#france i hope you know what youre voting for

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Who could have seen that coming (Everyone. Literally everyone.)

[palms-upturned]

Call me Meg, any pronouns.

I’m a white usamerican and do not speak Arabic, I do not verify fundraisers. A lot of folks in Gaza have reached out to me recently asking to share their campaigns, and so I’m trying my best to honor their requests and confirm the ones that have been vetted. My following isn’t exactly huge, but the friends I’ve made here have been extremely kind and generous in helping me when I’ve been in dire financial straits and I hope that they will extend the same generosity to the people of Gaza 💙

I’ve been talking daily with @lailashaqoura for a while and so it would especially mean a lot to me if my followers would follow her account and donate to/share her campaign:

If you’re a liberal who wants to send me an ask or respond to my posts about voting blue or Zionism or something to “debate” me, I’m not going to bother responding unless you attach a receipt for a donation to Laila’s campaign or I’m blocking you immediately. Add an image description to your receipt also. I’m not kidding.

Other fundraisers

Here’s a running list of verified users in Gaza who have reached out to me on my side blog, @vetted-gaza-funds!

Other tags on this blog where you can find fundraisers:

My general Palestine tag

My “asks” tag (this is where you’ll find the fundraisers of people who have reached out to me personally, I always try to link to verification from trusted users so that people won’t feel hesitant to reblog)

My donation match tag (this is where I post who I’m donating to every payday and encourage ppl to match my donations)

Palestinian users who are verifying campaigns (that I’m aware of):

el-shab-hussein

nabulsi

90-ghost

Other Palestinian users whose judgment I trust (but afaik they’re not personally verifying campaigns so do not ask them to do so):

fairuzfan

ibtisams

fallahifag

palipunk

Note: please interact respectfully with these users. They are doing these verifications and communicating with literally hundreds if not thousands of people in Gaza on a volunteer basis, in spite of literally deadly levels of stress. If you come from my blog and are even slightly disrespectful to anyone on this list I will hit you with a car.

Master lists of other vetted campaigns:

el-shab-hussein’s master list of master lists

fallahifag’s daily donation lists

google spreadsheet created by nabulsi/el-shab-hussein

Other sites where you can find verified funds:

gazafunds.com

Operation Olive Branch

Strawberry Seed Collective

Other:

A list of users who have reached out to me but who I could not find verification for. If anyone has any kind of link to a verification of these users please let me know so I can add them to my list!

If you want to send a campaign my way to add to my list on behalf of someone else, some things that would be helpful to me:

Please keep in mind that I cannot share fundraisers that have not been verified in some way. I am not Palestinian nor an Arabic speaker and have no way of verifying for myself what is or isn’t legitimate. If you send me an unvetted fundraiser, I will do my best to search regularly to see if anyone has vetted it in the future and share later if so, but that’s the best I can do.

If it has been verified but is not included in this spreadsheet, a link to the verification would be massively helpful.

If it’s a campaign that is on the Operation Olive Branch spreadsheet, please let me know where on the spreadsheet I can find it

If it’s from gazafunds.com, please show me a screenshot and/or a link where I can see the campaign featured on the website

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Thankful for class consciousness

On November 27, I'm appearing at the Toronto Metro Reference Library with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

On November 29, I'm at NYC's Strand Books with my novel The Lost Cause, a solarpunk tale of hope and danger that Rebecca Solnit called "completely delightful."

Before the term "ecology" came along, people didn't know they were on the same side. You care about owls, I care about the ozone layer – what does the destiny of charismatic nocturnal avians have to do with the gaseous composition of the upper atmosphere?

But as James Boyle has written, the term "ecology" welded together a thousand issues into a single movement. When we talk about "looking at our world through a lens," this is what we mean – apply the right analytical lens and a motley assortment of disparate causes becomes a unified, coherent project:

https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=dlj

Unfettered, planet-destroying, worker immiserating corporate power is only possible in the absence of such a lens. Before neoliberalism can destroy our lives, it must first convince us that we are all disconnected. "There is no such thing as society," isn't just an empty slogan: it's a weapon for dismantling the democratically accountable structures that can stand against industrial tyrants.

That's why neoliberalism is so viciously opposed to all kinds of solidarity, why corporate apologists insist that the only elections that matter are the ones where you "vote with your wallet." It's no surprise that the side with the thickest wallets wants to replace ballots with dollars!

Today, at long last, after generations of deadly corporate power-grabs, we are living through an ecology moment where all kind of fights are coalescing into one big fight: the fight to save democracy from oligarchy.

There are many tributaries flowing into this mighty river, but two of the largest are antitrust and labor. Antitrust seeks to ensure that our world is regulated by democratically accountable lawmakers who deliberate in public, rather than shareholder-accountable monopolists who deliberate in smoke-filled rooms. Labor seeks to ensure that contests between profit for the few and prosperity for the many are decided in favor of people, not profit.

This coalition is so powerful that the ruling class has never stopped attacking it. Indeed, the history of US antitrust law can be viewed as a succession of ever-more-insistent laws enacted solely to make it clear to deliberately obtuse judges that competition law is aimed at corporations, not unions:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/14/aiming-at-dollars/#not-men

Rising corporate power and declining worker power is bad for all of us. The failure of successive US administrations to block airline mergers led to sky-high prices and a proliferation of "junk fees" that can double the price of a ticket. The monopoly carriers stand to make $118b this year from these fees:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90981005/airlines-fees-118-billion-dark-patterns

The consolidation of the agricultural sector led to cartels that conspired to rig the prices of our food. These Les Mis LARPers rigged the price of bread!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-bread-price-fixing-1.6883783

Remember eggflation? Nearly all the eggs in US grocery stores come from a single company, Cal-Maine, which owns dozens of brands, including "Farmhouse Eggs, Sunups, Sunny Meadow, Egg-Land’s Best and Land O’ Lakes eggs":

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/13/business/egg-prices-cal-maine-foods/index.html

With all our eggs in one basket, it was easy for a single company to rig the egg market, blaming everything from bird flu to Russian invasion of Ukraine for doubling egg prices while their profits shot up by 65%:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/23/cant-make-an-omelet/#keep-calm-and-crack-on

Antitrust isn't just about monopoly – it's also about oligopoly. The American meat cartel pretends that it's not rigging markets by outsourcing its price-fixing to a "clearinghouse" called Agri Stats:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/04/dont-let-your-meat-loaf/#meaty-beaty-big-and-bouncy

Agri-Stats gets data from all the Big Meat companies, "anonymizes" it, and publishes it back to its subscribers, who use the service to coordinate across-the-board price-hikes that have cost the public billions in price gouging (meanwhile, Big Meat was able to secure $50b in public subsidies).

