#how to draw Schroeder

[phonedidion]

idk man. that one white boy who don't play about beethoven

[ar-cadez]

He's so talented.. (Infodump and explanation under the cut)

I'm hyperfixated on Peanuts and I recently watched "Play it Again, Charlie Brown" and he plays guitar in it!! And he's good!! Not like outstanding but he's good!! That's a huge success for this boy. (Also, Pigpen plays drums) so that's where the inspiration is from.

Also, I'm reading the comic chronologically and it's actually pretty interesting how many times he's practiced and played string instruments (he is NOT good there tho) there were two strips very early on about him learning violin (and sucking)

and these strips are actually the first mention of Beethoven in the comic before Schroeder was even introduced which is pretty interesting to me. Does it mean nothing? Yes. Am I Intreqed nonetheless? Yes.

There is a bit of evidence to suggest Charlie Brown does have a bit of musical knowledge/ability.

There are some more I have in mind but I'm receiving these as I write this and it's rather tedious.. But yeah how does a four year old know the difference between Beethoven and tschaikowsky? I can't even spell that without looking.

That's not to say that Charlie Brown is terribly knowledgeable on the subject, I kinda see it as him introducing Schroeder to something he finds a passing interest in and Schroeder, the autist he is, completely and totally fixating on it. He did canonically introduce him to piano actually !

Another example of him playing the violin, though it's a toy, is in this Sunday strip. I think there's one or two more of them playing together as a duo. I'm pretty sure in one of them it's a guitar and not a violin but I'm sure it's the same darn cigar box either way. (I like early Charlie Brown's ego quite a lot. He kinda got the confidence beaten out of him over the years. I can relate to that.)

I wanna draw him and Schroeder sometime bc Charlie Brown was very supportive of him when he was younger (the comics above do not prove that I promise he's very nice to the baby most of the time. Not so much with Lucy...) and ik that's like.. Retconned, but I think its rather cute and who's going to come at me over peanuts canonisity? Nobody. Anyway, that's why I drew white boy with a guitar.

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Sponsored by “Snicker-Snacks”) – December 1957

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.

December 3, 1957

Their relationship continues to fascinate me. What did you ~DO~ to her, Charlie Brown!?

December 4, 1957

God dammit, he’s spiraling again. I’ll get the hose.

December 5, 1957

It’s interesting to watch the way Schulz draws birds start to shift. At first they were fairly photo-realistic but now they’re beoming much more cartoonish, rounded and simplified. You can kind of see how this will eventually lead to Woodstock.

December 6, 1957

They LIKE you, you idiot.

December 8, 1957

I appreciate both Charlie Brown’s honesty and the fact that it’s Linus who wants to see Lucy get her ass beat the most.

December 10, 1957

This might actually be the funniest way to start a letter to Santa.

December 21, 1957

The impression I get from this story-line is that Schroeder ugly cried over missing Beethoven's birthday multiple times.

December 23, 1957

I mean...

Thoughts:

I'm not dead! I was just out of town and buried in work for a while (still kind of am, actually).

Let's pick up where we left off with our year-end wrap-up. This time we're focusing on...

Violet!

(Feb) 1951

(Dec) 1951

1952

1953

1954

1955

1956

1957

Violet is interesting to me because of all the main cast members her personality changes the most over the course of these early years. She's introduced as this sort of kindhearted counterpoint to Patty and functioned for a while as both as a friend for Charlie Brown (which as we're seeing is very important to keep things from getting too bleak) and as a way for Schulz to talk about relationships through a kid's perspective. Over time though the role of "friend" started getting taken over by Lucy (and later Linus) and as a result her relationship with Charlie Brown morphed from "Charlie Brown's girlfriend" to "Charlie Brown's bitter ex", and I kind of love the dynamic. She also became Patty's BFF at some point in this process which is probably a large part of why Patty sticks around for so much longer than Shermy, who feels vestigial and unconnected to most of the cast.

Her design also changed to reflect this shift with her going from long pigtails to a short, more conservative ponytail. Though that seems to have stabilized a lot since around 1955 with the only real changes being her overall look squashing and stretching in-line with the overall style changes.

Speaking of the overall style, the changes have slowed down a lot this year with only slight shifts in the direction of simplicity, minimalism, and a greater reliance on recurring "out-of-the-box" poses to save time. On the positive side though, we're also seeing looser and more emotive expressions and a continued shift to jokes about specific character traits rather than broad observations about kids/dogs/etc. It's something you really notice with Linus's continued growth from a generic little kid with a few quirks into a proper character. We're also seeing Snoopy continue to elongate and he's now walking upright regularly. Which I'm still not a huge fan of but I do think it's starting to look better as time goes on.

Overall I'd say I like this year more than the last one, but still not as much as that sweet spot we got between 1952 and 1954. Not bad by any means, but we've lost a lot of what I loved about those first few years and the strengths the strip will eventually develop in their place aren't fully baked just yet.

[loveephia]

lucille "lucy" van pelt in the 8th grade. (,,・3・)

i gave her the 2015 peanuts movie's colour palette because it's pretty iconic, imo! i can't draw fingers for the LIFE of me, so just have those boxes for now. i wanted to give her dress a little upgrade, so with a few swipes on pinterest, i found a bit of inspo. she looks super adorable! ^^

not gonna lie, i'm pretty happy with how she turned out! maybe i'll draw schroeder next ┐(' _`;)┌..

[bunnyjoyce-blog]

hello!! i'm assuming you're zabbieq on ao3 :D??

because if so, i wanted to just geek out a bit over your delightful schrucy fic!! i'm always looking forward to the next chapter!! i can't even BEGIN with how much i adore your writing. there were so many moments where i had to pause from reading to fully take it all in, especially this part:

like-- seriously, it hit me so hard that i had to take a minute break just to calm myself down HAHHAHAHA

here's an additional gift, HIHIHI:

schroeder with his camera and lucy with a reviewer for her upcoming debate! i figured that lucy may have grown her hair out a bit after some time (the ribbon being her iconic shade of blue of courseee). ALSO i literally cannot draw fingers or hands for the LIFE OF ME HAHAHAHAHA

aaand that's all i wanted to say!!

may God bless you always ;D!!

THANK YOU!!!!! 💖🎉 This was such a nice surprise! Thank you for sharing your artwork! :D I really appreciate it (and I don’t mean that as a cliche)!

God bless you too for your nice encouragement :D

[re-locative]

Making an app feel like a place: real-time, persistence, pictures and words

The first room in Experiment 2.

I've always been fascinated with apps that convey a sense of things happening "in the same place." From Minecraft servers to shared Google documents, many virtual platforms seem to foster a sense of shared geography by virtue of their design.

Ever since the research survey, I feel like I'm approaching a sense of what makes a virtual platform feel like a place, and the most succinct way to state those insights thus far is that it's a combination of:

Real-time

Persistence

Pictures, and

Words.

To break this down a little: the platform should support a back and forth of interactions between users who are present at the same time. This makes up what some refer to as co-presence (Schroeder, 2002). It should also support scattered, accumulative interactions between users who are not present at the same time. Changes made by one person should alter the app's state for everyone else, but also remain in place for subsequent users to see and engage with.

As for what media actually gets sent/placed in an app like this, this varies massively across platforms with different aims, but for something to feel like a place, it seems that the minimum is a combination of both spatial (i.e. visual or positional) and precise (textual) communication. (While media types aren't the focus of this post, it's a curious hunch that I will explore later.)

All of these traits would ideally be woven together into a single continuous interaction experience (rather than separate texting, drawing and streaming features, for example). The user does the rest of the work: the feeling of place emerges from what they do with the platform.

And it largely cannot be forced. But when it happens, it can be exciting.

---

So, let's start designing a place-like app from first principles!

It's easy to take for granted all the design elements needed to project an app's capabilities. People don't automatically "buy into" the synchronicity and asynchronicity of an app: it must be built to telegraph these features. They must be made aware that:

There are others are "present" on the same platform,

Their actions are being broadcast to all concurrent users as they happen, and,

Their changes won't simply vanish after the browser is closed.

#3 seems complex to telegraph, but it is actually the easiest solved. New users should be introduced to the app via an instance (document, room, world, whatever) that is not blank. Ideally, it would already been altered in deliberate ways.

Oftentimes, having something already there is simply the natural result of a user bringing a friend into the experience, but if you're the one launching it, you might want to put something clearly hand-made in the very first instance you publish, an exemplar to "seed" the possibilities of the app. Approach it playfully.

Now for the pricklier part. We would like our place-like app to feel synchronous, so it should update in real time. What are some ways to do this?

While I don't want to bring too much jargon into this, we can't really discuss this in abstract without at least touching on what technologies are available to us.

Before the PhD, all my synchronous apps worked by polling a server. For lightweight apps without much of a userbase, it does the job. It's how my first PhD related web project, Two Map, works, actually. An app that tacitly plots movement on a map, it sends your location data back to a server and retrieves any updates since the last call.

(My supervisor called this a "stalker app," which isn't wrong! I figured that any location-based app I made would have to explicitly request consent from the user before starting, or give the option to pick a location. But that for another post.)

But polling a server becomes a problem if more people are using an app and too many simultaneous updates emerge as a real concern.

The most accessible solution for web development is websockets, and for ease I went with Pusher, which lets you set up a websocket server with a free plan + paid tiers scaling to number of messages a day. Most programming languages/libraries that interface with the internet support TCP or UDP sockets in some form and one can pick based on needs and resources.

Whatever the protocol used, these are low-overhead connections that are kept open between app instances to relay very short segments of data - enough, usually, for you to convey and update positioning, URL pointers, and text content, or to signal for an app to refresh.

Pretty cool! But beyond the technicalities, we also need to think about how to show users that this open connection exists. The easiest and perhaps most obvious is real-time visual updates. A user adds something to the page, that thing shows up on everyone's page.

But what happens for a user who's using the app at a time when no one else is online?

That seems little outside of one's control, but there actually is a way to telegraph synchronicity even then: by letting past concurrent users record their synchronous interactions in a clear, textual way.

From the first board in Experiment 3.

This is where the persistence of communicative features is paramount: if a user sees something pop up, they can react immediately with text or an image, and said reaction is preserved on the canvas. This demonstrates to fellow users, present and future, that the interaction happened as a back and forth!

Future users may not necessarily come to this conclusion from seeing past interactions, but it certainly doesn't hurt to support it.

Finally, there are more explicit ways to show that there are other people around, from user icons in a corner, to a "N users online" slug, to cursors or avatars on the page. These are often collectively called presence indicators in corporate speak.

I like to employ spatialised presence indicators (like cursors that show "where" other users' cursors are), but implementing realtime cursor indicators can be heavy on the TCP/UDP server, so since I am lacking a budget, I settle for an indicator that updates when the user makes a significant interaction (e.g. clicking the canvas to open a form).

As with everything else, this requires buy-in from the users. They need to want to play with it! There are ways to invite play, and that could be the subject of another post. But set up the platform right, and you're at least delivering an open invitation for such interactions.

That's all for today - thanks for reading! I'm excited to delve into each of the experiments in more detail next.

[audreys-art-dump]

I’m trying to work on more polished sketches because my sketches tend to lean toward illegible for anyone but me and I only know how to feel happy about "finished" pieces. So here’s a drawing of my OC Schroeder (but it’s really just a drawing of a reference pic from Pinterest)

[nostalgic-manatee]

I see you like the veggies a lot XD What other fandoms are you into? :>

Yes, I love the veggies, but I'm into other stuff too!

I'm into a bunch of Nintendo games (Mario, Kirby, Animal Crossing, etc), especially Mario. I'm really big into the Mario & Luigi RPG series for... Uh...

For the... Gameplay...

I'm also a huge Peanuts fan and I'm also a fan of Dog Sees God (a Peanuts parody play), which is weird because a lot of Peanuts fans despise it haha. It's Peanuts but dark, angsty and gay. It's an acquired taste.

It starts off at Snoopy's funeral and Lucy's in a psych ward for setting a girl's hair on fire, if that gives you an impression of how dark it gets, so don't say I didn't warn you. I don't like what they did with Peppermint Patty, Marcy and Linus though. I'm mostly in it for Charlie and Schroeder.

I got tired of drawing, so here's a list of some other things I'm into:

- Scott Pilgrim

- Starkid musicals (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals/Black Friday and Twisted, mostly)

- Bare a Pop Opera (musical)

- Starry the Musical

- Drawn to Life (1st and 2nd game, the 3rd is garbage I'm sorry)

And the Christian produce, of course. A lot of the fandoms for the stuff I'm into are mostly dead, sadly, but that won't stop me from making fanart for them in the future.

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

Sonic Prime AU: Sally & Nelly Acorn (2023)

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

[Note: Please Don't Reblog This Without My Permission]

Credit for Sonic The Hedgehog goes to Sega

Credit for Sonic Prime Series goes to Sega & Netflix

Credit for Archie-Sonic The Hedgehog goes to Archie Comics

Credit for Princess Sally Acorn goes to Madeline Schroeder

---------

the idea of these two becoming a family, would be more of a Fanon Sonic Prime AU idea… you know, the whole Neo-Sally could of worked, I'm still gonna call her Nelly….because you got Neo and Sally. and when you take the "Ne" from Neo and "lly" from Sally, you get Nelly.

also hopefully Sally will appear again in the future, Ken Penders didn't even make her, or even Fiona Fox or Mina Mongoose… so Sally, Fiona Fox, Mina Mongoose, Rotor The Walrus, Bunnie, Antoine and Nicole should return in the future… plus how Scourge The Hedgehog came to be should be retconned, to make it so that he isn't the same Anti-Sonic that was introduced by Ken Penders.

was it Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante that redesigned Anti-Sonic as Scourge, so even if originally Scourge was suppose to be a Anti-Sonic, he can still be retconned and no longer be Anti-Sonic. and even if they do retcon Scourge where he is no longer Anti-Sonic, they might have to give the news to Ken Penders and explain to him, so he can fully understand.

if Scourge does get retconned, he would be born with Green Fur and Light Blue Eyes, he will still look the same and even have the twin marks that was originally caused by Locke…will instead be caused by something else and it happen during the Classic Timeline Days, so his younger self would look a little like Classic-Sonic, but Green and wearing a black leather jacket…

but before he had on a black leather jacket with flames, it just had a Eggman Empire Logo in the back of it.

and before he gets his red sunglasses, he could of had a dark blue sunglasses.

Scourge could still end up having the leather jacket with flames, but it could also still have the Eggman Empire Logo in the back of it. even if some might not agree with it, but retconning Scourge where he is no longer Anti-Sonic, might be one of the ways for him to return, even if it only starts out in IDW-Sonic The Hedgehog.

I also want to say that in this drawing, it has Princess Sally Alicia Acorn, has Sonic The Hedgehog as her Crush.

but I think that even if she does have a crush on him, she knows it really wouldn't be his thing, and she would rather just be his friend and not try to get him to be her boyfriend.

maybe she could of told him about her crush on him but knowing that he would rather be friends, and she cares more about their friendship than trying to get him to love her in the romantic way. Sally's Romantic Identity is Heteroromantic in this drawing, while her Sister Neo-Sally aka "Nelly" who was originally created as Mecha-Sally and who's creator is Doctor Eggman… her Romantic Identity is Sapphic and her Crush is Nicole…

I wonder if it's weird to not really be a big fan of Ken Penders but still like his characters, I mean things could of gone better, and yeah some fans could of at first been fully on his side at first, but then figure out what was going on, and how he was acting….

and what he was doing, might of not really been for the best. Sally along with Bunnie, Rotor and Muttski made cameo appearances in the Sonic Spinball game, and the info about that game is that it was developed by the American members of Sega Technical Institute in association with Polygames. don't know if Sally, Bunnie, Rotor and Muttski ever made any other cameos in any other Sonic Games, but it be nice if they appeared in the future along with Antoine and Nicole.

if Muttski ever appeared in Sonic Prime, he could be in his robot form and be like the pet dog of Doctor Don't & Doctor Babble… like picture if Muttski got hurt, we have seen how Doctor Babble got when one of his toys got broken, now picture both him and Doctor Don't getting really mad if Muttski got hurt.

both Doctor Don't and Babble could love Muttski, and even have him bite Doctor Deep on his butt just for the fun of it, which Doctor Deep could really hate when they tell their robot-dog to bite him on the butt.

it might make a lot of sense, if Princess Sally Alicia Acorn, was in fact a Short-Tailed Squirrel, while Neo-Sally aka fan nicknamed "Nelly" is a Chipmunk.

the outfit that Sally is wearing (not talking about Nelly), is the same as the one I had posted before, only with some slight differences.

the jacket is given a different look to it, but it is still basically the same.

also even if it doesn't have the flags of them on this drawing, it still mentions that Sally is Heteroromantic & Nelly is Sapphic, so I still put the tags for heteroromantic and sapphic for this drawing.

I like the idea that the two versions of Sally become like sisters, and I think I like calling the one that use to be Mecha-Sally, as "Nelly" and they could of made the idea of her not being the real Sally work...

anyway I'm going to write and post a Sonic Prime Theory next.

hope some like the Sonic Prime design for Sally, ya know the one that isn't Nelly....her outfit is suppose to be what she wears when she ends up in New Yoke City, or maybe she always had that outfit on before falling into New Yoke City....if she did end up in the other worlds, her outfit and might not even change like it does for Sonic.

she could of still needed the regulators to stabilize herself because she ends up giving off the same energy that Sonic and the Prisms do.

[eraserheadadult]

im not going to name names & i truly have no beef with this person (their art is good!) but there is only one other artist on ths website who draws teenage versions of peanuts characters and theyre mainly into shipping lucy and schroeder. its so funny to me how we are interested in the same absurdly specific niche thing but not in any way that matters

[tomoleary]

Charles Schulz Drawing of His ''Peanuts'' Characters From 1957 -- Includes Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus & Schroeder.

Is this the genesis of the kite-eating tree? How did autocorrect get that reference.

[kcuf-ad]

For the fic ask: 1, 11 and 25

Hello, V! Give me a sec.

Answer 1:

“Tomorrow after our interview?” asked Theodore which they thought about that, “It is getting late so, I thought about going to bed. Is that alright with everyone?” 

Answer 11:

Shi... give me a sec to look at Docs if I do not count Bring The Heat...

I GOT IT!

The Supreme King Of Awesomely Cool Shadows, which is basically making fun of every single Yugioh GX Fanfiction Trope. You name it, it is there. I have written this so far:

"Jaden Yuki-Muto-Kaiba-Wheeler-Gardner-Taylor-Devlin-Underwood-Raptor-Pegasus-Ishtar-Ryou-von Schroeder-Keith-Dartz-Hawkins-Valentine-Tsunami-Wong-Brisbane-Fudo-Tsukumo-Sakaki-Fujiki…

2 Minutes Later

Uzumaki-Uchiha-Haruno-Sarutobi-Hatake-Hyuuga-Inuzuka-Akimichi-Yamanaka-Namikaze-Hozuki-Otsutsuki-Senju-Nara-Gojo-Geto-Iori-Ieri-Itadori-Fushiguro-Kugisaki-Sukuna-Zenin-Okkotsu-Kamo-Grinberryall-Silva-Vermillion-Swing-Voltia-Roulacase-Vaude-Enoteca-Yami-Staria-Agrippa-Zogratis…

10 Minutes Later

Kamado-Agatsuma-Kibutsuji-Tsugikuni-Shinazugawa-Tomioka-Kocho-Uzui-Kurosaki-Abarai-Yasutora-Ushida-Kuchiki-Kenpachi was walking towards the Kaiba dome like he owned the planet with his extremely emoish walk that looked like he had a stick up his ass."

And there is more, like making fun of the whole harem shtick, copy and pasting the duels and script, how he looks like, how everyone acts towards him and more.

