#don't take things for granted

[comfortableinthesilence]

March 1st 2024 - Sunrise on the drive to work

On this first day of March 2024, I was fortunate enough to witness a beautiful sunrise on my way to work. It made me realize how often we take the little things in life for granted. We tend to overlook the simple pleasures that are right in front of us, and we forget to appreciate them. But today, I was reminded of the importance of noticing and feeling blessed by the everyday occurrences that bring us joy and happiness. This small moment in my day lifted my mood and gave me a boost of positivity. Let us all take a moment to appreciate the beauty around us and find joy in the everyday things! 🩵

[40yr-agedcheese]

I had a nightmare at 4AM today lol.

The best time to have nightmares right? :P

An orange cat with bloody mouth agressively attacked me.. I had to take the orange cat down =(

I was sleep talking to myself..."why are you.....hurting this....cat?" Sighs, it definitely didn't feel right in my dream..=/

I woke up sweaty and uneasy.

Well..a dream is just a dream! (I hope.. 🧐 😂) I actually had a great Friday =)

Hung out early in the morning before work and I got off an hour early too!

I went to go watch "Inside out 2" with friends then went straight to run my mom's errands afterwards =)

(Thank God that my mom is finding back her mobility.. 😮���💨)

I just pray that all my family and friends would do well in terms of health =/

Our poor doggo is having health problems too..and he’s only an yr old puppy 😓 his health issues really reminds me of my past dog…

📢 EVERYONE and EVERY living creature is precious and deserves to be loved. 🌳 ☁️ 🌊 🦒 🧍 🐞

I’ll be praying for you guys ❤️

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Stargazing, at the edge of the unknown.

[heretherebedork]

Kenta knowing and acknowledging that neither Pete nor Tony have ever seen or cared about him and how that started his love story with Kim, how hearing him admit that no one has loved him is what opened Kim's heart to this broken and lonely man and how much they've both gained and grown from Kim taking care of Kenta and Kenta slowly opening up to him... and how Pete keep proving, again and again, that Kenta was right and how much that's starting to piss Kim off and he's definitely gonna end up using everything he's learned from Kenta to go rescue him. Hopefully after punching Pete.

[writing-is-hard-af]

Apparently an unpopular opinion in the Fandom rn, but I actually think the lack of focus on characters besides Athena and Chim beyond the bits we get made sense. (Though, this opinion may shift if the next two episodes do not focus more on the other characters).

Because Athena and Chim were the ones most directly involved in Bobby's death, and I think they couldn't have logically focused on any other characters' grief above these two in this episode without it feeling disjointed. I understand the little focus we get on Eddie, Buck, and Hen's grief. Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy we haven't seen it yet, but I do strongly believe that the next two episodes will dive into theirs more closely. Because this episode had to be about Athena and Chimney.

Chimney’s survivor guilt had to be addressed first because it would be tormenting him no matter how little he wanted to accept any of it. There was no logical way around that for his character.

We needed to see Athena process it all first because no matter how important Bobby is to the rest of them, he truly is most important to her, and she lost him right as they were about to start fully living their lives together on their own terms, their own soil. It’s tragic and painful and a cruel fate for him, but with it nonetheless happening, they had to focus on her most. And she deserved the focus of this episode. I get that the case/procedural kind of plot wasn't received super well, but I really do feel like it made some amount of sense. Could it have been told differently? Yes, I think they could've done a different case, a different person's grief. But I do think seeing Athena burying her grief in another person's and doing everything she can to help someone else and avoid her own is the only way they could have written her grieving in character. The way Athena has always coped in this show is by throwing herself into work, into helping other people resolve their struggles before she even tries to face her own. And while I think the specific plot was a bit odd of a choice for this kind of plot when Athena herself was not in a state of denial but rather avoidance, it truly showed the way Athena grieves. And while much of the funeral was rushed, not given the screen time it deserved, for any of them, the scene in Minessota was just. So achingly painful but beautiful at the same time. This episode was genuinely good and gutwrenching and the cast all did a phenomenal job with it.

This episode did not need scenes of Buck and Eddie's reunion, or much of their interactions. Not because it isn't important, but because this episode was not about their grief, not quite. I truly believe that theirs will be the focus of the last two episodes. This first episode after Bobby's death was about Athena. It had to be. And Bobby's death broke apart the team, it sent cracks between them. None of them were together when it happened. And honestly, I think that's part of the point of showing them individually grieving, splitting apart the grief. Because even though they are a family with and without Bobby, his death splintered them in a way that they are going to have to heal from and healing is not going to be something any of these characters immediately seek out others for. All of them, despite loving each other fiercely, have always stubbornly held their fears and pain within themselves to deal with alone.

Buck is clearly pushing his emotions as far down as possible to be there for the rest of them, because that's what he thinks Bobby told him to do. The others need him, so his grief comes last. Eddie wasn't there, his grief is so wrapped up in his own guilt that the grief is buried. Not quite denial, I think, but close to it. Hen is processing it, but she so clearly is in a similar boat to Buck, of burying her own feelings about it deep to try to be the steady rock for the rest of them. The three of them will have their grief, but truly I think theirs needed to be after the funeral, after he was buried and they all need to figure out how to go on, now that, in a way, it's really final, official.

This episode was Athena’s and Chim’s. The rest will come. And through that, they'll come out on the other side together. Pushing all of their grief into one singular episode would have been a disservice to them. And while sidelining main characters is not necessarily something I enjoy on this show, I do think in this specific episode, it made sense for the majority of it.

You don't have to agree with me. It's okay to be upset and angry, and I truly get it because I am too. But I also think we need to look a bit more into this episode beyond the idea that they didn't focus on these characters, and they added a plot beyond the funeral, so it's bad. Because there is more to what is there than what wasn't there yet.

[shorthaltsjester]

Imogen Temult, Exaltant Hope of the Red Storm

Heroes and Monsters by Penny & Sparrow // Critical Role Campaign 3

[painom]

Hello! Can I just say that I really appreciate you doing this? I've always been a big fan of your analyses and your ability to get to the root of the characters. Thank you for continuing to let us read your wonderful thoughts and stories.

On your old blog, you discussed your headcannons for Lyney, one being his tendency to forget things like where he put his wallet because him and his mind are very busy. Unfortunately, I didn't save the post (my biggest regret ahhhhh!) and I would love to read your analysis once more. If it's okay with you, could you go over your headcannons for Lyney again? The old, the new, whatever's on your mind and whatever you're willing to share. Thank you so much!

Thank you for the kind ask, anon! Here you go!

New Lyney Headcanons

Self-focused - Though he never seems like it, those that know Lyney well know that he’s often running low on sleep. And really, he has no one to blame but himself. During the day he’s often distracted with magic shows, helping people, little tasks around the hotel, running missions for Father, and much more. And at night? He can often be found alone in his room planning new tricks, arranging missions for his siblings, studying to become the next “king” of the House, and things of the sort. If Lynette and Freminet didn’t keep an eye on him, no doubt he would stay up the whole night if given the chance! Those two welcome all the help they can get. 

Relationship-focused - When it comes to his relationship with you, Lyney never lies. You know he would never do that to you. And sometimes, the knowledge almost lulls you into a false sense of security. Yet you know better. You’re smarter than that. Where Lyney doesn’t lie, he omits. Half-truths so easily fall from his mouth as drops of rain from the sky. Your comments of concern are often brushed off and your questions redirected. As much as you try, you know the truth. He doesn’t want you to know. He doesn’t want you to shoulder his burdens with him. 

old lyney headcanons below!

Would Lyney be honest with you?

With his outgoing and fun personality, it oftentimes is easy to get caught within his flow. Lyney is the charming sort, after all, that one may very well forget that he is subject to the same struggles as the rest. Get to know him well enough, though, and you will quickly realize that this is not a fact he wishes others to know. More than a desire, he needs to be seen as someone in control, as someone without weakness. That’s his role as the big brother. And if that means lying, avoiding, and omitting the truth to accomplish it, then an accomplished performer like himself will do what he must. 

