#attention Wil Wheaton

[tuttle-did-it]

To Boldly Go...

#shihtzu #halloween #i love my dog too much #Star Trek #star trek ds9 #star trek voyager #star trek tng #live long and prosper #🖖🏻 #yes my dog has a tailor #attention Wil Wheaton #https://www.instagram.com/6sagedesigns/

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How a billionaire’s mediocre pump-and-dump “book” became a “bestseller”

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/15/your-new-first-name/#that-dagger-tho

I was on a book tour the day my editor called me and told me, "From now on, your middle name is 'Cory.'"

"That's weird. Why?"

"Because from now on, your first name is 'New York Times Bestselling Author.'"

That was how I found out I'd hit the NYT list for the first time. It was a huge moment – just as it has been each subsequent time it's happened. First, because of how it warmed my little ego, but second, and more importantly, because of how it affected my book and all the books afterwards.

Once your book is a Times bestseller, every bookseller in America orders enough copies to fill a front-facing display on a new release shelf or a stack on a bestseller table. They order more copies of your backlist. Foreign rights buyers at Frankfurt crowd around your international agents to bid on your book. Movie studios come calling. It's a huge deal.

My books became Times bestsellers the old-fashioned way: people bought and read them and told their friends, who bought and read them. Booksellers who enjoyed them wrote "shelf-talkers" – short reviews – and displayed them alongside the book.

That "From now on your first name is 'New York Times Bestselling Author' gag is a tradition. When @wilwheaton's memoir Still Just A Geek hit the Times list, I texted the joke to him and he texted back to say @jscalzi had already sent him the same joke (and of course, Scalzi and I have the same editor, Patrick Nielsen Hayden):

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/still-just-a-geek-wil-wheaton

But not everyone earns that first name the same way. Some people cheat.

Famously, the Church of Scientology was caught buying truckloads of L Ron Hubbard books (published by Scientology's own publishing arm) from booksellers, returning them to their warehouse, then shipping them back to the booksellers when they re-ordered the sold out titles. The tip-off came when booksellers opened cases of books and found that they already bore the store's own price-stickers:

https://www.latimes.com/local/la-scientology062890-story.html

The reason Scientology was willing to go to such great lengths wasn't merely that readers used "NYT Bestseller* to choose which books to buy. Far more important was the signal that this sent to the entire book trade, from reviewers to librarians to booksellers, who made important decisions about how many copies of the books to stock, whether to display them spine- or face out, and whether to return unsold stock or leave it on the shelf.

Publishers go to great lengths to send these messages to the trade: sending out fancy advance review copies in elaborate packaging, taking out ads in the trade magazines, featuring titles in their catalogs and sending their sales-force out to impress the publisher's enthusiasm on their accounts.

Even the advance can be a way to signal the trade: when a publisher announces that it just acquired a book for an eyebrow-raising sum, it's not trumpeting the size of its capital reserves – it's telling the trade that this book is a Big Deal that they should pay attention to.

(Of all the signals, this one may be the weakest, even if it's the most expensive for publishers to send. Take the $1.25m advance that Rupert Murdoch's Harpercollins paid to Sarah Palin for her unreadable memoir, Going Rogue. As with so many of the outsized sums Murdoch's press and papers pay to right wing politicians, the figure didn't represent a bet on the commercial prospects of the book – which tanked – but rather, a legal way to launder massive cash transfers from the far-right billionaire to a generation of politicians who now owe him some rather expensive favors.)

All of which brings me to the New York Times bestselling book Read Write Own by the billionaire VC New York Times Bestselling Author Chris Dixon. Dixon is a partner at A16Z, the venture capitalists who pumped billions into failed, scammy, cryptocurrency companies that tricked normies into converting their perfectly cromulent "fiat" money into shitcoins, allowing the investors to turn a massive profit and exit before the companies collapsed or imploded.

Read Write Own (subtitle: "Building the Next Era of the Internet") is a monumentally unconvincing hymn to the blockchain. As Molly White writes in her scathing review, the book is full of undisclosed conflicts of interest, with Dixon touting companies he has a direct personal stake in:

https://www.citationneeded.news/review-read-write-own-by-chris-dixon/

But this book's defects go beyond this kind of sleazy pump-and-dump behavior. It's also just bad. The arguments it makes for the blockchain as a way of escaping the problems of an enshittified, monopolized internet are bad arguments. White dissects each of these arguments very skillfully, and I urge you to read her review for a full list, but I'll reproduce one here to give you a taste:

After three chapters in which Dixon provides a (rather revisionistd) history of the web to date, explains the mechanics of blockchains, and goes over the types of things one might theoretically be able to do with a blockchain, we are left with "Part Four: Here and Now", then the final "Part Five: What's Next". The name of Part Four suggests that he will perhaps lay out a list of blockchain projects that are currently successfully solving real problems.

This may be why Part Four is precisely four and a half pages long. And rather than name any successful projects, Dixon instead spends his few pages excoriating the "casino" projects that he says have given crypto a bad rap,e prompting regulatory scrutiny that is making "ethical entrepreneurs … afraid to build products" in the United States.f

As White says, this is just not a good book. It doesn't contain anything to excite people who are already blockchain-poisoned crypto cultists – and it also lacks anything that will convince normies who never let Matt Damon or Spike Lee convince them to trade dollars for magic beans. It's one of those books that manages to be both paper and a paperweight.

And yet…it's a New York Times Bestseller. How did this come to pass? Here's a hint: remember how the Scientologists got L Ron Hubbard 20 consecutive #1 Bestsellers?

As Jordan Pearson writes for Motherboard, Read Write Own earned its place on the Times list because of a series of massive bulk orders from firms linked to A16Z and Dixon, which ordered between dozens and thousands of copies and gave them away to employees or just randos on Twitter:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7emkx/chris-dixon-a16z-read-write-own-nyt-bestseller

The Times recognizes this in a backhanded way, by marking Read Write Own on the list with a "dagger" (†) that indicates the shenanigans (the same dagger appeared alongside the listing for Donald Trump Jr's Triggered after the RNC spent a metric scientologyload of money – $100k – buying up cases of it):

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/21/books/donald-trump-jr-triggered-sales.html

There's a case for the Times not automatically ignoring bulk orders. Since 2020, I've run Kickstarters where I've pre-sold my books on behalf of my publisher, working with bookstores like Book Soup and wholesalers like Porchlight Books to backers when they go on sale. I signed and personalized 500+ books at Vroman's yesterday for backers who pre-ordered my next novel, The Bezzle:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/53531243480/

But there's a world of difference between pre-orders that hundreds or thousands of readers place that are aggregated into a single bulk order, and books that are bought by CEOs to give away to people who may not have any interest in them. For the book trade – librarians, reviewers, booksellers – the former indicates broad interest that justifies their attention. The latter just tells you that a handful of deep-pocketed manipulators want you to think there's broad interest.

