#i’m dr. suess now apparently

[frodo-with-glasses]

But seriously, thank you guys. Tags like these make my heart go 💗 because I love him too ^-^

[memorydragon]

Tagged by @xcziel and my second attempt since tumblr keeps eating my posts.

Part I

name: Anyone who has known me for any length of time online, including people who met me first in rl just call me Mem, so honestly, let’s just go with that.  I answer to both it and Memory.

pronouns: she/her/they-ish.

star sign: That one I can never actually spell because it’s too many e’s and an i, which is never a good combination for me.  The fish.  You guys know the one.

height: 5'5"

time: 5:16 pm for the second time.  I think the first attempt was around 7 pm? 

birthday: Same day as Dr. Suess. 

nationality: American, but also an ex-pat more often than not. 

fave bands/groups/solo artists: I’ve been listening to Jewel and Rie Fu all day, so those two.  Also Mika and Regina Spektor. For bands/groups, Savage Garden, Matchbox 20, and Barenaked Ladies?  My tastes are... interesting, to say the least, I guess?

song stuck in your head: The first time around it was Goodnight, Irene, which was pretty depressing, but now it’s this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1HtBcVHEco

Because some times you just need Davy Jones and Sandra Boynton.

last movie you watched: It... has been a long time since I’ve watched a movie, tbh?   I really don’t remember.

last show you binged: Watching Midnight Occult Civil Servants with Nar.  Before that, we were watching Saiunkoku Monogatari.

when you created your blog: I’m... sure there’s a way to find this out, but honestly, I’m far too lazy to figure it out and check.

the last thing you googled: It was trying to find an original source of an advertisement for a friend.  It’d been deleted, but we got something close enough for her research paper.

other blogs: Do we mean ancient lj accounts and so forth?  Too lazy to link right now.  XD  If tumblr blogs, I have VengeanceDragon, but I really don’t use it much.  It was created for a very specific purpose and that purpose has wrapped up.

why i chose my url: I was looking for a name change for various reasons and one of my first OCs was named after the goddess Mnemosyne.  Dragon came from my old user name.  It just kind of stuck after that. 

how many people are you following: 104, apparently?  Most of those are probably deactivated.  I keep a pretty small dash, which is why I don’t put much stock in ‘mutals’ and all that.  Odds are if I’m familiar with your url, I consider Friend.  And there are some discord people I never could figure out their tumblr names, but also friend.

how many followers do you have: 500-ish?  *shrugs*  Not a lot, compared to some.  I don’t really put forth much effort to attract more though.

average hours of sleep: We’re... just going to leave this question here. 

lucky numbers: I always liked 6 and 8. 

instruments: Don’t play, sadly, but I sing and dance.

what i’m currently wearing: Superhero T-shirt and pajama bottoms.  Super stylish, I know.

dream job: Writing, I suppose?  But really, I have no desire to deal with the publishing industry, which is why I stick to fanfic. 

dream trip: I had a trip planned to Japan at one point, that got nixed in favor of helping a friend.  I don’t regret helping that friend, but I do need to have another attempt at some point.  I also had a trip planned to Taiwan before Corvid, but that fell through.  A trip to Ireland and back to the Netherlands would be nice at some point too, and Alaska is the only state I’ve yet to go to.

fave food: Chocolate.  I’m also terribly fond of lychees and apples. 

top three fictional universe you’d like to live in: I never really got into the games, but I did watch the anime.  So odd as it sounds, the Pokemon universe seems really chill, tbh.  Who needs a job when you can just go out and raise pokemon?  The Catwings universe would also be nice, since ya know, cats with wings.  Star Trek society also seems nice enough, so long as I like, stayed on Earth or what not. 

Part II

last song: As mentioned, was listening to Jewel and Rie Fu.  The last song I listened to was actually Sometimes It Be That Way, by Jewel.

last movielast stream: Streams are...  well, dependent on my vpn.  I don’t bother most of the time.  Though I was going through that guy who does the old recipes tiktoks because I finally realized he had a Bermuda Flag in the background and that Explained So Much.  Like, I Understood why he was like that instantly.  XD

currently reading: I’m reading https://www.novelupdates.com/series/exclusive-rights-to-an-online-voice-actor/ that book right now.  Which is really not my normal genre, since I tend to get bored with slice of life, but really, it’s just... so good?  The romance is super soft and gentle and I sobbed through several chapters that were just way too relatable.  The tags don’t warn for the animal abuse, which was....  really difficult to read through (it’s not done by either of the MC’s and you get to follow the progress of the kitties getting better because the love interest is the vet and the MC is a reporter who wanted to help them get adopted, which was their second meeting (there’s identity porn and it’s glorious), but if you can get through that I do recommend it.  Shen Yan is the fluffiest goose and MC is super relatable.  I’ve also been rereading GUEE, which everyone should read, but at least now Nar is attempting it and my rec was heard by @xcziel so some people are reading it now.  But holy fuck do I still have So Many Feels about the computer recycle bin again.  They never went away, but this time I was nearly crying at like, the half-way point and not even at the ending and I just...  Have A Lot of Feels.  The computer recycle bin needs hugs and I’m not okay.

currently watching: Not really watching anything at the moment, to be honest.  Was gaming, but my chair died, so now I’m reading

what is antipoetry to you: It’s an anti-poem, apparently?  Yeah, not getting much.  I’ll read poetry from time to time but I’m not super into it or anti-poetry either I guess.  My taste in poetry is similar to my taste in music in being extremely eclectic and random.

currently craving: A new chair.  Not having a chair sucks.  This apartment is too small and gaming from my bed is difficult since there’s no proper way to sit.  In terms of food, chocolate, I suppose?  Maybe pizza.  I might order pizza tonight.

Tagging anyone who wants it, because I’m tired of my posts being eaten.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #332

i’m even more tired than before to try and think up song lyrics, i’m pasting from Word and then fucking off to bed lmao.

