#ideally ​on my way to the 36 road trip I’d like to find some of the nuclear missile silos dotted around central Kansas 💁‍♀️

[frenchtwistresistance]

390 miles of Authentic Frontier Gibberish™️!

[purplesurveys]

1127

1. What is one thing you will never do again? Watch The Hours. Film itself is great, but is way too triggering.

2. Would you rather be twice as smart or twice as happy? I’d take happiness easily. It’s not bad for the most part to make mistakes and I’d rather be too clumsy than be altogether miserable.

3. What happened the last time you cried? It was the day of what would’ve been our anniversary and at that moment I was alone in my car at a parking lot (waiting for the office to open) on a gloomy day. I just had to cry and let my feelings out for like 5 minutes to accept everything but I was immediately fine afterwards, haha. Grief can be funny.

4. What happened the time in your life when you were the most nervous to do something? My first job interview. It was my first adult thing ever. They never got back to me - very professional of them - but I was still grateful for the experience nonetheless.

5. What would your parents be surprised to learn about you? That I was in a whole ass relationship for technically 6 1/2 years. They probably have an inkling by now, but only about me being in a relationship. I’m sure they would be very surprised if they ever found out how long it had actually gone for.

6. What’s your worst habit? I pick at my toenails when I’m nervous or stressed. I tend to do this when I’m doing a work task that I particularly dread, and sometimes I’ll end up being fixated on the habit for like 10 minutes straight and not get anything done.

7. What superpower would you have for one day? Time travel, just to take quick trips to multiple decades and see how life was like during those times.

8. What fictional character do you have the biggest crush on? Matty from 13 Going on 30 would be one of them. Albert Finney’s character in Two for the Road is also charming as fuck.

9. Where would you live if you could live anywhere in the world? If money wasn’t an issue, probably somewhere cozy in like Switzerland or Canada.

10. What is your most bizarre pet peeve? Not necessarily a pet peeve but I get extremely uncomfortable when someone hands me a gift then they insult the gift while in front of me, saying it’s not a great gift or that I probably don’t need it, etc. Filipinos also have this habit of saying something along the lines of, “You earn way more than me so you’d probably think this gift sucks” like how do you want me to react :(((((( I love receiving gifts and the idea of being thought about already means a lot to me, so it just makes me wince a little bit when I hear statements like the above.

11. Who knows you the best? Gabie, probably. I’ve changed a lot since then, though.

12. What after school activities did you do in high school? Clubs were mandatory extracurricular activities in my high school; in my time, I joined the table tennis and yearbook clubs.

13. What “most likely to” superlative would you be most honored to receive? Idk, we didn’t have those in school. I probably would have been honored to get a journalism-themed one though; something like Most Likely To Write for NYT or Most Likely to Win a Pulitzer or something like that. Obviously that’s changed now and I’ve long let go of journalism as a passion.

14. What’s the last book you really loved? I haven’t read in a long, long while.

15. What was the greatest television show of all time? I don’t watch a lot of TV so I’m not the most credible decision-making body for this lol, but out of all the shows I’ve watched the best one would easily be Breaking Bad.

16. What’s been your favorite age so far? 16. Life was insanely easygoing back then and everything fell into place for me at the time.

17. If you could go back in time, what is one piece of advice you would give your younger self? Know when it’s enough. Be kind to yourself.

18. What one thing would you be most disappointed if you never got to experience it? Have kids.

19. Apologize or ask permission? I don’t understand the relationship between the two.

20. Unlimited love or money? I would love to never have to worry about finances ever again.

21. If you knew you would die in one week, what would you do? Take a week-long leave for work, spend all my money, bond with my dogs, throw a party for my closest friends, and honestly, make my peace with her.

22. What’s your most listened to song? Spotify doesn’t show that feature, but I bet it’s from Paramore or Hayley anyway. It would be impossible to know my most-listened to song of all time, like if we took into account my Spotify, iTunes, etc.

23. Beach vacation or European vacation? I need a beach vacation badly, but a European vacation would be a new and different experience. I’d take the latter.

24. If you could have been a child prodigy what would you have wanted to be skilled at? Playing the piano.

25. What’s the first thing you would do if you won the lottery? Depends on how much I won lmao. I’d probably retire this early if the money was big enough since I’m pretty stingy anyway. But generally, I would like to pay off whatever bills my parents are currently paying for, get back the car that we had to sell because of the pandemic, and maybe go for a solo vacation or five heheh.

26. What celebrity would you trade lives with? Kylie Jenner, for a day. Just so I can briefly have a taste of how being that rich is like.

27. If you were a performing artist, what would you title your first album? Nope.

28. What story do your friends still give you crap about? Staying with Gab despite the red flags that glared for four whole years is one of them. Angela will also never let go of that one time I tried some kind of fruit juice in high school and I described it as ‘packs a punch.’ It’s understood as a super Westernized idiom where I live and literally no one uses it in a casual sentence, so it was a hit with her and now we use ‘packs a punch’ whenever we want to describe something awesome or surprising.

29. If earth could only have one condiment for the rest of time, what would you pick to keep around? Mayonnaise and I will die on this mayonnaise-coated hill.

30. What is the ideal number of people to have over on a Friday night? Ideally? At this point? Like 20. I would love for that to be the case on the first Friday we can consider the Philippines COVID-free.

31. What was the worst age you’ve been so far? Sorry for yet another incoming Paramore reference but they literally have a lyric that goes, “22 is like, the worst idea that I have ever had.” Before turning 22 I used to think it was a weird line, like how could 22 possibly be unenjoyable? Now I’m 22 in a pandemic going through a rough breakup and I can’t even see my friends nor work in my first workplace ever.

32. What is your weirdest dealbreaker? If they wanted only cats as pets. I can deal with a dog and a cat, I guess; but cats were never fond of me so I feel like I’d struggle with this situation lol.

33. What fictional character reminds you most of yourself? Mr. Peanutbutterrrrrrr. Has a lot of love to give, doesn’t always use it on the right people. Also lives on pleasing others.

34. Do you believe in karma? Just to a tiny extent, in how I would want people’s awful actions to come bite them in the ass one day. It’s not a philosophy that controls my life and the things I do whatsoever.

35. What was your favorite TV show as a kid? My absolute favorite was Hi-5, with the original cast. As I got older my interests shifted to Spongebob and The Fairly OddParents.

36. What is the weirdest thing you find attractive in a person? I don’t think it’s weird, but I don’t hear thighs too often when people list down their favorite physical traits. It’s certainly one of mine.

37. What Jeopardy! category would you clear, no problem? A Friends-themed one, obviously. This reminds me of the Jeopardy night I had with some friends a few nights ago! That was so much fun, and Andi makes really great and fun questions hahaha.

38. What is something you’re superstitious about? I don’t think I am about anything.

39. What is the scariest experience you have ever had? Maybe that night my grandpa went into a drunk rampage. I was 9, right in his line of sight, frozen and scared shitless, and I didn’t know who he was going to strike next.

40. Who is a non-politician you wish would run for office? I never really think about this. If someone’s a non-politician then there must be a reason they aren’t, lol.

41. What cheesey song do you have memorized? Little Things by One Direction is very cheesy and it’s one of my least favorite songs of theirs, but I still have it memorized out of habit.

42. What one dead person would you most like to have dinner with, if it were possible? My great-grandpa died all the way back in the 70s, even before some of my aunts and uncles could meet him. It would be cool to spend time with him.

43. Do you think it’s important to stay up to date with the news? Yeah, absolutely. I have the stomach for it lol, so I always monitor what’s happening locally and globally. Skipping the news from time to time is fine because I get how anxiety-inducing and depressing some events can be, but there’s a huge difference between ignoring the news for your mental health and being indifferent altogether. I’d immediately judge anyone who’s the latter, and would assume you are incredibly privileged.

44. What is the best present you could ever receive? My money refunded -____________- I had food delivered to my director, Bea’s house as a surprise earlier today, but apparently I ran into a scammer driver and the fucker drove away with the meal I had bought for Bea. I reported the driver and the situation, and thankfully the customer service rep of the food delivery app quickly responded and said they’d return the full amount I paid for; but I still haven’t received it.

45. Would you give up one of your fingers if it meant you’d have free wifi wherever you go, for the rest of your life? No. Mobile data exists for a reason.

46. What’s the first thing you’d do if you were the opposite sex for one day? Check out my voice.

47. If someone told you you could give one person a present and your budget was unlimited–what present would you get and for whom? I’d love to surprise Angela with an overseas trip that would last for like a month. Traveling is one thing we have yet to do as best friends.

48. What is the nicest thing someone could say about you? Nothing particular, but it makes me happy when people call me strong and when they validate the shit I’ve gone through over the years.

49. Giant house in a subdivision or tiny house somewhere with a view? I would take the giant house. When it comes to my own place, I would want to have a lot of space to roam around.

50. What is the weirdest quirk your family has? Nothing is coming to mind.

[tealin]

The Story of the Discovery Hut

You may have noticed that last week I breezily mentioned a visit to Scott's Discovery Hut as though it were just another class on the schedule. It most definitely was not! Wandering around one of the principal locations of the Terra Nova Expedition – of the whole of Heroic Age Antarctic history – was the pinnacle of the sensory overload of my first 36 hours on the continent, not least because the grubby old Discovery Hut is one of the least well documented sites, so most of it was completely new to me. To visit the other locations on my itinerary, I needed one or another sets of training, but Hut Point is only a short walk from McMurdo Station on solid ground, so my coordinator was keen to get me there as soon as possible.

My first full day in Antarctica was the coldest of the whole trip. I noted in my journal that it was -4°F/-20°C – I don't recall if that was with wind chill or without, but it was definitely windy that day, so you can imagine. The previous day's flurries were still blowing around, so the atmosphere was properly polar, and for the first time I was glad I had brought the heavy-duty boots that had been such a boulder in my luggage.

The Discovery Hut is named such because it was built on the Discovery Expedition, in early 1902 when the ship had found its permanent berth in the small bay at the end of the southernmost peninsula of Ross Island. The bay was imaginatively dubbed Winter Quarters Bay, and the spit of land adjacent to it was called Hut Point, the creativity of which was extended to the whole Hut Point Peninsula. The hut itself had been picked up in Australia, where it was a flat-pack prefab intended to be transported to the Outback and used to house cattlemen as they drove herds across the country. As such, it was designed to shed heat – not an ideal feature in an Antarctic dwelling, but it was never intended to be lived in, rather to serve as a warehouse and emergency shelter should anything happen to the ship. Subsequent expeditions used it more than the Discovery did, because of its proximity to the permanent ice of the Barrier, which made it a key staging point for any southward travel. They all complained of it being uncomfortably cold inside.

And it was cold. Not that I noticed much, beyond corroborating historical reports that it somehow seemed colder inside the hut than outside. Antarctic cold is a funny thing: You are certainly aware that it is cold, but it is a surface sensation only, and doesn't feel as severe as the thermometer says it is. Skin exposed to the air registers the fact it is cold, but even at -20 it didn't go any deeper than that. Compared to the seeping, insidious cold of a damp British morning or an air-conditioned animation studio cubicle, which disregards layers and seems to chill you from the inside out, -20 in Antarctica is really quite comfortable, if you're dressed properly and sheltered from the wind. I barely noticed how cold it was until the tips of my gloved fingers started tingling, which I observed with some perplexity until I remembered the temperature. At that moment I understood how one could get frostbite without noticing, because one's outermost extremities could suffer while one's internal thermostat was still reading as perfectly warm, if not hot. Hence the practice of deliberate, conscious reminders every few minutes to observe the state of one's feet – they would be all too easy to overlook, otherwise.

Lithium ion batteries don't much like the cold, and unlike human bodies they neither generate their own heat nor have a core heat bank to rely on. I got a few photos that first visit, but my phone died as I was taking a video, so I decided to leave the image harvest to another day. The photos in this post are mostly from later (warmer) visits, when electronics were functioning fully and I'd got over the initial awe of being there.

But before I can give you a photographic tour of the Discovery Hut, I need to fill you in on the history, so that you know what you're looking at when you see it, as I did.

As I said before, the hut was built during the Discovery Expedition but hardly used except for storage and, occasionally, a theatre. The next expedition in town was Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition, which arrived in early 1908. The sea ice that year was much more extensive than it had been in 1902, and the furthest south that the Nimrod could anchor was at Cape Royds, twenty miles north of Hut Point. Shackleton had been on the Discovery, though, and knew there were a lot of good things left in the little square hut across the ice, so he sent a raiding party to scavenge some of them and bring them back to Cape Royds. When they arrived, they couldn't get the door open, so they broke a window to get in, which was never repaired. After it had served its purpose as launching point for southern journeys and the Nimrod left McMurdo Sound, the hut filled up with drifted snow which compacted into ice.

When Scott arrived in the Terra Nova – which was also barred from Hut Point by sea ice and so had settled at Cape Evans, fifteen miles north – he found the broken window and the interior of the hut one solid block of ice. This did not do much to improve his opinion of Shackleton. The depot-laying party pushed on south with their supplies, but Atkinson, who had got an infected blister on his heel and couldn't continue marching, was left at Hut Point with Tom Crean; while the depot party was away, they employed themselves in clearing the ice from the hut. Once that was done, they used biscuit cases and the discarded winter awning from the Discovery to build a smaller chamber within the single room, which would hold the heat better, and improvised a blubber stove from discarded bricks and metal in the Discovery's rubbish heap. There are lots of seals around Hut Point so blubber was a self-supplying fuel, as opposed to the very limited quantity of coal which had been brought down by the ship.

The only way to reach Cape Evans from Hut Point is over the sea ice, and by the time the depot party returned, that had all broken up and gone out to sea. (I am glossing over The Sea Ice Incident. Check it out if you want some crazy adventure.) There was nothing for it but to wait at Hut Point for the sea ice to freeze again, which took from the beginning of March to mid-May. This was, as yet, the longest period of occupation for the hut, and was full of tinkering to make the place more liveable. Everyone devised what they thought was the best model of blubber lamp: whatever the design, it smoked with a thick black soot which added to the smoke from the blubber stove. As a result the hut was often thick with smoke and everyone looked like chimney sweeps before long. Crean and Atkinson had done a massive job clearing out the block of ice in the main room, but there was still ice in the cavity between the ceiling and the roof which they could not access, and this dripped on the assembled crowd every time they got the hut above freezing, turning their reindeer skin sleeping bags into a soggy mess. Despite the soot, the 'snipe marsh,' and a diet limited to recombinations of biscuit, seal meat, and the odds and ends left over from previous expeditions, the men all had a roaring good time. Some of them even claimed, when all was said and done, that this was the best part of the expedition.