I'm certain that Dixon – like me – feels a bit of pride at having "earned" a new first name. But Dixon – like me – gets something far more tangible than a bit of egoboo out of making the Times list. For me, a place on the Times list is a way to get booksellers and librarians excited about sharing my book with readers.

For Dixon, the stakes are much higher. Remember that cryptocurrency is a faith-based initiative whose mechanism is: "convince normies that shitcoins will be worth more tomorrow than they are today, and then trade them the shitcoins that cost you nothing to create for dollars that they worked hard to earn."

In other words, crypto is a bezzle, defined by John Kenneth Galbraith as "The magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it."

So long as shitcoins haven't fallen to zero, the bag-holders who've traded their "fiat" for funny money can live in the bezzle, convinced that their "investments" will recover and turn a profit. More importantly, keeping the bezzle alive preserves the possibility of luring in more normies who can infuse the system with fresh dollars to use as convincers that keep the bag-holders to keep holding that bag, rather than bailing and precipitating the zeroing out of the whole scam.

The relatively small sums that Dixon and his affiliated plutocrats spent to flood your podcasts with ads for this pointless 300-page Ponzi ad are a bargain, as are the sums they spent buying up cases of the book to give away or just stash in a storeroom. If only a few hundred retirees are convinced to convert their savings to crypto, the resulting flush of cash will make the line go up, allowing whales like Dixon and A16Z to cash out, or make more leveraged bets, or both. Crypto is a system with very few good trades, but spending chump change to earn a spot on the Times list (dagger or no) is a no-brainer.

After all, the kinds of people who buy crypto are, famously, the kinds of people who think books are stupid ("I would never read a book" -S Bankman-Fried):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/29/sam-bankman-fried-reading-effective-altruism/

There's precious little likelihood that anyone will be convinced to go long on crypto thanks to the words in this book. But the Times list has enough prestige to lure more suckers into the casino: "I'm not going to read this thing, but if it's on the list, that means other people must have read it and think it's convincing."

We are living through a golden age of scams, and crypto, which has elevated caveat emptor to a moral virtue ("not your wallet, not your coins"), is a scammer's paradise. Stein's Law tells us that "anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop," but the purpose of a bezzle isn't to keep the scam going forever – just until the scammer can cash out and blow town. The longer the bezzle goes on for, the richer the scammer gets.

Not for nothing, my next novel – which comes out on Feb 20 – is called The Bezzle. It stars Marty Hench, my hard-driving, two-fisted, high-tech forensic accountant, who finds himself unwinding a whole menagerie of scams, from a hamburger-based Ponzi scheme to rampant music royalty theft to a vast prison-tech scam that uses prisoners as the ultimate captive audience:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

Patrick Nielsen Hayden – the same editor who gave me my new first name – once told me that "publishing is the act of connecting a text with an audience." Everything a publisher does – editing, printing, warehousing, distributing – can be separated from publishing. The thing a publisher does that makes them a publisher – not a printer or a warehouser or an editing shop – is connecting books and audiences.

Seen in this light, publishing is a subset of the hard problem of advertising, religion, politics and every other endeavor that consists in part of convincing people to try out a new idea:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/04/self-publishing/

This may be the golden age of scams, but it's the dark age of publishing. Consolidation in distribution has gutted the power of the sales force to convince booksellers to stock books that the publisher believes in. Consolidation in publishing – especially Amazon, which is both a publisher and the largest retailer in the country – has stacked the deck against books looking for readers and vice-versa (Goodreads, a service founded for that purpose, is now just another tentacle on the Amazon shoggoth). The rapid enshittification of social media has clobbered the one semi-reliable channel publicists and authors had to reach readers directly.

I wrote nine books during lockdown (I write as displacement activity for anxiety) which has given me a chance to see publishing in the way that few authors can: through a sequence of rapid engagements with the system as a whole, as I publish between one and three books per year for multiple, consecutive years. From that vantagepoint, I can tell you that it's grim and getting grimmer. The slots that books that connected with readers once occupied are now increasingly occupied by the equivalent of the botshit that fills the first eight screens of your Google search results: book-shaped objects that have gamed their way to the top of the list.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/03/botshit-generative-ai-imminent-threat-democracy

I don't know what to do about this, but I have one piece of advice: if you read a book you love, tell other people about it. Tell them face-to-face. In your groupchat. On social media. Even on Goodreads. Every book is a lottery ticket, but the bezzlers are buying their tickets by the case: every time you tell someone about a book you loved (and even better, why you loved it), you buy a writer another ticket.

Meanwhile, I've got to go get ready for my book tour. I'm coming to LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary, Phoenix, Portland, Providence, Boston, New York City, Toronto, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Tucson, Chicago, Buffalo, as well as Torino and Tartu (details soon!).

If you want to get a taste of The Bezzle, here's an excerpt:

https://www.torforgeblog.com/2023/11/20/excerpt-reveal-the-bezzle-by-cory-doctorow/

And here's the audiobook, read by New York Times Bestselling Author Wil Wheaton:

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_459/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_459_-_The_Bezzle_Read_By_Wil_Wheaton.mp3

#pluralistic #molly white #books #publishing #dunning kruggerands #crypto #cryptocurrency #a16z #venture capitalism #guillotine watch #this is why we can't have nice things #bookselling #the bezzle #bezzles #web3 #blockchain

[ghostflowerdreams]

Audio Drama Recommendations, Pt. II

For part one, click here. I went on another audio drama binge and I found some that were pretty fun to listen to. I usually tend to go after the ones that are completed because the longer the wait, the more likely I will forget the details, but this time I just went for anything that caught my attention. This also isn’t in any particular order.

The Magnus Archives – is a horror fiction anthology podcast written by Jonathan Sims, directed by Alexander J. Newall, and distributed by Rusty Quill.

The new Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, Jonathan Sims, attempts to bring a seemingly neglected collection of people’s testimonials of their encounters with the supernatural up to date, converting them to audio and supplementing them with follow-up work from his small but dedicated team. [COMPLETED]

It has five seasons, each 40 episodes long, as well as additional content such as Q&As, non-canon fan-submitted statements and one-off episodes that tie in with Rusty Quill's other podcasts.

It does start out slow and maybe at some point you’ll be wondering where is this going and what does some of these episodes have to do with the overall story, but it does all eventually connect. Your patience will pay off because once the build-up is done it picks up and things get really interesting!

Unwell – is a horror podcast starring Clarisa Cherie Rios and produced by Hartlife NFP.

The story follows Lillian Harper who has returned home to Mt. Absalom, Ohio to care for her estranged mother Dorothy after an injury. Living in the town's boarding house which has been run by her family for generations, she discovers conspiracies, ghosts, and a new family in the house's strange assortment of residents. [ONGOING]

This audio drama has five seasons which runs for 12 episodes. It currently has 54 episodes in total and each one is about 20-30 minutes long. New episodes are released fortnightly (biweekly) on Wednesdays. They take a mid-season break between episodes 6 and 7.

Bridgewater – is a supernatural thriller audio drama produced by Grim & Mild and by iHeartRadio, created by Aaron Mahnke and written/directed by Lauren Shippen.

Folklore professor Jeremy Bradshaw is pulled into the mysterious 1980 disappearance of his police officer father, Thomas, by new evidence that threatens to upend decades of certainty. Along the way, he’s helped by some unlikely partners who challenge everything he believes in, and ultimately tries to answer the question: can the past actually be rewritten?

Together with his father’s former partner, retired Detective Anne Becker, Jeremy must chase the clues that will tell him whether his father really did fall victim to a Satanic cult in the Bridgewater Triangle—or something much more dark and unexplainable. [ONGOING]

It has two seasons, the first consist of 10 episodes and the second has 12 episodes. Each one runs about 20-30 minutes long. Season three was put on hold when there was news of a possible television series. However, that fell through and by then everyone was working on other projects. So a season three, well, that’s pretty much up in the air.

It stars Misha Collins (Supernatural), Melissa Ponzio (Teen Wolf), Nathan Fillion (Firefly, The Rookie), Karan Soni (Deadpool), Kristin Bauer (True Blood), Hilarie Burton Morgan (The Walking Dead, One Tree Hill), Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Jonathan Joss (The Magnificent Seven, Parks and Rec) and Lori Alan (Spongebob Squarepants, Family Guy).

The Lovecraft Investigations -- is a mystery thriller/horror fiction podcast written and directed by Julian Simpson, based on several works of H.P. Lovecraft. It’s produced by Sweet Talk Productions for BBC Radio 4. It concluded with three seasons and each episode is about 25-30 minutes long. There might be a fourth season in the works, but even if there isn’t the series is considered to be finished.

The first season starts off with an investigation into the disappearance of a young man, Charles Dexter Ward from a locked room in an asylum. [COMPLETED]

It stars Barnaby Kay (Shakespeare in Love), Jana Carpenter (Doctor Who), Nicola Walker (MI-5, Unforgotten), Mark Bazeley (The Queen, The Bourne Ultimatum), Phoebe Fox (Eye in the Sky, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death), Steven Mackintosh (Rang De Basanti, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), Samuel Barnett (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Penny Dreadful), Alun Armstrong (Sleepy Hollow, The Mummy Returns), Adam Godley (The Great, The Umbrella Academy), and so on.

Midnight Burger – is a monthly sci-fi audio drama about a diner at the end – and somehow the beginning – of the universe.

When Gloria took a waitressing job at Midnight Burger outside of Phoenix, she didn’t realize she was now an employee of a time-traveling, dimension-spanning diner. Every day Midnight Burger appears somewhere new in the cosmos along with its staff: a galactic drifter, a rogue theoretical physicist, a sentient old-timey radio, and some guy named Caspar.

No one knows who built Midnight Burger or how it works, but when it appears there's always someone around who could really use a cup of coffee. Come by any time, we open at six. [ONGOING]

The audio drama currently has three seasons and each episodes averages about 30 minutes to an hour or so.

Rex Rivetter: Private Eye – is a 1950s-style noir detective audio drama written by Greg McAfee, directed by Rhiannon McAfee, and produced in San Diego, CA by Downstairs Entertainment with editing and sound design by Steve Murdock. The Rex Rivetter theme “Nightmare” by the Artie Shaw Orchestra is used with permission of Music Sales Corp.

The year is 1955. Tinsel town. The land of make-believe. It's a time of growth in American prosperity. Especially in Los Angeles. Here, dreams are bought and sold.

But there's a seedier side to the City of Angels, the shadows where pimps and narcotics pushers live, where organized crime stands just around every corner with one hand out, and the other wrapped around a roscoe. It's a city full of fancy dames and slick cons, where bookies know the vig, so you better, too.

Some folks call it noir or pulp fiction. But for a private eye named Rex Rivetter, it's home. [ONGOING]

It has four seasons and each one runs about 20-30 minutes long. Due to the pandemic, it is still unknown if season five will ever come out and so far there hasn’t been any news about it either.

Mansfield Mysteries – is a satirical, cozy murder whodunit written by Amy Henson, directed by Nicholas Hoyt and produced by The QuaranTeam.

It follows the inquisitive, martini-loving socialite Dorinda Mansfield and is set in quiet, affluent Berkshire Bay. So far it only has one season, which contains nine hilarious episodes, each three-chapter story finds Dorinda wrapped up in a new murder. With the help of her devoted daughter, Stacey—as well as the occasional frenemy—Dorinda digs for clues, navigates Berkshire Bay’s elite social circles, and sifts through years’ worth of grudges and motives. In this company town, no one can be trusted, and everyone has something to hide.

Whether at the Labor Day Extravaganza, the Halloween Tennis Club Open, or secret karaoke night, Dorinda sets out to find the real killer before they get away with murder… Just as soon as she orders her martini! [COMPLETED]

If you’re looking for a bite-sized audio drama, this might be for you. It has three seasons (or chapters) and each one only takes three episodes to complete its tales, which is fun, amusing and will keep you entertained while you’re working on something or resting your eyes.

The Call of the Void – is an indie science fiction mystery audio drama created and written by Josie Eli Herman and Michael Alan Herman. It’s produced by Acorn Arts & Entertainment. It contains three seasons of 28 episodes and each one is about 25-30 minutes long with a cast of about 35 actors.

In the bustling streets of New Orleans, a tour guide and a palm-reading outcast team up to unravel the mystery behind cases of sudden insanity besetting the city. [COMPLETED]

Wolf 359 – is a science fiction audio drama created by Gabriel Urbina and produced by Gabriel Urbina and Zach Valenti under Kinda Evil Genius Productions. It consists of four seasons with 61 episodes in total and each one is about 25-40 minutes long.

It is set on board the U.S.S. Hephaestus space station orbiting the star Wolf 359 on a deep space survey mission. The dysfunctional crew deals with daily life-or-death emergencies, while searching for signs of alien life and discovering there might be more to their mission than they thought. [COMPLETED]

#audio #podcasts #audio drama #podcast #listen #audio dramas #the call of the void #wolf 359 #mansfield mysteries #midnight burger #the lovecraft investigations #the magnus archives #bridgewater podcast #unwell #unwell podcast #rex rivetter: private eye

[425599167]

I’ve always been hesitant to play Star Trek Online because of what a time sink MMOs often are, but “Mirror Wesley Crusher is the Terran Emperor, he’s merged with Mirror V’Ger, now you have to recruit God-Emperor Crusher’s evil mom to help you kill him while Wil Wheaton sounds like he’s having a blast” certainly grabbed my attention. It’s the exact kind of fanfiction nonsense I like: reminding people of a long series’ disconnected pieces by bringing them crashing together.

