#the hawaii games were proof that they were falling off right then and there

[pokeconspiracy]

People that played the "Animals" games, and were a huge fan of the France country, what was your reaction watching the Animals Presents when they were announcing that we were getting a Legends game based entirely on Paris???

[karmanticmoved]

1-85 uwu

j esus okay

1. describe yourself.

uh,, emotional ig, dumbass, quiet, exhausted all of the time, v queer, healthy mix of feminine and masculine, insecure, and not tha t great tbh. kinda a pussy ass b itch

2. if you could go anywhere for a week all expenses paid where would it be?

idrk. maybe somewhere like a hella nice beach in another country, maybe somewhere in europe. i like travelling but i hate the travel to get there and have no money so i havent put thought into it. maybe hawaii or somewhere like that.

3. do you have siblings?

the one thats still alive is my half brother

4. what is your favorite constellation, why?

orion maybe bc i don't know a lot but i can see that one from my bedroom window even in the city n idk. its comforting. or scorpius cause i'm a scorpio

5. favorite color.

yellow, pink, or blue.

6. what kind of music do you listen to?

almost anything. whatever catches my interest.

7. favorite flower. (you can name as many as you want cause flowers are awesome)

forgot what i said last time but those

yellow carnations i think?

8. if you could do magic, what is the first spell you would learn?

maybe smth to put myself to sleep immediately bc f uCk

9. favorite childhood memory.

my summer camp memories are pretty great. also memories of my dad and i going fishing are good.

10. have you ever been cheated on?

i mean in theory i couldve been bc online relationships but no. n im polyam and have identified as such for a majority of my relationships so no.

11. if you could describe your perfect room, what would it be?

big but not too big, yknow? like big enough that it can be filled and have room to walk around and lay on the ground or whatever but not Empty. and a pretty big bed to stretch out on, n a closet in the room. multiple windows w blackout curtains so theres light but it can be blocked out. n fluffy rugs or carpeting but preferably rugs in case smth spills so we can get it out of at least Remove the rug. and probably a cat tree thing in corner for dipper. n a computer desk and actual lights that light up the whole room. but probably,, fairy lights too bc full lights too bright. and i kinda want a pink room but blue or yellow work also. a nd pride flags on the walls + posters and various other stuff bc plain walls are boring. and tons n tons of b ooks too.

12. favorite animal.

river otter

13. what was the last photo you took of?

cat

14. do you believe in soul mates?

i'm not sure. i do kinda think there are people who you will like. really really click with and who become so important in your life that they're like. apart of u yknow? but i don't think that anyone as an individual needs to keep those people in their life forever. they arent destined to stay with them, and they shouldnt force that relationship (platonic, familial, romantic, or whatever) even if they were close for years and years. screw destiny. youll have people you care about, and sometimes you have to break that bond to save yourself, and thats okay. there will be other people who can and will be just as important. that got kinda off topic skbsks. i don't think theres really like Destiny soulmates. but there could be like. soulmates in the sense of for however long we're together, we're soul bonded. even if its not forever. does that even make se nse skbsns

15. do you hang toilet paper over or under?

over is the one thats socially acceptable right

16. your go to place to eat & your favorite thing to get there.

idk theres a place near a movie theater closeish to my house and its a nice little cafe and i dont eat there bc i dont eat much in general but i get their bubble tea and i love. raspberry bubble tea w rose popping bubbles. its comfort drink.

17. do you believe everything happens for a reason?

no. sometimes shit happens for no reason, and its bullshit, but you can't reverse it, so you gotta figure out how to move on from it.

18. guilty pressures?

im assuming thats meant to be pleasures

umm,, idrk. i don't know what exactly i like that would count as a guilty pleasure so,,

19. favorite mythical creature, why?

merpeople are s o cool i fuckin. love funky aquatic pals hell yeah. maybe im just Water babey but. they're rad. dragons are also hella cool bc like dragons???? theyre scaly and prett y and can breathe fire or have wings and kill u?? also like selkies bc again. water. but i used to hear a lot of stories abt them and theyre so nea t

20. something most people don’t know about you.

i have the potential to be a huge asshole and also kinda Wish to fuckin murder someone sometimes but. i act nice most of the time anyway.

not murder murder but i can get angr y enough that i just wanna Stab smth

21. where did you grow up, what was it like?

grew up kinda near the edge of the city, still in it but not like the main city area. in western washington. it was kinda rly boring, i used to spend a lot more time outside or just by myself playing with leaves or toys or whatever. when i had friends i played make believe w them even when outside of school. so yeah. boring id say.

22. do you believe aliens exist?

sure.

23. what was your last google search?

other than names for some actors n stuff, i was looking up various star wars things

24. what did your last relationship teach you?

the one that like. ended? i guess thatd be. be careful with your own feelings and try to figure them out before jumping into anything, and also don't try to force smth that in reality isnt really working.

25. would you relocate for love?

honestly yeah

26. do you hold grudges or forgive easy?

both. it just depends on how badly i or someone i care about was hurt by it. more likely to hold a grudge if a friend was hurt by someone d eep enough to leave a lasting impact or if they don't get a genuine apology i will be 🔫🔫. or if the person keeps hurting them. even if that person is also my friend.

27. favorite book.

favorite graphic novel is bloom by kevin panetta

favorite books in general are autoboyography, more happy than not, and what if its us. all gay. i know. its okay. im a kinnie.

28. do you consider yourself an extrovert or introvert?

introvert by far

29. have you ever kept a journal, do you now?

i tried once. i probably will have to once i go see a therapist, or at least one for my Bad Thoughts

30. top 5 favorite movies.

in no particular order

little shop of horrors, love simon, coco, it (2017 and 1990), and shazam! ig? maybe others but i definitely Forgot all the shit ive watched

31. do you believe that everything happens for a reason?

no

32. what is your greatest fear?

definitely gotta be all of the people i love hating me and abandoning me or secretly hating me and then leaving me without saying anything. and the worst part is im always afraid its gonna happen babeyy

33. favorite alcoholic beverage.

im baby

34. most embarrassing thing you’ve done.

im embarrassed by my own existence. i don't remember the Most embarrassing thing

35. do you believe in ghosts?

not until i have proof that i can actually trust and believe in

36. what is the best and worst part of your personality?

idk ig im nice. but im also. very easily set off on certain emotions especially the bad ones which sucks like especially jealousy bc i dont wanna!! feel jealous!! tho i think that ties into my greatest fear bc my brain immediately tells me im useless to everyone and they hate me. but. sometimes i get jealous and then feel bad for that and then hate myself for all of it. bc my friends deserve to hang out w other people and care about other people im just fucking stupid babey !!

37. should you split the dinner bill?

i rly don't get why you wouldnt tbh like if u both wanna be there u should both pay. but if one person gonna pay it should be the person that asked.

38. are you a good liar?

most of the time. when it comes to my mental health i can either lie great or im literally breaking down in front of the person so

39. what keeps you up at night?

depressing thoughts. anxiety about everything. wishing i could cuddle and fall asleep w jay. sometimes i just cant sleep bc im too restless.

40. would you rather go without your phone or music?

music. i need my phone to text my friends and i Need my friends

41. do you believe in god?

what god would let the world get to the point its at. what god would allow people to do such fucked up shit.

no. i don't.

42. how do you relax when frustrated?

cry, take a nap, take a shower, listen to music, cuddle dipper

43. what’s something that offends you?

when people go "oh yeah i support gay rights but im still gonna eat at chick fil a bc its good" like i get so fucking. pissed off by that. youre not gonna fucking s ta rv e without their goddamn chicken. i know a bi person who goes there and says its okay bc they dont Directly Give Their money to Specifically anti gay organisations but im just. ugh. fucking pissed bc there are other places to get food just avoid the one place for fucks sake. their food is good it doesnt matter. its like saying yeah pewdiepie is a bad person and nazi and a racist asshole but his videos r funni haha so im gonna watch him anyway

44. favorite food

i hate myself whenever i eat food

45. if you were on a 10 hour flight and could sit and talk to any person the entire time, who would it be?

@destinedformuchmore or @pinaplelee

46. when do you feel the most confident?

never? but ig i feel confident when working on tech construction during theater tech. as long as i know what im doing.

47. what do you do in your free time?

sleep. draw. cry. play video games. talk to my friends.

48. is there anyone who has completely lost your respect

matpat did for being a dick abt neopronouns and making a transphobic joke and only apologizing when a cis person told him to. not when hundreds of trans people did. and also other jokes that are inherently offensive to various groups. a n d for making extremely not Child friendly jokes in his videos which are very much targeted towards kids. say what you will about the target audience, there are a lot of children who watch them. please stop making creepy nsfw jokes if you won't even swear, sir.

