#micki foster

[fridaythe13ththeseries]

[pepperstasia-beaverhausen]

Shipping ain't easy

[officialmichaelnesmith]

remember when micky said mike was his favorite monkee. Yeah we can tell

[spurstwt]

[theofficialkotawhite32]

7/12/2023

THE RUNAWAYS (1975-1979)

[yoonia]

I contemplated for a while about sharing this, but since a lot of you have been a great help while I was in dire needs, I feel like I owe you guys some updates regarding to my sick kittens.

(tw: pet grief, pet d**th, sick kittens)

When I first posted my past announcement, I had one of my foster cats (adult) in the process of recovering from a cat flu, one kitten who passed from a virus outbreak, one kitten dealing with a fever, and two kittens fighting bacterial infections and possible virus infection that they may have contracted from their brother.

Ever since your donations and help, I've managed to order more meds, buy a home nebulizer kit (plus all the necessary meds and liquids to go with it), and take Mai to a different vet for further consultation when the first meds didn't help and had instead made her condition worse.

Micky, the adult cat, has since fully recovered and has been officially adopted alongside her brother, Goofy. As of yesterday, she is living in her new forever home with two new sisters and another brother. Lili (or Lee, since we've found out that he's a boy), has fully recovered from his fever, which turned out to have taken its sweet time getting down because he wasn't reacting well to his first meds. He got rapidly better once we've taken him off the initial meds and switched them into new ones that worked the best for him.

Robbie (aka Nonna Jr.), has been recovering really well ever since she started the nebulizer treatment daily. Having the kit at home has helped us save a lot of the cost that would've drained our savings if only we had decided to take her to the hospital for the treatments instead. She's currently on the mend and is going through her final set of treatments before she can finally get out of quarantine and can return to reunite with her sibling.

Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to our precious Mai. Unlike her siblings, she was already facing a ton of health problems since birth, leading her to develop slower than the others, with signs of dwarfism, recurring pneumonia, and malnutrition (she couldn't latch on to her mom's milk and we had to give her formula ever since she was a newborn). We've been looking for the possible reason for her underweight issues and had first thought it was due to her dwarfism, but she may have other undetected issues with her body that we only started finding out after going to the 3rd vet.

Mai had one good day where she was playful again after getting the right meds and injections to deal with her stomach issues, but after having a meal one night, she started throwing up and her condition deteriorated rapidly until she passed away the next night. She passed in my arms last weekend, and it was the hardest thing that I had to go through since I've been hands-on in taking care of her since birth (I even assisted her mom's labour until she was born).

I hope this explains why I've been absent the past week, since I needed a break from everything and I've been spending my nights missing and crying over Mai and focusing on making sure that Robbie gets better. The next ordeal is returning Robbie to the main cat room and watching over her to make sure that she won't stress out once she notices that Mai is gone since they were bonded since birth.

For those of you who follow me on Patreon (and have access to my writing journal), you may have noticed that I've just started writing again the past few days. I'm trying to finish some stuff while I am coping and it's been helping me heal from all of this, so I might be dropping something new even though it may take some time.

Thank you again for everyone who has been helping, donating, praying, and keeping my cats in your thoughts. I'm so sorry that I couldn't give all positive updates to my situation, but things are (hopefully) looking good from this point forward.

i'll be back soon.

xoxo, Dia

[anthraxofeffervescence]

The theory that James Orin Incandenza is the in-universe author of Infinite Jest

I've heard this mentioned, but never really talked about, and also it's hard to find any people circulating this idea online, so here's a couple reasons why I believe this: -One of the only times we hear the author reference themselves is in a place directly related to fathers and sons (Footnote 268, after the section chronicling the incestuous relationship between Matthew Pemulis and his father: "Where was Mrs. Pemulis all this time, late at night, with dear old Da P. shaking Matty 'awake' until his teeth rattled and little Micky curled up against the far wall, shell-breathing, silent as death, is what I'd want to know."). So either this is David Foster Wallace, breaking the fourth wall (meh, not really a favorite of his, he does it in Westward and he isn't a huge fan of that story, also wouldn't he know where she was if he wrote the thing?), some character neither seen now referenced to in the text who somehow has all this information (highly unlikely, seems ham-fisted and dumb), or it's a character that we DO know who has access to all of this information