What was the last video message you received on your phone? I think it was a clip of Doris (Sara's beardie) eating and just being her perfect self? Was your last birthday cake homemade or store bought? Store-bought. One thing you miss about middle school? Shit, nothing. Middle school was the worst. Do you have any shirts signed by famous people? No. Have you ever entered an art competition? Yes. Would you ever pierce yourself? No. I am very much about having a professional do your body mods/art. Plus, I have tremors in my hands. Do you live in a safe neighbourhood? Supposedly. We haven't lived here nearly long enough to know. What is the last thing you did that shocked someone? /shrug Do you often find yourself questioning your future? Only always. Have you ever been for a ride in the back of a truck? Yeah. Do you like your license photo? I hate my permit picture. Are you into superheroes? Who’s your favorite? Not very, but I like 'em enough. I always say my favorite is Deadpool, but I know he's technically an anti-hero, but whatever. If you don't include him, uhhhh... maybe Spiderman. Have you started watching any new TV shows recently? No. Have you ever been able pet a normally wild animal, like a tiger or dolphin? No. :( At least, not to my recollection. Have you ever eaten snow? Yeah. There's actually a winter treat 'round here that you make with snow and sugar called snow cream. Good stuff. What is the messiest area in your home? Right now, the spare room/my wanna-be "office." What’s your favorite computer game genre? Still horror, like video games. Do you have any exes your parents never liked? No. Have you received financial help from your parents in the past 5 years? I'm completely financially dependent on them still. Are you a fast or a slow eater? I eat like, stupid fast, but without being messy. People *cough*Mom*cough* will absolutely point it out, but I seriously can't help it. Making a conscious effort to eat slow feels way too weird. What was the last thing you purchased from a small local business? I don't know. Is there anyone in your family/household whom you frequently argue with? No. Have you ever used chewing tobacco? Ew, no. Tell me what's on your mind? I've been considering yet again reaching out to some tattoo parlors and asking if they're open to hiring someone to handle the front desk and take care of business besides actually performing piercing and tattooing, given my tremors. My group therapy has kinda been encouraging me to use the possibility for social exposure, and besides, I'm very comfortable in the environment and just general aura of tat parlors. I'm sure I'd have to answer the phone, handle money, and obviously talk to costumers, but I know and accept that. I've been at such a stagnant point with my social anxiety in particular that I have to start pushing back harder, and doing this I feel would be one of the most relaxed, social job positions I can hopefully handle. I don't dare to even try this though until I get vaccinated to protect my immunocompromised mom. Writing this all out has actually been pretty encouraging about this idea... Do you wish you never dated someone you dated? Yeah, Tyler. It was such a "I'm lonely and he was nice in high school, so we'll try it" situation. I got nothing from it. Are you scared of growing old alone? Pretty badly. What are you listening to right now? I'm listening to/semi-watching John Wolfe play the remaster of Resident Evil 2. What breed was the last dog you saw? He was a German shepherd. Would you ever go swimming during a thunderstorm? No. Any time a thunderstorm was brewing and I was in the pool, I'd always get out. What is the next concert you will attend? Mom and I plan to see Ozzy when/if he reschedules his tour after he had to cancel with his Parkinson's diagnosis. What was the name of the last pet of yours that died? Teddy. :/ What's the highest science class you have taken? I don't know, actually. What makes you squeal like a school girl? No shame, seeing Mark and Amy do something cute together actually does this, lmao. What’s your favorite symbol? (i.e. the pentagram, the cross, etc.) Do fictional ones count? Because in that case, the Halo of the Sun from the Silent Hill franchise. I'm getting it tattooed somewhere at some point, I'm thinking the left side of my neck. I'm either gonna fashion it in a way where it looks branded on or carved into me. Have you ever been on anti depressants? For all of my pre-teen, teen, and some of my adult life. Apparently, I've only had one truly educated psychiatrist out of no less than a dozen I'd seen, because he fixed me right up. He taught me that those who suffer from bipolarity should avoid anti-depressants; they ramp up your bipolar symptoms. Instead, mood stabilizers are favorable. And what do you know, after I was prescribed a stabilizer and a catalyst for that medication, my depression decreased dramatically and became handleable. Have you ever starved yourself? Kinda. What’s the stupidest name you’ve ever given a pet? I had a guinea pig named Harry Potter. For no particular reason lmao. I'm not even a Harry Potter fan. Do you have nice legs? God no. Do you like fedoras? Okay so I know I am in the strong minority, but I actually do, haha. What is your favorite food group? Carbs. @_@ Have you ever got told that you should be a model? No, but one of the most flattering indirect compliments I've ever gotten was being mistaken for one. Jason's phone wallpaper was one of my favorite pictures of myself with my first snake, and someone asked him if I was a model. ;v;' What song is in a language you don’t speak, but you love it anyway? "Donaukinder" by Rammstein is one of my faves. Who’s a villain you sympathize with and why? SOBS Darkiplier bc his origins are so damn tragic and unfair. What book do you think should be directed as a film? Was The Giver ever made into one? I don't remember that book well, but I do recall it being absolutely beautiful. Have you ever found a stranger’s note somewhere? If so, what did it say? No. Have you ever edited Wikipedia? No. Have you ever edited any other wiki? Yeah. I have thousands on the Silent Hill wiki, where I'm one of the admins. I'm also a content moderator at the Team Ico (Shadow of the Colossus devs) one. Every now and again I used to go on the meerkats wiki as well, where I mainly fixed the fucking nightmarish grammar. Very briefly, I edited at the Dragons of Atlantis wiki as well. Do you get scared when you know some virus or sickness is being passed? Not very, but of course I still acknowledge the risk and am more conscious of hand washing and stuff. What popular social media platforms AREN’T you on? Snapchat, I don't actually use my Twitter, I don't have a personal Instagram... There may be more, idk. Is TikTok a "social media platform?" Because I don't have that, either. What was the name of the first porcelien doll you got? Never had one, given I was afraid of dolls as a kid. What’s your favorite Paramore song? "Decode." Would you be happy with a life without romance? To be entirely honest, I'd feel like I was missing something. Was your childhood happy? Mostly. What fundamentally matters do you? Love, kindness, peace, all that gooey stuff. Is true world peace ever possible? As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think so. The human population is far too big to come to a unanimous agreement on anything. Do you hold yourself to higher standards than you hold others? Yeah. Would you ever own a pet black widow spider? No. I'm getting more into the idea of owning invertebrates (I jabber enough about wanting tarantulas, and there are others, like mantises, I'm interested in as pets), but black widows, I'm not into the idea of having. Too venomous for me to be comfortable risking. If you have a job, what is the longest shift that you've worked? N/A Do you know all of the words to "Bohemian Rhapsody?" FUCK YES I DO. ^ Do you sing it with all of the different voices? sho nuff Do you own more than one copy of a certain book? No. Do you like interpreting poetry or just reading it for fun? Both. I love symbolism, so I get joy out of digging for subtle meanings in poems. Do you have a favorite Dr. Suess book? Yeah, it was always Green Eggs and Ham. Do you watch The Walking Dead? If so, favorite character? Not the show, but I've watched let's plays of the games, haha. In which case Clementine is inarguably one of the best female characters in a video game universe. Who has/had the most mature romantic relationship you’ve seen with your own eyes? Uhhh. I mean I never saw them much, but probably my late grandmother and her last husband. He was fucking incredible to her, and Grammy adored him as well. They helped each other so much and just obviously had the purest love between them. When was the last time you got something for free (legally)? What was it & have you enjoyed it so far? Lmao do balls in Pokemon GO count? Their occasional free boxes are the reason I can play the game because PokeStops are essentially non-existent here, so yes. What is the one fruit you can’t stand to eat? How about vegetable? The first one that came to me were oranges. I enjoy orange juice, but I just caaaaannot with the white veiny shit that you can't totally get off when peeling it. Without that, I might actually enjoy them, but idk. As for vegetable, asparagus is absolutely abhorrent. When’s the last time you actually recited the pledge? If you aren’t American, do/did you have anything similar in your country that you do during a time at school? Probably not since high school. Last person you shared food with? Ummm I have no idea. It's really just Mom and me here and we eat our own stuff. What was the last song you heard for the first time and enjoyed? I believe it waaas... "Down In The Park" by Marilyn Manson, maybe. If your life was a TV show, what would be the theme song? My inner high school emo just screamed "All Signs Point to Lauderdale" by AD2R. Who are some of your favorite female fictional characters, and why? Gahdamn, there's a lot. I don't feel like going through a mental list in my head and then describing why. A character (in anything) you wish hadn’t been killed off? Vol'jin; I think the entire WoW fanbase will forever be pissed about it. It was THE most "lul we dunno what 2 do w/ him anymore, let's let a totally random, unnamed, unimportant demon kill him" like what the fuck, Blizz. Most of his "oomph" was in the book, and I just really wish they'd done so much more with him in the game. Has anything “cute” happened in the past week? Off the top of me noggin, no. When did you last say “I love you”? Did you mean it? Yesterday to Sara. OF course I did. Is there someone who pops into your mind at random times? Hi, PTSD, how are ya. Have you ever slept all day? Essentially. When I was on a larger dose of my anxiety med, I physically couldn't stay up for barely even five minutes, and when I'd lie back down, boom, I was OUT. I stayed on that dosage for I think just that one day, it was so bad. Can you have kids? Well, I have a functioning menstrual cycle, so I would assume so. Doesn't mean I will, though. What colors of mascara have you worn on your lashes? Only black. Do you like eating sour things? Hell yeah, I love sour stuff, candy in particular. Do you like pickles? fuuuuck yeah Did you ever have a really close friend move away? Yeah, in elementary school. I feel bad I can't remember her name at the moment... What's the most creative thing you've ever done? I mean, I guess the things I've written in RP. What's the most creative thing someone has done for you? For me? I don't really know. Do you like to watch ghost-hunting shows? Sure, they're some of my favorites. What’s something you’d like to be better at? Social interaction. Have you ever stayed up to talk to someone who was sad? Yeah. Do you think you would make a good parent? No. I know I wouldn't. The only time I ever wanted kids was with Jason, and honestly, I really hope I don't end up with a man because I never want to deal with that urge again and make a mistake. I'm just in no way emotionally fit to be a mother. How many best friends do you have? Just one. What do you cry over the most? My PTSD, honestly. I never sob about it anymore, just shed some tears. What language did/do you take in high school? Latin for one semester, then all four available for German. Which sports do you follow? None. Who was the last person you talked about marriage or having kids with? About marriage, Sara. Kids, the subject was lightly touched upon with Girt, though "with" was never a part of it, but obviously implied seeing as we were dating with long-term in mind. Have you ever been in a house fire? No, thankfully. Have you ever made out for one straight hour? them is rookie numbers Are you any good at remembering phone numbers? No. I literally don't even know my own, nor my mother's. I need to fix that. Who is your best friend of the opposite sex? Girt. Do you have a bookshelf? If so, just one or how many? No. If I gave you twenty bucks what would you do with it? Save it to go towards Venus' terrarium. Is there a movie from your childhood that you still watch today? Well of course! I'm unashamed to watch any "kids" movie I enjoy, like Disney ones. Most "kids" movies tend to be better than those intended for adults, it seems... Are you afraid of mice? Oh no, I adore mice and I think had a pair as pets before I got rats. What type of souvenir do you usually purchase when on vacation? I can't really answer this; I haven't gone on nearly enough vacations to develop a theme. I can say confidently though it'd probably be something small. If you could see any musical on Broadway right now, what would it be? I don't enjoy musicals. Have you ever watched Doctor Who? One or two with Sara, yes. I know we at least watched the weeping angels episode. If you read, which book or series did you enjoy most as a child? Warriors by S.E. Hinton. Sometimes I wanna get back into them, but I am YEARS behind and more into Wings of Fire anyway, so. I don't read nearly enough for both. How do you get rid of your hiccups? Literally no trick seems to work for me. I just suffer lmao.

