#i didnt watch any of these people but ive noticed a trend.

[bluinary]

Reblogging this before everyone hops on the "you should've known better" train

I'm convinced I have the worst vibes detector of all time. I used to be a fan of Creepshow Art, iilluminaughtii, and James Somerton- all high-profile creators who got their careers tanked because they're bad people. Given the absolutely huge number of creators I subscribe to it's not surprising that this has happened multiple times, but still.

Then again, when I expressed this sentiment in the past and kicked myself for not being more aware of the red flags, someone told me that means I just want to see the good in people and am more willing to forgive faults than others are. I think that's spot-on tbh; I'm a very naive and forgiving person, which has often been taken advantage of. But it's just my nature, I can't help it.

This will inevitably happen to me again, but I'd rather not beat myself up over not constantly being attuned to every red flag people give off.

[thealmightyemprex]

Universal Monster watch through thoughts part 2

Onto 5 more monster movies

A few notes:I have been watching the behind the scenes documentaries that go with certain movies and this is the first batch with no documentaries .ALso with Daughter of DRacula we exit phase one of the Universal monsters ,as in studio history I belive this is where the LEamlies (Those who founded Universal) were I believe forced out and Horror films were put on the back burner due to the Hays code ....Till a theater owner did a very sucessful triple bill of Dracula,Frankenstein and Son of Kong ,which got Universal seeing dollar signs and brought beack the monsters with Son of Frankenstein

6.Werewolf of London 1935

First film I fully dont like.Like its one of the first werewolf movies Jack Pierces makeup ,which is more man then wolf is good and theres some amusing drunk old ladies ......But other then that and unless you are a hardcore werewolf fanatic,I think this film is skipable .I dont like the main characvter or actor ,Henry Hull ,and the key to a good Werewolf story is I gotta care about the main character,and while it has cool ideas it does ntohing with them.Also the villain is played by Warner Oland ,a Swedish actor known for playing mostly Asian characters ,including here .....Skip this movie

7.Draculas Daughter (1936)

So this is an example of a film I saw once before,didnt think much of .....And on this watch I really enjoyed it .The opening scene is dumb with Van Helsing getting arrested and honestly as much as I love Edward Van Sloan ,I wouldve preferred if he wasnt in the movie .Other then that its a good movie,and for Queer horror fans I think its a must watch ,Zaleskas queer subtext is palpable ,ESPECIALLY in the scene with Lili the model .I like the humor in the film mostly (Im noticing more a trend to humor ),Sandor is one of my favorite characters so far cause he is the ultimate buzzkill and personification of gloom , but what makes the film really is Zaleska played to perfection by Gloria Holden ,she really brings the tragedy and pathos so she isnt just a villain .Also earliest vampire film I can think of to treat vamparism like addiction,with Sandor the utimate enabler .Also ummm I didnt realize this but I couldnt shake the feeling while watching that the hero Jeffrey looked villanious ....And turns out Its Otto Kruger who I had just seen in Hitchcocks Saboteur where he plays a villain (Also was Dr Livsey in Tresaure Island with Wallace Beery ).Anyway good movie,hidden gem reccomend

8.Son of Frankenstein (1939)

...So yeah the first 3 Frankenstein movies (The Karloff trilogy as I call it ) are all amazing ,its soooooo hard to pick a favorite.I have heard people who say its the best of the three and others who say its the weakest,but honestly like the first two it is still a masterpiece .It is sadly the first one where the monster becomes a bit of a prop,he is the least interesting character in the film but he still has great moments in the film to showcase how great Karloff is (His wail of Anguish upon finding Ygor dead ,his one friend ,is HEARTBREAKINGLY AMAZING ).Honestly what makes the film is the cast which might be the best ensamble of any of these movies .Lionel Atwil is so good as the one armed Inspector Krogh who plays off Basil Rathbone beautifully .Basil Rathbone gives possibly one of his best performances as the titular character and the dart scene is some of the best actor Ive seen from him .The scene stealer in EASILLY his best performance ever is Bela Lugosi as Ygor ,he is so creepy and is played to perfection by Lugosi .I am tempted to say he is tied with Pretorious as my favorite villain of the series .The movie looks beautiful,its got a good final set piece and you get to see some amazing actors work off each other.Another CLASSIC in my oppinion.Also Bambi is in it .And with that we leave the 30's and enter the 40's

9.The Invisible Man Returns (1940)

Another solid one ,love the wronged man trying to prove his innocence plot while trying not to lose his mind ,I think thats a fun angle .Im not a huge fan of Sir Cedric Hardwicke ,but I love his performance here as the main villain not playing it villainous but rather desperate which leads to villainy .I also really like the inspector here who is a fun foil .The stand out of the movie is its lead a very green Vincent Price in his first time being the lead in a horror film ,I think his manerisms when bandaged are good and he has a strong voice though he hasnt developed his signature affectation yet so he sounds alittle diffrent though the signature "Price voice" slips in a few scenes .My favorite scene is when he is menacing Alan Napier (AKA Alfred brom 60's Batman TV show ) and the film has a great finale .Also the effects were OScar nominated and RIGHTLY so,they look good for being over 80 years old.Must see for both Universal fans and Vincent Price fans

10.The Mummys Hand (!940)

....Sooooooo,I have seen this one before,but this time around I mostly had it on in the background as I made lunch ,and thus have very little to say .I kind of like that the two main characters are goofy ,fun knowing the mummys actor Tom Tyler was in westerns (Including John Fords Stagecoach) but also is the first live action actor to play a comic book hero ,Captain Marvel and Geroge Zucco is creepy....I dunno,I got nothing both times Ive watched this I just thought it was OK

Ranking so far

10.Werewolf of London

9.Mummys Hand

8.Mummy

7.Dracula's Daughter

6.Dracula

5.Invisible Man Returns

4.Invisble Man

3.Son of Frankenstein

2.Frankenstein

1.Bride of Frankenstein

To be Continued

@ariel-seagull-wings @themousefromfantasyland @theancientvaleofsoulmaking @piterelizabethdevries @the-blue-fairie @princesssarisa @countesspetofi @amalthea9 @barbossas-wench

[wizkiddx]

worst case scenario part 3

umm so, never ever intended it to be this long but here we are. again this is v dark so please please read the warning!! also [and obvs] this is very medically inaccurate and just a work of my head aha

[part 1] [part 2]

warning: mentions of death / hospital / mentions of childhood abandonment too- please don't read if this could affect you <3

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

His heart was thundering in his chest, so much so it drowned out all other sounds making all the doctors words fade into the background. Conciously, he really was trying to listen to what the doctor was saying; consciously he knew she was trying to prepare him to see Y/n; consciously he knew she knew he wasn’t okay. But really? It didn’t matter, and as they drew closer to his fiancé Tom felt an urgent sense of relief purely know she was there. She was there and she wasn’t dead…yet. 

Only two people were allowed to go up, just because the nature of the ward - everything was meticulously controlled, including the comings and goings of visitors. If you’ve never been in an ICU it’s a pretty hard environment to describe. Really, it’s just another hospital ward, with capacity of about 20 beds. Each bed has much more equipment surrounding that the average and a nurse is stationed per patient, monitoring every possible variable that the machienes are measuring, so any trend (either positive or negative) can be identified at the earliest point. Though in everyones head, it seems as though ICU is a common place ending up for some unfortunate sod when something bad happens, it’s actually really rare for someone to be so ill and dependant on medicine to maintain normal body functioning. Only the most severe trauma, infection of the most dangerous microorganism, surgery of such high stakes normally make an appearance on the ward. And ,on average, between 8-20% patients that are admitted to an ICU never make it out. 

And those grim figures were unignorable to anyone. As soon as you walk through the doors, the atmosphere is intense and ineffable. It’s not spoken, but is so incredibly morbid it makes anyone shiver. 

Dom felt this, squeezing his sons shoulder as he followed Tom and the doctor, just a pace or so behind them. Having offered to go with Tom, whilst Harrison took Nikki to see the baby, Dom was now feeling just as clueless as his son did. Except he was actually listening to what the doctor was trying to warn them about and it scared him. The three, made it to the door and with a swipe of her ID card the doctor admitted the Holland men in. Gratefully, none of the staff took any notice of who was walking in, they were much too busy for that - Dom was incredibly relieved, had someone recognised Tom when he was in this state, god knows what would’ve happened.

The doctors pace was with purpose, perhaps so that the two couldn’t spend too long ogling the other patients in the beds - who all looked almost unhuman with the amount of tubes and wires coming out and into them. But then, she slowed up, halting infront of a bay about 5 or 6 down the ward. Spinning on her heel and with a subtle nod to momentarily release the nurse from her post at Y/n’s bedside, to give them a bit of privacy, she looked at the two men. 

“You can touch her, just be gentle with the wires.”

Shellshocked and terrified, Tom was frozen those 2 metres away from the bed barely able to see her face over all the equipment. Yet undoubtedly, it was his finance’s delicate visage lying on the white pillow, with a thick white mouthpiece and tube covering her mouth and stuffed into her nose. Not able to move, both Dom and Dr Goodwell sensitively waited - it was an adjustment to say the least, seeing someone you knew so well look so different. With quiet tears starting to roll down his eyes, Tom eventually started to inch toward the bedside, taking his time to try and absorb everything of this frankly ridiculous situation. He couldn’t get over how, even considering it all, above her nose it just looked like Y/n. Like she was asleep in their bed, eyes closed as if she had once again  fallen asleep infront of a random Netflix movie Tom had bugged her enough to watch in bed. And it was, ever so slightly comforting. That was still her, that was still the love of his life lying there. And she was still alive - which given the last few hours, was enough. 

Reaching the bedside, Tom naturally reached out and stroked the top of her head delicately, pulling into place a few rogue strands that seemed to have a mind of their own - she had always hated when her hair got frizzy. The picture had Tom’s mind casting back to their first holiday, a serene if quick few days in Fiji-  though Y/n didnt know this , that holiday had been one of the most important times in their relationship for Tom. Until then, given the nature of his job, the couple had only ever managed brief periods together. They spent time together as and when they could in between Tom’s busy schedule but it was never as long as they’d like. Somehow though, he’d managed to squeeze a few days away to surprise Y/n with the trip. 

It was everything he’d ever hoped it would be and more. In fact it was then Tom was oh so sure he would be spending the rest of his life with her. This thought crossed his mind on the last morning, when he had for once woken up before Y/n - her head mere cms away from his on the pillow. Just like now, her hair had been all over the place and her sparkling green eyes locked shut. Contrastingly though, in Fiji the sight had made him smile softly; now it just made him cry again. 

“Would you like a minute alone Mr Holland? We will just wait outside?” Not even turning round to properly respond to the doctor, Tom just nodded violently, not taking his eyes off his fiancé - waiting till he heard his Dad and the doctor leave the bay; then the curtains be completely drawn to a close, before he shakily cleared his throat to whisper.

“Hey darling… you um-you’ve scared me shitless today… and… and I’m supposed to be the dramatic one in the relationship.” Chuckling wetly, Tom clasped his other hand in Y/n’s - still mindful of the IV port coming out of the top of her wrist. Not that he was expecting any sort of response, yet the lack of her squeezing his hand back still had his heart sink. “Look I…I love you so bloody much and I really need you to get better okay? You’ve never listened to me before but I really am begging you to now, I just.” Swallowing thickly, he shut his eyes momentarily and delicately rested his forehead on hers - his touch feather light. Just needing to feel her. “I just really need you and I really love you., okay?” 

Unsurprisingly he didn’t get a response. The rhetorical question hung in the air alone, safe the mechanical whir of the ventilator and various chimes of the machines and monitor, till his Dad came in. Grasping and squeezing his shoulder lightly, Dom provided the stimulus for his son to unfold from over the bed, standing upright, as both men just took in the sight of Y/n lying there for a minute or two. 

“I need her Dad. I-I-“

“I know Tom.” Speaking so quietly it was barely audible, Dom’s eventual agreement at what Tom was saying was in a way a relief. Haz and his mum had both either been saying or implying that they would be okay no matter what - which came from a good place but was so infuriating. Because god forbid, if this situation got worse Tom knew it wouldn’t be okay. Nothing would ever be okay again. So his Dad’s simple acknowledgment meant a lot, causing Tom to turn round and embrace his slightly shorter father. 

Dr Goodwell silently watched the exchange for a short while and once the men eventually pulled away she stepped forward to give some more information. She went through what all the biggest and scary looking tubes and wires were doing for Y/n, before explaining the next steps. 

“Now as I said before we are sedating her at the moment, while we wait and see if she gets any complications from the surgery that are better treated while she is asleep. By this afternoon we will have a clearer idea and by that point we may choose to withdraw that sedation. It’s important that you are aware though that she might not wakeup immediately. Sometimes some people that have suffered similarly to your fiancé will be unconscious for a while in what I’d presume you’ve heard of as a ‘coma’. Now it’s not as dramatic as you see on TV shows, it’s just Ms Y/l/n’s brain giving her body a chance to recover. It’s often a longer process, which I know is something you don’t want to hear, but I have to be honest.” The doctor was stern but in a softer and from-a-caring-place. “These patients are suggested to possibly recover quicker if they have a steady support network behind them, which it seems like she does. That means that you need to look after yourself so you can help her sir, especially in what could be a long process. It’s not going to be helpful for Yn if you’re killing yourself trying to be here all the time… It seems like Y/n already has quite a big group of you here for her, so please remember you’ve got all of her care team here and everyone else to help you too….Does that make sense sir?”

“Tom” His Dad, in a gentle but firm warning tone, urged Tom to speak and to listen. Properly listen. 

“Yeh… I-yeh It’s just all a lot right now.”

“Of course… and we promise that if anything changes with her condition, you will be phoned straight away. You are welcome to stay as long as you want - the only rules are two at a time, no flowers, sign in and out and then sanitise your hands pretty excessively. If you need anything, Ms Y/l/n’s nurse will be your first port of call.”

“Thanks for everything” Dom nodded in a gracious manner, which the doctor seemed to massively appreciate - apparently, for the job they do not receiving a hell of a lot of thanks. 

“I’ll pop back in a little bit.”

And for a couple of hours everything everything felt like a bit of an anticlimax, nothing happened, not a lot changed. Just Tom and Dom sat next to Y/n’s bed in silence; Harrison and Nikki downstairs with the baby, till Dom got a phone call from Nikki asking them to meet at the neonatal unit  - which was limited by visitor numbers unlike the ICU. Thinking it’d be simple, the elder man gained Tom’s attention with a call of his name, explaining they should go down to meet up. 

“I’m not going down there.”

“Son, I know you’re worried by Y/n isnt going anywhere right now. The doctors said they’d call you if anything happens.”

“It’s not-“ Tom stopped himself, biting his tongue and looking away from his Dad. “I just don’t want to go down there.” Slowly, Dom was more and more realising Tom’s thought process and honestly… it scared him. In the hopes this was just a big misunderstanding he offered a different option - hoping Tom would equally refuse that. Dom suggested going down to the cafe instead, which most unfortunately Tom agreed to. It wasn’t leaving Y/n that was the issue, it was being near the baby. 

Tom’s daughter. Unnamed and apparently abondoned by both parents. 

Anyhow, Dom resigned to playing into Tom’s choice, perhaps Nikki and Harrison would be able to swing him round, to see sense. It still took Tom getting the nurse to triple check they had his correct number on record , just in case, before Dom could tear him away from the bed. Fortunately the pair found a quiet and secluded corner table, where Tom was still yet to be recognised, while Nikki and Haz found them too. 

What followed was Tom answering all his mum and Harrison’s questions about Y/n’s condition, in a blunt and emotionless manner - without Tom returning fire by asking any questions at all about his beautiful little baby girl. Eventually Nikki braved it, someone had to bring it up. 

“Well it sounds like littles going to change for a while… maybe you should head home for a bit? You’ve been up half the night and you look shattered love. You don’t have to go back to yours… you could stay in your old room for a bit?” Tom being by himself at the moment sounded like the most incredibly stupid idea ever, Nikki was offering it as a choice - when in reality there was only one option.

“Maybe later this evening I will? Just don’t want to leave her alone yet.”

“It’s already 7 love, you’ve not eaten all day, you got to look after yourself too.” Harrison and Dom sat awkwardly while Nikki tried to delicately encourage Tom into what was the only sensible plan, watching him nurse the small hot choclate in both his palms. Time really had lost all meaning at this point, for him it felt both years since he’d first arrived with Y/n and at the same time barely 10 minutes ago. It felt weird. 

“We can take shifts? If-if you want someone with her I mean… I don’t mind staying for a bit longer if it means you head back to your parents.” Harrison really truly didnt mind, in fact he sort of wanted to. He wanted to see Y/n’s face definitely alive, wanted to feel reassured by the monitors. Shockingly, Tom slowly nodded his head, surprising everyone with his lack of argument. None of them could work out whether it was a good thing him not putting up much arguement ; either he was heeding everyones advice of taking care of himself - or he had just given up. Harrison, as much as he didn’t want to, was favouring the latter. 

“Okay” Nikki declared optimistically “So maybe you and Harrison go up so you can say good night to Y/n, then we can all go and pick up the baby?” She opened the plan to the floor, allowing for input but got nothing - except maybe Tom’s jaw unconsciously tensing uncomfortable at the latter part of her statement. Dom noticed. 

Not one noticed but knew what it meant. His son blamed his granddaughter. His son, right now in that moment, hated the unnamed and totally helpless baby girl. 

part 4?

[sailorvinus]

What are your thoughts on people who goes all out on the aesthetic for their blogs? Do you think they’re have the right to express their creativity however they want? && Other than roleplaying, what’s your favorite hobby?

✨ @deductry. meme. still accepting!

17. What are your thoughts on people who goes all out on the aesthetic for their blogs? Do you think they’re have the right to express their creativity however they want?

i think its fine as long as aesthetic doesnt hinder the ability to make a reply i can read. some people really do be out here triple spacing their words, adding bold, italics, upside down letters, strikethroughs, underline, and everything else and for what???? for a reply that the kids i used to teach could write. and they were like 4 years old. lol. thats sad....... that’s when i know someone’s not confident in themselves

dont rly understand why ppl trend chase. ive noticed ppl putting dividers in their replies now and im just??? mystified???? what is this... what does it add to the reply.... which if ppl wanna do it then fine but please consider this: my blog is pretty and its bad enough ugly icons that dont match them are ruinin the vibe now mfs wanna add a border that is totally irrelevant to the actual reply???? i.......... im gonna get a divider / border like these 2001 old web ones and then force everyone to look at it on their blog then the concept becomes goofy

i think id be fine with aesthetics if they didnt involve those chunky dunky ass container themes with super busy backgrounds + 50 textures, the crispiest color psds, promos that all look Exactly alike, navigation that u cant see, 20 x 20 icons the size of a cheerio, 4px text, the shittiest formatting on this side of lady gaga's america, and actually gave some sort of idk. pizzazz to the muse.

like if the aesthetics are important then at least let them tell a story too. and authentic. not something thats bein done cuz everyone else is doin it. id like to think i go balls to the walls with my blog too but you walk into my blog and you know it’s a myspace era throwback because that’s what my muse is supposed to be.

everyone can do whta they want! but if its uglee imma call it dat so......

30. Other than roleplaying, what’s your favorite hobby?

im a musician before im anything else so im probably in my daw fucking around. producing something. ive recently gotten into ambient electronica / ambient techno production so im finding joy in stringing together a bunch of synths til i hit the 6 minute mark, adding random bitcrush effects, some percussion just so it looks like i actually did some work, maybe a vocal sample of someone whispering.......... and then i delete it gfkldjgslf. im actually working on a beat tape tho. its been a work in progress for the longest time. but if i actually managed to find my voice as an electronic music producer then i guess i could get somewhere. using a daw is new to me. im more of an instrumentalist. drummer and flutist, primarily. but i dont have any drums and my flute is at my grandmas so there's that..............

i also like to read!!! i buy like 3 - 4 books a month. havent bought any since like november. i only bought two i think. but its fine because ill always revisit my recent favorites. ummmmm... video games. i rly like those old school ass niche ps2 era games like mr. mosquito, space channel 5, kinetica, etc.

wow do i luv internet drama. so im probably reading up on someone’s dumb bullshit on reddit or something!! or youtube. i love internet drama, its my favorite thing on the internet. i live for watching people be the very worst!!! other than that??? i like to collect and try out different skincare and research ingredients cuz its just fun. might go to school to be an esthetician when this whole covid19 panera bread is over.

i love collecting obscure jazz records from taiwan.

[iridescentides]

🔥 + quinn fabray 🥺, jyrus, and hsmtmts’ second season being beauty and the beast

miranda you are the BEST i am so ready to answer these

quinn fabray

okay miranda dont hate me but quinn is honestly one of my least favorite characters. i think they had an okay thing going with her in the beginning, when she was the pregnant cheerleader who gained strength through her found family (and the scene where she gets kicked out of her house by her dad is one of my favorite scenes in the whole show). but her writing was just awful, and i feel like they re-did and un-did her progress over and over to the point where we werent supposed to know what to think about her. she is just so inconsistent as a character, and thats what i hate. they gave her the pregnancy plotline, which was such a powerful and moving staple of the first season, and we watched her find self acceptance as an outcast. but then they throw all that newfound self acceptance out the window when they make her join and re-join the cheerios again and again in a desperate attempt to regain her popularity and social status. they give her a disability plotline just to have her walking again after just a few episodes, and never mention it again; ive ranted about this in an ask about glee and ableism before, but the fact that they treated her car accident and subsequent injury as a throwaway plot that did not affect her character at all just shows that quinn was like,, their test dummy for random things they wanted to write into the show and then completely discard. and then her appearances in s4-s6 were so random and sporadic, like when she visits rachel just to shame her out of filming a topless scene, and the time she used her role as kittys mentor to yell at jake for *checks smudged writing on hand* being related to puck. and then how she didnt appear at all in the quarterback episode, or go to brittanas wedding. they were so off and inconsistent with quinn, which is a shame bc in the beginning she looked like such a promising character with real depth.

i know a lot of the fandom loves quinn, and i wouldnt take that away from anyone (esp wlw who have crushes on her and/or see her as bi), but she is just not it for me.

jyrus

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

okay.

i am such a jyrus bitch. i will be jyrus trash until the end of time. ive accepted that tyrus is canon, and im not mad at people for shipping/being happy about it. but jyrus!!! deserved!!! better!!! im so hurt

as someone who ran a very thorough and detailed andi mack blog back during season 1 of the show when jyrus was all speculation and we were just overanalyzing crumbs that were thrown our way by the show, i will never get over them. the way their friendship evolved from blind adoration to mutual trust and admiration. the way they supported and affirmed each other and built each other up!!! im gonna CRY they were so pure and so good and the show threw it away in like. two sentences.

the andi mack fandom spans such a wide age range, and if ive noticed any trends at all, its generally that people in their early to mid teens seem very obsessed with tyrus, and thats great for them that theyve found some canon representation that way. but ive noticed that the trend with the older crowd is mostly still jyrus, and im wondering what thats about? if i had the platform and the motivation i would love to conduct some sort of survey study of the andi mack fandoms demographics vs their opinions on certain parts of the show bc ive noticed a few of these types of divides tbh?

hsmtmts beauty and the beast

honestly just what the fuck. as someone who has devoted way too much time to this show, i understand its shortcomings. in general its more gimmicky and promotional than substantial or well written. disney put this trash out into the world and i accepted it and said thank you.

so when they announced that s2 would be beauty and the beast, i was annoyed but not surprised. its clear that they were only using hsm as a grab for viewers based off of nostalgia, but there were SO many other movies they couldve used. i would sell my entire soul to see them take on teen beach movie! they couldve at least picked a dcom!!!

the thing that bugs me the most about it though is that they didnt even bother to watch their own show and preserve continuity. theres a scene early in episode two where nini literally says that they did beauty and the beast in ninth grade (last year, bc nini is a sophomore!) and that she played a fork. why would the school do beauty and the beast two years in a row? theyre gonna have to dodge canon to justify it in s2 and just hope nobody notices.

Send Me a 🔥+ a Topic, and I’ll Tell You My Honest Opinion About It!

[dreamyoongi]

OH i see, so it's about like the quality of the production. i think your points are fair even tho tbh i didnt notice any of it for this video, i really enjoyed like the concepts and colorful stuff and ""retro"" typography signs and shit. but one of the things i hated about idol was the mv, like it was just too much going on in one single video and nothing felt connected, it was just so chaotic to me and some of it really looked cheap - A pt1

and the thing about the b sides. like i know its a tradition for bts to have the rest of the album be better than the tittle tracks lol but for the past few albums that didnt really happen much for me like i would hate the tittle track and half the album so i only had the other half to actually enjoy. even if this title track is the typical catchy mainstream wtv song, at least this time i dont absolutely hate it and thats such a weight lifted off my shoulders haha - A pt2

ive been folloiwng u for a good time i think and its so refreshing for me to see other ppl that arent very happy with current bts' choices. i actually felt mostly alone besides my best friend also feeling similar to me. thank you for sharing your opinions on this blog :) - A pt3

oh yeah i also agree about their styling omg! 90% of wtv gucci stuff they wear is fugly as hell and sometimes they put stuff on them that really doesnt fit and makes them look ridiculous, altho personally i strongly believe they have been doing that with yoongi in particular since the beggining. the number of hideous outfits he has had is outstanding and like why??? just tailor shit to fit him properly??? he can look amazing if they do their job right!! - A

i liked the building they shot the mv in front of too and the initial pastel tones were also super nice. but now after coming back from my vacation its literally the only thing i remember.... i had to go back and re watch to remember that they did several singing in the rain references. 

and namjoon said in a vlive a few months ago that nowadays title tracks are the most important thing on an album and rarely do people listen to the b-sides. and that is the moment where i REALLY started to doubt if i would ever like bts’ music as much as i did before. bc if most of their hand work goes into these title tracks... rip... 

and dont even get me started on the STYLING its a fucking embarrassment  at this point. their direction at this point is only ‘follow the TREND and the pricier the better. off the rack, we dont need to adjust to our widely different clients’ 

honestly being away for almost two weeks now i have barely checked into what is going on. and i havent listened to even one of their new songs if im being honest. at this point im not feeling it anymore and i really have almost fully left the fandom i think.

[firstpuffin]

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake

-Note: It’s kind of embarrassing to admit but my comments around the visuals of A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening are straight-up incorrect. The two games did not share the same visual style and I honestly don’t know why I said that; I most definitely knew better. Still, I’m not going to get rid of it because the internet needs more examples of people admitting to be being wrong.

I say a lot that I want to be positive, but it’s really gonna be hard with this one. See, at the latest Nintendo Direct it was announced that they would be releasing a remake of the 26 year old game, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. As it happens I was already considering writing something about this game in a “Games from my Childhood” article, but that would actually have been positive! This one is… well, I’m going to at least try and balance every negative with a positive.

-at least the title screen looks good-

  So where to begin: I won’t cover the story because spoilers but how about some personal background? The game came out a year before I did (ha! bad jokes) and I have no idea when I got my grubby little paws on it, but it was a part of my life genuinely for as long as I can remember, along with the Pokémon games. I never completed it as a child, but my memories of it were so good that I returned to it as an adult and completed it, learning its sad secret.

-hey! according to this it released the same year I did; me getting my years mixed up I guess-

  Link’s Awakening (LA) was originally a pet project made outside of work hours which is why it borrows resources from other games such as the Mario series, but it was eventually released to critical acclaim. The gameplay is much the same as its immediate predecessor A Link to the Past (LttP), but with a number of new items and a unique soundtrack. Visually it is much the same as well, although its original release was black and white for the GameBoy with Link’s Awakening DX adding colour for the GameBoy Colour.

  So let’s start with the visuals as that is most of what we have right now: the original shared its visuals with LttP what with them using the same assets (tools, resources etc) and LttP had a sequel recently that looked really nice. But the upcoming LA remake looks nothing like it; I wouldn’t expect it to but when a defence of the artistic choice is that “it’s an update of the original graphics” (so why not use the assets from the LttP remake?) or that it somehow “reflects the atmosphere of the original” except there’s no reason for it to be any different to, again, the LttP remake. And in response to the “atmosphere”, LA was one of the darker yet in some ways more whimsical games; this new style is childish to the extreme.

  Don’t get me wrong, I love something that is good and childish, but there is a level when it stops being great and starts to feel like they condescend to the player. Bright colours, simple faces, high pitched noises- Oh god the noises!! I’ll expand on the sounds later but I’m still on the visuals. I’ve heard the game described as looking like Claymation, which isn’t wrong, but my immediate thought was that it looked like cheap plastic. And after watching it again and again as I discussed it with a friend, this opinion stuck.

-tell me this doesn’t look like claymation; this isn’t a game, it’s an animated short film-

  You know how shiny and tacky cheap plastic usually looks? Imagine an entire game like that; an entire world like that. Fans of anime may understand what I say next, but there is a large element of “chibi” in this new game. Large head, tiny body. It’s often seen in short 4 minute spin offs of popular series.

-as you can see, chibi is hardly meant to be taken seriously-

-just to hammer things home-

  So shiny plastic, silly chibi art with a soulless expression. Oh yeah, that. Link’s eyes have zero soul behind them. Zero. He’s a freakin’ monster. Have you seen those Funko Pops? You know how empty they look? Some have said it somehow reflects the original game’s art again, but back then they didn’t have the technology to make him look soulless and young me always thought he looked determined; it was really cool.

-determined; dead inside-

Okay, so I said I would try and be fair, and I have shat upon the plasticine toy-box long enough, so here’s what is good visually. The areas are actually really nice. 

Ignoring the nail varnish sheen on everything, things are really detailed. There is an unfortunate trend in games, likely due to technical limitations, to have flat textures. Basically, imagine the difference between a tile or wood panel floor, and a picture of a tile or wood panel floor. But this game looks to have really tried in these areas. The grass looks thick and lush, tiles look like more than a photograph on the floor and even the flat flowers on the ground look decent. Just a shame it all looks like LEGO. Actually, a LEGO Zelda game would be awesome. But this is not that.

  I haven’t explained that very well, it’s an area that I am new at but I will say that clearly a lot of care has gone into the assets and the world. It is not a lazy game in any way.

-don’t tell me those trees and rocks and- well, everything, don’t look like LEGO-

Next I’m going to talk about the sound. First of all, I’m convinced that they have artificially increased the pitch of Link’s voice so it is painfully sharp to the ears. I’ll admit, I have an unusual sensitivity to lights and sound and thus I prefer darker colours and quieter sounds; I avoid clubs like the plague and not just because I’ll likely catch it there. So maybe, just maybe, I’m noticing something that won’t be a problem for most, and is just unfortunate for me. And let’s ignore that it doesn’t match the darker tone of the game.

  And the music? Also quite high pitched. And super cheery. It doesn’t have either the dreamlike or dark tones that could be expected (and just thinking of how it could be dreamlike gives me shivers; it could be so good) but is instead inanely cheery. In fact, I hope they sped everything up for the trailer and the pitch is just an unfortunate side-effect.

  On the plus side, the trailer opens with a cool cinematic and I swear the music changes from a nice, cheerful rendition (I don’t dislike cheerful in-and-of-itself) of the Zelda main theme to the death squeals of various instruments that I mentioned before. On top of that, it ends on a really nice vocal version of the LA theme, Ballad of the Wind Fish. If the trailer had been the cinematic and that closing song alone then I would be beyond excited about the remake. Thank heaven it wasn’t, I’m not sure my love of the series could survive such a plummeting disappointment.

-and here’s the actual trailer for your perusal- 

So I’ll finish here. I was originally very pleased, excited even that they had decided to remake what was a favourite, underrated and apparently forgotten game, but I kept my expectations low because I knew what to expect from these companies. I thought I did anyway. I was still disappointed. I thought I had prepared for the worst. Still, at least it gave me something to write about.

  But, the game has clearly had a lot of work put into it and gameplay-wise it actually looks to flow really well so I’m sure it controls like a treat. But the visuals and music are too big of a deal for me to let slide; if it keeps up like this then it could literally be painful for me to play. Still, games do change a lot from the initial trailer to its release and I even put forth an idea of why the sound may hurt me so much here. Maybe the final game will be a lot better. Unfortunately, the things I want to be done in games and such rarely are, and I am often alone in my complaints.

And finally, yes I am aware that the famous and incredibly popular Wind Waker entry in the series also had similar complaints and became, as I said, incredibly popular. I wasn’t a part of that crowd, I was too young and honestly, Link’s Awakening was the only Zelda game I had actually played at that time. 

[thelifetimechannel]

JAKE: Hello there ms kanaya! KANAYA: Hello KANAYA: Jake Right JAKE: Thatd be me! The one and only! JAKE: Or the one and only now haha. JAKE: So uh... weve not had a chance to talk yet. JAKE: Cool chainsaws? KANAYA: Thanks KANAYA: I Had A Lot Of Time To Alchemize More And Better Chainsaws During My First Session KANAYA: It Was A Good Way To Be Passive Aggressive I Think JAKE: If you displayed them on your wall itd make for one hell of a first impression. Imagine being like the dad in the movies whos sitting on the porch polishing his shotgun when his daughters new boyfriend comes over. JAKE: Though ive never heard of anyone displaying chainsaws in the first place... KANAYA: I Will Install Several Pedestals For That Exact Purpose With Tasteful Backlighting KANAYA: They Are Probably Too Heavy To Hang On Most Walls I Wouldnt Want To Cause An Accident JAKE: I say go for it! I think it sounds like the bees pajamas. KANAYA: I Dont Know About The Fashion Predilections Of Insects But Alright KANAYA: I Dont Think Youll Need To Display Weapons Provocatively To Intimidate Potential Suitors If Reports Of Your Recent Activities Are To Be Believed KANAYA: Our Hope Hero Styled Himself Formidable But I See Now He Barely Scratched The Surface Of The Aspects Capabilities KANAYA: Most Of Which I Accidentally Awoke In Him Anyway KANAYA: Which Is A Lesson To Never Be Facetious If Youre Not Willing To Put Up Your Dukes About It So To Speak JAKE: Yeah i learned that the hard way. JAKE: Sometimes you really do just need to tell your problems to fuck off! Whether or not you actually punch them in the face. KANAYA: I Am One Of An Elite Few Who Has Not Faced Off Against An "Evil Clone" Yet KANAYA: Im Almost Disappointed JAKE: Maybe some day? KANAYA: One Day I Enter My Hall Of Chainsaws Only To See One Pedestal Is Empty KANAYA: I Look Down The Hallway And See An Ominous Shadow Advancing KANAYA: The Shadow KANAYA: Its Me JAKE: Like youll get your own version of venom or manbat or something whos your vampire nature run amok! JAKE: ...i did hear correctly right that youre a vampire? KANAYA: Our Term Is Rainbow Drinker But The Idea Is The Same KANAYA: Im Trying To Reform JAKE: Aha. A vegetarian vam- er, rainbow drinker? KANAYA: Vegetables Are Pretty Great KANAYA: Ive Lived On Donations But The Whole Thing Is Kind Of Ridiculous KANAYA: The Sort Of Arrangement That Looks Intriguing And Romantic In Storybooks But In Real Life Is Kind Of A Pain In The Neck JAKE: Literally! KANAYA: I Walked Into That One Didnt I KANAYA: I Was Hoping We Could Edge Gingerly Around That Obvious Pitfall But Instead We Are Charging In At Full Speed JAKE: You made a dive for the window but alas that spotless pane was stronger than anticipated. KANAYA: Im Used To It KANAYA: The Individuals I Traveled With Would Leave No Conversational Stone Unturned Without Wresting Every Wriggling Wordplay Grub From Its Snug Cocoon JAKE: You were with dave and rose right? KANAYA: Yes KANAYA: And Karkat And Terezi KANAYA: And The Clown JAKE: I cant speak for your fellow aliens but for your human companions i daresay it runs in their family. JAKE: Roxy can do incredible things to typos so watch your spelling around her. KANAYA: Spelling Is An Important Part Of Our Brand On Alternia But Ill Watch My Step JAKE: I mean alien typing quirks is a concept im familiar with thanks to the cherubs. Im more talking about bungling the spelling of the words themselves. KANAYA: Understood KANAYA: If There Are Genetic Similarities Between That Group Does That Mean You Take After Those Dreaming On Prospit KANAYA: I Havent Interacted Much With John But I Did Help Guide Jade Through Her Breeding Session KANAYA: That May Not Be Long Enough To Establish True Closeness But Its My Best Frame Of Reference JAKE: As a matter of fact i do. JAKE: ...though the only time ive seen the planet with my own eyes was a few hours ago and i had higher priorities than enjoying the sights. JAKE: Like not leaving my soul flapping in the wind or beating the snot out of the maniac who stole its original getup. KANAYA: Ill Try To Draw Independent Conclusions Based On Your Behavior Rather Than Trying To Match You Up To Any Of Your Ancestors Or Descendants Then KANAYA: Im Not Used To Meeting This Many People KANAYA: Or Any People KANAYA: Fives Been A Crowd JAKE: A feeling i know very very well... JAKE: I mean i seem to remember you were there when we all came across each other in the dreambubbles! KANAYA: In The Dreambubbles KANAYA: ... KANAYA: You Were The One There When We Met The Empresss Previous Form KANAYA: The One Who KANAYA: Uh KANAYA: Attempted To Defeat Her Ghost In A Bout Of Fisticuffs JAKE: Yes. JAKE: That. JAKE: Haha... man that was embarassing in hindsight. KANAYA: If It Makes Any Difference She Was So Addled By The Revelation Of Her Tyrannical Supremacy I Dont Think She Noticed JAKE: Possibly. KANAYA: Actually It Provided Good Conversational Fodder KANAYA: Any Topic Becomes Stale Given Enough Sweeps To Mull It Over So New Stimulation Was Welcome KANAYA: When Dave And Rose Were Together She Frequently Tried To Draw Him Into Speculation About Your Characters KANAYA: He Never Liked To Engage For Some Reason JAKE: That was the first time id been around that many people in my life! JAKE: So i guess that added pressure to impress in a sense. KANAYA: I Grew Up Alone On An Oasis KANAYA: The First Time I Ran Into Crowds Was During This Game JAKE: Likewise! Except it was an island not an oasis. JAKE: That seems to be a trend doesnt it? KANAYA: Jade Told Me Something Similar KANAYA: Maybe Its Easier To Leave The World Behind Without A Second Thought If You Had Fewer Ties To It JAKE: I couldnt agree with you more though its sort of sad when you stop and think about it. JAKE: The game seems to take a lot of lonely chaps doesnt it? JAKE: Or... maybe it sets them up that way. KANAYA: Believe Me As Someone Charged With The Creation Of Life In Our New World The Prospect Weighs On Me KANAYA: Enough To Take Rose Up On An Offer Most Would Consider Suicidal KANAYA: But Then Most Of Her Schemes Are JAKE: O: JAKE: What is it rose is plotting? KANAYA: Oh Hasnt She Gotten To You Yet KANAYA: She Will KANAYA: Especially With Your Capabilities KANAYA: Im Not Clear On The Details Yet But Im Sure Those Will Come In Eventually KANAYA: Probably In The Heat Of The Moment If Our Other Adventures Are Any Indication KANAYA: Mostly It Involves Defying The Status Quo KANAYA: Which Is What Almost Everything She Has Done Since Ive Met Her Boils Down To JAKE: I mean she did help us get calliope back so if theres something she needs me to do id be happy to help lend a hand! KANAYA: I Believe Shes Intending To Bring It Up To The Group Once Weve Finished This Round Of Discussions KANAYA: So Youll Hear About It Then JAKE: Oh boy more mysterious plots. Look i may be a guy whos always eager for the next adventure or whatever but id like to propose a motion that we at least get a siesta first. JAKE: Three super over the top throwdowns in the space of a few hours tuckers a guy out! KANAYA: I Will Back You Up On That KANAYA: If We Bundle Her Up Well Enough She Will Be Unable To Escape And Will Be Forced To Give In To Relaxation JAKE: My grandma used to do that when i was a wee tyke and didnt want to go down for naps. KANAYA: Good Then Youre Familiar With The Technique JAKE: We just need a person three to four times her size and itll be a snap! JAKE: Oh hey jade can handle that. KANAYA: Now That I Have Restored Her First Guardian Abilities I Will Ask That Her First Action Be Restraining Rose For Her Own Good Before She Hurts Herself JAKE: Sounds like a smart idea but given what ive heard of her im not about to volunteer to be the first in her sights. KANAYA: Would Deaths Incurred Be Heroic KANAYA: Im New To These Rules JAKE: Im... not sure. JAKE: Perhaps its best not to chance it. KANAYA: Hopefully We Can Talk Her Into Taking A Short Break JAKE: Surely even a god tier has to take a load off every now and again. JAKE: Unless rose just runs on anarchic fervor and dreams. KANAYA: I Wouldnt Put It Past Her JAKE: Well calm her down and then help her out with her next revolution.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

and see now i didnt know masterpiece was gonna do an adaptation of little women.....i dont know if ive ever watched one all the way through

its a fun book if only because of how goddamn long it is, you get to be all following along and stuff......and like individual chapters can be fairly charming b/c its just like...cozy and all. and some scenes are just particularly fun....the Lively Second Oldest self-insert in jo is great too. cutting off all her hair scandalously, always an icon for that. its been ages since i last read through it so i’m like....feeling like theres some classic jo antic im missing here. its really too bad that she had to end up paired off with some older good christian father figure type guy out of nowhere, maybe b/c honestly it wouldve been too good if she got to date the other wild child of the night who was her bff and all....like, everything that happens is bound by Morals and virtuous christian lessons, rather than the characters or even the plot, which is overall just kind of like “several years pass”

coz as snuggly a read as it is and as fun as certain scenes are and following along with the characters are, its so constrained by the Moral Lessons for Virtuous Young Girls that every single arc has to land on. and i mean the author louisa may alcott was completely annoyed for that same reason too, she was actually having to make the book ultimately be a sort of christian guide for christian readers and it mustve been exasperating, especially for like, writing a book actually about girls and what they are like as people in their own women-only home, vs how you have to tell them how to be

off the top of my head, some particularly annoying points that were all “X character has to learn Y godly christian life path lesson”:

meg getting her hair burnt for all her vanity of trying to curl it like a god damn temptress instead of relying on ye olde humble godgiven natural looks

the entirety of what happens to meg after being married, aka in perpetual domestic servitude that required nonstop docility and charming housewifely attitude and being patronized by her Always Right husband and his manly wisdom and sensibility. i dont think louisa may alcott was fond of the concept of a married womans life, especially as per whatever christian morality had to say about it for 19th cent women

jo being lectured by her father figure i-guess-eventual-husband over the fact she made money as a writer via pulp stories, instead of like, following her heart as like a novelist or whatever. like she’s sinful for writing sensational lowly drivel and trying to get some god damn cash. i think she still has the chronically ill sister at that point. like lay off, you ass.

that same guy having to ward off the Evil Corrupting Modern Atheists. ok i get it. jesus and all

ok now im remembering married meg getting all In Trouble with her husband for buying herself expensive fabric for a dress. and feeling all ashamed like, her character is basically treated like a child in contrast with the unerring Good Sense of her husband and all his quiet mature disappointment in things she does and its like, good god. you were more respected during courtship. and ok i get it meg is so vain for caring about looks and clothes and hair and ughhhhhhH

and its funny with amy and her limes as the “following a schoolchums Trend and caring about social standing rather than being steadfast and detached from such frivolous matters” lesson but like also, let her have the 1860s equivalent of a beyblade or whatever and worry abt the immature stuff that matters to a like 10 yr old or whatever. jeez. christianity...

jo of course has to be punished for having a temper and has to settle down from her freespirited, unladylike ways in her maturity like.....yah ok

there’s like 827 chapters so of course a lot of them are just....especially heavy handed Lessons Of The Moment and dont even hardly have a plot

a lot of the Relationships in the end have to do with one character deciding to morally chastise another

im sure i’ll think of more Things That Chafed Most later. its like. Sigh

theres the time beth is the only one not affected by Sloth to go care for some sickly orphans and then she gets sick and nearly dies and doesnt but then does, so maybe thats a lesson in “dont overdo it.” syke she was pretty much A Timid Churchmouse Saint type so like...clearly her archetype was “actually too good for this world” and she had to die or else be cloistered forever. nowhere to go for that character type sorry. except heaven

also there is just a total lack of sexuality to anyone or anything at any time. everyones affections are very courtly and there is like, no concept of...idk, kissing even. jo is all “ugh why would you want to marry anyone, gross,” and its like, right on, and then she’s like “but anyways i myself will now marry this old scholarly dude who keeps acting like a dad at me” and its like. sigh. ppl have kids though too? it just........occurs...

but its got the fun parts anyways......i still remember a couple wild misconceptions i had the first time i read the book, the largest of which was that i completely missed the fact that beth dies like two thirds of the way through the book. i finished the book without noticing. i went about my life without noticing. i may have actually only noticed upon rereading it all later. she dies very euphemistically.

i also on my first reading didnt quite get the precise historical/cultural context in the very beginning b/c i didnt realize that like, describing laurie as brown and firmly establishing that he has dark eyes/skin/hair actually herein meant, like, “italian” rather than that he was black. it wasnt until i got a fair number of chapters past his introduction that i came across an illustration and was like ???????? whom?

well anyhow. i meant to be drawing rn instead of saying all this so i’ll just dump this out

[teehamster]

Christmas Funny Pajamas Let'S Get Lit Christmas Funny Raglan Baseball T Shirt

So this is going to be a Christmas Funny Pajamas Let'S Get Lit Christmas Funny Raglan Baseball T Shirt bit long but bear with me I had what I believe to be a pointless and incredibly frustrating experience with the assistant manager jamie at your auburn hills great lakes crossing location today I have been coming here for three years I frequent your orlando san marcos and new jersey locations as well at least once a year when we stop we usually spend 5 to 10 thousand dollars on your products the system is simple I go in park in a corner and bring bins to my corner sort them bag them move them to the front register and repeat today I brought a personal duffel bag as it holds about 8 to 12 of your bags worth of stuff I get told that i’m not allowed to use it because it’s policy not a big deal at all I say okay i’ll do that for the rest rather than rebag all of this i’ll just go up in line and pay for it and it can sit behind the counter seems pretty reasonable to me nope I got obstructed suggested that I might be stealing something and not allowed to pass stating if I don’t want to follow the system I can leave he then takes my entire duffel dumps it onto the floor and then rebags it into victoria secret bags then moves it to the front counter so it can be rang in I thought this was a little odd but hey he was doing all the work rebagging it so whatever i’m like dude i’m going to be spending about 8k today all I want to do is come in spend some money get out without any drama what’s the problem whoevers in charge should be thrilled with a sale like this we’re spending 8k keep in mind that I told him that I would do what he wanted and it wasnt’ a big deal and the response was to the effect of stop being lippy and just listen I told him what do you want from me I just agreed with you and said I would use your bags i’m not being lippy at all I know this because I said okay dude not a problem i’ll use your bags his response was maybe if you get to buy it i’m like what are you suggesting that an 8 000 order is something you guys don’t want he’s like yeah if you buy it i’m like dude we are spending 8k today why would I bag up a bunch of stuff and spend 2 3 hours picking our your fabulous product to not buy it anyway so I had 4 credit cards one card had 2 000 one had 3500 one had 2000 and one had 1000 because I am buying for multiple people I had 4 different cards all in my name I wanted one receipt for each card not a big deal to me right wrong again he cited some policy and said if the order is more than 750 items that they aren’t allowed to ring in under 750 items on any one receipt id like to point out that that amount is higher than your employees said they could take as a cash payment I asked him to please show me that I would understand better if I could just read it he was willing to do so he brought out the policy book and to my surprise what it actually said was words to the afffect of cash payments cannot be split up or over 750 items I forget the second half my immediate reply was so what’s the big deal im using credit not cash he snatched the policy book away from me at that point and said you know what you can just listen to me or I don’t have to let you buy anything it’s up to my discretion I then called your orlando outlet and your new jersey outlet and talked to the store managers and cited your policy I was given I asked them to confirm if that was accurate and both said if it was a policy it was news to them I then asked if they would let me buy my order using 4 cards and 4 receipts the woman at orlando said oh my gosh yes we do that every single day I asked if I went to her store if I would have any trouble with this in the future and was told no then she said you can always come down here if you’re in the area and i’ll be happy to take your order after that phone call I tried again here’s the video of that attempt I said listen I have 4 credit cards your register girl said you told her she can’t ring up an order under 750 items that’s 3500 if it’s 5 items not all of my cards have that much I have done multiple receipts every time I came here heck I can even supply them to show it he tells me that because I am order so many items that I can’t have less tan 750 items per receipt so I point around to everyone else and ask what about everyone else you aren’t forcing them to spend a minimum of 750 items what about the final charge i’ll have 750 items for two tickets but the leftover isn’t going to be 750 items you’re not going to let me buy them he shrugged his shoulders to say no at this point I haven’t yelled ive been a bit snarky and sarcastic because I know he’s just giving me a hard time two people ring in our order almost every time I am up there and we were there 3 times in the last 6 months spent a bunch each time so at 730 8pm or so we are done shopping assuming that two people could ring us up ended up being a fantasy he forced one employee only to ring us up later on he comes up when its now close to 9pm and says hey you mind if we ring you up on both registers I chuckle and say no I don’t but you do you don’t want to be breaking that 750 rule do you he glared at me and then sent the employee away and walked off after blinking a few times I laugh because after telling me over and over he couldn’t do it he just got caught trying to do what should have been done to begin with a short while later after 9 I find out that everyone is standing uip front except for the one girl and another associate because none of the rest of them are allowed to help her ring us up the only two people left in the store with about 700 more items to be rang in if that’s not enough since it was a holidy all of these employees are apparently being paid overtime to stand around and wait at a bit after 10 all but two girls leave and one girl is waiting to count cash while the other girl sits and keeps ringing stuff in we apologize profusely we expected two employees to ring us up like always and timed our visit to be out around 9 if this had happened instead of having one literally stand there and watch her for 1 hour and 47 minutes after close we would have all been out on time and no overtime or extra hours spent so finally at 10 47 pm our orders are done we thank the lovely girl lauren and jasmine who got stuck staying 2 hours past close because a manager made up some random policy and had to double down when I pointed out he really needed to follow that 750 rule when he was going to toss another girl on the register if this is policy fine it doesn’t seem to be no manager at your other outlets knew what he was talking about the orlando one insisted that the only restrictions are on cash payments and verified I was paying cash or credit it’s a pretty humiliating experience to get hassled trying to buy panties and bras by someone who’s on some type of power trip the only thing I said sideways to him was that I flat out didn’t believe his policy and that credit absolutely is not the same as cash I didnt call him any names scream at him or did anything to disrupt the store beyond what you see in the videos if this is not policy i’d like an apology from that manager in person or over the phone admitting he was mistaken I would hope that the next time I go there I am not hassled but if not I guess there’s always orlando or new jersey who seem to be quite friendly I also want to give recognition to jasmine and lauren lauren is the poor soul who got stuck ringing everything in alone because of the manager’s silly rule and not allowing anyone to help because it would be in violation of the 750 item rule jasmine was the cash counter who had to wait until we were out of the store to count cash even more interesting is that I had a former employee with me helping me buy and she said she never heard of this policy either but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t added since she left she was just as confused because the manager spent over 30 minutes trying to explain and defend this when that time certainly would have been more efficiently spent doing productive things instead of hassling someone who literally sits in a corner and speaks to no one while sorting through your products one bin at a time id love a call back about this or to find out what exactly is going on ive never been hassled like this before and it was a little frustrating and very trying to keep my cool joe rossetti alexandria gunn. 8 1 ptr leveling experience reduced fifth azerite armor ring added raid testing. Stock up on gift cards and save too when you shop online now through 2 19 the more you give the more you ll get back get up to 25 off a future purchase click for more details offer valid online only Christmas Funny Pajamas Let'S Get Lit Christmas Funny Raglan Baseball T Shirt

Christmas Funny Pajamas Let'S Get Lit Christmas Funny Raglan Baseball T Shirt, Hoodie, Sweater, Longsleeve T-Shirt For Men and Women

Premium Trending Trending shirt this Season : Memphis Tigers

It’s a Christmas Funny Pajamas Let'S Get Lit Christmas Funny Raglan Baseball T Shirt wonderful feeling feel the love in the room from the floor to the ceiling ️ home for christmas peaked at no 7 on the billboard 200 on this day in 1998 listen now. Throughout the month we’ll be working with invisible people to bring a face to the homeless epidemic in the united states hanesforgood givingtuesday. A natural dewy look with lifted brows and brighter eyes is a simple swipe and blend away as long as you’re using our new true color illuminating stick available in cool champagne and warm rose gold this cream to powder locks in moisture and blends easily for a lit from within glow everyone will notice contact your avon representative today for how to highlight tips to get your brilliantlyavon look started

Another product: Brown Sugar Lip T Shirt

Trending for this post: January Girl I Am A Daughter Of God Stronger Braver Smarter Than You Believe T Shirt

[sheencko]

mr. moreau

an unfinished scrap of a novel i am not sure ill continue

i can see it its a diamond with the crossroads its white borders from my cracked window up here

i ‘ave to get that fixed)—  just below the fog (the fog is low today)

—and its on top of the street that was just painted

oh yesterday or maybe the day before that

or something,

i think

black as my genevieve’s ‘air

two bodies crisscrossed atop of each other and splattered like paint on a black canvas, a pollack of angry reds and i cant see their face cause theyve been ravaged by the hard concrete and im so high up looking down like a dreamer into a field of rye and i shudder because oh, how painful is that but i also suppose,

when youre fallin i guess you only feel the woosh of the wind under you and maybe your soul leaves your body before your body breaks into a million teeny tiny pieces and everything inside you that youve ever dreamed flows out of you like a bucket tipping over onto a tile floor—maybe

maybe its a perpetual fear and youre trapped inside a perpetual cycle of mind numbing terror because youre falling to your doom and you regret that your feet left the edge in the first place and maybe, maybe you shoulda called your mom and then told her that you loved her one last time or apologized to the man that you bumped into while you were hurrying home yesterday and the tears are flying from your face ‘cause you can see them surrounding your grave wearin nothing but black and your father is silent but a kind of silent youve never seen before and in that second you can just SEE him taking the same path you are and then

maybe the fear grips your limbs like god coming down and punishing you but all you feel is a childish sort of aversion an “i dont wanna” cause you dont wanna—you dont wanna die cause you have so so much to live for and youre cryin to some big fat man up in the sky but whats he gonna do? he cant stop you

but i wouldn’ know but i took the elevator and went down to look at the scene anyway cause we’re all drawn to the misfortune of others anyway like nothing more than moths having an orgy on a blue flame

mr. steinway was next to me in the elevator; he lived on the 13th floor and i on the 12th i saw him smoking up on the roof sometimes. he was a gentleman by any other name, except the part where his wife left him cause hed been caught with a particularly young mistress but i suppose that didnt matter because he played ravel’s jeux d’eau like no one else in the world could and maybe he played her body like that homonymous six figure grand he has, who knows

his face was wrinkled and ugly but the melodies he played were smooth and beautiful so who cared about his damn visage i guess

“oh, mister moreau,” and for that matter, his voice wasnt particularly musical either

“steinway, are you heading down to see what happened?”

“arent we all,” he chuckled like the deaths were a funny little joke he had made up,

“i think i’ll stop by the grocery store”

“is that so?” he spoke like a conductor introducing a symphony to an ignorant audience and he was just trying to find a way to relive his days of performing inside carnegie hall’s stern auditorium because all he performed in now was his empty apartment, we around ‘im the unwilling listeners. he silently watched the floor numbers count down on the bar above the elevator doors 10 9 8 7 “i ‘aven’t been there lately.” he finally said like he had wondered how to talk without being offensive while still showing his pockets were full of gold.

dick, i thought 4 5

and waited and 2 1 and the doors opened.

our doorman greeted us. he was a fine fellow and i talked with him when it was too awkward for silence. he had a prized son about to head off to columbia on some scholarship or another and his younger daughter was expected to follow in his shoes. his mother was bedridden his dad dead and apparently he made a great deal of money working as a valet for the most expensive hotel in the city on the weekends. he liked the color orange and his ties were sometimes tied with a different knot because his daughter liked to practice on him. for lunch he preferred a simple tomato and mozzarella panini from the cafe a few blocks away but occasionally he partook in the pita bread and hummus that mrs. tomadakis on the fourth floor gave him and he always always despised it when someone moved the rug in front of the door. i didnt know his name.

“another suicide, huh?” he gave me a warm smile and mr. steinway a slightly cooler one

he said ‘another’ because it had been the eighth one this month and we were only fourteen days into it and silently, slowly we found ourselves heading towards a point of numb disassociation—when one person committed suicide it was all over the news like mr. steinway’s scandal and you learned their birthday, their name, their age,

every tiny detail of they had been, the sorrow of their friends and family,

and everything that happened between the day that they they came into the world and the day they left

and the people reacted with horror, the parents apologized to their kids and the kids to their parents, and the grief counselors opened their doors to those who had lost someone in a similar fashion and had to relive the memory through someone else’s eyes and maybe a wide-eyed girl holdin the blade to her small wrist told herself not today, not today

but of course, thats me being optimistic

sometime after the third suicide all that popped up was a name and a vague somethingorother reason they lit themselves on fire or shot themselves in the ‘ead or something and then a frown from the casters, maybe a tinge of sympathy entered their tone but then 10 seconds passed and they forgot because this was all part of a trend that would end. the people talked about the suicides in hushed tones but now the conservations were turning into a more questioning again? and a response of yeses and then it tended to be never discussed again because hey it didnt involve us anyhow

so the nameless bodies started to pile up one on top of each other and i knew the faces and names of maybe three or four but no more.

i nodded to him. “troubling,” i said, because what else could i say

“yes, definitely. my wife had me turn off the news last night because she was so… distressed at all the incidents lately” the doorman replied and there was a hint of something unknown when he said it. nonetheless he turned to the man next to me because his priorities were his own “I heard your playing the other day, mr. steinway. marvelous as always,” he said, voice turned slick because steinway gave good tips. he couldn’t hear anything from all the way on the 1st floor of course

mr. steinway looked chuffed, a prizewinning cock who fought with all the other roosters. “the debussy or the khachaturian?”

“the khachaturian, of course. i always find myself partial to the contemporary—“ the doorman said in an inviting tone to begin an conversation that would undoubtedly net him a few more dollars or maybe a lot more next week—

“interesting!” steinway murmured in that hushed tone since discussion of classical music was clearly some covert operation that no one was supposed to know about. i walked outside into the cool fall air knowing that they would be stuck there for a good ten minutes or more and noticed that the crowd around the two corpses in the middle was gone already and the first thing i wondered was not who they were but rather if dear genevieve had heard the news

there is a photographer standing by the bodies with her big old camera snap snap and she looks up and stares at me staring at her she stands up and i notice that the bottom of her pants have been scuffed by the road she smiles at me without dusting herself off,

“hello!” she was too cheery for the death in front of her “do you live here?” she is the only one out here and the world feels strangely empty

“yes, i” i pointed to the clean, modern building to the left “live just over there,”

she looked at me up and down up and down “you wouldn’t know these people would you?” no i wouldnt

“no” her face fell but then it rose again as she stuffed a card into my clammy hand and the bracelets on her hand jangled and she grinned at me with white teeth but the front two were crooked as if someone ‘ad taken a pair of pliers to them and her brown ‘air was messy, her skin lighter than mine—“i was just wondering since no one seems to know who they are” (she spoke in a rush like she was breathless) and i finally start to wonder indeed, who they are because even as corpses their hands are entwined together “i’m” and now that im down here i can see the fine details in their “photographer, i” faces and the one on the left has that dead fish look in their dark eyes and the eyes are wide open and theyre staring into “crime scenes” my very soul and i wonder if theyre blaming me for my being complicit in their deaths because i too heard the news and did nothing but “ive been in the news” my hands are shaking and i think i couldnt have done anything because i didnt know but something jabs me — a maybe i did know because i too heard the news and passed by disinterested “but i also do” and im staring back at them and theyre staring back at me in a staring contest that i know i will lose “family portraits, anything you need basically” and the one on the rights eyes are closed and the part of their face that isnt all burst open and spilling onto the floor has a tender charm and their lips are fixed in what seems like a peaceful smile but im thinking no there is no way that could be peaceful and oh “call the number if” their ‘ands are all so small if i could just have grabbed those before they jumped maybe id be staring at an empty black canvas instead of a grotesque exhibit of all that we ‘ave done wrong

work title:

artist:

medium: human on concrete

[fallish]

home (the hardest place to stay, to leave)

on ao3 | part 1

A/N: this is part 1 of a kind of kh3 fix-it. ill be going over things that did and didnt happen as the story progresses and i hope y’all like it. this is the first thing ive written in a long time so feel free to tell me what you think

summary: The story starts where Sora decides to start telling it.

Sora meets Riku when they were both too young to remember meeting. He thinks he was 4 and his mother had taken him out with her for errands. Endlessly curious and too lively for his mother to keep up, he had seen a boy who looked his age holding something shiny, and he had run up to him to ask what it was. Sora vaguely remembers telling Riku that it was pretty, Riku looking at him like he had another head, then thrusting out the chain saying he didn’t need it.

That’s not where the story starts.

They meet Kairi when Sora starts 2rd grade, and even though Riku is just a year above him, they don’t have play time together. She offers to play pirates with Sora, and he’s so elated, he talks Riku’s ear off about the girl who must be captain of the seas because she washed up on shore and clearly was meant to find her way to the islands. Riku smirks and says he just has to meet this elusive captain of the seas.

That’s not where it starts either.

A few months after meeting Riku, Riku meets Terra. He’s older and cool and a hero. Sora talks to Terra’s friend Aqua, and privately decides that Terra is a huge dork but maybe he is cool. He also spends a lot of time with Riku, and Riku is Sora’s best friend so he can’t have him. Aqua laughs when he tells her that. She tells him that Terra won’t take Riku away from him, but she looks doubtful for a second. She asks him to promise to keep Riku safe. He does. She laughs and relaxes, at peace with that, but the promise settles under Sora’s skin. It feels permanent.

Sora knows Riku made Terra a promise too, but he doesn’t know what it was. All he does know is that they were too young to know what they had promised. They were too small to know the pain and time a few chance meetings would cost them.

It kind of does start there, doesn’t it?

But maybe it doesn’t really start until they have the raft mostly put together. They are too old to think leaving the island with nothing but a raft is a good idea but too young and full of wanderlust to really consider if what little they’d gathered was enough. He goes home that night and thinks about the new room he’s staying in, full of things he doesn’t need. He thinks about his mother. He thinks about his aunt in the next room over. When the storm starts, he doesn’t think twice about finding Riku.

The story can’t start there.

They are too fragile to make it on their own.

The story won’t start there.

They are surrounded by darkness.

There is too much story there.

For the first time, Sora feels the promise swelling up under his skin.

Pause.

The story starts where Sora decides to start telling it.

***

The beach is such an odd place to be now that there’s nothing holding them apart anymore. Kairi sits on the bent paupu tree and Riku leans against it to get the best view of the sunset possible. Sora stretches himself out so that his head rests in Kairi’s lap and his knee is pressed firmly into Riku’s shoulder, just enough so that he can feel that he’s there. Turning his head toward the sunset, he can see the sea salt gang playing frisbee in the fading light.

There’s no nostalgia, but a certain fondness in his voice when he says “I’m glad we’re all here. I’m glad I can see you guys again.” Both of them are quiet for the next few seconds, but he knows that nothing needs to be said here. Kairi huffs out a breathe, then threads her fingers through his hair. She places a small kiss on his forehead. Riku reaches out his right hand and twines Sora’s fingers through his and squeezes. They say a lot in those small actions. They say, me too and I’m not leaving. Sora feels his heartbeat settle and his eyes start to droop.

Kairi and Riku notice he’s nodding off, but they let it happen. They can hold him up

***

The first time he sees his old bed, Sora is convinced he is gonna pass out within seconds of his head hitting the pillow. Unfortunately, that turns out to not be the case. What does happen is what follows:

He lays down, and he shuts his eyes. The air sits still and silent and there is no sound but a distant echo of waves crashing on cool sand coming from his cracked window. Trying to ignore the need to reach for his phone and check on Donald and Goofy, he shifts restlessly, straining to hear anything else at all. The only other discernible sounds are those of his aunt bustling around in the kitchen, and looking at the clock, if her routine hadn’t changed while he was gone, she wouldn’t be done for a few hours.

The bed doesn’t rock under him at all when he stands up. He willfully doesn’t think about the constant turbulence of the gummi ship as he pushes the window fully open slowly, careful to not make any sound.

The light of the moon aides him in sneaking one foot after another over the hurdle height ledge of his window. Making his way past the kitchen window, which is wide open, he hears his aunt on the phone, “No, I just want to make sure I can make this place a little more like home for him. He has never really lived here before, I mean, I don’t even know if he ever had his own room after he left,”

Sora knew that coming back was a serious decision, but hearing the consequences of it makes him feel guilty for jumping back into her life like this. When they decided they wanted to leave, it was a decision made in loneliness and a little bit of anger, but back then, he never considered what it would do to her. Her sister gone a month prior, and then her nephew gone in the middle of the night. He wonders briefly if she suffered the same loneliness he felt after his mother passed. He can’t stay for longer.

He sneaks past the open window to the sidewalk and makes the familiar walk to Riku’s house. It’s no surprise, when he reaches, that Riku’s bedroom light is still on.

At Yen Sid’s, Riku used to open enemy files and write in his own descriptions in the middle of the night and hope Yen Sid wouldn’t notice. While they slept in the same room, Sora had watched him do it enough times to know he always fell asleep around his third edit of the night. He is certain that he made his own files so that he could continue the trend after becoming a master. He can’t help but adore the fact that Riku still keeps up with the little things they used to keep themselves sane through the countless training trial they fought through. Sora used to make small bead bracelets, each marking a new world and the people he met there. His new blue bracelet has the colors of the sea and he got the beads from Arendelle. Its fastened with a little snowflake charm that Elsa made him. Now, he fiddles with it while coming up with an entrance strategy now that there is no coconut tree outside Riku’s window.

After scaling the building and prying the window open, he allows himself to tumble heavily onto his best friend’s floor. The bed pushed into the corner of the room is far enough from the window that his fall doesn’t even make Riku stir, but its still loud enough to make Sora wince.

Sure enough, the notebook full of carefully documented heartless sits under Riku’s right hand, as he lies asleep, curled up with his left arm folded under his head. While Sora is practically known for being able to sleep anywhere, Riku can’t sleep without reading or writing something for a solid hour. Sora knows Mickey didn’t fare well with the constant selfie updates he used to send Riku in the Realm of Darkness. He’d received a few disparaging texts from the king asking him to keep it short so that when they could sleep, he didn’t have to worry about the light of the screen a few feet away being the eyes of a shadow. Riku always texted him almost immediately after those messages, telling him not to listen to anything the king said, and to keep sending updates. He used to say it made him feel better to know he was okay.

Sora could get with the philosophy of knowing if his best friend was safe. That was why he was currently standing in Riku’s bedroom, exhausted, with no plan of what to do once he got there. Now that he thought about it, he had only wanted to get away from the dense atmosphere of his own room. He and Riku had grown up in this room together, almost. Remnants of their childhood remained in the wooden swords that were shoved into a corner, and the several little pieces of their play island make believe props strewn about.

Sora picks up an eyepatch and thinks of Will and Jack and the Caribbean. The memories flash through his head almost too fast to keep track of and all of a sudden, Rudder of Fate is in his hand. While the ache of loss is better felt by Elizabeth, he still feels a pang in his chest whenever he thinks of them. He sigh and keeps out his keyblade, switching to the Kingdom Key as he sits on the floor, near the foot of Riku’s bed. If he can’t sleep, then the least he could do it make sure Riku is safe while he does.

***

Riku wakes up slowly, a trend that has been going on since they had come back to the islands. With his eyes closed, he moves each of his limbs, one at a time, only to confirm what he already knew, which was that he was still exhausted. After the war was over, he had asked Mickey why he was so tired all the time, and they had settled on the conclusion that was the absence of stress. After being under so much pressure for so long, it was normal for even masters to need time to settle back to a baseline level of stress.

When he stretched out his right leg straight, he his a soft spike and he nearly jumped out of his skin, his eyes shot open so fast. “S’ra,” he managed to croak out before scrambling up, “What’re you doing here?” After assessing the actual situation, he asked “More importantly, why’re you down there?”

Sora, who had sprung up when Riku had called his name, looked dazed. “What?” he asked. He couldn’t remember falling asleep, but now that he was awake his quickly vanished his keyblade and rubbed at his eyes. “I’ve been here forever. For eons, in fact,” and at Riku’s raised eyebrow, he stared down at his hands trying to wake up as he expanded, “Couldn’t sleep. Don’t worry about it.” When he looked up to see his eyebrow still raised, he just made an exasperated sound and started to get up.

Finally, Riku nods, “While I happen to know that you are pretty good at sleeping, I guess I get it. You should’ve woken me up though.” Riku moves through his regular morning routine of swinging his legs down and making the bed behind him. Sora simply lays down on the floor and waits for him to go through the motions of his morning. As Riku finishes, he looks down at the boy on the floor. His eyes are closed and he looks like he hasn’t really slept. “Wanna take a nap?”

Sora looks guiltily at the clock and grimaces. “Even if we could, I don’t think that’s a great idea. We’re gonna be late for brunch.”

“After then?” Riku asks, forcing his tone to remain as casual as possible. Sora squints suspiciously.

“Sure…”

And Riku smirks at his victory, “Then you’ll come back here with me after, and we’ll both get a well deserved nap.” He says it with such finality that Sora rolls his eyes. They have to meet up for brunch with Kairi, and if they don’t leave in the next ten minutes, she’s going to have their hides. “C’mon let’s go.”

And just like that, its on to brunch.

[andseperand]

thoughts

ive been sitting on this post for the better part of a year. i tried to read through it and make edits, but im going to have to post this as is. maybe ill be able to edit it someday. anyway, this is completely composed of spoilers.

tl;dr: i mostly wrote bitterness about “kung food,” “origins part 1,″ and “reflekta.”

these are my thoughts on what ive watched of the first season of miraculous ladybug (i have watched most of every episode except the last three).

i may be confused or misinformed on some points. some of this is not as serious as other parts, and the writing style is disjointed because i didnt write it all in one go. any links are formatted within brackets (as in [text]).

ordered by the order i initially watched (parts of) the episodes in and indicated by villain name somehow (english, korean, french, french translation, etc.).

stormy weather/climatika

why did alya just toss manon like that? she couldve hurt something just being thrown around with her tiny little bones and joints that lack any significant cushioning. not to mention that her neck is completely unsupported. safety, much?

the bubbler/le bulleur

so the record is fully functional but also survived getting smacked off a building on its edge? wow.

copycat/l’imposteur/the imposter

i get that alya is supposed to be that “go-getter” friend who pushes marinette to be brave, but honestly, if she had waited another minute for marinette to be more ready for making a phone call, this wouldve been less of a mess. yeah, i get the “pushing boundaries to build confidence,” but honestly we could have waited for marinette to stop stalking adrien, too.

i gotta say: marinette is truly fearless. my phone is so suspicious. i would not have the confidence to deliberately touch it with my face and risk contact with who knows what has been on it.

the “moral” or whatever of this episode is kind of unclear? steal someones phone and run into issues with security but then also somehow break into it and get what you want anyway? no, thats not okay. its not that funny that marinette legitimately stole someones phone, and she doesnt even get seriously reprimanded for this.

timebreaker/chronogirl

one of the most pressing questions i have for this episode is why no one thought of using pockets or a bag or something to hold this important watch. hand perspiration is pretty bad for a lot of older and newer mechanical objects alike. why is this clearly-important item treated any different? ive considered both the “tikki is in the bag” (doesnt mean it has to be marinettes bag) and the “girl pockets” (marinette designed her own clothes, though) possibilities, and im still stumped.

mister/monsieur/mr./m. pigeon

how did chloe know what the colors were or even what the embroidery pattern looked like from a pencil sketch? it looked like chicken scratch.

lady wifi

im not sure that “dont violate other peoples privacy” was very well stated, seeing as alya was landed with an unfairly harsh punishment due to corrupt politicians. and how did that get resolved, anyway? was she still suspended? was there even supposed to be a moral in this mess?

the pharaoh/le pharaon

the villain is a pharaoh, continuing the ages-long trend of pretending ancient egyptian culture is just ~so interesting~ and that its portrayal isnt exploitative at all. i cant really say much about this, but i dont like those special ancient egypt episodes of anything.

rogercop

a mess

im pretty sure that this was to save animation budget or something, but why was marinette picking up those croissants off the floor and arranging them so nicely as if it really mattered what she did with them besides cleaning up the spill? i guess ill let it slide if shes trained that way as an advertising thing (though advertising doesnt get a free pass by default just because its strange).

the evillustrator/evil artist/le dessinateur

off topic, but could that tablet also erase or create living beings?

dark cupid/le dislocoeur/heartbreaker

this was still technically a kiss without consent? doesnt really feel all that romantic and whatnot. i cant really get behind this as shipping material.

horrificator

side note: i really liked how chloes english voice actor delivered the lines mockingly announcing mylenes “award” in the beginning.

im not a fan of the “you must kiss as part of acting” plot point. it always gives off those peer pressure vibes from other people and opportunistic vibes from main characters who want to actually kiss the other person.

darkblade/le chevalier noir/the black knight

sabrina is honestly super lucky that marinette made her box have a hole big enough for super tiny animated character wrists or else she wouldve been in a world of more pain.

alya had a platform? im so confused about how this election worked. did they do ballots or some sort of “heads down” in-class vote thing?

the/le mime

seeing as people dont lose their memories of being attacked by the villains, i really dont see how tearing down the eiffel tower (even in an animated show where people are not in the structure at the time) is the best way to minimize traumatic experiences. i get that it was supposed to be a “wow” moment for the plot and just visual effects but not the appeal.

kung food

the second i ever laid my eyes on this name i knew it would be bad, i just didnt know how bad because there were just so many ways it couldve gone with that phrase and i didnt know what to expect until i actually watched the episode. more on this in a bit.

there was literally no point to having the famous chef be related to marinette other than contrived circumstances to get adrien into this episode. im using this as a launching off point for talk of other stuff.

why didnt marinettes parents do anything about a relative coming to their house? this really baffles me because they have their daughter meet an effective stranger with no help.

why didnt marinettes parents tell her what languages the relative spoke? honestly, it kind of seems like they just didnt even care if this would cause her extreme anxiety or anything. you would really think they would have at least discussed this as a family because it was made pretty clear that his visit was actually expected. i thought way higher of their characters until it seemed that they pulled this crap move.

i know it was supposed to be all cute and a bonding moment when adrien came over to translate, but it was even more of a disaster. why did they take a car literally around the corner to get to the hotel? why didnt the chef go directly to the hotel if it was so close? was that adriens car? who was in charge of organizing this event and making sure the contestants didnt end up in the wrong place? how in the world did the chef even get to the bakery? because of the close proximity of the hotel to the bakery, it doesnt make sense that he would go to the bakery instead from an airport or something? unless he was supposed to meet his relatives? which, in this case, was not facilitated at all? so many questions are raised.

i dont speak nor understand mandarin, but im pretty sure adriens wasnt good enough for him to actually be complimented for it. then again, its nothing new to see white people getting complimented for deigning to learn a ~foreign language~ while i get interrogated about my lack of “authenticity” for not speaking “my native tongue,” so i guess the writers were just being realistic.

he bowed...funny story, at least one time i went to a restaurant with other visibly asian people and the apparently-white waiter kept making this weird head bobbing motion every time they left the table and what im saying here is that i know adrien has presumably been learning about culture stuff, but i also know firsthand that creators really love to shove bowing into media whenever asian people show up. (that waiter did give us extra mints, so i guess that was nice.)

sarcasm alert: i love when ~asian~ people have ~asian~ accents. its not like this is a tired gimmick that i dont need to see literally everywhere i turn (oh, wait! according to the english version, it is! hooray for me! this is probably the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me ever! im not being sarcastic at all! or overly sarcastic to the point where im sarcastically putting in that everything ive written in this paragraph is sarcastic because im just so mad! or maybe it definitely is! it probably is all sarcasm!) [bonus sarcasm here]

the chefs english/default dub language fluency was either inconsistent or this was just a straight-up rude portrayal of a nonnative speaker of a language, because adrien didnt seem to wait five seconds (for the chef to even consider the question about what he was cooking) before talking to the chef (and naturally, being a polite person, the chef listened to what adrien was saying), and i feel like it was only for the sake of adrien being ~useful~ because right after that, he talks to the chef in english/whatever language? dont think i didnt notice that his english speaking got “better” after becoming a villain. you know, if they hadnt faked the accent in the first place, they wouldnt have had to hastily cover for the fact that their voice actor couldnt even execute it well.

im sure adrien and marinette tag-teaming to argue with chloe and her racist comments was supposed to be this whole “wow look at that team” deal, but it felt like adrien was shoehorned into this mess sloppily. woohoo for the white boy defending marinette because she cant do it herself or something! i do appreciate when white people help stand up for me, but in this context, it feels off.

i have such a big problem with the “pep talk” adrien gives marinette when she thinks the chef doesnt like her. first thing, white boy explaining things about a person of color to a person of color, and the two people are actually literally related? i think the bouquet misunderstanding was really bizarre, and when did adrien have time to gain all this extensive exposition? the interview when they first arrived was short, and i dont think that both adrien and the chef would be so rude as to exclude marinette from their conversation in the car on the way over. this just comes off as a way to have adrien ~encouraging~ marinette, and its not a very good one.

this supposedly super prestigious competition literally has no security to make sure no one is mucking around behind the scenes, let alone ensure that the contestants arent up to any funny business. because why not. and no cameras around either, because cooking-based television programs never show any cooking, just the tasting and subsequent subjugation by a villain (this is a sarcastic sentence). even if this is supposed to be a featured dish and thus one they dont want to showcase the recipe behind, they could still have those little soundbites interspersed with candid panorama shots (can you tell i have no idea what any of these words mean?). im just going to have to chalk this one up to animation budget and move on.

i know this was just a sort of (intendedly funny) visual thing, but i highly doubt that the objects chloe put in the soup could just go unnoticed, especially since i presume a chef would thoroughly stir (and taste) their cooking, and the soup didnt appear to have properties of decomposing things touching it. otherwise that tasting session would probably have turned out a little messier (i am completely kidding here).

why is the chef being upset about being sabotaged made into a ~cultural~ thing? why is a white boy telling marinette about her ~own~ culture? sheesh, its like you cant just be upset because your shot at a world title was ruined on live television and you have confirmation that you were deliberately sabotaged. yes, chloe did it because shes petty and racist, but the results of her actions could upset anyone! its not just because the chef is chinese! what is the point of saying that? its a pointless throwaway comment! why dont you just find some other way to get the chef alone so he can be become a villain that isnt a) nonsensical and b) making sweeping generalizations about people? (granted, i cant speak to the validity of anything said about cultures, but i sure can comment on why saying such things about them isnt okay regardless).

“kung food” oh my god. this is such a piece of crap name. it is racist. you can literally try to argue against this until youve gone far beyond oxygen deprivation and in a grave but itll still be racist by the time youre done. aside from the pharaoh, there arent a bunch of ~ethnic~ names (not that it would be okay for that to be the case anyway) running around, and yet we get one with this specific villain whose ethnic and national origin is talked to death? okay.

and ive seen this pointed out, but the villain appearance seems to have a kind of anime-inspired design, which is honestly a good laugh because who was just talking about not conflating china and japan again? weeaboos and sinaboos are often in the same boat.

okay, not related, but adrien just had to taste a suspicious substance off the floor. why. there are so many ways to figure out what a substance is before putting it in your mouth. or you could just not do that at all. before this point, they did not appear to suspect a food-related villain, so this couldve ended badly.

another side note: i dont know how that receipt retained its integrity long enough for ladybug to wrap the villain up after dipping it in the soup. do the magical items just have super special properties like extra toughness that allows them to defy the reality of paper receipts? i wonder how many of the things ive talked about in this post have been me marveling at the sturdiness of lucky charm items.

of course this turns into an ~accountability~ lesson for marinette. and chloe doesnt get reprimanded? yeah, she got booted off a panel she didnt even want to be on and no one actually clearly articulated to her that the things she said were absolutely unacceptable? then again, this is a “diversity episode,” so i dont know why my standards are so high.

wow, marinette really needed to have adrien encourage her before going to take a picture with her great-uncle? im going to be generous and allow that she wanted to make sure he would be okay with her ditching him for her much cooler great-uncle because she didnt want him to feel bad about how not-cool he is in comparison. there, you see what i mean about making up story elements? (though im really not much of a writer, oops.)

im so over people making fun of how others dress as a joke. before i realized that i am autistic and reflected back on my life, i didnt realize that i gravitate toward clothing i find comfortable rather than fashionable, and ive always gotten negative comments, ill-intended or otherwise. so i really didnt appreciate marinettes jab at chloe, even if it was to defend herself. it was just unnecessary.

i want to talk about the whole ~chinese representation~ thing in this show. yeah, i know marinette is one of the very few chinese and mixed main characters out there (and there are barely any that are both), but im going to be super honest about this: i dont think shes all that great. i am a big fan of her and this show, but that doesnt make it infallible. the fact that adrien of all people is telling her about her own culture is a huge failing in itself. i dont know everything about my own cultures, but its not cool to have a literal outsider being shown to be the expert on someones culture and be the one to guide them through that. theres barely any portrayal of sino stuff in the show as is, and i hate the way this is only shown as a kind of special episode topic. i would be way more fine with this if this wasnt basically the sole instance of discussion of marinettes heritage. and no, the fact that her mother wears stereotypical clothing doesnt count. at all.

okay, this has been a huge issue for me before and after this point, but it was in this episode that it was made abundantly clear just what we are dealing with. i know that it is completely possible, genetically speaking, for a mixed chinese and white person to have blue eyes. its also completely possible for a chinese person to have gray eyes even without being mixed (i say this because i dont know if her mother is monoracial). however, if you only have two confirmed recurring characters of chinese descent, and their eye colors are ~special~ colors...well, thats kind of iffy there. why is it that the minor chinese character has stereotypical eyes? theyre basically just expanded pupils for all intents and purposes, which is not the problem, because its possible to have irises that are so dark as to make figuring out whether they have a distinguishable brown tint to them really hard. anyway, i suppose i dont want to talk about things ahead in the season, but why is it that the background asian characters get the stereotypical eyes but the main characters who are asian get the special eye colors? (that was a rhetorical question. i know exactly why.)

im pretty that at some point in the creation of this villain name, someone patted themself on the back for being so ~clever~ like “haha kung food geddit? its like kung fu but with food because im actually not that creative and more racist than i would like to openly admit.” okay, i know im being a bit harsh. but its really annoying when one of the few things people “know” about sino people is that kung fu exists. and honestly, i kind of suspected this, but ive seen other people say that the villain more resembles a villain from anime, so...thats kind of disrespectful there...

the/le gamer

i really disliked marinettes combo move names. they all had ~asian~ words like lotus, jade, oriental, etc.

animan

i find the sniffing scene to be kind of creepy. personal space much?

the city has really high quality buses. i cant believe the bus didnt end up backfiring on their plan because if i know anything about buses its that the ones ive seen are probably way older and more decrepit than me.

antibug

how do the earrings work in this setting? as far as i can tell, it would make sense for chloe to have pierced ears and a pair of ladybug imitation earrings that she could put it, but how is it possible that ladybug was able to just pull the earrings off? because that could be a really, really messy situation if they are actually piercings with backings and everything, but is there an explanation for this? magnets, clips, anything?

the puppeteer/le marionnettiste

can that glowing bright red effect that comes from her yo-yo and the power cord being swung around just for the viewers, or can it actually be seen in-universe? or is that a null point because both items are generated by ladybugs magic?

reflekta

this show really didnt need any “haha look a ~guy~ in a dress” jokes. and honestly, this was ill handled (though arguably, its very existence was ill handled). first of all, im not the best judge of this kind of thing, but to me, ladybug felt out of character while mocking chat noir? honestly, marinette doesnt strike me as the type of person to find that kind of situation funny in the first place, so the premise doesnt really hold up in my opinion. i know marinette can make mistakes, but youd really think she would be more open to not thinking this way because she knows what its like to be bullied for other things. moving on... [though, to reiterate]

the way this was not addressed? at all? yeah, ladybug apologized for that one comment at the beginning of their conversation, but then she continued to make jokes at chat noirs expense, and it just wasnt as funny as it was probably intended to be?

i know the whole thing about ambiguous chronology, but there is no reason ladybug wouldnt take chat noirs opinion into account when planning for things anyway. it felt like that part was written specifically so he could “prove” his worth to the rest of the episode and ensure that, yes, he is still allowed to be in it after being turned into a reflekta lookalike, and the whole thing smacks of trying to write out of a corner...that was written into in the first place. if it hadnt gone the route it did with the mocking of appearances, i dont think it would have had to be as convoluted as it ended up being.

i personally dont care for high heels, but i dont get the kind of “fashion cracks” that were being made about them. like yes, high heels can be hard to move in? yeah, it isnt fun being turned into the appearance of someone who isnt you against your will? i just dont understand this gag.

guitar villain

did ladybug really honestly just full-on spray someone in the face with the contents of an aerosol can? im aware that the point was that the hair was in front of his face, but what if some had gotten into guitar villains eyes? dang, what if someone tries to emulate this in real life? ouch.

digital/numeric

kind of done with the spotlight on stalking behavior this show has.

marinette still shows no fear of suspicious screens. she continues to use parts of her face to touch one multiple times, never mind that she literally flings her yoyo all over the place.

stoneheart/coeur de pierre i

did marinette have pierced ears in the first place? shes not shown taking any earrings out, and we dont get that clear a view of her earlobes anyway. that might be deliberate for modeling budget and all.

master fu has brown eyes. so thats like four ~chinese~ characters that are in this show, and the main character and her mother have the special eye colors, and the minor character who is somewhat important to the plotline has non-black eyes, and the minor one-episode character has the black eyes. what a shining example of diversity (no).

anyway this is a good point to say that some things are just not for you. there are things that you just cant be a part of no matter how much you want to be because it just doesnt work that way. and the mess that is the miraculous “mythology” is definitely an example of this. i myself have very little knowledge of anything sino, but i sure as heck can spot that this...”history” thing is so off.

at this point i should probably mention i really dislike master fu as a character in general. just as a single point, apparently hes based off the teacher character in karate kid? i saw somewhere that the creator said he basically made marinette mixed because he was dating an asian person when he was thinking about the show and that marinette is basically his idea of their mixed kid? and back to the eye color thing (again), ive even seen someone with green eyes and blue hair suggest to him that they could be the child of marinette and adrien, and he said theyre like his grandchild? (im not really inclined to try to dig up an iron-clad, indisputably genuine source for this right now, but if youre honestly searching for completely serious, well-researched information in a really good quality post, this is not the post you are looking for.) i have no idea where i was even going with this paragraph.

stoneheart/coeur de pierre ii

why is marinette so invested in her crush on adrien? this couldve been a sweet crush, but no, she has to make it so creepy? leading up to this episode, i really didnt know what to expect because i really thought there would be some sort of explanation for just how extreme the lengths marinette goes to are, but from what i can tell, shes just being super invasive? the ambiguous timeline doesnt really help with this, nor does the fact that the origins episodes were aired at the end of the season. whatever characterization was supposed to be inferred from this feels choppy and unnecessary.

simon says/jackady/jacques a dit

i dont really blame her, but ladybug totally could have reduced the level of adrien distractedness going on here. shes previously shown signs of compartmentalizing ladybug and even having to face the fact that it isnt worth using up her power over adrien, but gosh golly, what gives?

princess/princesse fragrance

ive seen criticisms of how ladybug was written to be overly competent in this episode, which i think is fair since it keeps happening, and its so late in the season by this point that its gotten tired.

volpina

i try not to be too judgmental, but frankly, adrien is not that great of a prize.

anyway, from what i can tell about this episode, i think that there was too much on marinettes flaws, which i really think is a bit much to have in the last chronological episode of a season. its already been established that she makes mistakes with her decisions, but i just thought her unequal prioritization of adrien was too much. it just seemed contrived to squeeze in scenes that the creators wanted to animate regardless of overall context in the show, which is really unfortunate because of how the show becomes a little less chronologically ambiguous at this point.

[dietcoachesofamerica]

(images courtesy Mark Warnke/Men's Health)

The following men not only wanted to shape up, they took action and made their ambitions a reality. 

Take a look at how they shifted their habits to improve their lives for years to come.

How Christopher Jacob lost 38 pounds in 4 years

After his wife had a heart attack in 2012 at age 45, Christopher Jacob knew they both had to make a change. 

The father of three from Saudi Arabia had high cholesterol, and feared he was on a similar path.

Jacob and his wife both vowed to take shaping up seriously to ensure they would be around to support their kids for decades to come. 

Despite a work schedule packed with travel as a director of human resources, Jacob made exercise a priority. While traveling, he would pick out his hotels based on the workout facilities, searching for options with either a pool to swim in or a gym to lift in. 

Jacob would also follow along with fat-loss workout videos from Mens Health Fitness Director BJ Gaddour, C.S.C.S., to add variety and blast calories. (Gaddour just launched his newest and most intense fat-burning workout program ever with Mens Health, MetaShred Extreme.)

He also reigned in his calorie count to about 1,500 to 2,000 per day, using the app MyFitnessPal to track his intake. On days when he overdid it, he worked off the extra calories at the gym.

The 44 year old got off his cholesterol medication in January 2015 and has been off it ever since. The same motivating factor that pushed him to take action in the first place continues to drive him to keep the weight off today: His kids. 

I am a family man, Jacob says. And I would like to see my kids grow, influence them in any means possible, and have an impact on their livesso that when the time comes to let them go, I know that I have taught them well. 

How Ted Gibson lost 45 pounds in 6 months

The sexiest women in the world want Ted Gibson. Angelina Jolie, Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, and other A-listers line up for himfor haircuts, at a price of $1,500 a pop. 

Related: The 100 Hottest Women Of All Time

But while New Yorks top hairstylist was busy growing his salon empire, his girth grew too.

I just wasnt exercising as much as I had been before, says Gibson, 50. And the weight slowly crept on. 

As a 64, 200-pound ultralean bodybuilder in the early 1990s, Gibson had always been a naturally big, muscular guy. 

But last January I hit 280, he says. I had less energy and my back hurt. I wanted to look amazing for my impending 50th birthday. 

So Mens Health paired Gibson with Vinny Brandstadter of Peak Performance, a New York City gym just around the corner from his salon, and Mens Health nutrition advisor Mike Roussell, Ph.D. 

Roussell worked to sneak healthy tweaks into Gibsons diet that wouldnt affect his overall lifestyle. He helped Gibson find healthy meals at each of the restaurants where his staff orders lunch every day. 

Along with making key changes to his diet, Gibson hit the gym three days a week. Gibson did aerobic intervals that built his endurance and hour-long circuits that burned between 500 to 700 calories.  

Related: The Lifting Technique That Flattens Your Belly

He admits he was nervous to not be the big guy anymore. 

But Im now at 235 pounds, says Gibson. This is the best Ive felt in a long time. I have a lot more energy, my back doesnt hurt, and Im getting a lot of compliments. 

How Yosef Herzog lost 50 pounds in 5 months

Yosef Herzog played sports in high school and college. But once he graduated, his structured workouts fell apart. Aside from intramural sports and some pickup basketball games in Manhattan, he rarely stepped foot in the gym.

The weight crept up on him. At 231 pounds, he began experiencing back pain and was out of breath after tying his shoes. 

After trying to develop healthier habits and losing motivation after a couple weeks, Herzog signed up for the gym at his office.

His evaluation session didnt seem that tough: Lunges, planks, and pushups. But 20 minutes in, Herzog lost his lunchtwice.

I wouldnt say I was in Chris Farley territory, but I was definitely in bad shape, says Herzog. 

He began alternating cardio and strength training, six days a week. 

Herzog also cleaned up his diet. He swapped oatmeal in for his usual breakfast bagel, salad in for subs, and Mexican-style chicken and beans in for burgers. 

In less than half a year, he weighed 181 pounds and needed new clothes. The fitter I got, he says, the more confident I felt.

How Bryan Hodgins lost 190 pounds in 2 years

From age 2, Bryan Hodgins had been overweightbut a lot changed for him at 17, when he got a job at a local grocery store. 

Hodgins started in the heat of August 2014walking over a mile to get to the store where hed push carts and help customers pack their groceries. He weighed about 380 pounds at the time.

Related: Why Some People Sweat More Than Others

At first, Hodgins didnt think those 7-hour shifts had any impact on his body.

I didnt notice any difference, he says. I had family and people I work with, over the course of a year and a half that I was [at the store], tell me, Youve lost weight. And you know, I never believed them.

A little less than a year later after he started working at the grocery store, he was helping his family move and weigh metal at a scrap yard. On a whim, Hodgins decided to hop on one of the scalesand was floored by the result. 

I can still remember the number as clear as day as being 247 pounds, Hodgins says.

He had lost about 140 pounds.

Even though the weight loss was accidental, the significant amount of pounds hed dropped really began to sink in. 

When you see a number that low, from what youve started at, you get a sense of accomplishment, he says. And so I tried eating better. 

Hodgins began incorporating more protein-rich foods like chicken and eggs and eliminating packaged sweets and salty snacks.

He also started working out with a friend from work. 

They made me do mountain-climbers and pushups and situps, Hodgins says. They kicked my ass when it came down to it.

Now down to 190 pounds, Hodgins is studying to be a paramedic. He hopes to eventually enlist as a combat medical technician in the armed forces. 

How Mark Warnke lost 53 pounds in 4 months

Mark Warnke had just booked tickets to propose to his girlfriend on the beach when she ended the relationship. 

Warnke was devastated. But in the aftermath of his breakup, he decided it was the perfect time to take control of his life. 

He started in the kitchen.

Warnke switched out his frozen meals and canned soups with chicken breast and fresh vegetables that he could throw on the grill Sunday night and eat for the rest of the week.    

In the past, Warnke had tried trends like cutting carbs and diet pills, but nothing worked better than eating whole foods. 

He also started doing bodyweight workouts on the Mens Health website.

Soon Warnke was able to put his heartburn medication away and after only a month of his new training regimen, Warnke had to go out and buy all new pants.

He was down 53 pounds total four months after the breakup. 

But if you ask Warnke, he didnt lose the weight to spite his ex-girlfriend.

It wasnt an, Im going to show her, he says. It was an Im going to be the best person I can be.

How Jake Galicia lost 86 pounds in 2.5 years

When Jake Galicias blood test results came in, he was shocked to find out he had high blood sugar and lipid levels. At 29, Galicia thought he was too young to be on the borderline for metabolic diseases like diabetes.

Galicia had always been on the heavier sideat the time he was 247 poundsbut the new father could not stand the idea that his condition might someday stop him from watching his toddler grow up. 

In February 2012, Galicia started a low-carb diet full of protein and vegetables.

Despite working sporadic shifts at an insurance company, Galicia made it a priority to squeeze in workouts.

Galicia would exercise anytime between the early morning and midnight, depending on when his shift fell that daybut he always made time. 

Initially hed hit the gym to run on the treadmill or complete circuit workouts. But as the fat began melting off, he started incorporating strength training into his workouts to gain muscle. 

And those odd hours at the gym were well spent. Galicia eventually shed 10 inches from his waist.

Now 33 years old, he says perseverance was key to his weight-loss success.

No matter how hard it may seem, you have to finish your workout, he says. This is how your body exceeds its known limits, preparing you to face more difficult physical tasks.

This article originally appeared on MensHealth.com.

Read more: www.foxnews.com

[viralhottopics]

How to lose your gut, according to 6 regular guys

(images courtesy Mark Warnke/Men’s Health)

The following men not only wanted to shape up, they took action and made their ambitions a reality. 

Take a look at how they shifted their habits to improve their lives for years to come.

How Christopher Jacob lost 38 pounds in 4 years

After his wife had a heart attack in 2012 at age 45, Christopher Jacob knew they both had to make a change. 

The father of three from Saudi Arabia had high cholesterol, and feared he was on a similar path.

Jacob and his wife both vowed to take shaping up seriously to ensure they would be around to support their kids for decades to come. 

Despite a work schedule packed with travel as a director of human resources, Jacob made exercise a priority. While traveling, he would pick out his hotels based on the workout facilities, searching for options with either a pool to swim in or a gym to lift in. 

Jacob would also follow along with fat-loss workout videos from Mens Health Fitness Director BJ Gaddour, C.S.C.S., to add variety and blast calories. (Gaddour just launched his newest and most intense fat-burning workout program ever with Mens Health, MetaShred Extreme.)

He also reigned in his calorie count to about 1,500 to 2,000 per day, using the app MyFitnessPal to track his intake. On days when he overdid it, he worked off the extra calories at the gym.

The 44 year old got off his cholesterol medication in January 2015 and has been off it ever since. The same motivating factor that pushed him to take action in the first place continues to drive him to keep the weight off today: His kids. 

I am a family man, Jacob says. And I would like to see my kids grow, influence them in any means possible, and have an impact on their livesso that when the time comes to let them go, I know that I have taught them well. 

How Ted Gibson lost 45 pounds in 6 months

The sexiest women in the world want Ted Gibson. Angelina Jolie, Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, and other A-listers line up for himfor haircuts, at a price of $1,500 a pop. 

Related: The 100 Hottest Women Of All Time

But while New Yorks top hairstylist was busy growing his salon empire, his girth grew too.

I just wasnt exercising as much as I had been before, says Gibson, 50. And the weight slowly crept on. 

As a 64, 200-pound ultralean bodybuilder in the early 1990s, Gibson had always been a naturally big, muscular guy. 

But last January I hit 280, he says. I had less energy and my back hurt. I wanted to look amazing for my impending 50th birthday. 

So Mens Health paired Gibson with Vinny Brandstadter of Peak Performance, a New York City gym just around the corner from his salon, and Mens Health nutrition advisor Mike Roussell, Ph.D. 

Roussell worked to sneak healthy tweaks into Gibsons diet that wouldnt affect his overall lifestyle. He helped Gibson find healthy meals at each of the restaurants where his staff orders lunch every day. 

Along with making key changes to his diet, Gibson hit the gym three days a week. Gibson did aerobic intervals that built his endurance and hour-long circuits that burned between 500 to 700 calories.  

Related: The Lifting Technique That Flattens Your Belly

He admits he was nervous to not be the big guy anymore. 

But Im now at 235 pounds, says Gibson. This is the best Ive felt in a long time. I have a lot more energy, my back doesnt hurt, and Im getting a lot of compliments. 

How Yosef Herzog lost 50 pounds in 5 months

Yosef Herzog played sports in high school and college. But once he graduated, his structured workouts fell apart. Aside from intramural sports and some pickup basketball games in Manhattan, he rarely stepped foot in the gym.

The weight crept up on him. At 231 pounds, he began experiencing back pain and was out of breath after tying his shoes. 

After trying to develop healthier habits and losing motivation after a couple weeks, Herzog signed up for the gym at his office.

His evaluation session didnt seem that tough: Lunges, planks, and pushups. But 20 minutes in, Herzog lost his lunchtwice.

I wouldnt say I was in Chris Farley territory, but I was definitely in bad shape, says Herzog. 

He began alternating cardio and strength training, six days a week. 

Herzog also cleaned up his diet. He swapped oatmeal in for his usual breakfast bagel, salad in for subs, and Mexican-style chicken and beans in for burgers. 

In less than half a year, he weighed 181 pounds and needed new clothes. The fitter I got, he says, the more confident I felt.

How Bryan Hodgins lost 190 pounds in 2 years

From age 2, Bryan Hodgins had been overweightbut a lot changed for him at 17, when he got a job at a local grocery store. 

Hodgins started in the heat of August 2014walking over a mile to get to the store where hed push carts and help customers pack their groceries. He weighed about 380 pounds at the time.

Related: Why Some People Sweat More Than Others

At first, Hodgins didnt think those 7-hour shifts had any impact on his body.

I didnt notice any difference, he says. I had family and people I work with, over the course of a year and a half that I was [at the store], tell me, Youve lost weight. And you know, I never believed them.

A little less than a year later after he started working at the grocery store, he was helping his family move and weigh metal at a scrap yard. On a whim, Hodgins decided to hop on one of the scalesand was floored by the result. 

I can still remember the number as clear as day as being 247 pounds, Hodgins says.

He had lost about 140 pounds.

Even though the weight loss was accidental, the significant amount of pounds hed dropped really began to sink in. 

When you see a number that low, from what youve started at, you get a sense of accomplishment, he says. And so I tried eating better. 

Hodgins began incorporating more protein-rich foods like chicken and eggs and eliminating packaged sweets and salty snacks.

He also started working out with a friend from work. 

They made me do mountain-climbers and pushups and situps, Hodgins says. They kicked my ass when it came down to it.

Now down to 190 pounds, Hodgins is studying to be a paramedic. He hopes to eventually enlist as a combat medical technician in the armed forces. 

How Mark Warnke lost 53 pounds in 4 months

Mark Warnke had just booked tickets to propose to his girlfriend on the beach when she ended the relationship. 

Warnke was devastated. But in the aftermath of his breakup, he decided it was the perfect time to take control of his life. 

He started in the kitchen.

Warnke switched out his frozen meals and canned soups with chicken breast and fresh vegetables that he could throw on the grill Sunday night and eat for the rest of the week.    

In the past, Warnke had tried trends like cutting carbs and diet pills, but nothing worked better than eating whole foods. 

He also started doing bodyweight workouts on the Mens Health website.

Soon Warnke was able to put his heartburn medication away and after only a month of his new training regimen, Warnke had to go out and buy all new pants.

He was down 53 pounds total four months after the breakup. 

But if you ask Warnke, he didnt lose the weight to spite his ex-girlfriend.

It wasnt an, Im going to show her, he says. It was an Im going to be the best person I can be.

How Jake Galicia lost 86 pounds in 2.5 years

When Jake Galicias blood test results came in, he was shocked to find out he had high blood sugar and lipid levels. At 29, Galicia thought he was too young to be on the borderline for metabolic diseases like diabetes.

Galicia had always been on the heavier sideat the time he was 247 poundsbut the new father could not stand the idea that his condition might someday stop him from watching his toddler grow up. 

In February 2012, Galicia started a low-carb diet full of protein and vegetables.

Despite working sporadic shifts at an insurance company, Galicia made it a priority to squeeze in workouts.

Galicia would exercise anytime between the early morning and midnight, depending on when his shift fell that daybut he always made time. 

Initially hed hit the gym to run on the treadmill or complete circuit workouts. But as the fat began melting off, he started incorporating strength training into his workouts to gain muscle. 

And those odd hours at the gym were well spent. Galicia eventually shed 10 inches from his waist.

Now 33 years old, he says perseverance was key to his weight-loss success.

No matter how hard it may seem, you have to finish your workout, he says. This is how your body exceeds its known limits, preparing you to face more difficult physical tasks.

This article originally appeared on MensHealth.com.

Read more: http://fxn.ws/2hNBcrV

from How to lose your gut, according to 6 regular guys

[viralhottopics]

How to lose your gut, according to 6 regular guys

(images courtesy Mark Warnke/Men’s Health)

The following men not only wanted to shape up, they took action and made their ambitions a reality. 

Take a look at how they shifted their habits to improve their lives for years to come.

How Christopher Jacob lost 38 pounds in 4 years

After his wife had a heart attack in 2012 at age 45, Christopher Jacob knew they both had to make a change. 

The father of three from Saudi Arabia had high cholesterol, and feared he was on a similar path.

Jacob and his wife both vowed to take shaping up seriously to ensure they would be around to support their kids for decades to come. 

Despite a work schedule packed with travel as a director of human resources, Jacob made exercise a priority. While traveling, he would pick out his hotels based on the workout facilities, searching for options with either a pool to swim in or a gym to lift in. 

Jacob would also follow along with fat-loss workout videos from Mens Health Fitness Director BJ Gaddour, C.S.C.S., to add variety and blast calories. (Gaddour just launched his newest and most intense fat-burning workout program ever with Mens Health, MetaShred Extreme.)

He also reigned in his calorie count to about 1,500 to 2,000 per day, using the app MyFitnessPal to track his intake. On days when he overdid it, he worked off the extra calories at the gym.

The 44 year old got off his cholesterol medication in January 2015 and has been off it ever since. The same motivating factor that pushed him to take action in the first place continues to drive him to keep the weight off today: His kids. 

I am a family man, Jacob says. And I would like to see my kids grow, influence them in any means possible, and have an impact on their livesso that when the time comes to let them go, I know that I have taught them well. 

How Ted Gibson lost 45 pounds in 6 months

The sexiest women in the world want Ted Gibson. Angelina Jolie, Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, and other A-listers line up for himfor haircuts, at a price of $1,500 a pop. 

Related: The 100 Hottest Women Of All Time

But while New Yorks top hairstylist was busy growing his salon empire, his girth grew too.

I just wasnt exercising as much as I had been before, says Gibson, 50. And the weight slowly crept on. 

As a 64, 200-pound ultralean bodybuilder in the early 1990s, Gibson had always been a naturally big, muscular guy. 

But last January I hit 280, he says. I had less energy and my back hurt. I wanted to look amazing for my impending 50th birthday. 

So Mens Health paired Gibson with Vinny Brandstadter of Peak Performance, a New York City gym just around the corner from his salon, and Mens Health nutrition advisor Mike Roussell, Ph.D. 

Roussell worked to sneak healthy tweaks into Gibsons diet that wouldnt affect his overall lifestyle. He helped Gibson find healthy meals at each of the restaurants where his staff orders lunch every day. 

Along with making key changes to his diet, Gibson hit the gym three days a week. Gibson did aerobic intervals that built his endurance and hour-long circuits that burned between 500 to 700 calories.  

Related: The Lifting Technique That Flattens Your Belly

He admits he was nervous to not be the big guy anymore. 

But Im now at 235 pounds, says Gibson. This is the best Ive felt in a long time. I have a lot more energy, my back doesnt hurt, and Im getting a lot of compliments. 

How Yosef Herzog lost 50 pounds in 5 months

Yosef Herzog played sports in high school and college. But once he graduated, his structured workouts fell apart. Aside from intramural sports and some pickup basketball games in Manhattan, he rarely stepped foot in the gym.

The weight crept up on him. At 231 pounds, he began experiencing back pain and was out of breath after tying his shoes. 

After trying to develop healthier habits and losing motivation after a couple weeks, Herzog signed up for the gym at his office.

His evaluation session didnt seem that tough: Lunges, planks, and pushups. But 20 minutes in, Herzog lost his lunchtwice.

I wouldnt say I was in Chris Farley territory, but I was definitely in bad shape, says Herzog. 

He began alternating cardio and strength training, six days a week. 

Herzog also cleaned up his diet. He swapped oatmeal in for his usual breakfast bagel, salad in for subs, and Mexican-style chicken and beans in for burgers. 

In less than half a year, he weighed 181 pounds and needed new clothes. The fitter I got, he says, the more confident I felt.

How Bryan Hodgins lost 190 pounds in 2 years

From age 2, Bryan Hodgins had been overweightbut a lot changed for him at 17, when he got a job at a local grocery store. 

Hodgins started in the heat of August 2014walking over a mile to get to the store where hed push carts and help customers pack their groceries. He weighed about 380 pounds at the time.

Related: Why Some People Sweat More Than Others

At first, Hodgins didnt think those 7-hour shifts had any impact on his body.

I didnt notice any difference, he says. I had family and people I work with, over the course of a year and a half that I was [at the store], tell me, Youve lost weight. And you know, I never believed them.

A little less than a year later after he started working at the grocery store, he was helping his family move and weigh metal at a scrap yard. On a whim, Hodgins decided to hop on one of the scalesand was floored by the result. 

I can still remember the number as clear as day as being 247 pounds, Hodgins says.

He had lost about 140 pounds.

Even though the weight loss was accidental, the significant amount of pounds hed dropped really began to sink in. 

When you see a number that low, from what youve started at, you get a sense of accomplishment, he says. And so I tried eating better. 

Hodgins began incorporating more protein-rich foods like chicken and eggs and eliminating packaged sweets and salty snacks.

He also started working out with a friend from work. 

They made me do mountain-climbers and pushups and situps, Hodgins says. They kicked my ass when it came down to it.

Now down to 190 pounds, Hodgins is studying to be a paramedic. He hopes to eventually enlist as a combat medical technician in the armed forces. 

How Mark Warnke lost 53 pounds in 4 months

Mark Warnke had just booked tickets to propose to his girlfriend on the beach when she ended the relationship. 

Warnke was devastated. But in the aftermath of his breakup, he decided it was the perfect time to take control of his life. 

He started in the kitchen.

Warnke switched out his frozen meals and canned soups with chicken breast and fresh vegetables that he could throw on the grill Sunday night and eat for the rest of the week.    

In the past, Warnke had tried trends like cutting carbs and diet pills, but nothing worked better than eating whole foods. 

He also started doing bodyweight workouts on the Mens Health website.

Soon Warnke was able to put his heartburn medication away and after only a month of his new training regimen, Warnke had to go out and buy all new pants.

He was down 53 pounds total four months after the breakup. 

But if you ask Warnke, he didnt lose the weight to spite his ex-girlfriend.

It wasnt an, Im going to show her, he says. It was an Im going to be the best person I can be.

How Jake Galicia lost 86 pounds in 2.5 years

When Jake Galicias blood test results came in, he was shocked to find out he had high blood sugar and lipid levels. At 29, Galicia thought he was too young to be on the borderline for metabolic diseases like diabetes.

Galicia had always been on the heavier sideat the time he was 247 poundsbut the new father could not stand the idea that his condition might someday stop him from watching his toddler grow up. 

In February 2012, Galicia started a low-carb diet full of protein and vegetables.

Despite working sporadic shifts at an insurance company, Galicia made it a priority to squeeze in workouts.

Galicia would exercise anytime between the early morning and midnight, depending on when his shift fell that daybut he always made time. 

Initially hed hit the gym to run on the treadmill or complete circuit workouts. But as the fat began melting off, he started incorporating strength training into his workouts to gain muscle. 

And those odd hours at the gym were well spent. Galicia eventually shed 10 inches from his waist.

Now 33 years old, he says perseverance was key to his weight-loss success.

No matter how hard it may seem, you have to finish your workout, he says. This is how your body exceeds its known limits, preparing you to face more difficult physical tasks.

This article originally appeared on MensHealth.com.

Read more: http://fxn.ws/2hNBcrV

from How to lose your gut, according to 6 regular guys