weak stomach regarding foul smells, she also has crappy sinuses and asthma so regardless of whether the smell is good or bad it can give her a headache or even take her breath). She overheats easily too. That said, she'll improvise ways to overcome this in order to spend time with you. Sunglasses, parasols, masks, vaporub to rub under her nose, hiding in the shade/shadows. Of course, it's nice to hangout in a controlled environment that's more to her liking but she'll happily meet you halfway. Likewise, she'll improvise so she can interact with your pokemon because they're too sweet not to.

Between her sensory issues and being hella introverted, Rachel does heavily prefer to have plans in place a day or two before hand, rather than do things spontaneously. This way she can (hopefully) avoid getting overstimulated, exhausted and running low on social energy beforehand, just so she can bring her best self to you.

She tends to come off as serious, quiet and reserved to strangers (especially if you encounter her when she's actively doing something because then she's fighting her ADHD off with a broom, in casual settings she looks awkward and anxious if she's not with a friend), but she'll warm up after talking to her a few times. Humor is a good way to do this, she loves dry, snarky, dark and perverted jokes, so I'm sure Renee can get her laughing fast. She's not against Physical Affection, it just takes her a little time to let a new person touch her casually, but you can get her to a point where she'd be offended if you didn't give her a hug when you see her. She will outright tell you she loves you semi-regularly, check in on you regularly, and make a point to compliment you and express support and gratitude often. Funnily enough, if you were to praise her, the more it means to her, the more emotional she'll get (and she may struggle to accept it gracefully). Lastly, Rachel thrives on being helpful, need anything? Just ask. And She's likely to offer help before you ask too. Acts of Service all the way. If you prove yourself to be a reliable figure in her life you will recieve undying loyalty in return. Overall, she's what I'd call an agressive caregiver (You haven't eaten today? Here's a muffin you fuck. You talk down on yourself? Shut your whore mouth, you are wonderful. You do something dumb? She'll be blunt when she tells you so, but she'll help you figure it out.)

Renee is very very pleased with however their relationship turns out.

She does, though, worry a bunch about accidentally making Rachel miserable. She’s inclined to overthink a bit, so she’ll text like two months beforehand like “if. . . I need to photograph Pokémon at. . . the daycare. . . would you like to come?”

Renee just doesn’t want Rachel to have a miserable time with her. She’s one of those “I need everyone to like me all the time” types (unless you piss her off first (i.e. Emmet)) and on top of that she enjoys spending time with Rachel! So she does her best to be accommodating!

She can be too much tho, so just smack her and tell her how it is. She’ll eventually get it.

She just loves her friend/partner 👀 so very much. Plenty of hugs to be found for Rachel!

~Renee

[unicornery]

Hello tumblr please enjoy the latest Chart Chat, a crash course into The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway!

As a bonus here is an artifact from my youth, the custom-designed, inkjet-printed label I made for my vinyl rip of Foxtrot. This is a thank you to my listeners for getting 10 comments on last week's segment, also about early Genesis.

[adevotedappraisal]

The Carter Trilogy, part one of five

Introduction: Let's make love in the summertime, and breathe in each other's arms

There's an interesting cultural and historical framing device us Americans have been using in order to make sense of, and to comb out the nappy-headed developments of the past couple of years.  In our interactions with each other, we've resorted to reducing our shared events, and this ol’ President, and this ol’ year in particular, to a television show.   The U.S. President assassinated a top Iranian General at the beginning of the year, and the news was communicated in countless late night jokes and online memes as the raucous events of the season premiere of 'America - The Series.' 

In conversations throughout the year we would reduce the countless and needless complexities of this year into bite-sized episodes, and the countless and needless complexities of the Presidency into a mean ol’ villain or defiant hero in that show.  We do this so we could for a moment, warren order from the disorder of a pandemic, and we do it in order to masticate Trump, in an attempt to find something of cultural value in the marrow there. 

Set against the backdrop of the fall of the American Empire, Presidential Press Secretaries are referred to as mid-season replacements, scandals like Russiagate get packaged by cable news hosts as a storyline culminating in the ratings bonanza Mueller report episode, murder hornets appear as a J.J. Abrams-esque black box mystery, and over video chat we joke to our friends that the interview the President gave on the virus was ‘brought to you by Regeneron’. We do it so we can turn ol’ Trump up when you and the missus need a laugh, or so we can box it all in, get the highlights, and turn it all off sometimes.

Even now, as the results of this Presidential election conclude, we refer to it as the ‘Season Finale’ (a multi-day, multi-episode story arch, if you will).  We pontificate on the next move the President might take with the same confident hand-waving we gave to theories about Rachel and Ross, or about who shot that mean ol’ oil man J R Ewing. Except of course, these are real people up on our television screen that we treat as characters, passing, or not passing real laws, no matter how brazen and cartoonish their villainy might seem.

