#and so are isaac and gopher

[molotovgrifter]

yeoman purser smith what a good wife you would be

[isaacapatow]

* * #COMMUNITY CENTRE CONVO WITH @ijemmaokafor, @ermanodelgcdo, @reneebrxndxn, @colcreznik

-Ike's waiting for the rest of the Council with a table set up, most of the chairs on one side and a single one on the other; Cole's in that single chair, with Ike standing behind him, casually holding the crowbar- This right here is Cole Reznik. He's Sol's older brother, but as you might notice, Sol ain't here to put in a word for him. Not to mention, Cole didn't exactly approach the front gates.

Ijemma Okafor: -crossing her arms- Where did he approach?

Cole: A lovely little hole by what looked like a pond. -cole smiles up to jemma-

Ijemma Okafor: Like a fucking gopher? What hole??

Cole: No, I didn't El Chapo in here. There was a hole in the wall. Well, is in the wall. Still there.

Renee Brandon: -Renee sits up a bit straighter- There's a hole in the fence?

Cole: Yes ma'am

Ike: There's a hole in the fence. I'll get to that later.

Cole: Why not get to that now, legs? After all, it was 'cause of you that I found it. You and your iced mochas princess. -cole smiles up to ike with a shit-eating grin-

Renee Brandon: -Renee looks to Isaac with bewilderment- What is he talking about, Isaac?

Ermano: -looks to isaac with furrowed brows.- Yeah, Isaac.

Ike: -licks his teeth, looking distinctly displeased- Those suspected arsons that Silvy and me have been investigating. I found a hole in the wall that they were probably working on too -- I just didn't get around to boarding it up again.

Cole: -keeps the smile on his face but looks to the rest of the council-

Renee Brandon: -Renee stands up from her chair and walks behind it as she wipes her hand down her face- Are you kidding me?! We have children here and you don't think to patch up a hole in the wall as soon as you find it?!

Ermano: Isaac, you know better than that!

Ijemma Okafor: If I can advise...let's handle the matter at hand and save the infighting for later, when our company has gone?

Ike: Yeah, I know. I fucked up there, I'm sorry. But we can deal with me after this-- -points at Jemma in agreement- 

Ermano: -quiets at Jemma's advice, but keeps his glare at Isaac-

Ijemma Okafor: Sol's a pretty easygoing guy. Why is he not here to vouch for his brother?

Renee Brandon: -Renee is visually unhappy and decides to pace instead of sitting-

Cole: We don't exactly have great history. Sibling rivalry and all.

Ermano: -walks to Renee, putting a gentle hand on her back at an attempt to calm her-

Ike: Rivalry over what? To what extent?

Ijemma Okafor: Yeah, are we talking sports rivalry kind of thing? Or estrangement kind of thing?

Renee Brandon: -Renee is chewing on her fingernails when Ermano puts a hand on her shoulder. She stops pacing but right now, she can only think about how there is a hole in the wall and her kids are in danger.-

Cole: Call it me being mommy and daddy's favorite and him -he sucks on his teeth- not so much.

Ijemma Okafor: Okay look, the wise-ass thing might work for you in other situations, but this council here, we take our job pretty seriously. We don't let just anybody in here, and you've already broken that rule. So if you want to walk right back out, by all means, the sideways answers will do. But if you're here and looking to stay for a minute, we're gonna need you to shoot straight.

Ike: -grunts to back Jemma up- If you're the golden boy, then why the hell were you resorting to crawling through a hole instead of walking up to the front gate?

Cole: Sweetheart I've talked this way my entire life. That's fifty-some years of this shit. Can't teach an old dog new tricks. -points up to Ike- As for you, big dog, after following you and that lovely senorita to the hole, I didn't bother looking for another way in. Hell, all I knew at the time was that way. So my apologies for not investigating a little further. But, if we're really thinking about it, I've already helped this little community by giving an example at how weak the defenses are. If anything, I should get a goddamn metal.

Ijemma Okafor: -snorting- Jesus fucking christ, he really doesn't learn. We're uh, fresh out of medals. So you were just curious? Don't really care about being here or not being here? Have a habit of inspecting mysterious holes in walls?

Renee Brandon: -The pit seems to grow in her stomach and she can barely even focus on this asshole as she's already wondering just how many more spots there are in the wall. She looks to Ermano and keeps her voice low so Cole doesn't hear- What if there are other spots?

Ermano: We’re going to have to inspect the entire perimeter. -he whispers back, not liking the idea of there being more weak spots-

Ike: -ike's gaze flits over to renee and ermano, but he doesn't move from his place looming behind cole-

Cole: -points to jemma- That is where you’re wrong, sweetheart. I do care. All I want is a safe place to sleep where I don’t have to look over my shoulder 24/7, and food to eat. I ain’t gonna bother no one. In return, I got skills that can benefit your community. Like I pointed out, I found a weak spot; I’m happy to find more so y’all can patch them up.

Ike: -tightly- What skills, then.

Cole: -he smirks- I was a Marine. One hell of a sharpshooter. I can hunt almost anything almost a mile away, and haul the damn thing myself. Plus, I know my way around a knife. I can hunt, skin and butcher food for everyone. The cookin’ part, I’m shit at though.

Ike: Hunters, we have. We even have our own military men.

Ijemma Okafor: You know how to kill animals...any knowledge of how to take care of them?

Cole: What like livestock? It’s been a few years but yeah. Lived close to a farm at one point and helped on a ranch. -deliberately ignored ike-

Renee Brandon: -Renee shakes her head and keeps her voice in a whisper as she eyes Cole.- I don't like this, Ermano. Why are we even entertaining the idea of keeping him around?

Ike: -a little sharply- Renee, you wanna share with the class?

Ermano: Watch your tone, Isaac.

Renee Brandon: Like how you shared that there was a hole in the wall?

Ike: We're a Council. We're not two groups. That's all I'm saying.

Renee Brandon: -she shifts her weight so she can turn and glare at him- Alright, fine. I think that asking him about anything resembling keeping him around is a waste of time. He can't be trusted!

Ijemma Okafor: We don't know that. We suspect it. But he deserves to make a case, at least.

Ermano: Neither could Isaac, and look where he’s at. -he pointed out-

Ike: -tips his head in acquiescence of ermano's point-

Cole: -takes mental note to that comment-

Ijemma Okafor: As far as your skills go Mr Reznik, the keeping and caring of animals is of more value than the hunting of them, right now. But like Renee said, we have little reason to trust you. Why should we trust you?

Cole: Ya know, I never got your name ma’am. And I’m sure you’re sick of me calling you sweetheart. Can I get your name, please?

Ijemma Okafor: Jemma.

Ike: And that's Renee and that's Ermano, but those I'm sure you gleaned from listening to us.

Ijemma Okafor: I take it he knows you're Ike already?

Ike: The one and only.

Renee Brandon: Are you going to answer the question?

Cole: Thank you, Jemma. Where I’m from trust isn’t given, it’s earned. I understand we haven’t exactly gotten on the right foot for that. Nothing I say is going to change her mind. -points to renee- And quite honestly, nothing I say will probably change any mind in here. But don’t I deserve the same chance this one got -nods to isaac- to prove I’m trust worthy?

Ermano: -looks to isaac and renee, then to jemma-

Ijemma Okafor: And where is it you're from?

Cole: Same place Sol’s from: Pittsburgh. I was in New York City when the outbreak happened.

Renee Brandon: So you show up, crawl through a hole in the wall and then what? Just hide out and hope no one notices that there's suddenly a new face in town?

Cole: No, ma’am. I was gonna find whoever was in charge. I just happened to stumble on my long lost little brother. Not exactly the reunion I was hoping for but -shrugs- what are you gonna do?

Renee Brandon: Then why not come through the front gate?

Ike: He didn't make it that far. He chose to exploit the nearest entry.

Cole: As I stated before, I didn’t know there was a front gate. I followed legs over here to the wa— what he said

Renee Brandon: -glares at Isaac for giving him an answer-

Ike: It's ... -takes a breath, sounding reluctant- ...not the worst trait to have. Being opportunistic. He could've snuck around the perimeter easy, instead of walking through the junkyard.

Ermano: Isaac isn’t wrong. That area is open, anyone can hide there just fine.

Ijemma Okafor: That brings us to the next order of business though. Obviously, we're living in shit times. While you're welcome to give us your whole life story, what we're interested in, in terms of the vetting process, is what these shit times have forced you to do. We've got kids here. People with some serious PTSD. How can you assure us that you're not a danger to our people?

Cole: I’ve never liked kids so I’ll steer clear of them. As for PTSD, I have some of my own. I was honorable discharged from the Marines with a purple heart. -cole raised his pant leg, showing the healed burnt scars- Saved my platoon from an M8. When it comes to people I care about, I’ll jump in front of a bullet. Plus, if I’m voted to stay, it’s the first safe place I’ll ever be part of. I won’t let anyone from the outside put it in jeopardy.

Ike: It's a long length of hard road from NYC, pardner. I should know. Not easy to make that trek without some blood on your hands.

Cole: You want me to admit I’ve killed people? Sure, I’ve killed people. Both before and after. Each time was to keep either me or others safe. But how many have you killed. And you. -points to ermano-

Renee Brandon: No, we want you to tell us what you've done. And not just what you think we want to hear. I want the God honest's truth from you - what have you done between New York and here?

Cole: Survived. -stares at Renee, not letting up.-

Ike: -shoves the back of cole's chair- Answer her.

Cole: -he rolled his eyes- For the first year I traveled on my own. It was easy. Just stay out of everyone’s way and every man for themselves. Then I came across a family who took me in. I traveled with them for a bit but they wanted to go North and I wanted to go South. So we parted. I kept moving. Any time I came across a group, we’d part. The last group I was in got attacked by a hoard. I got out and now I’m here. Need me to mark down every time I took a shit too?

Ike: -murmuring- If she asks you to.

Cole: Oh fuck off -he mumbled back-

Renee Brandon: -glares at him- What kinds of groups?

Cole: None like the Savages. There were a few groups who started to get a bit … hostile, but I left anytime they showed those signs. There was one group who burnt down a community much like this one in upstate Penn. I was there for that. After that night I left. I might seem like I’m unhinged, but I’m not homicidal.

Ike: -comes around to the side of the table, putting the crowbar down on it- I'm ready for a decision.

Ermano: I’m ready as well.

Renee Brandon: -Renee had already pretty much made up her mind a while ago but she keeps her eyes on Cole as she backs up from the table and nods.-

Ijemma Okafor: Hey, I'm just here to advise, y'all do your thing.

Ike: I vote he stays.

Ermano: He stays

Renee Brandon: -Renee looks between the two of them.- Are you serious?

Ike: So that's a no from you? Great. He can cool his heels in a cell and we'll get Salem's vote tomorrow. -goes to the door and opens it, whistling; somebody comes over and Ike gestures to Cole- Get up. This is your escort to your accommodations. Don't cause trouble.

Cole: -stands and gets in the cell- I’ve been in worse. You gonna keep me company, big boy? -smirks at isaac as he passes-

Ermano: I’m sorry Renee. But if you think about it, if he really came in to cause problems, he would’ve dealt with Sol. Brother or not. But he’s here instead.

Ike: We don't need to convince her. Renee's got reasons -- good reasons -- for being wary.

Renee Brandon: -she watches Cole the entire way out of the door before looking between Isaac and Ermano- We had to drag the answers out of him. That doesn't give either of you big red flag? And he sneaks in because he follows Isaac? Why not approach him before coming in?

Ike: He clearly think's he's a laugh and a half -- he wants to fuck with us a little bit. He's testing the waters, too, as much as we are. It's just he's got more to lose, but my guess is he's at a point where he figures anything could mean losing.

Ermano: Not everyone is an open book, either. Four years on the road, jumping from group to group? Makes people close up.

