#so that $24 per month is just for the last 12 months

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #9

March 9-15 2024

The IRS launched its direct file pilot program. Tax payers in 12 states, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming, Arizona, Massachusetts, California and New York, can now file their federal income taxes for free on-line directly with the IRS. The IRS plans on taking direct file nation wide for next year's tax season. Tax Day is April 15th so if you're in one of those states you have a month to check it out.

The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into the death of Nex Benedict. the OCR is investigating if Benedict's school district violated his civil rights by failing to protect him from bullying. President Biden expressed support for trans and non-binary youth in the aftermath of the ruling that Benedict's death was a suicide and encouraged people to seek help in crisis

Vice President Kamala Harris became the first sitting Vice-President (or President) to visit an abortion provider. Harris' historic visit was to a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul Minnesota. This is the last stop on the Vice-President's Reproductive Rights Tour that has taken her across the country highlighting the need for reproductive health care.

President Biden announced 3.3 billion dollars worth of infrastructure projects across 40 states designed to reconnect communities divided by transportation infrastructure. Communities often split decades ago by highways build in the 1960s and 70s. These splits very often affect communities of color splitting them off from the wider cities and making daily life far more difficult. These reconnection projects will help remedy decades of economic racism.

The Biden-Harris administration is taking steps to eliminate junk fees for college students. These are hidden fees students pay to get loans or special fees banks charged to students with bank accounts. Also the administration plans to eliminate automatic billing for textbooks and ban schools from pocketing leftover money on student's meal plans.

The Department of Interior announced $120 million in investments to help boost Climate Resilience in Tribal Communities. The money will support 146 projects effecting over 100 tribes. This comes on top of $440 million already spent on tribal climate resilience by the administration so far

The Department of Energy announced $750 million dollars in investment in clean hydrogen power. This will go to 52 projects across 24 states. As part of the administration's climate goals the DoE plans to bring low to zero carbon hydrogen production to 10 million metric tons by 2030, and the cost of hydrogen to $1 per kilogram of hydrogen produced by 2031.

The Department of Energy has offered a 2.3 billion dollar loan to build a lithium processing plant in Nevada. Lithium is the key component in rechargeable batteries used it electric vehicles. Currently 95% of the world's lithium comes from just 4 countries, Australia, Chile, China and Argentina. Only about 1% of the US' lithium needs are met by domestic production. When completed the processing plant in Thacker Pass Nevada will produce enough lithium for 800,000 electric vehicle batteries a year.

The Department of Transportation is making available $1.2 billion in funds to reduce decrease pollution in transportation. Available in all 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico the funds will support projects by transportation authorities to lower their carbon emissions.

The Geothermal Energy Optimization Act was introduced in the US Senate. If passed the act will streamline the permitting process and help expand geothermal projects on public lands. This totally green energy currently accounts for just 0.4% of the US' engird usage but the Department of Energy estimates the potential geothermal energy supply is large enough to power the entire U.S. five times over.

The Justice for Breonna Taylor Act was introduced in the Senate banning No Knock Warrants nationwide

A bill was introduced in the House requiring the US Postal Service to cover the costs of any laid fees on bills the USPS failed to deliver on time

The Senate Confirmed 3 more Biden nominees to be life time federal Judges, Jasmine Yoon the first Asian-America federal judge in Virginia, Sunil Harjani in Illinois, and Melissa DuBose the first LGBTQ and first person of color to serve as a federal judge in Rhode Island. This brings the total number of Biden judges to 185

[askagamedev]

About Unity these past few days

A lot of people have asked me about Unity and their strange new per-install charges policy that they rolled out on September 12th, 2023. I wanted to give them at least 24 hours before I posted my take on it - let the dust settle a bit so I could get a chance to read the new policy properly and all that. First, however, I think we need to take a step back and get a wider perspective. Unity Software Inc. is in some serious financial trouble. Here are their operating numbers from 2019 to 2023.

The blue line here is how much money they take in and the red line is the amount of money they are spending each year. You may notice that they are spending significantly more money year over year than they earn. In fact, over the past 12 months alone (August 2022 to August 2023), Unity Software Inc. has lost almost $1 billion.

In 2022, Unity spent four times as much money as they did in 2019. If they had managed to keep costs at double their spending in 2019, they still would have earned $243 million in profit. Instead, they lost $882 million in 2022.

Where does all of this cost come from? In any software company like Unity, the vast vast majority of costs comes from employee salaries. And we can directly see it in Unity's number of employees:

Unity Software Inc. more than tripled its headcount from 2019 to 2022, and it did all of this hiring during the pandemic while competing with many many other developers all trying to hire from the same pool. I don't work for Unity, but I was in the market and I had lots of recruiters trying to recruit me during that time.

In short, Unity is suffering from the same miscalculation that Embracer Group did, that EA did, that Activision-Blizzard did, that Square-Enix did, and just about everybody else in the tech industry - they misjudged the good times at the beginning of the pandemic, overspent hiring people thinking the good times would last, and are now scrambling to figure out how to survive. The difference is that Unity was getting all of their operating money from Venture Capitalists (VCs) hoping that they would eventually become profitable, but VC money has all but dried up because it's become much more expensive to borrow money over the past two years.

As a result, the Unity executives are likely grasping at straws in hopes of saving a sinking ship. This wild and decidedly senseless pricing plan is their (seemingly-desperate) attempt to juice their revenues. It really makes very little sense from the developer perspective, which is what makes the whole thing reek of desperation. That isn't greed talking, it's survival. My guess is that Unity is currently desperately looking for a buyer to save them and doing whatever they can to buy themselves some more runway. They already announced layoffs back in May, but I suspect they'll probably have to announce some really big layoffs (e.g. 40-50%) soon. Unity Software Inc. is living on borrowed time and they know it.

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[weirdthoughtsandideas]

PRIDE MONTH PROMPTS 2024

They are here!!

Last year I released them in May, and I asked you when I should release it this year. You agreed I should release it early/mid april. And I think the perfect time is now! You have plenty of time to prepare your things for June!

So, here are 30 prompts, 1 prompt per day, for all of June! Use them for writing, or for art, or why not for something else creative you can come up with?

I will now write all the prompts in the list if it's hard to read, plus some explanations/suggestion what you can do for them.

Day 1. Actually, I'm not straight. Someone kicking off pride month by telling their nearest and dearest that they aren't straight, like everyone seems to think!

Day 2. Surprise! We're dating! A couple comes out to their friends ;)

Day 3. Early signs. Early signs someone was not straight, or not cis. Or both!

Day 4. Gender euphoria. Euphoooooriaaaaa forever to end of time /j Ok no but yeah, someone experiencing gender euphoria :) It's great :)

Day 5. Surprise! We're engaged! Surprise engagement! Did people even know they were dating?

Day 6. Proposal. You can choose to show the proposal for the couple at day 5... or a brand new couple! :D

Day 7. Pride flags. Are they making pride flags? Buying pride flags? Identifying pride flags? So much you can do! :)

Day 8. Prideful baking. A return from last year! Who's baking? Are they doing it with pride? Are they making rainbow cakes? This is also a way to make some ships be cute together as they bake.

Day 9. Wedding. To quote Sam from Glee: "YEAH! COME ON GUYS! GAY MARRIAGE GOOD!"

Day 10. Shenanigans at the Pride Parade. Time to let those characters run wild at the pride parade!

Day 11. Coming out as trans. Pretty self explanatory I think ;)

Day 12. Planning for a child. Two women, two men, maybe a trans couple... any not-cishet couple are planning for a child <3 Are they adopting? IVF? However they're doing it, they're gonna get that child :)

Day 13. Two moms. Two mommies thriving with their kiddos!

Day 14. Are they dating or not? People are speculating the relationship of some people.

Day 15. First crush. Aww, someone's first crush! Have they ever felt this before?

Day 16. Alternate universe. Go crazy with this! This could mean anything from "a universe in which this ship is canon" to "they live in a fantasy world". Do whatever!

Day 17. Realizing they're ace. Self explanatory ;)

Day 18. Two dads. Two daddies on request (Sorry I've watched too much of Papás por encargo (Daddies on request) to not make that joke). They'll do anything for the kids!

Day 19. I thought everyone liked both? What??? They don't?????

Day 20. Fruity sleepover. Anything and everything can happen at a sleepover!

Day 21. Pining. They pine so hard and yet... will their crush ever notice?

Day 22. Secret dating. Or are they as they secret as they think? How much chaos do they end up in to keep this?

Day 23. Dinner. Maybe just a normal dinner in a queer friendgroup. Or maybe someone coming out at dinner. Maybe the first dinner at their partner's house. Or maybe someone's making dinner for their loved one.

Day 24. Confession. Coming out confession? Confession to your crush? Just a confession about your favorite food in the middle of a pride parade? Yeah, you decide!

Day 25. Date. THEY'RE ON A DATE THE BABIES!!! Is it a good date? I hope so!

Day 26. Gender is a construct. Not everything is binary.

Day 27. Queer group meeting. You can toy around with this a lot. A group meeting with closeted gays? A group meeting with every character from your different fandoms that you headcanon as bi that you want to interact in the group meeting for disaster bi's? A group meeting for aces just vibing? Maybe we'll meet a lot of different groups!

Day 28. Accidental coming out. Oops!

Day 29. Alternate time period. You want to play out a little love story but instead they live in the 1950s? Or maybe they live in the future! Maybe they live in the medieval times! Woah!

Day 30. Growing old together. Look at them now. Who knew they'd find each other in the world and now they're here?

I hope I'm gonna see some of you in pride month! It's always a pleasure! Also, when the time comes in June, and you want to use one of these prompts, don't forget to tag me ;)

[thedreadvampy]

btw this is a hangover from a big tweeting I did the other day but I really need fellow Britishers to understand that a major reason we have not seen the rollback of abortion rights the way the US has with the repeal of Roe v Wade is literally that we have never had the right to abortion.

Abortion is illegal in the UK. there are exemptions meaning that it's possible to get a legal abortion but abortion per se is a crime, and not in an abstract theoretical sense - like 6 people are currently serving sentences for getting abortions in England, and the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

And this just isn't something most of us talk about or are even aware of tbh. I wasn't aware of it when I had my abortion. When I mention to people that abortion is illegal in the UK they are almost always surprised.

So for clarity, there are two sets of exemptions and if your abortion doesn't meet them fully, it is illegal and punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment for providers and up to life imprisonment for the person recieving the abortion (in England and Wales. In Scotland the penalties are less clear, and in Northern Ireland you can no longer be tried for recieving an illegal abortion, only for providing it or seeking it for someone else. NI law is substantially different and better from the rest of the UK and has fully decriminalised abortion up to 12 weeks)

---

The two sets of exemptions are:

1) Before 24 weeks

An abortion is legal only if:

two separate medical professionals agree before the fact that continuing the pregnancy will produce more damage to the pregnant person's physical or mental health, or to their existing children, than an abortion will.

AND

the procedure takes place before 24 weeks; ie, the last legal point to get an abortion under these exemptions is 23 weeks, 6 days after the last day of your last period. (Based on my personal experience, if you don't track your period, they'll make a guess based on your first ultrasound and then count from there.)

AND

The procedure takes place under medical supervision if it's performed after 10 weeks (at-home abortion was legalised up to 10 weeks during the pandemic) and is procured through licensed medical professionals.

After 24 weeks

After the cutoff of 23 weeks 6 days, an abortion can only legally happen if:

or

Two separate medical professionals agree before the fact that abortion is the only viable way to prevent death or grave permanent injury to the pregnant person.

The attending doctor or surgeon deems that without an immediate abortion, the pregnant person will die (because they've waived the legal requirement of two medical approvals, the doctor is then on the hook to justify that there wasn't time to wait for a second opinion without putting the patient's life at unacceptable risk)

---

AND to be legal, abortions that meet these criteria must also be under medical supervision, but given that the only legal way to have an abortion after 24 weeks is urgent medical need, that's unsurprising.

The eugenicsy one

At any point in the pregnancy, an abortion is also legal if:

Two separate medical professionals agree ahead of time

AND

The baby is going to be born with severe physical or mental handicaps

yeah baybeeeee you can't abort because you want to not be pregnant after 24 months but at ANY TIME you can abort to prevent there being more yucky disabled people. Ok.

So there isn't a total ban, but abortion is still a criminal offence, and because the law around abortion isn't well publicised, it's really easy to accidentally fall outside it even when you're doing everything right - there are multiple cases of women being tried for abortions they didn't realise were illegal and had got through formal NHS channels. In at least one case, the criminal act was getting the abortion less than 48 hours after the cutoff date - an abortion at 24 weeks 1 day instead of 23 weeks 6 days.

Where people don't track their periods, this is really fuzzy and an abortion which is legal when performed can become illegal after the fact if it's concluded that their last period was earlier than stated.

As well, the need for abortion to happen before 23 weeks 6 days, and to have gone through a minimum of two referrals, means that people who are unable to access doctor's appointments CANNOT get an abortion legally, and given the glacial pace of NHS referrals, if you don't know you're pregnant or struggle to get an initial appointment, your legal window can get very small very fast. I had two and a half weeks between calling the doctor and the point where I wouldn't be legally allowed to abort, and I got my abortion TWO DAYS before the cutoff point - if I hadn't been able to take the 8am appointment in a different city they gave me, I would have been too late.

We don't have a right to abort. All we have are loopholes. ABORTION IS CRIMINALISED UNDER UK LAW.

[kaile-hultner]

GoFundMe Update, 8/12/2024

Hey y'all! it's been about a week since the last GoFundMe update. We've hit a pretty predictable slow period in this fundraiser, a kind of doldrums, but I also got super busy over the last seven days, so it's all good there. So what's been going on in the past week?

To start with, as I mentioned last week I'm down to just one installment loan. This in itself has already made a massive difference just even in terms of how I'm feeling. It no longer feels like I'm being crushed by this massive weight on my shoulders or chest. I know I've mentioned this a lot, but it's such a weird feeling after experiencing the opposite for most of my adult life.

With that, things are already starting to change rapidly: my credit score has gone up 23 points in a week and a half, for example. I hate that this is even something we should have to pay attention to, but I can't help but feel relieved when number go up instead of down. The number of phone calls I'm getting per day, in the evenings, on the weekends - all the debt collection calls - has dropped dramatically. Now it's mostly just spam and companies trying to get me to take out more loans with them. I've experienced a burst of creative energy that has gotten me back in the game-playing-and-reviewing saddle - I just wrote a piece about "A Short Hike" as a donor request fulfillment exercise. (You can check that out here.) I was able to get through an entire weekend of work at my side-gig with no issues or delays—something I haven't been able to say for a few months. And when I finished that work? You'll never believe it, but I didn't feel stressed out or exhausted! I felt normal!

This doesn't automatically catapult me into 24/7 comfortable living, and now I really have to focus on the hard and dirty work of living within my means, building a budget and being an adult when it comes to daily choices, but I always knew that. This GFM has never been the magic bullet that would solve all of my problems - and I've never wanted it to be. However, it's helped assuage such a significant portion of my problems that I can focus on other things for once, and navigating that for the first time has been a pretty significant experience! This comes after months of having to transfer my paycheck from my bank to my Apple Pay account and a litany of other sketchy shit just to make sure it didn't all get swallowed up by various debt repayments and years of sometimes paying rent in parts instead of all at once. With most of that gone and cleared out, I no longer have to do all that! I don't feel like I'm constantly between a rock and a hard place, and that's… honestly pretty significant.

So what's next? Why am I still moving forward with the GFM towards $8000 and eventually $10000+?

Well, as I've said in prior updates, it's still pretty unbelievable that we reached $6500+ and I genuinely have no expectations about getting even a cent more. If nobody else donates, I think I would be pretty pleased with what this GFM was able to accomplish. But I don't think I'm totally out of the woods yet. Thanks to your help, I've upgraded from "basically completely underwater" to "balancing precariously on the edge of the dock," and there's a WORLD of difference between those two states. But that doesn't mean I don't ever again have to worry about the possibility of almost drowning.

Goal 4 would help me pay off my remaining installment loan, and with that close the book on that chapter of my life altogether. I've got these two annoying (paid monthly) loans in the background, but paying $40 and $78 a month respectively for them isn't really all that bad. It's not moving the needle the way these installment loans (paid every two weeks on my payday) were. I'd like to get rid of this final installment loan pretty quickly if possible. I'm currently just a bit under $1400 away from that goal, and I think it's pretty attainable.

Goal 5, $10,000, and Goal 6, $10,000+, are maybe my vaguest goals, so I want to flesh those out a bit. For those goals, I'm thinking of my long-term future more than anything immediate. If I can get anything past $8K, great! That will be money I put into a savings account and start adding to on my own. The reason I'm putting these goals at the end of this GFM is because in a little bit less than a year, I'm looking at the end of a pretty long arrangement I've had at the place I'm living, and the situation is that either rent is going to raise pretty significantly or (more likely) I'm going to be finding a new place to live. Having some money in savings is going to help me out with this in two ways: first, being able to pay a deposit on an apartment or absorb some of the cost of raised rent. Second, being able to put down a down payment on a car. My (smaller) worry is that, even with the radical erasure of my most immediate and crushing debts that this GFM has already afforded me, I may not have enough time to save this kind of money on my own, and/or that my credit score won't heal fast enough to qualify me for cheaper car payments, apartment deposits that aren't an arm and a leg, and so on. For context, I live in Oklahoma, which has a relatively cheap cost of living, but it's practically impossible to get around without a car as OKC's transit system is bootycheeks.

Finally (and least importantly), I promised when I set this GFM up that it would be the last time I asked for money from the Internet for this or any reason, outside of like a medical emergency. I set $10k up as a moonshot goal, something I didn't think it was possible to achieve - and yet here it is, barely $3400 away. If we make it to the end, that's gonna feel like a wild achievement! I'd finally be able to rest easy.

Here's a bad car metaphor I just thought of: you know how when you jump a car, you don't just plug up the jumper cables from one car to another and call it good when the car in need of jumping starts? You have to give it a little bit of extra juice in order for the car to restart its own charging capacity? That's kind of what this GFM is. I'm the car being jumped. The fundraiser is the other car revving its engine and giving me a bit of extra juice after I was able to start my own engine again.

See? told you it was bad.

Anyway, as always, I cannot thank those of you who have already donated enough. None of this would be possible if it wasn't for you, and my inbox is always open if you want to suggest cursed internet artifacts for me to look at. Someone suggested the entire series of Eyewitness children's science documentaries to me. I have no clue if I'll be able to find them. I've been vibing on the theme song for days tho. The only thing I would ask of you at this point is to share this GFM on social media, maybe link back to this update directly, and let's see if we can't find some extra wind for these sails to get us closer to that final goal. If you can't donate, please don't feel pressured to donate! Just reblogging it is more than enough help.

[kraken17]

One quote from Enid Sinclair per every chapter of Kooky Spooky in which she has been present.

(Note: She is present in Ch.6 & 7 but in a total wolf out, so she has no dialogue).

"Yeah, yeah... relax. The knife-throwing contest is still on. I already made it clear to Wednesday that she could only use volunteers as living targets. Yoko has offered." (Chapter 1)

"I think she's mine and Wednesday's daughter, but not from around here." (Chapter 2)

"Sigh... as tempting as it is I'd ask you both not to maim her just because of her bad habit of spouting occasional idiocy." (Chapter 3)

"They've captured our Friday. Let's go find her and then you'll teach me what's the most painful way to rip off the head of the person responsible." (Chapter 4)

"Sorry, I just… I don't feel like wasting time with this ceremony right now..." (Chapter 5)

"OMG! Why do I always forget this now when I return to my human form!!??" (Chapter 8)

"Holy shit, I'm a hunk." (Chapter 10)

"Aaaw, I think it's very cute. I'm sure deep down your Bruno appreciated this kind of attention." (Chapter 11)

"Are you very fond of this nightgown?" (Chapter 12)

"And I smell people, and pollution, lots of pollution." (Chapter 13)

"Gosh, you're a year older than us now. This is disconcerting." (Chapter 14)

"Wednesday, don't talk about your parents as if they were rabbits." (Chapter 15)

"I'm sorry... I..." (Chapter 16)

"You threw me against a building and caused me to terrify a family! That's very rude!" (Chapter 17)

"At least you're not a racist nutcase who would use her personal Hyde to gather bits of human remains for resurrection rituals." (Chapter 18)

"Your sister told us a little about you when we met her. Well, she told us that you liked to be thrown with catapults..." (Chapter 19)

"I'm not going to fight you! We don't have the time!" (Chapter 20)

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" (Chapter 21)

"Uh, I should say something, but just for calling Tyler a dime-store Hyde I'll let you have a pass." (Chapter 22)

"Wednesday and I are keeping our names because our dimension was the one originally visited by the others... Pure convenience but it was all by mutual agreement between all parties." (Chapter 23)

"What happened to my local counterpart?" (Chapter 24)

"God, it's a little trippy to think of myself as dead." (Chapter 25)

"Principal Weems! Or maybe I should say director... uh... because of the... Yeah, I'd better shut up." (Chapter 26)

"Uh... yeah, it's something I usually do, Wednesday. You used to love to complain about it." (Chapter 27)

"For your own sake, you'd better..." (Chapter 28)

"They will have no hesitation in killing any of you." (Chapter 29)

"You're going...to pay...for..." (Chapter 30)

"Oh... erm... apology accepted my... err... my lord?" (Chapter 33)

"But wait a minute, if they're a confederation of packs how come there's a princess?" (Chapter 34)

"I'm sorry. There's nothing wrong with your last name. It's just that... well, in my reality a counterpart of you is one of my best friends." (Chapter 35)

"Ok, the doppelgänger thing I can get, but what's with the homunculus?" (Chapter 36)

"And now... now I get this story that I'm some kind of... multiversal warrior who reincarnates, like a cheap copy of Avatar: The Last Airbender!?" (Chapter 37)

"Ah, ah. I already know the electricity trick." (Chapter 38)

"We're going to breach The Bright One's defenses. And we won't use magic to do it. What we need is science. Mad science." (Chapter 39)

"What do you say about finding a way to inter-dimensionally travel to a magically sealed universe to rescue Wednesday and Friday and deal with an army of supernatural monsters?" (Chapter 40)

"Six months, my love. It has taken me six months to be able to come back to you." (Chapter 41)

"It's just that if you leave me stranded in another universe I have a bad habit of trying to find my way back." (Chapter 42)

"Oops, someone's a wee bit cranky." (Chapter 43)

"It's just that… Look at her! We're not even talking about being just a MILF anymore. I'm going to be totes a GILF, for real." (Chapter 44)

“My name… is… Enid Addams.” (Chapter 46)

"Fuck, Weds, getting stabbed by a saber shouldn't feel so good!" (Chapter 47)

"Who are we? Right now and right here, we are the Addams family." (Chapter 48)

"Well...I mean...the truth is...erm...Ireallylikeyourhairandyourloosehairdoesthingstome." (Chapter 49)

"Six months, Weds. I've been six months away from you. The word insatiable doesn't even come close to describing how I feel.” (Chapter 50)

“You know, if you keep calling them that they're going to end up being born with horns and wings.” (Epilogue)

[mollywog]

My This Would Have Happened Anyways - Summer 24 Districts Apart submission was inspired the description of Seeder:

The woman, Seeder, looks almost like she could be from the Seam, with her olive skin and straight black hair streaked with silver. Only her golden brown eyes mark her as from another district.

and Yeehaw Peeta by @charlunday! Also go check out Charlie’s District 10 Katniss (Commissions are open)!!

Read on Ao3

She sees his boots first, the well-worn angled toe stopping short of her cheek pressed to the cool tile of the bathroom floor. Chaff thought the liquor might help loosen her up after her stiff performance in 12. It had worked… in a way.

The boots sit down beside her slowly. Katniss recognizes their wearer as her eyes flit to his face then quickly away. “Thought you could use this,” he says, extending a wedge of the thin circle bread they eat here in District 10. She drags herself up to sit against the wall, facing forward as she takes the offering. “I’m Peeta by the way.”

“I know who you are,” The whole country knows Peeta Mellark, last year’s Victor of the games. She supposes that means the whole country knows her now too. Her stomach rolls.

She’s still facing forward, but can hear the smile in his voice as he responds, “wasn't sure you’d recognize me without the hat.”

Her lips twitch and she gives him a sidelong look. District 10’s industry is livestock, a fact their stylists won’t let you forget with their spurs and lassos and the funny wide brimmed hats. Or maybe it’s how they show district pride here in 10 since she’s noticed them on nearly all the officials she’s met today. Either way, she decides she prefers Peeta’s unfettered golden waves. “Does everyone wear those all the time here?”

“Yes mam,” he drawls, “Even sleep in ‘em.”

“Really?” finally turning to look at him, brow furrowed, she’s met with a smirk. She rolls her eyes, shaking her head.

“Nah. I grew up in a bakery. Didn’t have much use for them there,” he laughs, “it was a small kitchen and there were five of us; Not sure we’d have all fit with all our big heads in cowboy hats.”

She can’t help but laugh at the image her mind creates. His smile widens and it’s as if the sun has reemerged from behind a cloud. Even her body warms at the sight… Or maybe it’s the liquor making its reappearance yet again.

He stays by her side as she leans over the toilet. “I’m sorry,” she says, slumping back to the floor next to him when the nausea subsides. She tentatively nibbles at the bread for something to occupy her hands and mouth.

“We’ve all been there.”

She’s not sure whether he’s talking about overindulging or the Victory Tour in general, but she’s comforted by his words and they embolden her to continue.

“I don’t think I’m cut out for this.” She’d already been forewarned of the things that may be asked of her; The Victor’s responsibilities no one mentions ahead of time and the things at stake should she decline. One of the few consolations of her victory was the better life she could provide for her sister, but that was all an illusion; Prim was in more danger than ever now.

“I felt the same way,” Peeta says softly, catching her meaning. “There are no real winners when it comes to the games, just survivors.”

“Then how do you bear it?” Seeder and Chaff are no help, though they try. They’ve been at it for so long, they don’t remember how they even began in those first months and years anymore.

“I don’t know. Sometimes it feels impossible to take any joy at all, I won’t deny that. But there’s so much good out there too, and that shouldn’t be wasted. So, what I like to do is make lists - every act of goodness I’ve seen. What have you got… 10? 11 more stops left?”

She shrugs.

“We’ll both play. Start easy, find just one good deed per district. I’ll do the same here. Then you can give me a call when you get home and we can compare notes.” He looks at her, his blue eyes suddenly bashful, “that is, if you want.”

She smiles, “I think I’d like that.” She already has a head start as she begins the list in her head: District 10 - the boy with the bread.

[fans4wga]

8 NOVEMBER: SAG REACHES TENTATIVE AGREEMENT TO END STRIKE

"After a grueling118 days on strike, SAG-AFTRA has officially reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with studios, a move that is heralding the end of the 2023 actors’ strike.

The SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved the agreement in a unanimous vote on Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA announced. The strike will end at 12:01 am Thursday.

The performers’ union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced the provisional agreement on Wedneday, after about two weeks of renewed negotiations. If ratified by the SAG-AFTRA members, the deal could bring an end to the strike that kneecapped Hollywood for much of the summer and early fall in conjunction with the writers’ strike, which ended in late September.

The union and the AMPTP are so far being mum on the details of the agreement, which will emerge in the next few days prior to the union’s ratification vote. If the deal is ratified, the contract could soon go into effect, and if not, members would essentially send their labor negotiators back to the bargaining table with the AMPTP. It was unclear as of press time whether the union would end the strike before or after the ratification vote.

When negotiations restarted on Oct. 2 for the first time since SAG-AFTRA called its work stoppage in July, hopes were high in the industry that Hollywood’s largest union could come to terms with major companies quickly. Just like they had in the final days of the writers’ negotiations, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Disney CEO Bob Iger and NBCUniversal Studio Group chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley attended the talks at the union’s national headquarters in Los Angeles. But the studio ended up walking out on Oct. 11 over SAG-AFTRA’s proposal to charge a fee per every streaming subscriber on major platforms in a move that the union’s chief negotiator called “mystifying” (Sarandos called the ask “a bridge too far“).

The sides reconvened on Oct. 24 after a nearly two-week break. This time, the studios came in with a more generous offer to increase actors’ wage floors and a slightly modified version of a success-based streaming bonus they had previously offered the WGA. The two sides exchanged proposals for much of the week in a tense situation that had the industry on edge. Even as a deal came into sight, progress was slow, especially when it came to putting the contract’s inaugural guardrails on AI: The union considers the rapidly advancing technology an absolutely existential issue for members and sought to close any potential loopholes that could lead to future issues. On Saturday the studios presented what the union characterized as the companies’ “last, best and final,” overarching offer (still, the two sides kept swapping offers after).

When the union’s previous contract expired in mid-July and SAG-AFTRA went out on strike, many outstanding issues were left on the table. Setting terms for the use of A.I. was a major sticking point between union and studio negotiators, as was a proposal to provide casts with additional streaming compensation. Union negotiators sought to institute an unusually large minimum rate increase in the first year of the contract, a host of ground rules for self-taped virtual auditions and major increases to health and pension contributions “caps” that have not been changed since the 1980s. Meanwhile, as the entertainment business continues to experience a period of contraction, major companies looked to preserve some measure of flexibility and cost control.

SAG-AFTRA’s strike, coming as it did amid an ongoing writers’ strike in July, gave the union an unusual amount of leverage early on in its talks with the AMPTP. Almost immediately, most remaining unionized U.S. productions that were operating without writers shut down, including Deadpool 3 and Venom 3. An as the months of the work stoppage stretched on, a strategist at the Milken Institute has estimated that the strikes have cost the California economy alone at least $6 billion.

But pressure started to build as the strike neared and surpassed its 100-day mark. A-lister actors began talking to both their union and the studios in an attempt to improve progress in the negotiations. A number of actors also started drafting a letter expressing concerns about the union’s leadership but held back from publishing it, fearful of the missive’s potential impact on negotiations. Then, on Oct. 26, a separate letter was released signed by apparently thousands of actors, exhorting negotiators, “We have not come all this way to cave now.”

The amount of time that the union spent on strike in 2023 will certainly raise expectations for the deal they reached with studios. In the union’s upcoming ratification vote, the date of which has not yet been announced, members will decide whether the pact is acceptable to them."

[1-800-call-ria]

The Summer that Lasted Forever :

The Website

pairing: female!reader x NCT DREAM Chenle x NCT WISH Sion x RIIZE Eunseok

genre: camp conselor!au (angst, fluff and etc)

WC: 0.6k

AN: Ideas, criticism and more is encouraged!! I would love to hear everyones thoughts!

Series Masterlist ||

As a college student you found your summers to be open. But this year you wanted a fulfilling vacation. Three months of pure nothing for the past few years left you empty and just as exhausted as before you left for break. Yes you had time to relax and de-stress, but something seemed to be missing. So this year you promised yourself to step out of your comfort zone and at least find a job to occupy your free time.

Finding a summer job hadn't seemed that daunting then. It was definitely scary now. Looking online and even through newspapers to find any places hiring.

You knew for a fact fast food was something you wouldn't do. Handling food, customers and the occasional Karen was not on your bucket list.

Retail hadn't seemed that bad, but it seemed like all the places weren't hiring. You've considered volunteering but again the places either weren't looking for more volunteers or the application process took at least four months.

Just as you're about to give up though, you see a bright multicolored banner sporting a black and white ‘Camp Kwangya’ on the bottom of your screen.

When you scroll all the way down you see a ‘now hiring’ button flashing right in the middle. You've never heard of this place but you continue to click it bringing you to another website. The website honestly looks thrown together and shady with its messy color scheme, minimalist design and blurry photos. And the age categories were also very suspicious with the huge gap of 6-17 years old.

The reviews though told another story.

"This camp will forever be my kid's happy place. The friendships he's made over the last two years are still going strong!"

"My Kid went here years ago! He just recently became a camp counselor, would recommend to anyone who will listen"

"My daughter went here for about 5 years, and she loved it. I would totally recommend this camp for other parents. Each age is divided and my kiddo loved it here. Said it was always the highlight of her summers."

"The counselors are amazing and always put me and my friends first :) "

Scrolling past the reviews and comments about the camp you come to the end of the page and see a link in bright red reading "Our awesome team of counselors that we hope you join!" After you come to another part of the website you're met with a video with the Camp director, Lee Soo-man, introducing each counselor.

First up were the female counselors Minjeong, Jimin, Aeri and Yizhuo. Each had their own charm and honestly were so beautiful.

For the past few years Minjeong (known as Winter to the kids), Jimin (Karina) and Yizhuo (NingNing) had been counselors for the 13-15 year-olds. When Aeri (Giselle) joined last year the groups age range then spanned 13-17 year olds. After explaining that there was a move towards there being at least five counselors-per age, the last few years were exceptions, each girl introduced herself.

The next set of counselors were slightly older including Juhyun (Irene), Seulgi, Seungwan (Wendy), Sooyoung (Joy), and Yerim (Yeri). These women were introduced as the 10, 11 and 12 year old counselors.

Finally Boa, Taeyeon, Hyoyeon, Yuri and Yoona were for the 6-9 year old counselors. They explained that while also being the counselors for the youngsters, they were also apart of the head commit that kept the female side of this camp running. Because these kids were the youngest, they would only stay half of a full summer session. Some kids would only do half days anyways, these were the only kids that didn’t stay 24/7 for the next 6 weeks.

After the last of their introductions the video cut to the director going on about how each counselor was hand chosen by him and the prior/ current ones. It was a very deep and long process only to choose the best option for not only the other team members, but for the kids as well.

Seeing the way director Lee was talking about it, it really did seem like a long and time consuming. The man was passionate about only finding the best option out there. Maybe this wasn't the right job for you.

Just as you're second guessing yourself and about to close out of the website all together. You see a group of the most beautiful men you have ever seen go across your computer screen.

...Okay...so maybe that deep and long application process wasn't really that bad. Was applying worth it? I mean you would be working with fine women and men.

- Do you apply?

[YES] OR [NO]

[dollsonmain]

I did not sleep at all last night. I even went and laid down in the guest room after That Guy got up where I usually pass right out but I didn't sleep in there, either.

I feel like All the Shit.

Long morning ramble.

Sleeping in a night cap is annoying but it's keeping my ends from being fried for longer. My hair's texture was already chef's kiss, now it's double chef's kiss.

-

That Guy said that he has to run the car tax payment to town on his way home from work today but DO NOT try to walk home if he's not there when I get off work because it's going to be nearly 100F and wait for him to pick me up.

He also said he'll have to start looking for another car, which should have been done a very, very long time ago because I could have been working as soon as Son expressed and demonstrated that I wasn't needed by him anymore. Don't take that the wrong way, I don't mean he said "I don't need you." he said things like he'd like to go to the bus stop by himself and has shown that he can be trusted on his own, etc.

I did intend to get my own car (or a truck), but if he buys one and doesn't expect me to pay for it (though he may expect me to pay for it) that lets me put more into savings for later.

I think That Guy is suddenly aware of how difficult he's made it for me to work all this time, which is interesting because I really did think he did it on purpose and then was blaming me.

He was saying that to drop me off and pick me up at the mail room job he'd only be able to work 4 hours a day. Granted he'd earn more in that four hours than I will in 12 hours even with this moderately big pay rate. And I was like yes, that's why I'd been limiting my job search to positions on your normal route (as he'd demanded), but this job pays much more per hour than any of the others I can do locally and I have experience which makes it more likely I'd get in, so it's worth the extra time and effort in my opinion.

$19.23/hr is THE highest income I've seen locally for almost ANY job, actually... There was one federal job that requires a TS clearance that pays like $65/hr, most are paying around $15 with some management positions offering $17 - $24. The gas station I'm at is actually one of the lowest at $10 though there are some places offering $8.50. Because they can.

He did say he'd thought it was a federal mail position and I'd get the Big Bennies and retirement but I'd just be an employee of Goodwill so not get the USPS packet. I'm not the only one that's been confused by how the job was listed.

The actually bennies:

50% Company-paid Health Insurance After 30 days of employment and begins the first day of the first month after employees’ first 30 days.

Company-paid Life Insurance

Company-paid Long-Term Disability (LTD) and Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) insurance

Dental Insurance – Guardian Dental

Vision Insurance – Davis Vision

Supplemental Insurances – Colonial Life and Legal Shield

401(k) – The company matches up to 4% of salary and is available for enrollment after six months of employment.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Resource Assistance Program (RAP)

Direct Deposit

Vacation Leave – Twelve days of vacation available after 3 months of employment.

Sick Leave – 6 days that can be used after 30 days of employment.

Personal Days – 3 days that can be used starting on your first day.

Holiday Pay – 8 paid holidays after 30 days of employment.

That's not as good as federal, but is pretty good.

-

It's like he's only just now understanding what telling me to get insurance, which meant getting a job because he won't let the insurance companies look at his finances to prove that I can afford insurance and won't sell a policy to someone with less than $1k in the bank and no income, MEANS.

It means me being even more physically exhausted, in more pain, chores not getting done, falling asleep at the dinner table while eating....

He really did not expect me to throw myself out into the world like i have, and does not seem to have understood just how much of an inconvenience me working would be for him.

Like, he was crunching the numbers because he doesn't want to be thrown into a higher tax bracket even if it means more money coming in overall, but I think I'd be filing separately anyway so I can get back as much as possible without it being on a check in his name.

I wonder if the mail room folks get any sort of tax preparation deals since we're working IN an IRS office... Wouldn't that be nice to be able to say "It's my turn" and go sit down with an IRS prepper and do your taxes in person to be sure they're very correct?

So, I think I mentioned already the hours are 6:30-3 which is kind of nice as I do like getting my day over with early and I'd still be getting up at 3:30 with That Guy anyway so it's not like I'd have to change my sleep schedule at all.

The lady on the phone also cleared up some confusion for me about why the job listing said Goodwill, then IRS, and talking about custodial jobs????

So, I'd be an employee of Goodwill, and Goodwill contracts out those employees to other places, specifically the local Goodwill contracts out to federal and military establishments (the IRS building is on a small National Guard base so I do have to go through a checkpoint and get the car searched which is annoying and I hope I don't have to do that EVERY day, like I hope I get an ID card I just scan and can get in or something...) and their contract has been running so long with this IRS branch that Goodwill's sign is on the building.

The custodial job mention was them pointing anyone that IS severely disabled toward that job instead of the mail room position because the custodial job is slow paced which makes it suitable for people with developmental delays who may need more time to complete a task. But the whole job listing was a mess.

I do need to ask when the next bid is, because I could get hired on, the contract be rebid, and Goodwill lose which would leave me with no work until another contract was picked up, or could also mean a pay cut if they have to undercut another contractor to get the lowest bid and it's good to know what to expect.

She also said that some of the small mail crew, which is about 5 people (to me that is a lot because I'm used to being alone in the mail room) bring in knitting or crochet projects because it's slow now and then. That's generally when I would pick up a broom or a bottle of cleanser but I wouldn't mind crocheting at work :P

Also need to ask about lunch because the work day is exactly 8 hours so unless lunch is paid, I'd not be getting paid for 8 hours of work every day.

-

Anyway I've been feeling the guilt about maybe jumping jobs so soon (my start date would likely be mid August if not a little later), but I also helped find a vendor for something the gas station needed and that helps two people [who aren't me make more money... hm....] so I guess I don't feel too bad.

Manager asked me if I bake because people have been asking for fresh baked goods and I said no, I hate cooking and you can't make me do it, BUT I know that one of Son's classmates' moms bakes and is selling things through the local 7-11 so I'll ask if they'd be interested and they are. They should get in contact with the gas station any day now.

My suggestion is that the baker take some samples to the gas station and go talk to Manager in person, but I'm not the one running the business.

[a-strange-server]

Strange Tales Of Halloween 2023

Hi everyone! In honor of the spookiest, weirdest, and dare we say, strangest month, we have created a prompt list for Doctor Stephen Strange for every day in October! Last year saw a hord of spooky, ghostly works created for the occasion. We are hoping this year will be as much fun!

This list is open to all forms of creativity. Fill as few or as many prompts as you would like in October and tag it with #strangehalloween2023 so we can reblog! You can also submit your work in the Strange Tales Of Halloween 2023 ao3 collection.

Full written list and the FAQ under the cut.

Strange Tales of Halloween 2023 Prompt List

1. “What was that? Is somebody there?” | Scales

2. “Wait, kids can trick o'treat here?” | Trapped

3. “Sometimes the world tries to end.” | Spirit

4. “Dormammu, I've come to bargain—“ | Alone

5. “There aren't many of us left.” | Cauldron

6. “I thought you were dead!” | Witch

7. “So what do you do for Halloween?” | Cursed

8. “Is that supposed to be a costume, or what?” | Cat

9. “Well, that's strange...” | Moon

10. “They’re not the traitor. I am.” | Mythological creature

11. “No, don’t tell me that.” | Dimensional breach

12. “Something’s happened to you.” | Shroud

13. “Stay with me.” | Nightmare

14. “Huh… that’s new.” | Future

15. “You what?!” | Celebration

16. “Crap. Imps!” “Imps? Crap.” | Ancient

17. “I know everything. That’s my curse.” | Fire & Ice

18. “I have seen a horror movie before.” | Tradition

19. “I know you!” | Cave

20. “Is that a bloody butterfly?” | Fever dream

21. “Strange... what have you done?!” | Scars

22. “The Cauldron of Cosmos is not a bowl for Halloween treats!” | Supernatural entities

23. “You’re a bad demon.” | Candy

24. “Oh, a meeting with the devil? Just when I thought I have a free afternoon... Fine.” | Baking

25. “No. Tell them to get Ghostbusters, or something.” | Pumpkin carving

26. “There was no other way.” | Horror movies

27. “You messed up the ritual.” | Trick or treat

28. “Nightmare has him.” | Will-o’-the-wisp

29. “Don’t be so superstitious.” | Bog

30. “Are you really afraid of a little black cat?” | Crown of thorns

31. “Donna... Is that really you?” | Tam Lin

◇◇◇◇◇

FAQ:

What must be included in the content of a filled prompt? Stephen Strange (any version of him: film, TV, or comics) must be either the main or co-main character. Otherwise, anything goes!

What must be included in the tags of Tumblr and Twitter posts? Please use the hashtag #strangehalloween2023 and the # of the prompt you're filling (i.e. #no6 and/or #witch). On Tumblr, please include additional tags for NSFW and common triggers (see AO3 for examples).

When can I post my prompt fill? In the spirit of the theme, these should be posted in October! We'd prefer if you post prompts the day of or after the day has passed. For example, prompt 10 fills can be posted on or after Oct 10, and preferably not before.

What medium can I use? Anything! Written prose, poetry, gifsets, mood boards, artwork, all is acceptable as a prompt fill. It's all about Stephen Strange in any form he comes in.

Can I combine Strange Tales of Halloween prompts into one submission (i.e. #1 "What was that? Is somebody there?" and #6 witch)? Sure! If you post it on social media, you can use both prompt tags to help us identify it as such.

There are two prompts per day. Do I have to do both? You can use the sentence prompts, the words prompt, or do a mix of them!

Can I use this prompt list with other prompt lists/bingo cards? Absolutely! Combine it with any other event you'd like to use it with.

Are there any limits to how many prompts I can use/have to use? Nope! Participate with one piece or 31 pieces! Do as much as you'd like--we'll love to see it!

Any other questions? Send an ask to @a-strange-server and we'll get back to you soon. We can't wait to start seeing what you come up with come October!

[jungleindierock]

Rebjukebox 2024 - No 1

Here's my first playlist for 2024, it's not gonna be a monthly thing, just once i have 40 tracks i like, then i will share it. So could be one or two or even three in one month and other months maybe none, this is why it's numbered. I am already close to No 2 being finished, cover done, just need to cut down to 40 tracks from the 80+ tracks in the provisional draft playlist. So could share this next week!! These playlists are great way to find new bands and artists and saves us having to post each on sepearatly.

I used to do these just through Soundcloud, but thought i might as well add it to my Spotify also. So i will add two links to the playlist and can use which ever one you prefer.

If your a solo singer or a member of a band, then follow me on my Soundcloud page here, if i like your stuff, i will follow you back, if i don't follow back then sorry but your not my thing. Whatever style of music is fine, i like many stlyes and will take a listen. You should always trust your own ears with music.

You can only follow 2,000 people on Soundcloud, so am limited. But if am following you there, i can see when you share new music, which means you could be added to one of these playlists or the main JIR playlist (one per month). What style of music is fine, i like many and will take a listen.

Enjoy and share, stay free, see you soon with No 2!!

Reb

Ok the links for the playlist:- Soundcloud I Spotify

Tracklist

1 - Paramore - Burning Down the House (Talking Heads Cover) 2 - The Delta Shake - I’ll Be Your Man (Alternative Version) 3 - Anja Huwe - Rabenschwarz 4 - Fat Dog - All The Same 5 - Loupe - Tested Waters 6 - Wynona - Feeling For Edges 7 - Nothing Rhymes With Orange - Friday Is Over 8 - Shannon and the Clams - The Moon Is In The Wrong Place 9 - KAWALA - American Adrenaline 10 - overpass - Stay Up 11 - Camens - Cynical 12 - Cinders - Going Nowhere 13 - Linn Koch-Emmery - Ebay Armour 14 - Grace Petrie - Start Again 15 - Neon Dreams (Ft. Matthew Mole) - The Art of Letting Go 16 - This Rebel - Same Every Time 17 - The Holy - Any Given Day 18 - Soundwire - Shake The Fever (Radio Edit) 19 - The Snuts - Millionaires 20 - Neck Deep - Moody Weirdo 21 - Softcult - Heaven 22 - Lurve - Pesnya O Lyubvi 23 - BARSTAFF - Tracy Island (Radio Edit) 24 - Sasha Assad - Bad Nature 25 - Red Rum Club - Hole In My Home 26 - No Windows - Song 01 27 - Mourn - Could Be Friends 28 - Sunglaciers - Cursed 29 - POND - Neon River 30 - Slow Time Mondays - Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time 31 - Jeen - So What 32 - stillcorners - The Dream 33 - The Marra - Masterpiece 34 - The Hubbards - Hiding & Reading 35 - The Cheap Thrills - Last Orders 36 - Aqualine - No Answer 37 - Torrey - Bounce 38 - Low Blows - Normal 39 - ParisBlue - Remedy 40 - Bombay Bicycle Club (ft. Lucy Rose) - Willow

[anogete]

Book Binding Post

The video above is me walking you through the first bookbinding I did. Since a few people mentioned an interest in the initial cost of bookbinding fanfic, I made a list of what I used to start out. You can find most/all of these things on Amazon. If you'd rather not support Amazon, then Hollander's is a great place to find your necessities. You can also find most of this stuff at any local crafting store. As I am in the US, all prices are in USD.

Printer - It doesn't need to be fancy. Unless you're including fanart, a black-and-white one will do. I'm pretty sure you can get a basic printer for less than $100.

Microsoft Word - I wanted to use Macros built for Word, and those don't work with other text editors like Open Office or Google Docs. Macros are little programs that will do repetitive tasks to format the raw text so it can be converted into a book. If you don't have it, you can pay for a subscription for about $7 per month.

Paper - You could use cheap copy paper, but I bought 24 lb cotton linen paper. 500 sheets were about $25. You'll have 4 pages of your book printed on one sheet (two on the front, two on the back), so a 200,000-word fic that is nearly 500 pages will use about 125 sheets.

Bone Folder - This is just a tool used to neatly crease your signatures. Signatures are sets of 5-10 pages that fold into a booklet and then are sewn together. I was very weirded out by the idea of having an actual bone tool (vegetarian, here) so I found a folder that was plastic. You may have something suitable around your house that would serve this purpose if you don't want to buy one. You don't want to use anything that will scratch/tear your pages, though. Cost is about $5.

Awl and Punch Cradle - An awl is a bit like an ice pick. It is used to punch holes into the creases of your signatures so you can sew them together. These holes need to be evenly spaced, and I do 8 total along the spine. To make this easier for myself, I also bought a punch cradle. This is a little plastic tool your unfolded signature sits in while you lay a guide along the crease and punch through the guide with the awl. My punch cradle came with the awl, thread, and needle. All of it was about $25.

Waxed Linen Thread - If you can't find waxed, then you can get a small cube of beeswax and run your thread along it before you begin sewing. Cost is about $5.

Needle - I prefer a large curved metal needle. Sometimes these will come with a punch cradle or thread. If not, they are fairly inexpensive--maybe a dollar or two.

PVA Adhesive with Applicator - This is the glue you'll need to secure the spine and connect the text block (all the signatures sewn together) with the cover. You want to use something suitable for bookbinding that has a neutral pH. You should also get a brush or silicone applicator. Cost is about $15 for the glue and applicator.

Mull (bookbinding cloth) - This is like a rough cheesecloth used to repair and/or bind books. It's going to help reinforce your spine. A large sheet of this runs about $15 and will last you through many binds.

Headband/Endbands - While I have heard you can make your own, I just bought a box of them with assorted colors. It's fairly inexpensive at $10 and will last for a very long time. These are the little pieces of cloth at the top and bottom of the text block, visible only if you look down at the top of the book.

Cardstock/Endpapers - Endpapers are the thicker pages that connect the cover of the book to the text block. When you open a book, it's the first thing you see and is often decorative. Some bookbinders print their own custom ones using blank cardstock, but I bought an assorted pack of decorative pages for about $15. Each page is a 12-inch square and I used two to bind one book--one for the front and matching one for the back.

Chipboard - This is used for your case or cover. I found a pack of 24 sheets that are 12-inch squares and 2.54 mm thick for $25. One square worked to bind one book.

Book Cloth/Leather - This is what you glue to your chipboard to make the cover of the book. I used book cloth I found online. A 40" x 16" piece was $15 and should be enough to handle three to four books.

Exacto/OLFA Knife - This is a retractable and very sharp blade that will help you cut your endpapers, chipboard, and book cloth. Cost is about $5.

Ruler - You'll be doing quite a bit of measuring once you finish your signature block and begin the steps to connect it with the case. You'll also find it handy to use as a guide when cutting with your knife. Cost is pretty cheap--maybe a couple dollars.

I would consider the things listed above as necessities to make things look good and somewhat professional. You could certainly get by without a couple of them (bone folder, punch cradle, headbands), but it will make the process more difficult.

There are some additional things I bought that have helped me greatly. You don't need these things, but they will make your binding experience more pleasant and much easier.

Book Press - It's two pieces of wood that squish your text block (and eventually book) together during the process of binding. After you've folded your signatures, you're going to be using the book press to squish the signatures together after each step, and then leave it that way until you're ready to work on the book again. You could use two large books or boards lying around your home with some cheap clamps. That would work just as well. If you want a book press, they're about $40, but can go up higher.

Craft Mat - You can find self-healing ones online or in craft stores. This is just a large mat to work on. It will protect your table/floor from the blade you'll be using to cut materials. You could use scrap material you already have, but you want it to be sturdy; corrugated cardboard boxes aren't a good substitute because they are too squishy. Craft mats are about $10.

T Spacers and Corner Mitres - These are very helpful when making your case. They allow you to line up the front and back cover with the spine while leaving appropriate space for the hinge and also cut the corners of the book cloth so you can create clean edges when gluing the cloth to the board. I didn't buy these until after I bound my first book, and I regret not getting them immediately because my case would have looked so much better with them. You can get a set of various sizes for $20.

Cricut or Silhouette Machine - I don't have one of these, but I've been considering it. They can be quite expensive, but many bookbinders use them to create artwork for the covers and spine of their books. An alternative would be a laminated dust jacket or you could stencil/paint the title. These machines cost anywhere between $120 and $800. From my minimal research, I think you'd need to spend about $200-300 to get one that would do what you need for cover art purposes.

Subscriptions for Artwork - Many people use a Canva subscription for all design/artwork. If you want to do custom endpapers and a dust jacket, then this will come in handy. There is a free trial, but the monthly subscription will run you $15.

So, how much are we talking? Tools that you only have to buy once will cost you about $50 (bare minimum) to $120 (if you throw in the extras to make life easier). Of course, that doesn't include printer/ink and the Cricut. The materials will set you back about $125, but you'll get several books out of them. I could bind about 4 books without buying anything else. Then I'd need to spend about $60 on more supplies like paper, glue, and book cloth to make another 4. My best guess is that each book uses about $15-20 worth of supplies. So, if we aren't counting your time, it's about what you'd pay for a hardcover. But we're talking about fanfic that isn't commercially available, so we're gonna say $20 for a one-of-a-kind book that holds a story you love is priceless. Right?

If you want a tutorial to get started, then I highly recommend Haunna's tutorial on TikTok. It is easy to follow and what I used.

[bonesandthebees]

21, 24, and 11 :D

hi icy!!

11. three favourite songs from movie or TV series soundtrack

OH WHAT A QUESTION FOR ME oh god oh fuck I have to only pick 3 shitttt. I am such a soundtrack fan arghhh. okay. I'll limit myself to one track per movie/tv series

the way he looks at me - trent reznor and atticus ross (gone girl soundtrack)

I love the entire gone girl soundtrack but this one is especially haunting. I'd been listening to it for months on end and somehow it took me that long to notice that in this track in particular, you can hear the sounds of someone choking layered under the music. if you've seen the movie, the point where this song plays makes this choking sound effect especially disturbing

container park - the chemical brothers (hanna soundtrack)

ngl this movie is kind of mid but the soundtrack is one of my all time favorites it goes so hard, choosing just one song was so difficult

okay this last one. don't make fun of me. I'm linking the youtube video because spotify doesn't have the proper movie version

bella's lullaby - carter burwell (twilight)

look if there's one thing I think most of us can agree on regarding twilight is that the soundtrack goes hard. I first watched twilight when I was 10 years old and this track has always been one of my favorite things from it. it's just such a gorgeous piano composition

ok putting the rest under the cut so this ask doesn't get too long on the dash

24. three favourite old songs

okay while there are a lot of definitions of 'old' (like is 80s considered old? 90s? 70s?) I'll decide to really go old school and stick to 60s songs because I do have a fondness for 60s music

california soul - marlena shaw

my mom used to play this all the time when I was a kid and for some reason I hated it (I have no clue why, I think because my mom just played it on repeat and I got annoyed) until one day I loved it

compared to what - roberta flack

heard this in a movie and it's been one of my favorites ever since

son of a preacher man - dusty springfield

and this is another one my mom showed me :)

21. three songs of your childhood

pumped up kicks - foster the people

if you were listening to the radio in 201-2012 you know why this is here

it wasn't me - shaggy

gonna be so honest I don't know why me and my 11-12 year old friends listened to this song so much given the subject matter but it definitely gives me a big bout of childhood nostalgia

counting stars - onerepublic

similar to pumped up kicks, if you were listening to the radio in the early 2010s you know why this is here

ask game!

[blubushie]

Tell us about Vegas?

YOU HAVE CHOSEN THE [BUSHMAN GUSSIED UP] ROUTE!

A TALE OF HIGH-ROLLERS

Warnings: Absolutely none! This a fun story. :]

So in November of 2021 (yes, a month before the Pig Incident) I went back to the US to see my family for a bit. I came back loaded with cash as a peace offering for my family (it didn't work) and so I left and went up to Oregon with a mate of mine for a few days to relax, recoup, and discuss work.

This went (mostly) ok minus a brief blue between us (I say "brief" but he's Still Mad About It, in my defence it was not my fault) and I left for Las Vegas, somewhere I hadn't been since I was very young. I got a flight out there and lounged for a bit and made my way to the only place I know would have me, a historical casino that's very popular (but not as much as it used to be.)

I went in the first night with $20k to blow away. I was upset because of the fight with my parents, further upset by the blue I had with my mate, and I wanted to be a little reckless and a little 20 and enjoy life for a week before I had to leave.

I have a quick meal in town at the Peppermill (incredible place), do some drinking there, then stop by Dream Exotics, rent out a 488 Ferrari, and head for the casino where I end up getting a cheap room.

It's $1500 per 24 hours, I had it for 3 days.

I head downstairs to the tables, sorta keep to myself and eventually I get to come up and play. If any of the you have read my fic, the scene in chapter 9 where Jess and Mundy play poker? Those were my winning hands. So we do a couple rounds.

Something that I didn't know, since I don't make a habit of high-profile gambling, or high-stakes gambling, is that casinos will comp you if they think you're rich. You put down a lot of money and they worship you. They'll spend top dollar on you in the hopes that you lose it all. It's fucking predatory, but it works. What's $20k spent on a gambler if he loses out $60k to you? That's still a $40k profit, and casinos are in the business of betting and winning.

They bet on the wrong bloke. I came in with $2k to piss away and bet $1500 first game. Lost it. Bet the last $500 and got it all back plus $2k more. Wagered that $2k, kept it and gained $1500 more. Bet the $1500, lost that. This repeated, maybe 12 rounds and until 2am, until I decided I'd had my fun and walked out with my $2k plus $6500 richer than I went in.

I'm an addict of one thing--alcohol. I am not a gambling addict. I know when to stop. I stopped. Everything after this was the casino wagering money on me in the hopes I'd come back down to the tables with more cash and lose it all.

I go back to my room. When I get there there's a bloke in a suit waiting for me and he says that the casino's "impressed" and has decided to comp my room and is upgrading me to a second-class suite, free of charge.

Who'm I to say no?

I get my shit and go with him. The suite's incredible. Spa Tower--a fucking two story suite with a spiral staircase, and it comes with a private chef! We're gonna call him C for Chef.

So I get there, set up, stare at this giant fucking bed, and wonder what kinda mess I just got myself into because everything has its price. I didn't get much sleep. Most of my time was spent cleaning my rifle very nervously as a soothing mechanism and muttering about "Oh we're really in for it now, Winnie."

But! I'm here for work. I want work. I love work!

So I finally head to bed around 4am, get a few hours of sleep, and dismiss the chef when he comes in the morning. He insists on making me something and I tip him $50 for some eggs and bacon.

We don't talk much, he's quiet and nervous and I remember where exactly I am and it occurs to me that maybe most people aren't exactly nice to him.

He comes around again for lunch--I don't remember what it was, think it was a panini--and dinner. Dinner was very very very good salmon. He's still not talking much, we mostly ignore each other, but I make him a martini as a courtesy and he seems to warm up a little.

(The suite has a wet bar and you can bet I drank practically all of that $700-worth of booze in it. This is when I first got into making cocktails, and I still enjoy making cocktails today. Thank god for fake IDs.)

Third day comes around, and this is when I get my arse in gear. I am in Vegas in a very high-profile casino. I'm playing with the big boys now and it's time I fucking act like it instead of hiding away in here. I've got impressions to make. I phone the front desk, as to speak to the hotel organiser, we get to talking and at my request he sets me up with a private barber and private tailor. Excellent. This will work. Chef comes in and makes brekkie (potato hash with eggs and chopped bacon) while I'm on the horn with the tailor and giving him the measurements I remember from the last time I had a suit tailored (for court, yay).

I tell the tailor to meet me at 6pm (giving 2hr for suit adjustments) and that I want something black and blue and very formal. I want to look like money. I ring the barber and tell him to come at 4pm, which gives us an hour to get my hair fixed before dinnie (because a mullet is NOT going to cut it here). I tell the cook to take off lunch, I'll meet him back here at 5pm for dinnie. I get dressed and dip.

Spend all day out on the town, seeing the sights and walking the strip and drinking for The Nerves. I head to Dream Exotics and rent out the Ferrari for another 2 days.

I don't get lunch on accounting for big dinnie. Eventually I get back to the casino, valet takes the car, and I head back to my suite.

4pm rolls around and 5 till, I hear a knock at the door. Scramble down the spiral staircase and make my way to the door. Answer it. There's my barber. He's short, very unassuming, older than me by about two decades, scrawny but with bony fingers that show he's been a barber for a long time. He has Those Kinds Of Hands--the kinds of hands that only people who work intricately with their fingers get; hairdressers, barbers, tailors, seamsters, artists, pianists... Wiry knuckles. You get it.

So I let him in and show him around the place. He comes inside and I ask to see his bag. We go through it. It's everything you'd expect. Ok, you're clear, I'll show you the bathroom. We head upstairs. Fifteen minutes later he's drawing the water up in the shower (yay detachable nozzles) and I'm trying my best to avoid looking in the mirror. And this blokes look at me and says my hair looks very thick. And that he likes this, because it means he doesn't have to use volumiser since my hair already has volume.

And then he says "You have hair like a woman's." There's a pause. "I mean that as a compliment." Thanks I guess?

I'm sitting on the edge of the tub and looking out the window and wondering why the fuck I even put this plan in action to start with when he asks me what I'm thinking. You know, in terms of style. And I say honestly, I don't know. Listen, I've got a meeting tonight, I know you should sleep on a fresh haircut but I'm a bit pinched for time. I have to look professional. I have to look good.

He looks at me, seems to have this eureka moment, and we get started. "I've got you." So I take my shirt off cuz it's just gonna get wet if I don't, my hair gets washed, and we head downstairs to the bar. I'm sat in a barstool we pulled from the bar at the eating bar in the kitchen and he gets to cutting.

And because this was pre-stroke I had a Texan accent at the time. So my barber, who I'm gonna call B, he gets curious and asks if I'm a Texas highroller. I tell him I'm a highroller but I'm not from Texas. A guessing game starts. I'll give you a $100 tip if you can guess where I'm from. The cunt guesses South Africa before he guesses Australia. Do I look South African to you? "No, you look like a cowboy." Pssh.

Eventually he guesses Australia. Ding ding ding, we have a winner. So we move on and chatter for a bit about this that and the other, he blows my hair to get the cuttings off but air dried hair is Special so we decide we'll let it air dry. Eventually C gets there, I let him in, and he makes us some steak and potatoes (FUCKING INCREDIBLE) and my hair dries as we all eat. This is the only time I've ever eaten wagyu steak. This shit was A5. Holy fuck the marbling. Melts in your mouth, absolutely incredible.

While all three of us are eating, I pitch the game to the chef. Barber and I are giggling as he thinks. His first guess is Oklahoma, because "Texas is too obvious." Buzzer. He guesses a couple of times. Gets them all wrong. He keeps guessing and he ends up getting a little red-faced in his frustration so I say if he can just guess the country I'll give it to him. He guesses South Africa. "That's what I said," goes B.

"Why South Africa? B guessed it too."

"There's a lot of rich white people in South Africa."

Fair. The game continues.

C names practiclly every European nation there is and then some. He names Canada, he names France and I wrinkle my nose. He names Spain. No. "You look Spanish." My mum's Portuguese?

To hand it to him, my freshly cut hair was drying, I was sitting at the dinner table shirtless and actually eating my steak with a knife AND fork, looking a bit professional despite my state of dress, and drinking a bottle of 1970-something Macallan off the spout. Plus I was freshly de-mulleted. I wasn't exactly the shining example of Aussie. More "American cowboy plucked fresh off the ranch."

But I get bored of the game eventually and I'd finished eating, so I say I'll give him the letter. Starts with an A.

"Aus-"

Yessss…

"-trian?"

NO!

His reasoning is that I'm drinking Macallan off spout for the past hour, it's not affecting me at all yet, and Germanics have a high booze tolerance?

"You know who else has a high booze tolerance? The drunkest nation on the planet."

C is confused.

"He means Australians," chimes B.

"Australians?" C looks at me. "You mean…" He grabs his knife, kinda points it at me but in the faux-threatening way. "'Now that's a knoife' kind?"

Sigh. "Yeah. Aussie."

"So where are you from? Sydney? Where's your accent? Have you ever seen a kangaroo?"

"Are you from Melbourne?" asks B. It's a good guess--there's a lotta rich people in M*lbourne.

"Someplace you never heard of."

The topic drops.

We yarn for a while longer about nothing in particular, mostly about food. I find out that B spent some time in Italy and really loves Italian food, C's favourite food to cook is Italian, they hit it off and I'm sitting in silence as I listen. Not in the third wheel kinda way, but in the intrigued kinda way. They're having a conversation that I'm glad to be a part of. It's interesting.

I make a mental note to have C cook me something Italian for dinner tomorrow.

B decides it's time for the dry cut, so we head back to the kitchen bar (I bring my whikky) and C goes about cleaning up the kish. He's humming as he tidies and eventually he looks over at me and goes "So nowhere Australia?"

"Woop woop, yeah."

"How'd you end up here? With the suite and us? How'd you make it?"

There's a hope in his eyes that's kinda sad. In that childish "I wanna be like him one day" kinda way. He thinks I'm something to aspire to be like. Sad.

"Cattle baron's son?" asks B. He's polite about it. There's no implications there. It's an honest question. He wants to know if I came into money or if I was born into it.

"Nah. Just know the right people."

Topic drops again.

It hits 6:30 and I say goodnight to C, tell him I'll see him in the morning, and he leaves. B is just finishing up with the last trims on my beard--he did a fucking excellent job, made my sideburns sharp and my beard looked perfect--when T gets there. We brush me off, he blows my hair and face and shoulders and chest, and he rubs up my face with an aloe-free aftershave before blotting it try. I get up and let T in and I can see the look on his face when he realises I am in fact as short as I said I was. Kinda funny!

B gets to watch, very amusedly, as T tries to get the bushman into a custom-tailored suit. T thought I was very strange at my initial refusal to wear undergarments (autism no like), but he insists that he can retailor the suit and reuse it for someone else if I do wear underclothes, so I agree and put on some trunks and an undershirt.

The suit was a little loose since this was the start of summer in Australia and I was down quite a few kilos. So some last-minute adjustments have to be made.

After an hour it strikes 7:45 and I'm now fully dressed in this suit. It's tight at the wrists in a way I don't like, but it's a pearl-buttoned jacket, pearl-buttoned dress shirt, pearl cufflinks, and black silk bowtie. I look good.

Black sleek suit, blue velvet lapel, all the pearl accents and everything else? I'm looking good. I get a little blue velvet handkerchief that goes in my breast pocket. I look built for a wedding. Or making connections.

Best $2k worth of clothing I ever spent. Except maybe the $150 I spent for my hat. But still. I'm rocking this shit.

So T is adding the finishing touches, tightening hems and adding little folds on the inside that you can't even really see so that the suit fits me just perfectly, and B is chuckling about this. I glare at him. He stops chuckling about it. Very amusing. T hands me my sunnies and explains that the piss-yellow of the sunnies compliments the black and blue nicely despite the contrast. And I might not be much an artist, but I am a colours bloke, and I can see it. I can understand it. Makes sense. I put them on.

B wets my hair a little, breaks out some hair gel and rubs it on his hands, styles my bangs over to one side, makes some quip about how I should've let him clip the sideburns, and the two fellas back up to get a good look at me. I Am Nervous.

T makes a comment about my hair, B agrees and walks up and fucks with my bangs until a little piece of them dangles at my forehead over my widow's peak instead of combed to the side like the rest. I cock my brow at him but then he steps back and dries his hands and puts them on his hips.

They're not saying anything.

"…How do I look?"

T asks B if he has a mirror. No no no, no mirrors, just tell me.

"Like a million dollars."

Aces.

I pay them, thank them for their time, agree to return the suit to T at the end of the week, and get on my way after they leave. Get my knife in my jacket pocket and my revolver in the other, head downstairs to the lobby, then get the lift down to the subfloors. I flash my card to the bouncer and when I walk in the smell of smoke hits me. In this casino you are not allowed to smoke inside. The highroller floors are an exception to this rule.

I get a glass of champagne off a waitress' tray and find my way to the bar and I sit there for a bit and start yarning with the bartender. The night's quiet, there's not many people in. Most are out at dinner. It didn't get lively until 10pm, and that's when the real fun started. I played a few more games, won $1500, went back to the bar to drink and people watch and wait. Work as usual.

And that's about it. Ended up walking away with a job that night and it was fun! I met people! I socialised! I didn't make an idiot of myself! Yaaay good impressions!

[andoqin]

List of dramas that I am watching or want to watch, just for personal record reasons:

Cdramas:

The ingenious one (36/36): this drama has blown me away so far with its incredibly nuanced and sharp writing, its love stories between all the major couples and the absolutely magnificent cinematography. FINISHED verdict: HIGHLIGHT drama of the year for me so far. Smart, engaging, complicated, peak romance of all sorts, just what the doctor ordered tbh (overly long review can be found in my tags). 9.5

Chang Feng Du (40/40): I did not realise how close to the end I was. This drama is very pleasant and I adore our mains, but sadly except for a few highlights (the early beating gjs put on himself, the destruction of the gu family and the aftermath, the battle for wangdu) the writing hasn’t been able to keep the narrative tension up which is sad. FINSHED verdict: Very pretty and engaging in the beginning kinda loses me in the second half and then fizzles out emotionally, doesn't crash and burn but doesn't exactly stick the landing either 6.5

Gone with the rain (10/30): adore the gremlin4gremlin couple and from the spoilers I’ve seen not gonna adore much else

An ancient love song (1/16): incredible first episode and with only 30 min per ep and 16 eps in total this is gonna be a short fun ride I hope ( with lots of angst and tears naturally).

Here we meet again (18/32): started this for Wu Qian playing to type and Zhang BinBin being pretty but oh boy I’m struggling I just don’t care about the conflicts and in s surprising twist, I like the flashbacks to high school much much more, which is very funny if you think about the fact that the reason I started liking wu qian in the first place was because of her show stealing performance in the flashbacks of My Sunshine. I’ve been promised kisses in the near future so I’m gonna hold out till then but this might end up another drop.

Hidden Love (5/25): this one promises to be v sweet and kinda short but oh my god I have so many dramas on my plate rn so this might end up the first drop.

Till the end of the moon (22/40): I think I watched ep 1 when it started but then I got busy and now I am just staring at gifsets and crying, it’s definitely on the list to watch tho.

Heroes (6?/38): I started this a while ago, was really into it and then got busy… dammit. I might just rewatch the beginning so I can remember most of the set up for sure but man the visuals on this were so good, aaaa liu yuning.

Blood of youth (0/40): the last 12 months really have spoiled us with interesting looking wuxia dramas and this one is definitely on the list, I have been gifbaited once again.

Ray of light (0/30): usually hs dramas are something I avoid, but because I will not be watching the longest promise, for reasons, and bc @storge is a gifmaking temptress, this has made it on the list.

The legend of anle (0/39): Lmao trust YOUKU to screw up the release with bad subs only 1 ep even for vips and no released schedule… but at least I can put this on the backburner for now. Lmao should have known not to trust a youku dilreba drama, the tl has soundingly spoken and I'm gonna avoid this.

Ancient Detective (0/24): I was recced this by a friend when I mentioned my love for wuxia dramas, and since it’s almost shockingly short for a cdrama it’s on the list. EDIT: this got @purplehanfus seal of approval so it is def going up the list and since it's complete I'll probably at least watch it before the ongoing ones.

Butterflied love (0/22): see I barely made this post and already forgot about the screencap that got me started on writing it, the screencapa look great, but the drama is on mango, so who knows when I’ll truly be able to watch this

When I fly towards you (0/24): Well, I wasn't interested bc modern youth drama, but then I heard it described as "updated It Started with a Kiss" and... I'm weak? ISWAK was pretty much my crack gateway into asian dramas and while IDK if i could rewatch it today, something in me will always love this kind of story. Maybe it's like a quick palate cleanser in between since apparently eps are only about 30 mins.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook(0/40): CHENG YIIIII, in a possibly bromantic role? Or maybe het romance, I'll take it all. Plus I've already seen he's bleeding copious amounts as per his contract, so that's most of the checklist done.

Lost You Forever (0/??): because nature abhors a vacuum I apparently must have?? A minimum to watch pile and this actually and genuinely looks good??? A Yang Zi drama in 2023??? The mind boggles. Anyway I've been reading the recaps with delight, and am def going to watch this when part two airs in a couple of months but until then I have a thankful reprieve...

Kdramas:

See you in my 19th life (4/12): since kdramas release so slowly this is on the backburner but it does have some great gifsets that keep enticing meee

King the land (2/16): I am watching this for junho but it is kinda hard bc I have so much else on my plate and while I don’t mind a classic romcom type story I feel I need a bit more of an emotional hook

Story of the nine-tailed 1938 (0/16): so so many gorgeous and hilarious gifsets so little time. I loved season one so so much and the fact that this focuses on the brotherly relationship?? Extremely smart writing decisions were made!

The red sleeve (0/16): I blame @dangermousie for this she keeps reblogging angsts junho on my dash and I am but god’s weakest warrior.

Love tractor (0/8): gay himbo farmboy falls in love?? You bet this is on the list

Lady durian (0/?): ok this is only on the list for crack reasons but, daughter in law is in love with mother in law and both women are like 40+ truly kdramas have entered a new era and I kinda wanna be here for that

EDIT: Revenant (0/12): Kim Tae Ri in a spooky drama? POSSIBLY POSSESSED KIM TAE RI??? how could i forget to put her on this list, plus it was written by the Kingdom writer and I adore that drama plus it's only 12 eps which is smart in this case so... let's hope i get to it at some point D:

My dearest (2/20): I checked this out because it's got pretty much everything going for it from a production standpoint and boy did the first two eps deliver. This has got 2 seasons though so I'll probably wait until the second season is airing, since it won't be too long till season 2 or so the internet tells me.

My lovely liar (0/16): minhyun learned to act and I wanna see it happen!!

Jdramas:

Our dining table (2/10): ok this category is gonna be a bit shorter bc I haven’t watched too much drama recently but omg the gifs for this I am just crying thinking about it they look so cute??

Jack o‘frost (0/6): people have recced it and it’s short so here it is.

Utsukushii kare s2 (0/4): Season 1 was an unexpected delight so I hope s2 works just as well.

She loves to cook and she loves to eat (0/10): the manga for this is amazing (and hungry making) so I hope this adaptation holds up.

Ok this list is in no way exhaustive (well except for me being exhausted just trying toward this down) and probably subject to change ( I haven’t even looked at thaidramas or twdramas I gotta stop for now) but hopefully this will keep me on the ball and maybe I can add to it whenever a new tempting gifset crosses my dash…