For forty years, governments have ceded power to "autocrats of trade" who usurped control "over the production, transportation, and sale of the necessaries of life":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/20/we-should-not-endure-a-king/

But that era is coming to an end. In the past year, American regulators have blocked airline mergers and promulgated rules banning junk fees. They've dragged price-fixing clearinghouses into court:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/why-turkey-eggs-and-air-travel-just

They're getting results, too: for the second year in a row, turkey prices are down. Cranberries, too (18%). Same for whipping cream (25%). Pie crusts are down. So are russet potatoes. Airfares are down 13.2%.

The egg cartel just lost a long-running court case over the last egg price-fixing campaign, which gouged Americans from 1990-2008:

https://www.pymnts.com/cpi_posts/kellogg-kraft-secure-victory-in-price-fixing-lawsuit-against-egg-producers

The same fact-pattern that was revealed in that court case is repeated in this year's eggflation scandal:

https://farmaction.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Farm-Action-Letter-to-FTC-Chair-Lina-Khan.pdf

That's terrific ammo for the FTC, and will doubtless benefit the Democrats running against would-be Indiana senator John Rust, whose family owns convicted egg cartel member Rose Acre Farms and whose wife just stepped down as chair of the board.

One underappreciated aspect of the global war on corporate power is that the same corporations commit the same crimes in countries all over the world, which means that whenever any government establishes evidence of those crimes, they are of use to all the other governments. Competition enforcers from the UK, EU, USA, Singapore, South Korea and elsewhere are coordinating to target the Big Tech cartel. Maybe Google and Facebook and Apple are bigger enough to resist any one of those governments – but all of them?

https://cmadataconference.co.uk/

One notable absence from the anti-monopoly coalition is Canada. While other countries merely stopped enforcing their competition laws in the neoliberal era, Canada never had a good competition law to enforce. Canada's official tolerance for monopolies has allowed a handful of companies to seize control over the economy of Canada and the lives of Canadians:

https://www.canadaland.com/shows/commons-monopoly/

These monopolies are largely controlled by powerful families, Canada's de facto aristocracy, whose wealth and power make them above the law and subordinate the country's democratic institutions to billionaires' whims:

https://www.canadaland.com/tag/dynasties/

At long last, Canada has called time on oligarchy. Last week's Fall Economic Statement included an announcement of a muscular new competition law, including new merger guidelines, a new "abuse of dominance" standard, and Right to Repair rules:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7132855021548769282/

The law also includes interoperability mandates for Canada's highly concentrated – and deeply corrupt – banking sector. These measures are strikingly similar to new measures just introduced in the US by the CFPB:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/let-my-dollars-go/#personal-financial-data-rights

The arrival of Canada's first fit-for-purpose competition rule coincides with all kinds of solidaristic movements in Canada that are fighting corporate power from the bottom up. Even Ontario, led by one of the most corrupt premiers in provincial history, can't break its teachers' union:

https://globalnews.ca/news/10105600/ontario-elementary-teachers-reach-contract-deal/

It's not just workers who benefit from solidarity: Tenants' unions have formed across the province in response to corporate takeovers of scarce rental stock. These finance-sector landlords have armies of lawyers who've figured out how to bypass rent-control rules and evict tenants who balk. Rather than rolling over, tenants' unions are organizing waves of rent-strikes:

https://macleans.ca/longforms/rent-strikes-canada/

As with Big Tech, the illegal tactics of the rental sector aren't confined to a single nation. In America, Wall Street landlords have dramatically increased the price of housing and kicked off an eviction epidemic the likes of which the country has never seen:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/16/mortgages-are-rent-control/#housing-is-a-human-right-not-an-asset

And as with Big Meat, landlords use arm's-length clearing houses to rig rental markets, coordinating across-the-board rent hikes:

https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-rent

In other words: to fix the housing market, tenants all over the world need to learn the tactics of labor unions. Housing regulators have to learn from agricultural regulators. Americans tenants have to learn from Canadians. These aren't 1,000 different fights – they're one big fight, and the coalition for dismantling corporate power is vast and powerful.

The most powerful weapons our bosses have is convincing us that we are weak and they are strong – so strong that we shouldn't even try to fight them. But solidarity is absurdly powerful, which is why they go to such great lengths to discredit it. In Sweden, the solidarity strikes against Tesla – who refuses to recognize its maintenance workers' union – have spread to nine unions.

Tesla can't get its cars offloaded at the ports. It can't get its showrooms cleaned. No one will deliver its mail. No one will fix its chargers. The strike is spreading to Germany, and workers at its giant Berlin factory is set to walk out:

https://www.metafilter.com/201514/Swedish-Tesla-workers-go-on-strike

There's something delicious about how palpably frustrated Elon Musk is by all this, as he realizes that neither his billions nor his bully pulpit are a match for workers in solidarity:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-23/elon-musk-calls-swedish-tesla-strikes-insane-as-impact-spreads

It's a reminder of just how fragile and weak billionaires are, when we stop believing in them and deferring to them. Rebecca Solnit's latest Guardian column adds up the ways that allowing billionaires to run the show puts us all in danger:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/20/billionaires-great-carbon-divide-planet-climate-crisis

They are the unelected "autocrats of trade" who control "the production, transportation, and sale of the necessaries of life." They are the force that this new ecology movement is coalescing to fight: across borders, across sectors, across identities. No matter whether you are a worker, a tenant, a voter, a shopper or a citizen, your enemy is the billionaire class.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/24/coalescence/#solidarnosc

[i-am-grell]

Anime Poll - What Do I Watch Next?

I hope to finish Mob Psycho 100 today, so let's get a poll going for tomorrow's watch. If you're new to these I wanna watch a lot of anime, but I suck at finishing series, starting series, and making choices, so I leave it to Tumblr.

Since I'm leaving to go camping on Friday for two weeks, I will be prioritizing shorter series that I can get through in a day or two. All the choices this time are pretty short so I may be able to sneak another poll tomorrow, but we'll see.

As always, propaganda* (*my context-providing thoughts/ramblings) below the poll. You're absolutely allowed to reblog and bully your followers into voting for your choice - other peoples' followers: you don't have to know me, follow me, like me, or even like anime to press a button; go nuts.

Propaganda:

Horimiya: The Missing Pieces - Alt Miyamura with the hair and the jewelry was hotter, but he's a sweetie so he gets a pass. Anyway, this is for The Missing Pieces portion of the anime.

