#also steven for some fucking reason is so tough to draw ??

[rocicrew]

new wip

[docholligay]

Its interesting to see what gets presented to you and for what reasons, especially stuff offered up as a sacrifice for Holligay Hates.

It is to me as well! Part of the reason I still do these events is that, a) I like to thank y'all for following me sometimes, though I think offering a free draw every month for the low cost of commenting on my fics does that also and b) I like to see what you weirdos vote on!

Holligay Hates particularly can be such a weird category! It's also tough because I have NOOOOOOOOOO desire to get into the ~problematic media~ game, and so much of tearing down stuff on tumblr is not "This is stupid and that is why it sucks" but "This stuff is shameful and sinful and morally bad and you are if you enjoy it also" and the latter is not something I'm into. But I'm also the person who is very very comfortable saying, "Man, this is god damn near INSULTINGLY stupid, and I love it." So I don't need my media to be good? I guess?

Anyway it makes Holligay Hates a weird category sometimes! ANd there are things I have SO MUCH VITRIOL for, and some of it isn't the property's FAULT. So for example, I fucking hate Steven Universe. But that is 80% fandom 20% property. ATLA I've never watched so it would 100% be me trying to pick a fight with the fandom because I think they fucking are a bunch of annoying assholes. Harry Potter is now no longer the golden child because the creator turned out to be hot horseshit, but time was I hate it not because I thought it was even particularly stupid as a children's property, but because it was such a fucking arrested development thing for the ENTIRE INTERNET. (and it wasn't even good! It was never good! Americans are just obsessed with British boarding school! It is the asspull series of the century!)

Luckily, my followers love me more than I love me, and are like, "Hi how out we don't pick a fight with the whole internet? Okay, have a cracker nana"

Also there's always some wiseacre who's like, "HOLLIGAY HATES WESTERNS" or something like I am not keenly fucking awar of the myriad flaws of anything I have ever had affection for.

I don't do Holligay Hates a lot and its not commissionable because even though it CAN be funny, it doesn't ...set the tone? That I want in my blog or my life, if that makes sense.

[nightcoremoon]

it's evident people haven't watched enough kids media to adequately understand just what constitutes a kids show as opposed to a show that kids can watch and be entertained by

when I was a kid I watched king of the hill and blues clues (among other things). king of the hill is NOT a kids show by any stretch of the imagination; it is an adult animation, replete with fairly heavy subject matter, sexual themes, political humor, cultural references that kids won't understand, discussion of religion in the modern day, depression and suicidal thoughts, adultery, puberty and sexual awakenings, body image, propane, propane accessories, and ultimately above all else what it means to be family. and blues clues is a show about a man who plays with a shovel & pail, talks to his condiments and mailbox, and sometimes he teleports into the felt dimension, all while playing Sherlock Holmes hercule poirot with his dog, and teaching kids how to count and draw and recognize colors and learn their ABCs. do you see the fucking difference? no? then I'll make it more clear.

dora the explorer & go diego go, mickey mouse clubhouse, handy manny, octonauts, bob the builder, super why, wild kratts, zoboomafoo, jojo's circus, wow wow wubbzy, stanley, doc mcstuffins, max & ruby, wonder pets, bubble guppies, ni hao khai lan, backyardigans, little einsteins, caillou (ugh) and p*w p*trol (double ugh), these are all undeniably kids shows. their audience is children (and the occasional adult by age with severe intellectual disabilities) and maybe the parents whose brains are too fried to care what's on the tv. these shows main purpose is to educate while entertaining on subjects one would encounter in preschool and kindergarten. counting 1-10, ABCs, basic color, basic language, basic intrapersonal skills, basic emotional literacy, problem solving, using your imagination, what sounds do animals make, breaking the fourth wall to ask the audience to answer what's 2+2 or tell them a lesson they learned today like I LEARNED TO NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER or some simple message like that. it's always light, there's no edgelord grimdark "what if they were dead the whole time" bullshit. it's just good clean simple wholesome [except for paw patrol] programs for kids to be distracted for a little bit of time, while also letting them walk away having said they learned something. at least half of the time dedicated to every single one of these shows is devoted to the same shit over and over again. I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map WE FUCKING GET IT YOURE THE MAP! backpack backpack I'm the backpack loaded up with things and knickknacks too, anything that you might need I've got inside for you. we did it we did it we did it HOORAY! come on vamanos everybody let's go, come on let's get to it, I know that we can do it,

WHERE ARE WE GOING

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

THESE SONGS ARE BURNED INTO MY BRAIN AND THEYLL BE STUCK IN MY HEAD UNTIL I DIE

say click take a pic, the hot dog dance, CAN HE FIX IT???, pizza! spaghetti!, THE DOC IS IN AND SHELL FIX YOU UP, max & ruby ruby & max max & ruby ruby & max MAX & RUBY RUBY & MAX MAX & RUBY RUBY & MAX, wonder pets wonder pets we're on our way to help the friend and save the day, we're not too big and we're not too tough but when we work together we've got the right stuff, goooOOO WONDER PETS YAAAAY~, yoooour backyard friends the backyardigans (weve got the whole wide world in our yard to explore, thATS WHY EVERY DAY WEEEEERE BACK FOR MOOOORE), were going on a trip in our little rocket ship SOARING THROOOOOUGH THE SKY!!! little einsteins!

I swear to god I've been forced to watch so much children's television in my life it's no wonder there's no room left for serotonin executive function or the ability to speak to morons

point is I know my way around kids shows. my sisters were born in 98, 02, 05, 06, 10, and 18, I think, I don't even know because they're all a blur, I'm literally closer in age to my parents than to my youngest sibling, I never stopped being exposed to kids shows. I know what is and is not a kids show.

adventure time? not a kids show even though kids watch it. it's a "for everyone" show. it's got a target audience of 100% of the planet. steven universe? not a kids show even though kids watch it. miraculous ladybug? not a kids show even though kids watch it. scooby doo? not a kids show even though kids watch it. I'm not discussing the history of adult acceptance of animation, adult animation, or anime, so don't ask. dexter's laboratory. the grim adventures of billy & mandy. codename kids next door. teen titans. fairly oddparents. kim possible. invader zim. AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER. totally spies. courage the cowardly dog. the proud family. SPONGEBOB F*ING SQUAREPANTS. powerpuff girls. foster's home for imaginary friends. oh yeah you know what's coming next. my little goddamn pony friendship is mother fucking magic is not. a. kids. show. even though kids can watch it. it is a cartoon. it is an everyone show. that's why it's disingenuous and fucking stupid to decry any fan over the age of 7 as a pedophile and a weirdo creep; it participates in the infantilization of femininity. why is it ok for 20somethings to keep watching aang and squidward and finn & jake and zim and "return the slab" and everyone's totally fine wth that but when it's twilight sparkle suddenly everyone's like whoa you're a huge fucking loser for watching this girly wussy baby show for girly wussy babies. oh some bronies are sex crazed perverts? I'm sorry have you seen just how much porn there is for spongebob? oh some bronies are cringe? I'm sorry have you met half the steven universe fandom? oh some bronies are fascist rick sanchez kinnies with fedoras and katanas? BREAKING BAD FANS, HELLO!?!?!?

this is such a stupid tiring boring argument. maybe magic talking horses being friends and turning their friendship into magic rainbow nuclear fucking arms and blasting the evil out of a demon and turning her into the coolest fucking half-unicorn biker lesbian in the world is something that brings me, and adult, pure wholesome joy, in between bojack horseman and dark souls and breaking bad and deftones and fallout new vegas and jojo and cannibal corpse and other bleak depressing edgy shit that also brings me comfort. and MAYBE me at 16 starting to watch MLP:FIM becoming finally comfortable with the outward public expression of "traditionally feminine" interests is the main reason why I realized I was a girl when I did, and MAYBE I just like how pretty the colorful ponies look, AND MAYBE I KIN WITH ONE OR TWO OR EIGHT CHARACTERS, WHAT OF IT?

AND MAYBE ITS LITERALLY THE BEST LONG RUNNING FANTASY TV SERIES ON THE MARKET RIGHT NOW* SINCE GAME OF THRONES FUCKING SUCKS

but whatever, kids watch it sometimes so it's illegal for anyone who's not a kid to enjoy it, but only if it's something girly because liking girly things is bad because girliness is inherently bad, and the only things that are good have predominantly male casts*. right? right??? wrong, fucker. g4mlp has so much more in common with adventure time & atla than with blues clues or dora the fucking explora...r.

but keep in mind I'm saying this while hugging a blues clues plushie my grandma gave me for valentine's day because it reminds her of when I was a baby because I may not watch blues clues but it still means a lot to me for nostalgia and is 50% of the reason why I love ray charles. kids media isn't necessarily bad. I still do enjoy watching it with my little sisters. all this is is me being anal about categorization because I'm autistic and I LIVE for categorizing everything.

*besides atla obviously

[dapper-ships-herself]

Should you fight my f/os?

Tagged by @megane-shipping @rose-wine-selfships @firebird-inkheart

I have many f/os, so this isn't all of them but I still did a fair number of 'em.

Also the rating system confused me but I did my best.

Dazai: He looks pretty scrawny, and while he is a pretty good fighter fighter through skill he isn't the physically strongest opponent, but you still wouldn't be able to beat him. He'd come up with some sort of plan where you'd probably think you'd won but then you turn around and oop no Dazai won. How does that work? Who fucking knows.

No fighting Dazai. 2/10

Erza Scarlet: She will kick your ass with the power of friendship and her eighteen thousand swords. Are you kidding me? She's queen of the fairies, no way. Beating her up only inspires her to win for the sake of her guild.

No fighting Erza. 1/10

Shinobu Kocho: She will poison you with a smile on her face. Unless your name is Douma, I would not recommend (ouch).

No fighting Shinobu. 4/10

Chuuya Nakahara: if you're looking to get crushed by a manlet in a fancy hat, then go for it. He's quite possibly one of the strongest ability users out there, but tell him Dazai called him a nerd or whatever and he'll fly into a rage that you can either use to your advantage or will result in you being crushed faster.

No fighting Chu-tan. 1/10

Yosano Akiko: Holy shit what? You're going to fight her? She will hack you to pieces, put you back together, and then repeat, repeat, repeat until she has to go and catch a sale.

No fighting Yosano. 4/10

Howard Phillips Lovecraft: You have a chance so long as he continues to give into his tiredness, he may simply lay there while you beat the shit out of him. Make sure you keep him from going all eldritch monstrocity on your ass though.

Not advised to fight Lovecraft. 3/10

Edgar Allen Poe: He's baby, why would you fight him? I know his best friend is a raccoon and he looks like he hadn't been outside since he was a baby, but what would you accomplish by fighting him?

To remain a decent person no fighting Poe. 5/10

Mark Twain: He's allergic to wearing shirts properly and thinks he's all buff and stuff, but you can punch him in the eye and knock him the fuck out. His little doll friends ain't gonna do shit. So long as you get too close for him to snipe you, you've got this.

Fight Mark. 7/10

Margaret Mitchell: I would really rather you not, she's napping. If you did, though, be ready to get caught in your own personal tornado while she rants about restoring her families honor. Unless your name is Akutagawa, be careful.

