#going through my photos and it's like at least 30% this cat

[reluctanthurricane]

This is Cricket she is a cat

[deepestdelulu]

30 Things To Make Life Unforgettable

Appreciating life is one of the things I´ve learned this year, small things, happy moments... All of them are valuable for who we are as well as who we will become. However, we are not conscious of what we have, all the feellings we are experimenting and the opportunities we are losing for doing other things (such as being on our phones 5+ hours). I hope this list helps you making life a little bit simpler.

Walking in the rain. In my city rains a lot, so I´m not going to propose you going to the beach, since I can´t (obv you can do it), we have to adapt ourselves to what we have, and rain is one of my favourite things, I used to hate it when I was younger tho.

Spend your day in a cozy cafe. Not only can you have a coffee, but you can also read, study and be productive. The bes part is that you are experimenting new things, being productive and having fun with a hot coffe/tea.

Put your phone away. Be present babe, this is all what we have, you want to live your life, don´t you? Then start doing it, of course you are not going to live advemtures everyday, but at least you can try it. :)

Learn new things. It will never be a waste of time knowledge.

Be more passionate and intense. Who cares if you are too much? It only matters what YOU want.

Trying new recipees. I didn´t use to be a big fan of cooking, but I tried it few months ago, and let me tell you, all I do naw are bisquits for people I care.

More museums, more art gallery. I´ve always wanted to give mysterious girl vibes (I´m a yapper but introverted at the same time) you can always try reading in a museum.

"For the plot" mindset. My friends and I sometimes play saying yes to almost everything, just to see hwo things develop. It´s very fun:)

Bucketlisting. In a world of consumerism no one can scape

Trying something new. I started dancing, and I feel so energetic.

Learning to be alone. I do have a post about it :) go check it after this one.

Candle+Sweater=Coziness. Scented candles, my bff in autumn/winter.

Book annotating. It helps focusing, you can go through your notes after it and in my opinion creates more powerful bonds with the story and you.

Old classic books. Culture girls are the hottest.

Cooking your own meals. It's such a simple and sweet act of self-care. You can also try making your own Jam or something.

Doing things that you enjoyed as a child. My favorites are horse riding, swimming, baking, and bubble baths.

Buying flowers for yourself. It doesn't have to be an expensive and fancy bouquet, just some pretty flowers for your room.

Doing your nails. I like red wine ones, makes me feel like a vampire!

Taking more Photos. You can also buy a cool vintage camera (I recommend looking on eBay!) to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

Trying crochet, knitting, or sewing. I'm trying to crochet a sweater for my dog right now, haha.

Planting a plant. I tried to plant an avocado, but it didn´t grow as i expected, although i´ll keep trying it

Making plans with your friends like going on a picnic. You could plan some themed picnics like cottagecore, homemade food from your culture, strawberries, and so on; also a great opportunity to take some pictures!

Do volunteer work. Tried it last year, it was so fun to learn new skills and meeting new people while trying to make world better.

Writing a diary. Writing down things that have happened and looking back at them feels really lovely to me.

Writing letters to your friends. Letters just feel more personal than text; you can also keep them as a memory.

Dressing in a way that makes you feel happy. Wearing outfits that make you feel confident will definitely make life better.

Petting stray cats. I love cats.

Starting to collect something. You could collect something small like jewelry or postcards!

Playing music in the background while doing stuff. I can't stop listening to the lofi girl stream on youtube, haha.

Going on gloomy walks in the Forrest. Name something more comforting. I will wait.

Please feel free to add more suggestions in the comments! <3

✩‧₊*:・love ya ･:*₊‧

[cagesofgold]

eren jaeger headcanons <3

🎵teenage fever - Drake 🎧

His favorite way to unwind is to play with your hair. Due to having longer hair himself he’s grown accustomed to the different skill sets required to craft different hair styles, and actually, is really good at it. His fingers are lithe and nimble and are able to weave through strands with ease.

He drives an all black car with tinted windows, and has a polaroid of you in a photo booth with him on your first date in a plastic case hanging from his rear view mirror.

he also always makes sure to keep your favorite snacks in the car, as he’s a guy who’s bound to text you at 2am asking bout some “you up for a drive?” 💀

in terms of tattoos despite popular belief, i personally think he’d keep it on the minimal side. He’d maybe have some on his arms - or a sleeve, but he likes to keep them tidy. Although, he is one of those guys that would have that tiktok thirst trap spider on his chest or adjacent to his v line…..

this mf smells gooooood, he’s so paranoid about smelling bad because of Jean saying he smelt like a burning pile of bodies in high school and hasn’t been able to shake the fear since.

despite not being overly adorned in tattoos he does like piercings. He’s got about five on his ears and has a nose piercing but he always forgets about it.

loves reality shows. A few months into your relationship he noticed you watching them and acted with his full chest that he had no interest, yet as the weeks rolled by he somehow got closer and closer to the couch and before you knew it he was fully shouting over Lisa Rinna. (You’ve also seen him following over 30 housewives from the different shows on instagram…)

cannot stand metal music because he spent his entire childhood covering his ears from where it bled from under Mikasa’s door. (Otherwise he’d probably enjoy it)

he’d dress quite simply, mainly with blacks and whites and would sometimes mix and match with some red or green, but i don’t think he’s as ambitious as some of his friends fashion wise, but he still looks good as hell.

his favorite holiday is with out a doubt halloween, is some of this because he spent so long as a child building the most elaborate scares for the kids on his street? maybe. but he also likes autumn as a season so that has something to do with it.

doesn’t get along with his dad too well but is a total mamas boy. He visits her at least twice a month considering they live in different cities.

is a cat person, but when he was younger he liked dogs more as according to him they were “much radder” - his own words 💀, but as he got older and became more subdued he developed a preference for cats.

has anxiety that he manages to hide, he wasn’t used to being comforted and it took a while for him to fully open up to you.

despite smoking weed with Jean and connie almost every other day he still makes a dramatic scene any time Zeke lights a cigarette around him, i’m talking coughing and clutching his chest, Zeke’s standing there like this 🧍‍♀️waiting for him to stop his fucking shenanigans.

if you want to go out with Eren Jaeger prepare to be a victim of the sassy man apocalypse, because my god, this man is relentless, and the SIDE EYE on this mf is ridiculous. He could knock down an army with his sass alone.

takes good care of his hair, oils it twice a week and does hair masks in order to keep it soft and shiny. He can’t have his gorgeous girl going out with some guy with brittle, greasy ass hair…

goes to the gym but doesn’t like it very much. he goes most days for at least an hour but never posts gym pics on his instagram or anything, he just has no interest apart from maintaining his body.

cannot sleep without you. he can try, sure, but he’ll never be successful. Before you both decided to move in together he was at your house every night, nuzzled against your body with light breaths slipping from his lips, which sparked the conversation, why not just move in, you’re here everyday anyway?

tends to bottle things up, and if something is bothering him you will have to work it out of him slowly…but he’s trying, for you he’s trying.

his lock screen is a photo of you asleep against his chest, he just thought you looked so peaceful.

gets embarrassingly competitive in just dance, threw a Wii at Connie once because he made him lose a perfect score on timber.

finally, he loves stargazing, especially with you. He’ll take you out to a deserted street, a bag full of snacks and a joint as you both lay on the hood of his car, chatting about whatever comes to mind, and it’s at those moments, when his eyes focus on the slope of your nose and the shape of your mouth, that he feels a warmth inside him he’s never felt before. <3

[parcy-anda-but-with-actual-posts]

Okay, so first time in a long time tackling a monthly challenge, I'll go ahead and make cumulative weekly posts here for Smaugust (2024). Just having fun, not trying to impress anyone, but I also want a convenient place to come back to it. =v=; General Warning: Creativity is not my strong suit, but I've tried not to be too predictable.

Day 1: Fruit — A scorpion pepper dragon. Peppers are fruits, technically, but I tried to mix it up by having this dragon be super chill, or at least lazy. It's content to be left to its naps as it overheats easily in its hot, arid environment, being more active at night, and even then, not too active. XD I can expand on lore for this, but keeping things simple for now.

Day 2: Ash — medieval/monk illustration inspired, apologies

For this one, I took a photo of the ash tree out front, and used its outline to create a cloud-breathing false hydra of sorts. Sad hypothetical story time: in reality, this is a mass of separate serpents all coiled up together and spewing thick vapors to obscure what lies at its center. These are the various children of an immortal great mother serpent, of whom all that remains is her head. They wouldn't leave her behind, and their home has decidedly not been safe since the incident; they carry her with them everywhere, hiding in misty places and masquerading as a large tree.

Day 3: Storm — I defaulted to scenic, because design on the word storm alone, I was really struggling with. Have a storm drake-like thing. ^^' I created pale yellow glows that shone through and lit up surrounding foliage as it stalks and prepares to attack something. I also let the colors that come to mind with dark clouds and stormy nights take this thing over completely. Fun experiment. C'X

Day 4+5: Fossil+Hybrid — this doesn't bode well, having to combine to make up for lost days this early. >v<; Here, though, have the unholy spawn of anatomically-somewhat-accurate Aerodactyl and the proportions and vibe of an Azhdarchid. I adore these pterosaurs on an aesthetic and imaginative level... would just about wet myself in fear if faced with one. Maybe someday I'll come back to prompts like this and actually put some respectable time into posing and rendering, but for now, just quick ideas for fun. :3

Day 6: Mist — WHOOPS, I missed one - adding this one in belatedly, but it was done on time... might have overlooked this because it really was thrown together in a hurry, and highly self-indulgent. Like, more than most of these. ^^' Have a cotton ball mass of dragon that curiously rolls up on little towns at pre-sunrise hours, especially at the base of mountains. It's a lazy and harmless enough creature, but it has a way of scaring little ones sh*tless, just the same. The sun rays coming through don't hurt it, luckily, but it does add to the "be not afraid" vibes. X'D

Day 7: Striped —Along with nostalgic inspiration of a friend's character, I based this one on a Cheshire Cat vibe, spiraling shapes vaguely snuck in. I'm still having much too much fun with the rough wash brush... but that's what I've decided to do this whole month, is have fun. ^^ Hopefully you're having a nice day!

