#excel top 10 formulas

[chongoblog]

im a huge mario kart nerd (like, speedrun strats level nerd) and i can't afford a switch 2 or the games yet (saving up though.... arrrgh it's so expensive) so i'm like. living vicariously through your mariokartposting. what are your top ten tracks + how does racing feel?

Okay, so for the Mario Kart Nerds who can't quite afford a Switch 2 yet (believe me, I get it, and I'm lucky to be in a position where I have it), here's the lowdown so far from my perspective (and just a warning this is gonna go pretty long, especially since you asked a top ten list)

First off, as far as racing feels, it feels very different in some ways, but also the same (on both a macro and a micro level). The physics have changed somewhat, which might take some time to get used to, and plus the water physics in this game are something I STILL haven't gotten used to, but it's still very much Mario Kart. Any skills you picked up in 8 Deluxe (except for like, maybe glider tech? I never learned that back in 8D) will be pretty easily transferable here. With 24 racers, it's definitely a very different energy, but it's one that's provided me with the most fun I've had in a while! Also, the grinding and wallriding aspect of this game is something that I still need to get used to, but with the little adjustments I HAVE made, it really elevates the game.

But what I find most fascinating about this is how races are now handled. You and the lobby are in a location, and the race becomes "Hey! let's race from here to that other location and then race a lap there!" On one hand, I've seen people say that they prefer the 3 lap system. And I get it! But also you're wrong and this new formula is fucking awesome. Like if your goal here is to play the game once to say you played the new tracks and then move on, then you're not gonna like this new system. You don't have the time to really get yourself accustomed to the new tracks. But as the game is played more and more and more, I think this style of racing will only get better and better.

Now, ironically, this aforementioned format is also going to make it difficult for me to give a well-informed top 10. So this list is subject to change and is only semi-serious.

10. Wario Shipyard. I have to include this one because it's genuinely the funniest level they could have possibly included in this game. Go to the game where they introduced underwater driving, pick out the level that takes place mostly underwater, and then remake it for the first time in a game where you Cannot Drive Underwater. I feel like they knew what they were doing and like I was in on the joke. Whether there was one or not, I think they handle the remaking with a completely new dynamic excellently.

9. Sky-High Sundae. So, I don't know if I actually think this one is in the top 10 or not, but I think it's absolutely worth mentioning. I've seen a lot of people speculate that this track was made for Mario Kart World, and they just released it early on Tour and 8 Deluxe. I fully buy into that theory, because it feels like this track was made for this game. It does change a lot of the second half of the track, which helps it out a ton. A bit of a chicken vs egg situation, but I remember the first time I played it I said "Wait, this level is allowed to be fun??"

8. Acorn Heights. I don't have much to say about this one other than I think it does a phenomenal job of keeping Maple Treeway's legacy of "Badass level In A Tree" alive.

7. Boo Cinema. I really want to put some more time in for this level. It's simple in its format, but it makes up for it all with so so SO much style, between messing with the fun concept of flying INTO the movie and the music being a ghost house track with music that's actually incredibly fun.

6. Great ? Block Ruins. I don't have too much to say about how this level plays as a racetrack, since from what I recall it's pretty simple, but I think it's aesthetically my favorite Mario Kart level in a while. A lot of it has to do with my love for the ? Block itself (it's my icon for my Nintendo Account!) and also just to act as ruins with waterfalls falling down from the sky. Cool as hell level! Always a joy to go there.

5. DK Spaceport. I'm a huge sucker for callbacks to old games (something something Broken Joysticks), and this one delivers in spades. I feel like the lap situation is definitely surreal and strange, but once you get used to it, it's a real blast. There are sections that allow you to play around with the new mechanics like grinding and wallriding, there are multiple shoutouts to the original Donkey Kong game (I was gonna mention that they don't need to keep fellating themselves for Donkey Kong, but then again the last game where they REALLY did that was Odyssey which was seven years ago now), and it really makes the most of the sprint-style format.

4. Dino Dino Jungle. I've always been a Double Dash girl. My family has photos of me playing Double Dash in front of the TV with my friends (specifically on DK Mountain, shortly after I'd unlocked Petey and King Boo). And obviously when levels get brought back in Mario games, you have expectations for there to be some slight differences to account for the new game's mechanics. Dino Dino Jungle said fuck that!! They completely reimagined Dino Dino Jungle in a way where you play it, you take the turns, and you realize "Oh yeah, this is Dino Dino Jungle", but you step back and it's COMPLETELY different. Like, they watched Jurassic Park and said "okay yeah we can do that". Definitely worth watching if you're a Double Dash fan like me and you wanna see just how transformed it is. Peach Beach got a similar reimagining, however I didn't include it because the new segments are still growing on me.

3. Starview Peak. They combined Ice Ice Outpost and Rosalina's Ice World (kinda), which is insane conceptually, but it's pulled off in what I can only describe as the most beautiful track in the game (other than Rainbow Road)

2. Peach Stadium. Honestly, I have to give this one a lot of props, because it marked a Video Game Moment for me where I suddenly went down from 1st to 2nd, and I looked around to find out what the hell happened only to find out that the motherfucker was DRIVING ON THE WALL OVER MY HEAD. Between that, the general level of #girlypop in the music AND the fact that it's technically two tracks in one, I have to give this props.

Rainbow Road. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't played it for themselves yet. But this is the best track in Mario Kart history, and I think that anyone who even suggests that it's a even remotely a contest is out of their mind. I'll gush about it PLENTY on stream tonight.

Now it's worth mentioning that some of the new tracks I haven't gotten TOO much of an opportunity to really play (most notably Dry Bones Burnout and Bowser's Castle, the former of which I NEEDED to make sure it at least got a shoutout because I adore the aesthetics of it), but yeah there you go! If you have any other Mario Kart questions I would LOVE to answer them!

[absolutebl]

Could you recommend me 1-2 good "standard" bl from each of the main bl producing countries (China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea)? I'm interested in the differences in tropes and execution between bl from different countries, especially Taiwan and Thailand. I'm looking for bl that's highly rated because it's well-executed but doesn't stray from the expected formula for its region.

Great BLs that ALSO rep for their country's style

I really took the "represent" part seriously. Here are my (end of 2024) quick pulls, explanations etc in the linked posts at the bottom.

Japan

Seven Days (or I Cannot Reach You)

Old Fashion Cupcake

For the darker stuff: Tokyo in April is

Korea

Semantic Error

To My Star

For their new style of darker stuff: The 8th Sense or Love for Love's Sake

Thailand

These were absolutely the hardest to pick, so I couldn't stick to 2. There's just so much Thai BL.

My School President - best high school rep (heritage = Love of Siam, Love Sick, the true Thai BL beginnings)

Bad Buddy - best uni BL rep (heritage = 2gether, SOTUS, the beginning of Thai BL global dominance) alternative = Oxygen which is possibly the most classic Thai uni BL we have ever gotten (but Bad Buddy is better acted)

We Are - best GMMTV ensemble piece, heritage is actually also Love Sick, but in 2024 everyone is gay.

Lovely Writer - best meta

My Ride - best pulp

The Sign - best wild what-the-actual-fuck? ride (KinnPorshe also an option)

For an example of the few times Thailand got elevated: I Feel You Linger in the Air or A Tale of Thousand Stars. But these are atypical, we only get a few of them a year from Thailand.

Taiwan

These were the easiest to pick.

We Best Love

Be Loved In House: I Do

But actually: History 4: Make Our Day's Count will tell you everything you ever needed to know about Taiwanese BL in one mess of a show. It's just... not that great.

China

Addicted

Word of Honor

The Philippines

Gameboys

My Day

Vietnam

Mr Cinderella

My Lascivious Boss

But by most standards neither of these are actually very good.

Here's a 2022 post where I talk about the differences between country's styles and approaches.

If you want representative samples from a historical perspective than I do that here:

In that post, you'll need to decide what kind of representation you want to consume though, because some are very old, and others newer, since this is set up to learn about the evolution of the genre.

I also wrote a whole series on the history of the genre along with my top 10 picks at the time (2022). It's old now but still holds up for what you want. I would say pick any two from the top ten of each list, but please understand my personal taste leans toward the lighter fluffier fare. (Which means my top ten from places like Japan is very skewed. Also several countries have added new top 10, for me personally, in 2023 & 2024).

Here's a fun one on the tropes people love in the different countries

And a personal favorite, very silly and not helpful at all.

(source)

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

I think one of the big issues with comics is that they have become far too serialized, with each run wanting to tell an ongoing story. I get the impulse, and some of those runs have been excellent for it, but I feel that's not how superhero comics are supposed to work.

Unlike manga, comic books seem more geared to merely showing the various adventures of these heroes, with a lot more done-in-one stories. They're less like Harry Potter, which was one big story in multiple installments, and more like Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books, where each story was self contained.

Yeah, they did evolve and change their characters throughout the sixties onward and many were great for it, but I'm starting to think they leaned too far in making things ongoing. Especially because they're reaching the point where they won't let the characters evolve anymore, yet won't just go back to self-contained adventures. They need to pick a lane.

Comics were always serialized. To the point where they used to just be called serials. And it worked fine for 50 years.

The main thing I think that ruined comics before the wokeness was the overuse of massive events. Comics used to mostly follow a very easy formula. Short arcs that last 1-3 issues, sprinkled with larger arcs that last for a few more issues. Then, massive event comics like Crisis and Secret War made bank, and Marvel and DC wanted to that money coming in. So they did sequels to their successful events. When those stopped selling, they created new events. The problem with the events is that they took over the normal weekly/monthly stories. Nothing mattered but the events, and if you had a status quo you liked, chances were the event was going to mess with that for shock value. Eventually, there ended up being at least one major event that covered the whole comic universe per year, usually with smaller events that covered a single book too. It got to the point where the events and the individual issues stopped selling, so they did more events with even more radical shock changes of beloved characters and stories. And when that didn't work, they decided to reboot their continuity to fix what they spent 10+ years breaking. (then in the case of DC, rebooted it three more times when everyone hated the other reboots). In the middle of this, they also went woke, and now we're where we're at with mainstream American comics. Most of them suck, and the ones that don't are only good until the writers or editors switch books, then the new person (usually Bendis or King) usually ruins them to put "their mark" on an iconic character.

