#but i googled it and maaaaan i love them

[hamingo]

I'm gonna shiny hunt a mawile I love the uorple bitch

[queenofallimagines]

oh good gods pls your luciferian hcs made me YELL they’re so good lmao i was side eyeing my altar and space for lucifer the WHOLE TIME

do you think you could do a part two? and if possible, nsfw? if not thats more than okay!! thank you and i hope you’re doing so good!!!

🕷️anon

Absolutely 🕷anon! AND LMAO YEAH I COULD FEEL HIM SIDE EYEING ME ACROSS THE ROOM AS I WROTE THESESGSHSJS asking the old man “why are you like this” whenever lucifer in game does something corny😭 ik he’s sick of me

Lucifer:

- Okay so since part 1 was when you arrived this will be more about day to day life in the next term

- Right off the bat I’m imagining minor petty spats that the other brothers are like…. Wtf is going on here

- Like y’all have been glaring across the table at one another for 30 mins and haven’t spoken a word

- WAY more picky w offerings lmao

- Is literally going to be super extra about it for no reason other than to bother you

- For example! When you give an offering to oshun( African orisha they’re like the HR in the heaven department just above the angel hierarchy) you have to eat a little first bc she was poisoned once so it’s like to show you’re in good faith

- Lucifer will ask you to do that w food you don’t like

- “Eat some”

- “I got this for you-“

- “And I want you to taste some😌”

- “….. do I really I have to???”

- “Are you telling me what to do w MY offering🤨”

- MAKE FUN OF HIM PLEASE ITS SO FUNNY!!

- A lot of people ( white peoples I fear😔) be talking about he only accepts blood offerings and you have to sell your soul or whatever and stuff but literally this man will be giddy over a red candle w gold glitter

- Write all your assignments in sparky pen so when he looks at them he can’t hold back a smile

- As a joke you leave crystals associated with him in his coat pockets but he will never take them out

- Congratulations you played ya self

- You doing the stuff you do for him out of habit will fluster him if you say it

- “Why are you waking up so early to get ready?”

- “Hm? For Lucifer”

- “No im not gunna drink this tea it’s an offering🙄”

- Please don’t tell his brothers he will lock himself in his office💀

- Whenever you google “what can I do for Lucifer” 9/10 the first thing will be taking care of yourself

- So when your self caring w asmo and you go “oh I do this bc Lucifer likes it”

- The house will expose in chaos

- Mammon demanding you tell him your card numbers “for him” LMAO

- They’re all super jealous

- Gotta tell em its nothing personal he’s just always been there for you

- Whew if he reached out to YOU?

- The silence in the house REAL LOUD😭

- Belphegor waking up and going “ik you fucking lying!!!”

- You’re all confused like???

- “…..you said Lucifer… reached out to YOU?”

- “??????yeah????”

- “As in… he ASKED you to work with him?”

- “Yeah, I couldn’t stop thinking about his name and he showed up on my door one day”

- Lmao belphie and mammon are the LOUDEST FR

- “YOU CHOSE A HUMAN?? MR I HATE HUMANS BECAUSE THEYRE WEAK??📸”

- OH SO THERES MORE THAN ONE FAKE BITCH IN THIS HOUSE HUH?”

- lmao he’s sitting there red faced clenching his fist like

- “Listen I can explain”

- He cannot explain😭

- Can’t even say he did it on a whim

- “He really picked me up like a wet cat lmao”

- “Mc I am literally begging you to shut the FUCK up”

- Oh maaaaan diavolo will get a Kick out of this!!

- Solomon is very salty

- “But I can’t get a pact😒😒”

- He’s literally going to double down and bother him more

- “Lucifer you never told me you were taking on disciples🥺”

- “I didn’t think it was that important lord diavolo simply to pass the time”

- Simeon is laughing but internally having the feels bc he’s like 🥹 “even after all this time you still choose to be a guardian angel”

- Will tell you embarrassing stories about him he is now super close to you

- “Lucifer being the lords favorite was also the best one at singing👀 he loved music”

- That’s tru btw lmao Lucifer was like one of the angels who liked singing the most thats what makes humans and angels so alike- love for music and dancing-

- Call him your morning star and he MELTS

- Back to why were really here😌

- Call him that during sex or when you first wake up and he’s on cloud nine

- FUCK HIM DURING GOLDEN HOUR🗣🗣

- He’s literally he rises in the morning for a reason!!

- He will deadass purpose bc imagine riding him as the sun stars peaking over the horizon

- He’s under you moaning looking up at you w the most glazed over love struck eyes

- The sun filtering through the window and hitting him juuuuuuuust right

- That it looks like he has a halo again

- Breathlessly calling your name as you grind down on him

- He barely manages to get out that he’s close before you caress some of his hair out of his face

- “Cum for me then my Morningstar”

- Time freezes for like 16 seconds and his eyes are getting teary

- He hugs you close as he starts rutting his hips into you harder

- Will cum and keep going until he’s about to pass out

- Holding you like a lifeline

- When you can finally breathe and think straight he pulls you in for a kiss

- Literally stealing your breath away

- Will say I love you in the most honest voice ever while smiling at you with teary eyes

- probably won’t stop touching you all day might as well just spend it in bed

-is embarrassed by body worship calling it now

- be HE can do that but if YOU sink to your knees behind his desk and hold eye contact he’s getting nervous

-“just showing my devout gratitude💕”

- embarrassed how fast he finishes

- if you keep doing to overstimulate him he’s putty in your hands

- this man is very soft he will crack at the slightest sign of domestic romance

- bring him coffee when he wakes up?

- he’s already selected a wedding venue

- I always thought it would be cute if he gave you his ring

- HILARIOUS IF HE DOSENT TELL YOU LMAO

- You swing by the celestial realm and it’s crickets and you’re like ??? Fuck is y’all starring at??🤨

- Simeon hums and says that nobody expected lucifer to get married much less to a human. How he was never one to put anything above his responsibilities

- Excuse me?

- “You’re wearing the right of light,yes? He doesn’t just give that to anyone dear. You two are bonded for life now🥰”

- “HELLO????”

[purplewitch156]

Sorry I can’t remember if you answered this, what made you want to learn book binding? Everything you shown about it looks so cool

Thanks! I actually get a bit worried about posting about bookbinding stuff and will often rein myself in. 😅

I didn’t know that bookbinding was a thing until @tohru-n contacted me about binding Entwined. I did some googling, and maaaaan. My mind was BLOWN. The realization that I could turn my fanfiction into physical books was an incredible moment. I felt such empowerment and validation and joy. I really enjoy the process. I love making journals. I love paper marbling. Typesetting is harder. You’ve got to take a lot of time thinking about design and themes, but that’s fun, too. And really satisfying when you find the right design that clicks with the story. I haven’t been able to bind any more of my fanfiction because for the past year I’ve been working on typesetting a cocktail book of my family’s favorite recipes. And there are a lot of them. So many that I got intimidated by the size and decided to divide it up into volumes. Once I get those bound, I’ll jump back into ficbinding. Maybe do Memento Mori!

Here are two particularly nice marbling victories from Sunday:

[ladecaland]

i saw your awesome dress from acnh! do you have a gridpattern or creator code? either would be lovely cus i know what design you got it from but i don't have the creativity myself, but it's so fkn cute i need it in my life.

Ok prepare yourself because I explain wayyyy too much. I think going into more detail here will help you and others though.

