#also i don't listen to Any podcast every single week

[sergle]

HOW are you still listening to the mcelroys

i know it's a little silly and quirky of me, but i actually still watch/read/listen to lots of things even when they aren't trending on tumblr anymore

#it's a crazy little thing that i do where i can listen to An Podcast even if it doesn't trend on this website #like. it's still good. sorry #sergle answers #also i don't listen to Any podcast every single week #i let everything sort of fester and then come back and listen to 5 episodes in a row while i work

[roboneco]

Who sent the email to Sam?

It was "from Jon" as Sam said, or at the very least it seemed like that. It is only a name. Could be "him". Could be fake. But why the name Jon, specifically?

First, all we know about the email is that it was sent with a name, an address, and from an internal email. The name and address being of Gerry specifically, and not of Gertrude because she's not who Sam asked for. That's it.

Here's where I got confused. Why exactly did Sam ask Gerry about the magnus institute?? From this alone, this shouldn't occur to him. Maybe he researched the name and ,as he claimed then, found a list of the kids who were there.

But...well... while Sam is competent & of course he was always obsessed with the institute after what happened to him....if he had a way to find the list himself, do you think he would have waited until someone sent him an email to go look for answers??

Of course not! He'd have already checked every single name on the list! Or at least looked for better leads than just begging people to trauma dump on him. I think someone else gave him the list. Or really the idea to ask about the list.

(I for some reason can't upload pictures so I'll settle for copy pasting the parts I want).

SAM: Right. Of course. I was wondering if you knew anything about the Magnus Institute?

SAM: I was on one of their gifted kids programs and – um – I got hold of a list of a few of the other kids, and thought it might be nice if we could get in contact, swap stories and that…

GERTRUDE: I see. Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t think Gerry can help you –

GERRY: (casually) Yeah, I barely remember any of it.

SAM: Oh, so you were a candidate?

To me it sounds like Sam was winging it. He hesitated before mentioning the list as if he wasn't sure it existed. he then seems almost surprised when Gerry confirms he was in the institute.

My guess is he never saw the list! My guess is whoever sent Sam the email had heard about his connection to the institute, and sent him a lead vague enough not to cause suspicion to who may have sent it & THEN personally planted in his head the idea that the lead & institute were connected.

Now, who do we know that: knows of the name Jon, interested in the magnus institute, and Sam trusts enough to listen to their advice about something he already wanted to do?

Bingo. It is Celia. Celia is the one who sent the Jon email & I have more proof.

1- this exchange right after leaving Gerry's house:

SAM: …Thanks for coming with me, Celia. I know we’ve only been working together a few weeks.

CELIA: Hey, it was my idea, remember?

hm? Your idea you say. good to know, bestie!

2- it makes sense for her to use any name really. I don't think it matters. But we should remember that when she listened to her first case (by Chester) right after that Sam got his email. Literally in the same episode.

3- she was in a podcast with Georgie in this world (as far as Sam & google know at least) so it makes sense for her to be able to search & find the list!!

4- this is weak but well.... She works in the OIAR... She has an internal email and could make another one (or hack her way through or something).

I am sure there are other things that I just can't remember right now but anyway that leaves some questions

Why did she take the painting?

Why Gerry? I understand how she could find the list but why choose him? I doubt either Melanie or Georgie mentioned him before. Was it random? Plot reasons? Or maybe her target wasn't Gerry, but Gertrude.

She could know about Gertrude. She was the last archivist after all. But she wants a reason to go without someone suspecting her personally. So after some research (stalking) figures out she has a roommate. And hey would you look at that. The guy's name is in the list of kids experimented on by the magnus institute. And oh? Who is also on the list? Her new coworker. Now isn't that a funny coincidence! It would be a shame if someone were to.... Maybe.... Use this opportunity for totally, definitely ethical reasons.....such as sending Sam a little email & connecting him with an old friend!

I think of this because Celia is the one who asked Gerry if he lives alone. She directed the conversation to ask about Gigi.

Anyways I had maaaannny more thoughts about this. Alas, I am tired & going to bed.

Have I mentioned that Celia lives I'm my head rent free. Sorry, wanted to say it, in case it wasn't obvious.

#the magnus protocol #tmagp #tmagp theory #celia ripley #samama khalid #sam khalid #This should have been posted along time ago #But I needed to articulate my thoughts #Into something semi comprehendable #The Magnus protocol theory

[pebblysand]

[castles update]

hello 👋. i hope you're all doing well. i'm going away skiing for a week tomorrow and thought it would be a good time to check in and talk about how writing is going for a bit.

as some of you might know if you are regular readers of this blog/listeners of the podcast, i've been working on chapter 20 for about two months, now, and it's been.... difficult. i think it's karma coming back to bite me because chapter 19 was so easy but this one has been a lot of: write, delete, write, delete, look through my docs history, getting back stuff i've deleted, sticking them back on, writing again, deleting again, etc.

i think what i'm struggling with is the fact that writing family vibes and people having children is... not my forte 😅. first of all, because #fluff and particularly, #familyfluff is not my forte (lol) but also because as a member of the #childfreebychoice gang, it's required a lot of research, a lot of trial and error, a lot of going back and forth to figure out what i really wanted to say. castles is obviously a fic that doesn't just exist as rainbows and butterflies, and the difficulties of modern parenting offer plenty of opportunities to discuss systemic issues to do with women's rights, etc. (all the hugs and support to all the mothers out there!) but it's been hard to figure out what i wanted to write about, exactly, how to write it without just being like "babies are hard" and moving on, and basically, who i wanted mum!ginny and dad!harry to be.

i also think that as someone who does not have (and does not want children), i feel very illegitimate writing this, and thus paradoxically feel a sense of duty to do it right and perfectly, which is a doomed enterprise given that a) every experience of parenthood is unique and b) no one is perfect. i think it's been an interesting exercise, and it's one that is necessary in terms of where i want this story to go, but a very humbling one. i don't think i've struggled this much on any chapter in the past. add to that the extra technical challenge that i need to basically cover 13 years in two chapters, which is an outlining and pacing mindfuck ✨ and you've got a recipe for ... a lot of swearing and hair-pulling.

having said that, the good news is that i've made... progress. i have about 20k of stuff. very messy stuff that needs to be badly cut down and edited, but stuff nonetheless. i really wanted to get a first draft down before going on holidays but it's past 10pm, i have a podcast episode to edit before tomorrow night and i need to pack, eat, and sleep, so i'm throwing in the towel. it'll wait until i get back.

i think at this point in time, i have a publication date in mind (18th february), and i'd like to get 20 & 21 out at the same time. i kind of see them as a single unit, that "parenting" and "before hogwarts" stage, and i've also made a number of choices with 20 so far where i would like to write 21 before publication, just to see how they pan out. also, frankly, they're not the most interesting of chapter to me, so i kind of want to get them out and move on 😅. i think it's just going to be some of those chapters where i need to be okay with "good" rather than "great", which i always struggle with. there definitely has been some of those in the past (i hate chapters 9 & 12 with all my soul) and that's okay. we deal, haha.

so, anyway, that's sort of where i'm at. i really am so excited to write 22, 23 & 24, so i think that's what keeps me going.

i hope you guys have a lovely week ❤️

#castles

[kiefbowl]

You are probably aware of this given your interest in the topic, but some other interesting things to look at for the fucked up fertility industry (and how they absolutely don't give a fuck about their patients/clients or the children they produce):

This piece from reveal specifically talks about how fertility clinics downplay something as basic and fundamental as the health risks of twins and triplets.

https://revealnews.org/podcast/misconceptions/

Sarah Zhang (excellent science writer) has written a lot (mostly for The Atlantic) about fertility ethics and legal issues. In this piece, she talks about a case where a clinic mix up led to a couple using the wrong samples to conceive, and that only coming to light years later, and the ensuing legal case

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/ivf-embryo-mix-up-parenthood/593725/

I think I've already seen you talk about The Retrievals, but good lord that's fucked up.

Yes I did listen to the The Retrievals!! I think last month or the month before. Really lays bare how medicine is not exempt from cultural beliefs, with the juxtaposition of real medical issues (pain from lack of anesthesia) and the constructed medical issue (you want to conceive a baby) - the patriarchal constructed idea taking precedence over real women's pain. Highly recommend any feminist listen to it.

It definitely should come to no surprise to any feminist that the for-profit fertility and adoption industries looooove to lie, much like any industry! It comes in the form of lobbying, creative marketing, and of course just straight up lying to your customers. The fertility industry and the plastic surgery industry in my mind are holding hands in this way, that recovery from any of these procedures is easy, no worries, like magic. And of course, the over reliance on detached clinical language when it suits them (like in ads to egg donors...a sort of "you aren't using them, who cares!") just to flip to over reliance on pathos when it suits them ("we understand your internal need to hold a baby in your arms, it's more powerful than science" sort of talk), when really neither the emotional nor physical repercussions should be taken lightly. It's easy to persuade a young 20 something who needs money that her genetic material totally has no emotional weight, dude. just like it's easy to rely on the magical thinking that already exists in the cultural conscience to persuade women that pregnancy is sort of a nebulous, a baby is just small and then it just gets big, who knows what goes on in there process, instead of a long set of very specific biological processes that require many of your resources. Like, it really is your blood and energy and hormones making this baby, not just your "womb" doing "magic".

One of the things I find alarming is if you search "risks of egg donation" is how the results from all sorts of different .coms and .orgs are all over the place, with few linked sources, and a general blase attitude of how there are few proven risks to date...but also the process requires you to give yourself hormonal injections every single day for minimum two weeks. I'm not saying you should start believing conspiracies and think "well definitely there are risks being ignored and hidden on purpose", I'm just saying it follows a pattern in women's health, where things are understudied and the more convenient narrative is believed over trying to get data. What do we actual know about injecting hormones every day for two weeks (at least) for the long term? I don't know!!! There doesn't seem to be any serious data anywhere. Could be low risk, could be high risk, who cares!!! Do it three or four or five times for $$$ and you can find out in 5 or 40 years, if you're even believed.

[sometimes-love-is-enough]

AAAAAAA ur reading house of leaves??? im buying that next week thats so cool! do u have any book recs? or recs in general shows movies etc

I AM!! I'm several chapters in and super enjoying it, although reading it alone in a tiny hotel room in the middle of nowhere was a Distinct Mistake.

As for recs! I'm going to specifically go for stuff that isn't super mainstream, in the hopes that I'll recommend you something you have never heard of before. Here's some stuff for you!

Podcasts

Dreamboy - one-season podcast from Night Vale Presents, definitely one of their less-known ones. Explicit in places, what I would describe as AO3 M-rated sex scenes. A worn-out musician ends up embroiled in inexplicable events in a small town, and also there's a murderous zebra and fossils that want to fuck. It's a musical cinematic podcast masterpiece, I'll always be sad there's only one season.

Apocrypals - nonfiction. Two non-believers read through the Bible and try not to be jerks about it. If you're interested in theology and apocryphal texts but have no idea where to start, this is such a good place. The hosts are delightful, and have a really nice way of taking you through all the various layers of Biblical scholarly nonsense. Considerable backlog of episodes, but worth listening through from the beginning. Weirdly, there's continuity.

Til Death Do Us Blart - five poor fools watch Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 every Thanksgiving from now until the end of eternity, and report back yearly on their mental state. You may think to yourself 'wow, that doesn't sound like a good time'. It isn't, to the hosts. To anyone listening along, it's fucking hilarious. Nine episodes so far, and it's a single episode per year, so plenty of time to catch up.

Web Series

The Monument Mythos - Several seasons. surreal analogue horror alternate history of America told through a series of videos of varying format. Brilliantly absurd, fucked up, and horrifying by turns (sometimes all at once).

No Evil - ongoing animated series, made mostly by a single person. Please don't immediately wave it off because of the colorful anthropormorphic animals. The mythology is amazing, the animation is sublime, and the music is haunting. The pacing is a bit strange at first, and you may be confused at the way the plot moves, but you have to understand that it's all part of its charm. I think about No Evil way too much.

Dances Moving - you may know Brian David Gilbert from his work at Polygon, and his more recent absurdist Youtube ventures. This is from way before that! It's a fun and gradually heartwrenching musical exploration of a local dance group and what it means to move away from home. Seven short episodes.

ENA - this one is a bit more mainstream, so you may know it already. Who knows what's going on in the world of ENA? Definitely not me. Absurdism at its finest. Bizarre architecture, strange characters, if it's a metaphor I don't know what it's about, but the vibes are immaculate. Three actual episodes of varying length, apparently there's a video game set to come out soon-ish?

An Unauthorized Fan Treatise - serialized story. If you're a fan of internet drama a la Msscribe, you're going to adore it. It's a fiction story about a fictional fandom, and one massively messed up person who decides that two of the lead actors in her favorite show are secretly dating and sets out to prove it with a cited multi-chapter essay. And then it gets wild.

Comics

The Property of Hate - a wonderfully dynamic and colorful webcomic about a young girl getting chosen to become a make-believe world's Hero. Puns and wordplay galore. Absolutely delightful characters and worldbuilding. Ongoing.

Eat the Rich - a young woman goes to meet her boyfriend's extremely rich family, and learns their horrifying secret. Warning: cannibalism. 5 issues, complete.

Beanworld - impossible to describe, but I'll try. An absurdist semiabstract musing on the nature of life and cycles and community, set in a world where the rules are weirdly two-dimensional and you as a reader get weirdly invested in the routines and cycles that the inhabitants follow. And all of the main characters are cute lil bean guys. If you read anything on this list, do this one. (Linked is the only online version I could find, and it's not up-to-date. I own all the omnibuses in print. If you liked what you read here, I recommend tracking them down too.)

Short Stories (in no particular order, and certainly not all my favorites - just the ones I had bookmarked and on hand)

Bride, Knife, Flaming Horse - a young Indian woman looks for marriage in the fantastical, and finds several suitors

Fish (in 13 sections) - an obsessive unpacks a bewildering insult. Just, really fun.

Fandom For Robots - a robot discovers anime, and definitely doesn't have big feelings about it

Informed Consent Logs From The Soul-Swap Clinic - two people decide to swap bodies, for somewhat murky reasons.

The Magician's Apprentice - a young girl learns magic from her mentor. This one's about grooming. But not like that. But also a lot like that. But also it's so much more fucked up than that. (This one is a MEGA favorite, it's by Tamsyn Muir. Who you may recognize as the author of the Locked Tomb series - I'd rec that too here, if it wasn't definitely too mainstream for what I'm going for. Read this. And also read the Locked Tomb.)

The Tale of the Foolish King Who Banished Music - it's a snippet of a longer Doctor Who audio drama, but stands so nicely on its own. Unnerving little fairy tale.

The Spider - 1908 horror story about a man trying to figure out why so many men have spontaneously committed suicide in a specific hotel room. It's basically a TMA statement, in more ways than one.

Video Games

What Did Veronica Dream Of? - strange little rpgmaker puzzle game. Obtuse and weird, and I adore it. I wish I could explain why.

Secret Little Haven - point-and-click about being a trans girl on the internet in 1999. Completely nails the tone it's going for. Period-typical homo- and transphobia.

Linelith - a short (1-hour) puzzle game with no plot and no characters, and yet it contains one of the greatest plot-twists of all time. I'm begging you to play it immediately.

Lingo - puzzle game about linguistics, words, non-Euclidean goemetry, and figuring out an endless series of rules in a constantly expanding world. RIDICULOUSLY clever and good, and I've been playing it almost continuously for the last few months. It's got so much content for such a reasonable price, and the community-made maps add even more content (and are also excellent). If English isn't your first language, you may struggle, but otherwise - grab a bunch of friends and stream it. It's better with friends helping you out, I can guarantee it.

For A Change - a 1999 interactive fiction game about raising the sun in a world where words do not mean what you think they mean. If you're familiar with old text-based games, go ahead and play it - otherwise, you may want to read this transcript of a group of people playing it together instead.

Other Things

Carmilla - the classic 1800s lesbian vampire novella. I read it very recently, and it's extremely good. Absolutely delivers on the lesbian vampire premise in full gory detail, although do be aware that it was written in the context of homophobic fear.

Alberio - very fun light musical about two siren brothers reconnecting under less-than-ideal circumstances.

Mosquitoes - stage play about life and families and physics (theoretical and practical both). Very heavy topics, pulls no punches. The Boson's final monologue always wrecks me.

Ghost Quartet - musical/song cycle/experience about love, death, alcohol, and (of course) ghosts. Lots of cyclical stories and time travel weirdness. All of the songs are incredible.

Yankee and the Foreigners - music group that performs delightful upbeat covers of songs in animal onesies. Their Bare Necessities cover is a favorite of mine.

I'm sure there's lots more things I could rec (not a lot of books or movies here, huh? sorry about that. I immediately forgot everything I've ever read and watched) but these were the things that came to mind when I sat down and wrote this list, so hopefully there's something new and good for you in here!

#not tss #recs #asks #if any of these scratched your brain good Let Me Know!! i like to know i have good taste #also [grabs your shoulders] go read gideon the ninth. please. #it's a surprise tool that will help you later.

[whiteteadreams]

Y(our) Song

Paring: Lee Seokmin x Gn!Reader

Word Count: like 1.7k idk...

Genre: Slice of Life, college AU, fluff

Warnings: i don't think any...like at all except fluff and seokmin is in love love! also not proofread lol

a/n- hihi! so this idea came to me and i had to write it immediately! but dw i'm still working on some requests and the mafia jeongin fic!! also big big thank you to @ofneos for helping me out with some polishing of the fic and talking with me while i added the finishing touches!!

