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baekhvuns · 2 years ago

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HELLOOOOOO BAEKSY 👋🏻

It's been over a month wince Bin's passing and it feels both fresh (because it is) and like a lifetime ago 😭 I saw Seungkwan's recent photos and 💔

And I still can't believe Kai has been done so dirty, I feel so bad for him, Exo and Exols cause wtffff. I'm glad he has an option to be a social worker considering all his injuries, btw I always knew about his health issues, but forgot how severe some of them are/were 😭😭😭😭 the fact he's such a phenomenal dancer despite everything, damn he's build different. I hope he comes back soon or at least gives some updates. I still remember Taemin crying on live announcing his enlistment... I'm glad Kai managed to have a successful solo comeback, but Exo 💀 can't have shit in Exoland :///

Anyways I came back from Thailand and I'm sooooo sad I wanted to stay. Now I have to do some work before I see Shinee💀💀💀💀

Omg do you know this webtoon?! I'm not up to date with it, but Gikwang? And Park Min Young 👀 https://mydramalist.com/article/highlight-s-lee-gi-kwang-to-return-as-an-actor-in-marry-my-husband

God that model Hwa account is doing the most in the best way possible, admin ily! Like they're so right! Okay, listen to me, Ten is a YSL boy and he came to Bangkok for a YSL pop up event and I saw him 😳 (Mark Tuan was there too) felt really ugly in his presence, lmao. At least I was taller than him 😭 but imagine Seonghwa at that event as well 🤧 I bought a new bottle of Black Opium thinking about him

This Hwa https://twitter.com/modelhwapics/status/1657398403024691201?t=DFCCMRAJX5SWXbAZzjn0Xw&s=19 and this Ten https://twitter.com/goKPOP/status/1634540503495753730?t=KZxlBqqJUqjAlPaKKLNCUg&s=19 😭😭😭😭 in conclusion Seonghwa should come to the YSL event with Ten 😭

Sorry, gotta be a hater, but this https://twitter.com/ATEEZofficial/status/1657581504896049152?t=uRu2NNSZki2gOjjeUkOf5A&s=19 is lowkey ugly not to mention unreadable, definitely giving graphic design is my passion. And we'll never get a summer cb again, huh.... :( the title track title jajssjsajaajaja giving NCT?! And the poster is giving Xikers, lol

And yeah the concept pics and trailers, Hwa looks great, because he's photogenic as hell, he's a model! but I need them to retire the racing jackets and gloves, ENOUGH. And only HJ and MG are in a cowboy attire (retire cowboys too tbh, but if you're gonna do it, do it properly, commit!) https://twitter.com/no8signal/status/1654016472501587968?t=Q13ISE3940i0qZDTQKO8_Q&s=19 NOT AYO GRATATATA PLS YOU'RE NOT 127 USE YOUR WORDS I'M BEGGING 😭 it didn't register to me at the concert, because I was on my phone calling a friend, but I just remembered the snippet and hmmmm... idk. Sounds like this album will be similar to their previous one and it's not my fave, so I'm sad 😭

Me at biker Hwa: Baby boy you can't drive, but you sure look hot

And if TOLO is like Ghost then (it won't be, but...😳) There's a possibility I'll dislike it, but one thing about TY is he's gonna serve. Cannot fucking stand 2 Baddies or Sticker, but he did the most in the MV! And the teaser is cool, literally told us nothing about the concept and he's right he can be anything!

Aespa and Idle served 00s teen dramas, not really into the songs, but I like the vibes! Speaking of, I unfortunately do not like Unforgiven which is a shame, BUT FIRE IN THE BELLY IS A WORLD CUP SONG THE OLE OLE?!

PLS I LOVE A MAN WHO CAN'T HANDLE HIS LIQUOR HE'S SO CUTE Hwa 🤝 Taeyong https://twitter.com/hwalilac/status/1658796599492108289?t=df0kN-SetboKgRwATb51Nw&s=19 Leave him and his lightweight head alone https://twitter.com/nobodylikehwa/status/1658794890300465153?t=hDNoDdiDWtUjGvy-rEIR4w&s=19

Okay Taennie comeback in Paris?! Lowkey forgot about them, but I guess they're going strong? They're like modern Romeo and Juliet skjsjsjajasjjsa their fandoms couldn't hate each other more, they're both members of the most popular groups, very hot individuals and they thought "you know what? Let's date" and I respect it! But not Armchairs saying they're cosplayers I'm wheezing 😭😭😭😭 and V x Lisa together at an event again huhuhu

KQ and yet another fucking NFT and useless collab I'M SO TIRED OF THIS COMPANY https://twitter.com/ACRZ_Official/status/1659469042284118019?t=7w3bahQXN0IFos911xJWvw&s=19

He wants us to off ourselves wtffff https://twitter.com/hwalilac/status/1659569236312981506?t=6FOWWvpUQkon6tFK5plJcQ&s=19

My godddddd Hyunjin x Dua reunion and same Donatella ajsajhsbsjshajwn https://twitter.com/cornhingle/status/1661100011210276865?t=nOnphOuNrzUyCctak9CAbg&s=19

Troye?!?! Stand up, damn https://twitter.com/skzwrld0325/status/1661071948573466627?t=r5ITNthZf2Hs19G9623x_w&s=19

Alright that's enough from me jsjajsjahahsshaha, how are things? - DV 💖

hello!!!!

