#our other friend: so today's genetics episode is cancelled

[the-official-account]

Episode 18 liveblog YIPEE!

Fewer opening notes on this one. I'm gonna attempt liveblogging AND drawing at the same time, let's see how that goes. I'm currently feeling very smug with my advertisement efforts and while I hope to get to spar and vellum today I realized I made Anya kinda thin and that feels...not right for her vibes. So I'm doing Anya again...that's my excuse JGLDKDHDIS she's so...she's like a purse sized friend

Anyways, beginning of this i was not in front of my art tablet so:

"we come as a pair" haha. Cute.

Cloven heart said OUR little brother figure [bugs bunny com meme]

Scientist with a radio tower.....max.....hm. interestinger an interestinger

Yeah josepha you might be the only person in town who wants cloven heart to be the "center" of anything. Why not sindershore? She already works....idk, there? Or in v.n

Vellum just pulls out the papers lmao. Like why not!

Max came up with the schematics... Did max disappear? Yeah. Hm. HM!

Josepha used to be a woodworker? Was I remembering that right or did my brain just make this up.

"We would talk to Thorne" 😬

MAX WHAT

THEIR NAME WAS MAX WHAT?

Did grey have like....a really shitty alias? How old was max??? Fifteen days ago.... Hmmm.

Vellum would know if his uncle was out of town for like 2 and a half months if there was overlap and it took like a day or half a day of a train ride to get back and forth. It's unlikely vellum wouldn't connect those dots

"I was on drugs when I named it I will be honest".josepha is SO good. She's lovely. She's so funny. Oh my god.

"This may not be to your taste of perhaps it is I do not know how you party vellum" NFOSBDKSHDO

"THINK I COULD ROCK THOSE"

"I ALSO DONT KNOW HOW YOU PARTY AGENT VELLUM"

Trying not to burst out laughing in public this is a struggggllleeee

"The belt has 3 slots for arcane cores" I would rather we not go looking for bombs.... But yk. Queer people have plenty of odd hobbies who am I to judge

Okay but like short distance teleportation for someone with a bad leg is a pretty banger deal

"Sometimes you wake up one day and you're retired" In THIS economy?

Also I'm mentioning this out of order bc this episode is being funny faster than I can type, but (I say this with all of the respect) was vellums "I'm sure I'll find other use for you" sultry or was that just Ila's voice? HFOSHSKSBSOS

Spar sounds so depressed. Give this sheep dog some enrichment!

Vellum being like 'Hey you're good we still need to find some more bombs!' he is in fact giving spar some enrichment

"Waiting for this boat and seemingly intent on returninf to clovenheart"

I just squinted with SO much suspicion that that would be diamond

"Is Brunhilde!!!" Dksgsud ok

"Do you say hi to your mom as you're pretending to arrest the chick you dated who you invited into her home on grounds of a repeat assault?" My god

Spar is ~5'8 tati is 5'3 very good to know

~ many hours later, now doing art stuff~

Vellum could fall on this face and STILL look cool

Anya spar and vellum having a snack has gotta go on my to-draw list (my mind is so fast and my hands are so not fast! Ahh!)

OH NEW MIDTRO isk if this was here last episode. OH SHITFUN FACTS? i love blorbo facts

he has written a SYMPHONY? The essentricism is genetic i think.... a smphony baout YEARNING FOR BELONGING? you are handing me a fic idea. NOTE: symphony driven by loss and isolation over being trans, having lost his parents, wanting to find a place where he's accepted

Smooth velvet is his stripper name this episode is just raining fic ideas, huh? (i am joking but also I am not joking. BUt im joking but im not joking....I am deciding if im joking)

DONT BE MEAN TO ISHBALA (spell chat tdb) SPAR!!!!!!

DONT BE MEAN TO GREGGINS EITHER!!! LJKSAFHGLKAHFGLAKSG

greggins binder generator.

[not episode related but im battling between having sincere thoughts about Anya's fashion sense and going "ooooh belly"]

I FEEL LIKE THIS IS PROBLEMATIC AND YOU'RE GONNA GET CANCELLED AND HERE'S WHY

ALSDHGLKASDHGASKGFASGD MY SWORDS A GHOST NOW OHHHH MY GOD I LOVE THEM

SEKITAN WAS A VICTIM....WOAH.......WOOOOAH.

ALTERATION RESISTANT BLOOD? HOOOOLY SHIT. WOAH. WOAH. WAOH MAN. WOW. FUUUUCK. i dont evne......

anya said hey your uhhhh. Your uhh special friend is little stressed. go makeout of whatever. THEY'RE WALKING ARM IN ARM LMAOOOO

ishbala just chose violence SO unprompted

[anya is drawn now for spar and vellum iterations i am...........Well to be fair i am Never very confident going in and it walways turns out okay!!!]

"*he puts a gun in vellums hands* its goot to know you're with someone who can protect you." s;aldfalsfdjaw awhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! SPAR DOESN'T GET PROTECTED SPAR IS ALWAYS THE ONE JUMPING IN FRONT OF THE BULLET DO YOU KJNOW HOW MUCH THIS MEEEEEEEANS TO ME?????

"when you got a good one you keep em" thats it thats spar

spar is correcting vellums stance and vellum must be SCREAMING inside lmao. Vellum focuses SO HARD on everything BUT spar directly behind him and accidentally becomes an expert

ARE THEY ALSO IMPRESSED BY THE SEXUAL TENSION

vellum, full on titanicking it with spar is trying VERY hard to respect boundaries and that is my FAVORITE kind of tension. "I am not making moves because i respect you as a person" is never not entertaining

STOP JUMPSCARING ME WITH THIS FUCKING KISSES I GASPED TOO HARD AND CHOKED ON MY SPIT HOLY FUCK. HOOOLY FUCK.

ughhhhh drawing kisses is such a pain but FUCK do i wanna.

oooh this new outro is so fancy!!!! i love the format changes that are happening here!

im torn between doing another episode tonight and saving it for tomorrow so I can focus fully on drawing.......ill feel out the vibes after i get spar's jaw right. LOVELY episode. spar is making moooooooves!!!!

@threeheartscast i almost forgot!

#edil chats #edil liveblogs three of hearts #three of hearts pod

[turtlethon]

“Michelangelo Meets Bugman Again”

Season 5, Episode 8 First US Airdate: September 28, 1991

The Turtles and Bugman tackle an unlikely villain and his swarm of unstoppable super-termites.

We’re comfortably in the middle of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season five, and today arrive at “Michelangelo Meets Bugman Again”. David Wise is the writer of today’s outing, a sequel to the Dennis Marks-penned “Michelangelo Meets Bugman” from the previous year.

Raph accompanies Mikey as he visits a news-stand with a view to picking up the latest issue of the Bugman comic book. Our favourite party dude goes on to quiz the news vendor about the title’s absence, and is told that it’s no longer being published. The two Turtles return to the sewers, unaware that they’re being tracked by a bespectacled nerd, who’s been collecting details about them on a notepad.

Underground, Raphael points out to a dejected Michaelangelo that the end of the Bugman comic shouldn’t get to him as he knows the actual superhero. A flashback follows in which he recounts the events that led to Brick Bradley accidentally becoming Bugman; notably this retelling uses new (and slightly poorer) animation than the first time around.

When writing about Bugman’s debut episode, I mentioned that it felt odd that both the costumed hero and his arch nemesis, Electrozapper, were real people whose exploits also appeared in comic books. Here we start to explore what was going on with all of that business, as Mikey mentions to Raph that the reason the whole world knows Brick is actually Bugman is that “some dude spied on him and put all that stuff in the comic book”.

Back in the Lair, the Turtles speculate on whatever happened to Brick, who they haven’t heard from since the events of the previous Bugman episode. Things are interrupted by the sound of an alarm indicating an intruder on the prowl nearby. The group end up confronting the nerd who was tracking Mikey and Raph earlier, finding that he’s drawn a map to determine the location of the Lair. Our heroes are livid as they warn their unwanted guest about the dangers of wandering around in the sewers, only to all end up falling when a platform crumbles beneath their feet. The Turtles land on a pipe that also gives way, dropping for a second time into the dirty water below. As the pipe lands on the team, the intruder runs away.

Splinter arrives to check in on his pupils. He suggests that while someone finding out about the Lair is a cause for concern, he’s more worried about Brick’s disappearance – a little odd, considering that he never had any interaction with the superhero in the previous Bugman adventure. Mikey heads off to try and find his old friend while the other Turtles pursue the intruder.

In a rushed sequence, the still-unnamed nerd witnesses a bank robbery and winds up being taken hostage by the escaping crooks. Michaelangelo happens to be nearby too and steps in to handle the robbers before realising the hostage is the same individual who was spying on the Turtles earlier. The mystery man reveals his name is Jerry Spiegel before Mikey finds himself distracted by the crooks trying to escape once more. As the Turtle hurls a well-placed dagger to foil their getaway, Spiegel uses the opportunity to make a quick exit.

Looking for more information about Jerry Spiegel, Michaelangelo heads to Channel 6 only to find April is away on assignment, covering a robbery at a genetic engineering lab. Irma steps in to help him out, bringing up Spiegel’s details on the station’s computer files. It’s revealed that he’s the writer and artist behind the Bugman comic book, which kinda begs the question as to how Bugman superfan Michaelangelo wouldn’t have immediately picked up on that. Irma adds that the editor of the comic publisher is Juliet Schmooze, and so Mikey decides to call her. Schmooze reveals that Bugman’s cancellation came about after the world discovered that the superhero was a real person, with Brick suing them and bringing its publication to an abrupt halt.

Putting two and two together, Michaelangelo realises that Jerry Spiegel has now turned his attention to the Turtles, and is planning to reveal the details of their lives (and the location of the Lair) to the wider world in comic book form, effectively making it impossible for them to fight crime and leaving them vulnerable to an attack from Shredder.

At the genetic research lab, April interviews Professor Higgenbottom about the recent robbery that took place. He reveals that the theft was of a swarm of super termites that can chew through anything. In a rare occurrence, April completely lays into the professor, pointing out to him on live TV what an absurd decision it was to create such destructive creatures in the first place.

At “WAREHOUSE” - an abandoned warehouse that literally has a big sign out front declaring its intended use – we see a little guy in a home-made costume modelled after Shredder’s. He uses a hypnotising ray on the captured termites, which then fly off to wreak havoc upon his command. This, we learn, is “The Swatter”.

Michaelangelo arrives at Brick Bradley’s home and learns that he was evicted by the landlady, as “the place was swamped with comic book fans”. Having written Brick off as a troublemaker, she nevertheless provides Mikey with a forwarding address where his old friend can be reached.

April reports from the grand opening of the Conspicuous Consumption Mall, where the swarm of termites begins decimating parts of the building. Turtlethon favourite Stan, who is working the camera, flees the scene without saying a word. The Turtles see all of this unfold on TV, and rush into action.

The Swatter arrives at the Entire State Building – not the result of a miscommunication with the overseas animators, that’s really what it’s called – and despite his laughable appearance, somehow manages to scare away everyone on the ground floor. He heads to the roof, where he plans to use his transmitting gear to trap the Turtles.

April finds herself standing on a ledge outside the mall when the termites begin to chow down, causing debris to rain down upon the reporter before ground beneath her feet crumbles as well. She winds up clinging to the remainder of the balcony, itself being eaten by the bugs, as the Turtles arrive. Leonardo emerges from the Turtle Van’s launcher – making this the second episode in a row where we’ve seen it utilised – and catches the reporter in mid-air, wedging his katana blade into the side of the building and allowing both to land safely.

Michaelangelo arrives on the scene, explaining to the other Turtles and April how Jerry Spiegel exposed Bugman and now intends to do the same to them. After the swarm retreats, The Swatter makes a loudspeaker announcement from the roof of the nearby Entire State Building that draws the attention of our heroes. Leo, Raph and Donnie head off to confront him, with Mikey splitting off once more to search for Bugman, and April intent on trailing the swarm of termites.

We’re well past the halfway point of the episode as Michaelangelo arrives at the gates of Happyvale Meditation Center and actually does meet Bugman – or at least Brick, who wears a sleeveless robe and sits outside seeking enlightenment. He tells Mikey that after his role as Bugman was exposed to the public he was hounded non-stop by “fans, reporters, would-be supervillains”. To deal with the unwanted attention, he began a new life at the Meditation Center where he has now achieved inner peace.

Mikey is insistent that the city needs Bugman to stop the termite problem, but Brick has no interest in doing anything that would interfere with his chilled-out vibe. Infuriated, Michaelangelo drags the former superhero into the Turtle Van, vowing to do whatever it takes to agitate him.

From the uncharacteristically wonky-looking Channel 6 building, Burne, Irma and Vernon watch as the skyline is cut down by the termites. The sight of all of this is too much for Vernon, who like Splinter, has a substitute voice today as Peter Renaday is still absent.

The Turtles arrive atop the Entire State Building and can’t contain their laughter when they finally get a good look at The Swatter. He unleashes a pair of wrist-mounted giant swatters before catching Leo, Donnie and Raph on a giant roll of “super fly paper”. Whipping out a notepad, he begins to quiz the Turtles about trivial aspects of their lives.

In the Turtle Van, Michaelangelo continues unsuccessfully to try and provoke Brick, the buildings around them falling as they speak. They arrive outside Channel 6, where Mikey tries a different approach, bringing up Brick’s fleeting romance with April from his prior appearance. The ex-superhero replies that she was “a truly evolved young woman... I thought she and I might be soulmates”. Mikey uses this to goad him, pointing out that April works in the nearby building and is now in danger thanks to the looming termites. This scheme falls apart when April rolls up in her news van, nowhere near the office after all.

For some reason April has absolutely zero chill today; much as she did with the professor at the lab earlier, she mocks Brick, calling his robes a “stupid getup” that makes him “look like a pile of unwashed sheets”. Brick is greatly offended and continues to get madder as April throws his claims of having achieved inner peace back in his face, culminating in his transformation into Bugman. The superhero uses his powers to command the swarm to return to their place of origin, and “never harm anyone again”. With that somewhat anti-climatic resolution out of the way, Bugman and Mikey head off to aid the other Turtles.

The Swatter is continuing to prod the Turtles about all kinds of minutia when Michaelangelo arrives with Bugman, who gets a taste of the villain’s “bug zapper rays”. A smoke bomb briefly incapacitates the insect hero but by this point Mikey has managed to free the other Turtles, and the quartet restrain the makeshift villain. Bugman removes Swatter’s mask to reveal Jerry Spiegel, and somehow the Turtles are genuinely shocked that this annoying little guy with a notepad who wanted to know everything about them is the same annoying little guy with a notepad that wanted to know everything about them from earlier.

As Michaelangelo had predicted, Spiegel confirms that he was trying to learn everything about the Turtles for the creation of his new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book. When pressed as to why he couldn’t just come up with an original concept, he laughs at the prospect, declaring that he’s never had an original idea in his entire life. Leonardo suggests that he’ll have plenty of time to get creative in jail.

We wrap up the loose ends in the Lair, where Brick is seen thanking the Turtles. He vows to adopt a new secret identity that will allow him to live without being under constant scrutiny. As he leaves, Brick assures the team that if they ever need help fighting crime, they can continue to count on Bugman. Don’t read too much into that though, this is the last we’ll see of him.

Leonardo and Raphael laugh at the ludicrous idea that anyone, anywhere, would ever publish a comic book about the Turtles. Michaelangelo pretends to be in agreement, before quietly sneaking off to his bedroom. From underneath his mattress, he pulls out a copy of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book and addresses the viewers at home. “C’mon dudes, admit it – you read it too!”

I have to hand it to David Wise for what he’s trying to do here: it’s clear that he watched the first Bugman episode and reached pretty much the same conclusion I did, that there was a lot left unexplored regarding how this superhero could exist as a fictional character while also being a real guy, and what the repercussions of that would be. As a result, what we get here is an examination of the overlap between being a super-powered crime fighter and a celebrity, as well as some good-natured ribbing of the comics world that the Turtles (in our real world) started off as a parody of before becoming an industry staple in their own right. It’s a vastly different approach to the first Bugman story, which was more of a straightforward superhero pastiche, but one that I personally prefer.

The Swatter is obviously a pathetic villain, but unlike for example Mr. X, or some of the other lacklustre villains we’ve seen over the last year of Turtles, he sucks not by accident but by design. His real name of Jerry Spiegel is a nod to Superman’s co-creator, Jerry Siegel. Juliet Schmooze, the editor of the Bugman comics, is presumably a tribute to contemporaneous Editor in Chief of DC Comics Julius "Julie" Schwartz.

I don’t bring up the quality of the animation as much on Turtlethon as I used to as the various studios handling the show generally have a handle on how the characters are supposed to look at this point, and it’s rare to see glaring visual issues here in the fifth season. Having said that, “Michelangelo Meets Bugman Again” is definitely flakier than I’ve come to expect, never veering into looking outright bad but certainly seeming rushed. Our next entry, “Muckman Messes Up”, will make this one look downright normal by comparison.

#Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #TMNT #TMNT 1987 #Ninja Turtles #1991 #Bugman #Michelangelo Meets Bugman Again #Turtlethon #TMNT Mikey #TMNT Michelangelo #TMNT Michaelangelo #Mikey TMNT

[yourneighbourhoodbiologist]

Ok, the funniest thing happened today. So, after a class we were sitting and watching an episode of Mahabharat and discussing about the class.

Me: I finally got the book Sir was talking about.

*Shows the book on phone*

My friend: Oh! It’s the one that he was talking about in the last episode.

*Me and our other friend laughing our asses off after staring at each other to make sure we heard what we thought we heard*

Friend: why are you guys laughing? Wait a minute, what did I say? *realising what she said* Oh God! *Cue facepalm*

Meanwhile we have started laughing harder.

Needless to say, we are calling each class an episode and each course a show now. 

#humour #when you are so invested in a show that you forget the outside world #chaotic academia #our other friend: so today's genetics episode is cancelled #friend: they are not going to let this rest now

[femnet]

Confession: I’m afraid of dying. Or I used to be. Maybe it’s because I used to wonder if I was. It all started when I was in my early 20s and I’d have these episodes while sleeping- an alarm bell would go off in my head and I would suddenly jolt up out of bed, gasping for breath, my body half numb, my heart pounding.

Doctors told me it was just anxiety, which in some cases, it is. But I knew in my heart that it wasn’t normal for me. I was the most laid-back, ce la vie person that I knew. I never had a panic attack in my life. But just in case, they convinced me to take antidepressants. Needless to say, they didn’t work.

For several years, I was able to ignore the symptoms. They were vague and would come and go. I told myself I was just out of shape. After all, I used to be a competitive swimmer who swam for hours every day and now I was so busy with work that I only worked out a few times a week. I might feel dizzy and short of breath after a workout one day and feel fine the next. Dehydration, maybe? But I drank water like a mermaid. Weeks later, I would feel weak in my left arm. I went to the neurologist. Then, it was my left jaw. I saw a dentist. I had lung tests for shortness of breath. The pulmonologist said my lungs were clear and my lung capacity was higher than average, probably due to being an athlete.

However, in my 30s, when I started feeling dizzy and faint after lifting a heavy object or leisurely walking around Target for thirty minutes, I started to get scared. I made a few trips to the ER, but the doctors and nurses did not seem worried. My EKG was normal. My blood pressure and heart rate were optimal. X-ray and blood work were stellar. I was just another healthy young woman who worried too much about her health. But just to alleviate my fears and to be prudent, they conducted a plethora of tests: a holtor monitor for palpitations, a tilt test for dizziness, echocardiogram, nuclear stress echo on a treadmill. I passed them all with flying colors. “Good news!” they would say. “It can’t possibly be your heart!” I tried to feel relieved, but the symptoms never went away. And since no one believed me, I suffered in silence.

As a woman, I am NOT alone in my experiences with the healthcare system. It turns out, women really are from Venus. We are just as unique chemically as we are in every other way and we have been historically misdiagnosed and underdiagnosed. There are many more of us out there doubting ourselves. I’ve read too many documented cases and verified studies about women who died too soon or too young because their symptoms were dismissed or misdiagnosed as anxiety or stress by their doctors. Why? It isn’t because doctors don’t care about women. It’s because medicine is not a perfect science. There are still so many things that we still don’t know about our bodies and most diagnostic tests have been tested on men. Therefore, women have to be the experts of their own bodies. We have to be own advocates.

Finally, last year, at the of 36, I could not ignore my symptoms any longer. I was a high school English as a Second Language teacher and I had to walk up 3 flights of stairs every day to get to my classroom, leaving me exhausted, nauseous and dizzy all day long. I would have to fake normalcy with my coworkers and students when secretly I felt like I was a ticking time bomb. I would spend my lunch breaks crying, checking my pulse and obsessively googling my symptoms. I eventually had to quit my job and dedicate myself full time to finding a diagnosis. Now, I can finally say that I’m on the right track.

The greatest relief came when I realized I wasn’t going crazy. All of my independent research finally led me to find more patient stories like mine. I found a support group of (mostly) women, some my age or even younger, with negative tests, no risk factors or family history, but persisting symptoms. It turns out that our main arteries are clear, but we have a dysfunction in our tiniest vessels, which can lead to a chronic lack of blood flow to the heart, a condition now known as microvascular disease. Unfortunately, it is difficult to diagnose as it is difficult to detect with conventional to test. Not only is it difficult to diagnose, but also difficult to treat. However, as more and more is becoming understood about the mechanisms behind it, (some experts believe it is an autoimmune or inflammatory response or genetic disorder), doctors are able to help us manage our symptoms to prevent future problems like heart attack, stroke, or heart failure.  

Contrary to popular belief, heart disease is the leading killer of women of all ages. Women are more likely than men to have heart symptoms or even a heart attack despite having clear main arteries. Women are also more likely to die before, during, and after their first heart attacks. I’m not saying this to scare you. Knowledge is power and women are the best experts of their own bodies. If your doctor says you’re fine, but that little voice tells you that something just isn’t right, seek a second opinion. And a third. If it weren’t for the women in my Facebook support group, I would never have found a specialist for microvascular disease. He is one of only a few in the country. I am crossing my fingers for a definitive diagnosis in February.

But even without one, I know I’ll be okay. I have good days and bad days. I have a support system of friends all over the world. I’ll keep on living and searching for answers and ways to adjust to my evolving situation. I am more in tune with my body and I know my limits. I’m now more comfortable living in a state of “unknown”,  which has helped me cope with living and the idea of dying. Life is precious. I don’t put off my dreams, but I also take one day at a time. I listen to my body instead of the advice of others. I allow myself to be lazy some days. I try not to feel guilty when I have to cancel plans. I try not to care what other people think. I’m kind to myself.

As a teacher and life long learner, my experience has become more intriguing to me than depressing. I’ve chosen to make lemonade from these lemons. I feel like a living, breathing science experiment. I do have some control over what I choose to do from now on. And although this condition limits me in physical ways, it has also put me on the path I am today. It’s made me love science and medicine. Made me live more deliberately and choose a healthier lifestyle. It’s made me more creative. Adaptable. Resourceful. Determined. I’m now teaching English online to kids all over the world. I’ve also started my own blog, something that’s been a goal of mine for years, but I never had the time when I was teaching in the classroom full-time.

I am not very religious, or even very spiritual (although I try to be), but this experience has made me consider the existence of fate and a higher power. Maybe I was meant to be struck with this. Quit my classroom job. Write this article. Have you read it. Save a life.

#by rebecca #real life #medical #diagnosis #january 2019 #health and self care