#first real foray ig

[bloxy-gateways]

Welcome to the Space Between Worlds!

Or, as we like to call it, The Robloxiasphere ! :]

This is a Generalized Roblox Ask Blog, utilizing original Guys; none of the individuals here are actually from any specific game! Just silly guys who happen to Exist <3

The blog uses a lot of "personal lore" that, to be honest, probably will go unexplained unless folk ask. There are Rules and Methods under which the world functions, but it's generally not important <3

Now, some important notes and ground rules!!

DON'T BE WEIRD ABOUT IT. Please for the love of god don't send nsfw shit. Or like excessuvely gorey/creepy comments. Please be a bit normal I'm begging you. (If your ask falls under this ground, you'll just get deleted and/or blocked.)

Generally, this is an ASK blog, not a ROLEPLAY blog. I'll be less likely to respond to rp asks, or in the least it won't go as you anticipate, and unlikely to respond to rp-style reblogs unless there's a plausible reason. Think of asks like little messages on a computer!

Notsble exceptions to the above are if an individual is existant within the bounds of the "Robloxiasphere" and in the present location. If you want to do a rp Thing, but aren't sure if it'll fit currently, feel free to send an ask about it! I'm happy to create setup to get things to work; it just can't be random and without theme!

(I'm also liable to decline for whatever reason. I mostly want this to be Asks, not Roleplay.)

No "magic anons" or what have you. Again, asks are simply Messages that're passed; they have no staying, physical force! Sorry!

More rules may be added if I find new boundaries, but otherwise this is it!

Otherwise, here's a list of all introduced individuals that will be updated as time goes on! Even if someone ISN'T notably present, you can ask about them anyways!

Richie, he/him; a fairly standard "Human" Robloxian, who also has a deep interest in the intricacies of the Robloxiasphere.

Candy, she/her; a half-draconic Robloxian. Known chaos-causer. Presently unavailable.

Eros, he/him; a "moody" demon Robloxian who is just a little socially incompetent. Presently unavailable.

Wuff, they/them; a Furry Robloxian who works a DJ gig most days. Presently unavailable.

[mostotherthings]

彈一場完美戀愛 - 12

All good things come to an end

When Cheng-ge says he wants to hold a large concert for Neil, Reese looks at Neil, who looks at Xiao Hai, before turning to look back at him. and ORCA HANGS UP THE PHONE. The three (four) of them know- this is the best resolution they could have gotten, and how lucky they were to have ended it on their own terms.

The chaos and happiness of family- and not letting Reese drink too much. Director, WHAT IS THE STORY BEHIND THIS LOL

Drunken hugs are best hugs

The healing of your inner child is more important than you think. Xiao Hai is so lucky to be able to heal even a portion of it as young as he is. True happiness comes with luck too.

One more 哥 for the road. We are free now, do what you want to do, and love who you want to love. Reese hugs back, he gets it now.

你要跟我回泰國嗎？Do you want to come back with me to Thailand?

I'll go

Look at that tiny shy smile becoming a big big smile

My children. Be happy together.

BE HAPPY TOGETHER.

I love the following shots of Neil and Sea- everyone knows the ending is happy, and Sea wrote a banger of a song for Neil.

I'm so happy with this show. Life is pretty drama, but, honestly, we don't always want to watch people suffer through the drama we go through in life, do we? Even if we know it's not real, seeing the characters go through their grief and find resolution for their personal arcs together, PLUS build relationships with each other that looks like it will last for a lifetime, isn't that all we hope and wish for?

Plus, the music of this series is an absolute banger. The director and music director both knew- the music was going to make or break this series, and they definitely killed it. I loved every song, and the meaning each song brings to the show, and if Patrickananda is your first foray into Thai music, congratulations. I also loved all of the background music, that shows the gentleness, the slight minor key of the beautiful music when our characters are making decisions, and the soft, strong support of the music at it's heavier points. Absolutely the best. (My favourite portion of the entire background music, is how the sweet gentle music turns into a slow minor key, when Reese tells a sleeping Orca that he's perfect *chef's kiss)

Liu Min Ting was my discovery this show (so handsome, so humble, so soft), and Charles Tu, my love, you get serenaded this series, isn't it awesome? And Michael Chang, what a glow up from My Tooth Your Love, and please, I don't want to watch Big Dragon but I might just do for Jame Kasama. Never forgetting the talent that is Taiyo Chin, how great to discover all of them together in this series.

The love and care the actors have for the show, you can tell in this totally, probably, done-by-the-actors themselves coda to the show, on IG, Tears in Heaven

Thank you for the love! To next time!

[sadistpet]

MUNDAY QUESTIONS.

@mjm5655:

☀ ━ how long have you been roleplaying? how did you get into it?

oh my god okay i think since like. 2012...? i forgot the url of my first ever blog so i can't confirm, it might've been like december 2011, but definitely since 2012. so about 12 years ! i initially got into it via ask blogs which ykno. were all the rage back then. so that was my first roleplay... foray ig ?? i don't think i made a real roleplay blog until later, which was for a pokémon self insert oc of all things, but i'm prrrretty sure i deleted the blog years ago so i can't verify that, BUT i'm fairly sure because my initial ask blogs were pokémon themed.

so yeah ^-^ tldr about twelve years or so, and i got into it via pokémon ask blogs !

