#it's been so long since i watched a sitcom and it's truly one of the greats

[calumsash]

i watch a show, i reblog 50+ posts of beautiful gifsets of said show, then move on.

[cinnamonroll-anon]

Make out session with lmk sun wukong?

Make Out Session: Sun Wukong x Reader

Warnings: Nsfw under the cut, spicy kisses, fluff

You swore you didn't plan for your day to go like this, but you definitely weren't regretting it. Today had been a normal day, just you relaxing on the weekend after a particularly long week. Now you were spending time with your boyfriend, Sun Wukong, who decided that you should spend the weekend over at Flower Fruit Mountain.

You had both been cuddling and watching Tv for most of the day, browsing through sitcoms, telenovelas, and of course your favorite movie. After a while, you had gotten hungry and decided to get up to make the both of you some lunch. It would be a small thank you to Wukong for having you over, not that he minded. If it were up to him, you'd already be moved in with him. You made your way into the kitchen, missing the way Wukong perked up at you leaving the comfort of his couch. You began to inspect the ingredients before figuring out what you wanted to make. You had begun to prep the ingredients, either chopping them or cleaning them, so engrossed in your task you entirely missed the sound of footsteps approaching.

"Hey peaches, what are you up to?" His voice rumbled behind you as he wrapped his arms around your waist, nuzzling his head into your neck.

"I was just going to make us some lunch." You responded, too embarrassed to look over at him. You did your best to stay focused on the task at hand, but you found yourself distracted by his actions. His hands gently ran across your waist, softly tracing your hips, teasingly sliding to your thighs before coming back up. His tail wrapped around your leg, and you couldn't help but feel engulfed by his embrace. You could feel his every breath against your neck before he slowly leaned in, letting his lips run across your skin, causing goosebumps to form across your body. He softly chuckled before finally kissing your neck tenderly.

"Something wrong Peaches? You've stopped working~". You focused back on your hands and he was right, you had frozen up. When or for how long you paused was a mystery.

"I, um, just needed a break!" You mustered up before getting back to work until you felt a rumbling feeling across your back as he leaned into you, pressing himself against you. He was purring.

"If you want a break we can go lay down on the bed. You more than deserved a nice, long, break~". He teased as his hands ran down your body. You've frozen up again, how could you have not, he's using that tone of his. The one has you wrapped around his finger.

"Peaches, I've missed you~", He'd practically purr out before pressing more loving kisses against your neck. You finally dropped what you were holding, turning around in his hold, pressing a kiss to his lips. God, it truly has been too long since you've been like this, you'd almost how good it felt. How good he felt.

He pressed you against the counter, the kiss becoming more passionate and desperate. His hands touching your body feverishly, running across your sides as he held you close. You couldn't keep track of anything, one kiss became two, then three, and then you were flopped onto the bed. You didn't even register moving into the room, less how long you were kissing. His lips were needy and demanding, showing you exactly how much he missed you. You ran your fingers through his fur before finding a spot behind his head to tug on it. He growled at your tug, softly biting your bottom lip, making you gasp. You didn't realize how sensitive your lips were, especially how they felt bruised from his intense kisses.

You greedily inhaled after you gasped, almost forgetting how to breath. Each kiss kept taking your breath away, his lips were so addictive, you couldn't help but desperately search for them every time you parted to breathe. No matter how much you inhaled, your mind had become warm and fuzzy, a haze of infatuation that would only grow more as he slipped his tongue into your mouth. Your tongues danced vigorously, wrapping around each other before he pulled away, a string of saliva connecting your swollen lips together. His arms caged you in-between him and the bed, his legs on either side of your hips. You both caught your breath, your chest rising and falling. He then smirked at you, loving the way your pleading eyes looked up at him. He chuckled darkly through his half lidded eyes.

"I'm not done with you yet love~"

back

[vintagetvstars]

Alan Alda Vs. Robin Williams

Propaganda

Alan Alda - (M*A*S*H) - He is both the saddest wettest little meow meow and your kindly grandfather and your favourite eccentric uncle (mom's side). Somehow it works. Passionate Democrat, feminist, great writer, he and his books are hilarious. Did a cartwheel when he won an Emmy! How he met his wife is the best meet cute of the last two centuries, and they've now been married over 60 years!!!

Robin Williams - (Mork & Mindy) - Mork & Mindy will forever be iconic. Robin Williams is such a gem on this show! Nanu Nanu <3

- No Negative Propaganda Please -

Master Poll List | How to submit propaganda | What is vintage? (FAQ)

Additional propaganda below the cut

Alan Alda:

he’s just so good in MASH

he put so much bisexuality into hawkeye i think it fundamentally changed me when i was little and watching mash for the first time. anyway do we all know the story about how he met his wife when they were at a party together and they were the only two people eating the cake that fell on the floor and he fell in love with her over her laugh. i just think hes neat :) i love when theres a strange looking man. also feel it necessary to say that the guy that wrote the book mash was based on wrote himself as hawkeye and HATED alda's hawkeye bc he displayed his morals too much (alda had it in his contract for the show that every episode had to have an operating room scene bc otherwise you arent backdropping the fact that war is Not fun. actually. he almost didnt take the role bc he thought a war comedy would make too much light of the horrors)

please please please use this picture of him, he's so hot in it

His comedic delivery in MASH...

The story of how he met his wife is charming and sweet, and they've now been married 65 years

Just look at him. He's the most beautiful man I've ever seen but also he's completely average. He's got a weak jawlines and a round face and these big soft eyes and he's just so beautiful. He's capable of playing a silly charismatic sitcom protagonist in one scene, and a jaded army surgeon haunted by the deaths he's witnessed in the next. He's so hot that my dad once told me he decided to apply to medical school because of how much he was attracted to Hawkeye Pierce. That's literally how I learned that my father was bisexual.

He's also just a really great dude? He's been outspoken about his political beliefs for a long time, and has always been strongly and vocally anti-war, pro-feminist, and pro lgbt. He served a tour in the Korean war, and his experiences there informed his performance in the show. He (and honestly the entire cast, but especially him) really just soared above and beyond the standard for comedies of the day.

He's so funny and his eyes are pretty

He loves and is a champion of science (Source).

Robin Williams:

[snorlaxlovesme]

For the ask meme:

41) Who’s your favorite character you’ve written?

66) What’s a fun fact about let me do this for you?

68) Are there any fics that influenced you to write the way you do?

74) Do you have a fic you wish got a bit more love?

(You don't have to answer them all if you don't have the wherewithal I just love asking questions to writers!!)

smooch smooch smoochsmoochsmooch LC you know I love you and you know I love talking about writing

41. Who's your favorite character you've written?

like, OBVIOUSLY Soul or Maka otherwise I wouldn't have dedicated the past like ten years of my life writing for Soul Eater. but a secret third option? Hagakure from My Hero Academia. probably because Horikoshi gave me absolutely NOTHING to work with besides "girl who is constantly invisible and wants to be hero" so I got to come up with everything else for her on my own. and since I can't think of a single 15 year old girl on the planet that would be comfortable with fighting naked while everyone else was clothed, invisible or not, I gave her a complex about it. and it's a pretty rad fic if I do say so myself. [x] i

66. What's a fun fact about let me do this for you? [x]

the long-lost soup recipe was inspired by a couple different things! there's an episode of Spy x Family where Yor is trying to learn to cook for her fake family and a co-worker tries to teach her how to make a stew, I think. at the end of the cooking process her co-worker asks Yor where she's from and deduces that the region where she lives probably adds sour cream into the stew, and when Yor and her brother taste it it brings back memories of their childhood. i had a similar experience 2 years ago when i went to Chicago. we went to a fancy restaurant and by total coincidence the mashed potatoes I got as a side dish tasted EXACTLY like how my grandmother used to make them. when i was a kid we'd always have Christmas and Easter at my grandma's house and her mashed potatoes were different from how my parents made them and they were SO yummy. she passed away in 2015 so being able to eat what felt exactly like her cooking in 2022 felt really special. those kind of things reminded me just how special home-cooking is, and how taste can trigger memories. i thought it would be comforting for Cheng Xiaoshi to have a memory food like that, that he really wished to taste again, and to have Qiao Ling love her brother enough to attempt to make it over and over again so he can experience that kind of warmth again. and honest to god, hand on the Bible, i had not watched s1 in a while and had COMPLETELY forgotten about the noodle lesbians and didn't know that i was subliminally channeling a plot Link Click had already used LMAO

68. Are there any fics that inspired you to write the way you do?

that's hard to pin down since I don't have even really have a definitive writing style, really. if you look at the work I used to put out in the 2010s, it's mostly snappy sitcom-style romantic comedy things (which I would say was largely influenced by the Soul Eater fandom as a whole and Bittersweet Romanticide's [x] many many excellent Pokemon one-shots and longfics. those were my core texts when I started writing fanfiction so my earlier style comes from them I'm sure. nowadays? i think maybe since being in the TRC fandom I've switched up my style to be a bit more prose-heavy. that's more Maggie Stiefvater's influence than anything, since I've taken like four of her writing courses. i've been able to flesh out ideas better and have been more intentional with my pacing since learning from Stief

74. Do you have a fic you wish got a bit more love?

no matter how many times i reblogged it, you'd come over, right? [x] was chronically ignored and that remains one of life's greatest tragedies it's a TRC pynch one-shot that takes place in the middle of the end of the world. apocalypse NOW, RIGHT NOW, truly. but ironically despite the fire and brimstone raining down, it's more of a backdrop to the emotional turmoil Ronan is going through, as he experiences the end of days alone. (angst with a happy ending, though, soooooooo. it deserves to be read. it is very good. )

[lonita]

100 Things About Me

I am legally blind.

I prefer identify first language over person first, because person first makes it sounds as if I can take my disability off as if it's an attachment.

I don't like abled people telling me how to refer to myself or my disability.

I like to drink room temperature water in the winter.

I have three main hobbies: buying art supplies, organising art supplies, and using art supplies.

I love binge-watching old TV shows as background noise.

I have seen Gary Numan live six times.

I love singing jazz.

Cooking is a monumental bore.

I am childfree by choice.

I have had surgery to render myself incapable of pregnancy.

I have zero regrets about either of the above two things.

The only car I've ever driven was an F2000 racecar.

I've been to the US, England, France, Hungary, Germany, and Cuba.

I don't know how to swim.

The older I get, the more politically and socially angry I get.

I like systems that benefit people collectively.

I cannot abide the smell of mutton cooking.

My favourite colours are warm greens - like grasses, leaves, and olives.

Celebrity culture bores the shit out of me.

I have no real desire to own a home. I'm content ro rent.

I love abstract art.

I am an atheist and antitheist.

I haven't watched a sitcom in so long I don't even remember the last one I watched.

I have five tattoos.

I haven't watched any mainstream Canadian broadcast news since the second week of October 2023.

When I have tea, I only like milk in it.

My favourite songs to listen to loud are Gary Numan's Hope Bleeds version of Are Friends Electric?, Led Zeppelin Nobody's Fault But Mine, Fugazi Waiting Room, and Gang of Four To Hell With Poverty.

My love for loud music has not blunted as I get older.

I didn't know my blood type until about five years ago.

Songs that mention luxury brand names annoy the shit out of me.

Things that other people seem to like which I don't: the movie Titanic, Taylor Swift, wine.

Things that I like which other people seem not to like so much, include: pigeons, spinach, communists. Only the middle one for eating. I don't want to eat communists. Although I've had pigeon once, and it was delicious.

i prefer micro fine black ink pens over any other kind.

My first name apparently roughly translates to "ready for battle". Anyone who knows me is going to find that funny.

Crunchy peanut butter is superior to smooth.

I like collecting postcards.

Some things I like include tea, navel oranges, speculative fiction, loud guitar, corn bread, black pepper, leaf scuffing, ruby grapefruit, exploring abandoned buildings, surprise bags, milk chocolate, puns, warm spring days, a seriously good mindfuck, comfort films, the Oxford comma, constrained writing, ice cream, and costume drama.

My favourite mindfuck film is probably still Altered States.

I'm starting to come around to the term apocalist as opposed to bucket list.

I prefer pre-Moonratker Bond films.

I like to sing, preferably jazz standards or things of that like.

I am grossed out by potato eyes.

I don't like people watching me do housework.

I truly believe that Frampton Comes Alive! does have restorative powers.

I like the sounds of wind in the trees and rain on the streets.

My household theme song is Tim Curry's I Do the Rock.

My favourite Beatles' song is Dig a Pony.

I don't like having my picture taken. No paparazzi!

I believe that you should work to live not live to work.

I believe that if life hands you lemons, you should make pie. Everything is better with pie.

I once cut myself with bubble wrap.

For years I've been keeping a notebook in which I write a list of things to be happy about.

I like attention. I don't like being the centre of attention.

I never learned how to put on any makeup other than lipstick.

I think best days ever include: Gary Day (any day on which I get to see Gary Numan live), New Toothbrush Day / Dentist Cleaned My Teeth Day, New Art Supplies Arrive in the Mail Day, The Day I Learned About Server-Side Includes, and Friday.

I like the sounds of wind in the trees and rain on the streets.

I like when there's enough of something.

For a long time when I was a child I wouldn't walk right up to my bed if the lights were out. I'd get about a foot away then jump onto it. I blame this on the movie Blackbeard's Ghost and that scene where he's looking into the mirror and the ghost appears behind him.

Sometimes I eat oranges because I like the sharp sweet smell more than I'm desirous of actually eating it.

One of my favourite things in the world is the tenor solo in the Ode to Joy, and the way it creeps up on you every time, like how Brain Damage/Eclipse creeps up on you and surprises you every time at the end of Dark Side of the Moon. I never get tired of that.

I like the film Lawrence of Arabia.

I believe in the right to choose.

I like to eat sweet things, but I don't like the smell of it on my hands afterwards.

I once volunteered to participate in a psych study just to get one of the perks of doing the study: copies of MRI scans of your brain.

For years I wouldn't get in an elevator first or get out last, because when I was five I got stuck in an elevator during a hydro company oriented power outage. They decided that a school day's lunch time was the perfect time to do some testing. Boy did they get an earful from a number of people.

I get an enormous charge out of location-spotting the city where I live in films and TV shows.

My hair used to be a lovely golden red when I was young. It got blonder as I got older. That bums me out. I want the red back.

My current favourite vulgarity is halve poes.

I don't enjoy magic shows, sitcoms, Star Wars, or superhero movies.

I prefer 1% milk. Homogenised is too fatty and skim is like water.

I like making lists.

I own a green bass guitar.

I have never chugged maple syrup.

I don't like drinking carbonated drinks on hot days.

I like anise in candy but not with meat.

One time my mother ordered me groceries as a gift, but she accidentally doubled everything so I ended up with 20lbs of potatoes.

I hate wearing pink. I don't own anything pink.

Shrimp are too creepy to eat, as are snails.

I have no interest in jewellery and don't like white diamonds.

The skins that sometimes form on top of hot chocolate drinks are gross.

When I was five I had an imaginary friend named Charlie Brokentoaster.

