#summer robers

[pilledmedia]

1st May, 2005.

[mathart]

Laser Explosions! Camp CrunchLabs Week 6

And the Zoetrope Build Box!

[everythingkashmir]

Led’s Lense

The Other Kashmir

A Valley’s Physical Graffiti

By Faisul Yaseen

In the Himalayas, where the murmurs of the Jhelum weave through the lush valley, Kashmir has been a muse of poets and painters. Its name invokes both enchantment and anguish, a duality reflected in Led Zeppelin’s iconic song, Kashmir. Written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant with contributions from John Bonham over a period of 3 years with lyrics dating to 1973, the song featured on their sixth studio album Physical Graffiti in 1975. This timeless ode transcends physical geography, yet its mystical allure inadvertently mirrors the very soul of Kashmir.

It would seem rather bold, and even a little farcical, to compare Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir’ with Kashmir valley. Yet tracing how the song born in the deserts of Morocco finds an uncanny kinship with a paradise mired in its own metaphoric deserts spurns curiosity.

Verse 1: Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face

If the sun could speak, it might recount the shadows it has witnessed in Kashmir. Led Zeppelin’s yearning for the sun’s warmth feels alien to a valley where winters are not just meteorological but political, where warmth is siphoned by fear that has reduced its famed sunlight to a pale glow that barely pierces the haze, casting a chilling pall over a land that once basked in idyllic harmony.

Chorus: I am a traveller of time and space

The stories in Kashmir are great works of fiction, sold with the finesse of the best of salesmen. Tourism hoardings show lakes as pristine and houseboats as inviting travellers to rediscover paradise. But the real travellers of time and space in Kashmir are not Instagram influencers but locals wandering in search of existence.

Governance in Kashmir functions on paradoxes - the claustrophobic presence contrary to the wide open landscapes. For every tourist sipping Kehwa on a Shikara, there is a youth piecing together the fragments of his shattered life. The spaces may be the same but the experiences are universes apart.

Bridge: My Shangri-La under the summer moon

Kashmir is Led Zeppelin’s Shangri-La, the mythical utopia nestled in towering peaks. Utopias are subjective, though. One man’s heaven is another man’s hell or purgatory. The beautiful valley becomes cruel irony for its denizens, who usually cannot savour its magnificence because it’s always reminding them of its perils.

All the rhetoric about Kashmir sounds almost hollow. Promises ring as empty as the deserted streets. In this dystopian Shangri-La, progress is measured not by prosperity but by publicity. New malls are inaugurated. Old memories erased.

Verse 2: Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails

In Kashmir, the winds carry stories instead of sails. The winds carry the whispered prayers of a generation that has known nothing more than nothingness. The winds also carry the spirit of the people. Art adorns the walls. Poetry and music flourish. And, youth navigate censored spaces to tell their stories. Under relentless hopelessness, the spirit does not break.

Coda: When I am on my way, when I see

How many moons away is Kashmir from its road? This is a haunting refrain that never ceases ringing around the region.

When one beholds, Led Zeppelin puts forth a dreamy vision. What do we see when we behold Kashmir? A crown jewel? A problematic periphery? A land to own? People to love? All such answers decide the region’s dismal destinies.

The Unfinished Symphony

Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir ends with a sweeping, open conclusion, just like the region itself: untamed and mysterious. The music reflects the Valley’s breathtaking panorama. However, the underlying tensions and the lived reality of its people is another story. Rober Plant’s vocals and Jimmy Page’s guitar lines echo the paradox of its beauty and hopelessness. Kashmiris are left to wring out their purgatory alone, their voices buried in the cacophony.

Encore

Perhaps Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir should be the anthem adopted for the Valley. It is after all an attention-grabbing song. The majestic orchestration could go with the snowy passes and evocative lyrics could narrate the daily grind of Kashmiri life. If nothing else, it would be a fitting irony for a region where beauty is wrecked.

Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir is a call to rise above the mundane. It is a hymn to transcendence. However, the valley it shares a name with is still waiting for its transcendence. Until that day, Kashmir will remain an unfinished melody, its notes heavy with longing and defiance, resonating against the mountains that keep its secrets and sorrows.

Greater Kashmir

[lboogie1906]

Attorney Valerie Jarrett (November 14, 1956) senior advisor to President Barack Obama, was born in Chicago. Illinois attorney, businesswoman, and community leader known for her role as one of the three campaign co-chairs of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. She served as co-chairperson of the Obama-Biden transition project.

She was born in Iran. Her father, Dr. James Bowman, was the director of a hospital for children in Shiraz. Her great-grandfather, Robert Robinson Taylor, was the first Black person to earn a degree from MIT. Her grandfather, Robert Taylor, was the first African American to head the Chicago Housing Authority.

Her family lived in England but returned to the US in the early 1960s. She traveled and lived abroad. As a teenager, she spent summers visiting Ghana, Nigeria, and Egypt.

She began her college career at Stanford University, earning a BA in Psychology. She earned her JD from the University of Michigan. She married the late William Rober Jarret (1983-88). They had one child.

She entered Chicago politics working for Harold Washington. She was deputy chief of staff to Mayor Richard Daley, Jr. She met Barack and Michelle Obama.

She served as Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Planning and Development. She chaired the Chicago Transit Board. She served as a chair of the Chicago Stock Exchange. She has worked for The Habitat Company. She is president of the firm. She advised Obama as he moved from the Illinois State Senate to the US Senate and the White House.

She was a behind-the-scenes mediator and adviser. She was known for her calm, conciliatory demeanor. These characteristics were welcomed during the Jeremiah Wright controversy. She persuaded Obama to deliver his famous public speech on race in Philadelphia.

President Obama selected her as White House Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[winterpinetrees]

The Carnival (Gap Years Part 8)

June 18th 2019

Union County, OR

Once again mustering the strength to post oc stuff on the cringe oc site. This doesn’t get easier. The events of this part were inspired (years ago) by a Mark Rober video where he recruits a friend that is also a professional baseball pitcher to help him win carnival games.

…………………

There’s an old cliche about how war is 99% boredom and 1% terror. This isn’t war. This is the survivor of a coup and his three teenage allies driving across the country on a circuitous path going nowhere. It’s still boring though.

When Brian and his friends began driving after their first fight, he’d hardly expected to survive until morning. Now, the sword slash across his chest has healed and they still haven’t seen an elf other than Marin. He knows he should be happy about this, but the anticipation is killing him. Brian has always been good under pressure, and he has a lot of awards to prove it. He’s never been good at the waiting though. At some point, that one percent of terror will come back and they will need to fight for their lives. It could be any moment now. Yesterday, Clay and Sierra went off to investigate a town and only Sierra came back. They spent four hours panicking before finally remembering to call Clay on the same satellite phone that they’d all mocked him for carrying. Without it, he probably never would have come back at all. It’s a horrible reminder of the stakes after a week of nothing. Brian feels like he’s going to explode.

