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cheyla-v · 2 years

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February Round-Up

I was going to post this last weekend, but then I figured that it would make more sense to wait until the end of the month because I missed three of the four weeks already. Oops?

All in all, February was a very productive month. I think I’ve got my insomnia to thank for that, because I was awake during what are apparently my peak writing hours. So, here goes.

Writing

My original monthly goal was 15k and I wrote over 21k, so yay! Then again, I really shouldn’t be surprised because there were several days that I was awake between 1am and 5am and was cranking out to 2-3k in that time period.

My main focus of the month was to finish my YOI Big Bang project, since submissions are due in March for that. I’m close, y’all! Close! 9k currently (it’s going to definitely be over my 10k estimation though...)

Soul’s Scream updates - Chapter 18 is at 5.5k right now, so progress! I also wrote a scene that’s currently 1.5k (and will probably end up a lot longer, because Gheyos!) for one of the Friday/Introduction day chapters, as well as a 4k scene that’ll take place at some point in the fic introducing Kai and some of Brishen’s backstory.

I wrote 3 fics for the YOI Olympics - Beijing 2022 event. I was going to write more, and I actually started a 4th fic, but then Olympic figure skating just became so emotionally draining. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t want to work on anything YOI related, unfortunately, which really sucks, because that fandom was what broke my 3-year writing hiatus and saved me during the pandemic and my last year of law school.

I also wrote 3 drabbles for the February Ficlet Challenge. I wanted to write more because there were some great prompts, I just didn’t have the right muse at the time. I might do some late additions for when muse does strike if I can.

Because my normal muse and WIP list isn’t enough, I signed up for the HP Next Gen Fest. 😅Super excited for the prompt though! Also considering joining another fest, but that’s currently TBD right now, since the prompts haven’t been released yet. Prompts are out in a few days, so I’ll know fairly soon.

Reading

I needed fluffy and I needed funny during this month, and luckily I found plenty of both. I think I’m officially a MXTX fan now as well, considering for three of the four books I read by her, I didn’t go to bed until 2 or 3am and for two of the three series, I promptly watched the animated series that same day or the following day (it would have been all three, but watching The Untamed and Mo Dao Zu Shi is what got me started down this path in the first place 😂).

Finished:

At First Bloom by Chera Carmichael

Call to Water by Chera Carmichael

Under the Water by Chera Carmichael

Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven Official’s Blessing, Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven Official’s Blessing Vol. 2 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong/The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

(Also Idan and Minh are totally not loosely based on the personalities of Xie Lian and Hua Cheng or Lan Wanji and Wei Wuxian... 😅)

Other Projects

Here’s the long awaited photo of what I was working on in January! I got it done in time to qualify as a late Christmas/early birthday gift. Book colors of course, because I’d never live it down if I used movie colors, lol.

It took a few weeks, but I’ve decided what my next big project is going to be and I took a trip to the craft store for yarn. Since this next project will be something for personal use, I can actually post progress photos. I’m five rows in currently and oh my stars, there’s so much yarn switching. I can’t tell if I’m weaving or crocheting half the time.

I’m proud to say that I also FINALLY bought a coffee table. It only took ... six months? 😅But I’m happy, because it means I can unpack a few more boxes, can use my lap desk for its actual purpose again, and my cats are happy because a) it gives them a new surface to explore/lay on and b) they’re no longer getting squirted by the spray bottle for climbing on the boxes I was using as a makeshift coffee table these past few months (one was a very determined little bugger when it came to doing that and it was a whole hour-long morning ritual for several weeks, which didn’t help the whole insomnia thing...). I also bought and built a bookcase this week, so my arms and wrists are currently hating me and my tendinitis is flaring up... Next on my list of furniture to get are a nest-couch and side tables. Might take another six months for me to get them though, lol.

#weekly roundup #just to keep the tag consistent #crochet #writing things #Soul's Scream

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mimirue · 3 years

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2020 Blog Recap

I saw @desira-sims make a post recapping the events on their blog for 2020 and I thought I’d steal the idea

Everyone knows 2020 has been a crazy year and for me it was no exception. I started working from home in March and I’m still working from home now. I got shingles and that was a painful process of recovery lol. And then after many things pushing it back I started streaming on twitch and hit affiliate which has been such a great experience and feels like such a fit.

Posting in tumblr has been a definite constant throughout 2020. It’s been mostly Markus’ BC and gens 5 and 6 of my not so berry but I’ve loved every second of it.

Be sure to let me know if I included any of your favorite moments or even if i\I missed yours!

January

A Muse for Markus: I started out Markus’ search for love with the thing he’s loved most in the world. It was finally time for him to find the person he loved just as much as music. Markus’ BC has by far been my favorite thing I’ve ever done in the sims and I definitely look forward to doing another BC in the future.

February

Solo dates: We started out the competition with solo dates and there were three girls who had quick leads for Markus’ and my own hearts. They all made it to the final half of the competition so obviously the initial connection meant something. From a storytelling perspective it was challenging to try to think up 12 unique dates for the girls and I learned quickly that this struggle wasn’t going to go away any time soon.

March

The first rose ceremony: *sigh* ...I took a 2 week break before actually writing this scene. I didn’t think it would actually be so hard to let someone go home but hell it really was. I don't think this was made any easier by the fact that the first girl to go home was that of one of my best friends or that it kinda came as a surprise to me literally at the end of the pre-ceremony party when I totaled up their relationship scores. I would soon learn that each elimination really does get easier.

April

The first kiss: I have so many feelings about the Angie X Markus pairing lol. I love Angie so much but I hated how her in game actions made me have to write her (I actually wrote her so much nicer than she was in game lol). Markus was OBSESSED with her for the first half of the competition and I almost felt bad for the other ladies. He viewed her through rose-tinted glasses and she could do no wrong...until she could. For some reason living an entire season (on the longest setting) together was not enough for Angie to stop feeling tense around the other girls and eventually she started taking that out on Markus. All of that being said I put so much love and care into the first of many kisses for these two and also of the competition.

May

Nadia Nadia Nadia: The early favorite to win, the first tears, and the only one to let it be known that she was upset at Markus at the end. I thought she wouldn’t actually fall in love with Markus when this thing started but by the time it was time for her to go you could just tell from in-game actions that she was way more in love with him than he was with her and that was a bit heartbreaking. This screenshot might still be my favorite screenshot ever taken. And I love that Nadia left the show just how she entered it, a fucking queen.

June

The Finale:

(Don’t tell me you expect me to pick one photo from this emotional rollercoaster of a post)

Six months is how long it took me to write this sims story and while I still stand by what I said at the start that I’m not a good writer by any means I learned a lot about writing over those six months. I learned that I CAN write if I want to, I learned that it’s okay if it takes a while to get to the end, I learned that the journey is just as important for you as it is for your readers. And most importantly to me I learned that I want to be that person who writes those cliché stories with the plots you’ve seen a million times because that’s exactly what I like to read and it’s so important that you look back and love what you put so much of yourself into creating.

Now to these two hotties: Simnosa is no stranger to the fact that I didn’t feel much of a connection to Lorena at first (I tease her about it endlessly). It seems appropriate that Markus was the same as it allowed me to fall in love with them at the same pace that they fell in love with each other. At the very last minute I decided to make the winner a mystery till the second to last post and to have Markus get Lorena back for all the teasing and pranks she had thrown his way. I knew if I made it look like there was no winner I would never be able to pull that off again so it was quite literally now or never and I quite liked the result even if not every reader was the biggest fan of it haha. I love these two and I promise I have more planned for them once ya girl gets the time.

July

Nsb Plum: By the time I was done with the BC I was missing the Berry family something fierce so it was so refreshing to get back to something a little less story focused.

For some reason I didn’t realize that gen 5 of the Not so Berry challenge would end up so story heavy. I never really wanted to write fighting scenes before but I also wanted to showcase that their divorce was technically neither of their faults individually. Indi was a work-a-holic because he somehow felt he had to be this super successful person in an “important” career just like his family before him and he felt that Clem didn’t understand that. While Clem left without telling him that she was pregnant and then only telling him about his daughter after he had shown signs of growing up (here’s a secret: she needed to do some growing up as well). It was like watching my children grow into adults even if they weren’t necessarily the more fair of parents.

August

Aspirations: I wrote and started posting my first sims challenge. It seems quite fitting that my sim for this challenge was Emilee as she was the reason I first started posting anything on tumblr and she and Sutter were also the only reason I ended up writing my first sims story. It was time I wrapped up their story so we can move on to that of others ~in her family~. It was so nice for me to tell a story that spanned a few years of their lives with no dialogue. I really liked this style and I’ll most definitely adopt it again in the future.

September

Nsb Orange: Back when Ginger wasn’t 90% chaos and she was at least 40% naïve. I’m always excited to move on to the next heir but Ginger had me more excited than normal.

October

October Photo Challenge: This was a fun one, it was a nice way to give some love to the characters that I’m playing next as a bit of a preview. I also think the photos turned out pretty snazzy.

November

Next gen: The twins are so freaking cute as both toddlers and children. What I never expected (and kinda planned against) was for them to get along or for Ginger to be such a good parent. I wanted Ian to be a bit of a loner but the two best ladies in his life love to shower him with too much love and care for him to have too much time alone.

December

End of Orange gen: I had so much fun with her story. Ginger might not be my only polyamorous sim but she’s the first one really showcased on my tumblr. I covered a lot of borderline controversial topics and it seemed like you all enjoyed it, for which I’m grateful. Gen 6 is the first generation where there are no rules on your spouse so I knew I didn’t want her to get married. But that didn’t mean I wanted her to be single.

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Thank you all to all of you who followed and read my dumb little blog during 2020.

And a huge thank you to all the people who made sims for me! My blog and stories would not be the same without your creative geniuses being added to the mix as well!

#2020 recap #ts4 #simblr #mimi chats

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pochapal · 3 years

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rank every year of the 2010s from best to worst i want some pochapal lore

[warning for discussion of my fucked up mental health and my myriad traumas. we’re really opening the pandora’s box here gang]

ok time for me to overshare on the internet again! super long post because i can’t shut up and you asked for it. anyway, by objective ranking:

#1: 2012 - halcyon era, my personal peak. spent the whole year writing hunger games oc fics with my deviantart fanfiction besties whom i still think about all the time and always hope are having the best possible day. if you were here for this era understand i still hold you so closely and dearly in my heart <3.

#2: 2013 - god i was such a good example of a human being back then. was the year my writing like actually took off and i had a healthy balance between creative stuff and a social life (said social life consisting of spending lunchtimes at school breaking into classrooms and discussing fandom shit with five other people. reading homestuck updates in the music room on one person’s really shaky mobile data...legendary). highlight of the year and maybe my life was in the april of 2013 when i got out of failing to submit a hard deadline essay by telling my english teacher i wrote a whole novel over the two week break and then producing said novel. god i wish i had that level of like. fucking confidence back me back then knew what i wanted and how to get it.

#3: 2010 - the last year of childhood. i was 12 and played pokemon all the time with my friends and went places and had a moderately successful youtube channel and it didn’t matter that i was bullied so badly at school because i was basically high off life. summer of 2010 was so good specifically. i’d used to get the bus with a friend and go see movies and break into historical sites and get into normal childhood mayhem and maxed out my pokewalkers twice a month and i was buzzed because i had two (2) whole friendship groups to choose from and that was such a huge deal to me the terminal social outcast. it was so simple and carefree and even though everything and everyone involved in this era grew up to suck except for one specific person i kinda really miss it.

#4: 2018 - this was the first year i wasn’t depressed to the point of nonfunctioning. it was 20gayteen, i was on antidepressants, i was as close to thriving as i got at uni (going into town with people once a week, attending art and culture events, getting good grades across the board), i started to write for fun again, i got my cat whom i love dearly, i was exhibited in my uni’s city’s literature festival, GOD i actually nearly attended a pride event that year can you imagine. this year was basically my life’s second peak. miss getting the 8am train and daintily sipping on a cherry coke to keep me from passing out. wish this time could have lasted longer.

#5: 2019 - kinda absolute middle of the road year not for lack of anything happening but because the overwhelming amount of good and bad things cancelled each other out. so like there’s the fact that i was at the top of my uni game this year, was basically making the first steps into a professional writing career (covid i will never forgive you for killing all that dead </3), finally saved up enough to buy myself a gaming pc, and the summer after the homestuck epilogues, but equally 2019 was the start of the Pochapal Gender Fiasco which is by far the most horrible thing i am still currently undergoing and i burnt myself out mentally about halfway through the year (being stuck overnight in a hospital for a panic attack absolutely horrible horrible irredeemable) and then got like super death plague flu that i was sick with for three months (literally recovered less than a month before rona hit. god’s cruel karma.). so like...it kind of averaged out? the good shit was good but not as great as other years and the bad shit was awful but nowhere near as terrible as it could have been. gotta give a shoutout to 90% of my current mutual cohort for following me in 2019...omelette route gang make some noise !!

#6: 2014 - oof. this year essentially marked the start of a four year long downward mental health spiral because everything fell into awful alignment. i’d just turned 16, finished secondary school, had all my friends up and ditch me at once, was home alone for a whole summer, and was hit with Sudden Intense Body Image Issues that i couldn’t explain until uh. after very recent developments lmao. this one goes out to the me of july 2014 who did nothing but lay in bed and listen to the same two marina albums on a loop because fuck i’m attracted to men and also my facial and body hair are really starting to come in and if i think about this for too long i will literally kill myself because oh god i can’t handle getting older which is clearly and definitely the issue going on here. my brain fucking broke super hardcore and it’s a miracle that an overeating disorder was like the worst thing i walked away with.

#7: 2015 - downward spiral year two!! i was so volatile this year it was such a mess. i was totally socially isolated after a brief stint of falling in with a group of people at the start of my first year of sixth form until january where in quick succession a) it turned out every single one of these people was friends with the person who sexually assaulted me whom i obviously had a lot of complicated feelings towards and b) baby’s first crush came out as bisexual but in the “women and also trans women” kind of way which tore me up so terribly in ways i couldn’t begin to understand. no words for the experience of seeing a girl kiss a boy and crying so hard at night you threw up because you could never be her no matter how much you wanted it. actually kinda get the sense what was going on there was bigger than just some crush lmao. then after that i was so mentally ill i basically attended school less than half the time and it was the only year in my life i failed my exams. i ended up having to resit my entire set of first year a level exams because jesus christ was i in such a bad way it was a miracle i even showed up to them. all i did was either have anxiety attacks or enter bedbound depressive slumps for weeks at a time. but it’s okay because it gets worse.

#8: 2016 - downward spiral act iii: the spiralling. prefacing this by saying that i actually had two whole good months (april - may) in that i was functioning enough to do my exams and finish school with decent grades. the rest was super extra mega terrible. my school attendance for year 13 dipped below 65% and literally the only thing that kept me from being kicked out was the fact that i was naturally smart at the subjects i took and also because the school would have a lot to answer for after letting me get to that state despite having a hefty file on how damaged i was. keep in mind every single part of this was fully untreated btw - i was just floundering around and letting it all fester. i spent three solid weeks going to school but locking myself in the bathroom all day every day and having mental health episodes then going home like nothing else happened only to continue the breakdown that night. then things got kicked into fucked up overdrive when i moved out to uni and was cut off from what little support structures i did have. it was so bad all i did was cry all the time and never went anywhere to the point where three separate sources recommended me to the wellbeing and crisis counselling service that i stopped going to after two sessions because i was fucked up in ways cbt techniques could not even touch. at least i tried to make an effort for the first two months of uni which like. good for me?

#9: 2017 - what lieth at the base of the spiral. helltrench year. i was at literal rock bottom. i stopped going to class, i didn’t hand in a single piece of work. i lied to my parents and would book trains each day only to go back to my student flat and sit there and contemplate suicide. like i would just slump on the floor in a catatonic state and vividly contemplate one of four or so ways i could end my own life. i only didn’t because i wanted to wait until the summer to collect my last student loan and transfer it to my parents as an apology for my death which obviously didn’t end up happening. honestly i can’t remember much of the first half of 2017 that’s how bad it was. i remember taking a gender studies class and the teacher made it Weird that i was the Only Male Student in the room and then she sent me a scolding email after i walked out halfway through a class and never returned. apparently i got into a lot of online discourse in this year but i don’t remember anything other than being put on a blocklist by the milkfic author over ace discourse which is funny if you have the context. mostly i just baited terfs and weirdo freaks to get them to say horrible things to me as what i guess amounts to some kind of digital self harm. anyway breaking point came in late august when i got kicked out of university and then nobody could ignore it any more so there was no choice left but for me to seek out help and recover enough to function which luckily i did. i really Do Not remember 2017. you could tell me anything about that year and i’d probably believe you.

#10: 2011 - extra circle of hell for this little fucked up gem of a year. on the surface it wasn’t actually that terrible, until the Summer 2011 Domino Effect Of Bad Shit. up until like may/june it was a pretty all right year! i was 13 and had a surprisingly successful youtube channel uploading pokemon soundfont remixes to an audience of i think ~350-400 subscribers at my peak? anyway then i got hit with the early summer triple combo of childhood friends moving away, cute and quirky sexual assault at the hands of a person in my friend group, and then having some Really Great and Super Appropriate interactions with adults on deviantart. like obviously there’s the actual ptsd-inducing event which totally disrupted and killed the person i was right up until that moment and reshaped every facet of my life for better or worse (there’s an alternate timeline where that didn’t happen and i got into electronic music and/or coding instead) but really it’s the events that followed in its wake which were kind of more fucked up. so like all of a sudden i was super aware of my body and me growing my hair out and being mistaken for a girl in class suddenly became this Less Innocent thing and i ended up spending hours overnight going to transgender questioning forums and looking up hrt timeline videos and having the wikipedia article on tracheal shaving saved because it was a life raft to me whose voice was imminently gonna deepen and i was simultaneously reeling with constant trauma flashbacks and the whole thing was so so fucked up. then i was on deviantart and i don’t remember exactly how but a small group of furry guys ten to fifteen years older than me started messaging me and encouraging and requesting me to produce nonsexual fetish stuff for them and talking to me about stuff like if i’d ever thought about growing up to be gay and i didn’t think anything of it for a long while because they called me a very talented writer and it felt so good to have someone be nice to me after being so alone and isolated for months on end. anyway the only reason i got out of that before it got bad was because they invited me to one of the big furry sites and i was weirded out because i thought it was a porn site and thinking about sexual stuff was a huge trauma trigger so i just ended up blocking them all and pretending like it didn’t happen. at the time half this shit didn’t bother me but in retrospect holy fuck 2011 was such a damaging year. to think if like three events didn’t happen i wouldn’t be the fucked up mess you see before you today.

god fuck this turned out super long but i’m not apologising because this was a therapeutic exercise for me and also constitutes as one of the biggest pochapal lore dumps of all time. come get your food or whatever.

#Anonymous #long post #read all of this if you have vested interest in knowing intimate details about my life or whatever

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dansnaturepictures · 3 years

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04/01/2021: New Forest walks-My first Treecreeper, Goosander and Dartford Warbler of the year and more (10 different photos in this set to those I tweeted tonight)

We did some more walking in the New Forest on my first weekday of leave for my long awaited week off today. On the way in I liked seeing my first New Forest ponies and Grey Squirrel of the year, two of three additions to my nicely booming compared to my normal starts mammal year list now on six which is pleasing my most mammals seen at this stage in a year ever. We first called into a semi iced Eyeworth Pond which was great, and alongside a Pied Wagtail on the ice which it was brilliant to watch I took a picture of this I was pleased with which I tweeted on Dans_Pictures tonight I was happy to see my first Marsh Tit and Coal Tit of the year always an important year tick and one I’ve been lucky to see so early on in years for so many years these two key New Forest birds so I felt so lucky to see them again. This set the tone for another top day of birdwatching whilst walking with three more year ticks later on taking my year list to 82 still keeping pace with how many I had seen at this stage last year six behind the figure I ended 4th January 2020 on. I took the first picture in this photoset at Eyeworth Pond.

We went on to walk at Cadmans Pool in the New Forest today, by contrast to its one of the hottest day of the year temperatures when I last came here last on an amazing summer’s day for wildlife for me in early August 2020 as it was very cold today. I took the second-sixth pictures in this photoset of views here today there were lots of lovely wet views with the pond itself and the streams. On the walk the wind revealed its presence by shaking some trees. It’s been a theme of today and yesterday with us looking for birds so much with so many year ticks available of seeing leaves being blown about on the ground and mistaking it for bird movement momentarily which is an interesting quirk. On the walk we were delighted to spot a Green Woodpecker flying into a tree then minutes later another of my favourite birds the Jay in the same area. I have had a phenomenal start to the year for seeing some of my favourite birds which continued later on as I mention below. There is a good little group of bird species that I’ve had such a good start to the year for seeing them again and again, these two are part of that alongside Dunnock, Wren and Song Thrush which I saw also today. When seeing the Song Thrush today I remarked on how as a Lakeside Country Park New Year’s Day walk mainstay for me in recent years I have not I don’t believe seen or heard their delightful song at Lakeside at all since working from home meant I walked there every lunch time when I’m working and other times too. So I thought would I struggle for them this year early on but I have not seeing them three out of the four days in January so far.

Walking into trees I was thrilled that we spotted a little bird on a tree’s trunk climbing up, of course it was one of only a few it could be, the wonderful Treecreeper. I enjoyed a top few minutes watching this bird. Another species so typical of this divine woodland habitat which it did feel special to see. It really was a splendid sighting of a beautiful and spectacular species. A very worthy species to be my 80th bird of the year, something I always feel so proud to achieve and this happening so early this year again was amazing. This species was in the forefront of my mind as a target in recent days something its always brilliant to have in new year target birds. The big thrill in new year for me is getting as many species seen as possible, enjoying them no matter how much I see of them or for how long and seeing how my totals each day compare to my previous years which I do all year. That’s why I have a week or time off in New Year rather than between Christmas and New Year if I can to have days to lay the foundations of my new bird year list. But this year we have the added element of impending further COVID restrictions, which is definitely and so desperately needed for the health of the nation I would never argue against that. So this year especially I felt today I wanted to get as many birds seen in as I can before. There are birds I am yet to see and I know they will be something to look forward to after lockdown in many cases too, but I did very much enjoy seeing this bird today.

On the newly announced lockdown by the way I just wanted to clarify a few points for people who may see my photos and posts what the new restrictions will mean for us. I would say as I have before that daily exercise is a permitted reason to leave the house, and I shall of course be doing my walk still for the physical and mental benefits and as was the case in the first lockdown beginning in March that shall be just once per day in line with restrictions.

I would clarify that I am sure in a way millions of others will with a mobile phone, I will have my camera and binoculars with me on walks excluding any where I decide not to due to weather conditions. So there will be pictures and sightings still, some of them may be year ticks and I shall still continue to post these on social media to a level I feel comfortable with as I always enjoy doing. The walks will be walks, my primary form of exercise in a day for my physical and mental health and any photos or sightings will be during them. So I shall not be lingering in areas, waiting for significant time for a species to appear or staying in a spot taking many photos for a long time or anything like that.

For this week as I have said I am on a week’s annual leave with my birthday coming up on Thursday too, so these walks will not be limited to Lakeside the country park we are very fortunate as I have said so much live right next door to as is the case when I work from home but other nearby open spaces will likely be utilized. As I can, in line with restrictions with me not working for this week as I will do on weekends during the lockdown, join the other members of our household including our dog for their daily walk.

I would advise as I have done in each previous national lockdown and my area’s placement in tier 4 that I reserve the right to omit locations from photos and blogs from and about certain walks we do, and obviously any species I do see on that walk from any posts about it. This is something I always reserve the right to do and I do it when rare or sensitive species are involved. I just feel that whilst I do not believe with the people I reach on social media hoards of people are suddenly going to turn up and look for a bird or something I have said I saw at or posted a picture of at a site, you just never know what a post could prompt. And the point is that I will have a camera with me and binoculars as long as weather and other factors permit, and during a lockdown I may not feel that it is always appropriate for the posting of something being at a location or where some nice views are to be a so public and the main point of posting is to show the species or views and remark on what I may have seen whilst taking a walk. If I feel it is safe to do so in terms of the species and I trust that the person will follow all restrictions to stay safe in order to try to see the species or place themselves, then I am happy to discuss with local people via private messaging means. Not something I imagine will come up during the coming weeks and maybe months, but once again you just never know.

Needless to say that every walk we do will be following social distancing rigorously, we tend to stay well over two metres away from anyone and we always sanitize our hands at appropriate points when out and wash our hands when home. We do have vulnerable people within the household and are very aware to the risks of this awful virus, especially the greater risk with the faster spreading new variant, so do take this all very seriously In circumstances where masks are to be worn we have always done this, and will follow any further advise given about this whilst walking.

Back to today and at the end of the walk back looking around the pool which we had not inspected earlier on, my Mum’s husband had sent word that a Goosander was on the water a bird we needed to see this year. We were thrilled to look through the binoculars and spot this super duck. We then walked over to the pond and were happy and entertained to follow it around the water to try and get a picture. I took the seventh in this photoset of it. A perfect consideration for what I was just saying regarding lockdown in fact, that taking a walk within a tier 4 area as we did today does say recreation is allowed outside so within regulations we were able to walk around the pond a few times if needed to try for a picture of this bird in my mind. Had this been a lockdown daily exercise walk, if I could get a picture of it as we walked past the lake and saw it initially then fine but I will certainly not be deviating from intended walking routes or spending time specifically trying to take one picture in line with regulations at that time as I said above. It seemed to go round in a large circle of the area getting further and further from us as it went. We did manage pictures in the end though I tweeted one of it tonight too. Always a very valuable and beautiful bird to see in years. It was one of my first ever bogey birds for the year in 2014 so the bird I normally see easily but don’t for a while in a year but since I have always managed to see this species fairly early on and easily with them being at a nice range of water locations in the New Forest and nearby.

Whilst watching this bird we were thrilled to spot another of my favourite birds the Kingfisher over the water and land in a small tree. A cracking view of a fourth individual Kingfisher I have seen this year quite brilliantly. An exciting view of yet another of my favourite birds I have had surely my best ever start to the year for seeing birds on my list of favourites which I am over the moon with. A smashing and very precious wildlife moment with one of the birds I have loved most since I was a child. At the end of the walk I saw my first Brown Rat of the year. My Mum also thanks to ticking Long-tailed Tit, Green Woodpecker and Chaffinch here which I had got as ticks on my Lakeside New Year’s Day walk and the Goldcrest she got on hers which I have not yet seen did overtook me by one bird as the little friendly race within the household hotted up which is always a fun bit of New Year.

We then had a little bit of time walking at the wonderful Milkham where I took the final three pictures in this photoset of two views and a lovely New Forest pony. A fun moment seeing the ponies then a Grey Squirrel in a tree two of my mammal year ticks in one moment. I had a good day for ponies today. The Milkham walk was headlined though by a fleeting view of yet another of my favourite birds, a Dartford Warbler flying into vegetation. A fantastic bird to see, another year tick I am so proud of this year one of my best in the early days. I was so elated to see this bird, by far my earliest ever sighting of one in a year. We saw Dunnock and Green Woopecker at Milkham too. A wonderful end to a fantastic Monday off enjoying the richly wild habitats of the New Forest with a real variety seen once more. I wish everyone who may be reading this but this shall especially apply to those in the UK I suppose all the best as we enter as the Prime Minister has said probably some of the toughest weeks/months to come in this pandemic. Stay safe, keep talking and connecting to nature and know that I am always only a message away if needed.

Wildlife Sightings Summary: My first of one of my favourite birds the Dartford Warbler this year, my first Marsh Tit, Coal Tit, Treecreeper and Goosander of the year, my first of one of my favourite mammals the New Forest pony this year, my first Grey Squirrel and Brown Rat of the year, three more of my favourite birds the Kingfisher, Jay and Green Woodpecker, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Robin, Dunnock, Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Nuthatch, Chaffinch, Pied Wagtail, Wren, Carrion Crow, Woodpigeon, Mallard, Canada Goose and Moorhen.

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xseildnasterces · 3 years

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do or die.

As always, it’s Friday, and I’m exhausted. It’s been a long week and I am so unbelievably glad to have been off today. One thing I do really love at work is the option of flexible working hours. Essentially, we have a work arrangement that if we work 8 hours overtime in a two-week period, we can take a day off to recoup the hours. That is what I did today.

Cleary, I started writing yesterday and didn’t get very far. It’s now Saturday. I spent the whole of yesterday cleaning and tidying so that I didn’t need to do it over the weekend, which was certainly a good idea as now I feel so much more relaxed and don’t feel like I should be doing something that I am not.

Last night I decided to watch the first episode of ‘It’s a Sin’. I have been wanting to watch it since the minute it was released, but due to problems with my VPN and it not yet being available in the US I had been unable to do so. I had been so excited about it since it’s release, yet being fully aware that it was going to be heart wrenching and that I would end up in floods of tears. I watched the first episode and was hooked from the first few minutes. It was SO WELL done. Like incredibly well done, so gripping, emotional, and genuinely one of the best things that I have watched in so long. I had been told by several people that it was not something you should binge because it’s very hard going… but what did I do? I watched all five episodes one after the other last night and my god. I was a mess. My whole face was wet from tears and I was balling my eyes out for a good while before I could actually go to sleep. Regardless, it’s incredible. I urge anyone who has not seen it to watch it. It is SO good. I also hope it also makes people more aware of what actually happened in the 80s as I feel like it is something that a lot of people overlook and do not really understand. It’s important to understand, and it’s important to know – especially for our community. I have seen so many things making correlations with covid and HIV/AIDs during this whole pandemic, yet I feel like it is really important to mention and be aware that it cannot be compared in the same way for a number of reason, but mainly because right now we know how covid is passed and we know how to protect ourselves. At the time, no one even know anything about HIV/AIDs and they most certainly didn’t have any real understanding of how it spread or how to protect themselves at first. I think ‘It’s a Sin’ is something I would re-watch at some point. I am not really a re-watcher of anything, but this is something I certainly would. Watch it.

I have finally come to realise why I have been recently living in a phase of nostalgia and walking down memory lane. It seems ridiculous that I didn’t even realise this earlier. It’s all because of a memory app on my phone. Seven years ago, around this time there was a lot going on and I was really struggling with something. During that time, I posted a LOT of my feelings in Tweets and currently they are all coming back to haunt me. I don’t think memory apps that relate to your old social media posts are a great idea to be honest, but at the same time there is some kind of morbid curiosity to look at them. It is the same morbid curiosity that comes with looking up people on social media that you ‘used to know’ and miss greatly. The period in question I was incredibly depressed, and what was happening and how I was being made to feel (regardless of the circumstances that I was unaware of), was causing me a lot of anxiety and self-hate. My self-worth was probably at an all time low (up until that point) and I was struggling. After what had already happened the year before my weight was not what it should be and I was struggling with sleep, not eating and also collapsing (at one point knocking myself out in the shower – something that my app oh so kindly reminded me of last week). At the time it felt like I was going from one disaster to another and my mental health was certainly not coping. It was rough and re-reading the things I wrote and thinking about how I felt is certainly not nice reading. Regardless, a lot of this brought up a lot of things for me and R and I have been discussing a lot of these things recently. Friends, relationships, people that come and go from your life and my own fears and concerns with abandonment. R is lucky. She is one of these people who can just accept people leaving her life. She agrees that it is incredibly hard and that sometimes she misses people, but she believes that it is also a good thing. She is very much of the opinion and belief that if someone leaves your life you should just let them go because they clearly they are no longer a real friend and you should not waste your time trying to be their friend anymore. They have made the choice to leave and you should not run after them or cry tears for them when they have made that decision. She also thinks that people leaving also means they are making room for other people to come in – better people. I’m not so sure I agree, nor am I sure that I can change my way of thinking to this, although granted she suffers less because of it and doesn’t spend far too much time thinking about how much she misses people or wants them back in her life. I wonder if perhaps I only really create connections with people on a super deep level before calling them a friend, so when that relationship ends I am heartbroken, whereas some people have lots of friends on a surface level but not completely deep relationships. Maybe that’s it. Maybe it’s not. Maybe I am doing it wrong. Who knows? Talking to R on a daily basis really has been wonderful, and honestly the best thing to come out of this pandemic for me. I have no doubt in my mind that our friendship really is forever. Some of the things we have shared recently about our own relationship and how we feel about one another has been so reassuring. I love that girl so very much and do not believe I will ever meet someone who does not judge me for whatever I do and any mistakes that I make. She really is one in a million and I feel so incredibly lucky to have her.

Talking about mistakes I have been recently evaluating some of the things I have done in my life and I think I have quite a few regrets that I did not consider to be regrets before. I know everyone says you should not have regrets because at the time whatever you did or didn’t do is exactly what you wanted in that moment, but I’m not completely sure I agree. I mean, I do somewhat, but I also think it is normal to have regrets. I think there are some things that I have done in my life that I would now do differently should I have had the opportunity to do them again. As always, hindsight is a wonderful thing. There are actually a great number of things I think I would have done differently – some small, and some huge. Some things that would make a huge impact on where I am in my life right now, and some that wouldn’t change very much in my current day to day life but would ease my overthinking and my constant anxiety. I think this is one of the things I love so much about R. She said to me the other day, that she will never pass judgement on anything in my life because everyone makes mistakes. At the end of the day we are all human and there is not one person on this earth that can say they have never made a mistake or done something that they are not proud of. I resonated with this a lot, and as they say, "Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones". Life is a series of decisions that we make, some of which are good and some of which are bad, and although you may go through life with some regrets I guess the idea is to not dwell on them, to move past them and continue to be better. I think this is something I struggle with. I do dwell on them, and I struggle to move past them – but I guess that is something to work on.

I recently finished reading ‘Three Women’ by Lisa Taddeo, a book that I devoured in only a few days because it was so good and so hard to put down. I told R to read it because I think she would enjoy it, and she told me she had a book recommendation for me. We had been talking about anxiety and fear, and she told me to read ‘Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway’. Now I am not a reader of self-help books, nor am I really a fan of that sort of thing, but neither is she and I do trust in her recommendations so I’m going to give it a go. She told me that it has helped her with making some very big decisions and doing things she was initially scared to do, so I think it may be good for me. I will report back. I’ve been doing so well on my reading challenge so far this year. January started with reading ‘You’ by R. Yep, my best friend self-published a book and it is awesome! I am so proud of her and I love it so much. It’s poetry and I am really not a poetry fan, but this is so real. It reminds me a lot of Rupi Kaur’s work, and perhaps I am a little biased considering R is my best friend, but I found a lot of it much more relatable. February saw me read ‘Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese’ by Dita Von Teese. It’s a huge coffee table book with beautiful photographs and a deep dive into vintage clothing, corsets, and of course burlesque and fetish. I loved it. Most recently I finished ‘Three Women’ which as mentioned had my glued. I’m unsure of what to start next, although I think I may wait until the book R recommended arrives and I will start on that. I don’t want to jump the gun, but I really hope I can read 12 books this year. I have wanted to complete the reading challenge of one book a month for the last few years and failed every single time. It’s frustrating as when I was younger, I could read 12 books in a month, never mind a year – but I guess adulthood has changed the time I have to read, but 2021 will be the year. I am hopeful and optimistic.

Next year R and I both turn 30. Yeah, I know. What the hell? Much conversation recently has revolved around how exactly we got here and how neither of us feel like 30-year-old women. Regardless of that we have decided to do something to celebrate together. We are not yet sure what we will do, but it will involve travel, possibly somewhere in either the US or the Caribbean. To be decided, but I am very excited about this. It has been quite a long time since R and I have travelled together – I think the last time was Australia! So, it will be nice to go somewhere to just chill and hang out without any pressure to be busy and constantly be on the go.

I am on a major ‘women in metal’ hype right now and I am absolutely LOVING it. It’s been a while but I am appreciating it greatly.

In other news, I tried to get a vaccine appointment yesterday, once again it was like the Hunger Games and I didn’t manage to get one. This week DC are changing the system to a pre-register system which I hope will be much better. At least that way there will not be a weekly fight to get tickets (wait, I mean an appointment…) and instead you will just be contacted when an appointment is available to you. I hope it work, and I hope I can get some sometime soon. Having to go into work every single day just makes me feel uneasy, especially as more people want to start coming to the office. My immune system is not ready to mix with people.

Small side note, I REALLY miss the sea.

[Blog title: Do or Die - Amaranthe ft. Angela Gossow].

#do or die #amaranthe #angela gossow #life #thought #thoughts #feeling #feelings #diary #journal #write #writing #me #personal #update #memory #memories

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talesofafangirlwithadvr · 4 years

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January 2020 Picks

And we’re back!!! Been watching a lot of great stuff recently that I’m excited to chat about. These are just a few of highlights. I’m not 100% caught up on the Arrowverse shows yet, but did enjoy the Crisis a lot-especially after the second watch through. Check out my full review on that here: https://talesofafangirlwithadvr.tumblr.com/post/190372384413/crisis-on-infinite-earths-reactions

SPOILERS AHEAD!!

ANNE WITH AN E

This 3rd season was my FAVORITE so far, which makes it even more depressing that this is the end. I watched it the fastest and even stayed up till 1 AM to finish the series after watching four straight episodes. (Normally I try to space out bingeing stuff because I don’t want it to end so fast.) This series has always taken liberties with the source material to make it even more relevant to today, but I especially felt that during this season. It did not feel forced one bit. From Bash losing Mary and overcoming being a minority in Avonlea to Ka’kwet’s story line that brings me to tears every time I think about it-especially because she made it ALL the way home just to be taken back. Would love to believe she’s back with her parents, but the ending this season doesn’t show it. Perhaps they were thinking about pursuing it more if there was a 4th season. Josie Pye’s assault was a nice commentary on the Me too movement as well as the Human Rights and Women’s Rights march. I’m so happy Matthew survived this series! I was so worried for him. (As readers know he dies at the end of Anne of Green Gables the novel. Most adaptations often keep it in and I am happy we diverted from the original this time.) Jerry and Diana were adorable at the start, but Jerry deserves so much more! (He got SO TALL! As I often remarked while watching this season.) I absolutely loved the boy craziness this season because they were “Now 16!” Tillie balancing two guys! Ruby’s crush on Moody was super cute. I loved when Anne was forced to ask Gilbert about having babies by the girls. THE STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS!! (applause) 1) Mrs. Stacy: as a widower she will not settle for just anyone to marry. 2) Prissy Andrews: I really like that they brought her character back up and that she attended college. So sad that Billy will still be the head of her family. 3) Diana gets to go to Queens (a change from the novel as well, but one that was a great choice). I really liked her chat with Aunt Josephine. 4) Of course Anne Shirley. There’s so much to say about Anne, but one of the things I really liked this season was getting insight into her own personal family history. Seeing her mom’s book at the end was very touching. I love that she also had red hair. Last thoughts: Delphine is the CUTEST BABY EVER! Seriously a fantastic actress. Her relationship with every person in the show was amazing. And of course my beloved Shirbert. I knew they were endgame (because of the source material), but BOY did they take their time getting there). Screw Winnie! Anne and Gilbert’s relationship hurt my heart throughout it all, but so many adorable moments between them proving they are meant to be. Forever my OTP!

SANDITON

I am seriously feeling the period pieces this month (but then again when am I not). As a HUGE Jane Austen fan I was extremely excited when I heard that her unfinished novel, Sanditon, would be adapted for the TV screen. Because I was unfamiliar with the story (which is always a fun time when one of your favorite authors has been dead for the past few hundred years) I made sure to add the novel to the top of my 2020 list. Due to its length I was able to finish it before the series started a few weeks ago. While I was not a huge fan of the unfinished novel, because I found it difficult to connect with any of the characters or see where the story was headed, I already feel differently about the mini-series. By the end of episode 1 I was already hooked and very happy that PBS aired the second episode immediately afterwards. I can see parallels to Austen’s work as well as echoes to other Austen novels (naturally Pride and Prejudice). When listening to the Masterpiece podcast in which they interview Rose Williams (who plays Charlotte Heywood) she described Charlotte as a cross between Elizabeth Bennet and Catherine Morland (from Northanger Abbey), which I think is really accurate. I like how Charlotte goes to Sanditon because of her interest in seeing this place that Tom Parker gets so excited about. She honestly isn’t looking for a husband, but rather an occupation. Something different away from her farm. Is romance involved? You betcha. This is an Austen adaptation afterall. But that is not her main focus. There’s so many other things going on with the story, but I’d have to dedicate a complete other post to explain it all. I really feel it is fitting in well with other classic book to screen adaptations coming out right now like Little Women and Anne with an E. If you’re a fan of either one then Sanditon is worth a try. And of course if you love Jane Austen and the 1995 Andrew Davies adaptation (he’s producing this one as well) then it’s worth a shot!

THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE-SEASON 4

Just like with Anne with an E, I think this was my favorite season of The Man in the High Castle (and ironically also the last season. Although this series knew that going in to production). It held my interest very well and I watched it faster than the previous season. I really don’t think I’ve been this invested since season 1. Lots of new characters were introduced and while I missed some of the old it just shows you how much this show has developed. I also felt myself liking the new characters really fast. At first all of the multi-verse stuff was pretty intense and a little hard to follow, but it got easier as the show went on-EXPECT FOR THE END! Were all those people coming through because their worlds were much worse? What happens next? How are the Smith children? Amy and the other students who were brainwashed-will they change? Kido will stay. Did Childan find Kikuko? (Loved their relationship btw. I’m going to believe they got to be together in the end. It will make me sleep easier.) I was constantly saying to myself: How are they going to wrap this up in only 4 episodes...3...2...etc.. But I feel like it could have been a bit stronger. Despite this I still am a big fan of this season. I just get picky when it comes to series finales.

DOCTOR WHO

Last I had posted about Doctor Who I was very behind. Like I only watched last year’s holiday special this year behind. It was just tough for me to get into last season. I’ve really enjoyed Jodie Whitaker’s take on the Doctor. I feel she brings a new energy, but at the same time reminds me of the way Tennant and Smith portrayed the role. It’s just that I missed some of the familiarity of the show. It’s always hard getting a new Doctor because the show takes on a different feeling, but with all new villains, companions, TARDIS, etc it was tough. I wanted a couple more old references. I also didn’t love all of the episodes (although a bunch of them were really good: Rosa Parks, Demons of the Punjab, Kerblam! to name a few). So when I watched last year’s special at the beginning of the month I felt I zoned out a bit. However, Spyfall (parts 1 & 2) that kicked off this season were entertaining and I’ve been hearing good stuff about this season so far. Now that the show is on its second season with these characters, I’ve heard there’s more of a rhythm. I can’t wait to continue. I also can’t wait to see these guys again:

PLUS I discovered a HUGE spoiler about last week’s episode that honestly that has honestly gotten me so pumped; it is the main reason why I am catching up faster. (I won’t spoil it here if you still don’t know it. I foresee I’ll probably write an article just about that episode.)

VIOLETTA

My guilty pleasure that I have been bingeing on Disney+. This musical telenovela from Buenos Aires has three seasons of 80 episodes a piece! (That’s right I have my work cut out for me.) Currently only the first season is up on Disney+ and the show is pretty hard to find, so I am really hoping that by the time I finish it they release at least the second season. I only started it in the new year and am already on episode 42, so you can say I’m enjoying it... :) Basically once I hit 30 I was hooked. (Although I was enjoying it a lot before that, now I’m just more obsessed.) There are several characters in the show from the students, to the teachers and family members, but the main character is Violetta who has lived in many different countries all her life with her dad who is a very successful businessman. She has been home-schooled forever due to their lifestyle and because of her dad’s worry that she will be hurt in the real world. Her mother was a popular singer who died when Violetta was very little that she barely remembers her. When they move back home she secretly gets enrolled in a music school that her mom just so happened to attend. Her tutor is secretly her aunt (who no one recognizes because Violetta’s dad told her that her mom had no relatives) and she has to hide attending the music school and singing which is her ultimate dream. That’s just the basics because there is so much more drama in the series. Lots of lying, deceit, love triangles that just won’t quit, ridiculousness and music. While they repeat a lot of the same songs, many of them are quite good and really catchy that you can’t help but get them stuck in your head. My sister (who loves this show) kept talking about it and that made me want to watch once we got Disney+ (she was lucky to watch two seasons when it was still on Netflix). As she said to me, you should watch it in the original language, which is Spanish with English subtitles. I feel like I’m learning more Spanish while watching it. Probably be fluent by the end (ha ha ha ha-not really).

So, what are your favorites of this month? Are we watching any of the same things? Anything look interesting to check out? Let me know!

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five-hxrgreeves · 5 years

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Feeling My Way Through the Darkness

A/n: This is my first fic on Tumblr! I also have it posted on AO3, but I thought I’d post it here as well- I will try to keep them on the same schedule by updating once a week. This is a Five x OC series fic; I’m late to the TUA party on here, so I’m not sure how many people will read this, but if you feel like it, let me know what you think!

Here’s what you need to know:

The timeline: everything is basically the same (except Ben is alive), but this takes place after season 2, where I'm assuming the Umbrella Academy stops the apocalypse successfully. The year is an alternate 2019 from the one the show has. Everything else will be explained later.

Ages: all the main characters (except Jared, one of my OCs), are 15 in body. Five spends less time in the apocalypse than he does on the show, and the OC isn't exactly a normal 15-year old. Everyone else's minds are how old they are in the show (so 30.)

THERE WILL BE NO SMUT, we don’t stan pedophilia here!!!!

Summary: Due to unknown circumstances of the time anomaly caused by certain members of the Umbrella Academy in stopping the apocalypse, there was a ripple in the continuum that caused an unaccounted-for effect to happen. At midnight on January 1st, 2004, seven women gave birth unexpectedly; and the strangest thing of all was that none of them had been pregnant in the first place.

This time, though, there was no Umbrella Academy to mark these children's birth to the world. Many of them lived quiet-albeit unusual- lives in the homes of their biological families, who, by 2019 and the long-forgotten news of the Umbrella Academy, were mostly used to strange occurrences happening.

Or, the wheel of time continues to turn and, according to The Commission, the Apocalypse is inevitable; it doesn't matter to them what brings it. (Prologue below cut)

Prologue: In the Beginning...

Feeling my way through the darkness

Guided by a beating heart

I can't tell where the journey will end

But I know where to start

On this particular New Year’s Eve, Lola and Richard were celebrating at home with their four-year-old-son, Jared. While they considered themselves to be loving parents, they were often busy at work and travelled around a lot, which left little time for family bonding, so they took advantage of the holidays when they could.

Lola had blonde hair and blue eyes, which was mirrored in her son; she was a petite woman, but that didn’t detract from the power she could hold in a room. Richard had short, dirty-blonde hair and hazel eyes, and he was quieter and more easy-going than his wife.

They were currently celebrating New Year’s with Chinese takeout and watching old movies on the TV. The Christmas tree still stood in the corner of the living room, and colorful homemade streamers decorated the ceiling. The family of three sat on the couch in pajamas, with Jared being the slight exception; he was also still wearing his mother’s heels and had the sleeves of her bathrobe tied around his neck to make a cape from their earlier game of fashion-superheroes (while he thought superheroes were cool, he wouldn’t want to be one; he’d want to design their uniforms.)

As the clock counted down to the new year, nothing seemed out of place. By 11:45, they switched over the channel to watch the ball drop in New York, and surprisingly, Jared was still awake- a fact he was very proud of. And, fifteen minuets later, the countdown drew to a close:

“5!”

“4!”

“3!”

“2!”

“1!"

When the clock struck midnight, the people on the screen cheered as the ball dropped. Richard picked Jared up and swung him around the room in celebration, and Lola watched them amusedly. Suddenly, her expression dropped into one of horror and fear. Something wasn’t right. There wasn’t anything obviously wrong- until there was.

Afterwards, no one could say exactly what happened, but one moment, Lola was her usual slimness, and the next, she had ballooned out to nine weeks pregnant. Her father and son were startled by her scream and sudden change in appearance, but Richard was quick to react. He hastily shuffled Jared into the next room, ordering him to stay there. He grabbed the necessary items and rushed back to his wife’s side; having helped deliver his son, he knew the basic procedure for birth.

Her face was screwed up in pain and she was breathing heavily, “deep breaths, my love,” Richard said gently, stroking her hair. Despite the suddenness of the situation, he was able to remain calm, which had always been one of his gifts.

Lola tried to comply, but the pain was even greater than Jared’s birth, and she remembered that well. Surprisingly, however, the labor lasted only minutes, and soon there was a fourth member to the Quinn family.

Richard stared down at the baby girl who’d burst into life in the span of not even half an hour. Unlike Jared- and most babies-, she didn’t cry as she was born. Instead, she waved her tiny limbs around as she squirmed in his hands, opening vibrant blue eyes to take in the world around her.

“We have a baby girl, Lola,” Richard said, amazed. He knew he could immediately love their surprise child, no matter the unusual circumstances of her birth. He handed the baby to her mother who, despite her now-exhausted state, managed a small smile as she took her daughter in her arms. While she had every right to hate or fear the child by the surprise situation, having Jared first had helped ease the shock, and besides, they had the means to raise her.

Lola looked up at her husband, “we’re keeping her,” she said determinedly.

“Of course,” Richard said, surprised that his wife might think there was a different possibility.

"Will you get Jared? He should know everything's okay," Lola requested, and her husband went to find their son.

The blonde woman looked down at the baby girl, her expression soft, "everything's okay, baby. You should know that too. I don't know what happened, but we'll work through it. Supernatural things happen all the time in movies, after all. And you're special; I can feel it."

The baby's bright blue eyes blinked up at her as if to say yes, I know. Richard returned with Jared then, who was hiding behind his father's legs. After seeing that his mother was okay, he hesitantly moved to stand in front of her.

"You have a baby sister, Jer," Lola told him, "we haven't named her yet, but she'll be a wonderful part of our family."

He stared at the baby with wide eyes, "was she supposed to happen like that? Was that how I was born?" he asked, looking up at his mother, who looked faintly amused.

"No, you were very different," she answered, "none of us know quite what happened, but she's our little miracle. You're her big brother, Jared."

The four-year-old looked at the little child in his mother's arms and frowned. He was supposed to be the baby, not this strange creature. And besides, why did she stare so much? Those wide blue eyes were super creepy.

"I don't like her," he declared.

Richard laughed, much to Jared's irritation, "I'm afraid you'll have to get over that, son. I know this can't be easy, but she's our responsibility now. Go on, it's time for bed anyway. Your mother has to rest. Tomorrow, we'll get some new baby things."

Life settled into a new routine for the Quinns. The one good thing about the baby, Jared decided, was that it made his parents stay home more often; but even then, they were busy taking care of her. Jared tried to stay out of her room as much as possible to get away from those eyes. He really didn't like them. His mom had said that if her eyes were going to change color, they'd do so in a few days, since all babies were born with blue eyes. He didn't think that would help, to be honest. He wasn't able to put it in to words with his limited vocabulary, but the girl's eyes seemed to stare with a strange alertness that even his parents didn't have. And, if he looked too long, he could swear he saw something mysterious swirling in their depths.

When he tried to ask his mom and dad to "take her back" after explaining these very valid points, they merely laughed and said he had a great imagination. Eventually, they'd decided on a name: Elena Melany Quinn. He'd thought calling her "baby" was good enough, but apparently, that wouldn't do.

As Elena got older, she became very inquisitive, and was often found in some sort of mischief. In her quiet times, though, she loved it when people read books to her. One night, Elena and Jared were being watched by a sitter, who wasn't really paying attention to them. It was getting close to Elena's bedtime (Jared always made sure to make this distinction; he was older, after all, so he got to stay up later), and their caretaker was following the instructions their parents left. After getting his sister ready for bed, the babysitter placed her in the crib, turned off all lights but the lamp on the dresser, and left the door open a crack. There was only one thing missing; her bedtime story. Elena then did something she didn't often do- she began to cry. The sitter rolled her eyes and went to close the door, but Jared stopped her, "did you read a story?" he asked.

"No," the girl said with a slight question in her voice.

"Ellie always gets a story before bed," Jared explained importantly. While he wasn't fond of his sister, he never wanted her to cry.

She huffed, "well I'm not reading a story. She'll have to go without one tonight."

