#all i got r these market pics man!

[peevishpants]

Pleinairpril 5/30!

I spy 3 cats at a market in Granville Island, Vancouver.

[vhswolf]

A Lover winter break [Part 2] | Carlos Sainz x Reader x Lando Norris x Daniel Ricciardo

Warnings: none

Face claim: Kendall Jenner

Part 1

Lando.jpg

Lover - Taylor Swift

Liked by lovererayn danielricciardo carlossainz55 and others

Tagged: lovererayn danielricciardo carlossainz55

Lando.jpg Definitely lover era

View all comments

Lovererayn ownt we have a new Swiftie 💛

→ landonorris is in the blood

Danielricciardo We're spending too much time with yn

→ lovererayn says the guy that sings our song every time we're in a car

→ danielricciardo is a good song...

→ user3 MAN GOT EXPOSED LMAO

Carlossainz55 I think I know every song in this album just from you guys singing it

→ lovererayn I created monsters, I'm sorry

→ Carlossainz55 it's cute, it's fine

User55 is Carlos saying Danny and Lan singing Taylor swift is cute? That was not on my 2024 bingo card

Daniel3.jpg

New year's day - Taylor Swift

Liked by lovererayn landonorris carlossainz55 and others

Tagged: lovererayn landonorris carlossainz55

Daniel3.jpg Happy New years 🎆

View all comments

Lando.jpg Why I'm so purple, Jesus!

Lovererayn It will be a good year, welcome 2025 💛

→ lando.jpg Welcome!!!

→ Daniel3.jpg Welcome ❤️

→ carlossainz55 Welcome!

Carlossainz55 We have a thing for the beach don't we?

→ lovererayn yes

→ lando.jpg yes

→ daniel3.jpg yes

User1 you will never catch yn without her tequila

→ lovererayn I'm always ready for marketing

Landonorris

Crazier - Taylor Swift

Liked by lovererayn danielricciardo carlossainz55 and others

Tagged: lovererayn danielricciardo carlossainz55

Landonorris Awesome last month, best first day of the year! Happy New year, hope your first day was as good as mine ❤️

View all comments

Danielricciardo Carlos and I look drunk as hell

→ landonorris because you were

→ carlossainz55 The lies they tell...

Lovererayn first hug of the year ✅

Carlossainz55 Your self love is unbelievable

→ landonorris love you more though

→ user88 WHAT?

User4 the year just began and I will say, this was not on my bingo card 🤡

User55 is Lando still drunk?

User6 should we call McLaren to control their driver?

Carlossainz55

Lavender Haze - Taylor Swift

Liked by lovererayn danielricciardo landonorris and others

Tagged: lovererayn landonorris danielricciardo

Carlossainz55 I'm late, but happy New year!

View all comments

Lovererayn omg 😱

→ carlossainz55 is this because I'm hot or because I put a Taylor Swift song?

→ lovererayn both?

Landonorris EVEN CARLOS? @/lovererayn you did a good job

→ danielricciardo the goodest of the girls

→ lovererayn 😳

User55 the song...

→ user4 I mean...

User9 OK! Which one @/lovererayn? I'm getting confused around where!

User3 Did Daniel just called yn good girl for the whole internet to see??

→ user33 now he doesn't have pr problems by speaking his mind

User4 I have too many feelings, and not enough words

Lovererayn

"slut!" (Taylor's version) (From the vault) - Taylor Swift

Liked by landonorris danielricciardo carlossainz55 and others

Tagged: landonorris carlossainz55 danielricciardo

Lovererayn They got all good pics, I hate being late.. oh, well, happy new year! 💛

View all comments

Carlossainz55 thanks for being more late than me!

Landonorris I'm a great photographer

→ Danielricciardo I took the last photo, and that's the best one

→ lovererayn Not again!

Danielricciardo Please, can we tell everyone yet?

→ carlossainz55 Daniel!

→ landonorris You got anxious after leaving F1 what's wrong?

→ lovererayn lack of pr management

User9 wait... The four of them? NO WAY!

User55 STOP THIS, TELL US IS THIS A SOFT LAUNCH? I'M SO CONFUSED!

→ Danielricciardo Yes, it is, hope I helped 👍🏻

→ Danielricciardo God, I love being retired, I can say things again!

User3 WHY IS ALWAYS DANIEL DOING SHIT LIKE THAT?

User81 soft launch of the four? I'm confused, @/Danielricciardo can you clarify?

→ Danielricciardo Yes, the four, I know, we were confused at the beginning too, but what can I say? Nothing like tequila on the beach to clear your mind!

→ User3 Retirement created a monster omg

User4 @/McLaren @/Williamsracing did you guys got previous notices?

→ McLaren Well, Lando sent a long text explaining everything, yes, but before the PR team could think about the best approach, our friend Daniel had already said everything in the comments and they were trending on X... He at least he tried?

→ McLaren Not to blame everything on our boy Danny Ric, because the posts of them four with Taylor Swift love songs didn't help a lot.

→ Danielricciardo thank you @/McLaren

→ Williamsracing @/McLaren I think Carlos sent the same text to us, and the same thing happened.

→ Williamsracing First day on the team and Carlos already made the PR team cry, that's a record.

→ lovererayn please don't hate me @/McLaren @/Williamsracing this is a awful first impression but I'm a good person promise!

→ McLaren @/lovererayn I don't know the pr team, but I already love you (don't tell PR)

→ Williamsracing @/lovererayn PR is pissed, but we in socials love you ❤️

Landonorris and carlossainz55

Invisible String - Taylor Swift

Liked by lovererayn danielricciardo carlossainz55 and others

Tagged: lovererayn danielricciardo

Landonorris Dear PR team, we won't take it back, we are in love and we'll deal with the consequences of that, thank you for your concern, but we good 🧡💙💛❤️

View all comments

Carlossainz55 Say I'm sorry for being in love is bullshit! I'll take my partners, and please don't fuck with them, thank you! ❤️

Lovererayn Most hot thing a man can do:

→ landonorris thank you

→ lovererayn @/carlossainz55 you too

→ carlossainz55 Thanks, Hermosa

Danielricciardo Uhhh rebels! I like that 👀

Lovererayn I'm blessed to be in love with you guys

→ Danielricciardo we all are

→ carlossainz55 definitely

→ landonorris stop being cute when I'm at the grocery shop!!!

→ landonorris I love you guys too, but really stop

The comments of this post are limited

꩜ ‧.°. 𖦹.°.‧ ꩜‧.°.𖦹 .°.‧꩜ ‧.°. 𖦹.°.‧ ꩜‧.°.𖦹 .°.‧꩜ ‧.°. 𖦹.°.‧ ꩜‧.°.𖦹 .°.‧

Taglist: @smokememories

[ybcpatrick]

KELL I AM POLITELY REQUESTING DOLL COLLECTION PICS AND COMMENTS ABOUT UR FAVORITE/COOLEST DOLLS IF U FEEL COMFORTABLE SHARING 🫶

dude i would love nothing fucking more than to talk about my dolls right now I Would Love Nothing Fucking More Than That Right Now

💖unnecessarily-long doll tour under the cut oh my GOD i'm so excited okay💖

first, monster high:

1. Draculaura (Scaris: City of Frights, Mattel, 2012)

i snagged this doll from a flea market in 2021. somehow, the only thing missing is her purse. she even has her earrings! she's got some fairly bad glue seepage going on with her hair, but it styled decently for now, so i'm gonna tackle it later.

2. Frankie Stein (MH G1: First Wave – Boo-Riginal Creeproduction, Mattel, 2022)

i found this at my local walmart and nearly had a fucking STROKE, i was so excited. I Fucking Love Her. frankie has always been my favourite, and i'm so happy to own this creeproduction, especially considering what a nightmare distribution was in canada. the fact that this frankie made it to my grubby paws at all is proof that god is real.

3. Spectra Vondergeist (Ghoul's Night Out, Mattel, 2013)

growing up, i only had three MH dolls: a second wave frankie, a boo beach cleo de nile, and this spectra. spectra is the only childhood survivor, because i begged and pleaded for AGES to get her for christmas, because she was a GHOST and OF COURSE i wanted the fucking ghost. once i got her in my hands, i treated her like she was made of fucking gold.

she's missing her purse and vinyl vest right now, because i had to undress her for the first time ever recently in an attempt to give her a bath (which did fuck all). she's got a SEVERE case of glue seepage in her hair, as well as some brutal UV yellowing that i'm gonna have to paint over. but she's my fucking baby, and i'm gonna get her fixed up.

4. Frankie Stein (MH G3: First Wave, Mattel, 2022)

i was really iffy on G3 at first, but it has grown on me so much. i couldn't fucking believe it when i heard that frankie is canonically nonbinary in the reboot, i was ecstatic. they're fucking AWESOME, they are SO TALL, i love their face sculpt and their outfit and their accessories (which are not pictured) and their prosthetic leg is so cute and the graffiti on the leg is upside down so you can tell frankie did it themself and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

5. Draculaura (MH G3: First Wave, Mattel, 2022)

draculaura is the always a slay. the reboot draculaura is absolutely not an exception. i'm fucking obsessed with this lil bitch, she was the first G3 doll i grabbed. she's an icon, a fashion queen, and she's chubby. i'd be here for years if i tried explaining how much that means to me.

next, LOL surprise! OMG and LOL surprise! tweens:

1. Emma Emo (Tweens – Series 3, MGA, 2022)

i don't have to explain why i bought her. look at her. fucking look at her.

exactly.

2. Skatepark QT (OMG – Series 5, MGA, 2022)

i've always been a wannabe skater, even though my balance is absolute shite (but i AM working on that). my motivation behind buying lol dolls is never that deep, i just see their colours and their outfits and i go OOH SHINEY and then i'm at home fighting for my life to get into the box. idk man. they're all cute at fuck.

3 + 4: Punk Grrrl & Rocker Boi (OMG – Remix 2-Pack, MGA, 2020)

in summer of 2022, my family was on vacation on prince edward island, and we needed to kill a few hours while waiting for check-in to open up at the second campground we'd be staying at. my parents are my enablers, so they decided the best way to kill said hours was to set me loose on the toys 'r' us in charlottetown. my wallet hurt after and it ROCKED. these guys were part of my haul!

these motherfuckers have the goofiest goddamn names in the world, but i forgive them, because they are a slay. they're so cute together. their outfits are fantastic. the sides of her head are flocked so her undercut is fuzzy. they have guitars. HE'S A BOY. i love them.

5. Darcy Blush (Tweens – Series 4, MGA, 2022)

this lil lady is the latest addition to my collection, i grabbed her last week. she's very aesthetically different from the other lol dolls i have, but i could not walk away from her. i even tried, but right before we left, i ran back to the toys and grabbed her. her face is so sweet, her colour scheme is darling, and the coloured braids in her hair are so sweet ;____;

these are some miscellaneous dolls, we're moving into the barbie realm:

1. Jacob Black, Bella Swan & Edward Cullen (Barbie Collector: Pink Label – The Twilight Saga, Mattel, 2009)

i got these for christmas in 2009. my mum was super into twilight at that point, i showed interest in her interests (Because She Is My Mummy), and boom. dolls.

she didn't want me to take them out of the box, since they're collector's editions.

naturally, they were removed from their boxes Fucking Immediately, because i was EIGHT. and to this day, i am still not an in-box collector (save for a couple of wrestling action figures i have). these three are very well loved. bonus points: edward's entire body is sparkly!!

