#season 6 they were really like ''no more red dwarf in our show red dwarf fuck holly also lets just replay the hits''

[gothwizardmagic]

season 6 is worse than i remembered lmao but the polymorph 2 episode does have rimmer explicitly calling lister "my love" so

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High: The Seven Ep 1

Meet the Maidens

It is back to school baby, both for D20 and, funnily enough, myself as well (something I hope will give me more time to get the recaps out in a timely manner fingers crossed). 

As I’m sure you all know if you’re reading this, this season of D20 takes place in the world of Fantasy High but with a focus on Aguefort’s OTHER most badass adventuring party who we’ve so far only seen on the sidelines, the Seven Maidens! You’ll recall, they’re made up of the seven girls who were captured by Penelope and co. to fulfill the prophecy that would let Kalvaxus rule the world freshman year. And, in fact, we start with a flashback to freshman year so let’s just jump right in.

We find our seven soon-to-be heroines chained in the Red Waste in front of what we know and they will shortly learn in Kalvaxus’ lair--a crucial part of the prophecy that was the subject of season 1. The structure of this episode is sort of like 2 rounds of introductions--first here with the maidens meeting each other for the first time and then again at home with their families a la the first episode of Freshman Year so I’ll be glossing over certain things that we’ll get to later in their second intros.

Anyway, the first two to wake up are Danielle (aka Yelle: half-elf, druid) and Zelda (satyr, barbarian as we know). Zelda is her usual, adorably nervous self in contrast to Yelle who is no less sweet but in a super chill, granola girl, fuck the system kind of way. We actually learn that Penelope had her on board with the plan for a hot second when she thought it was just “overthrow the government” but didn’t know about the “install a just as bad if not worse evil dragon overlord” part. 

Ostentatia (dwarf, cleric) wakes up next and is, as Izzy--her player--describes her “Jersey Trash.”, all blinged up with jewelry that she secretly made herself and didn’t buy. She wakes up pissed and ready to bodyslam Aelwyn which are both extremely valid emotions as much as I love Aelwyn. By the way, all of the girls recognize each other as girls who go to their school but none of them are really friends though they very quickly start throwing the label around because that’s what you do when you wake up chained with 6 other people in front of a dragon’s lair in a place called the Red Waste. 

Katja (half-orc, fighter) wakes up and immediately cares about nothing more than the status of her beloved horse, Cinnamon and declares that if Cinnamon dies, she’ll die. This is a fantasy world so Ostentatia and Danielle are a little concerned that might literally be true via a soul bond or something but it’s more that Katja just really, really loves that horse. Danielle tries to cast a spell to locate the horse but can’t get the somatic components quite right with her hands manacled. 

They all get into a discussion about the fact that everyone for a fact knows they’re all virgins now (you know, the real issue here) and what exactly counts as “virginity” for the purposes of this prophecy (like, does second or third base count or only traditional home runs using the baseball analogy) when Penny wakes up and is, just so excited to be here gang! Penny (halfling, rogue), who is one of the girls who has been kidnapped the longest, is adorably and honestly a bit concerningly exuberant to be surrounded by all these new friends, totally disregarding  the fact that they are clearly in some deep shit. Zelda mentions that Riz, her old babysitee, knows they’re kidnapped and is trying to help and she lights up. 

Next up is Sam (water genasi, sorc/bard) who immediately starts thrashing to get out of her chains and, when she can’t get free, is devastated by the fact that her ex betrayed her (!?) Finally Antiope (human fighter/ranger) wakes up all out of sorts having started her growth spurt while in the crystal and also having needed to pee right before she went in which becomes a problem all over herself (which Sam helpfully cantrips away).

With all of them awake, the stones they’re chained to light up and some of Kalvaxus’ minions (the ones who tied them up) show up to do minion speechifying. Yelle does a horrifying Animorph style morph into a waterbear (a tardigrade if you wanna get all Bio 101) to get out of her bonds but then Sam who has a serious one track mind re: getting out of here (Correct) and has exactly zero patience for these guys casts Tidal Wave and just knocks them off the cliff. Yelle frees Ostentatia who frees everyone else with Animate Object on their chains. Hands free, Yelle also casts Locate Animal and tells a very pleased Katja that Cinnamon is doing a full Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron down the highway searching for her. 

The girls decide to explore the cave which has recently had most of its treasure moved (it’s currently in the gym for the Prompocolypse fight which is currently happening). Penny and Sam (who are in insanely different emotional places) find all these broken mirrors which Sam takes as a cue that they need to GTFO (which is what she was already doing) and Penny thinks would make a great material for friendship bracelet making which she starts doing as Sam physically pulls her away. Sam hears someone doing post-cry sniffles and is like, “Not today Satan,” still trying to leave. However, Penny sees that there is one mirror left and, inside, sees a ethereal looking human with flowing, preternatural, black hair who senses their presence and asks if Penny is someone named Anima. She asks for their names though she declines to give hers (hmm, feels very fae) and the girls give the fake names of Kelly and Cecelia which the figure says she will guard and not misuse. The figure says she is looking for her sisters (who she says when Penny asks are at Aguefort which...hmmmmm) and, all of a sudden, Sam and Penny are having a bad feeling about those mirror shards. 

They ask her a question about the mirror and she gets really aggro when it’s referred to as “her” mirror as she would very much like to be out of it. The woman really wants to get out and says she can give them lots of power if they help. Sam pulls out her compact Mirror of the Past (magic item that does basically what you’d expect--shows you info from something’s past though in a cryptic way usually) to try and get some info on this thing and just barely avoids losing her mind in the process because this thing is ancient. Like eons old. She also learns the woman’s name (or maybe title): The Ending of Things (will be calling her Ending for now).

Yikes!

Right around now the other girls come in and can see at the angle they’re looking at her at the woman in the mirror is Not Really A Person and Antiope points at her and reflexively casts a ranger sense spell to try and clock its weaknesses and stuff but Ending grabs the spell energy like a lasso and tries to drag her into the mirror. She does however find out that she’s stacked with hella resistances (total immunity to necrotic damage and non-maj weapons, resistance to most elemental damage, and more).

Sam briefly considers using Lightning Lure to pull Antiope back before deciding on a much less ouchy Counterspell. Unfortunately, it’s not strong enough and now she’s being pulled in by her spell energy too. Yelle casts Erupting Earth which has some pros and cons.

Pros: Antiope and Sam are saved! Yay!

Cons: The mirror breaks and whatever was in it is fully freed. Not yay!

Shortly after (but not before Penny gives everyone their new friendship bracelets), someone calls into the cave looking for them--it’s Fig’s mom, Sandra-Lynn (with new art)! She’s happy and impressed that everyone is OK (also, Katja and Sam both have little lines that foreshadow their ~parental issues~ for the season--Katja being very moved by the simple act of Sandra-Lynn showing up for them and Sam saying that in her experience moms can be very evil).

As they all leave the cave, they all do checks and get some info:

Ostentatia: The mirror was kinda like a palimpsest (the crystals they were trapped in) and whatever this thing is is ancient and powerful. 

Yelle: Gets the above info and the fact that when the thing left it wasn’t quite a bad vibe, just the vibe that something big and important is at play.

Penny: On an Arcana check she knows that what Danielle did 100% saved Antiope and Sam’s lives from whatever and wherever was on the either side of the mirror but the contact marked them in some way. 

Katja: With History she sees some Primordial writing which is the writing of elementals (one of the things Ending has resistances to which might be relevant; also Sam reads Primordial but doesn’t get to read what it says)

Antiope: She knows that she and Sam are connected to Ending now somehow but it’s a two way connection which means they can also use it to their advantage. 

Ostentatia casts Mending on the mirror shards which I think was to reconstruct the mirror but what it actually does is someone link their friendship bracelets. Cute!

And, with that, we cut to the present a year and a half later (which is Jr or Sr year for everyone). 

We hop from kid to kid as they get ready to head in to school and get glimpses into their homes lives! Let’s do a quick rundown for each girl:

Antiope Jones

We see that Antiope is the youngest of five in what is essentially a military family full of basically every kind of fighter (she says she basically lives in a “Crossfit box”). There’s an 8 year gap between her and her sister Corsica who is the second youngest so her parents are kind of already living like empty nesters. When she comes downstairs she is promptly handed a protein smoothie and told two pieces of info: (1) from Corsica she learns that she overheard at school --where she teaches--that Aguefort needs to talk to her for some reason but she won’t say why which annoys the crap out of Antiope and (2) her parents lined up an internship for her at the Ministry of Adventure. She and her mom verbally spar a bit about them being all up in her life and how stressed she is and how she likes what she has going now with the Seven but her mom wins ofc because she’s a Mom and also a master tactician with a deft hand for loving mom guilt. On the way to school her bros (who include a gunslinger and an eldritch knight cause they run the whole gamut of fighter classes) Facetime her like, “Yikes Ant, heard about what happened with Mom, this is why you don’t fight her lmao.”

Sam Nightingale

This is a heavy one so strap in. 

We check in with Sam who isn’t at her own family’s home but at Penelope’s family home which is off the bat eyebrow raising. It’s an upper middle class house and, on the way down, she has to pass Penelope’s bedroom which is conspicuously empty. Downstairs she’s greeted by Penelope’s human mom Rebecca who she learns is moving out soon because her elf husband is both cheating on her while away in Falinel and starting the divorce process. Sam clearly sees Penelope’s mom as a surrogate mom (for reasons we’ll learn in a second) and goes full ride or die assuring her that her ass is better than the ass of the woman he’s cheating with and offering to help burn his stuff even though drowning is more her specialty (she’s so cool). She also is a little stricken at the thought of Rebecca leaving her in the house alone but Rebecca says she can come with if she wants, she just didn’t want to disrupt her school life.

She also tells Rebecca that her bio-mom called recently which immediately sets Sam off. Through the convo we learn a couple of things:

Sam used to be an actor it seems.

And it seems like she was kicked out of the house after she transitioned or something similar which is why she lives with the Everpetals. 

Now that it’s more “fashionable” to to be trans (her mom’s words, not mine) she wants Sam to talk to her so they can get her back in the game.

Sam is having none of that and tells Rebecca to just delete her mom’s number. Then they have a cathartic session of burning her cheating husband’s shit before Sam leaves in Sebastian--her sentient, seafoam blue, self-driving car with a very hot male voice which I am extremely jealous of. She picks up Zelda on the way to school and they commiserate a little and have a heart to heart about adults and change and how much Zelda wants to body slam Sam’s mom. 

Penny Luckstone 

Penny’s house is a whirlwind of activity and her harried parents get her and her 19 young siblings ready for school (no wonder she’s such a good babysitter). We see where Penny gets her type-A ness from as her mom and dad both have this cheerful but overworked energy of “EVERYTHING IS FINE” like that Good Place sign. Her mom spares a second to tell her that she recently got a letter for The Society of Shadows which is like a super secret rogue college (which her parents assume is legit even though they haven’t heard of it cause they’re Mumple people and also, if you've heard of a rogue school, how good could it really be?) Penny is excited except that it would mean she’d have to move and leave her party. Her mom is like “hey it’s a full ride and there are 20 of you guys so just take that into consideration but it’s ultimately your decision” before she dashes away to get to work because it is always Go Go Go with the Luckstones. She texts Sam for a ride and Sam swings by to grab her. This is not plot relevant but she has a booster seat in the back of Sebastian with her name carved into it and it’s important to me that you know that. 

Katja Cleaver

Next up is Katja who lives in a Richie Rich style mansion and comes from very old money as she is descended from one of the first adventurers in Solace. She is in the barn with Cinnamon and the bugbear farrier they have employed (her name is Gertrude and a farrier is someone who does horseshoes). She eats the same breakfast as Cinnamon (hot dry oats and berries baybee) wo she loves so so dearly. Cinnamon is a magical horse--basically like a Find Steed spell that’s on all the time. She’s modeled the horse in her fave book series--the Babysitter’s Horse of course. Lockwood, the staff’s hobgoblin butler, is also there and they get a fantasy Zoom call from Katja’s dad who is in the middle of the insane 20th level adventurer stuff which he says might make him miss her graduation. She is extremely disappointed but just barely hides it from her dad (who seems to really care despite his not being around). She can’t hide it from the staff or Cinnamon however and Cinnamon offers to give her a ride to school via the scenic route. 

Note: We also learn two sad facts about Katja from the conversation with her dad.

Her mother is Disney Princess dead* and

She wears one half of a friendship necklace and it seems like she’s waiting for someone to give the other half to. It’s implied earlier that the way Penelope got her was by promising to be her best friend. Sad!

*Edit: Well, she’s gone and we’ll leave it at that until next recap. 

Ostentatia Wallace

Ostentatia wakes up and goes downstairs to have a very high energy in both directions interaction with her very fantasy-Italian mom and grandma. Her grandma is concerned her beard isn’t coming in--not knowing she shaves it on purpose which her mom is like, “Listen it’s fine but don’t tell grandma it’ll kill her.” She clocks very quickly that her dad isn’t there and his mithril working tools are gone. Her mom tries to play it off but she knows she’s being lied to and her mom relents. Her dad is at a meeting with the other workers of the shut down mithril factory and negotiations have ceased. It looks like he’s gonna be long term out of work. That explains where her dad is but not why the tools are missing. She decides to go do some investigating on her own and ambushes her dad in his car where, with the inaugural nat 20 of the season, she realizes he pawned his tools to get her 5 revivify diamonds. She's upset by this and he’s upset that she’s, in his eyes, questioning his ability to take care of his family. She’s like, alright, you did a thing for me, I’ll do a thing for you and she casts Animate Object to make his stuff steal itself back in a sequence that involves an animated crowbar using another crowbar which is just wild.

