Zeref simp hours

C2E64 - A Dangerous Chase - rewatch reaction

I think I’m ready for some journey to Bazzoxan tonight!  Definitely won’t get it finished, but ready to jump in.

(also I just bought a crap ton of dice.  I already have 10 sets.  I only play dnd once a month.  I am a full goblin at this point.  This was honestly one of the reasons that I was scared of getting into dnd, because I KNEW I would go goblin.  I tried not to for like, a year, and now I’ve given in.)

….So.  I also watch an Australian pokemon go youtuber, ProPlanty. …..I just want to know how he would react to this ad bit from Sam.

THAT’S a shirt that’s never been restocked!  Wonder what it looks like up close.

*removes a whole bunch of math in regards to locate object with the realization that the problem is not distance in dnd being bs, the problem is me and my failure to conceptualize any level of ‘higher’ math now that I’ve been out of school for ages.  I used to take calculus!  Now I use a calculator for everything.*  Well, one legit piece of info I did get is that when they sensed Obann at the edge of the 1000 ft spell, it would have taken one of them only just over 1.5 minutes to dash to get there.   ….wait.  *does more research*   World record for a 300 meter dash (which is 984 feet) is 30.81 seconds (Wayde van Niekerk from South Africa on June 28, 2017).   ….I am reminded of many posts online talking about how you really shouldn’t try to relate dnd to real life.  I am learning that lesson for myself.  (Beau with her movement of 45, using dash and step of the wind, would run 1000 feet in 44 seconds, so that’s at least

No I’m not going to continue that thought.  I am backing out of that tangent that ended up being useless and getting back into the episode.  I’m still only in the Last Time On!

For what it’s worth, I fully recognize that Laura and Taliesin both being in the black and yellow outfits means that I’ve seen clips or gifs from this episode for SOMETHING, but I can’t think of what it could be!

Ah, the discussion about “Orphanmaker”.  I still have quibbles with the reasons for the name, because it just plain confuses me.  I suppose it’s indicative of the attitudes of the tribe, that they give each other tough sounding names despite not living up to it, but it always ends up muddling how I feel about the name.  I also suppose that this is the point of the name though, that it ISN’T some narratively clear cut “Yasha earned the name through her actions with Obann but since she can’t remember it she doesn’t know how she got the name and thus how she would relate to being called it”. Instead it’s “Yasha was given the name by her tribe, basically just considered it a nickname/title, then actually ended up earning it under Obann which she doesn’t remember, which now adds a layer on to how she may feel or relate to the name once she knows about her past again”, which isn’t bad don’t get me wrong!  But it doesn’t slot easily into a story beat, which I guess is why I struggle with it at times (which says more about me than anything). To be fair, a reason for it may have been Ashley choosing the name to 1) sound badass and 2) give Matt something to play with during her amnesia times.  Does Ashley ever actually clarify out of campaign? (I also wish we knew what Zuala’s tribe name was.  As it is, I think we only ever know Orphanmaker and Skyspear?)

I love how Matt will present Option Safe and Option Cool and the group ALWAYS goes for Option Cool.  Travis’s delight at going through the Barbed Fields, the “ground zero of the calamity” is so palpable.  It also makes me even more happy that Travis was in the Calamity one-shot, he deserves it!  LOOK HOW EXCITED HE IS.

(I also love how Matt will sometimes take a joke and play it super straight – Sam asking Maruo if she’s seen Stranger Things and Maruo responding that she’s only seen half of the first season [hey me too], such a well balanced joke that throws everyone off)

Pike spoke Undercommon?  I did not know that!  Then again, I thought Yasha DID speak Undercommon.  No, critrolestats has her with just Common and Celestial.

Aw man, they never do get to Charis.  To be fair, I’m not surprised that Caleb doesn’t know what it is on a 26, I’m assuming it’s just a regular place in Xhorhas.  *looks at the wiki* Okay, a sweet little place, but not devastating that they didn’t get there.  Not worth a one-shot either.

I do love when this group is just all on different pages but all focused towards the same objective.  I think this is the most obvious moment of it playing out, with Maruo even referencing the mixed messages several times.  I don’t think any other group was this Messy, but it works when it’s the Nein.

I love the moorbounders so much!!  I think they’re about to lose them though, yeah?  Don’t they leave them in Bazzoxan and never get them back?  SAD TIMES.

I’m really glad that Ashley rolled high for Yasha to be able to share information about the Barbed Fields.  Because of where she’s from, she’s not really a PC created for infodumping, especially because the areas of Xhorhas that they have gone to are outside of her travels.  But being able to give a good chunk of info about the Barbed Fields has to feel good.

Ah, maybe this is the moment why I recognize the outfits?  Beau needing a short rest but refusing to ask for one, so Caleb immediately telling the group how weak he is and how much he needs a rest.  These two are SUCH a great pairing.

I don’t know if I remembered the joke before it happened, or if I just got it before they did it, but after Jester and Caduceus indicating to use spells at the end of the day, I did the little les mis singalong too XD

Ah no.  This is the Canon episode.  So far we’ve got “don’t shoot the messenger”, “don’t beat a dead horse”, and golf. Edit from later – and ravioli!

Slight spoilers for campaign 3, but I miss the sense of travel and exploration we have from C2, which doesn’t make SENSE because there IS travel and exploration in C3!  But for whatever reason, it doesn’t resonate as much with me like journeying through the Barbed Fields and stuff, and I have no clue why.

WAIT THIS IS WHERE YASHA GETS THE SKINGORGER???  I 100% forgot and thought Obann gave it to her!!  Maybe he only gives her the breastplate.

Fun fact!  I have no clue if this is just me or not, but I haven’t felt like any of Yasha’s swords actually FIT her, you know?  The Magician’s Judge, Skingorger, the Holy Avenger, Scaldsaber, they all SOUND cool AF, and apparently cleaver-style swords are her thing, but I dunno.  Maybe it’s because the fact that she did use so many swords that it ended up feeling like there wasn’t one that fit her well.  Unlike Fjord, where he has the falchion which just absorbs different characteristics, and then gains …. gains…. Hold on…. wiki help me….the Star Razor.  And both of those swords feel so strongly like they FIT, and the changeover has strong significance and character impact.  Whereas Yasha is just a little more like a videogame, swapping out one weapon for another when it’s better suited for it.  I suppose not everyone needs an Iconic Weapon though. How many weapons did Grog end up using?  Wiki shows EIGHT different weapons!  Plus just whatever normal axe he used at the beginning of the campaign which doesn’t even look like it’s on his wiki page so NINE?

For what it’s worth, cool combat!  Just not much to say.

Have I mentioned that I’m super mixed on the nickname Jessie for Jester?  Like, it’s a completely legit nickname that fully makes sense in context, and it’s cute that they all start having a nickname for her, so I do love that.  On the other hand, it’s just kind of a regular name?  Fjord, Yasha, Caduceus, Nott – all insanely unique names.  Beau/Beauregard?  Uncommon and rarely a female name.  Caleb is a normal enough name, but I feel like that 1) works with this concept, and 2) I mean, Bren Aldric Ermendrud is so not a normal typical name, and I feel like adding Widogast helps make it more unique.  And then “Jessie”.  *shrugs*  It’s a pretty stupid whine on my part, but it’s the bit of mixed feelings for the nickname.

Fjord giving Jester a kiss on the cheek, causing her ALL sorts of confusion!!  Honestly?  I’d love to know the out of game conversations that Laura and Travis had in regards to in game romance.  We know the bits said on Talks, but I’m assuming that those are exaggerated for humorous effect.  If I had to come up with and submit a question for the tower on 4SD, it would probably be ‘what is an example of some out of game conversations you have had with the other players or DM that you would feel comfortable sharing?’

Caleb uses Magic Missile more than I remember him doing so.  Then again, I think I underestimate this spell.  I remember being, not annoyed, but feeling like Matt wasn’t have Essek be super efficient during the Lucien fight when Essek just kept using Magic Missile. Probably just my own biases against the spell.  It IS automatic damage, no roll to hit or saving throw, so that is beneficial. Critrolestats says cast a total of 20 times, so it’s not like it was one of Caleb’s high use spells.  I think I think of it like Chromatic Orb – good for very early campaign and that’s all.  Can you tell I don’t play too much dnd yet?  (to be fair, also just played a druid, messing around a bit with a rogue now)

(looking at critrolestats, I’m sad that they didn’t track the spells that Essek did, but it makes sense because they don’t track NPC spells.  Essek is a PC in my heart, okay???)

I don’t know if this is the first time that Nott gets a nat 20 immediately followed by a nat 1 on the auto-firing, but I know it’s not the last!  I feel like this happens at LEAST three times.

Ooo, nice!  Obann name drop AND the Angel of Irons in the same questioning of the head!  Smart plays, good deception checks, and well picked questions.

I do wonder if this plot thread of the cult was always meant to be a sort of open closed plot revolving around Yasha, or if Matt has/had further ideas for Tharizdun.  It honestly could go either way.

I forgot that we got a canon reference to Marion’s agoraphobia before it actually came up for the party.  I like that!  I’d misremembered and thought that the party was the first time. Probably just the first time we clearly see it from her.

It’s very interesting seeing Caleb pushing so hard to stop Luc from being brought to the Chateau, because he’s so sure that Marion is now under suspicion.  Liam pushes it in many episodes, and while it’s discussed, it’s also discarded and Luc is still brought there.  In reality, it’s only in episode 128 that Marion is ever in danger, and it’s because of the break in at the sanatorium that the party do, nothing to do with the letter.

I love the games where they don’t want to stop playing and beg for more time.  This time it was an option!  But Laura needed to stop for health/baby reasons, and that takes priority.

Yugioh S3 Ep 39: Tea Fight

Hey I just wandered into a random forum on the internet about the deaths that impacted you the most in a series, and I was in there faster than you can say “How many GRR Martin fans does it take to kill off a pregnant lightbulb in a random wedding episode″ (the answer is no one in this entire forum watched anything but anime) and then this one guy stood up in the back of this little internet forum and was just going off about how this one dude died in Yugioh GX and he turned off the TV and like didn’t want to even go back to the season until his students were like “no really, professor, please keep watching Yugioh GX” and he was like “WHAT’S EVEN THE POINT NOW” and it was like...really??? The series where nearly 200 people have died in just the first 3 seasons??? (which I didn’t comment, don’t worry, I just kinda lurked in stunned silence)

So like, lets talk more about Yugioh, which apparently has one of the roughest death scenes in any series that this random adult guy on the internet has ever watched. Course that was GX. I’m pretty sure I take so long on this show that I’ll probably still be recapping Season 3 of Yugioh when I’m dead and reincarnated into some cursed locket that a poor internet blogger wears around their neck.

Which would be shaped like a DVD set of Seaquest, S2. Like sometimes we talk about -sonas and we draw people and characters but what would your puzzle necklace -sona be? (remembering that is has to be cursed, heavy, awkward, and as inconveniently shaped as possible--you can’t just say Gucci or wtv) Because mine is the DVD collectors set of Seaquest, but only S2. Bro says that his is a Comic Sans version of Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

But I digress, so we start this episode knowing that Joey and Kaiba are dueling or whatever--but honestly none of this matters to me. Not at all. This doesn’t matter to anyone because for the first time ever, I finally get to see Tea try and punch out a God. Or a Ghost. Really hard to tell the difference between God and Ghost in this show.

And like, no one else will even witness this event because they’re too obsessed with Joey. So much so, that Yugi makes a staggering observation.

In the actual dialogue of the show, Pharaoh’s response to Yugi’s comment here was “HMMMMMMMmmmmMMHhmmmmmmmm”

and it’s like yeah, hard agree, Pharaoh, hard agree.

(read more under the cut)

Anyways, our very punchable God/Ghost character never came down from atop of Card Mess Mountain, and he’s just been sitting here on his perch trying really hard to just parse what exactly went down over the past few episodes.

Marik right now is me before I write every recap.

So he decides, well if the Rod did something for Kaiba, I guess it should do something for me, thus kind of proving that no one on Earth understands how to use this item anymore. I was kinda banking on the the fact that Marik’s Slightly-More-Evil-Possessed-Ghost-God-Entity-Person was kind of like the only guy who knows what’s going on with these gadgets outside of Bakura, but nah. Not even this guy knows. Now that Bakura’s temporarily vaporized, basically all that these millennium items are now are heavy paperweights that sometimes make your life just super inconvenient.

And I guess it can possess minds but wtv. Had Marik remembered that this rod can possess minds he would have had a much, much easier time in this episode. Of course, we haven’t really seen him possess anyone since Slightly-Better-Marik peaced out, so maybe that’s just something only Slightly-Better-Marik can do?

Ah. There it is.

What sweet catharsis.

She doesn’t actually punch him, which is kind of a shame, but because they can’t show Marik explode like a slo mo frozen giant gummy bear shot with a deer slug directly on screen, this episode is Tea-punch free.

Anyway, during this episode, the Millennium Puzzle develops a neat new trick--which is to set an alarm to remind Pharaoh to check up on his sort-of-not-really-girlfriend for once in his damn lifetime because this asshole will not do it otherwise because he is just waaaaay too busy thinking about cards.

And then it just finally dawns on Yugi that he boarded Murderzone island like 3 hours ago.

And, because this is Yugi, do you think he’ll tell everyone else what’s going on? Do you think he’ll step in and be like “woah woah stop the game for five seconds I just realized Tea might be in huge danger and we all should go and stop the murder.”

Do you think Yugi, for once in his entire life, will finally tell the entire truth to his friends who have constantly given him love and support and who just want Yugi to tell them the entire truth even once? Just ONCE?

That’s right, in an effort to be polite, he apologizes to Joey for ditching him and then books it without bothering anyone else.

The lengths Yugi will go to be as awkward as possible in order to not make anything awkward.

And then he just books it as fast as he can go and I guarantee that offscreen, everyone just kind of stopped what they were doing, looked at eachother, and Seto was like “Well, now why am I even playing?”

Anyway, atop the tall tall tower that takes like 15 minutes to get to the top of, Marik as Tea is very easily holding their own. And listen, Marik didn’t say any of the next lines in these caps but I can’t stop thinking about how freakin weird this would be for him. I’ve been kinda holding this in for a little while and youknow what? I have to talk about it for just a little bit. Just a little.

Like I usaully just erase any shipping stuff but just...give me a little second to just...touch on this subject. Just a little bit.

And while Marik thinking about dating is absolutely not canon, I’m just saying, going from tombkeeper to living within the body of not-Pharaoh’s-GF must have been a really crazy ride for Marik. Like, he starts out life learning literally everything about Pharaoh lore that is left over from the wastes of time. But, none of it--and I mean none of it--could have prepared him for the High School dating scene of “but should I text him more than twice a day or is that too much texting?” They don’t tell you how to do that in the Pharaoh brand card scriptures that they tattoo on your back with a hot knife in underground Pharaoh school.

Marik went from mole-person who has no human contact to just watching this whole weird thing unfold with Tea and Pharaoh giving eachother hoverhands-of-a-hoverhands hugs, and it must have been just completely wild for him. I’m not suggesting he remotely enjoyed it or didn’t enjoy it, but I’m just suggesting that the thought must have crossed his mind that this would be the last place he ever expected to end up when he picked up the Millennium Rod.

And it’s like, congrats, Marik, your soul went to hell and then you accidentally dated your own god.

I’m sure there’s plenty of fanfics about this already to fill in the gaps, so I won’t go too deep into this but man, Marik could have possessed anyone, and he possessed this girl.

Which again was probably because she’s strangely super strong because then Tea reveals that she could have done this the entire time.

LOOK AT THIS.

SHE DID THIS FROM STANDING. OLYMPIC GYMNASTS CAN’T DO THIS.

And then I guess Marik got sleepy after that much effort and just passed out.

And no one got to see it, Ishizu didn’t see it, Pharaoh didn’t see it.

Who’s here now, PS, Pharaoh finally showed up. That long as hell elevator must’ve stopped like 4 times on the way up for Roland who’s on his break, probably heating up the grill to talk to the other Kaiba Dad Stand-ins and have a Kaiba Dad Stand-In brunch where all they do is talk about sports, dark sunglasses, and if they should send Mokuba to UC Davis or Colorado State.

And so, seeing that Tea is passed out on the ground, Pharaoh jumps to conclusions and it very much looks like we’re gonna get a Millennium Item fight, which we haven’t yet seen Pharaoh even do.

Like, when you think about it, do either of these people even know what they are doing? Like Marik can at least fight a bunch of robots and one stationary computer monitor, but does Pharaoh have any idea that thing can shoot lasers?

Much like a bobcat making itself look really big to fight other bobcats, Pharaoh managed to poof up his hair big enough to spook Marik into actually stepping down. I guess Marik figured he’d have a better time with cards than lasers that neither of them know how to shoot in any general direction.

I gotta say, Pharaoh’s reaction to Marik secretly being in the body of his girlfriend was like “oh. Well we better go save him then before he dies.” and I do appreciate that. He seems secure enough in his own identity to not be bothered by this gender reversal he was not even aware of at the time. How I wish more boys on TV were more secure about that type of thing.

Like obviously this show that has no romance in it will never actually talk about sexuality but just enjoy this moment of zen where this possible lowhanging punchline could have happened and the writers room went “do we have to do the Family Guy/Friends thing?” and they were like “nah.” because Pharaoh canonically would not at all be bothered by this. At all.

Anyway, I’m kinda bummed that they didn’t extend Tea fight out for 3 episodes, but at least I got one Tea fight in before the end of the series.

I can’t believe she did a weird backflip thing off of a rail that was on a tower 300 ft in the air. I can’t believe that was the B plot of this episode.

And here’s a link to read these recaps in Chronological Order.

C2E35 rewatch

Its not often I rewatch hour long segments of the episode, I usually do snippets just to relive a spectacular moment not counting those that have been gif’ed. Watching the whole encounter at the docks unfurl was rather entertaining, and also leads to a few more questions.

Ok so the captain gets his men to shoot Beau, and when she throws the arrows right back at them he gives the order to attack. 

Fair enough; clearly Beau wasn’t a civilian and has returned hostilities

Fjord unsuccessfully tries to “rescue” Marius, with nary anyone spotting said attempt that occurred in 6 seconds.

Unseen, but not unheard. A boom of thunder reaching 300 ft / 100 meters goes out

One enforcer attempts to drag Marius onboard the ship. Either Marius wasn’t too happy with this, or the enforcer was in a hurry to get him on board for some reason. This is a little confusing, as the captain had ordered an attack, not retreat into the vessel and flee. 

Captain goes down real quick and the tide turns heavily against the unknown ship crew. At this point we still don’t know if they are pirates, smugglers or just shady contacts of Marius who are rather aggressive in defending their privacy. 

Fireball gives the ship and the crew a nice scorching. Presumably this was visible, despite the sails and hull not going into an immediate conflagration. 

After some more trading of blows, Marius flees aboard the ship. Possibly in panic, but if he was attempting to get away from the situation, why pick the losing side who just got lit up? Even diving into the water should be safer than a moored ship

Basically, all the non-Nein people atm are cornered into that boat. 

The bowmen are mopped up readily and most of the Nein are aboard

Aaaaand the guards are here. So did Caduceus not get a chance to warn anybody despite noticing previously?

Here is what throws me a bit: The guards heard a thunder boom (Thunder Step), presumably saw a flash of light and heat (fireball), possibly heard the sounds of combat (arrows firing, bodies dropping in the water and various other contact noises) and thus come investigating with torches.

Matt says that the guards see:

Fjord

Yasha

People on the ship along the way

At the time, combat was all but over on the boat and there was no cry for help or “aaaaaacckk” sounds of dying (presumably they died quickly)

The guards were asking, vaguely whoever, what was going on.

Caduceus makes a door slam really loudly, putting some attention on Fjord (in that direction I guess?)

Yasha gets onboard and assumes a defensive stance

Fjord proceeds to leap off the dock and Michael Phelps onto the boat

And then yells “GTFO of here, shove off!”

This causes the guards to assume that the Nein are stealing the ship

This is where it gets a bit metagamey. Would usual guards, having been exposed to the above, actually assume said people are stealing the ship? Or is it more Matt having heard the players wanting to commandeer the ship? (or perhaps the guards have been put on super alert following the unraveling of their nautical cooling system)

Unless Fjord was super audible in the GTFO bit, i’m not really seeing how they would leap to that conclusion that some shadowy figures aboard a ship who made a loud noise in the middle of the night, are in fact stealing it

Caleb seals the deal by bombing the docks (which incidentally, should have been made with disadvantage since he can’t see at night; but missing a wooden dock is bad enough)

Guards immediately go to combat mode and with heavy crossbows. 

These guards don’t mess about; ship thieves/pirates are clearly shot on sight.

Now with all of the above in mind, I still can’t see how people suggest that this in anyway contributes to the Mighty Nein becoming evil. Sure they are unlawful, but you don’t sit still and get shot at without retaliating. They are not Lawful Good pacifist paladins. Getting the boat, is not so much stealing but spoils of war really; the original owners were in the process of staining the decks and discolouring the ocean with their blood. Might as well loot a convenient escape vessel. 

In a similar vein, in the encounter with the Marid and Algar, the Nein certainly didn’t shoot first. (This actually makes me think some of the characters have Star Wars parallels, but thats another post entirely). They went snooping around an official facility (they didn’t quite understand the function of the place, merely that it was some kind of infrastructure/defence mechanism). Admittedly in the fight against the small water elementals, Beau kicked things off by throwing darts at a creepy coalescing body of water.

But in the second fight, they were detected as intruders.... and Algar went “Welp, kill them” and ran off like a coward. Not a very spirited defence of the facility you were in charge of is it? To avoid evisceration and drowning by a water genie, the Nein did their best to pursue Algar whilst avoiding direct combat with the genie, only fending off his water elemental pet. 

They did murder his guards and chop off his hand (Caleb nuked them with a fireball, Jester blindfired a razor lollipop and Fjord creeped them the fuck out to death and the aforementioned dismembering). Was this evil? A questionable decision to be sure, but in this context? Hmm grey more than black if you ask me. Evil is not made through one act alone in my opinion. 

So tl;dr I think the Mighty Nein are certainly not lawful and moving ever more towards Chaos (influence of the Traveler maybe?). But the driving force of their deeds has been mostly curiosity, a desire to rescue and put wrongs right; rather than outright malice or greed. Thus, they are not. yet. murderhobos in the original sense of the word. Any use of the term referring to the Nein by me is purely caricature and I should probably stop doing that, considering some people actually believe that they are murderhobos.

IS IT THURSDAY YET PLEASE I CANT WAIT 

P.S: Yasha can’t leave for yet another episode hooray?

I just finished watching Love Online and the Blue/White side story because of your rec post. Thank you thank you for reccing them! Do you have any other cute Cdrama recs?

This is 300% reminded me that I still have a 自古蓝百出CP wip that I…….really should’ve finished writing last year. /o\ But uh yes, nonny, I always have cute cdrama recs!

I very recently just finished My Mr. Mermaid and THIS SHOW IS SO CUTE?? What you should expect: fluff and cuteness the whole way through, just basically your ideal Feel Good drama. Parts of it are cliche in the way you should really come to expect from college setting cdramas, but not in the bad way tbh because the set up for this is so cute??? Up-and-coming athlete with a Mysterious Backstory and a rookie sports reporter do the whole love at first sight thing after he saves her from drowning? I AM SO WEAK FOR THIS WHY???? Also Xiong Ziqi’s character in this is just THE SOFTEST BOY WHICH I AM ALSO VERY WEAK FOR. Just. Just watch the show. [300/10]

(Okay if I do have to say something bad about MMM, it’s that the resolution to the whole ~mysterious backstory~ part was pretty anti-climatic, but honestly, a couple of episodes in and you won’t even mind it, because you won’t be watching for the plot, but mostly for the cute getting-together bits, trust me.)

I also tried to watch A Love So Beautiful, but because it was all anyone I lived with could talk about and also I honestly should’ve blacklisted this on tumblr when I decided I wanted to watch it, I was way too spoiled for this to enjoy it properly. :( It was a shame, because this was A Cute too, and if you’re into cute high school romance, this is The Show to watch! I did enjoy the last few episodes quite a bit!! The height difference between Jiang Chen and Xiao Xi honestly just…….gave me life. [8/10 at least for the eps I did watch]

I’m also watching, albeit proceeding very slowly because Bar Exams, Jin Dong’s Mr. Right. Because……..Jin Dong. I’m not embarrass to admit that I’m really only watching this for Jin Dong. And he is VERY ATTRACTIVE IN THIS SHOW. Ft. fun tropes like enemies to lovers (probably, I haven’t seen enough of this to make this call, but I’m assuming the leads end up together, so), misunderstandings, mistaken identities (of sorts). Basically, uh, Jin Dong’s character moonlights as an anonymous online love guru, and he sort of helps people win over their crush. [7/10, a huge part of which is honestly just because I love Jin Dong’s everything, but I would say this has the most Love Online vibes out of everything else]

I’m gonna throw a couple of other shows out here for y’all that my friends have rec-ed me but I haven’t had the time to watch yet:

Pretty Man - starring Xiong Ziqi (from My Mr. Mermaid, which is why this is pretty hight on my to-watch list) and Sierra Lee (the 女二 from The Interpreter and PLHZ) // ft. tropes like misunderstandings, actually-requited-unrequited-love, fake marriage because showbiz calls for it // i watched it, and trust me, just..........NO. very, very disappointing for how much i enjoyed xzq in my mr. mermaid, and sierra in the interpreter. they had zero chemistry, the acting felt really forced (this is less a comment re: their acting skills, and more of an observation that they were really not suitable for the roles they were playing), and the plot was.........everywhere but also nowhere.

Rush to the Dead Summer - I’ve been rec-ed this so many times, and I really should watch it because Chen Xuedong and Bai Jingting are both in it, and I love them ahhh // ft. high school romance, friends to lovers // updated post talking about this show here, but tl;dr, just.....don’t bother. idk why i try with zheng shuang’s dramas anymore, i know i don’t like her. bai jingting and the side couple in this show were the only saving grace, but even then this show did them dirty in the end, so. nah. 

That should be it??? Normally, I’d throw a cursory NIF2 rec here, but it doesn’t fit the theme, so. :P hmu if y’all are watching anything good too! 

Good Girls series on Netflix is an unpredictable hit!

Good Girls series on Netflix is an unpredictable hit!

GOOD GIRLS — “Find Your Beach” Episode 301 — Pictured: (l-r) Retta as Ruby Hill, Christina Hendricks as Beth Boland, Mae Whitman as Annie Marks — (Photo by: Jordin Althaus/NBC)

Positive Celebrity rating:

The Good Girls series is an excellent show, worth viewing multiple times not only for enjoyment but cinematic effects as well (4.5/5). In fact, Good Girls was renewed for a third season of 16 total episodes, which will premiere February 16, 2020!

Netflix seems to be killing it with their current content the genres all have some great line-ups including Good Girls, The Witcher, You, Messiah, Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Eli, Ghosts of Sugar Land, Before I Wake, etc.

In fact, we have been watching the first seasons of new films and shows on Netflix.

That being the case, one show, Good Girls, stood out to us because it brings forth a lot of positivity, emotionally draws the audience in and never fails to make us rapidly hit the “I’m still here,” button.

Yes, The Good Girls is that unique of a show.

The new series has brought forth a lot of the things people face daily with a dramatic and comedic twist.

“Three suburban mothers suddenly find themselves in desperate circumstances and decide to stop playing it safe and risk everything to take their power back.”

Isn’t it true there are good people, who make bad decisions at times in life?

90 Day fiancé: Happily Ever after is real talk.

With that in mind, you can see why their friendship is strong.

Yes, they have support for one another due to bad choices.

Regardless, from a mental perspective, it shows how important it is to have healthy friendships.

You never know what a person might be facing in silence, be a good friend and reach out.

At the beginning of the “Good Girls,” I kept thinking about “How there could be so much money in a grocery store?”

Then it all made sense…

Cinematography and transitions were amazing, the whole crew did an amazing job.

I cannot stress this enough, transition means so much in film and done right it can pull on two different emotions.

MAIN CAST OF GOOD GIRLS

Christina Hendricks as Elizabeth “Beth” Boland. Retta as Ruby Hill, Beth’s best friend, a waitress who is struggling to pay for her daughter Sara’s kidney disease. Mae Whitman as Annie Marks, Beth’s younger sister and mother of Sadie. Sadie was born when Annie was still a teenager. She works at a grocery store called Fine and Frugal. Reno Wilson as Stanley Hill, Ruby’s mall-cop-turned-actual-cop husband. Manny Montana as Christopher, also known as Rio, a high ranking criminal who has a money laundering business. He supports his business through wrapping paper, pills, cars and other creative ways. Lidya Jewett as Sara Hill, Ruby’s and Stan’s daughter who has kidney disease. Isaiah Stannard as Sadie Marks. Matthew Lillard as Dean Boland, Beth’s cheating car salesman husband. Due to his decisions, the plot took the turns it did to make a captivating show.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Jerzy Zieliński

Darren Genet

Robert Reed Altman

Tim Bellen

EDITORS

Brad Katz

Todd Gerlinger

Shoshanah Tanzer

Kenneth LaMere

Maura Corey

FAVORITE SCENE – NO SPOILERS

Man, this scene crushed, it happens and it goes to show how corrupt our government can be in order to merely “solve a case.”

“You know what I have been thinking about, how you sat at our table and said we were the same.”

Detective: “Not so much, huh?”

“Not at all, brother.”

How many people do you think are in jail or prison when they shouldn’t be?

Further, how many stories have you read about x person getting out after 50+ years after they were finally found not guilty.

FUNNY FACTS ABOUT THE GOOD GIRLS SERIES

It brought to my attention how bad it is to eat those banquet beef meals from the frozen section at the supermarket.

The Good Girls episode called “One Last Time,” was absolutely hilarious, we loved the loan guy’s personality, that was the perfect mesh into the storyline.

You can’t deny we all have that one friend who wants a damn burrito.

With that in mind, it was Chelsea Handler who said:

“If you can make someone laugh, you can make someone listen,” and they nailed it, especially in those scenes of “crime and drama,” but a dash of “comedy.”

Then the girls feeding him in the back of the car holding him until the morning hours to finish “the job,” absolutely hilarious, the script for these scenes is excellent.

To end, if you haven’t had the chance to watch the Good Girls series on Netflix, give it a go, you won’t regret it but make sure to do it on a binge day, unless of course, you can run on little to no sleep.

Currently, the Good Girls series on Netflix has two successful seasons.

Amazing production, a phenomenal cast, and crew.

We noticed the show started as a short on IMDB and soon grew it’s own empire, truly deserved, can’t wait for more episodes.

The Good Girls new series on Netflix official trailer

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Exclusive 2018 Kia Stinger GT First Test: Well Stung

The concept of “grand touring” has been around for centuries, and the moniker has been applied to cars since the 1940s, but it’s a term we tend to associate with exotic sports cars. The formula, though, is pretty simple: stylish, comfortable on a long drive, and plenty of power. But there’s no rule that says it has to cost a fortune, and the Kia Stinger GT is absolutely taking advantage of this exception. We’ve driven prototypes at an overseas R & D complex, on a frozen Swedish lake, and on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Now, finally, we’ve driven a production-spec 2018 Kia Stinger GT on real roads and to our own Auto Club Speedway test track. How does it fare against the German luxury sedans against which it will undoubtedly be compared? Korean-branded cars usually aren’t synonymous with performance, but the rear-drive Stinger GT launches from 0 to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds and clocks the standing quarter mile in 13.3 seconds at 106.9 mph. An emergency stop from 60 mph requires 113 feet, and it’ll pull 0.85 average lateral g on a skidpad. On our exclusive figure-eight test track, the Stinger GT recorded a lap of 26.2 seconds at 0.71 average lateral g. Impressive numbers. It’s pretty good to drive away from the test track, too. Out in the mountains, the Stinger GT exhibits a surprising but intriguing combination of vertical compliance and lateral stiffness. Over bumps, the suspension was soft and the ride of luxury-car quality. In the corners, though, it was stiff with excellent body control. Even when pushing hard, the Stinger GT rode well but dug into corners with little body roll. The power is well-matched to the vehicle and only feels inadequate if you let the revs drop too low. You want those turbochargers working for you, and the best way to do it is to take advantage of the paddle shifters because the transmission isn’t quite aggressive enough for the really twisty roads. “The engine has a fat torque curve, strong in midrange with noticeable lag at the bottom end,” our staff professional racer, Randy Pobst, said during filming for an episode of Ignition—which you can watch right now at Motor Trend OnDemand and YouTube.com/motortrend. “Low revs mean calling ahead and waiting for the power to be delivered. The Stinger is quite powerful, and one must constantly remind oneself that this is a Kia that is tearing up this winding road or on-ramp.” Randy’s critique continued: “The transmission is just not sport-smart enough in automatic, especially on the track. It shifts up, so I just let it. There’s no reason for me to pull that paddle. I just have to remember to downshift on the way in, or else it won’t. The shifting is reasonable. It matches revs. It’s quick.” It’s hard to say whether the transmission programming has changed since I drove a prototype on the Nürburgring or if our mountain roads and the Streets of Willow Springs racetrack are so much tighter that it amplifies the transmission’s inadequacy, but my initial impressions were more positive. As well as we know the Stinger GT can drift in the right conditions, it doesn’t actually want to get wild out in the real world. The suspension tuning is conservative, the default behavior at the limit understeer. It makes the car very stable, never trying to swap ends no matter how hard you drive it. Thankfully, there’s a lot of grip in the front end, so you have to push it very hard to get it to plow. Just driving fast, it feels neutral. You need to be pushing your braking points to the last second and carrying as much speed as possible into a corner to make it cry uncle. Here again, I wonder if the American-market tuning increases understeer versus the European-spec car I drove. Or maybe Randy just carries that much more speed in the corners. It’s probably the latter. The upshot: You’ll never feel a stability control intervention. “What they’ve done is create stability control by tuning the car for a lot of understeer in the middle of a corner,” Randy said. That’s not to say it won’t drift. Turn the computer off, give it a Scandinavian flick and too much throttle, and it’ll do a nice power oversteer or two. It’s just not a hoon by nature. “It seems that the stability control is always learning and adapting,” Randy said. “Even with it turned off, it became more and more invasive as the day wore on, and the wheelspin and sliding woke up the nannies that watch over us hooligans. After a few nice drifts, the car began to resolutely resist power oversteer—a darned shame and frustrating.” In other words, this is a grand touring sedan that actually takes its GT badge seriously. Out on the highway, it’s everything you want on a road trip. It floats over bad pavement while remaining taut and responsive on long, sweeping corners. In a world of Demons and Hellcats, 365 hp might not seem like a lot, but it’s plenty when applied correctly. The in-house eight-speed auto is programmed smartly for real-world conditions, delivering downshifts with little prodding. With the revs up and the turbos spinning, the engine delivers a pleasant surge of power that whisks you past trucks and loafers. It’s a very easy and comfortable car to cover distance in. “The springs and shocks that control vertical motion are quite soft,” Randy said. “But transitional responses are quite well-controlled, likely by relatively strong anti-roll bars, and the ride is still quite compliant. Think ‘older Buick’ ride quality. Surprising for a sport sedan like this.” It’s not just comfortable from the driver’s seat, either. The Kia has 2 to 4 inches of wheelbase over the Germans, and it puts them to good use. There’s ample rear-seat legroom and, despite the sloping roof, headroom for tall people. The front seats, meanwhile, are aggressively bolstered so you can concentrate on those mountain roads when you cross their path. Capable though it may be from seat to steering, and despite testing it on the Nürburgring, Kia insists the Stinger GT isn’t a track car. We took it to a track anyway, and things got complicated. Kia’s press cars at the moment are all preproduction prototypes, and the first car they gave us suffered a power steering failure and had to be replaced. The second car, as it turns out, hadn’t yet had its U.S.-spec springs and dampers installed, and it exhibited considerably more body roll and understeer on the track than the first car. As a result, Randy posted a lap time—1:28.90—that he felt wasn’t representative of what the car could do. With a properly equipped car, Randy believes he could subtract a full second. Things that didn’t change on track: the car’s weight and its braking performance—113 feet isn’t anywhere near a record in our 60–0-mph braking test, but it only tells part of the story. Randy was continually impressed at the durability of the brakes. Throughout a very hot day, the pedal remained consistent, and the steel brakes refused to fade. “The brakes are impressively strong, with a consistent and firm pedal feel that inspires confidence,” he said. “The braking does not upset the chassis, and the pad compound can take the heat.” There will be heat, and not just from the brakes. The Stinger GT is taking on a wildly competitive segment ruled by a small in-crowd. Whether it’s staring down the German triumvirate or the American holdouts, the sport sedan from the value brand has a lot to prove. “For a first effort at a genuine sport sedan, the Stinger is quite an accomplishment,” Randy said. “It clearly is set up for a comfortable ride as a priority over race car dynamics, but in the real world, this makes sense. Even more so among buyers of a big, powerful GT car.” Like no Korean car before it, the Stinger GT speaks the language of the enthusiast. Will they listen? 2018 Kia Stinger GT BASE PRICE $40,000 (est) PRICE AS TESTED $50,000 (est) VEHICLE LAYOUT Front-engine, RWD, 5-pass, 4-door sedan ENGINE 3.3L/365-hp/376-lb-ft twin-turbo DOHC 24-valve V-6 TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) 4,005 lb (52/48%) WHEELBASE 114.1 in LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT 190.2 x 73.6 x 55.1 in 0-60 MPH 4.8 sec QUARTER MILE 13.3 sec @ 106.9 mph BRAKING, 60-0 MPH 113 ft LATERAL ACCELERATION 0.85 g (avg) MT FIGURE EIGHT 26.2 sec @ 0.71 g (avg) EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON Not Tested How does the Stinger stack up? How good are the Kia’s performance numbers for a 365-hp 3.3-liter twin-turbo V-6 with 376 lb-ft of torque and a roughly $40,000 starting price? They seem all right when you consider the Stinger GT falls between a midsize and full-size sedan in dimension and weighs 4,005 pounds. Making a direct comparison is trickier because it’s hard to say exactly what the Stinger competes with. The Chevrolet SS was the most obvious spoiler, but it’s out of production. It started at about $48,000, hit 60 mph in 4.7 seconds, ran a quarter mile in 13.2 seconds at 108.9 mph, stopped from 60 in 108 feet, pulled 0.94 g average on the skidpad, and posted a 24.7-second figure-eight lap at 0.78 g average. You could match it up with the Dodge Charger even though that car is 10 inches longer with a wheelbase nearly 6 inches longer, and it’s 300 pounds heavier. An R/T with the 370-hp 5.7-liter V-8 is cheaper by five grand, but the Kia will dust it everywhere but the skidpad and figure eight—and even then, it’s close. You need the $41,000 R/T Scat Pack with the 485-hp 6.4-liter V-8 if you want to win. And the Kia has a far nicer interior. No, Kia wants a piece of the Germans. After all, the Stinger GT has a hatchback like the smaller Audi A5 Sportback or BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe. (The more appropriately sized Audi A7 is $69,000, in case you were wondering.) The Audi A5 is $43,000 to start, and your only option is the 252-hp 2.0-liter turbo-four. Based on results of the lighter A4, it’s slower, but like the Charger, it just pips the Kia on the skidpad and figure eight. But it’s substantially smaller. The BMW is also smaller but can be had with a turbo I-6 with 320 hp for about $50,000. Based on our test of the lighter 340i sedan, the 440i Gran Coupe is slower than the Kia, full stop. Mercedes-Benz doesn’t make a hatchback sedan (yet), but to smoke the Kia, you’d need to spring for the $54,000 C43 AMG, which clips the Kia in every test but is, again, a smaller package. In other words, the Kia can hang with the big dogs and might have carved out a pretty sharp niche.The post Exclusive 2018 Kia Stinger GT First Test: Well Stung appeared first on Motor Trend.

http://www.motortrend.com/cars/kia/stinger/2018/2018-kia-stinger-gt-first-test-review/

So!

I was tagged by both @kotokodesu and @seokjinings (Gracias, Val! Thank you, Sara!) <3 I’m supposed to answer these kdrama-related questions, make 10 new questions myself and tag people (I’m not going to make new questions this time ahahaha sorry 😅😅)

Under the read more, my answers~

Val’s @kotokodesu questions:

1. What’s the most annoying drama trope in your opinion? That goddamn WE HAVE TO BREAK UP FOR OUR OWN GOOD trope shit I SWEAR TO GOD. The unnecessary drama it creates just to give some angst-y vibes to the whole thing is not worth it aaaa... and they just get back together after two episodes or so, so WHAT’S THE POINT????? I hate it!!! An exemple: the one used in Shopping King Louie. It seriously killed the mood.

2. Also what trope would you love to see more of? (Enemies to) Friends to lovers??? Mutual Pining??? Sweet cohabitation??? Yes, please.

3. Fuck marry kill between your three fave characters I’m not a “fuck” kind of person, so let’s do cuddle, marry, kill instead...

Ummmm... Joon Hyung, Grim Reaper Grims (and all those names he has) andddd Min Hyuk

Cuddle: Joon Hyung

Marry: Min Hyuk

Kill: Grims (idk how???????????)

4. If you had to live in one of those huge lofts/houses we see in dramas, which one would you pick? Belle Époque (Age of Youth), does that count??? I loved its design. Or maybe Bong Hee’s (Missing Nine) rooftop house. It was so colourful.

5. One drama you wish you had never seen? and why?? Legend of the Blue Sea, I guess. It had a promising start and all, but halfway through it got quite boring. In the end I just skipped through a lot of episodes.

6. What’s the best product placement you had seen? Idk if it’s considered a product placement but... In Drinking Solo, Ha Na would talk to S Voice (Samsung’s equivalent to Apple’s Siri) like it was a real person and it was hilarious.

7. Okay so choose your biggest otp, now.. If you only could save one of them from whatever scenario you can imagine, which one would you save? Bok Joo and Joon Hyung??? I’d save Bok Joo bc I’m 300% sure she would save Joon Hyung then...

Same thing with Yeon Joo and Kang Chul.

8. Your favorite underrated dramas?? (so I can have more recs lol) Drinking Solo and 1% of Something (the 2016 remake ver) tbh.

9. If you could only watch dramas starring the same actor/tress, which one would you pick? I haven’t completely picked up favourite actors and actresses, so idk??????

10. Your guilty pleasure drama? Anything that looks very cliche but is actually surprisingly good.

🌻🌻🌻

Sara’s @seokjinings questions:

1. how long have you been in the kdrama fandom? Since June of last year haha.

2. what is the first kdrama you watched or first you fell in love with? Doctors was the first kdrama I’ve ever watched, and I guess I could say it was the very first one I fell in love with.

3. what are your three favorite kdrama troupes? also least favorite? My favourite tropes are, obviously: (Enemies to) Friends to lovers, fake dating/marriage, mutual pining and the cohabitation trope (if put together with the other three I’ve mentioned it’s EVEN BETTER wink wink~). As for my least favourite tropes, that one I’ve mentioned before and I’m not a huge fan of the amnesia trope (if not done right). Also the evil mom/stepmom trope when done too over-the-top.

4. do you have any favorite osts? Full OSTs or specific songs? A full OST I love with all my heart and soul is the W OST (honorable mentions to Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo OST and Goblin OST!!). For specific songs tho, and to name a few:

Sunflower - Younha (from Doctors OST)

The Tiger Moth - Monsta X (from Shopping King Louie OST)

Flower - Seo In Guk (from Tomorrow with You OST)

The Best Luck - Chen / Sleepless Night - Crush ft. Punch (both from It’s Okay, That’s Love OST)

And a shoutout to Tae and Jin’s Even if I Die, it’s You bc I’m a biased little shit (I didn’t even watch Hwarang)

5. Is there any actors that haven’t seen in dramas for awhile that you miss? Where’s Lee Jong Suk new kdrama tho?????

6. Is there any actors who you feel don’t fit kdrama genre that they have played or are maybe typecast in and what would they be better suited in? Three consecultive kdramas and Ha Seok Jin keeps getting typecasted as a tsundere-like character. Just let him play a full lovable character for once.

7. is there a drama you feel is underrated that more people should pay attention to? I don’t think many people payed much attention to 1% of Something (the remake!!!), so~

8. is there an overrated drama you don’t understand why is so popular? Ok, please don’t yell at me but...

Reply 1997. I just... don’t get the popularity.

[Rules: Complete the survey and say who tagged you in the beginning. When you are finished tag 5 people to do this survey. Have fun and enjoy!!!]    tagged by one of the truely dearest people on Earth : @ladyfeliciamontague​

1. Are you named after someone? Yup for my 3rd name (Claudia), it’s because my father loved Claudia Schiffer. 

2. When was the last time you cried? A week ago, in despair, I needed the next episode of 도깨비 ! (I highly recommend that drama to eveybody though!)

3. Do you like your handwriting? Yes for French handwriting but absolutely not for Chinese Mandarin (Traditional characters) ! Still a long way to go!

4. What is your favorite lunch meat? I love beef and chicken haha

5. Do you have kids? Nope !

6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you? I think I would meet me and say “omg! We’re twins! We do the same lame/worst jokes ever! Let’s be friends!” haha so yeah totally !

7. Do you use sarcasm? When something really bother me haha (I am so in love with people that use it all the time, though)

8. Do you still have your tonsils? yup

9. Would you bungee jump? Yes ! Would be amazing to throw oneself !

10. What is your favorite kind of cereal? Chocolate squares 

11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? No, I’m so busy and messed up to do that haha 12. Do you think you’re a strong person? I can be strong enough to live by my will, then, the sky is the limit. What do you think ?

13. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Amorino’s bio chocolate

14. What is the first thing you notice about people? Their eyes. I look into them and know immediately if we can be friend or not.

15. Red or pink? Red RED REEEEEEEED #favcolor

16. What is the least favorite physical thing you like about yourself? My belly, proof I’m not a “sport” person haha

17. What color pants and shoes are you wearing right now? Black jeans and black boot 

18. What was the last thing you ate? noodles

19. What are your listening to right now? Heal Tomorrow by Naive New Beaters ft. Izia

“Today you hurt me,

Gonna heal tomorrow~

If you leave me,

I can do it solo~”

20. If you were a crayon what color would you be? a powerful red crayon, for you to draw with emotions : heart, lips, fire... Express yourself GOD DAMN IT !

21. Favorite smell? Nudity (human skin), vanilla and roses in Taiwan national park of Roses in Miaoli County :D

22. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? My little #CREVETTEFUNNY a.k.a. the beautiful and sparkling Fanny haha

23. Favorite sport to watch? HANDBALL and Karate competitions~

24. Hair color? A very soft reddish-brown I am so proud of ! :D

25. Eye color? Sometimes brown, sometimes green (some others orange and yellow ! bwahahaha)

26. Do you wear contacts? Nope!

27. Favorite food to eat? Taro, Sweet potato, broccoli and avocado for sure !

28. Scary movies or comedy? Comedy haha

29. Last movie you watched? For the 2000000000000000000 times,  아가씨 (the handmaiden) because the scenery is absolutely outstanding !

30. What color shirt are you wearing? light-gray :)

31. Summer or winter? Winter !!

32. Hugs or kisses? Before I was hugs, now I’m in between. Soon enough, I’ll be “kisses”. #mylife

33. What book are you currently reading? Il était une fois l’ethnographie by Germaine Tillion <3

34. Who do you miss right now? I miss my friends in Taiwan. I also miss my bff because I love having the feeling of missing her at least 300 days of the year ! haha 35. What is on your mouse pad? I don’t have a mouse pad, only a white paper full of ideas for Master degree lol

36. What is the last TV program you watched? DOWNTOWN ABBEY last season, last episode with my father and my motheeeeer ! (kill me ‘cause it was in French, though x.x)

37. What is the best sound? Laughter

38. Rolling Stones or The Beatles? Sometime you had to fall Don't you know sometime you want to cry Don't it make you feel so bad sometime You wanna lay down and die Yeh, yeh, you can make it if you try, ummmmmmm

39. What is the furthest you have ever traveled? TAIWAN !!!! <3

40. Do you have a special talent? Talent of being overexcited when I see a friend I meet everyday. Or you meant the talent to suddenly forget the most important thing you wanted to tell to somebody? 

41. Where were you born? In the suburbs of Paris. 5 more persons that’ll curse at me afterwards: @acadehmic, @luvurself1989, @etherskies  @polyglotwhore @obsidianstudy

Nose Angle, Prototype Discs in Tournaments, and more on Disc Golf Answer Man #302

I've been playing for a little bit under a year and when I first started, I would throw mostly nose up. I worked hard on fixing that and now the majority of the time I throw nose down. My issue now is that I tend to release most of my throws with a low angle of trajectory (closer to the ground vs up to the sky). They tend to not go above 8-10 feet off the ground but when I watch pros they seem to throw really high into the sky and still manage to get really good distance. Would their throws be further if they threw them with a lower trajectory? Or is the slightly raised trajectory needed for further distance? What are the pros and cons for different angles of trajectory?

  Been using a prototype putter for a few weeks now. The disc was approved by the PDGA this week. Will I be able to use my prototypes in a sanctioned tournament or do I have to purchase and use the actual named disc once they become available for purchase?

  Hi DGAMily FAMily! Recently, my daughter was in a local b tier tourney. Lots of pros showed up and it was a huge event (230+ entries). Issues started to arise from the first email from the TD. Had issues with Caddy books, typos on rules in the book, and even issues with the payouts! My question: does the pdga accept feedback in regards to TDs? Are they certain guidlines a TD is to follow or is it a free for all? The easy answer would be to just keep an eye out for this guys tourneys and not play them. What are your thoughts?

  I've been playing disc golf for a little under a year, and my game is progressing nicely (thanks to you guys). One thing I've been having issues with is judging the distance-to-basket, during disc selection. Do any of you use (or recommend) rangefinders during a round, or do most people simply "feel" the distance through experience?

  Hey guys, I had a quick question about the lucid x tour series discs. What qualifies a Dynamic Discs team member to be able to have a tour series disc in the lucid x plastic? Does a player have to play really well in tournaments or something like that? One of the main players that made me think this was Chris Clemons. Is there not a specific disc he would want in the lucid x plastic or does he just not have the opportunity right now to have a tour series disc? Just curious because if he had a tour series disc I would buy like 5 of them because he is my favorite player.

  I am starting a new job at a higher elevation (4500 ish) area and want to keep playing. I play an occasional tournament at lower elevation (300 ft.). I am still pretty new. Throwing fairway drivers around 300 ft. Should i build a different bag for higher elevation and a separate for lower? How much of a difference will this elevation affect my disc's?

  My question is in regards to putting stance. In preparation to make the jump to advanced this next season, I have spent the off-season really trying to get consistent 35-50ft putts. In doing so, I realized that I really like the way step putting feels. Obviously, I can't step putt in the circle but I wanted to try and recreate that as best as I could for my C1 putting. This caused me to look at a staggered stance with my left foot forward rather than the traditional right foot forward. I have been putting with it for a month-ish now and l love it, hitting around 90% of my c1 putts in casual rounds! Is there a reason why most right-handed players go right foot forward? I know comfort is the first answer that comes to mind but is that the only reason?

  I was just watching USDGC Final Round first hole on Jomez and Nate Sexton has a putt from OB. In the commentary he says he wishes he could have taken a knee to make the putt but there was thorns on the ground. Could he have put a towel or a pad on the ground to alleviate the thorns or is this against the rules?

  Hey DGAM crew! Love the podcast and am learning lots from listening to older episodes. I am a fairly new player (started in October) and am having trouble with tunnel holes.

  I was wondering what you aim for on these type of holes. Do you focus on the basket or at the initial gap. With the Snowy weather here is Nova Scotia I haven't had a chance to go practice but was wondering what you guys think I should work on

Check out this episode of the Disc Golf Answer Man!

The annual running of the ... burros?

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The annual running of the ... burros?

The importance was that it was a popular man’s animal for the prevalent man’s king, alternatively than a additional usually royal steed. And its Sunday College lore that his mom rode a person into Nazareth when expecting, while which is not in the official cannon. I checked.

Domesticated for about 5,000 several years, donkeys have been place to work for humanity’s historically switching needs. They have been the family members vehicle, our U-Haul vans, engines pulling barges in canals and wagons out West, and they’ve been our workmates — if you function in a mine or on a farm. They are nevertheless used in armed service functions to carry floor air missiles above tough terrain.

Burros, as the Spanish phone them, walk at about a human’s foot velocity. They almost never kick or chunk. They seem to be to have a calming influence on horses and human beings. And they never get virtually the respect they deserve, the Rodney Dangerfields of the animal kingdom.

Like a cross concerning a Tesla and a wheelbarrow, donkeys are beasts of burden that can carry up to 300 lbs . for more than two weeks in the mountains, though needing really tiny meals or water. They are kind of the camels of the West. In fact, they’re the camels of the East, North and South, far too, as donkeys keep on to prosper in North and South The us, Europe, Asia and Africa.

As some industries faded, the donkey before long extra racing husband or wife to its resume. When the US mining marketplace began to dry up in the 1930s and ’40s, some enterprising Coloradans arrived up with the concept of attracting spectators to their cities by hosting an ultramarathon of human-donkey pairs — The Planet Championship Pack Burro Race.

“They train us so much,” mentioned pack burro race director Brad Wann. “They instruct us humility. They join us with character. Burros have the means to arrive at into your soul.”

The to start with race was in 1949, which helps make it, according Wann, the second-oldest constantly run marathon in the country soon after the Boston Marathon.

The race also lends itself to a wide variety of puns. For instance, the winner of the annual pack burro championship is the initially to get his or her ass more than the complete line. Wann’s title is media relations officer for the Western Pack Burro Ass-ociation. There are 8 of these eye-rollers in this posting if you would like to spot them all.

But it is even now a significant activity, even if it has a sense of humor. “Haulin’ Ass” is the title of a quite straight documentary about the activity.

A burro-ful working day

Initially the race prolonged concerning Leadville and Fairplay, situated in the middle of the state and only about 11 miles apart as the crow flies, but divided by a mountain. Legend holds that it was encouraged by two miners who struck gold at the same time and raced back to city to declare the discover. The serious story is that the race was motivated by a need to continue to keep former mining cities from turning into ghosts.

Now each cities have their own races, aspect of an annual series of eight in Colorado. Fairplay, is the longest (29 miles), tied for highest (much more than 13,000 toes), and the just one that retained the World Championship title. The town is also home to the Prunes Monument, perhaps the only monument in the earth erected to honor a donkey. Prunes labored together with a miner for a lot more than 60 a long time.

Race working day, in July, was a great a person of blue skies. This yr 89 — a document number — of human-burro pairs competed in the 70th earth championship, assembling in the Aged West-on the lookout Fairplay. Wann estimates at least 150,000 men and women showed up to check out the start out of the race.

The odor of excitement and excrement was in the air as the starter gun signaled a mass get started of two lengths. The 29-mile race had 20 pairs and 3,300 feet of elevation acquire and a short class of 15 miles had yet another 69 pairs.

The start of the race is important, explained Wann. “Really don’t crack their will, permit the burro set the speed early on in its place of shutting it down,” he stated. “Burros will pair up and want to go that rate, and you have to really feel that out. So run as rapid you can — sprint if the donkey does. If you can’t do that you can expect to have a gradual donkey the rest of the race. It can be a burro race, not a human race.”

The training course also ends in Fairplay, jogging by means of South Park (the present of the same title has in some way not finished a burro racing episode), and then heading up dirt roadways, trails and rocky terrain to the 13,185-foot summit of Mosquito Pass. (Or really should that be Mosquito P-ass?)

The age vary of the human runners at this year’s earth championship was 15 to 70, and they came from all above the US, Europe, Canada and even Africa. The California workforce brought in their personal donkeys. About 65% ended up repeat runners addicted to the niche activity which continually only can take put in Colorado, the point out the place it was born.

About a 3rd of the runners were ladies this year. In fact, the first girl to at any time compete was Edna Miller, with her burro Pill, in 1951, nearly 20 years prior to the to start with woman ran the Boston Marathon (against the procedures, even then).

The donks — as insiders may well refer to them — that competed this 12 months have lovable and delightful names these as Buckwheat, Hershey and Sweet Pea. Previous winners have incorporated BonBon and Product Puff. My preferred name for a competitor this yr was ReDONKulous. This year bundled 16 mini-donkeys on the short study course.

And you should not get in touch with donkeys mules, which are basically half donkey and fifty percent horse breeds. Individuals 50 percent-assed animals are not authorized to race in the pack burro circuit.

Regulations condition that the donks (I am an insider now) ought to have mining equipment: a select, gold pan, shovel and saddle. This weighs about 16 lbs and for the mini-donkeys that is all they will need standard-sized donkeys should include weights to a bare minimum of 33 lbs .. The rope attaching the crew are unable to be for a longer time than 15 ft and the runners never gown as miners, even though the occasional cowboy hat could allude to an before era.

Like any ultramarathon, specifically with elevation, endurance calls for training. And in this circumstance some animal husbandry expertise as very well. As a outcome, there are, of program, comical times for bystanders watching when the donkey protests. Occasionally a burro will just shut down. In previous races, groups have experienced to fall out when this takes place.

The air may be skinny on oxygen up on Mosquito Pass, but the mountain views are astounding. Inexperienced and grey peaks are in all directions, the views as wild and West as some of pack animals.

This year’s profitable workforce was Kirt Courkamp and his burro Mary Margaret, finishing the 29 miles in just about 6 hours and profitable the $1,000 first area prize. These two locals received the past two decades and this calendar year won in Leadville and Buena Vista as well, collectively recognized as the Triple Crown.

Breaking in

“In the entire entire world, there are most likely much less than 1,000 folks who have ever competed in a pack-burro race,” the late Denver Submit columnist Ed Quillen wrote in 2007, arguing for it to be the state’s formal sport. (In 2012, pack burro racing was specified a summertime heritage sport of Colorado.)

If you want to be among the this elite crew, your training is two-fold. You will need to ailment yourself to operate lengthy distances — placing in the hrs on trail operates and at higher altitudes — as the pack burro race is a very hard program.

Then there is driving a donkey. They really don’t need to acclimate to the altitude or understand how to properly fuel themselves with calories and hydration to go the distance. But runners even now gain with acquiring as many miles together as probable.

There are approaches and character discrepancies among the the animals that need to be m-ass-tered to have a prosperous operate. “If the burro will not trust you, or like you, or you are pushing much too difficult,” stated Wann, “it can be not heading to function.”

Organizers will not advocate it but you can show up the working day before a burro pack race and rent a donkey. Amber Wann, a self explained “donkey matchmaker” and wife of Brad, rents them for races and attempts to match functioning velocity and equine encounter.

“Burro racing is a really psychological sport,” he additional. “We are navigating by way of some of the roughest terrain in the world and you have to create a romantic relationship with your ass to make that materialize.”

Managing with a donkey is a bit of give and choose, virtually. At times you’re pulling them, other times they are pulling you. Uphill they can be a actual ass-et if they are in the guide and pulling a little bit. But heading downhill, runners want to be in the lead lest they come across them selves obtaining dragged by a speedy and enthusiastic 900-pound burro which can haul ass at speeds up to 40 miles for each hour.

On flats, either teammate can be in the guide, or aspect-by-facet, but human runners are however accomplishing the steering.

You control a donkey by means of their nose, pulling back again on the rope to slow down, like a fuel pedal of pressure-and-release to modify pace. A whistle or a “hup-hup!” can get ’em goin’ and the typical “whoa” can gradual ’em down. The donkey of class does not know where by it can be heading. Human beings are the “GPS for the critters,” Wann mentioned.

Gear-wise, runners need the right shoes, dresses, working vests and gas for an ultramarathon. And the burros, in addition to finding a clean bill of wellness from a vet, have to have the old timey mining devices and additional excess weight to have.

Ass-essing chance and reward

As with any ultramarathon trail run, accidents are usually probable. In accordance to a 2015 examine involving 1,212 lively ultrarunners, they endured about the same frequency of accidents as shorter-length runners, even though some wounds ended up inflicted by the road blocks of trail functioning. The most popular accidents had been of the knee and foot pressure fractures.

Remaining tethered to a donkey provides hazard of personal injury to runners, of system. If you excursion, you can get severe highway rash from acquiring dragged together. 1 12 months a runner bruised or broke some ribs when her burro kicked her in the upper body.

The policies will not let runners to ride the donkey, but in the race’s historical past, injured runners have been carried down the mountain on their partners’ back, as they’re out of the race anyway.

Donkeys get hurt far too, but in 70 years of racing, not a person animal has died or been hurt further than restoration.

Animal legal rights groups have lifted eyebrows about the activity but organizers anxiety the humane cure of the burros. “Any contestant mistreating his animal may be disqualified,” the race rules state. “No needles, electric prods, narcotics, golf equipment or whips, other than the halter rope, may perhaps be employed.” But the runners’ love for their donkey associates will make this rule seemingly superfluous.

Organizers also position out that donkeys appreciate the race as a great deal as the ultra-runners. “If you observe donkeys in the wild, they aren’t sedentary creatures,” wrote Western Pack Burro Ass-ociation member Sheri L. Thompson on the sport’s race website. “In the wild, donkeys are really trim athletic animals” and “they exercising all working day prolonged.”

“They are ready members,” Thompson writes, alluding to the burro’s renowned stubbornness. “If they never want to go, you are unable to make them do just about anything.”

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It’s been a long and busy year so far with my jewelry business.  You know what all work and no play is? Boring!  I decided to kick summer off with vacation and I was adamant about it being a bucket list trip.  For the past two years my cousin and I talked about a dream trip to Iceland. So when one of my besties sent a group text about her interest in taking a trip there this year I knew that was a sign. Then when I heard that the Icelandic soccer team would be making their debut in the World Cup while we were there, I knew it was definitely a “meant to be trip.”  

Most people don’t really think about a vacation in Iceland, for me all it took was seeing some beautiful pictures of the lush landscapes and I was sold.  Not only are Icelandic people some of the most pleasant people on the planet, but their country is out of this world (literally), just pure beauty from the street art in Reykjavik to the amazing waterfalls to the best tasting vodka to wondrous things their water does to your hair (curly hair girls Iceland would be your BEST FRIEND). Enough about how wonderful this country is, I’m just going to jump right into it and give you the details and tips about travels to this beautiful land.

Hotel

Since we traveled with a group of five of us, we opted for an apartment suite style hotel right in Reykjavik called Reykjavik4you. The hotel had very nice accommodations and was spacious enough for five people with two bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen and living room area. We even had 2 balcony views of the city, which was an added plus.  The cost of the hotel was $2,500 for our five-day stay, so we each shelled out $500 a piece. This hotel was the perfect location and walking distance to everything you’ll need during your stay. Definitely book your hotel first and book it early. Iceland is becoming quite a destination spot and hotel accommodations sell out fast. We actually booked our hotel first then booked our flight later.

Getting Around

You can rent a car, but we opted to walk most of the time since our hotel was in a good location. Plus you get a chance to see the beautiful street art on buildings throughout Reykjavik. Taxicabs and buses are also options as well since they’re no Ubers in Iceland.

Food/Dining

Dining out is very expensive in Iceland. We did pack snacks in our luggage to bring on excursions and to snack in between meals. So if you decide not to bring snacks, you can find the nearest Icelandic supermarket and get snacks, the prices aren’t so bad there. On an average expect to spend about $85-$150/day in dining out while you’re there. On average we spent about $100/day per person.    

Here are some of the highlights of our favorite food spots we ventured to:

Noodle Station

My husband and bff went back to this spot twice while we were there. I must say their noodle soup was flavorful and overall just really good. They also have meat and vegetarian options.  The price wasn’t too bad either.

Braud & Co.

Be prepared from fresh and hands down damn good baked goods.  The smell alone is enough to eat more than just one. Honestly even the graffiti art on the building makes it hard to just walk by and NOT stop in!

El Santo Mexican

I know what you’re thinking why go to Iceland and eat Mexican food. Well, the truth is the variety of types of restaurants is plentiful in Reykjavik. This spot was great for our group since we had a mix of meat eaters, pescatarians, vegetarians, and vegans.

Reykjavik Fish & Chips

Okay, we had some really good fish and chips in Reykjavik.  This spot has a really delicious seafood soup. They even have various dipping sauces for your fish, each sauce is an extra charge.

Bryggjan Brugghus

  We actual watched Iceland’s debut in the World Cup at this popular brunch spot.  If you decide to brunch here, definitely make reservations and tasting their variety of beer is a must.

Kaia Kffihus

What drew us to this spot was, of course, the Marley decor of the building. When we walked in we realized that it was a coffee shop below and rum bar on the upper level.  Still, a very chill spot to grab a drink and relax.

Dillon’s Whiskey Bar

This whiskey bar definitely has a variety of whiskey, plus the locals were really cool.  My husband enjoyed the wings here as well. Live music is also available.

Attractions/Tours

Okay now it’s time to get into the good stuff, you know the whole reason we planned the trip and to explore this beautiful country.  Now as first timers we opted to book tours with tour groups, but you can rent a car and see all of these places as well for free (except for The Blue Lagoon).

The Blue Lagoon

The #1 reason people visit Iceland is to see this beautiful and wondrous man-made lagoon (yes it is man-made). As soon as you embark upon it the sight of lava rocks is enough to “woosah” your mind.  Reservations are a must, so be sure to book your tickets before going. There are 3 types of tickets, we opted for the middle one and included our bus transportation. Now the lagoon is not located in Reykjavik it’s actually closer to the airport, so it might be a good idea to visit the lagoon on day one when you arrive in Iceland.  Here are some tips for first timers:

You will need to take a shower prior to entering the lagoon. Don’t worry the showers are private stalls and have dispensers with soap, shampoo, and conditioner.

If you want to dine at the Lava Restaurant there be sure to purchase the premium ticket.

They have 2 types of mask that you can try while you relax that are included with the ticket price. One is a silica mask and the other is an algae mask.  I did have a little bit of a sensitive reaction to the silica mask, so if you have sensitive skin I would do a sensitivity check on your inner arm prior to applying to your skin.

The water is nice and warm and makes your skin very soft which brings me to the number 5….

DO NOT GET YOUR HAIR WET IN THE LAGOON. I’m so serious, while the water is great for the skin it’s terrible for your hair and will dry it out tremendously.  I tied mine up into a sloppy bun and I was good to go.

The products are amazing but pricey.  You can try out the lotion which is GREAT and the conditioner as well.

South Coast Tour

This tour gives you a tour of glaciers, volcanoes, and waterfalls.  Remember you can rent a car and see the spots for free, but we opted to do a guided tour since we didn’t know what to expect.  Also, be sure to bring some kronos, some of these spots have restrooms, but you will need to pay 200-300 kronos (approximately $2-$3) to use the restroom.

Skogafoss

This 197 ft. tall waterfall was purely amazing.  Climbing 400 steps to the top then standing at the top looking down at that waterfall was just beautiful beyond words.

Reynisfjara

The famous black sand beach is not only known for its beauty but also its dangerous waves.  With caves and basalt columns (trolls), the black pebbles and rocks made wonderful “souvenirs” for my little one.

Solheimajokull

This glacier was probably the most memorable site for me.  Use in a few of Game of Thrones episodes (Beyond The Wall), the road leading to this glacier was actually built and paid for by the Game of Thrones crew. Sitting between two volcanoes this glacier is one of the most rapidly melting ones.  For those interested, there are glacier climbing tours available.

Seljalandsfoss

One of the most popular waterfalls, this stop is probably best to do last on your day of exploring.  Walking behind the waterfall was a bit slippery, but well worth it. Experiencing the water rushing down in front of you gives you such peace.

Golden Circle Tour

This tour allows you to see the beautiful treasures of the island from geysirs to waterfalls to country’s national park.

Thingvellir

Iceland’s historical national park, the geology here really rocks!

Gullfoss

This water from this waterfall is pretty much fed by one of the biggest glaciers.  At 105 feet tall I climbed this waterfall until I damn near kissed it!

Geysir

The famous hot springs in southwest Iceland.  This geothermal area shoots boiling water about 65 feet high ever 4-9 minutes. Just stand and wait for it with your camera handy!

Reykjavik

The city of Reykjavik is just a beauty of its own.  Not only is it super clean, but the street art on the buildings showcases the pure talent of local artisans.  Even the local shops sell products from local entrepreneurs and crafters.

The Halligrimskirkja church building has an amazing structure. I think we stood and just snapped different pictures of it for about 10 minutes.

Shopping

Word of advice, you will see very trendy and cool Icelandic winter gear, so be sure to bring extra money to take away some of these hot fashions.  I fell in love with the winter coats from 66 North.  In addition, the hair care and skin care products are the BEST, hands down and you’ll want to walk away with some to take back home.  The vodka here is some of the best in the world since it’s naturally filtered like their water so it’s very smooth. If you plan on taking any vodka back home wait until you get to the airport on departure day and purchase it duty-free there.  

Things We Didn’t Get To Do:

These are just some things and sites we didn’t get to do that sound pretty cool and interesting.

The Abandoned DC Plane

Game of Thrones Tour

Reykjavik Loves…City Card

Northern Lights (only visible during the winter months, we went in the summer)

Secret Lagoon

On Power Geothermal Exhibition

Lava Center

Random Tips & Advice:

The water is the best straight from the faucet, just bring a water bottle and fill up.  There’s no need to purchase bottle water.

The water is good on your skin and hair. So good that I entered Iceland with straight hair and left with my naturally curly hair.  All I had was water and conditioner and this was the result of Day 2 of my natural hair.

My money tips are if you are using your credit/debit card be sure to swipe and choose the option of completing the transaction in ISK.  Banks do charge a fee for every transaction, so if you have a credit card that doesn’t charge like Capital One or Chase Sapphire.

Liquor is quite expensive in lceland.

Convert to the local currency at the airport.

Hopefully, if you choose to visit Iceland one day that these tips help you. Now I’m off to create some jewelry so that I can enjoy my next travel adventure.

Summer Travels: When in Iceland… It's been a long and busy year so far with my jewelry business.  You know what all work and no play is?

Treasures from the Roof of the Insurmountable, Part 4

unknown title (Antonietta Raphaël)

27: Flashlight by Kasia Moś (Poland)

Fun bulbous whirrs in the pre-choruses, even if they were added to mask the rhyming choices of fire/desire/higher/wire/non-qualifier. (One of those may be made up.) “Flashlight” feels more coherent with more listens and flows by relatively skillfully, as if it didn’t just rhyme a feeling of strong craving with rapid oxidation. 

Clearly, a decaf-violin version would have been better than this, and the violinist should avoid even looking at coffee, but the melody of Kasia’s vocals carries the song well. The intensity here is: Russian provincial crime dramas, all of which are going to license “Flashlight” and use it in every third episode.

Big fan of the stationary ethereal shark on the LED screen from 2:30-2:34, rotating around like a newly obtained Tomb Raider souvenir.

The music video, also (link in the title), is an absurdly apocalyptic edit of fantastically ordinary footage of the local city orchestra. On the film shoot, a Volgogradian gangster has just pulled a gun on his refined St. Peterburgian business partner, and all these musicians and birds hopefully earned some royalties.

When I first heard this song, it was my least favorite of the three that I reviewed, but after re-listening I think it just edges out Hovig for second place. The problem is that while she clearly has a great voice, it's hidden behind a bunch of junk. 

At one moment in the song, she holds a note for some time, but you can hardly hear it behind all that unnecessary electronic noise. At the same time, the song is just sort of boring and desperately needs something to put it over the top; something to change the song up a bit, since it didn't go the route of stripping it down to a simpler number where her voice could shine.

Ryan Haskell

26: Rain of Revolution by Fusedmarc (Lithuania)

When Spotify introduces the Completely Random Song From Our Library feature, "Rain of Revolution” will come up first. This crazed funk pop is the median in all things – musical category, level of stock continental goofiness and the length of time that a child would cry when hearing this at high volume (let’s say 40 seconds of crying, somewhere from 1:27 and on), to pick three things that don’t define all things.

There are lots of layers here, all perilously undercooked. Fiery V signs into the camera plus sneering baby boomer guitarist plus four(!) backing vocalists: a track like this needs hours in a name-brand bath of boiling water, except in two situations, in which it may be left as is: Lithuania in Eurovision and Lithuania in general as a nation. Fusedmarc is very much playing within their parameters.

But even taking this exception aside, "Rain of Revolution” is easier to like than to not like. I think I feel better when I let it be it. Thunder noises crack the song into existence. The horns just beep the same five notes, like an easter egg setting of a tired Roomba. Viktorija, the lead vocalist, crouches and stabilitates like a perennial neighborhood heelflip title-holder. Fitting heaving, whispered verses onto a cheery horn accompaniment is the median of “mostly doesn’t work” and “doesn’t work” and that is irrelevant. Everyone on stage and some faithful fans in the floor pit are so into this crimson pell-mell. Spritz me with your regime change rain, Lithuanian band. Let’s pick up a park bench and throw it at a tree, then pick up a tree and throw it at a kid. Speak with my V sign if you have a comment.

“Rain of Revolution” is Fusedmarc’s reenactment of an acid trip. An 80′s workout video sound mix accompanies the singer as she staggers around a stage highlighted by a trippy light show. The costume choice of a red turtleneck maxi dress and topknot further add to the cacophony of stylistic decisions for this song. The rainy revolution is one of the mind, and one with “no time for your illusion”.

The song opens with the proclamation, “life like roller coaster / spinning me around / rhythm getting faster / when I’m upside down”, which sets the tone for what is to come. Her vocals are all over the place, never seeming to find a correct pitch until the end. The backup singers and their chant of, “dance to the rhythm of the soul!” are the best part, and mellow out the end of the song after its rocky start. This psychedelic rant is all over the place, so sit back and prepare for a bumpy ride. 2/10.

Liv Mothershead

25: Yodel It! by Ilinca ft. Alex Florea (Romania)

Did you know that there are two FIFA video games released every year? On September 29, 2017 EA Sports released “FIFA 18″, priced at $59.99. The older consoles and PC, meanwhile, added to their anthology the title “BALL”, for $7. Running on the same modern engine, but with players represented by word clouds of the most commonly said things about them on Twitter, and sometimes the penalty spot is a trap from which Uruk-hai (MUTILATED RUINED THICC EARTH PERFECTION WOMB) tear off time-wasting goalies’ legs to eat for brunch, “BALL” contains a licensed Europa League group stage, the World Cup third-place match, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs, a Career Mode starring Rolando during his loan to Anderlecht, and for the soundtrack of the menu screens, “Yodel It!”

But this song does not have an upmarket, monotonous, premium Thibaut Courtois card wholesaling equivalent. If you’re intrigued by the concept of “Yodel It!”, but aren’t fully on board while three to 300 sonic and visual issues with this performance remain unresolved, there is no societally palatable version to turn to yet. This is white-boy rap-rock on top of Romanian volksmusik; definitionally, it’s a trailblazer. It’s released by a label called “Cat Music”. No one is qualified to judge this properly. Maybe "Yodel It!” should be in first place. Maybe in -84.33rd.

I like how detailed the Wikipedia page for this song is, with screenshot commentary like it’s a hugely awaited action-adventure game. You know how these games work – you climb towers and dive off of them into piles of previous Romanian Eurovision entries.

Yodeler Ilinca certainly looks like she realizes what a warped thing this is – whereas 2013 Romanian entry Cezar, for example, didn’t seem to with his stage show, even after it was fine-tuned to a pulsing heap of bloody nude men – and she executes moves somewhere between halfheartedly and 70%-heartedly, functioning through it like a detached crowd of new Fusedmarc fans just waiting until “Rain of Revolution”. 

Her primary function, on the other hand, she completes perfectly professionally, in full verve. If I pass any further comment on yodeling I will end up getting a certificate in the mail notifying me of becoming a sanctioned regional yodeling judge, or something, but: what kind of happens is that “Yodel It!” gets you to feel well. I like Ilinca’s voice, which does what it intends to and transports me to early modern Europe. What she does with her voice soothes more micrometres of my soul than it abrades. It’s pleasant, even after a year’s worth of “teaching to the test”, which is creating anything for Eurovision. Also, I am now literally a sheep that marched too far from the farm and is being sung at to scamper back.

(Probably yodeling hasn’t featured in Eurovision in decades, but also probably fewer than a thousand people in the world have watched every Eurovision show, so who can really say for sure.)

The non-yodeler, the never-yodeler Alex Florea, a human semi-professional Neapolitan football team operating on a budget of protection money from the two pet supply stores down the street, hypes up the crowd and mostly himself with [what sound like reworded football chants from a particularly vehement set of ultras.]

Florea’s fulgent vigor for “Yodel It!” does bulldoze through a lot of criticism you could have for this song when introduced to it. Analysis simply does not matter when Alex buries you with imperatives – “DON’T HIDE THE LIGHT INSIDE OF YOU!” – or straight-up announces that he is to now “gonna act really crazy”. I mean, shit. That’s a man with nothing to lose and every televoter point to gain. 

If Ilinca got super sick and couldn’t perform in the Grand Final, Alex would, beyond question, volunteer himself to do the whole thing, every part, and be so intensely alert at rehearsals that any Romanian delegation-chosen replacement wouldn’t nearly match his carnality to restore the song and bring the Eurovision trophy home. 

(But, in the real ending here, he gives Ilinca a weird, forceful, kiss on the cheek, fingernails clawed into her face, so I don’t know about this guy at all.)

The first few times I listened to “Yodel It!”, it did nothing for me. I thought it was dumb and annoying and just plain bad. The more I’ve listened to it, however, I’ve come to appreciate this song’s originality and ambition. Don’t get me wrong — this is totally camp, super weird and really disjointed, but for some reason, I don’t hate it. Maybe it’s the inherent charm of a good yodel, or Ilinca’s natural charisma, but “Yodel It!” just keeps growing on me, which is super annoying because I really want to hate this song.

My main frustration with this song is that it feels very unpolished and disjointed. The live national final performance, especially, is full of awkward hesitations, rough transitions, and really bad staging and choreography. I like that this is a duet, and when they aren’t stumbling around each other on the stage, Ilinca and Alex have decent chemistry. I also think the weird genre mixing works to a certain degree — I’ve come to like the idea of interrupting a rap lyric with a sharp, clear yodel. The problem is when Ilinca switches from yodeling to her regular voice. If her only job was to whip out complicated, interesting yodels with limited singing, I think the song would be much better; it’s when she randomly switches to singing a ballad that I lose interest. “Yodel It!” isn’t terrible, but in the interest of maintaining some sense of dignity, I’ll end with this: Alex’s falsetto is horrible, and Ilinca’s leprechaun dress makes no sense. Leprechauns don’t yodel.

Hannah Fulmer

24: Apollo by Timebelle (Switzerland)

^⨀ᴥ⨀^ ooh there is other music in the world

This is a good song and I can’t find many more words, other than that competitively Switzerland has been pretty baaad at Eurovision for a dozen years now and I wouldn’t be surprised if they quit at some point? Here are three guest reviews in mixed media about “Apollo”:

VIDEO REVIEW! Embedded video not available because we’re in safe hands with Tumblr’s five-inline-videos limit.

Erin Pipes

It is impossible to distinguish from all the others. It cannot win. If it wins I will execute the hostages. 3/10.

Philip Piatt

Billy Moran

I asked Billy to play “Apollo” and draw a picture for the three-minute length of the song, about whatever sparked in his mind. He finished the house a little after the bell and says that it would have looked weird if only a quarter of a house was completed. “They built their house there because of how beautiful the view of the volcano is. But they were foolish to build their house next to a volcano, and now their child is getting away on the Bike Dinosaur.” Yeah. As I said, it’s a good song.

Crazily, Billy’s drawn family looks a lot like Maraaya, the Slovenian entry+couple who opened the Grand Final in 2014. He swears he has not seen them before...

Anyway.

23: Beautiful Mess by Kristian Kostov (Bulgaria)

If Salvador and Luísa Sobral did not win it for Portugal, "Beautiful Mess” would’ve been the Eurovision winner. (I guess all meaning I had there is that this song finished second.) It would’ve been a pretty “good” winner, I think, which is a hot new word that has begun to mean, “how placated will Eurovision fanatics and journalists feel if this song won and became the representative of Eurovision to the public”. (I tell you, this contest gets harder and harder to unspool...) 

Kristian punches well on his high notes, over this cool, moody string-percussion melody. Glum emo pop isn’t my thing, but the song aims big and delivers. I’m sure that “Beautiful Mess” will be one of the last songs that I hear before I die, hospice staff playing it over the PA to soothe and prepare families for sad, but kind of sexy, deaths.

I’m not going to pick a battle with “Beautiful Mess”, not least because Kristian seems real sweet and also the live production of this is kinda cyberpunk. Next year Kristian should enter something like, “Beautiful Apple Face ID”, and walk around the stage unlocking devices until he finds one that he can’t unlock and wails in anguish about it. It would take him over the line.

Life is a mess! But love, while not solving all the problems, soothes the troubled heart. Maybe you’ll luck out and get to have a sturdy, true and enduring love, and who doesn’t dream of an invincible love? Who wouldn’t want one that can’t be touched? And this guy has it! The quiet early bars lay out the difficult feelings and propose the hope that mutual, presumably romantic love will hold things together while trudging through the beautiful mess.

Why it’s beautiful we’re left to imagine for ourselves, but apparently there are no hard feelings. Let’s just survive and hang on — especially to each other. The drop comes just in time; it’s hard to slog through the swamp while gentle strains lull us to sleep. Maybe things will one day fall apart just as the untouchable love’s armour reveals its chink, but for now we’ll get through this day together and face worse days later, when we have more than overwhelming affection to arm us against the battle. A lot of us were helped through a lot of adolescence that way, and anyone listening to this song will know that feeling. 7/10.

Christy Wareham

Army Wives: The drama, the love and the reality of being an Army spouse!

Army Wives: The drama, the love and the reality of being an Army spouse!

Army Wives: The drama, the love and the reality of being an Army spouse! Check it out right here on positive celebrity gossip and entertainment news! Positive Celebrity Rating: 8.5/10

Army Wives is still quite the addicting show, Positive Celebrity first watched the show in 2007. The ups and downs of being a army wife come with challenges, worries and good memories.

The 7 season show takes its viewers into a world of unknown. Although, for those who currently can, the show hits the nail on the head.

One user on IMDB (scrabtree-3) shared their thoughts on the show and how relatable it truly is for those who are enlisted.

“I have been on 3 sides of this fight. I have been in the military myself, then I married an enlisted man and finally, my enlisted husband became an officer. As for the comments that the “male” officer had to say, all I can say is, you were never a wife.

Ellen Pompeo opens up about difficulties on Gray’s Anatomy.

Every wife, both enlisted and officer has their own stories to tell. I can tell you from personal experiences that the show is textbook cases for any wife of the military and many husbands of the military.

It’s a great show that responds well for the wives and children of the military and the experiences and hardships that they face each day. I have watched wives begin affairs or come close to it, I have watched as wives marched into the commander’s office demanding the commander lay off their husband and yes, I have seen officer’s wives get differential treatment at a medical facility.

The thing to remember, although the military network is a much tighter network, so many of these things also take place in the civilian world…so why would it be so hard to believe?”

Of course, there are always viewers who don’t feel the show was good but to those who can relate, it’s a story filled with truth, a series that can even help you cope while your love is on the other side of the world.

Another high profile reviewer on IMDB (Hammerchick77047) opened up about the negative reviews, confirming the show has a very realistic approach to their life.

“I disagree with the first review of the show. As an Army Wife myself, I can say that the show was relatively realistic in our portrayal.

The plot lines were interesting. Remember, it’s only the first show. They’re not going to jump into everything at once.

Sit back and watch the show develop. While I understand that the first reviewer dealt with Army Wives, he WASN’T an Army Wife.

It’s an entirely different world. Again, that was the pilot episode. It makes no sense to jump into everything right away. Let the show develop, then decide if you like the show.

I personally felt no disservice. Also, you were an officer. Much of the show was based on the Private’s wife as she entered the military world. Being an enlisted wife is much different than being an officer’s wife. I can safely say this with experience.”

As many of you know, there was a time in my life where I also, was an “army wife.”

I watched the show while my ex-husband was in boot camp and stationed in Texas. Sadly, I quickly learned that not all men are faithful.

In fact, one of the most relatable trials in the show is cheating. The show made it easier for me to stand up for what I deserved, which was better. Most importantly, I learned that not all men in the Navy are unfaithful.

The show might have dropped in 2007 but it was a successful show, with a wrap up that will have you saying “wow.”

Haven’t seen the show yet?

The good news is you can catch all the seasons on Amazon Prime, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and ABC!

Stay up-to-date on the latest positive celebrity gossip and entertainment news by giving us a thumbs up on Facebook.

Blessed be!

Positive Celebrity Magazine

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