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#but instead I get teachers mispronouncing my name for 18+ years
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welp it’s 1am and we’re here getting weirdly emotional over ~names~ welcome to my brain
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The trials and tribulations of minge.
I’m a very scruffy person, when I was 13 I went through the usual teenage trial of having my teeth straightened, they had to take 4 molars out because they were pushing the others into such bizarre states of wonk that the orthodontist barely knew where to start.
I wore those badges of adolescent awkwardness for near enough two years. My friends all came out with american style smiles. Mine, although slightly straighter, remained resolutely, stereotypically british and scruffy.
Twenty years later I was walking at a smart pace down the track to the bus stop. I had washed and styled my hair, picked out an outfit which I hope said “responsible” and “in full control of her mental faculties” By necessity it included a slightly impractical maxi skirt, but I had learned over the years, that this was the best uniform for my current endeavour.
On the bus my reflection in the window told me that my luxuriant shiney bob had inexplicably flattened in places where I needed volume and frizzed up at the points where I had taken hours to smooth it out, the former gelam now looked distinctly greasy.
I fiddled nervously with my hair and the collar of my shirt until I arrived at the hospital.
This hospital is where I was born. Sitting at the top of a hill, it has one of the best views over the city that I have ever seen. I stared out of the window and almost calmed myself down, this might be the last chance I got to convince these people to help me...
My name was called, I shook the doctors hand.
“I hear you’ve been having some trouble with your periods” he understated.
Since the age of 23 I have been winning awards, if only in my own mind, for “worlds longest period” and “most blood lost without fatality.”
I launched into my unflinching and well practised description of the ping pong ball sized blood clots. The time one fell out of me in the shower and was so huge and heavy I was convinced I’d just given birth to an alien, I picked it up to check if it had a face, bits of it fell off and clogged the drain. I calmly recounted the years and years of seeping dread, the fact that I hadn’t gone swimming, worn white or finished a meal without a sickly slug of feroglobin in years.
I wasn’t scared any more, Cancer had suggested itself in my mind on and off for several years, but, as a nurse once blandly put it: “If it was cancer you’d be dead by now.”
My mind was throwing out tendrils of thought about my other dread. Pregnancy. When I was 18 I calmly accepted what I was told when I said I didn’t want children: 
“You’ll change your mind” they would say in a funny sing-song way.
 I’d probably want them when I was a proper adult, say, 25 years old.
25 came around, I was in no way a proper adult nor did I yet want children. No problem, there was plenty of time for me to want them, I’d just think about it a whole lot and then I’d want them.
30 came around, and I could no longer deny, the thought of pregnancy repulsed me. To be a host body to a parasitic bundle of flesh, to have my blood drawn away from me and into this other being. The idea of my cunt tearing open, a living thing coming out of me. A living thing with my weak jawline? With my scruffy hair? What if I didn’t love it? What if it turned out to be as intolerable a little shit as most of the children I’d ever met were? What if it grew up and went on being an intolerable little shit...come to think of it like most of the adults I’d ever met were?  What if, instead of doing something which changed the world for the better, it just became another consumer. Oh god what if it voted for Rees-Mogg? What if that apocalypse we’ve been promised actually happened and I had to raise an intolerable little shit in a cave whilst fighting off mutant tories and puerperal fever?
A more realistic and terrifying thought was never far from my conscious mind: What if I was raped? What if an abortion was too traumatic or, in the sadly likely event of an NHS sell off, too expensive? What if the current trends continue even further and an abortion was simply unavailable? Would I find someone clean and steady handed enough to do it on the kitchen table? Could I find the right hedgerow ingredients? Would I survive that?
“Do you want children?”
I was very glad that this came up.
“Definitely not, in fact I’d like to ask for a tubal ligation.”
“That won’t help with the bleeding”
“I know, it’s a separate issue, but I think it’s relevant…”
On the young man's face I saw faint hint of the bemused horror I’d seen on my GPs face when I had first asked, almost the beginning of a nervous laugh, although none had gone so far as to laugh at me yet…
My GP had looked at me the way teachers would look at me when I told them I’d lost my library card or forgotten my essay. Faux shock, the kindly-meant disappointment of a grandparent seeing you make a youthful blunder. His voice had come out with just the merest subtle hint of a condescending laugh in it when he told me he could refer me to a specialist but it was unlikely they’d give “someone like you” such a “drastic” operation.
Someone like me? Scruffy? Irresponsible? Disorganised? 
And how was maintaining my personal status quo drastic? Surely having to fire a fully dependant, sapient life out of my pelvis was far more drastic than just...carrying on as I was?
In any event, none of the appointments that GP had made had referenced my desire to get the snip, almost as if he didn’t even write it on the request he sent...
The current gynaecologist shook off the uncanny look he had given me for asking the forbidden question and asked if he could “scan me” Oh great, another date with the dildo-cam…
I’ve had this scan done so many times, my cervix is directly connected to the pain centers of the brain, one mere prod and all hell breaks loose in my nerves, it’s no good telling doctors this, they adhere rigidly to the “some women experience discomfort” school of thought.
The young nurse was wonderful, allowing me to squeeze her hand when the probe swept over my diva of a cervix and white stars of agony danced on the ceiling above me.
“You have a very large ectropion on your cervix, it’s probably causing a lot of the bleeding”
“Yes, I’ve been told that many times…”
“Hmm, we could get rid of this ectropion with silver nitrate, it might help stop the bleeding?”
Holy shit, you mean there was a way to get rid of that thing all along?!
I consented as calmly as I could.
The next thing I knew he was jabbing my insides with chemical soaked lollipop sticks, but I was more than willing for this to happen after 10 years of inaction and casual shrugs at my wayward cervix.
I was told to brace myself for “gritty discharge” as bits of burnt cervix dropped out of me along with all the other nonsense going on down there.
Later, pants back on, veins blossoming with green bruising from the “hormone level” blood tests, my innards were laid out in bland yet descriptive medical descriptions.
My womb had a “septum” which immediately made me think that it had a face, a scornful, angry face I would dearly love to punch for the years of ruined underwear, bedsheets and dates.
My right ovary was polycystic,
“This can lead to diabetes and heart disease later in life so you’ll have to be wary of gaining weight…”
My body type is made up of circles, I have rounded hips, boobs, thighs and face, when I was younger I worried briefly that I was chubby, but I was active and I ate well, I could still see my ribs and I could power walk up the hill to my house without so much as a sweat. I gave the doctor a blank look, he still hadn’t discussed my tubal options yet...
The doctor now took on a slightly lower, more cautious tone, evidently more scared of upsetting me with this next information than he had been by talking about my weight.
“You may find it slightly harder to get pregnant...but it’s by no means impossible”
I did a double take. 
“...That’s really not a problem for me...what with the tubal ligation request and all…” I hinted cheerfully.
He made a neutral sound and moved on with a list of my uterine shortcomings.
My left ovary was “very mobile” (my mind gave it a beard and a bindle stick) and showed some evidence of endometriosis.
“I’ve never had any symptoms of that…”
“Again this can lead to some minor complications in conception and pregnancy…”
Was I speaking klingon? Was I mispronouncing “tubal ligation”? Was IVF so much cheaper than the lady snip that they’d rather I reproduced despite my clear desire not to do so and regret an actual living human?
“You have some signs that there may be polyps in your uterus, that’s not harmful but they may be contributing to the bleeding, in which case, we can remove them.”
I was booked in for a hysteroscopy, which sounded painful in spite of the “some women experience discomfort” platitude, and a review in 3 months time.
“Do you have any questions?”
I took a deep breath, I knew this was a separate issue but I had to bring this up whenever I could because there was no obvious way to request it otherwise.
“How do I go about getting the tubal ligation?”
The look of horror came back, much stronger this time, the poor sod had run out of things to distract me with, his face turned to a look of utter defeat.
“I wouldn’t even consider doing that until you had exhausted all other contraceptive options and had fertility counselling, have you considered the mirena coil? It’s progesterone only and most women find it very good…”
My mind flashed back to the last “progesterone only” treatment I’d had: Migraines had hidden the worst of the symptoms for the best part of 6 months, by the time they were under control again the real problem became tragically apparent. My sex drive was so low that I could barely tolerate a hug, in desperation I had the little plastic rod dug out of my arm with a scalpel, but my libido never fully recovered, don’t try telling me the effects aren’t permanent…
A further flashback to the copper coil. The way it dug itself into the side of my womb, the way it hurt, exactly how much and how long it hurt for, How there had been no one in my local GP surgery willing to remove it for me (grab the string and pull, I refuse to believe that this requires a specialist qualification on top of medical training.) The serious thought I gave to yanking it out myself, only stopping when the prospect of a torn cervix put me off. 
A rich history of contraceptive pills danced through my brain, mood swings, swollen boobs and most memorably a migraine so bad that I called NHS Direct and was told to monitor myself for signs of a potentially fatal brain haemorrhage...
The time they’d tried to stop the bleeding with anti-inflammatories and discovered my allergy to this group of medications when I broke out in a measles style rash.
Those memories don’t blur with time, at least they haven’t yet.
“Statistics show that you would regret being sterilized, you don’t have a family”
For a brief second my imagination took me to an episode of The Twilight Zone. I don’t have a family? Shit! What happened to them? My siblings? My partner? My parents? My friends?
The anger when I realised what he really meant seeped through my mind like a blood clot through a pad.
“You don’t share DNA with anyone who came out of you therefore you have no family”
“You haven’t had to push your family with your pelvic floor therefore they don’t count”
“If you eventually decide to adopt that won’t count either”
“Everyone you currently live with, love and rely on will reject and abandon you because you didn’t give birth to them.”
Blood clots, along with anger of that magnitude tend to flood the sanitary pad or mind.
Luckily, I have had years of practise at crossing my legs and trying to discreetly aim my crotch at the driest part of the pad. This, in effect, was how I ordered my mind at that moment.
“Don’t yell at NHS people, they have enough problems. The poor man was just working off a script, of course they have to be careful, one litigious malcontent could set these heroes back years…”
I left, with no clearer an idea of how to get my tubes tied and no idea why this was the first time, cysts, polyps and septums had been discovered after so many tests over so many years.
Back home I attempted to find out how much private hospitals charged for tubal ligation. “Anywhere between $700 and $10,000 depending on your insurance provider”  ecosia informed me in very american and somewhat unhelpful terms.
An inquiry to Spire healthcare yielded an unapologetic result of £3000, that’s a lot of minimum wage hours and late rent payments, besides £200 of that was for a consultation in which they might refuse me anyway. 
I wondered if those places in Turkey where they do cheap facelifts might consider my case...Would having scalpels jabbed into me in a country where I couldn’t speak the language followed by a cramped and cheap flight be more or less unbearable than a kitchen table abortion? Either way the word “botched” was never far from my mind.
When the day came for my hysteroscopy I steeled myself for another try. The gynaecologist was a lovely, calm young woman with curly hair. She spent a long time reassuring me that I was in control and could stop the procedure at any time. She told me that she would take a biopsy from my womb lining in addition to shoving a camera up where no camera had gone before. She showed me the camera. I wish she hadn’t.
“See, it’s very small.”
It was slightly smaller than a pencil. Small compared to a baby maybe. But I knew exactly how big that thing was going to feel in my stupid nervy cervix. Turns out I was wrong.
It was far bigger and far sharper and far more white hot than I thought possible. 
The nurses squeezed my hand and told me it would be over soon.
I never stopped her, I wanted this done, I wanted to know what the hell was wrong with me. I wanted to show what a good patient I was, how in control of my mind and body I was, how I would take the responsibility of dealing with sterilization without regret...
I learned just how exponential pain can be.
When someone said “This will take another five seconds” I discovered how long five seconds can feel.
I found out, to my displeasure, that passing out does not necessarily stop you feeling pain, it simply stops you moving. I learned just how wonderful the overworked and underpaid folks of the NHS really are when they brought me water and later tea and let me sit in a comfy chair and shake without telling me that they needed me to get a grip and move on because they had a full waiting room…
The results were discussed with me. There were no polyps, there was no septum, what's more, my womb was perfectly shaped to receive a mirena coil…
Sterilization wouldn’t stop the bleeding, it was a separate issue. The mirena would stop the bleeding and stop any pregnancy. Sure I’d have to have it ripped out of the most sensitive, nerve rich part of me and then stuffed back in broadside first every three years, assuming I hadn’t emigrated and the NHS was still there that is. And the progesterone might...exacerbate certain things, but that would probably settle down...
 I sighed, drained my tea and smoothed down my faithful maxi skirt. 
Alright uterus, you don’t like me and I don’t like you, but it looks like we’re in this together. Here’s another burning hoop for us to jump through, lets give these folks the show they’ve been waiting for...
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merritidings · 4 years
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Character Questionnaire: Merrinyn Delorsath
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BASICS -
1. Height?
5′5″. (She is of average height. At least in her former settlement.)
2. Eye colour?
Black. (It’s actually dark blue.)
3. Do they need glasses?
No. (That doesn’t stop her from wearing one whenever she feels like it.)
4. Scars and birthmark?
None. (It’s hard to get scars when you’re always far from the action, drowning in books. She did get a paper cut a few days after leaving her old settlement, settling for the surface to learn more about this part of the world, though that amounted to nothing more than a few minutes of annoyance.)
5. Tattoos and piercings?
None.
6. Right or left handed?
Right-handed. (For a time in her youth, she instead she was ambidextrous. That was until she figured out the word she was looking for was “amphibious”.)
7. Any disabilities? Physical or mental.
None. (She can’t pronounce the letter “R” if it’s in the last syllable of a word, as in “wafer” or “paper”, ending up either mispronouncing it as the letter “W” instead, as in “wafew” or “papew”, or accidentally speaking in a British accent. Don’t tell her I told you this. She’s very sensitive about her rhotacism.)
8. Do they have any allergies?
None. (...though she once almost died after eating crab. That was most likely due to improper cleaning of the food. It never happened again. Strange.)
9. Favourite colour?
Seafoam Green. Or blue. (She also likes pink.)
10. Typical outfits?
Whichever works, really. I prefer clothing that would not impede my mobility over clothing that’s all for show. (She used to wear simple sleeveless, collarless, pants-less garments made of coral, see below, until she moved to the surface-world where a kind old lady gave her common clothes for free because she looked “cold” and “very naked”. Still, she tends to rip out the sleeves and collars and even pant-legs of her clothes whenever she feels like it, usually when she’s near the water and there’s no tedious socializing to be had.)
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11. Do they wear any makeup?
No. (She does, but only rarely and mostly during “special” occasions.)
12. What weapon do they use, if any?
Between my magic and my staff, I can be quite the formidable fighter. (She isn’t. She has also been thinking of acquiring a trident recently. Three pointed tips are better than one blunt head.)
PERSONALITY -
13. Are they more optimistic or pessimistic?
Neither. I dwell in between optimism and pessimism. Nothing is ever absolutely positive or negative. There is also the middle, and there I thrive. (Technically, she’s more optimistic, considering she’s always optimistic that each day holds new things for her to learn. She does get pretty pessimistic when things don’t go her way, though, especially if she becomes obsessed with learning about something and her progress somehow gets impeded.) 
14. Are they introverted or extroverted?
Neither. I am an ambivert. (Mostly true, though she leans more towards being an introvert, as she spends more time being an introvert, with all her research and reading; however, she doesn’t get drained as much when she has to be an extrovert, though she tends to avoid opportunities where she has to be one.)
15. What are their pet peeves?
When someone interrupts my research on anatomy by slaying the creature I am to observe. *very audible sigh* Brutes... (She also can’t stand people who can’t wait in line, even though she herself hates lines.)
16. What bad habits do they have?
Someone once said I’m terrible with making friends, though to be fair, I’m here to study and learn, not to make friends. (She spends way too much time with her books and research and not enough time connecting with real people. It’s uncertain whether this is because she’s such an obsessive sage or it’s just a triton thing.)
17. Do they have any phobias?
I fear nothing. Fear only exists when one does not understand something. I seek to understand everything. I do not fear. (Insects, especially flying insects, specifically cockroaches. She thinks they’re gross and they always have the high ground when it comes to the element of surprise. She’d probably like them if they were larger, though, since she’d at least be able to keep them from entering her orifices without permission. Oh, and falling from great heights. She hates that.)
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18. How do they display affection?
I don’t. Affection is unnecessary. As long as you are useful and efficient, you are. (She really doesn’t. At least, she doesn’t know how to. Even her compliments are awkward and strange.)
19. How competitive are they?
Competition is good as motivation for personal growth, but only when it motivates a competitor towards personal growth. (She isn’t as competitive as others are, though it’s mostly because she’s a triton and tritons don’t really consider surface dwellers as competition. At least, that’s what she believes.)
20. If they could change one thing about themselves, what would it be?
No response. (It differs on a daily basis, more like it adds up, but she doesn’t take to it like changing herself because she doesn’t like herself. It’s actually more of changing something here and then something there to unleash the full potential of her existence. Like having eyes that see better in the deepest dark or gills that can allow her to safely breathe in any environment. It’s alteration in the spirit of evolution, not alteration because of emotions.)
21. Do they have any obscure hobbies or routines?
Is collecting forks an obscure hobby? (It is.)
BACKSTORY -
22. What are the names and ages of their close family members? Parents, siblings, etc.
My father’s name is Mernes and my mother’s name is Erryn. I have one older brother, Jharvas, and no other siblings.
23. Is their family alive and are they still in contact with them?
Yes, they are all alive and well. My father and my mother live together back home while my brother has also set out to, according to him, find himself. I’m certain he’s simply pursuing the vampire woman again. Men have never been quite as smart as us. (Her brother is indeed with a female vampire but he’s not pursuing her. They’re working together, trying to make a life with each other.)
24. Where are they from? City, nation?
I’m from the sea, the depths of which no surface dweller may survive. (Her settlement is within the oceans east of Hegaehend, far east. They call it the City of Sh'lafijn, though others simply refer to as Marai.)  
25. Did they have a childhood best friend?
I had childhood friends, though I don’t think it wise to select from them a singular best. (She does. Her name was Dhorimyn. They’ve lost contact over the years. The last she’s heard of her, Dhorimyn had left their settlement for parts unknown.)
26. Have they had any pets?
I had a pet shark named Kadita. (They’re dead now.)
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27. Did they grow up rich or poor? What were their living conditions like?
We used to move a lot when I was but a young girl. It took my parents a while to settle down in a place of our own. We were neither rich nor poor. We were in the middle. 
28. What is their educational background?
I went through formal schooling, learned from the greatest mentors of my settlement, and grew into a fine sage. I learned more on my own than I did with anyone. (She’s not kidding. Her curiosity actually led to her amassing more knowledge about things outside of their settlement than the “greatest mentors” of their settlement, which were the only 10 triton scholars of their settlement.)
29. As a child, what did they want to be when they grew up?
I always wanted to be a scholar, and now, here I am. (At one point, she also wanted to be a kraken. She thought having more limbs would be efficient. She was three.) 
30. What advice would they give to their younger self?
If I ever, for some strange reason, meet my younger self, I would simply tell her to continue swimming towards her current path. She will become me, and I am the best she can ever be. (We’ll agree to disagree.)
31. Growing up, were they ever bullied or were they the bully?
I was never bullied. I never bullied anyone. I just didn’t have the time. All my focus were on my studies and my research. (She was bullied. For being too absorbed in her studies. She was often referred to as the “teacher’s suckerfish” by the other children. To this day, she still thinks it was a compliment because “a suckerfish assists its host by feeding off of its parasites.” She wasn’t wrong.)
32. Who do they look up to/who is their role model?
No response. (She currently doesn’t look up to anyone, especially since she’s out of the sea and she takes to surface dwellers as subjects to study, not mentors to put on a pedestal. She used to look up to an older mentor from her settlement but he died after trying to “befriend” a female shark as a male shark, so that was that. It’s a long story, and it’s not what you think.)
PRESENT -
33. Do they currently have a place of residence?
I rented a small place for me and my...friends in Arx, at the Whale Water Port. It’s close to the water, plenty of fish, and has access to several libraries and universities. It’s the best place for me here on the surface. (Remember the kind old lady who gave her free clothes because she looked “very naked”? That became her landlady. It’s a good place for someone living “alone”.)
34. What is their most treasured possession?
My most treasured possession? I suppose the letter from my late colleague could fill this role. For now. At least until I find the answer to his question, and I will. Eventually. (She’s not as into possessions as most people are, so having a treasured...item isn’t on her radar. That should change once she gets a particular trident, though, and maybe a particular cloak and a particular decanter to boot. Maybe.)
35. What is their drink of choice?
I don’t drink that much, but I seemed to have developed a taste for the drink called Bilgewater. It reminds me so much of home. (Bilgewater is of course the bluish-brown, sometimes jet black, concoction that's made by soaking the inner organs of various sea creatures soaking in a fermented brine and then running them through a sieve to remove the bones and viscera. It's usually on most tavern's menu for at least 5 copper pieces, or you can ask your friendly neighborhood fisher to brew you one for the same price. The only real side effect of this drink it that the lingering taste of rotten, brackish seafood remains on the palette for a few hours.)
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36. Which king/queen are they loyal to, if any?
None have sought me out yet, so I’m loyal to none. That should change if any reach out and we find ourselves agreeing in our principles. (So long as she get to do her research, she’s not very picky on a monarch to side with, but only if completely necessary. She’d rather not get drawn to unnecessary conflict if they can avoid them.)
37. Have they ever killed anyone?
No response. (In every attempt at progress, there will always be a casualty or two. Maybe even three. It is rarely intentional, however.)
38. What was their last promise and did they keep it?
I promised my brother I’d stay with our parents, keep them safe... (She could not keep that promise.)
LOVE -
39. What was their first kiss like, if they’ve had one?
It was...wet. And pretty sloppy. The things we do to satiate our curiosity, right? (Of course it was wet. She was underwater. It was mostly sloppy because it was their first kiss, and her “research” partner was understandably nervous, especially since she secretly liked Merrinyn. They never spoke of it again, mostly because Merrinyn concluded that it was not a fruitful experiment and Dhorimyn decided to keep her secret her own.)
40. Are they in a relationship/have a love interest?
Love is an unnecessary distraction that I cannot currently afford. (She is too busy with her research to consider a relationship, any kind of relationship, at the moment.)
41. Have they ever been in love?
Like I said, an unnecessary distraction. (She has not, though she believes she has.)
42. Have they ever had their heart broken?
No response. (Numerous times: When her pet shark Kadita passed away, when her older brother Jharvas left them in pursuit of a vampire, when she slowly lost contact with Dhorimyn, and when her favorite mentor died to sharks while in the form of a shark.)
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SPIRITUALITY - 43. Do they follow a god, if so who?
I don’t follow gods. I don’t have faith in them as much as others do. I only have faith in myself, in what I can see, and in what I can prove. (That said, she does appear to admire both Habbakuk and Melora, especially the latter whose stories and lore she views as quite inspiring.)
44. What do they think happens to them after death?
I cease to exist and my body decays to join nature and the sea. That’s it. That’s all there is to it.
45. What is their spirit animal?
A kraken. Definitely a kraken. (She’s more like a dolphin, but okay.)
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js2-hetalia · 7 years
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Can’t believe it’s been a whole damn year since I created Hetalia Tomodachi Life. So I thought I’d make a little list of things that happened in the game that made me laugh, or get mad, or something. (Warning: it’s long!)
1. China is a dirty old man who pursues young women. Especially Nyo!Russia. He went after her at least a dozen times before she got married. Then he just started picking random girls left and right. For those familiar with Vinesauce Tomodachi Life, he’s basically Karl, except he actually gets the girl a couple of times, only to break up. His boy charm score typically sits at the -200 mark.
2. Denmark has been my best friend since the very beginning. Early on, everybody on the island, including us, shipped us together and wanted us to go out. I, the look-alike, wanted none of that, and foiled every single attempt. I got so mad that I made a song about it. But anyway, HTL Denmark is even cuter than canon Denmark. If I had to besties with anyone, I’m glad it’s him.
3. Estonia was a typical school nerd (still is) and Spain, the “baddest of the Bad Friends,” was his bully. Nowadays, the two get along fairly well, even making an agreement to leave their past behind them.
4. Nyo!Macau, a character with no canon personality whatsoever, actually wound up as one of my favorite characters. After I gave her the Meadow interior, I thought to myself that it kinda looked like the standard Windows 7 (?) desktop. Combined with her voice, I got it in my head that she was the personification of Windows, so I changed her name to that. Later, she started dating Ladonia. Fitting, since he’s the Internet future boy. But she’s WAY older than him. So then I got it in my mind that she was an old cougar. So. Her name’s now pronounced “the old cougar,” although one of her phrases is still “Error,” a leftover from her Windows days.
5. Austria had a jester phase. Seriously. I even made the game pronounce it “Jestria” for a time. Basically, I gave him a jester outfit and he just kept wearing it all the time. I eventually got sick of it and made him wear women’s clothes and other ridiculous outfits, which he still does to this day.
6. Nyo!New Zealand is all white. Empty white interior, white-painted hair, and only white clothes. It is white on white on white. I honestly can’t remember why I started doing that, but I did, and I will not stop until I have given her every white hat and outfit that I can possibly give her. Somehow she still hasn’t made it up to the top of my most pampered list.
7. Sealand is permanently known in my head as “Piss Stain.” There was this one time when he had a fight with New Zealand. He was wearing an all-yellow outfit (a body suit, I think), and I thought to myself, wow, he looks like a piss stain amidst all this white. Ta-da! Piss Stain. I think it fits his canon bratty personality, too. I can see England calling him that.
8. Rome x Liechtenstein is a thing. And they are boring as fuck, despite all odds. They don’t do anything of interest, and so far, they’re the ones who have had my least favorite baby by far. And they’re showing no signs of breaking up anytime soon. Fuck. At least Nyo!Russia x Finland was interesting, even if they pissed me off for reasons I don’t know.
9. Oh by the way, Nyo!Russia is married to Nyo!Belarus. HUZZAH!!! Now have a fucking kid already.
10. Fart Voice Bulgaria. I don’t know. I gave him the lowest-pitched but also squeakiest and, well, fartiest voice I could. I ran with it. I also love fucking around with how the game pronounces things in his voice, making his angry phrase nothing but a string of euro signs. It just sounds like “Yurururururuurururururu.” It’s hilarious. He has a son with a voice that’s just as glorious. I made a song about it. Bulgaria is proud of Nathan’s voice and likes to show it off. Nathan himself is ashamed.
11. Nyo!Germany and Romano were the first couple to get married and have a baby. Their first baby was all right. Nothing too exciting. Their second baby was a tree-hugging hippie.
12. France is called “Daddy.” It was a stupid joke. But one of the news clips made it amazing. The news about how a burger with a random-food ingredient completely fails, and it’s at the restaurant called “Big [islander name]’s.” It randomly picked France’s name, so the restaurant’s name is pronounced “Big Daddy’s.” It was so glorious I had to make his full name Francois “Big Daddy” Bonnefoy.
13. Luxembourg was given the catchphrase “High-claas!” That is not a typo or misspell. I accidentally typed “claas” instead of “class” and I liked how it sounded, so I kept it. lol
14. Nyo!Iceland is a wannabe fish. (Or a mermaid. But I like “wannabe fish” more.) She has the Seabed apartment and her worried phrase is “Time to spawn!” because I’m a weird fucker like that.
15. Somehow Japan always raised his hand to the really dirty Quirky Questions. Nice to know, dude...
16. EGYPT IS BORING AS FUCK GOOD GOD. I don’t like any coupling with him in it. Seriously considering deleting him even though he’s a mainstay. Also, I figured out a way to make him say “...” without the game pronouncing it as anything (normally it says “dot”). There’s period marks in the Greek keyboard. Those will stay silent. All of his phrases are “...”
17. Nyo!South Korea is also known as “That Bitch” with a trademark sign. Thing is, the game actually says “trademark sign” in her catchphrase. It’s soooo good. Plus, her best friend is Nyo!Poland, a catty girl herself. They’re absolutely perfect alpha bitches together. Her husband Australia was likewise given the catchphrase “She’s MY bitch!” They had two beautiful children.
18. Nyo!Spain is a teacher who’s hot for at least one of her students, and has no qualms about asking them out.
19. Spain and Nyo!New Zealand make the CUTEST babies. Too bad I have a strict two-per-couple limit. Also that they, uh, divorced. (Their son, Elijah, is a wannabe supervillain. Or is he just a wannabe...?)
20. There are two Carters. That’s Seychelles and Hong Kong’s son. The first one is forever stuck as a traveler on This Damn Island (who even streetpasses around here). The second one was recreated and lives on the island, but has a love for travel.
21. Winter is still the funniest character by virtue of how out of place he is.
22. For the longest time, I just typed the characters’ names and let the game try to pronounce them, and just run with it. (Now I actually try to get the game to pronounce them as correctly as it can.) This is especially hilarious when listening to the game mangle Finland’s or Chris’s (Russwe) last names. But even some of the simpler-seeming names get mispronounced - Natasha, notably, gets pronounced as “NAT-uh-shuh” without further fixing.
23. I made sure Nyo!Latvia’s name got as many A’s tacked on to the end as I could. It’s still funny.
24. Greece started life as a furry. Now he’s not, at least not openly. I remember calling him into his apartment when he was in a good mood, and as I’m searching through the menu, he says “Let’s get laid!” and I completely lost it. I did NOT remember giving him that phrase. The other great phrase of his is “Fuck Sadik!!1!” which he pronounces as “fuck SAD-ik exclamation point one.” It’s hilarious in his slow, monotone, dead voice.
25. Switzerland is another character whose voice is hilariously out of character for him. It’s high-pitched and the pitch curves upward at the end of his sentences. He’s still as pissy as he is in canon, with phrases like “GET OUT!!!” and “I’ll shoot!” This combination makes him one of my favorite islanders.
26. For whatever stupid reason, I gave Liechtenstein surfer dude slang for phrases. She also lives in the Ring (like, a boxing/wrestling ring) apartment. Maybe it’s just me, but Liechtenstein is my favorite character to make out-of-character.
27. Serenity, born to Japan and Nyo!Norway, is by far my favorite baby. Owen, Chris, Elijah, Alyssa, Sophie, and Nathan are really good, too. The HTL babies are my OC’s and I will cherish them. Don’t know if I’ll make fics with them or not...
28. Nyo!Lithuania is known as “Heartbreaker.” Why? Because she divorced Denmark on Valentine’s Day, and she’s only been dumping guys ever since. Although she has hung on to Romania for a while now...
29. Finland is known as “That Finnish Ass-Hall” (can’t say “asshole” in the game). I hated him for dating Nyo!Russia and being extremely persistent about marrying her. I don’t even know why I hated them so much, I just did. He still has his phrase “Fukk off, Yao!” from the days when he was chasing after her booty.
30. Nyo!Canada used to have the phrase “Please, Daddy...” because she dated France (”Daddy”) for a while. I’ve since changed it because it was weird, plus she’s married to Turkey, but I might change it back...
31. I originally planned for Nyo!Ukraine to be a total friendless loser, even giving him the phrase “I’m a loser.” Mostly because of my headcanon that he just has no confidence in relationships. Except, he made a lot of friends really fast, and it was Ripper, Nyo!France, and Monaco who were the friendless losers for the longest time.
32. Italy is living in the haunted mansion interior. For reasons.
33. I’ve noticed that in Judgment Bay, characters tend to form the same groups over and over again, and I’ve made some songs out of the results, such as “Slaughter Planet Earth” (all three Italy brothers, Australia, Nyo!Lithuania, America, Nyo!Prussia) and “Just You and I Here” (America and Nyo!South Korea, and later Owen).
34. Oh, yeah. There was that series I did with Egypt and Sweden where the lyrics to all the songs were just “..........................................” and “mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.” One of the songs crashes every time lmao.
And that’s all I have for now. Damn, I invested a lot into this game.
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rodislandpsychic · 4 years
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Twin Soccer Players Named Jesus Corona
Here's where I can use Mexican Soccer player JESUS CORONA to establish my identity. I've been "powering up" or "gearing up" these last couple months. 
It’s also necessary to post this for my protection in case people start sniffing around my Blog.
I'm WA CHINESE VIRGIN born on CHERRY Street w/ Grandma Natividad DeJesus born Xmas & drove a 1977 Toyota CORONA in 1993.
I ALMOST LOST MY VIRGINITY ON A SOCCER FIELD
I almost lost my VIRGINITY on 8/13/1998 in a SOCCER Field. SOCCER player Jesus CORONA is JESUS Christ + CORONA. The CHINESE CORONAvirus was first seen in WA State. 
ESPana is Extra Sensory Perception. I'm Psychic & speak "ESP." 
Corona = CROWN in Spanish
Jesus Corona means "Jesus Crown in Spanish 
I drove 1977 Toyota CORONA 
My 1991 HS ESPanol teacher was CHRIST-ie CHRIST-man 
CHRIST-ie CHRIST-man = Christ Symbol 
ROD ROD****** = Ruler Symbol 
I'm 40+ Year Old VIRGIN 
My birth name "Isabelo Rod" means "Ruler Consecrated by God" 
I was born and raised in Washington State. 
11/11 = Washington Statehood 
11/11 = 11:11 
11:11 = Angel Number 
TWO PLAYERS NAMED JESUS CORONA
I wear a Virgin and God Symbols born in a State that has an Angel Number, 
I'm Gemini Twin 
Gemini = II = TWO 
TWO players are named Jesus Corona 
I'm Gemini Twin ROD 
Jose de Jesus Corona Rodriguez = Rodriguez = ROD 
He's born 1/26 day Kobe (STEAK) Bryant died with his DAUGHTER 
I tried to meet up with my adopted daughters 1/25 of 2019 
I'm ROD with adopted daughter JORDAN as "JO" in TEXAS (SE) as "JOSE"  
Jesus Manuel Corona Ruiz as OTHER TWIN 
Jordan and Sydney are my “honorary” adopted twins from Dallas, Texas. I said I’m Virgin so I couldn’t have had sex to conceive actual twins. It’s talking more about who I chose or accepted into my Family and grant powers.
This form of “adoption” also helps explain how Earth as a Planet can “adopt” a person. When someone is elected President, it’s different from a Monarchy where it is the Royal Bloodline.
Someone is adopted into the Presidency. Jordan isn’t of my blood, but I adopted her accepting to sponsor her as a Guardian and where I’m her “Psychic Father.”
PEOPLE MISPRONOUNCE MY NAME
People mispronounce my name calling me ROB instead of ROD. In Computer Programming, one typo can change a Line of Code. 
I'm born 5/29 of 1975 
My Initials are IR and I'm Male as "IR on Man" 
IRon Man = Tony Stark 
Tony Stark  is born 5/29 of 1970 
Tony Stark is played by Robert Downey, Jr. as ROB 
He wed Deborah FALCONer 5/29 of 1992 
That name ROD and ROB switched when people address me shows how one simple letter change can affect my identity. 
ROB means "to steal" while ROD means "Ruler." 
WORLD WAR I ENDED 11/11 OF 1918
The 11/11 Washington Statehood as Angel Number is seen in History. 
World War I ended 11 am 11th Hourr 11th Day 11th month of 1918. 
1918 = 1000 + 918 
1000 = M in Roman Numerals 
M = 13th Letter 
13th Letter = 13th State Rhode Island 
5/29 = Rhode Island Statehood 5/29 
I'm born 5/29 of 1975 
918 = 9/18 = 9th 18th Letters IR 
My initials are IR 
The Calendar Date 11/11 of 1918 for World War I ending that day means "Washington 5/29 IR." 
If I'm Virgin born on Cherry Street with Grandma Natividad DeJesus born on Christmas Day, it hints I'm the one who can "end the World War" or all this fighting. 
If I can prove Intelligent Design and that my Virgin Symbols are authentic where Earth is alive, people have to listen if it's something that is coming straight from God. 
To disagree means that you're arguing with God. 
Who are you to argue with God? 
EARTH IS LIKE A FLATSCREEN TV
People think I am out of bounds but keep saying like a broken record how Earth is sentient.
Earth’s Electromagnetic Field functions as a Wireless Network for Earth
Earth is a Queen Bee with Subconscious Minds as Worker Bees
Earth has an Electromagnetic Field Neural Network Hive Mind with 8 billion people as Planet Brain Cells creating her Cumulative Consciousness and Cumulative Intelligence
Earth uses people as Cones and RODs to give Her vision like the human eyeball
Earth is like a Flatscreen TV with 8 billion people as 8 billion PIXELS
The last analogy is important in explaining why Earth would be discontent with Politicians spreading Misinformation.
Misinformation obscures Earth’s vision
Misinformation controls the perceptions of people
People are like individual PIXELS
Earth is like a Flatscreen TV
Misinformation will blot out parts of the TV Screen where She can’t see
So when Politicians mislead people with False Data or False Readings, it messes up Her viewscreen. So Politicians lying and substituting FAKE Data for actual data are messing with Earth’s eyesight.
It also becomes dangerous when Fake Information is used to control voters so they elect people who have access to lethal or extremely dangerous weapons that can affect Earth’s environment and stuff that took her eons to set up.
LYING IS OFFENSIVE AND DETRIMENTAL
Politicians think there’s nothing wrong with lying or making up information to remain in power.
Lying is like cheating on a test to get a perfect score
Lying gaslights science
Lying invalidates the work done by researchers who provide good information and good intel
If we live in a world where people can just be deceitful and lie to get through job interviews or take control of powerful positions in government, there’s really no point in education or working hard.
You might as well just lie to get what you want in Life.
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When Orson Welles Met H.G. Wells: Two Years After The War of the Worlds Panic, the Two Icons Finally Met
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When Orson Welles Met H.G. Wells: Two Years After The War of the Worlds Panic, the Two Icons Finally Met
In February 2017, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Sapphire Jubilee, marking her 65-year reign as Queen of England. Her Majesty surpassed her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years, as Britain’s longest-ruling monarch, and now also holds the title of the world’s longest-reigning monarch. Here are 25 more royal facts about Queen Elizabeth.
1. SHE WASN’T BORN AN HEIR APPARENT TO THE THRONE.
For the first 10 years of her life, Princess Elizabeth was a relatively minor royal—her status was akin to Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York today—but that all changed with the death of her grandfather, King George V, in 1936.
The next in the line of royal succession was Elizabeth’s uncle, Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne less than a year after taking it so that he could marry an American socialite named Wallis Simpson. Edward didn’t have any children at the time, so his brother Albert (Elizabeth’s father) ascended to the throne, taking the name George VI and making the then-10-year-old Elizabeth the first in line to become Queen.
2. HER YOUNGER SISTER GAVE HER A FAMILY NICKNAME.
Elizabeth and Margaret were the only children of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and King George VI, who said of his daughters: “Lilibet is my pride, Margaret my joy.” “Lilibet,” of course, is Elizabeth, who earned her nickname because Margaret—whom the family affectionately called Margot—constantly mispronounced her big sister’s name.
3. SHE DIDN’T GO TO SCHOOL.
Fox Photos, Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Heirs apparent don’t just show up to primary school like normal kids. Instead, Elizabeth was tutored at home during sessions by different teachers like Henry Marten, vice-provost of Eton College (which is still for boys only), and was also given private religion lessons by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
4. BUT SHE AND MARGARET TECHNICALLY DID HAVE A TEACHER.
London Express, Getty Images
Just because she didn’t attend school doesn’t mean that Elizabeth didn’t receive an education. She received the bulk of it through her nanny, Marion Crawford, who the royal family referred to as “Crawfie.” Crawford would eventually be ostracized by the royal family for writing a tell-all book in 1953 called The Little Princesses without their permission; the book recounted Crawford’s experiences with Elizabeth during her younger days.
5. SHE WANTED TO GO TO WAR, BUT WAS TOO YOUNG.
Central Press, Hulton Archive/Getty Images
When World War II broke out in 1939, Elizabeth—then just a teenager—begged her father to join the effort somehow. She started out by making radio broadcasts geared toward raising the morale of British children. During one of the broadcasts, the 14-year-old princess reassured listeners, “I can truthfully say to you all that we children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage. We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers, and airmen and we are trying too to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war.”
6. SHE EVENTUALLY SERVED IN WORLD WAR II.
Central Press, Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Despite the risks, Elizabeth eventually joined the women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service and trained as a truck driver and mechanic in 1945, when she was 18 years old.
Queen Elizabeth remains the only female royal family member to have entered the armed forces, and is currently the only living head of state who officially served in World War II.
7. SHE CELEBRATED THE END OF THE WAR BY PARTYING LIKE HER SUBJECTS.
William Vanderson, Fox Photos/Getty Images
When then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that the war in Europe was over on May 8, 1945, people poured out into the streets of London to celebrate—including Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. The sheltered duo were allowed to sneak out of Buckingham Palace to join the revelers at their father’s behest.
“It was a unique burst of personal freedom,” recalled Margaret Rhodes, their cousin who went with them, “a Cinderella moment in reverse.”
8. SHE MARRIED HER COUSIN.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth are third cousins; both share the same great-great-grandparents: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
9. ELIZABETH AND HER HUSBAND HAVE KNOWN EACH OTHER SINCE CHILDHOOD.
Philip, son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, first met Elizabeth when she was only eight years old and he was 14. Both attended the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece (Prince Philip’s cousin) and Prince George, the Duke of Kent (Elizabeth’s uncle).
Five years later the pair met again when George VI brought Elizabeth to tour the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, where Philip was a cadet. In a personal note, Elizabeth recalled falling for the young soldier-in-the-making: “I was 13 years of age and he was 18 and a cadet just due to leave. He joined the Navy at the outbreak of war, and I only saw him very occasionally when he was on leave—I suppose about twice in three years,” she wrote. “Then when his uncle and aunt, Lord and Lady Mountbatten, were away he spent various weekends away with us at Windsor.”
10. SHE DIDN’T TELL HER PARENTS SHE WAS GETTING HITCHED.
In 1946, Philip proposed to Elizabeth when the former planned a month-long visit to Balmoral, her royal estate in Scotland. She accepted the proposal without even contacting her parents. But when George VI finally caught wind of the pending nuptials he would only officially approve if they waited to announce the engagement until after her 21st birthday.
The official public announcement of the engagement finally came nearly a year later on July 9, 1947.
11. SHE HAS A VERY ROYAL NAME.
Reg Speller, Fox Photos/Getty Images
She’s the second British monarch named Elizabeth, but Elizabeth II wasn’t named after Henry VIII’s famous progeny. Queen Elizabeth II’s birth name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, after the names of her mother, Elizabeth, her paternal great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra, and her paternal grandmother, Queen Mary.
12. SHE GOT TO CHOOSE HER OWN SURNAME.
Technically, the Queen’s last name is “Windsor,” which was first chosen by George V in 1917 after the royal family wanted to distance themselves from “Saxe-Coburg-Gotha”—the dynasty to which they belonged—for sounding too Germanic during World War I.
But as a way to distinguish themselves from the rest of the royal family, in 1960 Elizabeth and Philip adopted the official surname Windsor-Mountbatten. (Fans will surely remember that the surname drama was briefly discussed in Netflix’s series The Crown.)
13. SHE HAS TWO BIRTHDAYS.
Like most British monarchs, Elizabeth gets to celebrate her birthday twice, and the reason why boils down to seasonably appropriate pomp and circumstance.
She was born on April 21, 1926, but April was deemed too cold and liable to fall during inclement weather. So instead, her official state-recognized birthday occurs on a Saturday in late May or June, so that the celebration can be held during warmer months. The specific date varies year to year in the UK, and usually coincides with Trooping the Colour, Britain’s annual military pageant.
14. HER CORONATION WAS TELEVISED AGAINST HER WISHES.
Elizabeth officially ascended to the throne at just 25 years of age when her father, George VI, died on February 6, 1952. Elizabeth was in Kenya at the time of his death and returned home as her country’s Queen. As fans of The Crown will remember, the hubbub surrounding her coronation was filled with ample amounts of drama.
The notoriously camera-shy Elizabeth—who didn’t even allow photos to be taken of her wedding—didn’t want the event televised, and others believed that broadcasting the coronation to commoners would break down upper-class traditions of only allowing members of British high society to witness the event. A Coronation Commission, chaired by Philip, was set up to weigh the options, and they initially decided to only allow cameras in a single area of Westminster Abbey “west of the organ screen,” before allowing the entire thing to be televised with one minor caveat: no close-ups on Elizabeth’s face.
15. SHE PAID FOR HER WEDDING DRESS USING WAR RATION COUPONS.
Central Press, Getty Images
Still reeling from an atmosphere of post-war austerity, Elizabeth used ration coupons and a 200-coupon supplement from the government to pay for her wedding dress. But don’t be fooled, the dress was extremely elegant; it was made of ivory duchesse silk, encrusted with 10,000 imported seed pearls, took six months to make, and sported a 13-foot train. (It cost just under $40,000 to recreate the dress for The Crown.)
16. SHE DOESN’T NEED A PASSPORT TO TRAVEL.
STRINGER, AFP/Getty Images
Elizabeth II is the world’s most well-traveled head of state, visiting 116 countries between 265 official state visits, but she doesn’t even own a passport. Since all British passports are officially issued in the Queen’s name, she technically doesn’t need one.
17. SHE DOESN’T NEED A DRIVER’S LICENSE EITHER.
Bob Haswell, Express/Getty Images
It’s not just because she has a fleet of chauffeurs. Britain also officially issues driver’s licenses in Elizabeth’s name, so don’t expect her to show off her ID when she gets pulled over taking other heads of state for a spin in her Range Rover.
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, recounted to The Sunday Times the time when Elizabeth drove former Saudi crown prince Abdullah around the grounds of Balmoral: “To his surprise, the Queen climbed into the driving seat, turned the ignition and drove off,” he said. “Women are not—yet—allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, and Abdullah was not used to being driven by a woman, let alone a queen.”
18. SHE DOESN’T HAVE TO PAY TAXES (BUT CHOOSES TO ANYWAY).
ODD ANDERSEN, AFP/Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth has voluntarily paid income and capital gains taxes since 1992, but has always been subject to Value Added Tax.
19. SHE SURVIVED AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT.
STRINGER, AFP/Getty Images
During the 1981 Trooping the Colour, the Queen led a royal procession on horseback down the Mall toward Buckingham Palace when shots rang out. A 17-year-old named Marcus Sarjeant, who was obsessed with the assassinations of figures like John Lennon and John F. Kennedy, fired a series of blanks toward Elizabeth. Sarjeant—who wrote in his diary, “I am going to stun and mystify the whole world with nothing more than a gun”—was thankfully unable to purchase live ammunition in the UK. He received a prison sentence of five years under the 1848 Treason Act, but was released in October 1984.
20. SHE ALSO SURVIVED AN INTRUDER COMING INTO HER BEDROOM.
Fox Photos, Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A year after the Trooping the Colour incident, Elizabeth had another run-in. But instead of near Buckingham Palace, this time it was inside Buckingham Palace. On July 9, 1982, a man named Michael Fagen managed to climb over the Palace’s barbed wire fence, shimmy up a drain pipe, and eventually sneak into the Queen’s bedroom.
While reports at the time said Fagen and the Queen had a long conversation before he was apprehended by palace security, Fagen told The Independent the Queen didn’t stick around to chat: “She went past me and ran out of the room; her little bare feet running across the floor.”
21. SHE TECHNICALLY OWNS ALL THE DOLPHINS IN THE UK.
Keystone, Hulton Archive/Getty Images
In addition to owning all of the country’s dolphins, she owns all the sturgeon and whales, too. A still-valid statute from the reign of King Edward II in 1324 states, “Also the King shall have … whales and sturgeons taken in the sea or elsewhere within the realm,” meaning most aquatic creatures are technically labeled “fishes royal,” and are claimed on behalf of the Crown.
As the song goes, “Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!”
22. SHE HAS HER OWN SPECIAL MONEY TO GIVE TO THE POOR.
PHIL NOBLE, AFP/Getty Images
Known as “maundy money,” the Queen has silver coins—currently with Elizabeth’s likeness on the front—that are given to pensioners in a ceremony called Maundy Thursday. The royal custom dates back to the 13th century, in which the royal family was expected to wash the feet of and distribute gifts to penniless subjects as a symbolic gesture to honor Jesus’s act of washing the feet of the poor in the Bible. Once the 18th century rolled around and washing people’s dirty feet wasn’t seen as befitting of a royal, the act was replaced with money allowances bequeathed by the monarch.
23. GIN IS HER DRINK OF CHOICE.
RUSSEL MILLARD, AFP/Getty Images
The Queen drinks gin mixed with Dubonnet (a fortified wine) and a slice of lemon on the rocks every day before lunch. She also reportedly drinks wine at lunch and has a glass of champagne every evening.
24. SHE CREATED HER OWN BREED OF DOGS.
Elizabeth has a famous, avowed love of Corgis (she has owned more than 30 of them during her reign, but currently only owns one, named Willow), but what about Dorgis? She currently owns two Dorgis (Candy and Vulcan), a crossbreed she engineered when one of her Corgis mated with a Dachshund named Pipkin that belonged to Princess Margaret.
25. SHE’S ON SOCIAL MEDIA … KIND OF.
John Stillwell, Pool/Getty Images
It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R.
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) October 24, 2014
The Queen joined Twitter in July 2009 under the handle @RoyalFamily, and sent the first tweet herself, but hasn’t personally maintained the page since then. In fact, a job listing went up in 2017 looking for an official royal Digital Communications Officer to help out. She’s also on Facebook (and no, you cannot poke The Royal Family).
This story originally ran in 2017.
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11 African American Inventors Who Changed the World
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11 African American Inventors Who Changed the World
In February 2017, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Sapphire Jubilee, marking her 65-year reign as Queen of England. Her Majesty surpassed her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, who reigned for 63 years, as Britain’s longest-ruling monarch, and now also holds the title of the world’s longest-reigning monarch. Here are 25 more royal facts about Queen Elizabeth.
1. SHE WASN’T BORN AN HEIR APPARENT TO THE THRONE.
For the first 10 years of her life, Princess Elizabeth was a relatively minor royal—her status was akin to Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie of York today—but that all changed with the death of her grandfather, King George V, in 1936.
The next in the line of royal succession was Elizabeth’s uncle, Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne less than a year after taking it so that he could marry an American socialite named Wallis Simpson. Edward didn’t have any children at the time, so his brother Albert (Elizabeth’s father) ascended to the throne, taking the name George VI and making the then-10-year-old Elizabeth the first in line to become Queen.
2. HER YOUNGER SISTER GAVE HER A FAMILY NICKNAME.
Elizabeth and Margaret were the only children of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and King George VI, who said of his daughters: “Lilibet is my pride, Margaret my joy.” “Lilibet,” of course, is Elizabeth, who earned her nickname because Margaret—whom the family affectionately called Margot—constantly mispronounced her big sister’s name.
3. SHE DIDN’T GO TO SCHOOL.
Fox Photos, Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Heirs apparent don’t just show up to primary school like normal kids. Instead, Elizabeth was tutored at home during sessions by different teachers like Henry Marten, vice-provost of Eton College (which is still for boys only), and was also given private religion lessons by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
4. BUT SHE AND MARGARET TECHNICALLY DID HAVE A TEACHER.
London Express, Getty Images
Just because she didn’t attend school doesn’t mean that Elizabeth didn’t receive an education. She received the bulk of it through her nanny, Marion Crawford, who the royal family referred to as “Crawfie.” Crawford would eventually be ostracized by the royal family for writing a tell-all book in 1953 called The Little Princesses without their permission; the book recounted Crawford’s experiences with Elizabeth during her younger days.
5. SHE WANTED TO GO TO WAR, BUT WAS TOO YOUNG.
Central Press, Hulton Archive/Getty Images
When World War II broke out in 1939, Elizabeth—then just a teenager—begged her father to join the effort somehow. She started out by making radio broadcasts geared toward raising the morale of British children. During one of the broadcasts, the 14-year-old princess reassured listeners, “I can truthfully say to you all that we children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage. We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers, and airmen and we are trying too to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war.”
6. SHE EVENTUALLY SERVED IN WORLD WAR II.
Central Press, Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Despite the risks, Elizabeth eventually joined the women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service and trained as a truck driver and mechanic in 1945, when she was 18 years old.
Queen Elizabeth remains the only female royal family member to have entered the armed forces, and is currently the only living head of state who officially served in World War II.
7. SHE CELEBRATED THE END OF THE WAR BY PARTYING LIKE HER SUBJECTS.
William Vanderson, Fox Photos/Getty Images
When then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that the war in Europe was over on May 8, 1945, people poured out into the streets of London to celebrate—including Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. The sheltered duo were allowed to sneak out of Buckingham Palace to join the revelers at their father’s behest.
“It was a unique burst of personal freedom,” recalled Margaret Rhodes, their cousin who went with them, “a Cinderella moment in reverse.”
8. SHE MARRIED HER COUSIN.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth are third cousins; both share the same great-great-grandparents: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
9. ELIZABETH AND HER HUSBAND HAVE KNOWN EACH OTHER SINCE CHILDHOOD.
Philip, son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg, first met Elizabeth when she was only eight years old and he was 14. Both attended the wedding of Princess Marina of Greece (Prince Philip’s cousin) and Prince George, the Duke of Kent (Elizabeth’s uncle).
Five years later the pair met again when George VI brought Elizabeth to tour the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, where Philip was a cadet. In a personal note, Elizabeth recalled falling for the young soldier-in-the-making: “I was 13 years of age and he was 18 and a cadet just due to leave. He joined the Navy at the outbreak of war, and I only saw him very occasionally when he was on leave—I suppose about twice in three years,” she wrote. “Then when his uncle and aunt, Lord and Lady Mountbatten, were away he spent various weekends away with us at Windsor.”
10. SHE DIDN’T TELL HER PARENTS SHE WAS GETTING HITCHED.
In 1946, Philip proposed to Elizabeth when the former planned a month-long visit to Balmoral, her royal estate in Scotland. She accepted the proposal without even contacting her parents. But when George VI finally caught wind of the pending nuptials he would only officially approve if they waited to announce the engagement until after her 21st birthday.
The official public announcement of the engagement finally came nearly a year later on July 9, 1947.
11. SHE HAS A VERY ROYAL NAME.
Reg Speller, Fox Photos/Getty Images
She’s the second British monarch named Elizabeth, but Elizabeth II wasn’t named after Henry VIII’s famous progeny. Queen Elizabeth II’s birth name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, after the names of her mother, Elizabeth, her paternal great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra, and her paternal grandmother, Queen Mary.
12. SHE GOT TO CHOOSE HER OWN SURNAME.
Technically, the Queen’s last name is “Windsor,” which was first chosen by George V in 1917 after the royal family wanted to distance themselves from “Saxe-Coburg-Gotha”—the dynasty to which they belonged—for sounding too Germanic during World War I.
But as a way to distinguish themselves from the rest of the royal family, in 1960 Elizabeth and Philip adopted the official surname Windsor-Mountbatten. (Fans will surely remember that the surname drama was briefly discussed in Netflix’s series The Crown.)
13. SHE HAS TWO BIRTHDAYS.
Like most British monarchs, Elizabeth gets to celebrate her birthday twice, and the reason why boils down to seasonably appropriate pomp and circumstance.
She was born on April 21, 1926, but April was deemed too cold and liable to fall during inclement weather. So instead, her official state-recognized birthday occurs on a Saturday in late May or June, so that the celebration can be held during warmer months. The specific date varies year to year in the UK, and usually coincides with Trooping the Colour, Britain’s annual military pageant.
14. HER CORONATION WAS TELEVISED AGAINST HER WISHES.
Elizabeth officially ascended to the throne at just 25 years of age when her father, George VI, died on February 6, 1952. Elizabeth was in Kenya at the time of his death and returned home as her country’s Queen. As fans of The Crown will remember, the hubbub surrounding her coronation was filled with ample amounts of drama.
The notoriously camera-shy Elizabeth—who didn’t even allow photos to be taken of her wedding—didn’t want the event televised, and others believed that broadcasting the coronation to commoners would break down upper-class traditions of only allowing members of British high society to witness the event. A Coronation Commission, chaired by Philip, was set up to weigh the options, and they initially decided to only allow cameras in a single area of Westminster Abbey “west of the organ screen,” before allowing the entire thing to be televised with one minor caveat: no close-ups on Elizabeth’s face.
15. SHE PAID FOR HER WEDDING DRESS USING WAR RATION COUPONS.
Central Press, Getty Images
Still reeling from an atmosphere of post-war austerity, Elizabeth used ration coupons and a 200-coupon supplement from the government to pay for her wedding dress. But don’t be fooled, the dress was extremely elegant; it was made of ivory duchesse silk, encrusted with 10,000 imported seed pearls, took six months to make, and sported a 13-foot train. (It cost just under $40,000 to recreate the dress for The Crown.)
16. SHE DOESN’T NEED A PASSPORT TO TRAVEL.
STRINGER, AFP/Getty Images
Elizabeth II is the world’s most well-traveled head of state, visiting 116 countries between 265 official state visits, but she doesn’t even own a passport. Since all British passports are officially issued in the Queen’s name, she technically doesn’t need one.
17. SHE DOESN’T NEED A DRIVER’S LICENSE EITHER.
Bob Haswell, Express/Getty Images
It’s not just because she has a fleet of chauffeurs. Britain also officially issues driver’s licenses in Elizabeth’s name, so don’t expect her to show off her ID when she gets pulled over taking other heads of state for a spin in her Range Rover.
Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, recounted to The Sunday Times the time when Elizabeth drove former Saudi crown prince Abdullah around the grounds of Balmoral: “To his surprise, the Queen climbed into the driving seat, turned the ignition and drove off,” he said. “Women are not—yet—allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, and Abdullah was not used to being driven by a woman, let alone a queen.”
18. SHE DOESN’T HAVE TO PAY TAXES (BUT CHOOSES TO ANYWAY).
ODD ANDERSEN, AFP/Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth has voluntarily paid income and capital gains taxes since 1992, but has always been subject to Value Added Tax.
19. SHE SURVIVED AN ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT.
STRINGER, AFP/Getty Images
During the 1981 Trooping the Colour, the Queen led a royal procession on horseback down the Mall toward Buckingham Palace when shots rang out. A 17-year-old named Marcus Sarjeant, who was obsessed with the assassinations of figures like John Lennon and John F. Kennedy, fired a series of blanks toward Elizabeth. Sarjeant—who wrote in his diary, “I am going to stun and mystify the whole world with nothing more than a gun”—was thankfully unable to purchase live ammunition in the UK. He received a prison sentence of five years under the 1848 Treason Act, but was released in October 1984.
20. SHE ALSO SURVIVED AN INTRUDER COMING INTO HER BEDROOM.
Fox Photos, Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A year after the Trooping the Colour incident, Elizabeth had another run-in. But instead of near Buckingham Palace, this time it was inside Buckingham Palace. On July 9, 1982, a man named Michael Fagen managed to climb over the Palace’s barbed wire fence, shimmy up a drain pipe, and eventually sneak into the Queen’s bedroom.
While reports at the time said Fagen and the Queen had a long conversation before he was apprehended by palace security, Fagen told The Independent the Queen didn’t stick around to chat: “She went past me and ran out of the room; her little bare feet running across the floor.”
21. SHE TECHNICALLY OWNS ALL THE DOLPHINS IN THE UK.
Keystone, Hulton Archive/Getty Images
In addition to owning all of the country’s dolphins, she owns all the sturgeon and whales, too. A still-valid statute from the reign of King Edward II in 1324 states, “Also the King shall have … whales and sturgeons taken in the sea or elsewhere within the realm,” meaning most aquatic creatures are technically labeled “fishes royal,” and are claimed on behalf of the Crown.
As the song goes, “Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!”
22. SHE HAS HER OWN SPECIAL MONEY TO GIVE TO THE POOR.
PHIL NOBLE, AFP/Getty Images
Known as “maundy money,” the Queen has silver coins—currently with Elizabeth’s likeness on the front—that are given to pensioners in a ceremony called Maundy Thursday. The royal custom dates back to the 13th century, in which the royal family was expected to wash the feet of and distribute gifts to penniless subjects as a symbolic gesture to honor Jesus’s act of washing the feet of the poor in the Bible. Once the 18th century rolled around and washing people’s dirty feet wasn’t seen as befitting of a royal, the act was replaced with money allowances bequeathed by the monarch.
23. GIN IS HER DRINK OF CHOICE.
RUSSEL MILLARD, AFP/Getty Images
The Queen drinks gin mixed with Dubonnet (a fortified wine) and a slice of lemon on the rocks every day before lunch. She also reportedly drinks wine at lunch and has a glass of champagne every evening.
24. SHE CREATED HER OWN BREED OF DOGS.
Elizabeth has a famous, avowed love of Corgis (she has owned more than 30 of them during her reign, but currently only owns one, named Willow), but what about Dorgis? She currently owns two Dorgis (Candy and Vulcan), a crossbreed she engineered when one of her Corgis mated with a Dachshund named Pipkin that belonged to Princess Margaret.
25. SHE’S ON SOCIAL MEDIA … KIND OF.
John Stillwell, Pool/Getty Images
It is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R.
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) October 24, 2014
The Queen joined Twitter in July 2009 under the handle @RoyalFamily, and sent the first tweet herself, but hasn’t personally maintained the page since then. In fact, a job listing went up in 2017 looking for an official royal Digital Communications Officer to help out. She’s also on Facebook (and no, you cannot poke The Royal Family).
This story originally ran in 2017.
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