[betterdaysareatoenailaway]

An Ode to Payphones

    “Mommy, what’s that?”       I looked. A child was glaring suspiciously at the payphone I’d been using moments before. He looked to be six or seven-years old, so it shouldn’t have been surprising that he’d never seen or noticed a public telephone before, but still. The question, and the palpable disgust in his voice, made me feel old.      “That’s a payphone, honey.”      “What’s it for?”      The mother cast an apprehensive look my way. We were on the platform at Spadina station and she’d seen me on the phone, plugging my ear against the shattering noise of a subway pulling in, making arrangements to meet my heroin dealer John at our usual spot at Main and Danforth. I would have to call him again when I got there, either from one of the four payphones inside Main Street station or on one of the two phones outside the church at Danforth. The phones inside Main Station must have all been routed through one line, because they either all worked, or none did.

    As for the two phones outside the church at Main and Danforth, typically one was broken, but they both worked when I went to check them for this article, a miracle perhaps attributable to the Second Coming of Christ on the roof.

     There have been long spells throughout my life as an addict during which I’ve had no mobile phone. Every spare cent went to heroin. The longest such spell was nearly a year. Several spanned three or four months. So it’s safe to say I know the payphones of Toronto as well as anybody else.      One of my old heroin dealers lived near Roncesvalles and Howard Park, where a non-Bell phone sat outside the Meridian Bank on the northeast corner, crooked and somehow wounded looking.

     There’s no trace of it now, but I know there used to be one just north, on the other side of the street where Dundas splits eastward from Roncesvalles. I used to use it all the time. Luckily, there’s another one not twenty steps east, a Bell, just outside the bus stop east of the Starbucks at Dundas and Roncesvalles. I’ve fed that phone a lot of Loonies, cursing its curious inability to recognize nickels or dimes.

     My Roncesvalles dealer was notoriously unreliable, so I often found myself having to take the College car all the way across the city to its eastern terminus at Main Station. While waiting on that corner for John I would commiserate with my fellow drug users, many of whom lacked phones themselves.      The most popular complaint I heard was how hard it was getting to find a public phone. Apparently some neighbourhoods in Toronto are payphone deserts. You can walk for twenty minutes in any direction and not find one.       So I’m going to see how many phones there are within a five minute radius of my apartment. My guess would be at least eight. Maybe ten. I’m about to get evicted, but I’ve lived in Kensington Market at Nassau and Bellevue since February 2017, which is a veritable payphone oasis. It’s too cold to go out tonight, so I’m going to take a virtual tour of my neighbourhood and take screenshots of every phone I find from Google Street View. Yes, the photos look pretty lo-fi but my whole life is lo-fi, so sue me.      Here’s a no-name one just north of Dundas on Bathurst: 

Here’s one just south of Oxford on Augusta: 

There are two Bell phones just outside Nirvana, across from Sneaky Dee’s:

There’s one outside the church one block east of Bathurst at Lippincot and College:

Here’s another no-name phone one block west of Spadina on the south side of College: 

And here’s a bank of payphones outside the internet cafe at Spadina and College:

     All three of the above phones never work at the same time, and some days you’re lucky to find one operational. (Incidentally, if someone ever reads this post a century from now, or maybe I mean a decade, or maybe I mean reads this post at all, I wonder how quaint the term “payphones outside the internet cafe” will seem.)      Here’s one more non-Bell phone, just to the west of the Scotiabank on the northwest corner of Dundas and Spadina. This phone has great personal significance for me, for a reason I can’t get into. Let’s just say I made a phone call on it during a very memorable moment in my life:

     For those of you not counting, that’s ten phones all within a five minute walk of my apartment in Kensington. There are another three are in the lobby of Toronto Western Hospital, for thirteen total. Thirteen is a lot more than I expected. Especially in 2020. And I’m sure I’m missing a few. Maybe payphones aren’t as endangered as they seem. In fact, as I was taking the photograph at the top of this post, a woman came over to me and asked, “are you using the phone?”     So they definitely still serve a purpose. They wouldn’t still be there if nobody was using them. A capitalist venture like Bell doesn’t keep phones around because the CEO is nostalgic. I’m kind of relieved at how many there still are, and how vital they still seem to be.       Still, I have mixed feelings toward payphones. They annoy me, but I also like them for reasons I can’t explain. I like invisible infrastructure. Nobody notices payphones. Ask yourself where the nearest payphone is. Do you even know? They may be forgotten or disliked, but they’re dependable, standing tall at their lonely outposts through sleet and rain, day and night, as we cuddle up with our smartphones in the warmth of our homes. We’ve left payphones out in the cold and most of us don’t even miss them.      I have a mobile phone now, but I still miss payphones. Or maybe I miss the days when they were a normal way to communicate, phone books slung around their waists, swinging on a chain. (Some time in the last decade, phone companies must have got tired of replacing the books nobody ever used and just got rid of them entirely. I guess they figured we could look up the numbers we need on...our mobile phones?)      Yes, there’s a definite note of nostalgia among people who still use payphones. We’re all bitter about the great price jump of 2007, when calls went from twenty-five cents to fifty, an increase of one-hundred percent. If you’re of my generation, old enough to remember life before the internet, then you know that payphones are sad remainders of the technology we grew up with, a visible reminder of the 90s. It’s my firm belief that everybody suffers from chronic temporal sickness for the decade they grew up in. I can imagine a day when they only exist in museums and photographs. Maybe I’ll go to watch the last phone get decommissioned. Maybe I’ll only love payphones once I can never use one again, like the Once-ler becoming an environmentalist only after hearing the “thwack” that felled the last Truffula tree in Dr. Suess’ The Lorax.      I feel this way even though payphones are often more a hassle than a convenience. I once spent half an hour outside the Eaton Centre on Queen Street waiting for a woman to finish her conversation, only to find the phone broken when she finally hung up. Her wild gesticulations should have tipped me off that she’d been screaming at a phantom, but I was too dopesick to notice.        There were and are other cons to payphone usage. It wasn’t always easy to come up with the necessary exact change. Or sometimes you’d have exact change but the phone wouldn’t recognize one of your coins. For whatever reason, payphones have a really hard time reading dimes. Many times I’ve had just enough to make one call but the phone won’t cooperate and I’ve had to throw myself at the mercy of a local convenience store owner or random bystander. Maybe “can I use your phone?” was an innocuous question back in the day, but nowadays people immediately suspect you for asking and they really, really do not want to loan you their phone. I don’t blame them. Our phones contain our entire lives. It’s not the same as handing someone a few quarters.       Despite all the long list of cons, there remains among my fellow payphone users a keen sense of loss. We’re all grieving something indefinable, something that went away with the advent of mobile phones. And I’m not leading up to a gripe about “kids these days on their phones.” As an avid reader, I usually bury my nose in a book when I’m on transit, so I don’t beseech people to “live in the moment” when they’re sitting on a bus. Being a passenger on the TTC for the thousandth time isn’t something that requires one’s undivided attention. I only get annoyed when I see some guy – and it’s always a guy – staggering down the sidewalk with his eyes glued to his phone, walking into people. Or walking into traffic. The feelings of wistfulness among payphone users grows more acute as the years roll on and more and more public telephones are yanked from their moorings, never to return. The sense of loss sometimes manifests itself in the passing down of legend.      When I first heard the story, it was that there exists somewhere in the city of Toronto a payphone that still makes calls for a quarter. I was convinced it was the one just east of University on Dundas, south side of the street, just east of the Royal Bank. It just looks so fucking furtive. Like it’s hiding from the tourist hordes at Yonge and Dundas square, tucked around that corner:

     I went to check that phone for this article but it doesn’t work at all, much less for half price.      In an apt game of telephone about telephones, the legend grew. Only a few months after I first heard the Legend of the Half-Price Payphone, the story had morphed into a unicorn payphone that makes calls for free. People were arguing over which one it could be, though admittedly nobody had ever found it. It was like the leprechaun’s pot of gold.      “It’s the one outside the mall at Kingston and Midland. The one with the Scotiabank!”      “Naw it’s the payphone at Warden Station! Next to the donut shop!”      “It’s the one at Yonge and Charles!”      “What? They took that one out before 9/11.”      “It’s the one in Yorkdale near the GO Station!”      “Seriously bro. Pre-9/11. You’re memory is fucked, bro.”      “My cousin’s in the Hell’s Angels. He can sell you a burner for $5. Why use a payphone when you can get a…”       “No one cares about your cousin, Dwight.”      “Pre-9/11 bro. Seriously. Yonge and Charles? Christ!”       And on and on and on, into the night.       I have a mobile phone now and it’s hard to imagine I’ll ever go back.       The final straw came when I had to go up to Muskoka one summer for four days to work on a cottage. I missed my partner so much by the third day that I walked up and down the length of the lake, looking for a payphone. I probably had a better chance of spotting a lion, but there was no way I was going back to that cottage without talking to my wife. I missed her too fucking much.       At the end of the lake I spotted a house with the garage door wide open. Inside the garage there was a workbench, a fridge, and all sorts of tools. On a hunch, I quietly made my way up the gravel driveway. There wasn’t a human being in sight. Inside the garage, I spotted a wall-mounted phone, and called my wife. She didn’t answer but I left her a message. As I was leaving it I heard footsteps and before I could make myself scarce an elderly lady came around the corner and stared at me. She obviously lived there.       “Um. I was just…leaving,” I said, hanging up the phone and sheepishly skipping back to the main road as fast as I could. The woman frowned after me, watching me go.       A little further down the road I saw an electrician working on a house and asked to use his phone. He said yes and I finally got through to my wife. But I couldn’t talk long or say what I wanted to say because the electrician was staring at me, so I determined right there and then to get and keep a fucking phone of my own. And that’s what I did. I sometimes pay my bill late and find myself cast backward into the land of payphones and useless dimes, but for the most part I’ve joined the 21st century.      As for that mother and her child, the mother did her best, to her credit.              “Some people…can’t afford cell phones,” she informed her son, who looked bored already. “Or else they can’t get coverage on the subway, so they use one of these. Or in emergencies, they work for emergencies.”       “What kind of person can’t afford a phone?” the child brayed incredulously.       The mother looked embarrassed. I wasn’t. Let her stupid kid hate payphones and poor people. Most people do.      I rarely use payphones now but I still get a small shiver of curiosity when I pass one I haven’t seen before, wondering if it’s the legendary free one. The unicorn. The white whale of public telephones. So I check. And I hear “please insert fifty cents” from the robotic lady voice that rules payphone land.      Then I move on.

[blightwulf]

For the first time (that I know of) I’ve been blocked on Facebook and had some lowkey drama go down. Honestly I’m not sure how I feel about it.

I usually avoid arguments that aren’t in my immediate circle, especially if it’s an online thing. I don’t mind occasional factual argument comments when I feel it’s important, but that’s usually it.

Yesterday I posted something in regards to the 5,296 bodies of children found in residential schools across Canada. This is nowhere near the total count, and sadly we might never truly find all of the bodies.

In response to my post one of my cousins, Michelle, wrote me a message saying I should think about the fact that the original news hit the media before Canada day and then fizzled out immediately after Canada day was over.

I’ll admit, my responses were a bit hostile. I said the original commission to find out what happened in the residential schools was started in 2008 and that I still saw news about this every single day, but that’s because my friends list on Facebook are primarily made up of children of residential school survivors that are rejoicing that this stuff is now being fully brought into the light. The other reason it “fizzled out” is because the media is fickle. One week it’s Johnny Depp abuse stuff, then the next it’s Dr. Suess books, then it’s sexual assault stories, and so on. It’s sad but there’s so much going on that the media literally jumps from one subject to another within a week, or sometimes even within days.

Naturally this upset Michelle, and through our 17 message conversation she continued to talk down at me by saying she knows more about it then I ever could because she’s talked to tribal elders, chiefs, and so on. Okay. That’s good for her, I don’t know her life and I wasn’t trying to say I knew more then she did. I was upset that she was implying it was all a big conspiracy to ruin Canada day, because she wouldn’t stop talking about how the news hit just before Canada day.

She was mean, and honestly I was disappointed. She’s a teacher, she has a half black daughter, and previously she called me racist for using #BlackLivesMatter and then told me racism is gone. I told her that I hope her daughter never has to experience racism, because even I have as a white passing half Filipino kid. She freaked out and acted like I was threatening her daughter. That’s the type of person that she is, which sucks because I’ve always wanted to get to know that side of the family but my dad refused to even acknowledge his sister in law after my uncle Pinky died when I was a kid. My dad didn’t even go to his brothers funeral because of them.

Anyways, eventually I just got annoyed and straight up said even if people did keep the knowledge of the bodies until before Canada day so it the news would be viral, who cares? Michelle kept mentioning that for decades everyone knew about the deaths anyways, which I wouldn’t say is 100% true, but whatever. Even if they did keep the news until Canada day to make a stir, so what? People weren’t doing anything when they “knew” for decades beforehand. Residential schools are just now being talked about. Trauma is just now being shared and people are saying “look what happened to us, this is what they did”.

Last comment I saw before I fell asleep was Michelle freaking out and accusing me of calling her a conspiracy theorist because “she’s just curious” and that I should pay attention to how the media is trying to divide people. I pointed out I literally never said that, I said she’s making it sound like a conspiracy and that there are thousands of people that genuinely think all of these bodies are a conspiracy just to ruin Canada day and cause people to stop celebrating it. Also, the media isn’t trying to divide anyone. People are sharing their stories, learning about what has happened, and communities are finally able to give proper burials to those that they’ve lost.

Either way, I fell asleep and woke up to my mom telling me that my brothers girlfriend Jana was insisting that I call my brother Gord. Apparently they both gave Michelle shit for being an ass to me and said that I wasn’t in the wrong at all during my conversation with her. My brother and I had a heart to heart about the recent death of his son Levi, and fuck it hurt so much. My dads side of the family is rough. My siblings are all 40+ years older then me and I have a different mom, so after my dad passed away a lot of them stopped interacting with me because they had no reason to anymore. There’s a lot of things like travel, age, and old family fights that come between us.

Apparently my brother called Michelle and told her to fuck off and leave me alone. He didn’t need to, I never exactly interacted with her on purpose unless I had something I had to say. Michelle blocked me on Facebook and deleted all of her comments, which I genuinely don’t give a shit about. I didn’t expect any of it to blow up, but Jana went on a little rant about how stupid it was that Michelle was picking on me, especially since Michelle is in her late 40s and I’m still basically a kid.

I’ve never had family genuinely have my back, and I’ve literally been crying just thinking about it. My brother is texting me and telling me that if she ever bothers me again to tell her that he’ll fight for me, which he 100% will because he’s a crazy badass.