-While the above was what first got me thinking about this, this one was what kept me thiking: JOI named FIVE of his works "Infinite Jest." It's clearly a name he's fond of... (also the name "David" has a VI, which is six in Roman numerals. That's not anything, I just think it's cute)

-There are no experiences relayed to the reader that take place before the death of JOI that JOI is not in: the scenes of the professional conversationalist, Avril's premature delivery of Mario, the conversation between JOI and his father

-he is incapable of any form of communication other than the use of words — while his preferred art form is film, he can no longer operate a video camera, so his art now takes the form of text

-his big monologue to Gately is about the importance of figurants: things and people that would never get attention in a traditional narrative, the people who exist towards the edges. As the wonderfully named @pissmd points out, Infinite Jest is a novel whose events exist entirely around a main narrative — a story that ends right as the quote-unquote real story is about to begin. To quote them, it is a novel about figurants, yes, but the novel itself is a figurant, kind of

-Wallace gives a fair amount of time to explaining how wraiths work, suggesting it is in some way important. They can move incredibly quickly and peer inside people's minds, both of which would explain how the author knows everything that's happening in the character's heads and how it can elaborate on multiple things happening in rapid succession

-I also think it makes sense on a subtextual level! Wallace talks a lot about writers (specifically fiction writers, which, Incandenza being a screenwriter, applies to him) as a species of oglers, so Incandenza being someone who has to apply an enormous amount of mental effort to be seen, much less understood, by others is kind of an ideal writer, in his eyes.

The biggest problem this idea has, I think, is the narrative interest in Don Gately. The interest in Hal, Orin, Pemulis, Mario, Madame Psychosis, even Marathe and Steeply, kind of, makes sense, but I have no earthly idea why the wraith would follow Gately before he gets involved with Madame Psychosis. Maybe my Wallace-heads can help explain this one for ol' anthrax of effervescence.

Let me know if you think of any rebuttals to this! I'm sure I've missed some big stuff, both for and against this theory. Take care of yourselves, gang!

[scrunckled-idiot]

part 1???

a years worth compilation of some of my wonderful facked up dreams that i've had :3

TRIGGER WARNING FOR SOME SEGGSUAL THINGYS AND VIOLENT DREAMS!!!

i had a dream where me and my mum lived in like this really thin line of apartments in the middle of like this dark snowy void, but at the same time it also looked like the street i live on. and i wanna say sniper was there too but idk. so aparently me and her are going out without my foster mum knowing and we go into this bathroom and DYE OUR ASSCHEEKS THIS FUCKING PLUM COLOUR IN SOMEONES SHOWER??? anyway we finish and go outside and its sunny now and looks like my street but like sandy and like beach-y? and then we get the news that this like- MASSIVE SWARM of these little black bugs are devouring everyone and everything and now its like a 3rd person view of this wave of writhing mass just slowly making everything disintegrate and collapse and this entire time i have this horrible feeling of DREAD during this part in my dream. and then it cuts to like this camera pov and its interviewing saxton hale??? he has like a shirt on tho, a yellow flannel i think, and hes on this cliff edge on a road and he's gesturing out to this really big tall island on the ocean Infront of him (think mount Olympias from disneys Hercules) and while hes talking about this island (or the bugs?) with like this really defeated expression on his face, this black swarm starts creeping up the island and it just starts getting smaller and shorter and then it like goes across the ocean an to saxton and the camera and it just all goes black. and then im like awake in my dream and im checking my ipad and like the websites are all just being destroyed by this black swarm of bugs and im freaking out thinking "jesus christ its not a dream" and then i woke up for real feeling this like horrible pit of dread in my belly.