Just enough to eat and keep us warm, no more – no frills nor trimmings: there is many a worse and more elaborate life. The necessaries of civilization were luxuries to us: … the luxuries of civilization satisfy only those wants which they themselves create.

— Apsley Cherry-Garrard, The Worst Journey in the World

The hut served its purpose again the following November as the jumping-off place for the great effort to reach the Pole. This is its classic role, and what it is best remembered for, when it is remembered at all, but something which I think gets lost and which adds a great deal to the emotional understanding of the place is that it's also the first taste of home for returning parties, the first solid walls after months of living in a tent. For both the First and Second Returning Parties it was a concrete assurance that they had made it, they were back to safety; it was only the matter of a day's walk to Cape Evans from there, which they did all the time. Like reaching one's own freeway exit after a long road trip, the Discovery Hut would be a welcome return to the familiar. It's the first comfort the Polar Party would have been pulling towards in their struggle to get home before the weather broke up for the winter.

But, as we know, they never got there. The next role of the Discovery Hut, and its most poignant, to me, is as the staging point for another southward journey, the one to meet the Polar Party with the dog teams. Atkinson had taken the dogs there after using them to help unload the ship at Cape Evans, but before he could leave he was co-opted to save the life of Teddy Evans , leader of the Second Returning Party, who was dying of scurvy not far away. Atkinson had to find a substitute, so he sent a message to Cape Evans requesting Wright, and if he was unavailable, Cherry-Garrard. Simpson, who was in charge back at Cape Evans, sent both to Hut Point, with the advice that Wright was needed for his particular scientific expertise and that it would be very inconvenient to lose him. So Wright was sent home, and Cherry was chosen to go south. He failed to meet the Polar Party; he and the dogs turned up back at the Discovery Hut exhausted, frostbitten, and unable to do any more work that season. Cherry spent a miserable purgatory in the hut with a strained heart and broken wrist, delirious on painkillers and tormented by the howling wind and fighting dogs, gradually coming to realise that his friends were never coming home.

When the Terra Nova finally left Antarctica for good, they left a large depot of food at Hut Point for whoever might come after, an act of generosity whose prescience was not long in the proving. Shackleton's Endurance Expedition is famous for the ship getting crushed in the ice and the last-chance boat voyage to South Georgia to find rescue. Fewer people know that that expedition had another half: a smaller contingent of men were sent to the Ross Sea to lay depots for the Endurance party to pick up as they crossed the Antarctic continent, which was the expedition’s original raison d’etre. They had what can only be described as a mindblowingly horrible time. It started with their ship being blown off its anchor at Cape Evans and out to sea before it had been fully unloaded, and got much worse from there. Winter clothing had to be improvised from a heavy canvas tent left by the Terra Nova Expedition, and they depended largely on the food that had been left at Cape Evans and Hut Point two years previously. By supreme effort they succeeded in laying the depots required of them, all the way to the Beardmore Glacier over 400mi/600km to the south, and suffered terribly from scurvy on the way back, one of them dying. The remainder narrowly scraped their way into the safety of the Discovery Hut, to recover their health and wait for the sea ice to freeze, but two decided prematurely that the greater comfort of Cape Evans was worth the risk, and set out over the new ice, never to be seen again. It turned out that their suffering was entirely in vain, as the Endurance party, whose survival they expected to depend on their depots, never so much as set foot on the Antarctic continent.

These are the layers of history with which the Discovery Hut, and all the geography of McMurdo Sound, are imbued. It was one of my great privileges, while a guest of the USAP, to be a portal to the Heroic Age for many people who were mostly unaware of what had passed before the building of the American station. It's harder to transmit the tangible immediacy of the history via the internet, but I hope this and the next post will get you some of the way there.

[whaleyoufeedmenuggets]

Im too lazy to look at the questions so DO ALL OF THEM. (if you dont wanna then go on a random number generator and get 5 random numbers)

ITS REALLY LONG BUT I DID IT KJSHADJS HERE GOES i love oversharing my lifealso im putting a read more line bc its hella long

1. coffee mugs, teacups, wine glasses, water bottles, or soda cans?

water bottles

2. chocolate bars or lollipops?

ehhh depends on my mood. i’d say it’s (dark) chocolate most of the time (love that 70% dark chocolate mmMmMm)

3. bubblegum or cotton candy?

cotton candy!! except when it gets all over my face and hair o no

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you?

common report book comments included

- very active

- bright

- “the live wire of the class”

- usually distracted but still does well

- mischievous

- playful

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups?

bottles so that i can close it and save the rest for later and not have to chug it yeet

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear?

sportswear #sweatpantsalldayeveryday

7. earbuds or headphones?

def headphones but they’re inconvenient sometimes :/

8. movies or tv shows?

tv shows!! (also, my adhd ass can’t get through a movie without zoning out oops)

9. favorite smell in the summer?

i haven’t experienced /real/ summer (thank u singapore’s tropical climate) but i rly like the smell of rain :”)

10. game you were best at in p.e.?

making up excuses to skip pe

11. what you have for breakfast on an average day?

belvitas before morning practice

croissant sandwich and chocolate milk after practice

if there’s no practice, then scrambled eggs from the dining hall lolol

if i’m too lazy to go to the dining hall, then cereal

12. name of your favorite playlist?

it’s literally called jams and the description is “a clusterfuck of stuff i’ve jammed to at some point”

13. lanyard or key ring?

key ring

14. favorite non-chocolate candy?

gummy bears/sour patch kids

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment?

death of a salesman - arthur miller

16. most comfortable position to sit in?

with one foot up on the chair and the other leg sitting normally

17. most frequently worn pair of shoes?

a pair of asics sneakers

18. ideal weather?

15ºc/60ºf when its like cool but not too cold but also not ridiculously hot and also when theres no insane wind (a light breeze is fine)

19. sleeping position?

on my left side and hugging a pillow/bolster/soft toy

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)?

i like the feeling of pen and paper but im disorganized as hell so an apple pencil + ipad makes a good enough substitute

21. obsession from childhood?

frogs (i’ve loved them since i was 3 hehe)

22. role model?

a dude i used to train with for a while in 2014. he retired last year but he’s always looked out for me like an older brother since we trained together (he’s 8 years older than me lmao) and even thought i’m so far away rn he still checks in on me and stuff and idk he’s probably one of the swimmers i respect the most.

23. strange habits?

i cant fall asleep at night if im not hugging something.  like. it could be a pillow. or a soft toy. literally anything. once on a school trip i hugged a pair of sweatpants to sleep bc i legit cant fall asleep if im not hugging something.i have no problem falling asleep in class/on buses/cars/planes though.

24. favorite crystal?

idk i never really paid enough attention to crystals to actually have a favorite and know their names. they’re all rly pretty tho.

25. first song you remember hearing?

uhh h h i honestly can’t remember. probably some classical music bc i played the violin and that was my first experience of music that i was actually aware of????

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather?

switch on the aircon and take a nap / sit in bed on netflix/playing on my nintendo switch. and swimming outdoors i guess.

27. favorite activity to do in cold weather?

switch on the heater and take a nap / sit in bed on netflix/playing on my nintendo switch.

do u see a pattern here

28. five songs to describe you?

jet lag - simple plan (bc time zones suck and i miss my fam & friends)

avalanche - bring me the horizon (pretty much sums up how tf my brain feels)

high hopes - p!atd

astronaut - simple plan

the reckless and the brave - all time low

29. best way to bond with you?

doing dumb shit with me

also Quality Time™️ like idk even if we’re chilling and doing our own shit i like just spending time with people im comfortable enough with

30. places that you find sacred?

idk

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names?

a hoodie and sweatpants

for no reason other than that’s what i wear 90% of the time

32. top five favorite vines?

I AM CONFUSION!!! AMERICA EXPLAIN

this bitch empty. yeet.

im in my mom’s car VROOM VROOM

the one of that dad playing the saxophone (???) and the kid slamming the oven door open and shut

road works ahead “haha yea sure hope it does!”

33. most used phrase in your phone?

either lmao or lolol or LMFAO or yeet

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head?

gOD i had spotify ads stuck in my head all the time before i switched to premium and now i cant remember any of them (thank god)

35. average time you fall asleep?

i’d say 12:30-1ish

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing?

the tROLL FACE MEME LIKE those rage faces idk what they’re called but BASICALLY THOSE 2010-2012 era memes

37. suitcase or duffel bag?

suitcase!!! i like sitting on them and yeeting myself around on them or getting people to push me around and then falling off

38. lemonade or tea?

lemonade

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie?

ngl i havent had either of them before

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school?

so in jc2 (aka 12th grade), for some reason PEOPLE WERE PUTTING PRE-PACKAGED HARD BOILED EGGS ALL OVER THE SCHOOL. like they were still in their wrappers and all but u could open ur schoolbag and find like 5 eggs in there. and no one knew where they came from. i think at one point there were even eggs hanging from the pull-up bars. all i know is that they were everywhere and people in my batch still remember it as the egg invasion of acjc.

41. last person you texted?

my mom

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets?

def jacket!!! especially when they have zips hehe

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket?

hoodie

44. favorite scent for soap?

idk man depends on my mood

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero?

sci-fi bc im a fricken nerd

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in?

shirt and sweats

47. favorite type of cheese?

cheddarrr also i like mozzerrella sticks

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be?

a fineapple B)

lmao jk ummmm maybe a watermelon bc when u hit it it sounds hollow, just like how my skull would sound if someone hit it (h a)

49. what saying or quote do you live by?

here for a good time not for a long time

never give up without a fight

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have?

idk probably some dumb meme. i laugh at a lot of stuff like i laugh anything even mildly funny. some that i can think of off the top of my head are:

- i was tryna type ducky but typed fucky instead and sOmEOnE (could be the person who submitted this ask, idk tho) changed my facebook messenger nickname to fucky and the notification was like ”poopy butthole changed your nickname to fucky” and i think that’s still the funniest sentence i’ve read in my whole life

- one time we went to mcdonalds and a friend said mcfluffy instead of mcflurry and idk why but i laughed so hard at that

- once @doduo and i spent half a chinese lesson cutting out random faces from the chinese newspaper and sticking them randomly all over the classroom and idk. it was the funniest thing ever. until the teacher came over and confiscated my scissors rip.

51. current stresses?

- an essay draft (that i am procrastinating rn by doing this, oops)

- CANADIAN TRIALS (but thats a good kind of stress)

- submitting a proposal for a group project but none of my groupmates are freaking replying my texts ugh

52. favorite font?

avenir next!! i find san serif fonts way easier to read than serif lolol.i like helvetica neue too.

53. what is the current state of your hands?

dry af but also i just got my nails done so they pretty rn hehe

54. what did you learn from your first job?

i…havent had a real job yet

55. favorite fairy tale?

idk i was never rly one for fairy tales even as a kid.

56. favorite tradition?

chinese new year when we get CASH and we spend 3 days just eating junk yEET im rly sad im gonna be missing it the next few years tho

57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome?

hh h h hh hhh hh hh they’re pretty personal i don’t /really/ wanna put it out here but i can text you the answer to this if you want (i’m perfectly fine with that!!)

58. four talents you’re proud of having?

- i think i’m pretty intuitive!!! i can guess anyone’s mbti if i’ve spent enough time with them/gotten a detailed enough description of them /winks/ and i can read people pretty well in general and i can draw links to themes/symbols in lit pretty well….???

- i’m somewhat decent at lettering…i think

- i’m good at pull-ups and also vertical jumps i’m secretly a froge

- i’m decent at photography…i guess….

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be?

yeet

60. if you were a character in an anime, what kind of anime would you want it to be?

pokemon !!

61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.?

/sweats/ i’m not very good at remembering lines from books/movies/shows WELP

62. seven characters you relate to?

JAKE PERALTA - b99

rosa diaz - b99

linguine - ratatouille (he’s permanently confused and he let a ratto take over his job bc he had no idea what he was doing like damn what a big mood)

dory - finding nemo/finding dory (i relate to the forgetfulness)

percy jackson

kale bae /winks/

mitt (during bad phases) /winks again, but sadly/

63. five songs that would play in your club?

idek man i wouldnt even be at my own club i’d be at home taking a nap i’ll just ask someone else to handle my playlist

64. favorite website from your childhood?

club penguin !!!

65. any permanent scars?

yE one of them was from jumping onto a treadmill going at 13km/h 2 years ago bc i thought i was a good idea

66. favorite flower(s)?

i dont have any

67. good luck charms?

i eat pancakes for breakfast on meet days!!!! altho i think this is more of a habit than a good luck charm tbh lmao.

also i guess pip???? he’s my emotional support narwhal :’)

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried?

durian. i cant stand the stuff or anything flavored like it ugh.

69. a fun fact that you don’t know how you learned?

red food coloring is derived from beetles

70. left or right handed?

right

71. least favorite pattern?

overly-floral patterns i guessssss. also i hate wearing stripes.

72. worst subject?

chinese

besides that, math and physics

73. favorite weird flavor combo?

i rly like vanilla ice cream and fries

also i would eat ketchup with nearly anything

74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen?

i usually just suck it up and go to sleep when it comes to pain but i guess an 8??? idk. i usually take advil/ibuprofen only for fevers

75. when did you lose your first tooth?

i got my first loose tooth on january 11 2005 and it fell out on january 18 2005 & it was a tuesday (pls don’t ask me how i remember this bc i dont know)

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)?

tater tots

77. best plant to grow on a windowsill?

cactus i guess. idk im not good at plants.

78. coffee from a gas station or sushi from a grocery store?

grocery store sushi (it was pretty decent in singapore so yeeeee lmao also i ate a lot of that as a kid)

79. which looks better, your school id photo or your driver’s license photo?

its the same photo for both so yeAh

80. earth tones or jewel tones?

earth

81. fireflies or lightning bugs?

idk i always called them fireflies

82. pc or console?

console I LOVE THE FEEL OF BUTTONS

83. writing or drawing?

drawing (more like doodlign for me bc i cant draw for shit)

84. podcasts or talk radio?

neither but if i rlllllly had to choose then podcasts i guessss s sss

84. barbie or polly pocket?

neither LMAO i gave all my barbies haircuts when i was a kid bc i didnt know what to do with them

85. fairy tales or mythology?

mythology for sure!! i love greek mythology (may or may not be bc of percy jackson lolol)

86. cookies or cupcakes?

cookies

87. your greatest fear?

losing those i love and care about (could be drifting or actual death it goes both ways)

88. your greatest wish?

rn, for my essay to write itself

for the short-term, to make the olympics (and WUGs…and worlds…and sea games…and asian games…and commonwealth games lmao)

for the long-term, uhhh idk. i just wanna live a life i’m satisfied with and to have a job i actually like and to be able to support my parents

89. who would you put before everyone else?

my mom

90. luckiest mistake?

i always say that i regret doing a year of college in singapore instead of coming here for freshman year but if i’d come in a year earlier like i was supposed to, i proba wouldn’t have made it past swim team tryouts and i made some pretty great friends in my first year of college soooo it all worked out i guessi cant think of any others rn

91. boxes or bags?

bags

92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights?

fairy lights are rly pretty!!but i like natural light :”)

93. nicknames?

deb

debs

debo

debbo

alpha childuhh h h i think thats about it??? i cant remember any others

94. favorite season?

spring’s pretty great rni like fall too (before it gets cOLd)

95. favorite app on your phone?

insta/tumblr/telegram

96. desktop background?

a photo of me looking rly cool at the starting blocks before a race B)

97. how many phone numbers do you have memorized?

