#it's like 40-50 years old and SOLID

[tj-crochets]

Hey y'all! Does anyone know anything about replacing light bulbs on sewing machines? I have a Viking Selectronic 6570 and the light bulb just burned out It was my grandma's machine, and I did not even know it had a light for like a solid year of using it. Then it had to get a fairly major repair, and the shop replaced the light bulb, which was a surprise when I turned on the machine for the first time! That shop is unfortunately on the other side of the country from me, and the light is extremely useful when I'm doing super precise sewing

[scalefeathers]

Thinking once again about how Nobuo Uematsu and Masayoshi Soken are both completely amazing composers but in completely opposite directions let me explain

Disclaimer I am not a music theorist; most of music theory is black fucking magic to me. I barely know what a chord is and the circle of fifths makes me quake as though before an Elder God. I just really like both of their works and sometimes I have thoughts about things. Also this is all just my opinion, it's fine if you don't agree, etc.

So: Uematsu is first and foremost, in my opinion, an absolute master of melody. I believe it's what makes his work so iconic and makes so many of his pieces so instantly recognizable. The Final Fantasy theme, the chocobo theme, Dancing Mad, Vamo'alla Flamenco, fucking One-Winged Angel--Just from seeing those names, you've probably got one playing in your head already. You could start humming it right now. Maybe you are already.

And it makes perfect sense when you consider the era he was working in, because back in the 8-bit and 16-bit era, the melody was all you had. When you have such a tiny amount of storage space to work with, you can really play only one, maybe two notes at a time. You can't do anything that's layered, because you only have one layer to work with. I think that's why so much video game music from that era is so memorable and iconic. It's not just because you played so much Street Fighter II when you were a kid that the music is indelibly seared into your brain (though that probably doesn't hurt); it's also because Yoko Shimomura wrote really solid melodies that had nothing else competing for your aural attention (apart from the in-game sound effects, which are probably also seared into your memory). (Yoko Shimomura, btw, also composed the music for Final Fantasy XV, the entire Kingdom Hearts series, and like 50 other games over the past 40 years, another fucking icon).

But back to Uematsu: like I said, melodic genius. Even when his work is upscaled into full orchestral arrangements, that core melody is always front and center. And his affinity for melody makes even more sense when you consider that before he got into video game composing, he was writing commercial jingles. (Younger folks may not be aware, but there was a time when practically every product had to have its own theme song, and the best ones were short, snappy, and instantly memorable--and for that, again, you need a strong, simple melody. Ba da ba ba ba, I'm lovin' it.)

Compare: Soken. Soken only started at Square 12 years after Uematsu, which isn't that long in human terms (to me at least, cos I'm old), but it is a long fuckin' time in video game years. By the time he started composing for games, there was so much more you could do with game music in terms of layering, complexity, and sound, and you can tell from his work that he takes full advantage of that. His work is complex and dense, a rich layer cake of themes and motifs, all beautifully merging and weaving together, often to extraordinary effect.

And again, if you look at his pre-music career, it makes a lot of sense that he'd have that approach to music, because he first got into the games industry as a sound designer; I believe that he is the sound director for all the FFXIV expansions, as well as being the composer. So of course he'd be very aware of not just how a sound (or piece of music) works on its own, but of how it fits into the greater whole, and of how to layer and balance lots of different sounds to create something greater than the sum of its parts. And of course it makes sense that he'd bring that approach to his compositions as well.

As a consequence of this approach, though, his music often lacks the memorable melodies that characterize Uematsu's work. Like, I ground (grinded?) Dun Scaith a lot the last time it was on the Mogstone rotation, I know all the boss themes extremely well and can recognize each of them instantly. But if you asked me right now to hum one? I don't think I could. (This isn't a deficiency, to be clear; music doesn't need a prominent core melody in order to be good.)

And that's also not to say that all his music lacks iconic melodies. His vocal tracks, pretty much by definition, have to put a single melody front and center; and then on top of that (or rather, behind it), you have all that trademark Soken richness and depth. Which is probably also why his vocal tracks go so fucking hard.

I think that's also why, out of all the expansions, I like Heavensward's music the best. Most of Heavensward's score is written by Soken, but the main theme is Uematsu's, and you may notice it's basically a tasting menu of like 5 or 6 excellent, very recognizable melodies, one right after the other. And basically every piece on the Heavensward soundtrack incorporates one or more of these melodies. So it really does give you the best of both worlds, and gives the overall score a cohesion that I don't see as much with the other expansions.

TL;DR, Uematsu and Soken are both amazing composers with very different and complimentary styles that reflect their differing backgrounds and the different eras of games in which they have worked and I just think that's neat.

[uncharismatic-fauna]

The Stupendous Alligator Snapping Turtle

Alligator snapping turtles (Macrochelys temminkii) are one of three recognised species of snapping turtle, all of which are found in North America. This particular species is found in the southeastern United States and the Mississippi Basin in particular. Macrochelys temminkii prefers deep freshwater, and is especially common in deep rivers, wetlands, and lakes.

The alligator snapping turtle is the largest freshwater turtle in North America, and is one of the heaviest in the world. Most individuals weigh between 70-80 kg (154-176 lbs), and are about 79-101 cm (31-39 in) long. However, the largest verified indiviual weighed over 113 kg (249 lb), and many others have been recorded in excess of 100 kg. The species is easily identifiable by its large, boxy head and thick shell with three rows of raised spikes. Typical alligator snapping urtles are solid black, brown, or olive green, though the shells of many older individuals can be covered in green algae.

M. temminkii is famous for its strong bite, which is most often utilised when feeding. The turtle's tongue resembles a worm, and at night individuals lie on the bottom of the river or lake bed with their mouths open. Fish are enticed by the bait-tongue, and when they get close enough the alligator snapping turtle's mouth clamps down around them. In addition to fish, this species may also feed on amphibians, invertebrates, small mammals, water birds, other turtles, and even juvenile alligators where their territories overlap. The alligator snapping turtle's relies on ambush techniques, and so hunters can remain submerged for up to 40 minutes. In some cases, individuals can also 'taste' the water to detect neaby mud and musk turtles. Because of this species' thick shell and ferocious bite, adults have few predators, but eggs and hatchlings may fall prey to raccoons, predatory fish, and large birds.

This species spends most of its time in the water, only emerging to nest or find a new home if their current habitat becomes unsuitable. Mating occurs between Februrary and May, starting later in the northern regions of the species' range. Males and females seek each other out, but generally don't travel great distances. About two months after mating, females dig a nest near a body of water and deposit between 10-50 eggs. Incubation takes up to 140 days, and the average temperature of the nest determines the sex of the hatchings; the hotter it is, the more males are produced. In the fall, hatchings emerge and are left to fend for themselves. Sexual maturity is reached at between 11 and 13 years of age, and individuals can live as old as 45 years in the wild.

Conservation status: The alligator snapping turtle is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. The species is threatened by overharvesting for meat and for the pet trade, and by habitat destruction.

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Photos

Ed Godfrey

Cindy Hayes

Eva Kwiatek

Nathan Patee

[cchapsticck]

dick & jane & the witness protection program cw: impending character death, medical trauma

It’s. Weird. To hear Steve talk about Eddie Munson like he’s dead. Or like he didn’t know him. It’s not untrue, really. Eddie died. Eddie and Steve weren’t friends. But, it’s weird, because it’s not true either. 

Robert Jones was born in DeWitt, Michigan in 1965. He is 40 years old. His dad went MIA in Vietnam about 4 months before he was born, and he was put up for adoption about 4 months after he got dropped out the chute. Birth records sealed. Had a couple foster families, troubled youth and all, had a hard time settling down. Eventually got emancipated, fucked around on his own for a while. In 1986 he got rear ended on his motorcycle at 50 miles per hour and skid across open freeway for 900 yards. Has skin grafts over about 40% of his body. He likes heavy metal and shitty horror movies and greasy diner food and tourist traps. He did a mandatory minimum in State prison for some drug charges when he was 24. Got his GED in lockup. Worked a lot of minimum wage whatever jobs, wherever, for a while. Got his CNA cert in 1998, after Steve’s third seizure, the one that had shit coming out of one of his ears. Steve got hit on the head a lot - before he knew him - hard. Needed a live-in caretaker after a point but didn’t want a stranger touching his shit. Steve’s so fucking weird. It's only partially the brain damage, honestly. 

He’s been fucking Steve Harrington since the mid 90s. Which is probably against some code of ethics but, whatever  - since before Steve’s divorce in ’96. And then louder after. He met Steve- ah fuck. This is the hard part. The wheels kind of fall off at this part. Because you don’t start fucking your caretaker right off the bat, and what are the odds some guy you picked up at a bar also is like, qualified to administer palliative care? There’s no solid explanation for this part, they usually avoid it. It's usually easy to avoid. He met Steve in high school. Steve’s high school. In Indiana, where Robert Jones has never lived, nor grew up. But Eddie Munson did. But Eddie Munson is dead, but in Indiana in 1986, Robert Jones was built out of his bones.  

Weird’s not the right word. Karmic? Cruel, maybe? Who knows. Weird’s not right, though. 

Most people they know that still want to be found have amputated That part of their lives from the rest of them, but Steve hasn’t. For some reason. It's not hospice, they’re not calling it hospice. But it's hospice. Steve’s got a couple hematomas and some bruising on his white matter that’ll probably get him in his sleep one of these days, but in the meantime sometimes Steve gets confused, loses time, gets frustrated and lashes out, sleeps too long, doesn’t sleep at all - and he just. Talks about Hawkins to anyone who wants to ask. He never tells the whole truth, doesn’t offer anything he’s not asked about, meets anyone at any story they bring to him and fits in the parts of the truth into the half assembled jigsaw puzzle presented to him.