Jared knew that his sister wouldn't stop crying, so he said, "can I read her a story?"

The sitter looked at him with amusement, "I didn't know you could read."

"Of course I can!" he declared (in truth, he was just starting to, but she didn't need to know that.) He slipped past her into his sister's room, "don't worry, baby. I'm going to read you a story."

Almost like magic, Elena's cries stopped. Jared looked at her with wide eyes, "can you understand me?"

The baby's mouth opened and closed, as if she was trying to form words. Pulling herself up by the handlebar of the crib, she supported herself in a standing position to get a better look at him, but still didn't say anything; she just watched him with deep blue eyes. Jared sighed, he should've guessed she wasn't smart enough yet. He made his way to her bookshelf and picked out one of the thinnest books he could find before returning to the crib. As he struggled through the first page, Elena's baby mind was turning. She knew she knew this person, although she didn't think he liked her. She thought him name was easy though, she'd heard the taller people say it, and if she said it, would it make him like her more? Was it.... Germ? No. Jar? No. "Jer!" finally came out of her mouth.

The little boy looked up at the baby in surprise, stopping in the middle of the second page, "what?"

"Jer! Jer! Jer!" the baby turned it into a chant.

He couldn't believe it; his sister's first words were his name! Jared wished his parents were there to hear it. He couldn't help smiling, "yes, that's me," he said. Maybe his sister wasn't so bad after all.

"Jer!" came his name the final time, before, "bo?"

He nodded, "yes, book."

----------------

When Lola and Richard found out about the new understanding Jared had for his sister, they were surprised until they learned what her first word was. They exchanged amused smiles.

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rachelthompsonauthor · 4 years

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The past two quarantine months have been like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my lifetime, and I turned 56 in January. So rather than regurgitate what you’ve likely read in the news or on social media, I’ve decided to share how I’ve spent my time these past two months along with random thoughts. I hope you’ll continue along with me as I share what I’m doing each week.

Books

Oh, how I’ve missed reading! With my business so insanely busy (for which I’m truly grateful) these past few years, I’ve barely had time to read little more than Slack, emails, texts, and social media updates. Not exactly satisfying for this lifelong, avid reader. This quarantine has allowed me a little bit of extra time, which I’ve put to good use.

In no particular order, here’s what I’ve read:

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow is fantastic. Read it in one sitting because I didn’t want any of the details of this lacy, incredibly intricate work to fade. I highly recommend it. A mix of fantasy, drama, and a love story (because in the end, aren’t all stories love stories?), anyone with a working brain will love this novel.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is also superb. I’d heard about this book for a while, yet only got around to it because it’s also now a mini-series on Hulu (which I watched afterward – also very good, though the character arcs and the plot changed in crucial, at times startling, ways).

Curious if you’ve read the book and watched the series, what your thoughts are? I could write an entire post about it, yet I’ll only share this…

As a child, my parents hire a housekeeper. My folks both work full-time and we are not in any way rich or well-off. Neither of my folks has college degrees – Dad is an assistant manager at a chain drugstore and Mom has just completed x-ray tech school and works nights at San Bernardino County Hospital. We live in a small house on a long street in the smoggy Inland Empire of California.

There are two of us, my older sister and me. Then my mom gets pregnant when I’m nine and has my baby sister when I’m ten. My folks advertise for a housekeeper and Miss Louise answers. She’s African American and willing to work for the little they can pay her. She smokes a lot (outside only, so as “not to hurt the babies”), insists on wearing a uniform though my mom tells her it isn’t necessary and comes looking for us in her big old white Caddy if we aren’t home from school exactly 20 minutes after it lets out.

(Miss Louise’s husband’s name is George. If you are alive in the 70s and watch The Jeffersons, you understand why this is an endless source of amusement to my sister Caren and me.)

Being that young, neither Caren nor I understand what privilege means. We didn’t get whatever we wanted because my parents are always strapped, yet there is food on the table, and the lights are always on. Except for the occasional venture to Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm that one time (mom hated it), our vacations consist of driving to visit our Zayde (great-grandfather) in a nursing home in Santa Cruz, or some other relatives we don’t know somewhere in L.A. (I remember one great-aunt who drank. A lot.) We’d always stop at Cantor’s for a soup and sandwich (the highlight for us), and be back on the road. We don’t mind because it is anywhere but home.

Anyway – my entire point is that in Little Fires Everywhere – the show – Kerry Washington’s Mia is an artist who takes a maid job with Reese Witherspoon’s Elena Richardson’s family to keep an eye on her daughter Pearl, who is quite taken with the teenage Richardson clan. The racial and financial dichotomy is blatantly obvious: a rich family who’s seemingly got it all vs. a seemingly poor black single mother, which adds to the ‘fires’ mentioned in the title.

The book really made me think about my own privilege and despite how well my folks treated Louise, and how much we loved her, and she us, there would always be that wall. Granted, it was a business arrangement and my folks paid her for her services, and in truth, anyone could’ve answered the housekeeping ad. The fact that she was African American and we were white created a racial divide that’s undeniable.

The third book I read is Certain Cure by Jennifer Valoppi, also excellent. It’s the first in a series (parts two and three aren’t out yet, darn it). The novel chronicles the life of three generations of the Cummings family; Claire, a woman in her 70s who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, Helene, her television journalist daughter and Justin, the teenage grandson whose adoration of his “Grams” leads him to discover the dark secret behind the miracle technology that is not only curing Claire of her cancer but tempting his mother with eternal youth, as traditional medical industries wage war against the mysterious doctor from China who threatens them all.

I had no idea what to expect with this one, and I’m glad I read it. Valoppi is a former TV journalist from NYC so she knows her stuff. I’m not particularly religious (or scientific), yet I didn’t find either the science or religious stuff bogged me down. Fascinating read. I highly recommend it.

Movies and Shows

Gosh, so many. With four of us in the house (and two teens), it’s worth it to me to pay for Hulu and Netflix, Amazon Prime Video comes with my Amazon Prime membership already, plus my internet plan comes with AT&T Direct, Showtime, HBO, and other premium channels. For the amount of entertainment, it’s worth the money.

I watch movies and shows on my iPad at night, once I’m finally off my computer. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like a super loud TV with stereo surround-sound barking at me after a long day of noise and stress. So I go upstairs to my cozy bed, surround myself with blankets and pillows and cats, and snuggle in for a few hours to watch a movie or a few episodes of something I enjoy.

Another note: not a big ‘reality TV’ watcher, mostly because, as a writer, I prefer well-written shows. I also don’t like the negativity and yelling normally associated with those shows. That said, I do watch Vanderpump Rules (on Bravo) with my daughter (age 20). We bond.

Shows

Here’s what I’ve binged these past few quarantine months, show-wise (no links because you can Google):

Ray Donovan – ggggggreat! Heard it was wonderful, yet truly had no idea how awesome. Liev Schrieber is captivating as Ray. Flawed, human, sad, and, in case you don’t know, a childhood sexual abuse survivor (church abuse). I had no idea going in this would be a theme of the show, yet it was handled with care and truth. The entire supporting cast is also amazing. Every season is great. Watch it all. I hated to see it end.

Homeland – the first four or so seasons were mesmerizing. Then, I got bored. This last season had me falling asleep and then WHAM! that ending. Worth it.

Hunters – Good, not fantastically great. The twist in the last episode will get you, though.

Upload – Loved it! Thought it would be silliness (and in some places, it was, but that’s okay – we need a little silliness right now). Had a ton of heart which I love.

Bosch – come on, it’s Titus Welliver. He’s fantastic. This last season didn’t draw me in as much as the entire rest of the series, though. You?

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – terrific, all of it. Every season, every episode, every character.

Tales From The Loop – amazing. Anything having to do with time-travel or the bending of time, I’m a total sucker for. This hurt my brain in a good way.

The Feed – weird but good and thought-provoking.

Dark – by far, my favorite show year. A German show dubbed in English (you get used to it – don’t let that scare you off), this time-bending, decade-moving hit show spans two seasons and every episode is worth watching. And the music – my god. Amazing. Here’s a Spotify playlist link.

Movies

Parasite – thought-provoking. Took a while to get into it and then boom! It just goes full-on insanity. Well-written, well-acted, and the message of the movie is just, wow. No spoilers in case you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.

Hustlers – loved it. Whatever issues people have with strip clubs and ‘dancers,’ get over it. These girls are amazingly talented, are in amazing shape, and work hard to make money for their families. What I loved the most about the movie is that it’s all about the women; the men are only there as a plot device. It’s a movie entirely shot through the ‘female gaze’ (though of course, men will enjoy the dance scenes which are sexy, yet not unclothed). How many movies can say that?

Memento – I think I’m probably one of the few people who had never seen this neo-noir psychological thriller starring Guy Pearce looking like Brad Pitt (who was originally considered for the role). It was great, I think? LOL. My brain still hurts.

Call Me By Your Name – Lovely, sad, gorgeous. (And I will not make a juvenile peach joke.) And the music! Oh, my.

Zombieland – I hate zombies, I hate horror movies. I hate gore and squishy sounds. This movie was cute. (Not ready for the sequel, yet.)

Music

As mentioned above, the music in Dark sent me off on a ‘who are these talented musicians?’ lark. I’ve discovered so many. Here is who I’m listening to right now (all free on Spotify) and links provided here:

Apparat (you’ll recognize the opening theme of Dark and stay for the rest).

Agnes Obel – wondrous. I’ve played her entire catalog repeatedly since discovering her music on Dark. She’s become a commercial favorite as well now. Familiar is the song used in the show that’s received the most play.

Alev Lanz – otherworldly. I’ve not heard anyone like her. Her songs on the Dark soundtrack and Black Mirror are what she’s most noted for (May The Angels, and Fall Into Me, respectively), however, I love all of her work. Her harmonies are like nothing else. One song is layered with her voice and African throat singers – it’s gorgeous (May The Angels). She’s active on Twitter and we’ve interacted a few times. She’s beautifully transparent about her love of music and it shows in all her work.

Patrick Watson – I heard this song, Good Morning Mr. Wolf, on the Ray Donovan soundtrack and immediately clicked my SoundHound app. Who is this talented being? This song, in particular, sounds so large and cinematic – I wondered – is he is a film composer? (yes). A band? (yes). And so much more. I cannot get enough of all of his music, and still, I play this one song on repeat – repeatedly.

London Grammar – I discovered this band a few years ago and still adore them. Strong is still my favorite song, though Rooting For You is a close second. Hannah Reid’s vocals are big and beautiful.

Hilary Woods – ethereal and lovely. Especially the song Kith.

Sufjan Stevens – many of us just discovered him from the movie Call Me By Your Name soundscore, however, he’s been a working musician since the early 2000s. Talented beyond.

I could go on and on, but I’ll stop here. I made a Female Rockers list on Spotify which you’re welcome to.

Thoughts on Quarantine

My Business

Living in California, I’ve barely left the house in two months, with the exception of going to the pharmacy for meds or for the occasional physician appointment for me or the kids, because of the quarantine restrictions in place. And I’m okay with that.

I’m fortunate that my business is primarily online-only: I work with authors and small businesses on their branding, marketing, and promotion, so given that all real-life events are off the table, I’ve been quite busy working with my clients to ensure their products and services are still viable.

This doesn’t mean I don’t need help as a small business. I applied for an SBA loan and couldn’t even get onto the website the first time – it was pretty ridiculous – like the end scene in Beetlejuice. You all know who those first small business loans went to, right? Not small-potatoes people like me. So the second time around, it went much smoother, and I’m grateful to have received a small loan which will definitely help me keep going with rent, insurance, and other expenses.

I still did my annual non-profit initiative for writers, NaNoProMo (National Novel Promotion Month) this year over on my business site, BadRedhead Media, yet only for two weeks instead of the entire month. Daily blog posts from experts on everything publishing-related plus amazing giveaways. It’s always exhausting, yet I find enormous gratification in helping writers.

This year, however, getting writers to comment to win amazing, FREE giveaways was like pushing a house up a hill. I get it – people are focused on putting food on the table instead of commenting on blog posts, even if the giveaways were worth $500. That’s why I wanted to do this initiative this year – to help writers who are in a jam – yet only a smattering of writers participated.

I’m seriously rethinking if I want to do it next year given the financial cost as well as the personal toll. My first therapist, who I started seeing after I gave birth to my daughter Anya (I was terrified to leave her to go back to work, given my history with childhood sexual abuse), gave me this tip whenever I had trouble deciding whether to do something:

“If you ever aren’t sure if you should do something, ask yourself this question: Is this good for Rachel? If the answer is yes, do it. If the answer is no, don’t. It really is that simple.”

Self-care, y’all.

Social Media

I’ve stopped interacting with the crazies on social media (and who knows, maybe you’re one of them so truly, no offense), but I’d rather stay safe and keep my family safe by working exclusively at home – which I mostly do anyway – than venture back into face-to-face meetings with clients. I support four people with my business and if something happens to me, four people are doomed.

So the answer is simple to me: stay home, work from home, and don’t risk dying from this virus.

I don’t buy into any of this ridiculous conspiracy crap. Sorry, not sorry. You can if you want to. Spending time arguing with people online about it takes away time from my business, my kids, my guy, and my own sanity. Speaking of which…

Mental Health

There were a few mix-ups with my meds when this all started, and I couldn’t get my prescriptions filled and delivered before I ran out, so I ended up having about a week of insomnia which I’ve never had to deal with. I was a zombie (the non-squishy kind) and it sucked.

If you have insomnia, I’m sorry. I feel for you.

It’s all straightened out now, thank goodness. My son Lukas and I donned our masks and drove to the local CVS the other day because I couldn’t wait two days for my meds to be delivered. It felt like walking into a dystopian future walking in there: everyone in masks, tape six feet apart for the waiting line, plexiglass between us and the cashiers.

I’m thankful for these measures, of course, and wonder how long we’ll need them, or if this is our new normal?

My Writing

I finished the final edits on Broken People and sent it back to my editor. She’s had some health issues, so the delay is understandable. To be honest, I’m not in a huge hurry to launch a new book right now. Here are the questions that run through my mind:

Do people have money to purchase a new book?

If they do, will they want to read my new book?

If they do want to read my new book, will they take the money they do have to read mine, and then review it?

Does it even matter in the grand scheme of life?

I’m an author just like any author – I want to get my work out there so people can read it, engage with it, connect with me. I hope they’ll like it, feel something, reflect on their own lives, learn something new, particularly about being a childhood sexual abuse survivor. It’s a weird limbo to be in right now.

Our New Normal

This phrase is bandied about quite a lot yet let’s face it: it’s life as we know it, now. The anxiety is real, too. I haven’t hugged or kissed my elderly parents who live two miles away in two months. I bring them toilet paper and cookies from our favorite bakery (drive up and trunk drop off, pay online only) and drop it on their porch.

All these scenarios run through my mind: If I go to do this, what happens if? I know I’m not the only one. And yet, we can’t predict anything. So I sit here, writing this post, safe inside my little house bubble, grateful I can pay my rent, put food on the table (delivered by Instacart, thankfully), and everyone around me is healthy.

What’s your new normal? What have you been reading, watching, and listening to? If you’ve stuck it out this far, I thank you. Would love to hear your comments! Safe hugs, y’all.

***

Read more about Rachel’s experiences in the award-winning book, Broken Pieces.

She goes into more detail about living with PTSD and realizing the effects of how being a survivor affected her life in

Broken Places, available in print everywhere!

The post This is How To Spend Quarantine With Me appeared first on Rachel Thompson.

via Rachel Thompson

#IFTTT #Rachel Thompson

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caatws · 4 years

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tagged by @justanalto to answer some questions !! :)

1. What is the color of your hairbrush? it’s like a blueish/greenish color and has moana on it! i usually comb my hair so i bought that brush just bc it was moana themed a few years ago lol. i don’t use it often

2. Name a food you never eat. there are many.....#justchildhoodocdthings ermmmm i don’t eat a lot of snack foods like chips or goldfish

3. Are you typically too cold or too warm? too warm, esp these days bc the weather is hella warming up so i wake up feeling hot a lot

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? i was working on some post-grad work stuff and then crossed over into my roommates’ room to watch the facebook livestream graduation 2020 thing cuz miley was on singing the climb

5. What is your favorite candy bar? i love a good hershey’s special dark chocolate moment

6. Have you ever been to a professional sports event? yes, quite a lot actually! my mom is super into sports, so i grew up going to a handful of pro sports games - mlb, nba, and nhl. never nfl tho bc my mom said the price of tix wasn’t worth it LMAOOOO. also when the olympics are here in la in like 8 years i wouldn’t mind checking out some events here !!

7. What is the last thing you said out loud? i asked my roommate if she wanted me to close the door as i was leaving her room bc she was abt to hop on a zoom call

8. What is your favorite ice cream? chocolate.....esp if it’s dark chocolate which is Rare

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? starbucks peppermint hot chocolate bc i’m a basic bitch!!!!

10. Do you like your wallet? yeah, i only upgraded from my middle school wallet like back in 2018 to a normal adult looking one. it’s purple and has enough pockets for all my shit! still bulky tho

11. What was the last thing you ate? ....nothing LMFAOOOO lunch is usually my first meal of the day and i haven’t had it yet. but last night i had ramen for dinner

12. Did you buy any new clothes last weekend? last time i bought clothes was i ordered one of the black widow hoodies from hot topic like a month ago....other than that i have not gone clothes shopping since pre-quarantine

13. The last sporting event you watched? i don’t even know....i didn’t watch the super bowl, so it’d either be some time my roommate was watching hockey on our tv or whatever sports my mom was watching when i was still home for winter break in january

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? KETTLE CORN!!!!

