#dominion 2019

[ace1diots]

"You've always been the new you. You want this to be true."

NO TEXT VERSION UNDER THE CUT!!!!!!

[reality-detective]

The Vatican: Human Trafficking Hub

The Vatican Underground- Cleared

The Dulce Base- Underground Cleared

The Area 51 Underground Base- Cleared

Orion Group ❌ (Defeated)

Ciakharr Group ❌ (Defeated)

Killy Tokurt Group ❌ (Defeated)

These are the three main factions responsible for the

The CIA is connected to the Killy Tokurt Ops. They are the one who specialize in soul scalping. This is how our government leaders were replaced. Removing the light body & soul and replacing it with a physical vessel void of any connection to source.

Sherry Shriner covered this in many videos/audios. Megan Rose spoke about this in one of her books. Corey Goode is also another source who spoke on the caste system of the Ciakharr who are the top elite in their race.

Remember when I mentioned that people were not ready once they found out who have been eating the children? Guess what was the capitol for the "Child Sex Trafficking" breeding hub?

The Vatican.

Do you remember the story or report that came out in July of 2019 where thousands of bones was unearthed in two ossuaries discovered in the Vatican City, as part of an ongoing search for clues into the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl more than three decades ago in 1983?

Do you remember the mass grave full of baby bones found along the shores of Israel's Mediterranean coast, in the ancient seaport of Ashkelon in 2014?

Do you remember An Indigenous group said the remains of as many as 751 people, mainly children, had been found in unmarked graves on the site of a former boarding school in Saskatchewan?

As a matter of fact that was a 2,300 page document that leaked that verified Pope Francis’ cover up of a Vatican Pedophile Ring. Did you know 20 Chilean Priests who went public on their connection to that very same Pedophile Ring, were killed in a plane crash right after their meeting with Pope Francis?

Back on July 20 2014 the International Common Law Court of Justice in Brussels found defendants Pope Francis Bergoglio, Catholic Jesuit Superior General Adolfo Pachon and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby guilty of rape, torture, murder and the trafficking of children. (Nothing Is Happening?)

I highly doubt it.

Two adolescent women told the ICLCJ Court that Pope Francis raped them while participating in child sacrifices during the Springs of 2009 and 2010 in rural Holland and Belgium. According to a former employee of the Curia in Rome, rapes and murders of children also took place at the Carnarvon Castle in Wales and an undisclosed French Chateau.

A Prosecutor introduced notarized affidavits by eight others claiming to witness these same crimes organized by the Vatican. Another witness testified that they were present during meetings with the then Argentine priest and Bishop Francis and the military Junta during Argentine’s 1970′s Dirty War.

According to the witness, Francis helped traffic 30,000 children of missing political prisoners into the Vatican Pedophile Ring.

Do you know why this has taken so long? If you knew how vast these underground tunnels are you would understand why certain EOs signed by D. Trump kept getting extensions.

The Military at some point will disclose the battles that went underground.

The weapons used.

The strategies used.

The entries/exits used.

The medical technology used.

The portals/gateways that were used.

You got a glimpse of this during the fight that went on underground with the Phil Schneider lectures that still can be found on YouTube about the Dulce extraterrestrial confrontation that resulted in lives being lost and him being scarred from it.

People are only looking at the human aspect of this process. They are not looking at this as governments officials serving a unknown species that want world dominion who is an entire different secret government whose base are in these DUMBS-(Deep Underground Military Bases) who control all of our 3 letter agencies who are middlemen/conduits who these covert species use to control Washington. 🤔

Julian Assange

[celinamarniss]

Year in Review

In 2024 I posted 4 fics at 53,035 words.

Previous years:

2023: 4 fics at 58,153 words

2022: 4 fics at 45,096 words.

2021: 3 fics posted, 55,788 words.

2020: 7 or 10 fics posted, 125,738 words.

2019: 7 fics posted, 72,149 words.

2018: 7 fics posted, 87,752 words

2016: 9 fics posted, 51,643 words

2017: 9 fics posted, 115,336 words

2016: 9 fics posted, 51,653 words

In total, 52 fics posted to Ao3.

Thrones, Dominions

31,420 words, explicit, Thrawn/Mara/Luke

I finally wrapped up the Triumvirate verse with a big flashy finale (and bound it, too). I started Triumvirate in 2019, which means I've spent six years on this series, and that blows my mind a little. (a lot).

Will there be more Triumvirate stories? I genuinely hope that other writers will take up the torch and write more fic for all fans of the series. I’m not sure if I’ll write any more myself. It could happen. But for now, I’m happy to let this series rest.

An Oral History of the Ewok Bikers of Endor

4,115, gen, an Uncommon Hazards fic

I pitched three story ideas to the From A Legends Point of View fic collection, and this is the concept they accepted. It takes an idea from the Uncommon Hazards series, that post-Endor, Ewoks have immigrated to Coruscant and started an illegal swoop racing industry.

As I began to write it, I realized that the fic challenge required 5k and this story wasn't much more than a 3k concept. I stretched it out to 4. I'm not sure that this story was exactly what the mods had in mind, but it was fun finding ways to bring in characters and reference different types of media.

A Smuggler’s Guide to Joining the Rebellion

14,355 words so far, gen, the sequel to The Things You Find on Tatooine.

I wanted to get this fic through all of ANH by the end of the year, but my brain didn't cooperate and I ran out of time. But Smuggler's Guide has been a fun distraction to carry through into 2025.

The Coruscant Job

3,145, gen, Fenig Nabon/Ghitsa Dogder

Who? you may ask. Why, the super obscure con artist team that appeared in three short stories in the 90s. AKA the Fenig Nabon/Ghitsa Dogder fic literally no one asked for, because no one even knows who these characters ARE. This was another idea I pitched to the FALPOV challenge, and while it wasn't selected, I wanted to write it anyway. It turns out that was a good decision, because what I wrote wouldn't have followed all of the FALPOV rules. (My idea moves their timeline forward and retcons the story “Credit for Your Thoughts.”) 

GOALS FOR 2025

Finish A Smuggler’s Guide to Joining the Rebellion (teen, Luke/Mara) The ongoing project. Progress: five chapters posted, uhhhh lots of scraps and and partial drafts in a doc.

Lando Calrissian and the Jewel of Andara (gen, Lando/Karrde, Luke/Mara) The Lando and Mara heist romcom I’ve been promising forever. Will 2025 finally be this fic's year??? at this point, I don't even know. Progress: three chapters drafted, but in need of heavy revision.

Experiments (teen? Luke/Mara) I honestly started to think this fic was dead dead, but this year I dusted off the old files and finished drafting the first two chapters. What happens next? I'm not really sure. I feel like this period/setting (Mara on Coruscant post TTT, pre Yavin) has already been well-worn by other fics recently and I don't know if there will be any interest in it. If I keep going, I'll have to come up with a outline and figure out what I want to do with the fic. Progress: two chapters drafted, but they may need to be merged into one chapter.

Other fics on the backburner:

Courtship remix

Daughter of the Rain and Snow (dead???)

More daemon fic! (I always want to write more daemon fic)

[cecilthecowardly]

the definitive cecil kinlist. subject to change and be amended as needed

bold : selfhoods and identities; closest kintypes

italics : don’t interact during a kinshift if you’re a double; just for comfort. i block freely and it’s not personal!

fiction kintypes

the emcee - cabaret (2019 olney theatre w/ aspects of mason alexander park’s 2021(?) revival)

cecil gershwin palmer - welcome to night vale

r.m. renfield - dracula (1931 primarily)

peter nureyev - the penumbra podcast

moomintroll - moomin series (novels + 2018 CGI)

the pyro - team fortress 2

cesare the somnambulist - the cabinet of dr. caligari (1920)

ralsei - deltarune

gordon freeman - half life vr but the ai is self aware (with aspects of the original game)

john ward - faith: the unholy trinity

crowley - good omens (TV show)

jedidiah martin - camp here & there

ianto jones - torchwood

grantaire - les misérables

elder connor mckinley - the book of mormon

theon greyjoy - game of thrones

will graham - NBC hannibal + red dragon

herbert west - reanimator + bride of reanimator

otherkin types

vampirekin (side note: i also consider myself a psychic vampire but that’s more rooted in coping mechanisms)

angelkin/archangel, possibly the angel raphael. holds dominion over literature.

[shotofchinaco]

Newsweek reports: Patrick Byrne, ex-CEO of Overstock and an ally to former President Donald Trump, has reportedly moved to Dubai after alleging that he learned the government of Venezuela has a $25 million bounty on him, according to court documents. His support for Trump has cost him legal troubles, including a $1.7 billion lawsuit leveled by the Dominion voting machine company and a defamation suit filed by Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden. Court documents filed on September 18 in the Hunter Biden defamation suit showed that Byrne’s lawyers said their client has left the country. The documents center on disputes over efforts to lock down Byrne’s deposition in the case. The filing from Biden’s lawyers says that they were informed last month that Byrne has fled the U.S. after he was allegedly informed of the bounty by a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent.