Ace Attorney - Finish up season 2. I was stopped somewhere in Recipe for a Turnabout by hearing J Michael Tatum's aph France voice. Can't jumpscare the Hetalia fans with that, my man...

Tribe Nine - Chronically last place, but I get it. It's no longer 2020. Among Us streamers aren't hip with the youth anymore.

SK8 the Infinity - Will the SK8 fandom win their 6th silver medal in a row? At this point probably. Sorry, bitches and bros and nonbinary hoes. I feel like in this poll you'll either lose to gay lawyers or gay assassins, but at least it's still gay. Love y'all.

Buddy Daddies - Rei Suwa is FINE. Hot DAMN. Between just seeing this man's picture and my love for Aizawa, I like 'em dark-haired and homeless-looking with the ability to clean up if needed.

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! - Ngl I saw someone post some clips of literally one episode of the dub on TikTok and it looks both gay and chaotic (the dub. The dub is chaotic). And if there's one thing I love, it's queer shows with ridiculous dialogue.

[asmallorb]

Regarding the 2024 Election: Do not despair.

I left Tumblr for Cara a while back but I'm here again to make myself heard on the matter. This is a post I've been wanting to make to my US friends for a while, and certain events have spurred things forward. Do not despair. Always remember the future is unwritten. No matter what your friends or family say, no matter how much media pressures you that things are a certain way, no matter what polls say - your vote is not and never will be pointless. Both here in the UK and France there was a lot of uncertainty around whether the conservative parties would take the vote. But voter turn out proved them wrong. In an example closer to home for you; Oklahoma County came very close to flipping in 2020 as Biden and was only 3,326 votes shy. So yes, even if you are in a state where the rural mentality is dominant, that still shouldn't discourage you from making your own voice heard. Can you imagine if everyone who didn't bother to vote turned up and made the difference? Your vote matters. Period. So please, if you haven't registered to vote in the upcoming elections. Do so. ANYONE who says that your vote doesn't matter in the state that you're in, or discourages you from voting for whatever reason - doesn't want you to vote. If you feel like your vote doesn't matter, vote anyway. If you expect protesters to be around polls ready to intimidate you, go with friends, family or vote over post. In the US record numbers of younger voters have already signed up to vote, go be one of them.

I would also strongly advise adding some palate cleansers to your news feed. Because here's a hard truth that few are willing to accept - there is good in this world. There are good people doing amazing things and making real tangible progress that you are benefitting from right now and don't even know about. People think that negativity = being realistic and that gives them a free pass to not participate in making a better future, when in fact the opposite is true. While I myself am a firm believer of preparing for the worst, it's important to have room in your mind for hoping for the best as well. Because if you just roll over and accept the worst outcome, guess what, it will happen because you let it happen. I highly recommend Fix the News. https://fixthenews.com/ and the blog @reasonsforhope.

One last thing:

Don't let perfect be the enemy of done.

Yes, the democrats are not perfect. And should be called out by the people they're supposed to serve when they fail.

But struggling over if they're the perfect candidate is not going to help in this situation.

Vote, donate, talk to friends and family.

And most of all: do not let yourself regret not participating when you had the chance.

[crazyintheeast]

As someone who has studied politics on an university level and has a bit more indepth knowledge there is something you need to understand. Israel just like USA, France, Russia, Britain and any other colonial power has always had a foreign policy of pure evil and mass murder. The reason why Israel escalated beyond passive massacres is simple. Trump. Why Trump? Because Trump is the FIRST US PRESIDENT to submit to Israel's demands and recognize Jersalem as Israel's capital. This was something huge, no US president in history has ever been his servile to Israel. It gave them the green flag to do whatever they wanted So why did they start their active genocide under Biden ? Simple. They needed an excuse and that came under the form of October 7. And no it's a conspiracy to acknwoledge that they obviously let it happen. Not when Israel has one of the best intelligence networks in the world and the terrorist act was so wide spread. And yes this is further confirmed by reliable reports even in otherwhise extremly pro Israel media that they knew

So what does this mean? Israel will not end it's genocide until the election because they are deeply invested in getting Trump back to power and undermining Biden. So nothing he will do will make Israel stop. It doesn't matter if he stops the arms shipment Israel will continue. Eve if he tries to put sanctions on them which will never ever happen because it goes against USA's benefits Israel will continue because they hope for Trump and know that even if they lose short term USA will still support them long term. After all don't forget that Israel blew up an USA warship killing hudnreds of US soldiers and it only got a slap on the wrists So what can we expect? Israel HEAVILY relies on emotional liberals who will refuse to vote or throw away their votes on a third party and they will do anything to make this happen. So the closer we are to elections the more massacres they will commit. And the worst will probably come in the week of the elections where they will most likely targets children and women to give you enoug trauma to keep you from voting. Does this mean you shouldn't crticize Biden or push for a pro Palestine policy. No it just means that if you fall for the propaganda and don't vote it will get much much worse Because right now if Trump wins do you know what will happen? With his blessing not only will Israel continue the genocide but they will start MASSIVE colonisation. We are talking hundreds of thousands of settler being sent to steal as much land as possible in the next four years If Kamala wins....well most likely there will be some shadow talks. USA won't go publicly against Israel but in private Kamala will make it clear that this won't go on. What hostages survived Israel's bombimngs will be returned and in turn Israel will declare that they won and retreat. It won't be justice , it won't be nearly enough but at least Israel will be killing dozens of Palestianians per year instead of tens of thousands So yeah I know it's deprssing but tha's how it is. So you have to chose. Will you follow Israel's plan and throw your vote away leading to eve greater suffering udner Trump or wll you vote for Kamala and try to minimise the suffering as much as possible

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2024: #24

24. DENMARK Saba - "Sand" 30th place

Decade Ranking: 87/153 [Above Fyr og Flamme, below Luke Black]

SAND! SAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!!!

You know the drill. We've arrived at the stage of "mostly enjoyable", and there's no better opener to that than "Sand". It's so delightfully average. Nothing but the recognisable sound of a "Scandinavian Eurovision song", something we all know and like to hear.

And its comes with a multipurpose hook too. Allow me to demonstrate:

FRANCE!!! FRAAAAAAAAAANCE!!!!

SCREAMING AT A MICROPHONE STAAAAAND

FRANCE!!! FRAAAAAAAAANCE!!!

