#o'neil is much better known today

[cantsayidont]

August 1972. Although the cover of DETECTIVE COMICS #426 is by Mike Kaluta, the Batman story inside — aptly entitled "Killer's Roulette!" — is both written and drawn by Frank Robbins.

Robbins was a comics veteran whose primary occupation from 1944 to 1977 was the syndicated newspaper strip JOHNNY HAZARD, which he created after a stint on SCORCHY SMITH. The latter strip was created by Noel Sickles, who was also a friend and former studio mate of Milt Caniff, on whose style Sickles had a strong influence. Robbins, unsurprisingly, had an adjacent style. Here's one of his relatively early JOHNNY HAZARD strips, from late 1945:

Between 1968 and 1974, Robbins became one of the regular writers of BATMAN and DETECTIVE COMICS, perhaps best-known today for writing the early appearances of Man-Bat. Robbins drew a handful of Batman stories himself, which always polarized readers expecting Neal Adams-like realism. However, all of those stories stand out for their atmosphere, energy, and storytelling skill. Let's look at a couple of pages of "Killer's Roulette!" as Batman confronts Conway Treach, a gambler with a taste for Russian roulette who's been linked to three apparent suicides in Gotham City:

The "partner in 'Hazard'" line is Robbins' in-joke: Bruce had previously introduced himself to Treach, while mildly disguised but out of costume, as a gambler calling himself "John T. Hazard" (which of course was Johnny Hazard's full name). Treach had invited "Hazard" to play Russian roulette, producing the revolver on the table for that purpose.

(Batman seems surprisingly unconcerned about the possibility of Treach recognizing "Hazard" as Bruce Wayne, which in an earlier era would probably have become a major preoccupation of the story.)

The revolver-chamber montage feels like something from the Batman stories of the early 1950s, with their fascination with oversize props, although it's certainly dramatic. As you may have surmised, Batman has deduced that Treach's revolver is gimmicked, which is why he remains so unflappable; both of them are actually in very little danger, although Treach is hoping Batman doesn't know that (and seems more than a little nervous about making a potentially lethal mistake with his own trick).

Denny O'Neil, the other principal Batman writer of this period, would not have written this story, at least not like this — O'Neil treated Batman as having a more or less pathological aversion to guns rather than simply disdaining them — and this sequence is surprisingly ruthless for Batman, gimmick or no. However, it's tightly constructed and quite tense, and it provides a greater-than-usual payoff of the issue's provocative cover.

[ofmdrecaps]

08/31/2024 - 09/01/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Taika Waititi; Con O'Neill; Samba Schutte; Kristian Nairn; Vico Ortiz; Guz Khan; Happy DickFuck/Be A Lighthouse Day!; Bisexual Awareness Month; Fan Spotlight: Cast Cards; Our Flag Means Fanfiction; Be a Lighthouse!; Love Notes; Daily Darby / Today's Taika;

Hey friends, things are slowly progressing on things with my dad and his surgery recovery. Each day things get a little better but it's gonna be a really long road to recovery. Hopefully we're out of the worst of it. I'm still gonna try to keep up with recap stuff as best I can, but they'll probably still be late because of the uncertainty of timing right now. Thank you all so much for all the kind words and well wishes and all the patience. I hope you're staying well <3

== Taika Waititi ==

More Taika out with VasJMorgan and Rita and friends in Ibiza back in August.

Source: VasJMorgan's Instagram

== Con O'Neill ==

Con's done with vacation in Mexico! Hope it was relaxing!

Source: Con's Instagram

== Samba Schutte ==

Hey! Samba's gonna be on the Geekspace podcast again for his new movie Advanced Chemistry! You can check the episode out on spotify below!

Samba was also out to visit his extended family in Holland!

Source: Samba's Instagram

== Kristian Nairn ==

Reminder, you can still get signed copies of Kristian's book coming out this month on his Linktr.ee! https://linktr.ee/kristiannairn Kristian was featured in a Polygon article about his new book! Full link and highlights below.

Source: Kristian Nairn's Instagram

== Vico Ortiz ==

Vico's film Lesbophila was chosen as the Official Selection for Long Beach Film Festival 2024! Sunday the 9th, at 1:15 pm they'll be in the "Women In Shorts" block. You can get tickets here.

Source: LesbophiliaFilm Instagram

== Guz Khan ==

Some love from a fan for Guz <3

Source: Guz's Instagram stories

== Happy DickFuck Day ==

Thank you to the awesome ofmdnocontext on instagram for the fabulous stills for this, September 1st (on an actual leap year!) aka DickFuck Day! Also known as Be A Lighthouse days by some as well!

Source: OFMDNoContext Instagram

== Bisexual Awareness Month ==

Happy Bisexual Awareness month to all our lovely Bi+ Crew members! Please know my dear lovelies, you are valid and you are seen. It doesn't matter who you're in a relationship with, or what sexual experiences you've had. You're valid in your sexuality and romantic attractions. Love you friends! For those not already aware, Bi+ represents the the bisexual community, also known as the bi+, m-spec, bisexual/pansexual, or bi/pan/fluid community, which includes members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual and sexually fluid (source).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Queer Chameleon (@queeeerchameleon)

Source: QueeerChameleon on Instagram

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Cast Cards =

I'm very behind again on the cast cards by the brilliant @melvisik! First up! We have Scott Marsh, another of our stunt performers, and Jacob Tomuri, one of our stunt coordinators!

Next up is Alexa Stollmeyer, a visual effects coordinator and Cynthia Pusheck, one of our S1 Cinemtographers!

Source: @melvisik's Twitter

= Our Flag Means Fanfiction =

New Epitizer available this week from Our Flag Means Fanfiction! "Close to Home" by our beloved @xoxoemynn! Read by @babykrakenpodfics!

Source: OFMFF Instagram

= Be A Light House =

In honor of Sept 1/2, Just a quick reminder that our amazing friend @blueberreads released this fabulous Be A Lighthouse- a Monkey Island Inspired point and click game! If you havent played it yet, please check it out here!

Source: Blueberreads Twitter

PS: I wanted to spotlight OFMD Smaugust works since it's the end of the month but I've been swamped with family stuff. It'll be late, but it's coming!

== Love Notes ==

Hey lovelies, hopefully life is treating you well. I hope you're getting a day off this Monday, but if not, please remember to take some time another day to rest if you can. Rest is so incredibly important. We need it to be able to recover from the crazyness that is our everyday lives. We all deal with a lot, and no one knows the extent at which we go through things, so you have to be your own advocate sometimes when it comes to rest. You deserve rest, no matter what you got done today, no matter how much you had the day before. Sending love and good vibes your way, and a couple extra love notes. You're powerful, and wonderful, and kind, and you deserve the best, lovelies.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Barbara ✨🐞 (@joyfulsmolthings)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Case Kenny (@case.kenny)

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

Idk about the theme today, I was going through gifs and my son really laughed at these two, so he helped pick them out tonight. Gifs courtesy of the darling @sherlockig and @brizzystar

[tkdrawz]

Some of the TMNT fandom (and, frankly, society) really ain't shit.🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️

[From left to right: Princess Fiona (Ogress Form) (Shrek) Eep (The Croods) Gloria (Madagascar) Dijonay Jones (The Proud Family) Luisa Madrigal (Encanto) April O'Neil (TMNT Mutant Mayhem)]

These ladies are female protagonists in their respective franchises. All of them have different body types that contrast from the default thin, petite body type that we're used to seeing. And all of them are BEAUTIFUL! 💖

Three of these ladies became love interests that ended up in healthy relationships with partners who love them for who they are. Also, four of them are women of color. (idk if Fiona counts. While she is green, she started off white so... 50/50? 🤷🏾‍♀️) That part is especially relevant to this post because Twitter got me EFFED UP. I'M ON ONE, ON TWO, ON THREE TODAY!

So the concept art of Mutant Mayhem's April O'Neil was revealed by James A. Castillo, an artist who worked on the movie.

And people are DRAGGING HIM LEFT AND RIGHT! Being disrespectful to both him and April's design. I can tell you right now not even a third of those quotes aren't positive! There is a vast difference between criticism and insults:

💛"I do not like this design. Besides the color yellow and her red/ginger hair, she simply doesn't read as April O'Neil." That's criticism. This expresses disproval of the design without any vulgarities.

💔"Rethink your entire career. "Artist" my ass! This shit is garbage! She looks like she sleeps in a van and smokes so much weed she reeks of it. You failed." That's disrespect. And I don't think I need to tell you why.

Normally, I tend not to discuss such sensitive topics on my blog (religion, politics, discrimination of ANY kind, etc.) for my sanity and out of respect for others with opposing views. But today, I will make an exception.

I would love to include Luisa, who alongside April was mocked and disrespected heavily for her appearance, but I wanted to speak on this matter from the perspective of a plus-sized African American woman. Luisa comes from an completely different background whose culture and standards I am not entirely familiar with. I can't speak on what I don't know. Respectfully.💜

In the black community, women are faced with colorism, texturism, constant comparison, and body image negativity on a daily basis. And a good amount of it comes from our own community! Our shade, our 4C hair, our weight, our attractiveness, our lifestyle! It's brutal out here!😭😭😭

However, in terms of media a plus-sized black girl is seen as ghetto, loud, and undesirable with a side of attitude. The best example I can think of is Dijonay from The Proud Family.

This is the show I grew up on! The theme song, the characters, the Suga Mama, ICONIC! I love Dijonay to pieces, but as I grew up I realize that she was, in some aspects, a negative portrayal. She was always chasing instead of being "the chase". She was a horrible friend to Penny. And she sucumbed to a lot of negative stereotypes with barely any redeeming qualities. And this was very disheartening considering that she was the darkest one in the group. And the heaviest. And as a little chubby wubby in the 2000s with THIS as my representation? I have to give the writers a bit of the side eye. Was she any better in The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder? To that I would say.... meh. I love her in the reboot, but they could do so much more with her in my opinion. I still haven't seen them address the issue of colorism. 👀

While she is not a human, Gloria is voiced by a black woman (Jada Pinkett Smith) and imitates the sass of a black woman so... yeah. She's included. Gloria was persued by two men. One was the suave, flexing hippo Motto Motto. And the other was her friend/neighbor from her childhood Melman. She chose the latter for good reason of course. Now in Madagascar, Gloria wasn't mocked or criticized for her weight. In fact, hippos are known for their weight. However, she was seemingly fetishized for it. By Motto Motto to be exact. And being fetishized is NOT better than being ridiculed.

Unlike Dijonay, April was the chase, a love interest for Leonardo. I admit, I was SHOCKED that she was gonna be persued. Let alone that the writers wanted to try another Turtle/April pairing considering how April and Donnie went...😬. Now her backlash was on a completely different level. One that I wasn't even prepared for....

While Gloria and Dijonay are original characters, Mutant Mayhem's April O'Neil is a different interpretation of the character that has existed since the 80's. The same can be said for the Turtles, Splinter, literally everybody else! Every show and movie for that matter! And with every story, she changes. Design, motivation, relationships/dynamics, even race as of lately. All of it changes. And change isn't bad. In my opinion, it keeps things fresh and interesting instead of spoon feeding us the same story and concepts over and over again. Change challenges us. Change motivates us. However, some people don't like change nor want to accept it and adjust. And that's life. That's just the way it is. But change is necessary in order to progress.

She wasn't bad in the movie AT ALL. I absolutely adored her! And the dynamic between her and Leo wasn't akward or uncomfortable at all. It was handled really well. Ayo Ediberi did an incredible job bringing her to life! (GOD, I loved her in The Bear! Shameless plug lol)

That being said, I understand some of the sensitivity that fans have when a character changes so drastically you can barely recongnize them anymore beyond the bare minimun. (See also Sonic Boom's Knuckles) But the blatant discrimination, rude comments, and the boldness, THE AUDACITY, that some of these nasty Twitter fingers with their dirty fingernails have to type such disrespect to the artist that I can't repeat up here was wild af. Like, I can't believe we have to share a planet with some of them! Uggh!😷(But that's Twitter 24/7 so what's new?) Her and Rise April don't deserve the hate they get. You don't have to like them. Art is subjective. But to insult and harrass the artists and the people who look like the characters, then mask it under the umbrella of "tHaTs mY oPiNiOn" is 🐱. I said what I said. And I will say that shit again.

Also, just because she's black doesn't mean we can't have another white April O'Neil ever again. We know goodness well they could make another iteration of TMNT and make her white if they wanted to. Heck, I encourage them to explore other races and cultures too! New York is full of them! And it's not like all the other versions of April up and vanished. You can watch them anytime on Hulu, Netflix, Paramount Plus, etc.

One more point I'd like to make is that I am an African American woman who is currently on a weight loss journey. As a plus-sized girl, I had incredibly low self-esteem and picked up toxic, unhealthy eating habits from starving myself to overeating BECAUSE I starved myself. Also, I have experienced both sides from being disrespected and made fun of to being complimented and persued. I was at my biggest weight 2 years ago and I have made incredible progress to lose weight since then. People can lose weight. It is achievable! I went to school with some people who were way bigger than me that lost the weight by senior year! Just because she's big in this movie doesn't mean she can't lose weight by the sequel. Like I've said before, it's not wrong to encourage health and fitness!💪🏾 In life, they call this a glow up. A "remember how you treated them in high school" type of comeback. People can, and are allowed to, change. And it's not wrong to embrace your body and the skin you're in. It's all relative!💖

This post isn't to convince you to change your mind. And it won't make the bullies go away. I can't change the world overnight, nor am I trying to. At the end of the day, you're the consumer. It's your choice. Your prefrence. I can't tell you how to think.

I just wanted to spread a bit of awareness that plus sized people exist. And they will always exist. Everyone is deserving of representation in media in all facets. No matter their shape, size, shade, or sexuality. There are so many people from different walks of life who deserve to be seen and on screen. And the amount of visibility for black girls this year alone is amazing! And I want the same for other women of color, too!

Don't let this trash ass society and the people in it who prefer AI/robots over human beings, fake over real, and bad over good tell you otherwise. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. YES I AM TALKING TO YOU. YOU ARE AMAZING! YOU DESERVE ALL THE GOOD THINGS IN LIFE AND MORE. YOUR STORY CAN CHANGE LIVES. BEING A GOOD, HARD WORKING PERSON DOES PAY OFF IN THE LONG RUN! YOU ABSOLUTELY MATTER IN THIS LIFE AND THE NEXT. WE SEE YOU. I SEE YOU. AND I ADORE YOU. RAISE YOUR SELF ESTEEM, ADJUST YOUR CROWN, WEAR IT PROUD, AND DO YOUR BEST!

Be good to one another. Take care.

💙 -TK

[dreaminggirlsblog]

Heyo! So i was wonderinv could you do a fluffy oneshot for raph x a chubby s/o who needs constant reassurance due to them believing raph deserves better

Raph X Fem!Reader - You’re perfect for me

It was almost a year since the arrival of that strange Kraang spaceship, which had caused chaos in New York City.

The turtles, the four siblings who live in the sewers, were recognised by the police for their bravery that day and, among the troop of cops, was Y/n.

At first, she was shocked to see that four turtles could have become big mutants and could talk, she practically couldn't believe it.

But when she met his gaze, her first impressions of them completely changed.

Red Bandana, a name given by her as she could not remember his real name, was attractive to her eyes and she almost liked staring at the turtle's green eyes.

"Y/n?" the girl turned, letting go of those green eyes, and finding herself in front of the journalist April O'Neil and her friend and colleague at work Casey Jones.

"April, it's been a long time!"

The two hugged each other as the boy behind them looked around as if he was embarrassed by the scene.

They'd known each other since they were kids but had lost each other after Y/n joined the NYPD and it had been a long time since they'd seen each other, even though the previous incident at the Kraang ship.

As soon as they pulled away, Y/n nodded towards Casey in greeting.

"Jones."

He sighed, giving a small chuckle and imitating the girl's gesture.

"Y/l/n, you look very pretty today you know?" he added in a mocking tone.

Casey always teased y/h/c but once he went too far by making a little joke about her weight, which was unforgivable for her.

They didn't speak for months but it was he who wanted to break this silence with a simple chat.

"I never wanted to be so brutal to you, I was angry and I swear I didn't know what I was saying or doing, I even insulted a child playing in the park on my way home."

They both laughed after a few minutes of silence, and Y/n replied, "Why?"

"I have no idea! All I know is that the mother keeps giving me bad looks every time I passed by."

In the end, everything was resolved and they became friends again as before, continuing to tease each other.

The problem though for Casey, was that he was in love with Y/n but he knew he would be rejected and now, that he sees the way she looks at that stupid mutant (as he would call it), he knows he has no hope of being with her.

He would like to move on, though, and having found April might help him get over his crush on the y/h/c.

Back to our point, the girl replied, in the same wry tone as the boy, "You know I could say the same thing about you today," and added a wink.

"Nice, it seems to me that you have been eyeing someone to say these things to without using that ironic tone."

He pointed with his gaze to precisely one of the four turtles, more specifically the one in the red band.

"What?" she asked, shaking her head repeatedly, "No, I don't like it."

"No one ever said you like it," retorted April winking at her.

The girl frowned at her, and at that same moment she saw a tall, mighty shadow approaching her.

"Officer," said her deep voice.

Y/n was paralyzed, but not by fear of the creature but more by the terror of coming across as strange because she talks too much or says nonsense.

He nodded his hand as a greeting and smiled as Casey and April stood still to see what was happening.

"I am Raphael," he extended his paw in anticipation of a handshake.

Y/n did not hesitate, he shook it and moved his hands up and down.

"Nice to meet you Y/n" he said quickly in a light voice and received a half smile.

Their hands still remained united, and the turtle turned them around, resting his lips on the girl's hand, like a gentleman.

" Enchanted."

Before long, she broke away and walked back to her brothers and shouted toward the three, "See you Y/n!"

This one remained motionless, always waving at the turtle's hand and remaining half-open-mouthed in amazement.

"He's not Raphael, he's too gallant," April suddenly pointed out, awakening y/h/c's trans state.

Hence began their friendship.

They would meet every night on the roof of her apartment, sometimes for dinner and most afterwards so they could simply talk or admire the starry sky.

After three/four months of getting to know each other, Y/n's feelings grew and Raph's blossomed but he wanted to tell her, at all costs.

"You need to relax, she doesn't seem like a girl who rejects so easily."

"Mikey!" scolded Donnie, giving him a not-so-light smack on the head.

"What Michelangelo was trying to say" the Leonardo leader intervened, throwing the smaller man a dirty look "is that it will be fine, she really likes you trust me"

"And how do you know that? I don't think you are human, she is a girl, she has y/e/c eyes, y/h/c hair or she calls you Y/n Y/l/n!"

"You just trust! Now go!"

He almost wanted to punch him in the face because of the way he answered him but at the moment his brother was the last thing on his mind.

He rushed out of the sewers and jumped from rooftop to rooftop to that of her apartment, not finding her at home.

In fact, she was still at work even though she had finished her shift, only she was struggling with a Casey who was mad about his crush on April.

"How do I tell her if she doesn't want me?"

"You don't tell her."

"But I want to tell her."

"Then do it!"

"But I can't, what if she says no?"

"Look, you've been asking me the same question for about an hour and you keep walking back and forth without ever stopping. Can you explain what I'm for?"

"You are supposed to support me! I asked you for help on purpose!" he replied as he sat down in front of her at his desk.

She sighed tiredly and added, "Okay, fine," she stood up abruptly, adjusting her desk chair and looking at Casey.

"So, now I'm April," began the y/h/c.

"Would you like that" murmured Casey thinking no one heard him but he got a dirty look from the girl.

"I was saying, now I’m April going into the restaurant where you're meeting, what do you do?"

"Shall I say goodbye?"

Y/n sighed slightly, still agreeing with his friend "Yes, go"

This one remained silent, smiling slightly in embarrassment and remaining with his mouth half open as he stared at everything but the girl in front of him.

"Casey?" the y/h/c called him, moving a hand in front of his eyes.

He continued not moving and then the girl turned around following her friend's gaze and then standing there with her mouth open as well.

In front of them stood April in a red, tight, knee-length dress, not too high heels of the same colour and a light flesh-coloured lipstick.

Her wavy hair fell over her shoulders and round silver earrings were visible.

"Sorry if I might be interrupting but I've been waiting for you for a while Casey so I thought that maybe I would join you at work."

The boy woke up checking his watch and running a hand through his hair in despair: it was half past eight and he was supposed to be at her place an hour ago.

"What? That's not possible" he turned suddenly to his friend and gave her a bad look "You couldn't check the time!"

" What?" she gasped "I was supposed to see when YOU were supposed to leave?"

"Yes! I mean" he sighed surrendered and walked over to April taking a deep breath.

"Sorry to keep you waiting and" he paused looking at the girl from head to toe and smiling slightly at her "you look lovely dress like that"

She smiled back, lowering her gaze shyly and then raising it back to him "Thank you" she said with a soft voice.

They froze looking at each other as Y/n smiled satisfiedly, waiting for the two to move for their date, which they didn't.

" Whenever you want you can move" Y/n interrupted the moment, immediately receiving a dirty look from Casey.

"Yeah, let's go," April said taking the boy under her arm and dragging him away from the office.

Casey as he walked he turned and said through his lips, "I hate you."

"I love you too" she replied giving him a wink as she watched them disappear in the elevator

Right after, she turned back to the desk to get her bag but she was immediately surprised by a mutant turtle leaning against the window.

"Raph?" she wondered as she approached him, who kept pointing to the window aperture so he could enter.

So she finally did and found herself inside the office with the turtle, who looked around with a brazen look on his face.

"Nice place, I wish I came here more often," he said suddenly provoking a giggle from Y/n.

"Well, if you want to get caught by the police more often then I won't stop you," she retorted as she closed the window.

He turned to Raphael noticing how blank his gaze was, too occupied with staring into space and not looking the girl in the eyes.

"What brings you here? I thought we were meeting at the lair tonight."

At her words he awoke, shrugging and running a hand down the back of his neck "Nothing, I just saw you weren't coming so I went to look for you at your home but you weren't there, so I thought you were at work and here you are! Even though your turn ended over an hour ago," he explained with a half smile and lowering his voice at the end of the sentence.

"Ah yeah, Casey had asked me to help him with something and stopped me for a while"

"Oh sure" his smile vanished turning into a disgusted expression "Casey"

The y/h/c noticed this, looking at him crookedly and crossing her arms over her chest "I think I missed something, Casey what?"

"No nothing" he replied indifferently in an angry tone.

"Casey what?" she repeated taunting him as he held back sighing loudly.

"I said nothing and now let's go" he replied dragging her by the arm towards the window.

"No no" she stopped herself removing her grip from his arm "Casey what?"

"Casey nothing ok! Because Casey is always in the middle of the talk anyway and he' definitely always in the middle when it is about love"

Raphael froze, only thinking later about the words he had said and realising that maybe this way Y/n had understood something, so she did.

"Do you think Casey is still in love with me?" murmured Y/n in a confused tone.

"Of course, you can see how he is."

"And in fact he's not."

"Of course he is, don't you see how he looks at you every time and how he talks to you all the time!" he ranted turning towards her.

"We're just friends Raph, plus he likes April"

"Oh yeah sure, he likes April. Of course he doesn't like April, he likes you!" he retorted again raising his voice "He likes you and honestly I can blame him since you're just beautiful, smart, nice and kind! These are all traits that any guy would choose you for, but also traits that a mutant turtle would choose you for!"

Raph stopped and looked at her, amazed at his words and with a half-open mouth from which not a word came out.

"I love you Y/n" he murmured then "And I will never stop doing, even if you're love with someone el-"

Raphael was stopped by the sudden touch of the girl's lips with his own, and was very happy about it.

He was finally kissing the girl he was in love with and no longer had to worry about what she thought because he knew she reciprocated his feelings.

They broke away after a while, meeting each other's gaze and smiling at the other.

"I love you too Raph, don't ever forget that."

_

Today is Y/n and Raph's one month anniversary, to which the last had obviously thought of something special.

Not being able to think of anything outside the lair or make a big thing of it, he decorated it to look like a luxury restaurant by arranging a table in the shape of a circle in the middle of the room.

He found two chairs with a pillow on the back and a candle holder for three candles, which he placed in the middle with a small vase containing a red rose.

While he was busy with these things, he did not notice Casey and April's entrance and almost had a stroke as he heard the latter's greeting.

"Ah it's you," he said with a hand over his heart and taking a deep breath.

"Sorry if we scared you Raph and" the girl looked around noticing how well the den was set up and was almost amazed by this "geez, did you finally clean this place up?"

"No no, I simply set it up for dinner with Y/n, you know it's been a month since we've been together and I want everything to be perfect and in fact I'm sending my brothers and Master Splinter with you, he hasn't had a good breath of fresh air in a long time and I'd say this would be the perfect opportunity to get to know New York better as well" the turtle said quickly, clearly anxious about her date.

"Raph are you alright? You look like you're sweating" Casey intervened, receiving a mock laugh in response.

"Of course I'm fine, it's just really hot in here" he replied, airing himself with his paw.

"Are you sure? I mean it sounds like you're actually anxious about the date and-"

"LEO, CASEY AND APRIL ARE HERE, BRING THE OTHERS WITH YOU AND GO AWAY," the turtle suddenly shouted, startling the two in front of him.

"Man don't yell!" muttered Casey as the rest of the mutant family joined them.

"Raphael, are you sure you don't want any of us to stay here?" asked Master Splinter but immediately received a no for an answer.

"Quite sure, now go have a nice ride until I don't know, late at night? Depends on how the night unfolds but have fun anyway."

"Raph you're sweating" Leonardo interjected almost angering his brother who pushed them all towards the exit.

"Go!"

As soon as everyone left, he set the last of the things in the table and then took the carton of pizza he had Casey order for him in the morning, he microwaved it for a few minutes.

"Perfect, it should be here any minute," he muttered to himself as he looked around.

He thought about how perfect everything was but also about the fact that something was missing and the nauseating smell of the sewers made him think of what.

He took a spray that smelled of lavender from a cupboard and began to spray every nook and cranny of the place, none excluded.

"Raph" upon hearing his voice, he threw the spray somewhere and immediately ran towards the entrance quickly settling himself, what precisely was unknown since he was not wearing any clothes.

"Y/n, there you are" he greeted her with a big smile and quickly made her take a seat at the table he had prepared.

He hadn't even paused to notice how good she looked in her dress (colour you want) because he was mesmerised by the bright colour of her eyes under the moonlight.

When she was seated, he awoke from his moment of hypnosis and went to get dinner, carrying it like a real waiter.

"Madam, did you order pizza?" he asked the girl, placing the pizza in front of her.

She giggled while Raph did the same, going to sit opposite her.

They shared the eight slices and began to eat in complete silence, both lacking in argument but Raph was not without anxiety.

He saw how Y/n barely touched the pizza with his fork and believed it was because it was cold, he had probably made a mistake ordering it at lunchtime in the morning.

'Maybe the pizza is a bit cold,' he suddenly said.

"What? No no, I'm just not very hungry"

"Oh, I thought" he panicked "I thought maybe you didn't like it because it was too cold, you know I had Casey order it this morning but I didn't think that maybe many hours later it would be cold and actually I didn't even think that maybe instead of the usual pizza I could get something simpler but actually I didn't even imagine that you weren't hungry even though that's something you say all the time and you say it because you think your body isn't doing well and I have to say I'm talking out of my ass and maybe I brought up something I shouldn't have so please stop me or I might end up really hurting you"

He stopped himself bringing a hand to his mouth as Y/n was wide-eyed and open-mouthed.

"I...Um, yeah I'm not hungry for that reason" she murmured in a light voice as she lowered her gaze.

Raphael stared at her displeased, removed his paw from his mouth, took a deep breath to calm himself and stood up to go in front of her.

He got down on his knees in front of her looking for her gaze and found it shortly after, this gave him a chance to rest a hand on her cheek.

"It's a month that we've been together, a month that I've been telling you how much I love you and how special I think you are and it's also a month that I've been telling you over and over again how perfect you are at everything. You're perfect in your work, your personality is perfect, your face is perfect, your hair is perfect but most of all," he moved his hand to her chin, taking it with two fingers, "your body is perfect."

They smiled at each other and he brought their faces closer to leave a slow but short kiss on her lips.

"You’re perfect for me Y/n"

---------------------------------

Words: 1347

Sorry for the errors and the long waiting, I'll try to be more active.

Hope you like it!

[seidenbros]

Hello! I love your Geraskier fics, so can I request #26 from the 2021 Spotify Wrapped Fic Meme thing for them? I hope you're having a great day!

Hello, my love! YOU have no idea, how much I chuckled to myself when I looked up WHICH song you chose, and it's a German song which fits the two of them perfectly in my opinion. (Here's a rough translation) I put this in a modern setting, because it fit better with what I had in mind, so I hope you will enjoy this. i certainly had a lot fun writing it <3

(Taken from this list and here are some other prompts, but feel free to request anything <3)

Warnings: fluff Word Count: 1711

_____________________

“Geralt? Meet me at O'Neill's Pub at 8, okay?”

“What? Why?”

Not that Geralt is opposed to going out with his childhood friend – at least not in general – but this is a little sudden. It's already past seven, and usually, they plan these nights sooner.

“Just don't wanna sit around at home. I want to go out. So are you in?”

He should probably say no and keep his distance, but he can't let Jaskier down. He's never done that before, so Jask would know that something is going on.

“Alright. See you in a bit.”

Geralt heaves a sigh. This isn't a good idea, not after all the tingles and butterflies he felt the last time they were together. They grew up together, have known each other ever since Jaskier's family moved in next to Geralt's The new kid, the one that was shy at first but lit up as soon as he spent time with Geralt. Best friends, that's what they became and what they still are nowadays. Their parents went on vacation together with them, had game-nights, and they are still really good friends today – just like Jaskier and Geralt. Once they were old enough to not need a babysitter their parents went out together, while Geralt and Jaskier spent the evenings together in front of the TV, watching trash-horror-movies – needless to say that Jaskier was the one hiding behind a pillow, while Geralt chuckled to himself watching his best friend nearly shit his pants.

When they got older, they went to University together, helped the other through heartache, and Geralt even hit the asshole that cheated on Jaskier, because he deserved it. Whenever they needed the other, they were there – and that was still true today, after so many years. Nothing ever happened between them, not even a drunken kiss. They danced together, laughed together and felt normal, no racing hearts, no butterflies... But a few nights ago, everything changed at least for Geralt.

They were out, drinking and Jaskier had too much, so Geralt took him home to his own apartment, not wanting to leave his best friend alone for the night in case he had to throw up. Jaskier cuddled up to Geralt all the way home, and once they were inside, he immediately went for the bedroom, because he knew Geralt's home like the back of his hand. Geralt just wanted to put a blanket on him and sleep on the sofa, but Jaskier pulled him close.

“I need you here,” Jaskier mumbled, cuddling up to Geralt, wrapping his arms around his best friend. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep, but Geralt... He stayed awake half the night watching Jaskier. His heart beat so fast that it was hard for him to calm down. Everywhere Jaskier's body touched him, he felt little tingles that settled in the pit of his stomach. Oh, Geralt knew that feeling. It was a wonderful feeling, but nothing that he wanted to have when he thought about his best friend. They'd touched a thousand times – nothing had happened. But that night... Everything changed for him, but he didn't want anything to change between them. That was why he should keep his distance to figure out what he was going to do with this, but... When Jaskier calls, Geralt is there for him.

“There you are!” Jaskier's face lights up the moment he sees Geralt. There are already two ales in front of him, and he pushes one towards his friend. “You've made yourself so scarce the last few days, I'm glad that we can finally spend another evening together.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Geralt apologises, sliding onto the barstool and reaching for the ale. “Work as always.” It isn't exactly a lie, because his work can get kind of stressful and take up a lot of time, but not this week. He needed to figure out what to do about his feeling the last couple of days, but by now, he still doesn't have a solution, because he doesn't want to destroy their friendship. For so many years, they've been friends, so why is he all of a sudden feeling like a teenager in love around Jaskier? Because he is in love... in love with his best friend, but he has no idea what Jaskier feels.

“Sounds like you need a new job,” Jaskier muses, but he knows that this will never happen, because Geralt loves what he does for a living, which is something you do not find that often. Jaskier himself is lucky enough that he can earn money with his music. It's not that he's standing on big stages, but he writes music for others, fills the pubs around town and sometimes even teaches music. He loves what he does as well, but it's not really stressful.

“We both know that's not going to happen.” Geralt smiles to himself before he raises tha ale to his lips, eyes still lingering on Jaskier. He can't deny the way Jaskier makes him feel. It's not a couple of butterflies anymore, it's a whole as butterfly-farm that are doing somersaults in his stomach, almost to the point where he wants to throw up. If only he could get that stupid smile out of his face, Geralt would feel a lot better, but he's not able to do so. Whenever he looks at Jaskier, he simply has to smile, because he's happy.

“Yeah, probably not.” Jaskier chuckled, his eyes twinkling. Jaskier proceeds to tell Geralt about his day, which is nothing unusual. Once Jaskier starts talking, it's difficult to shut him up. Usually, Geralt interrupts him at one point, tells him that they need to go dancing or whatever just so that Jaskier stops talking, but not this time. Jaskier talks and talks, until he gets frustrated, because Geralt doesn't interrupt or stop him. “Gods, what is going on with you? You've never ever let me talk this long without complaining. Why don't you shut me up like you usually do?”

There is a note of irritation in his voice. Geralt can't help himself when his eyes drop to Jaskier's lips. His mind has been all over the place during the conversation, his eyes looking everywhere – Jaskier seems to be oblivious to that.

“You want me to shut you up?” Geralt asks, his eyes slowly wandering from his best friend's lips up to meet his eyes.

Jaskier's lips part, but no sound comes out at first. His tongue darts out to wet his lips. Is he imagining things or are things getting hotter in here all of a sudden? There is only one way to find out.

“Yes?!” Though it sounds almost like a question, because he isn't entirely sure, whether he is interpreting Geralt's words correctly, but he wants this, wants to find out where this leads.

It's now or never, and though he won't be able to blame it on the alcohol – which would be a save option to play it down in the end – Geralt leans forward. For days, he's been dreaming about this moment, but now that it's really here, Geralt is a little nervous. His fingers tremble slightly when he cups Jaskier's cheek right before their lips connect. It's everything he thought it would be and so much more. The tingles are there again immediately, starting from his lips, moving like a buzzing sensation through his whole body, settling in his stomach again. When he feels Jaskier's fingers in his own hair, fingernails grazing his scalp until both hands settle in his neck, Geralt is completely lost. Is this some kind of dream or is this really happening. Geralt slides off his barstool to step between Jaskier's thighs, deepening the kiss. Jaskier's legs wrap around him immediately, trapping him in place.

They only part when they both need to draw oxygen into their lungs. Geralt's hands both drop to Jaskier's waist, his thumbs skimming over his sides.

“Fucking finally,” Jaskier says against his best friend's lips, their foreheads resting against each other. “I've been thinking about this since we last met.” It's a confession he didn't plan on making, but now the words are out and he'd happy about it, he even smiles.

“Me too,” Geralt admits, placing another chaste kiss on Jaskier's lips, before he pulls back a little bit so he can look in these brilliant blue eyes. “I just didn't think you'd feel the same way... I mean after all these years, and there was never...” He's searching for the right words, but as per usual, Jaskier finds them.

“That spark. But it's there now. A thousand touches, but the 1001st was the one that changed everything.” Jaskier smiles and lets his hands drop down to Geralt's chest, starts drawing lazy circles with his thumbs. “There have been so many nights where I felt like something was missing, and when I slept by your side, woke up next to you, I knew that you were the thing that's been missing.”

“Jask...” Geralt says with a smile. He's known Jaskier long enough to know just how poetic he can get, but having these words aimed at him directly, is something else entirely. Something that makes his heart beat even faster and harder for the man he's known most of his life.

“I'm not finished,” Jaskier says, his words earning him a chuckle from Geralt. He should have known. “I've told you about my problem so many times, and you've always been there for me, but now I know... I know that you're the key to everything. The key to solving these problem. You always have been.”

“Gods, Jaskier!” Geralt says shaking his head. He has to stop him before Jaskier manages to make Geralt cry with his words, because they touch his heart, his soul. It's everything he'd wanted, and now, he has his best friend and his lover all rolled into one in his arms. And to keep him from talking more and more, Geralt leans in again to kiss Jaskier. A good way to shut his best friend up. A very good way.

[froggy-frogz]

2014!Raph x Reader

Request: How about some fukin uhhhh 2014 raph with a reader he has a crush on? Male reader again w afab or not 👉👈 how boys and reader met can be up to u but the reader gets along well w all of them,, enjoying video games and play fights with them a bit.

A/N: Sorry for the wait @fuck-mcgee !! But here’s your request <3

Warnings: None really, just male pronouns

    You had known Raphael and his brother for a good year now.  It was thanks because of April O'Neil, your good friend from work, where you were interning.  [ It was because April hadn't been to work for a few days, so you went looking for her, and you may or may not have stumbled into the turtles’ lair.]

   Yep, you worked with her on Channel 6.

   When you weren't at work, you were mostly in the lair with the four brothers. You found them sweet, in their own ways, but you found one of them you preferred over the others; Raph.

   This was one of the said times you were at the lair, and you were lounging around, making the best of your afternoon by not moving at all, and by also watching Leo and Mikey spare, because it was sort of entertaining. 

   You were lazily watching, trying not to fall asleep because you haven't moved in a good minute when the couch lurched and an arm was draped across the back of the couch.

   "Hey handsome, didn't know ya were dropping by today." The figure next to you rumbled, making your insides lurch and you were mysteriously wide awake again.

   How you didn't hear Raph approach was a mystery, but now the giant was sitting right next to you.

   Like, right next to you, as in his side was digging into yours. Not like you minded, but your heart was racing.

   It was second nature, but you gently leaned into him and snorted, "Was planning on coming over tomorrow but Mikey texted me and said he wanted someone to watch him beat Leo at sparring so he'd have proof-" 

   Raph cocks an eyebrow as you turn your head to him, "Mikey asked that ya come over? Damn, babe, if you needed an invitation I could have given ya one."

   Your heart swells at his words and, you grin and playfully punch his arm, "I'm going to hold you to that-" You hesitate for a second before grinning at him, "You want to ditch these two and go do something actually interesting?"

   Before Raph can respond, Mikey pauses, "Angelcheeks, don't leave with him," He pouts, "We can do something together, all of us."

   "Mmm? And what's that?" You ask as you try not to snicker at the furious look on his face as Mikey talked.

   "Video games, c'mon please?" He begged, getting up from his spot next to Leo, "Pleaseeeeeeeeeeee-"

   When you finally cave after another good minute of on and off whining from Mikey, he cheers and runs off, to 'go get Donnie so we can all play together'.    Once everyone was on the couch and had a controller, you found yourself pressed against Raph, again, as his plastron dug into your arm. Good god, you were sure you would pass away right then and there.

  "Alright, we can start with Mario Cart- and maybe then after that we can play Smash Brothers?" Mikey chirps, and both you and Donnie nod, even though Leo and Raph look less... happy about the current arrangement.

   "Oh come on Raphie, don't you want to play video games with me?" You playfully pout, laying your head on his giant forearm muscle, as you look up with him. 

   He grunts and gives you a questionable look before sighing, "Of course babe, just not with them." He says the last part a little louder, probably so Mikey could hear.

   You could hear Mikey snicker, "What? So you can have some quiet time with [Y/n], it's sort of obvious with how much time you spend with him that you l" 

   Raph sends Mikey a death glare before sharply speaking, "Let's just play the damn game."

   Thankfully, no one said anything else as Mario Cart booted up, though you felt like you could choke on how little air was passing through your lungs. Was Mikey about to say that Raph likes you? It couldn't be... You got along with him, and you two were close, that was all...

   There was no way he could like you the way you liked him. 

   For all you knew, Raph could be straight. There was no way he could like guys.

   "Hey, [Y/n]," Raph rumbles, "Ya alright?"

   He gets closer, ignoring the game for a second to move his face closer to yours, "You're all red, are you feeling sick?"

   You gulp, and shake your head, "No I'm fine... It's just a little stuffy in here."

   That answer seemed to be good with him cause he nods, and turns his attention back to the game, and you have to hold back a sigh.

   Though, after Mikey won game after game, you felt a little woozy, and leaned into Raph, "Raph, can we go to your room? It's... um, too hot in here."

   It was almost automatic that Raph dropped his controller, "Alright babe, let's go-" He rumbles, scooping you up, "I think [Y/n] has come down with something, I'm going to take him into the other room."

   There were protests from Mikey, but they dimmed down the closer you got to Raph's room, and as soon as you two were inside, Raph shuts his door and locks it.

"Ya should nap for a little, you're probably tired." Raph's voice gets quiet, as he sets you on his bed, "So, go nap."

   "Wow, Raphael saying please, wouldn't ever imagine that." You curl up into his blankets, closing your eyes, but a grin tugged at your lips. He didn't get a chance to backtalk as you squint an eye open, "Um, would, you like to cuddle me? Please?"

   Raph snorted, "Me? Cuddle ya? Babe, I'm not the most comfortable to lay on, ya better cuddling a pillow."

   "Please Raphie? For a little bit, and than you can do something else-" You plead, opening both eyes to give him the most pleading look you can give him.

   Raph groans, and slinks into the bed with him, "Fine, but never call me that again..." His voice lowers, "You're lucky I love ya."

   You freeze, every muscle in your body tenses up. "Raph... Could you repeat that? That las... last part?"

   He must not even have realized what he said as he looks to you in what looked like a pure and utter shock. 

  "Shit bab- [Y/n], ya probably don't feel the same-" He mumbles, shifting away from you, hiding his gaze. His usual behavior shifted to one that seemed a lot more, embarrassed. 

   "Raphael, look at me." You say softly, reaching out without thinking to cup his cheek, "Could you repeat the last part?"

   There was a pause, and a sigh, before Raph nods, "Erm, what I said was, 'you're lucky I love ya', but ya probably don't like me like that-"

   You have to let out a suprised laugh before you wrap your arm around his neck and you pull yourself into him, "Raph... I love you too, I was just really scared that... you didn't like me like that."

   He blinks, and his demeanor shifts back to his usual one, and his hands cup your sides, "Well, babe, guess I should of known with how flustered ya been getting recently."

   "Shut up-" You groan, "It's your fault I was that red."

  "Mmm, I think ya will have to shut me up, I like teasing ya." He moves you closer to his chest, to where you two are close together, and you can feel his breath on your lips.

   It takes you a minute to process what he said before you hesitantly lean into him, your lips brushing against his. You weren't going to go any closer because you were unsure on how far to take things so you wouldn't make Raph uncomfortable but he made it obvious that he was very, very comfortable as his hands travel to your shirt collar to yank you deeper into the kiss.

   When you two pull back, you can tell your face is red but, Raph doesn't seem to care, "Will ya be my boyfriend babe?"

   "Mmm, let me think about that-" You tease, pretending to think as you shift in his arms, "Of course Raphie-"

   There was a groan behind the door that's mixed up with a Mikey-sounding cheer, "I knew it! Pay up Leo!"

  Raph's the one to turn red now and, he lets out a growl and pulls you closer to him, "Goddamnit Mikey!"

[occidentaltourist]

The Unbearable Whiteness of (Comics) Beings

An excellent thread by Gene Demby, correspondent and co-host of NPR’s Code Switch podcast, on the deeply embedded whiteness of Marvel and DC comics characters.

From Droll Embiid.@GeeDee215:

A quick thing about Isaiah on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

About a decade ago, I interviewed Robert Morales, who invented that character for Marvel in 2001. The result was "Truth: Red, White, And Black" which recast the story of Captain America's origins as part of a Tuskegee Syphillis Study-like plot.

In Robert's story, the US rounded up hundreds of Black GIs in a segregated battalion during WWII to use as guinea pigs. The US is trying to re-create the procedure used to turn Steve Rogers into Cap.

They get it wrong — a lot. Almost all of the Black men they round up die.

Only five of the 300 Black men subjected to the super-soldier experiments survive the process; of that five, Isaiah is the only Black super-soldier who survives the war, and he is thrown in prison for decades.

"It was so depressing I didn't think they would approve it," Robert told me. ""But it was depressingly realistic. And *likely.*

"Robert died in 2013. But his revision of the Cap story was part of a wider on-page reckoning w/ the whiteness of the stories in the mainline MCU/DCU.

The Kents of Smallville, as one example, were reimagined as radical abolitionists — Free-Staters who settled in Kansas to oppose the state from becoming a slave state. Clark Kent, then, would be directly downstream from the principles of his forebears.

It's a very liberal inclination — positioning the Kents on the side of justice for a century-plus before the space-ship landed on their farm.

but it skips over some bigger, more important question about race and power: like how is it that whiteness was literally so universal that both a Kansan *and* a Kryptonian might possess it?

Much more under the cut.

Black mainline comics writers kept playing with these premises. The legendary Dwayne McDuffie, wrote his Black superman analogue Icon as having become Black upon imprinting on the enslaved Black woman in the American south who found and adopted it.*

*why this character was still -male- is...yeah.

anyway, a lot of mainstream superheroes, in their reimaginings, have to nod to the oppression in this country. (There was an aside in one of the Nolan Batman jawns that positioned the Batcave as originally a hideout the Waynes used for fugitives on the Underground Railroad.)

And i think that speaks to how deeply embedded the whiteness of these characters is.

The Green Lantern's power ring had to scan the earth for the bravest person in a world of billions of people and...decided that its rightful bearer was a white fighter pilot from the Midwest?

anyway, more later!

okay, so young Kal-El rocketed across the cosmos as a baby in a spaceship before crash-landing in a field in Kansas. He was Kryptonian but also, somehow, a white boy. Which brings us back to this question upthread: whiteness could literally span the cosmos?

in those Silver Age days, that's literally how they explained it: he could be a white American because there were white Kryptonians.

This was underscored by the fact that they created distinctly *Black* Kryptonians — who lived in a place called Vathlo Island.

Vathlo Island "retained its independence throughout history and did not join the planetary federation, though good relations were maintained."

Kryptonian Wakanda, I guess.(Yes, I know i'm mixing universes to make that metaphor work. calm down, nerds.)

Not long after that first (and one of the only) references to Vathlo Island in 1971, Neal Adams, a white artist at DC, asked his editor a q: what happens if Hal Jordan — the Green Lantern —  dies? The editor told him that there would then be a backup Lantern.

The backup Green Lantern they had in mind was a white gym teacher who used to play Big 10 football.

Again: the bravest person in the world was a white USian dude.

Adams eventually pushed back, and along w/ Dennis O'Neil, created a Black character to take over the GL mantle: an ex-Marine named John Stewart.

(Adams told me his editor originally wanted to name the character Lincoln Washington, but he talked him out of it. Phew.)

Again, y'all see the problems here — the bravest person in the world is still a male, a USian and a member of the US, military? — but as representation went, Stewart was better than a lot of the other Black superheroes that DC tried their hands at.

In the 70s, DC created Black Lightning (who was black and electrical), Black Goliath (black and a giant), and Nubia ( black...and Wonder Woman). And at Marvel there was Luke Cage, who, in his earliest pre-dab incarnations, was a jive-talking powerhouse in butterfly collars.

Anyway, the upshot here is that John Stewart taking over the Green Lantern mantle...stuck with Dwayne McDuffie, who created the Milestone comics imprint under DC in the 1990s, featuring all characters of color.

(Milestone's Superman analogue, Icon, mentioned upthread, became a way to embody and critique a certain kind of ascendent respectability politics; he was, after all, essentially a Black cop. Milestone was already playing with chewier ideas around race than mainline DC.)

McDuffie would eventually become a the principal player in the DC Animated Universe. When they were creating the Justice League animated series, underlined that there way that the show could have a team in which everyone — even the aliens Kal-El and Hawkgirl! — were white.so instead of Hal Jordan, the original Green Lantern, taking his traditional place as at the Justice League table , the animated series launched with John Stewart in that role.

The show debuted in 2001 and became a huge hit. McDuffie often pointed out that, as a result, a generation of younger fans who were introduced to the character through the animated series had only ever known a Black Green Lantern.

(There were a lot of reasons the 2011 Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie failed, and the "who tf is THIS guy?" factor probably played some role in it.)

There's a lot more, obviously. But some of these IPs — Batman and Superman and Captain America, in particular — are 80+ years old. They're holdovers from a pre-Civil Rights Act America, a pre-Stonewall America, etc. They represent a bunch of stuff that is ever harder to update.

And it will be interesting to watch how that chafes against the the fact that they are more valuable and popular than they've ever been. Could a critique of the premises of the Cap origin story, like Robert Morales', even happen today?

[theseaeaglelives]

Round 11

THE SEA EAGLE

MAKING RUGBY LEAGUE TRULY GREAT AGAIN!!!

Round 11

Manly Sea Eagles      28

Defeated 

Parramatta Eels        6

This was a display of muscle, power and solid defence tinged also with sadness following news of the unfortunate passing of immortal and Manly legend Bob Fulton who for obvious reasons will be the focus of this week’s report (see below). Bozo’s passing no doubt cast a shroud of sadness over the Manly camp, but not surprisingly showing due respect to the great man, Manly smashed the hapless Eels into submission in this away fixture at Bankwest.

Manly now have staked their claim as a genuine top eight side and possible top four contender (as long as Tommy Turbo plays).

Manly were up for a big game and they delivered. Manly have now gone from wooden spoon contenders to top 8 contenders in the space of 6 weeks. In fact as it stands today, only the high rolling Panthers and to a lesser extent, the Filthy Wrestlers are playing in better form.

The impact of the Manly forwards in taking the game to their allegedly more fancied Eels rivals cannot be underestimated in this one. Manly gave it to the Eels forward pack and came up convincing winners. When the Manly forwards dominate in a side that contains the likes of Tommy Turbo (and also the second Turbo known simply as Saab Turbo - ie Jason Saab), backed up with the skill and class of Cherry Baby and Turbo's brother Jake, rising star Josh Schuster and quality goal kicking from Ruben Garrick, it will take a very good side to defeat Manly.  

In this fixture that side was certainly not Parramatta.

Special mention must also go to young Reuben Garrick who is sharp shooter with the kicking boot , and is now showing a lot of class on the wing. Young Garrick, a Gerringong junior formerly mentored by Eel legend Mick Cronin, could well have drifted away this season, but he has held strong, no doubt under the coaching of master coach Des Hasler. Manly are the better for it.

The Sea Eagle would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the performance of ever improving centre Brad Parker. The Sea Eagle now officially retracts all prior criticism of the attributes of Brad Parker in questioning his ability as a genuine first grader. The time has come to announce that Brad Parker certainly is now of first grade quality and the Sea Eagle publicly apologises for all prior criticism in not recognising what obviously the Manly football management and coaching staff clearly did, and that was to persevere with young Parker.

Wallabies now sponsored by Cadbury

Cadbury now sponsor the Wannabees.

How did Darrel Lea let this one slip by, who wouldn’t want to see the brand “Soft Centres” on the back of each Wallaby player???

Still, we still have the prospect of a Wallaby renaming to the Caramello Bears to look forward to.

 Or perhaps:

   And, as a sponsor incentive, if they start winning some big games (to wit a Bledisloe Cup or a World Cup):

  At least we won’t have to put up with QANTAS as a Wannabee sponsor and their Woke view on the world. The handling of the Israel Folau debacle surely must be placed at the feet of this shameful airline (personal opinion).

Woke Soft Co8!ck Award of the Week

Absolute stand out this week. The organisation known as PETA. These clowns go by the name People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Their motto “ANIMALS ARE NOT OURS TO EXPERIMENT ON, EAT, WEAR, USE FOR ENTERTAINMENT, OR ABUSE IN ANY OTHER WAY”

This week these geniuses disputed the traditional methods used  to eradicate the potential life threatening consequences of the western NSW mouse plague (life threatening terms of destruction of food for livestock and for humans to eat). Those methods being poison and associated other nasties to send said rodents to Manyana for ever.

As per the 3AW website on 19 May 2021

Animal rights organisation PETA is advocating for mice, as a mouse plague wreaks havoc in NSW, Queensland and some parts of regional Victoria.

Crops are being destroyed, farmhouses are being invaded, and there are reports some farmers are being forced to spend up to six hours cleaning up mouse droppings.

….

In a radio interview ****, PETA spokesperson XXXX , …

“Our common advice to rodent overpopulation is, of course, to avoid poison which subjects these animals to unbearably painful deaths but also pose the risk of spreading bacteria, and there are alternatives which exist,” she said.

XXXXX blamed governments for the mouse plague.

“It is so unfair that these mice are going to suffer these horrible deaths,” she said.

“It’s the fault of the government because they really should have taken control of this situation earlier .. through humane methods like humane trapping, birth control.

“Their inaction months ago has led to this situation.

“The situation has gotten so bad that not only farmers are suffering, but mice are suffering.””

Sea Eagle Comment:

Whilst cruelty to animals can never be condoned, and live exports fits nicely into that basket, the simple fact remains that humans like beef, chicken, pork, fish, kangaroo, veal and a range of other animals to eat. As well, there is no doubt a wild fish (eg Shark) or mammal (eg bear, dog, lion, tiger etc etc) will not hesitate to take out a human or anything else within its range, in order to eat, or defend themselves, at will, and with impunity. So too will a plague of mice if given half a chance.

Have these clowns never heard of the famous fairy tale the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Perhaps one of them could go through their school things, pull out the old recorder, and take a trip to the Western NSW and see if they can play a nice little ditty to persuade these rodents to follow them into to the Murray Darling basin (PETA members going in first), in order to avoid mice extermination by poison (or attempted extermination by poison by humans). Death under this scenario of course, still being inevitable to said mouse.

The Sea Eagle recognises here that the mice have the upper hand. Firstly though they be small, they be many, and they reproduce at exponential rates. It is probably already too late to stop them.

The Sea Eagle would personally like to see a few card carrying members of PETA, as part of the 2021 Origin series pre game entertainment, to be forced to run successive sets of six against the respective NSW Under 18’s and Queensland Under 18’s forward packs, the task being to see if PETA can break the defensive line. Who wouldn’t want to see that.

And, in the interest of gender equality, perhaps a pre match parade around the ground (if for no other reason than to see how a rugby league crowd might react to a bit of gender equality morphed into animal rights activism) – ie. something along these lines:

  VALE BOB FULTON

Manly Sea Eagles legend and rugby league Immortal Bob Fulton has died at age 74 after a long battle with cancer. The news was announced on 2GB by one of Bob Fulton’s closest friends, Ray Hadley.

The legendary Manly, NSW and Australian representative is survived by his wife Anne, sons Scott, and Brett, and daughter Kristie.

Bob Fulton joined Manly in 1966 aged 18. He never played reserve grade. He  won premierships with the club in 1972 and 1973 before captaining the Sea Eagles to a third title in 1976, in his last game for the club. He also played in two other grand finals for Manly in 1968 and 1970 where Mainly were unsuccessful against the then mighty South Sydney Rabbitohs.

He joined Easts in 1977. He took over as captain-coach of Easts in 1979 but his playing career came to an end midway through the season after succumbing to a knee injury. With Bob Fulton as full time coach, Easts qualified for the 1980 grand final and were minor premiers that season. Unfortunately, Easts lost the 1980 grand final losing to the then very strong Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs (the Entertainers).

At this point, mention needs to be made of the well known phenomenon known simply as “they never go better when they leave the Nest”.

In the case of Bob Fulton, he is an obvious exception to the rule. Whilst it's true he did not win a Premiership for Easts after having left Manly in the late 70’s, it could hardly be said that he went worse, particularly when he was coming off an exceptionally high benchmark. He still played for Australia and captained Australia through to the end of his career. That he  made a GF in his first full year of first grade coaching, proves that he certainly did not go too much worse, in fact he was only just beginning his meteoric rise as a coach.

Bob Fulton of course returned to Manly in 1983, where he stayed for the rest of his rugby league career. After losing the 1983 grand final to the then mighty Parramatta Eels, he steered  Manly to premierships in 1987 and 1996, and coached Australia from 1989 to 1998. During this period he coached Manly to 5 grand finals for two Premiership wins.

This coaching record alone proves that it is well and truly possible for a former Manly player to maintain the same high standards when they return to the Nest, and there's no doubt that Bob Fulton maintained the same high levels of winning success upon his return to Manly as coach and the absolute head of football during that time.

As an Australian Test coach he led the Kangaroos to two World Cup victories and numerous test successes.

Bob Fulton was part of the first four players to be granted status as ‘Immortal’ in 1981, alongside Clive Churchill, Reg Gasnier, and Johnny Raper. To be named in the Immortals is the highest honour in Australian rugby league and there can be no doubt that Bob Fulton deserved that accolade.

 Manly have had some very good players over the history. Players like Roy Bull, Rex Mossop, John O'Neill, Malcolm Reilly, Fred Jones, Max Krillich, Graham Eadie, Terry Randall, Paul Vautin, Des Hasler, Cliff Lyons, Michael O'Connor, Geoff Toovey, Steve Menzies, Glenn and Brett Stewart, to name a few. No doubt there are plenty more, who cannot be named in the interests of brevity. And then there is the current crop of Cherry Baby, Jake Trbojevic and of course his brother Tommy Turbo.

With that said, and in such illustrious company, there is still no doubt that the best Manly player ever was Bob Fulton.

As a Coach, whilst it might be considered a close thing when one considers the top line coaching abilities of the likes of Ron Willey, Frank Stanton and current coach Des Hasler, in the Sea Eagle’s opinion, Bob Fulton was the best Manly coach of all time.

The Sea Eagle had the privilege of watching Bob Fulton play live on many occasions as a young lad growing up. Simply put there was nothing quite like him. He was remarkably strong defensively, had blinding acceleration, he could draw and pass, he could offload, he could chip over the top regather and score, and he was not injury prone. Above all else, he was always the difference between Manly winning and not losing, when it really mattered.

The Sea Eagle recalls seeing on one occasion in the 70’s, at a church at Manly, a sign displayed that asked the simple question “What would you do if Jesus returned tomorrow?”. In a time when Graffiti was unheard of, someone had written their well-researched answer underneath said sign, which was “put him at 5/8 and move Bobby Fulton to centre”.

There is not much more that needs or can be said.

May he rest in peace.

 THE SEA EAGLE

[starrybouquet]

The Scorns of Time

The Stargate throws SG-1 into the future.

For Sam/Jack Ship Day 2020. This grew waaay longer than intended, and Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c begged for their own chapters. So this is now a WIP. I'm sorry. XD Hope you enjoy. :)

Read on AO3 or under the cut:

“Daniel. You’re late,” Jack O’Neill said impatiently, tapping his P90 against his thigh as Daniel joined the rest of SG-1 in the ‘Gate room.

“Sorry, guys. I forgot to eat dinner--didn’t realize it was time to gear up yet.” Daniel rubbed his eyes blearily. “Why do we have to ‘Gate out so late, again?”

“Carter?” Jack turned to his left.

“P7X-047 has a thin atmosphere, so it gets cold at night, despite having a temperate climate during the day,” she explained. “But it’s much larger than Earth, so one day there is equivalent to roughly three Earth days. Our mission was scheduled for 2330 in order to maximize daylight. The sun rose on P7X-047 just-”

She was interrupted by the kawoosh of the Stargate. “SG-1, you have a go,” Hammond’s voice boomed through the speaker.

Jack gave a lazy salute and trudged up the ramp beside Teal’c, Carter and Daniel right behind them.

They stepped through the blue puddle into a room. The room had no windows, and was eerily silent, lit only by dim yellow lights. The walls were lined with bronze plaques and display cases, marching down far into the gloom.

"Uh...Carter?" Jack swung his P90 around. “I was promised a sunrise.”

Carter shook her head, alarmed. "This isn't P7X-047, sir."

Jack raised his eyebrow in an unspoken question.

"Sir, I don't know what happened. The dialing sequence was completely normal."

He sighed. Why couldn't they ever do anything the easy way? "Alright. Daniel, dial us back."

"O'Neill," Teal'c said from his left. "There does not appear to be a dial home device in the vicinity."

"Carter!" Jack swung back around to scowl at his 2IC.

She shrugged helplessly. "The MALP showed visual confirmation of a DHD, sir. But this definitely isn't P7X-047."

"Uh, guys?" Daniel said, in the tone that tended to make Jack do a mental count of how much ammo they had. "You might want to see this."

The three other members of SG-1 trooped over to where Daniel was standing, inspecting one of the plaques. He turned, eyes wide and befuddled behind his wire-rimmed glasses, and gestured to the left side of the large plaque.

Jack's hand spasmed on his P90, and beside him he felt Carter tense.

There, mounted on the wall and chiseled out in bronze, was a picture of them.

"Daniel," Jack enunciated carefully. "Why are we here?" He waved his P90 at the display.

"Jack, it's in English!”

Carter peered at the plaque.

"Sir, Daniel's right. And...it's talking about us."

"What?"

"At the inception of Stargate Command in 1997, a flagship exploration team was established under the command of Colonel Jack O'Neill. Known as SG-1, they became Earth's first and most vital line of defense against the Goa'uld," Carter read. Her shocked voice echoed in the silence of the room.

"It's surprisingly detailed and entirely accurate, at least so far," Daniel offered.

Carter looked around the room wildly, and then her worried blue eyes locked onto his own.

"Sir, I think we've traveled to the future."

“The future.”

She nodded. "Just like when we were thrown back to 1969, a solar flare must have occurred at the exact moment we went through the 'Gate. Except this time, it threw us forward in time instead of backwards. Sir, we're still on Earth."

"Then where is everybody?"

"I have no idea. We could be hundreds of years in the future. The SGC could be abandoned." Carter was talking quickly, and he could see the gears spinning in her mind, thinking of all the possibilities.

"So...what do we do?"

"I guess the only thing we can do is read the plaques,” Daniel offered. “This is clearly a museum exhibit of some kind--maybe it'll give us a clue where and how the Stargate can be operated in this time frame."

"Museum time. Great. Thought museums were only for rocks."

"These aren't artifacts, Jack. Well, they are. But to us, they're our life.”

"Hold on, Daniel. I don't know if we want to do that,” Carter said carefully.

"Not seeing any other way to get out of here, Carter,” Jack put in mildly.

"Well, we can't pollute the timeline. What if we learn something about our future that causes us to change it? We should try to make contact with someone, get help."

"Daniel Jackson, O’Neill, Major Carter," Teal’c called from behind them. “There is something of interest here.”

They trooped over to Teal’c, who gestured to an inconspicuous sign mounted on a pole to the side of the ‘Gate.

Daniel inspected the sign. "This is written in Asgard. It says, 'this is a shrine to those who called themselves the Tau'ri. Though the rest of their planet is no longer habitable and the species has ceased to exist as it once was, we have preserved their history as they had recorded it, in hopes that other descendants of the Ancients may come of age and learn their history.'" He turned to the rest of the team. "Earth is abandoned."

Jack sighed. "Guess we're not getting any help. Carter, what if we just...promise not to tell anyone? Pinky swear?"

"I don't see another option, sir," she agreed, moving to the wall and beginning to read.

At first, it was interesting and a little gratifying to read about herself. Sam was honored and amazed that of all the things someone had chosen to memorialize and preserve the history of them--SG-1. She skimmed through the parts she already knew, figuring there wouldn't be much information there. As she approached the part about her future hesitantly, she noticed a section titled Life Outside the SGC. Apprehensively, she began to read.

As was common during the early decades of the SGC, Samantha Carter lived a quiet, solitary life outside Cheyenne Mountain. SGC personnel in general during this time struggled to maintain personal relationships when their life’s work was top-secret yet all-encompassing.

They got that right. Sam stole a glance at the profile of her CO, studying his own display, before continuing her reading.

Though the reveal of the Stargate program to the general public removed these barriers for most SGC personnel, Carter’s meager off-base presence would stay the same for the rest of her life. Due to her overnight fame as one of the most prominent faces of the SGC, she retreated even further from Earthside life after the program went public. Carter never married and kept a tight lid on her friendships, even with the other former members of SG-1.

After retirement, Carter became increasingly reflective on her life outside the SGC. Indeed, a retired Maj. Gen. Carter, in one of her last public interviews, lamented, "I was so focused on the stars that I refused to see what was right in front of me here on Earth, even when I needed it most." Much speculation has resulted from this cryptic comment, and the many similar ones that appeared regularly in the last years of her life.

Since her death, General Carter has become one of the most-studied heroes of all time. Military strategists are fascinated by her tactics, scientists by her numerous scientific achievements far ahead of her time, and historians by the duality of the various facets of Carter’s personality, and the psychological effects of being, effectively, a living legend at a scale previously confined to superhero comics.

Well, that was cheery. She repressed a shudder at the wrongness of the entire situation and headed for the next display.

After an hour of perusing the displays, they hadn’t found anything that gave any indication of how the Stargate could be dialed out. A quick exploration of the rest of the base revealed that all the rooms were either empty or stuffed with boxes, and the dialing computer was gone. Since they'd 'gated out so late, the Colonel announced that they'd all get some sleep and continue their search for a way to dial out in the morning. Finding two VIP quarters complete with beds and sheets in a display on "diplomacy at the SGC", they crashed the display and bunked down for the night. Daniel and Teal'c shared a room in order to spare the others from Daniel's snoring (it never bothered Teal'c’s kelnoreem), leaving Jack and Sam to share the other.

Sam tossed and turned for well over an hour before giving up on sleep. She sat up quietly, trying not to disturb the sleeping Colonel on the other side of the room, and made her way to the conference room. Usually, she’d have gone to her lab to think, but she’d found that her lab had apparently been demolished at some point, as all that stood in the space now was a conference room.

Which was why she was here, arms crossed, looking out of the viewing window blindly. That sentence she’d read kept echoing through her head, in an approximation of her mother's voice. I was so focused on the stars that I refused to see what was right in front of me here on Earth, even when I needed it most.

She'd never minded being a workaholic. Especially not since she'd begun working on the Stargate project. It was everything she’d ever dreamed of as a child looking up at the stars, better than being simply an astrophysicist and better than being an astronaut. And though she sometimes wanted someone to come home to, to share her bed at night and her shower in the morning (and here she tried very hard not to identify that “someone” in her head), she didn't think that was the be-all end-all of her life. She had the best friends anyone could ask for, she loved her job--all of it. And at the end of the day, there was no way anything could ever matter more than saving the world. She knew that.

Still...she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Even when I needed it most.

She heard footsteps, and saw the Colonel in the reflection of the glass.

“Carter?” He stepped further into the room.

“Sir,” she said, not turning away from the window. He came to stand beside her, hands shoved in pockets.

“Whatcha doin’?”

She sighed. “Just thinking about what I read today. It’s not every day you get to read a biography written years after your death.”

“Ah. Don’t think too much about it, Carter. All that time stuff--it can change, right? This is just one possible future, or whatever.”

Sam smiled a little. She doubted he realizes how much he revealed with that little piece of advice. He may not have been an astrophysicist, but Jack O’Neill was whip-smart, even if he did his best to hide it. “You’re right, sir. I guess it’s just hard not to think about it.”

They stood there for a while, just looking down at the ‘Gate. From this distance, the dim lighting and the clutter of museum displays around the room made the ‘Gate look more like the centerpiece of the dusty basement of an antique collector rather than an otherworldly piece of alien technology. The Colonel flicked at the dust particles gathered on the windowsill, letting her have her space.

“My life--it wasn’t a happy one,” she said eventually. “The plaques talk a lot about professional success. But in all the interviews, all the artifacts, I was bitter and cold. I said I regretted a lot of things.”

She turned anguished eyes onto him. “Am I really that selfish? They called me a superhero, said I saved the world. And I sat there, in those interviews--”

Her eyes moved back to the ‘Gate, and she felt her cheeks heat with shame, because he was her commanding officer and even worse, one of the people whose opinion she cared about most in all the world, but she couldn’t stop the words pouring out of her mouth.

“And the worst part of it? I agree with her, the Sam in the pictures. I agree. I looked at all those medals on my dress blues, and I read those interviews, and I agreed with her--me. This isn’t some alternate reality, it’s my future, and I don’t want to be some lonely husk of myself, just General Carter, no Sam. But I know it will happen, because it has happened. The case below the plaque about my life after my retirement--that’s all it has. A set of dress blues.”

She blinked back tears.

And then the Colonel--Jack--shifted towards her, as if he couldn’t help himself, and wrapped his arms carefully around her. She buried her head in his shoulder and relaxed into his embrace.

“It’s not a crime to want to be happy, Carter,” he said softly.

She stood in his arms like that for a while, much longer than she ever had before, and he seemed content to hold her, just letting her breathe.

Eventually, Sam felt tiredness settling into her bones. Her breath hitched, and she stifled a yawn.

"Think you can sleep now?" the Colonel asked, surprisingly relaxed given their position.

"I'm not sure."

"C'mon." He let his arms fall away, placed a hand at the small of her back, and steered her out of the conference room and back to their quarters.

He nudged her back toward her bed, pulled back the sheet, and nodded. "Go on, get in."

She tugged off her jacket and slid between the sheets, and he pulled them up and tucked her in carefully. Sam looked quizzically up at him, ready to apologize for falling apart, but there was nothing but care in his brown eyes. No discomfort, nothing.

Well, maybe something a little more intense than care that she couldn't name.

Sam thought he was heading back to bed himself. Which was why she was shocked when he circled to the other side of her bed instead, and lay down on his side facing her.

She rolled on her side as well, and their eyes locked.

"You won't end up alone, Carter," he whispered, never breaking eye contact. "I promise."

And his gaze was so intense, brown eyes fastened on her so completely, that she believed him.

"C'mere," Jack said in that same low tone, and pulled her toward him. He turned onto his back and settled her head into his shoulder, one arm securely around her waist, hand splayed against her back.

Sam didn't protest, didn't say anything, just turned her nose into the cotton of his black t-shirt and snuggled closer, sneaking a leg across one of his.

And in that moment, it didn't matter when they were, whether they were stuck centuries in the future. Her best friends in all the world were right down the hall, and she was in bed, in Jack's arms. And that was more than enough.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#3yrsago Weapons of Math Destruction: invisible, ubiquitous algorithms are ruining millions of lives

I've been writing about the work of Cathy "Mathbabe" O'Neil for years: she's a radical data-scientist with a Harvard PhD in mathematics, who coined the term "Weapons of Math Destruction" to describe the ways that sloppy statistical modeling is punishing millions of people every day, and in more and more cases, destroying lives. Today, O'Neil brings her argument to print, with a fantastic, plainspoken, call to arms called (what else?)  Weapons of Math Destruction.

Discussions about big data's role in our society tends to focus on algorithms, but the algorithms for handling giant data sets are all well understood and work well. The real issue isn't algorithms, it's models. Models are what you get when you feed data to an algorithm and ask it to make predictions. As O'Neil puts it, "Models are opinions embedded in mathematics."

Other critical data scientists, like Patrick Ball from the Human Rights Data Analysis Group have located their critique in the same place. As Patrick once explained to me, you can train an algorithm to predict someone's height from their weight, but if your whole training set comes from a grade three class, and anyone who's self-conscious about their weight is allowed to skip the exercise, your model will predict that most people are about four feet tall. The problem isn't the algorithm, it's the training data and the lack of correction when the model produces erroneous conclusions.

Like Ball, O'Neil is enthusiastic about the power of data-driven modelling to be a force for good in the world, and like Ball, she despairs at the way that sloppy statistical work can produce gigantic profits for a few companies at the expense of millions of people -- all with the veneer of mathematical objectivity.

O'Neil calls these harmful models "Weapons of Math Destruction," and not all fault models qualify. For a model to be a WMD, it must be opaque to its subjects, harmful to their interests, and grow exponentially to run at huge scale.

These WMDs are now everywhere. The sleazy for-profit educational system has figured out how to use models to identify desperate people and sucker them into signing up for expensive, useless "educations" that are paid for with punitive student loans, backed by the federal government. That's how the University of Phoenix can be so profitable, even after spending upwards of $1B/year on marketing. They've built a WMD that brings students in at a steady clip despite the fact that they spend $2,225/student in marketing and only $892/student on instruction. Meanwhile, the high-efficacy, low-cost community colleges are all but invisible in the glare and roar of the University of Phoenix's marketing blitzkreig.

One highly visible characteristic of WMDs is their lack of feedback and tuning. In sports, teams use detailed statistical models to predict which athletes they should bid on, and to deploy those athletes when squaring off against opposing teams. But after the predicted event has occurred, the teams update their models to account for their failings. If you pass on a basketball player who goes to glory for a rival team, you update your model to help you do better in the next draft.

Compare this with the WMDs used against us in everyday life. The largest employers in America use commercial services to run their incoming resumes against a model of a "successful" worker. These models hold your employment future in their hands. If one rejects you and you go on to do brilliant work somewhere else, that fact is never used to refine the model. Everyone loses: job-seekers are arbitrarily excluded from employment, and employers miss out on great hires. Only the WMD merchants in the middle make out like bandits.

It's worth asking how we got here. Many forms of WMD were deployed as an answer to institutional bias -- in criminal sentencing, in school grading, in university admissions, in hiring and lending. The models are supposed to be race- and gender-blind, blind to privilege and connections.

But all too often, the models are trained with the biased data. The picture of a future successful Ivy League student or loan repayer is painted using data-points from the admittedly biased history of the institutions. All the Harvard grads or dutiful mortgage payers are fed to the algorithm, which dutifully predicts that tomorrow's Harvard alums and prime loan recipients will look just like yesterday's -- but now the bias gets the credibility of seeming objectivity.

This training problem is well known in stats, but largely ignored by WMD dealers. Companies that run their own Big Data initiatives, by contrast, are much more careful about refining their models. Amazon carefully tracks those customers who abandon their shopping carts, or who stop shopping after a couple of purchases. Their interested in knowing everything they can about "recidivism" among shoppers, and they combine statistical modelling with anthropology -- seeking out and talking to their subjects -- to improve their system.

The contrast with automated sentencing software -- now widely used in the US judicial system, and spreading rapidly around the world -- could not be more stark. Like Amazon's data scientists, the companies that sell sentencing apps are trying to predict recidivism, and their predictions can send one person to prison for decades and let another go free.

These brokers are training their model on the corrupted data of the past. They look at the racialized sentencing outcomes of the past -- the outcomes that sent young black men to prison for years for minor crack possession, while letting rich white men walk away from cocaine possession charges -- and conclude that people from poor neighborhoods, whose family members and friends have had run-ins with the law, and "predict" that this person will reoffend, and recommend long sentences to keep them away from society.

Unlike Amazon, these companies aren't looking to see whether longer sentences cause recidivism (by causing emotional damage and social isolation) and how prison beatings, solitary confinement and prison rape are related to the phenomenon. If the prison system was run like Amazon -- that is, with a commitment to reducing reoffending, rather than enriching justice-system contractors and satisfying revenge-hungry bigots in the electorate -- it would probably look like a Nordic prison: humane, sparsely populated, and oriented toward rehabilitation, addiction treatment, job training, and psychological counselling.

WMDs have transformed education for teachers and students. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration seized on a report called A Nation at Risk, which claimed that the US was on the verge of collapse due to its falling SAT scores. This was the starter-pistol for an all-out assault on teachers and public education, which continues to this day.

The most visible expression of this is the "value added" assessment of teachers, which uses a battery of standardized tests to assess teachers' performance from year to year. The statistical basis for these assessments is laughable (statistics work on big numbers, not classes of 25 kids -- assessments can swing 90% from one year to the next, making them no better than random number generators). Teachers -- good teachers, committed teachers -- lose their jobs over these tests.

Students, meanwhile, are taken away from real learning in order to take more and more tests, and those tests -- which are supposed to measure "aptitude" and thus shouldn't be amenable to expensive preparatory services -- determine their whole futures.

The Nation at Risk report that started it all turned out to be bullshit, by the way -- grounded in another laughable statistical error. Sandia Labs later audited the findings from the report and found that the researchers had failed to account for the ballooning number of students who were taking the SATs, bringing down the average score.

In other words: SATs were falling because more American kids were confident enough to try to go to college: the educational system was working so well that young people who would never have taken an SAT were taking it, and the larger pool of test-takers was bringing the average score down.

WMDs turn the whole of human life into a game of Search Engine Optimization. With SEO, merchants hire companies who claim to have reverse-engineered Google's opaque model and whose advice will move your URL further  up in its ranking.

When you pay someone thousands of dollars to prep your kid for the SATs, or to improve your ranking with the "e-score" providers that determine your creditworthiness, jobworthiness, or mortgageworthiness, you're recreating SEO, but for everything. It's a grim picture of the future: WMD makers and SEO experts locked in an endless arms-race to tweak their models to game one another, and all the rest of us being subjected to automated caprice or paying ransom to escape it (for now). In that future, we're all the product, not the customer (much less the citizen).

O'Neil's work is so important because she believes in data science. Algorithms can and will be used to locate people in difficulty: teachers with hard challenges, people in financial distress, people who are struggling in their jobs, students who need educational attention. It's up to us whether we use that information to exclude and further victimize those people, or help them with additional resources

Credit bureaux, e-scorers, and other entities that model us create externalities in the form of false positives -- from no-fly lists to credit-score errors to job score errors that cost us our careers. These errors cost them nothing to make, and something to fix -- and they're incredibly expensive to us. Like all negative externalities, the cost of cleaning them up (rehabilitating your job, finding a new home, serving a longer prison sentence, etc) is much higher than the savings to the firms, but we bear the costs and they reap the savings.

