#but all of that felt like 20mins not nearly an hour.

[29121996]

oh also: am p sure i jumped a timeline or something

[archaeologistic]

When I was in high school, “wait until you’re working” didn’t mean what adults thought it did—I was *excited* to be working. Why?

Because it was *only* 40 hours a week. Only. AND I��d be getting paid. AND when I left work, I’d be able to actually *stop* working and do things that I wanted/needed to do outside work.

In contrast, my high school schedule looked like this:

- Wake up at 6am. Shower and throw on clothes, leave the house by 6:30am. Get to school at 7am so my mom could be to work by 8am

- 7-8am work on homework. 8am classes start. In class until 3:45pm (7am to ~4pm = 9 straight hours of work with a working lunch, because I always worked through my 20min lunch break).

- 4-5pm extra curriculars at school, get home 5:30-6pm depending on when my dad felt like picking me up. That hour and a half was my biggest break in the entire day, and I still wasn’t resting and didn’t have choice of activity (no reading, video games, etc).

- 6pm-bed was homework, with a 30min-1hour mandated dinner break with my parents. Bedtime was whenever I finished the homework due the next day. It was never earlier than midnight, and averaged around 2am. There were semi-frequent nights when I got less than an hour of sleep. After taking out the time for dinner, that’s an additional 5 hours of work at minimum, with no free time or rest outside of sleep, followed by at most 6 hours of sleep.

In the five “working” days (Mon-Fri, 24hx5) there are 120 hours. Out of those 120 hours, I spent a minimum of 70 hours working. Minimum. Average was closer to 100 hours, not including meals and travel.

On the weekends I would sleep 12-14 hours a night for two nights in a row just so I could get up on Monday and do it all over again, while yet again spending all day Saturday and Sunday doing homework. This kind of schedule started at age 14 (10th grade).

Why do kids hate school? Because you’d hate having to exist too if you had to work 100 hours in 5 days—and all without being paid for your labor.

My schedule was on the extreme end, yes. But even my friends in “normal” high school classes had 8-9 hours of school a day plus 3-5 hours of homework a night. That’s still 11 hours of unpaid work per day, 55 hours in five days, at a minimum. And most of them had part time jobs on top of it.

So why? Why work so much? Why not just half-ass it? Because the whole time you do it your parents, teachers, every adult in your life whose opinion you care about—all of them are telling you that you have to. That it’s your responsibility to do your best, to work hard, and to know that, above all, your future depends on how well you perform under these circumstances.

If those same adults were all told they had to work 11 hours a day, 5 or more days a week, with maximum of one 30 minute break for the first 8 hours and additional required work to perform at home with no limit on hours—I’m pretty sure they’d strike. Because that kind of schedule is nearly unlivable. No one should go through that. And yet we’ve normalized it for literal children, who don’t even have the right to vote yet. Who can’t do formal, paid labor until 16.

So…why do kids hate school? Why do make them hate it?

adults are always talking about how “kids will do anything to get out of school” and okay, first of all that’s not true, but I think we really need to ask why that idea holds so much sway.

children’s brains are hard-wired to take in new information and acquire new skills. consider, for a moment, just how thoroughly our society had to fuck up the concept of education for it to be a normal thing to assume kids are universally desperate to avoid learning.

[massivelycreepypineapple]

We’re All We Got

Request: I would like a Dean x Reader where the reader is their little sister, and Dean has been with her since she was a little girl, and so he is always very protective, and one day she almost dies and he despairs a lot, but everything is fine.

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Sister!Reader

A/N: Hope you enjoy this! :)

Word Count: 1820

❅ ❅ ❅

-flashback to 13yr old Dean-

“Shh, Y/N. It’s going to be ok. You’re fine, kiddo.” Dean whispered as he laid beside her on the motel bed, carding his fingers through her hair.

Y/N, was was running a high fever and it worried Dean and Sam to no end.

“De, my head hurts.” She whimpered, curling up into him.

“I know, kid. I’ll go to the store and get you some medicines ok?”

“No!” Cried Y/N clinging to him tighter. “Don’t go, please”

“Y/N we don’t have anything to make it better. I need to go get some stuff for you. Or it could get worse.” Said Dean trying to pry her hands off him, an action that immediately made her cry.

“D-don’t go!”

“No no please calm down! I’m right her ok? I’ll stay. I won’t go.” He soother her, panicking at her reaction. He had always had a special bond with the 7yr old, and he was extremely protective of her. Sam too, but Y/N was the youngest and was more prone to getting hurt than his brother.

Sam climbed in on the other side of the bed next to Y/N, “Y/N I’ll be right here with you. Dean won’t be long.” He tried convincing her.

“No! I only want De!”

“I’m right here, kid. Ain’t going anywhere.” Said Dean cuddling her more, making sure she was comfortable. He stayed with her till she feel asleep before he could go buy the stuff.

-Flashback end-

Dean was clutching onto Y/N’s hand in the hospital. She was severely hurt by a werewolf and had been quite close to death.

“I’m right here, kid.” He whispered to her unconscious form.

It pained him to see his baby sister like that. Especially when it was his fault. Y/N was no hunter. Her expertise lied in research. However, she did know how to fight almost as well as her brother but chose not to. This one particular hunt, he and Sam were outnumbered and needed an extra hand. So they had no choice but to take Y/N with them. Everything was going according to plan and the three of them fought like a well oiled machine. Unfortunately, right at the end when only one werewolf was remaining, the bastard got Y/N and hurt her badly before getting shot by Sam.

The car ride to the hospital was one of the worst moments of his life. He even made Sam drive them, opting to sit at the back making sure their little sister didn’t bleed to death. Once everything was taken care of, he had refused to leave her side and insisted on Sam getting the rest he needed.

And hour later Sam had arrived with two cups of coffee, startling Dean when he placed an hand on his shoulder.

“Dean, she’s alive. She’s going to wake up. The doctor said so himself.” Sam was very worried about both his siblings. One nearly died and the other is slowly running himself to an early grave.

“I’m fine, Sammy.” Dean mumbled.

“At least have some coffee.” Sam offered him the cup.

Dean took it absentmindedly and placed the thing on the table next to him, making Sam sigh. He barely noticed Sam take a seat beside him rubbing Y/N’s leg.

-flashback to 18 yr old Dean-

Y/N had been hanging out with a couple of her school friends when suddenly she barged into the motel room angry as hell and making a beeline to the bathroom. She slammed the door and locked it, startling her brothers. Dean shared a worried look with Sam and walked to the bathroom and knocked on the door.

“Y/N, what’s wrong?” He asked.

“Nothing is wrong! Go away!” She yelled, her voiced muffled by the door.

“I know something’s wrong, N/N! Don’t lie to me.”

“I said, GO. AWAY!”

“Did someone hurt you? You know I’ll beat the shit out of them!”

“Y/N, we just want to help.” Said Sam joining Dean.

“I just need 5 minutes ok?” Her voice broke at the end.

“You got 5 minutes, and then I’m coming in.” Said Dean, walking to the bed and sitting on the corner. He was still on alert, waiting for her to come out.

It had become little over 5 mins and just when Dean was about to pick the lock, the door opened a crack and Y/N’s tear stricken face came into view.

“De…” Her small voice came through.

“Y/N, what’s going on. Why are you crying?”

“I… I’m bleeding.” She whispered.

Both Dean and Sam were freaking out.

“What?!” They chorused.

“Y/N! Where? What was it? Why didn’t you say anything sooner?!” Dean was getting angry and trying to open the door more to get a look at her.

“Guys! Not like that! Nothing hurt me!” Her face was red with embarrassment.

They stopped for a second, “What do you mean, N/N?” Asked Sam.

That’s when it hit Dean. She got her first period. He looked at her with wide eyes.

“Oh…”

“Yeah.”

“What’s happening, guys?” A confused Sam asked.

“Sammy, just stay here ok? Keep an eye on her. Both of you just stay here. I’ll be back in 20mins.” With that he rushed out to get her what was needed.

An hour later Y/N was curled up on the bed under the blankets with embarrassment and a hot pack. While Dean was sitting beside her trying to tell her there was nothing to be embarrassed about.

“It’s a normal thing, N/N. It’s happens to every girl.”

“Not in public.” She mumbled.

“Not true, when I was your age, a classmate of mine started to.. you know.. in class. She was very embarrassed too and had her mom come get her. But eventually she forgot about it and so did everyone else.”

He was doing his best to assure her that she was fine, but what came out of her mouth next broke his heart.

“She had a mom to tell her about it. I don’t.”

“N/N…”

She was sniffling under the blankets, trying not to cry. He didn’t know what to say to comfort her.

“If mom were here, she’d be so proud of the way you’re handling it, kid. You’re a champ. I know I ain’t mom, but I’m here for you ok? I’ll always be here for you and Sammy.” He looked at Sam who was trying his best to help as much as he could.

“Thank you, De.” Y/N whispered. “You’re not mom, but you’re kinda cool.”

He ruffled her hair, making her laugh. “I’m more than cool, shortie!”

-flashback end-

Dean chuckled at that memory, kissing the back of her hand. He remembered how he had to explain to the shopkeeper what he was looking for. And he had to help Y/N figure out how to use it too because no one had taught her. They were both an embarrassed mess, but it all worked out in the end. It was hard for the three of them to not have any parental guidance. With a dead mother and an absent father, it fell on Dean’s shoulders to make sure Sam and Y/N were taken care of.

“I swear to god when you wake up I’m gonna kick you ass, kid.” He said softly. “You’re not making it easy on me. It’s my job to keep you safe and I failed. You’ve always been a trouble maker, you know? Sammy was easy compared to you and that’s saying a lot.” He chuckled.

“Hey! You’re one to talk.” Quipped Sam, smiling a little.

“Shush, Sam. It’s rude to interrupt.” He smirked at him. “Anyway, I’m just warning you. You enjoy the peace now. Caz when you open those eyes, I’m going to give you shit, Y/N.”

“Me too. Don’t think I’ll go easy on you, squirt.” Said Sam.

A few seconds later, Dean felt his hand get squeezed. A small groan came from Y/N.

“Y/N!” They called at the same time and sprung into action in a frenzy and called the nurse.

The doctor looked her up and gave her the clear to leave after 48 hours. He also gave them instructions on her diet and gave strict orders on bed rest until the wound healed a little more. When he left a silence set in the room until Y/N broke it.

“So you two think you could give me shit and get away with it?” She smirked tiredly at them.

“You don’t have a say in that, N/N. You nearly died! What were you thinking?!” Said Sam slightly angry.

“I’m sorry, Sammy. But I did what had to be done. It was unavoidable.” She smiled apologetically

“It was not unavoidable, Y/N! We could’ve handled it without you getting in its way!”

“Sam… it would’ve mauled you if I hadn’t. I couldn’t let my favourite Sasquatch get hurt now, can I?”

“Y/N I could’ve-“

“Sam, stop. I’m fine! I’m alive and kicking. So please let it go?” She gave him her puppy dog eyes which she learnt from him.

“Should not have taught you that.” He mumbled grumpily, making her giggle and wince.

Dean through it all was quiet. He was still trying to process everything.

“De…” Called Y/N.

He looked at her with tears in his eyes. He didn’t let them fall however.

“No. Don’t you dare say you’re fine caz you stopped breathing, Y/N!” He snapped at her.

She was taken aback.

“I never should’ve asked you to help us! This could’ve been avoided if I wasn’t such a dumbass.” He rubbed his face. “But at the same time, you saved Sammy. I can’t… I don’t know how to process this.”

“Dean. What was supposed to happen, happened. We’re Winchesters, we’re meant to get hurt, die and rise up again. It’s the way it has been.” Y/N said calmly.

“It doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“No it doesn’t” She chuckled lightly. “But it does mean that you of all people need to take a break once in a while and let the young people do the protecting.”

Dean chuckled at that, “You calling me old, kid?”

“Damn right.” She smirked at him making Sam snort.

“She’s right, Dean. So go take a shower and eat something before your old man body kills you dead.” Sam grinned at him.

“You’re not so young yourself, Sammy” He gave him a bitch face.

“Still younger.” He grinned.

Dean rolled his eyes at Sam and looked at Y/N with a soft smile. He kissed her forehead and whispered, “Don’t run off. I’ll be back in no time.”

“I’ll try not to.” She smiled at him, squeezing his hand before he reluctantly left to fix himself.

