#i've nearly 100%-ed it and i love it

[into-the-linkverse]

echoes of wisdom, man.

the treatment of zelda as a protagonist in this game is wonderfully done. they don't call attention to the fact that "oh it's zelda this time!" or do the whole "a woman!?! >:O" thing. they just...go along like normal. it's great. hyrule just doesn't care about gender (or class status, apparently) and i love that.

[aachria]

EXAMS ARE FINALLY OVER FUCK YEAH 🗣

I did good in everything im pretty sure!! Except geography. When i tell you i did not write a single word. I just left the page blank. But i did good in everything else!! And since im officially free to do wtv without worrying abt school i thought i could share some of my - not so much theories but kore like predictions and thoughts and stuff.

Okay so basically first of all im rlly curious to meet rayleigh cuz ive been wondering how much grunkle has affected the roger pirayes beyond what we saw.

Also im like convinced that ed is gonna end up on that execution stand. Or they get send to be with grunkle during the timeskip which would be really interesting to see.

Im also curious of if marineford will happen at all but everything with Ace seems too peaceful and we haven't called him in a bit so. Ed is not nearly as important as ace in the eyes of the marines but they are somewhat related to a lember of Roger's crew and they're wanted and a supernova so im feeling ed might replace ace if just for the fact i want to see Luffy tell Boa he needs to save his spouse. It would be very funny written from you im sure.

Ed will most definitely end up in a desperate looking situation in which they're almost enslaved. The foreshadowing in chap 104 was real and it will happen.

Ph also i made ed in gacha life 2 so

I'M PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!! I almost failed geography at school. I never learned t he rock cycle. But also the only high school class I've ever passed with 100% was travel and tourism, which I mostly attribute to my psychotic ass learning every single country in Europe and Africa and intimidating my teacher with my talent. So.

I LOVE RAYLEIGH. GUYS I LOVE RAYLEIGH SO MUCH. He was so much fun to write goddamnit I adore that old man. Also GRUNKLE??? We're calling him GRUNKLE NOW??????

Whaaaat? Would I put Ed on an execution stand?? Would I do that??? And me putting Ed in desperate situations and using foreshadowing? Doesn't sound like me at all.

Also Ed is such a cutie patootie that's adorable.

[we1ghtlesswinter]

i think it's interesting how my ed has changed as i've gotten older. when i was 14, the goal was essentially to starve myself to death. i loved thinspo of people who were clearly very sick; we used to call it bonespo, and i honestly doubt many of the girls in those photos are still alive. i would fast until i couldn't anymore and then binge so intensely that i caused real damage to my stomach. i nearly flunked out of high school and barely graduated, then did nothing except work part time at burger king for a year. i was a zombie with no ambition except to achieve a body that was actively dying.

i got covid in june of 2020 and had to take several rounds of steroids. i gained over 100 pounds, totally out of my control, and it caused a death-spiral in my mind that brought me to the brink. i brought myself to the hospital and spent a month inpatient, changing up my meds until i found something that worked for me. i was lucky to have a psychiatrist who believed that i had an ed despite the fact that i wasn't underweight.

now that i'm officially in my late 20s, and i have the lifesaving clarity of adulthood and the proper cocktail, i know i want to live. i still want to be thin, but my ugw is a bmi of 18, not 15. i eat every day - i don't have a choice if i want to be a functional adult and not an empty shell dependent on my parents. eds are closely linked to ocd, and i have been diagnosed with both. neither disorder ever really leaves you, but you have to learn to live around it or it'll consume you from the inside out.

the progress from "my plan is to whittle myself down to nothing and then die young and skinny" to "my plan is to use an aggressive but safe calorie deficit to shape a body i can both love AND survive in" may not seem like healing, but everyone here knows how much that shift means. do i still deal with obsessive thoughts? do i compulsively look at thinspo? do i sometimes take several steps backwards and have a bad few weeks? sure. but i'm not dying anymore. i'm alive. i have goals. i have hope.

if you're currently in the state that 14-year-old me lived in, if you're young and sad and overwhelmed, and if you feel like the only way to find happiness is to construct a a body that looks as unhealthy as you feel, please know i get you. 14 years ago, at the height of tumblr's ana community, i was you. it hurts. it sucks. it feels like the right thing to do in the moment. but i'm begging you to do one thing for me: i want you to make it to adulthood by any means necessary. i know you're not gonna stop, because you're young, and being young sucks. you don't have any freedom or control over your daily life. i won't tell you to give up your restriction and magically start eating healthy. but i will beg you to just... make it. get through it alive.

live long enough to actually ENJOY the body you're suffering so horribly for.

[ygodmyy20]

Okay I finally am getting around to this post! It's the 'Fuck how can mob psycho help me in so many ways god damnit I hate and love this show' post!

Shigeo joining the body improvement club, and everything about this part of his story is so personal to me. I just have to talk about it.

So as we all know at the start of the story, Shigeo joins the body improvement club to impress Tsubomi. Thats it. Thats the goal. He also joins because he wants to get stronger and not rely on his psychic powers but really like...the main reason is to impress her.

And this isn't new. A character wanting to get fit, lose weight, change some physical part of themselves for a crush is SO common in stories that you barely notice it.

But what I love, what I ADORE is how this progresses and changes.

This gif from an amazing AMV by @thekagepro24 and it just UGH hits me so hard it is so perfect!!! I could watch this 5 second gif over and over and over again

I just am. I just am dying while running, I just am making progress, I just am enjoying this because I really like it.