Some people get way closer to the truth than they have any right to. But most don’t.

Most of them don’t even ask about Eddie Munson. Of all the shit that happened in Hawkins that’s public knowledge (and even out all of the shit that's conspiratorial knowledge) and the kind of people who seek Steve out, a circumstantial, long cold, multiple murder case that happened seconds before some once in a lifetime insanity hardly blips the radar. But Eddie still comes up sometimes with Steve's would-be truth-tellers and investigators. Steve’s gotten real good at not looking at him when people talk about Eddie over the years. Used to be a bit of a struggle, like he was going to appeal to Bobby about his or their guest's opinions about Eddie, or like, apologize for what he was about to say, but he doesn’t anymore. Eddie’s dead, after all. Eddie’s dead and probably killed 3 people and Eddie and Steve weren’t friends, back in high school. Bobby doesn’t talk about any of it, because Bobby wasn’t there. Bobby doesn’t really know what Steve’s talking about beyond whatever he’s talked about before to other people asking the same sorts of questions.

Steve’s gotten really good at killing Eddie Munson.

Bobby Jones isn’t as good at it, weirdly. Bobby Jones never knew Eddie Munson. Robert Jones barely knows who Eddie Munson even is, beyond whatever anecdotal shit that gets brought into Steve’s house by strangers. But he wants to protect him from. Something. At the risk of sounding, like, all folksy wisdom about some bullshit that will literally happen to no one else ever again; the thing no one tells you about dying and then going on living anyway is that you don’t get to control what happens to the dead. 

There are all kinds of stories about Eddie. Sure, there are people who come in sympathetic and skeptical to the legal narrative surrounding one Edward Anthony Munson. How satanic panic was alive and well in the evangelical Rust Belt and it was all too easy to paint some kid with an abrasive taste in music as the literal anti-Christ, in a town where the US Government had already taken responsibility for loss of life in suburban homes under equally circumstantial circumstances. Stories about how it seems all too easy to pin the Fed’s known and established crimes on some nobody kid on food stamps that lived in a trailer park, because that means something specific to the middlest of Americans, and to look to Eddie for justice is to just let the government keep getting away with what they do to normal people in the wrong place at the wrong time. Those stories, at least, are easy to hear. They’re like the stories Bobby wants to believe about Eddie, when Steve's having them told to him. 

But there are other stories about how Eddie was a killer, a real wannabe cult leader and sex pervert. How he wanted to be everything everyone said about him and what he did, how he planned it, how he sought it out. How he fucking loved it. Stories about how Eddie idolized men like Richard Ramirez and Jeffrey Dahmer, how he wanted to do it better. Do it worse. There are stories about him from people who elevate him as the champion of the freaks, the patron saint of the willingly disturbed, the martyr of the unfucked and sexless and staking a claim over the space their rotten brains think they deserve in the world. And there’s people who condemn him for it, and there are people who celebrate him for it and he doesn’t know which one is worse.  

And all of these kinds of people come to Steve’s house and talk to him about it. All come to Steve’s house and talk about whatever version of Eddie Munson they like or despise best. All of these kinds of people creep out of the woodwork in places on the internet that he somehow manages to find because Eddie Munson is a scab Robert Jones won’t stop picking, and the open wound of him never heals right. 

And he’s thought about leaving. God he’s thought about leaving so often. Just pack his shit and dip because Steve’s got to excise his demons while he’s still got the time to do it and Eddie Munson just so happens to be one of them. Get out of the only place Eddie Munson is invoked and summoned, wouldn’t have to keep doing this. Keep having to hear Steve lie by omission and agree by omission about who Eddie was and what he did and just let it lie. He could just leave and never have to think or hear about Eddie Munson, someone he. does. not. know. ever again in his life. 

Because they don’t talk about Eddie. Not ever. Not anymore. They used to. It used to be a bit of a joke, like haha aren’t these stories wild what a load of shit? Like, it used to be kind of fun. Then it wasn’t. Because if they’re talking about Bobby like he’s Eddie like, like they all know the secret and the secret is a joke, where do they keep the line? Where does Robert get to make the clean break like he’s supposed to have? Bobby got to make himself from the ground up, got to make a whole man out of nothing at all, got the redo of ultimate fucking redos - he could be anything and the only thing that would be true is that Robert Jones has never heard of Eddie Munson in his life, not be a peripheral accessory of what are, surely, the most regularly occuring conversations that still happen about him. Like Robert Jones is not, under any circumstance, doing this like he’s supposed to. He can’t even laugh about Eddie anymore because it just hurts him now, to think about Eddie, so he thinks about leaving. Just fucking running. 

Eddie’s realest legacy, really. Running. 

But if that hard line between Eddie and Bobby has been structurally unsound from the start, then Bobby gets to know from Eddie what running does. He gets to know what the fallout looks like in the rear view. And fuck him to death if Steve hasn’t run once, if Steve isn’t the very picture and example of what Not Running looks like, and how hard it is to not run. Steve’s never run, Steve’s not running now and it’s going to kill him. It is going to kill him. It has killed him. And Steve’s not guilting him, never guilted him into staying. If he left, Steve would let him go but Christ on the cross isn’t it a dick fucking move to just leave the man who loves you, who’s suffering, who’s continuing to suffer for- not just saving not-you but a lot of other people too- who just keeps suffering after it could be all over like-

So it’s not a punishment to stay. But it is a little bit of a punishment to not leave. 

[bethanythebogwitch]

Wet Beast Wednesday: emperor penguin

This is the last Wet Beast Wednesday before Christmas and Christmas is associated with the north pole thanks to Santa. So to celebrate the season, I'm going about as far away from the north pole as it is possible to go and talking about the emperor penguin. This also happens to be the first dinosaur I've showcased on this series.

(image id: an emperor penguin lying belly-down on ice, seen from the side. Its back, wings, and head are black while its belly and neck are white. It has a patch of orange feathers near the ears. Another penguin is standing up in the background. end id)

Aptenodytes forsteri is the largest of all penguins and the sixth largest (by weight) bird in the world, only surpassed by the emu and two species each of the cassowary and ostrich. Those are all paleognaths, one of two living groups of birds, making the emperor penguin the largest of the other group: the neognaths. There are some discrepancies on their size due to the standards of bird measurement, but recent measurements list their standing height as reaching 120 cm (3.9 ft) with a weight of 22.7 to 45.4 kg (50 to 100 lbs). Their weight varies a lot during their lives, with both males and females losing a lot of weight during breeding season. Males generally weigh more than females. Genomic and anatomical analysis indicates that the emperor penguin, along with the closely-related king penguin and an extinct species, are part of a group of penguins that branched off of the family tree before the other living penguin species. As with other penguin species, they are heavily adapted for life in the water. All penguins are flightless, with their wings having adapted into flippers used for swimming. Penguins stand differently than other birds. Most birds have long legs and hold their bodies horizontally to the ground or at an angle, but penguins have short legs and hold their bodies vertically, like humans do. This, plus other adaptations, helps streamline the birds, letting them swim more efficiently. Like other seabirds, their feathers are very dense and coated with oil that repels water. This keeps the feathers from becoming waterlogged, reducing drag and helping keep the bird warm. During molting season, the feathers emerge from the skin mostly formed and push out the old feathers, preventing the penguin from developing bald or thin patched that would compromise insulation. While the feathers are responsible for most of the insulation, a layer of fat also helps. Like other birds, penguins are endothermic, commonly known as warm-blooded. Penguin tongues have backward-pointing barbs that help prevent food from escaping their mouths.

(image id: an emperor penguin jumping out of the water and onto ice. It is pictured in midair with its body roughly parallel to the ground and wings extended. Multiple other penguins are in the background. end id)

Emperor penguin's divide their year between the breeding season and the rest of their lives. During most of the year, they spend their time searching for food. Most of this food consists of fish, krill, and squid. Emperor penguins are social animals that often coordinate with each other to hunt in groups. While hunting, they will dive up to 535 meters (1,755 ft) and spend up to 21 minutes underwater before surfacing to breathe. During dives, the pressure can increase up to 40 times and the emperor penguin has some special adaptations to cope. Unlike most birds, emperor penguin bones are solid, reducing the chance of one breaking under pressure. During dives, the heartbeat slows dramatically and non-essential organs cease functioning to conserve oxygen in the blood. In addition, the hemoglobin in the red blood cells is modified to carry more oxygen in high pressure and low temperature. While on land, emperor penguins gather in colonies along the shoreline. Members of the colonies spend a lot of them time huddled against each other to keep warm. The penguins live all around Antarctica between 66 and 77 degrees southern latitude.

(image: an emperor penguin swimming underwater. Its head is pointed up, making its body very streamlines. Its wings are extended and are used for propulsion and steering. end id)

The thing emperor penguins are most famous for is their breeding behavior. Breeding season starts at the beginning of winter in Antarctica, between March and April, and is triggered by the decrease in day length. Penguin colonies travel inland en masse moving between 50 and 120 km (31 to 75 miles) to find a spot to raise their chicks. These spots are usually large, flat patches of sea or lake ice with a barrier such as a cliff or iceberg used to block the wind. Males perform sexual displays wherein they make loud courtship calls while wandering around the colony. When a female is interested, she will face they male and they will both hold their heads up for a few minutes. Once a pair os formed, they will walk around the colony together. When ready to mate, The pair will bow to each other. Emperor penguins are serially monogamous. They will only mate with one other penguin each season, but rarely pick the same mate more than once. The pair say together until the egg is laid in late May or early June. The female then transfers the egg (only one is laid every year) to the male, a tricky process. They have to use their feet to transfer the egg without dropping it. If the egg breaks or is exposed to the ice for more than a minute or so, it will die. It is not uncommon for an egg to be lost, especially in first-time parents. If this happens, both parents will leave the colony and return to the sea, not mating again until next year. The male balances the egg on his feet and covers it with a loose flap of skin. The bottom of this skin is a featherless patch called the brood patch that only forms during this season. By keeping the egg between his feet and the brood patch, the male incubates it. Once the egg is transferred, the female returns to the sea, leaving the male responsible for the next few months. In every other penguin species, the mother and father take turns incubating their egg. for the next 65-75 days, the male will incubate the egg in the middle of the Antarctic winter, where storms are frequent and temperatures can can reach into the -60s C (-70s F). He will not eat at all during this period, which, including travel and mating time, can last for 120 days. Males can lose up to half of their body mass during this fast. If the egg is dropped even once, it has a very high chance of dying. Walking without dropping the egg is tricky, but the males will form tight bunches to conserve body heat. These bunches are mobile, with members to the outside gradually moving inward and vice-versa. The egg usually hatches after around 60 days and it can take a few days to break out of its shell, which is thicker than in most bird species. The chicks are born featherless and will freeze to death if they leave the male's brood pouch. The male produces a substance called crop milk with a gland in his esophagus. Crop milk is unique to pigeons, flamingos, and male emperor penguins and is used to feed the chick. The crop milk does not provide full nourishment to the chick, but will keep it alive for about a week.

(image id: a male emperor penguin standing on ice with its egg balanced on its feet. The skin flap thet normally covers the egg is pulled back and the male is bending over to examine the egg. This egg is broken, possibly the result of being dropped, and is non-viable. end id)

(image id: a newly-hatched emperor penguin sitting on it's father's feet. It is very small and featherless, with grey skin and a black head. end id)

About this time, the female will return from her time at sea. She spent this time feeding and fattening herself up for the next leg of the parenting journey. She returns to the colony usually between 5 and 10 days after the hatching. If she arrives too late, the chick will starve. Once she arrives, she will locate her mate through the sound of his calls. The male then transfers the chick to the female's brood pouch and returns to the sea to feed and put weight on for another 3-4 weeks. The female will feed the chick by regurgitating half-digested food into its mouth. After this, the mother and father will take turns brooding the chick and feeding at sea. If either parent is delayed or dies, the chick will die as the remaining parent will eventually abandon it and return to sea. Orphaned chicks will try to seek food and shelter from other adults and mothers who have lost a chick may try to adopt an abandoned one, but as a single parent cannot raise a chick alone, it will eventually be abandoned as the adult goes to feed. Sometimes, a mother who lost her chick will attempt to steal a chick from another mother. This leads to fights over chicks that may leave chick trampled to death.

(image id: an adult emperor penguin feeding its chick. The chick is larger and covered in fluffy, grey, downy feathers. It no longer needs to stay on its parent's feet. The adult is looking down at the chick with its mouth open. The chick has its head inside the adult's mouth. end id)

Starting 45-50 days after hatching, the chicks now have a thick enough coat of down to survive outside of the brood pouch. Starting around this time, both parents will return to the sea and occasionally return to bring food, using the sound of their chick's vocalizations to track them down. When the parents are gone, the chick huddle together for warmth. Starting in early November, the chicks will start gaining their adult plumage and the adults will stop returning to feed them. Once they get hungry enough, the chicks will make the trip to the sea (which is shorter now as it is summer in the Antarctic and the sea ice has receded) and will be independent from now on. Only 15% of chicks survive their first year, but after that the survival rate is 95%, meaning most living emperor penguins are adults. Emperor penguins reach sexual maturity at 3 years, but most do not mate until they are 4-6 years old. The average lifespan of those who live long enough to reach adulthood is 20 years, but may live up to 50 years. The high survival rate of adults is in part due to a lack of predators. Adult emperor penguins are only hunted by leopard seals and orcas, though the former prefer juveniles. Juveniles are preyed upon by seals when they reach the water and by southern great petrels when on the ice. Adult emperor penguins lack any land predators, which has resulted in them having no prey response when on land. Scientists and antarctic explorers have reported that adults will approach them without fear.

(image id: a newly-independent chick entering the water for the first time. It has not yet fully developed its adult plumage and has a mix of the chick's fluffy down and an adult's smoother coat. It is jumping off a ledge of ice into the water. Two other chicks watch from the side of the image. end id)

Emperor penguins are classified as near threatened by the IUCN, meaning they are losing population and may slip down into threatened status if conservation measures are not taken. The largest threat to emperor penguins is global warming reducing their habitat. Because they need sea ice to lay eggs and brood, the loss of sea ice every year has reduced the ability of the penguins to reproduce. in 2022, loss of sea ice led to a catastrophic failure to reproduce among nearly all known colonies. It is now estimated that 90% of colonies are at risk of dying out due to the loss of sea ice. If these trends are not reverted by reduction of global warming, the penguins could face extinction.

(Image id: two emperor penguins with their chick. The adults are standing behind the chick, which has its downy juvenile plumage. The chick stands about half the height of the parents. end id)

[is-the-snake-video-cute]

Kingsnake Shopping List

If you've decided on a kingsnake (Lampropeltis sp.) as a pet snake, you've made an excellent choice! Kingsnakes are known for being fantastic eaters and are very hardy, fun pets who can live to be over 15 years old with proper care.

This guide is intended for California and Mexican black kingsnakes, and it can also work for black, Sinaloan, Nelson's, and Honduran milksnakes.

Enclosure setup shopping list:

You will want to set up your enclosure so your snake has room to stretch out, climb, and explore! You will need to set up a temperature gradient of 85-75 Fahrenheit, and kingsnakes prefer mid-range humidity, about 50-60%.

Enclosure. For a young kingsnake, a 20 gallon is fine, and a 40 gallon works well for yearlings. As an adult, your snake will need a 4x2x2 enclosure at the absolute minimum, and bigger is better! Kingsnakes average around 3-5 feet across species, with males being significantly smaller than females. Check out Animal Plastics for affordable, high-quality enclosures.

If your enclosure has a screen lid, two sets of screen clips. Never bring a snake home without screen clips!

A dome heat lamp with ceramic sockets. Any big reptile brand is fine - Fluker's, Zoo Med, and Exo Terra are all trustworthy brands here. Make sure your dome lamp is rated for the wattage of bulb you will be using - 150 is usually a safe bet.

Heat bulbs. I use ceramic heat emitters for my kings. You can choose to provide halogen light and UVB if you'd like. Arcadia makes high-quality heat sources your pet will love. The wattage you choose will depend on your enclosure size and the temperature in your home.

A thermostat to plug your heat source into. Vivarium Electronics thermostats are excellent but pricey; you can go as expensive as you like but here is a cheap one I swear by.

Digital thermometer/hygrometer reader with probes - Zoo Med and Exo Terra make great dual gauges. Avoid stick-on dials!

At least two identical hides, one on either side. A proper hide has three solid walls and a smallish entrance - you want your snake to feel snug and secure. I recommend extra hides for milksnakes, who can often be more timid than other kings.

A container to make a humidity hide. Simply cut a hole in the lid, fill with damp moss, and you're set! Providing your snake with a humid hide will help them have perfect sheds every time!

A large water bowl

(Insider tip: if you go to the grocery store and buy a pack of black plastic food storage containers, you can easily make hides, humidity hides, and a water bowl out of them! Here's my go-to option, you can easily take care of all that for one baby snake for like 5 dollars!)

Sphagnum moss for your humid hide

Substrate - for kingsnakes, I prefer cypress mulch. It allows for easy burrowing and holds humidity well! Other humidity-retaining substrates, such as coconut husk or coconut fibers, are good choices as well. Whatever you choose, provide your snake with at least a couple inches so they can dig.

Climbing branches and other decor - climbing is a must, and vines, rocks, and tunnels made from cardboard tubes are other great options. Kingsnakes thrive on novel stimulation, and small cardboard boxes and hol-ee roller balls are frequent favorites. Cluttering up your enclosure is a must! Rolled up balls of paper towel can make great clutter for young snakes.

Consider a blanket or other visual barrier to put over the enclosure to help your snake feel safe and hidden. Kingsnakes are visual snakes and babies can feel jumpy and exposed in an all-glass enclosure.

General care:

Feeding tongs.

Food for your snake. Even baby kings can eat whole pinky mice. Your offered food should be about 10% of your snake's body weight. It's easy to overfeed kingsnakes - do not listen when they act like they're constantly hungry! Being fed once a week is plenty for young kingsnakes.

A soldering iron, believe it or not! A cheap soldering iron will serve you well throughout your snake's life - you can use it to easily melt holes in bowls and containers to make hides.

A small snake hook can help you with handling your snake, especially if you're nervous. Kingsnakes have excellent feeding responses and mistaken feeding bites can happen, so handling with a snake hook can help get your snake out of food mode and help you be more comfortable.

And some common beginner mistakes:

Don't move your snake to a separate enclosure to feed. It's a myth that will make your snake "aggressive" - it can actually cause more mistaken feeding bites as they associate handling with being fed!

Don't worry if your snake spends most of their time hiding, especially while young. A hiding snake is a happy snake! Don't be concerned if your pet kingsnake seems flighty and jumpy at first, kingsnakes can be jumpy babies but many become much more confident by the time they're a year old.

Don't over-handle your snake, and always give them at least a week to settle in before offering food for the first time.

Never handle your snake for two days after they've eaten - that could cause a regurgitation.