Read the full article. Byrne appeared here in July 2024 when it was reported that he has donated millions to cultist “voter fraud” groups. In December 2020, Byrne reportedly took part in a “wild” White House meeting at which he and fellow cultists Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell attempted to have the US military seize voting machines. Byrne has spoken at many QAnon conferences and appeared here in April when he participated in a conference staged by so-called constitutional sheriffs and militia groups. Byrne is the former boyfriend of Russian spy Maria Butina, who was deported in 2019 after allegedly funneling Russian money to the NRA for them to use on Trump’s behalf.

[pappito]

2018 saw NZ artist Ronnie van Hout create Boy Walking for the Auckland Council's public art team, but it took until 2019 for the sculpture to be made and installed. This sculpture stands 5.6 metres high, with sections cast in aluminium and assembled on site at Potters Park in Auckland. The sculpture takes prominent place at the busy intersection of Dominion and Balmoral Roads, towering over pedestrians and traffic alike, this is the third permanent public artwork by Melbourne based van Hout, his first in Auckland.

same artist

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

Stats from Movies 601-700

Top 10 Movies - Highest Number of Votes

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1992) had the most votes with 1,347 votes. Absentia (2011) had the least votes with 54 votes.

The 10 Most Watched Films by Percentage

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1992) was the most watched film with 44.6% of voters out of 1,347 saying they had seen it. The Inhabitant (2017) had the least "Yes" votes with 0.6% of voters out of 785.

The 10 Least Watched Films by Percentage

Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) was the least watched film with 69.7% of voters out of 538 saying they hadn’t seen it. I Am Alone (2015) had the least "No" votes with 11.3% of voters out of 531.

The 10 Most Known Films by Percentage

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1992) was the best known film, 6,7% of voters out of 1,347 saying they’d never heard of it.

The 10 Least Known Films by Percentage

I Am Alone (2015) was the least known film, 88,10% of voters out of 531 saying they’d never heard of it.

The movies part of the statistic count and their polls below the cut.

The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007) Unhinged (2020) Tales from the Hood (1995) Tales from the Hood 2 (2018) Tales from the Hood 3 (2020) Quarantine (2008) Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011) I Am Alone (2015) The Hitcher (1986) Lady in White (1988)

Ghostland (2018) Dark City (1998) Event Horizon (1997) Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) The Exorcist III (1990) Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005) The Exorcist: Believer (2023) Tragedy Girls (2017) Martin (1977)

Saint Maud (2019) A Cure for Wellness (2016) The Devil's Advocate (1997) Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) 1408 (2007) Good Manners (2017) The Crawling Eye (1958) Un Chien Andalou / An Andalusian Dog (1929) Cadaver (2020) Skinner (1993)

Cube (1997) The Bees (1978) August Underground (2001) The House (2022) The Lodge (2019) Stay Alive (2006) Shallow Grave (1994) Contracted (2013) Messiah of Evil (1974) The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972)

Llamageddon (2015) One Hour Photo (2002) Absentia (2011) You Might Be the Killer (2018) The Haunting (1999) Onibaba (1964) Abandoned (2022) The Offering (2022) The Crow (1994) Call Back (2009)

La Llorona (2019) Suicide Club (2001) 1BR (2019) Where the Dead Go to Die (2012) El Conde (2023) Black Mountain Side (2014) Piggy (2022) The Neon Demon (2016) Prom Night (1980) Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)

Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (1990) Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil (1991) Prom Night (2008) Rift (2017) Slaughtered Vomit Dolls (2006) ReGOREgitated Sacrifice (2008) Slow Torture Puke Chamber (2010) Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl (2016) The Club (1994) The Last Exorcism (2010)

Braid (2018) Red Mist (2008) Knock at the Cabin (2023) Revealer (2022) Piranha (1978) What Keeps You Alive (2018) Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) Teeth (2007) Martyrs (2015)

The Woman In Black (1989) The Last Thing Mary Saw (2021) Thirst (2019) Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017) An American Haunting (2005) Troll Hunter (2010) The Power (2021) Post Mortem (2020) Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020) Bulbbul (2020)

The Inhabitant (2017) The Cleansing Hour (2016) The Wind (2018) The Mimic (2017) Errementari (2017) Witches in the Woods (2019) There's Something Wrong with the Children (2023) Antrum (2018) Love at First Bite (1979) The Night of the Hunter (1955)

[multi-fandomdisaster]

Today's theme park ramble: The Battle for Cedar Point

The Battle for Cedar Point is a mobile app launched in 2017 by Cedar Fair (alongside a sister app, The Battle for Kings Dominion) that hasn't been updated since 2019. It's primarily centered in augmented reality games, interactive areas, and park trivia, and was a (successful) attempt at making some of the long waits a bit less boring. As of now, all of the AR interactions are no longer functional throughout the park, and it's effectively useless beyond trivia games and ride logging, but it's still an utterly fascinating app to me. Why?