Honestly I don’t know why I’m writing this, but it’s cathartic to write it down. I’m disappointed that I’ll probably never know that side of my family, disappointed that my cousin is the way she is, I’m overwhelmed with love from my brother and his girlfriends support, and I’m heart broken because I’m remembering my poor nephew Levi who died way too young. His passing ripped a hole through my family’s hearts. He was one of the happiest people that I knew, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget his laugh.

Man, stuff is rough but it’s also so incredibly good

[amplesalty]

Christmas 2020: Day 4 - Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical (2020)

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

four red rocking horses!

So I probably touched upon this last year whilst inadvertently looking at a bunch of musicals, but it seems the US networks have a thing for churning out at least 1 big special a year around the holidays. I watched A Christmas Story Live last year but they’ve had things like Hairspray, Grease and Peter Pan before. Christopher Walken as Hook? Sold! They seem to share out the responsibility every year so I don’t know what agreement they have going on. This year it was apparently NBC’s turn and they bring us The Grinch. Well, how could I not watch this?

This show actually has some history to it, dating back to the mid 90’s before making it to Broadway in the mid 00’s so it’s not some random thing they slapped together or one of those quirky adaptations of a popular franchise that comes and goes quickly like Spider-Man. Apparently around the late 00’s the US tour had the bad guy from LazyTown in the title role so that sounds like it would have been fun. Going by how over the top he is in that show and the way that the Grinch is played in this performance, it kinda matches.

Which isn’t exactly how I was expecting the Grinch to be characterised. It doesn’t really strike me as the kind of thing that you can adapt to a musical given how surly the Grinch is, I suppose you did get a bit of singing from the inhabitants of Whoville though. In my head I’m imagining the Grinch being the one character who doesn’t involve himself in all this singing and dancing throughout, but becoming increasingly annoyed at all the theatrics going on around him. Kinda like Santa in Rudolph where he’s just rolling his eyes at having to sit through that stupid Elf song.

Which does happen to some small degree, chiefly through Max who is played by the amusingly named Booboo Stewart. That’s just a nickname though, which is good because I feel you’d have to be a pretty irresponsible parent to name your kid Booboo. I wasn’t sure if it was some heritage thing beucase he looks a bit Native American. Actually, what he looks like is Vanessa Hudgens. I must have spent a good wondering they had this one guy playing an older version of Max who serves as the narrator, but then have a woman play the younger version. I did find the humans playing dogs thing a bit off putting at first but I kinda grew to like Max, he’s just so happy and has this naive optimism about trying to win the Grinch round into being more positive too.

But going back to the Grinch’s characterisation, he always seems a little too into the idea of this whole musical thing. I could buy it if he joined in at the end of the show when he’s being redeemed but it’s just really strange to see him singing and dancing in the first place. Plus there’s a few moments where he breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience at home and one part where he does repeated curtain calls like he’s some over the top diva seeking the adulation of his adoring public. I kinda got a little bit of a Jack Skellington vibe in the performance, but that made sense from Jack because he was so bored with Halloween and readily embraced Christmas because it was so different. Maybe that’s whats happening with the Grinch, only it’s something deeply repressed and waiting to come out. The costume and makeup isn’t too bad, certainly prefer it over the Jim Carey live action version.

Which goes the same and then some for the Whos, much less disturbing than the 2000 version with their odd noses and buck teeth. These guys have a much more vibrant and colourful look compared to the older ones though, lots of pinks and purples. The movie seemed much more muted but made it up for it with the faces and wacky hairstyles. At this point though I think I just have an aversion to seeing the Whos in live action.

Continuing with the aesthetics, the sets are something I’m a bit unsure on. They certainly are very crude but I guess they were going with something in keeping with the original illustrations of the Dr Suess book. Plus this is more in line with an actual stage show with everything taking place on one changing set rather than the more extravagant locations seen in something like A Christmas Story Live last year. Everything just feels a lot more low budget in comparison, I guess I’m just used to seeing a jump in quality when these adaptations come TV/cinema, like in Christmas Story or The Producers.

The lighting is really good at times though, makes things very moody when the Grinch is looking down on Whoville from atop his mountain, or very dramatic as he rides his Max driven sleigh into town.

As for the show itself...eh. It’s pretty much entirely done through song and they’re all pretty forgettable. It’s either Grinch songs talking about how much of a loner he is or how he hates Christmas, or the Whos singing how much they love Christmas or other overly sweet claptrap. And much like in some of the musicals I was looking at last year, they lean heavily on the reprisal. Like, one of the first songs you hear is “I Hate Christmas Eve” from the Grinch which extrapolates from the lines in the original “The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season! Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.” and the thoughts that perhaps his shoes are too tight. But then the next scene cuts to the Whos where Cindy Lou asks her mum what the deal is with the Grinch, only to get the song near enough repeatedly entirely. They do it again later on with “You’re a mean one, Mr Grinch” too, but that’s still better than that horrible rap version from the 2018 movie.

I don’t know if I’m just picking really bad examples here or what but I’ve not been getting on with these musicals. I know the reprisal is probably a big part of them but it just feels kinda lazy and especially so here given how quickly the songs repeat. This is an odd example sure but my musical knowledge isn’t exactly widespread, but in the South Park movie, you have the Mountain Town reprisal at the end but the original rendition comes right at the start so it serves as closure and bring things full circle. Plus it has different characters performing it and changes the lyrics to reflect how those characters and the story has developed throughout the movie. That soundtrack doesn’t really rely on the reprisal either and has a lot of bangers, Up There being...well, up there. Except they changed it on the CD release and whoever does the performance on that really phones it in. Outside of the Mountain Town at the end, I guess the only other repetition you get is that medley during La Resistance where Blame Canada comes back for a line or two.

I’m not sure where this would rank amongst the different Grinch versions, I feel like I’d have to watch 2000 again to see if it or this were dead last. Having pointed fingers at the characterisation of the Grinch, those odd moments in breaking character did bring some amusement so I probably would have enjoyed it more if they did push things further and made him more campy or push the sardonicism to all the musical numbers. They do tease it on occasion, like when Cindy Lou finds him stuffing their tree up the chimney and starts to sing, to which he says ‘Oh no, it’s a ballad.’ As it is, just stick with the KARLOFF short or the 2018 movie.

[pollylynn]

Tomorrow is Another One—Caskett one-shot Future Fic, NaFicWriMo 24

Title: Tomorrow is Another One

Rating: K

WC: ~1200

Summary:  Chaos is the new black, and he knows it.

A/N: Schmoopy future fic that I’m late with.

Today was good.

Today was fun.

Tomorrow is another one.

—Dr. Suess

“Babies never sleep.” Lily swings her feet. She drums her heels on the legs of the tall stool. “How come?”

She watches him, fists propped on her chin as he goes from the kitchen through the living room into the office and back through the circuit again. She watches him as he straightens and folds and wipes and stows, all for no apparent reason. Chaos is the new black, and he knows it.

“How come? That is an excellent question.” He looks down just in time to find himself shoving a pair of Kate’s gloves into a drawer with the potholders. He shakes his head at himself.  “One your mother and I have been pondering since you were born.”

“I sleep.” She draws herself up as she says it. She sits straight and prim, all of a sudden.  “I was a good sleeper when I was a baby. Mama says.”

“Mama does say, because you were.” He gives her a drive-by kiss on the top of her head as he goes to toss the gloves on the hall table. “You were the perfect baby, so Mama had no idea what she was in for with your brothers. Up high for the long con!”

“What’s that?” She frowns at him. She raises her little palm and lets him bump it with his own. “Long con?”

“It’s . . .” He tries to think on his feet. He’s already gotten in trouble more than once for some of their oldest’s more colorful vocabulary. “It’s like a joke you tell for a long time before you get to the funny part. 


“I don’t like that. I like the funny part soon.” There’s something plaintive in her tone that stops him in his tracks. It’s not like her. Not at all like their serious, self-sufficient little lady.

“Funny part soon is better.” He budges on to the stool next to her. He sets down the muddled stack of newspapers and hand towels he’d meant to do something with. “You’re definitely funny part soon.”

“Babies aren’t,” she says gravely. “Babies are long con.”

“They sure seem to be.” He bumps her shoulder with his own. He rocks her on her stool and catches her around the waist, pulling her on to his lap. “But you love your babies, right, Big Sister?”