Kingsnakes are some of my favorite snakes to keep, and I'm sure you'll see why when you bring yours home! They're fun, curious snakes with big personalities, and you never have to worry about them missing a meal!

[dangermousie]

Finished.

God, what a glorious, glorious, glorious ride, a truly solid epic drama in a way I haven't seen in a very long time - there were two other flawless cdramas for me this year - Lost You Forever 1 and The Ingenuous One - but TIO was a smaller scale story and LYF ended in medias res. AJTL was the only complete, epic cdrama this year for me, but oh boy, was it beyond.

First, my two tiny niggles - this is a drama where the 40 episode limit fit badly, like tightly pinching shoes. You can tell how they had to speed and cram to get in the resolutions of dynastic struggles in An and Wu and the war with Beipan. This drama really needed to have been 50 eps. (The cramming also resulted in the sole plot arc that made me go huh - LTG random decision to try to marry Ruyi before he rides off to what he thinks is his last battle and his just as random decision to go "oh well" and agree to release NYZ and then when NYZ shows up before he can be released because he broke out and wreaks havoc, let them walk out. Maybe if they had more time, it would have made more sense, otherwise it felt like an aberration in a character arc that before and after was consistent and made sense.) Second niggle is not really one because it's clearly due to censorship - the last minute redemption of the Wu emperor etc - the writer made is as believable as she could but you could feel the censorship sticky hands all over it.

But those are minor complaints. Overall this was solid from beginning to end, very adult and with secondary characters who all felt real and complex and interesting. A few thoughts:

Our main OTP was incredible. So adult, so competent, so badass but still feeling human. I bought that those two were larger than life legends AND flesh and blood people. And that chemistry!

I loved that this drama allowed relationships to be messy. Yes, we have our epic main couple but I especially loved what happened with Chu Yue and Shisan and LTG and Ying. I loved that neither was an epic romance. With CY and Shisan, I loved that they didn't make him realize he loves her forever blah blah - he was an incredibly consistent character - charming, loyal and utterly clear he's incapable of permanent commitment to a single woman and she never could change that. And yet he died in large part to protect her, and it's in keeping with his character and it makes sense that this solidified her remembering him forever - he's not just the one who got away, but he DIED for her. It's very clear if they both lived, this would have gone nowhere and ended with him wandering off or her moving on wanting commitment from someone who is capable of it, but as it is, it froze the possibility of love in ember.

And I loved the narrative of LTG and Ying. They both come into marriage in love with someone they can never have (Ruyi and YL), they both have similar backgrounds (royals but neglected and looked down upon), they both share the same goals (power but to take care of people) and they really are friends. I love that when we last see them, they have what is a great period marriage - no love but respect and common goals. And she still mourns YL and he probably still thinks of Ruyi but the thing is, I love that the narrative leaves the possibility of them eventually falling in love with each other (or other people) because as she tells him - you think you will always love a particular person but life is long. (And it's so true - she will remember YL until she's old, once again in part because of the unfulfilled possibility of it - but it doesn't mean she won't be able to open her heart to someone again.) It's a surprisingly hopeful ending for them and I love it. I'd totally watch a show where they discover love with each other tbh.

I did love that no character (except possibly Prince Danyang) got everything they wanted even if they emerged alive. They got some and had to give up some.

I loved what it had to say about having to be worthy of your power and position - you are not owed fealty by birth but you have to earn it. It was a surprisingly anti-imperial show for a recent cdrama.

All the deaths of our faves gutted me, none as much as Yuan Lu's. Oooof.

As to the ending, I can tell people are gonna have fits but I like it. I love many an ending legendarily reviled in cdrama fandom (Princess Agents and Novoland Eagle Flag have perfect endings in my opinion; I realize that opinion, especially about PA is enough to get me throttled in certain quarters but it is what it is) and I came to cdramas back when pretty much every costume cdrama ended horrifically tragically - think of the endings of the Chinese Paladins, The Myth (for a long time my n1 drama even though it made me cry so hard I threw up, ending-wise), The Young Warriors, Little Fairy, even Lan Ling Wang, Glory of the Tang Dynasty and Bu Bu Jing Xin if we are going somewhat later. I mean, one of my favorite dramas ever is Royal Nirvana and that ending is like drinking a thermos full of depression. This is nothing.

Honestly, I would have been fine if the ending for our OTP really was them dying pretty much together, in their different battles. That hint that they are alive and living with their kids is lovely and welcome, but I'd have been fine without it and it raises a lot of questions (though if anyone could fake their deaths and survive that sort of thing, it would have been them so fair enough.)

Anyway, this is basically my love letter to this drama. It was amazing and I am so glad I watched it.

[twopoppies]

https://x.com/teaandfrozenpea/status/1715702786392789371?s=46

🥲am tired… is this like normal occurrence every couple of weeks that someone or the other come and refuse larry being real?? I sometimes feel pissed at HL as they made sure everyone were aware that they’re together and fought for it for a while and someday decided that its their personal life and refused to say or indicate anything about it..

I don’t understand why you care what some idiot opening act thinks about anything involving Louis’ personal life. And just to be clear, Louis did not flip off a Larry sign.

But, beyond that, I’m going to guess that you haven’t been around for all that long, so I’d like to just take a minute to give you my opinion on a few things.

“Larry” isn’t a game or a mystery to solve. Harry’s and Louis’ personal lives aren’t a puzzle to solve where we win at the end when we were right. None of us have the right to be angry at them for the interpretations we made and chose to believe.

If you have any empathy at all, try to imagine yourself in their shoes. Imagine being as young as they were when they fell in love. Imagine having every aspect of your life controlled and being constantly punished for who you are and who you love. Imagine how that level of control was all you’d really know for five solid years. I don’t know how old you are, but I know that when I was their age I wasn’t capable of understanding how my life might change 10, 20+ years down the road. So what I wanted when I was 16-23 was not the same as when I was 29-31. And it absolutely wasn’t the same as when I was 40. Or 50. Things change. That doesn’t mean that what I wanted when I was 20 was wrong.

I don’t blame them for one second for wanting to express themselves, for wanting to show the world who they were. And I don’t blame them for realizing how much the scrutiny of the world negatively affected them and for deciding to “claw back” some sense of privacy once they were allowed to.

If the main reason you’re in this fandom is for them to come out so you can celebrate how it affects you, then I think you probably should find something better to do with your free time. You’re never going to be happy with them because their purpose isn’t to give you constant reassurance that they’re queer or that they’re dating.

[fuck-customers]

I think my (new, but very straight-laced persona) boss (40-50 years-old) is high at work lmao

Normally she's very by-the-book, very orderly, nice enough, but a bit of a goody-goody. Today, she runs up to me (I guess we're work buddies? Idk) and she aggressively whispers "GRAB A CANDY" showing me a bag of candy that she bought from the checkout area and I'm like thank you. lmao And then she tilts her head back and looks at the ceiling and says "WOW!! This store has HIGH ceilings. Way bigger than my old store. Do you think anything can get up there?" And I'm trying so hard not to laugh as I tell her that we used to sell feather boas that people would throw up onto the rafters and she's like "WOW". She's whispering in all caps.

Then about an hour and a half later, she accidentally turned the store lights off for a solid minute or so. 😂😂

Posted by admin Rodney.

[gettingfrilly]

Can't get you out of my Ed

Chapter one of... 39 chapters lmao. This fic will kill me and I'll be damned if I don't take some of you down with me. Read it here or on ao3. Super mega thanks to @fish-bowl-2 for betaing and also for giving feedback on my massive outline.

--------------------------------------------------

“Ppbbbbbbththtbbbhththtthhhhh.”

“Dude.”

“Dude yourself.” Eddy mutters, not caring if Kevin objects to his bored mouth noises. What else is he supposed to do? It’s Wednesday, five pm, and raining. No one's been in the candy store for hours, and ain’t no one gonna show up before they close at six. So he stands here bored out of his skull, full weight propped against the counter with his face squished in his hands, elbows velcroed to the permanently sticky wooden surface. He keeps his eyes where they’ve been glued for the last hour, which is directly on the nostalgic kitsch wall clock with plastic lollipops for hands and pounded sheet metal with a scene from some 50’s style soda shop superimposed on it for a face. It goes well with the completely non-functional jukebox in the corner, the rows of dusty, empty, retro soda bottles lining the shelves on the wall opposite the front door, and the 40 year old ice cream machine behind the counter that’s been out of order since last summer. Eddy had felt giddy when Kevin first got him a job here his freshman year, tickled by his younger self’s hypothetical jealousy over how easily he could pocket a jawbreaker here and there. The garish clashing of the puke green tiles and pastel pink walls had filled him with bittersweet memories of childhood, familiar and welcoming for a first time job.

Now he just finds the whole store ugly. 

“You could, ya know. Work.” Kevin suggests. “Clean something. Stock something. Anything other than standing there with your thumb up your ass.”

“Oh? And you can’t?” He asks while side eyeing Kevin, who is also currently standing around with his thumb up his ass. More specifically, he’s leaning backwards against the displays behind the counter, wide shoulders slouched as his arms dangle at his sides. The clean hairline of his crew cut frames his wide, blocky face with sharp angles. He’s been made up of solid, sturdy shapes since he started playing for the varsity team in his junior year, and his workout regimen has further defined his muscles in the years since. Eddy wouldn’t exactly describe him as beefy, but his build is athletic for sure. He’s also classically handsome, Eddy begrudgingly admits to himself, though he’s not really his type. Too much of a normie for his tastes, with his basic sense of style and outfit compiled of store brand athletic wear. Guy shops at Old Navy for sure. Well, more like his mom shops for him there.

