#and they taught me that once again

[megpricephotography]

Ha, this dog is too clever & too bossy by half! Earlier today, Flynn apparently decided it was past time to go out for a walk (& being let in the garden just wasn't good enough). When I didn't immediately drop everything in response to him whining at me, Flynn wandered off... but he was back a moment later... carrying my shoe! He shoved it directly into my hands & then marched off & got the other shoe & gave me that one too.

Subtle? No!

Effective? Yes!

10 minutes later, we were off on Flynn's walk.

[mymarifae]

sooooooo when i jokingly said to myself "haha did ruan mei play aeonic necromancy on tingyun's remains or something" i wasn't expecting that to literally be the case what the fuck

[j-1-nx]

I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that I hate Caitvi with a passion, however. The people on tiktok talking about how "Catradora walked so Caitvi could run" don't realize that mine and Vi's relationship and story is more similar to Catra and Adora than her and Caitler's ever was- only difference is that we're sisters and not romantically involved.

Also Catradora ran so Caitvi could trip and fall down a well, but that's an opinion so

[theokusgallery]

I hate that I have reoccurring themes in everything I make. YES this guy has a complex over the fact that everyone prefers his sibling AGAIN. YES he was ostracized by his peers since he was in primary school and never knew why until years later. URGH

[griddlebait]

Hi, sorry to bother you when I know you've got a lot going on. I was wondering if anyone's offered to start a go fund me for your laptop woes? You've given us countless hours of enjoyment through your writing and I wouldn't mind making a donation to help out!

hi! first off i want to say thank you so much to all of you, this is really kind and thoughtful and i sincerely appreciate it.

i do not have a ko-fi or gofundme or anything similar, and as for now i don’t have any plans to make one because i would honestly feel incredibly guilty accepting donations for a laptop when there are people who are in need of mutual aid for survival purposes. as much as it’s an unfortunate situation, a laptop isn’t a necessity for my life and i can’t bring myself to accept donations for one. i can figure something out. one thing ab me is i will Always figure something out 🤞

[ludinusdaleth]

im honestly very happy ira is one of if not the most beloved npc of campaign 3. and while i know most of his surface level appeal is the sheer unhinged faeishness of him, i think it fundamentally comes down to ira, despite his most un-human everything, being the most Man in his struggles as a fae can get.

as early as his intro he was set apart by past established fae, by working on technology, wearing a tattered suit. he was kicked out of the courts and the vanguard after they asked him to create their war weapons. he is a veteran of a mortal war, and got no accolades. he has spent 3 decades living in caves, taking the shittiest jobs imagineable just to get by, even torturing folk for his shit bosses again (the treshi job) because cash is cash. he knows folk will Just Die if they cant keep up and accepts it bluntly. his voice creaks with age & experience in the dust. it is easy to pin his pettiness & need for vengeance solely on the intensity of a fae til you see that he approaches even those goals with the rusty, tired caution of a man who was a spy, who understands the gravity of war, whose bosses have screwed him over so badly they made he, the nightmare king, scared.

he is a victim of the greed of the rich, easily isolated and made a scapegoat as a sole evil by them. he has lived a life with absolutely no lavish design. even artagan, whom i love with all my heart and find deep relateability in, is so disconnected with mortality at first, in large part because he was a literal fae lord. when vox machina adjusted the leylines to let artagan into exandria, ira was locked out of his home at the same time. ira has lived in the grime of the worst the fae courts and humanity has to offer, wanting to make a mark but always being a pawn hurt by a grand design. and so, while he clearly & obviously knows the difference between mortal & fae, he also knows there's really no defined line between who can hurt you worse... and how it shapes you. does your callousness begin with your fae nature, with everyone deeming you a monstrosity, or with your experience at the bottom rung? it all ends the same, regardless. i think it is fascinating to see the classism & even capitalism choking exandria and its sister realms, and ira is so fascinating because he is the primary example we have of that happening to a fae, and we get to see how that has gruffly shaped someone who could have been as utterly unphased & whimsical as a flower in the breeze.

[deadqueernoldor]

Thinking thoughts about those from Cuivienen and how they later treated the Valar, especially after Cuivienen was destroyed.

I imagine a foundation of sorrow and a layer of betrayal and pettiness. They had promised safety. And how did it turn out? Kin of Tata and Tatie their first leaders, slain in Valinor by the Dark Hunter from which the Valar promised protection in Valinor.

And then, the War of Wrath comes and with it the destruction of Cuivienen.

If any of those were re-embodied in Aman, I wonder if they make it a point to always turn their back to Valar and Maiar. I wonder if they only speak in the tongue they had first devised all those millennia ago and spoke in Cuivienen before time and different kindreds changed the tongue, not Sindarin or Quenya from the Great Journey's time or later. I wonder if they sing songs in their ancient tongue, songs about the beauty and unsullied health of Cuivienen every time any of the Ainur are near.

I wonder if the Valar feel any shame when those who they once looked upon in wonder and love gaze back at them with indifference or disgust.

[seaofreverie]

Sparkstember Day 16: Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins (When Do I Get To Sing "My Way")

So, well, what an era this was, right. Comeback of the century! Gratsax just has that certain *something*. It's brilliant! One of the best albums ever made if you ask me. The fully electronic style is so perfect for Sparks and they just do it here like it's nothing and like they've been at it for many years. Of course there's the hiatus that took place in the years before it to keep in mind but even then, this album is a HUGE accomplishment and an incredible standout in a catalog of releases that's already full of standouts of all sorts. And it's definitely a personal standout for me too, thinking about how it's been almost a year since I first heard it really freaks me out! It was such a different time for me I feel like, but many things are also exactly the same as back then. It's weird to feel nostalgic about it now but there's really no better word to describe what this feeling is like exactly.

I think this album is meant for vinyl listening in a way. It just fits it so well!! And it's not just the quality to the sound that it has this way (and I don't mean that it sounds necessarily "better", more like just, different and that somehow complements the music even more), but also the ability to have an actual good view of this wonderful album cover that's among my top favourite Sparks things ever. So cool looking! So funny and memorable! One of the finest instances of the music sounding exactly like what the cover looks like. (and learning that the cover is a homage to a SPECIFIC magazine rather than just tabloids in general, that only made it more amazing because it really does look so alike, stuff like this is really cool to me for whatever reason lol)

Also I like the fact that I bought this silly little "disco" lamp around this time last year, so plugging it in for extra vibes during listening makes it all just kind of perfect. And another thing on the visual aspect of it all: this is such a good era for music videos, they're all SO GOOD! Some of my very big favourites for sure and the My Way video might really be one of the best music videos EVER MADE.

But ok, let's get to the point now. Something that stood out to me right away is that every song here is so unique but they fit together so well anyway (not first instance of such thing happening either). There's really lots of variety! I also remember this album fondly because of how it was the first one I listened to with my parents and when my Sparks obsession truly started to become one of the most noticeable things about me to other people, lol. But finally feeling more free and confident with sharing my favourite things that mean so much to me with others is such a wonderful thing anyway, I'd even argue that it helped me live my life more fully than before! And yeah, it's mostly a remark they (my parents) made, that this album nails the balance between keeping to a certain style and offering something new with each song. It's such a wonderful journey!

Alright, once again getting carried away a bit here even though I had no ideas earlier for what to say today. Highlights time then, which is also a bit of a problem because besides one special favourite this album has no spectacularly outstanding highs or any lows, it's all just equally amazing. But I'll try anyway, as I always do.

Favourite songs (and other highlights):

When Do I Get To Sing "My Way": my parents absolutely love this song and well, I do too. No suprise that it's among their most beloved and well-known songs, it really has it all, and it's one of Ron's very best when it comes to lyrics, without a doubt

Frankly, Scarlett, I Don't Give A Damn: so so atmospheric and special, I really like the vocal filter of sorts that's used here, it's just, so cool sounding all around!!

I Thought I Told You To Wait In The Car: this was my LEAST favourite at first but I grew to really like its unhingedness and the part with all "the CAR!!"s on top of each other is just peak of it all and funny as heck

Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil: one of my favourite of Russell's vocal performances! This one and Scarlett are a bit of a duo to me, both simply beautiful songs

Tsui Hark: I LOVE the sound of this one, the piano plus the synth and the spoken word lyrics make this kind of combo that makes it feel like I've already known this one for years and it's just... always existed (which is a term that will apply to a lot of 21st Sparks material anyway, so, that's something to look forward to)

The Ghost Of Liberace: such a big comfort listen to me, I just love this one, makes me feel so at home!!

Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins: shoutout to these too because I feel like they might be easy to overlook as these very brief pieces, but they're that extra element that just, really cements this album as a wonderful whole with something to unify all of it into this package of wonder of all sorts

...And then there's the many bonus tracks also, which I'll just mention briefly since I almost forgot about them and because, yeah. I love them all, but the closest to my heart are Love Can Conquer All, She's An Anchorman, She's Beautiful (So What), Mid-Atlantic & This Angry Young Man (Ain't Angry No More) ((and the RON VOCAL VERSIONS OF THEM)) and Katherine Hepburn (love the whole Christi Haydon EP (and Christi is so cool and awesome I need to say that too today) and I should listen to it more, the Boris The Spider cover is fun as heck also)

And now bonus video for no reason from (almost) a year ago, because again, the nostalgiaaaa. (Back when I didn't have a shelf for my record player yet so it took up half of the space on my desk lol)

[rexcaliburechoes]

does anyone else find it fucked up that moon's friends protect themselves from her with the skyfire at the end of moon rising?

[smashwolfen]

THESE DAMM TRAIN BLORBOS!!!!!!

I DIDN'T THINK I HAD A SHOT IN HELL BUT I SOMEHOW WON! Looking at all the winning pairs folks used, I thought it would actually be impossible with my very limited good pairs, but yeah no! These 3 did it! Yes Cynthia is an arc suit pair but all things considered I did not have much to work with to properly support her like other players could XD

God they are some of the hardest fights ive ever done (besides arc suit leons fight currently, I ain't winning that XD) and Im bad and do not look up guides and winning pairs for anything like this cuz I just dont HAVE the ones many players have, I just throw these guys like spaghetti at a wall and if they stick then yay! So many cookies wasted to be able to slap on flameproof for Cynthia and Ingo but Im glad I won!

Muehehehehehh Bingo title win yay XD

[bookshelfdreams]

.

[bensdavies]

being productive.... gathering some old clothes/unworn clothes for vinted...... might even be honest about my vinyl collection and put some things up that i don't actually listen to.....

[thebirdandhersong]

you know I really HAVE only ever been to one undergrad party and it was the bomb because it was just my friends in a crowded room and we were as loud and silly and dramatic as we wanted to be and the lights were colourful and the streamers blew in the fan-produced wind and we screamed the lyrics to Love Story like nothing else and I spun people around and was spun around myself and on that last day of class we had three blessed hours where we were just a bunch of unembarrassed, overexcited, completely exhilarated and adrenaline-high kids in this one guy's dorm room, singing and dancing our hearts out like there would be no tomorrow, and I was sweating through my dress and exhausted from 2 weeks of consistent 3-5-hour sleeps and knew that this was the last time I'd do this with these people in this place in this moment and it made me so fiercely, deeply, joyfully glad and so terribly sad

[eternallovers65]

I love entering the qsmp tag on twitter seeing everyone blaming the brazilians for something we didn't do or people didn't research hard enough to blame us.

Then I get to tumblr and everything is fine, everyone is okay with everyone and qsmp couldn't be better

God forbid me experience qsmp through Twitter

[overly-hubristic-mad-scientist]

I can’t lie, whenever someone tells me “school never taught us how to do ___” part of me gets kinda annoyed because 9/10 (at least in Ontario) they did you either didn’t take the course because it was an elective, or it was a required class you never actually paid attention to.

[ablednt]

Granted I have the overall geographical and cultural knowledge of a 4th grader but from what I can tell the nuclear family model really does seem to be a white colonial invention

Different cultures have different approaches but I mainly hear about either large family units where multiple generations support each other and raise their children and grandchildren together or an "it takes a village" approach where children are raised somewhat communally

And I can't really speak on it much or claim that these families were free of abuse or that children aren't often an oppressed group basically everywhere I know of but the way ownership of your children is so engrained into white society is so bizarre

Like once you notice it you can't unnotice it even the most loving well meaning parents don't know what to do about it because everyone is so isolated from their own families and their own communities so you wind up with 1-2 parents who have full legal ownership of their child and are raised in a culture where you don't have personhood until you're 18 and all attempts at self actualization before them are seen as clueless rebellion. Like our culture is so divorced from the concept that a parent is someone who is helping mentor and care for their child so they can thrive as a fellow human being and it's actually so alarming

And ik this problem isn't unique to white and colonized people but it's honestly really soothing to hear about how other cultures approach and view parenting and community as a whole and to internalize it doesn't have to be this way