#it was chaos when season 1 dropped so I’m imaging it’s gonna be even more chaotic in s2

[vault81]

can’t wait for the scenes we’ll see on here when season 2 of the fallout show drops

[artzee-bee]

End of all things [2] | Chat Noir x witch!reader

Fandom: MIraculous Ladybug (Adrien Agreste/ Chat Noir)

Request:”Hello good evening, could you please do where a witch!Reader who always tries to comfort Chat/Adrian when he is feeling down. Cuz you know in season 4 I noticed he’s getting sadder and sadder. The reader doesn’t like to get involved in all these weird happenings and just lay low. Whenever Chat/Adrian comes to the reader’s house they always make him feel at home. That's when things go off, at the final battle where Hawkmoth got the Miraculouses and the heroes thought they would lose. (Y/n) just landed in front of them looking so done with Hawkmoth.Hawkmoth thinks that (y/n) was just a weakling, but he was wrong. (Y/n) is far stronger than Hawkmoth even he will use the all Miraculouses he’ll still lose.”

Genre: Angst

Warnings: canon typical violence

A/N: It is incredibly late right now, I hope this piece makes sense and that you like it! It was a cool request, but complicated for sure :))

Part 1

~~~

You could have sworn that time stopped altogether at that moment. Somehow, even though the disappointment of having lost and the worry you felt for your best friend, you found a little power to look at Hawkmoth. You expected him to be joyful, restless! You expected him to have already put on both the miraculouses and yet, they were resting in his palm. His eyes weren’t even on them.

“Adrien?” he looked at the broken boy on the ground

“We’re not over yet!” he yelled, running towards Hawkmoth as fast as he could, but it didn’t matter how much will to fight he had anymore! Adrien’s body was going numb. It was giving up on him. And Hawkmoth was gaining more power and energy with every second that went by. The villain grabbed the boy by the shoulder, immobilizing him to his chest, the same way you had done with Marinette

“You are weak and powerless without your ring, boy. Stop it at once!”

“No!” the desperation in his voice made your heart crumble

You felt Marinette stir in your hold. You knew she must have been awake and watching by now, but you didn’t let go. You had been unable to protect Chat from losing his powers, from wasting his energy by squirming in the arms of the enemy. You’ll be damned if you let anything happen to Ladybug now! Because even if this was the end, even if they’d never get their powers back, Marinette and Adrien will always be Ladybug and Chat Noir. 

Tears fell from your face as you watched your friend kick and scream in fear and frustration. His hair was sticking to his forehead with beads of sweat

You weren’t sure what you could read within Hawkmoth’s facial expression, but you could tell it wasn’t the confidence from a minute ago. Neither the focus. You could still do something! Under your breath, you began to mutter a chant. You had never tried this specific spell before, but there was nothing left to lose. It was supposed to attract an object of your choosing, to you. Focusing on the image of the miraculouses, held captive in Hawkmoth’s iron grip, you prayed it’d work.

“I don’t want to have to kill you Adrien!” finally, the boy managed to escape and take a few steps back

“What do you care? Just a moment ago you would have done anything it took to get rid of me and Marinette!” 

Hawkmoth turned around to face you almost instantly, noticing the movement of your lips. 

“Stop that!”

You saw his fist tighten and shake slightly. His fear was all the motivation you needed! Your chants grew louder and louder, more confident and powerful. Hawkmoth placed both his hands around the jewelry in an attempt to prevent it from reaching you. Finally, there was a chance you could still win this!

And then there was a hand on your mouth.

And a kick on the inside of your knee.

You fell to the ground in pain, as the person behind you pushed you harder against the concrete. Right then, was the first time you heard Marinette say anything that day. 

“Rena?” her voice broken with despair

“I've never akumatized a hero before” you heard Hawkmoth’s taunting laugh “Can you imagine the possibilities Y/N?”

Tears were brimming in your eyes. Rena was forcing you to the ground with all her force. You heard Adrien call out your name, but you couldn’t bring yourself to look at him. You had to find a way out of this but exhaustion was catching up to you quickly. You weren’t used to fights! You weren’t used to such powerful spells within such a short period of time!

With all the strength in your body, you focused again on an imaginary spot, in the middle of it all. You closed your eyes and imagined the ball of energy growing bigger and bigger, somewhere between you and Hawkmoth. Winds picked up speed around you. You opened your eyes slightly, and all you could see was Marinette’s horrified look, but you didn’t care. Not anymore. As long as you were still conscious, the fight would go on. The ball of energy went off again, creating the same bomb effect as in the beginning of the fight. Rena flew off of you, allowing you to move just in time to see Hawkmoth fly into a tree, and drop not only the black cat and ladybug miraculouses, but the butterfly one as well.

It seemed like the magic brooch had come undone from the impact. All 3 jewels fell to the ground and Hawkmoth was swallowed by a purple light. As the detransformation came to an end, all that was left was an unconscious Gabriel Agreste

“Dad?” Adrien’s voice felt like a punch in the heart. You couldn’t tell if he was angry or sad. His eyes turned almost red and he took off running after his father, but you were faster and caught up to him before he could reach Gabriel. You tackled him to the ground to prevent him from waking up the villain and possibly causing more chaos.

“Wait, Adrien, we need the miraculouses!”

“No, what I need is to talk to my DAD!”

“Adrien please!” you could barely manage to keep him from squirming underneath you

“Of course” Marinette replied slowly before holding out her hand. You let go of Adrien, but he didn’t get up. He just placed his right hand on top of Marinette’s, as she carefully slipped the ring on his finger, back where it belonged. 

You heard rapid footsteps come your way and saw Marinette run towards the miraculouses, picking all of them in her hand and hugging them to her chest.You couldn’t even imagine the relief she must have felt! She looked like finally, everything in the world was right again. It gave you hope! Adrien visibly relaxed as he watched her too.

“Can I have Plagg back?” he sobbed

Plagg flew out, looking sacred and in distress, but he tried to smile for his boy.

“I’m sorry Plagg.'' the kwami didn’t say anything, choosing instead to nuzzle himself in the crook of Adrien’s neck, in a hug. The boy placed his hand on top of him and began to sob quietly. Your heart sank at the sight and you couldn’t help but let yourself fall on top of Adrien again and wrapping him in another hug. You could hear every beat of his heart and every sorrowful tear rolling down his cheeks. The noise was so loud, you almost didn’t hear Marinette transform back into her heroine self.

You opened your eyes to see her tying up Gabriel, alongside Rena. She gave you a nod, letting you know they got it from here.

“Adrien?” Gabriel whispered slowly. It seemed like he had finally woken up. The boy beneath you slowly raised his head to meet the glance of his dad. Immediately, he pushed you off in order to run to him

“Father. It’s ok! It’s gonna be ok! It’s a misunderstanding, isn’t it?” Adrien ran to him, hopefulness in his voice like he didn’t know he was merely kidding himself

“I did it for a good cause Adrien…”

“No...you didn’t” he insisted

“One day you’ll understand”

Adrien stepped away from the weak body of his father, suddenly horrified at the realisation that Hawkmoth was, indeed, no one other than his own dad. He turned around to see you and Plagg still on the ground where he left you. Tears were quickly making their way back into his eyes as he rushed to you, throwing himself into your open arms. Ladybug picked Gabriel up, and dragged him away, with Rena right on her tail.

Adrien’s cries were muffled by your hair, but his words were still audible, at least to you

“He was my father! All this time”

“I failed everyone”

“No you didn’t Adrien”

“You didn’t know”

“I let myself be vulnerable and gave him the opportunity to take away my miraculous! I could have lost Plagg forever! I let Ladybug down! She lost her earrings and got akumatized and I couldn’t do anything about it!”

“Stop Adrien. It’s ok. It’s all gonna be ok” you tightened your grip around his body “eventually…”

[ilovejevsjeans]

WHY HAMILTON, VETTEL AND RICCIARDO HAVE EARNED A CRUCIAL WIN

Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo have 146 Formula 1 victories between them. They can take a share in another at the British Grand Prix, and the race hasn’t even started yet. But that’s kind of the point.

It’ll be around 17 minutes before the formation lap begins at Silverstone when those three drivers, and others like Romain Grosjean, can take satisfaction in a job well done. That’s when, thanks to F1 and the FIA, a prominent display “in recognition of the importance of equality and equal opportunity for all” will be part of the live TV images before the race for around half a minute.

“As long as we are all there together and get a moment which doesn’t feel forced or rushed, I think that’s most important,” Ricciardo had said on Thursday.

“In Budapest, it was a bit of a mess for the timing so they’ve addressed it now and I think we’ll continue to do as we’ve done just with a little bit more ease and not such rush and chaos.”

It would be disingenuous to claim getting F1’s pre-race anti-racism stand back in a prominent position is the greatest victory of the weekend, and in isolation it might not seem like a win at all.

But F1 was heading down a tricky path in a fractured state and this could be a significant milestone in that journey. And as FIA race director Michael Masi wrote at the end of a detailed set of notes: “I hope the above is clear and provides some clarity and reassurance to the drivers.”

Hamilton, Vettel and Ricciardo have spoken – and acted – with passion and respect on the subject of racism. Others have too, including the next generation of drivers like Lando Norris, but this trio in particular has been at the forefront of consistently explaining why it is important and why it must be continued.

