#most of testament��s are so fun yay yay. yay

[oddlyunadventurous]

BOOK REPORT 2020

I’ve always been a sparse reader but 2018 and 19 had me accelerate my reading habits to the point that I think I’ve read the most books this year that I ever had. I suppose I’ll count them all here, just to make sure!! I said something or other about the Moomin books at the end of last year’s Inkt*b*r so, this being the month of traditions, let’s make a new one by tallying up my literary “yays” and “nays” at the end of the season.

Video game text boxes don’t count, online publication articles don’t count, psych/aesthetic papers and 1000 page biosemiotic textbooks don’t count, but they have sure pursued me in my sleep during the year as well. This list is really mostly for my benefit (and no I won’t get a Goodreads account tyvm), so under the cut you’ll find a list of titles in roughly the order I read them, along with short notes. I’ve done longer reviews of these books elsewhere and I need not bore you with them here. 

K. Stanislavski - An Actor Prepares (1936) I started reading this book in 2012, then dropped it because I couldn’t understand it at the time. Kostya attends acting school and gets lessons from The Director. He learns to sleep like his cat.

K. Stanislavski - Building a Character (1949) Supposed to have been published along the first one in a single volume. Kostya continues his lessons. A lot of thoughts on walking, gaits, eloquent speech, phrasing, etc. Both these books are wonderful looks into the author’s artistic life. It’s very heartfelt and down to earth, considering it’s quasi-fiction made to edutain. Very inspiring.

M. Polanyi - The Tacit Dimension (1966)  A book on the origin of knowledge, the integrated performance of skills, the emergence of life and other phenomena in the universe, marginal control between levels of reality, the moral death of the communist regime caused by the unbridled lucidity of the Enlightenment, the responsibilities of science, and thoughts about open societies of the future. This is one of the two shortest books I’ve read in the list, it covers all of this under 130 pages and manages to do it well.

B. Rainov - Eros and Thanatos (1971) A communist propaganda book attacking western mass media and escapist culture. It gets no points for being correct, as the author mostly swiped the truths from french philosophers. Very variable in its intellectual prowess, almost as if it picks its arguments in order to push an agenda. Informative but also infuriating. Also expectedly homophobic.

J. Hoffmeyer - Signs of Meaning in the Universe (1997) A somewhat pop-sciency book about biosemiotics. Forgettable but also humbly written and explicative.

A. Noë - Varieties of Presence (2012) An unimpressive book about sensory perception. Noë’s theory on sensorimotor action is worth considering but the book is poorly edited and mostly spent arguing with peers.

E. Fudge - Quick Cattle & Dying Wishes (2018) A look into a registry of last wills and testaments from the period 1630 - 1650 in Essex. The book is about early modern people’s relationship to their animals and what they meant to them in life, as well as in death. Fudge’s argumentation is sharp and her style is modern. Being a scholarly book it is really overwhelming with the footnotes sometimes, but otherwise satisfying. One gets beautiful glimpses of family relationships, thoughts and feelings that people now dead for 400 years once held.

G. Márquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) The Buendia family get all their sons killed. The Banana Company sucks. People love each other. A lot happens, generally. It is a hundred years, after all. The upper class sucks.

K. Polanyi - The Great Transformation (1944) The Industrial Revolution sucked. England sucks. It reduced all its workers to subhuman wretches. Every single decision made after the empiricists made labour and land fictional commodities has been a band-aid to the essential contradiction that the market economy wants to annihilate its human host. Laissez-faire sucks. It caused WW1. Fuck everything. Fun book.

R. Coyne - Peirce of Architects (2019) Talks about architecture and the ideas of logician/father of pragmatism Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914). Informative about both. Brisk and not very in-depth, but to its benefit rather than its detriment.

R. Williams - Culture and Society (1958) A survey of the 18th and 19th century England, and the emergence of the concept of “culture” as defence against the horrors that the Industrial Revolution inflicted upon society. Consists of some two dozen outlines of contributors to the romanticist tradition, from Adam Smith, through Ruskin, to Orwell, their beliefs, contributions and literary works. Very eloquent and interesting.

E. Fudge -  Brutal Reasoning (2006) A fantastic book about much: early modern views of the difference between a human and an animal, the Christian discourse of reason, the logical fallacies that lead to its implosion, the advantageous use of dehumanisation by imperialists in other to genocide natives, Montague and Shakespeare, and the ethical hell of animal murder that led Descartes to deem animals as machines so as to allow his buddies to perform live vivisections on dogs without feeling guilty about it (this is the real reason, don’t let anybody tell you otherwise). There is even space for an entire chapter about an intelligent horse who could tell a virgin from a whore and learned Latin at Oxford. This is my favorite book I read this year, so it gets an extra long review.

R. Williams - The Long Revolution (1961) A sequel to Culture and Society that’s worse. The start and end are brilliant but the middle sags. It contains some historical reviews of English cultural elements, like the newspaper industry, the Standard English vernacular and the realist novel of the 19th century, but honestly if the book was just about about the creative state (intro) and Marxism (outro) it would’ve been fine, if not better.

P. Klee - The Thinking Eye (1956 & 1964) Bauhaus boy in 1920s Germany! Love you Klee, xoxo. You really have to read his thoughts to understand his work imho. You can appreciate it just fine on the surface level, but his completely eccentric (though very self-consistently logical and sharp) views on art creation open a new outlook into his primitive approach.

F D.K. Ching - Architecture: Form, Space & Order (1979)  A staple book for architecture students. Or so I hear. Steeped in gestalt psychology. Very good, though not necessarily stuff I don’t know already. Very nice looking pencil illustrations, Ching looks to be an accomplished technical draughtsman.

H. Wölfflin - Principles of Art History (1915) A strong contender for second place in the tier list. The book examines the transition between Classical to Baroque in Italy and Germany (and all the Germany clones, like the Netherlands). It is a systematic, precise aesthetic treatise that reveals much by conceptualizing and grouping characteristic art features in which the two styles differ, then explaining their bearing on their decorative content as well as the outlook on life that they embody. Lovely.

M. Porter -  Windows of the Soul: The Art of Physiognomy in European Culture 1470-1780 (2005) A historiographical treatise about early modern views on physiognomy. The book deals mainly with the extant literature on the subject and tries to gleam what it could mean for the customs at the time - palmistry reading, occultism, persecution of the “gypsies” and the Christian scientific project of attaining meaning. Macro- and microcosms, as above so below, hermeticism, that sort of stuff. It’s an interesting read but it’s too long, the quality of writing varies greatly from chapter to chapter, and it is far too expensive. Wouldn’t recommend it.

S. C.Figueiredo -  Inventing Comics: A New Translation of Rodolphe Töpffer's Reflections on Graphic Storytelling, Media Rhetorics, & Aesthetic Practice (2017) This is the shortest book I read, mainly translating Töpffer’s 1845 "Essay on Physiognomy" along with giving his biography and some other paraphernalia. It’s not worth the price for the content contained within, but  Töpffer is the father of the modern comic book, so I thought I’d learn what his philosophy was. On that front, at least, very interesting! If only I knew French I’d save myself the trouble and read the original, which is now public domain.

D. Bayles - Art & Fear (1985) A useless self-help book. Not entirely bullshit but completely banal from all angles. Shouldn’t even be on this list but I did read it, so...

I. Allende - The House of the Spirits (1982) A child rapist gets a redemption arc. Well, kind of. All women are queens. Men are awful. The poor are wretches and it’s their fault. Oh no, the communists are going to take our land! Pinochet’s concentration camps sucked. Overall a better magical realism book than 100 Years of Solitude, to be honest. Very well written characters.

R. Arnheim -To the Rescue of Art: Twenty-Six Essays (1992) What it says on the tin. Wide range of subjects, from art appreciation, to schizophrenic and autistic child art, to gestalt psychology, to philosophy of science, to Picasso’s Guernica and the fate of abstract art, to reflections on the 20th century and the writer’s life in pre-nazi Germany and America. I love Arnheim, I’ve read many of his books and I’m glad I picked this one up.

R. Arnheim - Film as Art (1957) A book about cinematography, one of his earliest, actually, mostly a personal translation from an original German book he published in 1933. Somewhat outdated, but foundational. Not as informative to me but I don’t regret reading it.

G. E. Lessing - Laocoon; or, On the Limits of Painting and Poetry (1766) A book by a greekaboo about a fucking dumb poem and a statue of a naked dad and his two sons getting fucked by snakes. It’s misogynistic and authoritarian in several places, and altogether awfully full of itself. 100 pages of interesting observations stretched over 400 pages of boring Greco-Roman literary discourse.

L. Tolstoy - Childhood, Boyhood, Youth (1852, 1854, 1856) One story serialized in a magazine then later collated in three separate books. Aristocrat boy grows up in pre-revolution Russia. A very, very relatable coming-of-age story. Tolstoy is a lovely writer.

F. Dostoevsky - Poor Folk (1846) An epistolary novel consisting of letters between literally Dobby from Harry Potter and his maybe-niece, whom he wants to fuck. Starts bad, gets better by the end. A bit rough and tumble for Dostoevsky’s first, so I forgive him for wasting my time a little bit. A decent character study of the middle/lower classes, at least.

L. Tolstoy - Family Happiness (1859) An amazing romance novel for the skill employed in writing it. It is very short yet delivers so much emotion. Rather simple narrative at its core, but executed with such bravado one cannot help but be impressed.

F. Dostoevsky - The Double (1846) In which the Author starts swinging. A pathetic, neurodivergent old man gets used and abused by the people around him and nobody cares. Satirical and biting, better than his first.

A. Lindgren - Pippi Longstocking (1945) I last read this when I was 6 years old so I thought I’d refresh my memory. I remember disliking the book then and I can see why. Pippi’s kind of an asshole. Still very enjoyable to read. I know it’s meant for a younger audience’s reading level yet I cannot help comparing it with Tove Jansson’s books and how much better the prose in there is. Sorry.

***

I think that about rounds them up! That’s about 30 books, give or take. For next year I’m hoping to:

Finish Tolstoy’s and Dostoevsky’s bibliographies

Read more econ and marxist writing (low personal priority but i have to, in THIS economy *rolls eyes*)

Finish the Tintin and Moomin comics, as well as Jhonen Vasquez’s collection of edgy humor

Read more about botany and biology in general

Get started on Faulkner’s and William Golding’s bibliographies

Read more children’s books

Search for more Latin American fiction from the Boom

Read more psych/aesthetics/pedagogy literature, which seems to have become my main area of interest

Thanks for sticking till the end of the list, hope you’ve learned something and maybe you’ll pick one of these up if it took your interest. I don’t have to be a philistine just because I’m drawing video game fanart! Bye now!

#books #book report #reading #2020 #blogging #i'm busy reading i'll go back to drawing in a bit #not art

[survivor-ingary]

Episode 2 - "I DON'T WANT THE MYSTERY MOUSE-CA-TOOL BESTIE" - Ellie

At the tribal, Ping was voted out of the Pendragon Tribe nearly unamimously. Tribal immunity for this round is Pictionary.

I bet all these bitches know i voted for Keith and now they are going to come kill me in my sleep if i die i blame dylan

yass round 2 i either think im in the best position on this tribe or theyre all secretly coming for me thats all

Tribal went as well as I expected it to go. No major drama. It seems like Keith is in real trouble if we do go to tribal again though which would put me in a very tricky spot. For now, though, I will be trying my best in the upcoming challenge. The problem is, however, timezones and schedules. Jon is going to be our drawer, but he can only do it tonight or in the early afternoon tomorrow which I will not be there for. Additionally, Keith is asleep so we have no idea what his schedule is going to be so we basically had to schedule the challenge without him. And Nya could only do right before the deadline tomorrow which Jon cannot do. I hate this for us, truly. I just hope that Moth and I can rub our brain cells together for this one so that we can pull out a win. OR somehow the other tribes fail horribly. On the bright side, I am finally starting to catch up on Duolingo exercises. They're a lot easier than I thought, but it is still going to be tedious af to save up enough coins for some of the higher end products at the shop. As a final note, I am going to work with Nya in the long term as we promised each other to. Hopefully that actually works out. Time to actually be loyal and be a hero this time around. Need to try something different.

If we lose this challenge, I will be very upset. We went so hard on this challenge!!! I believe that we can at least get second place, but I don't know how crazy the other tribes are. So, let's see what goes on

Ayyyyy soooooooo looks like the four, Colin, me, Ava, and Brayden are officially in an alliance!? I’m really hyped to be working with everybody and already have sights on who should go if we have to go to tribal 👀 but like I’m gonna feel so bad if we go to tribal and I orchestrate a whole plan to take someone out I gotta do it when I’m not in my feels and the planets aren’t fucking with my emotions too heavy. But go alliance ! This means I’ll be able to stay safe until hopefully a merge and hopefully we can avoid a tribe swap till then which I get those vibe from it !! But I’ll be here to survive two more tribals just in case which is pretty rad. Other then that hopefully me offering to draw doesn’t end us up in the bottom and we can keep killing ! But anyways that is it as off know hopefully I have a lot more coins tomorrow morning and I get hit the hat shop bright and motherfucking early.

Just got asked to be apart of an alliance <33333 the besties in the group trust me which maybe ain't the right move but for now we gotta love the bonding. exciting!!!

YAY FOR ROUND 2! Okay, so I meet once again with the Hat Shop and... third times the charm! Except,,, the charm is getting nothing AGAIN lmao I'm not complaining though, still got that extra vote :P I stayed up at 1 AM for this challenge, and I honestly think our team popped off. Anastasia was guessing a ton, and Riley was amazing at drawing real quick! I have a relatively good feeling about our performance, so I hope I wake up to the news of our tribe being immune :D

so yesterday I set myself on a mission to get an alliance. I wanted Ava + Brayden + Toph + me as a majority alliance. it was our day off from tribal so I thought it was the perfect day to do it!! I talked to Brayden about it first because he's the person I feel the most comfortable with, and then after a lot of coordination and careful communication I was able to pull it together!! I think the most important thing when making alliances is making everyone feel like they're a big part in it. So I was careful to ask each person how they feel about the others, about the game, and made a point to say that I wanted to work with them specifically. Some may call that a little manipulative, but I wanna make sure that I'm an essential part of the alliance!! i need everyone to feel like they need/want me there.

all of this happening so soon into the game is a testament to how aggressive I'm playing this time around. I usually like to lay low and just rely solely on my social game in the start, but I'm trying this out to establish myself early on! I wanted to play the tribe leader and I think I'm doing that in a smart and subtle way!!

so yes now we have a 4 person majority alliance named "duolingo owl hate club" because fuck that guy. I think we're the 4 most active and present people on the tribe so it's only natural for us to work together, but I think it's definitely worth noting that I was the one that was pulling the strings here.

We just did the pictionary challenge, I have a good feeling about it!! Toph was an amazing artist, and if we win, all credit rightfully goes to him!! I think the guessers also did great of course, but like come on, the artist has to be the mvp. I'm really hoping we pull through!! I don't mind going to tribal, but I genuinely don't wanna vote anyone out yet. I'm fine just playing the game in a precautionary way. I know I'm in a great position if we do go to tribal, but it's always preferred that we don't go.

Everyone else on my tribe: doing the challenge and kicking ass

Me: I’m sleep

Riley (Tumblr has once again chosen violence so only the first 10 get banners 🥲)

I think our challenge went pretty well! My team were good guessers. Feeling like I've established some Integrity now. Hope it keeps me safe later!

Toph Soooooo we finished the challenge with 32 points and like wig !! I was a quick as drawer for 32pts expect when my internet lagged, but still ! I think we whooped some ass and if we do go to tribal I know it won’t be me going, thanks to Duolingo owl hate club but I’m also worried same could have and advantage because they seem pretty kean on learning a lot in like 3 hours and then tried to cover that statement to not seem so threatening but like babs s a huge threat too apparently they love Duolingo and know 5 laugnes ? This is from brayden but If so go babs ! That’s absolutely iconic for real Life but fucking scary in this game ! I gotta be buddy buddy with them so hopefully if they do have something it won’t be them going home first and it will be Ava. But I’m thinking we might get second place again unless someone is a fucking wizard at this.

Dennis hmm i think we did well enough in the challenge to not see tribal tomorrow but who knows i guess we shall find out tn

the way ellie was so on top of stuff yesterday only to oversleep the challenge makes me giggle maybe shes freaking out about it which makes me also giggle but i dont think its really a big deal

anastasia asked me to call yesterday and i was like sure lets talk but it is damn near impossible to hold a conversation with her idk i tried BUT she did tell me “yeah i just got off a call with ellie” im like i see. she says shes down to work with ellie but that quickly switched from ellie being ~experienced~ but good to know ellie is also playing hard. anastasia also mentioned that she talks to riley a fair amount who i still have yet to connect to well. but dat makes me think ellie is def talking to riley too miss debate team is definitely a talker. but good on her for the social game i guess

kenneth keeps being like haha we’re the same person and im like yeah👁 i bet we are👁

i just wanna win and not think about tribal just keep it slow and chill for now keep learnin my welsh i guess

Ava Second challenge was Pictionary and I had a ton of fun playing. The tea is: toph did a great job. He was pretty vocal about not being a great artist but really I think he did great. However, Babs was super inactive yesterday and ~too late~ said they were a great artist and should've been picked to draw. It was kind of like.... k babs thanks for the belated "help". They did do great guessing which scored a point in my book. Brayden was supposed to play but last minute logged off without saying anything so we did the challenge without him :/ sorta a bummer. Anyway the lack of participation from Sam is kind of popping off so we'll see where that leads them... Overall a fun game and fingers crossed we did well!

Moth I think we did okay at the challenge. Today I am dying from the heatwave so I’m not thinking too straight! Stay cool everyone

Ellie So yesterday Anastasia and I called for about an hour!!! I’d say we’re definitely way closer, she’s someone I really wanna work with although the idea of her and Brayden eventually being on the same tribe is kinda scary cause I know how close they are. Still she’s so fun to talk to and I just love her energy so much!

Pictionary challenge results: Jenkins Tribe wins with Penadragon second, Hatter Tribe has to go to tribal council on the following day.

Ava Well well well seems our bob ross, toph, didn't pull through (y'all think babs would've pulled it out for us or slept through our challenge like they said they almost did?) I can't wait for tribal. I'm in it for the drama. I'm hashtag voting Sam off - didn't even bother to be apart of our challenge and not too sure they've even been online for a full 24 hours. Weed out the weak.....

Anastasia

Brayden https://imgur.com/n60Lz0c

guys i dont know what to do someone help me out

Dennis i hope damn brayden gets the boot

Raffy Woo! We don't have to go to tribal again! We stan!

Ellie So I figured I’d go idol hunting today cause the shop was about to close and I just wanted to see what had been bought and what possible hats there were, I see that there’s a hat I have enough for that hasn’t been bought and I decide fuck it let’s get it

APPARENTLY ITS SOMETHING THAT IM NOT ALLOWED TO KNOW WHAT IT IS OR HOW TO USE IT YET???? THEY SAID ILL FIND OUT ABOUT IT LATER

I DONT WANT THE MYSTERY MOUSE-CA-TOOL BESTIE

Sam Well you see. I like all my tribe people. And I think we did real good on that music video! So, I think rather than voting anyone else off, I think I should just vote myself off if that is possible! Ahhh

Babs So sad to see Sam not only go but go through what they're going through :( same w Toph :( they all seem so lovely

Keith Not sure if i submitted a confession after the last tribal. But if I didnt here it is.

Happy I made it out of that tribal. I had raffy backing me with whom I played. Last time we played. We were at odds. We didnt work together but whats worse that we were against each other. It was either him or me goin out. Hopefully thats the past n we can work together. I jus need to keep things calm n show that Im not here itching to make big moves. So they dont feel threatened by me. N its easy cause right now. I havnt made that kind og bond with anyone on my tribe. To even think of such moves. Lets see what round two holds for me.

Colin so uh

we lost! :(

I was really bummed tbh. Like I thought we did well but circumstances with the challenge were just really unfortunate, from conflict about who wanted to be the artist to people disappearing the moment the challenge started, I think we did well despite all of that. Except we did kinda get stomped anyway. Oh well!! The game moves on. Tribal has to happen.

Initially I was gonna push for Babs, just because I feel like I don't wanna attach myself to them too early on. I've seen how much of a bitter player they can be, and lets just say I'm not the most loyal ally to have. however! 9 minutes after we lost, Ava announces to our alliance that she's voting Sam. I wasn't surprised, Sam has been the one not really pulling their weight. But I had some good connections with her!! we both did colorguard and shes so sweet and easy to talk to. I was really conflicted for a little bit, debating on whether or not to actually push for Babs. I think brayden sensed my hesitance but we both knew there was nothing really I could do to stop Sam from being the vote. At first tribal, the initial name always spreads like wildfire.

However, my mess was stopped abruptly by Sam asking to be voted out. welp!! okay then!! babs stays i guess!! i'm not too bothered. I'll never turn down an easy vote hehe.

Pretty sure there's a swap tonight. I'm kinda scared of that

uwu

Brayden

i almost forgot to upload this but dont worry i just remembered

Colin screams

Toph So we’re going to tribal in 20 and all I have to say right now is if there is a tribe swap after I’m gonna so scared but I ducking called I had a vibe and it was right that’s what is gonna win me this game trusting my intuition. I’m holding on now and gonna be the biggest comp beast next challenge in case I get fucked on this swap !!!! Or at least if it is a swap 🤔

Riley I don't know what this announcement's gonna be I'm worriedddd... Ginny said it probably means we're swapping teams but I don't wannaaaa I like our team.

Toph Sam self sacrificing made this the easiest vote ever and me being safe is a plus I guess 😎

#episodes

[todokori-kun]

No. NO. 

DON’T FEEL DEPRESSED. YOU’RE A QUEEN, OK, YOU’RE AWESOME. tbh the real problem here is probably me, I’m such an anxious loser XD

Awww I’m gonna miss you ;-; but enjoy your trip, that sounds so fun! Is it ok if I ask where you’re going? :D

(also new icon omg it’s so pretty)

You’re welcome! AND YES I relate to the 6 pics thing so much. I can never get to 8 pictures. (Currently trying to make an Illumi aesthetic and dying inside because…um…what is Illumi’s aesthetic again? Lots of needles, mind control, yandere-ness…dead fish eyeballs…nice hair…and…uh…)

They’re beautiful eyes. Endless swirling pools of silent screams and blank despair.

“Look into your eyes and the sky’s the limit~”

(tbh if I ever met Illumi those would be my first and last words to him lol)

DO YOU KNOW WHAT ILLUMI WOULD DO

HE’D STAB A MIND-CONTROL NEEDLE IN ARMIN’S HEAD

SO EVERY TIME ARMIN LOOKS AT THE WALLS ALL HE CAN THINK IS

“wow must be dangerous out there I better stay put right here in this exact spot so I don’t get eaten. ocean? what ocean? I’m perfectly happy with my current life”

But he would eventually get dragged along to the military because Illumi would have to join the MP to do his murdery assassin work and he absolutely refuses to leave Armin behind (also y'know, the titans will never get near Armin when they’re in the MP so win-win…for Illumi)

(I’ll find some good ones and send them in a seperate submission :D along with a few more HxH characters, if that’s ok?)

(Yeah. But tbh Angelica is too fab for TJeffs)

It’s amazing. Just…I feel a strange urge to draw Jefferson’s face at that moment

She’s the purest cinnamon roll in Helpless! But for people who have a harder time getting into Hamilton, That Would Be Enough is probaby where they get to see more of her actual personality…maybe? That’s what I meant ^^;;

I KNOW. Like, I think it’s impossible to be a female member of the Schuyler family and not be a total queen.

Everyone must bow before Angelica’s rapping skills

And every day, while slaves were slaughtered and carted

Away across the waves, he struggled and kept his guard up

Inside, he was longing for something to be a part of

The brother was willing to beg, steal, borrow, or barter

Can’t wait to see it :D

Yay I guessed right! As for how I knew…a fandom troll never reveals their secrets (jk, jk, I actually used to hang around on the edges of the Fairy Tail fandom for a while and I know a few tiny things. Like, if there’s a popular fandom on tumblr, I probably know a few basic facts about it even if I have no intention to ever watch/read/listen to it ^^;;)

*insert infinite Schwings here*

Yep.

Like I said though, he is DEFINITELY not dead. Character reasons and Ishida reasons (because tbh I hate to say this but TG’s writing style has gotten a bit predictable lately). Probably gonna cut his way out of there…or maybe he’ll frame out all the way

Oh no, that sounds frustrating ;-; *hugs* I’m sure it’ll still turn out amazing though! <3 Luna is the queen after all :D

Gon is the purest child. He’s right up there with Eliza and Armin.

(so it’s confusing how his dad, Ging, is such a trashcan.

Cousin: Ging, I don’t think you should do it

Ging: Imma go and become a hunter anyway

*promptly disappears for a few years and then suddenly returns with a tiny baby*

Ging: so yeah this is my son, his mom left, could you take care of him for, like, the next 12 to 13 years while I go and do mysterious hunter stuff and let him think I died in a car crash, leaving behind only a tiny locked box containing a recording of my voice, a weird ring and a game as a clue for him about who I am

Seriously, I found a pic on google that’s like

*Ging stares tenderly at his baby boy’s face*

Ging: “You’re gonna be Gon.

And I’m gonna be gone”)

Leorio is my absolute fav. I love him so much. (and yes he is very extra)

‘Sweet Sunshine Child’ might not be 100% correct but Killua is still cute. I think everyone in the fandom wants to adopt him and Gon lol (and Queen Luna would certainly be a much, MUCH better mom than Kikyo Zoldyck)

yeah, a lot of people mistake Pika for a girl, and a lot of people headcanon him as nonbinary too :) Yes, TRAGEDY. I think the main problem with Kurapika is that he isn’t able to let go of the anger inside him or express it in a healthy way, so his hatred for Chrollo and the rest of the Phantom Troupe is just destroying him.

Chrollo is also my problematic fav XD he does look really nice with his hair down. (And he is SUCH a Magnificent Bastard. I’ll send you another surprise pic of him soon)

I’ll give you updates on her reactions to major events :D

…I think you won’t be surprised to hear that my eyes stayed completely dry throughout the entire episode *troll face*

As for YoI…you’ll probably be seeing my reaction to that in the other submission :)

(but also I actually went back and read some of our older messages on there a while back and they’re hilarious.

Like, I’m really awkward in the older convos so it’s sorta cringe-y, but still. I sorta laughed when I read the convos where you weren’t quite into Hamilton yet and you were telling me that you didn’t really listen to musicals that much (LITTLE DID YOU KNOW I WOUD DRAG YOU INTO HAMILTRSH HELL))

DON’T LET ME EVER HEAR (read?) YOU CALL YOURSELF A LOSER, OK?? BECAUSE IF YOU DO, ILL BREAK SOMETHING =3= It’s my fault, really. I should’ve written the answer and then copy-pasted it when I had net. 

We’re going to Norway! It’s gonna be so much fun :3 My sister is also going, so I’m very very excited about that ^^

I love my new icon *^* There’s a whole set of them, so chances are I’ll rotate them ^^;;; 

Ahahahah good luck with that! I’d love to see it when it’s done, if you do manage to get it done XD Any ideas on which colours you want?

Welp, I’d say those would be pretty nice last words, especially considering the situation.  Ahem.

But when I fantsize at night, it’s Illumi’s eyes

FOR FUCK’S SAKE ILLUMI YOU CAN’T JUST STAB A MIND CONTROL NEEDLE INTO SOMEONE AND DO THAT. THAT’S WRONG!

Well, uh, I mean, good for Armin? But, then again, how would he get Armin into the MP?

Oh joy more character reviews XD I’ll get to those at the end of the post ^^

Not a drawing but;

Replace Jackson with Jefferson and we have his thought process. 

I bet he’d run away screaming. I know I would if I was him XDD

Ah, true... Still, Eliza is impressive no matter the song! She’s just too cinnamo roll-y not to be impressive. I love her T^T

Schuyler family in general is amazing. Even the generation after the sisters. Like PHILIP. 

I’ve only managed to do Satisfied a few times, and her rapping skills are godly. Not that mine are very good XD

Then a hurricane came, and devastation reigned Our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain

Oh, I should do that XD 

Aah, that makes sense... I mean, I knew tons about BnHA before watching and I still now about Joker Game despite not even being interested in it XD It’s just unavoidable on Tumblr :P

S C H W I N G

Well, I read your update and...  KUROIWA IS DEAD??? WHY?? W H Y

Just.

This is why I gave up on TG.

Hnngh no one from here like anime =3=

Wow. Just wow. HxH seriously seems like an emotional ride. I’ll have to think about it XDDD

Also you’ll be Gon and I’ll be Gone is just...

Yay for magnificent bastards!! I like the last one you sent me the most, I think it had all hair down and no headband?

Yeah, Im not surprised. Tell me, did you cry during Hughes’ death? Or during hs funeral?

I got your submission XD I’ll answer it here so I don’t bother the people there but it’s magnificent! So. Many. Puns.

Ahahah. If only I’d known... I also went and rewatched The One Thing You Can’t replace. And I’m amazed again XD

AND WOW THE HAM/ELIZA FEELS. WOW. THERe GOES MY HEART.

Shaiapouf reminds me of Shuu... All those butterflies... 

Tbh Ging (?) sounds like me as a parent XD Well, at least he tries?

#evans #submission

[almostentirelylost-blog]

The Forgotten Post

The Multi-Part Great Big Post

    Part I: The Poorly Planned Castle Visit

 It's been a while since I've written up a post, and that's for a few very good reasons.  Let's see, two days gone by undocumented, and still no pictures that were promised.  They'll come at some point, I swear it. So for context, I'm currently on a train on my way out of Dresden heading towards Prague, about a two hour trip, and some of the most beautiful countryside i've seen in a very long while.  Looks like we just arrived at Bad Schandau, look up some pictures.    So.  My last day in Berlin consisted of one very poorly planned, very fun trip out to Potsdam.  Beautiful town, that one, sort of where the rich folk like to have their homes for the sake of some sort of theater/filmmaking business.  I guess it's sort of a mini Hollywood, or maybe that's just nearby.  I can't remember, but the point of the trip was to go see a castle.  Schloss Cecilienhof, specifically, and it turns out that the entire thing is under construction and has been for 3 years already.  Go figure, but I didn't do any research and my grandmother doesn't use the internet at all.  

 Sort of a bummer that we didn't get to really see the castle very well.  I mean we saw it, but all covered with scaffolding and tarp.  The grounds were gorgeous though, immacutely kept gardens and pathways.  The sort of place where I'm sure you'd find a hedge maze.  Also right on a river, and I can't remember which river that was to save my life.  So we walked the grounds, enjoyed that, and then went on our merry way to find a beer.

 We found that beer at the Brauerei Meierei.  The place might as well be a museum, except it still produces that delicious, frosty, malted beverage we all know and love.  In massive quantities (three story tall brewery, which I haven't seen before on that scale), and served in half-litres or litres in heavy glass steins right on the riverfront.  We tried to take a boat tour too, but we also missed out on that one.  A shame really. Anyhow, the trip back to Berlin wasn't very interesting, just trains and busses, back to the luggage disaster I had to re-organize and sort through to decide what I needed for the next leg of the journey.

Part II: The Next Leg of the Journey

  Got everything sorted out that I needed, freaked out a little bit, calmed down, had a cup of coffee, and then hopped on a train to Dresden.  The idea was to go out there to see an old friend of mine, one Fritz Stenzel.  Well, that and sightseeing because I'm still totally a tourist.  Dresden is an incredible, old city with a very long histoy in science, religion, art, war, and medicine.  The various museums and palaces are standing testaments to these things and many of them house incredible old collections of any combination of all of the aforementioned things.  The most notable building are the Frauenkirche,and the Zwinger.  

 The Frauenkirche is a stupidly large stone church of typical stupidly large European church varieties.  It's unfair how pretty it is, and the art inside is even worse. 

 Oh look at that, I'm now official in Czechia.  Anyways, church.  The line was long, but there was also a guided tour going to the top of the tower.  A little cupola or whatever those rounded domes at the top of these old buildings are called.  the ones you can walk around in that usually have bells and all that.  That was neat, but the spiral staircase leading up to it brought a whole new dimension to the word 'treacherous'.  Not that it mattered much, I only really peeked into the building.  My real interest was in the Zwinger.   

  The Zwinger.  Once a capitol building/royal palace, it has now been turned into a museum and a monument.  It is well maintained and the gardens are beautiful with some ancient old carved fountains layed tastefully throughout.  There are also three museums there.  An art museum with an extensive collection of works from the 16th-18th century.  Most of this is religious art, Christian/Catholic, and a few Greek and Roman pieces as well.  I took pictures of the ones that really stood out to me.  The next museum was more interesting to me, since it was all old scientific equipment and nautical navigation, or the beginnings thereof.  Have you ever seen a handmade astrolabe?  Beautiful, though I can't understand why you would need to make them out of 7 different metals.  It was Czech, I suppose, and they had a thing for alchemy.  Last was a porcelain museum.  Pretty, but not all that interesting.

 After that I got a call from my buddy and headed his way, right in the middle of downtown Neu-Stadt.  Good to be able to pick up a friendship again after 6 years of not seeing one another.  For those of you that know my taste in music, he's the man that got me started down this path.  First thing in order was a beer, then a shower and change, because Dresden is hot in the summertime.  Then we went and drank more beer at a fun little jazz/blues club called Evergreen.  A Czech beer even, called Gambrinus.  Very cheap, but tastes good.  Would recommend to Euro-travelers that might be reading.  Night of drinking, yay.

Part III:  First Time in Czechia

 So far all I can say is that the countryside is gorgeous.  All rolling hills, green fields, and lush, diverese forests.  Pretty.  The city of Prague is also astonishing, as it turns out.  At the train station I met a fellow American traveler and togetherwe decided that the best decision at the time was to find ourselves a good Czech beer and some goulash.  That was more or less instant success, as I guess he was something of a foodie, and knew exactly where the best places were.  Over lunch it was all scheming and plotting about what was next.  

  A really neat thing about Prague is how big and old the buildings are, but that also translates to some very dark, confined streets. Anywhere you go is paved in cobblestones and overshadowed by great old stone gargoyles or carvings of forgotten alchemists and kings.  The city is also basically a maze.  It turns out that I get absolutely no cell service in Prague at all, so that was a maze I learned how to navigate the old fashioned way.  Czech is a pretty funny language too; impossible to understand and yet it's frustratingly familiar.  Familiar really is the best word for that feeling, where it seems like I should be able to understand everything just because the intonation and pronunciations are so similar.  I don't know, there were a lot of doubletakes and little wait-a-moment moments. 

 I stayed at an Airbnb for the first time that night.  I'd booked it on the train on the way in, it seemed like that would both be the cheapest and best option, plus I got lucky with a really central location.  Took me like two hours to find the damn place though, because there was no signage and the door was a four meter tall cast iron monstrosity that honestly didn't even look like it could be moved.  Turns out it was just a regular apartment building, and by that I mean Eastern European regular.  For any of you that have seen Interview with a Hitman, think along the lines of the apartment building that movie starts in.  Room had 6 beds, a gorgeous view of the city, and a couple of exhausted looking Australians that I later saw pounding 40's and smoking in the stairwell.

Part IV:  Alchemy, Green Liquors, and Metal

 Prague at night is special too.  The entire city lights up and really comes to life.  All those little cobblestone streets and gothic monuments turn into mysterious, gloomy corridors with all the feel and air of the 16th century, alchemy fueled, scientific center that the city was.   I won't get too much into the details of the night-life, since it's more or less the same everywhere, except that I found a metal bar!  A really neat place called Hell's Bells, where I spent a fair amount of time drinking and talking with a couple of Estonian metalheads I met.

 The Czech have a tendency to buy people they think are cool shots.  Specifically shots of this flourescent, toxic looking, green liquor that I can't remember the name of.  Not that I could pronounce it even if I did have it written down somewhere.  I learned pretty quickly that there's a proper way to do that shot too.  You're supposed to gargle a little bit first,and then down the rest.  Holy shit that was a sight to see.  A bar full of Czech guys gargling liquor and then singing some sort of drinking song...  Any case, the stuff isn't something I think I'm going to be drinking more of.  Way too sweet and way too minty.  Hell it might actually be mouthwash, but with more sugar.  Bleh.

 So, woke up with a bit of a hangover, showered, dressed, forced some food, drank lots of fruit juice and here I am on a train, almost in Vienna, felling a whole lot better and looking forward to some opera and a really nice dinner...

 Pictures will be uploaded from the hotel at some point tomorrow, probably.

#dresden #zwinger #museums #beer #elbe #czech republic #prague #trains #morebeer #alestorm #opeth #metalbar #thanks mom