4 - mine (singapore & US), my mom’s and my dad’s

98. favorite historical era?

uhh h h idk the ice age seemed pretty cool haha sike it was actually coldmedieval times seemed pretty cool too like damn i want a suit of armorWHEW I SPENT WAY TOO MUCH TIME ON THIS but i had fun so yeet

also if you read all the way down here ily and you’re cool

[2traveldads-blog]

We will never not appreciate how colorful Mexico is. From our trips around Baja California Sur to road trippin’ on the Yucatan, there are always new places to enjoy. The colorful towns of the Yucatan are exceptionally cool and fun, and each is so different! OMG, road trip theme: colorful towns and street art. Okay, here you go!

Your complete Yucatan road trip itinerary (with bonus plans)

Starting in Cancun, since that’s where you fly into usually, grab your rental car and plan your stops.  The plan I’ve made here is good for a four to six day road trip focusing on towns and relaxation, but it could easily be stretched out to ten days if you wanted. And know that this plan doesn’t include every cenote or Mayan ruins site, but you can add those in too.

First stop: Puerto Morelos

South of Cancun about forty minutes, this colorful little town is at the start of the Ruta de Cenotes: the Cenotes Road.  While it isn’t a resort town, per se, it’s very much centered around tourism and the beach. The town square is just off the beach and it’s surrounded by small hotels and open air restaurants. There is some beautiful street art, plenty of colorful buildings, and a small malecon for strolling

This town is great for a day trip if you’re in the mood to relax and people watch, or if you are looking for a quiet town to escape to for a few days.  There are tourists here, but not many. Puerto Morelos feels like the town locals probably visit when they’re having their own beach days…

Note: near the beach the prices of EVERYTHING are crazy.  It’s not that I’m an American that wants to haggle or something, but I was looking for an inexpensive beach towel and the only options were very cheap small towels for $27 or $36 USD. And there was no compromise. The prices and mood here are very different from more touristy areas.

Ideas for activities around Puerto Morelos include boat tours to get out on the water, chillin’ on the beach, driving the Ruta de Cenotes (love Cenotes Siete Bocas!), or using this as a home base for visits to Cancun or Playa del Carmen.

Chillin’ in Playa del Carmen

Playa del Carmen has been one of my favorite spots in Mexico for a few years. Yes, it’s totally built up now and there are tourists and vacationers EVERYWHERE, but it’s still awesome. The town itself is colorful and fun with the feel of a small city.  The beach is easily accessible from nearly everywhere, the residents are welcoming, and the food is stellar. Can you go wrong mixing Mexican food and super fresh seafood? No.

Staying at Club Yebo Hotel – Playa del Carmen

An ideal spot for overnighting in Playa del Carmen, the Club Yebo Hotel was super cool. Nestled into one of the more quiet streets just off the main strip in Playa del Carmen, it was exactly what I’d hoped. The courtyard was kind of a jungle with huge trees and elevated walkways, the pool area was beautiful and calm, and my room was simple with plenty of space and amenities.

At night, despite being right between the beach and the party scene of Playa del Carmen, it was very quiet. In the morning, I was able to grab coffee and breakfast just outside the hotel at the little cafe. It was kind of perfect.

Tip:  follow Club Yebo Hotel on Instagram to get ideas for visiting Playa del Carmen, to get inspiration to plan a trip, or to watch for deals that they share through social media.

Playa del Carmen at night

Who knew Playa del Carmen was such a crazy place? Until this last trip I’d only visited Playa in the daytime and now I know where Mexico goes to party. There were more people out in Playa after dark than I’ve seen anywhere else, including the Castro of San Francisco. Shoulder to shoulder people in some spots. There were countless restaurants with outdoor seating, lots of bars, there were break dancers, street performers and so much more. The spectacle of Playa del Carmen at night is something to experience. And street tacos too.

Akumal: colorful nature

This is one of my favorite places in Mexico. I’ve been here before (check out my article) and it was incredible. This most recent visit was just as incredible as before.

The town site of Akumal is built around the beach, as this is the prime destination on the Yucatan for spotting and swimming with sea turtles. Little pockets of restaurants and small hotels are all within a two minute walk to the playa. If you’re into larger resorts, there are a few options here in Akumal, but even those are mellow in comparison to what you’ll find in Cancun.

When it comes to experiencing wildlife in Akumal, that’s where I start to ramble. On this last trip, I saw seven sea turtles swimming, eating sea grass on the floor, and resting. One even swam over to investigate me!  I’ve seen stingrays, loads of tropical fish, and just enjoyed laying in the sand. It’s perfect.

Note:  there are times that Turtle Cove at Akumal is closed due to too many tourists or a lot of turtles laying in the area. Getting to swim with the turtles isn’t a guarantee, but if you do, you need to exercise caution and respect.

Also in Akumal is Cenote Yal Ku. At the end of the beach road you’ll find a small parking area and an attendant in a palapa style structure. You pay your entry fee ($15 USD as of Feb 2017) and make your way to the most unique cenote. Hugely open and full of mangroves, Cenote Yal Ku is unlike any other I’ve visited. The fish population was off the charts and the direct connection to the Caribbean made for an interesting flow of water as I snorkeled. So fun and colorful!

Valladolid:  colorful Mexico

This is my new favorite city in Mexico. Valladolid was so colorful and full of amazing sights! I hate to play to the millennial vibe, but it’s seriously the most Instagramable place I’ve ever visited. Between the towering church in El Centro to the colorful buildings lining the narrow streets, to the plethora of old VW beetles, it’s a photographer’s dream.

Valladolid still feels rather undiscovered when you consider the larger Yucatan towns like Cancun or Playa. Unlike the main tourist areas, you do actually need to speak Spanish in Valladolid. Primarily, the town is a residential one and also home to the local Universidad de Valladolid. If I wanted to stay someplace totally chill and beautiful that the whole family would enjoy, Valladolid would be it. Yes, not close to any beaches, but there’s a cenote right in the middle of town, so…

Yes! There is an enormous cenote directly in downtown Valladolid. Cenote Xin Ha is one of the largest cenotes on the Yucatan and is, hands down, one of the coolest natural wonders I’ve ever seen. There’s a fee for entry of course, but find me a cenote that doesn’t cost something. Once you’re scaling the steps down into the grand cavern, you have the option of doing the full loop or just jumping in off any given cliff. I did the loop and checked out the bat caves and stalactites, but eventually found a small cliff to jump off of that didn’t make me terrified. After relaxing for a bit, I hiked back out and continued to explore the town. Lovely time in Valladolid!

Tip: the city is very walkable and safe, but you need to be sure you’re parking legally, as Valladolid doesn’t have clearly marked parking areas/signs. I had to chat with the police upon returning to my car, and they were awesome and hilarious about my parking job, but it could’ve gone a different path.

Bonus city: Merida on the Western Yucatan

If you have time, spend a day or two in Merida. We haven’t visited yet, but everybody says it’s beautiful and its Spanish colonial heritage makes for some interesting historic sites.  This is also where you can stay if you plan on visiting Rio Lagartos or Los Colorados for flamingo viewing. Just an idea…

And think of all the colorful VWs you can spot on your drive across the Yucatan…

Next colorful Yucatan stop: Isla Holbox

I returned my car to Alamo Rent a Car at the Cancun airport and headed to the international arrivals terminal to meet a friend. We found our driver with Transfer Holbox and buckled up.  This was a mini road trip itself.

A couple of hours in the shuttle and a few Coronas later we made it to Chiquila, a tiny town on the water where we would be catching the ferry to Isla Holbox. It was a beautiful Caribbean night so we sat on the upper deck and enjoyed the ride while a local busted out his amp and microphone and sang for tips.  It was all too fun to be true, but it was.

Note: there are different boats that do the ferry service, and depending on the model of boat and the roughness of the waters, sitting outside may not be an option due to the huge waves/spray.

Exploring Isla Holbox

This cool little island is off the northern tip of the Yucatan and it’s still fairly chill for being a Caribbean destination. It’s a strange place, I’ll be honest. And FYI, it’s said “Hole-bosh.”

You arrive by boat and that in itself is kind of an adventure. Once you’re on the island, the only transportation is via golf cart taxis or bikes that you rent. Actually, you could also rent your own golf cart if you really wanted. There isn’t pavement except for some areas of the town with paved sidewalks.

The town of Holbox is very similar to other Mexican towns in that it’s pretty colorful and is 60% restaurants. What makes it different (in addition to the golf carts) is that it’s full of street art and hammocks. Yeah, both in the water and in the town you can use or rent hammocks to chill out randomly.

We ate at several different restaurants in town, but my favorite was El Champlin. This small restaurant in the heart of downtown, just off the main square, has no menu. Each day the chef sees what’s fresh and available and makes four dishes. When we went, the options were stewed shrimps, bone-in tenderloin, lobster and cream sauce, and grouper (fish) with poblano peppers. I had the grouper and it was remarkable. Delicious with a really subtle heat.

Overall, the food of Isla Holbox really seemed to be Mexican inspired but big-city trendy. It was not what I was expecting.

Isla Holbox has plenty of hotels to choose from (we stayed at Villa Flamingos) and pricing is still fairly inexpensive for being the Caribbean. It seemed that most of the visitors to the island were either from Canada or Europe. There weren’t a ton of Americans in town.

Tip: if you can be on Isla Holbox for Carnival, do it! It’s not like Carnival in Venice or Mardi Gras in Mobile, but it’s fun and the whole town is in on the party.

Gah, there is so much more that we could share about visiting the colorful towns of the Yucatan, but this is good for now.  Be sure to check out our other articles about Quintana Roo, including:

Playa del Carmen

Swimming with Sea Turtles in Akumal

The Coba Ruins

Travel for Yoga: Isla Holbox Yoga Retreat

Cenotes of the Yucatan / Cenotes Dos Ojos (my fav)

…and so much more!!!

And you should for sure pin this for planning your own colorful towns of the Yucatan road trip. It’ll be so much fun!!!

Yucatan Peninsula road trip: colorful towns of the Yucatan We will never not appreciate how colorful Mexico is. From our trips around Baja California Sur…

[owenteaguer]

1-150 love u hot ma

omg baby you’re too good to me..... you shouldn’t have.......... but I’m gonna do it because I’m bored as shit ;)

but I’ll be kind to everyone and make it a “see more” type of thing lol

1. Who was the last person you held hands with?

My dog, he’s my best friend

2. Are you outgoing or shy?

Both! Probably more shy, but I can be outgoing. I am an introvert 

3. Who are you looking forward to seeing?

My cousins! Though who knows when I’ll see them. They’re major flakes. I always look forward to seeing my niece, as well. I am also looking forward to seeing the love of my life, but who knows when that’ll be!

4. Are you easy to get along with?

I think so, yes. I try to relate to others and make jokes involving them, so people usually chat with me. But I can be stubborn and annoying so :P

5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you?

Owen Teague? Babe? Want to come take care of me? Just kidding. But I don’t know who I like right now, and if I did like them I don’t think they would unless I was with them? I don’t know, it is doubtful. 

6. What kind of people are you attracted to?

Oh god, edgy boys hahaha. Adam Driver and Owen Teague are excellent examples. But I like fun people who like to joke around and don’t take life too seriously.... but also know what their goals are and stuff

7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?

I fucking hope so, but I doubt it. I don’t get out much, and I need to work on myself more. But I really would like a relationship because I’m needy and lonely.

8. Who from the opposite gender is on your mind?

Owen, Adam 

9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable?

Depends who with. My mom and her boyfriend? Yes, most definitely. With my best friend? Nope. We talk about it all the time lmao

10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with? 

Hm, probably my best friend/cousin

11. What does the most recent text that you sent say?

“it wouldn’t take long but it’s just a matter of me doing it” and “I mean... yes. I was just adding what I thought was a funny point”

12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now?

be calm - fun. (back into fun. currently lol)

bae - the front bottoms

the beers - the front bottoms

all my heroes - bleachers

take your time (coming home) - fun.

13. Do you like it when people play with your hair?

yes! it feels great

14. Do you believe in luck and miracles?

yes, unfortunately. but with a grain of salt, I guess

15. What good thing happened this summer?

I went to Germany! 

16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?

Never been kissed :,(

17. Do you think there is life on other planets?

Answered this previously - but yes

18. Do you still talk to your first crush?

No lmao that was kindergarten or preschool

19. Do you like bubble baths?

I like the idea of them, I don’t like that I 1. don’t have bubble bath stuff and 2. the soap just stays on your body unless you shower after

20. Do you like your neighbors?

No, and I wish I did. But they’re douchey and nosey and annoying 

21. What are you bad habits?

cracking knuckles!

22. Where would you like to travel?

Europe! Scotland specifically

23. Do you have trust issues?

Yes but I also just tell people randomly really deep things about myself and it is a Problem

24. Favorite part of your daily routine?

The moment when you find the perfect place on the pillow and you’re perfectly comfortable and ready to go to sleep. And the last few moments of being awake. Love the feeling of absolute exhaustion 

25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with?

My stomach Lol but I imagine if I was happy with it I’d just be uncomfortable with something else. Also really hating my skin right now... I’ve been taking great care of it and it has gone to SHIT. But I also think I figured out why

26. What do you do when you wake up?

Well recently I’ve been messing around on my phone then falling back asleep for another hour+. but usually brush my teeth after checking my phone

27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker?

I am content with my extremely pale ass skin, but I wish it was clearer Lol

28. Who are you most comfortable around?

My best friend/cousin, I guess, but still not completely comfortable with her

29. Have any of your ex’s told you they regret breaking up?

Don’t have any ex’s because I’ve never dated anyone !

