#2022 winter convention

[kollectorsrus]

[the-gentler-gamester]

I am pms-y and ugly crying remembering this precise moment. I can't and probably will not ever get over how his eyes light up and that smile broke across his face when he saw me.

He definitely did think I was someone else to have that sort of reaction. Because I am not the kind of person who makes people smile like this. Far from it.

No one has ever looked at me like this. And I can't cope. I can't move on 😭😭😭 Even though I know this smile was not meant for me. But instead, for the girl he thought I was. Whoever she is.

[lookingforcactus]

Went to a big quilting convention today and am feeling inspired so here's todays edition of

What the fuck do you mean that's a quilt??

Most people have no idea about how much craft goes into quilting or how much quilting as a craft, art, and even a science has been evolving in recent years. So here's my personal appreciation post

And btw the flat images do NOT even do these quilts justice, especially in terms of the absolutely amazing and detailed texture embroidery that a lot of quilters are using these days. Up close the texture and the sheer detail of many of them is just stunning

These are all from the Road to California quilt show 2023

1st Place: Portrait

Title: Sharing the Moment Maker: Hollis Chatelain Quilter: Hollis Chatelain Design Basis: Maker's Original Design African-American women are a powerful force in motivating their families and communities to vote. I wanted to create a piece about this and highlight the fact that African-American women did not receive the right to vote in all 50 states until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was passed. I met Phyllis at a rally. I was drawn to her and asked if she would be my model. Without hesitation she said yes. She later brought her friend Loretta with her.

1st Place: Naturescape

Title: Augustinii Maker: Andrea Brokenshire Quilter: Andrea Brokenshire Design Basis: Maker's Original Design “Augustinii” is a blue/purple variety of rhododendron my momma planted within her forest garden. I was lucky to be home on when it was in bloom. When I see this quilt, I am reminded of my momma and how she loves to tend her garden and “grub in the dirt.”

1st Place: Pictorial

Title: Leap of Faith Maker: Kestrel Michaud Quilter: Kestrel Michaud Design Basis: Original design In this Steampunk fantasy world, men and women have taken to the skies on ships held aloft by hot air, ingenuity, and luck. Faith’s favorite past-time is bungee-jumping off the side of her airship, with Bubo, her pet clockwork owl. This quilt depicts the photo Faith took on her latest jump to test her brand-new camera and selfie stick.

2nd Place: Naturescape

Title: Homage to Birches Bare Maker: Jessica Noble Quilter: Jessica Noble Design Basis: Fabric recreation of Kesler Woodward's Birches Bare, acrylic on I fell in love with Kesler Woodward’s Birches Bare painting and knew I had to create it in fabric. I cut about 1,700 pattern pieces out of freezer paper and then fused fabric, through the fall of 2019 until the pandemic started. During this time, I homeschooled my two children and the quilt sat in quarantine. I quilted this freehand on my midarm in the winter of 2021. I managed to take the majority of the summer of 2022 on the binding.

2nd Place: Pictorial

Title: Toroweap Overlook Maker: Sandra Mollon Quilter: Sandra Mollon Design Basis: Derived from a photo Toroweap Overlook, in the Grand Canyon National Park, is an incredible view of the Colorado River. When John Slot sent me the photo to consider for an art quilt, I realized the complexity of the amount of the pieces it would require, but knew I had to do it. Raw edge fused, machine quilted, small amounts of media.

3rd Place: Pictorial

Title: Catch it Yuri! Maker: Hiroko Miyama and Masanobu Miyama Quilter: Hiroko Miyama Design Basis: Maker's Original Design Inspired by dogs’ action. Yuri, golden retriever big jumped to catch a ball and Ponta, mix hardly waited his turn. Dogs and girl were fused appliquéd.

Seriously can you believe these are all quilts!!! incredible amazing showstopping spectacular

[mike-the-hedgehog]

My IDW Sonic Comics Physical Variants Collection Of 231

The collection I have so far the following:

IDW Sonic Issue 1-69 Cover A B & RI Covers on going series missing some Cover B's & RI Covers

Miniseries:

Bad Guys 1-4 Cover A's

Imposter Syndrome Full Sets

Scrapnik Island Full Sets

Fang the Hunter Full Sets

One Shot Specials:

Sonic 30th Anniversary Full Sets

5th Anniversary Edition Full Sets

Tails 30th Anniversary Full Sets (Not Including online exclusive)

Endless Summer Full Sets

Winter Jam Full Sets

900th Adventure two RI Covers 1:10 1:25

Sonic Movie 2

Halloween Special Missing One Variant Cover

Amy's 30th Anniversary Full Sets (Not Including online exclusive)

Halloween ComicFest

Annual 2019 2020 2022

Free Comic Book Day 2021 2022

Issue #1 C2E2 Convention Foil Variant Covers Sonic Logo & Rafa Knight

I've been collecting since April 2018 the series first started and first time got Into reading a Sonic comic too 😊

[brostateexam]

I was in a room of men. Every man was over-groomed: checked shirt, cologne behind the ears, deluxe beard or clean-shaven jaw. Their conversations bounced around me in jolly rat-a-tats, but the argot evaded interpretation. All I made out were acronyms and discerning grunts, backslaps, a mannered nonchalance.

I was at the Chattanooga Convention Center for Project Voice, a major gathering for software developers, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs in conversational AI. The conference, now in its eighth year, was run by Bradley Metrock, an uncommonly tall man with rousing frat-boy energy who is, per his professional bio, a “leading thought leader” in voice tech. “I’m a conservative guy!” he said to me on a Zoom call some weeks prior. “I was like, ‘What kind of magazine is this? Seems pretty out there.’”

The magazine in question was this one. Bradley had read my essay “HUMAN_FALLBACK” in n+1’s Winter 2022 issue in which I described my year impersonating a chatbot for a real estate start-up. A lonely year, a depressing charade; it had made an impression on Bradley. He asked if I’d attend Project Voice as the “honorary contrarian speaker,” a title bestowed each year on a public figure, often a journalist, who has expressed objections to conversational AI. As part of my contrarian duties, I was to close out the conference with a thirty-minute speech to an audience of five hundred — a sort of valedictory of grievances, I gathered.

[blouisparadise]

There are so many amazing bottom Louis fics that were posted or completed during the month of December. We’re entering a new year feeling incredibly grateful for the amazing fics we got in 2022, and excited for the many we’ll get in 2023! Happy reading!

1) Far From Reality | Explicit | 1138 words

Note: The main pairing is Louis/Henry Cavill.

Henry and Melissa looked like the perfect couple. Nothing could be further from the truth.

2) Honeymooning In Italy  | Not Rated | 2386 words

Honeymoon sex.

3) Poisonous Ivy | Explicit | 3241 words

Louis is a starving man.

He craves many things in his life. Mainly of those things that he is hungry for are things that had been deprived off of him.

4) Flame Colored Paradise | Explicit | 3282 words

Note: The main pairing is Louis/Mads Mikkelsen.

A side smirk widened Mads’ lips. He looked like a sight straight from heaven in his dark three-piece suit, hair in perfect place, a relaxed look on his face, as if he hasn’t had a hard-on for the last half an hour. Louis loved how Mads was always perfectly composed, never a single strand of hair out of place. He could have his whole cock buried in Louis, with the boy falling to pieces in front of him, but not a single drop of sweat would dampen his face.

5) Alpha Heater For Sale | Ten & Up | 3626 words

He passed by the bulletin board in the hallway, as usual, flyers about open mics, dorm events, and the like. This time though, he stopped when a flyer caught his eye. The words “alpha” and “heat” calling out to him.

Louis tilted his head at the flyer curiously.

It read: Alpha heater for sale! Winter weather got you down? Call Harry for your warm, furnace-like needs!

6) Unspoken | Explicit | 5175 words

Harry and Louis broke up when they were nineteen. They see each other after six years.

7) You're The (Devil In Disguise) | Explicit | 5179 words

Louis is, in appearances, the perfect omega. Small, graceful, docile, polite and very sweet. At least, until the rebellious side of him comes out, which sends alphas running away.

8) Little Minx | Mature | 5514 words

Harry’s new flatmate Louis seems to have a growing problem…literally.

9) Down Comes The Night | Explicit | 5974 words

Note: The main pairing is Louis/Pedro Pascal.

A love story set in the 18th century. Pedro is a painter, commissioned to create a wedding portrait of Louis, a young man who has just left the convent. Louis is a reluctant spouse to be and Pedro must paint him without his knowledge.

10) Our Stained Skin | Explicit | 6019 words

When Louis' 8-year-old daughter shows up with a tattoo on her arm Louis needs to get to the bottom of it. That may or may not involve him tailing someone. But at least he has a good reason for it. Sort of.

11)  Forever Is Composed Of Nows  | Not Rated | 6598 words

There was one time of the year that Louis loved more than any other. It came on the heels of autumn, slowly at first in frosted blades of grass and misty mornings and then swept over the countryside in sheets of freshly fallen snow glinting in the sunlight. With its arrival came the glow of multi-colored strings of lights strung from the eaves of every home and a magic in the air that filled the lungs of awe-inspired pups craning their necks to take in the festive displays.

Harry and Louis spend Christmas Day together.

12) Can We Please Get Back to Fucking? | Explicit | 8370 words

Harry and Louis have had a toxic back-and-forth relationship since they hate fucked at freshman orientation. Now in their senior year, they’ve lost count of how many times they’ve broken up and gotten back together. This is a smutty one-shot from when Louis makes Harry jealous at a club. Harry takes back what is his, and they fuck in the bathroom.

13) Singer And Photographer | Not Rated | 15361 words

Harry Styles: singer, songwriter, alpha

Louis Tomlinson: photographer, omega

What if you get invited by one of your best friends to join him and his band on tour?

What if you are photographing the tour?

What if you're slowly falling in love with a special alpha?

14) Here Where You Should Be | General Audiances  | 19497 words

When Harry, an anxious alpha, found himself panicking over last minute Christmas shopping, he found comfort in the kind omega shop assistant, Louis. He wasn't meant to invite the omega home for Christmas when he found out that he's spending Christmas alone. He wasn't meant to catch feelings. Hell, he wasn't even meant to be able to go home for the holiday. It was shaping up to be a Christmas full of surprises.

15) Under The Rain Or Under The Snow | Explicit | 20667 words

“I don’t think I understood.” He shakes his head and closes his eyes, as if distancing himself from the situation. “Harry? What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Your mum invited me, also, how could I say no to her superb roast potatoes?”

16) 12 Days of Courting | Explicit | 22709 words

They're friends with benefits and Louis' heat is scheduled for Christmas.

17) The Evenness I Fake | Explicit | 26385 words

Harry doesn’t do relationships. He has a perfectly enjoyable friends-with-benefits agreement with a perfectly lovely omega, and he doesn’t see the need to change that anytime soon. The small fact that Louis giving his attention to another alpha makes Harry want to put his head through a wall isn’t nearly as much of an issue as everyone’s making it out to be.

18) Something Along The Lines Of ‘An Office Love Story At Christmas’ | Explicit | 43148 words

Harry hadn't planned on seeing Louis again, not after that night. When he finds out his only competition for a very desired promotion is Louis, he spirals into a mess of trying to be a better coworker and person right before Christmas in hopes that he can outdo Louis' effortless effect on his office. If he manages to get his head out of his ass along the way, it’ll be a holiday miracle.

19) All I want For Christmas Is You | Not Rated | 43253 words

Christmas AU in which a soft alpha with gorgeous green eyes and an even prettier smile moves into Louis' apartment complex and turns the omega's world upside down during his most favourite time of the year - featuring christmas decorating, christmas markets, cookies in the making, and copious amounts of mulled wine (and kisses).

20) Your Gift is Wasted On Me | Not Rated | 54472 words

“He had a partner for a long time, and he says that he was too dependent. He doesn’t want an alpha, at least not right now. But he’s got a pretty severe case of touch deprivation. So it’s … not great.”

“Is there anything …”

“He doesn’t like to be touched. There was an incident a few weeks ago and he just … he can’t bear human touch.”

21) Now I'm Begging for Footnotes In The Story of Your Life | Explicit | 80742 words

Harry and Louis are engaged, but a few months before the wedding Louis realises that they don't like each other, so instead of ending the engagement two of them go head-to-head in an all out prank war.

In the battle of who will end the engagement first.

22) You Sunshine, You Temptress | Explicit | 88148 words

A story about a forbidden love 

& secrets that come to light.

Eyes as green as the forest And eyes as blue as the lake When they met a love began

Stronger than the tide And wilder than a river Fearless Despite the ban

Fairy and wolf Together one

23) My Kind Of Love | Explicit | 108178 words

Harry marries Louis for one year. Louis has no choice other than marry Harry fucking styles. There is a reason behind Harry’s sudden marriage with Louis and Louis has no idea about that. Maybe Harry married Louis for revenge.

Check out our other fic rec lists by category here and by title here.

You can find other monthly roundup fic rec lists here.

[ziseviolet]

I posted 5,832 times in 2022

That's 1,413 more posts than 2021!

30 posts created (1%)

5,802 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@fouryearsofshades

@rongzhi

@hanfugallery

@fuckyeahchinesefashion

I tagged 5,828 of my posts in 2022

#r - 5,765 posts

#hanfu - 3,786 posts

#art - 1,187 posts

#tang dynasty - 810 posts

#audio - 791 posts

#ming dynasty - 738 posts

#video - 734 posts

#mens hanfu - 576 posts

#drama - 572 posts

#art by op - 558 posts

Longest Tag: 96 characters

#i'll always associate this song with the giant dancing ginseng from that one chunwan performance

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

In wuxia I see that they have half their hair up and the other half down. Is there a certain period where this hairstyle directs from?

Hi, thanks for the question, and sorry for taking ages to reply!

The half-up, half-down hairstyle that you often see on both male & female characters in Chinese guzhuang (period costume) dramas is not based on historical hairstyles. Rather, it is a fairly recent styling convention, most likely originating from late 20th century wuxia TV shows from Hong Kong (x). Over time the hairstyle has become normalized and commonplace in Chinese costume dramas, especially in the wuxia and xianxia genres (because these genres are not necessarily aiming for historical accuracy in the first place).

Below, from left to right: Wang Hedi in Love Between Fairy and Devil, Deng Wei in Miss the Dragon, Xiao Zhan in The Untamed, Gong Jun in Word of Honor: 

As @niteshade925 explains in this post, for male characters, the main idea of the hairstyle is to make the character look attractive, and also in some shows/context, to hint at the character’s personality, as in maybe they do not adhere to traditional customs and are free-spirited/spontaneous. For female characters, it is usually just a regular hairstyle without deeper meaning :P

For more information on this half-up half-down hairstyle, and historical hairstyles in general, please see the following posts:

The historical accuracy of half-up half-down hairstyles

The historical accuracy of ponytails

Historical hairstyles for men

Hope this helps!

528 notes - Posted October 7, 2022

#4

Dior Mamianqun Controversy

I received the following message via chat from a follower, that I would like to share here:

Hi, 小紫, do you know that Dior appropriates the modernized mamianqun designed by some hanfu brands in china? link of discussion about Dior 2022 A/W show on weibo: https://weibo.com/6323095999/LChcJyPTa?refer_flag=1001030103_&type=repost#_rnd1657858224778 , I think Dior indeed directly referenced the structure of how it's pleated and inner cutouts of mamianqun which has a long history dated back to ming dynasty and influenced the shape of qing dynasty skirts as well, it is sussy, look how the DIOR model turned around when the skirt spread to reveal the split style, this is indeed the unique inner structure of mamianqun, a more rigorous examination requires DIOR to show the flat design, but Dior is not responding, it claims on the official website that this is their exclusive style launched this year, yet the same style of mamianqun has been prevalent among young people in China for several years, there are several taobao stores making exactly this kind of modernized mamianqun since 2018 or even early (metal leather buckle belt + fabric suitable for autumn and winter + long skirts), such as 四时景, 你好美荔, etc., I don't know how to make it an anonymous ask for you to post my question but I would like to listen to your and other followers' comments on this, thank you 小紫(also feel totally free not to post this one, it's your blog and you make the call ❤️

See the full post

1,167 notes - Posted July 15, 2022

#3

See the full post

1,262 notes - Posted January 9, 2022

#2

Hi! I'm really fond of researching about hanfu and its history, and I found a lot of interesting information on this blog. But I can't help it and keep wondering about the reason for qipao/cheongsang not be considered a hanfu? When I researched about it the most common argument is the Manchu influence on it. However, there are a plenty of hanfu styles that were influenced by other cultures. Is there a more especific reason for not consider the qipao?

Hi, thanks for the question, and glad you like my blog! (x)

I want to start off with an important disclaimer:

The term “hanfu” as we use it today (defined as “traditional Han Chinese clothing”) does not have the exact same meaning as when it was used historically. As @audreydoeskaren explains in this post, “while it is true that the term “hanfu” was used in some historical texts, they were often used in opposition to clothing worn by foreign peoples...and not as a standalone term”. Today, there is no central organizing body or law that states exactly what is & what is not considered hanfu. Rather, such categorization is done by the members of the hanfu community - and the hanfu community is not a monolith. Ever since its inception in 2003, the hanfu revival movement has been a grassroots, bottom-up movement with members of various backgrounds, ideologies, and opinions. It is a movement that is built upon, and driven forward by, constant dialogue and debate among its members. Thus the question of what garments are considered hanfu is under continuous discussion, and is subject to the hanfu community’s views and ideas on culture, clothing, and history.

See the full post

2,167 notes - Posted March 6, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

What exactly does Dunhuang style mean?

Hi, thanks for the question! (x)

Dunhuang/敦煌 style refers to the art, fashion, and culture depicted in the Dunhuang Murals/敦煌壁画 of China, which are located in the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, Gansu Province. From the 4th to 14th century, the caves were constructed by Buddhist monks to serve as shrines with funds from donors. These caves were elaborately painted, the cave paintings and architecture serving as aids to meditation, visual representations of the quest for enlightenment, and teaching tools for Buddhist beliefs and stories. The major caves were sponsored by patrons such as important clergy, local ruling elite, foreign dignitaries, as well as Chinese emperors (x). Below - painting from the Dunhuang Murals (x):

See the full post

3,306 notes - Posted January 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[maaarine]

Bibliography: articles posted on this blog in 2023

Posted in January

To grasp how serotonin works on the brain, look to the gut (James M Shine, Psyche, Jan 03 2023)

Thousands of records shattered in historic winter warm spell in Europe (Ian Livingston, The Washington Post, Jan 02 2023)

“Il faut que tu sois belle maintenant” : en Égypte, des femmes libérées du voile restent prisonnières des diktats (Aliaa Talaat, Al-Manassa via Courrier International, 20 nov 2022)

Mystery of why Roman buildings have survived so long has been unraveled, scientists say (Katie Hunt, CNN, Jan 06 2023)

Colombia’s surrogacy market: Buying a baby for $4,000 (Lucía Franco, El País, Jan 04 2023)

How to spot an eating disorder (Phillip Aouad & Sarah Maguire, Psyche, Jan 11 2023)

UAE sparks furious backlash by appointing Abu Dhabi oil chief as president of COP28 climate summit (Sam Meredith, CNBC, Jan 12 2023)

Don’t tell me that David Carrick’s crimes were ‘unbelievable’. The problem is victims aren’t believed (Marina Hyde, The Guardian, Jan 17 2023)

Baromètre Sexisme 2023 : "La situation est alarmante", estime le Haut Conseil à l'Égalité (Juliette Geay, Radio France, 23 janvier 2023)

—

Posted in February

Spain approves menstrual leave, teen abortion and trans laws (NPR, Feb 16 2023)

Are Men the Overlooked Reason for the Fertility Decline? (Jessica Grose, The New York Times, Feb 15 2023)

American teenage girls are experiencing high levels of emotional distress. Why? (Moira Donegan, The Guardian, Feb 16 2023)

Figures that lay bare the shocking scale of toxic influencer Andrew Tate’s reach among young men (Maya Oppenheim, The Independent, Feb 17 2023)

Why psychological research on child sex offenders is important (Meetali Devgun, Psyche, Feb 22 2023)

Derrière les chiffres des féminicides, des visages et un continuum de violences contre les femmes (Fanny Declercq, Le Soir, 27 fév 2023)

—

Posted in March

English is not normal (John McWhorter, Aeon, Nov 13 2015)

Are Iranian schoolgirls being poisoned by toxic gas? (BBC News, March 03 2023)

‘Why do we need a supermodel?’: Backlash after Fifa makes Adriana Lima Women’s World Cup ambassador (Henry Belot, The Guardian, March 02 2023)

New Human Metabolism Research Upends Conventional Wisdom about How We Burn Calories (Herman Pontzer, Scientific American, Jan 01 2023)

Polish woman found guilty of aiding an abortion in landmark trial (Harriet Barber, The Telegraph, March 14 2023)

How Diet Builds Better Bones: Surprising Findings on Vitamin D, Coffee, and More (Claudia Wallis, Scientific American, Jan 01 2023)

Met police found to be institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic (Vikram Dodd, The Guardian, March 21 2023)

Chinese Dating App Does the Swiping for Singles to Find Love (Nikki Main, Gizmodo, March 21 2023)

Aphantasia can be a gift to philosophers and critics like me (Mette Leonard Høeg, Psyche, March 20 2023)

—

Posted in April

Facts Don’t Change Minds – Social Networks, Group Dialogue, and Stories Do (Anne Toomey, The LSE Impact Blog, Jan 24 2023)

Uganda’s failure to jail child rapists as teen pregnancies soar (Tamasin Ford, BBC News, April 17 2023)

Italy risks ‘ethnic replacement’ because of low birth rate and high immigration, says minister (Nick Squires, The Telegraph, April 19 2023)

Putin, Trump, Ukraine: how Timothy Snyder became the leading interpreter of our dark times (Robert P Baird, The Guardian, March 30 2023)

India overtakes China to become world’s most populous country (Hannah Ellis-Petersen, The Guardian, April 24 2023)

—

Posted in May

Des crèches ferment toutes les semaines, « et ce n’est pas près de s’arrêter » (Le Soir, 5 mai 2023)

People in comas showed ‘conscious-like’ brain activity as they died, study says (Hannah Devlin, The Guardian, May 01 2023)

Chinese woman appeals in battle for right to freeze her eggs (The Guardian, May 09 2023)

Women CEOs: Why companies in crisis hire minorities - and then fire them (The Guardian, DG McCullough, Aug 08 2014)

Glass cliffs: firms appoint female executives in times of crisis as a signal of change to investors (Max Reinwald and Johannes Zaia and Florian Kunze, LSE Business Review, Aug 19 2022)

—

Posted in June

Afghan women in mental health crisis over bleak future (Yogita Limaye, BBC News, June 05 2023)

Support Of Amber Heard Alongside French Feminists & Cinema Figures (Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, June 05 2023)

Why is Japan redefining rape? (Tessa Wong & Sakiko Shiraishi, BBC News, June 07 2023)

Catching the men who sell subway groping videos (Zhaoyin Feng & Aliaume Leroy & Shanshan Chen, BBC News, June 08 2023)

Netherlands to provide free sun cream to tackle record skin cancer levels (Kate Connolly, The Guardian, June 12 2023)

The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think (Joanna Thompson, Quanta Magazine, Jan 26 2023)

—

Posted in July

‘Farsighted impulsivity’ and the new psychology of self-control (Adam Bulley, Psyche, Feb 03 2021)

Can a perfectionist personality put you at risk of migraines? (Shayla Love, Psyche, July 25 2023)

—

Posted in August

How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain (Marta Zaraska, Quanta Magazine, Feb 28 2023)

Why religious belief provides a real buffer against suicide risk (David H Rosmarin, Psyche, Aug 07 2023)

—

Posted in September

What Are Dreams For? (Amanda Gefter, The New Yorker, Aug 31 2023)

Rape Cases Seize Italy’s Attention and Expose Cultural Rifts (Gaia Pianigiani, The New York Times, Sep 03 2023)

Councils in England in crisis as Birmingham ‘declares itself bankrupt’ (Heather Stewart and Jessica Murray, The Guardian, Sep 05 2023)

Nearly one in three female NHS surgeons have been sexually assaulted, survey suggests (Jamie Grierson, The Guardian, Sep 12 2023)

Domination and Objectification: Men’s Motivation for Dominance Over Women Affects Their Tendency to Sexually Objectify Women (Orly Bareket and Nurit Shnabel, Sep 09 2019)

In Spain, dozens of girls are reporting AI-generated nude photos of them being circulated at school: ‘My heart skipped a beat’ (Manuel Viejo, El País, Sep 18 2023)

When the human tendency to detect patterns goes too far (Shayla Love, Psyche, Sep 19 2023)

—

Posted in October

My Brain Doesn’t Picture Things (Marco Giancotti, Nautilus, Oct 04 2023)

“Inverse vaccine” shows potential to treat multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases (Sarah C.P. Williams, The University of Chicago, Sep 11 2023)

Poland election: exit polls point to Law and Justice defeat as Tusk hails ‘rebirth’ (Shaun Walker, The Guardian, Oct 16 2023)

—

Posted in November

What I have learned from my suicidal patients (Gavin Francis, The Guardian, Nov 22 2019)

Did natural selection make the Dutch the tallest people on the planet? (Martin Enserink, Science, Apr 07 2015)

Tumblr Is Always Dying (Elizabeth Minkel, Wired, Nov 14 2023)

How accurate is the new Napoleon film? Sorting fact from fiction (Andrew Roberts, The Sunday Times, Nov 19 2023)

Far-right party set to win most seats in Dutch elections, exit polls show (Jon Henley and Pjotr Sauer and Senay Boztas, The Guardian, Nov 22 2023)

Climate change: Rise in Google searches around ‘anxiety’ (Lucy Gilder, BBC, Nov 22 2023)

—

Posted in December

The sexual assault of sleeping women: the hidden, horrifying rape crisis in our bedrooms (Anna Moore, The Guardian, June 15 2021)

Afghanistan: Taliban sends abused women to prison - UN (Nicholas Yong, BBC News, Dec 15 2023)

Longitudinal Associations Between Parenting and Child Big Five Personality Traits (University of California Press, Nov 18 2021)

Scientists Pinpoint Cause of Severe Morning Sickness (Azeen Ghorayshi, The New York Times, Dec 13 2023)

[krispyweiss]

Former Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull Drummer Gerry Conway Dies at 76

Drummer Gerry Conway, who spent nearly a quarter-century with Fairport Convention and also played with Cat Stevens, Jethro Tull and others, has died, his son said.

Conway, 76, died March 29; no cause was given.

“Rest in peace, Gerry,” said Fairport Convention, the band Conway left in 2022 after 24 years.

“Thank you for your music and friendship. Our thoughts are with Gerry’s family and friends at this extremely sad time.”

Winter Wilson toured with Fairport in 2018 and Dave Wilson was profoundly impacted by watching Conway at work.

“What struck me about his playing was the subtleties; he wasn’t afraid of silence, he knew how effective a gentle brush across a cymbal could be,” Wilson said of Conway. “And then, when he did go all guns blazing, it had an amazing impact.”

The drummer got his start in the 1970s with Fotheringay and appeared on the debut albums of Sandy Denny and Joan Armatrading. He went on to spend several years in Stevens’ band, drum for Jethro Tull in the 1980s and record and tour alongside Richard Thompson and others before joining Fairport in 1998.

The artist now known as Yusuf/Cat Stevens eulogized his “great old drummer” on social media.

“What a lad, and what ingenuity and style,” Stevens wrote of Conway. “May God grant him the beautiful reward of peace everlasting.”

Martin Barre was “devastated” at the loss of his “dear friend” and onetime bandmate.

“I have been so lucky to have shared a stage with (Conway) so many times, and I always had a big smile when I would look over to him playing next to me,” the former Tull guitarist said.

“He was one of those rare people who gave out so much warmth and friendship.”

3/30/24

[battlekilt]

So, my Loungefly Winter sale order came in.

First of all, this 2022 LE Convention Exclusive (mustn't've been too limited edition to still be available. xD) It is Animated Boba Fett, and I've always loved his color scheme. It fits my pastel aesthetic better than most of Star Wars. Anyway, their deal was the bag was drastically marked down, and since I ordered other things, I got the wallet for free.

Next up is a second wallet. I wanted it for a while because it had Cody on it. Yes, sorry, @spacingstars and @marvelstars, I got it for Cody! I don't usually like LF's live-action prints because they always look cheap to me in pictures. But it really doesn't! The print is high quality, it has enough artifacts in it to look the movie's age. The colors pop, and there's JUST a touch of styling to make it... idk, look good.

Last up is the Vader keychain seen on the previous wallet. And oh boy, is he bigger than I expected. LOOK AT HIM. And he is heavy, too. I like the choice of gunmetal hardware for him.

I got all this for a ridiculous markdown, too!

[the-gentler-gamester]

^^ The faces of two people who have just confused the fuck out of each other but try to act normal for the camera 😅 (Sorry. I know I'm horrifyingly ugly!)

10 seconds prior to this:

Him: *takes and shakes my hand*

"Hi! What's your name?"

Me: *tells him*

Instead of then letting go of my hand and posing for the shot, he continues to hold it and looks at me with squinty eyes.

Him: "Have we met before?"

Me: "No, I don't think so!"

He smiles and seems to accept my answer. So we both turn and face the camera. I'm trying to focus on the photo and smile but all I can think of is what he just said. And if we HAVE met before and I don't remember. Because this was most definitely the first time we have ever been in such close proximity to each other. (I did attend LFCC in 2013 when he was there for a special Mortal Instruments Q&A/signing. But I am absolutely certain I did not see him... I'd have remembered! I've known who he is since 2007!)

After the photo, he keeps his arm round me but looks back at me.

Him: "Are you SURE we haven't met? You look vaguely familiar!"

WTF DUDE

He lets me go and we turn to face each other again.

Me: "I'm pretty sure... but I'll take it!"

I laugh then put my hand on his arm and gently squeeze his fucking bicep as we both say goodbye. I can still feel the warmth and texture of that jumper 😭

Ladies & Gentlemen. This is the story of how every last one of my braincells ceased to exist.

November 19th, 2022 - Date of Death.

I dunno. I've been thinking about this pretty much non stop since it happened. I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for it. Also. The fact that I met him again the next day and he said "it's been a long time..."? To me, that absolutely suggested he still believed we'd met before that weekend. Maybe I just have a doppelganger (poor girl!) That has to be the reason. Right?!

I wish you had a "search" function in real life! Like, to be able to search through every single mention and memory to find answers to stuff like this. Yes I know. I'm weird.

[panda-paco]

Christmas 2022

Merry Christmas, everyone!! This time I decided to not do a Christmas themed card, but instead more about winter. Despite we never have snow where we live (Mexico), I thought it was going to be great to attract good wishes for Holidays and especially next year, there are some themes that are very positive for me, and sharing them with people all over the world to make them smile is something that attracts good energies to make things happen. It's funny that I heard once that every 7 years there is something that makes your life change. There was a year when I went for first time to a concert alone, since then my life was about music and concerts, that was the most important thing for me back then. But 7 years later I moved to a new city to study college, then my life was about drawing and painting, I was hanging out with so many other people with same interests and also it was the year I joined the furry fandom. 7 years later I attended my first furry convention, despite I was already a furry, that made me change radically, I met so many awesome people all over the world, and my life goals changed positively. And now... this year I'm getting married, so I'm sure this is a new life change and I have my hopes it will be for good, I can't be more excited but of course nervous. On this picture, that has a lot of meaning for me, I included myself (Parinton, aka "Paco"), Roni (my dear husband), and the critters from my comic "Art & Biro": Art, Biro, Rocky (the feral raccoon), Julio and Nemo. I send all my best wishes to all of you, hoping you are having a great holiday season! *loves* Paco Traditional. Colored pencils

[takaraphoenix]

I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate that DC can't just make their very clear anthology series... an actual series. I hate that so much, it makes finding other issues hours long work and then you're still coming up empty for some years and you have no way of finding it.

They're doing a semi-okay job with DC Pride. Still, I don't really get why it's not treated as one series, that is just releasing issues once a year. So it's DC Pride 2023 instead of DC Pride Issue 3. But at least they're all CALLED the same thing so you can find all DC Pride issues and then just... conclude that there wasn't one in 2020 or prior. Same with the DC Power series.

But their annual holiday specials and Valentine's Day specials? An absolute fucking mess. Incomprehensible gibberish.

And! The holiday specials started off... coherent enough. With the Rebirth Holiday Special (2017), followed by the Holiday Special 2017 (2018). Like, it's not that they made up a cutesy, dumb name for the first issue when they didn't know a second would follow and had to commit to the bit. They made two coherent ones and then went with things like the Nuclear Winter Special (2019), or 'Tis the Season to be Freezin' (2022). This is stupid.

The Valentine's Day series inexplicably managed to get even worse at the naming convention this year, with the latest issue being called How to Lose Guy Gardner in 10 Days... Why. There is one oneshot in that collection that's about Guy, and the all-Guy cover coupled with that title just does not make this look like it's a Valentine's oneshot collection?? Why give this a hyper-specific name that only relates to one out of EIGHT stories?

At least the other Valentine's Day specials have some type of love/passion motif in the title - Young Romance, Young Monsters in Love, Mysteries of Love in Space, Crimes of Passion, Love is a Battlefield, Strange Love Adventures, Harley Quinn Romances (and that last one at least earned the specifics of Harley's name on it by tying all the little stories inside together through the narrative).

Look, I do understand standalone anthology books. You release one book with many oneshots and it relates to nothing.

But that's just not really what these are. They do relate to each other by sharing a specific theme. So why not put them under the same mantle? Because I love reading them and I don't believe I'm the only one who ever got "Man, I would love to read all the oneshot collections with the winter holiday theme or the Valentine's Day/romance theme" and it would be so easy to find them if you could just look up a DC Valentine's Day Specials series, instead of having to figure out that Love is a Battlefield and Strange Love Adventures are Valentine's Day oneshot collections.

[philza-updates]

I posted 1,868 times in 2022

That's 159 more posts than 2021!

1,649 posts created (88%)

219 posts reblogged (12%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@philza-updates

@benchtrioupdates

@wilbursoot-updates

@technoblade-updates

@wolfythewitch

I tagged 1,852 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#mcyt - 1,669 posts

#philza - 1,581 posts

#ph1lza - 1,579 posts

#image id - 1,152 posts

#no id in alt text - 1,135 posts

#mod luna - 310 posts

#misstrixtin - 226 posts

#trixtin - 226 posts

#mumza - 226 posts

#kristin - 225 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i think he mistook the fact that they tweeted about wanting people to send them ideas for things to add as them doing the announcement again

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Aimsey tweeted about Phil on xyr priv!

[Image ID:

A cropped screenshot of a tweet by aimZ @/aimsey4k. It reads “nobody understands how genuinely full my heart was when phil and kristin both sat with me after the panel, reminding me that twitch getting my pronouns wrong WAS a huge deal and not in my own head, and them both saying they’ll help anyway they can :’)

i’m gonna be 100% honest i was basically with phil and kristin the entire convention and wouldn’t have traded it for anything, some of my favourite humans ever”.

End ID]

2,093 notes - Posted October 15, 2022

#4

Phil replied to Tommy on twitter!

[Image ID:

A cropped screenshot of a tweet by TommyInnit @/tommyinnit with a reply by Ph1LzA @/Ph1LzA.

Tommy’s tweet reads “@/Ph1LzA explain”. Attached is a cropped screenshot of the most recent PhilzaCLIPS video, titled “Philza can throw it back 😈”.

Phil’s reply reads “Kristin controls that channel, ask her :)”.

End ID]

2,630 notes - Posted January 9, 2022

#3

Phil made some changes to his regular skin!

[Image ID:

2 images of Phil’s Minecraft skin taken from namemc.

The first shows his skin from the front and the second shows it from behind.

The changes from his previous skin are:

- The cancer awareness ribbon has been changed from lavender to yellow, to represent specifically sarcoma cancer, which is the kind Techno fought.

- On his right hand he has a lavender wristband to represent the Techno cancer support wristband Phil wears irl.

- Under his hat he has a little emerald charm.

- His cleavage has been covered up by a black undershirt with a small hardcore heart.

End ID]

3,480 notes - Posted July 22, 2022

#2

Philza posted on twitter!

[Image ID:

A cropped screenshot of a tweet by Philza Minecraft @/Ph1LzA. It reads “Happy Halloween!!! 🎃”. Attached is an edited together photo of Phil and Kristin in Hallowe’en costumes in a video game mansion, presumably from Resident Evil. Kristin, who is wearing a Lady Dimitrescu costume with a somewhat condescending smile on her lips, is edited to be significantly taller than Phil, who is dressed as Ethan Winters and looking up at Kristin towering over him.

End ID]

4,470 notes - Posted October 28, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Here are all 4/4 emotes!

See the full post

5,868 notes - Posted October 3, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[ukrainenews]

Daily Wrap Up March 24-27, 2023

Under the cut:

Russia plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, President Vladimir Putin said Saturday. Moscow will complete the construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by the beginning of July, Putin told state broadcaster Russia 1.

Ukrainian authorities said two civilians were killed in a Russian missile attack on Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region Saturday.

Ukrainian authorities have concluded search and rescue operations on the site of Russian missile strikes in Sloviansk [on Monday], Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region military administration, told national broadcasters on Monday. At least two people were killed and 32 were injured in the strike on the eastern city in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine shut the eastern town of Avdiivka to non-military personnel on Monday, describing it as a post-apocalyptic wasteland, as Kyiv tried to break the back of Russia's flagging winter offensive before a counter-assault of its own. A Ukrainian general said Kyiv was planning its next move after Moscow appeared to shift focus from the small city of Bakhmut, which Russia has failed to capture after several months of the war's bloodiest fighting, to Avdiivka further south.

Ukraine has received its first British main battle tanks, along with other donated Western-made armored vehicles, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov announced Monday.

The 18 Leopard 2 battle tanks pledged by Germany to support Ukraine in its war against Russia have arrived in Ukraine, the German Defence Ministry said on Monday.

“Russia plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, President Vladimir Putin said Saturday.

Moscow will complete the construction of a special storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by the beginning of July, Putin told state broadcaster Russia 1.

He said Moscow had already transferred an Iskander short-range missile system, a device which can be fitted with nuclear or conventional warheads, to Belarus.

During the interview, Putin said Russia had helped Belarus convert 10 aircraft to make them capable of carrying tactical nuclear warheads and would start training pilots to fly the re-configured planes early next month.

Belarus, which is west of Russia on Ukraine’s long northern border, is among Moscow’s closest allies. It helped Russia launch its initial invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, allowing the Kremlin’s troops to enter the country from the north.

There have been fears throughout the conflict that Belarus will again be used as a launching ground for an offensive, or that Minsk’s own troops will join the conflict.

Putin’s remarks in the interview on Saturday build on comments made in December at a joint news conference with Lukashenko in Minsk, when the Russian leader said Moscow was training Belarusian pilots to fly jets capable of carrying a “special warhead.”

During that conference, and addressing the Russia leader, Lukashenko also said, “Today we’ve put the S-400 [air defense] system that you transferred to Belarus into a state of combat-readiness, and, most importantly, the Iskander system, which you have also handed over to us, after promising it half a year ago.”

Belarus has had no nuclear weapons on its territory since the early 1990s. Shortly after gaining independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union, it agreed to transfer all Soviet-era weapons of mass destruction stationed there to Russia.

Since invading Ukraine more than a year ago, Putin has used escalating rhetoric on a number of occasions, warning of the “increasing” threat of nuclear war and suggesting Moscow may abandon its “no first use” policy.

But for Ukraine, these plans are a sign that Putin is “afraid of losing.”

“Making a statement about tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, he admits that he is afraid of losing and all he can do is scare with tactics,” Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, tweeted Sunday.

Calling Putin “predictable,” Podolyak added that violating the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, once again shows “his involvement in the crime.”

In his interview Saturday, Putin said Moscow would retain control over any tactical nuclear weapons it stationed in Belarus.

He likened the move to Washington’s practice of stationing nuclear weapons in Europe to keep host countries, like Germany, from breaking their commitments as non-nuclear powers.

“We are not going to hand over control of nuclear weapons. The US doesn’t hand it over to its allies. We’re basically doing the same thing (US leaders) have been doing for a decade,” Putin said.

Although there is no guarantee that Putin will follow through with his plan to station the weapons in Belarus, any nuclear signaling by him will cause concern in the West.”-via CNN

~

“Ukrainian authorities said two civilians were killed in a Russian missile attack on Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region Saturday.

A man was killed in the city of Chasiv Yar, and a woman was killed in Toretsk city, Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said in a Telegram post Saturday.

This comes after three people were killed in an overnight Russian missile attack on the city of Kostantynivka in Donetsk region Friday.

The city has been struck with increasing frequency by Russian missiles, especially the inaccurate S-300. Kostantynivka lies about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of the embattled city of Bakhmut.”-via CNN

~

“Ukrainian authorities have concluded search and rescue operations on the site of Russian missile strikes in Sloviansk [on Monday], Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk region military administration, told national broadcasters on Monday.

“The rubble removal has finished,” Kyrylenko said. “All the injured are being provided with the medical treatment, including being taken to the hospitals of the neighbouring regions.”

At least two people were killed and 32 were injured in the strike on the eastern city in the Donetsk region.

“Those whose home was destroyed are provided with the list of possible temporary dwelling places, offered to evacuate,” he added.”-via CNN

~

“Ukraine shut the eastern town of Avdiivka to non-military personnel on Monday, describing it as a post-apocalyptic wasteland, as Kyiv tried to break the back of Russia's flagging winter offensive before a counter-assault of its own.

A Ukrainian general said Kyiv was planning its next move after Moscow appeared to shift focus from the small city of Bakhmut, which Russia has failed to capture after several months of the war's bloodiest fighting, to Avdiivka further south.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff said in a Monday evening update that Russian forces were still trying to storm Bakhmut and had shelled the city and surrounding towns.

Front lines in Ukraine have barely budged for more than four months despite a Russian winter offensive. The Ukrainian military aims to wear down Russian forces before mounting a counteroffensive.

Ukrainian ground forces commander Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who said last week the counterattack could come "very soon", visited frontline troops in the east and said his forces were still repelling Russian attacks on Bakhmut.

Defending the small city in the industrialised Donbas region was a "military necessity", Syrskyi said, praising Ukrainian resilience in "extremely difficult conditions".

Last week, the Ukrainian military warned that Avdiivka, a smaller town 90 km (55 miles) further south, could become a "second Bakhmut" as Russia turns its attention there.

Both towns have been reduced to rubble in fighting that both sides have called a "meat grinder". Russian forces say they are fighting street by street.

"I am sad to say this, but Avdiivka is becoming more and more like a place from post-apocalyptic movies," said Vitaliy Barabash, head of the city's military administration. Only around 2,000 of a pre-war population of 30,000 remain and he urged them to leave.

Ukrainian military video showed smoke billowing from ruined apartment blocks and dead soldiers on open ground and in trenches in Bakhmut.

Kyiv also said Russian forces again shelled Vuhledar, further south in the Donetsk region, where they have tried to advance for weeks with what the Ukrainian military says are heavy losses.

Two people were killed and 32 wounded on Monday after Russian forces fired two S-300 missiles at the eastern city of Sloviansk northwest of Bakhmut, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. Moscow denies targeting civilians.

In Russia, residents of Kireyevsk, 220 km (140 miles) south of Moscow, reacted angrily to damage from what the defence ministry said was a Ukrainian drone it downed there on Sunday.

The ministry said three people were injured and apartment blocks were hit. It was among the closest such incidents to the Russian capital so far.

"We were used to seeing these things only online but now we've felt it ourselves. Now we know how it is," 62-year-old Kireyevsk resident Yuri Ovchinnikov told Reuters as Russian soldiers combed the area around the damaged buildings.

There was no official comment from Kyiv. Ukrainian officials generally do not respond to reports of attacks within Russia, though they have sometimes celebrated them without accepting culpability.”-via Reuters

~

“Ukraine has received its first British main battle tanks, along with other donated Western-made armored vehicles, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov announced Monday.

“Today, I had the honor to test the newest addition to our armored units together with the commander of the Airborne Forces, Major General Maksym 'Mike' Myrhorodskyi, and our paratroopers,” Reznikov said in a Facebook post.

He specified that they received Challengers (main battle tanks) from the United Kingdom, Strykers (infantry fighting vehicles) and Cougars (infantry mobility vehicles from the mine-resistant ambush-protected family) from the United States, and Marders (infantry fighting vehicles) from Germany.

Reznikov went on to thank Ukrainian allies for their continued support.

“A year ago, no one could have imagined that the support of our partners would be so strong. That the entire civilized world would reboot and eventually resist the bloody aggressor, the terrorist country of Russia,” he said. “This year, everything has changed. Ukraine has changed the world. The resilience of the Ukrainian people and the skill of our army convinced everyone that Ukraine will win.” He added that the "new equipment will keep good company with its 'brothers' on the battlefield."

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany had also delivered sought-after German Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

“Yes, we delivered Leopard tanks as we announced," Scholz said during a joint news conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Rotterdam on Monday. Germany previously pledged 18 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. The modern tanks are known for being fast and fuel-efficient. “Germany and the Netherlands have jointly delivered howitzers and ammunition and are just preparing, together with Denmark, to deliver Leopard 1 main battle tanks to support Ukraine,“ Scholz said, adding that Germany had “just now delivered“ also the “very modern" tanks.

Some background: The arrival of the Leopard 2 tanks comes after months of debate. German officials wavered on sending the tanks to Ukraine, saying they were waiting for the US to send its own M1 Abrams to Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly pleaded for countries to stop arguing about sending the tanks.

“We have talked hundreds of times about the shortage of weapons," he said during a virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in January. "We cannot go only on motivation."”-via CNN

~

“The 18 Leopard 2 battle tanks pledged by Germany to support Ukraine in its war against Russia have arrived in Ukraine, the German Defence Ministry said on Monday.

Germany agreed in January to supply the tanks, regarded as among the best in the West's arsenal, overcoming misgivings about sending heavy weaponry that Kyiv says is crucial to defeat Russia's invasion but Moscow casts as a dangerous provocation.

"I'm sure that they can make a decisive contribution on the front," German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said in a tweet.

Besides the 18 tanks, 40 German Marder infantry fighting vehicles, and two armoured recovery vehicles had also reached Ukraine, a security source said.

The German army trained the Ukrainian tank crews as well as the troops assigned to operate the Marder vehicles for several weeks in Muenster and Bergen in northern Germany.

As well as the German vehicles, three Leopard tanks donated by Portugal also reached Ukraine, the security source said.”-via Reuters

[redcap3]

Charming - Pt. 1

Charmed. 

Since I became a part of the hypnosis community, it’s been this shining star on the horizon. 

“Oh, you should go to Charmed!”

“I got the best idea from this class at Charmed…”

“Last time at Charmed I got so melted…”

The star became even more intense when I became part of the Oikos family. 

“I wish you’d been with us for…”

“When you go to Charmed, we’ll…”

“I am going to collar you at Charmed.”

Well. We all know that last one didn’t work out, but the point remains that it took on a status beyond just “this is a big convention” for me. 

My Goddess and the other Chosen made it clear that Charmed is their event of the year, a celebration on par with and just as important as the recent winter holidays. 

In 2018 I was still navigating the end of my marriage. In 2019, I was too broke after my divorce. 

In 2020, I didn’t feel like I could make the money work, and I didn’t ask them to help because it didn’t feel right. 

In 2021, I attended online yet still knew I was missing out on the ‘real’ Charmed experience. 

In 2022, we were within a week of leaving for the con when the host city declared a health emergency due to spiking COVID delta variant cases, and the family made the decision we had to stay home for safety, even as it broke us. 

(There was deep, fundamental damage that day to all of us in the Oikos, and many of those wounds still haven’t healed.)

I don’t regret anything about the collaring that Goddess found a way to perform for me and for Camden Dawn, my amazing counterpart, but there was still a lingering ache of knowing it was not what we had wanted to do.

Last summer I finally made it to Beguiled, and got a taste of what the hypnocon experience could be like. 

When Camden came to me and said she needed to be at Charmed regardless of what the family chose to do, I agreed, and I promised her she wouldn’t go alone. 

I made every effort to ensure I would be as safe as possible to go. 

Third booster for immunocompromised patients? Grabbed mine within a week of the announcement. Bivalent booster? Hit it the day it became available in Minnesota. I asked my doctor if I could do anything else to protect myself, and she even got me the Evushield prophylactic shot series. 

I pulled finances together even as I sunk money into dealing with some major house repairs. I researched what would be the best routes if we drove, I checked flights and I watched rental car rates regularly. 

On some level I knew that Charmed had been built up in my head into something bigger than any one event could really be, but at the same time a part of my brain said ‘If we go to Charmed, everything finally gets to happen. I get to have my own Charmed stories! Everyone gets better. Everything will be OK again.’

So I basically needed Charmed to be perfect in a way that was genuinely impossible…and yet I am also going to tell you that I had a really great trip!

So how does that work?

Wednesday: In chaos there is…mostly just chaos, actually. 

(Administrative note: The Oikos family as a whole and I specifically wore N95 respirators with fitted seals, plugged valves, and disposable filters any time we were in a public space, and changed those filters daily. If I do not mention being masked, please assume that I was masked up in my interactions unless in a private space with the consent of all parties.)

So I should preface that Goddess charged me with doing logistics for the trip after a conversation where the majority of the family decided that we would fly rather than drive. 

(Camden and Sleepyhead had already booked plane tickets due to some circumstances, but we would all be in the same hotel)

Within 12 hours of that discussion I had plane tickets booked for Goddess, myself, Copper, Jukebox, Tigress, the younger spawn (hereby referred to YS), and Timbit. (I initially did Timbit's seat by paying for an additional seat under my own name when I booked our tickets online. This turned out to be Wrong. More on this later.)

I booked a rental car which was listed as being able to carry all of us and our luggage for a week, set to be picked up once the main group had landed, plans to get us to the hotel and meet friends, and to get access to two of our three hotel rooms. 

(One room was reserved outside of the con block for Goddess, Copper, Jukebox and YS, since they’re only 17 and really do not want to know what we get up to in our spare time. We also had a handicap accessible room paid for by a friend of Goddess’ as a holiday present that was supposed to be in the con block (it was four doors down from the “outside” room, and nowhere near the con block or the con area!), and a “standard” room Camden had booked that was in the con area and turned out to be much more accessible for me to get around the con than the accessible rooms!)

We all slept at the “prime” Oikos house Tuesday evening, with cabs scheduled to pick up the primary traveling groups and take us to the airport at 7:30am so we would be ready for our 10:20 flight to Baltimore. I even checked us all in, prepaid for checked bags and forwarded the electronic boarding passes to everyone Tuesday afternoon so we could get to our gate with as little stress as possible. 

(I had originally planned on a Lyft XL capable of taking the group, but there were some concerns about the Lyft driver not wanting to take a dog.)

There were expected to be some light snow flurries, but nothing that would cause too much trouble. We would get picked up, go to the Delta counter closest to the airport’s south security checkpoint which was almost directly across from our gate’s concourse, and be golden. 

Which is why we were totally shocked to wake up and find that freezing rain had coated everything in about a quarter inch of ice. 

For those who don’t know: I have RA and mobility issues, and was planning on using my cane to get around the airport. 

But first I had to get my luggage. From my car. Parked on the driveway. 

The roughly fifty degree slope driveway. Covered in ice. 

Worse, as we attempted to abseil down the slopes to get everything together from the house for the trip to the airport, we quickly realized our cabs were nowhere to be found. 

We ended up taking two Lyft rides after all, though I was so deep into trying to adjust the plans on the fly that I didn’t even notice Goddess, Tigress, Timbit, and YS getting picked up from the other side of the house!

Once Copper, Jukebox, the rest of the bags and I were on the way, I got a notification on my phone that our gate had changed from Concourse G to Concourse F, but at least it was still in the same general area. 

Then we got to the Delta counter and found out our gate was now in “C” concourse - on the opposite side of the airport. 

I took my bag to the drop, and found out my main bag that I had (over) packed with outfits, rope, and toys was seven pounds overweight. 

Rather than try to repack my carryon and checked bag, I took the financial hit, got into the precheck lane at the south checkpoint, and asked for help from a handicap assistance cart to run me over to the gate while Copper and Jukebox headed for the north checkpoint. 

At the same time, Goddess and her party were being dropped off, and thanks to our heads up they went to the North checkpoint. 

Unfortunately, a TSA agent decided to give Goddess a headache about YS’s legal gender on their passport not marching the ticket (YS found themselves to be non-binary since the passport was issued) and then wanted to know why Timbit didn’t have an animal pass. 

That would be my fuckup, since I didn’t know Timbit needed an animal pass since she was in a carrier and had a ticket to travel in the main cabin. 

Goddess, YS, and Tigress went back to the Delta counter, finding Copper along the way, and eventually sorted the situation out while I sat at our gate, increasingly confused and hungry. 

(I had planned to get something from a caribou by our original gate and use a straw / strategic positioning to be able to lift my mask seal long enough to eat, but with the gate change there was nothing close enough to get to easily with my carryon and cane.)

My solution, once I was caught up via discord on what was going on, was to provide as much info as I could to Goddess until the Delta agent was able to help sort it all out, and to put in a mobile order at the Dunkin Donuts near-ish to our gate on the concourse with a request for Tigress to grab it in exchange for getting her a Diet Coke. In the meantime, Delta provided Goddess with a wheelchair and attendant to get her down to the gate, and everyone else followed suit. 

Now I need you to know I used the Dunkin app to order egg bites, an iced coffee, Tigress’ Diet Coke, and on impulse, a brownie batter donut. 

Boarding was called shortly after Tigress let me know she had the order, so I let her know Goddess and I were pre-boarding with Timbit, and to please bring me the food and I’d try to eat on the plane before the doors were closed. 

Long story short, Tigress arrived with a donut and a Diet Coke because that was all the Dunkin staff gave her, and I had to open a ticket with Dunkin’s mobile order support to see if I could get the other $10 of stuff refunded. 

It had been aggravating, stressful, and I got a big blob of chocolate goo on my t-shirt, but we all got on the plane and into our seats without further incident. 

(Well, aside from the ticket agent wondering why I had two tickets, which I had to explain again about Timbit (and my size making it generally a good policy to have an extra seat next to me) and the agent said “Oh, you didn’t have to do it that way! You could have saved some money!”

Notice she didn’t actually offer to refund me that money. Yeah. Thanks, Delta!)

The flight itself was pretty uneventful, and I have to praise the best pup here - Timbit (who was admittedly stoned out of her little puppy mind on CBD dog treats) didn’t bark, whine, or make a mess in her carrier. She was sweet and good and Goddess and I did our best to open the carrier when possible and give her pets, contact, and reassurance. 

(Oh, and we were miraculously not caught in the FAA shutting down a majority of air traffic that morning! A bit of luck I am still grateful for.)

We finally reached Baltimore, waited for most of the passengers to deplane, and eventually got off the plane and down to baggage claim, and I suggested to Copper that the two of us go to the rental car depot to get the rental and have him added as an additional driver so he could take YS out to the Smithsonian at a couple points during the con, while the others got bags together and took a break to rest.

(For those who have never needed to acquire ground transportation at BWI, it is a bit different from most of the airports in the US, where a rental car garage / parking deck will be located adjacent to the Terminal. To get a rental car at BWI, you must take a shuttle bus out to a facility that is about 3 miles away from the airport, where you will also return the car when it is time to go home. For Copper and I, this meant a ~10 minute bus ride (after hustling, and failing, to catch the one going by as we left baggage claim), then a short walk to the Enterprise counter.

Unlike our airline experience, getting the car reservation pulled up and having Copper added as a driver was pretty painless!

I was starting to drag a bit (a lot) due to lack of food / water and wearing my Envo N95 respirator for the better part of six hours at that point, but a reprieve was in sight. 

Sort of.

Y’see, I mentioned reserving a “Full Size” SUV / Crossover? The first two options we were shown were both crossovers with only 5 seats. 

Third time was mostly a charm with a Nissan Armada that we dubbed “Cyclonus the Rental Tank.” It had three full rows of seats with decent legroom, but loading cargo required a bit of tetris when we got back to BWI to load the family in. Still, it was a vehicle, it ran, and we’d fit in it. Good enough.

(It turns out it also had a hair trigger throttle, an acceleration curve that was more like a sheer cliff, and a navigation system that I well and truly hated by the end of the drive to the hotel, but hey, it did the job!)

We made the way down to the hotel, got our first room secured, and got everyone and their things inside while we tried to work on the second. (Oh - and those ‘accessible’ rooms? Required you to take a half flight of stairs unless you wanted to enter or leave the hotel from a side door! I might have been a bit peeved about that.)

I had already planned to make a Target run for needed supplies (CPAP water, potable water, drinks, snacks, first aid stuff), and we ordered some pizza for everyone because I was about ready to start eating some of my metamours at that point. 

(Sorry, Jukebox.)

After pizza arrived and I managed to eat and have some water, my mood was back up into at least “mildly chuffed”, and I began texting with Panda, who had graciously offered to re-color my hair when I had lamented not having time to dye it during my con prep. (OK, I actually started texting Panda after we had boarded the flight, but now we got serious.)

Getting the information to get into the second room took a lot longer than we had expected, and I was way past overstimmed and overwhelmed by that point. Even busying myself with putting the Target order in so I could pick it up later didn’t really help much, and it was an incredible relief when we finally got the keys and I could retreat for a few minutes…just as I got the notification that the Target order was ready.

I took a deep breath, asked Tigress if she would come with me, and we made our way over to get the stuff, which was mostly uneventful.

(Note: WHO PUTS MULTIPLE DRIVE-UP AREAS IN DIFFERENT LEVELS OF THE RAMP?) We would return to the hotel, get stuff distributed, and I was finally able to tell Panda that it could come down to start having hair fun, and I let another friend, Linnybee, know that I had the “Trance Cards” she had asked me to print ready so that we could hole punch them, attach ribbons / twine, and hopefully distribute them during the con as fun ways to keep track of scenes and as souvenirs. 

Not too long after we started making good progress on the cards, Panda arrived, and I broke out the various (and generally less than ⅓ full) bottles of color I’d had left in my house from the last time I had a friend help me color it at home. It was not long before I was changing into pajama pants and an old tank top so Panda could get to work mixing up purples, blues, and pinks, and place a very shiny cape around my neck. (“I’ve got foils and everything!”) Side note: Panda and I have been friends since sometime in 2020, but this was our first in person meeting instead of zoom, discord, or text conversations. It gave me an amazing hug when we finally got to be in person, and squished very nicely. Huzzah. It will probably not surprise anyone that after a long and stressful day, sitting down and letting Panda mess with my hair eventually turned into Panda messing with my head, getting nicely relaxed and trancy as it took care of  me, lightly fractionating me but being careful not to completely melt my brain since I still had things to do. (Turns out this also did Tigress some splash damage, which, well, whoops!) Goddess and Timbit dropped by while we waited for the color to set, and it wasn’t long before I was stripping down to shower and rinse off the excess dye while Panda made sure everything was combed out and looking good, then washed my hair with color protecting shampoo and conditioner. By the end my hair was purple and pink with blue accents that looked amazing and I got the chance to spend a bit more time with Panda and Linny before they each needed to be off to their next adventures, while I got dressed again to head back to BWI to pick up Camden and Sleepy.

We had passed a Steak & Shake on the highway on our way between the airport and hotel, making plans to grab food there for a late dinner with everyone on the way back from BWI, but in the post pandemic world it appears that S&S is no longer a 24/7 beacon of grease and hand spun goodness, so a backup plan of chicken, biscuits, and fries was arranged to be delivered to Goddess’ room while I made my way up to the Arrivals section of the terminal and found a good spot to wait, pulling up to the curb moments before I got a message from Sleepyhead that their plane had touched down.

When they emerged and made their way to the car with their bags there were hugs and a few kisses before we got back on the road, and I happily listened to how they had each tranced each other during the flight. I had known that Daja and Sleepy had planned a special experience for Cammie on the plane, but I was just as squeeful with compersion to hear about Miss Dawn putting our lovely dolly into her own deep trance.

I dropped them at the front of the hotel so that Camden could get checked in and acquire room keys, then parked the tank as close to Goddess’ room as I could, meeting everyone inside for a meal and some quiet hanging out time before I eventually went down to take a look at Camden’s room and I asked if it would be OK for me to stay down in their room rather than try to do a lot of stairs and walk about two-thirds of the length of the hotel any time I wanted to go back and forth. I was concerned about Tigress feeling abandoned, but she completely understood why I needed that access, and I was grateful for her acceptance. Bags were grabbed, stuff was shifted, and I ended up getting ready for bed with Sleepy curled up against me in one of the two queens and Camden in the other, listening to Goddess’ peaceful sleep file as the three of us drifted off. Thursday: Pre-Con sounds great, but…

Somehow, despite going to bed closer to 2am than not, the three of us woke around 8 and no-one died. I had originally planned to attend EnScenic’s Music, Hypnosis, & Hijinx class that morning at 10, but after I took my meds and did some self reflection, it was clear that what I really needed was to take it easy that morning. 

I am reasonably sure I had breakfast, though I genuinely do not remember what it was, grabbed some extra naptime with Sleepyhead, and eventually arranged to get some additional groceries for the weekend delivered to our room, though I was continually thwarted in my search for the high-protein shakes my dietician recent recommended I add to my meal planning.

I also stopped by registration and got my badge somewhere in there, but I genuinely don’t remember when or how, though I did run into several friends and acquaintances along the way to say “Hi!”

Sleepy has been open about her battles with anxiety and depression as she prepared for and attended the con, so I will say that I spent some time comforting her while Camden went out to explore and meet up with several people (including Daja, once she arrived), and not too long after we had a nice lunch sent over from the Double T diner, she asked if I could use some pallet wrapI had in my bag to give her a nice comfy bondage hug and a trance that soon turned into restful sleep. (Note: Double T is a descendent of the Greek Diner tradition, and their Moussaka was amazing. It reminded me so much of the Moussaka I used to get at Matsos’ back in Wooster that I would not be shocked to learn their family recipes both came from the same part of the country. Not a crucial part of the weekend, but it was a nice and unexpected bit of comfort and nostalgia for me!) I eventually decided to skip the afternoon classes as well, given that I needed to (in no particular order) acquire our massive household cookie order from EnScenic, pick up the books I had shipped to the Con via Daja to sell and drop them off with EnScenic so she could vend them when I wasn’t available, pick up rope I had ordered ahead of time from Lynx and her company MFA designs that I secretly intended to gift to Daja since she had expressed an interest in learning how to do rigging and I had offered to show her some of the basic ties I use with Cammie as her subject and Sleepy as my demo partner, go to a hardware store (or arrange delivery) for hex keys because I forgot my lightsabers’ set screw keys, my wife to murder and Guilder to blame for it.

(If it sounds like I was kinda overcommitted this weekend, you are exactly right. A big lesson I am taking away is to really think about how many hours are in the day, and how much I actually will feel able to do.) Oh, and did I mention that I was part of the on-site consent team, and was on-call in case any issues came up before our kickoff meeting / pizza party that night?

Yeah.

Thankfully we did not get any calls for consent issues that I was asked to help with that day, but it was a constant tickle in the back of my head as I tried to keep an eye on our reporting channels and discord chats.

Somehow, 90% of what I wanted to do got done, and I even managed to pick up a couple of badge ribbons from Meraklis, who I had done a fun scene with at Beguiled and was looking forward to seeing more of later.

Daja, her spouse Turq, and Cammie came back to the room for dinner, and we picked up Italian as a compromise between most of the group wanting pizza, and me already being pizza’d out thanks to having a lot of pizza on Monday and Wednesday, and knowing more pizza was in my future for the late evening. We ordered from a local restaurant called Bella Italia, and my eggplant rollatini was delicious, thank you. 

There was a bit of light play before and after we ate, but it was generally just a happy hangout time with good friends and watching some AGDQ speedruns. Daja was given the rope (though we kinda had to do a raincheck on the lesson - more on that later), and Turq and I got to vibe a bit while mutually appreciating Sleepy.

(For those not familiar with Sleepyhead, A) How? and B) You should know that basically everyone in the community is a little bit in love with her, and it is a beautiful thing. Since this was our first time attending a hypnocon together, I privately made a promise to myself to give her as much freedom as she wanted to play with friends, other partners, and potential play or romantic  partners. I didn’t want her to feel I was constantly following her around or breathing down her neck, and I think we both did a good job of letting each other do what we needed to do while communicating and occasionally sharing fun stories or experiences when we had proper permission.)

I went to part of the “Welcome” event hosted by Psy and the concom that evening, but lack of seating eventually made me move over to the room where the Consent Team meeting was to be held while I read a bit and futzed with my phone.

One of my goals for Charmed was to try to get out in the community more, since most people either knew me from my writing or an online event or two. I made a goal to be more social and make more connections in the community, so I decided to put a post out in the “Looking For Play At Hotel” channel to let people know I was open to play on both sides of the watch, so to speak, and that I had brought stuff to do rope, impact, and sensation play. Once that was done I also reached out to some friends and previous play partners who were doing classes, and asked about being a potential demo bottom for a few of them.

Well, I quickly learned that offering to be a top at a kink con will get you a lot of attention, as my messages exploded within moments of the post going up. 

I replied to as many as I could, making plans to negotiate and potentially play on Friday or Saturday, generally with an eye for making use of the dungeon while it would be open, but leaving in-room play on the table as well.

The consent team kickoff would go smoothly, with our fearless leaders Spinfrog and T distributing plastic file folders to keep our paperwork, notepads, kleenex, and some emergency candy in, and we made sure everyone had their ground rules (and more pizza) before breaking up. I ended up bumping into Meraklis again while she was talking to several people about her Jedi Mind Trick triggers, and she asked if I’d mind being an impromptu demo, since I wanted to have the trigger refreshed anyway. (Oh no, please don’t throw me into that briar patch...)

The trigger is pretty simple: If Merkalis or someone you trust waved their hand in front of you in the usual “Jedi” manner, you froze for a few seconds and then went back to normal. If they waved and said a phrase (“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for”), you would blank out, repeat the phrase, and then surface again. 

It’s cute, it’s silly, and I love it dearly. When it was set up at Beguiled she had put a limit of the trigger expiring once the convention ended, but this time we left it a bit more open ended as long as I was in a safe place with people I was comfortable going into trance around.

I had a few more hallway conversations on my way back, including bumping into someone who I had a warm and happy conversation with, and knew I recognized, but my brain utterly failed to identify her(?) by name, and since they didn’t have a badge on, I was SOL.

(You were wearing a cute motorcycle jacket, skirt, and a steel infinity collar, and I had hoped to run into you again and say Hi / actually get your name! If you read this, please ping me so we can catch up more?)

I would return to the room, a bit tired but still in good emotional space, and Sleepy would ask if her friend gothsocks could come down to say hello for a bit. 

I had also been talking to socks and getting to know her better, so I happily agreed. We had been discussing the possibility of doing a dollification and cuddles / light play scene during the weekend, so I was happy to just have some low key, no pressure hang out time to build some groundwork and rapport.

(Plus socks is neat, and again: trying to be a more social creature.) 

What mostly ended up happening was socks and I nerding out over FFXIV’s latest expansion and new classes / raids / dungeons for a while before we all needed to get some sleep while Sleepyhead watched us infodump back and forth, and it was great.

Not long after goth left Sleepy and I planned out a few things for Friday before we got cuddled up for bed again, knowing that Camden was likely to be spending the night elsewhere.