#but the show's geography is a bit whack

[midwestaphrodite]

i remember the first Tumblr account I made in 2009 in my freshman geography class while doing some research for a class project but i've forgotten how many blogs since then have come and gone, some of them I archived but lost access to those as well over the years so it's nice to return to roots and blog here like this how I wanna, I know Im showing my age a bit but I'm a nostalgic ho. also the culture is super whack here anymore but i'm such a hermit loner that it hardly matters, I do long for the way things used to be because the drama was actually entertaining but I'm just doing this for me so none of that is important either

anyway eating tomato soup while my bf games on the vr and thinking about loading some more bong hits, it's almost 2am but I had so much on my mind all day at work I really wanted to spend the evening doing some of what I wanted to, all i've accomplished so far is updating the html on my blog here and watching some venture brothers. oh well , had a headache all day too and it just starting bumpin that again in my skull so imma baounce

[theluckiestlb]

I was doing some geographic research of Paris for my fic and came across their official site for tourists.

They have a whole page dedicated to the show and???? It’s so adorably detailed?? They talk about various locations that were showcased, but also reference specific episodes. Not just season one either—   

A significant moment in the series takes place in Place du Châtelet, at the Fontaine des Victoires (also known as Fontaine du Châtelet and Fontaine des Palmiers). Ladybug kisses Cat Noir in front of this fountain, commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to provide free drinking water to all Parisians. It is pillar shaped and adorned with sculpted palm leaves, with four sphinxes at its base. The gilded bronze Victory statue on top holding up a laurel crown in either hand was sculpted by Louis-Simon Boizot. 

The original statue is now housed in the Musée Carnavalet – maybe because of the damage Guitar Villain inflicted on the fountain when he played his ‘Shocking Riff’ against Cat Noir?

Fontaine des Victoires – place du Châtelet, Paris 1st

The Tour Montparnasse inspired an episode as action-packed as any Hollywood thriller. Adrien’s bodyguard, who has been akumatized into Gorizilla, chases Cat Noir and Ladybug to the top of the 210-metre-high tower offering a spectacular 360° view over Paris. The skyscraper was built on the site of the former Montparnasse station and inaugurated in 1973. Its weight rests on 56 reinforced concrete pillars, buried 70 metres underground.

Tour Montparnasse – rue de l’Arrivée, Paris 15th

Ladybug foils off attacks by three akumas inside the Louvre – Jalil Kubdel, who has transformed into The Pharaoh; The Mime, and Volpina, who creates amazing illusions. The world’s biggest museum was originally a castle built to protect Paris from Norman attacks. Today, it extends over an area of 243,000 m² and displays some 35,000 works. It has 403 rooms, 14.5 km of corridors and 10,000 steps. Stroll around soaking up more than 800 years of history, and do admire the glass and metal pyramid designed by I.M. Pei, where another of Ladybug’s adventures takes place.

Musée du Louvre -Pyramide du Louvre, Paris 1st

The park near the Dupain-Cheng’s bakery was inspired by the Place des Vosges. In the series, the park has a statue of Ladybug and Chat Noir sculpted by the fictional artist Théo Barbot. The real Place des Vosges – the oldest square in Paris – is in the Marais district. It was built in 1605 on the site of a royal palace, the Palais des Tournelles, and indeed initially named Place Royale. It is surrounded by 36 pavilions, all identical except the king’s own pavilion at the southern end and the queen’s at the northern end, both intentionally higher.

Place des Vosges, Paris 4th

When she isn’t busy catching evil akumas sent out by Hawk Moth, Marinette likes meeting up with her friends Alya, Adrien and Nino at ‘Troca’, where she also finds inspiration to design her new outfits. Facing the Eiffel Tower across the river, Trocadéro boasts gardens, ponds and some fine buildings. Start on Place du Trocadéro across from the Palais de Chaillot. From here, you will enjoy one of the loveliest vistas of Paris, and a breathtaking view of the Eiffel Tower.

Le Trocadéro – place du Trocadéro, Paris 16th

Ok, but?? Referencing Nino and Alya too?? Whoever writes/updates the page clearly loves the show. You can read more here.

[jemmo]

bad buddy rewatch: ep 1 - the substitute smile

so i’ve decided for this momentous anniversary and for this rewatch period, bc i can’t emotionally put myself through watching the show again without it taking over my entire existence, to return back to my roots and get back on my analysis/meta/glorified ranting shit, bc i still have way too many feelings about this show to keep them all inside, even after a year. so i’m gonna fondly call these posts ‘jemmo’s best bits’, where for every episode i’m just gonna pick a scene or detail or piece of dialogue or underlying theme and just ramble about it.

for episode 1, i call this literally 15 second part of the opening montage the substitute smile. it’s an introduction to one of the literally thousands of threads and details that span this series in such a masterful way, that being pran’s love of these emoji faces, particularly smiley faces and that signature reversible face. we later see these in every nook and cranny of his dorm room, his fairy lights, his bedside lamp, his sticky notes, his doorhanger, and even see them in his childhood bedroom, which shows us that this isn’t a recent fad. and why is that? well, its a bit of a consensus that pran likes to fill his spaces with these faces as a kind of substitute for pat, this ever smiling face that for so long couldn’t be there. he saw these big grinning faces radiating light and they reminded him of this loveable kid he was supposed to hate so he surrounded himself with them.

that underlying theme could have its own whole post dedicated to it, but what is great about this scene in particular is that it not only establishes the theme, not only shows where its rooted from, but also masterfully conveys how pat and pran in these earlier years had this almost miscommunication that reinforced the narrative being fed to them by their parents. now you might think, miscommunication? in my bad buddy?? no way, pat is a walking green flag, he’d never allow it. but i really think that there was a period in their lives, early high school, even after saving pa and returning the watch and the lapse in the narrative that was, where they still didn’t quite manage to see each other for what they were. where they still viewed every action of the other through the lens of rival, even when said actions were never done in hostility. it shows perfectly how the feud and their parents have conditioned them both to always read the other negatively, and its done in such a quick, throw away scene that’s so easy to see on a surface level but can be dissected to death upon rewatches with all this new context and understanding and thats why its genius!!!

so lets get into it. the scene opens up like this.

pat is blasting his tunes (on his headphones) and banging his drumsticks on any available surface, basically causing a ruckus. pran is sat at his desk doing something, homework i’d guess. before we move on, lets just appreciate this first introduction to the geography of their childhood rooms, how they were always this close for their entire childhood, growing up inches apart with an invisible wall between them. so much goes on in a childhood bedroom, you lie in bed sick with a cold, you explore your hobbies there, you strum a guitar or whack drumsticks around or do some doodles, you stay up late finishing homework, you get sent there when you misbehave, you decorate it to ft your evolving tastes and likes. the fact that pat and pran always had this insight into this private space, were close enough to see a lamp on until late or see the pictures on each others walls or hear glimpses of conversations or the sound of sniffling or the quiet hum of music, i just think thats so good. bc its like here they are, two feuding families, and let you let these two kids have this insight into the other’s life by literally situating their place of privacy and sanctuary next to each other. its that thing of how could i continue to hate him, continue to not empathise with him when i see every little mundane thing he does, when i am forced every second of the day to see him at his most normal and human. so much of this you could mistake for gimmick, think it has no substance, this framing is just to show ‘oh they live next door’, but then think about how different the show wouldve played out if their rooms were at opposite ends of their houses, if they weren’t there in each others faces whenever they looked out the window, if they couldnt climb across balconies and invisible walls and bridge that insurmountably tiny gap.

anyway, tangent over (apologies), in the next shot we get confirmation of what pran is actually up to.

