#this is mostly a dig a Facebook

[existennialmemes]

Sorry, I'm not supposed to have Feelings™ that aren't marketable. The algorithm doesn't like it.

[pepsiboyy]

HEARTSTRINGS. - p1

masterlist ⚜ p2

pairing: chris sturniolo x fem!reader summary: after moving to massachusetts from florida, y/n lives with her half brother, nathan doe, who is part of a small garage band. their sassy guitarist, chris sturniolo, can't help but get on her nerves. but there's something about him. warnings: use of y/n lol, mentions of drugs, cursing a/n: rewrote the FUCK out of this, i hope this one is SO MUCH BETTER. love u guys. <3

"chris?"

"phone charger girl!"

"the fuck is he doing here?" my voice boomed in the garage, causing nathan to flinch slightly.

"woah, you two know each other?"

"sort of." chris responded with that stupid smug smirk on his face.

"not at all, actually." i responded quickly, immediately shutting down chris' disgusting expression.

my heartbeat was racing. i couldn't feel anything but anger in every fiber of my being. i couldn't help but remember to myself earlier today.

i had been living in massachusetts for about three days now. very interesting place, very different from florida.

after my mom's drug addiction became a major issue, cps was informed and i was sent to my dad's in boston, where i was completely unfamiliar with everyone and everything.

my dad's side, they weren't complete strangers if checking his status on facebook counted as being close.

shortly after i was born, my mom took me and left my dad in boston while we fled to live in florida. and as i get older, i can't help but feel more hatred towards the woman. my dad was a great guy, never deserved the way she treated him. he definitely did not deserve his first child being ripped away from his grasp a few months into my life.

when my mom and i moved to florida, my dad met another woman and had a child with her, whose name is nathan.

he seems like a really cool guy, an awesome brother to have, so i was looking forward to this move a lot, more than i probably should have.

the feeling of fresh air was appealing to me and the feeling of finally being there to reassure my dad that i want to be with him was even more exciting to me.

nate and i clicked pretty quickly, talking about our music taste on the way home from the airport. we talked a lot about video games, and he told me he was involved in a small garage band and plays the drums.

"that's so fucking cool!" i exclaimed with a bright smile, and nathan nodded.

"yeah! we mostly do covers now, but i plan on releasing some new and original music soon."

i nodded as i stayed focused on nate as he spoke, playing with my hands in my lap nervously.

the fact that this kid was my brother was so mind blowing to me. i couldn't wait.

the doe family had left to go to an event they had only bought three tickets for. i reassured them over and over that i was okay with staying at the house and continuing to settle in. and with that they left.

i dug through my bag and frowned when i came to a tragic realization.

"fuck." i cursed under my breath as i stood up and slid on my shoes.

time to go to that one gas station down the street we stopped at on the way here from the airport.

i left the house through the front door and slid my earbuds into my ears, playing my favorite playlist as i walked down the street.

boston was a lot more close together than florida. it genuinely made my heart happy.

about fifteen minutes into my walk and i find the gas station, pulling the door opened and look at the employee at the counter, smiling faintly to greet him. his eyes were glued to his phone though, so i turned to make my way up and down the aisles and look for the phone charger that works for my phone.

"eighteen dollars is fucking bizarre." i muttered under my breath at the charging brick box that i now have between my fingers. i carefully took it off the bar and grabbed a six ft long cord, making my way to the counter.

this is great. no job, new place, and i was already burning a hole into my savings for a fucking phone charger.

i set the two boxes on the counter and began digging through my pockets to find my wallet, the boxes hitting the counter a little harder than i had intended.

"woah there, sensing some aggression from 'ya. boyfriend start an argument with you or what?"

i finally found my wallet, but my eyes shifted quickly to the boy at the counter. "excuse me?" i asked, my face flushed at the thought. "it doesn't-" i blinked a few times. this kid was insane. "just ring me out please." i sighed as i inserted my card in the cardreader.

"relax sweetheart, just yankin' your chain." he stated defensively, skipping through the prompts on his screen. his hair was a little longer than average, and fairly wavy. he had a silver cuban link bracelet on one wrist and a few small handmade ones on the other, a ring or two on each hand. he had silver hoops in his ears and a plain black t-shirt on over his blue baggy jeans.

i stared at him in disbelief before i put my pin into the pad, yanking out my card as soon as it beeped and quickly shoving it into my wallet. chris set the charger boxes into a small plastic bag, placing it on the counter between us.

"i'm not your sweetheart," i narrowed my eyes at the nametag on his shirt, sucking in through my teeth, "chris."

i gripped the bag and left the gas station, and never turned back to see chris with his arms raised, and that disgusting smirk on his face.

my music was playing extra loud in my headphones in a desperate attempt to drown out the sound of nate slamming the drums in the garage.

i carefully sat up, my hand moving to run through my hair as i slipped on my shoes and stepped down the stairs. i was just wearing some pajama shorts and an oversized hoodie, but who even cares, right?

my hair was thrown into a messy bun, and i had one earbud in as my eyes were glued to my phone. i turned the doorknob to the garage carefully before stepping in and lifting my head as the music came to a halt.

and with that, my eyes widened.

and that's how we got here. with a finger pointed to my face.

"the fuck is he doing here?" my voice boomed in the garage, causing nathan to flinch slightly.

"woah, you two know each other?"

"sort of." chris responded with that stupid, smug smirk on his face.

"not at all, actually." i immediately barked back, crossing my arms.

nate looked between us both and shrugged it off quickly before he pulled a chair beside him. "come listen, y/n. i think you'd like it a lot." he told me.

i couldn't say no. i really was curious to hear nathan play. "okay, sure. just for a bit though." i reminded him of the time, and he smiled brightly and sat down in his seat.

i felt chris' eyes burning into the back of my head the whole time, his shaggy brunette locks perfectly draping over his forehead, which was a bit damp, while his eyes shifted to focus on his guitar again.

nate turned to me with a bright smile, grabbing his drumsticks as he glanced to the other two, making sure they were ready.

i watched the three and smiled as they began playing.

they were really good, actually.

better than i had expected them to be.

with nathan slamming the drums with his drumsticks and the boy i didn't know yet playing the bass, chris actually knocked his part out of the park.

chris glanced up for half a second, where we locked eyes. my eyes widened as he turned back to his guitar and a small smile grew on his face.

i hate this kid.

the song came to an end, and i turned to nathan, applauding happily.