“We cannot ignore what’s happening outside of our racing bubble,” says Vettel.

“And I think the fight against racism around the world that has taken off again in the last couple of weeks and months, I think it is completely justified.

“It is an ongoing process and needs all of us – and that’s not just us racing, I think that would be ignorant – all human beings around the planet to stand up and to try and go against racism, inequality, injustice in any form.

“It is right to try and set the right signs to inspire people because in the end I believe that education is probably the only way out of it.

“It is insanity to think that in 2020 with all the knowledge that we have of the past, and all the lessons we’ve learned that there is still something that does exist that should be out of the question.

“But it’s not, so therefore we need to stand up when we have the chance publicly to send a message – or more so even when the camera’s off and we are living our everyday life and setting the right example, and trying to behave in a way that is right.”

That’s what the official anti-racism ‘ceremony’, held at the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix, was all about – a very strong message to a very large audience. But it was made less formal at the next two races and turned into a bit of a rush. It seemed to slip off the agenda and it emerged that other drivers were happy to let that happen.

It’s one thing that all 20 drivers haven’t knelt so far. But as has so often been iterated, that doesn’t matter so long as the 20 are united for the cause.

If some drivers wanted to just drop it and move on, that shatters the illusion of unity. That all 20 seem set to persevere suggests it was more about not understanding the importance of the issue rather than being against it.

To some it will still look odd to see the majority of drivers kneeling and others doing something else. But we’re making baby steps with this issue, which is how Hamilton sees it – progress.

“I spent time speaking to Jean Todt, spent time speaking to Chase Carey and Ross Brawn and had really great conversations with them to understand what they’re planning and what they want to do moving forward, and to make sure they know that we’re on the same team here,” Hamilton says.

“Things like giving us that little bit of extra time at the beginning before the race, so that we can really show how united we are as a sport – because other sports have done a better job at consistently doing that.

“They’ve been really open-minded and I do think that it needs to continue through the year.

“I believe, at the moment, that’s what we’re going to continue to do. I think there’s been some pushback, from some teams maybe.

“But again, it’s a work in progress to get us all together. And I think it’s going in the right direction.”

Different people have different positions on this subject. Not in the sense that anyone morally decent thinks racism isn’t bad, or shouldn’t be ended. But it’s a fact that not everybody is on the same page with how prominent this issue needs to be or what part F1 can play in making a difference.

That’s what has caused division among the drivers and projects an image that the ‘unity’ everybody speaks of might not actually be there.

“After the first race it was then discussed between us drivers, what do we do moving forward,” says Ricciardo.

“Some were in the mindset of ‘OK, well I’ve done it, so why do we need to keep doing it? I showed the support and that’s it’.

“But I think that’s just a bit of education, and I’m not gonna sit here and say I know more than everyone else about the topic because I don’t – but I feel that it was then time to open up the conversation and say well, these are the reasons why doing it once is not really doing enough.”

It’d be great to see all 20 take the knee before the start but that won’t happen and it probably won’t happen all season long. But whatever those drivers choose to do instead, they should be willing to do in front of the cameras for the remainder of 2020.

“It’s not like if someone passes and you wear a black armband, that makes sense, you acknowledge it on that moment and it’s not like you have to do it for the next year or something,” says Ricciardo.

“But this is a cause that is ongoing, and it’s still very fresh for a lot of people, a lot of parts of the world and I think we need to continue honing in on it, and making people aware of it.

“That’s why just doing it once is not enough. If you just do it once, how much do you really mean it?

“I think you have to continue showing your support and your willingness to do something and make a change.”

At this point the knee issue is a distraction from scrutinising whether F1 is really unified on this matter and serious about it. What’s been put in place for the British GP suggests that is the case, as it was in Austria.

The rest is an issue for the drivers to discuss amongst themselves.

Given taking the knee originated as a statement from NFL player Colin Kaepernick against police brutality and racial profiling in the United States, is it a political statement? Or has it transcended its origins and become a gesture of solidarity? Is it really a very sensitive and divisive gesture in some cultures, as has been protested?

And what of the ongoing co-opting of the Black Lives Matter message, originally and ostensibly a simple, powerful statement demanding people recognise the needless killing of black Americans?

As Hamilton has discovered, the association that message now has with controversial political organisations has split supporters of the same cause into factions.

“I’m clearly for more inclusion and ending racism – this whole messaging and movement in my mind is great, and I think it’s only good that we’re putting awareness on this and spreading the word,” says Haas driver Kevin Magnussen. “And I want to participate in that for sure.

“But I don’t want to become political and it’s difficult for me to know how my actions are being perceived by others. I really just don’t want to go into politics and I don’t want to be seen to support groups or organisations that I can’t stand with.”

His team-mate Grosjean says: “Kevin mentioned really a good point that some of the guys have been afraid of being linked to any political movement.

“I don’t think it’s happening but maybe I’m wrong. I’m not linked to any of the political movement.”

This is a delicate issue but if it wasn’t then F1 wouldn’t need to be getting involved. It wouldn’t be a worldwide problem that manifests itself in all sorts of ways – even creating issues that F1 doesn’t go anywhere near, as plenty of people who criticise the anti-racism movement like to point out by asking ‘why isn’t F1 shining a light on X?’.

The solution to inconsistent messaging can’t be that Hamilton abandons wearing a ‘Black Lives Matter’ T-shirt while others wear one that says ‘End Racism’.

For one thing, apparently the other message is on the back of Hamilton’s anyway. But if the drivers are free to make the gesture they choose there is something insidious about forcing the only black driver in F1 to adapt a message important to black culture to avoid causing a problem.

After all, the whole point of this is not to suggest that white hood wearing neo-Nazis are walking around with nooses in every city across the world, assembling lynch mobs.

It’s to raise awareness of the deep-rooted biases that manifest themselves as systemic racism and troubles that are much, much harder to address and fix – which is why something so absurd as racism still exists today.

“I really don’t understand racism,” says Grosjean. “I really don’t understand that it can exist in that way.

“I never experienced it, and talking to Lewis was very interesting and it’s things that you can’t really even imagine.

“I don’t think it should divide us, if anything it should pull us together and help us with our image to stop that because it shouldn’t happen.”

This is at the heart of the importance of what Grosjean (in his role at the GPDA), F1 and the FIA have done, starting with the British GP. The request of arguably the three most powerful driver voices on the topic has been taken on board and acted on.

All 20 drivers will group together for a cause and doing so prominently will help eliminate the underlying feeling that some don’t want to be there.

In the smallest possible way it will be a test of their commitment to this issue and perhaps by exposing them to it more regularly, much like those watching on television, anyone who does have doubts about why it needs to be continued in this fashion will try to understand it instead of trying to end the process.

“The more of an impact we can have as Formula 1, as drivers, the better it is for all of us and the bigger the impact we’re going to have on the future and people growing up,” says Norris.

There’s a bigger part for F1 to play in this fight, with activities of greater substance being set up in the background.

For now, it’s important for all participants to show they are on the same side. And in that sense, what we witness before the British GP should be considered a win. (X)

[huntsthemoon]

Heather’s Crazy Teen Wolf 6B Fan Theories.... #3

So this is the 6.11 photo edition.... buckle up folks this could get messy.

If you want to see the others #1 & #2 here and here....

Photos and theories below the cut....

So I’m just gonna jump right to it here..... like I said buckle up there might be a tinge of messy here....

So Stiles is obviously in FBI training. So all this it’s only been a few months business is utter bullshit. He was in a pre-FBI program at a university and I’m sorry this is full blow shit to me. But also TW screw you for putting Dylan in a damn thin white shirt with no undershirt and doing everything possible to cover it up. I can’t handle that and the hands and the sleeves rolled up. Also this almost looks like a blooper to me, like Dylan was doing his best not to laugh. I’d like to think that Stiles once he got to the FBI and not with Scott he would be so into it. But it is Stiles so there’s that....

I feel like this one adds absolutely nothing to this at all. Other than the obviously hand porn and the fact they’ve covered his chest again. Oh and lets show that FBI logo again so this seems legit. Is this FBI training or FBI merchandise day?

Of course lets have Stiles be the only one asking questions lol. Also goes to show he’s the only one with his tie loosened and his sleeves rolled up. Stiles the rebel haha. I’m guessing this is all the shots of Stiles in FBI training we’ll get.

So I’m just gonna point out how much these people like to hang out in the morgue.... where the hell is their autopsy dude/dudette? Like does no one work in the Beacon Hills Morgue? I would think it’s quite the busy place... 

But on to why the hell does Scott have one of the Argent’s Super Tasers? I’m guess with things going down in the BH he feels Melissa needs something to protect herself. But what she’s just supposed to pack that thing around? Yeah that doesn’t look suspicious in the slightest.

I wasn’t even going to include this image because it’s kinda pointless to the plot really. Other than to point out this is the same shirt he’s wearing in the trailers where the hunters have all their laser sights trained on him.... so this happens around that time. Whether before or after is unclear.

I’m just trying to understand how this conversation goes??? “Oh thank you my sweet boy for this deadly weapon that I can totally have with me at all times. No one will notice this thing hanging down to my knee off of my belt.”

But also good try TW, you can’t make Posey seem taller by making Melissa reach up to hug him when his back is obviously bent in a way that means he’s way shorter than her. But 0 points for effort.