which is probably still homework (come on, he’s pran), but he’s sidetracked, distracted by something, more specifically a ping pong ball, and even more specifically drawing a smiley face on it. when you see this action on your first viewing of the show, you think nothing of it. the montage is fast paced and you don’t know that these smiley faces are gonna be associated with pran’s character so you dont pay attention to it above just thinking this is something pran just does, no reason. its only upon a rewatch when you know how pran is connected to these smiley faces that you even give it some thought, and then you get this look and your mind starts ticking 

he looks across at pat with this look on his face. what do you read this as on a first watch? idk, bored? quizzical? maybe a bit annoyed? more likely you dont read into it at all. but upon rewatch, when you realise he’s looking at pat while drawing a smiley face and what that could mean, this look becomes more thoughtful, pondering. maybe its pran just thinking about pat, maybe its the start of his crush, maybe he’s had the crush for a while and he’s thinking about how, even though pat is a couple of meters away, he cant have him for so many reasons, and so he replaces him with a smiley face on a ping pong ball. no matter what it is exactly, its the fact that this connects pat with these smiley faces, which makes seeing his room later so much more meaningful, and its the fact that this once mundane action now hints at so much more that was always bubbling under the surface, its just that we, much like pat, weren't yet privy to the thoughts inside pran’s head.

pat looks over at pran and pran gives him this look in response. on first watch, this is nothing more than a look of anger and annoyance, which make sense, because they hate each other. even if pat wasn’t getting on pran’s nerves by being noisy, even just the presence of your enemy is enough to earn this kind of look. its all so damn unassuming, so easily read the way you’ve been told to read it. but when you rewatch, again, the look could be something completely different. it might still be annoyance, but now it more like ‘”god why am i in love with this loud, annoying dude? he’s just banging some drumsticks, why do i think that is so cute?” yknow?? but jokes aside, it just speaks to how well the show sold us that falsity in the early episodes, put us in the shoes of one of these families, always reading every look or action as hostile bc you aren’t being asked to see anything else there. you see a look like this, that could just be pran thinking, could be pran getting annoyed at himself for his feelings, could be getting mad at their situation, and just read it as anger directed at pat, bc thats what the story tells you to do, and so you dont question it, not until you take the initiative to look beyond.

what happens next perfectly encapsulates how their miscommunication works. bc pat sees pran give him that look, and being the good guy he is, probably thinks “oh im being noisy and annoying pran. let me shut my window so he doesn’t have to hear me” and he does it and thinks nothing of it, doesnt think about how his actions could be misinterpreted by pran just as he misinterpreted pran’s expression. again, you only see the kindness of this action upon rewatch, after the character pat is expected to be is fully subverted and shown to be good and caring, so far from this big macho man’s man he’s expected to be, both by the people in the story and by us. on first watch, this is shutting pran out, ignoring him, blocking out a presence that is constantly shoved in his face. its only when we learn more that we realise this wasn’t shutting pran out for his sake, but for pran’s sake. its the exact opposite of hostility, he’s just trying to do something nice. but as is always the case with pat, these acts of kindness are always read negatively, always framed with bad intent, or even when they’re not, the constant message is that no matter what pat tries to do, things never end well when touched by his hands. he has fundamental badness. but when you realise that this output only ever came from his fundamental goodness, your heart breaks a little, for a kid thats only ever tried to things right, but the world always tells him he’s wrong.

and finally we see pran misread pat’s actions, misunderstand him. he sees hostility, not kindness, and in retaliation closes his curtains. but again, the nature of this retaliation differs upon rewatch. first time around, this is just a tit for tat exchange, you shut your window i shut mine, we can both be equally annoyed with each other for no reason other than we hate each other. but the second time around? well now we know not only has pran been taught to misinterpret pat by his parents, but he’s also made himself do that too in a romantic sense. he’s never let him see anything pat does as either kind or romantic, never let himself see a side to him that is good not bc he doesn’t know its there, but bc he cant let himself, bc once he sees goodness and kindness and god forbid sincerity, that might get his hopes up. that might be enough to let him believe that something could happen, that pat’s actions and words could mean more. but no, instead he sees pat look at him and close his window, ignore him, shut him out. and that hurts him. he was just thinking about pat fondly only to be reminded of the reality, that pat doesnt care, that pat is exactly who hes been told he is, and in frustration he closes his curtains too bc he cant face seeing that closed window every time he looks up, cant face being reminded of the valley between them, that divides them, cant face the reality that pat is not the person he hopes him to be, that he gleams from actions that could betray some better intent, he’s in fact just that same old rival he’s always been. 

the layers upon layers of this scene really never cease to astound me. you’ve got hints to future themes without knowing their importance, you’ve got pat and pran misreading each others actions, you’ve got us the audience misreading their actions, all bc the story is set up to be one way, but the entire time there’s the real narrative underneath, hidden by an imposed feud and our own misjudgement and the fact we don’t initially seek out anything else. we’ve been told what were supposed to see and what we actually see matches with that story enough that we dont question. and it would’ve been so easily for pat and pran to do the same, not question what they were told, have the facts match the fiction enough to make them become one and the same. but they dont. and thats exactly what sets them on this path, their willingness to see past it all, to look for whats actually there. bc when you do, when you rewatch and see past the surface, its so fucking rewarding. i remember my first rewatch and latching onto this scene for dear life for this exact reason, bc its an encapsulation of what makes bad buddy great, both narratively and thematically and structurally. its 15 seconds that doesn’t ask to be paid attention to, doesn’t sell itself as anything more than set up, its done and gone and you get your surface level message from it. it does its job perfectly. but it also hides in plain sight a story that you are on the edge of diving into before you even know what you’re getting yourself in for, and in that sense, it also does its job perfectly. its masterful. its genius. its bad buddy. 

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

so prompted the other day from someone commenting on one of my personal posts lamenting on my poor time management skills and how I was a good-ish student without studying etc during early high school and then by year 10 I had fuck all idea how study..... I decided to look up adhd in girls. like obviously i am not self-diagnosing myself with it bc i know that it’s a super common and serious behaviour condition. but holy fuck, i just read something about it that hit me so fucking hard that.... fuck me. i just feel so attacked:

obviously I don’t relate to the softball practice bc I never did extracurriculars and I hated sport lmao. but the writing/writer bit. and “working overtime” to get a high grade on my english assignments..... as well as over-practicing my drama stuff at home and wanting my performances to be perfect.... i was known to basically everyone as a student who should’ve been in the top English class. but it was wrested away from me bc of my lack of understanding and appreciation for shakespeare in a year 8 in class assessment on Romeo & Juliet “being starcrossed lovers” that I basically failed bc I came out with a D instead of an A or a B. like fuck. this hit me hard.

they had another point about how the girl with adhd is usually the class helper- like I was in my english classes. bc I would edit everyone’s work, be their living thesaurus & dictionary, as well as giving everyone answers on the assigned texts, because i was the only person in my class who was bothered enough to read the texts in full and enjoy them. then I never received much thanks for it.

but my maths homework? never done. or my very occasional maths take-home assignments? done by my dad at the last minute when I remembered that excel was, in fact, an actual thing. hell I didn’t even do my CLASS WORK most of the time. i instead either half wagged my maths classes (I have several posts on this behaviour lmao) or purposely “fell asleep” in my maths classes as a joke for everyone to “wake me up (wake me up inside)” like Jeff from the wiggles. bc I thought it was funny. but now I’m 24 and never (really) learned how to read a graph or learned how to calculate the mean/median and average & range and mode or whatever the fuck, etc etc. like yeah. my maths is absolutely abysmal.

my geography homework and assignments? barely ever done. and again, at the vexation of the poor kids who were assigned to sit next to me and my year 9 geo teacher who liked me, my geo class work was never done to standard. and I would pull the same “wake up Jeff” routine in geography. even though I could’ve easily done well with that year 9 teacher and my year 10 geo teacher too bc at least we also got along.

my history homework and assignments? done, depending on the teacher, the topic and the type of history. like I was useless at modern history (bc I disliked it- especially australian history lmao minus Vietnam and maybe a bit of the Cold War era spy stuff... it was the politics lmao). but, on the other hand, I was pretty good at ancient history (until I had to try and write a historical essay- and that fucked me up big time in years 11/12 and also uni). i was also mega good at aboriginal studies (like aboriginal cultural history) when I swapped schools. but I dropped out of it, due to my fear of the major project which I knew I wouldn’t meet.... bc it was literally like 50% of the total subject mark at the end of year 12.

so then my focus aside from english & ancient history in year 12 became community and family studies/cafs/social studies and my technical theatre and events management course. which both ended up with marks near the 70s, I think, at the end of year 12. my teachers were good so I went okay.