I rarely drink alone. I come from a long line of alcoholics, so I just didn't want to get into the habit of drinking by myself. I want to enjoy alcohol, so I keep alcohol as a social thing.

I don't mind renting. Owning property doesn't make a person more an adult than one who doesn't. Besides, when something goes wrong, like the fridge dies or they have to replace the entire hot water heater system, I don't have to suddenly wonder where thousands of dollars is going to manifest from.

I just realised I've been playing Candy Crush for over a decade. That's just weird.

I never figured out Double Dutch when I was a kid.

Sometimes I miss ringing telephones.

I bought the kid version of a Waterpik because it was green and came with stickers.

My first Doctor was Jon Pertwee, but my favourite Doctor was Tom Baker.

Places I still want to visit include Uluru, Death Valley, and Kilimanjaro. None of these things is likely to come to pass.

I don't mind long bus rides. Good reading time.

One of my favourite things to binge watch in the middle of the night for comfort, is episodes of Cadfael.

My favourite scents include the sharpness of lemon, orange, and grapefruit rinds, pine, and cooking soup.

Boomer thinkers annoy the shit out of me.

I like found object art and found poetry.

I wish cereal wasn't so carby. Sometimes a body gets a craving.

I can't eat bananas unless they're still a little green, because they're way too sweet when they're all the way yellow.

I still don't understand how I can not touch the lenses of my glasses and they still get marks on them. What the hell's up with that?

My cousins and I used to sneak fresh rhubarb out of their grandfather's garden when we were little.

Racism and bigotry are deal-breakers for me.

[tinamaetales]

You’re not sorry

“So you’re apologizing…..Ok, I don’t forgive you……No, I’m not gonna give you closure. You don’t get that. You have to live with the shitty thing you did for the rest of your life. You have to know that it’s never, ever going to be okay……I’m not gonna feel better and I’m not gonna be your prop so you can feel better” - Herb Kazaz, BoJack Horseman Ep. 8 Season 1 “The Telescope”

It has been five years since the last time I stepped foot inside my Psychiatrist's office and now looking back there's a part of me that screams I should have continued my therapy....but the thing is I really cannot afford it. And now, I have become messier than ever. My depression got worse and I'm just trying to survive each day. That's the keyword, trying. I used a lot of distractions though, good and bad. Good distractions are the music of my fave, iKON, and watching Miami Heat games. Bad distractions are spending an awful amount of time watching tiktoks of those who are as mentally ill as I am because instead of going to therapy we just rely on the internet to have some sense of belongingness especially when you feel like no one is really on your side. And I do feel that most of the time......I feel like no one truly understands and no one actually believes that I am struggling badly. I'm mentally unstable despite the fact that I do not have a proper diagnosis about my condition. I just know. Why? Because it's my mind and my body. I can feel it. For fuck's sake, I live with it.

What I noticed in our society is that it is easier to doubt someone who is vocal about their struggles instead of believing them and supporting them. It is easier for our society to gaslight someone into thinking that they are just allowing themselves to be weak instead of understanding them. And when someone decides to end their life, it's either people would finally get it and feel remorseful that they should have seen the signs or they would still say that the generation of today is just not mentally strong enough to handle life. And then there's another scenario, someone will be badly mentally fckd up that they end up being a horrible person then they will treat others horribly too. Hurt people will hurt people and so the cycle never ends.

As I mentioned earlier, I used a lot of distractions as I try to live each day. For someone like me who hates going outside and prefers to be alone, binge watching shows on streaming apps is a form of distraction. I’m not really picky when it comes to movies or series that I watch though, I just want the plot to make sense and not be over the top with so many plot twists and unnecessary “different” endings. One of the series I ended up loving is BoJack Horseman. 

BoJack Horseman is not an easy to watch show. Yes it started as a quirky show about a former lead star of a successful 90s sitcom but as it progressed, it showed the harsh reality of the entertainment industry and how not being held accountable for your fuckery can make you a monster. It's crazy because BoJack as the main character of this show is not likable at all (at least for me). Throughout the show you kinda cheer for him to get better and grow up but then he always ends up disappointing you. However, knowing his history, especially with the kind of family he has, you can't help but feel some empathy for him. I guess that's the thing about main characters, despite the flaws you still want them to become triumphant in the end because somehow you can see a version of yourself with them. But how long can a person tolerate one's behavior? I do not want to label myself as a good person because I know that I am far from that but there is a certain part of me that knows how to forgive especially if they are deserving. However, when someone refuses to be held accountable for their mistakes and refuses to see how toxic they are does it really make me the bad one here if I chose not to forgive?

The show has six seasons and 77 episodes but I did not feel that it was long because the execution of the episodes are great. There are a lot of episodes which make me feel uneasy about how close they hit home. But for this blog post I will be discussing two scenes from two different episodes because these two scenes are about the topics of accountability and forgiveness: The Telescopes from ep 8 of season 1 and It’s You from ep 10 of season 3. 

Have you ever met someone who is too full of himself? A person who obviously has issues in life but does not exert efforts in making himself become better and instead use their difficult past as an excuse for being a shitty person? A person who does not want to be held accountable for their mistakes and people around him tolerated him so he never learns? Well that’s my father. Also, that is who BoJack Horseman is. But if we are going to make this a competition about who is worse then my father is definitely winning this contest, unanimously. While watching the show, I cannot help but see parts of my father in BoJack Horseman especially in episodes “The Telescope” and “It’s You” Both of those episodes have confrontation scenes with a friend of BoJack (Herb in episode 8 season 1 and Todd in episode 10 season 3) who refused to accept his apology and want him to be held accountable for his actions. And I both agree with them.

For context, in the “The Telescopes” episode, Bojack apologized to his friend Herb for betraying him years ago. He chose to protect his career instead of standing with Herb. And he even further that betrayal when he did not contact him for so many years. Now that he learned that Herb has cancer, he decided to visit him and apologized and I like that Herb refused to accept such a self serving apology. The quote above was what Herb told BoJack after he apologized. I like the way he emphasized how BoJack is only apologizing now so he can have closure and to make himself feel better. Because horrible people do that. They will only apologize so that their guilt will not eat them up especially when their apology gets accepted. But the damage has been done, right? Just like what the famous saying states, the ax forgets but the tree remembers. What’s the point of accepting an apology if it does not make you feel better but will only make the jerk feel better coz “yey, finally!” their shitty actions were forgiven. Those kinds of apologies are self-serving. They ended up fighting and then Herb said this line (I really like this one, thank you writers!) “You know what your problem is? You wanna think of yourself as the good guy. Well I know you better than anyone and I can tell you that you’re not. In fact, you’d probably sleep a lot better at night if you just admitted to yourself that you’re a selfish goddamn coward who takes whatever he wants and doesn’t give a shit about who he hurts. That’s you. That’s BoJack Horseman” Now, that’s the kind of wake up call that someone like BoJack deserves to hear. He deserved those words because they are true, he’s a coward. He always blames others or the circumstances to make himself feel better instead of owning up to his mistakes. 

Another episode I mentioned here is the 10th episode from season 3 of the show and here is some context: Todd and BoJack had a confrontation. BoJack was mad that Todd did not want him to become a nominee for the Oscars and then Todd was mad that BoJack slept with Emily (the woman Todd dated). But honestly, I think it was really not the Emily thing that Todd was mad about but rather all the other things BoJack did, like when he sabotaged Todd’s opera, and they all piled up so Todd ended up bursting at that moment. BoJack said “I’m sorry, I screwed up” to which Todd replied with “You can’t keep doing this! You can’t keep doing shitty things and then feel bad about yourself like that makes it okay! You need to be better!” BoJack tried to reason out so Todd followed it up with “You are all the things that are wrong with you. It’s not the alcohol or the drugs or any of the shitty things that happened in your career, or when you were a kid. It’s you” This is another “calling out” that BoJack deserves because he just keeps on doing shitty things and then feels bad about it for himself but does not actually do things to make things right. At some point, as a friend you will just get tired of someone like him. And while there’s an argument about what led to this confrontation with Todd is not something that Todd himself should be mad about, I saw that scene as a way of having Todd as the “representative” of all the other people that BoJack treated badly. In that scene, he was being called out for a lot of things he did not just related specifically to Todd.