Thanks a ton for this ask! It helped me organize my process so I can share it with you and everyone else ^^

For inspiration:

The biggest thing with this dress is I approached it to make something I'd wear irl. I love a wide range of fashion and buying my fashion choices would cost my rent and soul so I'm continuing to live vicariously through my AC character lmao

I was inspired by those cute sweaters with drip designs and my favourite colour palettes to mix are black with bright and bold designs because I'm extra as fuck. I tried to search Google and Pinterest if anyone patterns with that drip design. Someone actually made this this sweater. I'm adding the hyperlink so you can check em out.

So with that, I used that design as my "base"

Planning:

I knew what I sorta wanted so then I looked up Lolita and Harajuku fashion and made a small board so I had reference for how jumperskirts look and physically work. It saved me time later on so I wasn't trying to draw from memory.

During it all, I also did tons of iterations where I'd stop, and make an extra copy to save on the side in case I add something major and mess up. A habit from doing digital art but it helps. There are no layers and no cache of 50 undo's lmao. About 3 times I actually saved and quit because I don't trust autosave in anything.

Moving on, I analyzed it to see how the pixel art for the previous sweater worked but hit a roadblock.

Some Technical Stuff

So I got that drip design down initially and had to adjust it for the smoothing as well as how the mesh works, then the rest that I added was basically accents on how jumperskirts work with details last. Again with making iterations and copied saves and frequently exiting the editor to see how it looks actually on my character.

New Horizon's pattern system has this anti-aliasing/smoothing algorithm where if certain colours are within a specific HSB range that I haven't fully figured out yet--they'll blend differently. So certain shading methods that worked in New Leaf can look really bad, off, or sometimes not even work. Some edges will round, some will stay sharp. It took a lot of experimenting to get the "lace" part at the bottom to work right because if I had a colour's saturation or brightness to close or too different, it would refuse to curve. A pink in my palette is almost identical to a purple but it didn't work the same.

There were some annoying small things like how grids are 32x32 in general so as an even number, I couldn't make it perfectly symmetrical and still have the white parts blend right. Literally one pixel difference. There were a lot of exasperated sighs.

Small colour and design principles to keep in mind.

I don't come from a pixel art background but this stuff is generally universal and its sorta stuff that makes sense but you sometimes don't think of.

I used a consistent theme and palette with the neon warm to cool tones and I added a little yellow to add some details but kept it minimal not overpower it.

I worked from bottom layers to top, skirt, shirt, suspenders, made sure seams were flush, final details.

Maaaaan, that was super long but thanks so much for the ask because some other people have wanted to know too. I did all this on my phone for the past hour so I hope it's not too messy.

The wings were a last-minute thing cause I have a sweater irl with them on the back and I was just all "Fuck yes, I need this". And the back was a little bare. So I figured those out and instead of shading via brightness/greys, I used the colours I did on the drips to add dimension and keep it unified.

So short story for my dress: I just made something I'd want to wear but can't afford irl.

Long story: [See Above]

[sweetestpill]

About Me (Tag)

I was tagged by @chikacupcake, the best person in the world.

1. Name/Nickname: Adam.

2. Gender: trans guy I guess. Am I a MAAAAAN, or am I a muppet???? (Am I a muppet???) If I’m a muppeeeet, then I’m a very manly muppeeet!

3. Star sign: I’m a Virgo sun and Capricorn moon/rising. Really proud holder of the Earth element.

4. Height: 5’6 so like… 168 or so. Not super sure though.

5. Time: it’s 20:15 as I’m writing this.

6. Birthday: who knows… It’s my little secret…

7. Favorite band/group: Set It Off, Gorillaz, Green Day, Arctic Monkeys, The Beatles, GRLwood, Fall Out Boy. Those are my main bands.

8. Song stuck in your head: Rät by Penelope Scott. Was listening to my Mommy Issues playlist last night.

9. Last movie: Soul. The new Pixar movie.

10. Last show: I’m rewatching Skins. Currently on Effy’s episode on season two.

11. When did I create this blog: maybe 2014? I wouldn’t know.

12. What do I post about: whatever I want lmao. I think there’s like, some Homestuck, some memes. I don’t know?

13. Other blogs: @princeofderse is like, for reblogging venty things. @homestuckmoodboards is for my… Homestuck moodboards… And @ennuyantmens is where I post some venty shit that I find on my Google Docs.

14. Do I get asks: never did I think.

15. Why I chose my url: my ex-girlfriend picked it for me while we were still together. We both liked Troye Sivan and he had just released Happy Little Pill, and the she said “sweetestpill” was cute, and I liked it. I don’t remember much.

16. Average hours of sleep: about three out of antidepressants and seven-eight in my normal life (with antidepressants).

17. Lucky number: 1, 11, and 3. I don’t really know if those things exist but those are like, my favorite number and my two lifepath numbers.

18. Instrument: I don’t play any and am not really interested! If I could magically learn one it would be the electric guitar.

19. What am I wearing: shorts and the tank top I always wear.

20. Dream job: Honestly? Actor. But realistically? Writer and model. I just wanna be fucking famous and happy.

21. Dream trip: I don’t really… like travelling? Unpopular opinion I guess lmao.

22. Favorite food: cheese.

23. Nationality: like all good people, Brazilian.

24. Favorite song: I have too many to name. I’m going to shuffle my “favorites ever” playlist on Spotify and write them here:

My Heart Is Buried In Venice - Ricky Montgomery

Answer - They Might Be Giants

The Dismemberment Song - Blue Kid

Go To Bed Angry - Set It Off

Wii Tennis - 420 Unlovable

Scream - High School Musical

Give Me Novacaine - Green Day

The Ballad of Hamantha - Jack Stauber

25. Last book I read: Hayden’s Playlist. It’s weird.

26. Top three fictional worlds: the Walking on Senpai one, the Homestuck one, and the Adventure Time one. All others are beatable.

I tag @myotocrimson and @hidingthetruthh-blog-blog to do this. Love y’all.

[almaasi]

reaction post typed while watching SPN 14x15 “Peace of Mind”

CAS!!!!! CAS CAS CAS IS THE BESTEST CAS CAS CAS CAS

03:24pm

ALL RIGHT I’M READY

I ACTUALLY SLEPT LAST NIGHT SO I’M NOT CURRENTLY DYING. only, like 40% woozy and 90% drained of energy

LOOKING FORWARD TO SOMETHING WHOLESOME

another steve yockey episode?? screenplay by someone called meghan fitzmartin. sweet

-

all i know about this episode is from a tumblr post that said “cas”, “funny” and “brother in law bonding”, and an instagram post with sam looking like a shady art auctioneer who sells endangered animals on the side

-

03:32

k, got my bean salad, got my magnesium chloride footbath, i am as ready as can be

-

03:33pm

i really hope they name the snake ‘cause i’m posting a fic tomorrow with the snake mentioned and i don’t have a name

-

03:35

“scooby doo matinee”

ehehe

-

03:36

digging the 1950s thing

...but not actually the 1950s?

-

03:37

“.....duuude??? do you.. need help?????”

griffin is the hero of this story and must be protected at all costs

-

03:39

ah the snake is a boy snek?