15. Who is last person you sent a text message to? i sent a pic of miley singing the climb on the fb livestream on my friend’s laptop to my fam being like “lol miley is our commencement performer!!!!” and my mom was just like cool

16. Ever go camping? yes unfortunately....never for more than a night at a time tho bc i literally Cannot

17. Do you take vitamins? no bc what is Health

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? used to back in the days of catholic school (pre college), but now no longer

19. Do you have a tan? nah bc we can’t go outside bro

20. Do you prefer Chinese food or pizza? chinese food 100% i personally think pizza is overrated

21. Do you drink soda with a straw? i don’t believe i ever do tbh

22. What color socks do you usually wear? i only own socks with colorful patterns/designs on them which is extra but very me i suppose

23. Do you ever drive above the speed limit? always! (a reasonable amount over tho, like within 5-10 mph over...this is average for californians, while many others speed hella)

24. What terrifies you? not a fan of heights nor uncertainty, and this pandemic has essentially destroyed my post grad hopes/plans and now i enter an uncertain future

25. Look to your left, what do you see? my bed, with a lot of stuff piled on top

26. What chore do you hate? all of them???? i guess doing the dishes mostly tho bc i hate the smell of wet dishes with food waste/residue on them and it just feels so gross i can’t

27. What do you think of when you hear an Australian accent? i think wow australia sounds like a wild country

28. What’s your favorite soda? orange soda 4ever

29. Do you go into a fast food place or just hit the drive-thru? drive-thru if i can !!! but i don’t mind going in if there’s ample parking available

30. Who’s the last person you talked to? my roommate, when i asked if she wanted me to close the door LMAO

31. Favorite cut of beef? all of them????? i’m not picky with meat dsflkbn

32. Last song you listened to? as i was driving back into my garage the radio station i was listening to started playing sugar we’re going down which threw me for a time loop

33. Last book you read? i’ve been reading fanfic mostly recently so ig whatever the last thing i read for my internship weeks ago was, it would be that

34. Favorite day of the week? even tho time doesn’t matter in quarantine, i’ll always be a friday stan

35. Can you say the alphabet backwards? i used to be decent at it but i’m out of practice now. i’ll try to just type it rly quickly and see: zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba (ok so this took me like 5ish secs to type so that’s p good!)

36. How do you like your coffee? i don’t! i just drink peppermint hot chocolate :^)

37. Favorite pair of shoes? my doc martens, but they are now out of season for most of the rest of the year bc i live in southern california where it’s Hawt so i probs won’t wear them again til december

38. The time you normally go to sleep? sometime between 1 and 3 am

39. The time you normally get up? sometime between 9 and 11 am

40. What do you prefer, sunrise or sunsets? sunsets are dope!!!

41. How many blankets on your bed? three, including my sheet, comforter, and a small quilt

42. Describe your kitchen plates. some are just round and plain white, some are round and white with a red decorative border, one is a pokémon plate meant for children that i bought cheap at target

43. Do you have a favorite alcoholic beverage? piña colada!!! but if i’m trying to get drunk i need vodka or somethin

44. Do you play cards? not much tbh! my apartment has been on a mahjong streak as of late

45. What color is your car? silver!!

46. Can you change a tire? no i’m useless but also my parents believe i’ll get murdered if stuck on the side of the road (which is possible) so they’d prefer me to call aaa for help

47. Your favorite province? uhhhhhhh no provinces here in the u.s. but canada has provinces and i went to british columbia (to visit vancouver) once as a kid so???? if we talking states tho y’all know i will die for california

48. Favorite job you’ve ever had? honestly my job at my school’s mail center this past year was rly cool! my boss was so great and the other student workers were chill, so it was a nice environment and i enjoyed learning all these mail-related skills

49. How did you get your biggest scar? i have no scars ;))))

50. What did you do today that made someone else happy? i had my final appointment with my therapist from my school since i graduated, so i thanked him for working with me the past year and a half!

i tag: anyone who wants to do this, i’m lazyyyyy hehe so feel free to steal!!!! i wanna read y’all’s answers

#madison.txt #about me #tagged #ty serena this was fun uwu

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grimelords · 5 years

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My April playlist is finished! Please allow me to take you on a journey from the heaven of THP Orchestra to the hell of Inter Arma over three action packed hours. Specially sequenced for maximum enjoyment, there’ll be at least one thing in here you’ll love - I guarantee it. Listen here.

Good To Me - THP Orchestra: I've said it before and I'll say it again, the number one way to find good songs is to go through the whosampled page for Duck Sauce's 2013 album Quack because every single thing they put into that album is a bonafide classic.

I'm Your Boogie Man - KC & The Sunshine Band: I saw Jungle last week and they were absolutely amazing, and the venue started playing this song as soon as the house lights went up after the show which is an extremely good way to get people to not leave your venue and boogie instead. My favourite part of this is near the end of the second verse where he gets even lazier than normal with the lyrics and just says "I want to love you.. ah.. from sundown.. sunup".

Work It Out - A-Trak: I love this new A-Trak song that sounds like a secret lost bonus track from Discovery right down to that specific wah sound on the guitar.

Starlight - The Supermen Lovers: There was all this news last year that Music Sounds Better With You by Stardust was getting remastered and rereleased for its 20th anniversary and was going to finally be on streaming services that seems to have just.. not happened. It never materialized so now I'm stuck listening to the 2nd rate but still extremely good Music Sounds Better With You knockoff, Starlight by the worst named band ever The Supermen Lovers. The songs aren't even that similar particularly but that's just my personal feelings.

Girlsrock - Siriusmo: A friend of mine is a sort of expert on the whole Ed Banger mid-late 2000s electro scene and it's extremely good because he'll just send me songs like this every now and then that are totally sick and make it feel like there was somehow thousands of hours of this kind of music produced at that time and only the tip of the iceberg made it to public consumption.

11:17 - Danger: Somehow I didn't even notice that Danger had a new album in January but I'm finally listening now and it's a proper return to form and really, really good. This song sounds like if the haunted VHS tape from the The Ring was taped over an 80s workout video.

Ultrasonic Sound - Hive: I went to a 20th anniversary screening of The Matrix at The Astor and great news: that movie still kicks ass and rocks completely and has possibly gotten better in the two decades since its release. Someone had curated a really good mix that they were playing in the foyer after the movie and this song was in it. A heady mix of drum and bass and nu-metal guitar crunch that feels like a 1999 calendar picked up by a strong wind and slapping you in the face.

Homo Deus VII - Deantoni Parks: STILL loving and finding new things to love about this Deantoni Parks album for the third month in a row. I'm repeating myself but this music is just so good and feels so completely original to me. It's a great mix of complete technical mastery and the self imposed limitations of a restricted sample palette. Forcing himself to do absolutely everything he can with the sound and fairly well exhausting it over the course of 9 minutes.

Catacomb Kids - Aesop Rock: There's a good line to trace between this and Acid King by Malibu Ken where Aesop Rock's been thinking about Ricky Kasso for like ten years now which is interesting. There's lots of just very nice sounding lines in this like "Crispy the godsender who thunk over a quarter plunk to local Mortal Kom vendor". Just good weird word combos painting a very impressionistic picture of growing up. "deplanting cadavers" "zoo-keeper facelift". Very nice.

Mask Off - Future: I've never listened to Future much which is weird because he's very good but this is a song that just comes into my head pretty often. Metro Boomin's brain is huge and the vibe he created on this is just amazing. Wringing this sort of atmosphere out of the sample without sacrificing any of the trap beat at the center of it is such an achievement.

Old Town Road (Remix) - Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus: Everything that could ever be said about Old Town Road has probably already been written by now but my favourite part is finding out that the sample is from Ghosts by Nine Inch Nails which means it's also Trent Reznor's first writing credit on a #1 song. Absolutely praying for Trent and Atticus to join Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus on stage at the Grammys to perform this.

Claudia Lewis - M83: Every so often I remember just how good Hurry Up We're Dreaming is and listen to it on repeat for a while. It's absolutely amazing. Start to finish (except for Raconte-Moi Une Historie which SUCKS) it's just fantastic. I looked up why this song is called Claudia Lewis and it turns out that has an extremely good answer "I was surfing the web & found this website with space poems – Claudia Lewis had 3-4 space poems on this site. They were pretty bad space poems but I found it super moving, there was something very innocent about it. She’s probably super young like 12 or 14 but I don’t know her or how she looks or anything about her. I just know that she writes cheesy space poems."

OK Pal - M83: Every single musical element of this song is just perfect. I love the huge broad chords, the synth bends, the massive drums, the inverted Dead Flag Blues monologue. It's just beautiful.Little Secrets - Passion Pit: Passion Pit is currently on a 10th anniversary tour for Manners and I feel age 100 which is no good. But this song is good and it contains in my opinion one of the all time greatest drum fills after the first chorus. Huge, super air-drummable, and very functional: perfect.

Blood - City Calm Down: I think "I'm the one who wants your blood" is just such a great an evocative refrain and I wish he said it one million times more in this song.

Television - City Calm Down: Absolutely love the idea of writing a song about how bloody TV is the bloody opiate of the masses that sounds like a Clash cover in 2019 and sounding so deliberately out of the zeitgeist and doing it so well and with such conviction that it’s absolutely great.

I Am The Resurrection - The Stone Roses: We went to Andrew McLelland's Finishing School and he played this as his last song in honour of Easter Sunday and described it as the greatest piece of acoustic dance music he's ever heard which is honestly not a bad description - it's an absolute jam.

Daisy - Pond: It's very cool that there's like an evil, mirror version of Tame Impala that exists in Pond. I think every band should have that.

Crying Lighting - Arctic Monkeys: Basically the reason this song is on this list is because I got stuck in a loop of saying "your pastimes, consisted of the strange and twisted and deranged and I hate that little game you had called "crying lightning" in a Werner Herzog voice to myself and I thought it was funny.

Keeping Time - Angie McMahon: Angie McMahon is so damn good at songs and I cannot believe it! She's only got like 5 and they're all incredible. She’s gonna be huge!

The House That Heaven Built - Japandroids: Sterogum had a really good writeup the other day about Post-Nothing turning 10 years old that turned into a wrap up of why Japandroids are such a good band and why Celebration Rock is a perfect album and it really crystallized a lot of my feelings about them. They're number one on my list of Bands That Make You Want To Start A Band for a good reason and this article really nails the whole young men figuring it all out feeling of Japandroids' music. I really think both Japandroids albums should be called Youth And Young Manhood but Kings Of Leon already took that name. I remember when my friend first turned me on to Post-Nothing he said he didn't want to tell anyone else except me because it was so good and it was Best Friends Music and I really believe that. It’s best friends music through and through. When I saw them a couple of years ago it was as part of a sort of impromptu road trip with my best friend and I think that was the best context I could have given it. It's absolutely one of the best shows I've been to in my life and also Osher Gunsberg was in the crowd behind me but that's not part of the story. https://www.stereogum.com/2041439/japandroids-post-nothing-turns-10/franchises/the-anniversary/

Motor Runnin - Pist Idiots: The pub rock revival just keeps getting better and better. At the minute it's basically just Bad//Dreems, West Thebarton and these guys but I'm sure there's a million other bands bubbling under that are just about to break as well. I love this song, it's just straight up old fashioned pissed off rock and roll that somehow doesn't feel old fashioned at all.

Chains - As Cities Burn: As Cities Burn have reunited and have a new album coming out and I'm extremely wary of it because they're potentially ruining their previously discussed perfect streak. This is the first single and it's.. good I guess. It's kind of just normal and sort of outdated, a little bit of a step backward into safety for a band that was always changing and moving forward. I think I have a worm living in my brain though because I keep listening to it just because I really love the drum sound. They're very nicely mixed. Some very nice sounding drums.

Whacko Jacko Steals The Elephant Man's Bones - The Fall Of Troy: I was talking with some friends about young musicians because of Billie Eilish, and so we were talking about how Alanis Morrisette won a grammy when she was 21 and Taylor Swift won a grammy when she was 20 and Lorde made Royals when she was 17 and all that but what people don't realise is Thomas Erak wrote Doppelganger when he was 20 and it was his second album. He's 34 now and his music sucks badly. That's insane. What will happen to me when I'm 34? Chilling to think about.

A New Uniform / Patagonia - Tera Melos: I think Patagonian Rats is still my favourite Tera Melos album. Toss up between that and Untitled actually. But I love this one for how cohesive it feels. For a band whose whole ethos is chaos it's amazing how well it all comes together as a complete work tied up with a bow by the Skin Surf reprise near the end. I love this song because it's two sketches of songs tied together into one little chaotic lump and the big Primary! Secondary! finale is just so satisfying.

Talking Heads - Black Midi: Black Midi finally have actually proper recorded songs on spotify! The way Black Midi is getting talked about at the moment really feels like the days of blog buzz are back, it's crazy. If you haven't seen it yet here's the KEXP session that's rightfully getting them so much attention https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMn1UuEIVvA I've watched it so many times and it's really something. The best part is the comments are full of music dudes just naming every band ever. "this sounds like if slint, polvo and hella did crack and had a gangbang" yuck "imagine them opening for Swans and/or Daughters" yuck "they're like if Minute Men and Frank Zappa had a baby and that baby dated the child of Talking Heads and Can but then got dumped for their best friend who was adopted and raised by their single parent Voivod but they were cool and stayed friends and listened to Tortoise and Thelonious Monk and got stoned and started a band and conquered the world." yuck "Slint meets Sonic youth meets Pere Ubu meets drive like jehu meets Beefheart...these guys took all that is deranged and twisted in rock and made one big soup of it!" yuck. Anyway the point is they rock completely and here's my addition to the band names: the way he sings sounds like Sting lol.

Walking On The Moon - The Police: This song makes you dumb I think. It's like the dumbest song in the world and listening to it makes your brain mushier, which makes you dumb and stupid. It's very good.

Rubber Bullies - Tropical Fuck Storm: I saw Tropical Fuck Storm opening for Kurt Vile the other day and it was absolutely incredible. My first time seeing them properly, not counting the live soundtrack they did for No Country For Old Men which was was a whole different kind of amazing. It feels like Gaz has finally put together a band that can keep up with is ferocious energy and the result is scary - they basically tore the place apart which makes them a funny opener for Kurt Vile who was as chilled out, relaxed and fun as you'd expect. They played this song near the end of their set and somehow I hadn't really noticed it when I listened to the album but now I can't stop listening to it. It's so good. I love the increasing paranoia of the backing vocals, especially in the last verse as it builds and builds.

Taman Shud - The Drones: This might be the best Drones song. It's a list that's constantly being revised in my head but it's top 5 definitely. It's nice listening to Feeling Kinda Free now knowing what he was going to do with Tropical Fuck Storm because it's all here. Fighting against the constraints of his regular sound and regular songwriting and eventually finding the solution in forming a whole new band. I love this song for a million reasons but the escalation of the disregard is very good. “I don't care about Andrew Bolt or Ned Kelly or the southern cross or the union jack” and you're nodding and then he says ‘I don't really care if you're a pedophile’ and you're nodding but slower. I get what he means in terms of media hype and whatever but it's still a very funny line. Anyway "why'd I give a rats about your tribal tats? You came here on a boat you fucking cunt" is grade A.

Dawn Patrol - Megadeth: The best thing about Megadeth is the sort of half baked politics. Dave Mustaine is the best kind of moron, he engages with everything at a gut level but believes he's being very cerebral about it at the same time. This little intro song about a nuclear post-apocalypse is so good because it's a legitimate warning and a response to legitimate worries but it's also like.. wouldn't that be sick if we had to wear gas masks and carry assault rifles around because all the nukes exploded and everyone was dead. What if there was zombies.

Rust In Peace... Polaris - Megadeth: The story behind Holy Wars... The Punishment Due is so good. "Mustaine has said that at a show in Antrim, Northern Ireland, he discovered bootlegged Megadeth T-shirts were on sale. He was dissuaded from taking action to have them removed on the basis that they were part of fund raising activities for "The Cause", explained as something to bring equality to Catholics and Protestants in the region. Liking how "The Cause" sounded as was explained to him, Mustaine dedicated a performance of "Anarchy In The UK" to it, causing the audience to riot. The band were forced to travel in a bulletproof bus after the show" I just love him. I'd like to share a Dave Mustain quotes about this song also. "I was driving home from Lake Elsanon. I was tailgating somebody, racing down the freeway, and I saw this bumper sticker on their car and it said, you know, this tongue in cheek stuff like, ‘One nuclear bomb could ruin your whole day,’ and then I looked on the other side and it said, ‘May all your nuclear weapons rust in peace,’ and I’m going, ‘'Rust in Peace.’ Damn, that’s a good title.‘ And I’m thinking like, 'What do they mean, rust in peace?’ I could just see it now – all these warheads sitting there, stockpiled somewhere like seal beach, you know, all covered with rust and stuff with kids out there spray-painting the stuff, you know." Goes ahead and writes a kick ass song from the perspective of a nuclear warhead containing the line "rotten egg air of death wrestles your nostrils".

Planet B - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: King Gizz are Megadeth now and I love it! The cold war is global warming now and we desperately need new thrash metal about it to save us!

Primodial Wound - Inter Arma: If you can't tell by me including three of their songs on this playlist I'm still having an absolute time with Inter Arma. Something I really love about this band is their ability to sit in a vibe for so long and expand on it. They're not songs with narrative arcs and multiple contrasting sections, they're songs that just kind of dig deeper on themselves. This one starts deep and then by thinning out entirely at around 6 minutes in only gets darker.

Howling Lands - Inter Arma: This song made me dream of a Dark Souls game where Inter Arma does the soundtrack. It's a peabrained thought but it's one that really got me thinking. This is boss music of the highest order: a song seemingly about itself and the hellbound denizens cursed to perform it in the arena of hell.

Sulphur English - Inter Arma: It's extremely funny to listen to this song a bunch of times and be completely blown away by the total power and ethereal majesty of it and then look up the lyrics to find out that it's about Trump in that very good way of putting normal thoughts through a metal lyrics filter "The charlatan sets his eyes towards the throne / tongue adrip in revolting ecstasy" "Sever the corrupt tongue of the imperious fool / silence the gangrenous root of his abhorrent voice"

Peepin' Tom - Courtney Barnett: When I saw Kurt Vile he brought out Courtney Barnett to play Over Everything as an encore and it was so good to see just how much a hometown crowd loves her. Everyone lost their shit! We love our good friend Courtney! I think I've written about this before but Peeping Tom is one of my favourite Kurt Vile songs and I think Courtney's version is even better. Her voice is perfect for it and she really has to show off her range to do it which I love. The super deep 'peeping' to the high cascading 'tom' is a perfect musical moment to me.

listen here

#playlists

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tamamatango · 6 years

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Keroro Gunso News Compendium - Oct. 2018

I said I was gonna do something like this so here goes. Some of these bits and pieces have already been posted around on tumblr back when they were first revealed but I figured I’d put stuff in one place. Manga News:

Last month’s chapter from Shonen Ace, #277 “Kururu + Mutsumi,” is now available on ComicWalker. It will be available until November 25th in United States time.

This month’s chapter (available on ComicWalker in November) continues the duos arc and features Alisa and Nebula. (Source)

Merchandise News (Non-UC Related):

The next set of items in the Animega merch line, this month featuring Tamama and Momoka, was released today. The next set, yet to be revealed, is still slated for a November release.

Some Keroro-themed New Year’s cards were also unveiled this month.

This isn’t exactly merchandise, but I’ll count it anyway...another Keroro pachinko machine was released this month, and the game features some gorgeous new artwork...and what I believe is new animated footage in the old anime’s style! You can watch some gameplay here (there’s a few other YouTube videos showing footage as well).

Collab News:

This month saw the release of some really nice tribute art featuring a crossover between Keroro’s 20th anniversary and Street Fighter’s 30th drawn by Yoshizaki himself. Yoshizaki has drawn art for Street Fighter in the past, plus parodied it in the Keroro manga occasionally. Is this hinting that Giroro is going to be leaked for Smash Bros?

The “World Manga Senbatsu” contest hosted by Manga Kingdom Tosa is collaborating with Keroro to release cute little 4komas every month until the contest’s end, the first of which has gone up already.

And finally, the big bombshell of the month...

Keroro Spirits: Kerororobo UC News:

This week, at the Tamashii Nations event for showcasing figures by Bandai, that Kerororobo merchandise line that’s been teased since late last year was finally fully unveiled. You can view the introduction video, which is officially subbed in English, here. The figures are set to go up for preorder in January and release in May.

This link here compiles virtually all information released at the event, including the VOD of the 45-minute panel that aired yesterday (more on that below. The link has collected various pictures from the event revealing the Tamama, Giroro, and Garuru , mechs and shows a chart detailing the mechs’ three modes (Normal, Ultra Cool, and Dangerous) along with the Flying Saucer that can come detached from the mech.

The 45-minute special panel from last night (which is embedded in the above link, though there is no English transcript so it is not much worth your time unless you know Japanese) unfortunately did not contain any new information that is not already present on that page, though they did spend some time discussing moments in Keroro history such as Kumiko Watanabe’s audition for the role of Keroro and the production of the old Keropla series of figures. At the very end it was hinted at (again) that there would be more of something coming next year, the “true” (my word, not theirs :P) 20th anniversary of Keroro (as 1999 was the beginning of the manga’s serialization) and the 15th anniversary of the anime, which means it’s also the 5th anniversary of the Flash anime (not that they mentioned that one). Whew, that’s a lot of anniversaries. So it looks like no animated project this year, but I’m still holding on for next year...

Also, the brand-new spinoff manga “Super Keroro Gunso UC (Ultra Cool)’s Fierce Fight! The Great Kerororobo Operation!” began serialization this month in Shonen Ace. Unfortunately we probably won’t see anything of it outside of the one or two pages that were previewed in those couple of videos until it (hopefully) goes up next month on ComicWalker, but the large diorama displayed in the event apparently depicts a scenario from it, and a few story details were revealed in the panel (such as the fact that the battle eventually extends from Antarctica into space).

#keroro gunso #sgt frog #kerororobo uc #tamashii nations #hoooo that was a lot #obviously i am mostly happy that i finally got my stupid goddamn brotp chapter #and it sure was ridiculous #just the way i like it

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inevitably-johnlocked · 6 years

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Hello~! Ok so first of all, I hope you are having a lovely day. Second: Can you recommend me the fluffiest fics you've read? And if possible a fic that involves John reacting differently to Sherlock's "death" idk like getting reaaaaaally depressed or something angsty. Please no angst and fluff in the same fic, that's just playing with peoples hearts D:

Hi Lovely!

I’ve actually posted a lot of fluffy fics, which you can find compiled on my Johnlock Fic Rec Masterpost! I think what you will be looking for are these ones:

Tooth Rotting Fluff

Hugs & Cuddles and Tooth-Rotting Fluff (Pt. 2)

Hugs & Cuddles Pt. 2 / Tooth-Rotting Fluff Pt. 3 / Est. Relationship Pt. 2

There is a whole section for Fluff on the masterpost, so if you want to read a bit more you can check that out!

Aww, sad that you don’t want angsty fluff! It’s the last section on my Fluff Fic Rec megalist that I haven’t posted yet. Oh well, hahah! I’m sure it will come up eventually! But yeah, I do have some angsty sad John fics! I do apologize for a lot of them being “platonic” fics… I read a lot of angst back in my FFNet days, and it was all before my shipping goggles were on but I was super into Friendship Fics. I hope you enjoy them all anyway!

JOHN DURING THE HIATUS

Letters From Beyond by LittleBabeBlue (K, 637 w. || Friendship, Post-TRF) – A letter for John was found in Sherlock’s coat after he jumped.

Tea by Art and Soul (K, 693 w. || Angst & Friendship) – John’s habit of making tea for two has little use, considering his flat-mate has been dead for three years. But he keeps on making that second cup, hoping he’d wake up and it’d be gone. But it never was…

One-Way Mirror by StormyNight108 (K+, 830 w. || Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Post-TRF, John’s Blog) – It’s been months since the incident, where a man lost his best friend. Slowly but surely, John’s life is starting to turn up a little. That night, his blog is updated to share good news to his followers, and one anonymous commentator is quick to share his happiness. It’s about as close to his friend as he can get right now. No slash.

Thaw by reignofdreams (K+, 933 w. || Angst, Friendship, Post-TRF) – In a bitter twist of irony, John realizes that without the brilliance of Sherlock’s extraordinary intellect and pure but guarded heart, he too is lost.

The Sidewalk by politewarning (K, 956 w. || Post-TRF, Angst, Friendship, Sherlock’s Birthday) – Standing on the sidewalk outside the hospital on the 6th of January to have a one-sided conversation with his dead friend was not something John had intended to make into a ritual.

Black Cars by johnsarmylady (T, 1K+ w. || Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Post-TRF) – John is getting on with his life…if only he didn’t see black cars everywhere! A short Post Reichenbach tale in 221B style in 5 parts.

By the Graveside by CraftyLion (K, 1K+ w. || Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Death) – But what if Sherlock never really survived The Fall? What if the Sherlock in the graveyard was merely a spirit, forlornly watching his friend from the Other Realm?

Don’t Go Without Me by MirabileLectu (T, 1K+w. || Angst/Drama) - Deep in the recesses of the cluttered space under John’s bed, far from the prying eyes of nosy landladies, there is a box.

Memory by Pipsy (K, 1K+w || Angst / TRF Hiatus / Pining) - A short ficlet looking into the lives of John and Sherlock after the Fall. Short and painful.

Shooter by Amputation (K+, 1K+w. || Post-TRF, Suspense, BAMF!John) – The men were trying to rile the other into acting first, it seemed. How boringly predictable and dull this was!

Spectrum of Mourning at the Funeral of a Solitary Man by TheBookshelfDweller (T, 1K+ w. Angst, Grief, Friendship, First Person POV, Introspection) – Because each kind of love produces its own kind of grief, a long-ignored voice tells the story of five mourners of Sherlock Holmes, a man who in the end, was all but solitary.

Text Me When It’s Over by immaculately-flawed (K+, 1K+ w. || Friendship, Humour, Post-TRF, Texting, Sort-Of Pining Sherlock) – After the fall Sherlock starts writing texts to John. Of course, he never sends them… Until he does by accident. Post Reichenbach fic but not angsty.

Hold On by Jennistar1 (T, 1300 w. || Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Post-TRF, Hiatus, Friendship) – Alternative ending to Reichenbach Falls - John knew all along.

I Never Told You by MrsNoggin (T, 1650 w. || Fluff & Angst) – Who looks after John when Sherlock is gone? Just a bit of angsty fluff, maybe with a bit of a happy ending. A little wishful one-shot, rated for John’s good old British pottymouth.

Feed The Memory by Hekate1308 (T, 2K+ w. || Tragedy & Hurt/Comfort) – He could feed John Watson, at least. Angelo POV.

Letters by Jenna Flare (T, 2K+ w. || Angst, Epistolary, Post-TRF) – John leaves letters on Sherlock’s grave as a method of coping. Sherlock reads them every week. Sherlock/John, John/Mary.

Not The First by StillWaters1 (K+, 2K+w. || Angst, Friendship, Post-Reunion) – Discovering that John had spent twelve months volunteering at a MSF trauma hospital in Afghanistan was surprising. But not as surprising as the discussion that followed. A post-Reichenbach conversation and character study.

Pen Pals by WerewolfDoctor (K, 2K+ w. || Epistolary, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Post-TRF) – Most people don’t become pen pals by one of them writing a not-suicide note. Then again, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson have never exactly been normal, have they?

A Loss, A Latecomer, and a Question by Musicangel913 (T, 3K+ w. || Friendship, Post-TRF / Reunion, Non-BBC Mary, Straight John) – "He was my best friend and I’ll always believe in him.“

Because Your Coat is Part of You by camellialice (K, 3K+ w. || 5 and 1, Canon Compliant, Sherlock’s Coat, Angst, Fluff) – Five times John wore Sherlock’s coat and one time he didn’t need to.

The Sound of Silence by Dubbers (T, 3K+ w. || Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Post-TRF Hiatus, Reunion) – After Sherlock’s fall, John loses the ability to talk. Three years later, Sherlock is back.

Too Late by SJBHasADayPass (T, 3K+ w. || Angst, Suicide, Tragedy, Major Character Death, First Person POV) – Six months after the Fall, John is finding it difficult without Sherlock, and Sherlock is finding it just as painful.

the things that comfort us by hudders-and-hiddles (T, 3,728 w. || Sherlock’s Return, H/C, John’s Jumpers, Post-TRF) – Sherlock takes one of John’s jumpers with him when he leaves to dismantle Moriarty’s network. One day, John notices it’s missing. Part 2 of Tumbling Hudders

Between Asleep and Awake by katydidit (K, 4K+ w. || Friendship, Sick Fic, Post-TRF / Reunion) – John is sick. Incredibly, extremely, dangerously sick. Plagued by a high fever, he begins to hallucinate, start seeing things that aren’t really there. Because they can’t be there. Can they?

Days Go By by Hummingbird1759 (T, 4K+ w. || Angst, Friendship, Post-TRF, Introspection) – The characters’ lives go on after the Fall… sort of.

Not Without Me by Jennistar1 (T, 4k+w. || Drama, Mystery, Post-TRF Hiatus, Pining Sherlock) – Halfway through Sherlock’s Great Hiatus, Mycroft comes to him with the news that John has died. But all is not what it seems…

On Hiatus: Rotterdam (T, 4K+ w. || Friendship, Drama, Couple For A Case, Post-TRF, John Joins Sherlock, No Slash) – “Used them after uni a bit. Purely for research purposes, of course,“ Sherlock said tiredly, head lolling against John’s shoulder.” Sherlock goes on a mission alone, or: Two blokes in a luxury hotel in the Netherlands. Non-linear timeline. Set during the Hiatus.

There’s Something Living in These Lines by teahigh (orphan_account) (M, 4,676 w. || Pining, Angst, Love Letters, UST, Dirty Talk, Hiatus) – Two men, complete opposites in almost every way, who speak only in letters and pages torn from books.

A Case of Identity by PostcardsfromTheoryland (T, 4,978 w. || Post-TRF, John on Holiday, Pining Sherlock, Sherlock Whump, Angst, Reunion) – All John wanted was to get away from London for a few weeks. No people pointing and whispering about Sherlock Holmes when he walked past, no reporters wanting an “exclusive” about the dead detective, just some rest and relaxation in the sunshine. Then again, these holiday trips never seem to go as planned.

Nothing Quite So Spectacular by Kerkerian-Horizon (K+, 5K+ w. || Drama, Hurt / Comfort, Post-TRF) – How John Watson grieves after Sherlock Holmes’ alleged suicide, and what happens when the detective returns home. Set post-Reichenbach, two parts.

Excerpts from Purgatory by reapersun, what_alchemy (E, 5,829 w. || Post-TRF, Doctor John, Reunion Fic, Rough Sex, Angry Sex, Bottomlock, Fic with Pics) – John serves community service in homeless shelters for chinning the superintendent. Unbeknownst to him, the Homeless Network has his back.

Five Times by AliuIce0814 (T, 6K+w. || Drama, Canon-Compliant S1 & 2, Angst, 5 and Ones, Reunion) – … Sherlock woke John, and one time John woke Sherlock.

Not Without You by thisisforyou (T, 6K+ w. || Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Adventure, Mycroft is a Good Brother, Pining Sherlock, Suicide Mention, Sherlock First Person POV, Post-TRF / Reunion Fic) – “I can’t, Mycroft, I can’t do this without John.” Mycroft comes up with an alternative solution to the three years of two broken hearts that would have otherwise happened.

The Death of Doubt by Gingerhermit (E, 6,584 w. || Alternate Canon, BAMF John, POV Sherlock, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Hurt/Comfort, Angst/Drama, Meddling Mycroft) – Mycroft asks for John’s help in rescuing Sherlock from his Serbian captors.

Drowning in Darkness by chappysmom (T, 7K+w. || Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapped John, Post-TRF Hiatus / Reunion, John Whump, Angst with Happy Ending, Depressed John, Background Case Fic) – He couldn’t decide if it was a relief or a curse that he’d been left completely, absolutely alone. You couldn’t fight darkness with your fists, and no matter how strong your will-power, it could be beaten down by the constant monotony of nothingness. Nobody needed John.

I’d be Lost Without my Blogger by shadenc (T, 8,057 w. || Rev. Reich, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Pining) – "There are several snipers with their guns pointed at your head this very moment. Now, if you look up you’ll see John and myself on the rooftop of Bart’s. Understand the game yet?“ “Shoot me. Let him go and shoot me.” “Noble now, are we? Unfortunately, you are not the one who will make that decision.”

Every Night I Look for You by destinationtoast (E, 8,377 w. || POV John, Post-TRF, Angst, Mystery, Unsafe Sex, BAMF John) – Every night, John looks for familiar hints of Sherlock in the men he meets in bars, and he does with them all the things he wishes he’d done before. Eventually, he stumbles into a situation that Sherlock would know how to handle, and John must decide whether he can handle it without him.

Watching You Die by laureleaf (T, 10K+ w. || Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Post-TRF, Suicide, Switching POVs, Sort-of Rev. Reich., Whump) – John watched Sherlock die three years ago, and Sherlock just watched John die. But neither of them are actually dead. Now an AU, with nods to “The Adventure of the Empty House”. Lots of angst and post-Reichenbach feels. No slash.

The In-Between by blueink3 (M, 10,679 w. || Fluff and Angst, H/C, Parentlock, Fix-It Fic, Canon Compliantish) – Beginning in a Chinese restaurant and ending at the bottom of a well, what about the moments we didn’t see?

White Blank Page by SarahCat1717 (M, 11,936 w. || Post-TRF, Clever John, Reunion Fic, Pining Sherlock, Letters, Fantasies) – Post-fall, Sherlock is off eliminating Moriarty’s crime web. He finds he misses John. He can’t divulge that he still lives, but he placates his need to communicate with John and still feel a connection with him by sending him blank letters. But over time, this writing exercise lends itself to Sherlock exploring his feelings for his friend. What will happen when Sherlock returns to London and the man he has been “writing” to regularly for the past two years? NOT S3 compliant. Mary who?

Sunset’s Wake by StillWaters1 (T, 13K+ w. || Angst, Hurt /Comfort, Minor Character POV) – It wasn’t until that moment, when the dazed man in the practical black jacket came pushing through the crowd and into her arms, that she understood why she had been drawn outside St. Bart’s that day.

When to Let Go by KendylGirl (M, 22,109 w. || Friends to Lovers, Reverse Reichenbach, Sacrifice, Forgiveness, Angst, Love, Implied Drug Use) – What if it were John who had to die to thwart Moriarty’s plans? John’s supposed death shatters Sherlock, and when he returns, it will challenge the pair to forge a path of forgiveness, to peace, and to find a way back to each other. Part 1 of When to Let Go

A Shipless Ocean by myswordfishmind (M, 22,135 w || Post-TRF, John has a Kid) – Ten years after the fall Sherlock goes back to London to find that John no longer lives there. Instead, he resides in a seaside town, a widower, and the father of a seven year old son. Now, Sherlock must struggle with the fact that there may no longer be a place for him in this new world.

Five Times: Watching and Waiting by Ira Lea (K+, 23K w. || Friendship, Post-TRF, No Slash) – Five times Sherlock didn’t know John was watching, and one time he made sure of it. Five times John didn’t know Sherlock was watching, and one time he figured it out. Three years of “he’s dead”, one moment of “he’s alive”, and the resulting chase through the streets of London. (Two 5:1s in quick succession and a bonus).

Dear John by wendymarlowe (E, 23,031 w. || Post-TRF, Online Dating, Pining, Epistolary, Cybersex, Long Distance Romance) – With Sherlock dead, John eventually (under duress) makes a profile on an online dating site. And falls into a long-distance relationship with an enigmatic partner who reminds him of Sherlock in all the right ways. (Hint: it turns out to be Sherlock.) Part 1 of Dear John

Holmes is where the heart is by Rose de Sharon (T, 49K+w. || Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Post-TRF, Reunion Fic, Bromance, Empty House Inspired, Adventure) – Three years after the Reichenbach Fall. On the anniversary of Sherlock’s death, John pays a visit at 221 B Baker Street… and he gets the shock of his life.

Lost Without My Blogger by starrysummernights (E, 52,155 w. || Rev. Reich, PTSD, Hurt / Comfort, Fluff / Angst, Psychological Torture, Reunion Fic, Friends to Lovers) – John is abducted and declared dead. How will Sherlock cope without his blogger? How will he react when John comes back from the “dead?” Drama and angst with a healthy dose of romance. Part 1 of I’d Be Lost Without My Blogger

The Burning Heart by May_Shepard (M, 119,150 w. || Canon Divergence, Post-TRF, John’s Sexuality, S3 Rewrite, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV John Watson, John’s Gay) – When Sherlock dies, John Watson feels like his life is over too. He’s completely shut down, until Mark Morstan, a new nurse at John’s medical clinic, catches his attention, and helps him uncover the long buried truth of his attraction to men. Although he’s certain he’ll never get over Sherlock, John plans to move on, and build a new life with Mark, unaware that Sherlock is not quite as dead as he appears, and that Mark is hiding secrets of his own.

The Quiet Man by ivyblossom (E, 157,369 w. || Post-TRF, John First POV, Grief/Mourning, Angst, Present Tense, Imaginary Sherlock) – “Do you just carry on talking when I’m away?”

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #my fic recs #fluff #angst #angsty fluff #sarah-the-phantom #post trf #the great hiatus

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thestagthatlovedthewolf · 6 years

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This last weekend (+Thurday and Friday) was Comic Con Portugal, and I have things to share!!! This was the first time in Lisbon (better said, Oeiras, as they kept repeating because the “mayor” wanted some points), which to me worked much better because I do not have to spend money in hotels or long distance trains... The space was huge and outside, so it was very good they changed it to September :) But in terms of the organization, they really need to decide better who they put interviewing people, there was one guy that was just really bad, and I know Joe Reitman can’t do them all (but his with Dolph Lundgren was so great - he was just so happy and excited), but can’t you bring in Mário Augusto to do some of them (not just the Disney panels).

First of all to the Americans, there will be this short movie making some festivals in the US, called Sleepwalk by Filipe Melo, and I want to tell you if you have the chance, check it out!! It’s a beautiful story inspired by a comic I read either last week of 2017 or first one of 2018, I had gotten it for my Dad as a Christmas present; I’m not sure if the comic has been translated, but the movie is fully in English and the story is very related to America.

Continuing on what I got to watch, I watch The Passage!!! Probably my favorite thing of the all Comic Con, I’ve been hearing about it since the episode “Red Queen” of The 100, and then all the press Henry Ian Cusick has been doing for it - I was very curious and I was blown away... The show did not look like something I would like, I just wanted to look at Ian (and I must say seeing him in a big screen is pretty awesome), and his performance was great, but then the story is really interesting and they leave open so many questions in the pilot, that I’m intrigued. But the best thing was the girl’s performance, Saniyya Sidney was adorable and so funny in all the interviews I had seen, but she was great in the show - she was fun and sweet, she could also really hold herself in moments of emotional pain... Really looking forward to January and the rest of season 1 (and still hoping that this show does not mean the dead of Marcus Kane, because it’s not good enough to forgive that).

Also watched the pilot of Outpost and Siren, which I know has been out in the US, they were okay, but did not intrigued me to continue watching. Also watched the movie The House with a Clock in Its Walls and it was not great - the story was not that good... and the acting from the kid was not excellent, and Jack Black was not a funny character... so I would only advise if you’re in love with Cate Blanchett - she was very good!!

This part is over and I want to talk a bit about the panels. Dan Folger (Jacob from Fantastic Beast) is one of the funniest people ever, he just couldn’t stand still and he would get up and yell at nothing, and tell jokes - he has a podcast and he’s going to put both panels he did in there, so check it out :) It probably won’t be as funny as with the visual, but still pretty good.

Then my favorite Dichen Lachman (Anya from The 100 and in the picture above), she was so sweet and nice, and I was really close to the front, so I could really see her!! And I really love the way she talks about Anya, it seems to be a character she really enjoyed playing, and she really wished that there could have been more, she feels that it’s a character with a lot of unfinished business and she would like a “Grounders” prequel. She also talked a lot about Reileen from Altered Carbon, so I’m starting the show now!!

Nicholas Hoult (the Beast from X-Men), he was so sweet!! He hugged a girl and she hadn’t asked, she was just wearing one of those free hugs signs and he just offered and it was the best thing - the girl was just so shocked!! And he talked about Skins a lot, because that show was huge here!! And I think he said one of his favorite scenes to film was when they stole Chris’ body and drove across the town - they did not close the streets, so they saw funny reactions to driving with a coffin through the streets

Then Dolph Lundgren (Ivan Drago from Rocky IV), he was just so awesome!! His stories about Rocky were just so excellent!! And him sharing stories about his own life was just so good - did you know he has a degree in chemical engineering? I’m super excited for Creed 2!!

Finally, Elyes Gabel (Rakharo from Game of Thrones), but sadly there was only one Game of Thrones related question, everything else was Scorpion talk, which I know nothing about...

These were the actor panels, which I feel that are the ones that people would want to talk about. If you have any questions about one of them or want more details, send me an ask!!

I also cosplayed this year, only in the weekend (the other two days just used fandom shirts - The 100 and Star Wars), I went with Drusilla Blackthorn from The Shadowhunter Chronicles, specifically from The Dark Artifices - she’s my favorite character of that particular series, and overall in the entire Shadowhunter world, she’s the one I most identify with, the way she talks about her body rings so true and it’s not something I normally see in media, especially fantasy. And then on Sunday, Clarisse La Rue from Percy Jackson and she’s my favorite - I LOVE HER!!! And these two girls, dressed in Hogwarts uniforms, actually asked to take a photo with me!!!

And to end this very long post, here are some of the things I bought!!! First the tote bags (Indiana Jones and Star Wars) were free, being given out by the channel “Hollywood” during their awesome concert of movie music (also a Mission Impossible tote bag, but I gave that one to my dad)

Saga (Volume 8) by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples, it finally came out here!!! I’m so excited to read it!!!

I actually got some fanart this year, this “Leia and Han” one is so beautiful and I regretted not buying it last year :) And it’s by an artist going by Little Black Spot - they have a website, www.littleblackspot.com!!!

Then these two beautiful stickers - Leia and Poison Ivy - by Inês Barros (inesbarrosillustration in instagram). If you follow me, you’re probably a asoiaf fan, and if you like Sansa Stark and/or Daenerys Targaryen, check her out, because she has these beautiful prints of them!! (I really wished she had some of Arya - I found no prints of Arya at Comic Con...)

Two Daredevil comics and they were 6 euros each!!! 6 euros, guys!!! 12 total!!! That’s was so cheap.... they are in Brazilian, which I do not love, because it’s confusing at time, but I’ll take it for the price. Also they have Elektra and Medusa!!!

Three mugs - they are not all for me... I saw the Battlestar Galactica and I had to get it for my brother (BSG has so little merch...), and then they had a deal of three for 20 euros (one is 8 euros) and I was taken... The Winterfell one is obviously for me - it’s so beautiful!!!, and the Batman and Superman one is for my dad

Then I wanted some Lost merch, because I’ve just been deep into the show lately. There wasn’t much, actually two POPs - cheaper than usual - Kate and Jacob, but I only get POPs for characters I really love, and while I have a few favorites in Lost, the only one I would consider buying is if they ever make a Penny one, because I LOVE her so much!!! But I got this Dharma pin with all the stations!! It was between this one and a Dharma beer pin...

And then a Martell pin, because I lost the one I got last year... and my Stark one was feeling alone. I need everyone to know where my allegiances lie :)

Also got a lot of Japanese food for my brother, but by now he has eaten everything!! (And one of the drinks, he didn't even remember to let me take a sip...)

This post is actually done now, to conclude this it was an AMAZING for days, and my favorite was definitely Friday!!! Not too many people, or too little, Saga came out, I watched The Passage and I had the panels with Dan Folger, Nicholas Hoult and Dichen Lachman!!!

#comic con portugal #comic con portugal 2018 #ccpt 2018 #ccpt #personal

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golfbets · 6 years

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St Jude Classic - 7th - 10th June 2018

The event prior to the second major of the year, the US open, the St Jude Classic finds itself with a good field. Daniel Berger comes here after winning the previous two editions.

The course is TPC Southwind, hosting its 30th edition of the event. It is a par 70 at 7244 yards. The greens are Bermuda and are quite small targets. The iconic par 3 11th hole is similar is stature to the 17th at TPC Sawgrass. Water is in play on 10 holes.

13 Players in total (at the time of writing) will be teeing it up at TPC Southwind who are also heading onto Shinnecock.

There are a number of players who love this course and perform well year after year. The obvious one is Berger, who has a 100% winning record on this course. Another is Mickelson, whose form here reads: 9 - T2 - T3 - T11 - T2. Ben Crane is a past champion of the event who also regularly performs well. Billy Horschel and Harris English are also very competent at TPC Southwind. A mixture of super ball strikers (DJ, Berger, English, Westwood) and short game wizards (Gay, Crane, Toms) make up the past champs here.

The weather forecast for the week looks very good, maybe a little hot. No wind to speak of.

Key Stats

The stats that I have used to inform my picks are as follows:

GIR - The small greens are difficult to hit around Southwind, supreme iron play is required.

Scrambling - Greens will be missed due to their small size, past champions have generally scrambled efficiently on their road to victory.

Par 4 Scoring - particularly with a focus on those in the 450-500 yard range - of which there are eight in total.

Course form - There are a number of players who regularly perform well here. However, I would not rule out a first timer or someone with a so-so record (English won on his first attempt, as did DJ and Berger). I have also factored in similar courses such as El Camaleon, Waialaie, Sea Island and Coco Beach.

Based on these stats I came up with a ranking as follows (Generated using Fantasy Nationals stats database, highly recommended):

From this list I have narrowed down my shortlist to the following:

Brooks Koepka - Previous results at TPC Southwind - 37- 2 - 3 - 19

Brooks is playing incredibly well considering his wrist injury late last year. He has only played 3 events since January. He was close to winning The Fort Worth Invitational, pushing Rose all the way. Following a week off and with the defence of his US Open title looming I feel he will be raring to go this week.

His recent form puts him a the top of most of the key variables this week. For his last 12 rounds he ranks (out of this field) 3rd in scrambling, 23rd in Ball striking, 1st in Par 4 Scoring and 15th in GIR.

His price is short, but he is an elite player in supreme form. At the moment I think he offers much better value than DJ or Stenson.

Odds: 12/1 - Win only 4pts

Russell Knox - Previous results at TPC Southwind - 37 - 8 - MC - 74

Russell’s recent form reads 44 - 20 - 16

His putting isn’t great at the moment but he is giving himself a lot of chances with his red hot iron play. He currently ranks 7th in GIR % on tour and 8th in average proximity.

He also has strong finishes at correlated courses this year - 9th at the OHL Classic and 10th at the Sony Open.

Odds - 66/1 - 1pt each way - 7 places 1/5

Joel Dahmen - Top 20 - Previous results at TPC Southwind - 18 (2017)

I’ll be honest, Dahmen popping up so highly on my stat rankings did surprise me a little, but quite simply his ball striking recently has put him up there.

He has finished in the top 20 in his last three events with impressive ball striking performances.

He also encouraged me with a good showing here last year in his first appearance at TPC Southwind.

He looks a good top 20 bet and small stakes outright.

Odds - 150/1 outright 0.5pts - 6 places each way and 2 pt top 20 @ 6.5/1

Peter Uihlein - Previous results at TPC Southwind - 78 (2017)

Like Koepka, Uihlein is in great form. He finished in the top 5 at Memorial and again at the Wells Fargo with a top 25 at the Byron Nelson in between.

His ball striking right now is quite possibly the best it has been since he switched to playing his golf stateside.

As you can see from the screen grab, his game is in great shape for this course.

He must have an eye on his Ryder Cup ranking also. He needs to improve, and very quickly if he is going to have chance to make the team. This could be a great week to do just that.

In terms of recent form, he ranks 2nd for scrambling, 7th for ball striking, 4th for par 4 performance and 16th in GIR. His final round at Memorial was very impressive, a bogey-free 66.

He surely has the talent to win multiple times on the PGA tour. His victory at the Web.com finals to get his playing rights is an indication of that.

Odds: 40/1 1pt each way - 6 places 1/5 (posted to Twitter when 50/1)

Ben Crane - Previous results at TPC Southwind - 10 - 41 - 37 - 1 - 18

A TPC Southwind specialist. Crane is also coming in with some strong form with an 8th place finish at the Fort Worth Invitational and an 11th in Texas two weeks prior to that.

A very deliberate player (AKA slow) Ben performs well on par 70s when the focus is more on par 4 scoring as opposed to taking on the par 5s.

His putting has returned to a much higher standard this year (top 30 in Strokes gained putting this year as opposed to 100+ last year). He is ranked in the top 20 for par 4 scoring this season.

Odds: 100/1 0.75pts each way 6 places 1/5

Tony Finau - First time at TPC Southwind -

Recent form - 13 - 57 - 21 - 10 - 24

A good week last week for Finau at the Memorial with a good all round showing makes me think he is ready to push on and get his second tour win.

His tee to green game returned to its usual consistency last week. He is also putting better than he normally does, a dangerous combination when you consider this guys power.

He is another guy on the fringes of the US Ryder cup team - currently ranked 17th. A big week here will certainly be a step in the right direction. I definitely feel like the Ryder cup is coming into the thought process now for some of these players - especially when looking at the leaderboard at the Italian Open over the weekend. The likes of Gmac, Pieters, Sullivan, Westwood, Kaymer, Willett and Poulter all rising to the top which leads one to think that they eye on their Ryder cup rankings or impressing enough in the next few months for a captains picks.

28/1 1.5pts each way - 5 places 1/4 (Posted to Twitter when 33/1)

Total staked = 15.5pts

#golf #pgatour #betting #bets #golfbets #stjude #fedex #brookskoepka

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ayeletinthemountains · 3 years

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2020 in Mountains

I’m not saying anything new when I say 2020 sucked in many ways. Now that I’ve gotten the required acknowledgement of 2020 as a total disaster out of the way, I can get to documenting and appreciating what I was able to experience this year. This post is long because I was able to take three months off in between jobs, which featured many adventures, and it also goes over the many life changes I made as a result of COVID which have very much affected my mountain activities.

Winter

I started off the year leaving my job on January 2nd and jumping into enjoying three months off before starting my new job. How I got so incredibly lucky with the timing (getting to freely travel the last 3 months before the pandemic took over the world??), I’ll never know. I am so thankful for it, so glad I took advantage, and really just take it as an affirmation that you need to enjoy life instead of working 24/7. You never know when a global pandemic will happen and throw all your plans in the trash.

I spent the first part of winter driving around California, Utah, and a little bit of Colorado, skiing and ice climbing while training for a bigger trip to Ecuador. I love these open-ended mountain days where you just do whatever sport is best for the conditions. I went to Ouray for the first time, and I really enjoyed the ice park. I look forward to going back someday and hopefully hopping on a route or two in the backcountry as well.

My natural belay habitat.

Ecuador

The biggest part of my 3 months off was a trip to Ecuador. I had been itching to get some high altitude experience to prepare for objectives like Denali. I ended up going to Ecuador simply because it was the right season to go there, but it did not disappoint at all. For once I did a guided trip because, a) I had no partner readily available (having only signed up for the trip maybe 8 weeks before?), and b) I wanted to treat myself to not having to figure out logistics in a foreign country for once. I went with the company Alpine Ascents, and they definitely have the trip well-dialed. Every accommodation we stayed at was plush (we stayed at a high altitude hot spring resort as part of acclimatization, best acclimatization ever), the food was delicious, and the guides were kind, knowledgeable, and all around great. In particular, Jose Luis Peralvo, the head guide, was such a pleasure to be around. He is an incredibly experienced guide (300+ Cotopaxi ascents, 3 Everest ascents), super encouraging (I promised him I’d lead some pitches on El Cap when someday Leo and I climb Lurking Fear), very patient, and so good-natured. I would love to climb with him again (Antisana someday??).

On this trip, we attempted to climb three high altitude peaks: Cayambe (18,996′), Cotopaxi (19,347′), and Chimborazo (20,564′), in that order. With my previous altitude record being Mont Blanc (15,777′), these would each be new records for me. The conditions on the first climb, Cayambe, were challenging. We found ourselves in a damp cloud layer that covered us all in a thin layer of ice. I was shocked how slow I was moving, which was hugely demotivating. I made the mistake of letting my mittens get frozen from the moisture of the cloud. When one of the guides suggested we turn around at about 17,500’, I reluctantly agreed and felt very down on myself the whole way down. But with no vis (and thus no views), miserable conditions, and challenges with the altitude, I think it was the right choice. At the time I felt very down on high altitude mountaineering and wasn’t sure it was for me. It really is hard knowing you’re moving so slowly compared to your normal experience in the mountains. Thankfully, the next summit attempt, two days later, went much better. On Cotopaxi we had perfect weather, and my acclimatization was starting to kick in. I was still moving very slowly, but found myself able to keep going (though I also did collapse on the summit). This summit hugely lifted my spirits and made me feel like I just needed to give my body more time to acclimate. This felt especially true when on the last summit, Chimborazo (over 1000’ taller than Cotopaxi), I was the fastest client in the group. Cotopaxi track. Chimborazo track.

Now I feel prepared mentally for my next high altitude trip, whenever it may be. I know that my body can acclimate, it just needs the time to do so and I need to be patient.

I would go back to Ecuador in a heartbeat. The mountains are beautiful, the food is delicious, the people are kind. While I would not typically travel somewhere to climb a peak a second time by the same route, I’d climb Cotopaxi again without a doubt. It’s one of the most beautiful mountains I’ve ever been on. I keep telling Leo someday we’ll do an Ecuador trip to climb Cotopaxi (and stay at Tambopaxi again, of course), and an ice route on Antisana (hopefully with Jose Luis!).

At the end of my Alpine Ascents trip, I took advantage of the fact that I was unemployed and in Ecuador and spent a week in the Galapagos on a cruise that visits many different islands. This was far from the normal type of trip I take (I didn’t climb a single mountain!), but I loved it. The hype is real: the Galapagos is a very special place.

After returning from Ecuador, I stepped back into winter in the Western US. Since February had been incredibly dry in the Sierra, I took the change to climb some peaks on my list in the Eastern Sierra: Thor Peak in the Whitney Zone (track), and Cartago Peak (track), my first peak from 395. Winter decided to return immediately after, which made for some fun skiing.

Fairy Meadows

The last thing I did before starting my new job was a hut ski trip in Canada. I had managed to convince Leo, Becca, Lita, and Nikhil to all sign up for a trip to the Bill Putnam Hut in Fairy Meadows in BC. Being a good enough skier to make the money spent on a hut trip worth it had been a dream of mine since I learned to ski, watching my sister Dafna go on these types of trips every year. I’m probably right on the edge of being a good enough skier… But I made it work. We had 7 days of blue skies and sun, letting us ski all over the area. It was my first time really skiing glaciated terrain, which was a great experience, and I summited a few peaks as well! Most notably Adamant Mountain, which is very challenging to do in the winter due to avy conditions. Sadly, for this one, I retraced my steps down the bootpack with my skis on my back since I was too nervous about skiing this no-fall terrain above open crevasses, but it was still a great experience. All in all it was a great trip with good friends in an extraordinary place.

This trip was March 14th to 21st, so it happened very much while the whole world was shutting down. I had hemmed and hawed constantly in the lead up to it, feeling very anxious about whether we should just cancel and whether we’d be able to get back into the US. In the end, I decided to drive instead of fly, to reduce contact with others and still be able to get back to the US should all the flights be canceled. In retrospect, I think it was a pretty risky choice, but I’m also glad I went since “nothing bad happened”. We ended up being the last trip to the hut before they canceled the rest of the season, so there were of course many jokes about how they should just fly us in some food on the helicopter and we’d just stay there to wait out the pandemic, what a dream! (How foolish we were to think this might be over relatively quickly). It was definitely surreal coming back to the hut everyday and sending out InReach messages to learn what had changed in the world while we had been out skiing. I drove from Rodgers Pass to Seattle on March 21st, spending the night at Lita’s (since we had been on the trip together anyways), before making the rest of the drive back to San Francisco the next day and sitting on my couch for a week waiting for my new job to start. That week I stayed home, Tahoe got incredible powder and it was so hard to sit it out, but it was the right thing to do given the circumstances.

The next few months, like most people, I basically stayed home, trying to run for fitness while we cooked a lot, took on new hobbies (gardening for me, sourdough for Leo), and grew our home gym equipment.

Summer into Fall

As summer approached and we learned that the danger of contracting COVID was much less severe outdoors, I finally started to venture outside. My first forays were tagging some OGUL peaks in Tahoe, and I definitely learned I had lost some hiking fitness. But it was great to finally be back in the mountains, tagging random summits with no people around. This also helped get my legs back into hiking shape for what became a great summer.

Our close friends Marco and Daiyi had been in Mammoth since the pandemic began, seeking out more open spaces to be outside during the pandemic. They decided they wanted to make it permanent and asked us early on in the pandemic if we’d want to move in with them in Mammoth. Leo and I initially said no, because so many small towns were begging people to stay away and not bring the virus. But as things changed over the next 3 months, we came around to the idea. It took some persuasion, but I finally convinced Leo we should just go for it. Housing is incredibly difficult to come by in Mammoth, but Daiyi was diligent and able to find a house for us all to rent together, starting July 1st.

Leo and I did not move in until mid-July because of the big thing in Leo’s life: meniscus surgery. It had taken his doctors months to diagnose he had torn his meniscus the previous November, preventing him from running at all or skiing confidently. He had surgery in early June and wanted to stay local in the bay area for his follow up appointments six weeks post-op. Leo was understandably less excited about moving to Mammoth since he would be recovering from surgery and wouldn’t get to recreate as much. I was much more pessimistic (or, what ended up being correct) about the pandemic, and thought we’d still be in Mammoth by the time he was more mobile, and so we moved! We gave up our apartment in San Francisco and went all in on our Mammoth lease.

I had wanted to try living in the mountains ever since we finished our six month van trip in 2017, and we finally found the time to make it happen without any repercussions to our careers. Now that we’ve been here for seven months, we both love it and have no interest in returning to the city anytime soon.

So, living in Mammoth, I removed 13+ hours of driving from every weekend of my life and found myself so much closer to many of the peaks I’d been wanting to climb. Our first weekend in Mammoth, we tackled Dragon Peak out of Onion Valley which ended up being a very fun scramble. This was the first of many “Mammoth to Mammoth” adventures!

When Ariel is dressed in all of your clothes so you think she is you in every picture. :D

Some of the other highlights from my summer season included:

Red Slate Mountain: I’d been saving this to climb via the couloir, but decided to finally just go for it in summer in light of the fatal accident that happened the previous year. This was my first outing with Mica, Daiyi and Marco’s dog, and she killed it! I have to say, getting to watch whatever funny things a dog does on a hike makes it so much more entertaining and joyful. This was another Mammoth to Mammoth one, which is just such a treat to sleep in your own bed and still have a full day in the mountains. It was also the second of many peaks I climbed with Daiyi, and it became such a joy to do these slogs with my roommate that brings her own stoke! Rafee was there too. :) Hi Rafee! And Brice and Sadie joined for the first third, with two dogs as well! The red colors of this area are so pretty – an excellent way to start our new life in Mammoth. Track

Sleepy dingo on the summit.

Tunnabora Peak and Mount Carillon: These are two fun peaks in the Whitney Zone and just, wow, I was able to do a casual weekend trip to the Whitney Zone! In my previous life, driving all the way to Lone Pine was a big ordeal – something I could only do maybe once or twice a season. And here I was solo on a random Saturday to just climb some peaks. It ended up being a gorgeous day on two fun summits with a swim in the highest named lake in California! Track

Mount Goethe: This was a fun scramble (albeit with a long approach). The scramble from Alpine Col was really enjoyable with some fun exposure. And I got to do this on a Sunday and not get home at an absurd hour! A good day out with Rafee. Track

Mount Thompson: Another fun scramble with Rafee. The ridge from Ski Mountaineers Peak to the summit looked pretty nuts and like it would not go, but sure enough there was a way. Also, this was less than 15 mi and 4000 ft. Always a treat to find an SPS I have left that is relatively short! Track

When Rafee doesn’t know what to do with his hands on the summit.

Mount Warren: Honestly, this peak is not very enticing and is really just a talus slog in the summer. But what made it special was it was my first peak just Mica and me! It took a peak that would typically be one you’re just trying to cross off to being pretty entertaining watching the dingo run up and down the talus endlessly. And we found a few snow patches which she loved, which are hilarious to watch her roll around in. It was so exciting to see that she stuck with me and came when I called her. Thanks for the company, Mica! Track

The only thing Mica loves more than playing in a snowpatch is eating a squirrel.

Bloody Mountain: Another peak that isn’t notable in the summer, but it was Leo’s first off trail hike post-knee surgery, and he did it in honor of my 100th SPS! It was nice to finally get back into the mountains with him :) especially for this exciting occasion. Track

The only time I’ve carried more gear than Leo! Thankfully, he did not get used to it.

Disappointment Peak: Perhaps my biggest individual day of the summer in terms of hours? A year prior, I had finally promised myself 2020 would be the year I join some days of the Sierra Challenge. But then the pandemic happened and I felt less stoked on trying to spend time with new folks. This was the one day I decided to join (largely because I was most excited about the opportunity for this peak). However, due to chance of thunderstorms and my not being Bob Burd speed, we started before the rest of the group and didn’t connect much with them, sadly. Regardless, this was a challenging yet excellent peak. Heading up the snowfield to the ridge was a bit thought provoking since I hadn’t spent time in crampons in months, and the scramble below the ridge had challenging route-finding. It felt really good to be able to cross this one off, one of the harder peaks on the SPS list. Track

Mount Davis: My biggest self-sandbag of the summer. When you expect a peak to be about 20 mi round trip but it’s actually 27... woops! Daiyi joined me for this peak along with her friend Phil that was visiting. They had planned on a backpacking trip, but canceled due to smoke. I convinced them to join me on this peak in Ansel Adams Wilderness, and they were great sports when it ended up being more than 30% longer than expected with endless talus… Always fun to get to visit Thousand Island Lake though! We had planned to meet Leo (who was building up his on-trail hiking mileage) at Thousand Island and hike back out together, but we were about 5 hours behind him due to my poor planning… Always learning! Track

Such good sports even though I totally sandbagged them!

Labor Day Peaks Extravaganza! Center Peak, Caltech Peak, Mount Ericsson, Mount Stanford: After doing a smattering of peaks over Labor Day weekend the year before, I was excited to do something similar this year – taking the opportunity to get pretty far into the backcountry. Luckily, Daiyi was also interested in a trip like this! The only requirement was that we include Caltech Peak on the list, since Daiyi had attempted it as her first ever backpacking trip with Caltech classmates (though they didn’t end up summiting). We entered over University Pass (my first time up it), taking the wrong chute down the other side and losing a lot of time due to our mistake. From there, we did a carry over of Center Peak, camping at the last lake before Forester Pass. We had also hoped to climb Junction Peak that day and camp on the other side of Forester Pass, but knew that was aggressive. We woke early the next morning, headed over the pass, and did a carryover of Caltech Peak. This was actually a lovely scramble, with interesting route finding down the other side. From there, we headed over to Harrison Pass where we got to drop our packs for the first time. We did the scramble up Mount Ericsson, which was also quite fun and interesting. We headed back to Harrison Pass, where Daiyi opted to sit out the last peak of the day, Mount Stanford. I found this scramble to be spookier and looser than I was expecting and almost bailed, but managed to add this last summit. This brought me to three remote SPS in one day! All the while, smoke had been creeping in from the Castle Fire down in southern SEKI. I got back to the packs maybe an hour before dark, and Daiyi and I descended Harrison Pass to the basin to the north, finding a nice campsite near a lake. Pro tip: there is no longer a trail at Harrison Pass, despite what maps may show, which we learned the hard way. :( We were worried about the smoke, thinking there was a good chance we’d hike out in the morning and cut our trip short. When we woke, the smoke did indeed seem worse, so we called the trip and headed cross country to the north past Deerhorn for many miles until we finally hit the JMT. We learned via InReach on the hike out a new fire (what was actually the enormous Creek Fire) had started the previous day and the smoke at home in Mammoth was insane. When we crested Kearsarge Pass on our hike out, we were hit with an even thicker wall of smoke. It was absurd to see folks having campfires back at the Onion Valley Campground. While the horrible fires cut our trip short, what we did accomplish was beyond fun, and I was so glad we got out on a challenging trip before the forests closed for the next two months. Track 1, Track 2, Track 3

Mount Hitchcock: Once the Creek Fire finally got some snow on it and the forests opened up, there were several good weekends for getting into the high country (albeit very cold!). I again went to the Whitney Zone, this time with Rafee, Sarah, and Peter (who I hadn’t seen all summer!). It felt so good to be back in the Sierra. This peak itself wasn’t a particularly interesting climb, but this area is just so gorgeous that it was still worthwhile. There were a good amount of people taking the trail up Whitney, of course, so it’s always funny when they ask you about your plans to summit when you’re talking about totally different mountains. Track

Summit social distancing, lolz.

Mount McAdie: My last real peak of the year, before more substantial snows came (though it was hike-in-your-puffy cold). I was happy to take advantage of Kavya’s tendonitis from climbing, so she was looking to hike! Despite having been in the Whitney Zone not too long before, it was still nice to be back. I though the scramble up McAdie was nice, in a lovely position. I can’t wait to go back for Irvine! Track

Climbing

I didn’t do as much alpine climbing this year because Leo is my main alpine climbing partner and he was healing up from surgery. With the gyms closed, I was still determined though to not let my arms totally atrophy, which meant I climbed outside a lot (well, a lot for me). I led a lot more than I have in past years (again, not saying much, but I’ll take it!), and I’m excited to keep working on it, even though it’s not my primary sport. Going to the local spots in Mammoth in the summer was really nice on weekdays, and then as we moved into fall and winter, Owen’s River Gorge has been a great place to get some mileage in. I don’t hate cragging as much when I just think of it as an alternative to the gym. :D And it’s important to keep climbing so I’m prepared for the climbing goals I’d like to accomplish this year now that Leo is back in action!

Training

With finding myself having far less expenses moving to Mammoth and no longer having a gym membership, I decided to take the plunge and hire a mountain coach via Uphill Athlete in July. It’s hard for me to measure the gains since I haven’t had a full summer season with a lot of training under my belt, but it has been a huge help in keeping me motivated and actually exercising nearly every day. Not to mention that before I could hardly get myself to do strength workouts or stretching, but now, since they’re on the schedule that I’m paying for, I do them. I’m feeling good and motivated, and I’m excited to see the dividends the training will hopefully have this coming summer.

Everything else

Moving to Mammoth has been such a joy, and I am so thankful to be here. I am so thankful that I am employed at all, and that I can work easily from an amazing place like this. I had been wanting to try moving to the mountains for a number of years, and I’m so grateful for this opportunity (even though it did come in such an awful way). 2020 definitely affirmed that life is short and I need to seek out the things I love; it had been so silly to delay all this time. People always ask if we’re here permanently, and I have no clue. I just know that we’re here for now, and it’s the place I want to be most right now. So we’re signing another year-long lease, and we’ll go from there.

What did I check off my list from last year?

Here I’m pulling my list of goals from last year seeing how I fared:

Making more mountain friends – well, there was a pandemic. I get a pass on this one 🙅‍♀️

Ecuador peaks – I climbed 2/3! I’ll take it ✅

Training for Ecuador, and continue training for the future – hell yeah I did this! ✅

Getting better at skiing – I did this a bit, but the end of the season was cut short due to the pandemic 🤷‍♀️

Spending some days at the Sierra Challenge – I did one day! Again, pass due to the pandemic. Will need to do at least two days this coming year :) 🤷‍♀️

Clyde Minaret via the 5.8 50 Classic – Did not do, saving this to do with Leo who was broken 🤷‍♀️

Lone Pine Peak via the North Ridge – Same as the previous 🤷‍♀️

Split Mountain (my last CA 14er) – The trailhead was closed due to a fire the previous year, so I let it go 🤷‍♀️

Boundary Peak – I didn’t do this and have no excuse. Now I live one hour from the trailhead! 🙅‍♀️

Reaching 100 peaks on the SPS list – I did this and then some. Ended the year at 113 ✅

A potential Orizaba trip over the winter holidays! – Haha, another COVID loss 🤷‍♀️

….maybe a big wall with Leo – Had been thinking about this in the fall, and then we had the Creek Fire, sigh 🤷‍♀️

Not a great showing on my goals for the year, but 2020 was about rolling with the punches. Pretty happy with what I got to do instead, all things considered.

Things I’m excited about in 2021

Keep training. Gotta stick with it

Keep getting better at skiing. I live in Mammoth. There are no excuses

An Alaska trip in the summer for some big peaks :)

Clyde Minaret & Lone Pine Peak with Leo. Now his knee is fixed so no excuses

Red Dihedral on the Hulk. This the easiest classic route on the Hulk, and I’d like to give it a go as my big rock climbing goal for the summer. Leo loves this place so much, so I’d like to experience it

Lurking Fear, or a different big wall with Leo. Probably in the fall. Another carry over from 2020

Tower Peak with Leo and his Dad, running a good amount of it! This would be a 35 mi day

30 SPS this year! I turn 30 this year, so 30 SPS is the goal :)

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