2. Heather Grayson (Rainbow High – Shadow High: Series 1, MGA, 2022)

she's just a slay. idk what to tell you. i'm a sucker for split dye hair on dolls, man.

3. Elsa (Disney's Frozen II – Musical Adventure Elsa, Hasbro, 2019)

again, no complicated answer here. i love elsa. she means a lot to me. when you press the button on her chest, she sings "show yourself"!

4. Sasha (Bratz Rock Angelz – 20 Yearz Special Edition Reproduction, MGA, 2021)

i had a sasha doll as a kid, though it wasn't this exact one. she's my forever fave of the core four bratz. i got this doll on that same toys 'r' us trip in PEI, and she's so cute. i need to actually watch the rock angelz movie (i've somehow never seen ANY bratz movies).

and now, barbie:

1. Princess Rosella (Barbie as The Island Princess, Mattel, 2007)

none of these dolls are in very good condition, because all four of them are mine from childhood. this ro doll literally only has the dress and sagi the red panda left; everything else that she came with was lost to time, moves and general kell behaviours. but, when you press the button on her necklace, SHE STILL FUCKIN' SINGS! THAT'S A W

2 + 3. Princess Alexa & Princess Liana (Barbie & The Diamond Castle, Mattel, 2008)

oh my fucking god i abused these lil whores. alexa's face has been drawn on with pink highlighter (which, to my credit, you can't really tell. shoutout to my younger self, hashtag beauty guru moment). liana's dress-transformation mechanism is so worn out that i swear to god breathing on her wrong will trigger the audio chip in it, resulting in this grating, tinny sparkle sound effect. their shoes and tiaras are with jesus now, but shockingly, i still have One (1) of their hairbrushes. but SOMEHOW, SOME FUCKING WAY, THEY STILL SING AND LIGHT UP, TOO. i never said they sound particularly good. BUT THEY WORK AND THAT'S WHAT MATTERS.

bonus points: their dresses' colour schemes are like the bisexual and lesbian pride flags respectively, which shreds absolute puss. and it's doubly fantastic because the diamond castle is THEE gay barbie movie. these girls are homosexual.

4. Barbie (Barbie Hair-Tastic! Color & Design Salon, Mattel, 2012)

there's no movie tie-in for this doll. she came with a salon chair, some stencils, and some spray bottles full of coloured liquid. you could "spray paint" her hair, then wash the colour right back out. i don't have the other pieces anymore, but i still have the barbie. unfortunately, i very recently melted off a section of her hair by accident while trying to straighten it (adhd moment, forgot to wet the strand), but thankfully that section is well-hidden and hardly noticeable. i just think she's pretty.

(her outfit, however, is a fuckin' SIN i hate it so bad lmfao)

and i just bought these two today, and i am so excited i think i could keel over right the fuck now:

1. Rayla the Cloud Queen (Barbie and The Magic of Pegasus, Mattel, 2005)

she has all her pieces, and she comes with a pegasus.

she is so fucking gorgeous. i cannot believe my luck right now. rayla has never even been on my wishlist, she just comes with the annika doll. this is a complete and utter win for me. everything is coming up millhouse kell ybcpatrick.

2. Princess Annika (Barbie and The Magic of Pegasus, Mattel, 2005)

I HAVE BEEN WAITING TO OWN THIS BITCH FOR EIGHTEEN FUCKING YEARS. EIGHTEEN. MOTHERFUCKING. YEARS. OF. MY. LIFE. AND SHE'S GOING TO BE MINE. AND SHE HAS ALL OF HER ACCESSORIES. AND SHE COMES WITH THE LIGHT-UP WAND. SHE EVEN HAS INSTRUCTIONS.

magic of pegasus is my favourite barbie movie of all time. this is childhood wish fulfillment x1000. i'm convinced once this doll gets here, at least two of my mental illnesses are gonna be cured instantaneously. i might honestly cry once i get to hold her. i'm not over it i will never be over it i'm fucking losing my mind out here.

OKAY FUCK. that is all of my dolls. sorry that this is like. So Fucking Long. OEDKJSDJVSJDFJ. but, toys are one of my special interests, so getting the opportunity to talk about them is a treat 🥹🥹 i'm also really invested in my collections; aside from dolls, i also collect CDs, wrestling action figures, and crystals 😃💓

if you're still here 1) thank you holy fuck, and 2) reply to this and tell me your favourite barbie movie. there are no wrong answers, because they're all fucking awesome. xoxo

[wyrmfedgrave]

Pics:

1 & 2. Photos of Edgar Rice Burroughs the creator of Tarzan, John Carter & so many other heroes, villains & vivid settings...

3. Map of the Inner World of Pellucidar. The name that comes from the word pellucid, for something that's "transparently clear" - as befits a 'place' under continual 'sun' light.

4. Cover for a special edition of the novel "Pellucidar." Back when artists helped you view the story in your mind!

5 & 6. Covers for 2 of the books in this 7 novel series & of interest to us...

1906: The Earth (is) Not Hollow.

Edgar R. Burroughs was an American writer who's best known for his hero Tarzan. He had a prolific output in the sci-fi, fantasy & adventure genres.

Burroughs' works sold 30 million copies during his lifetime! And, he was an early pioneer of the crossover event - having Tarzan visit his fantasy series, "Pellucidar".

Plots: These 7 Hollow Earth novels begin with a giant mechanical driller taking our heroes underground - to look for mineral deposits.

Instead, the "Iron Mole" discovers an Inner World some 500 miles below the Earth's crust!

A place lit up by a the molten core acting like a tiny 'sun.' So, there's no 'measurable' time there - it's always 'now'...

Stranger still, the land curves upward! As if everything's inside of a bowl.

More importantly, it's a place that's inhabited by ancient animals & enslaved humans!!

But, worse, every being in Pellucidar is trying to survive - by killing & eating each other!!

Mahars, winged reptilian overlords - with hypnotic powers, run a slave society & like to snack on people!

The series takes readers across many savage lands & seas - with our heroes battling their way thruout a vast Inner World...

Pics:

1 & 2. Great cover & card art(?) for "Tarzan At the Earth's Core." This was a landmark crossover between 2 of Burroughs' novel series. A rare event in those bygone days.

3 & 4. Inside art from a comic book adaptation - with, it seems, art from the great Thomas Yeates(?)...

Criticisms: Usually, such 'colonial' authors don't fare well with modern readers. Their legacies become tainted due to the writers' white supremacist sympathies.

Figures like: Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad & yes, even Lovecraft, all have repugnant personal ideas behind their works.

The same can be said of Burroughs. He's a man who's famous for creating an African jungle hero. Yet, the writer never visited Africa himself!

Burroughs was actually 'inspired' by the pulps he read as he struggled to sell pencil sharpeners...

ERB, "If (pulp writers) were paid for writing such... rot, I could write stories just as rotten..."

Since then, readers have argued that Burroughs exceeded the low bar he set for himself!

Burroughs was also smart enough to make business brands & franchises out of his works.

The skeptics of the time, chided him for 'diluting' his writings.

They were wrong.

To date, there's been over 50 films made out of his Tarzan character alone!

And, many of his literary inventions have received various types of multi- media adaptation.

According to the NY Times, "Before Tarzan, nobody understood... how marketable a (such a commodity) could be."

Weird Factoid: In 1929, the 1st Tarzan book was removed from the Los Angeles Public Library - supposedly because Tarzan & Jane were "living in sin!"

Then, in 1934, Germany got into the same act!! The Berlin Film Control Board banned all the Tarzan books for being "dangerous to Nazi 'principles' of race... & offensive to Nazi ideals (like) womanly dignity!"

(Why's my sense of irony tingling?!)

Life: Burroughs was a patriotic man who attended the Michigan Military Academy - both, as student & as a geology teacher.

At the beginning of WW1, Burroughs tried to attend West Point, get into 'Teddy' Roosevelt's Rough Riders or wanted to join the Chinese Army - as a mercenary!!

But, he was denied entry to all...

So, Borroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army - & got sent to Arizona! There, he was Captain of the U.S. Reserves & would rise to the rank of Major.

Burroughs also wrote patriotic articles & worked pro-American themes into his short stories & novels.

His military training had instilled the idea of honor between warriors in Burroughs. This morality came to play a role in his heroes' development.

Burroughs also hated Communism. He planned to write a novel of a future where Bolshevism ruled the world - just for the Army!

But, this idea was nixed in the bud.

After the war, this plot germ became his novel "The Moon Maid."

Later in life, Burroughs moved to Hawaii, where he heard the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor!!

Unable to join the fight, he became the oldest war correspondent in U.S. history...

After WW2, Burroughs suffered from several health problems. He was supposedly reading a comic book when he died - of a heart attack.

[nightcoremoon]

it's evident people haven't watched enough kids media to adequately understand just what constitutes a kids show as opposed to a show that kids can watch and be entertained by

when I was a kid I watched king of the hill and blues clues (among other things). king of the hill is NOT a kids show by any stretch of the imagination; it is an adult animation, replete with fairly heavy subject matter, sexual themes, political humor, cultural references that kids won't understand, discussion of religion in the modern day, depression and suicidal thoughts, adultery, puberty and sexual awakenings, body image, propane, propane accessories, and ultimately above all else what it means to be family. and blues clues is a show about a man who plays with a shovel & pail, talks to his condiments and mailbox, and sometimes he teleports into the felt dimension, all while playing Sherlock Holmes hercule poirot with his dog, and teaching kids how to count and draw and recognize colors and learn their ABCs. do you see the fucking difference? no? then I'll make it more clear.

dora the explorer & go diego go, mickey mouse clubhouse, handy manny, octonauts, bob the builder, super why, wild kratts, zoboomafoo, jojo's circus, wow wow wubbzy, stanley, doc mcstuffins, max & ruby, wonder pets, bubble guppies, ni hao khai lan, backyardigans, little einsteins, caillou (ugh) and p*w p*trol (double ugh), these are all undeniably kids shows. their audience is children (and the occasional adult by age with severe intellectual disabilities) and maybe the parents whose brains are too fried to care what's on the tv. these shows main purpose is to educate while entertaining on subjects one would encounter in preschool and kindergarten. counting 1-10, ABCs, basic color, basic language, basic intrapersonal skills, basic emotional literacy, problem solving, using your imagination, what sounds do animals make, breaking the fourth wall to ask the audience to answer what's 2+2 or tell them a lesson they learned today like I LEARNED TO NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER or some simple message like that. it's always light, there's no edgelord grimdark "what if they were dead the whole time" bullshit. it's just good clean simple wholesome [except for paw patrol] programs for kids to be distracted for a little bit of time, while also letting them walk away having said they learned something. at least half of the time dedicated to every single one of these shows is devoted to the same shit over and over again. I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map WE FUCKING GET IT YOURE THE MAP! backpack backpack I'm the backpack loaded up with things and knickknacks too, anything that you might need I've got inside for you. we did it we did it we did it HOORAY! come on vamanos everybody let's go, come on let's get to it, I know that we can do it,

WHERE ARE WE GOING

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

THESE SONGS ARE BURNED INTO MY BRAIN AND THEYLL BE STUCK IN MY HEAD UNTIL I DIE

say click take a pic, the hot dog dance, CAN HE FIX IT???, pizza! spaghetti!, THE DOC IS IN AND SHELL FIX YOU UP, max & ruby ruby & max max & ruby ruby & max MAX & RUBY RUBY & MAX MAX & RUBY RUBY & MAX, wonder pets wonder pets we're on our way to help the friend and save the day, we're not too big and we're not too tough but when we work together we've got the right stuff, goooOOO WONDER PETS YAAAAY~, yoooour backyard friends the backyardigans (weve got the whole wide world in our yard to explore, thATS WHY EVERY DAY WEEEEERE BACK FOR MOOOORE), were going on a trip in our little rocket ship SOARING THROOOOOUGH THE SKY!!! little einsteins!

I swear to god I've been forced to watch so much children's television in my life it's no wonder there's no room left for serotonin executive function or the ability to speak to morons

point is I know my way around kids shows. my sisters were born in 98, 02, 05, 06, 10, and 18, I think, I don't even know because they're all a blur, I'm literally closer in age to my parents than to my youngest sibling, I never stopped being exposed to kids shows. I know what is and is not a kids show.

adventure time? not a kids show even though kids watch it. it's a "for everyone" show. it's got a target audience of 100% of the planet. steven universe? not a kids show even though kids watch it. miraculous ladybug? not a kids show even though kids watch it. scooby doo? not a kids show even though kids watch it. I'm not discussing the history of adult acceptance of animation, adult animation, or anime, so don't ask. dexter's laboratory. the grim adventures of billy & mandy. codename kids next door. teen titans. fairly oddparents. kim possible. invader zim. AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER. totally spies. courage the cowardly dog. the proud family. SPONGEBOB F*ING SQUAREPANTS. powerpuff girls. foster's home for imaginary friends. oh yeah you know what's coming next. my little goddamn pony friendship is mother fucking magic is not. a. kids. show. even though kids can watch it. it is a cartoon. it is an everyone show. that's why it's disingenuous and fucking stupid to decry any fan over the age of 7 as a pedophile and a weirdo creep; it participates in the infantilization of femininity. why is it ok for 20somethings to keep watching aang and squidward and finn & jake and zim and "return the slab" and everyone's totally fine wth that but when it's twilight sparkle suddenly everyone's like whoa you're a huge fucking loser for watching this girly wussy baby show for girly wussy babies. oh some bronies are sex crazed perverts? I'm sorry have you seen just how much porn there is for spongebob? oh some bronies are cringe? I'm sorry have you met half the steven universe fandom? oh some bronies are fascist rick sanchez kinnies with fedoras and katanas? BREAKING BAD FANS, HELLO!?!?!?

this is such a stupid tiring boring argument. maybe magic talking horses being friends and turning their friendship into magic rainbow nuclear fucking arms and blasting the evil out of a demon and turning her into the coolest fucking half-unicorn biker lesbian in the world is something that brings me, and adult, pure wholesome joy, in between bojack horseman and dark souls and breaking bad and deftones and fallout new vegas and jojo and cannibal corpse and other bleak depressing edgy shit that also brings me comfort. and MAYBE me at 16 starting to watch MLP:FIM becoming finally comfortable with the outward public expression of "traditionally feminine" interests is the main reason why I realized I was a girl when I did, and MAYBE I just like how pretty the colorful ponies look, AND MAYBE I KIN WITH ONE OR TWO OR EIGHT CHARACTERS, WHAT OF IT?

AND MAYBE ITS LITERALLY THE BEST LONG RUNNING FANTASY TV SERIES ON THE MARKET RIGHT NOW* SINCE GAME OF THRONES FUCKING SUCKS

but whatever, kids watch it sometimes so it's illegal for anyone who's not a kid to enjoy it, but only if it's something girly because liking girly things is bad because girliness is inherently bad, and the only things that are good have predominantly male casts*. right? right??? wrong, fucker. g4mlp has so much more in common with adventure time & atla than with blues clues or dora the fucking explora...r.

but keep in mind I'm saying this while hugging a blues clues plushie my grandma gave me for valentine's day because it reminds her of when I was a baby because I may not watch blues clues but it still means a lot to me for nostalgia and is 50% of the reason why I love ray charles. kids media isn't necessarily bad. I still do enjoy watching it with my little sisters. all this is is me being anal about categorization because I'm autistic and I LIVE for categorizing everything.

*besides atla obviously

[therealsaintscully]

[TJLC] Distracted by AGRA (or the many hints about personification of death in The Six Thatchers)

PLEASE CONSIDER THIS A WORK IN PROGRESS. IT’S NOT PERFECT BUT  I HAVE SOME GOOD IDEAS HERE, I THINK, SO KEEPING IT FOR NOW.

A FEW DISCLAIMERS: - I’m not a native English speaker and this wasn’t betad, so excuse the less-than-perfect English (although you’re about to find out what native language actually is). - I’m very new in the fandom and in reading/writing meta, this would be my second meta post tbh, so excuse the amateurism. - Everything I’m about to write here is based on very quick and easy Google searches. I’m BY NO MEANS AN ACADEMIC! I’m not well versed enough in any form of literary analysis to claim more than that, but perhaps this post will be a breeding ground for new ideas. If you are an academic and you find these interesting - please go ahead and expand on them. - Lastly, this may have been picked up before by other meta writers and if so - I’m not aware of it, as I’m quite new to this fandom.

tl;dr: The Six Thatchers seems to be full of hints about the personification of death and cultural/religious representations of it, in a way that may even hint that that Mary = death, and/or that Moftiss were very preoccupied with the idea while writing it. It should be noted that I find these tidbits interesting in the context of well-established TJLC theories I’ve been reading up on a lot lately, namely EMP and M-Theory. I found these details interesting in the context of reading TST as something that’s happening in Sherlock’s MP as he’s dying and suspecting that Mary is dangerous and perhaps even linked to Moriarty.

AGRA > Samarra > The Four Angels of Death

As these things always go, I’ve been re-watching episodes while researching my WIP fic ‘Turned’. I have this new habit these days of only listening, instead of actually watching the episode in search of a fresh perspective. This time I was blown away, once again, by Sherlock and Mycroft’s conversation about AGRA. It’s a VERY odd conversation considering the topic, and what caught my ear this time was Mycroft mechanically reciting facts about the city of Agra. Why Agra, I asked? What’s so important about it? Nothing, the way I see it. One search led to another and I looked up Samarra, thinking perhaps I’ll find some connection between the two cities, but couldn’t.

The search for Samarra and the parable about it led me to the Appointment in Samarra wiki page, which mentions that the title of the book comes from a retelling of an ancient Mesopotamian tale by W. Somerset Maugham (the source of the next quote is here):

"The Appointment in Samarra" (as retold by W. Somerset Maugham [1933])

The speaker is Death

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.  I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise.  I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

There is also a very interesting study guide link from this website, which asks some very interesting questions about tale, such as Maugham’s decision to make Death a non-omniscient narrator of this tale, as well as a woman. I’ll return to Death being referred to as a woman later. However, since I have no expertise in literary readings, I’ll leave it to others who might be to add some more here.

More below the cut:

The version of the story in TST is a bit different; the servant is absent from the tale; it is instead the merchant who has the nighttime appointment with Death in Samarra after being startled to see Death that morning in the Baghdad market. (This note was taking from a wikipedia entry about another - apparently-  very deterministic play by Maugham, Shepey.)

Anyway, the Appointment in Samarra wikipedia mentions that Maugham’s story comes from a much older version recorded in the Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 53a.

The Talmud is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism. I’m a Hebrew speaking Jew, though an atheist one who isn’t well-read in religious texts at all, but I was intrigued enough to look up the Hebrew Talmud version of the text (in fact it’s originall in Aramaic, but wikipedia offers a Hebrew tranlsation). A quick Google search led me to the wikipedia page about the personification of death, and that’s when things got interesting.

Under the section about the grim reaper in Judaism, a story from the Talmud is mentioned, which seems to be another version of the Appointment in Samarra story. Here’s the story, translated by Google Translate, because I couldn’t find an English version:

The Babylonian Talmud tells of a sage, Rabbi Bibi, the son of Abiy, whose angel of death was often in his company. Rabbi Bibi heard the angel of death ask his emissary to name a woman named Miriam (Mary) who was a hair dresser (the future mother of Jesus). The messenger of death accidentally killed another woman named Miriam (Mary) who was a teacher. The angel of death said to his messenger: "I asked you to kill Miriam the barber and not Miriam the teacher." The messenger of death replied: Then I will bring Miriam the teacher back to life and bring before you Miriam the barber. The angel of death said to him: If you have already brought Miriam the teacher, leave her with me along with the rest of the dead. The angel of death asked his messenger: How did you manage to kill the teacher Miriam even though it was not her time to die? The messenger of death replied: She was killed before an opportunity to kill her - she was fiddling with the stove with ember in her hand to clean the stove. Inadvertently she caused a burn in her leg - and when a person was harmed and his determination of his time to die was undermined - so I had a chance to kill prematurely. The sage, Rabbi Bibi, asked the angel of death: Do you have permission to kill people before their pre-determined time has come? The angel of death answered, "Yes, for it is written, 'There is no one who has perished without judgment.' 

(According to wikipedia, this story is taken from תלמוד בבלי, מסכת חגיגה, דף ד, עמוד ב – דף ה, עמוד א).

AGR(A?M?)

Alright, I said, two Marys, escaping death but then meeting it eventually. It happens.

But as I read on… that Hebrew wikipedia page mentions another personification of death, the angel of death Azarel. Azarel has three ‘colleagues’ (e.g archangel) in Islam (and in some variations, they also exist in Judaism and Christianity): Jibrail (Gabriel), Israfil, commonly thought of as the counterpart of the Judeo-Christian archangel Raphael, and Mīkhā'īl (Michael).

So wait, that’s -- that’s Azarel, Gabriel, Raphael... as in AGR(A)?  Whoa.  That fourth angel mentioned in Islam is Michael - which doesn’t hold up with AGRA - but could that be a coincidence? We’re told two things about BBCSh’s AGRA, but we can’t really know they’re actually true. The first one is that Mary claims it’s her initials, which we later learn is possibly not true - John gets mad realizing it’s another lie. The other thing is that Mary claims to be ‘R’, for Rosamund, but we can’t be sure about that either. However, another cool detail: in Christianity, Raphael is generally associated with an unnamed angel mentioned in the Gospel of John, who stirs the water at the healing pool of Bethesda. Yes - I know, the M really doesn’t fit there, but M really is a character that stands out in the BBCSH universe, doesn’t it?

Moving on to more cultural references of the personification of death the Hebrew wikipedia page offers, note that I haven’t read the first and it’s been years since I watched the second:

Death with Interruptions

In Death with Interruptions by José Saramago, they mention, death is a woman, and she falls in love with one of her future victims. She decides to spare his life: Every time death sends him his letter [notifying him of his imminent death], it gets returned. Death discovers that, without reason, this man has mistakenly not been killed. Although originally intending merely to analyse this man and discover why he is unique, death eventually becomes infatuated with him, so much so that she takes on human form to meet him. Upon visiting the cellist, she plans to personally give him the letter; instead, she falls in love with him, and, by doing so, she becomes even more human-like.

Chess and The Seventh Seal

Another reference is the film The Seventh Seal, about a knight returning from a crusade, and discovers his land his ravaged by plague. The knight encounters Death, whom he challenges to a chess match, believing he can survive as long as the game continues. Does that remind you of any particular promo pics?

What I find interesting in all these references, is that they all seem to deal with questions regarding ‘dealing with death’ that, in the context of EMP for example, can be seen as Sherlock ‘running simulations’ (or asking philosophical questions) on how to deal with his current situations:

- ‘Do you have permission to kill people before their pre-determined time has come’? (Can people time die before their pre-determined time? Can people escape pre-determined death?)

- Can you interrupt death with love? Was Mary supposed to kill John, fell in love with him and thus his death was postponed? Is John still in danger?

- What can one do to postpone death - perhaps challenging it to a game, hoping for survival as you distract it?

Tagging other meta readers/writers who I think might enjoy this ; let me know if you don’t - I won’t tag you again): @sarahthecoat​​, @devoursjohnlock​​ @inevitably-johnlocked​​ @possiblyimbiassed​​ @waitedforgarridebs​​ @tjlcisthenewsexy​​  @loudest-subtext-in-tv​​ @therealsaintscully​ 

[grumpygreenwitch]

Summer Gardening.

So it’s been a while, and for that I apologize to the... 200+ people who follow me. I’m sure y’all are here for the cat pics and the nekked men, but TOO BAD. Today you get to suffer through pics of my green children. Also, I do share seed. My seed list link will be up later in the year. To begin with, the summer flowers are out en force:

Echinacea Purpurea, the original echinacea. I do save yearly seed from these guys, although it’s an incredibly pointy, stabby and bleed-y job. 

Mountain Phlox. Unfortunately, all of it around the house is afflicted with powdery mildew, so I will not share seed. But it’s still pretty to look at, and the clearwings (hummingbird moths) love it. Not pictured is the white variant, who grows on the other side of the house. Look, it was hot and I was already melting.

Peppermint Balsam. This thing is basically indestructible, for an annual. It will reseed freely (to truly Lovecraftian levels) and blooms continuously from late spring until mid-fall, when the seed-pods set. There is a dormant genetic in it for double flowers, but when it pops up it’s always been sterile. It just pops up occasionally from the peppermint seed.

I may give the roommate hell over the hostas (I hate them. They’re so useful to protect toads and control weeds, but I hate them), but they do put out pretty flowers. There are several variants around the house - white-edged, blue and green, but hostas in general are very, very hard to start from seed. I will save it on request, only. We were also incredibly lucky to have a Moth Mullein sprout in our porch bed, along with some Variegated Solomon’s Seal.The SS doesn’t put out seeds, and I don’t have enough to share bulbs (yet), but the mullein has been exceptionally generous with seed pods, and it repels bugs. It repels ROACHES. It’s going everywhere. And I may be convinced to part with some seed.

Onward!

A view from a hill. Can you see the garden? That’s OK, I can’t either. Those are peach trees, on the side of the orchard closest to the house. Unfortunately a freak storm during early spring killed all the blossoms. Also, don’t mistake ‘orchard’ for ‘organized’. There’s a pear, some apples, a plum, some nectarines? And front and center are two walnuts. I’ll probably be plunking my laurel there to see if it survives winter. And someday when I have a job and money again, I would like to drop a few Chicago Hardy figs, and maybe a kiwi trellis.

This is the big garden (and fortunately not my responsibility, or I would cry). The guys are ‘handling’ it. The weeds say otherwise.

The jasmine tree and the roommate’s garden. Because of a bad back injury that refuses to heal, I’ve been helping them on and off with it. And if you thought jasmine was supposed to stay a delightful little bush, AHAHAHAHAH. Yes, that’s a light-post next to it. For size comparison.

MY CHILDREN. Please ignore the dead soccer ball. That’d be a dog toy.

Lemon balm, amaranth, and a new bed that I’ll be finishing off during fall, for use next year. The lemon balm is a permanent row - it will overwinter just fine, and it will even keep growing through the mildest part of December. Mine didn’t die back until a few solid days of sleet in January. Unfortunately the weed fabric under the amaranth turned out to be an old roll, and fell apart on me (no big, the whole point is for it to fall apart eventually), so the weeds have kinda eaten it alive.

Unfortunately, both cucumber beetles and blister beetles love the amaranth. Fortunately, it does not seem to give a damn. It’s an incredibly resilient plant, not minding weeds, bugs, flood or drought. We’ll see what the grain actually tastes like, but so far it’s looking like a good candidate for continuous growing.

The lemon balm is lemon-balming. Planted on a lark, it’s proven to be a fantastic wind-breaker - because it grows so early and so quick, it keeps the colder winds that come down through the hollow from my more fragile seedlings, like the lettuce, dill and cilantro. You can see here where the spent flower-heads are dying but there’s new growth underneath; I really have to get in there and behead it. It makes nice hot tea, meh cold tea, and hanging fresh bunches of it around the balcony keeps the skeeters off. It also seems to be a decoy for cabbage moths.

Canary Zinnia. The seed was sent to me as a gift with one of my seed orders, and this is my first year growing it. -If- I can save some, I’ll definitely be sharing and growing again. It’s a lovely plant, very sturdy, and the bees love it.

Dwarf Castor Oil. I don’t think there’s anything dwarf about it, but then I’m a short green witch myself, so maybe it’s all about perspective. Don’t let the pods lie to you, until they dry the spikes are relatively soft. However, it being castor oil, I don’t recommend it to anyone with ducks, chickens, goats, or anything that might accidentally try talking a nibble or pecking at the beans. I do, however, recommend them from jewelry if you know how to pierce things and so on. They are a gorgeous tiger-stripe pattern.

Say hello to the chard! Say goodbye to the chard! Nothing else, absolutely nothing else since the limas, has given me so much trouble. The deer love getting into my chard bed and destroying it (ergo all the forks). And once I managed to chase those off, the blister beetles showed up in force. This will be the last year I grow it - we just don’t eat enough of it to make it worth my while, and it only occasionally sold at the Farmers’ Market.

Red lettuce - Merlot and Lollo Vino, a combination of bought and saved seed. I planted a red romaine of some sort, too, but unsurprisingly it bolted in the heat. The darker reds of my favorites, though, keep bugs off them, keep deer from noticing them, and keep them from bolting. It’s just now threatening to, and at this point its kind of allowed. I need more seed for next year. Seed for this will likely be shared by the teaspoon-ful.

Calendula! I searched for a long time to find the plain ol’ calendula officinalis ancestor, rather than a cultivar where I would have no way of knowing if the medicinal principles would have been sacrificed for looks. It’s supposed to work well as poor man’s saffron (color, no taste), and I’m going to be soaking the heck outta my feet on it during winter. The plant is... not pretty. It gets leggy and the leaves get grotty very quickly. But it’s very sturdy and as long as you cut the flowerheads off as fast as you can, it’ll keep blooming until well into winter. I usually leave it to go to seed around late September.

Green cilantro seeds. You pick ‘em when they’re brown, but before they drop off the plant. Or you pick ‘em when they’re brown-ing, and put them in a paper bag so they’ll finish ripening there and you don’t end up with fifty wild cilantro plants in your garden >_> Most of the row is already gone, and I’ll be putting in a late dill crop in its place. No such thing as too  much dill!

Don’t let lemongrass lie to you. Unless you tie it up, it will not grow up neat and tidy, as most grass does. Instead it will sprawl like a dramatic wilting Elizabethan lady and do its best to end up under your feet so you’ll feel bad about it. I just tie it up with a half-blade of grass; it dries up and withers away before it can hurt the plant.

I ordered pennyroyal seed because... Well, because it’s something one should have on hand, considering the way the world is going. What I got was Creeping Pennyroyal, which doesn’t care if you step on it (mint family), smells absolutely delightful, and has the most adorable, tiny purple flowers. I plan on harvesting, drying and sprinkling it everywhere in the crawlspace under the house. Making war on cave crickets, wood roaches, and other such sundries, me.

The thyme and Spicy Oregano took a beating in the heat, but they’re slowly bouncing back. The bed behind them is more pennyroyal, desperately in need of weeding, but there’s only one of me, y’know.

SIGH. Just. You absolute, ill-mannered monster of a creature. That would be horseradish, gloriously happy to be alive, as horseradish should be. Also, NOT IN ITS BASKET. Because never mind the rules, I guess.

I don’t even know how I’m gonna dig that up come winter. With some construction equipment, I GUESS. 

Decorative gourd! It’s the only one producing so far, but being the seed was 10+ years old, I’m very pleased.

And an apple gourd (I think?), from a mixture of drying gourds that was only slightly less ancient. Snake, apple and birdhouse gourds. There’s a bunch of them competing in the basket at this point, we’ll see what we will see.

And this, I think, is a great use of a dead canopy frame (the dogs ate the canopy. No, I’m not making it up.) I hope to coax the gourds to grow me a lil’ roof so I can sit in shade, surrounded by pennyroyal anti-skeeter barriers, eating my maters.

My Peter Peppers (nrehehehehe) aren’t producing yet - it takes them a while. But my Chinese 5-Color are getting started. It’s a lovely pepper, both edible and ornamental, with (so I’m told) about four times the heat of a Jalapeno. They’re tiny, with deep purple undertones to the plant. They’ll go purple-white-yellow-orange-red.

The bullhorns, on the other hand, are fairly sizable SWEET peppers on very tiny plants, and I honestly suggest staking them while they’re young so they grow a sturdy trunk, else you might end up with all of them growing at a slant.They’re just now beginning to turn colors. Keeping in mind I’m virulently allergic to peppers (less so sweet than hot, but allergic to all of them), the roommate loves ‘em.

It’s a small pepper bed - mainly to refresh my seed on the hots, and to grow sweets for the roommate. Pardon the nekked bed, the autumn lettuce hasn’t sprouted yet. And yes, that’s a mixed basil/dill bed next to it. My basil grew in patchy holes (NEVER buying from those seed people again), so I filled the holes with dill. Unfortunately, dill seed heads are so fine that they’re hard to photograph well.

The tomato row. After arguing with them for this long, I went the extra mile. Every plant has a metal stake. There’s also a double line growing at the top supporting the stakes so they don’t fall over. And they still fell over. Because why not, you unruly children, why not.

Green, white, pink and brown cherry tomatoes. Delicious!

Two kinds of cucumbers, some of the only decent shots of the dill seed-heads, and a special guest hiding in the shade. I usually plant dill as soon as the cucumber sprouts, to keep cucumber beetles off it. Otherwise I’d have no cucumbers and a lot of fat beetles.

The Muncher is a small cucumber, somewhat delicate. It’s very sensitive to temperature changes, and it’s candy to cucumber beetles - basically, it’s impossible to grow it without a heavy curtain of dill, or a heavy duty decoy. This year I got lucky enough to have both. It’s also delicious pickled, keeping its crunch and getting a good ooomph in flavor.

The Japanese Long is, as the name implies, long. It’s also incredibly bitey, and absolutely scrumptious. It’s sweet! And unlike the average cucumber, it does not go metallic when salted.

And now for the SPECIAL CHILD OF MY HEART. Seriously. I have been lusting after Blue Tea Peas since I first saw them offered, and every single time they’d be sold out pretty much the day of. This year I finally got some and... remember me mentioning that freak freeze that killed the peach blossoms? Yeah. Guess what it also killed. But two plants soldiered on. I have them heavily shielded by the cucumbers, dill and chamomile, and really I have no words for the blue. Pics don’t do it justice. I won’t have the tea this year, I’m saving as much seed as I can, but I am so pleased to have it at all!

 Last, but not least, and it’s a poor shot of it, the chamomile. I cannot drink chamomile to sleep - it does put me to sleep, but it also gives me bad dreams. I plan on using it as a skin wash for all the bug bites, along with the calendula, and to give me some respite from dry skin during winter.

Stay green! See you in fall! Now back to our normal schedule of frogs, cats and nekked men!