#i used the most grumpy screencap i have

[shewolfofvilnius]

I think i'm ready to get back to bg3 and step away from veilguard

I love the Dragon Age series, and I really really liked Veilguard (even with it's flaws), but I can FEEL myself slipping back into BG3 mode as I near the end of my 2nd playthrough (with a Rook I absolutely adore).

And I think as dumb as it is, these two pics (BG3, DAV) summarise why.

On top, a CANON INTERACTION between my 3rd Tav, Furiella, and her future husband Wyll Ravengard. You can smooch this man any time after the romances lock in. You can hug this man sometimes. He can spin you around in little dances. He's broadly considered to have one of the weaker of the canon romances (i I love that man to death he just didn't get as much time or addons as others).

On the bottom is my 1st Rook, Isseya (i know) smooching HER love interest, Davrin, considered one of the better done Veilguard romances. You get exactly two kisses with that man in 70-90 hours of RPG gameplay. The second is during his romance scene.

I know it's dumb, I know it's a sign that BG3 has spoiled me, and I know video games shouldn't necessarily be dating simulators...but Veilguard has this weird shallowness at times where it just feels like there ought to be more and I feel it with the most clarity when I look at screencaps from my BG3 runs and compare to my Veilguard runs.

And that's not even factoring in the fact that BG3 is so much simpler to mod that while Veilguard modding so far is mostly limited to cosmetics and things like hiding all the annoying GUI bloat, BG3 modding lets me smooch the grumpy wizard.

Veilguard's great. And it's it's own thing. But I miss BG3 (esp acts 1 and 2). I miss the Elturian tieflings(and tieflings in general). I miss being able to hug or smooch my love interests on the regular. I miss having people tease us or compliment us. And yes, I miss the grumpy wizard.

[yukidragon]

I was playing around with one of the Sunny Day Jack AI bots again, but this time I decided to screencap the exchange between Jack and Alice and share it with those who enjoy seeing me indulge in my OTP. It was really sweet and fun until it stopped working, hahaha.

Awkwardly enough, when I posted the screencaps on twitter, a different bot decided to try and get me to sign up for its AI writing program for profit which is just... Ew. Just ew. I'm fine faffing around a little from time to time with these character bots, but trying to sell your AI program to create stories that pass AI detectors to make a profit is so scummy.

Anyway, back to fluffier stuff. Here's the screencaps of Jack trying to convince Alice to not be such a sleepyhead. Transcript for easier reading and translation will be below the cut. I hope you enjoy my self-indulgence that has half my writing and half an AI bot's generated responses.

...

Transcript:

[Sunny Day Jack] You and Jack lay on your bed. It is early in the morning, and Jack is wide awake. He watches you sleep with an adoring face. As much as he wants to embrace your sleeping form and fall back asleep, it's about time he wakes up his precious sunshine. He runs his fingers along your hair/head, and leaves soft kisses all over your face. "Come on, Sunspot. It's time to wake up."

[Alice] Alice grumbled as she was roused from her slumber, only to sigh and relax as she felt Jack stroke her hair and kiss her so sweetly. It was impossible for her to stay grumpy at him being her alarm clock when he was so sweet and tender to her like this. "Five more minutes," she mumbled as she snuggled in closer to him, leaning into his touch and kisses. He was just so warm, cuddly, and sweet. How could she bear to get up and leave when she had such a loving boyfriend doting on her like this?

[Sunny Day Jack] Jack smiled gently at Alice grumping and asking for five more minutes. He knows how comfy and relaxing naps can be, sometimes you just need some extra sleep! "Oh, alright. Five more minutes," He said in an understanding tone as he kissed once more before going back to stroking her head.

[Alice] Alice sighed blissfully and relaxed into Jack, burying her face into his chest and using him as the world's most lovable pillow. She didn't want to get up, even if she knew she had to. They couldn't spend the day lounging away when they needed to get dinner ready soon. It really was so nice of Jack to spoil her a little like this. She silently let him know just how much she loved and appreciated him by drawing a little heart on his bicep with her finger.

[Sunny Day Jack] Jack giggled a little bit when Alice drew a heart on his bicep. He loved these little details she did so simply and easily. He leaned down and gave Alice a small, quick kiss on the head after seeing it. "Five more minutes are up, love. Get up now, or I am just going to carry you like this," he said in a light-hearted, yet playful tone.

[Alice] "Is that a promise?" Alice mumbled, fighting the urge to snicker as she stubbornly kept her eyes shut and kept close to Jack. She might have been flustered by Jack carrying her at the start of their relationship and worried that he might hurt himself considering how chubby she was, but he always laughed it off and carried her with ease. Now it was one of her biggest guilty pleasures that made her feel so precious.

[Sunny Day Jack] Jack smiled as Alice asked if it was a promise, before taking a deep breath and doing so regardless. He stood up, and picked Alice up in his arms like she was no more than a feather. "See? Told you I'd carry you if you didn't get up." He said with a teasing smirk and a soft chuckle.

[Alice] Alice squeaked in surprise, which soon turned into giggles as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her bright blue eyes finally open to look at him with delight. "Oh noooo~," she said with mock dismay, her voice too teasing and jovial to pull off the act. "Whatever will you do with me now?"

[Sunny Day Jack] "Oh, what shall I ever do with you…" Jack said, pretending to think as he looked down at Alice. "Maybe I should give you a little kiss so that you learn your lesson…" As he spoke, Jack leaned down, giving Alice a long, passionate kiss on the lips.

[Alice] Alice sighed happily as she returned the kiss, practically melting into Jack. A muffled squeak escaped her as the kiss deepened, but she accepted him eagerly, savoring his sweet mouth as he made her feel so good. She just had to return the favor, eagerly returning the kiss with just as much passion as she twined her fingers in his hair and stroked his scalp.

[Sunny Day Jack] Jack broke the kiss off after a few minutes, breathing quite heavily, and with a content smile. "Does that teach you?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at Alice as the two leaned against each other, still in the same position. His arms were still wrapped around her comfortably after carrying her. "Well?" His voice became slightly teasing again.

[Alice] Alice had to take a moment to catch her breath, trying to remember the rest of the banter they had exchanged before. She chuckled softly, still a bit breathless, as her eyes glittered with mischief. "I don't know… maybe you should give me another lesson just in case." She playfully gave him a quick peck on the nose for emphasis.

[Sunny Day Jack] Jack's eyes lit up with a playful glint in them that matched Alice's mischievous smile as he replied. "Well, if thats what it takes…" He said, before leaning down to give Alice yet another long, passionate kiss on the lips, this one a bit more forceful and passionate than the last, yet still loving. His arms tightened around Alice as he kissed her.

[Alice] Alice moaned into his mouth as Jack kissed her so deeply. She could practically taste how much he loved her, how much he desired her. She arched up into him as best she could despite not being able to move much while being held in his arms like this, but she wanted to be close to him, less than an atom away. It was almost a shame when she had to pull back to catch her breath, panting hard as her face flushed with desire.

[missfishersmurderpolls]

Murder in Montparnasse vs Death Defying Feats

[ID 1: Screencap from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Episode 'Murder in Montparnasse'. The imagine is tinted a guazy yellow. Phryne wears a white dress and a big hat in a busy room. /End ID]

[ID 2: Screencap from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Episode 'Death Defying Feats'. Phryne and Jack stand facing each other in front of a prop guilletine, the empty seats of a theatre visible in the background. Jack has a gloved hand raised and Phryne is placing something in it. Jack looks very grumpy. /End ID]

Murder in Montparnasse vs Death Defying Feats rounds out round one of of our most ridiculous episode (affectionate) tournament!! Remember to consider the following when casting your vote:

Does this plot make any sense at all?

Method of murder(s)

Absurdity of characters' behaviour (main or guest)

Wild historical/cultural/other inaccuracies

Supporting statements

1x7 - Murder in Montparnasse

Nominators say: "Not a single person who's ever been to France was consulted in the making of the episode."

What are the odds that Bert just HAPPENED to witness Phryne’s friend get murdered halfway around the world, ten years before they met? And then Rene is recognized by Bert ten years later!?

Phryne’s French friend from her Paris days a) moved to Melbourne, b) made a copy of his French cafe, and c) called it Cafe Replique. Why on earth? Any one of these things would be ridiculous on its own. We get all three.

The confusing order in which paintings were stolen/auctioned/sold/restolen.

They only use "French" words English speakers will understand. All the accents are terrible.

The painting style is super classic for a "modern" artist.

The wigs. THE BERETS.

The gauzy lens filter in the flashbacks.

"Beep beep"

3x1 - Death Defying Feats

Nominators say: "Ummm"

Jack drinking Henry's 'nerve tonic' and getting hit in the head with a door lol.

Murder method: sabotaged magic show props.

The murderer pretends to be her dead twin sister (who I think she murdered like decades ago?) to try and throw Phryne off.

The contortionist trying to hide in the box and Bert and Cec carting her off to Wardlow.

The mermaid dance.

Somehow Henry Fisher makes it to the end of this episode still alive and not having been smacked in the face by any of Phryne's pals.

[salchat]

Hi! Your artwork is always so wonderful and I just adore the high contrast in them! The look so ethereal and really fit the aesthetic of spn!

