#depite me being 16

[fancylandbakerytaco]

legally im a grandma now bc i steal low cal sweeteners from coffee places

[severitus-for-coping]

When Snape meets Dumbdore Harry persumably isn't born yet, or only just born. That means it's maybe July to September 1980 (Harry being born 31st July).

SWM happens in there 5th year- May 1976.

It's been about 4 years since Sev last called Lily his best friend. It's not decades later.

It's not clear when they become freinds probably latest 1969. Probably earlier, in my opinion it'd sound like Lily had had much less exposure to class questions and that indicates to me a pretty young girl. Not so long in school and her sister is still accompaning her to the playgrooud so more 6,7 maybe. Then we'd be at 1967.

Depending on when they meet they've been friends they wear (best) friends for 6-10years at 16. At 20 they would've not been friends for 4ish years. It'd be normal to still have strong feelings about someone you shared so much of your childhood with.

I don't think you can all Severus creepy because he never (to our knowlege) attempts to contact Lily.

There's some comment apprently, a JKRs comment that Lily would've wanted Snape to be the goodfather of her second child. But that dosn't mean he conntacted her and if you want to include it in canon that dosn't make it obsession, it'd mean they had mutally still a strong desire to some sort of relationship, depite the (by that time) 5 years appart.

Pretty messed up how some people are fans of a creepy and obsessive guy who didn’t care if a man and a child died just so he could get the girl.

Alright, let's break this down, anon, because there's a lot to unpack here.

I think I've mentioned this in several posts already, but I'll repeat it: Severus owed James Potter NOTHING—no compassion, no empathy, no mercy. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. James Potter was a rich, popular brat who abused his social and economic capital to torment a poor, unsupported boy for seven years just because he didn't like him from the moment they met on the train to Hogwarts, and from that moment on, he had it in for him. He was a terrible bully who used his friends to join in on that nasty bullying. So if Snape didn’t care that he died, well, Snape had every right to feel that way. Do you go to victims of domestic violence and tell them they should feel sorry for their abusers? No, right? Well, this is the same thing. James was an abuser, Severus was his victim. Severus did more than enough by not telling Voldemort to torture him to death with Cruciatus, because I would have. Honestly, I don't understand why Snaters always bring up the whole "James was dead and Snape walked over his body" as if it were some horrible thing when, hello! You're talking about an ABUSER being dead, mate. Of course, he walked right over his body—what surprises me is that he didn’t throw a party.

Harry had to die. I know this sounds terrible, but it’s basically what the prophecy indicated. He was a target that Voldemort wasn’t going to let slip away, his fate was sealed. And yes, it’s unethical. And yes, it’s immoral. But the truth is that wars are unethical and highly immoral, and horrible, monstrous decisions are often made. Harry was not an option—asking for mercy for him was pointless because there wasn’t going to be any.

I don’t think Severus ever believed that if James was out of the picture, Lily would go to him or anything like that. I mean, they hadn’t spoken for five years—about six by that time. Severus NEVER harassed or stalked Lily. The only time he went after her was when the whole SWM incident happened, and he tried to apologise. Once she made it clear she didn’t want anything to do with him anymore, Severus respected her decision, and as far as we know from canon, they never interacted again. So, I don’t think, after six years of not talking, with his supposed former best friend having married and had a child with his personal bully, Severus had many expectations of them ending up in any sort of romantic relationship. I think, quite simply, that Lily always represented the only good part of his childhood—the only happy memories, the only moments of peace amidst the hellish violence he endured at home. I believe this was crucial for someone like him, whose childhood and teenage years were marked by violence, and he wasn’t willing to let the one good thing in his life end up murdered.

I agree that Severus is highly obsessive, but haters tend to frame this in a derogatory way, referring to his "obsession" with Lily, and I think it needs some clarification. Yes, Severus is obsessive, and he’s terribly immature at times, and he overreacts enormously when confronted with something that really triggers him (just look at how quickly he loses his temper with Sirius, for instance). This is obviously because he’s someone who never had the opportunity to grow up normally or develop cognitively as he should have, because his whole life was marked by violence. His home life was violent, and at school, he endured violence, and then at 20 years old, he handed his soul over to Dumbledore’s cause and had to work for nearly two decades at a school that was the epicentre of many of his traumas. He literally had neither the spaces nor the environments needed to heal and grow into a functional adult, and you can clearly see this in his behaviour. I’ve always said Severus is more of a diva than the cold, mysterious character people often make him out to be in fanon. To me, he’s someone who, on a personal level, hasn’t been able to grow emotionally in a healthy way and doesn’t know how to manage certain situations, especially those tied to his emotional issues. That said, I also don’t think he was romantically and/or sexually obsessed with Lily. I do think he loved her or was infatuated with her in his youth—first love, crush, whatever. But I don’t believe his need to avenge her death was due to romantic or obsessive love. I think it’s more about his obsession with repaying his debt to her. Severus always felt partially responsible for Lily’s death, and that’s where his obsession lies: it’s not that he’s obsessed with her, per se, but with the fact that he feels guilty for what happened. He feels, in some way, responsible for the death of the one person who showed him kindness, affection, and care during his childhood, which made her the most important person in his life at one point. And guilt often leads to obsession, much like grief that is not properly processed, and I don’t think that kind of obsession is creepy. I think it’s a very human kind of obsession.

Lastly, I don’t find Severus creepy at all. Why is he creepy? I mean, Harry was running around with his invisibility cloak, spying on everyone. The Marauders had A BLOODY MAP that allowed them to track everyone at Hogwarts 24/7 like some kind of magical GPS. Is Severus really the creepy one here? There are literally Animagi who turn into animals to spy on people—I have to laugh at the whole creepy argument.

That being said, if you’re going to come into my DMs to complain about Severus, at least bring some convincing arguments because it’s a bit tiresome hearing the same nonsense over and over again.

[teacupnotes]

Today i finished Child of the Prophecy, so i want to talk about this trilogy. It will contain spoilers. And i know it’s actually a series, with another 3 books; but i still don’t have them.

Besides i will take a break from reading fiction, to read the book about racism i mentioned on my other booklr post.

➰

Rereading Daughter of the Forest, I was able to go back to my teenagehood and relive my love for fairy tale retellings. I don’t think i had finished this book before, because i didn’t remember the ending.

But Sorcha, oh my gosh, she was a formidable MC. She was strong and with an iron will, that impressed me quite a lot. I might have had a tiny (lol who am i kidding, big) crush on Red, so i see what she saw in him by marrying him, even if he’s a breton. 

It was amazing reading her grow up, to see how Sorcha as a child was different from Sorcha the older teen. I refuse to call it young adult, because gdi, they’re still KIDS. Yeah yeah yeah the ~times were different~ and people lived half of our current life expectation, but it was something that i was constantly aware of while reading: how Sorcha and Red’s age gap was uncomfortable for me.

Sorcha’s relationship with her brothers was so beautiful and complex that it made me wish i wasn’t an only child. Sorcha’s romance (depite the age gap flaw), made me wish i could experience something similar, at least. I loved coming back to this book and experience it, like it was the first time, all over again.

➰

With Son of the Shadows, i didn’t really know what to expect. I remembered vaguely some characters (but not the MC, Liadan, who’s the youngest daughter of Sorcha). I remembered Ciarán and his forbidden relationship. Rereading the book was, once again, like reading it for the first time.

Liadan was very much like her mother, with a powerful inner strength, a clear path to walk on. She was very stubborn, and i loved how she confronted the Fair Folk, despite the constant threats they made her. I loved how she stubbornly made The Painted Man change his mind about women, and eventually they even fall in love. 