Each week will be a different post, since the 30 image limit leaves us just shy of fitting the challenge into one post. >v<; See Week 2, if you like! (or Week 3, or 4, for that matter!)

[jyndor]

@miraclesabound okay friend you reminded me of something funny. so I took a 6am train to get into DC by like 7:30, so I was there from the jump, and yes it was cold but I dressed appropriately so I didn't really have a hard time with it. and later on, like if anyone has ever been to a big protest you know that when you're in a massive crowd like that you do heat up because you're all close together (and marches are supposed to be close, you're not supposed to let a bunch of space build up between marchers because it's easier for cops for instance to fuck shit up if you get separated, etc) but when you're just standing around for ages your feet will not understand that you are surrounded by other people and will get super cold, which is rude of them 🤬

so anyway when I got to dc I got something quick to eat at a wawa lol and then made my way over to the rally area at around 8:30, where it was basically just organizers starting to trickle in. and yes, it was freezing.

it was also beautiful out, but very chilly and windy. around 10:30-11 or so the sky CHANGED (I cropped this photo bc PEOPLE DONT KNOW HOW TO COVER THEIR FACES)

the wind was rolling. it did clear up after a bit of a sprinkling, which I was like lmao oh god no please not this, rain makes americans want to stay inside but it passed quickly because of the wind thankfully. also I forgot which americans we're talking about - Arab americans show up for palestine no matter what, and of course the crowd was super diverse and full of all people but this is a movement that is driven by Arab americans, Muslim americans, Palestinian americans, Black americans (edit: cannot believe I forgot Jewish americans im dumb) etc. they show up no matter what.

later, in the rally which started at around 12 for six palestinian americans to speak on their families' traumas in the war and then at 1 or so the official rally began, yeah it was windy as hell and it was kind of funny, there were these massive palestinian flags all over the crowd (I experienced two of them - one in the front and later during my phone issues towards the center back - I didn't see the end of the crowd but it stretched over blocks and streets, it was massive for the united states which sadly doesn't get protests like this often) and they had handles for people to hold onto them and pass them around the crowd - kind of like all of us holding onto palestine, at least thats how I took it - but the wind was WINDING and so we were all kind of struggling to keep it from flying away

fucking wind working for genocide joe jk

anyway at protests there are organizers who have supplies and I saw some people with hand warmers, but when we got to the white house hours later i was next to a man who was blowing into his hands bc they were so cold. I had an extra scarf (i had my keffiyeh and then another scarf which is wool and very warm, my keffiyeh is a fake bitch so it is not super warm like a real hirbawi one, i used to have one of those like ten years ago but i lost it in a move i think 😭😭😭) so I lent it to him to wrap his hands.

here's me with my fake bitch keffiyeh and my new cat finn btw

cats say free palestine

but let's be real it was in the high 30s or low 40s, even with the wind it wasn't like... the worst I've experienced. here in Delaware we don't get winters like we used to but last December there was a night that dropped to 8° Fahrenheit or -13° Celsius so I've had worse. but some discomfort is nothing compared to what gaza is going through, and even if the temperatures aren't like that in gaza* it's still cold at night and going through starvation, dehydration, the trauma of war, disease etc is made even worse by dealing with cool nights in a tent.

it was cold but we were all warmer together.

*my cousin's israeli friend literally had the gall to say that it's ridiculous for people to worry about the cold nights in gaza bc it doesn't get that cold like ??? bitch??????

[sketchybusiness4130]

I SAID I HAD MORE AND I MENT IT. if you have no idea what im talking about, go check out my first post :3

basic idea tho is that Ford picked up and adopted a fellow dimension traveler who happens to be a unicorn durning his 30 years on the other side of the portal. Thier name is Linked Hopps, also know as just Link or Hopper

close ups and more lore shall be placed below the cut since i really went off the charts

spiderman meme, Hopper definitely picked up some habits and more from ford. she looks up to him and mimics his style

speaking of style heres a full outfit! fully equipped with a saddle bag full of goodies, a pair of glasses that probably have a shit ton of useful features. (she doesnt actually need them to see after all) straps on her back legs that are full of weapons and useful items. the uh necklace isn't supposed to be a necklace but rather part of a hood with a little clip to the corner bit.

oooo color yay, so a bit of backstory. Link here had a cracked horn. happened when she was about 5 or 6ish?(age isnt really set in stone but it happened before discovering her talent) and it makes doing painful and veryyy difficult. with the help of ford the two mange to make some enchanted rings that focuses her magic and aids the pain of doing so. its not a full fix what so ever but she can at least levitate stuff if needed. if she uses it too much the pain will get unbearable and she may pass-out. in emergencies Link has full on yoinked Ford out of danger. in fact its probably by doing exactly this that the two of them were able to get to through the portal at the same time(i will elaborate more on that with another post later)

now, let's talk about those scars, huh? link here had the joy of landing right into the perfect spot within the fallout universe to wind up suckered into new vegas' old world blues DLC. why? bc i love that series and can do whatever i want. Link's portals tend to lead her to completely random places and worlds. after getting a better handle on how her poition portals work, Link is able to somewhat reliable hop back to previous places shes been to. Oh nearly forgot, the way those special poitions work is a combination of her haywire magic, a mixture of ingredients(major changing factor on where she ends up), and a dash of her own blood.

cute family photo! probably taken after officially adopting Hopper. though i have no idea how officially they could have done it since neither of them have proper ids or their birth certificates. ijdwijwdj maybe they forged it?? yea they forged it XD

cute and silly photo of Ford holding Hopper like i hold my cats from time to time. i messed up on the anatomy for Link's lower half tho so just ignore that 🙃

this i would place as not long after the two first meeting and deciding to travel together. Ford took her on as an "apprentice" and taught her everything he could. Hopper was at max 10 or 11 years old when they discovered/got lost in the multiverse and for Funzies ill place the time of meeting at around 12 or 13. parallels and all that.

anddd lastly a Stand alone Ford pic. mostly did this one as practice but am really happy with how it came out

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Studies: Wordsville's Official Release -- Is It Really an Odd Squad Clone? (Part 2)

Because Tumblr! Photo limits! Why, uh...whose dumb idea was it to put a photo limit in here? Man, that'll take a while to get used to.

Let's go on with Part 2 of my Wordsville analysis.

(Make sure you read through Part 1 first!)

If this were any other show with a reasonable episode length, I'd be fine with this. Covering all this? Essential to a mystery.

In 8 minutes, though? No. They fill out half of the columns in a rush in the first half, and then leave three open for the second half of the runtime. Read my digital lips: N. O. Not if you want your series to be good.

This is a good time to remind people they are putting out 33 episodes of this shit. That is an entire-ass season of messy pacing, rushed plotlines, and characters that I wouldn't know a single thing about if I hadn't unearthed the series' synopsis and character descriptions.

They have.

Their own.

FUCKING.

CURRENCY?!?!?!

Y'know, even Jackalope Dollars make some sense. Canadian money makes some sense. This? This is repainted Monopoly money and you can get the fuck out of my house with that because it's card-only entry.

I do so remember when WordGirl had a bit of a popularity renaissance on Twitter last year or so.

This show...is like the complete and utter opposite of that.

Ahaha...geddit? 'Cause...'cause she's an athlete, and...she's eating a brownie...which is unhealthy...

ARE YOU LAUGHING, SON? ARE YA LAUGHIN'? DO YOU FIND THIS FUNNY OH MY GOD PLEEEEEEEEASE LAUGH.

makes edible food that is meant to net customers said edible food is not for sale

By all accounts, people, these donuts are meant to be edible. So in what fuck-all world of logic would you use edible food as an advertising gimmick for a bakery? That shit will go bad within a week, and then what? You waste supplies remaking them.

Bro, get some cardboard copies. Fuck, in this high-tech universe you could probably 3D-print inedible donuts that spell "scrumptious" and put them on display!

AND THAT.

IS WHY.

YOU MAKE.

THEM.

INEDIB-

"Official Word Mystery business", "official Odd Squad business", it's all the same and you're not being slick.

You could tell me this was Otto's little brother and I honestly wouldn't even argue with you on that. I'd give you $10 and concede.

Man, and I thought Odd Squad's "Why Did the Chicken Cross the Dimension" featured abuse way too heavily for my liking, and here's this kid feeding donuts to a cat which are made out of ingredients cats really shouldn't eat, let alone digest.

Graham didn't make these treats cat-friendly. They were made for humans. And he's giving them to a cat.

As someone who worked at an animal shelter, of course you realize this means war, Gene Vet Wilder.

I'm not gonna lie to all of you.

I was legitimately going to fawn over the cat...until my eyes drifted down, and I thought the cat was wearing a feline airbag.

It's dude's arm.

...No more BIG BONG tonight.

Naming your cat "Yummy" means you have already committed at least ten cat crimes.

It's also ironic, because cats can and will eat your dead corpse.

Give dude 30 years, it'll catch up with him.

No. No. You know what sounds cute? Nyammy.

You know what doesn't sound cute? Yummy.

You know what name isn't crazy ironic? Nyammy.

Problem solved.

I think I can safely say "Crime at Shapely Manor" handled the traditional mystery a lot better than...uh...whatever this was going for.

Not animated + L + ratio'd + tour an animation school and call me back.

See, the reason why this hurts is because this just proves the entire series could be animated, in full and properly, and there would be no issue.

What we got is Sinking Ship's brand of creation applied in one of the worst ways possible, and I'm still as disappointed as when I walked in here.

At the very least, I'll give them points for not having Glory and Wilder and Graham voice themselves. Given how they weren't there when Gabby and Sly were solving the case, it would be too weird.

And this is why you don't make edible food as an advertising gimmick to get people to buy your shit aaaaaaaaand I have a headache again.

But- I- br- HOW DID BRO GET A BOX FOR THE DONUTS. H O W . NOT GONNA EXPLAIN THAT SHIT ARE YOU YA SORRY FU-

It's pretty much standard business knowledge that the advertisement-making comes first, before you serve the customer.

But this guy made his advertising while on the job. You...uh...well, you can do that, but in this particular case, that's what we call "a dumbass move".