was half asleep after waking up from a dream where it was no longer called "the g spot" or "masturbation" but instead called "artimus sming" but it SPECIFICALLY had to be said like how matt rose does in his videos. sounds like a fucking spell. woke up to the words in my notes and immediately remembered why it was there. no idea what i was dreaming about though..

i had a dream where monkey wrench was animated like old school tv shows. not like micky mouse or Disney obviously but more like the sonic x series, pocket dragons, aladin: return of jafar (for some reason). and dawg it looked SO GOOD IT TICKLED A BACK PART OF MY BRAIN AND HFBHKHFRKFRHK it was literally just shrike and he just had his arms crossed and he was like looking at something/someone offscreen and looked disappointed (or annoyed?) but all i remember is REALLY LIKING how his tentacles moved (they were wiggling for some reason even tho he didn't look like he was in zero gravity or in space he was just in like a cave or something like lythop liberation) and MMMMMMM HE ACTUALY LOOKS SO GOOD IN THAT ARTSTYLE WTF THE OUTLINES AND THE ANIMATION AND THE EXPRESSION IS WHAT MADE ME GO BRRRRRRR I WANNA SEE HIM ANIMATED LIKE THAT EVEN JUST FOR A FEW SECOND CUS IT REALLY FITS FOR SOME WEIRD REASON??? monkey wrench already feels like a cartoon that would have been on nick or cartoon network when i was a little guy so it just made it feel sooo much better. i wanna go back to sleep and see what else was gonna happen :(

I had a really bad dream. I can’t remember most of it but I remember walking around my old high school (its a very old building. like- ANCHENT), though it looked much different. The building looked bad on the inside and everything was crumbling and old. The walls were a mess, massive chunks missing and pain chipped off. It looked more like an office of sorts with more rooms and a taller staircase. I was exploring all the levels (for some reason the head teachers office was on one of the floors and idk why). I explored until I passed by rooms and rooms of old offices down an open corridor until I was at the end. A single room with two closets and a desk. No windows and the light was yellow compared to the natural light in the other rooms. two of my old friends were there S and J were hiding in the closet on the floor and cowering. I beat them both with an object I don’t remember. J was crying on his hands and knees and the back of his head was bleeding. I beat him to death. I don’t remember what I did to S but I left, I left the building and I don’t remember anything after that. i woke up feeling really guilty lik i actually DID it and i didn't feel right the rest of the day.

I had a dream where it was night-time and I was in my room drawing when suddenly i could clearly see space in the sky, I could see earth that was really REALY close (for some reason idk) the moon, milky ways and a bunch of stars, it was actually gorgeous, I didn’t have any glass on my window or blinds either. An intruder alarm went off in our garden and someone was in our house, I went to mums room and she was looking for a knife under her bed. I hid under mine and I think mum stabbed the intruder.

Had a dream where I was cosplaying as Gordon freeman and was going around my town looking for a crowbar to complete the look. kept bumping into Hitler wearing a beige jumpsuit tho.

I had a dream where I was in sawmill and the killer klowns from outer space were trying to kill me, no tf2 characters were there but I think sniper was. Me and my family sat down on a long table outside on one of the platforms and ate human hearts, some were frozen solid and some were soft.

I hung a cat by it’s lead but it wouldn’t die (also I was in Egypt for whatever reason. like everything beyond the fence in my garden was pyramids and sand.)