my science homework? done sometimes, depending again on the topic and the teacher.... but also that one time one teacher wanted me to go to the regional science fair bc he thought my project was good.... but I didn’t do it bc i thought my work wasn’t that good and I didn’t want to do the extra effort of the boards and presenting it.... ESPECIALLY since I’d written that coke/coca-cola was “burp fuel” in my intro. like. burp fuel??? at the regional science fair? oh god. no. no thank you. that’s mortifying both back then AND now, looking back at it. but then again, maybe that’s the part my teacher wanted me to omit in the “clean up”/editing of my work for the science fair lmao. my biology stuff in years 11/12 though? awful. so much so that I solely passed year 12 bio with the miracle of mark scaling. and this was despite the efforts of one of my friends trying to tutor me in our shared free periods.

and obvs my PE stuff was never done.... even that one assessment that was writing/illustrating a kids book about how to be healthy. which if I’d done it, I would’ve probably gone well. but it was my utter distrust of the PE/sport faculty and loathing of sport, and also the fact that when I tried to write it; it didn’t seem authentic or genuine.... that drove me not to do that assignment.

aside from academics/grades.... the other thing that hit me was that adhd girls are typically seen as the “funny/loud/tomboy” etc girls but are also exceedingly shy. like that full on attacked me too. bc it’s exactly like my flip from catholic school to public school. going from being the loud & funny sailor mouth girl who sometimes asked crass questions in PE due to the shows she watched and to see if people would laugh and did whack shit in her drama classes..... but with mostly topsy-turvy marks. to being the quiet shy and suddenly high achieving former private school girl at public school who never did any loud shit out of the blue. like. yeah. like now when I look back at my facebook statuses about me in drama class or other dumb shit I did outside of drama class in catholic school I’m like “hmmm, can’t relate” and “what the FUCK that was ME??? I don’t know her.” bc of the nervous wreck that I actually am lmao.

there was one more point to that was like “adhd boys will typically sit “with one foot on their chair in class���. and I was like. “hmmm. why does that remind me so vividly of my year 7 geo teacher/year 9 commerce teacher frequently labelling me as a “health hazard” bc I’d sit cross legged on my chairs during class????”

I also had a flashback while reading that particular article, to how, in primary school, my teachers regularly encouraged the kids who were assigned to sit beside me on table groups or whatever in class; to put a ruler between us to mark out our separate sides of the desk; so that whoever sat next to me had their own desk space and I had mine.... all bc my side was frequently unorganised/messy. that’s because when I physically handwrote things, I’d tire quickly and so slouch in my seat a bit and put my head on my other arm to write (this is my condition hypotonia/developmental coordination disorder).... so I took up a load of desk space doing that. while the other person’s side of the desk was usually neat and ordered and they obvs didn’t have my posture etc when physically handwriting something. like I’d try to have my side neat & ordered like everyone else, but it always ended up in a state of disarray somehow. like HOO BOY IT’S ALL ADDING UP.

but also yeah. I’m not self-diagnosing bc that’s such common thing on this site. but. like. yeah I need to get to a psychologist or a psychiatrist and see. because so many things are adding up and maybe I do have some overlapping traits from adhd???? bc as ive said before, my condition hypotonia/developmental coordination disorder, has some links with adhd apparently, from what I’ve read recently on it. and it’s really starting to interfere with my life bc I can’t use a diary properly etc and don’t know how to hold myself accountable with deadlines other than doing everything to the last minute until I burn out, monumentally.

anyway.

don’t reblog this please. lmao. it’s just a musing.

[lumiereswig]

Please do the ENTIRETY of Forgotten! Hahaha I’m joking, pick your favorite part because that fic is v long 😍

happily, this gonna get l o n g

“The ball was flawless. In the garden, the roses continued to reach to the sky, and the storm brushed away; the lights shut off in the palace, one by one, and the music faded to silence. The prince went to bed with one or two or three pretty women he wouldn’t care for by the next day. Up in his room, Lumiere popped open a bottle of champagne.”

I set the opening to take place almost immediately after “Lit By The Sun,” though this time showing the evening Lumiere and Plumette never got—the stolen croquembouche up in their bedroom, the sharing of champagne among the servants. In the original timeline, obvs they didn’t get that—they got fire and feathers instead—but yeah. I am totally alluding to my own goddamn fics.

Plumette, lighting the candles by the bed, grinned at him over the flames. He laughed and raised his glass.

It’s not a lumiereswig post if there’s not a fucking fire reference.

“He’s turning just like his father—the prince’s father was like this, too,” Mrs. Potts explains to the musicians, who know nothing about the palace or its politics. They nod and move closer to each other on the bed. “We don’t know what he’d do without us. He’ll be fine, though; we try not to intervene. D’you only have wine up here, Lumiere? I could use a cup of tea.”

Foreshadowing of future bullshit, and also reminding the readers that Garderobe and Cadenza WERE NOT PART OF THIS PALACE-POLITICS SHIT. They did not deserve to be cursed!! fuck you agathe!!!! #justiceforgarderenza2k18

“If you cannot take a little sparkling wine, get yourself to bed, grandmother,” laughs Lumiere, and she swipes at his arms and makes him laugh. He eases into a seat between Cogsworth and Plumette and throws his arms around them.

Really trying to remind everyone how fucking close the staff is. The fam. Also, fuck you bill condon for not letting lumiere hug cogsworth every .3 seconds

“Think how long it has been!” he says. “Forty years for you, Cogsworth, but most of my life for mine. Why, I came here as a teenager—imagine me, only a little older than Chip! Fresh out of Paris and still reeking of the apothecary shop.” He grimaces, thinking of his father’s dusty store in a side-street of the city. He had fled, then, looking for the glamor his missed; in his room in Paris he had practiced dance steps, reveled in fashion, adopted the graceful movements of the court as rebellion against the bourgeois facts of an ordinary existence. He had come to this palace, and he had lit into life; dancing and feasting and glowing like gold made Lumiere’s heart sing.

EYYYY IT’S A HEADCANON I TOTALLY MADE UP

but tbh it makes sense to me (and has always made sense to me) that for all his glamor-gold, courtiers-and-candelabras bullshit, lumiere is not from an upper crust background. he’s too extra to have been born to it. That level of golden eyeliner and tequila has to be aspired to.

“We met in this palace, do you remember, mon trésor?” Plumette is close in his arms; her scent—fresh and light, like candy and macarons—right beside him. “I was only fourteen, and I loved you right away.”

“I loved you before I met you,” murmurs Lumiere. “I could never forget.”

Lots more foreshadowing, and also backshadowing. Gotta remind the idiots in the audience which motherfuckers in this story are in love.

The next day is their day off. It is their one day off in the year.

honestly this makes no sense (one day off a year???) but it’s adam. pre-curse adam. i can write him to get away with pretty much any bullshit and be like “””*shrug* uhhh he’s a beast, dudes, of course he banned puppies and kittens from the palace and hates daisies and sunshine”“

also tbh i hate the whole adam dialogue sequence, it’s really badly written

Adam stands in the lonely, empty halls. If he stands in the tower, he can see them weaving their way through the forest and down to the village, to spend their day in the company of each other, in Lumiere and Plumette’s case, or with loved ones, in the case of Mrs. Potts. No matter what, all the servants have each other. And Adam has nobody.

casual evermore references whenever we can’t get in a flame pun

….after all, at least when he yelled they looked at him.

someone told me this line broke them and i am forever pleased. yes mofos!!! relish my very slipshod, mostly shite grasp of the english language!!!!! revel in my poor grasp of human psychology!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Lumiere! The night grows old.”

 The crone grows young.

to make up for the shit in the previous chapter, I really enjoy this bit. the whole bashing-between-the-palace-and-the-village nonsense just makes me happy.

Belle wakes up to a jolt in the road, and the rough wool blanket on her face, and the smell of cheese and paint and horse and wind clinging to her skin. She rubs her eyes and tries to wipe away the sleep. They’re in the wagon, again, and Maurice is hunched up in the bench, encouraging Philippe to trot faster. The contents of Belle’s entire life are jammed in around her, a moving nest of drawings and gear-boxes and packets of cabbage-seed.

aaand we’re with belle. I had to rewrite this chapter about five million times because it wasn’t working—I had planned it out too much in advance, you know, and was just like regurgitating the writing rather than writing it—but I’m happy with the textural detail of this bit. Again, sometimes it pays to use the words around what you’re going for rather than the literal sensation; in this case, cheese and paint and horse and wind, and that rough wool blanket. Home, but also chill, and travel, and being uncomfortable, and the 18th century equivalent of going on a road trip and eating crackers in the backseat while dad’s up front and the crackers making the seat all gritty and reading books in the light of the passing streetlamps, ya feel?

