#very cool double exposure

[perfunctory-idols]

Beck at Summersault Festival in Australia, late 1995/early 1996

Photo by Sophie Howarth

[maxthesillyy]

i did a thing💥

note: defining cameo here as someone/thing from the previous games (or comics) being in Double Exposure as anything from ‘being a full-on side character’ to ‘got vaguely mentioned’

[aroaessidhe]

me posting in the chat if any photographers are free before my evening shoot tonight

someone replying, who I specifically was planning on asking next year bc I just saw them do something that would suit me perfectly

me giving them more info about my cosplay (wasp) and them being so interested they want to do a shoot AND read it. we organise one tonight

they get back to me and are like: actually. do you want to do this another weekend and take all day and go to different locations and do a full proper shoot for this

[help-itrappedmyself]

Summoning Game Show 2

Masterpost

“Okay! You guys are from an Earth right?”

The bat brothers glance at each other before they all start nodding.

“Cool cool. If you need to stretch or warm up, I suggest doing that during the following explanation” Danny watches as Nightwing does start doing light stretches. Not too much, but Dick knows he’s still pretty loose from the fight before falling through the portal, so he’s just making sure he’s still warm. “So, human version of the obstacle course is timed, you have to finish 7 obstacles in under 10 minutes. You can get creative with the obstacles, have fun with it. The only rules are no flying, no intangibility, and no breaking anything! I will be doing some announcing to the best of my ability so don’t let me distract you. There will be no one else in the room with you, so if you’re confused by an obstacle or get hurt and need to stop or something just shout for us. When you’re ready the obstacle course is through the Door with the big number 1 on it. Your time starts when the door opens, so be ready.”

Danny takes a moment, tapping his finger to his chin. “That’s about everything I think. Any questions?” He smiles brightly at Nightwing.

“Uh, no thank you.” Nightwing stops stretches and starts heading for the door.

“Give us a moment and we’ll let you know when you can start!” Danny shouts after him., then turns to the rest of them. “Since you’re not participating in this round, you all come up and sit on the stage.” Three chairs almost instantly appear behind Danny and once the boys are all on the stage a large screen appears along the entire front edge of the platform. The screen is blank at the moment. “Is everybody ready?” Danny looks behind him to get nods from the boys sitting in their chairs, then turns to the ghosts to make sure everything was running smoothly, then to Nightwing who nods at Danny. A timer appears in the upper left corner of the screen, and on top of the door in front of Nightwing. “Okay Nightwing, you can go when you’re ready.”

Nightwing opens the door, quickly walking through and surveying the scene, the course is walled so he can only see what’s in front of him which looks like a military wall, It has a sign the says “Obstacle 1’ on it, and has a rope climb which he climbs to the top of quickly. 

“Making quick work of The Wall, and moving on to Parkour, the test of speed and balance.” Danny comments.

Danny and the boys watch him climb on the screen in front of them, the camera panning to give a view of what he sees as he makes it to the top of the wall. “Obstacle 2’ is a nice speed jump course, mostly angled platforms and ledges and Nightwing jumps from one to the other easily, heading downhill. All lower body so far, but he’s approaching ‘Obstacle 3’, - “The Bars, to test upper body and grip strength!” - is what appears to be monkey bars, but the fifteen bars are all at different lengths from each other. Instead of a ladder, there’s a trampoline to help him reach the first bar, but Nightwing has to do a quick double take when he sees what's below the monkey bars.

“What is that?” Nightwing asks, and it echoes strangely to the audience in the other room. 

Danny doesn’t really know why he stopped. “Safety feature! Didn’t want you falling onto concrete or something, it’s just a pool.”

The pool is a green that is very familiar to the brothers and that they have been seeing a lot of since coming through the portal. 

“Is your safety feature actually safe for humans?” Red asks at the same time Nightwing goes: “Are you telling me that is your version of water?”

Nightwing, despite his slight reluctance, has started on the monkey bars, doing a great job making his way across.

“It’s kind of radioactive to humans actually, but this part of the Infinite Realms doesn’t have any actual water.” Danny almost wants to laugh at the look on the boy's faces when he says ‘radioactive’. “It is a safety feature, so it won’t kill anyone, but depending on how much exposure there is there might be some side effects.”

“Gee, that’s just great.” Hood mutters.

Nightwing reaches the last ring of the monkey bars, which leads to a small trapeze bar which he takes with glee, swinging right over to ‘Obstacle 4’, a large net wall, and transferring on. Instead of taking the time to climb over the net, he just wiggles through one of the holes to the other side.