I dreamed that the carpet had been removed from the stairs in my house but not the landing and that there where hognose/ball pythons snakes coming out from the crack of the wood and we were all panicking.

i had a vivid dream where my mum and dad started to foster this new "kid". this was a grown man with black glasses, shaggy blond hair and a small stubbly beard (he looked kinda like a less-gay Jeffery Dahmer???) anyway for some reason they left me alone with him WHILE I WAS TRYING TO TAKE A BATH. so im stood there in the bathroom covering myself with a towel and im telling him to leave but he's just awkwardly standing in the doorway staring at me. and for SOME REASON there was a KNIFE BLOCK in my SINK so i grabbed a knife and threatened to kill him of he didnt leave. and then he grabbed his OWN knife from the knife block and started getting closer. i kept backing up and crying until i got into the bath and hid under the water (BITCH AS IF THAT WOULD DO ANYTHING. WHAT ARE YOU A HORROR MOVIE CHARACTER??? 😭) so anyway im holding my breath under water in the fetal position and he starts STABBING MY THIGH and i can FEEL IT IN MY DREAM, i could literally HEAR the breaking of my skin. it literally went through like butter (with no blood for some reason) over and over and over until i FINNALY woke up.

no idea what the cause of this was but i had a dream once where i had REALLY THCK CURLY BLACK CHESTHAIR and i could feel it on my hands when i touched it, VIVIDLY. it felt like one of those fake clown wigs- like a fake wig. or one of those like- metal sponges??? y'know its all like metal shavings bundles up to look like a shower loofa??? DO YOU KNOW WHAT IM TALKING ABO-

i had a quick dream where i was laid over shrike and like- hugging his chest (i think we were cuddling, if not that's pretty weird 0_0) and it felt like niceeee and coooold like a gel mat. which kinda makes sense since squids are cold blooded??? i think??? but dawg it was like hugging the cold side of the pillow on a summer night <3 and then i woke up to realise i was hugging my blanket and i was FUCKING DEVISTATED. CURSE THIS PHYSICAL RELM DENYING ME A TWINK. this was me fr ⬇️

I had a dream where shrike and beebs were my gay dads. (I DONT SHIP THEM BTW THEY ARE BFFS TO ME) And like shrike said he was gonna take me to the cinema (it was like pitch black outside)  but first we were gonna get some sweets from the shop at the end of my street. (This shop irl has been closed for like 6-7 years or somethin) anyway we didn’t even MAKE IT to the shop cus like this black car showed up with a bunch of alien guys in it and I think they were like- all one body??? Like I think it was a body with like loads of heads with REEEEALLY long stretchy necks and I automatically assume they were a cartel (for some reason) and they started to THREATEN us with guns and shit. I think they were mad at shrike??? And like after the mess of heads and necks shrike was GONE and I started crying and screaming “DAD! DAD!” And running around my street cus like he was just GONE. Also I remember sheep running down my street??? And then they just stopped under a light but they were still like pitch black and I couldn’t see them. Weird but anyways, made it back to my house and told beebs about it and idk why but he didn’t believe me??? And kinda brushed it off??? And so me and HIM went to the shop instead and I was still really sad abt shrike but it was so nonchalant??? Like we looked around a bit before just going to the shop (shrike didn’t appear in my dream after that). So we made it to the shop and I was with my actual irl dad now instead of beebs and the whole looking for sweets snd going to the cinema thing got dropped and we just looked around. And it was supposed to be like an American themed shop??? Idk why it was but I saw a fridge full of like king crab legs and lobster claws and I guess I automatically assumed??? Yea no clue what happened after that, Shrike just fucking DIED I GUESS??? 😭😭😭

[hinacu-arts]

Kids AU

My first big piece in a while! Not my best work but better than i expected :)

I can finally introduce my Kids AU! Set approximately 20 years after canon, the Hamato Clan has grown bigger with the next generation. The turtles and their friends have all grown up and have children of their own. One winter day they get visited by the teenage 2012!Turtles and Friends and 2012 suddenly realizes they do have a future despite being mutant turtles...

Meet the kids!

Zack, Zero, and Yelda

The turtle twins Zack and Zero are the oldest! They're in the back: Zero is the white mask and Zack is the black mask. Raph adopted them. They're mutated southern painted turtles. Yelda is the youngest! She's the lizard yokai up front with the yellow stripes. Yelda is Zack and Zero's step-sister, and the only true bio baby here.

Suki

It can be argued that Suki is actually the oldest, but the turtles didnt know about her until several months after Raph became a dad. Leo's long distance boyfriend from Earth-2 shows up with a magic clone baby of himself and Leo fell in love a second time. Yuichi thinks she's named after the moon (tsuki), Leo actually suggested the name because he's a ATLA fan (he tried to get her to fight with fans for so long). Her family spends most of the year traveling on Earth-2, but they spend the winters home in climate controlled New York. There is a samurai/ninja rivalry between her fathers. She's a ninja but Yuichi hasnt given up on it just being a phase

SHELLDON, Micky, and Rochelle

SHELLDON is still a AI, and spends his days traveling, but twins Micky (Michelle) and Rochelle are clone babies! Donnie was hurt Casey went to Draxum for her clone baby so Donnie had to make a superior clone baby and the twins were created. Donnie has made them their own battle shells and tech-bos for protection. Unlike Zero and Zack, these twins do not get along.

Billy

William Hamato-Morales. Billy is the one in the striped shirt! He was fostered and later adopted by Mikey and Miles! He's the second youngest but newest addition to the family. His family lives topside.

J.J., C.C., and Shadow

J.J., full name Casey Jones II, is Casey's clone baby mentioned above. He's way in the back. Casey wanted a heir for her brownie empire when Raph got his kids so she asked Draxum to build her a baby. He's closest with Zero and Zack. J.J. stands for "Jones Junior". C.C., full name Casey-Marie O'Neil-Jones, is J.J.'s half sister. April lost a bet and had to name her firstborn after Casey. She's the one holding the "camera". C.C. was a result of April and Casey's relationship, of which they are no longer together. Thats where Shadow comes in! Casey married Gaby (Gabrielle) and Shadow became her step-daughter. She's the one with the horrendous bangs i need to fix so dont look too close at her lol. C.C. and Shadow are the same age and best friends

Next, meet the adults!

[estercity]

okay and now here's the rest of them (meisters on the left, weapons on the right)

val moon & cooper d. grayson

n. rydan & yumiko tsukino

morgan grue & jasper

charlotte cash & nathaniel lumin

penny foster & margot and bianca vega

dante vampiro & eva thorne

chelsea hansen

karen koski & emilie dahl

al cingolani & jimmy sullivan

claire morris & bree reed

micky & mackenzie wood

claus nordskov & odette lakeman

dannika & zorah

nina abarca & ines ortega

prem puri & devi joshi

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

Longass Crop Circles Notes (I Don't Think I've Changed Chapter Two):

I don't want to talk about how many weeks these notes have been sitting in my notes app because I couldn't bring myself to go through them yet. My sincere apologies @spicymiilk

-Ah that incredibly relatable feeling when you want to get to one part of your story and you have to force yourself to slog through to get to it. It happens to us all.

-KIRI AND LO’AK GOING TO SPECIAL SCHOOL WHILE NETEYAM IS REGULAR IS SO FUNNY TO ME. Poor Lo’ak I’m being so mean to him. But you really want their asses GONE gone.

-Calling Jake a white man and saying he can’t understand their hair is so funny. Dude NEVER helped with ANY of his kids hair ever??? He’s never done Neytiri’s for her because he’s her bitch? Come on Jake, I expected more. Even I’ve done my cousins hair a few times. Maybe Spider will fare better?

-Obsessed with the way Neteyam is about his morning routine and solitude, it jives so well with my opinion of him. He’s got to have things his way, and under his control. Taken care of well. He’s going to have a field day with Spider. I see we are already leaning heavily into Neteyam’s "I can fix him" complex. Even when he wants to help Jake, which I know is something wheelchair users don’t often want if it’s something they do all the time themselves. It’s the innate feeling of standing by and doing nothing while watching someone struggle, when it’s their day to day life. And if that isn’t Neteyam’s whole thing? I’m obsessed with how he just cannot handle anyone else’s bad vibes without trying to fix it right away. Speaking of;

-If there is not a moment where Jake allows Neteyam to help him when he needs it, I will throw myself off a bridge, Andrei. ~growth~ the opportunity is there and it’s ripe.

-JAKE AND NETEYAM BANTER, I did not realize I was in a drought until I got a little bit of rain and I realized I was DYING OF THIRST. PARCHED FOR THEM.

-Jake “Detective” Sully: You are gay, son, try not to be too gay to the new foster kid you stalk at the local Micky Ds.

-I am literally obsessed with My Father Jake Sully who was neglected and hurt as a child being the most desperate man alive to connect with and heal kids in the same situation he was in. It fits so so well in his character for me. I feel like he spends most of his life trying to heal old wounds and make up for the past, in a way.

-Neteyam “I thought this kid was named Miles for years but I guess legally on his birth certificate it def must say Spider because it couldn’t be a nickname, that’s for sure” Sully

-I am CACKLING at them both lying to each other about McDonalds as though they both don’t know exactly how often the other one is there because they both find the other hot I’m dead.

-Spider mad at Norm for enforcing child labour laws has me wanting to make memes about it. The children truly do yearn for the mines.

-All the tiny little details of how Spider focuses on the people around him, on their moods and their movements and the way his brain works is so well done. That survival mindset takes years and years to unlearn, if you ever can fully. It’s well done as always.

-OH MY GOD EVEN NEYTIRI ALSO THINKS NETEYAM IS BEING TOO GAY THIS IS AMAZING.

-Justice for Jake, I will get him one of the cars paralyzed people can drive. Also his joke about driving Neytiri up the wall? HE’S A COMEDIAN. GET HIM A NETFLIX SPECIAL.

-Spider can’t look at Tuk because he was close with a little abused foster girl, where is the nearest bridge. NO REST FOR US, ANDREI?? ALL THE PAIN AND TRAUMA POSSIBLE CRAMMED INTO ONE EPIC.

-God the line about Spider’s therapist saying that his habit will lead him down a dangerous path, but he doesn’t understand why because he only ever hurts himself because he doesn’t see damage to himself as damage because he doesn’t see himself as worthy? Not worthy of the phone, of food, of attention or love? Truly my fav paragraph of the chapter. You are a master at establishing a character in a few subtle lines. It's a tactic that I only get after a few rewrites; instead of saying "Neteyam wants to fix everyone" you show us him in a situations where he wants to and can't help. Instead of telling me Spider doesn't care for his own safety, you tell me he's confused by his therapist saying his coping is dangerous. Instead of saying emotion, tell me something that would make me feel that emotion. Writing 101, and yet so hard to pull off properly.

-I laughed out loud at Neteyam trying not to look at Spider’s muscles I am dying. Neteyam should ask him out loud.

-EVEN TUK HAS IT ON LOCK, SHE SAYS NETEYAM HAS A THING FOR PEOPLE WHO SOUND A LITTLE SAD. This is so not funny but so funny because it’s all specifically for me.

-Neteyam later in life is like that dumbass gum commercial where the guy reveals he’s been keeping the gum wrappers every time the girl gives him one and drawing on them when and where she gave it to him? That’s Neteyam when the piles and piles of smiley face receipts fall out of his trench coat pockets.

-“I didn’t realize that was you” filthy liar. Spider’s smiley face drawing rizz is crazy. You bet your ass he wasn't doing that to every fuckers receipts.

-WHAT ON EARTH IS LO’AK DOING AT SMART PERSON SCHOOL, EVEN YOU DON’T KNOW ANDREI.

-THE CUTE BOY AT THE WINDOW ASKED FOR HIS NUMBER? AS IN, SPIDER, PHONELESS SPIDER, OR ANOTHER SNEAKY BASTARD BUTTING IN.

-Also these people have real memory problems, I’ve never forgotten any awkward interaction I’ve ever had in my entire life, especially not with a crush. I couldn't hear my crush at a party last year and I just laughed and said yeah and she was like "no I asked what you think" and not a single day goes by it doesn't play behind my eyelids like the DVD in The Ring. So, unless Spider has asked every single man at McDonalds out, he remembers when he asked a guy out and the guy sped off like he had a warrant out from Dominic Toretto.

-Oh my god, it was Spider. And this man sURVIVED that encounter? This man who can’t survive a strong breeze rn? What was he going to do with number, call him from phone booths? Send smoke signals to the write telephone wire? I am cackling at the idea that he had rehearsed this so many times and yet never actually thought through not having a phone.

-The smiley face on the paper. That revived Spider from his death post awkward encounter. There will be smiley faces on the invitations to their wedding and only Tuk will understand.

[fridaythe13ththeseries]

Found on Facebook

[pepperstasia-beaverhausen]

The Inheritance: The premier episode in which our heroes assault a child & steal her doll

Dude. What a fantastic first episode, no lie. But my title is keeping it 💯 because that's what happens. For real, though, what a great way to meet our awesome trio & the titular Uncle Lewis, amiright?

We get to see Lewis dragged to hell, meet Micki's douchelord fiance Lloyd, then the bash em over the head meet cute of Micki & Ryan, Jack coming to collect payment

And holding up Micki & Ryan with a goddamned sword after they've sold off all the items & inform him that Lewis had gone to that great coven in the beyond. Micki's constant bralessness & Ryan's comic book obsession is established, along with Jack being the most awesome Wiccan pimp who growls diablery this side of anywhere.

Also, EVIL DOLL! Baby Sarah Polley doing the absolute most with her menacing side eye after the doll Vita kills her stepmother in one of the most hilarious death scenes ever put to film. Our heroes busting into her house after a failed attempt to retrieve Miss Vita the night before. Like y'all do not know this family & just crash in guns (Micki's awesome unfettered rack) a blazing.

Exhibit A. You guyyyyysss. So anyhoover, the final showdown is amazeballs. Micki getting terrorized on the playground, Ryan's master of the obvious "don't let go!" line, then of course, the child assault as Ryan snags that doll while whipping lil Sarah Polley off the merry go round like a boss. Mission Accomplished. Chef's motherfucking kiss.

And thus began my long, decades old love affair with this gem of syndicated Canadian television that spawned a pantload of smutty fanfic penned by yours truly & multiple hours of genuinely entertained laughter. Viva le Friday the 13th: The Series, bro namaths. From here to eternity.

[anniekoh]

Two books on the pathological optimism of mainstream American discourse. 

Ehrenreich begins with her experience with breast cancer and the ubiquitous infantilizing teddy bears. One breast cancer foundation distributed gift totes that included rhinestone bracelets and a pink journal with a box of crayons. “Certainly men diagnosed with prostate cancer do not receive gifts of Matchbox cars.”

Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America by Barbara Ehrenreich (2009)

A sharp-witted knockdown of America's love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism.

Americans are a "positive" people -- cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: This is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive is the key to getting success and prosperity. Or so we are told. In this utterly original debunking, Barbara Ehrenreich confronts the false promises of positive thinking and shows its reach into every corner of American life, from Evangelical megachurches to the medical establishment, and, worst of all, to the business community, where the refusal to consider negative outcomes--like mortgage defaults--contributed directly to the current economic disaster. With the myth-busting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of positive thinking: personal self-blame and national denial. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best--poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.

This reminder of how horribly wrong the economists were in the lead up to the 2008 mortgage/financial crisis from Ehrenreich.

Professional optimists dominated the world of economic commentary, with James Glassman, for example, a coauthor of the 1999 book Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting from the Coming Rise in the Stock Market, winning a job as a Washington Post columnist and showing up as a frequent news show guest. Escalating housing prices were pumping up the entire economy by encouraging people to use their homes “like ATMs,” as the commentators always put it -- taking out home equity loans to finance surging consumption -- and housing prices were believed to be permanently resistant to gravity.