"you guys sound great, genuinely. have you guys worked on any original stuff?"

nathan chuckled and shrugged, glancing between the other two. "a bit. chris writes phenomenal lyrics. we're working on it."

i glanced to chris for a moment, who was now gently strumming the strings of his guitar. i gulped as i stared at his hands, then turned back to nate. "i'm excited for you guys. let me know if i can do anything to help?"

nate nodded happily, and i stood up.

"alright, i'm gonna try and go to sleep. good luck to you guys." i waved at the three, and smiled at nate, my eyes quickly glancing at chris who waved softly back, no clear expression on his face anymore.

and with that, i opened the garage door and shut it, before taking a deep sigh and leaning against it.

"dude, you didn't tell me your sister was bad as hell," an unfamiliar voice rang, which i assumed was the bassist.

"wh- ben, gross! shut up dude," nathan quickly stated.

i cringed at the boy's comment, shaking my head quickly as if he could see me responding or something.

"invite her more often." chris stated blankly, standing up from his seat as he adjusted his guitar strap.

nathan turned to chris and narrowed his eyes.

i quickly stood up and made my way back to my bedroom, laying flat against the bed and turning up the music playing in my earbuds.

chris playing guitar and writing some lyrics.

it made me genuinely curious about whether or not this guy actually wrote good lyrics.

i hated being curious about him.

but i needed to know more.

masterlist ⚜ p2

comment to be added to taglist!! taglist;; @sturnioloshacker

[vaspider]

I genuinely hope this isn’t too prying or intrusive, I am strictly asking out of curiosity but…. What…. Is going on with that 16 year old and why is it on a post about a house coat? Are you ok?

I'm fine.

That kid has been fixated on me since I said, basically, that the French Revolution killed a bunch of innocent people and isn't something to be emulated.

For the past 3 weeks, since I told her to leave me alone on Tumblr, she's been stalking me across the internet, digging up every possible way to contact me, and sending elaborate death threats along with suicide threats. I've turned off the contact forms on my professional website and NK. She's sent asks here and contacted me from multiple Tumblrs, multiple Facebook and Instagram accounts, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, BlueSky, and multiple email accounts. I'm pretty sure I'm missing something, though I do have it all screenshotted and saved. She found my phone number and left multiple threatening voicemails, and she kept contacting my business, sending death threats to places where my employees, including my younger brother, had to deal with them.

She seems to think that I'm a man, and that I'm attempting to use magic on her, and that she can threaten me into doing whatever it is she wants. I don't really understand what's going on in her head, and I'm not trying to do so. I don't really read the things she writes.

At this point, the FBI is involved - she's been sending death threats pretty much every day for about a month now with a few breaks here and there - and I've been declining to respond to her for the vast majority of that time, hoping that she'd get bored, or, hopefully, that someone who cares about her would realize how deeply, deeply unwell she is and get her help before this becomes a criminal matter. I really, really don't want to be put in that position, but I also can't ask the people who work for me (some of whom are my family) to deal with a constant barrage of messages detailing how if I don't publicly apologize for ... fuck all if I know or care... she's going to "slit [my] throat like a Sicilian" and throw my body in the Willamette River.

I really, really, really just want this kid to leave me alone. I didn't seek her out - she sought me out - and I'm not interested in talking to or debating with a 16 year old. But, also, the things that she's been doing for the past month are crimes and truly beyond the pale.

As to why that's on a video about a housecoat... your guess is as good as mine. Her last comments before this were on the two public videos on my abandoned YouTube account, both of which were process videos about making patches, and she left death threats on a post on my old personal Instagram that I made on the day of the Tree of Life shooting. It has nothing to do with me or what I'm saying - she seems to just randomly pick things to add her bizarre urban fantasy VASpider fanfic to.

Please leave that person alone, everybody. She is a third my age and very clearly deeply unwell. I'd been ignoring her, but I'm kind of hoping against hope that knowing that, yeah, actually, what she's doing is a crime, people take that seriously, and I really really really don't want her to fuck up her life? will convince her to stop.

I'm not afraid. I'm mostly just tired and very, very sad. It is really upsetting to see someone who is so out of alignment with consensus reality, and it's even more upsetting when that person is so young. I feel deeply sorry for her, both that she's unwell in a way that's clearly causing her harm, and that she doesn't seem to be getting the help she needs from the people around her. I hope it's just that the people around her don't realize what's going on and that someone can make them aware, because it is just... rotten... to see someone that young making such a mess of things.

I don't want to talk about this further. I've been avoiding talking about it publicly at all, but at the point where we're closing on a month... I dunno. I hope saying something directly and making it clear this isn't going to go the way she thinks gets it through to her.

I'm gonna go play with my dog.

[harrypotterfuryroad]

as a fellow bar pod listener, got any other podcast recs? I’m new to podcasts

actual feminism is super inactive but their series about digging through facebook groups is classic

feminist current you can pick and choose through episodes for interviews you might find interesting, meghan murphy is kinda all over the place at this point tho so the older episodes are much better

nolan investigates is a deep dive into how thoroughly stonewall (the uk lobby group) had integrated themselves into the government and companies

things fell apart traces current cultural issues to their origins, the first season is assorted stuff but the second season is mostly about covid-adjacent conspiracy stuff

sold a story is another investigative podcast about how bad reading instruction (and reading comprehension) has gotten in us public schools

[thejoyofseax]

SCA Social Media

Aside from being a cooking nerd, I'm also very interested in communications and information flow. It would be reasonable to say that inasmuch as a Pelican is awarded for any one thing, I got mine in comms and diplomacy. (Or at least, I assume so; I don't have visibility on the discussions the Pelican circle had about me pre-elevation.) I'm also Drachenwald's social media minister.

There's a thing I see cropping up recently among Facebook users in the various social media: a strongly stated dislike of Discord. For context, there's a shift underway in Drachenwald for the bulk of day to day communications, from Facebook to Discord. Discord has a wide range of technical advantages over Facebook, and it's more used by the younger generations who are (gradually) taking over running things from the older folks. But there are many people who will happily state that they hate Discord.