-

03:41

cas: “i thought you were going to sleep until the cows dragged you home”

dean: “thshsa notdhfsdg n”

 i fucking love everything about this

-

03:47

i still love cas’ car

i hope nothing bad ever happens to it

and i hope we see dean taking care of it the way he takes care of baby, and/or showing cas how to do it

-

03:49

the little 1950s town

reminds me of pee-wee herman tbh

also dear god now i want to write a fic where there’s a town like this except dean and cas are undercover as a gay couple and everyone’s freaking out about it because being queer is ~accepted~ in modern times but it goes against the ~historical aesthetic~ of the town and dean and cas are “faking” except accidentally change the minds of everyone through the legitimacy of their love

-

03:54

cas: “saturday evening post... i look at them sometimes after you fall asleep at night”

/googles that

ooh

also..............if i didn’t ship destiel so damn hard that would be such a perfect sastiel line

“they’re very soothing”

;~; cas and his soothing, stimmy things

i love him i love him i love him

-

03:58

oh maaaaan i love sam and cas but WHAT I WOULDN’T GIVE TO HAVE DEAN AND CAS ON A DATE IN A MILK SHOP

-

03:59

oh the milkshake probably turns people kooky and sam’s gonna turn but cas didn’t drink the milkshake so he’s gonna be fine

edit: damn i got got.  but also yeah cas was fine

-

04:01

did cas say “like a ripe melon ON the sun”?

yes he did

but why

-

04:03

i like that this town seems pretty diverse despite the general view we see nowadays of the 1950s

-

04:04

the way dean shrugs and say “i like bacon”

is so nauseatingly cute

i wanna cry and squish him 

-

04:05

I KNEW HE HAD MICE SOMEWHERE

in my fic the snake makes friends with the mouse jack tries to feed him (the fic is a 14.5k dean/cas smut fic called Measure of Thigh Love and will be posted here tomorrow)

-

04:07

lady: “morals. gotta have morals”

*eyes cas”

“you know”

whAT DOES IT MEAN

does he look like a good boy, an upstanding pillar of the community, definitely not a perpetually confused hot mess in love with a freckly bisexual trashbag

-

04:08

the fact cas so calmly and blankly reads the pornographic letters talking about the guys dick

i just

does anyone even understand how much i love him

every fucking thing he does or says makes me love him more

-

04:12

ANGEL FOOD CAKE & DEVILS’ FOOD CAKE

YEEEEEEEEAH OkaY DEAN

i literally just posted a fic where he eats angel food cake

AND DEAN WILLINGLY BOUGHT CAKE

BISEXUAL DEAN /  DESTIEL ALERT

also?? feeding a snake angel food cake? 10/10 good omens vibe

but also god no THE SNAKE DOESN’T EAT THAT but i love the journey they’re going on to find out what the snake eats

-

04:16

the fact dean panicked that jack was choosing the devil’s cake over the angel one

um

maybe he just liked chocolate

BUT ALSO

PROOF THAT CAKE ALWAYS REPRESENTS SOMETHING

-

04:18

the house lady has an mp3 player / headphones?? maybe she’s the centre of all this

edit: maybe they had pink headphones in the 1950s ????

-

04:19

bird poop all down cas’ car aww

-

04:21

like

i know everyone’s dying and it’s clearly terrible

but also i find the vibe of this town very calming

the clock ding-donging in the background especially, when cas visits mrs smith

also her apron is pretty

-

04:22

cas: “the tall man.......... hair? he has beautiful hair?”

that’s fucking c u t e

if dean heard that he would complain for 6 hours straight and not let it go, ever, and he’d say it’s because he doesn’t like sam’s hair but it’s secretly because he’s jealous, both of sam’s hair and also that cas thinks it’s beautiful

-

04:26

the “hey you’re a woman make me a drink/dinner” thing is highkey irking me though

unsure if that’s the town or just sam

then again he was clearly under the influence the first time he asked for coffee too

-

04:28

cas: “you will snap the hell out of it!!!”

sam: *flinches* “sir, you watch your mouth”

omg

-

04:30

haitch eee double hockey sticks

-

04:34

clearly jack does still have some soul because he cares about the snake

-

04:36

when the light gets his eyes like that he doubles in prettiness

-

04:44pm

THAT PARALLEL TO WHEN CAIN!DEAN DIDN’T STAB CAS

-

04:46

cas: “GOD HAS A BEARD”

-

04:49

cas: “yeah, i told him about the cardigan”

10/10 shoutout to the fact dean and cas talk off screen

-

04:51

“i’ll help you”

oh no is he gonna kill the snake

oh no oh no

-

04:52

oh maaaaaaaaaaan i dunno how i feel about that ending

and thus i don’t know how to feel about any of this

i loved the slowness and the softness of this

and i LOVED seeing so much of cas

but after the ending all my emotions just got steamrollered

i loved that the girl saved the day by overthrowing her abusive father but also not killing him and also giving him a nice ending, so to speak

i love that there was some representation in here even though i never caught anyone’s name besides sam’s “JUSTIN SMITH” and griffin

dean and cas seem to talk in the kitchen a lot which is nice !!!

i dunno i’m just sad about the snake... jack did the right thing maybe? but also i’m bummed out about it

sooo much snake/angel/cake symbolism <3

i’m looking forward to reading metas and stuff about this episode, especially about how the sam+cas stuff is actually dean/cas stuff in disguise, because frankly it kind of looked like it even though i could’t say how at this point i time

i FREAKING LOVE SEEING SAM AND CAS WORK TOGETHER THOUGH. SO MUCH. can only imagine how hard it was for misha and jared to film this though. especially the scene where cas reads the pornographic letters, and when jared is lying on top of misha

cas casually reading porn is the best

cas bringing sam out of hypnotism by relating to him about lost armies was probably my favourite part though

i mean, excluding the bits where dean and cas talk because dfjsdjgfd i love them i can’t help it

10/10 i guess? i can’t think about anything to complain about :P was a pretty good, solid, all-rounder, yay

[quirrrky]

Two of my mutuals have already tagged me to do this. Thank you for considering me @dayseternal-blog and @aquenchedsoul 💕 

1. Nickname: Hint: It’s a chocolate, because I was named after a chocolate. Like legit.

2. Zodiac: The cardinal fire 🔥♈

3. Height: 5’4

4. Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw then Hufflepuff next based on Time’s Sorting Hat Quiz (I really did this one hahaha)

5. Last Thing I Googled: our times watch for free online (omg please forgive me for this)

6. Favorite musicians: ALOT maaaaan! Classic would be Nat King Cole, the Beatles, Beegees. I don’t really have a go-to singer for the present artists cuz Im so random

7. Song Stuck in My Head: I love it when you call me Señorita~ Señorita💃🏻by ShawMila, because the music video’s just too damn hot and the song kept on playing inside of my head. Total LSS.

8. Followers: 100 something? I don’t really know 🤭

9. Following: Around 100 something as well, I guess? 😝

10. Do you get asks: Yes, some are still WIPs, please bear with me. Mostly, on ff.net and rarely on AO3 (I guess the AO3 community is not just into me tho 😩) Please feel free to drop an ask, btw!!! I’ll answer immediately if it’s not a creative output, but if it is, it might take some time. TT-TT

11. Amount of Sleep: Not enough, I’m telling you. 😋

12. Lucky Number: 1 ;)

13. What are you wearing: A yellow shirt with a big pink bunny print plus sport shorts

14. Dream Job: Marketing Strategist and Part-time College/Senior High Literature professor 🤓

15. Dream Trip: Eurotrip!!!

16. Instruments: pen, notepad and PC (lol)

17. Languages: A li’l bit of Japanese (cuz I watch too much anime) and a li’l bit of Spanish (cuz I’m 1/4 Hispanic). A whole lotta Filipino and English. 💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻

18. Favorite Song: I love a lot of songs that I cannot choose among them! Hmmm…Some are Unforgettable by Nat King Cole, Remember Summer Days by Anri, Darling by Girl’s Day, Never be the Same by Camila Cabello, Beautiful by Bazzi and How Deep is your Love by Beegees

19. Random fact: I originally blog about contemporary/new adult novels that I receive for free in exchange of a review, but not here on Tumblr tho. NaruHina stopped me from a come back. 😂

16. Aesthetics: Retro Anime aesthetic. Like thizzz

Tagging these peeps to do the same. It’s your time @mysummerchoi, @kamaseal and @linisen.

[survivingtw]

[Travel] Ghent, Belgium

A spontaneous choice to head up to Ghent.  

Those who know Europe have probably heard of Ghent before --- I’m ashamed I’m not one of them.

I don’t really remember how I heard of it but I believe a friend of mine was talking about how it would make a good day trip from Brussels ... or maybe I was just jealous of someones instagram. 

Nevertheless, I went up to Ghent for a day!! 

This fairytale town was such a break from the regular European track.

Although there were still a number of tourists (it’s not a big place) there was plenty of quiet space  and spots to admire. 

I’ll never look at bakeries and supermarkets the same way again --- only Europe can do it right :P

Ya go to Belgium for the fries, but I honestly had a love affair with the croquettes ... MAAAAAN.

Going down different roads and looking at whats close by on Google Map. Came across some of the most interesting places. 

I might have never heard of this town before --- but, in a way I’m happy I didn’t. Turned out to be such a wonderful surprise. 

[ratralsis]

Alright, I finished the story.

I’m going to go over it again tomorrow and Tuesday to make sure that there are no obvious plotholes or typos, and that some of the things I tried to set up for later are actually set up and paid off, and then I’ll set up a queue to post the fourteen chapters over a few weeks. Doing them all at once feels like overkill, but I also think that making them, like, one a week might be too long of a wait.

I have a hard time watching TV shows at a rate of one a week, you know? Like, I’d call pretty much every Marvel series on Disney Plus a solid 6 or 7 out of 10. Good, but not great. Good enough. But I’ve also always waited until the last episode, then watched them at a rate of one episode per day instead of watching along as they come out at a rate of one episode per week.

If I had to wait a week between episodes, I’d stop giving a shit! It’d stop mattering to me! It’s like... Okay, here’s a timely example. The last God of War game came out in April of 2018. I played it later that year. Finished it. Didn’t platinum it or anything crazy like that, but I came pretty close. I liked it a lot! I wanted to know what’d happen next in that story.

Now that four years have gone by, I don’t care anymore! At all! It’s just been too long. There’s no mystery that can hold me for four years. That’s just how it works.

Less timely, but maybe still relevant: I spent years reading One Piece, but I’d always read it twenty or thirty chapters at a time. I’d get caught up, then forget about it for like five or six months.

It’s been probably close to two years since the last time I read it.

And I LOVE One Piece! I just also feel absolutely no curiosity about what happens next! Because it’s been too fucking long!

(I almost filled my posts about writing stupid scenes unapologetically with nothing but One Piece examples. The scene when the crew goes to rescue Robin from the world government? And she shouts “I wanna live!” (Her choked-up words in Japanese, ”生ぎたいっ!!!!”, became a line iconic enough that if you Google search it you find that panel and even lengthy articles breaking it down)? And Sogeking lights the world government flag on fire as a symbolic gesture? Shit, I’m getting choked up just thinking about it, and it’s as dumb as it gets.)

Now that it’s been so long, though, maaaaan, I don’t know. I don’t care! I know I should get back into it, but I just don’t have it in me.

So I sure don’t want that to happen with my dumb little story, so I’ll probably just set it up to have a new chapter either every day or every two days. That seems like the right amount of time to wait and think on what was in the previous chapter.

I’m probably wrong. It’s probably not good enough to ask people to wait between chapters at all, haha.

It’s probably not good enough to ask people to read it!

Hahahahahaaaaaaaaaa

Nobody likes people who bash their own work, though, so I’ll say this, and leave it at that until Wednesday: I really did do my best on this, it really is the best I can do, and I’m really happy with it, and I hope it means something to someone, eventually.

[pushermania]

Maaaaan this is a big one for me as I have been a fan of MOJOE for many years, and when we sat down to do this they informed me that I had never interviewed them before. Which is something I can't even fathom given the amount of times I have seen them live and how much I have listened to them and such. But I guess that is the case and this edition of Talk So Real is my first real talk with two of my favorites. 

MOJOE was a walking revolution from San Antonio back in the day. A live band hip hop experience that had it all and could not be questioned. The title of their Classic.Ghetto.Soul album summed it all up, and after a bit of a hiatus (in which rapper Easy Lee started a group called Third Root with MexStep and DJ Chicken George) they are back with a new album about to drop called Ancient Future Soul, which also sums things up. The guys played the record for me and a few other good folks and then we sat down to do the interview in the lovely upstairs portion of Simona's Coffee Bar in the Colton House Hotel on South Congress here in Austin. It really went down as they say. Word to Raf. 

On this episode we discuss such things as Beyonce and Solange's father Matthew Knowles signing them, Sun Ra, Johnna Lister, why sometimes people including myself and themselves need a hiatus, real soul music, Texas music, the game, we cover a lot of things and I think you will enjoy this one. Please tell a friend to tell a friend to dial into this Talk So Real movement, and thank you so much for your support. 

Check it out on these or whatever your favorite platform may be!

@Spotify https://spoti.fi/3IKYqNp

@ApplePodcasts https://apple.co/3uRGlHK

@Google Podcasts https://bit.ly/3o8DJBw

[dawning-novelty]

Hello Again

Firstly, I don’t really have a time set aside to sit down and write. You’ll come to find that my posts will flow the same way my brain does. A bit of this and that, and inevitably what ever keeps replaying my mind so much that I have to get it out or I’ll never be able to focus again. Do I have undiagnosed ADHD? Probably! On to todays post!

I’m a residential/ commercial cleaner and it’s been a heavy work week for me; I was absolutely certain that I would miss my tiny posting goal of 1x weekly. Then my weekend was pretty stuffed with things I needed to do that I had avoided all week. The last 3 years we haven’t decorated for the festive season for various reasons; the biggest one being that we had no money for a tree and space is limited in our current living situation. I also saw it as a lot of work for not much reason, as my mother is the only Christian out of the three of us. Although, I can totally get behind a holiday were a fat guy breaks into my place to leave me things I want and I only need to leave him cookies as thanks. My mother is having eye surgery 12/15/2021 and for a couple weeks I’ve been trying to figure out how to swing at least a small artificial tree. She likes seeing the decorations and it would give her something to look forward to and be excited about. I suppose I’ve put the thought of needing everything but not knowing how to get it firmly enough into the universe; because I got a text from one of my clients. She had just gotten a new tree with all the decorations and wanted to know if I could use the old one.

Well, yeah. Please and thank you! I was due in a couple of days later for a regular clean and my poor little car was packed full of stuff to surprise my mom with. We now have a 6.5 ft tree sitting in our living room/ my sleeping room. Took me hours to get together but my mom was really happy and that’s what matters. We were also given 9 strings of white lights (six of which I got on the tree), some silver and red baubles, a star, some luminaires, a wreath and velvet bows. I was absolutely certain my client gave me all her stuff until she showed one of the rooms in her house full of new stuff. Well okay then.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day doing laundry and making cookies. Every year I make cookies for all my clients and the people in the office I clean for. Last year I made a snowflake bread but this year is simple because maaaaan do I not have energy for bread this year.

All of that said, the real reason I sat down to write today was because an Instagram post unlocked a weird memory of an Elf on the Shelf incident. If you don’t know what Elf on the Shelf is…please Google this foul, and just plain creepy, beast.

This particular client has adult children who live outside their home but often come for visits. One of those years they brought an elf because it was weird and they wanted to show everyone how freaky it was. Everyone agreed it was fucked and immediately hated it but loved moving it around to catch people off guard. One day I was there and I put it outside while I was working. Well, the kids found it before I could put it back. Seeing it outside freaked them out so much they promptly yeeted it into the woods and told no one. When I was done, I went to put the little creep back inside but couldn’t find it anywhere. Confused, I went and asked about it and the kids very quietly told me what happened. Between laughing fits I told them that if that elf got outside by itself, it’ll definitely find its way back inside.

They went outside, found the stupid thing and promptly burned it in the fire pit. At least I know the house is secure from that particular curse.

Until next time!

[xerxia31]

Glühwein and Girl Talk - an Everlark drabble

The lovely @litlifelover and I have some of the most interesting discussions, and hopefully she’ll forgive me for turning one of them into this little drabble.

This one’s for you, M ;) I’m still keeping three Chrises...

“You can’t have all of the Chrises, Katniss, you have to save at least one for me,” Madge giggled, the warm ruby liquid in her cup threatening to slosh over the edge.

“Careful with that, drunkie,” Katniss snickered. “Peeta will be cheesed if you spill Glühwein all over his couch.” Madge rolled her eyes at the botched pronunciation.

“Who are you calling drunkie, drunkie?” Madge giggled again, but put the cup down anyway. “Peeta never gets cheesed,” she continued. “Your roomie is the most even-tempered guy I’ve ever met.”

“He has to be, to put up with me.” Katniss winked, and grabbed another cheese puff from the tray Peeta, her best friend forever, and roommate since they finished college a year and a half ago, had prepared earlier. He’d baked several trays of treats - both savoury and sweet - for her Christmas girls night in. But six hours into her annual celebration of mulled wine and bitching, the trays were nearly empty and all that remained of the Glühwein was two very drunk women and the lingering scent of orange and cloves. “Fine,” Katniss said, returning to their conversation. “I'll give you one Chris, your choice... but I'm keeping Henry Cavill.”

“Oh maaaaan,” Madge groaned. “You have three Chrises, you have to at least share Henry, I'm sorry, those are the rules.”

“Well,” Katniss acquiesced. “Henry is so big, we could share and not even notice that we're both clinging to him.”

Madge burst into laughter. “Although, if he keeps the mustache, you can have him.”

Katniss shuddered. “I hate the porn ‘stache too.” “Okay then, you get three Chrises, I get one, and we share Henry ... you’re getting a better deal here, girlfriend.”

Katniss nodded. “I think you need one more to add to your harem.”

Madge picked up her cup again. “I can't think of a single attractive man now. What's in this stuff anyway?”

“Uhm,” Katniss wrinkled her brow, thinking back to earlier when Peeta had been cooking and she'd been assisting. “Cloves. Cinnamon. Cardamom. Orange peel. Peach juice. And four bottles of wine.” Minus the glass Peeta had poured for her as a helper payment.

“It's sooooo good,” Madge sighed, draining the last of her cup. “Oh! Tom Hardy. Add him to my list.” Katniss scowled.

“I just don't get what you see in him.”

Madge grinned. “He looks like Gale.” Katniss rolled her eyes. As much as she loved Madge, being reminded of her friend’s perfect relationship just made Katniss all the more aware of her own complete lack of romantic prospects. Hence, the imaginary harem she was building of hot men.

“What about Armie Hammer?”

“Who's that again?”

“Madge! He’s only the hottest guy on the planet!”

“Talking about me, are you?” Katniss looked up with a start to see her best friend walking through the apartment door. Peeta crossed the room, unwinding the scarf from around his neck and shaking snow from his overlong curls. He stopped in front of her, leaning down to press a kiss to her hair.

“You’re home early,” Katniss said, but the smile was clear in her voice. Peeta laughed, holding out his arm for her to read his wristwatch.

“Rye and I closed out the bar,” he said. “It’s half past two, Kitten.” Katniss flushed with pleasure at the nickname that only he was ever allowed to use.

“I thought you were going back to his place?” she said, gazing up at his wide smile and winter-kissed cheeks.

“I thought so too, but he decided he’d rather keep company with a girl he picked up at the bar.” Katniss snorted; that was pretty typical of Peeta’s brother.

“And you couldn’t find a one-night-stand of your own?” Madge laughed, but Katniss frowned. Peeta hadn’t brought any girls to their apartment the entire time they’d been roommates, and the idea of him doing so now made her strangely uncomfortable.

Peeta stood, rubbing the back of his neck as he turned to acknowledge Madge. “Ah, no, wasn’t looking,” he said. “And how are you, lovely Madge?”

“I am a little tipsy on this very nice Glühwein you made for us.”

“I’m surprised Katniss let you have any of it,” he laughed. “It’s her favourite you know.” He started towards the kitchen, calling back over his shoulder, “Where are the rest of the ladies?”

“Their boyfriends all picked them up already,” Katniss called back, pouting. Except for Madge, the others had all bailed early, anxious to spend time with their significant others.

“Meant more wine for us,” Madge said, wrapping her arm around Katniss. “But I should really head home too.” Katniss nodded, and Madge pulled out her phone to text her boyfriend for a ride.

While they waited for Gale to make the four-and-a-half minute drive over to the apartment, Katniss pulled up Armie Hammer in google images. “See,” she slurred. “Totally hot. He’s exactly my type.” She sighed. “So pretty.”

Madge stared at the phone screen for a long time, flipping through image after image with a thoughtful expression. “You know, he looks an awful lot like Peeta.” Madge squinted. “A slightly older Peeta, maybe.”

Katniss snatched the phone from her friend’s hand and gawked at the screen. Bright blue eyes. Ashy blond hair that flopped appealing over his forehead. Perfectly defined pecs. Shit, he really did look like Peeta. Her jaw dropped and she lifted her glassy gaze to Madge’s

Madge was smirking. “And the Chrises, they all kind of look like Peeta too, blondies with big blue eyes…”

“Stop,” Katniss whined, and Madge laughed.

“I’m just saying…” The doorbell ringing put a halt to any further teasing.

Peeta reappeared, wrapping an arm around Katniss as she said goodnight to Madge and Gale. When the door closed, Katniss looked up to find Peeta was gazing down at her, a soft smile lighting his handsome face. “What?” she said, but she was smiling too. It was hard not to smile around Peeta.

“Missed you tonight,” he said. “That’s all.”

“Me too,” she smiled. She twisted in his arms, pivoting to really look at Peeta, whose eyes twinkled in amusement at her inspection. It was true that he resembled Armie Hammer, they were both strikingly handsome. But Armie Hammer didn’t make her Glühwein or cheese buns. Armie Hammer didn’t hold her hand when she was scared or send her flowers when she got that promotion. The more she looked at the beautiful, kind man standing beside her, the more she realized that all of the Chrises and Henrys and Armies in the world couldn’t compare to Peeta. He was the real deal.

[heyligaya]

Thanks, Dad! (A birthday tribute to Papa)

First, I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SIR JULIUS!

I can't believe how a 67 year old can still jog and maintain full working posture under 12nn heat just to take care of his plants and veggies. I mean how?? RIGHT?

But first let me take this opportunity to give appreciation to your existence. So Im going to talk about YOU.

For everyone's knowledge, I am a certified PAPA's GIRL. Loud and Proud! Every time I watch commercials, movies or even a skit about a dad-daughter love, my eyes are weak! Tears will sure to fall and im not even kidding. Have you seen Jollibee's commercial about the kid celebrating Valentine's with his mom when his dad died?? Bro...... that one's tough. But yes, I am pretty emotional when it comes to my dad. He never once used violence as a discipline. Mind you, Im not spoiled. I understand the weight of their No's. Even though they raised me in a way that I MAY have looked spoiled, I always respect their rules. That is why I value that at this age, I still have a curfew and it has been a well known fact with my friends. My dad  wasn't really the "cool" type of a dad. He's more of the boring old-school type. Base on his age, I think it's self explanatory how OLD-school he can be. He hates going to the malls. He doesn't like traveling because it makes his feet sore after a long drive. He hates cold sweet drinks and (oh this is something I am proud of) he is a VEGETARIAN. *jaw drop. Yes my dears. My dad hates PORK AND BEEF. Our lunch and dinner consists of a Meat course (for me and mom) and Talbos ng Kamote (for dad). My mom loves cooking and sometimes it's a problem within our household how can we make dad eat the food if it has meat in it SO, my dad grew his own veggies. Let me reitirate that. HE. GREW. HIS. OWN. VEGGIES. We have all sorts! From Tomatoes to Malunggay. From Fruits like Mangga, Santol, Calamansi, Papaya, Buko, Saging. So HE can harvest anything there to steam and eat. That's how it's been since forever. Maybe that's why I grew up with veggies as something normal unlike some kids who hates them.

My dad was pretty smart. Graduate of UP Diliman and University of Baguio. He was a aiming to be a doctor but due to circumstances, he took Pre-Med (back when Pre-Med is actually a legit course) and decided to study Medical Technology after AND decided to study Library Science AND took MA in Library Science (whew) Worked in Lung Centre and transferred to World Health Organization. He manages the Library because he loves books (I MEAN WHO DOESN'T!?) and was also a researcher for TB-Dots and many more. At first it was normal to us but I tried to google his name. WOW! HE WAS PRETTY FAMOUS IN W.H.O! Considering he traveled all over the world and talks about these illness to places where internet is beyond impossible. He retired at the age of 60 and has been at home taking care of the house, dogs and mum ever since. After he retired, he was offered to be an ambassador for Indegenous People of Asia Pacific. Maaaaan! Am I proud!!! He declined it since it's been a dream of his to just rest at home.

For the past few years, I've witnessed my dad hard work phase and the stay-at-home dad phase. I've observed how his hair slowly turns to gray and how he lost weight. Out of us three, He's the the least to get sick (bet all those vegetables works after all) and believe it or not, their are days where I just stare out of nowhere or stare at the back of his neck while he drives and think "What will I do without this man?" (wow im crying right now). There are times when I think I might go crazy when he leaves us and as much as I don't want to grasp around that idea, I am a little worried thinking how much he's aged and how I lost track of time. I grew up without knowing he is also growing old. I never heard him complain at anything (except whenever we use water too much or lights are open too long) about us. Mum and I are CRAZY hoarders but he never complained. Back when I was in a several relationships, he was once asked, "Okay lang po ba kayo sa boyfriend niya?" and I was right there, standing near our entrance door, holding Obama when he answered "Ehhh basta okay siya at gusto niya at safe siyang nakakauwi, Okay samin. Ang mahalaga, iuuwi niya siya samin" (these tears...) and I was moved. I promised myself never to burden him with my decisions. To always let him know where I am and if he wants me to go home, I will.

When I found out that I was adopted, I cried. Not because they kept it a secret but because I was sad that I wasn't theirs but then, I slowly understand that I was ALWAYS theirs. I was never ashamed being adopted. I was cared with a father who took care of me. Fed me. Gave me education. Thought me how to drive etc. During those times, I asked my mom why they didn't tell me sooner. She said "Ayaw ni Papa mo". At first, I didn't know why but I know now. He took his time before telling me. He waited until I know in my mind that I can accept it and that is how he always was. He never once said anything that will make me hate them because he knew me and how I will react to things. It's either he will wait or he will step back and let me figure it out. I was raised by a man who let me grew as someone who can handle things this way.

When I first had my heart broken, he knocked on my room door with my eyes puffed and him not knowing why. He just sat there and asked me "Gusto mo starbucks" and wow! Did I cry my eyes out. Whenever I get sick, he always go up to my room and sit and just touch my forehead and leave. He will not say a word but that tap on the forehead is enough. He opens and closed the gate for me as I leave. He drives me to work every Thursday (coding day) for 3 years. He asks me "San ka punta?" everyday even if he knew Im going to work. He always reminds me to eat before leaving even if I don't. He reminds me to SAVE money. SAVE SAVE SAVE that is probably his favorite word. He took me to my first Star City experience because I was bullied at school. Whenever he's out, he still buys me fruits and I too buys him popcorn if I had the chance. He never missed 6:30pm news. We argue with TV schedules since HE IS THE KING OF THE COUCH but when I say "Pleeeeeaaaaase", he wil accept defeat, hand me the remote and transfer in his room to watch. He was the reason I loved writing and reading. My first love letter was addressed to him. I can tell you SO many thing I love about him. The list goes on. But for now, I am just grateful that I was raised by Julius Dizon Jr. A man with a heart of gold. Someone who smiles at every passerby whenever he waters his plants. Famous for his kind heart who never hesitates to give for his family and to strangers. If I will be born again, I would still choose to be in this family. Even if it's just us three. They consider me as a gift who was given to them in times that they prayed for one but the truth is, I was born because God knew that these people will be my anchor. Today, Dad, as you take a year old, I would like to give my sincerest appreciation of how you loved me and my mum. You deserved all the happiness this world can offer. Eat as much veggies as you want! Sing your heart out with Sunday's Bests! Jog everyday at your heart's content.

You are my standard of a man I would someday like to be with forever. Your values as a person and your heart that puts a mark to people is something I respect, Pa. I will always look up to you. Tell stories about you and tell them how proud I am of you. God has blessed us with Y-O-U. I pray that God may let you live longer and stay with us and keep us entertained with your petty arguments with Mum. I wish for you to enjoy your day today. I pray that God will continue to guide you and give you happy days like today. You are a gift of life itself. Salamat, Pa! HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY and may the karaoke today be full of Elvis Presley songs. Have fun with you jogger friends and keep it slow with the beer. Hehehe I know you love drinking it but take it slow okay? Mum and I will cook your handa today so I alarmed my clock so no need to knock on my door to wake me up. I love you Pa! SUPER KADUPER!

Love,

Bubwit. <3

[travelforone-blog]

Memoirs from last month

Part 1: Vincoloppet, Sturup GP, ABC løb Photo by: Michael Strömgren

Hiss Spun by CHELSEA WOLFE

Vinco

Track: tough, loooong kantvind sections and climbs, prognosis said kantvind and warm Team: Emil, Glenn and me. Ah yes, and Sebastian? Plan: Attack like zee Germans, don't let the peloton breathe until the attack sticks, then defend

Race

I attack, out of the box Emil attacks Glenn attacks Dude grabs my leg in kantvind and pushes me back as we are fighting for position Ride up to the dude, extend finger: DO ... NOT ... FUCKING ... TOUCH ... ME ... AGAIN repeat Lap 2 Emil attacks so hard I was just like: woah, amazing ... He's left there for a while, finally some bridge, we have a break Offensive mode ON In theory: chase down any attempt by Lunedi to bridge In practice: maaaaan, chase down every, like EVERY attempt and stick to the cup leader from Lunedi with red Cervelo, be Quintana to his Froome, almost die in kantvind section while trying to bridge, barely manage to hold on Serious crisis averted Lap 3 After about 5 attempts the dude finally breaks away (not that he's that fast, nooo, my legs were numb and gone) What was left of matches burn trying to bridge in kantvind climb, matches burned ... I give up Form a small chasing group Yell at people for not working Glenn yells at people for not working Finally we're going, we have about 20-30s to first chasers But since the swedes are happy just to sit in klungan so they can wave to their families while they scream HEJA PAPPA we never achieve much WAS IT FUN? YEAH? MUST BE SOOOOOOO MUUUUCH FUN TO DRIVE A DAY AND THEN SIT IN THE KLUNGAN MMMMMMM Håkan disrupts the rhytm in at last climb, does not go well with me, swearing and tight moves, he ends up in gravel, upright Håkan's comment later: I'm ok, you can yell but you can't swear (fair point). I also paid the starting fee so I can YEAH WHATEVER Since I do not like sprinting for 20th place I make a monster pull, Glenn does not get the memo ... Emil does not have sprinter legs, ends up 6th Meh

Summary

Should have bridged

Random impressions

Din Gata plays badass hiphop just as we slowly drive through the crowd to the road #malmörepresent Fistbump Per from the car as he waits for B start, hiphop still blasting Strömgren lost Emil's car keys, Emil was not happy Glenn called me after the race to check if I am ok, he said he did not dare talk to me after the race, I seemed too angry apparently AC in the car does not work

Sturup GP

Team: it seems me, Daniel and Anders (what a weird combination) Plan: GO FULL BERSERK

Race

BOOOOM Get the holeshot I Stay up front I chase I accelerate I slay I slay Per goes, with another dude I go Trying to brige, still trying to bridge, hmmm, still here, bridging, yeah .... nope, get caught There is like 100000000 Lunedi riders so no chasing Eventually Åhus brings Per back Attack some more Accelerate some more Get almost taken down by Daniel from Ringen Really, Daniel? Anyhow, from what I see at least someone (= me) is having fun The rest? The rest are ... well, waiting for last lap it seems last lap I don't remember really, kinda the most boring part of the race, Per came second, the OTHER Lunedi dude came 1st Woah, much drama, such action

Summary

Should have bridged

Random impressions

Jakob looks cool with a tooth missing, just like me in 5th grade Rafael did a good job in HSport, but got dropped last lap It seems everyone is either having a kid or making a kid or thinking of making a kid Crits in Sweden are booooooooooooring I still don't get Lunedi, what's the plan? Bore us to death?

ABC løb

Go to race pretty much just to hear Eva scream at us speak Danish to us again Also, nice track, google it, the one by the small pet crematorium Team: me and Glenn Plan: attack, attack, attack, then defend

Race

Plan executed perfectly, we have Glenn in the break Defend Chase down people, demotivate them This goes on for like 3 laps At some point end up in a second break with the leader of the 4 day cup from Christiania team, we have like 5-10s on the peloton Looks good, but they have a dude up front, right, so we're ... Confusion, 2 accelerate, me and Christiania dude get caught In retrospective, I should have contributed and we would have bridged, forming a 10 man break Anyhow, regardless of my flawless performance of defending (I got complemented on that) Glenn drops from the break My turn Throw in a couple of attacks and accelerations, but since we're like all tired it does not go well Get stopped by a bus jammed in a narrow section We sprint for 25th again ...

Summary

Should have bridged

Random impressions

Christiania guys were handling bottles to riders on the wrong side of the road Random A girl got really upset 2km to go, no one knows why Borrowed a pump from A class cup leader Passed a stopped bus 2cm from mirror while chasing and doing 50+ Trampen dude made a wrong turn in an intersection because he got blocked by a car + horse trailer combo Flagvakt was shady AF, good thing Anna was not racing

These help me do what I love, go pay them a visit: Musette 184 RACEDAY

[junker-town]

I rode around Houston with Paul Wall during Super Bowl week

It turns out that Paul Wall’s life is exactly what you want Paul Wall’s life to be.

HOUSTON — Paul Wall is going to be late again. He calls to tell me this as I’m waiting for him outside a Starbucks off of I-10, one of Houston’s looping, overpass-laden highways. It’s about two hours after we were initially supposed to meet on Wednesday before the Super Bowl, because this morning Paul Wall’s friend unexpectedly got out of jail and he had to go pick him up.

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting,” Paul Wall says on the phone. “Houston traffic is so bad. I’m about 15 minutes away.”

About thirty minutes and a few apologetic texts later, Paul Wall walks up to me. I didn’t see him pull into the parking lot, but here is, wearing black jeans, a baggy T-shirt, and the most spectacular set of grillz I’ve ever seen — gold rimmed, diamond-encrusted mouth guards strapped to both his top and bottom teeth. His flat-brim hat says “HOU,” and his facial hair is limited exclusively to his chin.

He shakes my hand, apologizes again, and leads me to his black Cadillac that he’s parked in front of the dry cleaners next to the Starbucks. We get inside.

I’m hanging out with Paul Wall because hanging out with Paul Wall seems like the right thing to do when Houston hosts the Super Bowl. The rapper and Houston native is deeply rooted in the city’s music scene, custom car and jewelry worlds, and sports community. I should also tell you that I’m referring to Paul Wall in this article exclusively by his full name, because “Wall” doesn’t feel right and neither does “Paul.” But “Paul Wall” is poetry.

There are two cans of Red Bull (they’re orange and they look special, maybe, like, a limited-edition situation) in the cup holders of the car, which smells very new and is very clean. Paul Wall sends a few texts and then pulls out and into traffic, thanking me for being patient while he picked up his newly-freed friend, who he says did two and a half years for felony and possession of a handgun (“yeah, sucks”).

We stop at a red light and I ask where we’re going. Paul Wall says we can go anywhere — he lives around here, near Houston Heights, and he has about an hour before he has to go get rims put on the Cadillac we’re riding around in. He just got it yesterday, adding it to the collection of six other Cadillacs he already owns.

“Oh, really? Rims?” I ask.

“Yeah, I’m putting swingers on the car,” Paul Wall says.

“Are you doing that today?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he says.

“Can I come with?” I ask.

“Nah, not really,” Paul Wall shakes his head apologetically. “‘cause I gotta go pick up somebody else and there’s not gonna be room. The rims gotta fit in the backseat.”

I ask what kind of rims he’s getting, even though I don’t know the difference between rims, nor do I know the names of any rims, so the answer won’t mean much. But it feels important.

“The elbows!” Paul Wall says, getting animated. “They’re called Texan wide wheels, you know, tippin on fo’ fo’s.”