“I’m the boss. I’ve got underlings to do that kind of stuff for me.” An annoyingly smug smile graces his shovel shaped chin, and Eddy can’t help but grind his teeth.

“For your information, bossman, ” he hisses the title, “shelves: dusted. Floors: mopped. Inventory: stocked. Windows: windexed. Hell, I even ordered the lollipops by color out of fucking boredom. There is truly not a single thing left to do.”

Kevin hums and scratches his ten acre chin. “Oh. Well. Pbth.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

‘ Come now, with your cleaning skills, surely you left something amiss. Did you wipe down the floor trim? Deep clean the register? I see plenty of snack crumbs wedged between those sticky keys. And you didn’t even mention the employee bathroom, for heaven’s sake. ’

“Shut up.” He mumbles under his breath. “Huh?”

“Nothing. Hey, how’s Nazz doing?” Kevin’s and Nazz’s shaky relationship isn’t exactly his favorite can of worms to open, but he’s starting to get bored enough to peel his eyelids off of his face, so he better strike up some kind of conversation. 

“ Man- ” Yup, here we go, “I don’t get what’s up with her. Ever since she moved to Buffalo she’s been acting all different and weird. Dunno what happened to the Nazz we used to know.”

‘ She grew up. Which is something you may want to look into yourself, Kevin. 19 years old and no interest in pursuing a higher education or a greater calling like our dear Nazz has. Tut tut.’

“Yeah, it’s almost like she cares about shit now or something.”

“Exactly,” Kevin bemoans, completely missing Eddy’s sardonic tone. “I don’t get all the polisci stuff she talks about. I’m just not a political guy, ya know? Why can’t things just go back to being simple between us? College wrecks people, man.”

On one hand, even Eddy can tell Kevin’s being pig-headed about this. On the other hand, he can relate on a very painful, squishy, sore, and tender level.

‘Well you are quite pig-headed yourself.’

“She just outgrew this small town shit. We all should. I know I’m getting out of here as soon as I graduate.”

“Speak for yourself. I like it here.” Kevin mutters while crossing his arms petulantly.

“Of course you do, mister former high school quarterback nepo baby. You already got shit made here. Doesn’t your dad own the candy factory now?”

“Vice president. But yeah, he’ll own it soon. And he’s thinking of expanding. But what are you complaining about? Aren’t you all set up to inherit your old man’s dealership? That place makes decent dosh.”

“I’d rather eat nails.” The words come grinding out of his mouth as if it were already full of sharp, pointy metal.

“What? No way, man, you used to brag about that place all the time. Said it was your legacy and that you were gonna make it the hottest place in the county to get a used car.”

“Times change.” That’s the only explanation he’s willing to offer.

Kevin just shrugs, much to Eddy’s gratitude. That’s probably the best thing about being friends with Kevin; guy doesn’t ask questions. Makes him a solid person to vent to.

‘Especially if you’re allergic to discussing your feelings.’

With a long suffering groan, Eddy literally peels himself off of the old counter to do another useless perimeter search of the shop. He knows he still won’t find anything to do, but at least it’ll get his body moving. His sneakers squeak against the freshly mopped floors (so bored he even got out the mop, for chrissake…) as he eyes the displays, watching his reflection warp and transform from one glass container to the next, an endless hall of funhouse mirrors mocking him with his own boredom, irritation, and overall misery. His fault for scrubbing them all until they were spotless. The hole punched cardboard pallet that holds a variety of different brands of lollipops is just as hue spectrum oriented as he left it, so this time he goes for ordering them by size and shape instead. Well, that killed two minutes. Walk by the freezers, rearrange  some mismatched soda bottles he missed before. 30 seconds. Scrape a fleck of taffy off of one of the sliding door handles. 20 seconds. Stare at the wall for five seconds. Bang his head against it. Another second. Bang. Another second. Bang. Another second. Bang.

“I’m taking a smoke break!” He calls loudly over the shelves in the direction of the front counter, not waiting for Kevin to respond before frantically scrambling towards the backroom. He nearly trips over a broom as he bursts into the cramped space, swearing at it uselessly as he stumbles over to his locker. It gets jammed as usual, the damn thing, Eddy jiggling the handle with a growl before he finally tears it open. The hood of his windbreaker catches on one of the locker’s internal hooks, causing Eddy to shout obscenities until he finally shakes it loose and shoves his arms into the sleeves. He stomps towards the back door and bumps it open with his hip as he wrestles with the zipper, getting himself encased once he steps outside into the muggy July evening air.

The door slams shut behind him as he huddles under the small overhang of the dirty green awning adorned above the back door, fishing his pack of camel menthols out of the pocket of his windbreaker. The hush of rain against the pavement and rhythmic pounding of droplets plunking against the rusty metal of the awning harmonize well together, creating a nice soundscape to back up the click click click of his lighter. He mutters swears under his breath like a prayer, internally praising glory hallelujah once the cig balanced between his lips lights and he can breath in deep and slow, the mint flavoring tickling his nose hairs and soothing the burn of hot smoke in his windpipe. Smoke billows from his mouth and nose after he’s held in his lungful for as long as he can, his exhale audible and pointed heavenward, smoke catching and lingering on the underside of the sheet metal above. 

‘Those will kill you.’

“The sooner the better.” Eddy mumbles, letting gravity pull his loosening body down against the wooden door behind him, desperate for a paint job. He takes another grateful drag as he watches the rain bounce and slide off of trashbags, forming muddied puddles in the potholes below. The hit of nicotine puts a fuzzy blanket over the constantly firing nerve endings in his brain, making his eyes droop as he fights back a yawn. Double D doesn’t know what he’s talking about, calling nicotine a stimulant. Smokes practically put him to sleep. 

He sneers down at the ground. What’s he got to even do these days other than work, smoke, sleep, repeat? The only thing he has to look forward to are the occasional phone calls he makes to Ed at the military school his shithead mom shipped him off to last summer before they all started their junior year. Double D and Ed were inconsolable that day, clinging to each other and sobbing as Ed’s dad silently packed his red commodore with sparse necessities, the rest of Ed’s belongings in boxes marked for the salvation army. The memory still makes Eddy’s eyes burn, the same way they did that day as he blinked to hold back his tears, repeating to the other two that they’d call, they’d write, they’d visit, and once senior year was done in two years, the three of them would be out of here. Double D would definitely get accepted to some fancy shmancy school on a fancy shmancy scholarship, and the two of them would follow along, working whatever jobs available so that their combined income with Double D’s scholarship funds could net them a nice apartment in whatever fancy shmancy city Double D went to for school. They’d be free of this pimple on the map of America called Peach Creek, free from their families, free from public school, free to be themselves. There’d be a queer scene, he told Double D. They’d be accepted there, he told him. It wouldn’t be like it is out here in the boonies. They wouldn’t have to hide.

Well, his plan may have less people in it now, but he’s sticking to it. He can’t stand the boredom anymore, can’t stand the confinement. If he spends one more summer afternoon staring at his bedroom ceiling, has one more shift during the dead hours of the candy store, has to give his dad one more excuse as to why he’s not dating anyone now that he’s got a paycheck, he’s going to burst out of his own skin like some kind of insectoid, brain sucking monster from one of Ed’s B-rated black and white horror flicks and suck the noggins of everyone in a five mile radius. He’ll get out of this shithole come hell or high water. He has to get out.

‘And go where, exactly?’

‘Anywhere but here.’

‘To do what?’

‘Live. Breathe. Stretch out and run around and scream and cry and shout and kick and hit and go and go and go.’

‘With who?’

‘Ed. Or no one. Who cares.’

‘You’d be alone.’

‘I’ve always been alone.’

‘That’s not true. You know that’s not true.’

Water streams from the corners of the awning, creating a puddle dangerously close to his Air Force 1s. An errant raindrop lands right on top of the toe of his left sneaker, and he grumbles as he bends over to swipe it away, cursing himself for not looking at the weather report before putting these on. He curses louder when a chunk of ash falls from his cig and takes up residence where the water droplet just vacated, grabbing it from his mouth to hold it out to the side as he frantically brushes off his shoe.

‘Please, Eddy, be careful! Think of how much money your mother spent on such a frivolous purchase.’

Eddy snarls, sick to death of this incessant nagging. “Just shut uuUGHH!”

The smack of the wooden door against his ass throws him completely off balance, staring down at his shoes one second then catching himself on his hands and gazing at a puddle inches from his face the next. Adrenaline rushes through his body, making his lungs seize up and his eyes go wide, the rain falling on the back of his head feeling far colder than it should be on a warm July evening. He keeps himself propped up on one hand as he swivels around to identify his attacker, blinking owlishly when he sees Kevin standing in the lit doorway, giving Eddy the same, wide eyed look.

“Dude. You okay?”

Anger quickly intermingles with his gut-dropping fear, gritting his teeth as he pushes himself back onto his feet. “Watch where you’re going, shovel chin!”

Kevin places one hand on his hip while he holds the door open with the other, expression blasé. “Doors are for opening, man. Anyway, we’re closing up. Just wasting money at this point.”

He finally catches his breath, raising his cigarette to take another calming drag, only to feel something unpleasantly cold and soggy touching his lips. Damn it. His hand must have landed in a puddle. He groans and pushes his now wet hair out of his face.

“These ain’t fucking cheap.” He grumbles, flicking the unlit stub to the ground.

“Did you even hear me, man?”