❅ ❅ ❅

TAGS BELOW

@hobby27 @akshi8278 @svmwinchesterr

[usaac-official]

This weekend, Southern Front Events put on the much-anticipated Red Divide IV, one of the only remaining Cold War tactical events since the loss of Operation East Wind, at the Panthera Training Center in West Virginia.  

After successfully driving the Warsaw Pact forces out of the cities and into the countryside, NATO forces dug in and began patrolling to root out the remaining Communist forces.  Active-duty personnel began rotating home for leave, being replaced by Reservists primarily composed of the 244th Engineering Battalion, Colorado National Guard.  Lulled into complacency by the seemingly vanquished WarPac, NATO began to relax their guard, allowing Communist forces to regroup and plan a counterattack.

Royal Marines and West German Jägers assist in unloading an M35 transport in front of the 244th’s headquarters structure

Engineers and their 82nd Airborne escorts fan out after taking fire on a patrol

Engineers begin minesweeping operations after Soviet infiltrators effectively blocked the NATO supply lines

A Royal Marine prepares an L7A1 machine gun in a defensive position in the town of Cerska

Mixed VDV and East German troops take cover on the outskirts of Cerska to regroup before pressing their attack

A reservist drags his wounded comrade to cover, seconds before he himself is shot

A member of the 607th Combat Control Wing, USAF, provides suppressing fire with a revolver as a paratrooper rushes forwards

Jägers advance, flanking the attacking WarPac forces

A reservist attempts to collect his wounded fellow as NATO forces begin to retreat from Creska in the face of seemingly limitless WarPac soldiers

This was my second Red Divide event, and the fourth one held overall in the series; originally it was supposed to run in early April, before the oppressive heat of the summer, but the worldwide pandemic caused a severe delay that threw things into disarray.  The event organizers certainly tried their hardest to keep the flow of the event as they had originally intended, but attendance suffered with the rescheduling, including several cadre members.  Overall, it was an accurate simulation of the military; hurry-up-and-wait, fruitless patrols, and extensive heat casualties.  Talking with WarPac attendees after the event these issues seemed universal, in many cases the first and only time the opposing forces made contact was the climactic battle on the second day of the event, after nearly 22 hours in the field.  Personally, I never saw a Soviet until the town, and never fired my weapon until they rushed over the hill towards us.  Much of the rest of the time was spent attempting to dig a foxhole in terrible soil, ruck marching garrison supplies from one OP into the town, and sweltering in full kit in a field while manning an observation post while the reservists were tasked as a QRF.

With all the delays, I do believe the event organizers did the best they could.  The final battle, while only maybe 20min long, was the first time I had used a blank-fire weapon in combat, and it was definitely eye-opening.  It almost made up for what felt like a wasted event before that, and overall I think I enjoyed myself.  The biggest issue I saw was the event site, which was far too large for the number of attendees; if Covid had not pushed back the date and caused so many cancellations, I believe it could have been overcome.  Command-and-control was another issue, with the addition of so many smaller unit impressions.  NATO almost doubled their number of impressions this time, as did WarPac, making for fewer cohesive units on the board and increasing communication difficulties.  Hopefully the next event by SFE, Red Horizons in November, will be able to address this, as it pares the impression list back down to Airborne, Jägers, and Canadian Pathfinders on the NATO side, and VDV and East Germans on the WarPac side.

[freebooter4ever]

@heidi-slimane​ @the-real-ramimalekpeen​

I think they were pretty popular in the fifties! in the US at least haha. my grandparents had about twenty or so strings of them, and being my fastidious grandparents they would individually wrap each glass bulb in tissue so taking them out and putting them on the tree meant unwrapping and screwing in all the bulbs individually...at least a hundred! in 2017 on a night my grandparents went out for a few hours, i snuck down into the basement, found the tree, nearly killed myself lugging it up the split level steps (very grateful for the break in between) and then spent like five hours putting everything up. i hadnt gotten to the ornaments yet but i had all the bubble lights done by the time they got home and they were so excited because they hadnt been able to put the bubble lights up in years - it was too difficult for them to do all the work in their old age (and my dad is the spoiled baby of the family so it never occurred to him to do it, though he lived 20mins away lol). anyway, grandpa got to see the tree for about a week before he ended up in the hospital. and during that entire month, everytime i came home i would run in the house fast and turn the tree on so it would be lit and bubbling by the time grandma got up the steps, i think it was the only thing that kept her going there. dad made us take it down at the end of jan, though while she and i were doing it, grandma confessed to me that she would have liked to leave it up till summer. i think she felt the same as me, that taking it down, and admitting she would never have that tree or the train set up again on christmas...it made everything too real, we had to admit the ordeal was over and grandpa wasnt ever coming home (we were both still in denial at that point, talking as if he was just not in the house at the moment, leaving his place setting open at the table).

[syms-things-5]

Clear The Area - Chapter Six

Previous chapter HERE

Warning: Mild language

Summary: Sarah’s parents make a visit, and not everyone is happy with Sarah’s choices.

Note: Sorry this took a while to get out.

CHAPTER SIX

There’s a couple of things you should probably know about Jocelyn and Noah Bernette.

The first is that they are salt-of-the-Earth people. They are friendly to anyone, heavily involved in their community, and they make regular donations to a charity that provides home improvements to families so they can live comfortably with a disability. They once spent a summer volunteering with Habitat For Humanity and have fostered approximately 18 cats and dogs over the past seven and a half years. Jocelyn regularly bakes cakes for their neighbours and Noah is obsessed with his garden and tending to the Norwegian Purple Heather he paid a fortune to have shipped over from Bergen. Politically, they are liberal in practically every sense of the word and up to speed with the latest democratic events. Seriously, you would have to work extra hard to trip them up if you wanted to hold any kind of debate with them.

Sadly, the Bernettes could not have children biologically for one reason or another. Jocelyn in particular struggled with that knowledge. She figured at the age of 34, with most of her friends now mothers and fathers themselves, a child was the obvious piece missing from their puzzle. Professionally, they were both pretty much at the top of their respective trees and they had no mortgage to speak of so naturally the only thing left to accomplish was raising a child. So, thereafter, followed several years of testing, waiting, waiting some more, then more testing, but the doctors couldn’t fathom why it just didn’t want to happen for them. There didn’t appear to be anything medically wrong with either of them. It was nature, they said, as though that was supposed to be some kind of comfort. Eventually, when Jocelyn reached her 40th birthday, she and Noah decided it wasn’t meant to be and opted to try a different route, though it wasn’t much easier being told implicitly that they were now too old to adopt a baby.

Which leads to the other thing you should probably know about them: they don’t like to be reminded that Sarah is adopted. It suits them just fine to block out the first 12 years or so before they met. It’s not to say they completely disregard her past of that they want to forget they couldn’t have children, it was more that on some psychological level Sarah had long since given up trying to understand, they felt more like a real family if they could continue to believe that they had always been this way, that it was fate they would find each other and live happily ever after.

Jocelyn wanted to experience sleepless nights from a crying baby wanting to be fed but instead she learned to deal with sleepless nights waiting to see if their runaway child was going to come home before four in the morning. They would argue about boyfriends they didn’t trust or buying a car they didn’t think she would look after. Jocelyn would later attempt to make the move from mother to best friend as soon as Sarah moved away to college, always planning meet-ups or sending her cut-outs in the post about make-up thinking she would be interested in them and they could perhaps bond over shared hobbies. She could finally empathise with her friends and neighbours about whether their children were surviving their studies. All stereotypical parental concerns and she embraced each and every one of them.

Noah on the other hand, a few years older than Jocelyn, was definitely calmer about the whole thing. He was glad they chose this option for them both because he reasoned he might be too long in the tooth to start changing nappies or teach another human being how to ride a bike given that he didn’t know how to do so himself. Instead, they could take what they had, what they both worked so hard to achieve, and help someone who hadn’t had the best start in life. Isn’t that they best way of helping your community?

Lisa once joked that she learned more about Sarah from one dinner with her folks than she had learned from Sarah herself over the course of knowing her for six months. But she couldn’t understand why Sarah had a particular desire to create a distance between herself and them, and from her seemingly healthy teenage years in a quaint town in Maine, a far cry from Michigan in more ways than one. Shanna didn’t understand either but Sarah wasn’t always forthcoming about her rationale even after knowing for as long as she did.

Sarah learned early on that it was best not to talk about her birth family. She was thankful to have Noah and Jocelyn steering her at a time when it would have been all too easy for her to go off the rails. Of course, she was thankful; who wouldn’t be, living that kind of comfortable life. She didn’t want to see ungrateful. It just never really settled within her. She always felt a little out of place and struggled to adjust to the wealth of positive emotions, love, and a somewhat material wellbeing she hadn’t experienced before. She provided the Bernettes with their missing piece and they wanted to reward her for that but she in turn felt like something was missing from her own identity and that feeling only grew as she got older. Increasingly, she felt like who was as a Bernette was not entirely in line with who she felt she was in the baseline of her DNA. At times she felt like she was merely living to someone else’s expectations so moving to Boston was something akin to therapy.

“And he just gave you this?!”

Jocelyn was stood by the wardrobe in Sarah’s bedroom. She usually did this under the pretence of casually catching up on life and everything else but realistically, Sarah knew she just wanted to snoop around in the hope of discovering hints of a boyfriend she’d been keeping to herself. Shanna was currently sat on Sarah’s bed, one leg tucked underneath and enjoying their relationship from a distance. She was wondering when she’d bring up Prince Greg as she’d dubbed him on account of his floppy hair. She felt like she knew more of Sarah when she was around her own family. It was kind of fascinating to see.

Jocelyn held the dress up in front of her, taking it in, gobsmacked. Sarah had never seen Jocelyn this excited before. To the untrained eye, it was just a simple black mini-dress; unclingy with loose full-length sleeves and a frilly detail around the hem. There was a silver thread woven into the stitching that caught the light if you were stood the right way. Chris was right; it was cute. Shanna suggested wearing it with black tights and those heeled boots that were her go-to date footwear. Her only go-to date footwear, Audrey would remind her whenever she managed to drag her into town for some shopping. Being overtly dressed-up wasn’t something Sarah was easily comfortable with and Chris knew this, so simple was definitely the way to go.

“Not exactly. It’s a loan. I’ll have to give it back afterwards.” Sarah pressed.

She was ready to get to the exhibition centre before it closed but Jocelyn didn’t seem in any particular rush. Her knowing Chris Evans was perhaps the thing Jocelyn was most proud of in Sarah’s life and she always managed to work in a conversation or two whenever she visited. Rather than be irritated by it, Sarah actually found it rather amusing. Chris seemed to have a sixth sense for guessing when Jocelyn was trying her patience, though, and played up to her a little bit so as to give Sarah a break. She once lost her asking him questions about the Academy Awards for nearly an hour. The amount of beer she had to buy him afterwards as a ‘thank you’ nearly bankrupted her.

“Well, you’ll have to make sure your hair and make-up matches. You can’t wear a dress like this with a ponytail.” She was speaking in what she assumed was a helpful tone. It was a good job she couldn’t see the face Sarah was pulling right now.

“Oh, between us all I’m sure we’ll be able to figure it out. I’ll have to do the same thing, too.” Shan was trying her best to act nonchalant in an effort to support her best friend. “I mean, it’s not often any of us get the chance to get dressed these days, really.”

“How lovely. You can borrow my emerald earrings if you like? They’ll bring out your eyes.” Jocelyn was more than a little eager now, no doubt buzzing at the thought of having her personal jewellery plastered all over Instagram. She zipped up the dress bad and placed it carefully inside the wardrobe while Sarah and Shan just smiled at each other knowingly.

As Jocelyn moved to the bathroom to wash her hands, they left the bedroom opting for the relative safety of the living room where Noah had set up camp alongside Chris and ESPN. He was a keen follower of most sports with golf a particular favourite. He was saving up for tickets to the PGA tour next year as a retirement gift to himself. Sarah knew Jocelyn wasn’t going with him but couldn’t be entirely sure he hadn’t invited Chris along in her place.

“What’s she mithering you about this time?” Noah asked, eyes glued to the TV screen. He didn’t get much time to sit and be still watching television at home so visiting his daughter was even more of a treat. If Sarah could survive being the sole focus of Jocelyn’s attention for hours on end, he would have happily left them to it for the afternoon and set up camp with Chris and a glass of Talisker.

“Nothing much, it’s OK. Are you ready to go yet? It’ll take about 20mins to walk there,” Sarah was hinting as heavily as she could now, short of jingling her keys in front of their faces likes they were cats.

“Sure, go grab your mom and we’ll head out. Have you had thoughts about dinner yet? Chris, would you like to join us?”

“Well, I was quite keen on seeing the exhibition myself actually but I’d hate cause you guys any problems with my being there.” He tried to casually shrug it off in a look she’d seen all too often lately.

“I’m sure we can manage,” Noah managed to tear himself away from the TV screen for his beloved Chris. “Is it a ball cap situation or more of a through-the-backdoor type of thing? I’ve never had to sneak around before. Could be fun?”

Sarah appreciated Noah’s casualness and evidently, judging by the grin spread across his face in that moment, so did Chris. He turned to look over the back of the couch at Sarah, silently asking her permission.

“Well, I did get a 4th ticket in case you or Scott fancied coming...” she offered. “I mean, I’m fine if you are?”

Chris gave her a grateful smile. “Give me two minutes and I’ll be right with you.”

*

For this time of day, the gallery was surprisingly busy but mainly full of people Sarah figured were die-hard fanatics of his art and who probably wouldn’t recognise Chris if he appeared in front of them dressed in his full Captain America get-up waving the American flag. As they passed by the smiling security guard. Noah wondered quietly to Sarah what the Venn diagram of McCurry aficionados crossed with Marvel fans would realistically look like. Given his nerdiness for all things mathematical, no doubt he’d have an answer figured out for them by the time they reached the Vietnam display two halls away.

“...and this was the photograph that started the Live Aid charity.” Jocelyn stopped in front of a small photograph, no larger than one you’d have in a frame at home yet unmistakeable on the wall alongside dozens of other images, Sharbat’s eyes piercing your soul. Walking slightly ahead of them, she’d somehow managed to link arms with Chris and was now acting as their defacto tour guide, explaining each piece to him in turn as though he’d never seen them before. Anyone who knew Chris properly would know he greatly enjoyed photography and was well read on the latest pieces. Nevertheless, he was still polite and nodded along as she enthusiastically spoke of the lens McCurry used to achieve the effects of his art.

As they moved through to the third and final hall space, things had gotten noticeable quieter as more people were filtering out. Noah and Jocelyn were deep in conversation with a local art student who had stopped to sketch a couple of pieces, and Chris seemed far more relaxed and happy walking around without his NASA cap on. No on had paid him any attention all afternoon, it must have been a nice change of pace for him.

Sarah lost track of how long she had been staring at a larger canvas piece of a bridge with a giant concrete hand underneath holding the structure up. The place was unknown and the image was photographed from high up, possible from a plane or helicopter. It was oddly serene even if the bridge had become overgrown with reeds and dirt.

“I think it’s meant to represent Mother Nature’s battle against Man,” Chris spoke quietly as he approached her from behind, standing to one side as she continued to stare at the image.

“That’s an interesting theory. Where did  you read that?”

“i happen to have an ongoing subscription with National Geographic.” Chris said, comically smoothing his beard in contemplation. Sarah almost believed him until she registered what he had said. Chris clocked her side-eying him. “Joss told me to tell you when she saw you looking at it.”

She smiled at him before turning back to the wall. “I think I want to visit this place one day. It’s like the complete opposite of Boston.” she mused.

“You’d never leave Boston. It’s in your DNA now. You’re officially one of us.”

“That’s....that sounds vaguely threatening.”

“You have leprechaun pyjamas and you’ve been drunk at Fenway. You pretty much tick all of the boxes.” Chris smirked and turned to walk away.

“How do you know I have those pyjamas?” Sarah followed behind him.

“I didn’t. You just told me.” Sarah punched him in the arm and Chris pretended to wince.

Noah had somehow managed to loop back around the bookshop from the start to purchase a couple of prints and a biography before joining them as they headed towards the exit. The rain had started getting a little heavier during the time they had been inside and Sarah chastised herself for ignoring Jocelyn’s advice to bring an umbrella with her. If there was one thing you could guarantee in even the nicest of Summers, it’s that Jocelyn Bernette always, ALWAYS, carried an umbrella in her handbag. Also, one of those waterproof macs that rolled up to the size of a dollar bill but she couldn’t convince anybody that they were a good idea.

As they gathered outside, Sarah gently pulled Chris back by his elbow. “Hey, there’s no pressure on staying for dinner if you’d rather head out or whatever. I think they were keen on you stopping out with us but I’m happy to make an excuse if you’d rather not.”

“What? No, it’s totally fine. I really like your folks. They’re fun and interesting.” Chris noticed Sarah’s look of skepticism. “Seriously, you need to chill. I’m having a good time. It’s nice doing normal things for a change.”

“In that case, I’ll let them know you’re up for a bike ride tomorrow. Dad wants to rent a tandem.”

“Are you....Are you being serious?” Sarah nodded. “Wow, they really go all out, huh? What are you gonna do while they do that?”

“No idea. Probably hold their bags.”

Chris laughed. “Man, those two are cute. I’d kill to be that dorky when I’m their age. You’re so lucky.”

Sarah considered his point for a moment, looking at Jocelyn waving her flip phone up in the air trying to get a signal. She’d lost track of the number of times she’d tried to convince her to upgrade, telling her they could stay in touch more easily with Whatsapp rather than pages-long emails once or twice a week. Sadly, this would turn out to be the last positive memory they would have of  their peaceful afternoon.

“Can I ask you something, but you have to promise not to get mad.” Chris posed an interesting question. How was she supposed to respond to that?

“I don’t get why you’re meeting Charlotte.” He could see Sarah about to protest and continued regardless. “I don’t see what good can come from this. You’ve tried it once before, it failed, and you didn’t leave you bed for two weeks. I was there, Sarah. It was horrible. I don’t understand why you would put yourself through that again.��

His tone was a little louder than he realised and placed a hand over his mouth, wiping at his beard as if that would somehow erase his words from having been spoken. Sarah didn’t know what to say. She was tired with a continuous feeling of frustration at having to explain away her decisions at every turn. She hadn’t mentioned meeting her birth mother for a while now but could sense the apprehension people had at the thought. If it wasn’t Chris, it was Shanna, and if it wasn’t Shanna, Audrey had kindly informed her she was taking an unnecessary risk although she didn’t put it quite so mildly.

“You don’t have to agree with me. I get that no one supports me here,”

“Oh, that’s unfair. Jesus.” He turned to face away from where Jocelyn was stood, only a few feet ahead of them but seemingly oblivious to their contention. “It’s not just you that this affects, you know. You seem to forget that.”

There was no mistaking his argument this time as he drew Sarah’s attention back in her mother’s direction.

“Have you guys been talking about this behind my back?” Sarah finally asked after what felt like minutes of silence. Noah was now indicating at something ahead of them.

Chris took a breath and Sarah could tell he was refraining from saying something he might regret. “No, we haven’t we’re just concerned is all. You don’t know her -”

“- hence why I am going to meet her.”

“- and you don’t know what she is after.”

She stood still as Chris continued walking but only getting a few steps ahead of her before noticing she’d stopped altogether. Jocelyn and Noah continued on ahead of them, enjoying the drizzly walk and the lights of the town and gradually getting further and further away.

“Do you not think it’s just what she wants to know who I am? What is it that you think she is after?”

“Sarah, don’t do this, OK? I’m not going to get into an argument with you about this now because I’m not going to say what you want to hear. I’m sorry.” He looked at her carefully for a second. “I just...I see you guys together hanging out and it fits, y’know? You’re so like them, Sarah. You think the same things, you like the same things. If I didn’t know you at all, I’d think you were the double of Joss. They’d be heartbroken if they knew what you were doing.”

Sarah couldn’t look him in the eye. The older Sarah would have possibly turned to run at this point, trying to avoid conflict at all costs, but they’d had spats before and Chris was nothing if not annoyingly unflappable. She knew he would tell her straight and as much as she might not want to hear it right in this moment, it was probably for the best.

He saw a flash of what looked like hurt cross her face. Now or never, he doubled down. “You wanted to know what I thought so I’m telling you.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to make tracks but not before one last bash. “I think this is a bad idea.”

“Well, then it’s a bad idea I’ll deal with myself.”

*

[studylustre]

(matcha latte anon🍵) hello carol!! first up, i wanna tell you that i love reading through your posts alot!! especially the soft boy™, it's so cute!!! >u< this is actually my first time asking someone on tumblr, but i really want to know your views about this !!~ it's a little long but here goes: i met this guy at a café earlier this year at jan, he works part time there and it was my new go-to café to study at, and which i was studying, he went to my table to place some napkins under my (cont)

matcha latte (!!!) and the second time i met him (which was 2 weeks after), he remembered my order which was really nice and unexpected. also, i was with my friend that day, and i offered some yam chips (in a container) to another female collegue (since i am more used to seeing her, and also because i’m kinda shy to give him). he came to the table and gave back my container, and had a very small talk, in which he offered us drinks/ice cream but we declined. after my friend left, i continued studying and suddenly, he came to collect my cup which i was going to say thank you, but to my surprise, he placed another new cup of matchalatte for me!! i was shocked and didn’t know what to do so i just mouthed a thank you to him. at this point, my heart is already melting, considering this is the first time anyone has offered me a drink like this. we also said bye when he left. our third encounter: the next day, in which he came but i don’t think he had work. he sat at the chair in front of my table, but i was so HORRIBLY SHY that i didn’t look up that much. i have no idea if he was looking at me or not but it remained like this for about (more than) 5 minutes long?? after that, he went to stand near my table and said “no matcha latte today?” so i replied “yea mocha today” !!!! but we were interrupted by the female collegue who said “haha you talking to customer ah” *in chinese* but in like a jokingly manner. then i think the situation got shy and he said no in chinese once again and then we bid farewell :c. it was such good memories and i never met him after that, and i thought i never will. the only info i had about him was that he’s a year older than me. i think i’m a person who falls in love quite easily haha, so i couldn’t stop thinking about it for quite a while. fast forward to jun 14, i signed up for a school camp (i usually don’t go to camps) with 2 of my friends. it was a camp with 5 different schools. as time passed on during the first day,i couldn’t help but notice this guy felt familiar?? i kept noticing the way he talked, the way he walked, and it hinted me that it mIGHT be him ?? (i’m not very good at remembering faces, and also his hair is also wayyyy longer than before) during that night, i was talking to my friend about how i had a feeling that it was him, but i don’t know if i really want to know if it’s him (bc he seemed close to this girl, and my self-esteem is quite low :c). but i decided that i should just ask him. during the next day, i didn’t see him around often, but i couldn’t quite find the courage to ask him, and i don’t really want to do it infront of my friends. when the camp was nearing to an end, i almost thought i won’t ask him, but man i just went with it, go up to him and awkwardly goes like “wait, did u work in a cafe before?” he seemed hesistant so i thought i got the wrong guy, but NO! IT WAS REALLY HIM! aaaa but we got interrupted again, and one person asked if we were cousins LOL.we didn’t manage to talk alot, but found out we’re in the same school??? but he’s year 3 while i’m year 2. once again, i was really amazed to meet him again such circumstances, and that we were in the same school all along?? i thought i would meet him sometime soon,,, but turns out i was wrong.. i didn’t have any contact of him and once again, as time goes by, i didn’t think much about him again. fast forward early to end jul-early aug, i signed up for a japan uni talk (once again, not something i usually go for but somehow did). on that day, i was thinking about how long i’ve never met café guy but was happy cause i’m over it. but life decides to (idek what life is trying to do to me) bring him back into the picture again! i was waiting for my friend when i suddenly saw this familiar looking guy, i only saw him walking two steps (he’s blocked by a pillar) and i had a gut feeling that it might be him. but this time he was wearing glasses and his hair is short now. after seem peaking around here and there, it turns out it really was him??!?! at that point of time, i was very shy and awkward, it was hard for me to say hi or anything, i was just freaking out. to sum up that day, i basically didn’t manage to say hi to him (regrets :cc). but my friend, managed to find a mutual friend of both of us’s instagram. i went to follow him and found café’s guy instagram eventually!! to sum up, i eventually used my main account to follow him, in which he followed back ( that was like almost a 3 day process uwu). also, i dropped huge hints to lowkey scream *i’m the matcha latte i hope u remember me!!!* aaaa he dm-ed me and ask if im the matcha latte girl!!! we talked abit (not alot really) and (yesterday) he said he’s working but at another chain of the café (which is about 3 mins walking distance to the café i met him & usually go to). he asked what time i was leaving, and since i was meeting my friend, i said around late 5 to 6. he then said his break was only at 6plus, so i thought maybe i can wait a little longer to catch him (but i was a little afraid to meet him as well haha) i was going to pack my bag when he came!!! he immediately came to my table and talked to me!!! but my friend called me so i had to pick up, when it ended, he came back to my table again and we talked for about 20mins?? it was nice talking to him (some context: my mind usually goes blank when making conversations with people!!! >u<), and though there was some pauses here and there, it was still nice. and when i was about to leave, he also left to go home (his house is literally upstairs only, so we basically live in the same vicinity), and we walked together before parting ways. and today, i managed to catch him at the café he was working at, and when i came in i said hi and then proceeded to find a sit (it was crowded so the place im sitting is out of sight from the counter). he came to my table and asked if i was only having my arizona peach tea, and if i wanted any drinks (for free), and i told him i still had tea and it was fine. at the time i was a little sad because he didn’t reply to my insta dm for quite awhile, to which he replied when i was in the café :c, and almost an hour after, he came up again and told me he was leaving (nooo!!! i was really sad to hear that) but *acts fine*, he said his shift actually ended at 3.30 (which was the time i went to the café). i wished we talked more though, but we said bye and also, i think i killed our insta dm convo. we were talking about music and he replied “yup hahahah” and i didn’t know what to say so i literally went “hahah” (!!!!!), hoping he would continue on, but then again, i think it might have seemed i was not interested.. :c the thing is: i keep overthinking about this whole thing, and all i’m thinking of is him. through his instagram posts, i think we are quite different people?? i’ve never dated before, and i think i have a little fear of dating someone, but at the same time, i really hope this works out?

