#I know how hard it can be to find documentation of old things online

[bruinhilda]

So, I dug out The First Toy Bricks I Ever Owned.  I have never identified what brand they are.  They are very obviously not LEGO, nor are they LEGO-compatible.  And I’m curious.  I would like to know what they are, and maybe add to the set from eBay (if you’re going to find old toys, it’s the place to go.)

I’ve been scrolling through images, and my best guess is they *might* be Tyco Preschool?  It’s close, at any rate.  I might buy some of the not-outrageously expensive ones at some point to compare, but in the meantime, here’s some pictures.  Any toy experts following me know what these are?

(The red and blue bricks are from the mystery set.  The yellow are authentic LEGO for comparison.)

[milfygerard]

hello bestie you are my resident taylor swift moot so i thought you’d be a good person to answer: i’m like 40% a swiftie and i know Some of the lore around the gaylor theories but not all. is there some kind of masterpost or blog you can link me to where i can like Gain Knowledge abt it i just really feel like wasting my time on that today

hi ok. God.

Most of the comprehensive ones are either lost to the annals of tumblr or fucking historical documents at this point

the two biggest non-tumblr starting points (though a few of them are still built on a few tumblr links) are the iconic reputation is about karlie kloss powerpoint and the abandoned-in-2019 blog kaylorevidence which are great looks at of-its-time gaylor culture opinions and in jokes as well as having a pretty comprehensive swiftgron timeline, though lots of things have changed w context and time. A big problem w post-2019 kaylor is that widely agreed upon timelines split massively between LSKs and more general gaylor fandom who just like think shes gay/bi or like her music in a lesbian fashion which makes it way harder to keep track of (though i did find this extremely long post-folkmore kaylor update from before midnights was announced) and makes it harder to divide like actual interesting or relevant stuff from babygating or person-who-knows-a-person-who-knows-taylor-wears-someting-with-flowers-on-it type of stuff. @/throwbackgaylor is a good example of having a very uneven mix of both of these things that can be hard to sort through but is probably a good resource for backsearching. If anyone knows how to find the old 2018 kaylor masterlists (of which there were a TON

I know @that-curly-haired-lesbian used to do queer readings and reinterpretations of her songs that I used to scroll thru and ashley norton did a pretty comprehensive breakdown of the taytaysbeard clusterfuck from a non gaylor perspective which as someone who was in the thick of that in high school I thought was pretty respectful and well done even if its kind of unbearable to watch and remember. If you want to see the state of LSK now ttb is still active at @/spade-riddles I believe but that person is a genuine certified weirdo and i dont really recommend it. penelope and priscilla are gay twins also is a good source of at its time gaylor culture and in-jokes (warning for being probably dated I havent watched any of these in a Long time)

if anyone else has masterposts or resources of Gaylors Past pls add on! I feel like so much is lost in social media based communities like this one and it can be hard to illustrate a time in online fandom without a broad spread of examples and stories and pre 2020 gaylor was such a specific moment in time!

[fallenhero-rebirth]

Got asked for some writing advice

How did you improve your writing specifically beyond 'just writing more'?

The first thing is to read different things from different genres. Read an old book, and see how that is written. Read a genre you normally don't read. Read some poetry. Go to the library and walk to a random book, open it in the middle and read. Read on paper, and out loud. And then read some more. And when you read, try to think about why you don't like or likes something. Is it boring? Why? Is it hard to understand? Why? What is it in the words you like? Does it feel good to read out loud? If it doesn't, why not?

A tip is to take a book you think is interesting. Take a paragraph from the middle at random, and write it down in a word document. Pay attention to how it feels to write. How are the sentences? Do they feel different from your own? Close the book and continue to write a few paragraphs. Does your style change? What is the difference between your paragraphs and the one above? Sentence length? Comma use? Does it make it better or worse

Another tip is to write down a bit of dialogue from a tv show or movie you like. There might be transcripts online even. Take that dialogue and write a scene with it. Especially if you find dialogue hard to sound natural this might be freeing. Or, you might even find that what sounded good on the screen looks terrible on paper when it's not said by a charismatic actor.

A third is to write fanfiction and try to make it as good as you can. Try to make it real, as if it might have been from the original source. Think about what it was you liked about it, and then try to imitate that and make your own story. Fanfiction gets a bad rep, but it is a great way to experiment with writing without having to come up with characters and a world. That way you can just focus on the language.

Would you have any tips regarding writing interesting characters? Mine are always very flat and bland OR 'mary sues'

First of all, there is nothing wrong with a "mary sue". The way this is used these days, it might as well mean "protagonist". If Batman or James Bond can get away with their shit, your protagonist certainly can too. And your characters will be flat at the start because a story consists of so many parts. You have your language, your plot, your world, your story rhythm. And when you are starting out, there's simply too many things to focus on. You won't get depth in all of them, and the characters are what you spot being flat first, because that's usually what attracts us to a story in the first place.

My characters were terribly flat when I started out, but I wrote short story horror so it didn't matter. Nobody read that for the characters.

A trick I have to try to get my characters to feel alive is to write arguments. Take two characters you have trouble with and let them talk. Argue about something. Be stuck in an awkward situation together. Don't bother writing anything but dialogue, never mind the actual scene. Just write them talking, and after a while you might get a feel for how they feel different from one another. Maybe they start talking about things about them that you didn't even know. Explore. Have fun. Have them say something weird. Something hurtful. Write reactions. Don't bother thinking if it's usable or not. I've written pages of dialogue just to get a feel for how people talk.

I usually build characters by combining archetypes. I start with one people will know immediately, then add another, and a third. They will be uncovered one at a time, adding depth. Let's take Ricardo Ortega for example. The first archetype is "the sexy leading man/hero". Then, we get to know what I fondly call "the himbo". And finally, we discover "the clever, sneaky asshole". I didn't need to bring in all those things at once, as long as I got writing the first archetype, people would be interested and intrigued when they learned about the new facets.

Would you have any tips on writing humor/banter? You're pretty dang good at it but I could never figure out how to be funny lmao all the jokes I write are Extremely Cringe.

Oh I wish. I honestly have no idea. I was terrible writing characters and dialogue. I think something clicked when I wrote massive amounts of DA2 fanfic, because that was a game which consisted of nothing but banter, so I tried to mimic it the best I could. I have never liked comedies or really understood humor, so I never try to be funny. It's the one part of my writing I truly does not understand, some of my characters are just like that.

What's your plot planning process like, if you have a consistent one? I can only figure out the very generic broad strokes but it falls apart as soon as I try to come up with details.

All plots are generic broad strokes. Rebirth is basically just emo protagonist monologues a lot, meets up with some old friends and proceeds to beat them up. That's it. All plots will look flat and boring in your head, because what makes a plot cool and interesting is that you don't know what's going to happen. You do. You're the author. So of course it will look flat and uninteresting in your head. The hardest thing is trying to ignore this.

My workaround to this is only knowing the barest of broad strokes. I know where I want to go, who the opposition is, some basic scenes that needs to be there (not in detail) and then I write and discover things as I go along. That is the only way for me to remain interested in the plot, if I had planned it in detail I'd get bored. And oh, sure, there's a lot of foreshadowing and hidden things in my writing, but that's only because I know some big things that's going to happen. It's not like I have sat down and detail planned every chapter, what things I need to plant there, and so on. A lot of the times I forget things, and have to go back and add them, and so on. I would say focus on the characters before the plot. If you manage to figure out how to write fun characters first, nobody will care if the plot is bland.

[illuminatedferret]

So I've been trying to do a bit of detective work regarding the origin of the "E-ming reopens wounds" translation. TL;DR I think it may have come from an early version of Suika's translation, and is likely a mistranslation.

Most translations I could find online (including Deep Dream translation group, several bootleg novel sites that have stolen Suika or Deep Dream's translations, and a couple of machine translations) have that passage in line with the official translation - that simply, E-ming is dangerous, forging it took a cruel ritual, and touching it would have terrible consequences.

I did however find a pdf containing the webnovel chapters 12-43, with the following:

precisely the excerpt I submitted before. At the top of this pdf is a note:

The link in this note leads to a 404 error, but is one that was shared around a lot before the Sevenseas' official release. I found a tumblr post from 2019 which identifies this link as Suika's (now deleted) translation.

https://web.archive.org/web/20200508224041/https://arahir.tumblr.com/post/188476102230/ok-im-an-anon-who-in-the-past-has-asked-you-how

So, it looks like this is a old document of Suika's, and I can only assume the "reopens wounds" thing was a mistranslation that Suika later corrected.

The TGCF epub I have on hand is an amalgamation of sakhyulations' (up to ch 23) and Suika's (ch 24 and beyond) fan translations. Well, it doesn't actually say it's using Suika's work, but, it does link the source of the ch 24+ translations, that being the above google drive link. I'm not sure who made the epub or when it was made, but they must have taken Suika's work before it had been properly edited.

IIRC this was an epub that was circulating tumblr a while back. I don't know how widespread the "reopens wounds" fanon is, but if it's popular on tumblr, I guess this explains why.

Sorry for such a long ask!! I think that covers almost everything I found. Oh, there was one single bootleg novel site that did have the passage:

"The wounds inflicted by the evil sword of E-Ming are all cursed. Even when the wound is healed, if Hua Cheng wants it, it will bleed once more." Jun Wu answered.

which is slightly different from the above passage from that pdf. But I couldn't find any real source for this translation, so I'm thinking it might just be based on the above passage, with words switched around to disguise the fact it's stolen.

wow!!!! don't apologize for the long ask, this is some awesome digging you did!!! thank you SO much for sharing all your hard work!!

E-ming reopening old wounds being a mistranslation of some sort does make more sense to me than anything else, just because it's so specific and yet the official translation makes no mention of it, but it being from one of Suika's earlier translations is interesting. I'm still curious what the original raws read like. I wonder, considering Xie Lian's arm injury doesn't heal without special medicine, if the raw says something about wounds being slow to heal or not closing, and that's where the mistranslation initially occurred.

'E-ming reopening wounds' isn't a fanon I see discussed much, but I've read more than one fic that uses the idea, and I've mentioned it to friends before in the past without anyone questioning it until recently. So, it coming from an old translation that was probably one of the initial ways people read TGCF makes a LOT of sense- people read it, internalized it, and stopped thinking about it when more accurate translations rolled around, while still keeping the idea in their head.

[wethepixies]

✨About WTP✨

Your questions about the project itself will be answered here! ⠀ What is We The Pixies? We The Pixies (WTP for short) is a rewrite of Disney's Pixie Hollow online multiplayer game that ran from 2008 to 2013. WTP has been in development since 2018.

WTP is not affiliated with The Walt Disney Company and/or the Disney Interactive Media Group. ⠀ Where can I play it? As WTP is still in alpha testing, you cannot play the full version of Pixie Hollow at the moment. You can give the demo a play at: https://www.wethepixies.net/ ⠀ When will new features be released? Watch the ⁠game-news channel in our Discord server for updates as soon as they happen!

We know it’s hard to wait for new game features, but please try not to nag the staff about updates. We’ll let you know when we release new features on all our socials. ⠀ When will WTP be completed? Unfortunately, there's no definite answer. WTP is a volunteer project, meaning that staff members have to find time in their busy schedules to work on it. The game essentially has to be rebuilt from scratch, which means that things may take a while to get finished.

Please be patient. We’re working our wings off to make WTP the best it can be. ⠀ When WTP is complete, will I have to pay for a membership to access all of the features? Not at all! Everything in WTP will be free for each & every player. ⠀ Will I be able to play as my old fairy from Pixie Hollow? No. WTP is in no way affiliated with Disney so, unfortunately, we cannot transfer old fairy accounts over from Disney’s game. ⠀ Will WTP be merging with other Pixie Hollow remakes? No. WTP has no plans to merge with any other Pixie-Hollow-related projects. ⠀ Will there be updates to the original game/new content? WTP’s number one priority is to bring the original game back to life. However, we are hoping to incorporate more original content (in accordance with Pixie Hollow’s aesthetic) sometime in the far future. ⠀ Will there be a website for WTP? If so, when will it be available? Yes! The team is hard at work creating an official website that reflects the magic of the original game. As the website is still under construction, we do not have an estimated time of release. ⠀ Will WTP begin accepting donations? No, WTP will not be accepting any donations. The game will be 100% funded by staff.

✨Current Game Features✨

Your questions about the current version of the demo will be answered here! ⠀ Can I make an account and save my fairy? Accounts aren't an option right now - to enjoy the demo, you'll have to create a new fairy every time or use a CaF code.

At the end of the Create-A-Fairy process, you can copy and save a CaF Code, which you can use to skip Create-A-Fairy while keeping your character's design. We suggest you save this code in a Word document so you can copy and paste it at the beginning of Create-A-Fairy next time you play. To learn more about CaF codes, click here. ⠀ What meadows can I explore? At the moment, players can explore three meadows: Dewdrop Vale, Palm Tree Cove, and Neverberry Thicket. Other classic meadows are being developed. ⠀ Where are the talent games? Only Bubble Bounce and Butterfly Painter are available for now; they are located in Dewdrop Vale and Palm Tree Cove respectively. More talent games are on the way! Can I go shopping? Yes - we currently have three stores in-game. Brook's Basics clothing store in Dewdrop Vale, Schelly's Shears hair salon in Palm Tree Cove and Harmony's Sweet Shop in Neverberry Thicket are open for business! More items and shops are in development. ⠀ I see other fairies, but I can't add them as friends! Adding fairy friends isn’t available right now, although we’re working on it!

How do I complete the tasks in my journal? At the present moment the tasks listed in your journal are merely suggestions and not something that can be completed.

Can I play We The Pixies on mobile? Yes, We The Pixies is playable on mobile.

Which browser is the best to play We The Pixies on? We The Pixies works on all browsers, although some players have run into issues on Safari, so please be sure to include which browser/device you're playing on when submitting a bug report.

What’s up with the profiles? They look like they’re missing a lot of stuff. We’re working with fairly simple profiles right now - over time, we’ll add more features. Right now, you can use profiles to report and whisper to individual users. ⠀ How will the chat system be filtered to keep the game kid-friendly? All chat messages are filtered using a whitelist of allowable words, including: meadow names, fairy name combinations, and much more. In the future, we hope to take player recommendations of words to add to our whitelist!

✨Ways to Help✨

Interested in contributing? Your questions about volunteering will be answered here!

How can I help with the current bugs? 1) I'm trying to create a fairy but the avatar isn't showing up! 2) My fairy turned white! 3) Other bug not listed above These are bugs we're working on fixing. Please be sure to send in a bug report, and in the meantime we recommend refreshing your browser to see if that solves the issue.

Can I apply to help? Fly on over to ⁠the application-links channel in our Discord server to check which positions are open as we don't announce that on any of our socials & you need to have been in the Discord for some time to apply. ⠀ I don't know anything about developing. Can I still apply to help? Occasionally, other roles such as Moderator, Artist or Sound Designer will open up. Applications for these roles will be present in the ⁠application-links channel when they are available. Developer is the only staff position that is always accepting new members. However, everyone can help the staff by reporting bugs in the demo! ⠀ How can I report a bug? To report a bug, you can fill out this official bug report form: https://forms.gle/4NPZa5Rrq1q69zT99 Please be sure to include a clear and detailed description of the bug, exact steps to reproduce the bug, and screenshots (if possible). ⠀ What do artists and developers do? Together, our artists and developers work to rebuild the game from the ground up. Individually, they do a lot, but to summarize:

Artists restore art & assets from the original game, as well as create animations and spritesheets.

Developers are responsible for game development and/or web design. ⠀ I recently applied for a position and haven’t heard back. What should I do? Responses to application forms generally go out within the week, either via email or Discord. However, if you have any questions about your application, feel free to message any of the staff members on our Discord server.

Thank you for supporting the We The Pixies project! We look forward to flying with you at wethepixies.net!

[theundeadsnake]

I agree on romanticizing Ben is weird. I seen a lot of people complaining about that. But I won’t stop people write love fanfics of him. I wouldn’t mind headcanons about him anyways. C:

I won't complain about it either. I find that fandom members and creators view the human like-characters as being their age. As a long-time member, I have always viewed them as my peers.

Ben is a being with no body, no flesh, and no senses other than hearing and sight. Instead, he exists within the online world and visits the offline realm as a hard-light hologram. He can affect the physical world, move things, and play tricks on others.

However, he is unable to sense anything other than cold and wetness. The softness of a blanket, the warmth of a cup of tea, or the delicious flavor of a meal are all experiences he remembers yet cannot have. Not anymore. Never ever again.

Instead, he feels the discomfort, it is like buzzing at the back of his head. Always there but never strong enough to fully identify.