Ijemma Okafor: The thing with Sol is weird. I know not all siblings are like the Brookes, but Sol's a pretty reasonable guy. It doesn't really matter, but we might wanna try to get that story.

Ike: We will. He's got some time in the cell, yet.

Ermano: Good luck opening that wound.

Renee Brandon: I don't trust him. And I sure as hell don't feel comfortable letting him walk free-range around Redwood. I also don't feel great about there being a hole in the wall that anyone can get through.

Ike: I'll take care of it. There shouldn't be any others but I'll ... get on that.

Ermano: If you don’t mind, Ike. I’ll get on it. I’ll have security do perimeter as soon as possible.

Ike: -clenches his jaw for a minute, but nods- Sure.

Renee Brandon: I want to know how no one has noticed this before now? Who knows how long it's been there.

Ermano: From where he described it was, that area doesn’t get a lot of foot traffic.

Obviously that’ll change. I’ll have inside security make frequent rounds up there

Renee Brandon: -Renee crosses her arms in front of her, hugging herself tightly as she heaves out a breath- Can we at least look into how it was made? See if we can figure out if it' was opened from the inside or outside?

Ermano: I'll personally do a thorough investigation.

Ike: Is that really -- I said it was part of the arson shit! Obviously from the outside.

Ermano: It’s to save her peace of mind, Ike.

Renee Brandon: -looks to Isaac incredulously. She's about to unload a piece of her mind on him when Ermano manages to explain it a lot more eloquently than she was about to-

Ike: -a little weakly- I just don't see the point of turning it into some kind of witch hunt. Is all.

Ermano: No one said anything about a witch hunt. We just want to make sure it can’t happen to any other part of the our defenses.

Ijemma Okafor: -side eyes Ike and his strange tone of voice but saves her questions for another time-

Renee Brandon: And making sure there's not something or someone that's trying to threaten everyone that's here in town. 

Ermano: -points at renee, agreeing to her statement- We got young kids here, Ike. I’m just making sure we stay protected. And I hate to admit it, but Cole’s right. He did show us that we’re not as protected as we thought.

Ike: Yeah, I know, I know. You're right. It's good you're on it. -scrubs his hand against his throat, grimacing- We done here?

Ermano: -looks to renee, waiting for her answer-

Renee Brandon: -she takes a deep breath and looks between the two of them. She's still clearly pissed that Isaac didn't mention the hole in the wall and upset that there was a current breach to the town, but discussing it anymore was a waste of time. She looks at Ermano and nods before walking quickly out of the community center-

Ermano: -waits for renee to be completely gone before returning his attention to isaac- Are you hiding something?

Ike: -looks pained- Look, man -- give it a rest, okay? You got stuff to do, getting security on it.

Ermano: I’m going to take that as a yes. -lifts a finger to point at him- If you had anything to do with that hole, you better tell me now.

Ike: I didn't block it up fast enough.

Ermano: -narrows his eyes but decides to leave it alone- Fine. Now we learn from our mistakes and do better, yes? -doesn’t wait for an answer and leaves to get security together-

Ike: -nudges Jemma- Walk you home? -obviously a nonsensical thing to say, considering she lives basically a few steps away-

Ijemma Okafor: -nearly smiling- Please?

[lizard-speed]

Since I subjected ya’ll (how dramatic, ya’ll) to my MTMS edition of gayness here’s a new one!

I present: Let’s See How Gay Malcolm Can Make This Old TV Show: The Love Boat Edition!

Captain Stubing: Heteroflexible (he/him)- very likely to change, events have occurred which are making me change my mind

Doctor Adam “Doc” Bricker: Non-binary (he/him) polyamorous omnisexual (I’m reconsidering the polyam hc though)

Yeoman Purser Burl “Gopher” Smith: Gay trans man (he/him)

Isaac Washington: Bisexual man (he/him)

Julie McCoy: Sapphic-oriented aroace (she/her) 

Vicki Stubing: Pansexual demigirl (she/they)

[eclecticanalyst]

We’re Expecting You...To Boldly Go [part 2]

In my last post, I expounded on the similarities in the general premise and structure of The Love Boat and Star Trek: The Next Generation, two shows that on the surface seem not to have much in common but on closer examination have some unexpected similarities. In my follow-up post on this theme, I will be drawing parallels between the main/regular characters of both shows. The crew lineup on each ship can be broken down into six character functions/profiles: The Captain, The Captain’s Confidant, The Big Brother, The Two Buds, The Chick, and The Kid.

The Captain

Star Trek TNG: Captain Jean-Luc Picard

The Love Boat: Captain Merrill Stubing

“The Captain” is...the captain! Beyond his role as the primary authority figure, he can be characterized in the following ways. Being the one to whom the rest of the crew reports, he is a bit socially removed from the rest of the main characters. While they can pal around with each other, they still treat him with a bit more deference even as he comes to be just as integral a part of their found family as the rest of them. The Captain can be rather intimidating at times—especially in the early days, when he had a tendency to be overly gruff with his crew. Part of that gruffness is the fact that he has very high standards for the people who serve under him. At the same time, however, he cares deeply for those people and is willing to put himself on the line for them, even bending the rules a bit in order to help them out of a difficult spot. He’s full of thoughtful advice should one of his crew ask for it, and is the most likely of the crew to give speeches about moral responsibility. He also has a playful streak, which he keeps under wraps but uses to mess with his crew from time to time. In terms of appearance, he’s older than the rest of the cast and he is bald(ing). He’s played by the best actor of the cast—Patrick Stewart is, of course, Patrick Stewart, I don’t think I really need to say more there, and Gavin MacLeod was a veteran actor (probably best known at that point for his role as Murray on The Mary Tyler Moore Show), able to handle both the comic and the dramatic whenever needed.

The Captain’s Confidant

Star Trek TNG: Dr. Beverly Crusher

The Love Boat: Dr. Adam “Doc” Bricker

I could have called this character profile “The Doctor,” following the same pattern as “The Captain,” but there was another aspect to Beverly and Doc that I wanted to draw attention to, beyond their being the respective healers of their crews. Both Beverly and Doc have a slightly different relationship with the Captain than the other members of the crew. They are a bit closer to the Captain, able to address him easily as a friend instead of as a superior officer if the situation calls for it. Notice that when working, Beverly will address Picard as “Captain” and “sir,” but when it’s just the two of them chatting in a more intimate setting she calls him “Jean-Luc.” Beverly is also one of the few people on board that Picard is comfortable with opening up to regarding his own insecurities or worries, while he takes more care to maintain his “self-assured captain” persona with everyone else. The same dynamic plays out between Stubing and Doc: there are several instances of Doc addressing his friend as “Merrill”—which none of the other members of the crew would even consider doing—and the power difference between the two is not as pronounced as it is between the captain and the other crew members. Whenever Captain Stubing has a personal problem, he goes to Doc for advice, and vice versa. Dr. Crusher and Captain Picard have a history, having been friends long before he took command of the Enterprise. In the same vein, Doc seems to know Captain Stubing’s past more intimately than the rest of the crew, as there are a few episodes in which the two of them discuss Captain Stubing’s alcohol addiction and current status as a teetotaler as if this is something Doc has always known about Merrill.

The Big Brother

Star Trek TNG: William Riker

The Love Boat: Adam “Doc” Bricker

So this is cheating a bit because I already have Doc listed under a character profile above, but TNG’s main cast has more people than that of TLB, so a one-to-one mapping wasn’t going to happen anyway. Doc’s “Captain’s Confidant” role deals with his relationship with the captain, and his “Big Brother” role deals with his relationship with the rest of the regulars. The fact that Doc is a bit older than Julie, Isaac, and Gopher means that even though he, like the rest of them, is under the supervision of the captain, he has a slight position of seniority over the other three. He balances the by-turns mischievous and responsible aspects of an older brother figure—he’ll tease Julie about her latest infatuation, and set up elaborate pranks to mess with Gopher, yet whenever Gopher and Isaac get swept up in some not-well-thought-out scheme, he’s the level-headed one who tries to point out that they’ve gotten carried away—or sometimes refuses to get involved altogether. William Riker is, of course, first officer of the Enterprise, and therefore has the same seniority-among-underlings position (in a more official chain of command capacity than Doc does). His big-brother-ness manifests as the poker-playing, jazz-loving guy who will do things like give Worf’s son music recordings that he knows Worf will hate one day but get actively upset and almost personally offended at the idea of Data getting hurt the next.

Not necessarily related to the “Big Brother” role, but another little parallel between Doc and Riker that I would like to point out—they are each the designated ladies’ man of their ships, yet both are able to completely switch to focusing solely on their job responsibilities the moment it is called for. (Honestly, Doc always struck me as going beyond “ladies’ man” and skirting dangerously close to “creep” territory at times, but I did appreciate how he would always drop everything the instant there was any sort of medical issue on the Princess.)

The Two Buds

Star Trek TNG: Geordi La Forge and Data

The Love Boat: Isaac Washington and Burl “Gopher” Smith

Although both the TNG and TLB crews form a group of close friends, The Two Buds are best friends. They are the two most likely people to hang out together in their down time, the two who understand each other the best, the two most sympathetic to each other’s problems and most likely to indulge the other long after everyone else would have put their foot down. When Gopher gets some conspiracy theory into his head about a passenger, Isaac will hear him out and sometimes even help him investigate. When Data wants to do some questionable experimentation on his positronic net, Geordi is there with a tricorder making sure the whole thing doesn’t go completely haywire. Data once said that he didn’t know what a friend was until he met Geordi, and Isaac once told Gopher that he (Gopher) is the only one Isaac would resign in solidarity for. All four men/androids have a tendency to get a little too wrapped up in their obsession of the week—see Isaac’s novel-writing attempts, Geordi’s holographic Leah Brahms, Gopher’s conspiracy theories, and about half of anything Data does.

Each pair also consists of one white guy and one Black guy. (Obviously, Data is an android and therefore is not technically any human race or ethnicity, but he’s played by a white guy and his artificial skin is paler than anyone else’s skin on the senior staff.) The white guy representatives, Gopher and Data, are almost polar opposites—Data is calm and logical, and Captain Picard trusts him implicitly, while Gopher is a goof who freaks out easily and who is often upset with the way Captain Stubing dismisses him (those dismissals are especially prominent in the first few seasons—Gopher does mellow out later on). But they do have some similarities, one of the most striking being that they both struggle with appropriate social behavior as well as their own emotions. This is more readily apparent with Data, of course, who is literally not human and is trying his best to understand the nuances of things like humor and love, constantly asking his friends to explain behaviors they take for granted. Gopher’s struggles are more understated—he has a tendency to make comments and observations that the rest of the crew find slightly tasteless, he goes into several anxious tailspins over the course of the show, and he at one point believes his emotional attachments to his friends compromise his ability to fulfill his job duties. Both Data and Gopher use their respective best friends—each of whom are the more level-headed of the pair—as a steadying force.

Now for the characteristics shared by those respective best friends. The Black guy’s job responsibilities root him in a specific place and often set him slightly apart from the main action. While Geordi can and does go up to the bridge on several occasions, as Chief of Engineering he spends most of his time hanging around the warp core, communicating with the bridge over the com system. Meanwhile, Isaac can be seen wandering hallways and so forth, but he spends most of his time behind the bar, whether that’s in the Acapulco Lounge, on the Lido Deck, or in Pirate’s Cove. The rest of the crew, despite having nominal work stations like the Enterprise bridge or the Pacific Princess purser’s lobby, are seen to roam more extensively. (I’m pretty sure we never see Julie’s office.) Isaac is busy serving drinks in pretty much every episode while Doc and Gopher are chatting and dancing with passengers on the dance floor of the Acapulco Lounge. The Black guy also gets the short end of the stick in the romance department. When you see a Black guest actor on the opening credits of The Love Boat, it’s a good bet that Isaac will be involved in their storyline. If it’s just one Black woman, there’s a 99% chance that Isaac will be involved in her story, and his involvement will be as her love interest. I remember one particularly glaring example of the show going to extreme lengths to avoid even hinting that Isaac could potentially do something vaguely romantic or sexual with a white woman—Julie’s hosting her high school reunion on the ship, and there are a few scenes where everyone is discoing in the Acapulco Lounge. Isaac gets out on the dance floor, and conveniently some random Black woman appears out of nowhere as his dance partner. This woman is not named or acknowledged at any other point in the episode. Over on the Enterprise, Geordi isn’t restricted along race lines like Isaac, but I find it highly suspicious that the one Black guy is the least successful in romance out of everyone on the senior staff. Geordi struggles to even start up a conversation with women he’s attracted to, let alone flirt with them. Data has a better romance track record than Geordi does, and Data usually ends up in a romantic entanglement by accident! It’s as if the show was afraid to let Geordi enjoy those kinds of relationships to the same degree as the rest of the crew, which is a different kind of restriction than Isaac’s, but still a restriction nonetheless.

The Chick

Star Trek TNG: Deanna Troi

The Love Boat: Julie McCoy

The standard lineup for both TNG and The Love Boat consisted two female main characters, thus allowing the ladies to gossip about “girly” things in keeping with gender stereotypes, but Vicki was a preteen/teenager and Beverly had a sort of matron vibe going on, which left Julie and Troi to be the respective sex appeal characters out of the main cast. The Chick has non-standard dress that sets her apart from the others and their status as officers. While Doc, Gopher, and Captain Stubing wore nautical stripes and white uniforms (and Isaac usually had a variation on this outfit, wearing a red or blue jacket), with very little in the way of costume changes whether they were greeting boarding passengers, chatting on the Lido deck, or dancing in the Acapulco Lounge, Julie had no stripes to speak of. She would wear a (feminine) uniform at boarding, switch to a casual outfit during the rest of the day, and was always wearing a gown of some sort in the evenings. Deanna Troi for her part cycled through purple jumpsuits and asymmetrical dresses, her Starfleet badge precariously pinned to her neckline. We didn’t even get to see the pips indicating her rank until she was finally given (in story, ordered into) a normal uniform in season six.

The Chick gets saddled with way too many romance plots, some creepier than others. Giving Troi something substantial to do in an episode usually consisted of making her the love interest of whoever happened to be boarding the Enterprise that week, like the ambassador with the telepathic interpreters or the quarter-Betazoid interplanetary negotiator. Deanna also got her mind invaded by a man who was interested in her, prematurely aged by a man who took advantage of her, and kidnapped by Ferengi (who have a disturbing species-wide infatuation with non-Ferengi women). I’m not as upset about Julie having several romance-related plots, as romance was the name of the game on The Love Boat and the men on the crew had their own share of romantic entanglements—but I do find issue with the fact that when Julie was in love she always seemed on the verge of getting married and leaving the ship, which was a vibe we didn’t really get from, say, Doc or Gopher when their love lives turned particularly intense. In terms of creepiness, Julie had to deal with fending off the extremely aggressive advances of Captain Stubing’s uncle, a computer programmer who rigged his dating algorithm to ensure he matched with her, and a college acquaintance of Gopher who actually came to her door to badger her as she was getting dressed.

The Kid

Star Trek TNG: Wesley Crusher

The Love Boat: Vicki Stubing

For some reason, both of these shows thought it necessary to have a preteen/teenager in the cast whose character has way more responsibility than is realistic for either a cruise ship or a pseudomilitary starship. Instead of Vicki wearing a uniform and checking in guests on the Pacific Princess, we really should have seen Julie’s or Gopher’s staff fulfilling check-in duty (Doc and Isaac were also too often seen checking in passengers, which I will say again is a duty that on a real cruise ship would definitely not fall to either the ship’s doctor or chief bartender, but we’re talking about Vicki at the moment). Wesley, meanwhile, was made Acting Ensign on the Enterprise, saving the ship way more than he should have and probably earning the ire of all the official ensigns who actually went to Starfleet Academy and were losing precious time at the conn due to Picard’s favoritism.

Speaking of Picard, The Captain has a paternal relationship with The Kid—literally in Vicki Stubing’s case, emotionally in Wesley Crusher’s. He is very concerned with imbuing The Kid with strong morals, and has a vested interest in The Kid’s upbringing and making sure The Kid has a bright future. Meanwhile, the rest of the main crew are like an assortment of aunts and uncles, being the cool, approachable sources of advice when The Captain’s not around. In fact, The Kid hardly seems to have any friends their own age. Instead, they hang out with the adult crew members and get involved in their social drama, which may or may not have always been appropriate.

Isn’t there someone you forgot?

The TNG fans among you may now be thinking to yourselves, “What about Worf?” Alas, there seems to be no satisfactory Worf counterpart on The Love Boat. After all, there isn’t really any need for a tactical officer on a cruise ship, so a warrior-type personality is not represented on the Pacific Princess crew. Other Worf characteristics would be that of an outsider, or one who is occasionally not sure if they truly belong on the ship, but everyone on the Princess seems pretty happy to be there. I guess in a pinch I could say Ace, the late-addition ship’s photographer, might serve as Worf’s counterpart, but other than the fact that Ace’s family is rich and it is established that he doesn’t really need a job on the ship to get by, I’m not sure there’s much of an “outsider” status brought to the table here. I also haven’t watched enough Ace episodes to have a really good read on his character.

 Thus ends my Love Boat/TNG comparison! It was nice to finally get this analysis out of my head and onto the page.

[aurora-godshawk]

Name Games with Ikemen Edition #4

Hello Princesses, Time-Travelers, Waitresses & Alices

I love these little things. Hope you all enjoy and feel free to add yours in the comments! If you would like me to do another one let me know! If you have one you would like me to do for all the suitors or a group of suitors send it to me.

Do forgive me if they aren’t aren’t right there are 73 suitors between the games; 

Midnight Cinderella - 10

Destined to Love - 13

Love, Lies and a Heist - 8

Ikemen Sengoku - 14

Ikemen Revolution - 16

Ikemen Vampire - 12

Midnight Cinderella

Alyn Crawford - Tango The Laughing Sloth

Louis Howard - Abercrombie The Foxy Rabbit

Giles Cristophe - Fantasia The Stingy Sloth

Leo Crawford - Abercrombie The Laughing Sloth

Byron Wagner - Caboose The Tail - Chasing Dingo

Sid (Llyod Gradier) - Amigo/Abercromie The Hairy Gorilla

Robert Branche - Dancer The Beautiful Wombat

Nico Meier - Sammie The Stubborn Banana Slug

Albert Burckhart - Tango The Intelligent Wombat

Rayvis Harneit -  Dancer The Evil-Eyed Rabbit

Destined to Love

Toshizo Hijikata  - Voldemort The Not-So Shabby Rabbit 

Kogoro Katsura - Pandora The Hairy Elephant 

Saito Hajime - Amigo The Laughing Rabbit 

Ryoma Sakamoto  - Dancer The Banana-Eating Rhino 

Kyo Shinomiya - Pandora The Intelligent Rhino 

Keiki (Yoshinobu Tokugawa) - Pandora/Pepe The Stingy Wolf

Soji Okita - Amigo The Angry Foxy

Kirisato (Haru Akira) - Pandora/Nickels The Angry Gopher

Shinsaku Takasugi - Amigo The Beautiful Wolf 

Susumu Yamazaki - Amigo The Stubborn Wolverine 

Okubo Toshimichi - Angel The Foxy Wolf 

Yukio Shinonomiya - Pepe The Tail-Chasing Rhino 

Isami Kondo - Spring Roll The Sting Elephant

Love, Lies and a Heist

Alec Bradley - Tango The Foxy Wombat 

Ewan Bradley - Neo The Hairy Wombat 

Luca Sinclair -Abercrombie The Stingy Rhino 

Logan Bradley - Abercrombie The Banana-Eating Wombat 

Ryan Cormwell -Dancer The Intelligent Sloth 

Noel Butler -Sammie The Banana- Eating Wombat 

Chris Granger - Saffron The Stubborn Gorilla 

Harry Cormwell -Nickels The Foxy Sloth

Ikemen Sengoku

Nobunaga Oda - Sammie The Intelligent Foxy

Masamune Date - Flopsy The Beautiful Komodo Dragon

Yukimura Sanda - Pepe The Angry Rhino

Ieyasu Yokugawa - Spring Roll The Laughing Wolverine 

Hideyoshi Toyotomi - Nickels The Evil-Eyed Wolf 

Shingen Takeda - Amigo The Tail-Chasing Wolf

Kenshin Uesugi - Pandora The Laughing Kitten 

Mitsunari Ishida - Flopsy The Stingy Lion

Sasuke Sarutobi - Amigo The Stubborn Rhino 

Mitsuhide Akechi - Flopsy The Foxy Gopher 

Kennyo - Pandora The Banana-Eating ---

Ranmaru Mori - Dancer The Hairy Banana-Slug

Yoshimoto Imagawa - Pepe The Stubborn Lion

Motonari Mouri - Flopsy The Angry  Banana-Slug

Ikemen Revolution

Lancelot Kingsley - Abercrombie The Banana-Eating Elephant 

Ray Blackwell - Dancer The Stubborn Wombat 

Jonah Clemence - Dim Sum The Stingy Sloth 

Fenrir Godspeed - Rex The Stubborn Gorilla 

Edgar Bright - Neo The Hairy Wombat 

Sirius Oswald - Amigo The Intelligent Foxy 

Loki Genetta - Abercrombie The Stubborn Gorilla 

Kyle Ash - Pandora The Angry Golpher

Luka Clemence - Abercrombie The Beautiful Sloth

Zero - Won Ton The Foxy --

Oliver Knight - Angel The Stubborn Elephant 

Harr Silver - Nickels The Banana-Eating Rhino 

Blanc Lapin - Caboose The Beautiful Hippo

Mousse Atlas - Flopsy The Laughing Gopher 

Dean Tweedle - Gomer The Not-S-Shabby Wolf 

Dalim Tweedle - Gomer The Not-So-Shabby Wolf 

Ikemen Vampire

Napoleon Bonaparte - Sammie The Hairy Wombat

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - T-Bone The Laughing Banana-Slug 

Leonardo da Vinci - Abercrombie The Stubborn Dodo Bird

Arthur Conan Doyle - Tango The Not-So-Shabby Komodo Dragon

Vincent van Gogh - Tofu  The Stubborn Gorilla

Theodorus van Gogh - Voldemort The Intelligent Gorilla 

Osamu Dazai - Angel The Not-So-Shabby Komodo Dragon 

Isaac Newton - Spring Roll The Banana-Eating Dog 

Jean d’Arc - Dim Sum The Banana-Eating Gopher

Willam Shakespeare - T-Bone The Stingy Rhino

Comte de Saint Germain - Saffron The Stingy Gorilla 

Sebastian - Amigo The Beautiful ---

[bestofmazatlan-blog]

7 REASONS TO GET EXCITED ABOUT BEST OF MAZATLÁN

“It’s Mazatlán, not Mazel Tov!” Twenty years ago, when I first told my friends and colleagues I would be working and living in Mazatlán, they had no idea where it was, didn’t understand why I was going there and didn’t know how to pronounce it.  (Well, those of us who were fans of “The Love Boat” TV series – okay, I’m dating myself here – knew about Mazatlán because it was one of the ports of call on the show!)

But Mazatlán has worked hard and evolved over two decades.  Especially during the last few years, the city underwent major remodeling to prepare for its international spotlight.  For the first time ever this past February, Mazatlán hosted Tianguis (literally, a Mexican open-air market), an important international event to showcase Mexico to the tourism industry.  Finally, this superb destination resort town is getting the kind of attention it deserves!

Best of Mazatlán will keep you current and connected to the best food, booze and entertainment in this “Colonial City on the Beach.” Here are seven reasons you should be stoked about that:

We connect you to the best mierda.  (Look it up in a Spanish dictionary.)  Every week, “Best of Mazatlán” will connect you to a steady diet of the best things to  eat, drink and do in Mazatlán!

 No dinero.  (It’s free). “Best of Mazatlán” is sent to your email inbox for no dinero.  In other words, it’s free,  amigos! So sign up now or ahora in Spanish. (Please don’t pronounce the h!)

There’s more to Mazatlán than beaches and booze. Trust me, when you’ve lived here, you know that’s why many tourists come.  But more and more people are discovering that Mazatlán and the Mexican state of Sinaloa offer so much more than that:  culture, history, food and adventure, too.  I hope this website will add to your memories of Mazatlán by turning you on to something new and exciting during your next visit.

And there’s more to Mazatlán food than shrimp… But if shrimp were all that Mazatlán had to eat, that would be more than enough for me because it’s so fresh and delicious; Mazatlán is a shrimp village, after all!  Their signature shrimp dishes, such as shrimp stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon, aguachiles and shrimp ceviche, are unique and out of this world.  But Mazatlan is fast becoming a “foodie destination” and we’ll hook you up to the hottest places and best chefs.

I’ve always wanted to launch a Love Boat Museum here…and still kind of do.  The major cruise ships are back to making Mazatlán one of their regular ports of call, thanks to a concerted effort by Mazatlán, Sinaloa and expats working together to make everyone feel safe and welcome.  So the timing couldn’t be better, right?  Okay, I’m sort of kidding, but I helped start the Walton’s Mountain Museum around that TV show, after it had been off the air for twenty years.  The Walton’s Museum has actually become a big boon for tourism in Virginia!  So if a certain company would provide me with a cruise ship that’s out of commission and some backing to make it happen, I’ll lead the charge.  As far as I know, the actors who played Captain Stubing, Gopher, Isaac, Julie and Vicki are still alive.  (Please don’t get me started on their guest stars.)  So sing along with me now, “Love won’t hurt anymore.  It’s an open smile on a friendly shore.  Yes, LOOVE!  It’s LOOVE!”

We promise we’ll never say El Chapo. Okay, that’s the last time.

We’re going to show people the “real” Mazatlán. Mazatlán is its own special animal.  In fact, Mazatlán is the genuine Mexico!  There’s simply nowhere else like it. The Mazatlecos are wonderful and welcoming people, and I’ve made friends for life here.  It’s exciting to witness the makeover by the city and state of Sinaloa, yet Mazatlán has retained every ounce of its exceptional charm!

Sign up at BestofMazatlan.com for our daily Best of Mazatlán email and be the first to get in on all of the food/drink/fun/life in town!

[coffeedrita]

Happy bones animation

HAPPY BONES ANIMATION HOW TO

HAPPY BONES ANIMATION MOVIE

For a moment there I thought it was Elvis. HIPPOPOTAMI ◆ Nice play with words that will delight (and educate some, but don't tell the kids that). Yes! A toe-tapper to sing again (probably often) after watching it through. THE GREEN GRASS GREW ALL AROUND ◆ Oh, yes! Hoppy, jumpy singalong that has one bouncing and snatching for the words to keep up the repetition as the graphics animate along with the song.

HAPPY BONES ANIMATION HOW TO

THE CUCKOO SONG ◆ Children watch the cuckoo to learn how to tell time.ĭANDELION ◆ A most improbable little illustrated song which will enchant.ĭINNER WITH GOPHER ◆ A little song and dance about that gopher and a snake, with a catchy tune filled with bounce and bubble.ĭINOSAUR BONES ◆ Sir Isaac Digmore loves digging for dinousar bones, but he digs up a little more than he bargains for in this funny song about bones.ĭRY BONES CONNECTED ◆ It's ghoulish fun when a pile of dry bones comes to life and teaches some popular dance steps.ĪN ELEPHANT ◆ A song about a wise old circus elephant getting even with a heckler.įIVE FROGS ◆ Five frogs floating on a log are fair game for a hungry alligator.Ī FRIEND IN ME ◆ This song is guaranteed to put a smile on your face and brighten the gloomiest of days. Have the bedclothes turned back so you can just lift them in. But do they ever come back?ĬATERPILLAR, CATERPILLAR ◆ A'very odd'caterpillar goes shopping and then'to lunch before'checking in at the Metamorphosis Hotel.ĬLOSE YOUR EYES ◆ A lullaby with illustrations. That built a band!īIRDS OF A FEATHER ◆ A special song for Earth DayīOSTON TEA PARTY ◆ An old whale sings a tale from the past.ĬALICO PIE ◆ The birds and the beetles all go away, and so do the fish in the sea. Words featured in the song are Cher, action, chauffeur, mansion, ocean, sushi, chef, sure, and special.ĪLL ON MY WAY TO SCHOOL ◆ A song about the things'kids see on the way to school.īARNYARD BABIES ◆ A counting song with the various "Barnyard Babies" appearing in their own environment, then appearing in a group which grows to ten.īIRDS IN THE BAND ◆ Seems these birds tired of their natural tweeting talents and wanted something more sophisticated than beaks.

HAPPY BONES ANIMATION MOVIE

Includes free flash cards to download and print.ĪCTION MOVIE STAR ◆ A short song featuring words that have the /sh/ sound in the beginning, the middle or the end of the word. A BUNNY'S TALE ◆ A moving story song about the effects of urbanization as seen through the eyes of a bunny.ĪDORABLE ANIMALS ABC ◆ Kids can sing along as they learn their ABCs with the help of animal flash cards.

[who-talks-first]

SW Ask-meme: please do every fourth question!

Ahhh, Pengy, thanks for asking all these! Did I send you some? I hope I did. These are really great questions. And I will provide unnecessarily deep answers. 4: would you join the rebelion or the empire?Obviously, I would pledge my life and soul to both the Alliance to Restore the Republic and General Organa's Resistance. I have aspired to the former since I was 11. Y'all could fuckin' put the rebel starbird on my headstone! 8: would you try aunt beru’s blue milk?I imagine it tastes like slightly fruity, bittersweet almond milk. I would absolutely have to taste it. 12: what planet would be your home?I have adored the verdant beauty of Naboo since I first saw episode I. If I was, ala Oscar Isaac, allowed to choose the planet of my birth in-universe, I would definitely choose Naboo. Somewhere out in the country. Knowing my luck, my planet of origin would end up being Jakku or some other dumpster fire of a planet. To settle, I would be happy on any temperate planet with lots of green and water. 16: what would your Darth name be?I have thought long and hard about this through the years and never found a root word I was satisfied with. Recently, I came across "bellatrist" someone who writes pretty words, and since that's kind of my "power" I wondered if Darth Bellatrix would be appropriate for me. Until I think of one better, I'll stick with it. 20: describe the life style of a scruffy looking nerf herder?They are carefree. They answer to no one but their own conscience and personal needs. They fly around the galaxy in their El Camino (mismatched fender, fuzzy dice, tits or gtfo bumper sticker) space ship, doing odd jobs (odd = questionable) and smoking dank Kushyyk. 24: what do you think Maz would give to you in her basement? I would really want it to be my family member's lightsaber, but I wouldn't be so lucky. It would probably be a massive bill for what my dead uncle owed her and now she expects me to pay it off or something. 28: what would be your job in the galactic senate?I would like to be in a position where I negotiate like maybe representing a union or some underdog group. Realistically, I would be a gopher or a receptionist. 32: what imperial craft would you command and why?I would like to fly a TIE interceptor. Fastest little thing in the galaxy. Whatever Jag Fell piloted in the novel. 36: what rebel starfighter would you pilot in the fight against the death star and why?Where's the gif of Oscar yelling "X-WING STARFIGHTERRR!!"? That's me. I played Rogue Squadron waayyyy too many times. If I ever saw even a life size model of an x-wing, I would straight up faint. 40: what would be the weirdest thing youd want to do in the star wars universe?Someone else asked me this question and I am still trying to figure it out. I really don't have an answer. All the stuff I wanna do is pretty reasonable. Ride in an x-wing, pet cute animals, talk to my heroes, visit landmarks. I mean the weirdest would be wanting to "interact" with my crushes. But I don't think that's particularly weird. I think @i-said-goddameron gets it lolI'm still pondering my actual answer tho. 44: what climate of planet is your favorite?Definitely green and warm. But not hot. I want seasons. I would prefer water, maybe beaches or rivers. Lots of trees. Cool autumn! Mountains! 48: what kind of jedi would you be?A very idealistic Qui-Gon Jinn type. Young Luke type. Using my feelings, the deep empathy I feel, to make the right decisions. The dark side maintains itself. If I favor the light, the balance won't be disrupted. 

[may85]

Title: All Over You Character: Isaac "Ike" Evans TV: Magic City Warnings: 100% smut! Photo/GIF credits go to the original maker/owner For @jmackie1983 😘 The sea of half naked females that roamed the biggest suite at The Miramar Playa was downright distracting. Ike knew that there was going to be modeling, but he didn't realize that it would be this bad. Stevie’s eyes kept roaming all over the women and it took all Ike had not to smack him upside the head. Lenny Bordeaux was the photographer and he had specific standards for the women and place that he wanted. Ike couldn't really complain because the man had paid a week's worth for the room… in cash. “Isaac, is that you?” The soft feminine voice made Ike's body go rigid. “Oh my god, it is you!” the woman came into view and he felt his whole body heat up. Jennifer Azura was a woman that could bring him down to his knees with just one look. Her smile was infectious, her plump nude lips shiny from her recently applied makeup. “Jen,” Ike smiled, holding out his arms. She threw herself into his embrace, giving him a good squeeze. “How are you?” she asked, pulling back. “Living the life,” Ike chuckled, holding onto her arms. “I see this! I knew you'd get this place up and running!” Ike touched a curl that rested on her bare shoulder, “I see life's been good to you,” She shrugged, smiling, “I can't complain. Other than these awful corsets, I'm on cloud nine,” The photographer shouted that he wanted an empty set, sending everyone out. Ike was about to leave when Jennifer reached out, “Stay?” “You really want to piss him off?” Lenny was cursing a gopher with his thick Cajun accent. “Fuck ‘em,” Jennifer leaned in, giggling. She took Ike's arm and threw it over her shoulder, wrapping her other around his waist, “Come on big man. Watch me in action,” Ike kissed Jennifer’s cheek and stayed behind the camera. “Cher, we done been t’rough dis. I want sexy, I want you to love the camera,” Jennifer nodded. While she situated herself, Ike took her in. Her hair before she became a model was a lovely shade of brown. Her hair now was considered drastic for this time and age, but it fit her so well. While her roots were her natural brown, it faded into a grayish blue, with the ends a midnight blue hue. Her makeup was natural, showing her true, beautiful self. When she stripped herself of the robe, Ike damn near came in his pants. She wore a tight, black corset, black bra, panties and thigh high boots. The tattoos that her clothes normally covered up, were on display. Ike was thankfully in the shadows, so no one saw him adjust his aching erection. He watched as her face became stern, but sexy at the same time. Jennifer looked as if she was ready to dish out spankings and Ike was more than willing to take a few from her. Lenny stood and walked around Jennifer, clicking his tongue, “You missin’ somethin’ Cher,” Biting her lip, she looked over at Ike, then whispered to Lenny. “Ohhhh girl! There you go!” Jennifer went to Ike, grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the set. “Just play along… It'll be fun,” “Okay,” Ike smiled, licking his bottom lip. When Lenny rose the camera, Ike threw his hand up, shielding his face. “It's okay, Isaac!” Jennifer said, “You won't be in the picture. I promise,” Reluctantly, Ike put his hand down, “What do you need me for?” Jennifer winked, gripping the straps of her bra and looked at the camera. She watched Ike's expression as pulled her bra off and bared her breasts. Ike swallowed, the lump in his throat growing. Leaning back with her hands on the arm of the couch, Jennifer arched her back, making her breasts pop. Another flash of the camera and more praise from Lenny. “Just a couple more, Cher!” Walking up to Ike, she ran her manicured hand down Ike's chest, “Have a smoke, Darlin’?” With shaky hands, Ike pulled out the small box of Golden Kings and placed the cigarette between Jennifer’s lips. He flicked the lighter, lighting it as she inhaled. Going to the couch, she sat on the arm with her legs crossed as she held the cigarette to her lips. Lenny clicked many more photographs as she finished the smoke. “Oooooo Honey! I t’ink I need a smoke after dis! You know what? Take a break, okay Cher?” Lenny put the camera down and left the suite. Jennifer stood and approached Ike, clearing her throat, “You okay?” Even though his pants were tight and he was horny as hell while watching this beautiful woman pose seductively; he spoke with calmness and finesse. “Yes Ma'am,” Jennifer touched each button of Ike's shirt, until she tapped the button to his trousers, “Would you like some help with this?” Ike ran his eyes down Jennifer’s body, noticing that her nipples began to tighten. He admitted to himself that it had been a while and knowing Jennifer well, was enough for him. “You sure we have time?” he asked, looking to the door. She smiled, going to the door and locking it. Turning, she leaned against the door, biting her lip. “Mr. Evans… it seems I've been a bad, bad girl,” So this was the game she wanted to play? No problem. He snapped his fingers, “Get over here,” Jennifer obeyed immediately. “Just how bad have you been?” Ike asked, taking the tip of his finger and circling her nipple. Jennifer took a deep breath, “Very, very bad,” “Is that so? Just what should your punishment be?” She became some what twitchy, “A spanking,” “Seems fair,” Ike said, grazing his hand over her breasts as he went to the bed. He sat down, and snapped his fingers again. With a quick, but gentle yank, Ike had her over his knees. Sliding his hand into her panties, he pulled them down to her knees. Raising his hand, he brought it down onto her ass, using half of his strength. Jennifer moaned, rubbing her legs together. Ike brought his hand down again, harder this time. The slap was loud, the imprint of his hand welling up on both cheeks. “Ahh!” Jennifer shouted, gasping for breath. “Harder,” she asked. Ike did as she asked, this one the hardest he'd ever be able to dish out. “Fuck! Ike…” “Shhhhh,” he soothed. Holding the middle of her back, he ran his fingers over her folds, easily dipping them into her. Her gentle cries turned into writhing moans as he slowly pumped his fingers in and out of her. “Another, please?” she begged. “Last one, Jennifer,” Ike said, breaking character for a split second. With his the hand that was wet with her juices, he brought it down one last time. “Oh my god,” she moaned. “Get up,” Ike ordered. He helped her sit up, letting the blood rush back down from her face. Ike stood, unbuckling his pants and releasing his hard erection. Jennifer dropped to her knees, taking the hot, velvety skin in her hand. Wasting no time, she licked up his length and sucked gently on the head, making precum seep from the slit. As she pulled her head back, she pumped him, spreading the slick liquid over him. Going lower, she licked Ike's heavy sac, then back up his length. They paused, hearing voices outside the door. Ike pulled Jennifer up, and bent her onto the bed, not able to wait any longer. He held onto both of her shoulders and gave her one hard, powerful thrust, burying himself to the hilt in her tight heat. She moaned loudly, her face in the comforter. Turning her head, she looked over her shoulder and whispered, “Don't hold back,” Ike's thrusts were damn near painful, but so pleasurable. He used, long, hard thrusts, making Jennifer’s whole body move over the bed. Raising her leg, she opened herself up more to him. Letting his hands slide down her body, he held her waist and sped up his thrusts, so much so that his heavy sac slapped against her exposed clit, pushing her over the edge. Jennifer shoved her face into the comforter, screaming as she came. Ike rode her until she came down from her high. He was so close, and yet, at the same time, he still wanted to bring her to another orgasm. “Ike,” she panted, reaching behind her as she grabbed him when he pulled back. Jennifer turned, dropping to her knees again and taking him deep into her mouth. He groaned, grabbing handfuls of her gorgeous hair. As she bobbed her head up and down, she hollowed out her cheeks and sucked on the head as if it were a lollipop. Pulling back, she pumped him as she circled her tongue around the seeping helmet. Sticking out her tongue, she wiggled him against her, watching as his breathing became faster. When his moans became louder, she took him back into her mouth, swallowing him as she fondled his sac. He bent at the waist, coming hard down her throat. Jennifer gasped, still pumping him through his orgasm as she pulled him from her mouth. Catching the come on her fingers, she coated his length, then swallowed him one last time, making his whole body twitch. “Holy… fuck,” he panted. Laughter came from the other side of the door. Ike helped Jennifer stand, taking a handkerchief from his suit pocket and wiping her mouth. “Don't go anywhere, please?” she asked him. He nodded, watching as she quickly ran to the bathroom. While she cleaned herself up, he took that time to get himself in order. When she came back out from the bathroom, she looked as if nothing had happened. The only giveaway was her rosy cheeks. Being a gentleman, Ike grabbed her robe and helped her put it on. As she turned, he smiled at her and tied the sash on her robe. “Tonight, get dolled up. I'm taking you out,” Her eyes widened as she grinned, “Really?” “Really,” he chuckled. “Cher! Op’n the door!” Lenny hollered, knocking loudly. She blushed, going over to unlock the door. Lenny may have sounded mad, but all he did was wink at her when he came inside. Isaac took this as his cue to leave. He stopped, holding Jennifer’s elbow, “I'll see you later, Honey,” Jennifer pressed her body close to his and kissed him slowly. Her mouth tasted minty as Ike dipped his tongue into her mouth, “Tonight Jennifer,” He felt her body shiver as he stepped away, her delicate sigh ghosting over his cheek. Tagging: @thedeadmost @krissy25 @fancybubble @superprincesspea @cherieann-2001 @darshaya @ladylorelitany @ali-pennell @wadeyourebarelyalive @fangirlindenial @negans-dirty-girl @smuttwd @justacaliforniandreamer @piilow-talk @pan-and-proud-writes @memphisgirl1977 @5sos1dsex @deviousginga @strangersangel9 @mogaruke @crzcorgi @siobhan-elizabeth @thecynicalnerd @cookiemunster10 @laureng-99 @miss-nori85 @rhysiecupcakes @texasgal2222 @magikat409 @jmackie1983 @andillica @brandivstheworld @persephinii666 @jasoncrouse @lynnliciousadnan @astrangegirlsmind @kitcat44 @daintyunicorn @warriorqueen1991 @kellyn1604 @raspberrypuddle @zombeeegurl @shanaatjelove11 @bebe-a7x1369 @sweetsweetpeach @prurose @--countrygurl-- @robertdowneyjr-rdj @gloria1995 @muldaaah @intimeandspacewithyou @meanandshallow @badsongwinchester @daddymenrah @mac5323 @a-queen-and-her-throne @jdmfanfiction @sginger1995 @mrskokitztelford @kaitlynnegibson @fallen-angelslove @tomlinsoupstyles @jdmsgal @daniehelene27 @swettylittlegirl

[comebeforegod]

How Should Christians Practice to Gain God’s Blessings

By Xiaoai

Every one of us who believes in God desires to receive God’s blessings, because God blessing a person represents that this person is approved by God and pleases God. 

Then, how can we receive God’s blessings? This is what we are all concerned with. We all know the Bible records that Noah and Abraham were blessed by God. So, what exactly did they do before gaining God’s blessings? Let us understand their experiences through studying the Bible and follow their examples.

Why did Noah gain God’s blessings?

The Bible records: “And God looked on the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way on the earth. And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make you an ark of gopher wood; rooms shall you make in the ark, and shall pitch it within and without with pitch. … Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he” (Genesis 6:12-14, 22).

From these scriptures, we can see at that time, before God destroyed the earth with the flood, He called upon Noah to build an ark and told him how to build it. Then Noah did as God said, following His instructions one by one. When the flood came, Noah and his seven family members entered the ark and survived. After the flood they lived in God’s blessings and enjoyed the grace that God bestowed. So, why did Noah gain God’s blessings? God’s words give us the answer. God says: “When Noah did as God instructed he didn’t know what God’s intentions were. He didn’t know what God wanted to accomplish. God had only given him a command, instructed him to do something, but without much explanation, and he went ahead and did it. He didn’t try to figure out God’s intentions in private, nor did he resist God or have a double heart. He just went and did it accordingly with a pure and simple heart. Whatever God let him do he did, and obeying and listening to God’s word were his conviction for doing things. That was how straightforwardly and simply he dealt with what God entrusted. His essence—the essence of his actions was obedience, not second-guessing, not resisting, and moreover, not thinking of his own personal interests and his gains and losses. Further, when God said He would destroy the world with a flood, he did not ask when or try to get to the bottom of it, and he certainly did not ask God just how He was going to destroy the world. He simply did as God instructed. However God wanted it to be made and made with what, he did exactly as God asked and also commenced action immediately thereafter.”

“To God, no matter whether a person is great or insignificant, as long as they can listen to Him, obey His instructions and what He entrusts, and can cooperate with His work, His will, and His plan, so that His will and His plan can be accomplished smoothly, then that conduct is worthy of His commemoration and worthy of receiving His blessing. God treasures such people, and He cherishes their actions and their love and affection for Him. This is God’s attitude. So why did God bless Noah? Because this is how God treats such actions and obedience of man.”

From God’s words, we can see: When God entrusted Noah to build an ark, although he had never seen an ark, and did not know how to build an ark, he did not ask why God let him do this. Instead, his only attitude was obedience to God. He acted based on God’s requirements, treated God’s commission as his responsibility and duty and completed it. Thus, he gained God’s blessings.

Why did Abraham gain God’s blessings?

We all know about Abraham’s story. When Abraham was a hundred years old, God bestowed upon him a son, Isaac, but when Isaac grew up, God asked Abraham to offer him up as a burnt offering. Most people find this demand of God to be very inconceivable and give excuses on Abraham’s behalf: Since God had given him a son, why then did God make him offer his son? And why did God give him a son in the first place? Then how did Abraham do with God’s demand? The Bible says, “And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him” (Genesis 22:3). “And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar on the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son”  (Genesis 22:9-10). When God’s trial came upon him, though he could not bear to part with his son and was distressed in his heart, he was very rational, he didn’t reason with God, instead, he submitted unconditionally to God and sincerely returned Isaac to God in accordance with God’s commands. Abraham’s obedience showed God his sincerity. Just as God’s words say, “When Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son, were his actions seen by God? They were. The entire process—from the start, when God asked that Abraham sacrifice Isaac, to when Abraham actually raised his knife to slay his son—showed God the heart of Abraham, and regardless of his former foolishness, ignorance, and misunderstanding of God, at that time Abraham’s heart for God was true, and honest, and he truly was going to return Isaac, the son given to him by God, back to God. In him, God saw obedience—the very obedience that He desired.”

In the trial, Abraham chose to absolutely submit to God, because in his heart, obedience to God was above all, which was more important than Isaac. What God treasured most is people’s true heart and their obedience to Him. Therefore, because of his obedience to God, Abraham gained God’s blessings, his descendants being like the stars in the sky and the sand on the shore. Just as Genesis 22:16-18 says: “And said, By myself have I sworn, said Jehovah, for because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son: That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is on the sea shore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.”

How can we receive God’s blessings?

Through reading Noah and Abraham’s stories, we find they had one thing in common: They both listened to and obeyed God and they all followed God’s will. No matter what God said, even if they did not understand God’s will at that time, they were simple, sincerely believed in God, and acted according to God’s words without any hint of a transaction and demand. However, compared to them, although we also believe in God, we have impurities within us and we always make deals with God. I recalled that when God’s commission came upon me, what I considered first was my own benefits. I was unwilling to do duties that were not to my benefit, even if I did, I didn’t truly obey and didn’t have any consideration for God. I only did them with the intention of exchanging God’s blessings with my expending, such as a peaceful family, a prosperous career and the blessings to enter the heavenly kingdom. As a result, what I had done could hardly win God’s approval. Therefore, if we expect to live within God’s blessings, we should imitate Noah to obey God absolutely. There was also Abraham, who, when facing God’s trials and refinements, only sought to satisfy God’s will. So he was willing to offer up Isaac to God without other purposes and intentions. But when we are faced with trials, we always misunderstand God and complain against God. We are unable to truly obey God’s rule and arrangements, so we cannot gain God’s blessings.

Actually, it is not hard for us to live within God’s blessings because God’s requirements of us are not high. As long as we can understand God, believe in and obey God and fear God and shun evil, no matter what befall us, be it God’s commission, trial or test, we will gain God’s blessings like Noah and Abraham did. Just as God’s words say, “Those who fear God and shun evil, those who truly follow God, listen to Him and are loyal to Him, and those who obey Him—these are the people who will often receive God’s blessings, and God will bestow such blessings without reservation. Moreover, the blessings people receive from God are often beyond their imagination, and also beyond anything human beings can exchange for what they have done or the price they have paid.”

[focusontheeasternlightning-blog]

How Can We Receive God’s Blessings?

By Xiaoai

Every one of us who believes in God desires to receive God’s blessings, because God blessing a person represents that this person is approved by God and pleases God. Then, how can we receive God’s blessings?

 This is what we are all concerned with. We all know the Bible records that Noah and Abraham were blessed by God. So, what exactly did they do before gaining God’s blessings? Let us understand their experiences through studying the Bible and follow their examples.

Why did Noah gain God’s blessings?

The Bible records: “And God looked on the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way on the earth. And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make you an ark of gopher wood; rooms shall you make in the ark, and shall pitch it within and without with pitch. … Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he” (Genesis 6:12-14, 22).

From these scriptures, we can see at that time, before God destroyed the earth with the flood, He called upon Noah to build an ark and told him how to build it. Then Noah did as God said, following His instructions one by one. When the flood came, Noah and his seven family members entered the ark and survived. After the flood they lived in God’s blessings and enjoyed the grace that God bestowed. So, why did Noah gain God’s blessings? God’s words give us the answer. God says: “When Noah did as God instructed he didn’t know what God’s intentions were. He didn’t know what God wanted to accomplish. God had only given him a command, instructed him to do something, but without much explanation, and he went ahead and did it. He didn’t try to figure out God’s intentions in private, nor did he resist God or have a double heart. He just went and did it accordingly with a pure and simple heart. Whatever God let him do he did, and obeying and listening to God’s word were his conviction for doing things. That was how straightforwardly and simply he dealt with what God entrusted. His essence—the essence of his actions was obedience, not second-guessing, not resisting, and moreover, not thinking of his own personal interests and his gains and losses. Further, when God said He would destroy the world with a flood, he did not ask when or try to get to the bottom of it, and he certainly did not ask God just how He was going to destroy the world. He simply did as God instructed. However God wanted it to be made and made with what, he did exactly as God asked and also commenced action immediately thereafter.”

“To God, no matter whether a person is great or insignificant, as long as they can listen to Him, obey His instructions and what He entrusts, and can cooperate with His work, His will, and His plan, so that His will and His plan can be accomplished smoothly, then that conduct is worthy of His commemoration and worthy of receiving His blessing. God treasures such people, and He cherishes their actions and their love and affection for Him. This is God’s attitude. So why did God bless Noah? Because this is how God treats such actions and obedience of man.”

From God’s words, we can see: When God entrusted Noah to build an ark, although he had never seen an ark, and did not know how to build an ark, he did not ask why God let him do this. Instead, his only attitude was obedience to God. He acted based on God’s requirements, treated God’s commission as his responsibility and duty and completed it. Thus, he gained God’s blessings.

Why did Abraham gain God’s blessings?

We all know about Abraham’s story. When Abraham was a hundred years old, God bestowed upon him a son, Isaac, but when Isaac grew up, God asked Abraham to offer him up as a burnt offering. Most people find this demand of God to be very inconceivable and give excuses on Abraham’s behalf: Since God had given him a son, why then did God make him offer his son? And why did God give him a son in the first place? However, facing God’s demand, Abraham did not reason with God like this. When God’s trial came upon him, though he could not bear to part with his son and was distressed in his heart, he was very rational and sincerely returned Isaac to God unconditionally in accordance with God’s words and God’s commands. Abraham’s obedience showed God his sincerity, so he received God’s blessings in the end. Just as Genesis 22:16-18 says: “And said, By myself have I sworn, said Jehovah, for because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son: That in blessing I will bless you, and in multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is on the sea shore; and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.”

How can we receive God’s blessings?

Through reading Noah and Abraham’s stories, we find they had one thing in common: They both listened to and obeyed God and they all followed God’s will. No matter what God said, even if they did not understand God’s will at that time, they were simple, sincerely believed in God, and acted according to God’s words without any hint of a transaction and demand. However, compared to them, although we also believe in God, we have impurities within us and we always make deals with God. I recalled that when God’s commission came upon me, what I considered first was my own benefits. I was unwilling to do duties that were not to my benefit, even if I did, I didn’t truly obey and didn’t have any consideration for God. I only did them with the intention of exchanging God’s blessings with my expending, such as a peaceful family, a prosperous career and the blessings to enter the heavenly kingdom. As a result, what I had done could hardly win God’s approval. Therefore, if we expect to live within God’s blessings, we should imitate Noah to obey God absolutely. There was also Abraham, who, when facing God’s trials and refinements, only sought to satisfy God’s will. So he was willing to offer up Isaac to God without other purposes and intentions. But when we are faced with trials, we always misunderstand God and complain against God. We are unable to truly obey God’s rule and arrangements, so we cannot gain God’s blessings.

Actually, it is not hard for us to live within God’s blessings because God’s requirements of us are not high. As long as we can understand God, believe in and obey God and fear God and shun evil, no matter what befall us, be it God’s commission, trial or test, we will gain God’s blessings like Noah and Abraham did. Just as God’s words say, “Those who fear God and shun evil, those who truly follow God, listen to Him and are loyal to Him, and those who obey Him—these are the people who will often receive God’s blessings, and God will bestow such blessings without reservation. Moreover, the blessings people receive from God are often beyond their imagination, and also beyond anything human beings can exchange for what they have done or the price they have paid.”

[ficdirectory]

Blink (An AU Fosters family fic) Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

“Jesus,” Mama whispers.  “What are you doing out here?  Are you okay?”

Groggily, Jesus blinks awake.  Slowly, last night comes back to him.  Losing it in the dark hallway.  Coming back holding Frankie.  Now, it’s just him and Mariana.  She sleeps close.  Her head pillowed on one of his arms.  He has almost no feeling in it, but he’d feel bad moving and waking her up.

“Yeah.  I’m okay.  We just fell asleep talking.”

He doesn’t know why he’s lying.  It doesn’t make sense, and it’s one of the grossest leftovers of living four years in super hell.  The lying had become like second nature by the end.  Sometimes, it’s still hard to tell if it’s because of that, or just a regular innocent lie people tell.  Jesus hates not knowing which it is.  If he’s horrible or okay as a person.  If he’s a person or a warm body.

“Go back to sleep,” Mama urges and he wants to laugh.  Because there’s no way.  Instead he slides his arm out from under Mariana’s head and covers her with a blanket before following Mama downstairs.

Jesus likes the quiet in the house before everybody else is up.  Winter break, with everybody home all the time, has been hard to get used to.  

He’s dumping old coffee grounds out into the trash before it really dawns on him what he’s doing.  Not until he turns to go back to the coffee maker and Mama is standing there.

“I have this, bud.  Sit down, okay?”

She says it like it’s fine, but Jesus’s ears burn hot.  All this time and he still catches himself doing kitchen chores if he’s not careful.  It’s something he used to have to do Then, and if he does it here, it can mean big trouble for his trauma, especially if his fam lets it go unchecked.

“Sorry.”

“No need to apologize.  I love my poem, by the way,” she says, referencing the gift Jesus gave everybody in the family.  Haikus about each of them.

“Yeah?” he asks.  

“Yes.”  She comes and sits down next to him.  “I like the words you chose to rhyme.  I remember that day like it was yesterday.”

“Me, too,” he nods.  He had only been home two months when he had sat down with Lena and talked about the book Where The Wild Things Are, while she held him.  It was the first time he could let her.  One of the first times he felt safe letting an adult touch him, after everything Then.

“I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Jesus swallows.  Tries not to jump to conclusions.  To think he’s in trouble.  

She must see it on his face, though, because she says, “You’re not in trouble, bud, okay?  It’s a family thing.  Something we’d like to do together.”

“What?” he asks carefully.  He still can’t let his guard down totally.

“Well, Grandma Sharon gave us all plane tickets to spend a week in Grandpa Frank’s cabin.”

“Isn’t that in Wisconsin or something?” he makes a face.  Wisconsin’s way far away.  And cold.

“Minnesota,” she clarifies.

“Hmm…” Jesus muses.  “Would I come, too?”

“You’re a part of us, honey.  Yes, you’d come...unless it’s not something you feel comfortable doing.”

“Then what, though?  Grandma spent money on tickets we wouldn’t use?  That seems kinda rude.  I mean, if I didn’t wanna go, you guys could go without me.”

“No, we couldn’t.  We don’t leave family behind, love,” Lena said patiently.  “We’re waiting to tell everyone else until we had a chance to talk to you first.  To see how you feel.”

“Is there snow?” he asks hopefully.  He’s thinking of the picture of Isaac.  The last fun thing he did.  He really wanted to see snow.  That’s what his mom had said.  This way, maybe Jesus could see it, too, and it would kinda be like they were together, if they were both doing the same thing, even if it wasn’t at the same time.

“I’m sure there is, yes,” Mama smiles.

“Can we do stuff in it?” he asks.

“Sure, we can,” Mama nods.

“Can I bring stuff from home?” he checks.

“Of course.  We’ll pack everything we need before we go.  One of us will help you, okay, so you don’t have to worry about that.  We’ll bring clothes, toothbrushes, everything, okay?”

“Food?”

“Sure.  I think Mom and I are gonna sit down with the rest of the kids after breakfast to tell them.  Then you can decide who you’d like to help you pack.”

“Okay,” he nods.

Since cinnamon rolls are still baking in the oven, Jesus goes to his room and grabs some clothes and a quick shower.  He plays the cover of Wintersong that Brandon did on YouTube.  When he’s downstairs again, so is everyone else.  Frankie is covered in icing.  Everybody’s already eating.  Jesus hesitates.

“Morning, my sweet,” Mom says, pulling a chair out for Jesus.  “Sit down.  Have a cinnamon roll.”

Jude’s crabby and half asleep.  Mariana is looking rough from a night sleeping on the hardwood floor in the hallway.  Jesus feels a twinge of regret.  He sits down and picks at his cinnamon roll.

“I heared us all singing in the bathroom,” Frankie reports.

“You did?  How’d we sound?” Mama asks.

“Good.  ‘Specially you, Mama.  You sing the best of anyone.”

Jesus remembers Mari and Callie singing him some old Justin Bieber song last night.  (His sisters can seriously make anything sound cool.)

“Well, thank you so much,” Mama smiles.

After breakfast is eaten, Mom keeps everybody at the table an extra few minutes, telling them about the big surprise gift from Grandma (and Grandpa.)  Frankie goes nuts, talking about building an Olaf snowman, and asking everybody if they want to build a snowman.

“We’re going to vacation in the woods?” Mariana asks skeptically.  “In the winter?  In Minnesota?”

“You know, people usually go where it’s warm to vacation,” Callie points out.

“We live where it’s warm right now, genius,” Brandon puts in.

“Yes, we’re going to vacation in the woods.  Grandpa has a very nice cabin that he and Grandma are letting us use.”

“Jude?” Callie asks, nudging him.  “What do you think?”

“Bears…” he mumbles.

“Bears hibernate in the winter, Jude.  Don’t you know?” Frankie asks.

“We leave Sunday morning.  Early.  So we need to pack everything we’ll need over today and tomorrow.  Eight sets of clothes.  Pajamas.  Yes?”  Mom asks rhetorically.  She lowers her voice and asks, “Jesus, who would you like to help you pack?”

“Maybe Mariana?” he whispers.

“Mariana and Callie, come here, please,” Mom directs after dismissing everyone else to get going and clean the kitchen.

Mariana heaves a sigh.  “Mom, I know how to pack a bag…” she says, a little testily.

“I know you do.  And because you’re so skilled, I need to know if you’ll help Jesus pack, too.  And Callie, can you do the same for Frankie?”

“Yeah, of course,” Callie says and Mariana nods.

“Okay, I should call Dad and let him know we’ll be heading up there Sunday.  See if there’s anything we should know…”

On the way upstairs, Mari turns to him.  “So, what would you think if I just did this for you?  Is that okay?”

Jesus blinks.  “Is it okay for you?”

(They were four when they packed their first bags.  Back then, he did the packing for both of them.  Jesus is pretty sure she remembers.  Is pretty sure this is her way of returning the favor.)

“Totally.  I got you, remember?”

He nods.  “Yeah.  I remember.”

Deerwood, Minnesota

Two days after Christmas, Pearl is back at work.  For her, this means on her couch, knitting a maroon and yellow scarf for a dog.  (Go, Gophers.)  Her Etsy shop, Pawsitive Knitting, makes winter wear for pets.  

“Gracie, come,” Pearl calls softly.  “I need to see how this looks on you.”  

Gently, she maneuvers the scarf onto the dog, who sits patiently, tail swishing back and forth.

“Well, you’re just about the prettiest girl  I’ve ever seen,” Pearl says, scratching Gracie behind the ears.

Pearl’s phone rings with an old-fashioned jingle that her grandparents’ phone had.  Must be an unknown.  She picks up.  Glances at the screen.

Nope.  Not an unknown.  Frank Cooper.

“Hey, Frank.”

“Hey, Pearl.  How are you?  How was your Christmas?”

“Fine, and yours?” she asks.  (What does he want?  His first call to her is usually no earlier than May, inviting her over for dinner with any number of relatives or friends.  She never accepts.  She’s not a people person.  At least, not a people-in-large-groups person.)

“Nice, yeah, very nice.  Listen, I was wondering if you’d be around at all the coming week?”

When am I not around? she thinks testily.  Instead, she says, “I think so, why?  You need something?”

“Well, my family’s heading up to spend a week there.  Just wanted to give you a heads-up that they’d be around.  I know it’s usually kinda quiet.”

“How big is your family?” Pearl asks, holding out a hand.  Gracie comes and nips at it, calming Pearl’s nervous tremor.  (She can’t knit dog scarves with shaky hands.)

“My daughter, her wife, and I got five - no six - grandkids.”

“Wow, yeah, no, thank you for the heads up.  I appreciate it.”

“Just wanted you to know they’d be there, not me.  My daughter’s Stef.  You’ve met her before.  Her wife’s Lena. Kids are teenagers, except the little one.”

“Okay.”

“You all right?” Frank asks.

“Yeah, no, I’m fine.”  Eight strangers coming tomorrow to invade my solitary life?  Sounds like a blast…  “Thanks for the call, Frank.”

“You bet.”

“You bet…” Pearl breathes, hanging up the phone.  She tosses her knitting aside and holds her head in her hands.  She peeks at Gracie, who’s studying her closely.

“This is really gonna suck,” she tells the dog seriously.

Gracie comes and sits close by, resting her head in Pearl’s lap.  Pearl buries her face in the dog’s fur.

[narcisbolgor-blog]

‘The Love Boat’ cast reunites on ‘Today’ more than 40 years after show first aired

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Video

'The Love Boat' cast reunites

More than 40 years after the show first aired, the original cast of the beloved 1970s TV series 'The Love Boat' reunited on the 'Today' show. The cast had just received an honorary star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in partnership with Princess Cruises.

All aboard! The cast of "The Love Boat" is back on deck. 

On Friday morning, the original cast of the beloved 1970s TV series "The Love Boat" reunited for one more cruise on the "Today" show. 

More than 40 years after the show premiered, the famous cast ‒ including Gavin MacLeod, Ted Lange, Bernie Kopell, Lauren Tewes, Jill Whelan and Fred Grandy ‒ appeared on the morning show live from Los Angeles, where on May 10 they received an honorary star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in partnership with Princess Cruises.  

For their reunion, MacLeod, known for his iconic role of Capt. Merrill Stubing, donned his signature captain hat while Lange, who played the ship's spirited bartender Isaac Washington, sported his signature red jacket and mustache. Koppell, who played the ship's doctor, Adam Bricker, wore his signature specs. 

"The Love Boat" cast awaits the unveiling on their Hollywood Walk of Fame Star.  (AP)

Also in attendance was the ship's cruise director, Julie McCoy, played by Tewes, the captain's angelic daughter; Vicki, who was played by Whelan; and Grandy, who played Yeoman Burl Smith but was known for his character nickname, "Gopher."

Prior to reuniting on "Today," the cast sat down with morning hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie to talk about the significance of the classic TV show in May of last year.

Video

'The Love Boat' celebrates its 40th anniversary

When asked how often the cast gets together, Whelan said, "We were all together last night at my apartment." 

But the fun-loving cast, who went on to tape eight seasons of the hit series, admitted that they didn't know that the show was going to be a success when it first aired in 1977, produced by Aaron Spelling. 

"We got the worst reviews," Koppell said. 

The show's cast on the "Today" show on May 23, 2017.  (AP)

According to MacLeod, he knew right from the start "The Love Boat" was classic material. "We had a reading in the office, just the guys. And we finished the reading ... and I'm walking down and a guy says, 'Well, I hope this goes well," and I said, 'I'm telling you we're gonna go at least seven years.'"

Grandy said the show turned out to be such a success partly because there was nothing like it on the air.

"It was romance, at the time there were only cop shows and sitcoms on the air," he said. "So, this show filled some kind of need that only Aaron Spelling understood." 

You can find Morgan M. Evans on Twitter @themizfactor.

On Our Radar

Lauer caught on tape

TMZ

Original Article : HERE ; This post was curated & posted using : RealSpecific

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[eclecticanalyst]

We’re Expecting You...To Boldly Go

[or, a fun exercise in comparing The Love Boat to Star Trek: The Next Generation]

I’ve always had a fondness for shows that aired several decades before I was born. When I was a kid, I loved the TV channel Boomerang, because it broadcasted classic cartoons like Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and Snorks and The Jetsons. As I entered my preteen years, I graduated to live-action, checking out DVD box sets of The Facts of Life and Fantasy Island and The Love Boat from the library.

I don’t know if other people in my generation are familiar with The Love Boat—it was a television show that ran on ABC from 1977-1987. The show took place on a cruise ship, the Pacific Princess, and a typical episode would begin with the Princess leaving out of its home port of Los Angeles, proceeding to such stops as Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta before ultimately returning to Los Angeles at the end of the hour. The Love Boat’s claim to fame was its rotating roster of guest stars (with a new lineup in each episode), who were a mix of contemporary actors/celebrities (like Jim Nabors, Florence Henderson, and Sonny Bono) and old Hollywood/Broadway royalty (like Gene Kelly, Ethel Merman, and Zsa Zsa Gabor). These guest stars would provide the Pacific Princess with its passengers. There was a regular cast of characters that helped anchor (pun intended) the show—Merrill Stubing, ship’s captain; Adam “Doc” Bricker, ship’s doctor; Burl “Gopher” Smith, assistant yeoman purser; Isaac Washington, chief bartender; and Julie McCoy, cruise director. Vicki Stubing, the captain’s teenaged daughter, was added to the cast in season 3. In the final few seasons, Julie was replaced by her sister Judy, and the ship gained a photographer in Ace–full name Ashley Covington Evans. (Also, every so often, a guest star would play a member of the crew, like the gift shop manager or the chef, rather than a passenger.)

A standard episode was divided into three storylines that played out simultaneously over the course of a cruise. The vast majority of the storylines were romance-based, but there were others that consisted of family drama or old friends getting together. The regular cast members would participate in the passengers’ stories to varying degrees, sometimes being an integral part of the plot and sometimes only existing on the sidelines. The storylines would all get resolved by the time the Pacific Princess returned to Los Angeles, and the passengers would (almost always cheerfully) disembark, usually never to be seen again. Plotlines did not carry over from one week to the next, and even if a guest star returned in a later episode, chances were they would be playing a completely new character.

Although the guest cast took up the majority of the screen time, I was always more invested in the regulars, and wished we could spend more time with them—learning their backstories, exploring their dynamics with each other, and watching them actually do cruise ship work instead of pal around with the passengers. Because of The Love Boat’s near-anthology setup, not much effort was put into any sort of ongoing character development. Intense romances on the main cast’s part one week would be completely forgotten the next week, family deaths wouldn’t be brought up until it was relevant to that episode’s storyline, and new details about the crew’s past would be added as plot points, even sometimes directly contradicting a previous episode.

(The Love Boat had other issues that have less to do with my criticism of the writing and more to do with an adherence to certain flawed social practices, like how Isaac's love interests were always Black, or how single mothers were greeted with raised eyebrows, or how people of Asian or Latino/a descent were accompanied by specific musical cues–but these issues are not the point of this post so I won’t get into them at this time.)

Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered the year The Love Boat went off the air—1987—and ran until 1994. I only got into Star Trek in college, and TNG was my first series as it was easily available on BBC America. Although it had been several years since I had watched The Love Boat on a regular basis, one day a connection was made in my mind, and it occurred to me that there were a great deal of parallels to be drawn between a certain rom-com/drama at sea and a certain sci-fi adventure in space. I kept this observation in my head for years, but now that I have a blog (and because I have been rewatching a few episodes of The Love Boat in the past few weeks), I have decided to write out all of these parallels in detail.

First: the basic setup. The main cast is the crew of a ship, but we only really meet a handful of the hundreds of actual crew members needed to run the ship. In The Love Boat, for example, we don’t see the engineering crew, but the Pacific Princess must certainly have one in order to function, and although we do sometimes see Captain Stubing hanging out on the bridge, we don’t even know the name of the first officer. As I mentioned above, occasionally a guest star would play a crew member in an episode, acting as if they’d been there the whole time, but we would never see them again after that one appearance. A few times, one of the main cast would interact with an extra portraying a crew member—Julie would ask a steward to escort a guest somewhere, or Isaac would ask a waitress to carry a tray of drinks over to someone—but for the most part it seemed like our regulars did all the work on the ship. When Captain Stubing would have pre-cruise preparation meetings, it was always just with the main cast, who were not necessarily the people a real cruise ship captain would be meeting with right before sailing. (Take Gopher—he was only the assistant yeoman purser, and yet he was in all those meetings while the chief yeoman purser was not. Actually, I’m pretty sure the chief purser never made an appearance in the entire ten years the show was on the air. I believe Gopher got a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it promotion to chief purser in later seasons, but he was definitely assistant-purser-with-odd-authority at first.)

In TNG, the same sort of thing would happen. CMO Beverly Crusher claimed to have other doctors working under her, but beyond a Vulcan named Selar who showed up in one episode of the show, we didn’t see them. Missions that seemed suited to one of the science departments of the Enterprise, like xenobiology or astrophysics, would be carried out by senior staff members—also known as the main cast. There were a few more named recurring crew member characters on TNG than on The Love Boat, like Miles O’Brien and Reg Barclay, but for the most part our bridge crew did pretty much everything. And while it makes sense on TNG for the senior staff to interact with each other a great deal, they should also be interacting with their respective teams—and yet we don’t really see that happen. Geordi and Data are more likely to address an engineering problem on their own in a given episode than Geordi and the actual engineering staff, and we don’t really see Worf running his security teams through drills or target practice. On The Love Boat, Doc and Isaac for some reason are often seen checking passengers in at boarding, when that should not be in their job description at all and what we should see is Gopher supervising his staff doing those duties.

Both shows are more plot driven rather than character driven. Our main cast members in both shows are meant to serve as respondents to new situations brought aboard their respective ships, rather than personalities to be interrogated in depth. The main cast is defined enough that the audience can have a favorite character and know how a Picard story differs from a Worf story, or a Gopher story from a Julie story. But all in all the draw and focus of TNG was more “What is the crisis on the planet of the week?” or “What common ground can be found with this new alien species?” or “What commentary on the human condition can be extrapolated from this shipwide invasion?” rather than, say, Beverly’s mental and emotional state as a widow working under the man who ordered her husband to his death or the nuances of Troi and Riker’s no-longer-dating-but-still-sort-of-in-love friendship. Meanwhile, The Love Boat was preoccupied with “What sort of antics will this week’s cast of characters bring on board?”. Doc joked regularly about his multiple ex-wives, but we never got a character study about how Doc seemed to like falling in love more than maintaining a romantic relationship in the long term.

The Love Boat’s regular cast were pretty much the same season to season—Gopher was accident-prone and quick to goof around, Doc maintained his Lothario status, Captain Stubing was quick to both rebuke and advise. I didn’t really watch the post-Julie seasons, so maybe some character developments happened that I missed, but generally the passengers were the ones transformed by their time on the ship, not the crew. TNG characters did have a bit more of an arc than the crew of the Pacific Princess—Data got more in touch with his humanity and Picard relaxed more around his personnel, for instance. But that didn’t apply to all the characters—I’m hard-pressed to think of any sizeable developments in Geordi’s character beyond being promoted to Chief Engineer. Speaking of that promotion, once the show found its footing and everyone had the positions they would come to be known for—Geordi as Chief Engineer rather than the helmsman he was early on, Worf as Chief Tactical Officer post-death of Tasha Yar—nothing really changed for our main characters’ situations. The status quo was strictly enforced despite events unfolding that would have naturally led to transitions. After “Best of Both Worlds,” it would have made sense for Riker to ascend to his own command, but instead he stayed first officer season after season. Worf resigned his commission to fight in the Klingon Civil War, but once that was over, he strolled back onto the bridge without even any extra paperwork.

That aversion to long-term change was in keeping with the episodic nature of both shows. Nowadays, we’re used to the need to keep up with each season’s developments in a television show and watch every episode lest we miss some important revelation. In the case of TNG and The Love Boat, for the most part, you can drop a new viewer into any given episode and they’ll be fine. The stories are largely self-contained, and everything is pretty much resolved at the end of the hour.

This TNG/TLB comparison, however, is not resolved just yet...stay tuned for part 2!

[numbersbythebook]

19, Eve, Mark, Life , Resurrection

written by Will Schumaker

God has told the end from the beginning.

Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

Eve is the first picture of the bride of Christ.  Eve ate of the fruit and gave to the man.  The church ate of the fruit and gave to Christ.  He suffered the consequences of our sins.  Adam slept and Eve came out of his side.  Christ slept, a picture of death in the bible, and out of His side came blood and water referring to life.

Eve is called “woman” first. Strong’s H802 is “woman” or “wife.

Genesis 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

The first time the ark is mentioned in scripture it has an in-text gematria of 802.  The ark is the church, the woman, the wife of Christ.

Genesis 6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

The pitch is H3722 which also means atonement.  The church has been covered in the atonement that Christ provided for us.

Eve is Strong’s  H2332.  She has a gematria of 19 and is used for the first time in verse 76 which is 4 x 19.  (I have been studying the number 19 lately and it is related to a completion of a cycle of time.)

Genesis 3:20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

The phrase “she was the mother of all living” has a gematria of 541 which matches the gematria of Israel, God’s chosen, His wife.

Jesus calls God the God of the living and not the dead when speaking of the resurrection:

Matthew 22:31 But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,

Matthew 22:32 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

So God is the God of the living and Eve is the mother of the living.

This is verse 2332 from the end of the Bible, speaking of the Resurrection:

1 Corinthians 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

This is Bible verse 2332:

Exodus 28:38 And it shall be upon Aaron's forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.

The High Priest, which Christ is our high priest, is to wear a gold engraving over his forehead so that Israel and their offerings may be accepted.

Within the above verse tied to Eve, the in-text gematria of forehead is 144.  This reminds me of the 144,000 that have on their forehead the name of the Father.

Revelation 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.

This is verse 175 from the end of the Bible and Strong’s H175 is Aaron the High Priest as a type of Christ who was to have on his forehead the golden plate for Israel.

In the New Testament Strong’s H2096 = Eve with a gematria of 406.

The Hebrew word for “mark” is the letter and word “tav”.  It has a gematria of 406, matching Eve.

Ezekiel 9:4 And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

I have written that Jacob and Esau, the 22nd generation, is a picture of the 22nd Hebrew letter, Tav, marked either for God or the devil.

So Eve is tied to the mark or God and Israel and the ark.  The mark has a gematria of 406, the ark has a gematria of 407 and the first time it is used is 802 which is the woman, the bride of Christ.

This is verse 406 and 407 of 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

1 Corinthians 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

2nd part:

Eve is the mother of the living tied to the Resurrection.

She came out of the side of Adam. Strong’s H6763 = side or rib.

Genesis 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

Out of Jesus’ side came blood and water.  John writes at a “hidden level”

John 19:34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

God says life is in the blood.

Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.

God says water is life.

Revelation 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

John 19:34 is verse 815 of John.

Strong’s G2222 = life has a gematria of 815.

Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

Joh 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

2222 (G2222 = life) verses later is the resurrection verse tied to Eve who is tied to life.

 1 Corinthians 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Eve is Strong’s G2096.  If you subtract 2096 verses from 1 Cor 15:52 you get Jesus saying He is life again.

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

If you were to add 2332 (H2332 = Eve) to John 11:25 you would get this verse.

2 Corinthians 5:3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

Adam and Eve were the first to be naked and were not ashamed.

Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

When they sinned they were naked and scared.

Genesis 3:10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

God clothed them with animal skins, a hint to the Lamb of God.

Genesis 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

God tells us to be clothed and not naked and ashamed.

Revelation 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

Eve is clothed with the blood of the Lamb of God, the same pitch that covers the ark.  Although we were naked and ashamed in our sin, glory be to God that He has covered us.  We are sealed on our foreheads with His name and because of that we have the promise of the Resurrection to our new glorious bodies.

Hallelujah

[adrian-paul-botta]

The Love Boat – TV Series (1977–1987) ABC television Network

Love is in the air…Well, not only in the air but also in the sea! Passengers who search for romantic nights aboard a beautiful ship traveling to tropical or mysterious countries, decide to pass their vacation aboard the “Love Boat” where Gopher, Dr.Adam, Isaac, Julie and Captain Stubing try their best to please them and sometimes help them fall in love. Things are not always so easy but in the end love wins and everybody leaves the dreamboat satisfied…

Isaac’s Teacher/Seal of Approval/The Successor

Episode aired 10 January 1981

A woman (Florence Henderson), who believes she is cursed and will die prematurely, is determined to find her husband (Jeffrey Tambor) a new mate, and he chooses a young passenger (Christina Hart); Isaac (Ted Lange) is afraid of running into his old high school teacher, when she (Lillian Gish) and her grandson (Reb Brown) come aboard; a seal (The Seal Shirley) is jealous when her trainer (Donald O’Connor) and another passenger (Georgia Engel) get together.

R.S. Allen … (written by) (segment “The Curse of the Dumbrowskis”) Wilford Lloyd Baumes … (developed by) (as W.L. Baumes) Harvey Bullock … (written by) (segment “The Curse of the Dumbrowskis”) Madora Mckenzie … (written by) (segment “Seal of Approval”) Sidney Morse … (story editor) (as Sid Morse) Andy Ruben … (written by) (segment “Seal of Approval”) Jeraldine Saunders … (suggested by) Lloyd J. Schwartz … (written by) (segment “Isaac’s Secret”)

Gavin MacLeod – Captain Merrill Stubing Bernie Kopell – Doctor Adam Bricker Fred Grandy – Ship’s Purser ‘Gopher’ Smith Ted Lange – Bartender Isaac Washington Jill Whelan – Vicki Stubing Lauren Tewes – Cruise Director Julie McCoy Georgia Engel – Karen Hughes Lillian Gish – Mrs. Williams Florence Henderson – Harriett Rogers Donald O’Connor – Oscar Tilton Jeffrey Tambor – Mr. Harold Rogers Christina Hart – Cindy Sterling

Produced by R.S. Allen … producer (as Ray Allen) Harvey Bullock … producer Henry Colman … producer Douglas S. Cramer … executive producer Hudson Hickman … associate producer Aaron Spelling … executive producer

Isaac’s Teacher/Seal of Approval/The Successor (1981) Runtime 1 hr (60 min) Sound Mix Mono Color Color Aspect Ratio 1.33 : 1 Negative Format 35 mm Printed Film Format 35 mm (source: IMDB)

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The Love Boat is an American comedy/drama television series set on luxury passenger cruise ship S.S. Pacific Princess, which aired on the ABC television network from May 5, 1977 until May 24, 1986; plus, four three-hour long specials aired in 1986, 1987, and 1990. The series revolves around the ship’s captain Merrill Stubing (played by Gavin MacLeod) and a handful of its crew, with several passengers—played by various guest star actors for each episode—having romantic and humorous adventures. It was part of ABC’s popular Saturday-night lineup of the time, which also included Fantasy Island until that series ended two years earlier in 1984.

The original 1976 made-for-TV movie on which the show was based (also titled The Love Boat) was itself based on the nonfiction book Love Boats by Jeraldine Saunders, a real-life cruise director on a passenger cruise ship line. It was followed by two more TV-made-for movies (titled The Love Boat II and The New Love Boat), all before the series began its first season in September 1977.

The executive producer for the series was Aaron Spelling, who produced several TV series for Four Star Television, and American Broadcasting Company (ABC) from the 1960s into the 1980s.

In 1997, the episode with segment titles “Hidden Treasure”, “Picture from the Past”, and “Ace’s Salary” (season 9, episode 3) was ranked No. 82 on TV Guide’s 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time from TV Guide magazine. The Love Boat ran for nine seasons plus four specials. Another made-for-TV movie, titled The Love Boat: A Valentine Voyage, starring four of the original cast members, aired finally on February 12, 1990. (source: Wikipedia)

The series was filmed primarily on sets in southern California’s—20th Century Fox Studios for seasons one through five, and the Old Warner Brothers Hollywood Studios for the remainder of the series. The “star of the show”, the cruise ship itself, after being renamed the MS Pacific and being sold then owned by another cruise line in Spain, the now-world famous Pacific Princess was retired to Turkey in 2013, where she was scrapped by a ship breaking company after no further buyer could be found.

Another unique aspect of The Love Boat was its writing format. Every episode contained several storylines, each written by a different set of writers working on one group of guest stars.

The Love Boat Season I, Episode 1

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The Love Boat – TV Series (1977–1987) The Love Boat - TV Series (1977–1987) ABC television Network Love is in the air...Well, not only in the air but also in the sea!