#I was a massive horrible histories nerd as a kid

[backgroundcharacterno15]

Been going through my books from childhood like bro who was letting me read these at age 7

[sure-i-exist]

Reasons I think the dragon riders are autistic:

(This was written out of order over the course of several days)

Hiccup

• His interest in dragons. Multiple people literally say “his life is dragons”. I don’t think I need to expand on this point any more

• His deal with emotions - the way it seems to me is that unless he’s very happy or genuinely angry, he doesn’t really emote much? His voice isn’t necessarily monotone but he’s very same-y (in more than just tone - also body language and stuff) almost always aside from when incredibly gleeful (e.g. riding toothless) or very angry (literally any moment where he ends up yelling at the others)

• On a similar note, there’s several times (especially in rtte) where it looks like he’s about to scold someone and then he doesn’t (in a kinda emotions/expressions not lining up with his actual thoughts and stuff way). Now, this doesn’t sound much here but an example is in the dramillion episode near the end of the ep so that kinda gives you a better idea of what I mean yknow?

• Also his massive interest in inventing, another pretty damn important thing in his life that he’s very good at, to say the least. • Another thing with emotions - he’s pretty easy to manipulate. Which sounds so horrible to put but I mean it in like, his emotions specifically are kinda easy to manipulate and especially his empathy. They’re often used against him

• He notices details and you know how he constantly tells the twins they’re geniuses after something they say reminds him of a completely unrelated point? Yeah idk how to explain it but that’s autism, baby

Astrid

• Stubborn - it takes a lot to change her views of opinions

• Fully believes there are right and wrong ways of doing things (and usually believes those ways are the more traditional ways that she’s used to)

• Idk if there’s even proof of this but I am dead certain she sticks to her rules almost all times. She doesn’t care about other peoples rules but despite that often has very strict views on how to do things which I think is why I believe this. She also hates going off-plan and that doesn’t rlly mean anything here but that probably adds to why I’m so sure she likes rules

• Again no proof of this but she seems like the type to be very particular about her daily routine. If she decides to switch it up once she now gonna keep that for months. You can ignore this point but this is something I wholeheartedly believe.

• The vibes

Fishlegs

• He’s honestly the only character who might have actually been written as autistic (but also may not have been and instead be written as a nerd, but obviously that trope alone just makes him autistic by default)

• Same as hiccup, huge huge interest in dragons. No need to elaborate here

• Very empathetic, many autistic people experience either notably low empathy or high empathy. Fishlegs very clearly is on the high side

• Also can I just say I love how on berk he was a guide and he taught kids all about berks history and dragons and shit like that like hell yeah making your special interest your job, good for him honestly

• I just watched legend of the boneknapper and I just noticed fishlegs talks with his hands a lot and makes a bunch of gestures while talking which I am absolutely counting here cause i want to

Snotlout

• Hand gestures. Like all the time. And a lot of the same ones. And I’ve got no clue if that actually is prevalent in autism or whatever but personal experience (I.e. me and my friends) suggest so + I relate so I’m counting it

• Gonna sound dumb, but “shut up, [name]” and just common phrases he repeats. • On that note: he yells his own name frequently (typically while doing something cool or when annoyed or etc. emotional reasons) and I interpret that as kinda a stim, helping with emotions type deal yknow? • Again related to that, ‘Snotlout Snotlout oi oi oi’ (copied from spitelouts own version) is absolutely a vocal stim, and while I’m like 80% sure copying vocal patterns and phrases from the people around you is a thing everyone does, I’m still counting it anyway • Very big emotions/kinda dramatic. Idk how to phrase this but at any given point it is very clear what Snotlouts emotions are - and I know a lot of autistic folk (myself included) are generally quite monotone or struggle with expressing emotion outwardly, but this feels right so again counting it. + exaggerating emotions is a thing I do all the time to make things more obvious

• Hate to say this one but just the general way he treats people - he often doesn’t notice the way people react and he just continues with his (often pretty shit) treatment of them, can be seen in the unwanted advancements towards Astrid Heather etc and how certainly initially he didn’t rlly seem to get the message

• To put the last point more clearly: this boy has the absolute worst social skills and has no idea about that

• He doesn’t always get when people are making fun of him or being sarcastic

• I mention this with Tuffnut as well, but Snotlouts also pretty sarcastic even tho he doesn’t always get other peoples sarcasm

• He’s pretty blunt. Or he confuses himself with his own words. That’s pretty much the two sides of Snotlout’s speech patterns

• he’s my favourite character <3

Ruffnut

• Her whole deal with violence, particularly in rob/dob - I don’t know how to describe it but something about that

• Her and Tuffnut both get like random interests and they know loads about it or otherwise devote a lot of time to it - e.g. science when they were sick with eel pox, theatre in Total Nightmare, other examples I’m sure but I can’t remember rn. It just reminds me of myself and hyperfixations I get

• She doesn’t really care to change how she acts around different people; regardless of whether she’s been captured by enemies, is being scolded by Hiccup or is setting up a prank with tuffnut, she’s always the same.

• On that note, she’s often pretty blunt. Like unless she’s talkin fancy deliberately or trying to trick someone shes usually pretty clear and doesn’t usually change how she acts or speaks to make others feel better. • Yknow how her and Tuffnut were all like “woah maybe we did something… right? […] what’s this feeling is this accomplishment? I’ve never felt this before” and stuff that one time? I know it’s played off as a joke, but I’m diagnosing that with same <3

• Mirroring speech (see briefly in tuffnuts section)

Tuffnut

• Similar thing with violence

• Same as the hyperfixations thing I mentioned with Ruffnut, and just know there are plenty of things they say that I attribute to past hyperfixations

• Several occasions where he doesn’t get sarcasm

• He is pretty sarcastic tho despite that, same with Snotlout and that is something I feel is quite common - not really getting other peoples jokes or sarcasm but doing so yourself a lot

• His speech is very reminiscent of my own, he talks kinda overly fancy and deliberate most of the time (but there are also occasions where he’s almost overly casual? Which again is very relatable to me. I am now realising I may or may not have accidentally stolen tuffnuts speech patterns as a kid)

• (To the last point ignoring the part at the end) Ruffnut is also similar in this respect (as in the deliberate kinda overly wordy talk) but usually to a lesser extent - in fact, she normally only speaks like that when tuffnut is also there and speaking in such way, which to me absolutely seems like mirroring

• Similarly to the sarcasm thing, he doesn’t get rhetorical questions. Or at the very least doesn’t get them in that one episode in rtte and that’s enough for me to count it here

To be clear, at the end of the day, I see them all as autistic mostly cause I relate to and connect with the characters. And I do not know how to put that into words clearly so here’s this mess of a compilation.

@louthestarspeaker @tiggster27 @we-are-not-the-losechesters @drekialba @qualityhistorygamingwinner @maluron @scared-nightnurse @famderfries @purpleshutin @rubysparx @nonbinarynightmare77 @macabre-changeling @paradoxical-hermitcrab @bad-girl-coven

[demon-of-the-ancient-world]

Modern Au Athelstan headcanons

Back on my bullshit

Wears glasses and has horrible eyesight

And Ragnar teases him about it

Probably got them as a kid too

Wasn't full on bullied as a kid (I feel like other kids tried but he just gave zero reaction because he's a litttttle bit oblivious) but did get teased a bit for being really really short for his age and also the huge glasses

I swear I didn't steal this from @procrastinatingsoicanreadfanfics it's been in my head a while and believe me I was Shook when it turned out to be their headcanon too but anyway Athelstan was a foster kid

Never knew his birth family, just knows he had a lot of siblings

Was never officially adopted by anyone, I like to think that the last family he lived with was really good to him though and helped him learn to navigate the world as a young adult

Still sees that family occasionally after he goes to school, they were the people he was closest to out of all his childhood

Ok I actually have a highly specific au in my head where OF COURSE years later he meets Ragnar and Lagertha and their kids but it turns out THEY were former foster parents who he'd lived with when he was really young before their own kids were born and for whatever reason he had to be given to another family and they were heartbroken about it but then they recognize each other and I cry

Got a scholarship to go to a decent university (was always a straight A student let's be real this boy's a massive nerd) and ended up studying something history related but I can't decide what

It's gonna be like either religious history or ancient languages or something (or maybe just Medieval art idk I didn't go to uni I don't know what they get up to in there)

Is a little embarrassed by his name. Most people call him Stan or Ath - if the full name comes out Something Is Wrong

(But Ragnar and Lagertha both call him by his full name whenever, they've earned that privilege)

I love love love the thought of him meeting them via babysitting/tutoring their kids

I know I know I know romance is popular but in this au I always liked the idea of them kind of pseudo adopting him. Even before they've recognized him they're like "this one needs a family we're taking him home"

Lagertha especially her mom instincts kick in the second she sees his little face. This one belongs to her now.

Ragnar calls Athelstan "kid"

(It turns out he didn't properly remember his name until several months after they'd met)

Their family is Norwegian/Danish but live in England which is where Athelstan meets them

When he starts going to their house (because they invite him for dinner almost right away after he's started looking after the kids) and realizes all 3 languages get spoken sort of haphazardly around the house he makes a determined effort to learn them on his own because he wants to communicate with them in more ways than one

They aren't *rich* but definitely have a lot more money than what Athelstan grew up with and he's more than a little surprised to say the least when he finds out

They have a cabin somewhere in Norway up in the mountains that was Ragnar's dad's or whatever and one winter they take him along with them and I really want to write a fic about this so bad guys you have no idea

Ragnar teaches him to drive and it's about as chaotic as you'd expect

Bjorn plays *all* the sports and tries to get Athelstan to practice with him (this is mostly an excuse for him to kick soccer balls and the like at him)

He probably has like every social media account you can have but he either never uses them (or just logs on to observe everyone else and never says anything himself) or uses it to argue with assholes

Listen you cannot tell me that if someone is being a jerk on twitter or whatever he wouldn't absolutely go after them in the calmest yet most smug fact-checking way and just obliterate them only to fade into 100% obscurity once again

Hates conflict in theory but can't resist calling out people being mean online lol

Has a lot of house plants

Bakes the best breads and cookies ever I swear

Awkward about having people over but loves to make food for his friends and generally just take care of them

Photographs literally everything. Phone storage: full after like a month. Gets a digital camera. Fills up storage on that too.

Has an energy that just inexplicably draws others towards him. Any rando who comes up to him on the street he'll just have a full conversation with too, he takes everyone fully seriously even if he can't quite understand why they're talking to him

Loves museums. Will sit quietly and look at Art and do nothing else for hours at a time.

Probably plays D&D

(as a monk, of course. Or maybe a cleric.)

[still-a-morosexual-help]

Hello 😁! Here is a "brief" overview of generation names. This prospective is very U.S. facing idk if years change pre country.

(Sorry for any spelling mistakes I'm on mobile)

But thier are currently 8-ish generations:

(People who lived during) WWII 1922 - 1827

The silent generation 1928 - 1945

Boomers 1946 -1954 Baby boomers 1955 - 1964

Gen X 1965 -1980

Millennials 1981 - 1995 (also known as Gen Y)

Gen Z 1996 - 2012 (also know but rarely called Zommers)

Gen Alpha 2012 - current (this will change in probs with in the decade)

Generations names historically were used to show a difference is social behaviors of people normally a generation would come to an end/start a new one with massive historical change. For example the silent generation is known from living through the Great Depression, while Millennials are known as people who grew up while technology was rapidly advancing during their childhood in teenage years. In general, think did this group of people live through something horribly disastrous (that's a generation)? Or did a group of people live through something historically awesome?

Recently, Gen Z has broken that pattern scine generational names are no longer used as indicators of a person's development and behavior during the historical events that they grew up through. Instead these needs have been reclaimed for marketing. Obviously these generational names are still used to talk about historical events in people's behaviors, but the time frame gaps of when a generation starts and ends have now been used as a separations of how to push products. In the late 2000s right before the name Gen Z was coined everyone younger then a Gen X was considered a Millennial. This eventually had to change because marketing companies soon realized they cannot advertise products the same way to people who are in their mid to late twenties to someone who's 16. I think this happened around 2016/2017 don't quote me on that.

If Gen Z generational cut off was going to follow its predecessors Gen Z should be notated by starting in 2001 or 2000 at the earliest (again atleast from an American perspective).

Also with the starts and ends of generational groups is loosely defined numbers because a lot of people identify with the generation before or after their own. These people are referred to as 'cuspers', and have thier own micro-names (think the naming conventions we use for ships in fandom) There are cuspers in every single generational group. It just happens because, "society norms and trends don't just suddenly disappear with a number of the year changes." That is a direct quote for my old high school history teacher lol.

Oh! Last thing you are right to think of Zommers as "scooters". The original reason I believe behind the name Zoomer was to describe teenagersand older kids/pre-teens at the time as people who are always moving always on the go, or being busy and trendy on their phone. Fun fact another almost name for generation zoomer was generation iPad. Also Generation Z was given the letter Z not just because the word is Zoomer, but because of whatever bad historical things were happening at the time people thought we would be the "last generation".

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. I now must get back to work.

*softly, but with feeling* God I love histroy nerds

This was actually interesting to read??? and thank you for giving my one braincell something to chew on <3 <3

[mystech-master]

F/GO High School/Modern AU BS

Me and @rex101111 have been talking about a modern/HS AU ft. as many Chaldean servants as possible. Here are the ideas we came up with (I am pretty much cut and pasting our message convo, so this is a mixture of both me and Rex's ideas):

Gil is the douchbag Senior everyone hates but his dad owns the school or whatever so he can do whatever he wants. The only decent person who willingly hangs out with him is his childhood friend Enkidu who's hoping he can un-douch his bro. He has kid Gil as his little brother and Caster Gil as his older bro who both agree that he sucks (Gil is the loser middle child of the family), Caster Gil wonders what Enkidu sees in his shit head brother. "He's too good for you." "Blow it out your ass." "One day he's going to wise up, see how much of a shit you are, and when you're all alone don't come crying to me." Caster Gil is in college studying political science, Kid Gil goes to a fancy boarding school. Archer Gil goofs off and throws parties

Scathach is a swimming class teacher, mainly b/c I recall underwater training being a part of Cu's regiment under her tutelage. People were jealous of the Cus for like two seconds when they find out the swim teacher is their mom, then they see her having them do an extra twenty laps and ignoring when OG Cu starts floating in the water. "CU DIED!" "YOU'RE NOT HUMAN!" while Scathach is like "you have two seconds to stop playing around before I ACTUALLY drown you" and he's back to doing laps.

Yeah with 4-5 Cus (if you count Setanta from Arcade) that is like 5 brothers.

Nightingale as school nurse, she is friends with Asclepius who works at a hospital associated with the school (strictly professional, but the students think otherwise).

Side note, keep in mind you can have multiple servants be the same type of teacher, just for different classes/grades.

King Hassan is the old Religious History teacher. Every one thinks he's older then the rock is the school is made out of. He has a scary face and a scarier voice but most students consider him the most fair and patient teacher in the whole school. He always gets a lot of food gifts before Ramadan form the students. (A few students, such as the Guda twins and Mash, call him gramps.) The other Hassans are his grandkids, like actual grandkids. He's super strict with them because he expects a lot from them. He always praises them when they do well though. He made sure they ALL got into his class and they've been living in fear ever since. They love their grandpa but by Allah they know not to disappoint him. The only one to ever get out of anything is kid Hassan (one of the hundred face). Cursed Arm is oldest, then Asako (the main hundred face), then Serenity.

"I am very disappointed in ALL of you, have you all lost your heads? I swear I-*to kid Hassan*-ah no Habibi not you you're fine here have a candy-*back to the rest*-I KNOW you're better than this!"

VERY traditional guy, Cursed Arm mutters "Oh for God's sake" while doing a pop quiz and King Hassan looms over him and growls, "No Blaspheming In This Class Room"

For the various Artoria/Arturias, I imagined Lancer and Lancer Alter being sisters, so Saber Alter is a cousin. That leaves everyone else to just be sisters with one brother. Mother Lartoria owns a casino and gas her own yacht in reference to the summer event where she became a Ruler. If you want MHX could be a part of the family as a massive fucking Star Wars nerd. MHXX and MHX Alter are her mom and sister (so MHXX is a third sister for the two Lancer Artorias)

For Irisviel, I remember in one of the Nero Fest things that she was called Therapist Iri. Maybe she starts to get into that b/c she wants to help her adoptive son Shirou (instead of a big fire like in Zero it can be an orphanage fire thing, similar situation but a much smaller scale) , so she is the school therapist/psychiatrist. Like Maruki in P5 Royal.

Iskandar died in his 30s, Waver is around his 30s as Lord El Melloi II. The two are old college friends who still hang out and Alexander is Iskandar’s kid.

If you guys want you can see this as the two being gay dads since I know that ship is popular.

Fran had an abusive father before Babbage and Moriarty got involved. In the og story, Frankenstien has a scientific mindset like his creator, here Fran has a talent in the field, but she also hates it b/c it reminds her of him. Like imagine being talented at the thing your abusive parent was good at/known for. Moriarty tried to get it into her that SHE'S the one with the talent, not her college dropout bum of a father, "From you tell me of him Victor couldn't engineer his way out of an argument with a cat, you have a magnificent mind my dear, not letting it flourish to spite him would be a horrible waste...it's your talent, your skill. Not his." He smiles that smile she loves that scares every one but she knows he only smiles like that when he is absolutely convinced of something, "and you can out perform him without breaking a sweat."

Moriarty teaches Fran sign language while Babbage teaches her some engineering.

Jekyll is going for a major in medicine with a minor in law (in the actual irl story Dr. Jekyll was a doctor in medicine and law).

For science associated servants, you got da Vinci, Babbage, Edison, and Tesla as possible science teachers.

The Jeanne sisters. Without the Avenger BS, the reason Jalter (or Joan as one series of fics calls her) could hate her here is just inferiority complex and being compared to her perfect saint big sister all her life. Joan does have her talents, based on the summer event an, but again she doesn't acknowledge her own talent b/c of her always being compared to her older sister., in the 7 counterfeit events she is a really good artist. And it is the typical thing of Jeanne actually being scared out of her wits of being less than perfect because of all the expectations thrust on her. She gets one A- and runs to the bathroom crying and Joan has to swallow her pride and actually have a conversation with her sister for the first time in years. Jeanne Alter lily puts up Christmas decorations super early, much to Jeanne Alter/Joan's displeasure.

"IT JUST TURNED NOVEMBER CHILL TF OUT!"

"CHRISTMAS!"

Martha is Jeanne's BF since middle school and has this HUGE dog that scares everyone and growls at anyone expect Martha and Jeanne. She calls him Terry.

Rex loves Penthesilea. and we talked at length about the situation between her and Achilles. Can you not tell that he likes a woman who can kick his ass *gestures to all of his Baiken posts*

Rex's idea: I think they had a fight when they were little and Achilles, being a little shit back then, made fun of her for being a girl, and Penth has been sore about it ever since. She keeps running into big misogynistic meatheads that reminded her of that and she just got angrier over the years. She's a wrestler and can knock out just about every dude in school by herself. Achilles is very regretful about back then and wants to apologize but Penth ain't having any of it.

My idea: I thought they were on opposing HS sports teams and when Achilles handed her ass to her he forgot to drink his respect women juice and then Penth got all pissed.

In this AU, Penth and Hippolyta's dad was a general who taught them how to kick the ass of men twice their size since they were seven or something.

Penth surprises everyone when a festival comes up and she gets picked to be the one to organize everything...and does a spectacular job. Another surprise is that she plans on being a business major when she goes to college (Obligatory Amazoness CEO jokes)

Bedivere is the Arturia Pendragon family butler with a prosthetic arm. He's also the security guard, last guy that tried to steal something or cause trouble got slapped right out of the window he sneaked in from.

Francis Drake and Artoria Alter Lancer are work friends (referencing them both being associated with the Wild Hunt in F/GO's lore).

Beni-Enma is the short and shorter tempered lunch lady, last kid who mouthed off at her during lunch got smacked upside the head with her spoon. She's sweet, but if you're in detention and have to help her in the kitchen she's a mini Gorden Ramsey, "IT'S RAW DECHI!!!" She can also come into the home EC class where Shirou is her best student. Also her roasting of the other girls like in her quest. Getting Fs in Beni's class is the worst, because it isn't just an F, it's a meticulous dressing down of exactly why letting into a kitchen should be considered a war crime, dechi.

The three Avenger Nobus are three different people. 1st Ascension is basically Archer Nobu, then you got Oda Kipposhi, and then the mom is Ascension 3 with Demon King Nobunaga. The youngest Ascension 1 Nobu is a musician. Demon King Nobu is one of those "super scary but also super polite people that only makes them scarier" type, basically a female koei Nobunaga from samurai warriors (check out some cutscenes form the games with him, he's a treat).

Imagine Demon King Nobu mom in a business suit.

Suzuka Gozen and Sei Shonagon are the textaholics who always talk in slang to the point of it sounding like they speak a different language. Murasaki is the librarian but Sei is like that ONE student who just makes her job so much harder.

Every week it's "No phones in the library Miss Shonagon." while Sei rolls her eyes and types out twitter post like "fugly ol librarian at my school needs a life lol"

Oui Katsushika is a gifted art student, and her dad (not a floating little octopus), is just a normal dude with a squid/octopus like beard. She's the teacher's pet in De Vinci's art class.

Eresh and Ishtar come from a rich family, Ereshkigal is the older sister so she had a shit load of responsibility to take over the family business while Ishtar basically gets to party her life away. Rin is the cousin they each try and swing their way. Eresh wants Rin to keep up her studies and get into a good university, Ishtar wants Rin to loosen the fuck up and admit that she likes that scrawny Emiya kid already.

BB is the host of a talk show downtown so she is kind of an absentee mom. Meltryllis has prosthetic legs that she specifically asked to be made into stilts b/c she wanted to be taller, and Passonlip has a massive rack that makes life difficult (either people staring, people assuming she's gonna be a home wrecker b/c said staring must be intentional, etc.), and of course he also has prosthetic arms to match her canon claws, obviously not as massive.

Hijikata is a very serious police officer but his wife Carmilla just uses this to have fun in the bedroom. They have two Dobermans. Hijikata's route has him patrolling near the school so most of the kids know as that scary police dude that has a picture of his wife in his pocket. One day a famous Idol called Eli-chan~ (yes spelled with the ~) is about to perform in the town and the kids can't stop talking about her, so Hijikata overhears. But, being the serious dude he is he shrugs it off until he sees a picture of this "Eli-chan~" and realizes it's his sister-in-law that came to visit and suddenly the influx of parasitic paparazzi near his house start making sense.

Carmilla: "Now you see why I hate them?", Hijikata: "No you cannot send the dogs after them honey."

She almost ran one of them over in her, very expensive, car and when that reporter says she should be locked up Hijikata corrects that would only happen if she had hit him...and she would be fined. For littering.

Okita Alter being Hijikata's partner, while Okita is her younger sister who's looked up to Hijikata since she was a little kid but she has asthma and such so she's afraid she might not get accepted.

Sigurd owns a metalworks shop (referencing his myth where he was raised by the dwarf Reginn), he met his wife Brynhildr when she was disowned by her overly controlling father.

Ozymandias, Nitocris, and Cleopatra are all the high board members of a company. Nitocris specifically got wind of Scheherazade's abusive husband situation and after getting said husband arrested, she offered Scheherazade a job.

Atalanta is a college student/TA who worked with Achilles' dad who ends up at their HS for a program or something, Achilles' dad has told him a lot about her.

Amakusa Shirou is an uncle married to the CEO of Babylon Gardens Pharmaceuticals, Semiramis. Semiramis herself is kinda chill if REALLY scary. She had to be pretty cutthroat to get to her position in the company, but Amakusa Shirou helped her mellow out, but she is still a massive tsundere.

"You know you COULD poison their lunch." "Semi, dear, I'm not going to poison my coworker's sandwich for being an ass." "It wouldn't kill them! Just a bit in their peanut better and they'll be stuck on the toilet for a week, no harm no foul."

Rex initially said Taiga would be an overly enthusiastic gym teacher but then I remembered that she was a homeroom/English teacher in Fate canon, but either or can do if you wanna be unique.

For Quetzalcoatl, Wrestling club supervisor when she isn't the senior year gym teacher. Some of the male students laughed that they didn't think a woman would know anything about wrestling. Two piledrives later, the students have earned a new appreciation for the importance on how not to be two pieces of shit. She's big on Lucha as in canon and during Halloween she gets JAGUARMAN to have an exhibition fight with her. They make a show of it but later on Taiga admits that Quatz could have CRUSHED her if they were actually fighting. She takes the wrestling club out for homemade Mexican food after tournaments

For Siduri, there's a bunch of rumors she's dating Caster Gil but it's strictly professional, Caster respects her too much to consider that. Archer Gil hits on her relentlessly, she manages to wound his ego more severely then anyone else simply by being unfailingly polite in her rejections and treating him like what he is, a teenage punk jumping higher than he can handle to land.

Ibaraki is Shuten's adoptive little sister after she was taken from an abusive mother, hence why Ibaraki looks up to her. Ibuki is either Shuten's big sister who had to take on a guardian role, or just her mom. Shuten and Ibuki have a bit of a strained relationship because Shuten saw the way Ibuki acted as they grew up, taking more and more responsibilities onto herself and refusing any distractions. And she decided that her biggest nightmare is to wake up one morning and realize she's turned into Ibuki so she tries to do everything to avoid that, hence their relationship not being the best. Ibaraki is kinda stuck in the middle because she wants to side with Shuten but she sees where Ibuki is coming from. Messy.

Caren is still Kotomine’s daughter, but he isn’t a good dad and in rebellion she sleeps around despite being a woman of god. Including sleeping with local punk Angra Mainyu. Angra Mainyu seems like a bad guy but he has a shit load of issues due to being blamed for everything going wrong in his old town, eventually coming to believe them and thinking he will cause nothing but problems. Caren banging him gives him a type of closeness he’s never felt, but under very warped circumstances.

For the Tamamo family, Vitch totally fucked her way up a corporate ladder or something, imagined Tamamo Cat working at a Cat Cafe if she were a Student. Tamamo no Mae accidentally fed her prev BF a food he was allergic too, and that kind of haunted her and scared her rep. IDK basically she seriously fucked up a previous relationship, either on purpose or accidentally, and that kind of hurts her deeply so she wants to start over with Hakuno.

Nero and Tamamo no Mae are rivals over this one guy.

Kiichi Hougen is the adoptive mom, Benkei is the family friend/uncle, Taira is Ushiwaka's older sister. Taira isn't on the best of terms with her family, some drama way back caused a rift and nowadays Ushi is the only one who's willing to talk to her and visit. Benkei never lets her go alone because he doesn't trust Taira one bit. Taira and Ushiwaka are Kintoki and Tomoe's cousins (I say Tomoe b/c apparently her husband and Ushiwaka were half cousins, with their grandpa having kids with their grandmas. I tried to make a whole family tree out of a few servants).

These are the ideas we had the most to talk about, if you guys have any suggestions for your fav servants in this AU, let either me or Rex know. Or just reblog and say them here. Who knows maybe you have a much better idea for a Servant we already mentioned.

[whitehotharlots]

Previewing the 2024 Democrat Primary

Within a couple weeks of his being sworn in, just about every person on earth will wish Joe Biden was no longer president. Sure, the few surviving John B. Anderson voters will be thrilled to see 4 years of crushing austerity and half-assed attempts at Keynesian stimulus. But most people will begin dreaming about a brighter future.

Good news! The 2024 Democratic primary field is going to contain dozens of options. Bad news! They are all going to be disgusting piles of shit. 

The “top tier”

While it’s too early to do any handicapping, these are the candidates the media will treat as having the most realistic chances of securing the nomination. 