Lilles, Reims, Amiens

i don’t understand french geography

A tiny, delicate gesture from his long fingers; it is a surprisingly sophisticated movement for a man in a yellow peasant’s vest, with candle wax creased in the dirt between his fingernails.

this whole chapter is slightly hard to read because it’s clearly trying too hard, but i hope i got across (or at least, whacked you across the forehead with) the bits i felt were important: lumiere’s current emptiness, but the last imprints of who he ought to be hanging around. i also tend to mention the peasant’s vest too many fucking times, just because the image of lumiere wearing anything that’s not satin & silk is fucking devestating. also, it will be important later, and i need yall to remember that LUMIERE DOESNT LOOK LIKE HE NORMALLY LOOKS

“I am nothing now,” says the man, in a flash of vehemence so sharp it is like seeing a flame in the middle of the forest. He looks up to her—his face broad, and white; and it is an empty face, and beyond the fire in his words there is nothing there at all. It is as if someone washed out all his color, and left him only with his yellow vest.  

you can tell, again, this is a lumiereswig fic because suddenly the language is all about fires and flashing and flickers and flames and there’s probably going to be a reference to the sun fucking setting at some point

also, honestly, this was hard to write because i was seeing it as a fucking movie in my head, and transcribing ‘ewan mcgregor lies on a village stoop looking fucking dismal’ is not what literary writing is made of

He welcomes her to the stoop with the flick of a wrist and a tiny nod with the pipe,

just to remind everyone once a-fucking-gain, Lumiere Is Not Normal, And You Can Tell Because He’s Not Being Very Welcoming. like honestly if you don’t say hello by doing a song and dance what the fuck are you doing

“I knew someone once who treasured books that way as well,” he says, and a smile drifts across his face, homeless. Something in him is sparking up at the story: dim, and faint, but laughing. “He once made me read the whole Odyssey—”

ok yes thank god the fic is finally getting good again

Sorceresses turning people to pigs, and the lily-eaters forgetting their homes, and Penelope undoing the days until her husband returns

ON. THE FUCKING. NOSE

also if i make a literary reference in a fic i am almost 100% of the time trying to make an obvious as fuck connection between the two

Deeply, deeply frightened. Not of the man on the stoop—she has never seen anyone more harmless, to be quite honest; he is such an empty man, with such silent, lifeless limbs—but of the thing inside his eyes when he speaks of his past. It is Other—a thing not rooted in a Parisian background, or the empty face, or the subdued soul. It is a large streak of gray inside the man’s blue eyes, a gray empty and unnatural and as hollow as cold ice. Staring at his eyes, Belle finds herself clutching her arms with fear.

ahhhh fuck subtlty has gone totally out the window. yall are kind and see what i was going for, but i swear this could be better done if i knew shit

It is obvious to Belle that this is a practiced ritual, the sharing of the secret wine.

in retrospect this fic would be sadder if cogsworth or lumiere weren’t friends, but uhh…i just couldnt bring myself to it.

“Oh là là, he acts as if the French accent is difficult,” says Lumiere, puffing smoke….

LIKE YOU CAN SPEAK FRENCH ANYWAY, YOU SCOTTISH DIPSHIT.

“Get off my stoop!” yells the woman. “D’you have wine down there, Lumiere?“

“If you cannot take a little cheap wine, get yourself to bed, grandmother,” calls Lumiere.

and that’s called taking yourself too seriously and referencing your own fic from a few chapters ago

“Mrs. Potts, the crockery-man’s wife,” says Lumiere, and takes a large gulp of the wine. “I barely know her. Thank God.”

PROBABLY THE BEST LINE IN THIS FIC SO FAR. fucking love the simplicity that does so much more than every labored reference to emtpy fucking limbs or colorless eyes beforehands. one simple line and we’re all fucking realizing THE EXTENT OF ALL THIS SHIT

i gotta head off now but i’ll do the rest later tonight

[send me one of my fics (or a bit from a fic) and i’ll do director’s commentary on it—ask here]

[rs12345]

Nokona First Base Glove Review!

The Nokona First Base Gloves has been around for a while. They were founded by a pair of South African sportsmen, Jon Cartilage and Barry Whiteway. The guys met in the late eighties, and they were doing some work for a construction company in Durban when they met Nokona - which was actually their first brand to be launched in the UK.

Initially, they were sold to a sports goods company based in Pretoria, but eventually their venture took them all over the world. Over the years, noon first showed up in a number of sports magazines and trade journals. They gained more publicity and recognition, and even made it into the hands of the World Match cricket team. This helped them gain some wider distribution and helped them to expand their business.

https://www.reportmines.com/cable-tray-systems-market-in-southeast-asia-r185332 https://www.reportmines.com/cable-tray-systems-market-in-brazil-r185333 https://www.reportmines.com/cable-tray-systems-market-in-indonesia-r185334 https://www.reportmines.com/cable-tray-systems-market-in-thailand-r185335 https://www.reportmines.com/cable-tray-systems-market-in-vietnam-r185336

In fact, the whole story is so interesting that there's a movie available about their rise to fame and achievement. It's called: Nokona First Base Glove, and was directed by Michael Fassbender. It's actually a very good movie, and a fun watch. When I say fun, I mean that it's a lot of fun watching a guy swing a bat and go whacking something - anything. The story behind nokona first base glove is really quite funny, and the way the company has handled it since then is also quite funny. If you're interested in buying one of their products and want to get your hands on nokona first base glove, you'll find it's not that difficult to do.

There are quite a few online stores that sell nokona first base glove research. One of them, Global Brands, is an authorized vendor of nokona baseball equipment. They offer nokona first base glove for sale, as well as other products. It appears to be a fairly reputable store.

You can also find noon on eBay. eBay is probably one of the most popular places to sell anything online these days. If you want to buy noon, you'll find it at auctions all over the internet.

The nice thing about buying nokona online is that you can do it with just a few clicks of your mouse. If you're really into the game, you might want to buy a few noon items along with your team gear. It won't cost you too much. A few dollars here and there really adds up. You never know when the opportunity will present itself to buy nokona in a hurry.

So if you're still not sure where to buy noon, remember what you just learned about noon ratings. That's why you're buying it from a reputable online store. It's because noon is one of the best brands out there. You should find the price to be reasonable. After all, it's a very big investment to make so you want to be comfortable with the deal you make!

You'll find noon on eBay and other places too. You'll find great deals if you just take the time to search around. Keep your eyes open for sales and promotions. If you plan on buying a noon product for a while, that's fine too. Just take the time to check around before you buy!

You might want to look at a local sporting goods store if you can't buy corona online. They have a wide selection of noon products so you can find exactly what you need. But remember, you can also buy corona online but the shipping costs are often much higher so it's worth paying a little bit more for noon! You'll find the selection at your local sporting goods store to be much better as well!

Take a look at your local mall or toy store as well. I'm pretty sure that there is at least one store out there that carries noon products. That way you won't have to drive very far! And you can get nokona wristbands or other nokona accessories!

In closing, if you're looking for a great gift idea to consider purchasing noon for your child. They'll love them and will likely play with them for years to come! I highly recommend nokona as a gift for a child because they're so durable and versatile. The price is reasonable as well, so you can buy nokona for either a boy or a girl. Whatever you choose to buy noon, rest assured it will be the best gift your family has ever received!

Summary

Further key aspects of the report indicate that:

Chapter 1: Research Scope: Product Definition, Type, End-Use & Methodology

Chapter 2: Global Industry Summary

Chapter 3: Market Dynamics

Chapter 4: Global Market Segmentation by region, type and End-Use

Chapter 5: North America Market Segmentation by region, type and End-Use

Chapter 6: Europe Market Segmentation by region, type and End-Use

Chapter 7: Asia-Pacific Market Segmentation by region, type and End-Use

Chapter 8: South America Market Segmentation by region, type and End-Use

Chapter 9: Middle East and Africa Market Segmentation by region, type and End-Use.

Chapter 10: Market Competition by Companies

Chapter 11: Market forecast and environment forecast.

Chapter 12: Industry Summary.

The global First Aid Kits market has the potential to grow with xx million USD with growing CAGR in the forecast period from 2021f to 2026f. Factors driving the market for @@@@@ are the significant development of demand and improvement of COVID-19 and geo-economics.

Based on the type of product, the global First Aid Kits market segmented into

Common Type Kits

Special Type Kits

Based on the end-use, the global First Aid Kits market classified into

House & Office Hold

Transportation

Industrial & manufacturing facilities

Military

Outdoor

Sports

Based on geography, the global First Aid Kits market segmented into

North America [U.S., Canada, Mexico]

Europe [Germany, UK, France, Italy, Rest of Europe]

Asia-Pacific [China, India, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, Rest of Asia Pacific]

South America [Brazil, Argentina, Rest of Latin America]

Middle East & Africa [GCC, North Africa, South Africa, Rest of Middle East and Africa]

And the major players included in the report are

Acme United

Johnson & Johnson

3M

ZEE

Certified Safety

Cintas

REI

Lifeline

Honeywell

Tender

St John

Hartmann

Safety First Aid

Lifesystems

First Aid Holdings

Firstar

KANGLIDI

Yunnan Baiyao

Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat is the USP of the report?

First Aid Kits Market report offers great insights of the market and consumer data and their interpretation through various figures and graphs. Report has embedded global market and regional market deep analysis through various research methodologies. The report also offers great competitor analysis of the industries and highlights the key aspect of their business like success stories, market development and growth rate.

What are the key content of the report?What are the value propositions and opportunities offered in this market research report?Related Reports

Firearm Lubricant Market

Fire Window Market

Fire Truck Market

Fire Sprinkler Heads Market

Contact us: https://www.reportmines.com/contact-us.php

[researchetcsblog]

Nokona First Base Glove Review!

The Nokona First Base Gloves has been around for a while. They were founded by a pair of South African sportsmen, Jon Cartilage and Barry Whiteway. The guys met in the late eighties, and they were doing some work for a construction company in Durban when they met Nokona - which was actually their first brand to be launched in the UK.

Initially, they were sold to a sports goods company based in Pretoria, but eventually their venture took them all over the world. Over the years, noon first showed up in a number of sports magazines and trade journals. They gained more publicity and recognition, and even made it into the hands of the World Match cricket team. This helped them gain some wider distribution and helped them to expand their business.

In fact, the whole story is so interesting that there's a movie available about their rise to fame and achievement. It's called: Nokona First Base Glove, and was directed by Michael Fassbender. It's actually a very good movie, and a fun watch. When I say fun, I mean that it's a lot of fun watching a guy swing a bat and go whacking something - anything. The story behind nokona first base glove is really quite funny, and the way the company has handled it since then is also quite funny. If you're interested in buying one of their products and want to get your hands on nokona first base glove, you'll find it's not that difficult to do.

There are quite a few online stores that sell nokona first base glove research. One of them, Global Brands, is an authorized vendor of nokona baseball equipment. They offer nokona first base glove for sale, as well as other products. It appears to be a fairly reputable store.

You can also find noon on eBay. eBay is probably one of the most popular places to sell anything online these days. If you want to buy noon, you'll find it at auctions all over the internet.

The nice thing about buying nokona online is that you can do it with just a few clicks of your mouse. If you're really into the game, you might want to buy a few noon items along with your team gear. It won't cost you too much. A few dollars here and there really adds up. You never know when the opportunity will present itself to buy nokona in a hurry.

So if you're still not sure where to buy noon, remember what you just learned about noon ratings. That's why you're buying it from a reputable online store. It's because noon is one of the best brands out there. You should find the price to be reasonable. After all, it's a very big investment to make so you want to be comfortable with the deal you make!

You'll find noon on eBay and other places too. You'll find great deals if you just take the time to search around. Keep your eyes open for sales and promotions. If you plan on buying a noon product for a while, that's fine too. Just take the time to check around before you buy!

You might want to look at a local sporting goods store if you can't buy corona online. They have a wide selection of noon products so you can find exactly what you need. But remember, you can also buy corona online but the shipping costs are often much higher so it's worth paying a little bit more for noon! You'll find the selection at your local sporting goods store to be much better as well!

Take a look at your local mall or toy store as well. I'm pretty sure that there is at least one store out there that carries noon products. That way you won't have to drive very far! And you can get nokona wristbands or other nokona accessories!

In closing, if you're looking for a great gift idea to consider purchasing noon for your child. They'll love them and will likely play with them for years to come! I highly recommend nokona as a gift for a child because they're so durable and versatile. The price is reasonable as well, so you can buy nokona for either a boy or a girl. Whatever you choose to buy noon, rest assured it will be the best gift your family has ever received!

Summary

Further key aspects of the report indicate that:

Chapter 1: Research Scope: Product Definition, Type, End-Use & Methodology

Chapter 2: Global Industry Summary

Chapter 3: Market Dynamics

Chapter 4: Global Market Segmentation by region, type and End-Use

Chapter 5: North America Market Segmentation by region, type and End-Use

Chapter 6: Europe Market Segmentation by region, type and End-Use

Chapter 7: Asia-Pacific Market Segmentation by region, type and End-Use

Chapter 8: South America Market Segmentation by region, type and End-Use

Chapter 9: Middle East and Africa Market Segmentation by region, type and End-Use.

Chapter 10: Market Competition by Companies

Chapter 11: Market forecast and environment forecast.

Chapter 12: Industry Summary.

The global First Aid Kits market has the potential to grow with xx million USD with growing CAGR in the forecast period from 2021f to 2026f. Factors driving the market for @@@@@ are the significant development of demand and improvement of COVID-19 and geo-economics.

Based on the type of product, the global First Aid Kits market segmented into

Common Type Kits

Special Type Kits

Based on the end-use, the global First Aid Kits market classified into

House & Office Hold

Transportation

Industrial & manufacturing facilities

Military

Outdoor

Sports

Based on geography, the global First Aid Kits market segmented into

North America [U.S., Canada, Mexico]

Europe [Germany, UK, France, Italy, Rest of Europe]

Asia-Pacific [China, India, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, Rest of Asia Pacific]

South America [Brazil, Argentina, Rest of Latin America]

Middle East & Africa [GCC, North Africa, South Africa, Rest of Middle East and Africa]

And the major players included in the report are

Acme United

Johnson & Johnson

3M

ZEE

Certified Safety

Cintas

REI

Lifeline

Honeywell

Tender

St John

Hartmann

Safety First Aid

Lifesystems

First Aid Holdings

Firstar

KANGLIDI

Yunnan Baiyao

First Aid Kits Market report offers great insights of the market and consumer data and their interpretation through various figures and graphs. Report has embedded global market and regional market deep analysis through various research methodologies. The report also offers great competitor analysis of the industries and highlights the key aspect of their business like success stories, market development and growth rate.

