themusenet

[themusenet]

It happened again. I used to dream, Like full coherent dreams, a long while ago. I’m not sure when they stopped exactly but I know that I’ve only had short scents of late. Probably because I haven’t really been sleeping.

The first one was silly and demeaning. I was in the music room like from Glee and for reasons unknown, I had come up with a cute one liner. I didn’t watch anything cute or silly last night, so I don’t know where this came from but I stood in front of a group of people and with no qualms said “I love Amanda A-Lott-i”. The level of child like innocence wasn’t lost on me. To add insult to injury, she was in there. She did not find that amusing. It was just a play on words with her last name. I’m sure that the humiliation is just my mind trying to work through the nonsense that is at home in the apartment.

The second dream was more troubling. Moreso because it is a kind of recurring dream/nightmare. Theoretically, all families go on family trips everyone once in a while. So that’s what we were doing. I had my kids on a trip to New York. I don’t think that I could call all of us nerds but we do enjoy the collection of knowledge from different outlets. I’d like to believe that everyone enjoys knowledge to some extent, whether it be to learn or just to gossip. At sole time throughout our walking about one of the many museums in some generic area, we split up, with my daughter taking my youngest and me walking about with my oldest. We were just supposed to meet up again in one of the later rooms in the museum. Problem being that, naturally, after my oldest and I waited for a while at our meeting point and didn’t receive my other two children, we had to backtrack down their path to look for them. When we reached the spot my daughter was the only one there. My daughter lost her phone not too long ago and hadn’t had any way to contact us but someone had stopped to talk to her and my youngest son for a little while at one of the exhibits, when someone else came in and scooped him up and ran. My daughter had tried to search for him by herself but had failed and proceeded to just freak out at the loss in one of the exhibits. After enlisting the help of the scattered security and local LEOs, we were corralled into the security office asked questions. When tapes were reviewed I recognized something from my past. The people that were chatting up my daughter looked like a kind of cult or nomadic circus type folk that is dealt with long ago. That’s when I must’ve started to wake up because information just became jumbled or hurried. We went for a ride to the marketplace that we had been too earlier and seen some strange characters and then to an apartment with some contacts that I randomly knew. While researching what little I did know from there the mapping system the map jumped to some place in Scotland before glitching and flipping back to our current area. It had felt to me as if the ground beneath me had shifted and I said as much. My people told me to go out for some air. From the second story balcony that I went out on to I saw them. My daughter was outside holding my youngest son, now covered in mud, and surrounded by a group of people that were now dispersing. The leader of the group was wearing a kind of secondhand black suit with a top hat. Black hair and handlebar mustache kind of guy. Next to my daughter and youngest was a rotund younger than teenager child that told me that “we will try again after next new year” before I nodded and they went their way. If I’m remembering correctly from the last incident that this happened, they were using him to try to see if he could summon or create some sort of golem creature. The situation was rough at best but we were all safe and together, so the dream ended. At which point I woke up to my youngest crawling over my face because he needed to go pee. When he was done he asked for some space on the bed because he wanted to cuddle me. What’s weird is that I’ve had the same kind of experience or nightmare about Landon almost a decade ago. Quite possibly had one about myself a long time ago, if I’m being honest.

[themusenet]

Covid19 Entertainment Masterpost

Covid19 Entertainment Masterpost

Covid19 Entertainment Masterpost

The Met Opera is releasing a full recording per day.

Feature film archive

Open library

MS-DOS Games

 The Live Music Archive

 Ephemeral VHS collection

Berlin philarmonic

Museums

Peaches the Mouse by @my-darling-boy

450 Ivy League courses

Natasha and Pierre, King Lear with Anthony Hopkins and Much Ado About Nothing with Tennant

Learn Ancient Languages

[themusenet]

A master post of Thomas Romain’s art tutorials.

There’s not enough space to post all of them, SO here’s links to everything he has posted (on twitter) so far : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. 

Now that new semesters have started, I thought people might need these. Enjoy your lessons!

[themusenet]

“Adulthood is like looking both ways before you cross the street, then getting hit by an airplane.”

[themusenet]

Describe what it is like to be happy.

[themusenet]

Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

This simple phrase can be put into use for many different subjects.

[themusenet]

Preparing for Inktober 2017? #Hashtags now included

**The prompts are now updated WITH HASHTAGS!

I am too! And to get inspired, I have put together 8x Inktober prompt lists, to help us create something really cohesive and cool this October

Prompt lists:

- Post Apocalyptic Wanderers

- Anthropomorphic People

- A Steampunk Adventure

- Space Travellers

- Super People

- Characters for a fairytale

- Characters for an urban fantasy

- Characters of the Forest

Enjoy and share!

[themusenet]

Ambient sounds for writers

Find the right place to write your novel… 

Nature

Arctic ocean

Blizzard in village

Blizzard in pine forest

Blizzard from cave

Blizzard in road

Beach

Cave

Ocean storm

Ocean rocks with rain

River campfire

Forest in the morning

Forest at night

Forest creek

Rainforest creek

Rain on roof window

Rain on tarp tent

Rain on metal roof

Rain on window

Rain on pool

Rain on car at night

Seaside storm

Swamp at night

Sandstorm

Thunderstorm

Underwater

Wasteland

Winter creek

Winter wind

Winter wind in forest

Howling wind

Places

Barn with rain

Coffee shop

Restaurant with costumers

Restaurant with few costumers

Factory

Highway

Garden

Garden with pond and waterfall

Fireplace in log living room

Office 

Call center

Street market

Study room from victorian house with rain

Trailer with rain

Tent with rain

Jacuzzi with rain

Temple

Temple in afternoon

Server room

Fishing dock

Windmill

War

Fictional places

Chloe’s room (Life is Strange)

Blackwell dorm (Life is Strange)

Two Whales Diner (Life is Strange)

Star Wars apartment (Star Wars)

Star Wars penthouse (Star Wars)

Tatooine (Star Wars)

Coruscant with rain (Star Wars)

Yoda’s hut with rain ( Star Wars)

Luke’s home (Star Wars)

Death Star hangar (Star wars)

Blade Runner city (Blade Runner)

Askaban prison (Harry Potter)

Hogwarts library with rain (Harry Potter)

Ravenclaw tower (Harry Potter)

Hufflepuff common room (Harry Potter)

Slytherin common room (Harry Potter)

Gryffindor common room (Harry Potter)

Hagrid’s hut (Harry Potter)

Hobbit-hole house (The Hobbit)

Diamond City (Fallout 4)

Cloud City beach (Bioshock)

Founding Fathers Garden (Bioshock)

Things

Dishwasher

Washing machine

Fireplace

Transportation

Boat engine room

Cruising boat

Train ride

Train ride in the rain

Train station

Plane trip

Private jet cabin

Airplane cabin

Airport lobby

First class jet

Sailboat

Submarine

Historical

Fireplace in medieval tavern

Medieval town

Medieval docks

Medieval city

Pirate ship in tropical port

Ship on rough sea

Ship cabin

Ship sleeping quarter

Titanic first class dining room

Old west saloon

Sci-fi

Spaceship bedroom

Space station

Cyberpunk tearoom

Cyberpunk street with rain

Futuristic server room

Futuristic apartment with typing

Futuristic rooftop garden 

Steampunk balcony rain

Post-apocalyptic

Harbor with rain

City with rain

City ruins turned swamp

Rusty sewers

Train station

Lighthouse

Horror

Haunted mansion

Haunted road to tavern

Halloween

Stormy night

Asylum

Creepy forest

Cornfield

World

New York

Paris

Paris bistro

Tokyo street

Chinese hotel lobby

Asian street at nightfall

Asian night market

Cantonese restaurant

Coffee shop in Japan

Coffee shop in Paris

Coffee shop in Korea

British library

Trips, rides and walkings

Trondheim - Bodø

Amsterdam - Brussels

Glasgow - Edinburgh

Oxford - Marylebone

Seoul - Busan

Gangneung - Yeongju

Hiroshima

Tokyo metro

Osaka - Kyoto

Osaka - Kobe

London

São Paulo

Seoul

Tokyo

Bangkok

Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)

Alps

New York

Hong Kong

Taipei

[themusenet]

I wonder if, in superhero universes, the villains ever get contacted by those “Make a Wish Foundation” and similar people.

I mean, the heroes do, of course they do, kids who want to meet Spiderman or Superman or get to be carried by the Flash as he runs through Central City for just thirty seconds.

But surely there are also the kids, who - because they are kids and sometimes kids are just weird - decide that what they really, really want is to meet a supervillain. Because he’s scary or she’s awesome or that freeze ray is just really, really cool, you know?

[themusenet]

regional differences

“oh hey,” she said, “it’s a really touristy area, but since you’re gonna be passing through anyway, you might as well stop by pier 29, see the dragons. also, there’s a—”

“hold on,” i said. “i knew your city had mountains, but. dragons? uh, actual living dragons?”

“dude, it’s not a big deal. they’re there all the time. of course they’re majestic and everything, but they’re loud and cranky and mostly they lie around eating garbage. now and then the city council will talk about trying to make them roost somewhere else, but—”

“dragons,” i repeated. i knew it was making me sound like a rube, but it was a lot to take in. “you live in a city that has dragons.”

“no, it’s cool, we used to go see them when i was a little kid. it’s worth doing. but that whole area is mostly dragon-themed gift shops, and the commercialization is kind of a bummer. also, sometimes a dragon will melt somebody’s car and it’s a whole problem.”

“fairytale-style, giant scaly fire-breathing dragons.”

“honestly, i forget other cities don’t have them?” she said. “there’s a few other sites on the west coast where they gather. portland calls them wyverns, but that’s a portland thing.”

“chicago’s got, like, bunnies and songbirds,” i told her, “but otherwise it’s just your typical vermin. pigeons, rats, sphinxes—”

“sphinxes? what the hell.”

“oh, yeah, they nest in the el tunnels. sometimes a fucking sphinx will flap down out of nowhere, bring the whole train to a halt until the front car answers a riddle.”

“that sounds exciting,” she said.

“it’s the worst. your train winds up being twenty minutes late, and you just have to hang out hoping somebody up there read their mythology. there’s supposed to be a program where the conductors get trained in riddling, but i don’t know. rahm emmanuel keeps saying it’s not a budget priority.”

“huh,” she said. “guess the grass is always greener and all that. but on some level, it’s nice to remember that even with all these big box stores, the country still has some variety left in it.”

“yeah, did you know that in rhode island they call water fountains ‘bubblers’?” i said.

“whoa, seriously?”

“i read it somewhere. crazy, right?”

“crazy.”

[themusenet]

[themusenet]

I have no idea what the story of this anime is, and it’s pretty obvious who the protag is, but I’m gonna add character to the girls to the left with no face

[themusenet]

In the same vein as other ‘things humans do that aliens might be weirded out by’ what if human pattern recognition skills were the thing? Like the ability to see a cloud resolve into a dog, or faces in wall patterns. Stuff that evolved from predators having camouflaging abilities, or let’s face it, bugs that can look basicaly like a leaf to prey ON. 

Imagine an alien being super confounded by a human being like ‘oh, that control board looks like a face’ and it’s just this big grouping of random lights and line but no ALL the humans on board think it looks like a FACE and theyve started NAMING it. And it just seems so confusing- is there anything on this flat painted wall? ‘No of course not’ HOW IS THERE AN OF COURSE NOT. What about in that galaxy? And the human squints and stares at it and says ‘yeah, it looks like a cat.’

And they an draw out what they’re recognizing in the lines but it’s just so strange. 

And then an enemy develops ‘cloaking technology’ that’s based on camouflaging and are so angry that every single human is able to point it out because it’s a completely obvious moving shape to them. 

or: alien species are introduced to leaf insects, tigers, and that one octopus that imitates a coconut and freak the heck out.

[themusenet]

Rest stops on highways are liminal spaces where the veil is thin and nobody can tell me differently

[themusenet]

I do not consider any fantasy worldbuilding complete before you cannot tell me something about

the culture’s sense of humour, with examples of popular jokes,

popular literature VS classic literature,

what children learn in school (especially history, maths, biology),

the common grammar mistakes your conlang’s native speakers make,

the culture’s cuisine, with recipes,

toy production,

the embarassing old songs people sing when they are really drunk, but would not admit knowing while sober.

[themusenet]

“Everything in my head went quiet. 

All the ticks, all the constantly refreshing images just disappeared. 

When you have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, you don’t really get quiet moments. 

Even in bed, I’m thinking:  Did I lock the doors? Yes.  Did I wash my hands? Yes.  Did I lock the doors? Yes.  Did I wash my hands? Yes.  But when I saw her, the only thing I could think about was the hairpin curve of her lips..  Or the eyelash on her cheek-  the eyelash on her cheek-  the eyelash on her cheek.  I knew I had to talk to her.  I asked her out six times in thirty seconds.  She said yes after the third one, but none of them felt right, so I had to keep going.  On our first date, I spent more time organizing my meal by color than I did eating it, or talking to her..  But she loved it.  She loved that I had to kiss her goodbye sixteen times or twenty-four times at different times of the day.  She loved that it took me forever to walk home because there are lots of cracks on our sidewalk.  When we moved in together, she said she felt safe, like no one would ever rob us because I definitely lock the door eighteen times.  I’d always watch her mouth when she talked-  when she talked-  when she talked-  when she talked;  when she said she loved me, her mouth would curl up at the edges.  At night, she’d lay in bed and watch me turn all the lights off.. And on, and off, and on, and off, and on, and off, and on, and off, and on, and off.  She’d close her eyes and imagine that the days and nights were passing in front of her.  But then.. She said I was taking up too much of her time.  That I couldn’t kiss her goodbye so much because I was making her late for work..  When she said she loved me, her mouth was a straight line..  When I stopped in front of a crack in the sidewalk, she just kept walking..  And last week she started sleeping at her mother’s place.  She told me that she shouldn’t have let me get so attached to her; that this whole thing was a mistake, but..  How can it be a mistake that I don’t have to wash my hands after I touch her?  Love is not a mistake, and it’s killing me that she can run away from this and I just can’t.  I can’t go out and find someone new because I always think of her.  Usually, when I obsess over things, I see germs sneaking into my skin.  I see myself crushed by an endless succession of cars..  And she was the first beautiful thing I ever got stuck on.  I want to wake up every morning thinking about the way she holds her steering wheel..  How she turns shower knobs like she opening a safe.  How she blows out candles-  blows out candles-  blows out candles-  blows out candles-  blows out-….  Now, I just think about who else is kissing her.  I can’t breathe because he only kisses her once-he doesn’t care if it’s perfect!  I want her back so bad..  I leave the door unlocked.  I leave the lights on. ”

[themusenet]

Back to the Future

The story of how Marty McFly met Doc Brown.