It's E Pluribus Unum reversed: models make many out of one, pigeonholing each of us as members of groups about whom generalizations -- often punitive ones (such as variable pricing) can be made.

Modelling won't go away: as a tool for guiding caring and helpful remedial systems, models are amazing. As a tool for punishing and disenfranchising, they are a nightmare. The choice is ours to make. O'Neil's book is a vital crash-course in the specialized kind of statistical knowledge we all need to interrogate the systems around us and demand better.

 Weapons of Math Destruction [Cathy O'Neil/Crown]

https://boingboing.net/2016/09/06/weapons-of-math-destruction-i.html

[fardell24b]

Daria - Quinn’s Code - Cafe Geekdale - Part 1

Sunday, October 17, 2005

It was quiet in downtown Lawndale.

Too quiet.

Then the Alt.Lawndale.Com Cybercafe was broken into. The theives make off with computer equipment as an alarm rings. They manage to get away before the police arrive...

Quinn's Code (A Daria AU)

Installment 3: Cafe Geekdale

Monday, October 18, 2005

Quinn Morgendorffer grabbed the morning paper as she entered the kitchen. “Break in at downtown Cybercafe!” she exclaimed.

“Gaaaahhhhh! I thought this town was safe!” her father, Jake, exclaimed as he came into the kitchen.

“Daddy, the crime statistics for Lawndale are much lower than those for Highland,” Quinn said.

“They are?” Jake asked.

“Yes, the statistics for Highland are twenty times higher than those for Lawndale,” Quinn's sister, Daria, said as she approached the kitchen.

“Oh!” Jake said.

“What's this about a break-in?” Daria asked.

Quinn read from the paper; “Late last night, the Alt.Lawndale.Com Cybercafe was broken into and Computer equipment stolen, police sources say. This is the ninth break-in at a Lawndale business this year.”

Daria grabbed the paper from her sister and looked at the article herself. “Interesting,” she said.

“What is?” Quinn asked.

“It says here that the Cybercafe is jointly owned by the Carter County School District and Lawndale State University,” Daria said.

“That is interesting,” Quinn said.

“Are you saying that a cybercafe is owned by the educational institutions?” their mother, Helen, asked as she came to the kitchen.

Daria handed the paper to her mother.

“Oh, my! A break-in. That never happened to a cybercafe in Highland.”

“I don't think there are any cybercafe's in Highland,” Quinn said. “At least, I never heard of any,” she said.

“You do have a point there,” Helen said, after some thought.

“If there was, they would have been broken into almost as soon as they had opened,” Daria said as she put some bread into the toaster.

Both Helen and Quinn had to admit that was a correct assessment of that town.

“Well, this probably not the last time we're going to hear about this,” Helen concluded.

Quinn met her friends Kristen Bell and Cindy Robinson-Brolsma halfway to school, near Cindy's street.

“Hi, guys.” Quinn said, coming along side them.

“Hi, Quinn,” Kristen said, brushing her dyed red, bangs out of her eyes.

“Morning, Quinn,” Cindy said, as she pushed her trapezoidal glasses up her nose.

“Have you read the Sun-Herald this morning?” Quinn asked.

“I haven't, I usually read the paper after school,” Kristen said.

“This is about the Cybercafe, right?” Cindy asked.

“Right, it's bad that people break into places, but that is low. I mean some people can only get access to the internet at a cybercafe,” Quinn said.

“You're right, but that wasn't the only cybercafe that Lawndale has. There are a few others, and more in Oakwood and elsewhere in the county besides,” Cindy said.

“Oh,” Quinn said. 'Of course there would be more in town. Lawndale's almost a city afterall,' she thought.

“Mr. Fun's Games, Cafe and Internet is a particularly good one for instance,” Cindy said in remembrance.

“That's because you spent most of seventh grade playing Counter-Strike there.” Kristen said.

“Good times,” Cindy said.

'Counter-Strike? Eeeewww!' Quinn thought. Then again, she did play Halo on her X-Box. 'But that has a story.' “So that place is still open?” she said.

“Definitely!” Cindy said.

“With the VR-simulator and a 32 PC LAN, it is the most popular venue for multiplayer gaming in Lawndale,” Kristen said.

“Cool,” Quinn said.

“That is understating it,” Kristen said.

They continued talking about the many Cybercafes in Lawndale as they continued on their way to school.

“Class, I thought today we'd take a break from the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet to discuss the real life tragedy that happened last night here in Lawndale. Let's share our feelings of violation following the loss of our beloved cybercafe alt.lawndale.com,” Mr. O'Neill said to the Sophomore Language Arts class. “Who would like to start.” He looked at Kevin. “Charles? Charles, did you hear me?”

“You mean, Kevin?” Kevin said confused.

“Kevin, heh. I'm sorry. You uh, look like somebody else. What do you have to say about last night's horrible event?”

“I was home all night. You can ask my parents. Besides we have a computer,” Kevin said,

“No, Kevin. I mean, how did the theft make you feel?” the teacher asked.

'You're asking the wrong person!' Jennifer Burns thought. She thought that the break in at the Cybercafe was the action of people who should have known better.

“Um, sad?” Kevin finally said.

“Are you asking me or telling me?” Mr. O'Neill asked.

“Angry?” Kevin said.

Mr. O'Neill was in thought, then he asked Jodie Landon what she thought about the cybercafe break in.

“I think the cybercafé served one very particular segment of the community, but it still pisses me off when people take what isn't theirs,” Jodie said.

“That's how I feel!” Kevin broke in.

'Oh, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin!' Jennifer thought, knowing that the QB was a lost cause. 'Why does he have to focus on football so?'

“Thank you, Kevin. Jodie, about that word, 'community.' Isn't that the whole idea of a cybercafé? To jack us into the global community? I think what's most disturbing about this crime is the symbolism involved. Don't you agree, Jane?”

“No,” Jane Lane said.

“Suddenly, we're cut off. We can't hail our friends across the globe and say, '"It's a beautiful day in the cyberhood.' They didn't just take a few computers. They took the symbol of our virtual community. To visit alt.lawndale.com was to come together with the planet!”

'Cyberhood! I am sure Cindy, and a few others, would be pleased to correct you about that!' Jennifer thought.

“Oh, come on,” Daria said.

“Yes?” Mr. O'Neill asked.

“Come together with the planet? By staring at a screen for hours? Sitting in a room full of people you never say a word to?” Daria said.

'Very good point, Daria,' Jennifer thought.

“Hmm, Interesting point, Dorian,” the teacher said.

“It's Daria!” Daria exclaimed.

'Easy, Daria!' Jennifer thought.

Jane looked at Daria as if to say “What brought that on?”

“Sorry, Uh! Damn spiders. Daria, you believe that while connecting Lawndale citizens to our global neighbors, the cafe was alienating us from each other.”

“I'm saying if you really miss the place, put a Mr. Coffee in the computer lab,” Daria said.

“So, in your opinion, what we really need is a return to the traditional coffee house of yore, where you'd watch some performers and share a cup with your friends, face to face.”

'Uh, oh!' Jennifer thought.

“You're a visionary,” Jane said sardonically.

“The coffee house! We'll plan it, locate it, raise the money, and open it!”

Daria blanched “Would that qualify as an extracurricular activity?”

“Of course,” Mr O'Neill said.

“Then I'd like to register as a conscientious objector,” Daria said.

[meangirlsx]

Ship for @theatricalwriter 

Request: Can I get a for Mean Girls and DEH ship? I'm bi- I don't necessarily have much of a preference- and I'm a Ravenclaw. I'm an avid reader, so much to the point where I buy more books than I'm able to read. I'm also a big writer and I'm hoping to go into a career of musical theatre after college. (I also do a lot of performing in and out of school) I'm always watching something on Netflix like a CW show or Criminal Minds. I dislike divas in the theatre department and math, I really hate math. I also don't like ignorant people?? Or those who just refuse to hear what's true and ignore it. That's a huge no for me. But when I look for a partner, I look for someone who's willing to listen to all of my stupid rants and sit down and watch a movie with me. I want someone who looks past my physical flaws and let's me be me in all my Broadway-loving glory. Also someone who supports me in what I love doing- writing, singing, etc. In a crush, it's pretty much the same thing but I guess someone who I see good in and gives off a good vibe. My mom and my closest friends- also in the drama department- are incredibly important to me so they'd have to at least attempt to get along, if that makes sense. I really relate to Jo March from Little Women, Leah Burke from the Simon series- the bi and plus size queen- and Elphaba from Wicked with a bit of April O'Neil from TMNT. Also, didn't mention this, but I love it when people give me nicknames and I love cats. Thank you sm, ily 💖

(This is longer than I intended it to be oops. I kind of stalked your blog a bit to help with some thoughts because I love you and I wanted it to be really good and a lot of thoughts came)

Mean Girls

I ship you with Gretchen Wieners!

How you met:

You always knew who Gretchen was

It would be hard not to

You didn’t know it, but she always knew who you were, too

She thought you were cute but never knew how to strike up a conversation with you without making a fool of herself

You had just gotten out of rehearsal where one of your fellow cast members had been a diva and you were frustrated

You headed to your favorite bookstore to help you calm down

You were very surprised to find Gretchen in your go-to section

She smiled immediately when she saw you

Her smile faded when she saw that you looked distraught

All her anxiety about talking to you went out the window, because now she was worried about you and that took precedence

“Erin, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

You explained that you were dealing with a drama queen, but you brushed it off, saying you were fine

"I have a decent amount of experience with that. Do you want to go get coffee or something? Maybe I can help.”

So you went down the street to a coffee shop with her

You explained everything to her, and she listened patiently and attentively

When you were done, she gave you support and good advice

You could tell dealing with Regina had taught Gretchen a lot about dealing with people with compassion and empathy but also with strength

You admitted that you didn’t peg her for being into books

She explained that Regina had never wanted her to be known as a bookworm, but now that her reign was over, Gretchen was free to love books to her heart’s content

You learned that you had the same favorite types of books, so you ended up spending time at the bookstore together pretty regularly

This also came to include shopping trips

How you got together:

After a few weeks of spending more and more time together, Gretchen found herself liking you more than she thought could be possible in a short amount of time

Every time you talked, she was surprised by how similar you were and how much you could understand each other on a level most people didn’t seem to

So one day she decided to express that to you

She didn’t plan to ask you out

She was too afraid that you would say no

But she wanted you to know how much she appreciated you and how deep of a connection she felt to you

It turned into babbling and before she could stop herself, the words “and I just really like you” had fallen from her mouth

She looked embarrassed and terrified

You gave her a smile instantly to calm her nerves and told her you felt the same

That launched her into another mini tangent about how much she liked you now that she felt open to tell you

Headcanons:

You and Gretchen are always patient and understanding with each other

You get where each other are coming from, you can understand each other’s anxiety and insecurity, and you know you always have good intentions

Your relationship is healing and very healthy

You know just what to say and do to make each other feel better and loved and appreciated and validated

You can rant to each other about anything and know that the other is genuinely listening and caring without any judgement whatsoever

Your relationship has no judgement at all

One of her favorite things about you is your collection of books that’s more than anyone can read, because she has the exact same kind of collection

She loves to go book shopping and clothes shopping with you

You love watching TV shows and movies together but you also love just reading together

She loves to be involved in anything you do, theatre, writing, singing, anything

She loves to come to your shows and cheer loudly, or praise your writing skills, or fawn over your voice

And she loves that joining you in your activities introduces her to your family and friends

She absolutely adores your mom

And she feels like your group of friends was the friend group she was destined to be a part of

She doesn’t have everything in common with them, but that doesn’t take away from the friendship at all

She thinks the most amazing thing is when your passion shows in your eyes and she feels so lucky to be able to witness it and be someone you’re passionate about

DEH

I ship you with Alana Beck!

How you met:

She overheard you in the hallway talking to a friend about an issue you were passionate about

She didn’t want to be rude or intrusive, but she felt passionate about the issue, too, and was excited at the thought of having a discussion with you about it

So she came over and introduced herself, then explained her agreement

The bell to head to class cut you off pretty early, but neither of you wanted to stop talking, so you agreed to meet up again at lunch

At lunch, you learned that you shared the same opinions on a lot of things

You also shared a lot of likes

You even had the same favorite TV shows

You started hanging out to do homework together, watch TV, and sometimes discuss issues in the world that upset you

When you revealed your Broadway nerd side to her, she came to the conclusion that she was doomed

She found it absolutely adorable and also amazing how much you knew about different Broadway-related things and how much you loved it all

How you got together:

During a Friday night CW and Criminal Minds marathon, you glanced over at her and noticed that she seemed nervous and like she wasn’t quite paying attention to the episode

So you paused it to ask her if something was bothering her

She insisted that she was fine

You assured her that you wanted to help if something was going on, but you wouldn’t push if she didn’t want to talk about it

She took a deep breath

“It’s just that we’ve always been really honest and ourselves with each other. And I love that. But I haven’t been completely honest with you and I told myself I would be totally honest with you today and...”

She trailed off, so you took the opportunity to tell her that she didn’t need to tell you everything if she didn’t want to, but you would be there for her no matter what it was

“Well, if that changes after I say this, I’ll completely understand. You don’t have to stay friends with me if it makes you uncomfortable.” She paused for another moment before saying “I’ve had a crush on you since we met.”

You felt relief wash over you knowing that it wasn’t actually anything to be worried about

You told her you did, too

After asking each other a few questions to curb your curiosity about liking each other and not realizing it, you returned to your marathon, sitting much closer than you were before

Headcanons:

She loves coming up with nicknames for you, and you do the same for her

She loves talking about the future with you

She loves hearing how excited you are about your plan and dreams

She likes to imagine your future together

The conversations of your potential future together always involve at least one cat

She is 3000% convinced that you will achieve your dream and become an absolutely spectacular actress and writer

She insists you’re already there and just don’t have the fanbase or professional credits to confirm it

But she’s more than happy to be your biggest fan and support you alongside your friends and family

She bonded with your friends simply over their shared love of you, but they quickly learned that they had a lot in common and now get along as if they’ve been best friends forever

She thinks it’s fantastic that you’re so close to your mom and always does what she can to impress her while still being herself and trying not to go overboard

But she doesn't really need to try

She’s a parent’s dream significant other for their child

Kind, caring, bright, driven, generous, friendly, empathetic, considerate

And she loves you

More than anything

[yasbxxgie]

New Biography More Fully Defines Playwright Lorraine Hansberry

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

When the playwright Lorraine Hansberry died in 1965, she was only 34, but had already made her mark on American literature. Her play, "A Raisin In The Sun," which tells the story of a black family that tries to move from its South Side Chicago neighborhood into a white neighborhood, that play is an American classic today. Karen Grigsby Bates from our Code Switch team has been reading a new biography of Lorraine Hansberry.

KAREN GRIGSBY BATES, BYLINE: Lorraine Hansberry was 29 years old when "A Raisin In The Sun" opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway in 1959. It earned an armload of awards, including the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for the best play of the year. Hansberry had bested Tennessee Williams and Eugene O'Neill for the prize. Overnight, she was famous, and became even more so a few years later when the movie version of her play was released. Sidney Poitier played Walter Lee Younger, a man all too aware of the cost of racial prejudice.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A RAISIN IN THE SUN")

SIDNEY POITIER: (As Walter Lee Younger) I'm looking in the mirror this morning. And I'm thinking, I'm 35 years old. I'm married 11 years. And I got a boy who's got to sleep in the living room because I got nothing, nothing to give him but stories, like on how rich, white people live.

GRIGSBY BATES: "Raisin" remains one of the most produced works by a black American playwright. "Looking For Lorraine: The Radiant And Radical Life Of Lorraine Hansberry" shows she was more than this beloved play, though, says biographer Imani Perry.

