#this pictures are really big btw holy cow

[thatoneluckybee]

School Bus Graveyard Episode 61 Thoughts

Okay thoughts time cause HU!HG?!?Q>?

The logo was altered!! Not by much but I love the detail that some falling rubble was covering the edges of the logo at the beginning of the episode.

Ben holding/protecting Tyler under the (table? desk?) is everything to me. Ben Clark is a golden retriever in all the best ways. I am dealing with the after effects of the Ben Fever we all got a few weeks ago.

Same goes for Taylor protecting Ashlyn! It’s so cute and Taylor has been coming in CLUTCH lately. I’m so excited for this development with her after Tyler’s injury. I just hope she’s able to target her (rightful) anger at the right people and not at the rest of the group. (Also ASHLYN CRYING BABY NO)

“Wanna Know How I Got These Scars?” Aiden, no, we do not, put your eyes back in please. (Also—I LOVE the shading and dramatic effects on this panel.)

Okay, the parents are DEFINITELY being affected by the rift and Phantom Dimension. Mike was dizzy when the kids all came back!! And I love how responsible both of Ashlyn’s parents (as well as everyone else so far) are being—Immediately jumping in to help when it sounds like someone is in trouble. I just hope this serves as a wake-up call for Aiden’s mom and dad.

We’ve seen Ashlyn scared before but… holy cow I don’t think she’s been pictured as this terrified before. And rightfully so! I want to give her a hug and a chocolate milk. Also, I adore how Logan immediately noticed and rushed to help. He’s really grown in his emotional maturity over the series and I’m loving the payoff.

Yes, honey, you are becoming phantoms. Is this confirmation of the theory? I’ll take it as confirmation of the theory.

…The parallels between the earlier panel of Tyler “waking up” vs Aiden now is…. oh my. And the altered text was DEEPLY disturbing. But I had to try not to laugh at imagining what he sounds like right now. Probably like he’s a 40 year old man who’s smoked a six-pack ev’ry night since way back when.

LILY BABY NooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and Aiden IMMEDIATELY being concerned about Ashlyn is everything. In all honestly the ship concerned me at the beginning but I am ALL ABOARD and ready to set sail now. They both have grown so much and while it would have been iffy at the start it’s becoming a really sweet and wholesome relationship, regardless of whether it stays platonic or divulges into romance.

The flashbacks were INSANE. But also, let’s take a moment seeing these to appreciate HOW MUCH THE ART HAS IMPROVED!!! Supersupersuper proud of Red and her entire team. This was like a short montage of the growth and I love that so much. Also…. could this potentially count as an “oh” moment for Ashlyn?? And the immediate jump afterwards to Aiden’s maybe-dead-maybe-not body was such incredibly timed and perfected formatted whiplash!!!!!

Ashlyn initiating the contact was huge for her. We know she isn’t a fan of touchy-feely stuff or close contact so this is big. I thing there was a “some people are worth being uncomfortable for” comic with the BTW and TBH creature that sums up my thoughts on this? But yeah, I loved this. She’s growing more comfortable AND this was entirely respectful of her boundaries while also allowing her to push past her comfort zone? Amazing.

”So this is what it feels like” uhhhhhhhh I need a seperate ramble post for this cause I don’t want to trigger tag this one and have it filtered but I have… a lot to say. Very relatable and makes me appreciate these characters more. I love how this whole short scene was pulled off though. Definitely a lot of emotions for this one, I had to pause for a moment to process.

“I don’t like how much she’s shaking” MY HEART

Aaaaand THANK YOU RED FOR ANOTHER AMAZING EPISODE!!! I’ve got so many longer thoughts and theories and ideas and rambels and AUGHHHHHHH I can’t fit them all!!!

[masterhandss]

Hamefura Verge of Doom Volume 1-3 Artworks

Happy VOD Volume 3 release day! Not me running to the previews as soon as the date changed lmao. Quite disappointed that the ebook preview doesn’t have an artwork of Noelia, but I guess I’ll take a cool shot of Gerran instead^^

[derivativealigner]

I rewatched the second season of South Park and took so many notes that I had to split them into two parts. Like seriously, I took so. many. notes. And pictures this time. I started rewatching just in case I’d find some cool little facts to sprinkle into my fanfic but I went way too far and now there’s a million facts under this cut (including gay stan, a domestic violence psa, and craig fucking dying)

Stan doesn’t like hospitals, he finds them gross and he gets sick 🤮. Also the hospital in South Park is called Hell’s Pass hospital. Early seasons have the name as Hells Pass but it gets fixed later

Cartman has to sing all of Come Sailing Away by Styx if he hears a part of it. After he says this, Kyle sings the first part and Cartman has to sing the rest. Kyle does it again later, which is kinda mean

Cartman’s mom tries to abort Cartman, who is an eight-year-old child and thus cannot be legally aborted. Later, after she slept with Bill Clinton to change the law and make 40th trimester abortions legal, it turns out she meant adoption

Kenny sacrifices himself to turn on the generator to the hospital and save Dr. Mephesto’s life along with others. He says “I’ll fucking do it” then does it and dies, absolute legend

Cartman gets way too into his deputy role. He goes undercover, pretends to be a prostitute, says “Respect my authoritah!” a lot and beats people up with his police stick

Kenny’s brother first appears when Cartman responds to a call about a disturbance at Kenny’s house. Apparently there are like 10 adult family members in the house at that time. Kenny’s dad has a black eye because Kenny’s mom punched him. She says he can’t hold a job

Token sits in the classroom in season 2

Cartman starts hating hippies in this season, like a lot

Chef tells the boys that the right time to do drugs is in college

Ike’s name is Ike Moisha Broflovski and he was born in 1996, making him 2 years old in 1998 when this season aired

This is probably obvious but yeah Kyle and Ike are circumcised

Kyle says family isn’t just blood, it’s who you care about, and he says “That’s why you guys are more than just friends, you’re my family. Except for Cartman.”

Craig’s finally sitting in the classroom in S02E04

None of the boys like dodgeball

Clyde gets a dodgeball to the face and he cries :( and he’s the only one who cries by the way

Pip throws a dodgeball in Kyle’s face and breaks Kyle’s nose

When Kyle’s mom tells the boys about conjoined twin myslexia (which isn’t a real term) and says anyone might’ve absorbed their dead twin in the womb, Stan and Cartman run away screaming but Kenny and Kyle stay to listen. Kenny even leans in to look at the book “Freaks A-Z!” that Mrs. Broflovski is reading from, and when she leaves, Kyle grimaces and Kenny laughs

Stan’s mom (Sharon) calls Kyle’s mom (Sheila) when Stan is all freaked out and trying to put an icepick through his brain, and Sharon tells Sheila to get run over by a truck. Sharon is pretty mean in these early episodes

Mr. Broflovski doesn’t really listen to what Mrs. Broflovski is saying, bad husband >:(

South Park’s team is always called South Park Cows no matter the sport

The school nurse, Nurse Gollum, went to Colorado State University

I just realized Butters exists. I think he appeared before S02E05 but I didn’t notice but yeah he’s there with the dodgeball team, injured

Here’s a picture to make up for my disgusting anti-Butters bias

Kenny’s dodgeball uniform number is 69 obviously. Kyle is 7, Stan is 4, Cartman is 325

Sheila smacks Gerald in the face so hard he falls off his chair, lots of violence perpetrated by women in this show. Remember, don’t do domestic violence no matter your gender, it’s not cool

I realized after this whole Butters thing that I should’ve made more notes about Pip, so I’ll make a note about his anger issues now. When people call him French, he gets angry and throws dodgeballs at them

The boys launch a jelly roll at Ms. Crabtree and make her crash the bus. They do it just for fun

The kids somehow go to China in the school bus

Cartman references Moby Dick, but he probably doesn’t know what he’s talking about

Kevin Stoley gets named in S02E05 and has his first speaking role when he says he has Chinese parents and after Cartman hears it he immediately says something racist. smh cartman, what a problematic fave

Cartman says “I love you guys 😊” but Stan and Kyle just stare at him and he goes 😐 “Eh, screw you guys 😠”

If Jimbo and Ned really fought in Vietnam, they youngest they could’ve been in 1998 is early forties, which means in the latest seasons they would be early sixties. Btw they met in Vietman

Jesus and Pals is a recurring TV show in seasons 1 and 2. Jesus just kind of lives in South Park

I just remembered that Terrance and Phillip are really old in canon, it’s so weird, like how can South Park canon still be changing, it’s been 20 years

Also the early seasons are casually racist who knew

Kenny flashes his ass on a tape the boys send to Jimbo and Ned’s TV show, which airs and at least 12 people see Kenny’s bare naked ass

Cartman really doesn’t like hippies in these early seasons. He throws a chair at Ned and yells, “Take that, hippie!” (Ned is in a catatonic state and did nothing to provoke this)

Jimbo and Ned live together I guess. Jimbo’s gonna take Ned home and show him some hardcore porn to snap him out of his catatonic state, good husband unlike Gerald Broflovski

Saddam Hussein is in hell and has a Canadian accent and is Satan’s lover in S02E06, I guess he died in Canada in the first episode this season but I wasn’t paying much attention since that’s the Terrance and Phillip episode that pissed a bunch of people off in 1998 because the audience wanted to know who Cartman’s dad is instead. It was kind of a boring episode so I understand why everyone was pissed, but it is funny that Matt and Trey did that so I’m not mad about it

Aww look at them!!! We’ve got background Style, the vaguest inkling of Crenny, and Cartman/Cake

I’d take more screenshots but it’s a pain since I’m watching legally and stupid legal websites block screenshots so I have to find youtube videos instead ughhhh piracy is the answer kids

Apparently there’s a huge waterfall and canyon somewhere close to South Park, maybe? At least in Stan’s dream

Mary Kay Bergman was an incredible voice actor. How the hell did she voice all the moms, Wendy, Shelly, principle Victoria, the mayor, Nurse Gollum, and fucking Ms. Crabtree??? Holy shit what a queen

Kenny has some feelings about death. He reimagines the episode where death boops him to death and in his version, he beats death the fuck up, then has ice cream and is happy 😊 But again, this is in Stan’s dream

S02E07 kind of establishes that nobody remembers Kenny dying because when Cartman tells a story where Kenny dies, Kyle questions how Kenny could’ve died then when he also died just a few hours ago when a giant monster took him

rip craig, he falls out the bus and into a canyon

But it’s okay because it was all Stan’s dream so everything in the episode is questionable. Everything after this is no longer a dream

Pip’s parents are dead and he has to go to summer school while everyone else is having a nice summer break

Officer Barbrady and the mayor are having sexual relations, I’m sure this is the most interesting note I’ve made so far. Idk I’m just writing everything down, this is how I enjoy things, I have no off switch

Ew summer bus stop, cursed

Kyle casually sings little tunes every once in a while, how cute

This is pretty obvious but Kenny likes dirty jokes, he laughs when Cartman innocently says he loves Chef’s salty chocolate balls (which are chocolate candy). Nobody else laughs

Cartman says “Screw you guys, I’m going home” or variations of it a lot in this season

So Stan throws up when he likes someone, right? Well, he’s watching an indie movie about two gay cowboys who start making out and he throws up, which is either a terrible homophobic joke or confirmation that Stan’s a little gay. I know which one I prefer

Kyle says Mr. Hankey is his best friend after Stan. Like I know it’s definitely canon that Stan and Kyle are best friends but it’s still nice to see confirmation, it’s very precious. Also Kyle is best friends with literal shit, so cute 😊

Kenny deaths:

S02E02 Kenny sacrifices himself by connecting a generator wire, which electrocutes him but brings power back to a hospital

S02E03 A tree falls on Kenny and crushes him

S02E04 Kenny falls in a grave and the gravestone falls on him

S02E05 The Chinese dodgeball team throws a ball at Kenny and he gets splattered against a wall

S02E06 Two guys pull on Kenny and tear him in half, as in one has the head and one has the legs

S02E07 A big scary monster plucks Kenny out of the school bus and carries him away. Also in Cartman’s fake memory of Fonzi jumping over cars, the motorcycle hits Kenny and crushes him against a brick wall. Kenny gets smashed against walls a lot, doesn’t he?

S02E08 Flashback: Baby Kenny has a firecracker and it explodes, sprinkling little baby Kenny parts everywhere. Later in the episode, current day Kenny dies when a giant firework snake bumps him off a stage and under a fence, which then crushes him.

S02E09 Kenny is playing with a yoyo outside a movie theatre when a bunch of people come outside and trample him to death. They say “Oh my God, I found a penny!” and “You bastard!”

I’ll post part 2 of season 2 in a couple days. I’m having way more fun writing these stupid notes than I thought I would (also gnomes is coming up soon and i am fucking ready for tweek)

[buzzdixonwriter]

Sci-Fi And The Sincerest Form Of Flattery

I know many of you prefer “science fiction” or “science fantasy” or “speculative fiction” or “sf” or even “stf” for short, but I ain’t that guy…

I’m a sci-fi kinda guy.

I prefer sci-fi because to me it evokes the nerdy playfulness the genre should embrace at some level (and, no we’re not gonna debate geek vs nerd as a descriptor; “geeky” implies biting heads off chickens no matter how benign and respectable the root has become).

. . .

A brief history of sci-fi films -- a very brief history.

Georges Melies’ 1898 short A Trip to The Moon is one of the earliest examples of the genre, and it arrived full blown at the dawn of cinema via its literary predecessors in Verne and Wells.

There were a lot of bona fide sci-fi films before WWII -- the Danes made a surprisingly large number in the silent era, Fritz Lang gave us Metropolis and Frau Im Mond, we saw the goofiness of Just Imagine and the spectacle of Things To Come and the space opera appeal of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.

And that’s not counting hundreds of other productions -- comedies and contemporary thrillers and westerns -- where a super-science mcguffin played a key part.

That came to a screeching halt in WWII primarily due to budget considerations and real world science easily overtaking screen fantasy.  Still, there were a few bona fide sci-fi films and serials during the war and immediately thereafter, but it wasn’t until the flying saucer scare of the late forties that sci-fi became a popular movie genre again (and on TV as well).

Ground zero for 1950s sci-fi was George Pal’s Destination Moon, which was an attempt to show a plausible flight to the moon (it was actually beaten to the screens by a couple of other low budget movies that rushed into production to catch Pal’s PR wave for his film).

This led to the first 1950s sci-fi boom that lasted from 1949 to 1954, followed by a brief fallow period, then a larger but far less innovative second boom in the late 1950s to early 1960s.

BTW, let me heartily recommend the late Bill Warren’s magnificent overview of sci-fi films of that era, Keep Watching The Skies, a must have in any sci-fi film fan’s library.

Seriously, go get it.

Bill and I frequently discussed films of that and subsequent eras, and Bill agreed with my assessment of the difference between 1950s sci-fi and 1960s sci-fi:  1950s sci-fi most typically ends with the old order restored, while 1960s sci-fi typically ends with the realization things have changed irrevocably.

In other words, “What now, puny human?”

I judge the 1960s sci-fi boom to have started in 1963 (at least for the US and western Europe; behind the Iron Curtain they were already ahead of us) with the Outer Limits TV show, followed in 1964 by the films The Last Man On Earth (based on Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend), Robinson Crusoe On Mars, and The Time Travelers.

But what really triggered the 1960s sci-fi boom was Planet Of The Apes and 2001: A Space Odyssey.  The former was shopped around every major Hollywood studio starting in 1963 until it finally found a home at 20th Century Fox (whose market research indicated there was an audience for well-made serious sci-fi film and hence put Fantastic Voyage into production).  Kubrick, fresh off Lolita and Dr. Srangelove (another sci-fi film tho not presented as such), carried an enormous cache in Hollywood of that era, and if MGM was going to bankroll his big budget space movie, hey, maybe there was something to this genre after all.

From 1965 forward, the cinematic space race was on, with 1968 being a banner year for groundbreaking sci-fi movies:  2001: A Space Odyssey, Barbarella, Charly, Planet Of The Apes, The Power, Project X, and Wild In The Streets.  (Star Trek premiering on TV in 1967 didn’t hurt, either.)

And, yeah, there were a number of duds and more than a few old school throwbacks during this era, but the point is the most interesting films were the most innovative ones.

Here’s a partial list of the most innovative sci-fi films from 1969 to 1977, nine-year period with some of the most original ideas ever presented in sci-fi films.  Not all of these were box office successes, but damn, they got people’s attention in both the film making and sci-fi fandom communities.

=1969=

The Bed Sitting Room

Doppelganger (US title:  Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun)

The Gladiators

The Monitors 

Stereo 

=1970=

Beneath The Planet Of The Apes [a]

Colossus: The Forbin Project 

Crimes Of The Future 

Gas-s-s-s

The Mind Of Mr. Soames 

No Blade Of Grass 

=1971= 

The Andromeda Strain 

A Clockwork Orange 

Glen And Randa 

The Hellstrom Chronicle 

THX 1138 

=1972=

Silent Running 

Slaughterhouse Five 

Solaris [b] 

Z.P.G.

=1973=

Day Of The Dolphin

Fantastic Planet 

The Final Programme (US title: The Last Days Of Man On Earth)

Idaho Transfer 

=1974=

Dark Star 

Phase IV 

Space Is The Place 

Zardoz 

=1975= 

A Boy And His Dog 

Black Moon 

Death Race 2000

Rollerball

Shivers (a.k.a. They Came From Within and The Parasite Murders)  [c]

The Stepford Wives 

=1976= 

God Told Me To [a.k.a. Demon]

The Man Who Fell To Earth 

=1977=

Wizards

[a]  I include Beneath The Planet Of The Apes because it is the single most nihilistic major studio film released, a movie that posits Charlton Heston blowing up the entire planet is A Damn Good Idea; follow up films in the series took a far more conventional approach to the material.  While successful, neither the studio nor mainstream audiences knew what to make of this film, so 20th Century Fox re-released it in a double bill with another problematic production, Russ Meyer’s Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, and holy cow, if ever there was a more bugfuck double feature from a major studio I challenge you to name it.

[b]  Other than Karel Zemen’s delightful animated films, Iron Curtain sci-fi films rarely screened in the US, with the exception of special effects stock shots strip mined to add production values to cheapjack American productions (looking at you, Roger Corman).  Solaris is the exception.

[c]  David Cronenberg made several other films in this time frame, but most of them were variations on the themes he used in Shivers, including his big break out, Scanners.  Realizing he was repeating himself, Cronenberg reevaluated his goals and started making films with greater variety of theme and subject matter.

. . .

The astute reader will notice I bring my list to an end in 1977, a mere nine-year span instead of a full decade.

That’s because 1977 also saw the release of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and Star Wars.

The effect was immediate, with knock-off films being released the same year.

1978 saw Dawn Of The Dead, a sequel to 1968’s Night Of The Living Dead, and Superman, the first non-campy superhero movie aimed at non-juvenile audiences.  

1979 gave us Alien, Mad Max, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

These films were not just successful, they were blockbusters.

And none of them were original.

Close Encounters served as an excuse to do a Kubrick-style light show; plot and theme are about as deep as a Dixie cup, and of all the blockbusters of that era, it’s the one with no legs.

Alien’s pedigree can be traced back to It! Terror From Beyond Space (and It’s pedigree goes back to A.E. van Vogt’s “Black Destroyer” and “Discord In Scarlet” in the old Astounding Stories) and Demon Planet (US title: Planet Of The Vampires) by way of Dark Star (Dan O’Bannon writing the original screenplays for that film and Alien as well).

Mad Max, like 1981’s Escape From New York, differs from earlier post-apocalypse movies only insofar as their apocalypses of a social / cultural / political nature, not nuclear or biological weapons.  Mad Max, in fact, can trace its lineage back to No Blade Of Grass, which featured it own caravan of refugees attacked by modern day visigoths on motorcycles, and the original Death Race 2000, as well as an odd little Australian non-sci-fi film, The Cars That Ate Paris.

Not only was Dawn Of The Dead a sequel, but it kickstarted a worldwide tsunami of zombie movies that continues to this day (no surprise as zombie films are easy to produce compared to other films listed here, and while there are a few big budget examples of the genre, the typical zombie movie is just actors in ragged clothes and crappy make-up).

Superman was…well…Superman.  And Star Trek was Star Trek.

And the granddaddy of them all, Star Wars, was a cinematic throwback that threw so far back it made the old seem new again.

Not begrudging any of those films their success: They were well made and entertaining.

But while there had been plenty of sequels and remakes and plain ol’ knockoffs of successful sci-fi movies in the past, after these seven there was precious little room for anything really different or innovative.

1982’s E.T. was Spielberg’s unofficial follow-up to Close Encounters.

1984’s Terminator consciously harkened back to Harlan Elison’s Outer Limits episodes “Demon With A Glass Hand” and “Soldier” (not to mention 1966’s Cyborg 2087 which looks like a first draft of Cameron’s film)

All innovative movies are risky, and the mammoth success of the films cited above did little to encourage new ideas in sci-fi films but rather attempts to shoehorn material into one of several pre-existing genres.

Star Wars = space opera of the splashy Flash Gordon variety

Star Trek = crew on a mission (Star Trek: The Next Generation [+ 5 other series], Andromeda, Battlestar: Galactica [4 series], Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, Farscape, Firefly [+ movie], The Orville, Space Academy, Space Rangers, Space: Above And Beyond, plus more anime and syndicated shows than you can shake a stick at)

Superman = superheroes (nuff’ sed!)

Close Encounters / E.T. = cute aliens

Alien = not-so-cute aliens

Terminator = robots vs humans (and, yes, The Matrix movies fall into this category)

Escape From New York = urban post-apocalypse

Mad Max = vehicular post-apocalypse 

Dawn Of The Dead = zombies

Mix and match ‘em and you’ve got a nearly limitless number of variations you know are based on proven popular concepts, none of that risky original stuff.

Small wonder that despite the huge number of new sci-fi films and programs available, little of it is memorable.

. . .

It shouldn’t be like this.

With ultra-cheap film making tools (there are theatrically released films shot on iPhones so there’s literally no barrier to entry) and copious venues for ultra-low / no-budget film makers to show their work (YouTube, Vimeo, Amazon Prime, etc.), there’s no excuse for there not to be a near limitless number of innovative films in all genres.

But there isn’t.

I watch a lot of independent features and short films on various channels and streaming services.

They’re either direct knock-offs of current big budget blockbusters (because often the film makers are hoping to impress the big studios into giving them lots of money to make one of their movies), or worse still, deliberately “bad” imitations of 1950s B-movies (and I get why there’s an appeal to do a bad version of a B-movie; if you screw up you can always say you did it deliberately).

Look, I understand the appeal of fan fic, written or filmed.

And I get it that sometimes it’s easier to do a knock-off where the conventions of the genre help with the final execution.

But let’s not make deliberate crap, okay?

Oscar Wilde is quoted as saying “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” but he was quoting somebody else, and that wasn’t the whole original quote.

Wilde was quoting Charles Caleb Colton, a dissolute English clergyman with a passion for gambling and a talent for bon mots.

Colton’s full quote:   “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.”

Don’t be mediocre.

Be great.

   © Buzz Dixon

[linandara]

Is this going to be too creepy?

How to say all this without much spoulers?

About 5 months ago I've started writing fiction again, something I haven't done much since my twenties. The book named "Awe and Wonder Quest". My main characters revealed themselves to me when I was playing with my own photo in Artbreeder, randomly changing all the parameters (a bit weird, I know). I ended up with a man and two women. I created their names using random name generating software. For the man, I decided, looking at his smiling computer generated portrait, he will be an adrenaline junkie risking his life constantly, a freedom-freak (an opposite of a control freak, of course), a vagabond philosopher travelling enormous distances, taunted by a horrible tragedy earlier in life for which he is to blame, carrying many scars on his body and his soul. Despite all that he will have a sunny disposition, be revered by many people, and will smile easily and often. He will speak with an accent. There will be a book involved, within the book.

For the last few years I also was building, in my mind, my dream house, in style of my favourite architect, in a specific location. I happily gave that house to my character.

Two-three weeks ago my favourite architects posted a picture of their building. It was incredibly close to my dream home, even the location. That wasn't very surprising yet, because I have probably seen the picture of it in the past. I didn't read the story of that building then. Now I have noticed that there was a surname attached to the building, and a very similar one to my character's surname... Oh, it is a real person. Holy cow, he is still alive and looks roughly like my character, especially he did back in the 1990s, at the right age!

Immediately following him on Instagram, watching documentaries, a movie (its soundtrack, btw, written by one of my favourite composers and fits my writing playlist perfectly), reading one of his autobiographical books. Yup, a person THIS famous I haven't really heard about, and (ta-da) a total adrenaline junkie, a freedom-freak, often in trouble for being honest, calling himself an individualist, anti-commumist, anti-nationslist and almost an anarchist, and a bit of a vagabond philosopher, guided by his feelings and intuition, great smile, foregn accent, someone very revered by many people. A horrible personal tragedy early in life for which he is partly responsible. Hence the movie.

There are a couple of minor differences, my character looking like someone from a slightly different part of Europe, being well educated at the start of his adventures (not a farm boy, for sure) and being less shy. The real person looks really timid around people all the first half of his life but not now. Just confirming that being shy is not a permanent trait. That's definitely a good news.

In my story, there are often waves of coincidences and similarities travelling across the Multiverse, the Ripples. Well, I had a big Ripple going through my life just now...

So, what could be the conclusion?

This world is just a simulation (A hint of it in that "Awe and Wonder Quest" book, too, if this ever happens). 😂

We change the Universe when we write stories. 😂

My unwritten story is all true, with Ripples going through our lives. 😂

We are archetypes in even more ways than we realise.

Even when I try to create a very different character to what I used to do (well, radiant and tragic instead of gloomy and tragic) I inevitably go back home to my own archetype (That's a bit sad). One of our uni professors was saying "It's not that the world is small, it is your circle that is narrow."

When I was at uni in the 90s, I either went to a talk (we had lots of famous people visiting), or read a book, or watched a documentary which I completely forgot. I do remember most stuff from that time, so that would be strange. And I think I remember the character, sorry, the real person mentioned at a relevant uni lecture, just as a dot on a big empty map, nothing more.

(the real person, while being that dot, actually was reading the book called "A History of Civilizations", as I now know, and I was actually writing my first silly story at that very moment, with the main character, solemn and tragic, constantly reading "The History of the Solar System" 🙄. Creepy, I know)

Similarly I could have gradually collected all the information about the real person on the back of my mind for years, without noticing it. That would be Weird.

Everything is (could be) always connected to everything, we just do not notice it very often.

The question is, how do I proceed? It is so much easier to describe a fictional character, if there's a real reference, and in future people will say I copied him anyway (even if I didn't! Got it? 😂) so why bother hiding it? Or should I change the character a lot? But then there probably won't be much point in writing this book, it is very character-based. Anyway, the character still might change organically, with the progress of the story.

So I better go now, I have a lot of books to read and documentaries to watch - although lots of them are in the language I do not know... Which happens to be the mother tongue of my only local friend here in Wales, and it's not Welsh. 😜

I am also re-reading "The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach, which I've read in 90s and it probably was a real inspiration for the character.

Writing is really fun, anyway. Can I post this on Facebook where people actually know who I am?

[amisbro]

Tokiya: Evening Curtis-San

Joshua: Well hello Mr. Ichinose...what is on the mind of the "Purple Prince" tonight?

Tokiya: Actually I was wondering if I could pick YOUR brain about what you think is going to happen in the next year when it comes to STARISH, QUARTET NIGHT and HEAVENS.

Joshua: Well you came to the right guy...I don't call myself the "UtaPri Detective" for nothing you know?

Tokiya: Oh I've heard. You seem to be really good at piecing together clues about things before its revealed so this is why I came to you.

Joshua: Very well...should we go over where we are presently and then do projections from there?

Tokiya: I Like that idea.

Joshua: Alright so...if we were to go back to say...December 24th which at this point is about 7-8 days depending on your side of the international dateline we KNOW that IS the Anniversary of the "Mysterious Message" that came about for the next "Animation Project" right?

Tokiya: Correct and we found out later that was going to the Movie right?

Joshua: Right and then some overzealous fan THOUGHT since it was announced at the stage that the Movie would be THIS YEAR and posted it on the wikipedia page which has since been removed.

Tokiya: WOW! That would have been a 7 month turnaround wouldn't it?

Joshua: Correct and the turnaround would have been SHORTER than the one for Season 4. We know that one was from January to October so that is about 10 months or thereabouts and then we had the stage announced after Episode 1 of Season 4...and I must apologize in advance but of the three parts of that BIG group song...I liked HEAVENS' the most. The harmonies seemed in a weird way more lively

Tokiya: Oh I understand. It was actually really good and even I admit theirs is really good so no worries there.

Joshua: Well that's cool. So we get through the season and then of course this year and the Stage where the movie was announced AND...like 3 months later Shining Live dropped in Japan! That caught EVERYONE off guard!

Tokiya: Yeah it did! You're waiting for the English version right?

Joshua: Correct and I NEED the TokiyaLock and Mad Scientist cards for that (boop boop) game! I think those are legit my faves right now from what I saw.

Tokiya: I'm honored.

Joshua: I'm glad...now I just wait on the translation

ANYWAYS

So now since that game came out...oh and in June before we forget we had the announcements of the update on Dolce Vita which is AWESOME and the Shining Masterpieces which I nearly went through the roof on!

Tokiya: HEAVENS is going to be in Dolce Vita now right?

Joshua: YEP! I wonder if they are going to keep with the tradition of NOT making them dateable like they did with QN in Debut OR are they going to allow them in from the jump?

Tokiya: I have to admit myself that I would like to learn more about them and also see how they work with Nanami and this OBVIOUSLY means Eiji.

Joshua: That kid is too good for his own liking. It makes you WONDER if its a front but I don't think that's like him. BTW...did you hear who his hair style is a mix of?

Tokiya: No...who?

Joshua: Apparently Otoya and Cecil!

Tokiya: O_O

Joshua: That's what I said. MOVING ON!

Tokiya: HEAVENS Sky came out in November right?

Joshua: Correct and while it didn't stay LONG on the Oricon it actually placed in the top 5 which I'm fine with. That shows me that people liked it enough for that point on the debut and I wish it could have stayed longer for sure

Tokiya: Maybe their next single will do better

Joshua: We can hope. Okay now we are in December and the last update to the TV site was Halloween. Y'all get any trick or treaters this year?

Tokiya: Actually we did and Masato doled out the Candy this time! I was going to do it but Ren asked for my help on something so I couldn't do it sadly...next year hopefully

Joshua: I was going to say you seem like you'd be a good parent but when Brother Ren calls you gotta go help him. Ren is usually good about NOT doing that but sometimes if its urgent well...yeah!

Tokiya: So now we get to 2018

Joshua: HOLY COW is this going to be a year...like the FIRST FIVE MONTHS of the year are going to be nuts NOT COUNTING the 8th Anniversary in June!

Tokiya: Right cos we got what...3 Shining Masterpieces coming out with Lost Alice...

Joshua: Three Musketeers and the Red Riding Hood one which is going to be crazy enough BUT then we get to around my birthday AGAIN in May!

Tokiya: You mean the Joker Trap Stage right?

Joshua: OOOOH YES! I am so looking forward to that you have no idea!

Tokiya: Is it true that is your favorite Shining Theater from "Gen 1"?

Joshua: One of them...the other is Masquerade Mirage

Tokiya: That's right! You got good taste if no one ever told you that

Joshua: I work with Camus...you either HAVE good taste or he sits you down and educates you for 3 weeks straight

Tokiya: Which were you?

Joshua: Oddly...somewhere in the middle so my course was only a week and a half but I've seen him grill Natsuki and HOLY CRAP MAN!

Tokiya: Can't be taught?

Joshua: Oh he can be...but if you asked me if it was going to take NEARLY AS LONG as it did...WOWZERS!

Tokiya: Gotcha. So when do you think we learn more about the movie?

Joshua: Well...we still have TWO possibilities for this year and one could be after the 6th stage DVD comes out and the other is during the Shining Countodwn. If THOSE don't happen then we go into next year playing the "is it today?" game

Tokiya: Let's assume there is going to be news but its not till next year...when?

Joshua: I can almost say without falter its NOT going to be in the first three months because of those CDs coming out which we will be EAGERLY anticipating (and I need to get my pre-orders in on)

Tokiya: Could it be April/May

Joshua: ...Possible but I would still say "no" and the reason is cos of the Anticipation for those...then again with the way Broc does HEAVENS with their birthdays it can be iffy but EYYYY!

Tokiya: I think I know what you mean and its all good. So the best chance would BE...

Joshua: 8th Anniversary in June. I think we will find out about the plot for the movie sometime around there and I think what will ALSO happen is the Movie details MIGHT be announced but the date won't be till the FOLLOWING year!

Tokiya: K-Pro right?

Joshua: Right! IF it is I dunno how it will do cos K Pro is really popular I think so we will have to wait and see. I think at this point the latest is going to be 2019! IF it is put out in 2018 its going to be like the Holiday season but for some reason I can't picture it

Tokiya: I gotcha. If there are anymore HEAVENS projects do you think we get them next year?

Joshua: Its Possible but when I can't say...I can't say because of the fact that I dunno how Broc sees them and the fact that Season 4 got pulled from Crunchyroll BUT we have to wait and see

Tokiya: Wait...season 4 isn't on Crunchyroll?

Joshua: NOPE! I dunno what happened but for some reason the season (which is part of the canon) ISN'T on there anymore

Tokiya: Okay well now I have to go see if I can solve this case...talk to you later Joshua

Joshua: Talk to you later Tokiya

[sukiiidakara]

So, today I had a few dreams and please lemme tell y’all about it.

1. I came into the living room after waking up, saw her eating cookies and I asked “can I have a Snickers™“ and she said yes, of course. When I took one, my dad suddenly ran in and screamed “Who allowed you to eat a Snickers™!?” I said that my mom allowed it and she just looked apathetic at him, with cookies in her mouth and hands, probably the thought “get on with it” in her head. And then my dad complained that I shouldn’t eat sweets because I’m fat.

2. I woke up and searched for my phone, then I saw that it had like..55% battery left or something and so I charged it. Then I looked at the half empty Icetea bottle on my desk and drank from the bottle next to my bed. Then I woke up for real, searched for my phone, saw that it had 1% battery left and tried to charge it, then I looked at the bottle on my desk and checked my tumblr. While I did that, the battery went up to 3% and went downhill after that and when it hit 1% again, I plugged it into something different that takes more energy. When I got up it had 100% btw so always plug your phone into a stereo to charge when your power point doesn’t do it anymore.

3. I was in underwear I think? and sat on the couch? And the living room was dark af but my mom sat right next to me with our dog near her???ß”?ß”? I didn’t understand that dream tbh. But the light in the kitchen was on and I buttered a sandwich and wrote :3 on the plate. Then, Sheldon Cooper just came into the living room?? And someone else spawned next to him and wished him Happy Birthday while I was still doing the sandwich for him and when I heard that Sheldon said “You’re the only one who remembers my birthday!”, I wrote Happy Birthday on the plate. With what, you may ask. With an Edding ofc. Then I gave the plate to him, he was happy and thought the writing and :3 on the plate were cute and..I went on the couch again.

4. That was a rather big dream honestly. I have no idea what happened before, but all I know is that I and my classmates had to clean the classroom. There were two Jelly Beans in the dust on the floor and our teacher said that we’re allowed to eat them once because that was an exception that someone eats while working since we worked good before. I took the pink one, I don’t know who took the yellow bean. But then ancient people, or rather gods sturmed into the classroom and wanted to kill my teacher. We were confused and the cool looking dude with blue skin turned towards us and told us a story, until my teacher interrupted him to say that he didn’t kill any of his folk. He clarified the story and then the blue skinned coolman-dude had a flashback-cutscene while talking. It was about kids, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe. No seriously the flashback was a ripoff of both these series, the kids were a mix between both drawing styles and characters, it was so weird. The boy and girl were at a ruin and the boy complained sadly about the fact that he doesn’t want to be a girl. They talked about stuff, but then there was an explosion and there were two gates down the hill. The scenery of the flashback was so beautiful omfg.. I wish I could’ve taken pictures of it in my mind but sadly, I just can remember it vaguely. Anyways. The kids went down to the gates because they were curious of what happened, and went through the left gate at the end. Yes, at first they were on a big ruined platform in the air, then there was an explosion and the boy who layed on the left side saw the gate and the girl who layed on the right side saw the gate on the right side. I can’t explain it but it was awesome. So they went through the gate the boy saw and came to a big hill with light green grass, a very beautiful sky and nice colors were everywhere. It was like a cow field but without anything but some trees with colorful fruits. They ran around, looking for god knows. Then there was the flashback that has to do with my teacher and so on. The cool dude stopped talking and the kids came in the classroom, I think, and told a story in another flashback cutscene, but this time in an ancient drawing style. It was about men who came back from fighting, they rid..ride..rode back to the stables with their horses, fully clothed, and so on. Then they came out of the other end of the stable without their horses and armor and they all laughed and talked. The kids said that one of the guys who was taller and thinner than everybody else, who didn’t talk with everyone else and who laughed rather rarely, died and became dust when they all came out of the other end. And since then everybody though that my teacher, or that time his ancestors, killed the warriors and their horses, even though they just let their horses rest in the stables lmao. 5. We were in class, but the tables were sorted differently. My best friend @multifangirl69 and I sat on one of the tables with D and Ab, but then we spawned right in front of the table? And just looked at them? It was very weird, but yeah. She then showed me valentines cards. In March. She wanted to give one to Ab, and holy shit these were adorable of some sort! So yeah, she was afraid to give it to him though, and we had a talk about it. I took one of the valentines cards and went up to him, said that the card was by my best friend (not really they were cut out of a magizine or some shit but you know what I mean). We sat down on the table and watched him read the card- his reactions were great. “Mhm..Oh! Uh, hm..Huh” basically. His eyes widened and D was looking away in the funny way he always did. At some point, Ab said “So, you want to love me?” and my best friend said “YES!” I thought that all he’d say was “ok” and that’s what he did. I screamed and squealed, my best friend was relieved, the crowd cheered, Obama was there, No I just squealed and my best friend was relieved. So they were in a relationship now! The ring belled to break and D, Ab, my best friend and I just stood in a corner of the classroom to put on our jackets. Everyone else was already out of the classroom when the bell rang for some reason, but yeah. D and I watched Ab and my best friend closing each other’s coats and we looked at each other like Me: cute? D: yeah Me: cute. Evin, a girl in our class who already told me once to hit on D, suddenly stood next to me and told me to tdo that again for some reason? Probs because she saw that D and I looked at each other like “cUTE!??!?!?”. He was rather careless about it though, but I  and my fucking shipperheart squealed and died internally. So Evin was there and then she walked off to talk to our teacher. When my best friend and Ab were done with coating each other, we walked out of the classroom and while we went out, we also walked behind Evin. I said “bitch” while getting out and the other were like “do you think that was smart” and ofc I had to go back to the classroom when we were already walking down the stairs. I was like “yeeah yeah dw i got that” and so I went back. My teacher shouted at me: “Why did you call Evin a bitch!?” Me: Because she tells me to hit on guys even though she knows my sexuality, which is homosexual. My teacher: Oh yeah well. Evin, stop telling her to hit on guys and start respecting your classmate’s sexuality! For some resaon the classroom filled with people in the class whenever I said something negative about her. They didn’t walk in or something, they just spawned in and listened to me! Me: Also because she always asks me “Do you think I’m hot? Do you think my ass is hot? Do you think my tits are hot?” which is very disrespectful to ask this a lesbian just because she’s a lesbian. Everyone else in the room gasped, Evin was shocked that I told our teacher about it and people looked at her like “Oh no u didn’t”. A woman who has to take care of a retarted boy in my class complained about her behavior towards me and I was like ??? She was out of the classroom after that and when D, Ab and my best friend came back, they said they saw her running away crying and asked me what I did to her. Me: Justice. We had to put the chairs on the tables and instead of the chairs I put people on the tables?? I was very confused in the end but that was the end of my dreams.

[snsmissionaries]

10/18/17 -- Sister Katie Buntin, Guatemala, Guatemala City South Mission

IM ALIVE!!!!

hola familia y amigos,

today is so hard, I still don't have a companion so I've been in a trio in a class that has been here for three weeks instead of a newbie class so that is fun, they say she wont get here till tomorrow but maybe not until Friday so im a tad scared but that's alright. I cried my eyes out multiple times today because THERE IS NO ENGLISH HERE thank bless my trio is from the states so they let me speak to them using a little English but every time I need English help they have me repeat the sentence in Spanish! soooooo needless to say I'm learning already, also i got to take a nap for a whole hour and it was the BEST!!! I've never felt so tired in my life! but it is absolutely beautiful here, there is green everywhere! one thing that is odd is the lines on the street don't matter, lol.... yeahhhh no one uses them so its a big mess did someone say anxiety. okay another weird thing is this keyboard everything is in the wrong place and i cant quite figure out how to shift the keyboard to get punctuation other than !!!!! and.... lol so sorry if nothing looks right. OH okay another weird thing because my companion missed her flight i flew alone.... with 26 elders, lol so bizarre but they are pretty cool, weird, but cool i guess that's how most guys are tho haha. the food so far issss ummm well its not my favorite, there was a whole chicken in the cafe and i could not eat it seeing its eyes staring at me  BLEGH so that will take some getting used to, but they had really good éclairs that made me think of grandma doris, those are her favorite, ooooohhhh speaking of grandma everyone loves your fudge so thank you so much its the best and is exactly what i need when i felt so alone okay anyways i made it safe and my mtc pday is on Tuesday so ill talk to yall then! 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Buntin

October 18 2017-april 2019

 IM DEAD IM DEAD!!! I SURVIVED BUT IM DEAD!!!

hopefully i got your attention😋 this quote perfectly explains how I've felt this week! holy cow ive been so tired after 14 + hour workdays its insane, i took my last nap for granted haha. im so glad to hear everyone's emails and love all the support thanks so much everyone!!!! so far the food has gotten better... there's been a few times they served pescado....like today... so i ate cereal haha. I'm not a fan of fish even though I did take thank you bites of everything (thanks for teaching me that dad, cause I've found a few things ive looooveeedddddd like this weird pasta dish that kinda looks like it belongs in dirt but i was reassured its pasta haha) the beans here are wonderful! nothing like beans in the states! oh and also we have the best chefs!!!! a pastry with every meal! haha plus ice cream is available 24/7! i was sick every day except Sunday and today so that's always super awesome. cause it doesn't matter if you drink filtered water cause they cook with the other water and baam you sick.... forever. lol no they say our bodies will get used to it!

so if you know me you know i looooveee doing weird things to my hair haha... like dying it weird or making impromptu decision to cut my bangs last night! THEY LOOK AWESOME!!!!! haha i look so rad and all the sisters want me to cut theirs too haha. i will send pictures when I'm out of the mtc its against rules to send them while here but I'll send them in 6 weeks haha

 okay okay so to the real stuff, my companion got here she's pretty rad her name is hermana nielson and she is very bubbly. haha so i guess you could say were pretty similar. my classes are good, very long but very good, im learning a lot and English is already getting hard most of the time I'm speaking spanglish hahaha I'm absolutely terrible at Spanish but im learning and that's what counts. so our teachers take turns being investigators this week and we had to have lessons with Michael and Carlos! Michael is getting baptized on November 20th!!!! (not really cause its just mock lessons but still cool haha) me and hna. nielson bore our testimonies and taught three whole lessons by the spirit and fully in Spanish, did somebody say "SO COOL?" no? oh okay haha that's me lol..... it is so cool to be able to speak words you didn't know you knew and be able to give full lessons and know EVERYTHING that's going on haha. 

so in the ccm (MTC) there are about 125 of us in here (which is crazy small) and theres only 8 nortes (north americans) who are female soooooooo we all bonded very quick! one of the presidents wifves asked me and hna nielson to teach relief society in a few weeks #SCARYYYYYYYY but in 2 weeks there will only be 2 norte girls haha soo i guess ill be teaching a lot haha. 

 i dont even know what else to say haha. i can finally say that i can sleep in the rain (if you knew me well enough you know the rain was crazy and i hated it cause it freaked me out and I couldn't sleep when it was raining! but i have been every night here so far!) 

so we are ALWAYS busy here and I haven't missed my phone or technology once! its awesome, obviously i miss talking to all of you but I don't miss tv or the office or Facebook or nothing its sooooo weird haha. but there's no time to miss it! so turns out they don't celebrate dia de los muertos here but because i will be in the ccm on thanksgiving we will have a small feast, although every meal feels like a feast.

 i hung up some pictures in my room above my bed and allllll the hermanas are jealous, I'm so glad i brought pictures it makes me feel close to home even though I'm in the eternal spring! BTW the eternal spring is wayyyyyyyyyy better than Arizona weather haha so far the humidity isn't bugging me too much besides the fact that my hair frizzes quite a bit but its still straight sooo yay for sleeping in and not doing mah hair or makeup! 

 OOOOOOO YALL be proud I found out how to get a question mark and quotations its so crazy! haha but I still cant spell check and I have too much to say and my mind is going 8000000000 miles an hour trying to say what i need to say in an hour haha so sorry if I don't capitalize the beginning of my sentences or have spelling problems cause honestly I'm a bad speller already but now having 2 languages and no spell check its gonna be rough!

 so in the ccm I can only speak Spanish and woooooo its crazy how many people stare at you when you speak English or when you speak very terrible Spanish haha, sad thing is i used to think my Spanish was good but now i know its really not haha the Latinas are helping me though, they teach me a word in Spanish every day and i teach them a word in English everyday cause they want to know more! so now i know what toilet is, paper towel, rue, sarcastic, and sassy haha. its so rad i love the people here! 

 alrighty imma take the rest of my email time to respond to my family and hopefully do some family history work but i want to share with you my very short testimony in Spanish cause i need to work on that 🙃🙃🙃🙃 

 Yo testifico que la evangelio es verdedad y jose smith es un profeta de dios. yo sabe que familias es eternidad y es muy importante. el libro de mormon es la palabras de dios y el evangelio fue resturado en el nombre de jesuchristo amen.

ill talk to yall next week on Tuesday at 1pm! I love you all, choose the right, and follow the teachings of the spirit and latter de profetas! 

con mucho amor,

Hermana Buntin

October 18 2017-april 2019