#hong kong trekking

[kyotohawaiihongkongtrail]

香港の大澳（Tai O）フェリー：山も飛行機もド迫力

ランタオ島は、香港国際空港、香港ディズニーランドのある島。しかしながら、島のほとんどに開発の手が及んでいない自然豊かなところです。

→香港トレイルINDEXはこちら

[friday411]

Jackie Chan never let his female leads do their own stunts - except for Michelle Yeoh.

Why? "She'd kick my ass".

Do not mess with ballet dancers!!

*She'd never even ridden a motorcycle before the stunt.

[petnews2day]

Hello Kitty at 50: how Sanrio’s cute cat character became a global phenomenon

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/qEOgI

Hello Kitty at 50: how Sanrio’s cute cat character became a global phenomenon

The merchandising machine, which started in 1975, a year after the character’s creation, began with a small vinyl coin purse. Hello Kitty toys at an exhibition in London in 2024. Since being created 50 years ago, the character has become a global cultural phenomenon. Photo: EPA Today, Hello Kitty’s face is plastered on pouches that […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/qEOgI #CatsNews #Kawaii, #ChristineYano, #ConnieTse, #FanManYee, #HelloKitty, #HelloKitty50ThAnniversary, #HelloKittyMurder, #HelloKittyShopHongKong, #HelloKittyShops, #HongKong, #IsaacGagne, #Japan, #LisaLoeb, #MariahCarey, #NewYorkStockExchange, #PinkGlobalizationHelloKittySTrekAcrossThePacific, #Sanrio, #ShintaroTsuji, #SPCAHK, #Tokyo, #TsimShaTsui, #Unicef, #YukoShimizu

[videoworm]

i LOVE voyager. Janeway and Chakotay are literally the parents of the whole crew and everyone has mommy/daddy issues

[hmslusitania]

For the OTP Ask:

#21 with Arrowverse: Tommy Merlyn and Oliver Queen.

21. "I don't drink." "Oh really now? When did that start?" Sooooo.... this became basically a deleted scene from season one? I've never written arrowverse fic before, this was honestly very fun! I mean, angsty, ambiguous ending, but fun to write at least!

Be at the party. Be Oliver Queen. Be the idiotic socialite they all still expect you to be.

It’s not quite working the way it should, and Oliver kind of hates that. Most people are buying it, the strangers, the hangers on who’d always wanted to flock to and fill up the Queen and Merlyn parties back in the day. There’s a blonde girl by the bar who’s a little too young to be hanging with this crowd, and she reminds him of Sara with a sharp stabbing sensation right up under his ribs. There’s Laurel, real and here and so understandably mad at him, for dying and for surviving and for every shade in between those two extremes. There’s Thea, definitely too young to be at this or any party, still working on that drug problem he’d tried to curb when Amanda Waller had brought him back to Starling in time for Tommy’s birthday party, years earlier.

They all still see the Ollie they’d lost, the man who’d died the second Robert Queen pulled that trigger.

The memory of his father drags him out of his maudlin thoughts about how well his social camouflage is or isn’t working. He’s got a task, something to accomplish tonight. There’s a reason he’d arranged to have his welcome home party here, right across the street from the offices he’ll need to sneak away into, to cross one more name off the list.

“You look more in need of a drink than any man I’ve ever seen.”

Oliver tears his gaze away from the party, away from the target’s office, and discovers Tommy, standing beside him with a glass in his hand that he’s extending Oliver’s direction.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you at a party with an empty hand,” Oliver says, but he accepts Tommy’s offering. After his time in Russia, after his time with the Bratva, there’s basically nothing the booze in Starling City can do to him. Frankly, considering how he and Tommy had spent their youth, the only reason the Bratva’s vodka had been able to do anything to him at all had been because of his drier time on the island.

“Yeah, I don’t really drink at parties anymore,” Tommy confides.

Oliver takes a sip of the concoction Tommy’s brought him, and raises an eyebrow. “Who are you and what’ve you done with Tommy Merlyn?”

Tommy laughs, just a little, and ducks his head before he scans the crowd. Oliver doesn’t have to follow his gaze to note where his attention pauses: Laurel at the bar, Thea in the crowd, and ever so briefly on the blonde at the counter who reminds him of Sara.

“You don’t want to hear the story,” Tommy assures him. “Promise.”