I don't like Facebook, myself. It was a decent enough medium in about 2014; it has gotten worse in every measurable way since (except shareholder value, of course). It's particularly useless for trying to get information to people; every part of it is governed by an algorithm that selects what to show on any given screen, based mostly on what will annoy them most (annoyance leads to more time spent looking at the screen than any other emotion, ergo more time looking at ads, ergo more money for Meta).

Discord (at present; I make zero long-term predictions, and fully expect it to start getting worse at some point) has no such issues - the information flow on it is under the control of the server admin, pretty much, and it's searchable and categorisable as needed. Also, I just like the feel of Discord more; it's a lot more like a real conversation than Facebook's shouting-across-the-corporate-lobby atmosphere.

But this dislike of the new medium isn't new. Humans, for all we're supposed to like novelty, dislike change. I wrote as a comment in one of the discussions on Facebook:

"Facebook was massively polarising when it first started, because it was "taking over" from discussion lists. Discussion lists were massively polarising when they first started because they were taking over (assume scare quotes from here on) from newsgroups and phone trees. Phone trees and newsgroups were absolutely HATED when they started, taking over from paper newsletters (some of which were from before printing and photocopying was a thing, and were produced by mimeographic printing). If I dig around, I can find things written by Crusty Old Peers at each stage of this maintaining that the New Thing Will Destroy The SCA."

And you can extend that beyond the SCA right back to Plato complaining that the written word will prevent people from learning properly as they did in oral traditions.

My current position on this is that we should be using our websites - which are the one medium we actually "own", generally - as the source of actual information. We can then link to that from anywhere else on the internet, social or not. And the conversations can fall where they may, for each branch and household and other grouping, because honestly, that's how it's always been. If people don't like Discord, they don't have to use it, and it's only us unfortunate comms people who have to use all the different media.

(I recognise the irony of posting this on Another Social Medium. But Tumblr behaves more like a website for publication purposes, and comes with many of the advantages for getting information to people - RSS feeds, deep linking, etc.)

I'm also going to teach some classes on how to actually use Discord, I think. I've been steeped in talkers, IRC, and other channel-and-text media as long as I've been online, which is closing on 30 years now, so there are almost certainly aspects of functionality there that I take for granted and which are not evident to people unused to it. Or they're expecting it to work the same way as Facebook does, and don't have the technical experience to jump to a different medium. Either way, a start-with-the-basics actual-demonstration of how to use it is almost certainly useful.

[originalleftist]

Musk hired spies to surveil his critics and girlfriend.

Highlights:

"One of those critics is Vernon Unsworth, who sued Musk in 2018 for calling him a "pedo guy" on Twitter. A new Tortoise investigation reveals that the scale of surveillance used against Unsworth was greater than previously known: Musk used at least two sets of private investigators, both of which used deception to try to gather information."

"Musk deployed private investigators to follow a Tesla employee "24 hours a day". A former security operative at Tesla alleges the company also hacked into the employee's phone. Other whistleblowers also allege that they were followed."

"Unbeknownst to Unsworth, Musk's tam then paid about $50,000 to a private investigator called James Howard-Higgins to dig up dirt on Unsworth. Howard-Higgins promised that he would go through Unsworth's bins, pose as a charity worker to get information, and infiltrate his partner's Facebook page.

No due diligence. A Google search would have revealed that Howard-Higgins was a fraudster, jailed in 2016 for stealing from his own company. As the US trial, which Musk won by portraying his Twitter comments as a joke, his team portrayed Howard-Higgins as a one-off. In fact another investigation firm called Orion was also tasked with getting information on Unsworth. Emails show how Orion emailed one of Unsworth's friends, telling him, incorrectly, that they were "working on behalf of Vernon"."

"Musk allegedly placed his former partner Amber Heard under surveillance in Australia having become suspicious that she was cheating on him.

Around the same time a local newspaper received an anonymous tip that an Aussie Rules footballer was "spending many nights at Amber Heard's house" and "leaving early in the morning looking like the cat that swallowed the canary".

The paper traced the message to SpaceX, one of Musk's companies.

When one of its reporters spoke to Musk, he accepted that someone close to him had sent the tip but claimed it was done without his knowledge.

"My personal belief is that [Musk] definitely sent it," says the reporter, Sally Coates."

I've seen other outlets claim that Musk used infrared technology to spy on Heard's home and detect any movement inside, but can't confirm this from a source I consider credible.

Anyway, reminder that Muskrat is a serial domestic abuser and sexual predator as well as a fascist, that his supposed support for "free speech" (as always with the Right) just means "freedom for me to say whatever I want with no consequences, and no one else has freedom to disagree with or criticize me", and that how he conducts himself in his private life and in his businesses is mirrored in his goals for society as a whole.

Also, that this "genius" is so incompetent that he couldn't even use Google for two minutes before hiring a convicted con man.

(Addendum: I know a lot of people have accused Tortoise Media of being part of some grand Right-wing/transphobic conspiracy, but so far as I've found that's mostly desperate Neil Gaiman fans trying to make out that the accusations against him by multiple unconnected women, that he partly admitted to and others in the industry corroborated, are a vast Conservative conspiracy to frame him for being pro-trans. In other words- ridiculous and misogynist. Tortoise has some credibility issues of being fairly new, without much of an established track record and, like many major media outlets, having big business money behind it. But also, far Right psy-op outlets probably aren't inclined to write detailed exposes on Elon Musk and the Saudi Royals.)

[wildlife4life]

Fuck-it Friday

Tagged several times before I even woke up! Haha. But thank you to these lovelies for the tags. @prince-buck-diaz, @bekkachaos, @thewolvesof1998, @heartbeatdiaz, @ebdaydreamer, and @transbuck

I think we all know what I'm about to drop, but also with the fun surprise of a fake instagram post! I'm getting nifty! So here it is, another snippet of NFL Buck and Firefighter Eddie secret relationship.