Like who was in charge of picking these stills??? Look at the expression on Mason’s face??? What is that??? 

But also look at these sweet boys bringing Mama McCall what looks like supper at work. How adorbs. But why? This still makes no sense? But what did I expect. Also this seems to happen at a different point in the episode than the ones with Scott because Melissa’s scrubs are a different colour or is it a trick of the light?

I’m guessing this happens just after the above scene. He appears to still be in the hospital. But I have a question TW. What happened to their eyes showing first??? Before the fangs drop. It’s been that way for 5 and a half damn season why change now??? Probably because it’s cheaper effects-wise.... just saying.

And this right here!!!! Obviously the hospital. But he’s just standing there amongst the chaos because..... I’m guess to intimidate Liam and Mason but. Like no one is reacting to him. So is this actually happening? Yes? No? Like this dude to his left is just looking at something of screen totally oblivious.

And here’s classic Teen Wolf doing dark ass night shoots in the woods. Has anyone noticed that the trees in the woods have completely changed since season 1?? Like I feel they actually shot outside more in Season 1 and this is more obviously a studio with the same like five trees. Also what Liam had no time to change out of his gear between practice and what is supposed to be night. JFC he must smell ripe!! Especially to the supernatural noses around him.

And I’m gonna point this out one more time TW. Scott is obviously standing on something to be that much taller than Liam. Posey is literally like an inch taller than Sprayberry not six inches taller. Good try again though but 0 points to you.

Okay this dude is supposed to be an escapee from Eichin.... he found jeans and boxer briefs that fit perfectly but he couldn’t find a shirt. I mean I’m enjoying the view but is it necessary??? Oops forgot where we were again. But I am going to see they did pick a good shot to show him like lingering watching... being generally creepy.

again where is the eye glow????? But curious to see where in the episode this is going to fall???

Lydia being confused possibly about how she got out there? Are we gonna see her find a body? Or is she able to track supernatural escapees now? Also holy dressed down Lydia. Barely any make-up and a hoodie? Wow!

So gonna point out that hoodie of Scott’s again. And the fact the angle makes Malia look short as shit. Shelley is fairly tall ya’ll. Still not sure if they’re looking at a body of if Lydia is doing her zone out Banshee bis-snatch.

And of course they give us one last shot with styles at the “FBI” the least the could do was make that logo look like it’s supposed to be there.... It’s lifting on the edges and that’s a weird placement from where in the area it is to the face of it not facing a proper straight angle. They literally put a camera there and then said, “ok which angle makes this the easiest for the viewers to read” I know I’m looking for accuracy in TW and that’s a mistake but it will still bother me, just saying....

Wow this one was very ranty.... hope you all like it... if not feel free to flame the shit out of me. Doesn’t mean I’ll answer but you can try. 

Or if you like it and want to see it continue let me know that too :D

~Heather aka @eleanoraargent

[a-x-ce]

My Anime Expo Experience

Finally writing this up before I forget because my memory is CRAP.

First con woot woot! This is mega long, probably don’t read it unless you absolutely MUST know about how this went.

The Good

Before I even got to the con I researched and planned and bookmarked and researched some more and came to the conclusion that for me, the highlight of a con, is to do things you can only do at that year. I looked over the panels, the premieres, and decided THAT was what I wanted to prioritize. They did not disappoint. I went to two premieres, the Welcome to the Ballroom premiere and The Ancient Magus' Bride premiere, for the first one we got to watch the first two episodes, and for the latter we saw the first THREE episodes. And they blew me away, especially Magus which by episode 3 already had me crying, I could not be more stoked for that to start airing. I then went to two panels which I HAD to go to, one being the FLCL panel, where we got to see the season 2 and (kind of) season 3 trailer a whole 5 minutes before they dropped that shit everywhere else (kind of lame) but what we got added on was “some” information in regards to the series, which made up for us not really getting to see the trailers before everyone else. And then I went to the Studio TRIGGER panel which was awesome! It started with them shooting fake money at us and if you got a special stamped version it got you access to their signing (didn’t get one but kind of didn’t care) and then followed into them playing a hilarious short video which was this bizarre mix of all kinds of shit and ended on them singing the national anthem?! It was funny as all hell. They pretty much spent the majority talking about Little Witch Academia which, I’ll admit, I kind of put on hold after like episode 5...BUT they spent that time giving us all kinds of back story and information on the various characters which was fascinating. Finally though, the main focus was them releasing information on their upcoming projects (which was why most of us were there) and the first two were kinda okay, nothing too much to get us excited, but boy, the hype they built around the last project got the room in a frenzy of excitement! Promare has the potential to be another classic anime for this studio, working with the people who helped bring Kill la Kill to life, as well as Gurren Lagann! You bet your asses I was stoked for this! 100% worth it. I also got free shit at all of these premieres, posters mainly, but I also got a cool Anime Strike pin when going to see Welcome to the Ballroom.

Another thing I ended up loving was actually doing shit in the exhibit hall. When I was sitting my butt in line for an autograph ticket to meet Miyu Irino I got to talking with my fellow line sitters, and one person I talked to gave me all kinds of tips and tricks to getting even more free stuff! She told me about 2 scavenger hunts going on for two of the booths, one got me a free Sailor Moon scarf, and one got me a free CD and a poster for a new game! They were a pain in the ass to get, but that’ll be talked about more in The Bad.

After having figured out you can just ask cosplayers for a picture I manged to get the coolest picture of a Guts and Casca pair and it’s the highlight of every image I took at the con. I wish I had taken more because there were a lot of cosplayers I wanted pictures of. I missed out on a Euphie and Suzaku and I’m still sad about it :’(

The last thing I’ll say I loved was the actual experience of trying to get Miyu Irino’s autograph. Not the actual getting his autograph, but sitting in line with other fans and con goers in the line to get tickets...to get an autograph...in which I met and talked with quite a few really cool and nice people! 

The Bad

The sheer size of this event is ridiculous. It’s so ridiculous in fact they split events between the Convention Center and the Marriott hotel behind the Staples Center. And whoever ran this event was a dumbass and decided that the doors open at 8 am, but none of the major halls open until 10, soooooo, you had a 2 hour gap where hundreds to thousands of people flooded the main floor creating the most hazardous sight I’ve ever seen. Seriously, this was a fire martial’s worst nightmare if you saw this mess. Luckily I only saw this disaster on day 4 ‘cause I had spent the whole damn night on the street. Otherwise I came later on day’s 2 and 3 because to me coming early was meaningless. 

And I did that because getting into the center on day 1 was absolute bullshit. I came a day early to pick up my badge thinking it would cut out waiting in line even longer. No, it didn’t matter. The mass of people outside waiting to get in, and the chaos of even trying to FIND the line TO GET IN, took hours! It was such a goddamn mess that they released a statement that same day saying they WOULD fix the issue. Luckily they did and getting in on day 2 and 3 literally took minutes. What a joke.

Staff for the most part was utterly clueless when it came to finding anything and I fucking hated it. When trying to find the line for Miyu’s panel I got run around the whole damn building, which in the end paled in fucking comparison to the run around I got put on trying to find the autograph booths which were different from the general ticket booths which in the end had ANYONE known fucking anything was a whole lot easier to find if they explained it better...

Lines for larger events were a NIGHTMARE. The Marriott is NOT designed for the sheer number of people lining up for the events held there. I thought it was bad for Magus, oh no, oh no no no, even the Lupin the III game premiere line was not remotely as horrible as what I caught just a glimpse of for the Tokyo Ghoul live-action premiere. That was capped off practically THREE hours before it even played, that’s how crazy popular this event was. I missed it because of that and ended up kind of disappointed. 

Crowding. Holy fuck was this bad. Not even splitting the con between two buildings reduces the sheer number of people in EVERY given space. The artist Alley, crowded, the Exhibit Hall, FUCKING MEGA CROWDED! Moving in the Exhibit Hall was the worst. Add on terrible cell service, add on the fact that the ATM’s were few and far between (and sometimes not fucking working), add on the fact that some sellers use onsite conversion so if your card doesn’t automatically accept you making a purchase in like, Canada, you’re gonna have a bad time...the crowding even makes the fun things not all that fun.

The Disappointing

Cosplay gatherings. Oh boy were these underwhelming. I think the only one I ended up kind of enjoying was the Osomatsu-san gathering I went to on day 1, but aside from that the bigger they got the more chaotic they got, the ruder people become, and just overall super frustrating. What was even more kind of a bummer was that for most of the gatherings I saw the cosplayers walking around the convention at various points and could have MUCH EASIER asked them for a picture rather than deal with the crowding of gatherings. Not to mention when smaller gatherings were made up of people who had gone before and knew each other, as a newcomer you definitely feel left out. It gave off that click vibe and that was really disheartening. Some of these gatherings were definitely not “newbie” friendly which made them even less interesting and makes me not want to go to them again.

Miyu Irino. I have gone back and forth on this one, but after this much time I realize between his panel and the actual autograph this was one of the more disappointing experiences I had. First off, his panel. It lasted one hour, if it was not already bad enough that they split the line where premiere fans got to be inside the building, the rest of us had to figure out where the fuck the OUTSIDE line was. This was a pain in the ass, really, I was run around the whole fucking building to find this line, and by the time I did I was fortunate the line wasn’t too long, but I knew the reason for that was ONLY because no one else could find this fucking line.

So after getting let in late, we sit and we’re told right away we can’t take pictures or video. And originally I thought that was fine, maybe we’d hear some new content they didn’t want getting out. No. No we spent an hour talking about old roles and getting information that I’m sure we could have gotten through any magazine or interview in probably ANY Japanese source. We learned literally nothing about any new work, there was honesty no reason why we shouldn’t have been able to take at least 1 or 2 pictures. It was also incredibly frustrating seeing someone in the row next to us break that rule anyway and got warned THREE times and STILL got to stay and see the panel. Like why make a rule of no pictures to the point where you threaten to remove anyone breaking that rule only to not enforce it? Pointless. 

But anyway, so we spend our hour listening to him talk about various roles, pretty much skipping the one series I was even there for (Osomatsu-san, he voices Todomatsu) and essentially we run out of time for the Q&A where only 3 questions were asked. And no one could even bother to answer one of Miyu’s questions on why Americans like Osomatsu-san, since the ONE person he did try and ask didn’t even watch the show! It was so disappointing.

So I was not all that disappointed at the time but reflecting on it, it was kind of a bust. But I did not realize just how much worse it could get. Because Miyu was one of the most popular guests for AX this year a LOT of people wanted to see him. So many in fact that while I heard lines could start for autographs anywhere from 2 am to 4 am, people got in these lines starting on day 2 (for his session on day 3) at 8 fucking pm. And it was the exact same way on day 3 (for his session on day 4) in which as soon as I go turned away from the Tokyo Ghoul premiere I had really nothing else I wanted to do so since I saw someone on twitter already experience night 2 I went ahead and got in line at like, fucking 7 pm! I was 5th in line...

So I stayed awake for over 30+ hours to get a ticket, which I wasn’t even all that crazy about, I’m not a fangirl so this wasn’t some life changing thing for me, I just wanted the experience. I enjoyed the hell out of the actual staying awake and getting to know people though. So at 8 am they opened the booths, and everyone with a handicap got to go before anyone so while I was 5th in line I got the 12th ticket (kind of bullshit but whatever, given how the rest of us literally had to sleep on the sidewalk seeing people just walk up last minute and get tickets was frustrating). But once we had those tickets it was another 2 and a half hours until the signing, which was in the Artist Alley hall, which didn’t even open until freakin’ 10 anyway. So again there was nothing to do but wait.

So finally 10 roles around and we can get inside, I have my ticket and I go to find the line for Miyu, and as I get in line and waiting we’re eventually told that he will not be signing anything that isn’t related to his anime work. 

Now, this is where I’ll deviate to tell you why this pissed me right the fuck off. Because I live in NV I had to leave unbelievably early to get to L.A. within a reasonable time to check into my hotel. There really wan’t much time earlier in my week to make a run to wal-mart or somewhere to get my pre-chosen images printed for his autograph. So, we had to run around parts of L.A. which is a shit hole for traffic because Californians CANNOT DRIVE (seriously, that’s not a joke, California drivers are THE biggest morons on the West coast) and getting anywhere was a headache. Then the actual process of getting these pictures printed was also a nightmare, because the printing station cropped the images so badly they ended up looking like shit, until finally, after about 40 minutes I got ONE (1) good image of him. It was a picture of HIM.

And he was only signing material that was anime related...yeah. So, now that the picture I had a nightmare printing was not an option, the only other one available to most was that they gave you a pre-signed poster from Akito the Exiled. Which was shitty, it was pre-signed so you wouldn’t even be able to get it autographed and talk to him even a bit! Why the fuck would anyone be happy about that when people stayed awake for HOURS specifically to get an autograph FROM HIM???? Luckily for me I invested time and money into making my Kara and Totty ita bag and had at least ONE official Todomatsu item which I ripped right out of my bag. I was ushered through the line by multiple people and spent a total of maybe 15 seconds in his presence. I said hello, he said hello, he signed my badge, I said thank you, he said thank you, and the experience was over. That was it. 

And as I was leaving the line I was then asked by others in the line what the hell was happening because other people were also being screwed over by not knowing what he would or would not sign (this was literally something they needed to tell us BEFORE actually getting in line for the autograph for fucks sake). I spent some time answering them and leaving. Where I proceeded to notice quite a few girls crying as they were the ones who were denied an autograph being ‘standby’ ticket holders. Miyu did NOT take ANY standby ticket holders on either day. So for anyone who sat up all night and managed to get their hands on one of the extra tickets, it did not matter. Which really, was kind of shitty seeing he really didn’t even do much while there. He had 2 panels, and two autograph sessions, one on each day. One of his panels wasn’t even a focus on him, he was included in the Akito the Exiled panel since he was a VA on it, but he was with others who worked on the show. And since our hour and a half Miyu exclusive panel was cut short to being only an hour since it started late!!! he spent even less time doing things he was signed up to do.

I decided that as a result unless it’s Tanaka-san or anyone else from One Piece I am never sitting in line for an autograph again.

Lastly, I learned that while it’s fun to meet up with people to hang out and try and do things together, you cannot let them try and control your experience. I missed absolutely everything I wanted to do on day 1 because I allowed myself to be guided around by another person. Which initially I was grateful for, as a first-timer I had no clue where things were, but that’s where my day 1 was fucked. There were things and ways to go about this that I planned that didn’t work out, and as a result I missed things I wanted to do. And I told myself at the time it wasn’t a big deal, but since I ended up so goddamn exhausted on day 4 I left early and missed even more stuff I wanted to do...so essentially of my 4 days I only truly enjoyed 2 of them to the fullest. Because on days 2 and 3 I put my foot down and decided no matter what I would do the things I fucking came to do regardless of anyone else and I ended up having a blast. It wasn’t even lonely doing those things by myself, because I had fun! And that’s what mattered.

So yeah, in the end I learned some valuable lessons for my first con, especially at one as big as Anime Expo! I know what I want to do next year, I now know what I don’t really care about, and I know what I absolutely will not be doing again. I hope from these lessons next year I can have even more fun and thoroughly enjoy my 4 days! Also there’s probably some stuff I missed in this post so not sure if I’ll do another part, most likely not since this got hella fucking long...

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

Lessons from 'Chopped' with Ted Allen: The 15 most rage-inducing mistakes in the TV kitchen

Food Network's Chopped invokes a certain kind of screaming-at-your-TV-screen carnal energy — the baskets! the knife injuries! the leaving an ingredient off the plate when it's sitting RIGHT THERE! 

After 10 years and 40 seasons on the air, Chopped still delivers some of the most whiplash-inducing twists on television. Like say when host Ted Allen reads out a seemingly cohesive basket, only to have the last ingredient be something like pickle-flavored cupcakes. 

SEE ALSO: Why the '15-minute recipe' sets you up to fail

me yelling at the tv when i watch chopped pic.twitter.com/pW37XlkEej

— nicole ♡ (@suckernasa) March 1, 2018

In Chopped's world of televised culinary surprises, there are still a number of things that always go predictably wrong. As the host of Chopped, Ted Allen has stood front and center for just about every kitchen disaster you can imagine, so we asked him to dish on the most common mistakes made by chefs tackling the unforgiving beast that is a Chopped basket. 

"It’s a whole bunch of traps." Allen says. "It's nothing but traps." 

1. Whenever anyone attempts to make risotto in under 20 minutes. 

me whenever a Chopped contestant assures the viewer that they can and will make risotto in 30 minutes pic.twitter.com/pUYOTrS1QK

— elexus jionde. (@Lexual__) January 24, 2019

"Planning comes into play," Allen says. "Let’s say you’re in the appetizer round. It takes about 20 minutes to cook arborio rice. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but that’s probably not the best choice in round one."  

Not only does the chef have to constantly stir the arborio rice to cook it to the right consistency, but then they have zero time to do anything else creative. Risotto is a labor of love — ask any Italian nona! 

Lesson: The judges won't be happy with your undercooked rice. 

2. Trying to save face when the plates come out looking less than desirable. 

*watching chopped* "My plating is sloppy but I know my flavors are there" Me: pic.twitter.com/kJyl9XNvhv

— jojo (@BROCKSQUADD) August 2, 2017

Don't say it. Please don't say it. We know you're going to, and no one wants this, and yet here we are. You used the dreaded 'D' work. There it is...deconstructed. 

There are absolutely other words to describe the way the a dish looks. Maybe it's Rushed. Sloppy. Mismatched. But the word you're looking for is not the 'D' one, and it's certainly not the 'R' word either (Rustic). 

Time management is key here, or as Allen calls it, rational innovation. "We want you to do something creative, but you have to recognize the incredible limitations you’re up against."

Lesson: Take the time when plating (it's one-third of the judging criteria, after all) and be honest when the presentation isn't its best. 

3. Forgetting a basket ingredient. 

Okay, so...you know that feeling during the Big Game when the quarterback throws a perfect spiral, and the receiver is wide open, but he drops the ball anyway? Doesn't that make you tear your hair out?

No? You know when a chef forgets a basket ingredient? The camera zooms in, and it's sitting right there on the table? Same range of emotion. 

"We’ve almost never had a chef that didn’t get 4 plates made that are reasonably plausible," Allen says. "But we did have one guy who did plenty of cooking, but he just judged his time so poorly that he got nothing at all on except for three edamame on one plate. Yeah, that was a rough one." 

Lesson: It's not the end of the world. Someone else's dish could have literal raw bones and trash in it.

