#i never used to be an annotation girlie (except when i had to for school) but i've been having a lotttt of fun with digital annotation

[thesamestarlight]

finally finished scorpia (many thoughts, head full). while i was waiting for ark angel to be available from the library, i decided to assemble some screenshots of my annotations from when i read eagle strike. i might post the scorpia annotations later, but i have Way More of those so we'll see how long it takes me to get around to it.

seriously. the shark? the sugar mill?? the heartbeat thing?? he's not even facing the bull yet! sure, he's scared, but come on. come on.

it's So Funny how mutual alex thinks the hatred is vs how mutual it isn't

OKAY I READ THIS IN THINGS THAT BLEED AND ASSUMED IT WAS FANON. HE'S JUST THAT TYPE™️. BUT THIS IS REAL??? THIS IS CANON???

HE WAS SO SURE ABOUT IT. HE WAS SO CALM ABOUT IT. AND HE SMILED. DO YOU EVEN GET IT!

i've already been angry about this but. MAN.

anyway. this post was sponsored by the libby app annotation tool. go support your local library and will your favorite character back to life <3

[t1oui]

currently working on a hermione-centric muggle modern au with a side of best friends!ginny and cedric and here are my headcanons for them

they're both trans

shared interest is gay (bi and pan) panicking

they're astrology girlies

complete jocks who watch every football game together (their parents got tired of the screaming so now they either invade harry's house or watch with cho)

they have matching vans (cedric's are yellow, ginny's are pink)

both OBSESSED with chappell roan

spend friday nights mutually pining for pedro pascal via watching ever piece of media he's been in ever (including those merge mansion ads)

they coordinate at least one outfit a week and refuse to acknowledge it

they are forever single and ready to mingle (they have no game actually) and their valentine's day tradition is getting ice cream that is 99% toppings and watching cheesy rom-coms together

sleepovers almost every weekend

they always take mixed-grade electives so they can have at least a few classes together

once again they are forever single and always plan the most elaborate proposals to ask each other to school dances

they're the type of people to fake propose to each other in restaurants for free dessert

ginny got cedric a sherlock holmes hat with "thinking cap" written on it in sparkly glitter pen and he wears it unironically

the most elaborate matching halloween costumes

lots of cuddles (especially when one of them is sad, especially if it's about crushes)

when they finally start dating people they DEFINITELY need help (read: hermione granger) because they both freeze when they talk to pretty people.

both of them have had crushes on blaise zabini before

cedric is obsessed with regulus black (one of harry's parents) after finding out he's trans and ginny whole-heartedly supports this

they have a "secret handshake" that changes every time they do it because they can never remember what it is

both of them have adhd btw. enter james potter, local adhd dilf and another one of harry's parents, who they both drool over on a daily basis

constantly in harry's houses bc they're in love with his parents (james, reg, mary, lily... take your pic, the duo are obsessed with all of them)

every year molly buys them matching ugly christmas sweaters and they wear them the entire week leading up to winter break

molly also takes them shopping because she thinks their friendship is adorable

cedric and his parents go over to the weasleys' for christmas dinner every year

(cedric used to have a crush on percy from ages 7 to like 12 or something. percy knows and is pleased with himself. ginny knows and is mortified.)

would totally kiss in the name of bi/pan solidarity and immediately find it disgusting. and then they'd do it again

(alex claremont-diaz and nora holleran vibes)

when they're not in the mood for talking they read together by a window... they annotate books for each other <3

you never see them without each other except when they're in class. they could have classes across campus from each other but the second that bell rings they're arm-in-arm

they love buying each other trinkets

they have 100 friendship bracelets but the main ones they wear are pink and yellow to match their shoes

they also each have a pair of shoes in the other's color so they can switch or mix and match if they want to. you know, for the vibes.

matching rings

they got their ears pierced together for ginny's birthday because she was too nervous to do it alone

they get matching butterfly tattoos on their ankles :) ced's is pink with yellow details and ginny's is yellow with pink details bc they're just best friends ok.

this post is really fucking long so i'm going to end it here long story short I LOVE GINNY AND CEDRIC AS BEST FRIENDS AND I WILL SPREAD MY GINNY/CED BEST FRIEND AGENDA TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.

[megsglobalstudies]

Storytelling amongst Women

I am a middle child and the only daughter of four children. I am the only granddaughter of twelve on my father’s side of our family. I was always considered a “tomboy”, always played sports, and HATED when my mother would make me do anything girly such as dance, or wear dresses and makeup etc. I was raised to believe that I needed to act tough “like the boys” and make sure I helped my family with whatever I could. Ironically, my brothers were allowed to watch television instead of helping. I have always been compared to my brothers, and yes that is part of having siblings, but I never noticed how much differently I was treated than they were simply due to my gender. The reason I am telling you all of this is because I feel it is important to give you my story if I am going to be discussing the importance of storytelling and how it connects to women.

