#also wow look it's basically the namesake of this blog

[tuxedodragon-art]

just like Animorphs! (2022)

This was part of a new ref sheet I was working on for Tux last year, but I ended up scrapping the ref because I disliked it. Really liked this little sequence, though!

[nikkiwriteswords]

Hey there! I have a TUA theory that's been going through my head for weeks, and I'd love to hear what you think of it/if you can expand it in any way. Basically, I wonder if the powers the Hargreeves siblings have are somehow linked to the country they were born in. Luther, who has a Norther-European-sounding name, has a Viking's strenght, Klaus is from Austria/Germany, countries with a long history of wars (and therefore, death), Vanya is from Russia, homeland to great composers... (1/2)

(2/2)… a friend of mine suggested that Five could be from England, a country which used to control most of the world, because he can go wherever he pleases. I have a couple of ideas about the others, but I’m less sure about them. I’d love to get your feedback on this, and maybe hear your ideas! I think you do a magnificent job on your account (I literally opened my account today cause I couldn’t get enough of the content in your blog!) All the love, and thanks in advance!

Hey! Oh wow, thank you so much!! It makes me so happy to know people are enjoying my blog - so much so that you started your own, that’s amazing! I’m looking forward to seeing what you write: this is a great theory to start with, and I have had some ideas about the characters’ origins before, so let’s see what we can tease out of it: Now, let’s start by saying that we don’t have actual canon confirmation of the siblings’ origin and ethnicities (at least not that I can recall). For one, it’d be inaccurate to try and assume anything from the comics because the style is not true-to-life. However, what we can say is that Netflix’s casting choices for the show brought a much clearer diversity to our (anti)hero family. This is a good  backlash against the prevalent whitewashing in tv and film (specifically Hollywood) of the last few years, but (1, is it diverse enough? and 2) it raises the question of how far we should read into the ethnicities of the cast as reflective of the characters. We must be careful not to 1) confuse comic canon with tv canon, and 2) conflate or assume things about a character identity based on assumptions about the actor/actress, unless they are qualities the cast themselves want to give their character. For instance, I’ve no idea if Cody Ray Thompson is Jewish, but he has confirmed (along with sharing a ton of other personal headcanons) that Dave was Jewish, based on Dave’s surname in on the dogtags. Meanwhile, Robert Sheehan disguises his Irish accent, therefore we can’t assume Klaus is Irish just because Robert is. Accent is a pretty big signifier, tbf, so this one is probably pretty obvious. 

So what can we use as identifiers? Language cues, for one. Although it’s not conclusive evidence, we can theorise that Klaus knows a little German, and speculate that he wanted to feel connected to his German/Austrian heritage and distance himself from his upbringing. Therefore, from a linguistic perspective, names are also quite telling.      

(They could have always been picked out of a hat, of course, but that’s no fun, and name meanings are so beautifully subjective.) This actually ties in with my own ideas on name analysis and what they can tell us about each character. (It’s in my drafts somewhere, but it’s only rudimentary so far). I was inspired when I saw this post [x]. What I had not considered, though, is how their heritage might be alluded to through their powers. The point about Russian composers is really interesting. Of course, other countries have great composers too, so how do we prove that link? If I had any classical music knowledge, I’d look through both the comics and the show for songs Vanya plays, or  music associated with her in the show, or see if there’s any background details that could point to Russian composers in association with her character.  Klaus, Germanic, means ‘victory of the people’. It originated from the Greek Nikolaos (coincidentally… so does Nikki. Just throwing that out there). It sounds heroic, but Klaus is decidedly anti-heroic for most of the first season. So perhaps we can interpret him as, quite literally, not living up to his name. Then there’s the elephant in the room: his untapped potential. Within that meaning, ‘victory of the people’, there’s connotations of conflict (and therefore death); revolution; the underdog rising up out of oppression. As Klaus does. Of course, if we’re talking about German heritage and conflict, we’ve got to mention WW2. There could be tenuous parallels to be made between Reginald and toxic ideologies like Nazism, and the outfit he wears as he stands in the door of the mausoleum did remind me of the uniforms of SS soldiers in Schindler’s List. But honestly, that would need fact-checking against reality, not another movie, and I don’t really want to touch Nazism any further than that without proper research. Nonetheless, I do wonder what the reaction would be to a man with a German name meeting a man with a Jewish name just 20 years after the end of WW2. However, I’d be more inclined to think about that name meaning again - victory of the people - and how it might allude to the Berlin Wall. But again, I’d need to research, because I know next to nothing about it. Could any of this explain his power to see the dead, though? If Klaus was intended to be Germany personified, specifically history of Germany wars and ideological conflicts, I’d say - it’s a stretch. There could be something there about carrying your past with you, learning from it instead of rejecting it, but it’s too vague. I also had brief thoughts on Luther. It is also a Germanic name, likewise derived from Greek, and means ‘soldier of the people’. In Greek, it derives from a word meaning ‘free’. Now, Luther is the conventional hero to Klaus’s antihero. (Does that place them on two sides of the metaphorical wall?) Where Klaus does not live up to his name, Luther does. He is the people’s soldier, with the strong moral conviction to protect and dish out justice. To that end, strength plays into that image. That said, I don’t know if there’s any signifiers from Luther’s character about his ethnic origins other than his name. However, the German theologist Martin Luther, founder of Lutheranism, is thought to be a key namesake for ‘Luther’. Martin Luther was seminal to the Reformation of the Roman Catholic Church, from which Lutheranism was born. Of course, the topic of religion might not relate directly to Luther, but the ideological crisis surrounding the Protestant Reformation - devote worship of a higher power, and a crisis of free will following challenges to predestination (all events in one’s life are predetermined by God) - could be equated with Luther’s crisis of faith in Reginald. All that being said, I also have a very vague recollection from my research that it also literally means ‘strong’. So. Mystery solved?As for Five, I really don’t think we can conclude anything that wouldn’t be pure headcanon. He’s an enigma, and is likely to stay that way. The only thing I can say is that his name - just a number - makes him elusive, hard to pin down, just like his powers.    And, just a final thought: what purpose would it serve, to have heritage linked to powers? Sure, there’s the implication of the effect it has on identity as a whole, which is the underlying assumption of this entire post. But what else does it imply, to use these powers for good (or bad)? Global unification? We know that Hargreeves’s entire purpose for the Academy is to ‘save the world’, but even though they are facing down the apocalypse, the show makes it feel very personal, not universal. A family united. 

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S3 Ep5: Happy Valentines Season the Writing Team Remembered YugixTea Exists

Alrighty, I’m mostly back together from nearly a week of the plague and now my buffer is basically demolished. Man. Youknow, every time I make a buffer this happens. Maybe I was just asking to get sick? That every time I finish a healthyish buffer my immune system just tanks in response?

Anyway, that’s fine because it’s been like a week now that I’ve been sort of wanting to talk about the massive amount of birds in this episode. Yeah, birds. I mean there’s no reason for me to try and hide the spoilers, I’m assuming 99% of y’all have seen this show. There were a LOT of birds.

Last we left off, Yugi decided to run headfirst into a trap door.

And then on the other side he was somehow amazed this was a trap?

Because there wasn’t either a mace or an ax handy to go through the wall like Tristan And Duke, instead Yugi has to end up in a Photoshop Filter.

Shoutouts to the overlay aurora borealis on top of this whole mess. This whole aesthetic here is just so nostalgic and I didn't even watch this show as a kid.

Man the 00′s were a great time. Speaking of great time.

We’ve had like 0 Joey for like 4 episodes and it’s been kind of incredible since this show leans pretty heavily on Joey. Like I have barely touched that mustard color in Photoshop, instead it’s been a lot of Tea, and I’ll be honest, about time. I have been saying for like 3 seasons now that this girl never has anything to do but be a ghost bus and a sort-of-not-really-gf to I guess Mokuba and sometimes Yugi but now she’s...still not doing a whole lot. I’ll be honest her new big thing is mostly running away from things, but at least now she now does Olympian feats while still doing nothing.

But all that’s gotta change because, much like Joey in S1, Tea’s gonna throw some cards with only like 2 games under her belt. 

So like, I was experiencing Witcher 1 the other day, and I don’t recommend it since Witcher 1 is not nearly as good as it’s sequels, but there’s this hilarious line where Witcher is gonna learn a dice minigame, and he asks his friend “how can I become a dice expert?” and his friend goes “Well that takes experience! Play 4 games.” and it’s like lol what? 4? That was all it need for ANYONE to be an expert, huh?

This is like that. Yugioh is a weird universe where Yugi is King of Games but he’s only been in one tourney and he’s only played this game professionally in a professional no-one-is-setting-anyone-on-fire setting like maybe 4 times.

Like everyone plays this game but the bar for entry is surprisingly low? All Yugi had to do was beat one guy by playing him once, really--just beat Pegasus and boom, King of Games. No wonder Seto was so freakin pissed.

Anyways, so the fact that Tea hasn’t really played is just like everyone else on this show.

(read more)

Anyways, after she ran 4 miles and climbed a bridge and all that, she decides, youknow what? Right here in this barren orc-filled desert is probably a safe place for a dream sequence.

And she dreams of the very last person I expected her to dream about.

So...I have questions about this dream sequence, ones that I will touch on later, but clearly Tea is getting some inception quality prophetic card knowledge from Yugi through a dream...however...Yugi isn’t actually doing anything right now. Right now Yugi is running through Tron so like...how is this happening?

Like is this just Tea actually knowing how cards work under layers and layer of subconscious? Because under layers and layers of Tea’s subconscious is actually SlightlyMoreOrLessEvil!Marik, who, as we discovered through last season’s plot twist is actually very, very bad at cards. Bakura might be still under there too, but he’s sort of everywhere just minding his own business so I doubt he’d bother coming out for Tea. Bakura’s still canonically dead/hanging out in Yugi’s Brain Labyrinth Game Room playing Gameboy Advance until Season 5.

I mean, it would be neat if Yugi actually could do this but like...he’s not actually here or at all aware that this is happening. Yes he has Ishizu’s necklace right now but will not use it this episode. This is just happening for no reason.

Which leads right into the second thing which is our most vague couple is finally going to get it’s own episode since like the beginning of season 2 and it’s literally all a dream.

Flashbacks to Yugi and Tea actually hanging out and talking one on one were all we really needed to stop calling this ship vague but eh this BARELY counts as it’s all one sided. This is just Tea doing all of this relationship herself. Which is pretty true to form as Yugi is a mess and can barely do relationships with himself at this point, let alone add a girl into the mix.

I feel like at this point a Broadway play about one single Yugioh card is waaaaaaay more likely than YugixTea ever like ever getting together (cuz like FOR REALS most Broadway is bad. Like legit not great). In fact, this make believe date they went on together is so far from reality--as it is not only a dream, but a dream in VR, and that even in the dream itself Yugi reminds her “PS, WE NEVER WENT ON THIS DATE, PS” and Tea’s like “that seemed open ended” and Yugi was like “NOPE.”

So this play is so terrible that it asks for audience participation and it turned her into a cosplayer.

So little aside, when I got my Netflix account the first thing I rented was Ironman, and then the second thing I rented, mostly out of morbid curiosity, was Cats.

Regrets. I like watching some pretty bad movies and plays but Cats is sort of like...if everyone dressed like personified leg warmers and made us pretend the leg warmers turned them into cats for some reason, and that the legwarmers were all in a polyamorous relationship with everyone else and got way too horny when they danced. And then they all died at the end/went to space/got reincarnated. But, I guess we have to give Cats some credit for basically launching furry technology forward like 50 years.

I am SUPER looking forward to the Cats movie. Probably will skip it in theaters but Netflix? Yes, please!

Anyway, Pharaoh was also here chaperoning these two like he always does although Tea has no idea what he looks like.

I just realized that, so far, every date we’ve seen with YugixTea, Yugi wasn’t even there. Like how does he keep managing to do this? The kid is managing this relationship like a champ being the supportive boyfriend or whatever and he’s not even there. Like damn.

A penguin.

so many penguins

Anyways, the animation team drew I want to say like 600 penguins for this episode. I just want to acknowledge their sacrifice for our behalf, so we could have this filler episode and watch an actual relationship blossom between Yugi and Tea but only in a dream sequence.

Because I notice art stuff like this, they did copy paste these penguins in a clever way so it wasn’t drawing 60000 penguins, but damn that’s still a lot of penguins.

My bro, the namesake of this blog, freakin loves penguins. So this entire episode he kept looking over at me and being like “right?! RIGHT!?” and it was like “wow, Bro they really made this show just for you huh?” and he was like “RIGHT?!?!”

So the thing about Crump is that he likes collecting numbers about people, which the show makes out to be strange but I have a bunch of accountant friends, and I once had one tell me that God was an accountant, and then he gave me some complicated explanation that I absolutely muted out of my memory. I once had a friend who had a fascinating spreadsheet on everywhere she lived and the friends she had, just to see if she could accurately display the percentage chance of who was dating, who was getting married, and the exact percentage of which of those broke up and the length of all of their relationships. And she was an art major.

I never saw those spreadsheets of love numbers, I only know they exist, and I have no idea where I stood on them. Sometimes I think about it. Is she still tracking me? I sure hope so.

Dude that one penguin on the right just

This show throws out the number 219 pieces of pizza like that was a bad thing?

I guarantee you, that eating 14 slices of pizza a year is a depressingly low statistic (assuming you don’t eat pizza when you’re 1 yo) That is only about 1.5 large pizzas a YEAR. That is nothing.

Course bear in mind I’m a Californian and I eat like...about 2-3 slices every time fast food pizza is offered me. And if I’m alone, well dammit I’ll eat.......more than that, we’ll just say. In fact, I just Marie Kondo’d my closet and found my college cookbook which was mostly me trying to replicate the CPK Thai chicken pizza as well as the CPK Pear Gorgonzola pizza (and may the CPK Pear Gorgonzola Pizza Rest in Peace, you perfect pizza. I have not returned to CPK once it left the menu. Bro hates this pizza but he is wrong.)

Like it sounds way nasty but I’m Californian so we don’t believe in food purity here. Put whatever the hell you freakin want on your dumb ass pizza. No food is sacred, no food will be left untouched, we’re all human beings, and everything you like is all going to be turned into pizza and tacos anyway. That is the way.

I’m pretty sure that I’ve only had 219 pieces of just Pear Gorgonzola Pizza (since it was a pricier pizza). Maybe Crump was just referring to the one type of zah?

Anyway, I got very distracted by pizza just now.

Tea heard Crumps offer to duel her in exchange for her body and she was like “I don’t really actually want to do that.” and just bounced.

I mean at least she tried to bounce. As it is, I’m glad Tea is like the only one here who at least has figured out that Cards are Dangerous.

And then an iceberg formed under her feet.

Meanwhile, Yugi has been sent to this room with four doors. Each door has a number of stars between one and four. Please remember he has Ishizu’s future necklace somewhere on his person and it could probably help him out but nah.

and then out of no where Yugi pulls this out of his pocket.

Another place where, because they localized the show to a ton of different countries, they decided to make a fake currency so people wouldn’t be thrown off by a Japanese coin and it only made the lore more confusing. He could have just used a Yen and I’m pretty sure us American kids would have been fine but localization problems amiright?

But yeah, there’s just this super random Millennium Penny that Yugi just has. To have. The redheaded stepchild 8th Millennium item no one remembers. Just like how no one remembers Bakura.

Now that I think of it, he did pull some pennies out of his pocket back in S1 with the labyrinth riddle. So maybe that’s just a skill the millennium puzzle can do--making weird ass pennies?

This is my brother’s aesthetic, this right here. This Big Penguin in a 3 piece suit and it’s got some anime for some reason strapped in the most goofy way on it stubby little wing.

This is Steve-o’s Mood down to a T.

Anyways, funnily enough, Tea and Yugi do actually get to communicate with each other this episode, but she isn’t aware that she’s doing it, much like how he wasn’t aware that he was in a dream she just had.

And so, Yugi feels newly inspired and very desperate and just throws himself directly at the door.

Yugi never did this back when Tea was abducted last season. Which...was yesterday. All that happened literally yesterday in the timeline of this show. Literally yesterday in the timeline of the show Seto Kaiba had to save Tea because Yugi got himself tied to an anchor and was too busy trying to kill himself to save Joey Wheeler (which didn’t even work and Serenity had to save Joey Wheeler instead it was a whole very confusing thing.) Like Yugi has got to stop needlessly sacrificing himself it only works a fraction of the time.

Anyway, Crump (Crumb? I don’t remember his name anymore) gives us a little backstory on why he chose to be a bird. We never got a backstory with like...Gansley. I think Yugi didn’t really waaaant to know why he was a sexy fish. And Gansley honestly didn’t want to tell him. And personally, I’m OK with not knowing.

What is it with TV shows and saying that every freakin weird tick their characters have is down to childhood trauma? Usually from parents? Like it’s such a tired trope nowadays. And honestly, from a psychological standpoint, TV shows constantly blaming parents for any character being an asshole is sort of unfair because sometimes you just have a kid who’s an asshole and it’s no one’s fault (except for the kid himself). But mostly, Yugioh tends to get creative with their backstories and this one is just “I dunno, I was lonely” which is a whole lot like the Mai backstory, but she didn’t turn into an evil bastard who wants to be a penguin, did she?

Hell, she got engaged.

Anyways, Seto’s S1 outfit makes a rare appearance. I miss that green jumpsuit with the pop collar. We got it twice this season. Heh, and bro told me this arc was bad.

And so because Crump was just straight up real bad at business and didn’t know how to find more angel investors, he’s just gonna do a murder.

Can we talk a little bit about this? So Gozoboro Kaiba was an asshole who made a ton of weapons--and that whole time, Crump was working with him so that one day he could go up to Kaiba Sr and be like “lets put that nuclear deal on hold--what if instead we just sold...penguins?”

Like that was Crump’s whole life plan. He blames Seto for it not working out but this guy worked for a supervillain for I’m assuming was like 30 years to build this theme park that I’m pretty sure would have never been made anyway?

And then Seto turned right around and made a theme park with a bunch of dragons in it?

Like why didn’t Crump just go to a freakin Zoo and be like “Lets make a penguin only zoo?” Like why didn’t he start with people who actually worked with animals?

Why did Crump go straight to working with the evil guns n stuff company to build a children’s theme park?

Anyway, he’s a penguin now, so it’s not like Crump is really all there and altogether. Like I’m assuming that maybe Kaiba Sr got a penguin theme park commission in his inbox once a month and just threw it in the trash being all “there goes that Crump again” and just ignored it or something. Like every Halloween work party Crump would have been a penguin, right? Like EVERY Halloween for 30 years? And like when Kaiba Sr got his boys did Crump come up to him and give him a Penguin lecture about how to be a perfect parent? Like how much of a nightmare was Crump to work with and how many times did the Kaibas try to kill him before Seto finally did is what I’m asking.

Also, still taking Dayquil, thanks for asking, I apparently still have some rants.

But that’s all for now.

PS I’ll have you know I almost made the title of this episode “fowl play” and decided that was too much of a low hanging pun. But I’m still like...I’m still feeling like putting it up there. That be the mix of meds and congestion.

[britneyshakespeare]

tagged by @pavlovers to do the 10 songs im currently obsessed with thing. this is kinda weird bc ive mostly been listening to poetry and two public domain audiobooks on spotify in the past like... two weeks (but sense and sensibility and the picture of dorian gray are still excellent so there’s that) and i’ve not been listening to as much music so... here we go. without further ado.

out of time - the rolling stones i have this eerie feeling i’ve done this song for one of these tag things before? or at least that i’ve talked about it before. i don’t know, i searched it on my blog and found nothing, but this has always been one of my favorite mid-60s brian jones stones songs. i can even get with the sardonic, cruel lyrics which in most cases just make me kinda irritated with mick jagger. they at least have a sense of cleverness in this case that tends to be lacking in other chrissie shrimpton-inspired songs like under my thumb and stupid girl.

somebody to love - queen okay so i saw bohemian rhapsody last sunday and i... loved it. reawakened all my love for queen that never really sleeps anyway. but freddie mercury really was just... so distinguished. and this is a pretty basic favorite queen song to have, and to be perfectly curt, i don’t think i even have a favorite queen song. their whole discography is too unique to really weigh against itself like with other bands. but of all the big queen songs that you tend to hear everywhere, this is the one that gets the most out of me, most consistently. as much as i also love killer queen and bohemian rhapsody and good old-fashion loverboy and all them.

quiero del fruto prohibido - stephanie salas while looking for more spanish-language music to listen to recently i found stephanie salas, and i haven’t gotten that deep into her discography yet, beyond just her 2006 album tuna, but i really love it and i’ve gone through it a couple of times. it reminds me a lot of return of saturn by no doubt, which is by a long shot my favorite gwen stefani-penned album. in both sound and attitude. and i always love discovering new music that sounds like old gwen stefani.

consequences - camila cabello (orchestral version) i really didn’t expect this from camila, even with as soulful as she’s been trying to sound since beginning her solo career. this was just so beautiful, and though i wouldn’t say the lyrics on this song are that impressive (she’s clearly still an amateur songwriter who’s yet to grow into herself), the new instrumental here really accentuates the best in it. this version is far better than it has any right to be.

paco paco paco - encarnita polo also found this while looking for 60s spanish pop songs on allmusic.com. i haven’t found much substantial information on the singer of this catchy little track yet, but it sure is pretty frickin cute, and doesn’t get annoying when it gets stuck in my head. suits all my girly vintage pop-rock needs, which we all know is my weakness.

by myself - cécile mclorin salvant discovered her new album the window on allmusic.com a few weeks ago (wow i’m really discussing a lot of allmusic.com on here... i don’t even use that site that much it’s just my main resource for discovering new shit bc i’m so out of touch w trends nowadays) and even though it’s all covers of decades-old songs... she’s really got the voice and the instrumentals backing her up to make them her own. a wonderful style. and this song in specific inspired me to make an aro jazz playlist, so there’s also that.

in india you - brian jonestown massacre i’ve yet to really dig into the discography of this band, but i’ve been meaning to for awhile. this is my favorite song from them so far, or at least the one that sticks out the most of those i’ve listened to. trippy and psychedelic and surreal and exquisite. does a lot of respect to their namesake of course... the 1978 jonestown massacre.

effeuille-moi le coeur - francoise hardy i’ve always loved the melody of this song ridiculously and as i’ve been trying to learn french, i’ve been using this songs as one of my audio samples, particularly bc i haven’t been able to find any detailed translations of it into english like you can with bigger francoise songs like tous les garcons and whatnot. so i’ve just been learning it piece by piece, because the language isn’t that out-of-reach to me. and i certainly love it more for that. :-)

thriller - fall out boy mandatory potentially embarrassing middle school song here. i haven’t been on a fob kick recently or anything, for some reason this song has just been popping into my head on and off recently. don’t really know why. but the lyrics of it always really stuck with me, especially in the chorus. still a good song that holds up.