30. Do you ever want to get married?

Very badly and it hurts me. I just want to love someone, y’know?

31. If your hair long enough for a pony tail?

Yes, but like 1/4-1/2 of it falls out. It is a Look

32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with?

Owen Teague and Adam Driver :-D

33. Spell your name with your chin.

0-pasioge

34. Do you play sports? What sports?

Not since middle school, but I played soccer

35. Would you rather live without TV or music?

No TV, I think. I’d be content with books. Especially if TV meant cable because I never ever watch cable but I do watch netflix

36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them?

fuck yes

37. What do you say during awkward silences?

some embarrassing ass shit

38. Describe your dream girl/guy?

not to be ~that person~ but owen teague is my ideal man. He plays instruments, loves to read, is in a band, is a photography, is an artist, and a successful actor, with his life pretty much made. And he is so attractive, like, my type of attractive. and is a Sagittarius! but generally I look for someone who is kind and funny, smart, likes to read and gets invested into stories/shows/movies, has interests deeper than day-to-day stuff, and has some sort of plan or course of action for their future. But being in a band is a huge bonus

39. What are your favorite stores to shop in?

Costco, Target, michael’s, walmart because there is weird shit there for cheap

40. What do you want to do after high school?

well I’m out of high school, and I’m doing nothing.... so nothing? :P

41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?

Depends on the person, so I guess I don’t believe that. But I believe in second chances

42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean?

I’m upset in some way but I don’t want to confront it myself because I hate confrontation. or I’m tired

43. Do you smile at strangers?

yes

44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean?

answered this in more depth in the last post, but ocean

45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning?

coffee! and day plans. things I’m invested in, like puzzles or seeing people

46. What are you paranoid about?

life plans, a career path, if i’ll be successful, what my friends and others think of me, me being a failure, etc

47. Have you ever been high?

yep! for the first time this year a few weeks ago

48. Have you ever been drunk?

yep! in mexico a few years ago and in Germany over summer

49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about?

well I hope my mom doesn’t find out about me smoking weed until I move out Lol

50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore?

blue! I’m wearing it now

51. Ever wished you were someone else?

all the time!

52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself?

size

53. Favourite makeup brand?

don’t really wear makeup, but i like elf and nyx

54. Favourite store?

costco! and target

55. Favourite blog?

i’m not sure, i don’t know that many

56. Favourite colour?

navy blue/indigo

57. Favourite food?

hamburgers  

58. Last thing you ate?

mac and cheese

59. First thing you ate this morning?

coffee because i’m an animal

60. Ever won a competition? For what?

yes, for a stuff bear at the fair. his name is bearemy

61. Been suspended/expelled? For what?

nope

62. Been arrested? For what?

nope

63. Ever been in love? 

i use the phrase “love of my life” but no

64. Tell us the story of your first kiss?

hasn’t happened ;(

65. Are you hungry right now?

nada

66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends?

i only have so many, but they’re currently talking to me so yes

67. Facebook or Twitter?

twitter

68. Twitter or Tumblr?

right now tumblr, but i’ve used twitter more

69. Are you watching tv right now?

no

70. Names of your bestfriends? 

hayley

71. Craving something? What?

chocolate milk

72. What colour are your towels?

navy blue, blue, and white

72. How many pillows do you sleep with?

6 :P

73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?

yes

74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have?

a lot. like three on my bed.... probably 10 ish total?

75. Favourite animal?

snails and otters

76. What colour is your underwear?

pink

77. Chocolate or Vanilla?

chocolate

78. Favourite ice cream flavour?

rocky road or chocolate chip cookie dough

79. What colour shirt are you wearing?

black with white ringers 

80. What colour pants?

light purple with dark purple dots (theyre pjs)

81. Favourite tv show?

atypical, game of thrones, idk

82. Favourite movie?

hercules and labyrinth 

83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?

never seen them

84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street?

never seen either

85. Favourite character from Mean Girls?

do not know

86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo?

i like the whale shark from finding dory. but i guess the “you just made me ink!” octopus is cute

87. First person you talked to today?

my mama

88. Last person you talked to today?

my friend mik

89. Name a person you hate?

peyton >:(

90. Name a person you love?

my niece, nova

91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?

not particularly

92. In a fight with someone?

not that i know of? but everyone i know is ignoring me lmao

93. How many sweatpants do you have?

one, but many other comfy pants

94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have?

sooooooo fucking many

95. Last movie you watched?

some shit christmas kids movie

96. Favourite actress?

hm, don’t think i have one

97. Favourite actor?

owen teague, adam driver, are you shocked?

98. Do you tan a lot?

no the sun hurts you

99. Have any pets?

yes i have one dog, bo, and my mom has a bunch of pets

100. How are you feeling?

entertained

101. Do you type fast?

yes i was forced into a class on typing. but even if i wasn’t i would be a fast typer i imagine

102. Do you regret anything from your past?

i regret not making out with my old coworker even though it wouldve been weird lmao

103. Can you spell well?

yes i can

104. Do you miss anyone from your past?

i miss my aunt julie and uncle schad, but i never knew them. and my grandpa

105. Ever been to a bonfire party?

yep, but not any fun ones. mostly from being stuck with my dad

106. Ever broken someone’s heart?

not that i know of

107. Have you ever been on a horse?

yes and i have a strong dislike towards them

108. What should you be doing?

helping my mom clean for christmas, cleaning my room, sleeping, working on christmas gifts

109. Is something irritating you right now?

my friend seems to be angry with me for no reason. and my best friend is not talkign to me at all for some reason ??

110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt?

@ owen 

111. Do you have trust issues?

i think i answered this maybe? but yes i just impulsively tell people things lol

112. Who was the last person you cried in front of?

my best friend probably

113. What was your childhood nickname?

my dad called/calls me mooncricket. my sister called me paigey wedgie

114. Have you ever been out of your province/state?

yep! many times

115. Do you play the Wii?

yessss, animal crossing city folk changed my life. been using the wiiu nowadays though

116. Are you listening to music right now?

yep, the front bottoms - don’t fill up on chips

117. Do you like chicken noodle soup?

yes but mostly when its homemade

118. Do you like Chinese food?

FUCK YES!!

119. Favourite book?

i don’t particularly have one, idk

120. Are you afraid of the dark?

yes

121. Are you mean?

i can be, unfortunately. but i have been making it a point to be nice and not judgmental (but still workin on it)

122. Is cheating ever okay?

nope

123. Can you keep white shoes clean?

not with my goddamn doof of a dog

124. Do you believe in love at first sight?

maybe with food. or with owen teague lmao

125. Do you believe in true love?

yes i am a huge cheesy romantic

126. Are you currently bored?

not so much anymore

127. What makes you happy?

my dog, owen and adam, jack antonoff, my favorite people, the cute tumblr peeps i talk to

128. Would you change your name?

no i dont think so. paige is kind of a basic name but i havent met many paige’s

129. What your zodiac sign?

aries!

130. Do you like subway?

yes. oven roasted chicken breast is good shit

131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?

we’re fuckin

132. Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with?

this q was literally number 10 on this list

133. Favourite lyrics right now?

hm.....

-if youre lonely, lonely, lonely wake me

-so come on, motherfucker, you survived you gotta give yourself a break

-there’s no love like apathy

134. Can you count to one million?

i have never tried and i don’t think i want to

135. Dumbest lie you ever told?

i don’t think i can remember any lie. maybe just a small lie??

136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed?

closed, otherwise my dogs would break in

137. How tall are you?

5′7

138. Curly or Straight hair?

i have wavy, but i don’t mind either way

139. Brunette or Blonde?

i’m brunette, and i like brunettes

140. Summer or Winter?

winter!

141. Night or Day?

night

142. Favourite month?

april because i’m basic and it’s my bday month

143. Are you a vegetarian?

nada

144. Dark, milk or white chocolate?

milk. but white chocolate mochas? 10/10

145. Tea or Coffee?

both! but i drink coffee more

146. Was today a good day?

yes, pretty basic, but good

147. Mars or Snickers?

snickers, though i don’t particularly like either to any extreme

148. What’s your favourite quote?

oof.... the first one i can think of is “i don’t know where i’m going from here but i can promise it won’t be boring” -bowie, but idk if its a fav

149. Do you believe in ghosts?

i answered this more in depth before, but yes

150. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page? 

“moaning, strangled sound and I have to be quick to awaken her and hold her...”

wow i made it

[shadowboxmind]

85 things

tagged by @whoisaudreytoday so uh here goes

So rules are to answer the stuff below and tag 20 people. I can’t tag 20 people but :P

the last:

1. drink: water

2. phone call: my mom to ask her to pick up my little brother’s book from the library

3. text message: a friend to tell him how to find a hamilton video on youtube (this kind of thing btw)

4. song: "Cheshire Kitten (We’re All Mad Here)” by S.J. Tucker

5. time you cried: Monday after arguing with my mom

have you ever:

6. dated someone twice: nah (no dating for me)

7. kissed someone and regretted it: nah (no kissing for me)

8. been cheated on: nah (no dating etc. etc.)

9. lost someone special: yea

10. been depressed: yee yee

11. gotten drunk and thrown up: Can’t drink, don’t want to

favorite colors:

12. dark green. Like the green of healthy lawn grass in the shade

13. Deep blue

14. Red, tending towards the darker shades

15: Gold

16: A nice, pale pink

in the last year have you:

17. laughed until you cried: yeah. Recently, in fact. See the hamilton video linked above

18. found out someone was talking about you: in what way? Because my mom loves to talk about me to other parents when she thinks I can’t hear

19. met someone who changed you: Probably! I may not be conscious of it but it’s almost definitely happened

20. found out who your friends are: I hope so

21. kissed someone on your facebook list: Nope

22. made friends: Yeah boi

23. fallen out of love: Mmm no

general:

25. what did you do for your last birthday: I don’t know... We might have seen a movie? I honestly don’t remember I don’t really celebrate

26. how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: All of them, but only like 5 are actual friends. The rest are just classmates because I have facebook as a school necessity

27. do you have any pets: No, I wish tho (I plan to befriend the crows as soon as I find a relatively foolproof way of keeping my parents from interfering)

28. what time did you wake up: 10 ish? I got a week of summer left I’m using it

29. what were you doing at midnight last night: taking a shower

30. name something you can’t wait for: Meeting some of my friends next summer! also getting out of high school

31: what are you listening to right now: a weedwhacker in the distance

32: have you ever talked to a person named tom: yep a classmate

33: something that’s getting on your nerves: heckin college apps

34. do you want to change your name: Not really

35. hair color: Black. Or if you’re nitpicky dark brown but yeah

36. long or short hair: Medium ish. It’s grown out since I cut it a few months ago

37. piercings: Nope!

38. tattoos: Nope!

39. blood type: O. idk beyond that

40. nicknames: Phoenix, Nixy, Nix, etc. 

41. relationship status: N/A

42. zodiac: I think I’m Virgo

43. pronouns: she/her

44. most visited website: Tie between Youtube, Gmail, and Tumblr probably

45. right or left handed: Right

46. surgeries: nope. Wisdom teeth pending

47. sports: Used to do swim team

48. favorite tv show: Uhhhh Young Justice, Legend of Korra, Avatar the Last Airbender, please don’t make me choose

49. vacations: Summer vacations tend to be either back to China or a road trip somewhere. California, before, or to Canada for a day or two. We’ve gone to Mexico twice for winter break

50. sneakers: I have a pink pair that I don’t really wear because they aren’t comfortable

more general:

52. eating: rice. tomatoes and eggs. potatoes.

53. fave drink: apple juice probably

54. what you’re up to: procrastinating on college essays

55. waiting for: the start of school and college app hell

56. want: to sleep and to figure out Opentoonz

57. get married: Depends on circumstances. So, tentatively maybe-yes

58. career: I cannot make up my mind so ideally something arts/writing related or conservation related

which is better:

60. hugs or kisses: hugs hugs hugs

61. lips or eyes: eyeballs

62. shorter or taller: On the one hand shorter people make me feel tall on the other hand I have a certain weird pride in being real short so? either

63. older or younger: For friends? I don’t particularly care, I just want to be able to make jokes they can understand and have shared interests

64. nice arms or stomach: Arms? I like arm muscles I suppose

65. hook up or relationship: Nnnnneither. Well, platonic relationship

66. troublemaker or hesitant: Hesitant

have you ever:

67. kissed a stranger: No kisses

68. drank hard liquor: No alcohol

69. lost glasses/contacts: I have lost individual contacts for a few minutes but otherwise nah

70. turned someone down: Not for anything romantic, no

71. sex on the first date: Nooo

72. broken someone’s heart: I don’t think so

73. had your heart broken: Nope

74. been arrested: Nope

75. cried when someone died: ye

76. fallen for a friend: Not romantically, no

do you believe in:

77. yourself: Haaaaa maybe? On certain things

78. miracles: A tentative yes.

79. love at first sight: mmmmmm I’ll say no. Unless it’s for an animal. I have loved many animals at first sight

80. santa claus: No

81. kiss on the first date: No kisses. No dates either for that matter

82. angels: Tentative no

other:

83. current best friend’s name(s): N/A

84. eye color: Brown

85. favorite movie: Uhhhh I put Pacific Rim on my college app so there’s that

um um if it’s okay to tag you guys (no obligation to do this) @sunshines-stories @ivegotonefriend @ollie-official @guyorsomething @marfacat @cariykon @alrightmomentgone and any followers who want to, I’d love to see your answers :)

[morningstarfallen1-archive]

Do the surprise me q's mun!!

1. If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?[[ Tbh I don’t sleep anyway, so I’d basically just do what I already do, spend all my time playing PS4, browsing tumblr and smoking weed! ]]

2. What’s your favorite piece of clothing you own/owned?[[ My favourite piece of clothing right now would have to be my LiS T-Shirt! ]] 

3. What hobby would you get into if time and money weren’t an issue?[[ Would either have to be acting or MMA, completely different sides of the spectrum, but yeah! ]]

4. How often do you play sports?[[ I don’t at all. I used to play Badminton when I was in high school but that was it! ]]

5. What fictional place would you most like to go to?[[ NGL I would love to be in Storybrooke! Once Upon a Time is a brilliant show and I love all of the characters so I would have to say Storybrooke, yeah! ]]

6. What job would you be terrible at?[[ I would be atrociously bad at being an accountant or an English Teacher, I’m terrible with numbers and I’m dyselxic with reading! ]]

7. If you could turn any activity into an Olympic sport, what would you have a good chance at winning a medal for?[[ Does smoking weed and being a lazy shit count because I’m sure I’d win gold? ]]

8. What skill would you like to master?[[ I would love to master playing at least one musical instrument, I only know basics of guitar, very very little piano, basic flute and obviously vocals but I would love to master one of them! ]]

9. What do you not want me to ask you?[[ …tbh I don’t mind what I’m asked so please feel free to ask me anything at all, I’ll be happy to either answer or expertly avoid answering it! ]]

10. What would be the most amazing adventure to go on?[[ I would love to go on a major road trip to visit all the abandoned asylums of the world! Ngl I’m a bit of a weirdo like that but they always fascinate me! ]]

11. If you could change one thing about your life right now, what would you change and why? [[ I would change the fact that I am a major mind fuck and need to properly sort myself out before I ruin my own life and others around me :/ ]]

12. What’s your favorite drink? [[ Non-Alcoholic would have to be Irn Bru and Alcoholic would have to be Southern Comfort and Lemonade ]] 

13. What do you consider to be your best find? [[ I’m not even gonna try and make an answer up for this one, I have no idea, I have a memory like a sieve ]] 

14. Are you usually early or late?[[ I’m usually early. I HATE being late for things so I always try and make sure that I leave with plenty of time to spare! ]]

15. What pets did you have while growing up?[[ I had a puppy that unfortunately got run over because he escaped the house when he was only a few months old :( and I have also had a rabbit and 2 hamsters. I’ve not got any pets now though ]] 

16. When people come to you for help, what do they usually want help with?[[ Relationship advice (funny seeing as I’m single and yet again questioning my sexuality :/) and Transgender issues and advice ]]

17. What takes up too much of your time?[[ UNI…UNI…OH DID I MENTION UNI?! ]]

18. What do you wish you knew more about?[[ I wish I knew more about the course I am currently doing at uni because I’m ngl I am genuinely going in blind here, I am at so much or a loss it’s unreal! ]]

19. What would be your first question after waking up from being cryogenically frozen for 100 years?[[ How much more have we fucked the world compared to 100 years ago? ]]

20. What are some small things that make your day better? [[ Weed, My friends (especially Tristan and Fraser), stupid jokes in the internet, listening to music ]]

21. Who’s your go-to band or artist when you can’t decide on something to listen to? [[ Pentatonix ]]

22. What shows are you into?[[ Well here is a list for ya:

Once Upon a Time

iZombie

The Walking Dead (Only on season 4, I know I’m slow!)

Rick and Morty

Big Mouth

Archer

Family Guy

Disjointed

American Horror Story

Gotham

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Grace and Frankie

Scream (Series)

23. Who has impressed you most with what they’ve accomplished?[[ To be perfectly honest. I’m most impressed with myself. I have accomplished so much in my life that it is hard to believe that am I were am I today, even if I do still suffer from depression and anxiety ]]

24. What age do you wish you could permanently be?[[ any age between 25 and 30 ]]

25. What would be your ideal way to spend the weekend?[[ In my bed, with munchies, my playstation controller and a huge bag of weed ]]

26. What’s something you like to do the old-fashioned way?[[ As much as MP3 and MP4 and all this sort of stuff are a great way for music moving forward, nothing will beat the sound that comes from a Vinyl record! ]]

27. What have you only recently formed an opinion on?[[ My own sexuality :/ ]]

28. What’s the single best day on the calendar?[[ Now that’s a hard one to choose tbh because everyone will more than likely choose one of the more obvious holidays such as Halloween, Christmas, Easter and their birthday, the usual ones to pick but tbh I would have to say the single best day on the calendar is The first day of Autumn, mainly because it means that all the best times in the year are usually about to happen :) ]]

29. What are you interested in that most people haven’t heard of?[[ There are a lot of bands and artists that I am interested in that most people I know would never have heard of which is sad but it happens! ]]

30. What is the most annoying question that people ask you?[[ “Did you dye your hair blue because you’re a rangers supporter?” NO MY HAIR COLOUR HAS FUCK ALL TO DO WITH FOOTBALL!! ]]

31. What could you give a 40-minute presentation on without absolutely no preparation?[[ I gave a 30 minute presentation on teaching last year in uni without a lot of preparation so I’m sure I could pull a presentation about something I am actually interested in without any preparation at all! So I would have to say I could give a 40 minute presentation of Life is Strange with no problem at all xD ]] 

32. If you were a dictator of a small island nation, what crazy dictator stuff would you do?[[ I would more than likely just lower the prices of video games and consoles, legalize weed and get my people to build puppy cafes in every city and town xD ]]

33. What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives?[[ I feel that everyone show at least get to travel to a different country, no matter where it is, they should get to experience a different country to their own at least once. ]]

34. What’s worth spending more on to get the best?[[ Weed :P I’m sorry have I mentioned that I am a stoner? ]]

35. What is something that a ton of people are obsessed with but you just don’t get the point of?[[ Game of Thrones… I am so sorry guys, I just don’t get it. I’ve seen a couple of episodes and I just don’t see why it’s such an obsessive program ]]

36. What are you most looking forward to in the next 10 years[[ Graduating from Uni with a BA (Hons), Going to Florida again next year, Going to see Katya in Feb, Going to Amsterdam with my friends and hopefully finally sorting myself out and realizing what I truly want in life. ]]

37. Where is the most interesting place you’ve been?[[ Isle of Man. It is such a historical little place and so full of info and interesting stuff! ]]

38. What’s something you’ve been meaning to try but just haven’t gotten around to?[[ There are a few games that I keep saying I’m gonna give them a go and still haven’t gotten around to doing so! ]]

39. What’s the best thing that happened to you last week?[[ I met a good group of people that have become good friends while I was in Italy last week! ]]

40. What piece of entertainment do you wish you could erase from your mind so that you could experience it for the first time again?[[ Life is Strange! ]]

41. If all jobs had the same pay and hours, what job would you like to have?[[ A video game tester! ]]

42. How different was your life one year ago?[[ It wasn’t much different from what it is now. Still working in the same job, still single as fuck, still a student, so yeah, not much different at all ]] 

43. What’s the best way to start the day?[[ If possible, with a little wake and bake but if not then a good cup of coffee or tea and a good bed stretch! not in the order obviously! ]]

44. What quirks do you have?[[ I don’t really know my own quirks, my friends seem to point them out to me now and again, like apparently I pull the same face in all my selfies, I’m quite ocd when it comes to putting money into my wallet, they notes have to be facing the same way and put into order of note worth xD ]] 

45. What would you rate 10/10?[[ Chloe Price is 10/10 in my eyes! ]]

46. What kind of art do you enjoy most?[[ Music. Music is my favourite kind of art ]] 

47. What do you hope never changes?[[ to be honest, I really don’t know. There are that many things in my life that I do want to change that I can’t think of anything I don’t want to change. ]] 

48. What city would you most like to live in?[[ I already live in Glasgow and even if I do say I hate the place I actually love it, it’s a beautiful city, just a lot of the people here are dickheads! ]]

49. What movie title best describes your life?[[ A Series of Unfortunate Events ]] 

50. What’s the best way a person can spend their time? [[ The best way to spend your time is by doing something you enjoy and not something that makes you feel like you just want to give up all the time. ]]

[passionate-baker]

Eating & Drinking in Edinburgh, Scotland

Warning: this post contains a lot of recommendations. Read on at your own peril.

A little while ago, Boyfriend & I celebrated our two year anniversary. Our ideal way to celebrate anything is to eat ridiculously good food, & lots of it. My ideal way to celebrate any new day ever is to try to get out & travel to a new place. So, we planned a weekend to Edinburgh & filled our days in the Scottish capital with copious amounts of food, alcohol, & doughnuts. It was glorious. 

Stay

Buccleuch Street // we ended up staying in an apartment we found on aribnb. Neither of us would recommend the apartment itself, but it had a good location. It was a great base for wandering around to every different corner of the city, which is handy if you’re willing to walk as far as we are for a good meal!

Do

National Museum of Scotland // we sought this out. The building is annoyingly frustrating to navigate & at times gave us rage. We wanted to visit the fourth floor to see the eight miniature coffins that were found at Arthur’s Seat in the early 1800s, which sounds simple, but wasn’t. We had to get a lift to the fifth floor, find a specific set of stairs down to the fourth floor, then navigate our way around the floor to the other side where the coffins were - it was infuriating. I mean, the mysterious little coffins were worth it (no one knows what they are for or why they were made), but man did I want to quit halfway through our search. Pro tip: there’s a great viewpoint on the roof of the museum. Not to be missed.

Scottish National Portrait Gallery // admittedly, we only wandered in because it was free & we were waiting for a table at a nearby restaurant. That said, we thought it was great!

Calton Hill // no trip to Edinburgh would be complete without a visit to Calton Hill. It’s for those of you out there who are like Boyfriend & I: too lazy / too unprepared to walk up Arthur’s Seat. I like to think this is just as good - great views over the city, great views of Arthur’s Seat (which, quite frankly, looks too big to be an enjoyable walk), you get to climb up on the National Monument of Scotland for that picture you wanted (if you’re an adventurous type like Boyfriend), & you can get up close and personal with the Dugald Stewart Monument.

Scottish Poetry Library // Boyfriend found the SPL in the New York Times article “36 Hours in Edinburgh.” It was fascinating to wander through the shelves of the bright & airy library, leafing through poetry books on any given topic - the selection was massive. There’s also apparently an area where you can listen to poetry being read through headphones, which sounds super cool, but we couldn’t find it while we were there & I’m one of those people who hates asking for directions, so we left it.

Royal Mile & Edinburgh Castle // although jammed with tourists at any given time, you can’t miss out on wandering around the area, which is laden with little alleyways & streets leading off a million different ways - some handy shortcuts through the city. We didn’t fork out the insane entry fee into the castle, but we did wander up to see what all the fuss is about & to soak up the views from the top platform.

Stockbridge // I wish we had spent more time exploring the Stockbridge area. A little bit out of the city centre, it hit us as a generally nice area to potter around. We saw food markets, quirky pubs, wine bars, some nice parks, & a couple of interesting shops. Worth taking the time to explore if you have some extra hours, especially on a Sunday when the neighbourhood seems to come alive.

Circus Lane // okay, it’s a mews. If you’ve read any of my travel guides before, then it won’t surprise you that I’m suggesting you visit a random mews in Stockbridge. It’s pretty, there are flowers & perfectly different little houses & cobbled streets & a well placed bench here and there & it’s basically just my idea of perfection. #doitforthegram.

Eat

Dishoom // Boyfriend & I had been to the Dishoom in Covent Garden on our last trip to London & fell head over heels for the menu. When we heard there was a branch in Edinburgh we couldn't not book ourselves in for breakfast. The Bacon Naan Roll is a must, but other highly regarded alternatives include the Bacon & Egg Naan Roll (because who likes to branch out too far?) & the Bombay Omelette, which Boyfriend ordered one morning & I was totally jealous. Pro tip: order the house-made ‘Dhoble’ cocktail to have with your meal, you won’t be disappointed. Added bonus: the top floor of the restaurant has these gorgeous big windows looking out onto St. Andrew Square across the road & the whole decor has a feel of the ‘20s.

Locanda de Gusti // this was the first dinner we had in Edinburgh, & it set the bar pretty high. Within minutes of entering the restaurant, we actually forgot we were in rainy Edinburgh - all of the waiters are Italian, the music is Italian, everyone is singing & speaking in Italian, & it truly feels as if you’ve been transported to a tiny popular restaurant in the Italian countryside. The entire experience was amazing: food was delicious from the first course through to dessert, the service was great, & they even gave us a little bottle of homemade amaretto to drink as a digestif!

Voujon // Boyfriend was adamant that we go to an Indian restaurant in Edinburgh for dinner & I am so grateful we did. Going by the pictures online, we almost cancelled our booking in favour of Dishoom (not because it looks bad, It’s just I’m always skeptical of places with white tablecloths), but we decided to stick to the plan & try it out. We were very pleasantly surprised! Every single part of the meal tasted out-of-this-world. Definitely a contender for the best Indian food I’ve ever had. Don’t miss out on the garlic naan. 

Holyrood 9a // I’m adding this to the list because it comes highly rated across the board for its burgers, but in real life the burgers are just kind of substandard & what we would describe as ‘fine’. I mean, the place did have a cool bar, the room was very atmospheric, & they did sell Camden Hells lager (which brought us back to our time in Hampstead) so it wasn’t a complete let down. 

Urban Angel // bacon bacon bacon, so much bacon. None of the reviews online said anything about the sheer volume of bacon that comes piled on top of the food, but if they had then I’m sure we’d have visited much sooner. The service was a bit slow, but there is literally nothing that bacon can’t make up for. I had the bacon with a side of Eggs Benedict, which was mighty fine.  

Cairngorm // this really should be under the ‘Drink’ section, but seeing as we didn’t actually have coffee here, I can’t vouch for it. That said, we did have a caramel square here, & it was damn fine & definitely worth the visit alone. You can trust us on this one, Boyfriend is a true caramel square aficionado.  

Krispy Kreme // I’m embarrassed to be including this in my list of places to eat, but clearly not enough to not include it. This is a battle Boyfriend & I are going to fight until Krispy Kreme comes to Ireland. Why is it all over the UK & not in Ireland? Confession: between us, we had ten (yes, 10) doughnuts over the course of three days. We regret nothing. 

Drink - Coffee

Wellington Coffee // good coffee is one of the first things I investigate in a city & this place was near the top of a few lists. We actually stumbled across it by accident. It’s this tiny half-underground cafe where everything is squished together & the staff are all hipsters who seem really into their coffee & like they totally know what they’re doing, which they obviously do, because the coffee was great. 

Press Coffee // this was literally less than a minute’s walk from our apartment, so we (read: Boyfriend) frequented it for our morning coffee fix every day. We also one time ventured in there for breakfast, for which I had a scone the size of my face & Boyfriend had the best scrambled eggs he’s ever had out. Bonus: the walls are so yellow it’s impossible not to feel happy inside. 

Brew Lab // a real deal kind of coffee place that makes the hipsters in Wellington Coffee look like fakers. There’s a slightly intimidating coffee menu, but you can do this, it is so worth it. I had a kick-ass flat white that knocked my socks off. We got ours to-go & sat on the cute bench outside, but I kind of wish we’d sat at a table in the large open plan cafe that has this dreamy exposed brick wall. 

Drink - Alcohol 

Brewdog // for some reason, if you go to Edinburgh, you have to go to Brewdog, that’s just the way it is. It’s cool micro-brewery with a well stocked menu full of different craft beers & really friendly staff. 

Andrew Usher & Co // At first I was skeptical about heading down mysterious stairs leading into an underground bar, but Boyfriend assured me I’d like it & he’s pretty much never wrong about things I like - it was awesome! Loads of little tables lit by candlelight in a kind of cave-like interior? Count me in! We opted for cocktails - I had a margarita - & it was a pleasure to watch the barman put in the time & effort required to make a drink that little bit better. 

Stockbridge Tap // Boyfriend read about this place online & it was one of the main reasons I was able to convince him into wandering out to Stockbridge with me. He had read that the beer selection was superb & that there were heaps of options & that the barmen really know their stuff - which I’m sure they do - but after trying one of their beers & not liking it, he was simply given “Plan B”: Tennent’s. I mean, we can buy Tennent’s in our local supermarket in Dublin. Aside from that, the pub does have a nice atmosphere & it is animal friendly. 

Smith & Gertrude // if you decide to try out any of my recommendations, please let it be this. I dragged Boyfriend to S&G with the hopes that it would live up to the wine bar of my dreams. Spoiler alert: it did. It’s this entirely unpretentious wine bar that totally blew us away - open plan, communal tables, exposed brick wall, candles dotted around, music being played from a record player in the corner, stools at the bar, and a menu that consisted of a list of cheeses, a list of meats, & a list of three different boards that combined said meats + cheeses. It is simplicity at its finest. The selection of wines by the glass were superb & we both opted for a big glass of Sangiovese, after which I moved onto a Spanish rosé. We put off whatever other plans we had so we could stay for something to eat: a single serving of both Ubriaco (a hard Italian cheese we’d never heard of) & of Chorizo Iberico Bellota, both of which were served with crusty bread & crackers. We died and went to wine & cheese heaven. Hands down my favourite spot of the whole trip. 

Kay’s Bar // this was Boyfriend’s favourite spot of the whole trip. A true old man pub - I was the only woman there for the duration of our drinks - where everybody knows each other. It took us a little while to find the pub, which is located in a seemingly quiet residential area, but we are so glad we found it eventually. Even the website is adorable. 

[flairandpassion]

tagged by @moreracquetball thanks for tagging me c: this is like the longest post ive ever been tagged in so that’s fun :D

I tag @subtleglories @chickenmerengo @stephaniejblockmotherme @eldertwelvecupsofcoffee @elderandrew @weisenbxchfelds @nikolaevna-romanova @whizzerbrwn @strengthsbasedmediocrity @wihzzerbrown @livefortissimo @whizzerbrowne also if you wanna just go ahead and do it and tag people, go right on ahead! you can consider yourself tagged by me haha

last 

1. drink? five alive mango citrus

2. phone call? my mom

3. text message? my dad

4. song you listened to? making a home (falsettos)

5. time you cried? it was in may, on my road trip to ~ orlando ~ and it was ‘cuz my cousins were bullying me and usually it’s good-natured teasing but it was getting a bit much so i ended up crying in front of them lmao (but i had a lot of fun, and i definitely sang kevin’s “ORLANDO” way too much)

have you ever

6. dated someone twice? nope

7. kissed someone and regretted it? no

8. been cheated on? no

9. lost someone special? no

10. gotten drunk and thrown up? lol yes

favorite colors:

11. red

12. golden yellow

13. navy blue

in the last year have you

14. made new friends? yes!

15. fallen out of love? nope

16. laughed until you cried? i think so? probably; i laugh a lot and i laugh often

17. found out someone was talking about you? yes

18. met someone who changed you? no

19. found out who your friends are? kind of? in this last year, ive kinda been finding out who *i* am, and as a result, im finding out who really appreciates me for me, and that’s nice

20. kissed someone on your facebook list? nooope

general:

21. how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life? most of them

22. do you have any pets? nah, but i live with a dog who belongs to my ex-roommate

23. do you want to change your name? no, i quite like it :)

24. what did you do for your last birthday? i cleaned my room in the morning, my parents sent me these delicious chocolate strawberries, i watched the newsies pro-shoot with one of my best friends, we went out to eat korean food, and then bought drinks and came back home to finish act two of newsies--it was one of my favourite birthdays!

25. what time did you wake up? 10am? i had an alarm for 8am but it just didnt work out lol

26. what were you doing at midnight last night? i got frustrated i couldnt sleep so i pulled out my tablet and reread the second chapter of @moreracquetball‘s “the games i play” because honestly it’s such a good note to end the day on

27. name something you can’t wait for? ive decided i want to go to a sparring class on friday and the instructor’s kind of cute, so if im being completely honest, then that! but there’s a lot of other things, like dodie’s new ep, and im heading to skyzone, and falsettos being on broadwayhd! it’s been a good month of exciting things

28. when was the last time you saw your mom? on monday (two days ago)

29. what are you listening to right now? the sounds of the city outside; i live by a highway so i hear cars passing all the time and it’s soothing

30. have you ever talked to a person named tom? yeah! it took me a bit to remember, but i knew a guy in high school names thomas so i guess he counts? although now im second-guessing his name l o l

31. something that is getting on your nerves? my inability to take care of myself and my eating habits; i always forget to eat and it’s so bad

32. most visited website? ao3

34. long or short hair? short

35. do you have a crush on someone? the closest thing would probably be finding that instructor cute, but i dont think it really counts as a crush

36. what do you like about yourself? my enthusiasm! i’d also like to think i’m pretty open-minded and good at listening

37. piercing? just my ears

38. bloodtype? O+ ?

39. nickname? my name is basically already a nickname, so i dont really have one that has stuck

40. relationship status? single

41. zodiac? cancer

42. pronouns? she/her

43. favorite tv show? bbc merlin (find me on my main blog @reineyday if you like merlin as well #shamelessselfpromo)

44. tattoos? yep! a merlin on my left arm, a crown (king arthur’s tbh, but it also kinda refers to my name as well) on my right arm, a small stick-and-poke umbrella on my right heel (it’s a pun), and i kinda want a fortissimo tattoo on my left ankle bc falsettos tbh, but i want to know how to read music properly before i get it

45. right or left handed? right handed

46. surgery? yeah ive had surgery on my ears multiple times (my ear drums, to be specific)

47. sport? taekwondo, and also rock climbing

48. vacation? yes please! right now, i most want a new york trip to see more broadway shows, but i’ll honestly take anywhere new

49. pair of trainers? im not exactly sure what trainers refer to, but i wear those standard red converse

more general

50. eating: nothing rn, and im wondering if that is a correct move to make

51. drinking: nothing rn, but i just finished my five alive

52. i’m about to: finish a cover letter, download some stuff, buy tickets to a thing, and head to bed... lowkey thinking about putting off the cover letter tho

53. waiting for: the perfect time to listen to the last act of “36 questions” cuz ive been too tired to listen to it and properly appreciate it, y’know?

54. want: a falsettos movie poster

55. get married? maybe? probably? ideally? who tf knows

56. career? something artsy; the pipe dream right now is musical theatre--being on stage singing, or being backstage doing lighting or set designing--and even though the pipe dream changes from time to time, it’s always in an artistic direction

which is better

57. hugs or kisses? hugs? i havent really kissed enough to make an informed decision

58. lips or eyes? eyes

59. shorter or taller? taller, but short is good too

60. older or younger? older

61. nice arms or nice stomach? arms are the more visible of the two, but nice stomachs are great too, so can i say both?

62. hook up or relationship? relationship

63. troublemaker or hesitant? both have their appeals

have you ever

64. kissed a stranger? nope

65. drank hard liquor? yeah

66. lost glasses/contacts? yeah lol

67. turned someone down? yeah, but it was like, the fourth grade l o l

68. had sex on the first date? lol no

69. broken someones heart? nah, unless my mom counts (sorry mom)

70. had your heart broken? i dont think so, no

71. been arrested? nah

72. cried when someone died? no, but i think it’s just cuz ive been lucky enough not to have lost anyone close enough to me to prompt tears (unless we’re talking fictional deaths, ‘cuz i’ve cried at many of those)

73. fallen for a friend? yeah :/

do you believe in

74. yourself? on most days, i do :)

75. miracles? yeah, i think so

76. love at first sight? nah

77. santa? no, but i like thinking he exists--i believe in him like i believe in angels (see #79)

78. kiss on the first date? sure c:

79. angels? only in a fanciful way? i believe in angels like i believe in anything else i come to know about through stories

other

80. current best friend’s name: robyne; kristine; carolyn; elaine

81. eye color: brown

82. favorite movie: about time; eternal sunshine of the spotless mind; tangled

[darlingeyre]

Kay y'all I was just bored at work so

I answered some questions I had for myself

1. If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?

Work on DIY projects.

2. What’s your favorite piece of clothing you own / owned?

This old white dress with sequins that I used in dress-up all the time when I was little.

3. What hobby would you get into if time and money weren’t an issue?

Surfing.

4. What would your perfect room look like?

A lot like what it looks like right now, but…cleaner.

5. How often do you play sports?

Almost never. I don’t like who I am when I get competitive.

6. What fictional place would you most like to go?

Mechanicsburg from the Girl Genius comics.

7. What job would you be terrible at?

Insurance adjuster.

8. When was the last time you climbed a tree?

Junior year of college?

9. If you could turn any activity into an Olympic sport, what would you have a good chance at winning medal for?

Baking and sewing at insanely odd hours.

10. What is the most annoying habit that other people have?

The way people say little put-downs without a second thought.

11. What job do you think you’d be really good at?

Personal history recorder. Like, I’d listen to elderly people tell me about their lives and I’d write it up.

12. What skill would you like to master?

Carpentry.

13. What would be the most amazing adventure to go on?

Road-tripping with my favorite band.

14. If you had unlimited funds to build a house that you would live in for the rest of your life, what would the finished house be like?

Cozy.

15. What’s your favorite drink?

Milk.

16. What state or country do you never want to go back to?

I’d give any place a second chance.

17. What songs have you completely memorized?

Tomorrow Will Be Kinder by The Secret Sisters

18. What game or movie universe would you most like to live in?

The world of Harry Potter, even if I was a muggle or a squib.

19. What do you consider to be your best find?

Snagging my best friend, Maggie. 

20. Are you usually early or late?

Ugh…late.

21. What pets did you have while you were growing up?

I grew up on a farm so: three or four dogs, many cats, and a herd of cows.

22. When people come to you for help, what do they usually want help with?

They usually want someone to just listen to their problems.

23. What takes up too much of your time?

Driving.

24. What do you wish you knew more about?

Art.

25. What would be your first question after waking up from being cryogenically frozen for 100 years?

Any aliens yet?

26. What are some small things that make your day better?

Amazon free two-day shipping.

27. Who has impressed you most with what they’ve accomplished?

My childhood friend, Lizzie.

28. What age do you wish you could permanently be?

I wouldn’t wish that.

29. What TV show or movie do you refuse to watch?

Kingsman Secret Service, you know what you did.

30. What would be your ideal way to spend the weekend?

In the mountains, with friends.

31. What is something that is considered a luxury, but you don’t think you could live without?

My car.

32. What’s your claim to fame?

Back in my tiny town, I was involved in lots of activities: sports, theatre, you name it. I was in the newspaper a fair bit.

33. What’s something you like to do the old-fashioned way?

I love getting to sew my own clothes.

34. What’s your favorite genre of book or movie?

I’m a sucker for romantic comedies.

35. How often do you people watch?

ALL. THE. TIME.

36. What have you only recently formed an opinion about?

Slapstick humor in kid’s movies.

37. What’s the best single day on the calendar?

December 24th.

38. What are you interested in that most people haven’t heard of?

Karst topgraphy

39. How do you relax after a hard day of work?

I re-watch episodes of my favorite tv shows.

40. What was the best book or series that you’ve ever read?

Jane Eyre is my go to answer, but I love every book I’ve ever read.

41. What’s the farthest you’ve ever been from home?

Hawaii ~ 4,000 miles

42. What is the most heartwarming thing you’ve ever seen?

The way my cousin looked at his now wife when she walked down the aisle at their wedding.

43. What is the most annoying question that people ask you?

When people ask me why I like something that I’m super into. Like, I can’t really explain it, I just think it’s awesome!

[randomconnections]

Seeking the Kingdom of Happy Land

Kingdom of the Happy Land by Gary Carden. Acrylic on canvas, 36”x24”. Source

A few weeks ago I gave my talk on the Hidden Towns Under South Carolina Lakes at the Taylors Branch of the Greenville County Library. After the talk someone came up to me and asked if I’d ever heard of the “Kingdom of Happy Land.” I had not. After chatting for a bit I decided I needed to see if I could find this kingdom. Last Thursday things had finally settled down from all our traveling and the Fourth holiday, so it was a perfect time for an expedition. I went to see if I could find the Kingdom of Happy Land.

First, the history…

After the Civil War southern states had to cope with the reality of newly freed slaves. The former slave-holding states set up “Freedmen’s Bureaus” to manage land claims and other issues relating to the former slaves. This included the development of several predominantly African-American settlements on former plantation lands and other available land in the state. In South Carolina these settlements began with the Port Royal Experiment and the town of Mitchelville. Other settlements included Kingsville, Promised Land, “Little Africa,” and Liberia.

The Kingdom of Happy Land was another such settlement, although not as formally established as Mitchelville or some of the other settlements. Sadie Smathers Patton wrote a history of the settlement in 1957, and states that the original settlers were a roving band of freed slaves from Mississippi and Alabama. These were led by a man named William Montgomery, who had a white father and a black mother and who purportedly even had owned slaves himself prior to the war. William and his wife Louella had been taught how to read and write, and served as teachers and ministers for the group. The band picked up followers, and eventually made its way to South Carolina and over the State Road through the town of Merrittsville, then up over the mountains to Tuxedo.

“Miss” Serepta Merritt Davis was the widow of Col. John Davis, a veteran of the War of 1812. They had owned a plantation in the Tuxedo area named Oakland. Davis struck a deal with the band of former slaves where they would be allowed to live in the old slave cabins and work the land of the former plantation, which straddled the North Carolina/South Carolina line. The new residents eventually purchased about 200 acres of land from the Davis family for $1 per acre, and the Kingdom of Happy Land was born.

Commerce in Happy Land was based on a communal effort. All crops and income were collected and distributed equally. The denizens produced a concoction of healing herbs called “Happy Land Liniment” that they sold to the surrounding neighbors and communities. Many took additional work as farm hands and domestics in Tuxedo and Flat Rock.

The residents of Happy Land also reportedly “squeezed some corn,” meaning that they distilled and sold moonshine illegally. It was said that their location right on the NC/SC border was ideal, as they could simply step across the line into another jurisdiction should trouble arise.

Even though life was communal, the Kingdom did have a King and Queen. William and Louella Montgomery first served that capacity. When William died, his brother Robert took over as king and his sister-in-law, Louella, remained Queen. Robert and Louella served as King and Queen for the longest period of time, and their names appear on the deed for the lands. They lived in a cabin that was dubbed the “palace.” The following photo from Patton’s book is of the remains of the Montgomery Palace, the last building in the Kingdom.

The Kingdom thrived for awhile. Queen Louella set up an informal school for the children and formed a choir. They had their own chapel, and Patton’s book states that, “tenets held by some members of the Kingdom could be classified as a ‘cult.'”

A Reverend Ezel Couch was brought to the Kingdom as a young child from Union, SC, and went out as a kind of missionary to entice other African Americans from South Carolina to join the group. Here is a photo of Couch from Patton’s book.

Eventually the Kingdom residents left to find other work and the population dwindled. In the early 1900s the former settlement lands were sold for non-payment of taxes. Jerry Casey, the last resident of the Kingdom, died in 1918. The land was purchased by Joseph Bell who established the camps in the Tuxedo area on Lake Summit and the original Kingdom remains in possession of the Bell Family to this day.

It was rumored that gold had been stashed in the chinks and crevices of the old Palace cabin. The Bell Family eventually dismantled the remaining chimneys and structures to thwart treasure hunters seeking the gold.

Sadie Patton’s short book included a stylized map showing the location of the Kingdom of Happy Land. Knowing that it probably highly inaccurate, I figured it was close enough to get me to the right area.

Seeking the Kingdom…

I headed out of Greenville early Thursday morning and drove up US 25 toward Hendersonville. Just north of Highway 11 I took the old 25 route across the Greenville Watershed, somewhat following the path of the original settlers. Eventually I made it to Tuxedo, coming to a view of a mountain that I could sort of, maybe, line up with the map.

I knew I needed to get closer. I turned onto South Lake Summit Drive. Summer camp was in full swing and the lake was covered with small sail boats, canoes, and kayaks. Large groups of kids in swimwear and with towels walked down the road toward me.

The lakeside road takes a sharp bend in a deep cove, at which point Bell Mountain Road branches off and heads up over the mountain. I figured that had to be the correct route. The road does wind up the mountain, passing coves dotted with small farms and mobile homes. I could imagine the early Kingdom settlers working these lands.

Eventually the pavement ended at the top of the ridge and the road branched north and south. I was at the state line, and the property on the other side of the road was on the Greenville Watershed. The dirt road to the right was marked private, but the dirt road to the left continued on. I turned left.

The dirt road was narrow, steep, and in terrible condition. I had only gone a couple of hundred yards when I came to a washed out area that I just didn’t feel comfortable negotiating. I have confidence in my Subaru. I just didn’t have confidence and a dicey road that had seen too many storms in the past weeks. I warily backed out the way I had come.

I retraced my steps back down Bell Mountain Road. I had gotten as close to the Kingdom as I was probably going to get. I knew it was on private land and I wasn’t going to be able to see the remaining foundations and ruins. I did want to see if I could find a better view of the mountains as pictured in the Patton book. I drove on around Lake Summit, looking at the small lake cottages and boat houses that line the lake and wondering if I should bring a kayak up as my friend and fellow explorer Mark Elbrecht had done awhile ago. Mark has an excellent description of what he saw on his paddling trip on his blog.

Eventually I found a spot that had a view of Bell Mountain and the surrounding area.

Part of the problem is that I didn’t have an accurate location. I just knew that the Kingdom had been on the state line and that it was near Tuxedo. I feel like I got close, but there was no real way to tell.

I had one more stop I wanted to make, though. I drove on up through Flat Rock, stopped at Haus Heidelberg for lunch, then headed to the Henderson County Library in Hendersonville. There I found a copy of Sadie Patton’s book in their genealogy reference room.

The book (pamphlet, really), is only 18 pages long. Patton’s language is florid, speculative, and her comments on race are uncomfortable to our modern sensibilities. This was in 1957, after all. Some of her details seem to conflict with each other, such as the identity of the original leader of the Kingdom. She first says that the leader was unknown, then later identifies him as William Montgomery.

Even so, Patton’s book seems to be the definitive work on the subject. I’ve listed my other online reference below:

Settlement outside Tuxedo was home for freed slaves

Former slaves founded Kingdom of Happy Land

The Kingdom of the Happy Land

Black History Post-Civil War to 1900 – Henderson Heritage

Glimpses of Henderson County, North Carolina By Terry Ruscin

The Kingdom Of The Happy Land

African American and Cherokee Nurses in Appalachia: A History, 1900–1965 By Phoebe Ann Pollitt

North Carolina Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff By Kent Priestley, Jon Elliston

I may not have found the Kingdom of Happy Land, either physically or metaphorically, but it was still a good day of exploration. I guess that, in a sense, is my own personal happy land.

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[underabr0kensky]

this is fuck-mothering huge

1. If you didn't have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time? My best friend and I talk about this all the time. I’d spend a shitload more time on my hobbies, probably. Literally just write/play guitar/work out all the time. Also probably drink a lot more too, so maybe it’s good that sleep is necessary.

2. What is your favorite piece of clothing you own / owned? I’m actually not sure. I like my band T-shirts, but I don’t think I have a favorite. Maybe my camo pants since they’re actual army fatigues and they’re comfy as fuck and have like four thousand pockets.

3. What hobby would you pick up if time & money weren't an issue? Stunt driving, probably. I’ve been drifting a few times and it’s fun as fuck but I don’t have the car for it. A Solara is not meant to do that shit.

4. What does your perfect room look like? Something with a big ass window overlooking a forest that I can shut with panels so my room is completely dark, and one of those crazy fucking beds that has a TV built into it. Also shitloads of band and boxing posters and a metric fuck-ton of anime figures and dragon statues and other such nerdy shit in a display case. Also a cat somewhere, and my girlfriend curled up next to me.

5. How often do you play sports? I don’t. I’m not really into sports at all, except for boxing and some football.

6. What fictional place would you like to visit? There are many. Hogwarts/Hogsmeade, Cairhien, Misaki Town, Fuyuki City, Aincrad, Akihabara (the one from Log Horizon, I know that’s actually a real city as well you smartass), literally anywhere in the Dragon Universe, Destiny Islands, Hollow Bastion, there are so fucking many.

7. What job would you be terrible at? Anything that involves a lot of pressure. I like cooking, but I could never work as a chef. The stress would crack me instantly.

8. When was the last time you climbed a tree? When I was a kid. I used to do that a lot actually. There’s a big fuckhuge maple tree my dad planted at the house we used to live in back before I was born, and it’s massive now.

9. If you could turn any activity into an Olympic sport, what would you have a good chance of winning a medal for? Playing Dark Souls. I’d win gold, silver, and bronze. GITGUD.

10. What is the most annoying habit that you or other people have? I do that leg bouncing thing all the time, it pisses people off.

11. What job do you think you'd be really good at? Honestly I think I’d be a good therapist. I’m a fucked up person so I understand where most people are coming from, I love making people feel better, and I’m not one to think someone else’s feelings aren’t valid just because someone somewhere has it worse.

12. What skill would you like to master? Guitar. I know I’m good, but I’m nowhere near a master.

13. What would be the most amazing adventure to go on? Anything involving hikes in places like those you see on the crazy nature pictures on here. Those things make me hate living in shitty Tennessee.

14. If you had unlimited funds to build a house to live on for the rest of your life, what would the finished house look like? Probably two floors and a basement, Victorian style, somewhere surrounded by wilderness. A garage, a storm cellar, I’m not gonna sit here and describe the interior but it would be fancy but not stuffy or pretentious, just obviously very well-to-do. I like nice things, sue me.

15. What's your favorite drink? Lemonade. Also Mountain Dew.

16. What state or country do you never want to go back to? Mississippi. Why the fuck is the spelling so retarded, for one. That place isn’t even a state, it’s a cess pit. Half the fucking roads don’t have streetlights. I drove for a goddamn hour and didn’t see a Walmart or anything other than an occasional shitty little gas station. Why is it real. I bet they don’t even have running water. Do not fucking go to Mississippi.

17. What songs do you have completely memorized? Shitloads of Metallica songs, also a lot of pop songs because I’m a cuck apparently.

18. What game or movie universe would you like to live in? The Kingdom Hearts universe. Everything is a world. You could go anywhere.

19. What do you consider to be your best find? That’s a weird question. Probably my girlfriend. :P

20. Are you usually early or late? Early because I’m paranoid about showing up late.

21. What pets did you have when you were growing up? Mouse and Alex. My kittehs. I miss them a lot. And random reptiles and amphibians.

22. When people come to you for help, what do they usually need help with? Usually emotional support.

23. What takes up too much of your time? FUCKING WORK.

24. What do you wish you knew more about? A lot of things. The ocean, space, how time works, mythology, physics, dark matter.

25. What would be your first question after waking up from being frozen for 100 years? “Is VR like Sword Art yet?”

26. What are some small things that make your day better? Özge, music, nice weather, and good food.

27. Who's your go-to band or artist when you don't know who or what to listen to? That actually changes a lot. Usually it’s Metallica.

28. What's the best way to start the day? Get up and not wish I hadn’t done that.

29. What TV shows do you like? House M.D., Criminal Minds, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Luther, The Colony, Firefly, Game of Thrones, Dr. Who, general anime.

30. What TV channel doesn't exist but really should? What a fucking weird question. I have no idea. Maybe a channel dedicated to the weekly teaching of guitar techniques or something.

31. Who has impressed you most with what they've accomplished? Özge, definitely, for not drinking. I’m really proud of her.

32. What age do you wish you could stay at permanently? I dunno, maybe 21.

33. What TV show or movie do you refuse to watch? Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I watched a bit of it and holy fucking god, it sucked. I will never try again.

34. What's your ideal way to spend a weekend? Well I work weekends. But I like chilling with the guys and playing games, getting drunk, and watching movies.

35. What is something that is considered a luxury, but you don't think you could live without? The Internet, but it shouldn’t be considered a luxury. Not having the Internet basically means you’re fucked.

36. What is your claim to fame? Uh. I can play guitar really well? I was the frontman for Distortion Sleep? Some people still recognize us in public, it’s kind of saddening.

37. What is something you enjoy doing the old-fashioned way? Nothing, really. i like convenience.

38. What's your favorite book or movie genre? Horror, I believe. Or drama. Or fantasy.

39. How often do you people-watch? Not very often. I don’t like people.

40. What have you only recently formed an opinion about? I can’t think of anything. Islam, perhaps.

41. What's the best day of the year? Whatever day is the first day of a long vacation.

42. What subject interests you that not many people have heard of? Dark matter.

43. How do you relax after a long day of work? With a drink or by working out.

44. What's the best book series or TV series you've ever read or watched? Best book series is Wheel of Time.

45. Where is the farthest you've ever been from home? Probably when I was in Manhattan or San Diego.

46. What's the most heartwarming thing you've ever seen? Some of the stuff I’ve seen on here is pretty heartwarming. The little kid giving the toy garbage truck to the garbage guys was adorable.

47. What is the most annoying question people ask you? “What aisle is the bread on?” I dunno maybe the fucking aisle that says “BREAD” you piece of shit

48. What could you give a 40-minute presentation on with no preparation? Guitar. I could babble about that shit for hours.

49. If you were the dictator on a small island nation, what crazy dictator stuff would you do? Ban fedoras. Make everyone own a cat. Make one person at random per week submit their cat to me for a 24-hour checkup that is really just me cuddling and playing with the cat. Make Mountain Dew a fundamental human right. Homophobes shall be met with swift death. Somehow kidnap Trump and lock him in a cage. Flog him whenever people get bored, angry, hungry, or if they just want to.

50. What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives? Eat authentic Italian food. Like in a restaurant where the chefs are people who immigrated from Italy. That shit is dope.

51. Would you rather go hand gliding or whitewater rafting? That’s tough, but hang gliding. I like the sky.

52. What's your dream car? A Lamborghini Diablo SE-30.

53. What's worth spending more on to get the best? Food.

54. What is something a ton of people are obsessed with, but you just don't get? Supernatural. I think that show is a piece of shit with some of the worst acting and dialogue I’ve ever seen.

55. What are you most looking forward to in the next 10 years? Moving away from here, hopefully getting a place with her, hopefully being financially stable.

56. Where is the most interesting place you've been? South Dakota. Going to the north during winter was an experience.

57. What's something you've been meaning to try but haven't gotten around to it? Acid. no seriously, I want to trip balls.

58. What is the best thing that happened to you last week? I went to MTAC.

59. What piece of entertainment do you wish you could erase from your mind, only to experience it for the first time again? My friend and I talk about this all the time. The first time we heard “Disconnected” by In Flames it was like a fucking epiphany. I’d like to do that again.

60. If all jobs had the same pay rate and hours, what job would you want to have? I’d be a mystery shopper. That’s so trollzy.

61. What amazing thing have you done that no one was around to see? This one time a wasp flew at me while I was holding a stick so I swung the stick at it in a futile attempt to save myself and I just fucking wrecked this thing, the sound of the stick hitting its body was audible. Punk bitch ass wasp didn’t know who he was fucking with.

62. How different was your life 1 year ago? Extremely different, my life 1 year ago was utter shit.

63. What quirks do you have? I fuck with my hair a lot.

64. What would you rate 10/10? My girlfriend. And Italian food.

65. What fad or trend do you think should come back? Nothing I can think of, fads are dumb.

66. What is the most interesting piece of art you've seen? I have no idea. It’s hard to impress me with art because so much of it is bullshit nowadays, somebody just flings paint onto a canvas and calls it art. My friend Lara does some pretty fucking intense stuff though, she’s really talented with dot art.

67. What kind of art do you enjoy most? Anything abstract and weird.

68. What do you hope never changes? The relationship I’m in, unless it changes for the better.

69. What city would you most like to live in? Berlin :D Or San Diego but only if she’s with me.

70. What movie title best describes your life? I dunno, is there a movie called “What the Fuck is Going On?”?

71. Why did you decide to do the work you are doing now? Because I needed money. I hate my job.

72. What's the best way a person can spend their time? Doing stuff they love.

73. If you suddenly became a master at woodworking, what would you make? That would be fucking cool. Probably just random models of stuff I find interesting. Honestly might carve anime figures and sell them.

74. Where is the most relaxing place you've ever been? The ocean. The waves are chill.

75. What's the luckiest thing that has ever happened to you? I met her on here :) And I got pulled up onstage at a Five Finger Death Punch concert.