Before I took this course, I did not really understand feminism. I always thought that it was just a way for women who hated the superiority of men to complain until they received the prize they were after. I knew that I had to fight to be the woman I wanted to be, but I always assumed that was just part of being a woman, I never knew that feminism was trying to end that battle for us all. Over this course, we have watched TED talks, annotated articles, and read novels, all about women telling their stories.

I chose my first post because it shows how the brain has a side dedicated to analysis and reason and the other side is dedicated to art and creativity, but to tell stories or to understand them, we need to utilize both, especially when it comes to the types of stories we are studying. Stories are used to entertain, even if they have an underlying message to teach the readers, so the storytellers need to utilize the creative side of their brain for the story and the logical and reasonable side to portray the necessary message. These women needed to be creative and logical as well when it came to trying to tell their stories because, well for me, whenever I tried to explain my pain or story to anyone, I was usually greeted with judgement and told to get over it or deal with it on my own, and I am a catholic, white, middle class girl, so I cannot even imagine what a woman from a lower class with colored skin and a different religion was dealing with while trying to tell a story that is a lot harsher than my own.

My next post discusses the importance of stereotypes and how they play a role in storytelling for women. Msimang’s TED talk, “If a Story Moves You, Act on It”, discusses how stereotypes can be suffocating for those that fall victim to them, and this is especially true for women. Our country is experiencing a great battle with stereotypes and discrimination due to those stereotypes. Women are payed less than men; women of color are treated worse than women that are white; women who wear a head covering due to their religious beliefs are immediately judged and avoided. One of these women could have such a moving story that motivates people to push for peace, but because she looks different, nobody will listen.

My next two posts go together and are probably the most important to my argument. “Everyone has a story…” and “The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller”. I think one of this world’s biggest issues is that most people think they have it the worst, and they are not willing to listen to someone else’s story. I remember when “cool story, bro. Now, go make me a sandwich” was a way for men to get women to stop talking was constant. Woman have been discouraged when trying to tell their stories for the longest time. Even more recently, there were women coming forward and speaking out about being sexually harassed by men they worked with, and instead of greeting them with comfort and understanding, these women were questioned and judged tremendously. If you were trying to tell your story and saw that happening to other women, would you want to speak up? Going with that, whenever we actually DO listen to a woman telling her story, we are giving her and women everywhere power. Reading a woman’s story can influence more women to be brave and tell their stories, creating the chain reaction of women everywhere refusing to be silenced anymore. The ability to speak up and be heard is a strong one and this class has shown me that through women utilizing storytelling, we could actually break the mold we are put in and give us a fighting chance with this world.

Following those posts, “We owe it to each other to tell stories”. I reblogged this because I had a different analysis of the quote than the person that originally posted it. Yes, stories are a way for us to understand each other, but more than that, they are a way for us to teach our children and future generations what we went through and what we fought to defeat.

The post of the girl with the smile as a mask felt important to me because it correlated with my personal story. My mom always told me I had to wear makeup to school in high school and it became known that if I did not have it on, I most likely did not feel good. But when I began to not feel good or feel sad while wearing makeup, it switched, and I started to only wear makeup to hide the fact that I was sad or not feeling good. I did not want people to know what was going on underneath mask and I this post resembled that feeling for me and probably for some other people as well.

The way someone looks correlates with their story, but their story does not define the way they look. The next post I have on my blog shows the main character trio from the Harry Potter novels. Hermione is defined as having bushy brown hair and brown eyes, but her complexion is never once mentioned. Recently, there has been controversy because the author of the novels agreed that Hermione could be played by a black woman in the play or future movies, even though Hermione was played by a white woman in the previous films. The actress could bring a new storyline or persona to the character, but because she is the “wrong” color, people have been upset. Thus, the story of Hermione, an intelligent, nerdy girl who is constantly made fun of, grows up to be one of the people to take down the evil wizard in their world, is ignored due to the idea that she “must” be a certain way.

Our generation has grown up on social media; it has become a center in our lives. So, the #blackouttuesday movement is one that most people know. All over the country, even some places outside our country, people posted black screens to their social media with the hashtag. There were no words on the photo, nothing except the black screen, but there were stories within. Some people shared them in the comments, some just let the void of a picture do the telling. Social media and everything tied in with it are a way for our generation to do our storytelling. I think this is so important because women have begun using social media more to tell theirs or address their stories more.

“Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world” and that is where the idea that women are equal to men has come from. If the authors of the stories we read throughout this class never wrote their stories, if they had never given us the idea that women were being mistreated, we would not have learned anything in this class. I am so appreciative of how eye-opening reading these stories has been for me because, as a woman, I should always be supportive of the success and push towards success for women everywhere. The stories we have read and analyzed have given me personally the idea that my story should be told because maybe one person will be able to relate to it and that is all that is necessary to make a difference.

My final post is a summary of just how important stories and storytelling are to our world, but specifically to the future of women. Without the stories from this class, I would not realize how women need to support one another through everything because one woman’s success can be a celebration story for all women. One woman’s struggles can be a weeping story for all women. One thing we need to remember is that when we read a story, there is the obvious story written in words, but the underlying stories, when you “read between the lines”, is the more important message.