Does Lyney prefer to pursue or be pursued?

With a penchant for flair and dramatics, it’s clear to see Lyney prefers to pursue the people he’s interested in. Really, it’s one of the things he goes all out. With a trick up his sleeve, he won’t hesitate to dazzle you with flowers pulled from nowhere and fireworks from his tophat. He wants you to be enchanted. He wants you to be impressed! You are, aren’t you? You like it, don’t you? So focused on charming you that he often loses sight of much else. Fun fact, should you attempt to turn the tables, however, you can expect his mask of self-confidence to fall to reveal a rather flustered expression beneath. 

Headcanons

Self-focused - If there’s one thing that’s true about Lyney, it is that he is a very busy person. As a person with multiple masks and roles, his thoughts are often preoccupied with House missions, performances, new tricks, and things of the like. So, much to the dismay of others, it’s easy for things to become buried under the multitude of other tasks he needs to take care of. How often the simple things become forgotten—where he last left his wallet, tea time with his siblings, the sale on storybooks at the bookstore. During those times, he really can’t help but appreciate his siblings and their ability to keep him on track. Really, he doesn’t know what he’d do without them!

Relationship-focused - It doesn’t hit you at first, but it doesn’t take you very long to notice how hard Lyney tries for your relationship. Normally this would be a good thing, but it is different with Lyney. Every day he tries to charm you. Every day he attempts to enchant you. You tell him he doesn’t need to try so hard, but that only seems to light a fire beneath him to do even more. You see it in his eyes. He needs to know you are still in awe of him, that you like him as much as he does you. And then it sinks in, doesn’t it? He doesn’t trust you. He doesn’t trust your feelings for him. He’ll never show his true face to you.

old tags for this post: #okay let’s talk lyney for a bit i think the biggest thing to know about lyney is that at his core he is an insecure person insecure and anxious #imo he’s extremely attached to his title of ‘big brother’ that he needs to fulfill the duties if such he needs to protect his siblings and be a person others can rely on #this belief is so strong that he refuses to rely on arlecchino for help and snaps at freminet for trying to get him to open up #he really cares about the way he’s perceived #remember when the traveler found out he’s part of the fatui and he spends his time bending over backwards to try to get them to trust him ‘like me! like me! please. i’m trustworthy i’ll never lie to you please!!’ #honestly imo that’s just one if his faults like lyney is unstable #idk what possessed arlecchino to make him her successor like he’d crack under pressure #lynette is a way better option #but anyway bc of these things he would not trust his partner in a relationship #he wouldn’t rely on them he’d never feel secure which would prompt him to keep trying too hard to ensure he’s still the person he thinks you fell in love with #the most important thing to remember with lyney is that he is a performer and the face he shows to the world is essentially a mask

What’s Lyney’s breaking point in a relationship?

It’s hard to imagine, really. With how much Lyney may seem in love, the idea there’s a point a relationship would be too much for him is hard to believe. But when you really think about it, his breaking point is simple. As strong as his feelings may be for you, his devotion to his family and its cause outweighs everything else. Should your relationship with him ever reach a time where it encroaches upon that which is the most precious to him, then there’s nothing more he can do than let you go.

old tags for this post: #i think the key thing to take in here is that lyney cannot function without his family he is extremely reliant upon them to the extent that he will become unstable without them #just look at the archon quest when wriothesley captured his siblings any and all logic completely went out the window #lyney is an anxious insecure mess and the only thing that holds him together is playing the role he has to as big brother #if your relationship with him ever reaches the point that you transcend into being counted as his family.... he will have no breaking point #the breaking point will be his mind or body. whichever breaks first

[piecesofchess]

Tartarus is still a little broken and that's Fun !

[housemdork]

house md rewatch: 2x08, "the mistake"

catholic chase isn't just a character feature anymore - it's its own major subplot.