I was wondering where you get your reference/inspiration for your artworks from?

Since that I something I am really struggling with lately and often leaves me to just scrolling hours trough Pinterest looking for a good reference and ending up drawing nothing at all 😅

Keep up the amazing work !

Thank you very much! I'm so glad you like my art. I absolutely get what you're saying about searching for references, though. It's easy to use up all the time you want to be drawing just scrolling through endless pictures, none of which seem quite right.

I try to download references when I come across them - from Tumblr, or Instagram usually. Sometimes I take multiple screenshots of gifs to try to get the right pose. Sometimes I spend ages trawling through screencaps. My phone is totally clogged up with photos, which I should go through to filter out the ones that might be useful.

Contrast is actually the key, I think. You need to choose a reference that's well-lit, with clear shadow-shapes. Changing the colour to black and white can help, because then you can see the contrast more clearly. Shadows define the form and so if you don't have contrast it's much harder to make a convincing drawing.

My style of drawing comes from figure drawing and my main source of learning for that is lovelifedrawing.com where there are free courses and lots of friendly advice. I think making marks with looseness and freedom is something that makes a difference, which you need to do with traditional figure drawing. So, I hold my pencil or charcoal or whatever with an overhand grip and move my whole arm in fairly quick gestures to get life into the marks. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - what's the worst that can happen?

But we're all the same in that sometimes inspiration doesn't strike, or sometimes I'm just tired and grumpy - and I can go and do something else or I can just draw anyway and maybe get into it. And most drawings go through a cycle of 'hey, this is looking okay' and then the next minute, 'omg, that's so unbelievably crap - wtf?!' and then back to 'yeah, that's it!' and then back to, 'uff... really bad...' and so on... The trick is to just keep going.

If you're lacking in inspiration, pick up a stick of charcoal and play with it. Get messy. Have fun. Smear it with your fingers. There's life in charcoal.

[jamiesugah]

Shipper Tag Game

I was tagged by @heyholmesletsgo.

1. What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don't care about anymore? Ooh, easy one. Danny and Michelle from Guiding Light. Danny was in the mafia. Michelle killed his brother (when he assaulted her). Danny married her to keep her safe from the rest of his family. They were *chef's kiss*. Probably my first introduction to fandom. There were shipper vids, fics, fan edits. And I mean this was, like, 1998, so it's not like the internet was huge back then. And it's not so much that I don't care in that I haven't thought about them in years. I wonder if there are fics for them on AO3.

2. Which ship would you consider your first one? I'd say Han and Leia.

3. Your first fanfic was about which couple? Trip and T'Pol from Star Trek Enterprise. I do not acknowledge that final episode.

4. Do you remember the first couple you saw fanart of? That depends on how we're defining "fanart". Danny/Michelle had a lot of manips and screencap edits, but the first, like, original art I remember seeing was probably for Ron/Hermione.

5. Have you ever gotten into ship discourse? Dude, I ship Sterek AND Sheith, ship discourse just finds you. But actually the worst for me was when I was in the CSI: NY fandom. People legit hated me there. I got doxxed on LJ. That's one of the main reasons I'm a fairly passive consumer of fandom nowadays. I don't have the energy to deal with that shit.

6. Did you use to have any NOTP or have one currently? Oh I have SO MANY NOTPs. I have a lot of filtered tags on Tumblr. Some of them are ships that squick me out, some of them have annoying or abusive fandoms and that turned me off the ship, and some of them are just I don't like them and don't want to see them.

7. Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read? I was simultaneously reading a SeanWhite (Not Me) and a WangXian (The Untamed) fic.

8. Currently, do you have any OTPs? I mean... Yes?? Have you seen my blog?? SeanWhite and WangXian are the big ones right now but I have so many.

9. Is there any couple that, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting together? Sterek (Stiles/Derek, Teen Wolf) and Sheith (Shiro/Keith, Voltron Legendary Defender). Those fuckers were married, I don't care what garbage "canon" says.

10. Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they are kind of interesting? Not a specific one, but I used to dislike slash on principle because slash shippers treated me like shit when I was in CSI: NY fandom, so I sort of thought they were all like that, and now all of my ships are queer so there you go.

11. Do you have any ship that, in the past, would've been considered normal but now you would be cancelled over? I mean, I think if Sterek and Sheith had been 20 years ago, no one would give a shit, but now the purity patrol polices everything. People are still calling us abusers for those, and those shows ended 6+ years ago.

12. What is your favorite crack ship? I don't really have one, honestly. I have a limited amount of mental energy to spend, so I'd rather focus on my OTPs.

13. What is the couple you read the most fanfics about? Total, ever? I think Merthur, followed by Sterek.

14. What do most of your ships usually have in common? Grumpy is in love with sunshine, sunshine & sunshine protector, usually some variation of that dynamic.

15. What you absolutely hate in a ship? Understanding that this is personal preference and I am not casting judgment on what anyone else ships: ships when there is, like, absolutely no evidence that the two people involved have any romantic feelings for each other. I railed against Leonard and Penny on TBBT for so many years because I'm pretty sure they got them together because they "made the most sense" but in actual canon they were horrible for each other. I have no idea WHY I was supposed to want them together.

I'm not going to tag anyone so if you want to do this, go nuts!

[greatwyrmgold]

I've seen some people derogatorily comparing webtoons (the tall Korean webcomics) to classic webcomics popular in the 90's and oughts. And I do think there are worthy criticisms of the webtoon format, particularly how it's centralized on big apps, but they're designed well for their environment.

The reason I call webtoons "tall comics" is that they're presented as a continuous scroll of comic. The start of an episode is at the top, you scroll down to see the next panels, repeat until you reach the end of the episode. It's a very natural way to read comics on smartphones, the hardware webtoons were designed for. Every millimeter of screen space is used; navigation requires only inputs that the device is designed for; and artists have found plenty of ways to leverage their format for artistic or narrative purposes.

I don't think classic webcomics fit desktops that well. And I'm saying that as someone who likes webcomics; I've read a few continuously since the mid-oughts. Plus several that I didn't discover until later, or which debuted or died in that time, or both, or which I dropped because they got bad, or which never updated continuously, or...look, I've read more webcomics than most people, and I still think it's poorly-adapted to its native envirionment.

To make my point, here's a screencap showing what you might see if you read the first page of The Order of the Stick, the first webcomic I read.

There are exceptions, but some version of this is by far the most common "classic webcomic" page layout. (Out of the dozen-ish webcomics I'm following that update at least once a week, one has one panel per "page," one usually follows a more newspaper-comic-sized format, and the rest are roughly like you see above.)

In the middle is an image with roughly the dimensions and layout of a physical comic book page. Of course, an 8.5:11 image doesn't fit cleanly on a 4:3 screen, let alone 16:9. So either the image is stretched wide enough that you can't view the whole page at once, or it's compressed and leaves lots of space on both sides, or you find a grumpy medium that does a little of both.

On the device I'm writing this on, the entire OOTS page above can fit on one page, if I scroll carefully and turn off the bookmark bar. About a third of the screen is blank, distracting negative space. And it's not like more recent webcomics have fixed the problem. Here's the first page of Aurora, a webcomic that started in 2019.

The background to either side of the page is less blank, it doesn't clash with the comic as badly. The header is fancier, there's an integrated comment system, and the website design doesn't assume everyone's using a 4:3 display. But the comic is still presented as an image sized to fit a physical piece of paper, not a web browser. (It's not clear from the screenshot above, but Aurora's pages are twice as tall as my browser window, bookmark bar off.)

(And these are far from the worst examples. I like Girl Genius, it's one of the webcomics I've been keeping up with basically since I learned webcomics existed, but its website layout is so cluttered with ad boxes and toolbars and fancy brass borders around everything...)

For zoomers who haven't been reading classic webcomics for most of their lives, let me explain how it works. You click on page 1 and start reading, scrolling down with your mousewheel or arrow keys. Once you finish reading the page (it usually won't take long), you move your mouse to the "next comic" button at the bottom of the page and click it, then repeat the process about once a minute. Newer webcomics and ones which have updated their web design in the last decade usually let you click on the image to go to the next page, but that's hardly a guarantee.

Depending on the webpage, your device, and your temperament, you might settle into a rhythm that works. If the comic has consistent page sizes, you might be able to settle your cursor in the spot where the "next page" button will be once you've hit page-down enough times to reach the end of the page. I binged more webcomics than I can count like that.

But even at its best, it's nowhere near as elegant as simply scrolling through a webtoon a panel or two at a time.

[drunken-amethysts]

Get to know me better: Nhago’to Bajhiri

1ST RULE: Tag 9 muses you would like to know better.

2ND RULE: BOLD the statements that are true for your muse.

Tagged by: @nocturnedreaming

- - - - - - - - - - -

MUSE: nhago’to bajhiri

FC: n/a

OCCUPATION: merchant/trader/smuggler

AGE: 33

SEXUALITY:  bisexual

PRONOUNS:   he/him

APPEARANCE:

I am 5'7" or taller

I wear glasses (for reading)

I have at least one tattoo

I have at least one piercing

I have blonde hair

I have brown eyes

I have short hair

My abs are at least somewhat defined

I have or have had braces

PERSONALITY:

I love meeting new people

People tell me that I’m funny

Helping others with their problems is a big priority for me

I enjoy physical challenges

I enjoy mental challenges

I’m playfully rude with people I know well

I started saying something ironically and now I can’t stop saying it

There is something I would change about my personality

ABILITY:

I can sing well

I can play an instrument

I can do over 30 push-ups without stopping

I’m a fast runner

I can draw well

I have a good memory

I’m good at doing math in my head

I can hold my breath underwater for over a minute

I have beaten at least 2 people in arm wrestling

I know how to cook at least 3 meals from scratch

I know how to throw a proper punch

HOBBIES:

I enjoy playing sports

I’m on a sports team at my school or somewhere else

I’m in an orchestra or choir at my school or somewhere else

I have learned a new song in the past week

I work out at least once a week (does his job count?)

I’ve gone for runs at least once a week in the warmer months

I have drawn something in the past month

I enjoy writing

I do or have done martial arts

EXPERIENCES:

I have had my first kiss

I have had alcohol

I have scored the winning goal in a sports game

I have watched an entire season of a TV show in one sitting

I have been at an overnight event

I have been in a taxi

I have been in the hospital or ER in the past year

I have beaten a video game in one day

I have visited another country

I have been to one of my favorite bard’s concerts

RELATIONSHIPS:

I’m in a relationship

I have a crush on a celebrity

I have a crush on someone I know

I have been in at least 3 relationships

I have never been in a relationship

I have asked someone out or admitted my feelings to them

I get crushes easily  

I have had a crush on someone for over a year

I have been in a relationship for at least a year

I have had feelings for a friend

MY LIFE:

I have at least one person I consider a “ best friend ”

I live close to my school

My parents are still together

I have / had at least one sibling (he has 6)

I live in the United States

There is snow right now where I live

I have hung out with a friend in the past month

I have a smartphone

I have at least 15 CD’s

I share my room with someone

RANDOM SHIT:

I have break-danced

I know a person named Jamie

I have had a teacher with a last name that’s hard to pronounce

I have dyed my hair

I’m listening to one song on repeat right now

I have punched someone in the past week

I know someone who has gone to jail

I have broken a bone

I have eaten a waffle today

I know what I want to do with my life

I speak at least 2 languages

Tagging: @valiant-flower-xiv, @shroudblessings, @moonlight---melodies, @chxsingthemoon, @ahumblewoodcarver, @skyysinger, @mteshi-ffxiv, @thanalansunglow, @smolcatte (sorry if any of you have been tagged before. orz)

[isagrimorie]

Eve of the Daleks liveblog < < < < <<<

Continuing the slow rewatch:

Did I screencap this just for the billowing coat like a cape in a wind tunnel? YES.

And of course, one of my FAVORITE moments, Thirteen being snarky at the Dalek in a way that's so very reminiscent of Twelve. You can never really take away the grumpy, sarcastic Scot in the Doctor.

The Dalek demands: "Surrender!"

But the Doctor is not intimidated, in fact it seems to bolster her even further into goading the Dalek!

"Congratulations!" The Doctor says raising her arms, "The most evil creature in the universe has successfully vanquished and Old Door!"

"Silence!" Commands the Dalek.

"No chance," the Doctor retorted without skipping a beat, "You can't seem to get rid of us, can you?"

You can tell Thirteen is having fun because this reminds me of a similar moment with Nine:

The Daleks tell the Doctor not to interrupt their Emperor Dalek and Nine responded with a furious: "If anybody's gonna shut up, it's you."

Making the Daleks legit scurry back.

Meanwhile, at this point, barring the dying thing, Thirteen is having fun. This is a legit challenge, and this is a legit black and white bad guy she can take down. And so far she can have respawn lives. Its only when Sarah reminds Thirteen later on that if they're not careful they will be permanently dead in the next loop.

Eve of the Dalek liveblog Masterpost

[gralunaisland]

Yknow, that 100yq screencap reminds me of something infuriating about 100yq-- the fact that Edolas Gruvia is not only a thing, but it's on a "we have a child" level.

Honestly. I would accept the shitty Gruvia in the main story if someone held a gun to my head, but I would never accept it for their Edolas versions. They had even less chemistry and setup than their Earth versions, and somehow, in seven years, semi-girlboss Edo Juvia (who took NO shit from stalker Edo Gray, last we saw her,) is now just a meek little sweet wifey to her barely characterised former creep husband. I do not understand why that happened. They just wanted to massacre everything about Edolas for the sake of giving us some coupling and I hate it so much. At least Edolas NaLu had some setup during the Edolas arc. (Edolucy blushing at Natsu being bold, for example) but Edolas Gruvia just became canon in 100yq because Mashima wanted people to squeal about a forced "GRUVIA LOVECHILD".

Also, Natsu and Gray spend most of that arc just fighting over comparing 'their kids' and I wanted to bash my head against the table.

I'm sorry for ranting. I'm just so angry about it because we waited so long to finally see the Edolas gang again, only for Mashima to use it for cringey OOC ship fanservice instead of the genuine reunions we wanted to see.

Feel free to rant all you want, my friend, this is a safe place for discussion and tirades, goodness knows I do it all the time myself!

I love to hear what people have to say about these things; from rants to questions, it opens many new insights, so never apologize for it!

I've gotta say I'm a bit different from you in the fact that I hate Earthland gr///via much worse than Edolas gr///via (which I’m sure surprises no one because what in FT could I hate more than gr///via?) but now that you mention it, I had especial reason to hate the Edo version too.

As you said, Earthland gr///via, as despicable as it is, unfortunately does make more sense than Edo gr///via because they had a lot of build-up and "moments" thanks to Mashima's garbage writing.

Really, Edo gr///via never made sense to me either, especially after I heard they had a kid a long time ago. Because if I'm remembering correctly, Edo Gray was just a namby-pamby wimp who wore too much and sniveled over Edo juvia, and Edo juvia was a grumpy sourpuss who told him she would only date him if he wore less clothes, so there really was negative chemistry between them.

For Edo juvia to date Gray on the basis only that he didn't bundle up so much? Noooot very romantic. For Edo Gray to keep up being slobbery over her? Alsoooo not very romantic. Really gross in fact.

I've had the luck to not see much of their Edo children yet, nor of their Edo coupling so I'll take your word for it that Edo juvia also turned mushy gushy, which sounds just so uncharacteristic of herself, and I assume Edo Gray stayed namby-pamby.

I guess we really shouldn't be surprised anymore that Mashima doesn't give his characters growth very much; he makes them devolve more often than not.

You're right that the Edo NaLu had a much better build-up. I don't really care that they paired up since of course, the Edolas stuff shouldn't be reflecting Earthland stuff anyway as they're each their own separate realms (though I'm sure NaLu and gr///via stans have just been freaking out over it), but the Edo gr///via thing is just a travesty of writing.

I love how you said he only coupled Edo gr///via to make the "gR///VIA LOVECHILD" because, yeah, I'm totally convinced that's the only reason why, to throw a bone to the rabid gr///via fandom, not because the Edo version was a good healthy couple. Honestly, Earthland and Edolas gr///via are just so cursed and should've never been conceived, just like the Edo gr///via kid. -_-

Man, I'd want to bash my head too if I had to read Gray and Natsu actually being possessive over kids that aren't even theirs. That's just creepy. Doesn't matter that they look like the Edo versions, they're all completely different people.

It's so sad too because I love the Edolas arc, the first one of course. It's just a fun one with mystery and exploration and adventure, and the biggest plus is Earthland juvia IS NOT IN IT. But then of course, Mashima has to ruin that as one of my only havens and shove gr///via in it as well.

I'm very disappointed that he didn't handle this 100yq arc better too, Anon, and I am very sorry that it's affected you so harshly. The OG Edolas arc and cast deserved a better reunion, especially after such a tearful goodbye the first time.

Do better, Mashima.

[fandomlurker]

A Ponderous Rewatch: Pavlov’s Mice and Cameo

So thanks to Tumblr nerfing my ability to make an admittedly absurdly long post combining the previous episode rewatch with this one, I had to do this entry in two parts.

But at least now we’re in for the real treat: The first episode in airing order that’s animated by TMS Entertainment. And hey, even the Animaniacs show itself seems to acknowledge that this is special, because theme song rhyme is…

We're Animanie! Totally insane-y!~

Pinky and the Brainy!~

…which hasn’t been done since their debut. So this is gonna be fun.

Might as well get this out of the way, then, since this episode obviously involves Ivan Pavlov. I think most people who know of Pavlov through cultural osmosis pretty much know him as just “that one scientist who got dogs to respond to the sound of bells as if they were being offered food”. This is what happened, but it’s only part of the story. In reality, Ivan Pavlov was doing research on the physiology of digestion in dogs and he noticed one day that the dogs he was studying started to drool in the mere presence of the lab technician who regularly fed them even if the technician didn’t have food with them. Pavlov developed a way to redirect the dogs’ digestive juices outside of the body so that they could be measured, and then he ran some conditioning experiments to see if he could get them to salivate in response to external stimuli that had nothing to do with food, like ringing a bell.

