#PS DO NOT GET ME STARTED ON MY HORSE OPINIONS I WILL LITERALLY NEVER STOP BUT WHY ARE THEY RIDING DOUBLE FOR DAYS ON END

[thisherelight]

I finally caught my first rope tornado, and first up close and personal tornado--I was on one a couple years back but quite far away and it’s hard to sum up my experience in a tidy way. 

The tornado itself was beautiful beyond what I hoped even if the funnel wasn’t clearly visible all the way to where it was laying waste to the world below. That happens. 

It was everything that came after the tornado, and the technical problems I created for myself during that don’t have me entirely satisfied. I’ve been on hundreds of storms. Dozens of tornado warned, and still this has eluded me for years now. but you never quite think past your goal do you?

It happened just a few kilometers from my house and it lasted only a few minutes. no humans or animals were hurt even though it barreled right through a horse boarding farm. 

But I didn’t know all that when I drove up (the first on scene) to this 29 foot destroyed holiday trailer. All I knew right then is someone could be hurt or killed, something I suppose I knew logically but suddenly knew in a tangible way emotionally. I got out and called for anyone and waited long minutes listening. I scanned the area as best I could for people and decided the trailer was empty at the time it got hit and doubled back the 1/4 kilometer to the nearest farm. 

I was literally thumping with adrenaline by that point. 

walking up to their door the trees were broke and the planters were strewn about but the house looked intact and no one answered my banging on the door. I went out back and found them trying to seal off the horse pens, which the tornado ripped right through, flipping a shed, ripping a topper off a pickup and sucking the water straight up from a trough. 

but everyone was okay. 

the storm was now too far off to continue the chase so I kept updating twitter. 

Then the media frenzy started with reporters from all the major outlets reaching out for the video I made. Then a phone interview I don’t even remember doing. Then the CBC came out and I did an interview about it and though the reporter was good people I still think the story got missed. the story wasn’t the trailer as much as how quickly a storm like this can cycle together, defying radar, defying all the things we look for for tornados and just explode in seconds. 

the lady on the farm watched from her kitchen window. she had no warning. The alerts didn’t go out till after I’d already posted the trailer photos. Up till then it’s a funnel cloud warning which is a very different beast. 

some 100,000 twitter views/impressions of the video later, and a couple days of people trying to find me through even my parents phone numbers I was kind of over the entire thing. 

When I got back home I wasn’t even sure I had a single photo in focus. I made a tactical error trying to setup a time-lapse (which btw would have been utterly epic) but then got hailed into moving. Grabbing the camera off the tripod without switching back to auto focus means very few frames are actually sharp. 

it’s weird to wait and work and hope for something and it all comes so unexpectedly and ends so quickly you’re mostly left with all the ways you weren’t prepared. 

you weren’t prepared for the toilet bolted to the trailer bed and the rest of the trailer strewn about. or the idea people could have been in it. 

you weren’t prepared for the non stop twitter onslaught both by the media and by every asshole with an opinion about how you handled yourself. 

you weren’t prepared for the back ache for two days from the stress that followed the tornado, or the technical questions you had no way to answer till you were in the middle of it. 

you weren’t at all prepared to see it, experience it and store it inside yourself, safe, away from the news angles, the weather geek angles, the curiosity seekers. 

it got away from me and now the moment is less the moment and more a collection of things that came after and overshadowed the moment. 

I have to sort of try to set all that aside now and review what happened both technically from a weather perspective and from a gear/process perspective and I guess as much as I don’t want to a media perspective. Somehow it never connected in my head a tornado is a news story. 

I've taken a couple days off real storm chasing since it happened. Worked on some time lapses and just thought about things as much as I could. What could I have done better? Was my idea of safety the same thing as actual safety in this situation? and on and on. 

this is how we learn and grow and get better at things. We experience them in ways we can’t even begin to handle then we do it again and it’s a bit better, then again and over time we grow capable of managing the many things that make a situation unmanageable. 

In the end though, I did get the one picture I really love and I’m going to print it up this week, and print an extra and drop it by the farm for the folks whose worlds got turned inside out. Doesn’t count for much, I know but I still want to do it. 

ps. The twitter video: https://twitter.com/ruzz/status/1150500330137763841

#landscape #alberta #original photographers #photographers on tumblr #tornado #ruzz #rural life #2019 #thisherelight #storms #storm chasing #crossfield tornado 2019

[cbseung]

cobblestones: modern prince hyunjin au - [part 8]

[masterlist]

[pt 1] [pt 2] [pt 3] [pt 4] [pt 5] [pt 6] [pt 7] [pt 8] [pt 9] [pt 10] [final]

woot woot part 8 is finally here! hope you enjoy! (ps i’m not sure how many parts left there are but thanks for joining me on the ride!)

pairings: hyunjin x reader

w/c: 1650

description: what do you do when you can’t figure out your feelings for the super cute prince of korea? fly to italy with your best friend of course!

“YEJI YEJI YEJI YEJI” you say as you frantically enter her room

“Y/N YO WHA-”

“hyunjin confessed to me!!!” you shout

“huh? confessed? like..?”

“YES!!! WHAT AM I GONNA DO”

“well.. do you like him back?”

“I DON’T KNOW??? PLEASE HELP”

so yeah

internal crisis #1

do you like:

mr prince hwang hyunjin

he confessed to you like 2 days ago

and you still! haven’t! given him an answer!

it doesn’t help that he’s been eerily nice to you?

like giving you the last pancake

or him buying you bubble tea

IT’S LIKE

HE’S MAKING YOU THINK OF HIM

YOU TRIED TO

INSULT HIM

FOR GOOD TIME SAKES 

SO HE CAN INSULT YOU BACK

BUT HE DOESN’T

he was telling felix some stupid unfunny joke

so you said

“what are you??? twelve??”

AND HE SAYS

“no, but you are on a scale from one to ten”

LIKE

WHA-

BRO

i mean you just came to terms as liking him as a human being

now liking him in that way????

hard to imagine

“OKAY OKAY, you don’t feel ANYTHING toward hyunjin?

“i mean like- it’s not like i don’t have ANY feelings towards him”

“okay so.. what DO you feel toward hyunjin”

“i.. i DON’T KNOW”

“HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW IT’S A SIMPLE QUESTION”

“NO IT’S NOT AND YOU KNOW IT”

“SO WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO”

“I DON’T KNOW JUST TALK IT OUT WITH ME”

“you know what you need?”

“PLEASE tell me!!”

“a trip to italy!!!”

“yeji. i- I LITERALLY just went to barcelona! and paris before that!”

“you forget that you’re talking to the cousin of the prince of korea?”

“BUT-”

“no buts!!! you need time away from hyunjin also we’ve been needing time together!”

“but-”

“i’m packing your things and we’re leaving tonight!”

you feel like 

this whole trip has been a fever dream

like you were literally just going to london for like a week

which then turned into a month 

which then turned into you going to paris and spain with the cute and mysterious prince of korea

so yeah

not real life

but yeji is a woman of her word

and you guys fly to rome that night

you spend a couple days in rome touring the colosseum and the basilica and other fun touristy things

and as always

grabbing coffee on cobblestone streets

but you can’t help but to want hyunjin with you?

like it just didn’t feel the same

and that something was missing

“okay. back to business”

you take a sip of your coffee and say, “... what business”

“we need to figure out your feelings!! we didn’t come to italy just to stroll”

“but!! it’s!! complicated!”

“so let’s uncomplicate it! and i thought you liked felix?”

“no i just- realized i liked him more as a friend, as in i had a major major friend crush on him”

“so how do you know that you don’t just have a major major friend crush on hyunjin”

"i DON’t know WHICH is my problem”

“okay well... what DO you know about our dear hwang hyunjin”

“..well i know that he’s a dog person and loves got7 and he really really likes dancing and he can’t eat onions or eggplants and his favorite season is autumn and-”

“.. sounds like you know an awful lot”

“i mean-”

“do you want my opinion?”

“of course!”

“i’ve seen how your relationship has grown since the beginning, i mean who can forget that screaming match you two had in front of the palace?”

“haha yeah that was..”

“and you’ve spent SO much time the past two weeks we were here, so i feel like knowing you, you were bound to like him one way or another, and you guys look extremely comfortable together”

“when you put it that way-”

“and how has the past two days been? i knew you guys weren’t talking”

“i mean it sucked but,, i’m not sure if it’s because i like him like that or i like him as a friend”

“okay... then let him take you out on a date!! and then from there you can figure out what you really feel for him”

“that’s.. not a horrible idea..”

“and this is why i’m your best friend”

so with a new pep in your step you and yeji both head back to london 

and you get ready for your date!!

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

so here’s the plan

you meet up with hyunjin

ask him on a date

but make him plan a date

and then see where it goes from there?

sounds like a sound plan

the moment you step into the palace

your eyes look for hyunjin

but find felix instead

“FELIX! where’s hyunjin??”

“i think he’s on the balcony? you know the one attached to his bedroom???”

“THANKS!” you shout as you run up there stairs toward his room

you open the doors to his room

and you see him look back you

“... y/n?”

“... hi hyunjin..”

“what’s up? i haven’t seen you for a few days”

“i- i was thinking about some stuff..”

ah yikes why is this making you so nervous

why is HE making you so nervous

“mhmm.. and what would this ‘stuff’ be?”

i mean

it’s now or never

so you gather up the rest of your nonexistent courage and say,

“take me on a date.”

“.. i’m sorry?”

“please? take me on a date?” you say less reluctantly

“shouldn’t it be you taking me on a date?”

“no listen. i went to italy with yeji -- i know random, but she said that we should go on a date because i don’t know how i feel about you”

“you.. don’t know how you feel about me?”

“hyunjin,, cut me some slack you called me dumb when we first met and never stopped fighting and then all of a sudden you say you like me?”

“.. i mean i see your point,,,, okay! i’ll take you on a date! this will be the BEST date you’ve ever been on so i hope you’re ready y/n”

“looking forward to it!”

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

oh god

you’re a mess

“YEJI the only thing i’ve been doing is shopping HOW DO I HAVE NO CLOTHES”

“girl, you’re freaking out too much you need to chill”

“but-”

“hey, just pretend you guys are just hanging out! what makes this so different??”

“i mean-”

“unless,,, you genuinely care about this date and you want it to go well??” yeji says smirking

“UH I-I”

“omg just wear that you bought yesterday and meditate or something bro you’re stressing me OUT”

“i just!!! want to figure it out!!!”

“okay okay, deep breaths,, one scenario is that you find out you like him and feelings are returned and you can live happily ever after and ride horses off into the sunset,, second scenario is that you don’t have the same feelings for him and you can’t return it and you both move on with your lives,,”

sigh “you’re right, you’re right! i just need to take a chill pill”

“what time are you two meeting anyway?”

“.. in 30 minutes”

“you don’t have any idea what he’s got planned for you?”

“nope”

“well,, i’m excited for you!”

“that makes one of us!”

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

“don’t worry too much babe, i’ve got the whole day planned for us!!”

“.. don’t babe me we’re not even dating”

“....yet” hyunjin says whilst winking at you

“you sound very confident”

“i am very confident!”

hyunjin drags you around london

and takes you to the conservatory because you love plants

“aww hyunjin look! this plant is so cute!”

“not as cute as you”

“s-shhh”

and takes you to a coffee shop (you don’t miss the cobblestones part)

“you never miss a beat do you?”

“duh, you did say that drinking coffee on cobblestones streets was your dream,, i just wanna be a part of it”

and takes you on a picnic

“wow you’re really spoiling me today”

“you deserved to be spoiled, princess”

ahHhHhHHHHHhh STOp

and talks about his hopes and dreams

“so you know how i said i wanted to be a dancer?” hyunjin says

“mhm”

“i wanna sing too”

“with a voice like yours? totally possible”

and last but not least

he takes you up on the london eye

“wow we get the whole cart to ourselves???!”

“of course! don’t you know who you’re talking to?”

“ah the prince of korea how could i forget”

“you know,, as much as i love getting all these free perks and stuff,, it kinda sucks being a prince”

“i know we talked about this,, but do you wanna elaborate??”

“i mean,, all the rules, all the fake people who try to be my friend just for my title..”

“what makes me different then?”

“you were friends with yeji,, and if you stuck by her side all these time, i knew that you were genuine, also i had to drag you to hang out with me and you never really liked me that much” hyunjin says chuckling

“that’s not true,, i had to have liked you a little bit since i hung out with you that often”

you and hyunjin both laugh and you turn to look at him

you just realize how etheral he looks with the moonlight shining on his face as he looks out into the london skyline

and that’s when it hits you

“y/n.. i really like you”

“hwang hyunjin... i like you too”

♡━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━♡

.. ya’ll caught me

i just wanted reasons to look up “things to do in italy”

anyways, hope you enjoy

thanks for finally confessing your feelings so this story will really start to pick up

#hwang hyunjin #stray kids #skz #stray kids imagines #hwang hyunjin imagines #hwang hyunjin x reader #hyunjin x reader #hyunjin stray kids #prince hwang hyunjin #kpop imagines #kpop fluff #modern prince hyunjin #hwang hyunjin stray kids #goooood night folks sleep well sleep tight #cbseung imagines

[angrybrowngirlabroad-blog]

Of Privilege and Punching Nazis

The title of this blog is “Angry Brown Girl Abroad” and it exists for two reasons.  One is to record my adventures of my travels through Central America and my trials and tribulations as I struggle to learn Spanish and connect to my roots.  The other reason is the “angry brown girl” side, a place to vent my opinions on my place in the world as an ambiguously brown, female in gender (most of the time) person from the United States.  I’ve mostly used this blog for the former, and I tend to take to Facebook more often to voice my opinions on the latter, because, quite frankly, I think they are more likely to be seen and shared there.  However, I feel like it’s time to explore my angry brown side a bit more in this space.

I actually haven’t posted anything on this blog in a few months.  Part of this was because I was in a rush, and went back to the states for the holidays, which ended up being a very emotionally tumultuous time for me.  When my feelings are in overdrive, I still turn to writing for comfort, but I rarely publish those deep feelings for anyone else to read.  The holidays were hard for a variety of reasons, but the even harder part was coming back to the country I am currently staying in (Guatemala) and watching both the inauguration and coverage of the Women’s March on Washington from thousands of miles away, and the ensuing aftermath of both events.  Watching your country implode from a distance is a strange feeling, you care, you want to be there, you can’t look away, you feel glad that you got out, you feel guilty that you got out, you struggle to enjoy your time here while you wonder if you can do more for the people still there.  I’m working on finding the balance, but I’m spending a great deal of time on the internet these days, reading about each new horrible thing our incompetent commander in chief has cooked up that threatens the lives of POCs, LGBTQ people and disabled citizens.  I am both constantly surprised by the lengths this administration is willing to go to, and also the response from people to it, especially within my own community.  I am frustrated with them more specifically, as I find out where each person falls on certain lines in the sand.  One of the ones that keeps coming up, weeks after I feel it should have been settled, is punching a Nazi (and, more recently, the violent opposition of Milo Y-I’mnotevengonnatryhesanasshole speaking at UC Berkley). I AM REALLY TIRED OF PEOPLE WHO ARE THE LAST IN LINE TO BE HURT BY BOTH NAZIS AND MILO YGAYNAZI TELLING PEOPLE IN THE LINE OF FIRE HOW THEY SHOULD REACT TO SUCH ABUSE.

Yep, I said it, I mean it.  It is not at all a surprise to me that every person I have argued with personally about whether violence is justifiable against people who PROMOTE VIOLENCE has been a cis-hetero-white dude.  I’m just mad that there are so many, and so many that I know personally, and that they have the audacity to call me, and the people like me to who disagree with me, names because we won’t agree with them that “violence is never the answer.”   Violence should not be our first answer.  Violence should not be applied willy-nilly to anyone who disagrees with us.  Violence is, 99% of the time, the last choice from a marginalized group.  You know why?  Because it’s dangerous, because people don’t want to do it, and because the people most likely to suffer the worst legal ramnifications for using violence against their oppressors are minorities.  Black men get shot by cops for doing literally nothing, you think they are going to actively choose to fight the police as their first move?  Nah. Which brings me to another point: so many of these dudes who I’ve seen argue really hard against punching actual, confirmed Nazis, have been oddly silent on cases where POCs are killed, without justification, by police.  They’ll go on and on about how minorities should not use violence to defend themselves, but say nothing for the victims of state-sponsored police violence.  They get into a frothy fervor about hypothetical punching, but when was the last time they even acknowledged the tragic ends of Tamir Rice or Trayvon Martin?  (Both are children and the last was killed by another citizen).  Where is there outrage for the actual deaths of people, who espoused no genocidal beliefs, and were killed for the simple sake of being not-white?  Is it because the punching of white dudes might actually affect them whereas police shooting them is pretty much a non-issue?  I take note of who goes hard for what issues, I see you, and trust me, I’ve made note. But lets just say that said dude is not in this just for himself and his own preservation.  Still, defending Nazis and the pasty scum that is Milo Yareyousoawful does not paint you in a good light.  Its not like these are white dudes who said something questionable on the internet.  Richard Spencer, the aforementioned Nazi who was punched mid-interview at Trump’s inauguration, is a confirmed Alt-Right (CALL THEM FUCKING NAZIS) leader who just launched a new website dedicated to the Alt-Right movement.  His previous website featured the essay “Is Black Genocide Right?” and features the line: “we should instead be asking questions like, ‘Does human civilization actually need the Black race?’ ‘Is Black genocide right?’”* So, pretty clearly a Nazi.  As for Milo Ywontyoujustgoaway, he is a Breitbart senior editor known for slinging hate who was supposed to speak at UC Berkeley but his engagement was cancelled after violent protests on campus.  Milo Yifeelsorryforyourmom has built his empire on hate, he gained notoriety last year by leading the charge on Twitter that led to Leslie Jones (one of the stars of the new Ghostbusters) being harassed with a slew of racist, sexist, violent messages and tweets.  This earned him a ban from Twitter, but didn’t stop his book deal.* In his speech at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee he outed a trans student named Adelaide Kramer, projecting a photo of her earlier in her transition for all of her classmates to see and calling on the audience to laugh at her as he degraded an misgendered her.* There are reports that, in his UC Berkeley address, that Milo Yohgawdshutup was planning to target students who did not have documentation to live in the United States.  Milo Yuccccckkkkkkkkkk claimed that it wasn’t true, but that instead he intended to talk about cultural appropriation while wearing a Native American headdress, so either way the man is filth.*  It’s not like these men are people who posted a questionable Facebook status, they have a documented history of advocating hate and abuse against people not like them. And we get told we cannot fight these men with fists because it would be “sinking to their level.”  We can’t, though, not with a single punch.  Hitting someone who advocates for the murder of an entire group based on the color of their skin is not comparable to, I don’t know, advocating the murder of an entire group based on the color of their skin.  Unless you immediately start putting together armed groups and planning the next white genocide after you throw that punch, there is no sinking.  Making someone reconsider their choice to espouse violent rhetoric in a public arena is a good thing, a thing that one wishes we could accomplish with protests, but clearly those protests are doing little to slow down the new Nazis in this country.  Also, claiming that we’ll lose support of fence sitters and drive them to the genocidal far right because we’re advocating for Nazi punching is ridiculous.  Anyone who is on the fence about support genocide or genocidal rhetoric is not someone whose going to change their mind if we are lenient on those who would see them hang.  If you’re on the fence about genocide, well your fence is already pretty far past the line of decency anyways. Which brings me to my last point, the invocation that I have heard over and over again that we should try and talk things out with Nazis.  That our words will be more effective than our fists.  And to this I say, “Maybe yours, Mr. Hetero White Dude who keeps espousing this belief” because believe me, they are not going to listen to an ambiguously brown woman, with an ambiguous sexuality, talk to them about hating less.  Those of us who are targets of Nazi hate should not be required to speak calmly to our oppressors about it, especially since some of the oppressors feel like we should be shot on sight.  And telling us we should is ignoring and invalidating the very real and justifiable fears that we feel.  Stop doing that, it’s a form of gaslighting.

The fact is, if Nazis are going to listen to ANYONE at all, it’s going to be another white dude.  Which means these dudes defending the not-punching of Nazis, should put their money where their mouth is and go talk to Nazis.  I want each and every one of you, before you come onto a status of a POC, LGBTQ or disabled person and tell them how violence is not the answer, to go to an alt-right forum, a Facebook page, hell, even in person, and engage in a peaceful discussion.  I want receipts proving that you are willing to do the very thing you are preaching that the rest of us to do.  I want to know your success rate for converting Nazis before you open your mouth about our methods.  Since you care so much, go and do the work you wish to be done in the world.  Maybe the two-pronged approach, discussion and violent opposition will be even more effective.

I’ll be over here, practicing my elbow strikes. PS: The First Amendment only protects your freedom of speech from the government shutting you down, it does not protect you from the people who you are calling for the murder of en masse from beating your ass down, so I’m gonna need all you crying out about that to get off that tired horse.  Words have consequences.

* http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/01/17/richard_spencer_launches_the_alt_right_s_newest_website.html * http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/12/milo-yiannopoulos-leslie-jones-book-deal * https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/trans-student-harassed-by-milo-yiannopoulos-speaks-out

* http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/uc-berkely-protests-milo-yiannopoulos-publicly-name-undocumented-students-cancelled-talk-illegals-a7561321.html 

#nazis punchingnazis richardspencer miloy violence antifa