2x08 is so solid all around. the format is unique, in the vein of "three stories," and it says even more about chase and house's relationship than we've seen so far, in my opinion. their respective portrayals of one another show the complexities, toxicity, and underlying love (yes, i think that's here) between them. i'm going to forgo a lot of plot-specific comments because i REALLY want to capitalize on a certain analogy that i think is the most compelling bit of the episode (grad school close-reading brain Activated).

first and foremost, chase is being catholic again. how saint jude, patron saint of lost causes of him. i'll be showing my hand as someone who was raised Catholic Lite (my family has never been super religious); i know a lot of the sacramental lingo, too, because i just got through teaching at a catholic university!

catholics have a sacrament called "reconciliation," or a kid's first confessional to a priest - i did mine when i was 8. returning to confession is typical practice in the religion because there are always things for which to ask forgiveness. it's a very private affair (whatever is said is supposed to be utterly confidential) and supposed to be organic, but stacy's practice reconciliation with chase is anything but.

much like a kid (maybe a catholic kid, around age 8?) would rehearse lies to their parents, stacy coaches chase in preparation for his disciplinary hearing. he's repeatedly reprimanded for adding sincerity and self-flagellation where it would weaken his case, and in the same breath chastised for being a shitty liar. the whole "first reconciliation" affair is highly ritualistic; you have to memorize the act of contrition, introduce yourself to the priest in a very precise way, and it's very intimdating as a kid.

even visually, this shot is organized like a confessional booth - which are intimidating in their own right. the doors divide priest (stacy) and sinner (chase) from one another, with the subtle space in between the go-between through which chase confesses. there's even a lectern-equivalent over chase's shoulder.

also interesting to note (not just in this analogy) is that stacy isn't wearing the crucifix that mark gave her.

as the tale that chase spins for stacy unravels, we see that chase became increasingly desperate and self-serving (in character of him from the vogler arc). at the near climax, he reveals to cameron and foreman that he plans on assisting the patient, kayla, and her brother, sam, in securing her a black market liver. this is, clearly, insane, despite chase's insistence that house would do something similar. foreman reiterates the underlying problem chase is experiencing: "this isn't gonna be your salvation."

this is becoming increasingly apparent to chase, especially as, in real time, the number of people ushering him along this sacramental journey is expanding - stacy, cuddy, and house are all involved in the interrogation now. he can't find a pragmatic way out of this predicament, just like he can't keep dancing around his fundamental (catholic) guilt over his error eventually killing kayla.

the next version of events he tells is the martyr's version. in chase's last-ditch fiction, he describes how he marched into kayla's hospital room to stop her from pursuing the black market organ, even as sam protests against it. he undoes an earlier mote of selfishness - telling a superfluous story about his tonsils to comfort patient hospital anxiety - by sharing about his deceased father (a new revelation to the audience!). it's this faux honesty, this nobility, that chase wants as his final testimony. noble, guilty, sacrificing, all in one.

yet the final version, the one nearest the truth, concealing everything but chase's reason for lying, is the most pitiful one yet: after kayla has died, chase confesses his error to same, who lashes out. chase bears the brunt of guilt; he feels he's been adequately punished...

so why does he keep looking at house at every turn?

chase wants to fall on his noble sword and get things over with - he says as much to stacy when he has the option of pushing the hearing date up. however, at every junction, he's downplayed the role house had in diagnosing and treating the patient. he's also afraid of house hearing all this self-sacrificing farce because he knows that he won't buy it. in this moment, stacy has lost her position as allegorical priest; house now embodies the role, sans the privacy of the confessional booth and the screen.

and, like clockwork, house clocks chase's real goal here: absolution. he wants to get through this pseudo-catholic-sacrament as intact as possible without showing any real vulnerability. when house takes chase aside, he says that, "you want him [sam] to sue you." oh, the catholic suffering of it all.

