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loyalestmunch · 1 year ago

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11.19.23

actually the loneliest ive ever felt. i dont have a best friend. the two friends that i do have both have boyfriends n are preoccupied with them. im always in my room. im always in my four walls. i dont have a life outside of here. and i hate it so much.

i dont have someone i can spontaneously visit whenever i want anymore. i dont have a safe person that will always make time for me. if im sad, i dont have someone to go to. and it fuckiing sucks.

what sucks even more is when i sleep until 5 pm and check my phone to zero notifications. ts makes me go right the fuck back to sleep

i made an editing acc on tt. its cool its got like 70 smth followers so far. i really fucking hope i can make friends on there. but like. everyone in the editing community is like. 15 or 16. it just sux i used to edit at those ages too but now here i am at 18 (almost 19!) crawling back to the editing community to maybe find even a small glimpse of the happiness it gave me when i was younger. but nothing beat the feeling of dreaming of an edit in ur head all day.... waiting till school got out... running (literally) home to whip ts up on video star before i forgot it and then uploaded it and shared it amongst my little editing friends. and then i'd stay up late until 2 am or so watching and saving other edits i thought were cool. even in quarantine, i found joy in editing. november 2020 was actually the worst year of my life but also the best i miss it so much i miss the plethora of friends i used to have fuck. i miss playing identity v otp all night long with ray, i miss playing genshin in vc and doing stupid shit and farming for artifacts for hours on end with jazzy and tason and ray and gabby. my poor ipad wld overheat and my fingerprints would burn from dragging them across the hot screen but i didnt care . it was fun.

edit im not done i have more things i want to reminisce about .

ive been rewatching rick and morty and keeping up with the new seasons in the same sense that i watched it in middle school and now im crawling back to see if it brings me the same joy. and it does !. for the most part. but since justin got fired rip there's new voice actors. and it's fine honestly i dont care that much im still gna watch it but i hate how everythings changing. 13 year old me cldnt begin to fathom rick and morty losing (one of its) most renowned creator(s). like fuck. he voiced RICK AND MORTY. BOTH. like holy fuck. but its fine i guess the writings still kinda the same and the show is funny and makes me happy. i wish i had someone i cld take with me everywhere like my own little morty . i need friends.

i also miss the essence of boxed fettuchine(???) alfredo while watching r/m or camp camp at gammys house. ts was fire

i miss the roblox theme park tycoon and the chocolate cake we made that day and ate. it was so good.

i miss the lego game my cousin and i wld play. we didnt even do anything my mind just couldnt believe an open map game i haad so much fun just walking around and looking and doing absolutely nothing. and eating reheated pizzahut. and mcdonalds cookies. and funfetti boxed cake.

i miss when i had my phone taken when mom and i stayed at gammys when parents almst got divorced and i used her old iphone 5 she forgot she gave me and i had my little fandom acc on insta with my little mooties and friends and the warmth of gammys house in november fuck i miss it all i miss growing up so much i hate being an adult. i cant fucking have fun sober i dont have friends im alone nearly every single day i dont have friends in college i dont ta\lk to anyone i fucking just show up and leave without removing my earbuds.

and i know its my fsult. i know im the reason why i dont have friends. im the only reason why im like this. i only do it to myself.

im so alone and i just keep fucking regressing to find happiness because there's none here in present day thats for sure !

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greeneatmyass · 6 years ago

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#no meme today sorry #i had this saved on my ipad and forgot to upload it #kairi #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #kh3

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justlookfrightened · 6 years ago

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Butter My Biscuits

Prompt from @ noelfieldingisprettierthanme: Remember when Sally Field kept trying to hook her son up with Adam Rippon? Alicia Zimmermann is just as gungho about setting up her openly bisexual son Jack with famous tv chef Eric Bittle

Prompt from @cyn2k: I am so down with the Zimmerparents attempting to set up Jack with Bitty in any incarnation - chef, TV host, dancer, vlogger, skater, friendly neighborhood baker, anything. Because you know Bob would be just as bad as Alicia.

Edited to add: When I wrote this, I forgot the lovely and talented @wrathofthestag already wrote a fic where Bitty has a different kind of baking show called “Butter My Biscuits.” You should read it. We’ll wait.

Alicia huffed a breath, trying to dislodge the strand of hair that was dangling into her right eye. When that didn’t work, she rubbed at it with her forearm, trying to keep her butter-and-flour-covered hands from her face.

“Siri, stop the video,” she said, and the image on her iPad screen went silent and still.

She wiped her hands on a towel, breathed for a moment, and thought about pouring a drink from the bottle of vodka she’d pulled from the freezer to use in the pie crust.

Eric Bittle, host of “Butter My Biscuits,” had acknowledged the temptation when he mixed his dough on the screen.

“I have to tell y’all, drunk baking can be fun, but I wouldn’t recommend it for your first — or even your fiftieth — pie crust. Save the good vodka for while the pie is in the oven, or when you’re making zucchini bread or something like that.”

Alicia knew from watching every episode of “Butter My Biscuits” ever produced that Eric thought the best thing to do with zucchini bread was not to make it at all.

With her hands slightly cleaner and a renewed commitment to follow Eric’s instructions precisely, she restarted the video and concentrated on rolling the dough in smooth, even strokes. When her crust was the proper size and thickness, she watched Eric fold his crust gently around his rolling pin and lay it in the pie plate. She stopped the video and watched it again before trying it herself.

Not half bad, even if it wasn’t as pretty as Eric’s.

Now for the top crust.

“Hi, Maman.”

Crap. She’d pressed down too hard and ripped it.

“Siri, stop the video. Hello, Jack. How was your walk?”

“Good,” Jack said. “It’s less boring if I take my camera.”

“What did you get pictures of?” Alicia asked as Jack pulled the camera out of its bag, no doubt in preparation for showing her several dozen artfully framed photos of geese.

“Just some stuff by the river,” Jack said, lifting the camera and clicking the shutter before she was aware he was about to take a picture. “You look like you’re having fun. Is that the baker guy you’re always watching? The one with the accent?”

“Eric Bittle,” Alicia said. “And yes. I like his voice. He always says anyone can learn to make a homemade pie crust, so I’m putting his theory to the test.”

“Don’t let me stop you,” Jack said.

He stood and watched for a few moments when Alicia started the video again, only leaving after Eric did a little victory shimmy after he got his pie in the oven.

Alicia put hers into bake as well, then made herself a martini to drink while she cleaned up. Jack would have helped if she asked — he really was a lovely man, and she and Bob had every right to be proud. He’d been home for three weeks now, almost recovered from the knee injury that ended his season. He’d be leaving soon, as he was about ready to transition to more serious training.

Alicia was glad he’d come to spend time with her and Bob in Montreal instead of moping around his condo in Providence. Jack really needed to get out more. After he’d come out as bisexual — part of the whole mess when Kent got outed by Deadspin — he hadn��t dated anyone, male or female. At first, he just wanted to let the story die, she had thought. But Kent had brazened it out, seen with a different guy on his arm every month, it seemed like. Once that got old for the paparazzi, two more players had come out.

At this point, she was pretty sure no one would care if Jack stepped out with a nice boy.

A nice boy like Eric Bittle, cute and blond and just Jack’s type. Eric Bittle, who had giggled on camera when he said, “Now, some of y’all have asked how I learned to bake. It was my MooMaw who taught me. She always said the best way to a man’s heart was through his stomach, and that sounded like a good plan to me.”

She took another sip of her martini and pulled her iPad towards her. She didn’t want to start anything if Eric was happily coupled, but she was pretty sure he wasn’t.

Nope. He had broken up with someone six months ago and was quoted several times lamenting his single status, most recently only two weeks ago. The boyfriend -- caught on camera cheating with a dancer in the Boston Ballet -- was bigger than he was, although Eric was kind of small, so that didn’t mean much.

The timer went off and she pulled her pie from the oven. It wasn’t as pretty as Eric’s -- and she hadn’t even attempted a lattice or those cute cut-outs -- but she thought it was pretty good, especially for a first effort.

She snapped a picture and opened Twitter before she could think better of it.

if the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, does that go for you, too @ButterMyBiscuits? Asking for @jzimmermann1!

And she uploaded the picture.

Alicia served the pie for dessert, to the general approval of Jack and Bob, and didn’t think any more of it.

Until the next morning, when Jack sat across the breakfast table with his phone out.

“Are you really trying to set me up with that baker guy?” he said. “Etienne called me. My Twitter is blowing up, he said.”

“Etienne?”

“He handles my Twitter account for me.”

Of course Jack didn’t tweet for himself.

“Ah. I may have suggested that Eric Bittle take an interest in you.”

“The baker on TV?” Jack said. “With the accent?”

“Yes,” Alicia said. “The cute one.”

“I’ll tell him to disregard it,” Jack said. “I love you, Maman, but I don’t need you to find me dates.”

“Really?” Alicia said. “How long has it been since you had a date?”

“I’ve been laid up.”

“And before that?”

“What are we talking about?” Bob walked in, still in workout clothes, from the gym in the basement.

“How long since Jack here went on a date,” Alicia said.

“Been a while, eh?” Bob said.

“Maman tried to set me up with TV chef,” Jack said. “On Twitter.”

He paused while he tapped at his phone.

“There. I apologized for you and asked him to disregard your message.”

“Um, Jack, how did you do that?” Bob asked.

“I sent him a message,” Jack said.

“Yes, but how?” Bob asked.

“On Twitter?”

“You two follow each other?” Alicia asked. “I had no idea you liked baking that much.”

“No? I just found his tweet and replied.”

“Oh, Jack,” Alicia said. “You’d better call Etienne and tell him what you did. Before everyone who follows you and Eric loses their mind. But first, show me his tweet.”

Jack held out his phone wordlessly.

The tweet on top said, if @jzimmermann1 can make a pie like this, I’ll be impressed. Almost as impressed as I was by his goal in Game 7 last year. But tell me the truth, @AliciaActs -- who made the pie?

Jack’s reply was underneath

My mother made the pie after watching your show. I’m sorry she bothered you. Please ignore it. But the pie was delicious.

A hundred likes and fifty replies already. At least Jack had notifications turned off. No doubt her own mentions were exploding as well.

“Why don’t I set this so you follow him?” Alicia said. “Then maybe he’ll follow you and you can communicate in private.”

She followed Eric Bittle, and noticed that he already followed Jack. Which meant Jack could have DM’d him. Now he would think Jack didn’t want to talk privately.

She opened a direct message and handed the phone back to Jack.

“When you replied to his tweet, everyone could see it,” Alicia explained. “You might want to apologize for that -- in private. In a direct message.”

“Need help?” Bob asked. “Gotta work that old Zimmermann charm.”

“No,” Jack said. “Please. No.”

******************

Alicia checked to make sure Jack’s room was ready and set the table for dinner. He was coming to spend one last weekend before training camp started, to celebrate the fact that he had been cleared to start camp with the team.

“I should be there around six p.m.,” Jack told her when he called the week before. “It would be better if we just eat at home that night.”

“You have a workout in the morning?” Alicia guessed. “I’m sure you’ll be tired. Your father can make something on the grill.”

“Fine,” Jack said. “But I’ll bring dessert.”

Alicia sliced peppers and zucchini to go on the grill when the meat came off, and put together a green salad.

“Bob?” she called. “Is the grill ready? Jack should be here soon.”

“Just about,” Bob said, stepping in from the deck. “I’ll put the steaks on after he gets here. Did you make a pie for dessert like you’ve been practicing?”

“Jack said he’d bring dessert.”

“Jack? Dessert? Are you sure he’s not just bringing a bag of fresh fruit?”

“He said dessert.”

The door opened, and Jack poked his head in.

“Maman? Papa? Do you mind if I brought an extra guest?”

Following Jack was Eric Bittle, dressed in neatly pressed slacks and a crisp shirt with a red bow tie. In his hands was a white pastry box.

“Hey, y’all,” he said. “Jack here said you liked my pie?”

#omgcheckplease #omg check please #zimbits au #prompt fill #my fic

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omegaplus · 6 years ago

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# 2,811

I forgot to tell you all: I bought a new Apple device for Christmas.

The Spring of ‘07 (I will never forget it) began me purchasing Apple. I ordered an iPod Classic (30GB) because storing lots of music without fumbling for cassettes or carrying discs was a real good idea. A friend (no longer) who worked at Apple and was part of WUSB made it happen and a few days later it found itself in my hands, with personal engraving right on its’ shiny silver backing. Whitehouse, Boards Of Canada, and Vincent Gallo were the first artists I remember listening to on the new iPod, taken on a train ride to Penn Station to meet up with a friend of mine who came with me to the Brooklyn Museum. I still remember that day as one of my all-time favorite memories of going to the city, and one of my favorite memories of her.

Nine months later and already my 30GB was full. The fun was over, but not for long. That’s when I learned about bitrates, the measure of clarity of how an MP3 or M4A sounds. The higher the bitrate, the larger the file and better the quality. But I wasn’t concerned about quality. I wanted quantity. My high bitrate songs ate up a lot of space when it shouldn’t have, so I had to re-up everything in a lower bitrate and 2,000+ songs became 4,500+. My first classic would come with me everywhere on more train rides and to-and-from the gym. It then took five years on-and-off and sacrificing some songs before my iPod was totally filled with no outs. Time for a new one.

Had I waited a little longer, I would’ve gotten an 80GB Classic, a decision I regretted not making. But five years is more than enough time to redeem oneself in getting a 160GB Classic, the largest capacity stand-alone MP3 player they ever made. My local gaming store sold one used for $170.00, I couldn’t pass it up. I arrived and saw the iPod was selling for a larger price. I pointed it out to the guy behind the cashier. He argued with me that it wasn’t the case but I proved him wrong. Even after I won and purchased it he was still arguing with me as I walked out the store. A complaint to customer service later, they reimbursed me for $50.00 worth of iTunes cards for my trouble.

It took a few days to unlock my old iPod and physically remove all of the music from my old one to the new. It’s a process of showing hidden folders in Windows and finding 50 folders of music (labeled “FXX”) inside your device which get classified by overall song length. Save for about 20 songs which were thought to be unidentifiable, all 4,500+ songs were imported to the new 160GB with no problem, artist name and song titles intact. In time, too, as the 30GB’s battery died out completely and rendered it totally useless. From there I made numerous iTunes playlists which, from this point on, made me finally stop burning mix discs and continued the tradition of seasonal mixtapes. I would use the new Classic (sans engraving) for more train rides, car rides via auxiliary port, and to put an automatic playlist in order for all Omega WUSB shows.

Only recently did I realize that I was running out of storage. After months of thinking about it, I had originally planned on getting an 256GB iPhone. Then Apple released a second-generation that maxed out at 512GB. That’s where I’m going, I said. I price-matched B&H for a gold 10.5” model and put $300.00 in my pocket. Add an employee-discounted Otterbox with two years of Applecare (because I take no chances on a $700 tablet), and a $1,400 transaction becomes $900. Merry Christmas to me. The third-generation iPad Pros just came out six weeks prior with a maximum capacity at 1TB. There was no way I could’ve co-signed on it. At least, not for now.

I thought the process of moving out all 36,000+ songs (!) was going to be seamless as it was the last time. Oh, how I thought wrong. Only about 60% of those songs, all uploaded from disc, digitizing, and downloaded from Bandcamp, only retained both artist name and song title. Great. For several days I looked up how to salvage and recover all that information in transit. I even called Apple tech support and stayed on the line for two hours for solutions. Two hours later painstakingly going through every option and all I got was an Apple representative who shockingly asked me “how do you happen to have all this music in your iPod?!” Thanks for the help.

I found my answer: I needed to have the proper tags before importing the MP3s into my device. Because in iTunes, when you later remove those songs from your physical device (Classic 160GB), the information will come out exactly how it came in, so re-naming them after they hit iTunes’ interface doesn’t work. When importing music, you can set it up properly so that they’re duplicated into a library folder which (potentially) produces thousands of folders based on artist name. Inconveniently frustrating when I needed to find a specific artist for whatever purpose and not find their respective folder there. I have no time to go through all those artist folders one-by-one, so now it goes back to my 160GB.

Now I take all that music from every ‘F’ folder and move it all into one giant folder. I noticed that all of those unidentified imports are labeled by a four-character code (say “HRGW”). MP3s which haven’t been properly tagged don’t get an artist folder when imported / exported and instead get the code. That can be found by “name” on Windows and the file is missing artist names and song title in iTunes which is found under “contributing artist” and “title”. How do I now register a valid change and make it count when importing songs into a device? Highlight the song and right-click it, go to “properties” and hit the “detail” tab. Fill in all the necessary information. If you don’t hit “apply” on the bottom-right hand corner, those changes won’t be made. Re-naming them in Windows and even moving them to another location without hitting “apply” loses those changes and you re-do everything again. Argh.

Now how did I identify which songs in Windows needed to be changed? I had to plug in my older Classic 160GB and bring up my iPod’s contents. Hit “time” to re-order the songs accordingly from longest to shortest and then for all those songs in Windows hit “length”. I can now match them up accordingly. With multiple songs having the same length (say, 10 out of 15 of them at 9:30 long), I have to match up the untagged songs in Windows to the ones already labeled in the device simply by playing them to see which is which. When all songs are properly tagged and edited, they’ll go into one final folder which all music will be imported from and for the next device, I won’t have to do this ever again. And there you go. I’m on the road to painstakingly go through my entire list of songs that now have to be imported into a 512GB iPad; really ~478GB because a whopping 34GB of it is the iOS. Time to uninstall some apps- I won’t need.

And to top it all off, my iTunes doesn’t downconvert high-quality MP3s like it says it would (320 mbps to 128 mbps). All incoming music gets converted to 128mbps but not so for whatever reason. Thank you Lord I have Roxio which does have a down-conversion tool, So that means I’ll have to spend even more time whittling down songs for quantity before it goes in.

Imagine doing that for 36,000+ songs. It’s been one of the most daunting tasks I ever had to do. I haven’t been able to do it because I’m constantly writing, auditioning, sound editing, graphics and doing photography. Everyone who follows me here knows that what I do is a creative lifestyle that’s can’t-stop-won’t-stop. My work as a selector, artist, archivist, editor, and writer is never done. When everything’s imported the fun’s not over yet, because I’ll have to create about 120 of my personal seasonal playlists all over again, plus whatever playlists for my Omega WUSB shows for auditioning music. But when all is said and done, I’ll have at least another five years after importing and adding music from my collection before looking to upgrade and double my storage. Trillion-dollar Apple has to pay for that halo in San Cupertino somehow.

#omega #WUSB #music #mixtapes #reviews #playlists #Apple #archiving #personal #tech

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saleintothe90s · 6 years ago

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384. “Mad About You” series finale (5/24/1999)

(source)

So, I remember watching the series finale of Mad About You that night, but I haven’t watched it again since it originally aired. I do remember feeling let down at the end however. This is what I remember from 20 years ago, maybe I’ll remember some forgotten details once I re watch it...which I will after I make this list:

- Janeane Garofolo was Paul & Jamie’s daughter Mabel all grown up and she had come out with a documentary about her life? Her dad’s life? The film was everything after 1999?

-Paul & Jamie bought the apartment across from them and merged it into theirs? Which didn’t make any sense. Everybody had to walk through P&J’s bedroom to get to the expansion?

-Paul & Jamie were pregnant again with twins but she lost the babies? I just remember the scene where Paul rushes into the apartment with a double stroller excited that he found one. He sees the message light on the answering machine and it’s Jamie. I was trying to figure out if this was early on when Mabel was still a one year old, and one seat in the stroller was for her, or Jamie was pregnant with twins.

-Paul’s dad died real early on in the episode.

-Paul and Jamie wonder who should give her the birds and the bees talk when Mabel is a teenager, but turns out they waited too long. When Paul sits down with her to discuss it, she interrupts him and says that she’s already had sex, or she was already on the pill. Paul decides to take Mabel out for bagels every Saturday morning so he can remain closer to her. I just remember them eating bagels and sitting on a stoop.

- Paul and Jamie separate for realz this time. Remember when they temporarily separated but then got back together and Jamie got pregnant with Mabel?

[That episode is titled “The Finale”, please don’t confuse it for this one like I almost did. In case you’re wondering about my bitmoji dressed like a snail, our power went on and off the entire time I was writing this. I went ahead and used that save video me website so I could watch the clips offline.]

- Jamie had become really cold at that point in her life and Paul had it.

-The last scene was everybody watching Mabel’s documentary in a movie theater and P&J were a little embarrassed. Paul (almost crying) asks Jamie if she would like to go out for pie.

-Clearly they hadn’t shot enough because the last five minutes were “home movies” of the two and Mabel in central park. The montage seemed to last for-ever.

-Before I re-watch, I also wanted to mention that I hate the theme song!

I found the episode on DailyMotion, and the username of the uploader is “Magic School Bus” ... ms. frizzle is that you? It also appears that Ms. Frizzle recorded this episode from syndication, so there might be a tiny scene or two missing.

(part 1, part 2)

(Apparently it’s on the internet archive too, but it took forever to get the vid to play on my iPad. It has commercials though!) https://archive.org/details/MelrosePlaceHomeImprovementFinales1999

So, Mabel’s film was titled “The reason why I am this way”. Maybe a grad school project?. Janeane looks grad school age here.

The film starts with Paul & Jamie’s anniversary when Mabel was 1 in 1999. I was right!

A bird pooped on Paul! Nah, it was just Lyle Lovett the construction worker spilling paint. He married Jamie n Paul 7 years ago, but turns out he’s NOT an ordained minster, so they’re not officially married. This is so dumb. Such a trope, right?

Jamie is freaking out that they’re not really husband and wife. Paul is the rational one here, he says just go to city hall next week! Jamie is all “no, we gotta do it today, its our anniversary!” So they go, there’s a chapel at city hall, there’s a lady named Phyllis there as a witness and who throws rice (25¢ a throw!)

Stupidly, however, Jamie runs away. I do remember this freeze frame from the episode.

There’s lots of jumping around through time while all this is going on, I forgot about that, I just thought it was a straight up timeline.

We jump to 2005 where P&J are in therapy for the thousandth time, also when Paul goes in for a vasectomy. At first, I didn’t realize that Jamie was talking to her sister, Lisa in the waiting room since she had short hair. Jamie tries to explain to her that Mabel doesn’t need a sister, but Lisa guilt trips her. Jamie tells Paul that she thinks they made a mistake. They Michael Scott-eded it:

It’s 2011 and P&J are trying to give 11 year old Mabel the sex talk.

In 2004 Murray (remember, the dog? Yeah, the dog got forgotten somewhere in the series) got a girlfriend and they had puppies! There is the best scene ever where Paul teaches Mabel how to shoot video and Nat the dog walker (played by Helen Hunt’s then husband, Hank Azaria) does a play talk show with the puppies. IT’S TOO CUTE, I put it on instagram. I forgot that Hank was on the show. I still remember how heartbroken I was though when Hank and Helen broke up, though.

There’s a real quick scene in the sports shop that Paul’s family owns (which I forgot about in the series). Jeff Garlin (who I like to call “Daddy Goldberg” since I love him on The Goldbergs) is teasing Paul for all his vasectomies. blah blah. You know what I noticed? That old Sketchers shoebox! Those ugly chunky metallic shoes they made in ’95 ’96 used to come in those boxes. aw. ugliest shoes I ever had, they were most def. Airwalk Jim knockoffs. ANYWAY.

Mabel’s first film “Stabbing Bob” comes out in late 2021 when she’s 23. The whole family is there, including Cyndi Lauper who married Paul’s brother cousin Ira. The whole family tries to get Paul and Jamie to sit together, so obviously something went DOWN between 2011 and 2021. This is when the syndicated version cuts off.

Part 2 begins again with Mabel’s documentary and her asking “Who do you think was responsible for my parents breakup? The one who ran away from the altar and changed her mind three times about whether or not her partner should have painful private surgery … or the other guy?” So when this film was made, Jamie and Paul were still broken up? Mabel is really tearing Jamie up a new one here. Jamie is the devil.

Back to 2005 and Jamie is pregnant, because Paul didn’t get that vasectomy. This is where everything is back on track with my memories of the episode. Except for those ugly ass pajamas. wow. Jamie is only supposed to be 42 here, the pajamas and glasses made her look 60.

2012, Mabel is 14 and she never did get that sex talk…perfect tribute to Whitney though, considering she had recently died.

Oh, no here comes the stroller scene in 2006. Paul is so happy, he says, “I found it! Last one in the city, and I found it! One big seat one little seat! 2 kids, one carriage! One big happy family. ” Uh, Mabel is 9. The “one big seat, one little seat!” makes me wonder if the writers forgot what year it was? Why would there be a big seat and a little seat?” Twins are the same size. Those stroller seats look the same size. Paul finds a note left by Jamie, so it wasn’t an answering machine message.

In early 2021 we see Jamie’s bff Fran, FINALLY. I was wondering where Fran was! She was married to Richard Kind and he left her so he could ride motorcycles like “Easy Rider”, (remember when Fran kept calling the movie “The Easy Rider” and it drove Richard crazy, he was like, “the name of the movie is EASY RIDER, NOT ‘THE EASY RIDER!”). Riffs is somehow still open, martini glasses are taller, forks have clear spiral handles, and Fran be looking like something that walked off the Enterprise.

Oh, and Paul left Jamie. Jamie now is wearing reading glasses around her neck. Oh, honey noo, you’re only 58. Here is Helen Hunt in 2018:

Paul said that Jamie is unkind and that was why he was leaving.

Aw, there’s my fozzie bear!

Costume and Makeup got Paul Reiser exactly right though!

After that, Paul & Jamie had to be straight with Mabel at all times. Ok, whatever:

So I was also wrong about Paul’s died dying when Mabel was little.

On the way to the funeral, Paul’s mom encourages the two to pay a bribe so they can buy the apartment across the hall. She says, “Then Mabel can have a room.” …. Mabel didn’t have a room? She was 13 in the Murray’s not real scene. Where did she sleep?! Now I remember thinking way back then that the episode left a lot of plot holes open, this being one!

I remember feeling kind of turned off by this elevator scene with the sad music after the funeral. I didn’t know the phrase back then, but now I know that it feels so forced. We get it. Paul’s mom is alone.

Casting didn’t do a good job with teenage Mabel, she’s supposed to be 18 in 2015 and it’s still the girl who played her when she was 12. w2g. I didn’t make a screen grab but I was right about Mabel having to cross her parents bedroom, and bathroom to get to her room. I was also right about the bagels!

It’s back to the scene in late 2021 where everybody is watching the end of Mabel’s movie, “Stabbing Bob”. I guess she was trying to be a lil Tarintino. Why did I think they were watching the documentary? Ha, at the end, Paul’s sister asks the family if they want to go out for pie. Yesss, the pie scene!

I did remember this from the pilot episode where Jamie kisses Paul on their first date when he turns to her. Jamie asks “buy me some pie?”, not Paul! I swore for 20 years I heard Paul Reiser tearfully saying, “I would like some pie” in my head!

Oh, one plot point that did get patched up was that Paul & Jamie asked the guy from city hall to come over and marry them in their apartment six seconds to midnight.

RIP, Murray the dog.

UGH, I was right about the long montage of the end that is just pretend home movies of the cast. It’s nearly four minutes long, and its set to country music. It’s hell. I remember actually leaving the room during this part 20 years ago instead of just you know, muting the TV. It completely ruins the quietness of the episode. It’s total filler.

The ending credits are on Youtube, it’s adult Mabel giving a rundown of what happened to who.

More from the series finale series: https://saleintothe90s.tumblr.com/search/Series%20finale%20series

/edit/

I was curious and went hunting around in google groups (which houses newsgroup archives) to see what people said about it online right after it aired:

Someone wondered too about where on earth Mabel slept until they expanded the apartment:

>2) Where did Mabel sleep before they got the second apartment and >turned it into a room? Shared with mommy and daddy?? Or maybe that little space before the bedroom. Did they convert the appartments into one or move to the other side? I was a bit confused about that.

>>I wish I had watched Ally (but that's just my

>opinion).<<

Trust me, if you've watched the show at all this season, you've seen this episode. Ally is depressed about no man, elaine whips out the video camera, the biscuit bobs his head to Barry White, does a gymnastic dismount from the toilet stall, stutters like Porky Pig, and all of the same fucking things he does every single fucking episode. I really liked this show at first, but I'm about to give up on it because the same shit happens week after week after week. If David Kelley cannot think of anything new to do with this show, he should hire a writing team, because it it going nowhere fast!

Brian

To know that Paul and Jamie's genes resulted in that shrewish frump Janeane Garofalo was one thing. But to be "previewed" twenty years of their misery resulting in Mabel's therapy for bad parenting was pretty unbearable.

Crap. Not quite as crap as the Rosanne finale, but more crap than the last

Seinfeld episode. I knew they were in trouble in the very first scene where

they set up the premise for the episode. Lyle Lovett tells them that he

wasn't really an ordained minister when he performed their wedding ceremony

and that he was drunk when he said he was. (now there's an original plot)

One problem: Lyle isn't the one who told them he was a minister and everyone

was sober at the time.

Then they have Jannene Garofolo as their grown up daughter, recounting everything thing that went wrong in their marriage, another lame plot device.

There're also a few little slips, like Paul buying a double baby carriage in 2005, when their daughter would be 8 or so.

But, to get to the root of why the episode (and the last two seasons for that matter) failed: The whole permise of the show was that these two likable, but occasionally goofy or even stupid, people were so much in love that they would always be together no matter what. Corny, naive, romantic, but also endearing. It made for a nice, comforting 4 seasons or so, but after a while the formula gets old. So they started making the characters a lot less likeable. Paul Reiser turned into Homer Simpson and Helen Hunt became a neurotic version of Lucy Ricardo, until I had no idea why these two people were staying together.

They got back to the original idea of the series in the last ten minutes, but it was too little, too late. In the previous 50 minutes, their whole marriage went to hell. Not only didn't those two people belong together, they didn't even seem to care about each other. They did something similar a few years back (marriage goes wrong, they still love each other and stay together) but it was convincing and they didn't do the gimmicky jumping back and forth over 25 years thing. That was the perfect moment to end the series.

I agree. I watched with the series finale of MAY with the morbid fascination that I would have while watching a car wreck. I didn’t *want* to do it, but I was drawn to it. And what a car wreck it was.

The plot of the finale should have insulted every thinking person. Did anyone accept the premise that two sophisticated New Yorkers could believe they were legally married without having a marriage license and certificate? For those of you who have never been married, you absolutely need such documentation for your bank accounts, health insurance, social security, credit cards, mortgages etc. The retroactive vitiation of the Buchman’s marriage is akin to the Bobby’s dream sequence on Dallas a few years ago.

Jaime’s jilting of Paul at the “altar” was vapid. Tim Conway’s gag in being both the marriage clerk and the justice of the peace was predictable, and as predictably stupid as Conway’s similar gags on the now ancient Carol Burnett show. The pronunciation of “Buchman” to explain why Paul and Jaime had the same last name may have been amusing to a ten year old, but I doubt it was funny to anyone more mature. A justice of the peace would not play the wedding march with a dime store cassette recorder while demanding that a prospective bride walk down the courtroom “aisle.” Couldn’t they have done something interesting with the marriage witness instead of using a stock character such as the disinterested, magazine-reading rice-thrower? From a legal standpoint, Paul and Jaime’s marriage at midnight was as ineffective as “first” marriage because there was no witness (contrary to the dialogue, a baby simply cannot be a legal witness to a marriage). Why would a justice of the peace make a house call to perform a civil marriage?

The whole vasectomy gag was asinine. Have either HH or PR been in a hosptial? Did they do *any* research before they wrote this gag? Its pretty safe to conclude that a surgical nurse would *not* lead a post- operative vasectomy patient through a waiting room while he was wearing nothing but a robe. Moreover, given Paul’s obvious pain from the first vasectomy, don’t you think that Jaime would have known that Paul did not go through with the second one? Wouldn’t Jaime have asked Paul if he went through with the vasectomy before she purchased and used a pregnancy test kit? Jaime’s miscarriage was telegraphed from the beginning of the vasectomy gag.

The makeup aging of the characters was amateurish at best. The sex talk difficulty with Mabel has been done by every sitcom since Leave It To Beaver, and most have done it better. What was the point of the puppy urination scene?

The breakup and reconciliation was sentimental tripe. In the real world, people that fight as much as Paul and Jaime do not get divorced and then, with one magic kiss, make everything OK.

Was it necessary to introduce a new character in the finale to narrate the Buchmans’ life story? (As an aside, I hated the casting of Janeane Garofolo (sp?). She looked like complete crap. Can’t that woman ever look presentable? Someone should have given her a mirror and a comb before they began filming the episode. She is a second rate Roseanne knock off, and, judging from last night’s appearance, she is now attempting to catch Roseanne in the weight department as well.)

The closing montage attempted to simulate a home movie circa 1960s such as that used in the Wonder Years. But why would Paul and Jaime, a 1990s couple, have used such a medium for their home movies? Also, even assuming the choice of medium was justified, why did they wave in quick, jerky movements at the movie camera? Has anyone done that since the 1960s?

In the end analysis, the MAY finale was incredibly lame. I got home in time to catch the end of the Melrose Place finale, and, IMO, even that show -- as bad as it is -- has more entertainment value than MAY. At least they don’t take themselves seriously. I am delighted that MAY is now over. I hope that the poor ratings associated with the show will cause some retooling at NBC, especially in its high profile slots.

#mad about you #1999 #series finale series #series finale #Helen hunt #Paul Reiser #nbc #janeane garofalo

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kattiewoo0632-blog · 5 years ago

Text

How To PlayFLAC Files On Your IPhone, IPad Or IPod Touch

FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, an audio format similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC with none loss in high quality. Remember to say that an ALAC file transformed on the fly (as when listening to the file through iTunes) with no loss in sound high quality, i.e. the result is identical as enjoying the WAV or flac to alac converter free download cnet AIFF file, a FLAC file transformed on the fly (as when listening to the file via foobar2000) there can often be a loss in sound high quality, i.e. the result is NOT the identical as taking part in the WAV or AIFF file. Sadly, iCloud Music is made up of audio information in AAC format. So it is hard to get the music with high quality everywhere. If you need to pay some efforts to arrange a Plex server, you can get the ALAC information out of your iPhone remotely. If you want to copy files, just sync your ALAC recordsdata to your iPhone and be sure that the option of shrink excessive bitrate recordsdata" has been disabled. Guys, I'm sorry, but the reply goes to be approach too boring—at the very least at first. From an audio perspective, there is no difference between flac To alac converter free Download cnet or ALAC information that are recorded at the similar sampling charge. That is finally the case as a result of all FLAC or ALAC recordsdata are compressed versions of a lossless" original, which signifies that the unique file, when compressed in either format to make it smaller to store and transmit, would not lose any of its quality when it's played in your system. I am attempting to send FLAC tracks in my library to my iPhone using "sync". I installed the trial version of the MM codec pack, and adopted the instructions above to set up for ALAC. I then synced a playlist to the cellphone. Every little thing seems wonderful: MM says it's doing the conversion, and it reveals that the playlist is on the phone, however once I look on the telephone, neither the playlist nor the tracks are there. I've tried it on two totally different telephones with the identical results. I can send other tracks as MP3s with no issues. I would paste photographs of the settings but it would not appear that this forum allows it. The second possibility you might have is to maneuver away from iTunes altogether and go to a media player that helps FLAC. Choices for this course of action embody JRiver or VLC JRiver is probably the closest factor to iTunes you will get instead. I discover that the interface is acquainted and it has lots of great options. I personally view VLC as more of a stand-alone participant than an iTunes alternative. If this isn't your first go to to my blog, chances are you'll recall that I had ripped all my audio CDs and put them away in boxes final yr. My music assortment now occupies just a tiny nook of a 1.5 TB onerous drive. (I don't own THAT many CDs as you might guess.) Not an enormous deal itself these days, however the motive for running a blog about that was the small utility I had then written to help EAC deal with UTF-eight encoded freedb entries Now time has come to share with you another FLAC device that I have created for myself. Hope one can find it helpful. After changing the settings of your output file, you can now choose the situation folder to your converted file. You possibly can set a brand new output folder or it can save you the file along with different media information. After that, click on the Convert" button to complete the FLAC to ALAC conversion process. By the best way, you'll be able to check right here to get detailed information on how one can convert FLAC to M4A or convert FLAC to iTunes supported format. The reason is easy: Although they're universally described within the mainstream press as being of "CD quality," MP3s and their lossy-compressed ilk don't offer ample audio high quality for severe music listening. This isn't true of lossless-compressed codecs such as FLAC , ALAC , and WMA lossless—in fact, it was the release of iTunes 4.5, in late 2003, which allowed iPods to play lossless files, that led us to welcome the ubiquitous Apple player to the world of high-finish audio. However lossy files achieve their conveniently small measurement by discarding too much of the music to be worth considering.

ALL digital mono files must be 2-channel, with both channels an identical (not always the case in the true world), NOT 1-channel mono. The explanation for that is merely compatibility throughout units. Some units just aren't suitable with 1-channel mono, and will sometimes output sound to only left or right channel, or there will probably be different points (a number of years in the past, there was a bug in iTunes causing 1-channel mono recordsdata to be re-copied every time one sync'ed an iPod). Stuff like that. You'd assume the industry would have thought of this, however no; it appears most forgot there ever was a mono world.It can be crucial for audio converter software program to work shortly and effectively in addition to to have a wide variety of file format choices, together with lossy and lossless formats. Every music streaming service has a preferred format for streaming and archiving music - sadly, not every service makes use of the identical format. WAV is a suitable lossless format for most providers. Nevertheless, depending on the service, that file could be converted and compressed to a unique format. MP3 information could be uploaded to all the favored streaming companies, however there is no motive to transform a lossless file format, such as WAV, to MP3 if you do not have to.

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cuppa-ale · 6 years ago

Link

@blackcherrieshangingonatwig recently brought to my attention “Breadwinners: The Official Multi-Touch Book!” It came out when the show was still new, but I never looked into it. So I downloaded it on my iPad.

They wanted some screenshots, and I figured I should share this with the rest of you too! (more info under the cut.)

The touch-book opens with a promo clip consisting of the early episodes and a voice over generally explaining the premise and the two main characters.

I didn't capture them, but in "Meet the Cast", some pages have a tiny image tucked away. When touched it reads, "Check out my new favorite show! Tune in Saturdays @ 11/10C"

Most pages have these red hand symbols that you can touch. They weren't all working for me when I went through this the last time, but it mostly just gives you short clips from episodes.

Most trivia about the places and characters is stuff that most of us already know. My favorite parts are the two 1 minute animatics and excerpts of scripts from a couple of episodes. When you touch one of the characters in Meet the Cast, it will give you a list of their catchphrases from the show. (Like "Owcheewawa, Bubble nuggets!, Greetings bread heads!, Aw lug nuts!, etc....")

Touching other pictures of characters will give you that picture alone against a black background. (But because I had to upload these as JPGs, I didn't feel it was worth sharing. I can't even seem to save the pictures outside of a screenshot.)

In the height chart, touching the characters makes them say a single line each. (Buhdeuce: "Buh-Buh-Buh-Buh-Booty kick!" Sway: "Party Punch!" Ketta: "Not only can I fix it, I'll make it faster!" Bread Maker: "Rise like the yeast that inspires ye!" Jelly: *ribbit noises*)

In the first page of "Behind the Scenes", touching the red hand on the Swamp Pad will show you different backgrounds from the show that you can flick through. (Unfortunately, I can't make them full size. That would've been cool.)

In the interactive background, most things also weren't working for me the last time I went through this, but most of it is also short clips from the show. The "I Loaf You" image is in there, plus the "Party Pants" clip which I got some shots from. I think that was my first time seeing it in full. Then there's the list of breads, and an image of the Swamp Pad from the outside... which I forgot about when collecting these. (ToT)

I already mentioned the animatics and scripts. I got a few shots from each clip, and all of the script.

Then there's "Design a Scene", which I haven't messed with much yet. It gives you 4 backgrounds to choose from (Swamp Pad, Bread Maker's Man Cave, Ketta's Auto Tune-Up and Duck Town), 9 characters which consist of Buhdeuce, SwaySway, Ketta, Bread Maker, Jelly, 2 duck citizens, cloud monster and Big Mama Monster. The props are just the Rocket Van, the Magical Toaster and a bread slice. You can rotate and change the scale of anything you like.

I thought the "Ducktionary" was pretty funny. The "Breadtionary" lists 9 different breads.

Last is the Trivia quiz. I think there's some sort of error in Question 8. The answer is "Tree City" and the question is "Which of the following is home to SwaySway and T-Midi?", but Sway doesn't live in Tree City. Or any of the other listed locations, for that matter. Touching the red hand to the right will play the ending theme to the show.

The rest of the touch-book is advertisements for other shows and apps.

Thanks for reading! I can answer any questions about the book, but this is all I can do for now. Long story short, it was rather time consuming.

If you have an Apple device, you can find this in the “Books” app and download it for free!

#breadwinners #i hope i covered everything.#my friends are still posting so I won't give up yet...#I just have a back log of things to post

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abuziewicz · 4 years ago

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my media use

At noon on Thursday, October 29th, I woke up. I had about two hours until I had to pick my sister up from school. I took a shower, got dressed, and went downstairs. By this point, it was around 12:30pm. I ate a bowl of cereal, picked up my phone, and laid down on the couch. When I get on my phone for the first time in a day, I check my emails and text messages first. I have emails from Venmo, Word of the Day, Postmates, and Holt International. Venmo let me know I had signed in to the app. Word of the Day gave me a fun new term: “subitaneous,” which can mean “suddenly.” I occasionally deliver food with Postmates, so they let me know what benefits they offer, such as store or entertainment discounts. Holt International is a Christian company that finds kids who are missing parents or struggling financially, and connects them with volunteers who sponsor them by sending a monthly fee over, to help them cover expenses. My parents have sponsored kids for years, and when I got my own source of income, they chose a girl in India for me to sponsor as well. Holt International sends me various promotional emails. I check my email to see if there are any coupons, or information that I need, such as paychecks. Mostly my email revolves around money, when I think about it. Sometimes I feel stressed out when I check my email, because my bank will tell me how much money I have, or I will read a subject line wrong and think I’m in trouble with a company. Usually, I just feel a sense of necessity, to see what I’m being emailed about, and to delete the emails I do not need.

After I check my emails, I check my text messages. Most mornings this sequence is flipped, as messages are much more important in my world than emails are. However, this morning, the only text in my phone is a confirmation request for my wisdom teeth removal appointment in a week. I respond “Y” to confirm. I am a little nervous about the appointment, but I am glad it will happen so soon.