Its story.

(NOTE: This is technically a Cedar Point lore post, and it's also VERY long under the cut :3)

As the resident theme park lore guy, it makes sense that a story surrounding technically-canon roller coaster gajinkas would peak my interest. In the actual game itself, there's not much story to be gathered beyond "roller coasters are having a turf war". It's in the advertisements and character/alliance videos where a bit more story can be deciphered.

There are 6 Cedar Point coasters that are represented in The Battle for Cedar Point: Valravn, Maverick, Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, GateKeeper, and Steel Vengeance. Their characters are shown below (photos all screenshots of the app itself) (enlarge for full images).

When the app was launched, only 5 of these coasters were present in the game, as Steel Vengeance didn't exist yet. Cedar Point only made videos for these 5 coasters, detailing each alliance's motivations and ideals. Here are the official Cedar Point videos:

Valravn -> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2FhOf5z_7uE

Maverick -> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eyvJG0yM_Sg

Millennium Force -> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gCNMAEEG6fU

Top Thrill Dragster -> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FGYP5FMdvFs

GateKeeper -> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2w_5ew3O2bE

Additional videos were made going a bit deeper into the background of each alliance, which give us that dip into a potentially larger story. Most of these videos have been seemingly deleted by Cedar Point's main YouTube account, but luckily they were all archived and reuploaded by a Cedar Point archive YouTube account. Those videos are as follows:

Valravn -> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kvlTLOrg_Sc

Maverick -> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jIk2kIgsOcY

Millennium Force -> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DNYRlMFrpXA

Top Thrill Dragster -> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_RUOwYmbM9k

GateKeeper -> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aIyuRgfG3Ks

What particularly stands out to me here is that in multiple videos, Valravn is either directly or indirectly referenced. In fact, all of them but Top Thrill Dragster references Valravn in some way, shape, or form.

Valravn refers to the clan as "a threat the likes of which the kingdom has never seen before" whilst making it clear that their motivation is conquest.

Maverick references it as a "terrible threat on the horizon" with a visual of shadows creeping in.

Millennium Force refers to it as a "terrible shadow looming" and then gives us this absolutely BANGER image of Millennium Force standing before the looming shadowed silhouette of Valravn:

Top Thrill Dragster's just doing its own thing. They're living fast, free, and fearless, and I gotta respect them for that lol

And then GateKeeper directly shows us Valravn in the stained glass alongside the words "But now, a new enemy stands at the gates, bringing nothing but conflict."

Additionally, in Battle For Cedar Point park merchandise, the silhouette of Valravn was oftentimes depicted looming in the background, with the Valravn character in the middle/in front of the 5 characters. Here's an example:

Putting all the pieces together...something tells me that Valravn might just be the "villain" of this story...

Here's what my idea of the story is:

For years, the Kingdom of Cedar Point - made up of 4 distinct clans (Maverick, Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, and GateKeeper) who resided in different sections of the kingdom - all lived in peace and harmony, defended and protected by the GateKeeper clan and kept under the order of the Millennium Force clan. Suddenly, a new clan emerges - the Valravn clan - which seems dead set on conquering the Kingdom of Cedar Point for itself. Clad in black armor and casting a dark looming shadow over wherever it goes, the Valravn clan begins its mission for conquest. Naturally, the other 5 clans are NOT okay with this new threat and what it could mean both just for the Kingdom itself, but for its way of life. And then that fear towards destabilization of their societies leads towards them turning against each other as well as Valravn. Some clans (Millennium Force and GateKeeper) fight and defend to protect the Kingdom itself. The Dragster clan is likely using the opportunity to expand its territory as well. The Mavericks...? It's really up in the air on it they're defending the Kingdom or just trying to get more for themselves. And then obviously Valravn is at the root of it all, aiming to take over the Kingdom entirely.

"But Joey!" I hear you asking, "What about Steel Vengeance! There's 6 total clans now! How does Steel Vengeance fit into the story of The Battle for Cedar Point?"

What an excellent question, person whom I'm assuming is asking this! Why don't I give you an answer?

When Steel Vengeance joined the Cedar Point roster in 2018 and was subsequently added to The Battle for Cedar Point, it didn't get any kind of fun hype video for the app like the other 5 did. As far as I know, they just added SteVe to an update without warning. Steel Vengeance isn't even mentioned on the Battle for Cedar Point page on Cedar Point's website. My guess is that they just figured it was a cool and popular enough ride to add to the game, and they already had the character design made for Blackjack, so it wasn't like they'd have to create a whole new character (similarly to how they use the BFCP Maverick character design for Beauregard "Mackerick" Chamberlain, the Maverick character in the Steel Vengeance/Frontier Town lore). It was an easy addition. And territory-wise, they just carved out the entire top half of the Maverick clan's territory.

Not even joking, that's what they did. You see all of the red section on top of the orange in the second image? That's all Steel Vengeance clan territory. That all used to be Maverick clan territory. (I'm sure the Mavericks weren't too happy about that XD)

Additionally, from this point, instead of Valravn looming in the background of merchandise/on the main game character logo, the Steel Vengeance trio (Blackjack, Chess, and Digger) would be there. (I'd put in an image, but I've unfortunately hit the image limit on mobile :/)

So what does this mean for the story?

In my mind, with the addition of Steel Vengeance into The Battle for Cedar Point brought the story established in the at-the-time new theming around Frontier Town, meaning that alongside the original clan turf wars of the pre-SteVe days, we now also have the world's pettiest sibling rivalry storyline of Steel Vengeance and Maverick (which I will TOTALLY write a ramble on at some point; the in-universe story of Steel Vengeance is so interesting to me).

Additionally, considering that Valravn was implied to previously have been the overarching antagonist, putting Steel Vengeance in the spot where Valravn was before may imply that it's Steel Vengeance that's now the main threat to the Kingdom.

Except there's something that doesn't sit completely right with me for the "Steel Vengeance is the main bad guy" explanation, and that's the Clan's motto.

Something I didn't mention earlier is that each Clan has a "motto" that they live by that gives a good insight into the ideologies and goals of each of them. Those mottos are as follows:

Valravn: For Victory and Conquest!

Maverick: For Freedom! For Glory! For Gold!

Millennium Force: Wisdom, Power and Order!

Top Thrill Dragster: Live free! Live Fast! Live Fearless!

GateKeeper: Protect the Realm!

Steel Vengeance: Take Back the Old West!

Steel Vengeance's only true motivation is to "take back the old west," which is only Maverick's territory. So maybe my original idea of Steel Vengeance's only contribution to this game being the addition of the Maverick/Steel Vengeance sibling rivalry was more accurate. Regardless, because Cedar Point didn't really put any effort into adding Steel Vengeance to the game, its existence doesn't make a lot of sense in the universe.

That being said...since the Frontier Town lore established by Steel Vengeance would hypothetically be canon to The Battle for Cedar Point...does that mean The Battle For Cedar Point is likewise canon to Frontier Town?

Alas, my questions will likely never be answered. The game hadn't been updated for 6 years now and all of the AR interaction points in the park have since been disabled. I highly doubt it'll make a return. But that doesn't mean that this app and its story aren't interesting to think and contemplate about!

If you managed to make it through, congratulations! This was originally only intended to be a couple of paragraphs long, but then I kept writing, and now here we are! I hope you enjoyed whatever this madness was! :3

[aceofallspades]

brief summary of the more common angel!crowley theories

these are the ones i’ve seen the most people talk about and a little bit of information on them

Raphael - by far the most popular theory. Raphael was the angel associated with healing (and i believe also learning to an extent). he was associated with snake iconography and is the only archangel (in the sense of importance rather than rank) that isn’t mentioned in good omens. he was a seraphim, the highest rank in the angelic hierarchy (which would give crowley clearance to the file in s2) however did not fall. Neil Gaiman did say in 2019 that crowley wasn’t raphael

Azazel - Azazel was a cherubim (the second highest rank, also giving crowley clearance) and was one of the 20 leaders of the fallen angels. He introduced humans to forbidden knowledge (tempting aziraphale with food?)

Baraqiel - [in angelology] Baraqiel was another leader of the fallen angels, and before that he was an archangel (this ranking would not have given crowley clearance to the file, however the term ‘archangel’ is used differently in good omens to angelology). he taught people about astrology. [in Good Omens] in furfur’s book he is described as a dominion (allowing clearance) and angel of the sky. also ginger

Jophiel - i haven’t seen as many people talk about this one, but Jophiel was an archangel who was companion to the metatron. interestingly, she is often depicted with a flaming sword and is associated with wisdom and understanding

Kokabiel - another leader of the fallen angels, to my understanding kokabiel was just an angel (lowest rank) but i couldn’t find loads of info so feel free to correct me if needed. he was, however, one of the leaders of the fallen angels, and was the angel of the stars who taught people about the constellations

Tamiel - like kokabiel, tamiel was an angel (i think) and was one of the leaders of the fallen, he was the teacher of astronomy, and according to Enoch 69:12, taught “the children of men of all the wicked strikes of spirits, … demons, and [abortions] (best midwife/cobbler), and … the bites of the serpent”

these are the major theories i’ve seen floating around the fandom. if i’ve got any info wrong, do correct me. i feel like if crowley’s name is revealed, they might turn out to be someone Neil Gaiman made up rather than an actual biblical angel, but these things are fun to think about

[illyanarasputinfan]

Rasputin IV smiling for the first time since her 2019 comic book debut is bittersweet.