I honestly don't know how you fix comics. Even removing the woke, left wing crap at this point isn't enough (though it's a good start) because there are underlying problems with how the medium is run and presented. Books are constantly late, with last minute revisions and sometimes multiple artists working on a single book before it hit shelves. The compensation for writers and artists is shit unless you're a top name with multiple books, and even then sales are often so bad they go months without getting what they're owed, so the talent pool is shrinking for all but the most iconic characters. Everyone wants to write Batman, but no one wants to write Booster Gold. And every time they have a "hit" (with sales numbers that would have been abject failures 20 years ago) everyone tries to copy the book that got big and further messes things up in other books.

[alexissara]

Top 10 Games Of The Year 2024

It's time to look back at this years games I played and go what are the best this year?  I would say on the whole this year was worse for games both on the industry level but also in terms of the quality of releases but luckily this list isn't about that but the games I personally played so they could be from any year. 2024 saw tons of industry layoffs, tons of game delays, tons of game cancellations and a lot of strife in general. Still, the art form was still arting and I want to share my feelings on this art. I played over 150 games counting demos this year in my hunt for Sapphic games to share with people here and across the internet although many of those were demos or otherwise incomplete games. 

I will not be including Early Access games on this list since they are not done and therefore I don’t think can really qualify for being compared with the rest of the games. Still, I want to mention Elemental Survivors, Hades 2, and Fields of Mistria all of which were some of the most fun I had playing games this year but are all experiences I intentional cut myself off from because I don’t want to hit content walls and shit.  To that effect I am not including game demos or incomplete fan games or whatever so a game like Pokemon Odyssey or the updated Gales of Nayeli Demo couldn’t show up here even if they were both also fun experiences since I want to compare a full experience of a piece of art [I don’t think you need to beat a game to experience it enough to talk about it but here I want to have explored to my satisfaction]. 

If you enjoy my little top 10 lists and want to see the lesbians I make ahead of everyone else go to my patreon https://www.patreon.com/AlexisSara it helps me make lists like this and have the time to play games, enjoy art, make little lists and not just hustle and try to pump out as much “content” as possible. 

10. Kitsune Tails 

Mild spoiler but there is a second campaign of the game after you “beat” the game and that really elevates this game from what felt a bit like a slog to me to an exciting platformer. The game sells itself as a lesbian platformer but you know minor spoiler the first character has like an acearo arc which is nice representation although when I came in thinking I was gonna be getting a poly lesbian arc I was a let down. There is still lesbians and bi women and stuff so we do have good sapphic representation I was just during the time of the plot really not sure how to feel. Still despite that bit of jarring plot and I think a slow start to the game I really liked the way the game flows with it’s second protagonist, her movement is just a lot more fun and smooth rather than the kinda boring tride and true Super Mario World formula of the first protag. I am not the biggest platformer head, I played tons of them but these kinda classic games aren’t my favorite so it’s not “made for me” in that sense and I often found it a little too annoyingly hard for my taste but luckily the easy mode makes the game very playable for someone who just wants to do the plot and have fun on any given level without worrying too much about platforming. 

9. Dragon Age: The Veilguard 

I kinda don’t like this game yet I can’t lie the Sierra Laider, my rook took up so much of my brain space for so long it would be a lie to not put this game somewhere even if I did the heavy lifting for the game. In basically every area but the core combat loop the game is flawed and Combat suffers from repeated enemies and stuff like that. Yet, the game would have been an excellent First shot by a new team trying a new fantasy game series. And while this was a fantasy game it was blessed and cursed with the dragon age name which I think hurts this game more than it helps because while certainty engaged the lore in so many places It discards things or ignores them and it feels lkke death by 1000 papercuts. Umm i played it a lot and you can be trans [but not a lesbian you can never talk about that] so I do love those things. The hair looks Great. Welcome to the top 10. 

8. Pokemon Emerald Rouge 2.0

So this game was technically on the list last year but it got a 2.0 version in 2024 and it was an amazing glow up for the game that was already good enough to be in a game of the year list and managed to show up twice. There was just so many improvements to this game, the overall hub was massively improved, the experience of getting pokemon was improved, runs are fast and fun with a massive roster of pokemon to capture, you can give your pokemon Herbal Remedy Tea [HRT] to change their gender, you have so many different challenge runs you can do and it feels like you can always shoot for better and stronger runs. It’s just a really great game that has more flavor to me than any other attempt at Pokemon Rouge Likes I’ve played so far. If you enjoy Pokemon battles and collecting pokemon then this game is perfect. 

7. Fire Emblem: The Marrow’s Golden Country 

There is a lot of little things in this game that erk me but overall I can’t deny that this is one of the best Fire Emblem games ever made, one of the best SRPGs, etc even if I don’t love every design choice in this game. I didn’t enjoy being made to change parties for multiple maps with no option to skip, I didn’t like this forced death map near the end of one of those maps where I crushed the high difficulty enemies with my tactics turn after turn after turn just doing totally fine and turns out oh you just have to lose not because I got ran out fast enough but because I just realized oh I got like everyone to max level killing these guys again and again. I also find the second male lord the game adds to the party to be annoying an unneeded and it really felt like it was there cuz idk Sacred Stones has two lords or something cuz Zeke doesn’t really add much to the plot where Blair is clearly the star here. Final complaint is that there is  secret lesbian poly route I wanted to unlock but I had done exactly 1 support with a guy with Blair and that meant I simply couldn’t unlock it, there was no way to remove the support, just one time accidentally talking to a man once removed the option for CLair to have her 5 girlfriends. It was a really feels bad moment and it’s something I realized in the last chunk of the game making for a really awful feels moment.  That said I mean there is a fucking secret lesbian poly route in this game with the main lord and that’s fucking amazing. The ability and map design in this game is fantastic and we really get a lot of fun takes on the Fire Emblem formula though the playthough. The plot itself is up and down in quality but it’s overall a fun story with some great characters I really loved. If you like Fire Emblem you should play THe Marrow’s Golden Country, it lacks some of the modern QoL i’d really like to see but you know use save states and it’s kinda like having turn wheel. While I said a lot of negative stuff it’s more like the disclaimers because everything else is just really great, it’s firmly in my top 10 FE games and it might just be in my top 10 SRPGs. 

6. Saints Row Reboot 

When the Saint’s Row Reboot came out people hated on it but I was cautiously optimistic yet I refused to download epic so with the game finally coming to steam and going on sale I went ahead and finally grabbed it. I honestly really loved this game and I don’t really get why people were haters outside of the racists who I understand were mad that the default protag was a black woman instead of a white man in this game you can do character creation with and the canon queer cast of saints row had a pride flag in their home unlike the previous canon queer cast which simply didn’t have a pride flag? Regardless, I think the gameplay is fun, maybe it’s because I don’t play Triple A games but for me I wasn’t like “Oh it’s another open world game” it felt like I as playing a saints row game which are open world so it was just another one of those. I thought the cast was actually super charming and fun, they were cute and had a great friendship dynamic. There was a fun payoff for playing in co-op mode too near the end of the game you get some special lines for playing in co-op where it was normally ignored. It’s a crime that this studio was shut down I would have loved to see where the next Saints Row went but at least this game is a banger. 

5. Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising 

I genuinely think this is a contender for best fighting game of all time it has a lot of little issues but this game is also kind of top of the line in almost every single area. While the plot is…not great and centers the male protag gran rather than allowing the female protagonist to be an equal to him in the plot it still has a story and the story mode allowing you to fight generic enemies and play in co-op is a really fun single player mode and having plot at all is nice even if it’s mid AF. Then all the arcade modes have nice little ending arts, there is the side modes, there is a lot to do other than just going online and climbing later which is great and something really every fighting game needs. The visual presentation makes for one of the best looking video games of all time and the voice work certainly is the very best in all fighting games by a long shot. This games cast has the ideal 50/50 gender ratio for a mixed gender fighting game always presenting men and women in equal amounts rather then just throwing a few women in and feeling fine with them being the “sexy” roles every gets to full be their own weird character.This game also has multiple instances of canon queer representation with multiple trans women, a lesbian and a non playable bisexual boss woman. Among the other subtexter characters. It be hard for a better fighting game to be made. 

4. Tales of Berseria 

A sadly common case of a fantastic game held back by a terrible ending yet Velvet and Magliou are both still such great characters that it elevated it to the upper half of this list. The gameplay of this Tales Of Game is also really great with the party feeling really good together and the action RPG combat feeling just really solid and smooth to use. As often happens in these Tales Of games some of the Sketches are really bad and you can feel the old japanese man writing the story take over the mouths of all the characters so everyone can hear their feelings about how men and women are. It feels super unnatural and actively makes the characters worse where some sketches feel great and add more context, it’s this cat box of if I open this i may be annoyed or I may be delighted but it’s just not consistent enough to know. Despite the random little flaws I liked all the characters in the cast, I had a lot of fun with each character and I wish for them to all have better fates then being stuck in a prequel game that required a status quo to be reached. 

3. Vampire Survivors 

This has become my go to “stiming” game, when I just need something to play with almost no thought while I am chatting or working or something, this is a perfect game to just have my hands doing something while I work. The Ode To Castalvina DLC is brilliant, expansive and fun and fills the game with amazing music. With that amd their 2 non IP DLCs along with the core game I've loaded with things to do while also having fun things to do to unlock a large chunk of the roster though there is definitely stuff I did and will use codes to unlock if they sound boring. Even the built in cheat code system really does improve this game though it really let's the player set their own fun and way more games need to bring it back. 

2. Potionomics When I first played Potionomics when it released I really felt like the game needed voice acting and then sure enough this year it got it and I finally decided to beat this game with all of it’s fancy new features. The voice acting, cozy mode and polyamory took this from a good game to one of the best games ever made. This is truly a polished masterpiece and a true showing of the love of the devs to make their game so much better and for free for PC players too since they thought this was stuff the players who bought it before deserved to have. I did eventually hit a point where I stopped wanting to make potions and just wanted to do plot in my cozy mode run but luckily I was pretty capable of doing that since I had so much extra money. 

1. Sword Of The Necromancer  Sword of The Necromancer really blew me away and easily became one of my favorite games of all time after finishing it this year. An unbury your gays adventure where a woman does everything for the love of her life. I just really love everything about this game, the art style is really great, the voice acting is really solid, the animated opening is fantastic, and the music is great too. I really like being able to summon the little guys with the necromancer sword and have them fight for me, I am a big summoner enjoyer so I enjoyed that part of the gameplay and the combat being fairly simple was nice for me. I beat the game in about 9 hours of gameplay so it’s not super long just a nice lesbian adventure and honestly, I suck at games so it might be extended by my own deaths and stuff.  I don't want to wax on forever so read my review [https://www.tumblr.com/alexissara/750871073687535616/sword-of-the-necromancer-review] for more.

[paddockanalysis]

🏆 2024 - Fourth Time's the Charm

Main post! 2020 2021 2022 2023

By 2024, Max Verstappen had firmly established himself as the benchmark in Formula 1, consistently outperforming his rivals and teammates. The season reflected Red Bull Racing’s continued excellence with the RB20, an evolution of the team’s already dominant platform. Let’s break down Verstappen’s success and its context in the wider competition.

Team Comparisons

Red Bull (Verstappen vs. Pérez) Verstappen’s superior adaptability to the RB20 was evident. While Sergio Pérez had moments of brilliance, his inability to match Verstappen’s consistency—particularly on high-speed circuits—left him as a supporting player rather than a challenger. Verstappen extracted peak performance from the RB20 in all conditions, benefiting from its improved aerodynamics and unmatched rear stability.

McLaren McLaren emerged as Red Bull’s closest competitor, thanks to major mid-season updates to the MCL60 that improved its cornering speed and tire degradation. Lando Norris displayed remarkable pace, particularly at the British and Singapore GPs, where his high-pressure battles with Verstappen proved thrilling. However, McLaren’s car lacked the versatility of the RB20, making them competitive only on certain tracks.

Ferrari Ferrari began the season with high hopes, but the SF-24 struggled with race pace and tire management, especially on high-degradation tracks. Charles Leclerc, while quick over one lap, couldn’t consistently challenge Verstappen on Sundays. Ferrari’s strategy missteps, reminiscent of past seasons, further compounded their struggles.

Mercedes Mercedes found itself grappling with an inconsistent W15. George Russell showed flashes of competitiveness, while Lewis Hamilton’s vast experience allowed him to extract results from a sub-optimal car. Despite their collective efforts, neither driver posed a serious threat to Verstappen.

Driver Comparisons and Defining Races

Saudi Arabian GP Verstappen’s victory in Jeddah demonstrated his tactical acumen and ability to withstand pressure. Facing stiff challenges from Norris and Leclerc, Verstappen’s precise defensive driving and superior race pace were critical.

British GP Lando Norris pushed Verstappen to the limit in a wheel-to-wheel battle at Silverstone. Verstappen’s ability to maintain composure under relentless pressure highlighted his mental resilience and racecraft.

Singapore GP Starting outside the top 10 due to a rare qualifying mishap, Verstappen climbed through the field to secure a podium. This race exemplified his calculated aggression and Red Bull’s race-day adaptability.

Sao Paulo Outlier

Alpine’s 2024 season exemplified the extremes of Formula 1 performance variability. Despite a largely disappointing year, the team achieved a remarkable breakthrough in one standout event—widely referred to as the “Sao Paulo outlier.” This race showcased a perfect storm of favorable conditions, from strategic brilliance to driver execution, allowing Alpine to capitalize on the unique circumstances. The event highlighted flaws in the Constructors' Championship structure, where a single exceptional result could disproportionately affect standings. This anomaly has reignited debates on the fairness and consistency of F1’s points system, with calls for revisions to better reflect team performance across an entire season.

Williams Fiasco

Logan Sargeant’s struggles at Williams culminated in his mid-season replacement by Franco Colapinto, an Argentine driver making history as the first from his country to compete in F1 since Gastón Mazzacane. Sargeant’s inconsistent performances, particularly in race craft and qualifying, left Williams seeking a more reliable talent. Colapinto, highly rated for his feeder series successes, brought renewed energy to the team and quickly demonstrated his potential with solid results. This transition symbolized the high-stakes nature of F1, where even slight underperformance can lead to drastic career changes.

📈 The Formula for Success

What changed after 2020? Red Bull and Verstappen identified their weaknesses and turned them into strengths. The cars became more reliable, faster, and easier to handle across varying conditions. Verstappen matured as a driver, evolving from a hot-headed talent into a calculated and relentless competitor. Perhaps most crucially, Red Bull’s strategic brilliance on the pit wall often outmanoeuvred competitors, ensuring they made the most of their opportunities. Max Verstappen’s dominance is a testament to hard work, adaptability, and the relentless pursuit of perfection. His story continues to inspire and redefine what it means to be a Formula 1 champion.

Max Verstappen’s 2024 season was the culmination of talent, engineering excellence, and strategic mastery. By continuously evolving and learning from past challenges, Verstappen and Red Bull set a new standard in modern Formula 1.

Future changes may be made to this post depending on how Qatar and AbuDhabi GPs turn out.

Please don’t copy my work🙏

[dystini]

Time for a history lesson, folks.

Josef Newgarden and Conor Daly's lives have been intertwined since they were barely teenagers. The first met at New Castle Motorsports Park in Indiana, racing go-karts.

2005 Mooresville, Indiana Grand Prix ( r to l ) Art Raney, Elliott Bachelart, Conor Daly, Josef Newgarden

Newgarden drove his first kart at the age of 13, and was a regular at the Kart Racers of America (KRA) series at the New Castle Motorsports Park. It was in 2006 that Josef claimed his first titles, winning two Yamaha Junior championships that season. From there, he jumped back and forth between karting and Skip Barber, where he excelled quickly and won a number of races. Daly began karting earlier, hitting the track at the age of 10. In 2005, Daly won the two Yamaha Junior championships and moved on to racing nationally in the sport of karting. Daly scored three WKA Manufacturers Cup Series victories, including a Grand National event. The following year, he moved up to the Senior level, where he earned the Stars of Karting Eastern championship in TaG driving for Top Kart USA.

2008 would be a year to remember for both as they competed in the Skip Barber National Championship. The two swapped victories with Daly earning five – along with the championship – while Newgarden took home three wins and finished runner-up in the standings. That September, the duo was named to the Team USA Scholarship program to compete at the Formula Ford Festival and the Walter Hayes Trophy Formula Ford event in England. Newgarden became the first American to win theFormula Ford Festival, while Daly took the honor as the first North American to claim victory at the Walter Hayes event.

Credit: ekarting news

Conor Daly and Josef Newgarden, currently first and second, respectively, in the BFGoodrich/Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda, were awarded the prestigious Team USA Scholarships for the 2008 season.

Daly, 16, from Noblesville, Ind., and Newgarden, 17, from Hendersonville, Tenn., will fly the Scholarship’s patriotic red, white and blue colors in the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch, England, on the weekend of October 18-19, and the Walter Hayes Trophy Formula Ford event at Silverstone, England, two weeks later (November 1-2).

Prior to Daly and Newgarden racing against each other this year in the Skip Barber National – Daly has four wins and two poles, “Newgy” two wins and a series-leading six poles – the two were competitors in the Stars of Karting ranks. The pair are separated by just five points at the head of the SBN championship standings with just two races remaining at Virginia International Raceway next month.

The pair will drive identical Ray chassis prepared by renowned Cliff Dempsey Racing, a multiple championship-winning team based in Ashbourne, County Meath, Ireland.

credit: Skip Barber Racing School

Newgarden and Daly were selected to race as part of the 2008 Team USA Scholarship program

The latest in a long line of Team USA Scholarship winners, Conor Daly and Josef Newgarden, dominated proceedings this past weekend in the final two rounds of the BFGoodrich/Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda at Virginia International Raceway.

Daly, 16, from Noblesville, Ind., won from the pole on Saturday at VIR and added a second-place finish Sunday to clinch the championship and a $350,000 bonus that will enable him to progress along the MAZDASPEED Motorsports Development ladder system and compete in next year’s Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear. Daly hopes to follow in the footsteps of fellow Team USA Scholarship winners Dane Cameron (2006), who went on to win the Star Mazda title in 2007 before graduating into the Cooper Tires Presents the Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda, and Joel Miller (2007), who leads the 2008 Star Mazda points table prior to the final round at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

Newgarden, 17, from Hendersonville, Tenn., won Sunday’s race to secure second in the championship standings. Newgarden also claimed two other race wins and a series-high six poles during the 14-race season.

Credit: autoracing1.com

Friday, October 17, 2008 BRANDS HATCH, England – Expectations were high for Team USA Scholarship drivers Conor Daly and Josef Newgarden as they went into today’s official qualifying sessions for the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. Each was in a different group and when their 15-minute sessions were checkered, ”Newgy” was on pole for Heat One while Daly just missed (by .07) pole for Heat Two.

credit: Skip Barber Racing School

Daly and Newgarden each scored victory in Formula Ford action in Europe

BRANDS HATCH, England – Josef Newgarden made history by winning the famed Formula Ford Festival (1600 Kent class) at Brands Hatch – the first American to ever do so. Past winners of the event, which dates back to 1972, include current Formula 1 stars Mark Webber and Jenson Button.

His Team USA Scholarship teammate Conor Daly also played a starring role, rising from the back of the grid in his heat race to finish a sterling sixth in the 25-lap Final.

credit: Skip Barber Racing School

Josef Newgarden Wins For Team USA

SILVERSTONE, England – Conor Daly capped an extraordinarily successful Team USA Scholarship foray to England by winning the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone on Sunday, November 2. The victory came just two weeks after teammate Josef Newgarden won the Formula Ford Festival Kent Class at Brands Hatch.

Never in the history of Formula Ford, long considered the seed bed of future F1 drivers, has an American — let alone two — made such an impression in Europe. That Daly and Newgarden found this success as an outgrowth of their Skip Barber experience speaks for itself.

Daly, who started fourth on the 36-car grid for the 15-lap Walter Hayes Grand Final, held in cold, wet and extremely treacherous conditions, took the lead at half distance when Scottish Formula Ford Champion Graham Carroll slid off the road at Luffield corner.

Daly, 16, from Noblesville, Indiana, controlled the remainder of the race and set the fastest lap for good measure. He became the youngest driver ever to scoop the Walter Hayes Trophy, which is named after one of the originators of Formula Ford. The presentation was made by Walter Hayes’ widow, Elizabeth, in the Clubhouse of the famed British Racing Drivers Club.

credit: Skip Barber Racing School

eKartingNews: Josef, what do you remember about the first time you met Conor?

Josef Newgarden: I think I met Conor the second or third time at New Castle. He was racing Junior Can, and one of the bad ass drivers, along with Eric Morrow and a few others. I was just getting into the sport, practicing and understanding more about the sport. New Castle was the first and closest place to our home. It’s one of the best facilities in the sport and the KRA series they run was pretty packed when we raced there. It provided a great opportunity to race without having to travel to other programs like WKA or Stars of Karting.

EKN: Conor, what do you remember about the first time you met Josef?

Conor Daly: I don’t even know if I remember the first time I met Josef. I think it was at New Castle, racing against each other in Yamaha Junior Can. He was one of my main competitors, so we got to know one another and now have raced against each other for so many years. I won the championships one year, and then he took them both the following year, then we moved up together, and in Skip Barber and Team USA Scholarship together. After time apart, we found ourselves racing against each other in Indy Lights, and now at the Indy 500. It’s been a long road.

Credit: ekarting news

Conor Daly

2005 - Kart Racers of America - Junior Yamaha Can 1 - 1st place 2006 - WKA Manufacturer's Cup – JICA - 2nd place 2006 - WKA Manufacturer's Cup - Yamaha Junior Supercan Lite - 2nd place 2006 - TAG World Championship - Senior Pro - 1st place 2007 - USA Karting Championship – TAG - 2nd place 2008 - BFGoodrich / Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda - 1st place 2008 - Walter Hayes Trophy - Silverstone – FF1600 - 1st place 2008 - Formula Ford Ontario Championship F1600-A - 3rd place 2009 - Pro Mazda / USF Pro 2000 - 3rd place 2010 - Star Mazda Championship Presented by Goodyear - 1st place 2010 - 200 Miles of Newcastle – Karting - 2nd place 2013 - MRF Challenge - Formula 2000 - 1st place

Josef Newgarden

2005 - Kart Racers of America - Junior Yamaha Can 1 - 3rd place 2005 - Kart Racers of America - Junior Yamaha Can 2 - 2nd place 2005 - TAG World Championship - Junior Revised - 1st place 2006 - Kart Racers of America - Junior Yamaha Can 1 - 1st place 2006 - Kart Racers of America - Junior Yamaha Can 2 - 1st place 2006 - TAG World Championship - Junior Revised - 1st place 2007 - Skip Barber Southern Regional Series - 2nd place 2007 - 200 Miles of Newcastle – Karting – 2nd place 2007 - Kart Racers of America – TaG – 1st place 2008 - BFGoodrich / Skip Barber National Presented by Mazda - 2nd place 2008 - Formula Ford Festival – Kent - 1st place 2009 - British Formula Ford - 2nd place 2011 - Indy Lights - 1st place

[soup4myfam]

taking time as a human to digest other media made by humans <3 and talk abt it <333 that's what makes life worth living rn. if u don’t want to talk abt it, write abt it! also stop performing for everyone including the audience in your head.

But also???

Its hard for me to describe without it sounding incredibly ughhhhh but I DO want to stop PERFORMING and start LIVING AUTHENTICALLY ewwwww

but theres also a balance where the way I act is still partly shaped or influenced by society?? so thats always fun to figure out.....

If I didn’t have to live by society

-I wouldn’t worry about the small things like not having hair conditioner atm

-I would pass gas freely

-I would poop whenever I wanted with out worrying if everyone knew I just blew up the bathroom

-I would clean my apartment less is that bad idc

-I would also shower less is that bad?? I shower at least once within two days but always when I get sweaty ill shower

-I would feel less insecure abt not changing out of my airport fit immediately getting home sry abt it

-I wouldn’t cringe when I accidentally make a bad joke

-I would be less intentional and think about myself less but wow maybe thats something to note??

-Or lemme say I think about past situations and cringe and imagine the situation ending better like many ppl do but I would do that LESS if I didn’t feel the need to perform for society right now and be EXEMPLARY

Anyway

Pls commit to indulging in media, keeping track of them - movies, books, memes, talking points, articles, art, fashion, music, crochet journey, even in the form of list of high fidelity lists (:

Top 5 songs for June rn

1. SAY WE DID -Rico Nasty

2. Take Me Back To LA -The Weeknd

3. Sinner -Samara Cyn

4. Feels- Calvin Harris

5. Shadow Man -Noname

Rico Nasty dropped a new album LETHAL, and YASS ya'll it's official the rumors are true! Your unemployed 24 yr old gay neighborhood kommy with the skunk tail locs HAS entered her teenage angst phase! The decision to cave and make a tumblr blog is a little on brand (s/o C ily) but I love clichés and this website is 10/10 idc stfu. Something's that are popular or mainstream are POPULAR FOR A REASON.

2. That's why The Weeknd is forever on repeat after his album drop Hurry Up Tomorrow. Honorable mention to the transition from Niagara Falls to Take Me Back To LA. I'm a slut for a beautiful song transition within an album. Yes his show and movie I never watched were bad acting focus on the music yall focus on the music.

3. I heard this song 20 minutes ago and its fye. Currently blasting it on repeat from my tv in the background as I type this on my living room stomach, stomach grumbling for more seafood pasta.

4. Feels is such a classic summertime song and very much encapsulates how I feel about my bisexual diva.

5. Shadow Man by Noname is so good and features my fav ATL rapper Smino <3 Noname is from Chicago and has a bookclub that focuses on Black radical topics and authors! She's an amazing and I love her. She makes me giggle because my diva told me she stopped preforming because too many white people kept showing up and not enough Black ppl. #real

I made vodka sauce pasta with salmon mixed in (seafood pasta?). Potatoes with bell peppers and onions on the side. Imma smoke some weed and watch Bojack Horseman eat Jenni's Cookie's N Cream ice cream until 1:00AM, pass out, and wake up. Going to the library in the morning. Gotta practice excel formulas and hopefully read maybe finish the book Friday Black. It's supposed to be a good quick read 200< and interesting which is EXACTLY what I need right now to get out of this reading runt, slow down, take new ideas in, and expand my mind as the world falls apart around me! That's my Thursday night and Friday plans!! Peace!! #rant

[racewinners-landoandsam]

i saw a video on tik tik talking about f2 and how driver academies are making the championship null and void. which, sure this year you may think that because of Ollie and Kimi promoted, despite not overly excelling in the championship this year, and with Franco being Logan's replacement, but I have done the research, and am here to call this bollocks. this is gonna be a long one folks :)

we start in the good old year of 2016, when the series was still gp2, where we have 2015 champion Stoffel Vandoorne completing one race with mclaren before being promoted for a full season for 2017. Alongside him is 2014 champion Jolyon Palmer who completed a season with renault. Pascal Wehrlein, 2015 DTM champion, and Esteban Ocon, gp3 champion, were promoted to mrt, Esteban only racing after the summer break.

in 2017, Pierre Gasly, 2016 gp2 champion gets to finish the season with Toro Rosso, and 2nd in the championship, Antonio Giovinazzi raced twice for sauber. Lance Stroll, 5th in the f3 european series, was promoted to Williams, and Brendon Hartley, who won formula renault in 2015, also finished the season with toro rosso.

in 2018, 2017 f2 champion Charles Leclerc is promoted to sauber.

in 2019, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the 2018 f2 championship are all promoted to f1, George Russell to williams, Lando Norris to mclaren, and Alex Albon to toro rosso, and then red bull.

in 2020, 2nd place in the 2019 f2 championship, Nicholas Latifi is promoted to williams, while 1st place Nyck De Vries is promoted to formula e.

in 2021, 2020 f2 champion Mick Schumacher is promoted to haas, alongside 3rd place Yuki Tsunoda who is promoted to alpha tauri, and 5th place Nikita Mazepin who is also promoted to haas. 2nd place Callum Ilott was in talks with sauber but was never promoted, and instead raced in wec and indycar.

in 2022, 3rd place in the 2021 f2 championship Zhou Guanyu was promoted to sauber. 1st place Oscar Piastri was the reserve driver for Alpine, and 2nd place Robert Shwartzman has since done test work for ferrari and recently one his first race in wec.

in 2023, 2021 f2 champion Oscar Piastri was promoted to mclaren, alongside 2019 f2 champion Nyck De Vries being promoted to alpha tauri. 4th place in the 2022 f2 championship Logan Sargeant was promoted to williams, and 3rd place Liam Lawson was promoted to alpha tauri after Nyck was fired, and Daniel broke his wrist. 2022 f2 champion Felipe Drugovich became a reserve driver for aston martin, and 2nd place Théo Pourchaire continued in f2 for a second season.

in 2024 nobody was promoted to f1 at the beginning of the season, but current 7th place in the 2024 f2 championship Franco Colapinto was promoted to williams after they fired Logan. 2023 f2 champion Théo Pourchaire competed in the superformula championship, and got to do a couple of races for mclaren in indycar. 2nd place Frederick Vesti has been a test and reserve driver for mercedes.

basically every driver who has finished in the top two in f2 since 2015 was associated with a driver academy. the only two who weren't were Alex Rossi, did five races with marussia in 2015, and has since had a successful indycar career, and Artem Markelov, who as far as I can work out, no longer races.

for the most part, 1st and 2nd in f2 were promoted either the year after, or after having a year out. i think the bigger problem is the talent we have in formula one, and the lack of talent we have not moving on from the series. with only 10 teams, and 20 drivers, there is a limit, especially when we don't have many moving on.

there is also a problem with drivers being hired/kept on because they bring something. i.e. Checo bringing money as a Mexican driver, and Mazepin's dad sponsoring the team. then you have Zhou being hired in wake of the Chinese grand prix coming back, Logan being an American driver, with the americanisation of f1. and then there's Lance who's dad brought him a team.

and that's not me saying that they didn't achieve their seat on any merit, it's just an advantage that other drivers with similar results don't have.

i think Théo Pourchaire should have a chance in f1, and i say this as someone who was really rooting for Fred Vesti last year. If sauber don't keep Valtteri on for next year, I really hope they give Pourchaire a chance.

i am irritated at mercedes for promoting Kimi this early. it's nothing against Kimi, but if they really thought that Fred Vesti was good enough to keep him in their academy, and use him for testing and sim work this year, and to do free practices last year, why would they not give him a chance. he's proven himself to be a good driver, and it would have given Kimi a little more time to race in faster cars. In similar vein, livid at Toto for criticising James Vowles for not giving Mick a chance when he had the opportunity to do the same and failed to do so.

Felipe Drugovich is an interesting one for me. sure signing with aston martin is a choice, and with the current driver pairing, unlikely to get him anywhere. but he has chosen to stay and wait, even though other series have given him offers. for me, he'll either swoop in when Fernando retires again because the car is shit, or he'll wait too long and lose any opportunity to race anything.

Robert Shwartzman is an interesting one. He's been unlucky in the fact that at a point they would have been discussing him, Russia invaded Ukraine, and as he is Russian/Israeli, it probably didn't help his career. Still he remains ferrari's test/sim driver, and although it's unlikely that will get him a seat, it keeps him around. and with wec as well, and getting his first win, he is at least racing.

Callum Ilott was unlucky. he should have had the sauber seat in 21/22, but with the signing of Zhou, he missed out. I don't think he'll race in f1, but he's done well for himself regardless. with his stint in indycar, still pisses at how that ended, and in wec as well.

Nyck De Vries was smart. after not getting an f1 seat, he went to fe, won a championship, and as he raced with mercedes, it opened up chances in f1 for him. the biggest mistake he made, was signing with red bull. i can't imagine he couldn't have found enough fe drivers that were screwed over by red bull in one way or another. they really made a shit car, let him help with its development, and then fired him to let their second favourite child race.

i fear my point may have got lost somewhere, but almost every top two in f2 had a previous association with an f1 team or gained one after winning. at which point it is on the teams to promote the drivers they've deemed good enough to support through their junior career.

sure Kimi and Ollie may not be having the best year in f2, thanks prema for making a dogshit car, but they have a history, previous results that make them so sought after. Kimi's junior record is full of wins, and Ollie's performances in his rookie years in f3 and f2 have been more than enough to get people talking.

as for the currently leader. Isack Hadjar is a red bull junior, if he doesn't get a seat next year it's because red bull are too desperate to keep on their mid drivers instead of letting new talent have a chance. Liam Lawson should have had a seat this year, and if he doesn't next year, it's utterly crazy. same for Isack, he should be in that seat in the next two years, once red bull finally let go of Checo, and maybe even Daniel, but it's unlikely.

the academies are not ruining f2, f2 is just shit currently. what the academies do do is sponsor a large number of drivers, making it much easier for them to further their career.

i do believe something needs to be done to stop this collection of talent being funnelled to the top with nowhere for them to go, but i am too tired to sort that problem tonight.

thank you for listening to my rant!

[rorylovesf1]

🏎️💨 THE FORMULA 1 TAG GAME! 🏎️💨

1) Who or what got you into f1 ?

funnily enough, at the beginning i was almost completely against giving f1 a try bc all of my friends were obsessed so i jokingly wanted to take a stand haha. anyways, one day my friend made up this extremely funny, over the top story about lando and i was like okay i gotta know more. long story short, i am now a huge fan.

ps: despite their attempts i am also a huge max fan (they hate him)

2) Who was the very first driver you supported? Do you support them now? Have your opinions on them differed or stayed the same since then?

lando was my man for so long. like i really did love him and still do but eventually max became my number 1 and lando dropped to number 2. then just recently, charles overtook lando in my personal ranking as well. although lando has dropped in my rankings, all of my opinions on him are the same, i still love him and can’t wait to witness his first win !!

3) Who’s your current favorite f1 driver?

who else but THE max verstappen? i respect and love that man with my whole heart. he really is in his era of dominance and i am so glad i became a fan early enough to witness it.

4) Is there a driver pairing or pairings that you support? What made you attracted to that pairing in the first place?

i love lestappen because as a duo they are just so fascinating, from knowing and hating each other in karting to respecting and valuing the other in formula 1.

i also am partial to carlando because the friendship that carlos and lando have truly seems to be something special. it’s quite cute.

5) Do your parents, siblings or relatives have a favorite team and/or favorite driver(s)?

so i’ve been working on making my entire family a fan of f1. my dad has always loved lewis, my mom likes charles and my siblings like lando. they don’t really support any team yet.

6) Do you have any favorite races? Are there any that stand out to you the most?

since i only began watching this season, i haven’t watched as many races as i would like but i’m hoping to go back and do a deep dive of past seasons. from this season, i really liked silverstone (my first race), monza (i watched with my friend and i loved the battles) and las vegas (charles’ overtake!!)

7) Do you have a favorite circuit? Can be from the past or from the current calendar.

i really like monza, silverstone and austria.

8) Have you ever been to an f1 race in real life? Feel free to tell us your experience going to one if you like.

not yet but i hope i will sometime in the future !!

9) Have you ever met an f1 driver in real life?

nope but that wld be fun.

10) Do you have a favorite f1 car? If so, what is it?

umm probably the rb19 because the amount max was able to achieve with it is otherworldly. the engineers and rbr team really did an absolutely excellent job with it.

11) Do you have a favorite one win wonder?

esteban ocon. i really love him, he’s such a cutie.

12) Do you have any favorite quotes from the f1 world? this can be either inspirational or hilarious.

“It’s all too much for little Lando Norris” has a special place in my heart. it’s hilarious.

thank you @supercollide for the tag <3 this was super fun and feel free to tag me in whatever u want :)

@ anyone reading this, give it a go !! i’d love to learn more abt everyone :)

[asma-al-husna]

Allah calls Himself Al-Baseer— The All-Seeing, The All-Perceiving, The All-Comprehending — on 42 occasions in the Quran. He is the One whose perfect sight encompasses the whole creation. Al-Baseer has insight into all things and Who perceives every detail, every state of existence, and every circumstance!

The All-and-Ever-Seeing, The Comprehending

Baseer comes from the root baa-saad-raa, which points to four main meanings. The first main meaning is to see or notice, and the second to understand. The third main meaning is to have insight or to perceive, and the fourth is to be precisely aware.

This root appears 148 times in the Quran in 10 derived forms. Examples of these forms are al-absaaru (the eyes), al-basaru (the vision), mubsiratan (visible) and absara (sees).

Linguistically, baseer is on the structure of intensification. Al-Baseer refers to the perfection and the totality of Allah’s seeing, which cannot be compared with the seeing of any other created being.

Al-Baseer Himself says: Indeed, He is the Hearing, the Seeing. [Quran, 17:1] . . . There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing [Quran, 42:11] . . . And Allah judges with truth, while those they invoke besides Him judge not with anything. Indeed, Allah— He is the Hearing, the Seeing. [Quran, 40:20]

Supervision in worship and worldly affairs

An employee will most likely work harder when his manager is watching him; how much stronger is the effect when we know we are being watched by our creator? When we engage in our worldly affairs, like our job or our interactions with others, we should be aware that there is much more at stake than just the supervision of our boss or even our parents. Al-Baseer loves for the believer to do the best in every work we do, and He will recompense us in the Hereafter far beyond whatever worldly profit we might earn.

This is why the Prophet told us about the formula to live by: Allah loves that when you engage in some work, you do so with proficiency. [al-Bayhaqee] This inspires us to engage in our work with honesty and integrity and this is the best quality assurance for everything a believer does in this world.

How Can You Live by This Name?

1. Watch your deeds!

How many times have you watched your deeds when certain people were around? As a Muslim one of your tasks is to mind the acts of your limbs and your heart anytime, anywhere, and in any company. A practical tip is to imagine yourself being watched by a camera which follows you 24/7, whether you are with people or all alone. The sight of Al-Baseer cannot be topped by a hundred million cameras.

2. Trust in Al-Baseer at all times.

He sees every obstacle and sorrow you face and everything others do to you, He is the Only One Who only gives you what is good for you at all times. Therefore submit and put all your trust in Him only. Al-Baseer says: And put your trust in the Mighty, the Merciful, who sees you when you stand up (to pray) and your bowing in prostration with those who bow down. [Quran 26: 217-219]

3. Strive for quality.

Knowing that Allah sees everything you do encourages you to be more devoted in your worship, more righteous in your deeds, and kinder to others. This is why Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: Excellence in faith is to worship your Lord as if you see Him, and though You do not see Him, know that He sees you. [Al-Bukharee, Muslim] Strive for ehsaan (excellence) in every act you do.

4. Persevere.

Al-Baseer reassured the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him and says: So wait patiently for your Lord’s decree, for surely you are in Our sight. [Quran, 52: 48] Isn’t it the most comfortable and reassuring feeling for your heart knowing as a believer Your Lord is so close to you and sees and hears everything you go through? When others do injustice to you and no one seems to notice, take strength from the fact that Al-Baseer is seeing them and will recompense them.

5. Believe in the decree of Al-Baseer.

Whenever Allah creates something, grants something, gives life, causes death, guides someone, or allows someone to stray, it is in accordance with His wisdom, His perfect knowledge, and His complete vision that nothing can escape.

Jihaad is ordained for you (Muslims) though you dislike it, and it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allah knows but you do not know. [Quran, 2:216] Al-Baseer observes how you respond to His ayaat. Believe that everything Al-Baseer does is a complete tailor-made test for you and only for your own good, even though you might not like it.

6. Seek refuge in Al-Baseer.

Knowing that Allah is the All-Seeing protects the believer from committing sins. Since Allah ‘azza wa jall is taking account of everything we do, there is no escape from Him except to seek refuge with Him. Use the isti’aadhah (saying: a’oodhu billaahi minash-shaytaanir rajeem) a lot in your daily life, in times of anger, fear, and despair.

7. Ask Al-Baseer to bless your sight.

Allah Al-Baseer loves those who use the abilities He gave them for His sake. Did Allah give you eyes to look at forbidden things or to work in unpermitted business? Did He give you the blessing of understanding and having insight, like when you study, for you to be lazy and not care? Ask Him to help you to use your sight and insight only for things pleasing to Him.

8. Make dua to Al-Baseer abundantly.

Al-Baseer sees every hardship you face, so invoke Him and supplicate to Him. Remember at all times; the fact that you are able to make sujood and even say Yaa Allah is a blessing that surpasses all others.

O Allah, Al-Baseer, we know You see every move we make. Aid us to watch our deeds and use our sight and insight for Your sake only, and make us grateful for the blessings of our senses. Protect us from bad deeds, and support us in doing everything we do, in worship and worldly affairs, with excellence, ameen!

And Allah knows best.

[ecargmura]

Medalist Episode 10 Review - A Request From The Sonidoris

It’s a very ballsy move to have a one year time jump. On one hand, Medalist is a monthly serialized series, so having Inori repeat her Badge Test four more times with similar results might not be appealing as it’s more approachable in a weekly series. On the other hand, the risk does allow some interesting story progression as this sports manga is not following the usual sports formula.

Inori has grown a lot since then. She’s now up to Level 5 in her badge test. She’s also four centimeters taller, is more sociable in school as she excels in PE, and, most of all, she seems a lot brighter than she was before! She even has the capability to be get into an argument after Rioh looked down on Tsukasa’s coaching skills. Why do I feel like a proud parent whenever I look at her?

Though, the central focus of this episode isn’t her, but Rioh. He’s been in a slump lately, so Shinchiro requests that Lux Higashiyama would take him in for a week. It was cute seeing Tsukasa blushing and being all nervous in front of him as he’s a fan. Rioh is a very grumpy and moody kid as he’s grumpy towards everyone except Sota. He’s also a ball of negativity; his pessimism is a result of severe insecurity possibly towards Jun and Hikaru as he did sneak a peek at one of their training sessions a while back. It’s bad to the point that he questions Tsukasa as a coach as he’s a no-name athlete in his eyes.

I understand why he’d feel super insecure. He and Hikaru are friends and if they go to the same figure skating club and do similar training and only she produced extraordinary results, he’d get insecure too. On top of that, Hikaru is being trained by Jun Yodaka, and he isn’t. Knowing the source of Hikaru’s talent and her capability to follow up with it would make anyone feel down. It’s more of a “why couldn’t it be me” situation. On top of that, boys’ figure skating does have different requirements than girls, so he needs all the extra training and practice, but he still can’t get certain things right. I liked learning the differences between boys and girls when it comes to figure skating.

It’s weird hearing Taito Ban as Shinichiro Sonidori as he’s most famous for voicing Sung Jinwoo from Solo Leveling. Hearing him be this stoic man who’s an older brother to his younger sister and to other younger Hunters to being a dad of a rebellious son feels wild. It does suit him, however. I like that he sounds very put together, but also has this air of tiredness to it. It’s still pretty crazy how he’s only 36.

It’s also crazy to signify that there’s a time jump when the only noticeable changes are Inori’s outfit which is now a pink one that looks like a flower and Hitomi getting a haircut. She rocks that bob, though. Everyone else looks the same. There are thirteen episodes, which means that there are three left. I do wonder where the story will end and if there will be a second season. What are your thoughts?

[screamscenepodcast]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2023: THE TOP TEN

Hey there, Creatures of the Night! Once again it is that time of year where we recap what films have made the cut of Scream Scene's top ten best horror movies of all time! (all time defined as 1895-1960) If you’re looking for some genuine classics to check out this year, we’ve got you covered, with running times and where to find them!

#10. I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

The second Val Lewton produced film on the list, I Walked With a Zombie is perhaps best described as Jane Eyre in the Caribbean, but what is surprising is that the film is also a well researched depiction of Voodoo practices for 1943. The haunting imagery, sparse sound design, and dreamlike poeticism of this film might make it among the most unique zombie movies you’ve ever seen, made in a time with zombies were supernatural undead slaves, instead of reanimated undead cannibals. Do yourself a favour and check it out - it’s available to buy online in SD for $9.99 from Apple TV, and $14.99 on Amazon Video, Google Play Movies and YouTube. 1h 8m.

#9. The Old Dark House (1932)

James Whale’s definitive take on this traditional mystery thriller formula is a movie that will have you laughing right until the moment it has you screaming. In some ways, it’s a movie of clichés, with the protagonists seeking shelter in an old mansion during a rainstorm in the night and having to deal with the reclusive family they find within. But the dark, brooding cinematography, and truly shocking twists that rivet up the intensity over the running time, all contribute to make this a harrowing watch. It’s one part Rocky Horror Picture Show, one part The Addams Family, and one part The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I’m not kidding. The Old Dark House is currently streaming on AMC+, Criterion Channel, Flix Fling, and Tubi. 1h 10m.

#8. Horror of Dracula (1958)

Hammer Films had been producing X-rated horror and sci-fi content for a while by the time they got around to producing an adaptation of Dracula, but everything they learned from the success of The Curse of Frankenstein they applied tenfold to Dracula. From the subversive opening act to the shockingly graphic (for the time) finale, this film is full of action and excitement, as well as a sexually feral Count played by Christopher Lee for the first time. A Halloween crowd pleaser! Horror of Dracula is available to rent for $4.99 on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Cineplex, Google Play Movies, Microsoft Store, and YouTube. 1h 22m.

#7. The Spiral Staircase (1946)

This RKO classic is another great take on the old dark house subgenre, from noir director Robert Siodmak. A masterpiece of suspense, featuring wonderful production design and dynamite performances from its cast, this movie will draw you in to the world of a mute servant named Helen trapped in a dark manor on a stormy night with a whole cast of lunatics! A forerunner of giallo (no, really!), this classic and classy thriller is not to be missed! The Spiral Staircase is currently streaming on Classix, Flix Fling, and Plex. 1h 23m.

#6. The Fly (1958)

While the 1986 remake may be more well known today, the original rendition of this body horror classic still retains a punch with its central mystery, compelling drama, and traumatic ending. Excellent creature effects and memorable moments like a woman screaming seen through compound eyes cement this as one of the great sci-fi/horror films of its time! The Fly is currently available to rent for $4.99 on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Microsoft Store, and YouTube. 1h 34m.

#5. Peeping Tom (1960)

While it may come across as fairly tame by today's standards, in 1960 the seminal British horror film Peeping Tom was considered so offensive it single-handedly ended the career of its director, former national treasure Michael Powell. Today, the film still has the power to disturb through its exploration of the relationship between victims, voyeurs, and viewers. Peeping Tom is currently available to stream on Tubi and to rent for $4.99 on Apple TV, Amazon Video, and Microsoft Store. 1h 41m.

#4. Gojira (1954)

Ishiro Honda’s classic giant monster movie, the progenitor of all kaiju and tokusatsu movies to come, is a masterpiece of ingenuity and imagination. But more than that, it’s a powerful statement about the horrors of nuclear war, an angry and relentless funeral dirge mourning for the Japanese lives lost and raging against the American foreign policy that continued to poison Japan with radiation even after the war. Godzilla is an apocalypse personified, the great revenge of the natural world against the hubris of man that has harmed it. But Gojira is also a film about the immense weight of personal and scientific responsibility weighed against the greater good, and its position on the use of weapons of mass destruction is perhaps more nuanced than you’d expect. Don’t let the campy reputation of Godzilla in the West fool you. Clear your mind of that and sit down to watch this powerful black & white epic. Gojira is streaming on Cineverse, Criterion Channel, Midnight Pulp, Plex, and Tubi, and can be rented for $4.99 on Apple TV. 1h 38m.

The American adaptation Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956) is also worth a watch, and is available on The Criterion Channel, Plex, Tubi, and to rent on iTunes. 1h 20m.

#3. Cat People (1942)

Cat People is brilliant. The first of Val Lewton’s horror movies for RKO, it best exemplifies his shadow drenched, suggestive, adult, contemporary, and ambiguous brand of horror. Irena is convinced that if she experiences sexual excitement, she will turn into a black panther and kill the man she loves. Her husband is convinced it’s all in her head. What is the truth? Cat People gives the viewer plenty to chew on while being the first horror movie to understand that less is more, that the monster is scarier if you can’t see it, and also how to pull off a jump scare.You can find this absolute classic to stream on Amazon Prime, and to purchase for $9.99 on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Microsoft and YouTube. 1h 10m.

#2. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

Finally dethroned from the number 1 spot after 265 episodes! Early on in the first Hollywood horror craze, Paramount Pictures managed to outdo their main competitor Universal with this masterpiece from director Rouben Mamoulian. With a use of sound, visuals, effects, script, and performance far beyond what most films were doing at the time, this adaptation reigns supreme among other versions of the same story. Fredric March utterly inhabits the dual title role, but it’s Miriam Hopkins’ performance that will stick with you in this superb examination of domestic abuse, alcoholism, and the beast that dwells within us. Currently streaming on the Criterion Channel, and available to rent on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, and YouTube for $4.99. 1h 38m.

#1. Psycho (1960)

It's our new number one! Not a big surprise, as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho changed the horror genre for decades to come. A low budget thriller based around its two big twists, the film's power is a little muted now that those twists have been thoroughly disseminated through pop culture osmosis, Psycho is still a master class in pacing and tension through its first half, and contains an incredible performance from actor Anthony Perkins. You can rent Psycho on Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Microsoft Store, and YouTube for $4.99. 1h 49m.

A new top ten with a new number one! Will Psycho keep its throne as long as Jekyll and Hyde did? Keep listening to Scream Scene to find out!

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Now That's What I Call Music! 44 1999 Dance-Pop / Pop / Latin Pop / Pop-Rock / Dance-Rock / Teen Pop / Eurodance / Alternative Rock / House / Trance / Adult Contemporary

Y'know, there are plenty of times where you can find me prattling on about how much more superior the UK pop music landscape is to the US', but this 44th installment in the UK's own OG Now That's What I Call Music! series from '99 has me thinking that maybe the differences aren't as stark as I've always believed them to be; because, really, while a chunk of this makes for a mix of a fun nostalgia trip and an infusion of late 90s dance jams that didn't really make it Stateside, there's also a whole lot of dreck on this thing too, and that made listening to this double-disc feel like more of an endurance test than anything else 😕.

But anyway, let's talk about both the good and the bad with this album. The good comes with those aforementioned dance jams, some of which are genuinely great, and others that are just more lovably cheesy. From the genuinely great camp, we've got Boris Dlugosch's sleek remix of Moloko's "Sing It Back"—a tune that proved so popular in its day in Europe that I'm not sure that most people are even aware that it's a remix in the first place—and "2 Times" by Ann Lee, a song whose lead bleepy melody feels like the summer of '99, but whose laid-back, subdued nature and overall structure kinda make it feel like it arrived more than a decade ahead of its time too. And it was also produced by the same Italian guy who did Whigfield's "Saturday Night" all the way back in 1992, which gives me an idea: what if I just posted that song every Saturday night until Tumblr ends? 🤔

And then we've got some of those irresistibly ooey-gooey wads of cheese too, which are led by the late 90s kings and queen of catchy dance bleepiness themselves, Alice Deejay, and their less revered follow-up to "Better Off Alone," "Back in My Life." Plus, there's a British duo on here called Shaft as well, who deliver a bouncy Latin tribal house cover of an old swing tune that was once done by Perez Prado and Rosemary Clooney called "(Mucho Mambo) Sway." This silly gem, with its pitched-up female vocal, didn't even make the top 40 of the US *Dance* Billboard chart, but it made it all the way up to #2 on the UK's general singles chart; and funnily enough, sitting right in front of it for that coveted #1 spot was none other than a different Perez Prado-sampled mega-hit: Lou Bega's super goofy "Mambo No. 5," which is also included on this comp too.

But then the bad is *really* bad, folks. I understand that Now as an enterprise is just a few major record labels pooling their most recent hits together in order to do some quick and effortless, major cash-grabbing for themselves, so it's not actually fully representative of every surface-level thing that was out there at a specific period in time; but the straight-up, pure, Brit-made pop selection here is simply atrocious. The Spice Girls, who had made some pretty excellent pop as a full unit, were between albums after firing their controlling and deeply corrupt manager, Simon Fuller, and had started to branch out into some solo work too. But their solo stuff that takes up damn near 10% of this very album is such formulaically limp and uninspired crap: two songs from Geri Halliwell, one from Mel C, and another from Emma Bunton—all varying levels of lousy, with Geri's "Mi Chico Latino" probably being the worst of all; but the Brits still rode that one to #1 anyway, which should really deaden any sense that you may have about their tastes in music being more refined than the US', because they, like Americans, actually seem to love some truly God-awful shit too 😵‍💫.

But the high-profile sacking of Simon Fuller certainly wouldn't be the last that anyone would ever hear from him. In fact, he'd resurface a couple years later as the manager of a new teen pop act that'd rise to global popularity too: S Club 7, whom he'd also bleed dry with grueling work under horrible conditions and little pay. The group's second hit, the light and fluffy feelgood anthem of "S Club Party," which also crossed over into the States with the help of an S Club series on cable too, appears on this comp. And if there's one good British pop song on this album, it's definitely that one.

And finally, for an earlier era of teen pop, I'm glad a somewhat forgotten classic like New Kids on the Block member Jordan Knight's "Give It to You" is on here too. It was kinda late to bring back any New Kid on a solo tip in '99, when the new boyband era of Backstreet and *NSync was in full swing itself, but his team-up here with the legendary production and songwriting duo of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, who were known for their R&B, new jack swing, and Minneapolis Sound stuff, is pretty tight. Starts off on that then-contemporary, Timbaland-ish, stuttered-percussion R&B tip, and then accelerates into some Miami bass-adjacent electro-funk-pop goodness for the remainder. Really lovely recipe.

So, plenty of strikes on this album, but possibly an equal number of gutters too. The double-disc format that the UK's version of Now has been practicing since 1987 has certainly opened up an opportunity for listeners like me to be exposed to a vaster array of gems and fun tunes, but it also inevitably leads to an inclusion of a whole lot more filler and trash too. The UK's open-arms embrace of electronic and dance music that dates back to the late 80s definitely enriched and widened their pop industry greatly overall, and that helped ensure that the idea of a two disc-Now would be even more viable for them; but the US version of the series, in contrast, certainly proves to be significantly more potent, because while those albums are musically less diverse, being constrained to one CD really culls out a lot more of the disposable, lower-tier crud too. So I guess if you don't care about dance music, then the US version of Now is definitely for you, but if you want some more variety and absurdity and adventurousness to your commercial pop exploration, you might like the UK one more instead, even if it tends to come with a lot more bad music on it...

Highlights:

CD1:

Britney Spears - "...Baby One More Time" Lou Bega - "Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...)" Eiffel 65 - "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" Sixpence None the Richer - "Kiss Me" Texas - "Summer Son" Moloko - "Sing It Back" Bob Marley vs. Funkstar Deluxe - "Sun Is Shining" Jamiroquai - "Canned Heat" Bran Van 3000 - "Drinking in L.A."

CD2:

R Kelly - "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time" Backstreet Boys - "Larger Than Life" Jordan Knight - "Give It to You" S Club 7 - "S Club Party" Ann Lee - "2 Times" Enrique Iglesias - "Bailamos" Shaft - "(Mucho Mambo) Sway" ATB - "Don't Stop" DJ Jean - "The Launch" Groove Armada - "I See You Baby (Fatboy Slim radio edit)" Wamdue Project - "King of My Castle" Alice Deejay - "Back in My Life" Alena - "Turn It Around"

[sin-cognito]

Kustard week 2023 day 2: the Little Mermaid

Wordcount: 1739

~The little mermaid left her life and fortune behind so she could be with the Prince~

@kustardweek

READ ON AO3

Being a scientist at SOUL, Sans had theorized a formula to calculate the mathematical relation between wealth and his numerous fucked up relationships.

Sans himself wasn't rich per say, but his father was. Obscenely so. Sans had thus experienced from a relatively early age what it was like to try to date when you are the heir to one of the top 10 richest families in the country. He could do a whole presentation about it, with excel sheets and google docs and all. First there were the wealthy datemates. He naively thought that money wouldn't be a problematic topic if he was to date someone from the same privileged background as him. So wrong. So many of them were stuck up assholes who didn't have an inkling about their own privileges. With them, Sans couldn't even go buy a bottle of ketchup at the grocery store, they always had the urge to flaunt their (usually parents') wealth and hire a professional cook to fix Sans some high quality ketchup sauce made from scratch, when all he wanted was to go grab a burg from Grillbz'.

Then he naturally turned his attention to people from a more regular background, trying not to worry about the influence his overwhelmingly bigger wallet could have over them. He very quickly realized this was a mistake, as he was either seen as a walking ATM machine, or as a condescending asshole, no matter what he did. If he hid the fact that he was rich, his date would be mad, and if he was open about the sum of money that was in his bank account, his date would get insecure about their own lack of money and end up resenting him for it. It was a lose-lose situation for him.

Around the time he reached 20, Sans decided to go for a third option: anonymity. He began to hang around dating sites and forums about science, and found actual friends who would appreciate him for himself, regardless of who his father was. And boy was that nice.

It turned even nicer when he 'met' Red, another science aficionado with whom he got along very quickly. They would spend hours and hours chatting about science, shows, their lives, and it was no surprise to anyone in their friend group when they developed feelings for each other and started dating, even if it was strictly online at the beginning.

Red lived on the other side of the country and had a demanding job. He was high hierarchy in a big company that he was legally forbidden to tell Sans the name of, but that was enough to assuage Sans' fears: finally he had met someone like him. Red was wealthy but down to earth, and learning that made Sans all the more eager to meet him.

