#they are my favorites that is all

[sunbratz]

hi its time for my bad dndads takes again here on my silly little blog and todays feature is inspired by @babacontainsmultitudes‘s post about similar taylor and nick are and i was actually going to add this onto that but i didn’t want to take up their space so.

what i actually want to talk about is cassandra and glenn! and how their differences as single parents really shaped the key difference between taylor and nick which is!! taylors confidence.

one of the big similarities pointed out about nick and taylor is this propensity towards loneliness both of them have. both of them very much have their set circle of people and idolize their parents in a very similar way that leaves them seemingly a bit isolated from other people their age (and otherwise, with nick trying to get glenn to abandon the party early s1)

during the trials, nick finally kind of unravels about his relationship with glenn in reference to this though by discussing how a lot of his loneliness and connection with his dad festers in this place of grief over his mom. he had his mom until he was 7 and looks up to his dad in a way where he feels they aren’t able to communicate about her death without ruining the “vibes” in the connection they have and he doesn’t even see him for at least 2 months out of the year. nick isn’t even comfortable enough to tell his dad he prefers universal studios and minions until the trial when he’s directly asked whether glenn indulges in his interest because he’s mimicking his dad so hard to keep that connection between them strong.

cassandra has a lot of clearly intentional similarities to glenn that are very obvious: she’s a single mom, celebrity-adjacent and isn’t around very often, she gives her kids video games for detention because she’s a bit out of touch and she’s not one to care about rules and restrictions presumably.

but something that anthony and freddie have worked into her character that wasn’t built in with glenn is that she has taken a LOT of care into showing her interest in taylor’s needs. 

the first thing we learn about her is that she quit (or at least put on hold) her daytime tv career in order to pursue voice acting because she thought it would be something her and taylor could bond over. she knows taylor well enough to give him video games he would enjoy during detention and to go through his bags for weapons she knows he has so he doesn’t get into further trouble. she trusts taylor enough to get an uber home from school but has enough foresight to tell him not to take the scooters because they’re dangerous even if they are the cooler option. she’s confident enough to answer taylor’s questions about nick not being around whenever he asks (which is implied to be at least more than once). they have a habit of giving kisses to each other over the phone when she’s not around which is precious but furthers the way she’s tried to continue to bond with taylor even when she couldn’t physically be around due to work or whatever.

and taylor mimics her love by doing things back for her. he gives her cakes and checks in with her when he can, not because he has to but because he wants to, versus nick who felt he had to learn to smoke weed and love disney and be cool in order to maintain that connection with glenn.

i think this is why taylor’s confidence and security makes so much sense. taylor is a lone wolf with only a close inner circle because he chooses to be. it’s why it’s so funny that he really just does not care about nick as his father at all! he has questions, of course, but most of those questions are based in his own curiosity and how they build out his story/background rather than his need to have a father. he’s confident enough in his choice of friends that he turns back for link, even after nick tells him his whole extended family (that he doesn’t know) is threatened if his friends choose to betray him like nick’s did to him. he’s happy to have his dad around but doesn’t feel the need to impress him or reduce himself to fit nick into his life because he’s fully secure with it just being him and his mom. 

i think this also goes into how a lot of their actions are similar but are driven by worry or confidence. nick didn’t choose to leave taylor as a baby but felt like he had to in order to protect his entire family (a classic hero’s backstory). taylor's so confident in his actions he feels he can fight his way out of any situation he’s put into (getting kidnapped, like, three times, willingly pretending to throw himself out of a tree in order to use his dad for a plan to get to hell, ect.) while protecting his friends not because he feels like he needs to but because he just simply wants to. nick chooses to minimize his needs out of worry for glenn where taylor is confident enough to argue with his mom over bringing weapons to school or because she’s ruining his favorite anime by dubbing it but still takes the time to make sure she knows he cares about her and is proud of her.

anyway i dont know if this was anything and i kinda lost my thought halfway through this because i know i had more to say, so i might add onto this later or something but. considering we don’t really get a lot of her and im not sure how intentional it was, i think the way they’ve used cass to foil glenn to make the dynamic between nick and taylor that much more interesting is really fun and cool to see play out. 

[churroach]

Looking respectfully

(EDIT: fellas, it’s really not that deep. Anyone starting beef over this stupid drawing getting blocked, i dont care to argue with people who come and judge me (a stranger) in bad faith. A bit dissapointed that this joke post is what’s getting the most attention but alas that’s the internet for ya i guess.)

[zytes]

this manatee looks like it’s in a skyrim loading screen

[isawken]

it’s that time of year again

[nyenyel]

[Image description: a comic of Mabel from Gravity Falls. She looks sad at first, saying: "Whenever my crushes like me back it feels wrong."

Perking up, she says: "I guess I'm losing feelings! Time to choose a new crush!"

She looks through binoculars, and continues: "Which boy should I have a crush on? I want an epic summer romance!"

In the last panel, she's in front of the aromantic flag. She's staring blankly, saying: "What. What do you mean that's not how crushes work. What is comp-het?" End ID.]

I propose: Mabel is aromantic she just has comphet

[mischieviem]

Wdym this wasn't the ending. I watched the movie. This is totally real and canon 🙄

[possession]

“His first question was: 'Who's your favourite philosopher?' My heart sank. I wanted to run off and burst into tears. I didn't know any philosophers. And he probably knew I didn't. When I said so, he replied, 'Oh come on, everyone has a favourite philosopher.' It was such a cruel thing to do to a young girl.” “I was desperate and trying not to cry, but I turned the tables on him and asked him to come up with some names – but he couldn't think of any either! Then he said to me, 'I suppose you've read Dickens,' thinking I hadn't. So I said, 'Yeah, I read him at school.' In the end he said, 'Oh, I can't interview her,' and left the stage.”

TWIGGY & WOODY ALLEN My Generation (2017) dir. David Batty

[hansoeii]

vampire crowley 🦇

[cloysterbell]

I like to keep an eye out for bumper stickers whenever I'm on a walk. Here are a few of my favorites

[mugentakeda]

in my opinion the best "zuko joins the gaang early" fics are the ones that take place in book 1. the comedic potential is unparalleled

[deep-space-netwerk]

So Venus is my favorite planet in the solar system - everything about it is just so weird.

It has this extraordinarily dense atmosphere that by all accounts shouldn't exist - Venus is close enough to the sun (and therefore hot enough) that the atmosphere should have literally evaporated away, just like Mercury's. We think Earth manages to keep its atmosphere by virtue of our magnetic field, but Venus doesn't even have that going for it. While Venus is probably volcanically active, it definitely doesn't have an internal magnetic dynamo, so whatever form of volcanism it has going on is very different from ours. And, it spins backwards! For some reason!!

But, for as many mysteries as Venus has, the United States really hasn't spent much time investigating it. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, sent no less than 16 probes to Venus between 1961 and 1984 as part of the Venera program - most of them looked like this!

The Soviet Union had a very different approach to space than the United States. NASA missions are typically extremely risk averse, and the spacecraft we launch are generally very expensive one-offs that have only one chance to succeed or fail.

It's lead to some really amazing science, but to put it into perspective, the Mars Opportunity rover only had to survive on Mars for 90 days for the mission to be declared a complete success. That thing lasted 15 years. I love the Opportunity rover as much as any self-respecting NASA engineer, but how much extra time and money did we spend that we didn't technically "need" to for it to last 60x longer than required?

Anyway, all to say, the Soviet Union took a more incremental approach, where failures were far less devastating. The Venera 9 through 14 probes were designed to land on the surface of Venus, and survive long enough to take a picture with two cameras - not an easy task, but a fairly straightforward goal compared to NASA standards. They had…mixed results.

Venera 9 managed to take a picture with one camera, but the other one's lens cap didn't deploy.

Venera 10 also managed to take a picture with one camera, but again the other lens cap didn't deploy.

Venera 11 took no pictures - neither lens cap deployed this time.

Venera 12 also took no pictures - because again, neither lens cap deployed.

Lotta problems with lens caps.

For Venera 13 and 14, in addition to the cameras they sent a device to sample the Venusian "soil". Upon landing, the arm was supposed to swing down and analyze the surface it touched - it was a simple mechanism that couldn't be re-deployed or adjusted after the first go.

This time, both lens caps FINALLY ejected perfectly, and we were treated to these marvelous, eerie pictures of the Venus landscape:

However, when the Venera 14 soil sampler arm deployed, instead of sampling the Venus surface, it managed to swing down and land perfectly on….an ejected lens cap.

[arrgh-whatever]

[kodasea]

Son of Gondor

[kelocitta]

Friendly return fire for Shuckerss of The Forgotten and The Vision!!!!!!

[inkskinned]

probably time for this story i guess but when i was a kid there was a summer that my brother was really into making smoothies and milkshakes. part of this was that we didn't have AC and couldn't afford to run fans all day so it was kind of important to get good at making Cool Down Concoctions.

we also had a patch of mint, and he had two impressionable little sisters who had the attitude of "fuck it, might as well."

at one point, for fun, this 16 year old boy with a dream in his eye and scientific fervor in heart just wanted to see how far one could push the idea of "vanilla mint smoothie". how much vanilla extract and how much mint can go into a blender before it truly is inedible.

the answer is 3 cups of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup milk alternative, and about 50 sprigs (not leaves, whole spring) of mint. add ice and the courage of a child. idk, it was summer and we were bored.

the word i would use to describe the feeling of drinking it would maybe be "violent" or perhaps, like. "triangular." my nose felt pristine. inhaling following the first sip was like trying to sculpt a new face. i was ensconced in a mesh of horror. it was something beyond taste. for years after, i assumed those commercials that said "this is how it feels to chew five gum" were referencing the exact experience of this singular viscous smoothie.

what's worse is that we knew our mother would hate that we wasted so much vanilla extract. so we had to make it worth it. we had to actually finish the drink. it wasn't "wasting" it if we actually drank it, right? we huddled around outside in the blistering sun, gagging and passing around a single green potion, shivering with disgust. each sip was transcendent, but in a sort of non-euclidean way. i think this is where i lost my binary gender. it eroded certain parts of me in an acidic gut ecology collapse.

here's the thing about love and trust: the next day my brother made a different shake, and i drank it without complaint. it's been like 15 years. he's now a genuinely skilled cook. sometimes one of the three of us will fuck up in the kitchen or find something horrible or make a terrible smoothie mistake and then we pass it to each other, single potion bottle, and we say try it it's delicious. it always smells disgusting. and then, cerimonious, we drink it together. because that's what family does.

[royaltea000]

“A thousand generations serve to praise…”