#big into lesbians lately. pretty cool. highly recommend.

[gelarshiesprofruitboarder]

i should go to bed i have to do testing tommorow i think. alas

[bondsmagii]

Tell us about your OC [Redacted], how big of a bastard are they?

I’m just gonna use this as an excuse to introduce a bunch of my OCs using the highly scientific Bastard Rating System:

1/5: traces of bastardry2/5: traces of bastardry with selected examples of Extreme Bastardry3/5: many examples of Extreme Bastardry, but with Good or at least Necessary Reason; one or two moments of Just Plain Bastardry4/5: Just Plain Bastardry, with elements of Intentional Sadistic Bastardry5/5: King Bastard of Bastard Mountain, Let All Those Who Bear Witness Feast Upon His Bastardous Doctrine

so, with that in mind…

OC Bastardry Levels:

Zekiel Tozyehr: Shades of Magic OC for an Extensive AU of mine, Last Antari in Black London™, goin thru it, delightful accent, reads a lot, has spent a good portion of his life wishing Osaron would leave him alone, Bites Off More Than He Can Chew, definitely a badass and definitely doesn’t realise it until long after everybody else, did not see another human for two decades and therefore any interaction is bound to be wild. bastard rating: 3/5 (doesn’t seem fitting? you’ll see)

***

Yakov [yet to be last-named]: revolutionary for a good cause, does nasty deeds in name of said revolution, loves his wife, likes to stare at nature, Angsts over said deeds, sexy scars, many believe him to be the craziest motherfucker to walk Siberia since Rasputin, enjoys a good sunset. bastard rating: 3/5

Anatoly Roslyakov: one of Yakov’s second-in-commands, also a revolutionary for a good cause, Gets His Hands Dirty So You Don’t Have To, has literally no bad feelings over it whatsoever, is well aware that he’s like that as a person so takes one for the team, most reviled member of the squad but gives good honest no-nonsense advice, good husband, great dad, too smart for his own good. bastard rating: 4/5

Anastasia [yet to be last-named]: the other of Yakov’s second-in-commands, Mad Lad, absolute nutcase, 4′11 goblin, WILL use your assumption that her height renders her harmless to headbutt you in the kidneys, bisexual icon, loves her grandma, will kill a man if necessary but doesn’t feel the Rush Of The Kill, likes to play piano and sing maudlin songs at parties, if you Soviet historians out there think she sounds familiar it’s because she’s his great-granddaughter. bastard rating: 3/5

Nadezhda Sharonova: Literature Bitch™, absolutely the only person in this group with brain cells, God She Puts Up With A Lot, ends up way out of her depth but comes out swinging, A Bitch Has Anxiety, good poetry will make her cry, if you debate her she’ll probably put a pencil behind her ear and then point her newly free hand at you and you know you’re dead, very against murder but shit gets wild sometimes. bastard rating: rare non-bastard

***

Percival “Percy” Mulholland: decadence & aesthetic baby, wears Gucci, billionaire at like age 20 but is cool about it, can and will fly all his friends to some fancy location to stay on his fucking yacht, thirty-seventh in line to the British throne, so full of love probably against his best interests, Thot, Part-Time Himbo, nerd, Has A Lot Of Demons, will always be found lounging on a piece of furniture with wine. bastard rating: 3/5

Reuben Sjöberg: as a 6′7 albino person who always wears white he is well aware of the fact he’s probably the most interesting person you’ll ever see, Has A Dreadful Secret, too manipulative for his own good, Sounds Good In Theory But Wait What The Fuck Reuben, terrible ideas abound, Source Of All Trouble, Swedish but speaks better English than anyone in the group. bastard rating: 4/5

Adrian Urquhart: small, gay, will fight you through tears, knows all the gossip at all times, pretty much knows everything about everything, might not tell you until it’s too late, Heretic Catholic™, Spite is a Good Motivator, needs a nap, could probably benefit from a little more backbone, Crouching Introvert Hidden Thot. bastard rating: 2/5

Charlotte Brown: very pretty and very unassuming, knows it, dresses like she wandered out of the fae realm, seems dreamy and distant but never misses a single fucking beat, if she can’t smooth an argument out nobody can, Theatre Bitch™, when at parties she’s lowkey always looking for an excuse to throw her drink over somebody in outrage. bastard rating: 2/5

Niamh Connolly: from Belfast and will not soften her accent for the sake of the poor posh bitches around her, here to cause A Ruckus™, punk lesbian icon who absolutely has punched a Nazi, very strong morals that cause a lot of trouble down the line, probably the only person in the group who’se not a fucking nutcase, very outspoken, letting her drive is not recommended. bastard rating: 2/5

***

Aidan Mirza: Dumbass Narrator™, very gay, grew up constantly wishing for an adventure and boy did he get it, Supernatural Abilities [wiggles fingers while saying ‘OoOoOoOhhh’], too loyal for his own good, I Just Hate This Town Yanno?, lives with A Lot, calm on the outside screaming on the inside, means well but what the fuck. bastard rating: 2/5

Vertigo “Tigo” Havlíček: green hair don’t care, named after a literal carnival ride and not even mad about it, heir to a cursed funfair and is a bit mad about that, Even More Supernatural Abilities, sees too much, Am I The Only Person Going To Do Anything Around Here?, may be responsible for dozens of deaths but he can explain he swears, probably could do with admitting there’s a problem sooner. bastard rating: 3/5

***

Cameron Torrance: anger issues out the ass, disgruntled night shift cashier, alcoholic, Me? Traumatised? Ha!, serious violent PTSD that he will NOT acknowledge, murderer (self-defence), murderer (dealing with some things), You Ever Just Look Around And Think ‘This Might As Well Happen?’, very fucked up confused and oftentimes rancid morals, probably survives by remembering he’s not as bad as Jasper. bastard rating: 4/5

Jasper Tuozzo: runs a deep web murder room, lives to torment the shit out of Cameron, night shift milk delivery driver with a great discomfort of driving at night, smokes like a chimney and will bum cigarettes whenever he can, murderer (because it’s fun), nasty trauma in childhood but sincerely not enough to explain this, hasn’t given a fuck about anything since 1987. bastard rating: 5/5

Francis “Frankie” Morrison: university student, tired, very cute, gets excited if asked to accompany someone on errands, somehow Cameron’s boyfriend and somehow loves him dearly, worries a lot, far too innocent for his own good, cooks for people, hilarious bastard, god knows what he’s doing with these other two freaks. bastard rating: rare non-bastard

[amateurd18]

Hii Ami!! Secret Santa here!! Happy Friday!! May your weekend be a long and restful one!! ✨

It was your friends birthday? Well, happy late birthday to them!! 🥳✨ you can never go wrong with Mexican food!!

Ooooo, you’re studying in Madrid? That’s so cool!! What are you studying, if you don’t mind me asking? I had a close friend study abroad in Spain for a semester and absolutely loved it there!! I totally feel you about wanting to move to London!! It sounds like a pretty nice place to live based on the things I hear about it. I remember when I was studying abroad, my friends and I planned our spring break trip to the UK for five days, but due to COVID, we got pulled from our program before we were even able to step foot on the plane there. So I still have that desire to visit the UK for that reason alone lol.

Same here!! I love sweet things, to an extent!! I don’t eat as much surgery things as I did when I was younger!! But when I do, cheesecake is the key to my heart!! Lol.

Thank you!! As of right now, all the owls are packed away from when I decorated my apartment for Christmas. After we introduce ourselves properly, I can definitely send you some photos of my prized ones!! They range from very tiny figures to relatively large ones!! I’m pretty proud of it!!

Lego does count as a collection item lol!! They’re so cool!! I really like the aspect of having to build them (that’s pretty obviously lol, but it truly is therapeutic in a sense!!). Hopefully one day, you can start that collection!! Is there one particular Lego set you would love to have?