“No, I think I do,” Oliver says. It’s not… quite right for the Oliver he’d been before all of this, but it’s in keeping with the man he’s trying to be publicly. The Oliver who regrets the decisions he’d made before he’d been lost at sea, the Oliver who’s come back to Starling City to do right by his family and his family legacy.

But there’s a script for stories like this, for reasons why socialites don’t drink at parties. It’s usually something like “I don’t drink white wine anymore, because I had a terrible day entertaining my father’s contacts at the club, and I spent eight entire hours at one table and the waiter kept refilling my glass of chardonnay and now whenever I smell the stuff, I dry heave.”

It’s usually silly problems like that, that don’t have any bearing on Oliver’s life anymore, that he can’t imagine caring about. But from the cloud that passes over Tommy’s face, he’s suddenly driven to remember Hong Kong, to remember escaping Maseo’s guard long enough to call back home, to remember being placed on a roof with a sniper rifle, because Tommy had trekked across the globe to find him on the faintest shred of hope that Ollie might still be alive.

It won’t be stupid socialite reasons, and Tommy confirms that when he steers Oliver closer to the stairs and to a quieter part of the party.

“While you were gone—” Tommy pauses to shudder, and swallow back the idea of the five years Oliver had been dead for all intents and purposes. “—my twenty-fifth, Thea snuck into the party, and she was, uh, I don’t want you to go off the rails about this, but she had a drug dealer, and, I should’ve been keeping a better eye on her. I tried, man, you have to know I did everything I could to be a big brother for her while you were missing, but this guy got into the party anyway, and I’d been drinking enough that it took Laurel intervening to keep Thea out of juvie, and ever since, I might not have been able to keep her out of parties, but I can at least make sure I’m sober enough to keep her out of trouble.”

He doesn’t mention that the drug dealer had died at the party, and Oliver doesn’t blame him. They’re not at a point where they can be totally honest with each other about what they’d been doing with their time in their five years apart, and they’re not at a point yet where Oliver can tell him about the Hood, about the arrows, about the list.

But they don’t have to be at that point for Oliver to know in his bones that Tommy is a good man. A better man than he’ll ever be.

“I know you did,” Oliver says, and lets himself give in to the impulse to throw his empty arm around Tommy’s shoulders and pull him into a hug. “There was never any doubt in my mind that you’d keep an eye on all of them for me.”

“Yeah,” Tommy says, and his voice is a little thick when he responds, but it’s nice when he actually hugs Oliver back. It’s… it’s nicer than Ollie deserves. All of this is, even the open animosity he’s getting from the Lance family. “Yeah, man, you know it was the least I could do, since I — since I couldn’t do anything for you.”

If they were other people, it might be the moment Tommy tells him about following a wild goose chase to Hong Kong, about clinging desperately to the hope that Ollie was still alive, not because he didn’t want to keep an eye on Oliver’s family for him, but because of the simple fact that he missed him.

But they’re not other people, and they’re both maintaining reputations, and Tommy’s reputation might be hiding less of a dark interior than Ollie’s own fakery, but it’s no less of a mask. One of these days, at least for a minute, he wants to sit down with Tommy without a mask to hide behind. He wants — well. He wants a lot of things, and one of those things is that he wants to share the whole truth of himself, the reality of everything from Lian Yu and Hong Kong and his return to Starling and Russia with someone, and Tommy’s the only candidate he’s got. Not just because he couldn’t bear the idea of burdening his mother or Thea with it all, not just because Laurel is rightly not speaking to him, but because Tommy’s… Tommy. He wants to tell Tommy about Shado and Slade and Sara and Ivo and Anatoly and Tatsu and Maseo and Constantine and goddamn Amanda Waller. He wants to tell him about his father, about the list, about whatever the fuck the Undertaking is.

But Tommy is Tommy, and therefore Tommy is a good man, and Ollie—

Well. He’s not Ollie anymore, for one thing. And he’s not a good man anymore either, if he ever was. But maybe, maybe, he can fix his city, and if it costs him his life, well. At least he’ll be content to know that he’s got Tommy, keeping any eye on everyone left who’s still precious to him, including Tommy himself.

“I love you, man,” Tommy murmurs, just quiet enough that it could get lost in the music and noise of the party if Oliver wanted it to.

“I love you too,” Oliver says, and then he has to tear himself out of the embrace he’d started. He has to duck into the stairwell with the excuse of needing to track down a bathroom. He has to find his bow and hood where he’d stashed them.