They are public servants, selected to be dutiful arbiters of democracy.  They are unpackaged and unscripted members of society, in stark contrast to the other faces you would see on television and billboards, those manipulated faces and lives, augmented and born from tinseltown, giant recording companies and whatever technological medium of the day.  Those other faces on television were the “illusion" Howard Beale talked about in the 1976 film Network, a traveling troupe of jugglers, fire-eaters, movie stars, athletes, singers and rappers, all completely separate from reality, striking a pose with a song to sing as soon as you press a button on a remote. Nowadays though, everyone you see is a little of column A, and a little out of column B.

For a solid century, generations of celebrities were fully in column A.  Notoriously private, insular, and sexually closeted, they would spend their days galavanting across the estates of their private Xanadus, appearing every once in a while to grace us with their presence, and fill our hearts with the gospel of America, all glowing and bright up there on that movie or television screen, or curled over the glossed-over pages of magazines, then glowing again illuminated on the flat-screens of our lives. Every now and then a scandal might hit the supermarket rags, or a scathing memoir would be published, but for the most part, celebrities came to us in ordered, scheduled appearances, their actual lives, marriages and drug habits compartmentalized away from that glowing screen I told you about.

Lately though, they're everywhere, with quotes under their faces dispensing grandfatherly advice on our school-mates Facebook page, or appearing on our media scroll without makeup to give cooking advice, or getting into days-long Twitter clashes with some unemployed rando. Every one of them leveraging some personal story, reported first in the news in order to tie in to the release date of their next project.  Rap star Cardi B herself has described her upcoming album as having “my ‘Lemonade’ moments, my personal relationship moments,” a set that wishes to delve into the inner workings of her own troubled marriage to Atlanta, GA rapper Offset.  

And through this monumental change, where actors in crisis, rappers expanding their brand, desperate online characters and season finale plot-lines get mixed up with our actual families, loved ones and our country, we the people have been there, fully comfortable with this conflation, in fact welcoming this with open arms.  So when did we become so comfortable mixing our mediums of entertainment with our frameworks of reality?

Well, I don’t know when this started, perhaps it’s gone on longer than I’m comfortable to admit.  That said, I believe this knotted entanglement of media products and reality, became unmistakable and indelible during the events of three of Beyonce's and Jay Zs albums released in the heart of the 2010s: 2016s Lemonade, 2017s 4:44, and Everything Is Love, from 2018, a Carter trilogy of albums, which came to us through television screens, speakers and ear pods, spinning a yarn about the crisis of a super-star marriage, that we discussed with each other as if it were our own.

After camera footage leaked of an argument between Beyonce, her sister Solange and Jay Z after the 2014 Met Gala, rumours spread concerning the state of their marriage and familial relationships. Normally, unplanned and embarrassing footage like this would have been downplayed, with a vague statement issued. Instead, the next set of releases from the chart-topping couple dealt with the issue head on, a trilogy of albums that gave us a look into the most famous marriage in music and, in the process, cross-pollinated the separated fields between the entertainer and the entertained, giving us an unnerving glimpse, like coming across a worried theme park princess on her smoke break.

The issue was not that a personal story was used in an r&b song --the genre is built on those songs -but rather that the story got bigger than the song. Divorce albums are one-sided affairs, so getting a response record to it gave their story added life every time another album in the saga was released. The story became about the modern American marriage, concerning the overworked wife that believes she can have it all, the prodigal husband, and the lack of communication about the common purpose of this union. 

After a while, the details found in their songs mattered more than the songs themselves, in fact, the personal details became the drawing card to the show. The production on Lemonade’s "Sorry" is a thin summer trifle with squat synth bleats, but the exciting, chopped and screwed introduction of Becky with the good hair obscures that. Jay on "Kill Jay Z" from 4:44 confesses "you egged Solange on, knowing all along all you had to say you was wrong," and it adds a new clue to that fateful night, but was it a good line? It isn't his strongest, as the cadence is awkward, but it took a while to realise, while waiting for the dust to settle, for the band to start up again.

Another look at these monumental albums is warranted then, now that time has blown the debris of gossip blog stories away, so that we can separate the story of Jay and Bey, from the music they released. It is useful, in order to see what worked and what didn't, but also to discern the difference between the person presenting the show, and the show itself, for this will be an invaluable tool in the decade ahead of us, as more celebrities from the lighted stage immigrate in and out of our lives. It is an exercise though, that our bodies secretly undertook over the years as we returned to this or that song throughout this trilogy, to accompany us through a sobering chapter in our lives, or to remind us of that hour that love shined brightest, during the restless summertime, when we looked at each other, felt something realer than high definition, and we breathed in each other's arms.

[bluboothalassophile]

hello, i don't know if you are doing the 76 kiss prompts too blu, but, i was thinking jayrae with #55 but, inspired by the movie Serendipity (2001), is one of the sweetest rom com movie i've ever seen, but i don't know if you have seen it before?

