#but i am very pro-him missing another plane years in the future

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

don’t mind me i’ll just be over here daydreaming about ted and rebecca reconnecting when henry’s off in college and ted’s feeling a little directionless and rebecca’s somewhat newly single again after splitting up with boat guy (sorry boat guy; we ain’t friends) and ted decides to come visit his richmond pals and he and rebecca wander around chatting and getting overwhelmed by all the what-could-have-beens and what-could-still-be’s, before sunset style

[btsficsforthehumble]

adj.: 1. Modern, unfamiliar, or different

2. Not based on or conforming to what is generally done or believed

pairing: reader x ot7

genre: college au; angst, fluff, smut, poly, ot7

Summary: You begin your first year at a prestigious university, set out on achieving your academic goals when a series of men step into your life that change the way you view the definition of love.

Part Five

Warnings: none in this chapter

Word count: 2.3k

A/N: New characters, yay! Just an fyi but I would like to start posting one chapter every week... thots?? Also, I've been thinking of adding a taglist? sksk I know it would be small but I personally love to get tagged when new chapters come out for my faves. If that's something ya'll would like comment so I know!! Alright, back to your regularly scheduled program :)

----

Literature was next. Now this? This you could handle. Always being a bit of an avid reader, you could devour a novel in one night --- and you often did. Finding the hidden meanings between the lines of text, like unwrapping a present, gave you a thrill. You were the person who could debate for hours about the meaning of a symbol in a book, as annoying as that is to everyone else.

Maybe it was the promise of escape, where you could be transplanted into another world, detached from your own, that appealed so much to you about reading. You could lose yourself, feeling the rush of the love affair or the thrill of a dangerous adventure. Coupled with your analytical nature, you felt more than at home in a literature classroom.

With this in mind, you make your way to your next class with more vigor than usual. When you arrive and take a seat, you pull out your materials and wait for class to begin.

Several minutes later, your professor walks to the podium in the front of the room to introduce herself. After several minutes of reviewing the syllabus, she explains the structure of the class. You were to be placed in small groups, to discuss the readings and write a paper at the end of the semester. This made you a little nervous --- having to rely on others to some capacity for your grade always gave you a bit of anxiety.

She began reading out the names of the students belonging to each group, so you listen carefully as to not miss your own name despite your anxious thoughts swirling inside your head.

“... Eum Hee-Young, Gal Ae-Cha, Ree Mun-Hee, you are group seven. Kim Seokjin, Y/l/n y/f/n, Kim Namjoon, you are group eight. Ok Youngsoo…” her voice fades off as you glance around the room, trying to meet the gazes of other searching eyes as your group was announced.

Your eyes meet those of a guy who looked maybe a year or two older than you, with round, wire frame glasses. His mahogany hair was pushed off of his forehead, parted to the side giving him a youthful but put-together look. He holds up eight fingers, looking at you expectedly, and you nod quickly. He picks up his belongings, preparing to move to you as you had empty space in the seats around you. As he slings his backpack over a shoulder, you scan your eyes around the room to try to catch the other member of your group.

To your surprise, your eyes meet those of the same boy you had ogled over yesterday in your calculus class, before it had started. You shyly hold up your own eight fingers, to which he gives a decisive nod to, and begins to make his way to you as well. You can’t help but notice the planes of his back as he bends down to grab his backpack, his wide shoulders tilting making them seem even larger. He is wearing a simple blue button down and jeans, but even through that you could tell his shoulders tapered to a narrow waist, making him have the perfect masculine inverted triangular build.

Slightly embarrassed at your thoughts, you glance at your other partner, now close to you. His oversized yellow knit sweater swallowed him a little, but with the glasses gave him a cute bookish look. His large frame juxtaposed his cute appearance --- he was on the taller side and seemed built as well. You made eye contact, and gestured to the seat next to you for him to sit. The other boy now approaching, you both watch as he takes the other open seat in front of you.

Your group now assembled, you tune back into your professor who was explaining the first text you were to read together. She told you that it was a short love story that relied heavily on symbolism and became a prominent symbol in and of itself in movies and television. Your first assignment was to analyze the symbolism of the text, and come to a more complex conclusion than what the surface of the text presents. You could feel yourself becoming slightly excited to jump into the assignment as she explained.

“You will be given the rest of class to get acquainted with your group members. They will be permanent, bar any issues that may arise. The first assignment is due at the end of next class. While on this first assignment I will be more lenient with grading, please do your best and set a good standard for your groups. Okay, go ahead everyone,” she finishes.

At her dismissal of your attention, you glance back at your group members. The boy with glasses speaks first. “I’m Namjoon, nice to meet you guys.”

“Seokjin, or just Jin,” the other boy gives.

“I’m y/n, nice to meet you both.”

“So, what year and major are you? I’m a third year, and a journalism major,” Namjoon offers. As he speaks, he gives you both a grin that displays deep dimples on both cheeks. He was very cute, you decided. He had a nerdy charm to him, with a build on the beefy side that made you want to cuddle him.

“I’m a first year… and to tell the truth I haven’t decided on a major yet,” you admit, but give them both a smile.

“Ah, hoobae, you are lucky you are with us pros then! I’m a fourth year, and a business major,” Seokjin says with a wide smile.

“Sunbaenim, are you in calculus before this? I thought I recognized you from there,” you downplay a little. You knew he was in that class since you had spent time checking him out in it, but didn’t want to seem creepy.

“I have a recognizable face.” At this he gives a smug look, but is clearly using a joking tone. “Yeah, calculus with Yoo at nine?”

“Yep. That guy goes so fast,” you frown. “But anyways, how do you guys feel about this assignment?”

Namjoon enters the conversation again, “Honestly I’m kind of excited for it. It’s been a while since I’ve done any reading that isn’t research related, which kind of sucks.”

“That does suck. I love to read, that’s why I took this class, actually,” you empathize.

“Yeah? What do you like to read?” Namjoon leans towards you a bit, excited at the prospect of talking about reading it seems.

“Oh, um… I’d say my favorite genre is probably any type of fantasy, I like being able to be in a different world for a bit. Oh, I also like historical pieces, that stuff is always so interesting.” You were a little hesitant to share, afraid he’d judge your preferences.

“I love historical pieces. I think that’s one of the things that lead me into journalism actually, it’s basically writing history for those in the future to look back on. I just think that’s really cool.” His eyes seemed glitter as he talked about something he was obviously passionate about. You felt yourself developing a soft spot for the boy, finding his friendly disposition and slightly nerdy personality to be incredibly endearing. It didn’t hurt he was also very attractive.

“What about you sunbaenim? Do you like to read?” you ask Seokjin, whose head was oscillating between you and Namjoon.

Surprised the attention shifted to him, his eyes widened to give him an owlish look. You are really surrounded by some beautiful men, you think. What do they put in the water here? It would be normal to run across a cute guy here or there, but this is kind of ridiculous. Seokjin himself has a face that is so beautiful it looks like it should have been carved out of marble!

Focus! You have to scold yourself. The boy you were just admiring in your head is now answering your question and you are too distracted to even process what he’s saying.

“... not too crazy, occasionally I guess…” His body language told you that he was slightly embarrassed at not being as enthusiastic a reader as you and Namjoon.

“I’m sure you have hobbies that are cooler than reading then, if I was athletic or creative I wouldn’t read so much either! Namjoon-sunbaenim, I’m sure you agree,” you encourage with a smile, wanting Namjoon to follow suit in making Seokjin feel comfortable.

Thankfully, he catches on quick. “Oh, yeah, I am way too clumsy to do anything more high stakes than page turning,” He chuckles. You and Seokjin both smile at Namjoon’s subtle self-deprecation. They both were sweet, you think. Your earlier fears about working with others subside. “I guess I could say that I do have another hobby though, I actually help out at the school’s radio station for fun,” Namjoon adds shyly.

Jin tilts his head in surprise. “Oh really? I have a friend who…”

He gets abruptly cut off by the professor’s voice echoing through the room, which causes him to stop his thought.

“Hopefully everyone is acquainted now, and is ready to get to work next class. I expect good things from you all this semester. You are dismissed,” your professor says with finality.

The three of you quickly gather your things, ready to merge with the swarm of students streaming out of the door. You give them both a smile, and say, “It was nice meeting you both. See you next class!” to which they give their own farewell.

As you leave, you check your phone out of habit. It seems your intuition is right, as usual.

*Miss me yet?*

Does Taehyung really have nothing better to do?

*What exactly is there to miss?*

You hope that after your curt response he’d get the memo. This guy is such a fuckboy, you think. While you don’t know why he set his sights on you for now, you hope he gets bored soon. While you give that tough persona to him, the truth is you are more sensitive than that. The idea of being used for sex once and then discarded was unappealing, and Taehyung seemed like the type to do just that.

----

Finally home after attending two more classes for the day, which were thankfully much less eventful, you slip off your shoes and let your bag slide off your shoulder to thunk on the floor. You were tired. And hungry, apparently, because your stomach makes some concerning noises as soon as you slip your light jacket off. You make your way to the kitchen at the sound, ready to make a nice dinner and decompress.

When you get there, you see one of your new roommates sitting at the stools for your kitchen counter. This roommate was one that you had connected with immediately, drawn to her blunt but fun-loving aura. Her short stature, shorter than average, gave no warning for her and ‘gives-no-fucks’ attitude. You could tell however, that inside she had a soft heart. Even in your short time together, you had seen glimpses of it here and there.

You learned when you had met that she had moved to Korea from America last year, making her a second year at your university. Her features stood out from the crowd, with brown skin and large curls that framed her face in a halo. She was really quite beautiful. Tia, but called Bean by her friends, which now included you, made you feel welcomed to campus and you were thankful for her.

Wanting to not scare her as you walked into the kitchen, you gave her a greeting. Her head pops up from where it was buried in her phone, which had been drawing her into her own world.

“Hey chickie. Long day?” she asks. Apparently your exhaustion was pretty obvious if she could tell right off the bat. You sigh, bending over to pull some vegetables out of the fridge.

“I just want to know who let me schedule four classes on Tuesdays. They should be in jail,” you complain.

She gives you an amused look, watching you now stand at the cutting board to prepare your food. “I think that person was you, sweet thing.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me. If I could go back in time and slap my past self I would,” you grown with your head tipped back. She lets out a laugh at your expense.

“Don’t laugh at me unnie! I’m going to pass away from exhaustion over here!” you try to say seriously, but can’t help but let out a little giggle. “What were you doing with your head buried in your phone, huh? Are you talking to someone?” you tease, pointing your knife at her with your other hand on your hip.

“Why, do you wish it was you?” She wiggles her eyebrows, giving you a side smirk. You knew she was deflecting, so you lift your eyebrow and give her a flat expression, waiting for her real answer. “Ugh, it’s nothing. There was just this really cute girl in my class today, and I tried talking to her but she didn’t really seem like she liked me… and I may have just been looking at her social media,” Tia admitted.

Now at the stove, stirring your dinner, you look over your shoulder to say something that would hopefully ease her anxiety. “You know that you can come on strong sometimes, maybe she’s just a little shy, ya know? Maybe try again with a softer approach,” you offer. “What is there not to like?”

She gives you a wide grin to match your own at your last remark. You both giggle, any tension in the air from Tia’s concerns gone. Dinner now finished, you grab two bowls and serve you both. You both slip into easy banter, almost like you two have been friends for years. You hope that you will be, someday.

[sambergscott]

a peralta guarantee

“I promise I’ll come home safe, Ames. That’s a Peralta Guarantee.”

(missing scenes from 7x08 - amy worrying about jake)

hUge thanks to johanna for inspiring this fic and helping when i had a lil breakdown halfway through

When he approaches her desk mid-afternoon with a decaf coffee and the white chocolate chip cookies she’s been craving from the bakery across town, she knows he’s either a) broken something, b) wants something or c) has bad news. She narrows her eyes suspiciously, detecting an excited bounce in his step which can only mean it’s b and c; he wants something she’s not going to like.

“Hey, babe,” he tries to play it cool, clearing a butt-sized space on her desk on which to sit. “I come bearing gifts.”

“What do you want, Peralta?” She cuts to the chase.

“Damn it, you know me too well,” he mutters. “OK, so, here’s the thing: Doug Judy’s gettin’ married. He invited me to his Bachelor Party this weekend and I know he’s a criminal, Ames, but I really wanna go. Like, so bad. Would you be cool with that?”

She conjures up a mental pro and con list. On one hand, Doug Judy is The Pontiac Bandit, known felon, committer of God knows how many crimes, an overall bad dude. On the other, he’s Jake’s friend, singer of the smush songs CD in the glove box of their car that they always forget to take out, giver of the Le Creuset pot she adores. He’s always been nice to her and—.

“Sarge?” Gary interrupts her decision-making process with a quick question about a perp he just brought in, snapping her back to reality. She’s a Police Sergeant, her job is to serve and protect the city they call home and as much as she loves cooking her mom’s beef casserole recipe in Judy’s awesome wedding gift, she has a responsibility to bring him in.

“I’m sorry, babe. I just think it’s a bad idea.”

His face falls, his disappointment coming through loud and clear.

“What were you expecting me to say? Ignore the million arrest warrants out on this guy, many of them submitted by you, so you can drink beer and go to strip clubs?”

“You’re right,” he sighs. “You’re obviously right. Man, being good at your job sucks.”

She nods in agreement. “Remember last month when I had to shut that binder store down for running a secret drug dealing operation out back?”

“How could I forget? You cried for three days straight.”

“They had the best binder collection I’ve ever seen!”

(It was actually what was so fishy about it. In four trips to buy pregnancy binders, she hadn’t seen any of the founding members of the Brooklyn Binder Babes blog — Mary Sue, Catherine, Margaret or Jane — once. And there’s no way a stationery start-up would attract such long queues without their recommendation. It was a pretty easy solve from there).

“The point is, you can’t go to a criminal’s Bachelor Party.” She pats his hand. “You’ll just have to come maternity clothes shopping with me instead. None of my jeans fit me anymore.”

“As much as I would love to, you can take Kylie. I’m going to the party.”

“What?” She double-takes. “Jake, did you not listen to what I literally just said? We’re cops. We cannot be friends with criminals.”

“But we can be friends with informants who have helped us catch numerous, even bigger, more dangerous criminals,” he says with that look on his face, the one he gets when he finds a loophole that he can use to his advantage. She recognises it from home videos Karen has shown her where, instead of tidying his room like she asked him to, seven year old Jake shoves everything under his bed and carries on enacting a police chase with his race cars. “Captain Holt has given him immunity before, so technically I should be able to go party it up with him in Miami!”

“Wait... It’s in Miami? Miami... Florida?”

It’s a stupid question, she knows. Of course he means Miami, Florida. It’s just... they both promised on the flight home that they would never, ever go back there. After everything that happened with Figgis and not knowing if they’d ever see each other again, a statewide travel ban seemed a good way to put it all behind them, focus on all their future moments together, not on all the moments they missed.

“This isn’t like last time,” he reassures her. “It’s only for a weekend and then I’ll be coming straight home for snuggles with you and —,” he lowers his voice to a whisper because they haven’t told anyone she’s pregnant yet, “the baby.”

Her eyes fill with tears and she bites her lip so hard to stop them overflowing in front of all her uniformed officers. It’s pretty clear that he wants to go and she never wants to be one of them wives who control their husbands’ every move. All she wants is for him to be happy. And if going to Doug Judy’s Bachelor Party makes him happy, he should go, no matter how much she hates the entire state of Florida. She agrees, on one condition: “You have to text me hourly updates to let me know that you’re still alive.”

“Don’t I text you constantly anyway?”

“I guess so,” she sniffs.

He lifts her chin so she’s looking him in the eyes. “I promise I’ll come home safe, Ames. That’s a Peralta guarantee.”

“You better,” she warns, tears suddenly flowing down her face at the thought of him not coming home, not being there to watch Property Brothers with her, not raising their baby and proving to everyone what a great dad he will be.

Used to her extra strength pregnancy hormones shifting her emotions from 0 to 100 faster than John McClane can say “Yippie-Ki-Yay, motherfucker”, he pulls her into a tight hug, careful not to crush the precious cargo that is behind said mood swings.

He strokes her hair and whispers that he’ll be home before she knows it and that nothing, not even the worst state in the country, will tear him away from her.

When it’s time for him to leave, she follows him out to the street and, after a brief argument over the fact he packed his bag before he OK’ed the trip with her and another hormone-induced cry when his cab shows up, reluctantly waves goodbye.

True to his word, he texts her before the car is even out of sight. Miss you already 😘.

--

Her phone buzzes periodically throughout the rest of the day.

In a meeting with Holt and Terry: flying on mark cuban’s dope ass private plane!!!!! ✈️

Cooking dinner: florida is HOT (not as hot as u babe, dont worry)

Doing her crossword in bed: g’night ames, g’night baby, love u both SO MUCH

She smiles, tells him she loves him too and braces herself for the barrage of drunk texts and selfies coming her way.

--

Sleeping without him sucks. The bed is cold, her pregnancy pillow is not as good of a cuddle buddy and she tosses and turns all night worrying about him, where he is, what he’s doing, whether he’s safe.

Her eyes finally slip shut around 1 am when her phone buzzes. Again. And again. And again.

She tries to ignore him, bury her head under her pillow and go back to sleep, but the messages keep coming thick and fast. She groans, giving up and unlocking her phone.

There are 47 new messages from him.

Forty-seven.

Her initial annoyance at being woken up quickly disappears as she scrolls through the thread. He’s mostly sent her random, meaningless emojis and keysmashes, interspersed with the odd “I love you”, “you’re my best friend” and “I’m thinking about you” that warm her heart. He mentions something about their proposal, about crying with Doug Judy, which obviously makes her cry too.

(Dumb pregnancy hormones).

By the time she reaches the bottom, he’s sent her 10 more.

She decides for her sake — and the sake of all of her officers who would have to deal with a tired, emotional pregnant lady — to turn off her phone and reply to him in the morning.

She returns her phone to her nightstand, settles back into a comfortable position and closes her eyes.

She lies motionless for what feels like hours, unable to fall asleep. She tries the breathing technique her brother David brags about constantly, counting sheep like little Matthew, even reciting police codes like Teddy used to go to sleep after sex. Nothing works. She’s still awake.

She turns her phone back on to see what Jake’s up to now, only to see his messages ended abruptly with a caterpillar emoji over an hour ago.  

She immediately panics, dialling 911 into her phone.

Her thumb hovers over the green call button.

She’s heard thousands of crazy operator call stories, frequently reminded the general population to only call in a genuine emergency and watched the YouTube compilations for fun. She deletes the number, positive that if she told an operator her husband was missing because she hadn’t heard from him while he’s at a Bachelor Party, she’s positive she would be added to those videos.

In an attempt to stop her spiral, she contemplates the possible scenarios in which his constant texts would cease.

Scenario 1: He’s living in the moment and has put his phone away (something she has been encouraging him to do lately to reduce his screen time)

Scenario 2: He’s very drunk and has completely forgotten about his promise

Scenario 3: He used up all his battery texting her and his phone has died

Scenario 4: He’s fallen asleep (although a quick check of Trudy Judy’s insta reveals the party is very much still in full flow)

Scenario 5: Judy’s criminal buddies have killed him and thrown his body into the ocean

Once the thought pops into her head, no amount of squeezing her eyes shut will make the image go away.

Holt giving an emotional eulogy about wearing ties and being an amazing detective/genius.  

Some rookie taking over his desk.  

The sympathetic looks when she tells all the other moms in baby group that her husband died.  

Usually Jake is there to hold her when her nightmares get bad. She rolls over, expecting to see his kind eyes and soft smile, the untouched side of his bed only serving to make her cry harder.

She can’t lose him. Not yet. Not until they’re old and grey, and maybe not even then. She spent so long denying her feelings for her dorky partner, rueing every missed opportunity to be together, and when they finally, finally took the plunge, she had never been happier. She can’t lose him yet. They have so much more life left to live.

She can’t lose him because he promised her he would come home safe. He guaranteed it.

She clings onto the tiny grain of hope like one might cling onto a raft in the middle of the ocean.

He would never break a Peralta guarantee.

--

Her phone finally buzzes again an hour later.

From: Unknown

Ames, it’s me, Jake. Judy’s buddies found out I’m a cop + destroyed my phone. So sorry I couldn’t text before. Hope you didn’t worry too much, although I know you probably haven’t slept. You can stop worrying now. I’m safe. Love you + see you tomorrow.  

Love you too, she responds, yawning as she places the phone back on the side table.

Relieved that he’s OK, and exhausted from all the worrying, she falls into the easiest sleep she’s ever had.

--

Before she knows it, it’s the next afternoon, Jake’s keys are turning in the lock, he’s dropping his holdall on the floor and rushing to her side to kiss her all over her face.

“I missed you too,” she laughs, kissing him properly.

“Sorry it took so long — Doug and Trudy made me fly commercial —.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re home now. That’s all that matters.”

“I’m never leaving you two again,” he swears.

“You’ll have to leave us eventually to go to the bathroom and stuff,” she points out, raking her fingers through the unruly curls that she so hopes their baby will inherit. “Just don’t go back there.”

A solemn understanding passes over his face and he nods. “Never again. Not even if our kid wants to go to Disney World. We’ll take them to the California one instead.”

“Smort,” she says, stealing his line and in an instant, that familiar grin is back.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

A dozen memories flood back, of oldies in short shorts and shuffleboard and Doug Judy getting away again. Of noice and smort and saying “I love you” for the very first time. Her eyes fill with tears — dumb pregnancy hormones strike again — as she buries her face in his shoulder.

“Let’s go to bed,” he whispers, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and lifting her bridal style to carry her to their room. He places her carefully onto the mattress and flops down next to her.

She snuggles into him, eyes closing once more. “Did we even get an invite to the wedding?”

“Not even close,” he sighs.

“Damn it. I would’ve loved to see that trainwreck.”

“You and me both, babe. You and me both.”

[beingallelite]

When patients go to their dental appointment with Brittany Baker, D.M.D., there may be some added motivation to floss and brush regularly. That’s because when Dr. Baker isn’t filling cavities, she is kicking butt in the pro wrestling ring. So, you might not want to get on her bad side.

The 28-year-old known to fans as Britt Baker has been positioned as one of the cornerstones for All Elite Wrestling’s emerging women’s division. Baker has been front and center walking the red carpets flashing those pearly whites representing the brand. She finds the opportunity an honor and privilege.

“I think it’s no secret and surprise that being in the world of dentistry puts me in a different light,” she said. “I have the educational background. I have the degree, the doctorate on top of being a wrestler. Not to brag or boast, but it’s impressive.

