#mason is SUCH a southern us name

[ihaveatypeanditstrickstergods]

graNma sWeetie making jokes about her grandson Mason was an even bigger Southern tell than Publix was, imo

[little-de-vil]

As recompense for me taking forever to respond to @tumblingghosts, I offer you My Ficlet. This is my first time posting about my Silly OC Thoughts, I'm terrified so please be nice!

This takes place during the 73rd Hunger Games, the main characters in this fic are Cassia (Slip Name) "Harlow" (Home Name) Sophro, an 18 year old tribute reaped from District 2 and middle child to Vance (SN) "Hawk"(HN) Sophro, the Victor of the 44th Hunger Games and a historic one as the first of the Cutters, and Dardanius "Dani" Bollard, another 18 year old tribute from 2, but a Volunteer. He's originally from the south, but his family moved up north after a tragedy. He's what's called a Cutter by Blood, someone who still holds onto the Cutter traditions but works (or in this case, his father) as a Keeper. He's trained as a Career, whereas Cassia has been trained by various Victors, those from 2 and not. @thegreatmelodrama let me know if I did your baby Dani justice! She's also a Snow but that's a topic for another day!

Sand continues to trickle into the cave as the storm destroys the supplies at the nearby Cornucopia. What a rarity, for the whole lot of Career tributes to be cornered and beginning to starve. Starving softly, unlike the chronic harshness other district children are so used to. Like the pair from 3, who are tangled together in wires and sparks bleeding out from a corner most camera.

“Why can’t we just destroy each other?” Dardanius asks Harlow softly. 

The question throws her off and she’s been so focused on perfecting the nose of the stone version of her district partner that it takes a moment for his question to register. She is, however, certain that he’s broken his nose more than once.

Who is the “we”? The pair from 1? The lone boy tribute from 4? Certainly not the ones from 3, who no one can really tell why they’re still alive, let alone with the Pack.

Or does he mean himself and Harlow? Are they the “we”?

He must mean them. Because if the years of watching District 2 pairs reach victory has taught her anything, it’s that those from 2 are loyal to their community. Of masonry or military. And that it’s the worst part of watching The Games in District 2, how much the animosity grows amongst the crowd at even the slightest difference in trade or birthplace is put to question the chance of triumph as one tribute falls. 

But is the answer so simple? A mere difference in industry? In home? The Cutters: hewer and layer masons, quarry-folk, stone and crystal miners, blacksmiths. The Keepers: soldiers—the common grunt and almost unheard of 2 born general—, cadets in schools, Peacekeepers stationed throughout the country never to return for 20 years, the hundreds working in The Peak. The southern desert folk and their blunt nature, intrenched in tradition that mirrors what it was before. The northern mountain people and their river sweet ways, creating new rituals after living so close to their invaded neighbors. 

No, nothing as simple as that. Their mutual destruction is not an echo of past rivalries, but of present vows.

A small piece of granite crumbles under the light tap of her brother’s chisel, and she looks back to see that Dardanius’ stoney eyes match his own. “Because we both made promises that work against each other. You promised my brother that you’d protect me. And I promised my father that I wouldn’t become him. Those two don’t work well together.”

He nods, but his brow tightens in concentration, mind locked deep in thought. His voice is soft and filled with sadness or maybe remorse, unlike its usual deep, assured cadence, “So what will we do if it’s just us?”

She blinks, having not considered this point until this very moment. But something deep inside her quickly finds the answer, “I give you permission to kill me.” She says sternly, mirroring his typical tone.

That comment can’t be playing well with the audience. What sponsor would back a tribute so unwilling to see their own victory? Hasn’t the Capitol been so generous to give these poor tributes the opportunity to better their life? And her especially, who has grown up in the greatest Capitol family of them all her whole life? What joy comes from watching someone fight who will never want the crown?

But this must also be playing horrifically among the Cutters back home. Self-sacrifice isn’t a Keeper trait, but Cutters aren’t known to back down from a fight when it comes to dishonoring their people. By allowing even this possibility to happen, she’s just repeating the cycle of those loyal to the Capitol can claim victory, and those traitors are always bound to fall at their hands. 

But her father must be proud of her for lasting this long, for sticking with her partner, for still Saying her Stones? Was he proud of himself when he was in her position 29 years ago, or did that pride diminish once his partner crumbled in his arms and the trumpets of victory rang? She wonders if he will still be proud of his eldest daughter when she returns cold and lifeless, sprinkled with hard tact bread given to her by a joint sponsor of the Master Mason and Head Peacekeeper of 2, spread generously at the end by her partner. Or will he be filled with disdain and fury for defying his one wish to not become like him, like her cousin of the 66th, like her neighbors of the Village who practically raised her. Only time will tell, she supposes, to whose promise will be kept. Or if District 2 will have two tributes sprinkled with bread.

[theshypinkflower]

BUT THATS JUST A THEORY-

Okay as much as I love TPOF and BTD I refuse to believe that the entire game takes place within CANADA (apart from obvi derek’s route)

This theory originated from the bar Vincent’s route take place in is named Route 66

Now I know it’s a fictional bar in a fictional game but let’s be realistic for a second-

Why the hell would CANADA have a bar named ROUTE 66? (For all my international friends Route 66 was basically a highway that went through some southern states)

If anything it would make sense for one of the many states that the original Route 66 cuts through to have a bar named Route 66, namely Texas because of its massive amount of land

BUT, of Vincent’s bar is in Texas, that would imply that the rest of the games have to take place in Texas

When we finally get to TPOF the Texas theory becomes wayyyyy more plausible

In Derek’s route we are shown to be in a desert area, last time I checked Canada has no deserts whatsoever ever so that means Derek had to have crossed borders and to get there

Now we could pull a “Derek is rich he probably has a helicopter or something”, since we know how Derek’s dad is HIGHLY abusive, I really doubt he’d let his son use a helicopter to go on his yearly vacation

Especially since a light sized helicopter can only hold roughly 40 gallons of fuel, I say light helicopter because why would Derek even need a bigger one! That much fuel would not be enough to make the journey from even Canada to Mexico (2,252 miles) without making multiple stops to get fuel. And even if Derek did use that much fuel, he wouldn’t do it again because then Salvatore (Mr. Goffard) can’t write off the fuel expensive as a business expense and it would make a sizable dent in his wallet. And no, Derek could not use a private jet because he’s not a goddamn celebrity, he most likely wouldn’t even own one he’d just fly first class. And the jet would still have be in an airport and that would still mean MC HAVING A PASSPORT. Going by car isn’t that plausible, wherever Derek is going will have to cut into the United States, and the United States is ridiculously strict on border control. According to Quora, if you don’t have a passport you still need an ID and a birth certificate. Which if we’re kidnapped WE WOULDNT HAVE A BIRTH CERTIFICATE. Meaning Fox has to operate IN the United States, better yet, TEXAS.

Texas is a huge state that has multiple terrains in it. Derek wouldn’t even be that far from his nearest desert to take is yearly trip. The trip doesn’t even HAVE to take place in Texas, in take place in New Mexico for crying out loud

But operating in Texas also makes wayyyyy more sense for Mason

A drive from Texas to roughly Colorado (which is where personally I believe the route takes place judging by the trees and bears) is 12 hours nonstop. If MC is heavily drugged out before leaving the auction, 12 hours is he perfect amount of time for them to wake up naturally across state lines. Celia’s route also doesn’t have to take place in Texas, but I imagine it’d be close enough to it. Texas is the hugest state in the US so it makes sense Fox would operate there, LET ALONE THE ENTIRE STORYLINE TAKE PLACE THERE. There’s tons of land Fox could set up his operations at, plenty of wealthy people who can afford to buy his merchandise, and even more people he can snatch off the street to use for auctions and streams.

It also makes sense that BTD would take place in Texas since (this is another theory for maybe another time) Lawrence is able to grow the opium poppies he uses in zone 8 (the growing zone for the Easstern side of Texas).

Also I know about the lore that Vincent is Akira, but frankly that plot makes NO SENSE whatsoever ever and clearly EP used it so he could ship Vincent(Akira) and Sano (NASTY)

I’d like to also point out that Strade is German (no surprise there), Texas has had German history, in-fact there’s plenty of German residents still in Texas. So whether strade was drawn to moving to the United States when he was younger, or straight up was born in Texas he wouldn’t be as much of an outlier due to Texas’s German history

[datasoong47]

An interesting historical quirk is "The Wedge", a narrow roughly triangular piece of land that is currently located within the state of Delaware. Ownership of that area was disputed between Pennsylvania and Delaware up until 1921 when the two states agreed to it being part of Delaware, though Delaware had been administering it for a long time

It was created as a result of an 18th century agreement between the colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania (at the time Delaware was administered as part of Pennsylvania) resolving border disputes, establishing a set of definitions for the borders between the three, which was surveyed between 1763 and 1767.

The definition was a bit complicated:

The border between Pennsylvania and Maryland was the line of latitude that was 15 miles south of the southernmost point of Philadelphia at the time, which worked out to 39 degrees 43 minutes north (the original colonial charter had the border at the 40th parallel, but due to poor surveying at the time, Philadelphia was founded a little south of that latitude, which would've placed it within Maryland, this was the eventual compromise)

The Delaware-Pennsylvania border was a circle with a radius of 12 miles centered on the town of New Castle, Delaware, specifically the courthouse there

The southern part of the Delaware-Maryland border was called the Transpeninsular line, a line cutting across the Delmarva penninsula from a particular point on the eastern coast

A line extending from the midpoint of the Transpeninsular line to a tangent with the 12-mile circle (called the Tangent Line)

A line extending due north from the point where the tangent line meets the 12-mile circle to the parallel forming the Pennsylvania-Maryland border (called the North Line)

Any territory west of the North Line but within the 12-mile circle would remain part of Delaware (the portion of the 12-mile circle west of the North Line is known as the Arc Line)

Minus the 12-Mile Circle and the Transpeninsular Line, this was the original Mason-Dixon Line, named after the two men who surveyed it (subsequently extended westward to define the border between Pennsylvania and Virginia (which portion is now West Virginia)

However, it turned out once the lines had been surveyed that that wedge of land was actually outside of all three of the colonies, as shown in this not-to-scale diagram

It clearly did not belong to Maryland, being outside the Mason-Dixon Line. Pennsylvania claimed it on the basis that it was outside of the 12-Mile Circle that defined the border with Pennsylvania, meanwhile Delaware claimed it on the basis that it was south of the line used to define Pennsylvania's southern border

[veneumfm]

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[ … ]  ❀  you’re  not  from  around  here  ,  are  you  ?  i  figured  because  you  totally  just  missed  {  NELL  MASON  }  walking  by.  don’t  tell  me  you  don’t  know  who  {  SHE  }  is  ?  they  kind  of  look  like  {  ASHTON  WOOD  }  and  i  could  be  wrong  but  i  think  that  they  might  be  {  TWENTY  FIVE  }  years  old  right  now.  they’ve  been  living  in  palmview  for  the  last  {  FOUR  MONTHS  }.  and  i  don’t  know  if  anyone  has  ever  told  them  this  before  but  they  kind  of  remind  me  of  {  ANDIE  ANDERSON  }  from  {  HOW  TO  LOSE  A  GUY�� IN  TEN  DAYS  }.  if  you  stick  around  the  town  long  enough  you  might  catch  them  in  action  working  at  {  COASTAL  CREATIONS  GALLERY  }  as  a  {  ARTIST   /   VLOGGER  }.  you  see  this  town  isn’t  really  that  big  of  a  place  ,  some  folks  like  to  call  them  the  {  PHILOPHOBE  }  of  palmview  !  they  took  a  liking  to  the  name  too  after  a  while  ,  go  figure.  oh  crap  ,  they  must  have  heard  me  yapping.  they’re  coming  this  way.  i  got  to  warn  you  though  ,  rumor  has  it  they  can  pretty  {  OSTENTATIOUS  }  at  times.  i  wouldn’t  take  it  too  seriously  though  ,  from  the  times  i’ve  spoken  to  them  they  seemed  pretty  {  METICULOUS  }  to  me.  we  see  each  other  all  the  time  since  they  live  in  that  {  TWO  BEDROOM  }  apartment  beside  me  over  in  {  SUNNY  SHORES  }.  i  better  leave  you  to  it.  it  was  nice  meeting  you!  

full name :  ellen  mason.  nicknames :  nell.  age : twenty  -  five  years  old.  career :  retired  semi  -  pro  ballroom  dancer  ,  artist   /  vlogger.  birthday : august  18th , 1999 (  leo ).   gender + pronouns : cis female / she + her.   sexual orientation : bisexual.  family :  silas  mason (  father  ,  incarcerated  )  & marcia  mason  (  mother  ,  deceased  ).  character inspo :  andie  anderson  (  how  to  lose  a  guy  in  ten  days  ) , lily  bloom  (  it  ends  with  us  )  ,  nesta  archeron  (  acotar  )  ,  witney  carson  (  dwts  )  ,  ruby  matthews  ( sex  education  )   aesthetics :  plump  ,  polished  cherry  -  cola  lips  ,  dainty  minimalistic  sticker  sleeves  ,  platform  steve  maddens  ,  90s  butterfly  hair  cut  in  a  bouncy  blowdry  ,  shimmering  glass  -  like  sunkissed  complexion  ,  a  southern  australian  twang  ,  bitter  -  peach  tom  ford  scent  ,  shades  larger  than  her  face  and  answering  with  a  middle  finger  at  first  response. 

[nerdierholler]

:D I wanted to ask - how do your detectives and their LIs call each other, do they use pet names, nicknames, full names?

Thank you so much for the ask Bunny! This is probably going to be overly overthought and detailed because that's what I do lol I'm also so bad at figuring out pet names. They sound fine in the real world and never seem right written out.

Ethan would be thrilled if Adam would just call him that since he calls the rest of the team by their first names without issue. Ethan can talk like a Southern waitress so something like a darling, sugar, or honey might sneak out with people he knows well. He does this with Adam accidentally and they both just stop and stare at each other followed by blushing and apologizing.

Not very many people get to call Bree by her nickname so it really does mean something when she lets UB do that. Mason calls her Bree but if he ever calls her Briana it will stop her in her tracks because it either means something very good or very bad is about to happen. I think she's more likely to call Mason something like 'handsome' over 'sunshine' and it's almost always as a tease.

Rebecca is the only person who calls Andie by her full name and if Mason ever calls her that after her asking to be called Andie, she is going to give him the biggest side eye. Andrea just sounds wrong coming from him and she doesn't like it. She calls him a long line of pet names that rotate based on how much she wants to annoy him at the time. But when they're having a quiet moment and she isn't thinking about it, I think she might go with something like a 'babe'. Kinda like "Hey, babe, will you hand that to me?"

Henry is my hardest one. Everyone just calls him Henry, that part's easy. He melts at Nate's pet name for him. Where it gets tricky is that he can be really shy and not very confident when it comes to relationship stuff. He would never in a million years call Nate by a pet name around other people that would catch other people's attention. It takes him a long time to be comfortable doing that in front of UB at the warehouse. It also makes him uncomfortable with how free Nate is with things like that because he feel put on the spot, like everyone is looking at them and judging them, especially his worthiness to be with someone like Nate. He does have a pet name for Nate and it feels special when he uses it because Nate knows he only does it when he's in his comfort zone. I just haven't figured out what that name is yet.

Sorry this got some long winded and rambling but thanks for the ask!

[ticcitavvi]

Hey! I’m TicciTavvi, a 20 year old hobby artist based in southern USA, using she/her pronouns.

I love to draw fandom related things, which typically feature my own fan-characters (who I typically ship with a canon character lol). When I’m not doing that, I’m trying to work on at least one of my dozens original story ideas. (And yet somehow not getting anywhere with any of them at all 🤨)

I have a particular passion for character design, and have only recently begun attempting more finished, story related illustrations.

Sometimes I even delve into fan fiction- though I have yet to truly post anything.

I have a hard time consistently sticking with one fandom, and I often jump from this to that. However, I find myself returning most often to LOTR, BG3, MLP, and fallen London.

Asks are always open! Any thoughts, comments, questions, or otherwise are perfectly welcome ♥️ (just please keep it kind)

Here are all my public blogs!

@ticcitavvi is my main blog, and I post/reblog just about everything and/or anything. I’m not too concerned with keeping it particularly tidy. while I do post a majority of my artwork here, there are certain things I try to keep off and in their designated side blogs.

@ticcitavviartwork is where I repost all of my artwork, though I can be bad abt keeping it up consistently, I admit. Still, it’s worth a follow if your interested in seeing all of my artwork, regardless of where it’s been posted.

@theponyone is for all my MLP related content- I post headcannons, AUs, next gen, and etc there. I try to keep mlp related content here and off my main blog!

@batsinthezee is a Fallen London centric side blog, where I post characters, interactions, and screenshots as I play through the game. While I may occasionally reblog/post fallen London content to my main blog, I do try to keep it contained to this blog only.

That’s about it, but I’ll pop a list of my characters and a couple notable tags under the cut! All characters are searchable by just typing their first name into my blogs search bar

Thanks for reading! ♥️♥️

Find all my artwork under #TicciTavvi Artwork !

CHARACTERS

BG3:

#Acheron

↳ Tiefling-bard Durge and a wyll romancer

#Impi

↳ oath of ancients dwarf whose in a polyam relationship with halsin

#Ambrose

↳ Drow monk courting gale

Lotr:

#Paeonia Proudfoot

↳ a stubborn stone mason halfling currently speed running an enemies to lovers 40k with Elladan

Fallen London:

#Coronach

↳ The Godforsaken Gravedigger

#Azimuth

↳ The Calamitous Entomologist

Skyrim:

#Maheeya

↳ Big ol argonian Dragonborn

MLP:

#IncipientVerse

↳ Nextgen universe

#Crystalverse

↳ War! Au about a conflict between the crystal empire and equestria

Harry Potter:

#Tadhg

↳ lycanthrope savant with a penchant for dramatics and a famous boyfriend

#Beau

↳ antique store owner who has accidentally adopted one Mr. Potter

HTTYD:

#Ventura

↳ a savvy tradesman who likes to flirt with snotlout. Also rides a boneknapper

[hermesserpent-stuff]

so... i mentioned a dream i had last night about my spidersona and so i decided to take the motivation to draw and write out ideas. Ill put it all under the cut cause its a bit long and goofy.

First things first. Not in New york. This takes place in a city more akin to richmond. or some other southern city. Not too big, not too tall, and near enough to tobacco that that is something that is thought about.

second things second, gotta clear this from my chest. Bitten by a beetle. A Lasioderma serricorne, aka Tobacco Beetle. Agrioscorp was developing and presenting pesticides to use against such creatures. Martha, our tiny hero, was there for a school project about crops and bing boom. Beetle that the pesticide was supposed to murder actually didn't murder the beetle and it gave the magic bite of powers.

Name: Martha Anne Taylor

Hero name: The Dynamic Tobacco Beetle. or Baccy

Alignment: HAHAHHA she watched too much a-team, red dawn, and Smokey and the Bandit growing up. while respectful, she does not see the system as the end all be all and often tries to talk to her villains. Drags them to a good meal.

powers: Climbing walls, super strength, enhanced senses, immunity to certain toxins, can digest less nutritious food (like rotten food) with no problem, good at riding horses (not a power... .. .)

toolkit: rope shooters, ginger cinnamon molasses cookies to offer villains. Armor (the dark brown bits under her jacket)

weaknesses: Cold!! gets slower and slower as she gets colder. at 39.2 Fahrenheit (4 °C) she passes out. she learns to layer pretty fast. Homemade Biscuits and iced sweet tea. offer those and she'll be distracted enough for you to go commit crimes

age: 16ish.

backstory: Lives with her maternal grandpa after most of her family was killed. by hurricanes. :/ dang. Her grampa runs a horse carriage service within the city and she helps care for the horses in her downtime

foes: mostly based on tssm versions. because beloved. BUT we have some changes and some dynamic shake-ups and name changes because.

vulture-> to Falcon (Adrian Toomes): He is an old inventor whose work has been taken over and over and he is done. Osborn (like in tssm) took his design and this was the breaking point. Hes bent on revenge. and Baccy is bent on getting him to calm down and eat a Snickers. eek.

Tinkerer( Phineas Mason): Owns a technology repair store and has underground dealings in tech that the store acts as a front for. Quentin lives with him due to him owing Quentin's deceased parents a huge favor. Quentin used to live in new york city and had to move with tinkerer down south.

mysterio-> Mysterium (Quentin Mason nee Beck): Northern City Kid who feels pretty out of water. Goes to the same school as Martha. They end up as pals. but that's a complicated story.

Tombstone: similar to tssm. crime lord. of a relatively small city so its a bit easier. Also!! Baccy cant go in his office. He keeps it too cold. He has no idea that's the case. She leaves notes on his window to threaten him. Like cut out letter ransom notes. He leaves some in reply on occasion.

---

other people ive thought about:

Ella Osborn is the sickly daughter of Norman. She can do some things but tires easily. Very easily. Martha is a tutor for her, as she is mainly homeschooled. it gives her a chance to interact with other kids her age. Not by her parents though. There are people they can pay to do it instead.

[appalachianwarlock]

Term's Hillbilly and Redneck

The term "hillbilly" in the United States started early in the 18th century when British soldiers began using it when referring to Scots-Irish immigrants who lived in the frontier areas of the Ozarks and Appalachian Mountains. These Protestant Irish colonists brought their traditions with them when they immigrated. Many of their stories, songs, and ballads dealt with the history of their Ulster and Lowland Scot homelands, especially relating the tale of the Protestant King William III, Prince of Orange. Many of the settlers in the Appalachian mountains were of German origin and were named Wilhelm with the short form Willy, a common German name during that time. Those Wilhelms, who went by Bill or Billy, living in the Appalachian Mountains became known as hillbillies, that is Bills who lived in the hills. The term emerged as a derogatory nickname given by the coastal plain-dwelling Southerners to the hill-dwelling settlers of Eastern Tennessee, Western Virginia (including modern West Virginia), and Eastern Kentucky.

The term Appalachian Hillbillies arose in the years after The War Between the States, when the Appalachian region became increasingly bypassed by technological and social changes taking place in the rest of the country. Until The War Between the States, the Appalachians were not significantly different from other rural areas of the country, but after the war, as the frontier pushed further west, the Appalachian country retained its frontier character, and the people themselves came to be considered as backward, quick to violence, and to make their living from moonshine stills. Fueled by news stories of mountain feuds, such as that in the 1880s between the Hatfields and McCoys, the hillbilly stereotype developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

The origins of the term "redneck" are Scottish and refer to supporters of the National Covenant and The Solemn League and Covenant, or Covenanters, largely Lowland Presbyterians, many of whom would flee Scotland for Ulster (Northern Ireland) during persecutions by the British Crown. The Covenanters of 1638 and 1641 signed the documents that stated that Scotland desired the Presbyterian form of church government and would not accept the Church of England as its official state church. Although the term "redneck" is characterized by farmers having a red neck caused by sunburn from hours working in the fields, many Covenanters signed in their own blood and wore red pieces of cloth around their necks as distinctive insignia. Since many Ulster-Scottish settlers in America (especially in the South) were Presbyterian, the term was applied to them, and then, later, their Southern descendants. One of the earliest examples of its use comes from 1830, when an author noted that red-neck was a name bestowed upon the Presbyterians.

The term Redneck refers to a stereotype of usually rural, Caucasian people of lower socio-economic status in the United States and Canada. Originally limited to the Appalachians, and later the South, the Ozarks, the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, this stereotype is now widespread throughout North America. Southern comedian Jeff Foxworthy defines "redneck" as "a glorious lack of sophistication" stating that we are all guilty of at one time or another. The common stereotype of a "redneck" is a group of people that are generally from The South, though can be found throughout the United States. They are considered uncivilized, uneducated, racist, enjoy outdoor sports such as hunting and fishing, and country music. They know how to work on a farm, can fix their own vehicles, and know how to make moonshine. They tend to live in the backwoods.

The terms "hillbilly/redneck" is often misunderstood by those north of the Mason-Dixon line. Many Yankees use these terms to refer to Southerners and treat them as if they were illiterate, uneducated, inbred, and backward compared to the rest of the United States. you know what you believe and you aren't afraid to say so, no matter who is listening; you respect your elders; or, you'd give your last dollar to a friend in need.

(Edited From Facebook)

[illusioneddrawer64]

Custo with his fellow military janitorial and cleanup crewmates on Space Riders spaceships were unfortunately caught in the crossfire between Space Riders’ forces and the Prototype’s cult. The recent intense battle had both parties sustain heavy casualties.

Medical staff unfortunately reported that the wounds that Custo has are intense (not able to use surgery due numerous factors) and will have to wear a special mask (inspired by Joseph Merrick’s Elephant Man mask) to cover his sustained disfigurement.

When it was that time for gala events happen again; Custo wanted to help out to set up (and clean up later) but bit concerned how many will react his current appearance. Yet thanks to the encouragement of Dogday and other Space Riders, he showed up as one of service busboys as he usually do.

As a bonus; he had a bit of heart for music entertainment. With the help of other crewmates, they performed songs as part of charity work for wounded military veterans etc.

Proposed Playlist Songs performed at the Gala:

Defying Gravity, The Other Side, Ship In A Bottle, Magic (Mystery Skulls), HBO John Adams’ Opening Titles (Rob Lane), No More Kings (Schoolhouse Rock), Sit Down John (Sherman Edwards), Hamilton’s Satisfied, Shot Heard Round the World (Schoolhouse Rock), Les Miserables’ ABC Cafe/Red and Black, The Wellerman, Everybody Wants To Rule the World, You Know My Name, Another Way To Die, Skyfall, Writings On The Wall (Sam Smith), A Storm Is Coming (Han Zimmer), Rory’s First Kiss (Han Zimmer), Macrotus (Han Zimmer), Astronomia, Do the Hippogriff, Leta’s Flashblack/Ballroom Dance (James Howard), Hot Chocolate (Alan Silvestri), The Snow Miser Song, The Heat Miser Song, Tunes of Anarchy, Rock and Roll (Gary Glitter), Sandstorm (Darude), Into the Groove (Madonna), City of Stars/Planetarium (Justin Hurwitz), Start a Fire (John Legend), O-Zone (Dragostea Din Tei), Chocolate Rain (Tay Zonday), Resonant Chamber (Animusic), Marble Machine (Wintergatan), Old Town Road (Lil Nas X), Star Walkin, Run (BlackGryph0n), Type 40 (Chameleon Circuit), Song of the Sun (Janice Quatlane), Hated By Life (Hatsune Miku), Art Is Dead (boburnham), Weekdays Beatbox (Adym Evans), Human (Rag’n’Bone), Southern Cross (403 Forbiddena), Northern Lights (403 Forbiddena), Kings and Queens (Ava Max), Drum Solo (Neil Peart), All Good Things (Get Up), Break Time (Madeline Queripel), Deja Veju, Running in the 90s (Max Coveri), Blind Justice Investigation (AlterniaBound), Megalovania (Toby Fox), Big Shot (Toby Fox), My Ordinary Life (The Living Tombstone), Waving Through The Window (Ben Platt), Sweet Victory (David Glen Eisley), Blown Away, Damaged (Danity Kane), Power (Kanye Omari), My Drunken Irish Dad (Seth Macfarlane), The Highway Man (Loreena McKennitt), Galway Girl (Ed Sheeran), A Rose For Epona (Eluveitie), Taixu (lasah), Sihouette (Owl City), In the Name of Love (Martin Garrix), Read All About It (Emeli Sande), Hallelujah (Michael Henry), Counting Stars, Classical Gas (Mason Williams), Safe and Sound (Capital Cities), World of Tanks (Alan Aztec), Scatman (John Larkin), Waiting For A Miracle (Stephanie Beatriz), It’s Alright (Mother Mother), and Proud Corazon (Anthony Gonzalez).

For @onyxonline Space Riders AU.

[lboogie1906]

Dr. Riley Andrew Ransom Sr. (March 9, 1886 - January 4, 1951) the founder of the first hospital for African Americans in Fort Worth, Texas, was born in Columbus, Kentucky, to parents Allen and Alice Ransom. He attended Lane College and transferred to Southern Illinois State Normal University where he earned his BA.

He attended Pharmaceutical College in Princeton, Indiana, and Louisville National Medical College, from which he graduated as valedictorian of his class. He did post-graduate work at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

After receiving his medical license in Oklahoma City, he started his medical practice in Brooksville, where he worked for five years. He moved to Gainesville, Texas, where he established the Booker T. Washington Sanitarium. He was one of only 16 African American doctors in Texas.

He married schoolteacher and graduate nurse Ethel Blanche Wilson (1915). They had one son.

He moved the hospital to Fort Worth and added a Nurses’ Training School. The hospital was the first 20-bed facility for African Americans. It was one of only three African American-owned hospitals in the US accredited by the American Medical Association. In 1928 the name was changed to the Fort Worth Negro Hospital, and in 1938 Ransom renamed it the Ethel Ransom Memorial Hospital, in memory of his deceased wife.

He was a member of the Fort Worth Branch of the NAACP, the YMCA, Chairman of the Committee on Health and Sanitation, Chairman of the Social Disease Committee of the Volunteer Health League, a First-Aid Instructor for the American Red Cross of Tarrant County, and member of the Lone Star Medical Association. He was a Mason.

His work in Fort Worth was continued by his son, Dr. Riley A. Ransom Jr. The Ransom Memorial Hospital continued to serve the Fort Worth African American community until it closed in 1949. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[nothingunrealistic]

review roundup: billions 7x03 “winston dick energy”

place your bets on how far i’ll get into this post before my commentary shifts into all-caps!

New York Times: ‘Billions’ Season 7, Episode 3 Recap: Confidence Games

Which would be fine if Chuck were operating in a vacuum. Instead, he has an office full of lawyers champing at the bit for the opportunity to unleash their full skills on unsuspecting white-collar criminals everywhere — the kinds of cases that turned their freshly reinstated boss into a beloved man of the people. His reticence in choosing his opening salvo frustrates everyone: his right-hand man, Ira; his father, Charles Sr. (Jeffrey DeMunn); his button man, Karl; and the Southern District’s bold up-and-comer Amanda Torre (Hannah Hodson).

or, as i described it to milo in the heat of liveblogging: all of those characters (and wendy!) call chuck a wuss.

Then along comes Winston (Will Roland). A twerpy quant who’s been a core part of the Taylor Mason team for some time, largely in spite of himself, Winston quits the firm and immediately — like, within eight hours — goes into business for himself.

can’t say i expected anything better than this. correction: a core part of the taylor mason team for some time, largely in spite of taylor forgetting he’s alive, let alone that he and his work are valuable, until he quits and starts trying to make money that won’t go to them.

Acting on advice from Wendy (you can see why Dr. Mayer is concerned, no?), Wags storms into Winston’s apartment, where an attempted come-to-Jesus meeting with Taylor and Philip is already underway, and all but attacks the guy.

thanks for pointing out wendy’s role in that, at least.

Unless he comes back to Prince Cap, software in tow, as a sort of indentured servant, Wags will see to it personally that Winston’s reputation and finances are left about as intact as ancient Carthage.

“comes back to prince cap” is interesting phrasing, considering the odds are against us ever seeing him in the prince cap office again.

Watching a good episode of “Billions,” which this undoubtedly is,

not in my house it isn’t!

is like watching someone expertly play a puzzle game — solving a Rubik’s cube, say, or beating a level of “Tetris.” You gaze in admiration as skilled hands slide pieces and panels from one place to the next until everything lines up exactly where it should. Chuck’s friends and enemies inadvertently guide him to the correct course of action. Wendy’s petulance puts her on the path toward a major breakthrough. Winston’s defection provides Wags with the fresh kill he requires.

“the people around chuck help him make the right choice. wendy’s character flaws help her make the right choice. winston is thrown to wags for him to tear apart like a side of beef. these are all comparable and equally indicative of good writing.”

Notably absent from this episode, barring a pointed glance or pained look here and there: Taylor, Wendy and Wags’s quest to stop their boss’s rise to power.

you could have ended that sentence at “taylor” and it would still be accurate.

Perhaps, chastened by Axe’s rejection last week, they’ve taken his “if you can’t beat him, join him” advice to heart, at least temporarily.

if you can’t beat him, beat the guy he wants to sue with hammers!

Before Wags takes charge of the operation, there’s some concern in the Prince Cap inner circle about destroying Winston publicly. Mike is running for president, after all, and America is a very pro-labor environment these days.

really makes you wonder why the last commentary anyone offers on winston is “spread this tale [of his humiliation] far and wide to anyone who will listen.” ?????

Vulture: Billions Recap: Hamster Wheel

It’s pretty hard to beat “Winston Dick Energy,”

haha hard to beat dick energy

Case in point, the best storyline of “Winston Dick Energy” is Wags’s orchestrated humiliation of Winston, his highly inappropriate brand name, and his risk-management software.

😒😒😒😒😒

Classic Billions sabotage and I loved every minute of it, but I don’t see how or if this plot device will affect Mike Prince’s presidential campaign.

on the one hand, it could set up a revenge plot for winston that negatively affects prince and his campaign. on the other hand, it could just be the result of the writers wanting to kick winston around for more than thirty seconds before writing him out and/or give wags someone to destroy, with no payoff intended ever.

On that note, the Wendy storyline this week is relatively straightforward: Ben Kim lets it slip that everyone at Prince Capital is cheating on Dr. Wendy Rhoades with Holland Taylor’s Dr. Eleanor Mayer — and that Mayer is the bee’s knees.

everyone except winston, of course!

And I have to suspect that someone is pulling the strings behind Mayer … (Axe? Prince?)

what??? why would you assume either of them is pulling her strings at this point? (especially axe — there’s no way he bothered to plant a therapist for taylor to consult and then recommend to their coworkers more than six months ago. he was busy war profiteering and not giving a fuck about the united states.)

The next morning, Wags hijacks Winston’s big pitch meeting right before the COOs show up. In front of Kate Sacker, Taylor, and Philip, Wags stages a twisted version of This Is Your Life (an old TV show enjoyed by members of the Greatest Generation), though Winston only has himself to blame for his pathetic internet search history — and his hacktivism.

oh my god! literal victim blaming! i should have put *that* on my season 7 bingo card!

And it’s not like MPC’s deal is that shabby: If Winston cooperates, he can come back and run the software himself.

first of all, he’s not going to come back to mpc in any meaningful sense. second of all, winston’s whole goal was to not have to work for mpc (or anyone else) ever again. being dragged back onto the hamster wheel — even if he isn’t physically in the cage — against his will is, in fact, a shabby deal!

What does work is a late-night intervention at Grant’s Tomb with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. (Ah, Billions — they do this because they can.) 

rarely has billions been more aptly and concisely described.

I do like how Billions deliberately avoids any mention of the name “Trump”: Senior’s story only needed the words “Bedminster golf club,” and “his first wife,” to get the point across.

ironically, i didn’t understand that joke at all until first reading this portion of this recap. my bad for not remembering the significance of bedminster golf club, clearly.

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Damianista): Billions on Showtime, Season 7 Episode 3: Winston Dick Energy

The first Axe-less episode in the final season has three storylines that are light-hearted compared to those in the first two.

oh, yeah, for sure. so glad we could take our minds off the looming threat of a fascist presidential candidate by watching half a dozen people (some of whom are ostensibly opposed to said presidential candidate) work together to stalk, assault, and blackmail their autistic former coworker because their ringleader desperately wants to RETVRN to the good old days when he could treat anyone he wanted like that. how lighthearted!

Even Rian, who seems to be the only one that will be missing Winston, finds it weird that she will miss her colleague, but then he was the only one that looked at her the same way after they were forced to move to the main floor which Rian calls “Princident.” Haha.

Talking about Rian, I wonder whether Prince put her name on the list he submitted to Bradford in the last episode…  but he is now in his office, I find him not attending Winston’s party a bit rude, talking to Bradford about his SuperPAC FEC disclosure that he will share with Chuck.

that is NOT what “princident” refers to, and you should realize that given that you referred to rian’s tryst with prince — the actual meaning of “princident” — in your very next thought.

It turns out WDE is an AI-based risk management software that can give a considerable bump to returns – exactly what Bradford asked Prince to do in their first meeting.

gee whiz! sounds like winston and his work are pretty valuable and prince et al should have tried harder to keep him around!

Wags follows Taylor and Philip, without asking for permission, to Winston’s apartment and adds  his “scaring him out of hiding” to carrots (“head of risk management”) and sticks (“a potential lawsuit”) Taylor and Philip use to have Winston surrender the code.

sure used the carrots & sticks analogy myself to describe everyone’s approach to winston this episode. pretty shortsighted of taylor to not realize that offering him another job at mpc would be a pathetic carrot. if he wanted to run his software for you, he’d have stayed and showed it to you, not left and sold it on his own.

I said it before and I will say it again. I do not get why Kate is still on Prince’s side. Is it really the future prospects she has when Prince is in the White House?

that, and the money, and the greater freedom she has when not under chuck’s thumb. she always saw her work at the sdny (and later, the nyag) as a launching pad for her future ambitions, not a calling in itself. that work was holding her back instead, so she left.

I do not buy it since Kate has always been very cautious in every step she has taken. So I cannot wrap my head around her staying with him even after she has found out about his untaxed billions in crypto! Could it be that she is a double agent of sorts?!?!

i highly doubt that she is a double agent at this juncture. (and she stayed with chuck for a long time even knowing he’d engaged in illegal conduct.)

Entertainment Weekly: Billions recap: Chuck and Prince's old rivalry re-emerges

[…]

you guessed it: no mention of taylor at all! normally i’d be mad, but in this case it seems quite appropriate.

The whole plot is wonderful, from Winston's epically tedious and uncaring "going away" party, to the scene where Wags lets loose on him at his apartment, planting a bug that eventually allows Wags and the team to track who Winston plans on pitching and ruin his chances.

wonderful! who wouldn’t be having tons of fun watching everyone’s collective boot stamp on one guy’s face forever!

Still, this is the best episode of the season so far because it does have quite a few entertaining scenes, and a lot of focus on character motivations.

sean and kyle have both expressed this opinion. we may as well be living in different worlds.

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Gingersnap): The Unbeatable, Unstoppable, Unparalleled MVPs from Billions Season 7 Episode 3 ‘Winston Dick Energy’

Gingersnap

Overall Episode MVP: Dr. Eleanor Mayer. What a rich character. Small but mighty! It’s that very allure why you don’t see her coming.

Wendy accuses her of rustling up her cattle (patients) but Dr. Mayer counters they weren’t noticeably branded until she dug deeper and found their burns. Ouch!

i took note of that line as well! the exact phrasing:

WENDY: You rustle someone’s cattle, they’re gonna come looking. Was it the welcoming literary patter that helped you snare my patients? DR. MAYER: I didn’t see your brand on them. At first. After talking to them, the burns became more visible.

get her ass, eleanor!

The Scandoval Award – And the winner is….Rian…for giving us a new portmanteau by combining Prince + incident into “Princident” to describe their *ahem* tryst.

at least someone at ffwdl realized what that referred to.

Food for Thought:

Hey Ben Kim, you can’t drink alcohol and take Wellbutrin. Next time lay off the Heineken at farewell parties. Tuk’s on Adderall and Ben’s on Wellbutrin. Is Dr. Eleanor Mayer an over-medicater???

i sure looked up whether or not it’s safe to mix wellbutrin and alcohol myself after this episode. (answer: it’s not advisable, since wellbutrin can reduce your alcohol tolerance, and both of them make seizures more likely. but you might be able to have small amounts of alcohol without it being a problem.) but you’re not supposed to mix mdma and alcohol, either, and somehow prince and rian managed just fine doing that in 6x10. (also, ben hadn’t taken his wellbutrin that day, which was why he approached wendy about it.)

without Getting Into the ethics of psychiatry and psychiatric medication, because i’m not qualified to talk about that: i don’t think “this psychiatrist has at least two patients who are each taking at least one medication” is really grounds to go “is this psychiatrist an over-medicator???” (also, we don’t even know if tuk’s adderall was prescribed or not.)

Lady Trader

[…]

The Most Loyal: When every other Prince Capper has cheated on Wendy with Mayer, Wags makes sure Wendy knows she will always be his “Dr. Mojo”. This is why you want Wags in the trenches with you!

well, wags is probably also the only prince capper that wendy would never screw over for her own benefit, so that’s no surprise.

The “Tell Me You Wrote Your Pitch Presentation with AI, Without Telling Me You Wrote Your Pitch Presentation with AI” Award: Winston. As someone who has read and had to write pitches, that description slide was as Auric Goldfinger once said “words you may have overheard which cannot possibly have any significance to you or your organization”. It said nothing at all. You disappoint me Mr. Winston!

here’s the full text of his pitch, for anyone who wants to judge it by this standard. as for my take on it, well…

The Tired Old Trope Award: “hold the rich and powerful criminality accountable”,  trading and earning is an “addiction”, blah, blah, blahdy blah. We get it, the writers hate wealthy people, but I don’t see them doing what they do for free!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. oh, lady trader. you’re never going to figure out who that sign is for, are you?

The “Do Your Research” Award”: Wendy would not have been able to give Ben Kim his prescription for Wellbutrin with a prescription pad – beginning on March 16, 2017 all prescriptions in NYS must be electronic.  Also, Philip states that Winston’s risk management software is using ASI for risk mitigation. However ASI doesn’t exist yet. If I’m going to give credit when the writers get it right, well I got to call them when they flub too.

fair enough.

TheTailThatWagsTheDog

[…]

Biggest Absence – Dave?  No Dave?  Is she out of the picture now that Chuck has his own authority back? I still don’t buy Chuck getting the SDNY position back so easily. Who was occupying that spot before, and what happened to them? Too convenient for me.

i wondered about that as well. her absence in this episode and sacker’s in 7x02, despite both of them being series regulars, is a little concerning. as for chuck’s sdny spot, his quick return frankly was overly convenient, but billions is like that sometimes. and it’s possible that it was occupied by an acting / interim us attorney who wouldn’t have been around indefinitely anyway.

And now my update on the analogies/cultural references …

Worst Analogy Moment – Kate Sacker bringing up Phil Mickelson to Prince. This is exactly the kind of nonsensical reference that they have introduced ad nauseum over the past couple of seasons. It’s there because they want it there, not because it makes any sense. It feels totally out of character for someone like Sacker to bring up a person like Mickelson, and Prince’s response is so obvious.  Their writing can be so clever – they have proven this time and time again – and yet they too often fall back on these tired clichés. I wish they would stop.

Most Encouraging Analogy Moment – I did not hear one analogy out of Dr. Mayer.  Maybe she’s too old to do them? I don’t know – but it was wonderfully refreshing.  I hope she stays clean.

the references have always been there because the writers want them there. they’re entertaining themselves first and foremost.

the first line out of dr. mayer’s mouth was a quote from a room of one’s own, by virginia woolf, and wendy pointed this out twice within the next thirty seconds. did you not notice, or does this not count because it wasn’t in the form of an analogy?

Ending on a Good Note – I love the “three-dimensional game of chess” Chuck is now playing with Prince. That is the fun stuff. I do not know how this is all going to play out, but I am definitely invested – and that is what I want in my shows – keep me aching for more. So more of this intrigue, just less culture please!

highly entertained by someone asking for a tv show to have “less culture please!”

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis (Lady Trader): “From the Trader’s Desk”: Crisis of Confidence?

I was asked why MPC is claiming ownership of Winston’s software. If he developed it how does MPC have the rights to it? Well, the type of risk management software Winston is trying to sell would most certainly take months (if not years) to develop, code, back test, and debug. Which means there is no way he could have developed it overnight. If what Taylor says is correct, (that Winston used data to test his software using MPC trader transactions) then that also would make it property of MPC. By using data and equipment owned by MPC, legally Winston doesn’t own it. Could a court possibly rule that he co-owns it? Yes. Also, most funds would have a clause written in his contract that he would not be able to market any type of software for a stated period (usually 6-9 months). His best course of action would have been to offer it to MPC first to either buy him out or lease the program. If they passed, he then could have tried to get permission from MPC to market it to other firms. Just another example of unnecessary greed killing a golden goose.

lengthy, yes, but this is a helpful clarification on the (il)legality of winston selling his risk management software on his own. until the last sentence, which i’m guessing is referring to winston’s greed rather than mpc’s greed. can you perhaps think of any other reasons why winston would have wanted to sell his software on his own rather than via mpc? perhaps something he said outright, such as “i’m done working for other people”? take your time! i’m here all week!

It was good to see Wags, Wendy and Chuck get their belief in themselves back, all in different ways.

can’t say i agree!

Winston agrees let MPC license a watered-down version of the software to other firms, and Winston is a Prince Capper again, as Taylor will let him run it.

again, winston is not A Prince Capper Again in any meaningful sense, and it wouldn’t automatically be a good thing if he were!

Out of the three characters who are having confidence issues this week, Wendy would be the last person I would think would have any issues. It was very surprising to me to see her going on this journey, and she has always been the glue that held everything and everyone together.

skill issue.

I could understand why maybe Taylor would see someone else (Wendy did burn her pretty good with Taylor’s Dad back in S4E7) but the rest of the gang is shocking. They all see her as just a performance coach who only cares about results, and not a therapist they can talk to about anything. Wendy is wounded by their words.

have you seen the way wendy’s treated ben and tuk and rian in the past? it’s not at all surprising that they’d go to another therapist. and sacker and philip haven’t known wendy long enough to have any reason to trust her, especially after reading the draft of her book. the only one i’m at all surprised by is dollar bill.

But Mayer doesn’t think they do the same thing. And this is where Mayer loses me. She basically says that Wendy’s just a dealer keeping her addicted patients “on the hamster wheel”. What complete and utter bullshit. It can’t be that these people like what they do? It can’t be that they enjoy the feeling of being alive doing what they are good at?

THAT IS THE POINT. THAT’S THE QUESTION BEING ASKED. wendy and dr. mayer have different opinions about the reasons that the prince cappers do what they do! are you always this affronted when someone suggests that maybe working at a hedge fund isn’t the greatest job in the world? hell, have you registered any of the misery that these characters have experienced as a direct or indirect result of the work they do?

This doctor wants Wendy to free her patients, but I ask from what? You can want to improve yourself (and go see Mayer) but at the same time enjoy what you do and want to be the best at it (and see Wendy). I don’t see it as an either/or situation.

i put years of hard work into getting my capitalism degree at capitalism college & now everyones like “oh capitalisms bad”,“its ineffective” fuck off

I’m just afraid this “doctor” is going to mess with Wendy’s head. And a sharp and focused Wendy is what’s needed for Axe later in the season.

what’s needed *for axe*??? do you think she exists just to serve him??? in this of all seasons???

[crowdvscritic]

crowd vs. critic single take // 12 YEARS A SLAVE (2013)

Note: This is a modified version of a review originally written for ZekeFilm. Photo credits: IMDb.com.

In 1841, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a free man making a living as a violinist in New York with his family. But because the claws of American slavery stretch beyond the Mason-Dixon Line, he is kidnapped and sold into forced servitude. For 12 years he is exchanged between different plantations in Louisiana, some masters conflicted about their role in his life (Benedict Cumberbatch) but more of them baleful (Michael Fassbender, Sarah Paulson, Paul Dano). He befriends the laborers beside him like Patsey (Lupita N’yongo) and Eliza (Adepero Oduye), but he never stops looking for opportunities to contact his family and for escape. 

CROWD // I’m not going to lie—12 Years a Slave was the only Best Picture winner I hadn’t seen when the 2010s ended. What’s more embarrassing to admit is why, which, clearly, wasn’t for lack of time. The reason I delayed my viewing six years was because I didn’t think I could hack it. I almost couldn’t finish Schindler’s List—why would force myself through another realistic depiction of brutality only a few generations removed?

If you’ve asked yourself the same question, know that those concerns are not ill-founded. If Tarantino’s stylized violence in Django Unchained made you squeamish, Steve McQueen’s study of the dehumanizing treatment of pre-Civil War slaves won’t gloss over anything to make you more comfortable. Of course, that’s not only warranted, it’s why this film works so well. But because the title tells us the ending, the small sliver of hope sustains us, and we know Northup’s true story will end with him overcoming one of history’s worst adversities.

POPCORN POTENTIAL: 5/10

CRITIC // Everything in 12 Years a Slave is a study of contrasts. Masters hang their slaves in the wild beauty of the Southern forests. Mistresses attack their slaves with expensive china. Overseers taunt their slaves with music to drown out their spirituals. The religious use the Bible as a weapon against the slaves who pray for deliverance. McQueen forces us to sit with these contradictions for long, unbroken shots. We sit and mourn with Solomon with every betrayal, watching and feeling his grief until it becomes our own. As he is moved from auction to house to plantation, his turmoil and those of his fellow victims becomes ours, too. We watch white actors we respect become weakly selfish at best, manically barbaric at worst, so we know why it’s so difficult for Solomon to know whom he can trust. It also reminds us if faces we thought we liked so much could portray such evil, we must be capable of such evil as well. (See Jojo Rabbit for another reminder of that.)

There’s no beauty or redemption in this chapter of America’s story, but the beauty of this film is it restores humanity to the memory of the millions of people who were denied it in their lifetimes. Instead of being grouped together as collective “slaves,” they’re Solomon and Patsey and Eliza and Emily and Robert and Jasper and Anna and Clemens. They have faces and names and families and scars, and 12 Years a Slave finds and shows them better than any movie about American slavery yet.

ARTISTIC TASTE: 10/10

[charlesandmartine]

Wednesday 22nd February 2023

Drizzle! What a wake up call! Well we were travelling so that's okay. First up as soon as we had started the 176km journey was to pop into the Pit Stop café in Woodenbong for breakfast.

The girl there assured us that it would be possible to do proper sunny side up eggs with the English style bacon and toast. Assurances given we chose a nice table in the courtyard before it chucked it down again. Whilst we waited, a local called Tim felt we would benefit from his life history and family genealogy dating back to Viking times! As you can imagine, a timeline of this longevity can take a little while and we were well into the toast section before we could persuade him we didn't know anyone called Dennis in England and for peace to descend on our repast and for the second day running the Aboriginal waitresses forgot our coffee.

We have really unexpectedly enjoyed Woodenbong and were sad to leave it. But Woodenbong in the rain would not have been a great prospect so off we went in the Nissan through the stunning countryside set amongst the mountain range of the Tooloom National Park.. The first town on route was Legume. Well I'm sure it was but there was nothing there and we missed it. Soon after this somewhat anonymous encounter, we suddenly left NSW behind us and we found ourselves in Queensland, The Sunshine State. Not only lost NSW but also an hour, it was 12.10 again! The second town on our trip today was Killarney; a charming little place that we felt deserved a look. It was named by a land surveyor and homesteader John Sydney O'Brien in 1840 because it reminded him of Killarney in Southern Ireland, so he poured a pint of Irish in the lake and named it Killarney. To start with it had a little antique shop with a very chatty Aussie lady in it. Top marks so far then. The heritage centre was shut of course but it did have a box of tourist maps outside. We trailed around the township with one looking at the heritage buildings and were entirely satisfied with Killarney. Then the rain started again and we rejoined our route; next stop Warwick. No not that one. With no castle to look at we wondered what it would yield. Tourist information ladies were extremely helpful in providing a town map with its heritage route clearly highlighted for us. Basically, fundamentally, you just walk around the block to see the Town Hall, Masonic Centre, Church, Police Station and Law Courts, but even so it was very enjoyable and the map was also able to direct us to the station where there's an embryo of a heritage railway, the Southern Downs Steam Railway. We were shown around the fascinating little museum and engine shed by an extremely enthusiastic volunteer who explained the hopes and plans for this enterprise. Interest in heritage railway is steadily growing in Australia and I'm sure it will have a great future. It's just about 30years behind the UK in capability.

With one more stop for a brew, we headed on to our new digs for the next couple of nights in Cranley, a rural suburb of Toowoomba, which is probably roughly 130km due west and inland from Brisbane. It's a lovely spacious apartment, probably the largest we've had, in the grounds of our landlords house and shared by two goats, chickens and a duck. I think we shall be happy here. We can now say that combining both this and our last trip in 2019, we have now travelled all the way from Victoria across NSW and into Queensland.

Other parts of Australia are suffering at the moment. Southern Australia is experiencing a heat wave, north of Melbourne there's a large bush fire, Sydney had flash flooding yesterday and NZ North Island is really struggling with the after effects of Cyclone Gabrielle leaving billions of dollars worth of damage especially in the Hastings and Napier region of Hawkes Bay.

ps. It might be The Sunshine State, but Thursday morning finds us in cloud and 19 degrees. Weather promises to improve.

[knick-nudiex]

Dixie

Dixie is a nickname for the Southern United States. It can also refer to the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. The term has been used in songs, street names, and restaurant and grocery store names. 

Origins of the term 

The Citizens' Bank of New OrleansThe bank issued $10 bills before the Civil War with "dix" (French for "ten") on the back. These bills were widely used by French-speaking residents and became known as "Dixies".

The Mason-Dixon LineThe boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania was considered a dividing line between free states and slave states.

A Manhattan plantation ownerA plantation owner named "Dix" or "Dixy" was known for being kind to his enslaved workers. When the workers were sold and sent to the South, they referred to their former home as "Dixie's Land".

The song "Dixie" 

Daniel Decatur Emmett composed "Dixie" in 1859.

It was a popular marching song for the Confederate army.

It was played at the inauguration of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in 1861.

The term "Dixie" and racism 

The term "Dixie" has been problematic because it carries remnants of slavery and the exploitation of Black people.

[infwctednyacifier]

I'm manifesting a partner (going to manifest multiple because I'm poly but starting off humble, yk?) and remembered that manifestation blogs follow me (alongside plural, queer, and alterhuman blogs, lol) so I wanted to rant about the partner I'm manifesting because I've finally started FEELING love and sorry if that doesn't make sense but it's the best way I can describe it so here's just me ranting about my partner (who I'm yet to meet but ignore that girlie 😌✨). Also we should normalize ranting about the partner we're manifesting!! 💞💞

anyways, his names Mason!!!! The best way I can describe him is basically young Phillip Graves lol; sandy blonde hair n stormy blue eyes n all!!!!! (+ Southern!!!!! >:3 🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅)

he's a year older than me n likes to boss me around bc of it even tho he can be just as immature as me + has MY humor 🙄🙄🙄

filthy rich but what were we expecting from the whitest boy in white town?? (jk Ily pls don't clown me for this 😨😨)

our school schedules r literally the same AND we sit beside eachother in every class + he helps me a lot cuz I lose focus too often n he's the smart one out of us sadly 😔😔😔😔

his family loves me n i'm basically part of the family + they know my pronouns so that's just 💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗!!!!!!!!

he's extroverted but he doesn't mind staying in w me!!!!! + we're in the same friend group so we usually just sit n chill together or say the most brainrot shit bc we're all dying of black mold in the brain guys,,,,,,,,,, :3

will probably randomly add more stuff on here later on bc I just love my bf guys!!!!!! >:3