Paul Wall laughs. He talks lyrically, almost with a deliberate rhythm, interspersing “mans” and “you knows” throughout his speech as though they were ad libs in a rap song. Speaking of rap songs, he starts to play some of his own using the fancy buttons on his steering wheel. All of the tracks are screwed and chopped. It sounds like molasses mixed with sidewalk grit. In a good way.

Driving through Houston’s gridded streets, passing strip mall after strip mall, with Paul Wall is surreal. In fact, it’s almost too good to be true. Because Paul Wall’s life is exactly what you want Paul Wall’s life to be: One in which a totally normal day entails literally living out the song “Throw some D’s.”

And Houston is the perfect beat for his daily bars. The city mirrors Paul Wall, and Paul Wall mirrors the city — his drawl matches its sprawl, his car moves through the streets the way the slightly sticky heat comes through on breezes.

But for all the rap song things he does, Paul Wall is a family man now. He’s dedicated to his wife Crystal (who owns a fitness gym for women and is doing some sort of fitness performance downtown as we speak, although Paul Wall doesn’t totally know what that entails) and their two kids. He’ll go to the studio to record at night, and often spends his days with his family, tricking out cars, or at the jewelry shop he owns with his business partner Johnny Dang.

Paul Wall and Johnny Dang supply grillz to many of Houston’s athletes, including Arian Foster, Duane Brown and his wife Devon (or “Devvy Dev,” as Paul Wall calls her), and Andre Johnson. I ask if they’ve made J.J. Watt a grill, and Paul Wall says that they haven’t, but that Watt definitely needs one. They’ve also made Venus and Serena Williams grillz, and Shaq has a Paul Wall special, too. I ask if there’s anyone Paul Wall hasn’t made a grill for that he thinks needs one.

“I’m a huge baseball fan,” he says. “Roger Clemens. That’s my boy. We gotta get Roger a grill. Put the word out, man.”

As we’re stopped at another Houston stop light, which I’m convinced the city has more of per capita than any place else in America, a pickup truck pulls up beside us with a Weber grill in the truck bed.

Paul Wall is thrilled that the Super Bowl is in Houston this year because it brings attention to his city. But he’s not going.

“I’m trying to get some tickets, though,” he says, making a hard right turn off of a main drag onto a frontage road that tracks the highway beneath an overpass. “I’m trying to get ‘em to sell ‘em. Those tickets cost too much, man, if I get tickets I’m for sure selling those bad boys.”

“With Houston, the H stands for ‘hustle.’ There’s a billboard that says, ‘Houston, hustle, heart, and home.’ That encompasses Houston.”

“What if you performed for tickets?” I ask. “You should’ve told them you’d perform.”

“We tried, you know, they’re not trying to have us, though.” Paul Wall says. “They wanna do the Lady Gaga thing, that’s what they’re trying to have. It is what it is, you know. I understand it, but, I mean, I personally don’t know any football fans who are interested at all in Lady Gaga. They’re trying to expand the reach of who the fans are, man. But Beyoncé did the Super Bowl halftime a few times, so, here in Houston, I would expect or hope they’d have gotten Beyoncé!”

I nod vigorously as Paul Wall continues to suggest alternative halftime show performers for Super Bowl LI.

“You don’t know who’s going to be in the Super Bowl, but Atlanta, they got so many good artists,” he says. “Maybe Usher or somebody, I don’t know. There’s 50 artists it could’ve been from Atlanta. Man, the Migos, definitely the Migos, man. Then there’s people like 2 Chainz, T.I., Ludacris. He’s doing more acting, same with T.I. T.I. balances his music and acting out. He still comes with the music. Nonstop.”

I ask what Paul Wall thinks the difference between Houston and Atlanta rap is, and he tells me they used to be two very distinct sounds. But these days, the styles have blended.

“It’s dope to see that there’s a bridge,” he says. “And I appreciate that there’s an open door and an avenue for us to work with each other and support each other and all that.”

Paul Wall is very close with other Houston rappers — guys like Slim Thug, Bun B., Zero. I ask him how Chamillionaire is these days. His face lights up.

“Now that boy, there,” he says, “he invested in an app, and the app sold for 700 million dollars.”

“What was the app?” I ask. “Are you kidding me?”

“Nah, he won’t tell me!” Paul Wall pulls off the frontage road and out of traffic, onto a straightaway that cuts through a neighborhood. There are finally no stoplights and no other cars on the road. He picks up speed. We’re cooking. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so alive.

“No, I mean, I just can’t remember what the app was, man, it’s something, man.” Paul Wall says. “That boy, maaaaan! So I’m like, man, let your boy hold something. Let your boy hold something!”

I’m not sure Paul Wall knows what an app is, because a quick Google search shows that Chamillionaire joining Mark Suster's Upfront Ventures as entrepreneur-in-residence is likely what he’s referencing.

Another track starts playing and Paul Wall turns it up. The Cadillac has a great sound system, and he raises his voice a bit over the beat to tell me that this song features his wife, son, and nine-year-old daughter signing on the hook, and his daughter free-styling one of the verses. He can’t believe it; she hadn’t even been practicing. He beams with pride.

The song is an anti-bullying song. Paul Wall says that his healthy and intact family is a real role model for other people in the community, especially in Houston’s hip hop world. He says the song is about never giving up, staying motivated, and trying to inspire other people.

Paul Wall is a guy who cares. He cares about the people he loves and he cares deeply about his city, which he says is more diverse and more open than a lot of other places in the U.S.

“With Houston, the H stands for ‘hustle,’” he says. “There’s a billboard that says, ‘Houston, hustle, heart, and home.’ That encompasses Houston. You know, the love we have, that we show, but also the hustle we have, I think that comes from us being so far away from the rest of the media, kind of separate from everywhere else in the country.

“Dallas is more in line with mainstream America,” he continues, “But Houston’s farther down on the map where it’s a little different. I think it’s the slowness of our culture, how we move slow. It’s hot in here, you know. We got our own culture, our own slang, a little bit our own way of doing things.”

Paul Wall swerves to avoid getting into an accident and pulls back onto I-10. He starts to talk about how great the Super Bowl has been for the city’s visibility. But he’s wary of the attention, too.

“Social media has brought the whole world together, and that’s good in some ways and bad in others, because a lot of the individuality that we all had, everybody shares it now,” he says. “We’re all just one Instagram post away. And it is what it is, but a lot of the slang, what we do, what we talk about in our music — people didn’t understand because they couldn’t see what we were talking about. But now they can see what we’re talking about. So it’s good and bad because now everyone else is talking about the same things we’re talking about.”

“Do you mean that it dilutes the culture a little?” I ask. We’re pulling into a gas station off the side of the highway. Paul Wall pulls up to one of the pumps.

“Yeah, it waters it down like a motherfucker,” Paul Wall says. “But you’ve gotta take the good with the bad — we want everyone to embrace our culture and not look down, but at the same time, we don’t want them to take our culture and make it their culture. So where’s the happy medium in all of that?”

Paul Wall shakes his head. I ask if we’re getting gas, even though we’re obviously getting gas.

“Yeah, I was gonna get gas,” he says. “This also might be a good place to drop you off, it’s not too far from downtown where you’re going.”

I agree, thank Paul Wall for his time, and shake his hand. He gives me a copy of his mixtape and asks if I need anything from the convenience store. I tell him I’m good, and he smiles — flashing his beautiful grillz one more time — before he makes his way across the hot pavement and disappears into the store. His car sits by the pump, its black paint reflecting the waning evening light. The wheels are rimless for now, but in a few hours, Paul Wall will make them shine.