HELLOOOOOO BAEKSY 👋🏻 It's been over a month wince Bin's passing and it feels both fresh (because it is) and like a lifetime ago 😭 I saw Seungkwan's recent photos and 💔

HELLOOOOO AND YES ONE MONTH ALREADY WHAT THE FUCK 😭😭😭😭 the moon pictures i saw posted by his friends just break me 😭😭

no bc he was SO excited,,, this was supposed to be their year everything was supposed to be perfect, world tour, full album, solo’s, concerts and actual promo from sm,, but it lasted 4 FUCKING WEEKS WHY CANT THEY EVER DROP A NORMAL ALBUM ITS BEEN 11 YEARS WHY DOES SOMETHING ALWAYS HAVE TO HAPPEN BEFORE UR FUCKING COMEBACK 😭😭 IT COULDVE BEEN MY FIRST EXO CONCERT EXPERIENCE RHWKFJWK THIS IS BULLSHIT OH IM PISSED ALL OVER AGAIN 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 WHAT THE FUCK COME BACK but the memes are the only thing getting me through this

despite it being longer im also glad he got to be a social worker,, right!! so many people were surprised this guy’s has his spine broken??? and the way he still hasn’t received surgery for his ankle that’s been messed for YEARS??? he really is so phenomenal when it comes to performing and it shows how much he enjoys it

i honestly wished all big bg’s went to the military during covid era,,, would’ve been so much easier 😭😭 I REMEMBER STOPPP WHEN HE CRIED IN HIS IG I GOTTA DEJA VU W KAI’S 😭😭😭 and the way people are using his crying picture for saying he’s crying bc he can’t evade military has me 🔫🔫🔫

he got the whole world rovering till now,,, hoping they recorded everything and got his photos for the albums bc id actually leave kpop if they fucking didn’t, my last straw is on thin ice w sm ent right now

BUT SHINEEE ALBUM !!!!!!! IM HOPING THEY FOLLOW IT UP WITH A WORLD TOUR 😭😭 need a body rhythm pt2 desperately

Anyways I came back from Thailand and I'm sooooo sad I wanted to stay. Now I have to do some work before I see Shinee💀💀💀💀

AHHHHH ARE U BACK IN ENGLAND??? miss ma’am u better get the best seats with all that hard work ur gonna out towards ur job 🔫

Now this is a hate crime against me, I had to sit through Paradgim live (sorry besties, that song is bad, I can't defend it) and Limitless (it's just Flavourless lol) just for them to perform my two fave JP songs Dreamers and Still Here a few days later?! Idk who to blame for this, but 🔪🔪🔪🔪 https://twitter.com/NotBonkyP/status/1656626038061891590?t=WFgUCMDftnUun6ctl2B-Eg&s=19 /// Omg do you know this webtoon?! I'm not up to date with it, but Gikwang? And Park Min Young 👀 https://mydramalist.com/article/highlight-s-lee-gi-kwang-to-return-as-an-actor-in-marry-my-husband

no bc you’re right 😭😭 with all of it 😭😭 im hoping they have a good cb musically, like as in, forget the fucking lore, get a good producer and not make music that follows ur lore for once 😭😭 (im sorry bc it’s making me mad bc i keep seeing the lore being inserted into everything vvv aggressively, i just want good music 😭😭)

need ateez to do songs like promise again, bring back promise !!!!!! utopia !!!!! type of songs,,, baby you are (like just lesser noise 😭) or i can’t stand the rain superm??? like make mingi’s deep voice sing!!!! tinnitus or shadow svt,,, or big bang’s fxxk it???

WAIT THAT WEBTOON????? FUCKIGNWJDKQJODA THAT LOOKS SO GOOD STOP but that webtoon yikes tho lots of cheating,,, kind of makes me mad this webtoon even exists FHWJDHWK it’s quite similar to perfect revenge marriage,,, i prefer that one than the other one bc the other one’s annoying as hell,,, BUT YOONA AND LEE JUNHO’S NEW DRAMAAAA

and miss krystal jung making her cannes debut tomorrow iM SO EXCITED SHE BETTER WEAR THE BEST DRESS W THAT RALPH LAUREN AMBASSADORSHIP !!!!!!! this would actually kill me

