#like 40 different weed books

[stopfunkinwmyheart]

[elsaqueenofstress]

the daisy jones and the six series changing the interviews to be 20 years later instead of closer to 40 years feels like such a weird, superficially aesthetic choice, where they get to keep the young, attractive actors (how did none of them age a day except graham??) instead of committing to the fact that these people are only able to reflect on these events because there's so much distance from them and they have perspective now (though it also means that memories are contradictory, contributing to the lack of reliability). it also does a massive disservice to camila, who instead of getting to live a long, happy life with her husband who stated that he always loved her and would always choose her, is basically turned into the second coming of the mother from how i met your mother – a pit stop to give the main, important man some kids to tell a story to before dying so he can be with his real soulmate before they're too old for it to be sexy

i feel like too many people (mainly daisybilly shippers) are conflating the "unreliable narrator" aspect of the book with "oh, no one told the truth about anything so we can make up our own completely different story and have it be canon!" instead of understanding that while there were probably times that the interviewees lied, a lot of what jumbles up their memories is the time that has passed, the weed that was smoked, and their personal feelings toward certain events (why you get daisy and billy gushing over the aurora cover that highlights only them while everyone else talks about how much the shoot sucked) (oh and the fact that reviews are mentioning that the rest of the band rarely appears in scenes w/o daisy or billy?? meaning that the series did what the characters in the book were constantly complaining about and relegated them to backup?? i must laugh to keep from crying) (also if they weren't even going to focus on everyone, why the fuck didn't they keep pete?)

[honeysuckletoast]

Ymbryne head cannons from there academy years because why not? Kinda wanna write a fic on the academy because there's SO much unexplored potential there for a good story. But I'm Kinda salty Riggs hasn't written an academy book yet

Alma Peregrine

-was the youngest of the ymbrynes in training for a long time, and gets lovingly teased about it.

-Volunteered to help miss Avocet in the garden when she was in the academy so she could spend time with Her 

-She sees miss Avocet as her real mother 

-had terrible insomnia as a child and would end up downstairs with Grace nightjar (who is nocturnal as is a nightjar). She formed a good friendship with her through their late night chats.

-Shared a room with Isabelle until she graduated, even though she was offered a separate room once space was available.  She preferred having Isabelle in her room, and Isabelle preferred having Alma there when she started to sleepwalk.

-Sense jack and Myron would torture her, she would seek the comfort of Aoibhe Gannet  sense jack was scared of her due to past incidents

-is super shy when it comes to meeting older or more experienced Ymbrynes.(she's probably still like this)

-Once she was taken to a council meeting and all the Ymbrynes  were fawning over how cute she was and she was T e r r i f i e d. She hid behind Miss Avocet for most of the meeting. 

-Calls miss Avocet mom behind her back (Jk they all do that) 

Isabelle Cuckoo  

-only spoke French when she first came to the academy, Alma made it her mission to learn French to be able to help Isabelle fit in.

-Isabelle cannot cook at all, and she, along with Miss Bunting were all banned from using the kitchen without supervision. 

-Isabelle can't stand weeding the garden so she would trade Alma for laundry duties 

-She LOVES making clothing and she is a master at making gorgeous clothing. She made several different dresses for her sisters and even a suit for Jack and Myron. 

-Her and Myron probably enjoyed sewing and making clothing together. 

-Always getting into trouble in town with the other girls while Alma stares in horror and begs them not to do what they were going to do. 

-sleepwalks alot, and Alma typically is the one to get her back into bed.

Balenciaga wren 

-had wards with the older miss Finch, as their very first loop right out of the academy, but one day they were attacked, with all of the wards killed, due to Balenciaga leading them to the loop unknowingly. it left the older miss Finch with serious injuries and trauma which caused her to stay as a bird more often and put a huge strain on their friendship as Balenciaga blamed herself, and soon moved away to be alone and start her menagerie.

-will bring home any wild animal she found injured, and nurse it back to health, weather it was peculiar or not.

-her and the older miss Finch watched over miss Avocet during there training years and acted as her older sisters.

-can make candy appear out of no where, she always has a stash on her.

- comes and lectures at the academy frequently when she's not tending to other things.

-enjoys people watching as a bird when she gets free time in between meetings

Miss Esmerelda Avocet 

-Strict but also mothering to an extent. 

-Is around 40 years old in appearance when Alma entered the academy

-Allergic to Roses and lilies, but still grows Lilies and tends to them sense she knows they are Miss Bunting's favorite flowers. She just takes precautions not to touch her face when tending to them 

-Pretty stoic with her emotions, was raised with a "don't show emotions in front of your wards."  Mindset

-Picked July 15th  for her loop solely off the fact that she knew Miss Bunting would die if it got below 60 degrees. She doesn't like the heat at all though

-Was raised by a cruel and bitter Ymbryne who didn't care at all for her, and it caused her to struggle with her self worth which lead to her own stoic and cold demanor, but also lead her to start the academy.

-Hums a lot when she is alone, sometimes will sing to herself if the house is empty but never when she is with others. Miss Bunting once came home to get something during a field trip once, and was caught off guard when she heard her singing, and thought there was an intruder and nearly hit her with a metal bat.

-Miss Avocet has sung Alma to sleep in the garden before though. She's the only other person besides miss bunting that has heard her sing. 

-Miss Avocet sees Alma as her daughter, but tries not to be overly mothering to her over the other children.  She sees alot of herself in Alma.

-Has to reach the tall things Miss Bunting cant. Shes pretty tall at like 5'11-6'1. 

 Miss Diana bunting 

-Is the more outgoing and extroverted of the pair

- is only like 5'3

-Constantly getting herself into situations with the council and the townsfolk. Has caused many townfights that Miss Avocet had to get her out of. 

-Loves bold bright colors but especially neon green.(HC her as an painted bunting)  

-her nails are always painted some bright color 

-from America, and transferred to England when things were starting to go south in America and her own Ymbryne was killed. 

-Would forget to reset the loop most of the time if told to do so because she is so used to Esmerelda doing it. Has had many close calls. 

-Has bad asthma that prevents her from going out in the cold weather.  

-Has given Miss A horrible food poisoning a few times, to the point of near hospitalization once, but Esmerelda still tries her food because she doesn't want to discourage her from trying. (The girls aren't allowed to try her cooking though) 

-Has a huge fluffy white cat named winter that walks on the ceiling and walls. No one knows where he came from, but one day he was just there and only listens to Diana

-is the girl's go-to when they need something sense she is more approachable.

Should I post more Head cannons on girls in the academy? Or write a fic on it?

[superego-imagines]

OMG it was so nice to read about your blog! I'm on my knees praying to you like a god for some Polka-dot man x reader headcanons. preferably romantic or smut (whatever you feel comfortable writing) I just wanna give him the love he deserves <3

((He's my fucking MAAAAAAAN! I'm so glad other people like him!

Polka-Dot Man Relationship Headcanons SFW + NSFW

SFW Headcanons

So I’m not going to get too into the weeds of how you guys got together because I already covered that in OT3 fic. But suffice is to say that it’s gotta be slow-burn friends to lovers 30k words 40 chapters. So when you finally do start dating you’re already pretty comfortable with each other. In a lot of ways that makes things easy. But knowing when to take it slow and how exactly to transition your relationship from a platonic one to a non-platonic one takes time. You spend the first week or so dancing around each other trying to bait the other into making first moves, like him nudging his hand against yours during a movie, or you leaning in so you can “get rid of an eyelash”. Eventually he breaks and asks to hold your hand and you both hopefully learn that you have to use your words to get what you want!

Living with the virus outside Belle Reeves is difficult. He can’t go more than six hours before the initial symptoms start to show. There's very few safe places for him to expel his dots without major property damage. The safest option, albeit not the most environmentally friendly, is a backyard or a private place in a local park. Anywhere where large amounts of matter can be displaced with little damage to infrastructure. Maybe you can cut a deal with the city's waste management department lol. There's also the physical side effect. As much as he desperately wants to fit in, it can be hard when there's a big glowing hazard sign threatening to burst out of his face. It can make going out in public anxiety-producing, which doesn’t help anything. He was given a more subtle power dampening collar as part of his parole. This helps him sleep through the night but comes with its own unpleasant side effects like headaches and nausea. Not to mention that any sort of medical equipment or restraints are mildly triggering. Like a lot of chronic/long term medical problems, there's no easy fix, you just have to establish care plans, stick to what works and try to be patient when things don't work out.

For related and unrelated reasons, dates can be kind of hard. So many years of only seeing the same four walls until eventually seeing a different same four walls have left him desperate for any and every experience he can. But that can easily swing back the other direction, leaving him overstimulated from all of the noise and bright lights and people all bearing the face that haunts him. He wants to do all the things he could only read about in books or watch on TV when he was younger. He wants to try new foods and go to new places and just have fun for once. But sometimes it’s just too much, especially in particularly loud, crowded, or otherwise overwhelming places. And then that leads to a new wave of frustration and anxiety because he wants so badly to do normal couple things with you but it feels like he always ruins it. He doesn’t of course but it’s hard to not feel frustrated. Though that isn’t to say there aren't plenty of fun things to do together, you just have to work your way up to the big stuff. His favorite date you’ve been on was probably the trip to the aquarium. It was so beautiful and peaceful! Although he did insist that you just move on past the Echinoderm exhibit. Also fun pseudo/at-home dates include Mystery Meal Nights in which you try to find a new take-out place or at least a new food from one of the classics. And, while he won’t instigate it, he does really like dancing with you. He likes it in general, but unless he’s mildly to majorly drunk he won’t dance in public. So you can have little living room dance parties with just the two of you~ He doesn’t dance particularly well, but that just makes it more fun. Dance comes from the heart and that, he has plenty of.

So sort of paralleling the sensory issues I’ve already mentioned. He is simultaneously extremely touch-starved and desperate for affection, but will also sort of out of nowhere get touched-out and just kind of need space. For the first half of his life he was pretty much exclusively around family, and then was put into solitary for most of the rest of it. And now he has you! Someone he loves so so much and wants to hug and kiss and cuddle and all the other things boyfriends are supposed to do. Sometimes it’s just still too foreign and overwhelming, although the longer you two date, the easier it gets and the less often these moments occur. But on the flipside, when he does feel touchy, he might as well be made of Velcro. Every time you cross a new line of acceptable relationship behavior (hand-holding, kissing, etc.), he just adds that to the list of things he’s constantly trying to do. Sometimes he’s just so happy it doesn’t feel real, like he’s going to wake up and it will all be some crazy dream. Nothing in his real life could actually be this nice. He doesn’t articulate it when he feels like that, but you’ll know it by the way his breath shudders when he holds you close, or he holds you extra tight, murmuring an apology in your ear but not letting go. Not yet. Just in case.

NSFW Headcanons

(Under the Cut)

So related to the above, that touch starvation definitely translates sexually. While he eventually mellows out, especially early on in the relationship there's a sort of barely restrained desperation in everything he does. He doesn't ever instigate or suggest something new but the second you suggest or okay something he jumps on it. He just doesn't want to scare you off or push you, even if you want him just as badly. Whenever you're making out, he tries to press as close to you as humanly possible. His kisses are uncoordinated and a little sloppy but his eagerness is sexy in its own right. He's just been so pent up with no outlet or even privacy until now. And he was pining after you for so long. Can you blame him for trying to make up for lost time?

This man is sooooo desperate to please. He's just head over heels in love with you. You've brought so much joy and love to his life, he wants to show you how much he loves and appreciates you. (At a less sexy time, it'd probably be good to talk with him about that feeling of debt and how you love him for who he is, not what he can do for you. But that’s a whole other demon.) So that being said, he’s pretty flexible. While he’s not exactly adventurous, he is open to suggestions. If you want him to take charge, he’ll do his best! Or he’s happy to follow instructions and let you take the lead. Service-Vers. Though, while he’d never ask for it because pleasing you is at the forefront, he’d really enjoy getting to be a pillow prince every once in a while. Just smothered in affection while you take care of everything and spoil him. He’d probably die of happiness.

To be perfectly honest, he’s pretty vanilla. But that’s not a bad thing! He likes gentle, romantic love-making in a bed with the lights dimmed. While he’s not opposed, per say, to trying something new every once in a while, he doesn’t really need anything other than you to make him happy. No matter how many times you two have sex it never gets old or feels less special. If anything it just gets better the more familiar and comfortable he becomes with your body and his own. He likes missionary best but is also a fan of really any position where he can hold you close and see/kiss your face. The one sort of kink he has is praise, though I’d argue everyone likes praise a little. Please tell him how he’s doing and how good you’re feeling. That he’s handsome and good and most of all: that you love him~ He never gets tired of hearing you say it~

[hibiscuslovecandles]

Heartslabyul,Savanaclaw,and Octavinelle but I describe them as different people I went to high school with.

Heartslabyul

Riddle Rosehearts: One of the 5 white people that went to the school,Sticks out like a sore thumb,Got adopted by the trouble makers,Told the teacher that students were vaping and smoking weed in the bathroom,Almost got jumped like 3 times for being a snitch,Student council.

Trey Clover: The popular senior that adopts freshman,Pulls girls but is too chill to care,Always walking out of culinary with delicious food,Can actually drive,Was allowed to call school staff by first name,You'll probably see him as a counselor at a camp next summer.

Cater Diamond: Literally the kid teachers gave up on,We regularly be seen in the guidance counselors office in the bean bag chair,Went on a 10 minute walk to the McDonald's 5 blocks away for lunch,Ran the school fight Instagram page,Somehow befriends the emo kid,Skipping class in the woods next to the school.

Ace Trappola: Vaping in the bathroom,5 school fights yet hasn't got expelled,Swears he can rap,Probably is the person from freshman year that gave people ACTUAL tattoos,Gave free haircuts in the boys dressing room,Joined the basketball team and swears he's all that.

Deuce Spade: Just got out of juvie,Teachers love him for trying,Skipped class once and cried,Absolutely HATES the people hotboxing in the bathroom,Was 2 hours late to the school dance,Fought someone from a different school because "What am I?White.No offense AJ."-An Actual Guy From My School.

Savanaclaw

Leona Kingscholar: Doesn't show up yet gets straight A's,Only wears pajamas to school,He lives in the guidance counselors offices bean bag chair,Just exits class without telling teachers,It's okay though because he's a school athlete,Half his friends are girls,Super senior.

Ruggie Bucchi: Actually eats that radioactive school food at lunch,Listens to Eminem,Complains about everyone disturbing class while disturbing class,Accidentally took the bus to the wrong school and didn't say anything because "A man needs his education",The teacher went to school with his grandma,Almost got shot outside of school.

Jack Howl: Can't stand anyone at this school,He literally only hangs out with teachers,Doesn't touch his phone during school AT ALL,Minds his business,Knows nothing about school drama,Was apart of the fitness club.

Octavinelle

Azul Ashengrotto: If Cater is running the fight Instagram page then Azul is running the schools Snapchat burn book,People hate him but he's smart so,Hasn't taken the bus since elementary school,Packs his own lunch and he makes people pay him for a bite,Always giving people stank eye and almost got jumped for it,Student council.

Jade Leech: Is selling weed,Apart of the gardening club,Getting NOOOOO bitches,Knocked a girl out in band class and the ambulance had to be called,The emo kids love him,The guidance counselors are worried for him.

Floyd Leech: He was definitely the guy that took a shit on the back of the stairs during freshman year,Has gotten kicked off the basketball team like 7 times,Pulled the fire alarm like 12 times a month,Probably the reason why a car suddenly blew up in the parking lot during lunch,40 minutes late to class and no one cares to ask why,Step on his shoes and you're dead.

If people like this enough maybe I'll do the other dorms

Part2 Part3

[java-dragon]

Covers Bookbinding for beginners by a beginner- The Home Stretch

*drinks half a gallon of coffee*

COVERS!

You've gotten your typeset done for the fic, you've battled the demon that is your printer, folded pages, stitched pages, glued pages, glued end pages, and end bands. Made the cover, covered the cover in potentially homemade book cloth.

Now it's time to design a cover.

It's time to make this thing into a fully functioning book and slide it on your shelf and have a nice bout of "Laying on the Floor while Questioning the Human Condition (TM)".

There are a few options.

It depends on what you want.

I can only take you so far with Cricut/vinyl applications. But I researched enough to maybe, MAYBE give you the run down on at least how to get your cover from Canva to the software to cut out your vinyl. I'll start there since this is what I know the least.

Open up your version of Canva.

Make a document, I've seen some fanbinders make all this in the cricut software but I can only smile and nod along. But for me- this is the best I've figured:

go to the search bar and type in book cover (or use the drop down menu) click on a random template.

Fiddle and fart your way into a design you like. Text and Font Options are available in drop down menus and find some designs that are "Easy to Weed" which I understand as "Getting rid of all the stuff that's not going on the cover".

For Example:

Do you like it? It took me 40 seconds, I'm very proud of it. But this isn't to impress you really I just need to show you how to save your file so you can make the leap from one software application to the next.

Hit "Share", Hit "Download", File Type- Hit the down arrow, Hit "PNG" I missed this for the first few times--- BUT!

Click the "Transparent Background"

If you're doing more than one colour Vinyl you're going to duplicate the page that is located right next to the lock icon above the document. Hit that. Delete the stuff that you want to be different colours. Otherwise it will just cut everything out as one colour and I've seen some vinyl covers that get damn fancy.

You can also build a title cover just measure the spine and height of your spine and rotate your text to horizontal if you please.

Now for how I do mine. I use Printable Iron On Vinyl. Keynote there is a difference, there is stuff for light fabrics, and stuff for dark. Choose for what your primary book cloth will be but the paper itself will be white.

Make your design.

I have 3 different covers for Celestial Navigation by Sabrecmc just because of how LARGE the fic itself is. I had to split the text block up for ease of handling.

I saved as a PNG, and loaded up my fancy printable vinyl into my printer and went through the software for printing, I had to do some fiddling but for my purposes I had to get the whole cover in the right size on the page- it took some fiddling yours might be simpler it might be more complex. But once I got it printed I trimmed off the white and was left with a peel-able rather velvety feeling thing.

Remove the backing. Get the iron on and go low and slow with the provided barrier material to prevent melting and damage to the print you've just done.

I made spines as well and made an 11 x 8.5 (Or brochure template)

And lined up my spines accordingly as to not waste materials. There will be grids that pop up automatically to let you know if things line up.

Print them out on the "highest quality" out put for your photo software.

It peels like a sticker. It may take a bit to get it going.

Line it up as nicely as you can on the cover (double check on the still exposed board).

There is a protective sheet that comes with it USE IT. Set your iron to a low heat and move it around frequently.

If you're in a relatively humid area (I live in a coastal town so the humidity is pretty high all year). Have a heavy book to squish your covers down with to try and get out any bends that may happen post ironing (also why we want low and slow).

Leave to cool.

Now you have a text block and a cover.

For all intents and purposes for my demonstration I'm leaving the spine off and am redoing everything with this fic from the ground up. There are aspects and mistakes that I have made that have irked my brain. So I will be leaving the spines off for this round. This is the learning curve and since a lot have things have clicked into place since beginning this series that have given me the "AH HA! CLARITY!" moment. I have completely reworked EVERYTHING in my text block of Celestial Navigation. Plus I've a perfectionist issue that is a lot milder than what it was.

But these two text blocks will work as my "Ground Zero" and will be the books I compare all potential future binds too.

As a note that I said in the beginning of this endeavor:

THIS IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK DO NOT SELL WORK THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU!!!! YOU HAVE ASKED PERMISSION (I dearly hope) TO DO THIS DO NOT BREAK TRUST WITH THE AUTHOR.

IF You want to offer a copy to the author- GO FOR IT. Close friend that is showing interest in the fic?? Sure ok.

But if you sell it for monetary gain? I hope you stub your toe, and just before it finally heals you stub your toe again and may all your breakfast cereal turn to slugs.

DO NOT BE A DICK. I am writing this whole 'How To' Series as an experiment of Good Faith that you, the potential binder, will do right by the community and not compound an issue that has been cropping up. Etsy sellers, and this horrible Facebook community that will steal other's typesets, and begin selling them.

Like I said- this is a breech in Fair Use.

Now with that lecture, again, out of the way lets settle the rest of this series.

You will need:

Glue

Book Press

glue brush

Wax Paper.

Your Cover.

Your Text block.

Get your textblock and cover lined up with some wax paper in the middle of the decorative pages (if you're doing them other wise the page you glue down to the cover and the rest of the text block.

Fiddle, fart and dry fit until you are satisfied.

Lay down a layer of glue on the page NOT THE COVER ITSELF.

DON'T BE ME. I FUCKED UP HARDCORE AND DID THE COVER WITH THE GLUE. HOOOOO NELLY LET ME TELL YOU HOW BADLY THAT FUCKED SHIT UP.

HOW BAD WAS IT? BAD. VERY BAD. DON'T BE LIKE ME THAT FIRST ROUND, BE LIKE ME ON THE SECOND ROUND AND PUT GLUE ON THE END PAGE.

Line up the textblock for a final time and then apply the paper to the cover open the textblock and smooth what you just glued down. Flip over and repeat.

Then add weight to the text block put it back in your press, or if you're like me and have a reprint in the press just throw books atop the block.

Allow glue to cure over night.

Shiver, shudder, and lay on the floor. Your fic is now a book that you can put on your shelf.

Welcome to the wild wild world of bookbinding.

I've been your host trying their best to explain all the things.

I will likely continue this series with "OK SO I LEARNED SOME SHIT ALL THAT SHIT I WROTE BEFORE FEEL FREE TO LISTEN BUT I'VE GOT BETTER SOLUTIONS NOW" time stuff.

[the-lavender-room]

La squadra headcannons I have

Risotto

Suffered a head injury when he was little. It caused some blood vessels in his eyes to burst and making his Scleras to appear black. He would have suffered visions lost if he got older.

He was raised by his aunt and uncle, and his cousin was more like his brother. (lost contact with the former two)

Had a lot of piercings though he wears them less after getting his stand.

Because of his stand; he has a constant feeling of bugs under his skin. It doesn’t bother him that much, but he still get very itchy sometimes.

Was pretty thin and lanky when he first joined and felt awkward when he walked with others.

Illuso

Second tallest of the team(6’6)

His dad’s vanilla ice, he was there in Egypt during those four years. (where he got his stand, boy in the mirror) the longer they stay, the more obsessed Ice became of DIO; to the point that he almost completely stopped interacting with his son and didn’t notice he got a stand. (Even DIO was disappointed in Ice)

He watched the fight between Vanilla Ice and Polnareff (form the safety of the mirror realm) but still blames DIO for his dad’s death more than polnareff. (Would still throw hands with him tho)

Joined Passione at 13, tho he was an escort before he was reassigned as an assassin.

Spent a lot of time alone at first.

Formaggio

collects cars (actual cars) he keeps them in a box under his bed.

Got his cat during his first “solo” hit. (She was catnapped)

Made his apartment accessible for when he’s tiny. (Small ropes and ladders to get to high places, mini Hammocks to lounge in e.t.)

Tries to get along with the others

Loves shity B movie slashers (the ones with the bad cgi) but he also makes fun of them.

Likes bugs and know a lot about them.

Melone

Naturally blonde but dyes his hair purple.

A bit squeamish and doesn’t do well with gore or bloody scenes.

Youngest of seven and was mostly raised (and bullied) by his siblings since his dad was a dead beat and his mom committed when he was three.

The only member of La squadra to go to college (he didn’t finish)

Has a chemical burn on the side of his face; making him partially blind in one eye (he covers it with his hair)

Risotto was going to take him to get their nips pierced.

 Prosciutto

Born into mafia (a different gang that merged Passione)

smoker (he smoke da weed)

Uses his stand to get senior discounts.

Spends most of his paycheck on expensive clothes. unfortunately, he insists on wearing them on missions were they get torn often.

Collects books, he doesn’t read them, but he collects them.

Pesci

Youngest member (19)

His mom and prosciutto’s knew each other, unfortunately both died in a gang related incident.

Begged prosciutto to let him join. He finally let him (at 17) but Pesci severely underestimated what he was getting into.

Everyone’s little brother.

Ghiaccio

Autistic.

Is resistant to the cold (not immune) but can’t handle hot temperatures. Learned to use his stand to cool himself off.

Has uncomfortably cold (to others) skin (this is why he wears more clothes)

Born stand user. Had poor temperature regulation and was sick often do to overheating.

Can use the “helmet” of white album to see if he doesn’t have his glasses.

Ran away from home.

Lived with sorbet and gelato since he was 12 (he tried to steal sorbet’s wallet) and didn’t know they were assassins until he was 16.

Didn’t really interact with or get to know the others until he was 19 (when sorbet and gelato die) except for Risotto and sometimes formaggio.

Likes video games (sonic, Pokémon, e.t)

Trans.

Sorbet and gelato (together)

Both in mid to early 40s.

Did a lot of crime all around Europe before joining  Passione.

Were originally hired to train new stand user assassins, not to be full time ones. Though, they were expecting mature and experienced adults, instead they got people who were barely adults (18 at the oldest)

Really want a more normal and domestic life and know they can’t get one; no matter how hard they try.

Sorbet

Mild pyrophobia (has panic attacks when near anything big than a campfire)

Has burn scars on his back and arms.

French

3rd tallest (6’5) but can lift Risotto pretty easily.

Pretty quiet, mostly because he doesn’t like his own voice (very raspy voice, sometimes hurts when he shouts) is good for intimidation tho.

Cannibal (happened by accident)

Gelato

Doesn’t eat most meats except fish (he’s fine eggs, dairy, e.t)

Ex-military (got discharged for being gay💅)

Has ADHD and gets very talkative (sorbet loves his voice)

Has a younger brother (it’s someone:) who was also mentally ill. His parents made him help take care of him. He didn’t hate his brother, but he also left as soon as he could. Sometimes he wonders how he’s doing.

Pretty much second in command of La squadra.

Has a big scar on the side of his face.

Gets into fights a lot. Mostly with other people, sometimes with his own teammates, mostly prosciutto (they disagree a lot)

[dipyronegirl]

the biggest bullshit selfish thing ive ever heard (and i used to hear it a LOT) was “this is unfair to those who earned it”. bitch you already got your prize. earned it or whatever. why do you care if i cheated to get mine. why do you care if i stole the professors book, went to the bathroom, wrote down all the answers on my stomach, and came back to finish the test. you’re gonna get a good grade, i’m gonna get a good grade, we were both stressed all morning, what’s the fucking difference. you’re gonna forget everything you memorized for this exam anyway, i’m sure of it. and so am i. it’s just how the world works. if you’d rather spend all night staring at the wall not being able to open a book cause you’re too stressed and then gamble your 40% to try to turn it into a 90% when if you get caught you could actually get a 0, be my guest. i’m having a terrible time here, and so are you, and i can say with absolute certainty that neither of us know ANYTHING even after this exam so what’s the fucking point of ratting me out. we’re like in middle school, it’s not like we got beef, i don’t even know you. come smoke weed with me after school if you’re so mad. “unfair to those who earned it” bitch what the fuck. you just want others to fail to feel good about yourself. mind your own business. eat a dick. if you were a “unfair to those who earned it” kid and don’t see the error in you ways, dm me so i can scream at you.

[back-and-totheleft]

Blowback

”I’ve enjoyed dope for more than 40 years,“ Oliver Stone says, speaking by phone from his Los Angeles office. “It started in Vietnam, I was a soldier. I showed it in Platoon. Half the platoons were getting high—not in the field, but in the back, and it made that whole experience survivable to a large degree. I don’t think I would have kept my humanity without it. Getting high was an antidote to the madness we were surrounded by. I’m very serious about that. The music and the dope.”

I’m talking to Stone about his latest film, Savages, the story of a couple of high-end hydroponic pot growers—rock stars of the Southern California boutique marijuana scene—who run afoul of a ruthless Mexican cartel angling for a cut of their business. It is, I think, his best movie in years: a ripe, wildly energetic caper—a Stone(r) noir, if you will—that also provides a sharper snapshot of the way we live now than the more overtly topical World Trade Center, W., and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. International diplomacy and the state of the economy are very much on Stone’s mind here too, but the politics are niftily concealed by a vibrant genre-movie surface; striking, color-saturated visuals; and the toned, tanned bodies of a sexy young cast in various states of rest and motion. Think Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (a movie Savages directly makes reference to) if Butch, Sundance, and Etta were a full-blown ménage à trois. Think They Live by Night with surfboards and tattoos.

Adapted by Stone, Shane Salerno, and Don Winslow from Winslow’s compulsively readable 2010 novel, Savages follows the perils of Ben (Aaron Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch), yin-and-yang best buddies who meet cute on the beaches of Laguna and soon go into business together. They use primo seeds ferried back by Navy SEAL Chon from the Afghan war zone to cultivate a highly potent strain of weed whose profits in turn fund the new-agey Ben’s third-world nonprofit. The two friends share home and hearth with the movie’s narrator, O (Blake Lively), a burnt-orange beach bunny who claims to love the two men in her life equally, though perhaps that love is not quite as intense as their own bromance. Then into this progressive love nest comes a missive from the cartel honcho known as Elena “La Reina” (Salma Hayek), who makes Ben and Chon an offer they can’t refuse: join forces with her or else it will be O’s decapitated head they find under their communal sheets.

The cartel in the film behaves like a corporation—Wal-Mart by way of Monsanto—wanting to co-opt not only Ben and Chon’s distribution network, but their seed-growing technology too. And everyone is, literally or figuratively, in bed with everyone—the cartel with American Indian reservations, the DEA (in the person of John Travolta’s deeply compromised agent) with the dealers and the growers alike—leading to a wild, loop-de-loop climax that may leave some wondering if THC has somehow been piped into the cinema.

Savages presents a fascinating cycle of subterranean trade: high-quality Afghan weed makes its way to Southern California as a kind of byproduct of the war over there, and ex-SEALs use their military training and weaponry against the Mexican cartel in a new kind of war zone.

I don’t want to be preachy, but that ties in to my belief that blowback exists in this world. You don’t go fight foreign wars and expect them to stay there. The blowback comes, and not only in the form of Osama bin Laden in 2001. We have so many wounded people from the two Iraqs and Afghanistan, people with diseases and concussions and maimed limbs. There’s tremendous callousness in the country and it destroys us, and in a strange way Don Winslow caught that in his book with this idea of these soldiers becoming active here. In Vietnam we always thought that we’d come back and we’d make a difference here in this country; we’d lead the revolution against Nixon. I love the idea that this kid Chon just takes things in his own fucking hands. He doesn’t go crying to the cops—there’s no cops to cry to. They drive around on bicycles in Laguna. So he gets his RPGs and his IEDs and he fucking does it with real hardcore veterans. I loved that idea of war coming home to roost.

The depiction of the Mexican cartel is unusual in that the characters are quite three-dimensional, particularly Salma Hayek’s Elena, who has a fraught relationship with her twentysomething daughter, and who ends up treating O as a kind of surrogate daughter when she kidnaps her.

We always thought of it that way. We also had scenes with Uma Thurman as the mother of O—they were good scenes that were funny, actually. But with the movie being two hours and 10 minutes now, we were concerned. John Travolta’s character also had a wife, and there was a tender scene between them. And there was a very interesting side story with Lado, Benicio’s character—we had Mia Maestro as his wife, and we see that she is trying to make their children into Californians and the kids disgust him because they don’t have any of the old-fashioned ways that he wants. But we had to let all that go. What I like about the movie is that it has a tension to it, and I think it keeps you going, wanting to know what’s going to happen next, and it doesn’t let up.

The three leads have a terrific chemistry together. They really click in a way that gives the movie a lot of energy. How did you decide on the casting?

Aaron was the first one in. I met him and I just fell for his charm. We met in London and I said, “I don’t know which one you should play, but I want you to do this movie.” He was getting hot, he had done Kick-Ass and I had liked him in that. He was being offered a big role, and it was a big deal for him, but he gave up the [other] movie because he loved this idea so much. Then I saw Taylor in Friday Night Lights and an early version of Battleship and thought he was dead-on for Chon. So that made Aaron Ben. Blake came about after Jennifer Lawrence dropped out to make The Hunger Games. It was a difficult movie because she had Gossip Girl shooting 10 months a year, so she had to fly to New York practically every fucking day. She was working monster hours, as they do on TV. We stayed on schedule, but it was a difficult shoot.

The film feels in some ways like a sibling to Natural Born Killers and U-Turn in its ferocious pacing and the hyperreality of the imagery—the intensity of the sunlight and the bold primary colors.

Let’s put it this way: it was going to be a sun movie, which is to say Mexico, the South. The colors were intended to be primary, and I drove everyone a little bit crazy with that. Early on, I screened Contempt for [cinematographer] Dan Mindel, and I said, “I want these colors.” We had great sun all summer, we were shooting outdoors, we shot with windows, we shot with light, we tried to use as much beach life as we could. At one point, I went out on the set and screamed that I wanted towels, as many bright yellows and blues as possible, to get rid of the weaker colors that were sneaking in. Sometimes set designers want to have that tasteful balance, and I said, “No! We want excess!” Flowers, paintings, everything we could do to get some color in there, including bringing standby painters in and just slapping a wall together if we had to at the last second. My references in this were certainly Contempt, but also Duel in the Sun—I saw that several times when I was young, and I saw it again recently, and it’s just beautifully done. The showdown scene at the end was sort of an homage to that. Also to Leone.

To wit, the movie’s score has a strong spaghetti Western feel to it.

It’s funny you should say that, because I went about 10 rounds on U-Turn with Ennio Morricone. It was the only time I worked with him, and I never worked with someone so difficult in my life. It was a creative collaboration, but I think I’m the only American director who made him return to America a second time—he doesn’t like to travel—because I was unhappy. At one point in our collaboration, I actually showed him a Road Runner cartoon and I said, “This is the type of music I want you to write.” And he looked at me with a cold stare and said, “You want me to write cartoon music?” But if you listen to U-Turn, there’s a lot of boings and bings and bangs.

On Savages, I didn’t really know what the sound should be. There was a guy, Adam Peters, who I’d used on The Untold History of the United States, and he did great work for me. He’s English, so he’s not at all of the Italian style, but he adapted. As with Natural Born Killers and Any Given Sunday, we used a lot of needle drops, a lot of Mexican music. We listened to all the narcocorridos, but we didn’t end up using any of those. We put Brahms in under the sex scene at the very beginning because I wanted the movie to have some tenderness and romance. There has to be that element like in Duel in the Sun where you feel for these people—they’re young, they’re tender, they’re at the mercy of the world, they’re in danger, and they’re in love.

How do you interpret the love triangle at the center of the film? Do Ben and Chon really love each other—as Elena intimates—more than they do O?

I don’t know. I did look at Butch Cassidy before we shot the movie, and it’s interesting, because Katharine Ross is with both men, but it’s so hidden in the movie that you barely notice it. Certainly, Butch Cassidy was considered, even at the time, a bit homoerotic. O has her own journey, too. She lives through this thing and she has to find herself, through this process of looking at death so clearly. She says toward the end: “I don’t think it’s possible for three people to be equally in love.” Which indicates that she’s thought about what Elena says to her in the dinner scene: “Something’s fucked up about your love story, baby.”

What is the current status of your Showtime miniseries, The Untold History of the United States?

It grew out of my desire to leave something behind. I’m aware of what my three children studied in American History and I’m aware of what I studied in American History, and I feel like we were all cheated by the book publishers and by the schools. In my case, it grew into a mythology about the United States that was very dangerous, because among other things I went to Vietnam under the belief that we were fighting the demon enemy: Communism. And what we did in Vietnam was so heinous, so evil, and it bothers me still that it was never apologized for, nothing changed, and we went to more wars. So in 2008, around the time I was doing W., I started this project. It was designed to be 10 chapters about the mythologies of American history, going back to 1945 and the bomb and working our way through to 2012. It’s an upside-down version of American history, which is to say it takes everything you thought you knew about America and questions it. Anyway, it turned into a monstrosity. It went two years over and took a lot of time. Writing history for film is the hardest thing in the world, and I’ve been giving all my free time to it when I haven’t been making other films. It was originally scheduled for May, but when Universal moved Savages to July, we and Showtime decided to push it back to November because we didn’t want to overlap. We’re working like dogs on it as we speak. We keep revising, fact-checking. Things change. It’s a bitch.

Savages ultimately feels like the work of a filmmaker reborn. If you watched it without knowing who directed it, you might think it was the work of a first- or second-timer fresh from film school or music videos, showing us everything he can do, in case he never gets to do it again.

It’s really my third or fourth childhood, because I’ve had these kinds of periods before. Bear in mind that I did Platoon when I was 37. To me, part of me had died in Vietnam, and to finally get a chance to make a movie about Vietnam in 1986 when I was almost 40, I felt like an old man then. I was going back to my 20-year-old self, and being in the jungle with Charlie Sheen and all those young dudes, I was the old guy. Life is like that—you get old, you get young, you get old, you get young. That’s happened to me repeatedly. Natural Born Killers was an enormous explosion of energy at a time when I was getting divorced and my life was falling apart and I was in a very dark place and I just said, “Fuck it.” So the answer is, I felt very old on the movie at times, because it was such hard work, and to get out of your chair for the hundredth time of the day and have to walk over to some young person and talk them through the whole thing again… What am I doing out here in 100-degree heat at Pyramid Lake? But it’s the idea that keeps it alive.

As a director, you sometimes feel like you’re the most loathed person, because you’re telling everyone what to do. And most people in life, myself included, don’t like to be in control all the time. I don’t enjoy it. But once in a while, you have to go out there for 60, 70, 80 days and you’ve got to be in charge and you’ve got to be tough to bring it together, because it’s tremendously logistically complex, and if you have 16 competing visions or even two competing visions, it won’t work. Every time you direct, it’s a tremendous effort. It’s like mounting the D-Day invasion. I’ve made 19 movies and they were 19 wars.

-Scott Foundas, "Blowback," Film Comment, July-August 2012

[toujokaname]

Light in Both Body and Soul (Tatsumi Idol Story)

Author: Chitose Umeda

Characters: Tatsumi, Tsumugi, Eichi

"No, no, it was my pleasure. Thanks to the stretches, I'm feeling refreshed."

Season: Summer

Location: Seisoukan Courtyard

Tatsumi: The flowers in the courtyard are magnificently in full bloom once again today.

Since the summer heat is likely to continue, let's make sure to give them plenty of water.

...Oh, my. This area seems to be overgrown with weeds. Shall I remove them, too?

(...Hm. I've been working on the flower beds every morning for the last several days since we moved into the main building, as part of Gardenia's activities.)

(But somehow I feel tired this morning, even though it should be the same task as usual...?)

Location: Seisoukan Common Room

Tatsumi: ("Ullambana" and "MDM"... After a summer of such intense events, I feel that I may have pushed my body to its limits.)

(I have this leg, too, and I try to take good care of it after each lesson, but...)

Is this a divine revelation that I should take better care of my body so as to continue to be of service to others?

Tsumugi: Huh... Kazehaya-kun? Good morning~ You're up early.

Tatsumi: Tsumugi-san, good morning. I was tending to the courtyard until a few minutes ago.

Tsumugi: You have a lot of energy this early in the morning~ Seisoukan's courtyard is very large, so it must be quite the task just to take care of it, right?

And, well, Kazehaya-kun, you seemed to be breathing somewhat heavily.

Tatsumi: How embarrassing... You heard that?

Loving and caring for plants and flowers, and touching the soil, that's nothing other than soothing. But strangely enough, I felt tired this morning.

I think it's because I still have fatigue from the summer, but I was thinking about how to take better care of myself on top of that.

Tsumugi: ALKALOID's been very active this summer, right? I think it's natural that you're still tired.

By the way, which part of your body's feeling tired? Perhaps your fatigue is accumulating in unexpected places.

Tatsumi: Unexpected places?

Tsumugi: There are many days when I'm at my desk all day...

Working at a desk puts strain on parts of the body different from those in idol lessons, right? Like the shoulders and neck...

I thought you might be tired in those areas, too, Kazehaya-kun.

Tatsumi: Aah, now that you mention it... Since I moved into the main building, I have been reading more books in my personal time.

Because the library has a rich collection of books, I think, "if I read this book today, I can read another book tomorrow"... and before I know it, I become absorbed in reading until late at night.

I might be straining my shoulders and neck while being engrossed in reading.

In addition, I usually only pay attention to my legs... I think I haven't been making efforts to recover from fatigue in other parts of my body.

Tsumugi: I see... Then, why don't you come stretch with me?

I did a lot of research on how to soothe stiff muscles from desk work~

How about doing pair stretches that allow us to efficiently stretch our muscles together? If Kazehaya-kun is okay with it, that is.

Tatsumi: If it's Tsumugi-san's suggestion, with pleasure. Let's get to work on it.

Tsumugi: ...Let's hold this position for about 40 seconds.

Tatsumi: Ohh, I can feel my muscles stretching. I'll relax and keep this posture, too.

Do the members of Switch do anything to take care of themselves during their lessons? Such as stretching, and so on...

Tsumugi: Hm~ We spend a lot of time thinking about our stage direction, and Sora-kun's full of energy even after his dance lessons.

We stretch from time to time, but maybe not as thoroughly as we should. How about ALKALOID?

Tatsumi: In our case, Mayoi-san takes care of us as a trainer. He sometimes gives us massages after our lessons.

In particular, Mayoi-san, who tries to heal Hiiro-san and Aira-san, seems to be full of vitality to the point where he doesn't seem to get tired from practice.

Tsumugi: That's so reliable~ Now then, let's try a different posture. Reach your hand toward me—

Eichi: ...I thought I heard someone talking. But I didn't expect it to be you two. What on earth are you doing?

Tsumugi: Eichi-kun, good morning~ As you can see, we're stretching ♪

Eichi: How healthy. But that response doesn't really tell me the process of how you ended up stretching.

Tatsumi: When I told him about my fatigue, Tsumugi-san agreed to teach me some stretching exercises. The stretch I'm doing right now feels very good.

Tsumugi: Would you like to join us, Eichi-kun? You also seem to be accumulating fatigue...

Eichi: I have a special holiday called "Eichi Day". I'll make sure to rest my body there, so you don't need to worry.

It would be fun to do stretches like you guys are doing with everyone in fine, but...

I can't afford to listen to the two of you right now, because work won't wait.

I'm heading towards ES now. See you later.

Tsumugi: Ah... He seems to have left in a hurry. He's as busy as ever, which worries me.

Tatsumi: It may be strange for me to say this, considering that I'm accompanying you, but I'm sure that you're also very busy, Tsumugi-san. Are you sure you have enough time?

Tsumugi: Let's see~ I've just finished my shoulder stretches, so I'll also be heading towards ES.

Talking to you was unexpectedly fun, Kazehaya-kun ♪

Tatsumi: No, no, it was my pleasure. Thanks to the stretches, I'm feeling refreshed.

If you had time, I would've liked to thank you with a cup of tea. Please let me invite you again when we can spare some more time.

Tsumugi: Yes, please do ♪ At that time, I would be very happy if you could tell me about the books you've read, Kazehaya-kun~

Tatsumi: (As they say, the benefit an early bird gets is to catch the worm... As for me, being made aware of my physical ailments and talking with Tsumugi-san became a great "benefit" indeed.)

(My body feels lighter now... It seems like it's going to be another good day today ♪)

[clouds-of-wings]

I'm back from Prague, the heart of Europe :)

Did I like it, idk. The city is very pretty. It actually made me a little sad because I kept thinking that if WW2 hadn't happened, a lot of German cities would probably look similar. I definitely didn't spend enough time in the city to really get to know it, especially since I arrived a day late due to a train conductor strike in Germany, also I went to the North of Czechia for a few days (but there I got sick and didn't explore as much as I wanted to).

Prague seems suuuuper overcommercialized though. I wasn't stupid enough to buy anything in the Old Town, but even excluding that it was still hard not to feel like the entire town was an amusement park ride which the people working there were trying to herd you through as quickly and profitably as possible. The souvenirs were very ugly, which was surprising. How do you work with a beautiful marvel of engineering like the Astronomical Clock and produce nothing but corny wood-cuts that get all the colours wrong and that you then ask for 1000Kč (about 40€) for? The Mucha merch everywhere was nice though. He's a little like Klimt in that you can exploit his work commercially as much as you want and it doesn't lose its magic, at least not to me. Indeed there was a lot of Klimt merch too! And then there were people selling their "original artworks". Many of the ones near the Clock were obviously AI-generated. The ones on the Charles Bridge might not have been, but many looked like prints, except sold as originals. Climbing a random tower costs 8€. Why. Does the city not pay for the upkeep? You can see the city for free from the castle grounds. And the "weed and absinthe stores" everywhere. Lololol.

The food was unreservedly great. The highlight of my day was lunch. It's all comfort food, meat, carbs and great sauces. I was surprised by the consistency of the bread dumplings - I thought they'd be like German potato dumplings, which are rather wet and slimy (in a pleasant way), but they were actually like extremely soft and swallow-able bread. I mean it is in the name. BREAD dumplings.

To me the town was a little too money-centered and convenient. Where's the sense of adventure. When I was in Malta last year - I mean that's a pretty touristy place too, but I still felt like there was a sense of exploration. You can do a lot of stuff for free there, there are tons of places on Malta where they don't try to sell you anything and you can just walk and see and explore. Or maybe it's just that Czechia is too close and too similar to Germany and that's why I got a little restless. Malta looked, sounded and even smelled completely different from what I'm used to, plus there's the strong religious aspect, and Czechia was not all that unfamiliar. I really wanted to do one of these Secret City Trails things but ended up not having the time. Really a lot of my opinions are probably due to my only having been in the town for 3 days. But my favourite moment of the entire journey was when I had to climb through a decommissioned train track bed to get where I wanted to go, but there was a ramp there because apparently that was just the normal way to get to the place, and I think that says it all.

Also saw my fav band live again, yaaay. It was great, except I stood behind the ten thousand tallest men in Czechia and didn't see super much. Next time I go to a concert I actually care about I'm just elbowing my way to the front, smh.

I whole-heartedly recommend Hotel Union to anyone going there. Weirdly enough, it's cheaper to book through booking dot com, where I usually only go to read reviews and then book directly on the hotel's own website.

[practicumblogrr]

Rolando and the Neverending Shelving

Saturday, September 7, 2024 (10:30am to 4:40 pm, 6 hours and 10 minutes) by Rolando Rodriguez

Supervisor: Christy Saldivar

Aside from being surprised after waking up super early for the library, I was really determined to start on today's project. Before I began repeating the alphabet like a madman, Christy wanted me to begin shelving the picture book section of the children's department. She warned me that I might take the whole shift, but to take my time since it is a hefty task. For my dear readers who aren't versed in shelving, it is weeding out every section of a department to ensure that every book is where they're supposed to be. For books that are either placed wrong or have been recently touched, they're traditionally scanned with a tablet to ensure that they count toward the library's usage system. Once they're accounted for, we either place them back in their respective area or we win the lottery and the book found is requested for transfer.

Once I found a small cart, I started the shelving process from the very top which was A. It started off well since it followed the Dewey system to an extent until the library's personal cataloging started to appear. There were books with a special sticker that either read "seasonal", "read along", or even "SP". Sometimes these books had all three which made it a little difficult but I put these aside until I was closer to their section. I'll be honest, once I finish the first the letters, I began moving to another area. I was trying to avoid burning myself out and psych myself into believing I hadn't done much. For this reason, I began working in the H section down to section P. This made a big difference since it kept me motivated. Although I didn't finish, this will begin to be one of my projects to keep the department up and hopefully I can migrate further to other areas until the whole department is accounted for.

[ligayagardener]

We’re well into the warm weather and the wild plants are going bunta! (that’s Australian for ‘very nicely’). So I reckon it’s time for this year’s Food Underfoot foraging walk in our lovely Henry Chenoweth Park in Gawler. Many of the herbs on our Wild herbs pages are or were found here and I’m sure more will turn up as time goes by. When and where will it be? It looks like Saturday the 14th of September is through go. Let’s gather by the footbridge near the Elderly Centre at 11 am. For those who come in from the other end of Gawler, the gathering point will be at the opposite end of the park from the Gawler Community House. I like to hold the event every year in this park because it is flat, has good access, most of it can be traversed by folks with mobility issues. Also it’s big enough for kids and dogs to run amok in. It’s also easy to get a park near! Henry Chenoweth Park is home to a grand selection of edible and medicinal wild plants (AKA ‘weeds’) in a location where they’re easy to see and photograph. This year, Gawler Council killed a lot if lovely Pepper Trees along the river bank, turned them into mulch and covered some of the best wild plant patches with it  I was a bit saddened by the act but it will pay off eventually because the killing was dine in the nane of revegetarion with local native plants. This year’s walk will be particularly enlightening because many of the wild plants have survived the abuse and are springing up in abundance. Every year the mix of species changes but this tear will be spectacular because the truck and bobcat tyres have brought in a whole bunch of new additions. I’m booking tickets on a sliding scale at $ 20, $30 or $40 dollars. Purchasing a $40 dollar ticket helps subsidise someone else to come along at a lower rate or even for free.  Bookings will be directly through this website to cut out many of those nasty companies who take their cut from ticket prices. If you’d like to pay cash on the day (nice!), message me on 0414661455 or by email at ligayagarden@gmail.com and let me know what tier of ticket you would like. Oh yeah….Kids and dogs are always free! Booking details Here’s where to book! Other herb pages on Ligaya Garden We cover a lot of ground on many herb related topics here on our website. There are whole pages devoted to different topics as well as frequent posts. Some of the links are – Garden Herbs Wild Herbs Making Remedies Mushroom medicine All of the information on Ligaya Garden Online is shared freely. Please consider making a small donation to keep it free for everyone. Just click this blue button.

[emilykaldwen]

39 and 40 ♥️♥️♥️

-targaryenrealnessdarling

Thank you sooooo much bb!

Fic Writer Ask Game

39. Are you an avid reader?

Not as much as I was in my youth, and I'll go long stretches without cracking open a book, but then a few times a year, I'll just get into the huge mental focus and crank through like, four. (And right now I'm feeling the itch for a book and currently going through my TBR). The last book I read was a re-read of Lola and the Millionaires by Kathryn Moon (An A/B/O romance for those who don't like A/B/O normally) and before that, I finally finished the third book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy, Gods and Monsters, by Laini Taylor.

40. Best piece of feedback you've ever gotten?

I mean, honestly, everything @vampire-exgirlfriend leaves me when she beta reads my chapters or when we're rattle testing ideas. She's able to point out when I'm stuck in the weeds on something and can pull back, or to approach something from a different sort of view point. But when I was doing my historical fiction writing class, my instructor just gave me some of the best feedback in terms of my strengths. Like, she had no notes, she said she felt immedietly like she was transported into the moment, that my grasp of sharing detail veered into a very natural territory instead of 'info dumping' it like a lego container all over the floor. And it's something I'm very proud of, sprinkling those things through the narrative so it doesn't feel like you're pausing in the story for me to describe and explain things. And I should say, I'm always open to constructive, positive feedback, like most people, it's just hard these days because people take that as an invitation to just go 'you're bad at this and I hate it' and never like, give the compliment sandwich. Back in the early 00s, we would put on our fics 'Concrit welcome' and concrit was well done. Now it's just... blech. Like if I don't know who you are/you're on anon, I'm less inclined to receive it well (and I think that goes for a lot of people) because it's like... I don't know who you are, I don't know if this is in bad faith or not. So I tend to prefer said feedback to come from mutuals, since my mutuals know they can approach me honestly. As Alex always says 'if this was bad, I would tell you, then help you make it better.' lmao

[jodilin65]

TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 1991 It’s so hard to believe I’ve only been here for 23 days. It seems like so much longer.

Kim and I have continued to have great times together. Can you believe she bought me $75 roller skates?! They’re so nice too. They’re the boot kind and they’re indoor skates rather than my old outdoor sneaker skates. The boots are white with neon pink wheels. Since I got my schedule pretty much normal, I’m gonna go roller skating this Thursday night.

Next, she’s talking about a new spring jacket. You know me, I never ask and she won’t take no for an answer, but it feels weird. Only my parents would buy me stuff like that. But then again, Brenda bought stuff here and there till she came into money problems and I helped her out. I was more than happy to return the favor, but not for crack.

Kim may have gotten a job at the doctor’s office where I went to follow up on my asthma. He gave me a new inhaler and in between that and the clean fresh air, my breathing better. Also, my skin looks and feels better and my hair is growing faster and my hair always grew like a weed to begin with.

This Earth Day thing has hundreds of people spending many hours cleaning up the Mill River. They wait till I leave to do it.

I spoke with Jenny who called earlier and we had a nice chat. Bill hasn’t called back yet but I’ve spoken with Hank and Nervous and have yet to speak with Jessie, Steve or Brenda. I’m not sure that I will but I’ve got to contact Jessie to arrange for her to either bring the bathing suits she borrowed up here or mail them. I don’t know yet when Tammy’s coming up yet or when Mom and Dad are.

Oh, almost forgot, I spoke with Andy yesterday and I played him new edits.

I do have more to write about but I’m in one of my phases where I’m not in the mood to write so, I’ll continue updating later.

THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1991 I had a really good talk with Kim last night and she bought me something that cost between $20-$40 and has 20 or 30 pieces and also 5-6 colors but insists it’s a surprise. She says I’ll love it and that she can’t wait till I see it. She also said it was something I mentioned once or twice when we first met. She kept giving me all these weird clues and even drew part of it from two different angles. I still have no idea what the heck it is, but I guess it’s music-related.

Tammy also called to tell me she may be here the weekend after next but she’ll soon let me know for sure. Lisa still has strep throat and I spoke with her, too, briefly. Tammy also said that a cat she’s been feeding had two kittens under Lisa’s bed. She may give them to me, but I have to wait 6 more weeks before they’re done nursing. I also told Tammy how Kim feels about Mark and how she feels about me.

TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1991 Kim came over and we chatted for a while. This week she’s gonna take me to get the discount form for the heat/AC bill. Also, I’ll go to SS and welfare about my food stamps. I don’t need to sign up for next winter’s fuel assistance program till this July or August. I will not transfer banks till my book of checks run out and I’m now on my last book. The other thing I’ve got to do is get a new address label for my license. Thank God I don’t need to renew it till ‘93 or ‘94. All I have to do is get this little sticker you stick on the back of it. I remember that when I moved to Oswego St. Of course, moving back to Woodside Terrace, all I needed to do was peel the sticker off.

I watched a little TV earlier with Mark and when Kim was here I played her the slurred edits. Of course, she was amused. I mean, they are so funny. I’ll never get sick of any of my edits although I need to start doing more which I’ve got to send to Andy along with other stuff. Old stuff that he never got that got edited right after he got the tapes I made for him and that was quite long ago. I think the last thing Andy got was Donna A so I’ll pick up from there if that’s where I left off.

I’ll write more about my hair and weight later. I may verbalize it a lot but haven’t written about it in a long time.

MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1991 Damn, am I bored! I wish Kim were here more often. I guess I’d still much rather be bored here than in Crack Alley. I am, however, going out Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Shadow didn’t go roof climbing today but he sure did once again yesterday. I made the perfect leash for him too, or so I thought. I took an old necklace that wasn’t too tight, nor was it loose enough for him to slip it off over his head. Then I tied a long ribbon securely to the necklace but he managed to snap the necklace in half. I’ve got to get a real leash.

Other than that I did nothing spectacular today other than walk to the store to buy smokes and watch A Current Affair.

There is something me and Kim are working on. The same fun project as what we did with that Dr. Statz. You know, snooping. Of course, as I mentioned before, the doc is gay. Or bi, I should say, but is married to some rich lawyer. Well, it’s this cop and you know I’ve always had a thing for them. I don’t know her name, therefore I’ve given her the name Jamie. Like I said long ago, every now and then I’m attracted to one where you can tell. Remember? It’s once in a million years with a feminine one and once in a billion years with a half-butchy one. Never a diesel butch. Well, maybe I should keep that last line and change the rest. Every 15 years with a feminine one and every 50 years with a half and half. You can tell but she’s pretty at the same time and Kim agrees.

Kim tried snooping around yesterday but couldn’t get her alone. She did hear Jamie say how much she hates Springfield and when she has kids, she’s not raising them in Springfield. Kim then asked her if she was married and Jamie said no and then quickly changed the subject.

Kim is like me. We both know things instantly about all kinds of people. Things that most people never know unless they’re told or find out somehow someway. My gut feeling is that she’s spoken for. She’s a cop. Not that God would allow me to have her anyway and if he did I’d dump her real soon of course. Or, of course, she’d dump me if I didn’t dump her. Anyway, it all comes down to what I said before about snooping and playing detective. It’s fun and the chase is always better than the capture. I like to be wondering and guessing even though I know I’ll never have her.

Oh. I never mentioned how I ran into her, but it was by asking for a light at the ER while waiting for Brenda to pick me up. I also think I may have seen her a little over a year or so ago late at night when Andy and I were out. Another thing is, and God I hope to hell I’m wrong, but I think that when I was dragged into jail for calling that pig, she might have seen me there.

I’ll keep writing about what happens (nothing).

SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1991 I just spoke with Andy who’s still doing just fine and loving Phoenix. He reminded me that our clocks here go ahead an hour but they don’t change out there. Weird, huh? He’ll now be 3 hours earlier.

I played him the slurred edits, where I had the pause button partially down. They are so funny. I may do more editing later now that I have two tracks in working condition.

I fell asleep near 5 AM yesterday morning and woke, as usual, 4 hours later with an attack. Not a killer one, but a very annoying one. Kim is picking me up a refill on Alupent on her way to Springfield to work at Baystate. I’ve got a doctor that Kim called to follow up with this Monday.

Also, I stopped my Theodur like a jerk, but you know I hate any kind of drug. After the Navane, I’ve been really paranoid although that too has been better since I moved. What a major curse Springfield was.

Kim is so great and so sweet. She’s everything I look for in a person. I feel I can never express how grateful I am for all that she’s done for me. It’s like being rescued from Valleyhead. She’s a person that comes rare and is far and few between. I will just repay her by being a good friend.

Also, I was right from the very beginning as I may have mentioned before. She is very attracted to me and who I am. It’s amazing too, as I’ve always said, “Is there anyone out there who’s sane and upper class but yet will accept me for who and what I am?”

Sure enough, as we both agreed, we’re a lot alike. Not all serious, not all nuts. We’re both half-sane, half-insane. Also, she’s like me in always wanting to help others. I feel guilty, though, as I have no money to give her if she needed it. She doesn’t need it but part of me wishes we could swap incomes for a week or so, so I could do for her what she’s done for me. I wish she were here with me now. I could use the company and I’m bored but I don’t do walks at night even though I can usually defend myself quite well. I did cruise up and down Elm St. a bit today at around 2:30. It was 80º today and I got a great breeze through my windows, even though Kim and I have yet to figure out how to open the skylights. Thank God cats are sure-footed as Shadow went roof cruising for an hour or so. Can you believe it? I was scared shitless for him at first but even though he enjoyed it and was not hurt, I’m getting him a leash. That way he can also accompany me on walks. I tried taking a big ribbon and tying him up to one of the posts on the deck but he just kept slipping it off of his neck and going about his tour.

I feel so happy and safe since I’ve moved, but at the same time, a little lonely. I miss my friends and I can’t lie, you know me, but the urge for a lover is picking up here and there. I hate that feeling. I’ve learned now, that those feelings don’t mean I’m weak and yes I know you can be with someone and still be independent, but I still wish I could want to be alone 100% of the time. Oh well. I couldn’t get someone if I wanted to as I’ve written about 10 billion times before.

Getting back to Kim, sometimes I wish she were here to give me a hug and just hold me, but I try to keep my feelings inside. There’s no point saying anything. The last thing I need to do is make her feel depressed or burdened in any way and I don’t want her to feel used. I only hope I haven’t talked too much already. I also feel like a jerk cuz all my bottled-up frustration came out earlier today when I had that attack. Sometimes that’s the only way to vent it out, though, and get it out of me, rather than trash my place or something stupid like that. Those days are over and I haven’t slashed my wrists since age 17 and even though I was trapped, a minor and couldn’t and wouldn’t hurt the ones hurting me. Like I said, they’re over.

I don’t want to lead Kim on either, as I am not attracted to her.

Time for some hot chocolate.

I want to be a singer!!!

Wait till I tell Kim about that call.

FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1991 South Deerfield…

Boy, do I ever have lots to write about. Yes, I’ve finally moved and man oh man is it quiet here. No people yelling. No horns honking. All you hear 2-3 times a day, but only during the day, is a train passing by. It runs right by Kim’s apt. I like trains, though.

Today is my father’s birthday. He’s 60, but he says he still feels young. No one in the family looks their age except for Tammy.

Tammy had told me she was writing a farewell letter to Mom, but she and Dad could call to keep in touch with Lisa, Becky, and Sarah. However, she must have spoken to them or maybe only Dad cuz he said earlier tonight that Tammy said she was gonna drive up this weekend but Lisa got sick.

I feel like I’m on some luxury vacation in a big beautiful hotel. I mean this place is huge! I never thought I’d laugh my ass off about the Woodside apartment. I had so much fun using my dishwasher, Jacuzzi, trash compactor and my washer and dryer.

It also is easier to breathe here for sure and the temperature was 72º today. Therefore, I had my big window door open and other windows and I got a hell of a breeze. We are more up in the mountains and cuz it’s further north, it’s colder and it snows more in the winter.

Shadow loves it here. He seems much happier here and causes less trouble. No more eating my napkins or going in the pails.

Like I mentioned before, we each have our own stairwells. There are 30 stairs that go straight up and Shadow loves it when I toss his balls down and he chases them. His litter box is down there too, along with Gloria’s pictures. I keep him there at night with a bowl of dry food. His canned food is up in the kitchen. And, of course, the toilet paper in the bathroom.

The day before I left, Jai came over and we had a great visit. I saw his place too and says he and Jenny will come up sometime. Also Steve and Jessie and hopefully Brenda, too. Also, Nervous came up the day before I moved and helped Kim and I drain the waterbed. It really was easy and lots of fun. I really enjoyed Nervous visiting, too.

Later…

I just finished listening to my stereo. I used that $488 fuel assistance check but I got a great deal on it anyway. It’s sort of like my old stereo which Brenda now has. It looks a lot like it and it came with the same kind of stand. I got it all for only $275 and that includes a turntable, dual cassette, AM/FM radio, and the CD player. The CD player was a separate unit. Editing works out great and the only thing I hate is the continuous play. I can’t rewind a tape while I’m listening to another. I have one speaker on top of the bedroom. The bedroom is the only one with a lower ceiling and is basically in the center of the place. The cathedral ceilings slant down over that and the rest of the place. The bedroom ceiling does slant too and part of it is straight. It’s super hard to describe. You have to see it.

Earlier, I had pork chops for dinner with Kim and Mark.

Mark saw the place since it’s all been fixed up and decorated and he freaked. Kim saw it when I got it all done 2 days ago. I love to decorate. I guess it’s the creativity in me and also being artistic.

So that’s it. Other than that, I spoke with Tammy and Hank, painted my nails and drew a picture.

[carolinemillerbooks]

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/a-paeen-to-humility/

A Paeen To Humility

If life feels frustrating, there’s a reason. Frustration is a condition throughout the universe.  Even electrons are vulnerable. Because an imbalance exists between the places for them in one layer of the quantum soup and another, each time the layers interact, the quantum particles must scramble for positions like players in a game of musical chairs.  Though existence is hard for electrons, scientists suspect they can use that frustration to increase reliability when encoding digital information. In politics, frustration is a boon for antacid manufacturers. Each new poll in our divided nation sends many to the drugstore. Current tallies for the 2024 election show Donald Trump leads Joe Biden by a few percentage points, a difference that keeps Democrats awake at night worried about the return of a failed president whose agenda is political revenge.    Logic suggests the polls are wrong.  In 2020, Joe Biden defeated Trump by 7 million votes. Is it reasonable to suppose that 4 years later, these 7 million find Trump’s 91 felony charges an asset?  Should we suppose that women, even in red states like Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio, who have voted to enshrine abortion rights into their state constitutions will find Trump’s call for a national ban irresistible? People are more complex than the polls can reflect, it would seem.   This morning, a  friend in California surprised me with a phone call. We haven’t met for several years but we’ve stayed in touch with birthday cards and holiday messages. He opened our conversation with a few lines from my memoir,  Getting Lost to Find Home.  His speech sounded urgent, as he feared I’d missed the importance of what I’d written. Afterward, he thanked me for reminding him that friendships needed nurturing, and he resolved to do better with ours. The sweetness of his remark stuck in my throat like a  lump of hard candy. I doubted my friend could have foreseen the feeling of communion that rose within me or fathom the compliment he’d paid me by reading my words with feeling.  When our conversation ended, I returned to the blog I was writing, compulsively, the way a crow returns to a crust of bread at the side of the road once traffic has subsided.  My thoughts returned to an interview with David Brooks I’d just read. (“Q&A,” AARP  Bulletin, Nov. 23, pgs. 40-41.)    Brooks is a columnist whose political views are more conservative than mine. Many times, I’ve crushed his commentaries from my easy chair, though he never knew it.  Even so, over the years, he seemed to have mellowed, and I am gratified that in his interview, he confirmed my assessment.  I’ve learned to be more relational and humbler, he confesses. Time’s passing has a way of changing perspective.  For example, I have rid myself of the notion that humans rule the planet.  As a species, we are no more in control of the ground beneath our feet than were David Thoreau’s warring red and black ants in Walden Pond.   China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin may imagine otherwise and hope to find a place for themselves in the pantheon of great leaders. More likely the pain and distrust they sow will grow like graveyard weeds to one day blot out their memory. Jews and Palestineans are at war again, the historical residue of tyrants and old men bent in prayer who exhort their followers to slaughter non-believers.  Do these disparate sides not see the absurdity of that call? No other mammalian slaughters its own in greater numbers than our species. That isn’t Nature’s way.  It is human vainglory. With both sides drenched in the blood of their enemy, the time has come for all to see no triumph lies in war. A dead child pulled from the rubble of a bombed building is the universal source of human tears.     We can do better.  Let there be no more learned hate. Frustration may exist in the universe, but we can choose our response.  We either yield to it or build a wall of defiance.  If we choose the latter, let imagination be the bricks of our fortress and communion its mortar. When we fill the cracks between oblivion in service to one another, we give our frail and inauspicious species primacy and establish compassion as human law throughout a deaf, dumb, and blind cosmos.