It is now 1pm. On Monday, I had taken my one-year-old 16GB LG smartphone and factory reset it in the hopes of getting more storage and faster processing time. Unfortunately, this did not work out as well as I had hoped. While I did have more space, the “system” (undeletable, inaccessible parts of the phone) took up 9GB of my available 16, and would only increase, even after a full wipe. I click on Snapchat, take a quick close-up picture of my face, and begin to type. Any story posted to Snapchat will only last 24 hours before disappearing. There is an option for the poster to have story posts saved into their Memories, a camera roll just for Snapchat. I have a private Snapchat story, in which I control the amount of people who see what I specifically post in that area. In this story, I have about 30-33 viewers. I ask such viewers, over top of the close-up selfie, “Anyone with Apple iPhones: what is your storage like? I am thinking of converting.” After it successfully adds to my story, I am on the Snapchat “Chat” screen. I have “streaks” (numbers that indicate the number of days two people have sent each other Snaps back and forth for) with eleven people. I send, one by one, a different picture to each of the eleven people. When I first downloaded Snapchat, I had over two dozen, maybe even three dozen streaks. Some people have hundreds. Often, people take one single picture, indicate in some way that the image is being sent to maintain the Streak number, and send it to everyone they keep a streak with. I have eleven people I send streaks to. It is no great hassle for me to send a different picture to each person. In fact, I prefer it, as it takes up more time. Most people take a little while to respond anyways. I dislike when people respond to my Snapchats within seconds, it is stressful to me! “Don’t you have anything else going on?” I wonder. “I understand that it’s a pandemic, but do some homework or something. I only snapped you twenty seconds ago.” Once I have sent all of my streaks for the day, I scroll over to see what other people have put on their stories. I usually only have around 50 stories to go through each day. I pay a little more attention to some, a little less attention to others. It is pretty easy to skip quickly from one story to the next if I want, but it’s only 1:20, so I have time to look at each one. There are Friday fundraisers, one of my sister’s friends had an emergency appendectomy (thankfully she was fine, and excited to watch Impractical Jokers in the hospital), some people had work pictures or puppies in beds. Most of the stories make me smile, a few don’t elicit much of a response or thought besides “oh, that’s nice.” Usually Snapchat does not bring me negativity that I am aware of. Sometimes I worry for people, in the event of, oh, a hypothetical emergency appendectomy, or when someone is sad or worried. One person makes me frustrated sometimes, as they routinely ask people for money for rent and food, then use that money to get tattoos. They tell people they used their money to get a tattoo, not food or rent. Lately they have not posted any requests, but the next time they do, I will most likely block them. Mostly, I am happy to use Snapchat to see what my friends are up to, even if I can’t see them very often.

After scrolling through Snapchat, it’s around 1:40. I open the Instagram app. I talk to a few friends through Instagram direct messaging. I am actually not sure why that is our main form of communication, but I do not mind it. My friend Russell has answered my Snapchat story through Instagram. He has an older iPhone, but as long as he doesn’t update it, it doesn’t get any slower. We discuss other aspects of the iPhone. I am thoughtful about it. Another friend and I get into a small argument- we have both been busy, and were worried that we were growing apart. I am slightly annoyed, then understanding and calm. A group chat I am in, called The Rats, is sending pictures of baby opossums. They are adorable and their mouths open at a full 45-degree angle. The possums make me smile. Returning to the Instagram home page, I can see posts made by people I follow. I like nearly every post I see as I scroll down. Mostly I follow people I know, and a few brands. It takes only a minute or two to like everything and return to the top of the page. Similar to Snapchat, I take care of business, then move on to stories. I pay very little attention to Instagram stories. Even though I don’t follow a lot of brands, some of the people I follow post dozens of stories in a row. I have to click through them rapidly. Sometimes it makes me feel anxious to move so quickly. Usually, if someone repeatedly posts too much, I “mute” them, which means I do not have to see their story anymore unless I actively choose to. Sometimes, I forget, and am left tapping tensely through the tags. As I finish going through stories, my mom walks in the door. It’s 1:50pm.

My sister goes to a technical school 15 minutes away. She has to be picked up around 2:15pm. My mom puts down some bags from errands she’s run, grabs some water, and asks if my brother and I want to join her to pick up my sister. My brother is in the middle of an XBox match, but the dog and I love car rides, and joyfully accompany her. She asks me to turn on my Halloween playlist as we drive. Around 1:55pm, I connect to the car’s aux cord, and pull up Spotify. As we drive, I fiddle with the Spotify songs- even though I made the playlist, there are some songs I prefer to hear over others. I also occasionally respond to messages about iPhone storage. Each one convinces me a little more, bit by bit. I am on my phone for about seven of the fifteen minutes that we drive to the school. As we wait in the parking lot, I text a little more. We were in the parking lot for about fifteen minutes- my sister forgot her iPad in her classroom and had to go back for it. I am on my phone for about nine of those fifteen minutes. When my sister gets back again, we head towards home. Beggar’s Night is going on at 6pm. It is around 2:30pm. My sister and I are going to dress up as Dipper and Mabel from Gravity Falls for when we ladle out candy. My sister and the dog are dropped off at home so that she can finish her costume and he can run around the backyard. My mom and I go to Walmart to pick up candy. We do not usually allow ourselves to pick up candy until very shortly before Beggar’s Night, as we will eat it. Even less than four hours was not enough time to exercise self-control, as each member of the family stole a few pieces. I am not on my phone for most of the Walmart trip. We are only there for around twenty minutes, weighing the prices and candy amounts of each package. After paying and driving home, we get in the door around 3pm.

I get on my laptop to check my CState email and Blackboard. I have no due assignments for the night, but I check to make sure I haven’t forgotten something. This takes around five minutes. I begin to finish my Dipper costume (painting a white ball cap partially blue), periodically answering more iPhone suggestions, and responding to regular messages. The hours of 3pm, 4pm, and 5pm consist of texting, painting, and briefly eating. I spend about one & a half of the three hours texting. I can’t easily text while I paint, but I perform both tasks alternatively while I wait for the paint to dry or people to respond. When it hits 6pm, we are ready for Beggar’s Night. We have masks on, a long ladle to scoop candy into bags, and cover from the garage to protect us from rain. Over the course of the two hours, we only get about a dozen kids, maybe fifteen at the most. My mom scoops generously, since she knows anything left over won’t last until 9pm under our roof. People are grateful and talkative. I am on my phone only once during Trick or Treat, and only for five minutes, to upload a Snaochat story of my sister and I as Dipper and Mabel, and of course, send a couple of texts. After Trick or Treat is finished, we are all cold, and left with about 10 of the 255 candy pieces. We settle down in front of the TV.

It is now around 8pm. We watch TV together nearly every night as a family, usually for at least an hour. In celebration of October and Halloween, we have started to rewatch Stranger Things. Other shows we may watch include New Girl, My Name is Earl, Bob’s Burgers, The Good Place, and The Legend of Korra. Sometimes we’ll throw in a movie if we have enough time. Usually we watch three or four episodes per night- one episode from one show, then moving on to one episode of a different show. I love all of these shows fairly equally, though I can confidently say The Legend of Korra is my least favorite. I still enjoy it! In comparison, though, I enjoy it less than the others. We watch shows that usually include comedy, to end our days with a collective laugh. Tonight, we watch New Girl, then Stranger Things, followed by My Name is Earl and tying up the night with Bob’s Burgers. We only have two episodes left of The Good Place, so we have been putting off watching it. I am mostly finished texting for the day. Before 10pm, I send goodnight messages and plug my phone in to charge. The end credits of Bob’s Burgers mark the end of my day.

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roxettediaries · 7 years ago

Text

The Spooky Cooper

I want to use the “F” word so bad right now. Never have I used the full form on this platform, and I don’t even plan on doing so either. It’s not that I don’t swear - everyone does.

Took a risk, wrote an article here, my hand touched something and ta-daaa, the whole article is lost. I just am not adjusting to this new tumblr (which isn’t as new) on the iPad. It doesn’t even ask you to save the article before it exits. It doesn’t even have this “select all”thing on it either. It just selects the paragraph. I absolutely dislike it. I can write it in notes, and that is what I normally do, but at times, younare too lazy, hmmm....

So, I noticed that on the 4th of October, 2017, I forgot to write the date with my signature “Love and Peace” while on the 5th of October, 2017, I’ve gone 10 years ahead. God, I’m so advanced. Wow (sarcasm).

My body is telling me to sleep (and I actually couldn’t keep my eyes open before losing the article I wrote). (Almost) Consecutive 5.5 hours of sleep per day for almost 10 day’s really isn’t fair, and on top of that, when you have a working Saturday, you just can’t seem to adjust to the routine.

And on top of all that, I updated my iOS and it has a different keypad and it’s bothering me so so much! We all adjust to these things sooner or later anyway, but OMG!!!! It’s so annoying!!!

I wrote about “Cooper” earlier before stupid tumblr wiped it off, and I’ll write about it all over again.

I heard Cooper yesterday and every time I hear it, I realise what a nice song it is. “Have a nice day” overall was so good, but well, this song - no one cares about it.

It’s a spooky song and it’s spooky ness makes it so special. Whenever I hear it, a night‘s view comes in my mind - black and blue, cloudy and very town-ish.

- All the white wolves were smiling

- When all the flowers have cried

- Shut your mouth when you talk to me

- The name “Cooper”.

Cooper is majorly a guys name, and this was the first time that I heard “Cooper” as a woman’s name. Or is “Cooper” the surname of this girl which Gessle is basically singing about? Possible, very possible. Never thought of it in surname basis, makes sense, doesn’t it?

Stevo had it in the TDR Ghost tracks, and it’s spooky enough to be a “ghost track” whatsoever.

It’s an underrated song, and definitely not a single material - yet, it has something which can grab you well, doesn’t it?

Now I’m gonna sleep, and I hope this article gets uploaded without any data loss.

Love and Peace

6/10/2017

#Roxette #Per Gessle #Marie Fredriksson #Gyllene Tider #Cooper #iOS 11 #TDR #Stevo

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inkofamethyst · 5 years ago

Text

June 24, 2019

Hello. I had my first day as a counselor for a theatre camp today and it was, well, something. All I know is that I definitely have no plans to work with elementary school kids on a daily basis in the future. I’ve probably known this for a while, but I just wanted to put it into writing, that’s all.