@viruslearnt:

♕ uwu ( which fictional characters are your favorites? )

GOD I HAVE TOO MANY. um. WAIT I FORGOT i have the perfect image for this here's my objectively correct mgs tier list that im not taking criticism on my partner said my category names were very raikovcore of me. and its true. but in WORDS raikov of course, raiden is also lovely little babie boy i love how bpd coded he is. i also love fortune and sniper wolf and eva because wamen. i love ocelot particularly in mgs3 because he's so autistic coded and silly and i love liquid snake because there's something wrong with me psychologically. otacon is so cringe nae nae baby but i adore him even though i want to scream whenever he speaks. i think those are my main ones

non-mgs wise though and more in general ? leo kasper from manhunt 2 ( who i also have a blog for because i have the impulse control of a hamster ), GLaDOS from portal, lisa garland from silent hill 1-3, mary from ib, clive dove from professor layton, and i think there's probably more but i fogor

@iobartach:

✮ ━ top three favorite muses that you’ve played

oh god. um. i genuinely think raikov is at the top of the list. writing him usually comes super easily to me, and that's not something i've experienced in a LONG time. it's genuinely such a fun experience to write him and i love the followers and friends i've gained from it. i really like the lore i've built for him and the intricacies i'm slowly weaving into his character. he's so silly and i care him very bad and i want to write him for a long time <3 um. let me look at my list

OH MY GOD YES tiff tannen from back to the future. like raikov she basically existed as a joke / throwaway line until she showed up in the comics, and i took that bitch and put everything i had into her. there's some shit i handled poorly and some stuff i'd change, but that community was so chill and she holds a special place in my heart. i might revive her blog one day. OH YEAH and if you google tiff tannen my rp blog still shows up on the first page

um. im gen not sure who else. i don't remember a lot of my time writing other muses. probably like some of my historical muses, or. yeah i cant remember. maybe my fnaf oc because that was the first time i got fanart of an oc and i felt like the gods themselves had bestowed it upon me

回 ━ what are your top four favorite shows?

chernobyl hbo is my favourite show ever of all time and it is the best show ever of all time factually contractually legally clinically and undisputably. i genuinely love every single facet of that show. it's what inspired me to get into researching nuclear radiation and that's what eventually led me to meet my partner ! i love that show so much it changed my life literally. i cried so hard. if you haven't watched it please do so on your platform of choice ( legal or no ) because it's genuinely amazing

neon genesis evangelion is probably one of my favourite shows ever of all time too, it hit so close to home and i'm obsessed with it. and even though none of the characters canonically have personality disorders, i find asuka and shinji to be super good representations of hpd and avpd respectively, which is great because you usually never see those anywhere ! it's so good. i also loved serial experiments lain but it hit too close to home in a way that i never want to watch it ever again because i think it will do irreparable damage to my psyche. but i really enjoyed it !

OTHERWISE i'm actually not much of a... show girlie. i like friday night dinner though i literally forgot it existed until my beloved mentioned it right now. um. most of the stuff i watch is like hell's kitchen, four in a bed, don't tell the bride, that type of shit because i'm apparently 47 years old. i have been watching dorohedoro, chainsaw man, and spy x family with my partner though !

[saritawolff]

Hi I guess I should make a pinned post explaining my whole deal

I have like 5 different instagram accounts to separate the different flavors of my art but I refuse to do that here cause I don’t really have a Tumblr audience as is.

First off! Furry art! I am a furry, in that I have cartoon animal characters and I draw them, write about them, and rotate them in my head. They are my blorbos and I have been drawing some of them since the mid-2000s and I’m not about to stop yet. I’d like to make a webcomic about them someday.

On the left is Ozzy, he is my favorite son and he is a bearded vulture griffin. The skinny guy with the big ears is Snitley. This is basically the poster child of what my furry art is like. It’s mostly clean, good fun.

The only nsfw stuff tends to be violence centered around my vampire fly character, The Master:

(blood warning below the cut)

That’s as nasty as it gets around here. (and it will always be tagged accordingly)

My main art account on Instagram, SaritaWolff, has a lot more and I usually post there long before I post on Tumblr. Tumblr’s just kinda my dumping ground.

The other type of art you’ll see around here is paleoart! I started hosting “Archovember” (my take on “Draw Dinovember”) a few years ago so every November tends to be dedicated to drawing dinosaurs (and other archosaurs).

I’ll draw paleoart periodically throughout the year too, but November is when it kinda explodes. I also sell my paleo designs as stickers and other products on Redbubble!

https://www.redbubble.com/people/SaritaWolff/shop

If you like my paleoart but don’t want the furry nonsense, I recommend following SaritaPaleo on Instagram, as that’s all I post there.

Lastly, I’ve recently forayed into drawing educational zoology art for my new Instagram account SaritaZoo. These tend to be what explode on Tumblr. I really love how open and willing to be educated about animals the Tumblr community is!

So if you just want to learn about real animals and don’t want fantasy animal people on your feed, I recommend following SaritaZoo on Instagram.

(As for my credentials, I have a degree in Wildlife Conservation and over 14 years of experience working with animals, and put a lot of research into my educational art. The educational stuff is sincerely meant to be educational.)

(Also on IG I have a photography account and a personal account but I gave up on posting photos to Tumblr long ago as no one interacts with them. So they’re just on Instagram for now.)

So yeah! TLDR: Those are the three major criteria of art I post here (along with various psas and other things I reblog) and they are a bit different so I don’t want people following my account for one thing and then being shocked when they see the other.

I am a person, I have multiple interests. I love throwing all those interests in one place. If you want to see them seperated, that’s what I use Instagram for! If you want to see them in better resolution, that’s what I use Tumblr for!

Thanks for stopping by!

[llsilvertail]

Okay. So. Story time.

Imagine you're a girl (who will eventually be not-a-girl-but-it's-good-enough and queer) in middle school. You've been reading fanfiction for a year or so now1 and, with all the audacity only a thirteen year old can have, you consider yourself fairly well versed in the intricacies of those websites.

Recently, however, you've been getting disillusioned with the selection of fics available to you: you can guess almost every single plot beat ahead of time, it's hard to find exactly what you're looking for, and, quite honestly, you're bored of it. You still read it of course, something is better than nothing after all, but you can feel yourself yearning for something different.

And then, by some miracle (in the form of someone you rarely talk to and the girls locker room), you learn of AO3 and this? this right here? it feels like your holy grail. There are so many stories! It's so easy to filter things!2. And all that boredom you felt? Well, it's gone.

Now. Let me tell you something about AO3. Most of the ways to filter only provide a set number of tags to choose from3 or specific options that are available there4. The only thing that's different is the language filter which provides you with a drop down menu with all the languages you can choose from5 sorted in alphabetical order. This is all to say, you're already paying attention to this because it's different from the rest of the filter system and, just by virtue of the way it's set up, the options are slightly smaller so it's much more likely that you'll misclick and choose the wrong language.

Let's skip forward a couple months, to the point where you've gained the muscle memory of how far to scroll and where to click to choose English, but not quite enough for scrolling too far and missing it to be uncommon. At that time, the two languages right below "English" were "Español" and "Esperanto"6. Being a curious youngster (ie. you had to know everything already or else you were a failure), you knew what Spanish was, but not Esperanto. You knew it sounded familiar and that it was something European but not from the north or east7.

So you go ahead and look it up. At this point, you have absolutely no idea about conlangs beyond whatever Tolkien did and that making up a language sounds neat. And learning that Esperanto was created specifically to be a "neutral"8 language is music to your "if we could only just talk to each other things would be fine" ears.

Anyway, story time over lmao. While that's about as far as my first foray into conlanging as a medium (for lack of a better word ig?) went, I remain vaguely interested and, eventually, I learned way more about it. So here I am. Writing this even though there's prob other things I should be doing lmao.

1 Mostly on FFN, Quotev, and Wattpad

2 Btw thank your local tag wranglers today! They deserve the positive reinforcement

3 And a search box for ones without a high enough fic count to show up there

4 As in check boxes vs "select only one", but I'm sure there's a better way to explain it

5 I'm not sure what their actual criteria for what languages are included is lmao

6 Right now there's another, additional language but it's (somewhat) new to the drop down menu and wasn't there at the time all that was happening

7 Most likely I subconsciously noticed it looked like a romance language (before I actually knew what a romance language was lmao) and my brain played tricks on me lol

8 Yeah. We all know. But shh. I was a baby then. I learned real quick after doing more digging later on

Im really curious how people know about Esperanto. Since its a relatively recent language (from the 1880s), its obviously not going to be as widely spoken in the world as other languages (altho apparently it is the most widely spoken constructed language). I assume most people are introduced to it later in some way?

If u know what Esperanto is, feel free 2 reblog this and say how you learned about it in the tags.

[randomthoughtpatterns]

Ishida’s 1/16 stream - pt1

A compilation of my tweets again + a couple anecdotes too random/too long for Twitter. No guarantees there’ll be part 2. I’m honestly not really interested in random Ishida trivia, but I’m very interested in Choujin X details. Those were thin on the ground this time ‘round.

---

Choujin X is on page 69 so far. Ishida says there's going to be around 80 (for the first batch? I don't think it's a 1-vol work), but he's still on lineart. Still no assts, so he'll have to go back for backgrounds after that.

Judging by the text from the pages he’d worked on, Azuma is a famous highschooler. There’s also someone offering someone else to become a Choujin, so - it’s either not an innate ability or Choujin is a title (like X-Men).

TG Ishida had started w/o assts as well, but caved in pretty quickly (was it one volume?). Seriously... you've got to be insane to attempt a weekly series alone.

Ishida doesn't plan on watching NGE in a cinema, and in general only goes out for walks these days (bc covid), which I will begrudge him, pandemic notwithstanding, because I've waited a decade for these movies to be completed and want to see it in a theater.

Ishida: I started IG bc I sometimes draw thing that are better suited for that platform, but ALSO bc one of my sisters had told me a fake acct got like 900 thousand followers. Some celebs even followed it! People are suggesting he becomes a youtuber. Content suggestions include: cooking, dates with Takahashi Kunimitsu. A funny anecdote from one such outing, confirming Ishida is a great friend (it was, actually, in one of the manga extras way back when). Ishida: we went drinking and an old hag attached herself to Kunimitsu’s side. You know the type - bleached hair, looks young at first glance but then you realize she’s really not... Ah, I should call her lady instead of a hag. So, the lady was coming on Kunimitsu aggressively, asking him why two guys were there alone. Are we gay? And he was like, yeah... absolutely... for sure. I loved it. She was amazing. They got on marvelously. What was I doing? Staying as far away as possible. Follow-up Q: was she into gays? (fujoshi) A: no, she was into molesting people.

Q: what do you do when you've got no desire to work? A: last time I lazed around the house for 5 hours, went to the gym. This time I'm streaming (he's started the stream saying he's extremely not in a working mood)

On movies: I'm not the biggest movie fan. I went to see Promare in 4DX. It wasn't necessarily my 1st choice, they just didn't have it in any other format. Never again. The movie was fine! The 4DX was Not Fine. They kept pouring water on us.

Q: do you watch anime? A: not really, unless something really catches my eye. Same with movies.

Meanwhile, Ishida's finished part 6 of JoJo (Stone Ocean) and will be starting Steel Ball Run now. Extremely impressed with Araki's storytelling (as are we all!)

He also shared his first forays into mangaka business back at 7-8 years of age. He’d won a one-page mangaka kit off - something with a point system, he had to save points for a year. And then he spilled ink (I think it was?) on the carpet, and his parents tore up the page and forbidden him to draw manga ever again. Evidently it didn’t take.