Speed Round Answers: Movie/TV Shows? I wasn’t sure if you were asking if I preferred movies or tv shows lol?! I’d probably say tv shows because you can learn more about the characters and their stories through the lens of a series rather than their one dimensional aspects cut short for a movie!! Some of the most recent tv shows I’ve watched are Heartstopper, Young Royals, Wednesday (Netflix cancelled this show after the first season, and I will never forgive them for it!! It’s called The Society and I definitely recommend it if you haven’t watched it already!!) I’ve been rewatching a kids show named Chowder on Hulu for the nostalgia factor lol. Movies/books? Hmmmm… I like books, but I can appreciate a good movie!! I’d say the best book I read this year has been One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. I highly recommend it!! Who doesn’t love sci-fi lesbian strangers to lovers!!!? Fav. season? The transitional period between summer and fall!! To me, that’s just the perfect weather!! Not too hot or humid, yet not too cold!! Beaches/Mountains? I’d probably live by the beach because I went to college up in the mountains and when it gets cold, it gets cold!!! I’ll risk living around the sand than anything else. City/countryside? I’ve always lived relatively close to the city, but I think it would be nice to get away from it all. Have my own home in a nice large area. But not too big that someone could be living in my home and I wouldn’t know it lol.

Here are more speed round questions, my dear!! Do you have a favorite piece(s) of comfort clothing? (Sweater? T-shirt? Shoes?) What are three things you know you can’t live without? Do you play/enjoy any games (whether that be video games, board games, card games, etc). 🎄✨

Helloo! How is your weekend going? Mine's been fab yay!

I'm doing a dual master - an MBA with a master in business analytics. Why I chose insanity is still unclear, but oh well. It's been hectic but good so no complaints.

I'm so sad that you missed London coz of covid, but here's hoping you can make it there soon. ✨

As far as the Lego goes, i have a long-ass list of very random ones i want. So in no particular order- the entire city collection, the Harry Potter castle, the life-size r2d2 from star wars and the formula 1 Ferrari cars. Is it obvious yet that i love really random stuff? 😂

I love your speed round answers, and I'm putting one last stop on my Christmas read list. Fav clothing: nothing specific, just track pants and a tee / shorts if it's summer. Jeans if i need to be presentable. Three things i can't live without: ooh that's hard. My phone, an internet connection and my earphones. I love board games! Monopoly is a household favourite, as is Uno when we're traveling. Do you have a favourite board game?

More questions: I'm assuming you speak Spanish, but any other languages you speak or want to learn? Do you have celeb crushes? Comfort movie that you'd watch at any point? Do you have a favourite Christmas food?

[brandysadventureblog]

Gifford Pinchot National Forest Loop (WA State)

8/2/20-8/4/20

Day 1: Cascade Locks to Trout Late (43.64 miles / 2,542 ft elev. gain)

Day 2: Trout Lake to Lower Lewis River Falls (40.31 miles / 2,491 ft elev. gain)

Day 3: Lower Lewis River Falls to Cascade Locks (49.43 miles / 2,805 ft elev. gain)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another reason I wanted to revisit this blog is because I wanted to write about the weekend bike trip I was able to do this past summer. It was really important to me and I’d been wanting to share my experience for a while but I didn’t because ~reasons~ (the same ~reasons~ I vaguely alluded to in the previous post). It also felt like I wouldn’t be able to accurately convey what this trip meant to me in words, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try.

After my first two bike trips, I set the goal of doing at least one major bike trip per year. Turns out being an adult with responsibilities isn’t the most amenable to that plan. Other adventures were had, but no bike trips lasting more than one night. This past summer, I was determined to change that.

I had first planned this route back in the summer of 2017.  Unfortunately, the weekend I planned to do it was the hottest weekend of that summer. Also, all of Oregon was on fire. I finished the first day feeling like I had just biked 40+ miles in high 90 degree temps while breathing in forest fire smoke... because that’s exactly what I had just done. I decided it probably wasn’t safe to continue on and I had a friend come pick me up the next day.

I attempted the route again in May 2019. This time I couldn’t even finish the first day. For various reasons, I was dealing with intense body fatigue and I could hardly even pedal on flat ground. Feeling defeated, I had to have my friend come and rescue me again, just six miles short of the campground.

This time around, I was determined to not fail a third time. I decided to actually train for it and began biking almost every day starting at the beginning of the summer. Even getting back into the training rides, I felt myself coming alive again. I didn’t realize how much I missed biking and it was so refreshing to get it back.