I GUESS THAT ALL THE JURIES VOTE FOR FRANCE 😶

Of course "Sand" sounds like it comes out of a can (SPAM!!! SPAAAM!! BARELY MEAT THAT COMES OUT OF A CAN!), because it was one of those scandiblandi pop nothings that were bounced around internal selections for several years. (I hope you like those because I'm expecting 2025 to be infested with them) Remember how "Colours" was peddled first to Michela and then to Destiny to no avail, so that frumpy bat Bernarda was forced to sing it herself in the following Dora? ("NOW ALL I SEE IS COLOURS, YOU TOOK ME FROM BLACK AND WHITE" :is blind: ).

Likewise, the songwriters of "Sand" first tried to sell it to Emma Muscat when she tried to pivot away from "Out of Sight" before she chose "I am what I am" (MAN!!! MAAAAAN!!! I WILL TAKE ONE CUZ THAT'S HOW I AM!). Yep, an Emma Muscat hand-me-down, that's the level of Denmark at Eurovision right now. HOORAY for everyone who is not a Dane!!

So in that sense, it was the perfect match for DMGP, which was the usual depressing affair. So bad people were gravitating towards Basim cheerfully singing about a man dying from cirrhosis, an entry that demonstrated a near Israeli level of unselfawareness and moral corruption. But he lost (ANTS!!! AAAAAANTS! HIS HOPE HAS BEEN CRUSHED LIKE SOME ANTS! :victory dance: ) to Saba, and all was perfectly average in the world.

At Eurovision, I always assumed Saba would be in contention for a spot in the finale simply because of how catchy the hook and melody were. Unfortunately, Servephobia is a Scandinavian illness and both Melanie Webhe and Saba are patients.

Not that Saba didn't attempt to serve.... but um... judge for yourself:

work those armpit fetishists, girl! IMBUE them with the power of irate sexfaces! Like idk, it's "serving" in the same sense of "the headcanon slaying" you and I would do in our bedroom acting out these songs like the useless homos- Zorra stans that we all are. It looks great in your imagination but in reality, :eek: . Kind of how this year's Belgian entrant thought he nailed the performance each time yet never rose above a level of:

Also the staging, um... Look I know the song is called "Sand" and that she sings it's slipping through her hands, but everyone knows it's a metaphor? "Oh we've broken up? I guess that sucks :shrug:" Like the zoomer thing where life sucks I guess but it's not a big deal cuz we'll all die (eventually.)

So why make it so... (g)lit(t)eral?

Literally shooting cgi sand from her armpit in the last shot <3 told you this was aimed at fetishits <3 (PITS!!! PIIIITS!!! the hottest gay thing that ain't bara tids!).

What really killed Saba's chances at Eurovision was the staging. Sure the faces and subpar vocals were already... not helping. (they were entertaining me though, I'll give her that). Still. Denmark have proven once again that they have no ability whatsoever to discriminate good ideas from bad ones. They added so much shit to the NF's performance that made it look worse ♥ and fixed NONE of the issues ♥ The song's uptempo, and restricting Saba's movement to a space smaller than most countries' postal stamps may not have been the most prudent choice here (maybe i should add small platforms to the list of Massive Staging Faux Pas alongside sunglasses, unnecessary headset mics, selfie backdrops and turntables?)

Oh and one of those faux pas was ofc also present like why is this a shot?

YOU CAN SO CLEARLY SEE it isn't her. 😂 😍

Before rehearsals I was on the fence whether Denmark could qualify or not but as soon as I saw the tiktok that showed the backdrop clone and the effects I knew she was gonna be out. Oh well. Time to hop on the MALTA QUALIFIES train I gues.

All in all, "Sand" pretty much what you would expect from Denmark. An average, not unpleasant (and memeable) song that was somehow the only acceptable option in an horrible NF. They tried VERY hard to elevate into goodness, and completely failed. ♥ I love "Sand"'s journey ironically and kind unironically enjoy it for its incompetence, which makes it a good opener for this year's Green tier.

Btw: with Georgia, ☘Ireland☘ and ❤Latvia❤ all reaching the finals this year (EGGS! EEEEEEEGGS!!! DONS'S CLUTCH QUAL IS BETTER THAAAAN SEX!), Denmark now have the longest NQ streak out of all the active ESC countries. Cannae wait to see what creative new way they'll figure out to accedentally get level with Montenegro's as well. ♥

THE RANKING

[imaginespazzi]

Hello there Im back bestie!

Ok, first and foremost (I'll be brief, dont want to make anyone dwell) just wanna send some love and support to you & the lovely anons here following the election. Take some time to process, grieve. And then we move to action - I'm not giving up, and neither should you! And no vote result can stop us from trying to do good around us. Take care of yourselves please. 🫶

Boy oh boy was my timing impossibly bad returning to the country last night. Presidential election and time change combo was wicked crushing! But I did have a wonderful trip. Paris really really is great. Can only recommend. Only downside was this was my first trip abroad where I really didnt know much of the language, and I wouldve liked to be able to converse/understand just a bit more. I did in my travels haze tell the US customs personnel "bon soir" last night 😅. When it comes to food, the French absolutely rock sauces & butter, and I just want to eat their bread products forever.

Have to agree, in terms of basketball, all the hires so far seem like good ones. Of course Im just simply not one to form an opinion before theres anything to go off of, time will really tell. Mystics please knock it out of the park if youre bothering with change btw!! Lottery is coming up so fast I cant. Like more anxiety is needed at this time 😣

Im thrilled college games have started up because Im was missing hoops following the end of the W season! Curious - what are your big thoughts/takeaways from the initial games youve seen (if any apart from UConn)? Mine essentially boils down to reserving judgement, boring as that sounds. But I believe its hard to really know much from the first few competitions. Especially w teams that have some injuries or a lot of youth/new people.

Lol, my thanks to you for bringing up the Poa & Smith tidbit! Think I'd forgotten about seeing that between writing you.. And yikes, while I did in some way ask for this, can we have some drama that isnt cheating (like dont do that to someone, just end the relationship), awful political beliefs, or actual criminal stuff? On a lighter WBB note have you been seeing stuff about suspected pairing of Miles and Westbeld? Im getting nice vibes there, cute if so. And honestly, if thats a thing, I hope their genuine happiness together is flaunted directly in front of HH on the daily :). Also P really continues to go a bit crazy in Ms. Fudds comments. Ma'am 😳. But hey neither you or that bookclub anon are ever allowed to jump off a cliff! Lol

-☕️

Hi bestie <3

Thank you lovie we need all the love we can share in this moment. I've gone from being perpetually sad about it to having flashes of moments where I remember and it just makes me sad that this is what half the country wanted.

I'm so glad you had a good trip, wish you hadn't come back to hell on earth but I'm glad you had a good time before you did. Paris is lovely and I know it gets mixed reviews but I loved it when I visited which perhaps was partly because it was one of my dream cities growing up and that nostalgia played role for sure. And fun fact, I speak almost fluent French so I could've helped lmfao but I don't remember if you specifically mentioned France. YES FRENCH BREAD IS SO GOOD. The things I'd do for a good baguette.

I'm with you babes. Like I said, idk if you saw it, but as a rule of thumb I generally don't have much of an opinion until good teams start to play each other because blowing out a team you're supposed to blow out just isn't that impressive to me. I think in general everyone just looks beatable and is trying to find team chemistry but I'll definitely have more thoughts as the season continues.

LMAO hard agree. Like the drama is great but I would love for something more petty instead of the stuff we're getting. Lowkey why the W is so fun off-the-court. And yes hope Miles and Westbeld are making that girl pray to the lord every day for having to witness their potential bliss.

Paige is in her menace era and hopefully that translates to tomorrow and we get a menace post for Azzi's birthday!

[divorcedwife]

hi you mentionned in one of your post that the coup of the 18th of brumaire (you actually reminded me it was today too!!) was cool but the coup that made napoleon get ruling of france was badly made (in shortened terms i don't actually know if you would qualify them as 'cool' or 'bad' but i hope you get what i mean) what is the second coup you're talking about?? i only have very basic knowledge over napoleon and thought the coup d'état of the 18th brumaire was what made him get ruling of france?

oh i can elaborate yes!! pre-emptive warning that i am not a historian or really qualified, but these are the events as i understand them :-)

so there is just indeed one coup yes! the 18 of brumaire is what made Napoléon first consul and pretty much sole ruler. i might have worded it confusingly in that last post. i've always heard of Napoléon as this great genius in every single way, and i must admit after learning about the events of his career that lots of them were good moves and well played. so i was excited to get to the coup, not only because the government at the time (the directory) was awful, extremely corrupt and torn by infighting between directors, but because Napoléon had shown abilities to deceive and convince and i was hyped to see which genius tricks he might have used on that day

but it wasn't really like that

first of all, he wasn't the initiator of the coup ; his own brothers were in it before him, and warned their co-conspirators not to get him involved, because he was too ambitious and would spin it to his own advantage. but the conspirators needed a general for the coup to succeed, and after their favorite candidate died suddenly, they had no choice but to ask him. he indeed immediatly saw that he held for the cards, and demanded to be named first consul once the coup was over. so, for starters, not his plan

but then, he also almost caused the coup to fail due to his actions! the idea was to convince the legislators that there was a leftist coup happening, and for the safety of the country, general Napoléon Bonaparte was to be given emergency powers. this is where things did not go as planned, because the deputies and senators found this suspicious and would not vote this. Napoléon was waiting impatiently outside the palace, and decided to just barge into the deputies room with a bunch of soldiers. you might recognize this move as generally frowned upon, and the deputies were indeed unhappy

they were even more unhappy when Napoléon fumbled his way through a really bad speech meant to convince them that there was definitely a leftist coup just, you know, over there! it was not convincing, and he also made open threats to them if they did not comply. this ended with the events you see on the painting i reblogged ; they got angry and started getting closer, one of them punched him and he had to be carried out by his soldiers

in the end, the coup only succeeded because of Napoléon's brother Lucien, who called out to his soldiers to protect their leader and the Republic, and gave a great speech that was almost ruined by Napoléon once again saying nonsense that really gave away that the threat was fake and that the goal was for him to get power

so that's what amazed me about this! i was expecting a genius move, but instead, he was asked to join a coup other people had planned, played his cards all wrong, and had to be bailed out by his little brother. and that's how he became ruler of France. it reminds me of when earlier in his career, he got his military advancement through political friendships with the radical Jacobin government and not really his merit - it turned out great because he was really good as a military commander, but he earned it through social networking. similarly, he was extremely competent as a ruler of France, but he got there in an incredible fail moment

and by the way, Napoléon then told a completely different story that you see in art sometimes ; that he walked into the deputies room alone, and they had KNIVES and tried to kill him. oh the poor soul! maybe they should have

[2amtoosoon]

At this point , maybe we need to start really, really fucking small on this and work our way up. Like picking up big pieces of trash on your walk home from wherever and throwing it in a trash can. 2 hour old newborn steps.

To everyone that voted, no matter who you voted for, thank you for at least doing your civic duty and not wasting your voice.

To people who sat out. Do better. Your not 5 anymore, the silent treatment is not cute. You may not fuck with politics, but politics will fuck you regardless.

Everything after this is late night stream of consciousness. Might work on it later

The path for perfect is a beautiful, never ending illusion. A fantasy. It is 2024 and we are 8+ billion people strong. Getting that many people, let alone 330+ million people, to conceive, formulate, present and agree on the most basic shit is not possible let alone perfection. And we need to stop with the revolution fantasies. Because America, we are not France. We are not ready to hold the true people in power to task. We havent been that girl in 249 years. We are too comfortable and distracted. So instead we fight and divide ourselves. Single issues, whataboutisms, semantics and straight up lies.

So. Baby steps.

Dems. I know we hate standing still. But sometimes it is necessary because backsliding is never good. Moral righteous will keep your hands clean of blood, but the river will be red all the same. The goal should be to curtail as much bloodflow as possible in whatever quantity is POSSIBLE until it stops. Its okay to sit and work in small increments. I know this seems callous because I am indirectly mentioning Gaza and Palestine. People are dying. No one should have to sit and wait to be saved if they dont have to. And yet it persists, everywhere. Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, etc. Not even total annihilation of both sides will stop it because whoever survives will fight over whats left. We have to work together and try to achieve whats feasible when and where we can. And that means standing still sometimes until the right tools come along.

Donald Trump isnt going to executive order thousands of people into prisons for jaywalking on day 1. But he and his party will slow walk ideas into policies that cause irreparable harm in ways that aren't physical but will be far reaching (The Dept of Education plans). If not in this term, then set up for the next.

TLDR: Keep hope, stay strong. Maybe the robot overlords can take over and implant behavior regulating chips to keep us in line one day.

[mademoiselle-cookie]

The French again

Part of me hopes we get new french cc, or that the french will get special lore or something like that.

But I know that QSMP just forget us. Again.

I will not list all the time the french community was forgotten, but I still haven't digested the video of the presidential elections. How can you forget your newest addition when they all speak English? How were they able to select only clips without French?