They’re driving through northern Oregon. They could have been all the way across the continent by now if they’d wanted to be. However, with nowhere specific to go, they’ve instead chosen to take a winding path up and down California, stopping literally anywhere that catches their attention (They did eventually make it to Redwoods National Park). Today, Brian is taking all of them to a fair. He’s justified it by saying that crowds are safe, but he really just needs to throw something. Also, Marin is really getting on his nerves. Elves always act superior in the movies, but it’s different to spend a week in a car with a ‘teenager’ who clearly thinks that the three of them are moderately better than dogs. It’s not that this sort of talk is new to him. His father is the California governor and solidly on the liberal side of things, but the Whitakers have been in politics since before the Civil War. They all have opinions about his bisexuality and about Sierra’s first-generation mother and certainly about Clay’s habit of running off to the bad parts of town. He’s really sick of it.

Specifically, Marin keeps talking about how elves are just more evolved than humans. Brian’s a humanities kid, but he knows that isn’t how it works. Evolution doesn’t make better animals over time, it just makes things that survive. Marin may have magic and live for a while, but he isn’t any better than Brian just because his bones are hollow like a bird. That’s the other half of the reason for dragging him to a fair. It’s stupid, but Brian wants to challenge him to games until he beats him at something. Maybe it’s foolish and this graceful magic prince will win everything, but Brian is a varsity baseball player with a stack of wrestling metals and a black belt. He killed a nobleman (noblelf?) with a crowbar. He’s confident that he can pick Marin up and throw him. Unfortunately, that’s not a common carnival game.

Marin also keeps dancing around the idea that humanity would all be better off under elven rule anyway, which is just, not something Brian is willing to discuss.

He puts the car into park and they all step outside. He can tell from the fact that the parking lot is just dead grass that it will all be dissassembled by the end of the summer. Clay kicks his door shut with his foot. His sunburns are pretty bad, and he’s not in any shape to carry the sci-fi rifle he loves so much. It would be too conspicuous anyway. Instead, Brian takes a pistol with emerald detailing from Marin’s bag. He doesn’t have all of the right qualifications to concealed carry in Oregon, but the group agreed that Marin should just brainwash anyone that gets suspicious. Hopefully they won’t need to. Sierra takes her magic measuring device and Marin swings his bigger-on-the-inside messenger bag over one shoulder. They’re just four teens going to a carnival. No one will notice the magic, or the weaponry, or the huge amount of cash that they’re carrying because Clay pointed out that someone (elves or their parents) could track their credit card information. They’re three billionaire’s kids and a prince. Things were never going to be any more normal than this.

………………

“I went to something like this with my mother once. It was in the early 60s. Georgia, maybe?” Marin says casually as they walk towards the ticket stand.

“Really? Your mother? I’m surprised that the Apex had time to kill around us simple humans” Clay replies.

He ignores the insult. “Well, my mother was an exception. She didn’t have enough magic, so they sent her away for a while when she was a kid. She spent a lot of time along the Gulf Coast, in both worlds,” He pauses. ”I think she was happiest here. Here meaning the human world, not here”.

Brian has a thought, tries to ignore it, and then decides to follow it anyway. “Wait, when was your mother young?”

“This was the early 1700s”.

Marin is a prince of the elves. You can tell from his pointed ears and silent footsteps and the way that his eyes shine in the dark. However, from a distance, he looks like any Black teenager. His mother almost certainly had the same features. There’s got to be a story here, but Brian isn’t comfortable asking. They buy tickets and stand in the grass.

“Marin, I challenge you to a duel”.

“What in Lazarus’s name is that supposed to mean,” the elf replies.

“It means that we are going to go around this place and try a bunch of tests of skill until I beat you at something”.

“This is about how I said humans are less evolved, isn’t it?”

Brian smiles. “Also I really need to throw something”.

They shake hands. Marin doesn’t have a very strong handshake, which Brian decides actually makes sense, because strong handshakes are probably not an elf thing.

Clay offers to be the referee. “We already know this, but Marin, all of these are rigged”.

He nods, but doesn’t turn his eyes away from Brian. “Where I come from, the challenger sets the terms of the duel”.

“Wait, you have an actual dueling code?” It isn’t that surprising, to be honest.

“Several. Where should we begin?”.

Brian looks around. Should he start with a game he’s sure to win by physical strength alone? Or is that just playing into elven logic? Maybe he should choose one of those nearly impossible throwing games, but maybe there’s some sort of elf baseball and Marin has played that too. Maybe he’s just not good enough. That’s always how it always goes with his older brothers, and Marin is eighty-six. Brian might be in over his head. They walk to the milk-bottle toss. Brian hands over a ticket in exchange for a baseball and turns back to his opponent. The bottles are metal and bottom weighted, and the staff certainly won’t give an athletic eighteen year old one of the stacks that are rigged in favor of the player.

It won’t matter. Brian’s the starting shortstop on his team. He can throw a ball. He tosses the ball in the air, catches it again, and throws it with perfect form at the stacked bottles. It hits the center of the base and the whole thing collapses. Brian takes a stuffed elephant for the trouble. He’ll give it to some other kid. There’s no room in the car.

Marin looks around at the many-colored decorations of the stand and hands the staff member a ticket. The elf mimics his action, throwing the ball into the air and catching it as well. He throws, and the ball strikes almost the exact same place as Brian’s. The top bottle falls, the other two wobble, and Marin does not win a prize. He shrugs and moves to tie back his locs.

“You are just proving my point. That wasn’t about accuracy. That was a strength game”.

“Brian has one point, Marin has none” Clay winks. “Don’t kill each other”.

……

They keep walking. Both boys beat the basket toss, Marin wins a cute pink wolf at darts, and both of them, against their better judgment, try and fail the stupid little game where you throw the rings over bottles. They play against each other, against little kids, and against the rigged games themselves. After over an hour, the group pauses for a moment by a shooting game and Clay mutters something under his breath before grabbing a bb gun with his burned hands and getting shockingly close to a win.

“Brian, you still have that pistol?” Sierra laughs.

“Very funny. At least I didn’t get knocked over by recoil last week,” Clay replies.

Brian, Clay, and Sierra give all of their prizes to other kids (Well, Sierra keeps one), but Marin keeps slipping his into his messenger bag. He’s won a wolf, a snake, and a fox. Eventually they all come to the two games that aren’t even competitions. With his strength, Brian will win the hammer-swinging strongman game. Marin will win the ladder climb with his perfect balance. There’s nothing to do but play it out.

Brian not only gets a higher score than Marin, but actually beats the strength game. (It’s all about leverage, he’s done this before). He’s going to lose overall though. They’re tied now, and Brian doesn’t have a chance at the ladder climb. He’s not even the most coordinated human of the group. The older man running the game glares at Marin when he approaches. Brian chooses to think that it’s because he can tell that the elf is going to win, instead of something far less palatable. And Marin does! The disguised tightrope that sends Brian flailing to the inflatable floor after three steps hardly shakes when Marin climbs it, and he claims an orangey-brown cat half his size.

Brian shrugs. He’s lost by a point. “I think that’s everything! Good game, man! Or elf? How does that work?”

Marin doesn’t react. The prince of the elves just looks into the cheap plastic eyes of this big cat, unblinking.

“Marin, are you okay? You won! I was being sort of mean earlier”.

The elf looks back at Brian. His bright hazel eyes are very wide. Is he about to cry? He blinks and composes himself. It’s gone.

“Thank you. I needed this”.

Marin does not elaborate on what he needed.

It’s only a few hours later, as Marin leaves a message in an elven language using Sierra’s phone, that Brian realizes the cat has fangs. It’s not just some oversized ginger cat, it's a saber-toothed tiger, a smilodon. Wasn’t that the symbol of Marin’s house? Genus Sondaica, represented by a sabertooth in emerald green?