49. have you ever broken someone’s heart?

i guess so yeah. but she also broke mine first.

50. did/do you play sports in school?

i did. i don't anymore bc highschool sports are bullshit but. basketball, ultimate, and soccer.

51. when are you happiest?

talkin 2 jay prolly

52. coffee or tea?

tea

53. what is one possession you own you wouldn’t want to live without?

my binder. or my stuffed cat puppet thing ive had since i was 7

54. what is the first thing you notice about a person?

their general emotions, mostly. like if theyre in a good mood or if theyre bored or distracted or whatever. or if they seem interested in actually talking to me

55. what is your favorite season, why?

fall. my birthday, the atmosphere is nice, it's pretty, its hoodie weather.

56. what makes you laugh?

stupid little comments or jokes my friends make tend to make me laugh a lot harder than i should but jabdn

57. are you a clean or messy person?

a mix. i Cannot have some things messy or i will ksjqkd. Die but i don't make my bed too often bc its ha rd when its against 3 walls.

58. what is important for a successful relationship?

communication communication communicati

talk about ur goddamn problems n keep talking to each other.

59. what was your upcoming like?

if thats supposed to be upbringing

idk, very relaxed. pretty easygoing and kinda boring.

60. favorite holiday?

any holiday in december rly. i don't celebrate a Lot but the atmosphere and others celebrating is nice to see. i kinda wish my parents did more to embrace the jewish part in our family blike. whatever. christmas is fun.

61. what is the first thing you’d do if you won the lottery?

give half of it to my parents. and then probably use it for plane ticket

62. what’s the best pizza topping combination?

hawaiian pizza. pinapple n canadian bacon ty

63. favorite outdoor activity.

frisbee

64. how are you? honestly.

not great. i want highschool to end.

65. would you rather go camping in the woods or stay at a beach resort?

idk. camping is fun but if i get to stay at the resort for free i would rly love 2 stay at a resort tbh ive never done that

66. what is the most beautiful thing in nature?

waterfalls. or rivers or just. water in nature. and very green forests. aNd snow.

67. favorite type of candy?

none

68. if your life was a book, what would be the title?

i can and will do arson, an autobiography

69. what movie quotes do you use of a regular bases?

i quote john mulaney and whatever my obsessions are pretty regularly

70. what was cool when you were young but not cool now?

silly bandz. pokemon cards. these weird unicorn figures i collected

71. what’s the craziest conversation you have ever eves dropped on?

im mostly the one having the weird conversations

72. what’s the most interesting documentary you’ve ever watched?

i watched one about dogs and cats and their evolution which was lit

73. what’s the worst hairstyle you’ve had?

when i let the lady just go fuckin ham on my hair bc i was watching spirit that horse movie and didnt wanna stop so it was. rly bad bangs and hella short in back but not the sides

74. what do you like to cook?

whatever im hungry for. i don't have the energy to cook a lot

75. what’s the coolest animal you’ve seen in the wild?

really pretty tropical fish

76. what’s the funniest tv show you’ve ever seen?

idk. i rly like schitts creek its pretty amusing

77. do you usually follow your heart or your head?

heart at first but my head if things get bad

78. what is your favorite quote?

"i have a splitting headache and i think i'm dying. how are you?"

or a character just saying "try harder" when another failed to do smth.

this is supposed to be deep or whatever but im in a Mood

79. what’s the weirdest crush you have ever had?

once had a crush on a character in a minecraft parody lmao

80. what’s your love language?

sending shit that makes me think of them. n just. making tons of stuff for them both online and irl like bracelets.

81. do you ever feel alone?

oh yeah. all the time. im not but it feels like i am which sucks

82. ever been bullied?

yeah

83. are you usually early or late?

late bc of my parents rip

84. what kind of art do you enjoy most?

drawing, or writing. also theater.

85. what do you wish you knew more about?

i just wish i could remember everything ive learned more about. i know a lot i just forget all.

id like to know more about forensics tho

[traya-sutton]

February Blues

I love this concept but like, i think i executed it poorly and wrote choppily and could have added more scenes but im posting it so... yeah. 

Happy hannukah Sam! 

Gift for: @timdrakeothy 

Prompt:  Maybe something with Kon

ao3    masterlist

Kon sneezed. A big, earth-quaking, breaking the sound barrier, Dad-like sneeze. So loud it startled Greta out of the air and actually made Bart look up from his video game.

“Was that a gunshot?” Cassie asked as she walked into the room.

Kon scowled at all of his friends. “It wasn’t that loud.”

“You sound like my Dad, mon.” Anita smirked. “You’d fit right in with him and Uncle Ish.”

“Are you getting sick?” Bart asked curiously.

“Don’t be stupid. I can’t get sick. I’m Kryptonian.”

“Superman doesn’t get sick?” Greta asked.

Everyone turned to Robin who was flipping through a magazine. “What?”

“Well, you know Superman best.”

“You’re his clone.”

“Yeah, and I see him at most once a month. And then it’s just ‘Oh hey, Kon, why don’t you take Parasite over to Iron Gates for me?’ or ‘Hey do you mind helping me out with the Terror Twins? I need to get this deadline done by tonight.’”

Everyone turned back to Robin. Robin just shrugged. “I’ve never seen him get sick.”

“Then clearly, I’m not getting sick either.” Kon snapped. Then he sneezed again. Another giant, sea-parting sneeze.

“You’re sick.” His teammates chorused. Even Slobo, who was so rarely willing to participate in other people’s lives.

Kon stuck his tongue out. “’M not sick!” He grumbled then sat next to Bart on the couch.

Bart scooted away from him. Kon gave his friend a look. “What? I don’t want to get sick!”

“I’m not- Oh whatever.” Kon grumbled. Then, he sneezed a third time. This was going to get annoying.

“Where’s Kon? Wendy’s on. He never misses it.” Cissie said with a frown.

“You in this ep?” Cassie asked, taking the popcorn from Slobo despite his arguments. “It’s for everyone.”

Slobo chewed loudly with his mouth open in her direction.

“Yeah. It’s the one where Skye finds out-”

“Shh! Spoilers!” Greta hissed, settling down next to Bart.

“This is ridiculous, he’s going to miss the episode.” Robin grumbled. “I’m going to get him.”

Robin marched through the hotel until he reached Kon’s room. A SuperboyTM brand S sticker pasted onto the door loudly declared it to be Kon’s domain. And right under was a sticker of Wendy herself.

Robin knocked on the door. “C’mon man, show’s starting in a little.”

No answer.

Robin didn’t want to just walk in. Kon hadn’t come out of his room all day, and usually that meant that he wasn’t to be… disturbed. But this was Wendy, and Cissie was right: Kon never missed an episode. So he knocked again. “Dude, open up.”

Still, all that came to him was silence.

Robin gripped the handle, and slowly, but surely, swung open the door.

At first, Robin thought that Kon himself must not be in the room, and then he saw the bundle of blankets on Kon’s bed rise and fall in a breathing pattern and loud snoring. Robin rolled his eyes behind his mask and walked over to the bed. “Kon, get up.”

What was Kon doing sleeping this late? Usually he was up with the-well, with the sun.

Oh. Oh no way. It couldn’t be. Uh-uh.

Robin narrowed his eyes.

He’d hold off judgment on his screw-ball theory. At least, until it gained more proof.

Robin stalked over to the bed and whipped off the covers. Kon was curled up on the bed in Wonder Woman footie-pajamas. His arms wrapped tightly around a Wendy body pillow.

Robin pushed Kon.

“Kon… Wake up...”

Kon made a nonsense noise and blinked his eyes open blearily. The whites of his irises were bloodshot, his tanned face was bright red, and his nose was running. Robin could hear his congested breathing from four feet away.

“You don’t look so good.”

Kon grumbled something that sounded distinctly like a swearword.

“Shut up and sit still.” Robin responded. He sat down and leaned down to Kon’s forehead to kiss it to check for a fever.

Yep. He’s burning up.

When he pulled back, Kon’s gummed up eyes were as wide as they could go. “What’d you do tha’ for?” He slurred.

“It’s how you check for a fever.” Robin told him. “And you’ve got one.”

“’M not sick.” He grumbled. Kon sat up and then grabbed at his head with one hand and at Robin’s shoulder with the other. “Woah. Is the world supposed to be spinning like that?”

“Okay.” Robin said, gently ushering Kon back into a horizontal position on the bed. “You’re going back to bed and I’m going to get you some cold medicine.”

“But I’m a Kryptonian. We don’t get human sicknesses.” Kon protested weakly.

“What? Are ours not good enough for you?” Robin joked.

Kon was too sick to respond in any way other than giving Robin a particular bird. Robin returned it with a sickly sweet smile.

Robin closed the door behind him but as he could hear from where he was, the all-powerful, invincible Superboy has fallen back asleep.

“Take your medicine, Kon.” Anita said, shoving the liquid cough syrup in his face.

“No! It’s gross! And I don’t need it!” Kon grumbled, but his argument was almost incomprehensible because he was so congested. “Because-”

“You’re not sick.” His teammates chorused.

“Honestly, I never thought I’d miss you saying ‘tactile telekinesis’.” Ray said.

“Kon.” Cissie snapped. “Take your medicine or I’ll shove it down your throat.”

“Make me.”

Cissie began to roll up her sleeves. “Cissie, no-!” Greta cried.

Traya rolled her eyes. She climbed up onto the bed next to Kon. He was swaddled in all the blankets they could find in attempt to sweat out the fever, but so far Kon was still sick. She took the medicine from Anita and held out a measured spoonful of it.

“Come on, please Kon.” Traya asked, turning up the puppy dog eyes.

Kon scowled. “Fine.”

“Yes! Everybody pay up!” Slobo crowed.

Kon turned to tell him off but was interrupted as Traya shoved the medicine into his mouth. Kon was about to say something mean and then remembered how young Traya was and stopped himself.

“It tastes icky.” Kon complained once Traya had removed the spoon. But he did definitely sound better already.

Traya read the label. “It says another spoonful in two hours. Has Robin come back with that soup, yet?”

Cassie shook her head. “He said he’d be back in half an hour or so.”

“’M not sick. Don’t want soup.” Kon grumbled, sliding further under the thick covers of his bed. He then hacked out a wet cough, expertly coughed it into a wastebasket next to him.

“Riight.” Cassie said, shaking her head.

Kon yawned. “Sleepy...”

“Come on guys. He’ll only heal if he gets his rest.” Greta said quietly. The team shuffled out, and Ray, the last out the door, turned off the light, letting Kon sink into sleep in the dark.

Kon had been sick for a week. Even the best chicken soup in the world, or so Robin claimed, had done nothing but bring down his fever. Bart assumed he was right because Robin usually was about these things. Lots of research would go into his claims Bart had learned. Still, Kon hacked and coughed like someone who’d been smoking for thirty years. Still, Kon blew his nose and sneezed with sounds like earthquakes and gunshots. Kon couldn’t even leave on missions, he was so weak and tired. But hey, at least his fever had gone down.

And his fever wasn’t the only thing that was down, Kon was too. He moped all the time. Kicking his feet, padding around the hotel in his Wonder Woman pajamas sad and pouting.

It was starting to get on Greta’s nerves. Greta’s.

“It’s all the time! Just moaning and groaning and hacking and coughing! Doesn’t he have anywhere else he can go?” She whined to Robin.

Oh. Oh. Robin’s eyes widened behind his mask. Could it be… It had been a while since he’d thought of his theory behind Kon’s sickness. Could it be…?

No...

“Soo… Kon. How you doing?”

Kon slithered up and poked his head out from under his quilt. He frowned and stuck a singular hand out into the cold air, grabbed a handful of tissues, slithered back under the blankets, blew his nose, and then tossed it out and into the garbage can next to the bed.

Robin whistled appreciatively. “Two points.”

Kon grumbled something that Robin couldn’t understand.

“Kon. Gonna come out and talk to me?”

“No.”

“Well then, I guess I’ll talk to you.” Robin turned and sat on the side of Kon’s bed. He could hear Kon behind him breathing. “I think I know why you’re so sick lately and such a grouch.”

Kon’s head shot out from under his blanket so fast Robin almost fell off of the bed. “Really? So I’m not like, a broken Kryptonian?”

“Just answer my questions.”

“Okay.”

“When was the last time you left the hotel? Like, went out to do something that wasn’t a mission.”

Kon opened his mouth and then closed it. “Does coming here from Cadmus count?”

“No.”

“When I went out to the movies.”

“When did you go out?”

“At like, six at night. In like, Novemeber”

Robin frowned. Six at night in the winter… that was already dark.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“When was the last time you were in Hawaii?”

Kon scratched at his stubble thoughtfully. “October? They’ve got a new hero now, don’t want me.”

“And Cadmus? That’s where you live now, right?”

“I mean yeah, but all I do is stay inside and drink coffee and marathon Wendy VCR collections-”

“You never go outside when you stay there?”

Kon shrugged. “No reason. Don’t have Tana… or Roxy… now it’s just me and Sterling sometimes. And you guys. Nothing else really in my life.”

That’s what Robin had feared. “I think you’ve got severe seasonal depression.”

Kon frowned, squinting at Robin. “What?”

“You’re a Kryptonian, Kon. You guys are like sunshine batteries. Us humans sometimes get seasonal depression in the winter. By not seeing the sun for a while, we get cranky and sad and exhausted—some people even get sick sometimes. For you it must be a hundred times worse. Your battery has run out, making you susceptible to colds and being, well, a bitch.”

“Robin!” Kon gasped in fake offense.

“Kon, you’ve started to irritate even Greta. That’s what I would call ‘being a bitch.’”

“So what’s your prescription, Doc? A tan?”

“Yeah, actually. Kon-El, I’m sentencing you to a week on a sunny beach. I’m sure you’ll have a horrible time.” Robin gave him a small smirk.

“Fine. But you gotta tell Cassie why I’m leaving, she’ll never believe me.” Kon said, sliding back under the covers.

“Deal. But only if I can come along.”

“Deal.”

[thanidiel]

Choices

Prompt 11: World Building, First Person What if World of Warcraft took a different turn with its inspiration? What if the game was actually based entirely around science fantasy, particularly cyberpunk? I was a cheesy bitch and did The Modern AU(™). For a long piece, use what skills you’ve learned and practiced to narrate AS your character in this different world.

What would their occupation be? What is the world like? Factions? Races? Conflicts? Try to write about a normal or abnormal day for your character in this world—is their name different too? Write in your character’s perspective, and take on a very in-depth look of a different personality and worldview.

[I was very cheesy and went balls deep into a Modern AU story to exercise a more modern narrative style. Lots of references to others and events from World of Warcraft roleplay or Thanidiel’s background, try to catch them all. alsoimsorrythiswassolong.

Mentions: @jessipalooza @stormandozone @captainswingbeard @azriah @immunologist @kinari ]

“Alright, alright. Just, shut the fuck up for, like, I don’t know, an hour. Ethan, cradle your beer, you’re good at that. Elena… I don’t gotta tell you shit.

Let’s start with… the beginning.

So, let’s just get this shit out of the way. Auberry, up in Fresno County, California. Small-time fucking town. My dad was a new recruit to the police department, there. First-generation son to some Lithuanians that couldn’t read shit for English. My mom is a Mono Indian, from the Big Sandy Rancheria next door.

1990, Dad knocked her up when she was in town. I was the result, that she passed right back to Dad. Grew up happy without her, ran around just fine with myself, my Staffordshire, Ted, and all of the neighborhood backdoors left open. Grandparents were out of the picture by then, and Dad had shit hours, so it was up to the Abuelas and Grandma Sallys. Suited all of us just fine.

One day, Dad gets shot up breaking up a domestic dispute. I was six. And as much as we all want to think about those crazy stories up on Reddit and Facebook, no one fucking walks away from a hunting rifle. His coworkers stopped by, took me to the tribe headquarters in town to figure out what to do with me. Off to Big Sandy they sent my ass. I hear the Grandma next to us took Ted.

As much as I want to say things got more chill from there, it didn’t. See, my mom was half-white, already. Mix that with some straight-out-of-Europe dude, and you get a blue-eyed blonde haired kid running around with the Mono. Mom didn’t want me either, and she made that damned clear to the elders, so I was back to being a community effort on a new Grandma’s sofa.

Bless Grandma, she tried. Fed me. Taught me a handful of Monachi. Taught me how to fucking read and write English. Driving, eventually. Hooked me up with a new dog too when I got there, Tamuapaya, albino-assed thing. All of the good parental shit you’re supposed to do, with everything she had.

I ended up as black of a sheep as it gets, though. Scraped with the other kids whenever we crossed each other, dogs got in on it too. Adults couldn’t fucking stand me outside of Grandma ‘cause I didn’t think they deserved anything but lip. And, let me just say, it’s fucking awkward when you realize you’re a fag, hours out from a real city. I was never really accepted with them outside of cook-outs, but that was when you had to take everyone registered in the tribe.

Eventually, I get old enough to start itching to work. So I start the uphill battle of doing the most shit possible small-jobs for the most shit payout for these folk, and as you two know, I am stubborn as fucking shit about my work. So I did every bit of work they pissed at me, with fucking excellence.

Then that got too small when I was like, fifteen, and wanted some real fucking cash. The other black sheep got me then, and let me know it was easy money running drugs between us, peeps at the Casino, Auberry, and Fresno. Next thing I know, I’m sitting in a truck bed heading to Fres’ at 1 A.M. in the morning to pick up with them.

Didn’t take long for Grandma to figure out I wasn’t running off to catch friends at Auberry. She switched me more times than I can remember to try to beat it out of me. Didn’t work, and she didn’t have any full-on proof to get others in it, either - hid the FUCK out of the cash and what we were distributing.

So, eventually, I’m like… seventeen? And I’m passing crack to this military guy visiting relatives in Auberry and wanted some fun up by the Casino. And when he puts the cash in my hand and I put the bag in his, he doesn’t tell me to fuck off. He gives me a good look, asks how old I am, I tell him, and he asks me what the fuck am I going to do out here for another seventy years. I don’t even get to answer when he tells me I should get the fuck out of here, go talk to a recruiter at Fres’.

That got me thinking, so a year later, I’ve found all of my documents and shit in Grandma’s house. I have a pile of cash. And I want to get the fuck out of this shithole. I stuff it all into my backpack, I go with the boys to Fres’. I dump off all of my shit into Christian’s bag; free myself of it. I take a bus to get my ass right to the opposite end of the city. Spend my night in a homeless shelter with my backpack underneath my shirt and sweater, my arms wrapped around it, sleeping on my stomache, and a switch under the extra jacket I was using a pillow.

Next day, I get a free gym trial. I shower and make myself look as respectable as I need. After that, I open up a Bank of America and drop the eight-k. I had into my first savings. I keep three-hundred on me, I grab some Burger King, and I make my way to the Army recruiter.

Guy helps me get set up because it’s like the third time in my life I’ve done paperwork excluding the bank, which did like… everything, for me. After that, it’s floating between the shelter, gym, and getting odd jobs helping at taquerias and panaderias, with their dishes or pushing garbage and carts around for a month. Taking all of those damned test and then waiting for them to process. Grabbed an iPhone 3G during the wait, that was pretty cool.

Fort Jackson for a year, as it goes. Nothing significant in the grand scheme of things; shit was fresh hell, but nothing I couldn’t handle. For the most part. Met Casey there. My age. Actually graduated H.S., attending community nearby for sports medicine. It would still be another two years before fags could be open in the military, but we… got together. When we could. You could—… it was dating. We started dating when I was in B.C.T. And made it work after that.

After basic, I get hauled off all over the place. Okinawa, Hawaii, Ansbach. Mid-2011, they let us be out and loud in the U.S. military. Bad move for my career, but, first thing I did when I took my leave is fuck Casey and ask her to marry me. No ring or any big romantic gesture, we didn’t work like that. She said, yeah, sure. The process went underway, it’s all done by the time I’m heading back to like, Fort Irwin.

We’re separated for a while, then, like, she graduated, because she was a lot fucking smarter than me. And she started living with me on base. Which is fucking awesome. It’s not what I asked for, because she had all of this potential to work with back at home. But, hey, she wanted to travel too. We had our years, we were fucking twenty-years old. I let her come.

So we fucked around in South Korea, Alaska, Italy, it’s almost a blur after everything. Eventually, I get put out in Camp K.A.I.A. in Afghanistan. She’s back in Kansas, ‘cause, naturally, they’re hesitant on letting me drag a U.S. civy out there of all bases. It’s seven months into my deployment, she wants to visit and I let her.

April 28th, 2014. I took her out, a bit south of the airport in city proper for a meal, in the early morning. We were eating lamb korma with turnips— I still can’t fucking handle smelling and eating lamb. Or any soft fucking food: deuces to mashed potatoes and bolognese. God.

So we were eating—… we were eating that. And there was an airplane with a fucked engine that had been making its way towards the airport. It didn’t get close to the runaway. It veered and dropped, right into the city. The wing went right through our building.

I was sitting northward. She was sitting southward. My mind slowed down time, and I watched the way all of this debris and broken cable and a fucking airplane slammed into her back. She hits the table and it’s shooting off. All I see is blood and curry everywhere, then it hits me, too.

I wake up in the hospital two days later. My head feels like shit because my brain got ping-ponged. A sheet of metal opened up my torso from collar to hip, and a piece of flying drywall smashed my right cheek and orbital socket. They couldn’t save the eye. The ceiling falling after meant some heavy shit landed onto my left hand. They couldn’t save that either. And they couldn’t save Casey. She died on contact.

—I’m fine, by the way. Just pass over the whiskey. I’m not finished.

Cutting that long story of recovery short, I stabilize. They get to Landstuhl in Germany. Eventually, I end up back in the States. Sans eye and hand. A little ugly, now, too. Medical discharge. Sucks, but I’m hooked up with a nice prosthetic, at the least. That all takes about eight months to wrap up - not a lot of interest in keeping an uneducated, handless, soldier around.

And, you know, that’s where you come in, Ethan. I don’t think Elena knows this part about us, so bear with me. Ethan, here, was my Sergeant for a damned while. His ass phased out in ‘13. We always got along great, he kept up with us babies even when he was out. Group texts were a great invention; Snapchat groups even better. Now we both get to see all of the stupid shit the rest of those idiots are doing on deployment.

Ethan is basically like my fucking dad. So when fates aligned and I was in the Brooklyn military hospital, he started driving down from his apartment in the city, seeing me about once a week on his weekends. Then, when I was out, he offered me a place to stay, no costs. Naturally, I fucking took it. The last thing I was going to do now that I was out, was gonna walk my ass back to the Mono in that Cali shithole. Not fucking smart to be alone after the shit that had happened.

And, honestly? It worked really well. I used the time he’d be gone with his job at the nearby library to do… basically all of the adult shit I didn’t do in the military. Got my license, borrowing the car from his coworker and our close friend, Esther (nice girl, did volleyball and track for high-school and college, then decided she liked things quiet). Took the bus to therapy with a guy through the V.A., ‘till I grabbed a beat up 2009 Chevy truck from Craigslist. Eventually, started classes for a G.E.D. too. Collected my military checks, saved it all and got pocket-money with a part-time at some flower hippy’s cafe—and, you know, I never realized how fucking hard it is to make legit money in the ‘real world’ until then. Ethan, you’re a fucking saint. Like, three-hundred or whatever a week? Chump ass change compared to when I bounced with the kids in Fres’.

All of that good shit. Plus, it was nice that we both had a drinking buddy. And we both had a way of navigating each other’s bullshit well. Like, Elena, you just heard my wife-story. And you’ve heard about the fire, too. It’s not the fucking same, but it worked out that we had about an inkling of what to do when the other dude’s fucked up.

Eventually, it’s the day for appointment hell. Check up, physical therapy, actual therapy, then likely, a stop by the pharmacist. It’s like, early ‘16, at this point. And before we even get started, the doctor sits me down. Starts talking about this experimental stem-cell research, for organ implantation. Taylor says it’s not at a complex enough stage to restore my hand, but my eye and facial scars would be within the window of possibility. Gives me a card for a Brianna Lalwani-Jindal if I’m interested in volunteering for it.

I get through the day. I finally catch a meal at Jersey Mike’s, and after me and Ethan talk about it over some Coors, like if I wanna do it and how it feels fucking weird, to like, erase what happened to Casey through this, I say, sure, I’ll call. It’s like, eight P.M. She answers like four seconds before it just shoots to her voicemail. The bitch fucking slurs out like she snorted too much Vico, “—yeah, I know I’m fucking late, I’ll be there, I prooomise.”

So me and Ethan pick our jaws off the floor hearing this shit and I’m like, “Nah, Tony Dawson. Doctor Taylor Woodson at the Brooklyn V.A. Hospital referred me to you, about your research trials with the organ implantation. Lalwani?”

There’s a gasp, a lot of shuffling, and a lot of me and Ethan passing around another beer can between us. Then she really starts spilling and it becomes a game of my fucking brain trying to comprehend this Indian accent mixed with that lightspeed fucking way people from those big cities talk, like “Oh shit, okay, okay, okay. Yeah, you’ve got me. Where do you live? What are you missing? When can I meet you? Tomorrow?”

So I tell her about my fucked-up face, but really, I want to know what the fuck I just got myself into with this chick. I don’t get the chance, she blurts out over me, “Sounds great! EYE will see you later, Tony. Tomorrow. Four P.M., Just… show back at the Hospital. We’ll find a vacant office. Ciao.” Then the fucker hangs up. Eventually, we decide that I should probably text the number back, at least. My ‘See you then.’ gets back a kissy-face and ‘I like coffee.’ Subtle.

A vanilla latte and unsweetened black tea, fifteen minutes of us wandering the Hospital, thirty minutes of her talking my ear off about a bunch of medical-scientific garbage, then five minutes of us filling out all of the paperwork, and I was Bri’s new, shiny, case study.

Skipping over all of the shit she ran my face through, we’ll sum it up as: I need contacts and I fucking hate it, but she did what she set out to do. The meetings themselves, were more interesting. I don’t know if she like, fucking sensed that I’d let her get away with her shit. But I’m going to assume that, since she still has her fucking job.

It got unprofessional, pretty fast. Like, beyond what she already hit me with. I’m not sure what got into me, honestly. I hadn’t even considered another girl since the crash. But I spent our introductions looking at her like a piece of meat whenever her back was turned. First real meeting, she’s prodding me about all of my personal interests and shit in some fucked small talk, starting to get into my dating life. I take a risk and just drop straight out that I dig chicks.

She gets a bit quiet, which doesn’t make much of a difference because it’s clear already that she’s a fucking loudmouth. But she gets curious, and keeps looking at me after that the whole time I’m there. Then the meeting after that, we ended up on some fucking talk about blindfolds for some reason, and let me just say that she got a little too into that before we started talking about how, like, I needed to turn down my drinking.

So the whole time I’m letting her and the other doctors Frankenstein my face, there is sexual tension to cut with at every goddamned interaction to be had. It never gets anywhere, because neither of us are fucking stupid. But, just, Jesus Christ.

Cut to a year later at the end of 2016. My face is put back together. Getting used to fucking contacts, getting used to checking my emails for interview requests out of the wazoo for five-hundred documentaries and news sites, after her team’s paper on me came out. By all accounts, I’m looking good and so is the implant. She’s onto new volunteers, my appointments are getting passed to another doctor on her team and stretched out to semi-annuals. That should be the end of the story.

But, uh, couldn’t get her out of my head, frankly. Not for a lack of trying, either. By now, I was really amping the weights at gym to try to get my energy out. Quit the hippy cafe and lined up a new job in armed security. Did my registration for online classes at the community, for a Statistics program. Eventually, it’s like, I don’t know, two months, after the last time I saw her. Ethan drags me out to a bar. Ethan fucks off. I meet a girl, some rich one, named Valencia. We get to talking, for like, fifteen minutes. Next thing I know, I’m texting Ethan I’ll show up later and I spent the night at her place.

It’s fucking great, Valencia’s fucking great. But I’m texting Bri the next afternoon at Starbucks that I want to see her that goddamned night. She shoots me the address of another bar, says to bring friends. Naturally, that means I tag in Ethan and Esther. We show up, she has good ol’ Elena here.

Everyone clicks just like that. And that’s fucking great. Lots of material to work through, especially when Bri started going on about how she and Elena met; some wild case when she was a med. student and the Roma communities in the whole state were having outbreaks. Apparently Elena helped with her outreach a lot, a sort of guide between worlds. Then the two quiet girls started going on about their herb gardens, not to even mention all of the stupid military stories me and Ethan had. We hung out for a long ass while. Eventually, we’re all back at Bri’s place. And our BOI Ethan, here, finally communicates what’s up to you and Esther. So Esther ‘takes you two out to for fast food’ and out of our hairs.

Shit takes even shorter than Valencia. Bri locks the door, we fuck. Then I wake up in the morning, wake her up for another fuck. We sleep around, get some take-out for a late… brunch… hang out, I end up taking her with me to that huge football party Tim was hosting and meeting up with the whole friend group. Then it’s just straight back to her place for a repeat performance.

So, basically, it went from zero to like we had always been fucking dating. I practically moved in with her after the first two weeks. I know all of my stuff ended up in there by the fourth month. Then we put me on the lease entirely sometime during the seventh month when she was renewing it. It all flowed natural as shit too, I didn’t even know how ‘fast’ we were going ‘till about the third time I was throwing shit I needed into boxes to toss at Bri’s and Ethan called me the fuck out when he asked: I just said it’s convenient with how much closer to work she is.

And I know a lot of people were, and still do, giving me shit about it, or just about the whole relationship in general. Apparently we talk too hard at each other and act too casual for it to be serious. Looks like some sorta fling, especially considering our ‘differences’ as people put it. You know, racist people, or people who think I’m fucking stupid ‘cause I got a gun in the drawer.

But lemme just say that I think it takes some real fucking balls in a person, where the first time she ever woke up to me having a PTSD episode, is to slide her ass out of bed, rummage through my coat for my medication, and slap my benzos in front of me with leftover tea and a Crunch bar. All without a single word. It takes real balls, any other person, after getting that from her, is just a discount bitch.

It’s not all her pampering me, either. I realized quick she’s a ‘talker’ with her research. If she isn’t with one of us, she’s locked in the bedroom with a stack of journal articles and a Macbook talking off Luke’s ears like he can fucking bark back. So I started reading everything she had and really going over her team’s paper on me, plus whatever the fuck else her scholar databases had, and a lot of Dictionary.com. And, one weekend, she’s complaining to me over coffee and tea about her shit, I pop that shit right back at her, her jaw drops, she probably shits herself a little. And, from then on, I’m her new interactive rubber duck. And people think I’m fucking dumb.

I mean, not to mention all of the random shit I pay for that bitch, with all of the money I’ve been getting lately between disability, financial aid, and work.

So, we’re basically to the present now. There isn’t much detail to fill in after that besides that life is pretty fucking great and Bri is pretty fucking great, from then to now, the middle of Year of Our Lord, 2018. Which takes us to the crux of this whole ass speech I’ve been going on.

Now you two know my life-story. What I wanna know, now that we’re all open and drunk here, is your fucking thoughts on if I’d be making the best, or the worst, decision of my life if I asked her to hitch with me. I’ll be fucking real; I don’t fucking know what it’s like to make a good choice besides like, I don’t know, where to buy my graphics cards.”

I watch the two shitfaces in front of me process what the fuck I just said. Elena brightens like the Irish daisy she is, pressing her hands together, abso-fucking-lutely wiggling in her seat. Her purple scarf slides off the back of the chair in the process. Ethan is still stretched out across the whole damned table like he’s gonna pass out, with the dopiest smile stretching across his face, but as usual, he’s the ‘loud’ one of the two and starts to talk over Elena’s vague ‘Oh… oh…!’

“Dude? That’s… that’s great. That’s really fucking great. I… Man. Fucking, just fucking go for—”

“So are we just a homeless shelter now, or like, is this a reverse Alcoholics Anonymous?” The door slams shut, Luke is rushing off of the couch, and all four of us are just JEERING (barking) Bri’s name back at her, like it makes it fucking better that these idiots are still in the apartment.

“I was thinking homeless shelter and giving them the living room.”

“Cool. Maybe the floor’ll delay Ethan breaking his back another day.”

“Hey… hey, man. I ain’t that old.”

“Oh! Don’t say that - what if it does happen?”

Twiddle Gray and Twiddle Orange are both looking at me funny right now, considering what was cut into, and Bri is starting to pick that up as she’s putting her keys and shit away.

“So! What were you all talking about? Are you finally leaving me?”

“Food, actually. We were thinking that Himalayan place you like. They can eat the basic bitch shit, I was gonna grab us fried okra and tandoori.”

“I hope you aren’t expecting me to pick my ass up from the couch, now. That shit, ain’t happening. Long day working with by-the-book dunderfucks.”

The Twiddles give each a look, then, and then Ethan launches in.

“Nah… naaaaah. You know what? You sit there. You hang out. The three of us will walk down, sober up.”

“With how you made my fucking apartment smell, not sure if that’s gonna happen. But ‘kay. Have fun, leave me all alone. After I just came back from work. A l o n e.”

The three of us are already draining our waters and grabbing our jackets and wallets. I push Elena towards the door and Ethan is right after her as I shoot back at her,

“Shut the fuck up, you whiny bitch. Thirty minutes. You’d be spending it ignoring us and doing your shitty Buzzfeed quizzes anyway.”

“I mean - you’re right. But you’re still leaving me alone. Shit friends. Shit girlfriend,” she sighs, “What a shit life.”

Elena is the one pushing me through the door now by my arm, forcing me and Ethan’s fat asses into the hallway as she tries to assure Bri.

“It’ll be fast! I love you!” 

“Awh. That’s cute.”

The door slams shut.

[kokaniaproduct]

Early Picks and Observations

The object of this pamphlet is to give an early see a few games we have just played or are taking a gander at playing. We are giving the data we are taking a gander at to help settle on our choice and so, give you a depiction in time during the early piece of the impairing week.

We need to increase the value of being a full-customer of Vegas Sports Authority. Clearly, giving victors is the Clemson, pants primary concern. Notwithstanding, we have various customers who additionally play their own picks and like to perceive what we are playing or considering to give some additional direction to their own choices. A large number of our customers are sharp bettors who simply don't have the opportunity to pursue 119 schools and 32 professional football crews.

It would be ideal if you understand these are right off the bat in the week plays, climate data, damage information, and different news can make us alter our perspectives and possibly repurchase a bet. Because we have set these bets doesn't ensure they will be an official Premium Pick choice. While Paul and I convey broadly with respect to the coming week's games, we don't generally have a similar assessment or play similar plays. There will be games we have a distinction of sentiment on. A portion of our bets is made fully expecting a line move the other way to offer us the chance to "center" the game by putting a balancing bet later in the week planning to win the two sides.

As usual, remarks and questions are welcome.

Past Week Notes

School

o Those who rebate the effect of a placekicker need just look to Colorado's Mason Crosby who kicked field

objectives of 52, 42 and 50 yards in the Buffs' 23-20 street triumph over Kansas State Saturday. The third of the

three field objectives by Crosby, who will be an accord first-group All-American, came as time ran out.

o Regularly-booked open weeks and an impromptu tropical storm put the South Florida Bulls in an

unordinary, a mid-season spot in their game this Saturday at Rutgers.

On the eve of Saturday's down, the Bulls will have played precisely one game in the past 34 days. While

Rutgers has played five games since Sept. 30, South Florida has played only two.

Does it have any effect on one's way to deal with debilitating the game? Possibly a bit, yet would not

give it an excess of belief. What the Bulls may have lost in timing has been balanced by the mending of those

little knocks and wounds that start to influence most groups this season.

* Much has expounded on Tennessee's fantastically frustrating season punctuated by Monday's

acquiescence of hostile organizer Randy Sanders who succeeded previous Mississippi lead trainer David

Cutcliffe in that job (Cutcliffe was basically terminated at Mississippi this past offseason).

Be that as it may, shouldn't something be said about Purdue?

Purdue was picked to win the Big 10 by various regarded intellectuals, including Phil Steele of Northcoast

Sports, however, limps into Saturday's home game against Michigan State with a 2-6 record and six straight

misfortunes.

The Boilermakers restored every one of the 11 starters from a barrier that surrendered simply 17.2 focuses per game last

year and figured to be one of the country's best this season. Rather, Purdue positions 116th out of 117 groups

in all-out protection (476 yards for every game) and 106th in scoring resistance (33.9 focuses per game).

* Most who pursue school football intently would recognize USC's offense positions among the best in late history, if not unsurpassed. Proof to help this conviction was the exhibition of QB Matt Leinart and WR Dewayne Jarrett in the Trojans' 55-13 triumph over Washington State Saturday.

Leinart was 20-of-31 for three TDs and 302 yards, while Jarrett got seven goes for 138 yards and a

touchdown.

Obviously, these numbers came in the primary half as it were.

o North Carolina State, whose lead trainer Chuck Amato is most likely not house chasing in Raleigh nowadays,

had a hopeless first half in quite a while 21-17 triumph over Southern Miss.

Trailing, 7-0, at the large portion of, the Wolfpack had nearly the same number of turnovers (four) as first downs (five) as

first-time starter Marcus Stone was 1-for-7 for 15 yards and two interferences in the opening two

quarters.

The Wolfpack, notwithstanding, energized for the triumph and kept its bowl trusts alive.

NFL

Losing a game wager harms. Indeed, anyone who wagers realizes you won't win them all. Be that as it may, you truly feel Clemson, pants scammed when "your group" isn't even in the game similar to the body of evidence with the Redskins against the Giants. It was so awful I couldn't watch the game. Gracious, definitely, the Skins were a pick of VSA.

No one jumps at the chance to concede he committed an error, yet Jim Kruger sure made a major one in limiting the Wellington Mara, Jr. passing as a factor. Tiki Barber establishes an individual precedent with 206 yards hurrying. Mammoths cover Washington.

Denver keeps on resembling an AFC power, beating the heck out of Philadelphia. It truly adds to the conviction that the AFC is outstandingly superior to the NFC. The NFC out and about against the AFC has not indicated very well by any stretch of the imagination.

Paul and I don't generally concur with what play to make. A week ago he was inflexible about taking the Houston Texans over the Cleveland Browns. I preferred the Browns. Paul convinced me not to take the Browns. I really had wagered Cleveland from the get-go in the week yet wound up repurchasing my wagers.

I additionally wasn't exceptionally sharp about Paul's Packers pick. Was concerned the Bengals may be madder than a hornet after their misfortune to the Steelers. I pondered time to put the fork in Favre and Green Bay. They lost, however, the significant thing is they secured.

Miami truly put it to New Orleans outgaining the Saints 342 to 203. They likewise scrambled for 188 yards, their best yield year to date, with Brown and Williams both looking superior to anything they have all year. I am having an unpleasant time perusing this Dolphin group.

EARLY SELECTION OF THE WEEK

Meeting USA contestants Houston and Central Florida are positively two of the most improved groups in all of

school football this season.

Falling off a 0-11 demonstrating last season, UCF entered 2005 with a 15-game losing streak (going back to

2003) and that string extended to 17 as the Golden Knights opened this season with misfortunes at South

Carolina and South Florida.

Since the South Florida misfortune, be that as it may, Central Florida has won five of six games and as of now sports a 5-3

record.

After a baffling 3-8 imprint last season, Houston has returned to its Hawaii Bowl type of 2003 as the

Cougars are set for a 4-3 beginning behind the quarterbacking of veteran junior sign guest Kevin

Kolb.

The Cougars are 3-1 straight out and about this season, with prevails upon Tulsa, Tulane, and Mississippi

State. Their solitary street rout this year was in twofold additional time (44-41) at UTEP.

Houston didn't play a week ago and is 10-5 ATS off a bye since 1995.

Paul Stone prescribes laying the 3 and taking Houston in this matchup of improved squads.

Coming College Attractions and bets previously set:

Toledo is generally excellent at home at the Glass Bowl, very human out and about where they haven't secured their last 5 street games. The MAC used to be a gathering with the greatest hole between the top and base groups. The hole is getting progressively limited. Ohio's offense is improving, however lamentably, Toledo lost a week ago to Central Michigan which should mean an engaged exertion from the Rockets. Giving eleven points out and about, however.....

I played a piece on the UNDER in the Boston College-North Carolina coordinate at 44. It ought to be a hard-faced conflict as the two groups are falling off of misfortunes to unrivaled gifts, Va Tech and Miami. UNC is battling to keep its bowl trust alive.

One of the members at my week after week handicappers/sports bettors meeting has a framework that has worked colossally for him the previous two years, around a 75% winning proportion. He picks Northwestern as a home canine over Iowa. Iowa has just found the middle value of 14 ppg out and about this year.

Kruger played the UNDER 54 in the match among Western and Eastern Michigan. EMU has gone UNDER in every one of the 8 games this year and has had a bye week to plan for the WMU passing assault. I won with EMU a long time prior and could be on them once more.

Before you, huge canine players hop on Duke +31 against Clemson, recollect that Duke is 0-8 ATS this year and that Clemson has vengeance for losing straight-up a year ago to a group that was just 2-9.

Likewise intriguing to note is Arkansas being a four-point most loved to a South Carolina group that simply beat Tennessee  Clemson, pants at home and has won three straight. Additionally, the Gamecocks are hoping to progress toward becoming bowl-qualified with their next triumph. Is the lines creator revealing to us something? For my bucks, it is Arkansas or nothing.

I hopped on Penn State when the line initially turned out at less ten. Joe Pa's group is resembling the class of the Big Ten and this could be the week to uncover the Wisconsin Badgers as the group they truly seem to be.

NFL this week:

A fascinating point was raised two or three weeks back at the handicappers meeting I go to each Tuesday in that generally it is a triumphant recommendation to play on groups at the midpoint that are 2-6 SU or more awful and to play against the groups that are 6-2 or better straight up. Try not to review the triumphant rate however it was higher than 54%.

Detroit at Minnesota - You don't get the Vikings as a home pooch frequently. Particularly to the Detroit Lions! Minnesota gets another motivation to energize, bunch together, and give a solid appearing. This time it is losing your long-lasting QB Culpepper to wounds. Truth be told, the Vikes have just been a home pooch multiple times in the course of the most recent five years. They've posted a decent 6-2 ATS record when in such a circumstance. A decent circumstance to wager on is a group that did frightfully out and about the earlier week and now return home. Detroit is 29th in all-out offense. In the last two games behind QB Garcia, they have just scored 13 points in each game. Minny has improved at home, we have played the Vikings softly now. for more about Clemson, pants visit our site 

[getyourgossip0-blog]

5 Wrong Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber Marriage And Wedding Rumors

New Post has been published on http://getyourgossip.xyz/5-wrong-selena-gomez-justin-bieber-marriage-and-wedding-rumors/

5 Wrong Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber Marriage And Wedding Rumors

(Getty Images)

When Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber reconciled last fall, the tabloids became filled with stories about the on-and-off couple tying the knot. Not only did Gossip Cop bust those false claims at the time they came out, but now the stars aren’t even together anymore. Below are five wrong “Jelena” marriage and wedding rumors we corrected in the last six months.

In early November, right after Gomez and Bieber rekindled their romance, Life & Style announced on its cover that Gomez was going to be a “pregnant bride.” The front of the issue featured a deceptively photoshopped image that made it look like the stars were posing together after reuniting. In actuality, as Gossip Cop revealed at the time, the Gomez portion was taken at the InStyle Awards in October, while the Bieber portion was from an August charity basketball game. The separate pictures were digitally combined to dupe readers, and that was clear evidence the magazine shouldn’t be trusted.

In the article, it was alleged the pair were planning two weddings, one to take place in California and the other to be held in Texas. And a so-called “source” speculated about Gomez, “She could be pregnant already.” Of course, time has since proven that the former child star wasn’t expecting a child of her own, and the purported weddings never happened. When Gossip Cop originally debunked the report, a Gomez contact dismissed the allegations on background as “lies.” That was clearly the truth.

The following month, RadarOnline claimed Bieber was going to propose over Christmas. “Friends expect Justin to pop the question over the holidays. [He] has been looking at rings and plans to ask her to marry him over Christmas,” alleged a supposed “source.” As Gossip Cop pointed out then, there was a suspicious lack of details, such as just where Bieber was scoping out engagement rings. What’s more, we had already reported at the time, and others had confirmed, that Gomez and Bieber would be spending Christmas separate, as she would be in Texas with her family, where he wasn’t exactly welcome. Sure enough, they did not celebrate the holiday together, and the proposal never happened.

The year ended with OK! Australia declaring the “reunited lovebirds” were making plans to say “I do.” It was specifically alleged they were “talking about tying the knot in early 2018,” with Barbados, Hawaii and Mexico named as possible “romantic wedding locations.” But a so-called “insider” maintained that since Gomez’s mom was against the relationship, “they’ve decided to marry in secret.” It made no sense, however, to contend an “insider” was leaking their “secret” plans to a gossip publication. And at the time the article was published, the pair wasn’t wedding planning but actually miles and miles apart, as Gomez was in Mexico with friends. Gossip Cop also noted that this was a retread of a debunked Life & Style story. The two tabloids are both published under Bauer Media, and often share content to trick readers across the globe. Perhaps needless to say, but there weren’t any Bieber-Gomez nuptials in “early 2018.”

Come February, HollywoodLife claimed to know that Bieber was ready to propose to Gomez “right now.” So, why hadn’t he? The website gave the excuse that he was “waiting until it’s the right time,” because she had “made it clear to Justin that she doesn’t want to rush things.” What was actually clear was that this narrative was made-up. Both performers had already publicly blasted the blog, with Bieber even calling for HollywoodLife to be shut down, and there was no proof or reason to believe someone close to him would spill to a site he detests about any proposal plans. On top of that, a Gomez insider, who declined to speak on the record, told Gossip Cop the outlet’s stories about an impending marriage “couldn’t be further from reality.”

That was apparent earlier this month, when the website did a 180 and alleged Bieber and Gomez split because he “couldn’t promise marriage.” As Gossip Cop explained, the blog went from claiming he wanted to propose and she wanted to take things slow to asserting the exact opposite. “He wasn’t ready to settle down with her as soon as she wanted to and she couldn’t get him to actually think about marriage in a serious nature,” a clearly ill-informed, and possibly nonexistent, “source” was quoted as saying. Beyond blatantly contradicting its previous article from a few months prior, this supposed breakup reason, that Gomez wanted to marry and Bieber refused, was completely inaccurate. In the wake of Gomez’s split from Bieber, “Entertainment Tonight” actually reported that she didn’t “have it in her to be in a serious relationship.” Obviously, then, the contention that Gomez called it quits because he wouldn’t get married was false.

Again, these are just five untrue rumors from the past six months alone. Our archives are filled with many more similar tall tales. Fans can hold out hope Bieber and Gomez will make it down the aisle someday, but all of these stories so far have been indisputably wrong. And Gossip Cop will continue to fact-check any additional marriage and wedding claims that arise.

[topicprinter]

Michael Seibel, president of the Y Combinator (YC), recently published an essay on the type of person startups make sense for. The original article is here: https://blog.ycombinator.com/why-should-i-start-a-startup/For context: YC is a prolific investment firm for very young startups. Reddit was accepted into the first batch of YC companies. Seibel is a successful entrepreneur now turned investor. From his experience and job role, he has many data points on aspirational entrepreneurs who make it, those who don’t, and most importantly, who those people were before we knew how they’d turn out.Language and ideas were the original “scaling platform”/software/meme, so it makes sense that YC would be interested in facilitating these platforms. Consequently, they also run a popular discussion forum (“Hacker News”) for people interested in startups and technology, colloquially referred to as “hackers”. Seibel’s essay was submitted to the forum for discussion and discussed heavily here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14806393. With ~280 comments and 500 upvotes in two days, it’s reasonable to say the post has struck a nerve.I’ll save you the effort of trawling through the comments (that’s my job), but the most frequent reactions fall along these lines:Loved it: Super motivating, I relate, let’s talk shop, tactics, mentors, tools, etc.Hated it: This article encourages hubris about one’s ability, most startups fail and need luck. Also, privilege, lots of money, lack of wife, kids, family, mortgage, yada yada.The ontologists: people who concerned with being. This is where the gold is.To clarify, most people genuinely shouldn’t try to start a startup. Preaching that kind of tactic based panacea is just as helpful as telling everyone to be “happy”.What’s useful about startups, however, is that they’re rigorously executed petri dishes of life experiments. Startups are defined by growth, whether its users, time spent on the platform, revenue, profit, etc. For our personal case study, if we substitute growth for the more neutral term “change”, startups become fantastic case studies to a certain type of existence, specifically, a dynamic one.Back to ontology. There is a key moment that got pushed to the bottom where Michael tries to respond to Q&A’s, and he has this insightful interaction:A: What's the origin of your desire to be better than all of your peers?MW: Because I realized that I could be betterB: In what ways? Sorry Michael, but I reject the idea that you can be 'better' than another person.MW: I should have said I realized I could be better at the game of high school student looking to get into a good college.Commenter B was looking for evidence that people in startups think they’re better than us plebeians. But give yourself a gut check of Seibel’s life and you can probably conclude this is unlikely. How’s that joke go again? Oh right.“Would you rather be a white woman or black male?”Though tech has gotten better and will continue to do so (proof: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/16/stop-blaming-the-tech-industry-for-the-worlds-problems/), the reality is positions of power for men of color remain statistically abnormalities. On a good day, Seibel may have looked at his life and job and felt like the Obama of Silicon Valley. And for all the others, Chris Washington. Heck, that scene from Get Out might have been inspired by a hypothetical party I just made up where Billy Dee Williams/Lando Calrissian and Seibel bump into each other, and the two men give each other a wink and nod of camaraderie. “I see you brother, keep making cash.”Which is to say, it is unlikely for Seibel to have grown up internalizing that he was better than others. Read his original piece and this alternate hypothesis checks out. Now that we’ve set aside that interpretation, it begs the question: what did he mean to really mean?“I realized I could be better” reads very different if we read it as “I realized I could become Better.”Later on, when another commenter asks why the 3 constraints (1. underdog preference, 2. loves the thrill of poor odds, 3. Amor fati) that Seibel said were the preferred constraints of startup founders, he claimed no answer. After all, even Seibel won’t purport to have God-given Moses style tablets on the commandments of constraints that founders must have.With help from Nicholas Nassim Taleb’s “Antifragile”, we can conclude that all three constraints are great heuristics of the type of shock that biological systems benefit from. Cue the tape:“The bold conjecture made here is that everything that has life in it is to some extent antifragile (but not the reverse). It looks like the secret of life is antifragility. Typically, the natural—the biological—is both antifragile and fragile, depending on the source (and the range) of variation. A human body can benefit from the name Wolff’s Law after an 1892 article by a German surgeon. But a dish, a car, an inanimate object will not—these may be robust but cannot be intrinsically antifragile. Inanimate—that is, nonliving—material, typically, when subjected to stress, either undergoes material fatigue or breaks.We can use the distinction as a marker between living and nonliving. The fact that the artificial needs to be antifragile for us to be able to use it as tissue is quite a telling difference between the biological and the synthetic. Your house, your food processor, and your computer desk eventually wear down and don’t self-repair. They may look better with age (when artisanal), just as your jeans will look more fashionable with use, but eventually time will catch up with them and the hardest material will end up looking like Roman ruins. Your jeans may look improved and more fashionable when worn out, but their material did not get stronger, nor do they self-repair.”Seibel can’t write too philosophically, or he comes off as a mystical Internet cult writer. Once again, that’s my job. So let’s put it together.There is good evidence (Seibel’s data points as President of YC) to believe that, for a certain group of people, subjecting themselves to stress (in the form of unfavorable odds) is a desirable end goal. Further, we know that the indicator of living, organic systems is their system’s ability to grow from the right type of stressors: sprints in working out, not marathons; keeping a low personal cost of living so you can risk taking an unpaid internship at your dream company; etc. So what do this all mean?For people who are more Life than Death, starting a startup is a fantastic way of becoming who you deeply want to be. Be it warrior, saint or thinker, many of the commenters never realized that Seibel was writing an article about character formation. In fact, he explicitly refutes financial success as the basis of why he recommends starting a startup. But because of his need for propriety due to his status, he can’t outright and say “adversity will give you the opportunity become exactly the type of person you respect, leading you to respect yourself more and be more satisfied. This is guaranteed regardless of the financial outcome.”Why can’t he say this? Because there’s a non-trivial percentage of the population that is OK with “death”, living instead of Life. Fear sells much better than hope. And in their defense, even Taleb writes about this. Remember, most startup founders will financially fail, but the backroom secret is that most news fail to report the astonishingly high satisfaction rate (https://unsupervisedmethods.com/the-startup-failure-myth-b80fc4b6af45), even among “failed” entreprneurs, as opposed to the normal population’s job satisfaction (http://www.gallup.com/poll/188144/employee-engagement-stagnant-2015.aspx) The antifragility of the system requires individuals to be fragile. Barbells leverage means you need to have people manning libraries, fire stations and police departments vs. jetting off to Hawaii and crowdfunding video game playthroughs. If you’re willing to live like a pauper to do what you love, your self-satisfaction will be its own reward.The key is to choose with eyes wide open. Well, maybe a wink is fine ;)

[fancyturtlegrease-blog]

An Open Letter to the One That Got Away

An Open Letter to “The One Who Got Away”

       I was planning on writing this letter but I don’t think I’d ever be able to find it in me to send it to you. I figured if I typed it out, it’d be easier for you to read and wouldn’t draw attention to me from your family. Right now, we’ve barely spoken for the last month and a half and honestly, that time has been hard on me. I know you think I’m being overdramatic and you feel I’ve been that way throughout the entire relationship but it hasn’t been that. I think if this is how we are supposed to end, this letter will bring me some closure that I need and that I feel would help me move on without you.

             If there’s one word in the entire English language that I swore to myself I’d never use, it was the word “love”. I didn’t believe in love after my previous relationship and I thought it was just a made up word that people used to describe an infatuation with someone. I didn’t think that it was this engulfing feeling that could turn your entire body warm with just one look, text or touch of a hand from someone. That is, until I met you. They say you can’t help whom you fall in love with or how fast it happens. I’m writing this right now as living, breathing proof that it is the case. On November 4th, I never believed I’d find love. I was dead set on staying single and eventually my time would come in a fire. I truly believed that it was my destiny to close everyone off and live a life where I kept everyone at arms length. Then November 5th came around and changed my entire perspective on life, love, and my destiny. Like you know, two days before I got your number, my friend gave up on life and shot himself in the head. I honestly was a mess, trying to keep my friends positive and I was letting myself go. I asked God one night if he could show me a sign as to what the purpose of my life would be because I didn’t want to live it alone anymore. Two days later, this amazingly beautiful girl decided she’d take a chance on an average guy like me.

             I honestly never intended on getting to this point with you. When she told me you were interested in giving me your number, I figured it was something that you, and the guys had concocted to mess with me. I figured I’d text you and a couple days later they’d give me shit about it. I just assumed it’d be a quick weekend thing and that would be it. You know how I am and I honestly believed that I wasn’t good enough for a girl like you. I had found you stunning since the Michigan State game the year before. I didn’t think I’d ever have the chance to get to know a girl like you. But that’s when everything changed. I met this girl who was down to earth, and honestly, I just connected with right from the start. I didn’t know that a week later, I’d find this girl wrapped in my arms as she told an Orange Cab driver “this is my boyfriend”. I didn’t know in that minute that I’d begin to fall dangerously and immensely in love with this girl I barely knew. I didn’t know that kissing you through your window before you drove home would end in me driving 20 minutes home with the biggest smile I’ve ever had on my face and then waiting another two hours to make sure you got home safely. I didn’t know it but on November 11, 2016 – I would begin to find the real feeling of love that I’d thought I’d felt before.

             Those two weeks without seeing you were some of the hardest because of how insecure I had grown to become throughout my previous relationships. I thought that maybe you were just kissing me and doing all that because you were having fun, just like my ex did. It was hard knowing that I might not have been good enough but I was there for accessibility. Then on November 26th, I got to see you again. I figured it’d just be another day of dealing with stupidity at work. I got there at 7 and you came in shortly after. I remember you pulling into the parking lot and sending me a text saying you were walking over. For some unknown reason, I got butterflies; the same kind I had on the 11th when I kissed you. You walked in and suddenly; you were all I could focus on. That entire day I made excuses to go see you. Then the game ended and we were able to just let go in sign in. I had this beautiful girl sitting on my lap with her arms wrapped around me, feeding me shots of Crown and I’ve never been happier. I remember everything around me fading out and just sitting there looking at you with these eyes and this way that I’d never found myself looking at someone before. That is when I realized that love was something you couldn’t control no matter how hard you tried. We both know what happened that night and from there on. You became my velociraptor and I became your mouse. A mouse that had fallen hopelessly in love with some girl he barely knew.

             Right now there aren’t many things I can say or do to get you to want this and me. You’re telling me that this is all personal stuff and that you need to fall for yourself before you can fall for anyone else and that you’ve cut everyone off. I get it and honestly, regardless of if that’s the situation or you’re just saying it to keep me calm – I had to write this. Here’s the thing. I know it’s still early and we’ve only known each other for 3 months but “you can’t help who you fall in love with”. You told me that back in December and it hit me hard because I’d been denying it for so long. I fell hopelessly in love with you and I know I never should have but I can’t help it. That’s why this has been so hard for me over the last 3 weeks. I’m watching a girl I love, not be able to love her self and maybe love someone else. It kills me seeing it. I fell in love with a girl who told me that she loves anything blue. I fell in love with a girl who cusses like a sailor. I fell in love.

             Finding the courage to tell you all this has been the hardest thing I’ve had to do in a while. I know you’re probably scared to death that this random guy, you barely know is telling you he’s in love with you. I get it, but at this moment I can’t think of anything else to tell you before I say my final goodbye. I’m ready to jump with you. Whether it be like two 8-year-old little kids into the ball pit at a birthday party or two 25-year-old adults into the ocean off a cliff in Hawaii. I’m ready to jump into whatever abyss you want me to. But that’s me and I can’t force you to feel the same way. Just tell me this. I just wish you’d open up to me because I want nothing more than to protect you and love you and take you away from all the pain this world brings you. I want to be there every step of the way for you.

 This letter is my final goodbye to you unless you want otherwise. These 3 weeks have been utter hell for me and as much as I want to keep fighting for you and for us, I can’t continue to cause you anymore pain than I already have. I want to see you happy and if that is without me in your life than I guess I’ll have to admire from afar. Just promise me one thing. Don’t ever settle for less than you deserve. You’re an amazing girl – blessed with amazing beauty, unwavering love, a huge heart, and walls that even the biggest bulldozer couldn’t bring down. Promise me that when you find the guy you want to hurt for, you let him in those walls and let him love every ounce you have to give. You’re destined for greatness; and it hurts me very much to know that I might not be able to be along for that. I just want you to know that I love you and that every single kiss, hug, and smile we shared will forever be apart of my heart. You’re the girl of my dreams and you’ll forever be “The One Who Got Away”.