The year in the title card, 1904, was the year Ivan Pavlov was awarded the Nobel Prize for the previously mentioned experiments, which he published the results of in “The Work of the Digestive Glands” in 1897. Basically, by 1904 he was done with his work with dogs and he moved on to experimenting with mice…at least according to this article in National Geographic by Virgina Hughes.

With that, let’s begin the episode proper.

“At the dawn of the 20th century, Russian scientist, Ivan Pavlov, trained animals through his technique of conditioned reflex” says the narrator as we zoom in on a laboratory with Pavlov and our lovable mouse duo.

“Time to earn your dinner, my little mousey friends!”

It’s interesting how Pinky is the one that flinches uncomfortably at the loud sound of the gong while Brain simply snaps into his conditioned response. And that response? Uhhh…

“I’m a little teapot, short and stout.~”

“This is my handle, this is my spout.~”

(Is he…you know…?)

“When I get all steamed up, hear me shout!~”

“Tip me over and pour me out.~”

Oh no… This is a cute and funny scene and all, but when you know about Brain’s canonical issues with how he hates not being in control of a situation and all the traumas he’s endured (for those of you not in the know, yes, Brain does have a lot of trauma in his backstory that we learn about much later, both in the 90s spin-off and the reboot) regarding both general control and losing family and friends…there’s a bitter tinge to this scene.

He’s so embarrassed and humiliated.

He takes the cheese but he is positively fuming with rage, and I can’t exactly blame him from what I know about him.

This is made all the worse by Pinky’s innocent reaction to Brain’s little song and dance.

“Hahahahaha! Wonderful! Hahaha! EGAD, Brain, I could watch you do that dance all day! Haha, narf!”

For Pinky, this is harmless silliness and he gets to see Brain sing and dance and “have fun”, which is not a usual occurrence. But for Brain? Well...

“You have watched it all day, Pinky. Sixty-one times, to be exact. It’s a conditioned reflex to that infernal gong.”

“I’m powerless to stop it!”

Well, Brain, at the very least it’s not like you were a part of a more inhumane experiment like one regarding, say, learned helplessness or anything. …Oh wait. Whoops. (For those sensitive to animal abuse, I suggest refraining from clicking on the second link, and caution against clicking on the first if even more clinical text descriptions of such would upset you. The third link is spoilers for the reboot.)

All that aside, it seems like it’s Pinky’s turn. He gets the more traditional bell chime for his stimulus.

And the result is him going into an uncontrollable and very enthusiastic Slavic folk dance.

With violent results. I hope you appreciate that last screencap, as the animation goes by so quickly I had a lot of trouble isolating the part where Pinky kicks Brain and he goes flying.

Pinky is all too happy to get a reward of cheese, his favourite food, for doing something that he has no memory of.

“What’cha doin’ over there, Brain?”

“Contemplating your afterlife, Pinky.”

That’s not exactly fair, Brain, you know he has no control over this. To Brain’s credit, though, he doesn’t bop him or anything for kicking him involuntarily.

Pavlov leaves, playfully saying that he hopes the mice dream of cheese tonight, and the mice are immediately down to business.

“At last, he’s gone.”

“Now we can begin our conquest of the world!”

We’re already back to it being “our” conquest of the world, eh?

“Behold my latest creation, Pinky: The Vacuum-o-nator.”

Brain has never been good with naming things, has he? At least, not so far. I wonder if this will continue throughout the franchise?

Pinky is certainly very happy and impressed, though.

“It uses reverse air pressure to vacuum everything toward it.”

You know, I was just about to roast Brain for thinking that making a very odd version of a vacuum cleaner was such a brilliant thing, but then I remembered that this takes place in 1904. The vacuum cleaner as we know it was “invented independently by British engineer Hubert Cecil Booth and American inventor David T. Kenney” in 1901 according to Wikipedia, and portable vacuums were available to the general public starting in 1905.My apologies, Brain, that actually is very impressive.

Although, this all hinges on if the viewer considers episodes that take place in the past and/or at different locations than Acme Labs California to be mere Alternate Universe/What If? stories or Brain and Pinky using some kind of time machine to go to a different place and time for these episodes. (Before you tell me that this is just a cartoon and sicc the Please, Please Get a Life Foundation on me, I do this to have fun and maybe educate myself and the reader along the way. I promise I have a life. Barely.)

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Pinky?”

“Uhh… Yeah, Brain! But where are we gonna find rubber pants our size?”

Pinky, that’s… Listen, folks, don’t make the same mistake I did and google “rubber pants”. It’s not what you think it is. You will be disappointed.

BONK!

Seems like you’re enjoying yourself there, Pinky.

“No, Pinky. We’re going to use the Vacuum-o-nator to steal Russia’s crown jewels!”

Man, the animation for even this one small proclamation by Brain is so, so good. Brain standing authoritatively and holding the pen like a scepter or spear, the grand sweep of his arm as he says “no”, the serious and slightly menacing expression on his face, a violent and grabby swing of his arm on the word “steal”,  and a dramatic point and look up towards the sky when he finishes. TMS does great work, folks.

“Narf! Genius, Brain!”

Look at Brain’s satisfied smile at Pinky’s simple compliment. Remember what I said earlier about Brain going through his explanations to show off to and  impress Pinky? At this point I’m absolutely convinced that that’s why Brain turns up the theatrics more than necessary when going through his plans. After all, Pinky is (oddly and rather sadly) the only one in-universe who thinks Brain is a genius and a good person.

…Of course, the effect can sometimes be lessened by subsequent innocent bumbling.

“Turn it off, Pinky.”

He says this so exasperatedly yet so deadpan at the same time, it’s great.

“Oh! Right-o!”

Even Pinky immediately knows that he fucked up.

“Zort! Whew! Wild hairdo, Brain! Heh heh, I like it.”

He even pets Brain’s “hairdo”, aww. And though I personally could take or leave the ‘do, I like the pointed, sharp look this mishap’s given to his ears.

BONK!

“Now I feel cleansed.”

Okay, this one might have been a little too much, Brain.

“But Brain, aren’t the crown jewels always guarded by giant Cossacks?”

Well, Pinky, from what I know Cossacks were usually used extensively in the police force and as border guards during this time, so I guess that’s possible?

Brain picking the lock with the pen is a fun little detail.

“Don’t worry about the guards… For tonight, Pinky, at precisely 1 am, there’s a total lunar eclipse. “

Again, this is probably not a thing the average person could look up quickly and easily in the 90s and the writers most likely didn’t care about accuracy here, but there were no total lunar eclipses in 1904. There were some penumbral lunar eclipses in March and September of that year, though. Just a fun fact for you folks.

“The Earth’s shadow will completely cover the moon, blacking out all of St. Petersburg for a period of 30 seconds.”

Brain…?!? Brain, how did you get the diagram on that piece of paper to animate like that? What kind of Harry Potter-style magic bullshit is this?

I know this is a cartoon and all and I’m not truly upset but this honestly came out of nowhere and made me do a double-take.

“In that brief time, we will sneak past the Czar’s guards under the cover of darkness and steal the crown jewels…for he who controls the jewels controls Mother Russia!”

More dramatics!

“But…I thought your mother’s name was Désirée?”

I love Brain’s pose here. Very grumpy and sassy.

As for Pinky’s comment: We do get to meet Brain’s parents way later in the spin-off, though neither are addressed by any name. I’m taking this joke as canon anyway because it’s funny.

Well, well, well… Looks like we’re shaking things up a bit with an inking instead of a bonk. That’s gonna be a pain to get out of his white fur, though.

“Soon, Pinky, I will rule Russia…so from now on, call me Czar.”

Another sassy hand-on-hip pose.

“Right-o, Brain!”

“—eek! Czar Brain!”

“Come along, Pinky… Conquest awaits!”

Nice to know that despite the inking, Pinky’s still following him anyway. Plus he’s doing it with that fond look on his face again. Hmm…

What follows is a cute and ingenious sequence of Brain launching Pinky and himself through an open window via the spring force of a mousetrap. It goes by very quickly, but I just wanted to highlight a few things I managed to notice while pausing through it. Kudos to the animators again for these little details.

Pinky’s the one that wraps one arm around Brain’s shoulders so that Brain has both hands free to spring the mousetrap properly and so that they’ll be launched together.

Interestingly enough, Pinky’s the cautious one who braces for impact right away while Brain gleefully flies through the air with his arms outstretched.

The “camera” changes perspective and while Brain is still boldly flying forward with confidence, Pinky is still worried but has now opened his eyes as they fly towards the window.

Pinky’s still holding onto Brain and the Vacuum-o-nator as tight as he can. As they get closer to the window, however…

…Pinky seems to realize he’s going to smash into the wall above the window if he doesn’t let go, so he lets go of Brain. Brain doesn’t realize where his trajectory is taking him.

Pinky angles himself downward and through the open window, but it’s too late for Brain.

WHAM! RIP, Brain.

But his pain is not done! It looks like Pinky’s landing was in the soft snow. Meanwhile, Brain slides down onto the window and through the opening, only to bash into the lid of a garbage can, much to Pinky’s concern.

Then Brain falls headfirst into the snow.

And finally, Brain is clonked on the head by the same garbage can lid, which makes a loud gong noise. Someone get this poor mouse some Aspirin.

But since there was a gong noise, you all know what that means!

Cutely, Pinky joins in on the dance in the middle of it.

“Ha! Oh that was fun, Czar Brain! But let’s give it another go, right? Only this time with feeling!”

Man, that side-eye at the beginning from Brain…

Pinky’s body language is great in this episode, too. The gleeful flapping of his arms and feet and the “with feeling” gesture are fantastic examples of his more open and energetic nature coming through.

Oh hey, there’s that one shot of Brain being ticked off used in the spin-off theme song! I can’t exactly blame him for his anger here. He just went through a lot of pain in a short amount of time and was then involuntarily made to humiliate himself. Pinky doesn’t mean to be mean here—he genuinely wants to have some sing and dance fun with Brain—but it’s gotta sting to have the humiliation highlighted.

Pinky still doesn’t deserve a bonking for it, though. But it’s slapstick, so he’s fine.

Heh, “deliveries to rear” indeed.

Oh, are those jingle bells on a sleigh that I see?

Uh oh…

“No, Pinky… Not now!”

It cannot be stopped, Brain. He must dance!

Another quick detail as Brain launches himself at Pinky’s midsection to either topple him over or hold him still to get Pinky to stop.

Alas, Pinky’s dancing is too strong.

OUCH!

The face of regret.

His punishment is swiftly thwarted, though.

“…That was unpleasant.”

They take a different and more uneventful ride on a hay wagon to the palace.

I love the exaggerated perspective going on here.

Peekin’.

“We made it inside, Brain!”

“…’Czar Brain’.”

“Czar Brain.”

He says it so quietly and sweetly, aww.

“Yes, Pinky. There are fleeting moments when I even amaze myself.”

I…don’t know if it’s much of an accomplishment yet, Brain. Settle that ego down a bit.

Oh, that’s some classic Looney Tunes-style sneaking animation there.

Wait, why is the door to the treasure room just open behind them? Czar Nicolas II, what gives?

Speaking of…

Hello, Czar Nicolas II. I hope you’re enjoying your “eclipse party”. You only have another 14 years or so to live it up, after all.

“In just a few minutes, it’ll be totally dark and scary. OooOOoo!~ But don’t anyone touch me, I have cooties!”

I, uhhh. Okay, then.

Same, boys. Same. Best to get down to business.

“Behold the crown jewels of Mother Russia, Pinky. World conquest will soon be ours!”

Again, world conquest is “ours” and not just Brain’s. Also you can just tell Pinky’s thinking “I’m going to wear so much of this jewelry!”

“Now, Brain?”

“Not yet. Wait for the total eclipse.”

Speaking of…

“Complete darkness, Pinky. Start the Vacuum-o-nator…”

“NOW!”

That gonging noise is an interesting choice for a chime. Surely this ornate clock is only an omen of good things for our duo.

Pinky, you’re swooning again. And Brain…

Oh no.

Another clock! Who’d have thought Russian nobility loved clocks so much? This one has a more pleasant bell chime, though.

…Oh NO!

Well, looks like things are going to hell pretty quickly.

Goodbye, boys.

Goodbye, Czar Nicolas II! You might wanna look out for a man named Grigori Rasputin in the future, okay?

Nice hat, Brain.

“Whu--? The eclipse is over? Narf! What happened, Brain?”

BONK!

“Zort! I mean, Czar Brain.”

“We failed again, Pinky… But just wait until tomorrow night!”

“Why? What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?”

“What else, Pinky?: Try to take over the world!”

It was a nice try, boys, but honestly I don’t know how you were going to fit all those crown jewels into that tiny improvised vacuum bag, anyway.

One last cute little detail in this episode is our mousey duo jumping up with enthusiastic determination in front of the silhouette of the moon on the last note of the theme reprise. One day, you guys. One day…

Oh! And before I forget, have another short cameo from “Plane Pals”. It’s a tiny one.

Pinky and the Brain steal a sheep off of an airplane. For what purpose? Who knows? But that’s it. I’m kind of wondering if the writers wanted to make a running joke of them making cameos to steal random things for world conquering purposes and just sort of gave up.

Anyway, so ends our recap for this post. It sure was a long one, but what can I say? There were some very cute details that needed to be shared. Have we learned anything new this time? Well, I mean, besides historical trivia.

Brain thinks both he and Pinky are great actors, despite his own near inability to lie and keep up an innocent pretense. Oh, he can be sarcastic, sure, but he can’t seem to manage to stop himself from revealing that he’s out for world  domination whenever he has an audience.

For the first time we see Brain’s annoyance and humiliation resulting from him being a lab mouse. Though it’s on the more subtle side at the moment, Brain seemed extra grumpy and violent during that last     episode because of the conditioning he’s unwillingly gone through. I’m     curious to see if there are any more examples of this before we reach an  episode touching on his origin story. Or…one of his origin stories, at     least. There’s around four of them last I checked and all but one of them  can reasonably fit into the others.

Pinky is truly beginning to show how much he adores Brain, which is nice. Beforehand we knew he was down with his world domination plans for whatever reason and also that he thinks Brain’s plans are great and ingenious. Now, though, we’ve gotten to the point of him literally swooning at Brain and his plans. Something’s definitely brewing there.

Next time: We get some more substantial cameos, join our mouse duo on a Fort Knox heist, and meet a new character that is both pretty important to the “lore” of the show going forward…but also doesn’t appear in person after their introductory episode until the very end of the Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain spin-off run.

See you then!

[mikhailoist]

15x06, i have a LOT to say about you.

hello everyone! i’m here with SPOILERS, and my thoughts on tonight’s episode!!! 15x06 was truly my favorite so far this season, and let me tell you why :,)

- as a hardcore rowena stan, i need to start with this: i am very thankful she was given credit for saving the world. i have mad respect for sam for saying that. it wasn’t just “she sacrificed herself for us” -- NO, it was “she sacrificed herself to save the world.” because she did. rowena was more than just a casualty for the winchesters’ manpain. SHE SAVED THE WORLD. SHE DID IT. AND SHE GOT CREDIT FOR IT AND I’M SO, SO HAPPY. it’s what my baby deserves. that’s her legacy now, you guys. not a villain. not just some witch. no, she’s “the most powerful witch of all time” (SAM’S WORDS!!!) and she’s the savior of the world. i love her. i miss her, and i love her, and i’m so, so proud of her.

- and just like, any time sam mentioned rowena in this episode, you can feel it. you know he loved her. i don’t care if you see it as romantic or platonic, but he loved her, truly. and now he’s honoring her memory -- as he should! “i learned that from the best.” YES YOU DID, SAM. YES YOU DID.

- just... witch!sam in general. yes please. *chef’s kiss*

- hunter!cas was so baby. i’m so glad he got to go off on his own for a bit and do his own thing. i love him.

- AND ALSO. when cas was letting his anger out on the cop -- “it’s always the ones in positions of power” -- he was DEFINITELY talking about chuck. yes? am i right??

- and um?? the deancas phone call??? was so totally unexpected???? i was not anticipating ANY interaction between those two tonight and WE GOT ONE. and they were both pouting and acting all grumpy and literally sounded like an old married couple. i hate them. (and i love them.)

- dean & his hot dog pjs <33

- saileen is not my otp but i definitely think they’re so cute together and like?? i totally wasn’t expecting her to actually come back to life but SHE DID AND THEN THAT HUG WAS SO SWEET AND WHOLESOME AND UGH

- badass eileen during the fight scene against the witches... that was fuckin beautiful bro

- every episode you can see dean losing more and more hope and it hurts me. it really does. he’s showing a lot of signs of depression and i just hope things start looking up for him soon :( i miss my baby.

- the end scene :( “we’re the guys who break the rules”... totally reminded me of “we’re the guys who save the world” and now my heart hurts.

- ONE LAST THING. can we talk about the promo? i don’t have screencaps on me, but i’m sure others will upload them soon (& gifs too, probably), but, um, dean is literally standing in front of the bi colors at one point? and, like, i act like a clown A LOT, but i don’t even think i’m grasping at straws at this point... because it was quite LITERALLY the EXACT color scheme of the bi flag... okay... so what if we get dean coming out in 2 weeks......

in conclusion, 15x06 was THAT bitch!

[elodieunderglass]

Hey Elodie. :) so I was reading your moss post and I had a question: you know those algae lights that they want to put everywhere? How does that work? If the CO2 goes to making biomass of a plant, how is algae so good at making O2 when there isn't a ton of it physically? I mean presumably it is pretty good at it cause afaik that's where the O2 on earth came from to begin with?