FWIW, returning bought food to the bakery you bought it from is also a dumbass move.

I don't care if these haven't been touched. Eat them, and then help Graham make new ones. Inedible ones.

Cool!

TOSS THEM THE FUCK OUT.

Seren puts on a tight smile. "No," she utters. "No. When Odd Squad does it, it's funny. Not here."

Seren then spends 34 years eyeballing the Hollywood music industry aggressively.

In 7 minutes, with rushed pacing, and I have no idea what the hell your personality is even supposed to be.

Sly's, yeah, a little. Yours? I- no. Mm-mm.

...Okay, I don't know what the hell her personality is supposed to be besides loving gingerbread.

Seriously, this is one of the few times the sample script is actually better than what we got.

Oh fucking hell. No wonder I didn't like this episode -- it was written by the same person who created it.

And it's been a while since I've had to whip this out, but I'm going to take the criticism I had about Season 3 writers not watching Odd Squad before getting hired and apply it to here. If Christin had actually watched Odd Squad prior to writing and creating this show, I guaran-goddamn-tee we would have gotten something leagues better. And I know they've written for other SSE shows, but this is focusing on Odd Squad and Wordsville specifically.

Credits rundown to avoid hitting the photo limit:

Mia SwamiNathan plays Gabby. She also voices Zadie in Work It Out Wombats (haha Canadian actor pool, dive in suckers!), and while Zadie is my favorite character, that will not give this show any sort of a saving grace. The actress, yes. The show, hell no.

Matthew Bishop is the animation Executive Producer. He also worked on Odd Squad. Which makes the stuff in this show seem a lot more insulting.

Ah, yes. What I want all my songs for my show to be made by. A company called Daysun. (Hey, FWIW, I've seen worse.)

Wait, wait! It can get worse! Smiley Guy Studios did the animation! And y'know, I could make a "they hired people from Walmart to animate this shit?" joke, but instead I'll say how Sinking Ship has a whole-ass animation division and they couldn't animate the show themselves. If they did, it would have been a lot better than what we got.

----------------------

So I might as well address the elephant in the room to kick off the conclusion: is Wordsville an Odd Squad ripoff, really and truly?

The answer...no. Not exactly. If anything, it's more like an inferior copy, if the word "copy" were hanging fast and loose like a shoe on an electric wire.

I'm going to use "Crime at Shapely Manor" as a direct comparison. In that episode, we get a sort of traditional mystery similar to what Wordsville gives us. We have suspects lined out, we have what they did, we have clues, we have a summation, all that jazz. The difference, though, is that "Crime at Shapely Manor" not only had 14 more minutes to flex their skills in the mystery genre beyond what spin Odd Squad in and of itself as a show puts on it (typical of police procedurals, it does have mystery elements), but they did it incredibly well. Even with the suspect being a downright fucking cliche, they still managed to do it while leaving the audience entertained and opening our minds to the personalities of "I can emote like a Discord chat server" Olive and "I do not understand financial concepts when it comes to very valuable furniture pieces" Otto. It can breathe. It does mystery well. Wordsville...doesn't. Eight minutes is not sufficient for the mystery genre. And if you want to prove me wrong by showing me a piece of media from a mystery show made for kids that is 8 minutes long, go right ahead. Enlighten me. Prove me wrong. But there my opinion stands.

I really could bore you all with the differences I managed to unearth between Wordsville and Odd Squad. I really could. Even more than that, I could bore you all with all the negative shit I found in what has to be the craziest combined 40 minutes I ever wasted of my life. But I'll boil it down to key elements only.

So first of all...the characters. The side ones are confined to a single career just based on their names, and as far as I can tell, the only trait they were all given was "serious about their jobs". (Gene Vet Wilder also does...magic, I guess? I mean whatever floats the boat...) Gabby and Sly, on the other hand...I genuinely can't pinpoint them. Best I can gather is that Gabby is the serious one and Sly is the silly one. So basically, an Olive/Otto dynamic where their little siblings take the spotlight. That's about it. Their friendship, let alone their personalities, are barely touched on in favor of shoving the mystery in your face. For an example: one episode revolves around their "Friendaversary", and them disagreeing on what they're going to do to celebrate it. Now, we already got this as an Odd Squad conflict in a similar way, and it was amazing. I loved "Happy Halfiversary"! Otis busted his ass for Olympia, and she did the same for him. We got some worldbuilding, some good old character interactions, and some funny jokes to boot. For "Uncompromising Community", what we get is a shitty plot that only serves as gift wrap for the mystery of the episode, which revolves around Firefighter Ember giving a fire safety course that Reporter Read plans to make a new story out of, while Baker Graham has a prior engagement with her. And if you're thinking "that sounds fun", then watch the episode and get back to me. That's good for an 11-minute plot. Not for 8 minutes with a full minute dedicated to both opening and closing credits.

Second on the list is the lack of worldbuilding. Lore. Basically anything of substance. Wordsville is, at its core, episodic. So's Odd Squad, to an extent. For Wordsville, if I hadn't read the synopsis of the series prior to watching it, I wouldn't know what the fuck was going on or what it was even about. I wouldn't know that the main cast are supposed to be only children, or that Wordsville is apparently a town...somewhere...on a map...somewhere. Does the Wordsville Online Detective Agency only have Gabby and Sly? Why is it online-only? Is there air? You don't know! I don't know either, and that's the thing that gets to me. I wasn't expecting anything heavy and lore-filled a la Odd Squad, but I wasn't expecting anything simplistic and bland, either. I've seen slice-of-life kids cartoons, and a lot of them are more enjoyable and have a lot more stuff to work with while also expanding on the world and telling me more about it. Wordsville...ain't it. It gives a big "fuck you" and trucks along.

Third of all, the educational aspect of it. Old-timers who have been watching the show for a long time know that one of the things that makes Odd Squad appealing is how it hides math into the plot in a way where it isn't super obvious and all up in your George Foreman grill. It's there, sure, and it does hinder the plot at times, but for me, I don't mind it. I'm still engaged. I want to know what happens. For Wordsville, the education is, indeed, all up in my George Foreman grill. It is fucking everywhere. Not hidden, just completely out in the open. WordGirl is probably the best show I can draw a comparison to, even though it's in a different demo -- while WordGirl does have word lessons, they are slipped into the plot much like Odd Squad and aren't shoved in there with an attitude I dare to even call obligatory. Wordsville is the entire opposite, and they absolutely do not, cannot, and will not miss a chance to educate you on words any chance it gets. Do not let the 4-7 age bracket fool you; this is a preschool show on something far more fucked up than "I'm having an 18-hour seizure with the cockroaches on a public bathroom floor" meth. And don't let Odd Squad's 4-8 age bracket fool you; that's a kids show people have watched while high on weed and had hella crazy trips. (And acid, in one case, which got far crazier.)

And finally, the animation, which I mentioned before but I'm bringing up more to summarize. Like I said, Odd Squad has good animation. Not 2D, though; it's CGI. It's not stellar, but it's solid. The creature designs in particular get real crazy. In Wordsville, the "animation" is drag-and-drop stuff that's half-done and has characters' heads and expressions on them for the lawl unique 'n quirky. I'm not shitting you when I said I was thinking of South Park when I was watching the animated bits. Hell, you could tell me the animated bits were a South Park parody and I'd believe you! But it's not. It's not a parody at all. And before you go at my throat saying "that is a literal child", I'd like to remind you that I know people under 18 who draw and animate a lot better. (I'm looking at a good chunk of you reading this and giving you a thumbs-up. Keep up the great work!) It's just like I said before: they had the potential to do something better, and they completely threw it away. Animation is hard. It's expensive. Sinking Ship is not a rich company. But they've done better in terms of 2D animation. They could have done better here.

What my opinion of the show overall boils down to is that I would have been happy with just the show synopsis and the sample script. I would have been happy with the one Seren's Study. Now, not only have I been proven fantastically wrong, but I've been proven fantastically wrong in the worst way I could have ever possibly imagined, because it somehow got worse than what I was expecting.

Now, I'm going to put a disclaimer out that this is my opinion. If you wanna go and watch Wordsville and decide for yourself how it is, go for it! Be my guest! No one's stopping you, and if you happen to like it then I will respect your opinion. But as it stands across these first 5 episodes, it's not my cup of tea. I think I'm better off giving WordGirl a rewatch.

Thanks for reading. See you all in the next Seren's Study!

[dollarbin]

Shakey Sundays #8:

Ragged Glory

Some things are worth waiting for.

At age 14 I dedicated way too many hours to MTV, hoping to catch Neil Young's Mansion on the Hill. I'd seen the song's video just once; the network had seemingly played it a single time just to tease me.

During my weeks of hapless watching and waiting I tried to remember all the crazy stuff in the video; it entered my dreams and morphed. Had there really been a funeral? Who was dead? Was Young a ghost for all of it? Did a choir really sing the silly lyrics? Was that Neil in the gas station too? Were there dinosaurs at one point? Or was I making that part up? And how did guys my dad's age play such killer guitar?

Well, I never got my answers; instead I saw nothing but Motley Crue's Dr Feelgood. Over and Over Again.

But just now, 34 years later, and thanks to this new technology I'm learning to use called google, I finally got to see the video for Mansion on the Hill a second time.

You can feel Young's burgeoning joy all over this silly video. He'd probably seen Monty Python and The Holy Grail only while stoned on tour and thought his opening gag was entirely original. He's not dead yet!

In midst of my hopeless adolescent search for the video I read in the LA Times that Young had made two additional videos for Ragged Glory, one of which involved high drama between a sexy couple on a balcony. But, reported the Times, neither video had any chance of ever getting a single second of airtime. The writer (it was probably Robert Hilburn, a total dad rock grump who routinely called Use Your Illusion 2 fantastic) mused in the piece on Young's possible motives: Was he delusional? Deceived? Nuts?

Well, making videos exactly how you wanted, which meant you knew would never be seen, sounded genius to me, and I quit watching MTV cold turkey in response. If they weren't going to play Neil Young they weren't going to have me.

I've been thinking about those mythical videos for 34 years straight now. Seriously, I've wondered about them once a month for 408 months in a row. I'm not proud to report this; I'm just a victim of the Dollar Bin (and Jerry Jeff Walker), living my life easy come, easy go...

And now, low and behold, here they are!

Sure enough, this first one, for the hook-heavy Over and Over, has the balcony stuff; witness the serious, VH1 level, drama: a sexy lingerie lady (women in this era of music videos only wore lingerie; none of them owned pants) squares off with an Anthony Bandaras type dude; passion ensues while the band unrelatedly rocks. There's nothing silly enough here for Shakey-level greatness, although it does look like Young did indeed summon his Budokan era wind machines from the Shocking Pinks desertscape. Hurricane force winds are needed for most of Neil's videos.

And then there's the video least likely to ever be seen by me / anyone else as a kid. Had I been a MTV VG at the time, even I wouldn't have played this for fear of a FCC shutdown: there's the swearing in it, sure, but there's also the guitar solos at the 2:30, 3:30 and 4 minute marks that are so gnarly they do not seem safe for public consumption.

Unlike the previous two videos from Ragged Glory, Fubbin' Up contains almost no plot; but half way through Neil does cavort with two different buxom ladies; someone has to stand in for Neil on stage and pretend to shred like him while he stumbles about with them. Neil Young's music videos: they make every Sunday Shakey.

As I've written previously, I do not own Ragged Glory on vinyl. (The lead photo above features my fired up cat and a record store promotion poster I got as a kid and have kept inside my copy of Live Rust ever since.) If you've got the record on vinyl and want to swap I'll gladly send you my copy of Old Ways in return (then I'll go buy another copy of that 80's masterpiece to mediocrity; I saw one yesterday for $8; where the hell were all the copies of Old Ways up until a year ago?).

Anyway, when I was 14 I bought Ragged Glory on tape and, truth be told, it was a little over my head. I loved it, sure, but like another perfect record of that era, The Cure's Disintegration, it was just too damn long for my adolescent attention level. I'd especially get lost during Love and Only Love and Love To Burn. The songs seemed interchangeable to me, and on some level they still do.

While we're at it, I'm gonna argue that those two songs heralded the often regrettable nature of Young's lyrics ever since; for every weird and spectral song like Without Rings or Music Arcade there are four or five that remind me not to forget love.

Memo to Neil: I am not in danger of forgetting about love. I'm happily married, and I am familiar with The Sermon on the Mount. But when I drop the needle, I want visitors from space in my Neil Young songs; I want to picture him walking down main street: not the sidewalk, but MAIN street.

But who am I kidding: I can't complain about Love to Burn or Love and Only Love, or anything else on this vital and classic record. No other 45 year old ever rocked this hard. At 45 Stephen Stills stayed fat and laid an egg. Just get this: Young permanently blew out his hearing not on tour for the record but while mixing the live album that followed. How cool is that? At 45 years old, while the rest of us were acting like grown-ups, he sat in a studio and listened to himself shredding at 11, thereby damaging his ears. When I was 45 the loudest thing I did was shout at the Dodgers. And it worked: they won the World Series.

But Neil kept up his revived crazy brilliance from this era long term. Check him out using Love and Only Love to lay siege to Farm aid with Ralph, Billy and Poncho in tow ten years later:

But at age 14 I never really understood Ragged Glory. It's not an album for teenagers. Metaphors such as, "like a little girl, who couldn't wait" only made sense when I had a daughter of my own, finally asleep at 2am on Christmas eve. It was in moments like that when I wanted to chug a cold one and high step my way around the kitchen, listening to Ragged Glory on headphones. Over and over again...

But I started unlocking the record years before, late in high school. My buddy Matt, a MIT-bound, state champion wrestler in the 150 pound class when he should have weighed an easy 180, was the only person I knew on earth who was as gnarly as Young's soloing on Truckin' Up. And Matt spoke up at lunch one day, when we were probably late for Physics, and told us the story of his 10 mile run the day before after 3 hours of push-ups and brawling on a mat.

Matt had listened to Ragged Glory on his walkman during that run and wanted to report that Forking Up was the greatest song ever written. It was even better, he claimed, that his other favorite Neil song, Homegrown.

I was really into TS Eliot and The Pixies at that point; so he sounded full of crap. But as I listened to him recite Neil's nonsensical, bone-headed lyrics my future self reached out to me and ordered that I sit up and listen; Matt had a point.

Dogs that lick And dogs that bite Hounds that howl Through the night Broken leashes Are all over the floor Keys left hanging In a swinging door.

Amen, Matt. The world is nonsensical and bone-headed. As the great Bob Pollard once warbled, sometimes you need to slay the beast and win the cup. Sometimes you need to fook things up and then scream about it.

There's a lot more to say about Ragged Glory but I'll pause here: happily, Young put out a new extended version of the record, aptly titled Smell the Horse, recently. Writing about it will make some future Sunday Shakey all over again.

[carrieleblancart]

In response to your questions about the timelapse videos, here are my two cents. Engagement doesn’t usually give you anything on tumblr other than a bump of serotonin, but it can lead to commissions or sales if you provide an easy link and are chill about it. But people are touchy about the word “engagement.” They want to feel like a community or maybe a cultural salon, rather than part of an extractive media process.

Your most successful process videos are going to show a satisfying finished piece at the end and give people time to look at it and go “wow.” So for most art some editing will be necessary to get there in a short video.

Another thing I should bring up is that the music you used for that sketch video was pretty grating. If you’re going to use music, i’d suggest finding something more relaxing. Just because the video is sped up doesn’t mean the sound has to be frantic.

Your painting process is so interesting, and your art is great! People here love cats with all their hearts and mostly really enjoy art. I wish you all the best!

Hi anon, thank you so much for your input! I really appreciate it, and I'm still getting used to actually getting responses, after trying to get it noticed for 10+ years (this isn't my first tumblr blog).

There's a lot going on with trying to share my art in the current internet ecosystem, probably something a lot of artists are dealing with. I'll try my best to describe what's going on on my end.

I don't like the term engagement either. I am trying to share my art through four main platforms at this time: Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube, and of course our precious hellsite: Tumblr. So my use of the term is more from the vernacular being used on other platforms, with what seems to be a kind of agreed upon use by artists of "this is what we have to deal with, so might as well lean into it." Maybe I'm mis-interpreting that (not surprising).

So far, Instagram is where I get my art noticed the most and has lead to the most sales/commissions/financial support. I think this has to do with the cat community that has formed over there. Tumblr definitely has its cat lovers, but I think a lot of them are over on IG so that they can follow internet cat celebrities and the like (I'm one of them!). So things like engagement and trends will dictate how I share my art with at least algorithm-led platforms. Also all of the cat people and friends I've met at shows regularly have Instagrams, not that that's a reason to be on there.

I agree that I should add time of the video at the end to show the piece to give it time to be seen. This can be easily accomplished if I make sure to take a photo of the art and include it in the video. I haven't had the best record of doing this due to my own ADHD and the pace at which these sketch paintings are being made.

Most of these recent sketch paintings were made back in August during CatCon on the spot! It's a crazy thing to do and I haven't seen anyone else do something quite what I'm doing, which is I guess part of my marketing for conventions and shows. So, sometimes I forget to take a picture at the end, but I'm getting better at including it in my process. And yes I call them sketches because they're fairly quick (I aim for 30 minutes for a 6"x6") and I don't get to add all the details I would like to if time was available. (I'm currently working on a new 3"x3" fully detailed piece of a famous internet cat, I've spent an hour and a half on it, and it's not done yet!)

Part of the timelapse question is not just to see what people prefer to determine how much time I should put into editing, but also how much effort I should put into digital storage. I have a couple different ways of recording footage, and the main way I've been doing so is with my iPhone. And so when I'm at events that I fly to, like CatCon, sometimes I'm having to transfer videos from my phone to an SD card until I can get home and get the footage onto a larger storage device. This can be tricky especially if I don't make sure to clear my phone storage before going to an event (something I'm adding to my list!) However, if I use the timelapse feature already available on the iPhone, then that makes editing and storage even easier for me later. I used this a lot with my Black Cat October series. But this timelapse footage doesn't look as good (maybe) and I don't have the option to do other edits later. Which then comes to the question for myself, am I really going to go back and make another edit for these sketch paintings? Perhaps the answer is timelapses for sketches, and full videos for fully detailed paintings.

And thank you for your input on the music part! The reason for the music in the last video was because of what's trending right now. Sometimes IG will save a copy of the video I posted with whatever music, so I had reused it in today's post. I think I'll make sure to use something more soothing/calming going forward just for tumblr, because you all have a special place in my heart.

Usually I'll open TikTok and do a separate video save to have a hi-res copy with music, but since I had recently created a shop on TT I only have commercially available music. Maybe I should take the shop down anyways, I'm really not sure if it'll help my art get notice or sell more stickers. I'd rather manage sales from my website anyways, but I feel like I should at least give it a try. You're welcome to tell me your thoughts on that!

I could go more into detail about my process for just uploading videos, but I feel like this is already getting TLDR. So feel free to let me know if you want me to ramble some more! I'd love to get input on that, as well as get an idea of what other artists are doing since I have no idea what I'm doing!

[seabreeze2022]

2023 Bahamas Cruise, Part 4, Mar. 10-12. Morgans Bluff to Normans Cay, to Sandy Cay to Lee Stocking Island.

This is, Natalie, our friend from Islamorada. She and her husband left one week before us and went directly to the Jumentos as quick as they could. She is holding a really, really large Crawfish, at least by Florida standards. But these are kind of common this far south in the Bahamas. Deep water canyons allow them to grow to this size without being caught. Q: What is the easiest job in the world? A: Bahama Minister of Tourism.

All they have to do is post some pictures like this!

Our time time in Andros was short and we are looking forward to coming back, but we need to make haste heading south. Cold fronts are still coming down, the water is 75 degrees and chilly. We were under way at 0538 weaving our way through the anchorage. When we first showed up five days earlier we were the eighth boat in the anchorage. Three were “cats”, one Hatteras yacht, and three other sloops. Four were buddy boating. One of the cats was from Tavernier, the next town up from ours.

As we left there were about ten boats, with only two cats in the bunch. One was an old trimaran. No fancy mega yachts here. No chartered catamarans. Pretty quiet group and little drama.

Windy App is my go to for wind and wave prediction. Friday was the smoothest ride across the Tougue Of The Ocean (TOTO). It would be a bit lumpy at daybreak but getting better as the day went on. We have been beat up before crossing TOTO into steep short spaced waves. See the photo below of our buddy remora boat in March of 2023 crossing TODO.

This year the crossing was smooth. We just set a straight line for Normans Cay 73 nautical miles away. The day started out a bit chilly at the helm and we made notes to bring some warmer clothes for sailing the nightshift.

Resting with foul weather gear on to stay warm, note the smooth water in the background.

This is a screen shot of our chartplotter while crossing TODO. Our boat is depicted bottom center with a red icon over it. Just to the left shows a depth of 8500 ft.. To put this in perspective, if you stacked 45 Empire State Buildings on their side. They would still not break the surface.

By the time we finished the day crossing White Bank south of New Providence the seas were glassy calm. Winds had been mostly on our nose and seldom more than 30 degrees off all day.

Beans were cooked in a pressure cooker while underway. Pressure cookers save a tremendous amount of propane fuel.

This year we bought a Hot Spot from Aliv to use in the Bahamas. It is working great. It allowed me to check the weather as we approached Normans, I changed my plans on anchoring right off the island. Winds were due to pick up after midnight from the SW. So I tucked further off shore behind a sand boar hoping to break some of the waves. This would also give us a quick departure in the morning.

We woke early with the boat pitching on the anchor in 2 ft. waves. Today would be a 32 mile sailing day on a beam reach to Sandy Cay. There are few places to hide from SW - W - NW winds in the Exumas. Sandy Cay was our favorite.

Taking turns on the helm and resting. Lots of sailboat activity on this route today. We were the “privileged vessel” with wind coming over our starboard rail. So I tacked a bit further upwind allowing the “burdened vessels” to clear any sand bores and run their course.

Nancy resting on the upwind side of the boat in the sun. By attaching her tether from the jackline in the cockpit around a winch and then back to her. This helps secure her in place as the boat heels over.

A shot from the lee rail at 6 kts.

Our anchorage was fairly calm, with only two other boats nearby. We dropped the dinghy and took a quick bath at the stern. Water is still chilly at 78.5 F. When we woke in the morning our anchor was in sight 30 feet away directly on our left. Currents and wind have that effect here. Neither is strong enough when they oppose each other, to straighten out the anchor chain. Game plan for the day is head outside for Lee Stocking Island after topping off jerry jugs in Staniel.

Using two of the diesel jerry jugs on the deck we put 8 gallons in the tank assuming we had burned 10 gallons since Andros. Nancy is using the “jiggle hose” to siphon the diesel out of the jugs. We also ran the watermaker for an hour as soon as the solar panels could keep up.

We ran the gauntlet of boats anchored between Big Majors Spot and Little Majors Spot. At least 40 boats were anchored in here hiding from the SW winds.

The fuel dock at Staniel Cay Yacht Club is first come - first serve. We were number 3 in line. It took almost 2 hours to get our 8 gallons of fuel. Boats were taking 40 minutes each. Once it was our turn we tied up, Nancy ran the trash to the trash tailer. I pumped 4 gallons in each jerry jug, then quickly walked to the office to pay. Nancy met me there. We were off the dock in 10 minutes.

The Exuma Sound is 5000 ft. deep, but was smooth all day as we motored to Adderly Cut.

Adderly Cay with its unique stone marker passing down our starboard side.

Dana helming through Adderly Cut and hooking a left behind Lee Stocking Island.

Our son, Lars, recently bought a PDQ 34 power cat. Only 106 were ever made, and we just found one tucked behind Lee Stocking Island. Named “Headway”, it was flying a “Great Loop” flag on the bow. Which is a circle with the Mississippi on the West side and the Intercostal Waterway on the East side. The Great lakes connecting them on the North, and the Gulf of Mexico on the South.

Absolutely stunning sunset, unfortunately we were a hair north and could not see a green flash due to the tip of Normans Pond Cay.

Picture perfect ending to finish our first week back in the Bahamas.

S/V Sea Breeze, Lee Stocking Island, Exuma, Bahamas.

[pronouncingitwang]

[ID: There are Tumblr tags interspersed through the post. They read

biigmiikey: coulle years ago my roommate besties new years res was to be cozier, she got a new bed and rearranged her room and i was like damn that is a great resolution

emmagoldmanfanclub: last year i did sneeze count., i sneezed 1072 times in 2022

digitalcockroach: fr mine for next year is gonna be to read the wikipedia for every currently existing country in alphabetical order

cephalopodink: i do eat more pickles every single year. never regretted it. love eating pickled things., rabble babble, queuettlefish

abysswarlock: only time I did something like this was a resolution to look at clouds and try to see pictures in them at least once a day

prosocialbehavior: last year mine was to unsubscribe from all marketing emails, maybe this year ill do a fun one

t4ttragedy: one year mine was just that every time i felt the impulse to compliment someone i would actually do it, and that was like 3 years ago and i just kind of kept doing that

eevee-williams: my 2018 one was so fun, i learned to make all the classic cocktails, i don't do it a lot any more but i still do it sometimes, today i got home from work like 'you know what would fix me? tequila sunrise', and brother i was so right about that. it's fixing me

beatnikfreakiswriting: yeah! the year i turned 21 i made my new year's resolution 'wear more red'. It was fun, i wore way more red. i like red., year after i did 'wear more green' and you know what? I did that!, i now wear both red and green frequently.

akinari-kashihara: Mine was to enter every free giveaway I could nothing btw, I've won nothing btw

attractivegkry: I'm going to spend more time in my hammock, once I'm done with school I'm going to visit people and LOOK AT BIRDS when I'm there

blueberrytruth: saw someone on tt whose resolution was to see every artwork from acnh in person, which is a very cool resolution if you have the means to travel

anawkwardblue: I think I'm gonna try weaving!, and making fairy houses for the woods

heylabodega: One year mine was to cook with more butter and the next it was to wink more.

moonspren: one year i asked for book recommendations on Facebook and read every single one, it was interesting but i recommend only doing this with people you trust, i read some shit books that year

hrududil: this year my goal was: 30 cat selfies (with different cats), and also: every time i get boba i get a diff flavour :)

kavat: this year my resolution was to wear more silly little outfits and i think im doing well

khezhatkhaleesi: a couple years ago my reso was to be slightly less of a lil bitch about eating chilli and i did it!!!, got a chilli in my dinner the other week that would have ruined my night in the past but i just barely even blinked

cikero: my most successful one was be nice to bugs, and I still do it :)

bastardclownbaby: yes!!, i am doing Wear All Of My Clothes which is not only fun but useful in helping me figure out what to actually get rid of

yu3s: txt, my new years resolution this year (last year?) was cat journal where i wrote a journal as a cat going on an adventure and saved cat photos, and every cat my friends sent to me or tagged me in i put in the adventure also! like as an apothecary owner cat or a baker cat etc!, got busy and stopped doing it but cat journal will be my resolution next year >:3c protagonist is wizard cat and it will explore the world!

nopeferatu: my new years resolution is to suck and fuck, just kidding i dont really want that, my new years resolution is to make myself like avocados :)

/end ID]

every time i ask people if they do any new years resolutions its all ooooo i dont like making them bc i fail or ohhhhh no i couldnt keep up wiht that and then when they ask me and i tell them about Pasta Quest (i am eating as many different pasta shapes as possible in the space of a year) or when i did Fruit Adventures (every time i saw a fruit i had never eaten before id get one and eat it and read the wikipedia article about it) theyre like hang on i forgot you can make Fun Ones i want a fun one

[cut-the-camera]

Heat Above - Sorry...

MAIN PAGE

Chapter Five

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From the moment he woke up, at seven o'clock to make sure he didn't miss the postman, Jack was mentally going through his to do list. Work on the staging design for eurovision, Cook tea, go to work, email Will from Wiwi Blogs back about an interview, cancel his 7:30 boxing class, reply to the pretty european in his dm's ....wait....what was that last one? 

He checked his messages early that morning as he always did and almost screamed when he saw it. 

bojan_cvjeticanin

22:41

Bojan: The fit one, eh?

Realistically, he knew he'd have to talk to him at some point and there was absolutely no way he hadn't seen the clip that everyone had been tagging him in. He debated charging down to the BBC Broadcasting House to have it out with Felix after he made this happen but then he remembered that he has an appointment there at the end of the month so he'll want to keep in their good books. 

Thinking about his response took up the better part of the morning, it's a miracle he managed to brush his teeth, make the bed and make some tea without burning himself he was that distracted. 

"Yeah, and what?" 

Too mean, delete...

"OMG I'M SO SORRY!"

Too.....much, delete...

"Hahahahaha"

Too weird, delete...

He tried to keep his mind off it by working on the staging for eurovision, he had a list of the rules he'd been sent in front of him and tried his best to translate them into something creative. Realistically, he knew he wasn't going into eurovision to win especially not when he was competing against the likes of loreen so really the goal is to create the most compelling performance possible. He's been a performer since the age of three so that can't be so hard can it?

Turns out yes, yes it can. He spent ages deciding whether he'd rather focus on the proscenium aspect ot whether he can cater to both that and the thrust aspect of the stage, will he use white lights or coloured, will he use a follow spot, does the arena even have follow spots? does he need a feature piece or can he carry the stage by himself and- oh fuck it he'd rather just text Bojan back. 

bojan_cvjeticanin

08:32

Jack: Haha sorry yeah, my mates were just winding me up x

Is what he finally went with, he'd have over thought this kiss on the end a bit more had he not have been desperate for the distraction though in all fairness he had little time for over thinking when his message was read immediately. 

08:32

Bojan: So you don't think i'm 'fit?' i'm so heartbroken

Jack: Never said i didn't

Bojan: Is that so? 👀

Bojan: We'll be in barcelona next week

Bojan: if you wanna see how fit i am in person

Jack: Are you asking me on a date? 🤔

He's fucked it, he's fucked it, he's massively fucked it. He turns his phone off the second he saw the message was read and threw his head in his hands like a love struck teenage girl. What kind of person flirts that hard on the first day of talking to someone, now Bojan probably just thinks he thinks way too much into jokes like a weirdo, he'll never want to talk to him and the next three months will be the most awkward thing ever. 

The sound of the door stopped him hiding his face, the least he can do before he tried to drown himself in his own embarrassment is collect Felix's parcel. He left his phone on the table and ran for the door before they could shove one of those irritating, 'sorry we missed you' cards through. 

"Delivery," was all the man said before he gave Jack a weird look and left. For a quick arrogant moment, he thought the man might have recognised him but then he looked down and realised that the weird look was because he was wearing Felix's garfield slippers. Looking down also meant that he saw what it was his mate had ordered and .....it wasn't at all what he'd expected.

Felix the Cat

08:38

Jack: Your parcel has come i think

Jack Ledgister has sent a photo

Jack: Who the hell've you ordered flowers for?

Felix: That's not my parcel???

Felix: What the hell?

Felix: Are you sure it's not for next door?

Next door was home to a family of five, six if you count an adorable golden retriever and while they're lovely people, he couldn't see any reason why there'd be delivered there and he wasn't about to show up on Sue's doorstep in his slippers with a bouquet of flowers to ask. 

08:39

Jack: Doubt it 

Felix: Is there not a card on them?

Jack: Hadn't thought of that, i'll check

He carefully stuck his hand into the side of the bouquet and pulled out a little note with swirly handwriting. 

Julie and Brian were Dan's parents, he always used to go to their house on weekends at ballet school and spends christmas with them most of the time since he can't spend it with his own parents. He smiled and put the flowers on the dining room table, making a mental note to go round to them at some point to say thank you. 

08:41

Jack: No secret admirers, they're from Dan's parents

As he sent that he remembered his other predicament rushing to check his DM's with Bojan. He was preparing for the worst, preparing to read the scathing paragraph of rejection when instead he found...

bojan_cvjeticanin

08:32

Jack: Are you asking me on a date?  🤔

Bojan: Might be 😊

"Fucking result." He thought. 

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Authors Note: Hi guys! Sorry if this is really boring, we're coming to the end of these more character development chapters as we actually get to the pre parties and things so Jack and Bojan will actually meet so i promise. Let me know any thoughts you have! :)

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

Gremlin update November 26th 2024

[short for realzies this time]

9:00 am

I still dragged my ass out of bed before 6:30 and got the second stupid card and some more cat food for now. Only got 470 on the card because I saw the -perfect- all cotton plaid shirt and because I had been looking for that colour for months, I got it and didn't know exactly how much everything would be with tax and fees and hadn't thought to put extra money on my card before leaving. But whatever. I just need enough for cat supplies and honey over winter mostly, and if I decide to get those metal tool chests before spring, depending on how much downsizing I get through.

Whatever, Either way I am done for the year and washed up and tucked in and now I do whatever I need to until at least spring, like May or something, including being able to call people to pick up the stuff I need to get rid of that isn't garbage, such as donations or used electronics.

Hoping to have new apartment photos later this year so you can see the progress, the MIRACLE.

~*~

November 27th

1:40 pm

I slept a little after getting home, got up around 6 pm, stayed up long enough to eat something [and feed cat] and went back to sleep. Woke up this morning around 6 ish, got up long enough to eat something [and feed cat], got tired and went back to sleep, slept till 1 pm. It feels like cramming 3 days of sleep together, but also it's barely past noon the day after shopping.

I actually feel kind of rested now? That's very rare for me. Apparently I just need to sleep until I am having strange abstract dreams that slowly turn towards strange abstract dreams involving memories and it takes like at least 24 hours.

I did start on about half the dishes the last time I got up though. Both the times I have massively 'over slept' in the past week I have woken up to start cleaning up around the house. Starting to think my executive dysfunction gets way less bad when I am not suffering horrible fatigue? Go figure. One might even argue it's not 'over' sleeping.

I also instantly feel less 'depressed' even though the last dream I had made me sad.

Also I think being fully rested, eating chocolate and putting on music are all things that massively take the fuel out of the annoying intrusive thought voice I have been dealing with for... Since recovering from covid the first time. I think some of the neurological damage it caused made that problem exponentially worse in a real hurry. Also I think magnesium might help? And it might be because it is needed for your brain to make oxytocin? Have they studied the relationship between oxytocin levels and intrusive thoughts? Anyway...

I'm feeling better. I am also starting to feel how much I damaged my muscles between last week, and the two walks to walmart. I only really carried cream [3-4 of it] and a new cooking pot on the first trip, and a bit of cat food on the second trip, but I also walked there and back in the cold and none of my muscles like that at all. The shoulder injury is back full force. But I'll have months to recover now.

~*~

November 30th

I got my cheques and paid my bills and put 500$ back into savings, I won't quite have the other 500 until after I get the housing benefit and tax payments this month. But that's tucked in with everything, 1k to spend on whatever I need over winter and into the following year online, and then everything I had back in savings by end of December. The next 6 months will be saving up all my income after bills again.

For my birthday and x-mas, in addition to those 12$ of Cyan games a while back I got Forbidden west on sale, and 3 things from the dollarstore... And a few cotton plaid shirts [very spendy very bad I know]. My old plaid shirts are very worn out, both were second hand, one is faded to all fuck and the other is shaped for a skinny woman. It took me a while to find the colours I wanted, but I did and they're mine. One of them turns out to be a women's cut with no proper shoulder seams and I hate how it fits, but it will end up being patches when I wear through the others, eventually. Here's me going back to not buying any clothes, because by the time I wear through these shirts and the 2 pairs of jeans another 5-10 years will have given me time to sew my other clothes.

This past week was still supposed to be recovery week from the errands, and I did spend a good chunk of time sleeping a bunch extra, but I did also already do half my chores spaced around playing silly little nothing free games on steam.

Tempting to now dive into forbidden west or something and then sleep it off so I feel like I have had a mental vacation... But I want to maybe finish this load of laundry and clean my floor first?? Idk. Usually with a big aaa game like this I accidentally stay awake for 3 days to play it mostly through because of the amount of mental stimulation. I would not assume I'd default to that in my current state except my metabolism is fully going nuts and if I eat enough to not be sleepy all the time... I'm going to end up awake for a few days maybe, and maybe that's even what I need to do while my body rests, because I'm actually very burned out on sleeping almost 20 hours a day.

I still only have two modes: 1. Intentionally nerfed metabolism and hypersomnia OR 2. Actually had the nutrition my body wants and now have the metabolism of a 400 pound body builder and it's all going to my brain which won't sleep and needs something to chew on.

But whatever I do I can take December to play and take it easy and then get back to work.

~*~

January 3rd

eugh, so I immediately descended into symptoms again, as documented in other posts, and I have been in terrible pain for a month again. I played forbidden west because I needed something to do with my swollen sausage hands.

The main take away is I am very capable of developing a dangerous sodium deficiency very quickly by trying to avoid gout, if I listen to any guides that tell me to also avoid salt. I do not eat enough processed foods to accidentally dodge that. 3/4-2 teaspoon of salt per day minimum, especially while hydrating that much.

The excess fluid retention from that problem is past. I think the excess uric acid causing the gout is gone and quite possibly any excess of all else. The problem is there's still a bunch of joint damage. It's even gotten to the point where advil isn't helping much because most of the problem isn't even swelling, inherently, I think it's actually just damage that needs to heal and it is taking annoying amounts of time.

I'm tired of being in pain I want to move on with my life.

January 19th

4:40 am

About to go back to bed. Still muddling through managing my symptoms.

Yesterday I decided that sitting around with full body swelling in an apartment slowly filling with allergy triggers all day wasn't going to help me. Started taking 3 normal dose advil at a time and discovered that if I do that twice early-ish in the day, the swelling goes down and stays down all day, didn't come back until bedtime, and another dose then kept it down most while I was sleeping too. 9 advil a day is technically more than advised, but I used to take for more for migraines, and my kidneys still seem to be processing everything I give them. Maybe if I can talk my body out of this endless cycle of swelling, that will actually improve something.

I did finally get cleaning done though, being restless and having the swelling down. Yesterday I cleared off almost all the floors and dealt with a bunch of garbage and recycling, after doing about half the dishes early that morning or the night before, including cleaning up the entryway and a lot of sweeping. This morning I cleaned the toilet, the area around the toilet, started a load of laundry [there might be a second by now] cleaned around he sink in the bathroom and got the shower stall 50% clean. After today my apartment should at least be clean for me to sit in trying to recover.

I did find out the one kind of corn cat litter I can order to my door turns out to be pine scented... so I guess we'll see if anything comes of that because I already have 2 bags.

I have 2 areas left to sweep, the dishes to finish and the floor to wash, but then we're good and I can focus on getting on top of symptoms and getting on the ass of the credit card company to try to get my money back.

~*~

January 29th

So I forgot about this again and have been making separate updates. Had the new building managers "give 24h notice" by quietly sticking a note to the neighbours door and walking away, to show up and inspect the fire alarms.

The place was messy of course because I have barely been able to move. Got notice the next day of "we just need to do a general inspection of all the units :)" like sure. And I am sure nothing prompted that.

Of course I pushed myself to clean everything. They came back to it spotless. But the guy said he had a problem with how much stuff I have because he thinks there should be 4 feet of clearance around everything or he'd "hate to see a fire inspection or an actual fire happen" and started telling me how any fire marshal he knew would mandate I be displaced to a hotel room while someone came to throw out all my stuff "because it's unsafe" ... Because I have 2 feet of clearance around everything and my dresser sticks out too close to the bathroom doorway. I literally had to stop downsizing and reorganizing only long enough to do fall groceries and recover from two extreme health episodes, and I told him he's looking at the aftermath of moving from a whole house into this tiny place and being too sick to have downsized any faster, but he just kept re-iterating how unsafe he felt it was, not matter how much I assured him that none of it was staying like this and I was already on it, and already understood.