She does. She’s careful with them. More than a little bossy, but tender and fiercely protective, too. And shockingly helpful. She’s been a champ over the last few months, so it knocks him flat when her lip quivers. When her little shoulders hitch and two big, fat tears roll suddenly down her cheeks.

“Mama . . .” She hiccoughs. She looks up at him with her sad, golden eyes. “Mama loves the babies.”

“Invitation for Captain Beckett.” He raps softly at the nursery door. Not softly enough. Jake stirs in her arms. He grunts and fusses, working up to a full-out yell. Reese isn’t far behind in the cradle at her knee. “Special delivery,” he adds in answer to the glare she’s working up to.

She follows his gaze to the hallway. Lily stands in the doorway. She’s wearing her frilliest night gown and fuzziest robe. She’s clutching an enormous card decorated with all the glitter in the loft. Possibly all the glitter in Manhattan.

“An invitation?” She picks up on his look as he takes Thing 1 from her arms and reaches down to tickle Thing 2’s belly. She nods, taking the handoff as seamlessly as ever. “From my Lily?”

“It’s a slumber party, Mama.” Lily’s stage whisper carries to say the least. “In the big bedroom.”

“In the big bedroom.” Kate presses her lips together against a smile. She beckons the girl into the dim room. “Who’s invited?”

“No boys.” Lily climbs into her lap and rips open the card. “It even says. And there is special cocoa. I make it. Daddy helped.”

“I did help, and I’m still not invited.” He makes an exaggerated sad face, but Lily is unmoved. 


“No boys.” She presses her face into Kate’s shoulder. “Tell him, Mama.”

“No boys,” she says. She strokes her daughter’s hair, surprised by the sudden bout of clinginess. “That’s what this very official document says.”

“Official,” Lily echoes. “We go now, Mama.”

She slithers to the floor, tugging at her mother’s hand. Kate looks flummoxed. Overwhelmed and so tired, but he shoos them both toward the door.

“Mama’s cocoa is extra special.” He bounces Jake and nudges the cradle with his knee to keep it rocking. “So don’t mix up the cups.”

“Extra-special?” Kate’s eyes light up, then quickly fade. “Castle . . . I can’t do extra-special.” She nods at the still-fussing twins. “Beasties to feed.”

“Bottles in the freezer.” He waves it off as a mere detail at the exact moment Jake lets out an enormous belch, followed immediately by an artistic spray of spit up. “Bro time,” he says gamely. “To be expected.”

“Bro time?” Kate lingers in the doorway. “You’re sure?”

“Sure.” He nods at the dark head pressed against her hip. The fingers clinging to the swinging hem of her sweater. “You girls have fun.”


He’s half asleep when she slips back into the nursery. Half naked, too. Changing out of his spit up–spattered shirt became a bridge too far right about the time he decided sleeping in the nursery rocker made perfect sense.

“You awake?” she whispers, sliding into his lap. Sliding her hands up his chest. “Castle?”

“Awake.” He inhales sharply. Her hands are freezing. They smell weird. He frowns down at them, still decidedly blurry. “Pink. You’re pink. And purple.”

“ . . . and blue and whatever red this is. Mani–pedis.” She laughs against his neck. “We’re gonna have to burn the sheets. And the comforter. And maybe the blinds.”

“Slumber party success, then?” He swallows down a yawn.

“Big success,” she says, and he can feel her smiling against his skin. “She’s so smart. And she’s funny, and she . . .”

“She can talk?” He nods in the direction of the crib. “These two aren’t the best conversationalists.”

“I feel guilty.”

“For sneaking over to the boys’ camp in the middle of the night?” He slides a hand up her thigh, hiking her nightgown as he goes. “It’s pretty scandalous.”

“For having fun.” She rises up to kiss him. It’s sloppy and exuberant in a completely exhausted way. “Does this feel like too much fun to you?”

“This?” He goes for bare skin again. For a kiss that’s a little more focused, even though it’s hopeless. Even though he can hear Jake thrashing and Reese grunting and he knows they’ve got about twelve seconds to themselves. “This is just the right amount of fun.”

“Not that.” She bats his hands away, then catches them. “Well, that.” She presses the warmth of his palms to her skin. She shivers. “But this.” She gestures expansively. “Them.”

“Them. Too much fun.” He looks at her deadpan. “Beckett, I think you might be drunk.”

“On half a shot of Bailey’s.” She thinks about it. “Which is half a shot more than I’ve had in 14 months. I might be drunk. But this is . . .”  She tips her head way back to look at him. Her eyes are gorgeous in the low light. Dark and lustrous, even with the dark circles and the tired lines. “Castle, I’m having such a good time.”

“Me too,” he tells her, his voice suddenly thick. His heart suddenly full. “A really good time.”

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

In the Cool Aunt Kara AU, did Kara and Clark attend Alex's high school graduation? (This question may or may not be somewhat inspired by "Midvale." =D)

I kept the answer under five pages this time! :D

…

Inhindsight, the fact that it takes twoKryptonians to catch the weird…space…gerbil…should be anindicator that maybe, just maybe,they should’ve taken the time to drop it off back at Dr. Hamilton’slab.

Butthey were already running late, and Dr. Hamilton’s lab was clearacross the country.

“It’llbe fine,” Kara assured Clark as they stashed the critter in themodified gopher trap Emil had rigged up for them. “We’ll fly it outto him as soon as it’s over.”

AndClark—who was not at all concerned because Karawas not at all concerned—agreed.

Inhindsight…

Badmove.

They’reon their third speech, and their second ’life…is like thedistrict playoff game against Pine Valley’metaphor, and Alex kind of wishes they could just…skip all of thisand get to the diplomas.

Fromher seat on the stage (alongside all of the otheroverachievers) at least she has a pretty decent view of the boredstares and polite, feigned interest of the audience. That’sentertaining, at least.

“Aswe head out on the journey of life, let’s all make sure that we’re init to win it!” Richard exclaims from the podium, pumping his fist.

Thebasketball team erupts into loud whoops and, those who have managedto sneak in air horns make liberal use of the obnoxious devices.

Therest of the audience offers some perfunctory applause.

“…Thankyou, Mr. Hernandez,” Principal Carter says as two faculty membershurry Richard off the stage and back to the folding chairs below. Theteachers are whispering back and forth, probably trying to figure outwho has the air horns. “We wish to thank all of our studentspeakers, who worked…very hard…on their speeches.” She glarespointedly at Richard, who smiles brightly from his folding chair.

Theentire graduating class snickers.

PrincipalCarter ignores the giggles, and proceeds to introduce members fromthe district office and school board—they’ll be handing out thediplomas.

Alextunes it out; as an ASB Officer, she’ll be one of the last studentsto get her diploma. A little tedious, sure, but as she looks out atthe families and friends seated in the darkened auditorium, andnotices two empty spaces at the end of the row occupied by herparents…

She’sgrateful for the extra time.

“Tina Xiang!”

Everyoneclaps as the students’ names are called and they walk the length ofthe stage.

“Didwe miss her?!” Clark whispers as they hunch low and hurry to theseats Eliza and Jeremiah saved for them.

“Idon’t…think so?” Kara replies, buttoning the cuff on her sleeveand tugging it down over the blue of her suit.

“Youdidn’t,” Eliza assures them as they take their seats, and Kara and Clark wear matching sheepish looks—apparently they were notwhispering as…quietly, as they might have hoped.

Hastyhellos are exchanged, earning a few ’SSSSHHHH!’s fromsome disgruntled parents in nearby rows. Eliza waves them off.

“Soglad you two made it,” she whispers, and Jeremiah nods inagreement.

“Sorrywe’re late,” Clark says.

“Hada…rodent problem,” Kara nods towards the gopher trap at theirfeet.

TheDanvers look to the small black box, and…

“Ah….”

“What?”

“…Isthat a…hole?”

“Congratulationsstudents!” Everyone cheers, and Principal Carter very graciouslyallows it to go on for several long minutes. She even turns a blindeye to the beach ball making its way around the theater. “And now,with the Valedictorian Address for the class of 2007, AlexandraDanvers!”

Afew of her friends laugh as she rolls her eyes and heads for thepodium—she told them, specifically,that it was to simply be ‘Alex,’ but. Oh well.