4. Trying to make ice cream during the dessert round. 

When the Chopped contestant goes to the ice cream machine pic.twitter.com/pVVJRoHoEb

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) June 1, 2018

Why would this go wrong? Everyone loves ice cream, right? But the other chef is inevitably going to be making an ice cream too — it's the easiest way to hide a funky ingredient, or showcase an ingredient with a milder flavor profile. But you can't ALL use the ice cream machine, people, it's just not possible. 

It's also a documented fact that there is purposefully only one ice cream machine, just for the chaos of it all. That's very Cutthroat Kitchen of you, Ted. 

Lesson: Make cookies or something. NOT ice cream.

5. Leaving bones, seeds, or otherwise hazardous material in the dish. 

One of the first rules new chefs learn is to taste their food as they go along. 

The hustle of the Chopped kitchen can cause even the most experienced of chefs to forget this tried and true rule. 

If the judges have to spend their precious time picking fish bones or seeds out of the dish, they will not be happy campers. For chefs that are unfamiliar with an ingredient, it's even more paramount to check and check again. Because something inedible might be left over. Or something possibly deadly (Fugu fish, anyone?)

Lesson: Taste it now. Taste it again. When in doubt, taste it. 

6. Trying to make bread pudding during the dessert round. 

me when the chopped contestant makes it all the way to the dessert round and then starts making a bread pudding pic.twitter.com/E7c9e6X99D

— generation loss (@shoegays) May 12, 2017

Bread pudding is such a popular dish during the dessert round, it might as well be made a requirement to win (please, no). 

The dish became so popular, Allen reveals that "we did have a ban on bread pudding for a while. But it seems to have been allowed to creep back in. It’s just that you don’t want a show where everybody always goes to that, so we kinda had to push people to be more creative and think of other approaches to things." 

The Chopped kitchen god himself has spoken. 

Lesson: Get creative, even if you're not a pastry chef. Make something no-bake! Elbow your opponent for the ice cream machine! Make some candy, anything! 

7. Not cleaning off the counter space. 

My feelings exactly.

Image: GIPHY

One thing Allen says that viewers rarely consider when thinking about the difficulty of the kitchen is the small counter space. Most of which, he says, is taken up by the 7 knives chefs are allowed to bring.  

"One pitfall that is often a giveaway [of who will be chopped] is people that don’t clean off their stations after they’ve done something, because of that lack of space. It’s always a good sign if somebody chops the onion, they put the chopped onion in a bowl, and then they clear off everything, and move on the next [task]." 

Lesson: A clean station denotes an organized chef. And if you don't believe Allen, Ratatouille makes a pretty great point.  

8. Calling anything with chocolate and chili a "mole." 

Every time a Chopped chef introduces a "mole," the judging table reacts with grace, but you can see it in their eyes: Your mole sits on a throne of lies. 

There's a wide variety of traditional mole sauces from different parts of Mexico, but the most ubiquitous kind typically includes roasted red chilis, nuts, spices such as coriander, cloves, and anise, and of course, chocolate. But very little chocolate is actually used, and it's added more like a spice. 

Lesson: Of course no one's going to be judging on complete culinary purity when the basket ingredients are a wild mix. But if you melt a Hershey's bar and put some cayenne in it, don't call it a mole. You will be in the wrong. 

9. Not planning out a dish before jumping into the cooking. 

This one is hard. According to Allen, chefs get, at most, a minute or two to think after they open the basket, and they certainly don't know what's in the basket beforehand. The four ingredients are often so wildly different (such as Korean short ribs, canned spaghetti, purple artichokes, and baby pineapple) that there's no obvious connection. 

"What often indicates that someone might do well is, instead of just jumping right in, taking a moment to plan. If you pointed to an 8-pound Peruvian leg of lamb, I mean I’ve literally seen people salt it and pepper it, then throw it in the oven whole before it occurred to them that, wait a minute, that’s never gonna work." 

Lesson: It's all about taking a second to think about what is doable before it's 5 minutes left and you have an inedible raw lamb. 

10. The goddamn siphon (aka the whipped cream canister).  

Why does this one piece of kitchen equipment never seem to work? It might just be that chefs don't typically come into contact with a siphon on a daily basis, now that we've moved beyond non-dessert 'foams' and 'whips' that dominated the trend of molecular gastronomy. Or it could just be cursed. 

Lesson: Shake it like a polaroid picture, or prepare to just see a spittle of sad sauce drip out. 

11. Throwing any of the basket ingredients on the plate at the last minute, or as a garnish.

http://crayola-colored-skeletons.tumblr.com/post/161837244904/if-you-use-a-basket-ingredient-as-a-garnish-on

Part of the beauty (and the challenge) of Chopped is to take four disparate ingredients and transform them into one cohesive unit. But the keyword here is transform. 

The chefs are under immense pressure, so it's easy to get all knees weak, arms spaghetti and forget a basket ingredient. But sometimes chefs will knowingly leave an ingredient to use at the last minute as a garnish. 

Where's the showmanship? The pizzaz? You are not dripping in any culinary finesse if you don't figure out a way to incorporate all the ingredients. 

Lesson: "Have the judgement to fit those mismatched pieces into a puzzle without masking them with too [sic] much with items from the pantry," Allen says. 

12. Relying too heavily on the pantry ingredients. 

Leaning heavily into the basket ingredients tends to score bigger points with the judges, however strange they might seem at first glance. You might not want to touch that black chicken, but at this point, what choice do you have?

Depending on what's given to the chefs, though, they might actually do worse the "better" the basket might seem. 

"When you’ve been given a basic basket — with a T-bone steak, and a sweet potato, and butter, and a carton of heavy cream — it seems like such a layup, but it almost seems like [the chefs] do the worst job when they don’t have enough of a challenge." 

Allen says that while something like pickled giblets might not be "the first thing you'd ask for," it might force chefs to get more creative. 

Lesson: You don't always get what you want, but you might just get what you need. 

13. Using rookie culinary techniques, such as adding truffle oil or a mint leaf. 

Why do we dislike truffle oil on #Chopped? Most is synthetic & contains no truffle. It’s strong, & tends to overwhelm a dish. It was trendy (a long time ago), & we don’t like trendiness. It feels pretentious, now—a cheap way to try to make a dish seem fancy.

— Ted Allen (@TheTedAllen) June 5, 2018

If a Chopped judge utters the words "why are they going to the pantry, oh god, there's only 30 seconds left," you know this isn't going to be good. 

Most of the time these last-minute additions are at best, superfluous, and at worse, ruin the integrity of the dish as a whole. The perfectionist anxiety to add ingredient upon ingredient in search of making your dish stand out is understandable. 

"I mean this in a positive way, a chef is generally a control freak," says Allen. "Someone who has a strong point of view, something that they want to say with food. On Chopped, we take away all of that control, all of it." 

Lesson: At a certain point, the dish is going to be what it is. And tossing something like truffle oil or saffron on top with five seconds left won't make your dish any fancier. 

14. Trying to hide your basket ingredient through the magic of blending. 

http://luvkurai.tumblr.com/post/165382319715/i-didnt-used-to-understand-why-people-got-so

Blending is the one technique that shows you're either the smartest person in the Chopped kitchen, or you have no idea what the hell is going on. 

Okay, sometimes there's really nothing left to do when there's a basket that's mostly normal, but has one giant curveball. In that case, feel free to hit the judges with some foot-long oversized gummy worm gastrique. 

Lesson: If the Chopped judges have to ask where you a put an ingredient, and the answer is "...it's in the sauce", perhaps the blender was not your best friend. 

15. Starting to cook ANYTHING, or plating, with less than a minute left. 

http://projectcatzo.tumblr.com/post/159772284409/ted-allen-one-minute-left-chopped-contestant

Hmm, I think my dish is missing something. Let me just whip up a little salad dressing real quick...oh, I should probably get my stuff on the plate too. How much time do I have left? 45 seconds? I got time!

Then, shockingly, they did not have time. And there is never really enough time. But as we've established, the secret ingredient to winning Chopped isn't necessarily killer cooking skills, it's killer time management.

Listen to Ted Allen on this one, kids: "If it’s going to take 20 minutes to make something, I might be able to pull off a ham sandwich. 20 minutes is nothing. It’s just nothing. Take a second to plan and realize that you’re gonna have to slice something smaller or make something that’s doable." 

Lesson: Don't do the culinary crime if you can't manage your kitchen time. 

me, with no professional experience, yelling @ chopped competitors when they burn anything or forget an ingredient pic.twitter.com/zMKbBk4gJT

— meg 🐉 (@n_agem) April 25, 2017

Sure, we'd love to think we know everything about goes down during Chopped's intense 20-30 minute rounds, but we're just Average Joes yelling about coulis and beurre blanc to a screen. The Chopped competition turns us all into pseudo-culinary experts, while perched on the sofa eating half-frozen chicken nuggets. 

Allen says that if you ever find yourself getting frustrated at the chefs, "set the clock to 20 minutes, and ask your wife or husband to take out four weird ingredients, and see how you do. 'Cause it could be an eye-opener for you." 

But that's the fun part! Chopped manages to show us a life lesson best expressed in Ratatouille:  Anyone can cook. And, just as important, anyone can think they can whip up a risotto in 20 minutes and fail miserably. 