Every night that you hosted the campus radio station, Seokmin was always there to tune in and listen to the songs you played and the commentary you made before and after each one played. Your late podcast like music sessions made him feel a little less lonely when he was alone in his dorm at night, which was every night. Your voice filled his chest with a warmth and placed a smile on his face while he typed away at his computer, completing assignments that he held off so he could do them while you spoke.

~~~~

He liked you, a lot, and he didn’t even know you, or at least not really. He knew your voice and the personality you put on for whoever listened to you. You didn’t know who ‘whoever’ was, but Seokmin was easily the person on campus who listened to you the most.

Seokmin was listening to your calm, soothing voice like always when you said something that caused his fingers that were rapidly typing to come to a stop instantly.

The song had just come to an end when you said, “Alright, this one’s for all the other students who are night owls like me and tune in all the time. Whoever is the first down to the studio and finds the vinyl that holds my favorite song, which I played for you last week, somewhere in the many shelves that hold various records, will win two free tickets to any upcoming concert of your choice.” The instrumental intro of the next song started playing as you finished speaking. “Head over now for that chance to win before you’re out of time, in the meantime, here is Out of Time by The Weeknd”. As your voice was replaced by Abel’s, Seokmin saved the google doc that he was working on and sprinted out of his dorm.

He passed the studio every time he went to his psychology class, so he knew exactly where he was running to. It was about half a mile away from his dorm but the excuse to see and talk to you overcame the sleepiness that fogged his brain.

However, there was several things going through his brain at this time. The main ones were what he was going to say to you, where the radio station was, and what your favorite song was, which was Right Down the Line by Gerry Rafferty, but what wasn’t on his mind at this time, was his speeding footwork.

Before Seokmin knew it, he had tripped on an elevated sidewalk crack and was falling to the ground. His knees and palms luckily took the majority of the impact of his fall. He knew the little stones embedded into his hands would hurt later, but the overwhelming urge to meet you overpowered the pain. Getting up and wiping his palms off on his grey sweats, he started running again.

The streets were empty, absolutely silent except for his heavy breathing. He picked up his pace at the thought of someone else using his fall as an advantage to get ahead of him. Besides the quiet streets, if the streetlights weren’t there, it would also be completely dark. The shops and cafés mixed in within the dorms, classrooms and lecture halls were of course closed as it was 2:52 in the morning, but he saw the one light ahead in the distance, the one he was looking for, the radio station’s light.

He smiled as he didn’t see a group of people crowded outside the corner building, and his smile grew as he saw not a single soul inside the building once he stepped inside. But the feeling of someone beating him there nagged at his spirit. Seokmin was forced to step away from his radio in order to run there, so if someone did happen to beat him there, he wouldn’t have heard your announcement. He was there within five minutes, so he was praying there wasn’t someone right down to street who got there first.

Seokmin didn’t give up though and headed to the vinyl section, you didn’t say CD, you said vinyl and after listening to Right Down the Line several times after you stated it was your favorite, he knew the artist, genre, tone, how it was arranged, everything. Gerry Rafferty is listed as rock, pop rock, folk rock, soft rock, blues rock, and of course, classic rock. Seokmin wasn’t sure which genre you’d have it listed under, but as some of the other radio hosts weren’t as deep into genres as you were, he headed to the classic rock area and went to the 70s section to find City to City, the album it was on.

The albums were in very specific year order, so he grabbed the 1978 handful and looked through them. Chills ran through him as he saw the album art, surely if someone had found it first, you wouldn’t have had time to put it back just yet.

Putting the rest of the albums back in the exact order he found them in, with the exception of the album he clutched to his chest, he walked back to the main area and stood by the booth surrounded by glass that you sat in. He saw you talking into your mic with the words “ON AIR” flashing above the door.

You must’ve sensed his presence despite his silence as you looked over your shoulder with a bright smile and waved at him before holding up one finger to signify you needed a moment. He shot you a shy smile and nodded. You looked back at him and pointed at the album. He held it up, showing you the front before turning it around and pointing at the name of your favorite song. Your smile grew and you gave him two thumbs up. Seokmin’s heart sped up at the thought of making you happy.

His heart was already beating fast from the adrenaline that was coursing through his veins, but you were also much prettier than he had already thought you were. Your photo on the station’s website was the same photo that was on your school ID but the photos that were held in link to your Instagram also didn’t do you justice.

While Seokmin waited for you, he looked down at his hands, careful not to get any blood on what you called a masterpiece. His feet hurt a bit from running in his slides, causing him to constantly switch which foot he was putting most of his weight on. He knew he looked awkward but lucky for him, your back was to him.

“Alright everyone, the contest is over as we have our winner. I’m going to step away for a bit, but don’t worry everyone, I have plenty of late-night jams queued up for all of you. Enjoy!” Seokmin heard your voice throughout the speakers in the station and braced himself for the conversation he was about to have with you.

The booth’s door opened and out stepped you. Your eyes held evident drowsiness, but he could understand as to why, but your voice and spirit was still bright.

“Hi! Well, you won my little competition, I’m impressed that you remembered the song! I’m Y/n by the way.” You stuck out your hand only to be met with Seokmin holding up his scraped hand. “I would shake your hand, but I tripped. I’m Seokmin though.” Heat covered his face as he giggled at himself.

“Aw, I’m sorry! But at least you won, right? About that, what concert are you wanting to go to?” The red on his face spread everywhere visible as he let the words slip out before he could give it a second though. “I actually only came here since it gave me an excuse to meet you.” He looked down at the vinyl in his hand and traced the colorful outline of Gerry Rafferty with his fingernail.

“Oh! Me?” Your words don’t hold any type of mockery, you don’t make him feel embarrassed whatsoever. “No one has ever wanted to meet me, I’m really flattered.” You laughed but it was humble and genuine, full of surprise, but your voice drug on. “But you met me, and it’s been 30 minutes since the contest started and no one else showed up…so do you want those tickets? Any concert you want!”

Seokmin could hear the awkwardness in your voice, unsure about what to do at this point. The confusion was also evident as no one has stuck around this long during a radio involved thing just to talk to you.

“Um, yeah, yeah sure. Do you have any suggestions? Gerry Rafferty maybe?” He looked at you with doe eyes, the concert tickets were the last thing on his mind while you, you were the first.

Looking at him with softness in your eyes, you shook your head lightly and giggled. “Gerry Rafferty died in 2011, but if he was still alive, I would have definitely suggested him. I like Greta Van Fleet a lot and I’ve played them on the station, how about them?”

You looked on your phone for tour dates of theirs while waiting for Seokmin to answer. He laughed and looked around, seeing that he was truly the only person that tried to show up.

“I guess what I’m trying to say, is I don’t care about who I see, I was just wondering if you’d like to go with me to any concert.” Seokmin was cute, that was obvious, and his demeanor showed nothing but kindness and a gentle aura.

“I mean, yeah sure! You can still pick the concert and I’ll get us those tickets!” Seokmin’s smile grew even more, and he bounced a bit on his toes. “Greta Van Fleet is fine with me.” He couldn’t remember the song of theirs that you played but all he cared about was the fact that you liked them.

He couldn't remember how their songs went, or the names of whoever is in Greta Van Fleet, but it all doesn't matter to him. The only thing on his mind is this chance to make you his.

#x reader #kpop #fluff #seventeen #seventeen kpop #seventeen fluff #dk fluff #dk fanfic #lee seokmin #lee seokmin fluff #seventeen dk #seventeen lee seokmin #gender neutral reader #dokyeom #seventeen dokyeom #dokyeom fluff

[monstrousproductions]

hi! hope you're having a good week. i absolutely love your podcast, it's one of my all time favourites of all time :) feel free to disregard this question, but are you comfortable disclosing, however vaguely, how much money the podcast made you? if it made you money at all, i have no idea about the costs involved in running a podcast. but yeah i love our presenter so much, i already know i'm going to miss new monstrous agonies drop day once it's over!

Thank you so much, I hope you're having a lovely week as well! And thanks for your kind words about the podcast - don't tell anyone but it's one of my all-time favourite too 😉

Your question got away from me a little, so my apologies if this is way more detail than you were looking for! But I think in audio drama in particular, and in creative industries in general, we really don't talk about money enough! If any other creators want to chime in, I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences!

The cost of running a podcast like MA is very low in terms of actual cash. Aside from the first lot of equipment I bought - a mic, an audio interface, a mic stand and some cables, all coming in at about £180 total - any money I've spent has been on nice-to-haves rather than absolutely necessary outlays, like upgrading my mic set-up and building a little IKEA-hack recording booth over the summer, or paying for a domain name and email.

All this to say, my costs are a little higher than they need to be because I'm bougie 💅😌 If you're wondering what the hard, necessary costs of running a show like MA would be without those choices, it's really very low once you've got a semi-decent mic and built your recording booth blanket fort.

As for how much money it's made me, accounting for those expenses which off the top of my head I'd round up to about £1000, then MA has made me approximately £3000 since November 2020 - obviously with fewer people on the Patreon etc at the start, and more now. I'm sitting at about £250 a month from Patreon right now, which is absoutely incredible to me, and makes up a decent chunk of my actual living expenses. Thank you, everyone who pledges! 💖

However, the main thing I think people forget when they're thinking about money and podcasting is that old adage, time is money. I'm a freelancer and I work from home, so I can be very flexible about when I do MA work and when I do paid work. But the time I spend in the booth recording, or editing episodes, or even on social media (hello!) is all time that I'm not spending on actual billable hours.

Personally, that works out fine for me. I'm outrageously, stupendously lucky in terms of my financial stability, and am in a position where I can say, yeah, I'll work part-time for money and spend the other hours in the week making a podcast, knowing that the vast, vast majority of my audience isn't going to be able to/want to support me financially. (For context, MA is sitting at around 350,000 total downloads right now. If everyone gave me £1 every time they listened to an episode..... 😅)

Also, MA is a relatively time-cheap show to make. I spend about a day writing, and then the actual recording, editing and posting might take another 6hrs total? So two "lost" paid working days a week, basically.

But like... have a wee think about how bare bones MA is. Up to 50% of each episode could be written by submitters, and the rest is very formulaic and easily repeatable. It's a single voice production, with a couple of scraps of music and no sound design whatsoever, if I can help it! And the episodes themselves are only 15 minutes long, cutting all your recording and editing times right the way down.

So, let's say you're a podcaster who doesn't have the freedom and flexibility that I do with regards to your day job, and you don't have the comfy cushion of savings to cover upfront costs, and you don't live somewhere with a low a cost of living as Belfast, and you want to make a show that isn't so (intentionally!) stripped back and minimal... 😬

People like to say that podcasting has a really low barrier for entry and that's true to an extent - "all you need is a mic". But I think we do everyone a disservice if we don't look seriously and honestly about the financial costs involved - including time spent on unpaid work!

All this to say, I am so enormously grateful to everyone who is able to support MA financially, whether that's with the occasional fiver on ko-fi or a regular pledge on Patreon. It really does all add up, and it makes a real, genuine difference to my daily life. £250 a month is more than I hoped to make, and I'm really thankful for everyone who has contributed.

And if you do have an extra couple of quid burning a hole in your pocket, do consider supporting the creators you love 💖🥰

#monstrous askbox #necessary disclaimer that i KNOW not everyone can support creators in this way! #supporting them by sharing your love of their art is really really important and helps a lot #monstrous agonies #podcasting #audio drama #toss a coin to your podcaster etc etc

[bronanlynch]

experimenting with different ways of organizing this post. shout out to bullet point lists. anyway once again I watched more television than doing anything else

listening (podcast):

new Palisade: very fun as usual! I love the Blue Channel crew so much and I am constantly so worried for them

Great Gundam Project: still very fun to hear how little they know about what is to come. also they got to the episode where Char comes back with a bunch of cool underwater robots and 1) god I miss Char I wish I too were watching an arc of Gundam that has Char in it and 2) shout out to the Gogg & Z'Gok, two of my fave suits in all of Gundam

Media Club Plus: once again they have good thoughts about Hunter x Hunter, truly cannot wait to hear Jack's reaction to the Illumi reveal

listening (music): Dance Apocalyptic by Janelle Monae because I'm stealing songs from my old Beam Saber campaign playlist to make a Partizan/Palisade playlist and that's on both

reading:

Imperial Uncle: got to a twist about halfway through that I was fully not expecting but it was very fun, and the story in now drastically different than I thought it would be when I started but I am still enjoying it a lot

The Death I Gave Him: one of the most interesting questions to me in any Hamlet adaptation/retelling is what to do with Gertrude, what her role in the murder was, etc, and I'm enjoying the way this novel handles that. shout out to unethical science milfs

watching:

TGCF: regarding last week's episode, since we watched it after last week's wednedsaypost: on one hand, beef of beefleaf fame! my beloved! they looked extremely good! ("op they were chained up & disheveled" yeah exactly) on the other, the racism and also the transmisogyny. not that any of this was surprising because it's in the novel too, but it sure sucks to have racist caricatures and also to repeatedly treat the gender shifting & crossdressing as a joke and/or with disgust. regarding this week's episode: rip to Hua Cheng :/ sorry your crush burned your house down :/ I don't remember this arc super well because it was kinda overshadowed (for me) by having Ghost City and then the start of book 2 on either side of it, and as primarily a beefleaf & Mu Qing main I have priorities

Bakeoff: so the technical was a shitshow in a way that is 100% on the judges for not giving them enough time like. sorry that's what it means when every single person underbakes it. however. I literally laughed so hard I was in physical pain when everyone was presenting their horrible liquid puddings so who could say if it was bad or not

Hunter x Hunter: I do love where Killua's arc goes but I also really enjoy this early bit where he's just incredibly competent & terrifying and kicks everyone's ass without breaking a sweat. good for him, sorry about what led you to this point tho

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: other things happened in the episodes that I watched but I will be honest, most of it is wiped away by the preview for next episode showing me an incredibly major character death. um. aside from that. I do like the battle sequences, I love when a show is a couple of guys in a room going "I think this is the enemy's plan, here's what we're going to do about it" and then you see some different guys in a different room going "this is our plan, I hope this is how they react to it" and so on. also I like the narrator as kind of like. a historical accounting of the events, both because I like stories about the narrative construction of history and also because it means everything happens on very specific dates and I love having clear ideas of timelines

ZZ Gundam: finished ZZ! in general I enjoyed it (though I still prefer Zeta) and there are some really fun moments, especially with the Gundam Team, and I like Haman a lot as an antagonist. I didn't realize how close we were to the end until we had like 4 episodes left because the pacing is. kind of interesting. lot more "going to a place and fucking around for a while" than I expected, and sometimes it works better than other times. most of my ~critiques are things I already said last week (the misogyny, the ways in which the critiques of western military intervention in Africa & southwest Asia fall flat due to the white saviorism & none of it really getting a chance to be developed properly, etc) so I'm not gonna go into all that again, but I am going to just mention one of the wildest things which is that they refer to Dublin as "a city in what used to be Britain" which is. a loaded thing to say in 2023 let alone in the 1980s. lmao

I'm in Love with the Villainess: a fun yuri isekai about someone with a shitty job who gets transported into the world of her favorite otome game except instead of giving a shit about any of the male love interests she just wants to spend all her time with the female antagonist. it's very light and silly, and we're watching it as a short break before diving into more Gundam. I do love it when there are lesbians and little hints of class conflict simmering just under the surface

playing:

Ace Attorney 5: some mixed feelings about what I've gotten through this week. I love to see Edgeworth and I'm so compelled by Aura & Simon (individually and also as siblings), but I don't like how Trucy continues to be incredibly sidelined, and whenever they talk about the "dark age of the law" I kind of feel like. ok. look. it is just factually incorrect that it's only now that people cheat in court and only care about winning, and also the idea that overturning one (1) false conviction will fix the problems of the legal system is laughable. especially considering 1) everything about Von Karma 2) Edgeworth's entire backstory and 3) the fact that Phoenix spent the 7 year gap inventing a new legal system that everyone forgot about I guess. anyway. I do love Aura a lot though

Blades in the Dark: finally was able to run another session in my Blades campaign, in which the party. checks notes. performed a reverse bank heist. and also a normal bank heist. sometimes you have to break into a bank to leave something in a specific vault and you steal some other stuff along the way

making: finished building Miorine, so she is no longer a disembodied head and can now stand on the shelf with her wife. I'm not a huge fan of some the proportions/posing of the model, she has. like. woman in a comic book proportions that she doesn't have in the actual show (Imo the worst of it is her arched spine which you can't see here but I was surprised because Suletta has just. a normal spine)

drinking: Down East's cider donut-flavored cider because, once again, I love a seasonal fun little drink. this one's not as dry as the equivalent Citizens Cider I posted about a couple of weeks ago but Down East's stuff does tend to be a little sweeter in general. extremely good though, to be clear

writing: I added a section to my wip doc for my Nirvana in Fire exchange fic and copied over my giftee's prompts but I have not started on it and other than that I've done no writing. oops.

#on one hand talking abt the things i do in a week makes me feel more like a real person who does things #on the other hand it's real depressing to have to say i didn't write at all #u win some u lose some i guess #dreaming.txt #weekly media roundup post

[rattusn0rvegicus]

Thanks for the tag @georgekirrin!

1. Are you named after anyone?

Kind of. Yes. It's an astronaut lol, not telling which one

2. When was the last time you cried?

Uhhhh idk, like a month-ish ago when I was really going through it I think 😭

3. Do you have kids?

fuck no 🙅‍♂️🙅‍♂️🙅‍♂️

4. What sports do you play/have played?

I uh, briefly played soccer as a kid and was also into swimming and (regrettably) cross country running and mixed martial arts? Had to quit the latter bc of my hearing disability though, that's a long story 😅

These days I don't really do sports, I just go hiking and occasionally dabble in rock climbing. Used to weight lift but I've fallen out of it, RIP

5. Do you use sarcasm?

No /s

6. What's the first thing you notice about people?

Bro I have literally no fucking clue. Their hair maybe? Probably their hair.

7. What's your eye colour?

Brown as a bear. Mmm bears

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Neither. I want sad angsty movies where everyone dies at the end 😤

9. Any talents?

Uhhh I'm good enough at art that people will spend money on it, and I can cook pretty well! Both of these are less “talents” and more “I’ve studied and practiced and failed a lot” tho. I don't know if I entirely believe in talent.

10. Where were you born?

Good old Tennessee lmao

11. What are your hobbies?

Uhhh let's see. Drawing, painting, reading, writing, fursuit/costume making, DnD… you know, nerd shit. I sew here and there but god am I terrible at it. And I absolutely love to cook! There's also the aforementioned hiking and (rare) rock climbing/bouldering. If I had money I'd ski every winter but alas I am too broke, even for rentals 😂 I kinda wanna get back into climbing trees one day but tree saddles are so goddamn expensive.

Aaaand does listening to music and podcasts count as a hobby?

12. Do you have any pets?

I have two rats who are utterly apathetic to my existence, and I also live with my partner’s three bunnies lol

13. How tall are you?

5'6". I tower above all you tiny 5’5” and 5’4” people. What's it like down there? I can't hear you

14. Favourite subject in school?

Currently my favorite class is my Epidemiology class! But I also really liked Herpetology and Psychology when I first went to college, and in high school I liked English Composition and also Marine Biology 💚

15. Dream job?

There's not really One Single Thing I'd like to do for 40 hours a week, every week, for the rest of my life lmao.

BUT if I could have it my way, I'd do some work at an LGBT-focused peer respite house, and also some public health policy/outreach/research work regarding, basically, various peer-run mental health things. And maybe I'd be an adjunct professor and teach a class or two as well. And a part time occupational therapist. Lol.

Or, even less feasibly, fucking off to a gay farm commune for a while and then hitchhiking around the country/world depending on how much cash I've got. And/or working in Antarctica for a summer or two.

I'm going to tag @filmamir @astriiformes @virginia-werewolf and uhhhhh anyone else who wants to do this I guess 😅

#about me

[gemsstudy]

So I am learning Korean as well, I am able to read and write...I understand the Hangul chart fully I mean and I have studied most of the grammar as well...and I am a bit confused on how I should move forward...Do you have any Ideas? Since you are a b1 in Korean...hehe

first i wanna say my b1 level is self-assessed. i mean, i feel pretty confident about this assesment, but i havent taken an official test or the topik yet.

i feel like moving between levels is the hardest part tbh...i felt like i hit a wall when transitioning to intermediate..but what i found helped me the most was really figuring out where i was lacking and working on that. just doing random lessons isn't helpful and i think you really need to structure your learning in a way that's super personal to you.

-for me, i know listening and speaking are my hardest areas..so i put a lot of focus on listening by listening to podcasts and watching youtube videos about things i like (makeup, skincare, kpop content with my fav groups) and use active listening..i usually watch these videos more than once too, one time without eng subs and then with to gage my initial understanding. i also take note of new vocab or grammar points. make sure with content like this though that it's just above your level. listening to things where you don't understand literally anything is not helpful. you need to be able to get the jist of what is going on even if you don't understand every single word/grammar.

-i also do tutoring once a week (sometimes twice if i have the time. i use the website preply) and we focus on my speaking and comphrension. she gives me sentence building and dictation hw too. i also ask her for regular assessments and what she thinks i can improve on. i just joined my korean language club at school so that's another way ive been exposing myself to korean and working on my speaking. i alsoooo speak out loud..anything i'd think or say to myself in english, i try to say in korean. not only does it help me get comfortable forming sentences, but it's a good way to pinpoint vocab/grammar i may not know.

-i try to make time each week to write in a diary (i used to post on here but not as often recently lol) and i also read in korean on different news sources. im slowly working my way thru 죽고 싶지만 떡볶이는 먹고 싶어 as well.

i guess tdlr; assess via a tutor, teacher, or just yourself and figure out what areas you're lacking in and build a plan around that. if you feel like you've progressed outside of just relying on textbooks, find other ways to supplement your learning like tutoring, language club, youtube/netflix, etc. exposure/immersion is key.

this was so long im so sorry but i hope this helped!!! you can message me too if you'd like!

#langblr #studyblr #korean #anon #ask

[decaffeinatedunicorn]

i mean, if Hayden got back with her clearly is none of our business, but i feel like people shouldn't be making up assumptions based on "what it seems", so i felt like saying these things now (sorry for the long text).

i follow Rachel for a long time just as i follow Hayden's family and they always got along nicely and spent holidays together even after their breakup, after all, Briar has the right to be close to her cousins and the rest of her family. Valentine's day, they didn't spend together, i remember there was something about rachel posting a picture in his house in Altadena, i think last year, that was exactly the time he had moved to that house that coincidentally was Valentine's day week. When I saw that at the time, my first thought wasn't anything related to them getting back together, but because since they share custody, Rachel had to know how was the new house he lived, and maybe even send some of Briar's stuff there, because again, shared custody.

So alright, later in the end of 2023, she was interviewed by a guy (i don't remember his name), and she mentioned once again her separation (because she was asked but she never says Hayden's name), and even shared some of her thoughts nowadays about marriage and getting with someone (she said that IF she gets to such a serious relationship again she wouldn't want a marriage with the law and stuff)

But anyway, moving forward, i also listen to her own podcast sometimes and she addresses several times (whenever it's brought up obviously) how is her single mom life, and from time to time, she lets out one thing or two about their co-parenting dynamic. There was a recent one (from this year I mean but I don't remember the month) when she mentioned something like "My daughter's dad and I separated when she was still too young so she didn't feel a lot", something on these lines.

What i mean with this whole thing is that Rachel and Hayden will always be close, because they have this bond that is their daughter, but just because they are close, it doesn't mean they are necessarily back, they were seen together a lot of times and people made a fuss over really small things.

About Hayden moving out of his house, i wouldn't be really surprised about this because his house in Altadena was all over the internet and he even had those "fans" visiting him without permission.

Hayden and Rachel already got back together after a split, yes, but it was just a few months after that split. There's a huge difference now, because they spent ten years together (enough time to know why it was better for them to separate) and almost seven years separated and co-parenting wonderfully. They're very grown adults and have the maturity to be in familiar terms without being a couple.

Anyway, sorry for the enormous text, I don't mean to fight or anything, just wanted to share my view on this whole situation because it's something I've been observing for a while now.

Okay, so let me say this: I appreciate the clarification that this isn't an argument. But social media is only a fraction of what people want you to see, and historically, Hayden is a very private person.

He very well could be moving because of fans showing up to his house, but he also could be moving because he got back together with Rachel, we don't know. I'm not THAT consumed with Hayden to need to know what he has going on, but I know that there are people that feel like they "need" every last bit of information about him.

Like you said, they're both grown, and she might be talking about her "single mom era," but let's not act like celebrities don't say shit to throw people off. Good for them if they are back and good for them if they aren't. it's really not any of our concern or right to know what these celebrities have going on.

It kinda did look a lot like the outside of Rachel's house he was standing at in that photo maybe it wasn't idk, but WHO CARES. They have a child together, and people spend years apart just to realize the person they were looking for was right there all along, so really, it doesn't matter lmao.

#celebrity gossip #thanks anon! #UNIspeaks

[darklovecat]

March favorites?

Tretinoin and a 2% BHA serum.

These 2 are a very powerful combo. I only use BHAs once a week, there are people who use it every single day and it is true that is a lot more gentle compared to other chemical exfoliators but I do not want to overexfoliate my skin or disrupt my skin barrier again like last year (when I would use the highest percentages of Vitamin C, AHA, Retinoids every day) so I make sure I only use it when I really need it. I use Tretinoin for anti-aging purposes only, it does not require a prescription where I live so I can get it at any pharmacy. 0.1% is the highest concentration available on the market and some people purge like crazy but I have been using it for on and off 4 years so my skin is used to it. My skin is far from perfect and sometimes I break out due to hormones, stress or lack of sleep and I need products to improve my skin texture. One of my favorite things is applying my 0.1% Tretinoin on Friday night and on Monday my skin begins flaking, I take my BHA Serum massaging it into my skin and it gets rid of all my dead skin cells and I love how my skin looks smooth and glowy the next days.

Garnier Hyaluronic Aloe Replumping Superserum.

I would never really purchase something from Garnier. However, my aunt was recently diagnosed with preoral dermatitis (it's terrible) and her dermatologist told her to stop using any makeup or skincare so she gave me most of her cosmetics that I have been trying out the past few weeks. This is one of my favorites. Whenever I use a hydrating ingredient I always spritz my face with water first to maximize its benefits and this serum makes my skin feel so much more hydrated and fresh, it has a very calming & pleasant smell, and I sometimes add another layer depending on my skin's needs. It gives me the perfect base before I move on to applying my skin makeup. What makes this serum amazing is that it includes so many different hydrating ingredients - Aloe, Hyaluronic Acid, Glycerin... My skin loves this superserum so I use this one quite often.

Missha A'pieu BB Maker SPF 30/PA++

This is another product that proves to me that Korean makeup products are amazing. The BB creams I've tried from Western brands have been lackluster at best, they never match my skin tone, they look off on me but I bought this in 212 Natural Beige and it is so perfect. It's called 'BB cream' but this product is so high coverage that I would almost call it a foundation. When my order first arrived, I was shocked at how small the product was, I thought I'm gonna finish it in two weeks tops but the thing is you put 1/2 a pea size on the back of your hand and realize you could easily cover your whole face with it. I don't know how that's possible but you really need soooo little, only a teeny tiny amount and it's something I still need to learn, I put a 3/4 pea just to be safe and it always turns out to be way too much. I know someone who works for Missha so I got this product at a heavy discount, I ordered 2 and she sent 4, what a darling and what an amazing excuse to buy more products!

Apple AirPods (3rd Generation).

These were a gift from my mom, my Huawei Freebuds stopped working and I've been complaining about it nonstop so she surprised me with a pair of Airpods 3, she was torn between the 2 and 3 so she gave me the receipt to let me decide. I went in the next day and got them exchanged, and I love them. I can do calls, binge my shows, participate in virtual meetings, listen to podcasts on my way to uni, listen to music for hours on end with no issues and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a pair of good headphones, the battery lasts a long time as well. The headphones may feel weird at the beginning, like they could fall out any second which is why I was hesitant in the beginning but I got used to it, it does not bother me anymore. I also got a cute little case, it's silver stoned and I am not really a bling person but I did not want to get silicone because they stain and rip, I wanted to try something different, so I just went ahead and bought this one, I love how it sparkles and it is pretty much impossible to damage.

A White Long Sleeved Leotard.

I am obsessed with this long sleeved leotard, it is a game changer and I think this is the best purchases I have made this year. It literally solves 90% of all my cloth-related problems. When I go to the dance studio, I throw this on with my black leggings as a base layer, I just have to take off my skirt and I am good to go within seconds. The material is stretchy but very fitted and I love how the fabric feels on my skin, I also how it looks on me and how it emphasizes my slim arms and my small waist. The fabric is very thin but it is not see through so I can wear my cropped wrap tops and all my see through tops over it without looking frumpy. I love a fitted look so I can wear it on its own with a pleated dark navy skirt or a black pencil skirt (my favorite) as well. It is a 10/10 and I have already purchased many more in various colors and this is the type of thing I never knew I needed.

Love, Cat.

#hypergamy #hypergamous #hypergamous beauty tips #hypergamous beauty #hypergamy tips #leveling up #level up #glow up #high maintenance

[the---hermit]

What Lies In The Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

I really didn't like this. I have not dnf-ed it because I was listening to the audiobook and was curious to know the ending but it's definitely an avoidable book that I am glad I didn't spend money on. The ratings for this novel online are very high and I genuinely don't understand why. This book is an adult thriller narrated in first person by the main character, Naomi. She survived an attempted murder when she was a child while she was in the woods with her two best friends. After the man who allegedly attacked her dies in prison the three of them meet up again. We know right from the beginning the three girls didn't say everything or lied about some stuff after that awful day, and the story is mainly focused on that. I will not say much more, because since this is a thriller many things could cound as spoilers. My spoilery complaints will be under the cut, everything that follows is spoiler free, so fear not. As I said I didn't like this book. Firstly the main character is incredibly annoying, I couldn't empathize with her for the life of me, and I have yet to understand whether I hated every single character because we see them from her perspective, or because of the writing. In any case I did not like any character in this story. Most twists were very predictable, I think I didn't see one thing coming at the very end, and that didn't really save the book for me. The main twist was exactly the first hypotesis I had at the very beginning of the book and that I had dismissed because I thought it would be a meh solution for it (v technical terminology, I know). The main character spends the entire book saying "this would be the best/most logical thing to do" and then proceds to do the exact opposite all of the time. I think she is supposed to be in her 30s but it never really felt like it? At least from the way she acted. It's not that easy to say what I didn't like without spoilers and in general I just had such a bad time with this book I could never remember all the details that seemed off for me while I was reading it. Overall I wouldn't recommend spending money on this book. The premise seemed very intresting, there was some potential in the idea, but the overall execution really lacked for me. I think I just didn't like the writing at all, and I doubt I'd read more by this author. This definitely wasn't my thing.

I read this book for the thirller prompt of the 2023 genre bingo.

This part contains some spoilers so read at your own risk (it is in fact a random list of potentially spoilery thoughts and complaints).

The moral of this story is do not trust anyone because they are all liers that will betray you somehow if they haven't betrayed you yet. And this it mostly due to the fact that the authot litteraly gave every single character some sort of twist one way or another. The main character looks like a fool by the end of the book were clearly everyone knows way better than her what happened when she was a kid and lied to her. She also is described as this sarcastic ad cynical person all of the time, full of secrets who doesn't open up with anyone, and then in a matter of a few days she tells all her deep dark secrets to a guy she has just met (that also didn't get into her life in the best way, because podcast guy definitely didn't seem that trustworthy when they first met). She claims to be in love with him after knowing him for a week, and to be honest it was clear from his first appearence they would end up together no matter how they met. I also thought the way Oscar (is that the name of Cass' brother? I can't even remember at this point) was portrayed was kinda weird. He is described as this awful guy, it's very clear from the beginning that he assaulted Naomi when they were younger, but at the very end it almost seems like the author is trying to make him look better without never really developping his character? Like you found out he wasn't the killer, so he's now a good character even though what he did in the past? I don't know if I interpreted it wrong, but it was very ambiguous. Then as I said the big twist of it's been her friends who stabbed her all along didn't feel like a big twist at all? From the start when she said they lied about something and it was implied they played the goddess game, my first thought was "her friends did it". I dismissed it because if felt kinda obvious? Or at least it didn't really feel as shocking as the author intended it to be. I could go on with complaints, on how much every single character is unbelievable annoying and all but to be honest I have spent enough energy complaining about a book that clearly wasn't for me.

Save some time and money and go for another thriller. If on the other hand you are one of the pople who read the book and liked it I would like to know your point of view, what were the things you liked and why? I clearly didn't have a good time with it and I'd love to understand the point of view of those who gave it such an high rating.

#book #books #bookblr #booklr #book cover #book review #book rec #book recommendation #thriller #bookish #studyblr #bad book reviews #reading #mine #the---hermit

[yardsards]

i want to get into taz because it sounds really Coolio, but i wanted to know if there are specific seasons or anything that can be skipped (or perhaps a good summary of certain ones)?? I don't have a lot of time where i can actually listen and it'd take years for me to listen to every single episode

sort of but sort of not?

so (and there is a good chance you know this already but just in case): the podcast is made up of multiple different stories (also called arcs), which have no relationship to each other. the story that most people are referring to when they talk about the adventure zone is the first one, called the balance arc.

the balance arc is about 90ish episodes total BUT like a quarter of that is live shows or other bonus content, which are entirely skippable. basically, skip any episode whose title doesn't follow the standard format of "Ep. [number]: [chapter name] - [episode name]". also, episode 1.5 just is an edited down version of episode 1, so just listen to 1.5 and skip 1 entirely

this leaves you with 69 total episodes to get through. which is a lot more manageable than the ~300 episodes your podcast app was probably showing you. but considering each episode is about an hour long (and the last few are a bit longer than that bc they were REALLY determined to end with episode 69 bc funny sex number), that still might be a bit much for you.

now, none of these 69 official episodes can be Fully skipped without you being confused BUT there are some alternatives to listening to all of the episodes in podcast form if you don't think you'd be able to do that

the best option here is to read the graphic novels. right now, 5 out of the 8 total books have been published. idk when the last 3 are supposed to be published, but it'll probably be Quite A While, considering the 5th one was just published a couple weeks ago. but what you can do is read what books are available now, and then switch to listening to the podcast where the books leave off (which is at the end of the "the eleventh hour" chapter. which should leave just 20 podcast episodes to listen to)

(i myself have not actually read the graphic novel adaptations yet but i hear that they're pretty good. some minor plot points were changed or abridged in the graphic novel adaptations, but to my knowledge, none of this will seriously impede your ability to understand future chapters when you have to switch from novel to podcast. there were also some minor npc and town names that were changed for legal reasons in the novel adaptations, but i could probably find you a list of all those changes if you need, so you could know like "okay, when they mention phandalin in the podcast, they're talking about haverdale from the graphic novels")

but if the idea of reading the graphic novels doesn't appeal to you, the other option is to just read summaries of episodes on the wiki instead of listening to them. i suggest you just do this for the first chapter, "here there be gerblins". htbg is below the other chapters quality-wise and some character things end up getting retconned soon after anyway (because at this point the dm and players were still trying to figure out where they wanted to go with this series), so you won't miss too much quality content if you skip it. there is a summary of the whole arc on the wiki HERE, or you can read more in-depth summaries of each individual episode HERE (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) under the synopsis tab. this still leaves you with 63 episodes left to listen to, but it'll save you a few hours at least, and you'll get to skip over some of the "worse" episodes in the series

(some people have even recommended just reading episode summaries all the way up til the "petals to the metal" chapter but i STRONGLY disagree there. i actually really loved the "murder on the rockport limited" chapter, and thought the "moonlighting" mini-chapter/intermission wasn't too bad either

and like, if you go into the podcast with a sort of "i'm just gonna skip ahead til The Real Action happens" mindset instead of just enjoying the journey, you're not gonna have much fun listening to Any of the podcast, even AFTER it gets to the climax. because a lot of it is just going at its own pace and joking around. and while it does get increasingly story-oriented as time goes on, if you're looking for a point where it gets to be 100% balls-to-the-wall storytelling, you're never gonna find what you're looking for and are just gonna be frustrated)

#eliot posts #the adventure zone #taz #taz balance #tell me if you have any further questions bc sometimes i can be bad at explaining stuff lol #it's not as confusing as i probably make it sound lol #sidenote: i actually have the first 3 graphic novels coming in the mail as we speak! #i wanted to read them but my library didn't have them and i was too shy to ask abt interlibrary loan #so i ordered them off a used book site a few days ago #i am excited for when they come in #long post

[suzufield]

auston matthews and ginger from chicken run (connor mcdavid) for the ask meme ?

auston matthews

first impression: so, this one's kinda specific, but my first impression of him came from a fanart I saw on here. so really I didn't know much (this was before my hockey era) except, oh, the people here are really into shipping him with some other hockey guy. okay. not like I formed a lasting impression off that, but I did think his outfit was really cool, so you know, there's that. he's the first hockey guy to breach containment for me, I was not really interested at the time (this was not even a year ago 😭) but it's kinda special in that way

impression now: in general, seems like a chill guy. you know I try to perceive the leafs as little as possible but I respect him. also, cool outfits. he slays. good for him. however I DID read a fanfic which I'm pretty sure changed my brain chemistry and which starred him as the protagonist! doesn't change the way I see him, he just exists, doing his thing, except now I'm more aware of the leafs narratives. (thanks cody!)

I can't really answer any of the rest of the questions because like. I really don't know this guy. sorry reuben. you (leafs fans) can keep him. I don't wanna get dragged into another rabbit hole.

connor mcdavid

(aka, ginger from chicken run.) the fun begins.

first impression: generally thought he was kind of bland? I was like. that's just a dude. like he's good at hockey, which is fun, but he seems to have the amount of personality (and structural integrity!) of a piece of wet cardboard. so I elected to ignore him. I didn't know what was to come.

impression now: hoooooooly shit. this man occupies every single one of my thoughts and I don't even remember how it happened. genuinely. something clicked in my brain and suddenly I was obsessed with him. ofc there's something to be said about like, this anxious teen with the weight of the world on his shoulders who grew quite awkwardly into his adult frame, but like, people have already said these things. there's the insane hockey plays, of course he's amazing and all that, but idk, maybe it's the anxiety that touched me? he's so anxious and he's still going and you can tell he worked on it, it's not perfect but it's better than before? like the growth? I don't know. I kinda love him. he's quiet. a little pathetic-looking. I got no explanation for this one

favourite moment: I listened to a podcast and he was saying that he always has to remind leon of just how good he is, and he's taken it upon himself to make leon see it, and you can tell he really does care about it (beyond just the game). and it's a small moment but I'm a big fan of bros supporting bros. keep it up king 👑💪

idea for a story: so I was sorta maybe not quite writing something... which may or may not involve hanahaki disease and mcdrai. and it mostly deals in guilt (that's the good stuff) but it's actually kind of leon draisaitl centric, because he's the one with the disease and he's the one struggling to see that he is loved and he is cared for and he feels guilty for dumping this on connor and it's mostly platonic but also kind of not and well. I have like my own version of hanahaki which I did tell one (1) beloved mutual about but the document has been untouched for exactly a week now and my brain has moved onto other things, so. (if you feel like reading some hanahaki may I recommend this one, it's mceichel, I enjoyed it a lot)

favourite relationship: my most beloved mental illness. mcdrai. (which I found really flavourless like a few weeks back. character growth!) there's something to be said about the our stories are linked and our names are tied together aspect of it, and how they've found each other, and leon would find me even if I was invisible and all that. something about connor always hyping up leon to the media, because he sees so much in him, and he's waiting for other people to see it too, but in the end they never will because connor is right there and connor is the best player in the league and it's always about connor. he'll always overshadow leon by being there. connor can try, he can try to be selfless (and how can you not be when you are this good, haven't you internalised by now that it's no fun if you take the whole stage for yourself?) and maybe he would like a break from the constant attention but he won't get it. something else; they are the centre of the whole oilers team. like, and I'm not an oilers fan but I think I can say this, the team would absolutely collapse without them. no question about it. maybe they would be fine with just one or just the other but they would definitely be missing their other half. (and I could talk about how they are BOTH anxious and they are maybe each other's support, but that's for another day because I don't think people have noticed how anxious leon actually is yet.) …you could say I've had a normal amount of thoughts about these two.

favourite headcanon: I'm electing not to answer this one because as you can see from my mcdrai paragraph there are a lot of things I have extrapolated from bits of interviews, body language and the like, also maybe a bit of projecting in there. let's be honest that I'm pretending to know a man that I don't. I'm not even an oilers fan. this is all headcanon.

if anyone actually read this far. hope you had fun. sorry.

#👍👍👍 #this was just 15 words short of a thousand! I'm normal about hockey men! #(the read more is there for obvious reasons. I am warning you. this is long and not entirely interesting) #mailbox

[beachtoosandytranscripts]

1: Grocery Stores in Cincinnati, OH

Welcome to Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet, a podcast featuring real reviews written by people who just need the world to know what they think. Between you and me, I wanted to like this podcast, but I'd give it zero stars if I could.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet, the podcast where we read the worst reviews in the most dramatic fashion. I am Christine Schiefer.

And I'm Alex Schiefer, and we're siblings, and we're on a mission to address pressing societal issues. Like, why did Kevin in Fort Worth want to give his local taco stand a one-star review? And did they deserve it? Each week, we'll have a theme like taco stands in Fort Worth, and we'll both find our favorite reviews, normally one-star reviews, that fit the theme, and then we'll read them with a dramatization element added. And there'll also be a weekly challenge element. One person will give the other a challenge, like finding a review that mentions six cats, and they'll hopefully step up to the challenge and find a good one to read in the next episode.

Be sure to listen all the way to the end because that's when we'll first tell each other the theme and the challenge for next week's episode. And since this is our first episode, we told each other ahead of time. So I chose a challenge and you chose the theme, which is?

This week's theme is grocery stores in Cincinnati, Ohio. And what was the challenge?

The challenge is an Amazon review that mentions a big toe.

Let’s get started.

I went with the Cincinnati classic. Cincinnati is where we're both from. Where we grew up, we've been to many a Cincinnati grocery store.

So my pick this week is Kroger.

Of course.

And this is specifically the Kroger in Coryville. And Rose had something to say.

Upon purchasing my cream-filled Long John donut for 69..

What type of donut was that? A Long John donut?

Isn't that underwear?

Yeah, or Long John silvers. Well, we'll find out.

That's a good start.

Oh, you know when you want one of those Long John donuts? It only has 1 eighth of cream into it. Into it.

Specifically. Not only that, but for some God-forsaken reason, started that I thought.

I'm sorry.

…Not only that, but for some God-forsaken reason, the cream was inserted through the side of the donut, so every other bite was dry and barren of cream.

But the best part about that is, they spelled barren of cream like B-A-R-O-N, like the royal title. So it's the barren of cream.

We know what's on her mind.

This donut.

…This donut did not meet any of my expectations whatsoever. What so ever. End of review.

Oh my gosh.

One star. And that is a review of Kroger and Coryville.

So she is reviewing the entire Coryville Kroger based on a single Long John donut.

I mean, to be honest, it was really hard to find a review because I was reading it and everybody was complaining about parking or, you know, like racist staff. And I was like, this isn't funny. None of this is funny and probably it's true.

But this just really lightened my day.

Good. No, I'm glad you found that one. That was good.

And I just looked up what a Long John donut is.

Oh, really? Please enlighten me.

It's just a long donut.

Well that's obviously why they insert the cream on the side, right?

I don't know. Look at it. You can put it cream in the...

Oh, that looks disgusting. Looks like someone puked gravy on it.

The Wikipedia images always happen to have the worst one.

Well...

Oh, also known as a maple bar. I've heard of that.

Rose, I'm sorry that you had an incredibly disappointing experience, and I wish you and the Baron of Cream all the best in your future endeavors. Are you up next?

Yes, I am next. I don't have the person's name that wrote this review.

Let's call them the Baron of Cream.

Let's do that. I don't have one for the other one either.

That's all right.

I didn't write all this down. But I did mine. I decided to look at my favorite grocery store in the world, Jungle Gyms International Market.

I mean, if you guys have not been there, where is that again?

Technically not in Cincinnati. I don't know, well, close enough. But Fairfield, Ohio.

Fairfield. I went to the mini golf place near there.

Oh gosh, yeah. Is that the one with the mountain and you can walk inside of it like a Rugrats episode?

Sure.

Yeah.

We should do reviews on that.

Rugrats episodes or mini golf?

No, mini golf.

Okay, I think both would work for us. Can I give a couple of fun facts of Trader Joe's?

Please, for those of you...

Because it is amazing. It is special.

Not Trader Joe's.

Trader Joe's is pretty amazing.

I mean, it is, but it's really not that special.

It's not the same. Jungle Gyms.

Right.

So, it has 180,000 items, and 60,000 of those are international items.

Yeah, you guys, it's really cool.

And then it's over six and a half acres of floor space.

What? What? No wonder I get all my steps in.

It's massive.

No, it's crazy. And the largest Walmart in the country, in Albany, New York, is only six acres.

So it's bigger than the largest Walmart.

The largest Walmart Supercenter.

Walmart.

They probably have the biggest Walmart at Jungle Gyms.

Right, in their international section.

Yeah.

I'm really struggling.

Where are Walnuts from?

Brazil. Just kidding. Those are Brazil Nuts.

I'm sorry. It's not funny. Delete that.

Time for a review.

Okay.

The Baron of Cream has this to say about Jungle Gyms, awful management, deceptive price. It's not even. Just started.

I'm sorry. It's not even funny.

Oh, it gets good. It's awful management, deceptive pricing. My wife fell on water, and because of that, I have been barred and threatened if I return to the store.

Liars and thieves, in my opinion.

Oh, no.

Wife cannot walk right ever again.

Oh, no.

And I cannot even buy cat clitter without being threatened. What?

What is cat clitter?

I think he just added a K to litter.

Did he add a K to cat?

No. It's just a regular cat. But then it says clitter and I looked it up.

It's not a thing.

It is on Urban Dictionary. Don't look it up.

Oh, oh my God.

And that's the only reason I read it the way he wrote it because it was, I Googled it so other people have to too.

And when she fell, all they wanted to know is, would this hinder from shopping there? Really? End of review.

So, I chose this review, not because a poor woman fell, like, I don't know what happened there.

They use her name, Baroness of Cream.

Baroness of Cream fell. But it was the way he kind of threw this stuff in there.

Do they? They don't sell cat litter or clitter. That's their...

They might. Jungle Gym sells everything.

Yeah, but they sell, like, those Pocky sticks and like beer.

You don't go there for cat litter. That's a good point. Like German beers and like a thousand different types of soda with gross, like, flavors.

Yeah, they don't. I mean, you don't know. There's Walmart for that.

Or Walnut.

Yeah. And he said he can't buy it without being threatened. As if he's just kind of sneaking around.

He's like, Oh, I hope they don't see me. And he grabs a cat litter and they'll be like, it's you.

There you go.

Baron.

Baron. Hiding behind all that.

Well, here's the thing. I do find something about that place threatening and it is those large animatronics. I remember going right after 9-11. I'm sorry, I knew you were drinking wine and I should have waited a minute, but why would you say that?

Listen, because it was important to the story. I went to jungle gyms right after 9-11 with mom. And I remember that all the animatronic dolls were very quiet and there were all these half mass flags around the stage and then all of a sudden they started moving and singing.

I'm not kidding, you guys they’re like six feet tall, gigantic animatronic creatures, like some stupid tune about-

Like Chicken Fried, Isaac Brown Band, about saluting the ones we love and everything.

Maybe it was something patriotic.

I hope so. Well, I don't know.

I don't think it was. I think it was an automatic timer and it was like really solemn and all the flags were at half mass and then they all kind of like woke up and started jamming out.

Like Andy Doodle, Dandy or something.

Yeah, started jamming and it was extremely disturbing to my 12 year old self's brain. That's my memory of 9-11.

I'm not going to go into mine.

Let's not go into any of that.

Okay, well, a little late now.

This is a comedy podcast.

That's hilarious.

Anyway.

The Baron.

Right.

That happened to him.

So we should never go again is what you're saying.

Jungle gyms. Just don't fall in one because you will be threatened.

I mean, it's hard not to fall in one because they are very large and they're very full of mysterious objects in moving animal robots. But I will say we're reading out one sort of use these places. I do want to add that we have no negative feelings toward anything.

This is mostly us reading reviews to joke about the reviews. This is not about the establishments themselves. In fact, we encourage you to check out these establishments and give them five star reviews to negate the one star reviews.

Especially the ones that are all because of one single long-john donut.

Yeah, right.

That wasn't up to snuff.

I mean, I personally don't mind the Kroger in Quarryville at all.

So yeah, it's a well, they just it's brand new. Did you go there recently? No, they tore the whole thing down and rebuilt it.

Wait, Quarryville.

Yeah, yeah. Well, there you go. So I just came up with a challenge, gave it to Alexander in advance, and then he hopefully—we'll see—lived up to the challenge.

And we're going to hear the challenge this week was an Amazon review that mentions a big toe. And it was very specific. So I'm very curious to see what happens here.

Yeah, it was a journey for me on Amazon. My first thought was stubbed toes. So I went in the furniture section.

Wow, this is quite a roundabout.

Yeah, it was. It didn't work. I went through a lot of reviews of various items of furniture.

And at first I went through pictures and I was like, oh, I'm going to pick the ones that have like are low to the ground, glass tables, really good for stubbing. Yeah, stuff like that. And then I realized I should just go by the ones that have thousands of reviews.

Oh, I just hope someone mentioned search for it. Yeah, no, it didn't work.

Oh, no.

No furniture mentioned big toe. So what else do you think of when you think of big toes?

Those shoes with the feet, the toe.

Oh, that's a good one, actually. Toe socks. Shoes was what I'm going for.

And I went to the shoe department. And of course, one of the best sellers popped right up. And I said, I knew this was going to be it.

Skechers.

Crocs Unisex Classic Clog.

It's better than what I thought.

Yes. And we.

Oh, oh, my God.

We have a review from another man who I forgot his name.

Carl.

Carl. This is what Carl has to say about his Crocs Unisex Classic Clog.

Does it say what color he got him?

It didn't say. There are so many, though. So what he said, great shoes, but man, they are really ugly.

Carl.

Yeah.

And how dare you?

Here we go. I have never liked the looks of these butt ugly things. But my podiatrist told me to get a pair because of a foot problem.

That podiatrist has a stake in Crocs. There is no way a podiatrist tells you to buy Crocs.

I hear they're comfy. I don't know. They had a lot of good.

So are sweatpants, but my doctor's not going to. OK.

They do offer great support and curiousness for my poor broken foot.

Curiousness?

I know. I didn't know what that meant.

It's not even a word.

I don't. Exactly. I don't know what he's going with that.

I find that when I walk, my heel tends to extend over the inner sides and wants to roll in. This is because I have such a high instep that my foot does not go all the way in. I have about an inch of room in front of my big toe.

There it is.

And my heel actually sticks out the back a little. Perhaps I should have gone with the larger size. The construction of these shoes is great and they are comfortable.

I expect that I will continue to wear these around the house once my foot has healed because of the support they offer.

Can you imagine this is someone's stepfather and they're just sitting in the den, like typing and typing and typing and the teenager just wants to use a computer. But Carl really has to write out this review.

Poor Carl. I like them as slippers, but not for walking any distance. End of review.

It wasn't that thrilling, but I just love how he opened it up.

I give you a challenge and you bring me Crocs. It is the best possible way that you could have gone with it.

Most of what excited me was just picturing Carl and his Crocs. And I thought that would be great for the listeners to be able to imagine.

Are you guys imagining? We're pausing for that moment of silence.

He's OK. He's OK. No.

OK, so we're going to tell you where to find us. But after stay tuned, because afterwards we're going to reveal our next week's challenge and next week's theme, which we have not told each other yet. So very excited and scared.

Tell the people what's going on.

You can find us on Instagram and Twitter at Beach Too Sandy, on Facebook at Beach Too Sandy, Water Too Wet. Our website is beachtoosandy.com.

And for now, you can listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, anywhere you listen to podcasts. And if you like what you hear, you can do your part. And much like the Baron of Cream, you can leave a survey.

But unlike the Baron of Cream, you can hopefully give us five stars, not one. The best way to do that is to leave a survey on Apple Podcasts on iTunes. That really, really helps us.

And if you have negative things to say, just send it to our email.

No, just be quiet.

Hey, no, no, no.

Yes.

Send them to our email, BeachTooSandy at gmail.com, and I will read them.

Okay, but also if you have nice things to say, you can send them there too.

Yeah, I will need those. I really can't handle just the negativity.

So feel free to email us, tweet at us, Instagram, find us on the gram.

Oh yeah, send a slide into our DMs.

Do it, do it. And thank you so much for listening.

And this is just episode one and special surprise episodes two and three are out now.

It's magic.

Oh my god, how did we do three at once? I don't think that's normally possible in the podcasting world.

But that's what we deliver on this show.

Yeah, we do. Except this is the only time we'll have three in one week.

Well, shh.

So don't.

Don't get used to it. And as always, as we say on this show, be a star. Or, we're trying to play these out, be a star.

Five star or bust? That's what I always say.

We need an outro. This isn't working.

I think we'll find one naturally.

Let's hope.

Alright, bye guys.

#beach too sandy water too wet #beach too sandy #btswtw #episode 1 #grocery stores in cincinnati oh #beach too sandy podcast #baron of cream