#german's pretty easy too imo

[brandtner]

As an Eastern Euro yourself how would you make the entire East Euro? (Since you said Himaruya screwed the whole region up). As someone who’s not from the region, my current thought is that if it were up to me there would be less blonds lol. Also: specific opinions on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus?

Yes, yes :D Less blonde I agree.

Russia - for me as a person who lives among them he's just... Too nice? Too well-behaved? Something like that. He needs just a little bit of spice, not too much. I would've also incorporated his sense of humor in some way, because it's a thing that is absolutely unique and IMO Russians have the best sense of humor in the world. And cartoons. Also his lack of organisation and general incompetence in EVERY SPHERE, I never saw that in Hetalia. Only his brutality. Shallow really. It must be there, that's what the Russians are mostly known for. Their main stereotype. He lacks carelessness

Belarus - I do get it. She's cold because of political reasons, only country in Europe to have death penalty... But I wish that she could also be warm. For example, yes, cold in the international arena, but comically warm and jolly among her friends. Belorussians are INSANELY nice and good people, like, I never met anyone on the same level. I absolutely love them and I am forever grateful to God for putting so many in my life. It's a miracle. I don't deserve this lol Also maybe a bit more play with Lithuania and Belarus, how he used to rule her, how she stole his coat of arms (xD), they're just a lot alike (same national bird etc). More spice in their relationship, not just Lithuania having a crush on her, but maybe accusing her of things, etc. Conversing about their love for potatoes. You know, things from everyday life that happen there.

Ukraine - Terrible. First of all, never met a Ukrainian without a tan in my life. They're reasonably positioned in southern Europe, the black sea... They're pretty dark although not all of them but I think it would be awesome if Bel and Russia were so pale and white and Ukraine tan but maybe still with blonde hair. It would contrast nicely. Tits, agreed. Poor gal? I don't think so, Ukrainians are quite strong and DEFINITELY NOT pushovers. What her design lacks are main events of Ukrainian history: Issues with Poland, nazi collaboration. Some edginess to her character. They're a bit nationalistic, but you can't blame them for it since how Russians and Poles treated them. (albeit they weren't exactly goodies either)

Latvia - I wish someone just read latvian history at least once in their lives. Just, one person, please. Hahaha. So basically, making Latvia more weak than Lithuania is a CRIME. At least more morally weak. Latvia had COLONIES, a great fleet, they were influenced with Germans, hence the better the development of his than that of Lithuania who was influenced by Slavs, LATVIA was the ONLY baltic state who fought the Nazis, who defended their country when they occupied them. Lithuania just let them in. He's just incredibly underrated, you can't just base his entire design on how he looks in 21st century. I'm not saying he's supposed to be buff and strong, because he is weaker in terms of military and sovereignty, but making him a woman I think would be very cool? Since the Latvian girls are the tallest in Europe. So making her tough in medieval times then making her weak in modern times would be pretty easy. They're way better than Lithuanians morally and behavior wise. Latvia is more liberal and easy going when it comes to ethnical issues, they don't really care that they're getting assimilated into Russia when Lithuania is really mean about it.

Lithuania - His name doesn't exist. The national clothes he's wearing in his design are incorrect, they look Ukrainian. Hair colour is very on point. Other than that, he has no right to be as nice as portrayed. They're usually mean and very passive aggressive. Terrible sense of humor. They're called the Italians of the North so that would be cool to see, making him the most emotional or in-your-face attitude out of all northerners. It's not good that his love for singing, the entire basis of that country - singing, was never put into spot. I think it should be mainly based off that. More pagan stuff, they had remaining pagans up until the 19th century which is unbelievable, and that religion still exists now, people practice it. Also its a bit hard to speak of it as one country because there's like 5 regions there and people in each one of them differ a lot. Samogitians don't even consider themselves lithuanian.

Hungary is way too nice too. Their politics or history are not nice at all, they have an attitude of an oppressor. She looks too normal, there's not much hungarian about her, give her some special features. Should be made into a duo with Poland since they both call themselves brothers.

Slovakia - should never exist and should never deserve own design and appearance in the series. Die Slovakia

Poland - Gay weak inconsiderate irresponsible annoying and lame. So 100% accurate. Very nice, I agree, good job Hima.

Also it would be cool to see Königsberg in the series!

#hetalia #asks #I dont really see an issue with their hair except Ukraine and maybe Russia

[amarriageoftrueminds]

So I wound up in the antisteggy tag rabbithole and read some of your meta (excellent use of examples, btw!) and found it odd that CAtFA!Steve is so dismissive of Peggy compared to how he is towards all the men in the film, because he IS pretty respectful of Natasha in later films. He disagrees with her like he does anyone else sometimes, but he respects her skills, experience, knowledge, etc.

So it felt off to think 1940's!Steve is sexist when 2010's!Steve isn't, since they're the same Steve just a few weeks or months apart.

I've decided to headcanon he's actually dismissive of Peggy not because of sexism, but because he's canonicly the son of Irish immigrants who would've had Opinions on posh upper class Brits exactly like Peggy.

Hey thanks Anon, glad to hear someone's getting some reading out of them, I know they're pretty whoppin' big! 😅

(Not intentional, it's just that I keep thinking of new things to add over time until they become ginormous.)

.

My feeling about CATFA-Steve vs Later-Steve, re: sexism, is that-

and as a Celt it pains me to say this

-he wouldn't judge an English person pre-emptively just by their Nationality.

(In the same way he didn't hear Erskine's German accent and jump to conclusions, and doesn't appear to have a problem with posh Monty, or Morita, for example.)

In my hc he'd be dismissive of her:

A) because she keeps acting as if she has the job title, authority, experience, and right to tell him what to do when she just doesn't,

B) he judges the person as an individual not a demographic. And she personally has done so much horrible bullying in front of / to him, which he wouldn't find charming in a man.

C) she keeps being wrong about everything.

So he's not going to hold her input in high esteem.

And he's certainly not going to give her a free pass to be a horrible person and fuck up all the time, just because she's a rich woman and it's the 1940s. (If he doesn't do it for Tony, he's not going to do it for her).

Her combined class and nationality would be a black mark against her, certainly, but even then my hc is Steve would wait and see before he decides that- yeah, her class privilege and nationality have corrupted her, specifically.

But his dismissal would still be grounded in her individual personality, not her class/nationality/gender etc. as if those automatically = evil.

(And we just have to ignore that creepy SheHulk shit Feige and M&M said about 1940s Steve abusing his USO fame to bag chicks. They appear to have got him confused with Howard Stark. 🤮 )

.

(But yh Doylist reasons for his apparent dismissal of Peggy is sexist writing and boneheaded dudebro writers who think, for example, that negs are just innocent slips of the tongue by the inexperienced, rather than predatory attempts to harm the opposite sex's self esteem.

Plus:

1) no other women are allowed to be in the movie because Peggy's manufactured Specialness is too fragile for other women to be worth risking screentime on, so Steve's treatment of The Only Woman Allowed is made to stand in for his treatment of All The Women, which isn't necessarily the case.

2) Peggy is just there to recite exposition while failing the Sexy Lamp Test, so what she's saying is actually genuinely not worth Steve listening to anyway, and he can't listen because that would make her, y'know, actually have been written as important. 🙄 )

.

Further evidence for this take on Steve's politics, IMO:

Steve wakes up in 2012 and is greeted by a pretty woman (originally supposed to be Natasha!)

And he doesn't go easy on her just because she's a woman.

He also doesn't automatically trust her just because she's a woman acting all nice (which would've dovetailed nicely with that friction he had with Nat in CATWS).

He isn't distracted from his job by her thinly-veiled honeypotting *coughbecausehe'sgaycough* and he calls her bullshit out straight away. Exactly like he would to a man.

That's the opposite of misogyny; he has women neither up on a pedestal nor down in the gutter, as it were. He can see them with clear eyes.

He's also an equal-opportunity comforter -- when someone's angsting alone, he'll go comfort them and do the Concerned Dad lean in their doorway, regardless of gender (Tony, Nat, Wanda, and Bucky all come in for the same treatment. It's even hinted Steve learned this habit from Bucky.)

.

Sidenote: A Thing I've noticed...

I have no solid evidence to support this, it's just a hunch, but I think Steve's un-sexism later on is mostly down to Cevans' performance choices?

The fact that like 50% of his deference to Natasha is in non-verbal beats, and those little nv-beats have tended to be Cevans' own ideas in other examples in the past, to me suggests they weren't in the script.

Which in turn suggests Cevans and Scarjo just decided between themselves to make Nat more relevant / more respected by Steve than the scripts actually do. 😕

#mcu critical #long post #antipeggy #antisteggy #steve meta #p*ggy meta #steggy is hydra trash party #catfa meta #hey nonny #toAyourQ #meta #mcu meta #steve rogers #mcu #sexism #dat's me #yet each man queues the thing he loves #irish steve #my meta

[liapher]

in love with your dta book binding and i find i am increasingly more invested in wanted to physically hold a copy of dta so i was wonder if you had any advice or resources (programs/materials/web sites) for beginners or like point me in the right direction if you don’t mind?

Okay so keep in mind I'm very much an amateur at both typography and bookbinding

Alright, typesetting. What I initially did was just open some of the books on my shelves to see how those were designed and just use that as inspiration. That absolutely worked, although there are some details I would now do differently. Last fall/winter I fell into a bit of a rabbit hole and read every typography book that I could find at my library. The ones i would actually really recommend are the following:

“The Elements of Typographic Style” by Robert Bringhurst. This one is a really nice intro to all kinds of typesetting details. It’s also pretty easy to find PDFs of this book on Google :-)

Jan Tschichold’s essays on typesetting and book design, if you can get your hands on them. I think they were translated and published as “The Form of the Book.” Tschichold explains the typographical choices that have worked well for centuries and how to do modern (20th century) versions of those. He’s very much not into having fun and experimenting though. I nevertheless found it really interesting and useful to read what he wrote and to then decide whether to heed that advice or to deliberately ignore it (since I’m here to have fun with typesetting).

If you speak German: “Lesetypografie” by Friedrich Forssman and Hans Peter Willberg. Its thesis is basically: book design has to be for the reader, and it's really good at explaining what that actually means with tons of examples.

For a free online resource, you could also check out practicaltypography.com, especially the sections on page layout and text formatting.

Moving on: typesetting software. I use LaTeX because I was already used to using it for typesetting academic texts, and because it allows me to be a little control freak about all kinds of details >:) and because it allows me to programmatically import the text and change its design. If you’re already used to working with LaTeX or if you enjoy programming, I definitely recommend it, but otherwise I have to warn you that the learning curve is very steep. This document contains links to how-to guides for various other kinds of software though, maybe those might be useful to you?

For re-ordering the pages of your PDF so they’re in the order you need for folding signatures when handbinding a book, you’ll need an imposition tool. I use LaTeX, but I know lots of people swear on this online tool.

Designing a cover (if you want to use a print-on-demand service or if you want to add a dust jacket to a handbound book): I use Affinity Photo, mostly because that’s the image editing software I already had anyway, but I'd also generally recommend it; it can do lots and is sold at a very fair price imo. My general tip is not to place any elaborate design details near where the spine and the front/back cover meet (and the front/back cover and the cover flaps)—if you use a print-on-demand service, they might end up printing the cover just a smidgen too far to the left/right and it'll look weird if part of your spine design is now on the front cover, and if you design a dust jacket, you might underestimate the small amount of extra material you might need to fit the dust jacket around the spine or around the fore-edge of the cover. Before exporting the print-ready PDF, merge all layers—this will considerably reduce the size of the PDF.

Printing books via print-on-demand services: I've used lulu.com, which prints books that are of a fine enough (but not perfect) quality. If you want to design a cover + interior to print via their service, definitely make sure to read their formatting guide where they explain what kinds of trims/bleed edges/etc. you should take into account. To find out what dimensions your book cover is gonna need to have (specifically how wide the spine is gonna be), use their pricing tool and enter the page count, select the binding type etc. My tip here is to only start designing the cover once the interior is done and you know how long the book will be—otherwise, you’re gonna spend a fair amount of time adjusting your cover layout to work with a new spine width... :)))

Printing dust jackets: go to your local copy shop and check what kind of glossy, slightly-thicker-than-copy-paper paper they have available and ask if you can use their paper guillotine to trim the printed cover to the size you need.

Handbinding a book: I read the “printing” and “physical assembly” sections of this document, and I also watched a lot of Darryn Schneider's videos on Youtube—he’s a professional bookbinder who makes a lot of incredibly useful videos on various bookbinding techniques. Really great if you’re a visual learner! To get started, I’d watch his video on tools for beginners, his series on making a case bound book, and his video on the square back case binding. I really like the latter technique—it’s great if you’re making thinner books where the width difference between the spine and the rest of your textblock isn’t too, too pronounced, and if you're a bit scared of actually backing and rounding spines / don’t have the appropriate tools. I also found it very helpful to ask questions in this fanbinding discord!

In terms of tools, I have:

A good-quality cutting mat + cutter (Olfa, definitely worth the small investment so far), and a metal ruler

A bone folder (great for, well, folding stuff, but also for smoothing out creases as you glue cloth or paper to the bookboard)

An awl (and a couple of pieces of (mostly) corrugated cardboard stacked on top of each other to protect my desk when I punch holes into the signatures)

Two bristle brushes, a large one (about an inch across) and a small one (less than 1 cm across)

Sewing needles—I’d recommend using one that’s relatively blunt and large but a bit thinner than the awl for sewing the signatures, and a thinner and pointy one if you want to make headbands

I don't have a press, I just use a stack of heavy books

and as for the materials:

Off-white 80 GSM paper, but I’ve also used whatever off-white copy paper the library printers happened to stock. Real bookbinders use paper with the grain running parallel to the spine—I don’t since it’s way more expensive, at least where I live.

Bookbinding glue (see also here and here)

Cotton gauze

For these books, I used some random leftover woven cotton tapes, but afaik if the book is fairly thin you don’t need tapes and can just sew the signatures together with the French link stitch instead. (That's what I’ve been doing at least)

2 mm thick bookboard (solid cardboard, preferably acid-free)

Bookcloth. It’s special in that it’s made from non-stretchy fabric and backed with paper, so you can glue it to the bookboard without any glue spots staining the cloth. I’ve been buying bookcloth from bookbinding/stationery suppliers, but you can also find online guides to making your own bookcloth (no recommendations as I haven’t tried that yet)

Some pretty paper for the cover and/or the endpapers (optional, you can also cover the entire cover in bookcloth and use plain endpapers). Since this involves applying a bunch of glue to the paper, it’s a bit easier to work with if the paper’s a tad heavier than copy paper (around 100 GSM maybe?), although that isn’t a requirement

Linen thread. I got some from a bookbinding supplier and picked the 18/3 one, which is nice, but if I had to choose again I might consider getting something ever so slightly thinner. Also full disclosure I don't know how or if this thread is different from regular linen thread. Lots of people apply a thin coat of beeswax to their thread, but I haven’t done that so far, and haven’t had any problems with that (will report back if that changes)

Optional: a thin leather cord (or shoelaces) and some thin thread you happen to have lying around for making headbands

Also optional: some pretty ribbon to use as a bookmark, like those thin fabric ribbons you can buy for gift-wrapping

I think that's it? For the most part it’s about approaching this with a can-do attitude and not being too afraid of just trying things out

This is a bit all over the place, but if you have more specific questions, feel free to send me another ask! :)

#also regarding wanting to have a physical copy of dta: if it's really just about wanting to hold a book in your hands but you're not too int #interested in the design/assembly: feel free to pm me and i can share print-ready pdfs with you #but if you are interested in typesetting/crafting: absolutely do it i promise it's lots of fun!!!! #bookbinding #replies #deangloriam #mission update

[asgardian--angels]

what are some of your favorite rammstein songs? what album would you choose to recommend to others? if you're able to choose (i know it can be difficult to do with favorite bands, lol) i grew up only hearing one of their songs and your reblogs make me curious to branch out!

Hi there!! I'm always happy to talk about bands I love haha right now since I've yet to really become a part of the fandom and I only know one or two people irl that like the same music as me I feel like I've been shouting into the void lately so like, I am gratified to know someone's listening XD

I'm by no means a Rammstein expert as I'm fairly new to the fandom and the band overall (been listening for about a year), that's my disclaimer. But I've furiously been trying to catch up with their 30-odd years of history!

I'm guessing the song you know is probably Du Hast? That is the song that I grew up knowing as well and for a very long time was the only song I heard from them. It's a very... mainstream? song, I suppose, for their standards; catchy, simple lyrics that non-German speaking audiences can sing along to, pounding repetitive militaristic beat, great to introduce international audiences to this Neue Deutsche Härte genre that was quite distinct from American metal at the time (I moved over to European metal genres about five years ago after exhausting my interest in American metal, there really just seems to be a lot more creativity going on there). While it's a good song it's by no means my favorite nor representative of their level of technical skill nor lyrical poetry. Plus it was a fairly early song in their discography, and their sound has evolved multiple times since then, as all bands do.

It's definitely hard to choose favorites as I really love all of their albums and all of the various sounds the band has gone through. They continually reinvent themselves and remain relevant and fresh, and that sustained passion always comes through in their art. There's also like, songs-that-are-my-favorite and songs-I'd-recommend-to-new-listeners which aren't always the same. I have bolded my recommendations here so you don't need to sift through all this haha.

In my opinion, their overall best album is Liebe Ist Für Alle Da (2009). It is incredibly solid as a total package; their musically heaviest era I'd say, high production quality, long tracklist and they're all jams. Rammstein doesn't half-ass anything, but LIFAD is like a self-contained universe and the concerts that go along with that era had some of the coolest stage productions & costumes. 'Rammlied' and 'Ich Tu Dir Weh' are two iconic, classic songs from this album that I couldn't recommend enough. The latter is imo one of the best songs they've ever done and the music video is killer, and is an excellent representation of the sort of enchanting darkness mixed with beauty that characterizes so much of their appeal. It was the first song of theirs I learned all the words to, and the song that made me want to listen to more Rammstein. If anything, listen to that song first out of all of these recommendations! I hope it can do that for you too. It remains an absolutely mesmerizing song for me to this day. Rammlied is one of a number of songs they have about the relationship between band and fans, great for live performances but also just a fun heavy metal song to headbang to. The chant in the beginning is so good, I’ve got it on a t-shirt haha.

While I think that's the *best* album, my personal favorite is Mutter (2001). A solid collection of impactful songs that flow in tone very well. It just has a special place in my heart! 'Sonne' is a must-listen, also I think one of the most iconic songs they've ever done. You'll never be able to get it out of your head, and pretty easy to memorize lyrics too - it was the second full song I learned. 'Mein Herz Brennt' is a dark, intense, heavy-hitting ballad with a spine-tingling music video, a great example of one of their 'dark fairytale' type songs that are common in their work. Till Lindemann specializes in these sort of speak-singing melodies that weave a twisted children's bedtime story (others like this are Wiener Blut, Spieluhr, and Puppe, I highly recommend the latter). My personal favorite from that album besides Sonne is Adios.

Literally tho all their albums are great, and I don't know your personal preferences for rock genres so you may like their earlier or later work better;

Their 90s work is more raw, less polished, as I think I could say for most bands that began in the 90s when these genres were fresh and members were young with a lot of angst and energy! Those albums, Herzeleid (1995) and Sehnsucht (1997), are absolutely worth listening to. I would recommend the songs 'Engel', 'Sehnsucht', and 'Du Riechst So Gut', to get a sense for how that era sounded. (Hardcore fans don't get on me here, I love all the songs from then, 'Laichzeit' and 'Eifersucht' are among my personal favs).

Then there are the two mid-2000s albums Reise, Reise (2004) and Rosenrot (2005), which again are just, high quality, solid pieces of work. You notice I say solid a lot here, and that's because everything that Rammstein produces is of high quality; they're true professionals who strive to perfection and I think they really put out their best in everything they do. Three classic songs from these albums are 'Mein Teil' (dark and intense, about a real life cannibalism case, music video does not mess around lmao), 'Rosenrot', and for funsies, 'Benzin' (one of their classic blow-shit-up songs you can't help but love). I think some of their deepest, most poetic songs are from these two albums. personal favs include Dalai Lama, Hilf Mir, and Ein Lied (the latter is probably my favorite song they've ever done, but it's by no means a hit or anything, just one of those quiet little 'when you're lonely we're here for you' melodies)

Their two new albums, Untitled (2019) and Zeit (2022) definitely move into a new musical era for them, and again demonstrate their dedication to consistent high production quality. I cannot recommend the song and video 'Deutschland' high enough - you absolutely must watch the video, preferably as your first listen of the song. It's more of a short film, and I think it changed me on a genetic level lmao. Deals with the conflicted feelings and politics of national pride in a country with blood on its hands, and the video is one of the most aesthetically stunning things I've ever seen. 'Zeit' is of a similar vein in terms of being the powerful ballad on the latest album, also with a great video, a very moving, sad song about the inevitability of loss and the passage of time. (again, I love everything on these albums too, I already mentioned Puppe, which is A++. Schwarz and Lügen have risen to the top on Zeit tbh, but that's between you and me).

I'm going to stop myself there, as I could just keep telling you to listen to everything they've ever done, but hopefully you will take that upon yourself at some point ;D Till has an incredible baritone voice with a fantastic range of styles that he knows how to use to full effect to weave moving tales that will stick with you. It got me off my ass to learn how to pronounce German! I hope you enjoy the recommendations, they're very much classic singles but still decent examples of their various eras.

#rammstein #it only took me two hours to write this LOL #do i ramble? yes. but im also just desperate to talk to people about my latest obsessions and i got no one here bruh #how long before the fandom absorbs me pls #i really can't say i like one era over another tbh they're all worthwhile in their own right #but fuck i do love mutter

[menalez]

how did you go about learning german? was any of it self-study or did you go straight to classes? and how important do you think living there has been to your learning journey?

i did A1 german classes in university which gave me a really good foundation. i would say that if you start learning a language, it would be good to invest in getting a teacher and going to a good course for it because a good foundation in the language can really guide you with learning the more complex and advanced aspects of said language. after that i hadn’t learned german for about 2 years and then covid hit, & due to the german classes in bahrain being shit and useless waste of money in my experience (& online classes being so expensive), i relied on reading basic stuff in german, using german songs & tv shows & movies as ways to learn bits of the language here & there. it mainly helped familiarise me with the language, improve my pronunciation, and learn a handful of words. i also did duolingo on the side which imo is mostly good for maintaining your language level and learning some new words and practicing your grammar, tho generally i think the stuff on there is pretty low-level stuff that i can complete with ease now (and just as a note, my german is far from perfect yet it’s quite easy for me so i tend to finish all the lessons perfectly now. it’s more helpful for people between A1-low B2 imo, if you’re in C1 it might be too easy but it doesn’t harm to practice using it). i also use an app called drops which reaaaaally helps me with getting a larger vocabulary, but it’s limited to 5 mins per day unless you pay which is annoying. i tried lingoda for a short time (free trial hehe) but i personally didn’t like it much since it’s not rly structured and people can sign into classes in any level they want, regardless of their own language level (my gf liked it tho and said it can be worth the money & u can find some good quality classes in there). besides that, i have taken online classes in german up until the B1 level, and at B1 i moved to germany and started physical intensive classes. i would highly recommend the intensive daily classes for learning the language bc 1. you learn faster 2. you’re practicing the language daily. also always do the hw provided bc it helps you practice at home + rely less on the teacher and learn from your mistakes.

moving to germany definitely helped with improving my language level and practicing my language. i live in a city where english is quite commonly spoken BUT i do encounter grumpy germans that refuse to speak english every once in a while. + i live in a working class area so people here generally only speak arabic (lots of refugees where i live) or turkish or german which is also great at forcing me to speak in german (arabic is often easier but sometimes the men harass me when they realise im arab lol so honestly german is safer for me). ordering food is one of the things i am rly good at doing in german now bc of how often i have to do it in german. also discussing my internet connection issues bc for some reason no one in the customer support of our internet service provider speaks english. also public transportation. besides that, i recall how helpful it was seeing signs in german all around bc it helped teach me terms that were almost never mentioned in german classes. visiting museums and getting tours and going to events are also all helpful bc there’s a lot of german in those settings. so id say that yeah, living in germany was a great help in learning german. my gf’s german is really good bc she learned it while doing an exchange program in germany & she became more or less fluent through speaking to germans at parties in german all the time. it’s rly rly good practice and also helps build a good foundation + improve your confidence when speaking the language. if i had stayed in bahrain, i wouldn’t feel confident to have even the most basic conversations i think but living here and seeing germans act shocked when i tell them i was A2 one year ago rly helped make me more confident and pushed me to try talking in german over defaulting to english/arabic. i highly recommend taking this kind of path if you have the means to do so. also id advise ensuring that whichever language school or course you choose is of decent / high quality bc some are just garbage and a waste of money.

[leedongwook]

Hi, you mentioned you started to learn Korean language? May I ask where are you from? Or more specifically what is your mother language? Do you speak any other languages besides your native? I would like to know how hard it is to leard Korean and also it could be different when the person has mother language english or spanish or some slavic language. If it is too personal ask, I would totally understand though.

My mother language is german. I studied English at school for over 6 years (my grammar sometimes still sucks tho haha) That's the only two languages I can speak. I wish I could talk more, I just love all the different languages. They're all so pretty. Mhhh dunno it could be more difficult for some countries I guess, cos I feel like the korean language has some accents and sounds that are heard to speak and pronounce, for me too. But it's doable imo. I do think it'll take a long time to really learn and understand the language, especially cos I don't think I get to really talk it. Watching korean dramas does help a bit so at least I can practise to understand it. It's still hard, but I'm doing it for fun, so I don't pressure myself too much to learn it. I'll thought I'd give it a try so I could understand more when I watch my korean dramas :) What's your mother tongue? Can you speak more languages? I personally loved to learn English at school, it was my fave subject and I think it was easy to learn.

#ask #reply #personal

[goblinselfshippr]

❤️Romantic f/o tag explanations+ links

(+Leviathan bc he used to be a romantic but he got switched) fair warning, I don’t keep up with all the shitty musician drama. Warning for medications/experiments/drugs in Albert’s part specifically(which I have moved to the very bottom past Leviathan for that reason).

Vergil- #❤️[A Thousand Years]

Pretty sure most people get this one, it’s the infamous Twilight wedding song. Everyone and their mom knows by this point that I’ve been shipping with this guy since I was like 10, and when you spend that much time writing/daydreaming about a guy it really does feel like we’ve been together for millennia. BUT did you know it is also based off of a wedding dance that I always thought about us doing? It’s a bit of a mashup between this video and this one

Cicero- #❤️[DWTC]

This is actually an acronym for Down With The Clown which is an ICP song… yeah… lol my parents should’ve known I was not gonna be a normal child when they blasted Riddlebox 25/8. Cicero’s entire playlist is mostly ICP because he is in fact an insane clown. I think originally his tag was going to be “My axe” or “chop chop slide” or something but obvs that’s violent and I figured I’d probably need to censor everything if I went with those. I wanted to keep them around 3 words or less, so the acronym was just faster (meanwhile Simeon’s tag exists)

Farkas- #❤️[Tír na nÓg]

*inhale* HOOO BOY this is both a song by Celtic Women and the fae world in Irish folklore. In the song, I’m pretty sure it’s about a warrior who is shipwrecked on an island and sees a faerie that looks like his wife who is trying to tempt him to stay safe with her on the island of Tír na nÓg. My S/Is are exclusively either fae or angels (sometimes both at the same time) but I figured Skyrim has a closer folklore to Norse and Irish and popular culture loves saying they are the same. So yeah, Tír na nÓg because he’s getting tempted by a pretty fae lol

Aizawa- #❤️[Mr. 10pm Bedtime]

This is a song by Girli (one of my top 10 faves) and I really feel like the chorus fits him shdndj especially “Baby, don't tell me you're too old To have a little bit of fun sometimes” and “So tell me one more time That I've been trashing your bedtime I hear you knock, knock, knock On the door and you let me know “Pipe down or you'll have to go!" “ like that is HIM. Our dynamic is very much “loud/flashy/extroverted” and “god I’m so tired introvert”

Levi- #❤️[Under the Willow]

Another lucky guy with a wedding dance. Willow by Jasmine Thompson (warning, the camera spins with the dancers for some ungodly reason so those parts might make you dizzy/motion sick bc it for sure makes me a little nauseous) it’s a really soft song and I kinda only picked it for him because of the line “Down by the water, under the willow Sits a lone ranger, minding the willow” but some of the other parts still fit him imo “If he had spoken, love would return Spoken inside, too soft to be heard” bc that man has a hard ass time conveying emotions. Yes he is blunt, but feelings are embarrassing. (Source: me wanting to disappear the moment I have them). It’s apparently based off of a fairytale called Under the Willow by Hans Christian Andersen

Wrecker- #❤️[Absolutely Smitten]

Dodie song because I was absolutely in my Dodie era with him SHCAKCAB It’s so cute and fun and just feels like him! Esp because it’s easy to imagine my s/i singing this about him (she is a performer) in the bar! I don’t really have a lot to say, these things just lined up. It was a hard tie between this one and Would You Be So Kind, but for me the shorter tags the better.

Simeon- #❤[Kannst du die Engel sehn?]

This is from Die Engel by Eisbrecher, the tag means “can you see the angels” really original i know lmao I love this band and this song(I am not in any means fluent in German, I can only flirt and order food), I have included a video with the English translation. It WASNT going to be five words long, but I felt like just “Die Engel” (The Angel) would NOT work because people wouldn’t understand its not die(English), it’s die(German) + be like “wow that’s a little harsh” 🤣 the full lyric is “Can you see the angels, they fall only for you” which is meant to allude to how Simeon does a LOT of shit he is not supposed to for the MC

Jafar- #❤️[Out of Body]

This is a song by Gorillaz that feels kind of like some sort of cult ritual at first. Allegedly it is about the sort of euphoria you feel dancing at a club or party. Idk feels a lil culty to me(<- has never been to a party). Another one I don’t really have much to say about, in my head it just fits. It’s fun and upbeat and a little crazy/foreboding because this guy is nuts ily tho bby

+Leviathan- #❤️[Break the Internet]

This is from Cyber Sex by Doja Cat exclusively because I didn’t know what the hell to use for him that wasn’t an anime OST song, and I like keeping the music theme. (Sorry bud) I was going to do something from Match to Water by Pierce the Veil(which I feel like is HIS song even if I don’t really feel romantically abt him as much), but I really couldn’t find anything short and snappy that I felt like fit him. And obviously the name of this song would not work on my sfw page 😅

Albert- #❤️[Mr. Doctor Man]

Song by Palaye Royal that has been stuck in my head for the past 6years (shoutout to my ex who introduced me to this band). It’s pretty heavy if you actually listen to the words (alludes to a doctor using illicit substances to cope with the trauma of the job). I’m not completely naïve to the fact that our guy Bertie is canonically a homicidal maniac who absolutely abuses his position to turn people into weird zombie demons or human hamburgers. His story is dark and I wanted his song to reflect that feeling. One of the more recent updates from the game’s creator actually shows a concept art of a kid Albert in some sort of medical testing facility, and I really felt like the song’s themes resonated with him

#goblinrambles #❤️[Break the Internet]

[singerasia96]

Pulsating Dildo, Pulsating Dildo Suppliers And Manufacturers At Alibaba Com

That gliiiiides, however isn’t so slick that it’s now not like skin. Like the non-mechanical Naked Addiction, the balls are gentle and squeezable too. Interestingly, the last function is like wiggly vibration—whereas the earlier 6 capabilities are easy back-and-forth pulsation. I like to show the Naked Addiction thruster on this excessive vibrating velocity and thrust it by hand.

By utilizing our providers, you comply with our use of cookies. All models were 18 years of age or older on the time of depiction. We have zero toolerance coverage in opposition to illegal pornography. All galleries and hyperlinks are offered by third events.

The BMS Naked Addiction Thrusting Dildo makes me feel I’m being screwed by a metronome. The instrument that retains beat evenly, click on, click, click. This dildo is wiggly, it’s jiggly, and it makes me crave faster and quicker.

They’re fairly pronounced, actually noticeable if I’m moving my body against them. But they’re additionally more work to wash, as you need to run your finger via 5 separate ridges to remove lube and gunk. We have a zero-tolerance coverage towards illegal pornography. All motion pictures and hyperlinks are provided by third parties. We take no duty for the content material on any website which we link to, please use your own discretion while browsing the hyperlinks. I like to watch my orgasm, the intense joy expressed on my face. It all the time feels squishily pleasant and has a beautiful finish.

Slutty Girl Is On The Sting Of Hitting The Best Orgasm

The bumping is by some means refined but highly effective too, as I sense these weights shifting inside. I would advocate this toy most either riden (extra on the suction cup soon!) and/or together with an exterior vibrator . Here’s how every of the 2 wiggly-transferring dildos works, and how it stacks up to other thrusting options. There are 103 suppliers who sells pulsating dildo on Alibaba.com, mainly positioned in Asia.

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I loved the testing expertise, but neither toy is scorching enough to make me rush to update my full greatest thrusting dildos guide.

I loved the testing expertise, but neither toy is sizzling sufficient to make me rush to replace my full greatest thrusting dildos information. These thump-pulsing dildos are extra within the “I mean it’s fine I guess” category for me. I hold attempting to inform myself it’s OK that the thrusting movement isn’t sensible. But in the long run, what can I say, realism will get me off. Gotta pull out the VixThrust self-thrusting combo, or one of my favourite realistic dildos, for probably the most orgasmic finale. Because I am a lover of THRUST, and I even have a big collection of toys that actually move in and out, the Thump It was an adjustment for me.

These toys DO NOT feel like “real life” at all—but they’re still fairly enjoyable. Mainly, the thumping weight feels unbelievable with a robust clit vibe. The outer layer of silicone in each toys seems identical. Clearly, by the laws of physics, this was going to be a pulsator—not a full-size thrusting dildo. There, proper beneath the ring of fascinating vertical slits, the thump-thump-thump is easiest to really feel. The movement additionally radiates upward into the series of ridges under the head.

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(Also deeper.) IMO the Naked Addiction Thruster has much less heft to its pulsations than the Stronics, but greater than the Zalo Desire thruster. The silicone is pretty firm, a 20A shore durometer, and has a clean feel. I selected the thickest Thump It (known as 7.5″ by Betty’s), after all.

It’s 2 inches diameter (NOT 1.7), with a delicate coronal ridge and then a sequence of echoing ridges beneath that. This is the section of the dildo that can rub towards my G-spot whereas using, for essentially the most sensation. Fap18 HD Tube - Porn movies has a zero-tolerance policy towards unlawful pornography.

Tough Intercourse And Squirt Compilation

Just press to activate, then cycle via the 7 capabilities. The best part of Thump It 7.5 Inches’ silicone for me is these ridges under its head.

The high nations of supplier is China, from which the percentage of pulsating dildo provide is a hundred% respectively. Whereas the BMS pulsator has that squishy consolation of the softer silicone. The BMS pulsating dildo’s suction cup is pretty good. It is pretty versatile, and may not present essentially the most steady match inside a harness. wand vibraters to use the BMS Naked Addiction Thrusting suction-cupped to a wall as a result of the core is so agency, inflexible. The Thump It thumping dildo’s capabilities may be managed via the one energy on/off change.

#toys

[ravenlesslangblr]

So I did all of the Duolingo placement tests

Related to this post I saw a few requests to post the results of all my placement tests, so let's go! Long post and a lot of rambling ahead! So my friend and I did the tests chronologically (leaving the High Valyrian and Klingon out until the end in case we got too tired), but I'm going to group them up here in an order that makes sense.

Each of the numbers means the number of skills I've tested out of/the number of 'crowns' I got in each language. Since I got to complete the placement test 37 times in total, I could actually find out how it works. It is pretty hard to try and cheat your way through it with a language you don't know, because if the test picks up on a fact that you messed up a 'beginner sentence', it immediately sends you back to the basics. Due to this, some results were a tiny bit upsetting, but later on, I realised that this is just how the test works and is not necessarily reflective on one's language skills. Another thing that is super important - the test reflects your knowledge of the Duolingo course rather than your actual language knowledge. I could actually prove this 'theory' to myself later on with some results.

My 'main' languages aka the languages I did well on and I kind of expected to:

Irish 48 French 42 German 51 Honestly, I was a bit more open not to do so well on French since it's become quite rusty and I'm experiencing some kind of a mental block with it, but I still did quite well! As for German and Irish - I would have been so upset had I gotten a single mistake. And it has not happened in either case.

My native language: Czech 31 This one honestly made me lol, because I have made 2+ mistakes and the Duolingo course is just strange. It called me out on my use of nějaký and některý where I was like 'There's a difference? o.O' and at one point it used the verb 'left' for 'forgot', which I did figure out correctly, but it was yet another sign that the course/placement test isn't very accurate yet when it comes to Czech. Languages I did well on because they are similar to a language that i already speak: Spanish 12 Italian 14 (well, I briefly studied Italian, so some credit there as well) Portuguese 3 (surprising since I mostly guessed) Polish 24 Ukrainian 17 Yiddish 5 (I LOVED the Yiddish placement test! I will definitely try the Duolingo course)

Other languages I have done before: Welsh 3 Esperanto 9 I was quite disappointed in both of these (Welsh broke my heart!) but I think this is just a testament that the placement tests aren't reflective of your language knowledge, but of your Duolingo topics knowledge. I haven't done much of Welsh or Esperanto on Duolingo since I studied them at university. I'm not fluent in either, so it really boils down to what I was taught. More proof are the next languages Dutch 22 Scottish Gaelic 20 These are the two lanuages I have studied almost exclusively on Duolingo only. I also definitely have a better knowledge of Welsh and Esperanto than Gaelic and Dutch. But the tests went much much better for these, because I already knew the topics that Duolingo was going to ask me. And now for the Nordic languages: Swedish 18 Norwegian 16 Danish 7

Honestly, I think it's hilarious that I did better at Swedish than Norwegian, when the only reason I did well at Swedish was because of Norwegian. Also, the articles are still super confusing to me and it was a source of many frustrating mistakes! Speaking of mistakes - I don't think that the test takes into account what kind of mistakes you made. It could be a missing article (which imo is a pretty minor one) or you could pick an adjective for a verb and both of the mistakes will be marked down the same. This one was pretty frustrating and prevented me from doing well on languages that I was actually okay at. Languages I've failed and it was quite upsetting: Korean 0 Russian 0 Latin 0 I have been learning some Korean on Lingodeer (mostly reading Hangul), so I expected to utilise some of these skills on Duolingo. Not the case. My Russian - I can read and understand - just like Ukrainian that I did pretty well on in comparison.... and it all boiled down to me confusing some things and not knowing what 'a horse' was. Boom, 'let's start from the basics'. Same with Latin - I have studied it briefly and was able to understand, but I haven't touched it in a while and completely forgot some minor things, which the placement test picked up on immediately. Also! When you're not doing well, the placement test almost taunts you! They keep giving you the same stuff over and over until you remember it and it feels like there's some hope for you. But no, still back to basics! it's quite mean! haha And here's the languages I have also failed, but it wasn't surprising:

Japanese 0 Mandarin 0 Hindi 0 Arabic 0 Turkish 0 Greek 0 (this is an example of the one I thought I was doing well on) Vietnamese 0 Hebrew 0 Indonesian 0 Hawaiian 0 Finnish 0 (bit sad since I really want to learn Finnish) Romanian 0 (I was super surprised here since I somewhat expected to be able to understand it more) Swahili 0 (again I really enjoyed it! Will check out the course on my actual account) Hungarian 0 (another one i thought I did well on haha) Navajo 0 (also will check out the course!) And the fictional ones - no one's surprised, even though High Valyrian was giving me some hope: High Valyrian 0 Klingon 0 Also, is this a testament of how eurocentric my language interest is? Yep, pretty much. I am quite aware and I'd like to broaden my interests, but then again, it's not that easy. Still all in all, this was so much fun, even though it was a bit tiring and frustrating at times. However, once you find out that there's no point in trying to bs the languages you don't know/recognise anyway, then it gets a bit easier. Let me know if you try and honestly, congrats if you've read up until here, I don't even have the patience to re-read this post :D @dutch-polyglot , @anthropologicle and everyone else who liked/reblogged :)

#language learning #duolingo #polyglot #multilingual

[xoxo-ren-xoxo]

Rating the Films I've Seen This Term in University In a Completely Arbitrary and Subjective Fashion

Because I'm getting a degree in Film Studies. This is also a recommendations list go watch all the 8/10 or above ones. Also I'm separating these by which module of my uni course I watched them for, with recreational viewings at the end.

Film History:

The Immigrant (Chaplin) 8/10 the funniest and most down to earth Chaplin film I saw this term

Easy Street (Chaplin) 7/10 again very funny but didn't have as much to say imo

City Lights (Chaplin) 6/10 too long I'm sorry I got bored. Also not as funny to me

Strike (Eisenstein) 7/10 communism :)

Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein) 8/10 communism plus the staircase scene very iconic

M (Lang) 4/10 you could literally skip the middle and you wouldn't miss anything

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Wiene) 6/10 not my thing but if you like weirdo German horror shit then it'll be your thing. Nice stylisation

Grand Hotel (Goulding) 7/10 if you like old Hollywood glamour you'll like this. Lots of good supporting cast. Entertaining

Bicycle Thieves (De Sica) 8/10 fun and sad but not too sad, a lot of class commentary

Rome Open City (Rossellini) 7/10 based on true stories much much sadder still good tho

Contempt (Godard) 6/10 kinda boring, there's like four characters and barely two storylines, but interesting contextually

Day for Night (Truffaut) 7/10 more entertaining, tragic, big supporting cast, lots of storylines, interesting!

Young Mr Lincoln (Ford) 7/10 honestly better than I thought it'd be ngl

Game Change (Roach) 4/10 I don't care about Sarah Palin

Lagaan (Gowariker) 10/10 the 70 minute cricket match was so fucking worth it and ily if you have seen this. I have all of the songs stuck in my head

The Official Story (Puenzo) 5/10 I get it but also eh

Rojo (Naishtat) 6/10 history

Visual Cultures:

Persepolis (Satrapi) 8/10 brilliant animated work and beautifully adapted from the original graphic novel

American Splendor (Berman and Pulcini) 10/10 made me cry, is very hard to watch in some places, definitely doesn't shy away from difficult topics, again brilliantly adapted from the comics

Spiderman: Into The Spiderverse (Persichetti) 10/10 do I even need to tell you this

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (Wright) 9/10 Edgar Wright can't write women but he can write a damn good film, go watch it if you haven't but you're on Tumblr so...

Theories for Film Studies:

Rear Window (Hitchcock) 8/10 love a story set in one room

American Psycho (Harron) 7/10 hey did you know that rich people can do crime and get away with it. Or maybe they can't.

Falling Down (Schumacher) 8/10 Joker before Joker. Unfortunately one of those films like Joker and Fight Club where certain men watch it and miss the point completely

King Kong (Cooper and Schoedsack) 1/10 it gets one point for the dinosaurs being cool

Bad Boy Bubby (de Heer) 2/10 I get it and yes it's a decent film but no you didn't have to do any of this actually

Bhaji on the Beach (Chadha) 8/10 girlboss

Paris is Burning (Livingston) 8/10 a good introduction to ballroom culture, there is however a lot of discourse surrounding the director and what her intentions were with making the film so keep that context in mind ig

Bamako (Sissako) 6/10 you need to know a bit of contextual stuff before watching and it's pretty boring but I guess it's kinda moving too

As Good As It Gets (Brooks) 9/10 every kind of prejudice is in this film, still slaps pretty hard tho

The Piano (Campion) 6/10 woman has piano and plays it. yeah

Film Analysis:

Rebel Without a Cause (Ray) 6/10 I had to write an essay on this so it's kinda dead to me but it was alright. Amazing cinematography.

Touch of Evil (Welles) 5/10 sorry Welles this kinda sucked ngl

The Shop Around The Corner (Lubitsch) 9/10 very fun very cute again it's the ensemble cast which did it for me I love them yes yes

Blow Out (de Palma) 9/10 absolute banger film tbh very interesting and made me feel emotions

La Mala Education (Almodóvar) 6/10 kinda cool kinda confusing I get what they were going for. Also the guy from Y Tu Mama Tambien is in this which is cool I love that film...

Recreational Viewings:

The French Dispatch (Anderson) 10/10 fuck yeah I even wrote an editorial piece about it. Beautiful and amazing

Passing (Hall) 5/10 it didn't make me feel the emotions I think it wanted me to feel. It felt quite empty but not in an existential way? I understand the importance of it and the Point of the film but it just didn't resonate

Seven Samurai (Kurosawa) 10/10 I understand why people call this the best foreign language film ever. It was insanely long (3 and a half hours) but I loved every second. A masterpiece.

#film #film student #film analysis #film rating #film history #ben chats shit on the internet #film review #im not gonna tag everything

[rose-tinted-juls]

juliana's fav tv shows updated: 26.07.2021.

la casa de papel / money heist (2017-) nationality: spanish created by: álex pina main actors: úrsula corberó, álvaro morte, itziar ituño, pedro alonso, miguel herrán, jaime lorente, esther acebo, alba flores short summary (imdb): "an unusual group of robbers attempt to carry out the most perfect robbery in spanish history - stealing 2.4 billion euros from the royal mint of spain." seasons: 4 - (season 5 is coming in september + december 2021) why i love it (in a few words): it's thrilling, all the characters are perfectly written, i love listening to spanish speech, the actors are awesome, SO INCREDIBLE PLOT, uncountable twists, i got attached so fast, i binge watched it, it never feels forced

band of brothers (2001) nationality: american created by: tom hanks, steven spielberg main actors: damian lewis, ron livingston, ross mccall, rick gomez, james madio, kirk acevedo, neal mcdonough, scott grimes, dexter fletcher, donnie wahlberg short summary (imdb): "the story of easy company of the u.s. army 101st airborne division, and their mission in world war ii europe, from operation overlord, through v-j day." - based on the book band of brothers by stephen e. ambrose seasons: 1 why i love it (in a few words): it's ww2 and i'm a huge ww2 enthusiast, i love hbo war, it shows the good and the bad, we follow the whole journey of these soldiers and it's amazing, the actors are absolutely incredible, their friendships are 100/10, the cinematography is beautiful, it's based on a true story

downton abbey (2010-) nationality: english created by: julian fellowes main actors: hugh bonneville, maggie smith, michelle dockery, dan stevens, robert james-collier, allen leech, penelope wilton, matthew goode, lily james short summary (imdb): "a chronicle of the lives of the british aristocratic crawley family and their servants in the early twentieth century." seasons: 6 + 1 movie (the second movie comes in december 2021) why i love it (in a few words): it has phenomenal actors, the plot is exciting-thrilling, there are twists you don't expect, so many love stories and i love them, fantastic characters, it's often so funny i can't stop laughing, dame maggie smith and her performance as the dowager is just incredible and i love her, costumes on point, tom branson o.o

broadchurch (2013-2017) nationality: british created by: chris chibnall main actors: david tennant, olivia colman, jodie whittaker, arthur darvill short summary (imdb): "the murder of a young boy in a small coastal town brings a media frenzy, which threatens to tear the community apart." seasons: 3 why i love it (in a few words): david tennant, his scottish accent i can't-, olivia colman, their duo oh my god these two together are something extraordinary, it's such a thrilling show wow, SO MANY PLOT TWISTS, cinematography is phenomenal and gorgeous, it's so funny at times oh lord (especially david), it's impossible to stop watching

the pacific (2010) nationality: american created by: tom hanks, steven spielberg main actors: joe mazzello, jon seda, james badge dale, rami malek, ashton holmes short summary (imdb): "the pacific theatre of world war ii, as seen through the eyes of several young marines." seasons: 1 why i love it (in a few words): hbo war, it's ww2 and i'm such an enthusiast of it, joe mazzello is incredible oh my, it's a bit graphic (for some people it's too graphic and i can see why) but i love it, it makes you feel you're there fighting and like wow, actually all the actors are amazing in it, we see three different story lines so we get to know different aspects of the whole thing

the crown (2016-) nationality: british created by: peter morgan main actors: claire foy, matt smith, olivia colman, tobias menzies, vanessa kirby, helena bonham carter, josh o'connor, emma corrin short summary (imdb): "follows the political rivalries and romance of queen elizabeth ii's reign and the events that shaped the second half of the twentieth century." seasons: 4 - (season 5 and 6 are in the making) why i love it (in a few words): i've always been interested in queen elizabeth's life, this is a look inside the royal family that you don't often have, the actors are SO AMAZING, honestly sometimes it's so funny and then the next minute it's heartbreaking, it teaches me more about them than anything else, i guess it gives you their point of view so you can understand them a lil bit better, as a child i loved the british royal family so baby me is happy inside when i watch it

the falcon and the winter soldier (2021) nationality: american created by: malcolm spellman - stan lee main actors: anthony mackie, sebastian stan, wyatt russell, daniel brühl short summary (imdb): "following the events of 'avengers: endgame', sam wilson / falcon and bucky barnes / winter soldier team up in a global adventure that tests their abilities - and their patience." seasons: 1 why i love it (in a few words): i'm a huge marvel fan, my fav characters are sam and bucky, SEBASTIAN STAN, it's funny (honestly which marvel movie/series isn't?), the cinematography is gorgeous, the plot is great, fight scenes on point

biohackers (2020-) nationality: german created by: christian ditter main actors: luna wedler, jessica schwarz, adrian julius tillmann short summary (imdb): "a fast-paced thriller following medical student mia akerlund who discovers the use of highly advanced biohacking technology in her university town." seasons: 2 why i love it (in a few words): exciting, plays in a city i know, plot twists, the cinematography is amazing, a beautiful show honestly, the plot is interesting and one of a kind imo, the actors are pretty great

the mandalorian (2019-) nationality: american created by: jon favreau main actors: pedro pascal short summary (imdb): "the travels of a lone bounty hunter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the new republic." seasons: 2 - (season 3 is coming) why i love it (in a few words): i love star wars and the star wars universe, pedro pascal is amazing, honestly i fell in love with pedro just by his voice literally without even knowing his face, BABY YODA, the character development, exciting plot, pretty awesome fight scenes, great actors

the queen's gambit (2020) nationality: american created by: scott frank, allan scott main actors: anya taylor joy, thomas brodie-sangster, harry melling, jacob fortune-lloyd short summary (imdb): "orphaned at the tender age of nine, prodigious introvert beth harmon discovers and masters the game of chess in 1960s usa. but child stardom comes at a price." seasons: 1 why i love it (in a few words): cinematography is beautiful, anya taylor joy is gorgeous, and she's such a talent oh my, i love chess, the plot, TBS is in it, it's a show you can't not binge watch it just pulls you in

( +1 )

peaky blinders (2013-) nationality: british created by: steven knight main actors: cillian murphy, paul anderson, helen mccrory, joe cole, finn cole short summary (imdb): "a gangster family epic set in 1900s england, centering on a gang who sew razor blades in the peaks of their caps, and their fierce boss tommy shelby." seasons: 5 - (season 6 is coming) why i love it (in a few words): i love mob stuff in general, so amazing actors oh my, cillian murphy, helen mccrory, it's so dark i love it, plot plot plot, the soundtrack is phenomenal (especially when it's arctic monkeys shhh), it's british (yay)

#juliana's fav series #juliana's movie rec #tv show recommendations #fav series: tfatws #fav series: the crown #fav series: broadchurch #fav series: hbo war #fav series: queen's gambit #fav series: biohackers #fav series: la casa de papel #fav series: peaky blinders #fav series: the mandalorian

[ye-xiu]

in light of mark venturing out into his own solo song here’s my ranking on nct’s rappers bc why not:

mark: without a doubt the best one and from an objective standpoint too. he sounds like an american-adjacent rapper which is par for the cause. you can hear this is what he grew up listening to. he has organic musicality and great feeling for rhythm, even when his raps derail a bit sometimes. most of the time he manages to fix the weaker parts of nct songs with his rapping. tho his raps sound better when he writes them, which isn’t surprising. and to me the fact that he adlibs most of nct’s songs speak in favor of him as a rapper and musician.  fave parts: mad city, new axis, know now, gimme gimme

yangyang: imo nct’s best rapper easily and the one with the most potential while already being pretty skilled (for an idol rapper anyway). his rap flow is reminiscent of non-english speaking rapping, which isn’t surprising as opposed to mark he spent his formative years surrounded by german rap beginning its epic climb to a mainstream pop genre. he can switch flows fluidly and stays on beat and he can do a double time that is easy to follow. sounds least like an idol rapper. fave parts: new axis, only human, round&round, leonidas, lightbulb (cover of taeyeong’s part)

taeyong: who else? obviously nct doesn’t have many skilled rappers and no, sub vocalists with spoken word parts aren’t rappers. taeyong seems to split the masses and it’s no different with me. he has his hits and his misses, but he does have a unique voice and enunciation as well. sometimes he sounds like he is walking behind the beat while he raps, but at least he can switch flows. and a double time, if both of us ask the higher powers to look out for him. i liked his earlier stuff more than what he currently does, which is solely based on my preferences for his voice modulation as well as the sub-genres nct put him into. and he did hold zoo together by the seams of his pants tho, god bless. fave parts: baby don’t like it, mad city, limitless 

hendery: he raps like an idol rapper. not too awful on the spoken-word parts tbh but he is definitely no standout to me. but the nct roadmap says he is a rapper so what can you do. i didn’t hate him in zoo and he was fun to listen to in miracle. i have no thoughts on this man whatsoever. he is deffo no standout rapper to me. he does his solid 9 to 5 and what he’s told to do in the booth and i am 👍 about that tho. good 4 him.

yuta & jeno: vocalist that can’t sing operatic scales does not make a rapper automatically @ sm. out of the two of them i do prefer yuta’s voice and i think there’s a lot of room for him to work with and on it. would i call him a rapper tho? no. but when the nct 127′s need someone to start a spoken-word part in a bridge, he will be there and by god he will do it. on to jeno, apparently this man raps. i didn’t know this because i do not listen to nct dream regularly and couldn’t place his voice in nct u songs. tho his voice works for a rapper as well as for the parts he gets and he’s pleasing to listen to! but once more a spoken-word assignment does not make a rapper. it does make an idol rapper tho so both of them are completely fine among those. nothing 2 write home about.

are there more? i don’t think there are more. johnny is a podcast guest, not a rapper.

#al.txt #<3

[maggot-monger]

what are some of your favorite/most interesting vampire folklore stories? or legends/myths/stories about vampires?

alright, my beautiful, patient anon, let’s talk about vampires >:D

(this is going to be mostly historical accounts, but i’d be happy to talk more loosely about common features of vampire stories or just to spit hot takes or whatever too, just let me know!)

my #1 recommendation is to look into the american vampire folklore tradition from the 18th and 19th centuries. most of these stories are about vampirism spreading within family units. there is usually blood involved, but there is rarely explicit blood drinking (there is nothing consistent about vampire lore...they are very much a ‘i know it when i see it but damned if i can define it’ monster lol) — instead, new england vampires were more about unseen contagion and disease. a great example of this is the story of mercy brown, who is usually mentioned as the “last” “real” new england vampire. i also suggest the article “vampires and death in new england, 1784 to 1892″ by michael bell, if you’re interested in an academic take on this stuff. people (rightly) associate vampires with central and eastern european folklore, but the american stuff is really cool and very creepy, and if you’re interested in weird old vampire stories you might like it!

okay so now skipping actually over to central and eastern europe, there are a number of accounts of “normal” vampire encounters that started getting written up around the 17th-18th centuries that seem like good examples. a few good ones are: petar blagojević (1725), a serbian vampire who killed about 9 people as a vampire and made himself a nuisance to his family; arnold paole (1725), the source of an epidemic of vampirism in his serbian village; “the shoemaker of breslau” (1581) [cw for suicide in this one...a pretty common theme in old vampire folklore], a german revenant/nachzehrer/”ghost” who caused a ruckus in his town post-mortem; and löwenstimm’s account of justina yschkov (1848), a young russian woman suspected of vampirism because of the circumstances surrounding her death (namely, cholera and pregnancy). there’s also joseph pitton de tournefort’s vrykolakas story from greece about watching some people, uhm, deal with (dissect, basically) a vampire. 

i have more if you want them but i think these are some of the best (well, ok, justina’s isn’t that good or easy to find material about but i wanted to include a lady vamp and there aren’t that many of those from this tradition). it’s hard to get really good accounts of these types of vampires because they were mostly peasants from regions that kept changing hands politically. most of the stories got written down by german people cataloging to-them unfamiliar superstitions of people now under their empire’s rule — often first-hand accounts, but definitely with some foreign sensationalist flavor.

a third group of vampires worth talking about are the central and eastern european nobles. it’s funny that vampires have become such a classy monster considering mostly the folklore is about poor working people, but anyway, there are three main notables in this category. most people probably know about vlad iii aka vlad the impaler aka vlad dracul (1428/31 – 1476/77), famous for defending wallachia against the ottoman empire and for, well, impaling a fuckton of people on spikes. another is countess erzsébet báthory de ecsed (1560–1614), who ~allegedly~ held prisoner, tortured, and bathed in the blood of hundreds peasant girls from her lands. finally, and probably least well known of the three, is princess eleonore von schwarzenberg (1682-1741), who was basically just a weird lady whose death made everybody extremely paranoid (to the point that she was not even buried with her family like other people of her rank and lineage usually were! i actually visited the church were they ended up burying her...nice place lol). 

and finally, some older short story/novella recs, because why not? carmilla (1872) by sheridan le fanu is great; the vampyre (1819) by john polidori is less great but still fun (the main character is wonderfully soft and dumb :p); good lady ducayne (1896) by mary elizabeth braddon; dracula’s guest (1897) by bram stoker; luella miller (1903) by mary e. wilkins-freeman; and for the blood is the life (1911) by f. marion crawford. (actually, all of these are in the penguin book of vampire stories edited by alan ryan, which is a great collection btw!) 

(also, weird shout-out to the novel the manuscript found in saragossa (1805) by jan potocki, which is...not about vampires exactly, but is also definitely about vampires imo? i haven’t actually finished reading it and i might not ever but the creepy isolated dreamy vibe is impeccable if you’re into it)

i hope this response makes up for how long it took me to get around to answering you, anon!!

#vampires #folklore #mine #replies #anonymous #i do legitimately love talking about this stuff #if you want to chat more you can hmu and i promise i'll get back to it quicker!!! #my writing #my meta

[naralanis]

hey nara! first off, I absolutely adore your blog and your writing, Perhaps is on my comfort fics list that I pull out whenever I’m having a bad time. I also happen to be a fan of your pen instagram and I was wondering if you had any suggestions on some fountain pens for beginners? I recently bought a “Pilot MR Retro Pop” that I really enjoy but I think I’m ready to branch off a bit. Do you have any tips with practicing with fountain pens you’d be willing to share? As much as I try, my handwriting never looks as nice as I want it to with mine. No pressure to respond if not, just wanted to stop by and let you know how much I enjoy your content! Hope you have a pleasant rest of your day/night!

Oh goodness, you’re talking about fic AND fountain pens in the same ask? Stop, stop, I’m already married!

First off, thanks for reading; I’m so glad Perhaps is there for you when ya need it, it makes me really happy to hear. Seriously warms my heart!

As far as fountain pens go... ANON I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO TALK ABOUT I AM SO SORRY THIS WILL BE SUCH A LONG RIDE so I’m going to put it under the cut sorry sorry sorry in this essay I will

Hooray for the Pilot MR (or Metro, here in the US), it’s an AMAZING little pen, and if you’re calling it the MR, chances are you got it with an international standard converter, you lucky, lucky duck. I’m happy you’re enjoying it, as far as beginner pens go, this one is an excellent choice.

When you say “branching out”, this can mean one of two things. It can mean you want to branch out to other brands but a similar price range, or that you’re ready for a ‘next level’ pen. I’ll try to cover both! (I’ll link some of these models to the Goulet Pens website, but feel free to look for them elsewhere--I just really like Goulet’s very thorough descriptions)

If you’re looking to explore other pen models in the MR’s price range, there’s a metric ton of  options! Sticking with Pilot, you can try the Explorer-- a completely different, more streamlined pen than the MR, but if you’re used to the nib on your pen, you have a better idea of what to expect with it. There’s also the Kakuno, which is cheaper, but very cute with its little smiley face nibs haha

Another Japanese pen you can try: the Platinum Plaisir. Aluminum body, but do remember that Platinum nibs generally give a little more feedback than Pilot’s, which are some of the smoothest Japanese-made nibs I’ve ever seen.

You can also try the Diplomat Magnum -- it’s a a great little pen, and I love mine. Keep in mind, it is very lightweight, especially compared to the MR’s metal body, but to me that makes it great for long writing sessions. The nib is completely different--it will write a little wider, a little wetter than the MR (and any other Japanese-made pen), but it’s slightly springy and awesome to write with. Plus, it has an ink window so you can keep track of your ink!

Other options in this price range: the Jinhao 8802 (Shell or Rosewood, and the most bang for your buck imo as far as cheap fountain pens go), the Jinhao x750 or x450 (these are heavier, but they look great!), the TWISBI GO (a teeny, amazing little pen with a spring-loaded piston filling mechanism), and a Kaweco Sport (another pocket-pen, German-made, so the nib will write a little wetter/wider generally) or the Perkeo.

Now, if you’d like to push your price range a little further (only a little! I promise not to break the bank!), you cannot go wrong with Lamy.I am a self-admitted Lamy fangirl, so I may be a little biased, buuuut... it is what it is, their pens are great, they’re easy to disassemble for cleaning (I go totally nuts over it and even disassemble the converters, which you absolutely don’t need to do), and their nibs are SO EASILY INTERCHANGEABLE!

You can pick up a Lamy Safari for fairly cheap nowadays (and ever cheaper look-alikes, which I will never endorse but also will not judge anyone for buying), and they come in so many colours (the O.G. 1980 colours were also just reissued!), they’re like my Pokemon because I want to catch ‘em all.

For a little more, you can get yourself a Lamy AL-Star--the same design of the Safari, but this time in aluminum, which makes it look super cool (but also prone to scratches if you’re the kind of person that puts your pen in your pocket with your keys... that’s... definitely not me...), so keep that in mind.

You can also pick yourself up a Lamy Logo, for a couple more bucks. A completely different design, but still great, particularly if you like slimmer pens.

The nibs on ALL the Lamy models (even the more expensive ones like the Studio or the Scala or even the Dialog) are interchangeable! Even the gold nib on the Dialog! The only exception is the Lamy 2000 (which is probably one of the best pens out there period, and certainly an amazing first-gold-nib pen).

The one thing that absolutely kills me about the cheaper Lamy pens is that, for the most part, none of them come with a converter--you have to buy it separately. Which is fine, it’s not super expensive, and it is widely available, but COME ON, LAMY, JUST GIMME.

If you’d like to try a cool-looking pen with a CRAZY ink capacity and a nifty piston-filling mechanism, look no further than the TWISBI ECO. I have one of these (green, obv), and I love it. Never tires me out, and I stg mine never. dries. out. I don’t know what witchcraft is involved, but it’s an amazing pen for long writing sessions.

Finally, if you’d like to try another Japanese-made pen that is a little more expensive than the Pilot MR or the Platinum Plaisir, there’s the Sailor Compass 1911. This is one of the cheapest Sailor pens I know of, and a good introduction to the brand. Keep in mind that, like Platinum, Sailor nibs will give more feedback than the Pilot you’re used to!

If you would like to push your budget even further, here are some options for fountain pens under $100 (I know, big jump, but it’s good to see what’s out there to you can compare!) from JetPens.

There are a million other brands out there that you can look at. Sheaffer makes great, very cheap and fun beginner pens (including a whole Star Wars Line! They’re adorable!). Hong Dian has a ton of pens that look sleek as hell (like the Forest Series) and they’re all like under 20 bucks. Kaco is another one that makes surprisingly good pens! Parker is also an option, with the Jotter, which is a classic-looking pen. There’s Conklin and Monteverde (which have a ton of fountain pens in a wide range of prices, but I’ve had bad luck with their nibs, so I would suggest you do some independent research on those!), as well as Noodler’s if you’d like to go crazy with some flex nibs! The fountain pen rabbit hole is bottomless. Welcome :D

As far as handwriting goes, I’m afraid I don’t have much more to say besides practice, practice, practice. I learned cursive as a child, but never got into calligraphy, really. Even today, I only just dabble, but whenever I see something I like, I usually just like to try and replicate it. Very often I’ll see a video on Instagram and go Oh my god, how the hell did they write that G, I’ve got to try that and then what follows is me going through page after page on a Rhodia pad trying to imitate them. I like janinescribbles and aidanbernal on Instagram, they’re like handwriting goals--check them out!

A lot of the time, we’re looking for more line variation to make our handwriting look prettier--that’s usually what you see in that fancy, old-timey Spencerian cursive, or even copperplate calligraphy. Unfortunately, you won’t get that with just a regular fountain pen, but there is good news!

There are a TON of different nibs out there. Stub nibs, fude nibs, flex nibs, obliques, cursive italic -- you can even get your pen ground by a professional nibmeister to fit your specifications. There are calligraphy pens (like the Lamy Joy) or pen sets (Kaweco has a Perkeo Calligraphy set, and I believe Sailor has one of their own as well). You can even check out the Pilot Parallel set -- the whole thing is like the price of a Lamy AL-Star, you just won’t do regular writing with it; it’s pretty specifically a calligraphy/lettering set. There are even flex pens in the market (though none of them are as flexy as those old, vintage gold nibs) like the Noodler’s Nib Creaper, Ahab, and Triple Tail or the Conklins with their Omniflex nib (which has been problematic in the past, but I’ve heard good things recently). It’s a whole other rabbit hole!

But honestly, don’t sweat the handwriting too much. Just write a few lines every day, try new things, and get lost for eternity on some Instagram tags!

I think this is a long enough post as it is, so I’ll stop there! SORRY. HOPE IT HELPS!

#ask naralanis and maybe she will deign to respond #anon #fountain pens #fountain pen network #fountain pen geeks #fic writing #cissamione #and all the weird things that overlap in this godforsaken blog

[camerinhell]

[Hazbin Hotel Meta] Alastor’s Ethnicity + An Aside on Human!Alastor

Meta time, lovelies~

(reblogs appreciated! ;w; )

So I've seen Al's ethnicity as a subject of discussion on and off between Twitter and Tumblr, and it’s been coming up more frequently. Being the type of individual that I am, I'd like to chime in with some collected thoughts and theory (of which I hope influences further depictions of Human!Alastor, as currently, he is being whitewashed. I don’t mean this to be explicitly aggressive at all, but I’m being straight up). PLEASE attempt to refrain from knee-jerk reactions or going on the defensive; the latter-most part of this post is meant to raise awareness/start level-headed and respectable discussion. We’re all individuals here fully capable of civil discussion, and with, what I’d like to believe, best intentions at heart :)

ALRIGHT, SO:

To begin, we know for a definitive fact that Al isn't wholly white. VivziePop stated this on 'Vivzie Streem- WHATS IN THE BOX -#7' @ 0:09:48, saying that Alastor is actually mixed (as a mixed ethnicity person myself, I gotta say this was pretty exciting to hear!); this was also listed and cited/sourced via Alastor’s Fandom wiki. Beyond this however, she didn't go into any more detail.

Being that Al was born in New Orleans, and looking at the census data for Louisiana from the very late 1890s through about 1900 or so (imo, the most likely years Al was born. I don’t see him being over 35 years of age), the state was nearly split 50/50 white persons and Black persons (of African descent or otherwise; as the Black ethnic group comprises of more than just people of African ancestry). Urban areas (i.e. New Orleans, his city of birth) leaned more white, but still had a sizable Black population (approx. 1/3 of urban populace from the very late 1890s to ~32% in 1900).

Screenshot below for quick reference [1900], can download and zoom (will include link to full census report via comment).

With this information at hand, it’s easy, entirely reasonable and incredibly likely that Al is half white and half Black. Now, this may very well be the case (and I’d be just as excited if it is), but after a day or so thinking and musing on this theory/likelihood, I came to refine it further. Here, we talk about Alastor having Creole identification.

Now while being Creole (born in Louisiana, which Alastor canonically is) doesn’t inherently denote any certain racial denomination mixed or otherwise, it is not uncommon (to the point of being quite common) to indeed have mixed ethnic  heritage. Creoles commonly hail from European (French and/or Spanish, and then later including Irish, Italian and German) ancestry along with Black (Caribbean and/or African) lineage, though it is not particularly rare either to also/instead have Native American, Dominican, or Cuban blood, as well.

It’s again, reasonably likely, that Alastor is more mixed race than simply biracial, given Louisiana’s lengthy and complex (and sad) history from colonial times throughout the 1900s. However, what I am confident in saying, long as VivziePop aims to be historically accurate and just, Al is almost certainly some mix of Black and European at the very least.

This...makes me smile.  It really does.

The Status of Human!Alastor

As an Afro-Latinx person myself with close European ancestry (great grandfather and great grandmother on my mother’s side hailed from Ireland and Naples, respectively), it’s beyond cool and validating to see mixed PoC representation especially when it comes to peoples’ and regions that had a lot going on colonization/immigration-wise. The stories of mixed-race people are interesting and fraught with their own complex struggles, especially the further back in time you go. This does lead me back to a frustrating point I made earlier though: depictions of Human!Alastor being whitewashed.

With all the white characters and white-passing PoC characters we have in media already...which is most of them, it’s just...disappointing and (to me) well, as I said, frustrating to see folks just straight up ignore non-white-passing skin and/or features...again. I’m mixed and while definitely clockable as such, am not white-passing; and I think for many PoC of any racial/ethnic makeup, it feels good and is beyond appreciated to see yourself represented.

Now, obviously, this doesn’t apply to people who were not aware of Alastor being mixed, but to folks who did know, and decided to further erase PoC as per usual MO for society, that’s an ‘Oof’ feeling moment...

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Again, this isn’t meant to be aggressive at all, I just mean to 1) meta, of course, but also 2) air some grievances/disappointment. I love, like ADORE this community with all my heart and it has been a blessing to my mental health and creativity, but like everyone else, I have thoughts!  And as I’ve happily seen be the case for the most part in this fandom, we can make discussion without getting aggressive or vitriolic ;w;/  (Now if someone comes for you unprovoked and tries to start something off some nonsense, I’m all for being the one to finish it. Don’t ever take any toxic bs from folks, you handle that how you see fit. My 2 cents).

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THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING ALL OF THIS AND I APPRECIATE YOUR TIME! I truly hope you enjoyed it and can walk away with some cool thoughts to chew on and, hopefully, a new way or two to approach how you view/create content for a character/s. I do these write-ups and metas not only to get my creative juices flowing, but to also get myself thinking critically, and to get others thinking more critically, too~ If they can bring anything at all positive to the community or get healthy discussion going, I feel more than fulfilled. Thanks again for stopping by!

#alastor #alastor hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel alastor #human!alastor #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel meta #camerins metas #hazbin hotel theories