#probably because I am a fellow piano player lol

[valewritessss]

What instrument do we think characters would play just as a hobby

[thisloveistaylorreputation]

For the ask thing: What do you think of that (unofficial) "new track" from the UPS ad? What's the best advice you've ever been given? What was your reaction when you found out you were going too Taylor's tours? Do you play instruments? Write songs/stories/poetry? What's the best book you've read? Sorry this is probably like way too much but I really love you and your blog and I know answering questions is fun, lol, so I hope this wasn't overwhelming!! (PS you and I have the same name!! Awesome!)

OKAY JUST A WARNING I AM S O SORRY THIS IS SUPER LONG

OMG OKAY FIRST OF ALL THANK YOU SOOO MUCH FOR FOLLOWING MY BLOG AND BEING THE CUTEST SWEETIE EVER AND TWINNING NAMES WITH ME AND ASKING ALL THESE QUESTIONS I LOVE YOU (also dm me if you wanna be friends or something *hint hint wink wink* ❤️❤️❤️)

I think the UPS "New" track is a highly distorted version of the background vocals for a song off reputation. I don't think there's enough there for it to be a main part of the song, and since it's mostly repeating the same line I'm assuming background vocals. I don't really think at this stage I can say if I like it or not, but right now I'm leaning toward I like it, but not my favorite.

I'm literally like KNOWN for giving advice (I am wise beyond my years, I've been told). But I can't think of any specific time. Often I quote Taylor or the lessons she's taught me or things and ideas she's inspired me about.

OKAY SO this is a hard one to explain BUT!!! When I was little I didn't listen to music much. I heard the huge hits but didn't associate them with artist names. I jammed to fifteen, love story, you belong with me, mean, and mine, and later WANEGBT without EVER realizing that they were all Taylor. Around the time that the Red Tour came around I was 12/13 and just starting to get into music - emo, punk, and metal music. I reallyyyyy wanted to go to a concert and I was very vocal about it. So one day my mom says, Taylor Swift is going to be touring in the area, should we buy tickets? And I said, "I don't know who she is and I don't know her songs." (SHOCKING, I know). Tbh, I really wanted to go to a Fall Out Boy concert. Anyways, so we bought the Red cd and I started listening to it every day (but usually just got through the first half) and I liked it a lot!! We bought the tickets and on July 13th, 2013, we went to the Red Tour. We got there early, I bought the shirt with the album cover on it, and we sat alllll the way in the other end zone. She looked like a speck (but there were screens). Apart from the hits I didn't know the songs too well. She looked stunning, and after hearing her in between monologues during the tour I really fell in love with her and became a fan. It was a super fun atmosphere to be in!! Sadly, I lost all my tour videos. This was also when I found out that her favorite number was 13 (she talked about how it was super important that this concert be on the 13th). ALSO our special guest during the concert was Patrick Stump THE LEAD SINGER OF FALL OUT BOY so I died and looking back I got to see 2 of my faves it's so surreal. After the concert, I started listening to Red a LOT more, and started dabbing into her old stuff too (Our song was the first old thing I heard I think).

Okay so for 1989 I was more pumped because at this point I was a fan. I watched the livestream when it came out and bought the deluxe album on release day and set up 3 computers to buy tickets. We got better seats!!! I went to the concert wearing the red tour shirt and switched into my new 1989 tour shirt (the blue one). We saw a few people is costumes and were slightly confused (I was not a diehard swiftie or on tumblr at the time but I was keeping up with weekly Taylor updates and considered myself to be quite the fan). I also bought the drawstring bag and the 2 thin 1989 tour bracelets. Buying the tickets and leading up to the tour I was SO EXCITED because all I could remember is how amazing the last tour was and how it inspired me and changed my life forever and made me find Taylor. The tour was AMAZING!!! And I only lost my shake it off video!!! Haha.

I would add my thoughts for the reputation tour already but this is post is already long enough.

I play a lot of instruments. I've been playing the clarinet since elementary school. My first real expense was spending $100 to buy a flute. I bought a flute because all my friends at the time played the flute and it was uncool to be a clarinet player. I also felt ostracized in my section with no fellow clarinet friends or even other girls (I now realize that playing the clarinet has helped me to be one step closer to squidward). I picked up guitar after I begged for lessons so that I could play chords and cool rifts like all of my favorite band members. My guitar teacher basically told me that I'll never be good at guitar because my hands are p abnormally small and I eventually lost interest and faith in myself. I rediscovered guitar after watching a million of Taylor's acoustic performances back to back and bought myself a nice new guitar at the end of 2016 and began playing a lot, wanting to be good at playing despite my small hands and not caring about if my form was "correct" or not. I also can play a few chords to some of Taylor's songs on piano. I love singing and I try to do it as much as I can but I don't really sing with other people around and if I do I try to sound bad because I'm afraid that people will think my real singing voice is bad and I think it's decent so I don't want to ruin that.

I used to try writing stories but it's not really my forte. I have written quite a few songs ~50 with lyrics, music, and background. I'm hoping maybe I can try making a demo sometime next year in college. I would share and try to get a following or something, but I don't want any of my work stolen. I do write poems sometimes too, or sometimes poems turn into songs. My poems are usually very emotional, usually very sad.

I do not read often. It's partly because I don't have time, and partly because I feel uncomfortable reading. I have a reading problem (idk if it has an official diagnosis) where basically I read really slowly and sometimes I add words or skip words to sentences and I can't really understand things unless I am reading with my finger tracing under each word. I don't like reading because people usually judge me for the pace I'm reading at, or I can't put my finger under the words to help me or I'll be judged, or when people think I am dumb because of the struggles I have when it comes to reading. I'm not really a fan of fiction, so I'm currently reading a few self help books, the most recent called "make your bed". It's a short book that teaches you life lessons through short stories about a former Navy SEAL.

Sorry that this is so long! I hope you enjoyed!!! (If you did, please like this so that I can feel good about taking all this time to write it and knowing someone appreciates it) thank you so much!!!

Ask me more questions if you want (you probably won't want to after this long answer lmao)

[haltandcatchfiretothemax]

It's cool cos we're like, adventurers: Cameron and Donna go about things differently than they normally would in "Adventure", or, a H&CF recap

The fifth episode of Halt and Catch Fire is named for a computer game that everyone (or, a good portion of the Cardiff staff) gets sucked into; in the end, the coders who cheated/re-coded (?) their way through the game are the only ones who get to keep their jobs. It is Peak Halt and Catch Fire Metaphor, in this case for an episode where our main characters are initiating or escalating a different sort of game, and finding out what kind of players they are. J*e toys with his father (and also Bos, who only has one scene in this ep?), unwilling and also not really able to see him, and vacillates between behaving as obnoxiously as his father does and trying to be a better, kinder type of executive. Gordon steps out of his hardware geek comfort zone and attempts to wine and dine his father-in-law and Japanese executives, and it works out in the end, but just barely, and because he begs for help. Ultimately, both seem to recognize their limits.

Donna gets very little screen time in this episode, and most of it is with Hunt, of all people (RosaDiazEyeroll DOT GIF). Her parents are all over this episode, though they interact more with Gordon, and the way Donna gets eclipsed feels significant. When we do see her she's making French toast for her father's birthday, or making peach pies for her parents' barbeque. Ever the perfect wife, she even buys her father a putter and tells him it's from Gordon. All of this elaborately sets up Gordon's arc, in which he decides his p.c. is worth asking his douche of a father-in-law for a round of golf so he can ask him to set up a meeting executives from a Japanese tech company.

By contrast, Donna's scenes with Hunt are one-on-one, with no major professional stakes. Echoing J*e's evil boss act, Hunt yells at Donna for not submitting the right report, and then after she explains that the report is under a supplemental report, he snaps at her for not putting the report he wanted on top. Let that sink in -- Hunt yelled at Donna because he's so entitled and incompetent that he couldn't shuffle through a stack of papers; again, how is he her boss? (LOL jk I know how, it starts with a 'p' and ends with 'atriarchy') -- but later he calls her at home to talk about it, just after Donna has hung up on a drunk Gordon who's panicking about offending the Japanese executives. (Which sounds mean, but anyone who's been paying attention can see where Donna would be tired of having to endlessly listen to and reassure Gordon.) Hunt compliments her work and her efforts, and then he apologizes for taking his frustration out on her. They have a weird conversation about 'peach pie' (…..), and because Donna is so starved for halfway decent conversation with a vaguely grown up, emotionally responsible person, she gets out and ~plays her electric piano~ that night. Which sounds funny and like a cheesy, too on the nose metaphor, but this is one of the first times we see Donna by herself, not doing some kind of domestic labor, and it's when she starts to lean into and enjoy the tension between her and Hunt.

It seems like Cameron is always doing what Donna wishes she could do (as in, what Donna wishes she could do professionally, not in terms of 'piano playing'…), and this episode is no different. Cameron spends most of "Adventure" assertively claiming credit for her work, arguing with coworkers, and figuring out how to get herself promoted. She comes back from a business trip (which she understandably worries was another of J*e's set ups, even without really knowing what happened in the previous episode) to an office full of new people and a short lecture on how corporate and tech culture don't accommodate anxious introverts who'd rather do all the coding on their own so that they don't have to try to communicate with other human beings. She goes directly from the lecture to The Kill Room where Gordon and his team are coming up with the most ridiculously cliche geek culture names for her code. "Excuse me? I wrote the BIOS. I name it. Lovelace." After she reminds them that Ada Lovelace was the first computer programmer ever, they test the BIOS and it turns on. They pop champagne and congratulate themselves; Cameron skulks out without a word before they can offer her some, though she probably would've had to demand that from them, too, to get any.

In the following scenes Cameron struggles to adjust to having a new boss, fellow coders, and, as America's Next Top Model Host Tyra Banks might put it, not being the prettiest girl at school anymore. Meaning, Cameron isn't the only young misfit software writer at the office anymore, and it's both inconvenient and genuinely emotionally challenging for her. The writers and Mackenzie Davis quietly add considerable depth to an already compelling character here, addressing and unpacking a lot of gripes that unsympathetic viewers continue to have about Cameron. We see her interact successfully, if awkwardly with Lev and especially Yo-yo, who invites her to a group hang, and she hesitates; so yeah, she's anti-social, but she's also scared, and seems like she really isn't used to people not judging or looking down on her.

She interacts far less successfully with her new boss, and yeah, she doesn't respond well to authority -- but with how both the boss and J*e treat her ("no need to get your panties in a wad"; "If I've given you the impression that because of this thing we've got going on that you're entitled to special treatment…") , she frankly has good reason to not trust them. (And yeah, I'm gonna be That Bitch and point out that neither of them would have spoken to a male employee that way.) And yes, Cameron in an entitled young white woman (though lets be real, no one would be calling a white boy genius entitled), but she also is apparently qualified, it's just that she has to be unattractively forward about showing it. File under: Before You Write Cameron Howe Off As An Unlikeable Brat.

Of course all of this sets up Cameron's unexpected meeting with J*e Sr., which is surprisingly satisfying despite being miserable and uncomfortable. We see a retread of the pilot scene where J*e figured out that the way to get to her is to paternally and warmly praise her work; Cameron is characteristically ~sassy~ with J*e Sr. until he tells her, "When my guys came back to New York they couldn't stop talking about this prodigy named Cameron Howe!" She's skeptical, and then he says, "They said you're the modern Ada Lovelace." Boom. In the next scene they're having drinks. It's going fine and Cameron is adorably geeking out over how J*e Sr. worked with Grace Hopper until he figures out that Cameron's father was killed in action while serving as a helicopter crew chief in Vietnam. Anyone who's lost a parent who actually took care of them feels Cameron's reaction. She excuses herself, and J*e Sr. smiles unctuously. Because of course he’s been playing her.

Cameron figures it out though, and it results in her eventual triumph. Or well, she mostly figures it out -- she uses her very real grief to act all wounded and emotional and pump J*e Sr. for more information, before calling him out on trying to manipulate her into convincing J*e to see him. I'm pretty sure J*e Sr. was trying to poach her because it would hurt J*e, and that Cameron is still underestimating just how comfortable they are with turning people into pawns. She gets what she needs, though, and the following day she uses her rarely seen practical knowledge to dazzle J*e into giving her her boss' job; in effect, she figures out the (corporate bro) code, and rewrites it into her promotion. Cameron is slowly learning what someone like Donna already knows about corporate structures and dealing with male upper management. Now they just gotta figure out how to not sublimate their ambitions into pesky crushes on the upper management!

Stray bytes:

I love how all we see of Cameron's business trip is her spending Cardiff's money on hotel amenities. #incharacter I still have weird feelings about her not knowing what a concierge is, though

The opening montage is brutal though, did you see J*e trying to put on his shoe? Reminder that yes, he's an out of control abuser, but that J*e was the victim of p*lice violence/brutality. The beating he got in the previous episode was no joke.

J*e, who lied his way into a company, forced it do his bidding, and nearly destroyed it, calling Cameron 'entitled': L M A O

Today in "Oh my G-D Gordon STFU": "I'm not the one screwing Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!" You're not in a position to judge anyone's sanity OR sex life, GORDON, also just accept that Cameron is WAY OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE AND WOULD NEVER DATE YOU

How do we feel about how the show portrays the Japanese executives? Total Orientalist-type nightmare, or am I being overly-critical?

The storyline with the Japanese and their apparently strict corporate etiquette is very Mad Men, which is fine with me, tbh

"Donna was right, you're all hat and no cattle!" Speaking of which, Gordon is officially Halt's Pete Campbell/white dude who has ridiculous sounding outbursts, right? ("Hell's bells, Trudy!" "Not great, Bob!" "It's a shameful, SHAMEFUL DAY!")

As much as Gordon annoys me, his in-laws are terrible to him. Like, Susan really believed the putter was from Gordon? Gary thought Gordon wanted to spend time with him?! W T F. RICH WH*TE PEOPLE ARE SO WEIRD.

Compare Cameron's 'I name the BIOS' with Donna's facetious, "Don't you mean Susan Fairchild?"

According to the internet, a helicopter crew chief's primary job is to maintain the helicopter itself. Cameron's dad was basically a helicopter mechanic, which makes so much sense, if anyone needs me I will be tearing up over the idea of Cameron coping with her grief by taking apart computers as a kid

"You're both disgusting." Cameron Howe, Computer Programmer, Game Designer, and Misandrist

Steve, on Cameron: "She's got a real attitude problem." #THATSMYGIRL

The scene near the end where J*e seems to quietly panic at the idea of Cameron meeting his father. This…is textbook childhood abuse stuff. Just saying.

I'm just gonna say it, ICYMI: petition to make 'playing her electric keyboard' a common euphemism for female masturbation

‘It’s cool cos we’re like, adventures’: Be Your Own Pet, also fronted by a bratty, skinny, Southern bleached blonde known for heckling her own openers actually wrote a song called “Adventurers” back in 2006. How weird is that?!