#it was 85 degrees the other day lol

[chiffonfluff]

hot october

#🎨 #furry #anthro #art #digital art #digital illustration #cat #feline #october #autumn #fall #it was 85 degrees the other day lol

[hannahmanderr]

DannyMay Day 3 - Blizzard

slowly, she starts to catch up lol

Words: 1,947

Summary: The kids of Amity Park receive a cryptic message telling them to come to the park one July day. Of course they're gonna do it! (FFN)

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Brooke bounced on the balls of his feet. “Are you sure you have the time right?”

His twin - his older twin, as she loved to remind him - scowled. “You’ve asked me, like, a million times already! I swear it said 3:00!”

Well, Brooke’s watch said it was 3:08. Judging by the number of other kids milling about the park, they did have the right time, but as it got later and later, he couldn’t help but be paranoid. 

Plus he felt stupid dragging his boots, coat, and sled around the park. He wasn’t the only one, of course - almost every kid in Amity’s Park at the moment was lugging around snow gear of some sort. Most kids just had boots and pants and coats, although a good handful also had sleds and had dumped their gear in them. One boy Brooke recognized from the fourth grade had one of those awesome-looking snow innertubes with him.

So yeah, he wasn’t the only one with his cold weather stuff by any means.

Except it was the middle of July, and it was 85 degrees out with a thunderstorm on the horizon. So he still felt stupid.

“Pleeeeease, Maeve?” he whined. “Just check one more time for me?”

“Ugh!” Maeve said, throwing her hands up in the air. “If you hadn’t gotten grounded for messing up Mom’s garden, you wouldn’t be asking me every five seconds.” Grumbling under her breath, she dug in her pocket and pulled out her phone. She didn’t have to scroll to get to the message. She’d already had it pulled up from the last five times he’d asked to see it.

“Look, see? 3:00, just like I said.” She jabbed the phone at Brooke with a smug grin. He took it, even though he’d already read the message dozens of times himself.

Calling all AP kids! Come to Amity’s Park this Saturday at 3:00 pm for a surprise you won’t want to miss! Only requirement is to bring your snow gear - I’ll handle the rest! ;)

The message had gone out on nearly every social media site a kid would be found on. Rumors had even circulated that a bunch of the middle and high schoolers got it emailed, texted, or DM-ed to them directly. He and Maeve weren’t so lucky, especially only being fifth graders. One of his friends had texted it to him after their older brother had shown it to them, and he’d proceeded to show it to Maeve. 

The message had been sent out on Monday. By Wednesday it’d seemed that every kid in Amity Park, kindergarten through 12th grade, had seen it.

Of course, the adults saw it too. A lot of them had worried that whoever sent the message was planning on doing something horrible, with so many kids in one place. The friend who’d texted Brooke said that supposedly, the Fentons had immediately pegged it as a ghost’s evil plot. Brooke didn’t know if he believed that. True, he hadn’t been through a bunch of ghost attacks or anything - they usually stayed near the high school, not the elementary school - but this didn’t seem like some evil plot.

Still though, he knew a lot of kids whose parents had forbidden them from following the message’s invitation. At least three of his friends in his group chat hadn’t been allowed to come. And even then, a lot of parents had refused to let their kids come alone, Brooke’s and Maeve’s being in that group. Their dad was sitting on a bench a short distance away, although many parents didn’t even let their kids leave their side.

It made for a weird sight, though definitely not the weirdest Amity Park had seen. A bunch of anxious adults and a slew of kids towing their winter stuff in the middle of July. No, definitely not to the level of Amity Park weird.

Brooke handed the phone back to Maeve. “Maybe it’s a prank?” he said. The words came out timid. He was a ten year old boy - of course he loved surprises. Especially ones just for the kids! No one ever did anything special for kids. To think it was all just some cruel setup crushed his spirits.

“I don’t think so,” Maeve said. She pushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “It’d be a dumb prank. Like who would even want to get a bunch of kids in the middle of the park all for nothing? It’s not even funny.”

“Someone could have done it just to be mean.”

“I don’t think so,” she repeated. “There’s a million other things someone could do to be mean.”

Brooke’s watch ticked over to 3:10. He stole a glance at their dad, who was watching the two of them like a hawk. “You don’t think a ghost did it, do you?” he asked. He hit himself mentally for letting his voice waver. He tried to appear brave in the face of ghosts and their attacks, but he was secretly pretty terrified of them. Except Phantom, of course. Phantom was cool. But he wouldn’t admit his fears out loud to anyone, least of all his sister. He was ten, ten-year-olds weren’t supposed to be scared of things like ghosts.

Maeve furrowed her brow. “Probably not?” The way she said it definitely sounded more like a question than anything. Less confident than she’d sounded before.

“What if it is a ghost?” he pressed. Usually his sister was very sure of herself, like annoyingly so. To hear her being unsure didn’t exactly alleviate his concerns. “How would we even know?”

He got his answer when a shriek erupted from behind him.

Every head in the park turned towards the sound. Parents instinctively lunged to shield their kids. Most of the older teenagers seemed more annoyed than anything. Brooke’s eyes landed on a tiny girl bouncing up and down, pointing at something in the sky. Squinting, he realized something dark was streaking through the air, rising straight up from the horizon.

He caught a glimpse of something much lighter against the dark. “Wait a sec,” he said, realization dawning on him. “Is that…?”

“It’s Phantom!” Maeve squealed. Brooke resisted the urge to roll his eyes. His twin, just like every other girl in Amity Park it seemed, always ended up acting like, well, girls when it came to Phantom. At the same time, he couldn’t exactly blame her. A real life superhero in his hometown? Of course it was something worth getting excited about!

The dark blur shifted course and made a beeline for the park. Sure enough, Danny Phantom’s stark white hair and signature emblem came into focus. Kids began whooping and hollering as they too realized that the ghost boy himself was on his way. Some of the parents relaxed a bit once they realized who it was. Brooke’s heart began to pound. On one hand, it was always thrilling to see his hero up close and in action, but on the other, Phantom really only ever showed up if another ghost was causing trouble. Did that mean the invitation really was a ghost’s scam?

But there was something else, too. Phantom was flying just beneath the low hanging clouds, one arm extended up and to the side. Some sort of blue mist trailed behind his hand and drifted up into the clouds. He cleared the length of the park in a matter of seconds, but then he doubled back and began flying the length again.

“What’s he doing?” Brooke wondered aloud. It was definitely bizarre behavior, even for a ghost superhero.

Maeve had her phone’s camera angled up towards Phantom. “Who cares?” she said with a wide grin. “Keira’s gonna be so jealous! Her mom wouldn’t let her come today!”

The cheers started to die away as Phantom continued his methodical back-and-forth flying, although some of the braver kids kept trying to shout praises and questions at him. He never stopped, although he acknowledged the crowd with a shy wave at one point.

As he continued to fly, Brooke began to notice the temperature cooling rapidly. Goosebumps emerged as the sweat on his arms evaporated. He shivered and grabbed his coat out of his sled. Seriously, what the heck was happening?

When his watch ticked over to 3:13, Phantom stopped abruptly. He held his hands out in front of him, and a grin suddenly broke out across his face. Drifting down closer to the crowd, he shouted, “Anyone wanna join me for a snowball fight?”

Brooke and Maeve exchanged glances. “He’s kidding, right?” Brooke said, frowning.

Maeve’s face mirrored his. “I don’t know,” she admitted, keeping her phone trained on Phantom even as she started to shiver from the dropping temperature. “I mean he likes to pull pranks and stuff on other ghosts, but it’s kind of weird for him to pull a prank on us.”

Some of the younger kids had started jumping up and down, shouting, “Me! Me!” Brooke had a feeling they didn’t exactly understand the absurdity of what Phantom had said; they just knew it was him saying it, and so they got excited.

Phantom’s grin grew wider. He cupped his hands together, and a perfectly round snowball formed in them. He leaned down even closer to the ground to hand it to a little boy, who took it and gaped at it as if he’d just been handed a huge diamond. Some of the kids around the boy craned their necks to see the snowball, but most began clamoring for their own.

Brooke’s own excitement immediately grew, though he was held back by one thought. “I still don’t get it,” he said to no one in particular.

“Um, Brooke?” Maeve said.

“I mean Phantom’s super awesome and stuff, but how is he gonna make enough snowballs for everyone without it taking forever?”

“Brooke,” Maeve repeated, this time more insistently.

“Can he do it any faster? Or make more at once? Like look how many kids are already there, and there’s still -”

“Brooke!” Maeve shouted, this time elbowing her brother in the side. “Will you look already?”

She was pointing up. Brooke looked, and to his wonder, he saw snow fluttering down.

“No way,” he breathed. “Phantom made it snow?”

Maeve laughed. “No way!” she echoed. “It’s July! I so have to figure out how to post this somewhere, kids are gonna be so jealous!”

Slowly, the other people in the park began to notice the snow falling faster and faster. Kids were pulling on jackets and boots with barely contained excitement, and parents tried to huddle in what little extra clothing they’d brought. The kids closest to Phantom, trying to get snowballs from him, took the longest to notice, and when they finally did, many began scooping together the bits of snow accumulating on the ground to form their own snowballs.

Brooke finally couldn’t control himself any more. Laughing, he ran forward and also began collecting snow. A snowball fight with Phantom? In the middle of July? How much more awesome of a surprise could it be?

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

“So, I take it things went well?” Tucker asked with a grin as Danny finally managed to break away from the throng of kids who’d decided to team up against him and try and take him down with a giant snowball.

Danny’s face shone brightly as he shook excess snow from his hair. “They were asking me if we could do it again next week,” he said. “I couldn’t say no to them!”

Tucker shook his head, laughing. “You’re gonna have to get Frostbite to teach you how to make a lot more snow, man.”

#danny phantom #dannymay #dannymay2023 #dannymay 2023 #snow #blizzard #danny phantom fanfic #hannah writes #what no #this isnt 13 days late

[sesshy380]

No Wordcount (unless you count all the answered asks lol)

Too hot and muggy to do anything other than just be a bump on a random piece of furniture with a fan directed at me. That's what happens when 85% of the year is cold as fuck degrees, and then I just start getting used to the other 15% of 'yay, sun and heat!' when it swings back to 'fuck it's cold'. Lovely 'womanly time-of-life' doesn't help (menopause sucks ass, and not just because of the hot flashes. If you are ever curious, feel free to ask. Won't go into detail in this post).

Only bonus for today is I managed to brainstorm my next chapter a bit. I have nothing against Yugi, but when I write from his PoV in my longfic, it is guaranteed to be a hell chapter. And I apparently enjoy self torture, because what needs to come next works best from his PoV. I feel really bad too. I'm about to snap that poor boy like a glowstick. Long story short, he can hear his OC twin's thoughts when twin get's upset/stressed, and only when they are in close proximity to one another. They share a room and are enrolled in the same class. Due to recent events, twin has been in the 'majorly upset/super stressed about it' state for THREE DAYS. I think Yugi is about to drop his first F-bomb in this fic. I could only imagine how homicidal my sister would be if she could hear my thoughts for three days lol.

#no writing progress #hot and muggy sucks #hot flashes suck #menopause sucks #time to snap characters and shake them till they glow

[passingdaysthings]

03.28.2023 - Just updating

Today is Tuesday. 

I am currently preparing to begin my 3rd quarter of grad school, and I am 40% done with my degree. We’re almost at the half way mark! Yay! This coming quarter is going to be a hard one because I am taking Prob and Stats for Data Science and Python Software Dev which are two pretty difficult subjects, but I guess that is an understatement since my entire degree is difficult. I feel more motivated this quarter though, and I really wanna do well. I think my realistic goal is to finish both classes with a solid B (85%+) or if possible, I would like to just ace both of my classes. I have to be realistic though because I don’t want to set myself up for failure. I finished my last quarter with an 88%, and I actually feel pretty content with that because I felt like I tried. Of course, the discrete math half was really bad for me since I got a 75% on my mid-term, but I’ve never done discrete math and many have told me it’s actually a difficult subject. This is also me taking steps to not be so harsh on myself because that is what contributes to my poor mental health and learning abilities. My classes are already hard for me so I don’t want to discourage myself anymore. 

As for my situation with Taylor, I feel like we have gone back to being normal friends, and it has been chill. There are days we talk more than others, and we play games and watch dramas when I am free, so it’s been good. There are times where I think about how we were before and miss it, but I know that it wasn’t a healthy relationship. I also find myself less bothered on days when he doesn’t wanna talk which is good because I use to think about it all the time. I would think that I upset him or something along those lines, but I have just stopped thinking about those things. I usually just forget that he isn’t talking to me or I just know he is busy/sleeping. Taylor has always been a fickle person also, and I think I have just finally accepted that fact. He also said that he wouldn’t being going to SF anymore, but who knows. I understand him on this though because he has anxiety, and it must be scary to me two people you’ve never met before along with some of their other friends. He would literally be spending time with people he has never met before. I am pretty sure it’s already a lot of meet me and Victoria both in-person at the same time because I know we are too much for him while we are gaming from time to time. It is also very dependent on his mood and day. He may be feeling alright to meet us one day, but all that could change the next. I think it’s also best that me and Taylor just don’t meet in-person for the longest period possible. It’s not that I don’t want to meet him or anything, but I would prefer for there to be as much as time as possible between us ending our other friendship and pursing this more normal one. Like.. I still think about sleeping with him from time to time, and I don’t want to have those thoughts while meeting because it is in the past for us. 

That is all I really have to say. I wasn’t planning on writing, but I am procrastinating on my work LOL. 

[absolutelydw]

Can I talk my shit again?

No, really. Can I talk my shit again? I talk shit. I will talk shit and won’t refrain from doing so. It’s me. I’m not talking shit about people, places or things to be malicious. I just simply was born with the gift of gab and I just happen to be the funniest person I know. Look at me talking my shit, again. -wink-

Look. I absolutely WISH I could be a no fucks given, uninhibited blog writing superstar. But the way my “corporate baddie” 6yr old son havin, single mama life is set up? Would not support such a thing. I admire those people. In fact I strive to be those people… living carefree not worried about a thing. BUT until my poor unfortunate soul of a sperm donor and my strong manifestation of being a multimillionaire stay at home wife/mama/Bravo network housewives celebrity lifer align.. I must keep life a bore… on the World Wide Web.

Fine with me. less more… more the less. But. Ma’am’s and sirs, this week has been mind blowing. I say this. Manifestation is real.

Energy is real.

Divine timing and Gods plan?

ABSOLUTELY REAL. I’ve seen nothing but angel numbers, signs, messages in a bottle lately, all of the things and all of it makes me equally gitty, excited and nervous for the future… because I know if I put my mind to it, the shit comes. It comes in strange ways… but it comes. It also makes me sad- to a degree because what I thought “was it” is no longer it. What I thought was what I wanted, no longer serves me… and it scares me.

10 years ago, you couldn’t tell me shit.

I didn’t want kids, I now have two one living who runs my life and other as a guardian angel. Possibly may even want a third if we’re being 65% honest. (No typo. 65% percent)

The thought of marriage made me want to slit my wrists, and donate my blood to the American cross as a hobby. Now I know I’m no man’s lady of the night or desire to be and could potentially* be a man’s wife. In the words of Tiffany “New York” Pollard… I want my name dropped, meaning I want to be married. I’m not messing around with you.

I was hit with the realization the other day that some men really think money makes them attractive… for me, it does not… and the more you talk about it, it makes me look at you as a cornball… a fuckin Frito Lay corn chip, if you will. I think I read somewhere that the richest people wear the simple clothing… okay, alright. I didn’t read that but you get it. I don’t even want to use this man as an example because for me personally… and most people I know… we do not find him attractive. But here it goes..

Mark Zimmerberg, Facebook “Meta Man”, rich? Absolutely… does he brag about it? Willing to bet 85% of the change in my purse he doesn’t. To be completely honest? I don’t care that much about his net-worth. However, what I do know is that he doesn’t need to walk into a room and disclose how much he’s made in the last 24hrs. Im sure he’s proud of his success but it’s absolutely repulsive to feel the need to do so.

all men should strive to be like Mark… don’t be Mark. Lol but strive to be LIKE mark and keep your accomplishments you’ve obtained within the last… few months to yourself. It makes the girls and some boys drier than the Sahara desert and we’re just trying to stay hydrated.

Last thing, because I’m on a tangent, leading down the road of who the hell knows what..

I will continue to stay in a positive state/space, shoot for the stars, hope to land in soft clouds next to mr. moon and remain open for what’s to come.

Pray for love, clarity, and the strength to remain, mentally, physically and emotionally strong and grounded. All the while manifesting the NEXT YEAR of my life to be closer to the images on my motherfuckin vision board.

I’m a good person who says fuck a lot but I deserve everything I want.

In jesus, geezus, and yeezus name.

Amen.

xo, dw.

[daisyvstheworld]

Day 16 - Jan 16 - Zurich/Grindelwald

I woke up super freaking early bc I was nervous that the train was gonna be late and I wasn’t gonna make it on time for my train from Zurich to Grindelwald. So I got up at 5:15am and packed up, checked out, and checked the status of the train which seemed like it was on time.

I went to the REWE grocery store at like 6:05am and bought HELLA gummies and pre packed food for the next few days bc I had like 25 euros left. Technically I still have 10 euros but I did want some extra cash on hand just in case for like lockers and stuff.

The train was there super early so I just hopped on and finished Love is Blind haha

Slept a bit but kept getting woken up by random people boarding.

We finally got to Zurich after what felt like FOREVER and I got off, crossed the ENTIRE train station to get to the lockers and dropped off my bags. I started walking around and omg it’s freezing. I cannot wait for the 9 degree weather at Jungfrau 🙃

The city is really pretty! Kinda plain and not much to do but pretty! I wish I had time to visit the Swiss museum but I’ll save that for another time I guess. There are actually a bunch of museums here that I wanna visit but I couldn’t because they weren’t open on Mondays 😂

I bought some expensive ass chocolates for my mom and I think they’re a good souvenir! They’re in a tin box with a picture and the name Zurich engraved. I also bought 3 truffles/pralines to try. I had the pistachio praline - 4.5/5!! I’m usually not impressed by chocolates but this was good. The chili whiskey truffle thooughhhh - 2/5. It was fine.. just not that impressive. I definitely tasted waves of the chili and whiskey but it wasn’t anything amazing..

Anyways I got back to the station, found out which spot my train was, and found a migros grocery store and stepped in just to check. They had SMOKED SALMON RICE SANDWICHES!!! I was like omg RICE. They had onigiri and a bunch of other stuff too but I was like no I get this. Then I got bluebs. But tgod I bought my food in Munich bc this shit is 2x the price and in francs.

The train went by fairly quickly, I sat on the top level and fell asleep pretty instantly. We had 3 major stops before getting to the mountains. There was a guy in the first leg who was freaking composing music. I took a picture, pretending to take a pic of the background, because it was all very poetic. From there, the views were inSANE. The mountains, greenery, snow, bright blue lakes, cute mountain houses, ugh I DIE.

We arrived a little late but it was a quick walk to my hotel and took a bit to check in bc the there was another huge tourist group, but eventually I got in.

The room was freaking AMAZING - especially after backpacking for so long!! I immediately laid my stuff out and unpacked. I wanted to get to the infinity pool so I changed and put on the big ass robe and slippers. I think I pooped first which was also really nice.

The pool was SO nice, it was slightly heated at 50 degrees Celsius and had the most incredible view of the mountains. I took so many videos and pics.

I didn’t stay too long bc I wanted to walk around town before the sun set, so I wrapped up and quickly rinsed before walking around. It’s a small town so I finished pretty quickly but I stopped to pick up some local IPAs, a postcard, and I found ORANGINA HARIBOS. I’ve never seen those before!! I feel like they shmack so I bought 2 bags.. lol

Walked back and decompressed a bit. Tidied up and just cherished the privacy and space. I scrolled my phone and shit, drank my beer, then went back out to the infinity pool. I thought it might be pretty but it was so dark and the mountains were also cloudy.. but I took some pics nonetheless and then as I was heading back, I discovered the SPA IS OPEN FOR EVERYONE TO USE. So I sat in the hot tub, went through the ice shower, then discovered the sauna and forced myself to sit in the 85 degree CELSIUS sauna for 15 mins and then stood under the ice shower for like 15 seconds. The wet sauna was too much for me, so I just toweled off and went back to the room to shower. It was sooooo nice though. Truly felt like a pampering day - took a full shower, did my eyebrows, did a nose strip, sweat out all the gunk, ate a healthy dinner, and had a peaceful sleep. Since I messed up and accidentally booked it in December, this cost like $270 lmao but for the normal price of $138, TOTALLY worth it!

#europe2023 #winter2023

[20mentallybreakingdown]

good morning: august 25

what does my morning look like today? how am i feeling this morning?

i wake up around 7:30 every morning. i feel like my morning routines are fairly the same. i like routine. routines are good. they feel good. but lately “good” doesn’t do me justice. i think i need to step out of my comfort zone. a few days ago i tried switching it up, i woke up early, got on the treadmill for 10 minutes. got my blood flowing. it just wasn’t it. maybe i’m not motivated, or better yet, i’m not disciplined. maybe i just need to wake up early and get the fuck out of my house. 

but this morning seems good. calm. my kid is calm. the weather seems nice. everyday is always a good 75-85 degrees but it’s an island...near the equator...it feels so hot and humid all the time, but who am i to complain? i love it here. i think that 90% of the population on this island take living here for granted...well, not opposed to rent and groceries. who could possibly live here besides the wealthy and the military. i mean, God bless america, am i right? anywho, i meant the free things..like the beach. obviously. it’s great. it’s not everyday you can get up and drive down to dip a toe in some salt water. or feel the warm sand on your skin. it’s not everyday. hell, even living here it’s not like that everyday. this island is where the city meets the beach. here i am...brain dumping again. it feels soooo good though i think it’s what’s been keeping me calm. occupied. i couldn’t even think about 3 other things that i love about myself. i’m boring. 

i can’t say that i love being a mother. every mother should love being a mother but not every mother does. i do. i love it. even though it takes all of me to be a mother. i just can’t be different people. or rather, i can’t be different versions of myself.

my morning routine has been the same lately. when i say i love routine, i don’t know what mental illness that correlates with, but i decided to start my day with a glass of water. it’s not much to a lot of people, but if you know me, you know that i love using water to clean myself, things, i love to swim, but consuming water? i’m bad at. i think starting the day off like this will prevent the worst of the worst with what comes after. the headaches after caffeine. i loooove me my coffee. i can’t help it. some people are addicted to meth, i’m addicted to caffeine. i remember being pregnant and having the worst caffeine withdrawal. i discovered cold brew at the time, too. that’s when it was getting extremely popular. ahhh cold brew, so smooth and rich. drop coffee? it’s fucking crack i swear. but it’s amazing. anyways, i steered clear from any kind of caffeine. and i was like a recovering drug addict. i literally felt my capillaries opening and closing. ITCHING. anyways....water. 

another thing i’ve been doing differently, i’m trying to make my kid more independent. especially with eating. feeding herself. god it’s a mess. but kids are kids. how do we learn if we don’t let things get messy, right?

ive also been on point with my birth control. i think i’ve been having a better relationship with food. i’ve been eating when i’m hungry. i used to just starve myself, but i’ve been doing okay for the most part. i don’t eat much, but i eat. wow drinking a cup of water was a great idea, i’m not even craving coffee lol. 

#healing journal prompt

[icewindandboringhorror]

someone: oh GREAT!! What nice weather!! It’s becoming summer! This is such a nice sunny 85F degree day~! Don’t you just LOVE this time of year??? <3

me and everyone else who have no household air conditioning and just have to melt in an 80 degree apartment all day with nothing but a hopeless little fan in the window: Yes, I Love Summer.. Wow I Cannot Wait...

#everytime someone mentions how it's ''finally getting nice out'' I'm just like... god.... #please... bring back winter..... ghgghhhhhh #one hot day every once in a while is okay but when it gets to be multiple hot days and the point that it doesnt even cool off #at NIGHT anymore it's just like... #licherally I've had it be 78 - 85 degrees INSIDE even with all the windows closed and sun blocking curtains and etc. #and i love natural light!!! so it's awful that starting at like 10am I have to close up the entire house and block off every window with #5 layers of blankets and just sit in a dark hot box all day #shout out to everyone else with mental illnesses/other issues/etc. that prevent you from being able to leave the house often #and also don't have any air conditioning so your entire summer is basically just being stuck inside in a tiny little #oven void of all natural light and life ghgHHHG #and when you cant even sleep because it's so hot hhhG #we have to live on a schedule of strategically opening windows and putting up fans at just the right time of day then also closing off the #entire house as soon as the air outside isn't cool anymore.. and stuff like drenching you clothing in water and walking #around soaking wet just because it feels cooler #Carrying Around A Spray Bottle #makeshift airconditioners when you take a bowl of ice and put a small fan in front of it and then cover the bowl/end of the fan in a towel #or something to keep the cool ice air in so it blows onto you.. etc #and the WORST THING?? it's too hot to light candles lol.. i love candlles... aaaa

[cognitos-handbook]

Do u have any hc’s for Andre? It doesn’t matter what anything works lol <3 and also who’s ur fav and least fav Inside Job character?

Okay, gonna answer the question first bc it’ll be a little shorter -

Picking a favorite is honestly really hard for me! I adore all of them wayyyy too much for my own good lmao, but I suppose lately been vibin a lot with Andre actually <3

Least favorite is Rand fucking Ridley, no doubt. They did way too well with his character and he reminds me way too much of some of my own family LMAO

(Seriously though, his character design is fantastic. Really good rep of an abusive parent and relationship and MAN do I hate him LOL)

Anyways, onto the headcanons!

Andre is such a giggly ass person and I absolutely fucking adore it

Mans is so easily entertained, too; whether he's high, drunk or otherwise lmao (literally was having the time of his life shining a flashlight in his own eyes so i mean LMFAO)

I feel like he's a huge listener?? At least more than people may originally realize or assume

Especially if he likes you, and you're really into whatever it is you're going on about

He eats that shit up; listening with a big grin on his face the entire time and asks engaging questions for whatever he can comprehend lol

He's a pretty passionate guy himself, and if you let him go off about something? He absolutely fuckin goes off, there's no stopping him now

This is smth I've joked about with friends before but apPARENTLY THIS MAN DOES NOT SKIP LEG DAY LMAOOO

In the fucking clone episode, when they're enacting their big ass plan?? He's literally at fucking like 85 degrees on that fucking wall holding that table there for Glenn

What the fuck LOL

Also he probably eats just like… so much? Raging munchies constantly and just a high metabolism in general, so he fuckin feasts

And he cannot cook worth shit dude; maybe if he's lucky he can make himself some insta-ramen and he can microwave shit, but other than that? Hell nah

And he doesn't at all have the patience to learn LOL

(Please cook smth for him sometime! He'd be eternally grateful and down it all in like.. seconds)

He avoids his work a lot but when he actually does smth, he's actually really fucking efficient

He just has to be allowed to do things his way, which may be a bit… unorthodox at times, but that's okay

Stating the obvious, but he's a great guy to smoke with for sure; knows what he's doing and is down for pretty much anything

You wanna chill? Fuck yeah, lets order some takeout and watch shitty movies together or smth

Wanna go buck wild? Absolutely batshit? Cause chaos? Well you don't even need to ask, he's already pulling you out the door with a big ass grin and plenty of excited giggling

And if you don't want to/cant do anything of that sort? He's honestly super chill with that too, don't worry

Not like he's gonna force it down your throat, besides, that shits awful for you anyways

He would know lmao

Another joke among friends, but he definitely develops an attraction to someone pretty fuckin easily LOL

Just say ur interested in him and he's 👀 all over that

Developing genuine feelings may be another story entirely though

Gotta love this goofy ass doctor man <33 He's a fuckin blast <3

(And don't worry, already have plenty more requests line up for him for later, so more to come ;p)

#ask #headcanons #inside job #inside job x reader #dr andre lee #dr andree lee x reader #hes way too fun im love him #give my boy more screen time dammit #<3

[blackbackedjackal]

when you use beetles to clean the bones do you just... leave them outside? asked by a person who knows nothing about this process :')

Technically both lol! Normally you house a colony of dermestid beetles in a plastic or glass container that's sealed and in an area that is temperature controlled. They can't climb glass or plastic, and though they have wings they can't fly unless the temperatures are about 80-85 degrees or higher (though one time I had a beetle flap his wings when the temp was around 78 so I took him outside and let him free lol).

There are wild dermestid beetles in places like AZ (part of my colony was plucked from a wild colony). So in theory you could just leave dry carcasses out in an arid climate with beetles and they'll clean them. It's just easier to have a controlled colony.

And there are other wild beetles that will eat carcasses. One day I left a raw goat head in an old shed overnight since I needed to get a bucket to macerate it. When I went to take it out a couple days later this happened.

#ask #beetles are fun

[soultronica]

hello 🌹i was very !!! by your most recent post on languages, can i ask how many languages you speak/are learning? and what if anything has helped you the most (courses, workbooks, phone apps, etc)? signed, a faux language learner who never gets past basic greetings

hi ☆

oh man it's one of those "what even counts as speaking a language" situation lol it's hard to say. I'm fully bilingual in french and english (native language/language i learned as a kid). beyond that...

> I.... guess I can say I can speak Japanese now? maybe? not really but it's been something like eight years that I've been learning lol, some of them I wasn't learning at all and others I was learning extremely seriously, and I've lived and held part time jobs in Japan so. it frustrated me for so long how I still couldn't break the fluency barrier even while I was living there, there's just so much to learn and I wasn't learning it efficiently, but I might've finally broken it now maybe. I have the jlpt n2 for what it's worth

> I'm ok with spanish? I can read it fairly fluently and can (or assume I still can lol) do basic conversations, and that's mostly from it being close to french and my being fairly diligent with it back in school, I guess that's the one thing my neuroplasticity decided to be helpful with and I'm not complaining ahah

> did 85% of the italian duolingo course this summer so I can ask customers at work whether they want still or sparkling water lol

> started learning korean last year but I'm still in the beginning phases, i finished the first three grammar books of a course (integrated korean, if anyone's interested) but that's just the obligatory memorising the grammar stage, it's going to be a looong way building from that. started learning because i'm planning on spending a year in korea, covid just shambled lots of things but I'll get back to learning when that plan's on track again

> and the most embarrassing one...,.. I suck at vietnamese, unfortunately :/ it's my maternal family's tongue and i'm definitely planning to master it eventually and i do have my whole life but yeah it's incredible the little ability I have in it despite the time I've spent on it (it's what I was studying in uni before japanese so I even have a degree in it which is even more embarrassing lol). it's a combo of having a bad ear/pronunciation (so I still can't do tones at all) and having little media of interest in the language to hype me so yeah. but one day? I'm definitely not giving up on it ever

As to how best to learn a language, that really depends on the language tbh! for example I used to be pretty anti language apps because my target language for a long time was japanese and it's simply impossible to learn it on something like duolingo, never met anyone who managed it anyway and I've met a lot of them in japan. but as you can see I've found it extremely useful for Italian, a language close to mine -- you can just absently do your lessons and your brain just does the (fairly obvious) connections for you, which is incredible. if your target language has a close level of mutual intelligibility to your native language then def take advantage of that opportunity!

otherwise there's no secret you have to work the grammar diligently if you want the language to open up to you in the first place, and you need to choose your book series wisely for that (or classes, if they're accessible, but I find working by oneself more effective and one on one classes are expensive). for japanese and korean at least you need a good integrated book series that takes you through the beginning stages properly, but the good news is there's several available for each and all you need to do is follow them properly, no extra planning needed. once you're past the beginning stages is where things get harder, and it's where my own weaknesses lie so I won't attempt to give lessons here, but a good intermediate-level learning involves perfecting the grammar, lots of vocabulary learning, lots of exposure to the language at an understandable level (I think the duolingo sentences can actually help with that tbh), and practice if that's accessible. never managed to do all that super well tbh ahah

and yeah diligence is a factor in all that, I think you have to accept that you're never going to learn a language fast (there was a post that said that it takes seven years to become an expert in something and I think it applies to languages, at least languages that aren't close to yours), that you're often going to hit walls where you drop the study for months at a time, but you have to be willing to put in the effort for months on end regardless. so finding your motivation is the most important part of beginning, because without that you really won't get far.

thank you for the ask I hope this gives some food for thought! good luck with your language adventures should you take them up again o/

#ask #♡

[knickynoo]

Hi! I really enjoy your analysis (especially the Doc & Marty stuff, but I guess I don´t have to say that anymore) and I´d love to read some of your fics! I write some myself sometimes, but as English is my third language and I´m really unsure about writing fictional texts in it. It may be that one day I´ll actually find something good enough to post it, but it may take a while... Anyway, I´d love to know what, in your opinion, Doc of 1955 was feeling/thinking about Marty?

First of all: That is so cool that you speak three languages.

Second of all: I love your posts and analysis too! If you ever post a fic, I’d definitely want to check it out. 

Ok. So. The dynamic between Marty and ‘55 Doc is one of those things I wish we had more information/content on. Because there’s Doc, minding his own business in his huge house, when a teenager suddenly comes into his life, claiming to be his friend and needing his help to get back to his own time. And like, yeah, Doc is obviously suspicious at first, but those feelings seem to go away pretty quickly. It isn’t long at all before we see Doc and Marty acting very comfortable with each other (makes sense for Marty of course, but Doc has just met this kid).  

I get the feeling that Doc grew to like Marty and enjoy his company very soon after meeting him. I don’t know that ‘55 Doc is quite as isolated or socially shunned as ‘85 Doc, but I assume that he is to some degree. I can imagine that having somebody come into your life, who makes it clear that you’re his only hope, would impact Doc deeply. He likely felt important and needed, maybe something he hadn’t experienced in a long time. 

Plus, keep in mind that Marty probably didn’t alter his behavior too much for this younger version of his friend. He called him “Doc” from the start, spoke to him with the same enthusiasm, and just generally treated him with the same familiarity that he would “his” Doc. So for as bewildered as Doc might have been in the beginning, I think that it sunk in just how much he meant to this kid, and how much this kid meant to his future self. He could tell that Marty was somebody who understood him, and valued him as a person. Doc then spent a whole week building this connection and friendship that, for all we know, he might have never had with anybody prior. So, to make a long story short... I think once the inital skepticism wore off, Doc was like, “Hmm...friend? Yes. Friend.”

Anyway, that’s why I would love to have more information on the “in-between” moments of that week. While there was a lot of planning involved to prepare for the night at the clock tower, I’m sure there was a decent amount of down time. What did they sit around and talk about? Did they watch tv together? Did Doc give Marty a grand tour of the house, pointing out important family heirlooms or collectibles? Did Marty try to sneak in little facts and stories about his own life here and there, between Doc’s repeated warnings not to inform him of the future? This is where headcanons come in handy, lol. 

Thanks for the ask!

(others reading this: give @121-jigowatts a follow! Some quality BTTF content there!)

#asks #back to the future #bttf

[sparklinpixiedust]

Basic Training Headcanons

I don't know why but after reading @jennifer-10nyson post , ( here ) , I wanted to write this down.

This was supposed to be a small paragraph but then I got carried away and then OCs started coming in and well, it got long and ended up being this. Also I didn't re - read after it was done so sorry for the grammatical mistakes. Also sorry if things aren't Canon, I wasn't exactly thinking about it much when I was typing it out.

This is how the Basic Training episode [ or story arc ] should've gone in my opinion.

The trio is taken to the academy as usual

Ben complains , Tack is introduced

Brannigan is still a jerk, but still is head of the alpha squad.

They are the best ranking team in the academy

Ben and co will not be fighting with them or against them throughout their stay.

They've been training for a while and are on a whole other level. Ben and Co. are considered newbies to the program so it doesn't make sense for them to be together.

When they arrive , they are taken to the main hall.

Ben, even Gwen and Kevin don't really think the need training. They have saved the world a lot.

There are more aliens besides them , not just the 4.

Hulka informs them that they will have specific training to help them develop their own capabilities.

They will then also have common classes like what were mentioned in the episode about space ships n alike, and stratergy making sessions

One of the classes is a common combat class like using weapons and stuff we saw in the episode, for times when they can't use their powers for some reason [ like how anodites cant use mana on geochelones]

They have dinner and go to bed.

Next day they start their traning.

Besides Gwen , there are only 2 other anodites present, Josephine and Celeste.

Josephine is an anodite- petrosapien hybrid and Celeste is a splixson-anodite hybrid [ why are they like that? Lol idk, just thought I explore the whole anodites can have kids with any species aspect and these were the first aliens that popped into my head so I'm going with them]

The first session is to show what they are capable of by going through a stimulation.

Neither of them make it to the end, though Gwen puts up a good fight compared to the others.

Gwen's pretty irked because she's worked hard yet she's not much better than the other 2. Then again she's self taught, there wasn't really much she could learn on her own.

The magsiter in charge of them is anodite as well, a pure anodite.

He makes a plan. By the end of the program, each of them would be able to fly to a degree and cast "spells".

Nothing too major since proper anodite training lasts for like 60-70 years.

Plumbers just train them enough so they can put up a good fight.

Their powers are further specialised due to being hybrids. Josephine's mana is bulkier and doesn't flow as smooth. The shields she puts up are pretty crystalline looking. She treats her mana like it's taydenite , by forming it into spears (?) and such.

Celeste doesn't really focus on shields much but instead focuses on making multiple copies of her self. They don't all share feelings, their kind of like echo - echo but without with sonar.

Both of them do dual training , but major in mana manipulation and minor in the others because their anodite abilities are their weak point.

Gwen's human so nothing special for her :(

Now moving on to Kevin.

There are 5 osmosians , including Kevin

" aren't you the guy that destroyed the academy 2 months ago?" - uhh ..yes ? - awesome dude, up top"

Amanda and her twin sister Stacy grew up on a space ship in space. Their father was an osmosian plumber that constantly got relocated to different planets.

Jeremy is one of those stuck up dudes who thinks he's better than everyone.

Kevin scoffed him off initially but is amazed when he saw him absorbing and using electricity during the stimulation with great control.

Phineas is pretty much like Kevin. Chill and all about the tech.

Their Magister is one of Osmos V's elders. She exclaims her delight when she learns Kevin is Devins son, talking about what a great plumber he was.

Jeremy and Kevin finish the stimulation neck to neck.

Kevin's not as great as Jeremy, but he's been in enough difficult situations to cope well during battle.

The plan for them: learn to absorb and control small amounts of raw energy and learn how to absorb enough of the opponents energy to equal the playing field for a while.[ idea from the @theangrycomet ]

Now Ben

Ben has the most difficult time because he needs to learn basic fighting skills for not one, but over 10 different aliens.

Poor guy is all over the place.

He needs extra training to strategise what aliens would work best in sequence of attack, know a lot about their main strengths and weaknesses

Ben gets a shock of realisation that he doesn't know much of anything lol.

" how was I supposed to know big chill is allergic to vanilla, and why would that ever be important?!! - what if you get attacked by a giant vanilla alien one day huh? You choose big chill and youre out of the game for the next hour - wow.... there are vanilla aliens? Are there chocolate ones ? - focus tennyson!

Of course there's tons of other alien species ad well.

Over all, there's around 32 aliens in the given cohort.

This whole program lasts for the whole of summer , not like 5 days. You can't train properly in 5 days.

Gwen and the others get along pretty well. It's nice to spend time with people besides Ben and Kevin.

Kevin's good too. He's surprising himself everyday with what he can do.

He and Phineas are the cool guys of the cohort, throwing random dorm room parties and just having a good time.

Kevin has a rivalry with Jeremy , but its not personal or anything.

The trio are still kind of a big deal.

Initially there was some autograph signing and picture taking but after a while the excitement died down a bit.

At the end they have 5 tests.

One is the written exam on what they've learnt about space craft and Weaponry, different alien cultures and their planets, basic alien science [ strengths and weaknesses], a personalised obstacle course , and then a team [ teams of 4] obstacle course like the hostage situation thing in the actual episode.

No ones breaking out of the null void in this AU, no major enemy threat.

It's about training and it's going to stay about training.

Of course , enemies still attack Ben but since its at a training academy, there's lots of plumbers around so the situation simmers down pretty quickly.

Gwen gets a 97, Kevin gets a 100 , Ben gets a 85.

It's not like Ben wasn't paying attention. He was just really exhausted from everything.

#ben 10 #kevin levin #ben 10 alien force #ben 10 au #ben tennyson #gwen tennyson #ben 10 classic #ben 10 series #b10 #ben 10 headcanon #my take #headcanon #ben 10 analysis #anodites #au #fanfiction

[growingingreenwood]

Hey! Just wanted to pop by and ask how you where doing! Its been a while since one of my favorite writers has posted anything so I just wanted to check in. 💙

Awe thank you!!! That’s so sweet of you! Tbh I think I’m gonna hella personal with the answer to this question cause I’ve been wanting to explain what's been going on the last few months in more detail to y’all since you’ve been so kind and supportive of me!!

So check out the read more if you’re interested! I will warn you guys there will be some dark topics like depression and death of loved one’s so if that's triggering to you, please be careful with yourself if you read it!!

Hello everybody who’s decided to come take a look and read over here, I appreciate you greatly! I’m just going to dive right on in because I’m not sure how to ease into this topic lol this is going to be kind of a mess because it's like 6 am and I’ve been awake for nearing 32 hours now. 

But the past, like, 10 - 11 months have probably been the worst time of my entire life, not gonna lie. It's just been one thing after another and ya girl is so tired. 

 Since November: I put my 12 year old dog Suzy to sleep on the same day I had to write 2 finals, lost my Grandpa to an aneurysm (my last grandparent), had to live with/got guilted into staying with my suicidal aunt after his death for 2 months, kept my family from falling apart over dumb drama about the will, worked fulltime in a workplace with a manager that hated me and tried to make being there as miserable as possible WHILE I continued to go to school full time, quite that job and got a new one only to find out we were closing that location at the end of January (specifically on my birthday), had to move into a new place with my best friend because living at home wasn’t good for me anymore cause my dad gets mean when he’s depressed, got falsely accused of plagiarism in a situation that completly violated like 4 of my basic rights, got into a car accident, basically got bullied into accepting the conviction of plagiarism after fighting it for 2 months because I was doing my practicum and needed the class I was fighting the plagiarism against in order to legally do the practicum, COVID started and I’m severely immunocompromised and taking immunosuppressants similar to the one’s people get for organ transplants with lungs that are already the DEFINITION of trash, my internet friends 5 years got Covid and committed suicide, another friend I met on tumblr 8 years ago got Covid and passed away, her funeral was 3 days before my graduation, my best friend and only person I could celebrate with straight up vanished for a the entire week of my grad and then lied to my face for several days  about where she had been (she drove 8 hours to go have a Tinder hookup and stay there for like 4-5 days (Which literally put my life in serious danger), then when I got upset about that she basically gaslit me and told me I was an awful person she never wanted to talk to again, I relapsed in self harm for the first time in seven years, then I had to move back home with my parents because my ‘best friend’ continued to act irresponsibly with Covid and lie to me about it, then Lilah got really sick which was thousands of dollars I didn’t have, and now I'm trying to finish my damn degree while doing everything online, AND I can’t get a job or basically got anywhere until there's some sort of vaccine for Covid because if I get it there like a 80-85% chance that I’ll die so that fun. 

I’m sure I missed some things but that's pretty much the gist of my life this past bit. 

So right now i'm really struggling with my creativity and actually getting myself to act on creative ideas. I used to write literally everyday before bed but now I’m lucky if I can get myself to write twice or three times a month and it's INFURIATING. 

I used to be constantly creative. I used to color, write, journal, paint and post on the blog. But right now my brain is like “YOU ONLY GET ONE” and its coloring and I can’t make it let me be creative in other ways other than that & I don’t know how to fix it. 

My brain is just like 9 whirlpool’s of different disasters right now and it isn’t listening to me. 

#answered asks. #answered asks #haleigh speaks #haleighs personal life

[comradeclown]

OK, so in honour of my top posts now being me saying at various degrees of length that Arthur is gay (hashtag mylegacy, lmao…), I thought I should just go for it and actually dive in a bit a lot into why I read the character as gay. Now, usually all the justification I need to read a character as gay is “wouldn’t it be cool if this character I like/relate to/etc were gay like me?” and “it’s OK, officer, I do what I want”, and I’m well aware that 99% of the time it’s me using my own creativity to do a resistant reading + the film/book/whatever bumbling into subtext entirely by accident. And while I definitely don’t think there’s ever any more justification needed for any kind of LGBT reading, lol, as it comes to Arthur, obviously feel free to disagree with me, but I honestly think my read of him as a gay man is entirely textually supported, however unwitting and accidental that might have been on the part of the filmmakers (mind you, I don’t think it was Todd Phillips’ conscious intent, but I’m like… 85% sure Joaquin Phoenix knew exactly what he was doing).

(ETA that this is extremely long, so I’ve put it all under a cut.)

First of all, there’s of course… pretty much the entirety of Joaquin Phoenix’s performance (a very, very small sample can be found in my he gay son tag and just generally in my arthur fleck tag, ha), from his mannerisms to his physicality to the way he interacts with other characters. I know part of it is a function of wanting to go back to the character’s campy roots (which are themselves… you know…), and I know I’m relying on stereotypes to some extent, but first of all, you can’t divorce either camp or gender non-conformity from LGBT history and existence, and secondly this is literally how characters have been coded as gay throughout the entire history of cinema. What I’m saying here is that you can’t have a character who acts like Arthur does, literal limp wrist and all, or says “come on, Muuuurrrayyy, do I look like the kind of girl clown who could start a movement” the way he does, to pick one of many, many examples, and not evoke the long history of cinematic wink emojis at People Like Me.

That in itself would… honestly be plenty, lol, but it could be chalked up to, idk, Joaquin Phoenix doing his own thing, were it not for the fact that it’s completely reinforced at every turn by the filmmaking language, even down to his wardrobe choices, and it’s worth noting at this point that the framing is always one of empathy — albeit with nuance — and affording the character subjectivity, rather than being “ew, look at this gross [homophobic slur]”. Like, the very first time we see Arthur, literally our first impression of the character, he’s at a mirror, putting on make-up and then ruining it by crying, and while the make-up is of course part of his job, this is just not how the inner crises of straight male characters are expressed in the language of cinema. Of note too is the fact that he’s clearly visually separated from his co-workers in all the scenes at Ha-Ha’s, indicating his alienation from them, and while this could be chalked up purely to his disabilities, I don’t buy that that’s the only reason, given that Gary gets shit due to his dwarfism, sure, but at the end of the day he’s clearly “one of the boys” in a way Arthur (can’t be) isn’t.

There are honestly so many examples of the framing working to separate Arthur from conventional masculinity and heterosexuality that I’m just going to pick some highlights, such as: obviously, the way he expresses himself emotionally through dancing (to the point that one of his coworkers explicitly ribs him about it, “if your dancing doesn’t do the trick”), which again is not something that straight male characters do in the language of cinema. The fact that all the media we see him consume is musicals, classic comedies and a talk show he’s obsessively fannish about and watches with his mother — and we know he’s a fan of the show as a whole, not just Murray, hence him saying “I love Dr Sally” (and the way he says it…). Or, speaking of his media habits, when he’s dancing with the gun while watching Shall We Dance, this could have so, so easily been about him ~regaining his lost masculinity~ through, say, fantasies of revenge or badassery, but instead it’s about him being acknowledged as a great dancer and punishing bad dancers, and it all ends in slapstick anyway.

Also, while I’m on this topic, I want to address the nature of Arthur’s dissociative fantasies about Sophie. Honestly, I don’t read them as indicative of genuine romantic/sexual interest at all, because the film frames them as identical to Arthur’s more deliberate daydreams about Murray. I mean, not that I’m adverse to gay readings of that if that’s what you want to do, lmao, but to me they’re both very clearly post-traumatic fantasies of having another person look after you for once, of having someone value and cherish you and take care of you emotionally (which obviously has massive appeal if you’ve been dealing with the after-effects of catastrophic trauma all your life but nobody has given a shit about your suffering and you’ve had to be the one to look after other people to boot). Note that after the get-together with Sophie — which is clearly patterned after all those old comedies and musicals Arthur watches — the Sophie fantasies are incredibly platonic and involve things like having another person be there for you in a crisis, telling you something supportive, getting you a hot drink (in contrast with the reality of the hospital scene, in which Arthur is alone and he’s the one trying to comfort someone else, i.e., holding Penny’s hand), essentially no different from fantasy!Murray hugging Arthur and knowing exactly what to say to make him feel good about himself. Also note that both fantasies involve being the object of someone else’s affection, Murray picks Arthur out of the audience and Sophie comes to him, it’s a pillow princess Cinderella fantasy, more than someone loving you it’s about being loved. (And, once more, this could easily have all been v. v. different, the Murray fantasy could have been the much more conventionally masculine fantasy of being a famous comedian and being invited on Murray’s show, the Sophie fantasies could have had an undeniable sexual component, etc.)

Anyway, to get back to the general point of cinematic framing, again if the movie didn’t want me to read Artie as gay, it shouldn’t have had a pivotal moment in his character arc be him sitting at his mother’s vanity table, doing a new make-up look which involves using her lipstick, and then having a Moment while he’s literally holding a quasi-glamour shot of her.

And the thing is, all these reams of stuff aren’t even the key piece of the puzzle for me, which is the way in which the film as a whole can be read as a gay narrative. I’ve posted before about how part of the emotional catharsis of the film is about Arthur finally shamelessly embracing and even revelling in all his freakishness and socially-despised traits, a big one of which being what is arguably his effeminacy and… honestly I don’t need to explain how that’s a classic gay (and more generally LGBT) narrative, do I? Like, there’s a reason why a pivotal scene is Arthur having his hair-dyeing underwear rave in a flat that’s suddenly incredibly bright and sunny for the first time, it’s about reclaiming the pain and ugliness of your life and your circumstances into a space of potential liberation, which is honestly why this movie is always going to be incredibly personally meaningful to me for so many reasons, but definitely meaningful to me as a gay woman. (Again, this could so, so easily have been about him becoming some stone-cold badass or whatever, but instead the film has him dye his hair, put on a super garish new outfit and new make-up look, dance shamelessly in the street, and be incredibly campy on national television.)

More generally, there’s other aspects of the narrative arc that tie into this general theme and which also serve to continually distance Arthur from the conventional cinematic narratives of heterosexual manhood: for instance, once he starts fully embracing the Joker persona — which is… just Arthur, the crucial difference is in how others perceive him and how he perceives himself — any attraction to women, feigned or real, goes completely out the window and the only genuinely affectionate interaction he has with another human being is with Gary (I know we all love to joke about his first kiss being with Dr Sally, but it’s obviously Comedy Jokes and he doesn’t even kiss her for real, his make-up is completely intact; Arthur’s only real kiss in the movie is when he kisses Gary). Or, when Arthur’s personal narrative finally intersects completely with the larger social narrative — which is itself about upheaval, reclamation and potential liberation — the big triumphant moment is him once again dancing, this time for a cheering crowd, and using blood like lipstick to redraw his smile.

Or even, to a lesser extent, his whole sub-plot with his mother, before I watched the film I was worried that this was going to be the usual narrative about the henpecked guy who finally puts the bitch in her place as part of becoming a Real Man, and it’s not at all, quite the opposite, Arthur is not henpecked and is clearly in charge of the household, he genuinely loves Penny — and is confident she loves him back — and enjoys doing at least some things with her (them watching the Murray Franklin Show together), and up until the reveal any issues he has with her are largely the product of having to look after an ill person with zero social support and while working a physically and emotionally demanding job and dealing with his own disabilities. When he kills her, it’s a deeply sad and self-destructive scene and it’s the result of his profound anguish and sense of betrayal and he frames it as the bitter, trauma-haunted dark half of self-actualisation and self-acceptance (“that’s the real me”, “I haven’t been happy one minute of my entire fucking life”, “now I realise… it’s a fucking comedy”).

Or, at a more meta-textual level, the way the film is unabashedly both a pulpy thriller and a melodrama, just shamelessly embracing all its emotions, its pain and catharsis, without a trace of irony. Like, yeah, part of this is the immense sincerity and compassion Joaquin Phoenix brings to his performance, but it really is the movie’s approach as a whole, and when there is humour — and I do think there’s quite a lot of humour in the movie — it’s not the distancing, let’s-not-feel-anything-too-deeply-bro humour of your typical MCU movie, it’s the camp sensibility of laughing with and at your own tragedy. (Myriad examples down to the use of certain songs in the soundtrack.)

On a final note, you guys know how much I don’t care about authorial intent, but I feel compelled to point out that in his director’s commentary, Todd Phillips says, while discussing Arthur’s journey into becoming Joker, that he reads the larger pop-cultural character of the Joker as someone who doesn’t want women, and like… Again, it’s not like I think that he was deliberately making a gay narrative in any way, it’s just that if you’re creating this journey of a man who eventually becomes a character who’s not interested in women in that sense, you’ve also just ended up stumbling into a gay narrative accidentally on purpose, lmao, what’s the real difference between “at the end of the story, Arthur doesn’t want women because he’s ~da Joker now, baby, he doesn’t want anything~” and “at the end of the story, Arthur doesn’t want women because he’s gay and he’s no longer deeply repressed and closeted”?

Anyway, like I said, feel free to disagree, he’s a fictional character, lol, but this is where I’m coming from, and the reason why if everyone involved in the movie decided to make a statement tomorrow about how much Arthur Fleck wants to bone women I’d just say “shit, idc, I’m afraid you made a gay movie about Arthur Fleck, a gay man, it’s a little too late to retcon this bitch now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯”. Also this is over 2,000 words long what the fuck I am so sorry

#long post #joker 2019 #class struggle clown movie #arthur fleck #dive down into chuckletown #he gay son #now in the form of 95 theses nailed to my tumblr #gonna make a letterboxd list called 'the author is dead this is lgbt cinema now'

[shadyufo]

Hi! So two years ago I found a decomposing deer and left it be bc I got chased by a bird lol. Well I JUST found the skeleton with so many bones. I don’t know what I need to do to sanitize the bones. They have no flesh due to them being in the woods for years. I just don’t want any bacteria or dangerous stuff on the bones. I’m sooooo new to this and this is my first real find. Any help ? Also just found your blog and I love it :) ❣️

Hi Anon! Thanks for the kind words and congrats on the cool find!

Generally speaking, so long as you wash your hands thoroughly after handling the dead thing and keep any ick from getting into any open wounds or your eyes or mouth* then you don’t have to worry too much about getting sick from touching a dead animal or its remains. Wearing gloves when handling carcasses and a respirator if there is any chance of inhaling hair or bone dust are good rules to follow as well. 

Do watch out for stowaways in old, nature-cleaned bones though. I’ve found countless wasp nests and venomous spiders hiding inside old bones. A friend of mine who was hauling a cow skull out of a farm’s bone pit and had it strapped to his backpack ended up getting stung all over his head and neck by the colony of wasps that was hiding inside the brain case. So that’s definitely something to be aware of!

Now for cleaning! If the bones are free of any hide or tissue then I’d just give them a scrub in some warm, soapy water. Dawn dish soap is great and you can use an old toothbrush or other scrubber brush to remove any dirt or debris. Go easy on them at least at first—they may be a bit fragile from sitting out in the elements for that long. 

After that you can fill a container with 3% hydrogen peroxide (sold in a brown bottle at pretty much any drug or grocery store) and submerge the bones in that. You can water the peroxide down a bit to make it go further if you need to. Don’t cover the container and keep it out in direct sunlight for best results. The peroxide will whiten the bones, sanitize them, and also bubble out any remaining dirt or debris. Let them soak for at least a day or more if you want them whiter. Then let them dry and you’ll be good to go!

Usually bones that have been out in nature for that long don’t need degreasing but if you happen to notice any odor or discolored areas beginning to appear on the bone then you can always go back and degrease later. To degrease you let the bones soak in hot, soapy water. Dawn dish soap or any other good grease-cutting soap will work well and keep the water around 85-110 degrees Fahrenheit (which can be achieved with a fish tank heater or bucket heater). Change the water as it becomes cloudy or develops a film on the surface. Once the water starts staying clear then you can let them dry, check for stains or odors, continue degreasing if they appear or move on to whitening with peroxide if not.

Hope that helps get you started, Anon! Best of luck!

*this is still totally survivable as I have had maceration soup splash in my mouth and eyes on multiple occasions but it’s definitely an experience I highly recommend avoiding if at all possible lol

#asks #words #vulture culture #bone cleaning #anonymous