#rosemary month 2021

[babeypigeon]

happy twf4 day <3

[the-forest-library]

July 2024 Reads

Funny Story - Emily Henry

Summer Romance - Annabel Monaghan

Until Next Summer - Ali Brady

All Roads Lead to Rome - Sabrina Fedel

Expiration Dates - Rebecca Serle

Director's Cut - Carlyn Greenwald

How to Get the Girl - Anita Kelly

Once Upon a Leap Year - Anna Bell

On the Bright Side - Anna Sortino

Near Misses & Cowboy Kisses - Katrina Emmel

Heir, Apparently - Kara McDowell

Only One Survives - Hannah Mary McKinnon

The Lost Alchemist - Samantha Vitale

The Fireborne Blade - Charlotte Bond

The Elizabeth Stories - Isabel Huggan

Pirate Stew - Neil Gaiman

Little Ghost Makes a Friend - Maggie Edkins Willis

Woe - Lucy Knisley

Give Me Space But Don't Go Far - Haley Weaver

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me - Mariko Tamaki, Rosemary Valero-O'Connell

Cat + Gamer, Volume 1 - Wataru Nadatani

None of the Above - Travis Albanaza

Cactus Country - Zoe Bossiere

Soundtrack of Silence - Matt Hay

Just Add Water - Katie Ledecky

I've Tried Being Nice - Ann Leary

Did I Ever Tell You? - Genevieve Kingston

I Shouldn't Be Telling You This - Chelsea Devantez

Little Earthquakes - Sarah Mandel

You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried - Susannah Gora

Healing Through the Vagus Nerve - Amanda Armstrong

Adult Survivors of Emotionally Abusive Parents - Sherrie Campbell

The Love Prescription - John M. Gottman, Julie Schwartz Gottman

Better Sex Through Mindfulness - Lori A. Brotto

Stop People Pleasing - Hailey Paige Magee

True to You - Kathleen Smith

Bold = Highly Recommend

Italics = Worth It

Crossed Out = Nope

Thoughts:  The latest Emily Henry audiobook narrated by Julia Whalen did not disappoint. And overall, this was a pretty decent reading month.

Goodreads Goal: 257/300 2017 Reads | 2018 Reads | 2019 Reads | 2020 Reads | 2021 Reads | 2022 Reads | 2023 Reads | 2024 Reads

[bbsmuts]

What are some songs that make you really nostalgic?

Well, I could go on for a long time with this, so get ready for some serious yapping.

Don't You Worry Child - Swedish House Mafia This came out when I was 21, and I used to listen to this ALL THE TIME. I'm talking maybe 10 times a day, for a few months. It's associated with a lot of good times in my life.

I NEED U - BTS This was more recent, I was 24 when it came out, but not only is it one I also associate with good times, the sad side of it is amplified by the death of my great aunt about two weeks afterwards. I'm not a very emotional guy at all, but to this day the original video can make me sob like a little kid.

Dancing With a Stranger - Sam Smith & Normani Ah, 2020. A year like no other. Covid spread to Korea pretty quick, so it was here when this song was released. Whole cities were locked down, including mine, so I would throw this banger on at least once or twice again. It does make me nostalgic, but let's be honest, who actually misses 2020?

TASTE - Stray Kids PLEASE, this song is SO DAMN GOOD This was much more recent, and it was released right after I turned 32. It reminds me of life back in Gwangju. Also the production on it is top notch, it's a fantastic song.

LA DI DA - EVERGLOW Ah yes, another 2020 song. Unfortunately, lockdown restrictions didn't relax majorly until 2022, so I had plenty of time to listen to this and its album counterparts in my spare time. Also, Yuehua, WHERE'S OUR FULL LENGTH ALBUM FROM EVERGLOW FOR GOD'S SAKE

The whole album of Return of the Girl - EVERGLOW December 2021. Still on lockdown. Thanks, China. All jokes aside, this was the closest thing we've gotten to a full length album and in my opinion one of the better ones, and brings back plenty of memories from Christmas 2021 with my entire extended family in America. I'll add that trying to leave South Korea during 2021 lockdown was an excruciatingly drawn out process. Thanks, China.

Sit Next to Me - Foster the People A true classic. When I used to visit my brother at his apartment (across half the goddamn country), they would always have this on in the pool hall. Good times.

Immortals - Fall Out Boy Of course, we all remember this song from Big Hero 6, but I can proudly say I was here for this song before then, which was only a month before the movie. Regardless, it's a great song and brings back those memories from being 24.

Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen Moving back a good while before I was around, this song was incredible. I heard it all the time growing up.

Burning Love - Elvis Presley Moving back even further, this is probably my favorite Elvis song. As mentioned in a previous post, my dad was a pretty big Elvis fan, so I grew up hearing his music.

Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd Ignoring all the memes, it's a great song and one of my favorite rock songs. Alabama accents kill me bro 🤣

Slow Dancing In a Burning Room - John Mayer This song is AMAZING dude

Scarborough Fair/Canticle - Simon & Garfunkel Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme

Levanter - Stray Kids Incredible song, and also reminds me of Gwangju.

Bad Boys - Theme from the show "Cops" I watched this show a lot back in the 90s and early 2000s, and because of that I worked as an officer for a few years before turning my career path elsewhere.

Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits My dad used to listen to this all the time when I was growing up, so it brings back some memories.

I'm going to leave it here. Some of these I put in here make me feel so old 😭

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Private equity finally delivered Sarah Palin's death panels

Tonight (Apr 26), I’ll be in Burbank, signing Red Team Blues at Dark Delicacies at 6PM.

Remember “death panels”? Sarah Palin promised us that universal healthcare was a prelude to a Stalinist nightmare in which unaccountable bureaucrats decided who lived or died based on a cost-benefit analysis of what it would cost to keep you alive versus how much your life was worth.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/26/death-panels/#what-the-heck-is-going-on-with-CMS

Palin was right that any kind of healthcare rationing runs the risk of this kind of calculus, where we weight spending $10,000 to extend a young, healthy person’s life by 40 years against $1,000 to extend an elderly, disabled person’s life by a mere two years.

It’s a ghastly, nightmarish prospect — as anyone who uses the private healthcare system knows very well. More than 27m Americans have no health insurance, and millions more have been tricked into buying scam “cost-sharing” systems run by evangelical grifters:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/02/health/christian-health-care-insurance.html

But for the millions of Americans with insurance, death panels are an everyday occurrence, or at least a lurking concern. Anyone who pays attention knows that insurers have entire departments designed to mass-reject legitimate claims and stall patients who demand that the insurer lives up to its claim:

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/khn-podcast-an-arm-and-a-leg-how-to-shop-for-health-insurance-november-24-2021/

The private healthcare sector is designed to deny care. Its first duty is to its shareholders, not its patients, and every dollar spent on care is a dollar not available for dividends. The ideal insurance customer pays their premiums without complaint, and then pays cash for all their care on top of it.

All that was true even before private equity started buying up and merging whole swathes of the US healthcare system (or “healthcare” “system”). The PE playbook — slash wages, sell off physical plant, slash wages, reduce quality and raise prices — works in part because of its scale. These aren’t the usual economies of scale. Rather the PE strategy is to buy and merge all the similar businesses in a region, so customers, suppliers and workers have nowhere else to turn.

That’s bad enough when it’s aimed at funeral homes, pet groomers or any of the other sectors that have been bigfooted by PE:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/16/schumpeterian-terrorism/#deliberately-broken

But it’s especially grave when applied to hospitals:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/21/profitable-butchers/#looted

Or emergency room physicians:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/14/unhealthy-finances/#steins-law

And if you think that’s a capitalist hellscape nightmare, just imagine how PE deals with dying, elderly people. Yes, PE has transformed the hospice industry, and it’s even worse than you imagine.

Yesterday, the Center for Economic and Policy Research published “Preying on the Dying: Private Equity Gets Rich in Hospice Care,” written by some of the nation’s most valiant PE slayers: Eileen Appelbaum, Rosemary Batt and Emma Curchin:

https://cepr.net/report/preying-on-the-dying-private-equity-gets-rich-in-hospice-care/

Medicare pays private hospices $203-$1,462 per day to take care of dying old people — seniors that a doctor has certified to have less than six months left. That comes to $22.4b/year in public transfers to private hospices. If hospices that $1,462 day-rate, they have lots of duties, like providing eight hours’ worth of home care. But if the hospice is content to take the $203/day rate, they are not required to do anything. Literally. It’s just free money for whatever the operator feels like doing for a dying elderly person, including doing nothing at all.

As Appelbaum told Maureen Tkacik for her excellent writeup in The American Prospect: “Why anybody commits fraud is a mystery to me, because you can make so much money playing within the guidelines the way the payment scheme operates.”

https://prospect.org/health/2023-04-26-born-to-die-hospice-care/

In California, it’s very, very easy to set up a hospice. Pay $3,000, fill in some paperwork (or don’t — no one checks it, ever), and you’re ready to start caring for beloved parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles as they depart this world. You do get a site inspection, but don’t worry — you aren’t required to bring your site up to code until after you’re licensed, and again, they never check — not even if there are multiple complaints. After all, no one at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has the job of tracking complaints.

This is absolute catnip for private equity — free government money, no obligations, no enforcement, and the people you harm are literally dying and can’t complain. What’s not to like? No wonder PE companies have spent billions “rolling up” hospices across the country. There are 591 hospices in Van Nuys, CA alone — but at least 30 of them share a single medical director:

https://auditor.ca.gov/reports/2021-123/index.html#pg34A

Medicare caps per-patient dispersals at $32,000, which presents an interesting commercial question for remorseless, paperclip-maximizing, grandparent-devouring private equity ghouls: do you take in sick patients (who cost more, but die sooner) or healthy patients (cost less, potentially live longer)?

In Van Nuys, the strategy is to bring in healthy patients and do nothing. 51% of Van Nuys hospice patients are “live discharged” — that is, they don’t die. This figure — triple the national average — is “a reliable sign of fraud.”

There are so many hospice scams and most of them are so stupid that it takes a monumental failure of oversight not to catch and prevent them. Here’s a goodun: hospices bribe doctors to “admit” patients to a hospice without their knowledge. The hospice bills for the patient, but otherwise has no contact with them. This can go on for a long time, until the patient tries to visit the doctor and discovers that their Medicare has been canceled (you lose your Medicare once you go into hospice).

Another scam: offer patients the loosest narcotics policy in town, promising all the opioids they want. Then, once their benefits expire, let them die of an overdose (don’t worry, people who die in hospice don’t get autopsies):

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/12/05/how-hospice-became-a-for-profit-hustle

You can hire con artists to serve as your sales-force, and have them talk vulnerable, elderly people into enrolling in hospice care by convincing them they have nothing to live for and should just die already and not burden their loved ones any longer.

Hospitals and hospices also collude: hospitals can revive dying patients, ignoring their Do Not Resuscitate orders, so they can be transfered to a hospice and die there, saving the hospital from adding another dead patient to their stats.CMS’s solution is perverse: they’re working with Humana to expand Medicare Advantage (a scam that convinces patients to give up Medicare and enrol in a private insurance program, whose private-sector death panel rejects 13% of claims that Medicare would have paid for). The program will pay private companies $32,000 for every patient who agrees to cease care and die. As our friends on the right like to say, “incentives matter.”

Appelbaum and co have a better idea:

Do more enforcement: increase inspections and audits.

Block mergers and rollups of hospices that make them too big to fail and too big to jail.

Close existing loopholes.

They should know. Appelbaum and her co-authors write the best, most incisive analysis of private equity around. For more of their work, check out their proposal for ending pension-plan ripoffs by Wall Street firms:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/05/mego/#A09948

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Burbank, Mountain View, Berkeley, San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

[Image ID: An industrial meat grinder, fed by a conveyor belt. A dead, elderly man is traveling up the conveyor, headed for the grinder's intake. The grinder is labelled 'HOSPICE' in drippy Hallowe'en lettering. It sits in a spreading pool of blood.]

Image: Seydelmann (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GW300_1.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GW300_1.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[calware]

Every other question for the artist ask sheet, but u pick odds or evens

😳 yikes! ok lol

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

back in early 2022 where i wanted to make fake-neon signs of the beta kids. i ended up doing john and rose (i don't like how rose turned out) but i never got around to doing the other two. this idea was inspired by this post btw

12. Easiest part of body to draw

the nose :) i used to hate drawing noses but now i find it fun. i tend to draw the same nose a lot though 😭

(i promise i can draw other noses, i just happen to not draw them as often)

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

hands, as long as i find the right reference... which i usually don't bother doing

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

i focus on digital art 99% of the time and i am SUPER careful with all of my electronics, so i don't think i've broken anything i use to make illustrations except for wearing down one pen nib..... however. i took a jewelry making class one time in middle school and i broke. SO. MANY. SAWBLADES. THE TINY BRITTLE ONES.... i broke so many that my friends teased me about it and we made a graveyard for all the broken saws.

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

none. i do hand stretches if they start to cramp up though. if i draw too long my thumb will spasm (which is probably not good) and i will massage it whenever that happens

24. Do your references include stock images

sometimes, and it's usually because my first source for references is just a quick google search

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

i don't think i've had any WILDLY different interpretations... but one of my vriska drawings HAS gotten two analyses on the symbolism that i put in on complete accident

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

i was part of

a secret santa for a homestuck server in 2020

jade week in 2020

rosemary month both in 2020 and 2021

@queerjaneweek this year

@hsanthologies' trickster treats zine last year

and i'm going to be in another zine this year that will be released soon :)

[going-to-ikea-for-the-fries]

Timeline: Victoria Isabelle "Whiskey" Callahan

CW: Death, Grief, Fire/Burning, Burn Injuries, Scars & Injuries, Canon-Typical Violence, Torture Mentioned, Canon Character Death.

2009 - 18

Victoria graduates high school (3.4 GPA) gets accepted into College (University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee).

Joins swim team and tennis in college. Begins situationships.

2010 - 19

Victoria has her first kiss with a girl whose name she doesn’t remember.

Starts dating Lucas Sutton. They date on and off.

2011 - 20

May - Graduates University

Nathan has already enlisted in the Marines and is deployed overseas.

September - Joins Navy as a Seaman (Recruit) in the second half of the year. Progresses to Seaman (Apprentice) within that same year.

Gets placed in USS Sentinel. Picks up troops (Marines and sailors, especially) from Iraq after the Iraq War was declared over.

2012 - 21

Receives Seaman rank.

Remains in the Arabian Sea in the USS Sentinel for many small anti-piracy ops off the coast of Somalia.

October-November - Hurricane Sandy happens and gets shipped back to the States for humanitarian relief.

Meets Philip Graves.

2013 - 22

Returns to Arabian Sea for the first half of the year.

Receives Petty Officer 3rd Class rank after demonstrating bravery in service.

Signs up for Navy SEALS in the second half of the year. Begins Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training.

August - Meets Elaine and they bunk together for 2 years.

2014 - 23

Continues BUD/S training.

2015 - 24

Completes training (16 + 18 months = 2 years and 10 months), becomes a Navy SEAL.

Receives Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class rank.

Begins her Eastern Europe deployment assignments (anti-sex-trafficking ops).

November - Meets Meabh during an OP in the Black Sea.

2016 - 25

Continues series of deployments in Eastern Europe.

Meets Emilio during a joint operation with the Spanish Navy.

2017 - 26 

Receives Légion d'Honneur awarded by the French government for an act of heroism while off duty/on vacation.

Meabh receives the UN Peacekeeper award, Victoria is there to watch it happen.

2018 - 27

January - Loses her father and brother in a joint Marine-SEAL operation that resulted in an explosion and in many burn injuries for her. Spends 3 months on medical leave w/rehab.

Leaves home (to never come back), then spends 6 months in Officer’s Academy.

September - Graduates with Lieutenant Junior Grade rank

Gains the Whiskey callsign. Begins series of short-term deployments in Eastern Europe.

2019 - 28

January-February - Helps Meabh who’s on medical leave

June - Meets Val

Goes through Some Shit (Bad Mission, nearly died).

2020 - 29

Goes through Torture.

May - Meets Ghost & Soap

November - Starts officially working with the 141

2021 - 30

April - Marries Simon Riley

Goes through Torture Again.

June - Receives Lieutenant rank

2022 - 31

Soap & Meabh’s wedding (not invited).

Moves to Scotland with Ghost.

November - Graves betrays the 141 in Las Almas.

2023 - 32

Goes through Some Shit (Bad Mission, had to kill her way out).

August - Gets contacted by her aunt. Goes to see her cousin Rosie in New York.

November - Soap fucking dies, dog.

2024 - 33

May - Becomes an aunt! (Fiadh O'Malley MacTavish)

Extra 🫶:

Rosemary Williams belongs to my beloved @lyralein ;

Meabh O'Malley belong to my beloved @crashtestbunny ;

Emilio Melero belongs to my beloved @cod-z ;

"Valkyrie" belongs to my beloved @superhero-landing ;

Elaine Laswell belongs to my beloved @loveandplanet

[lpsgirl109]

The Official Pegasus Fanfic Masterlist

Decided to put a huge list of all my fanfics together. This will be updates over time. Note that almost everything off my Wattpad account is excluded from the list, that's because most of the stuff on there is really old and I'd rather let it fade into obscurity

Marvel Future Avengers

Twisted Shadows

Publishing date: 01/20/2023

Status: WIP

Info: My FA OC fic that has been in the works since like. 2020. Bruno faces his inner demon (and a literal demon) while Loki has to help a group of run away lab experiments. This one is Very OC heavy so I understand if its not your vibe, but this fic is my baby and I would really love for it to get more attention. I will say this fic has a fair amount of violence, and the main villain can get very freakish in terms of body horror, so be warned there

One in the Same

Publishing date: 10/18/2021

Status: Complete

Info: My first fic on Ao3!! A sweet little oneshot between Bruno and Bucky. I sort of really hate it now, but it kicked off my Ao3 account so in a way it is special. Plus my one friend really loves it so. Slay

Together

Publishing date: 05/27/22

Status: Complete

Info: A oneshot between Adi and Bruno. Mission goes wrong and it leads to Bruno getting injured and both of them getting lost in a forest

Keep Me On Fire, I'll Be Alright

Publishing date: 03/02/2023

Status: Complete

Info: A short oneshot exploring my headcanon in which Bruno cannot be in the hot sun for very long, because his body absorbs the heat and will make him sick. Very simple, but sweet

Locked Memories

Publishing date: 08/11/2023

Status: WIP

Info: this one is the one I fear is gonna get me shot down eventually for writing such a heavy fic about a kids show but oh well. Someone on Instagram has a whole Bluey comic that explores dark themes I should be fine /lh. Anyway, Bruno gets incredibly sick and has a bunch of dreams about a couple of kids who were once part of Hydra's Emerald Rain Project, but died sometime before the show. Should be obvious, but this fic features several deaths of children, and there may be one or two pretty graphic scenes, so if that bugs you, this fic is not for you!!

Raimiverse

Four Times Olivia Came In Clutch For The Besties, One Time They Came In Clutch For Her

Publishing date: 09/02/2023

Status: WIP

Info: OC fic about my girl Olivia Rosemary Octavius, featuring the many times she's helped out MJ, Peter, and Harry, and one time they all came together to help her. Still in the works, but should be done within the next couple months

And I'll Be Just Fine, If Only For One Night

Publishing date: 08/02/2024

Status: Complete

Info: Silly little Harlivia fic in which Harry and Olivia go for a drive late at night. Features hot chocolate and talking about feelings

Wings of Fire

The Arctic Skies

Publishing date: 08/05/2022

Status: WIP

Info: The first book in my DoD AU!! Basically, the entire AU is my take on how I'd write the Dragonets of Destiny, in a new war, and new challenges to face. Features ten dragonets of Pyrrhian and Pantalan tribes. This book is about the IceWing, Shiver. I haven't worked on it in. Over a year. But I do plan to get back to it soon

dividers made by saradika!!

[magicalyaku]

Thanks for joining me on this ride through 2022! When I started my reading spree in autumn 2021 I did not expect to find so much joy (and sometimes frustation) to motivate me to write hundreds of words about books every month. I read and write what I want and because I want to, but it's nice to know that sometimes there’s actually someone interested in what I have to say. So thank you for even the small interactions. :)

I had to edit this overview like five times because whenever I thought I was done I found another book I missed. So if I counted correctly I have read a total of 93 books (written and audio, not including manga, comics and non-fiction). That is ... a damn lot! Like 6 years combined compared to before. I also reread two of those books and while editing my novel I read it two whole times. That counts, right? (That’s why there’s 94 covers up there. Because i snuck it inbetween. Because I can. uAu) Only 14 of all these books I would categorise as non-queer. Funnily enough, 6 of those I didn’t like very much. Of the remaining 75 queer books I only found 1 book really bad and I’m picky about 2 more. Huh.

On to the award ceremony! (But don’t expect laudations. I wouldn’t shut up.)

Least favourite phrase:

... it smelled like boy.

(from: The Song that moves the Sun, Darius the Great (probably the 2nd) and the third time I already blocked from my mind (Here the Whole Time???)) That sentence came up fucking three times! Seriously. WHY?! I hate it. 8D

Favourite phrase:

But we have more important things to do than hook up.

(from: The Darkness Outside Us) I laughed so hard at this sentence. Finally someone who gets it! All stupid YA heroines should listen to this.

Favourite protagonists:

Jack Shannon (Aces Wild) and Neil Josten (All for the Game)!

Favourite covers:

Least favourite books:

A Far Wilder Magic (Allison Saft) and If You Change Your Mind (Robbie Weber)

Favourite books (no order):

The Darkness Outside Us (Eliot Schrefer)

Aces Wild: A Heist (Amanda DeWitt)

The City Beautiful (Aden Polydoros)

Every Bird a Prince (Jenn Reese)

All for the Game series: (Nora Sacavic)

I Wish You All the Best (Mason Deaver)

I Hope You Get this Message (Farah Naz Rishi)

More books I greatly enjoyed:

Both can be true (Jules Machias)

A Taste of Gold and Iron (Alexandra Rowland)

The Language of Seabirds (Will Taylor)

A Complicated Love Story Set in Space (Shaun David Hutchinson)

At the Edge of the Universe (Shaun David Hutchinson)

Milo and Marcos at the End of the World (Kevin Christopher Snipes)

Little Black Bird (Anna Kirchner)

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea (Axie Oh)

In Deeper Waters (F.T. Lukens)

So this is Ever After (F.T. Lukens)

All that’s Left in the World (Erik J. Brown)

.... aaaand many many more! uAu

Bonus!

At the half year point I actually counted how often the protagonists names were being used throughout those different books. I felt to lazy do to it in detail for the second half, but I can still present you my preliminery count of most used names for the protagonist, love interest and possibly best friend. These came up at least 3 times!

Will/William

Matt

Nate/Nathan

Andrew/Drew

Daniel

Lame, right? 8D My favourite name choice award goes to Rosemary and Rowan from Mirrored in Evergreen by B. Pigeon!

That’s it! Phew! Thanks the universe for books! :D

[astillwater]

Sep 2021- My first lavender bouquet

I don’t miss working in fine dining, however I do miss our abundant gardens. Going out whenever I needed & have carte blanche to pick heaps of mint, lavender, basil, nasturtium, rosemary, thyme, marigolds, whatever was in season.

Foraging for fiddleheads & morels in the spring. Walking across the grounds to the orchard for apples, blackberries, raspberries, pears, & even peaches. Getting suited up & clumsily helping our kind & patient beekeeper harvest fresh honey from the apiary.

And come autumn, the preservation of these valuable fruits, flowers, and herbs. Pickling white peaches in a sweet brine to use for desserts, the brine used separately to add acid to a signature cocktail. Dehydrating and vacuum sealing hundreds of pounds of mushrooms of all kinds. Making vats of vibrant green oils of chive, basil, & dill.

The looks of amazement & surprise when I’d proudly present ingredients strictly relegated to the spring & summer months in the middle of February.

Our sous chef teaching me how to delicately truss dozens of bouquets of precious lavender to dry & use sparingly during the long winter months. This was my favourite. 💜

[awwkie-dot-jar]

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

For Yarrow and Rosemary 🤔

Oh boy!! Definitely a while

This is the first drawing of them I could find, from June 2021. They changed quite a bit!!

Raze still exist, but his name now is Marte and he doesn't have to do with the alchemists' plot as much anymore.

So they have been a thing for a couple of years already!! It's quite common for me to have ocs simmering in my head for months or even years before I go from the base idea/concept to the actual design and role in the story

[inevitablemoment]

MARTHA RYAN - OC INFO

FULL NAME: Martha Rosemarie Ryan

NICKNAMES: Mar (by everyone), The Emissary of Tiamat (by Tiamat, Gozer, and Ariadne), Titania (by Jonathan)

FACECLAIM: Donna Dixon

FANDOM: Ghostbusters (1984-1989; 2021)

BIRTHDAY: July 20, 1958

ZODIAC SIGN: Cancer

SEXUALITY: Bisexual

GENDER: Female (she/her/hers)

OCCUPATION: School nurse (1981-1987) || Unofficial medic for the Ghostbusters (1985-1987) || Doctor of internal medicine (1991-currently)

BIRTHPLACE: Ann Arbor, Michigan

LIVES IN: Ann Arbor, Michigan (birth-age 10 months) || San Francisco, CA (age 10 months-18) || Philadelphia, PA (age 18-22) || Manhattan, New York City, New York (age 22-29) || Paris, France (age 29-39) || Nice, France (age 39-currently)

NATIONALITY: American, French (naturalized)

FAMILY:

Jonathan Seibert (fiancee, deceased 1979)

William Ryan (father, deceased 2010)

Francine Ryan [nee O'Keefe] (mother, deceased 2012)

Oliver Ryan (brother)

Maureen Ryan [nee Sweeney] (sister-in-law)

Kerrie Ryan (niece)

Janis Ryan (sister)

MOODBOARD

CHARACTERISTICS: Melancholy, people-pleasing, feisty, impatient, kind-hearted, brave, quick-tempered, compassionate, introverted, sorrowful, lonely, confident, stubborn

LIKES: Working in medicine, poetry, outdoorsy activities, research, working with the students, traveling, mythology

DISLIKES: Driving, nightmares, therapy, grand romantic gestures, her people-pleasing tendencies, headaches

WEAPON OF CHOICE:

Medical knowledge

First-aid kit

PKE Meter (during the Collectors arc)

Proton Pack (during the Collectors arc)

Ghost Trap (during the Collectors arc)

Gigameter (during the Collectors arc)

Telepathy (during the Tiamat arc)

Telekinesis (during the Tiamat arc)

Premonitions (during the Tiamat arc)

Reality warping (during the Tiamat arc)

Hand-to-hand combat (during the Tiamat arc)

Quick healing (during the Tiamat arc)

Heightened senses (during the Tiamat arc)

Quick reflexes (during the Tiamat arc)

Levitation (during the Tiamat arc)

OTHER PERSONAL INFO:

During her sophomore year of college, she met literature student Jonathan Seibert. They dated for about a year before they got engaged. Unfortunately, in 1979, as they were driving from the airport to Martha's childhood home, they were hit by a drunk driver. Jonathan was instantly killed while Martha survived. As she had been driving the car at the time, she blamed herself for his death and her grief deeply affected her future relationship with Ray.

After the car accident, Martha began suffering from chronic pain in her left knee. She regularly attends physical therapy to help cope.

Martha originally wanted to be a doctor, but decided to pursue nursing instead in order to please her father, who was very old-fashioned and whom she admired. After receiving her nursing degree, she had trouble finding an open position in a hospital and took a job as a school nurse.

Jonathan's nickname for her, "Titania," came from the faerie queen in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

She had been selected from birth as an emissary and a vessel for Tiamat; following Tiamat's defeat, she broke things off with Ray (whom she didn't know was planning on proposing to her) out of both guilt for her actions under Tiamat's control and because she still hadn't fully grieved Jonathan's death. She moved to Paris for a fresh start, attending medical school there, and has lived in France ever since.

INSPIRATION: Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Elisabeth das Musical), Emily Grace (Murdoch Mysteries), Jenny Moran (Ghostbusters - IDW Comics), Martha Jones (Doctor Who), Elliot Stabler (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), Ava Bekker (Chicago Med), Karen Vick (Psych), Izzie Stevens (Grey's Anatomy), Wanda Maximoff (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

NAME ANALYSIS:

Playlist available here

[scotianostra]

 Happy Birthday Scottish singersongwriter  KT Tunstall

Edinburgh born singer-songwriter KT Tunstall is one of Scotland's most successful musicians having sold over six million albums worldwide.

Kate “KT” Victoria Tunstall was born on this day 1975,  her birth mother was a  Hong Kong-born exotic dancer, who put her up for adoption her parents David and Rosemary Tunstall adopted her and raised her in St Andrews, she has always been aware that she was adopted. 

Strangely enough for a musician of her magnitude, KT Tunstall did not grow up in a musical household. Her parents’ only tape was a Tom Lehrer album on tape, leading Tunstall to discover the world of music entirely on her own , but it didn’t hold her back, KT was musical from an early age, learning to play piano, flute and guitar as a teenager.

KT moved to the USA, hungry for experiences and independence, she gained a scholarship to Kent School in Connecticut, New England. Whilst out there KT spent time on a hippy commune and formed her first band, The Happy Campers, she also spent a lot of time on busking in Burlington, Vermont.

After her time in the U.S she enrolled in a  music course at Royal Holloway College in London, before finally moving back to St Andrews, she joined a group of folk musicians from around the East Neuk  called The Fence Collective, which included the very talented Kenny Anderson aka King Creosote, in time she decided folk music was not for her and went on her way.

She began writing projects with Swedish songwriter/producer Martin Terefe and London-based Orcadian Jimmy Hogarth and London’s Tommy D. She started work on her debut album with her new band and legendary U2/New Order/Happy Monday’s producer Steve Osborne at the helm. ‘Eye to the Telescope’ saw her whittle down a massive catalogue of over 100 songs to just 12.

Luck played a part in her big break when due to another artist pulling out she appeared on  'Later With Jools Holland’ performing ‘Black Horse and the Cherry Tree’ it went on to become one of the most played songs of the summer. Her double platinum selling debut album 'Eye to the Telescope’ was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize. 

KT has now had 6 top 20 albums, the latest, Wax was in 2018, it reached number 6 in Scotland and 15 in the UK charts, her new album, Nut, is due out in September.

I remember her being interviewed on The Proclaimers, This is the Story documentary in 2017, where she chose their excellent song Scotland’s Story, commenting “Scotland’s Story just really struck me as quite a different song for them, that they were really saying something incredibly poignant and quite brave. It’s quite a critical song of the way that Scotland’s history is logged.

“Here we are in 2017 and it couldn’t be a more poignant, relevant song for what’s going on in the world and I just thought for right now, it’s an amazing song to sing.”

KT  has suffered hearing problems since 20n July 2021, she announced that she was having to pull out of her summer tour dates and permanently avoid lengthy runs of closely consecutive performances, citing issues with her right ear which were "exactly how the breakdown of my left ear began"  In July 2021, she announced that she was having to pull out of her summer tour dates and permanently avoid lengthy runs of closely consecutive performances, citing issues with her right ear which were "exactly how the breakdown of my left ear began"   Hearing problems have always been a worry to her; her brother  was profoundly deaf since

KT is touring just now, dates are all over the world, North America next month, then back home, she will n=be in Ireland, England and back in Scotland for the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival.

The song is a duet of Caledonia with Alan Cumming.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Michigan Democrats are considering speeding up the passage of new gun legislation in the state following a shooting at Michigan State University on Monday evening that left three people dead.

The drive for new legislation will be one of the first significant tests of Democratic Party governance in the state since the midterm elections. Last year, Democrats unexpectedly captured “trifecta” control of Michigan, with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer cruising to reelection and her party narrowly flipping both state legislative chambers, too.

It is the first time in decades that the party had complete control in Michigan. Republicans have in the past been resistant to gun control measures, and Democrats in the state said there will be new urgency behind their drive, after the latest mass shooting in the country. Michigan Democrats are focusing on three gun policy proposals: universal background checks, safe storage laws and extreme risk protection orders, sometimes known as “red flag” laws.

“We’re going to try to move faster,” Democratic state Sen. Rosemary Bayer said in an interview Tuesday morning. “After years of not getting an inch, now we’re making real plans.”

“Some of the legislation we have goes back 10 years,” added Bayer, who represented the town of Oxford in 2021, when four students died in a mass shooting at a high school there. “We just haven’t been able to get any traction to do anything.”

Bayer said that lawmakers updated legislative proposals following the 2022 midterms, knowing they might be able to move forward on it. Even before this week’s tragedy, state Democrats had said gun laws would be among their legislative priorities now that they have complete control of the government. In a roundtable with reporters in December, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks identified gun violence legislation as a priority for the chambers’ new majorities.

But this week’s shooting has increased the urgency.

“One of the models we’ve seen in these horrible tragedies is that we need to act quickly. Even in Florida, they were able to get it done in a red legislature,” said state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, who represents the area south of Detroit. “I think we can do that with a Democratic trifecta. There are conversations we’re having as soon as today to figure out timelines to expedite this process.”

Whitmer specifically called out all three of Democrats’ gun control priorities in her State of the State speech last month.

“Despite pleas from Oxford families, these issues never even got a hearing in the legislature,” Whitmer said at the time. “This year, let’s change that and work together to stop the violence and save lives.”

The MSU shooting occurred on campus in East Lansing on Monday evening, which killed three students and injured five more. The suspected gunman died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound off campus. The Detroit News reported that he pled guilty to a gun charge in 2019.

It is the 67th mass shooting in America this year alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a D.C.-based nonprofit.

Bayer, who Whitmer called out as a leader on gun control legislation in her address, said that there is a plan to introduce legislation “soon.”

“We had a schedule that we’re trying to move up even more,” she said. “We were targeting right after the first week of April, that’s what we were planning for, but we want to respond quicker.”

But Democrats in the state are also cognizant that they have very slim majorities to manage in both the state House and the state Senate. Even a single no vote from a Democratic lawmaker could sink a bill in the state House if no Republican joins.

“All you need is one Joe Manchin,” said Bayer, referencing the West Virginia Senator’s role bedeviling Democrats on Capitol Hill on a myriad of issues. (Manchin has worked with Senators from both parties on gun legislation in the past, and he supported the bipartisan law that passed last year following the mass shootings at a school in Uvalde, Texas, and a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y.)

“With these current events, how could anyone stop it?” Bayer continued. “But I’ve thought that for years.”

Spokespeople for Whitmer and Brinks did not immediately respond to requests for comment on new legislation. But statements in the immediate aftermath of the shooting expressed despair and outrage and signaled that Democratic leadership planned to push for gun control legislation.

Brinks tweeted that her daughter, a MSU student, was “answering my texts and calls” early Tuesday morning. Tate’s spokesperson pointed to a statement he issued saying “we can continue to debate the reasons for gun violence in America, or we can act,” adding that he had “no understanding left for those in a position to effect change who are unwilling to act.”

“This is a uniquely American problem,” Whitmer, who ordered that flags around the state be lowered to half-staff on Tuesday morning, said in her own statement. “We should not, we cannot, accept living like this.”

Camilleri and Bayer expressed confidence that the party would be able to get all Democrats on board for legislation focused on red flag laws, safe storage and universal background checks. And Bayer said she thought some Republicans could join on some pieces of legislation as well. “We’ve had a couple of Republicans join our caucus on the topic,” she said. “I hope this will help more of them to come over.”

But beyond that, broader legislation may be much more difficult, the lawmakers admitted.

“When it comes to some other issues that I’m sure we’ll be discussing, those might be tougher, but the urgency to act is now,” Camilleri said.

[notdogice]

So I want to show off some of my Pony Town cosplays because I just feel like doing so. This first batch is just going to be various one off cos' that I've made over the years that I haven't made any others that would justify a tag ingame. Some of these are old and probably needs an update while others are ones that I've made more recently.

Gohis. While I do have have Deltarune and DBZ tags in Pony Town, I'd rather just stick this one here. Made this in 2022 to match my pfp, if that wasn't already obvious.

Aku. My oldest cos coming from 2017. As you can see here, I have actually updated him over the years for he is one of my beloveds.

Chuck Quizmo. He's the newest cos in this bunch as I made him a few months ago. Also don't mind that one green dot, didn't realize it was there until after I finished writing this post. It's fixed now.

Fern. I originally made her back in 2018 and updated her around 2019. Might update her once more.

Zolo. Yes this is a 4Kids One Piece dub cos. If you seen the clip, you can hear this image. This cos only works ingame. Made in 2022.

Hawkodile. Made him in 2019 when Unikitty was a fandom that you could see a fair sized group of on PT.

Hermes v1. Originally made in 2018 that I've touched up a little sometime in 2021(20?).

Tight Pants (Leslie Hall). Truly an icon. Made in 2022. Might update her.

Linebeck. One of my beloveds, and I can't believe that it took me until 2022 to make him in PT.

Lord Betrayus. Another beloved. Made him in 2021. Fun fact, this isn't the first Betrayus cos I've made. The first one I did was in Creatures of Sonaria of all places.

Lord Dominator. Made her in 2022. Meant to be a show accurate cos. Actually, a lot of my cos' are made to be accruate to the source material, no matter how difficult it may be. There are a few exceptions though.

Lord Kogane. Holy fuck it's another one of my beloveds, but this time from a show that I literally have not seen anyone else have a cos for. I might evetually make one for Tengu, but I still have flashbacks to when I was trying to find reference pictures for Kogane. Obviously made in 2022.

Mira. A 2019 cos that I have updated since then. She might need another one though.

Mohawk Cat. I struggled a lot while making this one, and those reasons aren't very obvious from the final product. 2022.

Nezuko. Can't remember if she was December 2021, or Janurary 2022. Either way, I might update her, but I really don't want to either.

One Winged HHGreg. He is the perfect fusion. Very much December 2021. I have him fliped here because you can't see the wing the other way. Also if you know the video, you can here this image.

Pink Sheep. Woah, another 2017 cos! I have updated him, but a part of me wants to update him again.

Pinkie Pie. That's right, this is my only cannon MLP character cos on PT. Made her in 2017 and I have updated her, but only barely.

Rosemary. High Guardian Spice Abridged made me want to make a HGS cos. Another 2022 cos. Possibly might make more of these cursed beings.

Samurai Jack. This dude has literally never been touched since 2017. Haven't played as him since then, and never been updated. Absloute raw 2017 PT energy. If I wanted to work on him, I wouldn't even bother with this relic and just make an entire new pony.

TBH. Last but not least, autism creature. Technically only works ingame with a custom expression just to move the eye highlights up, but still works just as fine in the editor. 2022.

[boricuacherry-blog]

Joan D'Alessandro remembered as family's fight for child abuse victims marks 50 years

McGowan, who would later admit to the killing, wrapped her body, loaded it into his car and drove to Stony Point at the edge of Harriman State Park in Rockland County, New York, where Joan's body was found three days later, on Easter Sunday. Frederick Zugib, then the medical examiner for Rockland County, called the case one of the most brutal crimes he had investigated.

Rosemarie's staunch resistance to McGowan's potential release moved the still-grieving mother to ensure other families would not have to suffer the same trauma of fearing that their child's attacker would again be among the general population.

In 1997, she successfully lobbied for the passage of what came to be known as Joan's Law, which repealed parole eligibility for any detainees convicted of sexually assaulting or killing a child under age 14. The next year, federal lawmakers passed a similar rule.

Picture: On Easter Sunday, three days after she disappeared, Joan's small body was found in Harriman State Park in New York

McGowan remained grandfathered into his sentence and was never subject to the new rule. Yet he never benefited from the carve-out and died in 2021 while serving a life sentence at South Woods State Prison, four years before he would have been up for parole yet again.

"She was a leader," said Olivia Galgano, who taught Joan's ballet class and five decades later can still vividly recall the waifish girl. "Often, I would say we have to line up and she would run to be first."

Mere months after McGowan's death, the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office cut the ribbon on "Rosemarie's Room," a new extension to the office's Child Advocacy Center in Paramus, where law enforcement, medical and mental health professionals can tackle allegations of child abuse. Jason Love, then the chief detective of the office, described the expansion as a "safe place for our children to whisper their secrets."

It was allegedly the whisper of a secret that was McGowan's undoing. As Tobin continued to recount the investigation into Joan's death Wednesday at the Hillsdale train station, he said that as investigators grilled McGowan for the second time, probing his involvement in the savage killing, their suspect continued to deny any part in what occurred. As their scrutiny grew closer to the truth, he did not request an attorney, but a priest, Tobin said. Offering him the same privilege as they would someone in a confession booth, the detectives stepped out while McGowan spoke with the cleric. On his way out of the interrogation room, Tobin said, the priest turned to the officers and told them, "Fellas, keep questioning him."

Rosemarie details her fight to keep Joan's memory alive in a soon-to-be-released book, "The Message of Light Amid Letters of Darkness." Proceeds from the book's sale will benefit the Joan Angela D'Alessandro Foundation, which advocates for child victims of abuse.

In the D'Alessandro home, Joan's memory is very much alive. Colorfully painted rooms are adorned with photos of the spry, auburn-haired little girl who had a magnetic personality. Her bronzed ballet slippers and favorite trinkets sit atop shelves. And drawings of butterflies she carefully colored are framed and hung on the wall. The butterfly has become symbolic to D'Alessandro and is integral to Joan's garden in the center of her hometown in Hillsdale, New Jersey. The second time Rosemarie returned to the site Joan's body had been found, a white flicker caught her eye. It was a white cabbage butterfly that greeted her as she approached the boulder with a crevice.

[callsignspark]

What are my babes Mary and Bradley up to today? They’ve been on my mind! 🧡🥧

alexa! I’m so glad you asked because it gave me a chance to think about the Bradshaws and holidays! I hope you have a wonderful day!! below the cut because we know I can’t be brief lol

first of all, Mary and Bradley are big holiday people. Mary comes from a huge family that always went all out on holidays, especially when it came to food. Bradley’s holidays were smaller but no less festive, Carole and the ‘86 Daggers were amazing about making the day special for Bradley. so as adults (and especially when they have kids) they make the days special! their focus is always about having fun, making memories vs. making everything perfect. their decor for thanksgiving and christmas is very traditional/90’s, there’s no neutral tone buttplug trees in 5 miles of a Bradshaw. it’s all twinkling lights and bright colors. did I mention that Bradley would decorate on November 1st if given the choice and Mary is fighting for her sanity to make him wait until the evening of thanksgiving?

every year since the Dagger Squad was formed, Penny and Mav have hosted Daggergiving since the squad was always on call during the holidays. it’s a much more relaxed thanksgiving dinner, where everyone brings a dish and they spend the day in the backyard, lounging around the pool. they still have all the traditional food but in their bathing suits. Mary has been co-host with Penny since her and Bradley started dating (2021) because Mav, bless his heart, is a terrible sous chef.

however, in the timeline (aka 2023) Mary is super pregnant, with a capital P, because her due date is January. so this year she’s been relegated to a spectator (something she didn’t fight too hard, everything is difficult when you’re in month 7 of carrying twins) while Bradley tries to do his best to follow directions. he’s once again in shock and awe at how amazing his beautiful, wonderful, lovely wife is in the kitchen. the last few years he’s seen as the two of them fly around the kitchen, getting everything ready and making sure all the food being brought has a place, but he didn’t realize how much work and coordination really goes into it until he was thrown in the middle.

Daggergiving 2023 goes off without hitch, only 30 minutes later than usual due to a small oven issue (not Bradley’s fault, he stresses that point. not. his. fault.) Mary is graciously allowed to go first, Bradley filling her plate with the requested food as she slowly waddles walks in front. everyone spends the afternoon eating and relaxing in the warm late November sun, Mary falls asleep on a lounger, Annie snuggled into her side; the two of them only waking up for some pie (apple) before snoozing again. the annual Hangman v. Halo Uno fight happens, both of their partners peeling them apart before they actually fight. (Halo is leading this battle, winning four years in a row, Jake might blow a gasket if he loses in 2024.)

after the 4PM football game ends (Dallas winning over Washington, everyone groans as Jake gloats about his precious Cowboys. everyone then laughing when Flora gives him a victory kiss as a distraction before shoving him in the pool.) Bradley and Mary head home, showering the smell of rosemary and cinnamon off them before climbing into bed. Bradley keeps watching football while Mary snoozes, growing babies is hard work but he also knows that the last three years they’ve done the same thing she’s woken up during halftime of the 8PM game and well… let’s just say Bradley had to check the final score the next day. (it happens again this year. sleepy hormones and horny hormones are in equal measure for Miss Mary. Bradley losses his mf mind watching his pregnant, goddess of a wife ride him in the soft light of the christmas lights he strung up around their windows.) the night ends with them cleaning up and sharing a small slice of pumpkin pie they brought home in their doggy bags. snuggled in bed, Bradley whispers to Mary about the decorations he’s going to put up tomorrow, how it’s wild that this is the last Christmas tree they’re going to put up, just the two of them. it’s an extremely soft and sweet moment. all in all, they have a lovely day and it’s remembered as one of their favorite thanksgivings of all time.