David Lereah, the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, published a book in 2006 entitled Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust and How You Can Profit From It and became “the most widely cited housing expert” at peak of housing bubble.

And how self-help culture nestles into Christian frames

As sociologist Micki McGee writes of the positive-thinking self-help literature, using language that harks back to its religious antecedents, “continuous and never-ending work on the self is offered not only as a road to success but also to a kind of secular salvation.” The self becomes an antagonist with which one wrestles endlessly, the Calvinist attacking it for sinful inclinations, the positive thinker for “negativity.”

Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst by Karen A. Cerulo (2006)

People—especially Americans—are by and large optimists. They’re much better at imagining best-case scenarios (I could win the lottery!) than worst-case scenarios (A hurricane could destroy my neighborhood!). This is true not just of their approach to imagining the future, but of their memories as well: people are better able to describe the best moments of their lives than they are the worst. Though there are psychological reasons for this phenomenon, Karen A.Cerulo, in Never Saw It Coming, considers instead the role of society in fostering this attitude. What kinds of communities develop this pattern of thought, which do not, and what does that say about human ability to evaluate possible outcomes of decisions and events? Cerulo takes readers to diverse realms of experience, including intimate family relationships, key transitions in our lives, the places we work and play, and the boardrooms of organizations and bureaucracies. Using interviews, surveys, artistic and fictional accounts, media reports, historical data, and official records, she illuminates one of the most common, yet least studied, of human traits—a blatant disregard for worst-case scenarios. Never Saw It Coming, therefore, will be crucial to anyone who wants to understand human attempts to picture or plan the future. 

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[ulkaralakbarova]

Robot Johnny 5 moves to the city to help his friend Ben Jahrvi with his toy manufacturing enterprise, only to be manipulated by criminals who want to use him for their own nefarious purposes. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Johnny Five (voice): Tim Blaney Ben Jahrvi: Fisher Stevens Fred Ritter: Michael McKean Sandy Banatoni: Cynthia Gibb Oscar Baldwin: Jack Weston Saunders: Dee McCafferty Jones: David Hemblen Manic Mike: Don Lake Bones: Damon D’Oliveira Zorro: Tito Núñez Lil Man: Jason Kuriloff Spooky: Robert LaSardo Officer Mendez: Lili Francks Officer O’Malley: Wayne Best Priest: Gerard Parkes Hans de Ruyter: Adam Ludwig Dartmoor: Rex Hagon News Vendor: Rummy Bishop Mr. Slater: Richard Comar Russian Taxi Driver: Tony De Santis Simpson’s Truck Driver: Eric Keenleyside Card Hustler: Phillip Jarrett Bill: Jeremy Ratchford Mr. Arnold: Kurt Reis Francis: Garry Robbins Toy Robot Builder: Ric Sarabia Robotic Company CEO: Barry Flatman Robotic Executive: Jane Schoettle Robotic Engineer: Carlton Watson Federal Judge: Eve Crawford Art Lover: Craig Gardner Art Lover: Micki Moore Clothing Store Owner: Sam Moses Paramedic: Norwich Duff Secretary: Claudette Roche Desk Sergeant: Frank Adamson Bus Driver: Chris Barker Entourage Leader: Peter Shanne Reporter: James Killeen Swat Team Officer: Patrick Greenwood Stephanie Speck (voice): Ally Sheedy Film Crew: Producer: David Foster Producer: Gary Foster Editor: Conrad Buff IV Screenplay: S.S. Wilson Executive Producer: Michael MacDonald Director of Photography: John McPherson Screenplay: Brent Maddock Director: Kenneth Johnson Location Assistant: Liam Kiernan Producer: Lawrence Turman Costume Design: Larry S. Wells Production Design: Bill Brodie Stunts: Alison Reid Original Music Composer: Charles Fox Movie Reviews: