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garbagegrimoire · 4 years

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podcast notes week 1

Here are the notes I had going into the podcast recording for week 1.

There are some spoilers in here & all of the doodle/synopsis posts have not yet dropped but the episode is recorded & here we gooooo...

Train to Busan

Starting out strong with a zombley deert (to speak in cursed rickyisms).

Giving his kid some yuppie bullshit talk & almost gets them clobbered in traffic, great dad.

Damn that escalated quickly. Why did it take so long for the first lady to turn but the others are like instantaneous?

The shots, effects, & choreography in this movie are crazy!

The grandma has lucid moments before changing which seems more than what the passengers got. & she used them to break hearts.

Ohhh he's a “fund manager,” ofc he's a dick.

Watching a zombie movie during a pandemic hits different.

I like that the bad ass in this movie is a soon to be dad with a dad bod & he's also a boomer who doesn't know how to change his ringtone.

Okay, they’re officially fit daddy & dad bod.

Okay legit tears at dad bod sacrificing himself even though I knew it was coming.

LOL young capitalist bastard fighting old capitalist bastard

This is capitalism & I hate it. OFC the motherfucker willing to screw over everyone else even if he doesn't need to prevails nearly to the end.

We need a zombie killing axe... Oh wait, nevermind, a shoe is good too.

Oh wow, that shit is poignant. The most ruthless capitalist of the group having a mama moment before he changes.

I'm sitting here yelling, get his nards, fit daddy! Do the nuts still have any effect?

Oh shit, fit daddy is infected. Human bites are gross.

This sucks, I hate it. :(

OH FUCK WHY DO THEY MAKE IT WORSE OMG!

& worse.

I didn't want to cry this much, not fair.

Re-Animator

Ooh, my German 101 skills are tingling.

Chaos nerd is everything in this scene. You wondrous ball of absolute cheese.

The security guard saying "Nobody wants in & ain't nobody getting out" is the Chekov's gun of this movie.

Fuckin’ nerd talk. Do either of you even lift? Why don't you duke this out in a tables, ladders, & chairs match?

I don't feel great about that transition between her playfully saying "no" & them full plowing. Greeeeeassy.

I'm with the cat on this one — scratch him!

"The world's last living puritan." LOL, come to eastern Washington tho.

How in the world is this lady's creep radar going off w nerdboy but not with the creepy old man trying to bang her?

They did a few things really well with this cat thing. Because usually I could not DEAL with violence against a pet. First the dead cat doesn't look anywhere near realistic, nonetheless once it's reanimated. Also, there's no like huge emotional connection between the character & the cat because the only experience the viewer has with it prior to it dying is it scratching his back after he's done banging, which I mean, solid choice there kitty.

"Because it's maaaad?" Best line in this mf movie.

I like how quick Halsey turns on nerdboy who he was stoked on like two days later. All because he insulted the creepy old man?

"Here's your meatball!" Writers were A+ obv.

"I know you're all by yourself now." Ew no. Again, she reacts to something other than the creepy old guy trying to bang her. PLEASE REACT, maybe punch him in the face or move to a different state without notifying anyone.

I’m dying, it looks like he's dribbling cherry applesauce out of his mouth.

This is the corniest, dumbest break up scene I've ever watched.

So once they're lobotomized they have like a mind link with the old guy head? Alright...?

Okay so we've arrive. This scene is fucking pure unadulterated cringe & makes me feel like I need to take several showers & drink bleach.

"Get a job & a sideshow." This entire movie is this nerd & that's what I'm here for.

How is there this seemingly endless supply of this green ooze? Also this reminds me of TMNT.

LOL the murderous colon strikes.

I'm very confused on the rules of what stays alive & how. Like the hand is still twitching but the guy in the hallway is dead?

Nothing gore-wise has bothered me so far but the chest compression sound is gross.

This guy is the worst. If he loved her he'd let her die.

Plan 9 From Outer Space

"Future events such as these will affect you in the future." You don’t say, friend.

Hillabilly gravediggers saying "sorta spooky like" is the mood here.

The scream is so good.

A conspiracy theorist manifesto delivered on a suburban patio made entirely out of wicker.

The walking dead in this movie are so much more chill than the last two, just saying. Like if you're going to kill me, fine, but be chill about it.

"The earth people who can think are so frightened by those who cannot — the dead." Truuuuuuu. Thinking sucks, bro.

The pillow talk is all kinds of weird.

Hey, I know you're worried too, but because you're a child that can't care for herself, make sure you lock the doors because that's something a feeble woman wouldn't remember to do.

"You are on the verge of destroying the entire universe." Ooof this hits different now.

Yeah, it's old timey & corny but there are some seriously artsy scenes in this. I love the glowing trees.

Vampira is aesthetic goals if: I was more feminine, if I gave a fuck, if anyone ever looked at me, lol.

If some big dead dude was coming for you why in the hell would you just stand there or sit there & scream? Like these are the easiest monsters to escape from, you all are so gd slow.

That's it, I'm dressing up as one of these aliens for Halloween. All I need is some black pants, a belt, & a shiny purple shirt.

LOL little green men. Shoot first, ask questions later. Get all the tropes in there buck-o.

I just realized the dude alien is called Eros & I'm laughing. Total heartthrob. "You're always right, Eros." Fucking yuuuck. Miss me with all of this.

Holy trigger happy.

Explode the actual particles of sunlight. LOL, OMG "STRONGER NATION THAN NOW." These fucking nationalist trashbags.

Yes, of course aliens are religious too. & the're sexists. OH MY GOD IM GOING TO THROW THE MONITOR OUT THE WINDOW STAHP!

This was so much. I mean it's the old humans are dumb, violent animals & need to be gently led or annihilated. Okay, that can be true. But the aliens here needed to FOAD too.

Dead Birds

Is Mark Boone Jr in everything & will he die early? (yes)

Very aesthetic theme

Bank manager's whiskers are on point.

The fuck? Oooh racist, niiiiice. I hate everyone all the time.

Yup this is how bank robbers would behave, wanting to kill of members of the gang to get a bigger share.

Gross, just listening into their friends banging, being creepy.

Is it turning into a bear? (Ohhh, the footprints)

Okay one of these dudes actually has something like a conscience, good to know, still hate him.

54 minutes in & I'm getting real bored.

Good jump scare w the little girl.

Okay the lady in the barn was too much for me. Gore was too much.

"There are worse things than dying" Best line.

Okay first I was like "that's not vomit, it's too white" & then I realized she'd been in bed with her dude earlier & yelled "ew, is she puking cum?" at my computer because that's where my dumpster fire of a brain goes.

Poor horses :(

He just disappeared? TF?

Nah, I’m not feeling this.

#sage31days

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leviathiane · 5 years

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SHOW US YOUR WROR RAW UNPROCESSED WHOLE GRAIN ORGANIC NOTES

this is going to be a long-ass post i am so sorry to Everyone! i take a lot of notes.

So, as You specifically know (as well as all of my lovely Soggers) I take a LOT of notes. Obsessively. I write fucking everything bc i have very little memory and very much paranoia. This results in literal Piles of notes. Raw planning, on paper, on my phone– doodles of scenes im brainstorming, bulletpoints, entire SCRIPTS– it’s all there but scattered (I’ve got scenes planned in the margins of my goddamn anthropology notes and deciphering it was a NIGHTMARE)

I won’t even upload all the photos of my writing notebook, because itd be like 50 pages of illegible nonesense. but heres a couple of planning phase pages. (may be hard to read, I dropped this notebook both into some tidepools, into a creek on campus, and accidentally leaked my waterbottle onto it in my backpack :/)

if you can’t tell already, yes they all look exactly like this. Some are even more illegible, because I wrote them with the notebook half under my actual class notes. Because i wrote most of them in class. During lectures. And pretending very badly that i was not doing exactly that. (pay attention in class please i got away with this bc i was filling up elective units)

I’m also flat out MISSING a large portion of my notes bc some of it? isnt even in the damn notebook. its on a sheet of binder paper, or on the empty back of an assignment. I’ve now lost most of those notes, but the ones i do still have are just as (even more, actually) indecipherable chicken scratch:

Wow, how clean and tidy and easy to follow! i am in hell.

and this doesnt mention the PAGES and PAGES of outlines that are on my laptop, and the pages of outlined scenes that are on the notes app of my phone. if i put them all, you would have entire chapter spoilers up to the very end of the story so i cant post a lot of them– and also theres just a goddamn lot of them. currently i have 16 pages of outlining. There are no spacing breaks. It is a solid 16 page block of text. Looking at it gives me a migraine.

some assorted notes which i have dredged up from the deleted parts of the main draft google doc go all the way back to when i started Wror in June and they are Barely more readable than my handwriting on sheer account of: articulation is not my strength. These include:

“Ch 8 plan: sabo gets trained specially, awakens his armament haki, beats ace in a bunch of spars and proves himself to be anything but vulnerable. The boys are like “we fucking recognize that technique ryu taught you before us!!” and goad ryu into finally starting them both on basic haki training, just to awaken it, since sabo already has. Also this is the chapter that ace finally confronts ryu for his devil fruit after ryu confirms that some devil fruit users can’t be hurt without haki and ace immediately catches onto that and tries to slam his pipe through ryus head. It doesn’t work, ryu catches the weapon with a haki covered hand, to avoid turning to flame with hit and ace just gets frustrated and accuses ryu of hiding his devil fruit, because he remembers what he saw in grey terminal and that now that he has seen haki he can distinguish it from what he saw and he’s sure no one could do what ryu did. He calls ryu a hypocrite for coddling them even after telling them to stop coddling sabo and ryu has to sit them down and explain that yes he does have powers and he has been hdiing it and explains his reasoning. However instead of understanding th eboys just get fired up and say they don’t wnt to be scared of fire, especially not when it means ryu isn’t taking them seriously in a spar. Ryu finally agrees to start them on desensitization training for fire trauma. Fire desensitization training happens on the beach, so that they have water nearby in case things get out of hand. At some point ace gives ryu a considering look and is just like “if you have a devil fruit that means you can’t swim either right?” and ryu is basically just like “lmao yeah” and then ace immediately attempts to drown him. Lots of murder attempts in ace’s department toget his older brother to be less of an idiot with little success lol(extra: ace tried to attack ryu earlier both to confirm that ryu has a devil fruit that would force him to use haki to hide it, and because he now knows that he CAN’T hurt ryu without haki and as thus can’t beat him and make him admit he’s awake without being good at haki.)” [chapter 8]

“Small sabo lost his hat and goggles in the incident and while he doesn’t remember having them future sabo notices he looks uncomfortable and keeps touching his hair and head. Ace yells at him for it thinking he bandaging are bothering him and that he can’t touch them but little sabo just comments that something about it feels wrong. Luffy blurts our that he had a hat, like luffy does, But he doesn’t now ace begrudgingly mentions that they can’t get a new one in town. Future sabo doesn’t even hesitate and just plops his own hat onto his younger selves head. It clearly too big for him, and almost falls over his eyes but he grins up at future sabo and is like “wow!! Thank you! I’ll take care of it till I have one of my own” and creates a paradox like Luffys own hat. The footsteps younger sabo has yet to fill. This HAS to happen AFTER the talk where they explain that future and past sabo are both the same person, to give little sabo that pressure.” [chapter 9]

“(Right after this older sabo takes them down to the ocean so that they can play a little and desensitize themselves and immediately fucks himself over when he goes weak in the water bc he somehow fucking forgot his own devil fruit again and now even younger sabo is on his case about not letting him near the fucking ocean that little goddamn HYPOCRITE—) )” [for chapter 9]

“Ch 9 plan: they finally leave dawn island. Starts with the boys getting a haircut after training and luffy mentions how long it’s been since they’ve last needed a haircut, giving sabo and ace time to point out that it’s been 2 months now since ryu joined them, and that sabo was completely healed by now. The boys are now aware of the basics of haki, and while luffy hasnt awakened either yet ace and sabo both have a little bit of weak armament haki. (sabo won’t awaken observational haki until he gets his memories back) ryu tries to sneak off into the city to steal a boat but his brothers refuse to leave him behind and keep sneaking out after him, not wanting him to go alone and saying that since he’s been training them they’re clearly stronger and he needs to let them do this. Ryu eventually just lets it go because why the fuck not it’s a dream and they make him feel better. They get the boat out on open ocean and finally fucking sail out, cheering loudly, ryu struggling to make them all calm down but also not really trying. He’s happy as shit, and they’re all so excited and happy and sabo dips a hand into the waves and then smiles so fucking wide and tackles ryu so violently they both nearly tip into the water and it’s just very very good. “ [also for ch 9]

** I flat out dont Have any outlining from before chapter 6, because i only started actually outling chapters after that. i tend to just sit down and Write up until i hit a plot point or writers block and then am forced to actually think it through and plan rather than letting it come naturally. thats also why the quality and editing is better in later chapters despite everything being written within the same time frame.

besides entire chapter outlines, there are the scene specific phone notes like:

“(ADDED) Right after they leave dawn, when sabo is sure they’ve gotten enough of a head start, he calls Garp. He doesn’t say who he is, but that all of the boys are safe and happy with him and has them all talk into the phone to assure him that they’re fine. Garp is honestly just pissed off he doesn’t know who’s calling and when he asks sabo just laughs and says a disobedient brat before hanging up. “

“(ADDED) TO EXPAND ON CH 3: sabo gets offered the chance to go with dragon, and he hesitates on the offer to go through with his previous life with the family he’s made in the revolutionary again. He almost agrees, because the bought of losing them in this lifetime is near excruciating but reminds himself swiftly that it’s no place for his brothers and not what they’d really want, and he wants selfishly to be with them as long as he Can until he “inevitably” wakes up. The boys are visibly relieved by this, especially ace. (Sabo gets asked who he is by dragon, who wants to know more about the stranger with his son, but dragon has always been quicker to make connections no one guessed and he just smiled knowingly at sabo and tells him he’s sure the other will have no trouble finding them if he’s in need. Sabo in turn warns him to keep Kuma close, and to look for a slave girl named koala.)”

I have…. many of these. I have Many of Everything.

finally, i have scene doodles. if i hit a bad writers block it usually helps me to sketch scenes or the character designs to regain my grip on what the hell is happening in the plot– Breach of Intention has character design sketches, pakcbond has MANY scene sketches, even some of my nsfw has some sketches. my wror skecthes arent Good of course, I am an art teacher for children and that means i am more often explaining the color wheel and brush techniques over drawing perfect human replicas– and i just dont really make a lot of fanart? ive never drawn sabo before but i sure have a bunch now. i wont include close ups because they genuinely suck but heres an example pic

So… yeah thats about everything. this is a VERY long post and yet i only included like maybe ¼ or 1/5 of all the notes i have dbskhjgfkjadns lmk if anyone wants more (or notes for my Other stories, which contain NO WHERE the same absurd amount of shit that wror does.)

#depths' ask #response #idk what to even tag this honestly?? this post is such a mess abhdsjfgdkjn #thanks mido love u dear 💕🎉 im gonna want some damn notes on second chances heads up #wror #wror stockpile #touchmycoat #i started this response at goddamn 3:52am and its now 4:40am #it took me. almost an HOUR #oh my god

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senzacaponecoda · 4 years

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(res conlangii)

Waiting on data to come in for schoolwork so I kind of doodled a plan for the syntactic evolution of Góoreta which is probably as good as it’ll get and the new draft for what will be Tantapty 2.0, which would be like Pa3aty 4.0 or something by now. 5.0, 6.

Góoreta is ancestral, and was modeled as pretty much a prototypical Nubian language; based on Old Nubian directly.

Góoreta is mixed SOVT/SVTO. T and V are generally fused (i.e. auxiliaries are rare) but SOV is slightly more primary and it’s reflected in how the verb is marked.

So the maximal noun phase is something like {en} {adjunct} {adjective phrase} root.stem-{sg/pl/col}-{nom/dir/gen/cop/abs} {adjective phrase} {adjunct}, {en} being an optional semantically empty determiner (syntactically it helps clue the listener in to a complex NP), {sg/pl/col} being the East Sudanic singulative/plural/collective number markers, the dir case being a combined accusative-dative, cop being the copulatory case, basically the marker for the more topical half of a copula phrase (as opposed to the part traditionally called a predicate, which is confusing when you’re talking about languages that don’t use a verb to express it). Leftward adjuncts and adjective phrases tend to be alienable, rightward tend to be inalienable/attributive. Compounds are thus backwards for an OV lang: manfire, not fireman. Possession is always marked rightwardly. Supplementation common.

Adpositions are chiefly prepositions, but adpositions that were promoted to conjunctions before Góoreta are postpositive.

The maximal verb is {adv} root.stem-{caus}-{pret}-{inch}-{pass/recip/mid}-{neg}-{admir}-{modal}-{fut}-[PNG]-{subj}

Already pluractionals would be lexicalized. Moods not happening in the morphology would be adverbial or like CP level or something. Verbs are mostly regular, with no supplemental stems coming to mind. Verbs however can be compounded, and a passive-perfective participle phrase WITH (adv) verb-POS tends to deliver stative sentence structures.

So a kind of overview of the whole sentence I got from a book on Egyptian might look like

where d is indirect object and A is adjuncts. Small is pronomial arguments and caps is lexically full. Cs are not mutually exclusive.

It seems that it’s necessary to have both a post-Góoreta NS creole and a pre-Tantafty Afroasiatic creole of the creole in order to “marry” it into the family as my goal originally was.

AA was probably already VSO~VOS, and probably ergative-absolutative. This initial hybridization would actually be crown to actual Afroasiatic, maybe being more of a hybridization with a Pre-Afroasiatic.

T would then be broken from V, and the cross-linguistic tendency for creoles to trend SVO (although this is maybe a European bias error since creoles tend to be half IE due to colonialism) is a compromise.

So new syntactic structure is C-S-s-T-V-o-d-O-A It basically follows Góoreta’s SVO style syntax. The new NP is {en} root.stem-{sg/pl/col} {adjective phrase} {adjunct}

Which loses the Nubian case system.

The new VP is

{aux=V-TA-M-Neg} root.stem.{inch/caus} {other mood} POS

Everything outside the domain of the inchoative broke off. The tense system would probably revolve around the now inherently unaccusative perfect i-VERB-POS forms and an un-i’d form derived from that. Maybe from núu (at) such as what forms a progressive in many languages. This has an advantage of preparing the verbal system for a harmony derived Front/Back ablaut.

Unfortunately Tantafty retaining an admirative mood seems unlikely.

This is when the Afroasiatic elements become dominate, and the stage of the language borrowed is roughly sister to the non-Ethiopian type Afroasiatic languages.

New syntax overform is like S-T-V-s-d-o-O-A. V-s tend to form a unit.

Despite Egyptian losing it, verbs inherit the prefixing conjugation as it assists the Ca1a22a3 unmarked form of present tenses (though, maybe, really, it should lose it, the same way Egyptian did.)

New NP is

{en}-cl.ABS root.stem.{sg/pl/col}-cl.ABS {(a) complement} {adjective phrase}-cl.ABS {adjunct}

Agreement is normalized. Number is lexicalized. Class is introduced. All nouns inherit the PAA absolutative case (-a), although case is not a feature of the syntax. Old nominative -u occasionally used, grammaticalized into something of focalized case. New number system starts to arise from dragging {pl} suffix with -cl.ABS irregularly. (a) represents a connective element, like {of}

New VP would be

{aux} {caus}-root.{inch}.stem-{modal}-[PNG]

Auxiliaries handle most issues. The new causative from AA supplants NS’s productively, the inchoative is detectable but fossilized, like English -Cle in words like rattle, dabble, nipple, etc. Some new modals have attached themselves between the verb and the PNG markers, from the possessive markers, at least in the perfect aspect. Old modals provide at least a new subjunctive.

4. ~ 5. (split as legit branch, then future Amizightization/Arabization)

Language eventually shifts into VSO syntax preferably. Old focalizing case used for SVO word order subject.

Word order is T-V.s.d.o-S-O-A

NP is

{D}(-case?)-[N][S]stem[S]

[N][S]stem[S](-case?)

where S is state derived from the connector/absolutative case.

Every draft of Tantafty/Pa3atic thus far has had case but I’m not entirely sure why it would even arise at this stage.

The nisbe could give rise to a kind of genitive-dative. But an earlier stage is likely to have had an et-ha-qadoyshim kind of accusative preposition. By now I want {en} to have become {lá} so it might be something that looks like l-á~an-á or something. The genitive-dative would probably have to go - l>r is what the negative for NPs is going to end up as, and ní would end up declining for something that governs it instead of what it governs. I could be silly and use d~ð, which looks both Imazighen-y and Modern South Arabian-y at the same time. I like the idea of German-style case-on-the-article-ness though.

Nouns would thus be VCCVC in form preferentially I guess. Irregular forms would be the main vestige of Nilo-Saharan - supplemental singulative-collective-plural forms.

For VP I guess that means a form like

{AUX} {caus}.stem.{modal}-[PNG] {adv}

The causative would be partially fossilized into the verb. The auxiliary would handle most of the weight, but probably as preverbs like in Egyptian or Nahuatl or so on as a VSO correlate. Although preverb-auxiliary-verb is likely too. Morphological moods I guess would be heavily reduced, compared to, say, Arabic or something.

The perfective/imperfective system should break into a new stative (like the present perfect), new preterite, new imperfect, and new “cursive” system, where cursive is habitual, gnomic, or the like. That’s taken from an Amazight language but kind of nicely lines up with how English distinguishes present perfect, the past tenses, the progressive, and the simple present. Auxiliaries from “come” and “go” add tense to the paradigm. New moods to be determined, probably areally based on Siwi and Arabic. Voice probably has to be grammaticalized from a verb/preposition instead of an Afroasiatic-y one. Likely a good place for stand? “He stands damaged by battle.”

It would probably be realistic for Tantafty to gain a prefixing conjugation from a suffixing conjugation Coptic style. The Amazight languages do interesting things to their prefixing and suffixing conjugations though and I might want to base whatever I do about the yaCvCCvC present forms on something like that, however. It might be that the whole present form from PAA collapses into just a gender distinction of the subject, which I’m leaning towards. Then PN agreement happens in the suffixes.

Vestiges of NS would then mainly be pluractional vs singulative verbs. I might be able to fit an honorific/emphatic mood in akin to Góoreta’s admirative, which I really wanted, but it can’t really be a direct descendant.

I like the idea of Tantafty having serial verb constructions (which it’s had for years now) and I like the idea of the creoles having compound verbs. Something like an atelic verb head and a stative resultative verb pattern might be doable for a lot of verb nuances, and end up with some weird compounds on the way. A random bit of what looks like Mandarin syntax I guess. This would be, like, the cut-break compounds.

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jjonassevilla · 5 years

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4 Lessons We Learned in 2019 (and How Marketers Can Apply Them in 2020)

It’s been a heck of a year, hasn’t it? And it’s not over yet.

Even if you’re still knee-deep in holiday and end-of-year promotions, it makes sense to take time to pause. Now’s the time to reflect on the challenges, opportunities, and accomplishments of 2019—before the crazy starts up again.

With that in mind, we’re revisiting the big lessons drawn from our most popular pieces on digital marketing and landing pages. For each, we’ll talk about how you can best apply these lessons in 2020 and beyond.

Lesson 1: Slow page speed is killing your conversions.

Unbounce predicted that 2019 would be “the year when the difference between fast and slow content becomes the difference between showing up in the search results (whether paid or organic) or disappearing completely.”

In January, we also published Think Fast: The 2019 Page Speed Report to shed some light on how slow loading times are impacting conversion rates.

We wanted to know where improving page speed was falling in the marketers’ yearly priority lists—as well as what their customers experience (and how they behave) when a website is slow to load.

This research stirred up all kinds of reasons why you definitely need to keep speed in mind when creating landing pages. For instance, Google says 53% of visitors will bounce after three seconds of waiting. But our check-in at the Call to Action Conference in late 2018 revealed that 85% of participants’ pages came in slower than 5 seconds at a 3G connection. (We’re not naming names, but some took more than 20 seconds.)

The survey results also revealed that consumers are pretty frank about the impact that slow ecomm sites can have on their willingness to buy:

Source: Think Fast: The 2019 Page Speed Report (Stats and Trends For Marketers)

What surprised us most, however, is that improving load times remains an overlooked way of optimizing the visitor experience. Very few marketers we surveyed identified it as a priority for the year, even though those who did have likely seen the benefits.

What Marketers Can Do in 2020

The thing is, these page speed concerns aren’t going away.

The average time for a web page to load is actually slower at the end of 2019 than it was a year ago. Some marketers have resisted making big improvements to loading times in the hopes that technology will save them (“5G is coming any day now!”). But speed remains a competitive differentiator.

Google hasn’t backed away from forcing the issue, either. They’ve always said that speed matters, but in November, they outlined plans to indicate when a site has been historically slow to load using badges in Chrome: “We think the web can do better and want to help users understand when a site may load slowly, while rewarding sites delivering fast experiences.”

Source: Google Chromium Blog

All of this adds up to a continued need to boost speed on your landing pages and website. To help, Unbounce’s Garrett Hughes put together a shortlist of page speed fixes (plus a downloadable checklist). And if you want to achieve blazing speeds on mobile devices, you’ll also want to investigate using Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) as well.

Marketers need to get faster and stay that way.

Let’s make speeding up a habit in 2020.

More Reading About SaaS Branding

Here’s How the Illustration Design Trend Caught Fire and Why Every SaaS Is Rebranding

[Brand Reveal] Celebrating You with a New Look

Get Ready for 2020…

The lessons you’ve learned from 2019 don’t stop being relevant at 11:59pm on December 31st. It turns out that the earth orbits the sun all the time, and we’re just marking the time.

So how will what you learned in 2019 transform how you do your job in 2020? What are your own marketing lessons going into the new year? What are your marketing resolutions? Now’s the time to start thinking…

We’d love to hear your answers in the comments below.

from Marketing https://unbounce.com/landing-pages/lessons-we-learned-in-2019/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

#SEO

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mentallyinwalmart · 6 years

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Cressworth Modern Au- Dear Liza

I have a HC that even in a modern setting, Audrey Rose would still write letters to Liza when she was at Uni. Here are some of those letters throughout the first term of school~

Dear Liza,

Well the first week at Uni has been an absolute whirlwind. I miss father and uncle dearly (not to mention you of course). But I have made lots of new friends. You would love my roomate, Ileana. Noah from my anatomy class, and Anna from psychology are really cool too, and I feel lucky to have met such great people so early on. Noah and Anna are in my major study group, along with some stuck up bloke called Andrei and a few other people I don’t really know. It is a good group, all of us are very determined (though it is only the first week).

I have to tell you, Liza, the absolute funniest thing happened at orientation over the weekend. You remember Uncle’s summer intern? For the life of me I can’t remember his name, but, well he tripped coming down the steps to come over and greet uncle and I. I swear to you Liza, I almost died trying not to laugh out loud. Uncle says he is very bright, and that I will probably run into him at some point this term, seeing as he is in my same major, but so far, he seems to have disappeared. I spaced on asking uncle for his name, so it would seem perhaps I won’t encounter him again.

I am going to a party tonight, and I’m wearing that dress you made for me before I left. Ileana says I look ravishing, so cheers to you!

But enough about me, how is the school of design? How are your classes and flatmates? I want to know everything.

Love always,

Audrey Rose

Dear Audrey Rose,

The school of design is amazing! Paris is beautiful, and my flatmates are absolutely incredible! You must visit, because you would just die for the culture here. It is so different than home, even if it is just a train ride away.

Anna and Ileana sound just lovely. I think you’d get along swimmingly with my favorite flatmate Daciana. She has the most iconic grunge/vampy look, and it perfectly compliments my summer child vibe. We lovingly refer to one another as our “other halves”. I am dying for you to meet her. And perhaps one day soon you might! She has a brother who actually is enrolled at your school! I’ll be sure to ask if he’s the annoying Andrei. How funny would that be!

But anyway, Daci wants to take the train down to London to visit him in a few weeks time and unless something major happens between us in that time, I’m going to accompany her! It will be so wonderful, cousin!

But now that all that about me is out of the way, let’s talk about your encounter with Uncle’s (super hot) summer apprentice. WHAT LUCK AUDREY ROSE!!! I vividly remember the time the two of you met briefly, and how flustered you were when he walked away. Deny it all you want, but I know you were smitten.

If you see him again, I insist, for the sake of my romantic soul, that you speak to him, instead of laughing at him.

Love you, see you soon,

Liza

Ps- his name is Thomas you absolute fool

Dear Liza,

Before I get to my questions about Daci, and about the new aesthetic you’ve seemingly assigned yourself in the few short weeks we’ve been apart, I want to address how ridiculous your claims are.

I have zero feelings for Thomas. Except perhaps feelings of annoyance. True, I found him quite attractive when we met last summer, but i find plenty of people attractive without being “smitten” as you so foolishly put it.

And even if I had been over the summer (which I was not), it is surely gone after working with him this last week. Thomas was a surprise addition to my study group starting at the beginning of this week, and he has proven himself to be most insufferable.

Who has to be right all the time?

And dear Liza, I do not mean “stick to their guns even when they’re wrong” right, I mean, actually, genuinely correct, every damn time. It’s positively infuriating!

Now that we’ve established that the only thing I want between me and Thomas is a brick wall, tell me about your “summer child” aesthetic. Last time I saw you, you were neck deep in prep chic. What has changed?

Daci sounds positively lovely, and I cannot wait to meet her and to see you both.

Anna and I went on this unbelievable night hike last weekend, we went through the forest to the old ruins atop the hill. I’ll have to take you when you come to visit.

Ileana has a friend that goes to your school! She wouldn’t give me a name, saying since it’s such a small school she worries you’d know her, and is keeping her past girlfriends a secret from me ://

Hopefully someday soon I’ll get it out of her. It sounds like she was something special.

Love you, and I excitedly await your visit.

Audrey Rose

Dear Audrey Rose,

First off, I am, and have always been, a summer child. It’s too grey in London for me to fully unleash it. But now here, in Paris, it is lively and warm enough for me to embrace who I really am. You just like to imagine I was a prep because your taste is not nearly refined enough to understand my unique look. (Love you cousin, even if you have the fashion sense of an old woman ;) )

I can’t believe I not only go to school with Ileana’s ex, but also the sister of someone at your school! It’s fate! I’m not sure yet if what kind, but it’s something.

As for Thomas, he sounds infuriating. But then again, isn’t “hot-but-annoying” exactly the criteria for a hate sex partner? I’m just saying, maybe it’s time to ditch the sweaters for something a little more showy and get yourself some action ;)

Love you, please don’t disown me for my foul mouth.

Kisses,

Liza

Dear Liza,

I made the mistake of reading this in the mail room right after I opened my post box.

And who should I smack right into as my face was burning so hot I was worried my blood may boil?

Thomas.

Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was?!

Not that I care what he thinks of me, I would’ve been embarrassed if I’d run into anyone like that.

He asked what I was reading, and because I’m bad at making up lies, I panicked and just mumbled something about having to go.

He had the most infuriating smirk, I swear his already full lips probably doubled in size.

What an absolute buffoon.

Later that night I found him sitting in the (usually vacant) seat besides me in forensics. It’s such a big lecture, I didn’t even know he was in the class. I wasn’t about to ask him to move, even I’m not that harsh. He spent most of the class doodling around the edge of his notebook (he was the only one in the whole lecture who didn’t have a laptop) and yet somehow, he always had the best theories.

Though I don’t like him, I plan to glean everything I can from having him as a new seat mate. He is quite intelligent, but more than that he can insert himself into the situations. It’s fascinating the way his mind works, I intend to steal that trait from him.

As for trading in my sweaters? I will never. They are my truest love. And as for hate sex? Absolutely not. I’m not letting someone I hate be my first time.

Love, your fashion forward cousin,

Audrey Rose

My Dearest (fashionably challenged) cousin,

So what you’re saying, is if it wasn’t your first time, you would take the handsome Thomas straight to bed? You little slut.

Daci and I have set a date for our trip. It is to be two weeks from tomorrow, for neither of us have classes on fridays. We will take the evening train, and be with you by midnight!

Her brother is to pick us up from the station in his car, and drive us to your school. I can’t wait to see you!!!

My whole heart is bursting at the thought (just as yours is bursting with loooooove for Thomas)

Seriously Audrey Rose, no one can write that much about someone they “hate so much”.

I know just how frank you can be, and if you truly disliked him as much as you say, you’d have told him to move, or simply say somewhere else.

That and you wouldn’t have gone into such detail about how intelligent he is and how much you think you can learn from him (not to mention how full his lips are!!).

Stop denying it, and just embrace the fact that you are not only attracted to his face, but his intellect.

Can’t wait to tease you about it in person,

Liza

Dear Liza,

You’re wrong.

Enough about Thomas (though he did bring me a cup of tea to forensics lecture last night when I mentioned earlier that afternoon at study group how tired I was, and how I didn’t have a break until after our night lecture).

I don’t know why I felt compelled to tell you that, maybe just to do him the justice of demonstrating maybe he isn’t all bad.

But still, besides that courtesy he remains an annoyance.

I cannot wait to see you. Ileana and I have found the most wonderful little pub with this incredible live band. They’re from America, and they play this music called “surfer punk”. It is, the strangest thing, but I think you will love them. And if what you’ve said about Daci is true, she will too.

Oh, and speaking of women at your school, Ileana’s ex is apparently “the one who got away”. She told me and Anna the other night when we were all hanging out together in our room. How they only broke up because they were going to different schools. It was the saddest story.

Please don’t stop being my best friend just because you are a Parisian fashion queen surrounded by other Parisian fashion queens.

Love, your bff,

Audrey Rose

Dear Audrey Rose,

First of all, unless someone at school with me here can become better than you, they will never replace you as my best friend/future maid of honor. And spoiler alert, they won’t.

Daci is wonderful, but she will never replace you, no matter how alike we are, you complete me as my polar opposite in some aspects, and yet my mirror image in others.

Wow that was pretty, maybe I ought to be a creative writing major.

In regards to your little Thomas situation, i have been teasing you mercilessly, but in all honesty, that tea thing was very sweet. I think he may have a thing for you too. (Even if it’s just a “id smash if given the opportunity” kinda deal)

This feels like it’s going somewhere, I am thrilled to be experiencing this iconic love story second hand.

your bff,

Liza

Ps- if you get to insist Daci and my other fashion friends don’t replace you than I must insist that Anna and Ileana never replace me in your heart. If I find out you confess your feelings about Thomas to them before me, I will be infuriated. (That is mostly a joke, but in every joke there is a little bit of truth.)

Love youuuuu,

Liza

Dear Liza,

Of course no one will ever replace you. You’re stuck having me as a best friend forever.

Now that we’re done with that nonsense, I have so much to fill you in on.

We just got slapped with this massive midterm project that is due the day you leave, so naturally I am going to try and get it done before you come. I assumed I was working alone because Thomas didn’t bother asking if I might want to work with him, and I don’t know anyone else in that class. But two days ago, there comes a knock on my door. Naturally, I assumed it was Anna or that Illy had forgotten her keys, so I opened the door.

And who should be leaned against the door frame? You guessed it Liza, Thomas. He handed me a to go cup of Earl Grey and then strode right in like he owned the place.

“Messier than I expected.” was all he said before settling himself at my desk, spreading his notes across my own and launching into his take on the case.

He can be quite captivating when he puts his mind to it, and despite wanting to tell him off for barging in, the longer he talked, the more clear it became that our talents would go better together, and the only way I could get this project done on time would be if we worked together.

So I let him stay, and we have spent the last two days together working day and night trying to finish this. It seems to be driving him mad that he can’t crack it as easily as he can most things in that class. I think that must be what is suddenly making him more tolerable.

Only eight days til I see you, dear cousin. Love always,

Audrey Rose

Audrey Rose!!!

You are so smitten!!! When I tell you I canNOT!!! Don’t even try to deny it Audrey Rose!

I have, of course, been keeping Daci in the loop about you and Thomas’ whole “will they or won’t they” scene and she agrees with me that if his actions before hadn’t made it clear he was into you, what he pulled when he came to your room absolutely is. She says you should just make a move, and while I absolutely agree, I told her I bet you wouldn’t because that isn’t very you.

Prove us both wrong?

But even if nothing else comes of it, at least you will (hopefully) get everything done before I get in this weekend! I want every moment with you I can get! Daci and I have the whole thing planned out (of course your American band has made the schedule, Daci is very excited), you, me, her and her brother are going to be like a little posse this weekend, and it’s going to be amazing! And, if Thomas gets jealous you’re spending so much time with another man, you can just invite him. I don’t mind ;)

I’ll see you in six days Audrey!!!!

Love you to America and back,

Liza

Dear Liza,

I had not intended on writing you again before you visited, but a LOT happened tonight.

I penned this letter when I got back from Thomas’ room at three in the morning and honestly? The only reason I did was so that I wouldn’t think tonight’s events were some kind of strange fever dream.

We were in my room working on our midterm project to no avail, just as we have every night this week. It was infuriating. But then, suddenly I had this epiphany, and moved everything around, and it all made sense! I yanked Thomas over and I swear, he lit up like a firefly.

Before I knew what was happening, Liza, he had taken me in his arms and pressed his lips to mine. He tasted like chocolate, which mostly attribute to the mocha he’d been nursing all evening.It was the best kiss I have ever had, he put Will Blackburn from high school to shame, but he pulled away much too quickly.

His cheeks were flushed and his eyes had a mix of hunger and nerves. He opened his mouth, I can only assume to apologize, but before he could get a word out, my desire overcome me. I let my hands run through his curls as we kissed again, and as soon as it was clear I wanted it as much as he did, he was lifting me up and pressing me against the wall. My shirt was off faster than you can say “abracadabra” and his lips were making a sweet trail down my collar bone to my chest as I fumbled with the buttons on his shirt.

I had finally gotten his shirt off, and was running my hands over his abs, my legs wrapped around his waist as he left little love bites on my collar bones and upper chest until suddenly, I heard Illy’s voice outside and her key jingling in the door.

And then, the fire in my core was replaced with icy panic. Luckily, Thomas managed to get into the bathroom before she came in, and I managed to pull my shirt back on before Illy got in the door. I explained as casually as I could that Thomas was on his way out, he had just needed to use the bathroom.

When he reentered the room a few moments later, I was so worried he would give us away, but he looked perfectly put together. BUT LIZA THIS IS WHERE THINGS TRULY GOT INSANE!

HE GREETED ILLY LIKE AN OLD FRIEND!!!

Because apparently?? Thomas’ sister is Illy’s ex, and none other than Daciana Cresswell, your mother fucking roomate.

When I tell you I was floored Liza, I mean it.

Then this boy had the audacity to leave like nothing had happened. But at this point, I had nothing to lose, so after a few moments sorting through details and getting caught up with Ileana, I went up to his room to confront him.

He explained he had put it together when he saw me and Uncle because his sister had been telling him about you, her flatmate named Eliza Wadsworth.

You’d think I would be more upset that he had kept me in the dark, wouldn’t you? But surprisingly, I was not. I guess you were right, Liza. I think I have been smitten since he first stumbled down the steps at orientation.

He seemed nervous I would be angry he had held out on me, but when I told him I wasn’t, it’s like he let down a facade and suddenly he was a whole new person. Unfortunately there wasn’t much fooling around after that (besides the considerable ass grabbing that came with my kiss goodnight) because we both agreed finishing the midterm to be most important that way we can spend the most time with you guys this weekend.

He walked me back to my room despite me insisting he didn’t have to, and taunted me with another kiss, and the promise of taking me on a real date tomorrow night, ‘in the time we would have spent on the project you so brilliantly solved tonight’.

I cannot wait to see you, dearest cousin.

Love,

Audrey Rose Wadsworth

Ps- I will be with Thomas when he picks you up on Thursday night :)

~~~~~

Hope you all enjoyed! This is probably my favorite fic I have ever written!!!! I have decided it is going to inspire a tiny mini series of fic’s, so there will be at least two more coming

Thanks, as always, for reading, and let me know if you want to be tagged as I post the next ones in this series

#sjtr #stalking jack the ripper #Thomas cresswell #Audrey rose wadsworth #cressworth #cressworth au #cressworth college au #college au #sjtr fanfiction #sjtr au #hunting prince dracula #escaping from houdini #capturing the devli

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darksoulszine · 5 years

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Interview with Bolterfist

Today we interview Bolterfist! One of our contributors in THE FIRST FLAME.

Q: How did you get into making art and for how long have you been doing it?

I've been drawing since I was a kid, but I really have my grandma to thank for the fact I still am so passionate about art today. She's an incredible painter and has been nurturing and supporting my art as long as I can remember.

Q: What traditional media or digital program do you prefer to use and why?

I mostly use digital and CSP, but I dabble in traditional with ballpoint pen. CSP is affordable, works with a wide array of hardware (I use an UGEE), and is extremely capable and flexible. Highly recommend it, especially if you're looking for a Photoshop alternative that isn't a billion $$$$$$$$$$$$

Q: Do you mostly make fan art or are there original works you are also passionate about?

I make a lot of fan art, right now a big interest for me is Warhammer 40k/HH. Besides painting models a bit, I draw lots of art of my fanchapter, and maybe some comics in the future as well. I also like drawing art from my dnd campaign and I'm working on a story/comic with another artist.

Q: Is there any artist or art movement that inspires you? Which ones?

I really enjoy concept art, comics of all kinds, and renaissance sculpture.

Q: What would you say to someone who is willing to dedicate their life to art, but doesn’t take that step because of the risks?

If you've got the dedication

there's nothing to be afraid of. Practice, have patience, and utilize good networking skills and you'll be fine.

That said, I haven't and don't plan on entering the field of professional art, but there are some really friendly and amazing artists out there in professional fields that talk about their experiences publicly and offer advice they have for breaking into their field.

Q: What do you like about being an artist?

I can make anything I fuckin want!!!!!

Q: Show us some of your favorite artworks that you made and tell us why.

This was my first finished souls fanart. I had a profound experience with Laurentius' death that lead me down toward Ash Lake and ended up inspired the piece. I had a plan to make a series of prints similar in theme to this, but I haven't gotten around to it.

I'm relatively new to painting, digital or otherwise, and this is one of the first full paintings I've made.

Kentaro Miura's art really blows me away but this part in Berserk in particular I was really taken with.

Q: Where can we find more of your work? Are there any personal projects you would like to share?

Right now I post most of my art and doodles on my twitter: https://twitter.com/bolterfist and my finished works on artstation: https://www.artstation.com/bolterfist

I mentioned earlier that I'm working on a story/comic with a friend, so I'll take some time to talk about it. It's about a crew that does odd jobs/intergalactic cargo hauling. Think kind of a bebop/gintama/80's-90's scifi vibe. It's not to a point I can publish it online yet, but if that interests you at all, stick around! It's called Headspace.

Q: What order did you play the soulsborne games in? Which is your favorite?

Dark souls, Demon's souls, Bloodborne, Dark souls III. Dark souls and Bloodborne are my favourites. I still need to play DSII and Sekiro.

Q: When you got eaten by a mimic for the first time, what did you yell out loud?

“nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo”

Q: Any memorable Dark Souls gaming moments you'd like to share?

One of the most memorable parts of Dark Souls to me was the first time I entered the depths. You go from a wide outdoor area, seeing the sky, traversing castles, seeing drakes flying around, talkin to peeps... Then you open this door to just this dark, stale, dank, quiet spot and I remember getting the chills and thinking "Oh shit, I gotta go in there???" It's still one of my favourite spots in the game.

Get the zine at: 🔥 [ THE FIRST FLAME ] 🔥 info page

𝐅𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐞-𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 & 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞:

on tumblr @darksoulszine

on insta @DarkSoulsFanZine

on twitter @SoulsFanZine

#thefirstflamezine #interview #bolterfist #darksouls #dark souls #fanzine #dark souls fanzine #art #artists on tumblr #illustrators on tumblr #gaming

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retvenkos · 6 years

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“so what if we’re wild, we only live once.”

requested

BUCKLE IN FAM, BECAUSE THE NEWSIES IN HIGH SCHOOL FOR A MODERN AU WOULD OBVIOUSLY INCLUDE…

(also, keep in mind that this is based off of my experience in the american school system, any classes are ones that are offered at my own school.)

Bill

so he’s obviously head of the journalism staff

and he definitely is a part of yearbook too

and what is he interested in most??

chemistry

no one really understands why, but they don’t question it as long as he helps them with homework

and bill is 10/10 that guy who always has his homework done and let’s you borrow it

his worst class is by far history

he’s in choir and plays the piano for like, every song

he actually has a really nice set of pipes (he’s a tenor, too)

he’s terrible with dates

Darcy

so darcy is on yearbook because he can take the most stunning photos

and he is also a part of journalism, and his niche is critiquing

plays?? restaurants?? sports??

and yes, he goes to sporting events

and yes, romeo gives him a wink everytime he sees him at the baseball games

it’s a ship to end all ships

he isn’t quite sure what he wants to do in the future

i forgot to mention - these are headcanons for when each one is a senior in high school, i’m not working out ages in relation to each other. find someone more motivated for that

but he does know he wants to go to a really nice college

he’s definitely on chess club, and he’s a member of key club too

Katherine

journalism, guys. and she’s not into heavy creative writing, more like articles and interviews and such

president of debate

and her style game is strong - she, bill, and darcy are the three best dressed. facts.

she makes such pretty notes

and she slays in argument writing

english is obviously her favorite class, but a close second is her research class

and she actually sucks at cooking - she took culinary arts as a sophomore and set off the fire alarm twice

she has a free period in her schedule where she goes to the library and slaves over math

it doesn’t come easy to her

definitely has an old-school planner that is always full

Sarah

okay, i don’t know much about sarah - full disclosure, but i’ll try

so first of all, this girl is really put together

she has her schedule mapped out two months in advance, she remembers everyone’s birthday, and she already knows the vacation days during the year

she has library aide for one of her periods and knows every adult in the building by first name

she also happens to be an aide when kath has her free period and she is either the embodiment of the heart eye emoji or trying to help katherine with math

she loves psychology and already has plans to study it

she is in key club with darcy and also just volunteers a whole lot

her favorite is visiting and helping out animal shelters

she goes there so much that they finally just give her a job there

she doodles a lot on the side of her notes - it keeps her from falling asleep in science

the master of the messy top knot

Davey

okay, this boy does not know when to stop

he is taking all of the advanced classes he possibly can, and he’s stressing over them way too much

jack makes him like, 10 cups of stress relief tea daily

there’s also a running bet that the whole school is in on about whether he or kath will be valedictorian

specs says that davey will do it if he doesn’t have a heart attack before final exams

race says he’ll be so busy he’ll forget to even show up to graduation

also, while we’re at it, we need to talk about this boy’s notes. they are the hardest thing to decipher in this world, but if you can read his chicken scratch then you have a goldmine of helpful ways to study

he loves mnemonics with a burning passion and uses them at every chance he can get

his favorite class is chinese or math

and he’s definitely a part of future business leaders of america, mesa, and book club

Les

yes, this is for when les is a senior

he’s obviously not in the same year as the rest of the gang, but les as an 18 year old is gold

okay, first of all… heartthrob who genuinely doesn’t know it

he’s not actually officially part of any club, but he’s always staying after school afterward to like, float into the different club meetings

but he’s definitely an sbo - probably vice president or activities

he’s a part of band and definitely plays the saxophone

you know that means he starts off every class period by playing careless whisper

the teachers all really love him

he actually gets pretty good grades

and he is way overly competitive in review games, especially ones in history

he will wreck you

always goes off campus at lunch and walks into his next period a couple minutes late with a shake

Jack

did someone say art?????

jack does literally every form of it, and he does them all so well

davey seethes at this, but loves it when jack helps in in ceramics

he’s also really supportive of younger artists who are still perfecting their art, so he’s obviously the head of the art club

and he’s the paint master for drama club and all of their productions

he frequently falls asleep in english class

he’s also the president of latinos in action - chosen unanimously even though he wasn’t going for the position

y’all can fite me on latino! jack kelly

also, his signature style is a blue sweatshirt, and all of his clothes have paint on them

he’s also that kid who never has a pencil on him, and never returns the ones he is given just because he always forgets

Crutchie

so i don’t know where the headcanon about crutchie being on the swim team originated, but it is dear to my heart and lives on in this post

he is the nice™ jock

also, he wants to go into the medical field for sure

he had medical terminology as last class of the day and it makes his day 10 times more bright

he uses highlighters so much (but only the yellow ones)

also, crutchie is lowkey a style icon???

all of his teachers love him

he’s that kid that always raises his hand in a group discussion, and it’s one of two things: a lame pun that gets more groans than laughs, or a really insightful bit of knowledge

there is no in-between

definitely volunteers with sarah at the animal shelters and is a part of french club, even though he’s only ever gone to like, two meetings

Albert

albert wrestles, no one can convince me otherwise

but he’s also on dance co.

we love a well rounded boy - especially when he’ll pull up if you question his life choices

he is soooo salty, and he has no filter. Even in front of teachers.

anyone in his history class can attest to this - especially when they are going through america’s messy past

literally does not care about the majority of his classes

but he maintains a good gpa so he can be on the wrestling team

also, he failed his driving test twice, and when he got his license it didn’t make a difference since no one would trust him with a car anymore

but he’s actually really good in his business and marketing class

he frequently helps in the little store that the business class runs during lunch and stuff because he’s really good with money and change

Race

a part of dance company

and he hates the early morning practices with a passion but will just chug energy drinks to get through it

this boy doesn’t sleep… unless it’s in english

the most surprising thing about him is that he’s really good at math??

and he doesn’t even try - he’ll be talking all class period and then finish the homework in class in like, 10 minutes flat

it’s the same thing with physics

but it’s not like you can ask him for help, because he doesn’t really listen to the professor or follow their methods and steps

like i said earlier, race just doesn’t care

or so you think, but his shirt is always matching the color of his shoes and headphones, but then his hair is literal mess and he wears like, he only owns like, two different pairs of joggers

he’s honestly such a mystery

Buttons

okay, so buttons kills it at fashion, which is why he aces his fashion design class

he’s head costumer for all of the drama departments musicals and plays

he’s also really into art history, and he gets inspiration from art all the time

he’s definitely a part of key club and is a part of national honors society although he’s only ever gone to a couple meetings for both

he gets pretty decent grades in everything but physics, but he definitely tries to study for all of his classes

he goes stag to every school dance and deliberately tries to get his ships together for a song

coffee??? he only ever drinks it black

it’s how he stops romeo from taking his

he’s also a dork who color codes his notes because they help him study better

but he has no idea how to take notes for math class, so he kinda just does example problems and then is confused on how it ever did it in the first place

Elmer

so this is one musically talented boy

he plays the guitar, trumpet, and drums

it’s also an inside joke with him and jojo that they both play the castanets

but he’s definitely a part of any band the school offers - as well as pit for the musical

he’s a really chill, laid-back student that gets their work done and just hangs out

he is very nice and definitely a teacher aid for one of the english teachers

and he’s also a part of the poetry club

it’s to improve his songwriting as well as give him a place to destress

He’s definitely the guy who will always lend you his notes if you missed a day, but he’s also not that great at taking notes because his mind is always on something else

he’s also an attendance office aide for one of his periods

Henry

he took ballroom as a joke with mike, and he really ended up liking it

but he’s not a part of dance co. because their style is totally different from ballroom

He also has a lot of energy, so he’s that kid that’s always bouncing his leg up and down and making the desk behind him shake

but no one ever asks for him to stop because he has the biggest smile that you just can’t shut down??

he knows this, though, and he definitely uses it on teachers to get extensions on his work, and he does, like 80% of the time

his worst class is probably english because he can’t just sit down and read for long periods of time

but during the shakespeare unit he kills it because he’s always first to volunteer to read or do a part

his handwriting is very messy and he uses so many abbreviations not even davey knows what they’re saying

always races to be first in the lunch line

always one of the first people to be in class

Hot Shot

he has auto shop as his first class of the day and absolutely loves it

but he’s also that kid that hangs out with his friends in the middle of the hallway, bottlenecking the whole thing during passing time

thinks he’s the cool™ kid

wears leather jackets exclusively

he hates any core class

but secretly really likes his humanities class

he’s taking italian with spot and the poor teacher just can’t handle these two together

he’s also secretly good at basketball

the coach found out somehow and asks him every year to be on the team

but hot shot would rather die than be on a school team

Ike

has a youtube channel where he mostly posts prank videos especially those that involve the school

he ran for sbo and was elected as treasury, even though mike is the one who went to all of the meetings for like, two months straight

he is the epitome of a class clown, but it’s always in good fun

he always is wearing a black t-shirt under his sbo sweater

and since he’s an sbo he has to go to all the sports game to support and stuff and he cheers the absolute loudest

he does gymnastics with mike after school every day and at every sbo meeting he brings up how it needs to be a part of the sports at school

he never takes notes but can retain everything

his worst class is anything science related

but he’s secretly really good a history

A proud member of spanish club

Mike

mike is definitely the more artsy twin