The only thing i didn’t quite like about him was that he was bald. Well, not quite, because he could grow hair but chose to have a shaved head. He was as stubborn as Liadan. They were made for each other. Although the freaking age gap existed again, with Liadan with like 16 years old and her guy being 21. What’s up with thaaaaaaaaaaat!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, i wanted to know more about Niamh, her older sister. Her story felt incomplete, empty, as she was made to be more like of a bimbo, an airhead, and i think that was very unfair. I really understood her resentment to Liadan, who was a copy of Sorcha almost, and so, treated very differently.

 Anyhow, this was a great read. I had hoped that the (then) final book would be as fantastic. But boy was i wrong...

➰

Unlike the other two previous books, Child of the Prophecy was a difficult read. Unlike Sorcha and Liadan, Fainne was a MC with whom i struggled immensely connecting to, and to root for.

She did many terrible things; her constant self doubt was tiring and annoying, her back and forth morals and choices, made her a two sided character, to which was very difficult to relate with or to look up to. Not even the last 3 chapters, where she finally decides to choose the path of Light and Good, make up for what she did in the rest of the book. Fainne was extremely insecure, constantly pushed everyone she loved away, and believed blindly that she was cursed and that was nothing she could do to live a life of a good woman. She was a witch, you see...

I wanted to pause the book so many times, and stop there. (This has only happened with another JM book, Cibele’s Secret, which i began reading but never finished.) I wanted to know more about the side characters, like Darragh, Johnny, or even Ciarán. I was very unsatisfied with the ending too. It felt rushed. I wanted to have the chance to see Fainne and Darragh’s relationship truly blossom, something that was the focus of the story, instead of a sub-plot (something that you wouldn’t even pay much attention to). (At least they didn’t have as much of a big age gap as the other two!)  Instead, i was given a extremely short epilogue, that talked more about the outsider’s perception of Needle Island and its inhabitants, than about Fainne and her family.

➰

I really hope that the other 3 books in the series make up for this one. But i think they will, since they’re about the daughters of Liadan instead.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#3yrsago Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep

David K Randall's Dreamland is a review of the best scientific thinking that illuminates and important subject: namely, why do we spend a third of our lives paralyzed, eyes closed, having vivid hallucinations?

David Randall wants you to know five things about sleep:

We don't know much about sleep

We don't think much about sleep

We pretend sleep doesn't matter

Sleep matters, a lot

And boy, is sleep ever weird

Framed as a journey through which the author tries to get to the bottom of his own alarming sleepwalking, Dreamland is thirteen loosely joined essays, each covering a different aspect of sleep, from sleep-related errors in military fatalities to people who commit grotesque murder in their sleep to the strange social history of dreaming to the painful business of "sleep training" newborns.

In each chapter, Randall visits the best thinking in sleep science, often interviewing leading thinkers in the field about cutting-edge research and the best current thinking. Although each chapter constitutes a well-told scientific tale, not much effort is put into tying the chapters together. Even so, taken as a whole, the book goes a long way to making the case for sleep as an urgent life-necessity and not a weakness of the flesh. Over and over again, in sports and medicine and war-fighting and scholarship, Randall tells the stories of people whose macho work ethic put sleep behind other considerations of "getting the job done," who discovered a false economy and paid a terrible price in the form of decreased judgment, performance, and stamina.

This is the sort of thing that, depite being well-known, isn't well-understood. We treat insomnia as a weakness, treat sleeping pills and caffeine as an easily substitutable for time with our heads down, and consistently underestimate the extent to which sleep deprivation has undermined our effectiveness.

I read my copy while horrifically jetlagged and found it especially trenchant -- and alarming. But Randall's such a charming storyteller that I was able to convert my alarm to rest, rather than having it keep me awake.

Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep [David K Randall/WW Norton]

-Cory Doctorow

https://boingboing.net/2015/02/16/dreamland-adventures-in-the-s.html

[amollion]

Newcomers Pt6

“EAT IT!!!”

“NO”

“I SAID EAT IT!”

“GET OFF ME WOMAN!!” Hesky shouts throwing Karen off him and running out the door.

“YOU WILL ACCEPT MY VALENTINE LOVE!!!” she shouts chasing after him holding her home made chocolates above her head.

The two Humans screaming and running past Dr Loop's door was nothing out of the ordinary these days, he liked the Humans and found them fascinating and rather good company. That did not mean that he did not find them odd to the point of thinking they were all insane. Some were quiet and preferred to be alone and other were loud and found hurting themselves to be hilarious. Suddenly his door opened with another Human limping.

“What happened to you?” Dr Loop asks.

“Sergeant Stabby got me” he replies.

“Why do you keep it around and why the Admiral allows that thing to stay I'll never know”

“Don't talk ill of Sergeant Stabby, he is war hero you know”

“IT is a cleaning machine”

“Irrelevant he is a hero and deserves our respect”

“But-”

“SHHHHHH here he comes”

Sergeant Stabby made his way into the Dr's office and bumped into a few wall and furniture all the while the Human stood up and saluted it until it left.

“Tell me something um...” Dr Loop said

“Cho”

“Cho, tell me something Cho is it the norm for you race to be so....nuts?”

Cho smiled “You've never been to Terra have you?”

“No”

“Shame, because if you think we are crazy you'd love to see us on our home world”

Dr Loop just scoffed and went to look at Cho's foot. “The bleeding has already stopped”

“Well yeah he doesn't stab us deeply”

“But still  for wound like this to stop bleeding so soon”

“Yeah it's clotting? Wait...have you worked on Humans before”

“I have studied Human anatomy yes”

“But actually worked with one? In person before we got here?”

Dr Loop did not like his skills being questioned, his race the Seelom were a very proud race especially of their skills.

“It matters not, I know all the ins and outs of your kinds bodies, probably better than you and the rest of your backwards and primitive kind”

Cho raised an eyebrow “Give your arm for a sec” he asked.

“Why?”

“Just trust me”

Dr Loop gave him one of his right arms and Cho stuck out his tongue all the while looking at his face for a reaction but Dr Loop just looked confused and a little disgusted.

Cho licked his arm and a split second later Dr Loop was screaming as Cho's saliva burned through his skin.

Dr Loop fell tot he floor cradling his arm and after a few more seconds the burning stopped and Cho was on his feet.

“Guess you forgot our saliva is like acid to your kind” he said and left without helping him up.

The Benemar Chief of Admiral Polts fleet was back on Bento Prime, he had already been disgraced for not seeking justice after one of his clan leaders was killed by a Human female. And to let the Humans gain all the glory for the liberation of Remer making their kind out to be a joke.

“Cheif Goolack of the Benemar step forward!” called one of the High Chieftains and he stpped forward.

“You are a coward and weak, you let the murder of your own kind go unanswered and these Humans push you around like your are their slave, what say you in your defence”

Chief Goolack stood up straight, the chains around his wrists were heavy and those around his legs were heavier, his pig-like nose snorted and his tusks had been cut to show his disgrace.

“I am a Benemar and I fought for our people and uphold my laws and our laws say that the STRONG!!! rule. Well the Humans have shown their strength and I saw their might in battle against a foe who outnumbered them many times over and they came away from that battle covered in the blood of their enemies. They are the only race who has ever besieged our world and you judge me as a coward for respecting strength?”

“They are the ENEMY!!! they burned our breeding pens and they must be wiped out. They are gaining too much power, power they are taking from us”

The court cheered and banged their weapons which were a combination of ancient war axes and rifles against their armour.

“Let this cry go out across to the star to all Benemar, the Alliance high command has given us the location oft heir breeding ground, we march...TO WAR!!!!”

The Benemar all over the Alliance suddenly began disappearing from Alliance ships, when asked why they were going back to their home world they simply replied “The High Chief has risen the banner”

Many thought this was the Benemar about to begin an independent push into Gal territory but they did not deny or confirm this and the army on Bento Prime continued to grow, the Humans though did not trust the Benemar and kept their eye on them.

Life in Admiral Polts fleet went on a s usual, or as usual it could be with the Humans around and with the Benemar now gone their was no hostility in the air. The Humans did their best to include the other races in their odd practices such as celebrating the anniversary of ones birth. They even as far to inquire to the other races celebrations and traditions and asked to take part which made the others rather flattered. They ranged from celebrating the unification of the Fookkarl under one banner which the Humans described as one large orgy as there was a lot of kissing but the Humans obliged.

The fun did not stop there.

Depit, an Elong like Admiral Polt was travelling in the ship main elevator to the observatory when it stopped to let a number of other crew off but only person got on. It was a Human, female by the looks of her but her stomach was huge, maybe she had just eaten he thought to himself. The elevator stopped a few more times and before long it was only him and this Human who from her tag her name was Sergeant Cathy. He started to sweat, he saw what was left of the body of the Benemar that she had attacked.

She smiled at him and gave a nervous smile back but nothing was said between them, until the elevator suddenly and harshly stopped.

“Ahhh!” Cathy screamed at the sudden change of momentum.

“Are you okay?” he asked and she nodded. “Must be a power outage” he tired raising maintenance but go response, there was no power to the that call button either. Suddenly Cathy was breathing fast and hard.

“Umm, are you sure you're okay” he asked again but she shook her head and held her large stomach.

“The baby is coming” she panted.

“Baby? What baby?”

“I'm FUCKING PREGNANT YOU ASSHOLE!!! she screamed and he jumped.

“Oh? OH?!!! CRAP!”

Cathy sat down as her water broke and leaned back.

“What do I do!! HELP!” he shouted into the call button in some hope that someone would hear.

“What...what is your name?” she asked.

“Depit”

“Depit, come here I need you to help me” she said holding out her hand and he slowly came and she grabbed it.

“I don't know what to do” Depit said.

“Just hold my hand and squeeze when I squeeze!”

“What?”

“AHHHHHHH” Cathy screamed and squeezed Depits hand so hard she broke two of his fingers as he had tried to pull away when he heard the word squeeze.

“WHY YOU PULL AWAY!!!” she shouted at him.

“You'll break my hand if you squeeze it”

It then dawn on her that Humans were far stronger than Elong, so she pulled off her trousers and tore off a piece so she could bite down on it and screamed again.

“Why are you screaming what's happening I don't how to help” Depit said panicking.

“IM HAVING CONTRACTIONS YOU FUCKING IMBECILE!”

“WHAT ARE THOSE!!!!”

“MY BODY IS GETTING READY TO PUSH THE BABY OUT!”

“OF WHERE!!”

“WHERE THE FUCK DO YOU THINK?!!!”

Another contraction came and she screamed so loud Depit had to cover his ears.

This went on for over and hour till finally Cathy stopped screaming as contractions suddenly stopped.

“Okay...okay” she said to herself with Depit fanning her with his wings.

“How long does this usually go on for?” he asked.

“My mother was in labour for 32 hours with me”

“32 HOURS!”

“Ah don't shout, I'm lucky the contractions have stopped”

“What happens next?”

Cathy looked at him “Next comes the pushing”

“Elong births are lot...faster than this”

“You're a bird race, you have it easy” she laughed. Then started panting. “Here it comes! Get between my legs!!”

Depit obeyed and cathy spread herself and Depit froze.

“What do I do?”

“Catch!”

“Catch?”

Cathy burst into laughter “I'm kidding, just guide it out”

Depit got ready and Cathy screamed again, this time louder and so much Depit thoughtt he walls were shaking.

“I can see the egg”

“IT'S NOT AN EGG IT'S A FUCKING HEAD!! WE DON'T LAY FUCKING EGGS!!!”

“WHAT!!! HOW THE...I'M SORRY...BY CREATION WHAT THE.....!” he screamed as the head appeared.

Cathy started breathing again and moved her hand to feel where the baby was “okay, one more” she positioned herself and Depit put his hands by the baby's head and Cathy pushed with every ounce of her remaining strength and it fell into Depits arms.

After the baby began crying he handed it to Cathy who wrapped it up in her jacket and cradled it.

“It's a boy” she said.

“No wonder your race is so tough, you endure coming into the world like that and are willingly go through it to bring one of your own into the world”

“And we do it over and over again, I'll be doing at least two more times I think” she laughed “What did you say your name was again?”

“Depit, my name is Depit”

Cathy smiled and looked down at her son “Do you mind if I call my son Depit?”

Depit's eyes nearly shot out of his head, for a child to bear ones name is a great honor among his people. “You would do me that honour?”

“Of course, you brought him into the world, well I did most of the work but still”

“Thankyou” he said smiling.

“Oh beware of the after birth”

“The what?” Depit said looking down just as it slumped down in front of him.

In the higher levels and completely unaware of the new addition to their family the Humans were having a friendly game of football with some of the Aliens when Captain Clerk called for a stop. Admiral Polt was with him and everyone could tell by their Captains face that something had happened.

“Men and woman of the 8th Human army” Clerk started “Approximately 16 hours ago the Benemar launched a full scale assault on Terra”

The air became heavy as if every Human and Alien had stopped breathing, no one spoke.

“The battle is still going on and all Human forces are being recalled to aid the defence force fighting there, our latest report says they have breached our outer defence net and are landing their troops. So get your stuff I want us ready to go yesterday!!”

The Humans didn't say anything and as a single mind dropped what they were doing and ran to their quarters and collected all their belongings and things they brought with them. The cargo hold that they had made their own was dismantled within 10 minutes, every Human was found and accounted for including Cathy and her new son Depit. Hesky was thrilled to see his son but annoyed that she named him something that reminded him of cesspit.

Within 2 hours the Humans were all loaded onto their own ships, they said a quick farewell to their Alien friends and set off for Terra.

The Benemar continued their assault, unaware that word had gotten out about their attack on Terra, unaware of the armada coming for them.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep #2yrsago

David K Randall's Dreamland is a review of the best scientific thinking that illuminates and important subject: namely, why do we spend a third of our lives paralyzed, eyes closed, having vivid hallucinations?

David Randall wants you to know five things about sleep:

We don't know much about sleep

We don't think much about sleep

We pretend sleep doesn't matter

Sleep matters, a lot

And boy, is sleep ever weird

Framed as a journey through which the author tries to get to the bottom of his own alarming sleepwalking, Dreamland is thirteen loosely joined essays, each covering a different aspect of sleep, from sleep-related errors in military fatalities to people who commit grotesque murder in their sleep to the strange social history of dreaming to the painful business of "sleep training" newborns.

In each chapter, Randall visits the best thinking in sleep science, often interviewing leading thinkers in the field about cutting-edge research and the best current thinking. Although each chapter constitutes a well-told scientific tale, not much effort is put into tying the chapters together. Even so, taken as a whole, the book goes a long way to making the case for sleep as an urgent life-necessity and not a weakness of the flesh. Over and over again, in sports and medicine and war-fighting and scholarship, Randall tells the stories of people whose macho work ethic put sleep behind other considerations of "getting the job done," who discovered a false economy and paid a terrible price in the form of decreased judgment, performance, and stamina.

This is the sort of thing that, depite being well-known, isn't well-understood. We treat insomnia as a weakness, treat sleeping pills and caffeine as an easily substitutable for time with our heads down, and consistently underestimate the extent to which sleep deprivation has undermined our effectiveness.

I read my copy while horrifically jetlagged and found it especially trenchant -- and alarming. But Randall's such a charming storyteller that I was able to convert my alarm to rest, rather than having it keep me awake.

Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep [David K Randall/WW Norton]

https://boingboing.net/2015/02/16/dreamland-adventures-in-the-s.html