This puts everything I feel into visuals (it's so gooooood watch the AMV!!! DO IIIIIIT)

So many times society tells us to change something about ourselves, or we tell ourselves to change for the appeal of others.

Lose weight so people think you're pretty.

Get fit so you can get into clothes that make you look hot.

Get swol to make a person think you're attractive.

You are the one and only you, this is your one and only body. So why are you working out, why do you WANT to get "swol" who are you trying to impress. Is it for yourself? A crush? Society?

I have battled with the above for so long. I come from an athletic background, and did a lot of sports growing up, but I have never been small. I have battled with weight my whole life and had my own shitty bouts with ED.

I have been in therapy, I have read books, I have watched videos, I've been in and out of PT for nearly 5 years because of a lower back and hip pain that NEVER went away.

I never figured out WHY i wanted to exercise. It just always was "To lose weight" because I couldn't get that goal out of my head for years and years and years.

But then I watched mob psycho 100.

And I started a new type of physical therapy.

And was it mp100 or was it the therapy finally working, who can say which did it—probably both—but one day I thought...

....maybe I should just go for a run...for 5-10 mins. Just to see how it feels. It went against all parts of my athlete brain (because 10 mins is too short to see "gains"....which is dumb but whatever)

I thought of Shigeo and how he basically passed out every time he ran for like 2 mins, but he got better. He had to start from 0, well...kinda like negative 5 really. But then he was doing so much not even a few months in!

35 pushups is so hard!!! You go my boi.

Shigeo started off doing it all for Tsubomi, for others, and even if he really wanted to do it to improve himself I think it was a secondary goal initially. Main goal was to impress someone. Secondary was to get stronger.

But then the marathon happened. And those goals SWITCHED! DURING THE RACE! just....man it hit me. It hit me hard. THAT WHOLE EPISODE IS JUST A LOT FOR ME GOD DAMN

He ran for her initially but he continued running for himself. He continued working at it because he wanted to and in the end, after everything, after confession arc, after all that

This scene!!! makes me cry happy tears!! look at how happy he is UGH IT JUST IS SO UGGGHHHHHHH

Anyway if you made it this far, know that everyones journey through their body improvement, mental improvement, emotional improvement is different. We all have to tackle it in the way that works for us.

It took me nearly 10 years to start again because of this beautiful anime connecting the right dots in my brain.

Every journey is different, but just keep fighting on and you'll figure it out!

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Good news, everyone! Excellent news. It turns out Ed Night is good at stand-up comedy. I have been waiting several years now to find this out, suspected but with no way to confirm it. But now I can finally say, I have found a way to artistically justify my decision to watch Roast Battle. Wouldn't have heard of Ed Night otherwise as he's not been on anything else I've seen, and therefore I wouldn't have have seen a very good stand-up show last night. Success! It was all worth it!

Anyway, yesterday was probably my most perfectly planned day if this festival. Look at this:

What a solid few hours. Kept exiting the venues and then going right back in, didn't have to travel anywhere, and four really really strong shows in a row. Eleanor Morton's took a little while to get going and at first I was a bit disappointed in it, but it really built up from a routine about seeing the Edinburgh Fringe as an Edinburgh native, then just kept going, second half better than the first and I loved it by the end.

The other 3 were pretty well perfect, all 3 of them. I'm so glad I saw Sarah Keyworth, after almost skipping them because I saw it filmed for Access Festival. Firstly, it was more than good enough to be worth seeing in person even though I'd heard the material before, same as Nish Kumar and Tom Ballard. Secondly, it's been 8 months and a major Australian championship win since I saw the show, obviously the material has developed. It was so, so much fun to actually see.

As was Laura Davis, they're another one who's so compelling it's just worth getting into the room to experience it up close. This started strong but was another one that really built and by the end was... look, I try to be very sparing with a word like "Kitsonian" and not just compare anything good to him, but that was all I could think of with the way they got complex and poetic in throwing everything in the show back at us at the end. Reminded me of the ending of Impotent Fury of the Privileged pr Something Other Than Everything, in the best way (not in a "Laura was being unoriginal" way, Kitson doesn't talk nearly this much about dead birds so safe to say they carved their own territory). And Tom Ballard was also doing stuff I'd heard before but it sure was worth being in the room for that. Being in the room made me both enjoy it even more, and better understand why a different person might dislike it so strongly. A divisively shouty presence.

I even managed to briefly speak to Tom Ballard after the show, if nothing else just to prove to myself that I could, after the disaster of last week. And it went okay! I wasn't smooth by any means, stuttered at the ground about how I loved his show in Montreal last year and thought this one was even better and big fan of his older specials too and all his stuff, and I absolutely could not look at him while I spoke, but I think I managed to make the words I was saying understood. Managed to sound like a very nervous person who likes him, rather than whatever I sounded like when I met Kitson last week, which was nothing, because I could not remember any words. So I'm glad I managed that improvement. He was very nice, asked me my name, said he appreciated it, a sort of amusing contrast to the on-stage shoutiness.

Then I ran off to the Assembly Rooms to see Josie Long's husband (if the genders were reversed it would be problematic to define her by her relationship to him but I'm pretty sure it's fine this way around, also I'm not 100% sure they're actually married) meticulously document the destruction of arts funding and the NHS across 14 years of Tory rule, via the medium of a musical performed in what appeared to be a circus tent. That's what we some to the Fringe for, isn't it? That is exactly what I wanted out of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was a lot of fun.