Chimney wasn’t trying to stalk Eddie on social media because it’s kind hard to when that person’s internet presence is almost non-existent. His twitter was practically tweet free, just retweets, mostly from WeRateDogs.  His Facebook profile was just about the same, with the most recent original post being about moving to Los Angeles. Instagram was a dead end, private and Eddie had yet to accept his follower request.

How the hell was Chimney supposed to find out anything about this mysterious boyfriend of Eddie’s? All he knew was that he made good money, had a sister, and worked out at some fancy gym. He needed to know more!

Chimney was just about to give up, then two weeks after the request, Eddie finally accepted.  The paramedic went on the deepest dive he could, clicking through post after post, noting most of his page were pictures of Christopher, a couple of group shots with his Houston firehouse, a handful of photos with who Chimney assumed were members of his family, including the once mentioned sisters, and a single picture of Eddie with two other paramedics in front of an ambulance for Austin, Texas.

It was the second to last picture though, that finally gave Chimney a lead.   

The photo was almost artistic in a sense, with the Longhorn’s stadium at field level, lit up by the lights with a beautiful Texas sunset in the background. It had 10 likes, and two comments.  One from his former paramedic captain Tommy Vega and the other, a single emoji from an account Chimney saw had liked every photo Eddie had posted. Buck4life.

The page was private, with a profile picture of a beautiful dog with a black coat, which looked a little familiar.  He had 10 followers but followed 100 plus.  Another dead end.

He clicks on tommy_vega_126, digs a bit there, and finds that she follows and is followed by Buck4life.  So, Eddie’s previous captain knows this ‘Buck’, who is most likely the mysterious boyfriend. Because who else besides family would like every photo and family doesn’t leave a cryptic, yet loving emoji on a photo that is reflecting on emotional beginnings.

Chimney’s conclusion: Buck4life was the boyfriend and they met during Eddie’s time working the Longhorn games. That boyfriend has a dog, which meant Eddie has a dog, and Chimney is really curious how that man comes into work without a single trace of dog fur on him.  Hen would definitely like to know.  Even since rescuing Pasiley, she has come in with some part of her civilian clothes and uniform decorated with white fur and she puts up a minor fuss about it every time.

He needed to find his best friend and present his new findings.

See nifty! And yes, they will have a dog, who is based off of Oliver Stark's own, Jade. Alright I hope you all enjoyed and if you want to see the other post from this wip, just click on the nfl tag on my page, they should all come up.

Tagging (sorry if already tagged and/or posted! No pressure!): @elvensorceress @911onabc @shortsighted-owl @thekristen999 @lizzybizzyzzz @cowboy-buddie @911-on-abc

[martha-anne]

I have a small garden. This is a relatively recent development, and it has been occupying a lot of my thoughts.

Writing about those thoughts here seems like as good an outlet as any.

The garden is looking particularly bad at the moment. Rather than speculating about what I want it to be like, I’m going to write about some things that have already happened and which I am happy about.

These pruned plants - a blackcurrant bush and a rose! I had never pruned anything before (I had never had anything that needed pruning before) and I felt paralysed by my own incompetence at first. I’m very glad to have given it a go. Either I've done it right, or I will have learned something about how not to prune.

Speaking of being paralysed by incompetence, these fenceposts! I knew I wanted to put up some kind of plant support/trellis along the back of this bed, but the task felt utterly insurmountable a few months ago. I had no idea how to go about it, so I did what I always do in such situations and asked my mum for advice. Cue posts, post-spikes, a mallet, and an improvised drive-in tool… I still need to string wires between them, but soon I’ll have a structure to train plants up.

This heap of twigs! These are the prunings from the blackcurrant and rose plants mentioned in the first point. There was not enough space in the compost bin for them at the time, so I’ve left them in a pile over winter. I hope it is a nice home for some appreciative bugs.

The compost! How do I love my compost bin? Let me count the ways.This pile of decomposing matter brings me indescribable joy. Since we started composting cardboard and food scraps we have so little waste to go into the dustbin. The compost is full of worms and all sorts of other life. I like to check on it in the mornings before I go to work.

The pond! I dug this a few months ago, and at the time I remember feeling like it was the first honest day’s work of my life. I got some water plants for free from a local facebook plant swap group. The eventual aim of this pond is to attract frogs to help deal with the slug population - I’m playing the long game. Of course, it will take some time for the ecosystem to stabilise - but already there is life! I was delighted to discover water hog-lice a few weeks ago. It’s a Christmas miracle!

This no-dig lasagna gardening bed! Every online resource said that this kind of bed is better if left for several months before being planted up. I planted mine immediately and the results were not amazing - so I’ve learned something, and this coming year it should be better.

Tulips! I mentally calculated and purchased what I felt was an appropriate amount of tulips for the space. A week later, a visiting friend brought the same quantity of tulip bulbs again as a housewarming gift. Finding somewhere for them all to go was a challenge, but my friend and I managed it together. I’ve now mostly forgotten where we planted them, which will be a fun springtime surprise.

There is so much I want to do with this space and so much I’ve tried which has already failed. I don’t really know much about gardening yet, but in 10 years time maybe I will have figured it out ;) Three cheers for my shabby January garden!

[disgruntledexplainer]

**Facebook: out of touch boomers with unrelateable senses of humor and terrible judgement, corporate-funded misinformation campaigns, and a lot of dead accounts.

**Pinterest: has a completely unearned reputation as a refuge of wholesome internet users. that's just the surface. dig a little deeper and you will see a toxic landscape of hate-filled conspiracy theories, and misinformation that would make an american politician blush.

**Instagram: small businesses, people who like to take pictures of food, the incredibly vain, and """cosplayers""" who don't really cosplay, and their """devoted""" fans. the """cosplayers""" may or may not be advertising for their account on another infamous website. fake meme community that steals memes and claims they made them.

*Reddit: Memers, degenerates, fedora-tipping faux intellectuals with one brain-cell and a god complex. most users have an infantile understanding of all of the following subjects: science, history, religion, politics, economics, philosophy, morality, law, propriety, and basic hygiene; they also ALWAYS believe that they have a perfect mastery of all of these subjects. Mostly left-wing, kinda pathetic.

4chan: Memers, degenerates, people with a bizarre degree of programming knowledge and way too much time on their hands. everyone is an extremist, regardless of ideology, but they somehow seem to get along. Mostly right wing, kinda scary.