Not advised to fight Margaret. 5/10

Higuchi Ichiyo: She's certainly not the most formidable opponent, but she would gladly cut a thousand bitches for the sake of getting senpai to notice her.

You could fight Higuchi but it's not advised. 6/10

Gin Akutagawa: You wouldn't even hear her coming. The thought of fighting her would be brand new and then whoops, you've got a knife to the throat. She's not a leader of the black lizards for no reason.

Not advised to fight Gin. 4/10

Beelzebub: There is a chance that he would literally eat you, but for the most part while he is a big, beefy demon, he's also a teddy bear; he'd probably let you punch him over and over with a straight face. Stay away from his food and you should be fine.

Maybe fight Beelzebub. 6/10

Mammon: On one hand, he is the second most powerful of his brothers, he could easily destroy you. On the other hand, boy gets beat up verbally and physically by his brothers every damn day and has a mountain of insecurities, poke at those and you could probably win. Or make him even more mad. It's a gamble with the avatar of greed, my guy.

Maybe fight Mammon but not advised. 5/10

Jae-ha: He's a quick fellow, and his aim with those daggers is pretty spot on, it'd be very difficult and your best chance would be to try and ground him so he can't use his dragon leg. Although, he's a pervert and would probably like getting beat up, so you could win simply by that

Not advised to fight Jae-ha unless he's feeling especially nasty: 5/10

Chain Sumeragi: She can literally make herself completely undetectable and then stick her hand through you to play with your insides, unless you can get past that somehow, you're fucked.

No fighting Chain. 3/10

Steven Alan Starphase: He will Esmeralda Blood Freeze you before you can even blink and the shatter you into ice cubes for his drink. He ain't afraid to get his hands dirty.

No fighting Steven. 3/10

The Happy Huntresses: They're an experienced team of top of their class huntresses; four badasses trained not only to fight people but also giant evil monsters.

No fighting the happy huntresses. 4.5/10

Meis and Gueira: I mean they look decently tough with those bikes and the armor and the fire, but everytime we see them in a fight they get their asses handed to them in like two seconds. Best to be equiped with a fire extinguisher or like some ice cubes to chuck at 'em.

Maybe fight them. 6/10

Aizawa Shouta: Your best bet is to catch him in the middle of a nap, but please be so careful not to wake him up, he's most likely be so cranky that he'd forget he's a hero and snap your neck.

Not advised to fight Aizawa. 5/10

Idia Shroud: His scrawny ass barely ever leaves his room, he hasn't lifted anything heavier than his phone ever, he's a flaming stick basically.

You could fight Idia. 7/10

Sesshomaru: He has very little mercy to spare and has killed a great deal of people and demons.

No fighting Sesshomaru. 2/10

Annie January: She is capable of blinding and throwing you across the room with a beam of light from her hands and can lift like thirty two times her bodyweight. Unless you also have superpowers, would not recommend.

Not advised to fight Annie. 5/10

Byleth: She's a skilled fighter on her own, but she also has an army of feral students ready to beat the shit out of anyone who messes with their proffessor.

No fighting Byleth. 4/10

Shatina: Her greatest joy is beating people up and watching them bleed, she steps on and torments even her closest allies on a near daily basis. She would crush you and the go right back to drinking.

No fighting Shatina. 4/10

Maeve: I'm actually not sure what kind of fighting ability she has, but why would you want to hurt a goddess?

No fighting Maeve. 5/10

Ban: He's a member of one of the strongest groups of fighters in the land, and he's able to almost immediately regenerate after any and all damage. Also, he's like 10 feet tall, what are you going to do? Chew on his ankles until they snap off? They grow right back.

No fighting Ban. 4/10

Joxter: Fucking feral cat man, too lazy to fight back. Kick his ass.

Fight Joxter. 8/10

Shigure Sohma: Please fight Shigure, please. I will put my bet on you and watch.

Please fight Shigure. 9/10

Vodka: She's used to fighting giant fallen angels, she'd have no trouble kicking your ass and looking good while doing it. Also, she could simply send her hawk Andre to peck out your eyes before she even has to do any work.

Not advised to fight Vodka. 5.5/10

Jordan 'JD' Davies: They're the Jersey Devil. Literally, the Jersey Devil. They'd burn you to a crisp with their fire powers. But, your chances of victory aren't zero if you could find a way to deal with that. They're strong, but you could find a way with a fist fight. Fuck knows they deserve to be fought.

You probably shouldn't but fight JD anyways. 7/10

Zoro: You're going to fight a guy who wields three swords? One of which he sticks in his mouth? He's clearly crazy. Also I'm pretty sure he cuts a mountain in half at some point or something like that? So there's that to take into consideration. You're best bet would be to also be amazing with swords.

No fighting Zoro. 3/10

Nami: She's not the most powerful out of all of all of her crew, but if you beat her you will leave afterwards and notice that your wallet and all your valuables that you had on you are missing and she's already sailing away.

You could fight Nami but you will be poor afterwards. 7/10

Mollymauk Tealeaf: Hasn't he been through enough?

No fighting Molly please. 5/10

Zora: She will turn you into a literal baby, how do you plan on beating her up as an infant with your chubby lil baby hands?

No fighting Zora: 4/10

And I wanted to include some familial too

Yukichi Fukuzawa: Have you seen him fight with a sword? You won't even see him draw it.

No fighting Fukuzawa. 2/10

Ogai Mori: He will trick you into thinking he's merely a simple, friendly neighborhood physician, and then the moment your back is turned there will be a scalpel buried deep in it. Also, he has a demon baby at his command.

No fighting Ogai. 2/10

Kouyou Ozaki: You might think you're sneaking up on her, but her Golden Demon will cut you down without her even needing to look away from admiring the flowers and sipping her tea.

No fighting Kouyou. 2/10

Oda Sakunosuke: HASN'T HE BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH.

No fighting Oda PLEASE. 4/10

Ranpo Edogawa: While he has eaten nothing but processed sugar since the day he was born, he will eviscerate you with his words and leave you too mentally beaten to lift a finger. Stuff your ears with some cotton and kick his scrawny ass. The rest of the detective agency will come after you, though.

Not advised but go ahead and fight Ranpo. 5/10

Yumeno Kyusaku: So much as look at this child wrong, much less lay a finger on them, and I will be the one fighting you.

NO FIGHTING YUMENO. 0/10

Lio Fotia: I know he looks like a dandy who was abandoned and raised by a biker gang, but he is also the strongest known burnish. The only thing saving you is his code against killing.

Not advised to fight Lio. 4/10

Laxus Dreyar: He's an asshole, and I completely understand wanting to fight him, but he is jacked as shit with the power of lightning at his finger tips.

It's not smart but I would like to watch you do it anyways. 2/10

Noctis Lucis Caelum: He'd rather fish than fight you, but he is capable of taking down giant monsters and mini armies with the ability to teleport. Tell him Hot Topic is going out of business and he'll crumble.

Not advised to fight Noctis but eh maybe you could. 4/10

Pretty sure all the people I would've tagged have already done it? So do this if you want to.

[fantroll-purgatory]

FIRST: Alternia or Beforus or some type of AU? Proximia babey!!

(Also quick note before I start I throw in a few small headcanons her and there mainly for the whole military arrangement and some about possible classism that weren’t mentioned in the original Proximia reference sheet so feel free to correct me if anything I said is wrong!) (I screamed when this came into the box. Thank you for expanding on my fanplanet!) -SA

Name: Temuji Cycero

Namesake: Named after Genghis Khan and Cicero because both her military and political ambitions plus what Genghis Khan did during his own rule fits well into what she would like to do for the Empire (and her whole story is generally very strongly based on him)

Age: ~9 sweeps (19 years)

Strife Specibus: saberkind and crossbowkind

Fetch Modus: Chess (She is given one of those almost finished games you know like in the newspapers where there is a few more moves to pull to win so she as to solve that in order get the item she needs) (Ooooh a Chessmaster. We’ll have to work this in as we go.)

Blood color: Violet

Symbol: Aquiborn, Sign of the Hedonist

 or Aquacen, Sign of the Avant-Garde

Trolltag: cholericGenghis

Quirk: /Like 7his./ (This would work especially well for Aquacen!)

Lusus: Not sure yet tbh, I was thinking maybe a turtle? I thought that maybe giving her a more “tame” and non-threatening lusus that tought her discipline, love, protection and to control herself would be a neat idea (Turtle-mom teaches Temuji to be TOUGH but together. Also, as a tangent- in Steven King’s It, the kids are aligned with a giant cosmic turtle that is the anthithesis to It’s fear-based entity powers.)

Oh man this leads me to question if there are different lusus rules on Proximia? Can violets have landdwelling lusii? Could a yellow have a seal? Could a rust have a dragonfly? What rules are there? Are we unfettered by both god and man? 

Personality: Temuji has a strong personality which she acquired from growing up in a more peaceful environment which shot down many of her military ambitions and both political and national defense ideas, but this did not turn her bitter nor did it turn her into a brute. She is cruel and snarky with her enemies and quick to shoot back with one of her witty remarks towards anyone who laughs at her ambitions, but always using her words instead of fists. She is a firm believer that words can sting even more so than wounds and that there is no need for violence where it is not necessary so she uses her cleverness to snap back in very provoking public call outs. She might be strict and disciplined but that doesn’t mean she isn’t ready to insult back if she feels she has been slighted. There is no denying she is a big advocate for forming a stronger and more organized Proximian military, though it isn’t as malicious as it may sound. This is mainly because of her fear of the Alternian conquerors and any others like them, she knows how dangerous it can get out there and with Proximia beginning to venture out into the unknown she wants to be ready for the worst. She also considers loyalty, steadfastness, valour and honesty to be the greatest virtues, and tries her best to live by them. She is open to new ideas and more than tolerant of other caste which is why she sees the Hemotraids as a far nicer reform of the brutal Alternian Hemospectrum, but only slightly less oppressive since she herself has been trying desperately to get into The Control Triad only to be laughed off along with her concerns as a silly fisherman kid insanely rambling to herself about war. It might seem on first glance that she dislikes Proximia but in all honesty all of her concerns come from wanting to better their already wonderful Empire as well as protect it. (She’s got some very valid concerns! Proximia hasn’t been discovered by the Condesce as of yet (they’re far enough off course that conventional wisdom is that she won’t go looking for them) but you never know with The Batterwitch.)

(I find it very amusing that she wants to be in the Control Triad like… she has no psychic powers and the Burgundies are like “Can you talk to ghosts? Can you MOVE OBJECTS WITH YOUR MIND?” and she’s like “…No. But I wanna be where the people are!” Being from the Worker Triad would definitely get her that kind of react for your average RBY blooded troll too, as they trend heavily towards the cosmopolitan, “posh” ways of life.)

Interests: History, legendary conquerors, military tactics, studying Alternia, politics and law, strategy board games, card games, debate, hunting (What she’d be able to get her hands on when it comes to Alternian lore is AT LEAST several centuries out of date, so it dovetails into her love of History really well! Does the ancient mongol look stem from that too? Is she trying to emulate a more Alternian style? Or is she thinking of Early Proximian Warlords, People-Who-Knew-The-Forgiven style?) (I feel like she HAS to have some interest in psionics and “lowblood” powers if she’s envious of the Control Triad. That’s their claim to fame, after all. Maybe she’s so interested in history PARTIALLY because of the myth of how The Forgiven turned the Mother Grub Fuschia? Maybe she has some desire to twist her own blood color by injecting psionic blood colors into her to obtain those powers, even if she rationalizes it away as silly and impossible.)