Answer 25:

Well I like to watch anime, ride my bike, walk my dog, try to draw (Haven't drawn shit for like a month), help my dad with his buisness and lately I am trying to get my driver's license.

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (The Dark Souls of comic strip reading assignments) – June 1956

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.

June 3, 1956

I would freaking ~love~ the ability to accurately see/remember what I draw in the air like some kind of psychic sketchbook. I’d take that superpower before laser vision. 

June 5, 1956

Huh, apparently this was a real thing and still exists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beethovenhalle

Seems nice (on the inside).

June 8, 1956

You probably don’t know that name but you’ve DEFINITELY heard his music at some point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Foster

And yes, there is in fact a Stephen Foster memorial which still exists to this day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Foster_Memorial

Also seems nice (on both the inside and outside.)

June 9, 1956

That bust tells Schroeder to set fires, doesn’t it?

June 14, 1956

It's low-hanging fruit but I need to follow my heart on this one:

June 19, 1956

That is actually quite concerning.

June 22, 1956

This was how you hornyposted before the internet. 

[the-technorats]

"good grief, ferb, i know what we're gonna do today,"

or my thoughts on how phineas and ferb is a timely adaptation of peanuts, and what it means that snoopy is trending again

so i had this thought a while ago and never had the time to elaborate upon it in my head, but Phineas and Ferb is modern day/21st century Peanuts, not only in media and character archetype, but in theme and message.

as for visually/technically, both are obviously 2D illustrations with very brief, episodic stories that are usually stand-alone but occasionally follow a broader arc, which is ofc true of many/most comics/cartoons. they both have pretty stylized character designs and super strong shape language (though in peanuts, the shape language is for the characters overall, while in p&f, the shape language is for the individual characters). anyway these are not very specific to the integrity of the media themselves, just common similarities. onto the real meat and potatoes:

both are media made for younger audiences but still funny for older ones, featuring a gang of kids who get up to shenanigans and are rarely/never in school or subject to their parents' or teachers' wills. the characters mostly function as adults though they are depicted as children, which is extremely important to the content overall. both feature a seemingly average kid (charlie brown/phineas) and another kid with whom he has a fraternal relationship (linus/ferb); they face the world together while their aggressive, violent older sister (lucy/candace) antagonizes them. that sister (lucy/candace) has a crush on a blonde dude who doesn't really give much of a fuck (schroeder/jeremy), so she spends her time talking about personal issues with other people (the psychiatrist is IN/talking to stacy on the phone). they have a dopey-looking, unassuming pet whom they think does nothing but lie around and eat all day but who actually gets up to crime-fighting shenanigans in a world the rest of the characters don't know they're living in (fighting the red baron//o.w.c.a./the agency/"agent p.").

there are obviously some p big differences; p&f has an overarching villain and the stakes are much higher for the kids (getting caught by parents, the law, etc) which ofc stems from the fact that the kids are simply doing larger scale things than playing baseball and chatting existentialism on a brick wall, but that has much to do with the time period; charles schultz drawing peanuts in the 50s and onwards reflects the nihilism of the post-war era, and p&f reflects the y2k end-of-the-world-via-technology sentiment as well as the changes in domestic life/security post-9/11. however, i think the similarity lies in the way that the artists chose to react to the time period and its sociopolitics - with abstract/whimsical absurdist themes told through the lens of children who express their childhood and adulthood in different ways but make similar arguments.

there is also, beyond the characters and logistics, the sweet overarching theme of growing up; charlie brown and the gang are very much adult-minded children who think and say a lot and seldom act like children or experience childhood. rerun, linus and lucy van pelt's little brother who makes more of an appearance in the later Peanuts comics, (and putting aside that utterly devastating name - being a product of the silent generation is a cruel joke) spends most of his time on the back of his mom's bicycle contemplating his own existence. him and the the rest of the peanuts characters being children, however, allows them to largely exist outside of societal norms: lucy does not face the drawbacks of being a woman in the 1950's and instead is a little girl who expresses her feminine rage as a big sister who threatens her brother and his friends, and more often than not, follows through. wonderfully, it is possible for her to be feared by peers, funny to audiences, and respected by both, all while maintaining her femininity. (she is expressly not a tomboy and instead to be considered a lady, ever the contrast to peppermint patty, the obvious tomboy, who is depicted as funny and boyish as a girl without any sexism or toxic masculinity.) moreover, and to return to the general point, none of the children face responsibility - from their parents or from school; even the act of taking of care of a dog, which charlie brown does, is offset by snoopy's own clear independence and autonomy - he could ostensibly live on his own, but it is his choice, because of the companionship, because of home, to stay with charlie brown and the kids.

p&f, though similar in theme, has a much more slapstick approach where, though the kids are subject to their parents' generous, unaware limitations as well as city laws and ordinances, they truly exercise - and push - the extent of their free rein by inexplicably building anything as small as a goofy contraption to anything as large-scale as a roller coaster, all while evading candace's attempts to sabotage their fun by getting the parents involved. candace's continued failure proves the importance of the kids' freedom to the message of the show - while phineas and ferb may be 'getting away with it,' they are supposed to, you are supposed to want them to. just like in peanuts, at no point is one of the themes or morals to abide by rules or even to do the right thing - the apparent time they have to spend and how they choose to spend it is always the priority. lucy will never get in trouble for pulling away the football or decking her brother; phineas and ferb will not face actionable consequences from the city or their parents, especially not because of candace. candace, who, in fact, could be having much more valuable experiences with her friends or her crush were she not so hellbent on "busting" her brothers (and who, also, must be suffering big-time from being the tragic eldest daughter, but that's a different essay).

-

peanuts experiences time in something of a limbo. the children are clearly children, yet are ageless, though some are clearly younger than others. (their vocabularies are far too extensive for being as young as one might assume, and therefore indicate nothing.) school exists in certain strips, but not in others, and the changing of the seasons is apparent though this only serves to change the atmosphere of the kids' given activity and not to depict the passage of time in any meaningful way. time is endless. the characters are jaded, melancholy, existential adults in kid bodies representing the desire for self-awareness within the innocence and freedom of childhood. (and this might be a different essay, but vince guaraldi's jazz being the theme and score of the peanuts animation adaptations of the comics matches the dichotomy of the characters' youth and improvisation with the pensive sophistication of maturity.)

phineas and ferb experiences time in much the opposite manner - unlike the quiet peanuts panels of autumn leaves blowing by, or gracefully gliding over a frozen pond, p&f episodes fly by in a frenzy of creation and destruction - the ambition to do, see, and become everything running rampant over the course of a hundred and four days. however, phineas and ferb may be juxtaposed with charlie brown and linus as they do engage in the world around them; instead of escaping from a cruel world with wars and injustice to a smaller bubble where, with childhood, comes freedom and escape from the adult world, phineas and ferb want to escape the monotony of the smaller bubble where, with childhood, comes the confines of parents and rules and instead bring their childhood to the freedom and autonomy of being an adult.

so what's the point? i'm not exactly sure. (my major is lit analysis and not culture/media analysis, for reasons becoming increasingly unclear.) but with the resurgence of snoopy's popularity and what i think i personally have been witnessing of the youth's disillusionment with the world around them, perhaps the pensive melancholy of a generation being overexposed to death, genocide - violence overall - would be creeping back up over the ambitious enthusiasm and desire that preceded it, since that generation has witnessed and continues to witness the aftermath of an appetite for technology and progression left unchecked and used for personal gain. we've seen people try to phineas-and-ferb a better future, and we've seen that fail so utterly and catastrophically - and fail upward, nonetheless. it makes sense to need to resort back to reminding ourselves of the quiet intimacies. to reconnect with ourselves and think about what it really means to be here, existing, if everything real, in the world around us that we're intentionally shutting out, is miserable and corrupt and lost (and far too fucking expensive to live in).

phineas and ferb gives me hope, though. (one, that disney can write shows that are creative and funny with appropriate and positive messaging for children (and adults!) that actively discourage being a nark.) and for, more importantly, the kids watching, who will hopefully learn that their creative and passion-driven endeavors are important to the world that they are helping to shape, like it or not, and that the empathy and whimsy and desire for goodness (moral goodness, but also creating a quality of life that is good, where creation for the sake of the community is valued over creation for the sake of profit generation, (fucking obviously)) they possess as children need to be a part of their adulthood - and that maybe, the delineation between the two need not exist at all. maybe, that generations prior to ours created adult problems for their own children - that those children as a result did not get to experience their own childhoods, and that in trying to grow up too fast, they couldn't grow up at all - that there should be less of a distinction between childhood and adulthood now than ever before - that we lose the complete honesty and bald-headed truth of being a child when we think we are lost to adulthood - that we need joy and self-awareness and creativity and autonomy and community and best friends and security blankets - and that none of those are exclusive to childhood or adulthood - maybe that is the point.

[cileevi]

The Speed Of Pain: Mischief

Chapter Three

London, England

New Years' Eve 1997

Charlotte

It's so damned cold outside. The coldest day of this winter as a matter of fact. Which means I've been inside all day in my pajamas reading a script my agent sent me and drinking hot cocoa. The movie is called Pleasantville. I don't know if the role is a good fit for me honestly. It's about a brother and sister who get sent into a nineteen-fifties sitcom. Not really something I'm into.

I also have scripts for two animated movies. Both are about bugs funnily enough. Between the two, A Bugs Life is the clear winner. Princess Atta is kick ass and I love the story. 

I'm also about to start recording a demo so hopefully, I'll be very busy come nineteen ninety-eight. Blowing hot breath across the window pane I draw a heart on the glass. It looks terribly gloomy outside. I love this time of year though. Aimie, Kelly, Jack, and I have been sledding every day this week with the auto sleds Dad got us for Christmas. 

We had a good one this year. In fact, the only thing that would have made it better is if Marilyn could have joined us. After Ozzfest ended he shocked the hell out of me by asking if I would join him on the Canadian leg of his Dead To The World tour. 