Danielle Barkstock

I’m gonna be real, Danielle’s life is exactly how you assume it is based on Who She Is As A Person so this one will be real short. Eco-friendly off the grid geodesic yurt. One super chill peace and love elf sorc mom and one rough and tough human ranger mom. She also knows and helps the Cubbies with their anarchist machinations because yeah, duh. She gets some messages from school on her crystal--one being a message from the principal saying that she and the rest of her party have first period off to meet with him and the other being a newsletter from the school showing, among other things, a photo of the Druid class doing a project but she’s not in it for some reason. She texts one of the other druids to see if she can figure out why she wasn’t invited but fully gets left on read. Brutal. Of course, she hasn’t messaged that person in 6-8 months so maybe that’s why.

Anyway, with that, all seven of our maidens make it to school and are all exuberant to see each other in a very teen girl way before getting to the principal’s office and learning that their party will be broken up at the year! 

Bad!

Superlatives 

I wanted to do something a little different for these recaps than the Bad Kid ones so instead of Honor Roll/Detention we are doing Superlatives and the inaugural one goes to...

Sam: Most Like To Survive a Horror Movie

Man she woke up chained in a ritual magic circle and she was Ready To Go Immediately. You will not catch this girl doing horror movie victim BS like exploring the spooky house or giving the creepy obvious ghost the time of day. She is hyper-competent and her goal is making it out alive and dragging her friends with her. Love her.  

Random Thoughts

The season immediately starts with a bang or I should say a bing with Izzy trying to say “bling bang” and accidentally saying, “bling bing” and immediately getting roasted by everyone. I love the authentic girl group vibes (which include everyone clowning on her then immediately hyping up Zelda to the max after being way more awkward). 

Handshake meme with Danielle and Moonshine from Naddpod. Also, Cinnamon and Horse from Centaurworld. 

I love that Rekha and Erika just straight up were like, “Our characters are Asian”. Like obviously, make your characters Asian coded in your fantasy world--all my D&D characters are black like me--but it’s funny that they completely disregarded the, “There’s no Asia in this world so I guess they’re this world’s equivalent to--” Nah just, “I’m a half-elf and I’m Asian.” You love to see it. 

I absolutely LOVE the choices the cast made to flesh out their characters based on the little info Brennan had about them, none moreso than rich horse girl Katja. Rekha is a genius. 

“I only want one thing and he’s working” KATJAAAAAAA

Man if I was in that flashback I would have been wilding out so much with my flashback plot armor. 

I appreciate that the first thing that Aabria has Antiope do is extremely uncool. I love it when players aren’t concerned about just being cool and on point all the time. Sometimes (read: often) that’s the less interesting choice. 

But on the exact opposite side, she’s a ranger and an arcane archer which I think is extremely cool. Lmao also I didn’t mention in the recap but she HATES dragons now which, understandable. I’m guessing they're her favored enemy. 

I can’t wait to see another group of kids interact w/ madman Aguefort. 

Also, as a known Aelwyn-stan, I am very excited for the possibility of the Seven interacting with her cause as much as I love her they are under no obligation to acknowledge her redemption arc and I would love to see them throw hands. 

I love the Greek myth naming scheme of Antiope’s extremely cool family as with her on the spot nickname “L-Cab” short for long caboose since she’s the youngest by a mile. 

Also this is out of character not in character but Sephie is an extremely cool nickname for Persephone. 

I wonder why Brennan didn’t let Sam read the Primordial in the cave. He just glossed right past her saying that she speaks it and she didn’t push it. Would it have solved his entire plot in the span of a flashback or was he just keeping things moving?

Sidenote, if I was married to an elf man and worried about aging like Rebecca, I would simply become a druid (or a monk or up my wizard levels so I could learn True Polymorph or Wish or something). 

I wonder what the deal with Ending is. She seemed relatively sincere in the mirror but that doesn’t mean anything. She could be sincere and also Very Bad News. 

There is an offhand comment by Brennan about how the dwarf forge god gives spells but doesn’t talk to his followers which I think means that Ostentatia is gonna be getting a direct god call soon enough. 

Also she mentions that her dad is doing some criminal activity on the side which seems like a Problem for later. Honestly all of the kids have some pretty rich parent drama happening which should be interesting to see explored. 

No nat 1s this ep and 1 nat 20 as I mention from Ostentatia. 

[radramblog]

Some vague concern regarding Modern Horizons 2

We’re getting into the thick of the spoilers for Magic’s next Premier, Big Brains Only set, Modern Horizons 2. Which feels almost too cramped, since the set drops in like two weeks, and presumably the full spoiler will be out by the pre-prerelease, which is..a week away or so? I can’t be arsed looking it up.

(love this art tho)

Considering the absolute flood of releases recently, and how dramatic the impact of the first Horizons set was on just about every format in the game, I’m a little concerned about what this set is going to do to the game. The time since last format-warping card is approximately 6 months- and to be fair, that format was pauper, but the window seems to be shortening every time.

I guess what we need to do is start with an examination of Modern Horizons 1.

Released in 2019, the first Modern Horizons was a set built from the ground up to be relevant in eternal formats, have an excellent draft environment, and add loads of value for casual formats like Commander and Cube. And, for the most part, I think it succeeded. While a few cards (Wrenn & Six, Astrolabe, Hogaak) definitely overshot the mark, a huge number have been generally adopted into various competitive strategies in various formats- Ephemerate is a staple roleplayer in flicker decks, Seasoned Pyromancer has kept Red relevant in tempo, Prismatic Vista is the 11th Fetchland no-one knew we needed. The power in the set is extremely well-spread, with the majority of cards radiating power.

The set also had immense appeal for more casual players, as even the commons and uncommons had unique and spicy effects. Drafting it is like a Masters set draft mixed with time spiral, a high-power environment making high-power decks and all sorts of interesting mechanics mixed together. The set truly does feel like Time Spiral 2. The various cards in the set helped bump up fan-favourite tribes such as Slivers, Ninjas, and Bears, as well as the numerous Changelings making them all sorts of shenanigans more viable.

The set just looks gorgeous as well? It was the first to use the Art cards that would later be used in all the Set Boosters, but this was a great opportunity to try it out, with some of the most divine art collections in any set for the past few years. Adding in all the references to older cards and characters, and non-competitive but enfranchised players like myself are going to be hooked.

What makes me love MH1 so much, I think, is that if you just read the cards, it’s clear that the designers were trying to make every card stand out, by just going “what if” for every single one. What if our typical 3/1 for 1W was a Changeling. What if we did Mother of Runes again, but make her playable without being broken? What if our Convoke creature paid you off for convoking it? What if we made Chained to the Rocks actually good? These are all White cards, but that’s just because they’re what show up first on the list.

So where does that leave us with the sequel? I have some pretty mixed feelings so far- on the one hand, the power is clearly there, the art is on point, but some of this feels like either a mistake or at least a misstep. Where MH1 was Time Spiral, I’m getting the feeling that MH2 is Planar Chaos- and I’m not just saying that because Storm is in Green now apparently.

What we’ve seen so far is pretty clearly (to me, at least) an escalation of what MH1 was- where that set seemed largely to be experimenting with what they could do within the rules of the game, this set appears to be trying to find new ways to bend those rules *just a little bit* while still remaining somewhat inbounds. Carth puts the Loyalty Cost icon somewhere outside a Planeswalker for the first time ever, and the wording on his ability is somewhat confusing. Grist, the Hunger Tide, has one of the most interesting and potentially abusable lines of text I’ve seen in a while, and Garth One-Eye- I mean he speaks for himself. The effects on some of these cards feels reminiscent of the MYB Playtest cards- especially Garth- and while some of those were successfully integrated into the game, there’s a limit to how much of that silliness is healthy for the game.

And if Garth reads like a Playtest card, the new showcase cards look like them. I actually really like how these look, but they come attached to one of the sets biggest problems, and one that’s kind of emblematic of MTG design for the past couple years since MH1- Complexity and Collectability Creep.

Modern Horizons 1 has 254 cards in boosters, that you can get either non-foil or foil if you’re lucky. Each pack has 10 commons (or 9 commons and one foil of any rarity), 3 uncommons, one full-art Snow Basic, one rare or mythic, and either a Token or an Art card. There are two cards with special promos- Flusterstorm, the Buy-A-Box, and Astral Drift, the prerelease promo. You can buy it either in a booster packs or in booster boxes. Relatively simple.

For Modern Horizons 2, WoTC needed two separate articles to explain the various packs and promos, and people are still confused (to be fair fuck reading all that). There are 4 different special frames, and it’s incredibly unclear if they’ll be available in foil, or some even in nonfoil, or how you get each one, and apparently Etched foils are back again? What the actual fuck is going on here? Now, this is arguably not that huge a step up considering Strixhaven and its Mystical Archive, but it feels dwarfing compared to the last MH1. I liked the idea of Project Booster Fun at its outset, but at this point I think it’s clear that it’s gone too far.

(that’s gotta be the most ironic card/art pairing in a while...)

And my biggest concern with MH2 is this. It isn’t that the set will be bad (though based on these current spoilers, if you don’t like Squirrels, you’re SOL), because the set designers know what they’re doing, much as magic players love to complain that they don’t. It’s the precedent the sheer complexity of the collection is setting, I guess. I do think it’s too early to tell whether the set is clearly a mistake or it’s going to be great with some rough patches, but don’t get me wrong- I’m pretty sure this is a polarizer.

Fuck me it does have a Frog Samurai in it though, 10/10

[moonah-rose]

I don’t really know what else to say about TPL. I try not to have too high hopes for any new Red Dwarf content because I remember how much Back to Earth let me down and the three seasons since have been fun but not amazing.

This met the middle-ish expectations I had. It made me laugh, which is always the most important thing for me in this show. I loved all the cat jokes. I loved how it featured the cat race but wasn’t exactly a Cat-centred episode - which makes sense. Cat’s already had a bad experience meeting a female member of his kind before that didn’t turn out to be so no wonder he wouldn’t be all horny this time round. And also, not a social species. The Cloister-worshipping Cats just seem lame to him and the ferals...well, we’ll get to that.

What I really liked was how often it kept throwing things that felt wrong and then paid them off in the end. For starters having Holly back but it’s not our Holly. Having Norman be so deadpan was...creepy. Loved the 2001 reference. But then when we got Holly back at the end was cool - I do wish Hattie had a cameo though. She’ll always be just as much Holly to me as Norman (she was around longer!). We also got Cat being even more of a jerk to Rimmer than usual which had me screaming at the scene, even though I know that’s just him being blunt as usual...but then we got him admitting he enjoys hating Rimmer and also; “I am home.” Fucking. Wow. He barely missed a beat! Good kitty. I love how the whole “I am your brother” revelation was so half-hearted and in turn Cat didn’t care because he saw what dicks they were. Found family for the win!!

And the whole moonlight talk between Rimmer and Listy....we’re all feeling the feels tonight on that, aren’t we Dwarfers? I mean it wasn’t quite the end of Stoke Me A Clipper (I doubt we’ll ever get another hug) or Blue (we DEFINITELY won’t get that again) but it was still love!! 

I will say the whole thing with Rimmer basically opting to kill himself and Lister talking him out of it...I don’t think it should have needed to get to that point for Lister to say something nice! The whole suicide (or double death) implications felt a bit too close to home. 

Some people were also annoyed at the laugh track, I didn’t mind it and always prefer it in Red Dwarf (season 7 and BTE just feel so weird). The score, however, felt a bit out of place and trying way too hard to be epic and meaningful. You’re a fun space sitcom with subtle feels, dudes!

Also, as much as I love all the boys from the Dwarf, if I was forced to rank them then my least favourite is always gonna be Kryten. It doesn’t help the only time I’ve thought the head looked any good  at getting Robert’s expressions right was Season 4-6. Again, if I’m held at gunpoint! So it was a fucking joy to have him basically taken out in the last act and have Rimmer save the day and then get to rub it in his face. ^_^

It was cute! Definitely didn’t feel like a big finale and, thank Smeg, I doubt it was meant to be that at all. But if it is the final thing they make because reasons then I wouldn’t be too miffed. Cheers, Smeg Heads!

[brenli]

[28]

Tagged by: @goddamnitkastle​ (YAYAYAY ANOTHER ONE!)

1. how tall are you? 5′3″

2. what color and style is your hair? Dark brown. A couple of stray silver strands. When the light hits it right you can see natural auburn-y red highlights/tones in it, especially near the ends. I wear it long, down to my lower back, usually parted in the middle (sometimes on the left) and with bangs. Usually blunt-cut across my brows, but I'm not as good about trimming them as I ought to be so they usually end up growing out long enough that I need to brush them off to the right.

3. what color are your eyes? Brown

4. do you wear glasses? My cat-eye specs are basically part of my identity at this point.

5. do you wear braces? Nope

6. what is your fashion style? I have contempt for this question that likes of which you cannot believe. XD I guess in the most general sense it's rock-chic. Rock/metal girl elements mixed with glamorous or feminine elements/silhouettes. But this is MASSIVELY boiling down my massive wardrobe and I've certainly had moments of departure from the rock-chic umbrella depending on how I'm feeling. I dislike strictly adhering to specific style labels; I find it stifling.

7. full name? Brenda Lee Larson. My maiden name is cooler to be honest; I only changed it because I was more interested in sharing a surname with the Honey and I know I can still use my maiden name for other things.

8. when were you born? July 24, 1987

9. where are you from and where do you live now? Technically born in Coupeville on Whidbey Island, WA, USA and spent the first 4 years of my life bouncing around different naval stations because my family was about that Navy Life, but the majority of my formative years Spokane, WA, USA so my assumption is that would be more accurately where I'm "from." (Hawaii is where my heart wants to say I'm from though as that's where my earliest memories take place~) After some years spent CA (first in the Bay and then in LA), I'm currently living just south of Seattle, WA. So. Basically I've been wiggling around the West Coast my whole life, including going so far west I ditched the mainland for a spell.

10. what school do you go to? I WORK at a school currently, Cornish. Freelancing as a house manager for 3 of their 4 venues. The 4th one never seems to put on any events that require one of us from the house management roster, otherwise I'd work gigs at that one, too. XD

11. what kind of student are you? Some of you who make these questionnaires clearly cannot think beyond life-after-schooling and it shows. XD I was an above-average student for the vast majority of my years in schooling but I started falling off a little toward the end, largely because I was very keenly aware of what areas of study pertained to me and my interests/goals, and I had no patience for areas of study that did not. I left before it got too bad.

12. do you like school? I liked the parts of school that spoke to me~

13. what are your favorite school subjects? Literature/English was always the major go-to throughout all of my years of schooling. I was in Choir up until highschool; this was when Theatre became available to me and I wasn't able to participate in both, so I parted ways with Choir and focused on Theatre all the way up through my last years of schooling. Other subjects of interest, in highschool: Photography, Psychology, Forensic Science, World History. In college: Creative Writing, Journalism, Japanese.

14. favorite TV shows? The major ones have been racy period dramas The Tudors and The Borgias. I grew up on Star Trek TOS and as such it has a very dear place in my heart despite it not being a racy period drama. XD I also am quite invested in the Netflix MCU with Daredevil and The Punisher being my two favorite shows (Frank is my everything!). More currently I've been expanding my Sanada-san filmography-binge thanks in large part to @anagraves​; I recently finished the 1993 Koukou Kyoushi and am through episode 10 of Konna Koi no Hanashi. What I've been learning from this - Hiroyuki Sanada knows how to break hearts whether he's being soft and vulnerable to cold and cruel and anything in between, but that's exactly why I love him.

INB4 "you post Snow White everything so why isn't OUAT on here" I do enjoy OUAT a lot, but I don't know if I would consider it a favorite show overall. I'm more fond of the earlier seasons than the later seasons and it's that ambivalent feeling I have for the later seasons that make the show not a favorite - but still very good overall.

It's also at this point that I should probably explain what my blog description does not - my blog started running a Snow White-themed queue LARGELY as part of an inspiration-drive for a Snow White AU project that I haven't actually touched in a long time. I REALLY should do something about that; I just keep getting pulled in other directions and now it's years on and here I am with what's basically a Snow White queueblog. XD If I can ever get my dumb head in gear and FINISH what I've started, that would honestly result in the queue being mass-posted and then probably altered to suit whatever the next project would be. That's always been the intention, anyway.

15. favorite movies? While I'm still feeling the chilly gaze of my Snow White queue, my favorite Snow White movie thus far is Mirror Mirror. I think it's massively underrated and that makes me sad.

As far as Disney is concerned, while I have a HUGE amount of respect for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, my favorite film growing up was Beauty and the Beast (and my Rococo-loving ass does adore the live action remake). Surprise??? XD More recently, Moana is the film of my heart; it's the closest Disney has gotten to making a Princess culturally-relevant to me as a half-Filipina so my tropical islander ass is just utterly enamoured with Moana. ((Listen Disney if you ever decide to make a super fun colorful precolonial Philippine film THE PERFECT PRINCESS EXISTS FOR THAT, I submit for your consideration - Urduja!)

Because of my rather open-door childhood with regard to media, my earliest favorite movies are actually Nightmare on Elm Street and Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Warriors. Freddy is my Nightmare King Murder Boyfriend and I'm prepared to face judgement for that. XD

Fondness for Star Trek TOS has resulted in an affection for the AOS movies~

But a movie that speaks to me very much is What Dreams May Come.

Currently I've gotten re-ensnared into The Last Samurai, in correlation with the most recent AU project. Because I am hopeless, Grumpy Samurai is Best Samurai, and I've been spending time manically fretting and pretending that because Ujio drops before the gatling guns are brought out, maybe he SOMEHOW managed to survive in SOME way and he can have tons of cool battle scars. Right? ... RIGHT???

16. favorite books? If manga counts then it's Angel Sanctuary. Hands down. No contest. It's easily woven itself into my life in the form of fanfic that is/was well-received within the fandom, and a weirdly HUGE list of AUs that somehow burst out of nowhere. (Currently all of it, AU work included, can be read via my FF.Net account under brenli. I have a placeholder page on AO3 that's currently empty but may end up holding all my content there as well, in time. If I can ever make the time.)

I was and am really into Sue Harrison's Ivory Carver series, particularly My Sister the Moon.

It was part of my middle school/junior high reading curriculum but I honestly DID really like The Diving Bell by Todd Strasser. Even if the cover art of Culca coming up out of the ocean looked A LOT like me and resulted in my class calling me Culca for the entirety of our unit on that book. It's fine. Culca is a badass queen of pearls and seawater so I'm happy to be associated with her~!

Every now and then I remember a book that clearly really resonated with my as a child if I still remember it, but the problem is that I don't remember the title or the author, or even any of the characters' names. It was about a Roma girl who lived in the American south - I wanna say Tennesee? - who was discovered for her talent playing guitar and singing country music. The book essentially details her struggle between her traditional roots as a Roma person, including the arrangement for her to be married young, and her interest in pursuing music as a career but feeling alienated by an industry and a society at large that is wealthier than her and has a different culture from her own. The book ends with her running away but it isn't made clear what her ultimate fate is. To this DAY it bothers me that I don't remember the title or the author because I honestly go through periods where I want to reread it. And yes, this was the kind of stuff I was reading as a child. XD I also read My Sister the Moon for the first time when I was like. 11 years old. If you're familiar with the content of that book then you're aware that certain scenes are really not 11-year-old friendly, but. If I can watch gratuitous 80's slasher horror at age 4 then I can read about a young woman surviving sexual abuse at age 11.

17. favorite pastime? Writing at this rate, honestly. Which probably speaks more to my inner tortured artist than anything else. XD

18. do you have any regrets? I feel like everybody has at least one regret and anyone who says otherwise is either very very young, or lying. XD It's not about whether you have regrets, it's about not letting them hold you in the past.

19. dream job? Telling stories, in any and every way attainable to me.

20. would you like to get married someday? I already am~

21. would you like to have kids someday? Absolutely not. I don't feel like my life is conducive to childrearing, and INB4 "you're never truly ready" and "you make it work" the key factor here is I'm not WILLING to become ready and I'm not WILLING to make it work. That's how I know my life is not conducive to childrearing. XD (I'm at that age where tons of people are asking me this and feeding me words meant to encourage me to consider and it's honestly EXHAUSTING by this point. I can't wait for when I'm menopausal maybe people will finally shut up about it because I'll be past my prime~)

23. do you like shopping? I mean, yes, but I usually avoid it because I'm aware of how impulsive I am.

24. what countries have you visited? I'm tempted to say that Hawaii should count because it's so far away from the mainland. XD But honestly I've never been outside of US territory. It's in the plans to try for Japan during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. I'm not sure if we'll make that goal but if not, I figure it won't hurt to continue saving up anyway and making a Tokyo trip post-Olympics. Prices will be cheaper post-Olympics, anyway, so~

25. what’s the scariest nightmare you’ve ever had? At the risk of raising weird red flags I've gone through periods where I'll have reoccurring nightmares about being actively pursued by someone who very obviously intends to do harm. It happens often enough that the Honey wonders if I'm mentally suppressing something. XD I did have a standalone dream though, where me and the Honey were asleep in bed and then I become aware that someone's broken into the house and is approaching our bed. I'm walking through every possible option in my head with my eyes shut; if the Honey and I both lunged at the attacker we could possibly overpower them just because it would be two against one. But I know that I can't possibly wake up the Honey and make him aware of the situation without the attacker immediately acting and resulting in at least one of us being injured or killed. I realize that I have no choice but to try and take the attacker by surprise by myself and hope that is enough. I make peace with that. I can feel the attacker leaning over me. I suddenly lunge at them in full primal adrenaline-filled rage.

I wake up.

26. do you have any enemies? I guess that I have a few, yes, but honestly at this point I've gotten probably a little too used to being vilified. Barring physical assault or turning the animosity on innocent third parties in my life, I am prepared to weather the metaphorical lashes.

27. do you have an s/o? I have my Honey~

28. do you believe in miracles? I believe in miracles that aren't the overt surface-level wish-fulfillment-from-above which I think most people expect a miracle to be. I think that sometimes luck plays out via a slim-to-none chance and that can be a miracle. I think that sometimes a person works very hard at something or for something and when they achieve it, that can be a miracle. I think that the butterfly effect is a double-edged sword, but sometimes that little flutter of a butterfly's wings is a miracle.

Tagging: @yacky-jackie​ @halorecoil​ @anagraves​ @benevolentqueenofstars​ @lesbomancy​ @candybunnieholic​ @lemonedscream​ @tinathefish​

[woohooligancomics]

A Personal Racism Issue. Can I Get Your Advice?

I'm at a bit of a loss... so I'm hoping some of you hooligans might be able to help me out. This weekend I'm tabling a gaming convention with a friend of mine (and I'll leave his name out here for reasons that will be apparent -- I'll call him X). Admittedly, I'm a comedian and a cartoonist, so a gaming convention is slightly off-brand, but I'm hoping there will be a good cross-section of people who also enjoy comedy, and at the end of Friday I've already collected 5 new subscribers to our newsletter, the Woohooligan Weekly Dick Joke Advocate.

This came about when I got an unexpected call from X about a month before the event and he mentioned in passing that he'd already booked a table for this event. I offered to share the booth with him, because I want to attend more cons and I thought I could handle the 5hr drive. I've tabled about a half-dozen cons so far, this would be his first. And although he's a relatively new friend (a year?), I didn't have the impression he was racist -- at least not overtly or knowingly so... I wouldn't associate myself with anyone who identified as "Alt-Right", I think that should be apparent from my work, of which X is aware. Dunking on these racists was part of all three of my most recent YouTube videos, and a comic I published in 2016 which appears in my recent Woohooligan Vol 2 (page 29) that I now have on the table at the event thanks to our recent Kickstarter.

What I didn't realize until I arrived at the event, is that X is selling t-shirts labelled "Fantasy Lives Matter". There are about a dozen of them, roughly half of his t-shirt designs, so for example a picture of an orc with the text "Orc Lives Matter", another for Elf, Dwarf, etc. I hoped at first that it would go unnoticed as people often don't read the text and just check out the artwork. I've already noticed one girl at the table this morning was put off. She asked me, "are you a Black Lives Matter person or an all lives matter person"? To which I responded "black lives matter... I haven't had that specific conversation with X, though I suspect he's the same"...

Apparently I was wrong, which, I realize in retrospect is what I should have expected, because I think the majority of people would have picked up on the poor taste of trivializing serious problems faced by real people. I want to say I think most people would have picked up on that faster than I did actually, since I think I'd seen these graphics before (I mean, months ago), and it just hadn't clicked in my mind, despite all the work I've done.

I tried to have a brief conversation with X about it, which went nowhere good...

Me: Hey, X. This girl just left, put off by the FLM designs... she asked if I was BLM or ALM.

X: [rolls eyes] Yeah that was my dad's big problem too, thinking people would be offended, and if they are, fuck 'em. I'm saying "all lives matter", even fictional ones.

(That last sentence is a huge problem for me, for reasons I think should be obvious.)

Me: "All lives matter" is intended to shut down people trying to address serious problems.

X: People don't know how to address problems... and to be honest, some of those people running in with the police deserve what they're getting.

(We're way into not-okay territory here and I've invested a huge amount of time and a notable amount of money in this event, and knowing now that X apparently has difficulty staying awake while driving on the freeway, I'm also concerned about his safety if I decided to just leave suddenly... but at this moment I'm not ready to get into what seems like is likely to devolve into a screaming match in front of everyone at the con.)

Me: the BLM movement only exists because there's a huge amount of injustice built into the system. When everything else is held equal, a black person on average receives 2-3 times more jail time than a white person, and that should never happen.

(I don't have reference for that specific figure on-hand -- please check my work and leave a link if you have one, whether I remembered it correctly or not. Thank you.)

X: [basically murmurred agreement]

I don't want to make any excuses for his diminishing of real-world problems, I think it's bad... I'm conflicted about how to address this problem for myself... I plan to publish photos of myself at the con, and the signs for those designs will be in the background... do I black them out? If I do that, am I enabling him?

I don't *think* he realizes what the problem is... I don't *think* he's deliberately racist. On the way back to the house from the convention he offered to buy me dinner at a shawarma place (I'd never had it -- it was good -- it actually reminded me of some southern cafeterias, although the seasoning and the decoration were a little different.)

The waitresses wore hijabs and he was familiar them (had been there many times), and treated them nice enough... though I will say that some of the things he says seem fairly insensitive in a general sense. For example, he makes a lot of objectifying comments about women, including for example, one of the shawarma waitresses, "[damn she's hot]... and great tits". (Of course, he's only seen her breasts 100% covered -- not even cleavage -- so it's a little odd to me to hear someone be so overtly objectifying of someone who's entire outward image is one of "I am not here for you to ogle".) And the whole day at the con was similar -- frequent mentions of "she's smokin' hot" or "that red head" or "I've never wanted to give wood to an elf so bad", which I tried not to encourage. (I like porn too, but my interest in potential partners isn't based on their looks.)

These are things I hadn't noticed in previous phone or online conversations. So I'm a bit conflicted... He's open enough to be friendly with the shawarma waitresses... but he's also interested in them to the point of sexual interest in women who're being very careful to be NOT sexy. So how confrontational should I be about "fantasy lives matter"?

I don't plan to share a table with him again if he's going to continue promoting them... I would hope he would eventually figure out that the phrase is likely to reduce his sales, even when a person might agree with his sentiment, because they don't want to buy a shirt that's going to get them into verbal fisticuffs with people. But this being his first event, and saying that he's already plunked down $1400 into it, it seems to me unlikely that he'll learn that soon. Though in honesty, it always feels like cold comfort to me when someone is doing the right thing only because they realize some kind of financial reward for it.

So should just not sharing tables in the future be where I leave it? Is it okay to accept that, "he's not a deliberate racist, just kind of an insensitive jerk" and just limit my involvement? As an autistic person who knows what it's like to be ostracized for being unintentionally insensitive, am I being too harsh if I say I feel like this is too much? Does that make me a hypocrite? And what about the fact that there are now photos of me in the act of affiliating myself with the creator who promoted "fantasy lives matter"?

Regardless of how it may impact my image, I'm trying to figure out what course of action will produce the best results for everyone -- that hopefully anyone who can become a better person will, regardless of how it impacts my image. Obviously I always have to think about my image, we all do, but that's a secondary concern. I feel like I should be willing to sacrifice my image if the alternative is being hypocritical, cruel, or even just unwilling to evolve or better myself.

Thanks for reading and helping me with this. I appreciate any advice you have.

- Sam

(Now I need to get about 6 hours sleep, because I spent too long composing this blog and have to be up early for the event tomorrow. Thank god my diabetes didn't trash my energy today, and fingers crossed I have the same luck tomorrow.)

UPDATE 9/17/2018

Maybe I should have waited until the end of the event before writing this blog, but the subject distresses me and I wanted to talk about it sooner than later. At the end of Friday, neither X or I had sold anything at the event. Saturday morning, X printed off about 4 shirts as samples to lay on the front of the table (good marketing), to show people that, "hey these pictures on the poster in the back go on t-shirts". It worked and over Saturday and Sunday, he sold at least a half-dozen shirts, most of them "Fantasy Lives Matter" shirts. So while there are some people who are offended by them, there are apparently also a large number of people excited by them (I think exclusively white people that I saw, although most of the attendees looked pretty white to me as well). ::sigh::

Over the course of the event, 27 new people signed up for our Woohooligan Weekly Dick Joke Advocate mailing list. I know many of those people were either indifferent to the FLM shirts or some may have even been excited by them... but I have no idea how many people may have simply avoided conversation with me all-together because of them.

I still have no plans to share another table with X. It's weird to me, because he's really sensitive about other things, like he kept profusely apologizing for falling asleep in the car because he apparently suffers from pretty bad road hypnosis. He's made the hour drive before, but I was concerned about him making the drive after a full day manning the table at the con. Meanwhile I also discovered he's got a huge chip on his shoulder about (of all things) shaking hands.

X: I hate it. I don't like people touching me.

Me: You know people are about 30% more likely to buy from you right?

X: You may be right, but I don't care. It was originally a symbol of distrust. Do you know where it came from?

Me: Yeah, it was originally a way of showing that you weren't armed, but it's evolved into a symbol of trust.

X: It's evolbed into a bullshit thing we do for no goddamn reason!

So to recap: shaking hands is tragic evidence of the decline of civilization, while Black Lives Matter is deluded and don't know how to address problems, and "many of them deserve what they're getting anyway".

I just can't fathom how a person can have that set of priorities when they go out of their way to eat shawarma and so forth and don't appear to be outwardly racist in any other way that I can tell.

His FLM shirts outsold mine by a wide margin, and frankly I don't care... or rather, I find it disheartening... and I'm not about to deliberately associate my work with it in the future. All people need justice, and if you think it through, you should realize that "all lives matter" is the actual meaning of "black lives matter". Saying "all lives matter" as a response is like saying of the condition of slaves, "slave owners have problems, too!" It takes air away from the importance of addressing a great deal of injustice in our country and I don't want to contribute to trivializing that in any way. Even if I stood to gain financially from it, I wouldn't do it.

I'm still not sure what else to do, beyond just not sharing con tables with him again, and would still appreciate hearing any thoughts you have on it. Thanks.

- Sam

[blogthelongnight-blog]

My full crazy review of Beyond the Wall

WARNING! I’m going to be ripping into this episode. If you can’t take criticism of the show this is not the review for you. You have been warned. Also, sorry for any typos. I was pissed when I wrote this.

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So, we start off with the most pointless five seconds of table top action then cut straight to beyond the wall were our not so intelligent heroes (I thought this was stupid from the beginning. At least take an army or some shit. What were you guys expecting? A walk in a fronze park) wander through the frozen wasteland in search of wights.

Now, I can actually say that I enjoyed some of the dialogue in this scene. That being said, there is a very stupid piece of dialogue in this that made me facepalms so hard it left a mark. But that's later. Next we get a great sense between Arya and Sansa talking about Ned. I really liked the talk about Ned. I even teared up a little. Until, of course, Arya decides to go full crazy and ruins it with a level of stupidity that legit gave me a headache.

I don't care how cool an assassin is. When they are acting this stupid and their motivations and emotions are this fucking easy to manipulate and change, that idiot does not deserve my respect. Arya is utterly insane and intolerable this season. She's a bully, she's a psycho and I'm pretty much done with her which is a pity because she used to be one of my favorites "I'm going to forgive these rando Lannister soldiers because they have families and stuff. But the sister I saw screaming, crying and begging for my father's life? Nope. She's a traitor. Fuck Sansa." - Arya, season 7. Hypocrite... Fuck you, Arya.

Now we are back beyond the wall and Tormund and the Hound give the best set of dialogue in the whole episode. I love their talk together. Especially the talk about Brienne. I will ship Tormund and Brienne forever and hope that they have awesome giant ginger badass babies together. Sadly, that's when it turns from my favorite piece of dialogue to my least favorite. "You don't look much like him. Your father." - Beric Dondarrion, Episode 6, beyond the wall. That's TOTALLY why they believed he was Ned's bastard forever without question and TOTALLY why Cat couldn't even look at him without getting pissed. Totally. Makes perfect sense. -sarcasm- After this we get a scene with "The most morale man in the universe" and Dany. Nothing really to complain about beyond Tyrion hypocrisy again.

"You don't want to be the queen of the ashes," Tyrion, season 6-7 "If anything happens to you we burn King's Landing to the ground." Tyrion, season 7 episode 6 "if we want to create a better world I don't think deceit and mass murder is the right way." - 10 seconds later. I did kind of enjoy the "he's too short" line though. I laughed a little. Such bad dialogue. I can't even. I do agree that burning the Tarlys was necessary in that situation and that Tyrion is right and she needs to start thinking like her enemies more so I'll give them a bit of credit for mentioning those at least. Otherwise it's just pointless bickering again.

Back beyond the wall and all of the sudden unimpressive jump scare bear! Has GoT really sunk so low that they need to use that boring horror trope? Yup. Looks like it. I felt like I was watching the Revenant again only you could actually see what was happening in that movie. Not so much here. That's not the only with this scene though. After the first red shirt goes down, Thoros of My gets attacked by the bear before it gets taken out finally. That bear mails the hell out of his arm and all Beric needs to do is use his flaming sword to burn it shut and it's just fine. Thoros gets pulled up like it ain't nothing and he's walking around like it's a flesh wound. All searing does is close the wound. Thoros would be in agony but this is only shown when he's being THROWN ABOUT BY THE POLAR BEAR. Why is he all of the sudden just fine!? Jesus fucking Christ D&D. How stupid do you think we are? How much crap do you think we are going to take before we feel like our intelligence is being insulted? Anyways, back at Winterfell Sansa and Petyr are talking. It's a pretty legit talk but I'm wondering why Sansa is doing it with Petyr. All season she's been treating him like he doesn't matter and now she's giving him an opening for his bullshit. At least he's trying to be intelligent about it this time, choosing the supportive route rather than the "they are the enemy" bullshit. It's clever manipulate in a way. Good on you mate. You aren't a complete waste of screen time anymore.

And beyond the wall again with the fellowship of the wight (ugh...)! Thoros backstory. I approve. But then the wights come in and an epic battle starts! Or not... The White Walker commander gets killed and most of them crumble except for one. Well, isn't that strangely convenient and very lame? Why, yes. Yes it is. And trust me. That's not the only problem I have in relation to the wights and white walkers this episode. I am not impressed or intimidated at all and that's a HUGE problem. So, they catch themselves a wight and tie it up. Cool. Whatever. You have what you need. But Snow hears something coming and sends Gendry off to... Send a letter to Daenarys? -headdesks and shakes head- Are you serious? Seriously. Are you fucking serious? Why the fuck would you send Gendry for Dany? Daenerys is on the other fucking side of the world and you have no fucking clue if she will come or not!! Do you know how long it would take a Raven to reach her in Dragonstone? Days! Fucking day! Why didn't you just have Gendry go get the Wildlings at eastwatch? Oh, I know why. Because that would be the smart thing to do and the story doesn't need to be smart anymore. Just awesome as will be proven in further rants down the line in this review. So, they start running (in the complete opposite direction from Gendry mind you) and come up upon a frozen lake. This is about the time when things go full stupid. So, they are on the lake and it's cracking. This already doesn't makes sense to me. It's been winter for how long and that lake hasn't completely frozen over? With White walkers walking around? I highly doubt it especially with the White Walker walking around in that area. But whatever it's your lake. Do whatever the hell you want with it.

So, they run across the lake to a rock thing in the middle of it and the ice breaks under the weight of the wights after a bunch of the tackle a red shirt. Because that totally makes sense. You'd think the weight would be enough but nope. It took a tackle. Now they are surrounded on all sides. Whatever shall they do!? But don't worry! Because Gendry is here to save the day and gets the message to Dany like really stupid fast. Magical raven are a go! I repeat! Magical teleporting Ravens are a go! We are still with the idiots beyond the wall after this Gendry scene (to my great displeasure) They wake up to find the wights still waiting on the edge of the broken part of the lack and they quickly learn that Thoros is dead as a doorbell. Now from this scene we quickly learn that wights can't swim and that they are on ice. The smart thing to do would have clearly been to shove the body in the water. What do they do instead? They burn the body using Beric's sword. It doesn't seem very practical but I'll give them a little break because at least they'll freeze a little slower. I'm still wondering why the White Walkers didn't just make a bridge to them in the night though. It's a known fact that they can freeze shit and make shit out of ice. I guess they thought it was just funner to stand around. It's not like they could have known Dany was coming but they were sure as fuck prepare for that shit. Ain't that ironic? Anyways, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's get back on track.

Anyways, so they burn Thoros, Beric points out the obvious and then we are back in Winterfell again. This actually starts with a scene I like. Sansa gets a letter from King's Landing requesting a envoy from the North and she goes to Brienne knowing she can't go. This is literally the smartest thing Sansa could have done. Brienne is the most loyal and honorable person surrounding her current. Sansa has faith that Brienne will do will and I one hundred percent agree with this. On top of that this is more proof of how strong she has become as a character. Brienne is the only one that would defend her if Arya does decide to be a petty bitch and does let everything go to shit. This is a great sacrifice and choice for Sansa and I respect the shit out of it. All the way over in Dragonstone the letter reaches Dany and she decides to fly after the idiots of the wight. But of course the most moral man in the universe has to get his tearful two cents in and he's making more sense then anyone else at this very moment. But naturally Dany the hot head doesn't listen to the wise dwarf and takes the utterly pointless flight that she'll soon regret cause lurve! I actually like Tyrion's part in this but the whole situation is just so dumb. Anyways, back beyond the wall the Hound is throwing rocks at the wights. A funny scene. But then my boy misses and hits froze water and it skitters across the ice. The lack if froze and the wights start charging as slow as inhumanly possible (D&D: it makes total sense! I promise!). Seriously. They should have been over ran based on Hardholme but nope. The dudes gotta live.

Things are moving fast. Bros are taking on dead bros in every direction. The last red shirt falls off the rock thing and gets torn apart by wights. Tormund gets over ran but he's fine because he's a red shirt. Jorah is using tiny little daggers to stab at wights and somehow doesn't die. Jon stands behind them, the only one watching their back, as the horde rushes them from behind. Then the dragons and Dany come swooping in as they are about to get completely over run. All three dragons are blowing fire everywhere and the ice doesn't melt. Yay magical ice now! Dany starts pulling bros on Drogon's back but instead of following suit Jon stupidly charges more wights for no reason at all. While this is all going on the night king very slowly picks up his spear and aims it at the smallest dragon even though Drogon is on the ground much closer. With awesome super strength we didn't know he had he Spears the dragon and the ice is suddenly not magical anymore and breaks beneath him. The dragon dies and sinks beneath the ice into it watery grave. Poor Viserion and stupid NK. As the NK pulls out another spear, Jon does not run to the dragon and jump on real fast. Instead he shouts for Dany to go. Reluctant she does and manages to swerve out of the way of a spear neither her or Drogon knew were coming (Go watch the scene again. They were both looking straight ahead.) They escape but Jon falls into ice and dies from shock and drowning. No wait. That's wrong. My bad. He miraculously survives and pulls himself out of the freezing water. Only to be saved by Benjen ex Machina who just happened to be in town because plot demands it. Benjen gives Jon his horse and sacrifices himself pointless (that is a undead horse. It can carry two people no problem) because we need to end his character somehow.

He gets back to the wall (still alive somehow) and Dany is waiting there because she's in lurve. The watch take care of Jon at Eastwatch (because even gods get hypothermia). This is also where Dany learns that Jon really was stabbed in the heart and takes it pretty well when she realizes she's in love with a corpse. Finally we cut back to Winterfell for more stupi-... I mean, great Arya/Sansa time! Sansa decides to take matters into her own hands and tries to find the letter in Arya's room. Instead she finds the lamest plastic looking faces ever in a bag underneath Arya's bed. Sansa is rightfully freaked out. When did her sister become a mummer!? That's no job for a lady! But of course Arya finds her and goes full psycho again. I'm pretty much done with Arya's shit by this point... I hope she grows a brain soon or this is her own trick on Littlefinger because this is fucking stupid. Now Jon and Dany are in a ship sailing off to King's landing or whatever (I kinda stopped caring at this point). They have a moment, Jon verbally bends the knee and we cut back to the wights pulling on four enormous chains that seem to be attached to something in the water. But wait... Where did they get the chains? How did it get attached to whatever's in the water? This is a question that will never be answered. Why? Because it's cool. Cool things don't need answer. Answers are for suckers. Just shut up and enjoy the bullshit (says David and Dan and half the world who can't take criticism).

So, they pull up whatever's in the water and it's Viserion. No surprise there. Just surprised they did it the hard way. The NK can raise his hands and bring the dead back to life so this scene was pointless and stupid. Would have been cooler to see the NK just raise his hands and the dragon burst out of the lack but we aren't allowed sensible cool things anymore. Just the stupid shit. Anyways. That's my review. Like it. Hate it. Whatever. These are my honest feeling and I'm tired of hoping for something better and kissing D&D's asses. If they give me a shiny shit I'm going to call them out on it. I'm done.

[redantsunderneath]

Does anybody remember the Twin Peaks Holiday Special

I wanted to know if anyone remembers the Twin Peaks Holiday Special with the little man from another place, because it was common knowledge on the newsgroup and boards in the early 90s, but no one seems to recall it when I mention it now.  I had a VHS dupe of this show, with a badly printed jacket, that I had obtained at DragonCon 93' or so (I met Al Simmons, the real life namesake of Spawn and Jim Lee if that helps).  While I was cleaning house, I had accidentally given it with the rest of my VHS tapes to a courier named Roland who worked for us (who was later fired for popping positive for THC and I didn't know his last name, so I couldn't get it back). It was so bad so I wasn't really upset.  I just finished talking to my friend Gaines who I watched this with a bunch of times to just laugh and drink beer, so he managed to corroborate my memories and remind me of some other stuff.  Note that all of this is just his and my memory and may be off, and the stuff about the actors and background info is pure hearsay from whatever groups and boards I was on in that era.  Here is what I remember, if you guys can fill in the details or correct inaccuracies that would be fantastic.

ABC decided to exercise a clause in the Twin Peaks contract calling for their ability to produce up to 3 Twin Peaks related specials.  In the rush of awards show wins and high profile media exposure, they decided to greenlight a Holiday Special in hopes that they could capitalize on the buzz and the small town spirit of the show to maybe wind up with a perennial favorite.  It was to be shot on hiatus, but Lynch and Frost were not interested in working on it.  The execs focused on getting a cast to lure another writer and director associated with the show.

The cast were mostly uninterested in the blind pitch, except for Kimmie Robertson, who thought it would be fun as long as she could “do hair” and Joshua Harris who had just been cast to play Nicky Needleman in the next season and happened to be around when they were looking.  They felt they needed a bigger name to anchor the project and were surprised that Kyle MacLachlan said yes as long as he had final creative approval and a guarantee that the show would air.  MacLachlan had a well known issue with excessive use of human pineal gland extract around this time and the executives simply thought he needed the money (the fad for “organic” drugs was in full swing and HPGE was the priciest drug on the market at that time – Kyle was said to have an 80 donor equivalents per week habit, the highest ever recorded).

They were able to get one of the incoming writing staff (not sure which one) to agree to write it but it was apparently a “Stan Lee” job where the instruction to the story editor (a pre TNG Ronald Moore) was “that dwarf guy goes home for some reason.”  Moore, fresh off of a committed method writing exercise of 6 months living full emersion as a Klingon, decided on a “Pon Farr” scenario of the Little Man returning to his home planet to mate.  Gains remembers that Alan Smithee, who IMDB tells me has had quite a career, was named as director and they were ready to go.  

MacLachlan got heavily involved in the writing.  He and Lara Flynn Boyle had been living in a small shanty in the Salton Sea, and communications with them had become erratic.  Kyle said he had a “vision” as to how this might change the world, and fought Moore the entire time.  When the executives saw some of the pages and, realizing they could not cancel, gave the minimal budget contractually allowed and planned to bury the project.  Instead of at Christmas, it aired at 3 AM, Tuesday October 16th, 1991 with no promotion under a title that did not contain Twin Peaks (I thought it was something like “Trial of Bark,” but Gains swears it was “Our Emancipation.”).  No one saw this thing, but somehow I had that tape in all its cable acess-level production glory.

The story was basically a Christmas Carol.  There are no opening credits and the special starts with LMAP in the red room, when a large head (poorly superimposed with a blurring effect, weird computer imposed black hole for a mouth) tells him he must come back to “the planet Garmanbozia” (Lynch hated everything about this special and disavows it except for this name which he liked and kept for the movie) for the Tantaculus festival (MacLachlan’s suggestion, named after the “world system” he and Boyle were devising in the California desert) in order to mate.  The little man with resignation walks into the mouth and emerges in his house.  This is the only special effects and the only appearance of any of the normal settings of the actual show (all the summoned guests simply “walk on” from the side).  

There are birds on the soundtrack constantly and no music outside of musical numbers.  The house is like a modern Flintstones house (fake chrome everywhere, rust colored Formica table [no idea if this was an idea germ too], but uneven plaster painted ochre.  He sees his wife Brigite (Priscilla Barnes, who acts in a 3 foot cutout in the stage, and just disappears when she is not in a scene – you never see her leave or come back).  She is excited to mate, but he is clearly not and she disappears in a huff.  He says hi to his kids (Bob and Mike, no relation – played by sock puppets worked by a guy dressed in black), who are arguing over what seems to be a beef jerky.  He talks away from them about how he loves them but he doesn’t know if he can handle more.  Behind him appears an unnamed thin giant (Meadowlark Lemon in a part presumably written for Carel Struycken) who says he will show him the value of “whoople” with “three gifts” as the show cuts to commercial.  

The giant proceeds to bring in the three cameos, the first two of which have musical numbers.  Lucy comes in and gives LMAP a makeover and reminds him several times that he is “still sexy” before breaking into that Sinead O’Conner song (Emperor’s New Clothes, I think).  Locked camera shot, but the Lucy awkward dance stuff is fun. Commercial then Little Nicky comes in to remind him that his kids are still lovable and always a gift (more on this scene later) and he and the giant break into a Bossa nova-esque version of Blues from a Gun (the music is very dated and kind of inappropriate).  

Finally, for the last act, Dale shows up.  Most of his lines are gibberish (a lot about division and multiplication and, Zeno’s paradox perseverating), but he eventually gives LMAP a crushed velvet painting of a naked Log Lady (log held strategically).  The little man becomes alert and approaches the painting, rubbing its surface and making a yelping noise.  His wife appears and calls to him “Alf, come to me."  He walks backwards to the rear of the house.  The kids ask Coop if he wants some coffee and, in the one really interesting moment in the whole thing, Dale says “no thank you, if he makes coffee like he dances I’m likely to wind up with a mouth full of grounds.”  Strange sounds emanate from the back of the house (the only good foley work) and we end on a freeze frame of Coop giving a thumbs up and really fast credits.

My main, seared-in memories are the song numbers, the bad blocking and lack of positional continuity (Barnes’ hole), and a few specific oddities.  In the Nicky scene, Bob and Mike (who are always doing something competitive in the background) are bouncing a beach ball back and forth, playing the “don’t let it hit the ground” game (where someone tosses the ball so that other people will try to keep it in play by gently tapping it up – this is before I knew what meta was).   Now remember, it is one guy in a black mask obviously playing with himself but you can see the ceiling fan.  There is a tension that the ball is going to hit the fan, but it never does and they don’t do anything with this.  Meadowlark is wearing a Star Trek-ish uniform that is made out of potholder material. MacLachlan speaks with an intensity like he needs to convince the audience that without math the world will cease to exist, or something.  Lucy’s pre-Elaine funky dance is neat.

It is important to note that, in lieu of backward talking/shooting the scenes, everyone just inflects each syllable up with a tight jaw (they start to forget to do this pretty quickly except Barnes who is if anything a committed actress).  There's no way this thing is canon in any way - Lynch doesn't even answer questions about it (he responds with non-denial stuff like "I don't think Id've done that" and "sounds made up"), and it is really bad. It is tonally nothing like the show and any mythology SHOULDN'T COUNT! It is a fiasco. I can't find references Googling, but I think there has been a lot of self editing Wiki pages and legal action trying to scrub this thing from existence.

Any information, corrections, or links to where I could get this would be appreciated.

[captainrobertharrison]

Natural Flu Remedies for Kids

Characteristic Flu Remedies for Kids #remedies

Before you go after an over-counter prescription, you might need to attempt these characteristic influenza solutions for children first. As the chilly climate comes in, numerous guardians begin worrying about seasonal influenza. There are an assortment of influenza infections, and the CDC cautions that they are always showing signs of change. This implies researchers must attempt to figure out which strains will spread the most every year, defining influenza inoculations that can secure against those strains. Tragically, they aren't constantly right, and the antibodies are frequently a long way from successful for the vast majority. Likewise, numerous guardians would prefer not to give their kids any longer antibodies than they totally need, in the event that they inoculate by any means. This is the place normal influenza cures become possibly the most important factor. On the off chance that you like to keep everything common for your children, there are many protection systems that you can utilize, and there are much progressively regular solutions for ease influenza side effects if the infection sneaks up on your family unit.

The most effective method to PREVENT THE FLU NATURALLY 

The least difficult and best safeguard estimates come down to practices that you can without much of a stretch show your youngsters. Begin by imparting positive hand-washing abilities. Amid cold and influenza season, it's insufficient to simply wash in the wake of utilizing the bathroom. Show your children to wash for the duration of the day just as in the wake of dealing with things that are shared by different children. You can likewise show your children to never contact another kid's face or hands if it's redundant. Securing their own space if another child is sniffling and hacking and doing whatever it takes not to share balls and different things may help, yet you would prefer not to meddle with your kid's capacity to mingle and partake for the sake of entertainment exercises. At the point when all else comes up short, those committed hand-washing abilities will shape an establishment of assurance.

TWO BEST NATURAL FLU REMEDIES FOR KIDS 

Notwithstanding successive hand washing, there are some common influenza solutions for children that you can use to bring down your tyke's danger of bringing home this season's cold virus.

1. Nutrient D 

Since the vast majority are investing less energy outside, particularly in the winter, nutrient D insufficiencies are on the ascent. Numerous individuals experience the ill effects of an insufficiency for a considerable length of time without knowing it on the grounds that numerous specialists don't test for nutrient D or don't comprehend the significance of checking for this inadequacy. Youngsters are even more averse to be tried than grown-ups. Numerous medicinal experts have accepted for a long time that nutrient D inadequacies or deficiencies are at any rate halfway to fault for successive colds and flus, and there is presently some exploration to back that up. One examination of clinical preliminaries in 14 nations found that enhancing with nutrient D day by day or week by week essentially brought down the quantity of upper respiratory contaminations endured by patients, including colds and flus. Members in the investigation were inadequate in nutrient D before they began the supplementation convention. This implies individuals who aren't inadequate don't really need to take an every day nutrient D supplement. In the event that you don't have the foggiest idea about your youngster's nutrient D level, just enabling them to invest more energy outside will give a greater amount of this nutrient normally. When in doubt of thumb, ensure that your little one goes through something like 30 minutes outside in the daylight every day. At the point when this is preposterous or on the off chance that you trust that your kid simply isn't getting enough daylight for different reasons, there are nutrient D drops and child well disposed multivitamins that incorporate nutrient D. You can purchase nutrient invigorated items at the supermarket, so begin checking names. You can likewise incorporate salmon, fish and other greasy fish into your tyke's eating routine for the nutrients and the omega-3 unsaturated fats. It could be a standout amongst the best regular influenza solutions for children around.

2. Immunostimulant Essential Oils 

There's a basic oil for most wellbeing and health concerns, and boosting the invulnerable framework to keep the basic cold and influenza is no special case. Investigation into the utilization of basic oils for this reason for existing is restricted, however numerous individuals have achievement when utilizing basic oils delegated immunostimulants. This implies they bolster the safe framework at the hormonal or cell level and is one of the extraordinary regular influenza solutions for children. The most ordinarily prescribed basic oil for influenza counteractive action is echinacea. It has been utilized for a long time to treat an assortment of minor ailments, and it's outstanding for boosting the safe framework to battle microscopic organisms and contamination. You need to blend echinacea fundamental oil with different oils on the off chance that you need to diffuse it since echinacea plants don't have an aroma. There are echinacea supplements in pill or fluid drop structure. The drops contain bearer oils or different fixings to weaken the oil with the goal that it's safe for inward use. It's not protected to utilize this oil inside in the event that you have an immune system sickness, and it can cause queasiness and other gentle reactions at times. It is viewed as safe for kids. Other immunostimulant fundamental oils that you should think about utilizing incorporate bergamot, eucalyptus and niaouli and rosemary. There are additionally some ground-breaking influenza battling fundamental oil blends that may convey more protection control than a solitary oil. In 2015, the diary BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine printed the aftereffects of an investigation that analyzed the effect of the doTERRA On Guard basic oil mix on the flu infection. They checked that the oil reduced disease inside the cells, and it diminished the measure of contamination spreading to different cells. This doTERRA mix isn't promoted for use by kids, however it is sold as an insusceptible supporter and inside chemical that can help anticipate contamination, disease and harm from contaminants in the earth. You can diffuse it in your home or use it to keep the grown-ups in your family unit solid.

TOP 6 NATURAL TREATMENTS FOR FLU SYMPTOMS IN KIDS 

Indeed, even with phenomenal hand-washing aptitudes, dominance of individual space and first rate shirking of entryway handles and shared spaces, most youngsters will get a gentle cold or even this season's flu virus in any event once amid the virus season. In the event that you utilize the correct common influenza cures inside 24 hours of getting the sickness, you can restrain the seriousness of the indications or diminishing the length of ailment. You may need to explore different avenues regarding a portion of these alternatives until you discover the cures that work for every one of your youngsters.

 Elderberry Extract or Syrup 

The blue and dark elderberry plants have built up restorative advantages, however the red berries don't have these useful properties. The blooms and berries are antimicrobial, and numerous individuals use elderberry syrup as an every day supplement to anticipate ailment since it gives the resistant framework an amazing lift. When you do contract something, you may utilize normal elderberry elixirs, oils and syrups to abbreviate the length of ailment, stop a hack and break a fever. In 2004, the Journal of International Medical Research printed the consequences of an examination that tried the viability and security of utilizing elderberry concentrate to treat two strains of flu. All members in the examination were something like 18 years of age, yet the specialists found that enhancing with elderberry remove decreased the length of affliction by around four days. They likewise reasoned that the enhancement is alright for utilization. The patients devoured four 15-milliliter servings of elderberry syrup for five successive dats. Comparative outcomes were found in a recent report that decided elderberry separate decreased the seriousness of cold side effects and the length of ailment for in excess of 300 carrier travelers. The most ideal approach to utilize this normal influenza cure is to purchase or make an all-regular elderberry syrup. It's safe for youngsters as a deterrent measure and treatment, however make a point to pursue bearings to guarantee the correct dose for your kid's age.

Probiotics and Yogurt 

Have you found out about your gut microbiome? If not, this alludes to the accumulation of microorganisms living inside your stomach related framework, including your colon and stomach. Much more research is expected to completely see these microorganisms and what sway they each have on our general wellbeing, however most therapeutic experts are now persuaded that the key to a solid safe framework and a long, sound life lies in the gut. Numerous wellbeing conditions are currently accepted to begin with an awkwardness in these microorganisms. Your undesirable or harming microorganisms dwarf your advantageous organisms, leaving your body defenseless to malady and ailment. The arrangement is to enhance with live societies that reestablish harmony and give the favorable position to minor creatures known to advance a solid resistant framework and generally wellbeing. Numerous restorative experts presently prescribe probiotics to more seasoned individuals who are in danger of kicking the bucket from this season's cold virus, however probiotics are likewise accessible for kids. Search for chewables and chewy candies that have something like two probiotic strains. You can likewise nourish your kids more yogurt and aged sustenances that are stacked with common probiotics. Make a point to top them off with crude veggies too on the grounds that that is the thing that your sound organisms eat.

Nasal Saline Irrigation 

Did you realize that nasal water system frameworks are currently made only for kids? These items enable you to wash out the nasal sections, decreasing irritation in the bodily fluid films and calming the indications of the basic cold and influenza. There are likewise saline showers that are puffed into the nose without the messier wash process. Not exclusively can nasal water system calm clog, wheezing and other awkward indications of this season's flu virus, however inquire about has discovered that they may diminish the length of disease when utilized reliably. An examination uncovered in a 2009 issue of the diary American Family Physician found that water system is protected, successful and moderate for some, individuals experiencing upper respiratory diseases.

Nectar 

Nectar is one of the most seasoned and most confided in characteristic solutions for this season's flu virus and basic cold, and we currently have logical proof that it has restorative esteem. For example, one 2014 examination distributed in the Archives of Medical Research found that Manuka nectar can adequately hinder the influenza infection. This examination was in the lab not in people, however it backs up what individuals all around the globe have accepted for many years. One of the least difficult approaches to utilize nectar is to blend it with hot tea and taste away your sore throat and hack. There's additionally some logical verification that giving kids nectar around 30 minutes before bed will enable them to rest better. That may help tired guardians get some rest also.

 Zinc 

There's a ton of debate over the utilization of zinc tablets to treat colds or this season's flu virus, yet some logical investigations have demonstrated that zinc can diminish the length of ailment for some individuals. One examination even discovered that enhancing with zinc not long after the beginning of side effects can diminish the seriousness of manifestations also. While you can't anticipate that youthful kids should suck on zinc capsules, there are zinc supplements made only for youngsters. There are likewise some that join zinc with different fixings, including elderberry remove.

Read to : 

6 Signs That You May Have High Cholesterol

This Drink Is Full of Cancer Causing Chemicals and Can Destroy Your Bones!

5 Things Your Blood Type Says About Your Health

9 Yeast Infection Symptoms You Shouldn't Ignore

Remove 30 Pounds of Toxins From Your Colon With Only 2 Ingredients

 Rest, Relaxation and Cuddle Time 

Your solace is a standout amongst the best normal cures when your youngster is experiencing influenza. You can take precaution measures in case you're stressed that you will likewise get the infection, however it's vital to require the hazard and spend investment holding your youngster or shaking through the most hopeless hours of the night. Simply realizing that you're there at whatever point they need you will enable them to feel much improved, however you will likewise see promptly if progressively extreme side effects are introduced. This enables you to look for therapeutic treatment immediately if your youngster begins to run an amazingly high fever, builds up a rash or has different side effects that appear to be more than the standard kept running of seasonal influenza.

Last THOUGHTS ABOUT NATURAL FLU REMEDIES FOR KIDS 

These common influenza cures aren't only for your kids. In the event that another individual from your family unit or a parental figure descends seasonal influenza, all youngsters in the house are at more serious danger of getting it too. It's essential to utilize these safeguard techniques yourself, and everything begins with washing those hands and focusing on doorknobs, ink pens, consoles and different things that you share with other people who may have influenza. from Health Fitness Tips https://ift.tt/34lXlpx via IFTTT

[superannus]

Natural Flu Remedies for Kids

Characteristic Flu Remedies for Kids #remedies

Before you go after an over-counter prescription, you might need to attempt these characteristic influenza solutions for children first. As the chilly climate comes in, numerous guardians begin worrying about seasonal influenza. There are an assortment of influenza infections, and the CDC cautions that they are always showing signs of change. This implies researchers must attempt to figure out which strains will spread the most every year, defining influenza inoculations that can secure against those strains. Tragically, they aren't constantly right, and the antibodies are frequently a long way from successful for the vast majority. Likewise, numerous guardians would prefer not to give their kids any longer antibodies than they totally need, in the event that they inoculate by any means. This is the place normal influenza cures become possibly the most important factor. On the off chance that you like to keep everything common for your children, there are many protection systems that you can utilize, and there are much progressively regular solutions for ease influenza side effects if the infection sneaks up on your family unit.

The most effective method to PREVENT THE FLU NATURALLY 

The least difficult and best safeguard estimates come down to practices that you can without much of a stretch show your youngsters. Begin by imparting positive hand-washing abilities. Amid cold and influenza season, it's insufficient to simply wash in the wake of utilizing the bathroom. Show your children to wash for the duration of the day just as in the wake of dealing with things that are shared by different children. You can likewise show your children to never contact another kid's face or hands if it's redundant. Securing their own space if another child is sniffling and hacking and doing whatever it takes not to share balls and different things may help, yet you would prefer not to meddle with your kid's capacity to mingle and partake for the sake of entertainment exercises. At the point when all else comes up short, those committed hand-washing abilities will shape an establishment of assurance.

TWO BEST NATURAL FLU REMEDIES FOR KIDS 

Notwithstanding successive hand washing, there are some common influenza solutions for children that you can use to bring down your tyke's danger of bringing home this season's cold virus.

1. Nutrient D 

Since the vast majority are investing less energy outside, particularly in the winter, nutrient D insufficiencies are on the ascent. Numerous individuals experience the ill effects of an insufficiency for a considerable length of time without knowing it on the grounds that numerous specialists don't test for nutrient D or don't comprehend the significance of checking for this inadequacy. Youngsters are even more averse to be tried than grown-ups. Numerous medicinal experts have accepted for a long time that nutrient D inadequacies or deficiencies are at any rate halfway to fault for successive colds and flus, and there is presently some exploration to back that up. One examination of clinical preliminaries in 14 nations found that enhancing with nutrient D day by day or week by week essentially brought down the quantity of upper respiratory contaminations endured by patients, including colds and flus. Members in the investigation were inadequate in nutrient D before they began the supplementation convention. This implies individuals who aren't inadequate don't really need to take an every day nutrient D supplement. In the event that you don't have the foggiest idea about your youngster's nutrient D level, just enabling them to invest more energy outside will give a greater amount of this nutrient normally. When in doubt of thumb, ensure that your little one goes through something like 30 minutes outside in the daylight every day. At the point when this is preposterous or on the off chance that you trust that your kid simply isn't getting enough daylight for different reasons, there are nutrient D drops and child well disposed multivitamins that incorporate nutrient D. You can purchase nutrient invigorated items at the supermarket, so begin checking names. You can likewise incorporate salmon, fish and other greasy fish into your tyke's eating routine for the nutrients and the omega-3 unsaturated fats. It could be a standout amongst the best regular influenza solutions for children around.

2. Immunostimulant Essential Oils 

There's a basic oil for most wellbeing and health concerns, and boosting the invulnerable framework to keep the basic cold and influenza is no special case. Investigation into the utilization of basic oils for this reason for existing is restricted, however numerous individuals have achievement when utilizing basic oils delegated immunostimulants. This implies they bolster the safe framework at the hormonal or cell level and is one of the extraordinary regular influenza solutions for children. The most ordinarily prescribed basic oil for influenza counteractive action is echinacea. It has been utilized for a long time to treat an assortment of minor ailments, and it's outstanding for boosting the safe framework to battle microscopic organisms and contamination. You need to blend echinacea fundamental oil with different oils on the off chance that you need to diffuse it since echinacea plants don't have an aroma. There are echinacea supplements in pill or fluid drop structure. The drops contain bearer oils or different fixings to weaken the oil with the goal that it's safe for inward use. It's not protected to utilize this oil inside in the event that you have an immune system sickness, and it can cause queasiness and other gentle reactions at times. It is viewed as safe for kids. Other immunostimulant fundamental oils that you should think about utilizing incorporate bergamot, eucalyptus and niaouli and rosemary. There are additionally some ground-breaking influenza battling fundamental oil blends that may convey more protection control than a solitary oil. In 2015, the diary BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine printed the aftereffects of an investigation that analyzed the effect of the doTERRA On Guard basic oil mix on the flu infection. They checked that the oil reduced disease inside the cells, and it diminished the measure of contamination spreading to different cells. This doTERRA mix isn't promoted for use by kids, however it is sold as an insusceptible supporter and inside chemical that can help anticipate contamination, disease and harm from contaminants in the earth. You can diffuse it in your home or use it to keep the grown-ups in your family unit solid.

TOP 6 NATURAL TREATMENTS FOR FLU SYMPTOMS IN KIDS 

Indeed, even with phenomenal hand-washing aptitudes, dominance of individual space and first rate shirking of entryway handles and shared spaces, most youngsters will get a gentle cold or even this season's flu virus in any event once amid the virus season. In the event that you utilize the correct common influenza cures inside 24 hours of getting the sickness, you can restrain the seriousness of the indications or diminishing the length of ailment. You may need to explore different avenues regarding a portion of these alternatives until you discover the cures that work for every one of your youngsters.

 Elderberry Extract or Syrup 

The blue and dark elderberry plants have built up restorative advantages, however the red berries don't have these useful properties. The blooms and berries are antimicrobial, and numerous individuals use elderberry syrup as an every day supplement to anticipate ailment since it gives the resistant framework an amazing lift. When you do contract something, you may utilize normal elderberry elixirs, oils and syrups to abbreviate the length of ailment, stop a hack and break a fever. In 2004, the Journal of International Medical Research printed the consequences of an examination that tried the viability and security of utilizing elderberry concentrate to treat two strains of flu. All members in the examination were something like 18 years of age, yet the specialists found that enhancing with elderberry remove decreased the length of affliction by around four days. They likewise reasoned that the enhancement is alright for utilization. The patients devoured four 15-milliliter servings of elderberry syrup for five successive dats. Comparative outcomes were found in a recent report that decided elderberry separate decreased the seriousness of cold side effects and the length of ailment for in excess of 300 carrier travelers. The most ideal approach to utilize this normal influenza cure is to purchase or make an all-regular elderberry syrup. It's safe for youngsters as a deterrent measure and treatment, however make a point to pursue bearings to guarantee the correct dose for your kid's age.

Probiotics and Yogurt 

Have you found out about your gut microbiome? If not, this alludes to the accumulation of microorganisms living inside your stomach related framework, including your colon and stomach. Much more research is expected to completely see these microorganisms and what sway they each have on our general wellbeing, however most therapeutic experts are now persuaded that the key to a solid safe framework and a long, sound life lies in the gut. Numerous wellbeing conditions are currently accepted to begin with an awkwardness in these microorganisms. Your undesirable or harming microorganisms dwarf your advantageous organisms, leaving your body defenseless to malady and ailment. The arrangement is to enhance with live societies that reestablish harmony and give the favorable position to minor creatures known to advance a solid resistant framework and generally wellbeing. Numerous restorative experts presently prescribe probiotics to more seasoned individuals who are in danger of kicking the bucket from this season's cold virus, however probiotics are likewise accessible for kids. Search for chewables and chewy candies that have something like two probiotic strains. You can likewise nourish your kids more yogurt and aged sustenances that are stacked with common probiotics. Make a point to top them off with crude veggies too on the grounds that that is the thing that your sound organisms eat.

Nasal Saline Irrigation 

Did you realize that nasal water system frameworks are currently made only for kids? These items enable you to wash out the nasal sections, decreasing irritation in the bodily fluid films and calming the indications of the basic cold and influenza. There are likewise saline showers that are puffed into the nose without the messier wash process. Not exclusively can nasal water system calm clog, wheezing and other awkward indications of this season's flu virus, however inquire about has discovered that they may diminish the length of disease when utilized reliably. An examination uncovered in a 2009 issue of the diary American Family Physician found that water system is protected, successful and moderate for some, individuals experiencing upper respiratory diseases.

Nectar 

Nectar is one of the most seasoned and most confided in characteristic solutions for this season's flu virus and basic cold, and we currently have logical proof that it has restorative esteem. For example, one 2014 examination distributed in the Archives of Medical Research found that Manuka nectar can adequately hinder the influenza infection. This examination was in the lab not in people, however it backs up what individuals all around the globe have accepted for many years. One of the least difficult approaches to utilize nectar is to blend it with hot tea and taste away your sore throat and hack. There's additionally some logical verification that giving kids nectar around 30 minutes before bed will enable them to rest better. That may help tired guardians get some rest also.

 Zinc 

There's a ton of debate over the utilization of zinc tablets to treat colds or this season's flu virus, yet some logical investigations have demonstrated that zinc can diminish the length of ailment for some individuals. One examination even discovered that enhancing with zinc not long after the beginning of side effects can diminish the seriousness of manifestations also. While you can't anticipate that youthful kids should suck on zinc capsules, there are zinc supplements made only for youngsters. There are likewise some that join zinc with different fixings, including elderberry remove.

Read to : 

6 Signs That You May Have High Cholesterol

This Drink Is Full of Cancer Causing Chemicals and Can Destroy Your Bones!

5 Things Your Blood Type Says About Your Health

9 Yeast Infection Symptoms You Shouldn't Ignore

Remove 30 Pounds of Toxins From Your Colon With Only 2 Ingredients

 Rest, Relaxation and Cuddle Time 

Your solace is a standout amongst the best normal cures when your youngster is experiencing influenza. You can take precaution measures in case you're stressed that you will likewise get the infection, however it's vital to require the hazard and spend investment holding your youngster or shaking through the most hopeless hours of the night. Simply realizing that you're there at whatever point they need you will enable them to feel much improved, however you will likewise see promptly if progressively extreme side effects are introduced. This enables you to look for therapeutic treatment immediately if your youngster begins to run an amazingly high fever, builds up a rash or has different side effects that appear to be more than the standard kept running of seasonal influenza.

Last THOUGHTS ABOUT NATURAL FLU REMEDIES FOR KIDS 

These common influenza cures aren't only for your kids. In the event that another individual from your family unit or a parental figure descends seasonal influenza, all youngsters in the house are at more serious danger of getting it too. It's essential to utilize these safeguard techniques yourself, and everything begins with washing those hands and focusing on doorknobs, ink pens, consoles and different things that you share with other people who may have influenza. from Health Fitness Lifestyle https://ift.tt/2RRVjuD via IFTTT

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The Tough and Colorful Barberry

Would you like to have a garden with bright color for months and months, but your soil is poor, your winters cold, and you don’t really have much time available? If that sounds like you, then the Barberry is your friend. These tough shrubs grow well even in zone 4, they are resistant to dryness, they cope well with poor soils, and they are colorful from spring to fall, never turning into boring green after a few days once a year of flowers.

Few shrubs have such a wide range of leaf colors, from the every-popular purple-reds to the fashionable lime greens, with golds, yellows and oranges in between, you could easily create a whole landscape of color with just this one plant. Available too in a range of sizes, from hardly more than a foot tall to a substantial 6 feet, there are lots of places where you could slip them into your existing landscape. Did we mention hedges? Yes, there too, as a low bed edging, or a taller barrier, Barberry clips easily into great, colorful hedges.

Some gardeners can be put off Barberry because there are sharp little thorns along the branches, but this has a very positive upside. Planted beneath windows they make it a whole lot harder for an intruder to climb in – unless they are wearing cowboy chaps – and a Barberry hedge is an easy way to keep four-legged intruders out of your garden. It takes a brave cat or dog to push through Barberry just for the opportunity to dig around in your beds. And of course, if you have deer, they won’t be munching on those spiny stems either, so not much touches this plant at all.

Easy Color from Spring to Fall

If you are looking at a boring green garden, with little or no color through the seasons, an easy way to tackle it would be to order in a batch of Barberry, in a variety of colors and sizes. Stand back to get a good view and then slip them in here or there around the garden, creating splashes of season-long color in just a few minutes. Once planted there is little more to do than watch them grow, and see your garden come alive.

The Barberry, or as botanist call it, Berberis, is a large group of shrubs, but for our gardens we rely almost completely on one brought into America by plant collectors from the Arnold Arboretum, in the 19th century. Back then there were few garden plants, and this new shrub, with yellow spring flowers, red fall leaves, and red berries in winter, soon became a big hit, and it was widely planted. That Japanese Barberry, Berberis thunbergii, had a lot of tricks up its sleeve, and since the first introduction that green plant has been transformed. Within a few decades French growers had found seedlings with rich purple-red leaves, and then the Dutch – as we might expect from such a small country – found dwarf forms too. In later years a whole palette of color exploded, until we have today’s bounty of shades.

Hardy in winters to minus 30, and easily grown in any soil that isn’t always swampy, all these shrubs ask for is a sunny spot to put down roots in. They will also take light shade for a few hours of the day, but too much shade will ‘green out’ the foliage color, which would be a shame.

Here is a quick guide to some of the best varieties of Barberry, in different colors.

Reds and Purples

Ground zero for dark red leaves – always a top favorite with gardeners – are plants derived from those early French seedlings. These are often called ‘f. atropurpurea’ (where the ‘f’. designates a form that is different from the parent), but that rather tall and leggy original is rarely grown anymore. Much more useful are smaller forms, such as ‘Concord’, which reaches no more than 2 feet tall, with a similar spread. That fat form makes hedges more economical, as you can space the plants as much as 18 inches apart and still quickly create a dense but low hedge. A similar spacing is perfect for mass planting, which fills larger sections of your beds quickly and easily.

Despite its name, ‘Crimson Pygmy’ is taller, growing to 2 to 3 feet tall, and as much as 4 feet across, with the same rich, all-season purple-red leaves. It’s a perfect choice for a slightly larger hedge, or further back in a bed, behind flowers.

If you have some concerns about Barberry spreading into local natural areas – which it has done in some parts of the country – then you can still enjoy them by planting the Royal Burgundy® Barberry, which produces no berries, so cannot be spread around by birds. It is similar in size to ‘Crimson Pygmy’, with an attractive arching form when left untrimmed.

To add to the beauty, the dark leaves of these bushes turn rich oranges and scarlet-reds in fall, making a great showing, before dropping in time for winter.

Oranges and Pinks

If the same color all season is a little boring to you, then the ‘Rosy Glow’ barberry is for you. Starting out purple in spring, the new growth is rose-pink, mottled with bronze and purple. As the leaves mature they darken, so that the shrub has a bright, rosy exterior, with a deeper purple interior, which really brings the colors to life. A taller shrub if left unpruned, it can touch 6 feet, so it is perfect for background planting in smaller beds, and middle-ground in larger ones.

If you love orange, then bring it to your garden with ‘Orange Rocket’. This unique Barberry starts the year with an explosion of rich orange foliage. The color holds well into summer, then turns light green, before a vibrant encore of brilliant ruby-red in fall. This is truly a hard-to-beat source of rich colors season after season.

Yellows and Limes

While reds are always popular, smart gardeners use plenty of yellow foliage, while those up with garden fashions opt for lime-yellow. These colors really ‘pop’ in the garden and bring lots of life and color to your beds.

‘Aurea Nana’ is just that – a small bundle of vibrant golden leaves that hold their color from spring to fall – no summer fading into green with this beauty. 2 to 3 feet tall and wide, it is perfect for a low edging to a bed, or as specimens in smaller gardens. They are also ideal for planters, surrounded perhaps by blue and silver trailing annuals – a great display.

For a more upright form, choose ‘Golden Rocket’, which stays just a foot or two wide but it stand up proud 3, 4 and as much as 5 feet tall. It too holds that color from spring to fall, and it is ideal for building height in small beds.

For that perfect low edging, that keeps changing color in every season, plant the tiny barberry, ‘Daybreak’, which starts orange-red in spring, turns yellow all summer and then bright red in fall. It only grows 18 inches tall, so even left unclipped it is perfect along a driveway or fronting a bed.

Then, for the perfect lime-green accent, plant ‘Lime Glow’, with yellow new leaves that quickly turn the perfect bright lime, looking wonderful across the garden. It grows into a substantial 5-feet tall and 4-feet wide shrub, and makes a wonderful hedge along a boundary, that is both beautiful and impenetrable.

With all this to choose from, the simple solution is to plant a wide selection of these great plants – tough and colorful, and oh so easy to grow.

The Tough and Colorful Barberry published first on https://www.thetreecenter.com

[cameronf24]

The Tough and Colorful Barberry

Would you like to have a garden with bright color for months and months, but your soil is poor, your winters cold, and you don’t really have much time available? If that sounds like you, then the Barberry is your friend. These tough shrubs grow well even in zone 4, they are resistant to dryness, they cope well with poor soils, and they are colorful from spring to fall, never turning into boring green after a few days once a year of flowers.

Few shrubs have such a wide range of leaf colors, from the every-popular purple-reds to the fashionable lime greens, with golds, yellows and oranges in between, you could easily create a whole landscape of color with just this one plant. Available too in a range of sizes, from hardly more than a foot tall to a substantial 6 feet, there are lots of places where you could slip them into your existing landscape. Did we mention hedges? Yes, there too, as a low bed edging, or a taller barrier, Barberry clips easily into great, colorful hedges.

Some gardeners can be put off Barberry because there are sharp little thorns along the branches, but this has a very positive upside. Planted beneath windows they make it a whole lot harder for an intruder to climb in – unless they are wearing cowboy chaps – and a Barberry hedge is an easy way to keep four-legged intruders out of your garden. It takes a brave cat or dog to push through Barberry just for the opportunity to dig around in your beds. And of course, if you have deer, they won’t be munching on those spiny stems either, so not much touches this plant at all.

Easy Color from Spring to Fall

If you are looking at a boring green garden, with little or no color through the seasons, an easy way to tackle it would be to order in a batch of Barberry, in a variety of colors and sizes. Stand back to get a good view and then slip them in here or there around the garden, creating splashes of season-long color in just a few minutes. Once planted there is little more to do than watch them grow, and see your garden come alive.

The Barberry, or as botanist call it, Berberis, is a large group of shrubs, but for our gardens we rely almost completely on one brought into America by plant collectors from the Arnold Arboretum, in the 19th century. Back then there were few garden plants, and this new shrub, with yellow spring flowers, red fall leaves, and red berries in winter, soon became a big hit, and it was widely planted. That Japanese Barberry, Berberis thunbergii, had a lot of tricks up its sleeve, and since the first introduction that green plant has been transformed. Within a few decades French growers had found seedlings with rich purple-red leaves, and then the Dutch – as we might expect from such a small country – found dwarf forms too. In later years a whole palette of color exploded, until we have today’s bounty of shades.

Hardy in winters to minus 30, and easily grown in any soil that isn’t always swampy, all these shrubs ask for is a sunny spot to put down roots in. They will also take light shade for a few hours of the day, but too much shade will ‘green out’ the foliage color, which would be a shame.

Here is a quick guide to some of the best varieties of Barberry, in different colors.

Reds and Purples

Ground zero for dark red leaves – always a top favorite with gardeners – are plants derived from those early French seedlings. These are often called ‘f. atropurpurea’ (where the ‘f’. designates a form that is different from the parent), but that rather tall and leggy original is rarely grown anymore. Much more useful are smaller forms, such as ‘Concord’, which reaches no more than 2 feet tall, with a similar spread. That fat form makes hedges more economical, as you can space the plants as much as 18 inches apart and still quickly create a dense but low hedge. A similar spacing is perfect for mass planting, which fills larger sections of your beds quickly and easily.

Despite its name, ‘Crimson Pygmy’ is taller, growing to 2 to 3 feet tall, and as much as 4 feet across, with the same rich, all-season purple-red leaves. It’s a perfect choice for a slightly larger hedge, or further back in a bed, behind flowers.

If you have some concerns about Barberry spreading into local natural areas – which it has done in some parts of the country – then you can still enjoy them by planting the Royal Burgundy® Barberry, which produces no berries, so cannot be spread around by birds. It is similar in size to ‘Crimson Pygmy’, with an attractive arching form when left untrimmed.

To add to the beauty, the dark leaves of these bushes turn rich oranges and scarlet-reds in fall, making a great showing, before dropping in time for winter.

Oranges and Pinks

If the same color all season is a little boring to you, then the ‘Rosy Glow’ barberry is for you. Starting out purple in spring, the new growth is rose-pink, mottled with bronze and purple. As the leaves mature they darken, so that the shrub has a bright, rosy exterior, with a deeper purple interior, which really brings the colors to life. A taller shrub if left unpruned, it can touch 6 feet, so it is perfect for background planting in smaller beds, and middle-ground in larger ones.

If you love orange, then bring it to your garden with ‘Orange Rocket’. This unique Barberry starts the year with an explosion of rich orange foliage. The color holds well into summer, then turns light green, before a vibrant encore of brilliant ruby-red in fall. This is truly a hard-to-beat source of rich colors season after season.

Yellows and Limes

While reds are always popular, smart gardeners use plenty of yellow foliage, while those up with garden fashions opt for lime-yellow. These colors really ‘pop’ in the garden and bring lots of life and color to your beds.

‘Aurea Nana’ is just that – a small bundle of vibrant golden leaves that hold their color from spring to fall – no summer fading into green with this beauty. 2 to 3 feet tall and wide, it is perfect for a low edging to a bed, or as specimens in smaller gardens. They are also ideal for planters, surrounded perhaps by blue and silver trailing annuals – a great display.

For a more upright form, choose ‘Golden Rocket’, which stays just a foot or two wide but it stand up proud 3, 4 and as much as 5 feet tall. It too holds that color from spring to fall, and it is ideal for building height in small beds.

