#i got myself into a 100 day challenge at the top of last year

[oswlld]

2022: A Summary

Post your most popular and/or favorite edit/gifset from each month (it’s okay to skip months!)

tagged by (1) @hoe-biwan (2) @casualavocados (3) @dramaism (4) @i-got-the-feels & (5) @talays-portkey 💛💛  WOW thank you all for thinking of me, happy to oblige (also gonna plug the one i did last year for edits i made in 2021; idek why i formatted the post that way maybe dont look at it fjslkd just go look at everyone elses)

January most popular — bad buddy ep10 quote set: itll always be the most memorable quote set, since it was the first live ep that i caught after binging it favorite(s) — 1) bad buddy + giovanni’s bedroom: i remember seeing a photoshoot set with this format and knew i wanted to replicate it (prior to this i usually am insp by quotes first, worry about formats/layouts later); 2) bad buddy + hadestown “promises”: because im so predictable and still think about them when i hear the song

February most popular — bad buddy + kaveh akbar quote: the fact that the most popular edit ended up being the valentines day post is so satisfying favorite(s) — bad buddy + pride & prejudice: i actually thought that this was going to be the most popular and it was a close race (eight notes apart lol)

March most popular — bad buddy random screencap #19: a requested screencap that is most beloved by all, what else is there to say favorite(s) — 1) semantic error ep2 set: of all the episodic sets i made for the show, i really liked how this came together thematically; 2) the good place + eleanor quote: i can only count in one hand edits that i’ve thought about making for YEARS before actually making it, but this is prob up on top of the rest, in terms of execution

April most popular — doctor who + the girl who died quote: i think my defining trait in my dw edits is flipping quotes between the two and even though it’s not a new concept to do them, im never not thinking about them and what other moments to edit with favorite(s) — bad buddy + jane eyre: don’t get me wrong, the clara edit is also a fave, but this is tied for best because look at them 😭

May most popular — star wars + leia/padme parallel: not my first sw edit, but the first one ive done while a show was airing; also would like to shout out to the screencap galleries out there for both the sw series and movies, the real mvps favorite(s) — moon knight + head/heart/hands: i have an inside joke with myself with this edit and the tags give it way a bit lol

June most popular — star wars + anakin/darth progression: ofc this is the edit with the most notes overall. hellsite pls never change lol favorite(s) — 1) doctor who + weeping angels: not sure what it about me and making my edits as complicated as possible because it becomes a whole mental marathon, with just me and my phone but im proud of this one; 2) vice versa + series trailer: ive repeated this sentiment in other posts so i wont go into it again here, but this edit will also be so special for me

July most popular — star wars + princess leia: hi, miss you space mom favorite(s) — vice versa ep3 + caitlyn siehl: i think of all the episodic edits, there’s only a fair few that doesn’t carry the flipped/mirrored text effect; all this to say that i am very happy how this one turned out, out of all the versions of the effects (PLUS this quote still makes me teary eyed in hindsight, ugh baby boi i KNOW what youre capable of I KNOW)

August most popular — taylor swift + midnights announcement: i knew that i wanted to make something ts related after having made a few for red tv, so this came together pretty quickly favorite(s) — sense8 + birthday!: i love that a few tags from other ppl pointed out a lack of Will… it’s, uh, intentional lmao

September most popular — the little mermaid + D23 teaser: i still get chills favorite(s) — vice versa ep11 part one: look, i dont miss making these edits each week because, again, the mental marathon i put myself through lol but ep11 [1/4] is now imprinted on my soul and i could not do the ep justice in ONE post (i also made myself cry making the last edit but thats not why its my fav lol)

October most popular — doctor who + regen redux parallel: 50th anniv ep, my beloved favorite(s) — 1) bad buddy + mastermind lyrics: absolutely not my original idea lol but one that i reallllly wanted to make once it consumed my waking hours; 2) vice versa ep12 quote set: its a real color to me

November most popular AND favorite — andor + maarva quote: WHAT A SHOW! WHAT A QUOTE! WHAT A CHARACTER!! I MISS IT TERRIBLY

December most popular — doctor who + google search: it seriously warms my heart that the most popular edit ended being my birthday post and with my most beloved, my url namesake, my queen favorite(s) — reset + best 2022 series: i mean, the clara edit is also def a faaav fav, but i’m so attached to this show and worked so hard to make this for sam lmao (not sure what it is about the two-row sets that are really intimidating to me but thats a whole other matter) very few ppl know how long ive been dyinggg to make this all year, so i was so happy to see that someone requested it. im gonna look at it a little longer before i post this... *sigh*

--

i think everyone has been tagged at this point, but feel free to make one yourself if you have not been tagged yet and tag me

#this is jessi #tagged #tag meme #if anyone wants to try it yourself #i got myself into a 100 day challenge at the top of last year #making one or two edits a day until you've reached a limit #well it only worked for me because it was solely driven by creativity overload #made it to maybe.... upper 80s low 90s?? #didnt make it to 100 but i was close #its not for everyone but its a practice i honed in art school #all this to say that it was important for me to go thru that challenge #i need to experience all that to make all the edits i produced from april onwards #i dont think i will be making as much as i did in 2022 this year #but i hope to be tagged again next year and laugh at these tags

[umgeorge]

george russell is interviewed during the press conference, saudi arabia - march 6, 2024 (transcript under the cut)

Interviewer: "George, why don't we start with you? Mercedes were difficult to read at the pre-season test, and it feels they were a little bit difficult to read at the first race weekend, as well. What conclusions did you draw from the Bahrain Grand Prix?" George: "I think the conclusions we drew were the car has potential. I think when we saw the pace on FP2, that was genuine. Lewis and I had P1 and P2. I think probably not everybody turned up, but we were genuinely fast. And then in the race we had some really big cooling issues that caught us by surprise, and we know there's at least a fifteen second loss just in the battery and the power, and probably more after you consider the effect it had on the tires. And just an extra couple of seconds in stint one, when I had Checo beind me, would have been pretty handy, so I think we'd have been in the fight for P2, for the podium, with Checo and Carlos, but definitely we didn't show our true potential." Interviewer: "Were those cooling issues a simple miscalculation, or something that actually needs a fix?" George: "I think it was definitely a miscalculation. It would have been quite straightforward to just open the bodywork very slightly and make things much easier, but we don't know how we fell into that place… Sorry, I'm just distracted by Charles walking in." [laughs] Interviewer: "Charles. Welcome!" Leclerc: "Sorry." George: "Yeah, lost my groove now. [laughs] No, but we don't really understand why, because we didn't change anything from testing-in FP2, as well-and it suddenly caught us out on Saturday, so I'm sure it'll be better this weekend." Interviewer: "I was gonna say, are you worried about it this weekend? George: "We need to get on top of it, and we've got some tests tomorrow to try and understand further what happened." Interviewer: "Alright. Thank you, George." [time jump] Journalist: "Nelson Valkenburg, Viaplay, for George: F1 media, everybody, is obsessed with the possibility of is Max going to Mercedes. How would you feel if a driver who had some choice words for you a year ago would join the team?" George: [laughs] "Yeah, I think… As I said last week in Bahrain, this is my third season now alongside Lewis, greatest driver of all time, and I feel like I've done a pretty good job alongside him, so whoever were to line up alongside me next year or the years to come, I welcome anybody, welcome the challenge. You always wanna go against the best, but ultimately, for me, just focused on myself. I believe in myself, I believe I can beat anybody on the grid, and you just got to have that mentality, so as I said, having Lewis as my benchmark for the last couple of years has been a pretty good benchmark, for sure." [time jump]

Journalist: "But what chance, George? What chance is Max Verstappen really going to Mercedes? From the inside, could you see it happening? 'Cause it would be perobably the biggest story since your current teammate signed for Ferrari." George: "I think any team want to have the best driver line-up possible and right now Max is the best driver on the grid, so if any team had a chance to sign Max they would 100% be taking it. So I think the question's more on the other side, on his side, and on Red Bull's side. Obviously so much going on there. We don't know what truly's going on behind closed doors and ultimately it's none of our business right now. Yeah, I guess it would be exciting." [time jump] (NOT SHOWN:) Journalist: "David Croft, Sky Sports F1. You all did 57 laps. Everyone did 57 laps, apart from those that were lapped, on Saturday in Bahrain. You all went into the race optimistic, I'm sure, because it was the first race of the season. How was your optimism levels at the checkered flag? That's to all of you." George: "I think after three days of testing everybody knows Bahrain pretty well. It all panned out as we probably expected, but obviously we all hope that the field tightens up a little bit right at the front. But the fight behind Max, I think, is really, really tight and it's gonna be quite exciting, between ourselves, Ferrari, Aston, and McLaren." [time jump] (NOT SHOWN:) Journalist: "Diego Mejia, Fox Sports Mexico. Both Charles and George, about the issues you had with the cooling, with the brakes and the power unit, is that a worry here? Was it probably the changing conditions in Bahrain that caused that, that we had probably the lowest temperature before the race started and then it was increasing over the race weekend?" George: "Yeah, similar to Charles, it was definitely a bit of an odd one for us, but we're confident we're on top of it and won't face the same issue this weekend."

#george russell #f1 #formula 1 #saudi arabian gp 2024 #fic ref #fic ref 2024 #saudi arabia #saudi arabia 2024 #saudi arabia 2024 wednesday #yuki tsunoda #charles leclerc #valtteri bottas #lance stroll #nico hulkenberg #tw max #with lewis

[herotome]

Finally-official-devlog #112

Also known as FOD112 hi-ho, Wudge here.

Gosh there's just. So much. I'm actually drafting this devlog a few days early so that I'm not suddenly overwhelmed on devlog Tuesday again. But without further ado-

This is the big cheese right here -- each character has their own layer, each character's clothes and expressions have their own layers, and there's a separate layer for the soft orange lighting on top of it all. 😭

On that note, here's most of the individual image files that create the CG with their powers (and my code) combined:

And since this is a cropped version of a BIGGER CG (featuring ALL the love interests sitting together), I had to tinker with the position code a great deal to properly feature these three goons Of course it was worth it of course twas merely at the cost of all my energy and sanity at the prospect of eventually possibly also adding in blinks and expression changes--

Mad props as usual to the sweetwonderfulamazing Remnantation who first completed this CG -checks watch- sometime last year! With some additional edits by me since then~

And, did you happen to notice something new in the lower right?

Tadah... a brand new click-to-continue icon animation! I made (mostly) all by myself! The lil sparkle burst is free from production crate, but I drew the star and added the rotation code... ... Honestly, the hardest and most time-consuming part of this was finalizing the design. Originally I was gonna make it rotate 45 degrees, flip, rotate 45 more degrees, flip, etc-- and messed with that concept for several hours before scrapping it for a simpler, more graceful idea. :| Part of the process, I gots to tell myself, part of the process...

Next up is Jade's powers, as you may have seen in the preview last week. Much like the CTC animation, I did a lot of research on other ideas - various glowing VFX like vertical veins across the cheeks and smoky rising from the eyes, as well as a bigger low opacity character zoom effect - before settling on something simple. Jade's power usage here is... pretty mild in context, and I figure I can always store the more dramatic animations for later in the story.

Here's a still of the effect btw:

Her eyes look like headlights lmaooo. Honk honk!

Do I have more to update with? Believe it or not, yes.

I made some icons, which took a fair amount of trial and error: on the left you'll see an earlier draft, on the right are my more final redesigns from the same day(...night. midnight. I worked on these until midnight).

I had to look up some guidelines because most of my previous icons did NOT look good or legible when sized down to 50x50 pixels. What I learned was, tadah, I had to draw with an unprecedented line width of 200 pixels! (For non-artists: I typically draw with a pen width of 12 pixels at most).

I also studied the icon styles of Persona 5, which saved me a lot of time - they had a cool stylistic choice of diagonally tilted color blocks and thick black outlines.

Here's yet another gif of icons in action...

Did you see them? Did you?? For a split second, in the upper right.... Still gotta adjust some of the text overlap, don't look at that.

Oh and the "How to play" page is brand new. I coded it from scratch... That also took all night...

... Oh. Oh. And remember your MC's phone?

This old thing? Yeah. Visual upgrade:

Also rendered and colored in by Rem <3 Where would I be without them...!

The text, though, can be updated in code!!!! I spliced the phone into layers, with the screen on top and code-generated text just below it, so I can update the caller ID at any point in-game without making any new images.

Took a little while to get it to work... honestly it doesn't look 100% centered... but it's fine. This is fine...

And then... more code. After much tears, blood and strife, I got a musical crossfade to work. It shouldn't have been challenging but it was a nightmare -- when calling the crossfade the second track would either not play at all or its volume wouldn't change and I was starting to develop a preference for eating gravel. But I persisted, found a much simpler code that actually works. After the tearsbloodstrife.

And...... lastly... I simplified this big block of code:

vbox: pos (269, 76) add "sprites/MC/mc[mc_number].png" hbox: if mc_number ==1: text "DEFAULT" style "MC_label_text" elif mc_number ==2: text "LAVENDER" style "MC_label_text" elif mc_number ==3: text "PETUNIA" style "MC_label_text" elif mc_number ==4: text "SUNFLOWER" style "MC_label_text" else: text "TBD" style "MC_label_text"

...(not properly indented bc tumblr is mean 2 me)...

down to these lines, to make my future life easier:

default PrintMC = ["Default", "Lavender", "Petunia", "Sunflower", ""]

text PrintMC[mc_number] style "MC_label_text"

Two!!! lines!!!!!

🎊

Instead of typing out additional if/else lines, I only need to add new names to the PrintMC list. Won't really affect the player at all, but it's a HUGE quality of life update for me!

...Anyway that's it, thank you for checking in. <3

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

PS screw it I'm gonna queue post this early.

PPS have you listened to our composer's new single yet? No?!?!?!

Every click, every listen helps, and every song of his is a BOP that deserves recognition!

ok that's all for real now xoxoxo,

wudge (again)

#herotome update #interactive fiction #oelvn #visual novel #otome game #english otome #otome #amare game #amare #amareteabreak #indie otome #indie dev #indie game #Youtube

[between-thepages]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I was tagged by @gabetheunknown, thank you <3

how many works do you have on ao3?

Currently 88, I am determined to make it to 100 before the end of the year.

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

29,604

3. what fandoms do you write for?

The Witcher Books/Games, Silmarillion, Lord of the Rings and sometimes Endeavour/Inspector Morse when the fancy strikes.

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

In the Morning (Glorestor)

Dance to the Firelight (Rorveth)

Eating Love (Rorveth)

Mirror Image (Rorveth)

Body and Soul (Yenralt)

5. do you respond to comments? why or why not?

I respond to them, I love comments, but I'm slow. Also, there are only so many variations of "Thank you" one can type in a day before it starts feeling ridiculous. I promise I'll get to your comments before Christmas!

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

my Iorveth/Cedric drabble from last spring. I had to cope with the Ending of Lady of the Lake.

7. what is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably Beautiful like Starlight, but even that isn't really all that happy... I am writing a followup to it at the moment though.

8. do you get hate on any fics?

So far, only from a certain someone for shipping the wrong characters, but i usually have my comments restricted to logged-in users, so leaving Anon hate isn't really possible.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

I will write everything once and then decide if I'll do it again xD Expect it to be at least somewhat kinky.

Also, it has to fit into a drabble or two, I can't really write long-form smut.

10.do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written?

I haven't yet, I will write a Witcher/Silm crossover one day, just so I can get some of the ladies to meet

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't know, but I doubt my drabbles are interesting enough to steal.

12.have you ever had a fic translated?

Not officially, but I am trying to translate some of my fics myself. No idea when I'll be done there, though.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

No

14.what's your all time favorite ship?

As a multi-shipper, all time favourites are hard, because all i need are three compelling arguments and I start shipping another pairing xD

I guess Fingon/Maedhros is one of the pairings where I am least likely to read a fic if they are partnered with someone else.

15.what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I'll burn with a light of my own, because I started it for a flashfic challenge right before my silm hyperfixation hit full force, so Witcher is a bit on the back burner at the moment. It also needs some serious plot outline to develop further, so the continuation really depends on my interest the next few months.

16.what are your writing strengths?

I have been told I am good at writing short stories, which is great because I love writing drabbles.

17.what are your writing weaknesses?

long plots, probably. I always struggle with reaching wordcounts and making my stories interesting.

18.thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Depends on the language and usage. I love things like terms of endearment in another language (I made up a nickname for Isengrim to use for Iorevth, after all), but I do sometimes get annoyed with the random elvish words in Tolkien fics.

The best use of other languages is if it is used to confuse the POV character, but then it has to be somewhat consistent.

19.first fandom you wrote for?

Sunrise Avenue xD But I never published any of it. The first fanfic I published was for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

20. favorite fic you've written?

She came in through the window because it got me into a new kind of rarepair hell <3

Tagging @she-who-drank-vodka-with-cats, @aretuzagradschooldropout and @gleamingsilence, I'm late to this so I really hope I haven't accidentally tagged someone who already did this <3

#tag game #my writing #fic recs

[purlturtle]

✨AO3 wrapped 2023✨

got tagged by @lilolilyr - thanks, Lil! <3

Works published: 18! This might be my record, honestly. Hang on - nope; in my very first year on AO3, 2012, I published 24. Still, second most proliferous year is pretty dang good too!

Wordcount: 142,803 - wow! Nice!

Kudos: 482

Hits: 5,804

Bookmarks: 53

Subscriptions: 49

Most popular by kudos: Bering and Wells for Year of the OTP 2023, with 50 kudos - that is a surprise, honestly! And I like it!! That one was a challenge I set for myself, and it's lovely to see that people liked the results!

Gonna put the rest under a readmore:

Most hits: "Not This": What To Expect When Faced With H.G. Wells - A Field Guide by Myka Bering with 1,117 hits - the surprising thing here isn't that this is as high as it is, it is that out of my Top 5 by hits, 3 are smut with a much lower hits-to-kudos rate 😅

Longest: also "Not This" with 58,063 words. Runner-up: The Pearl Diver with 19,958 words

Shortest: The Two New Lance-Constables, a drabble/100 words

Most Comments: It's "Bering and Wells for Year of the OTP 2023" again, with 22 comment threads. Runner-up: Surprise Tomatoes with 15!

Fics that made me cry: Gonna go with "Not This" again, because it's certainly the angstiest, and also in general the emotionally deepest, I think.

Fics that made me smile: Come To Bed, for reasons I describe in this summary: "In our zoom meet-up last weekend, Ida (vestwearer) continuously reminded me to take breaks, lest I overextend myself and end up with a migraine. This fic is a thank-you for her, because I very much needed her reminders." I also challenged myself "to make Helena's "come to bed" the concerned one and Myka's the… other one." Both of these things make me smile, and the actual fic itself isn't half bad either for sweet feelings. :)

gifts: 12!! Wow! A lot of them from @lilolilyr - thank you so much :D And a veritable birthday gift in form of a podfic I'm super stoked about: [Podfic] I have wanted to know you, lover of books by @tryingthisfangirlthing thank you too!! And the amazing art for my Big Bang fic "Not This": Tea and Toast by @galactic-pirates ! Thank you so much!

collaborations: The much-mentioned Big Bang fic was a collab between @anandabrat as a beta reader, @galactic-pirates as an artist, and myself as a writer.

events: The aforementioned Big Bang at the beginning of the year, which @galactic-pirates and I co-hosted, and then the Bering and Wells Advent Calendar collab this December! with @lavendelhummel @lilolilyr (who organized the whole thing) @akittennameddaisy @viharistenno @jesstrel @sallysetonbw @violetren @thiakerrigan and @tryingthisfangirlthing! Both were a lot of fun, and I definitely wanna do it again some day!

I'm gonna tag everyone who's already been mentioned, and also @madronash and @amtrak12 and @nerdsbianhokie and @smarterinabsentia and @roadien60 and @performativezippers !

For ease of copying: Works published: Wordcount: Kudos: Hits: Bookmarks: Subscriptions: Most popular by kudos: Most hits: Longest: Shortest: Most Comments: Fics that made me cry: Fics that made me smile: gifts: collaborations: events:

#AO3 wrapped #AO3 wrapped 2023

[three--rings]

2022 Video Game Wrapup

Video games are a very important part of my life and I felt like doing a year summary.  Feel free to copy the format if you want.

Games I Actually FINISHED This Year

Red Dead Redemption II - First playthough. I started it before the new year but spent almost six months on this.  Didn’t quite 100% it because some of the challenges were too damn hard for me.  But otherwise it was a very completionist run.  This immediately moved into one of my all-time top games, like IDK one of the top three spots.  So glad I gave it a shot after not thinking it was my thing.

AI: The Somnian Files - A game by Uchikoshi that I hadn’t played yet?   Yeah I devoured it.  What can I say, despite it’s weirdness and Uchikoshi quirks, I love it.

AI: The Somnian Files - The Nirvana Initiative - The sequel obviously.  Even more twisty than the first one, if not quite as full of loveable characters. 

80 Days - It’s sorta a game you can play as many times as you want, but I played it three-four times through and felt satisfied. 

Games I’m currently Playing:

Pokémon Violet - I’m trying to keep myself from stalling on this.  I need to go fight the Elite Four but I’m scared.  So I’m running around looking for missing low-level dudes.

Pentiment - Bought in the Steam Winter sale, started on Xmas eve.  I’m two acts in and really want to restart cause I’ve done everything wrong but I persist.  This game is very strange.  But medieval monk murder mystery how could I NOT play it?

Games I’m still playing, more or less:

Life Sims:

Stardew Valley - The eternal, basically.  I started a brand new game with Stardew Valley Extended and a light selection of about 30 mods when I had Covid and played it obsessively to get farther than I ever had before.  Got 100 golden walnuts, and basically was just working on making money to get True Perfection when I got tired and haven’t touched it for months.

Traveller’s Rest - A really great game in which you run a tavern.  I played it intensely when it first released, before they redid the whole thing.  Then didn’t touch it for a long time, played it a little around Halloween cause they did seasonal stuff and thought real hard about playing the Christmas content but didn’t. 

Dinkum: A fantastic one-man game that’s combo animal crossing and stardew in Australia.  Played it INTENSELY for a couple weeks before running out of stuff to do that compelled me.  I think there’s been several updates but nothing that had tempted me back.

Coral Island - I backed this on Kickstarter and so played this on early access release.  Really compelling and fun but I ran through the content quickly.  There’s been some major updates recently so I’ll get back to it soon.

The Planet Crafter - Played this intensely for a few days and after 10 hours ran out of new places to go and got bored.  I’ve tried to play it again a few times since then and last time I wanted to go further with it but the controls hurt my arthritis hands now.  So until they allow remapping controls, I think I’m out.

Wildermyth - A really fun little game where you follow characters through their adventuring careers.  Fun to make your own blorbo characters and see what happens to them.  Played it a LOT at the beginning of the year and nearly forgot to include it.  Could always pick it up again to return to my MXTX verse.

Games I’m MOSTLY done with but can’t make myself finish:

Bear and Breakfast - A weird game about inn management that starts chill but gets really annoying.  I got almost done with this game, but got to a point I needed to just make a lot of money to fully upgrade all my hotels to achieve things so the endgame would happen and by then I was annoyed.  I hear the ending is wild though so I kinda want to actually finish it since I went so far with it.  But I can’t work up the desire to get back.  

Persona 4 Golden - I’d never played a Persona game even though they are totally My Kinda Thing because I’m just not a playstation person.  Went through it quickly but then uh got stuck on one of the last bosses, maybe THE last, IDK I am still trying to avoid spoiling myself.  Even lowered the difficulty one notch and couldn’t beat it so either I needed to grind or lower it all the way.  And then I didn’t.

Disco Elysium - Yeah uh got to a point where either I need to move on to like the end of the story (ish?) or finish all these sidequests I’m stuck on and didn’t know what to do with.  And then I just didn’t go back.  Yes this is a problem for me.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus - I started this when Scarlet and Violet came out and I found it uh, conveniently online...and then I got stuck on the stupid Arcanine boss and then I found a Violet repack and yeah, that’s the story of that.  Not sure if I’ll go back to it or not at this point. 

Games I really need to make myself get back to but it’s been so long it’s embarrassing aka did I even play these this year, IDK?:

Great Ace Attorney Chronicles II - Uh, yeah, I need to finish this considering how long I waited for it.  Scheduled to travel with me in January.

Fire Emblem Three Houses - I finished it once and am like halfway through my second playthrough but got distracted.  Again, traveling with my Switch is my plan to make me finish this.

Danganronpa V3 - This I definitely haven’t touched in like a year and a half, so much that I have to restart from the beginning because I remember almost nothing.  I just finished rewatching the anime specifically to get me back to it.  I’m like 40 hours in and remember nothing if that tells you anything about me.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - Again, pretty sure this wasn’t this year but I got really far in a play of this on my Xbox, but like Skyrim how do you know when you’re FINISHED.  I want to play it on my laptop with mods next time.

Games I played but gave up on:

Interrogation: You Will Be Deceived - I actually bought this accidentally, thinking it was a different game about interrogation and detecting lies that I’d been recced.  This game ended up being just Police Brutality Simulator.  It’s just “illegally abuse this witness to get Vital Info that will Save the Day” the game.  I  think I lasted 20 minutes.

Strange Horticulture - I thought there would be more story to this game but it’s mostly just identifying plants and then trying to guess the right ingredients of potions.  Okay for a while but not compelling enough to keep me interested. 

#video games #threerings' plays games #threerings' recs #these are almost all recs

[shhhh-baby-is-studying]

Studyblr intro~

Hi everyone! My name is Baby and this is my little studyblr!

If you're already following me then you know I made an introduction post last year. I decided to delete it for a reintroduction. I'm reintroducing myself because a new school year is about to start. I've revamped my blog and deleted some of my posts from last year to start fresh again. I didn't really keep up with posting last year because I tried to do the 100 days of productivity challenge and I got burnt out on posting lol.

Anyways! Let's get into some stuff I want you guys to know about me!

I'm a 19 year old sophomore in college (USM)

I'm majoring in forensic science

I like making my notes colorful and fun, even if that means they look a little messy

I'll post notes, planner stuff, and just general things from my daily life

I'll post when I have motivation (either frequently or not ever 😕)

I love reading, learning new things, horror movies, anime, listening to music, taking naps, and playing otome(?) games

My favorite book is The Lord of Flies

My favorite horror movie is Silence of the Lambs

My favorite anime is my hero academia

My top three artists (currently) are Hozier, Lemon Demon, and Mitski

My favorite otome game is twisted wonderland (idk if you could call it that there is no flirting, it's more like a playable novel where the MC is constantly fighting for their life).

If you wanna talk about school, life in general, or any of the stuff listed above (it definitely doesn't have to be about my favorites) you're welcome to start a conversation in any ways you want!

I think that's all there is to know! I just wanted to share some stuff and about me and what this blog will contain. Good luck on the upcoming school year or your current school year if you've already started. As always, happy studying!

~Baby out!~

#studyblr #study motivation #studyblr introduction #studyblr intro post #study inspo #mine

[archenemyintellegence]

Shining Funeral.

Thank you for those who joined me in watching me performing random actions in Shining Live in its final moments. Your presence made the event less depressed. 💀

I thought I would just play the songs or watch some stories for one last time during the final hour. But I found that I've got some event medals left and were able to get some bangles for ur tickets and some Reiji SRs I haven't acquired. That was a pleasant surprise because it was kinda surreal doing the 100% UR gacha with all those tickets. Time went by so fast when there's so little time left for the game. An hour past like a few minutes, but I was still able to watch one last new story from a new Reiji SR I've got from the bangles. And it happened to be the Christmas story... I guess that's the perfect end for my time with the game.

I've never expected that I actually had fun in the final moments in the game, since I had a lot of bad things to say about how shitty klab handled the closing of the game, like how they refused to merge the server even when people are spamming them emails. Another thing that I didn't expect is THAT THEY CLOSE THE SERVER AT THE EXACT SECOND THE CLOCK HITS 1400 JPT LIKE WHY DO U HAVE NO MERCY FOR US. With your shitty attitude I thought the whole international server team is sleeping since the announcement of server close and now you're proving to us that you guys can actually be efficient in handling things, in the worst way possible 😭

Memories with Shining Live

I've forgot the exact date I started playing the game, and it's impossible to find it out since the account was pre-owned by my sister (and yes the birthday is set to hers so every year Reiji congratulated her birthday lmao). However what I know is that I started playing during the period of White Day Reiji gacha. He is so gorgeous in every way and I was so glad that I was able to get his card before the gacha ended (actually I kinda whaled but yeah I'm happy because sometimes you can whale and get nothing).

I was even happier when I learned about his story. His story told me that I can do good things with my talents as long as I have good intentions. I thought all my talent can bring to people is hate and envy, but he helped me to start believing myself, to start drawing. Being with him in the game, learning more about him, and making memories with him in the game heals me, and adds something in my empty soul.

Shortly after joining the game, there was a Reiji SR event, the Rainy Ren event. It was a shame that I barely missed Tier 1 as my cards were awful back then and people were crazy on that event. But I was still happy that I maxed my Reiji SR. It was also a painful lesson that taught me to aim higher next time so I can guarantee the tier I wanted.

Fortunately, after the failed attempt in tiering, I got a chance to try again in the SSL Reiji event, and he was also with Natsuki in that event, who was my second boy back then. The set list is perfect as I love every songs there, but the difficulty of the set list was extremely challenging for me as I could barely finish a pro song at that time. I remember my struggle to even complete the last song Kisu wa Winku De (EXTRA). But I endured it all for Reiji, and managed to T1 it. I've got my first Rainbow Crowned Reiji UR card and I still remember the joy of accomplishment. Also the card is one of my favourite Reiji cards. Who can hate this cute boy wearing his favourite outfit and begging for a hug while laying on a cloud with rainbows 💚😭☁️🌈

And then I crowned another Reiji UR on his bday. It's crazy that I saved whaled 12k prisms for his bday gacha. It is just wild doing gacha for an hour non stop. He is still my favourite bday UR! Maybe there will be another new bday UR to top him next year but I can't get him anymore so it's safe to say he's the best bday UR. It's a shame that I will be 1 copy short of rainbow crowning my 2nd Reiji Cruise UR because my luck on the bday gacha for the rest of my gaming life suck ass.

Then is the Reiji SR for Otoya SSL event. I absolutely love this SR because he looks funny af. I made numerous memes of him 💀One of the edits is the legendary Hamji lmao

The 2nd Reiji UR event I tiered is the Treasure Hunter Reiji. Imo the card is kinda meh but NEVER... was in the list. Also it was the first time I participated in a nametrain. I believed I was Rank 6 in the picture lmao

The next event is FAR FROM MEH. IT IS MY FAVOURITE EVENT OF ALL TIME. IT IS MINEBUKI. It is the peak form of event. The song list is perfect with two of my favourite songs, Kisu wa Winku De and BLACK DEJAVU IN IT. The difficulty of BLACK DEJAVU is absolutely horrible but I managed to Ultimate Combo it and play it for hundreds of times💀I love this song so fucking much that stop playing the songs was actually the hardest part of the event, as I was trying to park my score. The Minebuki event was the first time I tried to score park and I was so happy that I parked it successfully. It required some calculations and focus to do it, which I was horrible at, but the joy of score parking was so great that I tried to do it everytime I tier for Reiji events. Besides of the event, the story of Minebuki is epic too. His bravery to emit that he has made an imperfect decision which brought harm to the people, and to try fixing the problem no matter the cost is beautiful. He may not be a perfect character but the way he burns is so beautiful, that I can't find another story in game to top it.

4152020 = the release date of BLACK DEJAVU

I even parked my play count for BLACK DEJAVU at 415 that time lol

After a looooooong wait with some Reiji SR events, he finally got another UR event, Flower Reiji. It is the longest event gap in the history to this date and the ultra short gap between his previous 2 events (2nd shortest event gap in game) only made the wait more painful lmao. Too bad that I don't like that event. The only thing that makes the event bearable for me is that Timepiece is in the list and also it's a Reiji event💀

306 = waited 306 days for a Reiji event

1202 = start of Minebuki event hahahaha

After the meh event, finally there is a HOT REIJI EVENT. I remember the reaction when I saw the event. HE IS VERY HOT. Actually the rest of the event is very average. The story is meh and the none of the songs in the list is my fav. The stats and skills are kinda trash too. But the list is interesting tho, especially for the beatmap for HURRAYx2 DREAMERS. It's like I'm dancing with Reiji while playing the song and it's the best part of the event. BUT ANYWAY HE IS VERY HOT. THAT'S IT HE IS H O T.

301 = some numbers about dart lmao

The last event I tiered in this game is Null Reiji event. He definitely won't top Minebuki but the memory I made in this event is probably the best one. It's the first (and maybe the last) Reiji event that I edited the name train for the name train group. I tried working as the main editor for them before but this one is the event of my best boy. Also THE THEME WORKS PERFECTLY WITH MY AESTHETIC. It's fucking wild to spend 40+hrs on the edits while tiering the event with 6.9M score at the same time but I enjoy every moment of it. It's the first time I parked my score for town event and there's little information on it. I almost failed it which gave me a mini heart attack but I managed to save it with good maths 😃👍🏻

699 = no. of notes for Alright, All Night (PRO)

6969 = funny number for silly Null

Conclusion

The existence of the game has changed my life. I've never thought I can truly enjoy something, and accomplish anything in my life, but this game proved me wrong. I am a horrible gamer but in this game I was able to achieve some cool stuff by score parking and creating cool stuff for the community and whaling 💀 With this game, my life is no longer blank, and I am the one who fill it with beautiful memories. I've spent so much money in the game that I literally don't know how much I've spent, but I guess it'll treat it as the cost for a therapy lmao. I think that I am strong enough to live without the game, as Reiji reminded me of the power I possess that will stay with me forever. Also Reiji is still with me! Actually idec about what they gonna do with him because I can create some Reiji content myself if I really want to.

After the closing of the game, I won't continue playing on Japan server as the experience will never be the same. I can't read Japanese so I won't be able to understand the stories in game or communicate with other gamers. It's pointless to just play for the sake of playing so I believe this is the end of my journey with Shining Live and the beginning of money saving thank god.

Here is my player info. A proof that I existed in this wonderful game. Minebuki as my pfp as he is my favourite. White Day Reiji badge as he is the one who welcomed me to the game. Cruise Reiji for yellow as he is my favourite bday card. White Day Reiji for Red. Null Reiji as Blue as I enjoyed so much in his event.

There are so many cards that I love but there are so little space in the player info... There are so many things I want to try in the game, like Rainbow Crowning more Reiji UR and doing 10M in a Reiji event, but there was so little time for me and the game. But the short period of time, the 2 years (or maybe 3 idk maths lol) I spent with Shining Live is long enough leave so many beautiful memories in my mind, and much more beautiful things can grow from them...

Thank you Shining Live.

Goodbye.

#goodbye shining live #thank you for everything #hope I can see HEAVENS in your next game #fuck u klab #fuck u broccoli #utapri #shining live #reiji kotobuki #寿嶺二 #text

[jungkook97]

life update!

i feel like i haven’t done a long essay about my current life in a very long time (~mid 2019 i feel) and i just wanna pop in and say....YO

so idk how many people are still active on here who used to read my really dark stuff, but it’s been a wild rollercoaster since then. for anyone who followed me on twt, i got fired from one of my jobs back in 2020 during the start of the pandemic and fell in one of the darkest holes i ever been in. mind you, this job meant the world to me at the time, and for a week i laid in bed all day just sobbing to anyone who would lend an ear. 

i had lost a core group of friends on top of realizing i was being sexually harassed at work by a fling gone wrong + being in a horrific car accident like...things weren’t really panning out for two whole years. i was wondering if i had made the right choice to move out here from my abusive home because i kept being thrown into situations where i was in danger or overextended myself over and over again for people who did not care. it was getting to the point where it was a vicious and endless cycle of hurt and pain that actually persisted until a few months ago. 

my depression fell below my time back home in 2016/17 to where i started to spiral to the point where i had serious suicide ideation. that ideation turned into planning, and that was truly when i went to go seek help immediately after it happened a second time in the span of a year. lasted 10 whole days in the hospital and found out i had borderline personality disorder which made 100% so much more sense. i knew i was neurodivergent for a while, but i never could piece what i had for the longest.

anyway, i continued therapy with this new diagnosis. 2021 was my first year of healing and coming into the second half of 2022, i really can’t recognize myself and where i had been for the past couple of years. i truly wonder if i really made it out officially, but i can confidently say that i’m in such a better place than i ever had been. 

for the longest, i struggled with identity, depression, anxiety, toxic relationships, overextending myself for others, people pleasing, you name it. i had so many realizations and wakeup calls ever since my late teens and into my early 20s. i remember sobbing uncontrollably on my 25th birthday on a therapist’s couch just suffering from complex ptsd, the days i spent crying in my backstock room because of my situation at my job at the time, the nights i felt wickedly lonely in a room filled with people who didn’t care, etc. i lost an awful amount of friends and loved ones and yet, i still gained so many and still feel so loved right now.

my family and i have been healing. for the first time, my dad told me he was proud of me and my achievements and my mom and i hashed out so much in our talks in the recent months. my brother and i aren’t doing so hot, but i still got a lifetime with him to figure it out hopefully. 

right now, i live in my own place on my own without much worry about making ends meet or dealing with anybody who i couldn’t vibe with entirely. my friendship circles are rock solid and i’ve been looking at romance in a much more nuanced and balanced way. i realized my views on love changed a lot when my crushes both irl and celebrity are genuinely fucking great people and it’s only a matter of time when i am ready to date someone who matches my life path and grow with me. 

i’ve been well aware of my mental health issues, going to therapy, eating better, taking my days and time off and refocusing on what really matters to me. i realize i create and communicate things well and yeah doubts still form, but i feel more and more confident by the day that fuck, i am a talented, intelligent, beautiful fucking person who deserves the universe and all the universes. 

i’m deeply empathetic and no longer at a fault anymore, i’ve became more selfish, and my passions are lining up perfectly. i work at a job that challenges me with management and coworkers who genuinely care, i graduated with a degree in what i was deeply passionate about, and i participate in communities that really fulfill my needs. i have boundaries now that come up fast and protect me from so much potential harm. i stand up for myself more than ever before, louder and more convincing. 

there are so many things i need to work on ofc. i do need to be more bold and be more uncomfortable to be even more spectacular. i still need so much help with the work/life balance thing and not give in to #capitalism and work hustle culture. the self doubts of an ambitious and overachieving human being still linger on, which you know, is typical when ur filling in big shoes all your life lol

i want to create more coming into the second half of 2022 and really until the next decade. i’m seeing more people just having their life together whether it’s finding the love of their life, being able to travel and have such an amazing lifestyle, even more than i am and fuck, i wanna be there! i know i’m getting there. 

i truly made the best choices for me until this point in time. when i put myself first in those certain awful core memories of mine, my life changed for the better: 

got fired at a job? got a much better job. 

friends and family who didn’t care? cut them off and never looked back. 

lost interest in something from time and trauma? healed and got back into it even DEEPER.

wanted a better life? kept fighting for it. 

i just know things are looking up and better. the worst i ever felt was having covid which was very recently and work burnout, but in terms of the trauma and the crippling depression? i think most of that is behind me right now, in the rearview mirror looking rather sad bc they’re being left behind for good.

all i hope is that it stays there. 

#personal #suicide mention tw #idk if i can ever feel super content with life per se bc who rly is tbh lmfao #but i think in terms of feeling ok enough to say ok my life isn't THAT awful anymore: iam there #and i have good people and good environments around me #no longer did i feel like i was being judged for how i am and how i come off #and i think that's a beautiful thing #8.6.22

[dailylifeblogs]

What comes from inside.

April 17,2024

From last 3-4 days, I've been hopping on from one book to another only to find that its incomprehensible and engaging to the level that pleases my unsettled mind. The books belong to the diverse topics my mind is currently visiting- business, social science, math, physics. When none could arrest my mind, I yesterday got irritated and started contemplating about how to focus this all pervasive, ubiquitous energy into one path.

To add to the ongoing bewilderment, UPSC 2023 results came out yesterday. Now upsc I would say, is the most glamourous exam on India. Its the shining armor in the eyes of people who themselves or through their children aspire to clear it. This over the top craze is rooted in people's undying belief in govt jobs. And upsc is the path to reach what is considered unfathomable glory , respect and power. Its difficulty is exalted by its mere conversion rate of less than equal to 0.1%.

My classmate till class 12 cleared it in her first attempt. Receiving the obvious recognition she deserved for achieving this fleet, my parents couldn't resist the look of expectation they had from me for trying upsc. This disturbs me. Its like whatever you do is not enough unless you clear upsc or you're always lesser.

That girl had this aim since class 9. She started studying immediately after school. Now I never had such a long term goal. Even my MBA decision came only after college ended. Aren't such people are likely to be less scccessful than the ones who have worked everyday for years. Even today, I have cleared CAT. I am about to get admission. But there's this hollow space that is insatiable. What achievement would give me that feeling of self worth, I wonder. I desire the recognition that I was accustomed to during the school. How many people in my town would understand even if i get admitted to an IIM?Succumbing the trend in india, I see myself getting drawn towards upsc.

I havent been able to continue with something that I havent felt strongly about. I very much believe in my inner voice. We seek what we don't believe. Because what we believe, we find the answers within us. For instance, I never searched for multiple coaching institutes. I had this inner inclination towards MBAguru and I finalized it at once. Logic has little role to play when we believe. If I have to do upsc, I need to listen to my inner voice.

Even if i decide to do, there are many multidimensional challenges to it. MBA and high profile jobs thereafter demand 100% attention. And that too when I want to stay at the top. Moreover with growing age, other priorities need to be attended to. Managing relationships while preparing for exam, also planning for marriage and taking care of parents are a whole lot of impediments. That is why, early 20's is a good time to study as you get a favorable environment insulated from other life worries and responsibilities. Thinking about all this fills my heart with fear. I am not audacious enough to put everything else at stake for studies.

Currently the path forward is MBA. I wonder what long term goal, God wants for me. Whatever it is, all I ask is for that strong belief, that inner voice. Otherwise I'll keep sailing in the vast ocean where my energy is focused all over the place and I reach nowhere to the top.

All I ask is for that inner belief and voice. What have I come to do on this earth that makes life worth living.

[indigo474]

December 2nd 2023

I was a bit emotional today. I went on face book and saw Michaels wife posted a photo and i am reminded of everything ive lost. it hurts. what can i do but let it hurt. it brings up so many emotions in me.. my kids will never know how much i had to fight for them. and thats ok. i think of Madison and the pain she carries. she lost a lot too... why?? i do think X is evil- to do what he has done not only to me but to Madison- she had nothing to offer him- no trust fund and how dare she cost him money.. so so sick.. but then.. they are adults so shame on them for not speaking to their sister. shame of meghan-- someday someday-- the truth- i don't know when, or how.. and i don't know how 1 man ..... i ran almost 5 miles today. I'm going to need a bigger park. I'm doing the 10 k program so it wasn't all at one but it was challenging.. running is mental. i noticed when i start to feel uncomfortable while running i'm able to tell myself that its ok because ive felt uncomfortable before and it will pass. i ruined my run on thursday because my music app wouldnt work.. i kept trying and trying to get it to work- stopping and starting and i got so mad myself -- it's not working why do you keep trying? i had it in my head i couldnt run without music. Friday i ran without music. today i had music until the last 10 minutes.. i'm excited to see how far i can run. i'm still not sure i am a runner.. i'm not built like one. BUT i like it. I lifted today. 170 dead lift- it felt heavy.. ohh an this week my back has been hurting me.. i'm pretty sure i am getting my period or due to get it and thats why 1 emotions and 2 my back hurts??? it was stiff all week.. sitting at a desk all day make my body sore.. i still lifted heavy although i told james on tues my back hurt so i didnt life as heavy.. today i went in tired from my run which i probably shouldnt be doing.. i guess i could have waited to run afterwards? i have no idea what i should or shouldnt be doing.. i think james said ideally i shouldnt be doing both on the same day.. benched 100-- i get it- i lose it.. split squats almost killed me today- he upped the weight. i played with Kika.. james did a chrome delete on his tesla and his dad was not happy about it- i think its his dads car.. i think it looks good but he needs to get new wheels.. i'm getting use to my commute- i knew i would. i was merging when i should have been yielding- i'm glad i figured that out.. work is kind of horrible. i know one of my reps is going to be in for a rude awakening soon.. its heating season so things are a bit crazy- i was a little bitchy on friday with 2 of my reps.. the one coming to my desk for me to help her after i told her i was busy.. the other is ghetto and i had enough..everyone is so use to me being me- happy helpful positive- they could tell i wasnt in the mood on friday.. it is what it is.. i'm human too.. i had a meeting with both reps separately.. I wore myself out today. Ive been thinking about turning 50- i hate to say this but i'm slightly scared.. a little bit. my mom told me menopause hit her at 50. she went on to tell me how horrible it was.. so i guess i have that in the back of my mind. i feel like i was starting to have symptoms but they have mostly gone away. i want to be and feel excited about aging- it's a privilege and i cant stop it- it's when i hear people say negative things about it- the good news it I am not my Mom.. My house is decorated. it looks good. I wish i had another Christmas tree to decorate.. Madison says 3 is too many.. i'm not convinced. ive had a pretty incredible year.. i don't know how 2024 can top it.....

Madison is going to be working 3rd shift- she is happy.. i'm not that thrilled for her to be out in the middle of the night.

James says i should join the dating apps again.. its the only way to meet someone.. I do want to meet someone- i just do not want to join any dating app..... not now anyway. I am enjoying being single- i thought to myself today that i should enjoy it because i wont always be single. I won't always be single. he's out there..

[wwarren]

2022

Finally (finally) getting to my annual year recap. Between this one and last year I’ve been slacking and not getting to them until damn near halfway through the year. But like I said before, better late than never.

So this year was very interesting. Very interesting. What could’ve been the worst year of my life actually turned into one of my favorite years in recent memories, second to 2015. I think the main contributing factors to that was that I was pushed very hard to do and try new things. As well as foster and build a stronger relationship with my inner circle of friends - all of whom helped me get through what otherwise would’ve been an extremely challenging year with out them. So to start, in January I caught COVID. It was absolutely awful in the sense that I had the most bizarre side effects from the virus. I remember being like oh god, this is awful. It lasted about a week. Thankfully, nothing too severe happened as a result and I got over my symptoms in a decent amount of time.

Shortly after I recovered from COVID, my mom had passed away from the very same thing. She had a lot of health issues that were probably exacerbated by the virus. I’ll never forget that morning I woke up from a text from her, drove to her place frantically, the the ER, and then having the news delivered to me by the doctor. It was such an out of body feeling. My worst fears had came true and I realized then that from then on out the only person that’s going to look out for me is me. I was officially alone. Mentally, I had prepared myself for this day for a while because I knew it was inevitable. But it still hurt a lot. Healing from such a thing isn’t easy and is never in a perfect straight line. You’ll have days where you’re fine and days where you’re not. Sometimes you’ll be triggered by the smallest thing that takes you back to a memory and you’ll start to cry. With all this being said, I found what helped me the most ultimately was having a good support system. In my case, that was my friends.

After that and dealing with cleaning out her apartment, stopping all of her services to the apartment, and the funeral, I was in a weird space. It’s almost like something was set off in my body and spirit that told me to make the most of this year and try to form as many memories as you can. And I did.

I did a lot of traveling, spent a lot of good quality time with friends, and made some good memories. I traveled to Chicago/Boystown for the first time which I absolutely loved, went to Wisconsin, went to Mexico again for the second year in a row, experienced the Indy500 for the first time, was the man of honor (maid of honor) for one of my good friend’s weddings and gave a speech in front of 100+ people, went to New Orleans for the bachelorette party, wine tastings, Halloween parties, fun late nights in the summer riding scooters, pedal bars, Lollapalooza, picked up a new hobby of roller skating… there’s just so much. I was pushed outside of my box by myself and my friends and made so many great memories that truly filled the void that was there from grief. Of course it wasn’t complete smooth sailing but my close circle made me feel loved and appreciated. I grew closer to so many people and those relationships and memories are ones that I won’t forget. If it weren’t for them my depression probably would’ve taken away so much of me. I’m proud of myself for my resilience and willingness to be positive despite the hard time I was enduring.

2022 was in the top 2 favorite years. It was just fucking amazing. My main goal moving forward into the new year is to keep that momentum going. 💛

[raiding]

"Historic" effort

For once, I'll endorse Strava's boosterism. For the bits of this ride I did last year, I was between a quarter and a third faster this year. Not counting traffic lights for road-works, I only stopped once on the Galibier, at the well-placed Marmot van 8 km from the col, where the climbing gets really serious. Last year, I was trying to limit myself to one stop every 3 km, and failing.

Though the Galibier from the north is listed as an 18 km climb, you can't get to the foot of it in Valloire without first climbing the Col du Télégraphe, and the drop from that col to Valloire is only 4 km: not much respite. It's really a 35 km climb, with a few km of descent just before half-way.

Today's Challenge Ride variant was to add a further 8 km of climbing, 16 km in total, by continuing down the south side of the Galibier to the Col to Lautaret, turning round, and climbing back up to the Galibier. We all opted for just one Galibier in our day's riding.

The ride up to the Galibier took me 5 hours; from there back to the hotel (the same distance), 1:40 of quite different riding, at three times the speed. Ben got today's summit points, but I caught him at the top of the Télégraphe on the way back. We rode together from there. He dropped me on the descent of the Télégraphe (Ben's was the second-fastest of 46 descents on Strava today, so I'm glad I let him go!). He kindly waited for me at the foot and pulled me through the valley headwind back to St-Jean-de-Maurienne.

At that point, Ben detoured from today's route up the Toussuire road for a bit, to take his distance for the day above 100 km. In the it's-not-a-race stakes, that gives him the red jersey number tomorrow for combativeness today, as well as the polka-dot jersey he's taken from me, but my claimed lead in the classement générale has extended to 5'23". Ben might have reason for an appeal to the race umpire, though.

But that's just for fun. The challenge, for all of us, is to test ourselves in, and against, the mountains; and the most impressive rider is Colin: not Dr Colin, but Colin l'âiné. The clue is in the nickname: Colin, not me, is the oldest rider on this trip. He is 68, and aims to ride about 300 km a week. He describes himself as having 'a diesel engine': it takes him a while to get going, but once he does, he's strong. He passed me on the second part of the Galibier, and I repassed him on the descent (Colin: 'I was enjoying the scenery.'). If I can ride anything like as strong as that in eight years' time, I'll be happy; and it's encouraging to see it done.

#alps23

[acatnamedturtle]

So Who Am I?

Well, I suppose from my first post, you kind of know that I'm not going to tell you exactly who I am, or other identifying information, but I can give you a general sense of who this person writing the blog is. First, call me Kat. That's easy enough. I suppose you could call me Turtle if you wanted to, but the real cat named Turtle might get a bit upset. She's partial to her name and hates when we accidentally call her adopted sisters by said name. So Kat it is. Short for Katniss...or Katherine. The choice is yours!

And as you've probably guessed, I'm not a just bloomed flower, entering into my twenties. No, that ship sailed. And apparently the mid-life ship cruised into my life without me realizing it. For almost a year. Bloody nice realization to have while cooking dinner last night. Surprising it took that long actually. But then, the last two years have been full of tremendous change, health challenges, and death.

Not my own death, of course, but beloved pets and family members.

It does show how much I've grown over the past twenty-plus years that the various challenges since 2020 have not found me curled up on a therapists couch again, crying and paying them to be my only friend. Yay for that.

An introverted homebody, I'm truly happier at home with family, and chatting with my close circle of friends. Not that I'm not open to adding more friends - I just find it so very difficult to actually make friends as an adult, especially as I mentioned I'm more of a homebody. Who doesn't drink. Or particularly like bars and clubs. Or large groups of people. Or small groups of people where small talk must be exchanged. As you can imagine with those fine endorsements, I'm single and haven't really dated much since those days of LiveJournal. Part of that was from a broken heart given by the lies of my first love - and long-term middle school/high school boyfriend. The other just that I always feel so very old fashioned in the modern world of dating.

But I do have family that I'm close to - my mom, who you'll learn about as she's one of my best friends and the person that I try to take care of as she's got her own health issues, my younger brother and his wife, my adorable nieces, and the three furballs who I lovingly call my children. There's Turtle who is the oldest, a 5 1/2 year old grey tabby, Goat the middle child who is just over 2 years orange tabby, and Bear who is the youngest at 1 month younger than Goat and who is a Calico. I love them all dearly, and love that we were able to rescue them and give them great a home.

Do I wish I was married? Ask those around me, and you'll hear I'm always telling them no. But I'll let you in on a secret, I do wish I was. Or at least in a long-term committed relationship. Being single has its advantages - no sharing the remote to think of one off the top of my head - but I always pictured myself married with children. Or divorced with children depending on the day. Having a child or children is so much a dream of mine. And I get that people do the single mom things all the time. I'm totally up for that. Yet one of those challenges that life has thrown at my over the past twenty-plus years makes that more difficult.

Go out and sleep with some random guy.

I've been told that. Not sure that's the best route to take, inflicting potential parent-hood on some random stranger. More than that though, I've known for close to twenty years now that I can't safely carry a child. Oh I can get pregnant the doctors think, but the potential for stroke and death are apparently high for me. It's also one of the biggest reasons I probably never dated much - aside from that broken heart.

Dating means sex.

Sex potentially could lead to pregnancy. Not birth control is 100% effective aside from abstinence.

Pregnancy most likely would lead to death. Or abortion.

And while I fully support a woman's right to choose, I choose that abortion is not something I could do or would be comfortable with.

Abstinence it was and is.

#acatnamedturtle #a cat named turtle #who am i? #getting to know me #dating or lack of it #family #introvert

[pcttrailsidereader]

Seven Summers

In his forthcoming book about completing the PCT in the course of seven summers with his brother-in-law, Glenn, author Bob Welch recounts the ups and downs of their quest. It was not without serious challenges . . . from injury to fire to snow and family needs . . . but they did finish the trail.

I selected this excerpt not because it touched on one of those challenges but because it reflects on a very real part of life on the trail. When walking the trail becomes tedious, how do you spend those long hours of walking?

And the trail angel story is nice too.

I will review the book in a subsequent post.

THE MORNING broke damp and dreary. Though I’d fixed my broken trekking pole, my feet were blistered and hurting. And it felt as if we were trapped in a rain forest over which the sky no longer existed. The woods were dark, wet, and cold.

With nineteen miles to hike on this next-to-last day, one challenge was physical, the other mental; how could I find a “happy place” for my mind on a day that looked anything but that? Over the years, I’d prided myself in being able to do this—use my imagination to take me away from a pursuit that sometimes could be monotonous.

I credit that to two jobs I had as a teenager involving mindless work—raking beans onto a conveyor belt at a cannery and mowing lawns. They forced me to mentally detach. I would put together lists, add numbers, do anything to not think about bean-raking or mowing: Top 10 Crosby, Stills & Nash songs. Quarter-mile splits needed to run a sub-five-minute mile. Number of swaths my mower took to do the Sigma Alpha Epsilon lawn. Now, however, my cupboard of mental detachment was bare. Then, I found a morsel in the far corner of the top shelf.

“Glenny,” I said, “I’m going to interview you today about your entire life.”

“That’ll be good for five minutes. What then?”

“Hey, I’m a journalist. I got paid very average sums of money to draw out people’s innermost stories. I think I can get at least ten. So, what’s your earliest memory?”

He paused, then began. “A few: Reading comic books and playing football, our neighborhood guys against a bunch of kids down the street. My Uncle George lived next door and taught at South Eugene High and would come home with these castoff football helmets and pads, way too big, but we wore them anyway. We thought we were pretty cool.”

Hey, this was working.

“So, what was it like growing up with all your Lutheran cousins, aunts, and uncles on Royal Avenue?”

“Wonderful. I’d walk a block down to my grandmother’s house to have her read stories to me. I was probably five or six. Relatives all around the neighborhood.

We’d gather often, especially for Christmas. My uncles were always giving one another useless gifts. One year one of them put a couple of chickens in a box, wrapped them up and put them under the tree.”

“Like live chickens?”

“Of course! What kind of weirdo gives someone dead chickens for Christmas?”

I rocked the forest with laughter. Alas, all good things must come to an end and after a few hours of this exchange, Glenn’s life had pretty much been reviewed. We both returned to our regularly scheduled mindless hiking.

Click. Click. Click. My trekking poles tapped their way down the trail. Drip. Drip. Drip. The rain continued, my blister pain made worse by wet feet, which increased friction. Don’t think about them, I told myself, which, of course, made me think about them.

Every mile felt like five, every minute like an hour. We’d been on the trail for nearly 200 miles and nines day. As we crossed a Forest Service road at Tacoma Pass, a voice startled me to my left.

“Hey, mates, how about a hot dog?”

What? The words came from an Australian thru-hiker with a bushy red beard, a guy who seemed to pop out of nowhere like a bridge troll. He nodded to a royal blue canopy about 100 feet down the road, where half a dozen hikers were sitting on—oh, my gosh!—lawn chairs. Steam rose from a Coleman stove where a guy our vintage was joyfully grilling dogs and heating water for cocoa. Beyond him: tables of hot coffee, Oreos, chips, breakfast pastries, oranges, apples, pop, orange juice, a virtual PCT smorgasbord of fantasy foods.

“Are you kidding me?” I said, glancing back at Glenn.

“Trail Magic, Bobby!”

We’d encountered a few other people offering similar gestures, among them the Mount Adams Buddhists and a former PCT hiker trail-named Coppertone. But this was the most lavish Trail Magic spread I’d seen.

“Greetings,” said the man at the grill, white-haired and white-bearded.

“The name’s ‘Not Phil’s Dad.’ And you are?”

“The Oregon Boys, Bob and Glenn,” I said. “Thanks so much. This is awesome.”

“Happy to do it.”

Glenn stayed back, apparently not wanting to appear discourteous in accepting this random act of kindness. Me? Before his pack was off I had downed my first hot dog and was reaching for a second.

“So, what’s behind your trail name—‘Not Phil’s Dad?’” I asked.

“My son Brian completed the PCT in 2009. Because other hikers said he looked like Phil Collins and he had to keep telling them he wasn’t the musician, they dubbed him ‘Not Phil.’ So I decided to be ‘Not Phil’s Dad.’ I do this every year to honor him—to pay forward all the Trail Magic he got along the way.”

“That’s awesome. And where’s home?”

“Bellevue,” he said, referring to a city just east, across Lake Washington, from Seattle,.

“No kidding. I lived there the ’80s; I was a columnist at The Journal-American.”

“Small world. I’m retired now, but I was an administrator at Highland Middle School then.”

“On Bel-Red Road, right? My wife worked at Highland Christian Preschool across the street!”

“Sure! Saw it five days a week!”

Glenn soon joined the feast and the fun. Nothing enlivened PCT hikers more than Trail Magic, not only because of its spontaneity but because, deep down, it offered us “undeserved favor.” Grace. Goodness. The best of humanity, in this case wrapped in a hot dog bun and served by a heart-of-gold father in honor of his PCT son. What a cool gesture.

In the next half hour, I supplemented the dogs with a Pepsi, four Double-Stuffed Oreos, an orange, and a cup of hot chocolate. The stop energized me for the rest of the day.

#Snoqualmie Pass #trail magic #trail angels #Not Phil's Dad #Tacoma Pass #Bob Welch

[ladala99]

Pokemon Scarlet - Day 3

I met up with Pearl in my dream again. She told me: Isn’t it weird that everyone seems to think you’re special? It’s because this world isn’t real.

I shrugged and showed her my Pokedex progress.

Though I am really starting to think about this. Maybe she’s right. It is weird how the world seems to revolve around me. And also the fact that I keep having the same dream night after night.

For now, though, I have a journey to focus on.

After my journaling yesterday, I decided to explore some of the areas I’d already been to more thoroughly and train some other Pokemon. I found this area near the lighthouse area where there was a mysterious purple glowing door. I also found a Wooper in the area and I went back and forth about whether to add it to my main team. Ultimately I decided I wanted to see how Shroodle evolves so I’m keeping Shroodle on the team instead.

I also checked out the classes I could take. I already know a bunch about Pokemon training and battling, so I thought it would all be review, but there were a couple of new tidbits I found interesting. Apparently in Paldea, Pokemon Eggs are found while Picnicking, not from any Day Care or Nursery.

I also learned a bit about Paldea’s history. There was a kingdom 2000 years ago that. . . uh. . . honestly I was pretty tired while taking the classes so I only got the basic gist that a kingdom that has since fallen existed 2000 years ago. Again, I was expecting it all to be review.

This morning, though, I headed straight for the Flying-type quest from Arven. A bunch of boulders were rolling down a hill, and I had to dodge them to get to the top. At the top was a giant Bombadier (I think it was called?), a bird that liked throwing rocks. Nacli was able to easily take it on, but Nacli wasn’t at the front of my party so when it ate the Herba Mythica and Arven joined me, I used Soren instead and Arven used his Nacli.

It went down and Arven and I went into the cave, found the Bitter Herba Mythica, and Arven made sandwiches for us using it. Koraidon ended up eating mine, but it turned out for the better, as it gained the ability to ferry me across deep water!

I also caught a Nymble along the way. I thought the one the Bug-type Gym Leader had was so cute I had to get one myself.

Now I need to decide where to go next. There’s a Dark-type Team Star base fairly nearby and it’s right next to the Water Gym, so I could head in that direction tomorrow. However, it’ll be a weekday, which means I will have less time than usual to adventure, and I want to make sure I can fight a Gym on Wednesday. There’s also a Psychic-type Gym to the south of where the Bug-type Gym was. And of course the areas to the east of the school, though I think I’ll be doing that part last.

Although looking more closely at the map, I don’t think I can get to the Psychic Gym right now. There are cliffs blocking every direction. So I guess Water Gym is next, after the Dark Team Star base.

…

I finished off the classes and wandered around the school. Turns out, many of the teachers had things to say to me! Of particular note is the Biology teacher, who made the Pokedex app. He wanted me to have 30 species, which I already have, and then challenged me to find 100 species. I’m over halfway to that goal, and I’ll keep him in mind as I keep filling out the volumes. I guess more than Pearl is interested in my progress!

Also, the history teacher asked me whether I preferred the past or the future. I really like fossils and ancient civilizations, so I said “past,” then she said something about me potentially being useful ??? She’s kinda creeping me out.

…

Am I crazy or something? I was just reviewing my journal, letting my team run around, and Mint came up to me. He looked nervous at first, then looked me straight in the eye and said(!!!) aloud(!!!!!) “Can you understand me?” I flew out of my seat!

As I looked at him wide-eyed, he looked away and said, “Nevermind.”

I swore I also heard Shroodle ask, “Is she okay?” to Mint after that encounter.

I don’t understand what happened. I’ve never been able to understand Pokémon before. Is the exhaustion from exploring so much getting to me or something?

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #before's scarlet adventure