#so i wrote something like ‘ friday …. november 2023

[bbaycon]

Some riz au lait doodle for the start of december

It was chocolate flavoured tea

[cleolinda]

Weekend links

My posts

Mostly resting, to be honest; had a bad pain week and then I got a flu shot (and timed it so I could spend Saturday sleeping it off).

However, there were Grammy nominations on Friday, and I am very pleased that The Age of Pleasure is up for Best Album (and Best Progressive R&B Album, it looks like). I wrote (briefly) about my favorite Janelle Monáe songs back when the album came out this summer, if you'd like to listen to those:

"Cold War"

"Make the Bus"

"Violet Stars Happy Hunting!!!"

"We Were Rock and Roll"

"Don't Judge Me"

"Know Better"

--

Oh, wait, I did post something this week--a poll about which song you most associate with the Go-Go's. (The second highest result, "I have never heard one single Go," is what I wanted to measure: if you're within the reach of something I might write, what can I assume that you know?) Looks like the poll ends on Monday, so there's still time to weigh in on that.

Reblogs of interest

There was a Traditional Tumblr Scare earlier this week; you can find that under #the happenings, my "oh holy fuck why is social media crumbling into the sea again" tag, but here is the main explanation of the leaked memo. Short version: official word went out that they might actually get rid of Tumblr Live, and all the ewoks celebrated.

I have been around long enough to see multiple Tumblr Is Fucked scares, yes, but also, this was not the year to play with my nerves. Obviously I'm staying here, and I was already paying for ad-free, but I'll be dusting my Dreamwidth off as a mirror for the big posts. And I've already been using Patreon as a "get it here early" hub/archive for a month or so now. I am just not getting caught off guard again like I was when dipshit took over Twitter last November.

Pillowfort, meanwhile, actually is in financial trouble.

--

I haven't heard any details yet, but: SAG-AFTRA reaches tentative agreement with Hollywood studios in a move to end nearly 4-month strike.

Finalists of the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Fuck It, Internet Guide

I was there, Gandalf: Don't overpluck your brows.

Goth Anime Legs Uncle finally cycled back around to me with the addition that he's actually BROM? BROM??

damn girl are you the tower of babel

Video

This is just what ADHD sounds like

"My cat decided to use magic damage"

"A mating dance (?)"

Snow leopards: Sproing!

The sacred texts

i’ll kick anyone’s ass. i’ll kick your ass. i’ll kick your dog’s ass. i’ll kick my own ass

Personal tag of the week

#art was good this week, with a Mothman piece I particularly liked

[reviewsbyliam]

Nicki Minaj - Last Time I Saw You

(Single Review)

01/09/23

Friendly Reminder: make sure to listen to the song whilst reading!

Nicki Minaj for Last Time I Saw You

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Kicking off September with the supposed lead single from her highly anticipated 5th album 'Pink Friday 2' is none other than Nicki Minaj.

Last Time I Saw You is the 3rd single to be released from her upcoming album, with 1 & 2 being the #1 HIT Super Freaky Girl and Red Ruby Da Sleeze which introduced her new alter ego, Red Ruby Da Sleeze.

Earlier today, Nicki spoke with Zane Lowe on the New Music Daily series which is platformed by Apple Music Radio, touching on the subjects behind the song.

She indicated that it's partly about her late Father, Robert Maraj, who was killed in a hit-and-run in February of 2021, also adding; "The vibe of it was really talking about a loss, a real loss you know. But to not make the song feel only directed at one kind of loss. When I wrote the singing verse, I tried to expand it and think even about relationships. And then by the time I got to the rap, it was like I had included all relationships that I had lost before, because I mentioned even best friends and stuff like that."

Never forgetting to also pay homage to her own personal growth, Nicki stated; "I just wanted the next song that I put out to represent my growth, but not just as an artist, but as a human being. I’ve experienced so many things that I hadn’t experienced five years ago, and that’s just the truth."

Talking earlier today to Zane Lowe about the current rap climate, Nicki said: "I felt that if I don’t take the risk, that I’m just as bad as everyone else who I think should make a change. And not only artists, but people behind the scenes. Because the truth of the matter is people are experiencing real life every day. Believe it or not, people are going through real shit every day. So just because they don’t have that music out to express it, it doesn’t mean they’re not experiencing it."

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Taking risks from the music she has previously put out was the best choice for Nicki, as it proves that no matter how long she has been in the game for; she'll always find a way to create a new wave and ride it like no other whilst managing to stay relatable with her sound and writing.

Diversity in your lyricism and flow alongside experimenting with beats is something that many rappers lack so they choose to stick to their comfort zones, but for Nicki? That's not her story. Each album she has put out for public consumption has been consistently different. From flows, beats, lyrics, alter egos, stories - nothing is the same. Nicki being 15 years into her career and still finding ways to elevate her musical skill is truly inspirational.

After becoming a mother and surviving a very consistent hate train from the general public in 2018 that lasted for a couple years, it's more obvious now than ever that Nicki is ready to show the world what shes made of once again and gently but savagely remind people that whilst they might be able to play with others, they can't play with her. At all.

I'm personally extremely excited for her new album and eager to hear what sounds she has been experimenting with in her studio, alongside everything else that comes. Being a fan since Pink Friday was first released in 2010, it always is anxiety inducing when you don't exactly know where your favorite artists creative mind is directing itself, but then I also find that's what makes it so exciting about being a fan of that person, because when their past work is so consistent and still streamed to this day, you know you won't be let down no matter what, especially when its a mastermind like Nicki Minaj.

PINK FRIDAY 2 OUT NOVEMBER 17TH 2023

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CONCLUSION: A very emotionally layered track from Nicki that is upbeat and catchy whilst managing to stay unique, securing it's destiny for greatness. I (like many others) found myself able to relate on a personal level with past and current situations and even found myself getting a bit emotional at one point once I understood her own personal connections with the song. A very cohesive, well produced track with outstanding vocals and flow from Nicki.

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Last Time I Saw You is a certified 10/10 by Reviews By Liam

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Thank you for checking out my review of Nicki Minaj's new single Last Time I Saw You!

If you would like to listen to Last Time I Saw You, it is available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music, or purchase from iTunes.

Please support my blog by giving me a follow and sharing my reviews with your family and friends, whilst not forgetting to leave your own comments below!

X (Twitter): reviewsbyliam

Instagram: reviewsbyliam

[gabrielle-writes]

Devlog 10 - 07/12/2023

LINK FOR DEMO |  PLAYLIST

November... Was a disaster, to put it simply.

The moment I write this Devlog, the chapter 2 Undead path has 3,6k words in between prose, variations and code. Very, very far from what I hoped for, and being very sincere, I'm still very unsure of how I like what I wrote; something feels off, but I don't know if really something to improve, or just my mind being all over the place.

Half of the reason for the small progress is mental health and energy, a good chunk of the month I only had the mental energy to exist and try and keep myself alive and cared for. The other half, it was life throwing curved balls at me in such a way that even when I did had the energy for writing and so on... I couldn't sit and do it, because there was always something else to solve.

That's why this Devlog in being put on at this moment: last week I didn't had time to sit and do it, and this friday 8th I know I won't have it.

The monthly lore and art, however, will come in the next weeks as usual: the lore is already written, and watercolor comes easily for me.

I can't promise that I will have more writing done in December, with how things have been going and all the holidays, but I PRAY and HOPE I'll be able to, because not being able to write and create when I do have the mental energy makes everything worse for me lol

Thank you all for your patience and everything. May December and the coming holidays be gentle with you all. Love you all and stay safe!

LINK FOR DEMO |  PLAYLIST

[withdrawlsymptoms]

what happened

A year ago, I went through the worst friendship breakups of my life. It completely destroyed my sense of self-worth and forced me to start over emotionally. I have been brutally sad and unrelentingly angry. I have been guilty and cold. I haven't talked to them since November 1, 2023 and I don't plan on it ever again.

Now, there is finally joy in my life again. More than I ever thought possible. Maybe someday I will have it in me to forgive, but now I have it in me to forget.

I just turned 22. When they blew off my 21st birthday more cavalierly than even I had expected, I wrote them a letter and then I password protected it and let myself forget the password (my way of symbolically burning it). Anyway, today I remembered, and I figured I didn't want it to fester with the skeletons in my closet for the rest of my life. I'm posting it here as my final act of letting go.

---

It was a slow death, you and I – at least for me. It was gasping and choking and all-consuming, dreadful and cold, leaps of faith that plummeted into downwards spirals. For you, I think it was just a Friday in May.

For months, I’ve been entombed in my own sadness. You see, it was almost like a divorce. A game of tug of war that I easily won. I gave so much of myself to you, and now I don’t really know how to take it back. You gave me scraps and made me believe it was more.

I don’t know if it was your fault, or if I was asking for too much. Maybe you were never capable of giving me what I needed.

I thought I loved you. But I’ve felt it before, and this is not what love is. You turned me into someone I hate. I asked you over and over again if you hated me, if you sensed this thing between us was off kilter. I screamed at you that something was wrong. I begged you not to leave. (You said you wouldn’t leave). You told me it was just me. I turned the knife inward. I wallowed in self-sacrifice and pity. I told you, but it was too late. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Even now, your words make me wonder if it’s my fault. If I took something that was all in my head and blew it out of proportion. If the heat drove me crazy, or I invented it for lack of something better to do. I don’t care about the reason anymore. It didn’t stop it from happening.

You fucked with my mind like it was a lovesick teenage girl you met at a block party. I don’t have it in me to forgive you for that.

I doubt everything now. I don’t fit in with you, or your friends. I was always a wet blanket at best and a roadblock at worst. It hurt when you didn’t ask. You and your goldfish memory.

I took care of you when you needed me, and now you’re laughing with the same people you claimed to despise. I don’t know what to think of that. I guess I’m glad you finally moved on.

The days are all the same now. Summer rain looks like tears to me. There’s a playlist of songs in my head that I can’t listen to. I hyperventilate when you text. Sometimes the grief preys on me, and sometimes I pray to my anger. I search for an answer, but there is no absolution to be found here. And I can’t go back either.

I want so badly for it to be over. I wish I could look at you and feel nothing. I’m trying but I’m not there yet. 21 birthday candles light the funeral pyre of my 20-year-old naivete. I will find ways to move on. I wrote this letter. I changed your contact name. I removed you from my circle. I will sever the ribbons that tie me to you before I let myself wonder again.

I didn’t deserve you.

You don’t deserve me.

I will never send this to you, but it doesn’t matter anyway. You were never afraid of losing me. But I hope you live to regret it

August 11, 2023

[phillipcole]

The Kelly Clarkson Show part 2

Clarkson: Welcome back. We're speaking with Phil Cole and moving on to happier talk. Phil, the Ranting 109-Year-Old Man passed away last summer, but on November 15 you released a spoken word album of his best routines. We're going to play just a short clip right now.

(They play part of Ode to Smarties as posted previously.)

Clarkson: That is the fourth most successful spoken word album of 2023 and it's nominated for an Emmy. Phil, do you think you'll win?

PBC: I hope so. I read reviews of the competition-didn't buy anything because that might hurt my chances-and I think it was the best.

Clarkson: So how did you create the character?

PBC: Well, I grew up around old people. I've always made friends with older people, never many my own age. We just never clicked. So I knew enough about history to put myself in that era, how I would have reacted to things and how someone from that era would react to the present world.

Clarkson: Wow!

PBC: I also discovered there wasn't an act like him anywhere. comedians got old, but they were telling the same jokes that made them famous decades earlier. They didn't really fit the modern world, and they didn't address it. I could go on but you've got a great clip to show.

Clarkson: That's right. Phil, your movie Demon Dress is still in theaters but this Friday you release another promising film called Toad woman of Tennessee. Normally I would ask you to set up the scene but I think it speaks for itself. Here you are with Miley Cyrus.

(Clip begins.)

Professor: Now stick out your tongue, beautiful, far as you can.

(He scrapes it.)

Professor: Thank you. Relax. Now I am go'in to show you de first fruits of our labors. You are the first to see this.

Cyrus: I can hardly wait!.

Professor: Now observe as I press the specimen from your tongue. Zis under the microscope is the tissue I just egstracted.

Cyrus: Wow! It's like it's alive.

Professor: Da, it es alive. eet is alive. On that one slide there are thousands of living organisms. They don't live long, but what they do for you is important, and vat I have done with dem is a breakthrough for science. You are a part of it! Now I remove ze slide and show you zis. That's it get eet in focus. Vat do you zee?

Cyrus: Green, slimy, but alive. What is it?

Professor: That is the very same tissue I scraped off your tongue last veek. I combined it with my special solvent for keeping the organisms alive. Then I added something special. Something I have been working on for many years and at last ve are on ze threshold. I added the saliva of a live toad, a special toad. It is here in this cage. Step back and see vat we have done for zis toad!

Cyrus: Oh my God! Oh my God! Professor you are incredible. I'm so excited!

(She gives him a French kiss. Tape ends.)

Clarkson: What is she looking at?

PBC: Go to the movies and find out.

Clarkson: Well, I can't wait to see it. Phil, you play 6 parts...

PBC: 7; I'm trying for an Oscar with this one.

Clarkson: Leading man or supporting?

PBC: Well, I wish they could nominate one character for lead and one for supporting, but I'll take what I can get.

Clarkson: Well, it's January, so you'll be in the lead for a while anyway. Phil, you also wrote it.

PBC: About half the script.

Clarkson: And you directed it.

PBC: About 2 thirds.

Clarkson: So I'm always curious. How many takes did you do for a scene like that?

PBC: 2 takes, but we rehearsed without the cameras for 6 hours. We had it right in one hour, but to get Miley Cyrus to kiss me over and over...how could anyone stop.

Clarkson: Well Toad woman of Tennessee opens Friday everywhere. Phil, thank you so much for being here and best wishes to everyone.

PBC: Thanks.

Clarkson: Don't go anywhere. After the break you'll see the latest routine by Bishop Guido Sarducci.

[midnightpsychos]

@everyoneismytoy asked: "my life is my own and I want to be with rob .being a father was something I wanted and I just need to be honest with myself and not hide what I am. I love you Penelope but I have to live my life and I'm sorry "

Friday, 3rd November 2023 at 12:14 am

You want to know what it’s like to have a parent claim that they love you even after learning about them and what they did to your mother? This dream was sure enough strange to begin with and the only place where I feel like writing all of this down helps like it did to my mother when my parents were going through a tough divorce.

He claims that he loves me and that having a family is so important to him, well if that’s the case then why would you have a child in the first place when you decide to leave them as soon as they’re a newborn? 

Everything about who I am as a person has come down to my father and that may be a curse or a blessing but i have yet to find that out and don’t think I will be able to shortly. I’m more like my father whether people come to accept it or they decide to live their miserable lives by judging people based off of something that was out of your control. 

Yes, I’m a bipolar person just like my dad and I am not ashamed of hiding who I am and what cracks I have to develop my character at just 22; I’m a singer in the making who has wrote songs for bigger celebrities who have claimed that I am a song writer that’s going to become big in a couple of months regardless of what I suffer from. And if people can’t see that then they can kindly fuck off because I don’t need their pointless lives distracting me from loving mine to the fullest.  

Even if Felix and my mother didn’t work out, at the end of the day he’s still my father and I respect him a lot as someone who can look after me properly no matter what. It’s just that the fact of me suffering with bipolar makes things more difficult to deal with because people don’t know when it is the best time that I’ll snap and turn in the horrible person that my dad knows me to be.

But that’s all to keep track of when it came to this mysterious dream I had last night - I know at times my father can be a right dickhead but I still love him and adore him like I used to when I was a little child. 

I’ll write to you when I can, lots of love Penny x

[ms-m-astrologer]

Transiting Jupiter enters Retrograde Zone

Timeline (current events in bold): Transiting Jupiter enters Rx zone, Tuesday, December 12, 2017, 8:29 UT, 13:20 Scorpio Transiting Jupiter stations retrograde, Friday, March 9, 2018, 03:58 UT, 23:13 Scorpio Transiting Jupiter stations direct, Tuesday, July 10, 2018, 15:59 UTC, 13:20 Scorpio Transiting Jupiter exits Rx zone, Sunday, October 7, 2018. 00:47 UTC, 23:13 Scorpio Transiting Jupiter enters Sagittarius, Thursday, November 8, 2018, 12:38 UTC

My go-to for basic retrogradation information, Martin Bulgerin at biopscinst dot com, says this about Jupiter retrograde:

Jupiter is a planet of "luck,” opportunities, and contacts with the world at large. When Jupiter is retrograde, the support provided by others dries up, leaving us to get by on our own resources. Often sources of income decrease or unexpected big expenditures crop up. This serves to draw our interests away from "frivolous matters" and concentrate our focus on what is truly important. Use this time to put your life on a firm foundation -- if you can survive this period with so little, you're sure to thrive later when the support resumes.

This is so unfair - it’s all happening in my 1st House! Arrgh! Anyway, every retrograde zone is, like Gaul, divided into three parts. This initial phase, during which we first travel over the area to be three-peated, Martin describes thusly:

During the first pass, you may not even be aware of the need for change or that at some unconscious level, your psyche is already setting the stage for situations that will teach you. Perhaps you dimly notice storm clouds on the horizon, but you don't pay them much attention. By the retrograde station, the pattern is crystalized and set in motion.

So let’s think about this. Bloch and George describe transiting Jupiter as bringing “the opportunity to expand my horizons and experience abundance. In the process, things may become excessive and exaggerated.” Their Scorpio key phrase is, “my need for deep involvements and intense transformations.” Combining the two, we have - what? - a magnificent obsession? (In my freaking 1st House? I thought I was already massively self-absorbed!)

I saw something valuable on Tumblr, some months ago, which I instantly took to heart. In so many words: “Jupiter wants us to make the most of a situation; Saturn wants us to make the best of a situation.” (Can anyone help with attribution?) With Jupiter’s Rx zone, occupying a mere 10-degree swathe of Zodiac, we have a narrowed area to focus on and make the most of. Into which of your houses does 13-23 Scorpio fall?

Note 1: I usually include only the aspects the slow outer planets will make to the slower outer planets, when I compile the outer-planet transit lists. But this time I included some of the “inner planets” because they’re kind of the supporting cast, as it were.

Note 2, especially for US readers: this Rx zone begins on the day of the critical Alabama Senate election, in which a man who prosecuted the KKK is pitted against a child molester. And this Rx zone ends two days after the 2018 Congressional elections. The whole zone almost perfectly  falls in the US national 11th House - representing the Congress; the cusp of the 12th House is 22:52 Scorpio, meaning that the Rx begins, and the whole thing ends, in the US national House of “behind the scenes activities.” My sisters and brothers, in the words of Outkast, “You know what to do.”

Tuesday, December 12, Vesta/Scorpio conjunct Jupiter/Scorpio, 13:20

This conjunctions matures a mere 29 minutes after Jupiter enters its zone. (And now you know where I got “magnificent obsession” from.) In Asteroid Goddesses, Demetra George wrote of interactions between these two, “The focusing principle combines with the expansive/broadening urge. This combination can indicate enlargement and a social vision within one’s field of dedication and commitment.” A cause, in other words. Be sure you’re ready for the long haul, for this cycle will last over four years. (Their next conjunction is March 12, 2023, at 14+ Aries, with Chiron also at 14+ Aries. Wow.)

Planets/Points affected lie between 12:20 and 14:20 of the signs Taurus*, Cancer, Leo*, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Aquarius*, and Pisces.

Sunday, December 31, North Node/Leo square Jupiter/Scorpio, 16:54; South Node/Aquarius square Jupiter/Scorpio, 16:54; Tuesday, January 2, Ceres Rx/Leo square Jupiter/Scorpio, 17:12; Saturday, January 6, Mars/Scorpio conjunct Jupiter/Scorpio, 17:55

The square from Ceres is the second of three - the first one happened way back in September, between Ceres/Cancer and Jupiter/Libra; 3/3 will take place in May 2018. This whole set-up smacks of excessive self-indulgence, in the name of treating oneself. “I deserve this. I appreciate myself even if nobody else does.” Scorpio has some level of restraint, but with Mars there, too, there’s a real danger of a “scorched earth” style ending. We’ll be particularly susceptible over the 3rd/4th of January, when the Moon joins Ceres.

Planets/Points affected lie between 15:54 and 18:55 of the fixed signs Taurus*, Leo*, Scorpio*, and Aquarius*; and between 00:54 and 3:55 of the cardinal signs Aries*, Cancer*, Libra*, and Capricorn*.

Monday, January 15, Pluto/Capricorn sextile Jupiter/Scorpio, 19:17

First of three, and on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in the US. “This sextile enables us to access the light of truth that can illuminate dark recesses and to claim the power necessary to effect the necessary change,” wrote Pam Younghans in The Mountain Astrologer’s December/January 2018 issue. We’re going to become aware of some issue/cause to which we can commit. (The second sextile is April 14, and the third on September 12.)

Planets/Points affected lie between 18:17 and 20:17 of the yin signs Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces.