#but it's harder to pinpoint which is the best overall episode

[fictionadventurer]

Top 5 Arthur episodes?

D.W. Goes to Washington: It's a very close race between this one and #2, but I gave the edge to this one because almost every line here is classic. It's full of hilarious Imagine Spots and great D.W. zingers.

The Rat Who Came to Dinner: Another episode that's full of great jokes. The dynamic between Ratburn and Arthur's family is comedy gold.

The Contest: The pastiches of different animation styles alone puts this one in the top five, but it's also in service of some wonderfully absurd mini-stories with classic jokes. ("My brain was on cruise control" is the Arthur quote that gets the most use in daily life).

Buster Hits the Books: The pastiches of the different books are hilarious.

Arthur's Almost Boring Day: I had a very tough time choosing the fifth episode. I went with this one because the fighting between Arthur and D.W. reaches a hilarious fever pitch that goes beyond any other episode.

[marciego]

Top 5 favourite and least favourite SL characers this far (since you haven't finished the show) and why

im doing a tiny break in the drabble thing to answer some top 5 questions i have left! sorry for the late reply and thank you for the ask <3

so i gotta say, it was pretty easy to decide which characters i like, but the least favorite top is a bit harder because i mostly don't feel anything for everyone outside of the characters i like, so this is more a "top 5 characters that annoy me at times" than a least favorite/most disliked characters you know

5. nina

i'm sorry for this one, i don't know how to explain. i've tried, i've really tried, and there ARE scenes where i think she's cute and all, but i have such a hard time with nina and i don't know why. her vibes are just off to me idk, i don't...like her, and i can't pinpoint why

4. ricardo

listen he's not a bad guy but he annoys me a lot. also i really liked tamara and she started becoming super annoying when she started dating him, and now there's this weird thing with mora and i love mora and i'm afraid ricardo is gonna do the same thing to her so i'm definitely blaming him. i wish his scenes were shorter because i honestly don't enjoy him

3. matteo

he's a dick, plain and simple. sometimes he's funny so that's why he's not higher, i enjoy his scenes with gaston and sometimes simon. i wish i could stop him from interacting with women

2. tino/cato

if you skipped every single one of their scenes the episodes would be 15min shorter without changing anything to the plot. they're not funny, they're annoying and their attitude is often borderline disrecpectful, both towards amanda, miguel and monica, or even luna and it's just annoying. the only thing i like about them is that they actually care about luna, i think it's cute, but that doesn't save them

1. daniela

i know i don't have to explain this one but i will! legit hate her ass because she has no goddamn point. she's so bad. like you know sharon for exemple, she's a bad person but she's such a GOOD antagonist and she's genuinely one of my favorite soy luna characters because i love me some fucked up but interesting women. she's abusive and manipulative, she's the worst, but she has goals, she has a personality, she girlbosses gatekeeps gaslights and i LOVE watching her do this, even when it's towards ambar and it breaks my heart.

but daniela? she has none of that, she's just a genuinely awful person and an awful character, everything about her arc was so bad, she had...no point. like bringing lumon together i guess but the way they did it was genuinely so bad. bad writing overall, i hated her arc so much i HAD to spoil myself, and thank god she was only there for a few episodes because if this arc was longer than that i would have seriously considered dropping the show because of how unbearable she was to me

favorite:

5. ambar

i cannot tell you how excited i am for her character arc, i enjoy how complex she is, how many layers her character has. so far she's not a fav fav but i feel for her a lot and i know my enjoyment of her will only grow

4. luna

she's a very cute mc!! i think she's overall such an endearing character, she has flaws but it just makes her more interesting in my eyes, and the writers could tone down the main character syndrome a bit but i expected it so she's a really good surprise so far, i like her

3. simon

best boy!!! i really like him! he's cute and wholesome and while there are things i wish he would have done differently regarding his feelings for luna, it was such a nice surprise to see him not fall into the nice guy trap. it'd be so easy for him to do it so when i see he mostly avoids it very well it's !! finally a decent man in a telenovela. outside of that i think he's super cute and i really like him

2. delfi

i couldn't tell you why i like her so much but i DO. she has such an interesting character arc too, it's one of the most natural in the show imo. she's changed a lot since the beginning of the season, but i adore everything i saw about her. i love that she's kind and caring with those she loves but still is very bitchy, she's super cute and interesting and just!! i love her!!

1. ramiro

ok so ramiro was THE surprise in this show for me. i watched the first ep and saw him interact for one second with jim and yam and sighed out loud, expecting him to be unbearable. and here we are now, at the first place of this top 5. i LOVE his personality, i feel like he brings such a distinctive light to every scene he's in, i love his arrogance and his charisma and how down to earth he is at the same time. he reminds me a lot of s1 leon in the way that his character development is never shoved in your face, it's never the focus of anything but it's probably one of the most important ones. his development is so natural and interesting, i LOVE his relationships with everyone else and he just makes me smile a lot. like watching sl is sometimes a bit taxing to me, because i'm not that attached to a lot of characters, but then there's a scene with ramiro and it's such a breath of fresh air. i love him, i can't wait to see what's next for him in s2 and 3.

[pileofblanks]

Ok, so I know it's not the smartest for me to post stuff about Steven universe when most of my followers don't really watch it but here's this thing. So, as I was re-watching The Answer, I couldn't help but notice the gems in the background. I decided to screenshot them and then decided to give them at least some sort of an identity (along with horrible nicknames). I'll probably be doing more of them and I want to draw how they could look like. Now, about the gems. 1. Droplet. I can't really decide what gem she could be, but I find her kinda adorable to be honest. She could be a quartz soldier, she could be an agate (tho she seems too small for that...), she could be a pearl (tho she seems to have more muscle mass than pearls tend to have.) 2. Neckie This gem looks nice and friendly in my opinion. She is definitely calm and maybe somewhat quiet. Now, people seem to think that she lost her calmness once Ruby and Sapphire fused, but I don't really think that's the case. She says ''Unbelievable'', which indicates that she's suprised, not discusted. She then becomes angry once Blue diamond says to Ruby that she (Ruby) will be broken for fusing. It's also hard to say what gem she is, but she might be a blue Kyanite. She could also be a moonstone, although I have my doubts... 3.Light indigo. This gem seems to be smaller than most of the other gems, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't have any authority. Personally, even though I don't have the same opinion as her on fusion (she finds it outright discusting), I do like her style of clothing and hair... (Definetly looks like me to be honest) It's harder to pinpoint what her gem type exactly is due to her gem not being shown, but color wise Blue moonstone and Tanzanite fits. 4. Pink Zircon. Now here's a gem that I can exactly pin point what gem type she is. My reasoning for why I think she's a Zircon is that: -her hair is similar to Blue Zircon -she's quite tall and somewhat shinny -she's pink and her gem is on her navel, which resembles her diamond the same way Yellow and Blue zircons do. -he gem is rectangular in shape. Now on to her personality. She seems to be quite though, determined, but easely angered. These might not be the best traits for a lawyer, but she most likely somehow gets away with them. Definetly an angry lawyer. 5. Side Buns. This gem is most likely an agate. She looks somewhat terrifying, she has similar hair to Holly's and seems to be strong overall. It's hard to say what type of agate she is, but she could be a blue lace? Maybe? Not much to say about her. 6. Blue diamond's guards. The only times we could see these two is when they were standing in front of Blue's palanquin and when they tried to stop Pearl. Their gems are on their right eyes. They seem to have some strength, so they might be some kind of a quartz (their hair and body type also point to that.) They can even be Cat's eye quartzes. 7. Pointy. And last, but not least is this gem. It's hard to exactly say what gem she is, but I think that she could be an agate. She might not seem as though as Side buns (5.), but she seems to have at least some authority. Weirdly enough, in one picture, because of her pointy hair, she kind of resembles a cat, so she might be a some kind of cat's eye gem (tho this seems to be a bit of a stretch.) She looks strict, but somewhat nice? In the episode, she says ''This is unheard of!'' which makes sence I guess. I don't have anything else about her. That's all I have for now. I might do more of these later, since there are more gems in the answer.

[top10listsak47]

Top 10 Albums

This kind of list is always going to be contentious, as it is easy influenced by your favorite genre and the age you grew up in. That being said, several of these albums outdate my existence by a decade or two. Most are critically acclaimed with a couple that aren’t as well-known. And, aside from number 1, I don’t attach a specific order.

On to the list!

#1: Rubber Soul- The Beatles (1965)

What? You may be asking. Not because I have a Beatles album at #1, but that it’s not Sgt. Pepper’s or the White album. Rubber Soul is the transition album, from the poppy A Hard Day’s Night and Help that preceded it, followed up by the highly psychedelic Revolver. (Seriously, from my own experience, I’m not sure how enjoyable Revolver would be to someone who has never done LSD). Rubber Soul is home to my two favorite Beatles songs in their entire collection (Norwegian Wood and In My Life). It’s a nearly perfect album cover to cover from one of the best bands ever. It would also inspire Brian Wilson to release Pet Sounds. The easy #1 choice.

#2: Rumors- Fleetwood Mac (1977)

The perfect post-break up album. Which makes sense, given the behind the scenes stuff happening during the recording of this album. A highly personal reason I love this album- Stevie Nicks’ contralto vocal range is perfect for me to sing along to. I have no soprano range in my voice and my mom used to make fun of how badly I sung along to poppy hits of the 1990’s. Stevie’s rough lower range matches my vocals in a way I feel completely comfortable singing along, which is rare for female artists. Also Fleetwood Mac’s most critically acclaimed album, so I’m not in solo company here.

#3: American Idiot- Green Day (2004)

Now for something more modern, Green Day’s rock opera/concept album about the coming of age during the early 2000’s of the album’s “main character��, the Jesus of Suburbia. First, I love concept albums (see lower down the list) and second, it resonates with me as it came out when I was 17. Listening to it takes me back to the summer of 2005, one of the best times of my life. I could really relate to the Jesus of Suburbia character at that age and as I got older, the album’s ending, (lines like, “the rage and love, the story of my life. The Jesus of Suburbia, is a lie”) were an accurate reflection of how I see my younger self. Also a well received, critically acclaimed album with 5 singles released (as much as I love this album, I do not miss working at the grocery store and hearing Boulevard of Broken Dreams every hour).

#4: Marshall Mathers LP- Eminem (2000)

This is probably the biggest deviation from my usual “taste” (no other rap albums make this list). I got this album as a gift for my 13th birthday from my best friend and despite not relating to Slim Shady as I did with the Jesus of Suburbia from the previous entry, it didn’t matter. Eminem is too good on this 10/10 album (bigger fans of his than myself tend to agree with me that this is his best album of his career). It’s harder for me to explain why I like this album so much than the others that mostly fit into the rock genre. Em’s lyrical abilities are on point, the beats are catchy. It’s just a great album even if you’re not into rap.

#5: Bridge Over Troubled Water- Simon & Garfunkel (1970)

Well, this is a far departure from the last entry, but this list wouldn’t be complete without an album from my all-time favorite artist, Paul Simon. The melodies, the calming vocals, it’s just a beautiful album, cover to cover. I saw Paul Simon in concert with Sting a few years ago and they did a wonderful rendition of the song Bridge Over Troubled Water. I’m in love with this album and it would probably be the closest rival to Rubber Soul on this list.

#6: Spiritual Machines- Our Lady Peace (2000)

This is a bit of an oddball in this group in terms of mass appeal and acclaim. OLP was hugely successful in Canada during the 1990’s, and while they are probably one of the more internationally successful Canadian rock bands, not being American/British probably hurts their overall recognition. This album is a concept album (of which I noted my love of earlier) based off of futurist writer Ray Kurzweil’s ‘The Age of Spiritual Machines’ which is an intreging read. This is also the last album of OLP’s “golden years” (listen to their follow up album, 2002’s Gravity, and the style departure is obvious). Most OLP fans would probably rank Clumsy over Spiritual Machines, but for me, this is their best.

#7: Beautiful Midnight- Matthew Good Band (1999)

Keeping in theme of “great Canadian rock albums”, MGB didn’t break through beyond Canada the same way OLP did and thus is probably this list’s most obscure album. A great deal of their lack of publicity comes from front artist Matt Good’s loathing of fame and recognition (still actively recording as a solo artist, he is very open about his struggles with mental health issues, namely bipolar disorder). A “soft” concept album, I still own the hard copy CD I bought almost 20 years ago. A great album to listen to while writing.

#8: Pet Sounds- The Beach Boys (1966)

As this isn’t a strict numerical listing, this album really should be higher (ranked #2 on Rolling Stones’ Greatest 500 Rock Albums, a list most of the albums I’ve listed are featured on). As I alluded to in the #1 post, this album was the result of lead singer Brian Wilson hearing Rubber Soul and creating a response. Its musical complexity makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly why it’s so good. It just is.

#9: Bob Dylan- Blood On the Tracks (1974)

This was a difficult selection, picking one Dylan album. The deciding factor for me is the inclusion of Tangled Up in Blue, my favorite of his songs. I’m not really sure how to analyze a Bob Dylan and, as I said, there’s strong arguments to have a different album in this spot (Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited come to mind).

#10: Honorable Mentions

I gave this a lot of thought, and I’m not quite sure what album should be in the final spot. Some of my favorite artists like Neil Young and David Bowie aren’t here, nor groundbreaking albums from artists I don’t favor as much. So, honorable mentions include Who’s Next- The Who, Thriller- Michael Jackson, The Wall- Pink Floyd, Moondance- Van Morrison, The Stranger- Billy Joel…and I could continue on.

Thoughts? Disagreements? In any case, it was fun writing up my first top ten list. Next up- top 10 Simpsons episodes (spolier- they’re all from the Golden Era)

[ihopeyourewell-blog]

Dear 25,

Dear 25,

My first vivid birthday memory is my 7th birthday party. I didn’t really have “friends” when I was 7, but I did have the girls in Mrs. Hudak’s 1st grade class. Mrs. Hudak was the meanest person I have ever met in my life. She would walk around the classroom and check to see if the inside of our desks were messy, and if your desk wasn’t tidy enough, she would flip it over in front of the entire class, throwing your books and belongings all over the floor. One time a boy’s desk was so messy, she flipped it over on top of him. He was 6 years old. Holy shit that was so fucked up!!! Luckily, she got knocked up and had to leave halfway through the year and was replaced by a straight up angel named Mrs. Hamski.

Even though I wouldn’t have considered any of the girls in 1C my friends (No one under the age of 12 has actual "friends", there are just people you play with. Friendship, much like the Real World, starts when people stop being polite and start getting real.), the trauma of Mrs. Hudak bonded us enough for me to invite all of them to a slumber party celebrating my 7th birthday. I was the first person to host a big sleepover in our grade, which, looking back on it, is insane because I wasn’t really cool enough to make such a bold social decision. I made the invitations on my family’s Gateway computer in some program that had invitation and greeting card templates (it would be so cool if I could remember the name of the program, but I friggin DON’T!). I would run home from the bus stop every day (the bus stop was literally outside of my house, so it wasn’t a far run. I don’t want you to overestimate the work I was putting in. I did have to run up my hilly driveway so there was a bit of effort, but not like a TON of effort. Ya feel?) to check to see if there were any messages on our answering machine from the mothers of my “friends” RSVPing to my party. Ugh I miss the days of telephone RSVPs. An answering machine RSVP was fun, but when it was a live action, directly speaking to someone’s mom on the phone RSVP, I felt like I was goddamn Miles Davis. It was truly a thrilling experience to check “yes” or “no” on the chart my mom had made for the party. Most of the girls had responded yes and I was very excited to show them my basement. My siblings and our Au Pair, Julia from Germany, had been working for months on drawing flags from every country and hanging them on the wall above one of the couches. I can’t imagine anything more exciting to a group of 6 and 7 year old girls than a wall of poorly drawn international flags.

I carefully picked out my outfit. I wanted to be cool and casual because I was in my own home, but I also wanted to look like the lost Olsen triplet. I think that's what every girl in the 90s was striving for. I decided on a long sleeve white shirt and velvet maroon overalls with a matching bucket hat. No shoes, just socks. I was ready to party!! Guests started arriving and it was the first time in my life I ever really felt cool. I am somewhat obsessed with being cool now, or just being perceived as cool, and I guess I can pinpoint it to that moment, that first taste of my own coolness. People thought my house was nice, and that my mom had ordered the right pizza and bought the right juices, and don’t forget I was wearing a velvet bucket hat INDOORS! I was a sleepover goddess giving these bitches the night of their freaking LIVES! We watched movies and played games that my mom and German Julia had organized. My brother and sister left us the FUCK ALONE and I wondered what shrine the girls in my class would make to honor the evening this sleepover made them all women.

On my perfectly designed invitation there were 2 options; you could come and be picked up at 9:30pm or you could spend the night (I guess there were 3 options, the 3rd being sucking ass and not coming at all). My mom figured that giving the option of leaving early would boost attendance for my party for the girls who weren’t comfortable sleeping over. I feel like I should mention that my mom got an almost perfect score on the SATs and is straight up brilliant, so of course she figured out how to maximize attendance at a 7 year old’s birthday party. Viva la my mom. At 9:30 half of the party left and the remaining warriors changed into our PJs. I wore a worn-in, white night gown covered in teddy bears, that I am pretty sure you could see my nipples through. I thought it made me look skinny (KNOCK, KNOCK! SOCIETY? You home? That is fucked up that a freshly 7 year old girl thought about how her body looked in pajamas in front of a group of girls. And this was BEFORE social media! Fix yourself please). A lot of girls asked my mom to use our house phone to call their parents to say goodnight. I remember the first time I slept at someone else’s house, I called my mom to do the same and she flat out said “why are you calling?” Damn. We watched a movie and then an episode of the Disney Channel Original Series So Weird. So Weird was kind of a spooky show and a lot of girls got freaked out, and 2 of them ended up calling their moms and going home. Up until this point, I had been so confident about how the party was going, but I began to worry everyone was going to go home. Luckily after the episode of So Weird finished, Christina Aguliera’s music video for “Reflection” from Mulan played on the Disney Channel, and everyone sang along, and I knew the party was still a hit.

The following Monday I went back to school and a few girls mentioned how much fun they had, but I kinda just went back to being the not so cool me. There was no first sleepover shrine built in my honor. Boys didn’t immediately start having crushes on me. No one asked if they could turn any of my replica flags into t-shirts. But it was an awesome birthday.

I’ve had a lot of incredible birthdays. My parents were amazing and threw me parties throughout my entire childhood. For my 9th birthday I had a party at an ice skating rink, and I made everyone watch me skate alone for an entire song. In 2005 my mom threw me a surprise 13th birthday at a kid’s dance club called Beat Street, and she threw the EXACT same surprise 13th birthday for my brother in 2003 and my sister in 2006. For my 14th birthday my mom took me to New York City to see Rent. For my 15th birthday my mom, once again, took me to New York City to see Rent. I had a massive country club Sweet 16 filled with mozzarella sticks and grinding. My 18th birthday was celebrated with a Jersey Shore themed keger in my basement (the wall of flags had sadly been removed by that point). I celebrated my 19th-23rd birthdays with some of my best friends in Chicago at the same restaurant year after year. For my 24th birthday I invited some of my closest gal pals to my apartment for a breakfast for dinner party and made everyone come dressed as me. I have been so lucky to have such incredible celebrations of my life, and even luckier for the people I’ve celebrated with.

I was so excited to turn 24. My birthday is January 24th, so turning 24 on the 24th meant it was to be my Golden Year. I had always thought "everything would happen” for me when I turned 24. I don’t know what I meant by everything, and I don’t know exactly what I thought would happen but looking back on my year everything and nothing simultaneously happened. It was a great year. Even my bad years have been great years.

25, I realize I have never thought about turning you. I’ve never really thought past turning 24. Like I said, I looked forward to turning 24 for my entire life because it was my Golden Year, but I’m realizing now that I never looked past that. I’ve thought about my life after the age of 24, but I didn’t think about turning another age. 25 sounds so much older than 24 to me. I know that sounds so silly, because 25 is still so young, but it’s a bit monumental, don’t you think? A quarter century! It feels steep and kind of weird. I am one of those people who gets a bit weird around their birthday. It’s funny, I love New Year’s Eve because I think the passing of time is so beautiful, but birthdays, specifically my birthday, scare me a bit. I guess I am okay with the world getting older, but not myself. For the week or so around my birthday, I almost mourn the loss of me at that current age. I will never be 24 again. 24 year old me is done. I had 366 days (hey, leap year!) to be 24, a full year to say “Oh, I’m 24”, and now I’m just not anymore. I don’t know why that makes me sad. I have a hard time saying goodbye to things. I have a harder time saying goodbye to people. I have to say goodbye to me at 24 and I’ll miss 24 year old me. And I know I’ll still be the same me at 25, but i just won’t be 24 anymore. This all makes so much sense to me and you’re probably just like “bitch, shut up and blow out your candles”.

This year I will turn 25 just four days after Satan officially becomes president. This year I will turn 25 on a cruise ship, the floating buffet I currently live on. This year I will turn 25 without any of my best friends to hug me or parents to throw me a party. This year I will turn 25 and have, quite possibly, my last year of good healthcare, because at 26 that shit is going bye-bye and who knows what the hell is going to happen. This year I will turn 25 and in 365 days I will mourn the loss of 25 year old me.

I never thought about turning you, 25, but it’s happening, just like every other age I have turned (and also all other humans and animals and trees and every fucking living thing has a birthday every year, even though I sound like an unreal narcissistic, whiney bitch making it seem like I am the only person  who has ever gotten older). It’s a little hard to be excited when our world is in such turmoil. So much is up in the air, and I’m kind of surprised that Mrs. Hudak wasn’t appointed to Trump’s cabinet to go around flipping desks on children throughout America. But even with all of the crap that is currently happening in the world, I am constantly in awe of the goodness within the people I love and admire, and I enter you (that sounds freaky and naughty) with confidence that 25 will be as good as every other year has been.

I hope you’re well.

Xoxo,

Jacqueline Felker