Finally one day Sans summoned the courage to ask Red if they could meet, and he was elated to learn that Red had already started making plans to be able to visit Sans before the end of the year. They met during the Gyftmas vacations for the first time, and those memories would live forever in Sans' SOUL. Everything was perfect. Red had booked a suite in a fancy hotel that even Sans was impressed by, they went to the best fine dining places in the city, did shopping in high end stores where nothing's under the 5 digits price tag. But more than that, Sans enjoyed listening to Red's voice for real, feeling his hand in Sans', abandoning himself to a night of burning passion with Red. Sex had never been as amazing as that night and Sans knew then that Red was the one.

That trip was unfortunately too short, and Red had to go back to work, promising he'd do his best to find a way to take another vacation together the next year. It unfortunately didn't happen, but they managed to find a good time to see each other the year after that. This time, Red took Sans abroad for a trip that he entirely covered. Sans suspected that, had they not met, Red would've become a sugar daddy to a low income student or something, seeing as he always rushed to pay for anything Sans expressed the faintest interest in. Honestly it was cute.

When their 5th anniversary approached, Sans decided that he didn't want to live away from Red anymore. Even if he had to drop his career, family and everything else, he was determined to move with Red on the other side of the country. He wanted to wake up in his bed every morning and make him burnt pancakes before sending him off to work with a kiss on his teeth.

Sans' father made a big deal out of this decision. He wanted his oldest son to take up after him in running the family company, and he was distrusting of a skeleton monster that his son had met online, even though Sans had already met Red twice by that point. Gaster was just from another generation. He kept reminding Sans that he was making a mistake and that he would not contribute to this silly idea, and even promised to cut Sans off and write him out of his will, but Sans had made up his mind. He would be with Red, even if that meant cutting off his father from his life. Announcing his plan to Papyrus had been much harder, but there was nothing that would deter Sans.

On his 26th birthday, Sans packed his bags, said goodbye to his disapproving father and hugged his brother, before he made his way to the airport.

After a long flight, he finally arrived in the city Red lived in. After a lot of digging and asking around, Sans had figured out where Red worked, one of the tallest building in the city, made of glass and steel and that reeked of wealth. Just like the kind his father worked in. Sans made his way inside and went straight up to the reception.

"hi, i don't have any appointment but could you tell Underfell Red that Undertale Sans is here?" He asked the employee. "he'll know who i am."

The employee's smile twitched. "You're here for Red? I don't think you need an appointment to see him... Would you like me to page him for you?"

Sans was taken aback that she'd so casually drop a higher up's last name like that, but he shrugged it off and nodded. She invited him to get a seat by the waiting area and he thanked her. He only had to wait a couple minutes before a back door opened and a familiar skeleton made his way to the receptionist to ask why he had been called. The employee replied something but Sans couldn't focus on much of anything when he saw what Red was wearing: dirty beige overalls with a belt packed with all kinds of tools, hammers and screwdrivers mostly, as well as a couple rags that were loosely tied around the belt. Sans could see dark stains of what seemed to be some sort of oily stuff all across the back of his skull, like he had had his head stuck in a piece of machinery all morning and hadn't had the time to clean it up.

Red was very much the opposite of the elegant prince he had been when they had met irl a couple years back.

"red?" He asked in a small, broken voice.

Red startled and whipped around, only now noticing his small boyfriend. Red's mouth worked in silence for a few seconds before all life seemingly left him and his shoulders sagged in the most depressed and resigned stance Sans had ever seen.

"i'm sorry..." He blurted out before grabbing Sans' hand in his and pulling him quickly through the back door.

They went through a few corridors, until they reached what seemed to be a small and stinky break room.

"red, what's going on?" Sans asked, utterly confused.

"i lied to you. i'm not a ceo or a higher-up, i'm not even a real employee here. i fix the lights," Red blurted out, looking at anything but Sans, who blinked a few times while Red's words sank in.

"so you're... not... rich?" Was oddly the first question that came to mind.

"no. i lied because i wanted to impress you."

"but... when you visited..." Sans started, unable to finish his sentence but Red apparently didn't need him to.

"i worked my ass off to have enough money to spend on you," he sighed as he collapsed on a chair. "i borrowed money, from the bank, from friends and relatives, from anywhere i could. put a mortgage on my home too."

"why?" The single word was breathed out so quietly it was a wonder Red heard him at all.

"because i... i just wanted to give you nice things..." Red replied before he bent forward and took his skull in his hands. "but now i'm struggling to give back all the money that i owe, i have nothing to my name and i sleep in my car," he grunted. "just, give me like, a couple more years and i can get more money, and then we can pretend you never saw me here and i'll be able to get you everything you want."

Sans went to stand right in front of Red. He knelt down before him and gently pried off Red's hands from his skull. He needed to see Red's face and eyelights for his next question.

"red, be honest. you lied about your situation. did you also lie about your feelings for me?"

Red's answer was immediate and final. It left no room for debate.

"no. i love you. i would've never done this if it wasn't for you."

Red's deadpan reply and his honest expression made Sans chuckle, before he threw himself into Red's arms.

"you idiot. i love you too," he said, his SOUL beating happily in his chest when Red returned the hug. "i left my father and his fortune behind so we could be together. i don't care that you have no money, red. i don't care about anything as long as i can be with you."

Red's embrace tightened around him and Sans realized that his love formula had been wrong all along.

All he needed was Red.

[umihoshi]

Autumn anime 2023 is so STACKED, it's illigal!

Aside from the obviously amazing continuing shows, there's TOO MANY great new ones.

Based on first episodes, here's my top ranking (may be subject to change cuz Apothecary Diaries isn't out yet. And excluding SpyxFamily, dr. Stone and Tokyo Revengers which are all *chef's kiss*)

1. Kamonohashi Ron: Deranged Detective

you had me at Detective. and then you had me at Deranged. Also, I'm a big fan of Amano Akira's other works, Reborn and eldLIVE (Psycho-Pass not so much, but she only did the character art) Depressed adult who is too curious for his own good, what's not to love?

2. Undead Unluck

I saw the manga before and had been really anticipating the anime. They're such a fun duo and their personalities and abilities compliment one another really well. looks like there'll be a lot of cool unusual superpowers. Reminds me a lot of Blood Lad, just hoping this anime won't end with virtually nothing solved T~T;

3. Kingdom of Ruin

Bit on the over the top side with the amount of tragedy, but the worldbuilding seems very interesting. I'm a slut for witch hunting too. May end up severely traumatized if I continue, but we'll see how it goes.

4. My New Boss Is Goofy

My soul is healed, my crops are growing. Grown men doing stilly stuff is comfort food for the eyes. Looks a bit yaoi baiting, but can't complain if it's cute. Reminds me of Cool Douji Danshi.

5. Migi & Dali

I don't even know what's going on at this point, it's so surreal. Elder couple wants to adopt one child and genius twins thought 'we can work with that'. The silly love children of Johan Liebert and Sakamoto desu ga. (same author as Sakamoto too. it sure shows.)

6. Crash course on Naughtiness

Last season, I was confronted with the pet-peeve of feeble waifu syndrome (I finished My Happy Marriage, but I'm sorry, I could not stand that girl...) And this season around, I realized the formula that breaks the curse of feeble waifus: a batshit crazy counterpart. This man is just bullying her with kindness. plus points for another excelent job done by Sugita Tomokazu.

7. Frieren

As a big fan of DnD, I can't say no to such a DnD-based series. Plus the pressure of having to live such a long live as elves do is very interesting. It's a bit slow to my liking, but the characters are amusing and layered.

8. Yuzuki family's 4 sons

a young man who has to take care of his 3 little brothers after his parents died, give me some napkins Q-Q not a single person looks or acts their age (the youngest has better vocabulary than I do;;) but it's all fun and sweet and trying to find your way in an unusual family-hirarchy

9. I'm in love with the villainess

My eyes hurt from looking at this. But the over the top artstyle works quite well with how silly the story is. I too would like to say 'step on me, mommy' to my favorite villain. Just hope it won't become repetitive in its jokes.

10. Tearmoon Empire

Wow, will you look at that. Another reincarnated villainess. Luckily, this one has no memories of living in a different world or something. Just her future self's diary. Enjoying the concept where she's not suddenly a saintly good girl for a change.

11. Oujo to Banken

This dude is on THIN fucking ice. I commonly enjoy age gaps very much. but in no way what so ever, would I support a relationship between a teenager and the 10 year older guy who basically raised her. Him being her parent figure is where I draw the line. That said, I'm eating up the amount of over-protectiveness and yakuza-logics. It has the amount of spice I had hoped to find in Yakuza's Guide to Babysitting that wasn't there.

12. Ragna Crimson

I'm sorry. just...... you can't make me believe that the ditsy loli-girl is the best dragon killer in the world. stop. The maincharacter is quite interesting, though. I like how it's like... his actual own power that he has for his OP special snowflake thing. Borrowing tomorrow's energy for today.....that's the description of a burn out I read the other day;;; But you do you, boy. good luck dying very early in life.

[abriefingwithmichael]

“Quantum Leap” s7e6 (2023)

Charming.

Everything clicked in this episode. It had a very strong a-story, with top secret formulas and hidden rooms and Nazi killers. Great fun.

It also brought back the character of Hannah Carson and revealed Ben's time-travelling antics to her. Very cool. The chemistry between the two actors was scorching. Love watching them in scenes together. Lovely romantic moment at the very end. This is going to be a great story arc. Presumably inspired by The Time-Traveler's Wife.

Both Ian and Tom got very well-written scenes. Nowhere did this episode drop the ball. It was excellent.

And at the core of it all, Ben's unwavering decency. He's such a good guy with such a noble heart, it's easy to love him.

10/10