hi angel!! sorry for the late reply - i saw ur ask a little while ago but bc i didn’t have my laptop (it was off for repairs) i couldn’t reply :(( anyway, it sounds like ur both mutually interested in each other!! i think u should go for it. i mean, from what i can tell, it sounds like u kinda like this guy (u seem rly excited whenever u catch glimpses of him and idk i feel like he definitely made a big impression on u bc why else would u a) remember all your interactions b) get so excited about seeing him time and time again and c) bother to tell me all this, right? ✨) like it just seems like u both have interest in each other but are too shy to make a move. i think u should go for it bc u’ve already nearly lost him several times now - u only get so many chances and i feel like u might regret it if u don’t do anything and just let this opportunity slide… also i think u might be overthinking it - you may be different people, yes, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing?? also u guys don’t really know each other all that well yet so it’s really too soon to be worrying so much, just try to take the time to get to know each other better and then see how things go once u have a better grasp on who he is etc. u have nothing to lose from giving it a shot, especially since u already hope for it to work out, so why hold urself back and deprive urself of something that could potentially make u a really happy? everyone’s scared of things and it’s natural to be scared of something like this, but it would be a shame to let that fear hold u back from something that could be really great

[elphabashepard]

Ugh, some days are just shite. As if it wasn’t bad enough that I went to the funeral of my godchildren’s grandfather (& my part-time adopted Dad), something in my forehead is throbbing & every time I blow my nose (which is fairly frequently because of this bloody cold) it feels like it’s about to burst right out from under my skin, my mother opted out of giving me a lift to the train station so I had to get a bus there two hours early because that’s the only one that goes to the station, that train was then 20mins late, but by the time it arrived in London it was 45mins late, meaning I had to mostly run through Kings Cross to the tube then through Euston, just managed to get on that train, which also ended up running late, meaning I missed my bus from Hemel station & have been sat in the cold & wet at the bus stop for half an hour waiting for the next one, the reason I was coming home today at all has now been cancelled so I could have had the whole day at Mum’s chilling AND now, to top it all off, I find out the bus stop roof has been leaking for probably most of the time I’ve been sat here onto my bag so all one side is now wet & the things inside soggy-

For fuck’s sake. The bus I was waiting for has now just gone past me. Without stopping. So it’s now a choice between waiting another half an hour for the next one or getting two buses, which will cost twice as much, to get home.

EDIT: Two buses it is. I cannot wait any longer to get home. I nearly burst into tears twice just now.

I swear to something, ever since I didn’t pass my driving test, the entire universe has been punishing me. I’ve been ill & I’ve felt excluded and out of synch with everyone & I just don’t know how much more I can take.

[liambaileyjournalism]

Moloch was present in the White Worm’s den when Han Solo was brought to Lady Proxima after his failed mission. Lady Proxima was angered by Han’s failure and ordered Rebolt to hit Han with a staff. Han got angered by this, grabbed the staff from Rebolt, and said that he will hit back. Moloch then pulled out a blaster and pointed it at Han. Frightened for Han, Qi’ra ran in front of Moloch and pleaded with him to not shoot Han. Han then grabbed a rock and broke a window with it, exploiting the Grindalid weakness of sunlight. This caused Proxima to burn it up and retreat into the water. Han then took Qi’ra, pushed through the scumrats, and ran outside the den. Moloch quickly covered his face with armor so he wouldn’t burn, and started to pursue Han and Qi’ra. As Han and Qi’ra were escaping in a land speeder, Moloch opened fire on them, but was not able to hit them or the speeder.

Moloch then took Rebolt, Syke, and a pack of Corellian hounds with him in his A-A4B landspeeder to pursue the White Worm deserters with. Moloch quickly caught up to Qi’ra and Han in his speeder, and started to knock their speeder with his much more sizable speeder. Moloch proceeded to chase the deserters through the streets of Coronet City. Han eventually took the chase into an industrial manufacturing plant. Han then slanted his speeder to try and fit through a small crevice so Moloch would not catch him. At the end of the crevice Han’s speeder became wedged in the crevice, so him and Qi’ra were forced to continue running on foot. Moloch’s speeder was way to big to go after them, so like Han and Qi’ra, him and his pary were forced to chase the deserters on foot.

Moloch tracked Han and Qi’ra down to the Coronet Spaceport, but was momentarily stopped by a stormtrooper. Moloch informed the Stormtrooper of the runaways, and the Stormtroopers began to look for Han and Qi’ra as well. Han and Qi’ra were able to get to the gate to leave Corellia, but as they were walking out, one of Moloch’s thugs grabbed Qi’ra, and brought her to Moloch. The gate then closed so they couldn’t get Han. Thus, allowing Han to escape Corellia.

How does working on Star Wars compare to all your work on other projects?

Playing Moloch in Solo: A Star Wars Story is definitely the highlight of my career, it is also the most difficult and challenging job I have ever done.

How did you get the role of Moloch in Solo: A Star Wars Story?

I was originally cast as the stunt double to Moloch, but when the creatives saw what I could do with the movement in the costume and animatronic head I was given the cast position. The screen test I did was quite entertaining to say the least. I was in a long narrow room with mirrors down one end with around 15 creatives and the heads of department. It was the first time I ever had on the full costume and animatronic head, to my surprise I had zero visibility, absolutely zero… I was asked to move with a serpent like motion down the room towards the mirrors. I asked that someone let me know when I get close to the end so I know when to stop. When the animatronics are turned on it’s like having your head stuck in a bee’s hive, lots of buzzing from the servo motors and bits and pieces moving very close to your face.

I started off down the room, really focusing on my breath and balance making the serpent like action, I found a nice rhythm and felt really confident, then it all came to a sudden halt. I actually walked straight in to the mirrors at the other end… There was a sudden hard stop and the animatronic mesh smashed me in the face, I had no idea I had hit the mirror and the impact opened up a small seam in the face which allowed me to see a figure standing in front of me, not realising it was my own reflection, I thought I had run into someone and started to apologies to them, or to myself as it were. Turns out that everyone just assumed I could see as I was moving with so much confidence they forgot to tell me when to stop!

When you were given the role of Moloch, were you given any info to accommodate this?

Yes, I sat down and had a long conversation with Neal Scanlan, head of creature effects, who gave me a lot of insight into how they came about to develop Moloch and how he fit into the Star Wars universe and the type of movement they thought he should have. I was also given the script to see how Moloch fits into the story to develop his relationship with Qi’Ra and Han.

What was it like on the set for Solo?

The sets on Solo where authentic, all the sets I worked on were built in their entirety, the attention to detail is phenomenal. Walking into the Cornelian space port, which was the first scene we shot with Moloch, was mind blowing, it was huge. It took up the entire 007 Studio at Pinewood and had all the creatures and robots roaming around live. The most incredible set was the refinery outpost on Savareen, where we see Han process the Coaxium after the Kessel Run. The outpost was built in a national park on Fuerteventura which was very hot and windy making it a very hostile environment to be filming in, especially considering how many creature characters we had there, the sunsets were epic, truly a stunning experience.

Can you describe your time filming Moloch’s scenes?

Intense! The creature team developed and customised a video goggle system so that I could see, after many tests I found the best place to mount the camera was on my chest, pointing at my feet, so I quickly started to recognise people by their lower halves… Mounted on the head and the video feed had trouble keeping up with the head movement, plus orientation was surprisingly difficult.

Nearly every scene Moloch is in involves stairs, and to top it off Lady Proximas’ Den was shot under UV light which the camera did not pick up, so all I saw was darkness, try navigating stairs, water, camera marks, positions and lots of running with dogs, mostly blind… As the head took 20mins to take off then put back on I would spend hours at a time in it with the video goggles on, eyes closed, while my team would be keeping me cool with fans etc.

How long did it take to get into costume?

As the Moloch costume is a full animatronic head rig and creature face it only took around 20 minutes to get into the costume, but that was after countless hours doing fittings to get it right. I had to have my head cast for a custom skull cap as well as a sculpted backpack system that would take the weight of the animatronic.

What are some of your fondest memories from being in Solo?

It is always the people, on every film I work on, it is the passionate people and the odd ball characters who make this such an incredible industry to work in. If I had to choose one memory, it would be when my mother and eldest daughter, 4 yrs, joined me for a week in Fuerteventura and came out to visit the Savareen set. Now she thinks that every time daddy goes to work that is where I am, magic!

Who are some of your favourite characters from the franchise and why?

On book day at school I was always dressed as Luke Skywalker and my brother as Darth Vader… Yoda is my all-time favourite though.

How did you get into stunt work, and can you describe what the job entails for anyway who is unsure?

I used to teach Capoeira while I was studying a media degree at university, I was approached by some post graduates who had funding to shoot a feature film which had a lot of fighting in it. During work on this film I met a professional stuntman who gave me advise on how to pursue stunt work and where to begin training. So I finished my degree then moved cities and started training for stunts.

My best advice to anyone wanting to get into stunts is to do as much research as possible, talk to as many stunt professionals as you can and never say you can do something when you can’t! There are many different ways to do a single stunt so it is important to be able adapt to a situation and not consider all this right or wrong. I often get hired because of my skill set but then asked to do something completely different! My approach is that unless I can levitate I will never impress anyone with my physicality in this industry. There is always someone stronger, better or younger waiting for their turn. I can only ever do my absolute best with what I know and the more experience you get the more you know.

How did you get involved with Marvel?

My first big budget feature film was 2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine where I was hired as a stunt performer, then again I was hired for The Wolverine in 2013 for my parkour speciality as a ninja in the snow village scene where Logan is captured.

Years later I had actually just finished shooting on the DC Film Wonder Woman in the UK when I received a call to double for Loki on Thor Ragnarok in Australia. Subsequently it was during filming of Ragnarok that I was called to come in for a screen test for Solo: A Star Wars Story. So the last few years have been amazing!

What was it like being Tom Hiddleston’s stunt double in Thor: Ragnarok, and can you describe the scenes you filmed?

Working with Tom is great! He has a great physicality and is a master of his craft. Tom would always push to do his action and fight scenes himself, which means we got to do a lot of training sessions together.

One of the more dangerous scenes was shot in an alley way in Brisbane, Australia, dressed up to look like New York city. In the scene Hela kills Odin then smashes Thors’ hammer and blasts Thor and Loki through the air smashing into dumpsters. There is a brief top shot of the scene in the Trailer for Ragnarok but the scene was replaced in the theatrical release.

The Thor Stunt double and I were both on wires being pulled by air rams that threw us backwards about 15 meters into a pair of prop dumpsters. We dialled in the rams during our rehearsals, I was ‘comfortably’ hitting the dumpster consistently then landing on the concrete floor on my side. During the take, in full costume which adds weight and some restriction, I hit the dumpster upside down which meant I also hit the concrete upside down on my head! The shot looked amazing but unfortunately will never see the light of day…

You were also a stunt double in two of the Wolverine films, who were you the double for, and what was that experience like?

I was a regular stunt performer for the first and played one of the snow ninja’s in the second film due to my parkour skill set, used for running and jumping along and off the sloped roof tops. I was 1 of 3 Caucasians hired in a 20 strong Asian stunt team. Superhero films can be a lot of fun as you get to be super creative with the movements and ideas, often breaking the convention of ‘regular’ action. Working with the stunt team 87eleven is great, they are so talented and creative.

  "Playing Moloch in Solo: A Star Wars Story is definitely the highlight of my career, it is also the most difficult and challenging job I have ever done." Moloch was present in the White Worm's den when Han Solo was brought to Lady Proxima after his failed mission.

[ash-travels-peru]

Day 6: Organic Food Markets and Barranco

I woke up at 5:30am this morning. UGH!! I ended up using this early morning to catch up on my blog (well up to day 3 at the time hahaha!)

Bella and I surfaced out of bed at about 9am. Lima is a bit like Dubai, you can do it in a few days and admittedly, we were starting to run out of things to do (hence no rush in the mornings!). We had another awesome brekky, but all we had planned for the day was the 4pm walking tour. I ended up checking out some travel blogs about Lima that I had found whilst in Sydney, and discovered that there was an organic food market in Miraflores, only a 15min walk from our accommodation! The markets were open Monday - Saturday from 8:30am - 2:30pm. Our actual words were “Why the hell not?!”

We left our accommodation about 1:10pm. We packed our luggage before we headed out because our taxi was booked to take us to the airport the next morning at 3:30am. The markets were a long line of stalls along the footpath opposite a church. There was fresh produce, organic honey, different quinoa, black corn that looked like it had been dipped in ink, stubby carrots (that certainly wouldn’t pass the beautiful veg requirement at Sydney supermarkets) and plenty of places that sold food ready to eat! We walked up and down the line of stalls and I was graciously welcomed to photograph their produce. The tables were overflowing with such bright colours; there were huge pumpkins, mushroom stalks that looked like broccoli and cherry tomatoes that looked like the range of autumn colours. If I ever come back to Lima, I will ensure that I have access to a kitchen and I will be sure to buy some fresh fruit and veg from these markets! 

We were beginning to feel a little peckish and there was a stall that sold what looked like a range of sweet and savoury breads and empanadas. We figured out after the fact that it was actually a vegan vendor. There was a significant language barrier, so there was lots of hand gestures, smiling, laughing, confused looks and pointing! After at least 5mins, we ended up with exactly what we both wanted! Once we had obtained our goods, we walked into the park behind to have our picnic feast (minus a blanket). The park was teeming with young, local families. There was even a 6th birthday party! We were the only caucasians in the park and I certainly felt like I was off the tourist path and enjoying Lima like a local.  We shared an empanadas and we ordered the one that had carrot, caramelised onion and grapes inside. It melted in my mouth!! We ordered a slice of bread that looked sweet and turned out to be a really heavy panatone. Although it was pretty tasty, it certainly didn’t compare to the panatone Auntie Chiara has!! For desert, we each ordered what looked like a strawberry and (what we thought was) cacoa tart. The strawberries were so fresh, juicy and sweet, but it certainly wasn’t cocoa on the tart. It tasted more like a tahini with a bit of sesame seed oil. The pastry was lovely, but I ended up scraping most of the tahini stuff off. We ate our feast and lolled in the afternoon. The cloud cover prevented seeing the sun.

It was nearing 2:40pm and we decided to begin to head off for the 4pm tour to Barranco. We initially thought of walking, but according to google maps it was a 1hr 30min walk. There was an option to meet at Kennedy Park in MIraflores (a 20min walk) at 3:20pm and catch the bus with a guide to the meeting spot in Barranco. We opted for the latter option. We made our way through Lima to Kennedy Park. There, we met up with Rosie and Jo and met some Americans, a Brit who had been travelling for 4months and once again, I was certainly surrounded by the backpacker crowd! I only lacked a leather thong necklace with some charm on it, a few tattoos and a bandanna and I’m sure I would have been synonymous with the crowd!

The local bus ride was 1 soles. The local bus was of the general class of vehicle I described in one of my first posts in Peru...it looked like it should have been retired a solid 15 years ago. I was sitting above the wheel and it was quite the bumby ride...as in I think there was no suspension left in the vehicle whatsoever. We went over a bump and my bum left the seat, it was like a roller coaster but on four wheels and with less safety regulations. This American student started talking to us. He was a med student and working in one of the hospitals, but for this post I’ll refer to him as med student Mike. I was able to convince Mike that Bella’s boyfriend’s name was Edward and he sparkled in the sun during summer (due to sweat). So gullible! I was rather proud of my low key Twilight reference. 

We made it to Barranco and it is so beautiful!!! Street art is encouraged, I walked past countless buskers playing lutes, to guitars and drums and at the end of the walking tour there was a solid busking brass ensemble (with an honorary sax player). The Barranco walking tour wasn’t as information dense as the tour of Lima City Downtown. I’m not sure if that was because I was always lagging behind the group taking photos, because we had a different guide or if this tour served as having a free navigator to get you around the suburb without the need for Google maps. Most likely, it was a combination of the three. 

Barranco is bright and vibrant and sort of like the Peruvian equivalent to Newtown, but with views of the Pacific. According to the architecture and houses we walked past, Barranco was also one of, if not the most affluent suburb of Lima City. We even visited a house built by the same artist who made the sculpture of the passionate couple in the Parque del Amor. We crossed a bridge where, legend goes, that if you make it across holding your breath and thinking of a wish that it will come true. I won’t disclose what I wished for because then my near fainting spell would go to waste! As I was crossing, a group of tourists stopped dead in front of me. I did a rather un-elegant bolt to make it the final stretch across the bridge though! 

We wound through the streets and there was many beautiful doors that I was able to take photos of (I’ve started an instragram for all the photos of doors I’ve taken on my travels). We visited a beautiful church that has survived most of the natural disasters in Lima without too much damage and there was a wedding on! We watched the bride enter the church. I felt sorry for her, being gawked at by tourists. 

The tour finished at around 6:30pm, and super starving we went in search of food. Med student Mike and another American lady joined us for dinner, which brought some interesting discussions to our dinner conversation. Due to dietary requirements, we found both a vegetarian and vegan restaurant. We were there for a few hours, the food was good but honestly not as filling and as satisfying as I would have liked. At about 8:30pm, the six of us caught the local bus back to Kennedy Park. Under the direction of Rosie. we went to this (apparently) famous churros place called Manolo. I paid 15 soles for 6 churros sticks and a cup of molten chocolate, which was more like a custard consistency. I gave the chocolate to Bella pretty quickly (I think I’m a chocolate snob haha). We all then walked back to Kennedy Park and sat in a small and circular amphitheater that went down into the group. Med student Mike thought he was awesome and a camera buff and wanted to use my camera. He started changing all the settings and nearly broke it because he didn’t understand that you were meant to press the button in the middle of the settings wheel. He didn’t even have it in his hands for 30secs. 

Bella and I ended up leaving the park at about 10pm because we were conscious that our taxi was arriving in 5.5hrs! We walked the 10mins or so back to our hotel and finished packing. Suddenly it was past 12am!!! We jumped into bed quickly and dozed off fast...ready to be awake in less than 3hrs!

[yourtimingdown-blog]

Training week of 6-26-17

This one is crazy long. I apologize in advance; we did all new workouts and started triple trap, so lots to cover and little short-hand. 6-26: Shaun T Week: Pure Cardio 2. This one is about 25min, and as the name suggests, it's similar to Pure Cardio from the original Insanity. The main difference is it is shorter (no stretch, shorter warm-up) and you don't do any floor moves (like pike ups or in-and-out abs). This makes it easier, for sure. You do the same warm-up as the previous workouts. Then the body of the workout is 15min made up of 15 moves for 1min each. Then you cool down. Moves are: Pencil jump (squat, jump up with your legs together while pushing your shoulder blades back) Squat, jump up on one leg while you kick the other behind you (30sec each side; this one could go in a cardio dance routine) Lateral shuffles that turn into suicides part-way through Heisman jab (basically you hop from one leg to the other, bringing the knee high and punching out) Power knee with a criss-cross jump in between Hop hop throw (hop twice to one side, throw your arms down, it's like a move from Max 30 but your arms do something slightly different) Squat to the left, jump while turning to the right, land in a squat, repeat Soccer kick, where you start in a lunge, jump up and bring the back leg straight out and up to 90 degrees (switch sides at 30sec) Twist and pivot type move where you stay low and try to go fast Frog jump to diamond jump (had to modify) Jack knee, so you jack out and when you come in lift alternate a knee lift (also could go in cardio dance) Flying jack (basically a jumping jack but instead of going out straight, you do a more exaggerated jump that's almost like a mini tuck jump Squat jump where you punch out in the air Heisman kick (hopping side to side with a kick out) and Iron legs (squat, lunge, squat, lunge, squat, jump, repeat till you die) 6-27: Shaun T Week: Insane Weights. This workout is about 30min, and it's divided into three segments (plus warm-up and cool down, usual warm-up format). The first two segments are circuits done three times each, five moves for about 30sec. First four are compound strength (tricep presses with calf raises, suicide jumps where you do a one arm row between each jump, plank to squat with a mini deadlift, shoulder presses with alternating leg kicks, moving squats with a bicep curl, etc.) and then you finish with a cardio move from Pure Cardio 2. I had to modify the rotating jump squats. Then the final segment is a bunch of pyramids (things like adductor squat/wide fly, frog jump/close grip row, tricep push-up jacks). It reminded me of an Asylum workout, but shorter. Overall I liked it and found it interesting, but I do worry that it's hard on my back. I had to ice after, and I think it's mostly from that deadlift move that just moves too fast to focus on form, combined with all the squats so early on. I guess it's hard because I wanted to get a strength workout and I was strong enough to do everything, so it's hard to then modify. 6-28: Flying Trapeze. Oddly enough, a really good class. I did not expect this because I felt pretty yucky (headache, lightly nauseated) when I started, but my swing was great, my takeoffs were the best they have ever been in a way that felt repeatable, and I actually made star progress at the end. Drew nearly caught his flexus, too. 6-29: Shaun T Week: Rip'Sanity. This is probably my favorite, at least so far. It's the longest workout of the series at 42min, and is broken up into four circuits (three times each) with a surprise at the end. After the typical warm-up, you do a sequence that starts with a bicep curl, squat, jump out to plank, tap each leg in, jump in and stand up to repeat. After 12 reps, you repeat but add in a row after you squat before you jump, and then a push-up jack. Third time you add in more push-up jacks, ski abs, and in-and-out-abs. For circuit two, you do shoulder presses in a lunge, stay low and step into a squat and pulse, and then do a lunge with shoulder press on the other leg. You do two shoulder presses and two pulses next time through (up to 12 rounds), and then at the end you just 14 presses and 14 pulses which you only do once but which is killer. At the end he makes you stay in the squat for an insane amount of time. In the third circuit you go to the floor and do chest presses, push-ups on toes, and push-ups on knees. The number of reps for the push-ups goes down, and for the presses it sort of stays the same but you are supposed to add in doing a bridge though we added leg elevation since bridges upset my hips. Next circuit is adductor squats with rows, upright rows, and adductor squat (sort of) with a fly, going down 12-10-8 with reps. Then you get your surprise at the end and do a cool down. All in all, this one reminded me of Asylum quite a bit with these circuits that are similar but not the same. It's a good total body workout with an upper focus, and goes by quickly. Maybe because I always could do Insanity workouts and Max 30 workouts but struggled with Asylum I particularly appreciate the slightly easier Asylum-type ones? 6-30: Shaun T Week: Speed 4.0. This one basically follows the format of the rest of the Speed workouts from Focus T25. It's about 25min plus cool down. Instead of the usual warm-up, you go right into things. It's broken up into two main chunks, each chunk repeated three times (first 8 eight counts, then 4, then 2); after an active recovery break you then run the whole thing twice through. The first half isn't so bad, but the second half is practically all burpee variations and sucks as much as you'd expect given that. First half is uppercut lift, hop uppercut, hop-hop throw (from Pure Cardio 2), speed and agility (classic), low switch kick, squat to lunge, 123 clap under the knee, and slow mountain climbers (upright). The second half is burpee plank walk, burpee side punch while in plank, burpee with flying jack after you hop up, burpee with heisman jab after you hop up, and then slalom which is sort of an adductor hop thing and side-side hop in sumo squat (those are the only non-burpee moves), burpee walk one leg in then the other while in plank, and then burpee with two in and out abs and a suicide jump (the worst).Yeesh. Goes by quickly, though I was sad we didn't do a round through where we only had one eight-count per mve, since then it feels the most dance-y. 7-1: Triple trap workshop. This was our first week of the six week session; unlike normal aerial, workshops are 90mins instead of 60min. We started with a pretty lengthy warm-up, including a lot of leg lifts and kicks, dynamic stretching primarily for hamstrings, and light cardio to get everything awake. We ended with shoulder shrug variations, before practicing getting on the bar in pairs to work on timing and adjusting to each other's movements (the triple trap is wobbly). The first shape we tried had a base on each end doing one hand/one knee, a flyer below the bar doing a sacrum hang/back balance/x on the bases, and a flyer doing a sacrum hang above the bar in the middle. We rotated through so we each got to do it. Then we did a round with two bases in gazelle above the bar and the flyer below in a sort of reverse gazelle, rotating roles. We did a really cool spinny move where you start in arabesque, wrap the leg around the rope, spin on it, replace the legs, and end up back in arabesque. First we did that in pairs wide on the bar, then pairs close, and then all four of us together. It looked really cool. Then we played a little with coffin in the ropes (one on each far side, someone in the middle in a sacrum hang for counter-weight/stability), before wrapping with meathook conditioning. We're going to work toward a mini-routine. All in all, very fun start, triple trap lets you do such interesting things, and I like working with Teddy; we hadn't had her as a coach before. We also got a lot of the folks in the 10:30 flying class watching and photographing us, which is funny. We should have done another workout, I guess, but we decided 90min of triple trap was enough. 7-2: Beast Up Chest, Shoulders, and Tris. In theory we should have wrapped Shaun T Week, but the final workout for that is short, this is really long (about an hour), and tomorrow is busier so we decided to swap. Basically, you do a full chest workout and then 20min of shoulders and tris for fun. Sagi has a new take on progressive sets where you do 15, 12, 8, 6, 6, 8 (light, medium, heavy, heaviest, heaviest, heavy), and on force sets (seven sets of seven reps instead of five of five). Chest has a progressive set of incline presses, giant set of presses, flys, and push-ups slow down/pop up style (all on the floor), force set of presses meant to be decline but I did flight for my hip's sake, and then a final super set with circle flys (new move) and decline push-ups. Shoulders you do a progressive set of shoulder presses and a progressive set of lateral raises in front. Tris you do a single set with a drop set of kick-backs, and then end with 20 tricep pushups. It is intense.