Most of his time is spent in the online world. He is akin to an online spy, a hacker that faces no limits.

On one hand, he feels lucky, thankfully that he didn’t die. On the other, he hates what has been done to him and what he has lost. He longs for those human comforts he has memories of. But he doubts he will ever get that back.

How he ended up being an electronic spirit baffles him to no end.

The human online world does not have any answers for him. Ben has read countless documents, everything from the most classified document files to the hidden secret of the overly long blog recipes, and yet no real answers have been found.

Those countless hours of data processing have only led him to one creature. The Slenderman. An entity as old as time. A being feared by many and yet surrounded by a mist of mystery. That’s how, or rather why he ended up working for that horrid creature despite their opposing nature. Slender and his connections are Ben's only hope for answers and possibly a physical flesh entity to possess.

Now that we are on the topic of that pair, there is something that must be acknowledged. Ben and Slender do not mix. Ben’s existence relies on technology, while Slenderman by nature renders all nearby devices unusable. So how do the beings reside in the same area?

The answer or rather answers are simple. Both beings remain as far away from each other. Slenderman, the Master of the mansion has his own wing others are not permitted to enter. While Ben has been allocated a basement room.

When Ben wants to socialize with others, he will visit as a hologram and spend time with them all. Though that happens on very rare occasions. Seeing others enjoy what he can no longer sense brings feelings of jealousy and resentment.

Ben mostly keeps to himself because he does not want to lose the friendships he has - he will only interact with others when he is in the right state to do so. Ben lacks what most others have and yet has endless knowledge and understanding. He knows that the people he holds dear are fragile emotionally and deeply traumatized, and so is he.

[decamarks]

Hey there! First off I want to say I *adore* your art, you absolutely 1000% perfectly tap into the vibe and style of late 90's/early 00's 3D models in a way literally no one else does. I think about your art of your fake games' glitches (especially the forum post!!! it's. *perfect.*) all the time :)

And I've noticed how you're always very insightful and kind whenever you answer asks, so thank you for that!

If it's not too intrusive to ask, I was wondering how you went about finding a doctor to get your autism diagnosis? I've been pretty sure for a few years now that I'm on the spectrum, but I've never had a clue how to actually get tested/diagnosed. Especially since I'm an adult female too, and I've heard a ton about how autism is really overlooked/underdiagnosed for people like us.

But seeing that you were able to find someone who avoided all the common pitfalls and was able to actually help you made me want to reach out. I had been wanting to ask you this for a while (as you can probably tell based on what the question was haha) but I was too anxious to actually do it (still am, a bit ><). Again, feel free to ignore this part if it's too personal or you don't want to answer it for any reason!

It feels awkward to end an ask with that, so I'll bookend it with something I think you'll like: have you ever heard of trsrockin.com? It's an old fansite I used to visit religiously as a kid that talked about early Pokemon and Super Mario games and collectibles from them, as well as oddities like glitches from the aforementioned games, forgotten weird one-off SNES games, documenting fake/trick fanmade "cheats" for games, and bootleg merchandise.

It's one of if not the first public place (afaik) that MissingNo. and pals were discovered/talked about, and a little community came together to try and figure out why the glitch happened and what all the effects and variants of it were. Even you've been to trsrockin before and none of this is new info, I thought it would at least be a nice trip down memory lane :)

It's an old site that has since been taken down, and for some reason archive.org can't properly archive the full site/all its links. But luckily someone created a complete mirror of it! You can find it here: http://catfish.it.cx/trsrockin/trsrockin.com/index.html

AHH THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! ;__; you're too kind... i know i haven't posted too much of my 3d work recently, but trust me, i have a LOT more of those faux-retro aesthetics in store with the game i've been working on... >=) i'm always so so happy to see other people appreciate janky ol' 3d graphics, LMFAO

also!! i've definitely heard of trsrockin eheehee... i was a bit too young to use it when it was in its prime (and also more of a bulbapedia enthusiast), but i've perused some archived pages before! old internet forums & fansites are just the best thing in the world...

ANYWAY: regarding your question! Honestly, I'm not sure if I'm the best person to give advice about this, because I feel like I kind of got my diagnosis by chance... Essentially: I started seeing a new therapist; she suggested I might be on the spectrum, I said, "Yeah maybe IDK"; I got a referral to an evaluator—and then an incredibly expensive diagnosis after a few months of waiting and testing.

My case differs in that I didn't really suspect being on the spectrum myself. Which seems a bit silly, considering I now realize I am... observably autistic. In abundance. But it was genuinely hard to puzzle out, what with all my other problems (particularly, severe misophonia, which can be REALLY hard to differentiate from general sensory sensitivity.) So about specifically seeking out a diagnosis, I unfortunately can't give a good answer. But I'm willing to talk about the rest, on the off-chance it ends up helpful! (Under the cut at least.)

I don't like to be too open about my Issues™ online—but I got a whole lot of them, and they used to be a lot worse than they are now, so I was stuck in that perpetual "adolescent with treatment-resistant depression" purgatory for, like... my entire adolescence! Because no one knew what the hell was wrong with me. I'm barely in adulthood now, but I'm extremely thankful to be broken out of that. Both the 'treatment-resistant depression' diagnoses AND the adolescence. Being told with authority that I, indeed, have an untreated case of mega-autism—and not an irreparably broken brain whose electrical activities zap SSRIs straight out of existence—is definitely relieving. And now I can confidently say shit like 'mega-autism', so like, wins all around.

About getting a diagnosis in general: in my case, I kind of needed one, because it would be not be feasible for me to go to school/work/exist without accommodations of some kind. (The evaluation I had was, in part, just to get a psychological report of any kind, since I desperately needed supporting documentation to request accommodations anywhere.) Otherwise, I'm honestly not sure if I'd bother?

On one hand, an official diagnosis is an incredibly affirming thing to have—especially if you didn't even suspect it before; things start making a lot of sense afterwards, LOL—but on the other hand, it is a tedious and kind of humiliating process. And possibly expensive.

And then, like you mentioned, there's the problem of some doctors being biased or plainly godawful at their job/poorly designed systems ruining everything for everyone. It's probably for incompetency on those ends that a diagnosis managed to elude me for nineteen years straight. (Vividly recalling the time my school had a counselor give me an impromptu autism evaluation, in which she concluded that I "didn't seem to have autism, but would probably get along really well with autistic people." WHATEVER THAT MEANT.) But! It's not impossible to get someone who knows what they're doing! I'd love to say otherwise, but I really did just stumble into a decent doctor... There's a lot of luck involved, and man. I did not get good RNG at first. (← I'M SORRY FOR BEING A GAMER.)

I went into the evaluation doubting I had it, and heavily doubting that I'd be diagnosed, but like... Hold on let me reach across your desk and slide you the answers to the autism test. The trick is to not even try to be normal, I think. Intermittently talk about CRT monitors, and how you like learning ciphers, and Pokemon glitches—or whatever else you're into. But those specifically worked for me! "Don't mask", is what I'm saying. (Really though, I think if you're answering everything to the best of your ability, properly administered tests done by a doctor who doesn't suck should be able to diagnosis you. If they don't, then the problem is something systemic, and far beyond anything I could reasonably give advice about...)

ANYWAY! (x2) I'm honestly not sure if any of this is particularly helpful, but if you decide to pursue it, I wish you luck with getting your diagnosis!! It's definitely a bit of a hellish thing to do—but dammit, if it's worth it to you, then it's definitely worth doing.

YOUR REWARD FOR READING THIS WHOLE POST IS: "Kinesin_walking.gif"

YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHH

[six40seven]

September 16-18th

I didnt go to school. I told Niki i was feeling too sick to and she just nodded and said it was fine. Just by her body language i could tell she was distracted by something else and i didnt want to bother her more then necessary. I wanted to say thanks to all the people on here sending kind messages and concerned asks. I am okay. I was just a little rattled these last few days and well, of course today. I havent slept in almost 32 hours. There is no way in hell im closing my eyes and waking up somewhere strange again with no recollection of how i got there.

This doesnt make sense, and i can tell youre telling me in your head “Ran you need to sleep.” And i know you’re right but it was just horrifying. I have a hard enough time remembering what i do when im awake. Why would this suddenly start happening to me. Its unfair. I was doing fine. Now im not, and i dread falling asleep again. Im too afriad to ask Niki to instal a lock of sorts so last night and the night before and really any time I’ve been feeling the urge to sleep.. well I’ve began to tie my foot to my post. ITS NOT TIGHT. I just dont want to wander off again.