Then back to the Monkey Barrel to see Ed Night, a guy I'd been Googling ever since I saw him on Roast Battle in 2021, convinced that I like this guy and I just need him to release something so I can see to prove it. I've said several times on this blog that I'm supporting his career like it's a sports team, wanting him to get big just so I can see his stuff from Canada. He didn't so I had to go to him, and finally, decision to watch an awful thing like Roast Battle has been justified! I found Ed Night out of it! Seriously I thought he was fantastic, dark and sharp and packed with jokes that you could miss if you didn't pay attention because they fit so clearly into the narrative. And it helped that it was my sort of thing in terms of subject matter, he covered OCD and queer identity and some political stuff and the frustrating mental health system, talked shit about content creator algorithms. At one point he got a Pokemon reference into what I think was a suicide joke - how perfectly tailored to my comedy taste is that? He also picked some more specific targets, like (spoiler alert, I guess, spoiler alert for everything on my blog all the time) going after Tom Binns for a while, earning every bit of that edgy material (edgy, to be clear, just because it's an intense topic to bring up - he didn't try edgily defending him or anything) by being very funny about it.

He hung out somewhere in the general vicinity (not nearly as far, but the vicinity is still impressive) of Dan Rath levels of presenting himself as a fucked up low status character (though it didn't seem like a that much of a character). I remember seeing someone compare his stuff to Frankie Boyle once, which I think is apt, though more personal than I've heard Frankie Boyle get, and obviously not as developed in the craft, but it was that level of dark. I also think Chortle robbed him, with only 3.5 stars, given some of the stuff that's got 4. I'm just relieved that he was good. I got so invested in the idea of him being good, based on so little. Picked one non-famous comedian, several years ago, to decide I bet that guy is good, based on about 8 minutes of the TV show Roast Battle. And it was by no means a guarantee that I'd like him. I feel like this blog must make it seem as though I like pretty much all comedy because I mainly write about stuff I like. When in fact I hear or see plenty of comedy that I dislike, I just try not to be a dick about it online too often. So I'm glad this wasn't like that, because I really hate being wrong.

Then I ran off to the other side of the castle for the first time, to see Natalie Palamides at the Traverse Theatre. This was one I booked because it seemed important to take the opportunity to see in person while I can. I've seen her previous shows - Laid and Nate - on video, and I liked them, could see they were very good, but I also knew I was missing parts of it, because it doesn't translate fully to film, and I just don't have the theatre kid background to appreciate that level of clowning. Also the puppet in Dave freaked me out. I don't like puppets. Also, you know, nudity. Sex scenes (only with puppets). Artistic violence. It left me feeling weird and uncomfortable and wanting to curl up into a ball, in a sort of good but probably overall more bad way. But that left me feeling like I should try harder to develop the ability to appreciate this sort of thing. And I think it's the sort of thing that really needs to be experienced live.

So I went to see Weer live, and I had a great time. It was so much fun, probably helped that the subject matter was lighter, at least at first. More nudity (spoiler alert, I guess, for all of this, in the unlikely event that anyone planning to see Natalie Palamides is reading this) but I was prepared this time! Managed to not turn into quite such a prudish teacher from a movie, at the sight of a body displayed in the name of art. I mean it was still weird, but not quite such a shock as I'd seen it before. The violence was a bit more difficult, but it very quickly got too absurd to be scary. And the puppet stuff was mercifully extremely short.

Otherwise, I thought it was incredibly impressive. I don't have the theatre knowledge to really understand how impressive it was, but I can still recognize something really cool and incredibly complicated done very well. It was fun, it made me laugh, I could not believe the number of (literal and figurative) layers that went into it. It was very, very cool to see, definitely worth taking the chance to go in person.

So that was my day yesterday. Woke up early this morning and thought I'd go through the day. About to go back to town for my last day of shows. Which is fine, I'm not feeling any predictable rising anxiety that the only thing I've been looking forward to for a year is almost over. It's okay, I'll have another little bit in London after this and that's nice as meeting my London friend in person has been one of the best parts of this, sorry that's a weird thing to say given that he reads this. But it's hardly the most overly personal thing I've ever communicated via a Tumblr post because I don't know how to actually talk to people. Except Tom Ballard, I did a great job of talking to him.

And aside from talking to Tom Ballard, yesterday was a slower day for comedian spotting, which was probably for the best (talking to Tom wasn't so much comedian "spotting", as comedian "awkwardly waiting around until everyone else had left after his show"). Jordan Brookes was in the audience at Sarah Keyworth's show. And here's a left-field one - Dominic Maxwell, the dick from The Times who once called Andy Zaltzman "[John Oliver's] left-behind sidekick", was in Natalie Palamides' show making notes for a review. Which I only know because she called attention to that when giving him an audience participation part, she turned it into something quite funny.

Okay, now I'm going into town for the last day. I've saved some of the established Fringe veterans for last - Seymour Mace, Mark Watson, David O'Doherty. Mat Ewins, another one where I thought it important to take the chance to see in oerson since he doesn't translate to recordings well. I didn't divide it up this way intentionally, but the identity-based demographic diversity of my Fringe schedule looks a lot better if you leave out the last day.

[lost-estradiographer]

What decision tree led to the amount of bread you've eaten in the past 72 hours?

In 2009, I decided to take a metals and manufacturing course in high school. I had an undiagnosed learning disability at the time, and tech ed courses helped me to pad my otherwise-suffering grades. In that class, I met someone who would go on to become one of my closest friends to this day.

Many years later, that same friend introduced me to a new friend whom they had met through work. We hit it off well enough, and they likewise became a good friend in short order.