*Tumblr: Wasteland of dead accounts. Once dominated by porn addicts and their favorite artists, as well as the most deranged elements of various fandoms. used to be the domain of insane leftoids, but is now ironically probably the most centrist entry on this list. members are either moderately gay, moderately religious, very into witchcraft, or some combination thereof. also dominated by small echo-chambers with ideologies so fragile that they shatter the moment they try to interact with anyone else.

Twitter: dominated by insane rightoids. formerly dominated by insane leftoids, who went extinct when an asteroid struck. so insane that screenshots of their posts is a form of entertainment on virtually every other platform.

*Youtube Comments: The worst aspects of reddit and pinterest somehow rolled into one.

Discord: All I know is that the mods can't be trusted.

Tik Tok: I am too old to understand this site, but it gives me bad vibes.

*I'm currently on this site

**I used to be on this site.

[mallgothyamaguchi]

Hii! How are you today? Also do you have any of the Haikyuu manga books? I’ve always wanted to buy them! 🫶🏻

i’m good ty for asking!

i do have a small collection of haikyuu manga. i started collecting earlier this summer, so i’ve still got some ways to go before finishing my collection. currently, i have volumes 1-9 (which makes up the first full arc, ending with their first game against aoba johsai) and volumes 34-37 (excluding volume 35,,,, i STILL CANT FIND IT IN PERSON) for the full nekoma vs karasuno game.

my plan right now is to collect from the last 9 volumes to finish out the series and read what hasn’t been animated yet, then go back and collect 10-33. i would also really love to own the art book! collecting takes a long time, so i’m expecting this project to go into next year, esp since i’m about to finish my job for the summer.

there are plenty of sites and places you can buy! i’ve mostly purchased from barnes & noble and newbury comics (i feel very lucky to have a newbury near me), but i know that the crunchyroll online store sells the series for a slightly cheaper price than regular retail, and if you don’t mind secondhand, definitely check on thriftbooks, depop, facebook marketplace, etc. i personally have purchased all of mine brand new so far, but i’ve been thinking about the secondhand market. it takes a little digging, and a little perseverance! i hope this helped encouraged you to get started!

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Ozarks Habitat Restoration: Privet, Honeysuckle, and One Rogue Hoe

Originally posted on my website at https://rebeccalexa.com/ozarks-habitat-restoration-privet-honeysuckle-and-one-rogue-hoe/

I wasn’t always a Northwest kinda person. I originally grew up in the Missouri Ozarks, mostly in Rolla, surrounded by farmland swiftly being chewed up into yet another subdivision. But there were patches of woods and fields left for me to explore. Often it was disturbed land being taken over by eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) and a host of invasive species. But further away from home I saw remnants of vast white oak forests and savannas.

Being rather sheltered in a not-outdoorsy family, and not having much in the way of friends, I didn’t have much opportunity to explore the local ecology in person. So I have this odd mishmash of Things I Know about where I grew up, and a whole bunch of Things I Don’t Know, too. Now that I’m coming back to visit this place periodically with more knowledge and skills, I’m taking the time to fill in the blanks as quickly as I can.

One of the ways I’ve been able to reconnect with this place is by volunteering with the Ozark Rivers Audubon Chapter whenever I’m in town. They have a beautiful 70-acre nature center on the northwest end of town, and in spite of its size it features five distinct habitat types–oak savanna, upland oak/hickory forest with some shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata), a dolomite glade, tallgrass prairie, and a lovely little spring-fed stream with riparian habitat on either side. A trail system allows visitors to explore this wonderful array of habitats.

When the weather is good, you can find volunteers out working on habitat restoration and other projects around the center. This includes significant numbers of students from the Missouri University of Science and Technology (which was the University of Missouri-Rolla back when I was working on my Bachelor’s degree there–one of maybe fifty English majors at a STEM-focused campus!) The coordinators are always open to drop-in volunteers, so if you find yourself in the area, check the bulletin board on site for information about upcoming volunteer events, or check their Facebook page.

Earlier this month I was in town, and dropped in for a volunteer event. It was a potpourri of maintenance and upkeep efforts, with volunteers adding wood chips to trails and clearing blockages from drainage systems, among other tasks. I ended up being directed to wage war on some of the invasive plants plaguing the riparian area near the picnic shelter. In addition to a Pullerbear–which, along with the very similar Extractigator, is one of my main tools at home for yanking up Scotch broom  (Cytisus scoparius)–I was given a new toy to play with.

Rogue Hoe isn’t just inspiration for a great band name. It’s also become my new favorite thing for invasive species removal. Specifically, I got to use their hoe/pick combo, with a 48″ ash handle. Now, it may just look like an undersized mattock, but let me tell you–this thing is far superior. It’s much lighter, weighing in at about three pounds. And the shorter, more slender head is a lot easier to manipulate into tiny areas where you might have an invasive plant growing right next to a native one you want to keep, or right underneath the root system of a big ol’ plant you want to get rid of. If you need to dig out a bigger plant and the extractor isn’t budging it, or you have a slender plant that you worry may break if you pull it, you can use the Rogue Hoe to loosen the soil around the roots.

Oh, one more cool thing about it–Rogue Hoe makes their tools out of recycled agricultural disc blades! Can’t go wrong with sturdy and green.

So with the Rogue Hoe and Pullerbear in hand, I set about seeing how deeply into the riparian zone I could get myself, systematically yanking invasive plants as I went. The most numerous was some sort of privet (Ligustrum sp.) But unsurprisingly I found not one but two species of invasive honeysuckle, bush (Lonicera tatarica) and Japanese (Lonicera japonica).

Because spring growth is just getting ramped up, there were tons of little bitty new plants, plus some one to two year olds. These were easily dealt with with the Rogue Hoe–chuck the wider end of the blade underneath the roots like you would with a mattock or hoe, then pull the entire plant up–often bringing other invasives like non-native grasses along for the ride. Bigger plants got the Pullerbear, with a slow but steady pressure that levered them right out of the soil. Over a period of a little under two hours, I managed to make a respectable pile of weeds.

And I made it all the way to the little stream! I wasn’t able to completely clear a section of the bank, but I flagged a few larger privet and bush honeysuckle that were just too much for me to take on myself. While I was grubbing around in the underbrush looking for new privet growth, I managed to find a few nice little gooseberries, probably Ribes missouriense, along with some common blue violets (Viola sororia) just popping up. Standing back from the area I’d cleared, I could definitely tell there was a difference.

The first of several Missouri gooseberry plants I found amid the invasive plants I removed.

I wrapped up the day by getting an impromptu tour of some of the native wildflowers in bloom with the manager of the nature center. It was a great chance to fill in some of those holes in my knowledge of Ozarks native flora, and nice to have a little time there that wasn’t spent working.

The afternoon went by all too quickly: I really do have fun with invasive plant removal, even more than getting native plants in the ground. But it also made me a bit homesick for Washington, and Willapa NWR, and all the work that still needs doing there. It’s okay, though. No matter where I go, there will always be someplace that can use my help, and people working toward a better world who welcome another pair of hands.

Before (left) and after (right), click for a larger version. I forgot to take a before picture of the exact location cleared, so the “before” is right next to it. But you get the idea.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes or hiring me for a guided nature tour, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

[mrbottomhat69]

Mystixx Doll Lore (at least the vampire dolls) + fanfiction-y reboot idea

I'm deeply obsessed with these literally two-faced bitches and suddenly remembered the first doll line gave them established personalities. Here's what I managed to dig up from the info on the Mystixx Facebook page (or the images of the character bios)

Kalani: Massive nerd, super shy, strict vegan (does this interfere with her vampirism at all?). Her parents are professors (in what? It's never specified) and home-schooled her until her high-school years. Her shyness is honestly justified: if I went from spending most of my life home-schooled to suddenly being in a massive school with roughly 300 or more other people, I'd have trouble socializing as well (wait, isn't that the plot of Mean Girls?). Her most noted flaw is jealousy, mostly of the popular girls.

Siva: Vampire royalty with her lineage being traced back to the "old country" (I don't wanna assume Transylvania, but I think that's what they're implying), but wants to be a normal teenager more than everything. She's popular, she's kind, and knows how to have fun. Her most noted flaw is arrogance, with her royal lineage being labeled as the cause.

Talin: The social popular girl looking for "that special boyfriend" (direct quote). Confident, fun, doesn't care what others think of her, knows the right people to get whatever she wants. She's basically the opposite of Kalani, even noting she almost exclusively eats meat. She also has a car, implying she knows how to drive.

Azra: The competitive athletic girl that loves being outside and doesn't really care about boys. Rather direct and blunt; says what's on her mind even if it gets her in trouble.

General lore implications

Vampirism is genetic if royal vampire bloodlines are a thing.

Vampirism is something you can turn off and on, since the girls can turn human during the day to better blend in at school.

The doll line that proceeded it with a similar concept, Mystikats, gave each of the girls little powers to add to their otherworldly cat-girl motif, so I'll just carry it over to this line because I think it's cool.

With that in mind, here's my loose fanfic-esque reboot idea

.Siva, the up-and-coming vampire princess still getting used to being in America despite spending 3 or more years there, is assigned three vampire girls her age to act as her personal guards/teachers. Each of the four get special amulets that allow them each to access a different power.

.Siva goes to high school with the other girls under the guise of an exchange student from (country of origin) and gets to experience normalcy for the first time. Between normal high school classes, the other three tutor Siva to prepare her more for her duties as a princess.

.Talin and Siva immediately become friends, bonding over Siva's newfound popularity at school. Because of her eye for fashion, Talin's in charge of tutoring Siva in etiquette, decorum, and (of course) fashion. Talin's amulet gives her telekinesis, which she considers useful for someone not as well-versed in combat as Azra.

.Azra, being the most athletic of the four, is in charge of tutoring Siva in combat (Being the princess of vampires can put a pretty big target on your back, so you gotta know how to defend yourself). Azra's amulet allows her to freeze time, whether that's as a whole or just one object at a time. She considers this power very useful in case of there being more than one enemy.

.Kalani, being the smartest, tutors Siva in history and all things political. Due to being homeschooled for most of her life, her and Siva bond over the culture shock of suddenly entering the American public schooling system. Kalani's amulet gives her clairvoyance, allowing her to see into the past and see the histories/thoughts of people and objects usually through physical contact. All the girls' powers develop more as the story continues.

.Siva's amulet allows her to shapeshift, so she's the only one of the four vamps that can actually turn into a bat or wolf or whatever other spooky form.

.Of course, it isn't just lessons day in and day out; at night, the girls go into vampire mode and do teenager stuff/fight other vampires that could pose a threat to Siva. Because their human and vampire forms look different, both normal folks and vampires wouldn't be able to connect the two groups as being one and the same. Which identity is the real secret?

.Kalani being vegan and being deeply insistent on her diet even in her vampire form creates a brief conflict when her vampire half starts suffering the effects of what's basically withdrawal. The rest of the girls try to figure out what would count as "ethically-sourced and cruelty-free blood" that doesn't involve animals. The girls resort to stealing from a blood bank since donated blood is technically ethically-sourced (you have to consent to it happening for it to happen at all), cruelty-free (designed to be as painless as possible), and doesn't involve animals.

.Talin is the only member of the four with a car and a driver's license, so the rest of the group relies on her for transportation. The problem is a hot pink convertible isn't really stealthy.

.Kalani's parents are biology professors at some college. She gets her vampirism from one of them.

.Siva's arrogance or Kalani's jealousy gets exploited by one of the enemy vampires to disband the group/potentially assassinate Siva

.Siva falls in love with one of the other girls and they become a couple (only question is which one fits better?)

Feel free to add your own ideas for this little thing.

[hugheses]

Hi! As the premiere hughestorian, can you share what you've seen where the Hughes' are talking abt. being Jewish? I can find so little and the podcast Jack talked about it most in isn't available anymore. TY!

oh man… i have searched for that podcast for so long. i spent like hours one day digging through old links. the page itself is on the internet archive but not the actual podcast 😭😭😭 other than that which has been heavily referenced in other places, i can say that they seem to have had a pretty secular upbringing and their catholic heritage seems also to be important to them. they did go to catholic school (tho my limited understanding is that this is very common in ontario and even publicly funded?). if you’re looking for a video, the only one i can think of is last year when jack talks about it being hanukkah. they haven’t really talked much about it and i certainly would like to know more, but i do think it’s notable that basically anytime someone brings up their jewishness, they will mention that their dad is catholic. as both a hughestorian (thank you for that im going to use that) and a person with a very similar background i do think there’s a lot of …. umm inaccuracies going around? regarding their religiosity. this is largely an assumption but one i’m pretty confident in, i would say they are mostly secular/non-practicing jews. but again, that’s an assumption and i don’t know for sure!

(random note: a guy on facebook once claimed he met jack and he said he didn’t have a bar mitzvah, which would directly contradict all the places that reference that one podcast? v confusing.)

[the-writer-nerd-ro]

Just remembered I forgot to post my very self-indulgent fic where Sara Pena meets Sloane from the Fursona Telephone episode (Sloane does not actually appear in this fic but she is discussed at length and will appear in future fics I promise 🥰)

Anyways, enjoy!

Love in its many artforms

Once in a blue moon, Hunter's life intersected with Sara's career, which, today, involved Facebook stalking.

“Oh, Hun, you're Facebook friends with my new client,” Sara called from the living room.

Hunter poked her head out of the kitchen, where she was preparing dinner.

“Hm? Who is it?” Hunter hadn't used Facebook in six and a half years.

“Sloane Clark.”

Hunter inhaled sharply. “I forgot I was Facebook friends with her. She hired you?”

“Yeah, we met at the last party I worked and she said she was having a get together and wanted my energy to liven it up.”

“Oh, cool.” Behind her, a pot of macaroni boiled over.

“How do you two know each other?”

“We went to the same high school,” Hunter said, wondering how much she wanted to elaborate.

“Aw, fun! She seemed really nice.”

“She was pretty nice in high school. We did a group project together.” Hunter took a deep breath and added, “Honestly, I had a bit of a crush on her.”

“I can see that,” Sara said, since she knew she was Hunter’s type and Sloane seemed like her in a slightly different font. “Do you want me to do some digging? See if you would've had a chance in high school?”

“What, like ask her if she's gay?”

“Yeah!”

Hunter blushed, “I don't need to know. But, um, if you wanted to.”

“I won't push the matter, but if it comes up I'll let you know.” Pause. “Unless you wanted to come with me?”

Hunter cringed, glancing behind her. “Shit, the macaroni.”

Sara got up to help sort out dinner (mostly providing moral support) and wait for an answer to her question.

Hunter seemed to mull it over while she pulled the overflowing macaroni pot off the burner. She hadn't started on the roux yet, so at least that wasn't burned. Sara's burner had taken some cosmetic damage, but the rest of their meal was salvageable.

“Do you want to go to the party?” Sara asked again.

“No,” Hunter finally said. “I don't want to know if she remembers me. It can stay an unrequited crush, I have something so much better now.”

Sara threw back her head and laughed. “Thanks, hun. I do like hearing about who you were before I met you. Thank you for letting me into your life.”

“Thank you for wanting to be a part of my life.”

“I could say the same to you.” Sara went to set the table while Hunter finished the mac and cheese.

“I'm still going to find out if Sloane is gay,” Sara added.

“Go for it.”

“And then you can come to the next party.”

Now it was Hunter's turn to laugh. “We'll see about that.”

Sara had a good time at the party, though it was a bit smaller and cozier than she was used to. She got her answer pretty quickly, and a few more answers than she was expecting.

When she came home she was brimming with information.

Hunter usually waited up for Sara after a party and tonight was no different. “How'd it go?”

“It was lovely! Very 90's themed, so that was fun. Like, I don't think she played a single song that came out after 1999. Which is a shame because I know a Valley song she'd love.”

“Interesting,” Hunter said, “what else?”

“Oh yeah, the secret mission.”

“Don't say it like that, that makes me sound creepy,” Hunter said, dressed in her all black vintage nightgown. In the light of Sara's ever-growing collection of candles, she looked like a Victorian ghost come back from the dead to haunt her secret sapphic lover for one last night of passion, unaware that her moans of pleasure sounded like the howls of the damned.

“Sloane is in fact bisexual, though I'm not sure she knew that in high school. But she is also a furry so I'm not entirely certain you're her type.”

“Huh. That's a surprise. Well, thanks for looking into it for me, I guess.”

Sara plopped down on the couch next to Hunter and rested her head on Hunter's shoulder. “No problem, Hun.”

Hunter was quiet for a while before musing, “If we'd dated in high school I would have gotten so good at drawing furries.”

“Love drives us all to create,” Sara said wisely, glancing up at the photo wall of photographs and paintings Hunter had made.

“By the way, I made you a playlist.”

Hunter smiled and pressed a kiss to Sara's cheek. “I love you, too.”

[corpsebod]

I'm venting and writing to the void like a diary for real about wlw and family stuff and depression under here like the old Tumblr gods intended

Weird times atm... My Dad (previous contender for my fave person alive) invited my gf of 1.5 years over for Xmas (yay) but couldn't look her in the eyes and ensured he was never left in a room alone with her the whole visit. He also mostly resigned himself to his study as much as possible. He also told me my (male) ex is getting married with the kind of delight I would have expected from him telling me my sibling was getting married. They were still friends on Facebook even though we broke up at the end of 2019. My gf added him on Facebook as a kind of gesture for him welcoming us into his home, but he declined her friend request lmao. It's so... petty. I feel the rejection from him and noticed it before my girlfriend flagged the dog shit vibes which has helped me feel less insane that I wasn't imagining it, but more miserable at the truth of it. I'm 30 but feel vulnerable like a teenager. I want to s*lf h*rm and not eat and punish myself like the old times but I'm in love and don't want my lover to see my pain like that. I want to cut the whole family off cause I'm so... Angry? Defeated? Upset? Confused? I want to dig a big hole and cry in it. I have always thought I was close with my family and don't want to be distant to them. I want to remove myself from everything so I don't have to think about it anymore.

I hope I can read this back in a year or so and laugh at how silly it is and know my parents are happy I'm in love with someone who loves and cares for me.