Firearm Lubricant Market

Fire Window Market

Fire Truck Market

Fire Sprinkler Heads Market

Contact us: https://www.reportmines.com/contact-us.php 

[sanerontheinside]

*sets laptop on lap* *grabs coffee* *leans back* *throws feet up on desk*  *carefully wiggles into semi-comfortable position* 

right, I’m just gonna vent a little here, don’t mind me

@deadcatwithaflamethrower pls come laugh at me? 

about 5 yrs ago there was this fresh new show, had some great ideas. the premise goes, Magical Characters From All Your Favourite Fairytales Get Dropped Into Our Horrible, Horrible World. where they get no happy endings (because apparently happy endings begin and end with meeting your Intended Mate but w/e noI’mnotsaltyatallhbu) 

(That aside...) they mixed fairytales in a kinda fun way and a whacked up family tree, but it was cool when they started. so I decided, hey, why not write a fanfic for it. nobody ask me why I started with the Real World part of the show tho, idk, for the Angst probably. Modern AU with a lot of angst. 

but also, this was the first time I was coming back to writing after a decent break. it was kinda about throwing ALL the ideas and tropes I could at the wall to see which ones stuck, or just... make all of them work somehow. 

the fic quickly turned into ‘how about I write a history of this fantasy world’ of about 300 years (why?) and then became more like 1000+ years (WHY?) with a consistent mix-and-match of fairytales and popular stories with bits and twists. there’s One Thousand and One Nights, there’s Arthurian Legend, there’s the Princess Bride and Legend of Zorro and pirates and Dragons and Shakespeare’s plays (idek bro). 

i really don’t wanna do greek mythology..... that shit’s weird for me on a good day....... ugh I’m probably gonna have to do greek mythology tho, it was, like, one of the possible explanations for the origin of Mad Eye Moody’s Eye, man

WHICH BRINGS UP ANOTHER POINT. I never actually intended to pull HP into this fic, but there are all sorts of hints and nods to other universes/popular works of fiction as you go. 

this tho. this is the part where brains are actually horrible. because Brain one day up and said, well, this doesn’t have all that much to do with the show you started with, so, uh... you could... well in theory, you could profic it....

me: NO. too much to change in the parts that are show-based. and also, how do you explain Princess Bride references? am I supposed to change all the names of the characters who appeared in BBC Merlin?? (oy yeah—it became a fusion fic, too) how on Earth am I supposed to deal with the modern world characters and their storylines? 

Brain: ok

.... 4 months later ....

Brain: okay get this: Arthurian legend has been fucked by everybody six different ways, calamity and incest. it’s completely public domain. let’s not talk about The Princess Bride just now, tho. and get this: there’s enough difference between your stories and the original tale or movie that it probably isn’t easy to recognise. you’ll be fine. 

me: ... why don’t I believe you... oh right, because you give me bad ideas, like Let’s Write Profic! No.

.... and a month after that ....

Brain: hey look so Dragons, right? they’re people, but they’ve essentially created a magical form for themselves for ‘protection’, yeah?

me: I’m making lunch, please don’t make me burn it

Brain: well, why would they need a gender?

me: ...th’fuck... you’re telling me they go dragonform to have clutches of eggs and solve any incompatibility problems thusly?

Brain: well, yeah. I mean if you had magic and wanted kids and adoption wasn’t exactly totally an issue for a population that likes to raise its young in nontraditional, sprawling families, why not? gender identity could be pretty flexible for them

me: cool, cool, very cool. nice. I like this thought, please keep going. 

Brain: wouldn’t it be a shame if you didn’t fucking write it tho

me: BITCH NOT NOW

.... and a few days after that ....

Brain: ‘sup

me: ceiling. 

Brain: yeah I know you think you’re funny. but I’m funnier. question: your dragonfic, it’s kinda historical, right? ish? I mean when you picture the geography you’ve literally set it around the mediterranean, and your Dragonfolk cross the region from fantasy-Italy to fantasy-Egypt and then plonk themselves in the Sahara where nobody else lives atm, to survive after a damn volcano blew them off their mountain? 

me: your punchline better be worth this set-up

Brain: base your timeline loosely on world history. pull in fairytales not just from Europe and mythology not just from Greece. they’re living in Africa, use that. go around the world, maybe check out Norse mythology. figure out what the deal is with how Dragon magic affected Agrabah, and then explain what it did to places between their city in the damn Sahara Desert and all the damn way into Agrabah, IT’S A DECENT DISTANCE—

me, three years ago with fingers in my ears: lalalalalalalalalalalalala

.... last week ....

Brain: you know, you could frame it as a meta!universe thing

me: what even the fuck are you on about now. 

Brain: okay, you basically explained the One Important Wise(ass) Person for your civilisation as a holdover of how they were created, i.e., one day an author sat down and wrote something, then decided to ‘step in’ and basically never left, which is how they get to see all directions any moment or event can theoretically sprawl off into?

me: I give up. 

Brain: you could frame it as a story about a fanfiction. at some point you reveal that your main characters are actually written characters, and you’re really telling the story about someone writing it. There’s the Modern AU, there’s the Pirate AU, there’s the Princess Bride crossover, and so on

me: convoluted. probably still illegally infringing on something or other. kind of a hopeless premise? like living in a dreamworld? that’s... that feels... fake? unsatisfying? like happiness only happens there. you know that’s a lie.

Brain: ok, maybe. but you could try. 

Brain: maybe you can even do it better. 

me: oh, fuck you.

tbh I really think Brain might’ve won this round. 

So if you’ve gotten this far in my tale of woe, pls feel free to rec me any sources for ancient myths and fairytales from all over the world, and some good history sources, because today I’m looking up whether Cinderella is based on a French fairytale from the 1700s or the 17th century, and also travel in the 1600-1700s (was it reserved to nobles/high-income folks? where did they travel to?)

Anyway, chances are it’ll be another 5-10 years before anything comes of this. 

but Dragons. 

[the50-person]

HONG KONG UPDATE 18 NOV 2019

The students at the siege of CUHK had some advantages that PolyU didnt have:

1) Geography

PolyU may be maze-like, have a narrow entrance for easy defence and the mutiple levels of balcony make it great for sniping police, but it is an island. Meaning that police can surround it almost on all sides save for the one side with the bridge where citizens can attack from. Whereas CUHK is pretty well-bounded by natural geography, preventing police from surrounding it and having hidden paths where students can escape.

2) Attitude of university management

CUHK's Rocky Tuan still showed his awful side after the incident (he blamed students for being violent), but at least during the fiercest hours he chose not to be too awful and made the effort to bring a group of heads and went to make negotiations. At least he went to the police stations to check on the arrested students. At least some vice-heads decided to stay with the students to the end.

PolyU is completely silent, security guards all mysteriously vanished since yesterday morn when police launched attacks. Makes me suspect that school knew abt police plans and took out all guards. The Post852 head is a great analyst (and highly tracked by CCP and HK gov, meaning that his analysis is always spot on) confirmed my suspicions because he said the exact same thing. Removal of guards creates the excuse of "there is a security vacuum and it is reasonable for us to now rely on police cos we have lack of security power to control situation".

3) Situation

CUHK still had ongoing supplies delivery and attacks were at the start of this disastrous past week. Then universities all barricaded themselves in .PolyU has alr been fighting and barricading themselves inside since then and now the attacks come late into the occupation. Which is why it is within expectation that they do not have enuf supplies.

Police whack you a bit everyday to exhaust your supplies slowly, then proceed to launch a massive stretched attack. Definitely will hit your inventories. Not sure if that's really the plan, but the police have indeed been having sporadic smaller scale ones every day, and also cos' that's what / I / will do if I'm Lam.

HONG KONG UPDATE 18 NOV 2019 1234

HK Gov & Police laying siege to Polytechnic University for more than 24 hours, many kids trapped inside

It is said that there are 11 and 12yos inside too, the gov and police announced that all inside are rioters, despite the fact that most ppl were originally inside the campus because THEY LIVE THERE. The small number that attacked only did so because police ATTACKED FIRST.

[march-for-no-reason]

20 Facts about Me thing - tagged by @chronical-music-fangirlism

Had this one done for a while, waiting around in the drafts. 

Make things up from scratch, oh dear. Here we go. I’ll try to stay away from negative things.  1. I have a cat, his name is Mu.            1.1. He may be a demon in disguise - various cat-owning friends have attested to his non cat-like, eerily human behaviours

          1.2 . His favourite bands are Iron Maiden and ELP, no joke. His favourite song from Maiden is Caught Somewhere in Time, and favourite from ELP are Take a Pebble and Tarkus. (He also likes Love Beach, but just barely tolerates Greg’s solo works.) He will demand me to play LPs and will loaf next to the speakers, purr and get fluffy. More upbeat songs, he’ll tap his tail to the beat however weird the time signature, with an extra swish on the dramatic/emphasized lines. 

2. Two sisters, one is 9yrs younger, the other is 11yrs younger.

3. Ahem. A bit of cheating. I love Greg Lake, so very much. He inspires me...” If I could only find the right words to tell you/ I know it sounds cliché /but I love you so bad. “  Favourite vocalist.