December 31st, 2019, I decided to go out to a bar with this friend-of-a-friend (my friend) and a friend of theirs unrelated to all of this, except that while at the bar, that friend-of-a-friend-in-law booted up Pokemon Go.

Now, I'd tried Pokemon Go when it came out, but it was kind of lacking. And I really didn't have the motivation.

But then COVID.

So I got WAY into Pokemon Go. Which got me into hiking, and photography.

Nearly two years later, on Halloween, 2021, I was hiking at Maryland Heights, on the cliffs above Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. I still have photos of that day. I'm actually a descendant of John Brown's brother, Jacob. But I was hiking that day, and as I rested on a rock midway up the trail, I realized I wanted to go to college to study the environmental humanities.

By autumn of 2022, I was enrolled as a freshman in my undergraduate studies and I took a course titled Introduction to Sustainability: a 100-level option for our required introductory course in the program. As a part of this course, we had to undertake a project in sustainable living. Specifically, we had to make a change in our lifestyle for eight weeks and write on it, as well as working out the environmental impact of said change. Now, I was working as a delivery driver and I live in the Midwestern U.S., so driving less would be... difficult. I opted to stop eating meat! Specifically, I adopted a pescatarian diet: vegetarian plus fish, because I love shrimp and crab and lobster.

And it turned out to be super easy! I've basically stuck with it ever since, albeit with some cheat days. It's more ethical than dietary, so I'm open to meat when it's (as) ethically-sourced (as it can be with knowledge that something lived and died for the meal). But that's deff shaped my food preferences, and when I recently moved across town to be within walking distance of work and campus, proximity to local bagel shops did factor into my decision.

So I suppose if I had to narrow it down, it was choosing welding over woodworking in 2009 that led me to eat two bagels and three grilled cheese sandwiches in the past 72 hours. It would've been three bagels, but the most convenient place is closed on Mondays.

[three--rings]

Yeah I'm not getting through these without pausing to yell at a textbox. The previously on nearly ended me and I've seen all that shit before.

Spoilers below

Well, @amuseoffyre was bang on about the Steard and Izzy dueling scene. It makes total sense that they took a fanon version of Stead and made it real, opened the season with it, and then it was a dream.

Granted I literally have seen three seconds of it, but I'm assuming this is Izzy dream. Since Fyre said that I've been sure that was the case.

OMG OMG are they running to each other on a beach. Is this Stede's dream? This isn't the fighting the english on a beach scene, though, right? OMG I can't get through five seconds without my brain exploding.

I'm fucking DYING with laughter over this whole thing. ESPECIALLY since I wrote a fic that basically referenced this running to each other and forgetting everything like a couple weeks ago. They really are like, hey, write the fanfic version and then ruin it, okay guys?

Roach: "He's single" omg I love you Samba, that delivery.

The fucking MUSIC kicking in over the shot of Ed behind the cake OMG I love this show so much.

Adore the Olu/Stede scene very much. Olu's line is a little different than the trailer, he's asking if STEDE is scared of Blackbeard. Interesting.

Rhino Horn...which is fabled as an aphrodisiac...okay ed, I'm sure that will help.

Also I adore Con so much, he's so fantastic.

"I'm afraid your life is better without me" OH BABY, of COURSE that's what you're afraid of. Of course. But it really, really isn't sweetheart.

Okay obviously got sucked into the rest of it.

Like I don't have anything to say about the rest, other than WOW Ed, okay, he's in a PLACE. I expect the shooting of Izzy will be the big topic for discourse for the next week, because I've been here the whole time.

Ed is 100% on a self-destruction flameout and he is way past caring about anything around him. He really doesn't seem to flinch at killing Izzy. Though I need to watch it again, obviously. But Izzy dared speak truth to him so he had to go.

And literally the worst truth it could be: "everyone on this ship KNOWS you're acting like this because you got your heart broken." Because Stede didn't want you. Of course Ed shoots him to shut him up.

Obviously Izzy isn't dead. I wonder if he's hiding in the walls now with Lucius. Wouldn't THAT be an interesting time. Someone write the fic.

[definitelyjunehomestuck]

jus finished 100%-ing pikmin 4, n i gotta say, it's a damn good game! i've got a few complaints of course, but overall i had a wonderful time playing it. despite some... questionable narative choices, it's clear they wanted to appeal to long-time players, and i loved seein old enemies from previous games that didn't make it into previous sequels. a lotta care was put into this game, and i can honestly say it holds up to its predecessors.

anywho, as far as the complaints go, my main gripe is that it seems to be a total-series retcon, or at the very least a majority-series retcon, which i don't like in the slightest. the story of pikmin 4 is very fun, but not NEARLY as compelling as the story of first 3 games, n for that i'm honestly pretty annoyed. other than that, my only complaints are that it was a bit too easy for me as a seasoned pikmin player (though that can be excused as casualization, which only ensures more pikmin in the future), and the last two (and best imo) upgrades are locked behind the final cave, which makes em useless if you've 100%-ed the rest of the game up to that point like i did.

otherwise tho, it's a good game that was decently made, n they even fixed the more frustrating pikmin AI quirks! i fully recommend it to new and old players alike!!!

[0-cal-princess]

I think my friend is cutting me off cuz she found out about my eating this order so I'm gonna complain and moan about it 🍓

So basically you wanna cut me off after nearly 4 years of friendship because I got a little too silly and developed an ed??? Even after everything we been thru together??? Girl what the fuck. I never fucking judged you for the dumb ass shit you do even when I knew you were 100% in the wrong. You have no fucking right getting on your high horse calling me sick, saying I need help and that I'm doing something wrong when you partake in equally self-destructive behaviors, what the fuck??? I literally was there for you when your life was falling apart (which was 100% preventable if you just stayed put and did things the right way like i fucking told you but oh well), drying your tears and holding your hand because i love you and i care for you no matter what you did so it really fucking hurts me to see you ghosting and avoiding, and treating me all dry. I understand it was my fault for being honest and transparent with you about my issues but you're literally my best friend??? Like i've never opened up to anyone like I have with you, that's why i felt comfortable telling you about my bulim1a. i never expected you to react the way you're reacting and it honestly really fucking hurts my feelings. Ik you're going thru a lot but if you dont like me anymore you can just use your big girl voice and fucking say it to my face instead of ghosting me and treating me badly. we are fucking adults so why dont you act like one???? I never fucking offended you, or body shamed you, or said anything about your weight so why are you telling ME im losing too fast and obsessing over it??? you could have just kept your mouth shut and let it go like I do every time you talk to me about some dumb ass shit you do. anyways your fucking loss i guess, thanks for being my friend and im sorry we broke it off this way i hope nothing but the best for you and i really hope you work on your issues, i will strive to do the same

my friend confronted me about my ed and then ghosted me after telling her it wasn't that deep. I feel like a fool for spamming her phone trying to get a response out of her. ig i'll wait another day then i will text her the classic "did i do something wrong :(" typa shit. i just wanted to vent cuz i cant get it out of my head. it bothers me so fucking much like sis what the fuck since when are you the moral authority??? but anyways

I broke my purge-free streak yesterday and it wasn't fun. I couldn't even purge it all cuz it got to the point where i gave myself a horrible headache so i just let it be. I think i will go over my cal limit today as well so yay aint it fun?? I feel like somebody beat the shit out of me, i still have a pounding headache, my chest feels like somebody punched the shit out of it, i have no energy and my throat is fucked. Im also very dumb so i weighed myself and got spooked so I took some laxs as if my life is not miserable enough yaay for me. Never purging again in my fucking life (that's a lie). anyways thanks if you read it all, stay skinny ladies <3

[someonelookingpraediti]

Mid Year Book Tag 2023!

I've seen a few of these going round, so I thought I'd give it a go! If anyone else does one of these, tag me so I can see!

1. What's the best book you've read so far this year? Probably A Little Life! It lived up to the hype, but it was so emotionally draining! I've also really been enjoying Lockwood & Co.

2. What's the best sequel you've read so far this year? If I had to pick, I'd say The Stolen Heir. It's a brilliant continuation of the Folk of the Air books, and I can't wait for the next book! But Hell Bent is a close second.

3. What's a new release you haven't read yet, but want to? The Sun and the Star! I'm determined to read the books in order though, so I've got LOADS to read before I get there - I'd better get started!

4. Which new release are you most anticipating for the second half of the year? Never a Hero! I loved Only a Monster, and I'm hoping the second one lives up to my expectations! I'm also super looking forward to Defiant - the final Skyward book! I feel like I should re-read the series first but I just don't think I have the time!

5. Which book was the biggest disappointment? I've DNF-ed one book so far this year, which was The Foxglove King. But my biggest disappointment was probably Tress of the Emerald Sea, just because I was really looking forward to it and it turned out to be a bit of a let down.

6. Which book was the biggest surprise? Actually, it was Kings Rising! I wasn't expecting much from the series, and the first book wasn't any good, and completely put me off. But I had a cold, and was stuck in bed, so I stuck with it, and by the third book I was in love!

7. Who is your favourite new (to you) author this year? I haven't actually read many new authors so far this year, I need to work on that for the second half! My favourite so far is probably Donna Tartt. I finally started reading The Secret History this month, and I'm nearly finished with it! It's so good, I'm really enjoying it!

8. Do you have a new favourite character? Ooh I guess any of the new demigods from Heroes of Olympus! Or Anthony Lockwood! Although I should probably finish the series before I make that kind of declaration.

9. What was a book that made you cry? Well, obviously A Little Life! I also re-read a series from my childhood, The Magician's House, and that made me absolutely sob, which I wasn't expecting!

10. What was a book that made you happy? Howl's Moving Castle! Such a cute story! I can't wait to read the next book!

11. What was your favourite book-to-screen adaptation this year? I really just don't watch that much tv. Genuinely the only adaptation I've watched this year is season two of Shadow and Bone! But it was absolutely amazing, I loved that they shook it up so much.

12. Which book had the prettiest cover? Belladonna! The UK cover is gorgeous (I've seen the US edition and yuck) and I've got the FairyLoot special edition and its so pretty!

13. How are you doing with your yearly goals? My yearly total is 100, and halfway through the year I've read 48, so I'm a little behind... but I'm nearly there! I had a few really poor months early in the year, and fell way behind, so really had to push myself to find lots of reading time in the past two months to catch up. I might have been a little ambitious with my goals.

14. What's a book you need to read before the end of the year? I've got a couple of reading lists I've barely made a dent in. I'm very keen to finish Lockwood & Co, and to try and get through the Riordan books. Other books I'm going to try to get to soon: Caraval, The Tarot Sequence, Small Miracles, The Mary Shelley Club, The Maidens, the list goes on

[evas-apartment]

hi it's doomfax, was wondering about your thoughts on Super Mario 64! did you enjoy it overall? would love to hear what you liked or disliked, what worked for you or didn't

I love that game, I've played it so much that I can't even really enjoy it any more tbh, but also if you hated it I'd still love to hear your thoughts on it if you feel like talking about it

Oh, man I've got a lot to say. I hope this is like... readable. EDIT: I just finished writing this, and figured I'd just put all of it behind a readmore, so I don't at all feel bad about how much I write. Also it's my blog. so.. whatever i suppose.

In short, I really liked it! I played the 3D All-Stars Switch version specifically, and I think it holds up pretty well! I liked how..punchy? It is? Most levels are really short, it doesn't take that long to beat, I 100%'ed it, but each star only takes like five minutes each, and I like that. The music is great, all the characters are stylized enough that even through the blocky-ass visuals, things look cute. Some of the locations are nice to look at, but a lot of them look kinda ugly tbh, like it just looks like blocks. I think a location needs a lot of set pieces to be visually interesting, otherwise it just looks bland. Most of DDD, most of WDW, all of RR, most of HMC look really boring, but there's some cool ideas in there. Whereas basically everyone of the first couple levels are more visually striking and interesting, with SOMETHING to remember about them.

The game controls are frankly awesome. It feels like they cemented that first, and built the entire game around it. If Mario controlled just a bit worse, this game wouldn't be nearly as well-remembered cause this is SUCH a true platforming game. Not very many stars rely on anything else other than how well you can control Mario. The only thing that bugs me are more quirks of the physics engine than anything else, and playing Sunshine right after kinda cements my opinions more, in that... the game is just a bit too unforgiving, coming back to it, having never really played it thoroughly before. It's hard to wall-jump, and you HAVE to get good at it. If you don't land on a platform, or the edge of one, you just bonk your head on the side and fall, and probably die. You slide off slopes really easily, it's hard to climb hills, and basically all of these things were fixed in Sunshine, but I can also understand people growing up with 64 and thinking that the movement might be too... easy? robust? something, in Sunshine. Which I don't feel rings as true because I find the "secret" levels in Sunshine to be challenging, but it's also in part to how sparse the level design is in those segments. You're confined just to floating blocks and that's it, but I'm talking about Sunshine here, so I'll digress.

I like the consistency of the level design. Each level has Exactly 7 stars, and one 100 coin star. Each world has 8 red-coins, and you'll get them eventually. If there's something to climb, there's probably a star at the top. If there's a weird new creature in this level, you'll have to interact with it in a weird new way to get a star (penguins, ukikis, eels, you get it). It makes each level feel like extensions of the same world, with the same rules across, which makes the whole game just make more sense, I appreciate that.

The camera is weird. I love the idea of you having a Lakitu cameraperson, but in execution it's hit or miss. I like that there's three different camera options, a platforming game in 1996 didn't have to have that kinda foresight, but it did. But it's like... the Lakitu camera can't rotate, only lock a certain way, the over the shoulder camera follows too closely and it's very easy to get disoriented (for me at least), and locking the camera in place can be great but it's completely locked, and doesn't move at all. I'll say I died a bunch cause the camera didn't do what I wanted it to do, but whatever, it's not unusable, I at least understand the system in place (although in no video game should the camera ever be stuck behind any solid object in the level), and it isn't like SM64 is hard, and lives are pretty generous, and I never even game over'd once in the while 100% playthrough. (a lot more casually generous than SMS)

Overall, I'm glad I played it. I do think it's a very good game, and a hallmark of what gaming could be at a pivotal time in its existence. I can't say if I myself would go back and play it all that much, having completed it, but that isn't to say it has no replay value, I've just had my fill. It was fun. Had some quirks from being a game from back then, but an overall pleasant experience. Some frustrations in the camera, missing some jumps cause of silly reasons, dying on a 100 coin star 80 coins in, falling down a vertical platforming segment and having to come back up, the only consequence being my fucking time being wasted, but that's all part of the game, and nothing ruining, y'know? I could go into even more detail, on any specific points, if you'd like, I love chatting with friends like this. And I appreciate every ask I get (within reason lol)

Thank you for sending this! I love giving my opinions on things like this lol, feel free to ask more stuff!

[honeyteanocoffee]

alrighty, this is going to be a long one so stick with me if you can. So nearly all of my posts are Oliver Wood focused and I love that because most of the fandom is either "The Golden Trio" or the "Marauders" and I happen to think that being in the "my character has almost no dialogue" club is elite. I love the community that I have found on Tumblr.

The other community I found was the ace community. And as much as I love Oliver, finding the ace (more specifically the Demi community) was incredibly eye opening, healing, and validating. When I realized I was ace and posted, asking for advice, I got so much love and support. I've only posted one post regarding the ace community, but I love looking back at it. I also love when I see content from the ace community on my TikTok. Some of the videos about wanting to be in love and knowing we don't feel those emotions or struggling with being a hopeless romantic are terribly sad, but they are validating.

On this note, I am a film major and taking a screenwriting class. My professor challenged us all to listen to music from when we were younger and believed anything could happen. Honestly, I don't think I have a time of pure wonder and imagination because my school beat all of that out of me, but that's a story for another time. ANYWAYS, I decided to listen to my oldest Spotify playlist which likely from fifth grade/early middle school-ish. This playlist mainly featured Ed Sheehan, 2016 Sabrina Carpenter (Eyes Wide Open), and other love/pop songs. So I did have moments of childhood nostalgia, but the main thing I was thinking about was how fixated on romance younger me was. I'll be frank, the more I thought about it, the more emotional I became.

I love that I'm ace and I love that I have been able to identify these feelings after so long. I will admit that I do have what I call an ace-crisis about once every 3-4 months where I panic about how I've never been in a relationship and I get this big crush on someone. This crush in more of a fixation and after a week or so, I will "return to normal." But the way I feel during that crisis is honestly awful.

Listening to all of these love songs made me think about how much younger me want to meet someone and have my happily ever after. And I think about who I am now: hopelessly in love with Oliver Wood, a reality shifter, the designated romance and sex advice person in my friend group, and the person people call to psychoanalyze their roommates. I think about how much I've wanted to be a mom and how I'm 100% content thinking about having a donor child and being a single mother if I never meet someone. Again, I love that I'm ace and I'm content in my identity. But for some reason, thinking about how much my idea of romance has changed was incredibly emotional. Even typing this right now, I'm on the verge of tears but I don't know if I'm sad and grieving what younger-me was envisioning for so long or what but...

that's my spiel for today <3

[insertvalidusername]

Genuinely worrying things I've said before realising I have an ED

Me : *decides to start a calorie counting program to lose weight* *daily calorie intake was between 400 - 700 at that time* how am I supposed to eat 1000 calories a day? 6 meals??

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Me : Oh no, no dinner for me thanks. I had a piece of chicken at lunch yesterday and I'm still full

Parents : you need to eat more

Me : *eating at 100 or less calories a day* I already eat enough to feed a village

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Me (to a sibling) : *is sick* I nearly threw up on the floor but luckily there's no food in my system so nothing could come out

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Me : I'm full thanks 😊

Parents : you ate 4 teaspoons of mashed potatoes. There's a table full of food and you didn't even have breakfast

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Me : *is sick (again)* *collapses onto bed, visibly weak and trembling, hand shaking violently when I try to lift it*

Parents : you have to eat something. The meds can't be taken on an empty stomach

Me : *had survived on nothing but coffee for 3 days* my stomach is literally so full I'm about to combust

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Sibling : you're not eating again?

Me : I literally had an entire piece of cake earlier, what more do you people want from me?

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Me : *at 7pm after not eating at all that day* I have no space for food,if you shove it in my mouth I will throw up on you

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Sibling : Oh you're done? Taste my food

Me : I'd love to but I can't stomach another bite

Sibling 2 : you shared half a steak with me. And I'm still hungry. You didn't even eat sides with it like I did

Me : yeah and I'm still full

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Waiter : and what will you be having today?

Me : just iced water with a slice of lemon thanks

Sibling: again? We came out for desserts and milkshakes you know?

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Me : no yeah im super full. big breakfast earlier

Friend : oh cool. what was it?

Me : *water. i had water for breakfast* it was uhhhhh... i forgot lol

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Me : (to myself) Goddd im so hungry i want to throw up but i cant eat bcos ill throw up but i have to eat coz im starved. is this normal

(^^ still don't know the answer to this btw)

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[eepyko]

Actual intro post!!!

Hi, I'm Ko. I'm transmasc and my pronouns are He/him. I am currently on testosterone as of mid July ish.

I'm a college student, majoring in theater and history, with a goal of being a professor of ancient Greek and Roman history, and a potential specialization in ancient Greek theater.

Onto, I guess, the actual purpose of this??

I've always been awful about weight. If I remember correctly I was 150lbs by the time I entered middle school. I've always been unhappy with my body in general, but never really had the means to do anything about it. That was until towards the end of high school, when first I was briefly prescribed Prozac and had no appetite. I think I was eating an average of 400 calories per day for a lot of that, and I think I lost nearly 20 pounds in a couple months. People noticed and complimented my weight loss, and I felt so accomplished and proud of something related to my body for the first time. I want that feeling again.

Then I switched medications, went back to old eating habits, and immediately gained all of that weight back and more. I've never hated my body more. Even worse, I couldn't even be that excited that I'm finally on testosterone because I know I can't look how I want to until I'm thin. I feel I could pass better if I was thin. I envy men whose bones are showing. They are so beautiful to me. I love looking at men who I can see their ribs. I want to be those people.

Not only all of that, but before testosterone my cholesterol was already high, and I don't want to be put on more medication. I need to lower it even before my next appointment at the end of August

I'm looking for an ed buddy btw, if anyone is interested. It's hard to stay accountable on my own. Preferably fellow transmascs or men in general.

Keep in mind though that I do refuse to be purposely mean or encourage body shaming. I hate my own body but I see other bodies as beautiful regardless.

CW: 225 ish lbs

GW for by the end of this year: 175 lbs

GW for by next summer: 140 lbs

UGW: 100 lbs

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony's Stupid Daily Blog (732): Tue 19th Mar 2024