On part-time jobs: never had any real ones (checks out; no idea if he’d finished uni or not, but he went there; and after that he was a manga assistant).

[venmotif]

🎈🎨 ^-^!

harvey !! :D

(this is very long sorry sjfhsjfjsks didn't mean it to be xP)

🎈- man I started brainstorming a massive, very versatile space au all the way back in like. november last year. dsmp was a series of cosmic dramatics that occurred in an isolated binary star system. mcc was an event that was hosted(the hub) on a single planet dedicated entirely to the event, but warped to different parts of the universe for each minigame through singularity gates(which are much more stabilized wormholes for fast and efficient galactic travel). fruitninja were bounty hunters and everyone was a cool humanoid/humanoid presenting alien(to some extent) because of the history of humans in the universe and how their forays beyond the solar system went.

another idea was dystopian fruitninja centric, where fruit was criminally poor due to inherited debt. most people lived in an enhanced augmented reality where they had various pieces of tech(contact lenses, enhanced fabric in clothing, gloves or shoes, very upgraded versions of standard electronic devices etc etc). basically the entirety of different systems in society function with these devices. but since fruit is very poor, he doesn't have the basic tech to even access these, so he's functionally denied a possibility of interacting with them and having an opportunity to move up, find work and pay off his debts etc. he gets caught and sent to prison after he breaks into a store warehouse(physical stores are mostly empty boxes that display virtual items, but deliver the items to the empty shelves once someone selects and pays for them or smth like that). they give him an implant that basically forces him to live solely in a heavily modified augment of the world where he's tunnel visioned into factory work and he can't sleep until he finishes his allotted quota for the day and he has to do this for the rest of his sentence, which ranges from absurdly long to for life. illumina is a synth(?) my notes say, where basically he lives entirely in a digital world. his body is lying in a deep, regulated coma in a pod, and he receives necessary nutrients, water etc intravenously. he does multiple jobs and one of them is overseeing the penal factory where fruit works. if I wrote the fic, it would be a montage/snapshot style(sort of like showcontrols', if you've read their fics) of fruitninja where illu temporarily breaks a bunch of rules to free fruit from the prison simulation so fruit can disable his pod and he can experience "real" sensation for the first time in his entire life

the other idea I had revolved around speedrunning as a commercial job in galactic exploration but this is getting really long-winded so I might save that one for later lol xP the theme with all of these is that they involve heavy sci fi elements and other aspects that I absolutely could not do justice to(or even figure out how to write)

🎨 - I've definitely made fanart for my fics before, and vice versa. most of my ideas bleed over mediums(?) ig? if I'm really invested in a particular concept it's a toss up whether I'll begin writing it or drawing it(though usually writing it), and sometimes from there I'll additionally draw/write to better picture the setting. I've never gotten fanart for my fics before tho lol

[nuagederose]

q: “why joey and lars, of all people?”

a: aside from being my doppelganger, joey is kind of harrison ford in a way: the diligent everyman who's absolutely scared out of his wits and yet he braves it anyways and just wants it well. since he's the narrator, a lot of the technobabble and “infodumping” notorious in sci-fi flies right over his head and he tries to understand it as best as he possibly can, i.e., it's written in a way that anyone can understand it, while maintaining his status as unreliable narrator. he gives the narrative a healthy dose of heart, too, given his sense of humility in real life.

lars is his foil: same story there, the frightened every man who puts on a brave face, but he's more adept to it all and he's got a lot more—dare i say—skeletons in the closet compared to joey, who's more of an open book (initially, anyways: there's a point in the narrative where you get a sense that he's hiding something from you, but you don't know what) but it's because of this i made joey the narrator rather than lars (lars would've been the all too obvious choice, too, anyway).

and yeah, joey's kind of my doppelganger: i forget what i was watching, but i remember actually thinking: “oh my god, he... looks like me. long dark curls, big brown eyes, and native american blood running through him.” he also grew up in a rural, nondescript area of upstate new york; i grew up in northern nevada and literally the most backwards part of southern california. i also have scandinavian blood in me, so that explains lars' inclusion.

the current piece, the dead of night, turns the above concept on its head with the rotating narration between scott (who's sidetracked by kristina), hannah (who only knows so much about the night francine went missing), nancy (both sidetracked and is the newcomer), and frankie (another guy standing there, terrified). and this time around, lars is absent and joey, having been established as an unreliable narrator twice over with now it's dark and amped and wired, only knows so much himself

this maintains the mysteriousness of the universe while giving these men their day in the sun and continuing to build on it, something i've picked up from watching stranger things after chris passed (although i feel like the duffer brothers are turning into chris carter with the advent of the fourth season).

but i've known, since writing the first chapter of the first entry in september 2019 and i fused cyberpunk with clockpunk, dieselpunk, steampunk, biopunk, lovecraftian horror, southern gothic, erotica, classic sci-fi, dark comedy, and a bit of dream logic that this universe was going to be vast, far bigger than the universe i was pulling inspiration from (a beatles fic called with strings attached; similar intent there: a serious foray into sci-fi with none of the cliche fanfic tropes. although at the rate that i’m going, i can say that this isn’t going to take me 29 years to finish).

ig + twitter: badmotorartist

[divorceddanneel]

what do you think about G putting her kids faces all over IG bc that’s def. not okay. I will always hate her until I hear it from the kids themselves that they are 100% okay with every picture and that their mom has their consent to post every picture including the ones where theyre crying or clearly upset or not in the mood for pictures. The idea that parents can do whatever they want with their kids is bullshit. Also, Odette is 4, she mentally can’t consent to getting her picture posted in IG

That’s a problem with parents on social media in general. it’s not a Padalecki thing or a celeb thing or an “influencer” thing. If you don’t like it, fine...but it’s no reason to turn into some goblin like Naggy or Skittles so maybe reconsider how much “hate” you have for something that likely isn’t that problematic.

I know a couple who started a facebook account for their son with their first ultrasound picture and obsessively updated it before he was even born. They intended to curate it until he’s old enough to use it himself. I took them off my facebook because they posted about the contents of his diapers too much — and that was shared to their own accounts, I never “friended” their son’s super special newborn facebook.

At the same time, I know a friend who has vehemently refused to post baby pics online. probably because she is in the same social circle as the baby facebook freaks. her baby, her rules.

My cousin is a professional photographer, and he posts beautiful pictures of his wife and daughter very often. Is he promoting his business with his IG? yes. would he post about them as much even if he wasn’t a photographer? absolutely, because they’re the center of his universe. His dad was into cameras when we were growing up and would have done the same if IG had existed.

Gen rarely posts candid pics anymore, and (as much Naggy and Skittles might wish) she doesn’t schedule photoshoots every fucking day. It’s likely no more invasive in their lives than any other parent’s foray into photography. I’m not thrilled with some of her decisions but the kids are not being abused.

If you want a real example of children being abused for IG likes, check here. these people aren’t even feeding their kids, and they live out of a bus so that CPS won’t catch up with them. but it’s all in the name of Jeezus so it’s fine.

[enter21st]

Netflix announces Terminator anime series with studio Production IG

Netflix announces Terminator anime series with studio Production IG

Netflix is developing an original anime series based on the Terminator, with famed animation studio Production I.G on board. The new animated series will “approach Terminator in a way that breaks conventions, subverts expectations and has real guts,” according to showrunner and executive producer Mattson Tomlin. The project will be the Terminator franchise’s first foray into animation, following…

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

Tell your pal and a confidant: The 'Golden Girls' cafe is Instagram heaven

Picture it: The year's 2017 and despite being cancelled in 1992, Golden Girls is still your favorite show. What's a cheesecake-loving gal to do? Where can one hang out with pals and confidantes? 

Don't worry, fellow friends of Dorothy (and Blanche, Rose and Sophia) — the first Golden Girls cafe is open for business, and Instagram users have been showing it love. 

SEE ALSO: 'Golden Girls' is headed to Hulu in February

NYC's Rue La Rue carries the motto "thank you for being a friend" and is dedicated to Rue McClanahan, who played everybody's favourite Southern floozy, Blanche Devereaux, on the iconic series. 

Happy Birthday Rue McClanahan- Thank You For Being A Friend 🍪☕️ #RueLaRue #GoldenGirls #ThankYouForBeingAFriend #StayGolden #PictureItSicily1922 #ShadyPinesMa #BetterLateThanPregnant #HappyBirthdayQueen

A post shared by Sarah Ann (@blondeambition822) on Feb 21, 2017 at 9:51am PST

New IG feature! Scroll through the album! #Guys. I made it to the Golden Girls themed restaurant and it's everything. It's like a GG / Rue McClanahan museum! They even play episodes instead of music and the vibe is dope! Of course I had the cheesecake and the "Sophia" coffee ! Can't believe they opened it in our neighborhood ...love it and plan on coming her often! For sure worth the trip uptown if you are a GG fan! #thankyouforbeingafriend

A post shared by FK (@fadiakader) on Feb 22, 2017 at 3:10pm PST

Rue La Rue Cafe #GoldenGirls Visit #2 @rue_la_rue_cafe In NYC | more pics & info @ www.foodlovergirl.com/rue-la-rue-cafe-2/ @mrisaacoliver #foodlovergirllovesnyc

A post shared by Food Lover Girl (@foodlovergirlny) on Feb 18, 2017 at 3:59pm PST

Along with actresses Betty White, Bea Arthur and Estelle Getty, McClanahan is honored in the themed eatery with memorabilia lining the walls and a menu that's 100 percent Golden Girls. (Betty White coconut cake or salted caramel Bea Arthur cheesecake, anyone?) 

Golden Girls cafe!!!! All my dreams!!!! ❤❤❤

A post shared by Nathan Chang (@natekchang) on Feb 10, 2017 at 9:03am PST

#TbT Sharing a piece of cheesecake in honor of Sophia, Dorothy, Blanche & Rose. #goldengirlsforever #goldengirls #goldengirlscafe #ruelaruecafe #nyc

A post shared by Fudiyah Foray 🇸🇱 💚💎💙👑 (@kweenfudiyah) on Feb 23, 2017 at 2:29pm PST

The cafe's owner, Michael LaRue, was a good friend of McClanahan and is the executor of her estate, meaning the place is filled with her personal belongings, including her Emmy. 

McClanahan's son, Mark Bish, is a co-owner of the Washington Heights cafe, which opened earlier this month. 

my "cheers": #ruelarue café, a shrine to #ruemcclanahan and a temple for #goldengirls memorabilia. i ate (of course) #cheesecake among a brilliant explosion of headshots, peignoirs, scripts, programs, gowns and a real live #emmy statuette (won by rue herself), as "gg" reruns played on a giant screen. a one-of-a-kind homage. bravo! 💃💃💃👵🏼#thankyouforbeingafriend #traveleddowntheroadandbackagain #yourheartistrue #youreapalandaconfidante

A post shared by Brian Healy (@bhealynyc) on Feb 23, 2017 at 2:14pm PST

The cafe's currently open for breakfast and lunch, with a dinner menu expected to follow in the next few weeks. 

Spent my evening eating cheesecake and hanging with the girls #Blanche #Dorthy #Sophia #Rose #ThankYouForBeingAFriend

A post shared by Dalton King (@daking1993) on Feb 21, 2017 at 2:32pm PST

Visited @rue_la_rue_cafe today, and it was everything I dreamed and MORE. It has the banana leaf wallpaper from Blanche's bedroom, the yellow phone from the kitchen, and a bathroom in the same color scheme as the girls house!! AMAZING! (And thank you, @frannyfoo for indulging me!) #goldengirls #ruelaruecafe #bestdayever #thankyouforbeingafriend

A post shared by Mandy Wooden (@shinyredshoes9) on Feb 23, 2017 at 1:17pm PST

Forget Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda. The real groundbreaking feminists of TV were Miami retirees. May their legacy live on in every bite of delicious cheesecake and every shade-y remark shared between gal pals.

A cafe inspired by The Golden Girls. In my neighborhood. New York is strange, but there is something for everybody. #thecityprovides #howbowdemwaffles

A post shared by katie (@sweetpotatee) on Feb 19, 2017 at 7:52am PST

BONUS: 'Golden Girls' starring 4 best dog friends will be your favorite fluffy remake

[onestowatch]

How We Are Staying Safe and Sane in the Age of Quarantine | Staff Article

As the days of quarantine due to the novel cornoavirus continue to pile up, it is all too easy to lose track of oneself, let alone what day of the week it is. This holds equally true for the Ones To Watch staff who currently find themselves under a lockdown in Los Angeles that is set to continue at least until the end of April. 

So, what exactly do we do when stuck at home for the foreseeable future? Play a lot of Animal Crossing and finally learn to cook with the leftovers in our freezer. This is how the Ones To Watch staff is staying safe and sane in the age of quarantine.

Island Escapism 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons could not have arrived at a better time. Amongst my friend group, the latest entry of the popular franchise is the first foray into the series for many of us, myself included. 

The part-life-simulator, part-resource-management game populated by adorable creatures gives a virtual space for us to visit each other’s houses, exchange clothes, and create our own a little oasis on a deserted island. It is the antithesis of the current state of the world. More than anything, this far too charming video game has served as a crucial bit of island life escapism in these uncertain times we currently find ourselves. I also now have the freedom to spend three hours making a rendition of the lofi hip-hop study girl in Animal Crossing, so there’s that.

-Maxamillion Polo

Cheez-Its, White Claw, and Home Decor

I don’t even know what day of quarantine we’re at anymore, but mine has consisted mostly of extra toasty Cheez-Its and the new flavors of White Claw (tangerine, ily). It’s been a hard health balance, because I feel like I’m working out more with all the IG Live-stream Hot 8 Yoga classes but the amount I’ve been boredom-eating has easily quadrupled. So… I’m over here being proud of myself for getting on my yoga mat, then quickly disappointed after my four Domino’s pizzas get delivered.

On a brighter note, I moved into a new house during the past two weeks! If you think about it, quarantine is probably the best possible time to move because you have no option but to unpack the 5,000 boxes staring at you as you turn on Animal Crossing. 

-Paige MacDonald

Anime and Virtual Connections

Anime. Lots of it. Recently "borrowed" my buddy's Hulu subscription and they have a ton of great ones. Currently rewatching Yu Yu Hakusho. What a classic. Aside from that, I recently bought Animal Crossing and that's always a chill time. OH! Lots of facetime. I actually call my friends like every 30 minutes. They hate it. But they love me so it's fine. Ah ha haaaaaaa. . .  Y'all ever just lie down in bed and wonder what your next show is going to be?

-Green Lee

Chopped: Quarantine Edition

Chopped: Quarantine Edition – how I now approach all meals during quarantine. Whether it’s using the ingredients in my cabinet that I would normally never touch or only having access to short ribs and Turbot because everything else is sold out during my weekly supermarket runs, I am definitely ramping up my culinary game. Watch out Le Cordon Bleu, you’ve got some tough competition.

-Hayley Henning

Foreign Films

Oh the age of social distancing, a time where we as humans are forced to confront the very real limits of our physical and mental capacity. While millions look for ways to better themselves in our newfound reality, I’ve decided to use my solitude to finally dive into the world of foreign film.

Gone are the days I limit my cinematic consumption to a single language. I shudder to think of the stories I have missed due to an unjustified aversion to subtitles. With humanity in a rare moment of global unity, what better time to engage with international narratives?

This quarantine season, I pledge to broaden my scope.

-Alec Wing

Waffles and TikTok Dances

With the world going on pause, and most of humanity taking time to stay in their homes and avoid the madness occurring, I’ve taken it upon myself to focus on becoming the best person I can. I’ve decided to master my chef skills without completely running through my quarantine stock. 

Some of my dishes include an ice cream waffle sandwich, bacon-wrapped sausage Links on a waffle, or anything that tastes good with waffles. I’ve also decided to start learning as many TikTok dances as possible to impress my peers when I’m back in the office. Stay safe. Stay wildin’. Wash ya hands kids and isolate.

-Joey Leggitino

Fresh Air

We constantly get lost in our screens – for fun, for work, for idling hours that just seem to fade away. But as the word “lockdown” becomes more pervasive and “stay home” grows synonymous with “stay safe,” fresh air has been the solace of my quarantine. Simply stepping outside my front door for a nice brisk walk around my neighborhood has proven more grounding than nearly any answer I’ve found by way of my newsfeed. Connect with the sun.

Also, connect with your loved ones. A phone call, a video chat, any form of truly engaging goes a long way right now during this bizarrely universal phenomenon. We’re all home, we’re all washing our hands. When you think of someone, call them. Rarely do we know that the person at the other end is (likely) as bored and as openhearted as you are when you make the call. 

-Alexa Schoenfeld

Running and Rom-Coms

Running and rom-coms. That’s pretty much all that’s been occupying my time during the lockdown in LA. As someone who has an unhealthy obsession with SoulCycle, I’ve been trying my best to fill the void by running outside and using Aaptiv, a workout app that has guided outdoor runs. I’ve also been binging rom-coms at an embarrassingly high rate. My top five on Netflix to watch if you want a reminder of how single you are: Set It Up, Life As We Know It, He’s Just Not That Into You, Her, and Valentine’s Day.

-Rachael Jansky

Bon Mots & Bon Appetite

I'd love to post that I've read these books in the week since I've been social distancing, but these are old music adjacent favorites that will serve you well. All are available on Amazon and kindle if deliveries in your area are delayed: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James, Kill Your Friends by John Niven.

I am no gourmand, so trust assured all I recommend is easy, especially if your prior version of cooking consented of warming things up. What you really need are the right tools, and short of martial law, all are available at your local major supermarket, Target, Walmart or the like.

Vacum-Sealer: If you, like me, hated cooking primarily because common recipes created a meal for four-plus people and you don't want to repetitively eat said meal for days on end, the vacuum sealer is your solution.

Sous-Vide: This process essentially allows for the most difficult part of cooking to be waylaid, cooking at the right temperature for the right amount of time. How about a device that heats up water to exact temperature and then turns itself off when it's done, its apocalyptic cooking done right. Paired with the vacuum sealer above (although most freezer quality plastic bags work as well), veggies, fish, meat all cook perfectly to the time needed. For flavor, a quick sear, broil or bake makes the ingredients indistinguishable from professional restaurants. Voilà, you are a chef.

-David O’Connor

[ezatluba]

The Mysteries of Animal Movement

A scientist’s unfettered curiosity leads him to investigate the physics at work in some very odd corners of the natural world.

By James Gorman

Nov. 5, 2018

David Hu was changing his infant son’s diaper when he got the idea for a study that eventually won him the Ig Nobel prize. No, not the Nobel Prize — the Ig Nobel prize, which bills itself as a reward for “achievements that make people laugh, then think.”

As male infants will do, his son urinated all over the front of Dr. Hu’s shirt, for a full 21 seconds. Yes, he counted off the time, because for him curiosity trumps irritation.

That was a long time for a small baby, he thought. How long did it take an adult to empty his bladder? He timed himself. Twenty-three seconds. “Wow, I thought, my son urinates like a real man already.”

He recounts all of this without a trace of embarrassment, in person and in “How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls: Animal Movements and the Robotics of the Future,” just published, in which he describes both the silliness and profundity of his brand of research.

No one who knows Dr. Hu, 39, would be surprised by this story. His family, friends, the animals around him — all inspire research questions.

His wife, Jia Fan, is a marketing researcher and senior data scientist at U.P.S. When they met, she had a dog, and he became intrigued by how it shook itself dry. So he set out to understand that process.

Now, he and his son and daughter sometimes bring home some sort of dead animal from a walk or a run. The roadkill goes into the freezer, where he used to keep frozen rats for his several snakes. (The legless lizard ate dog food). “My first reaction is not, oh, it’s gross. It’s ‘Do we have space in our freezer,’” Dr. Fan said.

He also saves earwax and teeth from his children, and lice and lice eggs from the inevitable schoolchild hair infestations. “We have separate vials for lice and lice eggs,” he pointed out.

“I would describe him as an iconoclast,” Dr. Fan said, laughing. “He doesn’t follow the social norms.”

Dr. Hu with his 2015 Ig Nobel Prize, for showing that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in 21 seconds.

He does, however, follow in the footsteps of his father, a chemist who also loved collecting dead things. Once, on a family camping trip, his father brought home a road-killed deer that he sneaked into the garage under cover of night.

The butchering, a first time event for everyone in the family, he wrote once in a father’s day essay for his dad, “was an intense learning and sensory experience. There were a lot of organs in an animal, I learned.”

His own curiosity has led him to investigations of eyelashes and fire ants, water striders and horse tails, frog tongues and snakes.

Dr. Hu is a mathematician in the Georgia Tech engineering department who studies animals. His seemingly oddball work has drawn both the ire of grandstanding senators and the full-throated support of at least one person in charge of awarding grants from that bastion of frivolity, the United States Army.

Long before his role in the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing, Senator Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, put three of Dr. Hu’s research projects on a list of the 20 most wasteful federally funded scientific studies. The television show, “Fox and Friends,” featured Sen. Flake’s critique.

Naturally, Dr. Hu made the attack on his work the basis for a TEDx talk at Emory University, in which he took a bow for being “the country’s most wasteful scientist” and went on to argue that Sen. Flake completely misunderstood the nature of basic science.

Dr. Hu was tickled to think that one scientist could be responsible for such supposed squandering of the public’s money. Neither he nor his supporters were deterred.

Among those supporters is Samuel C. Stanton, a program manager at the Army Research Office in Durham, N.C., which funded Dr. Hu’s research on whether fire ants were a fluid or a solid. (More on that and the urination findings later.)

Dr. Stanton does not share Dr. Hu’s flippant irreverence. He speaks earnestly of the areas of science to which he directs Army money, including “nonequilibrium information physics, embodied learning and control, and nonlinear waves and lattices.”

So he is completely serious when he describes Dr. Hu as a scientist of “profound courage and integrity” who “goes where his curiosity leads him.”

Dr. Hu has “an uncanny ability to identify and follow through on scientific questions that are hidden in plain sight,” Dr. Stanton said.

When it comes to physics, the Army and Dr. Hu have a deep affinity. They both operate at human scale in the world outside the lab, where conditions are often wet, muddy or otherwise difficult.

In understanding how physics operates in such conditions, Dr. Stanton explained, “the vagaries of the real world really come to play in an interesting way.”

Besides, Dr. Stanton said, the Army is not, as some people might imagine, always “looking for a widget or something to go on a tank.” It is interested in fundamental insights and original thinkers. And the strictures of the hunt for grants and tenure in science can sometimes act against creativity.

Sometimes, Dr. Stanton said, part of his job is convincing academic scientists “to lower their inhibitions.”

Needless to say, with Dr. Hu that’s not really been an issue.

Dr. Hu has shown that the ideal eyelash length for mammals, like this sheep, is one-third the width of an eyeball.CreditGuillermo Amador

An aspiring doctor is led astray

“Applied mathematicians have always been kind of playful,” Dr. Hu said recently while talking about his academic background — although they are perhaps not quite as playful as he can be. A few years ago he did gymnastic flips onto the stage of a Chinese game show that sometimes showcases scientists.

He grew up in Bethesda, Md., and while he was still in high school, he did his first published work on the strength of metals that had been made porous. He was a semifinalist for the Westinghouse Science Prize (the forerunner of the Regeneron Science Search) and won several other awards.

That work helped him get into M.I.T., which he entered as a pre-med student planning to get an M.D./Ph.D.

He was soon led astray.

Dr. Hu’s undergraduate adviser at M.I.T. was Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan, a mathematician who works to describe real life processes in rigorous mathematical terms.

Dr. Mahadevan, known to students and colleagues as Maha, investigated wrinkling, for example. Naturally he won an Ig Nobel for that work.

“Maha lit the fire,” Dr. Hu said. Before he encountered his adviser’s research, he said, “It didn’t really make sense that you could make a living just playing with things.”

But he came to see the possibilities.

He stayed at M.I.T. for graduate work, in the lab of his adviser, John Bush, a geophysicist. Dr. Bush remembers him as very enthusiastic.

Asked by email about some of Dr. Hu’s wilder forays into the physics of everyday life, he said, “A sense of playfulness is certainly a good thing in science, especially for reaching a broader audience.” But, he said, “targeting silly problems is not a good strategy, and I know that David has taken considerable flack for it.”

Dr. Hu may be the first third-generation (in terms of scientific pedigree) Ig Nobel winner, because Dr. Mahadevan studied under the late Joseph Keller, a mathematician at Stanford University. Dr. Keller won two Ig Nobels. One was for studying why ponytails swing from side-to-side, rather than up and down, when the ponytail owner is jogging. The other was an examination of why teapots dribble.

After M.I.T., Dr. Hu did research at the Courant Institute at New York University, another hotbed of real-world mathematics. He moved to Georgia Tech, after Jeannette Yen, a biologist there, told the university they ought to take a look at him.

From ants to self-assembling robots

Dr. Hu’s research may seem like pure fun, but much of it is built on the idea that how animals move and function can provide inspiration for engineers designing human-made objects or systems.

The title of Dr. Hu’s book refers to the “robots of the future,” and he emphasizes the way animal motion offers insights that can be applied to engineering — Bio-inspired design.

When Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands flood, for instance, fire ants form rafts so tightly interlaced that water doesn’t penetrate their mass. When he picked up such a mass in the lab, Dr. Hu writes, it felt like a pile of salad greens.

“The raft was springy, and if I squeezed it down to a fraction of its height, it recoiled back to its original shape. If I pulled it apart, it stretched like cheese on a pizza.”

He found out that the ants were constantly moving even though the shape of the mass stayed more or less the same. They were breaking and making connections all the time, and they became, in essence, a “self-healing” material.

The idea is appealing for many engineering applications, including concrete that mends itself and robots that self-assemble into large, complex structures. Depending on the force applied to them, a mass of a hundred thousand ants or so can form a ball or a tower, or flow like a liquid.

He and students in his lab also showed that the reason mosquitoes don’t get bombed out of the air by water droplets in a rainstorm is that they are so light that the air disturbed by a falling drop of water blows the mosquitoes aside. The finding could have applications for tiny drones.

They also showed that the ideal length for a row of mammalian eyelashes is one-third the width of an eyeball. That gives just the right windbreak to keep blowing air from drying out the surface of the eye. Artificial membranes could use some kind of artificial eyelashes.

And what about urination? It didn’t make sense to Dr. Hu that a grown man and an infant would have roughly the same urination time.

After he sent out undergraduates, under the guidance of Patricia Yang, a graduate student, to time urination in all the animals at the Atlanta Zoo, the situation became even more puzzling. Most mammals took between 10 and 30 seconds, with an average of 21 seconds. (Small animals do things differently.)

The key was the urethra, essentially a pipe out of the bladder, that enhanced the effect of gravity. Even a small amount of fluid in a narrow pipe can develop high pressure, with astonishing effects.

Water poured through a narrow pipe into a large wooden barrel can split the barrel. Dr. Hu said the experiment, known as Pascal’s barrel, can be replicated nowadays with Tupperware.

“Applied mathematicians have always been kind of playful.”

What is interesting about the urethra biologically is that its proportions, length to diameter, stay roughly the same no matter the size of the animal (as long as it weighs more than about six and a half pounds).

The 21-second average urination time must be evolutionarily important. Perhaps any longer would attract predators? But then predators are subject to the same rule. In any case, the principle of how to effectively drain a container of fluid could be useful, Dr. Hu wrote in the original studies, to designers of “water towers, water backpacks and storage containers.”

As usual, in his book Dr. Hu does not neglect the human side of his work, or treat it too seriously. He refers to the urethra as a pee-pee pipe. And he corrects his son when he brags that only he, not his sister, has a pee-pee pipe.

Not so, Dr. Hu insists. The urethra is present in males and females.

Once older, his children may never forgive him for this book. But middle school science teachers and nerds everywhere will thank him.