“Huh? Oh.” Calmer and less distracted now, his brain finally catches up with what Kevin said. “Yeah, great idea, bossman!” The title is used in a much more jolly manner than before, giving Kevin a pat on the back and leaving a stubby, wet handprint behind as he pushes past him and back into the backroom to grab the rest of his stuff. He kicks off his nice sneakers to trade them for the ratty back ups he keeps in his locker, stepping into the worn pair as he puts his multi-colored Nikes into his water proof backpack for safe keeping.

Kevin sneers and murmurs something Eddy is sure was insulting as he looks behind himself and at the back of his shirt. “I’ve got to count money and lock up if you wanna stick around to help-”

Eddy’s locker slams abruptly, echoing loudly in the small space as he slings his drawstring bag over his shoulders and puts his hood up in quick, jerky motions. “Bye, seeya later, hasta la vista, sayonara, annyeong.” He half-jogs out of the back room before finishing his goodbyes, ignoring Kevin’s jeering as he slips through the door to the front room. He continues his half jog past the candy displays, snagging a jawbreaker and shoving it into his pocket next to his smokes before heading out the door and back out into the rain.

He breathes in a deep breath of freedom as he stretches his arms out to his sides and then over his head, making his way back to the cul de sac with a skip in his step. The world is his oyster now that he’s off of work. Now he can… he can… well.

The skip turns into a slow trudge as Eddy remembers he doesn’t actually have anything post work to look forward to, mood sinking further and further with each dark and empty store he passes by. Looks like Kevin wasn’t the only one who decided to close up early; all of downtown is dead. And it’s just not the cafe, the butcher shop, and the shoe store that are dark. It’s too early for the street lights to come on, but the sky is thick with heavy rain clouds, keeping the sunlight prisoner behind the bubbling veil of black and gray. His eyes turn down to the wet cement of the sidewalk with its divots and potholes, floating cigarette butts in the puddles that formed within them, scowling at his feet as they pointlessly move beneath him. What’s he even going home to? Another evening zoning out in front of the TV? Maybe lying upside down on his bed and listening to saccharine sweet slow dance songs? Then whatever he does will just be followed by chain smoking in the backyard until he’s tired enough to pass out as soon as his head hits the pillow, welcoming oblivion as an alternative to being left alone with his thoughts. It’s the same damn thing every day. And it’ll keep being the same damn thing every day until he gets out of here or dies. Dying may be the more convenient option at this point. It’d be a lot easier than having to finish high school before he beats it. All he has to do is wait for a car to come by and then jump out in front of it.

But no cars come. No one coming, no one leaving, a town stuck in stasis, the white noise enough to deafen him. His shoes are getting soaked. He’s gonna get cold feet.

Christ, he needs to quiet his fucking mind before he ends up as roadkill. He reaches into his pocket, fingertips brushing against the cool metal of his lighter before he finds his pack of camels, grasping onto it like a lifeline. He takes out the light with it, shaking a cig loose from the pack and into his waiting hand. He balances it between his pointer and middle finger, bringing it up to press it between his lips and under his hood so he can attempt to light it-

Only to immediately pull his hand away when he tastes blood on his tongue.

“The fuck?” He squeaks out, high pitched and startled. He looks at the cig and finds fresh red blood smeared on the paper and filter, but that’s not what’s most alarming; what has him wince and hiss under his breath is the sight of his hand, dark, slimy globules clotted together in the center with dried and flaky trails of blood running down between his fingers, some of it gathered under his nails, in his nail beds, and around the gold band on his ring finger. Rain splashes down into his open palm, the droplets saturating themselves with blood before they roll down the sides of Eddy’s hand and down his wrist, leaving trails of pink behind. He swipes his thumb gingerly over his palm and squints, scowl deepening when he discovers the cut beneath, small but deep. 

Damn it. Must have happened when he fell. Probably glass from a broken bottle. How did he not feel it? Stupid Kevin. Stupid door. He clicks his tongue and keeps walking, placing the cig back between his lips; he’s not gonna waste another one of these. It brings him minimal relief once it’s lit, his frayed nerves further agitated by the site, smell, and taste of his own blood. He’s had e-fucking-nough of that for one life time. Thankfully the shops start to become far and few between, with residential houses looming on the horizon. He’ll walk in through the back door to his room before his mom gets a chance to see his hand and starts freaking out. He’ll clean his hand, dry off his feet, and get out of this fucking rain. That’s something to sort of look forward to. Isn’t it?

When he turns the corner of rethink avenue several minutes later, all thoughts of the creature comforts of home disperse like a warren of rabbits intruded on by a fox. His cig, burned down to a stub at this point, dangles from his parted lips, eyes frozen on the looming portend of the past come to haunt him currently parked in his own fucking driveway. He’s freezing suddenly, all heat sapped out of him like someone pulled the plug, lungs becoming a vacuum as cosmic background radiation burns within them, singed by his only source of heat. It’s like he’s falling again, shoved from behind and just barely managing to protect his face from scraping the pavement. An unknown attacker from behind, the familiar sound of him breathing through his teeth.

He tastes blood on his tongue.

The cigarette butt falls from his lips as he turns away from the sight of the whale shaped trailer in front of his house, breaking out into a jog to the only other house he can think to go to, nestled right on the corner he just turned. His bedroom lights are on. His parents, as usual, aren’t home. He misses him with an ache deeper than anything else he’s felt in a long time.

He hopes Double D actually lets him in.

[badnewswhatsleft]

really interesting section from a podcast with patrick and sean o'keefe talking about the importance of harmonic structure in songwriting

choppy transcript below cut (patrick's sentences are unclosed loops with like 40% filler words ok /affectionate forgive me)

EL = Eyal Levi (host) SO = Sean O’Keefe PS =  Patrick Stump

(Story of recording harmony vocals for Knockout at 14 years old)

[00:28:50] 

PS: […] And the thing is too - for me that was like the coolest thing, because all I wanted was to have some capacity to influence the harmonic structure of music. Like, I was never - I never wanted to be the lead guitar player, I never wanted to be the star of a thing, but when I was playing drums, I didn’t get to be any… Like a bass player can change it from the root to a suspension, right, and that’s so much power that a bass player has! A drummer, you can change a lot, but you never really impact the harmony, the harmonic structure - and that was like the coolest thing for me, like someone was finally letting me do that, and I was like, “Sure, I’ll stay here all night!” I think my mom was like, “Where are you?!”

EL: Interesting. I just wanted to say, you’ve been talking about harmonic structure a lot, one of the things I wanted to talk about, just in my notes, was about melody writing, and obviously without great harmonic movement and structure and getting that right, there’s not gonna be a good melody that can come of it. So was that the goal?

PS: Oh, yeah! And it’s so funny, because - I know you know this, I know we all know this, because we all work in music and it’s like beating your head against the wall - no one even on the periphery ever gets that! It’s always like, melody melody melody, and you’re like, the melody is the least important thing, really! I mean at the end of the day, and I know that sounds ridiculous, but the melody is entirely dependent on what’s happening around it. And even what’s implied, so even if you have a - I was thinking of that Zombies song where it starts off, and it’s just a lead vocal solo - so much of what makes that vocal work, even though it’s a solo vocal, is the implied harmonics of what’s happening, what you’re being led to believe the chord structure is - is what moves it. So without the harmony, the melody means nothing to me. And that’s always one of the things that I get really frustrated with - it’s one of the reasons why I kinda quit the songwriter-for-hire thing, because when you’re in a songwriting session, you’re with somebody else, and I’m like, what are the hard things to do? I think the hardest thing is to find the lyric because, especially in pop songs, that’s the thing everyone walks away remembering. That’s the hard part really. Um, the groove? That’s, like, the other thing - there are songs, terrible songs, that have a good lyric and a good groove and everything else is awful—

EL & SO: [sounds of agreement]

PS:—that work! Very successful songs that have a great groove and a really solid lyric and garbage everything else, right? So you’re already most of the way there. But every time people would be like, melody, melody, and they start humming, or something, and I’m like, don’t do that! Don’t even be tempted to do that! Figure out the rest of it first, and then it’s like… It’s almost like writing dialogue. I read a screenwriting book one time, and they talked about like - dialogue = the fun part, do that last, because that’s the hard part, you have to earn that, kind of. When you’re working on it, you know you can write the dialogue, you have to build the story first, you have to build the - whatever - you have to build the framework of what your characters are gonna be interacting in. And that’s how I think about melody; melody is the fun part, get to that last, because if you don’t have the backbone of the song, your melody doesn’t matter at all, you know?

SO: That’s awesome.

EL: And you can just - not to trivialise great melodies, but that’s the part you can improvise, and emote, and (PS: Yeah!) get inspired over, but you’re right, without setting the stage for it, it’s nothing. And it’s the same not just with vocals, but with great guitar solos. Like that Hotel California solo (PS: Yeah!!) would not be what it is without that harmonic movement.

PS: No, no question, and I think that’s one of the things - I also think it’s a problem as a singer, with vocals, is that people don’t really tend to think of vocals as an instrument, they don’t tend to think of it in terms of what it’s doing melodically within a harmonic structure. Even I, when I started, I found myself - I was on a record with Neal Avron, who produced us after we worked with Sean; and I was in the booth for something. And there was a passing note - I can’t remember - it was just in between two notes, I had this little run. And he was like, “Well what note is that? What note are you trying to hit there?” And I’m like, “I don’t know.” And he’s like, “You should know.” [laughs] You should have a plan for every thing your voice is doing, should be a note. Even if you’re doing some sort of portamento thing, you should still know exactly where you’re starting and where you’re ending.

SO: It’s interesting how a lot of singers sometimes don’t know that. And I don’t mean it in a bad way, but like—

EL: They really don’t.