[hannahssimblr]

Chapter One

“Okay girls, turn over your papers now.”

The whole hall fills with the sound of rustling paper as sixty of us flip over English Paper One in tandem. I take a deep, shuddering breath and read the first question. 

SECTION 1. TEXT 1. This text is taken from An Irishwoman’s Diary by journalist, Lara Marlowe. She was Irish Times correspondent in Beirut and Paris, and is now based in Washington. Here she responds to an article critical of cats written by her friend and fellow journalist, Rosita Boland.

I read the article. Then I read the questions. Then I read them again. From my seat at the back of the hall I glance up the aisles of students, most of them already writing something. I hold my pen over the blank, lined page in front of me, my hand trembling slightly as I write down Question 1. Then I hesitate, I try really hard not to panic and then I read all the questions one more time. 

Claire, who is one aisle over and three desks from the front, turns around slowly, knowing she’s not allowed to look at anybody else but does anyway, checking first that the examiner isn’t watching her. Her eyes widen to saucers and she shakes her head at me in disbelief. “What the hell is this?” She mouths, and I shrug. We’ve already talked about this. Neither of us is going to do well in our Leaving Cert, it’s not just speculation. It’s fact, and I’ve never been more convinced of it now as I sit in this hot room, day one, paper one, question one, and I can’t even think of how to begin. 

It had all seemed a lot funnier a few weeks ago when we agreed upon how ill prepared we were. Claire has never done well academically, in fact I’m almost sure she’s got undiagnosed dyslexia, even though her proud-as-punch parents refused to have her assessed even after the guidance counsellor practically begged them to. Meanwhile I spent the whole year in the art room working on my portfolio instead of joining the after school study group, mostly because Kelly was doing it, but also because I haven’t been in the headspace. It’s been a strange year. Now though, on this bright June morning with a three and a half hour exam ahead of us, nothing seems that funny anymore and the choices I’ve made throughout the year seem to be nipping at my heels. The terror in Claire’s eyes illustrates exactly how I feel. I’m not sure how we’re going to get through nine more of these truly harrowing papers, but I know that I have to try. I put my head down and start writing something – anything at all. 

When we finally spill out of the hall that afternoon I feel like my body is made from rubber. Claire and I console one another outside the doors, arms around one another in defeat. 

“That was awful.” She complains. “I’ve failed.”

“You haven’t failed. Nobody fails English.”

“I’ll be one of the few that does.”

I let her go and start digging around the bottom of my bag for my keys. “Let’s go to Starbucks. We’ll get chai lattes and try to make ourselves feel better.”

Right then Kelly comes sweeping out of the hall, her new best friend Cristina at her side. She’s one of those mousy brunettes who wears her school bag straps tightened all the way, and has a particular fondness for horses. I’ve seen her show jumping at the agricultural fairs before, and I’m convinced she’s the one behind the fan page on Facebook that’s been set up for herself and her horse Barney. It’s just a stream of photographs of her on the horse with weird captions like Cris and Barney looking fab! I distinctly remember Kelly complaining about how strange she was before, but now here they are, joined at the hip, and I know purely because she needs to have someone in her corner. It doesn’t even matter if she likes her or not. 

“That was so easy.” Kelly says loudly. “I thought they’d at least make paper one a bit of a challenge, but it was a breeze. I’ve never felt more confident” She’s trying very hard not to look at either Claire or me, thinking she’s being sly, but Claire gives my ribs a little nudge with her elbow and I know that we’re going to be laughing about this over coffee in about ten minutes. Kelly thinks these types of statements are devastating to our psyche, but when we’re together she holds no power over us anymore, even if sometimes when I’m alone I remember the fun we used to have. She wasn’t always awful, she wasn’t always mean, and there’s times that I feel sad for what’s been ruined, but I’d never ever admit those things out loud. 

Claire and I leave the school building and climb into my car. I can drive now. I passed my driving test in April, much to her delight, because now that Shane is away at college she needs someone to transport her wherever she wants to go. My car isn’t very good, actually, it’s my dad’s car, and it’s from 1995. The shine has worn off the paint so that it’s this weird, matte, chalky texture, so it’s not good looking, but it’s better than nothing at all in a town that doesn’t even have public buses. We spend so much time in this car, just driving around and talking and eating McFlurries. We used to talk about boys a lot. She’d tell me all about Shane and what he was doing and how she felt about it, about how weird it was to be away from him and to not ever really know what he was doing up there in UCD.

“Studying science.” I’d always tell her jokingly. 

“Yes, but what else? Did you see all the hot girls they had in the prospectus?”

“And he isn’t looking at any of them. If he was, he’d be some fool.”

“He’d be a dead man.”

“Any messing from him and we’ll drive through campus and plough him down.”

“I love how you always have my back.”

She listened to me talk about boys for a while too, but it was really only ever one boy. It was fun while it lasted, going into depth about all these tiny details like the way the muscles in his arms moved when he changed gears in his car, the curve of his nose bridge from his side view, the exact places where he put his hands and the way he turned his head when he kissed me, but after a while she began to get bored of hearing it. 

“You know, there are other fellas out there.” She started saying. “The world is filled with hipster-y arty type boys, you just have to go out and look for them.”

“I don’t want other boys.” I’d said. “I want him.” And I did. I still do, even though we don’t talk to each other anymore. Sometimes, late at night when my head is swirling and I can’t sleep I’ll open up our old email thread from last autumn and read through every message until I reach the last one. It’s from me, sent on the 6th of November, and it says: Happy birthday! I hope you’re going to do something fun today. Do you think your new friends will get you a cake, or maybe take you to a bar? It would be great, and I wish I could be there to celebrate with you. I’ hope that your project is coming along well. I don’t know how you do it, and in German too! Das ist klasse!!! I better try to learn a few words for when I get to visit you. All the best, E. 

He never responded, and it feels like my message is still hanging somewhere in the ether, just waiting to be acknowledged, for him to remember that it’s there, to pluck it out and finally type out his response, but I know now that he won’t. Too much time has gone by, and too much has happened. Still, there hasn’t been a day that’s gone by that I haven’t thought about him, looked at a picture of him, googled his name. 

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