#star trek #star trek online #star trek online spoilers #in case anyone cares

[orderrup]

wil weaton having his child abuse trauma triggered over a segment of the today show where larry david beats up elmo is pretty heartbreaking to watch. instead of showing love and kindness to a person in terrible distress, the backlash has become a moral crusade about whether it’s child abuse to beat up elmo.

please consider the context of what happened.

larry david did not actually beat up a child. larry david hit a puppet from a children’s television show, on a live TV broadcast for adults.

it’s a very important distinction that david did NOT do this *on sesame street*. he did this on the today show. the today show is not for kids. they cover topics of sexual health and intimacy, assault allegations and #metoo. this segment wasn’t about sesame street; it was about the “trauma dumping on elmo” twitter trend— something hopefully kids aren’t watching either. this is not a show for kids. it’s a show *for adults*.

why does it matter? because people have immediately invoked “children who might be watching the today show with their parents!”

stop.

the theoretical instance of a child maybe happening to be watching something probably and getting maybe upset is the wrong path to go down. this is the same path that is getting drag banned in the united states, and trans people banned from being near children for being obscene.

if you find yourself using “think of the children!” rhetoric, you have already lost.

so, i ask that we re-center.

larry david is an asshole comedian (if you’re familiar with his work, it’s his brand. not kidding). having a sarcastic, provocative, jerk comic on TV with a deeply sincere discussion about mental health ended in the sarcastic provocative jerk co-opting the segment.

wil wheaton is not oversensitive or a crybaby or any of the other things that people have lobbed at him for experiencing and acting on a very real trauma trigger. wil’s post on facebook is achingly familiar as someone who is responding to something is a disproportionate display of pain and anguish. I dont think larry david is going to give him a personal or sincere apology for being the trigger of that suffering.

i think larry david is aware that he’s a professional asshole, and I think that, from his perspective, he strangled a puppet with an irritating high-pitched voice that’s been the butt of jokes since forever. i think wil doesn’t see it that way, and i don’t think he will be able to.

to conclude:

i do hope that we, the viewers, can collectively roll our eyes at the attention-seeking jerk behavior, and show grace and kindness to a man showing extreme and uncomfortable and uncommon vulnerability in public. the right wing media are giving him shit for being a man who shows his feelings and “can’t take a joke”. please be better than that, without using “but the children!!!” as a tool to hurt a perceived enemy.

#cw: child abuse

[alyhorse6]

Alyhorse6′s Menu

The Word Brewery

—————————————

~ “What’s This Feeling?” | pt. 2 ~ Clementine

~ “Good Boy” ~ Albert Wesker

~ “I’ll See You Sunday” ~ Albert Wesker

List of Syrups

—————————————

Ladies:

Ellie Williams (tlou)

Dina (tlou)

Abby Anderson (tlou)

Vi (Arcane)

Jinx (Arcane)

Caitlyn Kiramman (Arcane)

Sevika (Arcane)

Mel Medarda (Arcane)

Clementine (twdg)

Violet (twdg)

May Grant (911)

Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)

Ginny Weasley (Harry Potter)

Lana Winters (ahs)

Violet Harmon (ahs)

Misty Day (ahs)

Zoe Benson (ahs)

Cordelia Goode (ahs)

Maria Salazar (Deadly Class)

Saya Kuroki (Deadly Class)

Petra (Deadly Class)

Chloe Price (lis)

Max Caulfield (lis)

Snow White (twau)

Holly (twau)

Jill Valentine (RE)

Claire Redfield (RE)

Ada Wong (RE)

Kate Laswell (COD)

Lara Croft (Tomb Raider)

Gentlemen:

Joel Miller (tlou)

Jesse (tlou)

Jayce Talis (Arcane)

Viktor (Arcane)

Ekko (Arcane)

Silco (Arcane)

Lee Everette (twdg)

Louis (twdg)

Javi Garcia (twdg)

Luke (twdg)

Buck (911)

Eddie (911)

Harry Potter (Harry Potter)

Ron Weasley (Harry Potter)

Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter)

Mattheo Riddle (Harry Potter)

Sirius Black (Marauders)

Remus Lupin (Marauders)

James Potter (Marauders)

Peter Pettigrew (Marauders)

Tom Riddle (Marauders)

Tate Langdon (ahs)

Kit Walker (ahs)

Michael Langdon (ahs)

Marcus Lopez (Deadly Class)

Billy Bennett (Deadly Class)

Lex Miller (Deadly Class)

Wil Wheaton (any character)

River Phoenix (any character)

Bigby Wolf (twau)

Leon S. Kennedy (RE)

Chris Redfield (RE)

Carlos Oliveira (RE)

Albert Wesker (RE)

Simon “Ghost” Riley (COD)

Johnny “Soap” MacTavish (COD)

John Price (COD)

Kyle “Gaz” Garrick (COD)

Alejandro Vargas (COD)

Rodolfo Parra (COD)

Shop DOs

—————————————

I WILL write for any ship from the fandoms above, except for the ones I list in the things I won’t write.

I WILL write smut, smutty things I won’t write listed in the things I won’t write.

I WILL write angst minus the things I have listed… once again in the things I won’t write.

I WILL write x reader stories.

I WILL write for my OCs if you happen to take *that* much interest in them.

I WILL write LGBTQ+ stories (obviously bc I’m a member of the community)

Shop DON’Ts

—————————————

I WILL NOT write for Jilco, Caitjay, Vijay, Jakko, Javi x Clem, or Luke x Clem. Keep in mind that this is all romanticly, if you request these ships platonically then I am happy to write it.

I WILL NOT write incest, age-play, non-con/dubcon/rape-play

I WILL NOT write angst involving suicide

I WILL NOT write anything involving homophobia, transphobia, or racism.

Coffee Shop Rules

—————————————

If you request something and don’t see it, it either did not meet my criteria or I just haven’t gotten to it yet (please have patience, I’m a “busy” person because of horses💀)

Before reading please pay attention to warnings above posts, it saves you, me, and everyone else a whole lot of trouble.

When it comes to smut, MDNI and Ageless blogs dni.

Please respect when I announce that requests are/are not open. It’ll probably be a while before my request box gets backed up seeing as I have like three total followers, but it’s still a rule for the future.

No hate comments targeted towards me or anyone else.

Writing is a big passion of mine and I would love to write requests for any of you! If you listen to everything above then we can all get along and everything will remain easy and smooth sailing!

-Aly

[lol-jackles]

and yet you conveniently won't share those "tells", for obvious reasons, you don’t have any.  But I greatly appreciate the speculation entertainment over me that range from Bill Shartner, Wil Wheaton, Mark Pelligrino, Russian plant, to Asian woman.

You're obviously new because it was the Bibros who initially tried to get my account deactivated because my postings were anti Bibro, or at least went against their narratives at the time.  *Oprah gif*  So who is telling the truth?

You have it the other way around, gossips were debunked because of me.  The old spn gossip board regularly referred to my postings and I called them chuckleheads.  You never guessed we were actually secretly lovers behind the scene.  And, what the hell is a "K and V crowd"???  And

Chinese and Japanese people are not interchangeable.  Way to show your ignorance.

Actually I never hinted I was a "working actor", I out right said I was a pre-successful actor, which is not the same as "working actor' if you bother to read what a "working actor" actually is.  Hint, neither Danneel nor Gen are working actors because they can not entirely support themselves or their families soley from acting gigs.  To be able to say “I’m a working actor” is an honor and goal.  As opposed to a non-working actor who is auditioning like mad but still has a day job to make money.  

I’m adding this to the “mistaken identity” tag!

Finally, something fun!  Normally I get accused of being a Jared f/stan on days ending on "y", but you got my attention.  Where on my blog did I claim I was a Jared fan?

Correction, I'm doing the good American man thing being successful in business.  

Finally you got something right!  1 out of 9 is not terrible-terrible, just a terrible rate of 11%

Make that 1 out of 10.  You're only 10% correct.  You clearly overestimated your "talent", so don't give up your day job, if you have one.

[natalieironside]

Hey there. I have trouble understanding nuance sometimes so your recent posts about Wil Wheaton are confusing me. Are you genuinely mad at him for something? And what is it? I cannot find info and am perplexed. Thanks for reading. :) Have a splendid day.

I'm not, like, mad or upset about it; I would describe what I feel as contempt.

Basically, when you take someone else's content and repost it on your blog, this is widely regarded as a dick move because all of the attention is going to you instead of the person who actually made the post. This is especially true on a place like Tumblr.

Wil Weaton does that shit all the time, and whenever people give him shit for it he always falls back on the excuse that he did include a source; which, (1), like I outlined above, that's not the point because that's not how web traffic works, especially not on social media; and, (2), the "source" is usually r/tumblr or an image aggregator website like imgur or pinterest.

This time I saw it happening and decided to throw out a bit of snark

[nochi-quinn]

legend of vox machina season 2 episode 2: the trials of vasselheim OR sphinx-assisted therapy speedrun

giant eagle keyleth my beloved

"before I met you I would have found this very upsetting"

my partner remembers grog calling it vagisil in the stream; I do not remember this but also absolutely do not doubt it

australian matt mercer my behated

well. "behated" is strong. my beconfused.

getting "bidet" WAY early

percy you didn't get any education in statecraft you were like the fifth in line for anything

"expand the quadroads" I HEARD THAT (this time)

grant us a clip show

"when peril arrives here, our walls stand ready" yeah about that

raven queen!

"I have an old friend on the inside" a bitter ex-girlfriend more like

so much is being condensed and moved around but it mostly works!

kashaw!

stabby wheelchair!

fucking memelords

hello king bumi

"did you say yours already and I just forgot, or…" relateable

"the stormlord has no interest in dragons. his interest lies in warriors" mala: and yasha's personal relationships

I do miss grog naming pike as one of his friends for the groon fight even though she wasn't there at the time

(and vex hiding behind grog's leg)

zahra!

"you're not as charming as you think you are" vex: you take that back right the fuck now

"I just wanna put her in my pocket"

this is condensing quite a bit (and possibly combining zahra with the original leader of the Take) but also I'm just as glad to not have to deal with wil wheaton or felicia day

this demon slayer looking motherfucker

super-convenient trap door

the squeaky little "rage"

poor flametounge, only ever used as a flashlight

osysa is so fucking COOL

callout post for all of vox machina

wonder if that "save those closest to you" will come back with vex

like if kashaw will still do the ritual and pike has guilt over that, or if she learns how to rez out of sheer desperation

we do not need the lifespan angst right now osysa

"no one cares about you" what's his mother's name

who fixes these walls after grog bounces off of them

we don't do anything with dignity

"I don't care if I die. none of us do." scanlan: she doesn't speak for me

the divergence sequence is so fucking cool

ugh osysa's design, the way she's animated, her voice, everything about her

"step three?" "profit?" MEMELORDS

VICTOR

the fact that I can SEE matt's face

PERCY

no more LIES, PERCIVAL

and that was the last anyone saw of victor

I thought that was sumalee as the highbearer

(if that was already announced I absolutely forgot, I have a deficit of attention)

WELP TIME TO CRY

#crititag #lovmtag #critical role #the legend of vox machina #liveblog #reaction post #spoilers

[episodicnostalgia]

Star Trek: The Next Generation, 105 (Oct. 24, 1987) - "Where No One Has Gone Before"

Written by: Diane Duane & Michael Reaves Directed by: Rob Bowman

The Breakdown

On Starfleet's orders, an Engineer named Kosinski is sent to improve the Enterprise’s warp efficiency with the aid of his mysterious assistant. Kosinski immediately reveals himself to be quite the pompous dickhead with a massive ego, but orders are orders, so Picard and Co. induldge him.  The first test goes so unbelievably well that the Enterprise finds itself in another Galaxy, which everyone acknowledges is a bit too far to make a return trip using standard warp speeds alone.

Excitement over this new technological achievement is soon quelled when Kosinski finds himself unable to repeat the experiment, leaving the Enterprise potentially stranded in the middle of nowhere.  It turns out that Kosinski was actually just an idiot the entire time, and it was actually his assistant who made the jump, on account of being a ‘traveller’ with special abilities that allow him go wherever he wants, with few limitations. Unfortunately, exhaustion just happens to be one one such limitation; and this dude is plenty exhausted after the jump.

Wesley has been the only person up to this point to notice the Traveler, and has tried to bring it to Picard’s attention, but everyone keeps getting too irritated by Wesley’s “Wesleyness” to bother listening to him.  But once Picard IS willing to listen, he pays the Traveller a visit where the mysterious visitor explains that he is a) from a group of advanced space jumping folk, and b) that Wesley is super special and that he should be encouraged in his specialness, but never told about it overtly (apparently he needs to figure it out on his own, for reasons that are definitely not arbitrary).  And with that, the Traveller agrees to one last attempt towards bringing everyone home.  It almost fails again, but Wesley is evidently able to transfer some of his special-boy-energy to aid the Traveller before he disappears-possibly-to-death. With everyone home safe, Picard decides to let Wesley become an acting ensign, to start him on his chosen-one journey toward specialness.

The Verdict

This may be the first episode (chronologically speaking). That I can honestly say I like. Oh, there are still plenty of hokey and down-right-cringey moments, also Wesley is more involved than I care for, but at it’s core this is a solid little episode. The Traveler and his story are both intriguing, and there’s some solid groundwork that’s established seemingly in the service of Picard becoming less of an asshole to children (and hopefully also just in general). I can understand why others would rate this lower, but with Star Trek one has embrace a little campiness, and an embarrassing dose of optimism; That being said, ‘Where No One Has Gone Before’ very closely pushes the limit of what I can tolerate for both.

3 stars (out of 5)

Additional Observations

ST: Voyager is basically the same plot + 7 seasons.

I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I actually don’t despise Wesley this time around. I mean yeah he’s still the worst (sorry Wil Wheaton), but his character serves the plot, and he legitimately does nothing wrong. Indeed, he actually helps, all while enduring a lot of abuse. I came very close to rooting for him.

At the same time, the way the crew bullies Wesley is also hilarious, if only because it goes completely unaddressed. It’s like the show is trying to gaslight the audience into doubting that it’s even happening.

#star trek the next generation #tng season 1 #Where No One Has Gone Before #retro review #star trek review #star trek #star trek tng #galaxy class #traveller #80s tv shows #80s tv series #tv show review #space exploration #wesley crusher #diane duane #michael reaves #rob bowman #episodic nostalgia

[skookumsupine]

WIL WHEATON/LARRY DAVID/ELMO beef is clearly part of a larger ARG commemorating the end of Curb Your Enthusiasm and announcing he's playing the part of Picard's shitty fraternal twin brother in the new Star Trek series. pay attention yall cmon

#arg #wil wheaton #elmo #larry david #are you people blind??? #picard's shitty twin brother

[valerie]

TWITL - week 4 - reminiscing moods

MONDAY - 22 January We start with a dream. I dreamt that I was in a mall or event center and tech reviewers I follow were there. I spotted two and tried to wrangle picture with just the two of them but somehow it turned into a group thing and I wasn't even standing next to both of them. The picture was taken and I tried again to take a picture with just the two but it never happened. Darn it! I often dream about being in some kind of mall or event center or festivity that's huge in scope and travels in some kind of circle. I bet there's a reason for that but I haven't quite figured it out yet and I haven't looked it up. What does it mean to dream of being in a place where you're basically walking in a huge circle trying to find someone or something you want or need? https://flic.kr/p/2ptZUPu Thomas Beaudoin in Top Dogs... Yes, I did more screenshots of Top Dog because Thomas Beaudoin. I'm almost done with the show and maybe I'll go back and actually watch it even though I definitely do not understand 99% of the words coming out of their mouths. I don't mind though. Part of the learning of things. WEDNESDAY - 24 January Today started off dark and dreary. Now it's just gray and dreary. I don't mind very much. I like the cooler weather. The rain is fine by me as long as I'm not in it-- driving or otherwise. Besides, we need the rain! Twenty-five years ago I got to take a picture with Dean O'Gorman, Ryan Gosling, and Joel Tobeck. I figure it warranted its own post so if you want to read it, click on that link at the beginning of this paragraph. When I saw that the group shot is one of my most favorite photos with me in it, I am not exaggerating. I love that photo and I'm so glad to show it off and tell its story every chance I get. And today is that day, hence its own entry. And since I can't resist, here's the photo again:

Dean, me, Ryan, Joel Happy Birthday to William Gregory Lee! I wish I had Greg's number so I could randomly text him with my bday wishes. If we ever reconnect, I'm asking for his number. We're supposed to be friends, after all. We met over two decades ago! (Seriously, how has it been that long?!) THURSDAY - 25 January I finished listening to John Scalzi's Starter Villain last night. I loved it! I found it utterly delightful and I laughed out loud so many times. I think this might be my first listening to Wil Wheaton narrate a fictional book (I have one of his own books on audio) and he does a fantastic job. I've enjoyed all the Scalzi books I've read/listened to so far and this one was a good one. I'd definitely recommend it. It's fun! As I was finishing Starter Villain, my Libby alerted me that my next book was ready to check out -- Rick Riordan's The Chalice of the Gods. Of course, I went right into reading that after I finished Starter Villain ended. It feels like ages since I read a proper Percy Jackson book and having the show on the air reminded me how much I enjoy that world. I laughed at how startled I was that Percy is still in high school at the beginning of the book. I feel like he should already be in college but time is different when it comes to books. Can't wait to see what the gods have in store for Percy in this one... Top Dogs - Fine, I only "watched" this show because of Thomas Beaudoin. I couldn't understand a word of it (it's French Canadian) but I got the gist of some of the broader things happening. Maybe I'll go back and watch it with more attention instead of just skimming to Thomas' scenes. His character goes through some things through the three seasons. The episodes are short and easy to watch. I had to turn on my VPN and pretend I was in Montreal or Toronto to watch online. So there's that. Percy Jackson and the Olympians - I am very much enjoying this show. This week we got to see the Underworld and this iteration of Hades. I have a soft spot for Hades and the Underworld that stems from the Herc/Xena days so it was interesting to see this show's version of both the place and the character. I liked it!... As for the show, it's been ages since I've read the first Percy Jackson books but this show definitely feels like the books did, hence my enjoyment. I'm a bit of a sucker for weaving mythological stuff with the real world. The whimsy of it is such fun. FRIDAY - 26 January Here we are at the end of the week! It's a bit before 0700 hrs and yes, I'm already online. And I might not write again until later today so here's a shot from yesterday: https://flic.kr/p/2puBbDF me at work SUNDAY - 28 January https://flic.kr/p/2puREJc corn in a "cup" We went to the Farmers Market yesterday! First visit of 2024. The weather was lovely and dry and chilly enough for long sleeves and the vest jacket. Love going out in my vest jacket because of all the pockets, which means me not needing to bring a purse. Yes to pockets! https://flic.kr/p/2puQRZy vest jacket and hat for farmers market We did a little day drinking as well while out Saturday afternoon. I had a cider, a mimosa, and a cider. I also had my requisite corn in a cup and then nachos at our second stop. Love these kinds of Saturdays... The Niners are down at halftime. Not good times at all. WRITING "No For Now" (working title, which I don't really like but it'll do for now) - I think I FINALLY have the character names but they still haven't settled in my head yet. The next block was their occupations and for some reason, I went with a job that I had used for a previous character, which led to me re-reading that particular story. My records show that I wrote the story in 2008 and some of the details show. I mention Blackberries and digital cameras and iPods. It's wild. The story isn't so bad. I was in my CSI stage for that one. This current story started with a scene (as most of my stories do) and now I'm trying to work around the details of that scene. I'd like to write it and be done and not save it for November. We'll see how it goes... https://flic.kr/p/2puEM6v My busy time at work begins later this week. Oh boy, here we go... Read the full article

#books #thomasbeaudoin #tv #writing

[sadnessruns]

OOC---

hi here’s my thoughts about wes post s3 premiere

so like one thing that baffles me is that beverly did not talk to anyone post nemesis and like yeah sometimes bad shit happens but like it makes me sad that she probably also hasn’t talked to her son. wesley shows up for half a second in picard and while he’s a full adult and a traveler i hope he can come and see her again. i hope he knows about his half-brother, but the way wil wheaton was talking about jack on the ready room kinda implies that he doesn’t know about jack which makes me so fucking sad.

i refuse to think wes hasn’t taken time to see her, taken time to know jack. i feel like he would have been protective of both of them and take care of them, even if he could only meet them once in the last 20 years. i know in my heart wes is always watching them and missing his mom, hoping she’ll reach out to her friends and stop hiding herself away from them.

as far as jack goes, i think wes probably was excited, but also a little bitter to have a little brother in the way that he doesn’t get his mom’s full attention anymore. but he instantly steps into the role of being a big brother, i think. it’s definitely weird to him that his dad’s name is the name of his brother when jack probably is not his own father’s son. i think there’s definitely some weird tension, but if anything wesley would be protective of him and love him in a way only an older brother can. especially since it seems like jack didn’t have a father growing up just like wesley did for a majority of his childhood. he would want to be there so jack could have someone else besides their mother to talk to, especially because it seems like they were really isolated.

idk. i just think wesley loves his mom so much and also would be a good brother :’)

#picard spoilers #out of maps (OOC) #headcanon: wesley crusher

[thomaslaurencetempleton]

Ok! 75 MG of THC, a bottle of wine, all the shows I could want to stream in front of me, and most importantly a fucking edit button. Let's get weird we're trying a new format.

Weird Go Pro and what not.

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

Finally saw the Trailer for Vox Machina season 2. I really, really wanted to hate that show. Something about a bunch of nerds making money & fame off of their "nerd-cred" triggers a nerve reserved for my Wil Wheaton hatred (It's feature, not a bug considering how much bad content there is in that genre).

Vox is against my instincts good. Very good. If the D&D movie copies even half of what it has going for it, it could be a pretty successful IP. There was not many Fantasy TV & Movies being done well in America that wasn't called Game of Thrones. They were one of the first Animated series to break that. Certainly the first to not be some bleak mess.

A year later and the flood gates are opening...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ fin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Master Boot Record dropped a new Keygen

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

So Willow is a damn fun series. It's D&D Teens with Dad & his weird friends.

If you consider the primal love of the fantasy genre resides somewhere, painted on the side of a van? This is a great outcome.

Willow the movie was great because it was a generic fantasy universe; Mad Madigan, Mordred the Witch, a baby that is supposed to be the chosen one. An A-level Production of B-level film.

The new Willow series is all that in weekly hour long format. It honestly feels kinda like Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a gigantic budget and no monster of the week pacing. I mean, just go and look at the dialog throughout this scene from this week's episode:

#Christ, I am getting old.

It feels like all the good CW writers have to be working for Disney+ now. It's that quippy, quirky, Joss Wheadon style of writing on this & Hawkeye. She-Hulk was just enough on the weird style dramedy that it had to have come from that school of thought...

I don't know. Im just making this shit up.

Fun episode though and the use of this song was excellent...

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

Testing the waters on DragonBall Superhero. It's definitely DragonBall Z acting like it's the MCU. Kinda fun, but not enough attention for tonight.

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

Hmmmmmm.......

Nah.........

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

Guess I am learning about nihari cause I have an addiction to street food shows these days...

What is Nihari?

Nihari comes from the word for morning in Arabic. It is a beef or goat stew cooked through the night. Popular in Pakistan... It looks like the Indian sub-continent version of Texas Chili or Birria.

I want to play with that idea... But my smoker is broken. 😔

#writing #anime review #weird #thc edibles #vox machina #master boot record #willow disney+ #Youtube

[olivereactsaboutgarbage]

One Piece Chapters 166-174

oops i wrote the opening to this post when i was feeling silly and forgot to change it until just now

Chapter 166 - Luffy vs. Vivi

Wil Wheaton immediately wants to know what the deal is with the previous chapter’s complete non-explanation of the villains’ plan. ...Wait, Wil Wheaton?! They want him dead!!!

Actually, Mr. Zero changes his mind about wanting Wil Wheaton dead. Or Does He? You really ought to make up your mind about this type of thing in advance...

okay rude

...oh come to think about it this means they still don’t know about sanji

lmao sanji ultimate predator

lmao

Anyway Mr. Zero doesn’t want the princess to meet the primary male child. Hmm. Good luck with that, their fates are probably bound by the chains of destiny or something

Lufpy also doesn’t want the princess to meet the primary male child. Hmm. Good luck with that, their fates are probably bound by the chains of destiny or something

BRO??? LUFPY CALLING SOMEONE NAIVE???

BRO??? SANJI LEVELHEADEDLY TELLING A WOMAN TO CHILL OUT???

Next we’ll get Zoro saying “I’m too weak” and going away from someplace.

Next we’ll get Usopp calmly reading a book, explaining to anyone who asks why he’s reading a book that he thinks book protagonists are way cooler than he is.

Next we’ll get Nami sacrificing her life for someone else.

Next we’ll get Tony Tony Chopper asking Usopp why he’s reading a book.

Chapter 167 - Battlefront

Oh good, they fixed their map.

Freaking fetishist

Hm, the primary male child is kinda epic. He wants to kill the king though.

Hm, the king is kinda epic: He doesn’t want to kill the primary male child

Oh, false alarm you guys. Don’t worry guys. It was a false alarm. It turns out Chocobos aren’t impostors

Woah, ominous last page of this chapter... “The primary male child will try to kill the king but the king won’t be there, the king will be attacking Mr. Zero, who will ALSO be getting attacked by Lufpy and friends

Mr. Zero’s Plan Is In Motion :)”

Maybe being so vague about what the plan actually is was worth it for this tension.

Chapter 168 - Rainbase, the City of Dreams

I hope Sanji coincidentally never becomes someone Mr. Zero EVER knows about. I hope Mr. Zero survives this arc, but lies on his deathbed at the end of One Piece sadly muttering the names of every single crew member Lufpy has ever had except Sanji under his dying breath.