The first QSMP meeting was in France. The last QSMP meeting was in France. The French were the second biggest community to vote during the elections.

It was so easy to add France. Just put it next to Brasil.

That what they did to UK and Mexico.

Or replace UK by France. There's a lot more French cc than UK!Englis no? Bc apparently, it's not a problem to have only one country representing a language (*cough*Spain*cough*)

There was probably more than one person in the process of creating, reviewing, and posting on Twitter. And no one notices anything?

It's a internation multicultural server, there's an urgent need to respect other country

[cant-get-no-worse]

I like that some sensed people are still able to recognize that whether Erling Haaland or Leo Messi take the award home, it's valid. Changes from all the others ~ wave hand in a general direction ~ people. Not even to mention how past and current football figures agree on it too. Soothes my mind.

Honestly I'm just tired of talking about it, since 1) it's silly 2) it's settled 3) it's simple. Let's make it plain.

"Why not just put the goals?"

There are awards for the best goalscorer. This isn't one of them.

Brief comparison

Haaland had a maddening records breaking season, won the treble, but didn't show up for the semi and finals of those. Messi did an average club season (equal to, if I remember correctly, the "excellent" season of Antoine Griezmann so, there's that.) and an all-time World Cup campaign. It's a WC year; it has since after 2010 (year of change of criterias + voting participants) weighted on the BO's results.

The reason it's a close call this year is cause of the treble (huge weight) balanced by the ghosting of Haaland during those crucial points vs WC all time balanced by the average club season of Messi. Haaland being a 9 means that when he's not there, he doesn't do anything for the team. Stems from his position. Whereas if Messi doesn't score, he still has his passing and playmaking which, picture me surprised, actually make him having more impact as a player for his team.

Look at the pic. Make the needed mental gymnastics. To get to the conclusion that one of them is robbing the other is mental. Both are deserving.

WC's weight

It's ultimately this and the WC's weight (and I sure ain't about to get into an argument comparing the treble, insane achievement that can be achieved every year, to the WC, insane achievement that can be achieved once every four, and being the MOTT of said tournament) that makes it tip towards Messi, even though I expect the votes to be close. The WC has been held over Messi's head for more than a decade. Everyone knew that if he put a consistent season and a good WC campaign, he'd been a strong contender. He had a consistent season and had an all-time, MOTT WC campaign. Point's made.

Criteria : Vital role

Another point: the "vital role in the team and honours" criteria. Haaland makes this City team dominate, not a shadow of doubt. But Kevin de Bruyne is the one that's vital to it. Take away KDB and Haaland isn't there (once again: stems from his position. He's a 9.)

Due to his national team not being in the WC (which once again : he's indeed from Norway, a NT which hasn't much WC history. But, in 2018, Messi single handedly drew Argentina to the WC. Haaland wasn't capable of this.), he couldn't prove himself to be crucial there either. So, Haaland is important but not vital to this City team, whereas Messi was important in PSG (a-fucking-gain, 40 G/A, this isn't an argument) and vital for his NT. There you go, one criteria more.

Sweet sweet "robberies"

When you got R9, Wenger, Henry, some France NT (Griezmann and others, can't recall), Hazard, Silva and co - current/former players who played and know the weight of the WC - saying Messi deserves it; the club coach of Haaland saying they'd both deserve it ; and you arrive to the conclusion that Messi is robbing Haaland (or, for that matter, that Haaland would be robbing Messi), then the true reason of your positionning can't be clearer.

And finally,

Those are what you call robberies. Can't be one when both deserve it. Haaland will be just fine and will have plenty of WC-free seasons to destroy every records available and show up at crucial points. Chill. I'm done talking about this, people are to stuck to their own opinions to be changed atp.

This is a fun night, I'm so ready to make fun of everyone's fit and awkward talk. It ain't that deep. Hope everyone, whether for Haaland, Messi or bloody Musiala has fun!

[theroyalthrones]

Behind the Scenes | The Soiree |Capri, Orillia

beginning | previous | next

Translation:

Mi Amada. (My Beloved)

Mi amor, te invitaré a algo especial esta noche. (My love, I'll treat you to something special tonight.)

~Transcript~

FRANCESCA ORTEGA We're late, Lea. LEANDRA ORTEGA I thought you said this wasn't important. Clearly there's someone you want to impress. FRANCESCA ORTEGA I just- Don't want to make a bad impression. Let's go. LEANDRA ORTEGA Damn, this place is nice. FRANCESCA ORTEGA You should see the palace it- Doorbell rings Shh! *Laughter from inside. LORRAINE DE'CREMONESI *Laughing* Nona, I'll kill you for saying that. LORRAINE DE'CREMONESI Oh! Hello… And you are? FRANCESCA ORTEGA Franc- LORRAINE DE'CREMONESI Francesca! Come in, Luc has told me so much about you! FRANCESCA ORTEGA Hope it was good things. LORRAINE DE'CREMONESI No, not all good things. FRANCESCA ORTEGA … LEANDRA ORTEGA Whispering What'd you do? FRANCESCA ORTEGA SHHH!! Setting change, in living room with group of people. LORRAINE DE'CREMONESI Everyone, meet the Ortega sisters! Francesca and … FRANCESCA ORTEGA Leandra. LORRAINE DE'CREMONESI Leandra Ortega! Show them we don't bite, yes?

WINONA DE'ASTURIAS Our honeymoon ended in Manceras. You can't imagine how beautiful it was, Right Bas? BASTIEN DE'LABANDEIRA Not as beautiful as you, Mi Amada. (My Beloved) WINONA DE'ASTURIAS Mi amor, te invitaré a algo especial esta noche. (My love, I'll treat you to something special tonight.) LORRAINE DE'CREMONESI Ugh, Get a room Nona! A SAD LOOK ON KAIS FACE WINONA DE'ASTURIAS Don't be sad, Lala. You'll fall in love soon. LILLIAN BRASWELL Love is overrated. VANYA BLANCHARD Your just jealous, Lorraine. Being married is a gift. Right, Maxon? MAXON GATTILUSIO Don't bring me into this, Vanya. LORRAINE DE'CREMONESI I'm not drunk enough to listen to this yet.