[x-avantgarde]

SHINee World V - Hong Kong Experience!

So hello everyone owo I went to Shinee's World V, Hong Kong stop's concert!! (This is a Kpop post, I know but I will be back for vkei in the future! So please stay tuned!!) :D I bought the tickets really late orz and so before I start, I would like to apologize because I don't really know SHINee that well (I know them but I wasn’t a Shawol or anything) and I went because my mom likes Taemin (and SHINee) a lot XDD  (beware of this long ass post haha (it’s 2000+ words orz)

So we arrived at the venue at around 2pm? The merchandise opens at noon but I had this lesson that ends at noon so... We had lunch before we went to the venue (and the place is super far lol, but it's super close to the airport). Me and my mom took the airport express line from Kowloon (Elements?) to Asia World Expo and it was actually pretty quick (~20mins?). But the fare was super expensive OTL (though you get a discount if you show them your concert ticket).

There were A LOT of people lining up for the merch when I got there, but I wanted to get the light stick so badly (because I don't have one? XD) so I just lined up (like whatever haha). The line was super long, the merch was outside but the lines looped into the area where the standing went and waited. Around 30mins in the line I met people from my school lmao XD (so awkward bc we're actually not close?).

There were these people who approached us and asked us when we were in the line about whether we wanted light sticks or not (because they had "a bunch"). It was super fishy so I didn't get any, there were many cases in Kpop concerts where people sold fake light sticks :/// The official ones sold at 80HKD each but those people sold it at 60HKD each :////

After approximately two hours and fifteen minutes, I finally managed to get the merchandise :D Around halfway through the line, the staff gave us this sheet to write down what we wanted. In the end, I spent around 500HKD lmAO. I told myself I would only get the light stick and that was it, but you know what? I ended up getting an Onew fan, Onew key chain and these postcards (rip my money haha but it was so worth it). The Onew key chain is super duper cute!! owo (and yes my favourite member is Onew ouo)

It was around 4pm when we finished getting our merch, so me and my mom decided to go into this (kinda bad) cafe / restaurant place to sit down and eat something. I didn't eat anything because I literally just ate lunch three hours ago X"D Around 4:15, people were starting to line up. There are two places where you can go into the venue, one is on the ground floor, (for people in standing (who already got in) and people from the seating (block 5-13 (aka every block)) in the first rows. (A-M)). I was in block 10 row L so I had to get in on the ground floor.

Around 5:00 we went to line up and get ready to get in. The security was super strict and there were these Japanese girls in front of me who got cut off because they found a camera (but the girl said she went to disneyland and that's why she bought it). They took super long T___T until they finally managed to check my god damn bag. I bought a small-ish backpack but they literally took out everything T______T I understand that they didn't want any cameras inside the venue and stuff, but... uhhh really???

Me and my mom managed to get in, and we walked up the stairs (finally) and found our seats!! :))) On our seats, there was a pack, which included an balloon, a fan (double sided with a member's face) and this banner in Korean //orz what does it mean haha//. I got Key's fan so it's okay /but ugly sobbing because I didn't get Onew T_T/.

It was supposed to start at 6pm but they were super late (because Taemin had this earpiece problem so he kept apologizing during the introduction / first MC T___T (like CHILD ITS OK (let me give you a hug lmao). When the fans sat down, it felt super unreal, and it all felt like a dream. When the lights dimmed and we started screaming and chanting, "SHINEE! SHINEE! SHINEE!" They played a video (to our disappointment haha).

After that Shinee cAME OUT :DD They started with the song Sherlock and it's super good XD But I didn't warm up yet so I was kinda stiff and I didn't scream and all. (For some reason, I felt super awkward). But I was waving my light stick, just enjoying Shinee performing :))

The next song was Married To The Music and I was starting to get more hyped :) I lowkey sang along XDD I think they came out in suits or something (i forgot orz). Then the next song was Juliet (and the chorus is so catchy?!?!) After these three songs, it was MC timeeee! ^^ they started talking about how they haven't been to Hong Kong for a long time (around four years??) so they were really happy to be back. Key mentioned about how HK food was really good or something haha.

(Starting from this part, the order of the songs are going to be all messed up). They changed clothes somewhere after the MC or something like that (they changed way too often!!). I got more warmed up as Reply came up :DD Everyone sang along to it (and dude it's so good hahaha). You know how people would scream when a member's part comes up? That was me when Onew's part came up XD But it felt like I was the only Onew fan in my section because when Onew sings there were nearly NO ONE screaming T__T (It felt lowkey awkward because I would only be hearing my screams hahaha).

Then midway they changed into casual and I swear, Key looks SO GOOD in real life. During Lucifer, I was so hyped hahahaha. Key took off his white jacket because it was "too stiff and too hard to dance in it", and also he was like, "I look better without it". OMG XDD And guess what was underneath his jacket? A grey sleeveless shirt. SLEEVELESS. HE LOOKED SO GOOOD OMG. XD In the middle of the setlist /forgot which song orz/ he made the hand heart and it got onto the mini screen on the side. I got /shot/ in the heart owo.

THIS IS THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE CONCERT FOR ME HAHA. OKAY. During some song, Minho winked and gave this smooch towards the crowd OMG. AND IT WAS LIKE WINK THEN AIR KISS. /DIES/ WHEN HE DID THAT, I LITERALLY SPAZZED OUT ON MY SEAT HAHAHA, I WAS LIKE 'WHAT IS LIFE?' (He is so extra?!?! X"D)

In the middle of the setlist, (ESPECIALLY DURING Everybody), I got super duper hyped and screamed like crazy whenever it was Onew's part X"D (and also when their choreography was super cool). LIKE WHO CARES, I'M HERE TO HAVE FUN BITCHES XD During Everybody, these Japanese girls (again XD ikr, they have a lot of Japanese fans haha), also got super hyped XDDD Even though we weren't supposed to film, no one honestly gives a shit? (including me lmao). I filmed for around 30s in total XD (just to document the hype and it's the only thing I can hold onto after the concert T_T (other than the merch)).

They also performed Why So Serious, 1 of 1, So Amazing, View (that was aWESOME), Ring ding dong (the crowd was so high XD (including me hahaha)), Prism, Feel Good (CLIMAX OF THE CRAZINESS HAHA), Shift (don't really remember anything XD (except the fact they performed this song). The atmosphere was so awesome!! :))

In around the first quarter? Two members changed first, then the others went. Key, Minho and Taemin stayed first X"D Minho or Key was like, "I'm wondering if any of the members off stage are eating right now (referring to Onew and Jonghyun)" XD Then Onew and Jonghyun came back, wearing silk material / soft / shiny fabric clothes :DD it was so cool haha. (I think they also performed Dream Girl but I don't remember what happened T_T).

(I'm listening to SHINee's songs while typing this up so ahahahahaha) They sang a lot of the slower songs during that silk material clothing part XD (whatever you call it haha). Onew and Jonghyun also sang a duet-- Please Don't Go. This song was so touching and T_T //feels// Onew's voice was so sweet <333 /melts/ (Jonghyun's voice is also good <33) Hopefully Jonghyun's not sick or anything because he struggled a lot with hitting the high notes T___T especially during the duet and Replay QAQ

During Feel Good, oh my... oh my... The lyrics in the chorus, "I can make you feel good" X"D Everyone sang along in that part and I was kind of hesitant but I GAVE UP. So I also sang along and that was sooooo fun. This was one of the songs I like hahahaha. Though I wished they performed Tell Me What To Do because Jonghyun's voice in that song is GREAT.

There were a lot of Key and Taemin fans hahaha. Whenever it would be Key or Taemin's part, girls in my section would be screaming ahahah (like me in Onew's part X"D). And Onew's smile just melts my heart ouo Taemin also did a solo performance, he performed Sayonara Hitori (in Korean). His costume was so cool (there were these ribbons(?) that are sewn onto his sleeves, so whenever he spreads his arms it would look kind of like wings :D There were also these long stripes of red fabric hanging from the ceiling. There were also smoke(?) in the floor to make it even more dreamy <33 When my mom heard that song, she shook my arm excitedly and said, "This is my favourite song from Taemin!!" /lmao/ It was super cool and I enjoyed every single second of it /and I lowkey sang along because it's so good hahaha/

Skipping to Aside!! It was actually when we were supposed to blow up the balloons (which had led lights inside of them). I struggled a lot (because honestly I've never successfully blown a balloon before... until now XD) but the crowd looked super good because of the flashy balloons :DD Even Jonghyun was thankful for what the fans had prepared :DD (because he mentioned it in the ending speech).

Skip skip skip, time for chanting the encore! The fans actually started singing happy birthday (in Korean) to Shinee (as it's nearly their 9th anniversary!) ^_^ Every time we want to start over again (by singing happy birthday), we would all laugh as we don't know when we should start singing again haahaha (if it makes any sense XD). They came out in the moving carts (LIKE FINALLY?!) and the crew played So Amazing in the background. I really wanted to get one of their signed balls (that sounds wrong LMFAO /i'm sorry/) but I didn't manage to get one T_T because Onew and Jonghyun actually tried throwing some to my section but they didn't manage to throw it pass the crew (bc the crew was sandwiched between my section + the moving carts) OTL

/HIGHLIGHT NUMBER 2/ Since Minho was the only one on his cart, he actually stopped in front of my section (directly in front of me) and did the hand heart (like the one you make the heart with your arms + head??) towards my section XD I cried ahaha, and you know what? Before I knew it, MY HANDS AUTOMATICALLY DID AN ARM/HAND HEART BACK TO HIM. HE WAS SMILING SO BRIGHTLY OH MY GOSH. (No one in front of me did a heart back so it's actually possible he might have seen me in the corner of his eyes /dies from happiness/ /but it's okay if he didn't actually see me because giving a heart towards my section is already good enough <333/)

They did the ending speech and they reminded us to support Key's new drama <33 Shinee also told us that they will be back soon (isn't that what all the overseas idols say lmao). And it ended! I was so sad T___T they played a video (or some MV /i forgot/) and in the end the screen said "Thank you and love you" XD It was really touching but my mom had to ruin the moment and said, "Yeah, more like thank you and love your money" LMAO.