he takes drawing and ceramics but can’t paint for the life of him

he’s a part of the art club with jack and is basically second in command there

he does gymnastics with ike after school and is on dance co.

he struggles with math and science but gets by okay

has a free period for first where he could be sleeping in or studying but instead he goes to auto shop to talk to hot shot

he definitely has a crush. hot shot won’t admit it, but he loves mike being there.

he usually wears bright colors with his dance co. jacket

doesn’t really like coffee, but he always has a coke on him - it’s his one weakness

is also a part of spanish club

Kenny

okay, so i know, like, nothing about kenny, so i’m just going with my gut based off of his photo

film is his passion and he wants to be a director one day

is 10/10 that kid in your photography class that spends 90% of the time making stop-motion videos

he’s very nice and is always lending jack pencils even though he knows he’ll never get them back

also, there’s a running gag that he and darcy are the same person, ike runs conspiracy theory videos on his youtube channel

his two favorite classes are film (duh) and theatre

he’s a part of the ensemble of every musical the school puts on

he’s even directed a show a couple of times for the spotlight showcase

he is like that background kind of kid that is a part of the big groups and is totally included but just doesn’t have a huge role in the big stuff

he hates having to write essays because he says it’s sucking the creativity out of writing

also likes psychology

JoJo

co-captain of the soccer team

also a madrigal with bill and specs (he’s a baritone)

always tries out for the school musicals, and he usually gets a main part

he takes quite a few advanced classes and it is not rare to find him passed out on one of the other newsies’ couch

he manages to keep a good gpa with his schedule

his favorite class besides madrigals is probably latinos in action, which he has the same period as jack

while he doesn’t play any instruments himself you can always find him hanging out in the band room at lunch

he is absolutely terrible in math but is taking college math now so he can get it done with and never have to do again for as long as he lives

his aspirations are pretty much all over the place at the moment, but he smiles through the uncertainty

“i feel like it’s fine”

Romeo

on the baseball team

a shameless flirt, especially with darcy

did someone say president of the asian american club??

he’s also a part of drama club because he has a passion for theatre

he can’t when it comes to math, though

so instead of getting frustrated he just writes notes in the calculators for people to find

he’ll also fall asleep in that class

he’s definitely a partner in crime with ike and frequently is a guest on his youtube channel

studying??? who’s she???

really good at debate, though. katherine keeps telling him he should join the club but he says his skills are beyond that of a club

Finch

on the track team and one of the fastest runners

it’s a good outlet for all of his energy

he takes notes in all of his classes since he learned all the strategies from avid, but he never looks back at them

surprisingly gets really good test scores, though

you know he takes wildlife biology and he memorizes like, every type of bird call

he can even mimic some of them - it’s how he wakes romeo up in math.

he also goes out every day for lunch, and his next period is english which he has with like, all of the boys, so he’s always throwing fries across the room for henry or mush to catch in their mouths

he beats his own school records every year so he’s like, constantly the athlete of the month

definitely goes to all of the different sports games and cheers very loud

carries a huge water bottle that he fills up during french class to get out of presentations

Kid Blink

first of all, this kid does not do any kind of sport because his depth perception rivals that of mine

which means it s u c k s

however, he kills it at math and physics is his one true love

If you need a study partner for either, he’s your guy. just know that he explains nothing and goes pretty fast. keep up and you can do math with him.

he lowkey hates history because it’s about a whole bunch of dead people who were problematic

he’s a part of mesa

he takes american sign language and it’s one of his favorite classes

he and smalls are constantly having conversations from across the room

a lot of the time it’s about the teacher, and one time they were caught by their chemistry teacher who knew asl

they got detention for like, a week because of it

Mush

here comes the heartthrob!!!!

very handsome, and his strong suit is engineering. which always shocks people.

which means he’s definitely a part of mesa and the engineering and technology club

he’s definitely the person to go to if you need help in physics. he explains things really well

the only bad part about it is that he also goes off on tangents when he’s explaining and you can get confused if you listen too long

he’s actually kind of a style icon, his hair is probably the best out of everyone

he always has headphones in, but one earbud is out so he can hear the teacher and whatnot

he cannot act for the life of him

but he has a good-natured laugh that makes up for the cringe

he also cannot dance

Smalls

okay, so smalls is a part of the asian american club, key club, and poetry club

even though he cannot write to save his life, they let him come because he’s uber supportive

there’s also a joke that he and spot are a part of the short™ club

lowkey, smalls started this joke because he finds it hilarious when spot gets upset

he actually takes interior design and it’s his favorite class

he’s really good with color

he also takes woodworking and makes the guys stuff for it

davey has a bookshelf and jack has a desk

takes asl with kid blink and loves it

is the kid who always has to stand up to take notes because seating charts always put him in the back, despite his height

Sniper

okay, so sniper is a cheerleader but don’t let that fool you - she’s also on the wrestling team and will take you down

albert is like her older brother and helps her with her business class

she regrets having taken it, but she needed another cte credit and thought it would be safer than welding

she has a criminal law class that she loves with all of her heart

she writes in all capitals

she’s also that kid that writes all of her essays handwritten to spite her english teacher which, on the first day of school, complain about her writing in all caps

she’s good with history and has it with albert and it’s her personal goal to get him to laugh at her comments in that class

studying??? sounds studious. and not a part of her aesthetic.

has an attendance office aide period where she mostly does the homework for her next class period

is that kid that always almost swears in class debates

Specs

first, our boy is president for madrigals (he’s a low bass)

then he’s a proud part of the book club

his thing is psychology, and he goes in hard, he and sarah sit next to each other and talk in hushed whispers about all the cool stuff they learn

he takes very neat notes

but only has to look at them two or three times before he’s ready to take a test

is always an ensemble member in the school musicals

he is also a library aide and constantly smells like old books

very organized

his locker always has everything you could possibly need - a jacket, hat, bag of trail mix, water, etc.

the mom friend™

Spot

first of all, he’s that kid who always sits in the same seat. if you’re sitting in his seat, you’re dead. don’t @ him.

he hates science with a burning passion and is so glad he finished all of his credits for it in junior year

is actually a bit of a history buff

but he never participates in class, just writes really good essays and aces every test

and speaking of writing

he’s actually really into creative writing

who did you think started the writing club???

but he’s no less tough

he always wears a leather jacket, a red shirt, cuffs the bottom of his jeans, and has his pen tucked behind his ear

he doesn’t really take notes, and he only writes in pen

Tommy Boy

captain of dance company

is having none of race’s idiocy at practices either

but he’s actually really funny and nice, all the teachers love him

can’t write a summary in english for the life of him but will write a 10 page essay on why dance company is a part of the performing arts and deserves just as much recognition as theatre, choir, and band

only ever eats out of the vending machines for lunch

is a part of french club

really likes culinary arts because his one weakness is sugar

can’t do any form of art other than dance

but he doesn’t need to - he’s that good

notes??? what are those???

AND FLUFF ENSUES.

#newsies #newsies musical #modern au #high school au #katherine pulitzer #katherine plumber #davey jacobs #les jacobs #jack kelly #crutchie morris #albert dasilva #racetrack higgins #buttons davenport #elmer kasprzak #newsboysheadcanons

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doomednarrative · 6 years

Note

Odd numbered questions

Since you didn’t give me a character, I answered them all for Rhys. (This is really really long so every question after the first is under a read more.)

1. What does their bedroom look like?

Post Helios crashing, all of the Handsome Jack posters have been removed and torn up. I like to think that Rhys has his own room in the Helios remains camp so that he can visit Vaughn and the others whenever he wants to, and I think this room would actually be kinda bare, if only because of the lack of resources available to decorate with. If they’re able to find any paint maybe he’d paint it the Altas colors since he’s now the Atlas CEO, but other than that there’s not much there besides a bed and nightstand and a closet for his clothes. (Later down the line in my vision for post game story, he basically just moves into Vaughn’s room and that’s a bit more decorated.)

3. Do they exercise, and if so, what do they do? How often?

Rhys is definitely Not the exercise type (despite Vaughn’s best effort to get his twig of a best friend/boyfriend to put on some muscle), but he’s at least taken to going on daily walks when he can either around the camp or outside of it for a bit. Keeps the fresh ideas flowing and at least keeps him on guard.

5. Cleanliness habits (personal, workspace, etc.)

It depends on his mental health most days honestly. For appearances alone if he’s got a day full of important CEO duties, he’ll always make the effort to get dressed up and look very presentable for the time that he’s at work. When he gets home tho, if it’s a bad mental health day, that all goes out the door when he steps foot in his room and can decompress. If he’s Really bad mentally, sometimes Vaughn has to step in and remind Rhys to do some things so he doesn’t fall into bad habits permanently.

7. Favorite way to waste time and feelings surrounding wasting time

I feel like Rhys is the type who would probably enjoy drawing in his spare time. He doesn’t get to do it often since he’s a CEO with a lot of duties there and he likes hanging out with his friends a lot, but when he does get to, its more loose doodling and more often than not used as a stress relief. He might have some negative thoughts about wasting time when there’s more important things to do, but he also knows that sometimes he Has to separate himself from his work, both for his own mental health and because Vaughn or Fiona will Make Him take some time off if he won’t do it himself.

9. Makeup?

Considering I headcanon Rhys as trans, I’m gonna say that makeup isn’t really his thing. Though he has been known to wear just a bit of eyeliner from time to time when the mood strikes. (He sucks at applying it tho and asks Fiona to help him whenever he does wear it.)

11. Intellectual pursuits?

After pulling out all his cybernetics on his own and fucking up some stuff internally by doing so, Rhys started collecting as much reading material in any and all forms about cybernetics and how to build and maintain and install them as he could. He’s become a lot more knowledgeable about the topic since having to do so to save his own arm and eye, and he plans to use that knowledge to help out the people of Pandora later on in the future through the use of Atlas tech. (His own cybernetics still aren’t the best because he jury-rigged them in the beginning when he was kinda desperate and not at full mental capacity, and his fine motor control suffers because of this, but he’s constantly working on the tech to improve it. He’s no expert in the field, at least when it comes to self application, but he’s trying his best.)

13. Sexual Orientation? And, regardless of own orientation, thoughts on sexual orientation in general?

If he had to put a label on it, Rhys would probably say that he’s pansexual, leaning more towards men. In terms of what he thinks in general about orientations though? He really couldn’t give two shits. People are who they are and like who they like and he’s not one to judge for any of that. It’s honestly one of the furthest things from his mind a lot of the time.

15. Biggest and smallest short term goal?

(This one I actually don’t have an answer for, but when I think of one, I will post it.)

17. Preferred mode of dress and rituals surrounding dress

Rhys has two modes of dress: Fully suited kickass CEO, or oversized shirts with the sleeve possibly ripped off for his cybernetic arm with baggy sweatpants. He’s either at the top of his fashion game or he gives no two shits either way.

19. What do they think about before falling asleep at night?

Depends when you’re asking. Pre him and Vaughn getting together, probably about all the shit he regrets with Jack and Helios crashing and all the people he’s killed and horrible things he did in the name of his job on Hyperion. Post him and Vaughn getting together when they start sharing a room and sleeping in the same bed? He tries to focus more on the now, on being lucky that he’s still alive after Jack tried to kill him and that he still has his friends and that they’re here together.

21. Turn-ons? Turn-offs?

Honestly, people being nice to him and not calling him a dumbass is his major turn on. Turn offs is a longer list but the top of that list is people degrading him and only seeing him as a klutz and not someone they can take seriously.

23. How organized are they? How does this organization/disorganization manifest in their everyday life?

Rhys is chaotically organized, much to his friends and potential future employee’s dismay. I headcanon him as having ADHD, so some of it definitely comes from that. The other part though comes from the fact that he just has his own ways of doing things that don’t make sense to anyone except him (and sometimes Vaughn.) He’s never lost any important documents or the like, but he’s more prone to losing certain articles of clothing (except for his socks, he’s careful with those) and other more personal items. He can’t count the number of times he’s misplaced his stun baton when he really needed it.

25. How do they see themselves 5 years from today?

Married to Vaughn while being a successful CEO for Atlas and actually making decent strides at improving life on Pandora for All it’s inhabitants and basically doing the Opposite of what he would have been doing on Helios if he were still there.

27. What is their biggest regret?

He has a Lot of regrets that plague his conscious constantly for a long time, but plugging that goddamn ID Drive of Nakayama’s into his data port is one of the Biggest ones. So much shit wouldn’t have happened if he had never done that and hadn’t let Jack get deep into his systems.

29. Reaction to sudden extrapersonal disaster (eg The house is on fire! What do they do?)

Rhys is the one who runs around screaming (most times) until someone gives him instructions on what to do. He does have times though if he’s able to be level headed enough that he can make a solid plan to solve the problem as well.

31. Most prized possession?

The ECHOeye implant where Jack’s AI is held captive. (if you had him keep it and not destroy it that is, which I did.) It’s not prized for the fact that it’s important to him or that he misses Jack or anything like that. It’s prized because he knows if He has the implant, no one else can get ahold of Jack but him. And keeping Jack in the implant means that he’s suffering alone in there by himself which Rhys feels is what he deserves. (He keeps the implant in a bio-encrypted lock deep down in his office’s vaults at Atlas. No one except him knows that it’s even stored there.)

33. Concept of home and family?

His friends are his family. Vaughn, Fiona, Sasha, LB, Gortys, heck even Athena and Janey and August, he considers them all his family to some degree, with Vaughn being the closest out of all of them. And as far as a home goes, that’s just wherever they all happen to be together in his mind.

35. What activities do they enjoy, but consider to be a waste of time?

As mentioned earlier, Rhys enjoys doodling at times but sometimes considers it a waste when he knows he has more important things he could be doing with his time.

37. Are they more analytical or more emotional in their decision-making?

Absolutely more emotional. He goes with whatever his heart tells him is right every single time, which doesn’t always have the best results.

39. What recharges them when they’re feeling drained?

Rhys used to play guitar a bit in college, but once he got to Hyperion that hobby died very quickly. Somehow, Fiona found out this fact (most likely through Vaughn since Rhys never talks about it) and gave Rhys a slightly used guitar she was able to pawn off of someone one day as a gift. She claims it was just to get him out of everyones hair but really, it was just her being nice. Rhys has since then been slowly learning how to play again and likes to pull it out and play by himself when he’s too low on energy to be social. (If he’s too drained for even that, then a nap will normally suffice for a recharge as well. Preferably one with Vaughn, but those are few and far between since he’s got people to look after.)

41. How misanthropic are they?

Rhys is normally a pretty social person and generally enjoys society, but at times, he does tend to withdraw from people and isolate himself after the Helios incident. It’s not for the fact of hating people or society in general, it’s more the fact that he spent so much time alone after defeating Jack and while rebuilding Atlas that sometimes, being around people is just too much and he needs some time alone. He gets better with this as the years go by, but in the beginning he’ll sometimes go two or three days alone before interacting with people again. (His friends worry the first few times this happens, especially Vaughn, but they come to understand his reasoning after he actually takes the time to explain his absences to them. Vaughn is sometimes allowed to see him during those times though because he’s Vaughn and he knows how to just be around Rhys naturally and do his own work without making Rhys talk or interact much.)

43.How far did they get in formal education? What are their views on formal education vs self-education?

It’s canon that Rhys went to college, but as far as actually finishing and what degrees he got, I’d say he got his bachelors and no further than that, unless he was doing his own independent studying on his own, which he might have done to push himself forward at Hyperion. Rhys is all for self education, he��s constantly doing that himself when it comes to running Atlas and learning what he needs to do to be a successful CEO there.

45. Superstitions or views on the occult?

Don’t think Rhys is much for superstitions or the occult. He doesn’t really Need to be when things like Vault Monsters exist in real life for him.

47. If they were to fall in love, who (or what) is their ideal?

Vaughn is definitely his ideal person. He compliments Rhys in a lot of different ways, they have a lot of history from being best friends for so long, and they get each other on a deeper level. Vaughn has always been important to Rhys throughout their whole journey from college to Hyperion to the now. And after seeing how Vaughn grew as a person during the time they were separated, he really came to appreciate him as he was and is. Vaughns is his best bro after all, and bros gotta stick together.

49. If this person were to get into a fist fight, what is their fighting style like?

If he remembers to use his robotic arm to fight, then Rhys might actually stand a chance at least to not be knocked out during a fist fight. But if not, he’s extremely weak and will be beat to shit. He really has no style for physical fights other than “Throw my fist and see if it hurts them.”

#tales from the borderlands #rhys the company man #rhys the ceo #tftbl #tftbl rhys #headcanons #ask #answered #anon #i have this whole ideal storyline timeline planned out for post game and i base a lot of my headcanons off that ideal vision of the story #me talking

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tigertanyx · 5 years

Text

According to Goodreads, my average rating is 3.8, which doesn’t feel quite right, but who am I to argue with data. As of now, I am 98 books in, but I fully intend to finish a short book and manga before midnight. it’ll be my first recorded year of reaching 100 books a year, but as I explained earlier, I feel like it made me bypass longer books. My longest book was On A Sunbeam, at 533 pages. That’s weak.

Read Bricks: My 2020 Reading Goal

This isn’t exactly a top books of 2019 post, because there are 2nd or 3rd choices of some months that are better than the #1s of other months. But I did notice a trend (3 months) where I would read the best book of the month as the first book of the month, and those were also the best books of the year.

January

Stats: 6 books, 2 contemporary, 1 fantasy, 1 classic, 1 manga, 1 mystery

Rep:

And the best book:

If We Were Villains, ML Rio

I love this book, it was my favourite of 2019 and I still think about it. I found it on a whim, while I was aimlessly browsing the library. It’s about a Shakespeare group in college a cult, where one of their members were murdered and they all have something to hide. There’s a slow-burn m/m romance tragedy that was painfully simar to my own gay awakening. But alas, I don’t own it, so if you guys want to gift it to me…

February

Stats: 7 books, 3 Contemporary, 1 horror, 1 manga, 1 historical fiction, 1 mystery

Rep:

The best book:

Darius The Great is Not Ok, Adib Khorram

This follows an Iranan-american boy whose granddad in Iran is ill, so his family is going to visit them so Darius can know him before he dies. It isn’t about the granddad though: it’s about Iranian culture, soccer, and a boy. Being gay can be a death sentence in Iran, so while there’s definite gay undertones, they never actually do or say anything. Their friendship is the purest thing, some hope while Darius is struggling with depression.

March

Stats: 6 books, 3 manga, 2 horror, 1 contemporary

Rep:

The best book:

Autoboyography Christina Lauren

This book made me upset. It’s about 2 boys, one who’s at peace with his bisexuality, and the other who’s a mormon. It deals with his struggle to love someone and go against his family and community. There’s also a writing seminar, where one has to write a book with the other coaching him. I thought that part could’ve been expanded more. There’s secret hikes and secret gay moments.

April

Stats: 8 books, 5 Contemporary, 1 satire, 1 horror, 1 manga

Rep:

Best book:

View this post on Instagram

#currentlyreading Radio Silence! The voice is easy to drown in, I love the casual but unsubtle rep, and the artsy. #amreading #bookstagram #booknerd #lgbtpride🌈

A post shared by BrittainX (@killedbyabook) on Apr 29, 2019 at 10:24am PDT

Radio Silence, Alice Oseman

Kat @ paperback dreams loves this book so much, if you didn’t know. I was expecting some letdown, but I still love it. It’s about a gang that produces a sci-fi podcast called Universe City while they muse about what they’re going to do after high school. It’s an exploration of why college isn’t for everyone.

May

Stats: 8 books, 4 contemporary, 2 satire, 1 manga, 1 fantasy

Rep:

Best book:

I Wish You All The Best, Mason Deaver

I hope you know what this is. I hope you read it. I will disown you if you haven’t.

Dear Ben De Backer/ I Wish You All The Best

June

Stats: 6 books, 4 Contemporary (1 manga), 2 romance

Rep:

The Best Book:

View this post on Instagram

Important and real. Toxic relationships can be impossible to get out of and I don't think I've ever seen a more realistic f/f in fiction. Also, is Doodle non-binary? #amreading Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me #bookdragon #booknerd #bookstagram

A post shared by BrittainX (@killedbyabook) on Jun 25, 2019 at 10:41am PDT

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, Mariko Tamaki , Rosemary Valero-O’Connell

Ahh, yes. The graphic novel about an emotional abusive teen f/f romance that explores what happens when you let yourself and neglect your friends with beautiful art.

Portraying Toxicity in F/F Relationships: Reading Jordi Perez And Laura Dean

July

(When booktubeathon happened) 13 books, 5 manga, 3 contemporary, 1 superhero, 1 Urban fantasy, 1 Poetry, 1 erotica

Rep:

Best Book:

Nimona, Noelle Stevenson

Two months with a top graphic novel, but that just shows how amazing they’ve gotten. Nimona is a shapeshifter determined to do evil for her master, unaware that his greatest rival used to be his greatest lover. Funny! Evil propo!

August

Stats: 8 books, 3 contemporary, 2 manga, 1 satire, 1 poetry, 1 spiritual

Rep:

Best Book:

Sappho Of Lesbos, painted by John William Godward

Sappho, the lesbian poet of Greece. Her poetry haunted the lesbian areas of Greece. Lesbian greek poetry. What Are you waiting for?

September

Stats: 6 books, 3 manga, 2 supernatural, 1 sick lit

Rep:

Big Sapphic Pie

Best book:

My beloved girlfriend Carmilla. Carmilla is a lesbian vampire in the classic, muddling girls’ minds with dreams and sex. It was adapted into a youtube series that I’m probably going to binge watch after I’ve read the two books I read to reach 100 this year (Bread and Roses, Too, The Fifth Beatle).

My Beloved Carmilla

October

Stats: 9 month, 5 fantasy, 2 manga, 2 contemporary

Rep:

Best Book:

View this post on Instagram

Everything Leads To You started slow but had me close to tears at the end. The best f/f I have read thus far! #bookstagram #bookish #lgbtpride🌈 #ffbooks

A post shared by BrittainX (@killedbyabook) on Oct 1, 2019 at 5:14pm PDT

Everything Leads To You, Nina LaCour

F/F in LA! i loved how ingrained movies were in their lives, how it was their jobs, their relatives’ jobs, their passions. There’s also a realllly slooow burn romance! If Nina wrote a how-to slow burn guide, it’d be the book on how to write relationships.

November

Stats; 9 books, 4 manga, 2 dystopia, 1 contemporary, 1 spiritual, 1 fantasy

Rep:

This best book was tough, since a few stand out, however Fence is rated highest! Contenders are Dragon Pearl, A Quick And Easy Guide To They/Them Pronouns, and Lizard Radio.

View this post on Instagram

My immediate TBR! Dragon Pearl is a MG Asian inspired Rick Riordan Imprint book with a non-binary character. Out Of Salem is about a non-binary zombie. I'm going into We Contain Multitudes blind, but it's gay. * What are your reading plans? How far in advance do you tend to plan them? #bookstagram #bookish #bookdragon #lgbtpride🌈

A post shared by BrittainX (@killedbyabook) on Nov 12, 2019 at 9:06am PST

December

This is a no-brainer. The Deep by Rivers Solomon is about merfolk descended from pregnant captives on slave ships that were thrown overboard. Their babies were born in the water, barely functioning merbabies. 100 years later, the society remembers three days a year, the memories too heavy and their capacity to short for them to be held by anyone other than the Historian. But now she’s sick of it and wants to find herself. Super gay, written by a nonbinary author.

View this post on Instagram

My December TBR plus #currentlyreading The Deep by Rivers Solomon and Tarnished Are The Stars by @rosieethor The Deep is about the decedents of the people captured on slave ships that jumped overboard, a society that can't bear to remember their past and gives all of the memories to one merperson a generation. Tarnished Are The Stars is set in a future where technology is banned, least humanity fall into the trap of destroying the planet- but our main queers use it to help people with medical problems. #amreading #bookstagram #ilovebooks #lgbt

A post shared by BrittainX (@killedbyabook) on Nov 30, 2019 at 8:56pm PST

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2019: Top Books of The Month According to Goodreads, my average rating is 3.8, which doesn't feel quite right, but who am I to argue with data.

0 notes

chickenfetus · 7 years

Note

ALL MY EGG (and for the four names: jae, killer kang, minhyuk (whichever one), and santa

deadass i did the 100 questions ask meme for this ask and almost posted it rip

🐰 what is one secret that you’ve never told anyone?

theres literally nothing i dont even know what to say ????

💗 if you could hug anyone, who would it be?

not 2 be delusional but i would give up my world to hug changkyun

🐹 what are some of your favourite Pokémon and why?

glaceon is UP THERE idk why honestly but the sinnoh games were my first and i just??? i was really into ice and snow and shit u know so glaceon... thakn u

another pkmn ill always have is lucario ????? its just so cool?????

🌠 if you were in charge of the world, what would the world look like?

hopefully forgiveness and like???? acknowledging mistakes and learning from those u know jst positive stuff and like?? water. god i love water

👀 what was the most recent vivid dream that you had?

hm okay i think this one was from last night or the night b4??? and like???? idk???? i dont even know how 2 start tbh?

so im like hanging over at this two kid’s im a kid 2 i think place and idk we just talk and shit??? idk whomst the boys were tho

and then we get to a scene where its like??? at a train station???? and i go to the washroom to shit or smth idk thankfully i didnt shit myself irl

then i have to get onto the train which isnt even a train its like a carousel with seats??? and its like on a train track boys this is 2 much and i forgot to get ready my train card thing so the guy (who i was p sure was evil) waited for me to remove it so i got onto the transportation device lmao

and then once im seated i remember i forgot my jacket so i make like hand movements 2 the creep and hes runnig 2 me with my jakcet but the ride’s way too fast so i yell and say ill come back for it even tho im p sure i wasnt going 2

after that i wke up wild

☀️ what do you like the most about your best friend?

i dont have a best friend and all of my friends have their own unique qualities if i went into a rant abt them rn this will b so long

😘 talk about your crush or partner

[minhyuk voice] theres none

💁 if someone was rude to you, would you be rude back?

ya bc im petty but it really depends on the person

🌟 what do you like about yourself? (must choose at least 3 things!)

my personality (the good parts)

my values

my taste in friends (my Big Friends are either geminis or scorpios good)

🐾 what are you scared of most? how will you overcome it?

the dark and bitch isnt gonna turn off her night light any time soon

🎁 what never fails to make you happy?

seeing my favourite happy, listening to the music i like

💙 what annoys you about some people?

i jjust went into a full out rant abt this on the other reply so ill be quiet now

😤 do you get angry easily?

yeahhhhh

🐇 what do you always daydream about?

my faves tbh

🌻 if you could change 3 things about the world what would you change?

bad people , gone.

everybody only sends love and happy things on anon

i just want everyone 2 b nice & friendly wars of any sort dont exist and no one wants anybody dead

🍓 send me 4 names: kiss, befriend, kill or marry?

if u sent jae’s name earlier id have trouble so im glad

kiss: tihis is so fucking embarrassing wtf minhyku (mx) but only on the cheek basically everywhere except the lips or anyplace weird

befriend: brian :-0

kill: jae goodbye loser

marry: sanha we can yell every time we gotta turn the lights off

✈️ what is your dream city and why?

tokyo bc its NICE

☕️ talk about your ideal day

cant read

🌸 are you an introvert, ambivert or extrovert?

i suddenly thought of the word ambivore which made me think of the word vore i wanna delete im a both? mayb idk

💧 when was the last time you cried?

nov 3 bc my heart hurts whenever i see ppl being a bad friend

🎵 name 5 songs you love at the moment

oh worm

all alone - day6

with you - astro

dramarama - mx (even though it isnt out yet lmao)

run - bts (the superior bts song)

hellevator - / (i was rly gonna make this mixed languages but rip)

⚡️ if you had any superpower, what would it be and why?

to fly bc im basic

💛 if you could talk to your younger self, what would you say?

dont do that

💚 who are you jealous of and why?

nobody in general?????????

💎 which one would you rather have more of: intelligence, beauty, kindness, wealth or bravery? why?

intelligence i have 2 live somehow what if my money gets stolen

🙊 what are you ashamed of?

my humor

🌺 which languages do you know? which do you want to learn?

i (barely) know chinese despite having 2 take it all my life legends only

i know english but im bad at that 2 and its my first language once again legends only

i wanna learn japanese and korean

🍀 if you could be any fictional character’s best friend/lover, which fictional character would you be?

the cow from voltron

☁️ talk about your dream universe.

weve already discussed this

💜 which acts of kindness are you going to do today?

oh w-0rm ok so im a regular anon on this persons blog and i wanted to send an ask but never got arnd doing it so im gonna send her one. soon/

🐬 if you could transform into any animal/magical creature, what would you be and why?

let me live my life as a furry and cat

🍄 talk about someone/something you really dislike

are u ready 4 me to b the meanest person yet bc i sure am lets fucking go

so theres this girl. and i know her (unfortunately) and ive known her since like 4 years ago and back then she was already pretty shit tbh

she cried bc she had to sit in between the “weird” and “dirty” girls in our class and she headass cried in front of them and everyone just bc she didnt like the arrangement?? shes called the “dirty” girl disgusting before and has made fun of her in front of everybody its just bad :-/

now. fast forward 3 years and in addition to still being disrespectful and rude, she now vocalizes her weird fantasies for her “oppas”??? some examples:

“when i go watch __ perform im gonna climb onto stage and then my mother and my future husband will fight for me” and she calls those kpop idols weird shit and basically sexualizes them/???? she says the weirdest fucking shit on her ig story and tags them???????

another thing. she went to korea nd took a picture of a complete stranger and posted it on her public ig and called him her “oppa” and said that they had a “fun day together” despite the guy not knowing her at all???? she posted the pic of him??? i still dont get it tbh

she wasnt even being ironic at all??? she calls herself & classmates “autistic” whenever she/others do smth dumb or mess up and its just sososososo fucking wrong

being one of the people to see how shes basically grown from bad to worse is something i dont fucking enjoy and i jsut want to leave my class already lmao

ok but there are times where i do appreciate her because sometimes the class will be rly quiet and the teacher is basically talking 2 themselves but she’ll always respond w/o fail so thats great but its only bc she talks so damn much

i just got a flashback to when she “jokingly” said she wanted to be a trainee for the rest of her life how do i just. god

😣 talk about some things that have been making you depressed/angry/anxious lately

we’ve once again already discussed this

🍪 what did you want to be as a kid, and what do you want to be now?

i wanted to be various things honestly?? ranging from an astronaut to a vet to an editor to an animator to other stuff i get influenced pretty easily so if i watch smth and i think its cool ill want 2 be that i guess?? ive been trying 2 get rid of that habit so now i have no clue what i wanna be

🍰 what are some of your favourite sugary foods?

sweets and chocolate cake

🍑 what are you obsessed with?

drinking water and staying hydrated

making my friends laugh is great 2

💘 what happens to you when you’re stressed?

acne LMAO

😪 what are you sick of?

the usual

🙀 are you an adrenaline seeker?

i love scouting on sif and bandori so yeah

💥 what are some unpopular opinions that you have?

lets not

☔️ would you consider yourself a good person?

to a certain extent

😊 what do you like to do as hobbies?

use my phone???? send nice anons and comment on art/fics

🎤 what’s the last song you hummed or sang by yourself?

none

🐝 what’s your worst trait? how are you planning to improve it?

my tolerance for ppl’s shit is so low

🎨 what do you always doodle when you’re bored?

my ocs

🐻 what’s stopping you from chasing your dreams?

i dont have a dream hence myself

🌷 what’s your mbti personality and why do you think it suits you?

infpt i dont rmb shit but yeah

🐶 send me 3 fictional people and I’ll choose my favourite!

falen i dont rmb what u sent

👑 who are your favourite celebrities and why?

i dont follow any :-o zendaya has had my heart ever since shake it off tho

🐴 opinion on day6?

ur rly gonna do this 2m e?

all alone just started playng this is terrible lets get it

so day6. a band i only found out about in late june (thank u boxy) and before this i only ever listened to bts and mx bc my friends stan them so i thought i was gonna expect boys dancing, the usual.

i clicked i smile and i lost my fucking shit as soon as i saw the instruments because prior to day6 i was a big 5sos fan so this was rly resonating to me tbh and i was just !!! so fukcng excited??? i never intended to even get into day6 honestly??? but after witnessing how good they are and watching about all of the available mvs at that point i was completely in awe so i caved a created a stan twitter for them.

now, this isnt even the most of it. after becoming a fan i realized how much more these 5 boys are. they compose (if im not wrong) and brian writes lyrics for the songs each month because of their everyday6 project and again, im wow-ed because??? the amount of dedication???? they went from releasing 2 title tracks in 2 years to releasing 12 title tracks and 12 bside tracks in a single year. they havent released the december song yet but haviing to work on 2 or more songs in 4 weeks is fucking amazing if you ask me.

theyre really talented and theyre just so versatile (am i using that word correctly) and each month their songs sound different. this project has given them the opportunity to try new things and you can hear the steady improvement in each of their vocals (dowoonie not so much since he barely gets lines, but we all know hes working hard) and if you listen to their debut song - kongchu and compare it to the version they released along with sunrise it just???? the drumming has even changed from the original version nd its so noticeable that whenever i hear kongchu from 2015 i know its the old ver

to add to those, they do vlives every week and although those vlives are always scheduled it still makes my day seeing them and watching them do the usual.

one thing im upset about is that how they barely promote themselves, they rarely get on variety shows (the most is individual schedules) and we, as mydays never really get to know the boys so its harder to fall for them as a whole. i dont know if its jyp or day6′s decision but if this is how they want to be known for - their music only, then so be it. we still have jae’s presence on youtube, music access and asc. thats the most we can get and it makes it difficult for us to learn about the rest but thats okay.

another thing. their concerts are something i always look forward to (even though my interest has died down a bit;) their concerts are just so fun to listen to?? there’ll always be mydays who stream the concert so everyone else can listen to them play and they sound so good live it drives me crazy. mydays are always so hyped and whenever mydays sing along it just gives me goosebumps??? bc theyre so???? good?????

tldr; day6 deserve more, following wise and promotions wise because they work so hard and once this project ends i hope they’ll manage to rest but still remain as a presence that will be known instead of returning to jyp’s dungeon.

🍋 do you consider yourself an emotional person?

there are days where i am more emotional than usual

📚 share 3 books that you love and your favourite quote from them.

this is tiring

😔 what do you always do when you feel sad? does it help?

i sleep and boy it really helps

😌 what thoughts keep you going when you’re sad?

rest

🌍 which country do you live in?

singapore

🐧 describe yourself in 3 words

lame funny swag

🐵 which quotes changed you?

“rocky swag” - park minhyuk, 2017

💭 do you keep a diary?

nope

💫 who inspires you?

brian kang

👻 do you believe in ghosts and why?

yes bc i love losing sleep

🎀 what’s your fashion sense like?

terrible

🎬 what are some of your favourite films?

i watched spiderman homecoming and i have no idea why i didnt see the plot twist coming but its GOOD watch it

🍦 what is one treasured childhood memory?

theres none lads

🐼 if you could meet anyone, who would it be and why?

all my internet buddies but sometimes i dont want to bc im kinda....gross

#softshouyous #asks #if anybody actually read all through all of this.... thank u.#FALEN THAKNK U FOR ASKING I LOVE U

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welcometomyshittyblog · 5 years

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Link

Such an old crush, thought to never be mentioned here. Well I haven’t any news to share, so I’ll write about ancient history. When I was a freshman in high school I was still a new kid, didn’t have any friends, but determined to make some and get a girlfriend. A mission which ultimately failed. I would look out for any girls that I was attracted to and try to be friends with them.

In English class I sat behind this girl Link, and she was cute, and bubbly and like no other girls I’d seen before such a radiant beauty. Our initial meeting was fabricated; I dropped a drawing I did, and asked her to pick it up with hopes of impressing her with some quick doodles. It worked, she complimented the drawing and returned the paper. It was drawn on my schedule for the semester, so I used that as an opportunity to ask what classes we might share. Turns out we also shared a gym class that year.

I don’t remember exactly but eventually she invited me to art club. There was an after school club that was mostly some upperclassmen where they all hung out. Apparently she had met and begun hanging out with Cherry, a junior. I don’t know how they met, but we all became friends from just being around a lot. I would stay and hang out at art club with her and Cherry, and eventually she would leave and Cherry and I would hang for a bit.

Cherry was a junior and had long curly brown hair and he could play guitar and skateboard probably he also knew a lot about Pokémon. Cherry was really into a certain Pokémon and would draw him constantly. There were times I remember just hanging out with Link and Cherry just playing guitar, well he would play and we would listen. Sometimes Link would sing too.

I was always looking for ways to talk to and hang out with Link, so eventually behind my back, I was referred to by some of Link’s friends as Link’s shadow. I was constantly around, and I didn’t know until much later how obvious I had been. One day Cherry, Link and I were hanging out and I witnessed their first kiss. Some time earlier they had begun dating, but I still hung around, and was around so often I saw their first kiss.

Some time passed and they had been dating for a little while, I was speaking with Link, and she mentioned that she cared for me like a brother, and I might have let it slip that I had other feelings for her. She said that she was dating Cherry, and that she had feelings for him, and that wasn’t going to change any time soon. I took that pretty hard, and began laying low; stopped hanging out with them both, for a while. Then I tried better to include myself again.

In February 2009, Cherry made it fairly clear that he did not like me hanging around them as much as I did. He just randomly asked me on Myspace ‘do you like Link?’ we were pretty close friends then, so I felt that I could tell him the truth. And he accepted it, and then just thought that he should include that Link noticed, and thought that it was weird. I completely read between the lines, and read ‘STOP HANGING AROUND US SO MUCH, YOU’RE CREEPY!’ which might have been perhaps just my mind being stupid.

So I ended up avoiding them both. After a while I couldn’t stand it, and went back to my old ways, and this made things awkward, but not too awkward to continue. The thing that tipped me over the edge was in September 2009, when Link asked me if I liked her. There was no way I could lie to her, so I told her the truth. And she said, and I quote “well I only like you as a friend, and for future refrences I plan to keep things that way... mmk?” This almost killed me. I know it killed me inside and I couldn’t stand to live any longer. She wasn’t just a crush, even though I didn’t see that then, I know now that she wasn’t just a crush. I completely misread that message though. I read that message as “I DON’T LIKE YOU AND NEVER WILL, GET OVER ME!!” and so I completely began ignoring her, I didn’t talk to her for like a week or two. But I couldn’t keep it up. I then realized that I completely read that wrong and I didn’t really get yelled at by her, and her post shouldn’t have meant that. I was now at the point where all of my efforts had been completely futile and I really should stop.

Eventually they broke up, but I didn’t even know about it until 4 days later. I was still her friend for a long time, we hung out in school, in class, but we never ever hung out outside of school. I was never invited to anything she did, and whenever I asked her if she had plans she had something better to do. In fact, I was told that she ‘missed Shouty’ over the summer of 2010 but I never heard it said about me. I don’t think she even considers me to be her best friend. I mean I’d love to be her best friend, even if only that. But I just feel that she doesn’t treat me like a best friend. She first called me her best friend on a day that I cannot recall the date, but it was one Wednesday, when we were nominating for senior superlatives. She was sitting next to me, and when there was a category for “Best Friends” she said that we should win. Even though she said best friends, I still loved that moment. I loved it so much, even though it probably meant so little to her. She said that we were best friends, and then we told everyone around us to nominate us for best friends. From that day, I was convinced that we were in fact best friends.

But we weren’t, never have been. She’s got her girl friends, she was much closer with Sunshine and Button and her cousin Midget, than with me. She wouldn’t ever invite me to anything, and especially not after getting with Dreamboat. Obviously, they started dating, and I didn’t really like it. But Dreamboat is kinda a really great person, so I can’t really hate or say anything bad about him. Anyway once they were together, I kinda fell back because it was already obvious that she didn’t like me like that, but after she got with him, it was obvious that we weren’t even that close of friends. We stopped talking outside of when I would go to church with her, or church events. There were a few times when we would get together for outside of school or church activities, but very seldom. After a while, it would be surprising to ever hear from her, or even get a reply for her. She got married to Dreamboat, and I wasn’t invited. Granted I wasn’t in the state, but you’d invite your best friend to your wedding if they lived on Mars. Obviously we weren’t anything by this point.

I’ve spoken with her maybe 4 times since leaving the state, and never for more than like 2 minutes. Mostly about my late mother.

#post #link #shouty #dreamboat #cherry

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c-e-d-dreamer · 7 years

Text

I know this is technically a day late, but let’s pretend I totally posted this yesterday...

Neil starts outlining a plan in his head as he ducks between students and buildings. Group projects are the bane of his existence, but he has to do them if he wants to pass, and he has to pass if he wants to be eligible to keep playing Exy. At least this time Joseph Peters isn’t in his group, but he still prefers individual assignments. The faster he gets his five slides done, the less he has to interact with the group.

Neil cuts across the Green because it’s faster, but he has to weave through a sea of bodies. The warmer weather of spring has drawn out many students from their hoards in the library. From sunbathers to studiers, the grass is now marred by waves and waves of bright colors and tanned skin. The combination of laughter and the singing of nearby birds tangle together in the air like a tangible cacophony, and the rays of the sun lick down along the ground, creating a blissful atmosphere.

Neil sidesteps around a group of sorority girls and ducks to avoid getting in the middle of an ultimate frisbee game. By the time he makes it Perimeter Road, the crowds have thinned out, and it’s easy to cross the road and head up towards Fox Tower.

His dorm is dark when Neil unlocks the door. For some reason all of the lights have been turned off, and it instantly strikes Neil as odd. He knows he can double check the schedule taped to the fridge, but he distinctly remembers Nicky’s class getting out earlier than his. Even stranger still is the fact that someone has blocked out the windows, so only a few straggling bands of light seep in. The stark darkness puts Neil on edge, settling deep in his chest and making waves of anxiety begin to churn. He knows it’s been three years, that there’s no need to run anymore, but that doesn’t stop the disquiet in his bones or ease the itch now sparking in his muscles. He’s considering heading up to the roof and texting Andrew when the lights flick on.

“Surprise!”

Neil jolts at the sudden change and shout, stumbling back and slamming his elbow into the door frame.

“Graceful.”

It takes Neil a moment to recognize that sarcastic tone, and another still for his eyes to register Allison’s unimpressed face across the room from him. He has to blink a few times to fully take in the room. Matt and Dan are standing just outside the kitchenette, arms still up, where they must’ve been hiding for the surprise. Allison and Renee are standing behind the couch. Even Kevin’s there, perched on the couch beside Andrew. Streamers have been hung all over from the ceiling, some twisted together in a pattern and others hanging down to create curtains in the doorways. Two bundles of balloons sit either side of the desks where a stack of brightly colored gifts awaits.

“That was priceless. You should’ve seen your face,” Nicky says, coming over to sling his arm around Neil’s shoulders and show the striker a video on his phone. “I am definitely posting this.”

Before Neil can respond, he’s being pulled into a bear hug.

“Oh, man, we got you good,” Matt says, ruffling Neil’s hair. “Happy birthday, Neil.”

Once Matt releases him, Dan steps up for a hug of her own, giving him a tight squeeze.

“Happy birthday,” she says. “So, did you want to do presents or cake first?”

“I can’t believe you all came back,” Neil says, looking around the room and addressing everyone. “You didn’t have to do that. Or get me anything.”

“Same old Neil,” Allison sighs.

“Let’s do presents first,” Dan says, pushing Neil to sit down on the couch before handing him a gift wrapped in bright blue paper. “That’s from Allison.”

All of the Foxes take seats around Neil as the striker slowly starts to tear open the gift. He opens the box to find new clothes, including a new hoodie.

“I know you prefer comfort over fashion,” Allison says. “So, at least that’s high-end.”

“Thanks,” Neil says, setting the opened box aside.

The next gift reveals a nice moleskin sketchbook and a set of pencils and pens.

“For your doodles,” Renee explains sweetly.

Dan’s gift is a collage photo frame, and Neil takes a minute to examine each photo. There’s one of all of them after championships, one of him and Andrew from the girls’ graduation party, one of him and Matt from a neon party they went to Matt’s last year. Neil touches each photo, and he can’t help the smile that pulls its way across his face. Seeing all these makes warmth pool in his gut, and for a moment, his chest feels tight with everything he feels for this family, his family. They’ve stood by him for years, and now they’ve all journeyed down just for his birthday. It leaves Neil feeling overwhelmed and yet so happy. He’s not sure how to even begin to put into words how grateful and thankful he is.

“Way to go, Dan,” Nicky says. “How is anyone supposed to follow up a gift like that?”

Despite his words, Nicky drops a card into Neil’s lap. Inside is a hand drawn coupon declaring one free ticket to Germany.

“So you can come visit me, obviously. Just pick a date, and I’ll buy the ticket.”

Another card reveals season tickets to the Charlotte Cardinals games from Matt and the last has a gift card to Exites in it from Kevin.

“I think that’s all of the gifts,” Renee says, checking the desk they were previously piled on for any stragglers.

“Wait. What about Andrew?” Nicky says. “Didn’t you get Neil anything?”

“I really didn’t need any of these gifts,” Neil pipes up.

“That’s no excuse!” Nicky continues before turning on Andrew. “Seriously, you didn’t get your own boyfriend a gift for his birthday?”

“Maybe his gift to Neil is the type he’d rather give when they’re alone later,” Allison says.

“I did not need to know that,” Matt mutters.

“Alright,” Dan says, pitching her voice above everyone and clapping her hands together in an attempt to diffuse the tension quickly accumulating in the room. “How about cake now?”

Everyone sings ‘Happy Birthday’ while the cake is brought out, and they encourage Neil to make a wish and blow out the candles. Neil thinks for a moment, but he can’t think of anything he’d wish for. Everything he could ever want is right here. He has a group of people who love and support him, who will always have his back and are willing to drop everything for something as trivial as a birthday. He has someone who doesn’t flinch away from his scars or his past, who’s strong enough to hold him up. He has an Exy court down the road that’s his home, that has a team ready and willing to follow him. And he has a future to look forward to for once. A future full of more of this.

So Neil closes his eyes and thinks of nothing as he blows out his candles.

Once the cake is cut and divvied up and the booze is broken out, the room fills up with warm and comfortable chatter. It’s like half the people in this room haven’t graduated, like nothing has changed, and Neil is more than happy to sit and just bask in it. He sips at the drink that was mixed for him and watches everyone around him, hoards the sights and sounds for when everyone leaves. He talks a bit with Allison about her designing and with Renee about where her next adventure will be. He even briefly talks with Kevin and Matt about the differences of playing in the pro-league.

The hours tick by faster than Neil would like, but eventually the night has to come to a close. Matt and Dan are making the two-hour trip back to Charlotte, and Allison and Renee are heading back to a hotel for the night before flying out early tomorrow morning. Kevin leaves to head to Wymack’s for the night, and the living room feels too empty as the last of the Foxes file out to head to bed. Neil tries not to feel deflated by the change, but the catch in his lungs with each breath is hard to ignore. He looks down at Dan’s gift and tries to cling desperately to the feelings of just an hour before.

A nudge to the side brings Neil back and when he looks to his left, Andrew is standing from the couch and heading for the door. Neil is quick to follow and they head up to the roof. They’re quiet as Andrew lights up two cigarettes, eyes watching out over the campus. It’s a clear night for once but the lights from the freeway blur out most of the stars. It’s still nice. The warmth from the spring night and Andrew beside him settling Neil.

Andrew lights up his second cigarette and curls his fingers around Neil’s wrist. He raises Neil’s hand up between them and drops a key into the palm. Neil freezes in confusion for a moment before he brings the key closer to his face and examines the simple stainless steel of it. He flips it over once before running his finger along the ridges and dips.

“What’s this for?” Neil asks.

“Finally decided,” Andrew says. “Sent over my paperwork to the Monarchs a few days ago.”

“What does that have to do with a key?”

“I’m not going to commute to Boston from here. Got an apartment in Back Bay.”

Neil blinks a few times at Andrew’s profile as he continues to smoke. He watches the way the smoke curls around the goalkeeper’s features for just a moment before he glances back down at the key in his hand.

“Happy birthday I guess.”

Neil closes his fingers around the key and bites his lip around a smile. Happy birthday indeed.

#my fic #drabble #tfc #Andreil #aftg #I'm too lazy to tag all the Foxes #so let's pretend that happened too #yay for love and family!#and surprise parties!

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chloehenderson · 5 years

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2019 was a mixed year for me. Fantastic ups, and melancholic lows; it really was the year of ups and downs, dips and peaks.

My 2019 started with an epic high! I graduated from the Birmingham School of Jewellery with my Masters degree with Distinction in Jewellery & Related Products.

In January, sadness hit the Henderson household when the best dog in the world voyaged over the rainbow bridge. Bailey you were the goodest boy and we miss you so much.

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In March, we had a German adventure, and I achieved my first ever international exhibition! The Masters class of 2019 from the Birmingham School of Jewellery showed Oscillations Exhibition as part of Munich Jewellery Week 2019 and I was lucky enough to be able to screen my film The Chimera Artist to an international audience. I am so proud of this achievement, and while I have not pursued my Chimera work as much as I wanted this year, I am feeling re-invigorated by the new decade, and I am excited to put all the exciting plans that I have had stewing away in my mind for the past year into action… stay tuned…

The Chimera Artist also made an outing to the Out of the Blue Makers Marque later on in the year. It was here that more of the story was established, and The Filmmaker started to get active in his search for The Artist again… I think 2020 will see a lot more goopy blue infections…

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I tabled at my first ever zine fair this year! and then did it again a month later! I am getting more and more into zine culture, and the DIY art of making and documenting ideas, so it was really nice to take my little zines out into the world and meet like-minded folks at the Solid Gone Zine Fair and the Duplicate Publishing Fair. I hope to immerse myself more into the little world of the zine-makers in 2020, and will hopefully make a bunch of new zines too!!

Poor mental health got in my way a lot this year, and it has only been towards the latter months of 2019 that I have started to actually try and deal with my own head instead of just ignoring things and muddling through life. I am plagued by both depression and anxiety, and when I look around at the state of our poor little planet, I feel it is only going to get worse… so, of course, I need to address my issues. I think my biggest issue is the thing I have titled The Overwhelm. I am easily overwhelmed, and knowing that fact really irritates me. I don’t want to be one of those people that is scared of everything, and never does anything because they just can’t even. I let things get on top of me so much that I can’t move, and I get nothing done… and I hate it. Giving my issue a name, and recognising what it is is the first step in trying to battle The Overwhelm. I know it will never really go away, but I just need to figure out my best fighting moves to achieve enough maximum damage points to make it bugger off for long enough for me to actually make art!! Saying all that, the art I did make this year, I am super proud of! I even managed to land a super fancy corporate commission for Leith Theatre, which was really great to work on. It’s hard to make it out there in the world as an artist, so little steps like this really are glorious achievements, and I need to make sure I don’t let the anxiety tell me otherwise. Here are some of my favourite illustrations from this year…

A new year. A new decade. What will 2020 bring?

The first move in my battle against The Overwhelm was to write out a list of Goals to achieve in my 2020…

Keep on top of my mental health enough to achieve my goals and make more art! Seems simple enough when you add it to a list! but I think this will be the most tricky goal to achieve on my list. I am starting off my January with a positive mental attitude, and it is helping me to be productive… I can only hope that will continue throughout the year, and I can figure out strategies to conquer the dark spaces in my mind. Good vibes are appreciated!!!

Learn to Drive You know that anxiety thing I mentioned earlier?! Umm… yeah… well driving gives me LOADS OF ANXIETY. I actually hate it so much. However, I realise the importance of it to achieving some of my other goals, and it is therefore high up on my list. I am learning to drive in an automatic vehicle, because I never want to own a car that is not electric.

Move into our own Home In 2019, I moved back from Birmingham into my parent’s house with Stuart. We are attempting to establish ourselves with jobs in Edinburgh, and save up our wages, with the hopes to move into our own place in the not too distant future. I love my parents, and I am so grateful that they are letting us live here… but the two of us being couped up in my bedroom with all of our stuff is not overly conducive to art!

Achieve my first goal on Patreon I am $83 (£63.39) away from hitting my first goal on Patreon, but more importantly than the money, I want to get my Patreon community move involved in my process and I want to try and achieve a greater sense of engagement with my audience. If you like this blog, and can spare a few pennies, become my Patron for even more art love from me, including behind the scenes, sneak peeks, early access, gifts, and more!

Participate in 3 Markets/Fairs/Cons/etc. Pesky social anxiety stops me from getting out into the real world as often as I want to, but I really love attending events with my work. If you know of any cool art events coming up in the Edinburgh area (or I will happily travel a little further afield), please get in touch!

Get my work into an Exhibition The struggle is real. It is hard to get lucky breaks in the art world if you are an unknown artist… but all I can do is keep applying! Every month in my Patreon updates I talk about what opportunities I have a applied to, as well as my progress with them, with you can check out for less than the price of a cuppa brew each month when you become a Patron!

Create 25 finished Illustrations Ideally, I would like to create a lot more than that! but I have gone for a goal of two finished illustrations every month to give myself a fighting chance against The Overwhelm, but hopefully you will see a lot more doodling from me this year!

Make art everyday #ArtADay I am starting 2020 by setting myself this creative challenge of making art everyday. From full-scale illustrations, to a sketchbook doodle, or a cut and paste collage, to a little poem, or an abstract painting, to a ring made from glitter… and everything in between!! I want to get into the good habit of daily art practice, even if it is just a tiny sketch. I often fall prey to the big bad feeling of The Overwhelm, and it stops me from making art completely… so, I hope this challenge will help me to beat The Overwhelm, and get back to my most creative self! It’s 2020!! I need to starting living my best art life!!! Instagram Stories are an ideal place for me to document this, so do pop over to Instagram and hit the follow button to keep up with my progress on this challenge!

Make 3 Zines As I mentioned above, I am super excited by the zine world! and I want immerse myself more into zine culture… and the best way to do this is to make more zines!

Make Chimera film No.002 The Chimera Artist is coming. That is all. Stay tuned…

Create 25 new Jewellery Pieces They may be Chimera pieces, they may be little pieces that I have had in my head for a while, they may be a collection, the may be one-offs… but I have not made nearly enough jewellery this past decade, and I am going to rectify that starting this year!! A year of making is very much on the agenda!!!

Achieve 5,000 Blog Views + 1,000 total followers on Instagram and Twitter + 50 total YouTube Subscribers I try not to get too bothered my the social media numbers, but there are a few milestones I have really wanted to hit for a while, so I am going to make the push to get my numbers up this year! Help me out by following me on Instagram and Twitter and subscribing to my videos on YouTube, and if you haven’t already, please hit the follow button on the side of this blog to up my viewership here! All my love to you for this!!!

Make 25 YouTube Videos If I manage to achieve my goal of 25 finished illustrations, then this goal should be easy! as all I have to do is film, edit, and post my doodles in timelapse form!!

Phew!!! That was a lot of reflecting, and a lot of looking into the future! Thank you if you read all of that, and got here! I reckon you deserve a cuppa… go and pop the kettle on! I have a lot to look forward to this coming year, and I am really excited to take this positive energy forward and getting making art! I hope you enjoying journeying on this art adventure with me, and I will leave you with a few of my festive photos from this Hollyday season as my final little reflection…

Much arty love, and a Happy New Year to you and yours 💙💙💙 Chloe out.

A new year. A new decade. What will 2020 bring? 2019 was a mixed year for me. Fantastic ups, and melancholic lows; it really was the year of ups and downs, dips and peaks.

#2019 #2020 #achievements #anxiety #art #artist #christmas #depression #failure #family #goals #inspiration #mental health #new year #reflections #success

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roypstickney · 5 years

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4 Lessons We Learned in 2019 (and How Marketers Can Apply Them in 2020)

It’s been a heck of a year, hasn’t it? And it’s not over yet.

Lesson 1: Slow page speed is killing your conversions.

In January, we also published Think Fast: The 2019 Page Speed Report to shed some light on how slow loading times are impacting conversion rates.

We wanted to know where improving page speed was falling in the marketers’ yearly priority lists—as well as what their customers experience (and how they behave) when a website is slow to load.

The survey results also revealed that consumers are pretty frank about the impact that slow ecomm sites can have on their willingness to buy:

Source: Think Fast: The 2019 Page Speed Report (Stats and Trends For Marketers)

What Marketers Can Do in 2020

The thing is, these page speed concerns aren’t going away.

Source: Google Chromium Blog

Marketers need to get faster and stay that way.

Let’s make speeding up a habit in 2020.