#This got really rambly

[wonderlandleighleigh]

It’s something Lenny doesn’t actually realize until Lily is born.

But Midge is tactile with the kids. 

Every kid gets kisses good morning, kisses goodbye when they go to school, and kisses goodnight at bedtime. She fixes everyone’s hair and adjusts clothing. Comforting hugs and arm rubs when someone is upset, or celebratory hugs when something good happens. She even does the mom thing of wiping faces with the thumb she’s just licked.

Her own parents aren’t that way. Not really. Light kisses hello with her mother, but nothing terribly overt. The Maisels are more physically affectionate. Moishe and Shirley shower the kids in kisses and cheek pinches and noogies, and when Esther was littler, Joel would carry her around everywhere with me. Hold Ethan’s hand.

It’s not lost on him, though, that before he married Midge, there just wasn’t much physical affection in her life outside of the kids. That even her romantic relationships weren’t terribly physical outside of sex. It’s why Lenny makes the effort to be physically affectionate in non-sexual ways. An arm wrapped around her shoulders. Holding her hand. drive-by kisses on her cheeks or lips or neck while she’s busy.

And she just seems...

Happy.

She’s happy with him, and happy with their kids, and just

Happy.

He’d been a little concerned, to be honest, about adding another kid to their already pretty large family. That it would be one too many kids. That a baby would cause friction with Ethan and Kitty and Esther. That they just wouldn’t have the time between three already-in-progress kids and two already-in-progress careers.

But for whatever reason, it feels like the opposite most days. Sure, Lily gets left with a grandparent or minder sometimes when they’re all busy, but more often than not, Midge is doing phone meetings during the day for work, and spending her in-person time with their infant daughter, and she really seems to enjoy it.

Lenny thinks about that first time he saw Midge on stage, talking about not knowing anything about raising kids, and wondering if maybe she shouldn’t have had them. That maybe she wasn’t cut out for it, and he can officially file that thought under the “insecure crock of shit’ column.

Midge is spectacular with Lily. And Lily is never happier than when she’s with Midge, and maybe if this had been his last marriage, Lenny would have been a little jealous.

But with Midge, seeing them both so happy just makes him happy.

A particularly hard and busy day of hosting the first night of Hanukkah at their place leaves the entire family exhausted. Joel had been difficult, Lan had been bratty, Moishe had been combative with Abe and Shirley had attempted a coup in the kitchen, which Midge had to fend off without hurting her ex-mother-in-law’s feelings and afterwards, Ethan, Kitty and Esther are all sacked out on the floor of the living room on a pile of blankets and throw pillows.

Midge grins from the couch with Lily snuggled in against her, the four-month-old sleeping soundly against her shoulder as Lenny fixes them a couple of drinks before wandering back over with them, handing Midge one as he kisses her cheek.

“Another Hanukkah celebration in the books,” she says softly.

“Successful, if insane,” Lenny agrees. “The last night’ll be more fun. That friend celebration.”

“You say that, but Shy has requested sufganiyot, so I may burn the place to the ground,” Midge jokes lightly.

“Ah, this place is gettin’ small anyway,” he waves a hand.

Midge pouts. “I love this apartment. I found you this apartment. I don’t want to leave.”

Lenny shrugs as he looks around. “Kids are gonna get bigger. Kitty and Esther can’t share a room forever.”

“Sure they can.”

He chuckles and pecks her lips. “We’ll stay as long as it makes sense.”

She sighs softly. “We could buy the place next door...knock down some walls, have the biggest apartment ever.”

“Or we could go up the block and look at brownstones,” Lenny suggests. “Which will be equally expensive with less demolition disrupting our lives.”

“I never thought about living in a brownstone,” Midge admits. “I like apartment life. The doorman, the elevator operator, live-in maintenance...running into your neighbors in the hall...”

“Stealing their milk,” Lenny adds jokingly.

“It was one time.”

“Right.”

“It was.”

“Sure.”

She sighs softly. “I want to stay.”

He nods, gazing down at the kids on the floor. “Then...we’ll stay. The laundry room is big, we can move the wall, give the girls more room.”

Midge rests her head on his shoulder. “Thank you.”

Lenny kisses the top of her head. “I go wherever you and the kids are. If it’s here, then I’ll be here.”

She cuddles in against him, Lily still in her arms, and he feels her relax in a deep way that rarely happens. He sits back with them, and lets the quiet sink in.

[sluttybibuck]

Hi, I'm sure you've answered this before but I was wondering what software you use to edit your AMVS? And I'm also curious about your process, finding clips, how long it takes, etc ... You don't have to answer this hahaha

hi!!! i haven't talked about this in a while so it's totally fine!!! I use premiere pro and i pay for it like a CHUMP but it's expensive and im broke so im currently looking for a free download somewhere 👀👀 (please send me links if you have them 🙏🏼)

my process is usually me listening to a song and going "OH MY GOD THIS IS DESTIEL" usually it's a taylor swift song but not always. Most of my clips come from this life changing post and if not then i usually just screen record from netflix.

Making a video can take me anywhere from one afternoon to a year, i have wips that i've been working on since spring 2021, it's really hard sometimes when i have such a clear picture of what i want to make and i just haven't figured out how to make it yet. There was a point in october 2021 when i was deeply depressed and manic and i made 12 amvs in two weeks (some of those i haven't even posted yet cause i'm waiting for taylor's versions to drop) it was insane.

When I get an idea for an amv i start writing it down in my notes app, like what clips come to mind with what lyric and what scenes HAVE to be included, it also helps that i have encyclopedic knowledge of every single episode of this goddamn show and i can pretty much recall exactly what episode the clip i want is from at any given time. Most recently with the taylor swift rerecordings I've started planning ahead so I have different folders with ideas of what songs from each album I wanna make once the taylor's version drops (1989 tv is gonna be wild btw). Taylor really threw me off with the release of midnights i was not expecting that but oh my god i already have plans for almost every song.

Lately I've been in kind of a slump but today I woke up with the URGE to edit and that hasn't happened in months!! It started to feel like a chore so I took some time off and stopped forcing myself to edit when I didn't want to and it's honestly really helped. I think I'm ready to get back into it though!!!

Making amvs and edits is so so fun and honestly pretty easy I taught myself using youtube tutorials so if there's videos you wish existed but don't go ahead and make them! You really have to be your own biggest fan it's the only way, at this point every video I make is just for me, if people happen to like it it's just a bonus :)

[littlefankingdom]

Dick who climbed on anything as a child. Even in public, especially in public. The moment Bruce looks away, he is climbing something to get as high as possible. The first times, it gave Bruce an heart attack. Now, it's just a headache.

People pass by and ask if they should call the firefighters, and Bruce tiredly tell them "He is fine, he can get down on his own.", like people with cats.

Imagine, you're walking out of some building, only to see a 10 years old standing on top of a lamppost, having a discussion with his dad guardian at the bottom.

"Dick, get down."

"Make me."

"Get down or you're grounded."

[eydilily]

would you bite the hand that feeds you?

[imadetheline]

me, starting disco elysium: ah I can say and do whatever is necessary to solve this case! who cares what people think of me!

me, approximately one second after meeting Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi: I am going to get a good grade in being this man's best friend, something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve.

[oobbbear]

I want to post this here too because I’ve seen it happen a few times

Please understand that there are cultural differences and language differences, if you see this happening let the person clarify what they meant, that person might just not be familiar with words the western side of the internet use

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

so in an attempt to actually use positive thinking, anytime i fuck up and my brain reacts as if ive cause a minor apocalyptic event, i compare my fuck up to the 4 minute fuck up committed by the crew of the uss william d porter.

and only today, as i was having to explain what happened to my mom when i was explaining the whole comparison thing, did i realise that most people dont know about it and ive decided that needs to change because its objectively hilarious.

...which is a weird thing to say about an event that occured on a warship in 1943, specifically november 14th.

see the uss william d porter was a fletcher-class destroyer but you dont need to know what that means, just that she had guns that went bang bang and that she was escorting another ship, the uss iowa, to cairo.

while they were on their way there, they performed some gun trials like testing the anti-aircraft guns or the torpedos. and while they were running a torpedo drill, the crew of the porter managed to fire a live torpedo straight at the iowa which you know, in terms of a list of things to do while escorting a ship, shooting a torpedo at them is not on that list.

especially if the president of the united states is on board.

yeah so fdr was on board and the gun trials were actually his idea, and part of the trials was that they were conducted under radio silence.

and that means the crew of the porter couldnt just call the iowa to be like "move out the way, we accidentally shot a torpedo at you."

but they did have signal lamps and you know, the signalman on board was trained to signal this exact kind of message.

...and uh never mind, the signalman did manage to successfully tell the iowa that a torpedo was coming toward them but wasnt as successful when it came to the direction the torpedo was coming from.

not all hope is lost though because the signalman could still use the signal lamp to correct his previous mistake and-, never mind, he announced that the porter was reversing, which she wasnt.

yeah so at catastrophic mistake number 3, they broke radio silence to warn the iowa and she managed to turn out of the way just in time which meant no one got hurt. and even though the inquiry into the incident led to chief torpedoman (fantastic job title btw) lawton dawson being sentences to hard labour, fdr intervened and waved away his sentence, saying it was all an accident.

but yeah, so thats my new measure for "how much did i really fuck up?" and when i compared accidentally picking up a pencil case without a tag on it in wilko, turns out it was a very minor fuck-up. yes, the cashier had to ask another worker to grab a duplicate so they could scan the barcode, but i didnt nearly kill the president during wartime via accidental friendly fire

[salamispots]

dream wip

[phthalosblues]

POV you read the book of bill and then the 3rd journal and then lost legends and then the great gatsby and rewatched the show twice and are on your third rewatch in the past two months and watched a bajillion animatics and character analysises and actually read fanfic which you never do like ever and you’re starting to feel like you’re running out of content and might need to start drawing more

[forgettable-au]

END OF CHAPTER ONE

FORGETTABLE-AU (Page 65-72)

* Time to put this puzzle together.

[BEGINNING] [PREVIOUS] [CONTINUE]

[lazylittledragon]

ok someone please correct me if i'm wrong but am i weird for thinking those 'audiobooks don't count as reading' posts are ableist as fuck????

[egophiliac]

I have SO many thoughts about everything and they are in no kind of order yet, so here's just some quick little bits in the meantime!

I am not normal about any of these characters!

[yanderespamton78]

Edit since a lot of people seem confused - your "real" name is the name that you want to be referred to in real life. It doesn't have to be your legal name. So if you're trans and you have a different name to whats on your birth certificate, even if not many people call you by the name, it still counts as your real name.

Edit 2 : Holy shit guys please stop reblogging this post my poor inbox im getting like 20 notifs an hour asjfhkajshdkh /lh /srs

[orionshounds]

he cares so much about them, but he has never known how to show it

and now, it’s too late.

[huginsmemory]

Been thinking about how Bill legitimately had a horrifying reason (the literal progressive disintegration of the nightmare realm that erases whatever it disintegrates from existence completely) to move himself and his crew into a new dimension. Like that's terrifying. And yet he never utilizes this to his favour. He could have been honest about this with Ford, and you KNOW as long as Bill didn't mention plans of overtaking the earth, Ford would've made the portal for him, both out of Ford's own interest and because Ford when faced with these big moral questions will pull through. But this is a card Bill NEVER plays because although he needs to leave the dimension, he cannot lose face. He can't put aside his pride and admit to the humility that he needs to flee from his dimension, that he's not actually all powerful. And so instead he pretends to be a muse and when Ford figures out something else is going on, instead of being open and humble and saying that his dimension is unravelling, Bill focuses on that he's going to over take earth, that he's actually been a monster all along, surprise Ford!

And part of it is definitely because Bill's built himself up on power and violence and to grovel and earnestly ask for help, to admit that he cannot stop the unraveling of his dimension completely invalidates that; showing vulnerability? Can't do that, even under the guise of lying to get his way. And part of it makes you wonder if it's also a form of self-sabotage, because underneath his deep denial Bill is guilty over what he occurred; he sees himself as a monster and so he'll be that monster, and having people recognize that feels good in the same way that pressing a bruise feels good. But it makes you wonder what would've happened if Bill even just was open about his dimension unravelling and had lied about overtaking the earth.

It's also interesting because although Bill has SOME charisma and can manipulate people decently well (as evidenced by his cult, and pandering to people's desires with Ford, Mabel and Blendin), he refuses to be vulnerable, refuses to not be true to his off-putting self, even when if he was just vulnerable of pretended to not be himself, to put aside the (false) pride he has in himself he would've gotten a portal by now. and part of me wonders if it's because it's this false pride that built on insecurity and denial on who he is he cannot drop that mask.

Further thoughts on this!

[bixels]

Now that Ghibli's new movie is coming out soon, I've been thinking about anime films and wanna talk about my favorite animated movie ever, Tokyo Godfathers.

TG is a 2003 tragicomedy by Satoshi Kon, following three unhoused people––an alcoholic, a runaway girl, an a trans woman––who find a baby in a dumpster and set off across Tokyo to reunite her with her parents.

If you like the sound of that, go watch it because the rest of this post is spoilers and I have FEELINGS about this movie.

URGHH, the fact that only two moments of true kindness, generosity, and care given to the three protagonists without any expectation of reciprocity are given by a Latin-American immigrant couple and a drag club full of queens and trans women. The fact that, despite her loud and dramatic personality, Hana is the glue that holds the team together and the heart of the whole movie. The fact that this movie pulls no punches at showing the violence and inhumanity committed by "civilized Japanese society" against the unhoused. The fact that Miyuki craves to be loved by her parents and ends up seeing Hana as her true mother. The fact that Miyuki starts off accidentally using transphobic language against Hana, but slowly begins calling her "Miss Hana" out of respect. The fact that, according to Kon, Hana's role in the story is as a mythological trickster god and "disturb the morality and order of society, but also play a role in revitalizing culture." The fact that Hana so desperately wants to be part of a true family, yet is willing to sacrifice her found family so they can be with their own, and is rewarded for her good deeds in the end by becoming a godmother. The fact that, throughout the movie, wind and light have been used to signify the presence of god's hand/influence (this movie's about nondenominational faith––faith in yourself, faith in others, faith in a higher power. Lots of religious are referenced, such as Buddhism/Hinduism, Christianity, and Shintoism), and in the climax of the film, as Hana jumps off a building to save a baby that isn't hers, a gust of wind and a shower of light save her from death. The fact that god saves a trans woman's life because she proved herself a mother, and that shit makes me CRY.