He’s got a name to cross off.

[worldsetfree]

Stardust Crusaders × F!Reader: Halcyon and On and On

(+ a bonus character card in this booster pack!)

Around the World in Eighty Days is what Joseph Joestar compared this trip to, and hooh boy, you are really feeling that right now. It's been a non-stop bizarre whirlwind trek across the globe, and yet somehow you've found a few minutes to breathe. Maybe the next train isn't for a few hours, or the group needed to split up to get supplies for the next leg of the journey, but regardless you've decided to spend this precious downtime with the person closest to your heart.

(Feedback is welcome. This is my first time posting this type of content, and I'm still playing with the formatting.)

I. THE MAGICIAN

There's something about a good street market that excites Muhammad Avdol so much. He loves experiencing the culture of the places you're traveling through, and for him, the markets are the best way to do that.

Doubly so if it's with you. Link arms, hold hands, whatever you want. Avdol is happy to bask in your presence.

He wants to impress you with his knowledge! He'll be your tour guide through these busy streets. He makes it look effortless.

He really likes books! If you find a bookstore or a stall selling old tomes, the flame in his heart will burn just a bit brighter for you.

V. THE HIEROPHANT

He is a bit shy, but my God is Kakyoin Noriaki happy to spend time with you.

Really wants to do something very specific to the area with you. Visit a famous landmark, try the local cuisine. He read about it in a travel book once. This boy really values sharing these experiences with you.

Kakyoin will do anything to see your smile. He's the type to buy you pretty things that he spots in the street. Jewelry, mementos... he's really sweet. Notices your style, tries to work with that. Will spend irresponsibly, bless his heart.

Find him something in return and he'll be a mess. Nobody's ever treated him quite like you. He doesn't know how to handle it, but it makes his heart melt.

VII. THE CHARIOT

Jean Pierre Polnareff will talk your ear off in two languages. Mostly showering you with compliments. And complaining, as is par for the course.

Wander the streets together in search of food, some shade, or a good bathroom. He has needs, you know? He's thankful for your company on this little quest of his. Makes him feel important to you.

He'll find some way to spoil you, of course. Flowers, a salon. Let him treat you right, belle! He's always looking for excuses to pamper you. And always hoping you'll reward him with a kiss!

I'm so sorry, but you're running into a Stand User. It's Polnareff, what did you expect? At least he'll keep you safe. Il est vraiment désolé, chérie!

IX. THE HERMIT

Watch this silver fox try to barter like he thinks he knows what he's doing. Joseph Joestar has travelled the world, he's got this! (He doesn't)

OH MY GOD! Is that American cuisine? He is either excited by it or absolutely furious (see: hot cola in Hong Kong). Has a lot of good trivia and insight about whatever he's discovered.

Rambles about this kind of thing specifically to make these strange and far-off places feel a little bit more familiar for you. He knows it's been a stressful trip.

But you've noticed the stress wearing him down too, so you tell the boys to handle the usual errands and take the time to get a bite to eat with Joseph. He's very grateful for the impromptu date.

XVII. THE STAR

On the outside, Kujo Jotaro is perpetually cool and mildly disinterested. Of the group, he is the most likely to want to stay put. But you want to explore? Good grief. He'd better come with you so you don't get into trouble.

Inside, his heart is hammering like he's about to beat down a Stand User. This is all so new and exciting, it's making him nervous. What does he even say??? Fuck, he's out of his element here!

You'll complete an errand and wander aimlessly, silently enjoying each other's company. Maybe you'll end up by the beach. You're looking out at the sunlight shimmering on the water and he's... watching you.

He might not understand what he's feeling in that moment, but someday he will. Love hits a Joestar particularly hard, his grandpa told him once. He'll never forget how beautiful you looked.

0. THE FOOL

(Platonic, he is a dog. I shouldn't have to explain this.)

Fuck you, Iggy goes where he pleases.

You're gonna be cleaning up the mess he leaves in his wake, or chasing after him.

He stole kebab from a child. You're mortified.

You're just gonna wait at the hotel next time.

Bonus Card:

XXI. THE WORLD (uh oh)

Hopefully you caught him in a good mood. Ah, but your presence is almost always enough to lift DIO's spirits.

Do you believe in gravity? (I'm only half-kidding.) He loves to talk philosophy like this with you. Your perspective is both intriguing and amusing to him.