"I appreciate very much AEW recognizes that because it was so much hard work. For me, the biggest accomplishment I will probably ever have in my entire life was completing my dental degree and signing a wrestling contract to a major company. So, to have that acknowledgement and recognition means a lot to me.”

Baker scored a big win on AEW’s inaugural show Double or Nothing in May, sending a strong statement out of the gate. However, the momentum came to a halt at Fight for the Fallen almost two months later when the star suffered a concussion in a tag team match. Since then, Baker has followed up regularly with Dr. Michael Sampson and other AEW officials.

“They had me follow up with a neuro-ophthalmologist because I had some post-concussion vision problems,” Baker revealed. “Since then my vision is fine. I feel great. I feel awesome. This week was the first week that I have been doing some very simple bumps and rolls in the ring. I feel good. I’m hoping any day now to have a hundred percent clearance and return to the ring.”

Baker's wish came true not long after uttering those words. For her, it’s the first serious injury since lacing up the boots for the first time more than four years ago. An experience that can affect a performer mentally, especially mere months away from AEW’s big debut on TNT.

“You have the severity of the concussion itself, but what rattled me is I never had the feeling that, ‘Oh my gosh, something I love brought me some pain and agony,’” Baker said candidly. “It’s a lot of mixed emotions. It’s a nice reality check of how dangerous the sport can be and how we put our bodies on the line every day for entertainment and professional wrestling. It all circles back to when you love what you do, it’s all worth it. You just have to be careful.”

The night of the incident, WWE NXT superstar and Baker’s boyfriend Adam Cole was appearing on another event. With each accolade and accomplishment attained, she can see moments that are, in a word, bittersweet.

“We are both so excited for each other. We’re each other’s biggest fans and support system. Then you can’t help but be sad that you’re missing out on some of each other’s biggest nights and accomplishments,” Baker said. “When you have a show on the same night, we can’t be watching each other’s shows since we have our own obligations to fulfill.

“No matter what, he backs me one hundred percent. He loves what I’m doing and is so proud of me. And it’s the same with me for him. I feel really lucky because this could be a really difficult relationship to be in if we got too caught up in the ‘us versus them’ mentality. We are not like that at all because at the end of the day we want each other to be successful. We really want everyone to be successful.”

The positivity extends throughout the women’s locker room in Baker’s eyes. The AEW ambassador believes what separates their division from others is the diversity of the roster when it comes to culture, background and varying styles. Though with only a handful of shows under the organization’s belt, she gets the sense they’ve only scratched the surface of their capabilities.

With the first women’s champion crowned on the first AEW live TNT broadcast, that fuels Baker’s motivation. However, before getting there, all eyes are on the next big pay-per-view, All Out. It was revealed she would participate in the Casino Battle Royale.

“We want to be the top of the game,” Baker said. “We want to be the women’s roster everyone is talking about. There is pressure more than anything, but pressure is good. If we weren’t nervous and had this feeling it would mean we didn’t care. Right now personally I’ve been trying to slowly take it all in as much as I can. I know it’s going to pick up really soon, so I’m trying to just relax and smell the roses.”

The driven individual isn’t one to rest for very long. After all, she spent a day recently communicating with her dental office and AEW trying to figure out her hectic schedule. Baker wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s going to be a lot to handle and juggle,” she said, thinking about what’s to come starting in October when AEW hits the road with its weekly series. “But it’s something I’m not used to, as I had to do the same thing through dental school. That was actually a million times harder because every time I left and got to go home for the night, I had hours and hours of homework to greet me when I walked in the door.

"I don’t have homework anymore, so that makes it a little more manageable. For the most part, I will be in the dental office Monday through Friday when we aren’t filming. When I fly home the morning after TV tapings, I will get off the plane and go straight to the dental office.”

Baker is actually in the middle of helping decorate her new office and deciding what personal pictures to put on the walls. There were thoughts if she wanted to put up wrestling photos or not.

“It’s definitely a conversation piece,” Baker said. “It definitely would make the office visit memorable, but at the same time, not everyone is a huge wrestling fan. At the end of the day, it really defines who I am and is a huge part of my life and what I love. I think the decision is to hang a couple of pictures up, especially the AEW ones because I’m so passionate and happy that’s where I am now.”

So, if you happen to sit in a waiting room and see an AEW women’s championship sitting on a table in the near future, know you’re in the capable hands of Dr. Baker.

AEW All Out, Saturday, August 31, 8/7c, pay-per-view and B/R Live. The Buy In pre-show airs at 7/6c.

All Elite Wrestling premieres Wednesday, October 2, at 8/7c live on TNT.

[vanessakirbyfans]

When I went to see Vanessa Kirby starring in Julie at the National Theatre, it turns out I picked “a really bad night. Oh God everything went wrong,” she says when we meet a few days later, in a café in Chelsea where she has just ordered scrambled eggs. In one climactic moment she has to kill a budgie on stage, but the blood capsule didn’t burst until well after she whizzed the fake bird up in the food processor. “That happened two nights in a row! But it was better than before, when we used to start the scene with a real budgie and then kill a fake one, because one night the real one started tweeting after the lights went down, when he was supposed to be dead. I was trying to shut him up. He was called Gordon. We had to get rid of Gordon. There have been letters to the theatre: ‘We need to know that Gordon has not been harmed.’”

Kirby is a 30-year-old actor from London, a galloping laugh a minute, and quite probably the future of British acting. You may know her as Princess Margaret from Netflix’s The Crown, a role she describes happily as “the gift that I was given”, and which turned what could have been a staid drama about duty and class into something much more delicious. She gave Margaret a youthful vulnerability – we saw the damns she had to give before she stopped giving any – and now, after two series and winning a Bafta, she is handing the role over to Helena Bonham Carter, who will play the older incarnation. And Kirby is gutted.

“The Crown was the best time of my life,” she says, in her quick voice. “Saying goodbye to it was awful, I really grieved it, actually.” Kirby kept a photo of Margaret on her bedroom wall and used to gaze at it, wondering What Would Margaret Do? “The easy route would have been for me to just play her as the version of her who comes later, the public persona of her that is so – I don’t know the right word – gauche?”

They could have sent you to Mustique!

“I know! Livid! But I wanted to try and find the person she was before she hardened, before she became bitter and self-loathing, which is what I sensed. I wanted to find the torment that’s underneath those things. That, for me, made a real woman, even though the circumstances were ridiculous.”

She played opposite Claire Foy as the Queen. Both of them have just been nominated for this year’s Emmy awards for The Crown. I ask what it’s like to be on the receiving end of the enigmatic, brooding looks that Foy’s Elizabeth so regularly deploys.

“Oh, she used to give me the look in our scenes together and I’d just be feeling, aaaargh – you’re so internal! You’re so good! You’re so subtle and I have to try so hard to rein it in! But Claire was much better about the show ending than I was. She said it was because I had such a personal synergy with Margaret, whereas the Queen remained a mystery to her.”

It transpires the real Queen is a fan, though. Kirby only knows this because a friend of hers was at a fancy party recently, “where he didn’t know a soul so when he heard some people discussing The Crown he was like: ‘Actually I know someone in that.’ They were like: ‘Cool.’ He goes: ‘No, but I really know someone in it,’ and, meanwhile, this girl says: ‘Well my granny likes it,’ and he suddenly realises her granny is the Queen. It was Princess Beatrice. Although, I told someone else recently it was Eugenie,” she laughs, “but I got that wrong.”

Kirby grew up in Wimbledon, south London, the middle child of three, and attended the private Lady Eleanor Holles School. Her mother, Jane, had been the editor of Country Living and her father, Roger, one of the country’s leading prostate surgeons, “always watched loads of films with me – totally inappropriate ones like Midnight Express when I was about six. He put all films on. I think my sister was five when he took us to the cinema to see A Perfect Murder.” They were also taken to a lot of plays, “and I got really bored until I was about 11 and then suddenly it clicked for me, like: oh, when theatre’s really good it can be transformative. More than anything, it made me understand people.”

At school, “It was always the drama side of things where I felt the most alive,” she says. “The most myself. I was quite badly bullied for a few years and I became self-conscious about everything I did in relation to the bullies. But drama was the place where I didn’t.”

Was it other girls?

“Yeah it was… systematic. Quite awful. A teacher said to my mum on my very last day of school: ‘She survived it. She’s done it,’ which means they knew it was happening.”

Strangely, Kirby doesn’t sound remotely bitter about it and mutters a half-finished thought about it perhaps being a useful experience now. She describes her childhood as very happy and she knows how socially and financially privileged she was, but she also suffered from giardia, an intestinal parasite, which went undiagnosed for a long time and made her feel permanently nauseous, as if she was about to vomit. “All these nightmare injections, pills up the bum, all of it. Prodded around from age nine to 11.”

At school there was a noticeboard with a picture of Ben Whishaw as Hamlet at the Old Vic on it. Kirby stole it for her bedroom wall, went to see the play three times and became obsessed with him, which was not helped by bumping into him on a London bus. She was in amateur local productions at the time, but after studying for an English degree at Exeter and then giving up a place at Lamda to go straight into work as an actor some years later, her first big chance was on The Hour – starring… Ben Whishaw.

The director was tough on her, which may have been because: “I wasn’t paying any attention to the scene. In my head it was just alarm bells going: ‘Oh my God that’s Ben Whishaw.’” Afterwards she had to tell him everything. “And it felt good to finally confess my infatuation. Of course, he was with his boyfriend.”

Hollywood came calling and she’s had to become better at dealing with famous men since being cast in the sixth instalment of the Mission: Impossible films, out this month and starring Tom Cruise. I ask what he was like. “Such a pro. Absolutely disciplined; super enthusiastic. Always wants everything executed at a super-high level, so you have to train really hard.”

With him?

“Oh God no, without him.” She laughs, groaning. “I think that would be… I did say to him at one point: ‘I am never getting on a running machine with you.’ But I learned a lot about work ethic from him. I never thought that stunts and action would be my genre, but I’m understanding now that you can transcend genre, as long as you try and find the real woman behind the part.”

It struck me, watching Julie – which is Polly Stenham’s rewrite of the Strindberg play Miss Julie, and set at 3am at a druggy party in a wealthy house in Hampstead – that Kirby could have played the heroine in a much sexier fashion. Instead, she chooses to drag her body around with her as if it brings her discomfort. The reviews have been kind to her, but not to the script or production, which tend to say it all lacks chemistry. Kirby diplomatically says the problem is: “It’s such a huge space, it’s not an intimate theatre and sometimes the space dictates the parameters.” I’m not convinced she’s enjoying it all that much.

Still, the current feminist awakening of Hollywood has had a real impact on Kirby, who has risen to fame at the perfect moment to seize it. She is working on her own ideas, too. The week after we meet she will fly off to work on an unnamed film project she’s developed with Adam Leon. “He’s the best New York film director, I think.” It’s inspired by an article in the New Yorker about a woman who entered a fugue state and went missing in the big city. They have cast a group of renegade, gender-fluid young Brooklynites to play her new friends, and Kirby scrolls through her phone to show me photos of these genderless kids she finds so mesmerisingly beautiful. She is also developing a film of her own with Ben Caron, who directed her in episodes of The Crown, and making “something about babies who are born addicted to drugs and how society treats those mothers”.

Partly this seems like an attempt to get away from the wealthy-woman-in-gilded-prison roles. “I feel like now, more than ever, it’s all of our responsibility to have other things represented on screen. There have been somany male stories on screen, or stories of women written by men, so she’s the wife of someone, the girlfriend of someone… It’s only now I realise that looking back, all the scripts I’ve read over time, unless they’re really small indie films, the women have always been fantasy figures, always viewed through the male lens, almost cartoony.”

Her boyfriend, Callum Turner, is also an actor, and recently they were on a plane together, both with a pile of about 10 scripts to read through. “In every single one he was the central protagonist and the women were helping the leads. Out of mine, about two of my parts were the leads – and then you knew that someone like Jennifer Lawrence would be doing it. So we women have got to be the generators of the material and, in order to do that, we have to understand the system we’re in, which I’m really trying to do.”

Kirby has a friend called Sarah, “who says it just pisses her off, all these Hollywood actresses getting on the red carpet and sounding off about #MeToo, etc. She says, what are they actually doing? I say I know, but these are the women who will be on the front pages of newspapers, for better or worse, and then it leads to real change in other industries, too. Media is the controller of everything.”

Another close friend is the writer Dolly Alderton. They even share the same therapist, which made Kirby very amused to read all about said therapist in Alderton’s recent bestselling memoir, Everything I Know About Love. Yet another friend is Anna, with whom Kirby and her sister share a flat in Tooting. “So we’re like three sisters. No idea why we live in Tooting, though. I think it was cheapest.” Their home has calmed down a lot since Kirby became so busy. “It used to be mad parties non-stop and the vibrations going through to the little old lady who lives next door – her house was constantly shaking at 4am.” I can’t imagine Kirby upsetting old ladies – she seems too sweet. Did the woman complain? “Sometimes, yes,” Kirby admits, with a shamefaced twinkle in her eye.

Still, she seems entirely unafraid to call the shots on the big guys now. “My only little area of change is to be in a big movie and say no, I’m not wearing a short skirt, I’m not showing any skin, I don’t want slapped-on make-up,” she says.

And if the action film wanted to give you robo-tits? “I would say absolutely not. I don’t care any more. I feel more able to say that now. I’m in a slightly luckier position, but also the times now support it. I don’t want an arse shot – well, not that they’d want one of my arse. But I don’t want to be shot through a lens of sexualisation. That’s not me. That’s the distorted feminine and the distorted masculine that is creating so much of the toxic energy in our society.”

It is unusual to hear an actor ask quite so many questions in an interview. As she says, she is fortunate to have risen to fame in a time that allows it, with other women having begun to push the boundaries. But Kirby is questioning everything. Still, you can only fight off so much of the culture. We say goodbye and she picks up her bag of M&S shopping and heads home to watch Love Island, during which, she says happily, she will “feel my brain turning into disgusting nothing”.

[ladyseaheart1668]

Endless Summer Book 4 : Daughter of Vaanu (Chapter 20)

Description: Negotiations between Grayson and the Catalysts continue. Meanwhile, Rourke is plotting. 

Tagging: @xo-endlessmayhem-xo ; @princesstopgun

Chapter 20: A Tangled Web

Grayson

“Oh my god!” Poppy yelps. “Are you the Sean Gayle?!”

“Which Sean Gayle?” Dax asks, frowning.

“Only the Condors' star quarterback! I know you're not into sports, but haven't you at least played the UltraBowl video games?”

“If I don't want to play sports in real life, I'm not sure why I would want to play them on a video game, either,” Dax retorts. “...Did I know you liked football?”

“Probably not. There's a lot you don't know about me yet.” She winks at him. “I'm a woman of mystery.”

Sean Gayle clears his throat. “Okay, yes. I do play for the Condors. But that's not why I'm here. I'm here as Aquila. One of the Twelve Catalysts. And I'm here as Sean. Alodia's friend. It's why all six of us are here. Because you want to use Alodia to bring back Tahira.”

“It isn't that we want to use her,” I protest. “But we need her to--”

“I know. I know. And I sympathize. But we don't know yet if she could get hurt by this. We probably won't know until we've actually brought Alodia into it.” He glances at his companions. “We all believe Dragonness is worth the risk. I know Alodia believes it, too. But given the risk, we just can't bring Alodia into it until all of us are sure we can trust you.”

“It isn't just Alodia at stake, either,” Aleister adds. “As we explained before, the Prism Crystal is one piece of a much larger mystery. You could call us paranoid, and you'd be absolutely right. But we've seen what La Huerta's secrets can do when they fall into the wrong hands. ...And we already lost Alodia once.”

“Understand that we are committed to helping you,” Grace says. “But before you meet Alodia, every one of us is going to meet you. You're going to learn what she means to us. Because in the event that she comes to harm because of this...you need to understand exactly what you're asking us to risk. And we all need to know that you understand.”

“How do we convince you of that?” I ask, impatience and frustration barely concealed in my voice. They go on and on about what they're risking, but they don't have any idea what they'd really be gaining by bringing Tahira home.

Sean seems to sense my resentment. He looks into my eyes, holding my gaze. “...In many ways, La Huerta was a nightmare. We were never safe. We were often suffering. But through it all, we had each other. We had each other and we had Alodia. She was our leader, and every one of us was improved for knowing her. She was our hope.” He draws in a steadying breath, suddenly looking a little apprehensive. “...I had spent most of my life up to that point trying to be a hero. Not for the glory of it, but because I didn't believe I could trust anyone else. I thought it was on me to make sure the people I cared about never got hurt. I wanted to prove to the world that I was a better man than my abusive father. ...But somewhere along the way, that turned into me holding myself and everyone else to impossible standards. I became unforgiving, and I almost lost the love of my life because of it. Alodia taught me how to let go. She gave me the courage to trust.”

“We were all some kind of broken when we came to that island,” Zahra murmurs. “Misfits in one way or another, trying to figure out our lives. I was still stuck thinking that everyone was out for themselves. But you can't help but question that when someone invests in you like she invested in me. In all of us. She didn't deserve any of the crap that island threw at her.”

“I went to La Huerta on a mission of revenge,” Estela says. “I had shut out everything except that goal. ...I didn't actively want to frighten people off, but I had grown used to the idea that people were going to be afraid of me. ...Alodia never was. I stayed human because of her. And in the end, she prevented me from making what would have been the biggest mistake of my life.”

“Me, I was scared of the future,” Craig sighs. “I'd been a football star for awhile in college, but wasn't up to pro level. Soon as that became clear, I started giving up. I had never been good at school or anything like that, and without the game, I just didn't know what there was for me. ...But she didn't know what was coming for her, either. Every time the rest of us were starting to give up, she could give a speech to get us all back on our feet. She never let on how scared she was. ...We all thought Rourke killed her. ...I think she figured out he was coming for her, because I remember the last night we saw her five years ago, she made one last speech about what we all meant to her. Said she wasn't afraid...”

Zahra covers his hand with hers. “She might've been lying. But she made us believe it. ...It was probably the only flat-out lie she ever told us. She didn't usually hold back telling us what we needed to hear. She was always good at figuring that out.”

“...My whole life, my mother pushed me to be the best in everything,” Grace adds. “I arrived on La Huerta a nervous, neurotic, insecure mess. Every uncertainty sent me into a spiral of fear and shame because I wasn't supposed to be uncertain about anything. Alodia never acted surprised when I faced something that I couldn't handle. She never scolded me or acted disapproving. My weaknesses and mistakes never weighed more than my successes with her.”

“No one's mistakes count more than their virtues with her,” Aleister agrees. “If your good intentions are paving the road to hell, she will certainly call you out. If you have no virtues to speak of, she won't hesitate to take you down. But if there is even a chance of saving you, she'll crawl through the hell you created to do it. ...I made a horrible mistake on La Huerta, falling victim to my father's manipulation and betraying everyone. At the time, she spat in my face. But when next we met, she begged me to come back with her. Once I came to my senses, she never rubbed salt in the wound. I was forgiven, and that was all there was to it.”

“She does sound like an amazing person,” I concede. “...But so is Tahira.”

“...We know. We were all watching when she sacrificed herself to save the city. We're not disputing her heroism or her goodness.”

I am quiet for a moment. Thoughtful. “...All right. I accept that you all need to be more certain of everything before you bring someone as important to you as Alodia into this situation. So...what would it be worth if I brought Tahira's allies into this? If I let Talos and Minuet plead their case for Tahira, too?”

The six Catalysts take a moment to huddle up and discuss my offer. Rochelle steps nervously up to me.

“Do you really think they'll help?” she whispers.

Dax smiles a little. “For Tahira? Absolutely.”

The Catalysts break their huddle. “All right, you have a deal. Bring Talos and Minuet to the next meeting, and we'll bring Delphinus, Centaurus, and Pavo. They're the last three Catalysts in Northbridge.”

“...Then...that would bring us up to nine,” Rochelle says, her voice hopeful.

“It would,” Estela agrees. “...But don't get cavalier. The last hurdle will be Canis and Lupus. And they love Alodia more than the rest of us put together.”

Jake

Under the evening sky, wrapped in the warm, salty breeze wafting off the Pacific, I lean back in a lounge chair, cinching my arms gently around my wife's waist. She's reclined against my chest with a bowl of grapes and apple slices balanced on her lap, my legs wrapped around her bobsled-style. We had dinner with Diego's folks this evening, to tell them about the baby. It went about as well as we could have hoped for, according to Diego and Alodia. His mom fretted and wrung her hands awhile about the fact that I haven't put a ring on Alodia's finger yet, but then Alodia promised the baby would call her Abuelita, and that made everything acceptable.

I nuzzle Alodia's neck, inhaling the flowery scent of her body lotion. I let one hand creep up to cup her breast, but she gently takes my wrist and moves it back to her belly.

“Not now, Jake. I'm pretty tender there right now.”

“Ahh, right. You should tell your boobs it's a little early to be making milk.”

She snorts. “I think my boobs know what they're doing, thank you very much. I do wish they didn't hurt so much. You know I normally love it when you cop a feel.”

“Well, I don't have to grab your boobs.” I tug her T-shirt out of the waistband of her jeans and let my hand rest on her belly, rubbing in gentle, slow circles. “I could give Baby a little love...”  

“River.”

“...River?”

She closes her eyes, letting her head fall back onto my shoulder. “...That's the baby's name. River Skye McKenzie.”

“Is that for a boy or a girl?”

“Either one.”

I turn the name over in my mind for a moment. “River Skye McKenzie,” I murmur, tasting the name carefully. “I think I like it. Why River Skye, though?”

“This baby is us. You and me. It's the two of us together, loving each other. I want the baby to have a name that reflects that. I was thinking of moments we shared, moments that stood out to me, and my mind kept coming back to that time beside the river. The one inside the rift where we hid while the rainforest burned outside. ...I had just met the Endless at the Threshold. Except for you and Estela, everyone was missing. I didn't know if anyone was hurt or captured. I knew that Rourke would be coming after everyone. Trying to...tie up loose ends. ...But just for a moment, beside that river, nothing mattered except you and me.”

“...I remember that moment. I was all cut up about Mike. But I'd gotten you back, and for a moment, that was enough. ...And then you promised me we'd get Mike back, and I loved you more than ever.”

“...That's one of my favorite memories of us. That's why I want to name our baby River.”

“And Skye?”

She chuckles, bringing my hand up to press her lips to my palm. “Where we first met.”

I laugh. “I suppose 'Plane' is a tacky middle name. And I think if we have a son, he'd hate us if we gave him the name 'Delilah', even as a middle name.”

“...So...you approve of my choice?”

I tip her face toward mine and capture her mouth in a kiss. “I love it,” I assure her when we break apart, stroking her cheek with my forefinger. “...Are you content with our baby having my surname? Legally, you're still a Chandler.”

She shrugs. “What the hell is Chandler, though? A name my father made up when he assumed human form?”

“Or the name Diego dreamed up for you.”

“Hmm, that is a fair point. ...Still...it doesn't mean as much to me as McKenzie. If we ever do legally marry, I'll become Alodia McKenzie in a heartbeat.” She sighs, nuzzling into me. “...I can't believe it's already September. Diego's class starts on Monday...”

“Summer is just about over,” I agree. The words are out of my mouth before I consider them, and I hear my voice falter just a little. ...Her last message to the Catalysts still exists. What she thought would be her last message. ...Our summer is over, but another will come soon...

If she is aware of my sudden change in mood, she doesn't let on. “Luckily, this is southern California, so it's going to feel like summer until December. And even then, it won't really get cold.”

“Yeah. It's the same deal in Louisiana.”

“My first winter at Hartfeld was quite an experience. Autumn was incredible and beautiful with the leaves changing, but then it just kept getting colder. And then came the snow. I mean, I had seen snow before, but never so much of it in one place. Not to mention that it was still cold even when it wasn't snowing, and there wasn't really any way to escape it. There wasn't just one or two cold days and then it got back up to something more tolerable. Diego and I spent most of winter term freshman year under a blanket in his dorm room watching The Crown and the Flame and whining about the weather.”

“You're lucky you had someone to whine with,” I reply, planting a kiss on her neck. “The Academy in Annapolis was the first taste I had of a real northern winter. The whole reason Mike calls me Grandpa is because he said I sounded like an old man grumbling about how cold I was all the time.”

“Aww, poor Top Gun,” she cooes. “You're lucky you fell in love with a California girl.”

I close my eyes and let my cheek rest on top of her head, sighing contentedly. “I'm lucky my California girl fell in love with me.”

“You made it easy.”

I snort. “Liar.”

“No, I mean it. You can pretend you were all misanthropic and self-interested, but you were always kind.”

To you, maybe. I don't say that aloud, but it's true. Maybe I was never actively malicious or cruel, but I could be a callous jerk to the rest of them at the start. Especially Sean. But Alodia...I couldn't be callous with her. Who knows if it was just some unconscious understanding of her importance or what, but from the start, I had to fight for her. Fight for that idealistic fire burning in her eyes. That confidence and determination. I had to nurture her, to nurse the flame so she could shine brighter and stronger. I had to protect her. Hell, maybe I already loved her. From the moment she called me Top Gun...

“Well, you know how it is, Princess. You bring out the best in me. I ain't never gonna believe I'm half of what you deserve, but that you still choose me only makes me cherish you more.”

“...I chose you over more than two-thousand lifetimes, Jacob Lucas McKenzie. I will choose you over two-thousand more. No land, no sea...”

I finish her sentence, murmuring it like a prayer. “...No one will keep us apart.”

Everett Rourke

Oh, this is interesting. Very interesting. Quite an intriguing development. So much so that I can hardly believe it's real.

“I must consider this,” I murmur into my disguised phone.

“There is...something more, sir,” Lila ventures timidly. “Alodia is pregnant.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Impressive. I would not have imagined it possible for such a hybrid as herself to conceive with a human. I suppose Jacob McKenzie is the father.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I must consider this as well. The implications...what it could mean...”

“What implications...?”

“I am not sure just yet. How far gone is she? It cannot be more than two months.”

“It's not. I believe she's only about nine or ten weeks gone.”

“We have time enough then to consider how this will affect the situation. Perhaps this should go without staying, but do not attempt to take any steps against the child. It could be useful to us, and I do not want it destroyed.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good girl. Now, I must make another call. Continue as you were. Report any important developments, but otherwise, you are to wait for my instructions. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

I disconnect the call and immediately place another. I do not expect she will be pleased to hear from me. Perhaps she will even attempt to ignore me. But I cannot allow that. And it is not as if she can block me. This device was designed with a workaround to that little problem. Finally, I hear her voice, an angry growl in my ear.

“Who are you?” she snarls. “And why do you keep calling me? This had better be important, or I will have you placed under arrest for harrassment so fast your head will spin!”

“Unnecessary, my dear Ms. Hall. I am already safely locked away from society.” I pause, feeling a smirk on my lips. “...It is Ms. that you go by these days, isn't it? For all that you kept Mason Hall's surname, you don't mean to imply that you are still married, do you.”

There is a pause on the other end of the line. “...Everett Rourke Senior, I presume,” she finally says, her voice tight with irritation. “Your...singular charm is unmistakeable.”

“Please, call me Everett. Really, I ought to be calling you Blair, as well.”

“Don't you dare, Rourke.”

“Come now, Blair. Our children are married. We have a grandchild in common. We are practically family. Are you saying that doesn't put us on a first-name basis?”

“It absolutely does not,” she says firmly. “I doubt either of us are very welcome in our grandson's life, anyway. Now get to the point. What does the disgraced former C.E.O of Rourke International want with the lead investor in his children's company?”

“Not sympathy. Just information. On a woman who was first employed by Mansingh Transglobal about thirty or so years ago. I believe she worked for the company until her death.”

“And when did she die?”

“In 1996. Her name was Cassandra Chandler.”

[kat-feinated]

September 2020

We entered the month of September with a lot of grief and sadness after losing our sweet kitten, Otis. He passed away suddenly and unexpectedly at only nine months old. The vet ran a lot of tests and believes he may have had feline leukemia or some kind of cancer as his red blood cell count was critically low. Although I have lost pets and relatives before, I’ve never lost a baby and it has been so hard and painful. We had him cremated and are planning to bury him at our future family home so he can stay with our family.

At first, I thought it would be a long time before I was ready to adopt another cat, but Joshua and I both agreed that the house feels so empty without him. Obviously we adore Zoey and she is the best but we got so used to having two cats around. Around this time, I saw a post on Instagram from the Denver Cat Cafe that all of their kittens were adopted except one (Bean!). Bean is a year old tuxedo kitty and although she was super shy in the beginning, she’s turning out to be a total love who adores having her belly rubbed and stalking Zoey.

Two positive things from this month-first, I passed my LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) exam on the 1st! I am so happy this is over with and I’m excited about all the career opportunities this will open up for me. I am also supervising a Master’s of Social Work student for the academic year and she is such a delight. She has already helped me in so many little ways and I hope that she is gaining something from the experience as well!

We mailed our save the dates for our new wedding date, which is a year from this month! I am honestly a bit nervous that things won’t be normal in terms of COVID a year from now, but our Plan C is to just elope in Mexico (our honeymoon spot) and whoever wants to come can come!

Reading:

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware. So creepy, so fun, so enjoyable. 

Watching:

-The Perry Mason reboot on HBO. I’ve heard so many positive things but we were pretty underwhelmed. The atmosphere (costumes, music, etc.) is great though. 

-We’ve also been binge watching 1980s horror films on Netflix. “The Evil Dead” was totally gross. “Poltergeist” was totally fun. I can’t believe I’ve never seen either of them before!

Listening to:

Still listening to and loving Taylor Swift’s new album “Folklore”. Favorite tracks are: “Cardigan” (duh), “The Last Great American Dynasty”, “Exile”, “My Tears Ricochet”, “Seven”, & “Epiphany”. So pretty much the entire album. 

Eating/Drinking:

-Anything and everything from Bev Weidner’s food blog, bevcooks.com. Recent favorite recipes include: braised chicken with mushrooms and shallots, slow cooker creamy chicken sliders, bruschetta shrimp risotto, & French-inspired skillet tuna casserole. 

-I also finally tried the pumpkin spice cold brew from Starbucks and it was delish!

Loving:

I recently face-timed with my friend/sorority sister and her face was GLOWING. I could not stop telling her how beautiful her skin looked. She told me she’s been using Glossier skin products and immediately after we hung up I ordered every product available on their website (ok slight exaggeration but it was a lot). However, their stuff is really affordable compared to other skin care products I’ve used and I’m loving every single item I bought.

Thinking About:

I’ve been thinking a lot about where Joshua and I should live in the future and where we want to raise a family. The top two contenders are to stay in Colorado or to move back to Northern California. Some pro’s of staying in Colorado include Joshua’s job (he works as an attorney for the federal government, and it’s very stable, has great benefits and he has good work-life balance). Also, the cost of living is much more affordable. Also, the impact of global warming is supposed to be less severe compared to the coasts.

That being said, I’ve been feeling a strong pull to move back to California. The main reason is that my family is there and I miss them so much. COVID has made things even harder because I can’t just hop on a Friday evening plane and visit them every few months like I used to. I would also really like our future children to be around family. Although Joshua would probably be able to transfer his job to the San Francisco office, we’ve talked about moving to Davis or Sacramento. We went to college in Davis and it is the most adorable small town and has great public schools. It’s a bit more affordable than the Bay Area but still close (and also a quick drive to the wine country and Lake Tahoe!). 

I know there is no reason to be stressing over this because who knows what opportunities will pop up in the next 5-10 years, but this is just something that’s been on my mind a lot. 

Grateful For:

We’ve officially hit a year of being home owners I am feeling so grateful for our cozy little condo. We could not have bought it without the money my grandparents left me after they passed away so I am so grateful to them (I have a picture of them on our fridge and I tell them “good morning” and “thank you” once a day, is that weird??). Although it’s definitely a work in progress, I’m excited about my plans for our home. I’m currently picking out a new paint color for our bedroom which I will be sure to reveal on Instagram in the near future. I’m also incredibly grateful for our two balconies and being able to spend time “outside” without having to put shoes (or a bra!) on.

Looking Forward to:

My mom is visiting the first weekend of October and I am counting down the days!

[2wheelrubbertramp]

Poco A Poco

   I’ve reached a personal milestone : this will be my first blog entirely written on the keyboard of my “smart phone”. So grab your seats, and hold on kids : 2 Wheel Rubber Tramp is back !     This newest installment comes to you from the back roads and crowded  highways of Colombia and Ecuador, where I’ll be cycling for two months.  Now, before we start I would like to make an Honorable Mention to the great people and nation of Cuba, where I did a 1,000 mile, one month bike tour of in 2016, but neglected it horribly on this blog.  My apologies.  The nation and people are amazing and their friendliness, generosity, and strength in dealing with continuing to exist after 60  years of crippling sanctions and low-level war from the US is hearthwarming.     Now,onto South Amerika.   This entry of my rubber tramping adventures begins in Bogota, Colombia - the capital city - 8 million people living 8,000 feet up on top of the Andes Cordillera Oriental  range. Bogota is a city constantly on the move : in the street and on the sidewalks. If you want to move, then you must follow the maze of humans winding through each other.  Before I began my ride, I’d wanted to spend a few days in Bogota. I’d booked a bed at at Chocolate Hostel in the Candaleria neighborhood of the city. A bit of a stereotype, as it’s where many gringos land when they come to the city.  However, it’s also in the center of the city and the oldest and most beautiful part of Bogota.  I immediately did not regret it.     I spent 5 days in Bogota, walking from one end of the city to the other for 8 or 10 hours a day.  My favorite thing to do in large foreign cities is simply to walk, take photos, visit museums, and learn about where I am.  I am a life time student of history , culture and political movements.  These things and the natural beauty of our planet earth are the passions that have driven me to see the world all these years, preferably slowly and  by two wheels.    I visited several museums in Bogota : the Military Museum (Museo Militar), which did an excellent job of not mentioning a single war crime committed by the army during the last 30 years of the Drug War; the Gold Museum (Museo De Oro)- I’m not a fan of gold. I don’t get excited by gold.  It’s a shinny metal to me, that’s it. But the Gold Museum was much more than that.  It tied the history of gold in Colombia to indigenous cultures and ceremonies and the art of hand-making gold pieces,and jewelry by indigenous cultures.  Last was the National Museum (Museo Nacional) , which also had several exhibits on indigenous cultures in Colombia and their contributions to modern Colombia.     One of the things I enjoy doing when I travel is learn as much about the culture I’m in while I’m there so I read as much as possible about them and visit historical landmarks and museums.  Cuba was no different.  I’m a history nerd.  I’m also a nerd about seeing the world through a perspective and lens is not Western or Colonialist,  so I appreciated that these museums showed that perspective.     In my daily walks around Bogota I tried to get a feel for the city.  The aguacate sellers with their speakers on repetitive blast, the hundreds of displaced  homeless wanderers and beggars sleeping on sidewalks and hustling spare change, old Colombian men gathered in circles shouting above the traffic.  The traffic, the endless and ongoing traffic and the the thousands  bicyclists who maneuvered through it.  Bogota has hundreds of miles of bike paths and the most bikers I’d seen outside of a Western country.  And better bikes than any city I’d been to in Asia.     There was the wealthy side of the city in the north that was talked about in the guidebooks, with it’s expensive shopping malls and dance clubs, yet no mention of the millions living in crumbling poverty in  the neglected south side of the city.  Everyone had a hustle - and many hustled on the street - selling jewelry, karaoke, gum. Whatever put food in their mouths.  Always people on the street.      Things I wanted to happen in Bogota before I left , didn’t . I wanted to see some live music but it seemed like all the shows were north, 80 blocks away.   I wanted to stock up on Cumbia vinyl but shipping it home cost half my plane ticket. I know - first world problems in the ‘developing world’.     I left Bogota on a high note : Ciclovia Day - each Sunday when major streets are blocked to traffic and thousands of families come out onto the streets on bikes, roller skates, skateboards and on foot.  I followed the trail on one of the bike paths that led me out of the city, my cargo biked loaded with too much food and too many bike parts.       8,000 feet up I began my decent down the Occidental range of the Andes, through suburbia and factorylandia,  stopped for lunch in the first town outside Bogota - Fakatativa and by nightfall I’d found a forgetful hotel in the town of Alban.     Next morning I woke at 5am ready to get off this mountain.  I knew there’d be another.  And another after that.  Fuck, all of Colombia was mountains where I was and I’d decided a long time ago I hated biking over mountains yet here I was, 8,000 feet and going down.  But every biker knows - what goes down, must come up. So for now, I was just enjoying the beauty and the view on Day 1 of the ride.  From up here you could see across the valley, cut through by the Magdalena River and my future: the long haul up the Andes Cordilleria Central range. 13,000 feet up peaked with volcanos in the Los Nevados National Park coming in at 17,000 feet.  Snow capped and feeding 37 rivers . That’s what I’d be facing in the days to come.     Day 2 was also merciful : coming down out of the Occidentals into the town of Cambao I road another 50 kms (30 miles) of flat, tree-lined road.  I found a spot for the night in Armero at a gas station that doubled as a hotel. On the map, it’s labeled “Armero Tragedy” and later I was to find out why: 20+ years previously one of the volcanos in Los Nevados erupted, killing 20,000 people in Armero.  All that was left now was this gas station at a crossroads and the now ghost town of Armero half a mile away.     From Armero I rode to Mariquita. And from there it started to hurt.  Only my 3rd day of riding, and I was to begin an ascent that took me took me 50 miles uphill into the Andes Cordilleria Central range , cresting at 4,000 meters (13,100ft). I loaded up on some tamales before the climb but it wasn’t much help. The traffic was rough- two lane mountains roads with an unending stream of semis, buses, motorbikes,and diesel fumes. I was already having to walk before the end of the day, I found it so hard to breathe. I hadn’t done a bike trip this hard in 2 years, since Cuba, and so I was still acclimating, and not doing it very well.  By nightfall, I’d gone only ten miles up.     There were no hotels up here so I just posted up in front of someone’s home on the side of the road.  There was no bushwacking to be had : the hills were too steep so I had no woods to go into so I was stuck on the side of the road, exposed to traffic and fumes. The family who’s home I put my tent in front of was nice enough to pro-active give me permission. The man there had been on crutches for 9 years and still didn’t know what was wrong with him ! ugh. And it was a hard night : a pouring rain soaked me inside the tent and a never ending parade of headlights, horns, and air pollution kept me on edge.  Many of the families who live on this road sleep within feet of this every night.  There is no quiet.  I never heard silence for more than 30 seconds while on this stretch.  I can’t imagine what spending your life living next to a freeway does to your psyche.      Day 4 : the view is spectacular.  I can see miles and miles down the length of the  Andes. Forested mountain sides with cloud banks blowing in around me. Shacks made of tar paper and wood hanging on the sides of cliffs, and families with two cows and several chickens.  Colombian rural poverty. For some, this well paved road only brought more noise and danger. Every has a dog and every dog chases you as you pass by.  The air is so thin I can only go 100 meters at a time before I feel like I’m going to have a hear attack and have to rest.        Poco a poco - little by little, I keep telling myself.  The beauty of these mountains makes up for the fact that it takes me an hour to go half a mile. I just can’t do it, but have no choice.  I have to rest every 3 minutes, the air is so thin. Periodically, there’ll be a home that sells cheese and instant coffee and bananas and I’ll stop and catch my breath. Everyone gives me the thumbs up - they know I’m crazy. But all these fools coming from Bogota take the night bus and miss the unending miracles of these mountains so I count my suffering as the trade-off for this rare treat.     That said, when I arrive in the small , regional town of Fresno I hunt around for a bus that will take me and the bike.  I still have 84 kms (50 mi.) to my endpoint: the city of Manizales, and don’t believe my lungs can take it. But all the buses are too small and so I have two options left : ditch the bike and end this bike tour 5 days in or sick it up and keep going - Poco a poco.  I go with poco a poco.     I start each day at 5am. The sun sets at 5pm, so I have a solid 12 hours of daylight to get as far as I can.  On a flat road, I could do 80 miles a day but up here at 10 or 12,000 ft I’m clocking in 25 miles on a good day.  As far as humans go - everyone is generous and helpful and encourage me along the way. No one tries to stop or discourage me.  I’m not the first Crazy Gringo on this mountain top.  I just wish they wouldn’t constantly try to murder me out of neglect with their blocks of metal on wheels. That’s all.  I spend another wet night behind a guard rail.  My books are getting wet, most of my clothes, the tent. It’s a mad house.  I pray for 430am when the sun starts to peak out and I can crawl my cold, wet as out of the tent.      Day 5 and I’m still in paradise.  Cloud banks drift in and out through out the day. Cows,hang by hoofs on the sides of bright green slopes. I can’t stop staring. The fact that this is actually three different mountain ranges - the Occidental, Central and Oriental Andes that stretch for 4,500 miles - the longest mountain range in the world.  It’s as long as NYC to Los Angeles and then LA to Houston. So I’m really just absolutely nothing up here.  I’m completely insignificant and matter not at all.  That’s just how incredible this one tiny part of the planet called Earth we live on is.  Ya know, for some perspective.     And by the end of the 5th day, I’d finally made it to that 13,100 foot point, which meant the entire next day was my sweet , sweet reward of 20 miles of pure, raw freedom. AKA in biker language : All. Down. Hill. 

[nellie-elizabeth]

Outlander: Of Lost Things (3x04)

Another of my absolutely favorite scenes from the books was featured in this episode, and I loved it a lot. I do have a few qualms, though...

Cons:

For the first time, I felt like the 20th century plot couldn't keep up with the 18th century story. Basically, we see Claire, Roger, and Bree continue to hunt for signs of Jamie. But eventually, Claire comes to the conclusion that she can't keep searching for a ghost. She decides it's time to go home to Boston, where she has her home and medical practice waiting for her. There wasn't really enough going on to justify an episode's worth of materials, and consequently these scenes almost felt like they were discarded bits left over from last year's finale, as we've finally caught up with the events we left off with last season.

And then there's the Brianna problem. Sophie Skelton is... not doing a great job. Her line delivery is stilted to the extent that she comes across like somebody performing in a high school play. Her dialogue is maybe a little bit hokey too, as she talks about hope and love and never giving up... but the thing is, the other actors on this show have been able to pull off lines like that, and she can't. The only thing that gives me hope for her character is that her best moments are the ones with Roger. As we move forward, the majority of her scenes will be with him, and not with Claire, so maybe their chemistry will develop into something more enjoyable to watch. For now, I'm disappointed that Bree, an excellent character from the books, is translating so poorly to the small screen.

My last complaint is with the pacing, which I think might be a constant worry this season. Voyager is a big book and a lot of stuff happens. The stuff at Helwater, which for the most part I absolutely adored, went by so fast that we missed a lot of the nuance. The Lord John stuff was excellent, but there should have been more of it. And there should have been more ambiguity in the Geneva pregnancy situation. There were a number of shortcuts, the most annoying of which was Hal's intrusion into the story. Apparently he got drunk and spilled the beans to Geneva about Jamie's true identity, which is what allowed her to blackmail him into coming to her bed. Hal comes across like a drunken idiot, which is so contrary to his character from the books. I don't imagine Hal will play much of a role in the series, as he's a relatively minor character who is probably easy to cut out for the most part. But still - John's brother is pretty awesome and I felt like we got a bit of character assassination with him in this episode.

Pros:

Despite the pacing being a problem, the stuff at Helwater was still pretty great. Geneva is a notorious figure from the books, widely reviled, as she coerces Jamie to have sex with her and then gets pregnant with his child. We can all love Willie and still hate on Geneva, right? The show made her similarly bratty and unbearable, but there was a certain level of care in the sex scene between her and Jamie. I might have liked it if that scene hadn't gone on quite as long, but... the moment where Geneva tells Jamie that she doesn't know what to do, and asks him to show her... that moment connected the scene with Jamie and Claire's first night together. The situations were quite different, but in one key way they were not: Jamie and Claire did not know each other all that well the first time they had sex, and Claire taught Jamie how it was to be done, as he'd never done it before. And now Jamie is giving the gift of a gentle first time to a young woman who is about to be married off to an old man against her will. Say what you will about Geneva, and I'll say an awful lot, but the way she was handled in the show made me sympathize with her quite a bit.

Isobel Dunsany was a delightful surprise. I don't remember exactly how she was described in the book, as it's been a while since I read it, but this portrayal of her felt right on. She's timid and a little awkward, clearly overshadowed by her abrasive and stunning sister and the memory of her deceased brother. But she's kind and she sees things more clearly than one would suppose. She knows that Geneva's child is Jamie's, and not Geneva's late husband's, and yet she keeps the secret. After Geneva's death in childbirth, Isobel strikes Jamie in fury, but later actually apologizes to him. Due to their differing statuses, Isobel could have easily been cruel to Jamie and he would have been powerless to stand up for himself. She also dotes on Willie, even knowing his true parentage, and promises Jamie to look after his son. Isobel kind of rules and I wish we could see more of her.

The real meat of this plot thread, for me, is the stuff with Lord John. (Surprise, surprise. Expect me to gobble up every morsel of this man the same way I did for Fergus last season). Lord John is such a good person and I'm just so crazy about him. I'm glad we got to see at least one chess game, although of course I would have preferred a whole series of them like in the book. But to watch these two men, with the weight of such a history between them, able to crawl their way to a friendship is just... it's so fun. It's more interesting than a lot of Jamie's friendships. Of course he loves his sister and Ian. Of course he loves Murtagh and the other members of his clan. Those are friendships built on blood and culture. With John, it's... against all odds. The best scene in the episode is when John reveals to Jamie that he knows William is his son. The two go for a walk, and Jamie asks John for a favor - will he look after Willie, and act as a father to him? If he does, Jamie would be willing to... well, let John have his way. John is slightly horrified by the offer, and Jamie says "do you not want me, then?" John replies, quite matter of fact: "I shall probably want you until the day I die," but of course he won't take Jamie up on that offer. In fact, John has his own news - he is to be married to Isobel. He cares for her, and this way he will be able to look after Willie. Jamie is grateful, and says that John shall always have his friendship, if that means anything to him. John says it means a great deal.

Okay. Just... yes. This scene is everything to me. It's sort of a useless conversation to contemplate sexual mores of this time period. Of course John being homosexual would have been seen as a horrific, criminal thing to his peers of the time period. And the fact that Jamie knows this key thing about him means that Jamie has power over John in a very dangerous way. But Jamie trusts him - even likes him - anyway. In the books, Jamie actually gives John a chaste kiss on the lips to seal the promise to look after Willie. While that is an iconic and excellent moment from the book, I really like the way they played it out here as well. Back in Ardsmuir, John's come-on to Jamie took the shape of putting his hand over Jamie's, and then stroking his finger. The clasping of hands took on an intimate tone that Jamie found unacceptable. Now, all this time later, Jamie puts out his hand for John to shake, and when John takes it, Jamie puts his other hand up over John's, in a parallel of John's action back in the prison. Such a subtle thing. Such a moment of acceptance and trust between these two very different people. Without giving too much away about future events, let's just say that these two don't always have the smoothest sailing relationship, but their abiding bond remains, and it's one of the best things in the whole series.

Before I wrap up, I should also mention Willie, Jamie's illegitimate son. I'm going to ignore the fact that the little boy playing Willie doesn't much resemble Sam Heughan, because... come on. I'm sure they'll cast a ginger to play older Willie when the time comes. This kid was adorable, and even though they didn't have much time together, this episode managed to solidify Jamie and Willie's bond quite nicely. Jamie says earlier that he's lost "two children," referring to Faith and Brianna, and if you think about it, he's also lost a foster son in Fergus. So watching him play with his child, chastise him for being spoiled, secretly baptize him as a "stinking papist," and even give him a carved wooden snake like his own brother, also named Willie, had done for him... all of this stuff was adorable and heartbreaking. Poor Jamie is deprived of the chance of raising any of his children.

The ending sequence of this episode, played under a Bob Dylan song, hit the right note exactly. You see Claire and Brianna back on a plane to Boston, Claire having given up on her hunt for Jamie through the pages of history. This is cut with clips of Jamie leaving Helwater to return to Scotland, a freedom granted him because of his actions in saving the infant Willie from Geneva's deranged widower. As he leaves, we see Lord John and Lady Isobel standing in tableau with their de facto son Willie. John stares wistfully after Jamie. Willie actually runs after him, and John and Isobel chase after him to hold him back. Jamie rides slowly away from his son, unsure if he'll ever see him again. Touching and perfect and so freakin' sad.

I'll leave it there. Based on episode titles, I'm fairly certain that the big reunion is going to be episode 6, meaning we have one more episode to catch Jamie up to the print shop, and get Claire back into the proper century. As impatient as I am, I also wonder how the rest of this season is going to go, pacing-wise. Thus far, I've been really happy with the material I've gotten, and my only big complaint has been wishing for more.

8/10

[clusterassets]

New world news from Time: ‘To Be Number One Is the Target.’ China’s Ding Junhui Is Taking on the World Snooker Championship

Ding Junhui isn’t wearing the requisite waistcoat and bowtie of the professional snooker circuit, but even dressed in a baggy jogging suit, he isn’t difficult to pick out of the crowd. Ball after ball vanishes as Ding glides around the green baize, wielding his cue with metronomic ease. “I’m trying to make my rhythm more relaxed so games are like practice routines,” he tells TIME between training sessions at his snooker club in northwest Beijing. “How to take off the pressure and just play is the hardest part.”

All top sportsmen must deal with the weight of expectation, though it’s hard to imagine a burden comparable to Ding’s. China’s most successful player has been hailed by World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn as “the true superstar of the sport” in China, and more than a quarter of his homeland’s television viewing public — some 210 million people — tuned in to see his World Championship final defeat in 2016. (That’s double the viewers of last year’s Super Bowl.) The World Championship begins again on April 21 and Ding is determined to realize his potential by finally seizing the game’s top prize. (Eventual champion Mark Selby knocked him out at the semifinal stage last year.)

“To win the World Championship and to be world number one is the target for the next few years,” says Ding, his cherubic face and softly spoken demeanor masking inner steel that has seen him claim 13 ranking titles. “This is very hard, I know, because [snooker] careers are quite short. I’m now just over 30. There is just only one thing, to keep going and find more chances to win.”

Snooker is an unfamiliar sport for many Americans — a cousin of cue games like pocket billiards, though played on a surface about four times the size of your average pub pool table. Snooker has grown wildly popular in Asia following the success of Ding and Hong Kong’s Marco Fu. The winner of the World Championship takes home a cool $600,000 in prize money, which is many times the purse for the pool equivalent. About 70 million people are estimated to play cue sports in China each week, with thousands of snooker and pool clubs strewn across both big cities and donkey-cart towns.

Read more: How Snooker Swept China’s Sporting World

As a result, Hearn’s bold prediction that half of snooker’s top 16 will soon hail from China doesn’t look farfetched. “The future’s so bright, I should be wearing sunglasses,” five-time snooker World Champion Ronnie O’Sullivan said of upcoming Chinese talent at last year’s Evergrande China Championship. A raft of top young Chinese players have joined the professional tour, many inspired by Ding’s achievements. Although Ding was briefly world number one, he currently ranks third. There will be four other Chinese players — Li Hang, Cao Yupeng, Xiao Gudong and Yan Bingtao — chalking up at the legendary Crucible Theatre this month. “I picked up the cue all because of watching him,” Yan, 18, has said of Ding. “He is like an elder brother to all of us. We worship him.”

There is a superhuman quality to mastering snooker; rounded pockets and a lightening-quick surface render the sport less forgiving than pool, with titanic concentration required to build large scores. It’s also a rare sport where true perfection is possible. Team games like soccer or basketball contend with myriad external factors, whereas even tennis and golf matches may turn on a gust of wind or peculiar divot. The snooker table, by contrast, is like a vacuum; every facet is controllable, every shot theoretically possible. Top players only ever really play against themselves, meaning defeat always entails an avoidable blunder. This adds a significant psychological burden. “With football, sometimes you don’t play well but your team mates are playing great, so you still can win,” says Ding. “With snooker you have to win everything yourself. It’s a more of a mental game.”

It’s one that Ding has been honing since he was just eight years old, when his father spotted his son’s potential on the communal pool table below the family’s apartment in China’s eastern province of Jiangsu. Before long his parents sold their home and grocery business and moved the family 1,000 miles south to Guangdong province — considered China’s snooker Mecca — so Ding could work with the nation’s best professional coaches. He was pulled out of school to concentrate solely on snooker at just 12 years old, winning the Amateur Championships at 14 and turning pro at just 16.

As a teenager, Ding was sent to the British steel-smelting city of Sheffield, where the World Championship takes place each year. Stepping off the plane alone without speaking any English was a jolting experience. “It was scary at first,” he says. “I was always very shy. Every day I just wished to see another snooker player to play with.” But Ding is sanguine about missing out on simple childhood pleasures, insisting that the only pressure he ever felt was from himself. “Everyone of the age 10 or 11 likes to have some childlike time, to play some games,” says Ding. “This is what I lost… now I am getting something back.”

Dan Mullan—Getty Images Ding Junhui of China looks on during his first round match against Kyren Wilson of England at the Dafabet Masters in London on Jan. 15, 2017.

Still, from diving and gymnastics to table tennis, China has a reputation for putting inordinate pressure on young athletes that can verge on abuse. Parents are lured to surrender talented children to state sporting academies on promises of national glory and future commercial spoils. There, kids train until tendons snap and retinas detach, while neglecting regular studies. Some 45% of former athletes in China fail to find work after retirement, according to a 2010 report by the state-run Nanjing Daily newspaper. The nation’s best snooker players are recruited by the CBSA World Snooker Academy in Beijing, where 30 pupils from six to 22 years old play from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, according to the BBC.

For Ding, spending endless days alone with a snooker table is ultimately counterproductive. He says Chinese players often lack tactical and defensive instincts because they are used to clearing up every ball in just one visit. “But if you lose your concentration, lose your plotting, you’ve got nothing left,” he says. But even more damaging can be the psychological toll of isolation on youngsters. After eight to ten hours a day with just a snooker table for company, “I would get outside and forget how to speak to people, because you spend all day alone in a room,” he says. “It’s too much.” Ding says the game quickly went from being an all-engrossing passion to feeling “more like a day job.” Today, though, “I try to enjoy it more,” he says.

Ding hopes rekindling his love for the game can help spur him to the world title. Today, practice sessions last just three hours a day, and he books regular free time traveling the world and not thinking about snooker. More importantly, he isn’t lonely on or off the green baize. His wife is expecting their first child — “I don’t know what to do, so I have to learn quick!” Ding says — though he balks at the thought of raising another snooker superstar in the family. “Snooker is so boring,” Ding laughs, “my first choice [for my child] would not be this, something else.” Ding says his father didn’t push him to excel at the sport, but rather supported his decision. “I chose this for myself,” he says of his freedom as a child. As for raising his own, “I think I will let mine do the same.”

— With video by Zhang Chi / Beijing

April 19, 2018 at 03:01PM ClusterAssets Inc., https://ClusterAssets.wordpress.com

[junker-town]

Sergio Garcia is ‘proud’ Tiger Woods joined TaylorMade

Sergio says it will be ‘very difficult’ for Tiger to regain his world-beating form, but is happy to have him on team TaylorMade.

Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia have had their moments and may treat the golf world to another round of Big Cat v. El Nino if they make the cut and somehow find themselves with the same Saturday or Sunday tee time at this week’s Dubai Desert Classic.

Should that happen, it sounds as if the 37-year-old Spaniard is not exactly scared of facing the former world No. 1.

“If you mean like the way he played like in early 2000 and stuff like that, it is difficult,” Sergio said Wednesday from the Emirates Golf Club about whether Woods would ever reclaim the type of killer instinct he displayed during the duo’s famous 2013 Players Championship tilt. “He's got a lot of qualities and he can obviously get to a high level.”

The primary challenge facing the 41-year-old Woods is Father Time, Garcia observed.

“I think to get to that level is very difficult, even for him, because he's 40 now,” said the 20-time PGA and Euro Tour winner. “So his body doesn't move the way it used to move when he was 20, 25.”

Garcia pointed out nothing that Woods himself is not aware of and his comments were hardly incendiary enough to provide bulletin-board material for the 666th-ranked player in the world. Indeed, going back-to-back after missing the cut at Torrey Pines in his first official PGA Tour start in 17 months, combined with the journey of some 8,000 miles to the Middle East, will put Woods’ surgically repaired back to the test.

In fact, Garcia was among the pros in a new commercial who marvel at Woods’ ability to win 79 times on the PGA Tour.

He also welcomed Tiger to the same team that now supplies equipment to the two players.

“We’re all professionals here,” said Garcia. “I’m proud that he chose to join TaylorMade and obviously TaylorMade were very keen about it. So am I.”

He was less bullish, though, on Woods’ future.

“Everything is a little bit of a question mark, just to see how he’s going to respond physically and everything,” García said. “So I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Yes, we will, especially since Woods will go back-to-back after missing the cut at Torrey Pines in his first official PGA Tour start in 17 months and then embarking on a back-breaking journey of some 8,000 miles to the Middle East. For sure, Woods’ surgically repaired back will be put to the severest of tests.

Plus, Sunday night’s flight was his first commercial trip in a decade, according to ESPN.com. The plane was also delayed by protesters rallying Sunday night at the Los Angeles International Airport against President Donald Trump’s executive order.

So small wonder that Woods said he barely slept before hitting the range, bare legs and all (thanks to the Euroopean Tour letting players wear shorts to practice) around noon on Tuesday.

http://pic.twitter.com/rvAFlN8utG

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) January 31, 2017

Woods, playing the tourney he has won twice for the eighth time, will tee off in the first two rounds with reigning Masters champ Danny Willett and Matthew Fitzpatrick. They are scheduled to start the first round at 11:15 p.m. ET Wednesday, which will be 8:15 a.m. Thursday in Dubai.

[daleisgreat]

Top 10 and Worst 5 Films of 2014 through 2016

I meant to do this last year, but completely neglected it. When I ran my old podcast, one episode a year, my friends Matt, Jay and I would host our annual best and worst movies of the year episode. We did three installments for films that hit in 2011-2013. The podcast is not around anymore so I have not done it since, but I still have been keeping Word documents on my computer with a list of all the movies I saw each year and constantly update my top 10 and worst 5 rankings of the year. I meant to post the best and worst of 2015 as a blog, but as I said it just slipped past me and I will make up for it now with a triple best and worst list for 2014 through 2016. I had a whole extra year to catch up on Netflix and VUDU on 2014 and 2015 releases I missed so I have seen about 20% more films than I did than 2016. So hopefully that will excuse any glaring omissions that did not make my rankings. That said, I am still feeling pretty good about my 2016 list and there were only a handful of films that slipped by me that I have not seen yet. Movies linked on the lists will take you to my review of the film if you want to see my expanded thoughts on the film. One last thing before the lists, I want to give a shoutout to one of my favorite film critics, Scott Sawitz! I have discussed movies, wrestling and a ton more with Scott for well over a decade and have had the pleasure of having him guest host on my aforementioned podcast several times. I have always been a fan of his reviews and weekly column, Monday Morning Critic, over at Inside Pulse. His latest column is his annual top 10 films of the year I always look forward to. Scott has a twist on his rankings this year because he has been putting a ton of work into his weekly YouTube series, Confessions of a Super-Hero, weekly bite-sized episodic viewing all about what super-heroes do in their off-duty downtime. If you have a moment, please check it out! Now, onto the lists! 2014 TOP 10 10) Wild 9) Nightcrawler 8) Gone Girl 7) Equalizer/John Wick 6) Imitation Game 5) Interstellar 4) Guardians of the Galaxy 3) Whiplash 2) Captain America: The Winter Soldier 1) Boyhood Best Documentary – Life Itself

The two comic book films on the list ranked high with Marvel having a stellar year. Guardians surprised me because the concept just seemed impossible to pull off in live action with an animated tree and talking raccoon, but somehow Marvel did it and it kicked all kinds of ass. Winter Soldier was an awesome modern day follow up to The First Avenger. I seem to be in the minority of people when discussing Interstellar, and while I would rank it a notch or two under other non-Batman Christopher Nolan classics like Inception, I still very much enjoyed it that it made it into the midst of my top 10. Life Itself is an excellent documentary all about Roger Ebert in his final days as it documents his and Gene Siskel’s breakout rise as the go to film critics of the nation. Wild hit all the right nerves for me on Cheryl Strayed’s arduous journey of self-discovery. Nightcrawler shocked me at the lengths Gyllenhaal went to get the ultimate creep-o look down and his convincing transition from wannabe ripoff artist to the quintessential conman. I was expecting Equalizer to be a by-the-numbers action flick, but Denzel Washington proved me wrong by adding on many layers to it, and it is bizarre how John Wick came out within weeks of it and both were nearly identical plots, but both delivered in their own unique way. John Wick also gets my dubious award for best ever Kevin Nash cameo. Finally, props to Richard Linklater for delivering on his film that was literally 12 years in the making with Boyhood. Linklater is a risk taker with his ambitious projects, and he knocked another one out of the park with Boyhood getting my vote as best film of 2014. 2014 WORST 5 5) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4) Tekken 2 3) Pro-Wrestling Zombies 2) Amazing Spider-Man 2 1) Transformers: Rise of the Fallen 2014 saw many terrible films, I actually had nearly 10 films as being ‘worst 5-calibur’ material. The TMNT remake had a few bright spots and scene-saving moments from Will Arnett, but he alone could not save a film with so many gut-wrenching jokes and awful retconning of the TMNT lore I grew up with. I actually dug the first Tekken film as a kind of solid nonsense fighting tournament movie that was kind of faithful to the source material ala Mortal Kombat, but the sequel was this awful attempt at a mafia-crime-mystery-drama that failed on all levels. Pro-Wrestling Zombies was a very low budget zombie slashing film starring Matt Hardy, Jim Duggan and Roddy Piper, but with these wrestling legends it was not even enjoyable in an ironic way like most zombie films, and was just flatout bad. Amazing Spider-Man 2 shocked me because I legitimately enjoyed the reboot, and thought this would be another easy follow up with most of the same cast and crew returning. However, Spider-Man and Electro both cast painful jokes and banter throughout that did not exist in the prior film, and there were countless groan inducing moments. The latest Transformers film outdid the straight-up bad humor and moments throughout the entire wreck of a film. Michael Bay somehow found a way to make it a nearly insurmountable task to get through. 2015 Top 10 10) Southpaw 9) Ant Man 8) The Martian 7) End of the Tour 6) Mad Max: Fury Road 5) Revenant 4) Creed 3) Steve Jobs 2) Spotlight 1) Hateful Eight Best Documentary – Tie: Electric Boogaloo & Winning: Racing Life of Paul Newman

Yeah, I like my feel good boxing/sports films as Jake Gyllenhaal shined again this year in Southpaw and Creed surpassed my expectations with its contemporary take on the Rocky franchise. While the lighthearted moments from Damon seemed a little forced, I still very much dug his Mars survival story, but not as much I got immersed into Dicaprio’s and Tom Hardy’s intense wilderness survival adventure that is The Revenant. Fury Road marked the first Mad Max movie I saw and the bombastic costumes initially had me raising an eyebrow, but once the heavy metal guitar semi-truck graced the screen in its infinite glory I instantly went on board with the film and never got off. I recently reviewed Steve Jobs, and if you recall I absolutely loved its use of creative license to tell a nonstop dialogue juggernaut of three big moments in Jobs’ life. Spotlight is the perfect way to tell a slow building mystery film where investigative journalists gradually picked away at their biggest scoop ever. Finally, I am biased towards Quentin Tarantino as I view the man as being one of the absolute best at dialogue in films, and he delivered once again with countless another excellent script and scenes that stole the show in The Hateful Eight. The setting worked perfectly and I was on my toes waiting to see which one of the eight was going to make the first move in a powdered keg filled with characters ready to burst. 2015 Worst 5 5) Fantastic Four 4) Jupiter Ascending 3) Chappie 2) Ted 2 1) Pixels

I was surprised at how bad Jupiter Ascending turned out to be, and did not expect Channing Tatum to be the only decent part of that film. After the dud that was Sucker Punch and now Jupiter Ascending, I am cutting myself off from all future Wachowski-directed films. I am a fan of District 9 and its director Neil Blomkamp and felt burned by his latest film, the insufferable Chappie in numerous ways. I was anticipating bad things from both Fantastic Four or Pixels, but part of me forced myself to go to see how awful they ultimately were. Fantastic Four was mostly drawn out and dull, and had some very head-scratching moments throughout. I cannot remember the last Adam Sandler film I legitimately liked, does the first half of Funny People count? Any marginal hopes of a semi-decent film were squashed the second Kevin James popped up on screen as the dopey president of the USA. Practically the entire film was bad, but I will at least give it minor props for some pretty good use of the videogame CG in the film. 2016 Top 10 10) Purge: Election Year 9) Deadpool 8) Star Trek: Beyond 7) 13 Hours: Secret Soldiers of Benghazi 6) Captain America: Civil War 5) Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice 4) Hacksaw Ridge 3) Sully 2) Fences 1) The Accountant Best Documentary – ESPN 30 for 30: The ’85 Bears

The last two Purge films have turned into guilty Halloween pleasures like the old Final Destination films. Election Year kept up the same gritty, over-the-top tone and pace as Anarchy Reigns before it. Deadpool surprised me at not being a dud, and far exceeded my expectations with tons of great jokes, dialogue, action and unapologetically aware 4th wall-breaking references throughout. It has been awhile since I got wrapped up in an intense R-rated war film, and 2016 had two of them with 13 Hours and Hacksaw Ridge that both get high recommendations from me. I am a wee bit of a Clint Eastwood fan, but I will give him and Tom Hanks righteous props on how they somehow made Sully’s heroic emergency plane landing into the Hudson River a thrilling feature length film. Some of you who saw the list are probably baffled at why I rank the controversial Dawn of Justice over the much-loved Civil War, but the two ranked so close together I just might change my answer if you ask me any day of the week. If I am splitting hairs I did not care for the shoehorned Spider-Man extended cameo, and his dialogue has me worried that Homecoming is going to be filled with an equal, if not worse script than Amazing Spider-Man 2. Denzel Washington and Viola Davis are sublime in Fences. The small, but mighty cast here delivered powerful performances, with Washington and Davis especially delivering in this dialogue-driven-tour-de-force about hard times for a family making ends meet in the 1950s. I did not know too much going into The Accountant other than it had what appeared to be a gimmick of an assassin with Autism. I could not have been more wrong as there is so much more going on with this film that it entertained me throughout its near two and a half hour runtime. Ben Affleck continues his streak of excellent performances, and I cannot wait to see how his upcoming solo version of The Batman turns out. Worst 5 2) Suicide Squad 1) Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

I have only seen two movies this year that qualify as “worst 5-caliber.” I could not get into Suicide Squad. The first third of the film played out like an extended trailer scored with worn out songs that I am use to only hearing off trailers. There were several WTF moments throughout, and add in the film felt compromised after audiences griped that Dawn of Justice was not lighthearted enough. DC/Warner Bros. responded by pasting in several post-production groan-worthy zingers that played more to the mainstream, but made me cringe. I am optimistic for the presumable sequel though, because I did dig Will Smith as Deadshot and Margot Robbie’s portrayal of fan favorite, Harley Quinn and I am even interested in what direction they take The Joker next. Halftime Walk usurped it as my worst film of the year however because of how unlikeable the cast is. About 20% of the film is war flashbacks that I actually liked, but the other 80% is the members of the military squad’s day being honored at a football game, and just being super dick-ish and incredibly un-empathetic throughout it. I know this is based off a book, but I do not know if something got lost in translation or if this was the desired vision of the film. Either way, it yields my worst of the year honors! Thanks for sticking with me rambling all this way, see you next year!