house does away with the ceremony and ritual of the confession. he confesses (!!!) to chase that he figured his father had passed away, and that rowan asked him to keep it to himself. this obviously pains chase, but, since it's house, and since no one can convince me that house isn't mean to be chase's Not Dad, he looks to him instead for a way forward. he's confessed; what should he do now?

nope - house only outlines his 2 options (tell the whole truth, or keep lying) and pledges that he won't say anything. the decision is entirely up to chase. this is a pretty non-deific (or not CATHOLIC, i should say) moment for house, refusing to intervene when a situation sorta calls for it. he's neither benevolent nor malicious, and we've seen him be both. maybe that's why he pays for his lack of a decision when the diagnostics department enters The Foreman Era.

so, in conclusion, this episode was an exercise in chase's catholicism, namely the sacrament called reconciliation/confession, that house subverts by not being the deific, unmerciful god who chase has come to expect in his life.

meanwhile, in wilson land:

hands not quite folded in prayer, divided by the walls of a non-confessional? discussing illicit sexual affairs? drawing admissions from house about his illicit affair? their dumb little game being vaguely penetrative? house's ball(s) being in wilson's metaphorical court? who's to say. i'm just a grad student.

[meep-meep-richie]

´´ Why didn´t I pick up? ''

[sharkylass]

Does Isa saw the red shade like how siffrin does or he saw a different shade?

It would still be red! Reading the Ka Buan book on colors it mentions that the shade is visceral, like destruction, something breaking. And I feel like that isn't something connected to Sif specifically. And what more visceral shade then red.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2025: THE LUMINOUS DEAD by Caitlin Starling.

Well! I did not mean to binge read this in less than 24 hours, but Here We Are. Once I started, I had a hell of a time stopping, because I just HAD TO KNOW.

From the very first page, we know something is not right about this solitary caving expedition on a shitty alien mining planet, and we know that 22-year-old Gyre is in it for an enormous amount of money. We know significantly less about her enigmatic and controlling handler, Em, who's Gyre's literal only lifeline out of the cave system.

Or about what's down there with her.

The tension and ratcheting dread are propulsive--lot of mysteries here, lots to pick apart and unravel (including Gyre's and Em's psyches, apparently). Hugely tense and claustrophobic (I kept taking micro phone breaks to calm myself down), enormously isolating and twisty. This is We Support Women's Wrongs: Sci-Fi Horror Edition, and I'm in a complicated situationship with a hypermanipulative voice in my helmet about it--love it, hate it, love/hate it at the same time, what a deeply fucked up ride.

[mindovermutant]

dude why are people spreading the demonic gospel of doug walker unironically i don't want to hear him say the words "THESE movies are treated like CARTOONS, not ANIMATED FILMS" ever again

[melkor-did-nothing-wrong]

It's actually pretty funny to see people who dislike angbang specifically treating Melkor like an obstacle that needs to be "overcome" or "removed" because he is "holding Mairon back" by existing. It's generally funny seeing people thinking that Mairon's life improves so significantly once Melkor is gone, considering Melkor is change and chaos, and if you manage to remove change, improvements, by definition, cannot exist, and if you manage to remove chaos, order cannot exist or mean anything either.

[canisalbus]

My absolute favorite thing about your blog, even more favorite that Vachete, is the care and interest you put into each response. Be it an ask or an art piece, you always eloquently break down each individual aspect and comment on them. It always makes me smile.

.

[beastblade69]

well that's fucking awesome. all of the damage russians have done to our electric infrastructure can be repaired in one year minimum. IT'S GONNA TAKE MORE TAHN ONE YEAR TO REPAIR ALL OF THE ELECTRIC STATIONS RUSSIANS HIT WITH THEIR MISSILES. AND WE AIN'T EVEN TALKING ABOUT CIVILIAN OR ANY OTHER INFRASTRUCTURE. ONLY ELECTRIC ONE. MORE THAN ONE YEAR. AND WE ARE STILL NOT STRUGGLING ENOUGH IN ONLINE PEOPLE'S OPINION. FUCK OFF