KAINALU ALANA I vote we change the subject. LORRAINE DE'CREMONESI Thank you, someone agrees with me. WINONA DE'ASTURIAS Kai always agrees with you. LORRAINE DE'CREMONESI Nona… I have a… Guest. GUESTS NAME No- it's alright, Rainie. LILLIAN BRASWELL Rainie? GUESTS NAME I'm just interesting in getting to know your friends. LORRAINE DE'CREMONESI Thank you, babe. KAI WATCHING SAYING NOTHING FRANCESCA ORTEGA I'm going to go freshen up a bit. LEANDRA ORTEGA Okay, sure. I'm eating this drama up. FRANCESCA ORTEGA Yeah, you enjoy this. SHE WALKS OUTSIDE AND LOW AND BEHOLD LUCIAN IS OUTSIDE. FRANCESCA ORTEGA Oh- sorry I didn't think- Lucian? LUCIAN DE'CREMONESI Oh Francesca, what you doing here? FRANCESCA ORTEGA Your kidding? You invited me, I can't believe y- LUCIAN DE'CREMONESI Laughing I'm joking, relax. I didn't think you'd come and I was scared that you would. FRANCESCA ORTEGA … W-why? LUCIAN DE'CREMONESI We're really not going to talk about it? FRANCESCA ORTEGA Talk about what, I can't read your mind. LUCIAN DE'CREMONESI You used to be able to. FRANCESCA ORTEGA Luc- I'm leaving. LUCIAN DE'CREMONESI No wait, Cici… Come sit and join me. FRANCESCA ORTEGA Okay.

[leonsliga]

Heya Bri, I was wondering what your best gifs/pictures of Leon are to stomach his (hopefully short) dfb lay-off? I’m extremely lucky to be able to go to the Germany-France match but still feel incredibly sad that Leon won’t be there and need some happy Leon content to cope

Heya :) hmm…happy Leon, you say? Your wish is my command!! I think we all could use a little happy Leon in our lives lately, so hopefully these help soften the blow of that DFB layoff 💜 this is gonna be a long post, so I’ll include my gifs below the cut:

And here’s one last addition to my Leon care package: some very smile-heavy gifsets 💌

Cuddling Pep Guardiola

Wedding vows to Bayern

You’re at your best when you’re having fun (goofy!Leon gif compilation)

Meeting Nina Chuba

Bearded Leon appreciation

Laughing at Thomas’s shenanigans

Giggling with Max Meyer

First Bayern Oktoberfest

Goofing off with Serge

Getting silly in Telecom ads

Facing the press

MEISTER SAMMA

The votes are in: Leon has the biggest upper arms in the squad

Discussing his midfield partner Jo while glowing uncontrollably like a schoolgirl with a crush

Das ist mein Pokerface

Locker room shenanigans with Jo, Thomas, and Manu

Baby Schalke Leon

Imparting wisdom on the next generation

😊 personified

Hearing Jo’s voice

A true model

An arteest 👨🏼‍🎨

Heart eyes for Jo during wer kennt mehr

Hopefully these lift your spirits, even if it’s just a little bit 💜💜💜 that’s so cool you’ll be attending the Germany-France match!! I know Leon’s absence absolutely sucks and I’m sure you’ll miss him, but I hope you have an amazing time regardless!! Say hi to Die Mannschaft for us, ok?

[theretirementstory]

23/06/2024. Sharing memories from 2022 when a visit to Paris meant seeing the sights, even if from a distance. Not like to visits to Paris now which entail seeing the inside of a hospital building!

I arrived in Paris on Monday supposedly for three days, but I suppose by now you know how it goes, anything that can go wrong will go wrong! It’s all about my blood count, namely the platelets which even with meds, daily transfusions etc will not rise above an 8. A healthy person has a low platelet count if it falls below 150 so you see the problem. Treatment is due tomorrow so I only hope that that will trigger a positive response.

I was a bit grumpy when they said I had to stay in hospital, I hadn’t brought much in the food line with me, can you believe the doctor, yes THE DOCTOR went shopping for crisps and Mars Bars for me! My white blood cell count increased and I was allowed to go to the cafeteria to take a coffee, on my own! It was good to be allowed out of my room, I did some crosswords and then came back. It was short lived though as the count fell the following day 🤔.

My “boy scouting skills” let me down this time as I only brought two books with me and am now having to limit the number of chapters I read a day 😩. Plus my electoral papers are 3.5 hours away so I doubt I will be able to cast my vote. What a flaming “to do”.

It’s the Euros football competition and my two teams, England and France are making hard work of it. Am I surprised? Not really, too many matches may be tiring out these footballers who are placed on pedestals only to be “kicked off” when they fail to achieve all that they have been bolstered up to do.

The Tour de France starts on the 29 June, another opportunity for “athlete bashing” when our hopefuls fail to achieve.

It’s the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend and another sport where more and more dates are added all to make someone a lot of money. This used to be the sport I followed in the days of Damon Hill, Mika Hakkinen etc etc. It was a time when the drivers actually drove the cars, I haven’t watched it for 7 years now but feel like it’s not the same. Ok I know things have to change but surely for the better. (This is my opinion only).

Just in case you had forgotten we have had the longest day and summer has officially arrived (somewhere).

Last night “The Photographer” and “The Jetsetter” went to the Coop Live in Manchester to see “The Killers” and “Travis”. Still waiting to hear how it went.

“The Photographer” started his new job this week, it looks as if it was a good week. He was invited to the “Summer Bash” in London this coming Friday, sounds like fun. As well as starting the new job, it’s a new place to live and he wants to make friends so managed to find a group where he could have a game of football, to fill in one evening. All positive stuff.

“The Reconnect Navigator” was out on an organised Ghost Hunt last night. It wasn’t “The Trainee Solicitors” thing so no idea what he was doing, probably lost in a book! It’s been another busy time for him this week going between Uni and work. Another two weeks of this course and it will be over and he can settle back into his job.

I am pleased that my family are doing so well, it’s good to be able to do things independently as it gives you more to talk about with your partner. Well I guess that’s how it works 😉.

So many friends, French, English and American have been in touch with me, trying to find out how I am. It’s great to have all these people rooting for me.

Anie seems to have been having a good holiday, she was in the Loire the other day, presumably heading home.

Friday night, all over France, was the fête de la musique. The centre of Bar-sur-Aube was taken over with musical activities, jazz, rock, choirs, duo’s or single singers. It looked to be buzzing! That’s what I like about France always some sort of fete to get you out and about.

Not sure if either of these songs were sung but here are my picks for this week.

The first is by No Doubt, it’s “Don’t Speak” from 1996.

The second is by The Verve, it’s Bitter Sweet Symphony from 1997.

Such choices for me this Sunday morning: a crossword perhaps, or a snooze or maybe I can read my 15 chapters of the book, decisions, decisions!

Whatever you are doing today, I hope the sun shines on you.

Have a good week until next week.

[poppysmc]

You bet - Chapter 3: Just Catch Me (Rewrite)

As the days passed, the push and pull between Poppy and Morgan continued, with Poppy persistently trying to ask Morgan out, and Morgan dodging her every attempt. Poppy didn't give up easily though, and she kept making attempts to win Morgan over.

One day, Poppy presented her with a rose and she smiled in a non-threatening way, or at least she thought so. Without breaking eye contact, Morgan dropped the rose into the trash and walked away, leaving Poppy gaping. (Morgan had been so sick of seeing roses; it had been a week, and she still found rose petals in her room. Her room had started to smell like a funeral home.)

On another occasion, Poppy bought Morgan some imported pastries, ones that she had shipped straight from France, hoping to impress Morgan with the gesture. But once again, Morgan's response left her frustrated. She gave the pastries away without even tasting them, asking if anyone else wanted a piece. Poppy started to question her approach.

—-----

"Time was running out, Pops, and we were already in Plan K." Veronica tried to rile her up, amused by her disastrous plans. What did you guys think? What strategy did you want our Queen to try next? Click the link to vote! Veronica's live stream and teasing about Poppy's numerous failed attempts at winning Morgan's heart only added to Poppy's frustration.

She grabbed Veronica’s phone and tried to turn it off, trying to regain some control over the situation, but Veronica easily took it from her. "You're not that tall, you know?" Veronica teased, holding the phone out of Poppy's reach.

"She was playing hard to get. I thought it was cute before, but now it was just annoying." Poppy bit her lower lip. Morgan was really frustrating.

Chloe tried to offer some advice. "Maybe tone down the cockiness when you're asking her out. Girls don't like that. If I were Morgan, I, for sure, would be terrified."

Poppy defended herself, insisting, "I'm not cocky!"

"Whoa, chill. We're just trying to help you out." Chloe responded.

"Okay, fine. Let's just go with my plan, okay? Plan K will make me proud." Poppy said, hoping that this time it would be different.

"Well, the 11th time's the charm." Veronica said. Poppy playfully punched her on the arm, but Veronica quickly distanced herself to avoid further retaliation.

"Ow, now I'm beginning to feel sorry for Morgan if this is how you show your appreciation.” she said, trying to lighten the mood.

-----

"Morgan," Poppy called after her. 

Morgan turned, already feeling exasperated. She knew that voice. "Poppy, I swear to God, if this is another one of your bizarre games, I'm gonna lose it."

Poppy could tell that Morgan had had enough of her unpredictable behavior. But this time, Poppy was done and had nothing to lose, so she followed Chloe’s stupid idea.

"Please just listen," Poppy began, her voice filled with genuine emotion. "I- I'm sorry for being too presumptuous. I just really like you, okay? Give me a chance, please." Poppy would have died if Veronica knew, but right now she wasn’t above begging.

To her relief, Morgan didn't pull away or reject her this time. Instead, she let Poppy reach for her hand, signaling a willingness to hear her out.

"Fine, if it doesn't work out, you'll leave me alone?" Morgan asked, her voice weary from the chase.

Poppy didn't hesitate. "Of course, I promise. I won't bother you anymore if you don't want me to."

Morgan seemed to weigh her options for a moment before finally relenting. "Okay, fine." She agreed, her tone softening. Morgan had always found it hard to resist the charm of beautiful girls.

Poppy was surprised and elated by Morgan's response. She hadn't expected her to say yes so easily. "Oh, You will? Was that a yes?" she asked, a smile spreading across her face.

Morgan rolled her eyes but couldn't hide a small smile of her own. "Yes, but don't screw it up," she warned.

"I won't, I promise." Poppy assured her, feeling a sense of relief and excitement. "I'll text you when. Thank you, Morgan."

She couldn't help herself and rose up to her tiptoes, planting a kiss on Morgan's cheek before walking away. As she left, Morgan could feel the warmth on her cheek where Poppy had touched it.

------

“Sooo? Are we moving to Plan L? That one’s my favorite.” Veronica asks her when she sidles up to them after asking Morgan out again.

Poppy smiles triumphantly at Veronica's reaction. "No, I already have a date." she announces proudly. Veronica's eyes widen in disbelief and excitement. 

"No way! You finally did it. I'm so proud, I might even cry. It was getting really painful to watch you fail." Veronica said. 

Chloe joins in, cringing at the memories of Poppy's failed attempts. "Yeah, really painful." 

Ignoring their playful jabs, Poppy admits. "I didn't plan this far. I was too focused on getting her to say yes." 

"That's sad. But you know we'll help." Veronica reassures her, placing her hand on Poppy's shoulder. Chloe nods in agreement. "Absolutely, we'll come up with a perfect plan together." She says.

-----

Poppy looked at her friends incredulously. "Are you freaking serious?" she asked, not convinced by their choice of an amusement park as a date spot.

“The amusement park is a good date spot, says so on Bing,” Chloe replied.

“She’s right, I took a girl there. She was all over me by the end of the day.” Veronica said, her eyes glazing over. Poppy and Chloe rolled their eyes at where her thoughts were heading.

“But the germs and the people,” Poppy shuddered. “Can’t we have dinner at an expensive restaurant or something normal?”

Veronica shook her head. "It's Morgan we're talking about. I bet she's tired of all this pretentious stuff. And because I asked Zoey, the amusement park is high up on the top 3 list."

"What are the other options?" Poppy asked reluctantly, feeling like she was being cornered.

Chloe grinned mischievously. "Okay, you asked for it; the Zoo and fruit picking. I doubt you can handle that much physical activity and proximity to animals."

"That's it? Those are terrible first date options!" Poppy exclaimed, feeling a bit frustrated.

"We told you so," Veronica said with a smirk.

Poppy took a deep breath and conceded defeat. "Fine, amusement park it is. I'll text her now." She said, taking out her phone. As she texted Morgan to confirm the date, she couldn't help but feel a mix of excitement and nervousness. While it may not be the luxurious or fancy date she envisioned, if it would bring her close to Morgan, then she would soldier through the ordeal.

-----

She picked up her phone and sent a text to Morgan, trying to act casual even though her heart was racing.

Poppy: Hey, are you free this Saturday for our date? In case you forgot.

A few minutes later, Morgan responded, and Poppy couldn't help but smile when she saw the message.

Morgan: Yeah, what time?

Poppy took a deep breath before responding, trying to sound confident.

Poppy: Is 9 AM good for you? I'll pick you up. Morgan: That’s weirdly early but, okay.

Poppy locked her phone, feeling nervous, but she'd be damned if she backed out now.