So now we start the discussion about my father. Actually every time I typed the words “my father” I felt disgusted. I hate being associated with him. I hate the fact that we share the same DNA. I just hate him. And before the moral police come here and yell “But he is still your father!” please hear me out first. A child will not resent or hate their own parent if the said parent was not horrible. And that’s my main issue. My father was a horrible person to us. Actually an entire year is not enough for me to tell the entire story of how horrible he was and why he’s the reason my mother, my sister and I are all fcked in the head now. He treated us horribly but always gave the reason that he’s older so he knows better. He always used the “parent” card and always used the “I provided you food, I sent you to school….” monologue as a justification to his behavior. He’s the kind of person that should have never become a parent and a husband in the first place. He’s a hurt person and he ended up hurting others too - he hurt us. His decisions in life always end up with the rest of the family suffering the most. He had this mantra that since he had it difficult growing up, his children should also not have it easy in life. The latest shitty thing he did is getting a housing loan that he cannot afford just so he can brag to his mother. And when he experienced a difficult time getting employment, I ended up using my bonuses and even acquired a loan just so we can pay for this house because he promised to pay me back once he gets another contract again (he’s a seaman). But then he never did. He was aware of this. He was aware that employment in his career would wither as he aged but he did not care. He still continued with that loan despite objections from us; hell, that jerk was even mad that we were telling him not to buy a house. And fast forward to today, I have no savings and I have a loan too. You might be wondering where he is? Back in his hometown, chilling. He can even sleep peacefully at night while snoring while me, on the other hand, is more mentally fcked up than ever. As I mentioned earlier, he did a lot of shitty things to us but that housing loan was just the most recent. So the “calling out” scenes from BoJack Horseman were some of my favorites from the show because those are also the things I wanted to tell him. I just wish I had the courage to do so.

My relatives are very much aware of this situation but they always tell me to just forgive him; easy to say when you’re not the one directly affected by his actions. They even have the nerve to give me lectures about how important it is to forgive and it makes me a bad person for treating my father this way. But am I really the wrong one here? He’s not even sorry. For years, he will do shitty things to us. Sometimes he apologizes but sometimes he does not. But in all those scenarios, he’s not sorry. I do not feel any sincerity on his part at all. But why is it that despite the fact that I’m the one who was wronged here, he’s the one who has people on his side while I’m the one being labeled as the bad one? I am conflicted because I cannot forgive. For a long time now, I tried so hard to find it in myself to learn to forgive not just him but also all the other people who wronged me but I really cannot do it. I cannot do it because I’m a tree that remembers every hit of the ax while the ax is living comfortably. Why am I the one who cannot have peace of mind when I’m the victim? I have been struggling with the concept of forgiveness for a long time but those confrontations from BoJack Horseman episodes are somewhat validating because it shows how I’m not the only one who cannot accept apologies. He’s not even genuinely sorry, so why would I extend the olive branch here?

X,

TinaMae

PS, There are a lot of things from BoJack Horseman that I would like to discuss and hopefully I find the time to write about them. The show is good, I highly recommend it!

[chrisodonline]

TITLE CARD: ONE WEEK LATER

I am writing this post as quickly as possibly since I've got to go fold laundry, and I still want to have time before I go to bed to do some reading of a book I just bought. So no promises on proofreading.

I am still perfectly content with the finale. I've been watching the show over 14 years (not just seasons), and it...very much felt like the show I've been watching for 14 years. It's the show they wanted to make, and the one everyone there was happy with. They very much made a show they'd want to watch, and that goes for multiple people behind and even in front of the camera. Listening to the cast over the years always gave me a good redirect reminder on overprojecting onto people.

Shows, and their pilots, are supposed to be "story engines." The ending was "The story continues, but there are also new stories and always will be." And I dig it. I have had a week of reading interviews, after also watching them in the retrospective, and also reading comments and thoughts from fans across all platforms and with all different preferences. I've always been interested in reading different opinions, even if some weren't always painless to read because I take weird things personally. As I've gotten older, met more people, learned new things, and learned to look at things in other ways, I feel like it's good to take away feeling humble whenever you can. Some out there are so into the ending storyline they truly do want to see a movie about that. Because it is very much something the show would have done. And they've very much been watching the show. (I'm personally good, though. Don't need one.)

I think my favorite comment among hundreds, but possibly even 1,000+, when someone was claiming the ep felt like the show instead of something else: (Paraphrasing) "Why would they change the recipe just because this is the last time they're baking the cake?" Look, I was even surprised to find that I was happier with the finale the more I thought about it instead of less. But I knew what bakery I was going to. I knew that I'm far, far from their only customer. I knew that I could've always stopped going to that bakery and the bakers would've been fine. It's their product but also their passion, and they aren't going to miss me because I didn't understand why they wouldn't break their rules to give me a custom order. (I've worked in customer service for a very, very long time and have also been a customer service manager for a long time. Yes, there is always the threat of people creating fake crimes in The Court of Facebook, but we aren't going to screw over other customers who are truly loyal for one loud so-and-so who never seems happy with anything. We don't need that person.)

From a logistics standpoint, the show was always going to be limited by a late-in-the-season cancellation, the availability of actors, and squeezing in enough to pay homage to everyone who's had a hand in the show over 14 years. They weren't going to be able to stick the landing with any new tricks at the eleventh hour (hello, cornucopia of metaphors and idioms). And they definitely weren't going to do well if it's not something they didn't truly want to do. The show didn't always know its limits, and that only led to cringe-y things. This was the finale: I wanted 0 cringe. And while I may have wanted slight tweaks to things, those are personal wishes. And you can wish in one hand, and...well you know the rest. There was just the right amount of sentiment without it feeling like the show was trying to be a cutesy sitcom or maudlin soap. I don't like a lot of super sweet icing on my cake, in general, and when they start going wild with those giant rosettes and borders...no. Not the cake for me. Fine cake for others. Nothing wrong with liking it. But I go to this bakery because they stay chill on the rosettes. (We can always go to AO3, er, our own kitchens, and add our own rosettes or whatever decorations we want.)

This isn't the kind of show you can actually give letter grades to, either. Save that for your more prestige-y and thinky things. It's very much a pass/fail if it's anything. And they passed.

I will miss it, but it was time. And not every cake may have been for me, and yes, some of them you could tell the bakery team was not on their A-game. However, I'm grateful for all the cakes.

[galacticwildfire]

Leading on from something I reblogged earlier, nothing inspires me more than the fact that the majority of people who partake in my university course are aged probably 40 and over. I live at home due to financial and health reasons and study online. Due to this I've always been hung up on not having that typical uni experience, that's until I actually see that the varse majority of people enrolled aren't fresh out of high school or even their early twenties. They're people with kids and who are coming out of twenty year long careers or longer and studying their passions for no reason other than the fact it brings them happiness. It reminds me that life doesn't end at twenty one and that this ticking clock is just something of my imagination that this hustle cultures put there.

I've had this idea in my head my entire life I'd go into academia, now it's looking like that isn't going to happen both because of grades and because I've realised it just isn't quite for me after three years now of study. I've discovered I have multiple chronic illnesses that I'm learning to live with, mental and physical, after struggling for years without knowing why. My parents are probably going to split up this year and I've learned that I'd rather be single than force myself into a miserable marriage for the sake of societal expectations and to have a marriage, house and kids by the age of 25 like my parents did.

I'm also coming to realise and learn now that if people who have grandchildren are discovering and pursuing their passions then it's never too late to change paths and find what makes you truly happy. It's why I love 90's television, because so many sitcoms are based on people in their mid twenties and thirties finding their way when society is telling me in 2024 that because I'm twenty one without thousands in savings and a serious relationship that I've already failed at life. Watching the nanny also made me realise that I probably won't find myself for a long time to come, that I'll have shitty jobs and shitty relationships and that I'll come out better for it when I'm in my thirties and later. That university isn't the prime of my life despite what I've been told and that it's only just really begun.

I live in a small town where all my immediate friends are in serious relationships and having babies whilst I'm still trying to navigate how to live with these illnesses. I spent five years on and off heavy psychiatric medications whilst being undiagnosed because of the stigma surrounding bpd, hell I'm still officially undiagnosed despite about five doctors having told me that I have it but that they won't or can't officially diagnose me. My old psychologist wanted to diagnose me at seventeen but the governments mental health team refused because they wanted to be able to remove me from the system. Now at twenty one it's on my file as a prognosis and at this point it'll stay that way since I cannot physically access the resources to treat it and doctors don't want to be liable for not providing the proper care. As a result I've been put on medications that have done more damage than good, I've had psychotic and nervous breakdowns that I never really fully recovered from. I was mentally sharper at 13 than I am at 21 due to the medications having affected my memory and cognitive function, and I'm only just beginning to learn to live with that.

Only in the past month I've discovered pcos has been a contributing factor to this with my hormones being completely fucked. I gained twenty kg's, lost fifteen, and then gained the twenty back because of pcos, insulin resistance and quetiapine whilst being told I simply needed to eat less (i was bulimic and starving myself for days at a time). When I began univeristy it was a three year degree I convinced myself I'd finish in just over two years by taking extra classes, now It's going to take nearly four years because of my health problems. I'd planned on doing an honours and then a masters, it looks like I'm going to do neither and I'm learning to be okay with that.

Writing is what I plan to make a career out of, and now as I'm finishing my degree I'm aiming to finish my own original manuscript with the tools I've learned since writing is the one thing I never tire of. I didn't take a creative writing degree because of the pressure from people around me, but I spent years researching history to the point I'd be confident writing historical fiction and screenplays along with articles for public consumption rather than brutal academic criticisms. I've often said studying history at a university level's killed so much of my passion for it because it seems to discourage rather than encourage further study due to the cultural nature of academia.

It's brutal and I've seen so many masters students almost quit, or just quite entirely, because an asshole professor's torn years worth of work to shreds whilst another professor praised them for the exact same piece of work because it's so damn subjective. But because one singular person decided they didn't agree with their thesis or didn't think it was important, they've been all but blocked from continuing on the pathway they've spent years pursuing and unfortunately most people don't have the money to support themselves to retake an entire course because a person who had free university fifty years ago took a dislike to them.

I'm at the point in my life where I'm getting answers to my medical problems and focusing on balancing those and learning to live with them whilst accepting that the plans I made at 17 aren't going to turn out as I'd planned, but that it's okay because I have years to be where I want to be and that life doesn't end because I hadn't gotten there at 21. In ten years I might discover something else that brings me joy that I'm passionate about, hell in thirty years, and I might just change course then as well and be one of those people in my classes who have accomplished so much in their lives and have decided to go and pursue those passions instead of following the career they were forced to choose at eighteen and expected to stick with their entire lives. I'm finally learning that I need to curate my life and career around what is reasonable for myself instead of forcing myself to live up to other peoples expectations.

[gurhl]

finally hope everyones ok and has had a good 10 years or whatever haha. i'm 27 now, life is really weird for that...? not that i think anyone is reading this or even cares LOL but i thought i'd let you know i'm still alive! i'm ok, life has been really weird (?) to me, i've been like 50 people since we last spoke. for better or worse. but i'm so happy that i'm still here and that i still just have so much hope in my heart. i live alone in a flat in newcastle that i own (like, what?) with my little cat called mary. i draw, i work for a website that some of you probably know, i love taylor swift so much. i am quite a lonely girl (not new) but i'm really truly ok with it (new) and i really just hope hard all the time and believe that good good things are coming, they're maybe even here already, i will let you know. i'm learning all the time, which is nice, it's one thing that never goes away. i gained loads of weight then dropped it then gained some of it back, LOL. its nice, i've got no hard edges. my hair grew really long, and it's back to being brunette. i haven't touched it like that in years. sure there's many tumblr girlies who went on a similar trajectory, bahahaha. but my passport still has the blue bob! i was just looking at it a few minutes ago, so funny. i remember an MC on my 18th birthday hyping me up on the decks at the club, and he was saying "give it up to the birthday girl in the blue wig!" at the time i was offended, how stupid is that! i'd love for my hair to look so gorgeous now that someone mistook it for a wig. right now its greasy and scraggly, i'm trying to follow a curly girl method and i love it but my biggest gripe is that my hair is always knotty without brushing it. beauty is pain! pain isn't beauty though, i learned that along the way. well, neither of those statements are true actually i was just being facetious. happiness is beauty, being stupid with your friends is beauty, falling asleep with a full tummy with the same sitcom you've seen 1000 times running in the background whilst someone you love has their hand in your hair is beauty. speaking of which, i'm watching doctor who from the beginning in time for the ncuti christmas special (OMG) so i have to go. good bye for now lovely people! bisous

[thisbuildinghasfeelings]

I think when it comes to storylines like Charles' and Garbiel's it truly just comes down to preference. I loved both of them because of the angst it gave us, which is honestly one of my favorite things to watch. I could be in the minority on this but I like it when these characters get to show a range of emotion and deal with different kinds of tragedies. Otherwise...it's just a sitcom. Which isn't a bad thing, I like the lighthearted episodes too! They're just not my faves overall. Sue me, I like pain. 😂

Different people are going to prefer different types of storylines so I definitely don't think it's bad writing...and in terms of the rest of Tommy's storylines I certainly didn't enjoy all of them. I completely erased the Julius thing from my memory, but I really liked the majority of what we got from Tommy in s4. The Melody thing was certainly over the top but I also found myself really relating to her since my own parents split up when I was around that age. I really like Trevor too (maybe a little moreso after watching Gina and D.B. in suits because they just work really well together tbh) and I can't wait to see what s5 has in store for them. ^_^

Very true! I also like the angstier side of things as long as it’s balanced out. As far as Gabriel’s death goes, there are aspects that I would maybe change if I could. I wish they wouldn’t have had such terrible grief hanging over them for their wedding and I wish a bit more time could have been devoted to Gabriel’s storyline…maybe even just spread out over 3 episodes instead of 2…but I was overall quite happy with the finale. I love so much of what we got out of it, the incredible performances and really fantastic scenes in 4x18. I also think there’s great potential for the storyline in season 5! So, yeah, ultimately I’m with you on that.

I’m generally ok with characters dying sometimes, especially when they’re minor characters. Death and grief are major parts of life and I think there’s a lot surrounding that to be explored on a show like this.

I also like Trevor a lot. I hope for some non-relationship storylines for Tommy in season 5, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want Trevor back! I really hope D.B. Is able to return. Honestly, if they want to have another character get married anytime soon, I think Tommy and Trevor would likely be it, and I wouldn’t be opposed!