I don’t really have all that much to say about the day other than the fact that it tired me out enough to make me want to take an hour and a half nap when I got home.

Also... I’m a little afraid that I might be experiencing Critical Role burnout? As I might’ve said before, I consumed the show last summer, ultimately watching the entirety of campaigns one and two beginning somewhere around the April of 2018 (I downloaded the podcast somewhere in the middle of April for the first time on the day of the marching band’s spring trip to Williamsburg (which was also the day that I found out about my scholarship to the super cool summer program that I ultimately ended up going to that summer (I found out, like, two days after that news that I hadn’t received admission into a different free but prestigious summer camp, but that was okay because I probably would’ve preferred the one I went to anyway) so it was just a really good day all around, honestly) and that’s when I really started zooming through them). Maybe it’s just that episode 67 is moving a little slow, and also it’s a dungeon crawl which is typically my least favorite type of episode if I’m honest, so I might just be overreacting and maybe I just need to get through this episode and into 68 (which was uploaded to YouTube today). I enjoy it so much, but I’m afraid that I’ve oversaturated myself, you know? I’ll report back with findings later, but I think that the show is so dynamic that I’m less likely to lose interest, so hopefully I’m fine.

There are a few things I need to do this week, including cleaning my room overall, washing another load of clothes, folding the clothes that I washed yesterday, setting up my new iPad (and figuring out which screen protector I’m going to get (I’m leaning toward a matte one for writing purposes since I love the feel of paper, but I don’t want the feeling of the screen to be terrible to the touch since I may play some games or use it in some other ways besides just schoolwork)), and cleaning out my bookbag from school which I still haven’t done yet for some reason. Oh! Also I desperately need to take out my faux dreads. I feel really bad because I definitely forgot about taking care of my hair underneath, so I’m hoping that it’ll be okay. I’m planning on putting my hair in braids without extensions as a low-manipulation style, and I’m hoping that’ll help me out with length retention.

So that’s today. I’m also feeling really tired right now which means that something’s going wrong with my diet and sleep somehow. In all fairness, I went to sleep really late last night, so I’ll try and remedy that tonight (if I can). Maybe I’ll even watch a bit of Critical Role.

Today I’m thankful for the job that I have today and that I’ll be doing for the rest of this week and a few other weeks in the summer (though with shorter hours) because it’s allowing me to start saving some money for going out during college. I’ll probably stick the checks into my savings account so they’ll make a little interest and then I may pull the cash out if necessary.

PS leggings can be worn as pants

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charllieeldridge · 5 years ago

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Essential Equipment For Online English Teachers

When starting any new job, it’s normal to worry about what supplies or equipment you’ll need in order to successfully do your job. Luckily, as an online English teacher, you won’t need a ton of specialized tools or resources.

I’ve been an online teacher with VIPKID for 3 years now and have mastered my online classroom! In this post, I’ll break down exactly what equipment you’ll need and how to choose the best supplies and resources for teaching online.

Must-Have Technology For an Online Classroom

If the name didn’t give it away, your new job as an online English teacher will involve a bit of technology. Though there is some variation between companies, you’ll definitely need a teaching device such as a laptop or tablet, a headset with a microphone attachment, and a strong internet connection.

Here’s a list of the must-haves.

Laptop Or Tablet

For most online ESL companies, having a relatively new desktop or laptop computer will be sufficient for online teaching. Some companies like VIPKID will allow you to teach from an iPad. Companies such as Palfish even let you teach from your smartphone.

No matter which device you’re using, make sure you’ve updated your operating system. On a laptop or desktop, you’ll need to use at least Windows 7 or Mac OS 10.x. You’ll also need to make sure you’re running the latest version of Flash.

HD Camera

Most modern computers have a built-in HD camera that will work just fine for your online English classes. If you’re using an older computer or a desktop without a built-in camera, you’ll need to buy an HD External camera so your students can see your face and teaching resources — in focus.

Click here to compare costs and brands of HD Cameras on Amazon.

Headset With Microphone

All online teaching jobs will require some kind of headset with a microphone attachment. This is because teaching without one can cause a weird echo sound for you or your students. This is distracting and should be avoided.

Some companies are particular about their teachers using over-head headsets, but other companies are more flexible.

With VIPKID, I’ve used Apple earbuds and a regular headset from time to time. I typically use the regular headset when I’m home and the Apple earbuds while I’m travelling. So far, I haven’t had any problems with the sound.

Click here to compare costs and brands of headsets on Amazon.

☞ SEE ALSO: Working As A VIPKID Teacher: An Insider’s Review

Internet Connection

If possible, you’ll want to make sure you have an internet connection of at least 20 megabytes per second (Mbps) for teaching online. This is recommended by most online teaching companies.

I’ve been able to teach successfully on less than that when absolutely necessary, but slower speeds can cause lags. It’s harder to have a conversation with a student when there is a delay, and you could get in trouble with your teaching company if the delays are significant.

Teaching at slower speeds can be stressful, so aim to teach with 20 Mbps of internet speed if possible.

You can check your internet speeds on websites like speedtest.net. When you use the speed test website, look at the download speed section. Don’t worry if your upload speed is much lower than your download speed. That’s normal. Also, a low ping score is a good thing!

Ethernet Cord And Adapter

One way to improve your connection while teaching is to use an ethernet cord. An ethernet cord will allow you to connect directly to your router and reduces the risk of internet connectivity issues. When I’m not travelling, I try to always use an ethernet cord.

It’s important to note that some newer laptops don’t have a designated ethernet port. If this is the case for your laptop, you’ll need to purchase an adapter to plug in your ethernet cord.

Click here to compare costs and brands of ethernet cable adapters on Amazon.

☞ SEE ALSO: Teaching English in China: Get Paid $2,900 / Month

Backup Internet Source

Even if you’ve set up your technology perfectly and have the fastest internet money can buy, sometimes things happen that are beyond our control — especially when you’re travelling and teaching abroad.

The power goes out. A storm comes through and rattles the internet connection. Your router just stops working for no apparent reason. You forgot to pay the WiFi bill…

When that happens, you’ll be so thankful you have a backup internet source.

The easiest way to get connected in a pinch is to use a hotspot from your mobile phone. Make sure you have a plan that allows you to enable a hotspot and a few gigs of data available. In general, you can teach about ten, 25-minute video classes on 1GB of data.

When the WiFi isn’t strong enough, or the power is cut, go to the settings on your phone and turn on your hot spot. Then go to the internet icon on your computer and click it so you see the different options. You should see one called “[Your Name] iPhone” or something similar. You can now connect to this hotspot just like you would any other WiFi network.

What Equipment I Use For Teaching With VIPKID

According to the VIPKID official website, they require:

Computer: Desktop, Laptop, Mac, PC, or Surface Device

Camera: HD Integrated Camera or HD external Camera

System: Windows7 or higher, Mac ios 10.x or higher, latest version of flash

Internet: At least 20 Mbps, ethernet cord recommended

For VIPKID, I use:

Computer: 2015 Macbook Pro with Mac OS Operating System

Camera: Built-in HD Camera that came standard on my Macbook

Headset: Apple Earbuds or MPow headset

Internet: Ethernet cable when I’m home, WiFi when I’m travelling, Mobile HotSpot for back up

Looking For Teaching Jobs?

If you’re from Canada, the United States or the UK, there are some excellent companies that you can work for. Earn $22 per hour, and in some cases, teach from anywhere in the world!

For Americans and Canadians, VIPKID is by far the best option for you if you want to earn good money and have the freedom to work outside of your home country.

If you don’t mind living and working in Canada or the USA, Qkids is another option. For UK citizens, EF Education First is a great bet! For all other native English speaking countries, check out our article: Teach English Online – Get Paid With These Top 7 Companies.

How To Make Your Online English Classroom Comfortable and Professional

You have the technical gear, but how do you put it together into something that resembles a classroom? In this section, I’ll talk about what you need to make your classroom comfortable and professional looking in no time.

Desk and Chair

Since you’ll be spending a lot of time in your online ESL classroom, it’s important to have a comfortable space. A desk and quality desk chair will save your back and shoulders during long teaching stints.

I love teaching from a desk with plenty of legroom and a chair with proper back support.

Lighting For Your Online English Classroom

Having good lighting is a critical part of online teaching.

Lighting allows your students to see your mouth movements. This is critical to language acquisition. Good lighting makes your classroom looks more professional. It also allows students to see your teaching resources when you’re using them.

To get good lighting, you have a few options:

Overhead Lights And A Desk Lamp: One easy option is using the overhead room lights as well as a desk lamp for teaching. Make sure to put the lamp directly behind your computer with the light pointing toward your face.

This prevents shadows on one side of your face. If you have a white lampshade, this also helps soften the light on your face, giving you a more natural look.

Selfie Ring Light: If that’s not enough, you can use a selfie ring light that can clip on to your laptop for additional lighting. Selfie ring lights are usually rechargeable and offer a ring of bright white light for several hours at a time. Clip one of these portable teaching lights to your laptop for extra bright lighting in a pinch. Compare brands and costs on Amazon here.

Professional Photography Lights: If you want something of higher quality, You can also use freestanding lights designed for photographers or videographers.

Just type YouTube lighting into Amazon and you’ll see plenty of kits that are more than enough for your online teaching needs. You’ll see halos with different color filters, photoshoot-ready soft lightboxes, and bright white lights with umbrellas to soften the glare.

With options like these, you could go as simple or complex as you want.

Full disclosure, I’ve never used anything this luxurious in my own classroom and it’s never been a problem. If I had a more permanent classroom area, I’d consider using some of the softboxes as the ring light can be too harsh after a few hours.

That being said, I’d only recommend using this kind of lighting if you have a larger classroom area and won’t be moving your classroom set up often. Trying to relocate a large lighting rig every few days would not be worth the slight improvement in light quality.

If you plan to travel while teaching, definitely stick to the ring light.

☞ SEE ALSO: Teaching English in Japan – A Guide To Finding Jobs

Laptop Stand

Proper posture is the key to feeling good during your lessons. A laptop stand puts your computer at a better height so you sit up straighter and put less strain on your back.

I’d recommend a laptop stand for anyone who works on a computer because it reduces the need to hunch over.

A laptop stand is also an awesome resource if you plan to teach and travel as it allows you to put your computer at the proper height no matter what your desk situation is.

Click here to compare prices and brands of laptop stands on Amazon.

☞ SEE ALSO: 15 Pros and Cons Of Being an Online English Teacher

Educational Resources For Online Teachers

Now that you have the technical basics down, it’s time to get creative! As an online English teacher, you have the unique challenge of making your lessons interesting and engaging through a tiny screen.

Especially if you’re teaching young children, your classroom should allow you to explain difficult concepts in a way that’s fun and effective — otherwise, your students will lose interest, quickly.

Classroom Background

Your classroom background is a great way to get creative and show your students your personality. While many companies are fine with you just having a blank wall behind you while you teach, other companies prefer that you have something kid-friendly and academic behind you.

No matter what, you want your background to be clean and non-distracting. It should enhance the class rather than detract from it. You shouldn’t teach with your camera showing a room in your home behind you as this can be very distracting for students.

For classroom background ideas, here are a few of my favorites that I’ve used over the years. All of these can be hung with command strips and poster putty.

Paper World Map: You can reinforce the corners with tape to allow for multiple hangings

ABC Posters and Other Academic Classroom Signs: These can often be found in the dollar store or at school supply stores

Shower Curtain: Pick one with something kid-friendly on it, like world flags, animals, ABC letters, etc.

Felt or Fabric Backdrop: Attach felt letters to a large piece of fabric to welcome kids to class.

Decorated Poster Board: You can use markers, paints, and other crafting supplies to make a unique poster board background.

If you plan to make your own classroom decorations, you can include things like the name of your teaching company, your name, and phrases like “Welcome to Class.” Click here to find some teaching supplies and ideas on Amazon.

3D Props

While you don’t need a lot of bulky teaching items, you should plan to have a few 3D props in your bag for teaching online. My most useful 3D props are:

A small dry erase board and markers

One large puppet or a set of small finger puppets for demonstrating conversations (I have a set of ten small finger puppets from IKEA and they are amazing)

A set of ABC Flashcards

2D Props

While relying on too many 3D props will clutter your classroom fast (and are more difficult to travel with), 2D props are another story. 2D props are my bread and butter.

Making them is simple. Either draw or find pictures of images you’d like to use in your classroom, print them out, and laminate them so they’re durable. I usually have the following 2D props:

Flags for the USA, Canada, and China (adapt this to match the nationality fo the students you teach)

A picture of a family

Pictures of different foods

Photos of nature and national monuments around the world (for example, a beach, mountains, the Great Wall of China, the Statue of Liberty, etc)

Pictures of different clothing items

2D props are awesome because they don’t take up a lot of space in your teaching area.

When I’m home, I organize my pictures in a little set of drawers on my desk. By labeling each drawer, I can quickly grab the props I need during a lesson without disrupting the flow of the conversation.

When I’m travelling, I have a Ziploc bag for my laminated pictures. Since all the pictures are jumbled in there together, I have to pick out which props I’ll need at the beginning of my workday.

When it’s time to travel, the bag of pictures is easy to pack and it slides in right next to my laptop, taking up essentially no extra space.

To determine exactly which 2D props you should make, keep a note pad next to your computer while you teach for a few days. Whenever you teach a concept and think “hmm, I’d like to have a picture of that” make a note on the note pad.

After a few classes, you should start to see some themes emerge for concepts that would be easier to teach with a visual aid.

Rewards

If you’re working with children, classroom rewards can be a fun way to keep kids interested in the lesson. I started using rewards with my youngest learners.

When they did a good job, I would add a heart-shaped sticky note to my whiteboard. At the end of class, we would count up how many sticky notes they earned. It was simple, but it worked.

Over time, this evolved into more complex games and more exciting rewards, but the concept stayed the same: give students something external to look forward to during class and use this as a way to reinforce good behavior and progress.

If you’d like to incorporate rewards into your classroom, start with something simple like sticky notes or little erasers or stickers.

☞ SEE ALSO: 10 Things To Know Before Becoming an Online English Teacher

Tour My Classroom!

After talking through all the online teaching classroom requirements, let’s see how this looks when put together! I’ll talk you through two of my classroom setups over time to give you some ideas of what yours can look like.

Admittedly, my classroom for online teaching is a little pared down because I usually throw it into a backpack and travel. Still, I have used some more stable elements when teaching from home so I’ll show you both.

My Home Classroom

In my home classroom, I sit at a table with my back to the wall. On the wall behind me, I have a world map and a welcome banner for decorations. I use my 2015 MacBook Pro for my teaching device with the built-in camera and either my Apple earbuds or an over the ear headset.

For lighting, I use the overhead lights in the room as well as the selfie ring light to make sure my face is nice and bright. I have my laptop on a laptop stand so I don’t have to hunch over. Using a variety of 2D and 3D props like the ones pictured keep my students engaged.

My Travel Classroom

I took this picture while travelling and teaching online. Since I was staying in a hotel room, I didn’t have a proper desk and chair to teach from. In this arrangement, I used an end table as my teaching surface and sat on the floor with pillows for support. Behind me, I used a piece of felt that I decorated with felt letters and ribbons.

For lighting, I used a lamp I found in the room set up behind my laptop. My Apple earbuds worked great for travelling since they packed down small. I used my laptop without a laptop stand because the table was high enough as it was.

As you can see, I prefer to use 2D printable props while travelling so they don’t take up so much space in my bag. I’ve got a small dry erase board and a few helpful printables ready to go beside my teaching space.

When To Set Up Your Online Teaching Equipment

Ideally, you should have your classroom set up before your first interview with a prospective online teaching company. I totally understand not wanting to go out and buy a ton of gear just for a job interview, but you have the best chance of getting hired if you have all your equipment ready in advance.

Plus, many of the props and resources you’ll need can be made yourself or purchased from the Dollar Store or some other affordable shop.

Before you do your online ESL job interview, you should have

Your laptop or iPad teaching device

A headset, either earbuds or an over-the-head version

Good lighting

A classroom background

Teaching props

Reliable internet connection

Most companies are looking to see that you meet their requirements from the get-go. You have a much better chance of getting hired if you can show that you have the right gear and a strong enough connection for teaching.

You don’t have to go too wild with it. No need to convert your guest bedroom into a full-fledged educational experience. But you should make an effort to show that you’re ready to teach as soon as possible.

Before you fill your shopping cart on Amazon, take a look around your house and see if you can find things that will work in your classroom. This is especially helpful for finding props and teaching materials. I taught my first month of classes with a dog toy as a prop, no questions asked.

Final Thoughts

By taking some time upfront to gather the best equipment for teaching English online, you’ll have an easier time getting started with your awesome new job.

For the technical aspects, give your devices a tune-up and make sure you have good video, audio, and reliable internet no matter where you teach.

For the more creative aspects of your classroom, you’ll have some flexibility. You can choose to go more minimalist with a plain wall and simple dry erase board as your prop, or unleash your inner artist and create your own classroom masterpiece.

Look around your house, take a field trip to the Dollar Store, or break out the markers and draw some teaching visuals. The sky’s the limit.

At the end of the day, you’ve succeeded if you’ve created an environment free from technical mishaps where students can learn and can have fun doing so.

I hope this article helped to give you some good ideas for teaching resources and equipment. If you’re an online English teacher, what did I miss? Which props do you use? Leave a comment below!

Images in this article are courtesy of Shutterstock — a top website for finding royalty-free photos and videos.

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