Shestands at the podium, not at all nervous—it’s just a quick littletwo minute speech, wishing everyone well on their ’post-highschool endeavors’ or whatever itwas she put in the outline. She waits for the clapping to taper off,sneaking a glance towards her parents. She smiles and…

Uh…

They’refrantically pointing towards the back of the theater.

Alexhides her confusion well; she smiles and makes like she’s scanningthe audience—quality eye contact, and all that. In reality, she’strying to figure out what the heckis going on.

“Thankyou,” she says into the mic, still searching for…

Oh.

Clark,apparently.

AndAlex doesn’t even have time to be excited that they’re here,because he’s miming something, pointing, flapping his hands.

“Iuh…I promise, no sports metaphors, or Dr. Suess quotes,” Alexsays, earning a genuine laugh from the crowd, as Clark ducks his headand there’s a brief flash of blue. “Yeah, I mean. I think fouryears of high school is…punishment enough…”

Morelaughter, which is great, because she can use the slight pause toread the message that Clark has hastily heat-visioned onto theback of one of the discarded trees from Into the Woods.

SPACEGERBIL ON THE LOOSE! STALL!!

Alexstares.

“Whydon’t we just…you know…?” Clarkmimes ripping his shirt as they hunch behind the back row, scanningthe theater for their misplaced space rat.

“Rightnow, it’s trapped in here…if we go all…'super’,” Karaexplains in a low voice, “they’ll want to evacuate thetheater and that’ll give it a chance to escape.”

Clarklooks skeptical.

“…Youjust don’t want to ruin Alex’s big day.”

Kara nods.

“And that.”

Theycontinue their search as Alex spouts…absolutely nonsense, really,but for the most part, everyone seems to be buying it.

“…Isn’tthat line from a song?”

Wellalright. Almost everyone.

“Itshould not be this difficult…it’s bright purple!”Clark hisses in the darkness.

“It’sbright purple when it’s calm…” Karareminds him.

“Areyou telling me the space gerbil has a stealth mode?”

“I’msaying…that I certainly hope it has a stealth mode,” Karagrumbles, “because no way am I gonna admit that a rodentis smarter than me.”

Alexran out of outline five minutes ago.

“Andwho really knows…which version of Blade Runner can beconsidered the ‘definitive’ version…”

Clarkis pacing at the back of the auditorium, and Kara…she lost track ofKara somewhere during the third…fourth? conclusion to her speech.

“Isit the director’s cut? The original theatrical? It’s…one of thosebig questions we have to ask ourselves.”

Shelooks to Clark. She can’t keep this up—she can feelPrincipal Carter’s glare, burning into the back of her skull.

Clarkcatches her look, and starts to shake his head, no…

But,before he can encourage her to keep stalling, there’s a shoutfrom the twelfth row.

“WHATTHE HELL IS THAT??!”

“HHHSSSSSS—SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRKKK!”

Thecrowd gasps as heads swivel and people jump from their seats at thesound of the unearthly squeal; a few mothers, and more than a fewfathers, scream.

PrincipalCarter is up on her feet, ready to bark orders and mitigate anychaos, but Kara scrambles out into the center aisle, one hand behindher back, the other clutching…of all things…

Anair horn.

“GOALEX!” she yells, and punctuates this with a blast from the horn.

Clarkthrows in some manic applause, and a couple of ’WOO, YEAH!’s—herparents are clapping now too, and some of the basketballplayers—always good for more air horns and yelling—go crazy.

That’senough to persuade the whole theater to join in, and PrincipalCarter…she doesn’t look pleased, but. She’s probably justhappy to put an end to Alex’s meandering speech.

“CongratsClass of 2007!” Alex says, and hurries back to her seat, denyingPrincipal Carter the opportunity to kick her off the stage.

PrincipalCarter pinches the bridge of her nose, and makes some futile effortto quiet down the clamor.

“Thankyou, Alexandra Danvers!” she cries with false cheer, once thevolume is…slightly lower.

But,of course:

“IT’SALEX!” her family yells, making Alex beam.

Andthe theater is filled with uproarious cheering once more.

[bodega-daydream]

June 30, 2020

I was at a beach getting hp themed pizza with my family and that’s where I found out the back story of that beach and why shootings are prone to happen there or something idk. But then some huge scary man in a pub that I think I was with bought a scratch card and won $350 which somehow turned into a Tesla lol which I got to test drive at night with two friends. Idk why but I’m always an absolute nightmare of a driver in my dreams. Nearly hitting so many things, nearly losing control of the car from speeding too much. But this one was like, you have to drive out of this building high up and try to knock into a target in the Sky of my old schoolmate Danny’s face. Well I zoomed off and fucking nailed it but it transported me so I was alone falling deep into a dark lake. It was right in between buildings so you could only see faint lights from above the surface. I kept sinking deeper and deeper and not able to swim up and I knew I wasn’t going to make it so I just screamed for help but it was just like shouting through air. And next thing I wake up on Peter Davidson’s couch. He won’t talk to me and it’s eating a bag of mixed nuts, including peanuts. He gets up and goes into another room without a word and I see my two friends on the bed just looking awful. I asked what happened and they were like yeah, you shit in the car. Turns out I wasn’t the only one but the other girl didn’t shit as much? Lol either was some weird creature of a man comes into the room, like a dr suess Thing 2 come to life and I begin apologizing profusely and they were just like it’s the dealership’s car, I get it. And I didn’t know what that meant lol but then the other two girls left earlier while I played some sound effect video game where you only had a mic and had to make weird sounds to make your character move. So way later at night again I get picked up in a short school bus car lol it was shaped like a bus but it has two rows of seats and 4 doors. I got in and a man in the front seat held up a gun that turned out to be a crazy lighter and a gift from him to me lol but then we were driving and that bus ride turned into day time and into that well known shooters beach and I was now in charge of this child. —-I was at a beach vacation as a chaperone for a few kids. I was in charge of this one child and we went off into the water with other people. He was just diving underneath the water when one other chaperone was like can you just watch him, what if he doesn’t come back up?? So I go down and pull him out and he’s all wtf let me have fun and I just kind of hold him and I’m like please understand that I don’t normally deal with children and I just need you to be okay bc this is an ominous Beach. And then a shot rings out and someone is shooting up at the beach. So we’re running and running and we hide between two doors but some old man in a suit comes out and p much  we’re exactly what he wants. He tells us to sit down and keep our hands on the pavement and he points his gun directly at my crotch, I’m assuming so I won’t be any to have kids but I’m so scared of the pain that I some how get him to let the little boy leave with some lady so he can rape me instead but he still has his gun so I’m like mf can still shoot me anyway. He has this weird caramel colored syringe and kind of covers my crotch in it? Like idk what it was supposed to do or represent but it wasn’t good. I probably thought it was a qualude or something but I kicked his hand and ran. Now at this point I was apparently married to joe Biden. Anyway we’re all running now, bunch of old ppl. And first we hide in a bathroom but that wasn’t great so we moved to an auditorium where there are these two women who were like we knew this was going to happen bc it happened to us and you didn’t even try to investigate. Anyway joe is directed to sit in an end seat and I was crouching behind him for cover and I was like slip me your gun. At this point there are 2 bad guys and one wronged the other so I was like maybe if I take out that guy first... and he approached and I shot the gun and fucking missed. Like 20 ft away and I could see the bullet just not having enough oomph to stay in the air and I kept shooting and missing. And that’s when I realized i had no gun practice and was so mad at myself (even tho it was definitely the gun). But then these 2 black teens glowing blue came in with a long white picket fence printed ribbon and was like they won’t cross this. And I thought not until they kill you first... but then I woke up

[dewitty1]

your post about creativity is valid. But its a false equivalency. Every of creativity is different. But anyway that's not what you were talking about. It bothers you when people ignore your asks and prompts and so you act entitled by sending more or asking what happened to yours - if they're writing, why are they not writing for you???? That's why people get upset. That question. If you think we should just say "sorry no inspiration" for something you want us to do from you, for free, yeah,

2/2 then that’s being entitled. why does any unfulfilled prompt deserve an explanation? Even if you’re friends or whatever. It doesn’t. So your post doesn’t reallt make sense. Be as creative as you want no one is saying you’re not, but until you DO start writing you can’t complain about the story you want to see that hasn’t materialized.

but you do talk to your friends like that. Like you’re tapping your foot because they haven’t responded yet. Like your impatience is more valid than how they feel. Do you know how bad it makes someone feel to feel like they’re letting someone down? Don’t respond that’s fine but you talk about having friends on tumblr being hard for you and I honestly just want to help. Instead of just having fun there’s strings of expectancy attached to everything you do.