He's surprisingly chatty with you. He's missed what, the past 100 years? He has so many questions for you. Civilization changed so much, and you are one of the lucky few he can trust with his idle curiousities.

Just don't bore him, or else.

[decadebattle]

Which Decade Had Better Animated Media?

Popular Animated Shows of the 70's Include: Hong Kong Phooey, School House Rock, Josie and the Pussycats, Super Friends and Star Trek: The Animated Series

Popular Animated Films of the 70's Include: Lord of the Rings, The Aristocats, Robin Hood and The Phantom Tollbooth

Popular Animated Shows of the 60's Include: The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby Doo, Jonny Quest, Yogi Bear, and the Bullwinkle and Rocky Show

Popular Animated Films of the 60's Include: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, The Jungle Book, The Sword in the Stone, Yellow Submarine, 101 Dalmatians, and a Charlie Brown Christmas

[teknah]

Of all the influences you draw on for this blog, what characters in them does Nero want ...

to punch the hardest?

give the firmest handshake to?

put on blast?

buy a drink?

[[ This is a really good format for a whole meme of its own tbh

to punch the hardest?

Given the opportunity I feel like Nero will get into it with almost anybody. I think it goes without saying he'd try his damnedest to punch out a xenomorph/yautja/combat synth/etc. if he has no other weapons and desperately wants to survive.

Punching them because he doesn't like them much? Weyland-Yutani execs. Really, any megacorporation suit. Michael Garibaldi and Ranger Marcus Cole from Babylon 5, Maybe the crew from John Carpenter's" Dark Star" as well, Several secondary characters from Bojack Horseman & Futurama

give the firmest handshake to?

Azi Narine, Sam, and Ursula (really, majority of the folks from Scavengers Reign), G'Kar & Ambassador Kosh Captain Benjamin Sisko (really, general respect for Starfleet captains and crew tbh) Crew of the Bebop Ellen Ripley, Bishop, Pvt. Hicks, An honorable Yautja, Probably the Clone Commanders, Droids, & background Glup Shittos of Star Wars Dave Lister and Kryten of Red Dwarf Buckaroo Banzai & the Hong Kong Cavaliers/Blue Blazer Irregulars, Most everyone from Stargate SG-1/Atlantis, John Crichton + the crew of Moya from Farscape, Dr. Niles Crane, the Greendale Study Group (everyone at least once at one point or another, maybe even collectively on a really good day), The Fantastic Four

Nero can often be a petty vindictive bastard but some folks he can't help but respect I think

put on blast?

The crew of the USS Cerritos from Star Trek Lower Decks (and lovingly so, they'd blast him and his crew right back I think) The crew of the Bebop Ambassador Kosh Kamen & maybe Kris Scavengersreign SG-1's Colonel Jack O'Neill (he's on the handshake list simultaneously), Dr. Frasier Crane, Reagan Ridley and the rest of Cognito Inc., Bojack Horseman, The Greendale Study Group, All Black Mesa Research Facility Alumni, Arnold Judas Rimmer of Red Dwarf

buy a drink?

Most of the crew of the USS Cerritos, Faye Valentine, maybe some other Cowboy Bebop folks too

[roydeezed]

Detective Conan-Case Round-Up(Chapter 781-786)

This was an interesting case as it ran quite long for a case that didn’t have much narrative impact. It did have a lot of twists though. And left quite a deep impression on me in a probably unintended way. In this case, we find out why Heiji originally came to Beika this time because he wanted to show Conan a mystery. By the just to put into perspective how much of a trek Heiji and Kazuha make, Beika is said to be a ward of Tokyo and the fastest method to get from Tokyo to Osaka is the Bullet Train, clocking in at 2 hours. By car it’s around 6. So Heiji really loves Conan to be coming by this much. The case turns out to be about the CEO of a graphic design company that gets murdered and leaves a disappearing dying message on the tiles of the bathroom he was renovating. To avoid spoilers, I’ll talk about it past the “Keep reading” and go more in-depth into it as well.

Okay, so that was a lot of twists. Breaking down the case it turns out it was the secretary who was the CEO’s daughter from his first marriage and angry at the son and wife for covering up his death. She got revenge by first killing the son using his gluttonous attitude and an optical illusion to make it seem like the piece of pastry that had the poison on it was bigger, and then blaming the death on the wife by using her sandals and making it look like she committed suicide through another optical illusion which caused her to forget how Kanji looked like and ac in a very specific manner because of that. I really  loved how thematically consistent it was and how it centered around the concept of optical illusion while also being about graphic design. This was a really strong case all around.