It was such a great experience and I have definitely fell in love with Shinee :D (who wouldn't if they attended Shinee's concert haha). It was so different from Visual Kei's lives and I might be doing a comparison in the future so please stay in touch with me! <3

[everyweekforayear]

F: ODH Continued

STATUS SO FAR:

Day 1: Sunday – Hashing out ideas. I'm getting little tin ideas for the villians quirks but I wonder if some of it may be too subtle. Creative Time: 60mins, in the evening

Day 2: Monday – This was a very productive day and I actually felt like I had momentum as I was developing character backgrounds. I was trying to come up with a list of where the main characters were before this story started and then where do they want to be at the end. I also came up with the idea in a more concrete form, that the Senator will try to block an anti human trafficking type bill that Eric Erron wants him to approve.

Creative Time: 20mins, before work; 40 during lunch; 20 mins, after work

Day 3: Tuesday – I was working my day job during lunch but trains were slow in and out of work, so I managed to get a few logistical ideas down on paper.

Creative Time: 30mins, before work; 30 mins, after work

Day 4: Wednesday – SICK DAY

Creative Time: 0 mins

Day 5: Thursday – Grading in the evening. I felt like I hit a wall again. What did I even do?

Creative Time: 20 mins, before work; 40 mins, during my lunch break

Day 6: Friday – Stars Wars: Last Jedi tonight – worked during lunch, drove, so couldn't work on train. Car died on way to my brothers, but I ran to the train to new jersey, jumped on it, flew past the traffic and got to the train station before my brother did. The work during lunch involved flushing out some of those characters wants and needs a little bit more.

Creative Time: 40 mins, during lunch at work.  

Day 7: Saturday – House Renovations – Ceilings Drywall. Literally spent all day working on this. Collapsed at the end of the day.

Creative Time: 0mins

CONCEPT UPDATES/CHANGES: Somehow I had a weaker week than last week. I have a fire raging inside me that I need to get out. I need to work through this. I'm going to push very hard this coming week as I'm not nearly where I want to be. And not only do I feel and know that I didn't put in the hours I wanted to but I also did not push through on any complicated ideas or come up with very many new ideas.

PICTURES/NOTES: Not yet.

THIS WEEK RUNNING TIME: 5.0 hours

FINAL RUNNING TIME (SO FAR): 13.0 hours

[mabsj]

Hi there everyone and good evening. I started to type this post on 19/03/2020, Thursday, 11.30pm. I would like to share to you another horror experience happened to me at Malaysia estimated about 2years ago.

The incident happened along the journey of going to the destination and back to Singapore. That time I was sending my Late Uncle to Thailand. He usually take train(KTM) to go back to his hometown. And his hometown is at Narathiwat, Thailand. Usually his departure to home goes smooth but only for that time of point, it didn’t. He missed his train to Thailand and was stuck at Malaysia train Checkpoint. He decided to stay at the pavement of the Malaysia Train Checkpoint and wait for the next available train the next morning. I could remember the train the he should be boarding departs at 8.30pm and he want to wait till the next morning at 10.30am the next train departs to his destination. As a nephew, who wants to let him stay cold outside there without proper rest. So I grab my brother car and decided to fetch my uncle at Johore Bahru and send him to Kelantan. So from there he can take bus or train to his hometown. I know it’s sounds crazy but his wife at Thailand expected for his arrival.

Manage to grab my brother car and zoom I speed off to fetch him and when I arrive, drink some coffee and fill up petrol and starts the journey. I start my journey at around 10pm at night. I don’t know how long the journey would take at first but according to Google Maps, total journey takes about 13hrs.

First leg of the journey after a few hours of driving, I reach RnR Ayer Keroh, that is Alor Gajah, Malacca Zone. Have to rest for a moment after driving more than 2hrs straight. Freshen myself up and had my massage from the Massage Chair on every RnR Stops. After 1hr of rest, we continued on and pit stops followed by Kuala Lumpur. And from there, my Late uncle ask me to cut through the road. And I know if I were to cut through, I would pass by Raub old highway. And it’s a pitch-black road where cars or motorcycles would use their high beam lights to see through. I got no choice but yeah just want him to arrive as early as possible. And along the road between Kuala Lipis and Gua Musang if I could remember clearly, something happened.

The road which is totally pitch-black while your surrounding is all woods, trees, road lamp only depends on your vehicle high beam lights, just imagine guys, after for an hour I drive, I don’t even see any food stalls. To my thoughts, who would want to set up a stall in the middle of nowhere. And indeed, we saw one. My Late uncle told me to stop, and get ourselves some food and drink to eat and rest for awhile.  I told my uncle, In English,”Are you sure uncle? That shops seems to look different. Driving for hours and out of nowhere appear this shop with no customers sitting on it.”. Maybe it’s late night. “Just stop. We take a rest for awhile. You are tired”. So I had no choice but to make a U-Turn and stop and park beside the Warung.

I was still inside my car while my Late uncle already got out of the car and even sitting on the chair. I got chills around my body. My body hair stands up and I know it does not seems right. Maybe It just my negativity thoughts. So sit with him and waited for order. The light was on but there is no one around. So I walk around the shop and thinking the owner of the shops may be resting or something. I don’t dare to enter the cashier area as I scared I would be caught as intend to rob. So I slowly walk and suddenly a voice came being heard from my back. “Yes What do you want to eat?” Shit Crap I jumped and turn around with shock while catching my breath. I just pass by there and I am very sure there is no one there. “We would like to order some food and drinks”, I replied to him. He walk to the table where my Late uncle is sitting. I followed him by behind. Ordered some food and the way he talk, replied is sound like creepy. The food was prepared quite fast. Usually it will take about 15-20mins. But this one, he served withing 5mins together with our drinks.

So while we are eating, we heard a car passing by. And upon passing by, that car sounded their car horn at us. Maybe he wants to indicate he is passing by. So we both let it be. But it happends again. Another car pass by and sounded their horn at us. Not only once, but nearly 4 times. “Lets carry on our journey. We are running late”, I told my Late uncle. And he agreed. We called the Warung uncle and our eyes are looking at the cashier area because that’s where we last see him entering. And suddenly, we heard a reply behind us. I was shock like how in the world he is right behind us?! I just literally gave him the cash and told him to keep the change and I told my uncle to get into the car. As soon as we get inside the car, I drive off. Make a u-turn to continue with the road. And just about 100m, I look at the Warung through my rear-view mirror. And to my surprise, the chairs were flipped upside-down. Usually when it was put like that, it indicated the shop is closed. I just continue on. I thought to myself maybe I was a little bit sleepy. Few hours later, we arrive at my uncle destination, Tumpat KTM station. We arrive early and luckily his train was due to arrive in 2hrs later. And that was the last train. So I accompany him bought the train ticket, and buy some titbits for him to eat while in his journey to hometown and check-in. Before check-in, my Late uncle advise me to find a hotel or a safe crowded place for me to sleep and depart in the morning instead of straight after this. “it’s ok. I will be fine. If I were to feel totally sleepy, I will find a petrol station or pit stop and get myself to sleep”, I said to him. Just be careful, update me where is your whereabouts, and keep praying inside your heart if anything happened” he said. I was clueless but I was too tired to think for an answer.

After sending him, I went to nearby shop to buy some drinks and ciggerate. A long journey back, but this time, I decided to take a shortcut to Johore Bahru. Instead of driving back to where I drive previously, I decided to drive by Terengganu, Cherating, Kuantan, Mersing, Kota Tinggi, and lastly, Johore Bahru. The journey took about 9-10hrs according to GPS. The GPS that I use previously is Google Map. But this time, I use WAZE. A lot of people said WAZE is much better. But yeah, there is positive and negative of it. and furthermore, the route that I’m going to drive is Kampung Area. Where the road is only meant for 2-way Traffic, no lamp post. And the darkness is, I could say honestly, from the view inside your car, the visibility is just 5-8metres without your headlight turn of. But if with headlights on, if you are using Halogen Headlight, low bean your visibility will be around 10-14metres. But with high beam, you can barely see after 100metres of your view due to fog. Advisable use HID 8000K. its white and yellowish. And that’s the minimum of using low beam. Don’t use LED. It may be clearer but you going to blind up the oncoming traffic. That point I was using Halogen light. The length you may heard it quite far. But in reality, inside your car, your 10-14metres is not exactly as what being mention. It was counted from your car front bumper to the furthest.

I started my journey. Just after I turn right upon junction ahead, I saw the dark road ahead of me. There will be cars but minimal. Like you can see around 1 or 2 in every 7-8km. and the dangerous is, the bend, big lorries, blind spots. That is not going to be my dangerous. There is much more dangerous ahead which without my knowing.

I just enter the zone of Terengganu. It’s creepy. Been driving for 1hr. And I don’t see any food stalls. Kampung route they do have food stalls but not like RnR. This one is built just beside the road. Some of it will open 24hrs but some will not. 20mins driving along Terengganu zone…………

 20mins of driving, in the middle of nowhere, pitch black just only hoping for your headlight, MY CAR SUDDENLY BREAK DOWN! Break down in the middle of nowhere. You don’t even know how far is the workshop and you don’t even know how far is the petrol station. And furthermore, some of the kampung area have telecom signal and some do not have and some will have but not as strong. And my phone signal is weak. Like 1bar. And mostly will be no network. I was scared at that point. So I try some of my basic knowledge and see what’s wrong with my car. Theirs is a different between car battery weak, no petrol and sparkplug out. I just top up petrol before my journey back and petrol is out. I turn my car key to ignition slot and turns out all the indicate is still clearly visible. No weaken of lights symptoms. I tried to start the car and my car cranks up. And spark plug and battery is not an issue. So I look around the engine bay with my phone torchlight to see anything burst. And suddenly…

Guys. My boot door suddenly SLAMMED!!! “BAAAM!!!” I was shocked till I hit my head on the hood cover when I suddenly raise up my head in a shocking way. My heart pump truly fast. Just like you finish your 400m sprint. Firstly, I thought it’s the wind. But it’s impossible. It may be cold at night but there is no wind. I’m driving an SUV and my boot door opens sideways. I mean pull the door and it opens sideways.  So I check inside my car if there is any animals like monkey or something but there’s none. So I check the surrounding of my car and still there is no one. To my confusement, “maybe passing by cars that regulates winds close my boot door”, I said to myself. So I didn’t manage to see what is the issue to my car engine bay, I decided to give it another shot to start the engine. Just by only one CRANK, the engine starts running. Felt happy and closed the hood of my car and get inside my car and start driving.

Everything goes smoothly. BUT only for the time being. I didn’t ever thought of what is going to happened next. What happened next is, my car became heavier and heavier. My thought was maybe I’m driving uphill. But at the same time, I played surah Yassin through the CD Player. When it started playing, my car begins to shake aggressively. At the same time I heard soft screaming. I was like, gosh. May this be a bad dream. Not reality. Hahahaha. Just want to make myself relax and not to think negative. I decided to play it louder. Not too sure whether I turn the volume up to the max or not, I just turn it up to full blast. I can’t stop the car because the road is like pitch black. And I know it’s not safe to stop. Make my decision to continue driving and stay inside my car.

Multiple cars high-beam at me. Even the truckers. Just to be safe, I turn on my hazard lights and driving slowly so that it any vehicles behind me can pass by. I have to search for a nearby Mosque. I can’t go to Surau because surely it will be locked. So I go to Masjid and it’s 45mins from my location. Like it or not, I just have to make my way there to make myself safe. 45mins of driving, I reach to nearby Masjid and the gate is still open and I drive inside and park my car and I went to take my ablution and sit inside the Mosque till I fell asleep till dawn. I woke up upon hearing the Azan Subuh. Wake up, and re-take my ablutions again and do my Dawn prayer.

Get into my car once done praying and I didn’t realise my phone battery was dead. Charge it up and to my surprise, I got a lot of whatsapp missed call from my Late uncle and his wife, FB calls and text even from my wife. So I told my wife, I’m fine and want to continue my way back home. I’m still at Terengganu Zone. Been driving for 3hrs and still at Terengganu? Usually it will take about 1-2hrs.  She will know my whereabouts because we both install GPS Tracker app so we will know where each other are if we were to go for holiday and we lost each other. I arrive Johore Bahru at around 6pm. Reach home at around 7+ pm. I wash myself up and had my dinner and have a chat with my wife. She told me that my Late uncle was worried because he told my wife, while on my way sending him to Tumpat,Kelantan, there is something following us when we stop for supper on this one Warung. He wanted to accompany me till dawn but I insist of him to reach his hometown meet his wife on time.

My Late Uncle worried till he call me non-stop and ended up to inform my wife if I were to reach home, told me to give him a call. I did and I told him what happened. I do know it’s spiritual activity around that Kampung but I know, Kampung area is always like that. Weird things happened during at night. Just need to calm down and realise yourself and know what decision are you going to make to protect yourself. To me, something like this is what I call Challenging. It challenge your mentality, your Iman. I may be scared but not totally scared. Because what I learn is, if you are scared with spirits or could say Syaitan(Satan), Syaitan will continue playing with you. But if you are brave, remember, Allah is there to protect you. Don’t ever kneel down to Syaitan. It will be the worst. That’s all for my Paranormal Incident that trully happen to me after I send my Late Uncle to Tumpat,Kelantan.

 Assallammu’alaikum

Signing off,

~Azah~

[random-anon-rants]

I Feel Like I’m Back In High School...

The title probably doesn’t really seem to link up with my story so before we begin, I shall explain. I don’t feel like I’m in high school because of the situations I am going through, it is more the feeling of hopelessness I felt in my teenage years. The feeling of not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, being so stressed and overwhelmed by everything that I just want to make everything stop. I want to end it all. But I won’t. I choose to live for one very important reason.

My family is falling apart, two of my sisters are having this massive argument that looks like it will end up with them never speaking again. I’m the one who has to clean up their mess, fix their problems and take care of anyone they hurt along the way. They can’t even have a civil conversation without me there mediating. The worst part is, they are my older sisters, I an seven years younger than the eldest of the two but I am parenting them.

My friends have been involved in four car crashes within the last two months, two of which, my boyfriend was in the back seat. They could have been killed. The first two times my friends were the innocent party and have been the ones that got crashed into, the later two however, the two my boyfriend was in the car, it was completely their fault because they were being absolute idiots.  

On top of that I nearly lost my job because I was an hour late due to my inability to sleep because I keep stressing. Even now I am supposed to be asleep because I have a shift early in the morning, but I can’t sleep.

I could rant for hours about my recent issues but I have decided to keep things short, I can’t go 20mins alone without crying and its a real problem. I keep having the same feeling I did in high school, just end it all, you can make yourself stop hurting. I have chosen to live for one reason. 

Lyla

Lyla is a baby. She is four months old. She is not my baby but she is my joy. I see her once a week. That few hours I get to cuddle her are pure bliss, her smile brings me so much happiness. When her mother posts pictures of her, they make me smile through the moments I am most sad. No one has made me feel this way before but I love her so much even though I have only known her for two months. The love I feel for her is so different from any kind of love I have felt before. Her smile is the reason I stand strong, her giggles are the reason I smile, The way she dances keeps my head I high, the way she copies my movements and expressions is just pure heaven.

She is not my child. I am not related to her, but she is my current reason to hold onto life. I want to see her grow up, I want to see what kind of amazing woman she’ll be. I want t give her the world.

She is not my child, I did not give her life, but everyday, she is the reason I still have mine.

[liambaileyjournalism]

Moloch was present in the White Worm’s den when Han Solo was brought to Lady Proxima after his failed mission. Lady Proxima was angered by Han’s failure and ordered Rebolt to hit Han with a staff. Han got angered by this, grabbed the staff from Rebolt, and said that he will hit back. Moloch then pulled out a blaster and pointed it at Han. Frightened for Han, Qi’ra ran in front of Moloch and pleaded with him to not shoot Han. Han then grabbed a rock and broke a window with it, exploiting the Grindalid weakness of sunlight. This caused Proxima to burn it up and retreat into the water. Han then took Qi’ra, pushed through the scumrats, and ran outside the den. Moloch quickly covered his face with armor so he wouldn’t burn, and started to pursue Han and Qi’ra. As Han and Qi’ra were escaping in a land speeder, Moloch opened fire on them, but was not able to hit them or the speeder.

Moloch then took Rebolt, Syke, and a pack of Corellian hounds with him in his A-A4B landspeeder to pursue the White Worm deserters with. Moloch quickly caught up to Qi’ra and Han in his speeder, and started to knock their speeder with his much more sizable speeder. Moloch proceeded to chase the deserters through the streets of Coronet City. Han eventually took the chase into an industrial manufacturing plant. Han then slanted his speeder to try and fit through a small crevice so Moloch would not catch him. At the end of the crevice Han’s speeder became wedged in the crevice, so him and Qi’ra were forced to continue running on foot. Moloch’s speeder was way to big to go after them, so like Han and Qi’ra, him and his pary were forced to chase the deserters on foot.

Moloch tracked Han and Qi’ra down to the Coronet Spaceport, but was momentarily stopped by a stormtrooper. Moloch informed the Stormtrooper of the runaways, and the Stormtroopers began to look for Han and Qi’ra as well. Han and Qi’ra were able to get to the gate to leave Corellia, but as they were walking out, one of Moloch’s thugs grabbed Qi’ra, and brought her to Moloch. The gate then closed so they couldn’t get Han. Thus, allowing Han to escape Corellia.

How does working on Star Wars compare to all your work on other projects?

Playing Moloch in Solo: A Star Wars Story is definitely the highlight of my career, it is also the most difficult and challenging job I have ever done.

How did you get the role of Moloch in Solo: A Star Wars Story?

I was originally cast as the stunt double to Moloch, but when the creatives saw what I could do with the movement in the costume and animatronic head I was given the cast position. The screen test I did was quite entertaining to say the least. I was in a long narrow room with mirrors down one end with around 15 creatives and the heads of department. It was the first time I ever had on the full costume and animatronic head, to my surprise I had zero visibility, absolutely zero… I was asked to move with a serpent like motion down the room towards the mirrors. I asked that someone let me know when I get close to the end so I know when to stop. When the animatronics are turned on it’s like having your head stuck in a bee’s hive, lots of buzzing from the servo motors and bits and pieces moving very close to your face.

I started off down the room, really focusing on my breath and balance making the serpent like action, I found a nice rhythm and felt really confident, then it all came to a sudden halt. I actually walked straight in to the mirrors at the other end… There was a sudden hard stop and the animatronic mesh smashed me in the face, I had no idea I had hit the mirror and the impact opened up a small seam in the face which allowed me to see a figure standing in front of me, not realising it was my own reflection, I thought I had run into someone and started to apologies to them, or to myself as it were. Turns out that everyone just assumed I could see as I was moving with so much confidence they forgot to tell me when to stop!

When you were given the role of Moloch, were you given any info to accommodate this?

Yes, I sat down and had a long conversation with Neal Scanlan, head of creature effects, who gave me a lot of insight into how they came about to develop Moloch and how he fit into the Star Wars universe and the type of movement they thought he should have. I was also given the script to see how Moloch fits into the story to develop his relationship with Qi’Ra and Han.

What was it like on the set for Solo?

The sets on Solo where authentic, all the sets I worked on were built in their entirety, the attention to detail is phenomenal. Walking into the Cornelian space port, which was the first scene we shot with Moloch, was mind blowing, it was huge. It took up the entire 007 Studio at Pinewood and had all the creatures and robots roaming around live. The most incredible set was the refinery outpost on Savareen, where we see Han process the Coaxium after the Kessel Run. The outpost was built in a national park on Fuerteventura which was very hot and windy making it a very hostile environment to be filming in, especially considering how many creature characters we had there, the sunsets were epic, truly a stunning experience.

Can you describe your time filming Moloch’s scenes?

Intense! The creature team developed and customised a video goggle system so that I could see, after many tests I found the best place to mount the camera was on my chest, pointing at my feet, so I quickly started to recognise people by their lower halves… Mounted on the head and the video feed had trouble keeping up with the head movement, plus orientation was surprisingly difficult.

Nearly every scene Moloch is in involves stairs, and to top it off Lady Proximas’ Den was shot under UV light which the camera did not pick up, so all I saw was darkness, try navigating stairs, water, camera marks, positions and lots of running with dogs, mostly blind… As the head took 20mins to take off then put back on I would spend hours at a time in it with the video goggles on, eyes closed, while my team would be keeping me cool with fans etc.

How long did it take to get into costume?

As the Moloch costume is a full animatronic head rig and creature face it only took around 20 minutes to get into the costume, but that was after countless hours doing fittings to get it right. I had to have my head cast for a custom skull cap as well as a sculpted backpack system that would take the weight of the animatronic.

What are some of your fondest memories from being in Solo?

It is always the people, on every film I work on, it is the passionate people and the odd ball characters who make this such an incredible industry to work in. If I had to choose one memory, it would be when my mother and eldest daughter, 4 yrs, joined me for a week in Fuerteventura and came out to visit the Savareen set. Now she thinks that every time daddy goes to work that is where I am, magic!

Who are some of your favourite characters from the franchise and why?

On book day at school I was always dressed as Luke Skywalker and my brother as Darth Vader… Yoda is my all-time favourite though.

How did you get into stunt work, and can you describe what the job entails for anyway who is unsure?

I used to teach Capoeira while I was studying a media degree at university, I was approached by some post graduates who had funding to shoot a feature film which had a lot of fighting in it. During work on this film I met a professional stuntman who gave me advise on how to pursue stunt work and where to begin training. So I finished my degree then moved cities and started training for stunts.

My best advice to anyone wanting to get into stunts is to do as much research as possible, talk to as many stunt professionals as you can and never say you can do something when you can’t! There are many different ways to do a single stunt so it is important to be able adapt to a situation and not consider all this right or wrong. I often get hired because of my skill set but then asked to do something completely different! My approach is that unless I can levitate I will never impress anyone with my physicality in this industry. There is always someone stronger, better or younger waiting for their turn. I can only ever do my absolute best with what I know and the more experience you get the more you know.

How did you get involved with Marvel?

My first big budget feature film was 2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine where I was hired as a stunt performer, then again I was hired for The Wolverine in 2013 for my parkour speciality as a ninja in the snow village scene where Logan is captured.

Years later I had actually just finished shooting on the DC Film Wonder Woman in the UK when I received a call to double for Loki on Thor Ragnarok in Australia. Subsequently it was during filming of Ragnarok that I was called to come in for a screen test for Solo: A Star Wars Story. So the last few years have been amazing!

What was it like being Tom Hiddleston’s stunt double in Thor: Ragnarok, and can you describe the scenes you filmed?

Working with Tom is great! He has a great physicality and is a master of his craft. Tom would always push to do his action and fight scenes himself, which means we got to do a lot of training sessions together.

One of the more dangerous scenes was shot in an alley way in Brisbane, Australia, dressed up to look like New York city. In the scene Hela kills Odin then smashes Thors’ hammer and blasts Thor and Loki through the air smashing into dumpsters. There is a brief top shot of the scene in the Trailer for Ragnarok but the scene was replaced in the theatrical release.

The Thor Stunt double and I were both on wires being pulled by air rams that threw us backwards about 15 meters into a pair of prop dumpsters. We dialled in the rams during our rehearsals, I was ‘comfortably’ hitting the dumpster consistently then landing on the concrete floor on my side. During the take, in full costume which adds weight and some restriction, I hit the dumpster upside down which meant I also hit the concrete upside down on my head! The shot looked amazing but unfortunately will never see the light of day…

You were also a stunt double in two of the Wolverine films, who were you the double for, and what was that experience like?

I was a regular stunt performer for the first and played one of the snow ninja’s in the second film due to my parkour skill set, used for running and jumping along and off the sloped roof tops. I was 1 of 3 Caucasians hired in a 20 strong Asian stunt team. Superhero films can be a lot of fun as you get to be super creative with the movements and ideas, often breaking the convention of ‘regular’ action. Working with the stunt team 87eleven is great, they are so talented and creative.

  Harley Durst Interview – Moloch & Loki Stunt Double. Moloch was present in the White Worm's den when Han Solo was brought to Lady Proxima after his failed mission.