the spinning wheel - delia murphy one of my favorite versions of one of my favorite traditional folk songs. there’s not really much i can say about it, other than that it just feels like an old comfort to me. and if anything, the antiquity of the recording and less-than-stellar sound quality of its being so old is a charm to me. i just feel so melancholy and nostalgic listening to it. a wonderful song.

i don’t know what to do. i guess i’ll just tag a few @sneez @shecomesincolors @nospoonsgiven @r3nton @aliceic @bohemian-brian

[crveritaserum]

top 5 visuals of each house go

Although I do not find it necessary for this list to exist since we all know I’m the hottest person at Hogwarts is, I’ll humour you desperate souls just this once so you can stop desperately pestering me about this. If you want your name mentioned so desperately why don’t you just send in a message about yourself? Personally, for me, none of these people would even be considered for this list, but the public has spoken. 

Let’s start the list with the infamous House of Snakes. A list of beautiful people would not be complete without my beloved boyfriend ( @crvince ) even if his family is attempting to get in between our love. Only he actually deserves a spot on this sad excuse of a list. Then we have the rotting flower ( @crtitania ). It seems even a flower is able to bloom in such a desolate place like the dungeons, but just because a flower can bloom doesn’t mean it can shine. all I see from the ice princess right now is a lot of look and not a lot of personality. Considering she did win over the attention of both an idiotic lion and snake, however, maybe there’s something there I’m just not seeing. Next would be the house mistake ( @crichigo ). Sometimes I wonder if it’s actually possible for the sorting hat to wrong. Doesn’t Ichigo seem too soft and impressionable to be a snake? How such a pushover got placed into the snake den is still a wonder to me. It’s no wonder then that he got swallowed whole during his first few years here. Onwards, we have our overused trope ( @crben ). Tall, dark, and handsome has always been in. time has proven that this trope is one that women will never get tired of and, boy, is our Benjamin the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome. Of course, tall, dark, and handsome only gets so far in life, if that’s you’ve got going for you then soon even that becomes boring. But you don’t care much for such trivial things now do you, Egg Benedict? Lastly, we have diva wannabe ( @crpenelope ). The only reason she is even considered for a spot on this list is that there is no other person in Slytherin that comes even close to deserving a spot. Call it a pity placement.

Next onto The Lion’s Den. What list is without the most sought-after female of the house ( @crcwan ). It’s only natural for her to be on the list with her dull charms and mediocre looks. fair warning, darlings, the list just gets worse at this point as she seems to be the only relatively interesting Gryffindor. Then we have happily ever after thirsty ( @crxevie ). Fairy tales have taught young girls everywhere that your heart is supposed to beat faster around the one you like, but when you heart seemingly beats faster for just about everyone you see, I think it’s about time for you to go seek professional help. I’m sure the matron would have something to fix your tachycardia and maybe teach you through her many years of accumulated wisdom that what you’re experiencing shouldn’t be considered love, it’s called desperation. so this infant ( @gracecr ) seems to carry herself very highly and as she in the house of the lions, this is something that comes as unsurprising. I appreciate someone confident enough to love themselves, but where do you draw the line between self-love and narcissism, little grace? Then we have airfoil ( @crwingyau ). Chicken wing here seemed to have grabbed some attention with the fact that she was seen snogging with a boy in the library. But if that’s the only thing noteworthy she’s done since her time here at the school then I’d like to just move on and talk about other more pressing matters. Clearly the boys in Gryffindor really aren’t anything special if only one of them made it onto the list. Wannabe fuccboi ( @crzhengyang ) the bad boy act isn’t working for you, dear, no one seems to notice your attempts to win every female over with your charms, maybe you should switch up your act and try again. 

Now onwards to the Ostriches. Or should I say Ravens, but they don’t have the brains for that. Probably into cat ear headband ( @crperseus ), last time we mentioned him on this blog, he seemed to have to gained himself quite a following. But oh would you look at that? Things seemed to have slow down for our sleeping beauty. Nothing new has happened with him since then, it seems that perhaps you people have finally decided to wake up and realize that someone into cats more than humans isn’t worth all the hype. Little miss troublemaker ( @crxaria ) over here seems to think of herself as a force to be reckoned with, but I can only say two words to describe her act: try hard. Darling, watch yourself around these waters, tread too deep into this persona of yours and you might find that you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. As if we don’t have enough people trying to freeze over the grounds of Hogwarts with their icy personalities, here is another lowballing contender ( @crxalma ) trying to be the reason for the long winter that seems to drag on forever. A weak example, honestly. If people can still think of you as being “nice deep down” then you’re doing the whole cold thing wrong. Honey, it’s spring now, lose the act and accept the fact that you were never as cool as you thought you were and never will be. Now it seem weird is in this season as eccentric ( @crlianna ) takes the grounds of Hogwarts by storm. People, you have me questioning your taste more and more with each passing day. To think someone that goes around calling themselves trash and still plays Pokemon Go is considered cool. But I guess in that case, she makes my job easier for me. I don’t need to waste my breath to ridicule her when she does it so well herself already. Last another fake boy ( @crmason ). As someone who finds himself to be the next Casanova, Mason’s personality is literally that of another typical fuccboi with commitment issues. Honestly, people, why do you all keep falling for such acts, it’s not even original. The only thing original about him is the fact that he’s a fuccboi, that’s not Chinese like the others. 

Now onto our final and most forgettable house! First off, the future failure of a president ( @cecilcr ) this one is pretty self explanatory, I won’t waste my time trying to justify the placement of this one on this list for the house of bores. Congratulations to Cecil for being the poster boy for what a Hufflepuff should look like. Nice, soft, boring. Then we have the namesake, our little wannabe nobility ( @crxalice ) seems to be lost in her own world as well, falling into the rabbit hole fantasy where her dreams will come true. But darling, when you curl up with a snake, you have to watch out for the fangs. Wow look another eccentric ( @crxaelita )! With her wistful thinking and snowflake personality and borderline obsessive interest with all things magical creature related, it looks like someone here wants to be the next Newt Scamander. But I guess since we already have someone else pining for the position of Voldemort and she can’t one up that, she had no choice but be stuck with the weird Hippie Hufflepuff persona. Hufflepuffs were always so soft and boring for me. To hope for anything different from someone that hails from this house was too much to ask for it seems. You’d think that because he has the money and status of a pureblood, he’d also have a backbone, but grandpa at heart ( @crxhardt ) seems to let just about anyone step all over him in the name of “friendship.” Now miss blank wall ( @crxlottie ) to think that even this one could sneak her way onto the list is quite shocking to me as I can only seem to describe her using one word: basic. Sure, she has the looks of the Mei family, but when it comes to the personality and charm she’s duller than a rusty nail. While her cousin seems to gain the attention of all those he talks to, little Charlotte over here can’t even seem to catch the attention of the guy she seems to be interested in. Although, honey, I do advise that if you decide to go for someone that’s way out of your league like that, you try to steer clear of your best friend’s fiance next time. 

[buggyexplorer-blog]

Guisborough Woods

Welcome again to Buggy Adventures. Wow, they seem to be coming thick and fast! Well this particular blog brings to you a nice short 4.5 mile circular in Guisborough Woods. So if you don’t have much time but fancy squeezing in a nice walk and with 550 feet of elevation gain, so it gets the blood pumping, then this is a good one.

I have also discovered how to add photos to my blog, I’m getting so tech savvy these days and courtesy of Strava I will add a route map at the start of each blog.  There are one or two pictures added to my two previous blogs, so please feel free to scroll down and re-visit.

Joining us today on our Buggy Adventures is Thomas’s Grandad - my Dad, Keith and Lily the poodle. Growing up I was an only child and to be honest, I loved it. Not having to share my CD’s, no squabbling over which sibling gets the bigger bedroom, or battling over who got the keys to my Dad’s Renault 5 once I was of driving age! So having a dog constantly in the family was my equivalent of a sibling. Misty, our wonderful family pooch, was a miniature poodle with attitude. He really thought he was head of the family and quite frankly, he was! Misty often covered two or three times the distance than we did on our family hikes. Then we had Louis, a white standard poodle who was such a handsome devil and he knew it too. Louis also loved his walks in the woods and hills of Guisborough with my parents. My Dad often shared his love of photography with Louis by going out on early morning walks in the woods in an attempt to photograph the perfect sunrise. Sadly we lost lovely Louis last year just before Christmas and it's fair to say the whole family was devastated. I still miss him so much to this day. My poor Dad was lost without his loyal companion and despite my parents saying that they weren't going to get another dog it was evident that there was a void. Lily was the perfect dog for my parents. A three year old miniature rescue poodle who had not had a very nice life so far and had been used purely for breeding. Now though she has been given the life she deserves with my Mum and Dad. Actually looking like a poodle now after some serious grooming, I was amazed at how well behaved she was off the lead on our hike. So, Leela, Thomas, my Dad, Lily and the Buggy Explorer set off on a walk all together.

We entered the Guisborough Woods at the top of the Pine Hills housing estate off Lyndale.  All of the road names on the Pine Hills estate are named afer dales such as Farndale, Weardale and Rosedale.  The path from Lyndale goes down a short but steep hill where it meets up with the old Middlesbrough and Guisborough railway line.  Oh how Guisborough could now do with a train service to Middlesbrough, I think that it would be very well supported and would certainly take a lot of cars off the road.  Cut backs are not only happening now as they obviously played a part in 1964, the last time a train operated on this line.  Much of the old line is now walkways or built on, so no chance of it being re-opened.

Once at the old line we turned right and walked in the direction of the briliant Branch Walkway Cafe at the Guisborough Forest and Walkway Visitors Centre.  If you are on the look out for a full monty breakfast, than you need not look any further than the Branch Walkway Cafe.  Just don’t expect to be able to eat for 24 hours after and make sure you are hungry, really hungry.  Their rocky roads are pretty special too.  Anyway, as my Mum was preparing a lovely family meal for later in the day we avoided temptation by taking a left turn into the woods just before we got the the cafe.  We immediately turned right and walked uphill past the adventure playground on our right amongst the trees.  Thomas will love it here when he is older.

As we walked the views opened up to our right looking over Pinchinthorpe and the fields between Guisborough and Nunthorpe.  In the distance you can see towards Flatts Lane and the Eston Hills with the busy A171 road linking Middlesbrough to Guisborough inbetween.  Along this path we passed a few walkers one of whom had a dog which seemed to show some interest in Lily and decided for a good few yards that he no longer wanted to wallk with his owner and tried to tag along with us!  Lily is not that type of girl though and she did not show one bit of interest in her new admirer and the dog finaly gave up and walked back in the oposite direction towards his owner who by now was out of sight!

We followed the path for its entirety and it came to a head at a concrete road which snakes its way uphill through the trees to Bousdale Farm.  This concrete road was always a killer when I rode up it on my mountain bike years ago and guess what? Its a killer when pushing a three wheeled offroad baby buggy too!  After one or two rest stops we all made it to the top at Bousdale Farm where we all decided on a rest and drink stop while taking in the views and a few photos.

Bousdale Farm has renovated some outbuildings turning them into holiday cottages and what a setting it is in.  Within easy reach of Guisborough and the surounding area it has a feel of remoteness with some outstanding views of the hills.  There were some very friendly goats in a field here and one of them was eager to make friends, or perhaps he just wanted whatever food we had on us.  Since we were only on a short hike all we had were a couple of snickers bars and a bottle of water, so Billy the goat went disappointed!

We walked through the yard and through a gate into fields and we got a spectacular view of that mountain again, Roseberry Topping.  It certainly dominates and you can see why it is nicknamed the Cleveland Matterhorn as it does share a distinct resemblance with its much bigger namesake.  The summit once resembled a sugar loaf. Then in 1912 Roseberry Topping changed forever when the Western side of the hill collapsed, mainly due to alum and ironstone mining but also because of a geological fault.  Apparently Guisborough is one of the more likely places in the country to have an earthquake, not that I have ever noticed!  Due to the sheer West face following the collapse the Topping has since been compared to its big Swiss cousin.

So once through the first field we entered another via a metal gate and keeping to the left hand edge of the field we walked through to another metal gate and turned left to go up to the wooden gate oposite.  Back onto well maintained paths we turned left and walked back into the Guisborough Forest.  From here on it was easy pushing with the buggy rolling over well maintained fire track roads after the uneven tracks in the fields that we had just come through. 

We carried on walking downhill and after a little while we turned almost back on oursleves to extend the walk a little.  The paths zigzag their way through the woods and you can walk for hours without ever being more than a couple of miles from where you started!  As we dropped lower towards the end of the walk we enjoyed a little break by a bench with a lovely view across rapeseed fields near to Home Farm on the Hutton Village Road.  We admired the yellow carpet that spread out infront of us while munching on funsized Aldi Racer bars, which is basically a Snickers but half the price, as is everything at Aldi!

We finished the hike by walking along the track going past Home Farm and the idylic barn conversions with their spectactular views of the surrounding countryside and onto the Hutton Village road, where we parked the car on our last walk.  We walked onto the Avenue and the final few minutes rolling back to my parents where a hearty meal awaited us.

A lovely way to spend a couple of hours in the local countryside.

Look out for the next Buggy Adventures blog where our very good friends Maggie and Joe join us for a hike which challenges the buggy’s capabilities in the heart of my favourite part of the country.

Boldly going where no buggy has gone before...........