...why DOES nami even have a misandrist camel with two places to sit one of which is unfilled. what does this add to the story

Lufpy wanders up to the cops and starts yelling. You know, Those Two Cops. They’re too busy talking about how something evil is probably nearby to notice Lufpy, though. So Lufpy is resorted to extreme measures to get their attention: With help from Usopp, he spits in their faces.

YES!!! THE PROPHECY!!!

Lufpy uses his inflation fetish yet another time.

Sanji will never be seen again.

Zoro says “I’m too weak” and goes away from someplace.

Usopp creates a Professor Fizzwizzle puzzle for some cops to solve.

Nami is hanging out with Usopp again. Are they friends, or does Oda just find it easier to write the relatively unimpressive people if they’re standing next to each other?

Oh man, they’re still being chased by cops but Sanji isn’t there... them splitting up truly did serve NO purpose other than FULFILLING THE PROPHECY...

Chapter 169 - The Kingdom’s Strongest Warrior

Everyone important gets captured, including the gluttonous cop.

...WAIT??? THEY GOT CAPTURED BY DISOBEYING MR. ZERO??? NOT BY OBEYING HIM??? HOLY SHIT

The gluttonous cop has Kryptonite with him. But for water instead of for the planet Krypton. So a little different.

Mr. Zero says: “You’re all going to die. ...Huh? You don’t think I’m your friend? How noteworthy.”

Lufpy should just finagle his whole body through the gap between the bars without touching the bars by becoming a long noodle. ...well, maybe that’s a bit beyond the extent of his abilities... so he should definitely do it.

The princess gets rescued by a man who can become a bird.

The mysterious woman shows up near them.

Chapter 170 - Beginning

The mysterious woman is missing her inswef...

Luckily, the princess finds it!

Friendship!

The mysterious woman’s power is... human arms? So everything she’s done up until now... was done through human arms? Hm.

She uses human arms to destroy a bird.

No... the prophecy is ruined!!! Mr. Zero has met Sanji now!!!

Wait, wasn’t she just with the mysterious woman? And where’s the white band on her arm? SHE’S AN IMPOSTOR!!! THAT’S NOT A REAL PRINCESS!!! MR. ZERO LOOK OUT!!! THE KILLER IS RIGHT THERE!!!

Oh, false alarm you guys. Don’t worry guys. It was a false alarm. It turns out princesses aren’t impostors

Good thing this means she won’t kill Mr. Zero!

The king has gone missing. Meanwhile, the king is committing atrocities. But wait... WHERE’S USOPP’S ARMBAND IN THIS SCENE?! HE’S AN IMPOSTOR!!! THAT’S NOT A REAL USOPP!!! KING LOOK OUT!!! THE KILLER IS SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!

I thought better of you, Usopp.

Chapter 172 - Rebellion

The primary male child watches a secondary male child die and decides to commit more murder.

Anyway, I guess Mr. Zero’s plan really was for the two armies to destroy each other. Here I thought some sort of “by not destroying each other, the two armies are playing right into Mr. Zero’s hands” thing was going on. That would’ve been lit.

...WAIT HAS TONY TONY CHOPPER BEEN PEEING THIS WHOLE TIME?! AND WHEN IS IT GOING TO MATTER THAT THE THIRD FRIEND WAS NAMED RIKA?!

This is just like that Disney movie!

Probably. I dunno. I haven’t seen it.

Mr. Zero throws away a key just like he threw away Wil Wheaton. Wait, I think I completely forgot to mention that: He threw away Wil Wheaton.

Well, at least he didn’t throw away Penny Nichols... his BEST underling...

Chapter 173 - Bananagator

Ooh! Ooh! I know this one! One of the gators has a dog under it, so the princess simply needs to ride that gator around while it kills all the other gators!

Hehe... “Mr.”... “Beast”... this is just like my favorite YouTuber... Errant Signal...

The cop doesn’t count as part of the dichotomy. He’s screwed no matter what.

Mr. Zero gets another call from Steve Buscemi. But it’s too late. He already made his choice. “Wil Wheaton... or Steve Buscemi... Make your choice, but you’ll be lucky to kill anyone. You have to decide whom to bet on, Mr. Zero. In a situation like this, even a celebrity is powerless.”

Chapter 174 - Mr. Prince

steve buscemi dies

the princess dies

the princess actually isn’t dead

Mr. Zero is a sub, but... he’s having a hard time finding a sexual partner... still... he’s not gonna give up...

steve buscemi actually isn’t dead

#one piece #is what i'm consuming

[captainofthestrangestship]

Star Trek: The Next Generation

So I am now finally watching Next Gen. Where most of my knowledge of the show was that the first episode started with the ship getting trapped in some space net thing. Which I clearly then just stopped watching as I had no idea that the very first episode introduced Q, and that there were some space jelly fish trapped in a planet. It is funny to me the amount of awkward exposition that was needed in the first episode to explain what changes have happened and how tech has changed over the years. It was nice to see Bones again however that cameo was super random and felt like it could have gone literally anywhere in the episode. His southern side was showing more obviously and it was funny that he was so shocked that Data could remember so much even though he wasn’t a Vulcan and had no pointy ears. Also he’s an Admiral??

Just like TOS I had some preconceived notions of the show and characters, and from that i know most people don’t think it gets good until later in the show, but I have mostly enjoyed it so far. It also feels much more like the star trek that I’m used to. The opening’s music just feels like star trek to me and is much more familiar.

In terms of the characters I wasn’t really expecting much, everyone is so far what I thought they’d be. However Riker looks so young in the first season, like who is that, pretty sure this guy has a beard. Also Geordi is in red this season? and is the pilot? Also there is no head science officer, or no clear one and no communication officer. Also there is now a head of security, don’t know much about Lieutenant Yor but she clearly has a dark and tragic backstory so that should be fun to unlock as the show goes on though she seems like a loose cannon. Hopefully Deanna gets to do more than just say obvious things that are pretty clear to anyone who is paying attention to the way other people react. 

I am interested in seeing how Wesley changes over the series, mainly because I know that a lot of people seemingly hate the kid. Though so far he’s pretty harmless and isn’t even that annoying for a teen character but I’m only eight episodes in. He seems he was just a cute boy for girls to like. Though he seems so young too, as I am familiar with Wil Wheaton in the present so that was definitely strange. 

Not super keen on the romance or tension between Picard and Doctor Crusher. Just seems weird and like I don’t care. Also sorta how I feel about Deanna and Riker’s tension, especially as I know that they do get together, just waiting for that to happen I guess. Also does Deanna do actual counselling with members of the crew? Should be interesting to see more of that.

Data has been fun so far, should be interesting to watch him learn more about humans and he’s kinda the Spock character for this show. 

Anyway enjoying it so far though, however it is becoming clearer I probably did need to see some of this before watching the Picard show. Maybe once I’ve finished the Picard show will make more sense.

#star trek #star trek the next generation #first time watching