Hello,

Um… I have no idea what Serendipity is. I can promise you the closest to the romantic comedy genre I’ve gotten for movies is Fool’s Gold and 50 First Dates (I love her beating up Ula with a bat). I can promise everyone I don’t watch chick flick movies. So sorry, but this is the closest to JayRae I can do right now.

Returning a Soul…

True Love’s kiss was complete and utter-Bullshit. Of this he was certain. And this topic was only on his mind because of his niece who’s school book project was on Grimm Fairy Tales. And she wouldn’t stop pestering him about true love and that utter bullshit, and she kept asking him if he felt this way about Rachel, Raven, Rae, and it just wouldn’t stop. He had placated her with the fact Fairy Tales were tales created to teach lessons, not just love, and true love wasn’t real in reality.

There’s no ONE person made solely for him, there’s no one sole person made for anyone. Damn anyone who felt that he was a cynical asshole, but he had been screwed over enough times by fate and life to think differently. Oh sure if there was chemistry sex and companionship were great but to have a single person that was supposed to be with you it was a romantic con. A scam. A chemical mix up in the brain.

And the other thing, love wasn’t always neat, pretty, fluffy and happy like media insisted it be, it was a lot of fucking work, and he had enough work with just himself.

So no fucking thank you on the true love, fated lover, life companion pyramid scheme from life. He would happily remain single for eternity. Life was complicated enough with just himself.

Of fucking course though, with everything else that had happened in his life it couldn’t just work out how he wanted to just for five minutes. That would be too simple.

Jason had been amusing his many siblings, and nieces, and nephews, with the True Love bullshit. Or what he thought was utter bullshit for a long time. Jason felt that he and Raven; despite what everyone in this demented universe thought; were not an example of True Love. Evidence to back this:

He dated other women, and Raven dated other men.

He had sex with other women; exclusively not Raven.

He had never in his entire life entertained the idea of seducing or being with Raven in a romantic manner.

He was not a bastard blessed with True Love.

And that was evidence. So while he was hanging out with Mar'i and Jake while at Terry and Lian’s hockey practice he was completely relaxed. He had broken up with Jessica; or rather it was a mutual break up if such a thing existed. But they were never going to be serious, Jessica was in love with Simon Baz, she just needed to know she could be with someone without overwhelming them. He thought her methods a bit sporadic, but he was fine with it, Jessica kept him from turning around and murdering Koryak where Koryak stood. Jason wasn’t in love with Raven, but she was his best friend and he and Victor Stone agreed there was no guy good enough for her. Also, Koryak always glared at him whenever he was near Raven, which irked Jason greatly. Rachel, Raven, whatever name she went by, he had known her longer, they were best friends, they would go to the ends of the earth for the other; that trumped her boyfriend’s right to be petty and act like a territorial jackass. There were times Jason wanted to punch the idiot in the face.

But here he was, Mar'i doing her school project, and Jake napping on his chest. He had already been mistaken for this brood’s dad, but B had B Jr., Matt, and Tommy today for the park, while Cat was taking care of Alina and Helena who were at dance class. Jason honestly didn’t know how the Bats managed family shit and vigilante shit but somehow it worked. He didn’t know how.

He looked up from his current read; le chevalier d’Harmental, by Dumas when Mar'i gasped and ran up the bleachers, dragging her project with her. Jason put his book down just as Dick and Zatanna walked towards him.

“We had an arrangement, Dick,” Jason warned. He didn’t want Dick and Zatanna’s relationship near Mar'i and Jake when they were just acclimating to having a father. True both kids like Raquel, but Zatanna was Dick’s girlfriend and the outbursts about that, thus far, were fiery and spectacular.

“Jay, it’s Rae,” Dick said. Jason snapped to attention looking between Zatanna and Dick. Zatanna for the first time in his knowing her, looked genuinely apprehensive about this.

“Lucifer and Mazikeen have ordered you to come, and Constantine thinks you can help her,” Zatanna supplied. “And trust me we don’t want to keep them waiting.”

“Terry and Lian…” he started.

“I can watch them, I’ll take them straight home, and I’m sober, Jay.” Dick promised.

“You fuck this up I’ll skin you alive.”

“NO!” Mar'i shouted as she ran over to him as he hoisted himself upwards, she clung to his leg glaring at her father and Zatanna.

“Mar'i, Jay’s has to help Rae, and it’s really important,” Dick said.

“Mar'i can come with me, you watch Jake, Terry and Lian, and do not give them fucking snacks unless it’s apple slices or Alfred will have your head,” Jason warned picking up Mar'i’s backpack and taking her hand. Dick awkwardly held his sleeping son, but sat on the bleachers too. Jason knocked on the glass, Lian and Terry looked at him and he pointed at Dick before picking up Mar'i on his hip.

“Let’s go, witch,” he said as he followed Zatanna.

“I’m warning you, Mar'i should stay.”

“She doesn’t want to so she’ll go with me,” he stated firmly. Zatanna seemed to think her relationship with Dick was enough to parent Mar'i and Jake and it annoyed him.

Zatanna portalled them up to the Watch Tower, and he set Mar'i down. Zatanna started walking briskly away and he pulled Mar'i in front of him. “Mar'i I don’t know what’s going on, but you should go to the cafeteria, stay there until I get you, wear this,” he said putting a domino mask on her as he wore his own.

“Okay,” she nodded.

“Be right back kiddo,” he promised ruffling her hair as he followed Zatanna. He knew Mar'i would either do what was asked of her or follow him, but he was more worried about what was going on with Rae. If it was really dangerous then Mar'i would be smart and run.

They rounded the corridor and Jason was greeted by a passionate five way shouting match between Koryak, Victor, Lucifer, Constantine and Mazikeen. His patience ran out seeing Rae laying prone on the bed, she was so small, and her hair spilled around her, which had him shoving his way through everyone as he leaned over her.

“What the hell happened?” he asked looking over her chart, and looking at her. She was so small, she was always small though, but when she was awake she was indomitable.

“Sleeping curse, cast by Faust,” Constantine stated.

“Sleeping curse?”

“Like the Grimm fairy tales only worse,” Constantine stated.

“How do we wake her?” he asked looking her over, her chest was rising and falling slower and slower, she was dying. He could see that on the heart monitor.

“True love’s kiss!” Mar'i said from the doorway running into the room, clambering up on the bed. He stared at his eight year old niece.

“Tried that, it didn’t work, we need something else!” Koryak snapped.

“And I’m telling you, you couldn’t possibly be her true love! Even if she wasn’t bonded, which she is, she has always sought out Jason, I would place money on him being her True Love if such a thing exists.” Lucifer snapped furiously.

“Obviously!” Mar'i snorted.

“And demons don’t have true love!” Zatanna shouted.

“Everyone who is not Lucifer or Constantine OUT!” Jason snapped. Victor glared at him, but Jason raised a brow. He couldn’t get rid of Mar'i now, but he wouldn’t have this conversation in front of Raven’s brother.

When the door was sealed behind the arguing party he looked to Raven’s grandfather and Constantine.

“What exactly is this about?” he asked, his fingers tracing her brow and hair absently.

“She took a sleeping curse, and Faust the idiot botched it to need True Love, not an act of pure love like in the story, actual soul mate true love,” Constantine hissed in frustration with a dramatic gesture to Raven.

“And we got to the terrible, improbable conclusion of me being her true love for this nonsense how?” Jason asked. Raven was fighting, he could feel it.

“You are her bonded. Rachel, Raven, it doesn’t matter, she comes for you, she seeks you out, her soul is tied to yours, you know this. So the reasonable conclusion is in a thousand lifetimes, in a thousand years, she’ll pick you and you’ll pick her, that is about as true of love as any.”

“And if this Hail Mary doesn’t work?” he asked looking at her. She was so still, but Raven was annoyingly still by nature. Even now as she was Rachel, she was still, Rachel, Raven, they were the same and the just emanated calm.

“Then we’re back to the drawing board,” Constantine snapped. “All you have to do is kiss her, you don’t have to marry her or change your relationship!”

“That’ll work though, you love her,” Mar'i stated.

Jason said nothing.

“We’ll give it a shot, and if it doesn’t work I’ll have a little chat with Faust, in a private room,” he hissed.

“Thank You Father, we’ll give you privacy, come on tiny spawn!” Lucifer grabbed Mar'i like she was a bomb, she laughed and Constantine walked out of the room.

Jason glared at her. “If this works, this changes nothing,” he warned. He was swift in leaning over her and kissing her softly. She gasped to life and sat upright.

“It fucking worked?” he sputtered staring at her.

“Jason? What happened? Where the hell am I?”

“You’re in the Watch Tower Rae,” he said. She stared at him, and he saw the black force of a soul flowing between their hands, straight to her.

“What’s happening?” she asked. “I thought… I died?”

“Nice try but no cigar, love,” he chuckled.

“No… not with Faust,” she said as she looked at him. He grimaced.

“Yeah, you did die,” he murmured. “I killed Ryand’r, you’re back.”

“I… I’m Raven, not Rachel,” she said.

“That’s a given, I’m just happy to have you,” he admitted sitting carefully on her bed.

“It’s like a dream, a strange dream,” she whispered touching his face. “I’m alive.”

[connormurphyisbae]

The Unexpected: Connor Murphy x Reader (Part 7)

Masterlist

Word Count: 326

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 8

Two days before Thanksgiving break, Rachel and Y/N were walking through the quad, excited to get a break from class. Just chatting about the activities they’ve planned with their families. Then they heard shouting from behind.

“Watch out!” The voice continued

Both girls turned around to see a soccer ball flying through the air. Without thinking, Y/N pushed Rachel out of the way, but in doing so was hit in the head and fell to the ground. When she opened her eyes again there were a few people circled around her.

Y/N tried to get up, “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” Rachel pulled her arm.

“Dude, I’m so sorry,”

“Yeah, do you need to see a doctor?” the guys were genuinely concerned.

“Well, no- whoa!” Almost falling again.

“Okay, I’m gonna take you to the hospital,”

Rachel waited in a chair inside the room while Y/N was examined by a nurse. The doctor came in with a chart and seemed to be looking it over.

“Everything seems to be good,”

“Awesome,” she began to get off of the table.

“Yes, your baby will also be fine,”

Her eyes widened as she fell back onto the table, “Wh-what?”

“You… you didn’t know?”

“Does it look like I knew?” her voice became a little more high pitched.

“I’d have to do some more tests, but I’d say you’re about two months along,”

“But… I’m not bigger or anything, I haven’t changed,”

“Well, sometimes you just don’t know,” he tried to console her.

“Didn’t you think it was weird when your period didn’t come?” asked Rachel.

“Um, not the first month, cause sometimes it’ll just skip a month,” Y/N took a breath, “but it wasn’t supposed to come until Wednesday,”

“Oh my god. What are you gonna do?”

“I’m… gonna go home,”

“And tell your parents?”

“I don’t know yet,”

“What about the father?”

“I’ll let you know everything when I get back, okay?”

[writingdotcoffee]

#74: Audiobooks

I go for a run every other day at 7 p.m. when I come back from work. I do the same route every time, so I wear headphones to make the time go by a little faster. In the summer, when the days are long, I listen to music like Pendulum or Rage Against the Machine or Twenty One Pilots. In the winter I usually switch to spoken word—podcasts and such (I enjoy The Creative Penn Podcast and The Career Author). It gets dark early, and my glasses steam up in the cold. Running around when you can’t see or hear anything isn’t particularly smart.

One evening about two years ago as I was getting ready for a quick run, I found out that I had already listened to all the podcast episodes that week. I wasn’t feeling like subscribing to any more shows, so I decided to get an audiobook instead — something easy to start. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins was at the top of the charts at the time. I downloaded that and headed out.

I barely got through the first hour and had enough. The book wasn’t bad, but I couldn’t listen to Rachel recounting her drunken escapades with her ex-husband. The story was way too depressing for running. I shelved the entire idea of audiobooks and went back to podcasts.

Fast forward to a week ago: I was facing exactly the same problem. I love podcasts and listen to at least half a dozen on a regular basis. But to be honest, I was getting a little tired of people chatting all the time. I needed something more substantial to mix it up once in a while.

This week, I decided to give The Girl on the Train another chance. I didn’t make the same mistake though. I started listening to the audiobook while doing the dishes or on the train. This way I get both the variety and save up enough podcast episodes for my evening runs. And now I’m hooked.

The Girl on the Train worked really well in audio. I feel that I learned so much about prose by listening to it—things that I perhaps wouldn’t pick up when reading it myself. I have yet to figure out whether it was just this book or whether it works across the board. But having a narrator read the words out loud to me gave me an unexpectedly different perspective that I liked a lot.

Now, I’m not going to stop reading. My reading goal stands. But I’m definitely going to listen to more audiobooks in 2019. There are always those would-be-nice-to-read titles. They seem interesting but never make it very far up the constantly shifting to-read pile. I think I will start listening to those. In fact, I just bought The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Do you listen to audiobooks? And if you do, is it in addition or instead of reading? I'm curious!

What I Am Reading

I finished This is Marketing by Seth Godin. It was a good one, although not my favourite by the author. I liked Tribes and The Dip a lot more.

This week, I’ll be reading Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter. The book tells the story of Stuxnet—a malware famously dubbed the world’s first digital weapon that the US government deployed to decimate Iran’s nuclear programme. It should be pretty awesome. I can’t believe I bought this one from a before we bin it section at the basement of Waterstones for a fiver.

I’m also reading this rather spiffy collection of short stories by H. G. Wells. And listening to The Handmaid’s Tale, but you already know that. I might have, er, book problem…

Short Stories

Finally, here are the short stories that I read this week:

Luck by Mark Twain

Under the Knife by H. G. Wells

The Crystal Egg by H. G. Wells

The New Accelerator by H. G. Wells

The Stolen Body by H. G. Wells

Tough Times All Over by Joe Abercrombie

What Do You Do? by Gillian Flynn

Want More?

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Past Editions

#73: The Third Draft, January 2019

#72: Getting Started, January 2019

#71: This Is It, December 2018

#70: The Moment, December 2018

#69: All I want for Christmas…, December 2018

[universal-kitty]

.: Pining Over Feathers :.

Ship: [One-Sided] Davesprite/Me Prompt: They’re stuck on this ship for three years. But their heart is stuck on the orange birdbrain who keeps floating around within it...

Notes: Because it’s been about 6 years and my feeling towards a specific Strider haven’t diminished at all... So why not write it in a way that flows with the canon days, huh? Shoutout to the Epilogue, oh boy.

   Watching him is unbearably frustrating. It was fine when there were planets between them, maybe. A whole game-session away. Options for him to leave her alone and go hang out with Jadesprite or something. But after a few months aboard the ship (something Rachel had to keep track of, lest she lost her mind before the week was out), she was already at the end of her rope. The worst part? It wasn’t because Davesprite was annoyance.

   Oh, not at all! If anything, those glowing orange feathers made her heart skip a beat, having a “quick chat” near flustering her into silence while he got to say whatever he wanted for as long as he wanted...but that in itself was the problem. Emotions. Loving emotions. To the sprite meant to help the other Dave. That had to be a problem, right? Having feelings for an orange sprite of one of your other friends? It’s weird! This is so weird!!!

   ...And yet, when Davesprite bowed out to go find John and mess with him after the movie ended, Rachel’s head dropped into her hands, groaning softly into them. Yeah, this was weird and the absolute worst, cause trying to remind herself of the fact he was still kind of Dave? Not doing anything to stop these dokis.

   “Oh, Rachel! You okay?” Their head lurched up to meet Jade’s kind eyes, blinking innocently behind her glasses. Right... This ship is full of glasses-wearers... It’d be pretty funny if Rachel’s heart wasn’t tearing itself apart in her chest.

   “Y-Yeah! Just dealing with some stuff... I’ll be fine.”

   “You sure? Don’t wanna...talk about anything?” A red slipper half-slid into the room, Jade ready to burst in with eager curiosity...but Rachel shook her head. Not after that tone, no way. Jade sounded like she was on the hunt for gossip and Rachel wasn’t about to give in to that, no matter how...relieving it might be to talk about things.... Sigh.

   “Nah, I’m good. You better find John, though; Davesprite left not that long ago. He’s bored, I think. Wants to play a trick on John.” Jade groaned and Rachel couldn’t help but laugh a little, tense feelings melting away at some more platonic familiarity.

   “He’s so-! I’ll see what I can do. Take care, Rach!”

   “You too, Jade!” And with that, she was gone... Taking the comfort with her. Dammit. Maybe venting would’ve been the better route, after all? Who knows.

   Rachel sat there in the “group room” for who-knows how long. Lingering, not ready to move yet...and finally got up. Hands in the pockets of the hoodie she once brought with her from...how long ago? When had this game started, again? ...When would it end?

   Walking into her designated room on board the ship provided comfort and quiet, though. No one to barge in now... Just some darkness, peace, quiet...and more thoughts about Davesprite.

   That low laugh he gave during the movie. The slight heat he gave off when he sat back into the couch fully, arm resting on the back and fingertips so, so close to her neck. Sometimes, reddish-orange eyes would flick into view past his shades and it had her racing heart going off the charts. His eyes were so...gorgeous. He’d shown her that, once. She’d asked in private, he didn’t mind too much, gave a quick view...

   Those eyes still lingered in her dreams. Even if the love interest of the night didn’t look like Dave, those eyes Davesprite had were always there. Charming her still, even in dreamland.

   Another groan- longer this time- from Rachel, hands rubbing over her face. So warm... She was probably blushing, huh? Dammit...! It just reminded her of how Davesprite noticed and teased her about it...and had been doing so since then. “Flustered, huh? But I’ve seen you blush more than that,” he’s said before. He knows what he’s doing!!!! .....Right?

   With a sigh, Rachel flopped down backwards onto her bed. Paused. Rolled over onto her side. Better.

   “...What am I supposed to do?” The room was dark aside from a lava lamp nobody knows the origins of and a few nightlights Rachel had found in her house to bring with her before the Scratch had occurred. None of them would provide an answer. Not the laptop or TV, either...or the desk.

   Just her and this quiet-ass room with no answers and self-doubt pouring from every corner.

   “What’s the point, anyways? I bet he doesn’t even like me,” she grumbled, brows furrowing. “I’m not much to look at compared to the others... Issues bigger than the oceans from back home. I’m so stupid.” Burying her face into the pillow, Rachel sniffled, doing her best to bite down a pout and force growing tears back into her eyelids.

   “Yeah... It’s better that ways, anyhow. It’s...It’s better that way.....”

   She just wished she could believe that and not have to imagine what it might be like to call herself his girlfriend. Not to try and fall asleep to the demanding thoughts of what it could possibly be like...to kiss him. Be held by him, even as she fell asleep.

   ...It had to be this way. It was better if things stayed like this...right?

[weekinethereum]

September 21, 2018

News and Links

Protocol

[SNARKs] Toward ~500 tx/sec through mass tx validation

[ewasm] Latest Ewasm call

[Eth 2.0] Prysmatic’s latest implementation update: proposer & attester responsibilities, RPC validator interactions and minimal beacon chain processing & fork choice. Chose Bolt for database.

[Eth 2.0] Notes from last Eth 2.0 implementers call.

[Eth 2.0] Sigma Prime introduces its Lighthouse Eth 2.0 client

[State channels] Latest state channels call

[State channels] Learn State Channels, similiar to Learn Plasma

[Plasma] snapp - fully verified plasma chain using SNARKs and BarryWhiteHat’s roll_up

[Plasma] Enabling Faster Plasma Exits - NFT collateralization

[Plasma] Data Availability Solution for Plasma EVM without Confirmation

[Plasma] Quark–gluon Plasma - verified Plasma chain without confirmation signatures

[Plasma] Plasma Cash Defragmentation

[Plasma] Plasma Cash Minimal Atomic Swap

[Plasma] The current state of Plasma (before this week anyway!) by Kevin Zhang

[Plasma] Latest Plasma implementers call

A suggestion: if you want to work in this industry, publishing notes on any of these calls (Plasma, Ewasm, Eth 2.0, state channels, etc) is a great way to build knowledge and reputation.

Stuff for developers

Parameterized transaction reviews for when you want to decide which signers you want to approve different types of transactions

hosted Eth nodes and load balancing

Deconstructing Solidity, pt 5: function bodies

Solidity capture the flag pt 4 challenge, with pt 3 writeup

Sigma Prime’s Mehdi Zerouali: ‘breaking smart contracts for fun and profit’ slides

event logs parser

ethjs-abi for use in BigQuery, to decode Ethereum event logs

Ethereum in Google’s BigQuery: how we built this dataset

Ameen Solemaini video code walk through of Moloch DAO

Using APM to replace centralized package managers

Implementing Harberger tax deeds

Zymbit and Oaken blockchain security module available for pre-order for $47. i2c, Raspberry Pi ready. Ships mid-October

Registration open for next ConsenSys Academy cohort. Zastrin also just released an NFT/ERC721 course

RuntimeVerification’s formal verification spec in K of ERC777

Releases

Parity v2.1.1 beta and v.2.0.6 stable. Parity 1.x end of life.

Ecosystem

Multi-Collateral Dai: the code is formally verified and ready. Check it out on Kovan.

Avsa’s Universal logins working demo: first code release

Beltran on UX for mass adoption

Wyohackathon submissions and winners. EthBerlin winners. Also Hack the North Ethereum submissions

What Eth 2.0 layer 1 scalability will look like, by the numbers

TurboGeth is in private beta, per Rachel O’Leary’s interview with Alexey Akhunov

MEWConnect iOS app is out from My Ether Wallet

Ethfinex Trustless - non-custodial trading using Bitfinex order book, settlement on-chain

Governance and Standards

EIP1418: blockchain rent proposal

ERC820 pseudo-introspection registry is in last call

ERC1412: Batch Transfers For Non-Fungible Tokens

ERC1410: partially fungle token

ERC1417: poll standard

Nick Johnson had a chat with Kristy-Leigh Minehan and switched to supporting ProgPOW. Currently, there’s a 20x increase in processing over ethash in benchmarking, though Minehan says that’s because the CPU code is currently just a copy of the GPU code

Tokensoft on its ERC1404: simple restricted token standard

Project Updates

CasinoFair will be the first live FunFair casino later this month. Available in Canada, Switzerland, Finland, Norway and Thailand. Signup for free FUN

Raiden update on mainnet launch. Testnet release: v0.10.0

Augur app v1.5

Streamr helping build a nationwide traffic map in Georgia

WindingTree’s summer demo release

Santiment’s daily active addresses and Github commit data is free.

Grid+ is live with its first electricity customers

Dapped launches with dapp game reviews

Intro to the Golem marketplace during Brass

1.25m Loom (~110kUSD) to run a LoomNetwork PlasmaChain validator

Interviews, Podcasts, Videos, Talks

Two great Blockcrunch podcasts on state channels: Connext’s Arjun Bhuptani and Celer Network’s Mo Dong

EthBerlin videos

Golem, Status, Raiden UX talks from their meetup at EthBerlin

Linda Xie with Laura Shin

First episode of Around the Block documentary

An interview with Conrad Barski

Latest Open Source Block Explorers call

Zero Knowledge Summit videos

Hudson Jameson on Zero Knowledge

Tokens / Business

Chart: staker rewards and total inflation in Eth 2.0

Polymath on using partially fungible tokens from its security token standard for gaming

Claims curated registries: reputation development

Bonding curves as funding mechanisms

Polkadot/web3

Jack Platts: state of the Polkadot ecosystem. Polkascan explorer is live

GRANDPA block finality in Polkadot

Buzzfeed published a sensationalist hit piece on Gavin Wood over a short story he wrote years ago. His response. I read the story years ago; ‘twas obviously fiction.