As you could imagine I didn't say no. After that night in Vegas, we became inseparable. Until now that is. He's finishing up the rest of the tour and then heading to L.A. to record the next album. I guess I'm just a bit conflicted with the thought of not seeing him for a while.  

It's left me very confused in many ways. Clearly, he's into me, but as of yet hasn't made a move. There were a couple of times I was seconds away from doing it myself, but every damn time someone would interrupt us. It has me all kinds of confused and bewildered. 

" I know that look. " Sharon says nearly scaring me to death. " You're missing him, yes? "

She laughs at my expression. " He hasn't called. I know I could have stayed with him, but I wanted to spend this time with you guys. Do you think he's angry? "

" Of course not. I think he's busy. This tour is a big deal for him and the band. Don't you worry, he'll call soon you'll see. Now have you made a decision on what movie you want? " 

" A Bugs Life. " I tell her with a shrug. 

Smiling fondly at me she says, "Somehow I knew you'd pick this one. Come now, it's almost time to prepare for the party. "

The party she's speaking of is just a family affair. Home-made pizza, cupcakes, and booze for the adults. A proper Osbourne New Year in London. 

...

Dad takes a piece of freshly cut pizza off of the tray and juggles it back and forth in his hands. He blows on it a few times before taking a bite. 

" It's a bit too hot. " He says with a burnt tongue while Aimie and Jack laugh. 

I give him a " really? " look. " You just saw me take that tray out of the oven and cut it. "

" Oh, fuck off Schroeder. " He says with a wave of his hand. 

Shaking my head I turn back around to see Kelly running into the kitchen. " Marilyn's on the phone. He wants to talk to you. " 

" Thanks, Kels. Keep an eye on the pizza in the oven. " I say before heading up into my room. Picking the receiver up, I clicked line five. " Hello? "

Took you long enough. 

I could say the same thing to him but don't. " Are you trying to be cheeky? "

I'm all cheek, honey. How was your Christmas? 

" It was great. I got to see my other brothers and sister. " I'm talking about Jessica, Elliot, and Lewis of course. All three are older than I am and we never get to see each other. "  It's always fun when all the Osbourne kids get together. "

Uh-huh, now tell me how much you miss me.

No, he did not. There's no way I'm that transparent that he could pick up on it over the phone. 

"Conceited much? " I joke. 

Maybe I just want to know that I'm not the only one feeling separation anxiety.

My heart jumps in my chest and I have to be honest. " I really miss you... More than I thought I would actually. " 

Now was that so hard?  

I stick my tongue out knowing he can't see me. 

You didn't just do what I think you did.  

" I don't know what you're talking about. " I say faking nonchalantness. 

I want to see you... What do I need to do to make that happen?

" Clarification. " I say quickly before I can take it back.

On what?

" On us. " I answer and I swear he's silently laughing on the other end. 

Us?

I roll my eyes. " Yeah. You know what I mean. " 

Does my girlfriend really need clarification? 

I roll my eyes. " Was that so hard? " I throw back in his face. 

 Nope. You've been mine since Vegas. Hell, all I've been able to think about is you since we separated, happy now? The band has been in hell since Canahda. ( his own weird pronunciation of the country )They're all confused as fuck. It's pretty funny actually.

Now that is funny. I can see him being such a dick from the rest of the band for kicks. 

" Okay. When? " I ask not being able to wait. 

Right now. Come downstairs. 

I can feel my forehead wrinkle in confusion. " What? " 

You heard me

Click

Running back downstairs I go from room to room before finding everyone eating without me. Marilyn turns around and gives me a mischievous smile

that makes me want to melt into a puddle. Damn, what is this man doing to me? 

His smile widens when he realizes the effect he's having. Kelly gives me the same mischievous grin and everything clicks. She set me up. 

" This pizza is delicious. " He says before taking another bite of his slice. 

Kelly smiles proudly. " Lotty and I made it. " 

" She cooks too? " He asks her in mock shock. " Where's the Parson when you need him? " 

I know he isn't making a marriage joke because of my cooking. I do feel a bit proud though. He barely eats any other time. I will note that he finished his first piece and is now starting on a second. A feeling of triumph flows through me.

" My mom and I took a cooking class when I was in high school. I've been teaching Kelly the basics because lord knows she won't learn from this one. " I say pointing at Sharon. 

She makes no excuses. " I prefer to lend my talents elsewhere. " 

Getting a couple of pieces of pizza I sit in between Jack and Kelly. Looking over at dad, he's chowing down on his food and not the least interested in the conversation. 

" We even made brownies for dessert. " Kelly tells him before lifting the lid off of the display tray in the center of the table. 

He looks at the treats like a crackhead looks at the crack. " I'm not going to fit into my clothes anymore after this visit. " He says as he swipes one of the brownies off of the tray.

" Good. " Sharon says as she fills everyone's glass with red wine. " You're too thin. It will do you some good to let Charlotte fatten you up a bit. " 

Subtle Sharon, real subtle. 

<>

After eating I take Marilyn on a tour of the house. It's actually very beautiful and I love getting to come out here. We end up in the grandiose studio sharing a piano bench facing each other and chatting. 

" You could have told me you were coming. " I say when there's a lull in the conversation.

Resting his hands on my thighs he leans in closer. " I wanted to surprise you. Besides, we missed Christmas and I wanted to give you your gift. " 

I cock my head as he pulls out a small wrapped package from the inside of his jacket. " You didn't have to get me anything. " 

" It isn't much, but I think you'll like it. " He says as I unwrap the paper to reveal a framed picture of us from last month. 

It was taken after one of the shows. I'm straddling his lap and he's allowing me to touch up his makeup before we headed out to some party. We're both looking into each other's eyes with huge smiles on our faces. Who even took this photo?

" Wow. I love it, thank you. " I say genuinely touched by his gift. 

Looking at his face, his eyes bare down into mine and I scoot closer to him. Just like magnets, our mouths gravitate until we're sharing a sweet kiss. One of the sweetest I've ever received and it's from someone known as the antichrist. 

Such an oxymoron. 

Reaching to my ear, I take one of my dragon hoops out of my left earlobe and hook it in his. 

" Hot. " I say while flicking it back and forth. 

He fingers the earring himself and smiles a bit. " That your way of marking your territory? " 

" I like the thought of a piece of me always being with you. " I say simply. 

Lacing our fingers together he says, " I like the thought of you always being with me ". 

" Me too. " I say shyly into his neck. 

I feel his heartbeat rapidly against my chest and it makes me shiver. It's good to know that I have just as much of an effect on him.

" Play me something. " He says gesturing to the piano. 

Knowing how much he loves it when I play, I oblige. Turning around in the correct position I place my fingers on the keys and start playing. 

" When they push when they pull tell me, can you hold on? When they say you should change can you lift your head high and stay strong? Will you give up, give in, when your heart's crying out that it's wrong? Will you love you for you at the end of it all? 

Now in life, there's gonna be times when you're feeling low. And in your mind insecurity seems to take control. We start to look outside ourselves for acceptance and approval. "  

" That sounds good, Schroeder. " Dad says from the doorway having heard the music from down the hall. He takes a seat and I turn to face both of them. 

" Thanks, Dad. " I say smiling at him from over my shoulder. " It still needs work. " 

Marilyn nudges me with his shoulder. " I love your voice. It's like an onion, it has layers. " 

"Your voice when you're singing and not screaming is nice too. " I tell him honestly. 

His eyebrows or lack there of raise in surprise. " Think so? " 

I nod. " Yup. You can sing to me any day. " 

" What do you have scheduled for the foreseeable future? " He asks slyly after thinking about it for a few moments. 

Thinking, I say, " nothing until I start working on A Bugs Life next month ". 

" Good. " He says with a nod. " I have some time off so we're heading to L.A. in the morning. I want to get another tattoo on the strip. " 

Did he just make the decision for me? Again- Kind of hot. 

" Don't go getting any ideas, Schroeder. " Dad cuts in. " Tattoos are unnecessary. " 

" Says the guy with over ten. " I tease. 

Shaking his head he says, " I'm just saying, you don't just get one. One always leads to twenty. " 

Marilyn watches the banter between us in interest. 

" And I'm just saying, it's pretty hypocritical. " I tell him challengingly.  " If I want one, I'll get one. " 

Dad glares at me from behind his glasses. " I guess I'm just chopped liver, man. How I feel doesn't matter. " 

" When it comes to my body you sure are chopped liver, sorry Daddy. Things change when one becomes an adult. " I clarify for him. 

He waves me off. " Oh, fuck off, Schroeder. " 

I giggle knowing I won. 

Marilyn

Charlotte leaves Ozzy and I alone in the studio to help Kelly clean up the kitchen. It's hard to believe that she's so domestic but it's a good change of pace with the women I've been dealing with as of late. A woman that knows her way around the kitchen is always valuable to have around. And if she's good in the bedroom... Well, she's a keeper. Not that I've had the pleasure... Yet. 

Realizing that I'm thinking of fucking Ozzy's daughter right in front of him I clear my throat and turn to face him. 

" You know I don't mind Charlotte hanging around you. " He says as if he knows my every thought. " You're a good lad and it's evident that you're smitten. " 

Smiling nervously I say, " I just want you to know that I've been a complete gentleman in every way. It's all on her terms. " 

" As it should be. " He says with a shrug. " If I've learned anything about women it's to let them lead where sex is concerned. " 

He has never lied to me. I've always let women make the first move. And with Charlotte being a virgin I have to reel in my raging hormones. I know from experience that moving too fast with a virgin can scare them off. Especially with what I'm packing in the dick department. 

Needless to say, I'm ready whenever she is. " I really do like her. " I tell him seriously. " She isn't just some girl on the road. I'm fully aware of how lucky I am that she gives me the time of day. " 

" Don't sell yourself so short, Manson. She's just as smitten with you, you know? " He promises wholeheartedly. 

Only time will tell I guess. 

[sandramanylifestyles]

How to trust God in the "why me?" moments. Will we allow tough circumstances to draw us closer to Jesus, or drive us further away from Him?