It's like he thought I was saying it would be like that for a year until I got around to it. Like no buddy, the ONLY reason I stopped there was because I was actually dying a little, and I'm going to get right back on it once my bones aren't as fragile.

But whatever, I spent the last week downsizing by another 8+ totes and rearranging everything I own. My kidneys seem fine now. My muscles want me dead for my crimes.

I just have to do minor reorganizing and then move the furniture all back by about 2 feet. There will be so much fucking clearance.

... And then I get to recover and then rest right? This time for real right?

THIS TIME FOR REAL RIGHT?

On the bright side, As far as stopping points go this one will be good. There will be lots of room to manouvre, access to all the totes for continued downsizing and organizing, two of the ones on top are paint and office supplies that can be organized into my filing cabinet and office. Two more are wood for fixing up the dresser and book cases [so they can go away once I knock those off], and another 2 are tools that can be organized into my tool box, and a tool cabinet when I get one, or the green chest when I get it out from under the book cases. There's 4 totes of clothes and fabric for making my new clothes, and 3 totes of general crafting supplies at the bottom, One of mixed lights and lamps and such, and that's it.

I have emptied over 16 totes since moving in.

BY the time I'm done my wardrobe and fabric stash will all fit in my dresser and on the clothes rack with room to spare. The spare office stuff will fit in my filing cabinet. The tools will have a home. All spare storage will fit behind other furniture under the bunk bed, and the bunk bed will be set squarely on the floor because I'll be able to move my desk over another 5 inches or so. I'll be putting my dining table on leg extensions with wheels so it can fit over my box freezers and provide a standing height work surface that wheels back out of the way for food prep. I will be well on my way by spring.

I. Just. Need. To. Rest.

I just need people to stop piling timed demands on me long enough to fully fucking recover and actually catch a fucking break.

I'll take one more day of organizing, go through the electronics bin and have someone come pick up a batch of electronics, get the garbage out on garbage day, get my deliveries later Friday, and be ready to e-mail him by the weekend that it's handled.

Also it turns out one of my 500$ credit cards didn't work, and I remember the cashier switching it out with the one I was putting back at the time but I didn't process what was happening in the store. She then proceeded to be really cunty at me. I said I'd be back for the other one the next day because I -apparently- still have the daily limit -that they keep telling me is gone- and she -very smarmy, very cunty- is all "oh sure come back in an hour when your limit has lifted :)" like she was having some kind of joke [we all know there's no such thing as an hourly limit, like that would be the most face-saving bullshit excuse, like what are you trying to paint me as? "one of those" poors that feels this bruised-ego-ass need to hold themselves like a 'temporarily embarrassed' rich person? Like no, my bank keeps TELLING me my daily limit has been made 5k instead of 1k so I couldn't buy 2 500$credit cards for over-winter on top of also doing groceries because it's still 1k, apparently, and whatever you think of me that doesn't give you the right to rip me off like you think you're teaching me something???], switched the card she had scanned and handed to me out for the one I was putting back saying "oops here :)" and continued to be cunty while rushing me out of the lane. Anyway, I called the company they took the full fucking month to investigate GRILLED me for personal information and pictures of everything, multiple times, like I am the one who'd done something wrong, but finally decided to activate the card I have for 500$ without telling me what the mistake was. So if the lady got in trouble, or not, I genuinely won't know unless she approaches me about it at random in a walmart come spring.

My good bitch, we steal from corporations, not individuals who are clearly disabled, who are trying to stock up for winter before x-mas.

I had been concerned I'd be forced out of hibernation for eggs and cat food [I know, I had 60 eggs, I ated them all okay?]... Exposing me to post-holiday levels of virus. But that's been resolved now with no further fighting.

For the record, in case anyone thinks it's overkill, finishing the winter shopping so far has left me with 189$ unspent for the rest of winter that will likely be spent on medications [not even a tool cabinet]. But everything I have been getting in the meantime not spent on rent and bills has been going back to savings.

So you know, on the bright side, come this weekend I should be set up to actually rest for a while with nothing hanging over my head, right??? [and a new 60 eggs]

I mean I also need to pay my bills soon and do my stupid taxes, but like, whatever.

Then this list:

Glue the one drawer from the dresser that pulled apart [because 1-2 drawers were never glued by me to begin with because they *seemed* to be holding in one piece too well] & put the pulls on it

Get the electronics tote organized and downsized

Call the electronics disposal service

Get the things I am giving away gone and out of the apartment [2 donation bags and maybe some kitchen stuff]

make ramp [for spring, haha, late, next spring!]

Re-upholster arm chair

remake cat stand into cat stand/window bench

remake plant rack

shelf over sink

Re-downsize 'out' stack of totes [gone!]

[april-december]

TW: pet death

I had to have my cat euthanised on Friday. Suki had suffered various health conditions throughout her life - inflamed bowels, thyroid troubles, diabetes, and arthritis - all of which were medicated and treated to help her live happily for as long as possible. I don’t know how old she was exactly, because she was a rescue, but she was with me for 12 years, and was at least a year old when I adopted her. In the end, we think it was liver cancer that got her.

To say she was my cat doesn’t nearly begin to cover it; she was the other half of my soul, my best friend. When she was younger she tried (unsuccessfully) to teach me to hunt on our trips out to the garden. She would sit in front of a shrub and look up at me until I crouched down with her to watch the bushes for a while. She guarded me when I was sick in bed. We both got anxious when we were apart. We had mandatory brush and tummy rub times slotted into our daily routines, at her insistence.

We were devoted to each other.

I knew the end was approaching. I’d known it some time. She was getting slow, visibly old, and stiff in her movements. She almost didn’t make it through recovery of a dental she had in July. I am forever grateful for those last three and a half months together. It felt like extra time.

In the last couple of weeks, she got very old very quickly. On Wednesday I took her to the vets, just to check if there was anything she needed. When the blood tests they ran came back on Thursday, the results indicated that cancer was likely. I’d said it to her before, but as I sat with her that evening, tracing patterns on her tummy, I asked her to tell me when she had had enough, and promised to listen.

When I got up on Friday, she was telling me. She didn’t get up to greet me when I came with her morning medication; she didn’t eat the treats I left for her as a reward for letting me do her insulin injection; she was wobbly on her feet.

I was crying, and she slowly got up and led me to the special tummy rub place under the window, and let me stroke her soft fur and whisper a parting.

I called the vets, and the receptionist arranged for me to go in an hour. Part of me wishes it had been longer; the rest of me knows that I would have spent that time incapacitated with grief and fear, and it would only have stressed her out.

She went to sleep peacefully; she never knew a thing about it.

And the grief is so strong.

I lost my Mum in February, after her 30 year battle with MS. I had lived with her all my 37 years, first as she raised me, and then as I cared for her.

So I had just clawed my way through eight months of intense grief and was finally seeing some light.

Now I feel I am right back at the start. I know this will be a long grieving process. I know that it is compounded by grief for my Mum, and other things that are going on in my life. I don’t want to be here again, but here I am.

All this to say, I am going through extremes of emotions at the moment. My life is loaded with grief. If you are sensitive about the subject, my tag is ‘grief tag’ and if I reblog or post anything else pertaining to pet death, it will be tagged ‘pet death’.

Please bear with me as I go through this painful process, and thank you all for the small interactions we have on tumblr.

Photo of Suki under the cut

[trickster-whim]

I managed to get out of the house the other week and took a walk to Goodwill, and there was kind of a lot of stuff there! But unfortunately for me, I got super sick immediately after. I still wear a mask everywhere I go (I was wearing one on this trip also), and I do try to social distance as much as possible, no movies or restaurants or parties or whatever. But my parents don't. So my parents got covid and gave it to my sister and me, and we've been sick for days.

But that's just me being bitter!! Let's see what Goodwill had for me. (I can barely even remember when this was, so it's gonna be mostly brief, but I'm mostly not sick anymore, so I'm just getting it out of my drafts)

Most tempting was a pile of about a dozen NaNaNa Surprise Maxwell Danes. I wanted to get him when he was in stores, so I obviously picked one up, but unfortunately I didn't need a dozen. At least not for (an admittedly very reasonable) $5.50 each. I don't love his shirt, but I always want more boy dolls, so I'm glad I got one at least.

Why was I so tempted by this little rocking horse?

Good face...

...

This actually made me a little sad to see. I used to be really into Harry Potter before I grew media criticism skills and also JKR went mask off as a terrible person, and I remember being so into the board games. I still miss the style of the first couple books, but now whenever I see HP I mostly just feel jaded and bitter.

(It also reminds me of shopping at KB Toys. I remember digging through bins of discounted Quirrells and trolls, looking for catgirl Hermione... I have some regrets in life, I must say...)

Anyway! There were a lot of tempting fashion dolls in the bagged doll section. I love a Snow White, especially an emotionless mask like this, and there was also a Belle. It's kind of interesting looking at disney dolls from before the very standardized Disney Store or Hasbro/Mattel look of today, if that makes sense. Some of them are just hunks of plastic in the shape of princesses, and some barely resemble their characters at all. I just didn't need any dolls, so I mostly just looked.

Chomp!

I was tempted by these chubby babies...

Hey, good lookin'.

It wasn't actually clear whether the mannequin bottom was for sale or just the jeans, but it did startle me, because we don't have mannequins here.

I found this wedding bag with just... the most comfortable- and happy-looking couple... They look so glad to be there...

Cool tote bag I found. I have no idea where Wheatsville Co-op is, but it's been almost 30 years since this 20 year anniversary.

I think this was a shower curtain, and I gotta say... yellow splotches was a bold choice.

If I had been looking for a table runner, this nwt ouija board one would a been tempting. I think it was $13, though, and I didn't need it.

I think this was a paperweight? It was some sort of architectural blueprint made out of a thick plastic and formed into a sort of ball around a weight. It was kinda quirky, and I'm actually pretty curious about it. It might just be mundane, but I don't think I've ever seen one before.

Gotta take a photo of blowjob cat in the wild.

This skirt was sooo tempting. It was a candy corn dream, but also I didn't want to spend $10 on a skirt. Apparently it originally cost $69 (nice), and I'm not sure why. It is super tempting, though.