4. I love Don Airey. Favourite keyboardist and the only one I could tolerate for the longest time. Adorable. 

5. Favourite guitarist is Adrian Smith, with Gary Moore not far behind. 

6. Favourite bassist is Geezer Butler (honourable mention to Jack Bruce)

7. Favourite drummer....oh this is hard. Probably a toss up between Cozy Powell, Clive Burr and Gar Samuelson. 

8. I’m ambidextrous, though some of it has been drilled out of me by my grandmother - I still do a lot of tasks with my left hand though. 

9. Cooking is the one thing that consistently calms me, as such, I have honed my skills to quite a decent level. Not a bad baker either, but baking is stressful.

10. I was an aspiring archaeologist/historian for the first half of University, then philosophy ensnared me and I got a degree in it. I still love it very much, but I don’t see it as my true calling anymore. 

11. I’m a pretty big gamer, but I suck at platformers (If there is a pit in the ground, I’ll find a way to fall in, even if you are not supposed to. Even in Mario Kart, I fall in the water from time to time on Maple Treeway. O_o), I have gotten better though.

12. Avid RPG fanatic. Not MMOs, too much interaction. My physical game library is the one thing I don’t have much of a backlog in. I have a lot. Over 1000 hours in the two 3ds Fire Emblems and well over 100 in SoV. Yeah, it’s my favourite series.

13. Music! I’ve played accordion since I was 6, and have since then added flute, trombone, and guitar to my repertoire. I’m rusty from neglecting them during university though. 

14. I have a giant high-fantasy world with its own language, and world-building (culture, geography, metaphysics...) that I’ve worked on for a very long time. It’s for my own enjoyment. I have boxes upon boxes of notes and sketches, genealogies and such. 

15.  Synesthesia! I’m not sure what to think of it, but I guess just let it be. It made me rather picky with music, and gave me some very controversial opinions because ‘synesthesia doesn’t like it’. (sound->colour, sound->texture, mirror touch, and minor grapheme->colour)

16. I used to be a very big reader, that also fell off during university, and my backlog is glaring at me from the shelves. Tolkien is my favourite though, and I’ll always have time for him.

17. When I was little, my ‘dream job’/aspiration was to be a hermit. 

18. Really really clumsy in day-to-day activities. I get a lot of ‘how did you manage to do THAT? (closing cabinet on my heel and getting cut/splinters, closing car door on my shin, whacking my arm against a door frame when walking and getting a giant purple bruise, Walking face first into pillars in public...)

19. Um...running out of ideas. I was quite the unruly kid. Climbed everything climbable and more - regularly perched on the top shelf, top of cabinets, and top of the fridge. Tried to climb out of a 6th story window once. Wanted to poke my head around and startle the neighbours - half suceeded. Ironically, with no accidents involved, I’m now pretty afraid of heights. 

20. Last one. Have I mentioned I love Greg Lake? It’s all very platonic, I owe my life to him, some others, and my dearest friends. My misfortunes would be almost comical in degree and severity if it wasn’t for how bad they were. Oh, electronics malfunction in mysterious ways around me for no apparent reason. 

This thing have been making rounds around here - anyone I’d tag’s mostly been tagged already, or something. So if you feel like it, go ahead, otherwise, I’ll just sit back and read the ones that show up/have shown up on my dash. 

[compare-wp10]

Leicester Lockdown Shows ‘Whack-a-Mole’ Won’t Work – What Should the Strategy Be?

See on Scoop.it - COMPARE RISK COMMUNICATION

COVID-19 LOCAL GOVERNMENT Leicester Lockdown Shows ‘Whack-a-Mole’ Won’t Work – What Should the Strategy Be? Commentary Posted on: 1st July 2020 Ian Mulheirn Executive Director and Chief Economist The pattern of life under coronavirus is becoming clearer. Around the world, after national lockdowns to get the virus under control, from Leicester to Guetersloh we’ve seen that from here on the challenge is to intervene rapidly and decisively to tackle flare-ups in local areas and prevent wider spread – Boris Johnson’s so-called whack-a-mole strategy. For these to work, it’s critical that the public and local businesses understand why their area is being put into a local lockdown. Done effectively, localised shutdowns can keep the rest of the country free. But if we act too late, or if adherence to local restrictions is partial, they will fail and the national health and economic consequences will be profound. As we’ve learned in recent months, adherence is hard to enforce and requires the broad consent of the population. That will be much harder to secure in a flare-up area when residents of neighbouring areas will be free to go about their business unhindered. To have any chance of working the approach needs to be transparent, consistent and fair. Unfortunately, the Leicester case has been met with an ad hoc and confused response from the government that fails these standards. It’s clear that there is no strategy for managing local outbreaks. The national coronavirus strategy needs to be quickly adapted to the challenges that local outbreaks pose. The answer to four questions should define the approach: Who decides? How do they decide? Where does lockdown apply? And what extra financial support will be made available to those affected? 1. Who Decides? The first question relates to whether local lockdowns should be in the hands of local authorities or central government. There’s a strong case to be made for empowering local authorities, most obviously in providing them the testing data and wider powers, that could allow them to pre-empt a flare-up with timely and targeted interventions when small clusters of cases develop. Central government’s withholding of Pillar 2 testing data from local authorities is as reckless as it is inexplicable. But the decision to lockdown a whole local authority should be a national one for two reasons. The first is that the decision taken in one area have profound implications for the rest of the country. The consequences of one local authority failing to act could be catastrophic. What’s more, citizens are less likely to take a lockdown seriously, at great cost to their livelihoods, if they think their local authority is being more cautious than others. At this critical moment, we can’t afford the charge of a postcode lottery for lives and livelihoods. Fairness and consistency have to be hardwired into the approach and that means central government making the call. 2. How Should Local Lockdown be Triggered? But central government’s decision can’t be arbitrary. For local lockdowns to be fair requires a transparent national framework with clear triggers and defined thresholds, so that every area understands how restrictions will vary with the scale of the outbreak. The Health Secretary has explained that decisions are currently taken through the Local Action Committee Command Structure. But there’s little clarity over how or why local cases are escalated to a ‘gold’ meeting after which the Secretary of State might choose to lock down the area. As we set out in our recent paper Reset, the decision framework should be linked to two metrics: virus prevalence and the estimate of R. In Leicester, for example, the Health Secretary says that there were 944 cases in Leicester in the week to 26 June, amounting to 135 cases per hundred thousand of population. That’s a rate of new infections roughly equivalent to what we were seeing nationally in at the height of the crisis, so unsurprisingly it has triggered a return to April-style lockdown measures. Nationally, there are currently roughly 10 weekly new positive tests per hundred thousand population. To get people on board, the government should make explicit what’s currently implicit. It should fall to the Joint Biosecurity Centre to adjudicate the local alert level against published trigger that are tied to predetermined restrictions that should look something like Figure 1, below. This would be comparable to the French approach. There the alert level and associated lockdown measures are determined centrally for each Department on the basis of virus prevalence and estimates of R. Restrictions in each area shift from green to amber alert once weekly cases top 10 per hundred thousand population, and to red at 50 per hundred thousand. In Germany, too, districts are required to impose ‘comprehensive restrictions’ when weekly infections breach 50 per hundred thousand. 3. How Should the Areas be Defined What should be the basic geographic unit of lockdown? In Leicester, the lockdown area is wider than the City of Leicester, taking in bits of Leicestershire, and therefore isn’t contiguous with any obvious administrative boundaries. Predictably this has led to confusion with the police, which risks undermining enforcement. But it’s more damaging for securing popular support and adherence if residents and businesses find the zoning baffling and arbitrary. Cutting across boundaries also seems inimical to empowering the local authority. It’s not hard to see the attraction of micro-targeted lockdown zones. But for the sake of simplicity and transparency, following the German and French approach and using the basic building blocks of local authorities seems like the only sustainable strategy. This will become even more important if we start to see flare-ups in large and dense conurbations. 4. How Should Financial Support Work Finally, local lockdowns will only hold if they’re accompanied by a comprehensive financial support package that’s automatically triggered by the local alert level. We have an ongoing debate about whether the withdrawal of the Job Retention Scheme (JRS) should be phased differently for different sectors. But local outbreaks mean it’s rapidly becoming clear that fiscal support needs also to be phased differently by geography. For Leicester there’s a stopgap solution. No. 10 has made it clear that businesses that had already used the scheme will get to continue using it as the local lockdown takes effect. But, ahead of the phase out of the scheme in October, that would have been the case anyway. As new areas face lockdowns, and national support measures start to be phased out, companies that had returned to work will need to be allowed to make new applications to the JRS and loan schemes if the alert level in their area is increased back to level 4. Things will get even more complicated for employees who live in a lockdown area but work elsewhere. A ‘flexible JRS’, based on both on where companies are based and where employees live, will no doubt test HMRC administrative systems to the limit. But it should be urgently explored. Otherwise once a flare-up hits a large integrated urban labour market like London, there may be no choice but to lock down the entire city at huge cost. It would also be hard to make such blanket interventions stick. Conclusion It’s becoming clear that managing local lockdowns is going to be a central part of the coronavirus policy challenge from here on. Securing public consent for these lockdowns relies on there being clear, transparent and timely information to ensure people understand why restrictions need to be re-imposed in particular places, while the rest of the country is enjoying their newfound freedoms. The government’s current approach – drip-feeding a series of briefings to newspapers before making an announcement shrouded in secrecy – falls a long way short of this ideal. Leicester is just the first, but we can already see growing outbreaks in places like Barnsley and Bradford. We have an opportunity to learn from Leicester. It’s time to get the whack-a-mole strategy straight. Authors Tags: UK POLICY, COVID-19, LOCAL GOVERNMENT