Sins of Sinister: Dominion (2023) MARVEL

[metalcultbrigade]

HammerFall - Dominion 16/08/2019

[triflingshadows]

Some old (2019-early 2020) art of my ESO characters…at the start of the pandemic I didn’t have anything to do so I played ESO on my Xbox all day. I was in a guild and eventually became an officer/led activities/was the off tank for our vet trial prog group…I stopped playing in late 2020 but miss my guildies dearly

From left to right: my crafter/quester/first character, magsorc DPS Nialamide; occasionally used healcro Aibhilín Grave-Knocker, only really showed up when we were short a healer for dungeons or trials; my beloved templar tank/off tank, very powerful and had crazy mag/stam sustain+self heals, my main group content toon, Numa Marcellia Pompeia; and my gank build bombblade vampire for dominion PVP, Renenlinfinwe

[tacoma-narrows]

best themeparks to go to for maximum coaster mileage?

If you wanna maximize your coaster time at any park, big parks are usually your best bets. Of parks that I've been to, the ones with a lot of coasters are Cedar Point (17), Carowinds (15), Kings Island (15), Six Flags Great America (16), Six Flags Great Adventure (15), Hersheypark (14) and Kings Dominion (14)

Other parks with big coaster counts that I haven't been to are Six Flags Magic Mountain in California (20), Energylandia in Poland (19), Canada's Wonderland outside Toronto (19), Europa Park in Germany (14), Nagashima Spa Land in Japan (13), so on and so forth.

Really any of these parks you'll be able to ride a ton of coasters at. But some of the bigger ones, like Cedar Point, Magic Mountain, etc. usually work better if you stay there for multiple days rather than trying to cram everything into a single day, bc they can get really busy.

I think the most new coaster credits I've gotten in one day before (ie the most new coasters I'd never before then) was 13 at Kings Island in May of 2019, thanks to a combination of low crowds and pretty much everything running at full capacity.

[scalecallerpeak]

Vrywen

I’ve not drawn Vrywen since 2019 but she’s so dear to me. She is the daughter of Fleet Queen Taleria and Captain Numirril. She goes missing in a storm and gets captured by the Sea Vipers where she meets @tharayya ‘s Navilon who becomes her first mate. They get rescued by the Aldmeri Dominion and as part of this have to work for Queen Ayrenn. When really Vrywen just wants to get back to Dreadsail Reef.

[mariacallous]

In a move that surely made the Succession theme play in the heads of all who got the push notification, Rupert Murdoch announced today that the “time is right” for him to step down as chair of Fox Corporation and News Corp, ending his seven-decade reign as mastermind of the media landscape. His retirement won’t begin until November, but the great unbundling of his media empire has already begun.

Still, what an empire it is, or was. Murdoch, 92, got his start at 21 years old, when his father died and left him in charge of his relatively small Australian newspaper company. On taking the helm, he upped circulation by shifting their coverage to be more tabloidy. Throughout the 1960s and ’70s he continued to build that portfolio, gobbling up everything from The Sun in the UK to The Village Voice and New York magazine in the US.

By the 1980s, Murdoch was casting his gaze toward film and TV, taking over regional news stations and the movie studio 20th Century Fox. The Fox broadcast network launched in 1986, Fox News a decade later. By the early aughts, Murdoch set his sights on new media, writing a Scrooge McDuck–sized $580 million check to then-superhot social network Myspace.

Soon, a spark lit a fuse that set the whole dumpster on fire.

It’s an easy shorthand to say “Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp ruined discourse,” but that’s also not far from the truth. (The notion of “truth” is also something Murdoch’s empire has had a hand in destabilizing.) News Corp ownership effectively ruined Myspace, making way for platforms like Facebook and Twitter to host the public square, but the influence of Murdoch and his companies spread regardless. As WIRED reporters Vittoria Elliott and Peter Guest noted earlier this year, Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson “helped bring often dangerous misinformation into the mainstream around the world.” Murdoch may have never controlled Facebook or Twitter, but the people his companies platformed dominated the conversation on them anyway.

“For Rupert Murdoch, all of his media empire was a way of trying to push certain ideas,” says Dan Cassino, a professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.

In the US, this was most evident in the way Fox News wed itself with the Trump administration, a marriage that was for a long time beneficial to both parties but also led to Fox News agreeing to pay $787 million to settle a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems that “would have exposed how the network promoted lies about the 2020 presidential election,” as the Associated Press put it. It also led to revelations that Carlson, in the lead-up to the January 6 insurrection, sent texts saying that he hated Trump “passionately.” Carlson was canned by Fox News in April.

Murdoch newspapers in the UK backed Brexit and got caught up in a phone hacking scandal. In Australia, where his family’s news empire still holds massive influence, Murdoch periodicals showed skepticism about climate change. Today, as news spread that Murdoch was stepping down, Angelo Carusone, the CEO of watchdog group Media Matters for America, issued a statement saying, “The world is worse off because of Rupert Murdoch. No one should sugarcoat the damage he caused.”

Still, the empire Murdoch built, though vast, is dwindling. Murdoch pushed out Roger Ailes, the man behind the ascent of Fox News, in 2016. (Ailes died a year later.) News Corp sold off 21st Century Fox to Disney in 2019 for $71.3 billion. (Fox News and the Fox broadcast network were spun off into Fox Corporation as a result of the deal.) As of this summer, News Corp profits are down 75 percent year over year. As the media industry goes through a series of massive shake-ups ranging from the Warner Bros. and Discovery merger to the increasing dominance of Apple and Amazon, everything is getting unbundled and rebundled, including Murdoch’s empire.

Not that Murdoch hasn’t tried to have a hand in how those bundles come together. Murdoch abandoned a plan earlier this year to consolidate Fox Corporation and News Corp, a move he said could give the entertainment and publishing business better scale, after shareholders opposed it. “Fox is certainly diminished,” Carusone says. “I don’t think they’re going to be able to keep this big thing together.”

When Murdoch steps down in the fall, his son, Lachlan, will become chair of News Corp and remain Fox Corporation’s CEO and executive chair. (Cue the “eldest boy” memes.) It remains to be seen where Lachlan will take the empire from here or whether he’ll be able to maintain the same hold on political messaging as his father. Following the transition, Rupert Murdoch plans to stay on as chair emeritus of the companies, and in a message to his staff today said that in his new role he would still “be involved every day in the contest of ideas.” Perhaps, though, with his empire shrinking, that contest will no longer be an all-out war.

[wrestlingisfake]

Best of the Super Jr. semifinals preview

This show is headlined by two semifinal matches in the Best of the Super Jr. tournament. After a total of 90 block matches, only four wrestlers remain. The winner of A Block will face the runner-up of B Block, and the winner of B Block will face the runner-up of A Block. The winners will advance to the tournament final, on June 9 in the main event of Dominion.

El Desperado vs. DOUKI - Despe won A Block with 6 wins and 3 losses. Douki also posted 6-3 in B Block, which was enough for him to tie for second place; his block match win over Hiromu Takahashi secured his spot in this semifinal.

There's some history between these two, going back to the 2019 BOSJ, when Suzuki-gun recruited Douki as a last-minute replacement for Despe. Because they were in the same faction, Despe and Douki rarely squared off one-on-one. Their three singles encounters to date were block matches in BOSJ; Despe won all three. When Suzuki-gun disbanded in December 2022, Douki ended up in Just 5 Guys, and without Despe in the group, he was their de facto top junior heavyweight. Desperado gradually settled into the role of a reluctant good guy in Hontai, and he's arguably one of the top juniors in the entire promotion.

I've had a soft spot for Douki since he first showed up five years ago, because the English announce team absolutely buried him throughout that year's BOSJ. This is one of those long, long, long-term storylines where a guy has to toil for years to get on a hot streak. I'm not confident this is the part where he finally wins the big one. I guess it could be. But it'd be very New Japan if this year the achievement is reaching the semis, and maybe next year he reaches the finals, and maybe three or four years from now he wins the tournament but chokes in the junior title match, and so on.

Desperado has to be considered the favorite to win here. (And I have a spot for him too, since he has all the powers of Skeletor and El Kabong and a kitty cat.) Set aside that Despe is having the best run of his career, and set aside that New Japan is distributing his self-promoted indie show right after this tournament. Even with all that factored out, if the BOSJ final is going to go on last after a Jon Moxley world title match, you need the hottest junior match you can deliver. And in 2024, you'd have to pick Despe for that match, not Douki.

Taiji Ishimori vs. TJP - Ishimori finished on top of B Block with a 7-2 record. Over in A Block, TJP was part of a four-way tie for second place at 5-4; lucky for him, he had wins over the other three guys, so he became the official runner-up. As far as I can tell, these two have never met one-on-one before.

For all intents and purposes, Ishimori is one of the "big three" of the junior division these days in New Japan, alongside El Desperado and Hiromu Takahashi. And yet, he always feels like he's just kinda there. Even as a member of Bullet Club, he's not important enough to assign to the House of Torture or the War Dogs, so he feels like one of the B-team guys. He should be the favorite to win here, and a good bet to take the whole tournament, but I'm just not feeling it.

TJP doesn't have much more than that going for him. His biggest storyline in 2024 is his desire to go openweight and to be the "captain" of the United Emprie after Will Ospreay left for AEW. The "captain" business hasn't meant shit--the rest of the group seemed resistant to the idea until one day they just went along with it, which hasn't really changed anything. As for being an openweight wrestler, well...if can't win this tournament, it's going to be hard to make him a convincing contender against the heavyweights. So I'd argue he's under the most pressure of any of the final four to win.

Which brings us to the biggest wrinkle in this match--TJP's demonic alter ego, the Aswang. If you haven't seen this gimmick, it's basically like Finn Balor becoming the Demon when he needs to kick extra ass. TJP went Aswang to beat Titan on May 30, and I think it'd be kind of stupid for him to not keep using that power for the rest of the tournament. Then again, it's kind of a new gimmick and I'm not sure what the mystical rules are. If he's TJP, I have to favor Ishimori to go to the final. But if he becomes the Aswang, well, I don't think Ishimori will have an answer to that.

Ren Narita & SHO & Yujiro Takahashi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Dick Togo vs. Shota Umino & four mystery partners - This is, indirectly, a preview for Jon Moxley vs. EVIL on June 9. Mox teased the idea of gang warfare, and Evil proposed a lumberjack match, figuring Moxley doesn't have any allies aside from Shota Umino. So this match is basically Evil's lackeys in the House of Torture versus whoever is willing to support Mox, which works out to Shota and...uh, we don't know.

It's easy to guess that members of the Blackpool Combat Club will be on Umino's team. However, Wheeler Yuta's status is still questionable, and I don't see Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli flying in for this show unless they're staying in Japan for Dominion, and taking an entire week off from AEW seems like a big ask. I'm not sure who else would fit here. Eddie Kingston is sidelined. El Desperado would work, except he's in the main event. I don't think it makes sense for Moxley himself to be a surprise partner. I suppose Homicide is available. Beyond those guys, I think we're in for some genuine surprises.

Assuming Shota can deliver a good team, they should win here, especially since Yujiro, Kanemaru, and Togo are all weak links for the House of Torture side.

Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi vs. HENARE & Callum Newman - Takagi vs. Henare for the NEVER title is set for June 9. I'm rooting for Henare when the gold is on the line, but as for this match he's at a serious disadvantage. Naito is more than a match for Newman, who will probably lose the fall here.

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano & Boltin Oleg & Dragon Dia vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Yota Tsuji & BUSHI & Titan - Tana, Yano, and Oleg are the NEVER trios champions; their partner, Dia, finished 1-8 in the BOSJ tournament. I could see Hiromu, Tsuji, and Bushi making a run for the trios title. (Actually, Titan wouldn't be bad in that spot too, but he's probably heading back to Mexico.) So I would have the LIJ team pin one of the champs, but even if they don't, Dia should be easy pickings.

Yuya Uemura & TAKA Michinoku vs. Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb - This is a preview of Uemura vs. Khan for the KOPW belt on June 9. Assuming those two cancel out, you have to ask who would win Taka vs. Cobb, and that's not a hard question. Khan and Cobb should win.

Zack Sabre Jr. & Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita vs. Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney & Gedo - Connors and Moloney are the IWGP junior heavyweight tag team champions, and it looks like they're setting up Eagles and Fujita as the next challengers. During the tournament, Fujita scored a win over Connors, and Eagles defeated Moloney. Going back further, Eagles/Fujita won against Connors/Moloney back in 2023's Super Jr. Tag League. So I'm pretty sure Sabre's team will win here, so Eagles and Fujita can formally challenge the champs to a title bout on June 9.

KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight & Shoma Kato vs. HAYATA & Blake Christian vs. Ninja Mack - Everybody in this match was an also-ran in the BOSJ tournament, except for Kato, who is still a Young Lion. That puts Kushida's team at a disadvantage. However, everybody in the other team is on loan from outside promotions (Hayata and Mack from NOAH, Christian from ROH and GCW) so I would expect one of them to do a job on their way out. So I guess that could make this a little interesting...