He brings this up to Clay and Sierra. What were the symbols of the other elven families?

“His betrothed is a fox, I think. That might have been a metaphor though. Smart women are foxes a lot,” Sierra explains.

Clay adds something. “I remember a snake. We had to explain your dumb joke afterwards”.

Brian remembers that too, now that it’s been mentioned again. “Marin chose those animals as prizes. A wolf, a snake, a fox, and a sabertooth. He didn’t give them away”.

“You think they’re gifts for other elves?”

Sierra looks back at him, “I mean, is anyone else even left?

Brian watches Marin out of the corner of his eye, “Coups are never easy. There’s got to be someone”.

“The question is whether we’ll be alive to meet them”.

………

Next time, Ishtar and her High Council start to figure out what in the worlds is going on. I was going to include a scene of the council here, but this is long already.

[atopvisenyashill]

sidebar- listening to a podcast about this season of survivor w two former players (it was rob cesternino and cassidy clarke, if u watch survivor) and there’s a player on this season, venus, who’s been the outcast for a while, but last few weeks all her opps have walked out one by one and rob goes “i think she’s got kind of an arya stark arc going on” and before he could finish cassidy whispers into her mic “she’s no one” it was hilarious aksjd (he meant as in venus is going through her kill list and might get to the end alive) ANYWAYS-

some changes i’ve noticed

i feel like part of why the series stumbles is bc it doesn’t discuss lyanna as much as it should. having that added “we’ll talk about your mother when i return” scene right before robert & ned’s talk about jon snow’s mother And the targaryens was really good tho, narratively linking the two concepts.

HOWEVER i think like rhaegar & robert, d&d saw lyanna more as a puzzle than a person, but the whole point of lyanna is that she was a living breathing girl to ned and her death completely wrecks him in an irreparable way. so when they cut out his entire milk of the poppy dream sequence later on, it cuts out that she wasn’t just the answer to a riddle of “who was jon snow’s mother” but instead an integral part of the narrative whose absence defines the people ned and jon become. but i’m getting ahead of myself bc they haven’t actually changed anything here yet and the scene where ned and robert stop to talk is really good and more or less what happens in the book aksjdj.

i don't understand why they don't have catelyn thank summer for saving her and bran from the assassin. just another mind boggling decision and weird, unnecessary departure from cat's character

another unnecessary change is taking away ned’s fashionista tendencies smFh they don’t get nedcat at all

the way jaime is like oh ned is gonna be my bestie we’re gonna trade war stories we’re gonna flirt i’ll tell him about his brother’s gruesome death and he’ll be so grateful he’ll become MY best friend instead of robert’s and meanwhile ned is like, openly snarling the whole speech. the way ned’s mouth drops open at the GALL of jaime to say killing aerys felt like justice and jaime looks DEVASTATED and PERPLEXED that this man hates him so much when they’ve talked twice aksjdjd

okay first of all I DO IN FACT GET THE CHANGE of having bran say he had to have fallen whole robb insists he never falls, and we all know this scene lives forever in my mind but i also think it’s a) another weird departure from bran’s canon, very stubborn character and b) a PALE imitation of the talk in the dark between robb & bran where they say they’ll go on an adventure

that said, there’s something that Really fucks me up about the North having this culture wherein the sick and disabled are sent out in the winter to fight and die because they’re not like, worth feeding, but at the same time As A Disabled Person i guess finding it almost enticing to be given to the chance to like Die For A Reason ya know. you always have that out. And then here’s poor sweet Bran who it just never occurred to him that he would have to take that out and now it’s all he wants. anyways i’m crying ig

it’s the stubborn streak in him. he doesn’t want platitudes, he doesn’t want to be strong. his whole life has changed for the worse and he just needs to sit in it. it’s not fair and it all sucks and he’s just a kid!!!

the robert and barristan scene is another good one and it’s bc it plays into robert’s character, really elevates the elephant in the room of rhaenys & aegon, and the way barristan is just. disgusted. standing there consumed with loathing for everything he’s become, refusing to engage with being a driving force for why everything is this way. dragging jaime in to humiliate him in front of barristan, to humiliate barristan in front of jaime. the way barristan almost reaches out to jaime emotionally in a way he refuses to reach out to robert, but robert only gets angry and picks at them more.

“he said the same thing he’d been saying for hours. ‘burn them all.’” OH NOW ITS NOT SO FUN ANYMORE IS IT WISE GUY

gonna be honest i think the weapon talk between jorah and rakharo is one of the sexiest scenes in the show, listening to two dudes who are hit in REALLY different ways talk about their favorite ways of murdering people is really fun and hot to me also elyes gabel and amrita acharia were wasted on this show, they would have killed in later seasons smh

i don’t understand why they made the drogo storyline like a REAL TYPICAL sort of rape romance story. what was the point if they were just gonna be ~in love~ at the end anyway. such a weird choice.

do i love the change from “fear cuts deeper than swords” to “what do we say to the god of death”? like it’s fine. they should have kept both if they liked that line so much. the actor who plays syrio is so good tho he’s got such great chemistry with maisie, you really understand why syrio impacts her so much

that ending close up on ned’s trauma face is so good it’s such a shame they CUT THE DREAM SEQUENCE WHERE WE FINALLY UNDERSTAND WHY NED IS LOSING IT WATXGING ARYA GET FAKE STABBED IN THE GUT. ITS FINE. IM FINE.

general thoughts

“it’ll get easier” jorah is a useless binch just like aemon the dragonknight. what’s the point of your sword if you don’t kill your girl’s evil husband. go fall on it shithead.

i do love that jorah is like “ned is a little bitch for trying to behead me for slavery even tho it’s been illegal in westeros for like hundreds of years. but also maybe having a king that allows behavior like that is kinda crazy actually bc viserys is not right in the head. i’m not gonna reflect on that at all tho” iain glenn the actor that you are.

love the lannister breakfast scene. the way tyrion clearly knows but is pointedly talking around it. jaime thinks tyrion is the height of comedy and wants them to have a nice breakfast but cersei leaves haughtily halfway through even tho tommen & myrcella are having a good time. the Loaded Look jaime gives tyrion during the “life is full of possibilities” line, where he like,,,, Almost realizes Tyrion is saying something to him here emotionally about being disabled before he puts it aside to be self involved about the incest.

kit’s acting is always several degrees of magnitude better when he’s with other starklings. idk if he’s trying harder or if maisie sophie and isaac are so good they infect him with acting abilities.

there’s something fun about the cycles continuing bc joffrey gets drunk & belligerent like his father has a thousand times, but he doesn’t have half the skill or charm as his father and just gets his ass completely handed to him by a practical toddler with zero training. and he’s so embarrassed it helps snowball this situation into a war.

the kid who plays micah is real awkward. i'm not bullying i'm just saying.

“we all pray for prince joffrey’s full recovery” “pity you didn’t spare a prayer for the butcher’s boy” GET HIS ASS

have i mentioned how much i hate aiden’s acting. oh my god i’m not gonna get through this rewatch aksjsj

“war was easier than daughters” ned every emotion you’ve ever felt is harder to deal with than the war that’s why you’re so fucked in the head be so fucking fr with me rn lmao

septa mordane is a terrible guardian i think this can’t be understated

“she must take his side even when he is wrong” “but how could you let her marry someone like that?” GET HIS ASS

bran literally shivering with fear as nan talks my baby!!!!!!!!

“ah the starks. quick tempers. slow minds.” CAN WE SKIP THE EVIL VILLAIN MONOLOGUES TO THE CAMERA PLEASE

“i think we can outfox a ten year old” jaime you couldn’t even kill that ten year old correctly let’s walk before we run

nedcat giggling over ned throttling petyr and then making out in front of petyr’s establishment is amazing i’m literally so depressed right now i hope petyr cried into his pillow that night

the way both ned AND benjen just give the most ass goodbyes to jon for no good reason. are they TRYING to give him a complex oh my god

i think i’m on episode 4. once i get past season one i think it’ll be easier when the writing gets worse actually.

[gtunesmiff]

WEDNESDAY’S POETRY PROMPTS: ~ 3/29/23

Sorry this is a day late...  my bad... especially since, like every Wednesday, Rober Lew Brewer posted his usual prompt and example poem to get things started on his blog, Poetic Asides.

This week's: write an anticipation poem.

For instance, I'm anticipating the start of the 16th annual April Poem-A-Day Challenge this Saturday, April 1.

But someone else may be anticipating the start of Major League Baseball...

...or the return of summer (or even autumn).

Whatever you're anticipating, poem it out today (and come back on Saturday)!

And... I owe y'all a Sherwin-Williams color name as a writing prompt - so offer for your pen-and-penciling pleasure, from their palette:

Endless Sea (yup, an actual color name - SW-9150 - I so want that job coming up with those names...

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

<))><

[killemwithkawaii]

A while back, I watched a Mark Rober video on why the sky is blue and heard that the color black basically absorbs heat or something along those lines. Now that I think about it, how did Sal survive wearing a black shirt in summer? (I think it was summer in the episode 4 flashback and I've read that one can choose whether or not to take college classes in summer.)

[cw: unsanitary, mentions of self-harm]

Yup, black absorbs heat like nobodys business. My theories on the perpetual black sweatshirt:

A. Sal is anemic/ iron deficient and is always cold no matter how warm it is outside (it would also explain why he's fucking grey like go ahead open a drawing program and take a color swatch off him the poor man is the color of concrete)

B. Sal wears black because it's metal and/or because he just likes to wear the same clothes all the time and wears his sweatshirt in hot weather despite his discomfort

C. Sal is a sweaty, sweaty man and needs to wear dark colors to help hide the pit stains

D. Sal has self-harm scars on his arms and prefers to wear long sleeves in order to keep them covered up (there's some uneven pigmentation on his forearm shown in the scene where he's trying to call Larry in ch4. It's unclear if this is just the coloring style or meant to be scars [I don't recall Steve ever confirming it], but I've seen a lot of people headcanon that Sal has a history of self-harm based on this frame)

E. Nockfell has mild summers and you can get away with wearing black/ long sleeves without slowly roasting to death

F. A combination of the above

In the end, your guess is as good as mine, but I now know from personal experience that what he wears is not a comfortable getup in the heat, so he must have some reason for it...

[ramseyesscom]

Issue One Hundred and Forty-Three

Subscribe! But only if you want to!

Hello! I went on summer vacation from newsletter writing without telling anybody. It's like I've always said: I am the Don Draper of positive newsletter writing. Well, I'm back, I'm recharged, and I said hello to the widow of the man whose identity I stole in the Korean War. One of my favorite kinds of Internet videos has the following qualities: someone has a crazy idea (like Nick Lutsko), builds an elaborate contraption (like Mark Rober), and devotes an awful lot of time to making it perfect (like Samara Ginsberg). I am happy to inform you that I have one of those for you today. Swedish inventor, robotics enthusiast and video maker Simone Giertz had a dream: to turn bubble wrap into a musical instrument by somehow harnessing the small bubble explosion through a panflute. What emerged was a massive, crank-powered musical instrument that has never existed before and a glamorous music video to display it. Whether you want to see the whole process that went into this creative act, or just get to the music video (which starts at 11:26), giddy-up to enjoy a whole new kind of sound. Pop Pop Poppop Pop Pop Pop

If you've been on the Internet even a little bit in the last few months, you've probably encountered images created by Dall-E. If not, it's basically an Artificial Intelligence program that takes a prompt submitted by a user and turns it into images. So, "an armchair in the shape of an avocado" would get you:

Blogger Max Woolf has used Dall-E to create professional looking photographs of insane foods and they are a pleasure (and a little scary) to look at. Enjoy the brave new world of fake food!

Faux gras

[96thdayofrage]

The Original Karens: From Emmett Till’s Accuser To The White Woman Who Sparked The Tulsa Massacre

Written by Clay Cane

In this current climate of protests and demands for justice, the entitled and indignant white women known as “Karens” appear to be falling apart.

From Amy Cooper, whose over dramatic 911 call on a birdwatching Black man blew up in her face, to Lisa Alexander, who was shocked to discover that no one needs her permission to write “Black Lives Matter” in chalk on their own property, Karens are in a rage. Not even a camera in their face will stop their toxic entitlement, which has led to a string of viral sensations.

When thinking of the country’s experiences with white supremacist violence, the discussions are typically centered around men. However, white women have historically been at the helm of this terror, using their tears and imaginary delicateness as ammunition for victim hood and ultimately destroying lives or at its worst, taking one.

Once upon a time, even the slightest hint that white womanhood may be in danger resulted in the lynching of Black children or a thriving town full of Black families being burned to the ground.

Here are some of the most horrific stories of Karens going wild before the term came into existence.

Sarah Page

There has been a lot of talk around Tulsa, Oklahoma due to this month's 99th anniversary of the tragic race massacre that took place there in 1921. Many people may not know the race massacre began with a 17-year-old named Sarah Page.

Page was an elevator operator in what was called the Drexel Building in downtown Tulsa. On May 30, 1921, reportedly, Dick Rowland, a 19-year-old Black shoe shiner, was getting on the elevator to use a segregated bathroom on a higher floor. He allegedly tripped when entering the elevator, accidentally grabbed Page's arm and she reacted by screaming. Rowland fled but the police were called. The next day, Rowland was arrested and word spread that a Black man assaulted a white woman.

According to the 2001 Tulsa Race Riot Commission Report via The Washington Post, Rowland was accused of assaulting Page “on a public elevator in broad daylight."

Within 18 hours, the Greenwood district of Tulsa, also known as Black Wall Street, was annihilated. In 1921, The New York Times described the massacre as “one of the most disastrous race wars ever visited upon an American city.”

No one knows what happened to Sarah Page or Dick Rowland after the massacre.

Fannie Taylor

On January 1, 1923, 22-year-old Fannie Taylor began screaming outside of her home. A neighbor rushed to the distressed white woman only to find her beaten and bruised, yelling for her baby. Miss Fannie claimed a Black man broke into her home and attacked her. The neighbor searched her house to find the baby safe and no signs of a break in.

Rumors quickly spread that Taylor was raped and robbed by a Black man. Taylor’s husband, James Taylor, gathered a group of men to find the imaginary criminal, even calling on the Klu Klux Klan for assistance.

A pack of 400 terrorists headed to the neighboring area, an affluent Black town in Rosewood, Florida, accusing any Black man they could of the crime. Fannie’s fraudulent tears was the excuse these envious hellions needed to purge out their rage.

Their first victim was Sam Carter, a local blacksmith, who was tortured and hung. They eventually began looking for a man named Jesse Hunter, who they claimed was an escaped convict.

The Black residents of Rosewood fought back but there were many casualties, including Sarah Carrier, a woman who did Fannie Taylor’s laundry. She was shot in the head, according to History.com. Her son Sylvester Carrier was also fatally shot.

The race massacre lasted for a week, burning Rosewood to the ground and killing countless Black people.

As for Fannie Taylor, she reportedly had an affair with a white man who beat her, which is why she had been found abused that night. She thought it was better to accuse a Black man of assault then to take accountability for her own actions.

The 1997 film Rosewood, directed by the late John Singleton, depicted the massacre.

See the clip below of actress Catherine Kellner as Fannie Taylor.

Eleanor Strubing

In December of 1940, Eleanor Strubing, a wealthy white woman in Connecticut accused her 31-year-old Black chauffeur, Joseph Spell, of raping her four times and throwing her into a river. Spell was arrested within hours and immediately sent to jail to wait for trial.

The New York Times famously ran a story with the headline, "Mrs. J.K. Strubing Is Kidnapped And Hurled Off Bridge by Butler; WOMAN KIDNAPPED; HURLED OFF BRIDGE." The article claimed he “confessed after 16 hours" of questioning.

Spell was facing 30 years in prison.

Thankfully, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and its head lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, represented Spell. Marshall and his co-counsel proved evidence that Strubing lied. She, in fact, had consensual sex with Spell and jumped in the river because she was terrified that she might become pregnant from their affair. In her mind, the only option was to accuse Spell of rape in order to justify a possible pregnancy.

An all-white jury found Joseph Spell not guilty, which was shocking for the time. Nonetheless, if this accusation would have been made in the South, Joseph Spell certainly would have died by public lynching.

Wil Haygood, the author of Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America, wrote about the ruling, "It was a miracle. But Thurgood Marshall trafficked in miracles.”

Strubing, whose father was an investment banker and the former governor of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, suffered no punishment for lying under oath. Her husband, John K. Strubing, died in 1961 and she remarried to John W. Barclay. Stribing died at 92 years old in 2000.

Joseph Spell moved to East Orange, New Jersey after the trial. It’s not clear when he passed away.

The 2017 movie Thurgood was based on the Joseph Spell trial. See the clip below of Kate Hudson as Eleanor Strubing.

Carolyn Bryant

In August of 1955, 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant accused 14-year-old Emmett Till of touching her and whistling at her in a store (he reportedly had a lisp and was unable to whistle.) Till, who was visiting from Chicago, was in Mississippi for the summer spending time with family. Within hours, he was kidnapped from his uncle’s home. The child was tortured, mutilated and thrown into the Tallahatchie River. His naked body was weighed down with a fan blade.

Carolyn’s husband, Roy Bryant and her brother-in-law J.W. Milam, the terrorists who lynched Till, were found not guilty by an all-white jury.

In the 2017 book The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy Tyson, Carolyn Bryant admitted to lying and claimed that she actually didn’t remember what happened that day in the store.

She is still alive today, living in Mississippi at 86 years old. Emmett Till would have been 79 years old on July 25 if it wasn’t for Carolyn Bryant.

The 65th anniversary of his death is August 28.

Victoria Price and Ruby Bates

Before The Central Park Five in 1989, which would become the Exonerated Five in 2002, there was the Scottsboro Boys in 1932.

On Mach 25, 1931, a group of Black and white teenagers were riding freight trains looking for work, which was common during the Great Depression. The white teens wanted the Black teens off the train and a fight broke out. The white teens attempted to forcibly throw the Black teens from the train. In defending themselves, the Black teenagers instead kicked the white teens off the locomotive.

The angry white teens went to a local sheriff who demanded the train be stopped.

Nine Black teens were removed, ages 13 to 19. However, two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, were also on the train and spent their time wrongfully accusing several of the Black boys of rape.

Similar to the Exonerated Five, that one accusation stole the innocence of nine Black children.

The teens were jailed in Scottsboro, Alabama: Haywood Patterson, 18; Clarence Norris, 19: Charlie Weems, 19; brothers Andy Wright, 19 and Leroy Wright, 13; Olin Montgomery, who was nearly blind, 17; Ozie Powell, 16; Eugene Williams, 13, and Willie Roberson, 16, who could barely walk due to severe syphilis.

The all-white and all-male jury trial was over in a matter of days and all of them — except 13-year-old Leroy Wright — were found guilty of rape and given the death penalty. There was no evidence of course since Bates couldn’t identify the men she claimed raped her.

The NAACP and the International Labor Defense (ILD), the legal wing of the American Communist Party, joined the case. By November 1932, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Scottsboro defendants had been denied the right to counsel. Shortly after, Ruby Bates admitted she lied.

Nonetheless, the back and forth with the courts continued for years.

By 1936, Haywood Patterson was convicted of rape and sentenced to 75 years. In 1948, he escaped from prison and made it to Michigan. The governor refused to extradite him to Alabama. By 1951, Patterson was convicted of manslaughter after a barroom brawl. In 1952, he died of cancer. He was 39 years old.

In July of 1937, Clarence Norris was eventually convicted of rape and sentenced to life in prison. He was paroled in 1946 and moved north, where he married and had children. His autobiography, The Last of the Scottsboro Boys was released in 1979. He passed away in 1989 at 76 years old.

In July of 1937, Andrew Wright was convicted of rape and sentenced to 99 years. He was released in 1950 at 38 years old. Charlie Weems was also convicted of rape and paroled in 1943. He spent the rest of his life in Atlanta. It’s not clear when or if Wright and Weems have passed away.

Ozie Powell’s rape charges were dropped but he pled guilty to assaulting a deputy, which happened while in custody. He was released from prison in 1946. After spending four years on death row as adults, all charges against Willie Roberson, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, and Leroy Wright were dropped.

It is not known how or when Willie Roberson, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams, or Ozie Powell died.

After being released, Leroy Wright, the youngest, went on a national lecture tour and then joined the Army. In 1959, according to PBS, Wright accused his wife of having an affair, fatally shot her and then committed suicide. He was 41 years old.

As for Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, Price never recanted her testimony and died in 1982 at 77 years old. Bates had the privilege of going on a speaking tour, bizarrely, for the International Labor Defense (ILD), which defended the Scottboro Boys. She claimed to have lied because she was "excited and frightened by the ruling class of Scottsboro." Bates died in 1976.

[northoftheroad]

Dick and Tim – brothers in arms

So I got this ask. And it’s a good thing I got it the first night of my summer vacation, and the weather hasn't been great ;-)

Once I started digging for comics with both Tim and Dick, I found several that I've never read. I got the impression Anonymous would like a complete list, so I just kept going. But this means I don't know if they even interact in some of the books, or if they make "blink and you miss it" guest appearances.

I'm sorry if they, by any chance, was asking for reading recommendations for good Dick and Tim moments and not The Complete List... Looking at the number of comics here that I haven't read/can't remember, I'm not really qualified to answer that. But if I had to try, I would mention:  

A Lonely Place of Dying

The New Titans #65

All issues of Nightwing vol 2 with Robin as a guest star, including Nightwing Annual #1 but excluding Annual # 2.

Showcase '93 #11-12

Knightfall Prodigal

Robin vol 2 #10, (DickRobin and TimRobin!) 175

Young Justice vol 1 #22

Teen Titans vol 3 #6

Bruce Wayne – Murderer and Fugitive

Birds of Prey #19

Batman: Gotham Knights # 8-11, 45

Red Robin #11-14

Batman: Gates of Gotham

That being said. Here is, as far as I can find, every comic where both Dick Grayson and Tim Drake have made an appearance (pre-Flashpoint):

Batman vol 1 #436. By Marv Wolfman, art Pat Broderick and John Beatty.

Batman # 436. (Tim's first appearance, in the circus audience the day Dick's parents were killed.) (1989)

A Lonely Place of Dying. Batman #440-442, New Titans #60-61. (When Tim tries to talk Dick into becoming Robin again but ends up wearing the Robin suit himself to help Batman and Robin.) (1990)

The New Titans #64 (1990)

The New Titans #65. By Marv Wolfman, art Tom Grummet and Al Vey.

The New Titans #65. (Tim turns up at Dick's place to learn what it is to be Batman's partner.) (1990)

Batman vol 1 #455 (1990)

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1-2 (1992)

Superman: The Man of Steel #20 (1993)

Superman vol 2 #76 (1993)

Batman vol 1 #500 (1993)

New Titans #100 (1993)

Showcase '93 #11-12 (1993)

Justice League of America #70 (1993)

Bloodbath #1-2 (1994)

Batman vol 1 #510 (1994)

Robin vol 2 #0, 8 (1994)

Robin vol 2 #10. By Chuck Dixon, art Tom Grummett and Ray Kryssing.

Robin vol 2 #10 (DickRobin meets TimRobin during Zero Hour. DickRobin is also seen in a panel in Batman vol 1 #511 and Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #4 .) (1994)

Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #1-3 (1994)

Detective Comics #676-677 (1994)

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #29-30 (1994)

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #62 (1994)

Knightfall Prodigal (Dick's first longer stint as Batman. And he takes care of Tim and the Manor on his own!) In Batman #512-514, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #32-34, Robin # 11-13, Detective Comics #679-681. (1994-1995)

Batman vol 1 #515 (1995)

Detective Comics #686 (1995)

Robin vol 2 #23 (1995)

Green Arrow vol 2 #101 (1995)

Contagion (Detective Comics #696, Batman vol 1 #529, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #49, Batman vol 1 #533, Azrael vol 1 #16, Robin vol 2 #28, Catwoman vol 2 #31) (1996)

The Final Night #2-3 (1996)

Robin vol 2 #29, 32-33 (1996)

Catwoman vol 2 #36 (1996)

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #53-54 (1996)

Detective Comics #698-701 (1996)

Marvel versus DC / DC versus Marvel #2 (1996)

Nightwing vol 2 # 6. (Tim and Dick talk and fight crooks.) (1997)

Batman: Bane (1997)

Ningtwing Annual #1. By Devin Grayson, art Greg Land and Bob McLeod.

Nightwing vol 2 Annual #1. (When Dick fake-marries a girl to investigate if she has murdered her previous husbands.) (1997)

Genesis #1 (1997)

Robin vol 2 #47-48 (1997)

Detective Comics #721, 724 (1998)

Nightwing vol 2 # 20. (Part of Cataclysm.) (1998)

Robin vol 2 #53 (1998)

Nightwing vol 2 # 25. (Tim and Dick talk and ride on train roofs. Dick has decided to become a cop.) (1998)

Batman 80-page Giant #1 (1998)

Brotherhood of the fist (Detective Comics #723, Robin vol 2 #55, Nightwing vol 2 # 28, Green Arrow 3 #135) (1998)

Batman: Bane of the Demon #4 (1998)

Batman vol 1 #554, 556, 560 (1998)

Detective Comics #727-729 (1998-1999)

JLA/Titans: Technis Imperative (1998-1999)

DC Universe Holiday Bash #3 (1999)

Batman 80-page Giant #2 (1999)

Young Justice: Secret Files and Origins #1 (1999)

Batman: Day of Judgment (Zombies...) (1999)

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #120 (1999)

Robin vol 2 #71 (1999)

Young Justice vol 1 #7 (1999)

Batman and Superman: World's Finest #10 (2000)

No Man's Land. (Robin vol 2 #67, Batman vol 1 #562, Detective Comics #741, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #95, Batman: Legend of the Dark Knight #120, 126, Azrael: Agent of the Bat #56) (1999-2000)

Detective Comics #741 (2000)

Robin vol 2 #74, 76, 82 (2000)

Superman Y2K #1 (2000)

Batman: Gotham Knights #10. By Devin Grayson, art Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Rober Robinson.

Batman: Gotham Knights #10-11 (2000)

Batman: Outlaws 1-3 (2000)

Young Justice vol 1 #22 (2000)

Birds of Prey vol 1 #19 (2000)

JLA: Secret Files #3 (2000)

The Hunt for Oracle. (Birds of Prey vol 1 #20-22. Nightwing vol 2 #46.) (2000)

Superboy vol 3 #74 (2000)

Young Justice: Sins of Youth #1 (2000)

Young Justice: Sinds of Youth Secret Files # 1 (2000)

Titans #12 (2000)

Green Lantern: Circle of Fire #1 (2000)

Batman: Gotham Knights #1 (2000)

Harley Quinn #6 (2001)

Birds of Prey # 27 (2001)

Catwoman vol 2 #90 (2001)

Young Justice: Our World's at War #1 (2001)

World's Finest: Our World's at War #1 (2001)

Joker: Last Laugh. (The Joker "jokerize" a number of metahuman villains. In the later part, Joker taunts Nightwing with that he has killed Tim, just as he did Jason. Dick loses it and punches Joker to death, but Batman turns up and resuscitates Joker). (2001)

Harley Quinn #11-12 (2001)

Robin vol 2 #86, 95 (2001)

Gods of Gotham. (Wonder Woman #166-167.) (2001)

Wonder Woman vol 2 #175 (2001)

Nightwing vol 2 #63. (The aftermath of Joker: Last Laugh, where Dick is too depressed to work as Nightwing. Robin and Blue Beetle take his place in Blüdhaven this issue, so they don't actually meet.) (2002)

Azrael: Agent of the Bat #94 (2002)

Young Justice vol 1 #40 (2002)

Birds of Prey vol 1 #37. (2002)

Batman/Nightwing: Bloodborne (2002)

Batman: Gotham Knights #26. By Devin Grayson, art Roger Robinson and John Floyd. 

Bruce Wayne: Murderer and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive (Batgirl vol 1 #27, Nightwing #68-69, Batman: Gotham Knight #26, 28, 30, Birds of Prey vol 1 #40, 43, Batman #600, 605.) (Bruce is accused of murder and refuses to defend himself, and eventually escapes and intends to drop the identity of Bruce Wayne. Dick refuses to believe that Bruce can be a murderer and it causes a bit of friction with Tim.)

Batman: Gotham Knights #32-36 (2002-2003)

Batman: Gotham Knights #38, 42, 46 (2003)

Titans/Young Justice: Graduation Day # 1-3 (2003)

Detective Comics #782 (2003)

JLA/JSA: Virtue & Vice (2003)

Batman vol 1 #615 (Part of Hush) (2003)

Robin vol 2 #108-110, 118 (2003)

Batman: Family # 6-8 (2003)

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files (2003)

JLA: Welcome to the Working Week (2003)

Identity Crisis # 1 (2004)

Robin vol 2 #120 (But not really – the issue is about how Tim has been stalking his friends, imagining them as traitors, including Dick.) (2004)

Robin vol 2 #125 (2004)

Teen Titans vol 3 #6. By Geoff Johns, art Mike McKone and Marlo Alquiza.

Teen Titans vol 3 #6 (2004)

Batgirl vol 1 # 46, 50 (2004)

Superman/Batman #5, 13 (2004)

War Games. (Nightwing vol 2 #97-98, Batman vol 1 #631-634, Detective Comics #799, Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #183-184, Gotham Knights #57) (2004)

Detective Comics # 800 (2005)

Teen Titans vol 3 # 21-25 (2005)

Outsiders vol 3 #25 (2005)

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files (2005)

Nightwing vol 2 # 110. By Devin Grayson, art Phil Hester and Ande Parks.

Nightwing vol 2 #110. (During a period when Dick left the Nightwing identity.) (2005)

Infinite Crisis.  (2005-2006)

Action Comics # 841-843 (2006)

Adventures of Superman #648 (2006)

Nightwing vol 2 Annual # 2. (I honestly don't recommend this, but in the spirit of making a complete list... Tim is visible in two panels, overlapping with Infinite Crisis where Dick almost dies. Otherwise, it's a retelling of the revamped history of Dick and Barbara, including some things that no-one who likes Dick Grayson would agree is in-character.) (2007)

Teen Titans vol 3 #43 (2007)

Gotham: Underground # 1 (2007)

Wonder Woman Annual vol #1 (2007)

Countdown #43 (2007)

52 #30 (2007)

JLA: Classified #34 (2007)

Robin vol 2 #156 (2007)

Shadowpact #10 (2007)

Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime #1 (2007)

Nightwing vol 2 #142. By Peter J Tomasi, penciller Rags Morales.

Freefall (Nightwing vol 2 # 140–146). (One of the very best story arcs of any Nightwing comic. It has gruff Bruce, brotherly bonding, Nightwing and Robin infiltrating an island...) (2008)

Batman: Underground # 6-7 (2008)  

Green Latern vol 4 #25 (2008)

Titans vol 2 #1 (2008)

Robin vol 2 #178 (2008)

Batgirl vol 2 #1 (2008)

The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul. (Robin vol 2 #169, Nightwing vol 2 #138-139, Detective Comics #839). (2007-2008)

DC Special: Cyborg #2-5 (2008)

Robin vol 2 # 175. (Some fun panels with flashbacks with Dick and Tim.) (2008)

Batman vol 1 #675, 678, 681 (2008)

DC Universe: Lats Will and Testament #1 (2008)

Final Crisis #3 (2008)

Detective Comics #847 (2008)

Batgirl vol 2 # 5-6 (2009)

Superman/Batman #55 (2009)

Detective Comics #850 (2009)

Nightwing vol 2 # 151. (The issue ends with some family time with Dick, Tim and Alfred.) (2009)

Nightwing vol 2 # 153. (Last issue, Dick moves from New York to Gotham and Wayne Manor.) (2009)

Superman #682 (2009)

Teen Titans vol 3 #75 (2009)

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #5 (2009)

Robin vol 2 #181, 183 (2009)

Batman vol 1 #686 (2009)

Battle for the Cowl # 1-3. (Jason intends to become the Batman "Gotham needs". When Tim can't convince Dick to take up the cowl, he dresses up as Batman himself to fight Jason. In the end, Dick defeats Jason – and becomes Batman.) (2009)

Batman: Blackest Night #1-3 (2009)

Red Robin 1 # 1, 4 (2009)

Batman vol 1 #697, 702, 703 (2010)

Batman: Gates of Gotham #13 (2010)

Red Robin # 11-15 (2010)

Superman/Batman #76 (2010)

Teen Titans vol 3 #88-89 (2010)

Batman: Orphans #1-2 (2011)

Birds of Prey vol 2 #10 (2011)

Gotham City Sirens # 22 (2011)

Secret Six vol 3 #36 (2011)

Batman: Gates of Gotham #1-5 (2011)

Batman vol 1 #708-709 (2011)

Detective Comics #872, 874, 877, 880, 881 (2011)

Red Robin # 22, 23, 26 (2011)

I'm going to skip post-Flashpoint because, well, there's hardly anything there. The worst thing with Flashpoint/New 52, in my opinion, was that it destroyed relationships between characters who used to be family, but ended up hardly knowing or even liking each other. :-( 

Detective Comics #975. By James Tynion IV, art Álvaro Martínez and Raúl Fernández. 

The only panel worth mentioning with Dick and Tim is from DC #975. Yes, it's sad – one of the best brotherly relationships in DC turned into dust. Here's to hoping future writers will pick up on their wonderful dynamic at some time.

(The pictures in the header are from: Red Robin #12, Young Justice vol 1 #22, Showcase ‘93 #12, Batman #441, Nightwing vol 2 #6, 25.) 

[grungepoetica]

The autistic community online lately: people screaming at each other to not support ASAN, autistic creators of color trying to call out white autistic creators without looking like assholes, meanwhile Mark Rober's charity livestream for Next For Autism still happened

My autistic black ass: desperately trying to downplay my second thoughts about attending an ASAN program this summer, and also drawing semi-realistic mustaches on my face with an eyeliner pencil for No Reason At All (/s)

[neocitycafe]

Tag game: An update on our day-to-day interests!

Tagged by @d-nghy-ck ✨ Thank you for tagging me ♡ Like we talked about, it’s so neat to take these snapshots and come back to our thoughts/interests months or even years later. 

Last song I listened to: "Magic Castle” (TVXQ! 2004 version). SM tweeted a whole holidays YouTube and Spotify playlist, so I put them on shuffle this morning. Hehe, I used to listen to this Christmas album as a baby kpop fan, and it’s fun to come back to. Oh wait, “Winter Wonderland” by SHINee just came up on shuffle, brb, time to cry.

Last movie I watched: I can’t remember?? I’m really bad at movies, lol. The last one that I remember distinctly was Knives Out. Watched it with my best friend simultaneously through Prime. Gosh it was sharp, hilarious, riveting. We made so many incredulous funny faces at each other throughout. I don’t watch a lot of whodunnit type things, but that movie was fantastic!

Currently reading: Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. It’s a dense read... My cousin got two non-fics for me last year for Christmas and I’m still getting through the first one haha. Research on morality and social psychology. Helpful and fascinating as I’m navigating my faith, personal beliefs and ethics in a tumultuous political/social landscape.

Currently watching: k-drama Hospital Playlist, Rowena Tsai’s how to reset for 2021 series, also making my way through Mark Rober’s crazy fun engineering videos (pools made of jello? volcanic looking bubbles??!), wanting to catch up on some NCT v-lives I missed (especially the dream ones).

Currently craving: Hugs, flower gardens, summer beach weather, potatoes au gratin, deonjangjjigae, trader joes’ candy cane joe joes, hot chocolate with marshmallows, dried veggie chips, vinegar chips... I’m always craving salty snacks >_<

Currently working on: myself :) But also a little bit of research for the historical setting story idea i have. Do you know how to pick the right google search terms for hanyak and traditional herbal infusions without being taken to medical papers? If so, please call me. 

Currently playing: with different lip colors! Colourpop sent me a free liquid lipstick because my order got sent out so late, and the color is much darker than what I usually wear (pink, coral). So today I’m just trying it on at home and laughing at how... vampy... it looks >:P

Tagging: @nsheetee @marklyxxi @jaemericano @m88n

[ourloveisforthelovely]

Lover

Mad Men 

A/n: Request from a lovely annon. I hope you enjoy. More could be added

Summary:  You are different than most women that caught Don Draper’s eye. You are also one of the few women that told him no. You are also everything that he wanted. Now the question was would Don change or fall back to his old demons?

Words: 1,062

Pairings: Don Draper x Reader

______

It's wrong...this shouldn’t be happening…It was the thought that was plaguing Don Draper’s mind. His mind had been on his much younger secretary. You had been working for him directly for a few months…

And hasn’t left my mind ever since…

Don’s mind supplied. He knew that falling in love wasn’t something entirely new for him. He had always been on the lookout for someone new to love (even if it was just for one night.) You, however, were different from his normal “type.” If you were his normal type of woman then the two of you would have been sleeping together by now. 

When you shot Don’s offer of a dinner date down, he knew you weren’t like most women he went for. Instead, you politely declined in that soft southern account that was driving him wild. You weren’t cold.

“I’m sorry. I am actually seeing a gentleman named Robert that is an accountant.” 

With that, Don hated Robert...whoever he was.

You were definitely different! You had moved to the city from a small southern town in Tennessee. From what Don gathered from other ladies in the office, you had a rough childhood (one thing in common...he thought darkly). While Don didn’t know all of the details, he figured that what made you so mild-mannered and passive. You weren’t sassy like Joan although you could keep up with her if push came to shove. Maybe that was why Joan was so fond of you also? You weren’t just some stereotypical “Mary Sue.” To put things politely, you were a good girl. Don hadn’t even heard you say a single curse word from the moment that he met you.  

You might as well get used to it, buddy. She doesn’t want you.

Don thought as he walked into the office. You, as usual, sat at your desk talking away on the telephone. Your eyes rolled up when Don stepped in.  

God, you were gorgeous! You sat in a black dress that showed off those legs that were driving him wild.

“Yes, that bouquet goes to prisoner 1458, Linda McCallum. Thank you.”

You hung up the phone and turned back to Don. God, did he have to be so handsome? A better question was why did you turn him down? You immediately dismissed that thought. His reputation was the reason why you turned him down. From the moment that you had been hired, his name was on the lips of a lot of women in the office on “who to avoid.” You had seen first hand what infidelity could do to a woman and wanted no part of it.  For now, you could just admire Don from afar. 

“Prisoner? What are you doing?”

Don questioned, slightly taken aback. You smiled but felt a slight blush spreading on your cheeks.

“My mother. She’s in prison. I always send her flowers on her birthday.”

Don sat down across from you. 

“Your mother is in prison?” 

You nodded. 

“Yes. It's kind of an unorthodox situation, I suppose.” 

You lightly tapped your foot. Your childhood wasn’t something that you discussed with many people. Since arriving in New York City, the only person that you really told everything to was Joan. 

“It is New York City. There are a lot of unorthodox here.” 

Don replied, pulling you from your thoughts. 

“I’ve not really talked to many people about this. My mother is in prison for killing my father.”

Don looked totally stunned by your confession. He sat quietly for a moment as if he was trying to judge whether or not this was some strange joke. When you didn’t say “gotcha” he realized that you were serious. 

“Are you serious?”

He managed to get out after a few more awkward moments. You lightly chuckled at the expression on his face. This was the typical expression that you received when you were honest about your childhood. 

“Yes. I am dead serious.” 

Don didn’t respond for a few moments.

“She caught him having an affair and shot him over dinner one night. I’ll leave out some of the more morbid details that typically creep people out. I was 7 and was raised by old school baptist grandparents. The stories that you have probably heard are correct. That is part of the reason I don’t date anyone. I don’t want to have someone cheat on me and I sink to the level my mother did.” 

You stood and walked to the window to avoid Don’s gaze. He quickly stood up when you mentioned the phrase “I’m single.” 

“What happened to Rober the accountant?”  

You realized that your white lie totally went down in flames. Blushing, you looked away from Don’s unamused expression. 

“Well...I have a confession to make. There is no Robert in accounting.” 

Don sat with a bemused expression. Had he really heard you correctly? He was turned down for some guy that did not exist. This had to be a first! He hadn’t been turned down this horribly before. 

“You turned down dinner with me for some imaginary guy?”

You were thinking about your next response. After Robert came into the conversation, Don treated you like he would any other secretary. 

“I didn't do it with mean intentions.” 

There it was...that sweet southern charm that was so refreshing. 

“I was partially kidding.” 

You smiled. 

“No, you weren't. You were being honest. I suppose that I owe you the same. I told you no because I was warned about you. There is also the fact that you are my boss. Where I come from that isn’t a good idea.” 

Don’s eyes darkened. All of his suspicions were quickly coming to light. He had the feeling that you had never been with a man. 

“You were warned about me?” 

“I won’t reveal my sources. You’ve been married multiple times with multiple girlfriends. If you are wanting to know if I find you attractive then the answer is yes. I won’t, however, become a notch on your bedpost.” 

You looked up to see Joan’s eyes watching you from across the room. She motioned you forward. Good old Joan. She knew exactly when you needed her. Your attention flickered back to Don who was still looking at you with a surprised expression. 

“Excuse me.” 

You said softly before placing a hand on his shoulder and walking away. 

____________

@shaylybaby2032, @brokencasbutt67-writer, @tas898, @supernaturalways, @supernaturalways, @untoldshortsofthefandoms, @li0nh34rt, @fandom-trash-worth-it, @wontlookaway, @mycuddlycorner, @shitfaceddaniel, @stuckinsaudi1. @emiwrites3reads, @shadows-and-padlocked-hearts, @deanwherescas, @authoressskr, @hankypranky, @summer-novak, @marichromatic, 

[birgittalady]

Herb, mushroom, leaf, sheep!

Herb: What is a scent you find relaxing? clean laundry, dry pine forest, that smell from the dry dirt road, Also there is that very specific smell of late summer night in city that always gives me this odd sense of peace Mushroom: What is a quote you find comfort in? Eventually soulmates meet, for they have same hiding place - Rober Braut Leaf: What is a plant you find beautiful? Araucaria´s they look like pine, but are so so soft and symmetrical Asplenium nidus (bird's-nest fern) those leafs, omg Marimo moss ball´s, just a good boy, so round, so soft! every Epipremnum variant (golden pothos), my mind is in peace Sheep: What is a comfort item you own? Was about to say my hubby´s hoodies, but they are not technically my own so i say, my Pusheen stuffed animal. I got it form my mom as a Christmas present a couple years ago. Great sleeping companion when i am alone at home. Thank you so much for sending this ask! <3