"In this business, you’re only as good as the last plate you cooked. So the stakes are pretty high."

Ted Allen is right — the chopping block is a great, delicious equalizer. 

WATCH: A study of 'ultraprocessed foods' had some bleak results

[yahoo-puck-daddy-blog]

Puck Daddy Bag of Mail: Tweaking the playoff format

The current playoff format could disadvantage the Predators who figure to run into a strong Jets team earlier than they’d like. (Getty Images)

It’s awards season at this point. Most playoff races are decided, most good teams are resting players, and most bad teams are already starting to at least think about packing up the stall for the summer.

So you can forgive people if they really don’t care much about the last 10-13 games their teams are scheduled to play here. Very few teams are playing for anything worth anything, and it’s mostly just players taking runs at point- and goalscoring titles. (In the games on Tuesday night, a few guys really emptied the tanks; Brad Marchand and Nikita Kucherov each had three points, Erik Karlsson had two to pull within three points of the league lead among defensemen with six fewer games played than the leader.)

But perhaps most interesting this week was Pierre LeBrun asking a bunch of GMs if they want to expand the playoffs when Seattle gets its team. They predictably said yes (for obvious, job-preservation-related reasons) and everyone groaned. There’s really that little to talk about at this point.

So here are a bunch of questions that have little to do with the rest of the season. Let’s roll:

Megan asks: “If you could make a single change to the playoff seeding system, what would it be?”

Pretty obvious here, but if we’re sticking with the 16-team format — and we absolutely should not! — then you go No. 1 vs. No. 16, No. 2 vs. No. 15, and so on and so forth.

The NBA, a league run with plenty of competence versus the NHL’s complete lack thereof, is reportedly considering just such a move because it recognizes how fundamentally flawed the current 1-8 East/West format is. That, also, is a league without ties and loser points, which helps to uncloud how big the gaps there are for Nos. 1 and 8. The NHL at least gets to pretend because of its very dumb points system that this isn’t an issue.

There are, as Adam Silver points out, plenty of issues with this; in the NHL, if Tampa is the No. 1 team and, say, Calgary is the No. 16, they might be at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to travel versus a No. 2 like Nashville facing a No. 15 like Columbus. Then you have to build extra days into the schedule, the playoffs take even longer, etc.

But I think that’s probably the fairest way to handle this overall. Certainly everyone in the world thinks the current format sucks. But I think there should also be a 60-game regular season, so the NHL doesn’t want to hear my ideas on this.

Raul asks: “Which team will be the worst to make the Conference Finals this year?”

Speaking of the very bad playoff format, it basically guarantees at least one relatively weak team makes the Conference Finals every year. See: Senators, Ottawa.

This year, I think the pretty obvious answer is whichever team comes out of the Pacific, because I don’t see Dallas as being a particularly big impediment for Vegas in the first round (if that is who they end up facing) and I think the 2-3 matchup in the Pacific isn’t gonna produce a great competitor either.

The fact that you’re just gonna have Nashville and Winnipeg hitting each other in the ribs with aluminum baseball bats for six or seven games seems wildly unfair to both the fans and those teams, but that’s what we have to live with.

I don’t think any of the four or five legit contenders for the Eastern Conference Final (Tampa, Boston, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and maybe Philly all seem plausible here) would be illegitimate.

Ashmead asks: “Why do NHL teams recall players for a few hours (e.g. Dylan Strome)?”

In the case of Dylan Strome, that was an emergency call-up in case Derek Stepan couldn’t go that night (I want to say on Monday?) but it turned out Stepan was healthy enough to dress so they sent Strome back down with an eye toward giving him a runout over the last eight or 10 games.

But the reason I picked this question was because about a week ago, I saw a bit of confusion on Twitter about a few teams sending down young roster players then recalling them shortly thereafter. This was on the AHL roster deadline day, so it behooved players to “send down” guys on two-way contracts so they would be eligible for the Calder Cup playoffs. These were purely paper transactions to ensure that even if teams were eliminated from Stanley Cup contention, their 22-year-olds (or whatever) could still get as many playoff games as possible.

Just a quick explainer but in a lot of cases, those are the two reasons teams would rapidly move players back and forth between the AHL and NHL.

Dana asks: “Why isn’t the recent influx of First Nations players such as Bear, Whitecloud, Montour etc. a bigger deal?”

There’s no real good answer to this question, I’m afraid. I think part of it is certainly that many of them do not appear as though they are of a different race (many have Western names, etc.), but also because there has been an increased presence of First Nations players in the league for some time now.

While there were only a handful active native players on NHL rosters to start the season (including Carey Price and TJ Oshie, among others), the call-up of Ethan Bear and signing of Zach Whitecloud added a lot to that number, proportionally.

The league can and should certainly do more to help native players — especially in remote parts of Canada — get access to affordable hockey. Otherwise you hear the stories about Jonathan Cheechoo (I think) taking a long helicopter ride multiple times a week just to get some ice time with other kids. I know a number of native players who made a good living in the league have certainly made those kinds of efforts, but given that there are so few, those efforts can only go so far.

As with the question of why aren’t there more black players in the league, it seems like the answer is “opportunity,” and that leads to a lot of uncomfortable questions about inclusivity if Hockey Is, indeed, For Everyone.

Pokecheque asks: “What would be your ideal fix for the NHL draft lottery?”

Well as long as we’re asking how I would fix the league, I would say there is no NHL draft and players are free to sign with whichever teams they like as they enter the league. Of course, you can impose limits on how many players a team can have on entry-level deals as a means of curtailing any handful of clubs from stockpiling elite players.

Drafts are anti-competitive and as a capital-L Labor guy, it’s unfair to enforce where players are able to work so tightly. I’d also get rid of restricted free agency, but that’s a different subject entirely.

Anyway, I don’t think you need to fix the concept of the draft lottery. I’m all for tanking to get the best guy. I can see why most people are not, but I am unmoored from the sport’s toxic cultural mores.

If you think tanking is a problem, I’d probably tweak the odds a bit so maybe every team has the same chance  regardless of whether they finish two or 40 points out of the playoffs. That would create chaos and chaos is funny.

Rebecca asks: “When the (hopefully) new Seattle NHL team starts playing, they’ll have a natural rivalry with Vancouver but the NHL seems to like smooshing together random teams for ‘rivalry night.’ What manufactured rivalries can you see the NHL pushing for Seattle?”

They’re for-sure going to be in a rivalry with Vegas as the two most recent expansion teams. That’s not even negotiable.

Otherwise, you probably have to look to other sports for rivalry inspiration. The Seahawks also have a long-standing rivalry with the 49ers, and that’s close enough to lump the Sharks in. The Sonics used to have a big rivalry with the Lakers so maybe you say the Kings.

The real answer to this is “Whatever NHL team moves to Oklahoma City soon” but y’know.

Jones asks: “How would you alter the salary cap?”

I think the cap works pretty well for what it is, as it stands right now. I might incentivize teams to get better at drafting and developing by giving them a slight discount on re-signing players that made their NHL debuts with the clubs. I’ve seen people propose a 50 percent drop but that’s preposterous; imagine giving the Oilers Connor McDavid for $6.25 million AAV next year? FOH.

But if you wanna say 10 percent? Even 20 percent? I have a lot of time for that.

I might also add some mid-level exceptions like they have in the NBA, just to encourage a little more of a middle class in NHL salaries.

Plus it seems fine to let NHL teams retain as much salary as they want, but put a limit on how much of their cap obligations it can account for.

Those are the big ones for me but I’m sure I could come up with more if I really put my mind to it.

Stephen asks: “What college free agents do I want on my team?”

I’m not going to get into this too much (naming players, etc.) because I’ve answered this same question at least three times this season, including literally last week. Go back through the archives.

But the reason I’m answering this one is simple: To plead with you not to get your hopes up. The number of college free agents who really and truly become something in the NHL is pretty small, but there’s a sweepstakes or three every year. This leads to people dramatically overrating players, like say oh I don’t know just to choose a random example from the recent past who got insanely overrated and everyone shouted at me for saying he wasn’t that good but I ended up being right, Jimmy Vesey.

How much did I say to people, “Do NOT get super-excited about Jimmy Vesey?” How much did those people tell me to take a walk? How many goals does Jimmy Vesey have in 147 career games at almost 25 years old? It’s just 31.

Similar “sweepstakes” were held for Christian Folin (173 career games), Matt Gilroy (225 games), Matt O’Connor (1 game), Spencer Foo (0 career games), Danny DeKeyser (368 games, but he’s really bad), Justin Schultz (395 games but he had to change cities before people stopped throwing garbage at him on the streets), etc.

There are success stories: Kevin Hayes, Torey Krug, Chris Kunitz, Tyler Bozak, etc. But with the exception of Hayes, who simply let his draft rights with Chicago expire, what do a lot of those guys have in common? Yeah, they’re undersized,  “late bloomers,” or both, that’s correct.

A lot of NCAA free agents aren’t “late bloomers” so much as they never really bloom into being real NHL players, and that’s totally fine, but let’s just try to be realistic. Any guy your team gets at this time of year is a free asset who has a max ceiling of Chris Kunitz or Tyler Bozak. These aren’t bad players, but they’re not even close to being superstars.

Adjust your expectations accordingly.

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

All stats via Corsica unless noted otherwise.

[geeksrs545]

15 Scary (and Awesome) Adult Halloween Costumes for 2017

Wouldn't you know it, my favorite time of year is upon us again. I love Halloween because it gives me a chance once a year to shed this fake flesh visage for people and don my true, horrific, demonic self I have to hide the rest of the year. His name is Korzburg the Devourer and he has lived inside me since childhood, with one night annually he can reveal his true form through me.

My true self. An abomination born from the fiery lungs of Hell to reign chaos on the people as they cry for mercy.

It is also a great chance to get dressed up and get candy or hit up some kinky social gatherings. With Halloween in mind, we thought we would assemble a list of scary adult halloween costumes (and some funny and cool ones too) that will surely be trending this Halloween (2017 for those who may just awoken from a coma).

Expect to see some aliens, a demon maybe, some pop culture references, and our president. Here, without further delay, 15 scary adult Halloween costumes for 2017 (and beyond).

Side note, not all are scary. Some are just downright hilarious and some are current pop culturegems.

1. Pennywise the Dancing Clown

When IT comes to Halloween, IT is easy to guess this year that the scary adult Halloween costumes trend will be led by none other than the Pennywise from the new IT movie which just came out (and is pretty badass).

There is just something primal in us that clowns evoke, like the simple fact that someone dressed up as such has complete anonymity and can pretty much get away with murder without anyone knowing who is actually doing it. Check out the history of John Wayne Gacy of you think I'm lying.

And let's be real, that face and outfit are scary as hell.

(Buy)

2. Wonder Woman

For the woman who may not want to be scary but may also want to feel empowered and driven, there is this killer Wonder Woman costume. And we are not talking cheap knockoff. We are talking her outfit from the flick with pretty much every detail nailed.

Granted, the cuffs won't stop bullets so don't get too overconfident when donning this guise.

(Buy)

3. Krampus the Christmas Demon

By now I am sure you have all heard of the legend of the Krampus. The German equivalent of Santa (more like Satan) who shows up for bad little German boys and girls on Christmas and steals and eats them if they were bad during the year.

Well, now you can actually dress up like the badass beast for Halloween. Please note, the kid legs and shoes sticking out of the bag really sell it and bring this Halloween costume to whole new level. And you can also bust this one out at Christmas, so really, it pays for itself the first year.

(Buy)

4. Inflatable T-Rex

What strikes terror in the hearts of men more than giant dinosaurs stumbling into a party where they reside? Nothing, that's what. And that is just what you will do when you show up to a Halloween shindig in this inflatable number.

Kidding. The truth is, these costumes are hilarious because they are inflated and oversized and the head wobbles all around when you walk like the T-rex's neck was broken. So what is scarier than a T-Rex at a party?

A T-Rex with a broken neck at a party, real talk. This shit is wholly unsettling.

(Buy)

5. Twisty the Clown (From American Horror Story)

Of all the scary characters to come out of the many seasons of American Horror Story, Twisty the clown (from Freakshow season and this season) has easily been one of the most memorable and creepiest. When it comes to scary adult Halloween costumes it seems like creepy clowns are gonna be all the rage this year between Pennywise and Twisty.

Hell, going as ANY clown is pretty much scary as hell TBH. But Pennywise and Twisty are the two best bets for actual recognition factor.

(Buy)

6. Eleven from Stranger Things

Granted, Eleven from Stranger Things is not really a scary character, but you carry a Lego waffle with you there is no question you would be the Belle of the ball this Halloween.

Stranger Things has been a huge hit, so going to a party, showing up somewhere as a grown up version of Eleven is guaranteed to get some cool responses. Plus, you'll have a waffle in case you get hungry at any time, and that's a bonus!

(Buy)

7. A White Walker from Game of Thrones

Ah, Game of Thrones. The TV show that has literally become a cultural phenomenon. You didn't think the list would be bereft of any entries from this fantastical show, did you?

And what better way to make the room go quiet than showing up as the Night King himself. The mask is really well done, with all the rigid, angular features we know so well from the character on the show.

By the way, extra 1000 points if you go to a Halloween party as a White Walker and never speak to anyone. Just stand there. That will REALLY freak people out.

(Buy)

8. A Horse

I know what some of you are thinking:

How is a horse mask scary?

Truth is, the horse head has gained HUGE fame over the last five years due to its use and popularity in pics and videos online. So as simple as showing up in a horse head mask may appear, people are gonna love it.

(Buy)

9. Morty from Rick and Morty

This show is SO HOT right now that showing up at any party dressed up as Morty from Rick and Morty is a surefire bet to get some reactions. Extra points if you can seem really nervous about everything and have your voice crack whenever you try to talk.

The best part is, it comes with mask and yellow shirt so all you need is the toy gun replica and some jeans, as well as a palpable sense of insecurity to really pull it off.

Wubba lubba dub-dub, motherf*ckers.

(Buy)

10. Jeff the Killer Costume

Now this, my friends and fellow fiends is one helluva scary Halloween Costume. Based on in the internet legend of Jeff the Killer, who would have thought a crappy, Photoshopped internet picture would end up making such a piss in your pants costume, but looks don't lie, and this shit is SCARY! Tha grin alone is just unnerving to the core.

Walking around dressed like this on Halloween would make some of the kiddies like Halloween a whole lot less and might freak out your neighbors (which is kinda fun, you gotta admit).

(Buy)

11. Inflatable Baby Boy

My God, my eyes have never seen anything scarier than a grownup dressed as a giant, balloon baby, walking around and demanding candy. Some outfits and Halloween costumes are definitely spooky, but this one is just wrong and once you see this thing in motion, it will haunt your nightmares until the day you die. Which, by the way, could be from a heart attack after witnessing this abomination in real life.

You wanna freak people out, a giant, adult baby wobbling around larger than life is a great way to achieve just that.

(Buy)

12. Billy the Puppet from SAW

With a brand new SAW movie about to drop (entitled Jigsaw), what better time to take Billy the Puppet out of retirement to scare some life back into people?

As many of you recall (or don't, who knows), Billy the Puppet is the little puppet that pops up before every scene or moment in Saw and warns of the details of the following trap. He is creepy as hell, so imagine the terror you will strike in people's hearts when you show up as an ADULT version of said doll and just keep asking people if they want to play a game?

(Buy)

13. Zalgo

Much like Jeff the Killer we showed before, Zalgo is a Halloween costume based on the Creepypastaabout a creature who incites crippling fear when someone looks into its hollow, red and black eyes. It is another example where an online story and skinsuit don't seem like they would go together but the end result is some genuinely creepy stuff.

Honestly, all skinsuit costumes kind of freak me out. Humans who have hidden faces are the scariest and dangerous humans of all. Doesn't hurt when the face is hidden behind something as hideous as Zalgo.

Wanna see an even SCARIER skin suit, though.

(Buy)

14. U.S.A Man

Um, I realize there are full-on monsters on this list, but is it weird I find this kind of (literally) blind patriotism to be scarier than the monsters? I mean, the person is a f*cking flag for crying out loud. From the clear bulge you must see in the groin area to the lack of eye contact, I feel like this costume is about as scary as it gets.

Don't get me wrong, I love that people support the U.S.A, but to do so in spandex with no face puts you just one notch under potential terrorist to me.

This is not so much a costume as it is a clear cry for help on our country's behalf.

(Buy)

Speaking of which, let's end this right..

15. Donald Trump Pouting

There are quite a few Trump options this year. There is even a cool one where you are standing on his shoulders, but I HAD to go with this particular mask because of how well-crafted it is. It really looks like him, even down to the hair and pained grimace and massive, orange pores.

Heck, he's even pouting just like the real thing. And if there is anything scarier than Donald Trump right now, I don't know what it is, honestly. To me, there is nothing scariest than an orange doofus with access to nuclear weapons.

Probably won't end well for us, but hell, maybe you can squeeze this one last Halloween in. Hopefully, the above Halloween costumes help make the decision a little easier for you.

(Buy)

Images and Costumes Via Party City andSpiritOfHalloween

Make sure your pet doesn't feel left out: Pets in Halloween Costumes

[survivedeathvalley]

EPISODE 2 - “CHICK FIL A FOR EVERYONE, IT’S RAINING FRIES, HALLELUJAH!” - GABBY

I wanna establish myself as a strong force in this game. When people open skype web and remember they have to be active here I want them to think, "Oh I gotta deal with that bitch Misty too" And I intend on getting to the bottom of who voted for me... Paul [Kage]

Guess who helped start a new alliance! :) Basically Kat, William and I are part of a 3 person alliance called "The Chaos Crew". I feel fairly comfortable working with these two because they both said they were supposedly new to ORGs (don't 10000% buy it), also it would be in all of our interests to stick to a 3 person alliance to make sure that if in the case we do attend tribal we can at least tie if not be in the majority. 

I don't really understand this cast. They're really bad aliases. Yikes... I was talking to that one guy on my tribe with the normal-sounding name and I told him I didn't like making small talk because everyone is "fake". Then he said "I'm not fake! I promise". So I responded that it's not like anyone is fake in *that* way, but it's because of the alias thing... then he thought I was asking him for an alliance. What the fuck. Then he exposed to me that he's NEVER played orgs before and he's SO out of the loop, which might be true, but I don't want to take any chances. I think he's just bad at playing dumb.

http://imgur.com/j0q7pWl

I'm glad that Marco is gone, but I can't help but wonder who voted for Misty.  I hope she doesn't think it was me.  

chick fil a for everyone, it's raining fries, hallelujah!   I have to remember Sunday that I can't be working if I'm not around because Chick fil a does not run on Sundays, I can feel myself forgetting already. 

Misty and I want to work together for the long run, and I'm already scared I'm going to tell her too much info and she'll figure out who I am.  On another note, I noticed the viewing lounge the other day and I wonder if Issy is playing in this, because she's in the VL.  I'm pretty sure she hates me?  We played Arabia together and I lied to her a lot and blindsided her a lot and I think it would be SO FUNNY if we were working together in this, I almost feel like maybe she's Mattie? Thinking back she reminded me of Issy a bit. 

Girl Idk but if we lose I'm voting off the biggest threat in our tribe now that's the tea!

I want Paul out tbh. Me/Bianca/Gabby/Mattie alliance would be the dream. I wanna take control of this tribe. Idk what has gotten into me but I wanna be like Sandra in Game Changers. If we lose, I do plan on making a fake account for Paul and making some fraudulent receipts of him saying he wants Gabby out................... Whatever it takes, you know?

i honestly keep forgetting im in this game! rip me! and also like i think im gonna start impersonating karen so people think I'm her

Nothing has happened yet

https://youtu.be/xB5CQqqra0o

Ummm, so ummm, unmmm, I have no idea what tribal will be like tomorrow

Note to self: NEVER PISS LOGAN OFF.  <3 Paul has got to go, I liked him better when his account wasn't working.  Also I think I figured out who he is because he kept putting a different name instead of Paul when we were doing the challenge.  I don't know that person outside of this game though and can't remember what he said his name was to save my life.   I hope that maybe Misty, Bianca, Mattie and I can vote together to get Paul out of this game, his smart mouth is going to ruin it for all of us.  He was also the more pissy person towards Mattie when she was messing up.  And true, I was lowkey annoyed with her too but then she told us she had dyscalculia and one of my friends has that, and I could see how this challenge could be difficult for her. We should have started it YESTERDAY, i felt like suggesting it but I just... never did.  UGH, I'm so ready for a switch or something, Panamint is dropping like flies and I just hope I'm in a good enough spot to stay another round. 

This tribe is?? Interesting I guess. We don't communicate like at all. Nobody answers pms (including me) and when we do it's like very vague and messy. Alex sends haha every other word and it makes it very hard to see if he's serious or not? I like Jenny she seems cool hopefully we can work together but the rest of this tribe idk 

We just lost.. and of course I was the only one to NOT participate. I'm sure I'm on the chopping block, because at this point I'm pretty sure there's no inactives to hide behind. I'm still gonna push for Paul to go home though. Maybe not be as aggressive as I planned to be.. but I will try to make it work. I trust in Bianca and Gabby so hopefully they keep me safe!

So we lost. Which I expected. And I originally thought I'd be the target, since I fucked up so much we kept having to go back. But Tanner never showed up to participate and everyone has to participate so we lost for that reason instead. Which means that I'm a little safer than I was before, and Tanner is most likely going home. I hope. I'm kind of glad he fucked up tbh, because I think we would've gone either way and now I get to be safe.

Now this is the truth tea and I can't wait to see all my devious villains with me at merge bc it's obvious the other two tribes are stupid enough to actually win a challenge *giggles* 

https://youtu.be/BS93E9_5f1o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpsXJTPAOYE

I think everything is peaceful right now but I just hope everything isn't under the table and no one is targeting me.

Nobody wants to be the first person to throw out a name! It's so annoying! Nothing is happening! Wait, maybe they have an alliance *facepalm*

I dunno what I said last, but I think it was to the effect of I really suck at that flash game and I hope that the people on my tribe are better at it than I am. And... they were! They were actually a lot better than I was at it and I think one person (Alex maybe??) made up the difference of my failings https://media.tenor.co/images/9d06a86bdcd648c964e322559fdd3b80/tenor.gif We won the immunity challenge and avoided the first vote off of the season because that's what you do when you're immune I guess. Anyway, it looked like the Panamint tribe that did the worst decided to vote off their inactive player to increase their chances of success. I'm assuming this will be the strategy for most tribes moving forward anyway. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/99/39/d8/9939d80aafd7f1217af815bd1f7ab42b.gif 

The reward challenge was the degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon thing that is always really fun - https://media.giphy.com/media/Ff2LmUUzZQAeY/giphy.gif I did the best I could at it so that I would look like an asset to my team... perhaps. Gotta plant those seeds that I'm of value so people will start inviting me to be part of their alliances and I'll become less likely to get the boot. We lost, but luckily it was just reward and then Kai went back to the Devil Hole to dig for an idol or something. So.. maybe Kai has an idol now? At the moment, I'm not too bothered because I don't think that I have given them any reason to play it.

Next challenge rolls its ugly head out of bed and I can see myself crying. I literally wanted to sit out of this one because I hate these types of challenges. They make my knees weak and my heart break. http://www.gifimagesdownload.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Disgusted-cute-gif.gif It's a counting endurance challenge... WITH A TWIST ™ because you can only respond with odds on odd minutes and evens on even minutes... and I wasn't online to ask to sit out so I get to help count!! Rather than um... being a flop I decided to OVER DO so that people will want to pull me into potential future alliances since these challenges are the opportunity to bond over the fact that you hate your life. https://media.tenor.co/images/12ef9945086f38f2b314cdd6206fa1dc/tenor.gif

This dude named Tanner who Kai and some other people keep calling Eddie (suspicious?? I dunno, nor do I care tbh.. just weird honestly) didn't participate in the challenge at all and has more or less disappeared. http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/shrg-1.gif While concerning because people disappearing is not necessarily a good thing, it has made the first vote an easy target. Our tribe needs strength and somebody that we can't rely on to play is definitely the opposite of desirable. Also! Fun facts! Alex and I worked really closely and very consistently on this challenge and we shared with each other afterward that we were each equally glad to have someone to rely on throughout the thing... and then Alex did some weird alliance pitching thing that made me slightly uncomfortable. They were like.. "We could be more ;)" and I was like... stop with the wink face and just ask if I want to ally with you. It's giving me creeper vibes. https://m.popkey.co/98eb3f/1xWo0.gif So we decided to form an alliance and to pull in Wash as a third so that we will be able to control votes moving forward. I guess that'll be something... assuming it sticks and is successful and all of the other permutations are fun... also, given Jenny's chaotic nature she's probably going to out this alliance the moment she gets to a swap so she can stab them in the back.

I feel bad for not doing reward fuck i might go home fuck this

https://youtu.be/H4LrsvmlSAA

Ok, so episode 2 in a nut shell... Kat, William and I started a 3 person alliance called the Chaos Crew which is kinda cute I guess, hopefully since there are 3 people in the alliance it will secure them as a number more. Then we had the reward competition which was the wikipedia thing and my type A personality legit did the entire comp for our tribe. I really wanted us to win and have a possibility of being sent to satan's asshole. So we won!!!! And we got an idol clue :) also I convinced them to let me go to the hole. I decided thatd itd be smart to send the same people as last week because itd put a larger target on their back and if they found an advantage it would at least be in a known area.  Basicalllllly, I found this cute Zirusikisisiaasdas Idol which works as a normal idol but also randomly gives another person protection, but my ass tried and tell most people that I found nothing (a rock). This is good for the most part unless it chooses the person I am trying to idol out. Then we had the reward comp which was the ugliest fucking counting endurance comp ive ever had to do. So basically, Giruga, Justin, and I did the majority of the competition even though I was on a fucking road trip on mobile so that was wild. Layla legit did little to nothing which made the entire tribe kind of mad, thus theyd be an easy vote in a future tribal probs. I think Giruga and I working on this competition and communicating during it made was a lot more beneficial for our relationship... basically I suggested that we made a good team in the comp and I was wondering if he'd want to work together and he said yes!!! So im basically working with everybody on the fucking tribe whew. We won immunity because we are the only tribe to finish it which has me shook, but that means we have a significant advantage going into a future tribe swap or merge :). I have feeling that next episode is going to be a tribe swap, but we will see!

I was told to make a confessional. Also I'm going to make an alliance so if I'm gone you'll know why.

So....we lost....again. But it's no sweat this round because I have my alliance with Gabby and Misty, which gives us majority. I love a good majority. The plan is to vote out Paul because he is literally a mess and a half. After that disaster is handled, we can hopefully move forward and not have to go to tribal again. I'm really praying that I can go to Devil's Hole again because now that I have my glow stone i have better chances of maybe finding something that could really turn my game around. But who knows? Only time will tell

I swear, i'm a good egg, i'm going to make a confessional whenever i'm asked to. :o) Okay so....  I just got asked to join an alliance with Paul and Mattie...  now I'm going to have two alliances, how exciting is this gonna be. Time to start making some choices and hope for a swap because someone is going to know i was playing both sides soon! 

Well fuck me with an Iron Dildo I think it worked!

If I go home this round... I just........... It doesn't feel natural. I GUESS it's my fault for not being on skype all day yesterday/today but? I was busy. Whatever. If I stay, Mattie better watch the fuck out. They think they can vote me out? Surprise bitch

EP 2 EDGIC: