I'm writing this with a cat on my lap. I have to periodically remind Carter that he can't grab for balance at shirt. There are breasts under there, my dude, and your claws are unwelcome. Really. But I can't bring myself to knock him off my lap. That's partly because I love him, and partly because I know it won't do much good; in a minute or two, he'll be back on my lap. I have found myself repeatedly surprised by finding him back on my lap after dumping him - I don't even notice him coming up to my lap until after he's made himself comfortable and me uncomfortable. Cats. Go figure.
Sunshine bathed the yard in random dashed lines as broken clouds scudded westward, slowly building the dull gray wall that seemed to be pushing the sun closer to the horizon. Ed stripped off the borrowed leather gloves, scanning along the perimeter of the yard for any weeds that he might have missed. The plastic grocery bag clipped to a belt loop on his right side was barely a quarter full, and long ingrained habits made him begin a third sweep, looking for stray bits of unwanted plants.
Unable to find any nearby, Ed patrolled the perimeter of the yard, all the way down to the ditch and the two lane road. Across the river of tarmac, the neighbor bent forward, leaning under the hood to inspect the engine. Something clanged, then clattered on the white concrete driveway.
Ed watched the bolt roll all the way toward the ditch. ( Read more... )
There's 33 fanvids on it (~2 hours of time in total)
Most don't have vidders listed.
I think it might be a mix of VCR and digital vids (there's some with effects and/or fanart included) and I think the tape is from sometime after 2001 (since there's footage of the finale in some vids).
Some (not all) have significant horizontal pink and green lines - I'm wondering if that's from the VHS or the footage in those vids (and/or a result of me initially having the VCR set on LP instead of SP).
I have a DVD-R of it recorded in LP quality and I'm recording one in SP quality.
MC can't remove the Veil herself, it has to be someone she feels safe with. Lucas removes it and it turns into a ring on MC's finger. :O
When Romeo attacks again, MC somehow summons a monster which makes Kaito and Lucas uneasy about her. :'( She ends up right back with Cornelio in the end and they want to see the ring...but it won't come off. I knew that was going to happen!
For some reason Cornelio has her to take a modified ghoul test.
Lmao Hyde gave MC a calming tea and lied about making it when it was Nicolas.
So the test results show that MC has the ability to enhance ghoul's power. Many otome/joseimuke games have this kind of thing so not surprising.
Ghouls are those who sold their souls and swallowed a demon in return for something. It's interesting to ponder what brought each ghoul to go as far as they did especially considering their age. Unless they don't age and are older than they appear.
I'm so curious what power the guy who held her hand during the test had.
Ohh so the reason Lucas was freaked out earlier was because MC accidentally enhanced his power after he used his incantation. The veil was 'Sage's Ring' all along and no one knew what power it held until now.
Cornelio wants MC to go on missions with the ghouls as an 'inspector', and she can look for the anomaly that cursed her.
i used to be super active on livejournal, mainly in the icon community. i made a dreamwidth account as livejournal was fading, but i didn't really connect to the site and with irl changes i ended up leaving this part of the internet altogether. i've been reminiscing and have wanted to get back into "journaling", so i'm giving dreamwidth a proper go this time around.
name: laura
age: 30
i mostly post about: life updates and the occasional book review. i dealt with a lot of changes last year and a major loss at the end of january, so i'm navigating this new chapter (that sounds so corny) and just want to document the ups & downs as i experience them.
my posting schedule tends to be: for now, i'd say sporadic, maybe a few times a week.
my interests: reading, bookish content (new/upcoming releases, challenges, etc), horror, thanatology (see: Caitlin Doughty), arts/crafts, trying new recipes/cooking, hockey (nhl & pwhl), the sims 4, historical facts, theatre, concerts, cleaning/weekend reset videos (specific fandoms) lord of the rings, the boys, sailor moon, three days grace, prison break, jujutsu kaisen, tokyo revengers, schitts creek, supernatural, gundam seed, mcu
my dealbreakers are: aggressive or continuous political content; i'm well aware of what's happening in the world and i have no problem with people who want to discuss or vent, but i have no desire in befriending anyone who is consumed by politics (especially whatever trump is up to). anti-lgbt, conservatives/traditionalists, ableists.
before adding me, you should know: i have social anxiety; i have good days and bad days. i might come off as standoffish, but i promise i'm not. i love reading/hearing about other people's experiences and getting a glimpse into their lives. i'm just too nervous to approach them lol
In helping one of my clients sort through several decades of personal photos, we found the Polaroids of the man sitting on a bed and masturbating with his head out of frame came with a note where he extorted his adoration for her and his desire to masturbate while she watched. Our best guess is he followed her to her building and gave the doorman some story about knowing her and needing her apartment number to get back in touch.
I didn't get a good look and they're long gone by now. I didn't ask why she'd kept them these last few decades or why she decided now was the time to throw them out, either. But the story lives on, and proof positive unsolicited dick pics have been around for as long as the technology for the pics themselves. It was something I'd suspected and in an odd way, it was nice to see the firsthand confirmation.
Only slightly more surprising was seeing someone else pick a cigarette pack out of the trash, fish through the pack, pull out the last one in there, toss the pack away, and start smoking it. I didn't stay to watch, knowing it'd be rude to stare, but boy, what an addiction that is.
Finally ready for another board. I read 6/6 on my last board and mostly enjoyed everything. I have a few ideas of things I want to read next so hope I get the chance in this board.
Avatar:
MDZS | Supernatural Skill: Re-draw a prompt once
Roll #1
A 77 6, Prompt: contemporary. Althought Survive! Gwanggong! is set in a game it's still technically contemporary.
Roll #2
An 11, man fuck the trap tile, I've hit it 3 times and I just started! New roll is an 8. Prompt: enemies becomes allies/friends. Hmm hope I can find something. That easier than I thought, though not sure exactly what it means since Cale was never their enemy in this timeline. Trash of the Count’s Family.
Roll #3
An 11, prompt: rivals to lovers. Not in the mood, using skill. Prompt: horror element. Got Dropped into a Ghost Story, Still Gotta Works!
Roll #4
A 6, prompt: romance element. I’m A Male Mom in a Nightmare Game though I haven't gotten to the romance yet.
Roll #5
A 7 and the end. Hmm I'll read more Kenkyo, Kenjitsu o Motto ni Ikite Orimasu as the reward.
1. It is once again the weekend and I am once again very glad for it. It's felt like a long week.
2. We're getting pizza for dinner tonight. Nothing fancy, just Dominos, but I do like Dominos (especially their pan pizza crust - so cheesy).
3. I'm maybe getting used to the new mouse? At least I don't seem to be getting any wrist pain today. Still unsure if I want to keep it, but I'm going to go to Best Buy this weekend and actually try out some mice in person and see if I can find anything that is a better fit. I actually need to get a new work mouse, too, so if I find something I like better than the Lift, I might just order that for work and swap them so I have the better one at home idk. (Depends on if I can get a full refund from Amazon or if they're only going to give me partial since it's used and not defective.)
1) At the grocery this morning and their clothing displays mirror the seesaw of our weather – puffy coats next to sundresses. It was so warm today than when I came back to drop the groceries off, I had to change into a t-shirt before I went out again, and it was barely 10 AM.
2) Had a nice piece of luck as well. The grocery was running a $10 coupon for $100 or more of purchases. I had to drop my partner off at work this morning because he had an all-day thing, and in the rush forgot to take the grocery list. So as I was putting stuff in the trunk I remembered I'd forgotten his celery. Went back and decided to pick up a few more things since I had the $10 coupon now. Got to the register and realized someone had left that same coupon sitting in the machine when they left! So I got the $10 off and still have my coupon for next week.
It amazes me how people don't bother taking their coupons. It's usually for things they're buying anyway and a free item is not unusual. And this was literally $10 in cash sitting there, when groceries are so expensive! I didn't even know what it was at first, just saw that someone hadn't taken their coupon and figured I'd look to see if it was something I could use.
3) Also on the grocery front, I have recently become addicted to Sumo oranges. Came across them during a sale, and got just one bag because they're pricey. Came back home with 3 the following week.
Oranges have never been my favorite, even though we had incredibly good ones growing in our backyard growing up. These are the closest I've gotten to those. I never end up eating only one.
3) As part of marchmetamatterschallenge, I have been going through my tv_talk comments in case I discussed much about a show (mostly, no). However it was a good reminder about a great many shows I watched which I liked and would recommend, but might not think of if someone asked me.
Some of these were strong throughout, and some long running ones have some weaker seasons but still worth watching. In no particular order, just as they came up on my entries: ( Read more... )
4) One of the things reviewing all these past posts made me aware of is how much more TV I'm watching, but overall with less enjoyment. Every so often I hit a show I would really recommend, but usually they fall into the "ok" category or I just nope out of it a few episodes in.
I think the changes in TV have a lot to do with this. ( Read more... )
Though written before it, this book chronologically follows Wild Seed. It picks up the story in 1970s Los Angeles, where the body-hopping immortal Doro has continued his human breeding program, now focused on creating a race of telepaths who can mind-control ordinary humans into total subjugation. He has high hopes for his daughter/lover Mary to become his most powerful telepath yet, but when her abilities fully mature, she accidentally links herself to several other telepaths, gaining psychic power over them. Now, for the first time in thousands of years, there's a real threat to Doro's control and the continuation of his eugenics project.
spoilery thoughtsAs I think about this book, a thought keeps arising: This book has no good guys. Mary is not a good guy. She's is positioned as the protagonist because she opposes Doro, and in the world of the books Doro is, if not literally the worst person on Earth, at least the person with the most power to do the most harm over the longest period of time. He is a merciless sociopath who will not stop until he is the absolute ruler of humanity. Being a better person than him is a low, low bar.
To be fair, Mary never intended to bring others under her control and she doesn't know how to stop it, and she at least has some conception of using her power to help others, even if only other telepaths. And yes, most telepaths were dying or succumbing to mental breakdowns before she set up a plan to help them. But she has no qualms about enslaving the mutes (non-telepaths) and using them as an underclass to serve her and the Patternists. Some characters voice concerns, but by that time it's basically too late, she's already consolidated her power and there's no going back.
Doro's downfall has the shape of classical tragedy, as his obsession with controlling others spectacularly backfires and rebounds on him. Everything he's been working towards points inevitably to this outcome, as he creates people with stronger and stronger powers while believing he would somehow remain in control of them. But he can't have it both ways. He's made Mary everything she is, and while she lacks his immortality, she has something he doesn't: followers who see her as a savior, who love her because she's made their lives better, not just because they're scared of her.
No reader is ever going to be sad about Doro finally being defeated, but his defeat means the triumph of a society where an enslaved majority serve a privileged minority. The best you can say for it is that power is shared with a sizeable elite rather than concentrated in one absolute despot. It's the victory of the lesser of two evils—emphasis on the evil. (And again, I am reminded of Kindred's chilling examination of "less bad" enslavers in real world history.)
There actually is one good guy in the book, though. Anyanwu (here called Emma) is a tertiary character. Of course, this was written before her character had been fully revealed in Wild Seed; I wonder how much Butler already knew about her? I'm not sure what I would have thought of her if this book were all I knew. This reading order emphasizes that the best Anyanwu could ever do was to fight Doro to a stalemate, and suggests that she could never defeat him in part because she wasn't ruthless enough. Unlike Mary, she wasn't born into his twisted world, and she has a moral code that goes beyond mere self-preservation. No wonder Mary can't stand her. With this book I felt more of a sense of it being backstory to an existing work, setting up for what's to come. Which is exactly what it is—it was written as a prequel to the first-published book in the series. And Wild Seed was in turn a prequel to Mind of My Mind, but I got more of a stand-alone vibe from that one. I still do not actually know what eventually becomes of Doro and Mary's descendants, but I am guessing it doesn't go super great for humanity!
Chapter 7: So Huo Qu and his siblings are adopted?
Chapter 8: Huo Qu manages to get Yu Qinghuan's phone number.
Chapter 9: The crew for the filming gets together for the first time. So many names, I'm never going to remember who's who but maybe it's not important.
Chapter 10: Lol Zhao Qingyuan is so immature.
The food talk made me want to look up everything. Honeycomb tripes, durian cake...
He liked being forgotten after he finished his own acting part.
So Zhao Qingyuan doesn't want to be noticed either? Yet he was upset that Yu Qinghuan didn't recognize him at first sight haha. What part is this guy going to play in the story?
Chapter 11: I think the translator got Qingyuan and Qinghuan mixed up a few times in this chapter hahah.
Noo Yu Hinghuan forgot to call Huo Qu!
Chapter 12: Aw, Qinhuan woke up and remembered, and now they're going to get something to eat together. Huo Qu's twin brothers are funny and protective.
Chapter 13:So how did this dude grow to this big safe and sound? Exactly! Did his mother feed him, or only make easy hand foods?
Chapter 14: Will Huo Qu ever learn to cross the road on his own, that is the question.
Chapter 15:"I want two goldfish, but Qinghuan only promised to buy me one." I lol'ed! And Huo Qu's showing a protective? possessive? side.
Chapter 16: Yu Qinghuan putting his phone on do not disturb after setting up an automated reply for Zhao Qinghuan who ended up going on and on and then complained on weibo after finding out, I can't even. 🤣
Chapter 17: So Yu Qinghuan really likes cooking, it gives him a sense of security.
Chapter 18: Poor Zhao Qingyuan, he only got one rib even though they were made for him. Yu Qinghuan is softening towards him. And he got a big director to write something just for him in return for two meals.
Chapter 19: Oh, Yu Qinghuan turned it down. Lol he's getting that script whether he wants it or not. I feel bad because how can he have the life he wants now.
A long and thorough Megatokyo breakdown from an ex-fan. (“I think I hate it better than anyone else.”) The criticisms are well-founded and well-explained, so even though I have some nostalgic fondness for Megatokyo and I’m not on board with every criticism, I liked reading it anyway.
The Skyjacks podcast, an original fantasy actual-play series, was on my “to try” list for a while. Recently, I opened the RSS feed, scrolled to the bottom, downloaded the first few episodes…and was confused to realize that it was (a) picking up from an existing story and (b) set in the Star Wars universe?
Yeah, the same group of players did an extensive Star Wars fangame first, spinning off from a short Star Wars adventure in a different feed, then moved on to their own series and kept adding that to the same feed. It’s a good jumping-on point, though. I’m 11 episodes in and not stopping.
Got caught up with Sporadic Phantoms, which was the last new podcast I mentioned starting. It continues to be very good. There’s a big pivot in season 2, but I think they handled it well. And…the season isn’t finished, so now I’m on a cliffhanger. Fingers crossed they stick the landing.
Also watched season 2 of the Ranma 1/2 reboot. It had a lot more of the madcap Jenga-tower-of-connected-gags pacing that I was missing while watching s1, where the personalities are wildly pinballing off each other and if you look away for 30 seconds you’ll miss something great. My “they couldn’t fully do this in s1 because they were too busy establishing the characters” theory is panning out.
And I did end up rewatching Cosmic Princess Kaguya. Turns out it absolutely rewards a second watch. There’s one character who knows about The Reveal from the start, and the amount of “oh that’s what you meant, I see what you did there” is amazing.
Cat news: Vet checkup for Fiddlesticks the other day.
When she had dental problems last May, they said she was down from 7-ish pounds to 6-ish, and theorized “maybe she’s eating less because it hurts her teeth.” But the current visit said she’s 7-ish pounds…and said that she was already back to 7-ish pounds last July (the visit where she had the bad teeth out).
Wonder if their scale in May was just having problems.
She developed these two Mystery Bumps since the last visit — you can’t really see them, they’re pea-sized at most and have normal fur growing over them, it’s just something you can feel when petting her. Official vet analysis on those is “probably just cysts, could develop problems in the future, but as long as she isn’t messing with them, we won’t mess with them.”
And she’s not messing with them! Doesn’t seem to notice them at all.
Arriving suitably late to the Heated Rivalry party.
I did try to get into it last year- my brain was not braining in the right direction to make that feasible. I suspect a lot of that might have been due to the uncertainty of whether a second season would be happening and I didn't want to get invested in something only to have it brutally yanked away. (I'm still furious that My Lady Jane didn't get a S2).
I had a day off on Tuesday, spent the afternoon noodling around online as I figured if I couldn't get into the show I would at least enjoy the unhinged glory of watching soundbites of the cast interviews and reading and bunch of articles. (Yes I'm aware of Ember and Ice, and yes I will be listening to that too).
One thing led to another and I started watching Heated Rivalry at 7pm thinking I'd do an episode a day.
UM.
By 1am Wednesday I'd watched all the eps, bought the books and was whatsapping (ravurian and gingerpig) tragic messages along the lines of "yes I'm 4 months late, talk to me about HR".
I was also patting myself on the back for having the foresight to 'add to memory' a lot of the DW posts that had been on my circle over the last 4 months clarifying the timeline (thank you mific) and making videos and fic recs.
First rewatch completed today and fully expect to complete another by the end of the weekend or I might dive in to the EmptyNetters reactions which I gather are highly recommended.
All of which is a longwinded way of saying I am down for talking about the show, the delightfully unhinged cast interviews (a gift that keeps on giving), the soundtrack, the books (I'll be finishing Game Changers this weekend), and anything related to the upcoming S2 which I am led to believe starts shooting this summer.
Rogan: Apparently DID Awareness Day was yesterday. I... frankly had more important things to be doing, like funeral prep, but okay, let's... let's pull the old shit together and say something.
I went to ‘Wuthering Heights’ last night, spontaneously, and enjoyed myself. Cried copiously at the end (as well as the montage after Cathy’s marriage). Although I also appreciate the woman in the audience who on the very final shot said, ‘What the fuck?’ Indeed.
I haven’t read the book, so have no feelings about the film as adaptation. I do apparently think that period-breaking is okay, but NOT with plastic dresses. No plastic please.
Also, getting rid of Heathcliff’s beard was a mistake. Pre-timeskip with long hair and beard = hot; clean-shaven and short hair = not. It’s not like I’m even into beards! Or so I thought -_-
Let us know if we missed you or if you didn't check in for a while, so we can add you. Of course joining the fun is possible at any point.
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ysilme here: Most of my writing time today was spent with technical fiddling for ebook compilation out of scrivener, but I managed a handful of words for a drawer fic, and a couple of hundred words of longhand diary.
sylvanwitch here: 439 words of vocabulary story for the next unit quiz.
Simple permissions - This is a sticky/other post code that people have been using for monthly etc wrap-ups, it can be edited for whatever use you want!
"Making a bl visual novel but you're a guy who has bad luck with romance and killing the god of love might solve it 🔪💕" (twitter) [steam]
"one of the saddest things in video games for me is finishing the main storyline and having your love interest reduced to a husk of what they once was because they've ran out of dialogue and interactions" (source: twitter) - THISSS It's bad enough when you're not even romancing them.
"A boy and his dog" - The author of The Summer Hikaru Died speaks on Hikaru's sexuality and the whole 'he sees him as a pet thing' and someone else brings in Shinji and Kaworu from Evangelion.
"The visual novel player's dilemma of choosing the obvious right choice vs choosing the interesting one." (source: twitter) - Sometimes I just want to choose the goofy option because it's fun even though I like to play my characters straightforward most of the time.
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"one of the 