The idea of her having a fixation on like ESP and like, the ol’ Spoon Bending Trick is a hilarious concept. Catch her trying to figure out how to use her mental fortitude to turn the light on to no avail. 

Title: Witch of Rage or Blood (I think Blood is your way to go. Her goals are to warp the blood-based system she lives in to better benefit herself, her goals are all high minded and virtue based, AND she’s got the military influence.) (Witches of Blood are likely social innovators, given that they change and bend tethers and people’s bonds! The inverse, Seer of Breath, gives the Witch the knowledge to understand that all of these bonds are not set in stone- they’re things we CHOOSE and stick by, not proclamations of some greater power.)

Land: I couldn’t think of one to save my life

Maybe her quest could involved overcoming a conqueror, as a way to embody her desire to protect and form strong bonds? Land of Spires and Tyranny or some such? Or you could go with an imprisoned metaphor, the people of the planet are all in chains of bondage to the denizen and she has to unit them together to break out. Land of… Spires and Shackles? Options!

Dream Planet: Derse (This is a Derse player if I’ve ever seen one. Rebellion against biology as much as society? Natch.)

Appearance: I didn’t quite have the time or energy to draw out a full design but so far I know I want her to have an ancient mongolian themed hairstyle and as for clothes I’ve been looking for a way to incorporate the theme with a few adjustments to modernise it, make it look good and stop myself from going overboard with the theme/making it too gimmicky, so if you have any advice feel free to comment but if not never mind thanks for the review anyways!! ^^

I fussed with this for a while and I don’t know that it’s PERFECT, but I wanted to do what you said and take the general idea of some of the styles from traditional mongolian fashion and like, morph them into a more modern silhouette while Also retaining the idea that Temuji doesn’t actually have any knowledge of the fashion trends she’s trying to replicate and is just kinda making use of the remnants of the concepts. A lot to balance. 

We can also see here that she’s said fuck blood and is wearing rby colors, which SA has said would be seen as mildly childish/another reason she could be taken not-so-seriously. 

[thesportssoundoff]

“Look Real Close And You’ll See A Gem” The UFC in Fresno

Joey

December 3rd

Quite tired but here's what we're gonna do folks. Let's look at this card and discuss some cards and funsies, eh?

Fights: 13

Debuts: 4 (Markus Perez, Alex Perez, Benito Lopez, Merab Dvalishvilli)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 2 (Rani Yahya OUT, Marlon Moraes IN vs Aljamain Sterling/John Phillips OUT, Markus Perez IN vs Eryk Anders/Bryan Caraway OUT, Andre Soukhamthath IN vs Luke Sanders)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC):  4 (Cub Swanson, Albert Morales, Alexis Davis and Liz Carmouche)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC:  2 (Frankie Saenz, Andre Soukhamthath)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC:  5 (Cub Swanson, Brian Ortega, Aljamain Sterling, Alejandro Perez, Liz Carmouche)

Stat Monitor for 2017:

Debuting Fighters (Current number: 42-36)- Markus Perez, Alex Perez, Benito Lopez, Merab Dvalishvilli

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 23-36-1)- Andre Soukhamthat, Marlon Moraes

Second Fight (Current number: 29-38)- Trevin Giles, Davi Ramos, Carls John de Tomas, Eryk Anders

Cage Corrosion (18-13-1)- Antonio Braga Neto, Liz Carmouche

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1-  I've mentioned this before but this card is a total WEC card. A lot of "no name" talent that's  really good fighters all who have a propensity for exciting fights (minus Aljamain Sterling really and even he can finish) across weight classes that fans don't always care about. Throw in some exciting middleweight prospects going at it and you've got a pretty decent under the radar "there's gonna be action"  fight card. You just got a loaded PPV and there's a loaded Fox card next week so accept your no name action fight show and move on quietly.  

2- The situation of Cub Swanson is of much interest to me. Swanson's a fighter who has been in the ZUFFA fold seemingly forever (at least since I first started watching WEC events) but now there appears to be a potential split brewing. Cub, in many ways, is blocked from reaching the upper echelons of 145 lbs since just about every 145er of note has beaten him but he's still ultra entertaining, very talented, a top 5 featherweight in my eyes and there's nothing wrong with losses to Aldo, Lamas, Holloway and Edgar. So what do you do with a guy who is blocked by the elites of the division, wanting more money and chirping about thingss you'd prefer he didn't chirp about? I'm not really sure. Cub Swanson's still a valuable headliner for free TV in my estimation and it's a real shame and a bummer that we never got the fight with McGregor which would've been a lot of fun. Unfortunately for Cub, it looks like that opportunity may have passed him by and  his UFC future may be ending in Fresno.

3- Brian Ortega is....weird. As a fighter I mean. He's 26 years old and sometimes he fights like a guy who is still figuring things out. I've mentioned this before but sometimes learning what NOT to do is as important as doing the things you're expected to do. Ortega's first round is a weird mixture of trying to figure out what he can get away with it and then he spends most of the second round working to implement that. Against Clay Guida for instance, Ortega spent the whole second round trying to find a way to hit the knees which eventually ended the fight in the third round with like a minute left. He's young, flashy and versatile. While Cub Swanson is the best fighter he's ever going to face, we are talking about a guy who has faced off with Clay Guida and Thiago Tavares so he's not going to be overwhelmed by Cub's veteran savvy. His UFC career is a collection of late finishes that he spends long bits of time setting up and he's got that Robbie Lawler "I will finish you when I have to" air of inevitability about him when fights go long. He's a fourth quarter player. The one thing which stands out to me is that he fights very similarly to Jon Jones (minus the otherworldly athletic talent)----and Cub Swanson sees Jon Jones every day in the gym in theory. It'll be an interesting chess match early on.

4- So let's say Ortega wins, right? What then? Frankie Edgar is currently your #1 contender except he's also kinda sorta probably out a bit with a broken eye socket. I always assume those are six month-ish injuries so I guess you can do Edgar-Holloway in the spring. Ortega beating Cub Swanson would in theory set him up to fight Ricardo Lamas which would be great as a main card fight (similar to Holloway-Lamas) on a bigger PPV. Even that seems dicey because Josh Emmett could absolutely paste RIcardo Lamas and then you've got no obvious answer there either. Aldo should move on so you can't do that fight. Lot of great fighters but not great "names" I guess floating around 145 lbs.

5- Aljamain Sterling's UFC journey has been pretty weird. He's had 8 fights in the UFC and got off to a hot 4-0 start before he and the UFC started squabbling about his contract. He got a new deal, a renewed promotional push----and lost to Bryan Caraway. Then he lost to Rafa Assuncao. NEITHER of those losses are career enders but they were progress stoppers. Since then he's rebounded with a win over Tanquinho Mendes and a very impressive win over Renan Barao. Sterling is a guy who is clearly talented but maybe not to the liking of the UFC audiences for some reason. He still seems at times to struggle with strength and I'm still waiting for his hands to catch up with the rest of his game. Marlon Moraes is a weird challenge given that he's short notice, a vastly different style to Rani Yahya (Moraes hurts people really badly on the feet, Yahya is basically a five minute grappling whiz) and it's the highest profile fight of his career in terms of main card quality. Hopefully if Sterling wins, it's by fight stoppage so that the rest of the world can speed up alongside this moving train at 135 lbs.

6- What did Scott Holtzman and Darrell Horcher do to share a main card spot? Seriously.

7- Imagine the damage Eryk Anders would do if he had gotten into this sport a year or two earlier. Insanely powerful guy who is developing at a rapid rate and has the skills to really be a star in time. He draws short notice replacement Markus Perez who is a former RFA champion at 185 lbs.

8- Albert Morales vs Benito Lopez is a really interesting fight. Albert Morales was signed off of DWTCS and his first fight into the organization was TUF winner Alejandro Perez. That's a tough out and Morales in my honest opinion won that fight. He was rewarded off a draw with facing Thomas Almeida in Brazil which is SUCH a fucked up challenge for a dude. He had his moments but Almeida did with what he does to most outside the top 10 guys by fucking overwhelming him with offense. He took on Andre Soukhamthath next and won a close split decision before he took on Brett Johns on short notice and lost but had some moments. Morales is a tough stern task vs the 23 year old Benito Lopez out of TAM. Urijah Faber was very, very honest about Lopez, admitting that he's one of thiose guys who doesn't go 100% in the gym (or what TAM considers to be that) but who just goes out and performs. He got a big step up in Steven Peterson and he survived some tough tough situations vs a veteran to earn his UFC contract. Good tough fight for both guys.

9- Let's say Moraes beats Sterling. That means he's beaten Sterling and Moraes in a span of a month----so where's that rank among all time "consecutive great wins in a month"?

10- Luke Sanders is coming off a disappointing loss to Iuri Alcantara where he was dominant, got too cocky and eventually got finished with a kneebar by a proven veteran. I'm excited to see what he's improved at given how long it's been since we've seen him last. Sanders can be an eventual top 15 bantamweight but he needs to be a) more active and b) leave a no doubt about it type finish vs a short notice opponent in Andre Soukhamtath.

11- If I told you Liz Carmouche was one win away from being a viable #1 contender for this bantamweight title would you 1) agree, 2) disagree or 3) cry for the future of the division.

12-Merab Dvalishvili is a Matt Serra/Ray Longo prodigy out of Georgia who has a 7-2 record with two losses in his first three fights. One of them is to Ricky Bandejas who will be in the UFC eventually. He was found off of Looking For A Fight where he finished Raufeon Stots, another UFC quality talent, and in what seems to be a theme for Lookin For A Fight talent, Dana gave him a freakin' hellacious fight in Frankie Saenz. Saenz has a rather deceptive record on paper, the sort of record where an idiot who doesn't watch fights would assume he's some kind of a can. Saenz would probably be more successful at 125 lbs but he's beaten Sirwan Kakai and Iuri Alcantara with a close loss to Agusto Mendes, a back and forth war with Urijah Faber and a tough 3rd round TKO vs Eddie Wineland in a fight I felt he was winning.

Must Wins

1- Cub Swanson

I'm of the belief Swanson is gone regardless but there's a bit of a success record with guys in their last contracted fights winning big (Bader, Benson, Sterling, Overeem) so it's a bit of a lucky spot to be in. He draws a younger athletic bigger version of himself if you watched early Cub Swanson. He's not the usual prospect in that he's tasted adversity in the past and always comes back better. A win could reset Swanson's contract status or allow him to choose his own destiny. A win and he's heading to Bellator getting PAID.

2- Aljamain Sterling

Marlon Moraes is the highest ranked opponent he's ever been pitted against unless you count the cooked corpse of Renan Barao. Sterling in my opinion has title contender potential and has personality in a division that's coming into his own. He needs to beat Marlon Moraes to make a big step up the rankings.