This case had a lot of moving parts, but the one it utilized most was previous knowledge as it helped to solve the murders, with both optical illusions being things people could have possibly known. Though I did know the trick with the baumkuchen, my mind totally blanked until they brought it up and the Kanji trick is understandable through sheer common sense as well. Speaking of Baumkuchen, after seeing it in Cipher Acadamey I’m now seeing it here and I wonder if I’ve ever had any. We used to get a lot of sweet type things from the local bakery but it’s german so I don’t know if our bakery would make it. Time to hit up my german friend I guess. Speaking of german, these previous knowledge parts always remind me of the RACHE moment in Study in Scarlet.

Anyways, on top of it all, we got a return of some of my favourite characters, Kansuke, Yui Uehara, and Komei. I always found their dynamic interesting and their character designs have them chewing up the scenery. They feel like they dropped right out of a 80’s hard boiled hong kong detective film. I don’t know why but they also always seem to have higher stakes, maybe it’s because their harsh designs cut such a sharp contrast to Aoyama’s worlds as opposed to his more agreeable silhouettes. Anyways, I’m not a good enough artist to speculate but they just do. Let’s leave it at that. 

Now let’s get to the character drama. We get Ran telling Kazuha about how Shinichi confessed and she worries that she might have pressured him into it. It’s really sweet how much she cares about him and how understanding she is. Though Conan confessed, if you can call it that(I guess it’s the best you’ll get out of a deduction freak), it was because he saw how much Ran actually cared about him. And I understand that he doesn’t tell her about his predicament because he worries for her safety, you can’t blame her for not figuring it out because frankly it’s an insane conclusion to come to and Shinichi’s also pulled off some impossible stunts to keep the illusion going that most people wouldn’t be able to bridge the assumptions between. Such as the very convenient antidote pill.

Anyways, Kazuha tries to get Ran to give Shinichi a reply by promising to confess her feelings to Heiji and she does but he runs off to Conan before she can finish. I really love Heiji and Shinichi’s relationship. He straight up acknowledges himself as Shinichi’s best friend and that’s where it strikes a really sad cord with me. Because both Shinichi and Heiji both didn’t have peers that they could relate to and talk to and get excited about stuff with until way later in life. They’ve lead pretty solitary lives but now Conan finally has a lot of peers from the Detective Boys to Heiji to Sera. But Heiji is still pretty alone.

[brendaonao3]

Hey so since you posted a mission: impossible thing I'm just gonna ask you:

Which do you prefer out of Mission: Impossible 2 and Mission: Impossible 3?

Hihi!!!

Please feel free to ask me ANY Mission: Impossible questions you want!!! I'm not only a huge fan of the film franchise - THE best action film franchise of all time (I said what I said) - but I also love the TV series for the over the top crazy late 60s/early 70s vibes and total mindfucks. :D

Okay, so, having said that - I'm going to give an honest answer - but I need to lay a few caveats: 1) I LOVE LOVE LOVE John Woo - I think he's a brilliant director and I'm a huge fan of both his Hong Kong films and his Hollywood films. I fully believe he and Ridley Scott are the 2 greatest living directors.

2) I cannot STAND JJ Abrams. And not just for what he did to Star Wars. He did his damnedest to ruin Star TREK first - a franchise he knew nothing about (and man, you could tell) - all to GET the Star Wars gig, and then fucked that up too. And we won't even get into all of the ways he should never be allowed to direct action or write women (yes, I know about Alias - again, I said what I said) or try to work on anything other than weird indies.

That being said - much as it pains me to admit it - MI3 is objectively a better film. I love MI2 because it shows how broken Ethan was after MI1 and losing his entire team and getting betrayed by his old mentor (not to mention, the IMF) and how hard all of those blows made him, until he met Nyah and she cracked that hard shell open and gave him back his purpose. The end of MI2 also perfectly sets up MI3 in that loving Nyah allowed Ethan to be open to Julia.

But MI3 has the superior villain (PSH might be the best MI villain if I'm honest) and introduces Benji and is the first to show us the behind the scenes machinations of the IMF and is the first film to really show us just how deep and true Ethan and Luther's friendship has become and it's also the first film that gives us the full scope of Ethan's skill set - his ability to quickly read people, the languages, the improvisation, the ingenuity, all of his weapons skills, the way he can pivot and make a new plan on the fly, his ability to train people, and his absolute inability to believe a job cannot be done.

And, most importantly, MI3 gave us Julia. I mean, look, I love Ilsa with my entire heart and soul, but Julia is still my favorite character after Ethan, because her arc is just brilliant in the way she goes from clueless civilian to survivor to protector. And she's the only person who knows Ethan at his core, all parts of him.

So yeah, as much as I hate JJ, I have to give him props for MI3.

[kyotohawaiihongkongtrail]

香港のトレッキング：青嶼幹線轉車站～花瓶頂～欣澳（サニーベイ）周回

青嶼幹線轉車站（Lantau Link Interchange）でバスを降り、花瓶頂へ向けて歩行開始

山頂まで1305段！ありがたいお知らせを頂戴したので

ずんずん上っていきます

この階段、ネイチャートレイルというよりも、通信施設のメンテナンス用の仕様。途中に柵があったりします。

延々とのぼる

のぼってきた

のぼってきた

頂はまだかなあ

奥に見えるのが、汀九橋 (Ting Kau Bridge)、手前が⁦汲水門大橋⁩⁦（Kap Shui Mun Bridge）

ちょっと止まっちゃったみたいです

歩行再開

香港国際空港の通信施設

僕の役に立っています

頂ました、ランタオ島最北東部の花瓶頂 (273m)　Mount Fa Peng Teng in the northeast end of Lantau Island 15

３６０度のパノラマ、老虎頭⁩⁦Lo Fu Tauに連なる縦走路

香港ディズニーランドの方向

香港中心部方向のビル群

ランタオ島と向かい合う、新界西部と屯門（Tuen Mun）

今回は香港ディズニーランドを眼下に西側を周回し、⁦欣澳駅(⁩⁦Sunny Bay Sta)　へ向かいます。ちょっとルートファインディングが怪しいのですが、

とりあえずロコの皆さんに

くっついていきます。

花瓶頂を振り返ります。低山でありながら、高原ムードが〇

危険な個所はありませんが、トレイルが細いので、慎重に進みます。

藪漕ぎっぽい場所もあります

花瓶頂の上空を頻繁に航空機が離陸していきます

高原ムードのトレイルは、突然コンクリートの階段に出ます

小さな渓谷に一旦降りて

あとは車道に沿って⁦MTR欣澳駅⁩⁦へ

花瓶頂の西側周回トレッキング記でした

→香港のトレッキングのアーカイブはこちら　→香港トレイルINDEXはこちら

[the-overanalyzer]

"About the Blogger" Meme

tagged by @razielim

Favorite Pseud: An easy choice, I only have the one!

Time Zone: Central

Star Sign(s): Aries

Favorite Holidays: Halloween, Christmas

Last Meal: Cranberry Sprite, fried chicken, and a lemon muffin

Current Favorite Musician: IDKHOW

Last Music Listened To: "Intermission" by the Scissor Sisters

Last Movie Watched: Into the Spider-verse, for roughly the 800th time

Last TV Show Watched: Star Trek: Lower Decks

Last Book/Fic Finished: The Templars by Dan Jones.

Last Book/Fic Abandoned: The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy by Peter H. Wilson, probably because I had just finished C.V. Wedgwood's The Thirty Years War and got burnt out on the topic.

Currently Reading: A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage.

Books/Shows/Movies/etc. You Want to Get Around To: At the moment, I've really been wanting to go back and finally play some of the Neverwinter Nights premium modules. The only one I ever made any progress in was Witch's Wake.

Last Thing Researched for Art/Writing/Hyperfixation: Land routes from Kathmandu to Hong Kong.

Favorite Online Fandom Memory: Many, many years ago, not long after New Jedi Order wrapped, there was a thread on theforce.net forums that made the half-joking argument that Anakin Solo was Ben Skywalker's father. Totally batshit theory, but batshit in a truly fun, compelling sort of way.

Favorite Thing You Enjoy That Never Had an Active or Big "Fandom" but You Wish It Did: Star Wars: Coruscant Nights, which was pretty under the radar even by EU standards but was a ton of fun.

Tempting Project You're Trying to Rein In/Don't Have Time For: The Kid Flash Thad AU.

Tempting Project You're 100% Going to Undertake: The Kid Flash Thad AU, because the only thing I'm worse at than time management is impulse control.