[junker-town]

Botch Jones? Look closer. Tennessee’s head coach has done a good job

Unfair expectations serve to diminish the job he’s done.

Botch Jones.

I’m guilty of calling the Tennessee head coach Butch Jones that on social media. Anecdotally, it feels like he gets less from Tennessee’s talent than most would. And his mistimed, cornball sayings come off as excuse-making.

But, on the other hand, he’s also done a good job rebuilding Tennessee from the crater it was in after Lane Kiffin and Derek Dooley.

And that work seems to have gone unappreciated.

Following the win over Georgia Tech on Monday, Jones’ Volunteers are now 21-8 in their last 29 games, after starting 10-13. Yet the calls to fire him still came at all points during the game, and after.

The Vols were a popular pick to win the SEC East in 2016, but came up short. But Tennessee did not miss the expectations of Las Vegas oddsmakers and national pundits by all that much. And once the injuries Tennessee suffered on defense are factored in, missing the expectations does not seem all that bad.

Jones has gone 9-4 in consecutive seasons. The last time Tennessee won 18 or more games over two seasons was 2006-7, under Phil Fulmer.

Among SEC teams, only Alabama and Florida have won nine or more games in each of the last two seasons.

Jones doesn’t measure up to a standard that requires him to produce nationally elite teams, but he is producing consistently good teams. That should be considered success at Tennessee.

Jones’ recruiting has been quite strong, and the Volunteers are on much better footing than when he took over. Tennessee ranks 15th nationally in my Blue-Chip Ratio measure, which tracks which proportion of a team’s signees rate as four- or five-stars over a four-year period. And Tennessee is sixth nationally in the 247Sports rankings for the class of 2018. The Volunteers don’t appear to be slowing down.

Tennessee fan expectations are a bit out of whack. Their memories of the glory days don’t take context into account.

Tennessee is a much tougher job than people realize. Yes, Fulmer won a national championship in 1998, beating a Seminoles’ squad without its Heisman-winning QB, Chris Weinke.

But Fulmer’s overall record shows just how difficult it is to win big at Tennessee.

Fulmer won the SEC East in six of his 17 seasons. He was 5-12 against Florida, going 2-1 against Ron Zook, 0-4 against Urban Meyer, and 3-7 against Steve Spurrier. And while he had an 11-6 record against Georgia, he was just 3-5 against Mark Richt.

His record got fat against failed Alabama coaches, going a combined 8-2 against Mike Dubose, Dennis Franchione, and Mike Shula, but 2-4-1 against Gene Stallings and Nick Saban.

Fulmer is considered the recent gold standard at Tennessee, yet he had a losing record against almost all of the good SEC coaches during his tenure.

The Vols have to be careful about expectations. They are the only SEC East team that must face college football’s No. 1 program on an annual basis. They are at a recruiting disadvantage compared to Florida and Georgia, due to the lower amount of talent in Tennessee. And the layout geography of the state results in the University of Alabama being 90 minutes closer to a talent center in Memphis than Knoxville is.

Jones has done a good job at Tennessee. Don’t let unjustified expectations skew the perception of the progress.

[heckyeahsurveys]

#254

”Last” survey

Last text message received and who it was from: “quite a bit later” off liz

Text message sent and who it was to: "ok, do u know what time tho or??” to liz

Phone call: liz

Commercial you saw: i don’t remember

TV show you watched: sense8

Song you sang: courteeners - what took you so long? 

Book you read aloud: haven’t read a book for years so fuck knows

Magazine you read: one again fuck knows

Drink: water

Food eaten: chocolate

Website visited: fb

App used: spotify

Thing you said: idk

Outfit you wore: been in my pyjamas all day lol

Boyfriend/girlfriend you had: kt lol

Friend you hung out with: kt bc she came to care for me in my highness earlier <3

Thing you smoked: a cig

Place you went: in my back yard, that’s the only place i’ve been today

Place you slept: my bed

Reason you got pulled over by the police: never.

Board game you played: idk man

Computer game you played: also idk

Console game you played: tomb raider legend on ps2 lmao

Card game you played: idk

Meal you cooked: made me n kt ramen earlier so that :))

Dessert you ate: dessert doesnt look like the right spelling. n idk i don’t rly eat dessert, think it was a custard cream last week. wait no what’re they called??? a custard tart? lol just googled it i meant egg custard!!!! what a mess (keeping this bc it’s funny what Am i )

Alcohol you drank: cider i think

Movie you saw in theaters: guardians of the galaxy 2

Movie you watched at home: idk

Thing you saw on Netflix: sense8

Video you watched on YouTube: markiplier “LITERALLY RAINING BLOOD!! | Outlast 2 - Part 7”

Person you messaged on Facebook: jack

Present you received: a lil gift thing w/ a mug n pens n stuff in from the re teachers <3 

Present you bought: idk don’t remember

Person you kissed, non-romantically: what so like my dad?

Person you kissed, romantically: jack

Person you made out with: jack

Person you had sex with: no one :((

Song you danced to: dno

Class you took: geography?? no history

Grade you got: idk

Shoes you wore: docs?? i don’t remember tbhhh

Article you read: also don’t remember

Kid you saw: liz xxx

Place you spent the night that wasn’t your own home: katie’s?? 

Drug you took: codeine (sidenote thank god for autocorrect bc i spelt that v v wrong) (sidenote sidenote also thank god for codeine it’s Great :))))) )

Car you rode in: my dad;s

Bad decision you made: idk all of them

Ex you saw: katie

Dream you had: i don’t remember it specifically i just remember it was about jack hahaahaha ://

Song you heard: the 1975 - girls

Holiday you celebrated: xmas????

Birthday you celebrated: idk cerys’?

Time you got dressed up: college party whenever that was

Animal you saw: idk

Meat you ate: idk i haven’t eaten it for over two and a half years

Piece of jewelry you wore: do my earrings count???

Person you snuggled/cuddled with: idk :(

Reason you cried: just in pain init, think i’ve got a broken or badly bruised rib so that’s rly fun x just love being alive TB H hahahaha

Reason you last laughed: probs jack 

School you attended:  well i’m not saying that here am i? :///

Time you went to work: never lol

Friend you reunited with: idk none?

Nickname someone called you: ell

Notification you received on Facebook: think it was jack tagging me in smth

Type of weather you hate: windy and rainy 

Reason you went to the hospital: hahahaha that would be after the incident when i fell through a picnic bench and whacked my head. might be going again tomorrow if i need an xray lol fun tIMES x 

Article of clothing you purchased: a bodysuit and skirt i think

Photo you uploaded to Facebook or Instagram: haven’t uploaded to fb in time so fuck knows and i don’t post on ig

Email you sent: think i was sending myself an essay

Album you downloaded/bought: i don’t download or buy albums, just use spotify so idk