THEY REALLY ARE DOING THE MOST IF KQ ISNT THEY ARE! if he gets an ambassadorship ship at ysl’s i predicted it FIRST I NEED HIS AU TO COME IN LIFE FBSNDHSN,,, YOU SAW TEN AND MARK FUCKING TUAN???? AND UR TALLER??? manhandle him

omg ok does the black opium actually have a good smell 😭😭 is it strong? rbwnfkd

NO LITERALLY SEONGHWA IS THE PERSONIFICATION OF YSL FBWMDHS WE NEED HIM THERE!!! SOMEWHERE!!! and if we get a rosé x hwa photoshoot,, would actually cry <3

everything here is so true 😭😭

NEED NEW MUSIC PLS the xikers song w shanty shanty is a whole bollywood song im iNTO IT

the filming and all of it is great! the cinematography and storyline is very heist like,,, i like the rap sounding of dune so far!! UR RIGHT RETIRE THE JACKETS PLS HRKWJDKW GRA TA TA TA GFWKDHWK WE’RE EITHER GONNA GET SOMETHING SO GOOD OR A STRAIGHT STICKER 😭😭😭 yeah it def sounds like a continuation of the last album,,, he really be doing the most w that bike,,, smirking and all too hUH THE AUDACITY AND HES WEARING GRILLS????? WHAT THE FUCKCJCK

IF IT IS THEN 👁👁 there is a big possibility ur right 😭😭 he will forever serve,, he’s born to serve, the teaser photos are so??? FOAMING AT MOUTH and… 😭😭😭 LMFAOOO they described it so well tho

THEY REALLY DIDDDD!!!! the queen card having the chicks movie references but the lyrics have me tbwnfbdjkck unforgiven is not it for me too and 😭😭😭😭 it sounds extremely odd,,, FIRE IN BELLY IS LIKE SHAKIRA SINGING I DARE U WITH A JENNIFER LOPEZ SINGING THE 2014 WC ONE

DO U THINK HE GETS THAT BLUSH ON HIS CHEEKS WHEN HE GETS TOO DRUNK FBWNDHSJ 😭😭😭

taennie at paris and at cannes 😭😭😭 ngl me too,, good for them but it’s kinda dry fbwndhsk but the fans are so hilarious 😭😭 cosplaying FBWKDHWK ABSOLUTELY MAD 😭😭 but so funny some of these memes are gold fbsndbn,, i saw ppl say they were calling v a musty white old man w a flat ass before the hd pictures dropped 😭😭 APOLOGIZE TO HIM FNMWBDKSHSK

a whole wattpad charade

KQ and yet another fucking NFT and useless collab I'M SO TIRED OF THIS COMPANY https://twitter.com/ACRZ_Official/status/1659469042284118019?t=7w3bahQXN0IFos911xJWvw&s=19

He wants us to off ourselves wtffff https://twitter.com/hwalilac/status/1659569236312981506?t=6FOWWvpUQkon6tFK5plJcQ&s=19

i keep seeing them promote it as if nothing happened like what happened to capitalism,,, to the world 😭😭😭 offing as we speak,,, I THOUGHT FANSITES WERE SIGN AND ALL??? THEY OUT HERE LETTING THEM SMELL FROM THEIR WRIST??? me when

If SM has 2 haters left it won't be you and I Baek, it will be Xiaodery, lmao. The amount of times they talked shit ajsjajbsbahahaha I imagine their manager in the front being like: 😶😶😶😶 WayV freedom when https://twitter.com/smoldejuns/status/1659872687727206401?t=BuCGuDJFKpW33HHLAy2-WA&s=19 /// My godddddd Hyunjin x Dua reunion and same Donatella ajsajhsbsjshajwn https://twitter.com/cornhingle/status/1661100011210276865?t=nOnphOuNrzUyCctak9CAbg&s=19

LMFAOOOO I SAW THIS FBWNDHS THEY REALLY HATE SM, AS THEY SHOULD and now esp bc they kicked shotaro and sungchan out for a new group 😭😭😭 sm on everyone’s last straw, even by their own employees dbsndbsj YESSS MAAAM THE HYUNJIN X DUAAA >>>>> i wish he put something from the collection like some track suit from it bc the collection is actually the movie barbie,, dua’s mind > & aespa’s cannes??? ig accounts??? in their slay era ,, lisa tae w naomi & chanel fucking w their dressing choices + the idol 😳😳😳 this look on jennie >> she’s so stunning + can’t wait for krystal!!! need a replica of this actually

Troye?!?! Stand up, damn https://twitter.com/skzwrld0325/status/1661071948573466627?t=r5ITNthZf2Hs19G9623x_w&s=19 //// Alright that's enough from me jsjajsjahahsshaha, how are things? - DV 💖

LMFAOOOO TROYE PICK YOURSELF UP!!! have been going thru it w the weather 😅😅 a massive heat wave was here last week and then two days later it’s freezing cold, raining 😭😭😭 and then it’s cold inside w freezing wind and then u go outside it’s BURNING HOT W GREY CLOUDS????

NOW WHY

👁

BEYONCÉ UNNIE 😭😭😭

and how is london? blue im assuming ☺️ or is it 4-0? ☺️ also the vini jr thing w the valencia fans + njr to man utd??? 😭😭 LMFAOOO GOOD LUCK FHWKFHWK also here’s charles leclerc falling

#✉️ : ask #dv 💖 anon

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daemonmatthias · 3 years ago

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Apparently, there's a shortage of period products. :/

Here is a snippet from this Axios article, titled "Supply Chain Issues are Creating a Tampon Shortage".

[Image ID] a cropped screenshot from the named article. It reads-

Driving the news: popular retailers CVS and Walgreens, as well as major manufacturer Proctor & Gamble, acknowledged a shortage of tampons and other period products and said they are working to meet consumer demand as soon as possible, per CNN.

The big picture: supply chain issues and historically high inflation have affected all manner of goods. Tampon prices are up roughly 10% from a year ago, Bloomberg reports, while the cost of mensural pads has risen more than 8% during the same period.

Contributing to the rising prices is an uptick in the cost to make the products. Materials manufacturers need- cotton and plastic- have been in high demand for use in personal protective equipment since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine constrained the supply of fertilizer needed to grow cotton, CNN reports.

[end image ID]

Is now the time to switch to reusable period products?

If you've been considering a switch, now might be a good time! I know not everyone can afford the higher up-front cost of reusable products, but if you can afford it, then you'll actually save money in the long run. (I haven't bought disposable period products in about 2 years.) Also, you may be able to ask for reusable products as gifts or use gift money to buy them.

Of course, every body is different and everyone has different preferences. There are 3 main types of reusable period products:

Silicone cups (Diva cups, I believe were the original main brand?)

Period underwear (Thinx is a major brand)

Reusable cloth pads (there are MANY brands, but I personally recommend Tree Hugger Cloth Pads out of Canada because they have the widest range of fabric & size options plus have some of the easiest care instructions)

Please allow me to tell you a little about my own journey of switching. I wanted to switch in order to be more eco-friendly and to save money. My general approach was first to do some research on the different types of products to determine the right one for me. I knew silicone cups were not it for various personal reasons. Then, although intrigued by the concept, decided that period underwear were also not for me because of my work situation- I need to change quickly in a shared bathroom. Next, I started looking into brands of cloth pads. I looked pretty seriously into 3 different brands. I compared cost, shipping times/cost, care instructions, sizes, fabrics, etc. Although I have friends who are very happy with other brands and have seen a few recommendations here on Tumblr, I have been extremely happy with Tree Hugger (who, btw, apparently also sells period underwear now).

After I switched, I was delighted to discover that I stopped getting rashes along my bikini line. I had assumed they were from friction and it didn't occur to me that fabric wouldn't cause the same problems. A couple months after I switched, I read a post on here of others experiencing the same thing. It turns out, most of these rashes are not caused by friction; they're also caused by chemical irritants and moisture build-up. Cloth pads do not contain these chemicals and are made from softer, more breathable fabrics, so almost everyone who switches no longer get these rashes.

Again, though, every body is different. A friend of mine stopped using her cloth pads because she started getting yeast infections. I recommended that she try a different fabric. The brand she was using had only one "style", just in different sizes. I suggested she try Tree Hugger's athletic, extra-wicking fabric or a silicone cup instead. (Unfortunately, her financial situation had changed and she has been unable to afford to try them so far.)

Even if you can't switch over completely yet, starting to build up a "stash" of period underwear or cloth pads might be a good move. I initially switched during the first lockdowns and was home, able to wash and reuse my first cloth pads during the same cycle. This allowed me to try out different fabrics and sizes and then order more of what I liked in the sizes I needed most. If you work from home and are able to do the same, I recommend it! If you aren't able to do that, it is still a good idea to order what you can afford to and use them alongside disposable products until you can afford more. Unlike what the US education system teaches- any progress is good progress! In fact, many people permanently pair the cloth pads or period underwear with a silicone cup or disposable tampons.

More than any snappy little call to action I could put here, I really just hope/pray that you are able to find a product or combination of products that make your periods more comfortable and less stressful like the cloth pads have done for me. I was intimidated by the research I thought would be required in switching, and that's why I didn't do it until lockdowns gave me the time. I hope this post gives you enough of a head start on the research that you are able to find what will work for you faster and more easily.

#menstrual health #ecofriendly #reusable #period underwear #cloth pads #diva cup #personal

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lifewouldbebetteronmars · 3 years ago

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Title from Sorry by Halsey (aka the biggest Alastair song of all time)

And Christopher’s first sentence is taken directly from the snippet btw

Totally not based on my theory about the new snippet-

Tagging @have-a-holly-jolly-angstmas @wagnerthedragon @life-through-the-eyes-of

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And Someone Will Love You (But Someone Isn’t Me)

“Oh, hullo, Alastair, you must be here to see Charles. I think he’s upstairs in his study.” Christopher said when he let Alastair inside the Fairchild house.

“Oh, yes. I am here to see him, how did you know?”

“You’ve been coming here a lot lately, I noticed. And it was rather obvious that you weren’t coming to see me.” Christopher looked a little embarrassed to have said that, his cheeks faintly pink.

Alastair quite liked Christopher, probably more than any of the Merry Thieves, and he’d always been nice to him and vice-versa. He hadn’t known where Christophe would get the idea that Alastair wouldn’t want to see him.

“I do find your lab work interesting, I wanted to ask you about some scientific theory I read about recently. I can’t recall the title of the article at the moment, but I would be happy to bring it to you.”

Christopher brightened at that. “I think we could be good friends, Alastair.”

“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t had many of those.”

He could tell Christopher was about to respond when they were interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Kit? Who’s at the door?” The voice belonged to Thomas Lightwood. Tolerably handsome Thomas Lightwood.

Thomas Lightwood that he kissed in the Sanctuary.

Shit.

This couldn’t be worse.

“Oh. Alastair. Hello.” His tone was an obvious attempt at being neutral. But Alastair could see right through him.

“Hello, Mr. Lightwood.”

It was better to be more formal with him now since their…intimacy. Or whatever it was that they had. It certainly wasn’t a relationship and Alastair won’t call it what it wasn’t.

Alastair turned to Christopher with a tense smile. “I’ll talk to you about the article later, I’m sure Charles is expecting me.”

After some hesitation, he turned to Thomas as well. “Good day, Mr. Lightwood. I’m sure that we’ll see each other around.”

“See you around, Mr. Carstairs.”

Alastair couldn’t really hear his words, they were just barely mumbled under his breath.

He was glad that he had turned away before Thomas had spoken, he didn’t think he would’ve been able to live with seeing the heartbreak on Thomas’s face.

He didn’t know his feelings for Thomas Lightwood. He didn’t know if he loved him or how Thomas even really felt.

You were always my secret, Thomas had said to him in the Sanctuary.

Alastair wouldn’t be Thomas’s secret anymore, he couldn’t be. He couldn’t let Thomas lose his friends, his family, over a relationship that might not even last.

He didn’t deserve someone as amazingly sweet as Thomas. And Thomas didn’t deserve someone as broken and horrible as him.

Maybe that was why he went back to Charles after the battle with Leviathan.

Because he thought that was what he deserved.

No matter how he felt he knew two things:

He didn’t deserve Thomas Lightwood.

And he wouldn’t let Thomas Lightwood follow him around like a little schoolboy anymore.

It wasn’t fair to either of them.

He walked into Charles’s study without hesitation.

“Hello, darling.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

🎶On the second day of Angstmas, Riley gives to you 🎶

🎶Two broken hearts🎶

🎶And one Charles dying🎶

#the last hours #alastair carstairs #thomas lightwood #thomastair #anti charles fairchild #anti charlestair #christopher lightwood

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felassan · 4 years ago

Link

TheGamer’s Dragon Age Week has now begun, starting with this article:

Dragon Age Originally Had No Dragons

It might sound a bit strange, but Dragon Age was in development for quite a while before BioWare decided it needed dragons. [source]

These snippets stick out to me:

“Why would you call it ‘Dragon Age’ when the actual age of dragons was centuries previous? You didn’t even see or fight a dragon!” [...] “James said ‘good point’… but what he then directed me to do was to change the story and setting to accommodate the new title. So suddenly we had dragons returning to the world, the Archdemon changed into a dragon [...]”

It’s worth drawing attention to the fact that the Archdemon had to be changed into a dragon in order to accommodate the new name. After discussing its original lack of dragons, Origins managing editor Daniel Erickson describes what the darkspawn’s Big Bad originally looked like.

“The Archdemon was this big, freaky, anime-villain sort of thing that felt like Lovecraft does Final Fantasy,” Erickson says. “First David tried to say the time period was the ‘Dragon Age’ - kinda like year of the Ox - but nobody was buying it… so insert dragons.”

Despite the Archdemon’s significance to Origins, even this change occurred surprisingly late into development. [...] So a little farther into the game we started adding you know, the smaller dragons and things like that. And of course the Archdemon. We added that towards the end.” [...] That’s how the Archdemon was properly integrated into the story as the first major dragon in Dragon Age, long after the original concept for this world had been drawn up and undergone various iterations since. [source]

Btw, here is a link to concept art of the original form of the Archdemon from the BioWare 25 Year book (ignore the Pride demons), as well as to a quote from ~9 months from DG about it and some thoughts on why it is interestinnng (the figures from the new mural, anyone...?)

#dragon age #bioware #video games #DG has also talked about the no dragons thing and the name generator thing before in a stream #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #da4 tags for the mural

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laurabwrites · 8 years ago

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Going through the Ideas List

I think it is time to go through my list of story ideas again, discuss getting started on some of the prompts that'll turn into flash or short fiction and deleting the ones that have turned too cryptic or I won't get to for some other reason. If nothing else, on the personal level, explaining my organizational process will get me to reassess how it's working for me.

I have a paper and pencil notebook I write scenes freehand in, jot down quotes, and take notes on writing panels and videos on writing. Every so often (maybe twice a year), I'll go through the notebook(s) and copy any phrases or quotes that still spark story ideas into my to-do app (Wunderlist). In that app, in addition to my chores and day-to-day household stuff (very useful for reminding me to do stuff on an irregular schedule), I have lists for currently active projects, keeping up with this blog, things I want to look into for improving my writing, what I think of as administrativia, and finally, the relevant list: Story Ideas.

There are 33 items on the list right now, one of which was added two days ago, while discussing a different piece I'd written with Partner. The list never ends... Or gets any shorter... At any rate, I'm thinking that I should break this list up into three lists and group the results in a folder labeled Story Ideas. The new lists would be flash/short stories, novellas, and novels, all based on how long I think the relevant idea would turn into, story-wise. I'll have to revisit that after I walk through the current list.

The first item on the list is simply labeled 'Writing Prompts' and has the following sentences, phrases, snippets, and such saved as subtasks:

"Let's just get this out of the way," I said. "One of you idiots is likely to die."

Even astronauts get the blues: or why boredom drives us nuts.

How DO you break up with a demon?

"The tag line of the robot apocalypse is going to be 'From you okay? I learned it from watching you.'"

Your Third Wheel is Flat

Witches Brew

Aesthetic terrorist

"In my defense, the octopus started it."

The first one came from a blog post on Scalzi's website a few years back, as the first line of a project he was working on at the time. The second was a headline to a science article I saw on NPR at some point. The fourth one came from an episode of The Drunk & The Ugly (I don't even remember what they were talking about), and the seventh one comes from RPPR's Caleb describing Ross's taste in music, movies, books,... The last one I grabbed from Reddit's writingprompts subreddit the other day and ended up writing a story to on the commute home. Well, a first draft anyway. The rest, I honestly don't remember where they came from.

Deciding to go through my list also got me to set up some Google documents and actually get started using these prompts. It's not like I'm going to magically have a story burst forth like Athena; I have to make the time to write them and setting up each with their own document eases the start-up cost for me. So yeah, in the week since I decided to write this post and made the documents, I've written a revenge fantasy piece for the first one that will almost certainly never see the light of day, a 635 word short for the second that I'm pleased with (needs a revision pass obviously, but they always do), am a third of the way into a story off the third prompt, and have a decent first draft off the eighth prompt.

Look, the octopus started it, okay?

In all seriousness though, I think I am going to delete the fifth and sixth ones as not meant to be. I'm not sure what I was thinking about when I wrote that the fifth one down anymore and it's not sparking any ideas now. Beyond a "is that word salad or something?" The sixth one is just too generic for me to want to save or work with right now.

Please note that when I said first, I meant the first item that had been added, not the one at the top of the list. So if I mix up my terminology talking about the next (arbitrary) set of items, my apologies. But. This set is always a short two of three word encapsulation of the idea with notes attached to the item. The five oldest are:

Second contact

Summoned demon baby

Time loop

Superhero rape

AI authors

Second Contact stems off of a story I read as a teenager about first contact between humans and another species, not on one or the other's home-worlds, but because both had sent scientific exploration ships to the same astronomically interesting spot on space. And let me tell you, tracking down that title and author roughly 15 years later when all you remember is the plot was a bit rough (Murray Leinster's First Contact from 1945 btw). My idea is that the two species have worked out a general treaty to share science exploration ('cause money/resources) and discover a third species, this time at their home planet. I'll be honest, I haven't read a first contact story with multiple species as one side before, which is part of why I want to write it. The tracking down the citation for the original story is because I do want to reread the original before I start, to try to be faithful to the technology and characterizations Leinster did. A bit of homage to a story that stuck with me for more than a decade and a half. I think this one would tend towards a long shot story or short novella, to do the complexity of the issues involved justice.

The second idea came from a scene I had pop into my head, probably somehow related to Hellboy. Not that I know what prompted me to recall Hellboy. But the scene was some poor schmuck in military fatigues standing in the middle of a summoning circle comforting a crying demon baby, and then trying to gingerly hand the baby back to their parent. Who'd now been summoned into the same circle. The story idea and notes then came from trying to work backwards from that scene in order to make it plausible and an appropriate stinger/story ending. This one is definitely in the short story range, possibly flash fiction.

I'm torn about the third one. It originated out of an impulse to invert the 'magical black person' trope, but I'm not sure I have enough of a plot or characters to justify this impulse. It'd use the crazy amount of cop dramas I grew up watching as a story structure, but beyond having an older white lady as the mentor and a younger queer black guy as the two leads and the guy eventually raising the baby version of the lady (hence the time loop), I don't really have that spark of what the story is. So do I keep this one in the list and periodically pull it out to try and develop it or let it go? I'm not sure yet, so it survives for a while more.

I'm just going to copy out my notes for number four:

First trial for mental rape via chemically/psychically forcing someone to feel sexual desire at a gay conversion 'therapy' camp.

Yeah, this one came out of reading about the comic Jessica Jones and television show. Short story length.

Number four came out of reading a review of a new science fiction book, I think, and after review, is probably going away. To quote my notes again:

AI emulation of the author's mind comes with every copy of a book/game/text – how does literary critique change

This is sounding more like a think piece essay than a story now, and I do not have a background in literary critique, either the theory or the practice. Also I'm not finding it that interesting anymore, to be honest. I'm pretty sure I read that book review back when I first started critiquing and getting critiqued on Scribophile, which is probably why the idea of how critique would change if you had access to the author's creative process was interesting.

So, there's some of the oldest ideas I've kept around for writing projects one day. Next week I'll walk through the other 27 more quickly, and possibly include talking about that Tumblr draft section I've got too.

#organization #story ideas

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oditile · 7 years ago

Text

Sentiment Analysis of “A Christmas Carol”

Posted: 29 Nov 2017 03:16 PM PST

(This article was first published on

R – rud.is , and kindly contributed to R-bloggers)

Our family has been reading, listening to and watching “A Christmas Carol” for just abt 30 years now. I got it into my crazy noggin to perform a sentiment analysis on it the other day and tweeted out the results, but a large chunk of the R community is not on Twitter and it would be good to get a holiday-themed post or two up for the season.

One reason I embarked on this endeavour is that @juliasilge & @drob made it so gosh darn easy to do so with:

(btw: That makes an excellent holiday gift for the data scientist[s] in your life.)

Let us begin!

STAVE I: hrbrmstr’s Code

We need the text of this book to work with and thankfully it’s long been in the public domain. As @drob noted, we can use the gutenbergr package to retrieve it. We’ll use an RStudio project structure for this and cache the results locally to avoid burning bandwidth:

library(rprojroot) library(gutenbergr) library(hrbrthemes) library(stringi) library(tidytext) library(tidyverse) rt <- find_rstudio_root_file() carol_rds <- file.path(rt, "data", "carol.rds") if (!file.exists(carol_rds)) { carol_df <- gutenberg_download("46") write_rds(carol_df, carol_rds) } else { carol_df <- read_rds(carol_rds) }

How did I know to use 46? We can use gutenberg_works() to get to that info:

gutenberg_works(author=="Dickens, Charles") ## # A tibble: 74 x 8 ## ��gutenberg_id title ## ## 1 46 A Christmas Carol in Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas ## 2 98 A Tale of Two Cities ## 3 564 The Mystery of Edwin Drood ## 4 580 The Pickwick Papers ## 5 588 Master Humphrey's Clock ## 6 644 The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain ## 7 650 Pictures from Italy ## 8 653 "The Chimes\r\nA Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year out and a New Year In" ## 9 675 American Notes ## 10 678 The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home ## # ... with 64 more rows, and 6 more variables: author , gutenberg_author_id , language , ## # gutenberg_bookshelf , rights , has_text

STAVE II: The first of three wrangles

We’re eventually going to make a ggplot2 faceted chart of the sentiments by paragraphs in each stave (chapter). I wanted nicer titles for the facets so we’ll clean up the stave titles first:

#' Convenience only carol_txt <- carol_df$text # Just want the chapters (staves) carol_txt <- carol_txt[-(1:(which(grepl("STAVE I:", carol_txt)))-1)] #' We'll need this later to make prettier facet titles data_frame( stave = 1:5, title = sprintf("Stave %s: %s", stave, carol_txt[stri_detect_fixed(carol_txt, "STAVE")] %>% stri_replace_first_regex("STAVE [[:alpha:]]{1,3}: ", "") %>% stri_trans_totitle()) ) -> stave_titles

stri_trans_totitle() is a super-handy function and all we’re doing here is extracting the stave titles and doing a small transformation. There are scads of ways to do this, so don’t get stuck on this example. Try out other ways of doing this munging.

You’ll also see that I made sure we started at the first stave break vs include the title bits in the analysis.

Now, we need to prep the text for text analysis.

STAVE III: The second of three wrangles

There are other text mining packages and processes in R. I’m using tidytext because it takes care of so many details for you and does so elegantly. I was also at the rOpenSci Unconf where the idea was spawned & worked on and I’m glad it blossomed into such a great package and a book!

Since we (I) want to do the analysis by stave & paragraph, let’s break the text into those chunks. Note that I’m doing an extra break by sentence in the event folks out there want to replicate this work but do so on a more granular level.

#' Break the text up into chapters, paragraphs, sentences, and words, #' preserving the hierarchy so we can use it later. data_frame(txt = carol_txt) %>% unnest_tokens(chapter, txt, token="regex", pattern="STAVE [[:alpha:]]{1,3}: [[:alpha:] [:punct:]]+") %>% mutate(stave = 1:n()) %>% unnest_tokens(paragraph, chapter, token = "paragraphs") %>% group_by(stave) %>% mutate(para = 1:n()) %>% ungroup() %>% unnest_tokens(sentence, paragraph, token="sentences") %>% group_by(stave, para) %>% mutate(sent = 1:n()) %>% ungroup() %>% unnest_tokens(word, sentence) -> carol_tokens carol_tokens ## A tibble: 28,710 x 4 ## stave para sent word ## ## 1 1 1 1 marley ## 2 1 1 1 was ## 3 1 1 1 dead ## 4 1 1 1 to ## 5 1 1 1 begin ## 6 1 1 1 with ## 7 1 1 1 there ## 8 1 1 1 is ## 9 1 1 1 no ## 0 1 1 1 doubt ## ... with 28,700 more rows

By indexing each hierarchy level, we have the flexibility to do all sorts of structured analyses just by choosing grouping combinations.

STAVE IV: The third of three wrangles

Now, we need to layer in some sentiments and do some basic sentiment calculations. Many of these sentiment-al posts (including this one) take a naive approach with basic match and only looking at 1-grams. One reason I didn’t go further was to make the code accessible to new R folk (since I primarily blog for new R folk :-). I’m prepping some 2018 posts with more involved text analysis themes and will likely add some complexity then with other texts.

#' Retrieve sentiments and compute them. #' #' I left the `index` in vs just use `paragraph` since it'll make this easier to reuse #' this block (which I'm not doing but thought I might). inner_join(carol_tokens, get_sentiments("nrc"), "word") %>% count(stave, index = para, sentiment) %>% spread(sentiment, n, fill = 0) %>% mutate(sentiment = positive - negative) %>% left_join(stave_titles, "stave") -> carol_with_sent

STAVE V: The end of it

Now, we just need to do some really basic ggplot-ing to to get to our desired result:

ggplot(carol_with_sent) + geom_segment(aes(index, sentiment, xend=index, yend=0, color=title), size=0.33) + scale_x_comma(limits=range(carol_with_sent$index)) + scale_y_comma() + scale_color_ipsum() + facet_wrap(~title, scales="free_x", ncol=5) + labs(x=NULL, y="Sentiment", title="Sentiment Analysis of A Christmas Carol", subtitle="By stave & ¶", caption="Humbug!") + theme_ipsum_rc(grid="Y", axis_text_size = 8, strip_text_face = "italic", strip_text_size = 10.5) + theme(legend.position="none")

You’ll want to tap/click on that to make it bigger.

Despite using a naive analysis, I think it tracks pretty well with the flow of the book.

Stave one is quite bleak. Marley is morose and frightening. There is no joy apart from Fred’s brief appearance.

The truly terrible (-10 sentiment) paragraph also makes sense:

Marley’s face. It was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to look: with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly forehead. The hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath or hot air; and, though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly motionless. That, and its livid colour, made it horrible; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the face and beyond its control, rather than a part of its own expression.

(I got to that via this snippet which you can use as a template for finding the other significant sentiment points:)

filter( carol_tokens, stave == 1, para == filter(carol_with_sent, stave==1) %>% filter(sentiment == min(sentiment)) %>% pull(index) )

Stave two (Christmas past) is all about Scrooge’s youth and includes details about Fezziwig’s party so the mostly-positive tone also makes sense.

Stave three (Christmas present) has the highest:

The Grocers’! oh, the Grocers’! nearly closed, with perhaps two shutters down, or one; but through those gaps such glimpses! It was not alone that the scales descending on the counter made a merry sound, or that the twine and roller parted company so briskly, or that the canisters were rattled up and down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended scents of tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even that the raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other spices so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and spotted with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers-on feel faint and subsequently bilious. Nor was it that the figs were moist and pulpy, or that the French plums blushed in modest tartness from their highly-decorated boxes, or that everything was good to eat and in its Christmas dress; but the customers were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day, that they tumbled up against each other at the door, crashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left their purchases upon the counter, and came running back to fetch them, and committed hundreds of the like mistakes, in the best humour possible; while the Grocer and his people were so frank and fresh that the polished hearts with which they fastened their aprons behind might have been their own, worn outside for general inspection, and for Christmas daws to peck at if they chose.

and lowest (sentiment) points of the entire book:

And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they stood upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses of rude stone were cast about, as though it were the burial-place of giants; and water spread itself wheresoever it listed, or would have done so, but for the frost that held it prisoner; and nothing grew but moss and furze, and coarse rank grass. Down in the west the setting sun had left a streak of fiery red, which glared upon the desolation for an instant, like a sullen eye, and frowning lower, lower, lower yet, was lost in the thick gloom of darkest night.

Stave four (Christmas yet to come) is fairly middling. I had expected to see lower marks here. The standout negative sentiment paragraph (and the one that follows) are pretty dark, though:

They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, where Scrooge had never penetrated before, although he recognised its situation, and its bad repute. The ways were foul and narrow; the shops and houses wretched; the people half-naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly. Alleys and archways, like so many cesspools, disgorged their offences of smell, and dirt, and life, upon the straggling streets; and the whole quarter reeked with crime, with filth, and misery.

Finally, Stave five is both short and positive (whew!). Which I heartily agree with!

FIN

The code is up on GitHub and I hope that it will inspire more folks to experiment with this fun (& useful!) aspect of data science.

Make sure to send links to anything you create and shoot over PRs for anything you think I did that was awry.

For those who celebrate Christmas, I hope you keep Christmas as well as or even better than old Scrooge. “May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!”

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