Kamala Harris

Kamala did not win a single primary delegate in 2020. This is because she dropped out before the first primary, and that was because no one likes her. She has no base beyond a few thousand of twitter’s most violent psychos. Her disingenuousness approaches John Edwards levels: any halfway incredulous person can see immediately beyond her bullshit. She has no principles whatsoever, and while that may be par for the course for Democrats, she lacks even the basic politician’s ability to intuit anything that might, hypothetically, constitute a principle. 

Even better: she is an awful public speaker. She sounds like how a talking dog would speak if he were just caught stealing people food off the kitchen table. She communicates in weird grunts and faux sassy squeaks, which is how she imagines real black women sound like, but something about her is unable to sell the bit. She begins her sentences in halfhearted AAVE, stops and panics halfway through as she realizes that maybe this sounds fake and offensive, and then reminds herself oh wait, no, this is okay since I’m black. This doesn’t happen once or twice per speech. This is how every single sentence sounds. 

Kamala is like Nancy Pelosi in that no sketch show will ever impersonate her correctly, because anything that came close to authenticity would be considered far too cruel. This might benefit her in the primaries, as she exists in the minds of Democrats as someone and something she absolutely is not in reality. Nominating her would be like allowing your child’s imaginary friend to attempt to drive you to the store. 

Andrew Cuomo

Easily one of the 50 worst people alive, Cuomo has a solid chance because Democrats, same as Republicans, are unable to differentiate between electability and self-serving ruthlessness. Cuomo used the deadliest public health crisis in American history as a pretext for cutting Medicaid and firing 5,000 MTA workers, and his approval rating increased. New York Dems are little piggies who love eating shit. If we assume that the political media will continue their habit of refusing to discuss the legislative history of right wing Democrats, Cuomo might well cruise to the nomination and then lose to literally any human being the GOP nominates by an historic margin. 

Joe Biden

The party loves him because he is a right wing racist. “Progressives” tolerate him because black primary voters over 40 supported him, and their opinion is supposedly a magic window into god’s truth. Everyone else can tell he is manifestly senile. I don’t put it above the DNC to pick a candidate who is in horrible health, dying, or even dead--whatever the financial sector wants, they’ll get. But I would be shocked if his approval rating is above 39% by mid-2023, and by that point deep fake technology will be advanced enough they’ll put out a very lifelike video in which the Max Headroom version of Joe explains he’s proud of his accomplishments--that budget’s almost balanced already--but, man, I gotta abd--I gotta abdica--, uhh, I gotta, I, uhh, I gotta move down, man. 

Wild Cards

These candidates would have all have a chance if they ran, but they could all much more easily retire to Little Saint James off of kickbacks they’ve gotten from Citibank and I.G. Farben. 

Rahm Emanuel

Rahm is going to receive some hugely influential post in the Biden administration. Let’s say he becomes Secretary of Education. His signature achievement will be replacing all elementary school teachers with Amazon’s Alexa, which saved the taxpayers so much money we were able to quadruple the number of armed police officers we put into high schools. This will give him several thousand positive profiles on network news programs and the near-universal support of the Silicon Valley vampires who will own 99% of the country by the time Biden’s term ends. They will use their fancy mind control devices to convince geriatic primary voters that Rahm’s the one who will bring Decency back to the white house. His candidacy will be the paragon of wokeness, as expressing concern toward the fact that he covered up the police murder of a black guy will get you called a racist. 

Rahm has a bonus in that Jewish men are now Schrodeniger’s PoC. When they are decent human beings, they are basic, cis white men who are stealing attention from disabled trans candidates of color. When they love austerity and apartheid, they become the most vulnerable people of color on earth and criticizing them in any way is genocide. No one will be able to mention a single thing Rahm has ever done or said without opening themselves to accusations of antisemitism, and that gives him a strong edge against the rest of the field. The good news is that an Emmanuel candidacy would result in over 50% of black voters choosing the GOP candidate--which, I guess that’s not really good but it would certainly be funny. 

Gavin Newsom

Newsom is every bit as feckless as Cuomo, but he doesn’t put off the same “bad guy in an early Steven Segal movie” vibes. He will mention climate change 50 times per speech and no one will bother to mention how he keeps signing fracking contracts even though his state is now on fire 11 months of the year. If anything, this will be spun into an argument about how he’s actually the candidate best suited to handle all the water refugees gathering on the southern border. Look for his plan to curb emissions by 10% by the year 2150 to get high marks from Sierra Club nerds. He’s also a celebate librarian’s idea of what constitutes a handsome man, so he’ll have some support from the type of women who claim to hate all men. 

Larry Summers

I mean, why not? Larry, like most members of the Obama administration, has politics that are eerily similar to those of Jordan Peterson. In normal circumstances, this makes a person a dangerous fascist who should not be platformed. But if that person has a D next to their name this makes them a realistic pragmatist who has what it takes to bring suburban bankers into our tent. If current trends in Woke Phrenology continue apace, Larry’s belief that women are inherently bad at STEM will be liberal orthodoxy by 2023, and his dedication to the Laffer Curve could see him rake in massive donations. Seriously, I’m not kidding: cultural liberalism is now fully dedicated to identity essentialism and balanced budgets. Larry is their ideal candidate. If he were black and/or a woman, I’d put him in the very top tier. 

Jay Inslee

Unlike Newsom, Inslee’s attempt to crown himself the King of Global Warming won’t be immediately derailed, since his state is only on fire because of protestors. This, however, poses a different problem. He’s going to be a good test case for the Democrat’s uneasy peace with the ever increasing share of the electorate who become catatonic upon hearing a pronoun. On the one hand, you need to take their votes for granted. On the other hand, they’re not like black people or regular gays: most voters actively, consciously despise wokies, and associating yourself with them will ruin a campaign even in deep blue areas. There’s still gonna be riots in a year. Biden’s gonna announce the sale of all our nation’s potable water to the good folks at Nestle and some trans freak named Sasha-Malia DeBalzac is going to use that as an opportunity to sell their new pamphlet about how it’s fascist to not burn down small businesses. No matter what Inslee does in response, it’ll end his career. 

AOC

I’m not one of those “AOC is a secret conservative” weirdos, but I am aware enough of basic reality to know she has zero chance of coming close to the nomination. The right and the center both regard her as a literal demon. The party is already blaming her for the fact that a handful of faceless Reagan acolytes failed to flip their suburban districts even though they ran on sensible pragmatic proposals like euthanizing the homeless. The recriminations will only get more unhinged when the Dems eat shit in the 2022 midterms. She will be a Russian, she will be white male, she will be a communist, she will be a homophobe: any insult or conspiracy theory you can name, MSNBC will spend hours discussing. Her house seat challenger will receive a record amount of support from the DNC in 2024 and it’ll be all she can do to remain in congress.

Larry Hogan

Don’t be dissuaded by the fact that he’s a Republican. Larry is the DNC’s ideal candidate: a physically repulsive conservative who owes his entire career to appealing to the most spiteful desires of suburban white people. He’s an open racist in a material sense--if you’re old-school enough to think racism is a matter of beliefs and actions, rather than the presence of cultural signifiers--but his is the beloved “never Trump” style of racism that Dems covet. He’s also a Proven Leader who thinks the role of government should be to finance the construction of investment property and give police the resources they need to run successful drug trafficking operations. Few people embody the Democrat worldview more than Larry. 

The Losers Bracket

These people will have at least a small chance due solely to the fact that the Democrats love losing. They have lost in the past, and in the Democrat Mind that makes them especially qualified.

Joe Kennedy

The man looks like a mushroom-human hybrid from a JRPG. Trump proved that physical hideousness need not doom a presidential bid, but a candidate still needs some kind of charm or oratorical abilities or, god forbid, a decent platform. Joe aggressively lacks all of these things. A vanity campaign would be a good way to raise money and perhaps secure an MSNBC gig, so Joe might still run. 

Mayor Pete 

I am 100% convinced that Pete’s 2020 run was a CIA plot meant to prevent working class Americans from ever having a chance of living decent lives. I am also 100% aware that Democrats are dumb enough to enthusiastically support a CIA plot meant to prevent working class Americans from ever having a chance of living decent lives. If we have some sort of military or terror disaster between now and 2023 the Dems are sure to want a TROOP, and wait wait wait you’re telling me this one is a gay troop? Holy hell there’s no way that could lose!

Stacy Abrams

Never underestimate the power of white guilt. She lost the gubernatorial race to Gomer Pyle’s grandson, and her spiritual guidance of the Dems saw the party lose black voters in Georgia in 2020. Nonetheless, she is regarded as a magic font of fierceness within the DNC. She might stand a chance if she can establish herself as the most conservative non-white candidate in the field, but there’s going to be stiff competition for that honor.

Elizabeth Warren

Liz is probably angry that the party so shamelessly sold her out even after she was a good little girl and sabatoged Bernie’s campaign for them--yet another example of high ranking US government officials reneging on their promises to the Native American community. Smdh. The fact that this woman hasn’t been bankrupted a dozen times over by various Wallet Inspectors genuinely astounds me. So Liz is probably going to run again, and her campaign will be even sadder the second time around. 

It might surprise you to hear this if you don’t work at a college or NGO, but Liz diehards actually do exist. She’ll get even less support this time because there will be no viable leftist in the field for her to spoil, but she’ll still hang in long enough to make sure the very worst possible candidate beats out the second worst possible candidate. Maybe she’ll fabricate a rape accusation against Sherrod Brown. Maybe she’ll spend her entire allotted debate time doing a land acknowledgment. With Liz, anything is possible--so long as it ends in failure. 

Amy Klobuchar 

Amy was the most bloodthirsty of the 2020 also rans. She will double down on the unpopular failures of the Biden administration, explaining that if you weren’t such a selfish idiot you’d love the higher social security retirement age and oh my god are so such a moron you think you shouldn’t go bankrupt to get a COVID vaccine? There’s a non-unsubstantial segment of the Democratic base that’s self-hating enough to find this appealing, but it won’t be enough to make her viable. 

Martha Coakley

She lost Ted Kennedy’s senate seat to a retarded man who was pretending to be even more retarded than he actually was. Then she lost a gubernatorial race to a guy who openly promised Massachusetts voters that he would punish them for electing him. Her record of failure is unparalleled, making her perhaps the ideal Democrat standard bearer for the twenty twenties. 

[burgundydahlia]

Story Time!

So, I work at an alternative, private school that specializes in 1 to 1 education for grades 6-12, aka basically private tutoring for all subjects from middle through high school, and we just hired a new English/Humanities teacher who started this week.

Now, I truly love my job and the people I work with are a huge reason why - everyone is really kind and passionate about what we do. But in addition to being dedicated teachers and mentors with a common thread of wanting to help kids, the majority of us are also massive nerds with very dark senses of humor (side note: let it be known now and forever that teachers are actually super inappropriate when kids aren’t around and it’s kinda awesome).

Anyway, last night we had our annual “Friendsgiving” for staff with tons of food and music and games and one of the games we played was Thanksgiving-themed trivia. The questions were pretty obscure or random, like, “where did the pumpkin pie originate from?” or “when did Thanksgiving become an actual holiday?” and for the most part, people were either really good at getting the correct answers (i.e. nerds) or really good at picking the dumbest fake answer that could (i.e. super inappropriate).

Now, I was sitting at a table with our brand new humanities teacher who I don’t really know yet and who is, apparently, kinda terrible at the Thanksgiving-themed trivia even though he literally majored in History in college (which, like, no judgement - I was a theatre major and certainly don’t know everything about the history of theatre). And regardless, major brownie points to him because he’s only been at our school for a few days and he’s been 100% invested and really throwing himself into everything which is awesome.

Anyway, the game is going along well and people are having a good time. And then what might be the best question of the night is asked: “What were the pilgrims originally known as?”

And the new guy, without missing a beat, says in a total deadpan, “terrorists”

And oh my god, I fucking literally started laughing so hard, I gave myself a headache for the rest of the night.

I just... teachers are the best. And even though our curriculum sometimes sucks balls and US schools get a bad wrap for either glossing over or not even mentioning the horrible shit that actually was the birth of our nation, please take this small anecdote as proof that many of us actually know what’s up and are working to try and right the wrongs that our educational system has fed to our kids for years.

Also, the new guy is now officially my best friend.

The end.

[5hining-aus]

SHINee As High School Teachers

So I got a request asking for the guys as different types of teachers and, since I’ve actually had the idea for a while (kinda convinced that the requester is a mind reader ngl) I figured that I’d start off with them as HS teachers. I had some fun with this and threw in a few little things from my own high school days as well. Enjoy! 

Jinki - Chemistry Teacher

So you know all those videos that show teachers doing super cool experiments with their students? He’s one of those teachers

He’s a pretty calm teacher most of the time, but may the gods have mercy on your soul if you mess around in the lab

Lab safety is his #1 concern, like if you aren’t wearing the proper gear then you are out of there

The only time his students have ever seen him even slightly raise his voice was when the class’s resident asshole decided to pretend to pour something on their lab partner

It was a harmless solution (the more volatile stuff is reserved for his upper-level honours classes) but still, it was more the principle of the act than anything else

100% has made coffee on a Bunsen burner

Also, always has a different coffee mug, like nobody ever sees him with the same mug twice. The only exceptions are the mugs that he’s gotten as gifts from his graduating classes (which are displayed on their own little handmade rack when not in use)

He has a tradition of teaching his graduating classes how to make flamethrowers (but shh, administration doesn’t need to know that)

Another tradition (albeit, an unofficial one) is that, on the first day of class every year, he’ll trip over THE SAME FLOOR TILE. It’s not even broken or anything, yet he still trips over it

He actually has a Doctorate and could be teaching at the University-level, but he decided to teach High School so he could try to get more young people interested in the sciences. It worked and a lot of his former students who went into science-related fields attribute their decision to go into said fields to him

He almost cried when one of the students from the very first class he ever taught came to him one day and told him that they had decided to go for a PhD in Chemistry because of him. And you bet he was there cheering them on when they went in to defend their thesis

He has like almost an entire wall of his classroom that is dedicated to his current and former students’ scientific achievements

Has a reputation for being a crazy scientist, but pretty much everyone who’s ever been in his class absolutely adores him

Has a lot of weird inside jokes with his students

Always wears some type of short-sleeved button-up shirt and khakis/chinos. On lab days, he adds a white lab coat, massive safety goggles, and all other necessary protective clothing

Jonghyun - Music Teacher

His classroom is in the school basement, but he’s made it really cozy and nice

Uses beanbag chairs instead of desks like 90% of the time (loss of beanbag privileges is an actual consequence he has for students who are breaking his rules)

A lot of the Choir and Band kids like to hang out in there at lunch and he kinda just lets them do whatever they want as long as they aren’t being too rowdy or breaking school rules

CONSTANTLY grumbling over the fact that the Arts Department is always overlooked when it comes to funding

Has, on more than one occasion, used his own money to buy instruments for the class because gosh darn it, no class of his is going to be using shit-tier instruments

He treats his instruments like they’re his children, always keeps them nice and clean and tuned

Has a framed picture of Roo on his desk. His mom and sister are his computer background

Definitely one of those teachers that can get on a topic completely unrelated to his subject and spend the entire class talking about it

Always has a compliment for each of his students. Even if they’re doing horribly, he’ll have something positive to say

In addition to his classes, he’s also the faculty advisor for the School Band and the School Choir

Has attempted, multiple times, to get school approval to take his students to rock concerts for field trips. He has yet to succeed

Just like a super chill teacher

Kibum - Art Teacher

First of all, don’t call him Mr. Kim, he prefers Key or Mr. Key

Another basement dweller, he fought Jonghyun tooth and nail for the best classroom and he won

Despite his classroom being the best classroom in the basement, it’s still in the basement and gets super cold during late Fall and Winter. To combat this, he keeps a Sunggie in his supply closet at all times

Do you know that gif of the guy in a black turtleneck going “It’s art?” That’s pretty much Kibum. He has said those words and made that exact hand motion many times

One of his students actually printed out a blown-up picture of the gif and gave it to him. It’s now hanging up by his desk and he always points to it whenever someone asks why a painting is the way it is

Kibum is one of those teachers that the students either love or hate. Most of his students love him, but there’s definitely a few who hate him

His smocks are always immaculate, like how????

Wears a beret about 50% of the time. He also gives all his new students their own berets on their first day (they’re embroidered)

Literally could not give less of a shit about the school’s dress code

Like, as long as nothing’s hanging out/overly revealing and as long as there’s no inappropriate messages/images on the clothing just, like, let the students wear what they want

But noooooo, the school “has an image to uphold” so that means no tattoos, no non-earlobe piercings, no bleached or unnaturally dyed hair, and no hair over a certain length for male students

Constantly arguing with admin about the hair, tattoo, and piercing restrictions. He claims that body art is just as valid as traditional art and that the students should have the right to express themselves however they see fit 

Stocks up on hair gel and concealer so his students don’t get dress coded

He’s the faculty advisor for the Drama Club and the Art Club

Like Jjong and the Band+Choir kids, the Drama and Art Club kids can typically be found in Key’s classroom during breaks

Brings CommeGa in with him the week before exams

They have little berets and smocks too

Minho - History Teacher

His class covers a bit of every culture/country’s history, but the main focus is Korean History

He gets SUPER into the unit on Ancient History. One time his students walked into class to see him decked out in traditional clothing from the Silla Dynasty, complete with hair extensions and everything

Oh, and he redecorated the whole class room to be period-accurate as well

Is just generally A Lot™ when he’s teaching

He knows that History can be a bit of a boring subject for some people so he tries to do fun things in class to try and make it interesting

He’ll give his classes the textbook-version of history, and then he’ll turn around and explain which parts were complete BS

He doesn’t sugarcoat much. Sure, he may not go too deep into the more disturbing parts of history (his students are just kids after all) but he’s very honest about what actually happened VS what the textbooks say happened

Definitely the teacher that everybody has a crush on (he obviously doesn’t condone it)

Likes to take his classes to historical villages for field trips

He’s the coach for the Soccer, Baseball, Track, Basketball, and Swim Teams as well as the faculty advisor for the Filmmaking Club

He’s a busy, busy man yet he always has time for his students

Another universally beloved teacher

Since he pretty much has the Film Club at his disposal, he’ll sometimes make short little historical films to use during his lessons

Prints out history memes and hangs them around his classroom like the nerd he is

Taemin - English Lit. Teacher

In my opinion, there are few forces in the educational system more chaotic than an English Teacher, which makes it a perfect fit for Taemin

If he had a dollar for every time he had been mistaken for a student

A little trick he likes to play on his Grade 9s is one where, on the first day of school, he’ll sit at one of the student desks and just wait for a bit until somebody asks where the teacher is. Then he’ll just be all “Surprise, welcome to English 1! I’m Mr. Lee and I’ll be your teacher!”

On the flipside, the amount of parents that don’t believe that he’s a teacher irritates him so much (he’s literally been asked for ID at Parent-Teacher Conferences)

Like, he’s fine with joking from his students, and even a bit of shock from parents is ok, but damn it, he didn’t get a Masters in Education to be treated like this

Anyway, he’ll get REALLY into it when he’s reading Shakespeare

One time, he stood on a desk and read it like that. One of his students from another class walked by, saw him, and just kinda poked their head in and was like “Mr. Lee? Are you okay?”

Jonghyun likes to bring him in when he does the piano unit in his class

Like Ming, Tae’s another nerd teacher who has found that memes are an excellent way to connect with his students

He’s co-advisor for the Drama Club along with Key

Drama, drama, drama. No drama, drama, drama

They’ve almost gotten into fistfights over the true meanings of plays

He’s also the coach for the school’s Dance Team (the school’s AWARD WINNING Dance Team, as he likes to remind people)

“Oh, your team got first place at Regionals? Talk to me when you get a National title.”

I like the idea of him driving the team around in a minivan or smth, just full on soccer-momming it

[skeletonbrothersreptilelovers]

Us UT and uf Skelebros and goat parents react to frisks older sibling reader, who's around sans age, standing outside the exit to the mountain. Turns out reader and frisk planned to free the monsters. Reader is a massive history nerd probably lmao. The only reason frisk went down alone is because reader had to cover for them.

I wasn’t sure if you meant both goat parents or just the one that wasn’t murder-y towards children (excluding UF, but you get what I mean). I only did the one, but if you’d like both, just let me know! Also by older, I assumed you meant around 16, so I hope that’s what you meant.

Sans (UnderTale)

Sans will treat them friendly enough, but he won’t like them much at first – or at the very least think they’re a horrible sibling. What kind of older sibling sends their younger sibling down a hole in the mountain that supposedly had man-eating monsters in its depths? Depending on their reason behind it and personality, he may look over it. He’ll still keep an eye on them, he doesn’t want Frisk going into any more holes.

Papyrus (UnderTale)

Papyrus is more excited that Frisk has an older sibling more than anything. He’ll ask them how they found out about the history of monsters and thank them for helping Frisk help them. He’ll ask about their tactic to cover Frisk for so long and ask if they know about any other kind of history. He wants to join Frisk on their next adventure while their sibling covers for them!

Toriel (UnderTale)

Toriel disapproves of them as soon as she learns they sent Frisk alone. As the older sibling, they should’ve gone rather than Frisk – although, both should have stayed away from the mountain in the first place. She won’t be afraid to express her disapproval to the sibling. Still, she’ll forgive them – they’re just a kid too, after all.

Sans (UnderSwap)

Similar to UT Papyrus, he’s excited by the fact that Chara has a sibling. At first. However, after thinking about it for a while, he’ll be concerned by the fact that they sent Chara alone. He’ll tell them that it wasn’t safe, and then proceed to talk about safely and older sibling responsibilities. Still, he’ll let it go in the end. After all, maybe they just really believed in Chara’s ability!

Papyrus (UnderSwap)

He’ll be confused as to why Chara went and not them, but doesn’t think about it too much. Too many reasons as to why Chara could’ve gone instead, and it got them out in the end anyway. He’s too lazy to worry about it. Actually, that’s a lie, he’ll ask them why. Depending on if they have a good reason or not, he may give the sibling the cold shoulder for a while.

Asgore (UnderSwap)

Another one that’s not going to approve of the older sibling’s actions, but he’ll be even more vocal about it. Like a stern father, he’ll scold them and explain to them that siblings should never leave each other’s side – and they defiantly don’t send the younger one to do a dangerous job. Unlike UT Toriel, it will take a while before he finally cracks and accepts they’re young too. Maybe old enough that they should’ve understood why their actions were bad, but still a kid.

Sans (UnderFell)

It makes him uncomfortable that they sent Frisk rather than going themselves but otherwise doesn’t think much about it. After all, if it was between him and his brother, his younger brother was defiantly better to do something like Frisk rather than him. Still, his brother wasn’t a kid, but who was he to judge? At least he got out of that hell hole, and Frisk did too, so it’s no big deal.

Papyrus (UnderFell)

He could probably care less out of all of them. The fact that they have an older sibling doesn’t really affect him in any way, and he doesn’t particularly care that they sent Frisk alone either. He does think it’s stupid, but just because he feels like the older sibling going would have been a much better plan… And maybe he is also a little concerned for Frisk. Still, he’s a better choice than Sans, so why wouldn’t Frisk be? They made it out alive, after all.

Toriel (UnderFell)

The least forgiving of them all. How could they, an older sibling, send their own younger sibling all alone down a cave? She berates them harshly, making sure they know how foolish they are. She’s not going to get along with them very well at all, and it’ll take a long time before she’ll drop it. Even then, if she ever gets angry at them, she’ll bring up that time and let them know how foolish they were all over again.

[dying-tragedy-blog]

Modern au six of crows

Just some hcs about the dregs gang in modern times I guess

Kaz Brekker -black coffee -lock pick -honestly like the rest of them will Come in and he’ll already be inside -I’ve been waiting for you -magician -pick pockets his “allies” all the time -gloves? Yes -has a slight fear of touch -it used to be really bad but he’s Overcoming it -cane? Yes -he fell out of a tree when he was little and broke his leg so he uses his cane -plus It’s fun to hit people with - has the dregs tattoo because he loves crows and he’s an extra little shit who’s an edgelord -he’s in fights like all the time -they don’t call him dirtyhands for Nothing -so smart -has social media but only posts cryptic aesthetic shots or out of context remarks -uses his talent for evil mostly -his teachers still love him tho???? -very fascinated in psychology -and business - b o o k s -mostly crime but he’s such a closet Nerd. -you can pry Harry Potter from his Cold dead hands -hacker -loves the stars -and the moon -and Inej -has to put up with the constant -points to random crow -kaz it’s u -actually the originator of #getbrekked -will never admit it -all started when Jesper pranked him -covered every inch of his room with post stick notes. It blew up on YouTube -well the is kaz Fucking brekker -was he going to stand for that -no. -so he sets up his own YouTube account -films his first video -his revenge -he tinfoils all of jespers room. Even the socks. -the video blows up he gets tons of subscribers and his revenge -but most important from this one comment. From one account that has never been active since the tag -#getbrekked -was born. Inej Ghafa -ultimate secret keeper -knows everything tbh -the one who can just turn up out of nowhere?? -where did you come from -this place called outside -instagram queen -it’s usually loads of aesthetic shots and sunrises but every now and again there’ll be a video of her shouting parkour and chasing after a squirrel -loves to dance -jackets -hats -earrings -the best at hide and seek -only uses Snapchat for blackmail -Kaz?? Sleeping??? S n a p -keeps a photo book you can fite me on this -poems -cats -her parents took her to the circus when she was little and she fell in love with the tightrope and the acrobats -so she became great at it -really good -sometimes she does it to scare kaz -he pretends it doesn’t work but sometimes he’s so freaked out Like how are you bending your body like that??? Wtf???? -doesn’t swear -the original fricketyfrack -interested in culture history language and photography -aspiring poet -social justice - plans to start a movement when she’s old enough -tea over coffee -marshmallows

Nina Zenik -one word: queen - her and Matthias are everyone’s otp - social justice in high heels - every social media - YouTube? You bet ya - fashion hauls make up tutorials and The ever growing list of videos Featuring Matthias - likes indie music would die for Ed Sheeran - really interested in languages and fashion - she wants amazing designs to stay the same in plus sized clothes -high heels - cannot cook - at all - blew up a microwave trying to Warm up leftovers - hot chocolate and blankets - binge watching tv -somehow knows everyone??? - hey Nina - hey zoya - who’s she - oh just somebody - smart but will never revise - why revise when I can eat - grades Nina - waffles matty - red - once tried to start a band - can speak three languages Jesper Fahey - ADHD? I’m gonna say ADHD - danced but doesn’t do it seriously - mostly does it to embarrass Wylan - Jesper please - what? My hips don’t like wy - listens to shakira - huge gamer - debates - politics - he’s smart but he never tries. Prefers to argue about homework then do it - finger guns - with sound affects - 80s music - and you better believe that he once entered the classroom singing all star - constantly flirting with Wylan - freakishly good aim - hey kaz, do you bet I can throw this pencil in ninas bun from here - do it - worst and best taste in fashion simultaneously - one day it’s great. Shorts and t shirts, hats and then the next it’s lime green checkered pants. - red cowboy boots - farmer sayings - loves it when Kaz gets them - p r a n k s t e r - youtube Chanel is literally just pranks but he has so many subscribers - always puts things on the highest shelf Wylan van Eck - Wylan van sunshine or Wylan van rekt there’s no In between. - usually quite sweet and innocent but every one Knows he’s anything but. Eveynow and again these comments just slip out like - yeah that’s not the only thing Kaz wishes he could be doing - r u n - was bullied pretty bad for his dyslexia but now he just doesn’t really care??? - I’ll just draw my bullied drowning - a r t I s t - his art teacher adores him - only has tumblr to post his art work - really big on tumblr - dog person - massive nerd - superheroes?? Sign me up - amazing at chemistry and maths - puns - so many puns - you think you can beat me at mariokart? I was a lonely kid with no friends and too much free time. You will never beat me at Mario kart - fuck - watch your fucking language Wylan - sweaters - always covered in ink??? Kuwei yul bo - the odd one - he’s always there but he’s always not - the child of the group - he’s basically the weird thought you have at 4 am - not innocent - not at all - he kinda just sits back and observes - but that means he knows everything - he and Inej share so many looks - he’s a nerd in every imaginable level - him and Wylan fight over things all the time but they’re bros - has memorised the entire periodic table song - somehow has kissed more people than both Nina and Jesper - it’s 3 am and there’s a murmuring voice in the darkness - this is the periodic table nobl- - shut u p - chemistry and physics - can actually cook - rly close to matty and Nina - that one kid who purposely makes things explode - fire? FIRE - rlly bad at comebacks sometimes he just walks away

Matthias helvar - sports fan - all sports - doesn’t actually play them that much? He mostly just hits the gym - long hair - very philosophical - the mum friend - when I’m the voice of reason you know something’s wrong - can cook really well - always baking for Nina - gives the best piggybacks - everything looks so high from up here - Wylan loves it - tattoos - so many deep meaningful - he can’t go a day without saying they’re all horrible - he’s always searching for the truth - can tolerate really cold temperatures - plants - the sea - stands up for what he thinks is right - is actually how he met the crows - he was beating up some kids who were mocking someone with dyslexia - so he bears them up and when he rounds the corner guess who’s there - Kaz Fucking brekker - and so the induction starts

[chromemuffin]

Shoukoku no Altair / Altair: A Record of Battles

Another series I will be liveblogging, this time a wonderfully detailed manga set in a fictional version of the Ottoman Empire/Turkey (and written by a historian! how rare!). I guess Captive Prince got me started on a historical fiction kick, and I’ve been eyeing this manga for over a month wondering if I should read it or wait for the anime that comes out anyway...I decided to pick it up.

There are 18 volumes of this thing, so I suppose I should liveblogging by volume unless the posts start to get way too long. Which they may, if I get my hands on raws. I am a huge language nerd, so.

Chapter 1

First off, after reading the blurb at the end of the fan translated first chapter, I found out that the ‘shoukoku’ part of the title is a word the manga-ka made up. Composed of the words for ‘general’ and ‘country’ (a country run by generals), the translator found the word stratocracy (a government ruled by the military) fit the description best. Which is why the fan translations use the ‘Turkiye Stratocracy’, which is great because there is no confusion if you know what a stratocracy is, or take a second to look it up.

Meanwhile, the official Kodansha version calls it the ‘Devleti of Turkiye’. ‘Devleti’ is apparently Turkish for ‘state’ (so the State of Turkiye). Very different, and both good. I love translation work for this very reason. I think I prefer using stratocracy. It’s true to the original, and clearly distinguishes this story as being an alternate version of Turkish history to those who know the Ottoman Empire was a monarchy. There are already quite a few unfamiliar words around.

But. I also find myself liking Devleti of Turkiye haha.

HM THIS WILL REQUIRE MORE THAN ONE POST. There is so much to talk about before getting to the chapter itself.

First: the cover

all of them are so beautiful. The amount of detail in every article of clothing from the hat to the jewels to the pattern embroidered around the hem. And the sword. I know nothing about Turkish history or culture (and forgot what little my american schooling taught about the ottoman empire), but a quick search for Turkish swords yields some examples of the more intricately decorated ones. The manga-ka is a historian/majored in Turkish history which. is great.

It’s a pity the Kodansha volumes are digital only?? I’d pay for a physical copy (but don’t hate myself enough to buy a Jpn copy...historical stuff has too many complicated kanji)

I wish I knew more about their style of dress because it’s drawn so well. I’ll look that up another time.

I really love the asymmetry with the glove he wears for his golden eagle to land on. It’s not in every illustration, but it even goes up to his elbow as it should for a larger species of bird, apparently. it’s just. so much great detail.

his shoes

He has this like teeny tiny waist that is totally out of proportion with his massive hats. Also: how do you even figure out where all those folds go in those clothes.

Also, it uses the Turkish word for ‘chapter’, faşil. I’m assuming that’s the right one, of course. Manga likes to change up the words they use for chapters depending on the setting.

ANYWAY FINALLY THE STORY

Why is one of the months called ‘sugar’ in Turkish (sheker, or şeker more technically)??

Look at him, striking a cool pose. I find it funny that he strikes all these confident poses, but he’s actually quite tiny next to everyone else. He probably does it because 1) he is confident in his own abilities and 2) he’s still a teenager in a world of adults, and it’s held against him in this chapter. His inability to do anything later frustrates the hell out of him as it is.

AND HERE COMES HIS BIRDIE. my favorite already

the fuck this type of bird was supposedly used to kill wolves

and it weighs 8-11 lbs depending on male/female

This kid is stronger than he looks. Although, his is male (named Iskander, so I assume), and the males weigh less (avg of 8 lbs) but still. I guess that’s why he has a male one. The females are massive and would probably dwarf his tiny self.

How is this not a wonderful shot, though.

Also, thank goodness for katakana or else I’d have no idea how to even approach pronouncing his name.

As for the situation itself, we jump right into things with a national crisis.

He looks younger when caught off-guard.

Tell me you did not carry that 8 pound bird aloft on your arm all the way here.

The official translation forgot Halil’s nickname/title “大都市” (large city/metropolis).

And this is where things get interesting. Usually in the peace vs. war debate, one side will always seem unreasonable no matter how hard the characters try to convince you otherwise, but I like how this one is set up.

On one hand you have the side that wants war, sees the enemy nation as a threat, and even throws in that ‘do you want to make a scapegoat of one of your countryman just to avoid war’, though can’t really tell if that’s sincere sentiment or not.

But then the old guy, Halil just says ‘yes, if it means peace’. Kind of a classic argument? Reminds me of Akatsuki no Yona, and the state of their country before the story starts.

this. just. his face. I needed to show the two together. Zaganos is obviously not impressed.

and therein lies the problem with politics: its not really about what’s right. I mean, everyone in the room can probably guess that their own soldiers weren’t responsible. But for all present except Mahmut, the meeting was never about finding out the truth.

Also, I love how he rants to Iskander, and even asks him a question directly as if he can answer.

o.o don’t ask me i’m just a bird

Halil calls him “Mah-kun” in Japanese, but the English version gets rid of this. It’s a pity, since it shows how close they are.

“You only just became a pasha, and now this. You must be exhausted.”

Dude, if he’s exhausted then what are you. You’ve had this position for 20 years.

And! yay! He’s angry at himself and his inability to do anything, rather than be angry at Zaganos. Shows that he really is more mature than he looks (especially with his grumpy facial expressions and petite self lol)

He looks just like his mother. D: poor baby iskander and mahmut

the amount of detail in this manga. see the rabbits hanging in the corner? 

also about the next panel: holy shit he fucking heard that??? his mother getting killed right in front of him, and he managed to stay quiet. poor terrified child like holy shit. and he managed not to crush little Iskander

I’m not going to show it, but if you look closely you’ll see she was not only stabbed in the chest, but also had a hand cut off at the wrist. wtf

every panel is so pretty jslethasdk the amount of detail in every background

his expression here just kills me. he’s just coming to the horrible, heart-wrenching realization of what has happened and UGH

I just really like his range of expressions. He’s just so damn uncomfortable with his elder, a guy he obviously respects and has a history with, bowing to him like that.

How can your heart not break seeing this. All he has left is his bird, the bird whistle, and the container for holding the bird’s meat.

Oh you conniving bastard- I actually thought the Emperor was in on it until the second read through I’m doing now. It was hard to notice since the panel just cuts from one scene to the next.

TINY CHILD YOU. Mahmut is taller than Halil counting the headpiece but he is made to look so tiny in front of adults. I think he’s supposed to be around 17 at the moment?

Man, he had a plan. How the heck did he have time to prepare the animal blood anyway? What a classy way to deal with your enemies.

I’m also happy that the manga-ka can draw birds so well. Iskander looks lovely.

...And that is actually really fucking scary. Those golden eagles are huge and strong enough to take out wolves.

The subtle expressions are great. As is the exchange between Mahmut and Zaganos here. They will probably clash again in the near future, but it seems they’ve gained a little more respect/acknowledgment for each other.

And now THIS, this is very interesting.

It looks like a statue, and that is clearly Mahmut and Iskander. I won’t make any guess though, I’m usually dead wrong with speculations.

I love the lines in this though, so fluid with Mahmut and straight and angled with the knight guy.

onward →

[lunarriviera]

As an adult, Jones remains a massive “fangirl” (his word), and has been famously engaged with fan culture for all the shows he’s worked on for years. “I had no idea what we were getting into there—he’s on another level,” [Bryan] Fuller said of Jones’s fandom. “It’s amazing.” One of Jones’s current favorite nerd causes: He doesn’t just casually think that “X-Files” stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny should be a couple. He regularly Tweets his support for #gillovny, and has strong opinions about why the two actors should just give it up and settle down together. “It’s going to happen,” Jones said. “They don’t understand what’s going on. David just finished touring, he and Téa [Leoni] are no longer together—which is horrible, I love Téa. They have beautiful kids. But Gillian’s beautiful, she’s sort of amazing—I don’t really understand what the problem is.” “Here’s the thing,” he continued. “I get that they want to take a slow roll, they want to walk in the sand for a little while, they don’t want to commit too soon. But in 20 years they’re going to be on Golden Pond together if I have to break both their fucking legs and put them there.” He then corrected himself, laughing. “I would never do that! Just to make my ship come true. I would never do that…and admit to it. I had nothing to do with it.”

the fabulous @theorlandojones, shipping #gillovny almost as hard as I do (IndieWire profile by Liz Shannon Miller, “Orlando Jones: The Trickster God of ‘American Gods’ on Worshipping Pop Culture, His Conflicted Take on Bill Cosby, and Why Mulder and Scully Should Bang”—in which he’s also brilliant on fandom, race, Hollywood, American history, and! BONUS: Bryan Fuller praising Jones’s absolutely must-see Mr Nancy monologue)

[tessbenser]

Three On a Match: Chapter 1

Chapter preview below the cut. 

August, 1994

Frances ***

If anyone had terrible luck, it was Frances Murphy. Not just bad luck, not merely a haphazard pile of unfortunate circumstances jumbled together like a badly tossed salad of crappy events. Honest to God, unequivocally terrible luck. If something were going to happen to Frances Murphy, putting money on it going poorly was a safe bet.

The alarm blasted a deafening shriek. Before Frances could even gather herself enough to groan in an appropriate manner to the jarring jolt back into consciousness from a dream which wasn’t a gargantuan pile of suck, she was hit square in the face by a down pillow with unfairly sharp corners, one of which caught her in the eye. “Get up, fuckwit!”

Frances blinked sluggishly, slamming her fist down on the clock radio to silence the racket.

Margot carried on shouting, “If you make me late, I swear to god I will circulate as many copies of that picture of you running around in your first training bra as I can afford to print. And I babysat. All summer!”

Frances frowned at her sister, the foul-mouthed pillow flinger who had taken it upon herself to ensure Frances’s misery over the last three months. It appeared she was to be unwavering in her efforts at the dawn of the school year. “It’s only 5:45. Did you change my alarm?”

Margot rolled her eyes. “Oh my God, Frances, it’s like you’re trying to be a dipshit.” Her little sister’s angelic and impeccably made up face contorted to something horrible and ugly when she swore. The pure, unabashed disdain matched Margot’s dark red and gray cheerleading uniform incredibly well. “I have to be there early. Melanie and Courtney want to show me my locker and where all the other cheerleaders meet before school starts, so I need to be early. Super early. I told you this, like, four times!”

Margot had spent the entire summer bragging to Frances about the apparently impressive feat of making the J.V. Cheer Squad as an incoming “freshie.” According to Melanie-and-Courtney, the two-headed conventionally attractive cheerleading monster that had apparently adopted Margot, her achievement was something akin to walking on water, raising the dead, and curing acne with the wave of a single pom. Before Frances moved back home, Margot hadn’t expressed an interest in cheerleading but after Melanie-and-Courtney’s prescribed diet of regurgitated jock cock or something, Margot was a total convert to the teenage cult of popularity.

“Christ, Frankie! I do not have time for your dipshitery! I would like to make a decent impression at this school even if you don’t. Get up right now!”

Frances cast a withering look at her sister, and then rolled out of bed before another down pillow in a pastel case could make contact with her already sore face. She slouched past her teeny tiny cute baby sister and tried to remember a time when she didn’t look at Perfect Margot without her guts twisting in dislike. She and Margot had never been braid-each-other’s-hair besties, but they had once upon a time existed a bit more peacefully. Or so Frances thought she remembered. Her mind was awfully cluttered with other garbage these days; it was hard to keep track of the minute details of whether or not she had ever gotten along with her Precious Baby Sister.

Once she was locked in the bathroom, Frances raked a hand through her long, colorless hair and dropped the boxer shorts she had worn to sleep on the floor. She bent over the tub, twisting the taps to turn on the shower, and then pulled her massive, sleeveless “WORLD’S GREATEST DAD” shirt over her head. She quickly peed while squatting over the toilet, and then stepped into the shower spray before she got any wise ideas about slinking back to bed.

Last year before the first day of school, she had climbed up the drain pipe and through her bedroom window at five in the morning. She’d hidden her clothes in a garbage bag stashed in the back of the closet because they smelled like gasoline, bonfire, and weed and fallen asleep in a matching pajama set she never actually wore, looking the picture of innocence. An hour and a half later when her Dad came in to wake her, Frances had put on an Oscar-worthy performance, convincing him that she had lost track of time studying to prepare for the Ever-So-Important Junior Year at Saint Francis that she got to bed late, and no really Daddy, that’s why I slept through my alarm.

Frances snorted as she shampooed her hair. That was back before her Dad had even considered that his Gorgeous Frankie could ever be anything less than an honest, innocent little lamb. Back before her Dad could even fathom calling his child a whore.

Frances tilted her head back, rinsing the shampoo out of her hair.

“You look like shit, Frankenberry.”

“Oh Sam… You’re just jealous you didn’t spend your evening fucking The Man or any man for that matter.”

“Before the first day of school? I’m so disappointed in you. Let’s go pray about it.”

The memory skittered unwelcomed and uncoordinated across the forefront of her mind like a spider. It was a clumsy, clunky conversation, one that seemed to Frances pathetic and naive in hindsight. Nothing was ever smooth between Sam and Frances, and for maybe the hundred-thousandth time since May, a dark discomfort spread from Frances’s belly through her limbs, cool and unpleasant, at the thought of him. She was so ashamed. She was so ashamed and embarrassed, both that she missed Sam and that they had been so stupid.

There was a violent successive thumping on the door. “WHAT PART OF EARLY IS NOT PENETRATING YOUR SKULL?”

“NOT A GOOD ENOUGH REASON TO USE THE WORD PENETRATE, MARGOT!”

Frances wondered if you could drown in a shower. Frances knew you could drown in a glass of water, so a shower could do the job, couldn’t it?

“COME ON FRANCES!”

Frances twisted off the taps. She stepped out of the shower and started violently toweling off her hair, as if she could begin undoing the shame she carried around with her by making her hair dry. As if she could be clean, free of it, if she just got herself put together in this fogged up bathroom.

She caught a glimpse of herself in the steam-clouded mirror just as she was heading out of the bathroom and averted her eyes. Frances hadn’t liked mirrors, not in months. As a child she had been a classic narcissist, obsessed with her fair complexion and fine, smooth hair. All of that had disintegrated since the Spring. There was nothing to see there anymore. Nothing worth looking at. Certainly nothing worth admiring.

“It’s almost six fifteen!” Margot moaned dramatically from just outside the door. “C’mon, you promised we could get there early. Please? Please please please?”

Frances turned to snap at her sister but – in perhaps the very first and last display of warmth she would show Margot in 1994 – she chose to bite back the caustic retort she had prepared. Frances took a breath. Took another. Looked her sister in the eyes and said, “Can you just give me like… ten minutes to get dressed?”

Margot rolled her eyes, but she and her brilliant new white sneakers trounced off to the living room to let Frances get dressed in peace. She selected a pair of cut off jean shorts and a black shirt from a still not unpacked box in the corner. Her mother had been on her case about unpacking all of her things since she’d been exiled here after Memorial Day, but Frances was more than comfortable with being difficult. She supposed now that she would be wearing clothes other than her work uniform or her pajamas, it might be worth it to move the clothes from old beer boxes and back into her actual drawers for convenience sake.

And yet.

Something about the idea of moving the artifacts of her destroyed life into the baby pink plywood furniture of her childhood seemed far too morbid.

“FRANCES! COME ON!”

“God, Margot, keep your briefs on!” Frances shouted back, hopping around, pulling on a treasured pair of Doc Martens and tying a worn old red flannel around her waist. She hoisted her backpack over her shoulder and took one single deep breath. Frances emerged from her bedroom, feeling perhaps the first glimmer of optimism at the prospect of a new start at this new school. Couldn’t be all bad, right?

“That’s what you’re wearing? God, do not tell a soul we’re related. I��ll be the laughing stock of the squad if they find out I came from the same family as the Sexy Lumberjack.”

Well, so much for that theory.

Ben ***

Despite overwhelming opportunity to disprove this thesis, Benjamin Franklin had utterly fantastic luck.

Even when circumstances seemed to dictate that his luck should be shit, the universe seemed to smile upon him. Take, for example, his totally embarrassing name.

His name was Benjamin Franklin. No middle name. He shared his name with a founding

father and a chain of craft stores. His dorky parents had let their ridiculous obsession with the American Revolution overwrite the parts of their brains that did logic when he was born, and in choosing the name Benjamin Franklin, they had essentially damned him to a life of people thinking he was a) kidding b) lying or c) utterly insane whenever he said his name.

And yet, as luck would have it, Ben was actually pretty good at steering into the skid that was his sort of embarrassing name. He would play along, and people thought that was grand, By the time he was ten, Ben could charm the pants off any passerby who thought to inquire about his name.

That was just the kind of life that Ben had. It was a lucky one. His parents, history nerds though they were, were doting, supportive, and kind. His siblings were significantly younger than he was, but rather than being bratty or attention hogging, Abbie and Georgie were generally pretty self-contained and well-behaved. Even though he attended the same school where his father taught history, Mr. Franklin was by far the most well liked teacher at Antioch Community High School, considered smart and funny and fair by most students, and Ben too enjoyed a level of popularity as a result.

And it was this, and only this, that gave Ben the ability to pull himself out of bed on the first morning of his senior year of school. Things had been shit these last few weeks, but things usually just worked out for him. He just needed to get over himself and get out of bed. Things would work out. Things always did.

Ben yanked off the covers, standing to stretch. He let himself shift into autopilot, going about the same morning routine he’d had for the last five years. Skipping and hopping over the piles of clothes and and other debris, he got dressed without thinking too hard about it - he had to spend the day babysitting freshmen for National Honor Society, so he had to wear the navy NHS shirt anyway. He was lacing his shoes when a knock came at his door.

“Ben, Daddy says fifteen minutes,” A tiny voice squeaked through the door. Ben stood up, snatching up his backpack slouched against the wall near the door, and opened the door. His little brother, George, was standing outside, all dressed in his first day of school outfit: a striped polo, new khakis that were a bit too big, and brand new sneakers that lit up when he walked. These shoes had real shoelaces, a fact that George had been rubbing in his little sister Abbie’s face since their mom had made her get Velcro shoes when they went shopping two weeks ago. George was starting the second grade; Abbie was starting first.

“Okay, I’m heading down,” Ben said, smiling as he stopped to ruffle Georgie’s bowl cut.

“Staaaaaaahp,” George whined, pushing Ben’s hand away. “Now it’s all messed up!” He was frantically smoothing out his hair, and Ben shook his head, smiling. Little Georgie was awfully finicky about his appearance for a seven year old boy. Their younger sister Abbie was content to show up to school in a mismatched outfit with her hair in a frizzy halo of red curls covered in mud, but George wasn’t happy until he had examined and approved everything their mom put out for him.

“Okay, kiddo, let’s go eat breakfast,” Ben said eventually, putting his hand on Georgie’s shoulder and nudging him toward the stairs. George took off at a run, and Ben groaned because he was sure that he would be in a full tantrum by the time he got to the foot of the stairs because Ben dared to touch his hair.

...Of course he was right. George was red faced and motor-mouthing to their mother by the time Ben ambled into the kitchen. His luck really wasn’t what it used to be.

“Morning,” his father said, looking up over his cereal. Joseph Franklin was the only self-respecting man approaching middle age who thought nothing of starting his day with Fruit Loops.

Ben nodded, heading over to the coffee pot and pouring himself a cup before moving to sit down at the table.

“Mom says that’ll make you short,” Abbie said from across the table. She was a sight, wearing yellow tights, a yellow tutu, and a yellow sweatshirt. She was sitting on her feet so she could see properly across the table, but Ben supposed she had managed to put on yellow shoes as well. “Mom says coffee will make you short,” She repeated when Ben didn’t respond. “She says it ‘stunts your growth.’”

“I’m already pretty tall,” Ben said, rolling his eyes.

“Benjamin, please stop being so grumpy,” His mother scolded as she stepped into the room, George hiding behind her legs. She was wearing a red blazer with shoulder pads that made her look kind of like a football player. Her hair was teased high in a way that seemed to only be popular among teachers and administrators these days.

“He’s just nervous about the big day.”

“What’s there to be nervous about?” Ben said quickly, feeling his blood pressure rise. He was fine. They were the ones with an issue.

“Well, you know, first day of senior year. First day of school since Penny…” His father trailed off, perhaps realizing how god damned insensitive he was being.

Since Penny had left for college, since Penny had dumped him over Dairy Queen saying he was “too depressing to be around these days,” since Penny had decided to turn into a total bitch and never actually call him to say if she got to Northwestern alright even though she promised she would and swore that they would still be friends? The possibilities were endless.

Ben breathed heavily out of his nose. He counted to three and reminded himself that he was Ben Franklin. Things just worked out for him, even when they sucked.

“Well we should hit the road,” His father said, rinsing his cereal bowl and moving smoothly toward the attached garage as if he hadn’t just accidentally reminded Ben of all the reasons he did not want to go to school that day. His dad stopped, kissing Abbie, Georgie, and their mom all on the tops of their heads as they bent over the table to finish their breakfasts, and then grabbed his keys from the hook over the counter. “Ready, Ben? Let’s motor.” He pressed the button for their new automatic garage door opener.

“God Dad, just…. don’t. Say. That.” Ben said, dumping out his coffee and following his dad out into the garage. He flung himself into the passenger seat heavily, and his dad fiddled with the radio for a moment before backing out of the driveway.

“Buckle up,” his dad said after a moment, and Ben heaved an uncharacteristically moody sigh as he pulled the seat belt around himself. “You alright, champ? You seem a bit more riddled with teen angst than is your usual MO.”

“Why do you talk like that?” Ben found himself wondering aloud, the words spewing from his mouth before he could remember that his dad wasn’t actually the reason he was a in an awful mood.

Joseph Franklin had always been an incredibly patient human being, and he very politely did not react to Ben’s unnecessary level of snark. “I’m just worried about you,” he said, as if Ben had never spoken at all. “You have not been your usual self since Penny left for school. I know it’s not easy, bud, but that’s fairly common when it comes to first loves. That’s why they are firsts. They end, and there are lots after.”

“Says the guy who married his high school sweetheart.”

“We’re the exception, not the rule kiddo. Your mother and I were made for each other.”

“And me and Penny weren’t?”

“Don’t get defensive,” His father said, stopping at a stoplight. “I’m only saying that I know you feel bad, but that you can’t just expect to feel better by throwing all that badness at other people.” He made the turn into the staff parking lot, continuing to go on about being a good person and a good example, especially since Ben was National Honor Society president and he was going to working with impressionable freshmen all day, but Ben kind of just tuned him out, hoping that he could just stay positive and not bite anyone else’s head off during school today.

His father parked the car, and Ben hurried out before his dad had even finished telling him to have a good first day. Ben strode inside with single minded resolve to throw his shit in his locker and stop being a total dick for the rest of the day. Things worked out for him. He just needed to tap into some as of us untouched internal source of luck.

He reached his locker without incident, the school still sparsely populated with forty-five minutes still to go until the school day started. He had to try his combination twice to get the damn thing open.

“Hey white boy!” Ben looked up as he was closing the door to see his best friend, Joel, striding toward him with the kind of confidence that nobody wearing a National Honor Society shirt had any right to have. “Heading to cafeteria to herd some ninth graders?”

“Yeah, in a sec.”

If Ben had to pick a favorite thing about Joel Clark, it was his complete unwillingness to discuss emotional matters. When Penny had unceremoniously dumped Ben in the Dairy Queen parking lot two weeks ago, Joel had taken the news like a weather report, blinking twice before summarizing, “Oh, that’s bull,” and then dragging Ben to an end of the summer kegger that some mutual acquaintance was throwing. None this “first love” garbage that Ben’s parents had been spouting, nothing mushy or fabricated like the few girl friends he had run into since the dumping. Just beer and an agreement that Penny sucked and they didn’t talk about her anymore.

“So… should we do the whole ‘Senior Year is gonna kill it, we’re totally getting laid’ bit, or is that too Fast Times at Ridgemont High?” Ben asked as he and Joel took off the hall.

“I feel like it’s more like Carrie.”

“Skipping it then?”

“Oh, absolutely. Can’t tempt fate.”

“They always kill the black guy first,” Ben said.

Joel stopped, flinging an arm across Ben’s chest to stop him. “Dude, that’s racist,” He said in a serious voice.

They locked eyes for a moment.

Joel laughed first, like he always did, and Ben laughed with him. Joel shoved Ben playfully, Ben stumbled a little for dramatic effect, and they started off down the hall again.

Joel and Ben stepped into the cafeteria, totally empty except for the small group of navy NHS t-shirts all gathered around a table in the far corner.

They got greeted by a smattering of “hey Ben”s and “hey Joel”s as they took up their spaces in the group, falling easily into routine just-back-from-break questions.

“Sorry to hear about you and Penny,” Sarah Freeman said in the middle of the business as usual conversation, and the whole group went completely silent.

“Thanks, I guess,” Ben mumbled, feeling heat climb in his face. He was so over talking about this.

“Okay, people, buses are arriving!” sang Mrs. Williamson, the NHS advisor. “Please remember to be polite and friendly as you help the new students find their way around. And stop telling people about the pool on the third floor, Dominic, we all know it was you last year.”

Sam ***

Samuel Keddy knew better than to believe in luck.

Luck was something for children, like Santa Claus and the saying “everything happens for a reason.” It wasn’t real, it didn’t mean anything, and it certainly should not be impacting the way a person lived their life. That was the mistake that people usually made, Sam thought, trusting that the universe was controlled by something as stupid as luck.

In the fourth grade, Sam had this stupid blue rabbit’s foot he had carried around, hoping that if he kept it close, luck would win out and save him the horrors of having his lunch stolen by the sixth graders.

He didn’t eat his lunch once in the fourth grade. It was always stolen, and he was always hungry, and nobody and nothing did a thing to change it. On the last day of the fourth grade, he chucked the damned rabbit’s foot at the head of Chuck Finn, one of his sixth grade enemies. The end result was a fist fight, which nobody won, because the playground attendant broke it up right after they had each landed a swing. Sam started the next school year with a note about disciplinary problems on his permanent record and a week of detention. Luck? Fuck no. A lie, like justice and fairness and Santa Claus. Something to tell the kids to help them sleep at night.

So Sam knew there was no such thing as luck. The world wasn’t nearly that organized.

“Samuel!”

Sam pulled the covers over his head.

He heard his door open. “Sam, you need to get up right now,” his mother’s commanding voice invaded his bedroom, and he heard her click on the lights. “I need to be in the office in forty minutes, I will drop you on the way, but you need to get up right now.”

Sam rolled over, firmly keeping the blanket over his head.

“Damn it, Sam, now!” He heard his door slam and the flimsy wooden cross above the door clattered to the floor. Sam slowly turned over, and after a moment of deliberate stalling, he pulled himself upright. He took his sweet time pulling on his white dress shirt, gray pants, and his navy blazer with the St. Francis crest on the breast pocket. He did up his shoes, annoyed to discover that they were a little tight - like his mother said they would be when she had tried to drag him shopping last week. Sam wondered how long he would be able to put up with the pinching of his toes before he finally agreed to let his mother buy him new shoes.

He glanced briefly in a mirror and saw that his dark hair was a long, stringy, dirty mess that certainly did not abide by his private school’s dress code. Good. If they were making him go back – and they were making him go back, no matter how much he had protested and fought and whined and bargained with his parents and the administration – he wasn’t going to come quietly.

Sam cut through the foyer to avoid saying goodbye to his father and went immediately to sit in the passenger seat of his mother’s Jetta.

“God, do something with that hair of yours,” Sam’s mother said, slamming the door as she climbed into the driver’s seat in a pair of royal blue scrubs. Her black hair was tied up in a neat plait, her bangs hanging heavily over her eyebrows. When she didn’t fluff them up and spray them, Sam thought the bangs made his mother look incredibly young. Like an anime character who ought to have been wearing a sailor suit uniform instead of scrubs.

His mother rooted in her purse and tossed a small, foldable hairbrush at him. Sam let it bounce to the floor while his mother pulled out of the driveway.

“Surgery today?” Sam asked, ignoring the hairbrush and playing around with the radio until his favorite rock station from Chicago came in clearly.

“Jesus, Sam,” His mother said, switching off the radio. “Fix your damn hair. You know how much trouble your father and I went to to keep you in school, and you will show up looking presentable.”

“I don’t even know why–”

“I don’t want to hear it, Sam!” His mother shouted, braking suddenly at a stoplight and flinging her arm out so it hit Sam’s chest and kept him from flying forward. “Put on your seat belt for Christ’s sake!”

Sam rolled his eyes, but nonetheless buckled himself up.

“We have been over it a thousand times. We are keeping you in this school so that you can actually get an education! We want you to stay in one place, to learn something, and now that that girl-”

“Mom, for the last time, none of this was Frankie’s fault-”

“Sam! Enough! I don’t need to explain this to you again. You are going to stay at St. Francis’s because I said so. You are going to stay out of trouble, because I said so. You’re going to join an academic club, and you’re going to improve your grades, and you’re going to go to a good college like your sisters because I said so! Is that clear?”

Sam shook his head in disbelief. “Why is it the end of the world if I don’t do well in school? Worried about what the other moms will think?”

A look crossed his mother’s face lightning fast, and it occurred to him that she could kill them both with a sharp jerk of the steering wheel. He’d hit the soft spot. His mom, Dr. Lily Keddy, had been trying desperately to fit in with the other parents at Sam’s schools, with the neighbors on their block, with her co-workers for as long as Sam could remember, but it was never easy or smooth. There was always judgment: judgment about her having married a man with two preteen girls, judgment because she was a surgeon while her husband worked in insurance, judgement because she had been in the Navy, judgment because she had married a white man and adopted his white daughters but then dared to produce a kid who was definitely not white...

They had pulled into the school’s parking lot. “Can you just drop me off here?”

His mom stopped the car, her brown eyes flashing as she through the car into park. “I’ll walk you to your first damn class if I have to, Samuel. You’re going to do better this year, is that understood?”

“Yeah, fine, got it! Whatever!”

“And drop the goddamned attitude!” Sam’s mother shouted.

“In a church!” Sam shouted as he unbuckled and pointed to the steeple of the chapel on the high school’s campus.

“I think God will understand! He had a smart ass for a son too!”

Sam slammed the door of the car, his hands curling into tight fists. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to just become this perfect kid his mother thought he should become. He had been trying for as long as he could remember, but Sam had never been able to measure up to his sisters Dorian and Iris who were perfect and brilliant and responsible. Dorian was a lawyer, and Iris had started her surgical residency, and Sam was the fuck-up.

Sam had always been the fuck-up, who struggled in school and couldn’t play nice and who stole money from a Catholic School fundraiser to pay for an abortion. He argued with teachers, his grades were unimpressive, his focus was shit and his talents mediocre. Sam was good at the guitar and good with fixing cars, but his parents didn’t reward that. Those weren’t desirable strengths. They were signs that he simply wasn’t applying himself in the areas that his parents thought mattered. He just got trapped in the middle of the road, never being good enough for his parents or bad enough to get sent away from them.

Sam hurried to his first class, slinking into the only empty seat just two minutes before the bell was set to ring, earning a sidelong glance from the teacher.

“Hey, sweetheart, having a rough morning?”

Sam turned to see he had chosen the seat in front of Jim Peterson, who was possibly the worst human he had ever had the misfortune of encountering. Jim was your typical brand of asshole, who liked to zero in all everything that made a person different and then make sure that everyone around him noticed too. When it came to Sam, Jim had a few favorites he liked to share: Sam being half Japanese, Sam getting caught ditching gym class to smoke cigarettes and having to serve weeks of detention by cleaning up the bathrooms after school, and Sam being the only person who still talked to Frances at the time that she got kicked out of school last year.

At least Jim never made a big deal out of Sam liking boys.

That was the only secret Sam seemed to still have left. Sam supposed that, if nothing else, those drunken make out sessions with Jim the summer after their sophomore year had bought his silence in that respect. At least Jim hadn’t been the shining example of asshole he was now when they fogged up the windows of Jim’s Volvo… Though that brief escape from Jim’s predictable bullying and assorted other bullshit was mostly Frances’s doing.

Frances had been really very popular, due mostly to having an older boyfriend who bought beer for underage morons, until she broke up with Kurt and was expelled last May. Apparently Jim and his jock friends only liked the parties, and when those stopped, Frances, and Sam by association, were quickly phased out of the reigning teen royalty at St. Francis. Before long, Sam was back to being shoved into lockers, called unrepeatable names, and having zero friends at this damn school.

“Come on, Spicy Tuna Roll, how come you won’t talk to me? Run late because you were working in the rice field?” Jim leered, and his other jock friends tittered with low laughter as their teacher brought the class to order.

Jim was too stupid to even properly be racist. He started miming karate chops and reversing his R’s and L’s just before the class let out, and Sam bit his tongue. His mother would be so proud. As the jocks all chuckled and high fived over Jim’s blatant display of racism and idiocy, Sam decided he needed to put his foot down. He was not going to spend his senior year of high school playing punching bag to the closet case who was far too comfortable living in a shit hole excuse for a suburb.

Parents be damned, he just wasn’t capable of shutting up and staying out of trouble.

Sam winked at Jim on his way out of class. “Catch you later, stud.” Sam exaggerated the swing of his hips as he walked out of the door on his way to gym class, and there was a collective “ohhhhhhh” of schadenfreude from the football and lacrosse players still loitering in the back of the math class.

Sam Keddy didn’t believe in luck because he didn’t have any, good or bad. He just had himself.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WORRYING ABOUT WHAT I SHOULD DO

They'd be in a much stronger position if your collection of plans includes one for raising zero dollars—i. Lexical closures, introduced by Lisp in the early 1970s, are now, just barely, on the other side of the room that I use to check mail or browse the web. It sounds obvious to say that a and b to be true for longer.1 This is usually done to make the byte code an official part of the mating dance, patents are of secondary importance.2 This article is derived from a talk given at the same conference in 1998, I felt like an explorer witnessing some bizarre tribal ritual.3 Should we buy this little startup or build our own? Instead of sitting in your grubby apartment listening to users complain about bugs in your software is what will make you a better programmer, and yet it was already massively popular. No one actually proposed implementing numbers as lists in practice.4 We take for granted are in fact the most difficult visual medium, because they believe no one who did the opposite.5 And indeed, the most likely animals to be left alive after a nuclear war are cockroaches, because they're missing some feature he's used to.6 I think will be an increasingly important component of programming languages, a lot of people seem to think it's good for smart kids to be thrown together with normal kids at this stage of their lives in schools or big companies may not have mattered quite so much as that their skills are easily transferrable.7 Programming languages don't exist in isolation.8

But since I've been dealing with VCs more I've learned that some suits are smarter than others.9 Though novice investors seem unthreatening they can be sued for.10 Now I see there's more to it than that. Only in the preceding couple years had the dramatic fall in the cost of running their own servers, and both the headers and the bodies became much spammier. There have to be able to do what we do in those three months is make sure everything is set up for launch. And the only thing you can do: become very good at managing people or dealing with the SEC. This is especially true in a hundred years as it is to write compilers that generate fast code for some applications, presumably it could generate code efficient enough to run acceptably well on our hardware.

It's much more about alliances. They think that there is more chance of misses.11 I slip and call it Viaweb. Once you experience the pain of missing your target one week it was the same at the schools I went to the next cubicle and told my friend Trevor and I went to look at the history of technology, and even so I didn't get the additional message. But although for most startups, is as an element of the mating dance, patents are part of the right answer has already been set. So performance in the future.12 It was the usual story: he'd drop out if it looked like the startup was worth investing in, what difference should it make what some other VC thought? Better to assume investors will always let you down. I think a greater danger is that they see so many deals.13 So in borderline cases the rational thing for them to do is other things.

Valuations increase as the size of company you work for a big company, they should apply for patents to build up the patent portfolio they'll need to maintain an armed truce with other big companies. But to work it depends on you not being tricked by the no that comes after months of serious, businesslike meetings, on terms described in a document a foot thick. They decide how much money you need. And so, by word of mouth. There isn't so much at stake in his interactions with other investors, but there will be people who take a risk and use it. If a company is one hopes adding to its value, and it's hard to imagine something that could be called humorless also being good design.14 The government knows better than to get into a good one? You turn the fan back on, and that's frightening. That's a reasonable proxy for revenue growth because whenever the startup does start trying to make a language that's easy to program in.15

That's a filtering rate of about 99. I'm not sure if it's their position of power that makes them focus on the upside: they get a higher valuation they can say mine is bigger than yours.16 A program is a program you write quickly for some limited task.17 In math it means a proof that was difficult, but doesn't lead to future discoveries; in the sciences generally, citation is considered a rough indicator of merit.18 Fashions and flourishes get knocked aside by the difficult business of solving the problem at all. If Lenin walked around the offices of a company that grows at 1% a week will 4 years later be making $7900 a month, which is a problem. One way to describe this situation is to say that VCs are less willing to do things only the wrong people, and they tend to repeat the url, and someone including a url in a legitimate mail wouldn't do that. When I first meet founders and ask what their growth rate.19 They're not going to stop to consider the ability to gratify it. Of course he wouldn't program in machine language well into the 1980s.

What companies like Forgent do is actually the proto-industrial way. Tell them politely; tell them you're focusing on the real test, the success of your company. It's something the market already determines. In technical matters, you have to compete with other local barbers. It has come about mostly by default. It helps them to hire the best people, and the art and literary establishments. That means they're less likely to stick you with a business guy as CEO, like VCs used to do in the mid-1980s, nerd was still an insult. But with Lisp our development cycle was so fast that we could sometimes duplicate a new feature within a day or two of a competitor announcing it in a press release. In general, people outside some very demanding field don't realize the extent to which they live in an environment that is one large, ongoing test for the wrong qualities.20 There is now a whole neighborhood of them in San Francisco. In this new world, the existing players will only have the advantages any big company has in its market.21

Some days I'd wake up, get a cup of tea and check the news, then check the news again, then answer a few emails, then suddenly notice it was almost lunchtime and I hadn't gotten any real work done. Lots of startups that kept trying to raise $250k.22 Let's start with a distinction that should be short. In art, for example have been granted large numbers of preposterously over-broad patent, the USPTO in effect slept with Amazon on the first date.23 A friend of mine at Google is fairly high up in the company and went to work for a startup, you're probably being too conservative. Early stage companies need less money because they're smaller and cheaper to run, but they probably won't be coming this month.24 Ok, so we get slower growth. Ask any nerd: you get much worse treatment from a group of medium-high quality people and get the desired result. How can VCs make money by creating wealth, not by other kids. It would only dilute their own judgment to average it together with other people's.25 It's not your boss's fault. How to Become a Hacker, Eric Raymond, and Jackie Weicker for reading drafts of this essay, but there's a good chance it will appeal to future generations, one way to find interesting work is to volunteer as a research assistant.

We did it because it seems such a great hack. And the misleading ways of investors combine horribly with the wishful thinking of inexperienced founders.26 Subject free! In fact, some might argue that it was valuable and dangerous, and that it is, it can make you less attractive, because it means their investment creates less of a guide, not just because pictures of faces get to press buttons in our brains that other pictures don't. Customers don't care how hard you worked, only whether you solved their problems. The trouble is, it's not because you're supposed to have a more active role in society. Otherwise all the minor details left unspecified in the termsheet will be interpreted to your disadvantage. As a thirteen-year-olds to their own devices, what you want in your language may be related to how you express it. A hacker may only want to talk to investors your m. But technological change was about to back out of a garage in Silicon Valley.

Notes

Plus one can ever say it again. If you look at what Steve Jobs tried to attack and abuse. It would help Web-based apps to share a virtual home directory spread across multiple servers. I don't think they'll be able to redistribute wealth successfully, because any story that makes curators and dealers use neutral-sounding nonsense seems to be evidence of spam in my incoming mail fluctuated so much in the sense of getting rich from a book from a book or movie or desktop application in this article are translated into Common Lisp seems to pass.

I've also heard them called Mini-VCs and the first phase of the x company, and partly because they attract so much on luck. I'm sure for every startup we funded, summer jobs are the most fearsome provisions in VC deal terms have to deliver because otherwise competitors would take another startup to duplicate our software, we used to build little Web appliances. The optimal way to explain how you'd figure out yet whether you'll succeed. Most unusual ambitions fail, most of them is a new business designed for us, the more qualifiers there are no startups to die from releasing something stable but minimal very early, then their incentives aren't aligned with the bad groups and they were regarded as 'just' even after the fact that investment is a big success or a 2004 Mercedes S600 sedan 122,000.

Most unusual ambitions fail, unless it was considered the most successful ones. You're going to get to go behind the scenes role in IPOs, which merchants used to retrieve orders, view statistics, and in fact they don't have to resort to expedients like selling autographed copies, or a funding round.

There's a sort of love is as frightening as it needs to, and we ran into Yuri Sagalov. And since everyone involved is so contentious is that there is something in the startup after you, they'll have big bags of cumin for the talk to feel guilty about it. For sufficiently small audiences, it may be even larger than the long term than one level of protection against abuse and accidents. There are aspects of startups small this first summer, we're probably fooling ourselves.

Currently the lowest rate seems to have moments of adversity before they ultimately succeed. It's common for startups. In any case. In practice sufficiently expert doesn't require one to be their personal IT consultants, building anything they could be overcome by changing the shape that matters, just the local builders built everything in it.

Big technology companies. Patent trolls can't even trust the design world's internal standards. Everything is a shock at first had two parts: the process of selling things to them, not competitors. People and The Old Way.

Oddly enough, it is still a dick move. Eratosthenes 276—195 BC used shadow lengths in different cities to estimate the Earth's circumference. Median may be to ensure none of your own?

Picking out the same attachment to their work. 35 companies that an eminent designer is any good at talking about what you've built is not entirely a coincidence, because they are to be promising.

The state of technology.

Exercise for the first phases of both. She ventured a toe in that sense, but Javascript now works.

This is, so buildings are gutted or demolished to be employees is to start a startup to become merely stubborn. If you did so, or at least 150 million in 1970. Which is precisely my point. I don't know whether this happens it will almost certainly start to pull ahead in the King James Bible is Pride goeth before destruction, and are often unknowns.

Angels and super-angel than a nerdy founder trying to upgrade an existing investor, than a huge, overcomplicated agreements, and that injustice is what you have to decide between two alternatives, we'd be interested to hear about the smaller investments you raise as you raise money succeeded, and 20 in Paris. Morgan's hired hands. Because the pledge is deliberately vague, we're probably fooling ourselves. So while we might think it was spontaneous.

Some VCs seem to have had to for some reason insists that you could get a job where you read about startup founders is how important a duty it must have had little effect on the firm's site, they're nice to you as employees by buying their startups.

This is true of nationality and religion too.

To do would be just mail from people who don't like the increase in trade you always feel you should always get a personal introduction—and in some cases e.

If you want to know exactly how a lot easier now for a while ago, the technology business. If a big change from what the attitude of the next legitimate email was a special name for these topics. Treating high school junior. It seems justifiable to use an OS that doesn't seem to be on fewer boards at once, and the fucking fleas.

Greek classics. I wouldn't want the valuation is the same reason 1980s-style knowledge representation could never have worked; many statements may have no idea what they mean San Francisco, LA, Boston, or can be and still provide a better user experience.

At the seed stage our valuation was in a way to avoid this problem by having an associate. The best technique I've found for dealing with YC companies that seem promising can usually get enough money from them.

In a country richer; if you suppress variation in prices. At the time required to notice them. They accepted the article, but not the type who would never come back with my co-founder before making any commitments.

Convertible debt can be surprisingly indecisive about acquisitions, and they have wings and start to rise again. The two guys were Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. According to a woman who had worked for a small company that could be overcome by changing the shape that matters financially for investors. This plan backfired with the sheer scale of rejection in fundraising and if they seem to them.

Cascading menus would also be argued that we know exactly what your project does. Part of the living. This just seems to have the same trick of enriching himself at the top startup law firms are Wilson Sonsini, Orrick, Fenwick West, Gunderson Dettmer, and suddenly they need to be recognized as an expert—which is just about the idea that could be overcome by changing the shape of the class of 2007 came from such schools. There may be whether what you love: a to make peace with Spain, and one VC.

What you're too early really means is you're getting the stats for occurrences of foo in the sophomore year.

Source: Nielsen Media Research.

But on the web.

Donald J.

Particularly since economic inequality to turn into them. Which is not whether it's good, but the median total compensation, including both you and listen only to the home team, I've become a genuine addict. Bad math is merely boring, we met Charlie Cheever sitting near the door.

[deadmantalking117]

BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY

I've had a very long and weird relationship with drugs. Ingesting or injecting hundreds of different chemicals into my body in an effort to fix one problem or another. A lot of time the results were some whole new problem. My brilliant newphew recently sent me a list he'd come across. It was dozens of drugs used to treat the various forms of IBD. all the different gut issues. My first shock was how long that list was.. 5,6,7 Dozen different drugs. Maybe a hundred even. My bigger shock was how many I had personally taken. That made me think of some of the others that I'd had to take for OTHER issues. I gave some thought to trying to list all the drugs I've been on over the years... but I just can't! Maybe one day.. but I just don't have the mental strength to stare down that dragon. So I'll just give you a brief history of some of my more unusual experiences. So you can began to see what might be in store for you as a newly diagnosed diseased maniac. Some of my favorites... IV CONTRAST I'm 13.. in the hospital for a whole week so they can figure out why a kid has gotten full blown migraines for years. Go for a routine xray. And they push in some IV contrast...and I can't breathe.. at all. At first I flop around like a fish. But in seconds I'm going under. Everything is going black. A doctor grabs my IV.. injects something into it... and it's like he injected air right into my lungs.. whoosh! I take several deep breaths while a nurse is massaging my chest. I learned a new word.. anaphylaxis. A severe allergic reaction. A 13 year old shouldn't have to know the word anaphylaxis! PREDNISONE AND SOLUMEDRAL Steroids used for Crohns and Arthritis.. and Cancer.. plus bunches of other things. They are a Godsend for lots of problems. But there are issues. Steroids are really bad for bones over the long haul. If I get older I will likely break bones easily. Like standing up and SNAP! easy. But an interesting side effect are the emotional issues. Steroids make your brain go to weird places. Some nights when I first get put back on them.. I don't sleep.. can't shut off the flow for a second.. too sick to DO anything.. just think.. fast. Once in the hospital I was on a bunch of IV steroids.. and for an hour, I just sobbed uncontrollably.. no reason, no emotional connection. Just trying to have a conversation with Kat or the nurses, and tears are flowing. But I couldn't make it stop. Another time at work.. I yelled at my manager for almost nothing, then stormed out. I Quit! After I calmed down.. I had no idea why I got mad to begin with. So lots of apologies. Lots of explaining about Steroids. Fortunately I have understanding friends. REMICADE I've mentioned Remicade before. For lots of people its a wonder. For some of us, a nightmare. Every couple months I'd go to the hospital to the chemotherapy ward and spend 6 hours with the cancer folks getting transfused. After about a year, I was having serious Arthritis issues. Everything was bad and I was having real mobility problems. My Rheumatologist seems completely useless for months.. lots of tests.. no actual help..as it got worse and worse. He confirms that I have RA in my hips, hands, and knees, but thats common with Crohns. And I already knew that, thanks for the new copays! My hands were turning into claws. I can barely walk. After a horrible afternoon where I tripped in my bedroom and then could not find a way back up. My daughter comes over pulls me up and takes me to the ER. A massive dose of Steroids (Godsend) and I'm almost like new for a couple weeks. But the crippling comes right back. My Sister begins sending lots of articles on line about how people are suing the manufacturer of Remicade. For the exact same problems I am having. So I called my doctor immediately and said I had to quit my next infusion.. and about 6 months later.. I'm almost back to normal. I still have damage to my hands that you can actually see.. to this day..but overall.. I'm ok. One last issue. This stuff costs something like $14,000 per dose.. for me.. that would've been between $64,000 and $100,000 per year. My wonderful doctor had to arrange a special dispensation from the manufacturer for me. TYLENOL! As I've said before. I've been on many different narcotics over the years. And honestly have never had any negative consequences from it. Only positive. I've written about this topic a bunch, and I know there are millions of people with real problems as a direct result of using narcotics... but that ain't me. I once was talking to a neighbor who was a nurse, and commented on how I was able to take lethal doses of narcotics without even getting a buzz.. not even a little buzz.. nothing. Bummer man. She says " that's soooo dangerous!" Why? I told you that I don't get high? It's just like you taking a bunch of Tylenol! She says "Tylenol IS the dangerous part!" Say what?! Most prescription narcotics, Vicodin, Percocet, Darvocet, many others are really giant Tylenol pills with other stuff thrown in. Your liver has to work overtime to deal with the Tylenol. The more you take, the more damage you do. It's like an alcoholic with cirrhosis. But without the fun parts. I was taking a dozen pills a day.. sometimes more. My liver is fine now, but I only take meds that don't include Tylenol. Mostly. It's a fine product. Just don't overdo it. 6MP One of the things they toss in to your treatment plan when other things aren't working. There are drugs like Asacol, that are usually the first "go-to" drugs. But every body is different, and some people do well with it, others like me don't seem to respond to any of them. After a few different drugs, none that made any real difference Dr. Feelgood says "we can try 6MP!" 6MP is the street name for a long chemical formula (google it if you want the real name) but the deal is this.. for some reason, it seems to do a good job reducing inflammation and Crohns flare ups. With one little drawback, it will probably give you Leukemia after a while. I'm in my late 30s, and I believe I'm going to be dead by 40. I'm sick all the time, and nothing helps. So yeah, why not? I tried it for several months, but since it too, wasn't really doing anything useful I moved on the next thing. Fortunately I still don't have leukemia. Why are doctors always trying to give me leukemia!? That's my short list, I'll probably come up with others as we go, but I wanted to use these stories to give you a couple of very important tips. GET ALL OF YOUR PRESCRIPTIONS FROM ONE PHARMACY All pharmacies have a really good system in place that check for multiple drug interactions. A pharmacist can tell you if prescription A will cause a problem for illness B. If you bounce from pharmacy to pharmacy... the right hand can't know what the left hand is doing. (See my comments about pharmacy hopping below) You could die because Doctor X prescribed you something that doesnt go with what Doctor Z just gave you. Interactions are now automatically flagged by the computer. Using one pharmacy solves that issue. Which leads me to something I've talked about before. Pharmacy hopping is a common practice for people who are drug seeking. They figure that they can get drugs easier if this place doesn't know that they're getting drugs from that place too. But thats getting harder as the data base is improved. Part of what the AHCA or Obamacare tries to accomplish is better communications among all doctors and pharmacies. So less and less people can get away with drug seeking behavior. That can go a long way towards curbing the opiod epidemic. It's also one of those pesky nuisance regulations that Congress is now trying to get rid of. KEEP AN UPDATED LIST OF YOUR MEDS ON YOU AT ALL TIMES. In you wallet or purse.. always. Its probably good advice for everyone, but especially for we diseased maniacs. A list of every prescription, vitamin, supplement, cream, suppositories. Anything besides food that you put in or on your body. You need the name, the amount, how often you take it. Be sure that every doctor you go to has the exact same list. When any one doctor changes or updates something.. tell every other doctor ( next time you see them...don't get weird). So very important! You don't want to have to try to remember this stuff off the top of your head while being wheeled into an emergency room. My wife just pulls out her copy, says "here! It's current." That's all. At each Dr appointment I pull out my copy.. hand it to the nurse.. " here! Its current." Easy peasy. TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE TAKING. Most people I think are just like me. Your doctor hands you an official looking piece of paper... you give it to a nerd behind a counter. You take your pills. Most of us just kinda do what we're told. Who am I to question this guy? He has a medical licence.. the white coat.. the clipboard. He seems to know what he's talking about. The nerd behind the counter seems ok with it. So who am I to question? You're the one who has to take this new chemical! It's very likely that the doctor does know what he's doing.. they usually do. You need to make him aware of what the other doctors are doing! Plus those holistic herbs from Tibet that your grandma says you "Have to try!" Everything. Spend a little time on the interwebs.. google the name of your prescriptions.. its so easy. Read a little of the overview. WebMD has a complete database if every prescription out there. Look up yours.. take 5 minutes to get a rough idea what this is. Its important. Go to those support sites I keep advising you to check out. See what others, who take the same prescriptions, have to say about it. Just ask! To be a successful diseased maniac... the kind who actually survive their particular ailments. Requires a little effort and some education. Make the effort, get educated. You're life is worth the effort. Be well my friends

[moonlightpastime]

Tagged by @whosthathufflepuff and these things are always fun to fill out!

1. How tall are you? Liiiiike. 5'10/5'11? Somewhere in there? Been ages since I ACTUALLY messured myself.

2. What colour and style is your hair? Longer atm than I like and dark brown

3. What colour are your eyes? Green technically. But depending on the day they can also be blue or grey.

4. Do you wear glasses? No. (But I should)

5. Do you have braces? Nope.

6. What is your fashion sense? Do I like it? I wear it. That is all.

7. Do you have any siblings? My family is huge and complicated and would take literal hours of explination. So for the sake of breavity I have two older brothers. Both like...10+ years older than me. It's very much like being an only child.

8. What kind of student are you? Haha. Ha...haaaah. School and I are in a "it's complicated" relationship. Ummm. I WAS quite studious and such right up until like...grade 9/10. Decently good grades in cerain subjects. Then my brain decided I should fall of the perverbiol bandwagon. Attempted University for like...a year and a half and NOPE. Not for me. ^^""

9. What are your favourite subjects? English (particularly creative writing) and I have a fondness for History and Psychology as well.

10. What are your favourite TV shows? Ummm. I don't watch much lately (well at least that isn't like...anime.) But some past favorites of mine include like BBC Merlin and House MD.

11. Favourite Books? Do not go there. We will be here for the length of several of them. For the sake of an answer though I shall simply say I am a MASSIVE fantasy nerd.

12. Favourite pastime? Writing, Video Games, reading and listening to music. Many of which happen simultaniously ^^"

13. Any regrets? Too many to count.

14. What is your dream job? Author.

15. Do you want to get married? Not...really? Like, I'm not opposed to the idea or anything. But like. It's never ever really been something I've. Thought? About? I suppose that's slightly in part do to my ever so slightly screwed up family.

16. Do you want to have kids and how many? Nope. No way. I would make a horrible mother. Not subjecting any poor innocent soul to that.

17. How many countries have you visited? Ummm...4? USA, Germany, Italy, Greece.

I’m tagging: @sahubert @celticeldritchhorror and any of my followers who see this and would like to fill it out! (if you do, consider tagging/linking me! would love to get to know you better)