#track from 2014 😐

[superm4ks]

Do you maybe know if there are articles with the reactions of younger drivers to max coming into f1? Like maybe what drivers like esteban, pierre, alex, charles or even like george were thinking at that time. I'm just really curious to know what the younger Gen of drivers (especially esteban since he won the previous championship) were saying when they saw one of their peers in a f1 car, winning in an f1 car, before they were even on the grid.

Thats a fun question!! idk if I went looking for it the right way but well here u go. 😽🌼

Just somethign to keep in mind is that teen athletes are literally being held at gunpoint at all times by somebody whose sole job is to make sure everybody likes them and they're like thee most employable people in the world. So they wont exactly come out and say how they feel in that moment u shud prolly look to older drivers or mentors or pundits for that. Also Reddit is down and that’s usually where u can find some real juicy and biased one liners without context. The real stuff yk.

Ok so in 2015/2016 I think all Esteban said when asked was that Max had become his 'reference point' and that he hoped to join Max in f1 and ‘eventually beat him’. But something he's admitted since then is that Max's f1 debut was 'difficult to swallow' because he was the one who was winning in f3 and yet Max got the invite. I think Esteban understands why and ultimately he used Max's achievement as motivation, and still does. Last year he called Max a ‘shining example of their generation of drivers’ which I thought was very beautiful.

Baby sharls declarations to the media on the other hand are literally just chatgp wid a mortal conscience. No fr. In 2014 he called Max a 'formidable rival' and said competing wid Max 'builds character' and 'multiple crashes wid Max on track gave him 'additional experience’ in his career. Also ‘coming within 2 seconds of Max Verstappen in KTM was exceptional’. 😭 bro had that experience section LOCKED he wasn’t taking any chances. George I couldn’t find any quotes from that year but George has always had a backhanded type of media game he likes to play wid Verstappen that imo, is very insecure and boring. Last year he said that Max was ‘very patient wid Red Bull’ because in ‘5 years he only won won like 8 races’ and now this season he’s won ‘like 15’. Even tho he ‘deserved to fight for titles sooner’ he didn’t have a ‘championship car’ and now he does so he can. Remarkable. George later adds to this completely unprompted that maybe if Max had ‘signed wid merc first’ and gotten Lewis Hamilton for a teammate’ he wudnt have had such an ‘easy time’ and maybe his career wud resemble George’s more. I have nothing to say to this because I’m an incredibly mature person and it’s pride month. I will instead take a sip of water and listen to my gf snore and wonder what nick latifi is doing. If hes happy.

Now here is where we’re gonna put the Max Generational Limit because the following drivers are all at least 2 years older than Max and had their careers inadvertently shaped by helmut putting an underage child in a f1 car.

So Daniil Kvyat as u can imagine wasn’t exactly ✨thrilled ✨ considering max went on to steal his seat ((and his baby mama.😐😐)). When asked about the mid season swap wid Max he said, ‘I don't know, 18 years old is probably on the edge. But who can say? It is his seat now and it is up to him to do something with it’. To Kvyats credit Max did do something wid it lmfao. He has also recently talked about rbr ‘stabbing him in the back’ and that he wishes he could’ve ‘competed wid Max in equal machinery’ in toro rosso which is funny to me because the mf who did that also got beat for the rbr seat. 😐

Carlos unfortunately suffered from the incurable Max Rivalry disease that has affected 1 in 100 drivers in the world is highly contagious and symptoms include: hallucinations, helmut marko hate crimes, possible mclaren implications. In 2014 while helmut was reshaping pediatric care under the guise of a ‘Junior Programme’ and floating the idea of signing Max because he’s literally allergic to not giving everybody the tea all the time Carlos immediately said he ‘deserved the rbr seat more than Max’ because ‘Max was third in his championship and was beat by another rookie’ ((ESTEBAN MENTION)) and Carlos was ‘the level above that’ which I presume is like Jesus. So ok he wasn’t. That’s fine, it happens, its the disease. Pierre. I don’t care for Pierre he was terminal.

Finally, Alex. Again I literally couldn’t find any direct quote from 2014-2016 about Max but in 2020 Alex said even in karting max was already ‘the young guy to beat’. He’s also made some infamous comments about the way rbr builds their cars that he’s had to backtrack and explain so many times and I kinda feel bad for him because he’s sm bigger than his time wid Red Bull it shouldn’t even matter anymore. However. He did give us this sexy quote on verstappen’s untamable big nosed twin: ‘And when I got into the Red Bull … I mean there was so much nose on the thing that if you blew on the wheel the car would turn. If you play Call of Duty, or a game like that, turn your sensitivity up to the highest it will go. That’s what it’s like to drive that car’ 😋

[ezamevolni]

Traces: 2jin detour

So this post is strongly speculative and theory-based. Meaning that I'm reaching for the connections. But after spotting some interesting correlations between the events when placed on the same timeline, I'm putting this out there so maybe the you who's reading could take a look and tell whether there's truly a thread here.

One of my favorite YT Jinkookers moonbathingrite had made a great video that opened my eyes to the possibility of 2jin being a thing before Jin and Jungkook. (Note: she never said that they were, but did present interesting parallels between 2jin and Jinkook who came later)

2jin is the ship name for Kim Seokjin and Jin Hyosang.

Jin Hyosang, also known as Kidoh (ex-member of Toppdogg), used to be a BigHit trainee and was in the same underground rap group (DamNamhyup) as RM. He was actually in one of the final lineups for Bangtan (based off a poster) but joined Stardom Ent. some time in late 2012. The likeliest reason for switching agencies probably had to do with creative issues since BTS did go through a major revamp before debut - the original lineup of 'rappers only' eventually turned into a choreography heavy, idol group.

Kidoh was able to start releasing mixtapes with his new members in March and April of 2013, and later debuted officially in October. If you look at Toppdogg's debut album, Kidoh had writing credits on almost every single one of them. He even had a solo track, which was a major indicator of how much the agency was planning on pushing him.

Kidoh's connection to Jin is one of the rarer K-Pop phenomenons I've seen - fans shipping two male idols from different rookie groups right out the gate. This was mainly bolstered by Kidoh's fans all being acutely aware of how extremely infatuated he was with Jin, and Kidoh's encouraging responses. There was even something of a love triangle being touted back in 2013 between Kidoh, Jin and Rap Monster 😐 Ancient times were different 😺

So fan spectacle aside, how credible was 2jin being an actual item?

Truthfully, not very much. Because the affection was simply too lopsided to call it a relationship. Kidoh seemed enamored by Jin but Jin was generally aloof and cavalier in return. Of course, you could argue that Jin had always been a master of disguising his emotions but taking into account their careers at the time, it would have been impossible to date anyway (even if they wanted to).

For a more comprehensive history on 2jin's social media interactions, you could check out this 2jin blog - here (look at the number of notes under each post...considering the small fanbases att and this being the international side, it's impressive)

And if interested, here's an overview of predebut BTS - reddit

And if you're wondering why I'm bringing an ex-idol/trainee/friend into the picture, stay with me :)

Jin moved into Bighit's dorm on July 29, 2012 and the very next day, Kidoh tweeted about Jin:

When Jin...or maybe not Jin, tweeted using the group account at the end of 2012:

Kidoh possibly already left BigHit by then

Commenting on a post by BTS_twt with a candid snap of Jin:

Kidoh's tweets about Jin were always harmless but had just that unnecessary hint of... attentiveness?

So with these social media traces, his affection for Jin was known since their trainee days. He had left enough crumbs online for the shippers to gather rapidly in their debut year.

On a related note, it's amusing how there's essentially no traces of Kidoh and Namjoon's friendship despite these two being in the same underground rap group far longer than either ever knew Seokjin. Joon was there the whole time and yet, there's no signs of the rappers knowing each other. In fact, they barely interacted during their special collab stage for Show Champion in 2014.

And it might have been fine to label his affection for Jin as overly-affectionate-best-friend feels, but Kidoh definitely toed the line at times:

One more picture! Gay goosebumps..

And maybe Seokjin was also aware of the possibility of Hyosang being romantically interested in him because

Fan: Seokjinnie oppa! Who is Jin Hyosang to oppa?

Jin: not gay haha

TBH I had doubted the credibility of the post it at first because I found it on a 2015 tweet:

But I did spot this translation from way back in 2013:

Jin's response is incredibly telling of the whole situation because first of all, he had to be aware of what the fans were thinking when they asked him the question. Secondly, he skipped over several thoughts to arrive at 'I'm not gay' because the question wasn't asking if he was??

(and the response is so deeply closeted iykwim)

Meanwhile Kidoh was on another wavelength:

Q: What is Seokjin-shii for Hyosang? K: Destiny

Personally... I've heard best friends refer to each other as 'soulmates' before, but never 'destiny'. His answer seemed to imply another layer to their friendship.

Another interesting aspect of 2jin was the way Jin used to tweet about Kidoh, where his habits later carried over when he was tweeting about Jungkook.

For example, Jin would add his name to the end of a sentence:

I am too, fascinated-jin #kimseokjinhyosang

@/BTS_twt My friend is debuting, its fascinating-jin..

Jin's tweet for Jk's birthday in 2013:

Jungkook-ah  Hyung will always be on your side  I love you-jin  Happy Birthday!

It's like his little watermark to say he was the one who tweeted.

And that hashtag #kimseokjinhyosang conjoining the two of their names <3

That's a thing Jin once did during mid-2016 on the day of Jinkook's waterpark date.

Seokkookie

And of course it's cuter when Jin did it for Jk and himself, because it was half and half of their names. He will cram them together even if none of the alphabets are the same ❤️

These little things that Jin would do for his closest person/friend remained constant but of course, the two relationships were probably not of the same nature.

The difference mainly being Jin - his attitude towards Hyosang and Jungkook was like if you compared night and day. Indifference vs great affection.

Here's another set of 2jin post its famous for the contrast:

Q: What do you like about BTS' Seokjinie oppa?? K: Lips .. (Shy)

The similarity of his answers to our younger protagonist is surreal.

...And here's Jin's answer to the same question posed of Kidoh:

Q: Hyosang said he likes your lips the most. What do you like the most about Hyosang? J: Money

He's consistent. Still focused on moneys when it comes to other people 🤣😋

Other than these traces of the 2jin friendship, you can explore their lore further on the blog linked above. You'd understand what I meant by how Kidoh 'encouraged' the shippers. Jin lived rent free on his mind.. he got mentioned even when Kidoh was interacting with fans on entirely unrelated topics. It didn't seem like fan service because the moments were so random and neither of them seemed to actually care about the reaction.

There's also some Yt compilations comparing how similar 2jin's personalities were, both a little eccentric, loud and confident about their looks. It is easy to tell why they clicked.

So it's interesting how Kidoh appeared rather infatuated with Jin.. which Jungkook's attitude resembled at times. Everything else aside, his focus on Jin lasted throughout their trainee period together up to the last second of their fallout.

Considering how forward Kidoh was and how they'd still meet each other backstage at music shows, it's certainly possible that members of both teams had observed 2jin's interactions and knew about their close friendship. And for someone who was in close proximity to Jin and paid him a lot of attention, he might know they're close and perhaps had wondered about the nature of the two 92-liners' relationship.

The fallout seemed to happen out of the blue.

On November 8, 2014 Jin and Kidoh still seemed fine and had taken a selfie together

And on Jin's birthday, Kidoh tweeted a polaroid of themselves and a short message:

Isn't it funny how they looked like twins

Then before the year could come to an end, BTS_twt was discovered to have unfollowed Kidoh.

Shippers who were watching 2jin's moves saw that Kidoh also deleted many of his posts related to Jin. Following this, on Christmas Eve he tweeted:

Lamenting how he was single and surrounded by couples.

Whether it's actually related to Jin or not, I can't say. But the timing of the tweet did coincide with his abrupt disconnection from Jin. And sadly these two had never interacted, or at least publicly, ever again after December 2014.

And on a very loosely related note, Jungkook had posted his cover of Crush's Sofa on Dec 16 that year

Which was a melancholic breakup song speaking from the perspective of someone who's clearly been dumped.

As armys we know more than to dismiss the lyrics of Jk's cover songs right... so the timing of this cover seemed pretty interesting in the scheme of things.

So that's something to think about there.

My own loose theory is that there was something more than friends there going on but not enough to call it an official relationship. And for the sudden 'breakup', it could be anything. Maybe it was business - had to do with Kidoh's lawsuit that surfaced half a year later, or personal - a failed confession... the possibilities are whichever you believe in. (My dream is for Seokjin to publish an autobiography at the age of 40 and spill all the tea) As for how Jk fits in... I have no idea how much he knew (did he ever ask or did Jin ever tell), but that lil cover showed he was probably aware of events in this arena.

LOL Didn't I say that I was reaching 😋

And unfortunately, the story for Hyosang kind of kept going downhill for a while. The following year, he filed a lawsuit against his agency for mismanagement of his career, and then in 2016, was convicted for drug use along with ex-Bighit trainee Iron.

After the ordeal, he returned to the industry as a producer for AOMG and almost exclusively produced for Woo (Woo Wonjae). He's under the new monicker Khyo now. That lasted for about 2 years and more recently, he doing DJ gigs at festivals.

So he's up and still doing music 🙌

This ended in a sort of somber note with the lost connection between 2jin....

But the silver lining to it is that both of them are living well, and I'm not a 2jin shipper 👻✨

[cakejerry]

bs&t jm created a monster? elaborate pls

because he used to be manly4pay both on and off stage, until that manliness slid into a more subdued, matured stage persona while jimin off-stage started feeling more comfortable showing his real aegyoful self, and these two parts of him existed in harmony for a while before public reception of bs&t made on-stage sexiness prevail and it slowly started the downward spiral of hyde consuming jekyll.

2013/2014- hardworking obedient desperate for success little boy who is privately a shy cutie pie but has to play a "manly" muscular hiphop b-boy. this eats him up from the inside. the only glimpse we see of his true self on stage is woh when he gets to have fun and play around otherwise it's get naked show your abs boy.

2015- both the concept and himself grew but you can still see he's pushing an agenda. only now they go emo with i need u so instead of acting super "manly" one way or the other he can just kinda stand there and smoulder and let his dancing skills do the talking. it tracks into dope where he's still afraid to smile, and run when the perfect man performance happens and he kinda starts feeling himself when people call him sexy. however the influx of fans allows him to be more himself on non-stage cameras aka a cutiepie

2016- 333 happens and you can see he's kinda 😏 about people finding him sexy.... but also he reaches maximum cutiepie levels in bon voyage so he's balancing his DUALITY charm reversal capsaicin image perfectly

and then bs&t happens.... just looking dead at the camera expressionless like this 😐😐.... AND PEOPLE START FUCKING KILLING THEMSELVES over how 'sexy' he is... even though he was just standing there with half-lidded eyes not rlly doing anything .... so he's like homelander meme hahaha alrighttt!! and starts pushing himself being "sexy" all the time on stage

On stage timeline: manly->powerful->sexy

Off stage timeline: "manly"-> cutieful (the true self)->.... depressed?

he literally got colonised by his own alternate persona. he held on for a good long while but you can't really nourish your bubbly cheerful personality when you consider smiling on stage to be a criminal offense even during songs like ANPANMAN

spring day? sexy. not today? sexy. dna? sexy. fake love? sexy. idol? sexy. boy with love? sexy. and by sexy i mean 😐 since fuckass virgin koreans think his resting bitch face is "sexy" and not "fuck my life I wish I was anywhere but here" and jimin never learned the difference either so he's just cruising along with full marks even though his ass did NOT study for the test

and you can just kinda feel that sexy persona seeping life from the cutiepie off-stage jimin.... all of a sudden he needs to be mature and sleek and copy taemin for his solo debut or whatever.... cakejerry creative direction would've had him singing kindergarten lullabies i can tell you that much

[october-faye]

I have thoughts on Dragon Age: the Veilguard

I held off on playing it until Christmas day for sentimental reasons. I played DAI on Christmas day in 2014, and I liked the idea of waiting ten years to the day.

First, my Rook.

This is Ivy. She's a rogue and part of the Lords of Fortune.

I'm not sure who, if anyone, she's going to romance. There's some chemistry between her and Davrin, but I still haven't recruited Emmerich or Taash yet.

I'm enjoying this game far more than I expected to, which is a relief. So I'll begin with the things I like so far. 😌

The combat's quite fun once you get used to it. It's a little messy and frantic at first, but slicing through multiple enemies and executing finishers while barely taking damage is quite a rush. Plus the rogue has an ability that lets you steal health from enemies, which is a literal lifesaver.

The environments are beautiful.

The various locations are fun to explore, and they have great verticality. No one avoids a quest marker like I do. I'm always heading in the opposite direction to hunt for loot and side quests, which are plentiful.

The side content has more variety than Inquisition. I've not been hit with a glut of fetch quests and collect-a-thons.

The hair options in the character creator don't suck!🪮

I wasn't sure about the companions at first, but they've been growing on me over time, especially once I got started on their personal quests.

I'm enjoying watching the Lighthouse become more habitable and cosy as the main story progresses.

I like they've bought gifts back, though the companions' reactions to receiving them are a bit meh.

The armour and weapons are attractive. Gone are the ugly mage hats and basic armour you have to suffer through during the first act of any dragon age before you can find something decent to wear.

Cats. Cats. Cats. And my companions standing patiently while my Rook pets every 👏 single 👏 cat 👏 (and dog) in Treviso and Minrathous.

Okay, things I don't like. 😐

The dialogue early in the game was atrocious. Quips are great in moderation, but when it's everyone's default way of speaking, it's hard to sit through. It was a weak start to what eventually becomes a pretty solid game.

The early companions have a PhD in pointing out the obvious. One character will say something and someone else will say the exact same thing, only worded differently. The writing too often reminds me of those Lego video games for kids that take an adult franchise and water it down so it's easy for ten-year-olds to digest.

I like Rook more than I liked Rider in ME Andromeda, but I'm having a hard time imagining how I'm going to make my next Rook feel distinct to this one. All the dialogue options are strangely milquetoast no matter the tone you choose. I don't feel like I'm crafting an actual personality for the character.

Speaking of tone, those tonal indicators for dialogue are bullshit. On one occasion, I'm pretty sure the dialogue options for the sarcastic and positive responses were the wrong way around???

Sometimes there are no tonal indicators at all. I tried to reassure Lucanis that I'd 'keep an eye on him' in a friendly way (i.e., to make sure he's not suffering too much due to his demonic possession). Instead, Rook became hostile and phrased it as if she was going to keep an eye on him because she didn't trust him. I know indicating tone and context in dialogue trees is difficult, but I think this game has the worst case of responses not matching their description that I've ever seen.

Rook's actual dialogue is often blander than the description. WTF? 😐

Rook also has this annoying habit of propping both fists on their hips in a Superman pose when they're about to say something obnoxious clever. I'm tempted to start a drinking game.

Combat feels somewhat samey no matter the kinds of enemies you're fighting.

The soundtrack is mid. I've been playing for 17.5 hours so far and none of the tracks stick out to me.

The game doesn't establish why Rook is the protagonist. Every previous DA game has done a good job of explaining 'why you?' Besides some expository dialogue with Varric after Rook has already been accepted as leader by everyone else, the game doesn't explain why Rook is in charge. Rook has an occasional psychic link to Solas, but that's not enough to justify why they call any shots over someone like Harding, for example, who was in the Inquisition, was one of Leliana's former agents, and has been hunting Solas for years. This YouTube video does a good job dissecting why this is an issue.

I would've loved a DA: Origins-style opening where you get a prologue that introduces your character and their faction, shows you meeting Varric, and explains why he hired you specifically.

It would also have been nice to get to know Minrathous before demons start raining from the sky. The culture, the architecture, the social hierarchies... it's all so different compared to Ferelden and Orlais. We needed a more purposeful introduction.

I understand some of this may be down to the game's troubled development, but that doesn't explain every issue.

Despite this long list, I woke up on Boxing Day excited to keep playing. So I'm counting this as a win for now.

[emeraldbabygirl]

Does anyone write letters to friends anymore? Like pen pals aren’t a thing anymore are they? Now everyone has internet or something so we just message our friends there and I guess in some ways it’s safer that way cause what if the person you’re messaging is one of those creepy people that pretends to be someone else and then if you send letters back and forth they now have your address. And people are just too scared and don’t like telling where they live which isn’t a bad thing btw.

Idk I have friends all over both in the same country as me and other countries and I just kinda like the thought of writing lil letters back and forth like people used to. Minus tying the letter to the leg of a carrier pigeon 😐 bUT! It is faster online messaging and my hand writing is really bad :( I write too fast and then you can’t read anything. Also I don’t think I have anymore stationary that was never something I did really. But just the idea of having cute paper and using colored pens to write with or getting cute stickers and like sending lil attachments like maybe a picture of a pet or printing a meme off the internet and sending it to a friend I love that idea. Of course sometimes postage is expensive ;-;

BUT ALSO cause like for me I have like clothing that is sitting in my closet that doesn’t fit like I bought online and even tho I picked the biggest size I’m just too big for it, like even if I lost weight I couldn’t get the item over my head or around my shoulders so I was just thinking it would be cute to send to a friend if they like it and write a little letter with it :) it’s kinda fun to think about sending gifts to friends back and forth as long as the mail carriers aren’t assholes 😠

On another note when I was super into Exo back in like 2014 I bought so many Exo things on eBay and I still have the stuff and it might be fun to make a post of it sometime. I bought a mouse pad and a really cool mouse that lights up and changes colors when you plug it in and it’s really pretty but not very practical unfortunately and I have some posters too, some from the Nature Republic shooting and I have some themed rings and necklaces AND MY LUHAN HOODIE STILL FITS! And I have a snapback that I wanted cause I thought I was cool omg I was cringe when I was a sophomore :(

Nowadays I have some bracelets made of that rubber stuff with the group name and member names and other types of bracelets and I have a VAV hoodie and a couple of group t-shirts some I bought from Hot Topic, and I have some posters but I don’t think they’re official but I still like them except my Twice poster is either missing Nayeon or Jeongyeon :( and I have a handful of albums and a lil box with all my photo cards that didn’t come in albums, some my sister gave me cause they came in her orders and she didn’t want them or had double. AND I HAVE A CUTE LIL FAN WITH SUNWOO FROM BOYS REPUBLIC 🥺🥺🥺 I LOVE IT SO SO MUCH I LOVE HIM AND UGH I LOVE HIM I LOVE HIM. And I also have the monsta x themed toys the nunugom? I think is Shownu’s (I have the shownu one but I’m not sure if it’s called nunugom or not) I have a medium one and a lil keychain that’s on my bag. But anyway I bought a lot of things just cause they reminded me of Exo members lol.

ANYWAY OFF TRACK BUT IDK I think if you really trust your online friends it might be fun to send cute letters back and forth. YOU COULD EVEN MAKE THEM CUTE BRACELETS LIKE EITHER THOSE LOOM BAND THINGS OR CUTE BEADED BRACELETS OMG. I have made a lot of pretty loom bands bracelets (cringe alert: I made one for each member of Exo except tao and chanyeol cause I didn’t have enough bands of the color I wanted but I was like ‘I’m gonna give these to them at a fansign’ 💀) and I have a couple random beads like the pony beads? And some blocks with letters and flat round ones with letters you know those cute bead sets from the 90’s and 2000’s 🥺 omg that would be so cute I love that idea. BUT I ALSO LOVE THE IDEA OF MAKING FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS WITH YOUR FRIENDS Y’ALL I USED TO THINK FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS WERE CHILDISH 😔 BUT FRIENDSHIPS ARE SO WONDERFUL AND WHOLESOME AND MAKING CUTE THINGS FOR YOUR FRIENDS IS REALLY UNDERRATED AND NEEDS TO BE APPRECIATED MORE!

I’m sorry this post flew off the track lmao. Anyway :)