Cloudflare now runs an IPFS gateway. How they built it e2e

General

15 of the world’s largest banks and trading firms start Komgo to build a commodity trading platform on Ethereum.

Airbus announced an ERC721 framework for charities to take donations

Rep Emmer (R-MN) unveils blockchain-friendly bills to clarify tax with regard to forks and not require miners to register as MSBs (which would be a truly asinine requirement)

NY AG claimed that Coinbase was doing its own trading. Actually, 20% of Coinbase exchange volume comes from Coinbase’s retail. It doesn’t even have an OTC desk.

Putting a Syrian airstrike early warning system on Ethereum for data transparency

SEC Commissioner Peirce speech on being CryptoMom

Blockchain futurism from John Wolpert: sidechains for fun and profit

David Chaum says he has built a better Bitcoin

A Bitcoin bug would have allowed inflation. It was discovered by a Bitcoin Cash developer

Dates of Note

Upcoming dates of note:

September 21-23 - EthAtlanta

Sept 29 - Oct 1 - Ethfinex’s governance summit (Lugano)

Oct 5-7 - TruffleCon in Portland

Oct 5-7 - ETHSanFrancisco hackathon

Oct 8 - Settle virtual hackathon

Oct 11 - Crypto Economics Security Conf (Berkeley)

Oct 12 - Non-fungible summit(SF)

Oct 22-24 - Web3Summit (Berlin)

Oct 24-25 - Winding Tree hackathon (Prague)

Oct 26-28 - Status hackathon (Prague)

Oct 28-30 - Ethereum Magicians Council of Prague

Oct 29 - Decentralized Insurance D1Conf (Prague)

Oct 30 - Nov 2 - Devcon4 (Prague)

Nov 2 - MetaMask, Mist, imToken and Status to stop injecting web3

Nov 3-4 - Enterprise Ethereum hackathon (Prague)

Dec 7-9 - dGov distributed governance conf (Athens)

Dec 7-9 - ETHSingapore hackathon

Feb 15-17 - ETHDenver

If you appreciate this newsletter, thank ConsenSys

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[historically-incorrect]

I told my friend how my day went by saying, “School,” and, “Group projects,” and she asked for more detail because (and I quote directly from the text messages), “Youve wrote mini stories before, I've seen them. You have better detail skills than that” so I sent an entire 2787 word story that you have to click on to read all of.

The full story reads something like this:

“ It started like any other day, I woke up at 5:55 to my alarm going of and proceed to ignore my four other alarms. When I finally got up I got dressed, ate, and headed to school.

When I got to school it was around 7:45, as per usual, and I chatted with [Nadia]. When the teachers dismissed it was [x/xy]th grade first as always and I had to walk in to the chaos that was the main hallway. I finally got to first hour about five minutes later and took my seat next to [Rob]. We're currently reading Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck in English, that was last nights homework (which I left at home).

The beginning of first hour was terrifying, a few kids had to do a summery about the chapter of homework that I didn't read. After that we literally read Of Mice And Men for a class period and a half.

Third hour was P.E.- my absolute favorite class ever. We've been doing basketball which I can't do to save my life. I think I made one shot. Maybe.

We had fourth hour next which was the first period of Math. In math we're working on algebra and charts and all that fun stuff. We came up with a new word in math, yint. It's just a funny term for the y-intercept. I'm seat partners with [Sandra] and we had to do some weird activity thingy.

Next hour was lunch, I couldn't go as I had to eat in Ms. [Simons'] room for speech practice. Competition is next week and I'm not very far into memorization. At the end of lunch we have a class called "advisory" where we check grades and the like.

After lunch we had another period of math. It was horrendously boring and all we did was take notes.

Now it was sixth hour, health. Health is an interesting class, I've noticed a bit of a pattern with it actually. On Tuesday's we take notes. On Wednesday we have To Good For Drugs with Miss [Angel]. On Thursday we go over the notes. I'm not super sure about Monday and Friday though, we didn't have school Monday and it's only Thursday.

Seventh hour is science, we're working on building bridges. The blueprints are due tomorrow so that's fun (they're only half done). I'm working with [Rachel] and we've been switching days for who does the "daily report".

The second to last hour was Social Studies. In S.S. we're working on inventions and Henry Ford and stuff. I find it strange, they only talk about Ford but he didn't invent the car. They've never once mentioned who invented the car.

Finally it was chorus, it was a band day so only the kids who weren't in band were there. You see, if you do band you only do chorus some days. If you only do band you do that every day for ninth hour and vice versa. It wasn't super fun in chorus, we just got lectured for being to loud.

When school was over [Steve], who I always walk with, had to do student council. I walked home alone in the rain. “