--I wasn’t going to answer these tonight, because I really haven’t slept after being stressed out about last week, and now that manifesting into a massive tension headache, but here we are. Apparently you think you know me very well, so why use the anon feature at all? It really doesn’t make sense if you want to help me, like you say you do. Thanks for saying my creativity is valid, it’s nice to hear. I wasn’t really trying to equate it with writing exactly, but just enough to say that I understand what it means to put everything you’ve got into something that you care deeply about. I don’t think I’m acting entitled? Ah, but asking about the prompt I sent in because I (perhaps wrongly) thought something was being written (not just necessarily for me, but because I thought, again perhaps wrongly, and now I see at this point dumbly, that the author was excited about it) that makes me entitled. OK. Well, not to worry. Oh, why do things deserve explanation. Hmm. Because something is better than nothing. It’s just a little bit nicer, on the whole, I think maybe to give out a blanket statement, or if you a little closer to the person, a personal message. Kind of like why your mom wanted you to send out thank you cards for presents. Because it was just a nice thing to do. It fosters goodwill. I could have written this better in my previous post. I haven’t been having the best week (well really since the dude left, but whatever, who care, excuses) so my mind is a little muddled. And now here’s where I get a little peeved. Please stop telling non-writers to write their own story. If we could, we would. I think that’s an awfully hurtful thing for writers to say, actually. As I already explained in my post, I don’t write fiction. I read. I read voraciously. I always have since Dr Suess’s ABC book, which I can still recite. Ah, I’m tapping my foot? I actually thought I was so damn tired that I was going to bed. And, you’re listening in to my conversations now, too? Some good tech you’ve got going on. IDK how I’m coming off as impatient, really, but if that’s how you feel, I do apologize for that. I’ll admit to being very Veruca at certain times. Yeah, actually, being as I’m 49 years old, I do know how it feels to let someone down. I’ve let a lot of someones down over my lifetime. (Usually, mostly myself.) And usually, an apology works really well to help smooth things over, I’ve found. Strings of expectancy attached to everything I do… Wow. You really think you know me well. Yeah, a lot of times the only thing I maybe expect, and not really even then is a thank you from the people I do things for. See, you don’t see what I do in everyday life, so I don’t really think you can judge how I am all the time, dear. Now, I don’t know exactly how this was supposed to help me, because it really didn’t. Oh,and yes, making friends, real friends, is very hard. Especially on a platform like this. You don't get to see all that a person is here. You only see one side, that they choose to show you. I'm some of what you see here, definitely, but I'm I'm not everything. 

[stabmelikecaesar]

what she says: I’m fine what she means: “life WAS like a box of chocolates??” oscar mayer isnt oscar meyer drano isnt draino dr suess isnt dr seuss smokey bear not smokey the bear USBORNE BOOK COMPANY ISNT OSBORNE Courteney Cox isnt Courtney Cox Parmesan just looks wrong i remember parmesean because my brother and i would say “parm-ee-see-an” when we set the table JENNIFER ANNISTON HAS SUPER BLUE EYES??? I THOUGHT THEY WERE BROWNISH GREEN “I have a feeling we’re not in kansas anymore” isnt “i dont think we’re in kansas anymore” hankerchief LIKE HANKY is handkerchief now berenstein means 666 in germatric English oxyclean is now oxiclean froot loops isnt fruit loops looney tunes isnt looney toons the colors puce and chartreuse are fucking wrong the word “definitely” isnt spelled “definately” anymore??? Sex AND the City not Sex IN the City dilemma isn’t spelled dilemna And c3po isn’t all gold, he has a half silver leg TANK MAN SURVIVED??? (I remember learning about how he was crushed and my teacher said she couldn’t show the full video because it was too graphic) The gremlin Spike is named Stripe?? I remember Will Smith and his wife divorcing around the time “I whip my hair back and forth” came out but apparently not Kit-Kat is now KitKat Cheese-It was never Cheese-Itz ET SAYS “Home Phone” NOT “Phone Home” Evil Kineval is now Evel Kineval I remember the voice actor for spongebob retiring and they got a new one but apparently it’s always been the same one Barbara Streisand is Barbra Streisand vlassic pickles are now vlasic it’s Pete Townshend now not Pete Townsend MY DAD HAS ALWAYS HAD ACUVUE OASIS CONTACTS STUFF BUT APPARENTLY ITS ALWAYS BEEN ACUVUE OASYS mike wazowski has horns??? modge podge is now mod podge it’s now pixy sticks not pixie sticks ALICE IN WONDERLAND NEVER HAD STRIPED TIGHTS AND THE CHESHIRE CAT SAYS “most everyone’s mad here” in aquas song they say “in THE Barbie world” not “in A” it’s apparently “on the first day of xmas my true love SENT to me” AND THEN THE WHOLE PANIC AT THE DISCO THING

thanks so much @trevorvarem for giving me my new favorite tattoo today 💕✌🏼️

[mi4012georgehunter-blog]

Storyboard Script.

Below is the re-write of my humument story that resembles are more traditional story.  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My life began and my part time biggest common bond with Mum and Dad left us together, dumped strangers like extras in a blockbuster. Dr Suess's latest zombie film 'Dudeski'. So achingly passive to each other, feigning attempts to buy each other's appreciation with cheap gifts and squeak toys. I was a failure to them nine months before my birth. They left me few options in life, cutting my losses with them shortly after my 16th birthday. I moved to a half-way house allowing the feeling of disconnection to fall off, but most of us druggie teenagers found that we'd screech like randy tomcats, causing chaos invading the lives of others to escape our own. Sooner or later we'd join the adult world, lobotomised freaks waiting for their next pay check from KFC or Sports Direct. Lacking every bit of correct dental work, despite having the money to purchase a fresh set of dentures. I was one of the 'lucky ones' who found office work with a decent salary, although I was more likely to reconnect with my family than I was to receive a promotion. Unlike most I frequented the dentist. Opening the opportunities closed by my parents was top of my agenda, I had to look presentable. But fuck did it hurt, the old bastard would yank my skull toothless, towards the end of an appointment he'd show me the meat he'd torn from my jaw as collateral damage. Yet we'd shake hands at the end of the appointment, all the while knowing I'd spare no grief if I were to see his corpse,  after all he had cut me in two. I am disgusted at those thoughts, but I still thought them nonetheless. Maybe I am a bad person? Though my faith that life would miraculously force me down a road of love and plenty can never be lost. The soreness is consistent and so devotion to hope dwindles, most nights I'd lay awake, alone, thinking, questioning. "When exactly is it we end?". I'd arise the following morning only to open a new line of questioning in a bid to answer my query, "maybe I'm just lost?".

All of that was years ago, now I'm almost 30. Still stuck in the same well paid dead end job, still grasping to the remnants of my faith, all the while still questioning my life and my reason to be here. Mark Twain once said, 'The two most important days of your life are the day you are born, and the day you find out why'. It was apparent not everyone had a 'why?' or at least mine was yet to reveal itself.  I have but one cure for these thoughts that have so far been dependable throughout my life I work with her every day, on good business. Board meetings filled with suppressed giggles. We goof off whenever we can. Relive how it all felt, to screech like randy tomcats and dream of paradises away from our desks. I love her. Though she can only fall for men on a higher plane. Perhaps she was my 'why'. I wish she were.   If I had lost my faith, I'd pray to replace my capacity for love with inspirational liberation. Freedom from significance. All of us so small and pointless in the universe, requiring God, fate, purpose. Is it not more noble to realise your triviality among the stars. This is my choice, my release, to tie myself in the forest. I think I am a broken person.  I question endlessly life; I put up with halfway relationships, loneliness. Lost the ability to recapture the purer feelings. My life is bad, not what I expected. Maybe you have been lucky, lucky enough to escape significance, to keep your faith and never have inner voices question you.