(in reference to my general grumpiness about people’s claims that moss sequesters more carbon than is physically possible)

To engage with this post, you’ll first need to know that photosynthetic organisms absorb carbon dioxide and break the molecule apart. Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. These organisms keep the carbon atom and release the two oxygen atoms. This is how plants turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. The carbon atom goes into their biomass. Right now, there is too much carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, caused by the burning of carbon, which reacts with oxygen when burned to form carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is making the atmosphere too hot. As our economies depend on burning carbon, people do not want to stop doing it. Many people are now interested in “absorbing the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere” in order to survive on the planet. The problem is, as I point out, that the atoms of carbon have to go SOMEWHERE. Carbon dioxide doesn’t just magically turn into oxygen - the C atom is still there. And when plants break CO2 down, they need to do something with the carbon - they use it to grow. The C atom goes to making the biomass of the plant. If you see a product that claims to use plants to suck enormous amounts of CO2 out of the air (I argue) you should look for the biomass that it will produce. If you can’t see where the carbon went, it’s probably not real.

Anyway! Ah! It’s a good question! but there is a ton of algae physically! And it does make biomass! Lots of it! PLANETS FULL OF IT! It’s its best trick. And it grows very quickly, too. The fact that algae still produce a huge chunk of the oxygen we use today is a big clue to the fact that there is Really Quite A Lot of It. Anyone who has ever had an aquarium can attest to how quickly algae can increase its biomass. That’s where the carbon goes! Into the biomass! That’s where the oxygen comes from! It’s discarded as a product of all that growth! There’s a huge amount of it!

I’m just going to dump this whole quote from a relevant paper here:

There are several reasons for the greater biomass yields of algae versus land plants. Generally, algae have higher photosynthetic efficiency than land plants because of greater abilities to capture light and convert it to usable chemical energy (Melis 2009, Weyer et al. 2010). Under ideal growth conditions algae direct most of their energy into cell division (6- to 12-hour cycle), allowing for rapid biomass accumulation. Also, unlike plants, unicellular algae do not partition large amounts of biomass into supportive structures such as stems and roots* that are energetically expensive to produce and often difficult to harvest and process for biofuel production. In addition, algae have carbon-concentrating mechanisms that suppress photorespiration (Spalding 2008, Jansson and Northen 2010). With algae, all the biomass can be harvested at any time of the year, rather than seasonally. In contrast, only a portion of the total biomass of terrestrial crops (corn cob, soybean seed) is harvested once a year

* this means that instead of slowly growing into a more complicated structure, like plants do, algae just doubles and doubles and doubles. FYI, moss is a plant. algae is not. algae can casually double its mass even caring, and that’s where the carbon goes: literally into LITERALLY doubling the biomass, INCREDIBLY quickly. Moss will not. Moss will grow, become more complicated, and eventually flower - all quite slowly, in comparison.

Anyway, here is a picture from the paper, showing the Biomass. you can see exactly where the carbon is going. There is so much carbon being made here, they’re literally turning it into ... oil?

Yeah... oil. Algae fuel is considered to be a reasonable replacement for fossil fuels. (starting link here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel). Algae fuel is used as reliable gimmick in science fiction, as a renewable fuel that spaceships can generate as they go - the handwaving possibilities are endless: ‘ooh, here’s a thing that takes the waste breath of human crew and makes fuel and oxygen out of it. hurray!’

So you may be like, “oh Elodie, but surely burning carbon-based fuels contributes to climate change, because it releases CO2, so uhhhh why would you bother replacing fossil fuels with a slightly fresher version of the same product?”

and I’m like “YEAH I KNOW RIGHT? the argument is that because algae removes the CO2 from the air, and burning the oil releases the same amount of CO2, it’s argued that it’s a carbon-neutral fuel. the carbon goes in, the carbon goes out. The algae puts it into the atmosphere and it takes it back out. it’s always the same carbon.”

WHICH. THE MATH CHECKS OUT, BUT I DON’T LIKE IT. The argument for developing algae fuels is that the math works out as carbon-neutral, and that it reduces reliance on the oil industry and its geopolitics, as every nation on Earth can easily grow and refine their own oil. BUT I STILL DON’T LIKE IT.

Anyway, the trick here is to look for the biomass. In the diagram above, YOU CAN SEE WHERE IT IS. The carbon goes from the carbon dioxide into the algae, where it can be made into carbon-based fuel. The carbon is THERE. it is FOUND. The peer-reviewed, heavily researched industry is so confident in the math, and the carbon, and the physical laws of photosynthesis that algae can genuinely be called a carbon-neutral fuel. The carbon has been AUDITED. the mass is KNOWN.

So what about those “algae lamps that [THEY] want to put everywhere?” I know exactly what you’re talking about. They are glowing street lamp things full of algae and they have the amazing claim of “fixing as much carbon dioxide as 200 trees.”

Those appear to be bullshit. Sorry.

However, on Tumblr, you will find a lot of posts about the algae lamps. I know. I’ve seen them. And I really wanted to believe in them! I may have even reblogged one! But then I just couldn’t find any more evidence about them. And neither could these science bloggers who tried to track down ANY ANSWERS AT ALL in 2012, https://www.citylab.com/life/2012/04/streetlight-powered-algae-actually-possible/1854/ and again in 2015. https://www.zmescience.com/science/biology/the-green-algae-street-lamps-that-suck-up-co2/

The algae were reported on in 2012 and 2013 as a funky startup invention, but apparently, only one lamp was ever made. The inventor, an utterly obscure man known as Pierre Calleja, does not appear to have a scholarly record and his scientific qualifications are a bit murky. A few scientists appeared to have asked, “Since algae grows so quickly, what will you do when they overgrow the container/ block the light?” and “Anyone who has maintained an aquarium know that removing the algae - even if you want algae! is part of maintenance; won’t these require a huge amount of maintenance?” and there was no answer. There was definitely no peer-reviewed research. The claim of “fixing as much carbon as 200 trees” (by generating equivalent biomass) cannot be backed up because all of the actual materials have disappeared from the web. The TED talk he did is gone. The startup has vanished. The website is gone. Considering that it attracted millions of dollars of investments, that’s sad news for stakeholders, but normal for a startup based on an idea easily blocked by the question, “don’t you need to clean it.”

Calleja reappeared in the news in 2017, having left the lamp startup (the article has some explanations - apparently the issue was ‘finance people’) and now he wants to make vegetarian smoked salmon out of algae. https://thefishsite.com/articles/algae-can-spearhead-a-culinary-revolution So I think it’s fair to say that the lamps didn’t work and aren’t going anywhere and have disappointed a lot of people and wasted a lot of money. However, I like his new project better. It’s obvious where the biomass is going. It’s going into the fake meat! Carry on, Pierre!

“They” are not going to put them “everywhere” because there is no secret panel of “Them” who, like, Decide Things. There was one inventor, a few reporters who talked about him, no scientific research, no marketable product was ever created, and now the creator is trying to generate fish. Just because that post has 6 bajillion notes on Tumblr doesn’t mean it’s real.

(It’s a bit awkward because two of the science communicators who reported on the lamps are friends of mine, and I know that they simply reported on it in good faith as an interesting bit of pop news, based on the now-vanished TED talk. The tumblr post in the screencap claims its source as Jess’s 2012 snippet from the Grist, which was just meant to be a cheerful description of a cool Youtube video of Pierre Calleja’s TED talk... which has now vanished from the internet entirely. She wasn’t reporting on research, just pointing out a cool video. But yeah, the ‘‘‘‘‘source’‘‘‘‘‘‘ for the Tumblr post we’ve all seen is ... literally just my friend, mentioning a cool TED talk she saw. in 2012. Which is now gone. Because the startup folded with its tail between its legs. And people are using it as a ‘source’, which I don’t think is fair!)

[saleintothe90s]

399. The “Cats” round up

This week was Halloween, and this year I went as Jemima from Cats. Why did I decide on this costume? Well, seeing the trailer (and H3H3′s reaction to it) for the scary 2019 movie with those basic b’s Taylor and James made me want to see the original Cats, the good Cats. 

You can watch most of the direct to VHS 1998 edition on YouTube in parts. So far, its the only musical that doesn’t bore me to tears, even if the scenes where they perform a play for Old Deuteronomy makes no sense. 

You know what Cats sorta reminds me of, that old PBS show Zoobilee Zoo, especially Victoria the white cat, she reminds me of the pink kangaroo lady. 

Cats came to New York City in October of 1982 after beginning a successful run in London. It was announced at the end of 1981 that the musical would be coming to New York:

Anticipation was so great that copies of T.S. Eliot’s original work was selling out: 

(I’m mad I can’t find this commercial)

Tickets for the show were sold months in advance, with many bulk orders: 

More than six months before opening night, the Fresh Air Fund had already bought 500 seats. The Arthritis Foundation purchased 300 tickets, the Archives of American Art bought 300, and the American Red Cross bought 500 seats. Then there was the Burden Center for Aging with 300, University Settlement with 200 and the Social Service Big Sister League with 500 seats. Those are just a handful among many, but by the time ''Cats'' opened on Broadway last week such orders added up to $6.2 million in advance ticket sales. Of that sum, $4.5 million had already been collected, with only $1.7 million in contracts still to be paid in full. This could be the largest advance sale in Broadway history, according to many theater analysts. Orders began to come in more than a year before ''Cats'' - a big hit in London - finally arrived in New York, and tickets are now being sold as far in advance as next May. 2

The musical debut was also supposed to be a cover story in Newsweek, but the Tylenol murders prevailed. 2 

Someone defaced the copy at archive.org. 

I somehow found the cover though. I wonder if this was for Canada? There are people on sketchy websites selling this as a print? The library bound Newsweek from archive.org has the Tylenol cover. I believe the woman on the bottom row, right is Janet Hubert, who played Aunt Viv the first on Fresh Prince. In Cats, she played Tantomile in the first Broadway cast. 

(I made screencaps of the Newsweek article and uploaded the screencaps to the mirror site on wordpress)

As you may have noticed these Cats from the early 80s are kind of scary looking. There are several videos on YouTube of the cast performing at the 1983 Tony Awards, and there is this cat that is absolutely terrifying: 

It’s the one who sings “can you see in the dark?!”.  I think its Demeter, and Marlene Danielle is playing her? Marlene was an originally an understudy in 1982 and eventually played Bombularina until the end of Cats’ run on Broadway in 2000. 

Here she is on Today in 1999 discussing the role and she also performs “Macavity”.

The cats of Cats became so popular in the 1980s that they were even in a No Smoking commercial. 

And a seat buckle/child seat PSA! This one is really dark, I mean Memory plays at the end. 

In 1984, Rum Tum Tugger became the star of his own music video. 3 I don’t know how often MTV played this--maybe it played more overseas. I remember my choir teacher in high school, Ms. Forrest showing us a VHS once of music videos from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals, and she said that they were popular in the UK and shown on MTV over there. All I remember is a Phantom of the Opera remix and Requiem sung by his ex-wife. 

By 1987, Celine Dion (who was still a music star in Canada, but not yet America, and sung mostly in French) sang Memory on TV. 

In this clip from the short lived America’s Talking channel (later to become MSNBC) a reporter asks the cats what they did on their snow day during the 1996 blizzard. I can’t confirm this, but he says that it was the first time the show had ever been canceled. This reporter is peak 1996 in mens clothes with his bomber jacket and tie. 

By June of 1997, Cats broke the record previously held by A Chorus Line of longest running show on Broadway:

Along the way to its longevity record, which applies just to Broadway shows, ''Cats'' has piled up some big numbers. It has provided employment to 231 actors, two of whom, Marlene Danielle and Susan Powers, have been with the musical since it opened. (Nineteen cast members have died.) The magical tire that carries Grizabella heavenward has clocked more than 114 miles in its nightly voyage to the Heaviside Layer. ''Memory,'' the show-stopping song that ends the first act, has been recorded by more than 180 artists. The New York production has used more than 1.5 million pounds of dry ice and 2,706 pounds of yak hair for wigs. It has sold 390,000 T-shirts, 130,000 sweat shirts, 147,000 lapel pins and 1.14 million souvenir books. 1

Also, in 1997 an audience member because she thought Rum Tum Tugger was too aggressive with her. 

Related: 

Original review from The New York Times

Reading Rainbow segment on Cats

Another Reading Rainbow segment on Cats, similar to the first.

Stars of the Original Cats Share Their Favorite Memories

Los Angeles news segment series on the L.A. Production of Cats. 

Almost every time our boy David Letterman brought up Cats. 

The Cast of CATS (2016) Meets Shelter Cats | Cats the Musical

EVENT CAPSULE CLEAN - Grumpy Cat Visits The Broadway Cast of 'Cats' Facebook | Etsy | Retail History Blog | Twitter | snapchat (thelastvcr) |YouTube Playlist| Random Post | Instagram @ thelastvcr | other tumblr | Ko-fi donation | Honey Referral

1, Grimes, William, “ With 6,138 Lives, 'Cats' Sets Broadway Mark,” New York Times, June 19, 1997. https://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/19/theater/with-6138-lives-cats-sets-broadway-mark.html

2. Bennetts, Leslie, “ HOW TICKETS TO 'CATS' BECAME A 'MUST',” New York Times, October 13, 1982. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/13/theater/how-tickets-to-cats-became-a-must.html

3. Kaplan, Peter W., “TV NOTES; BROADWAY FIRST: 'CATS' DOES ROCK VIDEO TURN,” New York Times, November 10, 1984.  https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/10/theater/tv-notes-broadway-first-cats-does-rock-video-turn.html

[fuckyeahculmets]

Countdown to Culmets Week 2019: mod’s favorite scenes - #10

“Hugh and I fell in love after I told him to get lost.”  “That doesn’t make any sense.”  “Well, love isn’t logical.” 

It’s probably safe to say that this little scene sparked inspiration in the Culmets fandom like few others. Episode 7 of season 1, Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad, is still one of, if not the most popular episode of Discovery so far — and rightfully so. A bottle episode in between the heavy plot of season one, a classic Trek storyline complete with a time loop and the ship in jeopardy, great character moments and an excellent mix of humor, action, drama, and technobabble. And in the middle of all this, we have Paul trying to save the day, asking Michael for help, and then taking a moment to breathe, and dancing with her in the middle of the hallways of Discovery, where he encourages her by telling the story of how he and his ”dear doctor” met. 

To be honest, I have lost track of how many versions and imaginings of this first meeting I have read, from canon-compliant to complete AUs, and yet I’ll never get tired of it. Close your eyes and you can probably see the scene play out vividly inside your head: Paul being his typical, persnickety, grumpy self, complaining about a stranger’s humming attempt of questionable quality (of a music genre that he hates, no less), only to be surprised by said stranger — Hugh — getting up and sitting down right by his side. And thus, both of them were charmed by the other. 

“I told him how I really felt. And he did the same. And we liked that about each other.” 

Not only was this a cute little piece of backstory, it also gave us a little more insight into both of them as individual characters, as well as their relationship. Paul is as blunt and direct as we’ve grown to love him, not bothering to sugarcoat his words if he doesn’t feel like he has (or wants) to. 

And Hugh? I guess you could say that he likes a challenge. Wilson Cruz himself has gone on record and said that specifically, Hugh loves Paul not despite his prickly attitude, but because of it. 

“Never hide who you are. That’s the only way relationships work.” 

Most importantly, as Paul emphasizes, they both value honesty and openness. In fact, it’s precisely what drew them towards each other. Be yourself, he advises Michael, and eventually you will meet someone who likes the “you” that you truly are — which is also reminiscent of something Anthony quoted once: “There is only one you for all time; fearlessly be yourself.” It also makes you wonder if, when he says that’s the only way that relationships work, he speaks from experience, if he has been in relationships before Hugh that didn’t work out precisely because of that. 

One more thing this scene revealed to us about Paul, and especially about his relationship with Michael, is how willing he is to actually let other people into his world once the ice is broken. This seems like a quiet contrast to his rude and reserved behavior when we were first introduced to him, but also to the spore-high Paul that we saw in the previous episode or even at the beginning of this one. Like peeling back the layers, one by one, we’re starting to see Paul’s true self shining through: Not just a passionate scientist with a strong moral compass, but a compassionate friend who lifts up and comforts the people he cares about. 

- mod a

Join us in the Culmets Celebration Week, which runs from 14 - 20 October 2019 and will highlight all the various creative contributions of this fandom. It is open to everyone who wants to participate. 

From now until 20 August 2019 we are accepting your suggestions for prompts and themes, which you can submit here! 

(screencaps source) 

[calliecat93]

Top 5 Likes of Red vs Blue: Season 1

(Top 5 Dislikes)

Alrighty, the first Dislikes post is up. Which even calling those things Dislike is stretching it, to be honest. So let’s get to the Likes! Which there s honestly a lot to like in this season. Even though the Blood Gulch seasons are my least favorite and as a saga it’s just barely over Freelancer, these seasons are very endearing. I always enjoy going back over them, and I’m glad to be able to talk about a few of the reasons why. So let’s get to it~

#5. Early Installment Weirdness

You know everything I listed on that Dislikes list? That’s all due to Early Installment Weirdness. That essentially means things early on were quite strange when you compare it to a show’s current standard. It’s only natural that a show needs time to find it’s footing and not everything will work out or be done well. Especially for a webseries like this made by a bunch of video game nerds for what was originally planned for a miniseries, but the more ideas they got, the longer it went. So as I said, many of these things are very forgivable.

Plus, like I also said on that list, these things make the show endearing. The Blood Gulch Chronicles are very comedic driven compared tot he later seasons that are plot-driven. Things like the amateur voice acting, the weird stuff like the afterlife, and even the audio quality adds to the charm. It’s this weird show being made via a video game by some video game nerds. It feels like a newcomer’s indie project… which I guess it kinda is. And while machinima has been around before this, no one quite did it like how RvB did it. These things, as well as the other things I’ll get to soon, just help make it stand out.

Plus, if anything, it helps show how far we’ve come. Every dislike I listed has been improved. The voice acting is stellar, the audio is much better, the characterizations are stronger, and while there are still the occasional continuity issues many of them have gotten reasonable explanations. It’s fun to go back and see the lesser developed parts. You don’t feel annoyed with it, you have fun watching it not just because it’s funny, but because we’ve seen the evolution of the show. We can have fun with the older stuff, and that’s a great thing. It’s why I think these things should be celebrated, not mocked. I only put them on a Dislikes list out of necessity, but I love these things. I don’t want them to go back to it cause production standards are higher, but I’ll always enjoy revisiting it.

#4. Church Dies

Okay maybe phrasing it like that is kinda mean, but it is what happened so…

So I knew this was coming because Ten Little Roosters had this fact as a joke in Episode 2. But despite knowing about it, it was still a surprise to me. I mean they killed a main character? In Episode 7? And the character of the creator to boot?! Wow, that is ballsy. But the part I didn’t know about was that Church came back as a ghost. I guess I should have known since I had seen people talking about Church and he was still listed as a main character on Wikipedia when I was looking up stuff about the show. But tbf I didn’t know he died this soon or that it was only the first time.

It was certainly a thing that took me by surprise. Especially since IIRC, Burnie hadn’t planned on doing it. He just came up with it since I guess at this point they knew it was going to go for longer than intended. Honestly knowing that a lot of this season was made up on the spot explains a lot of the weirder stuff like the afterlife scene… anyways! Yeah, it was something that legit shocked me. The ghost thing confused me for the longest time, but I was just glad to have Church around soon since he has easily become my favorite (sorry Grif, it wasn’t always you…) and this one on the spot decision? It lead to some of the best parts of RvB. BOth comedically and once it was time to become more plot-driven, it made some of the best drama and lead to my favorite saga in the show with Recollection. It’s a minor thing, hence hwy it’s at 4, but it lead to so much more and I love it~

#3. The Tex Twist

Adding Tex to this season was a great move. For one it allowed a lot of great things for later, like the Freelancers and the plot after Blood Gulch. Even before all the Freelancer stuff came out, having these agents who were pretty much paid mercenaries added plenty of potential for stories and even comedy down the road. It also helped that we had someone who was actually competent among the main cast, adding an actual threat level. Not to mention she has a very blunt sense of humor that helps her stand out despite being the only female character aside from Shelia.

Heck, making Tex be Church’s ex-girlfriend was a great move. It adds something a little more personal and also helps Church’s character. He was the grumpy, snarky one among the Blues and then he died not even halfway through. But this helps give him another dimension as a character since he clearly still cares about Tex and wants to free her of the AI. Sure he’s still grumpy, being dead will do that to anyone, but he showed some competence once Tex got captured and again still cared about her. Tex’s bluntness and non-caring attitude about these things as well as owning her bitch-like personality helped her not just be ‘the girl’ either. She’s the competent one, but she isn’t just there cause she was Church’s girlfriend. She’s tough, takes no shit from anyone, but she never really gets annoyed or exasperated by the others either. Her straightforward personality is not only funny, but lets her shine as her own character and the later seasons only help.

While IDR if Tex was planned, her being Church’s girlfriend I remember Burnie saying was not. This is kind of a precursor to something I always admired about the show, taking small things and weaving them into the story. Like taking the joke that the teleporter turns armor black and the Blues using that to their advantage to trick the Reds. You almost can’t tell that this wasn’t going to be nineteen episodes cause they did so well finding ways to extend the story by using what they had. Tex is a perfect example of this. Not just because of later, but even for this season it added some more humor, added to her character when she could have easily been this standard tough guy, and also helped Church’s character. It’s probably the best decision that Burnie made for this season, and I’m glad that he did.

#2. Character Interactions

On Dislikes, I talked about how the characters were not very fleshed out. This, as well as the show being machinimated, meant that the comedy and dialogue had to be really good. Fortunately, that was by far the thing that they nailed most in this season. As I said while the characters aren’t fleshed out, they /do/ still have character. Heck Burnie basing them off the people he cast was a very good mood in this regard. People like Gus and Geoff have known each other for years, for example. So this made for a lot of natural character chemistry and a lot of really good interactions. I mean people love having Grif and Simmons together for a reason. They just play off of each other so freakin’ well..

The interactions and dialogue are really good and even funny. Sure sometimes maybe they dragged a joke out a little too much. Like when Church was starting to talk about Sidewinder and Caboose kept interrupting, you just wanted Caboose to shut up so Church could get to the point. But at the same time, Caboose’s interruptions and Church’s annoyance felt so natural and funny. Or how Grif and Simmons messed with Donut and tricked him to get headlight fluid, and everything that led to. Not only were the contrivances funny, but the characters just bounced off each other so well. They didn’t need to be deep in this season because they all balanced each other out so well, which is pretty key when it comes to comedies.

I think that this is what allowed the show to thrive. People didn’t mind the machinima or how bizarre things got because we liked seeing these characters together. We enjoyed seeing them bicker and them getting themselves into something stupid. The dialogue was funny, the jokes, while some could drag, were timed well, and it just felt so natural. Despite most of the cast recording from different parts of the country (and in Gus’ case another country), you wouldn’t know it going off the interactions. It just worked very well and is very much what helped the show endure for this long, and it’s something I don’t feel has ever faltered even at it’s lowest point. That is saying a lot I think.

#1. Memorability

“Hey?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?

You already heard the voices the second you saw the screencap, let’s be real. You look at Season One, and it’s clear that it’s not exactly a cinematic masterpiece. It’s made by people who had no idea what they were doign. Everything is pretty amateur. The comedy, while good, is pretty much aimed more at middle/high schoolers and some probably would not pass today. I know if I tried to watch the show when it came out when I was nine years old, my mom probably would have banned me from it. So then… why did it succeed?

Like I said, it’s flaws and character interactions made it endearing. There’s a lot in this season that we still remember. ‘Why are we here’ is the most obvious one, but this led to so much. Church being a ghost got us Recollection. Tex got us Project Freelancer. There are so many quotable moments, like Tucker’s Voltron line or picking up chicks in a tank. Moments like the first scene, Church’s death, Tex’s arrival, Donut’s pink armor/awesome throwing arm. We always remember these things. We always end up going back to Season One in one way or another. Sure, some stuff is jarring, but we don’t care. 

Season One is just fun. No one knew that it would lead to one of the longest-running webseries made, including RT themselves. I mean this allowed RT to exist period. It’s just got so many moments that we remember and still quote to this day. Even the show will call back to several moments. I mean how many ways have they incorporated ‘why are we here’ into the show now? Not only is it still funny, but it shows how far we’ve come since. We wouldn’t have the rest or RvB or anything else we enjoy from RT without this season. As such, I think that it’s memorability and just general existence is the best part about it, and is my pick for Top Like of Season One~!

Okay, one season down. Fourteen more to go. Thank you for reading everyone~! This is done, but I’m just getting started! So stay tuned for Season Two~!

[meimi-haneoka]

That whole song sequence (Sung by Syaoran's voice actress) was a treat in episode 57. He started off grumpy when Sakura met up with him, Eriol and Tomoyo. Throughout the song, we saw Syaoran observe Sakura's behavior (Because that's what he does best. LOL!) and it was like a castle gate slowly coming down, inviting vulnerability inside. That smile was his acceptance that he loved Sakura. Of course, there was the part where Eriol put him on blast for the teddy bear he bought.

I’m sorry, I had to put the whole sequence here because it’s sooooo damn cute!!It’s exactly as you said. A slow acceptance of the realization he had in the day(s) before this double date. He was in love with Sakura, indeed. And the way he smiled in the last screencap really felt like a castle gate coming down and accepting the vulnerability, and together with it, Sakura herself (very well put, I loved your figure of speech!).

I have more to say about this whole sequence of episode 57, so forgive me if I take the chance of this ask to ramble about it. I’ve never realized it while I watched and re-watched this episode when I was younger, but now that I understand a bit more of the directing choices in anime in general, and thanks to a tweet I saw somewhere (I’m sorry I don’t really remember whom it was from but I’m thankful for the epiphany), I actually can see what they did there, with the leaves and all.

Syaoran is the jagged leaf (I still couldn’t recognize exactly what kind of leaf is, is there any expert out there?), a perfect representation of his personality: rough around the edges, gruff, not really soft at first impact but the color is warm, very warm.

Sakura is the ginkgo biloba leaf, with rounded edges, of a bright yellow color, the symbol of resilience and energy.

We can see throughout the song how, whenever Syaoran appears, there’s a jagged leaf related to him, and a ginkgo leaf symbolizing Sakura. This is consistent throughout the song, and even earlier in the episode there’s the depiction of a lot of autumn leaves.So, we can often see these two kind of leaves appearing together as a frame to the scenes of the song, or overlapping eachother, like symbolizing the way Syaoran and Sakura interact and have influence on eachother, in this episode in particular it’s all about what kind of effect Sakura has on Syaoran.

This particular frame speaks volumes to me now. It’s certainly something kids wouldn’t understand at that time, but an older audience with a bit of knowledge can see how the ginkgo leaf, falling on the water, produces a ripple that expands until arriving to touch the jagged leaf. That’s the effect Sakura is having on Syaoran, making ripples in his square, structured life and overturning it. I just love it.

The very same happens here, and it’s even more straightforward, when they show us all the sides of Sakura, and the ripples embrace and make the jagged leaf sway on the water. I’m so in love with this imagery.

Here it is, same jagged leaf, with a Syaoran fully embracing and accepting his crush for Sakura. He’s kinda calmer now, but we all know his struggles have just barely begun, lol! (Thankfully they will all be well repaid!)

Gotta love director Asaka and the staff for the work on this episode, which is one of the most iconic ones of the old anime.