76. Where would you rather be from? Germany.

77. What are some things you've had to unlearn? I used to have a lisp and I trained myself to get rid of it.

78. What do you look forward to in the next 6 months? Saving money, eventually going to see her. Also the fair.

79. What website do you visit most often? Probably this one.

80. What one thing do you really want but can't afford? A Lambo, a house, a fucking planet ticket to Berlin goddamn it why are they so expensive fuck god

81. Where do you usually go when you have free time? My room. My cave. My fortress of solitude.

82. Where would you spend all your time if you could? In Germany with her.

83. What's special about the place you grew up? Honestly fucking nothing. Lebanon sucks, there’s nothing there and all the people are shit.

84. What age do you want to live to? I’d like to live to like 400 just to see where the world goes. If it goes south I can just eat a bullet.

85. What are you most likely to become famous for? Music, I hope.

86. What are you absolutely determined to do? Visit Germany.

87. What is the most impressive thing you know how to do? Play guitar really well. Also beat Through the Fire and Flames on expert.

88. What do you wish you knew more about? You asked me this already you insensitive bastard

89. What question would you most like to know the answer to? What the fuck is all of this shit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsAg8MzwM9A

90. What question can you ask to find out the most about a person? Ask how they view other people I suppose.

91. When was the last time you changed your opinion or belief about something major? Probably about Özge explained a lot of stuff about Islam to me.

92. What's the best compliment you've ever received? I love being called “handsome”. It’s such an underappreciated and underused compliment.

93. As the only human left on earth, what would you do? Get really drunk and then end myself. Seriously that would fucking suck.

94. Who inspires you to be better? My girlfriend. I’ve gotten a lot better because of how supportive she is.

95. What do you want your epitaph to be? “One more shot won’t kill me” but only if one more did indeed kill me.

96. What haven't you grown out of? Anime and stuffed animals.

97. In what situation or place would you feel most out of place in? Church. Anytime I go to a church I feel fucking awkward.

98. What's the dumbest thing you've done that actually turned out pretty well? Well my best friend and I bought a bus and defaulted on our lease to live on it. That was fucking stupid, but it taught me a lot of things.

99. If someone wrote a book on an event in your life, what would the book be about? The bus incident. We’ve actually talked about writing a book about it because of what a fucking fiasco it was to even get the thing.

100. What's something you will never do again? Buy a fucking bus. And ruin my relationship.

101. How do you hope you'll change as a person in the future? Hopefully I won’t drink so much and I won’t be so insecure.

102. What keeps you up at night? Stress, usually.

103. What's the most surprising self-realization you've had? “Holy fuck, I was emotionally abused and then I emotionally abused someone.” And then I started drinking too much.

104. What is the most illegal thing you've ever done? Many things. Probably shoplifting, I used to do that fairly frequently because I was a stupid kid.

105. How do you get in the way of your own success? By being too insecure to try.

106. What are you afraid people see when they look at you? My stupid fucking smile, ugh.

107. What is your biggest regret? Fucking things up with her, but I did it and I can’t change it, I just need to not do it to anyone else.

108. What do you look down on people for? Being homophobic or bigoted in any other way.

109. What bridges do you not regret burning? There aren’t many. I suck at letting people go.

110. What lie do you tell most often? “I’m sick”

111. What would be your spirit animal? A cat, I bet.

112. What is the best & worst thing about getting older? You stop being stupid, but you start needing to watch what you eat.

113. What are you most likely very wrong about? Nothing. I know everything. I am never wrong. If you disagree, you prove your incompetence. Bow to me, mortal.

114. If you had a personal flag, what would be on it? A weird cube shape that we used to use for Distortion Sleep.

115. What's happened that changed your view on the world? Well we elected Trump as president so I think we’re all fucked.

116. What is the biggest lesson you've learned? Don’t let insecurity make you an asshole.

117. What is the most immature thing you do? I dunno, skip work?

118. What are you famous for among your friends & family? My guitar and singing skillz yo.

119. If your childhood had a smell, what would it be? Peanut butter and jelly.

120. What one responsibility do you wish you didn't have? Having a fucking job.

121. What are 3 things you want to accomplish before you die? Visit a bunch of different places, make a career out of music, beat the dogshit out of a rapist.

122. What do you want to tell your 10-year-old self? “Start playing guitar you stupid fuck”

123. What's the best thing you got from your parents? My musical ability.

124. What's the best thing about you? I’m compassionate I suppose.

125. What blows your mind? Space and the ocean. Dude that shit is cray cray.

126. Have you ever saved someone's life? Yeah, I have.

127. What are you really good at but embarrassed to be good at? I’m not embarrassed to be good at anything.

128. What would a mirror opposite of you look like? Someone who isn’t sexy as fuck.

129. What are 3 interesting facts about you? I can curl my tongue, I talked to Arnold Schwarzenegger on the phone once, and I hit a golf ball so hard it exploded.

130. Which of your scars has the best story behind it? I have a big scar on my right hand from when I jumped down off my bed and my hand came down on my guitar’s head stock. It almost punched through the back of my hand and it was so painful I almost blacked out. I had stitches for like two months. Holy fuck it was so shitty.

131. What's the title of the current chapter in your life? “Recovery”

132. What were some of the biggest turning points in your life? Dropping out of college, starting the first band, meeting Jessica, meeting Özge.

133. What's the hardest lesson you've learned? Sometimes if you fuck something up badly enough, it can’t ever be fixed, even if both people forgive each other.

134. What do people think is weird about you? I slouch really badly.

135. What mistake do you keep making? I drink too much.

136. What have you created that you're most proud of? I wrote a song called “Alone Sleep Ghosts” that is better than anything I’ve ever written and it will probably never be topped.

137. What do you doubt? Myself, all the time.

138. What are some of your morals? Don’t be a bigoted fuckhole.

139. What do you want to be remembered for? My music and my compassion.

140. What do you regret not doing in your childhood years? Picking up guitar earlier.

141. What is your favorite fragrance? Flowery perfumes. Also cooking food.

142. What do you think your last words will be? “Is Tsukihime 2 out yet?”

143. Who or what do you take for granted? I try not to take anything for granted, but most modern conveniences.

144. Why would you be annoying as a roommate? Not at all because I’d stay in my room constantly.

145. What is something you're insecure about? Being replaced.

146. What's the best & worst piece of advice you've received? Best: Don’t let your insecurities ruin your life. Worst: Just do what you love, don’t worry about how much money it makes you.

147. What irrational fears do you have? Spiders, broken glass, needles, and being hurt emotionally.

148. What makes a good life? Being with someone you love and being financially stable.

149. What's the last adventure you went on? We traveled to Georgia for a LARP last year.

150. What is the most memorable gift you've received? The cards that Jess sent me.

[planetcatherine]

Ask me things 1. What’s your middle name? rose 2. What are you listening to right now? family by chance the rapper, blended babies remix 3. What was the last thing you ate? applesauce w perky bc i am currently a chipmunk 4. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? brookie cookie! 5. Do you drink? socially 6. Do you smoke? weed yes and i vape bc i love nic 7. What is the first thing you noticed in someone? personality honestly, like whether they're intelligent or can hang and like their swagger and vibes 8. What is your hair color? blonde 9. What is your eye color? blue 10. Do you wear contacts/glasses? no but i think i should lol, i used to but they annoy me 11. Dogs or cats? BOTH i love animals 12. What’s your favorite animal? turtles have a special place in my heart 13. What’s your favorite television show? the office, himym, that 70s show 14. What’s your favorite movie? hot rod, silver linings playbook, ferris bueller 15. What’s your favorite band/singer? i listen to rap lol but i like chance, childish, kodak, post malone, drake, many many others 16. How old are you? 18 17. Do you have a crush on anyone? nope lol i'm done with relationships and dating until i find someone special. until then i'm just chilling and doing whatever i want. i'm not really looking rn 18. What’s your sexual orientation? straight 19. What’s your favorite color? yellow 20. What was your most embarrassing moment? when i had a bowl cut when i was little LOL like why 21. Do you ever wish you were someone else? i mean my life sucks sometimes and i wish i was more motivated to figure things out, but i'm in love w it all so no 22. What were you like when you were a kid? i was loud around family and friends but very shy, crazy, happy, smart, intrigued by the world, sporty. i was a very good kid 23. What would your dream house be like? never really thought about it to be honest. i just want a nice affordable place where i'm happy and will have everything i need like water electricity etc. that's all i really need. ideally it'd be a beautiful house and i'll be successful but money doesn't buy happiness. i'll appreciate whatever i have. 24. What last made you laugh? anesthesia 25. What is your favorite word? right now it's either rattled or sunshiney 26. What is your least favorite word? idk i like them all except the n word 27. What turns you on? moving hands, eye contact, grabbing, when someone's so into you they'll do anything to have you and like pounce on you, smiling during sex, stuff like that 28. What turns you off? loud obnoxious people 29. What is your star sign? scorpio 30. What are your favorite books? perks of being a wallflower 31. Do you have any siblings? yes, 4 32. Do you like to dance? i love dancing 33. What is your definition of cheating? not being loyal to the one you claim to love 34. Have you ever cheated on someone? no. never. 35. Do you regret anything? not a thing. i've learned from all experiences. 36. Do you have any phobias? needles but i'm getting better with it 37. Ever broken any bones? my pinky toe one time bc i was going too hard jumping on the bed when i was like 9 38. Ever come close to death? the other day i was driving and my car spun out and i was doin donuts and went off road into a pasture. i almost hit a tree. i was so lucky my car didn't flip over, bc i have a rogue and it was also windy that day. i'm so lucky. but it helped me realize some things. 39. What is your religion, if any? i don't even know man 40. Have you ever been to a psychiatrist/therapist? no and i really have to but i'm scared 41. Are looks important in a relationship? i mean yeah lol you have to be attracted to the person. but beauty is in the eye of the beholder so honestly idk why people stress so much. everyone is beautiful to someone. people need to not trip so much over the way they look. other people literally don't care like at all. 42. Are you more like your mom or your dad? i'm like my mom in the idgaf and bitchy sense (that's a good thing btw) but i'm like my dad in the im a sweet and goofy person sense. but also i'm not at all like either of them. idk man i'm just me 43. What is your favorite season? summer or fall 44. Do you have any tattoos? getting one next weekend i believe 45. Do you have any piercings? first and second holes. want more but i am a broke broke person rn 46. How many boyfriends/girlfriends have you had? 1 real boyfriend but i've been in 3 serious relationships w/o labels 47. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? uh i mean no 48. Who is your celebrity crush? no one tbh lol 49. Are you a virgin? no 50. Do you get jealous easily? if i really like someone then yes i do but it's because ive been in bad relationships before. my trust is kind of fucked that's why i'm just doin me rn i don't wanna deal w anyone rn 51. What is your favorite type of food? quesadillas or pizza or sushi! prob sushi 52. Do you ever want to get married? if i find my person but i ain't rushing it at all lol 53. Who was your first kiss with? my first boyfriend Jake. it was more of a makeout and i was freaked out by it lol i wasn't ready. i cried after he left that night 54. Have you ever been cheated on? yep 55. What is your idea of the perfect date? running around doing/showing eachother things that make us happy and just talking about life getting to know one another. being fearless with it all 56. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? both idk i just chill and vibe w people 57. Do you believe in aliens or life on other planets? i think it's a possibility, and likely somewhere or other 58. What talent do you wish you’d been born with? flexibility 59. What is your saddest memory? how suicidal i was when i was younger. breaks my heart. also every goodbye i have had to say to people i love. it breaks my heart. 60. Do you believe in love at first sight? i mean it happened to me so yes 61. Do you believe in soul mates? yes but i think you can have a few, not just one 62. Have you ever dyed your hair? yes 63. Has someone ever spread a nasty rumor about you? many 64. Would you go against your moral code for money? idk what this means lol wut 65. What are three things most people don’t know about you? 1. i tried to kill myself multiple times when i was younger 2. i am very unmotivated to do schoolwork although i love to learn 3. i have friends all over the country and world 66. Who are you jealous of? no one 67. Do you sleep with a stuffed toy? sometimes i sleep w my stuffed spongebob my sister gave me when i was little, or a stuffed heart my brother gave me with a picture of us in it 68. How long was your longest relationship? idk man 69. Is the glass half empty or half full? depends man 70. What is the sexiest thing someone could ever do for/to you? many things but smile in a happy state under stars and crawl over me and just go to town out of love 71. Who is your most loyal friend? Rachael i love her 72. Are you in a relationship? no 73. If you have a boyfriend/girlfriend, what is your favorite thing about him/her? --- 74. Are you a bad person? i try to be the best i can be and usually succeed in that, but i am human. i make mistakes and everyone has their own perspectives 75. Are you a lover or a fighter? "i'm a lover not a fighter but i'll fight for what i love" 76. What did you do on your last birthday? my friend took me to get my ears pierced and my mom took me to the mall. it was a nice day 77. What is your favorite quote and why? i don't think i have one, sorry to disappoint 78. If your best friend died, what would you do? i would not know what to do at all. i would try to stay positive but i would be so totally and completely heart broken. i'd miss her to death. 79. If you had to go back in time and change one thing, what would it be? my bowl cut when i was 11 lmao 80. If you only had 24 hours to live, what would you do? go to canada to see a pal and thank him. if i had time after that i'd probably go to new york to meet up with some friends. if i had time after that i'd go to cali. 81. What is the strangest dream you’ve ever had? i honestly don't really know 82. Are you happier single or in a relationship? single but that's because every guy i talk to makes me feel worthless. when my person comes along, i'm sure it'll be a different story 83. Who were you in a past life? i don't know wtf question is this 84. What is your happiest childhood memory? whenever i was with my sister jenn 85. Have you ever experienced unrequited love? yep 86. Have you ever had an imaginary friend? yes, tippy was the GOAT 87. If you were the president, what would you do? omg idk i'd probably smoke a lot of weed and try to forget that i was given this terrifying position 88. What is your ideal career? being an art therapist who gets to travel many places 89. What is your political affiliation? idk man idk 90. Are you conservative or liberal? both in different aspects 91. Is the male or female body closest to perfection? dafuq is this question 92. Do you like kissing in public? yes yes yes. i love when someone's not afraid to love me. i've only ever had that with one person. i miss him so. 93. If you could change one thing in the world, what would you change? men that scream at women and beat them, and vice versa. i just have only seen men do it but i know women do too. it just freaks me out. if a man ever screams at me or hits me i just completely cut them off and don't deal. shit's scary. 94. Where would you like to live? everywhere dude 95. Where would you go on your dream vacation? everywhere dude 96. Describe yourself in one word. art 97. Describe yourself in one sentence. i am made up of everyone i've met and everything i've experienced.