There was a CD case hanging up, and these were the only two CDs in the whole book. Sounds like a party.

Was I tempted by this plush bear-dog-thing? Yeah :p But it didn't have a price, and I have too many plushies to bring all of them home, especially if I have to ask someone how much it costs, even if it's vintage... I like the yellow and brown, though. Very bold.

So I didn't get any of that stuff, but I did get:

Wow, what a terrible photos. I got one Maxwell, a copy of The Game of Sunken Places (one of my all-time faves) for the little free library, a stack of DVDs for my sister because she's been looking for them, a Breyer stockhorse, and a free local paper with an advertisement for Sabo, since I wasn't sick then and still thought I'd be going...

And then the next day I got really sick, and I've been sick since. I hadn't had covid before, and again, my sister and I have been trying our best to avoid it, but if our parents are sick, it's hard not to catch it from them. But I'm not trying to be bitter right now! I should be better within a few weeks, and then I'll try to find a vaccine event, and then I'll probably be back thrifting, still in a mask because being sick sucks.

[naturecoaster]

Crystal River CatBoat Adventure Tour with Crystal River Water Sports

“Shall I bring my big camera?” I asked Mike Engiles, the owner and operator of Crystal River Water Sports as we filled out the paperwork for our CatBoat Adventure Tour. He looked directly at me. “You will get wet.” I had driven through a morning downpour on my way to Crystal River Water Sports, located just behind the Days Inn on US 19 on the north end of Florida’s famous manatee town. Was the weather following me? I wondered. “Are these boats easy to flip?” I’d seen people dump themselves from canoes, kayaks, and river tubes, but Mike assured me these uniquely designed CraigCat compact watercraft were very stable.  CraigCats are top-of-the-line, compact yet comfy powerboats and make the perfect eco-tour craft for Florida’s Nature Coast. Crystal River CatBoat Adventure Tour with Crystal River Water Sports I left the big camera behind, donned a lightweight life vest, and boarded the two-seater CatBoat beside NatureCoaster’s own Diane Bedard. The CatBoat trip we signed up for was a 2.5-hour Adventure Tour. Our guide, Mark, took the bright yellow lead boat and the rest of us boarded the aquamarine mini catamarans.   We were pushed off from the floating boat ramp like launching a kayak. “They’re like go-karts on the water,” Diane told me, taking control of the driving. The drivers were given a lesson in maneuvering around in the lagoon in front of the watersports shop. NatureCoaster Diane Bedard and Crystal River Watersports owner and operator MikeEngiles. Photo by Sally White Boater Safety Education You must be 18 or older and have a Florida Boating Education Certificate or be born before January 1st, 1988, to operate the CraigCats. We were notified of this prior to our arrival and given links to the state-approved boater safety courses in the tour email. The least expensive is $10 and lasts 30 minutes. And once you take the course, your certificate is good for 90 days. This is NOT a captain’s license- that’s a whole other ballgame. If you are a resident, you can obtain a lifetime Boating Safety Education ID Card after taking an FWC-approved course. It costs more but lasts longer. My son had taken the boater safety course along with his hunting safety course via Florida Virtual Schools Outdoor Education Course when he was in high school. It’s free to 12–18-year-olds. It was a class he could do online, counted towards a high school credit, and got him a Boating Safety Education ID Card. Driving the CatBoats The CatBoat is essentially a variation of a mini catamaran with two hulls that look a lot like two surfboards, and a central framework on top. Driving it takes two hands, much like those zero-turn riding lawnmowers. On the side is a throttle that you push forward for forward, neutral, and reverse. There is also a center stick to move the rudder to turn the boat left and right. The seats are really comfortable. It's idle speed and no wake zones throughout King's Bay to provide a safer environment for the manatees. Photo by Sally White. Wildlife in Crystal River Preserve State Park We spotted our first manatee, swimming in the lagoon. It came up for air and then disappeared with a swirl of its tail, beneath the depths. We didn’t want to take a chance of injuring it with our CatBoat’s propeller, so we made sure we gave the manatee plenty of space. We followed Mark and the yellow cat leading the way on the waterway from the lagoon. A neighborhood of houses lines one side of the canal and wild parklands on the other. A no-wake zone, it provided the perfect place to master the mini-cat driving skills and s-curves before reaching the river. We rode under the bridge to the Crystal River Archeological State Park, and entered the Crystal River Preserve State Park lands, spotting our first alligator, who sunbathed in a peaceful little cove. We motored through the canal that divides the Crystal River Preserve State Park from the Crystal River Archeological State Park on the Crystal River CatBoat Tour Adventure. Photo by Sally White. The waterway spilled into two ways. To the right was the Mullet Hole fishing spot in the preserve and their kayak launch point, and to the left was the channel that led to Crystal River. We turned left, taking a scenic ride past limestone ledges and cypress trees that lined the edges of the channel. This waterway runs parallel to the Crystal Cove hiking trail in the preserve. Turtles sunned on logs in the muddy water as we motored past a sailboat moored in another lagoon, safe from the elements. An alligator watched nearby, his body submerged, and only his head showing. Mark pointed out the wildlife along the way, communicating through walkie-talkies that we all had been issued at the start. These lightweight devices hung around our necks on lanyards but required pushing a button to talk back, allowing us to talk without airing our conversations to others on the tour. On the River The trees eventually gave way to a sea of sawgrass lining the channel. In the distance, hammocks of palms rose among the grasses to line the horizon in a scene straight from a Florida Highwayman painting. And finally, we reached Crystal River. The trees ended at a sea of sawgrass at the end of the state park channel. We could see the scenic overlook of the Crystal Cove hiking trail from the water. Photo by Sally White. Crystal River is a town, a waterway, and a state of mind. The spring-fed water glistens under the sunlight, making its 7-mile journey out towards Shell Island and the Gulf of Mexico sparkle. “This is where the fun starts,” our guide’s voice said over the walkie-talkie. “You can go full throttle out here.” He turned left onto the river and picked up speed. We followed, the last in our tour’s CatBoat line, and riding the wake of the others like a tandem jet-ski. These go-kart boats can reach speeds of 25mph!   The fresh-water spray misted us and the boat smoothly cut over the waves like a professional surfer. There was no ‘whomp’ like you get from a motorboat. CraigCats proved to be easy riders. The sun rose higher in the sky. It was destined to be another scorcher of a Florida day, but the breeze and the spray kept us cool. We both had sunscreen on and caps, but should we have needed more sun protection, each boat has a shade canopy as well. Between us, a small cooler with cold water was strapped to the deck, and behind us, a secure lock box was fitted to keep additional belongings. Onto Kings Bay CraigCat boats can run up to 25mph, the perfect speed to zip up the river. Photo by Sally White.  We sped past a trawler and up to the No Wake sign at the entrance to King’s Bay, where our guide waited to explain the next portion of our trip.  The No-Wake zones around Crystal River and throughout Kings Bay protect ecologically sensitive areas and for manatees. We followed the lead boat in an idle past Christmas Island and Pete’s Pier, where Mark gave us a run-down on the story behind the holiday-named island. The former resident of the island didn’t rely on local utilities, because, it was an island, so when the No Name storm swept through, it knocked out all the power in the area. The island lights, run by a generator, were the only lights on around, twinkling like Christmas lights in the night. Pete's Pier and Marina provided a useful waypoint in Kings Bay during our tour up the various waterways in Crystal River. Photo by Sally White. Hunter Springs & Caging the Grass We idled past Hunter Springs where families watched our colorful boat parade from the sandy beach as we curved around the second magnitude spring, one of 30 named springs that feed Kings Bay and Crystal River with its crystal-clear fresh water. Local fifth graders recently aided in planting seagrass in the shallows at the park. Read about it here. The aquatic grass is then caged with circular metal cages which are left in place until the plants establish their roots. Native seagrass provides vital food for manatees, helps water clarity, and provides shelter for the aquatic animals of the river. Save Crystal River partnered with local schools to engage 5th graders in the ecology and restoration of seagrass at Hunter Springs. Photo by Sally White. Just past Hunter Spring, near Jurassic Spring we rounded a small island of trees. Nesting cormorants filled the trees. Other cormorants and anhinga birds dried their wings from their island roosts and watched us idle past. Outside the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge We backtrack to Pete’s Pier, an unmistakable waypoint in the bay, and take another channel under a bridge. This way leads us alongside the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge. We reach the entrance into the Three Sister’s Springs, a crystal-clear pool consisting of three spring vents, but closed to boats. Just near the entrance channel into the springs is the famous Idiot’s Delight Spring Basin consisting of the three freshwater main springs that entice the winter gathering for hundreds of manatees. When the gulf water temperatures drop below 64F, manatees must seek warmer water to survive, and they head to the 72F springs. The springs maintain their temperature year-round, but in winter, 72F feels warm. We idled by Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, home to several freshwater springs and the world-famous wintering hole for manatees. Photo by Sally White. These springs around the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge are roped off during the manatee wintering from November to March, depending on the temperatures, but there are no manatees in sight here today. We idle back to Kings Bay, passing kayakers and paddleboarders, and head out of the No Wake zone for some wave-riding down the river. It’s wind, sun, and spray out here, almost like a Jimmy Buffet song. Passing the Chieftain’s Mound at the Crystal River Archeological State Park, the yellow lead CatBoat slows to turn into the channel at the Crystal River Preserve State Park and stops to wait for us all to catch up. Beginning our ride back to the launch point, we keep an eye out for the gators we had seen on the way out, but they have moved on by now. The fallen tree beside the sailboat has become an afternoon turtle haven. Crystal River Watersports CatBoat Tour boats are available for guided tours daily by appointment. Image by Sally White. Mark gives us directions on parking our CatBoats and docks up first. The next boat does a smooth park up the ramp, but both us and the other CatBoat have to try it twice, before doing a perfect slide up the ramp, much like kayaking up a launch. And just in time for lunch as well. Located at 2380 N Suncoast Blvd in Crystal River, (Behind the Days Inn), Crystal River Watersports is one of the area's most established tour operators, with over 20 years of experience. They combine their eco-tours with Florida fun. Read the full article