[popculturebuffet]

So looking at how much Hasbro has been trying to revitalize animated reboots since 2010, thoughts on modern Hasbro 2010s reboots MLP Friendship is Magic, Pound Puppies 2010, Transformers Prime, Littlest Pet Shop 2012, Equestria Girls, GI Joe Renegades, Transformers Rescue Bots, Transformers Robots in Disguise, Littlest Pet Shop A World of Our Own, Transformers Cyberverse, Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy, Pony Life, Transformers EarthSpark, MLP Tell Your Tale, and MLP Make Your Mark?

Who boy.. settle in folks this is going to be a while. Friendship is Magic: A show I honestly want to go back and finish once the streaming weirdness is cleared up. (It's currently weirdly bisected with the middle missing), as my discomfort with the more extreme side of the fandom (and a manipulative asshole getting into my head, very long story), I dropped it around late season 2. Granted how they intially brought discord back didn't really sell me on returning but I still at least kept tabs on everyone and honestly.. wanted to return at some point I just never did. I watched most of the discord episodes because he's my boy, but that's about it. Still a good show.

Dan Vs: Technically dosen't count.. but i'm throwing it in as the only other show on the hub and because I loved it and need to rewatch it. Dan VS is an awesome little adult sitcom that was weirdly on this hasbro based family network. It was one of the best shows of it's time and had a simple but hilarious premise of a very angry man trying to get revenge on some inconveince he's faced, sometimes justifably sometimes because he's a sad strange little man. With the dream trinity of curtis armstrong (who really shoudl do more va work besides this and american dad) dave foely and paget brester, it really worked and while i'm sad it only got three seasons the fact it did and you can still watch it today (it's on youtube, tubi and the roku channel for free baby!) I highly recommend it.

Pound Puppies: Since I had the hub around the time all this happened, I did see most of these early reboots. Pound Puppies.. is adorable. Not entirely my speed, but still a lot of fun... and not suprising given it was developed by the guys who created recess. Transformers Prime: Another show I need to watch more of. At the time I thought it was okay, but just didn't get into it, but I hear it only got better and better with age. I also think the animation wasn't for me and I still think it's not entirely, but it's not bad by any stretch. LIttlest Pet Shop: I really loved this one at the time and even now a bunch of animals at an animal daycare getting into slice of life shenanigans just hits the spot. I also had ships because of course I did, i ncluding sunil and that one cat. But it was a lot of fun. Russel was my easy faviorite. And even if I didn't really care for blythe as a charcter I respect that they had her wear a new outfit each episode and put care into the deisgns given she IS a designer. Solid show.

Equestria Girls, Rescue Bots, Rescue Bots Academy, Pony Life: Haven't seen any of it

GI Joe Renegades: ANOTHER ONE I regret not watching more of but in this case I was interested I just could never catch it and never thought to you know, dvr it, even more now i've read the truly awesome larry hama comics. Still really good.

Robots In DIsguise: I only saw an episode of this but I liked the premise, It was just clear if you hadn't seen prime, even as a soft reboot this was going to be hard to follow. Which is a shame as it had he, grimlock as a main character. Granted I didn't REALLY like painting him green but still dinosaur man!

A World of Our Own: Say it with me now "I wish i'd seen more of it", though in this case by this point I didn't have satalite tv anymore, so I watched it while babysitting a few times. It was neat though and I wa sintrested.

Cyberverse; About the same with me also forgetting it was on netflix. New Gen MLP: I've seen the movie, which was decent, and me and a friend PLANNED to watch the series, we just haven't yet. It looks good though.

EarthSpark: I REALLY fucking want to watch this one. It has a stacked voice cast a brilliant premise that FINALLY breaks away from autobot decepticon war for the first time since armada (Though Animated at least had a fresh take on it), by showing what comes after, I haven't seen it but I really want to I just keep forgetting.

(Phew) Okay next time maybe don't pack so many shows into one of these.

[randolphbellmd]

please forgive this long-winded recap of the year i am experiencing some uncharacteristic optimism and don’t know what else to do with it.

to preface, the last four new years eve’s have been awful. in 2018, my friend was in the process of breaking up with me but didn’t have the courtesy to tell me. in 2019, i was a ninth wheel at a party hosted by said “friend”. 2020 speaks for itself, i think.

my 2021 ended after a neuropsychologist doing a 45 min test (instead of an 8 hour assessment) and telling me that the crippling dysfunction that i had been struggling with for years was just single pandemic grad student things. she suggested i start taking a medication i’d already tried and vitamin D. this was a three days before my second pandemic xmas alone. i spent the next four days exclusively watching a sitcom and doing a puzzle (to get out of my head) and filled a script for a third attempt at antidepressants. i decided that if multiple therapists and an actual medical doctor was going to look at me and say “it’s nothing, just try harder,” then i was officially on my own. i had no friends in town, i had no one who could help me do my job, and i couldn’t rely on a doctor to help me. i was on my own to create my own support network.

for months i was fueled exclusively by spite, fictional characters, and a daily dose of meds. i wanted to get out of grad school. i wanted to be “doctor”. not because of the status or the jobs but because i wanted to be dr. and not mrs. or ms., and i didn’t want to quit after 6 years of being here already. that fueled me enough to stumble through a few months. i got some of my mojo back and started doing experiments again, which meant that i would get closer to graduating. then i tricked myself into thinking i had so much mojo that in the summer, i scheduled and finished a massive 12 weeks of 60+ hr/week. and i did it. all via faking it until i made it.

it turns out i made it.

but what really changed was that sometime in may/june, i started being able to see the future again. for the first time in years, i could see my future. grad school is always this purgatory between student and career and for years (coupled with isolation and general sam-ness) i couldn’t see any way out of it. not in a i-wish-i-was-dead way but the view of the future just looked like this big, dark, never-ending tunnel. this year i could finally see the signs that pointed toward the exit. i’m even getting close enough to see the light at the end.

i started thinking about how i saw myself in that future, and what being “dr.” actually meant. i’ve always been somewhat gender neutral (being named sam rocks, btw) and had been wearing almost exclusively men’s clothes for years, but i started thinking about how much better it felt when i allowed myself to be truly gender neutral all the time. when i was dr. sam, what did that look like? and i did a search for top surgery. i kinda laughed it off and was like yeah, wouldn’t that be nice, but eh, not now.

until i stopped saying “eh, not now.” and started saying “why not now?” and after weeks of detailed research it was looking more like now was exactly the right time. for a hundred reasons i won’t go into. i told my therapist and she asked how it felt to say that out loud and i said “this is the first time in years i’ve felt good about the future.” i called the hospital the next day and set up a consultation that at the time was nine months in advance. it’s in april of next year. which means the procedure will be sometime late next fall, right around my 30th birthday.

since that day, everything’s felt a little more hopeful. i had a hard deadline for when i wanted to be done with my experiments... because i would be recovering from surgery. i started exercising regularly... to be in better shape before the procedure. and it just snowballed from there. i’ve been exercising 4+ days/week for 20 weeks straight because i found a program that i like (and have lost 15 lbs because of it). i finished a huge experiment this summer and next month is my qualifying exam. i’m actually scientifically working on my gut, and had to give up my favorite foods for months to do so. i bought a suit. i made a tattoo appointment. i wrote 200,000 words of fanfiction.  i got a new therapist to help with the OCD. i hadn’t brought any meat into my home in years on account of crippling anxiety and i’ve cooked chicken three times. this month.

and if you’re wondering, these are all little changes. the workouts started as 30 min low-impact HIIT videos on youtube. the chicken isn’t magically a good sauteed chicken stir fry, it’s “i’m going to use tongs to throw this in the crock pot and not look at it for 4 hours until it’s cooked to death, but that still counts as cooking it.” it’s baby steps, but it’s real steps.

oh, and i got a second opinion from a different neuropsychologist, and after a full clinical assessment, i got a diagnosis that made sense. and it was even better than the first, because after getting that diagnosis, nothing has changed. my life wasn’t magically better because a doctor told me what was up, it just made me feel a little better about why things are so hard, and made me want to work harder on those things.

god just typing this doesn’t feel like it’s all true but it is. i sound like a cliche.

looking back at all the resolutions i wrote at the beginning of the year... i’ve hit all of them somehow. be ready for my qualifying exam, exercise more, cook meat... all of them. initially thanks to spite, tv, and antidepressants, but then because i started saying “why not now” (and also spite, tv, and antidepressants). it all snowballed. i’m writing this because i genuinely can’t believe what i’ve accomplished this year. especially because of where i was last year at this time, sitting in my shower thinking i was permanently broken and nothing would fix me, and i would never see through the darkness of this tunnel.

tl;dr: never underestimate the power of spite, small joys (read: tv), medication, and faking it till you make it. because if you do that enough, you won’t be faking it anymore, you’ll just be doing it. that perseverance will spill into other parts of your life if you let it. so much so that after 365 days, you won’t believe you were able to do all of this by - and for - yourself. create your own community. stick with it. change what isn’t working. try the meds. live for yourself.

this year, i lived for myself. it doesn’t feel real, but it is.

[vintagetvstars]

Alan Alda Vs. Billy Dee Williams

Propaganda

Alan Alda - (M*A*S*H) - He is both the saddest wettest little meow meow and your kindly grandfather and your favourite eccentric uncle (mom's side). Somehow it works. Passionate Democrat, feminist, great writer, he and his books are hilarious. Did a cartwheel when he won an Emmy! How he met his wife is the best meet cute of the last two centuries, and they've now been married over 60 years!!!

Billy Dee Williams - (Dynasty, Guiding Light, Chiefs, Brian's Song) - Billy is iconic in every role whether in TV or film.

- No Negative Propaganda Please -

Master Poll List | How to submit propaganda | What is vintage? (FAQ)

Additional propaganda below the cut

Alan Alda:

he’s just so good in MASH

he put so much bisexuality into hawkeye i think it fundamentally changed me when i was little and watching mash for the first time. anyway do we all know the story about how he met his wife when they were at a party together and they were the only two people eating the cake that fell on the floor and he fell in love with her over her laugh. i just think hes neat :) i love when theres a strange looking man. also feel it necessary to say that the guy that wrote the book mash was based on wrote himself as hawkeye and HATED alda's hawkeye bc he displayed his morals too much (alda had it in his contract for the show that every episode had to have an operating room scene bc otherwise you arent backdropping the fact that war is Not fun. actually. he almost didnt take the role bc he thought a war comedy would make too much light of the horrors)

please please please use this picture of him, he's so hot in it

His comedic delivery in MASH...

The story of how he met his wife is charming and sweet, and they've now been married 65 years

Just look at him. He's the most beautiful man I've ever seen but also he's completely average. He's got a weak jawlines and a round face and these big soft eyes and he's just so beautiful. He's capable of playing a silly charismatic sitcom protagonist in one scene, and a jaded army surgeon haunted by the deaths he's witnessed in the next. He's so hot that my dad once told me he decided to apply to medical school because of how much he was attracted to Hawkeye Pierce. That's literally how I learned that my father was bisexual.

He's also just a really great dude? He's been outspoken about his political beliefs for a long time, and has always been strongly and vocally anti-war, pro-feminist, and pro lgbt. He served a tour in the Korean war, and his experiences there informed his performance in the show. He (and honestly the entire cast, but especially him) really just soared above and beyond the standard for comedies of the day.

He's so funny and his eyes are pretty

He loves and is a champion of science (Source).

Billy Dee Williams:

[logically-asexual]

im just so intrigued by the fact that i wasn’t able to understand a single movie or book i watched or read as a kid. i could never keep track of the story or the characters.

ramble got long putting it under a read more

i always felt like when you tap on the first episode of a show on netflix but for some reason it starts playing the first episode of their latest season and you’re super confused about everything because there’s three seasons of lore you’re missing.

i don’t remember the story of a single book we read in school. i remember short scenes here and there that surprised me or made me feel emotional for some reason but that’s it. i never knew the context. i never understood the whole story. i don’t know how i ever passed spanish or english class.

for a while we used to go to the library and they would read to us a chapter of a book each week and i could never pay attention. i just remember zoning out staring at my nails or the table or anything. we read the hobbit that way i think and i always felt like i had missed a class and very important info with it but no. i hadn’t.

silent reading time was also torture. i couldn’t read i also just stared at nothing for twenty minutes and it was excruciating.

and i also cant remember any movies i watched at the cinema. i remember when we got together to watch the hunger games (and i had allegedly read the book) and everyone was talking about what the movie adaptation did or didn’t include and i was so absolutely lost. no idea what anyone was talking about.

the only thing about my childhood i remember understanding and processing alright was tv shows. i perfectly remember nick sitcoms and cartoons. i think it has to do with the fact that i could watch those over and over again before a new season aired, so i got enough time and repetition to seal stuff in my memory.

i don’t know. i think that wasn’t normal probably. then one day some time after eight grade maybe i was just randomly granted the gift Understanding Media. well. mostly movies, i still struggled with reading in high school. i remember i never read things fall apart, but a children version of the book i had for some reason, and i passed somehow. i still don’t know what the book was about.

i remember my piano teacher saying when i was fourteen that i was at an age when i should read so much because teens are so emotional (in a good way) and full of wonder so romantic (as in romanticism, not romance) stories were great for letting all that bloom or whatever. but that only made me feel bad because i felt how time was slipping away from me and i was missing my chance at enjoying a big chunk of literature.

i don’t think i have adhd or some kind of disorder that could cause that level of inattentiveness but who knows. if i did then why can i suddenly understand movies and stuff? did my brain just develop too late in that aspect?

i usually attribute apparent adhd symptoms from my childhood to anxiety and burnout. because it’s way more likely since i’ve always been anxious and the executive dysfunction and lack of memory can easily be explained by anxiety too. but this thing about the movies and books remains unexplained and i don’t know if i will ever truly know what happened there. and also adhd seems to come with this “hyperfixations and obsessive consumption of media” thing that is exactly the opposite of my entire life experience. that’s the main reason i steer away from the term.

i am trying to actually read now. i know it’s an insane thing for a 22 year old to say but i don’t know when the last time i read something that wasn’t a textbook was before dracula daily. now that it’s over i’ve proved that my brain can keep track of a written story, at least when it is serialized and i have time to process its parts like with the kids tv shows.

i want to read more to get out of this hole. but i also want to know why the hell i am in this hole in the first place. i have almost nothing to look back on nostalgically like people who loved star wars as kids and made their own halloween costumes and had a toy collection and more. i just watched sitcoms and cartoons to laugh and escape from the world, not to understand any themes or messages. i feel like something was stolen from me and i’ll never get it back.

[vialism]

What's your favorite joshler fic?

What's your favorite fanfic ever?

What's your favorite book?

Are you reading anything right now?

Do you like buying your own books or going to the library or both?

Do you have a collection of books?

What are your favorite books you own, if any?

What's your favorite movie that's based off a book?

What's your favorite movie?

What's your favorite movie snacks?

What's your favorite genre to read and watch?

What genre do you like working in the most creatively?

fav joshler fic is hard for me to even quantify, im so bad with “favorites” so a random one i have loved forever is this one. (tho technically it’s jenshler but hey i’m me so). here’s one i read recently and can’t stop thinking about. fav of my own fics is probably this.

favorite fic ever is also hard because i truly only read pilots and occasionally raven cycle fic. i guess i’ll do my favorite raven cycle fic which is this!

favorite book will always be the dream thieves by maggie stiefvater.

i am rereading romeo and juliet, it’s been a long time since i’ve read shakespeare and i love it very much

i’m a libby girl! (library app!)

very small collection of books, usually i only buy ones i’ve already read and want to keep a physical copy of.

my favorite ones i own are my signed raven cycle books of which i have a few!

favorite movie based on a book is the hunger games series because they just really got those right.

favorite movie is the parent trap but i’m probably only saying that because it’s summer

movie snacks = popcorn but dump all the candy right in it pls!

favorite genre i like silly little comedy sitcoms like schitt’s creek and parks and rec. to read i like good literary fiction.

creative genre is fanfiction o’course! so glad i’m back into it because i find it very fulfilling even tho the joshler tag is quieter these days, i’m grateful there are still people there to read it :)

[alltheflair]

It's all Simlish to me

Collaboration with Emma Fringuelli

In defense of ‘The Sims 4’

Fringuelli:

I, unlike many players of the “Sims” games, hopped on the bandwagon pretty late.

The numbers on my Electronic Arts account might make you think I have been playing “The Sims” for years, since I have racked up more than 300 hours playing the game, but in reality, I have not even had the game downloaded for a full year.

My first time playing “The Sims” was after my family won an iPad in a raffle. My sister and I downloaded the free mobile version of “The Sims.” The limited version of the game meant less customization, fewer functions, and altogether less fun.

We deleted the app pretty quickly.

Flash forward nearly 10 years later, and I realized that “The Sims 4” was free — and available on Mac computers.

Once I downloaded the game, I got the satisfaction the mobile version lacked. It was everything I had hoped “The Sims” would be.

The graphics, though not lifelike, are enough to get me immersed in the lives of the silly little digital people I control.

At the end of the day, that is the point: losing myself in the game. 

I play “The Sims” not because I have a memory of the crunchy, harsh graphics of the 2000s. I don’t long for certain functions in the earlier games because I never played them.

I play “The Sims” because right now, I can control things in the game that I cannot control in my own life. You will not find me buying a giant mansion, becoming a secret agent, or risking my life fixing an oven in the real world. But in “The Sims 4,” I can do all that and more with little to no consequence.

And when there are consequences, they sure are funny. 

Picture my shock when I find one of my sims trying to repair a radio while standing in a puddle of water, only for him to be electrocuted and die. When pleading with the Grim Reaper to spare him failed, I turned to a trick: reloading the game and trying again. The sim returned to the broken radio and puddle, and he swiftly got zapped and died again. So I reloaded the game again — and gave up on the radio.

Electrocute me once, shame on you. Electrocute me twice, shame on me.

There is also the side of “The Sims” that lets me live out my fantasy of being an architect. In the real world, I have to bear witness to McMansions with gorgeous front facades and a hodgepodge of asymmetrically placed windows on the other three sides.

In “The Sims,” though, I can channel my frustration into something a scintilla more productive. I can make houses the way they should be: with symmetrical windows and shutters that make sense.

I also get to see the creativity of people who are somehow more into “The Sims” than I am and all the custom features that they create — often for free — for other users. From in-game furniture to whole new modified gameplay features, these people are way more creative and technically advanced than I am.

What my enjoyment of “The Sims 4” boils down to is the essence of the “Sims” franchise. I get to simulate a life that is more grand, more chaotic, and more outrageous than my own. It is an opportunity to focus on stuff that truly does not matter.

In a world that demands our attention at every waking moment, I know when I fire up “The Sims 4” that I can spend a while obsessing over decorating a kitchen, getting my sim that promotion, or trying to figure out why all the babies and toddlers look so weird.

I can get back to my real-world issues later, just let me marry Eliza Pancakes first.

The problem with ‘The Sims 4’

Valente:

“The Sims” franchise holds a very special place in my heart. The original was released in 2000, but I didn’t learn about it until 2001, when I would watch my older brother play on the family PC. To my young eyes, it was one of the coolest games I had ever seen. You get to create your own person, build your home, and control what they do in their day-to-day lives. It was like creating your own sitcom or movie. Although my parents did not allow me to play it for quite a while due to some of the violence and adult themes in it, that didn’t stop me from waking up an hour or two before everyone else in the house and sneaking to the computer to get my “Sims” fulfillment. After some convincing, my parents allowed me to play the game without having to go behind their backs. (Eventually, I was caught when the computer froze and my dad came downstairs before I could unplug the machine). 

A memory I hold dear is my birthday in 2003 when my now-late grandfather gifted me “The Sims: Makin’ Magic.” I’m sure I found it especially cool because Harry Potter was quite the rage at the time and I was a superfan of the franchise. 

In 2004, “The Sims 2” was released into the world. I can’t fathom how many hours I spent playing the game, and how much money my parents spent buying different expansion packs during the following five years of the game’s life. Although “The Sims” was quite innovative for the time, as it was really the first life-simulation game, “The Sims 2” further expanded the genre and you could tell the team that put the game together put a lot of work into it.

With the success of “The Sims 2,” Electronic Arts had to follow up with something big. In 2009, “The Sims 3” was released, and it was just that. Although I found the sims themselves to be ugly, even back then, the team took what was great about the first two games and built upon it. I was impressed with the innovation and advancements that EA had made.

Now, I don’t want to say I hate “The Sims 4,” but I’m not the biggest fan. When it was announced in 2014, I was thrilled by the prospect. With how much the games had grown and built upon themselves with each title, I was excited to see what EA would bring to the table. At the time, I was a junior in high school. I was only working during the weekends at McDonald’s and I wasn’t making that much money, but I decided to splurge and buy the Digital Deluxe Edition of “The Sims 4” out of pure excitement.

On release day at 12 a.m., I excitedly started my computer and opened up the game for the first time. I created my sim, built them a snazzy house, and began to play. Ten minutes into the game, I was sitting there and wondering… What is this? It felt lifeless, dull, and uninspiring. I exited the game and forgot that it even existed for the next three years.

Does the game look pretty? That’s subjective, but I believe so. Did they improve in some areas, like sim customization and lot-building? Sure. But the game was a big downgrade when it came to gameplay and overall entertainment. “The Sims 4” feels like a mix of the first “Sims” and “The Sims 2,” but without the charm and personality. I love those two games and go back to play them from time to time, but I don’t want the newest and latest game in the franchise to feel like it was released almost 20 years ago. A lot of long-time “Sims” players felt the same way and decided to stop playing the game altogether.

A lot of new players might enjoy “The Sims 4”, but a lot of them never got to experience the previous “Sims” titles, as EA does not make them easy to access. I feel if they were able to play them, they would realize how much of a downgrade “The Sims 4” truly is. I’m sure EA doesn’t care that much since the company knows a lot of “Sims” players are dedicated and won’t leave the franchise behind, instead hoping it improves. Not only that, but EA essentially has a monopoly on the life-simulation genre, as there is little to no competition to be had.

I still hold out hope that the “Sims” franchise will return to its glory — if not for the fans, than for the competition. One game in particular that is set to release in the near future is “Paralives,” a life-simulation game that has a lot of “Sims” fans wondering if it is time to leave the series behind. Perhaps a little competition will drive some innovation, and less laziness, to keep fans on the side of “The Sims.” Only time will tell.