3- Luke Sanders

Sanders is deceptively old in the bantamweight division (31) and is coming off a loss. He has the talent to be a top 10 bantamweight in a division that's getting younger and starting tor eally percolate. He's a unique talent with a tough short notice fight upcoming.

Five Must See Fights

1- Cub Swanson vs Brian Ortega

2- Marlon Moraes vs Aljamain Sterling

3- Albert Morales vs Benito Lopez

4- Markus Perez vs Eryk Anders

5- Andre Soukhamthath vs Luke Sanders

[bibliophileiz]

Wayward AF

Since I can’t really organize my thoughts without screaming and jumping up and down and I’m just going to, um, “liveblog” on like my ... sixth? ... rewatch. Wayward Sisters was just. So good.

Obviously, spoilers abound below.

- First thing first: Opening song in the Then sequence has me pumped.

- Werewolf stuff: Love that Claire is saving a little girl with blond curly hair. Bet she kind of wishes she had that happy an ending to her supernatural adventure when she was that age. Werewolf fight scene is really good -- Kathryn Newton’s using actual defense moves women are taught in self-defense classes. I’m specifically thinking of how you jam the heel of your hand into the softer part of an attacker’s face when he’s on top of you. “I kill monsters. That’s who the hell I am.” Yeah, it is. Also, for all Jody (and Claire) go on about Claire jumping in without a plan, I think the ‘shooting a werewolf through a box while wearing a delivery hat’ thing constitutes a pretty good one.

- Alert, Claire has a journal. Repeat, CLAIRE HAS A JOURNAL!

- Loving all the overhead shots, but does anyone else think it makes Sioux Falls look like a theme park? It just looks so pleasant from above.

- (I’m sure Sioux Falls is pleasant, although I wouldn’t know because I’ve never been to South Dakota, but it looks like, Disney Land pleasant is my point.)

- Alex called Walt.

- ”You’re wearing my sweatshirt.” 

- Related, how tall are all of these girls? Clark Backo looks like she’s almost as tall as her jeep, but the other women all only look a little shorter. (I am obsessed with tall girls because I myself am 5′1″.)

- All of these characters are wonderful, but Alex might be my favorite, which I didn’t expect.

- Walking into Kaia’s hospital room, Claire’s already got her flirt on, leaning against the door, flipping her hair around. Then she swoops in and saves her from the monster (with Jody’s help) a few minutes later. Kaia’s knight in a leather jacket. 

- Alex snapping her rubber gloves before ripping the monster’s face mask off is weirdly attractive.

- Did anyone EVER think they would see a scene between two women comparing SCARS??? That’s the sort of thing you see between gruff over-testosteroned dudebros in Steven Spielberg movies.

- “I might puke.” Patience did not sign up for this.

- “Don’t tell me it tastes like chicken.” “No Sam, it’s a lizard. It tastes like a lizard.”

- “(The door) stayed open for a few hours.” Dean, it stayed open for a few hours only because your ex-boyfriend killed himself closing it early, wtf, show Crowley some respect.

- “If I go now, maybe my dad will take me back.” “Is that what you want?” Alex “I was raised by vampires” Jones can’t figure out why someone would want to hang out with anyone but Jody.

- I am here for the Patience vs. Claire standoff.

- “Believe me now?” Claire just got told.

- D-Train Sheriff Donna “She’s killed a lot of vampires” Hanscum and she has all that because she’s from Minnesota. She has a nickname for Claire, and it’s Rainbow Brite and Claire responds to it and just ... ugh, my heart. Patience’s face when Donna asks who knows how to use a flamethrower just makes my life. I was honestly expecting her to be a little over the top because ... Donna’s over the top. But she had the perfect amount of humor, toughness and sweetness, and just, ugh. I love Donna in this one.

- There’s a lot to unpack in the scene between Kaia and Claire in the back of the jeep, and I’m gonna need a whole other post about it.

- “Donna, I cannot lose another child.” Crying forever for Jody.

- Does the music during the monster scene when Jody and Donna are sneaking through the ship remind anyone else of the music playing during the Mines of Moria sequence in Fellowship of the Ring when the fellowship’s running from the Balrog?

- “Darth Dickwad!” Maybe that should be included somehow in Claire and Kaia’s ship name.

- It makes a lot of sense that Kaia goes in because she kind of knows her way around the Bad Place.

- The defensive position Donna, Patience and Alex take againt the monsters at the top of the stairs is actually a really good one. They can hold their ground and take out the monsters one at a time, and the monsters can’t charge them all at once in the narrow stairway. Also, I don’t think they really need Jody to help hold off the monsters, and Jody could have gone in with Claire, which I thought she was going to suggest.  I really like how Jody’s kind of torn between helping Donna and the other girls and looking after Claire. Her maternal instincts are being pulled in two directions.

- I also super love Donna being a mentor to Patience. 

- “Our hero.” You better believe Claire’s your hero, Dean.

- Simultaneously the best and worst part of the episode Kaia shoves Claire out of the way of the spear. Great moment. She looks up and holds out her hand weakly. Claire grabs it and whispers, “Kaia.” Kaia’s hand slips out of hers as she dies. Gold. Followed immediately by this fucking WASTE OF SPECIAL EFFECTS, WHAT THE FUCK A GIANT ROCK MONSTER?!?!?!?!  I’m just saying, if you’re going to use your special effects budget, can you at least use it on a Lucifer-Michael battle that is cooler than them punching each other? Seriously? It’s just. The monster was menacing enough when we just heard it crashing through the forest, you didn’t need to ruin it with the stick figure monster. (Rock figure? It was kind of bulky.) I’m just saying, the time spent showing us a not-very-realistic monster could have been spent drawing out the drama of Kaia’s death scene. It’s just. It could have been like Boromir’s death scene in Fellowship of the Ring. (I know I keep comparing aspects of this episode to Fellowship. Trust me. That’s a good thing.) It. Could. Have. Been. Great. If it had been given more time to breathe. And I guess you can make the argument that it’s supposed to happen pretty quickly because the portal’s closing and the monster’s coming and Dean’s having to grab Claire to keep her from charging at spear-throwing Dark Kaia, which is also a great moment, but that argument is kind of weak when they spend, like, five minutes standing by the portal staring at the shitty monster when they really should have just jumped through it as soon as they reached it. As I said, simultaneously best and worst part of the episode. Really really good death scene, marred by the hideously designed rock giant monster thing. (Also, if we hadn’t seen the monster, then tumblr would have spent the next six months arguing over whether it was a dinosaur or a dragon or a giant, and I could have thrived on that shit.)

- Patience killed a monster!

- I also like that Patience realizes her vision was true but that she read it wrong. She saw someone die and then saw Jody cradling Claire in her arms and just assumed Claire was the one who died. She doesn’t realize until it’s too late that Claire was actually mourning the person who died. I’m a fan of Patience having to learn how to read her psychic visions.

- In fact, I’m just a fan of everything about Patience in general. I want her and Alex to be besties too. I feel like they’d bond over science and schooling, and Claire would make sarcastic comments about them being nerds together.

- Dean better feel bad for Kaia’s death after threatening her with a gun, that’s all I’m saying. 

- I like the idea of Jody and Co. taking care of the monsters from the Bad Place (especially if Dark Kaia is going to keep opening portals), but I hope there are some Supernatural Verse monsters in Wayward too -- I feel like Claire still has a few bones to pick with angels, and Alex can take out some more vampires.

- Claire’s internal monologue at the end reminds me of Veronica Mars. I wonder if they plan to have Claire do an internal monologue for all the episodes if the show gets picked up. Not sure how I feel about that -- internal monologues can get really cheesy really quickly, but some actresses can pull them off. (It actually doesn’t work as well when men do it for some reason.)

- “I don’t care if I have to tear another hole in the universe. We’re going to find it, and I’m going to kill it.”

- I can’t see Kaia show back up at the end without breaking into a huge grin. I know it’s supposed to be, like, a dark version of her, but I can’t help it.

- Overall, I’m psyched and I hope this can be a show. I’m telling all my friends who have sort of gotten away from watching Supernatural to try this one out. It will make an amazing show, and I REALLY want to see Claire’s reaction to like jerking the hood off and seeing KAIA!!

- (Also I want an episode where they have to deal with angel shenanigans, and they’re like, “We don’t know anything about angels, let’s call the Winchesters” but Sam and Dean are busy, so they send Cas, and he’s there all awkward and nerdy and totally hitting it off with Alex, and Patience is so confused because maybe by this time she’s seen pictures of Claire’s parents, and she’s just like, “Isn’t that your dad?” and Claire’s like, “Ugh.”)

- 10/10 would watch Wayward Sisters if it became a show.

[tanyaodebra]

You 2.2: “Just the Tip” – Of the Iceberg

“Just the Tip” opens on a fish market, because so many things about both Joe and Love are very fucking fishy. Catfish, anyone? (The penis-y title paired with a vaginal allusion has not gone unnoticed, btw.) Our resident cool girl saunters from table to table loudly demonstrating her seafood savvy, so I’m holding strong to the idea that she might be baiting our antihero to serve him on a platter. Unable to stay in reality for two consecutive minutes, Joe takes a stroll down memory lane to the moment he believes his Love story began – one whole week ago with his arrival at LAX. There he spots a celeb to whom he immediately and favorably compares himself by employing the ultimate backdoor brag, praising himself for being so humble. Must be tough to be perfect.

The next stop on Joe’s journey to Love brings us to the inception of his new identity, where the real Will Bettelheim shows just how much he deserves everything that’s coming to him by daring to bitch about GMOs and the state of animal farming in Joe’s presence. Joe has hired Will to scrub his identity, but that’s not good enough for our Joe. As usual, he wants what he can’t, or shouldn’t, have; in this case, it’s Will’s identity. In a moment of cosmic irony, Will blurts out the whole conceit for You, that no one ever suspects white guys. He quickly feels the consequences of his own miscalculation as Joe cracks his skull with a cement brick. The timeline jumps ahead close to where we left off at the end of the last episode, when Joe is trying to figure out who Jasper is and why he came looking for Will. Shocker, the guy Joe hired off Craigslist and who had to scrub his own identity is into some shady shit. Looks like Will owes Dark Web Jasper three large for services never rendered. This is no sweat for a professional book counterfeiter like Joe, especially since LA is full of dumb-dumbs who will buy anything. Something about this feels a little too easy.

Back to the fishmonger’s ball where Love, who is serving major Liv Tyler in Empire Records vibes, demonstrates that she has absolutely zero healthy boundaries by kissing Joe for the first time completely out of the blue. A sucker for “romance,” Joe takes his own slapshot in this game of tonsil hockey and gets nothing but net with the catch of the day. Uh-oh, look out. Is that… Beck lurking in the shadows? Ex-girlfriends, amirite? They just don’t know when to stay dead and buried. Lucky for Joe, she’s vanished as swiftly as she appeared. In the meantime, Joe the daydreamer has missed Love’s proposition: lunch with her friends. If memory serves, Joe wasn’t too fond of his old girlfriend’s pals. In fact, he even murdered one (RIP Peach Salinger). That Love is pressing Joe to meet her buddies so soon might be another hint that she is fucking with him. Or maybe she’s a big old roll of cling-wrap attempting to cover the world’s deepest black hole, and now he’s going for a walk on the stalk-ee side of the street. Either way, it’s pretty karmic.

Out at the dumpster behind Anavrin, an affable fellow calls out to Joe, or rather, to Will. Jasper (Steven W. Bailey) isn’t nearly as scary as we may have imagined, and it seems Joe will be able to pay up and be done with the whole messy business – that is, until Joe discovers Will owes fifty grand, not three. And here’s where the joke in the title of the episode pays off. Jasper cuts off the tip of Joe’s pinky finger, throws it on ice and keeps it as collateral for the balance of the debt, all with a smile on his face. Looks like Joe should have listened to his mentor, Ellie, when she called the guy a creep. When Joe circles back to the plexiglass prison where he’s storing the real Will, he finds a sniveling mess in dire need of his meds. Even though Will can barely function, he’s somehow able to recall a fifty thousand-dollar IOU Joe can claim. In order to hunt those ducats, Joe must cancel his lunch date with Love and her squad. Upon receiving the news, Love, who knows no bounds, returns a text with a fucking phone call. Like, I don’t believe in The Rules, but come on. Show a modicum of chill. Of course, Lonely Boy doesn’t have any boundaries either, so he finds this adorable. He comes up with an alibi blaming Forty, which Love does not seem to buy, and decides to go to the lunch anyway in the capacity of a cap-wearing creep peeping from behind a plant. To Joe’s surprise, the group decides they like the sound of him, and he reciprocates with his own stamp of approval. It seems Beck’s ghost does not approve of Joe’s happiness, because here she is again, cockblocking from the other side.

Remember Joe has a severed finger? He finally does, too. Joe must endure a noontime LA party to find Will’s debtor, Rufus, endearingly named in a nod to Penn Badgley’s Gossip Girl father. Guests at the party just will not believe that Joe is not John Mayer, and they honestly might be right. Dude looks EXACTLY like John Mayer, a true fact that I hadn’t noticed before. As he traipses around the party, he spots the celeb from the airport –  a comedian named Hendy (Chris D’Elia). Guess who else is at this party? Delilah the landlady. Small world made smaller by the fact that she knows Rufus, and also Hendy. When he notice’s Joe’s hand, Hendy recommends the same microsurgeon as Jake, which shores up Joe’s good opinion of Hendy earlier earned in a brief Google search. Delilah vehemently disagrees, storming out of the party. We learn later that Hendy raped her when she was seventeen. Delilah points to this experience as the reason she sees right through Joe’s bullshit – she knows he’s bad news and she warns him to stay away from her and Ellie. Back at the party, Joe finds Rufus who hands over a huge bag, not of money but of pills – Will’s meds.

Joe doubles back to his (or Will’s) place to tend to his wound, and of course Love turns up uninvited, and she is displeased. You guys, I fucking love soap operas. Guess who Forty is to her? Her fucking TWIN BROTHER! I live for this shit. According to common knowledge, twins share everything, so now Love knows Joe lied about his reason for bailing on her friends. While Joe spins some wild yarn in his head about doing all this crazy shit so they can be together, she whips out the dead husband card in order to emotionally strongarm Joe into being her boyfriend. And since this is exactly the type of shit Joe lives for, everybody’s favorite ghost steals the scene again, which makes Joe flip his lid. It’s like, can’t a guy do a few little murders and then live in blissful peace? Love draws the line at yelling (boy is she in for a surprise if she gets to see his true colors) and hightails it out of there. Perfect, because Joe really needs to see to that finger.

Joe meets Jasper at the storage unit. Seeing that he’s never going to raise his dough from the whimpering puddle otherwise known as Will, Jasper lunges at Joe. But Joe is a seasoned killer and he takes Jasper out lickety-split, butchering him Sweeney Todd-style and ditching trash bags filled with his ground-up body in a dumpster. Right alongside this scene, Love hacks away at a rack of lamb with a large butcher knife. As she prepares the rest of her dinner, she cracks a couple of eggs with one hand. Vivisected balls much? Joe shows up at Love’s door – even that psychopath knows to text first – and he bravely drops the knowledge he learned from Beck’s ghost; it’s not that he’s afraid of getting hurt, it’s that he’s afraid of hurting her. Love does all the heavy lifting for him and warps this loud siren into whatever she wants to hear, which is that they need to be in a relationship. Let me remind you once again that it has only been ONE WEEK. Love pulls the classic high school move of claiming friendship when her motives of partnering are so, so transparent. Both are playing this game, though, so Joe is delighted by her willingness to wait for him. Aw! Gross!

And just like that, old Joe is right back in his comfort zone – panty-snatchin’ and trophy-hidin’. This is a pretty high bar to set for episode two; Joe’s only been in LA for one week and he’s already got a body count. Can’t wait for episode three! See You then!

[bobalafullaaaaaaaaa]

was tagged by @duckybeth99 !! I gotta tag 25 people at the end but I ain't doin that

LAST:
Last drink: orange juice before bed 🍊
Last phone call: uhhhh one of the 200 patients I had to make appointments for yesterday
Last text message: 🤡🔪
Last song you listened to: oh it was this neat mashup of the Luigi's Mansion theme and a Missy Elliot song on SoundCloud
Last time I cried: I don't cry a lot! but uhh it was actually. Tuesday bc I uhhhh fucked up at work and mom was yelling at me 
HAVE YOU EVER: 
Dated someone twice: nobody thinks I'm good enough to date me for more than uhhhh two weeks so ha! No
Been cheated on: again, no one wants to date me so cheating isn't really an option
Kissed someone and regretted it: ANY time I kiss someone would be a Ragret bc that's uhhh my worst fear
Lost someone special: not in the sense hat this means (death) but I've had way to many fallouts/betrayals (?) by close friends that have fuckin wrecked me (boy oh boy I am a social hermit I Can't Trust People and Don't Want To)
Been depressed: end of high school (like last 2 years) was. really really bad for many reasons (the whole situation with mom's boyfriend, all my "friends" fuckin havin a great time pickin on me and singling me out, general school stuff, etc)
Been drunk and thrown up: nope! 
IN THE PAST YEAR HAVE YOU: Made a new friend: yes!! the past month actually!
Fallen out of love: I don't know if it was love in the first place so I can't say < : / (but it wasn't in this past year actually)
Laughed until you cried: absolutely (thank you mcelroys)
Met someone who changed you: not in this past year!
Found out who your true friends were: this is a question for High School Me bc oh boy that was... hard (true friends? at the time it was One Person from tumblr bc absolutely everybody fuckin turned on me INCLUDING school staff I thought I was good with, I was so fuckin lonely lol)
Found out someone was talking about you: yes but in a good way! mom told me she heard the patients talking in the waiting room about what a good job I do ^^

GENERAL: 
How many people on tumblr do you know in real life?: people I met irl first? god uhh nobody. people I met online and then met irl: 2 lol
Do you have any pets?: too many,,, it's so much work,,,, 2 dogs 2 cats 1 bearded dragon 2 turtles 1 fish 1 bird 1 hamster (brother's) 1 Betta (mom's)
Do you want to change your name?: Not legally, like officially, but when I start Making Content I wanna go by Clara and not Madeline
What time did you wake up this morning?: I wake up at 6 everyday for class and today I was supposed to sleep in but here I am laying in bed for two hours bc I can't sleep so. 6 again
What were you doing last night?: oh I saw the second kingsman movie!! not as good as the first but unpop opinion I liked it Name something you cannot wait for: UHHHH HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS TONIGHT
Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: my grandfather and my uncle's names are Tom lol (and my brother's middle name)
What’s getting on your nerves right now?: my mom and how frustrated she gets (then proceeding to take it out on me)
Blood type: I think I'm B!
Nickname: Clara, Sissy, Mattie (in a couple discord servers uhhh Slappy)
Relationship status: single (ace aro looking for several quasiplatonic friends)
Zodiac sign: Sagittarius! (I actually fall into the category of the unofficial 13th sign jdbsjdbdj but also in Sagittarius)
Pronouns: she/her!
Favorite tv show: currently it's Boku No Hero Academia but I think of all time that's gonna be. Kim Possible
College: UCF CHARGE ONTO THE FIELD, WITH OUR SPIRITS WE'LL NEVER YIELD, VICTORY IS OUR CRY, V-I-C-T-O-R-Y, TONIGHT OUR KNIGHTS WILL SHIIIIINE
Hair color: brown : 0c
Do you have a crush on someone: nope!
What do you like about yourself: I think I'm a pretty good leader type,,, I'm really good at getting the most out of whatever experience I'm in, and my art has been improving lately! I think I can get a Andre on new materials fairly easily and my construction uhh in. general is pretty solid. I have a good hand/feel for whatever I'm working with

FIRSTS: 
First surgery: hasn't happened yet!
First piercing: nope ain't nothin gonna pierce me
First sport you joined: I think it was softball when I lived in Maine?
First vacation: probably was up to Pennsylvania over the summer as a kid!
First pair of sneakers: I'm one f those Sketcher's girls
Eating: currently nothin but the last thing I ate was. jesus uhhh I think some caramel corn in the movie theater 
Drinking: nothin! Again, last night some OJ before bed
I’m about to: get up and start the daily grind Saturday Edition™
Listening to: nothin! I guess tho the sound of my mom snorin in the other room and my cat purring really loud while she pulls my hair over my pillow
Want kids: no and pregnancies really creep me out I think they're uhhh A Squick
Get married: nah prolly not! don't wanna commit to a relationship like that cuz if it goes sour what the hell you gonna do other than lose half your money, heartbreak, and anxiety
Career: I think the more immediate answer is that I'd like to have a show running in tv ala Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, etc, but dream job and big goal? I wanna be a character designer for nintendo. specifically zelda stuff


WHICH IS BETTER: 
Lips or eyes: eyes? I'm not a Romantic person but in drawing I like eyes better than mouths. I think? if it was mouths it might be a tough choice but it says lips. 
Hugs or kisses: hugs, again
Shorter or taller: I'd rather be taller!
Older or younger: younger folks make a lot of necessary mistakes but I think this is a question about dating and I'd rather date someone a little older who's already made those mistakes
Romantic or spontaneous: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 
Sensitive or loud: I listen I music pretty loud in my car but otherwise I'm pretty sensitive to loud noise
Hook up or relationship: ?????
Troublemaker or hesitant: troublemaker. I don't make trouble really but I'm certainly not hesitant 
HAVE YOU EVER: 
Kissed a stranger: nope
Drank hard liquor: nuh uh Lost glasses/contacts: don't wear em!
Sex on first date: what first date
Broken someone’s heart: probably!
Been arrested: not me!
Turned someone down: yes. 
Fallen for a friend: not sure! 
DO YOU BELIEVE: 
In yourself: yes ^^ I can't afford not to if I wanna get to my goal!
Miracles: they can happen! but it's not like "gods will" or whatever just crazy coincidence that happens to benefit one person
Love at first sight: it's lust at first sight. how the hell can you love who someone is by looking at them. it's lust
Heaven: I think this is a concept people have come up with for millenia bc the idea of just Leaving and not existing anymore is too scary 
Santa Claus: I used to! ahhh good times

I tag @phantomtype @lyzardy @pennydreadfuljournal @trickortreatryo @lyesander !!!

[jonjost]

Drawing: Stephen Lack

Following the conspiracy lead of Steve Bannon and Breitbart, Donald Trump has grumbled and tweeted often about the Deep State, the purported nefarious grouping of hidden government persons lurking in the depths of the massive Federal apparatus of myriad acronymic masks.  ICE NSA FBI CIA and on through to lesser known but equally evil entities.  These are alleged to be conclaves, variously, of members of the Harvard elite, Yale’s Skull and Bones, Jewish cabalists, covens of Christian Fundamentalists, or whichever cluster-fuck you wish to designate, surely there will be a website or more devoted to reading the tea-leaves of the signals emitted from these organizational black holes and their swirling galaxies.  Right and Left wing chatterboxes selectively cherry-pick whatever political tid-bits they wish and construct fabulist narratives around them, from the assassination of JFK to that of MLK to 9/11 and on to the Boston Marathon bombing.  The existence of the internet gives wide berth for these to spawn, however false or true they might be.

Extracted from these events come tomes from scholars, Hollywood movies, novels and the rantings of Limbaugh, Hannity, Alex Jones and a host of lesser names.  There’s millions to be made from these, and those mentioned have made theirs and more.  Like America’s religious hucksters, there’s a lot of money to be made preying on the gullible and fearful, with which it seems our country is plentifully supplied.  Welcome to the world of QAnon.   It’s American as Apple Pie.

The Lakewood Mega-church, Dallas TX

For decades – well actually far longer than that, for centuries  – America has been awash with conspiracy theories, reaching back to its founding.  There were always traitors loose in the land, lluminati, the anti-christ, double-agents for foreign powers, the entire gamut of customary political war-horses, broad-brushes with which to paint your enemy. Today’s landscape is nothing new, just that for brief periods we like to pretend it ain’t so.

But, myths aside, it’s all the same old same old.  As is governance itself.

Two deep-state members, John Brennan and General Michael Hayden, former chiefs of the CIA

Conspiracy theories, to take root, need soil, and the United States government has been rich tilling land for as long as its been around.  Within long-term living memory those range from major matters, such as the concept that FDR and the government knew Pearl Harbor was coming, and let it happen.  Jump ahead half a century, and the same it true of 9/11.  In both cases there is ample evidence to suggest they are true, though the makers of American mythology adamantly insist that only a tin-foil hatter would believe such malarkey.  After all, who could believe that our own government would allow such events to occur when their job is to protect us?  Only a true nutter could believe such a thing, regardless of the massive evidence and logical reasons for such a thing to fit properly into a narrative.

And the same goes for lesser items from the assassination of JFK requiring magic bullets, and on down to such trivial things as using members of the military as guinea pigs for “scientific” experiments, or, well, hell, using whole cities like San Francisco to experiment with some new biological dispersal weapon.  Or letting St. George, Utah, knowingly be a nice down-wind recipient of nuclear bomb test radiation and then spending decades denying the cancerous downside.  In fact, the more one knows about Uncle Sam the more fertile the soil one finds for tin-foil hat thoughts.

Enter Donald, the wanna-be Queen’s tough guy sporting a giant borough-wide chip on his shoulder.  A self-made man, so he insists (that million buck starter kit from Dad don’t count), he broke into the hard-as-nails world of Manhattan real-estate and built a solid gold (well, at least gold-plated) reputation as a party-animal, womanizer, builder of garish towers, possessor of serial-wives and of serial bankruptcies.  And despite all that he wasn’t welcomed into the fold of the Manhattan elite, and here, decades later, bearing a grudge that deforms his face and body, and weighs on him like a WWF wrestler, he’s out to let them have it. Descending his golden escalator but 3 years ago, met by his adoring rent-a-crowd, he tossed his hat in the Presidential circus ring, and to wide amazement and laughter promptly vanquished the supposedly serious Republican candidates with school-yard taunts, and thereafter sent the world into shock when Hillary Clinton lost to him as well, if not in the general vote, then in the dubious Electoral College. The world has been aghast since, as The Donald charges like a raging bull, upsetting one institutionally rooted apple-cart after another, shredding the polite decorum and language of our traditional politics, and causing serious harm to the status quo.  Just like he said he would.

Well, almost.

  Having promised to “drain the swamp” The Don instead stocked the beltway with more alligator sleaze than anyone thought conceivable, stacking his Cabinet with grifters ready to dismantle their respective departments, and to feed at the Federal trough as quickly and mercilessly as possible.  Having reduced his GOP Congressional majorities to the quivering sycophants they always were, our gangster godfather trashed protocols, ripped up treaties and obsessively uprooted anything having to do with Barack Hussein Obama while loudly bellowing his utterly unmasked racism.  Supposedly serious Republicans held their silence while the Tea Party wing cheered lustily and the Don’s racist base went bananas.  Doubtless never having actually read it, the man sworn to uphold the US Constitution, did, as G W Bush had suggested, and treated it as “a goddam piece of paper.”   Toilet paper in this instance.

All of this behavior has transpired with little more than murmurs from the official opposition, the Democrats, who hide behind their minority status in the House and Senate whimpering there’s nothing they can do, their hands are tied until November, the mystical season of voting when the Great American Public is allowed to choose between corporately approved specimen A or B. And besides, they are as beholden to their corporate masters as the GOP, and should they speak too loudly the full depths of both-sides-of-the-aisle corruption would be fully exposed.   Until then the pages of YouTube and Facebook are awash with videos of virulent racists yelling and screaming on camera, police killing blacks for being black, ICE round-ups of alleged illegal aliens, children stored in ex-Walmart boxes converted to instant prisons, and other pleasantries of the present American mental landscape, the ugly id of the nation having been exposed by Trump’s tearing off of the band-aid of PC politeness imposed by the prior administration.

Faced with this rupture of politics-as-normal, the nation has contorted itself into the unimaginable:  the liberal-left now looks upon the FBI, the CIA and NSA as potential saviors, while the right, formerly the supposed champions of fiscal and moral rectitude, law & order, balanced budgets, goody-two-shoes ethics and virulent anti-Commie/Russiaphobes morphed instantaneously into Russiaphiles, haters of the deep-state combine of the FBICIANSA, and rabid pigs at the trough of corruption and racism.  And not only trickle down economics, but also trickle down ethics, in this case in the form of terminal corruption.  Hence the plague of YouTube racism and cop-killer videos.

You’re Fired!  Former FBI Chief Comey

Enter the deep rumblings of the Deep State.  Famed for having intervened in an attempted Richard Cheney machination during a breathless hospital visit to then Attorney General Ashcroft who lay seriously ill, while Cheney-Bush henchmen sought to secure his signature for a program of dubious legality, wearing his cloak as Ashcroft’s chief assistant, James Comey, life-long Republican, became a belated liberal hero, as did fellow Republican, Robert Mueller, then head of the FBI.  See this for the full story.    And now, a decade and some later, these two emerge from the deep bowels of the government yet again in tandem.  As FBI chief, appointed by Obama and retained by Donald Trump, Comey was pressed by his new boss to swear a certain kind of loyalty, mob-style. Declining, he was summarily fired, though in a manner in which in the arcane convolutions of government he was able to secure the naming of a special counsel to investigate Russian skullduggery during the 2016 election. The Special Counsel named was none other than Robert Mueller.  And not only that, but Comey also also did so in a manner which required Trump lackey Richard Sessions, Director of the Justice Department, to recuse himself from the investigation.    All this served well for Trump to loudly complain that he was being undercut and back-stabbed by the Deep State, of which Trump cohort Steven Bannon and his program Breitbart had long complained.

Drawing by Stephen Lack

The news of the day of late swirls with the constant word of criminality in high places – the current Manafort trial pealing the skin off the fancy-suited world of business and politics, with fantastical numbers, a litany of off-shore banking havens, and enough moral sleaze to last forever.  Or until the next, around-the-corner, trial to reveal still deeper depravity.   Or Avenatti’s latest lurid spill of The Don’s hushed-up sex-capades.

James Clapper, former head of the NSA

Legally, lying to a Congressional committee is a crime, whether under oath or not, punishable by up to five years in prison, or in some instances more.  James Clapper was head of the NSA,  (whom it turns out went to Annandale HS, Fairfax VA, 1956-60, same time I did, though I do not recall knowing him then, but my sister does), in testimony to Congress lied.  Caught at it, he recanted in a Clintonesque manner, parsing the exact meaning of “spying” etc.

John Brennan, Ex-Director of CIA

Mr Brennan, former director of the CIA, outspoken of late regarding Donald Trump -saying his comportment in Helsinki was “treasonous” – is himself in a problematic position, having also lied to Congress, just as did Clapper.  In his case regarding torture and such nice things.

And of course Mr Comey, fired director of the FBI, is also accused by some of lying, or at least fudging regarding leaks from his office.  All in all, a charming cluster of characters, all deeply enmeshed in governmental agencies which traffic in secrecy as a part of their function.  Naturally a good setting for conspiratorial actions.  So small wonder that thoughts of a Deep State tend to focus on this area, along with the military.

That this nexus of fellows engaged in the sordid arts of secrecy and executors of the dirty deeds of the US government should all re-emerge in unison, though this time wearing super-hero cloaks for some liberals, indeed raises a peculiar stench, the smell of something rotten deep in the bowels of America’s government: Yes, Virginia, there is a secret Deep State.

  And yes, it seeks to defend its institutional status and powers, just as do almost all bureaucratic institutional organizations.  In this case, these institutions (and 14 other “security” organizations under the umbrella of the Unites States Government), all seek to carry out their jobs as protectors of the corporate/business powers for which and on behalf of which that government exists.  And when by some quirk of circumstance, something or someone inimical to those interests occurs, it is their function to work together to challenge and defeat that intruding force.  And such, in the instance of Donald John Trump, is the case.

Were the Republican Party a healthy political party in American terms, it would have never allowed Trump to emerge as its nominee for President.  In a “healthy” state it would have vetted him, researched his background, and done whatever was necessary to assure he did not become their candidate.  But the Republican Party, like the rest of the society it is rooted in, is, exactly as is the Democrat Party, utterly corrupt, and has been so for some decades, steadily rotting away until it became a steaming fetid swamp of oligarchism marinated in All-American racism. The Democrats were equally corrupt, utterly owned by corporate powers, and utterly out-of-touch with what neo-liberal policies – their policies – had done to broad areas of the American public.

And as were and are the political parties of the USA, so too all its institutions are corrupt:  the Congress, the Courts, the Executive Branch, the 5th Estate, the corporate world, Wall Street.  Every. Damn. One. Of. Them.

So it is little wonder that along with all these pillars of American society that the Deep State is likewise corrupt.  Any decent working Deep State would have some time ago arranged a plausibly deniable accident, be it on the ground, Air Force One, or a berserk White House Guard, and Trump would already be fodder for further conspiracy theorists to figure out who done it.   But thus far, confronted with the Keystone Kops of the inept, obvious, utterly corrupted government of the most comical Don imaginable, the hard-men of the Deep State have thus far fumbled the ball, and the Trump gang, though snookered by their own glaring stupidity, is still standing.

So yes, Don, yes there is a Deep State, and it is certainly out to get you.  But it is just like you, and is inept and as flaccid as your butt is, unable to shift from the SOP of the Cold War to a world in which Tweets shift the market up and down and idiocy rules the White House, and few care if the President consorts with prostitutes and stuffs his government full with nepotism and cronyism.  After all, most of them are doing exactly the same things.

Meantime America burns.

Trump supporters, Florida

Painting by Stephen Lack

California forest fires seen from above the clouds

The Deep State and the Don(ald) Drawing: Stephen Lack Following the conspiracy lead of Steve Bannon and Breitbart, Donald Trump has grumbled and tweeted often about the…

[writingguide003-blog]

44 Writing Hacks From Some of the Greatest Writers Who Ever Lived

New Post has been published on https://writingguideto.com/must-see/44-writing-hacks-from-some-of-the-greatest-writers-who-ever-lived/

44 Writing Hacks From Some of the Greatest Writers Who Ever Lived

Writing looks fun, but doing it professionally is hard. Like really hard. Why on earth am I doing this?-hard.

Which is probably why so many people want to write, yet so few actually do. But there are ways to make it easier, as many writers can tell you. Tricks that have been discovered over the centuries to help with this difficult craft.

In another industry, these tricks would be considered trade secrets. But writers are generous and they love to share (often in books about writing). They explain their own strategies for how to deal with writers block to how to make sure your computer never eats your manuscript. They give away this hard-won knowledge so that other aspiring writers wont have to struggle in the same way. Over my career, Ive tried to collect these little bits of wisdom in my commonplace book (also a writers trick which I picked up from Montaigne) and am grateful for the guidance theyve provided.

Below, Ive shared a collection of writing hacks from some amazing writers like Kurt Vonnegut, George Orwell, Stephen King, Elizabeth Gilbert, Anne Lamott, and Raymond Chandler. I hope its not too presumptuous but I snuck in a few of my own too (not that I think Im anywhere near as good as them).

Anyway, heres to making this tough job a tiny bit easier!

[*] When you have an idea for an article or a bookwrite it down. Dont let it float around in your head. Thats a recipe for losing it. As Beethoven is reported to have said, If I don’t write it down immediately I forget it right away. If I put it into a sketchbook I never forget it, and I never have to look it up again.

[*] The important thing is to start. At the end of John Fantes book Dreams from Bunker Hill, the character, a writer, reminds himself that if he can write one great line, he can write two and if he can write two he can write three, and if he can write three, he can write forever. He pauses. Even that seemed insurmountable. So he types out four lines from one of his favorite poems. What the hell, he says, a man has to start someplace.

[*] In fact, a lot of writers use that last technique. In Tobias Wolffs autobiographical novel Old School, the character types the passages from his favorite books just to know what it feels like to have those words flow through his fingertips. Hunter S. Thompson often did the same thing. This is another reason why technologies like ebooks and Evernote are inferior to physical interaction. Just highlighting something and saving it to a computer? Theres no tactile memory there.

[*] The greatest part of a writers time is spent in reading; a man will turn over half a library to make one book. Samuel Johnson

[*] Tim Ferriss has said that the goal for a productive writing life is two crappy pages a day. Just enough to make progress, not too ambitious to be intimidating.

[*] They say breakfast (protein) in the morning helps brain function. But in my experience, thats a trade-off with waking up and getting started right away. Apparently Kurt Vonnegut only ate after he worked for 2 hours. Maybe he felt like after that hed earned food.

[*] Michael Malice has advised dont edit while you write. I think this is good advice.

[*] In addition to making a distinction between editing and writing, Robert Greene advises to make an equally important distinction between research and writing. Trying to find where youre going while youre doing it is begging to get horribly lost. Writing is easier when the research is done and the framework has been laid out.

[*] Nassim Taleb wrote in Antifragile that every sentence in the book was a derivation, an application or an interpretation of the short maxim he opened with. THAT is why you want to get your thesis down and perfect. It makes the whole book/essay easier.

[*] Break big projects down into small, discrete chunks. As I am writing a book, I create a separate document for each chapter, as I am writing them. Its only later when I have gotten to the end that these chapters are combined into a single file. Why? The same reason it feels easier to swim seven sets of ten laps, than to swim a mile. Breaking it up into pieces makes it seem more achievable. The other benefit in writing? It creates a sense that each piece must stand on its own.

[*] Embrace what the strategist and theorist John Boyd called the draw-down period. Take a break right before you start. To think, to reflect, to doubt.

[*] On being a writer: All the days of his life he should be reading as faithfully as his partaking of food; reading, watching, listening. John Fante

[*] Dont get caught up with pesky details. When I am writing a draft, I try not to be concerned with exact dates, facts or figures. If I remember that a study conducted by INSERT UNIVERSITY found that XX% of businesses fail in the first FIVE/SIX? months, thats what I write (exactly like that). If I am writing that on June XX, 19XX Ronald Reagan gave his famous Tear Down This Wall speech in Berlin in front of XX,XXX people, thats how its going to look. Momentum is the most important thing in writing, so Ill fill the details in later. I just need to get the sentences down first. “Get through a draft as quickly as possible.” is how Joshua Wolf Shenk put it.

[*] Raymond Chandler had a trick of using small pieces of paper so he would never be afraid to start over. Also with only 12-15 lines per page, it forced economy of thought and actionwhich is why his stuff is so readable.

[*] In The Artists Way, Julia Cameron reminds us that our morning pages and our journaling dont count as writing. Just as walking doesnt count as exercise, this is just priming the pumpits a meditative experience. Make sure you treat it as such.

[*] Steven Pressfield said that he used to save each one of his manuscripts on a disk that hed keep in the glovebox of his car. Robert Greene told me he sometimes puts a copy of his manuscript in the trunk of his car just in case. I bought a fireproof gun safe and keep my stuff in therejust in case.

[*] My editor Niki Papadopoulos at Penguin: Its not what a book is. Its what a book does.

[*] While you are writing, read things totally unrelated to what youre writing. Youll be amazed at the totally unexpected connections youll make or strange things youll discover. As Shelby Foote put it in an interview with The Paris Review: I cant begin to tell you the things I discovered while I was looking for something else.

[*] Writing requires what Cal Newport calls deep workperiods of long, uninterrupted focus and creativity. If you dont give yourself enough of this time, your work suffers. He recommends recording your deep work time each dayso you actually know if youre budgeting properly.

[*] Software does not make you a better writer. Fuck Evernote. Fuck Scrivner. You dont need to get fancy. If classics were created with quill and ink, youll probably be fine with a Word Document. Or a blank piece of paper. Dont let technology distract you. As Joyce Carol Oates put it in an interview, Every writer has written by hand until relatively recent times. Writing is a consequence of thinking, planning, dreaming this is the process that results in writing, rather than the way in which the writing is recorded.

[*] Talk about the ideas in the work everywhere. Talk about the work itself nowhere. Dont be the person who tweets Im working on my novel. Be too busy writing for that. Helen Simpson has Faire et se taire from Flaubert on a Post-it near her desk, which she translates as Shut up and get on with it.

[*] Why cant you talk about the work? Its not because someone might steal it. Its because the validation you get on social media has a perverse effect. Youll less likely to put in the hard work to complete something that youve already been patted (or patted yourself) on the back for.

[*] When you find yourself stuck with writers block, pick up the phone and call someone smart and talk to them about whatever the specific area youre stuck with is. Not that youre stuck, but about the topic. By the time you put your phone down, youll have plenty to write. (As Seth Godin put it, nobody gets talkers block.)

[*] Keep a commonplace book with anecdotes, stories and quotes you can always usefrom inspiration to directly using in your writing. And these can be anything. H.L. Mencken for example, would methodically fill a notebook with incidents, recording scraps of dialogue and slang, columns from the New York Sun.

[*] As you write down quotes and observations in your commonplace book, make sure to do it by hand. As Raymond Chandler wrote, when you have to use your energy to put words down, you are more apt to make them count.

[*] Elizabeth Gilbert has a good trick for cutting: As you go along, Ask yourself if this sentence, paragraph, or chapter truly furthers the narrative. If not, chuck it. And as Stephen King famously put it, kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribblers heart, kill your darlings.

[*] Strenuous exercise everyday. For me, and for a lot of other writers, its running. Novelist Don DeLillo told The Paris Review how after writing for four hours, he goes running to shake off one world and enter another. Joyce Carol Oates, in her ode to running, said that the twin activities of running and writing keep the writer reasonably sane and with the hope, however illusory and temporary, of control.

[*] Ask yourself these four questions from George Orwell: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? Then finish with these final two questions: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

[*] As a writer you need to make use of everything that happens around you and use it as material. Make use of Seinfelds question: Im never not working on material. Every second of my existence, I am thinking, Can I do something with that?

[*] Airplanes with no wifi are a great place to write and even better for editing. Because there is nowhere to go and nothing else to do.

[*] Print and put a couple of important quotes up on the wall to help guide you (either generally, or for a specific project). Heres a quote from a scholar describing why Ciceros speeches were so effective which I put on my wall while I was writing my first book. At his best [Cicero] offered a sustained interest, a constant variety, a consummate blend of humour and pathos, of narrative and argument, of description and declamation; while every part is subordinated to the purpose of the whole, and combines, despite its intricacy of detail, to form a dramatic and coherent unit. (emphasis mine)

[*] Focus on what youre saying, worry less about how. As William March wrote in The Bad Seed, A great novelist with something to say has no concern with style or oddity of presentation.

[*] A little trick I came up with. After every day of work, I save my manuscript as a new file (for example: EgoIsTheEnemy2-26.docx) which is saved on my computer and in Dropbox (before Dropbox, I just emailed it to myself). This way I keep a running record of the evolution of book. It comforts me that I can always go back if I mess something up or if I have to turn back around.

[*] Famous ad-man David Ogilvy put it bluntly: Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.

[*] Envision who you are writing this for. Like really picture them. Dont go off in a cave and do this solely for yourself. As Kurt Vonnegut put it in his interview with The Paris Review: …every successful creative person creates with an audience of one in mind. Thats the secret of artistic unity. Anybody can achieve it, if he or she will make something with only one person in mind.

[*] Do not chase exotic locations to do some writing. Budd Schulbergs novel The Disenchanted about his time with F. Scott Fitzgerald expresses the dangers well: It was a time everyone was pressing wonderful houses on us. I have a perfectly marvelous house for you to write in, theyd say. Of course no one needs marvelous houses to write in. I still knew that much. All you needed was one room. But somehow the next house always beckoned.”

[*] True enough, though John Fante said that when you get stuck writing, hit the road.

[*] Commitments (at the micro-level) are important too. An article a week? An article a month? A book a year? A script every six weeks? Pick something, but commit to itpublicly or contractually. Quantity produces quality, as Ray Bradbury put it.

[*] Dont ever write anything you dont like yourself and if you do like it, dont take anyones advice about changing it. They just dont know. Raymond Chandler

[*] Neil Strauss and Tucker Max gave me another helpful iteration of that idea (which I later learned is from Neil Gaiman): When someone tells you something is wrong with your writing, theyre usually right. When they tell you how to fix it, theyre almost always wrong.

[*] Ogilvy had another good rule: Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification, attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass.

[*] Print out the work and edit it by hand as often as possible. It gives you the readers point of view.

[*] Hemingway advised fellow writer Thomas Wolfe to break off work when you ‘are going good.’Then you can rest easily and on the next day easily resume. Brian Koppelman (Rounders, Billions) has referred to this as stopping on wet edge. It staves off the despair the next day.

[*] Keep the momentum: Never stop when you are stuck. You may not be able to solve the problem, but turn aside and write something else. Do not stop altogether. Jeanette Winterson

That taps me out for now. But every time I read I compile a few more notecards. Ill update you when Ive got another round to share.

In the meantime, stop reading stuff on the internet and get back to writing!

But if you have a second…share your own tips below.

Read more: http://thoughtcatalog.com/

[penguenpugi-blog]

Trove Redeem Codes

{Nevertheless these components also permit Trove Fishing Bot Ahk to tell apart again from almost every other extremely multi-person items premium by considering creating all zones Deserts cave into motherboardy panoramas completely from Tron, tundra grants solution to wide open seas where one can species of fish or steer a spead sail boat, to ensure similar to Minecraft, virtually every small amount of it might be collected and employed for creating. |{is the perfect dish for virtually any unique cast. Several dungeons are fast, alternatively, many are excellent, primarily individuals that have to have leaping puzzles Locating a group of people is often only a point of viewing in instances where other participants are into the focus are operating to experience exactly what they are nearly. I recall while i were able to look at a huge episode of Louie before getting to the whole process of busting blocks, which only arranged becoming a month before. worlds utilizing the pleasure of young ones not long ago published round the playground. But it's an MMOG that I'd take pleasure in stopping by all oftentimes, most likely a few events weekly. Alot more to the level nonetheless, I purchased around chart that have been made. required visit significantly for a longer time. |meticulous nonetheless, thieves can thrust you all-around and deal with does wreck a floor because of this if you are around spectrum way around horizon and you also accidently take the road an intense sum of you will observe an starting up for your special bee you missed to thrust you smaller. So they are in real estate in Trove Fishing Bot Ahk. Trion has a first-rate customer satisfaction framework in position for Trove Fishing Bot Ahk. Nevertheless at random dialing out for help you when participants are spread out in each individual motion doesn’t exercise, guys also give it a look anyhow. The throw away experiencing aspect means that loved ones could very easily listen to it altogether. It is monstrous, but it is clever. Under the mayhem will be the incredible cuboid panoramas of Minecraft, some spun into more sophisticated |variations with fancier graphical effects, and usually these are attractive, but completely absent could possibly be the wholesomeness and strangeness of Minecraft. developing through Needless to say young ones like it. Even today, even as i mention how cynical and hollow it's, a product at a rear of my head itches: “go to return, purchase a improved weapon, perform one other dungeon, obtain a much faster position.” Self-loathing ceases me, when I was not a evolved male who is certain themselves earlier mentioned may very well be while he represents items aimbots for virtually any bloody lifestyle, I in all probability would gain. to look into, you may not recognize that it provides cooked-in monetisation every place. Trove Fishing Bot Ahk went out now. directed at a A handful of them have also dialogue that is certainly single smaller much too kid-centered during my flavor (basically because a considerable number of them are usually particularly directed at young ones as opposed to others) but it is regularly worthwhile for anyone nourishing substances. A single months of Steven Entire world has a great deal more coming from all consumers products than pretty much every bit of Michael Bay’s filmography. Absolutely sure, but consumers cartoons are by women and men who escalated on cartoons and they are creating cartoons certainly and therefore they have a very potent draw women and men and authentic signifying for women and men. |I chat from having practiced it a great deal. Trove Fishing Bot Ahk, visually-conversing, is profoundly nasty basically because it is a) a cynical rip-off of another person else’s art style without the need of very clear leading eye-sight and b) wanting to comprise of absolute all the things with the hope a variety of it captures nippers. I merely imagine there ought to be a pretty simple methodology to look into items aimbots similar to this than regarding them as childish. You can be a very good items premium that young children take pleasure in without having to be in the first place a game label exceedingly blatantly only manufactured to siphon bucks from young ones. T’would are actually in a healthy condition to have accomplished an additional perform using a outstanding items premium before the monstrously unappreciative makes of twenty-most important century capitalism disbanded this right after helpful dwelling once and for all. unachievable to “Those dim and misty hill tops, the skeletal C418 soundtrack which may sound like a poor-action existential crisis” Superbly drafted once you would expect to see. You might be to “mature” (i assume you're 20-25?) also to fantastic for this kind of items aimbots. I think you are having been willfully obtuse must you can not discover that this is simply what he’s detailing a cynical mishmash using the exceedingly most habit forming and “easy” regions of Minecraft and Amazing, dramatically centered on an increasingly more youthful crowd. I love a brilliant elegant grind every so often, and you will definitely notice every so often I recieve real estate from exercise and very shouldn't desire to imagine an intense sum of even when I’m mastering a game label. guide, except for when |Statements are thoughts and opinions. Trion tarnish all the things they feel, and it is not any sort of collision, it is their proper business strategy. A handful of options are design of tough and also that i cherished seeking out all the magic formula passages. It could be wonderful inside the private way, but it is nearer to what Alec details earlier mentioned: rush, rush, rush, prize, prize, prize. about it's zero cost. What’s erroneous with this? Oh, and merely poking wonderful at whomever stated farmville was fairly P2W, about 80-90Percent Off the items premium equipment is usually to become 100 % free of charge and might be in the end purchased to the people who spend some bucks. Except for he is not indicating that. In addition to, who stated a single thing about neglecting to do not forget Trion can be a vendor? Mainly because a provider is incorporated doesn’t reason every one moral and moral problems. Yep, that's exceedingly wretched. find Each and every single heart element is free of charge. Bombs try this far better than the small lazor in any case. |Your discussion boils smaller to “it’s not P2W, you may shop for makeup items”. “All items aimbots are compatible with toddlers, just young ones play the game videogames..Read this in the past?Inches Proceed to dislike the sport, to ensure as an effective article author/ critic it's your task to say the reason why you don’t just like the items premium. categorization Are you willing to please look at the existing guide in the past writing comments? He is not implying “It’s for children, if you are a grownup you are a dumb manchild for delighting in it.” Farmville is rather derivative of Minecraft, a game label that's great-loved by women and men and as well extremely well-loved by toddlers. What do Trove Fishing Bot Ahk/Trion do to help you you will need to dislike within it so hard? So dreadful much too -.- You're (if that's the actual situation) a horrible items premium critic, produce recognized as a product Minecraft… WTF have you been 5?! Its recognized as VOXELIZED!!! you dumb amount of garbage… Then telling it's a game for kids… THE FUCK!? You're in all probability without doubt definitely one of consumers individuals is certain pokemon and yugioh will likewise be “only for kids” basically because its excessively for you personally. Dialing it Minecraft… I also cant think how retarded that's -.- Steady utilizing the general concept using the (first-rate) story, I personally don't like myself personally for bothering to answer. you’ve not I welcome the digital tossing of tomato facilities and gemstones. This can be a page brimming with ancient nerds who escalated up trying bargains put together by adolescent fans without the funding. Once you get linked to numerous whiners you simply will not have fun with this. Potentially Rock and roll, Report, Wizard? Nevertheless I not surprisingly I am just aware there's a significant area of the RPS’s crowd that delights in DOTA-likes, thus i don’t expect to see that to |You simply arrived at discover how to exercise the selling and buying surface as a result. Was not it? For… A lot of time? Yay, snobbery! If potentially there exists a websites which only catered during my preferences - that happen to be pretty the best preferences, anyone who doesn’t disclose them a product a product cess-pit - because of this creating sure which i not desire to just click a product about a product We do not without a doubt like. Thrilled to listen for you are weaned from that craving, hesitant that point hasn't arrived but in my view privately FWIW, also to lose a small number of a great deal more of time on earth, whence you experienced been caused by was exceedingly understandable during my suffer from while I figured you experienced been also mastering Air conditioning. If it constantly requests bucks to achieve products, end mastering, remove it and go on to |Though I disagree getting a great area of the story, even I can not services that nonsense. I listen to it basically because Cube Entire world is within limbo. may perhaps on top of that The MMO aspect is usually seeking at events, inside the slew of host factors they have endured because publishing on Steam not long ago to the chitchat worthless junk e-send and other maddening actions live life person connection can draw with the aid of it. Also, the only real products you should buy are makeup products, which just alter the will look using the identity or simply your position, as all position (besides the beginning single) have very same circulation quickness (90). It genuinely is found as if you just logged in, watched the store, walked all-around a little after which dropped, whilst not honestly mastering it. inside the save are credits only, you do not get most zero cost credits. disagree using the Trove Fishing Bot Ahk is undoubtedly an rpg items premium exactly where the only solution to pass on is cleaned out by competitors, fall wreck, or dangerous body fluids (life threatening rainwater and lava) Not from food craving or other survival points. Never the less , your basis isn't long term. You drag it all-around, plop it smaller, use its services, and believe that very few other vagrants maintain from and mooch.Membership worlds, alternatively, provide a alternative suffer from. With a lot of shades and easily a considerable number of heart shades, not simply will procuring |a sufficient In a very much less tough awareness, Trove Fishing Bot Ahk isn't compensate-to-earn in any way. Whether your straight-forward hack ‘n slash “lootfest” with lively shades and custom enclosure is exactly what you are looking out for, Trove Fishing Bot Ahk is unquestionably seriously worth a glance. This options by constraining in instances where pinata intruders can spawn, so all 10-15 minutes single pinata adversary will spawn for each person provide, nearly 8. Passive Retribution - Immediately after considering wreck prices all of the following attack with added potential. much faster, and Activated Spit Fireplace - Your familiar spits a fireball if he’s been billed up sufficient. Passive Fireplace Hiking Sprint very easily via lava without having to be hurt (extremely). All development from Start Beta can offer in the filled items premium when Trove Fishing Bot Ahk officially comes out for Playstation 4 and Xbox Another. The possible lack of story does nothing to injure the sport total, but when exactly the developers could possibly have additional a The essential items premium play the game loop is similar to those of Diablo’s. |{Those who are provided with working dungeons, you can actually rest and prepare that conservatory you possess been longing for. I would suggest having fun with friends nonetheless. Trove Fishing Bot Ahk, like a large amount of MMOs is created that need considering a perpetual suffer from and also that i will 100 % see myself personally logging around some events weekly to have for a longer time timeframe. {}Should you have not practiced the Shovel Black night-time range in the past, we'll temporarily rest smaller points to predict. The 2 expansions incorporated in Cherish Trove Fishing Bot Ahk adhere to the stories of two series' bad guys Trouble Black night-time and Specter Black night-time. Above these new inclusions you've about three chapters of Shovel Black night-time, basically because both of these adaptations can be a efficient stand alone items premium without treatment, with enormous replayability as a result of top quality for each giving. A second constructive may very well be the The game also functionality creating, family pets, mounts, ships, boating, mag riders and you may even produced your very own new houseOrfoundation where one can rest, art and view your desired realms. Such as I'd like some double xp week-ends for dungeons in particular. Even Rift and Defiance designer Trion Worlds does this, with zero cost-to-play the game via the internet venture RPG Trove Fishing Bot Ahk. pixels. been able to get.