IMANI PERRY: She was a feminist before the feminist movement. She was - identified as a lesbian and thought about gay rights organizing before the gay rights movement. She was an anti-colonialist before all of the independences had been won in Africa and the Caribbean.

GRIGSBY BATES: In other words, she was intersectional before that became a thing. And, says Perry...

PERRY: She reveled in her identity, even as she railed against injustice.

GRIGSBY BATES: In the early '60s, black impatience with segregation was growing. Black Americans were trying to gain their rights peacefully, and the national pace felt slow. In 1964, after protesters proposed blocking streets to tie up traffic, some New Yorkers were outraged. At a town hall meeting, Hansberry said this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LORRAINE HANSBERRY: It isn't as if we got up today and said, you know, what can we do to irritate America, you know?

(LAUGHTER)

HANSBERRY: It's because that since 1619, Negroes have tried every method of communication, of transformation of their situation.

PERRY: She was willing to risk her fame and her recognition for her political convictions. She became more and more outspoken the better she was known.

GRIGSBY BATES: And, says Imani Perry, Hansberry was not afraid of head-on confrontations. In 1963, Attorney General Robert Kennedy gathered a group of black intellectuals and celebrity activists in a New York living room. Hansberry was there, so were James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne. Kennedy asked the group to spread the word that the Kennedy Administration had done a lot for civil rights. Lorraine Hansberry told him it wasn't nearly enough.

PERRY: What Hansberry said to RFK is, we want a moral commitment from you...

GRIGSBY BATES: To do the right thing on civil rights. Bobby Kennedy was steamed. Hansberry thought the meeting was a failure, but a few weeks later, in a televised address, Americans heard the president say this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JOHN F. KENNEDY: We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and it's as clear as the American Constitution.

GRIGSBY BATES: Somebody had been listening. Imani Perry says Hansberry's petite stature and royal carriage lulled some people into dismissing her, but she convincingly conveyed the black anger and depression that came from the constant challenges of segregation. Although she'd grown up part of Chicago's Negro elite early on, Hansberry had lived on a ghetto street like the ones her characters in "Raisin" were trying to escape.

PERRY: It's why, as Baldwin said, she was able to give voice to black America with "A Raisin In The Sun." It was a truthful depiction.

GRIGSBY BATES: Although she wrote about loving women in her private papers, Hansberry was married to theater producer Robert Nemiroff for several years, says Perry. They separated before she became famous.

PERRY: But he remained her best friend, her closest confidant.

GRIGSBY BATES: Nemiroff supported her work financially, and it was to him that she gave her drafts for honest criticism. Perry says Hansberry wasn't out in the sense we're familiar with today.

PERRY: She was a member of one of the first lesbian organizations in the country, the Daughters of Bilitis. It would have been very difficult and even dangerous for her to be out in multiple ways.

GRIGSBY BATES: In early 1960s New York, homosexuality was illegal. Gay gathering spots often were raided and the people in them arrested. Hansberry didn't want to upset her proper family, so she and Nemiroff had an unconventional, but very real relationship. They loved each other. She also loved James Baldwin. They enjoyed mutual adoration. Again, Imani Perry.

PERRY: When they met, he was already famous. She was one of the few people who he could turn to in every way.

GRIGSBY BATES: She was close to singer/activist Nina Simone, too. Both women financially supported Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. A few years after Hansberry's death, Simone co-wrote a song to honor her friend, and it became an anthem for young, black America. The title came from a posthumously published book of Hansberry's work.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK")

NINA SIMONE: (Singing) Young, gifted and black. Oh, what a lovely, precious dream to be young, gifted and black.

GRIGSBY BATES: Hansberry's work was widely but not universally beloved. Some took exception to her criticism of white allies that needed to be prominently featured in the movement and interpreted that as being anti-white. Imani Perry disagrees.

PERRY: She wasn't anti-white, but she was a very strong proponent of black self-determination.

GRIGSBY BATES: Lorraine Vivian Hansberry died of pancreatic cancer on January 12, 1965. Imani Perry says people focus too much on the wrong aspect of her career.

PERRY: You know, there's been this constant theme for the past several decades. Oh, she died so young. What would she have produced had she lived longer? But the reality is she had produced so much.

GRIGSBY BATES: Which is why Perry thought it was time to bring the overlooked contributions - artistic, social and political - of this young, gifted and proudly black artist to the forefront now. Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF AHMAD JAMAL'S "SWAHILILAND")

[bullet-prooflove]

Chicago PD Fic: Million Reasons - Chapter Thirteen

Rating: Mature

Pairing: Antonio Dawson x OC

Summary: Life had given Antonio Dawson a million reasons to walk away from love but she gave him a really good one to stay.

Previous Chapters: Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five, Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Chapter Eight, Chapter Nine, Chapter Ten, Chapter Eleven, Chapter Twelve, 

People didn't understand what cops sacrificed for their job, they didn't understand what cops gave up and what they lost, Antonio had always thought that. Hell he was a few days away from becoming a thirty something divorcee with two kids. On top of that he had been shot twice and injured on the job more times than he cared to admit. His flesh was littered with scars from altercations or near misses, the pattern of his career etched upon his skin like a timeline. However he would never give it up, the work he did was important to him, it made the city a safer place for his children to grow up in.

In his heart he knew that Maggie was the same, life hadn't been easy for her. While he'd been slinging dime bags at the age of fourteen trying to make ends meet for his mom, she'd been downtown taking care of her own ailing mother while her dad spent his nights in the closest bar fraternizing with badge bunnies. It wasn't a secret and Maggie didn't treat it as such. It was something that had ghosted her through her years as a cop, he'd heard the sneers behind her back.

Like father, like daughter...

He'd put a few people in their place when he'd heard those rumours. Maggie had had a couple of boyfriends during her time on the force, her most serious relationship had lasted a few of years before it had fizzled out. She was honest, dependent and secure. She didn't deserve her father's legacy but it was a choice she didn't get to make.

He had made the decision to bring her back to his place tonight. He knew it had been the right one as he lingered in the doorway of his bedroom, his bare shoulder resting on the door frame. He had never thought he would see the day that Maggie O'Neill ended up in his bed but here she was tangled up in his sheets, clad only his navy blue CPD t-shirt and a pair of boxing shorts that were way too small for him. Her long lean legs were hooked around quilt. Antonio allowing his gaze to drop to that small Celtic knot tattooed on her left ankle and he found himself smiling. Her dark hair cascaded over his pillow as she muttered in her sleep burying her face even deeper into it. He had never seen Maggie look as carefree as she did right now. There was an innocence there in her pretty features that she never allowed anyone else to see and he felt privileged to be able to observe this side of her. It said a lot about her faith in him. He watched the rise and fall of her chest, his heart berating even harder in his chest. He'd almost lost her today and that thought tortured him more than he would care to admit.

It was the nature of their job, he was aware of that. With Laura he hadn't had to worry about the trouble she was going to get herself into, she was a nice Catholic girl who had taken over the running of her father's restaurant. His soon to be ex-wife had never been the rough and tumble type. His Maggie was the direct opposite and he knew instead of running away from the danger she would always run right towards it. They were similar in that respect and now that the shoe was on the other foot, he had to give his ex credit because after today he wanted nothing more than to wrap Maggie up in cotton wool. He refused to do that, Maggie deserved better and he knew that the job was as much a part of her as it was him. He would never make her choose between him and her career as a cop, he knew what it was like to be placed in that terrible position. He could go crazy thinking of all the things that could happen to her in their line of work, he had known years ago that he was falling in love with her, he just hadn't had the balls to admit it to himself at the time. His feelings hadn't changed in the time they'd been apart, every time he'd laid eyes on her they'd gotten just that little bit stronger until he couldn't deny them anymore.

It was that knowledge that was plaguing him right now. What happened next would be life changing, he could feel it in the very depths of his soul but it had to be on Maggie's terms. He wouldn't rush her not after everything she'd been through. She'd waited for him long enough.

"Sweet dreams." he whispered into the darkness as he took a step back out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

[boy-at-a-bus-stop]

Hellooooo here is another chapter, i hope it makes sense to you and doesn’t seem confusing... :/ i hope you enjoy it, and as always THANKS FOR READING <3

Five

So after this happened I (of course) couldn't really forget what Bob had said.  I tried to shove it to the back of my mind, not to think about his words too much, but every now and then they'd come back and just wouldn't go away. I tried to distract myself from these thoughts, I mean, in the end it was obviously bullshit, right? I didn't have a crush on Josh, right? I mean, I had only just known him for like, about a week or so. You don't develop a crush that quickly, right? No, you don't. Or at least I didn't. Of course I didn't! How could I?

But what if? What would happen if Bob was right? What if I had developed a crush on Josh, on a guy I only knew for about a week? What if Bob was right? At the same time I thought I knew the answer to all of these questions: Nothing. Nothing would happen if Bob was right. This doesn't mean that I believed that he was right, though. I mean, he couldn't be right. He just couldn't, this wouldn't make sense and it wouldn't fit me. I didn't get crushes on guys I knew for such a short period of time. I didn't get crushes at all.

So I kept thinking about this, mostly late at night. I just couldn't come to a conclusion and in the end I had to say that maybe Bob was right and maybe he was wrong, I really couldn't tell. It was a fact that I indeed liked Josh, but there's a quite important difference between liking someone as a friend and having a crush on them. And I just couldn't seem to figure out if I liked him as just a friend or not. I guess we've all been in a situation like this where on the one hand we know what we feel but on the other hand we just don't know how to call it, how to describe it, it's just there. I always found it hard to find names for my feelings. Sometimes you literally just can't tell if you're feeling one thing or another or something in between. Sometimes there just doesn't seem to be a word for a certain feeling. I hope i'm not the only person who feels this way (what an incredible word game, i'm truly impressed, Ally... could you please ignore this? I'm not even sure if I did this on purpose)...

I really couldn't put my finger on it and one day just decided that it didn't matter at all. It didn't matter if I had a crush on him right in this moment, because if I wasn't sure about it it couldn't be a big crush. And I would definitely fell it if my feelings towards him changed. So I decided to just let it be. I mean, Bob probably didn't even think i'd take that seriously in the first place. He is the kind of person to say things like these to tease others. And me, well, i'm the kind of person to think about these things for days.

So yeah, congratulations to Robert O'Neil Forrest for keeping me awake when I wanted to sleep. Well done! Okay, instead of just being sarcastic here I should probably go on with this story. We aren't even that far yet, because on that same day Bob asked me if I had a crush on Josh something else happened. After all, day's don't just end like episodes of some series, right?  By the way, congratulations to you, because if you're reading this, you must have a very strong will in order to read through all this rambling of mine and not being annoyed to the point where you don't give a single fuck about this story because my writing is so annoying. (I just realized that this probably didn't really help to make this story more interesting, but anyway... You need to know that story-telling isn't really the first thing coming to mind when you ask me or anyone else about my strengths. But I promise, this story is worth reading! And i'll try to get better at story-telling, I swear.)

But now let's really get back to this story. I left quite soon after Bob and I talked for there wasn't a lot for me to do and I just felt like the fifth wheel (do you normally say 'the third wheel' or 'the fifth wheel'? I guess that depends on whether you prefer driving a car or riding your bike... okay this wasn't necessary, it's the same as this doorway-without-doors-thing, sometimes I just think about random things... i'm so sorry you had to read this) so I decided i'd rather go back over to my apartment and read for a bit. And eat something. Of course. I had only eaten my breakfast-banana in the morning so I was indeed hungry when I came back to my apartment around 3pm.

I decided to cook some spaghetti for myself (like, literally just spaghetti, just the noodles, no sauce), put them in a bowl, then put some butter onto the noodles and waited for it to melt. This is probably like 1000 calories but to be completely honest, I don't give a damn. If you never tried this you should definitely do so some day. Maybe you'll like it, maybe you'll think i'm weird. But I guess you already think that i'm weird and you're probably right so some extend.

Anyway, so I ate my bowl of spaghetti while walking through the apartment – I didn't feel like sitting down since that was basically what I had been doing all day long. So I just kept on walking, from the big windows to the wall on the opposite side, then to my bedroom and then back to the kitchen, to the big windows and so on and so forth. I got so lost in my own thoughts that it was only when I had finished eating that I noticed that I had stopped walking and just stood in front of the big windows instead. The sun was shining, I noticed this for the very first time that day. (No, i'm not blind) It was producing this beautiful post-winter-pre-spring atmosphere (I hope you get what I mean by saying this) and it just made me feel like I could start all over. It made me feel like whatever I wanted to do, now was the time to do it. I get this feeling almost every year around this time, around the end of february and the beginning of march. It's just such a refreshing time, like, it's still cold but you can see that spring is coming, you just feel it. Or at least I feel it.

I got myself a cup of coffee (and by coffee I mean good coffee, REAL coffee, coffee from a coffee machine, not some disgusting drip coffee... you see i'm passionate about my coffee), opened one of the windows and sat down on the wooden floor in front of it, then I looked up and and enjoyed the sunshine.  A slight breeze came in, let both the thin curtains that were pulled to the sides of the windows and the coffee steam dance like ghosts and carried the traffic noise inside the room. It felt as if the breeze brought the spirit of this city, the city I considered my home more and more with every day I spent here, a city that had a special place in my heart, right into the apartment. I started daydreaming, making plans about what to do in the next days, I thought about getting my hair cut, I decided to go for a walk in the next days. I really don't know for how long I was sitting there, but I guess I sat there for a while. Just so that you know, I'm better at making plans than at doing the things I planned on doing. I planned to do a lot of things and I don't know how many of them I actually did. But I don't believe that doing the things you planned is the one and only thing that gives sense to the process of making plans.

When I was a little kid I made a lot of plans. I made a lot of plans about doing things I now know I won't ever be able to do, just because I don't have the skills to actually do them. I might have dreamed about painting a portrait as beautiful and mysterious as the Mona Lisa for example. And though it's obvious that I won't ever be able to do this, I don't think that making the plan to do so was silly or useless. Even though it didn't affect the world around me by changing it in whatever way it would have been changed if I had painted another Mona Lisa, it still changed me. It changed me because it made me see that I wasn't able to do it. And it changed me because it made me see that that was perfectly fine. I could still plan to do it and I could try to actually do it every day or not at all. It didn't matter whether I could paint this portrait, because it didn't change anything about my plan to do so, it didn't change anything about my intentions. I could still get up in the morning and think “Today i'll paint a portrait as beautiful and mysterious as the Mona Lisa” and I could be serious about it. It didn't matter if I failed. My plan to paint this portrait existed and it was as real as Mona Lisa's beauty itself. In the end, both plans and beauty are things that only exist in our heads. And to be honest, what's so beautiful about a girl without eyebrows?

So I spent a lot of time daydreaming and making plans that day, some realistic, some absurd. It didn't matter. It just made me feel good. I must've been sunken quite deep into my thoughts because it made me jump a few metaphorical meters when someone rang the doorbell. But on the other hand I have to confess that the doorbell even makes me jump if I expect visitors, so it's normal with me. I expected Bob to stand in front of my door when I opened it and already wanted to congratulate him on finding the doorbell this time but I didn't even get this far since it wasn't Bob who was standing outside, waiting for me to answer the door. To my surprise it was Josh who was scratching his neck awkwardly as he stood there.  

“Hey, what's up?”, I said as I opened the door. “Hey, um, Bob asked me to tell you that we're done for today, you know, because he forgot his keys and you should lock the studio's door... because he 'had to leave', if you know that I mean...”, Josh responded, a shy smile on his face.

I don't even want to know how often I used the word “smile” and all it's variations in this story already, but I swear I don't do it to troll you! I even find it kinda embarrassing to be honest and by now it makes me cringe to write this word down, but the thing is: Have you ever seen Josh? Have you seen him? Yeah? Okay, then you'll know that his 'neutral' facial expression isn't neutral at all, he just looks as if he was pissed as fuck. And I don't know if that's the reason why he smiles so much (so that he won't always be asked if or why he's pissed), but it's a fact that he does smile a lot. And if you've ever seen his smile, please imagine the way it looks when he smiles whenever I write about it, maybe you won't be annoyed by having to read this word every goddamn five seconds if you do that.

Okay, so Josh was standing in front of me and as he said this (at this point you might have to re-read what he said, i'm rambling so much, i'm so sorry) I realized that Bob's story about forgetting the keys couldn't be true. Why? Because he came here by car. What do you need to drive a car? Exactly, you need car keys. And I had seen the day before that Bob had the studio keys and his car keys and the keys to his apartment and so on kind of attached to each other, you know with key rings and stuff. So to forget only the key he needed to get into the studio he would have had to detach it from the other keys. But why would he do that? He just wouldn't do that, there was no reason to do that. So there was only conclusion one could draw from that: Bob hadn't forgotten the keys, he had just made up this story so that he had a reason to make Josh come over to my apartment and talk to me. Bob had planned this out, he had tricked me, he had tricked both of us.

“I'm so stupid”, was all I was capable of saying as this struck me. It just kinda slipped out of my mouth and you know what words do once they leave our minds and our bodies, right? They just float in the air and stay there until they enter someone else's body and mind. Sometimes they even reach their heart – just sometimes, though. I said it more to myself than to anyone else but of course Josh heard it. I mean, he was standing right in front of me, so would have had to be deaf in order to not hear it. He definitely wasn't deaf. Why am I even writing this? You know that he's not deaf, right?

“What are you saying?”, he asked, surprised and confused by my sudden mood change. “Ugh, nothing, I just... I just realized that Bob tricked me... or I guess both of us. I'm pretty sure he didn't forget his keys”, I said, but I guess this didn't clear up the situation in any way at all. “What? Why he would do that?”, Josh asked, still just as confused as before.

For one second I actually thought about telling him what I thought why Bob did this, telling him that Bob believed that I had a crush on him. But since there weren't any benefits of telling him and since I wasn't eve sure whether Bob was right or not I decided to not tell Josh . “Well, Bob's intentions are always kind of a mystery, right? So what do I know?”, I mumbled, trying to drop the topic as I got the spare key to go lock the studio door. “Definitely more than me...”, Josh murmured behind me.

A few minutes later we stood in front of the door to my apartment, me fiddling with my keys as I locked it open and Josh just standing there awkwardly, not really knowing what to do. Before he could decide whether he should better leave I had already opened the door and invited him in. “Do you want some coffee?”, I asked as I went into the kitchen, leaving him alone in the living room for a bit. I somehow made this a habit of mine, leaving people alone for a bit when they first come 0ver to my place. I personally find it weird if the person who lives in the house or apartment you just entered just stands beside you all the time as if they were afraid that you'd steal their curtains or something like that. So I always try to give my guests some freedom, I  want them to feel welcome and trusted, not awkward and spied on.

“Yes please”, I heard Josh say as I entered the kitchen. A few minutes later I came back into the living room with both of our cups, black coffee for Josh and white coffee for me, just to find him sitting on the floor, in the exact same spot where I had been sitting earlier. The sun wasn't shining in through the windows anymore but had disappeared behind the other houses. It was still beautiful, though. The sky had changed it's color, it seemed darker now, the colors reached from bright blue to dark orange. I sat down next to Josh and handed his coffee over to him. “Thanks... You got a beautiful apartment, it's... big. Do you live here alone?”, he said. “Oh thank you, yeah it is quite big”, I giggled. “And no, I don't live here alone, but my flatmate Sophia is on vacation at the moment, so...” “Oh, where is she? Do you miss her?”, Josh asked after taking a sip from his coffee. “She's in Brazil, visiting some relatives... and no, to be completely honest I don't really miss her at the moment, I mean we are really good friends, but... I really don't miss her at the moment. There's just so much going on right now... Does that make me a bad friend?”, I responded. “No, why would that make you a bad friend?! I think it's just normal, sometimes you just need a break from people, even if you're really close to them – especially if you're really close to them. But that doesn't make you a bad friend, in my opinion...”, Josh mumbled. “I guess you're right”, I said after a few minutes of silence.

“By the way, how did recording go today?”, I asked then. “Oh, it all went well, we're making good progress, and it's good to talk to Josh again since he's one of the co-producers, it's good to have him here again...”, Josh stated and then added, “By the way, can I smoke in here?” “Yeah of course, and I guess I have to steal a cigarette from you again”, I giggled. Josh smiled as he gave me a cigarette and his lighter. “I wanted to quit smoking, so that's why I don't have any cigarettes at the moment, but i'll pay my debts as soon as I can”, I said in a serious voice. Now Josh was the one who giggled, “Nooo, you don't need to, I mean in some way I'm responsible for you starting to smoke again”, he laughed, “and I guess your coffee is worth more than my cigarettes anyway”

“Okay, maybe that's true”, I then responded, still chuckling. “So I heard you're almost done with recording, right?”, I then asked to kinda get back to the topic we had been talking about before. “Almost done? I wouldn't say i'm almost done but on the other hand I don't know how the recordings we already did turned out so I'm nor sure if I have to rerecord some things or if they're good enough. So I can't really tell how much more work there is to be done but we're making progress”, Josh answered. “And I don't know if Josh and Marc are content with what Bob and I did on the songs. I mean we talked about it and i'm sure Bob showed them a few things but well, you never know” “Okay... You know i'm not an expert on all of these things, so... And I have no clue how this really works to be honest”, I laughed, trying to disguise my insecurities.

“Well, me neither, I just do what Bob, Marc and Josh want me to do, that's all”, Josh chuckled. “So I think that Kevin will do his drum parts tomorrow and Josh will do his bass parts and then we'll see” “Okay... I find it so confusing that the other guy's called Josh as well, and kinda funny to be honest”, I said. “Yeah, two people with such an ugly name in the same spot at the same time...”, Josh mumbled. “No that's not what I meant!”, I giggled and pushed Josh lightly and playfully,”It's just, I never met a single person called Josh until I met you and now I met another person called Josh just one week later” “Really? In this case a lot of other parents were nicer to their children than mine were...”, he now laughed. “Man, why do you hate your name so much? I mean i'm not really a fan of mine either, but what's so bad about 'Josh'?”, I asked. “What is that question, even? Everything's awful about that name, the way it looks, the way it feels to say it, the way it sounds, there's nothing positive about it, absolutely nothing! I mean, Joshua Adam, what the hell were my parents thinking?!”, Josh complained, his voice sounding like he was somewhere in between crying and laughing out loud. It made me laugh quite a bit myself. “Come on, it's not that bad! It really isn't! I promise”, I chuckled, barely holding it together.

“I'm not even sure what's worse, 'Joshua' or 'Josh', but you can't tell what's worse when both names are that awful”, Josh exclaimed, clearly trying to make me laugh even harder than I already was. “You're an idiot, you know?”, I half whined, trying not to give him the satisfaction of seeing me laugh my ass off and again pushing him playfully, a bit harder though than last time. As a result he almost fell over and then pushed me himself. “Yeah, people say so”, Josh said, laughing loudly himself.

“Okay, okay, calm down Ally, calm down”, I said to myself, trying to catch my breath after all the laughing. “You really are an idiot, i'm being serious!”, I than exclaimed. “Yeah, I take you VERY seriously”, Josh said, grinning at me. Clearly he wasn't taking me seriously at all.

“Yeah, of course you are”, I said in a sarcastic tone. “But for real, it is kinda weird, isn't it?” Josh looked at me as if I had asked him about the middle name of the fourth son of the third pharaoh of the fourteenth dynasty of Egypt. And just to clear that up, I have no clue if the third pharaoh of the fourteenth dynasty of Egypt even had four sons. But yeah, Josh had no idea what I was talking about. “You have no idea what I mean, right?”, I giggled. “Uhm, no, not really...”, Josh blushed slightly. “It doesn't matter anyway”, I chuckled.

“So one thing I wanted to ask you... What was that talk you had with Bob today about?”, Josh asked after a few minutes of silence, just as I got up to get myself another cup o coffee. “Oh, that... nothing important, really... I'll get myself another cup of coffee, do you want one as well?”, I asked, not really knowing what to say and not sure about whether I should tell him the truth or not. “No , thanks...”, Josh mumbled. The mood had definitely changed, I could tell, and I didn't like it at all. I left the living room for a few minutes to get myself a cup of coffee and thought about what I should tell Josh. I really hoped that he would just drop the topic when I came back.

To my disappointment he didn't drop the topic. “So, what did you talk about?”, was the first thing he said when I sat down next to him again. I sighed. “As I said, we talked about nothing important, just about the next few days and that I won't be around tomorrow because I have a few things to do...”, I stuttered. “It didn't look like you wanted to talk to him about such banal things, though...”, Josh stated, he was clearly not buying it. As I looked up, Josh's facial expression was cold, just as his voice. “Josh, why do we have to talk about this? It wasn't important”, I said. “Why don't you just tell me the truth, then?”, Josh sighed, turning to face me. “I think I know what, or better said who you and Bob were talking about. And I think you were talking about me... aren't I right?”, he said, looking me deep in the eyes. I gulped.

I couldn't tell him he was wrong, I just couldn't lie to him, not when he looked at me like this. I mean i'm not a great liar in general, but he made it really fucking hard and at that point even impossible for me. I looked down, avoiding his gaze. “So I'm right?”, Josh asked. I looked up again and nodded. Josh sighed, shaking his head. “You know, I don't care if you were talking about me. I just don't understand why you wouldn't tell me...”, he said in a calm voice, trying to hide his disappointment but failing. I didn't know what to say, and neither did he, so we sat there in silence for a bit before Josh spoke again. “You know... Things tend to become awkward between people if they don't talk about things, and I really don't want things to become awkward between us. I don't want small stupid things to ruin this friendship...”, he said, searching for my gaze and with serious but warm and friendly tone in his voice.

I can't really describe how I felt in that moment, but i'll try for you: It was a weird mix (what a surprise..) I mean, here sat Josh in front of me, a guy who I liked but didn't know how much I liked, a guy I had known for about a week, and talked about friendship and honesty and looked at me dead-serious. Imagine being in this situation. How would you feel? Yeah, now you know what I mean when I say I can't describe it.

I didn't know what to say, he really made me speechless with what he said. I hadn't expected him to say things like this, to feel like this about me, about our friendship. And I mean normally you wouldn't say things like this to a friend, right? Or at least I don't. And none of my friends ever did. Do you do this? Probably not. But maybe this friendship wasn't just special to me but to Josh as well. This 'friendship' – or whatever you want to call it.

“Yeah, me neither...”, I said after a few minutes. “But it really wasn't important, I just tried to explain to Bob that he's an asshole. And as usual he didn't agree”, I then added, trying to make the situation a bit less tense. “I think he's aware of that, he just doesn't see it as a bad thing that needs to be changed”, Josh's smile returned to his face.

We talked a bit more that evening, joked around a bit. Everything went back to normal. Or at least it seemed like that. I didn't really feel that way to me, though. And I think it felt different to Josh in a way as well. Something had changed. We still were good friends. And we weren't acting dead-serious all the time - we still joked around. But something had changed. I wasn't able to point out what exactly had changed, I just felt it. And I wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. Many it was none of the two. It was just different. As it got darker outside Josh left and headed home, leaving me alone and just as clueless about my feelings as before.

[ramajmedia]

Jillian Bell Interview: Brittany Runs a Marathon | Screen Rant

In Brittany Runs a Marathon, Jillian Bell plays the title character, an overworked, underpaid, desperate millennial trying to keep her head above water in the big bad city. It's an experience to which many urban dwellers can relate, and her struggles with weight, money, love, friendship, and self esteem are almost too much to bear. Brittany ultimately turns to exercise, and the long-term goal of running a marathon, as a means to turn her life around and take control of her destiny.

Jillian Bell is best known for her roles in TV shows like Workaholics and movies such as 22 Jump Street and Rough Night. She also created and starred in the cult Comedy Central series, Idiotsitter. Her role in Brittany Runs a Marathon, directed by Paul Downs Colaizzo, marks her first credit as the lead actor in a feature film.

Related: Brittany Runs a Marathon Interview: Director Paul Downs Colaizzo & Cast

At a New York City press day for Brittany Runs a Marathon, Jillian Bell sat down with Screen Rant to discuss the themes and lessons of the Amazon Original, from its criticisms of social media culture to why the film is so much more than just a story about losing weight and being happy.

When you say, "Debbie Does Napping," my whole theater just exploded.

Debbie does napping!

That's so good!

It's ridiculous!

It's such a big part of your character, who uses humor as a deflection to cover up anything, whether its the way she feels at the beginning of the movie, or when she's trying to con her way into a job. Is that something you brought to the story, or was it always part of Brittany O'Neill?

It was always a part of the story. The real Brittany O'Neill is very funny and sweet and amazing, and definitely inspiring, obviously. But yeah, that was always part of Paul's perception of the whole film. He wanted to include the fact that, a lot of times, we use humor to deflect some painful things that happened in our lives. And I actually think he did a brilliant job of using a certain device throughout the film; when she's very uncomfortable, she puts on a cockney accent to say some truths.

How much of that was you, did you ever go, "I want to put in a joke," but was it ever too funny, like, no, this is supposed to be a very serious scene...

I think there were a couple of scenes where we were like, well... There were more scenes in this film than in anything else I've ever done where we were sort of like, "Let's stick to the script." The scene in the beginning where I'm taking theater tickets was probably the most I improvised in the film. But throughout, there was a couple of spots where it felt right. Paul was super collaborative, and we were always having conversations about the intention of the character, and when she should be funny, and when she shouldn't hide behind the humor throughout her journey.

This movie has a lot of... Maybe an indictment of millennial culture and our quest for likes. It's like they're running a different race, and this movie says, we should go back to running a race for ourselves, which, in this case, is a literal race.

Right! Absolutely. I think it's important to hit on what's happening right now, and how social media plays into our lives. There's scenes in the movie where she's scrolling through and looking at how people's lives appear to be super successful. I go through that, even today, looking through and seeing how everyone's on vacation or having kids or doing this job that I'd love to do. It was a very relatable thing that I think Paul wanted to put in the film.

Kinda building off that, in the millennial culture, there's that great relationship with your roommate, Gretchen. It's a secondary, but central part of this movie, just showing those two different races and that quest for self-esteem.

Right! And also, toxic friendships. That's something I don't feel like is often hit upon in movies like this. You know, what happens when you end up realizing that someone who you thought was your best friend is actually, maybe not the person who's rooting for you to win, and ending those relationships. That happened to me, too, in my 20s and early 30s. Just, sort of, focusing on... Which friendships in my life fill up my fountain, so to say, and which ones drain me? I thought it was a cool thing I hadn't seen in a film before.

I think it all adds up to what's maybe the biggest misconception about this movie. People might think it's a movie about losing weight, when it's about so much more than that.

It's the opposite. It's a different kind of, some people call it, a transformation film, but it's different than one that I've ever seen. It's the kind of film I would have liked to have seen when I was a young girl, even. Showcasing, not just another story of someone losing weight and then they're better. We've seen that kind of film before, and I don't think it's healthy. And it's important to show the real highs and lows of what happens when you sort of change your life in any aspect.

More: Micah Stock and Michaela Watkins Interview: Brittany Runs a Marathon

Brittany Runs a Marathon is in theaters now.

source https://screenrant.com/jillian-bell-brittany-runs-marathon-movie-interview/