Checked out tonight's episode of Hollyoaks (I AM going to start writing about more exciting things than Hollyoaks soon. I promise you I am. Just not today because I was knackered and couldn't be bothered to do fuck all). Right from the start I got a big laugh because during the recap they edited out the visual of Ste actually falling from the roof and just used the sound while focusing on a shot of James looking shocked. The very idea that they saw the original go out and thought that it would be too frightening to go out at 6:30pm was hilarious. Anywho it turns out that Ste didn't die from his fall off a giant building he just broke his lower leg which is bullshit. So Silas nearly died just from Theresa pushing him over but Ste is still alive after falling from the top of a multi storey building? I'm so happy that Warren is leaving soon but knowing my luck they're probably going to have Ste suffer a brain injury which makes him believe that he is Warren and he acts like him from now on. Tonight's episode also saw the introduction of Marie AKA Joel's mother who stole a dress from Mercedes' clothing line and then wore it to The Dog while Mercedes was there leading to a CATFIGHT!. I love that Marie has labelled Merces a tramp and an awful person going purely off her first impression of her but she has no idea she is actually 100% correct. She's inadvertently a great judge of character. Later on she reconnected with Warren and the two made sweet love in the club. I put out the following hypothetical during the scene where they come face to face: Marie: Hello Warren. Long time no see. Do you ever think of me? Warren: When I'm strangling my victims to make myself angrier Tonight was of great significance for me because I gained my 400th follower on Twitter (which is all I've ever wanted). I genuinely never thought when I rejoined Twitter four years ago in order to specifically Tweet stupid bollocks during the show that I would ever gain ONE follower never mind four hundred (though I suppose the fact that I have "Hollyoaks" in my Twitter name has probably helped me a little as it pops up when people are searching for the official Hollyoaks Twitter page). I really love this little community that I've built up for myself that I get to entertain and interact with for half an hour every day. I think it's good for me to have something to commit myself to every day. I also think having this Twitter page is part of the reason why I still watch the show because there was a long stretch where I wasn't watching the show, either due to being too busy with work or just due to the show being in a creative pothole. Having this page has meant that I've felt compelled to tune in so that I can continue to entertain the loyal fellow ans who get a kick out of me making jokes about Mercedes vagina. Remarkably there are two people who have told me that they "live" for my Twitter account as it cheers them up and during my sabbatical last year one of them even @ed me to say that she missed my Tweets which was really flattering. I'm really grateful to all those beautiful bastards who have followed me over the years and I'll endeavor to continue Tweeting for their amusement even when the show is dull as shitwater.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I’ve finally caught up on all the Comedian’s Comedian podcast episodes I had downloaded. I’ve kept track of all the ones I’ve listened to in a spreadsheet, obviously. There are 68 of them. The list of them can very roughly serve as not a bad list of my favourite comedians, though it’s not perfect that way.

There are some comedians I quite like on TV and/or radio and/or podcasts, but haven’t seen/heard their stand-up, or in rare cases don’t much care for their stand-up, so I didn’t bother downloading their episode of this podcast since it’s mainly about stand-up. On the other hand, there are a few comedians on that list whose stand-up I don’t love all that much, but I think they’re smart and insightful and interesting, so I decided I do want to listen to them pontificate on a podcast about the art and industry of comedy for an hour. Also, there are a couple of people on this list whom I actively dislike, and listened to their episode out of a morbid curiosity.

It's also an incomplete list of my favourite comedians because not everyone has done the podcast, or they may have done it at the wrong time. There are a few comedians I really like, but they did their interview on this podcast before they'd made any of the stuff I'm into, so I didn't bother listening to them because I figured it wouldn't cover what I find interesting (ie. Daniel Sloss). And there are a bunch of comedians who just haven't done it at all.

Here is an incomplete list of comedians who have not been on the Comedian's Comedian podcast before, but if an episode featuring them came out tomorrow I'd definitely listen to it: Sam Campbell; Frankie Boyle; Adam Hills; Jon Richardson; I started this list on my phone and when I wrote "Jon" before "Richardson" the auto-complete thought I meant Jon Stewart, so sure, him too; John Oliver; Kitson obviously (wouldn't happen but I can dream, I'm sure Stuart Goldsmith also dreams of Daniel Kitson having a sudden change of heart about doing podcast interviews); Rachel and/or Ruby from Shelf; Douglas Adams and/or Sean Lock if they ever manage to hook podcast recording equipment up to a Ouija board; Lee Mack; Armando Iannucci; Nato Green; Huge Davies; Ed Night; Simon Amstell; Steve Hall; Kristen Schaal; Demitri Martin; one or both Conchords; Ian Smith; Kiri Pritchard-McLean; Gavin Osborn (he counts as an honorary comedian, okay?); Rhys James; Roisin Conaty; Danielle Ward; Sandi Toksvig; Sue Perkins; Guy Montgomery; Eleanor Morton.

I'm sure I'll pick through more episodes as time goes on, and as I get into more comedians. But I've really enjoyed these, I'm glad I did finally go back to it after getting mad at Stuart Goldsmith for some bullshit from nearly ten years ago and not listening for a while. I think the moment when I fully, 100% forgave Stuart Goldsmith occurred while listening to the Laura Davis interview; Laura was brilliant on it, that whole episode was one of the best, and Stuart Goldsmith was on especially good form. If that one absolute cunt from 2014 was so terrible during his interview that I not only had no respect for him but I also lost respect for Stuart Goldsmith just for being able to be in a room with that guy and not punch him - Laura Davis was the opposite. So fucking excellent that I gained even more respect not just for Laura, but for Stuart Goldsmith just because he could be around them and clearly recognize the genius in his presence.

Stuart Goldsmith is an excellent interviewer, everything else aside. I do love his style of treating the nerds as his target audience, aiming it at people who already know the basics so they can get beyond that right away. Being casual and conversational but also taking his craft seriously and using skilled tactics to get the best out of the interviewees, repeating a question if a comedian dodges it or tells a joke instead of properly answering. And he's always so prepared, takes the time to get to know someone's work quite well before interviewing them so he can ask intelligent and relevant questions. It sure makes it difficult by comparison to hear any of the other bland interviews that are out there and ask the same generic questions every time from someone who neither knows nor cares who they are.