When the trip weekend came around, I was excited but nervous. I was in better biking shape than I had been in years, but this route had wrecked me twice before and there were some pretty big mental hurdles to overcome. I was shaking as I crossed over Bridge of the Gods to start, but as I rode further and further down WA SR-14, I started to hit my stride. Turns out bike touring is much like... riding a bike (sorry, I had to). The entire ride went pretty smoothly and, before I knew it, Day One was in the books.

Day Two was a completely different story. After an hour of biking straight uphill, my bike chain broke. I had a spare emergency link but I couldn’t get it to click. The only thing I could really do is coast back downhill to the general store to get to wifi and figure out what to do from there. Right before getting into town, I lost my coasting momentum and had to walk. A few minutes into the walk, I got approached by a couple who said they were also cycle tourists. They asked me what was wrong and how they could help. I told them I needed a new chain, but the closest bike shop was almost an hour’s drive away. To my surprise they were like, “Cool. Let’s go there.” It was a total faith in humanity restoring moment. They were the nicest couple and we got to chat about our past trips on the drive. After the new chain was installed, they dropped me off at the exact spot my chain had broken that morning and I was back on my way.

Or so I thought. All of a sudden, my bike wouldn’t shift gears. I realized there was something wrong with my bike derailleur. Luckily I was able to do some quick roadside bike maintenance and continue on with the climb. The first half of the ride was entirely uphill and the last half was entirely downhill. After the chain mishap, the derailleur issue, and a couple hours of straight climbing, I was looking forward to an easy end to the day. Turns out Day Two wasn’t done with me yet.

Shortly after I began my hard-earned descent, I started to come across some road closed signs. I figured there were maybe some downed trees that cars couldn’t pass by but that I could get around with my bike. I was right—there were a couple downed trees blocking the road. Turns out there was also a section of the road that had been completely washed out except for a tiny sliver just wide enough to very carefully walk my bike over if I took everything off. It took me a few trips to bring my bike across along with all of my gear, but I made it past just fine.

I loaded the bike back up and resumed speeding down the mountain. I zoomed around a hairpin turn where I discovered ANOTHER section where the road had completely washed away. This one was even worse than the other. I actually had to bring the bike down into the crater and push it up a steep incline to get to the other side. The loose gravel made it hard to get my footing and I definitely got close to falling into the abyss several times. For both of these situations, I want you to imagine it being precarious enough to be exciting but not so dangerous as to make you worry that I did something stupid (although it was admittedly probably closer to the latter).

Just as my bike and I emerged on the other side of the crater, a car came rolling around the corner. They had apparently also not been informed that the road had been yeeted down the mountain. I asked if the rest of the route had any more surprises for me and they informed me that, other than some potholes, the road was more or less intact. That was a huge relief as I had been contemplating heading back up the hill to the previous night’s campground because I was worried that I’d come across something even more impassable than what I’d already experienced. The car turned around and I loaded my bike back up. Once I was sure they were well out of earshot, I screamed at the top of my lungs like Jack and Fabrizio on the bow of the Titanic. (For the record, I did not scream that I was the king of the world, but I damn sure felt like it.) 

The rest of the route was pretty chill, but I was running several hours behind schedule. When I rolled into the campground, there weren’t any sites available. I decided to make several loops, looking as tired and hungry as I could, hoping someone would take pity on me and offer to let me set up my tent on their site. I must have looked pretty pitiful because it only took me two loops before a woman named Verna asked if I wanted to stay on her site with her and her daughter. Apparently she used to be an avid cyclist and was excited to see me roll up on my bike.

Day Three was comparatively uneventful other than I biked up a fucking mountain. I can’t remember if it was the most elevation I’ve covered in one day, but it was certainly done in the most condensed number of miles. My strategy was to bike for half a mile (slightly more if I could), wait for my quads to stop screaming, bike for another half mile, and repeat that until I got to the pretty viewpoint that let me know I had reached the top. While I was enjoying the view, a woman came up to me and socially distantly tossed me a pack of energy chews to help get me through the rest of the ride. She informed me that she was a cyclist (wtf does everyone bike here?) and that she carries around energy chews to give to anyone she comes across doing a long bike ride. She invited me to join her and her (making some big assumptions here) gaggle of older lesbian friends (I think she was also making some big, but accurate assumptions about me) on their hike. Any other day, I would’ve loved to join their gay little hiking crew, but my legs wouldn’t have appreciated it that day and I had to decline.

The rest of the ride was all downhill and there was nary another human in sight for a good chunk of it. I used that as an opportunity to sing Brandi Carlile songs loudly and off-key and shout various obscenities at the top of my lungs. When you have an opportunity to do that, I highly recommend not passing it up as it’s very cathartic. I took some obligatory, self-timer photos in front of the Bridge of the Gods sign (oh hey, Cheryl Strayed) before rolling back to my car in Cascade Locks, feeling prouder of, and more like, myself than I had in years. 

I’m not really a God person, but it did feel like something larger than myself was at work here. (Seriously, what are the chances that I would find the exact two people I needed to to take me to get a new chain and that a random car would pull up to a washed out section of a closed road to let me know that the rest of the route was clear??) Everything aligned on this trip just as it needed to. I wasn’t meant to complete that route the first two attempts. I needed to complete it at that very moment in my life. I didn’t quite know at that time that I’d be making some really important life decisions just a few weeks after the end of that trip, but that trip helped give me some of the strength that I needed to move forward with those decisions. There’s really nothing like a bike trip to help you realize your self-worth, to remind you that you can do hard things, and to relearn to rely on yourself while staying open to the help and support others are offering you.

[brianjameson]

I’m finally back from Iceland and all I can say is just WOW. This trip was something truly unforgettable and I CANNOT WAIT to share.

I’ll be breaking up the days into different blog posts because there’s just too much to talk about and I really want to go into depth about the whole trip. There were sooooo many signs that I can’t wait to explain and share. I’ll be sharing my experience, tips and places to visit in the city if you go to Iceland.

So lets start with day 1.

Day 1

I packed the night before for a whole 4 hours…

I went to the store to buy shoes I could fuck up on my trip because I had no snow shoes whatsoever and needed to buy a bigger luggage. I wanted to make sure I had just enough clothes for the trip but not too much because I knew I’d want to shop there so I packed the essentials and maybe like 3 pair of pants because I knew I wasn’t going to be wearing a bunch of different outfits. I didn’t sleep much because I was really excited and because I just couldn’t sleep. I fell asleep around 3:30pm and My plane was leaving at 10am so I had to be up at 7am. I got to the airport tired af but on time and just chilled.

I flew from Vegas to Boston and then Boston to Iceland. The flight was about 7 hours to Boston. Once there I was supposed to have a 2 hour layover but we left Vegas late because of weather conditions. I went to go eat at a bar and the bartender was not very friendly lol. I ordered some clam chowder because it was late and not even before it came out I got a text from my airline telling me my plane was leaving early and that I needed to be at the gate by 7pm mind you IT WAS 6:45 WHEN I ORDERED MY FOOD! I’m sitting there struggling to get this food in my mouth and this foreign man comes and sits next to me and pulls out a whole bunch of change to buy who knows what with. The bartender looked at me with this face like (are you fucking kidding me) I just smiled and kept eating lol. The guy was like ok I figured out a dollar that’s the easy part so what else and the bartender straight up tells the guy “sir I’m not a bank I don’t know what you’re trying to do paying with all that change” and then tells the guy the kitchen is closed lol. I didn’t have enough time to see the show down so I paid and ran my happy ass to my gate and got there in time to board. I boarded the plane and the space I had was so fucking small I could barely stretch my legs and I had to fly like that for 4 hours.. I started talking to the guy next to me and he was going to Copenhagen and then to Iceland so he had been traveling for a long time. He asked me what my name was and I told him Brian and he replies with my name is Ryan. I was blown away… What the fuck are the chances of sitting next to someone with practically the same name? lol

I got into Iceland at about 7am and went to go get my luggage. I checked my phone for signal which was very important to me because hello I’m in a foreign country where I don’t speak their language and need to make sure I can make phone calls. I had called T-mobile and they said I had unlimited texting but that they would charge me for phone calls.

I walked to the duty free store to buy alcohol because alcohol in Iceland is very expensive so I wanted to stock up and buy some cool alcohol to take home with me too.

I’m walking around and noticing my phones signal says verafone and shows I have signal but nothing is loading and no texts are going through so I kind of panic and call T-mobile just to make sure. Tell me why these people proceed to tell me there are NO TOWERS IN ICELAND FOR RECEPTION. So here I am now panicking about the fact they just told me I wouldn’t have any reception on my phone… I handed this poor lady her fucking ASS because I was so pissed I was lied to. I’m sure everyone in the airport heard me going off… I mean, this is my first time traveling alone and when I did my research that was something that was not mentioned at all and that was a pretty big screw up on my service providers end. Luckily I remember my best friend Meagan was asking me if I had a portable wifi hotspot to connect to and I was confused as to why she would ask that but now I see why! So I went to the cafe and they had a portable hotspot I could use on my trip. This wifi was the SHIT! It worked everywhere! I paid $60 for my entire stay in Iceland with it and highly recommend it if you’re going to Iceland otherwise you ain’t getting service nowhere.

I finally grabbed my car rental and headed to my hotel where I was staying for the day to be close to Blue Lagoon and to just get some quick rest before going to Blue Lagoon. I got in and had breakfast. I had a great view of the morning sun even though it didn’t come up until about 9:30-10am.

I took a quick nap and headed to Blue Lagoon around 3pm. When I was parking it did not look like a lot of people were there until you get inside and there’s 3 lines for people to get in! I was shook. The guy at the desk handed me all my stuff and vaguely told me where to go I felt SOOO LOSTTTT. They make you shower before you go into the Lagoon so I showered and went out where the Lagoon was like something out of a dream. It was surrounded by mountains and the steam made the water look heavenly. I grabbed a beer and just made my way around the water.

There weren’t that many people in the water honestly. I know a lot of people will say that the Lagoon is not how it looks in photos because there’s so many people in there but I think that’s during the summer. I did my research on the best times to go there and Spring and Summer are the nightmare times of the year because Iceland is so small that it just gets PACKED with tourists during this time. So gladly there were not that many people in the water. I met a group of people from Italy and took some photos with them but for the most part I just wanted to be alone and just chill. I sat in the water for a solid 4 hours just taking in everything and floating. It wasn’t scalding hot which I REALLY liked because I think that’s how you get ultra fucked up and dehydrated. The water was perfect temperature and controlled very well. I highly recommend Blue Lagoon, it’s an absolute must.

There’s a restaurant inside the Blue Lagoon called the Lava restaurant where I had dinner. I had the fish of the day with Skyr for dessert and some champagne.

I sat there and looked around and noticed I was the only person in the restaurant alone. There was a lesbian couple sitting at the table next to me and I kind of got sad thinking of everything. Obviously I went to Iceland because of sentimental reasons and so I just started to think of all the dinners me and Nick went to. I remember the times we would do group dinners with friends and just have so much and there I was alone wishing he could of been there with me and how quickly things went from 100-0. Here I was sitting alone at dinner and just trying to enjoy it and pushing myself to feel more independent again. I finished eating and left to go find a grocery store to find snacks because being from Vegas I like to eat late and snack late too. IT TOOK ME AN HOUR TO FIND A 24 HOUR STORE. It was so ridiculous the amount of detours I made to try and search for a store but I can’t complain too much because the sky was so clear that you could see the stars and the mountains are not like the mountains in Vegas. I got back to my hotel around midnight and went to sleep at about 1am. Sadly my body only registered the sleep as a nap so I was up at 4am… You can only imagine the hell the next day was going to be..

Letters from the Arctic pt.1 I'm finally back from Iceland and all I can say is just WOW. This trip was something truly unforgettable and I CANNOT WAIT to share.

[sealedbeastnue]

cami’s super shittery end of season anime reviews for winter 2017!! spoiler: it was an average season but there were standouts and I probably rated some shows too highly (lol this is every season)

maid dragon: starting off with the freshest., this one earned a very solid 9. didn’t feel the last episode as much as others did but I respect it. this has a lot of really, fantastically strong art and a lot of anime original content. very good

onihei: petered out towards the end. if you watch this show, you can skip everything after episode 7 which coincidentally was its score. it was cool but it could gow as low as a 6 just based on how damn repetitive it got. recommended if you like uh... historical action? kind of?

urara: loved it, very good show. lots of charm and some interesting storytelling, about half a dozen good hooks for season 2 (jc staff when pls). actual divination is Good. gay girls are Even Better, and things got REAL weird when we hit the first advancement exam. 9/10 watch for gays.

demi-chan: (squirms uncomfortably) I forgot how much of this show was going to be wrapped up in the warped relationship between teacher and students. REALLY didn’t rub me the right way. it came off as like “lol oh well I guess theyre gonna keep doing it!) a very low 7/10 due to raw quality. watch for fluff, dullahan worst character

gabdrop: 5/10. fantastic show to trim your pubes to.

eldlive: 6/10. eh. if they wanted to sell this show, we absolutely needed heavy focus on Dr. Strangelove and they did not deliver on it (dont tease my cock with the good stuff and expect me to like it!! this goes double for the body horror shit that happened in like episode 7) ending was pretty cool, all told

ACCA: one of the oddest things that’s been out lately. really enjoyed it, I gave it a 9 but I don’t know if that’s right? political intrigue and down-tempo storytelling are always welcome in the Fast Paced World Of Tomorrow

kemono friends: this is the big one folks. this is a 9/10 somehow. it’s sincere, silly, lighthearted but respectful to the viewer. as the animators learned how to ... uh... animate, at all, it got pretty fuckin neato. they’re releasing singleton episodes and there’s a manga which is also of good quality. get into this show if you want to feel a lightness beneath your wings, and a goodness in your heart.

other shit I watched lately:

utena rewatch: still holds up pretty well. gave it a 9. grungy looking traditional art backgrounds are fucking legit. overall plot was weirder and more off-color than remembered, and there’s still a lot of depth. every nanami episode is a train wreck

ranpo kitan rewatch: 9/10 oooh it hurts so good. please watch this and try to figure out the solution to the big mystery before episode 9ish, thats your challenge. this show holds up and it’s still really good at giving you just barely enough information to solve everything - you just have to be a very active listener and viewer

steins;gate: 10/10 I AM MADDU SCIENTISTO SO-COOL I shouldnt have to explain this score HACKING TO THE GATE DAKARA IMA ICHIBYOU GOTO NI SEKAISEN NO KOETE KIMI SONO EGAO MAMORITAI NO SA

uchouten kazoku: I had never heard of this show at all before tay told me to watch it and I had zero interest at first but dude, it’s 10/10 material. this show does pure slice of life better than most anything else, has amazing concepting/art/music and a gripping plot. watch for idiot tanukis

gatchaman crowds: 9/10 season 1 was fucking great. do NOT WATCH THE CRUNCHYROLL SUBS. they make hajime into a walking abortion and I loathed her the first time I tried to watch this. in fact she’s got a surprising amount of insight. both mid-season eps were cool and season 2 was a fantastically solid 10 that showed great restraint in building up its point. and it was painfully true. dont elect a meme. we should have listened....

everything about girls und panzer: everything is just perfect. apparently I only go back and watch good shows now. god damn this one was solid, can we make senshadou a real sport and have world peace now? I want to drive a tank and get fucked up

canaan: just kidding there are some Not Great shows I watched. shockingly dissapointing at 7/10. you know how a lot of shows don’t do anything with their premise? canaan tries to do way too much. that being said it accomplishes some astounding moments (white noise fight at the flower garden) and has some great score work. also canaan is really hot so that’s neat. type:moon definitely has better offerings than this

both seasons of kagewani: 6/10 at least they did something cool with the design work and aesthetics? if you need a quick filler show to cleanse the palette, this one’s neat. very visually unique but ultimately not that much to back it up.

monster: 9/10 though I can respect that it was not the most tightly plotted show for its length. it felt a bit at times like someone would Just Remember Something Important At The Right Time and that was the impetus for the plot? it’s still a really important show to watch if you’re an anime historian, or if you want to see dr house following a serial killer. stayed really down to earth for how fucked up the subject matter got

candy boy: do you like incest lesbians? I do. 9/10

gunslinger girl: kind of boring and weirdly off-color in atitude, I ended up giving it a 7. no interest in watching season 2. I don’t really know what the message was here.

also doing a symphogear rewatch and christ this show is so hype... season 1 looks a lot better than I recalled and it still sounds lovely. I also have been reading kaiji and this author absolutely needs to write a human psychology dissertation, it would be culturally important

[ambagelbraindump]

Book Review #2: The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

Synopsis:

17-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso has had 27 crushes over the course of her life, and not a single one of those has been requited or even acted upon. She’s mostly okay with this, until her twin sister gets a girlfriend- and suddenly she feels like she’s miles behind where they were once equals. Molly has to navigate what is already a fraught world, full of churning emotions and hurt feelings and ambiguous romances, in the hope of finding someone- anyone- who likes her just the way she is.

General thoughts

Becky Albertalli was not messing around when she wrote The Upside. Love Simon was good, but it doesn’t hold a candle to what she’s done with this one. Things I loved: excellent queer rep, healthy discussion of difficult topics, relatability, also GayTM.

I think one reason The Upside really resonated with me is that it’s reflective of a lot of things going on in my own life at the moment, especially in regards to conversations about the importance of representation in media. And oh boy did the Upside deliver. Not only did we have a loving, supportive, (and Jewish!!) lead family with two moms, we had a pan character, several bi characters, at least two gay, and a trans character (off-screen, but still cool). There was also a mention of asexuality which was really validating for me personally. I know a lot of people would put this down as ‘pandering’, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like this is actually pretty reflective of what I’ve observed in my own circles. And maybe it depends on where you live (a university town for me), but a large number of my friends identify as bi or pan (with a sprinkling of other identities). Having such a diverse array of LGBT characters is such a fantastic change from just the one token queer who may or may not even make it to the end of the book or show.

Another reflective aspect was the sense of “lostness” conveyed by Molly throughout most of the book. I’ve had a lot of conversations with friends lately (especially those who have either graduated or never went the college route) about how they feel left behind in life, or feel like they’re missing something that everyone else just seems to get. A big part of the story was Molly’s fears about drifting away from her twin sister as they grow older; while I might not be 17, I can definitely relate with the fear of losing friends and relationships as we all go our separate ways post-college.

The Upside also came at an interesting time in my life as I am currently experiencing my first squish (aro version of a crush). To me, the whole thing is very low-key and I honestly would be 100% okay just being friends, which is a very interesting contrast to Molly’s 27 crushes and neverending quest for a relationship. Whether I’ll actually do something about my feelings is up in the air at this point, but reading this book made me wonder if I should take that first step and put myself out there.

Another thing I really liked about The Upside were the discussions of healthy sexuality. Sex was never framed as something shameful or evil, but just another part of life. Characters were never pushed to participate, but if they did, they were encouraged to be safe about it (both emotionally and physically.)

There were also a few things I was a little iffy about. This could just be part of me being sex and romance repulsed, but I felt bad for Molly that she felt like finding a relationship was something she HAD to do. And granted that’s the entire plot of the story so it would be a little weird if she just suddenly decided she didn’t need someone after all, but I felt like there was a really heavy emphasis on the idea of having a boyfriend. Same goes for the idea of sex- it annoyed me a little that Molly felt like it was something inevitable, something she had to do or she would never be valid. Again, this just might be me getting grossed out by sex and romance, but the thought definitely crossed my mind a couple times.

There’s so much more about this book I could talk about (like the Jewish lesbian wedding at the end, or the fact that Albertalli set this book in the same year that gay marriage became legal), but I have other projects and other books to read, so I’m going to stop before I write a whole book on this.

Rating

Originally I had this book at a 7 (it took me forever to get to for some reason), but as I got more invested, it moved up to an 8, and finally up to an 8.5 (listen I might be romance repulsed af but the wedding scene at the end made me cry so it gets an extra .5). The whole story was really relatable and real even to someone who isn’t a teenager anymore, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants an LGBT-friendly YA coming of age novel. Or someone who just wants to read something super gay. That’s also valid.