Fall break is soon. I mean sorta. I attempted to attend school online the second day home after the ordeal but my connection was too shit. I guess its the trees blocking the signal. Or maybe the mountains. Speaking of trees, i havent left my house since that day. I dont want to risk whatever happened happening again, worse while im awak. Not that i think it will but the way the trees just… tempt me sometimes. I cant risk walking to the bus or walking even out of my house. WHEERE i use to consider it a blessing to not live in the town houses, i now regret never moving closer. Fuck. Its been so long since I’ve been outside im worried my skin will fall off my body and ill die if i spend one more day barred in my room.

Its okay, for the most part. besides the natural (?) urge i have to be outside all the time. Ive sort of forgotten to document much these o past few days. But i dont think anything else significant happened. As far as related to me. Niki didnt come back the first night and i spent all that time in ym room with the blind drawn and the lights on. I was afriad if i turned the lights off i would nod off. I ended up watching YouTube and Netflix on my laptop as well as cleaning my entire room.

Usually my room is a trash heap, i like it that way, its like having my own nest. But that first night. I couldn’t stand all the things and i pretty much Ed cleaned everything top to bottom in less then 3 hours. I found a few interested things while i was doing that, including but not limited to: a box full of my old Polaroids and camera, a stuffed animal i thought i had lost which went back onto my bed, and a total of 20 spare dollars made mostly out of 1 Dollar bills and quarters.

The only thing of real interest was the Polaroid camera. I thought i lost that thing years and years ago. I only know i had one at all because i have some older pictures pinned places and tucked into my phone case. Theyre all of people i dont really know but i like to think i do so i can carry some part of them with me. They must have been important to me at some point yk. So i decided to look through and sort out any of the Polaroids i remeber or anything like that. These are my findings. I’ll explain them after i show them to you.

starting at the left top and going left to right. It reads Nov 1st 20##. all of these are from when i was a kid. maybe when i was in 4th or 5th grade? Im not entirely sure the exact age i was. The photo shown is a picture i must have taken of some sort of important journal entry, i cant really read it but at least if i ever needed to remeber taking a picture.. I remember, thanks past me.

The next one, in order, is a picture of two shadows. Maybe three. Probably me. Maybe Niki… or Eryn. we were close when we were kids and hes in two of these already. So ill just mention him. idk if he will be okay with me talking about him on here. I dont think he knows i have this account. hopefully he doesnt find it. Not that i would care very much. He just doesnt like me. The caption is just a date. oct 3rd. no year. I wonder when it happened? sometime in my childhood probably. I havent used this camera in years and years. I lost it so long ago.

The third is a weirdly saturated picture of a park in my town. The bigger town. Its just weird. And the caption says… evacuating or something. Its sorta weird. also Niki might have taken this picture because her name is on it too. Seems like her type of thing. from what i remeber as a kid, when we still lived in the big town, she was into weird saturated pictures. Something about scene. I dont know really.

The fourth is on the second line of pictures i found in the Box. On the bottom left. It says July 20## again sometime in my childhood. It shows aforementioned Eryn crouching ont he ground showing something to everyone. Or the viewer. I can see myself, or younger me. Younger me off to the side. Someone else took this picture. I dont remeber this happening. But it was important enough to keep so there it is. Thats pretty much it.

The fifth, wow thats a lot of numbers. Its got a smiley face :) on it. and its a picture of the lake. Yk the one bordering the left side of the bigger town. Its one of the smaller more muddy parts so its all gross. Probably from a hike that i wanted to remeber with Niki or something. I loved the lake when i was a kid. It was fun to swim in but after… after awhile i stopped going and then it closed because of something weird and now you can only go hiking near and around it.

The sixth. A picture of me and ****** hugging. Eryn in the background. It reads Eryn & ##### July. Its a cute picture. I dont know… who ****** is? Yeah i dont know. but i must have known them at one point because thats them. Yeah. They look familiar in the worse way and i pretty much threw that one back in the box as soon as I could. I dont like lookign at it. My stomach hurts when i do.

The seventh. And last a picture of a cat. Even when i was a kid i also apparently liked cats. It reads Spring 20##.

So yeah. I just wanted to say im glad i was able to find them and document them somewhere. I also thought while im explaing photos and stuff ill go into a little detail about what i discovered from that night. Posted on here.

The first piece is clearly a path somewhere in the forest. If i were to say, somewhere further in the mountains, near where the older remains of mines are. The only thing wrong about this piece is that…. When i posted it, theres no wya for there to have been snow. So either the photo is altered in some way, which is unlikely, because from what i can tell it was posted in the middle of the night. Or it was actually snowing wherever i was. even though all the previous days it had been raining.

The next picture looks like some sort of underground tunnel, lined with bricks and ending in step leading up to a barred and maybe locked? I dont know, barred iron gate. I have never seen that place before. Ive been in a lot of abandoned buildings that I’ve found near here but I’ve never seen something like this. The only explaination i can give for the location is possibly a sewer enterance somewhere in the basement of one of the older buildings, not from the big town but rather from the smaller town nearer to my house. Again, it looks like its snowing. Which makes no sense in any context, since it was snowing when i woke up (even though i said i thought it was) and because if this was underground where would snow be coming from? The title says… I heard you. Im here. I dont remeber this. Obviously. and i dont know who i would have.. heard? It doesnt make any sense.

The third picture… i dont have much to say. It looks dark. Maybe its related to the second picture, maybe its on the otherside of the gate. But I’ve never seen a place that dark before. Especially if it has walls. which I think it does. so it must be in a building somewhere out in the forest. Sorta supports my abandoned building theory. Or abandoned mine shaft? I have no idea. But the capture is clearly a long hallway. the caption says something is wrong. No duh. I am clearly self aware even if i dont remeber. I wonder if i act different..

Anyway, thats all for the last few days. I probably will end up attending school tomorrow. Niki isnt home yet, its near the end of the day so if she isnt home by now im assuming shes staying overnight at the office. wouldn’t be the first, wont be the last. I might get a snack before trying not to fall asleep a third night in a row. If anyone wants to chat with me, ill be open to the distractions.

[magickingdompng]

Have any info on Gurgi's Munchies and Crunchies [and basically anything Black Cauldron related in the Disney Parks]? It's one of the most obscure Disney World restaurants and I want to know more about it. [this comes from a 2000s person, but I've always had a soft spot for 80s Disney].

Wow, OK, that’s definitely the name of a restaurant. I saw the first part of this ask and assumed it was going to be a joke, but no, this was real LOL

Gurgi’s Munchies and Crunchies was a Black Cauldron themed quick service restaurant in the same plaza as Pinocchio’s Village Haus, replacing the Lancer’s Inn in October of 1986. The most info I was able to find in one spot was this awesome blog post by someone who worked there as a college student!

There are no pictures of this place online that I can find with a cursory google search, which makes sense - it was not in a time of people taking photos of everything, and what photos they did take would not be of a little quick service restaurant that wasn’t particularly popular (or themed after a movie they actually knew).

I can, however, show you the restaurants that replaced it, and there were quite a few! I will say, all of these are going to be quick service places. Honestly, I highly doubt that much changed about these places except for the name and the sign (with one notable exception), so you can imagine how the restaurant must’ve looked.

First, the restaurant was changed to Lumiere’s Kitchen. Again, photos are scarce, but not impossible to find:

According to the blog post, the sign looks the same as what it looked like as Gorgi’s, with just the character and name replaced. (I wonder if the “Be our guest” banner was something else or if it was added on?)

Then, on May 1 2006, it changed into the McDonald’s Village Fry Shoppe - which is far more well documented. In fact, here’s this absolute gem of a time capsule - an old Guide to Disney World website with the Fry Shoppe on it. This website even archives its menu, proving that it did not just sell fries, although it’s still weird that fries were considered the whole meal.

(There’s more weird history regarding McDonald’s place in the Disney Parks that I’ll talk about in the future! Condiment pipes i am looking at you)

Finally, in March 2009, the restaurant would be rebranded yet again as McDonald’s partnership with Disney would end. It became the Friar’s Nook, which still operates today.

That’s all I have on Gorgi’s. It’s honestly so strange that the restaurant existed in the first place - Disney did not like referencing the Black Cauldron, and the fact that the place stayed open as Gorgi’s for six whole years is crazy to me, remaining Disney World’s only reference to Black Cauldron as far as I can tell.

However, that would not be the only reference to Black Cauldron in all of Disney parks. If we go international, over to Tokyo Disneyland, we can find an entire former attraction themed after the Black Cauldron! I’ll direct you here to Defunctland’s video, which is far more in depth, but I’ll give you a quick summary.

Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour was a walk through attraction in Tokyo Disneyland operating from 1986 to 2006, in which the Horned King was an antagonist. The attraction closed because it was deemed too scary for small children (which is not actually the only time or even the first time that has happened at Disney, but we’ll talk about that another time).

Today, you can actually find the medals given out on that ride fairly cheap for what is a decently obscure piece of Disney History!

That’s all I have for you for Black Cauldron directly in the parks! Like I said, Disney did not like referencing it because of how hard the movie failed. It was kind of a taboo. So we’ve got precious little here! Although, I have to say - out of all the things that could exist as the only two references across the parks, a Quick Service restaurant and a Tokyo Disney walk through attraction are… not what I would’ve expected.

As a small final aside, this isn’t technically “in the parks”, but pin trading is something that is primarily because of the parks, so I’ll count it as a bonus: despite the fact that Black Cauldron is so rare as a physical presence, there is a shocking amount of enamel pins that they’ve made. Like, I was thinking maybe there’d be one or two, but I can’t even count how many there really are just from a cursory google search. I guess Disney just loves making pins of anything it’s got.

I have a question for you now: how did you find Gorgi’s? It’s got a very slim presence on the internet. Did you or a family member go? Did you just stumble across it somehow? I’m so curious, because I had never heard of this place in my life until this ask!

[bluemingqueen]

You sure post a lot of sexualizing things for someone that went off on someone else for ‘being sexualized’, even though there’s no proof of it? Before you try to justify anything – I read the document about you. If you’re wondering why things seemed to have taken a dive for you, it’s probably due to that document.

Not trying to ruffle your feathers, but you should probably come clean with the truth (and an apology to those you exploited for attention over it). Otherwise I don’t really see things getting better. You weren’t exactly the nicest person, and no one is going to want to interact with a tacky individual after so many people figure out what actually happened.. y’know? Especially any friends that you want to try and make going forward.

I hope you find peace within yourself, have a wonderful day.

As a forewarning to my friends who don't want to hear any nonsensical, childish fandom drama, I'll be tagging this with "drama" so you can filter it. Many of you have been hassled enough already by this person, for which I cannot apologize enough.

Hi sleepygirl, nice of you to evade your blocks on all platforms to continue harassing me after months of me asking you to stop (while remaining silent on this issue publicly)! Speaking of your prolonged harassment, do you remember this email you sent me last month?

The one where you outright told me, you and other people you know were stalking my online accounts? Yeah, that went right into a police report. What went on between us was nothing more than childish disagreements over a 20+ year old Japanese cartoon about ninjas, as well as me expressing discomfort over how you kept sexualizing a relationship I wanted to leave as just fluff for the time. I understand it was your first time writing wlw content, but there was a line crossed. maybe I should've expressed it in a different way, and I have apologized for not being as straightforward as you clearly needed me to be about that. I even apologized for mentioning I had a falling out with an unspecified person in an author's note.

It has been nearly five months of you harassing me, and while it hasn't exactly been a joy to continue to have to ask you to leave me alone, I was able to ignore it and move on. Even when you sent an absolutely wild email letting me know you're keeping track of my (largely nonexistent) upload schedule:

However, I recently found out you've been harassing my friends and mutuals on this website, and that's where I draw a hard line. This is the only public post I will be making about this, so you can send all the asks you want under whatever alt accounts, you can continue making pseuds to harass me on AO3, but I will continue to block and ignore. However, I will continue sharing that Google doc you made to ~expose me~ with my friends, because it's worth a lot of laughs, such as this gem (in which I am the black bubble and you are the purple):

Now please, for the last time, stop contacting me.

[alfiejacquess]

What Iv learnt at 25

Just start off by saying this post is intended for anybody who wants to read it, but more for friends with mutual respect.

A bunch of inspiring divas online have started to document mile stones in their life and write about what they have learnt so far.

So I’m calling this one “The quarter quell - life is a buffet and we get nowt for standing at the back of que”.

Hopefully I can continue this and find it beneficial when reading back in some care home.

Life lessons throughout my 25 years on earth and things I am proud to say I have learnt and prioritised in recent years are …

“Riding that yes wave, hard!”

Having new adventures around the world with friendships that I cherish, seem to have come hand in hand in recent years. The solo travel thing is cringe as fuck I know but I’m certain I would not have found this happiness in my life otherwise.

When new opportunity is offered I almost always accept with a dramatic “yes!”. So I’m proud to say I have prioritised these pursuits abroad and I am beyond grateful to have met the people I have.

“The crazy stuff”

The kind of stuff that young, small town kid version of you would have called bullshit on. The kind of stuff that elderly people tell you confidently “you will not regret” and “do it now while you can”. Even just something I know will bring me electrifying joy has been pursued whole heartedly, no matter the expense.

I have made sure to make each new adventure harder than the next. More challenging and something that builds strength. I have always been a believer in that Kelly Clarkson song. Yeah I’m pound to say I went after everything I wanted and conquered some real shit.

“The treasure map”

I have come to imagine my friends like dots or crosses on old coffee stained paper. The dots can remind you of a place, activity or friendship that is special, or just a simple feeling that stood out in the moment. Some dots are clumped together and congested, where a monitory of your time has been spent. Some are more evenly spread apart and secluded.

People that have crossed path with you at your best, and folks that have been there constantly through your worst. The ones that know you better than you know yourself sometimes, it’s a scary thought but undoubtedly true.

Also those ones who cruise around the globe on some kind of space ship built purely from confidence and ambition. People who start up incredible companies- leave their jobs - have no plan at all - live completely on the road- enjoy moving alone simply to be more social. You look back and think how superbly lucky you are to have existed at the same time as them. That you get to live in the sane universe as them. Someone told me this is called quantum immortality, or at least this is what I understand it to be, hence the ugly bullshit tattoo I got (that I kinda love)

Some of these dots and crosses will remain in my life forever, and for some it was just simply a pleasure passing by. (But will deffo meet up for a beer at some point).

The way one dot connects another in this map is what I’m trying to get at. Resembling a direction leading to something great. If it weren’t for certain people then the dots can’t connect and opportunities would have never arisen in the direction they have.

But anyway, looking back at the old coffee stained map, It shows a very clear path for me. I think it looks pretty god damm sexy and I’m proud of it. Also I can’t wait to see where it leads and I know the prize will be oh so sweet at the end.

“Jump now or never !”

Some twat celebrity (who slapped Chris rock at the Oscars lol) once described what fear is used for, and it seems to ring true. “The best things in life are on the other side of fear”. This was used in reference to skydiving. The fear must be immense on your assent up in the plane, but the fear dissipates once you have jumped and you are left feeling infinite the more alive than you have ever felt. This is what I have been told.

I use this as a reminder not to be a total minge and let fear get in the way of the things I really want. Also letting it remind me of what I will gain from the experience. The biggest thrills and jaw dropping moments on this earth, are found on the other side of fear. This is true, not even an opinion ! so swallow it whole and run with it, coz it’s true.

I have learnt this from the first time I got on plane on my own and to every achievement that followed.

“You found a good one there”

Yeah I did ! And he’s mine so hands off. Love is fun and exciting, but it also has its challenges. But this guy makes me feel more loved than I have felt in a long time, and somehow It feels deserved.

Home feels caring and insatiably affectionate, I’m simply happy that I’m happy while exploring both of our interests together.

I remember the first time we went to the cinema, and some girl was talking quietly as the film started. He shushed that bitch so hard, I knew then he was the right one for me.

Being independent and enjoying your own company for a few years, can lead you to be a bit set in your ways over time. Always going after your interests with a fast paced energy, leaves me vulnerable to lacking understanding of other people’s needs and interests. Learning to compromise, slow down and be more patient is something I’m happy to say I’m working on.

“You can’t always get what you want, but you get what you need - The Rolling Stones”

I used to do this thing where I would ask folk to add all their favourite songs to a playlist I made. These were usually people I met while away. This Rolling Stones song was always my favourite ever since it was generously added to my playlist by a legend. Yeah I don’t feel like I need to elaborate much more than the title of the song.

It’s been a life lesson and a reminder that you can’t always have it all (but you can certainly try). When things go wrong, it might be for a very good reason. Learn from it and move forward.

Side note - create playlists for everything and share it with people and have fun !

“The Californian Poppy”

This treasure map stretching across 25 years, may have well lead me to the gold. People I have come to find as some of my closest friends were discovered completely by chance, much is life.

The golden state is something I am going to write about as a way to conclude this diary, because the sunset orange colour of the Californian poppies is all I see when reminiscing. The memory is a warm way to finish this chapter.

These warm joyous memories have been the brightest chapter in my life so far. A prize earned for all the leaps of faith over the years. All the nervous nail biting and empty passenger seats have all lead to this grand sunset with a tenacious friends that will always be down for anything. Down for a phone call when we need it and for discussing ridiculously stupid future adventure ideas that will most likely happen.

Its interesting to me when I visit my friends in the states, it like watching them rediscover such beauty as if looking through my eyes. Watching them be reminded of how lucky they are to grow up and spend their time here. It’s something very special.

All that cringe shit about choosing your family is unfortunately true, sorry. Show your vibe and find your tribe, is what I like to say. That tribe has expanded over the years, but in California it is based on hilarious and outright spectacular road trips in my new “special” places. While discussing where we want our memorial benches built when we’re gone. Deliberately picking some far fetched locations, hoping some serious effort will be made. Also being my fake travel wife in less liberal countries, now that’s a good friend. So yeah, orange poppies, sunsets in sick national parks with class humans, you get the idea.

“Hurry and wrap this shit up”

It seems inevitable that my cringy solo travel era will be coming to an end. I have found people I want to do life with, and that’s why I’m proud of this treasure map and my 25 year journey.

With a ton of photos and paintings sat in frames waiting to hang up in a house that I will hopefully get to call my home one day. My beautiful niece might look at some of them and ask questions about what I did when I was her age, and I will be able to tell her with a glimmer in my eye. To encourage her to go after everything she wants in life and grab tight hold of the special things life offers.

For my 25th birthday I will be celebrating abroad with some friends I have not met yet, sailing round Croatia and being a goofball. Then taking my boyfriend to Tomorrow land, his very first music festival. Watch this space coz shits gonna get real fun!

I am unapologetically going to continue to be myself and enjoy life. Till next time, Alf.

[asexualdiary]

Today was my first doctor's appointment to discuss donor insemination.

The appointment wasn't until 3:30 and I was super nervous the entire morning, almost to the point of panicking. I couldn't even tell you why; I felt the same way before I made the phone call to make the appointment however many months ago. But, just like after the phone call, after the appointment I felt optimistic and excited. Weird.

The appointment was virtual and I had to take it in my car during my lunch. The doctor was extremely nice and to the point, which I appreciated. He was making jokes the whole time. He did, however, have a very thick accent which made it kind of hard to understand him. The first thing he asked me was my DOB (as a way to identify me) and then the very next question was, "How old is your husband?" Found this kind of odd as I know when I made the appointment I said that I was someone considering single parenthood, and probably put that in the online check-in as well. But he didn't bat an eye when I told him I was single and simply went on with the process.

Before even telling me anything, he asked me if I had any questions for him. I asked him about coverage and he told me that I will have to call the hospital specifically and then my insurance again (he also confirmed that my employer was definitely wrong/didn't understand last time with the previous info.) So, gotta get on that. This also confirmed that I will definitely be doing IUI and not IVF. They do not even have an IVF program. Apparently there is a 10-20% success rate with each IUI cycle, and most patients get pregnant after 3-6 cycles. After six cycles of unsuccessful IUI, they refer you to someone else for IVF.

We then got into specifics and he told me there are four things I need to do before the IUI process starts:

Ultrasound

Reproductive psychology counseling session (since I want to be a single parent. I guess that makes sense? They wouldn't want to randomly impregnate a single person who is mentally unwell)

Blood work to check for things like hepatitis B, C, etc.

Make sure my tubes are open (I looked this up and I guess it's an x-ray. X-rays are super expensive so yay)

^This all has to be done during the first five days of my period. So once my period starts (supposed to be in a couple weeks) I have to call them and get all this done. Then I have six months from the time of the bloodwork to decide if/when I want to start IUI.

He didn't want to overwhelm me with too much information at once, so we didn't talk too much about the actual IUI process, which was fine with me. One thing he mentioned that interested me, however, is that I have to contact a sperm bank of my choosing and find a donor on my own. Then once I have made a decision, I let them know. I asked him if he could give me some recommendations for sperm banks, and he simply said, "They are all good and we work with all of them," and said to just google some. Alrighty then!

So since I've gotten home I've been searching for sperm banks online (even though I won't have to do that for a while). I'm looking at Fairfax Cryobank, and it's kind of fun to read the descriptions. You get to look at pictures of the donors as children and listen to voice recordings. The sperm costs around $2k so. That's something. Hopefully insurance can help with that as well...?

He said to reach out to him on MyChart if I think of any more questions. Right now I'm just mentally preparing myself to spend a lot of $$$.

Feeling pretty good rn though. I of course don't know anyone who's ever done this, nor can I find many people online, so I guess that's why I wanted to document it. I'm going to try to keep a personal diary about the whole process on here, so I can remember everything. But who knows, maybe there will be something deeply wrong with my fallopian tubes and I can't get pregnant after all. Can't wait until my period starts so I can get the show on the road! (never thought I'd be saying that.)

[chaoticwhoknows]

📓 <33333

So. i cooould talk about the ted lasso teen colin au (heavily inspired by wriggle up on dry land btw. if anyone is seeing this who hasn’t read it go read it i love it) but that may one day actually be written so i won’t spoil that one. this one is an oldie from when the spider-man bug bit me hard after no way home dropped and i somehow also got really into a colter wall’s style of country music to make a fic that is fully plotted out in my google docs but will never see the light of day: the devil wears a suit and tie. it will never be written bc that fic would be an absolute behemoth with so much legal research involved and i just wasn’t built for long fics (side-eying my obx longfic so heavily there). i wrote snippets a while ago that are now so different from my writing style but here’s an unhinged little recap under the cut

basically! peter ends up being a witness to a crime as spider-man, and when the arrest is announced in the news and peter lets it slip that he saw something related to the case, he is called to be a witness in the trial. he now has to explain, under oath, how he witnessed this without revealing that he’s spider-man. and, yeah, perjury is bad, but he can get away with it. he’s a vigilante he’s done more illegal things than this.

but then. THEN. matt murdock is the trial lawyer. and he KNOWS that peter is lying. and peter knows that matt knows that he’s lying. so matt is trying to uncover evidence of perjury, peter is trying to find a way to clear an innocent man’s name without revealing his secret identity. and their both trying to use their vigilante identity to do that. so they keep meeting during the day in the courtroom as their whole perjury song and dance continues, while at night they’re just figuring out a whole buddy cop routine.

it’s half courtroom drama half law and order: organized crime but with superheroes and half matt slowly realizing that this random child is living on his own and has no online footprint, no documentation, and the only physical evidence he exists is an old number in matt’s paper call logs (from when he represented peter after he was outed as spider-man, something matt probably doesn’t remember what with the whole wizard erasing his identity thing). jessica is simultaneously called by matt to investigate peter and spider-man to investigate how he can clear this innocent man’s name. matt and peter figure out each others secret identities fairly early on but dont speak of it until much later bc they don’t know the other knows. it’s a riot. there’s so many ocs. too many ocs in all honesty. matt goes undercover as a casino/hotel guest in an attempt to find evidence of perjury. there is far too much religious imagery and i mention mj far too much for a fic that she is not physically present in once. i don’t know what was going through my head when i plotted this but it uh. It Sure Is An Idea Alright

[cans-of-rain]

A Fan Is Leaving His Estate To Neymar—Here’s Why It’s Not A Bad Idea

MIAMI, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 06: Neymar Jr. #10 of Brazil reacts after assisting Casemiro #5 on a ... [+] goal against Colombia during the first half of the friendly at Hard Rock Stadium on September 06, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Getty Images

A fan of Neymar Jr. made headlines last week when he declared that he was leaving his estate to the football phenom.

The anonymous fan told the online newspaper Metrópoles that, in addition to his love for the Brazilian national team, he identified with the Paris Saint-Germain striker. He said, in an interview, "I like Neymar, I identify with him a lot. I also suffer with defamation, I am also very family-oriented and the relationship with his father reminds me a lot of mine with my father, who has passed away."

The fan isn't old—just 31 years of age—but noted, "I am not in very good health and, because of that, I really saw that I don't have anyone to leave my things to... I wouldn't want the government or relatives I don't get along with to take my things." He explained that he had tried to turn over his assets during his lifetime but was advised instead to draw up a will. He did—and had it notarized (a photo of the will is on the Metropoles website here).

The relevant language in the document is simple: “É manifesta a derradeira vontade do testador, que respeitada a legitima, determina que a parte disponivel dos seus bens, fique para Neymar da Silva Santos, Junior…” That’s the equivalent of what we would call a residuary clause in the US when, after any specific bequests, you name who receives the balance—or residue—of your estate.

As the story spread, so did criticisms of the fan's plan. Some pointed out that it was odd to identify with a person you've never met, while others pointed out that Neymar didn't need the money. Neymar has earned an estimated $85 million over the past year, landing him at No. 12 on Forbes' list of the world's highest-paid athletes.

I get that it's easier to poke fun. You may disagree with the fan's decision, but I think that the criticism is misguided. Here are a few things that I believe he got right.

He Had A Plan

MORE FOR YOU

Most Americans don't have a will. According to a 2020 Gallup poll, slightly less than half of US adults—or 46%—have a will describing how they would like their money and estate handled after their death. A survey conducted by Caring.com during the pandemic placed that number even lower, suggesting that only 33% of Americans have an estate plan. Those numbers confirm what most tax and estates lawyers like me already know: getting folks to talk about and carry out an estate plan can be difficult.

Why so few? Surveys—and real life—suggest that the top reason for not creating a will is that people just don't get around to considering how they want their assets to be distributed after death. Often, this has to do with age (they think they're too young) or assets (they think they don't have enough to worry about passing on). Others don't know how to get started or fear that it might cost too much. So, they don't take any action at all.

But this fan? Even though he's young, he realized that planning for the disposition of his assets was important. And, since he indicated that his health wasn't good, he knew that putting off his estate planning wasn't a good idea. So he took action.

He Kept Trying

According to Metropoles, the fan initially tried to gift his assets to Neymar. When that didn't work, he came up with another plan: leave the assets to the footballer in his will.

It's not unusual for clients to have an idea that isn't possible to carry out either as a matter of law or practice. But that doesn't mean that the ultimate goal isn't possible. It just means that they have to find another way to carry out their wishes—that’s where a good estate planner can come in handy.

I admire this fan's tenacity. When his initial plan didn't work, he didn't give up. He tried a different method—the outcome should essentially be the same for him.

He Knew What He Did—And Didn't—Want

Folks may avoid estate planning because they believe that they don't need to plan because their assets will pass to their "next of kin"—whatever that means.

When you die without a will, your assets pass by intestacy, which means that they are distributed according to state law. In Pennsylvania, for example, if you die without a will and you're married with no children and no living parents, your estate will pass to your surviving spouse—that's what most people expect. But if you're married, and your children or parents survive you, your assets will pass via a formula to your children and spouse (or to your parents and spouse if you have no children or direct heirs).

If you don't have a surviving spouse, there's also a distribution scheme—first, to your children or direct heirs. If you don't have children, your estate passes to your parents if they're still alive. If they're not still alive, your assets will pass to your brothers, sisters, or their direct heirs—and if none of them are alive, then to your grandparents or their heirs (typically, your uncles and aunts). It gets… complicated. And if you survive all of your family, your assets will pass to the state.

That's not always a desirable outcome, especially for those with nontraditional families or relationships that might feel like family but aren't—like the close family friend you've always thought of as your aunt.

The anonymous fan—who had already lost his father—made clear didn't want his assets passing to relatives he didn't know or the government. He wanted to direct his assets where he wanted them to go.

There Is No ‘Means Testing’ For Wills

One of the most vocal criticisms of the bequest to Neymar is that the footballer doesn't need the money. To that, I would say, "And?" Arguably, many of the beneficiaries of gifts and estates don't "need" the money—that isn't necessarily the point of estate planning. It may be the case that you want to provide for someone—or an organization like a charity—that you believe could benefit from your money, but it may also be the case that you want to leave someone assets simply out of love and affection.

There's no ceiling or floor on what you can pass to beneficiaries in your will (although there may be thresholds subject to tax), and there's no gatekeeper to decide whether someone needs the money, or is deserving enough. That's up to you.

He Can Change His Mind

One of the things that can be intimidating about making a will is that it feels so… final. Only it's not. Most estate planning documents, including a will, can be changed at any time.

While this fan believes that Neymar is deserving right now, he might change his mind later. What if the fan has decided that he's a PSG fan for life—and Neymar returns to FC Barcelona, which, per recent reports, is a real possibility? What if the fan—who loves the national team—decides that he prefers Brazilian national team players Vini Jr. or Marta (a legend on the women’s team)? What if the fan gets married? Or has kids?

The reality is that a lot can change over a few years, but it's best to be prepared for today. You can always change it later.

Final Thoughts

I get that leaving your assets to your favorite footballer isn't everyone's cup of tea. And it can be easy to criticize someone who makes choices that are different from your own. But when it’s your money, you get to decide where it goes.

I'm an avid football fan (though I call it soccer). I can assure you that my will doesn't have any bequests for my favorite players, and that's not just because I'm confident that the likes of Gareth Bale and Andre Blake will be okay on their own. I simply have other priorities.

That's the great thing about estate planning. It’s your plan that reflects your circumstances and your values—and if that means that you want to leave your assets to one of the world’s richest soccer players, I think that’s okay.

MORE FROM FORBESBy Scoring A Lucrative Deal At Inter Miami, Lionel Messi Is Playing A New Financial GameBy Kelly Phillips Erb

Read more here https://f004.backblazeb2.com/file/rwwimz/TaxationTrends/US-tax/Understanding-Form-706-NA-A-Comprehensive-Guide-for-Nonresident-Aliens.html

[twingocalypse]

omg I did not lose the midwestern Miku document!!

(thanks to my old high school onedrive i guess lmao-)

It's not particularly interesting I guess and I've always been incredibly shy about posting my actual writing online but enjoy! (for context this is technically a shortened version of the story that i submitted for a school assignment bcs it kinda fit the theme.) (The original story was written like 3 years ago under the influence of too much sangria with a friend (@sergeyhahaha) as a half-joke about Hatsune Miku living as an american midwestern housewife in a dead marriage.) so yes the girl in the drawing and the girl mentioned is technically hatsune miku by association.

The prettiest flower, staring at the sun

Growing the middle of a cornfield, asking why here, and not anywhere else... Maybe I am a flower. But my cornfield was a Target. I was staring at the immaculate wall of perfectly white milk containers.

They’re so quiet. So I tried to blink at the wall, taking the slightest chance it would blink back. To my surprise, no response.

You’re so fake...talk to me, stupid milk. Even mute and inarticulate, the milk was still really pretty, Target has stocked them well, they always do.

It sure was endearing, to exist in a life surrounded by nothing but artificial perfection. But it was a world I detested so much. Phew...Who knows, maybe everything will be okay after all. I still want to spill the milk, knock them over. Make them lose their perfect shine. After all, just like me, they can be replaced, discarded when a better thing comes along.

I’m talking to myself again.

“Mikaelynn, Honey?”

“Mikaelynn!’’

I turned around.

A pale young man was shouting from another end of aisle 4! I run to aisle 4.

I knew who he was, I didn’t forget it this time!

Brock,

Richard Brock Hudson,

Husband,

My Husband

(But more of a fiancé, actually, as our wedding was , once again, postponed until the end of August.) Oh right! He was saying something!

“Don’t you think we should buy Carson a gift?”

I throw a blank confused stare.

Of course I did not remember who Carson was.

“Well it was his birthday last week, we should at least try to be good neighbors and bring him a little...something.”

Oh! I knew that Carson. Must admit, I didn’t really care...

“Remember, good impressions... Lynn, just for a while until we get settled in this neighborhood.”

Reading my mind, how would he know...how much I didn’t care?

I didn’t really want him to find out. I hated it here. But I didn’t want him to know. He loves living this life so much.

“Live laugh love” Said the decoration board behind me.

Maybe I should do exactly that. Try and let him live this way. Live laugh love my way into this existence. Maybe I should at least try!

I don’t really understand, why should I make a good impression on someone I don’t care about... I already knew how this would end.

These good impressions, as fake as a jug of Tampico, standing right next to you, Brock, on your left!

Perhaps you are made of Tampico?

I knew I would grow to resent Brock for this.

Maybe I should tell him the truth, not all of it...but maybe at least the part about Carson’s gift? Being honest is hard.

“Well I t-...”

Brock suddenly interrupted.

“Okay, so do you think Carson would prefer a baseball glove or a hunting knife?”

Nevermind, I can’t say anything now...

So I threw on the blank stare again.

“Lynn, are you even listening to me?”

“Honey, I’m sure he’d love 'em both!”

Citrus punch Tampico! Next to you! Dunk your head into it!

I wish I had said that a vengeful grin. Brock wouldn’t know why. But I didn’t say anything. It’s not like he’d notice. What I didn’t notice, was how much time we lost. Not in life, just in the supermarket. It was 4 p.m. now.

I think we came here at noon.

Why have I lost so much time with you?!

I don’t know how it happened, but we were in a parking lot now. I didn’t know how much time passed from that conversation. Did we end up getting a hunting knife or a baseball glove? Or was it a fishing rod? A disinfectant?

I have lost everything by now...

And I want to pay you back, I want to express, how angry I am, how much I actually hate you.

I want to see you hurt and mad!

Your face, scowling,

becoming a spiral,

bursting a vein,

full collapse.

But why can’t I tell you any of this?

I have lost so much time with you.

It was now 5 p.m.

We were walking towards our car, swallowed by the desolate Target parking lot.

2005 Ford Ranger.

We’re walking closer and closer. Brock seems mad...what did I do, when he was the one doing everything wrong.

I sat behind the wheel, naturally, I didn’t know how to drive. I’ve lost so much time, and it was time to take it back.

I love you,

--Mikaelynn.

[harlowhaunted]

A Fan Is Leaving His Estate To Neymar—Here’s Why It’s Not A Bad Idea

MIAMI, FLORIDA - SEPTEMBER 06: Neymar Jr. #10 of Brazil reacts after assisting Casemiro #5 on a ... [+] goal against Colombia during the first half of the friendly at Hard Rock Stadium on September 06, 2019 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Getty Images

A fan of Neymar Jr. made headlines last week when he declared that he was leaving his estate to the football phenom.

The anonymous fan told the online newspaper Metrópoles that, in addition to his love for the Brazilian national team, he identified with the Paris Saint-Germain striker. He said, in an interview, "I like Neymar, I identify with him a lot. I also suffer with defamation, I am also very family-oriented and the relationship with his father reminds me a lot of mine with my father, who has passed away."

The fan isn't old—just 31 years of age—but noted, "I am not in very good health and, because of that, I really saw that I don't have anyone to leave my things to... I wouldn't want the government or relatives I don't get along with to take my things." He explained that he had tried to turn over his assets during his lifetime but was advised instead to draw up a will. He did—and had it notarized (a photo of the will is on the Metropoles website here).

The relevant language in the document is simple: “É manifesta a derradeira vontade do testador, que respeitada a legitima, determina que a parte disponivel dos seus bens, fique para Neymar da Silva Santos, Junior…” That’s the equivalent of what we would call a residuary clause in the US when, after any specific bequests, you name who receives the balance—or residue—of your estate.

As the story spread, so did criticisms of the fan's plan. Some pointed out that it was odd to identify with a person you've never met, while others pointed out that Neymar didn't need the money. Neymar has earned an estimated $85 million over the past year, landing him at No. 12 on Forbes' list of the world's highest-paid athletes.

I get that it's easier to poke fun. You may disagree with the fan's decision, but I think that the criticism is misguided. Here are a few things that I believe he got right.

He Had A Plan

MORE FOR YOU

Most Americans don't have a will. According to a 2020 Gallup poll, slightly less than half of US adults—or 46%—have a will describing how they would like their money and estate handled after their death. A survey conducted by Caring.com during the pandemic placed that number even lower, suggesting that only 33% of Americans have an estate plan. Those numbers confirm what most tax and estates lawyers like me already know: getting folks to talk about and carry out an estate plan can be difficult.

Why so few? Surveys—and real life—suggest that the top reason for not creating a will is that people just don't get around to considering how they want their assets to be distributed after death. Often, this has to do with age (they think they're too young) or assets (they think they don't have enough to worry about passing on). Others don't know how to get started or fear that it might cost too much. So, they don't take any action at all.

But this fan? Even though he's young, he realized that planning for the disposition of his assets was important. And, since he indicated that his health wasn't good, he knew that putting off his estate planning wasn't a good idea. So he took action.

He Kept Trying

According to Metropoles, the fan initially tried to gift his assets to Neymar. When that didn't work, he came up with another plan: leave the assets to the footballer in his will.

It's not unusual for clients to have an idea that isn't possible to carry out either as a matter of law or practice. But that doesn't mean that the ultimate goal isn't possible. It just means that they have to find another way to carry out their wishes—that’s where a good estate planner can come in handy.

I admire this fan's tenacity. When his initial plan didn't work, he didn't give up. He tried a different method—the outcome should essentially be the same for him.

He Knew What He Did—And Didn't—Want

Folks may avoid estate planning because they believe that they don't need to plan because their assets will pass to their "next of kin"—whatever that means.

When you die without a will, your assets pass by intestacy, which means that they are distributed according to state law. In Pennsylvania, for example, if you die without a will and you're married with no children and no living parents, your estate will pass to your surviving spouse—that's what most people expect. But if you're married, and your children or parents survive you, your assets will pass via a formula to your children and spouse (or to your parents and spouse if you have no children or direct heirs).

If you don't have a surviving spouse, there's also a distribution scheme—first, to your children or direct heirs. If you don't have children, your estate passes to your parents if they're still alive. If they're not still alive, your assets will pass to your brothers, sisters, or their direct heirs—and if none of them are alive, then to your grandparents or their heirs (typically, your uncles and aunts). It gets… complicated. And if you survive all of your family, your assets will pass to the state.

That's not always a desirable outcome, especially for those with nontraditional families or relationships that might feel like family but aren't—like the close family friend you've always thought of as your aunt.

The anonymous fan—who had already lost his father—made clear didn't want his assets passing to relatives he didn't know or the government. He wanted to direct his assets where he wanted them to go.

There Is No ‘Means Testing’ For Wills

One of the most vocal criticisms of the bequest to Neymar is that the footballer doesn't need the money. To that, I would say, "And?" Arguably, many of the beneficiaries of gifts and estates don't "need" the money—that isn't necessarily the point of estate planning. It may be the case that you want to provide for someone—or an organization like a charity—that you believe could benefit from your money, but it may also be the case that you want to leave someone assets simply out of love and affection.

There's no ceiling or floor on what you can pass to beneficiaries in your will (although there may be thresholds subject to tax), and there's no gatekeeper to decide whether someone needs the money, or is deserving enough. That's up to you.

He Can Change His Mind

One of the things that can be intimidating about making a will is that it feels so… final. Only it's not. Most estate planning documents, including a will, can be changed at any time.

While this fan believes that Neymar is deserving right now, he might change his mind later. What if the fan has decided that he's a PSG fan for life—and Neymar returns to FC Barcelona, which, per recent reports, is a real possibility? What if the fan—who loves the national team—decides that he prefers Brazilian national team players Vini Jr. or Marta (a legend on the women’s team)? What if the fan gets married? Or has kids?

The reality is that a lot can change over a few years, but it's best to be prepared for today. You can always change it later.

Final Thoughts

I get that leaving your assets to your favorite footballer isn't everyone's cup of tea. And it can be easy to criticize someone who makes choices that are different from your own. But when it’s your money, you get to decide where it goes.

I'm an avid football fan (though I call it soccer). I can assure you that my will doesn't have any bequests for my favorite players, and that's not just because I'm confident that the likes of Gareth Bale and Andre Blake will be okay on their own. I simply have other priorities.

That's the great thing about estate planning. It’s your plan that reflects your circumstances and your values—and if that means that you want to leave your assets to one of the world’s richest soccer players, I think that’s okay.

MORE FROM FORBESBy Scoring A Lucrative Deal At Inter Miami, Lionel Messi Is Playing A New Financial GameBy Kelly Phillips Erb

Read more here https://f004.backblazeb2.com/file/rwwimz/TaxationTrends/US-tax/Understanding-Form-706-NA-A-Comprehensive-Guide-for-Nonresident-Aliens.html