#sixty year end exchange 2024

[cryptidtrashpan]

Sixty end of the year exchange comic

I was given @mangabirdao3

she requested some shenanigans and i couldn't resist!~

[olenvasynyt]

MASTERLIST

Hello I’m Dana! I am in my mid-20s, and my pronouns are she / her. My username is olen väsynyt which means I’m tired in Finnish because I’m always tired lmao. I write, draw, and make random Pinterest, headcanon, and meta posts for ACOTAR / SJM. I love Elucien, Jesminda x Lucien, Eris, Lady of Autumn, Tamlin—basically anything to do with Autumn and Spring!

This is my masterlist of fanfics, artwork, commissions, and gifts given to me by lovely friends and mutuals who fuel my obsessions!

SOCIALS:

Instagram ✥ TikTok ✥ Ao3 ✥ Pinterest

FANFICS

A Court of Embers and Sunlight - Lucien x Jesminda backstory with Eris x Male OC, and LoA x Helion

12/? chapters, 63,426 words

Summary: It has been eighty years since the end of the Human War, and a delicate, tenuous peace has grown in Prythian. But as an ancient rivalry between two High families suddenly arises, the consequences of the War are pondered, and painful memories are stirred up for members of the Vanserra family, including Eris Vanserra and the Lady of Autumn. But being sixty and the youngest of seven brothers, Lucien Vanserra is eager to avoid a lot of things. Including the consequences of the War. Haunted by secrets and keen to avoid the Forest House, Lucien allows his errancy to lead him to Prythian’s Summer beaches, Winter lakes, and Spring fields until he finds himself stumbling down a path to a female he never expected. One who lights up his dark, rotting world like dappled sunlight through the leaves.

The Trees Have Eyes - Eris & Lucien Vanserra

3/3 chapters, 20,833 words

Summary: For Eris Week 2024: Day Five—Adventure. When a trading meeting doesn’t go Beron’s way, the Lady of Autumn asks Eris to take his nine-year-old brother Lucien on a hunting trip for an undetermined amount of time to avoid Beron’s wrath.

Gold Of The Richest Kings - Lucien x Elain

1/1 chapters, 3,430 words

Summary: Elain wakes up bathed in sunlight and dripping with her lingering orgasms from last night's lovemaking. Exhaustion and the constant need to give have worn her mate Lucien thin, so she decides that this morning would be the perfect opportunity to return the favor. (Sleepy morning sex turns to feral mating behavior)

My Poor, Sick Mate - Lucien x Elain

1/2 chapters, 5,574 words

Summary: Elain is tending her garden when she and Lucien get stuck in a rainstorm. She should have predicted she would get sick…but thankfully, Lucien knows exactly what his mate needs. For Stickyelectrons ACOTAR Gift Exchange 2024!

My art:

✥ Elain taking care of sick Lucien for stickyelectrons

✥ High Lord Eris Vanserra

✥ ACOTAR irises WIP: Tamlin, Gwyn, Eris and Lucien

✥ Azriel Week Day 5: No Need For Poetry. Gags, blindfold, and muzzle

✥ Helion rescuing the Lady of Autumn

✥ Outlander Elucien for Elucien week 2024: Day 7 AU

✥ Jesminda faceshots and sketches

✥ Feyre’s UTM / CoN dress

✥ Jesminda wings design

Commissions and gifts:

✥ Jesminda by adduani

✥ Jesminda outfits by j.sgrey

✥ Lucien and Jesminda in the woods by j.sgrey

✥ Lucien and Jesminda on a picnic by electra.rt

✥ Jesminda gifted by @queercontrarian

✥ Lucien and Jesminda meet cute gifted by @bonecarversbestie

✥ Jesminda outfit and profile gifted by officialblackheron

Dividers are by @saradika-graphics

Banner frame design is by kyberkurwa on DeviantArt

[musing-and-music]

Masterpost - My 2024 in fics

I didn't do my masterpost in 2023, but this year I decided to take the time to do so!

This was a very Jaime/Brienne year, with many exchanges, but I'm happy that I wrote some FMA fics (all of Royai week!), and even a Faramir/Eowyn one-shot along the way.

The presentation of this post will be like in 2022: fandoms, then the NSFW fics

I'm kind of sad that I haven't made covers for everything I wrote this year, but I'm still pretty satisfied with what I've done!

Have fun!

Fullmetal Alchemist

Royai Week 2024:

Day 2 - Silent gratitude: Rating T, 2524 words

Three times Riza and Roy help and support the other, who can't express their true gratitude for it

Day 3 - Expected news and unexpected announcement Rating T, 2239 words

When he finally entered the office, he already looked tired, although Riza couldn’t tell if it was because of their short night or the many questions of his soldiers. He greeted his men and asked her to come to his private office.

“Did they say anything?” was his first question as soon as he settled at his desk.

“Did the soldiers ask about the next commander of these headquarters?” Riza retorted.

Roy laughed. “Alright, Major, I asked for that. So, we wait for the end of the day, as planned.”

“As planned, sir.” Riza smiled back at him.

Day 4 - Building up her facade Rating T, 1026 words, Major Character Death

1954: Roy Mustang, former Fuhrer and President of Amestris, dies at sixty-nine of a heart attack.

Irene helps her mother prepare to face the world on the morning of his funeral.

Day 5 - Symbol of my love and loyalty Rating T, 739 words

Roy and Riza celebrate five years of shared love with perfect gifts

License for good behavior, Rating G, 1875 words

Edward decides he should learn to drive, and despite Winry's doubts about the use for a driving license, he goes to East City to ask the best person he knows to teach him

Part 29 of Amestrian chronicles

Mourning sun, joyful rain, Rating T, 642 words

As far as he remembered, rain had never been part of Roy’s grief.

So, the day it rained on a happy day of his life, Roy didn’t hate rain as much as he had during his life.

(Or 5 times Roy grieves while the sun shine, and one time he finds happiness in the rain)

25th one-shot in Royai : a OS Compilation

A Song of Ice and Fire

In a crowd of thousands Rating T, 3313 words

As Daenerys is crowned for good, great houses are called to swear fidelity to her. And Jaime is called to be judged

Still, he can count on Brienne's righteousness and support to protect him in a trial that… might not really be one?

Each step of the way Rating T, 744 words

When illness strikes, Jaime and Brienne know how important it is to stick together and support each other

6th one-shot in my collection A few nights in Westeros

You make me feel like I deserve this Rating T, 2447 words

"Who's there?" Brienne's voice cut across the mist, strong and wary. Jaime smirked.

"Someone who thinks Harren the Black never thought about the cold of the Long Night when he had his castle built. Is there some place next to you, wench?"

Aren't we oath keepers, sweetling? Rating T, 2702 words

“Ser! Ser Jaime!” At Podrick’s frantic cries, fear seized his heart. The boy was running between the trees toward him, panic written on his face.

"Podrick? What happened? Is it your lady?”

The boy stopped next to him, out of breath, and took a few seconds to recover. “Ser, lady Brienne is leaving,” he announced, grief in his eyes. “She said she was giving up the search for lady Sansa, that she’d marry ser Hyle and go back to Tarth with him.”

Through the fog, under the sun, in the light of the moon Rating T, 4553 words

The invitations to Robb Stark’s wedding came: one for her, and one for Jaime, since he was one of the only Lannisters the Starks tolerated. Catelyn insisted that if she didn’t bring a plus one, she would introduce her to some of her children and nephew’s friends. “It’s sad that you stay alone, Brienne, and I want you to meet some worthy men.”

Brienne talked about it to Jaime, expressing her desire not to be used for matchmaking purposes. Jaime’s immediate reply was “let’s fake it, then.”

The name was a knife, twisting in her belly Rating T, 23k words (on-going)

Brienne grows up in Tarth with the pain that Jaime Lannister's name inflicts her each time she hears it. She grows up hating her soulmate for his actions and for the pain she feels because of him.

In the dungeons of Riverrun, she finally meets him, and lady Catelyn charges them both with a quest that will change her pain into something different.

The Lord of the Rings

A few days wait Rating G, 785 words

Eowyn has just given birth to her first-born. However, not being pregnant anymore doesn't mean she can't immediately go run and ride around Emyn Arnen as she wishes

Faramir guarantees her that this wait will not be for nothing

“We won’t forbid you to ride in the hills and set broken legs again, my love. However, your health comes first. I do not wish to see you collapse because you will have overestimated your strength.”

Mature/Explicit fics

To conquer frustration Rating M, 5018 words

After a few months dating Jaime, Brienne feels ready to make love with him

Jaime is eager to do it with her

However, their friends keep getting in their way, until they do what's needed to be alone

OR

Four times friends and family interrupt Jaime and Brienne, and the one time they can finally have sex

Royai Week 2024: La curiosité est un vilain défaut Rating M, 748 words

Black Hayate wakes up to find Riza has a guest. Following his nose and the strange noises he hears, he opens her bedroom door…

Up for the long ride, Rating E, 23k words

During her first eventing competition outside the Stormlands, Brienne meets the infamous Jaime Lannister. After an explosive encounter, their relationship builds up on heated moments, whether it’s during the competition, with their words, or under the sheets (and other places)

Or

Five times Jaime and Brienne have a secret wild ride, and one time they kiss publicly

Bring the storm (all your love like a flood) Rating E, 2532 words

Inside Riza's official letter, Rebecca finds Jean's secret letter. It brings back the memory of that stormy night, and during another stormy night, Rebecca relives it in the safety of her room

Part 8 of Regency AU series

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

1937, World's Highest Standard of Living :: Margaret Bourke-White

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 28, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Oct 29, 2024

On Monday, October 28, 1929, New York’s Metropolitan Opera Company opened its forty-fifth season.

Four thousand attendees in their finest clothes strolled to the elegant building on foot or traveled in one of a thousand limousines to see Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, the melodramatic story of an innocent French girl seduced by wealth, whose reluctance to leave her riches for true love leads to her arrest and tragic death. Photographers captured images of the era’s social celebrities as they arrived at opening night, their flash bulbs blinding the crowd that had gathered to see the famous faces and expensive gowns.

No one toasting the beginning of the opera season that night knew they were marking the end of an era.

At ten o’clock the next morning, when the opening gong sounded in the great hall of the New York Stock Exchange, men began to unload their stocks. So fast did trading go that by the end of the day, the ticker recording transactions ran two and a half hours late. When the final tally could be read, it showed that an extraordinary 16,410,030 shares had traded hands, and the market had lost $14 billion. The market had been uneasy for weeks before the twenty-ninth, but Black Tuesday began a slide that seemingly would not end. By mid-November the industrial average was half of what it had been in September. The economic boom that had fueled the Roaring Twenties was over.

Once the bottom fell out of the stock market, the economy ground down. Manufacturing output dropped to levels lower than those of 1913. The production of pig iron fell to what it had been in the 1890s. Foreign trade dropped by $7 billion, down to just $3 billion. The price of wheat fell from $1.05 a bushel to 39 cents; corn dropped from 81 to 33 cents; cotton fell from 17 to 6 cents a pound. Prices dropped so low that selling crops meant taking a loss, so struggling farmers simply let them rot in the fields. 

By 1932, over one million people in New York City were unemployed. By 1933 the number of unemployed across the nation rose to 13 million people—one out of every four American workers. Unable to afford rent or pay mortgages, people lived in shelters made of packing boxes.

No one knew how to combat the Great Depression, but certain wealthy Americans were sure they knew what had caused it. The problem, they said, was that poor Americans refused to work hard enough and were draining the economy. They must be forced to take less. “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate,” Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon told President Herbert Hoover. “It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.” 

Slash government spending, agreed the Chicago Tribune: lay off teachers and government workers, and demand that those who remain accept lower wages. Richard Whitney, a former president of the Stock Exchange, told the Senate that the only way to restart the economy was to cut government salaries and veterans’ benefits (although he told them that his own salary—which at sixty thousand dollars was six times higher than theirs—was “very little” and couldn’t be reduced).

President Hoover knew little about finances, let alone how to fix an economic crisis of global proportions. He tried to reverse the economic slide by cutting taxes and reassuring Americans that “the fundamental business of the country, that is, production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis.” 

But taxes were already so low that most folks would see only a few extra dollars a year from the cuts, and the fundamental business of the country was not, in fact, sound. When suffering Americans begged for public works programs to provide jobs, Hoover insisted that such programs were a “soak the rich” program that would “enslave” taxpayers, and called instead for private charity.

By the time Hoover’s term ended, Americans were ready to try a new approach to economic recovery. They refused to reelect Hoover and turned instead to New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who promised to use the federal government to provide jobs and a safety net to enable Americans to weather hard times. He promised the American people a “New Deal”: a government that would work for everyone, not just for the wealthy and well connected.

As soon as Roosevelt was in office, Democrats began to pass laws protecting workers’ rights, providing government jobs, regulating business and banking, and beginning to chip away at the racial segregation of the American South. New Deal policies employed more than 8.5 million people, built more than 650,000 miles of highways, built or repaired more than 120,000 bridges, and put up more than 125,000 buildings. 

They regulated banking and the stock market and gave workers the right to bargain collectively. They established minimum wages and maximum hours for work. They provided a basic social safety net and regulated food and drug safety. And when World War II broke out, the new system enabled the United States to defend democracy successfully against fascists both at home—where they had grown strong enough to turn out almost 20,000 people to a rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939—and abroad. 

The New Deal worked so well that common men and women across the country hailed FDR as their leader, electing him an unprecedented four times. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower built on the New Deal when voters elected him in 1952. He bolstered the nation’s infrastructure with the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which provided $25 billion to build 41,000 miles of highway across the country; added the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to the government and called for a national healthcare system.

Eisenhower nominated former Republican governor of California Earl Warren as chief justice of the Supreme Court to protect civil rights, which he would begin to do with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision months after joining the court. Eisenhower also insisted on the vital importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to stop the Soviet Union from spreading communism throughout Europe.

Eisenhower called his vision “a middle way between untrammeled freedom of the individual and the demands of the welfare of the whole Nation.” 

The system worked: between 1945 and 1960 the nation’s gross national product (GNP) jumped by 250%, from $200 billion to $500 billion. The vast majority of Americans of both parties liked the new system that had helped the nation to recover from the Depression and to equip the Allies to win World War II. 

Politicians and commentators agreed that most Democrats and Republicans shared a “liberal consensus” that the government should regulate business, provide for basic social welfare, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. It seemed the country had finally created a government that best reflected democratic values. 

Indeed, that liberal consensus seemed so universal that the only place to find opposition was in entertainment. Popular radio comedian Fred Allen’s show included a caricature, Senator Beauregard Claghorn, a southern blowhard who pontificated, harrumphed, and took his reflexive hatred of the North to ridiculous extremes. A buffoon who represented the past, the Claghorn character was such a success that he starred in his own Hollywood film and later became the basis for the Looney Tunes cartoon rooster Foghorn Leghorn.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[brilamb]

Space Traders

The Space Traders

I found the short film The Space Traders extremely interesting and thought provoking. Although the movie had a really dark meaning behind it and a sad ending I really enjoyed the film, and I thought it was a fairly accurate depiction of what would happen in the modern day given the same circumstances as the film. I think if the current 2024 United States was posed the same question I believe about sixty percent of people would vote in favor of exchanging all black citizens for a cleaner planet. Since the start of United States history black people have been used as a means to an end for white America to advance, and it doesn’t seem like this trend will end anytime soon. 

I especially liked how they made the character Professor Golightly a very conservative black man. To me the decision to make a conservative black politician the primary advocate for black lives showed how at the end of the day all people who are perceived as black have to face the issue of their race in America. It also showed that the issues of race in America and any issues you have with your own race cannot be ignored, as at some point every black person  has to face the fact that they, like every other member of their race, will be marginalized because of their race. In the end when Professor Golightly is taken along with all other black people who fail the paper bag test it just goes to show that no matter how far you go in life or how much you contribute to American society a black person will still be evaluated based on their race and viewed as different. I also found it interesting how the professor proposed the idea of making it seem like African Americans were being taken to a utopia in order to try and manipulate racism in favor of keeping black people on the planet. 

The part of the film I found the most interesting was the government officials' discussion of the decision, particularly one of the women’s comments that the aliens couldn’t treat black people any worse than America already has. I thought this comment was particularly interesting especially given the ending of the vote, as America chooses to once again ostracize and mistreat its black citizens. I also noticed the parallels between how African Americans were first brought to America, and how the ending of the film largely resembled that process. Both took place on the beach with armed white men forcefully ushering black people to another place they did not agree to go to. It’s interesting that despite years of perceived progress racism would force African Americans out of the only home they ever knew in the same way Africans were once forced out of the only home they ever knew.

[justlovehamm]

My Three W's in Georgia

Pregame: 

The afternoon of New Years Eve, I listened to Everybody Gets a Trophy podcast during my final couple hours of work. The hosts, Paul and Randy, spoke confidently for an hour or so about all the ways our Longhorns would beat the Arizona State Sun Devils. Superior size on both sides of the line, superior speed on the outside, and finally the Sun Devils yapping all week ensuring that our Horns would come out firing, wanting to silence the brash Sun Devil backfield of Levitt and Skattebo. After listening, I too, was confident and brash about the Horns chances. Forget about covering, give me an alternate line and I’d still bet that!

The thing about my Longhorn fandom though is that it lives within the park boundaries of Cedar Point. Within the fifteen minutes it took for me to drive home and get in the shower I realized I had not witnessed a Longhorn win in person since I graduated in 2011. Crushed by Arkansas in the Texas Bowl, saddened by a loss to Texas Tech during my sister’s last home game as a student, and finally gutted by LSU in 2019. Woof. Tough scene for your boy. Surely, I wasn’t the problem in those games, right? Surely Coaches Strong and Herman were the issue. SARK and Co. would overcome any bad juju I thought I was bringing with me to Atlanta. Plus I got a new Horns shirt for Christmas, to boot. 

The thing about waking up at 6:35 on weekdays is that waking up at 4:35 New Year’s Day is only two hours before your usual wake up, so whatever no big deal you’ll get the game day adrenaline going and be fine. Up at 4:35 out by 4:50. Impressive work. I planned on Deeper Well and Acadia getting me through those first two hours, then by 6:35 I’d be fully awake. After jamming to those albums for a couple of hours, I put on a 90 minute Rusillo podcast, which got me to 8 o’clock, which got me to a breakfast and stretch break. 

A friend of mine with a passion for fast food, generously venmoed me money to help pay for eats to and from Atlanta. His favorite place happens to be the world’s most famous Irish pub, so once the podcast ended I took the Lavonia, GA exit, where a McDonald’s was promised to be waiting for me. With my stomach growling for the first time in 2025, I was greeted with something more glorious than a golden arches as I exited I-85…..

A shining beacon for this Texas ex-pat. There in all its 1950’s retro motif was a giant orange W. The ghosts of Bevo’s past had led me to a Whataburger! I was stunned, as I had no knowledge of any Whataburgers in the land of Coca-Cola and Chick-fil a. I sat there at the light, amazed at my good fortune. Not only excited for the wonderful meal I had ahead of me; I took this as a sign that the Horns were not only going to cover the 13.5 point spread but double it! 

Sausage, egg, cheese, potato taquito. 

Sausage, egg, cheese on a jalapeno cheese biscuit. 

A breakfast of Peach Bowl champions no doubt! As I waited for my food, a couple more Horns fans came in to grab a champions breakfast as well. That next hour and a half flew by as I thought of all the best plays of the season, and how the Peach Bowl would be the greatest hits of the 2024 season all rolled up in sixty minutes at the Mercedes Benz Stadium. 

Trying to avoid postgame traffic, I planned to park at the Lindberg (naming a train station after a famous pilot tickled me- lets rename Hartsfield-Jackson after Vanderbilt!), then take the train to the stadium. I came away extremely impressed with MARTA. Right away I knew I made the right decision when I found out the garage would be free. I had no issues buying the most affordable pass for my needs thanks to the friendly employee guiding me through the kiosk. This suburban turned rural boy even got on the right train and exchanged at the right stop. As advertised, the train dropped me off right in front of the Benz Stadium. 

Regulation:

Olympic Century Plaza located right next to Benz stadium didn’t lend itself to tailgating, and neither did the cold windy day, so I headed straight into the stadium. My irrational fear of my ticket not scanning once again flared up as I held my phone under the ticker scanner. Like every other time before, the ticket scanned just fine, and I walked into the behemoth Benz stadium. I had promised Dot and E that I’d pick something for them, and the t-shirt stand greeted me right when I walked in so I knocked that out right away. 

I summited the Benz stadium up to row 332 (ten from the very last row), and hung out for a while, checking in on any pregame info online. On my way to my seat, I noticed the Texas end zone of the stadium had a standing room only area. Realizing that would be a much better angle to watch the game, I decided to head down and watch the game from there. 

I won’t offer a complete breakdown of the game but just a couple plays I got a great angle on because of where I was standing. The payoff from this decision came quickly. Because of a couple of Horns’ penalties, the Sun Devils scored a field goal on their opening drive of the game. On the Horns’ first drive, Ewers threw a deep ball to Golden to set up a touchdown. Having that end zone view, I got to see the route combinations unfold so well and trace Ewers’ parabolic throw right into Golden’s arms. 

Quickly after that, I once again had an eagle eye on a crucial Horns play. Arizona State punted to Silas Bolden who caught it and much like Moses saw the Red Sea part. Watching Bolden make a quick cut, then sprint through the open field at the same time the Longhorn faithful realized the potential of such an open field made me glad I made the trip. The crowd erupted as Bolden sprinted towards me, giving the Horns a 14-3 lead. The route was on. Or not. 

The strongest through line in this Horns season has been our inability to put teams away. A two touchdown win that somehow felt like a nailbiter has been the most common result. This is how you know Texas really is back: fans complaining about how we only won by two touchdowns. A 17-3 lead at half, yet feeling like we played poorly overall felt appropriate for the season long narrative. Honestly, the second and third quarters I’ve forgotten given the excitement of the fourth. Just a series of Horns offensive miscues, and our defense stopping them on fourth down. A couple eating their nachos out of a container in the same shape as the Benz Stadium highlighted the third quarter. Easily the most engineered nacho tray I have seen in my life. 

After an Ewers touchdown scramble, the Horns were up sixteen with ten minutes left in the game. At this point I started feeling good about the chances of a victory. Only two possessions technically, but getting two two-point conversions on top of scoring two touchdowns made me think the game was out of reach at this point. Not so fast my friends. Of course because it’s never easy this is exactly what the Sun Devils did. 

The flea flicker Skattebo threw my brain still does not know how to process. That touchdown happened at my end of the field, and the pass is still fluttering like the feather that starts the closing credits of Forrest Gump. The best way I can understand that completion is that some passes are so bad they’re good. Muhammad, our defensive back, did a full 720 trying to track the ball in the air. As the ball feathered down, the Devil’s receiver ran under it, reminding me of when fans scramble to get under Chick-fil-a gift cards parachuting down from stadium rafters. 

At last, we arrive at the funniest part of the game. With the game tied up, Bert Auburn missed a field goal late to give the ball back to Arizona State to win it. Like they have done all year the Texas defense covered for the offense and stopped the Sun Devils with enough time to again give the Texas offense a chance to win it. Ewers once again moved the offense into field goal range. Six seconds left in the game I turned to the guy standing next to me and asked, “What’s the move? Should we get aggressive and try to get some more yardage knowing Auburn’s struggles or do you just kick it not risking running out of time?” He replied, “The move?! The move was to put in MANNING!” Ahhhhhh yes, the most popular player on the team, the backup quarterback. 

At that moment I vowed to just enjoy the rest of the game, win or lose. I did not want to miss the opportunity to be entertained by such a dramatic fourth quarter and possibly overtime. I thought Ewers played really well already, even before the two overtimes. I didn’t know the outcome of the game, but I did know that putting in a redshirt freshman cold would tilt the win probability arrow down. 

Overtime:

In overtime Ewers continued to deal. The fourth and thirteen touchdown pass to tie the game showed his continued maturation as a quarterback. Freshman Ewers did not have the poise to drive them down the field to even get in field goal range. Sophomore Ewers did not have the leadership or recognition to audible to a cover zero beater. Junior Ewers led them down the field and this time threw a beautiful double move touchdown pass to tie the game. Amazing how Texas went from having to convert a 4th and 13 to keep the game going, to winning just five plays later. 

The second overtime took place at the end zone below me. From where I stood, I could tell two seconds after Jake Majors snapped the ball to Ewers that Helm would be wide open. Ball into the basket of Helm’s hands. Tuddy Texas. Arizona State now had to respond in order to extend the game. Of course, Skatteboo stumbled his way down the field for a thirteen yard gain on their first play. An incomplete pass followed by a short Skattebo run meant Arizona State had two chances to pick up eight yards to keep the game alive. They only ended up getting one.

After getting pressure more than thirty times throughout the game, Leavitt finally threw an interception, not a moment too soon. Right in front of where I stood, Mukuba stretched out in the near corner of the end zone to pick off Leavitt for the first time. Horns win! High fiving strangers, yelling, and jumping commenced. Completely exhausted, yet still having the energy to loudly sing The Eyes of Texas. What a game. Another New Year’s Day W. 

Postgame:

I had one more W in me. The second I took my last bite of Whataburger breakfast I knew I’d be back for dinner. It would either be a victory meal or one full of sadness, but I knew it had to be a Whataburger patty melt either way. Awkwardly some ASU fans stood near the soda fountains as I walked in to order. Avoiding eye contact with them I walked up to the register to order my patty melt (add jalapenos). The patty melt tasted almost as sweet as the victory at Mercedes Benz Stadium, which was a testament to how awesome of a game I witnessed earlier in the day. With a fry in my mouth, I looked into the rearview mirror, seeing the bright glowing W atop my new favorite Georgian restaurant. Waking up, I hoped for just one w in the New Year, but went to bed with three. Hook’em!

[luvwich]

my 2024 in fic

a long one about my year of writing my dirty 'n sad stories (complete with pull quotes for god's sake). if you start scrolling real fast now, you might survive! let's get on with it then—

january—march • crescent & redwood 88k words (70k written this year)

He wasn't much of a dreamer — the streets wrung all the dreams out of Mike Kowalski before he had thirteen candles on his cake. But in that moment, the dream came to him easier than breathing.

the one longfic i finished this year. the shit consumed me, man! C&R was my most ambitious in terms of plot, i approached it with more structure and planning than ever, and for some FUCKING reason i opted to commit to a weekly(ish) posting schedule.

i figure the entire potential "audience" for this could dance on the head of a pin — it's a sequel, it stars a really random / rare side character, it is crawling with OCs and homebrew — but it was some of the most fun i've had writing & i love this god damn fic. (also some amazing people read it anyway!)

march • risk management 2000 words

Turns out the nightclub gig has some parallels to his life as an agent. In the course of both jobs, you observe and intervene when necessary. You manage risk.

moody tableau of a solomon reed / V situation. started out as a plan for something longer, but i opted to turn it into this really compact story — a style i leaned into a lot this year. a nice change from the sprawl of the longfic, and so satisfying to write! feels like whittling away at this intricate thing, every sentence forced to earn its keep. almost everything else i wrote this year was in this shorter format.

april • internship '74 1587 words

You work fifty percent harder. No, sixty. There's so much to learn, just as the handbook said.

just a crunchy bite of that arasaka grind, with a little glimpse of star-crossed romance at the end of the corpo tunnel.

may • be with me when i breathe & soul in a box & galvanized

But I can become angry again. In the realm of cognition, all that I was once capable of, I remain capable of.

the word of the year is FICLET. i wrote these 500-1000 word bits for song events in the writers of night city discord. those events were such a lifesaver for my burnt-out ass!!

july • sellsword 3100 words

Compliments, in his experience, were not given without motive. Compliments of the cock even less so. 

my first non-cyberpunk and first M/M! i find baldur's gate quite intimidating to write; the fantasy setting comes waaaay less naturally to me than the whole gritty urban cyberpunk thing. ole boy rugan had me in a chokehold, though, and out of all the little snippets i wrote about him, the one where he furtively jerks off with gale ended up taking flight. that's life!

august—september • black steel 9831 words

Maybe V's not the lamb, but the altar. What'll he burn this time? What would old Cain do with a second chance?

johnny silverhand had mostly played a "sassy roommate" role in my stories til i got a wee bit more lecherous with him in crescent. when silverv week rolled around i started tinkering with some brief scenes between him and vania. some of my favorite writing i did this year is in woven through these vignettes

december • the perfect mark 6000 words

At last, under a pretense, a promise, she gets him alone. It doesn't take much. Mortal men scamper after coin and cunt like blind rats running through walls.

written for a gift exchange for the Zhentil Keep discord, a wonderful community of sickos (pos.) i was delighted to lurk around in this year. i've never done a Durge run, and as mentioned i don't feel terribly confident writing in the bg3 setting, but once i got a handle on the story i had a hell of a lot of fun with it! super pleased to close out the year (probably!) with something a little different. also, spitting <3

overall, i posted just shy of 100k words — just about a third of what i did in 2023(!). shit got real and stayed real at my day job, the cyberpunk fandom slowed down, and i had burned through a lot of that "just started writing" momentum that had me rollin down an icy hill last year. and just, C&R wrecked my ass; i wasn't thinking or walking straight after finishing it. thanks mike!

but a lovely thing about '24 was leaning into community a little more, mostly in the form of two wonderful lil discord servers full of other lunatics. so much of what i ended up writing came out of events, prompts, and general inspiration found on the Writers of Night City and Zhentil Keep servers!

as a direct result, i also started having some of my work beta-read, as well as doing a bit of beta reading for others. previously, i had no idea how to go about getting these mythical "beta readers" — like, how do you even form that relationship begin with, nevermind the logistics and protocol! it turns out you can just ask??

anyway i'm so glad i started doing this; getting real, critical feedback is delicious, it's made my writing better (both beta-ing and being beta'd have!) (oh my god is beta the most hellish verb in existence though?), and it makes the process a whole lot less lonely to boot.

some of the work i was entrusted to beta-read or collaborate on (all excellent despite my meddling!):

No. 1 Smalltown Boy by @ghostoffuturespast

chapters 4-6 of thread-safe by @merge-conflict

breach by @streetkid-named-desire — a whole collab! they trusted me to write a bunch of the smutty bits >:)

in 2025 i'd love if i sank my teeth into a longer project again, but i'm resolved not to fret about it too much. got a lot of junk rattlin' around in drafts, a number of things in the outlining/planning stage that may or may not bear fruit, and a sick little brain that won't quit

thanks for hanging! thanks for not blocking me yet on tumblr dot com, and all my gratitude and blessings if you read more than a hundred words of those 100k i chucked out into the world this year

[misfitwashere]

October 28, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Oct 28, 2024

On Monday, October 28, 1929, New York’s Metropolitan Opera Company opened its forty-fifth season.

Four thousand attendees in their finest clothes strolled to the elegant building on foot or traveled in one of a thousand limousines to see Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, the melodramatic story of an innocent French girl seduced by wealth, whose reluctance to leave her riches for true love leads to her arrest and tragic death. Photographers captured images of the era’s social celebrities as they arrived at opening night, their flash bulbs blinding the crowd that had gathered to see the famous faces and expensive gowns.

No one toasting the beginning of the opera season that night knew they were marking the end of an era.

At ten o’clock the next morning, when the opening gong sounded in the great hall of the New York Stock Exchange, men began to unload their stocks. So fast did trading go that by the end of the day, the ticker recording transactions ran two and a half hours late. When the final tally could be read, it showed that an extraordinary 16,410,030 shares had traded hands, and the market had lost $14 billion. The market had been uneasy for weeks before the twenty-ninth, but Black Tuesday began a slide that seemingly would not end. By mid-November the industrial average was half of what it had been in September. The economic boom that had fueled the Roaring Twenties was over.

Once the bottom fell out of the stock market, the economy ground down. Manufacturing output dropped to levels lower than those of 1913. The production of pig iron fell to what it had been in the 1890s. Foreign trade dropped by $7 billion, down to just $3 billion. The price of wheat fell from $1.05 a bushel to 39 cents; corn dropped from 81 to 33 cents; cotton fell from 17 to 6 cents a pound. Prices dropped so low that selling crops meant taking a loss, so struggling farmers simply let them rot in the fields. 

By 1932, over one million people in New York City were unemployed. By 1933 the number of unemployed across the nation rose to 13 million people—one out of every four American workers. Unable to afford rent or pay mortgages, people lived in shelters made of packing boxes.

No one knew how to combat the Great Depression, but certain wealthy Americans were sure they knew what had caused it. The problem, they said, was that poor Americans refused to work hard enough and were draining the economy. They must be forced to take less. “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate,” Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon told President Herbert Hoover. “It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people.” 

Slash government spending, agreed the Chicago Tribune: lay off teachers and government workers, and demand that those who remain accept lower wages. Richard Whitney, a former president of the Stock Exchange, told the Senate that the only way to restart the economy was to cut government salaries and veterans’ benefits (although he told them that his own salary—which at sixty thousand dollars was six times higher than theirs—was “very little” and couldn’t be reduced).

President Hoover knew little about finances, let alone how to fix an economic crisis of global proportions. He tried to reverse the economic slide by cutting taxes and reassuring Americans that “the fundamental business of the country, that is, production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis.” 

But taxes were already so low that most folks would see only a few extra dollars a year from the cuts, and the fundamental business of the country was not, in fact, sound. When suffering Americans begged for public works programs to provide jobs, Hoover insisted that such programs were a “soak the rich” program that would “enslave” taxpayers, and called instead for private charity.

By the time Hoover’s term ended, Americans were ready to try a new approach to economic recovery. They refused to reelect Hoover and turned instead to New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who promised to use the federal government to provide jobs and a safety net to enable Americans to weather hard times. He promised the American people a “New Deal”: a government that would work for everyone, not just for the wealthy and well connected.

As soon as Roosevelt was in office, Democrats began to pass laws protecting workers’ rights, providing government jobs, regulating business and banking, and beginning to chip away at the racial segregation of the American South. New Deal policies employed more than 8.5 million people, built more than 650,000 miles of highways, built or repaired more than 120,000 bridges, and put up more than 125,000 buildings. 

They regulated banking and the stock market and gave workers the right to bargain collectively. They established minimum wages and maximum hours for work. They provided a basic social safety net and regulated food and drug safety. And when World War II broke out, the new system enabled the United States to defend democracy successfully against fascists both at home—where they had grown strong enough to turn out almost 20,000 people to a rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939—and abroad. 

The New Deal worked so well that common men and women across the country hailed FDR as their leader, electing him an unprecedented four times. Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower built on the New Deal when voters elected him in 1952. He bolstered the nation’s infrastructure with the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which provided $25 billion to build 41,000 miles of highway across the country; added the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to the government and called for a national healthcare system.

Eisenhower nominated former Republican governor of California Earl Warren as chief justice of the Supreme Court to protect civil rights, which he would begin to do with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision months after joining the court. Eisenhower also insisted on the vital importance of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to stop the Soviet Union from spreading communism throughout Europe.

Eisenhower called his vision “a middle way between untrammeled freedom of the individual and the demands of the welfare of the whole Nation.” 

The system worked: between 1945 and 1960 the nation’s gross national product (GNP) jumped by 250%, from $200 billion to $500 billion. The vast majority of Americans of both parties liked the new system that had helped the nation to recover from the Depression and to equip the Allies to win World War II. 

Politicians and commentators agreed that most Democrats and Republicans shared a “liberal consensus” that the government should regulate business, provide for basic social welfare, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. It seemed the country had finally created a government that best reflected democratic values. 

Indeed, that liberal consensus seemed so universal that the only place to find opposition was in entertainment. Popular radio comedian Fred Allen’s show included a caricature, Senator Beauregard Claghorn, a southern blowhard who pontificated, harrumphed, and took his reflexive hatred of the North to ridiculous extremes. A buffoon who represented the past, the Claghorn character was such a success that he starred in his own Hollywood film and later became the basis for the Looney Tunes cartoon rooster Foghorn Leghorn.

—

[journalheads]

Dividend stock: Multibagger chemical stock declares final dividend for fourth straight year

Fineotex Chemical, a leading player in the chemical industry, is one of the dividend-paying stocks of the Indian stock market. The dividend stock has declared a 20 percent final dividend for its eligible shareholders, payable in the financial year 2023-24. After declaring this final dividend for FY24, the multibagger stock has gone on to announce a final dividend for the fourth year in a row. The chemical company declared a final dividend in FY21, FY22, and FY23 as well. The company announced the final dividend while announcing its Q4 results in 2024 on Wednesday evening. Fineotex Chemical dividend details The multibagger chemical stock informed the Indian stock market exchanges about the decision, saying, "In compliance with Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, it is informed that the Board has recommended a final dividend of Rs. 0.40/- per equity share (20% of face value of Rs. 2/- each) which amounts to Rs. 4,46,93,995.60/- (Rupees Four Crore Forty-Six Lacs Ninety Three Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety Five Sixty Paise only) subject to the approval of members at the ensuing Annual General Meeting." Fineotex Chemical's dividend history As per the information on the official website of BSE, this is the fourth straight year when the dividend stock has declared its final dividend. The multibagger stock traded 'ex-dividend ', a term used to indicate that the buyer of the stock on or after this date is not entitled to the recently declared dividend, on 8 July 2021 for finalizing the list of eligible shareholders for payment of ₹0.30 per share final dividend. On 28 July 2022, the dividend stock traded ex-dividend for payment of ₹0.40 per share final dividend to the eligible shareholders. Last year, on 8 September 2023, Fineotex Chemical shares traded ex-dividend to ascertain eligible shareholders for payment of ₹0.80 per share final dividend. In 2024, the dividend-paying stock traded ex-dividend on 26 February to ascertain the list of eligible shareholders for payment of ₹1.20 per share as an interim dividend.

Fineotex Chemical Q4 results Fineotex Chemical's Q4 results have shown a promising increase in revenue. Revenue from Operations for the quarter rose to ₹153.01 crore from nearly ₹137.69 crore, marking an impressive growth of 11.13 percent. This positive financial performance is a testament to the company's strong position in the market and its ability to deliver consistent returns to its shareholders.

The Profit after tax (PAT) for the quarter ended has increased to around ₹30.48 crore from around ₹26 crore, i.e., a growth of 17.21 percent.

Multibagger stock Fineotexh Chemical's share price rose from around ₹15 to ₹365 per share in the post-COVID period, a period marked by the company's resilience and adaptability to the changing market conditions. In these nearly four years, the chemical stock has delivered a whopping 850 percent return to its positional shareholders, a testament to our strong fundamentals and the trust of our investors.

[realityhop]

"I want sin."

— John the Savage in Brave New World (1931)

"There’s also a nihilistic version of science, a Brave New World version, which sees itself as pacifying the spiritual and mental anguish and doubts of human beings by giving them access to drugs and pornography and all kinds of things which distract them forever from these fundamental existential questions, the religious questions. I mean what would work to exterminate religion or exterminate the need for religion would be to put everyone to sleep with drug dreams, drug highs." — Life in a postmodern world (2024) "In an exchange of letters with Jung in 1910 in which Jung suggested that psychoanalysis must ‘transform Christ back into the soothsaying god of the vine’, Freud wrote: ‘But you mustn’t regard me as the founder of a religion. My intentions are not so far-reaching … I am not thinking of a substitute for a religion: this need must be sublimated.’ Unlike Jung, Freud never claimed to heal the soul." — The Silence of Animals (2013) "The belief that human institutions are indefinitely improvable replicates the theistic faith that history is a moral narrative of sin followed by redemption. The ancient pre-Christian world accepted that the evils of human life recur in unending cycles." — The New Leviathans (2023)

— John N. Gray

"Even counterculture agnostics had respected the cosmic expansiveness of religious vision. There was also widespread ecumenical interest at the time in harmonizing world religions. The primary guide in this new syncretism was Carl Jung, who was the son of a Protestant minister and who began to study Asian thought in depth after his break with Freud in 1913. Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious was partly derived from the Hindu concept of samskaras, the residue of past lifetimes. His interdisciplinary interpretation of culture was also influenced by Sir James George Frazer’s multi-volumed work of classical anthropology, The Golden Bough (1890–1915). Jung revealed the poetry and philosophy in the rituals and iconography of world religions. But Jungian thought had little impact on post-Sixties American academe, thanks to the invasion of European theory. French post-structuralism, the Frankfurt School, and British cultural studies all follow the Marxist line that religion is “the opiate of the masses.” The end result was that, by the Eighties, the claim that great art has a spiritual meaning was no longer taken seriously—and was positively perilous to anyone seeking employment or promotion in the humanities departments of major American universities."

— Camille Paglia, Cults and Cosmic Consciousness: Religious Vision in the American 1960s (2003)

"There is a remarkable passage at the end of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 The Scarlet Letter when, after a long absence, Hester Prynne returns to the scene of her crime. As her punishment for adultery, she had worn an embroidered red letter “A” on her breast, but after all those years not even the harshest judge would force her to continue wearing it. She decides, of her own free will, to keep it fastened to her blouse because, the narrator tells us, “the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world’s scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too.” The village now saw her as a source of comfort and strength, not as a person stained with sin."

— Roy Richard Grinker, Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness (2021)

"Jesus compares Himself to a doctor who had come to help those who are sick. Matthew was a patient in need of healing. The sickness was sin, and Jesus was the Healer; that is, Jesus can forgive sin and restore the spiritually sick. Those who see themselves as “righteous,” however—those who, like the Pharisees, refuse to acknowledge their spiritual sickness—deny their need of a spiritual Doctor and thus remain in their sin."

— Got Questions, What is spiritual sickness?

"In Mary’s gospel, Jesus is saying that sin is an invention of man, not an indictment from God—it’s what happens when we deviate from who we are at our root, our point of origin. And the sins, or, as Christ describes them in Mary’s gospel, “powers,” are necessary points of resistance on the path—they confront us, not so we can skirt or master them, but so we can come into balance with them."

— Elise Loehnen, On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good (2023)

"I don't hate the sinner, I hate the sin."

— Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

"We are at our most stupid in our self-hatred."

— Adam Phillips | Interview (2017)

"Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins." "Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all transgressions."

— The Holy Bible, Proverbs 10:12

"Start with loving yourself now."

— Jennifer Freed, Use Your Planets Wisely (2020)

Taylor Swift- Blank Space

[frankiedelgado2020]

Aston Martin Main Dealers in Uk | Stratstone Aston Martin Amersham

Armed with a new investment, it expects to sell ten,000 cars in 2024, with up to half-hour slated to be hybrid because of the input from Mercedes. Stroll delayed Aston Martin’s automobile plans when seizing, however input from Mercedes would mean that some totally electrical models can arrive towards the tip of 2025. It said. The result, Aston Martin expected, would double revenues to £2bn by then, with underlying operational profit rising to £500m, compared with £134m in 2019. Stroll stratstone aston martin amersham aforementioned he hoped the company’s probabilities of achieving the targets would be helped by its presence from next year as a fully-fledged Formula One team. The Canadian is the owner of the sport purpose team, that uses Mercedes engines. His son Lance Stroll is one in all the constructor’s 2 drivers. Stroll, WHO created a lot of his $2.6bn fortune in fashion, became Aston Martin’s govt chairman six months ago one, and has since managed to preclude what several pundits feared would be the eighth bankruptcy within the company’s history.

He aforementioned the funding injection would be, “truly game-changing” and additionally secure that the partnership with Mercedes wouldn't end in the automotive that several Britons escort fictitious character being engineered overseas. “Aston Martin can stay factory-made within the Britain, period,” he said. The turnaround arrange is bold given however Aston Martin has struggled since its flotation, with the corona virus pandemic deepening its troubles. The company destroyed its chief govt Andy Palmer in might, as a part of a wider board overhaul, following a ninety-eight collapse in its share worth. His replacement, Tobias Mores, joined on 1 August from Mercedes, wherever he was the boss of the German carmaker’s superior division. But the pandemic sent losses stormy to £227m within the half of 2020, because it sold-out just 1,770 cars. LONDON (Reuters) — British luxury automaker Aston Martin AML. L plans to shed up to five hundred jobs because it seeks to bring its value base into line with reduced sports automotive production levels, it aforementioned on weekday. FILE picture — Aston Martin Lagonda cars square measure lay outside the new manufacture at Saint Athan, Wales, United Kingdom Gregorian calendar month vi, 2019.

REUTERS/Rebecca Naden The job cuts return every week when Aston Martin confirmed that Tobias Moers, business executive of Mercedes-AMG, would become chief govt on Lammas Day, exchange Andy Palmer. The 107-year previous firm aforementioned the duty losses mirrored below originally planned production volumes and improved productivity across the business. A worker and organization consultation method is launched within the returning days. Aston Martin, celebrated for being fictional emissary James Bond’s automotive of alternative, have seen its share worth plummet since floating in Gregorian calendar month 2018. Last month it announces a deep first-quarter loss when sales born by virtually a 3rd thanks to the impact of the novel corona virus natural event. stratstone aston martin amersham “The measures declared these days can right-size the organizational structure and produce the value base into line with reduced sports automotive production levels, in keeping with restoring profit,” it said. It aforementioned its initial sports utility vehicle (SUV), the DBX, 

that is essential to spice up volumes and charm to new patrons together with a lot of girls, remains on track|on target|on course|on the right track|heading within the right direction|not off course for deliveries in the summer, and encompasses a sturdy order book. Aston Martin is additionally reducing prices and removing non-critical expenditure in alternative areas, together with contractor numbers, website footprint, promoting and travel. It aforementioned the restructuring is anticipated to deliver total annual savings of concerning thirty-eight million pounds ($47.6 million). Restructuring prices square measure expected to be concerning twelve million pounds. Shares in Aston Martin, down seventy-eight over the last year, closed Wednesday at sixty-eight.9 pence, valuing the business at 1.05 billion pounds.