oopsie

so the stream was a flop (ill need to solve that problem in the future but that was very weird cuz these settings worked with batdr before and i doubt batdr was easier to stream performance wise) but yall didnt miss out on anything cuz uh

basically in 15 minutes i was done with the part of the. "game". that was. actually kind of looking like one. you know i didn't expect any polish to this, it was free and all. that was the part with gaskette, it was. fine. i did not find it interesting but at least it wasnt what the rest of the game was

but you know what, i get it. finally i get it

they, or maybe just mike, but its released under their company so i will say they,

they hate theorists

they hate dataminers

alright, point taken, i guess

just push away the fans who were the most interested in playing your games, cuz that's smart

it's sad really but oh well have it your way

Episode 45: Girl Talk

Disclaimer: Translation based on the ones done by @/bluesword9112 and @/jl8417 on YT.

-mercury

Fellas, I think I know what's going to happen to q!Philza :^) .....

Just remembered that Phil wanted to make an insanity arc for his dsmp character during "The Hog Hunt " . When d!Philza was locked in his house by d!Tubbo and started to dig a giant hole under his L'Manberg house, but Techno rescued Philza really fast.

(ty whoever made a compilation of all Sad-ist dsmp animatics that just shook my memories)

OK the answer TO ME is that trolls are like. To make up with the Canon inconsistencies. Like so uhhhh just brainstorming here but it makes sense the pop trolls population is fucked bc of being annually eaten. So like lack of old people entirely outside the monarchs bc same models lol.

Age is subjective after the developmental years? So it's more quite literally a state of mind. Which can rationalize tiny in the 3rd movie being like IM A MAN and guy only being just a little skeptical and neither branch nor poppy worrying abt him when he was possibly gonna fall off that building lol.

So the monarchs age more bc it's like. Responsibilities and having to tackle Real Feelings and Consequences outside of the present moment. So branch who looks absolutely decrepit with his crows feet bc he was always looking forward on a long scale. Building a bunker he could last 10 yrs in alone. Waiting for his brothers in some unspecified future.

Vs like floyd who even tho he got marinated in a bottle and anime white hair he still has extreme baby face as an indeterminate maybe 30 smth yr old. Like yes months of captivity sucks its not years and you only gotta worry about the immediacy of escape.

didnt want to say this in the tags of the post bc ive already been too mean there and the person that runs the poll seems very sweet but that being said you all fucking suck im sorry the random people that vote on this poll need to get their shit together --- CLOSER BY THE CHAINSMOKERS? thats just embarrassing 

Man idk how I'm gonna keep that stream to myself all i can think about is how jover it is

ITS SO FUCKING JOVER DUDE I FUCAJVELAKVJLAKJ

Heartache

“We will see if there is anything of interest in the city and if not… We can visit the old house.” It was a fairly typical way for Dianesh and Velerodra to approach a night in Stormwind. The city had its ups and downs and more often than not as of late, there was little that held the peculiar interests of the pair. Velerodra had been especially restless herself of late, ever since finding Haeshia and getting her to safety. The mysterious figure Vel simply referred to as ‘Koru’ was caring for the risen woman, though Dianesh had yet to meet her. Haeshia was a risen kaldorei woman, the circumstances of her raising still shrouded in mystery for the pair. Vel speculated that she was the daughter of Feril, though they had yet to confirm that with one hundred percent certainty. 

They came across Yurissa in their wanderings, who they spoke with for a time before wandering off once more. Arguments were had with the human woman Airid and Dianesh, in a rare moment of emotion, lost her cool. The master steward and this woman had been ‘making fun of’ a man that was having issues deciding on a name for a coming child. Most topics never saw Dianesh give more than a blank look but this one, this one hit all the closer to home. Only Eilithe and Velerodra had known prior to this night the reason why. Needless to say, despite her attempts at offering the alternative view, the abrasive Airid had insisted naming a child wasn’t hard. Frustration saw Dianesh walk away, an attempt on removing herself from the situation. The woman had followed though, and Dianesh lost her cool. She hissed out the reason for her position. ‘Giving birth to a stillborn child and then needing to decide on a name so that the grave marker might show who it was for is the most difficult thing in this world.’ 

She’d vanished into the shadows after the woman’s retort, which came off just as callous as the rest of her words. Solace was found in the graveyard, in the place she and Velerodra often took time to sit and talk. She wept, something that never happened, as she sliced a mark on her right forearm, one long line to underline all the other rows of marks she’d cut into her flesh over time. Velerodra had found her and verbally slapped her to get her out of the frame of mind she was in. In fact, the monkette completely turned the conversation in a different direction, which saw Dianesh become even more emotional. It was a moment that saw her say something she knew Velerodra may get squeamish with, something that she’d never said before and had never expected to say. “I love you…” The monkette’s reply was what Dianesh could have expected, as Vel ran fingers through the sentinel’s hair. “Of course you do. I am quite lovable. You are… Acceptable…” It was the tone of her words though and the way she choked up that Dianesh knew Velerodra shared her emotions on this. The deep rooted care for each other was there, even if the odd couple showed it in strange ways. 

After passionate kisses and an agreement to talk things out with Airid, they had gone in search of the woman, only to find she was no longer in the city. They came across Endessa who, for her part, helped lifted Dianesh’s spirits. Just as Dianesh was about to allow herself to eat a sweet treat, Velerodra wandered off, leaving Dianesh to play catch up. “Vel, where are you going?” The monkette’s reply came over the seal. “You know me Dia, where do you think?” (Part 1 of 2)

Tagging @velerodra-valesinger​ for mentions! 

Art by Loiu Jover

You know, if Jover had a song, i think "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire would fit perfectly, the song its kinda old but it's very catchy and funky and i definitely see Clover and Julien dancing with this song in the show, I tought in this song because it reminded me how Julien and Clover meet to each other in the season 1, how they starts to build their friendship and trust to something more big. What did you think? and Did you know any song that would fit with Jover too?

Okay, I just listened to it, aND YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!! It would definitely fit jover.

And oh, man, do I ever. I had to go back through all my iPhone notes for this. I already have a list of songs that make me think about jover, so whenever I need to squeal about my otp, I can listen!

Okay! Here we go..

Better Place by Rachel Platten. JULIEN MADE THE KINGDOM A BETTER PLACE. CLOVER HAS HOPE NOW AND EVERYTHING IS CHANGING FOR THE BETTER. This song screams jover for me. I just.. love it so much?? I have a mv with them and this song somewhere on the internet.

Hero by Enrique Iglesias. Clover is Julien’s hero, do not fight me on this. And in a different type of way, he can be hers, and this song fits that so perfectly.

A Hard One To Know by Benjamin Gibbard. I found this from @lemurblog’s playlist, and can’t stop listening to it. It fits them so well. Especially in what I headcanon the early stages of their relationship would be. (Also, I have p every song on that playlist listed on my phone, but since I don’t have the time to summarize everything, I’m just gonna tell you to check it out.)

Green Eyes by Coldplay. PLEASE DONT THINK THE ONLY REASON IM ADDING THIS IS BECAUSE CLO HAS GREEN EYES. I mean, yes, that is a really good bonus, but It is so much more. I could see them slow dancing to it.

Bright by Ecosmith. I like to think this is how Clover feels after their first date. She should be that happy, and in that same sense of disbelief this song brings, afterwards.

Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History-

Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History by Erik Larson (I’ve linked to the Kindle version because it has the cover that my paperback copy sports)

Isaac’s Storm: The Perfect Storm This essay is an analysis of a few key figures and the role of hubris in the devastation of Galveston in 1900. Constructive criticism would be much appreciated!

A “perfect storm” may figuratively refer to a number of factors that conjunctively exacerbate a situation. It may also refer to a literal storm, one that has formed in ideal conditions to become unusually powerful and menacing. In the case of the Great Hurricane of 1900, the perfect storm took on both of these definitions, its severity owing not only to the favorable climate and geography that amplified its destructive abilities, but also to the hubris of the age and the according conceit of several key figures in the National Weather Bureau. One such figure, the title character, Isaac Monroe Cline, played a special role in rendering his town of Galveston exceptionally vulnerable, and he paid the price with grave and permanent loss. In his nonfiction novel, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, author Erik Larson recounts the parabolic chain of events that led to the disaster on September eighth, 1900, from the butterfly flap of a mild sibling rivalry to the monstrous storm surge of bitter regrets and devastation of human life.

The nineteenth century provided mankind with a better understanding of countless aspects of science, among them, of meteorology. The United States Weather Bureau, however, faced intense skepticism about its effectiveness and usefulness. Although weather predictions were becoming more accurate, incorrect predictions did occur, and any blunder quickly eroded the public’s trust. On top of this, the Bureau had, in its short history, already incurred an enormous scandal. A Bureau official had been caught embezzling funds, and, to add insult to injury, had escaped from prison a year after being sentenced. This shaky public image served to shape the attitude of the Bureau towards forecasting drastic events such as hurricanes. The Bureau even went so far as to restrict hurricane predictions in Cuba, prohibiting telegraphs about weather, save those sent by U.S. officials, from traveling over U.S.-owned wires. This hampered the Bureau’s ability to forecast cyclones, as hurricanes generally reached the U.S. by way of the West Indies. Furthermore, despite Bureau Chief Willis L. Moore’s insistence to the contrary, Cuban meteorologists were significantly better-versed in the conditions that indicated a hurricane’s approach. In a sad twist of fate, the Cuban predictions that the ban suppressed proved to be entirely correct. Cuban meteorologist Julio Jover “actually called it a hurricane” as early as September fifth, while the majority of Cubans “had called the storm a cyclone ever since the first sighting in the final days of August” (133). As the storm progressed, and the U.S. announced that it would pass Florida and fizzle out in the Atlantic, a Cuban weather station called “the Belen Observatory said.... that it would undoubtedly reach Texas” (253). Because of the telegraph ban, Galveston had little warning of what was to come. Another factor in unpreparedness for the hurricane was Galveston, Texas’s geographic vulnerability. Galveston had a shallow bay, as well as access to the Gulf of Mexico. As a result, the storm surge, an influx of flooding comparable to a tsunami, hit from both bodies of water, wreaking havoc upon entire wards of the city. Some of this flooding may have been deterred had Galveston had a seawall, but its plans to erect such a structure were neglected some years prior, partially as a result of Isaac Cline’s publishing of an article that “belittled hurricane fears” and stated with unwarranted certainty that Galveston was essentially immune to severe inundation (84). This article took fuel both from Isaac’s personal conceit and from economic pressure on Galveston to beat Houston in becoming the major port city in Texas. In its rush to gain prominence, Galveston became the perfect target for the perfect storm.

In its essence, Isaac’s Storm is a cautionary tale that warns against hubris. In this way it is similar to many folk tales, with disaster striking as a result of blinding conceit. Bureau Chief Willis L. Moore exemplified the fatal flaw when he placed the telegraph ban against Cuban forecasts. His pride led to paranoia that the Cubans were trying to upstage him, and he lost sight of what should have been his top priority: advancing the field of meteorology in order to prepare for disasters and thereby save lives. Galveston itself was also a victim of its own self-importance. The citizens of Galveston felt superior to nature, as did many sea captains of the time. They believed that modern technology had triumphed over any disaster that could occur, and placed economic gain ahead of the construction of a much-needed seawall. Led along in their ignorance by sentiments like those expressed in Isaac’s article, sentiments of invincibility, the people of Galveston found their houses collapsing around them as the “sustained winds... reached 150 miles an hour” and “Galveston became Atlantis” (198). Isaac himself resolved for his family to stay in their house, as he had had it built upon stilts, and believed it “impervious to the worst storms the Gulf could deliver” (7). The house was a Titanic before the Titanic ever set sail: its inhabitant’s faith in it inevitably led to most of their untimely deaths as it broke apart and sank beneath the water. Some fifty people took to the Cline house; eighteen made it out alive. They had faith in Isaac, Isaac had faith in his house, and the Titanic was unsinkable. The stories of those who fell victim to the Great Hurricane of 1900 are familiar to the point of being repetitive. In the words of Aesop: self conceit may lead to self destruction.

Although Erik Larson follows many individuals and their experiences throughout the book, there are characters that lend more to the account, including Isaac Monroe Cline, Joseph Leander Cline, and Willis Luther Moore, the three of which embody the key factors that led to the increased devastation caused by the storm. Isaac Monroe Cline, as can be inferred, is the title character. He was, at the time of the hurricane, the chief meteorologist in the Galveston Weather Bureau. Isaac had a “hardness and confidence that verged on conceit”, and held “a great pride in making his station one of the best and most important in the country” (4). His great faith in his own judgement was such that one might draw a moral from it, as with a fable. There is always more to know about the world, and he who does not keep an open mind turns a blind eye to whatever may befall him. Isaac “believed deeply that he understood it all”, and was thereby oblivious to the signs of impending danger (5). He closed his mind, and in that way relinquished his chance of preventing his own personal loss. Isaac lived with his family: his wife, Cora, and his daughters, Rosemary, Allie May, and Esther Bellew. His brother, Joseph, also lived with the family. Joseph, twenty-nine to Isaac’s thirty-eight, had a mild rivalry with his brother. They clashed frequently, each one trying to outdo the other, with Isaac generally coming out on top. Joseph had lived and worked with Isaac for eight years, and was always “eager to prove himself”, a habit that, the morning before the storm, surfaced again as Joseph “made the case too strongly that something peculiar was happening and that Washington must be informed” (10). As the storm came, and Galveston blew to pieces, Isaac and Joseph fought again and again. At 5:30 PM, Joseph had reported that the water was up to his waist. Isaac noted that the water was up to one’s neck. As conditions began to worsen, Joseph felt that “the storm was worse than anything Galveston had ever experienced”, and he begged Isaac to evacuate (172). When the house collapsed, Joseph rescued two of his nieces, then pulled them, as well as Isaac and his third daughter, onto a piece of debris that served as a makeshift raft. Despite all this, Chief Moore’s official account of the storm pronounced Isaac “one of the heroic spirits of that awful hour” and claimed that he had been a key factor in saving thousands of lives (250). After the hurricane, Joseph and Isaac separated, and each tried to erase the other from his life. Joseph’s experience reflects the idea of the misery induced by comparing oneself to others. He spent eight years in Isaac’s shadow, trying desperately to win an unspoken competition with his brother. In the end, he was “right about urging everyone to evacuate” (270). However, being right did not get him anywhere. Isaac still held the power, and for years afterward seemed to fare better. The Weather Bureau, having failed Galveston, as Isaac had, proceeded to bury its failure in false accounts and self-praise. Chief Willis L. Moore, despite having severely handicapped the Bureau’s ability to predict hurricanes, continued his upward climb. When “the War Department… revoked the ban on Cuban weather cables”, Moore remained insistent that the Cubans were irresponsible and wished to bring about the downfall of the Bureau (253-4). He did not seem to have learned from the Great Hurricane that image is based upon performance, and a false image will fall, sooner or later. Instead of bettering the Bureau to make it worthy of the faith it needed, Moore undermined the purpose of the Bureau by hindering it in its capabilities. He was mostly able to cover up his part in the destruction of Galveston, but continued to “let the expected obscure the real” (263). He endeavored to become Woodrow Wilson’s secretary of agriculture, using “bureau officials and bureau time to promote his ambitions”, and “became so convinced Wilson would choose him” that he picked a successor (269). Moore was not chosen, and was instead investigated in relation to his campaign. The Great Hurricane finally came back to bite him; Isaac was still hurt at Moore’s false accounts and readily relinquished all of his and Moore’s correspondence to the investigators.

Erik Larson’s story-like method of recounting a historical event is effective in that it not only reveals the facts and figures, but also in that it builds characters and emotion through first-hand accounts and inferences made based on similar happenstances. In his “Notes” chapter, Larson describes his research as “detective work and deduction to try to convey a vivid sense of what Isaac Cline saw, heard, smelled, and experienced in his journey toward and through the great hurricane of 1900” (275). However, Isaac Cline is not the only figure that Larson examines. He recounts the frustration of Louisa Rollfing as her husband refused to leave his work early, the horror and confusion that Ruby Credo felt as she watched her parents hacking through the floor of their coveted parlor, and Mollie Cohen’s trembling hands as she played the piano to calm her children. In contrast, Larson also examines the scientific aspects of the story. The storm underwent a change after it passed Cuba, a change such that it transformed from a tropical storm into a goliath hurricane. Although nobody at the time understood what had happened, there are more recent theories, and Larson details them to the reader in a way that is understandable to even those who know little about meteorology. He explains that there is a current in the Gulf called the Loop Current, which “brought a deep channel of warmth that the wind and seas could not have cooled”, giving the hurricane nigh-unlimited fuel (119). This combination of science and raw human emotion is the best and most thorough way to tell the story of Isaac’s storm because it takes into account the mixture of human and climatic factors that went into brewing the perfect storm.

365 Day Movie Challenge (2017) - #335: Blade (1998) - dir. Stephen Norrington

Hey, I really enjoyed Blade! I don’t know if it’s fashionable to admit that, although I gather that regardless of my own opinion, there are two branches of viewers: those who adamantly stand by the film and those who reject it as high-budget camp. Either way, Blade paved the way for the Marvel Comics revival that came ten years later with Iron Man and the rest of the rebooted Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Eric Brooks (Wesley Snipes), known to us as vampire hunter Blade, is part living human, part undead and all badass. As the child of Vanessa (Sanaa Lathan), a woman who was bitten by a bloodsucker and died while giving birth to her son, Eric is a man with an understandably Dracula-sized chip on his shoulder, but he uses his vampire-adjacent abilities, including super-strength and agility, to his advantage. Aided by his longtime friend/mentor, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), Blade spends his days and nights eradicating New York of its vampire population.

Enter Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), a young vamp with plans for world domination. Accompanied by lackeys Quinn (Donal Logue) and Mercury (Arly Jover), Deacon hopes to resurrect the ancient “blood god” known as La Magra; only Deacon’s nemesis, Blade, stands a chance of preventing the oncoming apocalypse. Alone, Blade might not be able to his enemy’s mission, but our hero really lucks out when he meets a doctor, Karen (N’Bushe Wright), at the beginning of the film. After saving Karen from Quinn’s vicious bite, Blade learns that the young woman is a hematologist (a blood specialist); this particular line of work makes Karen a perfect sidekick, smart and resourceful enough to create ingenious remedies/biological weapons to combat vampirism, while also being a tenacious and independent character with a mind of her own.

I have to admit I can’t entirely fathom Blade viewers’ obsessions with Stephen Dorff as Deacon. Was a bad boy vampire character really such a revelation in a post-Lost Boys movie industry? (Kiefer Sutherland’s performance in that film ha to have been an inspiration on Dorff’s look.) Either way, all I see when I watch Stephen Dorff now is him dressed as Candy Darling (from I Shot Andy Warhol, probably the most interesting role he's ever done) or that annoying e-cigarette ad from five years ago. Even so, Dorff isn’t bad as the main antagonist. He’s just overshadowed by one of my favorite actors to ever appear in the horror genre: Udo Kier, who plays Dragonetti, the old-school head of the vampire council, an elegant gent who disapproves of Deacon’s rock ‘n’ roll ways. Kier doesn’t have much screen time, but it’s a hoot whenever he pops up and hisses menacingly in his German accent about Deacon not having “pure blood.”

The aesthetic of Blade is fantastic, from the blue-hued cinematography by Theo van de Sande to the costumes designed by Sanja Milkovic Hays to the editing by Paul Rubell. Wesley Snipes brings a welcome brand of subdued cool to his role, which I appreciated since my only other points of reference for his acting are Demolition Man (1993) and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), films which require him to be exceptionally unsubtle (though still fun to watch). I also got a kick out of Traci Lords’ cameo in the first ten minutes of the film, playing an alluring vampire who introduces an unsuspecting dude (and we, the audience) to her kind’s underworld. (She doesn’t have much to do in the film, but it’s delightful when she roars at Blade, “Hey! I’m gonna rip your fucking head off!” Naturally, the fight does not go in her favor.) A lot of care and detail was put into the design of Blade, and even though in certain ways it’s as dated as other late 90s action films - the techno music in the score/soundtrack, a usage of bullet time that predates The Matrix - I found it thoroughly entertaining.