“Hey, nice one, that saved you some time!” Danny exclaimed.

Nightwing reaches ‘Obstacle 5’, what looks like a ropes course mixed in with a laser grid. There are small floating platforms in various locations, interspersed with ropes in every possible direction, some just dangling, some with clear climbing knots that can help reach the platforms, and some that are just in the way blocking the clearest jumps and paths across. There’s five minutes left on his clock.

“The floating grid!” Danny announces. “Main test for agility and problem solving!”

When Nightwing reaches the last floating platform he’s able to step right onto solid ground again, there’s a wall in front of him, the only way through looking to be a hole at ground level. “Obstacle 6, the crawl! We looked into a mud crawl, but nobody wanted to bring in mud for it, so it’s just a regular crawl.” Danny shrugs lightly. “I hope you’re not claustrophobic!” Nightwing lowers himself and starts to crawl into the hole. It’s longer than he thought, and once he’s inside his body is blocking all light into it, he can’t see where it ends. It is a good thing he’s not claustrophobic, Dick thinks to himself as he reaches a slant, starting to crawl up now. At least in this direction he can see light again.

As he crawls out of the tunnel he sees that he has two minutes left to do the last obstacle, and he gets back up to his feet and stops.

“Obstacle 7, the jump pit!” Danny claps lightly. “This is my favorite.” 

Nightwing is standing on a very high ledge and there’s a pit beneath him. The pit is filled with what he assumes are foam shapes, like the pits you land in when attempting new tricks in a trampoline park or gymnastics center. Nightwing takes another second to look down at the pit, he is so high up. “It’s soft down there right? I’m supposed to jump in there?” His voice is quiet, as normal as heights have gotten for him the idea of falling so far is making him freeze a bit.

“Yes, it’s a soft landing. The pit is a safe depth and filled with cushioning, you just have to jump in and get to the platform at the end.” Danny explains.

Nightwing knows crawling through the foam shapes is difficult and time consuming and he glances back at the clock to see 1:39 and jumps before he can think about it any more. 

He does land safely, hearing Danny’s whoop come from the speaker as he falls. He is running out of time as he reaches the end of the pit, but he manages to crawl out onto the platform and the clock stops as he takes a break to lay there.

[lover-of-mine]

Low key on Oliver and Ryan. Since we know they watch us. I think he was offended at people turning on Ryan. Sure they probably don't have scripts yet but they know the direction and were probably already told you know? It's why he never promoted the pairing or followed Lou. Especially when the other side made the attacks on Ryan so personal. It's a double offense really. They built this ship. Do you think Oliver is cool getting all the accolades and leaving Ryan behind for a wal mart version of Eddie??? Just know the other side, Oliver is judging you!!

That's my Roman Empire 😂

Full conspiracy theory, but I keep saying Ryan has known where it's going and that's why he was locked into pr jail, and Oliver was just brought into the inner circle and that's why he looks so frustrated, but here's the thing, Oliver and Ryan know what they have in their hands when it comes to the impact buddie could have, there's no way they don't, and obviously, they would want that, the amount of exposure they could get from this is insane, and Oliver seems annoyed, just look at the way he refuses to talk about bt long or like you said, didn't follow Lou, or the absolute insanity of opening his Instagram after 710 just to like a video of the thumb thing and nothing else. Realistically dude is probably frustrated that Buck being bi stopped being about Buck, trapped him in a ship war and made people turn on the thing they've been working on for yeaaaaars and the way Lou was encouraging it probably didn't help. I don't blame Lou for capitalizing, if people wanted to pay me 145 dollars to talk out of my ass about a ship I would be doing it too, hell, I'm running this blog for free kapakapka. But my thing is, the plan was Eddie going first and that got switched mid production, so, again conspiracy theory, my thought process here is that Oliver and Ryan were told "okay abc is cool with it, we're pulling the trigger" because that would explain the way they were acting that week leading up to the season premiering, the way Ryan was just saying shit and Oliver was in a perpetual state of blushing, but then T was better received than expected and the showrunners decided to capitalize on that for longer than anticipated, because looking at it from a business perspective, they already had s8 confirmed and they are probably expecting the same level of exposure they got from Buck being bi to come from Eddie being queer, especially because Eddie being queer means buddie going canon, so delaying Eddie's arc because they want to make the most of the publicity makes sense (rip Eddie confirmed queer by family feud, we will make it true, I promise), it would explain why Ryan changed his tune during the promo for 707 and 709, but switch back after 710 and it would also explain why Buck was pushed to the background during that space too. Tim keeps saying he doesn't have a plan, while I do believe he doesn't have the exact plot, I REFUSE to believe someone can manage to setup a love story like buddie accidentally and just going with the flow. A show is a living organism in a way a book or a movie won't be because it needs to adjust to the circumstances in which it's airing, but I cannot believe they don't have some sort of outline with the ideas they want to give, the general way they want to get there and the endgame of the situation. And I've been saying this since s6 and the very blatant switch in tone with Buck and Eddie in 6b when they thought they were gonna get cancelled that they promptly pretended wasn't there once s7 started. If I, a girl with a blog in the middle of nowhere Brazil getting absolutely nothing out of it, can see that buddie can accomplish something that doesn't exist in media, there isn't a slow burn queer relationship where both characters were not introduced as queer that go through so much together they can't help but falling in love in a media that isn't about queer themes, hell, I can't think of one from something about queer themes, you think people who have been working on this for years can't see it too? Come on, Oliver knows that Buck ending up with walmart Eddie is worst case scenario when compared to the thing he could have if buddie goes canon. And Ryan is his friend, Buck is this thing he pours his soul into, of course he will want the best possible thing there. He so is judging the other side. Dude admitted to crying in the shower to buddie edits. They read fanfiction. Like, come oooooon, they are driving the clown car, cocaptains of the ship.

[tigergirltail]

Seeing a fair number of posts lately from transfems wishing they had known a trans person who would have told them when they were younger that they're trans, and it's been bothering me. First of all because it puts the onus of responsibility on this mysterious, cool, older, wiser transwoman to break the egg out of their shell, which I thought we agreed was a toxic ideal back when we called them Manic Pixie Dream Girls.

Second, and more importantly, because in the ideal scenario, in which the egg is very definitely a closeted transgirl, and the more open transwoman is genuinely just trying to help the egg find her true self, being forceful about it can set that discovery back years, even decades.

Source: It literally happened to me.

In my late teens, I played an MMORPG called City of Heroes, and my best friend in that game would later reveal to me that she is a transwoman. As I aged into my mid twenties, we got to meeting up IRL and going to anime conventions together, and she'd inevitably broach the topic of me trying more feminine presentation. Not even telling me she saw signs, just subtly trying to steer me in the right direction. She was particularly enthusiastic about seeing me in a skirt.

Every single time it happened, I'd get mad and shut down.

There's a psychological phenomenon in which, when someone holds a set of deeply held beliefs, and those beliefs are challenged by verifiable evidence, the cognitive dissonance causes the person to double down, and hold to those beliefs even harder. That's why right-wingers are Like That, but it applies just as much to all of us. I'll get back to this concept in a bit.

When I was around 15, an anime aired in Canada called Cardcaptor Sakura, or Cardcaptors as it was localized. Something about the exact stage of development I was, and seeing Sakura getting to set aside her mundane responsibilities to dress up in cute costumes and go out on magical adventures, it called to my closeted little girl heart. I have a vivid memory of staring in the mirror, holding my hair to look like Sakura's and imagining myself as her. As a girl. I have many more memories of looking at feminine characters and thinking "gods I wish I could look/dress like that", but Sakura was the first.

I kept it fully to myself, because I had grown up in the late 80s and 90s - before the word 'transgender' was commonly known, before media depicted us as anything but objects of mockery or horror. It was a deeply ingrained and societally reinforced belief that Boys Are Boys and Girls Are Girls, and never the two shall cross.

So when my best online friend tried to convince me to be more feminine, that cognitive dissonance would kick in and I'd shut down. Even though she was objectively correct that I was a closeted transgirl, it was her word against the word of my entire upbringing and societal viewpoint.

What actually helped, what actually put a dent in my egg, was the fact that she simply existed as a transwoman, she was visible and proud. That existence challenged my preconcieved notions in a way that could not be resisted.

From there, it was a matter of time and continued exposure.

Another friend who explained to me what 'cisgender' meant, and who eventually started leaning into transmasc presentation. A romantic partner who came out as genderqueer and helped me understand the concept of 'nonbinary'. Transgender content creators who posted about their experiences online - special shoutout to demilypyro and assumptionprime, two of the most influential voices for me while I was figuring this out, but far from the only ones.

The shields of my egg were down. It was primed for hatching.

On April 22, 2022, I was looking up some fanart of Hex Maniac from Pokemon X/Y, who I had cosplayed at a convention three years before, and thinking of how good it felt to wear that dress. How good it felt to look like her. How good it felt… to be a girl.

-CRACK-

…Later that day, I went to my old City of Heroes friend, practically begging her for help. How do I know if HRT is what I want? How do I know if I should transition? How do I know if I'm really a girl?

She knew. She always knew. She tried to tell me, but I wasn't ready to listen. Not yet.

The point of all of this is that one transperson telling an egg they're trans is not a solution to the problem. The problem is that society has tried very hard to make us the outliers, to make us the weirdos, but society is losing that war. If you want to help the eggs of the world, be visible, be proud, and treat being trans as something normal and beautiful. Don't tell them unless they ask, just… be there.

Eggs hatch when they're ready, and not a moment sooner.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Oh, and by the way… She got her wish in the end. I wear skirts now.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Television - Summer 1975 Demos

One more summer re-run ...

The very first release on Ork Records was Television’s “Little Johnny Jewel” single, which arrived in September of 1975. The unreleased tracks we’ve gathered here today (which appear on the classic Double Exposure bootleg) are from those same “Johnny Jewel” sessions, recorded at a place curiously called Wartoke Concern.  

The details from the Numero Ork Records set: 

In two hours of August 19, 1975, Television cut a handful of demos on an infirm TEAC 4-track owned by Jay Dee Daugherty, drummer for Patti Smith’s group. “The entrance was behind the ticket window in an older movie theater, up five flights,” Verlaine wrote of Wartoke Concern’s 46th & Broadway office. “Just a few mikes and checkin’ to see that the machine worked, which it didn’t. It was supposed to be in stereo but it was out of sync so we had to put it in mono … I played an old maple-neck Fender Duo-Sonic which belonged to Patti Smith.” 

So, what we have here are early versions of: “Hard On Love,” “Friction,” “Careful,” “Prove It,” and “Fire Engine.” All very interesting! All very cool. And “Johnny Jewel” remains an inspired choice as a debut – other bands would’ve gone for a more accessible number, but Verlaine went for the oddest, most singular thing in his band’s repertoire. And the world was never the same!

Also interesting and cool – the Ork liners also tell us that Arista Records funded a Television demo session later in 1975 recorded by Blue Oyster Cult’s Allen Lanier! Have those tracks ever made it out into the wild? I don’t think so, but I could be wrong…

[paullovescomics]

Star Trek The Next Generation Gulliver's Fugitives

Spoilers. Not a very serious review. This is the 11th TNG novel, published in 1990.

The Enterprise investigates the disappearance of another Starfleet vessel, the Huxley, whose last known location was within a nebula. These dang nebulas, y'all. Ships always getting lost in them. Turns out there is a pre-Federation human colony on a planet in that nebula, and it has devolved into a fascist state that outlaws all forms of fiction. Not gonna lie, i skimmed a lot of this because that's not the kind of world i want to read about right now.

When contact is made, a few representatives of this planet are beamed aboard. That's fine, but the colonists also manage to get some of their floating robot enforcers onboard, and these things are pretty much invulnerable. They can read humans' minds, so they know when you're about to shoot them. They shoot radiation that kinda boils your brain. Picard is kidnapped and taken to the surface. Ultimately, the assholes on this planet want to destroy the Enterprise so they don't spread any "fictions" about interstellar travel, aliens, or other ways of life being okay.

You might think the crew of the Enterprise could deal with the robots fairly quickly, but no, it takes them most of the novel to figure out a solution. They can't read Data's mind, or Worf's (because they've only had exposure to humans til now), so maybe send the non-human security officers, or whip up some drones with guns in the replicators? Which makes me ask a question I often ask while watching or reading Trek: why don't these people use robots or drones or droids like, hardly ever? You could save a few ships from getting lost in crazy nebulas, for one thing. Oh well. Trek universe just doesn't like robots.

There is s resistance on the colony planet, and the too small and under-armed away team gets mixed up with them. Well, Troi does. Riker and Data get captured. Some of these folks are cool. They take on identities of fictional (mostly mythical) characters.

This book introduces a couple of new characters that are given pretty full backstories, enough so that I had to double check the Memory Alpha and Beta websites to make sure they weren't from TV episodes I'd just forgotten. (I've seen all of TNG, but those early episodes don't stick in my mind very well.) But no, they are new. The author just went the extra mile to flesh them out a bit. Makes you wonder if he planned to bring these characters back in later novels, but apparently that did not happen.

Anyway, things eventually work out, and we get the sense that big changes are about to happen on this planet, and nobody from the Enterprise had to violate the Prime Directive to accomplish that. Picard and the away team are really put through the ringer, with mind-wipes and coming within seconds of being executed. Those kind of stakes always feel weird in tie-in fiction, because on one level you feel the threat, but on another level, you know tie-in fiction isn't allowed to change the main characters. So do you play along with it, or do you question it? Creates an odd tension in the old brain.

If you really like early TNG and you dig tie-in novels, you'll probably have fun with this one. These books are still in a lot of used book stores, and still in decent shape despite being thirty freaking years old.

Live long and prosper, folks.

[outeremissary]

🌈🌍🐉 for Carmen and Ismene?

Oh man. Big night for women with issues!!!! I went through a full spectrum of emotions answering these, thank you

[prompt]

🌈 - Do you associate any colors with them?

Oh for sure. On both counts, haha. I feel like this is a thing for most of my OCs- at least, it’s a major point of trying to like. Visualize a design for them when drawing. At any rate.

Carmen has always been strongly associated with red to me. It’s a very vibrant, strong color, and it’s also a very heroic and regal one. Maybe it’s just the kinds of books I read as a kid, but when I think of kings and knights, I think of crimson and scarlet and all that jazz. She’s proud, principled, and aspires to be a paragon of what she considers virtue. I’ve also always portrayed her with a rose as an emblem- a romantic symbol. Of course, the obvious flip side of that is that there’s a lot of negative association with red as well- fire and blood are the obvious ones here. She’s not fiery in the sense of raging passion or blistering anger per se, but more like… a destructive flame that would burn everything to ashes, maybe. Someone with burning ideals and zealotry so hot that it’s searing her too. Of course, the less fanciful aspect of the red is that it’s a color that was also associated with the chivalric order she was a part of in tabletop (also an anchor point of the rose). Carmen’s kind of a funny character for color though. She’s been around in some form or other for ten years or more at this point, and she’s always had the red association. It’s something that’s kind of transformed over time.

Ismene is an easy purple. And one day I swear to fucking god I will manage to color some of my art of her. Although I guess it wouldn’t be posted here so uhh maybe it doesn’t matter. Anyway. Purple. Regal and mystical. That’s the kind of vibe that I always want her to give off as a first impression, so purple is an obvious choice. I think there’s also something to purple being a kind of cool, somber color- she’s become a more mischievous character than originally planned, but I think it’s right for her to have a certain self-serious gravitas. This is a bit of an open and shut one I don’t have much more to say ^^;;

🌍 - What are this oc’s religious views?

Oh good god.

Carmen’s religious views are Very Different in Wrath from her original tabletop iteration (where her schtick is generally kind of inverted from part of Wrath), so I’m going to preface this by saying I’m answering for the Wrath iteration of the character. Carmen is a dogmatic atheist. You know the goofy edgelord atheist dialogue in this game? Honestly totally on point for her. She doesn’t believe that people should rely on the gods, and she believes that gods are ultimately all self-serving and tend to use mortals as proxies for their conflicts and the most extreme expressions of existence. The affairs of mortals should belong entirely to mortals. She’s not a person who sees the good gods as fundamentally better than the evil. In the end, they’re still imposing the same manipulative systems on their followers. They still inspire violent, irrational conflict. And they don’t “inspire” their followers. They breed helplessness. They make people reliant, cause them to wait and pray for salvation instead of searching for it themselves. The gods are cowards and parasites. And one day, it would be nice to see them torn down from their thrones.

I had to look up/double check FR lore for this one, which was half the time spent on this whole thing if I’m being real with you. Anyway. Ismene’s upbringing obviously meant a lot of exposure to gods of knowledge, and she tends to regard these deities with a reasonable level of respect. Knowledge, to her, is the highest power; those who reign over it are the highest Powers. She identified particularly strongly with Savras, Alaundo’s patron, from a precocious age- one of a number of ways she has taken aspects of the life of the one true prophet for herself. This seemed like a bit of childish fancy when she was young, but the release of Savras during the Time of Troubles gave it more gravity- another uncanny bit of foresight from the girl. For her, it seemed a sign in and of itself- thought not a person of deep devotion, she quietly claimed the returned god as her patron, developing a personal belief that her prophetic abilities had been an omen of his return and deepening her sense that she was personally connected to Alaundo. In the years between the Time of Troubles and the revelation of her Bhaalspawn heritage Ismene developed a conviction that she had a destiny to take up Alaundo’s mantle as a true prophet of Savras in the new age. Her personal dedication to the god is partially responsible for her aversion to outright lying- to speak untruth is anathema to the All-Seeing, though she never quite internalized his dedication to wholly avoiding misdirection and deceit. The revelation of her divine blood shook her faith deeply- in some form or other, her abilities originate in truth from Bhaal. Of course, with pride and precocious self-importance as the origins of her devotion to the Lord of Divination, she’s certainly able to adapt to the idea of being a demigod given time. I don’t want to say more when I have yet to y’know. Finish the original Bhaalspawn Saga. But I certainly have an idea of the trajectory of a hubristic young wizard who gets to live with the smug satisfaction that she can outfox a god.

🐉 - Very serious question… are they more like a dragon, or a unicorn?

Carmen is an easy dragon. It’s the fire thing. And the knight thing. What’s the opposite of a noble knight? That’s right, a dragon. And also being very cool despite objectively killing a lot of people, which isn’t so awesome.

Ismene is like a unicorn because she’s just so goddamn special. I wrote that sentence as filler for later but you know what? I’m right. What else needs to be said, really. And also it’s the princess-y thing. The maiden-y thing. The magic-y thing. Like. Y’know.

[nerdyqueerandjewish]

Live in Minnesota or a neighboring state? Want to include more native grasses, sedges, and rushes in your garden or landscape? Find the amount of options overwhelming? I made a spreadsheet for that!

This includes a list of 34 grasses, sedges, and rushes that Prairie Moon Nursery recommends for homeowners. (If I didn’t narrow by their recommendation, it would be like 250 and I just don’t have time for that). You can filter for things like sun exposure, height, moisture, deer resistance, aggressiveness, cool/warm growing season. Ideally, filtering a few columns should give you a short list to chose from.

Before buying or planting anything, please double check the planting site is located in or, at least, very close to the native range of the species. Double check other relevant information as well because sometimes data entry errors happen! ☺️ Otherwise have fun planning and planting, and let me know if you run into any spreadsheet issues.

[thecouchsofa]

wait what happened in the 1d fandom circa 2011-2013

To be fair, it was longer than that, it's just that I was heavily involved in the fandom for those years!

Picture this: you have a fandom made up entirely of teenagers, with very very minimal adult influence in their dedicated online spaces. This fandom is also nearly everyone's Very First Fandom. Ergo, nobody has yet learned fandom or internet etiquette yet. I'm sure you can imagine how that went.

Add this to your picture: parasocial relationships galore. Pretty much everyone (myself included) thought that they'd get picked up from a 1D show if they dressed cool enough and would run away with the band on tour - again, we were literal teens.

The ship wars were insane. This could be it's own novel length post but even to this day I don't want to invite ship discourse (I still love my controversial ship lmao). We were all unwell 🤣

This was also the fandom that hacked into Auckland Airport's security cameras to watch the boys wait around for their plane. The same fandom who dug into hospital records until we had all the boys' blood types. Who publicly corrected Niall on the exact time that he was born, because we knew and he didn't. And that was directed at the people who we all loved - I'm sure you can imagine what went down against those who we disliked through dumb internet beef 🤣

Emotions were v high at ALL times. We had everything: body doubles, Mr X, meddling management, murder plots, blatant favouritism, fake baby rumours, unhinged imagines, some of the most insane smut I have read to this day (a literal worm was involved in one. It is seared onto my frontal lobe), and an insane level of exposure.

This is not a rag on this fandom - it was a fantastic part of my formative years and I was absolutely as deluded as everyone else!

[lolo3hwriting]

Apple Hills in Kitakami - How Realistic Is It?

I was playing pokemon violet and doing some shiny hunting in Kitakami, specifically in the Apple Hills, and while I was there it made me think. How realistic is the apple orchard compared to real life? I study horticulture and have taken a few classes on fruit and orchard production, so it sparked my curiosity.

(Just as a disclaimer, most of my knowledge of apple production comes from the United States rather than Japan, where Kitakami is based on. From what I read, most of the production is the same with a few minor differences. For example, most apple orchards in Japan are much smaller at a few acres while American apple orchards can be hundreds of acres. Also, I won’t claim to be an expert in apple production and if someone wants to correct me or add on feel free to. Most of this comes from my notes from different horticultural classes I have taken as well as university extension publications.)

Soils and Climate

Apples are temperate fruit crops but can grow within a wide range of latitudes depending on the variety grown, even subtropical areas if you manage it correctly. Kitikami is based on the Tohoku region of Japan, which is considered temperate. There is apple production in this area as well as Hokkaido and Nagano Prefecture. 

In general, well drained and sloped land is preferable for temperate fruit crops like apples. Having the plant directly on top of a hill has better drainage and sunlight exposure, but is also exposed to more wind and weather that can damage the plant. Lowlands have issues with drainage and airflow, as cool air sinks and if it stays for a significant period of time it will cause freeze damage. The Apple Hills are located on a hill, true to their namesake, so this part is accurate.

Although irrigation isn’t a major factor in apple production as apples are fairly drought tolerant, it can be more convenient to locate an orchard near a water body. This is because larger water bodies help mitigate large temperature fluctuations and avoid spring freezes. I mention this because the Apple Hills are fairly close to a river, so it may or may not influence the production. 

(From Bulbagarden)

Apple Tree Size and Structure

Different to popular belief, most apple trees in orchards are dwarfed. If left alone trees can get to 25 feet, but in some orchards they can be as small as 10 or even 8 feet tall. This dwarfing is done through a variety of techniques including using specific rootstocks, grafting, and training of the tree’s architecture. The trees within the Apple Hills are quite small, only reaching to about double the player’s height. Which isn’t that tall considering the player is still supposed to be a child, and that the average protagonist height is around 5 feet.

(Images from here and here)

The shape of apple trees can vary from orchard to orchard, but the two most common types are pyramidal with different tiers of branches or columnar. The pyramidal shape is usually done by training a central leader (or branch) to become the main branch and have the other horizontal branches become different tiers. This process makes for good light distribution into the canopy as well as restricting the growth somewhat. The columnar structure also helps with light distribution, but not as much as the pyramidal structure. However, the columnar structure helps with packing in more trees into an area and creates high density planting, which may increase total fruit yield. There is also a very thin structure called a spindle, which only has a canopy 1-2 feet in diameter and more cylindrical. They allow for easier harvesting and potentially more yield, but require support structures and more management The trees within the game have no one structure, some are wide and branched while others are more narrow. Although this isn’t accurate to real life, this is probably done for aesthetic purposes as to not make the orchard repetitive and boring for the player. The supports on the ground however are accurate as many trees are so small they need additional structures to help grow, otherwise the branches may snap off or the whole tree might fall over. 

(Image from here)

Pokemon and Pests? 

Some of the most prominent pests are codling moth, apple maggot, apple scab (fungal), and fire blight (bacterial). However, animals like birds and mammals can also be a problem. There are many different pokemon that spawn within the Apple Hills that may be considered pests, but I want to point out applin in particular. It’s based on ‘worms’ in apples (which in reality are the larvae or maggots of insects) and may be considered the biggest pest in the pokemon world. They eat and can disguise themselves as apples, potentially decreasing fruit quality and the total yield. But considering many trainers in Kitakami use applins in battle, it may also be a cultural icon that people love and will tolerate eating their apples. It may be true that a lot of the pokemon in the orchard will become pests, but considering the people of Kitakami live in harmony with pokemon and may find them cute, they could allow for some of the fruit to be eaten by pokemon while keeping the rest for themselves.

Taste of the Fruit

In a conversation in the League Club in the Blueberry Academy Amarys says in reference to the apples from Kitakami, “The high sugar content gives them a superb flavor”. In English the apples exclusive to Kitakami are called syrupy apples, while in Japan they are called honeycore apples. This is most likely in reference to honeycrisp apples, which are the most popular apple variety due to its crispy texture, sweetness, and juiciness. However, honeycrisp apples were bred for their taste rather than their ease of production. As such they are notorious for being hard to produce and require very specific conditions and maintenance in order for the tree to be productive enough to turn a profit. I don’t think this difficulty is the case within Kitakami since they grow so much and don’t have that much advanced equipment, but I would expect the taste to be similar to honeycrisp.

Sources:

[solarsonicsoda]

Wrestlemania Main Event Reviews - Wrestlemania I

Hulk Hogan and Mr. T w/ Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka def. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff w/ “Cowboy” Bob Orton in 13:34

Number one! These older shows, especially this one, have a very unique feeling to them that I can’t quite describe! It’s cool! Bunch of celebs involved in the show, the only one I properly know is Muhammed Ali though, the “outside referee”, which is a weird title. The match starts slowly with lots of build-up and suspense, teasing the crowd. Mr. T gets in and tries his best! Loves a fireman’s carry, he does! Orndorff really impresses me, he can sell really well and he stood out to me here! My only previous exposure was an old action figure! Lots of cheating from those dastardly heels, they work over Hogan, Mr. T gets in, and is immediately double teamed. He gets worked over, then falls into a tag it seems. Hogan does a messy looking head smash on the two heels. Orton and Snuka, the two seconds, clash a bit, T pounces on Roddy to stop a double team, Orton going for a double axe handle with the cast on Hogan in a full nelson, he moves so Orndorff takes the hit, 1, 2, 3, done! Odd finish for me but this match is nearly 18 years older than me! Just felt out of nowhere and a bit underwhelming! Post-match, Piper hits referee Pat Patterson, T is checking on Orndorff, there’s a stand off between Orndorff and the faces but they let him walk. Also all kinda weird. There’s then a big face promo backstage in which Mr. T assures us “It’s rough out there” and Mean Gene is cool as usual. 

Pros: Very grand and excited, Mr. T gives it his best go, Orndorff is class. Cons: Quite slow, a bit odd, some boring points, weird finish. 

Fun and fitting of the vibe but not quite a great match. 

2.5 STARS OUT OF 5

[josephtrohman]

i dont really care for joe supposedly peterick posting, i am just really happy to see him share stuff like hobbies and calling them his besties :3

exactlyyyyy i wuv him very much and i think it's so cool that he's stretching out his hobby of photography by playing with double exposure AND that ofc just him posting his beloved friends <3 i love joe so so so dearly i hope he keeps sharing his photos and keeps posting the besties forever :D

[shadowtemplepdx]

This is a great time of year to start thinking about making infused herbal oils as you hopefully have some dried herbs laying around that you’ve collected throughout the harvest season.

The first thing you need to make an infused oil is dried herbs. It is very important that the herbs are totally dry before you combine them with oil, as they can cause rancidity otherwise.

Many different types of herbs work well for making infused oils, especially lavender, rosemary, calendula, plantain, yarrow, comfrey, and mullein.

If you don’t already have your own dried herbs, Mountain Rose Herbs (a local herb business for me ) has a great selection of medicinal herbs to choose from.

Then you will need to choose the oil that you want to use. I usually use a high quality, light sunflower oil, but there are many types of carrier oils that you can choose from.

Once you have those two simple ingredients, there are several ways of making infused herbal oils.

While making an infused oil sounds like it could be complicated, it really is as easy as putting two ingredients together and letting them sit in the sun for a few weeks.

INFUSED HERBAL OIL: WINDOWSILL METHOD

The first one is probably the easiest, but it does take the most time.

This method is best when using oils that don’t go rancid quickly, like coconut or jojoba, as exposure to sunlight can degrade some oils more quickly.

Simply put the dried herbs of your choice into a jar and cover them with oil.

Stir the mixture gently with a spoon to get as many of the air bubbles out as possible.

Then put in a sunny windowsill for several weeks to steep.

Alternatively, you can put the jar in a cool place out of direct sunlight. This will help to preserve the quality of more light sensitive oils, like sweet almond oil.

When you feel it’s ready, simply strain the herbs from the oil.

Cap with a lid and use as soon as possible. Once oils have been infused they have a shorter shelf life, so I try to only make as much as I’ll use within a few months.

Any extra you might have should be stored in the refrigerator for future use.

INFUSED HERBAL OIL: HEAT METHOD

There are quicker ways of making infused herbal oils, as well.

You can use a double boiler by putting the herbs and oil in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water.

Make sure that the oil doesn’t get too hot as to fry the herbs, and it should be done in a matter of hours.

I’ve also used a mini slow cooker on the warm setting to make calendula oil with good results.

A box style dehydrator would also work well, especially if you are already using it for something else.

INFUSED HERBAL OIL: OVEN EXTRACTION METHOD

The last method is oven extraction.

Put the dried herbs in oil, cover, and put in a low temperature oven for several hours, making sure not to cook the herbs.

[techsocialguruji]

Benefits of Exposure to Real-World Work Culture for Teenagers

I start my journey with my experience.

Work life -

When a teenager start work and want to earn some money for their personal things he works lot at this time energy is high. When they get less dollar ,rupees he enjoy a lot I was very happy when I earned 10$ I spend in those things where can I get double . by working culture teenager got discipline and experience which help a lot in life. aparents became happy when they see their children use time in right things otherwise teenager waste time in netflix youtube and other things. But teenager also give more time in their study because study gives you more than this . this are my personal experiences .

If you find interesting give blaze or follow me it motivate me .

#teenager # work life # cool # motivational # inspirational # anime # first like # imaginative # interesting # cool # fungrow # love # hard work. Images links