[petnews2day]

Hello Kitty at 50: how Sanrio’s cute cat character became a global phenomenon

New Post has been published on https://petn.ws/lJxal

Hello Kitty at 50: how Sanrio’s cute cat character became a global phenomenon

The merchandising machine, which started in 1975, a year after the character’s creation, began with a small vinyl coin purse. Hello Kitty toys at an exhibition in London in 2024. Since being created 50 years ago, the character has become a global cultural phenomenon. Photo: EPA Today, Hello Kitty’s face is plastered on pouches that […]

See full article at https://petn.ws/lJxal #CatsNews #Kawaii, #ChristineYano, #ConnieTse, #FanManYee, #HelloKitty, #HelloKitty50ThAnniversary, #HelloKittyMurder, #HelloKittyShopHongKong, #HelloKittyShops, #HongKong, #IsaacGagne, #Japan, #LisaLoeb, #MariahCarey, #NewYorkStockExchange, #PinkGlobalizationHelloKittySTrekAcrossThePacific, #Sanrio, #ShintaroTsuji, #SPCAHK, #Tokyo, #TsimShaTsui, #Unicef, #YukoShimizu

[a-silent-symphony]

NIGHTWISH Singer's Radiation Therapy Rescheduled For January; Asian Tour Postponed

NIGHTWISH has once again postponed its previously announced Asian tour. The trek was called off less than a month after NIGHTWISH singer Floor Jansen revealed that she was "cancer free" after recently undergoing surgery to have a tumor removed following a breast cancer diagnosis.

Earlier today, the band released the following statement via social media: "The last stage of getting Floor back to full health involves radiation therapy, which has been rescheduled from February to January. And so, as a consequence, we are unable to come to Asia as scheduled. But don't panic! All of our team are working solidly on making sure we all see you again soon."

NIGHTWISH was initially scheduled to perform three dates in China in April 2020. In January 2021, those shows in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were postponed to January 2022 and later to 2023. Also added were new shows in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Jakarta.

When Floor revealed that she was "cancer free" last month, she said in a statement: "The surgery took everything cancerous out and it hasn't spread! I'll get local radiation therapy in February to make sure everything stays out.

"I'm getting my energy back after the surgery and feel a huge relief to know it was successful! I'm not back to a 100% but I have no doubt the shows will give me the power push I need to rock with all of you on the upcoming European tour."

Jansen revealed her diagnosis in October. At the time, she wrote: "A letter to you, Life comes in waves, with ups and downs. I have had the joy of riding many highs, and I have shared these with you through social media and the many many shows worldwide throughout the many years of my career.

"But now a new wave hit me. Not a good one. I have breast cancer. It was diagnosed a little over 2 weeks ago and I will have surgery tomorrow to remove the tumor. My prognosis is very good!!! It seems to be a non-aggressive cancer, which seems to not have spread. I will keep my breast. And I will be cancer free after this surgery, plus a local radiation treatment that will take place three months after this surgery, hopefully. We will know more after the surgery to see if this positive prognosis stands.

"The word cancer is a shocker. All that you found important in life before this diagnosis changes radically within minutes. Now I just want to be healthy again. I want to see my daughter grow into a woman; I want to live! And the scariest part of this diagnosis is that I thought I was healthy! I didn't feel the cancer, I didn't know it was there until I, as a 40+ woman, went to a standard mammogram checkup. Something many countries offer, for free even for the lucky ones. Had I not gone there, the tumor would have gone undetected. In a year from now this could have grown much bigger. The thought of that makes me share this story with you. A mammogram is lifesaving! It's uncomfortable and you might think that you won't have something in your breasts anyway but GO! And for the men reading this: remind your wife, girlfriend, mother, sister to go and get checked. Even without the luxury I as a western woman experience with free mammogram checkups: GO! Luckily, there are many organizations that offer information about self-detection if you do not have access or funds for a mammogram. If I might inspire you to take good care of yourself, then something good will come out of this cancer diagnosis.

"If all goes as planned, I will be up and running in time for the European tour with NIGHTWISH, that will start on the 20th of November! And I am optimistic since my prognosis is good!

"I promise to take good care of myself.

"I will be off the grid for a while to focus on myself."

Jansen made her live debut as the frontwoman of NIGHTWISH on October 1, 2012 at Showbox Sodo in Seattle, Washington following the abrupt departure of the band's lead singer of five years, Anette Olzon. Jansen officially joined NIGHTWISH in 2013.

As part of NIGHTWISH, Jansen landed two number one albums in Finland, and Top Five albums in Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Born in the Netherlands, Jansen joined her first band, one of the world's first symphonic metal bands, AFTER FOREVER, when she was only 16 years old. The group went on to release five albums from 2000 to 2007, before they broke up in 2009.

Jansen's next band, REVAMP, released two albums in 2010 and 2013, before she joined NIGHTWISH as a full-time member. NIGHTWISH's first album with Jansen as the lead singer was 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful", which landed in Top 10s around the world. This was followed by 2020's "Human. :II: Nature." , which was also an international success.

Jansen has toured extensively with the band and appeared on three of NIGHTWISH's live albums "Showtime, Storytime", "Vehicle Of Spirit" and "Decades: Live In Buenos Aires".

In 2019, Jansen participated in the popular Dutch TV show "Beste Zangers" where she scored a big hit with "Phantom Of The Opera" together with Henk Poort. She was recognized with a Dutch Popprijs award — a prestigious accolade for artists that has made important contributions to Dutch music. In the same year, her first solo tour sold out in less than 24 hours.

[allstartrekgames]

Star Trek II Video Game Watch

Original Release: 1983 (Possibly)

Developer: Collins

Publisher: Collins

Original Platform: Electronic Handheld

Not played: Too expensive to get second hand.

I’ve found conflicting information on when this was released, with some places stating 1992. I think it was released in the early 80s in Hong Kong.

Enemies orbit the Enterprise in a circle and you have to aim missiles to shoot them. The game also functions as a digital watch.

[strooples]

Tournament settings in Bakuten Shoot

I still find the setting of the 3 world tournaments for 1st season Bakuten Shoot to be a very interesting choice. China, the US, then Russia.

All 3 countries bring to mind some not-so-great current events and geopolitical tensions. All 3 countries have people who tend to (unfortunately) be stereotyped because of their birth country’s system, government, and its effects on global politics.

But for a world-trekking adventure like Beyblade — where we inevitably meet a diverse set of characters from origins spanning all over the world — it feels both perfect and deliberate. Because we focus on those countries simply as the novel places our main characters go to (for instance when they go to Moscow, Russia — Max in the dub makes a comment about how pretty the country is and how nice the people are; IDK what the sub says though). Which conversely leads us to focus on our new opponents & new friends as people before nationalities. It’s almost like a “Screw stereotypes, let’s just beyblade!!” reminder from the creator.

And even in our main team itself, we have:

Max, who is American + grew up in the US but half-Japanese ethnically. In the manga, it was even mentioned how Max struggled to make friends initially in Japan at first due to being hafu (which the anime sadly left out when introducing Takao and the audience to him). So it was a neat little thing to have a character mirror a real scenario of someone who would logically struggle to fit in when coming to Japan, like the story of many hafu people in reality (whether living there their entire childhood or abroad). And after the introduction, focusing on him as the wholesome person he is, seeing his competent blading, and showing him having a great time with his friends touring the world. Which TBH is quite a nice treat, since Americans in Japanese media tend to be heavily stereotyped one way or another.

…and…

Rei, from an unnamed village in China. Who is a nice kid that cracked under the pressures at home, chose to run away, experience the world, and play for a new team. We really get to see his issues back at home with generational trauma, why he had to leave, but also seeing him as a person. We see problems present in his home environment’s culture, but also the person behind it who pulled through and expanded his world. Like being a great friend, a teammate that pulled through, and getting the chance to play for the Japanese team as an equal regardless of his past, his origins, or the pressures previously put on his shoulders.

So honestly, it’s just a neat detail that clicked in my mind once they reached Moscow after the journey through mainland Europe!!

Side note:

I’ve got to say that my favorite destination of theirs is Hong Kong when they were a bit off of mainland China — staying there as a stop before the Chinese tournament. I still think of the pretty sunset depictions of Hong Kong as the Bladebreakers walk around street corners trying to find Kai. It was so pretty!!

I remember stumbling into a Wordpress blog from googling Beyblade (it was something about Kai?? no clue). And the US-based blogger talked about how a lot of his travel bucketlist included the Beyblade destinations such as Hong Kong, London, Paris, Rome, and Moscow. It’s such a cool thing to imagine how many people this show must’ve inspired to go and see new countries! :D