SO: Yeah, it’s interesting, sometimes if I’ll be in a studio where the singer’s having a hard time, I’ll ask, “Can you play that on the piano? Do you know that melody?” And sometimes it’ll take them a while to find it. But it’s cool, at least I’ve seen times when they do find it, and they make some connection, and it’s like, “Oh holy cow, these are just like…”

PS: No, I mean it’s a huge part of it. In fact, on Take This To Your Grave, there’s a moment - maybe it’s on Where Is Your Boy? I would love for it to be on Where Is Your Boy, ‘cause that was such a landmark song for us in recording. But, there was a harmony that I was working on, and I kept kinda singing it out, and you were like - it was a three part harmony, and my first part layered really well. But then my second part, I kept going into… This kind of rubby 7th, or something, or a unison somewhere - I can’t remember what it was. And you said, “Patrick, go figure it out in triads.”

SO: Oh really?

EL: By “rubby”, do you mean that it kinda just hit you the wrong way? Something doesn’t jive?

PS: Yeah, it was just rubbing wrong, it was just sounding wrong together, and you were like, “Go sit at the piano and figure it out in triads. What are you playing in all the vocal parts?” And I was like, “Ohh, oh, this—” It was something like that, where it was a 7th or a 9th that - when you sang it as a melody, because I was thinking of it as a lead part, when you sang it as a melody it sounded really cool against the chord structure, but with what’s already happening in the, you know… You know what it was? I do remember this, whatever it was, it created a minor 2nd in something the guitar was doing.

SO: Yeah, is that right?

PS: Yeah, so it was like, well just don’t do that.

SO: Let’s just not do that one. [laughs]

PS: Let’s just not do that. [laughs]

EL: So you said you were untrained, but obviously you’re… not untrained… Where did you pick that up?

PS: Um, just kind of watching and listening. And I have kind of studied a lot, especially since I’ve been doing the scoring thing, you kind of can’t… Even though I know a lot of guys who get away with it, just with, “Well, I wrote it in Logic and this is what the thing is.” You still - you know, you hire strings, and they have questions that—

EL: Yes, they do.

PS:—that you can’t really answer if you don’t really know what you’re talking about. So I have had to study a lot. I probably learned more about the terminology for music theory in the past three years than I did the entire time I was working on records, you know. But it’s one of those things too, where a lot of it makes sense. That’s the thing, I think, that’s scary for a lot of people about music theory, is that it sounds so strange and scary, but then you’re like, no, no no. It’s like Howard Hanson’s concept of dissonants and consonants, where it’s like, dissonants are just the ones that sound funny next to each other, that’s all it is. And sometimes you want that, sometimes you don’t, that’s all it is. And you know that implicitly, everyone knows that, even if you don’t really understand music, you know — like the Twilight Zone theme, you know that those notes are rubbing against each other. That’s the intended effect, that’s what it sounds like.

[nerdierholler]

Happy Valentine’s Day, lovely person 🌹

Your kind words on the things you reblog mean a lot <3 And I always look forward to reading your writing whenever you share something, there's something about the way you capture daily life moments that's so good. (Also: love love the animal facts you share!)

Here’s a romance-themed OC question for any OC(s) of your choosing (no pressure to answer on Valentine’s day itself, or at all):

What combination of random objects would your OC use to describe their LI? What do they represent? Bonus question: What would their LI use to describe them?

Thank you so so much for all of these wonderful words <3 Sorry this took me so long to answer. The week go away from me but I've finally gotten a good afternoon to answer. I'm gonna answer for Ethan and Adam and it kind of turned into a ficlet about just one object.

It doesn't come as a surprise to Ethan that no matter where he looks around Wayhaven, he finds things that remind him of Adam. What does surprise him are the things that catch his attention. Logic says every gray t-shirt or pair of sunglasses would be the likely culprits but instead today it's passing by an old building made from simply but solidly hand carved stone blocks. From a distance the lines seem perfectly straight, ordered row after ordered row forming an unmovable wall. It's only when one gets close that they can see the undulations in the joints, the individual chisel marks that make each block unique. For how many centuries did people pass their skill down from one to another? It's entirely possible that the man who made the blocks in Wayhaven would have used the same techniques as the man who built the keep that Adam grew up in.

Stone is a strong durable material. It's heavy and difficult for most to move or change, but in the right hands it can be made useful and accessible. The truly talented artists can turn the hard surface into soft pliable flesh, or at least the illusion of it. Stone cannot stop being a stone after all.

As Ethan passes by he reaches out and absently runs the tips of his fingers along the building's wall. It's solid and cool to the touch but he can feel every bump and pit created by years of wear and tear. They are imperfections that make it perfect. Poured concrete and blocks cut with modern saws create smooth surfaces that lack personality. They're missing the mark of their makers. Ethan can only hope that over time, he'll be able to leave his mark on Adam, and if he's very lucky he'll be able to carve out niche just the right size for them to fit together.

More random things under the cut

Other things that randomly make Ethan think of Adam:

Wine: It's because Adam drinks his blood from a wine glass so every time Ethan sees a bottle or pours himself a glass, he can't help but think of Adam and their different potential paths. He tries not to space out too much at the store lol

The smell of leather: Of course the Agency has the best SUVs, leather seats and everything, but really it's the well maintained leather from Adam's car the comes to mind when Ethan smells it. The antique store is dangerous. Heck, even that one nice chair in the waiting room can be a problem.

For Adam:

Sunny breezy days because they remind him of Ethan's personality.

Any classic film star. Nate watches old movies from time to time and there's something about that old Hollywood leading man style that makes him think of Ethan. Should Ethan ever decide to wear a 40s or 50s style suit Adam might just swoon. Now I'm having thoughts about a not-a-date night where the little theater in Wayhaven does a classic movie night and Ethan and Adam go together. Adam just looks like he's in pain the whole time so Ethan thinks he's have a terrible evening when in reality Adam's trying to hold himself together and not think all of *those* thoughts.

[ineffectualdemon]

Star Trek TOS Pilot: The Cage

I had never seen this pilot before which is not surprising as it wasn't originally aired until the 90s I believe.

I was surprised it was Captain Pike and not Kirk and even more surprised that the only character I knew and recognised was Spock.

Saying that I found the plot engaging, the acting good and the effects both charming and surprisingly good for the time. I really enjoyed it and even my 14 year old who, as a rule, doesn't like live action much due to their face blindness, was sucked into the story.

We guessed quite a few of the story beats but the question of how much you were seeing was illusion or not was an interesting angle and I was impressed with it over all. It was really good at capturing the spirit of what I came to love about Star Trek when I was really into it in the 90s.

Ratings:

Story: 9/10 - Solid story with interesting angles and the constant question of how much was illusion or not kept you wondering and guessing as the audience

Acting: 7.5/10 -Slightly wooden and off at times and Leonard Nimoy clearly hadn't found Spock fully yet but mostly a solid performance from all the actors. Really have to praise the Thorian actors though. They were very good at being detestable but yet still made themselves sympathetic at the end.

Cheese: 7/10 - Cheesy only in the best ways. Never to much but fun.

Enjoyment: 8/10 -I had a good time with this and both my Husband and Teen agreed. It was a good time.

Effects: 6.5/10 - for the time they were very good and the costumes and make up were surprisingly detailed but it was still what it was. Solid effects that were clearly effects.

Charm: 8/10 -Effects were clearly guys in suits and made on a shoestring but they were charming. The whole episode was full of charm

Cringe: -2/0 - Only one moment made me cringe and it made me cringe fairly hard but you were kinda supposed to cringe.

Aged Like Milk: -1/0 -Only one comment didn't pass the sniff test at the very beginning for me

That gives it a rating of 43 which puts it firmly in:

A Tier

All in all a good start to my system.

Tomorrow would be seaQuest but I don't own that yet so I'm going to give La Brea a try because why the fuck not.

(tier system under cut)

S 51 to 60

A 41 to 50

B 31 to 40

C 21 to 30

D 11 to 20

E 1 to 10

F 0 to -20

[dailybrandonrogers]

BRCU Timeline Ramble - How does ADATB impact where and when Stuff & Sam occurs?

In my BRCU timeline masterlist, I included this dotpoint as an extremely surmised overview of when Stuff & Sam takes place:

This theory came to me on a whim, however I think it holds pretty significant weight and I'd like to elaborate on it in this post.

As always, here's my timelines guide:

--------------------------------

What we know about Donna from Stuff & Sam and other "old-timeline" videos:

Donna & George "Grandpa" Hernandez have a history together.

Donna has a son to an unnamed father called Elmer, who would be "well into its 40s by now" during the events of Stuff & Sam.

What we know about Sam from Stuff & Sam and other "old-timeline" videos:

He is 38 in a video released in 2016.

He was an orphan, and remained in an orphanage until he was 17 due to his distrust and hatred for fathers. At 17, he was adopted by Donna, who was likely seeking to fill the void in her heart left behind from the abduction of her biological son (despite her concious efforts to distance herself from that connotation due to the painful memories.)

From some of these solid dates, we can infer that Sam was born around 1978. We can also infer that Elmer was born in the 1970s as well.

In Blame the Hero we see Donna Phitts depicted as a young adult in the year 1942. Legally, I'd say the absolute youngest she could be here is 18, estimating her birth year to be at the latest 1924. This would make her a minimum of 94 during the events of Stuff & Sam. Donna's age is something I'm happy to take hilarious liberties with as it's a meta running joke (eg; the disease and fossilisation jokes) and the storylines poke fun at the absurdity of this fact. This would put her in her late 40s/early 50s at Elmer's birth, which all things considered isn't *unfathomably* unrealistic anyway.

A Day At The Beach - 1.0 & 2.0 Explanation

The A Day At The Beach (ADATB) video was released on August 3rd 2018, which is also the explicitly canon date that video occurs as stated in Episode 5 of BtH.

The 22-minute ADATB video begins in the Old Timeline, and ends in the British Timeline due to the mishandling of the time machine, and historical interference by the Mingeworthies in 1865. This prompts the beginning of Blame the Hero in the British Timeline once he takes back the time machine from Helen Brownstein, convinces his 7yro self not to get a agang sign tattoo, and returns to 2033. As a side note, Blame's precessor debut video "Thugs Got Secrets" takes place in 2033 in the Old Timeline.

In Episode 5 of Blame the Hero, Blame is able to murder the Mingeworthies in 1865 before they manipulate Abraham Lincoln and rise to power. This action alone prevents the British Timeline from occurring from this moment forward. HOWEVER, we have not yet entered the Elmer Revolution Timeline. I have decided to establish this as another timeline: The Abraham Lincoln Lives Timeline. This is because Abraham Lincoln encourages Blame to stop the Mingeworthies from arriving in 1865 in the first place, which would also prevent Lincoln's survival of his assassination (and the people "winding up with civil rights" as he says.)

So now in the Abraham Lincoln Lives Timeline, Blame arrives in a normal 2018. His new actions this time ensures the Mingeworthies never make it to 1865 as they destroy the time machine he arrived in 2018 with. However, this also prevents Blame from returning home to 2033.

Now here's the important bit:

Main Character Blame's order of events across ADATB and BtH looks like this:

Buy a time machine off of craigslist

Travel back to 2018, the year where he, as a 7 year old, got a gang sign tattoo, and convince his 7 year old self to get a different tattoo.

Lose the time machine in the sand upon arrival in 2018.

Later find the time machine after it exchanged many hands in the possession of Helen Brownstein who tells him where his past self is ("the boy in the picture you're looking for") [[🌟🌟🌟]]

Successfully deter 7 year old self from getting a gang sign tattoo, but get a "disney channel bullshit" tattoo as a replacement due to Sam being the adult to sign off on it.

Create and enter the British Timeline upon returning to 2033 due to the mishandling of the time machine during the period he'd lost it for in 2018

Terrorist Bobby Worst's nuclear apocalypse occurs as the military has been eradicated by the United States of Britian's Government.

Be recruited by the Secret Society of Elmers to prevent the apocalypse by preventing the Mingeworthies from rising to power.

After preventing the aforementioned, be instructed by Abraham Lincoln to prevent the Mingeworthies from using the time machine in the first place.

Travel to 2018 and prevent the Mingeworthies use of time travel, but lose his time machine in the process.

Now at this point Phone Elmer (aka Eldest & Tattoo Shop Elmer) instructs Blame to steal the time machine from "the original you who came here to change his tattoo." Original Blame in this context is Main Character Blame at the point in the prior list order marked with [[🌟🌟🌟]].

The crucial difference is this:

Main Character Blame came from the Old Timeline in 2033, arrived in the Old Timeline in 2018, left 2018 in the British Timeline and arrived in 2033 in the British Timeline.

^ I call that Beach 1.0

Original Blame came from the Abraham Lincoln Lives Timeline in 2033, arrived in the Abraham Lincoln Lives Timeline in 2018, and then stays in the Elmer Revolution Timeline in 2018 (the physical altercation between Main Character Blame and Original Blame allows Tattoo Shop Elmer to access the time machine, leave the Abraham Lincoln Lives Timeline in 2018, learn about its origins, create plans with Hitler to invent a nuke that makes everyone look like Elmer, and return to 2018 in the newly created Elmer Revolution timeline.)

^ I call that Beach 2.0

The key thing to remember here is that the Elmer Revolution timeline starts the moment Tattoo Shop Elmer returns to 2018 to give the time machine back to the Blames, even though the Elmer Revolution and its nuclear apocalypse doesn't start until 2033.

Now because Original Blame chose to give up his time machine to Main Character Blame and stay in 2018, this is the iteration we see of Blame several months later in Stuff & Sam. As I've mentioned in previous posts, Stuff & Sam takes place in the latter half of 2018 and the first half of 2019 for this reason. I strongly believe the version of Stuff & Sam we watch takes place in the Elmer Revolution Timeline for this reason.

This also means Elmer goes from looking like this:

To looking like this:

In a matter of a couple months which is very funny to me.

I am going to make a follow up to this theory addressing some subsequent plotholes that relate to this arc and these order of events.

In the epilogue of Episode 20 of Stuff & Sam, Bryce Tankthrust is kidnapped by the Eldest Elmer who holds her captive and tortures her indefinitely. In a chronological meta video release order, the later Episode 1 of Blame the Hero reveals she once again broke the legs of the Eldest Elmer, but is still being held captive nonetheless. This is a plothole because at the time of Episode 1 of BtH, Stuff & Sam is nowhere near occurring, and won't occur until BtH events are finished. So... how... did... any of this happen...

What happens to the Elmer Revolution Timeline after The Eldest Elmer (his conciousness in an Elmer Drone Body anyway) is killed in 1942 and the New Timeline comes into effect. Does Stuff & Sam still take place in the New Timeline?

[agentnico]

Ted - Season 1 (2024) review

Look, it’s a live-action Family Guy. Let’s not even sugarcoat that fact.

Plot: It's 1993, and Ted the bear's moment of fame has passed. He's living back home with his best friend, John Bennett, and his family. While Ted may be a lousy influence on John, he's a loyal pal who will go out on a limb for friendship.

The Ted movies are enjoyable if a tad forgettable pieces of comedic crudeness. Also they haven’t aged the best, so I was quite apprehensive when I heard that they were making a prequel streaming series based on the property. Originally I was not even planning on watching it, however upon its release on the streaming service Peacock, which by the way has anyone even heard of Peacock?? I swear there are so many streaming services around now that it’s hard to keep up with them all. That Weird Al movie that came out a year ago was on something called Roku. Still have no clue what the fudge is Roku! Can’t we just get these streaming companies to bundle up into one and give us all the content on one singular platform? Now is that too much to ask!? Apparently so. Regardless, with that rant aside, let’s talk about the Ted show.

Indeed it’s a surprise that the Ted series is actually kind of good! It’s a throwback to the 90s American sitcoms, with the show focusing on not only the bear but also on his family living in the suburbs. And each family members gets up to their amusing antics every episode, and though none of it breaks any new comedic ground, I must say this was a very enjoyable and easy watch. For one, this show is actually funny. From the ridiculous scenarios that occur, with Ted and John smoking weed for the first time, to their dad wishing upon a star and bringing his toy truck to life who becomes a Republican racist, to John going to buy a condom at a supermarket where an overly nice shop assistant helps him to pick what kind only to turn out to be a creep who runs away as soon as another shop assistant appears. Look, it’s all ridiculous and stupid, but for the most part a lot of the jokes land.

Also, it’s so easy for the teddy bear to steal the show, and of course Seth Macfarlane is on top form riffing and throwing insulting one-liners left and right, and there’s also so much physical and slapstick comedy that comes from the bear’s movements, from how he runs to the way he stares at people with emotionless eyes. The teddy is great, and also even though he’s crude, he never became tiresome or annoying, whereas in the movies he did get a tad repetitive. However the human characters also get enough development and focus that you warm up to the entire family. The kid that plays John was actually spot on with his Mark Wahlberg impression, nailing the accent, but also as a whole he did a great job having to act mostly next to CGI character. His chemistry with the bear was very good, and you felt their friendly camaraderie. As for the parents, the mum was hilarious as the innocently nice housekeeper who was super naive about everything, and the dad at first came off annoying and selfish, but as the show progressed you warmed up to him too due to the solid writing. Then Giorgia Whigham rounds up the cast as the rebellious cousin who disagrees with the old-school beliefs of the family, but also ends up being a key support to each character.

In terms of the negatives, for a show that’s billed as a sitcom, the episodes were way too long. The premiere alone was 50 mins, and then rest ranged around the 40 minute mark, and so pacing did drag at times. Especially when certain jokes were stretched out longer than they should be, they really should have been kept to around 20 mins. Aside of the pacing issues, this was a solid comedy show.

Ted by no means reinvents the comedic genre, however it’s truly an amusing show that will have you smiling throughout, and turns out to be way better than it had any right to be. Also the special effects on the bear are also really impressive. He really does look like a real talking bear, and the movements were all fluid and well done. So yep, Ted is a win. Here’s hoping for a second season!

Overall score: 7/10

[egg-emperor]

I do love how Eggman's age is getting more solid and certain in the game canon. Eggman clarifying that he never really knew Maria/didn't know her well, implies they were indeed alive at the same time or else he wouldn't have needed to specify that he didn't know her well because it'd be like no shit if she was always dead in his lifetime. but it also makes sense for them to never have met, so he had to go off others' word of her before and after her death

so bam that puts him in his 50s at least as an example in an example that's official finalized in game information. then you've still got all the stuff I've been saying for years before, from Sonic Channel and Sega/Sonic Team Japan themselves, with him always being referred to as both middle-aged and old, the way he's been associated with respect for the aged day day in Japan when senior citizen age is 60s, the Sonic CD concepts considering putting him at 60, need I continue

he's in his 50s to 60s for sure. I'll never believe he's younger, 40s was a solely western age range in non canon media and it's way too young. I love how official stuff keeps backing me up even if they still don't wanna reveal his precise age and keep it unknown, which is fine. it's just nice to have a range of 50s-60s. though I'd love if they decided to show his age more in subtle visual details like crow's feet and gray streaks in his stache or something. such a handsome old man 🥰