For that perfect low edging, that keeps changing color in every season, plant the tiny barberry, ‘Daybreak’, which starts orange-red in spring, turns yellow all summer and then bright red in fall. It only grows 18 inches tall, so even left unclipped it is perfect along a driveway or fronting a bed.

Then, for the perfect lime-green accent, plant ‘Lime Glow’, with yellow new leaves that quickly turn the perfect bright lime, looking wonderful across the garden. It grows into a substantial 5-feet tall and 4-feet wide shrub, and makes a wonderful hedge along a boundary, that is both beautiful and impenetrable.

With all this to choose from, the simple solution is to plant a wide selection of these great plants – tough and colorful, and oh so easy to grow.

The Tough and Colorful Barberry posted first on https://www.thetreecenter.com

[treesellcenter]

The Tough and Colorful Barberry

Would you like to have a garden with bright color for months and months, but your soil is poor, your winters cold, and you don’t really have much time available? If that sounds like you, then the Barberry is your friend. These tough shrubs grow well even in zone 4, they are resistant to dryness, they cope well with poor soils, and they are colorful from spring to fall, never turning into boring green after a few days once a year of flowers.

Few shrubs have such a wide range of leaf colors, from the every-popular purple-reds to the fashionable lime greens, with golds, yellows and oranges in between, you could easily create a whole landscape of color with just this one plant. Available too in a range of sizes, from hardly more than a foot tall to a substantial 6 feet, there are lots of places where you could slip them into your existing landscape. Did we mention hedges? Yes, there too, as a low bed edging, or a taller barrier, Barberry clips easily into great, colorful hedges.

Some gardeners can be put off Barberry because there are sharp little thorns along the branches, but this has a very positive upside. Planted beneath windows they make it a whole lot harder for an intruder to climb in – unless they are wearing cowboy chaps – and a Barberry hedge is an easy way to keep four-legged intruders out of your garden. It takes a brave cat or dog to push through Barberry just for the opportunity to dig around in your beds. And of course, if you have deer, they won’t be munching on those spiny stems either, so not much touches this plant at all.

Easy Color from Spring to Fall

If you are looking at a boring green garden, with little or no color through the seasons, an easy way to tackle it would be to order in a batch of Barberry, in a variety of colors and sizes. Stand back to get a good view and then slip them in here or there around the garden, creating splashes of season-long color in just a few minutes. Once planted there is little more to do than watch them grow, and see your garden come alive.

The Barberry, or as botanist call it, Berberis, is a large group of shrubs, but for our gardens we rely almost completely on one brought into America by plant collectors from the Arnold Arboretum, in the 19th century. Back then there were few garden plants, and this new shrub, with yellow spring flowers, red fall leaves, and red berries in winter, soon became a big hit, and it was widely planted. That Japanese Barberry, Berberis thunbergii, had a lot of tricks up its sleeve, and since the first introduction that green plant has been transformed. Within a few decades French growers had found seedlings with rich purple-red leaves, and then the Dutch – as we might expect from such a small country – found dwarf forms too. In later years a whole palette of color exploded, until we have today’s bounty of shades.

Hardy in winters to minus 30, and easily grown in any soil that isn’t always swampy, all these shrubs ask for is a sunny spot to put down roots in. They will also take light shade for a few hours of the day, but too much shade will ‘green out’ the foliage color, which would be a shame.

Here is a quick guide to some of the best varieties of Barberry, in different colors.

Reds and Purples

Ground zero for dark red leaves – always a top favorite with gardeners – are plants derived from those early French seedlings. These are often called ‘f. atropurpurea’ (where the ‘f’. designates a form that is different from the parent), but that rather tall and leggy original is rarely grown anymore. Much more useful are smaller forms, such as ‘Concord’, which reaches no more than 2 feet tall, with a similar spread. That fat form makes hedges more economical, as you can space the plants as much as 18 inches apart and still quickly create a dense but low hedge. A similar spacing is perfect for mass planting, which fills larger sections of your beds quickly and easily.

Despite its name, ‘Crimson Pygmy’ is taller, growing to 2 to 3 feet tall, and as much as 4 feet across, with the same rich, all-season purple-red leaves. It’s a perfect choice for a slightly larger hedge, or further back in a bed, behind flowers.

If you have some concerns about Barberry spreading into local natural areas – which it has done in some parts of the country – then you can still enjoy them by planting the Royal Burgundy® Barberry, which produces no berries, so cannot be spread around by birds. It is similar in size to ‘Crimson Pygmy’, with an attractive arching form when left untrimmed.

To add to the beauty, the dark leaves of these bushes turn rich oranges and scarlet-reds in fall, making a great showing, before dropping in time for winter.

Oranges and Pinks

If the same color all season is a little boring to you, then the ‘Rosy Glow’ barberry is for you. Starting out purple in spring, the new growth is rose-pink, mottled with bronze and purple. As the leaves mature they darken, so that the shrub has a bright, rosy exterior, with a deeper purple interior, which really brings the colors to life. A taller shrub if left unpruned, it can touch 6 feet, so it is perfect for background planting in smaller beds, and middle-ground in larger ones.

If you love orange, then bring it to your garden with ‘Orange Rocket’. This unique Barberry starts the year with an explosion of rich orange foliage. The color holds well into summer, then turns light green, before a vibrant encore of brilliant ruby-red in fall. This is truly a hard-to-beat source of rich colors season after season.

Yellows and Limes

While reds are always popular, smart gardeners use plenty of yellow foliage, while those up with garden fashions opt for lime-yellow. These colors really ‘pop’ in the garden and bring lots of life and color to your beds.

‘Aurea Nana’ is just that – a small bundle of vibrant golden leaves that hold their color from spring to fall – no summer fading into green with this beauty. 2 to 3 feet tall and wide, it is perfect for a low edging to a bed, or as specimens in smaller gardens. They are also ideal for planters, surrounded perhaps by blue and silver trailing annuals – a great display.

For a more upright form, choose ‘Golden Rocket’, which stays just a foot or two wide but it stand up proud 3, 4 and as much as 5 feet tall. It too holds that color from spring to fall, and it is ideal for building height in small beds.

For that perfect low edging, that keeps changing color in every season, plant the tiny barberry, ‘Daybreak’, which starts orange-red in spring, turns yellow all summer and then bright red in fall. It only grows 18 inches tall, so even left unclipped it is perfect along a driveway or fronting a bed.

Then, for the perfect lime-green accent, plant ‘Lime Glow’, with yellow new leaves that quickly turn the perfect bright lime, looking wonderful across the garden. It grows into a substantial 5-feet tall and 4-feet wide shrub, and makes a wonderful hedge along a boundary, that is both beautiful and impenetrable.

With all this to choose from, the simple solution is to plant a wide selection of these great plants – tough and colorful, and oh so easy to grow.

[readexplorerepeat]

Disney's Magic Kingdom: Travel tips

Magic Kingdom is everything you've imagined since you were a kid.  At least that's how I see it.  When we first walked through those doors (after passing a thorough security check) and you walk down Main Street U.S.A, at the very back your eyes spot the magnificence of Cinderella's castle...THE castle. The castle that is featured in the introduction to every single Disney movie you've ever seen.  That moment, was just priceless. 

We prepared, read, and planned our trip fairly well, however, there are things that we were glad we knew in advance and others that we wished we knew.  I put together a list of my favorite "must do" things and other tips that can help you navigate this world of magic.

But First, READ THIS: PREPARATION STAGE: MY FIRST DISNEY TRIP.

 1. TAKE THE MONORAIL OR BUS. 

Parking is a nightmare.  The parking lot is sooooooo huge that you can literally lose your car if you don't pay attention.  If you are staying in a Disney Resort, you will have complimentary transportation to the parks.  Use it! the buses are reliable and the monorail is fast.  The bus stops are easy to find and secure.  If you are not staying inside Disney, consider Uber or a taxi service like Mears.  

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2. GET THERE EARLY

Our first day at Magic Kingdom we decided to be there before the park opened so we had time to do everything we wanted to do.  Their opening times vary depending on the season, so make sure you check online or at your hotel for the weekly schedules.  The bus service picked us up at 6:45 a.m. and we got to the park a little after 7 a.m. for a 8 a.m. opening.  You go through security faster and get prime viewing for the opening show at the Cinderella Castle.

3. PLAN AHEAD

Get the Disney Experience App on your phone if you can.  It's free and it will help you navigate the parks via GPS location (it's great when you have to find a bathroom fast).  It will also allow you to view your fast pass itinerary and manage any reservations you have.  I recommend that you have a list of the rides you would like to ride and pick them in advance.  Remember, you can't possibly ride everything unless you are going to the same park multiple days.  So, plan ahead, use your fast passes wisely and don't get overwhelmed.  

you might want to also READ  THE DO'S AND DON'TS WHEN VISITING DISNEY (HERE).

 4. STAY FOR THE FIREWORKS

One of the most magical moments while visiting Magic Kingdom was to see the fireworks at the end of the night.  They were absolutely beautiful and, well, magical.  I know that after a LONG day of walking, riding, walking, and more walking, you and the little ones will be exhausted...BUT please, believe me when I tell you...go to your hotel and take a nap in the afternoon and come back for the fireworks at night! You'll be glad you did.

 5. DINE AT CINDERELLA CASTLE

Make your reservations in advance for Cinderella's Royal Table.  This was one of the best meals we had, not to mention it was super fun for the little one!  When you come in, you get to meet Cinderella herself and take a picture with her while you wait for your table.  When they call your name, they will escort your royal family up to the Royal table (this is all inside the iconic Disney Castle).  The room is spectacular.  You really feel as if you are in a real castle, dining with real royalty.  Once you are seated, the other princesses will come to your table to greet you, take pictures and sign your autograph book.  One by one, we met Snow White, Ariel, Jasmine, and Aurora.  It was fantastic.

6. HAVE A CINNAMON ROLL AT GASTON'S TAVERN

Just delicious! Stop by Gaston's Tavern when you are in Fantasyland and order their giant, succulent cinnamon rolls.  You can share one or two with your group (they are big).  Don't forget some coffee! Even though this is a "tavern" it's still alcohol free.  Sorry folks.  

 7. GET LOST IN TOM SAWYER'S ISLAND IN FRONTIERLAND

This is not really a ride, but I thought it was pretty great.  You are taken to this little island (literally) by riding on a raft (literally) across the river. Once there, you can take your time to explore on your own.  Get lost.  Yeah, simply get lost and imagine your own adventure.  There are several caves and secret passages to fuel your imagination to high speed.  Be brave and go across the barrel bridge, or simply just hang out and people watch while playing checkers and watching the riverboat go by.  

RIDES YOU SHOULDN'T MISS

Everyone is always going to have different favorite rides, but for me, here's my list of favorites:

THE HAUNTED MANSION

This ride was simply breathtaking, and just amazing.  It could be a little scary for small children, but if they can take seeing some ghosts and ghouls, do it! I waited since I was a child to do this ride, and it was everything I dreamed.

PETER PAN'S FLIGHT

was really beautiful and magical.  You feel as if Tinker Bell for real gave you some pixie dust and you fly! You fly above London and towards Neverland.  Beautiful animations and special effects. Get fast passes for these as they fill out fast and lines are long, hours long.  

Obviously, you still have to check out the classical rides like:

 Splash Mountain

Definitely wear a rain poncho when riding this one! you'll thank me later!

 The Seven Dwarfs mine

A family favorite.  This is a trip down the Seven Dwarfs mine, where you can see them working, and singing merrily.  The movement and facial expressions of are lifelike, and you are transported to their world in a way you don't expected.  A combination of a somewhat fast roller coaster with the sweetness of Snow White's story.  You can actually see her dancing inside their house if you pay close attention at the very end!

Big Thunder Mountain

It's a Small World

Ever since I can remember, I've known the tune of "It's a Small World"...don't ask me why; so when I saw the line was slightly shorter than normal (it was late and raining... it's usually a couple of hours wait) we jumped in and enjoyed the ride.  It's a classic! yeah, the animated characters are obviously old and you can tell the ride has been there for many years, but it was absolutely beautiful.  A must do. 

 Mad Tea Party

Another spinning classic you can't leave without riding! I have to admit... the teacups are small to fit 4 people.  It was tight and spinning quite fast.  Next time, we'll do two per cup.

 Pirates of the Caribbean

You'll be surprise where you can spot Captain Jack Sparrow.  That guy is everywhere! have fun riding and searching for Jack.  It was actually very nice and well done.

 Space Mountain and of course, the Disney Railroad.  

Sorry folks, I didn't get a good picture of the train or Space Mountain.  But, my daughter loved both.  Space mountain is VERY fast, dark and goes around ... in space... or so it's supposed to feel.  Pretty nice thrill ride. The train is just a train that goes from station to station, slowly crawling it's way around the park.  

Tomorrowland was fun too, especially Monsters Inc Laughing Floor (yeah, I was chosen to speak up with the microphone while talking to a cartoon character on the stage... my daughter thought it was quite funny as my face turned tomato red), I also enjoyed Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress; a quiet little ride that takes you on journey throughout the decades of progress and how technology has evolved.

Oh I almost forgot! we LOVED dining at Belle's Castle and riding the little Mermaid Undersea Adventure. 

 LEAST FAVORITE RIDE:

Although most things in Tomorrowland were OK, the Tomorrowland Speedway -where you ride the little go-carts and race other people- is NOT my idea of fun.  The whole place smells like smoke and burnt rubber, the carts are very difficult to control, and the pedal is very hard to press.  My whole body was hurting after riding that go-cart.  Wouldn't recommend it at all. 

 Overall, Magic Kingdom was fantastic.  Something that I wish everyone could experience at least once.  We were fortunate to visit when Christmas decorations had started in late November so we got to experience the extra magic...it was also Mickey's birthday! so it made it even more special.  

Tell me your tips and your favorites too! Please comment below. 

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Always, 

Mia