#mom and son trip

[mamadoc]

After finishing my Snowed In story and before returning to my Catch story, I took a little time away from writing and went to Iceland with my 12 year old son. I told a few people I would post pictures of our trip. So here you go (this is part 2):

Snorkeling in 34 degree glacial run off waters in the Silfra Fissure. The European tectonic plate is on the left and the North American tectonic plate is on the right. This is the only place in the world that you can go in between two tectonic plates like this. Very cool.

Thingvellir National Park

Even the little streams had such amazing blue water. Sooo beautiful.

Watching a geyser go off

Gulfoss Waterfall.

Our bubble hotel way out in the Icelandic wilderness.

My son looking out from the infinity pool of a geothermal hot spring spa onto the North Atlantic.

We did an amazing 7 step ritual here with a hot spring, cold pool, sauna, rain room, full body scrub, steam room, cool shower, and then back to the hot spring. My skin felt AMAZING afterward.

And then we flew home and I reread my Catch of a Lifetime story on the plane, so I could starting writing for it again! Ha!

Such an amazing trip. We LOVED it.

[tiredbitchposts]

Ok, but Shen Jiu being Shen Yuan's father is so funny in a very tragic way. Shen Jiu is a ball of traumas and all types of issues and i truly believe there's not a single one that man doesn't have, so, you give him a baby!Shen Yuan, a little ball of life that depends on him for survival, cannot walk away from him and is culturally wired to pretty much love him and if not, to at the least respect him above all else, you cannot tell me that this man would be normal about him. Also, imagine Shen Jiu, who'd be the type of parent to project traumas the way only a mother could, having a child that looks like him but with a "sweeter" personality (which, by the way, is bullshit, they just have never seen that boy rip into a book he disliked but wouldn't stop reading) that has the effect on men Shen Yuan has, he'd lock that boy up in a tower to "cultivate" and consequently create a rumor about the Qing Jing's beauty who was so bewitching their peak lord father locked them in a tower because that's just his luck. Loving Shen Yuan wouldn't fix him, but it'd create a whole new set of issues that'd cancel out the other ones

[hyunpic]

hyunjin instagram story with jeongin & seungmin

[guidingthulite]

i finished yokai gakuen

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

JoJo Siwa doesn’t deserve all the hate (and homophobia) she’s getting for her style and music; but she does deserve scrutiny for defending Colleen Ballinger and being both active and complicit in abuse that happened on her TV show. Like the girl has been under the public eye in unhealthy environments all her life; cut her some slack — not too much; she’s still a responsible adult — but if you’re going to dogpile her, then at least dogpile her for the right reasons. Jesus Fucking Christ.

[relicsongmel]

Was doing some thinking today and realized that one of the reasons I'm really drawn to Kieran is because he's a rare example of a character that's shy (and usually good-hearted) but still has some rougher edges to him.

I feel like all too often shy characters are shoved into being portrayed as either "smol bean who would never hurt anyone and just wants friends uwu" or "brooding loner who snaps at people to cover up the fact they don't actually know how to socialize" with not a lot of wiggle room in between. While I can and do enjoy characters that (arguably) fall into those respective categories, they're a bit reductive in the sense that things are very rarely that black and white in reality. Even the kindest people have a limit to what they can tolerate. They have bad days or respond poorly to events around them that cause them stress. And the same can be said in reverse as well—point being, people are multifaceted and don't always behave as predictably as we'd like to think.

And I think Kieran reflects that dichotomy perfectly. When we first meet him, he's meek, timid, and relies heavily on his more brash and forceful older sister to help him navigate social situations where he would otherwise lose out on something valuable because he's too afraid to come forward and ask for what he wants (like how she has to ask the player to battle him on his behalf). He's often quick to cower whenever she starts to get heated, but he's also not afraid to point out when he thinks she's wrong and sometimes even gets sassy with her himself. He's undeniably sweet and gentle and shows eagerness to make friends with the player, but he becomes much more curt when he notices we're lying to him about Ogerpon. The rest of the Teal Mask storyline shows him fluctuating even further—yelling at Carmine and the player for keeping secrets from him, punching things in fits of anger...then backpedaling and apologizing for the trouble he caused a few scenes later. Spreading the truth about Ogerpon to everyone in the village to help make her happy...then selfishly demanding a battle to see who's worthy of being her Trainer when she has already clearly chosen the player.

After being lied to and suffering repeated losses at our hands (including the Pokemon he's idolized all his life choosing us over him), he leans even more heavily into his bitter side during the Indigo Disk—being cold and ruthless to pretty much everyone around him, but at the end of the day it's primarily overcompensation for what he perceives as his own personal weakness (because he's still just a kid trying to be taken seriously). He's shown to drop the act on multiple occasions—most notably when he's caught off guard by our appearance at Blueberry Academy and at a few points during the Area Zero expedition. He antagonizes the player up until the moment of his defeat and tries to catch and use Terapagos in a last-ditch moment of desperation that ends up going horribly wrong, but after everything resolves he's quick to admit his mistakes and asks the player for forgiveness and if they can still be friends. After the epilogue he's mostly back to his old self, but still seems to get worked up when provoked (e.g. when he yells at Drayton for refusing to stop calling him "ex-Champ" in one of their League Club Room interactions).

And I think this varied and sometimes contradictory behavior is precisely why Kieran is such a cohesive and believable character—because it shows how even kind, well-meaning people may have a hidden darker side that can show itself under the right circumstances. How they might let their insecurities get the better of them. How a shy, timid kid might not have the experience to know how to deal with sudden feelings of frustration and/or jealousy that are far too strong to keep to himself, so he lashes out as a result. How despite all this he remains kind, sensitive and loving at his core and shows willingness to learn from his mistakes. And that is what makes him so compelling to me.

[ichigosluvrr]

I don't know if this is just in my family but don't you just hate when the women in the family (like moms and Aunties and stuff) treat the girls differently than the boys.

Like growing up, I felt like they were harder on us girls instead of the boys fr. But now when I bring it up today, everybody wanna start yelling at me n shit talking bout "that's not true" and "stop lying" like bro ts is not a lie at all😭

[teasel-backatitagain]

Thinking about her (Karina Braun)

[mamadoc]

After finishing my Snowed In story and before returning to my Catch story, I took a little time away from writing and went to Iceland with my 12 year old son. I told a few people I would post pictures of our trip. So here you go:

This is an ice cave we explored.

The famous Katla Ice Cave.

Hiking along a glacier that was 1700 meters deep.

Entering an ancient lava tube

Icicles instead of stalagmites in the lava tube caves.

We saw amazing rainbows almost every day.

Hallgrimskirkja - A famous church in Iceland.

Reykjavik’s Rainbow Road

The Penis Museum - Remember I went with a 13 year old boy - nervous giggling and blushing abounded. But seriously, who decides that this is going to be a thing?

The famous Sun Voyageur statue to commemorate Viking heritage.

More in the next post.

[wingwaver]

I highly doubt those guys are still alive down there but I do hope they manage to find the submersible just to give the families closure

[clowndensation]

i don't know if i have the constitution for that firefighters show. i've cried twice in the first 3 minutes.

[chiropteracupola]

The Fool :)

MOTH and PERRY and their 2003 SUBARU OUTBACK

[moth and compass is a collaboration with @natdrinkstea!]

[workingforitallthetime]

You almost pulled it off @adamfantilli (via @jdrusk53)

[knifekris]

ive never psychiatrically recovered from the time in high school i was doing some kinda after-school event and one of the dudes i was with went off to the bathroom. when he came back i asked jokingly 'did you wash your hands' and he stopped dead in his tracks and said 'how did you know i didnt' and i SHOUTED

[afkaskus]

When I was like... 7? I told my mom I wanted a big brother, kinda late for that because I was an only child

Who would've known that I actually got a big brother at 22

[mayari-sims]

felicia's prom night summarized