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worse0mens · 4 years

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Britpicking Help Post

Maybe I’m really late to be doing this but for any fic writer out there who speaks an American dialect of English but wants to write British characters/fics set in Britain, here’s a help post for some common words that are different in a British dialect*.

American dialect = British Dialect

Sweater = Jumper

Buck (as in, one dollar) = Quid (as in, one pound) — NB: When referring to £5 notes or £10 notes we may also say “fiver” or “tenner”. This only applies to these two notes specifically.

Hood (as in, the thing on a car which covers the engine) = Bonnet

Trunk (as in, the storage space typically in the back of a car) = Boot

Chips = Crisps

French Fries = Chips

Block = trick question, we don’t have ‘blocks’ in our towns and cities. They aren’t planned that well, they just grow and spiral out at random over hundreds of years.

Highway = Motorway (typically; a British person may refer to the highway, but I would say motorway is more common)

First floor = Ground floor (this is a little confusing even to Brits sometimes: we refer to the bottom-most floor of a building as the ground floor, and the floor above that as the first floor; i.e. the second storey of the building is the first floor in Britain. You will notice this when you use the elevator and stairs in multi-level buildings)

Elevator = Lift (these two terms are used pretty much interchangeably in Britain nowadays, though)

Pants = Trousers

Underwear = Pants (though we also say underwear)

Sneakers = Trainers

Gas (as in, what fuels a car) = Petrol/Diesel (depending on what it is)

Gas Station = Petrol Station

Service Station (a place where you can stop on a long journey to rest, eat, use the toilet, etc) = services/the services

Mall/Shopping Mall = Shopping centre

Store (as in, a place to buy goods) = Shop

Cotton Candy = Candy Floss

Biscuits (those... soft scone-looking things? What even are they? I don’t understand what they are and I can’t even translate that. Bottom line: in Britain, those aren’t biscuits.)

Cookies (as in, a baked good which is typically thin, sweet and crunchy) = Biscuits

In Britain, a cookie is a very specific type of biscuit; it can be soft or crunchy, but it is usually thicker than an average biscuit and contains (usually) chocolate chips or some variant of chocolate chips, like m&ms. “Cookie” is never used to describe, for example, a jammy dodger, or party rings, or shortbread. Oh, and we don’t have Girl Scout cookies. It’s just not a thing here.

Candy = Sweets

Candy Store = Sweet Shop

State = County (this is a very loose comparison more than a direct equivalent; we don’t have “states” in the UK, we’re divided up into counties, which is sort of similar but also different because our systems of government are fundamentally different. If you want to understand the difference between a US state and a British county, I’d recommend more research)

Sidewalk = Footpath/Path/Pavement

Fall = Autumn

Vacation = Holiday

Couch = Sofa

Faucet = Tap

Basin (as in, where you wash your hands after using the toilet) = Sink

Flashlight = Torch

Apartment = Flat (these are increasingly used interchangeably in Britain)

Garbage/Trash = Rubbish

Trash can/Garbage can/Waste paper basket = Bin

Mail = Post

Principal (as in, the head of a school) = Headmaster/Headmistress/The Head

Recess (as in, the break taken by children at school) = Break time

Eraser = Rubber

Period (as in, the punctuation mark which ends a sentence) = Full stop (“full stop” is substituted in idiomatic phrases too, for example, “I won’t do it, full stop” as opposed to “I won’t do it, period”)

Elementary School = Primary School

High School = Secondary School (The two words for school are used as a loose comparison here; the schooling systems of the UK and US are very different, especially as time goes on. If anyone would like, I can make a different post explaining how UK secondary schools operate, in terms of the system of years 7-9, 10-11, and 12-13 [aka Sixth Form] and GCSEs & A levels)

NB: College is not the same thing in the UK as in the US. As I understand it (and I’m by no means an expert), US College is more comparable to UK university. In Britain, college is ‘further education’ (as opposed to ‘higher education’, which takes place generally at a university), taken usually at the age of 17-18. Further education can also be taken at a Sixth Form/Sixth Form College instead. In the UK, everyone must stay in full-time education until the age of 18 by law.

Zipper = Zip

Bathrobe = Dressing gown

Diaper = Nappy

Soccer = Football

Resume (as in, a document which details the skills and qualifications of a job applicant) = CV (which stands for curriculum vitae)

Cellphone = Mobile phone/Mobile

Movie = Film (increasingly used interchangeably, but film is the default for most Brits)

Cop (as in, law enforcement) = Police Officer/Policeman/Policewoman (or pig, but this is a derogatory term) — please remember that British police do not carry firearms; in the event of an emergency in which firearms may need to be used, the British police must call in a specialised Armed Response Unit. Armed officers may also be put on as a precaution/deterrent at a large event, but this is rare, generally only occurring if serious disturbances are anticipated or if there has been a recent spate of terror attacks.

Math = Maths (small difference but I promise you, British people do not say math, including in idiomatic phrases like “do the maths”)

Tuxedo = Dinner jacket

Janitor = Caretaker

*Please remember that the terms I provided are just common ones that I see often, not by any means an exhaustive list. Additionally, dialects are different in different parts of Britain; a Scottish person will speak different to an English person, and a welsh person, and so on and so on. There are even regional variations within England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. If you want to be very specific when you’re writing, that might be something you want to keep in mind!

If anyone has any questions or requests for future posts about Britain (though I don’t know everything!), feel free to leave a reply!

#long post #britpicking #britain #british english #american english #dialects #language #fic writing #writing #good omens fandom #help post

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mikemoon-archive · 3 years

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oh heavens, is that MICHAEL MOON aka MIKE from SYCAMORE WAY i see roaming around mapleview? minnie may’s always calling them -QUIET & -GRUMPY. i happen to think they’re not that bad! they’re a pretty cool CONCESSIONS ASSOCIATE AT DRIVE-IN MOVIE THREATER and every time i’ve seen them, they’ve always been +OUTGOING & +ADVENTUROUS. i hope i see them around again! 『 tally. 25. gmt+4. she/her. 』@mapleviewstarters

tw // mentions of depression

michael moon, born myungjun moon –– choi yeonjun fc

birthday: september 9, 1999 - 21 yrs old ; virgo

cis male, he/him, bisexual

born and raised in philadelphia

mike grew up being an only child, and always around the company of his mother in their house. his father was always traveling back and forth from korea to the states for work.

his parents have met at work on one of his father’s trips to the states, and they fell in love. his mother being american-born, she couldn’t really leave philadelphia. she loved it there. so they decided to keep it a long distance relationship.

sometime during those fleeting meetings, she had gotten pregnant with michael. and of course, his father spoiled them both, giving them everything they wanted. he never left them to fend for themselves.

when the boy was born, his father named him myungjun, and his mother decided to name him michael for his english name. the nicknames jun, mike, and sometimes junnie were often heard whenever his parents or childhood friends called him.

up until mike was five years old in 2005, he’s lived with his mother, with his father leaving and coming back for a week or two. but that year, he’s finally moved to the states and stayed with them for longer nights. he even finally married michael’s mother. of course, he still disappeared for a few days or weeks on end for work.

but that was also the year michael’s mother found out that his father was with another woman. michael has never seen his mother break down like that before. sadly, the young boy was peering into the room when the fight happened and witnessed everything. his mother made her partner choose between the two women, and he eventually told her that he was going to divorce his first wife for her, and appeared to have gone through with his promise. because after that incident, he’s been around more often.

michael has grown up as a cheerful and energetic child. his friends at school would tell you how much of a great friend he is, how trustworthy and caring he is. it was so easy for him to make friends anywhere. he was the type of friend how would smile at you and listen to you talk on and on about whatever you liked, and the type who would cheer you on with anything you want to achieve. he wanted everyone to feel included and loved.

little did his friends and family know that internally he was a depressed mess. of course, no one is completely happy as they grow up. his family was a mess, even if it appeared as fine to everyone else. mike sometimes could disappear for a few days in his room, and it was always during some of his bad spells.

what made it worse was the day he found out the truth.

it was 2017 when michael walked into his father’s office in their house, looking for him to ask him about something. and instead of finding the man, he found a stack of papers poking from underneath his father’s laptop. upon closer look, they appeared to be divorce papers. michael’s heart sunk, thinking his parents were breaking it off.

michael is a curious kid, he couldn’t help but close the door and read the papers. but what he saw wasn’t his mother’s name, it was another woman. his heart raced, as he put things back where they were and immediately left the room. michael had found out one of his father’s many secrets. he never divorced his first wife all those years ago. he lied and stayed with both women.

michael couldn’t help his curiosity. he came back to the room later that night and snapped as many pictures as he could of evidence he could find. he even found his father’s phone (which was easy to figure out the password of) and found a plethora of pictures of the man with a different family, different kids and a different partner. he airdropped the pictures to himself to avoid leaving any traces behind and quickly left again.

a quick search on facebook, and he managed to find the first wife. it was easy with the name and pictures he had. if anything, michael prided himself on being a good internet detective... or stalker. he spent everyday trying to find the rest of the family on the internet. he found the woman’s young daughter on instagram and twitter, along with her older son’s ( @daniclmoon ) accounts as well.

it was a constant “now what?” for michael. he’s found them. what was he going to do now? he couldn’t just message them and tell them everything. and he couldn’t break his mother’s heart by letting her know.

except he had to let her know. he could never live with the fact that he knew his father was betraying her this entire time. and so michael told her everything, and after comforting her all night when she broke down yet again, she immediately ended things and asked for a divorce. now it was just michael and his mother, all alone. and for once, having to get by on their own.

thankfully they were safe, with his mother’s amazing money management skills, and a new, better job, they managed to live their regular lives despite the heavy feeling of a broken family looming around them. the two just wanted to be happy again.

michael spent the next few years trying to lead a normal life. his mental health had gotten worse after everything he’s found out. he went to college, and he continued trying to do well in school. he really wasn’t the best when it came to grades, but he was trying his best.

and truthfully, he couldn’t help but make a few spare accounts on some social medias to follow his father’s other family.

by early 2020, he found out that they moved to mapleview, with the older brother daniel following behind in late july. michael didn’t know why, but his impulsivity made him look up the town and eventually secure himself a place to live there in a few months time. of course, his mother was confused on why he decided to move out suddenly, and michael claimed that he wanted to go to a university near town for computer science. of course, his mother wanted to support him and let him go. although she couldn’t handle her son’s move, having gotten using to living with him all of those years.

michael simply wanted to meet this other side of the family, he wanted to get to know them. he’s always wanted siblings for his entire life, and to know that he had an older brother and sister and a younger sister was something so fascinating to him.

little did he know, he was going to make the mistake of pretending he wasn’t related to them.

TD;LR

michael grew up around his mother with his father traveling a lot for work. when mike was 7, his mother found out his father was cheating and they almost broke up. he lied and said he would divorce his first wife to stay with her. years passed and in 2017, michael stumbled upon divorce papers on his father’s desk that he thought were for his parents. turns out, it for his father and another woman who he claimed he already divorced many years ago. michael ended up gathering information from his father’s office and internet stalking the family until he found out a lot about them. he didn’t have any malicious intent, since they appeared to not know about him. in 2020, he found out they moved to mapleview and ended up moving there too telling his mother that he was going to north carolina to study. he wanted to meet his father’s other family, but didn’t know that he would end up lying to them and pretending he wasn’t related to them.

michael’s childhood friends; could’ve gone to the same school or university back in philadelphia.

michael’s ex; he is bisexual, so gender doesn’t matter. they could’ve ended on a bad note, or even on a good one and ended up being friends. im really up for plotting anything.

michael’s best friend; PLEASE i love wholesome best friend plots. it doesn’t matter if they met in mapleview or philly

michael’s neighbor; he moved here like a month ago, so they could get to know each other

michael’s co-workers/regular customers; he worked at the drive-in threater

literally anything, throw your ideas at me!

#mapleviewintro #tw depression

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dumbepiphany · 4 years

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26 Klance Fanfiction Recommendations

There is a heck of a lot of good Klance fanfiction out there. And while some may be easy to find because of how popular they are, there are many others that are buried in the depths of ao3 that I feel like more people should be reading!!

A lot of these are quite popular fics that you probably would have heard of already, but I hope there’s something in here that’s new, and that you’ll enjoy reading!

All are recommended for Teen And Up Audiences, so please be mindful!

1. Hearts Don’t Break Around Here

By Klancekorner on AO3

Description: Lance and Keith have been best friends since first grade. Lance’s brain is always on overdrive and Keith’s blunt, realistic ass can never keep up. They both come to realize that sometimes you can learn a lot about loving yourself by loving someone else.

Words: 135,555 | Chapters: 13/13 | Warnings: creator chose not to use

My note: This is my absolute favourite Klance fic. Childhood friends to lovers- what more could one ask for?

2. Squad Up

By astralscrivener on AO3

Description: In which the team is in high school, and Lance makes a group chat (ft. college graduates Shiro, Matt, and Allura). (A generic bandwagon chatfic because why are these so fun to write????)

Words: 327,144 | Chapters: 140/140 | Warnings: none

My note: The chatfic format is super fun to read. A lot of fluff!!

3. A Midsummer Night’s Meme

By astralscrivener on AO3

Description: Same group chat, new shenanigans. Or, the team's final summer before Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Shay begin college, as Pidge navigates the waters of young love, Keith and Shiro deal with family issues, Lance has a trip to Cuba, and more. Sequel to Squad Up.

Words: 79,457 | Chapters: 27/27 | Warnings: none

My note: If you read Squad Up, you must read the sequel! The storyline is really cool and the boys are Soft:)

4. Ignorance is Bliss

By YouAreInAComaWakeUp (Nikanaiko) on AO3

Description: As it turns out, learning that your house is haunted makes the ghosts a lot more aggressive. Who knew? Ah, well. At least one of them is hot. And he's the less-evil one, too, so that's always a plus.

Words: 172,675 | Chapters: 30/30 | Warnings: graphic depictions of violence

My note: Oh God this fic. C’mon, it’s Ghost Keith and Human Lance... and they bond... need I say more?

5. Shut Up and Dance With Me

By wittyy_name on AO3

Description: Lance and his friends have been regulars at the Altea Dance Studio for years. Not just for classes, but to hang out, practice, and spend time with good people who love dancing. Every year, they audition to be one of the few representing Altea at the regional dance competition. Lance always auditions solo, but this year he misses out on auditions and blows his chance to participate. And so does his self-proclaimed rival, Keith. Luckily, Shiro comes up with a brilliant plan: convince Lance and Keith to audition as a duo.With a little convincing, and a lot of effort, these two might just be able to pull it off and go to regionals... or they might crash and burn.

Words: 249,827 | Chapters: 15/15 | Warnings: none

My note: One of the first fics I read. Super sweet and fluffy, great storyline, complete with art by wolfpainters! Tbh any dance AU fic is a good fic

6. Chivalry is Dead

By Sheksper on AO3

Description: Prince Lance was an adventurer. That was all there was to it. So, when he's suddenly assigned a new knight to follow him around, all Lance can think is that his freedom is being taken away, and it's all because of the red-clad, mullet boy named Keith, who is honestly just trying not to lose his job on the first day.

Words: 61,071 | Chapters: 17/17 | Warnings: graphic depictions of violence

My note: Prince Lance and Knight Keith is a concept to die for and it’s written so so well in this story!!

7. Nothing’s Quite As Sweet

By dimpleforyourthoughts on AO3

Description: Keith is a barista who hates his job. Lance works at the cat shelter across the street.

Words: 50,369 | Chapters: 1/1 | Warnings: none

*You need to have an account to be able to see this fic!*

My note: A traditional must-read cafe/cat shelter fic! It’s got coffee and cats... the Softness levels are through the roof

8. The Fallen and the Wandering

By creeshtar on AO3

Description: Keith was born into a world of ice and darkness, with no sun to rise or stars to shine. In spite of humanity’s best efforts, the world is meeting a slow, but certain doom, which can only be stopped if the sun is found and replaced in the sky. Keith, meanwhile, is content to collect stars and eventually replace them in the sky, alongside a new partner that he can’t seem to help but gravitate towards--until a mysterious person with inhuman power goes on a warpath to find the sun for herself. Keith and his partner are unwittingly thrown into the race to find the sun first, only for Keith to discover, to his dismay, that it may be closer than he could’ve ever wanted.

Words: 106,108 | Chapters: 12/12 | Warnings: creator chose not to use

My note: The writing and the AU concept is gorgeous and intriguing, props to the author for the world-building and the gratuitous fluff and angst!!

9. Love Interest

By iwriteshipsnotsailthem on AO3

Description: Lance is getting his big American debut on a new T.V series called Voltron. He's excited and nervous about how amazingly talented and famous his cast members are. But most importantly Lance is anticipating meeting his character -Leandro's- love interest in the show. Who happens to played by the be mega famous, mega hot Keith Kogane. But due to a misunderstanding during their first encounter, Lance now thinks Keith is the biggest jerk alive. Keith now has to try and fix it, for the sake of the show, and also for the sake of their on screen romance, which may start venture off screen as well.

Words: 195,400 | Chapters: 50/50 | Warnings: creator chose not to use

My note: If you love Klance and you love Leakira, then get ready for... Klance as actors portraying Leakira!!

10. (Unofficially) VLD- Season 9

By hoelko on AO3

Description: The Universe has been saved. The war is over. Voltron is no longer needed. But that's the thing about the Universe. It's always getting bigger.

Words: 225,777 | Chapters: 15/15 | Warnings: none

My note: This fic was everything the fandom deserved but never got. Hoelko is our God. Worship this fic.

11. ‘Til We Meet the Dawn

By angstinspace on AO3

Description: Keith is a mage and Lance is a knight, and they've been best friends since childhood. For years, Keith has known that Lance carries a dark secret: that if he doesn't kiss his true love before he turns twenty, he'll die. Now only three days remain before Lance's twentieth birthday, and Keith and Lance are sent on a dangerous quest to rescue Romelle––who Lance believes will be the one to break his curse. But what he doesn't know is that Keith is already hopelessly in love with him.

Words: 75,242 | Chapters: 1/1 | Warnings: none

My note: Magic! Fantasy! Knights! Curses! True love! Angst! Fluff! All that good jazz rolled into one glorious fic!!

12. Follow My Lead

By Klancekorner on AO3

Description: Becoming “hook-up buddies” with Lance Sanchez was just supposed to be a small, insignificant fraction of Keith’s life. But of course, things don’t work out that way at all. aka a Friends w/ Benefits AU that nobody asked for where Lance wears sleeveless hoodies, plays basketball in abandoned parking lots, and follows his dreams, and Keith comes from a high class, reputable family who never let him have any dreams of his own. They go home with each other and don't expect it to matter until it totally does.

Words: 117,792 | Chapters: 14/14 | Warnings: NSFW

My note: Everyone needs a little bit of no-strings-attached-turns-into-catching-feelings in their life! Just be careful with the nsfw!

13. Something Just Like This

By Klancekorner on AO3

Description: Keith reluctantly becomes the counselor for the Red Cabin at Camp Voltron, a summer camp in the middle of buttfuck nowhere that his older brother Shiro has worked at for years. Already unhappy with the current position that he is in, Keith prepares himself for a boring, sweaty, miserable summer; and his frustration only grows when he meets the counselor for the Blue Cabin- an insufferable asshole with a horrible sense of humor, a devilish smirk, an inexplicable animosity towards the Red Cabin, and a smile that literally looks like the sun. Needless to say Keith is really, really unprepared for the next three months.

Words: 58,800 | Chapters: 12/12 | Warnings: NSFW

My note: A Very Soft Fic. A truly Soft Soft Fic. It has little kids in it,, it’s adorable and fluffy,, makes you squeal into your pillow,, please read!

14. The Marks We Make

By wittyy_name on AO3

Description: Lance McClain constantly dreams of the day he'll finally meet his mysterious soulmate. They don't say much, if anything at all, but they leave him with gorgeous paintings temporarily tattooing his skin. It's not exactly the situation he hoped for, but when he feels the connection between them, he can't bring himself to resent them. As much as he wishes his soulmate would just talk to him, he's resigned himself to being patient. In the meantime, he has a loving family and good friends to help him get by. Keith Kogane dreads the day he'll finally meet his obnoxious soulmate. He's just an art student who's struggling to find his place in the world. There's so much he hasn't been able to control in his life, and the thought of having a soulmate, just another thing in his life which he also has no control over yet can't do anything about, is a little terrifying. So he ignores the words that occasionally appear on his skin. He has other things to focus on: like being a new student at a big university where his childhood friend and step-brother go.

Words: 255,302 | Chapters: 12/12 | Warnings: none

My note: The soulmate AU that everyone needed. Complete with art by wolfpainters!

15. Lucky in Rivalry

By iwriteshipsnotsailthem on AO3

Description: After moving back to his hometown after ten years, Keith is being shoved back into the life of an unexpected individual who was his so called 'rival' from music school. How is Keith supposed to explain to Lance that he hasn't sung for a crowd in all those years after his disappearance? Lance is the town's favourite gig at Voltron Cafe. He's lively and has the voice that makes girls go weak. He's also one half of the cutest couple in school. Him and Lotor are what everyone wants in a relationship, but behind closed doors it's a bit of a different story. How much more can Lance take before he cracks?

Words: 134,484 | Chapters: 45/45 | Warnings: creator chose not to use

My note: True love, music and singing, high school drama, this fic has the whole lot! Give it a go, you won’t regret!!

16. Drummer Boy

By Klancekorner on AO3

Description: Lance is 100%, without a doubt, straight. He has the perfect girlfriend and has never wanted anything more. But suddenly his world is being turned upside down by the boy playing the drums at his local bar--a boy who happens to be very good looking, very gay, and very very interested in Lance. aka: Good-Boy Lance has a crisis when he meets Keith because he's so damn attractive, and Keith is a little ho that is way too promiscuous and open about his sexuality. The become friends. Confusion and sexual tension ensue.

Words: 50,188 | Chapters: 11/11 | Warnings: graphic depictions of violence, rape/non-con

My note: This one is a great read, but it’s a pretty sexy fic. Read the warnings and stay safe, avoid it if it isn’t your cup of tea!

17. On Thin Ice

By anonimina on AO3

Description: This multi-chapter fic chronicles the lives of a hockey player named Keith who gets enlisted into figure skating lessons by his brother, Shiro, to "work on his footwork". There he meets a pompous - yet talented - figure skater named Lance and gets swept away by both the sport and the skater. Or: the not-so-simple story of two people trying to navigate the complexities of living in an ever changing world and face the traumas they've buried far away from the sunlight.

Words: 205,795 | Chapters: 11/11 | Warnings: none

My note: Figure skating and hockey playing! This fic is emotional and fluffy and very very adorable! Just a warning- it’s unfinished, so the last chapter is basically a summary and dot points of what the planned ending was!

18. Life After Death

By taylortot on AO3

Description: Fear clambers into his mouth and tastes bitter on his tongue. “Who are you?” It takes him a moment to register the sound of his own voice. She stares at him. Blinks. “Lance, please, this isn’t time for one of your jokes--” He furrows his eyebrows and struggles to sit up, to stop leaning into the cradle of her arms. “I’m not--I’m not...joking.” * After sacrificing himself to save Allura, Lance wakes up in a strange new world where the only thing he knows is a deep connection to a boy he doesn't remember.

Words: 90,074 | Chapters: 13/14 | Warnings: none

My note: The Feels. The Feels are strong with this one. Memory loss always hits super hard, be prepared for angst (but also comfort and fluff!)

19. Homesick at Space Camp

By Kobot on AO3

Description: Lance realizes he's been an asshole to Keith, and on a diplomatic mission to a key planet for the Voltron alliance he... overcompensates.

Words: 74,280 | Chapters: 15/15 | Warnings: graphic depictions of violence

My note: Fake marriage AU! FA K E M a R Ri A G E AU!!! Need I say more?

20. I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor

By xShieru on AO3

Description: "So like in 'Step Up'?" Allura shrugs. "Now that you put it like that - yes. I guess it's just like in 'Step Up'." The smile that she sends Shiro's way - followed by a shy wave, eugh - is sickening to say the least, and Lance still doesn't believe in dance camps. Lance McClain's dancing career begins and ends with Keith. Keith just wants to find out what Lance's deal is.

Words: 43,295 | Chapters: 7/7 | Warnings: none

My note: A steamy, fluffy dancing AU fic! I read this ages ago so I can’t really remember what happened but it was GOOD!!

21. Watercast

By fishwrites on AO3

Description: Shiro has been a Galra prisoner for over a year; with his flight feathers clipped and unable to fly. Desperate to escape, he jumps overboard while being transported to the capitol on a Galran ship. Lance is a merman who saves him from drowning. Keith thinks Shiro is about to become mermaid dinner. Hunk just wants Lance to stop going to the surface all the time, dammit! (AU where Avians (winged folk), Galra, humans and merfolk cohabit earth. Shiro and Keith are avian soldiers, Lance is the youngest son of a Queen, Hunk is also a merman and Pidge is still looking for her family. They get caught up in a war.)

Words: 205,901 | Chapters: 15/16 | Warnings: graphic depictions of violence

My note: Avian Keith and Merman Lance is the forbidden love story that everyone needs in their life tbh. It’s been on hiatus for a while so idk about the final chapter, but it’s definitely worth a read!

22. Call Me, Beep Me

By orphan_account on AO3

Description: Where lance messages the wrong number and things kind of snowball from there.

Words: 85,591 | Chapters: 10/10 | Warnings: none

My note: Arguably the most popular Klance fanfic (after Dirty Laundry of course)! You’ve probably heard of it, but if not, do read!! Wrong number fics are a godsend

23. Calling Me to Come Back

By aknightley on AO3

Description: Keith is a witch who owns a shop where he breaks curses on both magical items and people under spells. Love spells, family curses passed down generations, cursed heirlooms lurking the attic -- he can handle them all. But one day a boy named Lance walks into his shop, and his curse is darker and more difficult to break than anything Keith has ever seen before: the curse is draining his magic, and without his magic, Lance will die.

Words: 50,464 | Chapters: 1/1 | Warnings: none

My note: Will Witch Keith break Lance’s curse, or will Lance die!?!?!? And will they fall in love along the way???!?! Read on to find out:D

24. Say My Name (And Every Colour Illuminates)

By parchmints on AO3

Description: Lance never thought he had a soulmate, but when he finds himself dreaming about a boy on Varadero Beach and in a southwestern desert, he learns they have an incredibly rare soul link–-one that allows them to form an unusually strong bond before they meet, but also exposes their greatest vulnerabilities to each other.

Words: 27,833 | Chapters: 1/1 | Warnings: none

My note: Really well-written, relatively short but so so sweet! Another soulmate AU (honestly one of my favourite AUs) except this time it’s dreamscape:)

25. Video Killed the Radio Star

By europa_report on AO3

Description: In which Keith is the guy who suddenly finds himself a single-parent to his two nieces, and Lance is the charming radio host who might be his only voice of reason in this mess.

Words: 69,468 | Chapters: 11/11 | Warnings: none

My note: This is so cute, I almost cried. Any fic with kl interacting with little children is an instant KO for my heart:’)

26. Smile for the Stars

By maIikcutie on AO3

Description: Though he's been dealt many bad cards, Lance isn't sure he can handle this one: winding up stranded, a million lightyears away from home, with only Keith to keep him company. The universe is cruel.

Words: 72,921 | Chapters: 9/9 | Warnings: major character death

My note: Please don’t read unless you are prepared for a MAJOR character death! If you’re up for it, prepare a box of tissues, and good luck, my friend!

And that’s all for my list! Hope you found something to your liking, happy reading folks!

#klance #klance fanfic #klance fanfiction #fanfiction recommendation #klance fanfiction recommendation #keith kogane #lance mcclain #keith x lance #fanfiction #voltron #vld #voltron legendary defender #voltron fanfiction

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vinca-majors · 3 years

Link

Michaela Brown, ScaryMommy:

Upon graduating college with my hard-earned degree to teach high school English, I almost immediately began planning for my graduate studies. Lots of high schools around the country require their teachers to have a masters degree, so that was a motivator. Plus, it came with a pay raise. And, I truly enjoyed going to school. In fact, at the time, I hadn’t ruled out going on and earning my doctorate as well.

I did end up graduating with my M.A. in secondary education, after writing a thesis I’m damn proud of. My path changed a bit and I never went on for my doctorate, but you can be sure as hell if I had that I’d claim that Dr. title. That my students—even the grumpiest of teenagers whose eyes shot daggers at me as I made them read Shakespearean sonnets—would be calling me Dr. and not Mrs. or Miss.

And as I’ve encountered other professionals with that Dr. title, I’ve never hesitated to refer to them that way. My children’s formal principal went by Dr. Matthews. No one questioned it. I’ve had professors at the undergraduate and graduate level use the title. Again, that’s what we all called them. With respect. And without hesitation. Just as we refer to famous figures like a man we’ve all heard of—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.— because each of these people put in the work, the years, the money, the commitment, and the dedication. Each of them earned their Dr. title.

So yeah, when Dr. Jill Biden completed her education and earned her Doctor of Education (Ed.D) from the University of Delaware, she rightfully earned the title “Dr.” and deserves to be referred to as such. Just as any other professional with that level of expertise does as well. Is she a medical doctor? No. Does she claim to be? No. Have professionals in academia added Dr. to their titles once they’ve earned their doctorate for centuries? Yes.

However, because some ignorant asswipes remain stuck in 1950, or don’t understand how higher education works, or simply are bound and determined to hate on the Bidens as they hated on the Obamas even though they are kind and supportive of others—regardless of political party, her title is under scrutiny.

The Wall Street Journal stupidly published an op-ed, which has now gone viral, that was moronically entitled, “Is There a Doctor in the White House? Not if You Need an M.D.” And, of course, this piece of trash essay included a byline that reads, “Jill Biden should think about dropping the honorific, which feels fraudulent, even comic.”

Joseph Epstein, the “writer” of this ignorant word vomit, opens by condescendingly calling Dr. Biden “kiddo” and offering her advice, as if he is in any position to advise the First Lady of the United States on literally anything. “Madame First Lady—Mrs. Biden—Jill—kiddo: a bit of advice on what may seem like a small but I think is a not unimportant matter,” Epstein mansplains.

He then goes on to insult her dissertation on student retention at community colleges, calling it “unpromising” and, in the same paragraph, refers to the idiotic but commonly used quip that no one can call themselves “doctor” unless they’ve delivered a child.

Let’s break this bullshittery down, shall we? First of all, Mr. Epstein, your piece reeks of envy. We’re sorry you didn’t have the… guts? courage? stamina? intelligence level? (who knows) to actually ever earn a doctorate, but you sound bitter. It’s not a good look. Also, it’s clear that you don’t respect the value of community colleges, which is where Dr. Biden has spent a large portion of her career. And, finally, the world now knows that you are threatened by smart women. Bravo.

Also, we’ll be sure to let all the medical doctors out there who’ve tirelessly fought COVID-19 this year, holding the hands of dying patients, and also those brilliant scientists who thankfully have brought us a vaccine that offers a beacon of hope, that they don’t get to call themselves “doctor” because they’ve never caught a newborn baby. I’m sure they’ll appreciate that tidbit of info from you—*checks notes*—a man with one single undergraduate degree, no earned doctorate, and zero medical expertise.

Basically, Mr. Epstein, it’s obvious that you have some personal issues you need to unpack. Maybe take some time over the holidays to do a little self-reflection? Like, why do you even care what title Dr. Biden goes by? Why are you so scared of women who are more successful than you?

Your piece then goes on a long, barely coherent rant about “honorary doctorates,” which is not what Dr. Biden has. If you’d like to blast the validity or point of bestowing honorary doctorates on celebrities like Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers, for example, go right ahead, but that has nothing to do with Dr. Biden. This lack of cohesive argument is why I’ve referred to you as a “writer” a few paragraphs up, because it seems apparent that you don’t understand the need for basic textual support.

(Calling you a jealous asswipe, well, that’s just a reflection of your character.)

Finally, your last “supporting argument” (again, use of quotes intentional here) as to why Dr. Biden should drop her title is because apparently doctorates don’t count anymore. Back in the day, you explain, doctoral exams were far more grueling, but today’s candidates get off way too easy.

“One had to pass examinations in two foreign languages, one of them Greek or Latin, defend one’s thesis, and take an oral examination on general knowledge in one’s field,” your op-ed states. “At Columbia University of an earlier day, a secretary sat outside the room where these examinations were administered, a pitcher of water and a glass on her desk. The water and glass were there for the candidates who fainted. A far cry, this, from the few doctoral examinations I sat in on during my teaching days, where candidates and teachers addressed one another by first names and the general atmosphere more resembled a kaffeeklatsch.”

(I had to look up what kaffeeklatsch meant—it’s an informal social gathering at which coffee is served. Excuse my lack of knowledge there. I’m just a silly woman with a higher degree than you.)

And, as you end with, “Dr. Jill, I note you acquired your Ed.D. as recently as 15 years ago at age 55, or long after the terror had departed,” you not only insult her by addressing her as “Dr. Jill”, but you also imply that because she likely didn’t faint while taking her exams or defending her dissertation, that somehow her degree isn’t real.

That’s the crazy thing about education—it evolves. Today, kids even use these neat little things called computers! You wouldn’t believe it. Another way we’ve evolved is to realize that shockingly, our doctoral candidates don’t have to become physically ill to prove they are smart and worthy of their degree!

(I mean, you never even tried, Mr. Epstein, so I guess even today, doctoral programs are only for the toughest among us, like Dr. Jill Biden.)

Also, it seems that Northwestern University, where you were previously listed as “emeritus lecturer of English,” has scrubbed you entirely from their website, stating that it is “firmly committed to equity, diversity and inclusion, and strongly disagrees with Epstein’s misogynistic views.” Again, evolution! Change is good.

Hmmm. So one of you is a misogynist with no teaching history to even brag about as your previous employer has disassociated with you, and another is a successful educator committing to helping all Americans have access to a proper education. Oh, and the second one goes by Dr.

Looks like the real “comical fraud” is you, bruh.

And just so we’re clear, Dr. Biden has always been committed to ensuring that everyone (not just pretentious twats like you, Joseph Epstein) has access to a fair education. Earlier in her career, she worked in a psychiatric hospital where she taught English to adolescents with emotional disabilities. During that same time she also earned two (yes, TWO) master’s degrees, one from Villanova University and one from West Chester University. In 2009, after earning her doctorate, she began teaching English at Northern Virginia Community College, and advocating for community college education has since been her passion. “Dr. Biden has always said that community colleges are ‘one of America’s best-kept secrets.’ As a teacher, she sees how community colleges have changed the lives of so many of her students for the better,” explains former president Barack Obama’s White House website.

Sorry, Mr. Epstein, but not everyone can afford to enroll in an English class at Northwestern taught by a raging sexist who gets his balls in a bunch when women succeed. For many, community college is a better fit, and Dr. Biden is a big part of that.

“In 2012, she traveled across the country as part of the ‘Community College to Career’ tour to highlight successful industry partnerships between community colleges and employers,” the website goes on to say. “In the fall of 2010, she hosted the first-ever White House Summit on Community Colleges with President Obama, and she continues to work on this outreach on behalf of the Administration – frequently visiting campuses, meeting with students and teachers, as well as industry representatives around the country.”

Imagine all of the hard-working Americans Dr. Biden has helped by supporting community colleges. Future teachers just like her often get their degree while working full time, raising a family, and going to college at night. Who knows, some of them may even—gasp—go to grad school too. High school kids who choose to forego going away to a full-time university and instead, take classes at a community college closer to home, are given that option because of people like Dr. Biden. Kids who go on to be EMTs, police officers, technicians in trade industries, engineers, and find success in the business world. Or, they transfer those college credits to a larger university down the road when they have the means to do so. Single moms doing their best to give their children a good life often attend community college classes online, after their children are asleep, proving that they have the drive and determination to do more and be more.

So, what it all boils down to, Mr. Epstein, is that you really, really hate that there’s about to a woman in the White House who’s smarter than you. And not only that, but she inspires women everywhere to work hard, earn their degrees, and then they’ll be smarter than you too. Yikes. That’s a tough pickle to be in, Mr. Epstein. We’re sorry that you are so insecure and unhappy with your own lack of success.

At least you can still wrote those stellar op-eds though! Good luck with your “writing” career, kiddo.

#dr. jill biden #michaela brown #scarymommy #op ed #joseph epstein #current events #SO fired up right now #gimme that feminism #my country tis of thee #long post

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qqueenofhades · 5 years

Text

Women and “medieval cruelty and ignorance”

Okay. So. We could probably have guessed that this tweet was like waving a red flag in front of a bull, but here we are anyway.

(Tagging @artielu because I know she enjoys my history smackdowns and this is right in her wheelhouse of interest.)

First: nobody denies that the Alabama bill and similar efforts are absolutely heinous, are designed to be test cases to get Roe v. Wade overturned, and are deliberately gratuitous in their constitutional overreach and general horrible Handmaid’s Tale nature. But for well-meaning liberals, such as above, calling them representative of “medieval cruelty and ignorance” is a) not accurate and b) counterproductive. If we insist on using “the medieval” as a conceptual category inferior to “the modern,” these recent bills bear a complicated, at best, resemblance to medieval canon law and social practice. And there was never, I promise you, any law that prescribed a 99-year jail term for abortionists. So if we want to point out how the modern Republican party is actually much worse than their medieval counterparts, we can do that, but also: trust me, this is thoroughly modern cruelty and ignorance, and we should insist on that distinction.

First, obviously, women’s bodies have always been subject to a social discourse of power, control, gendered anxiety, and attendant responses. This was certainly the case in the medieval era, but our modern interpretations of that discourse can be... iffy, at best. In discussing the feminization of witchcraft in the late 15th century, M.D. Bailey critiques how scholars have tended to take the Malleus Maleficarum, the famous witch-hunting handbook, as representative of a self-evident and endemic medieval and clerical misogyny. In fact, the Malleus was the equivalent of the extreme right wing today, was relatively quickly condemned even by the church itself, and was largely reworked from earlier ecclesiastical anti-sodomy polemics, because the idea of “disordered gender” was certainly one that occupied medieval moralists and theorists. I have discussed the Malleus in other posts, but while it certainly is virulently and systematically misogynist, it also was a work of rhetoric rather than a reflection of historical reality. Medieval misogyny absolutely and obviously existed, and it impacted women’s lives, but we also really need to get rid of The Medieval Era Was Bad For Women, (tm), Therefore Everything Was Worse Back Then.

The possibility of magic being used to cause impotence/loss of fertility was another concern, and one of the main anxieties about the practice of witchcraft was that it would bring “sterility” and irregular sexual activity (usually with the devil). However, an extensive corpus of contraceptive and abortifacient knowledge has existed since antiquity, and in tracing the representation of unborn children in medieval theological thought, Danuta Shanzer notes:

My findings suggest that it is overstatement to claim that from the start Christianity considered the fetus a living being from conception. Augustine is a major agonized and agnostic counter-example.

Hence, contrary to right-wing claims that the church has “always” thought that life began at conception (spoiler alert: the church has never once “always” thought the same thing on anything), it was almost never the case in medieval legal or theoretical practice. Thomas Aquinas and other medieval theologians argued that “ensoulment” or the separation of the fetus into a living being happened at quickening, when the baby could move on its own (which medieval medical treatises had various standards for measuring, but it would be the equivalent of about 20 weeks of pregnancy). Monica Green, a leading medieval medical and gender historian, has examined a vast corpus of obstetric and gynecological Middle English texts, and in “Making Motherhood,” argues:

Texts on women’s medicine might also be concerned to “unmake” or prevent motherhood, either by preventing conception in the first place or expelling a dead foetus that would not emerge spontaneously. Abortion per se was almost never mentioned.

In other words: abortion was not paid attention to in nearly the same way we do today, and while canon law, in theory, prescribed penalties for contraception and abortion, historians have consistently (surprise!) discovered a disconnect between this and secular law and everyday practice. And while some twelfth-century (male) jurists did attempt to equate miscarriage with homicide, and to install it in canon law, these laws were almost never practically used or prosecuted. In Divisions of Labor: Gender, Power, and Later Medieval Childbirth, c. 1200-1500, Rebecca Wynne Jones surveys the extant literature and notes:

In his 2012 book The Criminalization of Abortion in the West, Wolfgang Müller documents how 12th‐century jurists' increasing tendency to equate violence resulting in miscarriage with homicide was institutionalized in canon law. Though this development led to the widespread criminalization of abortion in ecclesiastical jurisdictions, Müller has little to say about gender relations on the ground. Rather, by highlighting local communities' reluctance to prosecute, he presents laws that might once have been seen as proof of a medieval “war on women” as legislative enactments whose practical power remained limited.

Once again: medieval ecclesiastical proscriptions against abortion were, at best, sporadically enforced, communities were reluctant to actually prosecute women or to criminalize early-term pregnancy loss, and church law was not identical with secular law, which was the standard ordinary people used and were subject to. This concords with what Fiona Harris-Stoertz has found in her survey of pregnancy and childbirth in twelfth and thirteenth-century French and English law:

It is striking that in these thirteenth-century English texts, no penalty was assigned for the loss of less developed fetuses. This absence flew in the face of high medieval church legislation, which, in theory at least, took all contraception and abortion seriously. John Riddle finds that the idea that early-term abortion is less serious than late-term abortion occurred in the work of Aristotle and appeared occasionally throughout the early Middle Ages, particularly in church penitentials, although it also appeared in the early medieval Visigothic code.

While late-term abortion of potentially viable fetuses was still a crime, secular law still essentially held to quickening as the moment at which a pregnancy could not be terminated. Before that, however -- anywhere in the first 4-5 months of pregnancy -- it could often be dealt with, if desired, without any penalty. Anne L. McClanan has investigated the material culture of abortion and contraception in the early Byzantine period. And Ireland, which as recently as last year remained one of the last European countries to outlaw abortion, had a medieval hagiography that actively canonized abortionist saints:

Medieval hagiographers told of Irish Catholics par excellence, the saints themselves, performing abortions as well as of “bastards” becoming bishops and saints. In hagiography and the penitentials, virginal status depended more on a woman’s relationship with the church than with a man. To my knowledge, no other country in Christendom, medieval or modern, produced abortionist saints or restored virgins, apart from the nun of Watton. Why Ireland is among the few European countries to maintain severely restrictive policies on reproduction remains an unanswered question, but it clearly cannot be attributed to its medieval Catholicism.

Last part bolded because important. Modern bans on abortion don’t relate to how these notions were conceptualized or used in the past, and they are not holdovers from The Medieval Era (tm). They don’t represent medieval concerns or medieval ideas of gender, or at least certainly not in a direct genealogy. Even as late as the seventeenth century, when ideas of childbirth, marriage, and reproduction were more strictly controlled, the period prior to quickening, or the movement of the baby, was still generally not penalized or subject to legal control or coercion. So in sum: while religious moralists and canonical lawyers absolutely did object to abortion (aka right-wing men, the same ones who object to it today, funnily enough), in secular law and daily practice, a pregnancy that was terminated prior to quickening was not subject to practical prosecution or legal punishment, and medieval women had access to a vast corpus of gynecological texts, medical practices, herbal recipes, rituals, and charms intended to accomplish a wide range of fertility goals: conception, contraception, abortion, a healthy pregnancy and delivery, and so forth. I also answered an ask a while ago that discussed all this in detail.

Also: abortion was explicitly mobilized as a wedge issue in the 1970s and 1980s with the rise of the religious right in American politics, and that happened not because of abortion, but in resistance to the IRS penalizing them for refusing to racially integrate evangelical schools and colleges. Randall Balmer has written about the history of the “abortion myth”; do yourself a favor and read it. The Southern Baptist Convention campaigned in 1971 for the liberalization of American abortion laws, and hailed the 1973 Roe decision as a win for the rights of the mother. (Oh how the mighty have fallen?) The right wing came together as a political force to resist racial integration, exemplified by their loss in the 1983 Supreme Court case Bob Jones University v. United States. But since it was not a winning political strategy (yet, at least) to fly the flag of “let us be racist in peace,” they, as Balmer discusses, created the “abortion myth” to make themselves look better and to present a narrative of holy/moral concern for the lives of the unborn. The reason abortion is as huge as it is in the present American political landscape owes to modern religious conservatism and extremism, resistance to racial equality, ideological control over women, and other bigotry, and (again) not to medievalism or medieval practices.

So, yes. Let us call the Alabama bill and other heinousness exactly what it is: a modern effort by a lot of terrible modern people to do terrible things to modern women. We don’t need to qualify it by fallacious equivalences to so-called “medieval cruelty” -- especially, again, when medieval practice and perspective on these issues was nowhere near the stereotype, and certainly nowhere near this “99 years in prison for performing an abortion” dystopian nightmare. If we want to shame the GOP, by all means, do so. But we should not resort to distorting and simplifying history to do it, and using the imagined “bad medieval” as a straw man to club them with. There’s plenty on its own. The modern world needs to take responsibility for its own misogyny, and stop trying to frame it as a historical issue that only existed in the past, and that any manifestations of it must be medieval in nature. Because it’s not.

#history #medieval history #women in history #history of sexuality #history of medicine #cw abortion #long post

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ladyhistorypod · 4 years

Text

Episode 6: Ask Santa to Bring a Vote for Mother

Sources:

Mabel Ping-Hua Lee

National Parks Service

National Women’s History Museum

Further Reading: Women’s Vote 100, 18 Million Rising

Delilah Beasley

California State University Northridge (CSUN)

New York Times

Huntington Library

Ohio History

KQED

Ida B. Wells

History Channel

National Women’s History Museum

National Parks Service

Black Past

New York Times

Chicago History Encyclopedia

Washington Post (Alana definitely did NOT cry while reading it)

Further Reading on race and suffrage: NPR

Attributions:

Dooley’s Address

“Your mother’s gone away to join the army”

Cheering Crowd

Click below for a full transcript of the episode!

Lexi: I started my internship at the Air and Space museum,

Haley: Woohoo!

Lexi: and the first day I am there, we have a live chat with a WASP expert who talks about Jackie Cochran and how Jackie Cochran might have been a racist. And I was like, there’s new layers to this story. And I know it sounds weird but I'm thrilled that this person might have been a racist but I'm just always interested to learn new things about people that I have known things about.

Haley: No I love when these stories come out and people are adding like the actual history part of it.

Lexi: the context, the history, the actual person’s views because we often just like glorify a figure.

Haley: And that’s a lot with the suffragists. This topic has it.

Lexi: But it's just so interesting because we often glorify these people. We can't accept that she did really awesome things by getting women into the Air Force but also did really shitty things by making sure Black women didn't get into the Air Force. So.

Haley: Yes. Exactly.

Lexi: But she did let in Asian women. There were apparently two Chinese American WASPs. I also learned that.

Haley: On a side note, can we– if we get reviews can we like read the reviews?

Alana: You wanna do a segment where we read reviews?

Haley: Like every week being like– because we can do that as like our banter if we can't– and be like “our weekly review is…”

Lexi: Listener shout out. Here’s a review.

Haley: This person.

Lexi: Yeah.

Haley: Yeah

[INTRO MUSIC]

Alana: Hello and welcome to Lady History, the good the bad and the ugly ladies you missed in history class. Coming to you virtually from my closet turned podcasting studio is Lexi. Lexi, if you were a single issue voter, what issue would that be?

Lexi: Probably bird– bird care, bird health, bird ability to exist, bird ownership.

Alana: Are you a birds’ rights activist?

Lexi: I am a bird rights activist.

Alana: And her face is partially hidden by my clothes but Haley, aka a Sprinklebear McPuss-n-Boots, is here too. Sprinklebear McPuss-n-Boots, it’s been two weeks since we last recorded and we already did one episode tonight, did ya think I’d forget?

Haley: I really was hoping you would forget. I did. I kind of– I keep forgetting it’s Sprinkle McPuss-n-Boots. I keep thinking it’s Sparkle or something. But like once in a while that’ll creep into my mind.

Alana (laughing): Lexi is losing her shit.

Lexi: Please contact us and direct your message to Haley using this title, please.

Alana: To Sprinklebear McPuss-n-Boots. And I’m Alana and please, god, register to vote.

Haley: My registering to vote has not happened yet because of the god damn DMV. And it makes me so mad.

Alana: I'm still registered in California. I haven’t switched.

Haley: I’m registered in New York.

Alana: But I might be moving in January, so…

Haley: Back to California?

Alana: No, in with Lexi. Hopefully. We haven’t talked about that.

Lexi: We’ll see.

Alana: We’ll see.

Lexi (stammering): GW?

Alana: That’s the dream.

Lexi: But, um…

Alana: GW has to let me into school first.

Lexi: Yeah.

Alana: Okay, who's going first that's not me?

Lexi: Mabel Ping-Hua Lee was born in Guangzhou, China on October 7, 1897 so shout outs to her upcoming one hundred and twenty third birthday. Can we get some happy birthdays for my girl?

Alana: Happy birthday in the chat.

Haley: Happy birthday.

Lexi: Happy birthdaaay. I don't know how to say Happy Birthday in Chinese because, as is a common theme on this show, none of us speak Chinese, as you may know, as you may have knowledge of. But anyway. When Mabel was four, her father, a pastor, moved to the United States to work as a missionary and Mabel stayed with her mother in China. At the age of nine, Mabel earned a special scholarship which was called the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship. I'm unsure why it is called that. That scholarship she received, and it allowed her to obtain a visa and move to the United States, to go to school in the United States. And in 1905 her entire family relocated to New York City's Chinatown so that Mabel could pursue her education in America. There is no direct record of how Mabel got involved in the suffrage movement, but it is clear that through being a young, educated woman living in New York City, she was able to participate in activities being led by local suffragists. And then, Mabel was beginning to become a leader in the movement in her own right. In 1912, Mabel helped manage a parade for suffrage and she rode horseback; she helped direct the marchers from the parade starting point at Greenwich Village. Historical accounts suggest at least ten thousand spectators witnessed the parade which she led. Her participation in the suffrage movement led to another accomplishment: she was featured in the New York Tribune and The New York Times as a teen activist and icon of New York’s suffrage movement. That same year, Mabel started school at Barnard College, a women's school founded because Colombia was a men's only university at the time. She decided to major in history and philosophy. In college, Mabel joined the Chinese American student association and wrote for the Chinese students’ monthly paper. Her essays, such as “The Meaning of Woman Suffrage,” supported her fight for women's rights. In 1915, Mabel gave a speech for the Women's Political Union and was again featured in The New York Times her speech was called “The Submerged Half” and focused on the gender divide in the Chinese American community. She urged Chinese Americans to educate their daughters and allow women to participate in civic life. In 1917, women in New York earned the right to vote in their state. In 1920, some women were given the federal right to vote with the passing of the 19th amendment, but many women, including Mabel, still could not vote. Mabel, like many other Chinese Americans, longed for citizenship and voting rights, but they could not obtain either. They were restricted from gaining citizenship through the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Mabel would have to keep fighting in order to obtain her right to vote. After finishing her undergraduate degree, Mabel earned her MA from Columbia's Teachers’ College and she later earned her PhD in economics, also from Columbia. She was the first Chinese woman to earn a PhD in economics. She also published her thesis “The Economic History of China.” Shortly after Mabel finished her doctorate, her father passed away. Mabel decided to take over his role as a church leader, becoming the director of the first Chinese Baptist Church of New York City. She also founded New York City's Chinese Christian Community Center, which offered courses in English and vocational skills to newly immigrated Chinese Americans. The center also provided health care and child care to the Chinese community. The Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed December 17, 1943, sixty one years after it was first enacted. The repeal of this act meant Chinese Americans could become citizens, and in doing so, earn the right to vote. Mabel passed away in 1966. No record of Mabel becoming a US citizen or exercising her right to vote exists. Scholars remain unsure if the girl who fought to retain the right to vote for so many other women ever even voted herself.

Haley: Wow. I love her. I know her from…

Alana: That’s really interesting.

Haley: I know her… Where do I know her from? Oh! A history book in high school. She was like briefly mentioned. And I get into this kind of like my background and women's suffragists that she's mentioned, then never again. And that that happened so many times in high school to so many different women. They just plop their name in, but not give like a history? Like I only knew Susan B. Anthony, and I thought Susan B. Anthony in my head did everything of the suffragist, or suffrage movement, as it was explained.

Lexi: I actually think it's really amazing your high school book mentioned her because currently, as of 2020, no K-12 education standard in the United States mentions an Asian American woman by name. So...

Haley: So let me… maybe it wasn't a book– let me rephrase this. My junior year American history high school class I remember her name coming up.

Lexi: That’s just pretty impressive that your teacher included something that was off of the course standards because–

Haley: She was a rad lady.

HALEY’S STORY STARTS

Alana: Alright Haley, go for it.

Haley: So my gal today is Delilah Beasley. So born in Cincinnati, Ohio on September 9, 1876. She was mainly the kind of known as an Oakland gal. Shout out to the American Bookbinders Museum in San Francisco. That was my summer internship. I'm finishing, actually my internship up right now and she's one of the people I had to research for our exhibit that's online now but will be in like our gallery hall. And it's celebrating “Celebrating the 19th Amendment, Suffragists in Print” because it’s a printing museum. She’s from Ohio, but she's known in like the Oakland, Bay Area so she's a local gal, for our museum. And I loved like researching the local gals knowing that I wouldn't be in San Francisco all that long. But also it was really cool if you guys look on the actual exhibit– go, again, plug– the American Bookbinders Museum “Celebrating the 19th Amendment,” we have like maps of San Francisco and where all like the printing presses from like the suffragist movement were at and like I've been to that street! Like I know exactly that building, I've been at the like Jamba Juice or the Starbucks or the Gap that’s right there. So that's very super cool. So back to Delilah. She is known as a writer, columnist, activist, suffragist, and just overall an incredible human being. Before I want to highlight that, being a Black woman, Delilah Beasley is often overlooked when discussing women's right to vote and the suffragist movement. In her early life, she attended a segregated Cincinnati public school and by the age of twelve she had begun to write and publish short social notices in the local Black newspapers and some White newspapers such as the Cleveland Gazette and Cincinnati Enquirer. She continued to write at the young age, published in high school, and spent time learning about journalism by working for the Colored Catholic Tribune. In the 1880s– so again she was a teenager– her parents died and her siblings were separated. She had to leave her life of journalism and to be employed as a maid. As a maid, she also held so many different jobs and I couldn't figure out if she specifically was a maid and then left the job, or just had three jobs at one time. I wouldn't be surprised if she had three, four– as many jobs as she needed to sustain herself and her sibling. But some of those jobs included her being a hairdresser, hydrotherapy, medical gymnastics, massage therapy, nursing– and she never let go of that ideal dream of being in journalism. In her spare time, she would be researching Black history and becoming part of the thriving women's movement, especially within Black women and social groups. Some years later, she enrolled in history courses and began training herself in historical researching by visiting various libraries, diving into those archives that us as museum gals know and love, and conducting oral interviews with older Black residents and I believe there was one, but it could have been many– this article that I read noted one in particular about their personal experiences as a Black person growing up and living in the United States. And again this is late 1800s, early 1900s. She spent several years examining California newspapers between the 1840s and 1910s, both Black and White, at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library. I believe that's still the university library today. She soon began lecturing on Black history and eventually published articles in the Oakland Tribune and the Oakland Sunshine. After nine years of intense research on Black history, Beasley published “The Negro Trail Blazers of California” which was all about Black pioneers who had largely been left out of history books, and the stories dated back to the early Spanish exploration of the United States. And honestly I did not hear about this book in history class. So, yes this is fantastic that this was published and was circulated, but our school system needs to do better and actually incorporate this rather than gloss over it. I’m gonna just say it; I'm gonna put it out there. In 1923, she started her own column “Activities Among Negroes” in the Oakland Tribune. She wanted to use her voice to highlight the achievements of Black Americans, support Black dignity and rights, raise awareness, and overall encourage forward movements towards building space for equality to blossom. And let's just put on another note: we still need to do a lot of work. Black lives matter. She would also travel to different newspapers and– major ones and small ones, the gambit– in the peak of newspapers and the suffragist movement to try to convince the editors to stop using racial language. And honestly I can just imagine her walking in with her own column and her own work being like “I did it, look at this. We don't use bad words. We aren’t offensive. If I can do it, you can do it. Let's all try.” Like she was very encouraging of… this is not saying this is wrong which, it is wrong, let's be clear about that, but more showing the right way to do it; putting it into a more positive perspective which, honestly, it's negative. Don't use that harmful language in your writing. Bottom line. Over the next two decades, Beasley would also serve as an active member of the NAACP, the Alameda County League of Women Voters, the National Association of Colored Women, and just so many different active groups for suffragists, women's education, Black women movement, Black lives, just in general. She's also the president of the Far Western Inter-Radical Committee at the Oakland Museum, which side note, this is a very inclusive museum. Like snaps to them; they are just amazing at getting their community as Oakland involved, just the community as the Bay Area involved, trying to be as diverse as possible. It's definitely on the bucket list of Bay Area museums and I was supposed to go the week after it closed for Covid, which is really depressing because I had two free tickets from one of my classes. We just got them from like a speaker. She came in with vouchers and was like “here are vouchers that I have” and I was like “I want that.” Anyway, I digress. Delilah Beasley continued writing her column “Activities Among Negroes” until her death in 1934. She's buried in Oakland, and I even did like the find my grave so that's available out there. Be respectful if you look it up and go. And I just want to leave you all with something she wrote which I think resonates with what we've been talking about as suffragist movement, recent months with Black Lives Matter, just like Delilah Beasley in general, truly just please go Google her; such an inspiring human. ““My life plus others make a peer to move the world. I, therefore, pledge my life to the living world of brotherhood and mutual understanding between the races.” Like, so simple. That's what I really kind of admired of her, and everything I had to write about her for the exhibit and just own research for this podcast going back. She was never a person– and this is seen in the suffragist movement– of you're wrong, I'm right.

Lexi: When I worked at the Smithsonian Libraries and was working on an American women's history project, she was on our short list of women who were being considered to be featured, but unfortunately didn't make the final cut.

Haley: There's a New York Times, I believe for my– look at the show notes everyone, don't quote me because I don't have my notes in front.

Alana: Lady history pod dot tumblr dot com.

Alana: So there is like– I'm looking at my notes, there is a New York Times I used, the Huntington Library and Art Museum. But for just even I usually type in Delilah Beasley museum. I do that for all my women. I see where they came up in museums. That also connects you to like history sources. National Park Service, libraries… and like I couldn't find like bios about her. It was more they were showcasing specifically Black women and suffragist movement or women's rights. Which is not bad.

Lexi: Well the library– the library was going to consider her because they had some of copies of the stuff she wrote. So–

Haley: Oh, that’s amazing.

Lexi: I think she comes up a lot in like how you found about her from a print type–

Haley: Yeah.

Lexi: I think she comes up in like books and writing based places.

Haley: That is definitely one hundred percent true.

Alana: Okay, so, I will be talking about Ida Bell Wells, or Ida B. Wells, her middle name and her last name rhyme and when she gets married actually which is really interesting is she doesn't change her last name she doesn't take her husband's last name. Which if your middle name and your last name rhymed, I would not… I would not change my last name either. Her name is Ida Bell Wells. So she was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16, 1862 into slavery, right at the height of the Civil War. She's the oldest of eight children and then after the war her parents became very politically active, like in Reconstruction Era, especially her father helps start Rust College which is a historically Black college in Holly Springs, it's still around today. And that is where Ida went for early schooling. And eventually she was may be expelled? I couldn't find anything to back that up but somewhere was like oh she got kicked out for starting some shit with the dean or something and I was like I don't see this anywhere else but interesting, okay? In 1878, she is sixteen years old and her parents and her youngest brother died of Yellow Fever. So she lied about her age to take a teaching job. She convinced the school in Holly Springs that she was eighteen and so she could teach and that's how she is supporting her… her siblings, was by teaching. And just like, becoming a parent essentially. And then in the 1880s she finds another teaching job in Memphis, Tennessee and she moves up to there. Fun anecdote: in 1887, she bought a first class train ticket but was removed because she's Black and segregation and so they wanted to like force her into the smoking car and she refused because she was like “hello, I bought a first class ticket you're gonna put me in the first class car. That's what I paid for. Capitalism.” So when she refused, she was kicked off. She might have bitten someone. She might have bit the guy who removed her. Maybe. I hope she did.

Lexi: People were doing it long before Rosa Parks, I’m just saying. Before buses existed.

Alana: Before buses existed and we were biting people. (laughing) Rosa Parks up your game, maybe bite someone. (more laughing)

Haley: We don’t condone biting–

Alana: We don’t condone biting.

Haley: –on this podcast. Please, do not–

Lexi: I personally condone biting racists, but okay.

Haley: Okay like bite racists.

Alana: Biting racists is fine, but also keep your mask on so maybe not right now for the biting racists?

Lexi: Actually yeah. Right now no biting.

Haley: Also, when you bite people, like why do you want their skin…

Lexi: You don’t want their germs.

Haley: ...on you. Just don't bite people. Punch them maybe? Like if they're being bad bad people like don't go, don't–

Lexi: But the human jaw is a powerful tool.

Alana: It’s true!

(Lexi laughing)

Alana: Anyway, (laughing), so, regardless of whether or not she bit someone, which is my favorite thing in the whole world, she sued the railroad for making her leave, essentially.

Lexi: Even better than the biting. Sue the racists.

Alana: Even better than that: she won. Haley’s face is just like “what?” And I’m like yeah! She won. She won five hundred dollars, and I didn't really feel like doing that conversion from 1887 money to 2020 money but it's probably a lot. Unfortunately, later the Supreme Court overturned it. Like the railroad– it appealed, and appealed and appealed and the Supreme Court overturned it and Ida was forced to pay court fees, so I guess that's where the five hundred dollars went. But that's really– something that's really cool.

Lexi: Wait I just checked. It's thirteen thousand dollars.

Alana: It's thirteen thousand dollars? That's so much money. Okay. It's not that much money but it's so much money.

Haley: I would gladly take thirteen thousand dollars. That's a lot of money.

Alana: After being a teacher for a while, she's starting to publish articles about race issues under the name Iola I-O-L-A in Black newspapers and periodicals. Especially like as a teacher she talks a lot about segregation in schools and how this is like not good for the kiddos. This separate but equal that's bullshit everything sucks. And this launches her journalism career. She ends up owning shares of the Memphis Free Speech and Headlight and Memphis Free Speech, which are Black owned kind of newspapers in Memphis at the time. In 1892, she turns her attention to covering lynchings after her friend Tom Moss and his business partners were murdered because their grocery store was taking customers away from the White grocery store. And so she publishes this pamphlet called “Southern Horrors.” And that's all I'm gonna say about her investigations of lynchings because this is a fun podcast, and that's a little dark, and I think only one trigger warning episode per ten episodes, and we just about a couple weeks ago. So no. After she's calling all this attention to lynchings, she had to– she's run out of Memphis. She has to leave. And she moves to Chicago, and from Chicago, after fleeing Memphis she writes: “If this work can contribute in any way towards proving this, and at the same time arouse the conscience of the American people to demand for justice to every citizen and punishment by law for the lawless, I shall feel I have done my race a service. Other considerations are minor.” Which I just think is very poignant that like, yes you ran me out of my home but if this is what fixes it, so be it. After moving to Chicago, this is where she begins to gain international notoriety, and found some organizations. She travels around the world talking to the suffragists and criticizing them for not talking about lynchings and just being like, “Hi. This is cool, what are you doing for Black women? What are you doing for people of color? What's your deal? Tell me. Why aren't you thinking about this?” And in 1894, she establishes the British Anti-Lynching Society and comes back and settled back in Chicago. This is just like all of her really cool organizations that she's founded. In 1896, she becomes a founding member of the National Association of Colored Women. She brought her anti-lynching campaign to the White House in 1898 to President McKinley and demanded reforms. I don't think anything happened, but she did go to the White House to demand reforms so that's cool. In 1909, she was at the first meeting of an organization that would later become the NAACP, but she's not listed officially as a founding member possibly because they weren't like action based enough for her at the beginning. She wanted like real action in their mission statements and they didn't say anything about that. So on January thirtieth, and I'm only bringing up the exact date do you guys wanna guess why the date January thirtieth might be important to me.

Lexi: Because it's your birthday.

Alana: It is my birthday, you win as friends. So January 30, 1913 she founds the Alpha Suffrage Club, and they play a pivotal role as soon as that June when they get on the Illinois Equal Suffrage Act passed. They play a pivotal role in 1915 in getting Chicago's first Black alderman elected and his name is Oscar DePriest. Ida and several of her Alpha Suffrage Club members are invited to the 1913 Suffrage Parade in Washington DC, but the organizers were worried about offending the Southerners and so they make the Black women and the women of color march at the back. And Ida is pissed, and she won't march with them until the White contingent is past her and then she joins the parade. Which, cool? But also you're still marching at the back? I don't really understand what point that you were trying to prove? I don't know. But okay, cool. Just a little bit of the boring stuff, this is actually the most boring part about her is I'm talk about her husband and her children. Super boring. In 1895, after returning from England she married a man named Ferdinand Barnett who was an attorney and a fellow activist and they had four children. And Ida did not take his name, which was extremely odd for the time, and still not like as big a thing in 2020. It's gaining traction, but it's not like the norm. Another interesting thing about their relationship is that he did the cooking and the cleaning and made dinner for their children almost every night.

Lexi: You said this was gonna be boring! I’m not bored I’m interested!

Alana: This is how cool this lady is– is that even the most boring shit about her is super interesting. His activism and his law career kind of took a backseat while he was raising these children and she was going out and just being a political activist and all around badass. I mean– and he's like at home with their kids, which I think is really cool. In her final years, she was kind of fading from popularity and influence but she still worked on urban reform, especially mass incarceration was something that she was really involved in and– and actively… like that was her cause. She switched from– once women like got the right to vote she was like okay cool, sort of, for now. Let's talk about mass incarceration.

Lexi: We're still talking about it today.

Alana: We're still talking about it today. Nothing changes. Nothing changes. That's a bad– I'm going last, that's a bad note to end this podca– this episode on but… nothing changes.

Haley: Change is gradual and slow.

Alana: Change is gradual and slow. That's true. So the last few years of her life she actually becomes a probation officer and works like with these people who have been mass incarcerated and like rehabilitating them sort of. In 1930, she ran for Illinois State Senate and lost horribly, but she still ran. That's pretty cool, like she is not… Women running for office is not new, which I think is really interesting. At the age of sixty eight in 1931, she died of kidney disease. And I just feel like she was doing so much good all the way until the end, that it's very moving. There is now a– we all lived in DC for a while– there is a mosaic of her at Union Station in DC. And the mosaic is made of other suffragists and their posters and their propaganda… and no comment as to whether or not I cried reading The Washington Post article about it. No comment. I will not be taking questions at this time.

Lexi: One of my coworkers, her friend worked on the exhibition and she was able to get a poster of the pos– of the floor and it's in her house now.

Alana: That's so cool. I– I did cry. If that wasn’t obvious, I was reading about it and I cried.

Haley: Go vote. Please. Do everything in your power to vote in this pandemic.

Lexi: Visit vote dot org. Register yourself, to vote, get voting information. Go check out how to vote locally, use a mail-in ballot if you are in an area where you don't think it is safe for you to go to the polls. If you can get to the polls, get to them. Wear a mask to vote. Be safe!

Alana: There are also areas that you can sign up to be a poll worker.

Haley: Yes.

Lexi: Yes!!!

Alana: Which is what I'm doing. I have signed up for that because–

Haley: I love that.

Alana: –a lot of them are paid, and I have no money. Despite being a professional podcaster I have no money. And it's just like a way to do good in your community, especially in like underserved communities.

Lexi: So yes, get to the polls. Help your friends get to the polls.

Alana: Make sure your friends are registered to vote. Register to vote.Vote early.

Haley: Also just raise awareness. If voting is something difficult for you, like for me I might not even be able to get like a write in ballot because I will be moving and then in quarantine to go vote. It is still unknown. DMV is not handling it well for me. But like I’m still spreading the awareness of voting. Spread the history of how women, Black people, other people of color, other countries, even, getting their right to vote. It's helpful knowledge as a U. S. citizen.

Lexi: And remember some people in America who even are citizens cannot vote, so…

Haley: Exactly.

Lexi: Use your right to vote so you can do it for them who can't.

Alana: So the two websites that you should go to in addition to our show notes are power to the polls dot org– I think it’s dot org– and vote dot org to check your registration.

Lexi: And if neither of those work for you, dude, there are so many other websites out there. Find the one that works for you, get the information you need, figure out how your state and your local community handles all this.

Alana: People I feel like are like “it's a right to vote.” And yes it's a right to vote, but also it's your responsibility. I think if you can it's your responsibility.

Haley: And voting matters. Like your vote matters. I know a lot of people will even say recently that your vote doesn't count– absentee ballot doesn't like matter. No, it matters. Come on. Our electoral college is very screwy and needs a lot of work. Just our whole system needs a lot of work, but regardless, voting is important.

Lexi: Okay.

Alana: And we have to vote out the fascist. Lexi, you can decide whether or not to keep that in. But vote out the fascist. It’s the last chance we have.

Lexi: I am sure people can already assess our political opinions based on the topic of our podcast.

Alana: People can guess.

Speaker 1: And the fact that we’re archaeologists. And out of work.

Lexi: You can find this podcast on Twitter and Instagram at LadyHistoryPod. Our show notes and a transcript of this episode will be on lady history pod dot tumblr dot com. If you like the show, leave us a review or tell your friends, and if you don't like the show keep yourself.

Alana: Our logo is by Alexia Ibarra, you can find her on Instagram and Twitter at LexiBDraws. Our theme music is by me, GarageBand, and Amelia Earhart. Lexi is doing the editing. You will not see us, and we will not see you, but you will hear us, Next time, on Lady History. Go fucking vote.

[OUTRO MUSIC]

Haley: Next week on lady history it'll be raining men. Psych. I'll be reining in my urge to sing and we will be talking about some fabulous queens.

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yourkeeperoftherunners · 5 years

Text

Fond

Plot: AU You come home for a holiday weekend from college, only to walk in on the exchange student staying with your parents. Some kids would be miffed that their parents sort of replaced their brother with a foreign exchange student and failing to tell the others about it. Oddly enough, he’s actually...great. Not that he’d ever replace your real brother, but bonding with him has been...

Rating: PG-13 (Language, Reader walks in on someone changing, teasing, light flirting)

Characters: Foreign Exchange Student!Felix x University Student Older Female Reader, featuring other members of Stray Kids

Notes: A long time ago, the Keeper hosted exchange students from Australia. (They were both girls and while we didn’t end up best friends, we got along well.) This little one shot was partly inspired by that, combined with the fact that Felix is from Australia and has a strong accent that is prevalent when he speaks English. Please note that the reader in this story is about 1-2 years older than Felix, who is in his final year of high school in this story.

I kind of consider this my gift to my readers on my birthday – thank you for checking out my work!

***

Finally, you thought as you pulled off the freeway on your exit. A quick glance at your phone, currently mounted to the windshield, said that you had been sitting in traffic for close to an hour. Despite leaving a little earlier to beat the traffic, you managed to get caught in it toward the end of your trip.

You tapped your fingers against the steering wheel as you waited for the light to change. In a few minutes, you’d be home and could get out of this confined space known as your car.

The light changed and you accelerated, slowing as you neared the entrance to your neighborhood. You checked the cars in the opposite direction and turned once it was clear, eyes scanning the neighboring houses. You slowed down as you approached your driveway and turned into it.

It had been a while since you came home to visit your parents. This time would be different, as your younger brother was accepted for a high school exchange program in Australia and would be attending a school there for half of the year. Part of you had to wonder if this is what an only child got to look forward to when it was the holidays. Not that your brother was a bad person, but like any other siblings, you had your moments growing up.

***

“Mom?”

“In the kitchen – washing dishes!” she called back.

You walked in with a smile, quickly planting a kiss on her cheek. She smiled and encouraged you to go ahead and get settled.

“How was the drive?” she asked.

You shrugged as you hoisted your duffle bag higher and made a beeline for your bedroom. Your hand rested on the doorknob and you glanced over your shoulder.

“Not bad, but it’s the weekend so of course it was slow,” you called over your shoulder. You twisted the knob and began to step inside your bedroom that you once shared with your younger brother.

“WHOA!” a deep voice blurted out.

You snapped your head in the direction of the voice and saw a boy – not your brother – fumbling to put a shirt on. Your eyes met his wide ones for a moment before you closed the door abruptly out of reflex.

You sucked in a sharp breath and turned away from the door, shifting your weight to one foot.

“Mom, did you forget to tell me something?” you demanded.

You heard your mom pause, followed by a plate being put away in the cupboard. “I thought I told you that your brother is doing study abroad for half of the year,” she called out.

“No, I remember that,” you said. “I meant, did you go out an adopt another kid while we were both gone?”

“Oh you mean Felix? Oh no honey, he’s an exchange student from Australia! Turns out the school your brother went to had a group of students come here and they needed more host families. Felix is only doing a semester too, so it works out perfectly!”

You took a deep breath and moved your duffle bag to the other shoulder. “I mean, that’s great, but where am I sleeping?”

There was a pause and your mom sighed from the kitchen, realizing the situation you were in. “Oh…well, you can take the couch right?”

You opened your mouth then closed it, taking a deep breath. Mom had a habit of being a bit forgetful – she would have something important to say but tended to wait until the person speaking was done, which resulted in her forgetting what she had to say. How she could forget she had another living being here the same time you were home was beyond you.

In your mind, this Felix guy wasn’t the problem – Mom’s memory was. It seemed unreasonable for her to force her own daughter to the couch for the holidays, but you didn’t want to be a dick for making Felix move. Also he probably wasn’t used to sharing a bedroom with a girl, so the couch was probably the best move.

The door to your bedroom opened and the person in question peered out. “Ah sorry ‘bout that,” he spoke up. He stepped into the hallway and slowly raised a hand. “Hi, I’m Felix Lee, AKA the Aussie student your mum’s hosting. Are you her daughter she talks about?”

You turned to face him and nodded dumbly, extending a hand for him to shake. He took it and you managed a convincing smile as you shook hands. It was almost comical – the guy standing before you looked every bit of a young boy with his small hands, slim figure, and youthful face, but the voice that came out was very deep and manly. Remembering your manners, you introduced yourself before letting go of his hand.

***

“Mom we didn’t have to go out,” you insisted from your seat in the car.

She shook her head and said something about it being special. “Well I mean, you’re home, Felix is here,” she explained. “Oh and honey? Your dad’s stuck in another state for work. He might not be home until later in the weekend.”

“Weather or work?”

“I think weather,” she sighed. “Nasty storms in his part of the country and flights were grounded.”

You nodded to show you understood and kept your eyes to the front, avoiding Felix’s in the rear view mirror. While you had been friendly toward him, it still felt a little weird having some strange guy who was the same age as your brother pal around with you and your mom.

Eventually Felix learned you were oblivious to his presence before coming home from college, and he expressed guilt for kicking you out of your bedroom. He tried to be polite and offered to take the couch since it was your room first. But you didn’t want to be the rude person he’d remember from this country, so you insisted that it was fine and that you’d only be here for the weekend. You sensed that Mom taking both of you out to eat was her way of apologizing for the confusion.

She turned into the parking lot and found a spot. Once everyone exited the car, she made her way to the hostess stand and asked for a table for three.

***

“You go ahead and order drinks – I need to run to the restroom,” Mom announced before leaving you alone at the table.

Felix watched as your mom speed walked around the waiters and slowly turned his attention back to you. You awkwardly stared back at him and flashed a faint smile. He rubbed the back of his neck, his fingers resting against his pulse point for a moment.

“I uh...take it I’m her or um your first exchange student?” he asked.

You nodded and opened your mouth to reply, only to spot the waitress coming to take drink orders.

“Aww are you two on a date?” she asked.

Both of you blinked and gestured to each other, trying to explain that he was an exchange student you were hosting.

“Actually Miss I’m just a guest–”

“He’s from Australia – exchange program thing,” you added. “My mom’s in the bathroom but she would like a water please.”

The waitress nodded as she fished out the order pad and scribbled down the order. She looked to Felix who order water as well. You echoed that you too, would like water. Once the waitress left, you addressed Felix again.

“Yeah she loves kids and with both of us gone, I guess she’s suffering from empty nest syndrome,” you explained. “When my brother leaves for college, not sure how she’s gonna deal.” You looked around for your mom and shot him a sheepish smile.

“Did she take you to any other restaurants? I’m hoping not Outback.”

Felix winced and murmured that the Australian-gimmick restaurant chain had been mentioned, but he declined. “The voiceover’s horrible,” he commented. “I don’t think anyone sounds that exaggerated.”

You laughed, adding that it was probably some bad American actor who tried working with a bad dialect coach. “I’m sure he regrets it,” you added.

The young man snickered, dropping the hand on his neck. “So your mum said you’re in college. What do you study?”

“I study Music Production,” you shared. “I don’t want to perform but I like the idea of helping to do stuff behind the scenes for musicians.”

Felix leaned closer and tilted his head when he heard your response. “Oh really? Yeah I like music too. I’d like to do something with it, but my folks aren’t so sure and I don’t know what I’d like to do exactly.” He flattened his palm on the table and crossed a leg on top of the other.

“Is it...weird if I ask what it’s like? I mean your curriculum?” he asked.

You shook your head and settled into the booth, prepared to talk about your major.

***

“Honey, how about both of you do something together?”

You looked up from your mug and Felix paused, mid-bite with a piece of toast in his hand.

“Like?” you asked.

Your mom shrugged and prompted that you could take Felix to the mall or maybe catch a movie. “Something, I mean I don’t want you two all cooped up inside on your phones all day!”

You swallowed the sip of coffee you were drinking and glanced over at Felix. “Mall okay? There’s actually a pretty good theater there and actually a decent music store.”

Felix nodded as he chewed on his toast, flashing a thumbs up.

***

“I’m sorry you’re stuck dragging me around,” Felix commented once you got to the mall.

You shook your head and unclipped your seat belt. “It’s not a drag.”

“You were fine on the couch?” he asked with a skeptical look.

You nodded and he gave you a hard stare. You sighed and confessed it was a bit firmer than you liked.

“I noticed there is another bed in there – I’m guessing it’s yours?” he added. “Look, I think we can be mature and sleep in the same room. I’ve got sisters so it’s not that weird.”

“Wait really?”

He nodded and pulled out his phone. He looked at pictures and shared one of him with two girls. “Older sis and a younger one,” he shared. “Believe me, I know how to live with a girl, all the ups and downs.”

“It’s not like I’ve not seen a guy’s body with the way my brother acts,” you added with a shrug. “I mean, he’s walked around stark naked like it’s no big deal and I grew up dealing with that all the time.”

Felix snorted at the thought and you nodded, laughing. “Wow, he sounds...”

“Weird,” you finished, “but I love the little idiot.”

***

“Whoa is this heaven?” he asked with wide eyes.

You chuckled as you crossed your arms over your chest. “Music heaven. Instruments, equipment, CDs, records – all under one roof. I spent a lot of time and money here before I left for college. That’s actually what made me want to do Music Production as a major.”

Felix stared at his surroundings, eyes wide in amazement as he took in the music store you were standing in. He wandered over to a Just In section and picked up a Sam Smith record, turning it over in his hands.

“Really like singing his stuff,” Felix admitted.

“I like his style,” you admitted as you joined him. “You sing?”

He ducked his head and brought his hand to his pulse point. “Um...sort of. I’m not professional or anything, but I do it for fun.”

You could tell he seemed a bit self conscious and you allowed a gentle smile to form. “Hey, I’d love to hear it some day. Only when you’re ready of course.”

***

“C’mon, c’mon how is it there?” his cousin demanded. “You sick of cheeseburgers yet?”

“I actually haven’t had a burger in a while,” Felix confessed as he shifted the phone to his other hand. “Yeah, the family’s real nice and they actually offered me a healthy brekkie. Like fruit, toast, and yoghurt – not dessert for breakfast.”

“You said they have a daughter? I wanna meet her!” another boy blurted out from the other side of the screen.

“Why? So you can scare her?” Felix teased with a raised brow. “Not a chance Han.”

“Come on!” Han protested.

“Ah my cousin’s probably having dreams about her,” Chan teased with a smirk. “Wants her all to himself.”

“Stop it, she’s older – it’s not like that!” Felix insisted with a pout.

That only made the pair hoot and they teased him more. “Felix’s got a noona kink!”

“Who’s Newna?” you asked as you entered the room, looking for a pair of pajamas.

Felix sat up straighter and brought the phone closer to him. “It’s not a person – my stupid cousin’s calling and he’s being an idiot.”

Chan pretended to be wounded and he clutched his chest. “I’m so hurt by that!”

Han snickered at the elder’s misfortune and Felix rolled his eyes at the two through his phone.

“Tell them you’re alive and the people aren’t as mad here as they think,” you called back before leaving.

Chan and Han stopped joking around when they heard your voice and they looked in the direction it came from. “Wow, that’s the daughter?”

“She sounds hot,” Chan declared. “When you say older, like how much older? Older than me?”

“G’night!” Felix said as he ended the call quickly.

***

“It’s never long enough,” your mom sighed, looking wistful. She squeezed you in another hug before letting go.

“You know I’m not much more than a hour or two away,” you reminded her. “I can always call.”

“I know, but seeing you in person is the best,” she insisted.

Felix watched as you two said your goodbyes and he shyly walked up to you. He seemed unsure of what to do though. Should he hug you? Shake your hand? Offer a high five?

You held your arms out and he realized that it was a hug. He smiled as he stepped closer and allowed his arms to wrap around you.

“I know things were awkward when we first met, but it’s been great meeting you,” he said. “I really enjoyed the music store and um...maybe we can hang again before I go?”

You nodded with a smile as you pulled away. “Course,” you confirmed. “Hey if your cousin and his friend give you grief again, let me know and I’ll straighten them out. Sounds like they were making fun of you.”

“Ah they’re just jealous that I got picked to go and they’re stuck at home with our boring teachers and the same old stuff,” he shrugged. He raised a hand as you got into your car and slowly backed it out of the driveway.

You waved back before straightening out and switching it to Drive, before leaving the neighborhood, headed back to campus.

Your mom stared at the place where your car had been and sighed. She glanced over at Felix and smiled fondly at him.

“I’m really glad you two got along,” she said. “By the way, you two only slept in –”

“Whoa! I slept in one bed and she was in the other!” Felix flushed, eyes blown wide. “Nothing, nothing like that other thing happened!”

Your mom winked and added that she was only teasing him. He relaxed and shook his head.

Maybe he did like you but whether it was like a sister or possibly a love interest, he wasn’t sure. For now, he was content he met someone else that treated him like a normal human being, instead of highlighting his age or something else.

“I’m really glad you’re here,” your mom added. “It’s hard being a mom when everyone’s so far away.”

Felix nodded and offered her a hug. “I get it. Thanks for being my host mum. I don’t think I could have asked for a better family than the one I got.”

She beamed at the compliment and sighed as she pulled away. “I’m glad you’re also nothing like my son. I love him, but sometimes...”

Felix laughed as he followed her back inside. “You know, I kinda want to meet him. Sounds like a character.”

#Lee Felix #Lee Felix imagine #Lee Felix AU #Stray Kids imagine #Skdz imagine #Stray Kids AU #Skdz AU #Lee Yongbok #yourkeeperoftherunners original #number 2754

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theeeveetamer · 4 years

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I'm pretty sure my computer would burn and die if I tried to play the Sims 4 but tell me anyway which packs are the best to buy!

Sims 4 is actually easier to run than Sims 3! Especially if you only have a few packs and no mods installed! They designed it for longevity, and it initially came out in 2014. There’s even a laptop mode designed specifically for people with lower end systems.

And, fun fact, you can try it for free! Origin allows a free trial for the Sims 4, so if you’re worried it won’t run or you’re worried you won’t like it you can always download the trial and test it out! That’s actually how I got into the game.

Though I will note before getting started: Some of the newer packs require a 64 bit operating system or a Metal-supported Mac system. Anything released after October 2019 cannot be played on a 32 bit/non-metal system.

Though at the moment that basically just excludes you from the University pack.

Also note! Different people like different stuff out of their Sims game, so if it sounds interesting don’t worry if I don’t rate it highly. I tend to play with a more realistic slant, and for items I tend to like more modern aesthetics when it comes to clothes and items. With that in mind, let’s get to the list! I’ve divided them up by pack type (Expansion, Game, or Stuff).

Expansion Packs:

1) Seasons: Must Have

I will always, always, always shill for the seasons EP of any Sims game. Frankly, I am of the opinion that it should just be base game, but whatever. It adds dynamic weather and, well, seasons which are two things that will affect your game no matter how you choose to play.

Sims 4 is rather unique from previous sim games in that it adds a calendar system and holidays. Not only can you celebrate holidays, you can actually create your own and freely edit or move them around! I’m not kidding, you can get pretty wacky. Like, worshiping garden gnomes and punching each other in the face wacky. Or you can be a loser like me, make every single Three Houses character, and make them all have a lovely Christmas together because they deserve it :x

2) City Living: Good to Have

This one is down to personal taste. I love the city aesthetic, and the apartments are pretty fun to play around with. City Living also adds some interesting festival activities and four unique city districts. Another boon, if this is something you’re interested in, is cultural diversity! Sims 4 has been making a concentrated effort to include more diversity in their games, and a lot of outfits and objects in this pack reflect that!

All of the festivals and events will still occur regardless of if you live in the city or not, so you don’t have to miss out on all of the features even if you don’t choose to use the apartments 100% of the time. Though the bulk of the new game-play really is in the city neighborhood.

3) Discover University: Good to Have (Note: This is one of those 64 bit packs)

I admittedly haven’t played around with this one extensively since it just came out, but I think it’s great fun! I put Sim Sylvain, Sim Felix, Sim Dimitri, and Sim Dedue through college and it was a struggle (in the best of ways). Dorm life, subsisting exclusively on Ramen, and staying up until 2 am working on that term paper that’s due tomorrow... What’s not to love? I’m always a big fan of University packs because, again, I like to play pretty realistically. With mods I managed to get them into a collective $80,000 of college debt and can you tell that I’m an American yet?

Plus, this one added the teaching, law, and engineering professions to the game and I will never not enjoy making Dimitri a psychology professor for the irony.

University isn’t really necessary to your sims’ lives, but it certainly does help them out along the way. You can choose to ignore it if you want to, but I don’t really see myself doing that when I play, which means this pack will get a lot of use from me personally.

4) Cats and Dogs: Good to Have

If you’re really into the whole rustic aesthetic then this is definitely the pack for you. The town they added is very cute and one of my more well used towns (currently the residence of all of my Blue Lions Sims). If you want your Felix sim to have 6 cats then this is also the pack for you, because you can’t have pets otherwise.

You can also create your own veterinary clinic, which is a feature I’ve barely touched but I’m sure someone will get a kick out of! It’s similar to running a business or owning a restaurant from some similar packs.

God, and you can do some crazy fuckin things to these pets. You can basically cross breed to your heart’s content, so you can get some weird ass combinations. There’s also a paint tool, so you can have dogs with rainbow fur and cats with green paws. Oh and you can have pet foxes and raccoons, but they basically function as dogs and cats respectively.

All in all a fun pack, even if I don’t use all of its content 100% of the time.

5) Get to Work: It’s Alright

Here’s where I start getting a little lukewarm. Get to Work added three active careers (Doctor, Scientist, and Detective) as well as the ability to own and run your own retail store. And these features are fun! ... If you use them.

With the way the Sims 4 is built, having a Sim in an active career and a Sim family with more than one or two sims can be difficult to manage. You can only load one lot at a time, so if you follow your sim to work then you can’t play your sims at home and vice versa, you have to load through every time you switch. There are no “home businesses” either, so your sim either has to live “off lot” and travel (aka you have to sit through a loading screen) tp the retail store every time you do business, or you build a living space on the retail lot and try to wrangle the game into working. This means you have to manually bring your sims “home” to the store every day, and it causes some issues.

Personally, I don’t like being minorly inconvenienced, so after the novelty wore off I barely touched these features again. Most of the CAS and Build/Buy items are career or retail focused too, so I can’t say it has any must have items. I’m putting it at #5 though because I know many people love these features and happily play around the limitations.

6) Get Famous: It’s Alright

I’ll admit, I had a lot of fun with this pack when it first came out! It adds a lot of really cool stuff, like the reputation system, fame, and what is essentially a YouTuber career. There’s also another one of those active careers (actor/actress) if that’s your thing.

Fame also works in a very interesting way in this pack, too. There are “perks” and “quirks”, so your sim can have their own celebrity brand and hordes of followers, but have extremely volatile emotions or a fear of being touched. Kind of an interesting reward/drawback system that hasn’t been present in previous sim games.

Personally though, this pack doesn’t have much longevity to me. Just like Get to Work it was fun for a little while, but I don’t particularly like playing “famous” sims so many of the pack’s features go unused. The town, Del Sol Valley, is pretty underwhelming with only a handful of lots, and kind of a sunny desert-y aesthetic. Which doesn’t pair well if you like the rain and snow from Seasons like I do.

7) Island Living: It’s Alright

This pack is great if you love island-aesthetic items and clothes, tropical islands, and/or mermaids. Personally? I love all three of those things. I’ve been using quite a few of the outfits and objects and roleplaying them as “Duscur themed” for my Dimidue family. I mean, we have no idea what Duscur actually looked like, but the items are distinct enough from most of the typical items in the game that it kind of works?

Anyways, the reason this is so low is because there’s just not much to do in this pack. Mermaids and swimming and that’s basically it. There’s only one new career (conservationist) and three part time careers (diving, fishing, and life-guarding, which I kind of thought were going to be full time careers when I bought the damn thing...)

I’ll talk about this later, but the mermaids are by far the least interesting altered life state/occult in the game. Vampires (and I believe witches) have skill trees of powers and drawbacks, similar to those celebrity perks and quirks I talked about before. Mermaids have nothing like that, so they get boring to play with rather quickly. Watching their tail flop out while they’re in the bath is kinda fun though NGL.

The town is really cool though. I love basically all the pre-built lots and I love the items, but again if you like snow this probably isn’t a world you’re going to be using much. That, and to use many of the new features (like boats and ocean swimming and building houses out over the water) you must be in this world.

8) Get Together: Skippable

I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seriously used any of the features from this pack aside from the town. The build/buy is a lot of Tudor style stuff, which I don’t tend to use, and a lot of the clothing is weirdly ugly clubbing clothes.

The clubs are really the big feature of this pack. Similarly to the holidays from Seasons, you can create clubs of sims that will get together and do activities. Basically any action in the game can have a club associated with it (from cleaning to “woohoo”) and you can have club perks that make your club more powerful, and sometimes infamous!

My main issue: If you aren’t actively using this feature it doesn’t really do anything. It just kind of exists as an extra sim panel in the bottom right corner of your screen. And I didn’t use it. Like, at all. That said, I know a lot of people find it very fun! I’m just not sure it’s worth spending $20-$40 of your money on.

Game Packs

I’ll just say right off the bat, I’m not going to talk about Realm of Magic. It adds wizards and wacky magical hijinks, but I bought it at the same time as University and I haven’t gotten around to playing it much yet. I will say, they added a ton of really cool objects and outfits! Especially the rugs. God, the rugs are to die for.

1) Parenthood: Must Have

Two words: Teen Angst. This pack fleshes out a lot of the younger life states. It adds teaching moments, punishments, “character value” traits such as polite or irresponsible, curfews, volunteering, sibling rivalries, mood swings, phases, etc. You want your kid to come home dressed like a bear randomly one day? This is for you.

I admit, I find a lot of the younger life stages in this game boring to play without this pack. I don’t think I could ever go back to vanilla sims after having used it, I find it that essential to my play style. Keep in mind though, this pack will only give you good mileage if you play families with sims of all ages.

2) Dine Out: Good to Have

You can own and operate a restaurant, which functions similarly to the retail stores and vet clinics I mentioned before. However, if you don’t want to own one then you can still plop them down in your town and your sims can travel there for dinners and such.

It’s really good for role playing dates and family nights out and such, but if that’s not your thing and you don’t care about owning one then this is not the pack for you.

3) Vampires: Fun, if You’re Into It

I actually played around with Vampires a lot when the pack first came out, which was honestly just a result of my life circumstance at the time (I was taking a literature course about vampires so I had vamps on the brain).

The vampire skills and vampire banes are pretty fun to mess with, and you can create a lot of pretty unique bloodsuckers. I had a Leo and Takumi sim, and the former was extremely weak to the sun and the latter could walk around in it no problem. Made for some fun role playing.

My two criticisms:

Vampires live forever, which means you’ll eventually get bored of playing the same sims.

Vampires don’t really sleep. They only sleep to recover their vampiric energy, which is only expended through the use of powers. It does not deteriorate naturally, so your vampire could be awake 24/7 for several sim days. Thing is, that just leaves you with too much time to do stuff. They’ll max their skills pretty quickly and then what do you do? Nothing.

Oh, and if you’re in to gothic-style stuff this is a must have for you.

4 & 5) Jungle Adventure and Outdoor Retreat: They’re Alright

I’m putting these in the same slot because they basically serve the same function: Vacations. One involves diving into ruins and hacking your way through jungles, the other is camping, but they’re both basically sim-vacations.

This is another one of those pack types where either you use it or you don’t, and if you don’t it doesn’t really do anything for you. Most of the game packs are like that, actually. Personally, I don’t take my sims on sim vacations very often so I mostly keep these packs around for the items.

Though I will say Outdoor Retreat added a ton of plaid so if that’s your aesthetic then go for it.

6) Spa Day: Skippable

This one basically just allows you to place and build “spa lots” in the world. It added the wellness skill, which ties into the meditation and yoga activities. There’s also saunas and massage tables, but I have rarely if ever placed them in a home lot for personal use.

Another use it or don’t kind of thing. I don’t even have a spa lot placed on my current world, so that just goes to show you how much I use this pack.

Some of the items are cool. Unless you really like those I’d say pass.

7) Strangerville: Honestly It Just Doesn’t Make That Much Sense As a Sims Pack?

Strangerville basically added a story and quest line to the game. I hear it’s pretty fun, but I don’t really play Sims for stories and quests, I play it as a sandbox game. So although I have the pack I’ve never actually played the “story” of it. It’s really not the best Game Pack to get as an entry to the series since it’s such a departure from the typical sims experience.

The town is alright, but again another desert so forget it if you like rain and snow. Unless you really really want the military career or you like the outfits and objects then I wouldn’t personally recommend. Especially for newer players to the series.

Stuff Packs

Honestly there are waaaaaay too many of these for me to rank and I wouldn’t really describe any of them as “must haves”, so instead I’m just going to put down my five favorites. But it’s really up to you to look at the items and decide if it’s worth your $10. Each pack adds a new “game-play” feature, though they’re very small and can be lived without pretty easily.

1) Laundry Day Stuff

This entire pack was actually voted on and “created” by Sims players so that’s a huge plus! More rustic-style items, and the game-play feature here is, obviously, laundry. Since I like playing more realistically, adding another chore was actually worth the money for me lmao. Plus all of the clothes are cute and comfy looking!

The Sims Team also has an amazing sense of humor and named an entire set of the items “Wicker Whims” after the WickedWhims sex mod for the game. Which, honestly? When a dev interacts with players like that it’s always really endearing to me.

2) Movie Hangout Stuff

The aesthetic of this pack is Boho-chic for some reason, so if you like that this pack delivers! The new game-play feature is popcorn and watching movies which can be fun for roleplaying families.

3) Kids Room Stuff

Another one that’s only useful if you play families, but it did add a cute little trading card game for kids. They can collect cards and battle them, similar to Pokemon. Unfortunately, adults can’t play, but I’m sure there’s a mod out there for that somewhere. A lot of the items look really good too, and I use them all semi-frequently. Kids tend to get the short end of the stick when new packs come out, so getting a bunch of hair, outfits, and items for them fills a good niche.

4) Perfect Patio Stuff

Lots of outdoorsy type items, as the name implies. Wicker chairs and outdoor counter tops and the like. This bad boy also brought the return of hot tubs (which probably has the cutest woohoo animation in the game, just saying).

5) Moschino Stuff

The items have a mostly modern, sleek aesthetic, and it adds the freelance photographer career to the game (which is currently what Sim Sylvain is employed as). I basically recommend it on those merits, because the clothes it added are godawful ugly and I’m otherwise not a huge fan of brand-sponsored packs. They’re nothing really new for The Sims, but luxury brands with hideous overpriced clothes aren’t really my thing.

Some Other General Advice for Starting Out

I covered some of this stuff further up but I’ll repeat in case people just skimmed this really long post.

I will warn everyone stay away from “My First Pet Stuff”! You are basically required to own Cats and Dogs to make use of a good chunk of its items, so you might just be wasting your money.

You can get a trial of the game for free if you just want to test it out to see if you’ll like it or if your computer will run it.

Never buy a pack at full price. I’m not kidding when I say they have sales for this game every couple of months. Even if there isn’t a sale there is a bundle option, which is significantly cheaper than buying individual packs! Discover University was $40 at full price. I purchased a bundle with Discover University, Realm of Magic, and Moschino Stuff for $50. Had I bought them separately it would have ran me $70.

In fact sometimes they give the base game out for free! I know they did a promotion like this this past summer. Sims really makes their money from Expansion Packs, so one of their marketing strategies is to give the base game out for free to entice you to play. Even if it’s not free, it’s always steeply discounted during sales. I believe you can get it for $6 right now. I have 1000+ hours in this game, so six dollars is pretty cheap for that much entertainment.

You can see every single item and outfit in a pack before you buy it. So if you’re not sure if it’s for you, just look! The items are listed right there on the Origin store page.

Mods are amazing. Custom content is amazing. If anyone is curious I can create a list of the mods I use/Custom Content I use for my various Fire Emblem sims.

#sims stuff #Sims 4 #Pack Opinions #opinions #long post #hopefully my grammar didn't fuck up too badly I wrote most of this on 0 sleep #angeloftheeasterngate

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thesportssoundoff · 5 years

Text

“No but seriously, he has one eye” The Brawl For All Combatants Ordered Out!

So a few weeks ago, I presented you with a beginning outline of what I'm aiming to do here. A chance to take a long look at the Brawl For All; a concept so insiduous that I imagine even Vince McMahon has aimed to bury it in the deepest recesses of his mind. The first time out we looked at its genesis, the concepts and the back stories beyond the concepts:

http://thesportssoundoff.tumblr.com/post/183395306465/what-happens-when-you-take-a-bad-idea-and-make-it

NOW let's take a long look at who participated, who didn't participate and the fallacy behind the entire project IF rumors are to be believed.

A Hot Take To Lead Us Off

This is something I long theorized but a long look at the people involved in the Brawl For All confirmed it for me. So by and large, the Brawl For All was a stupid dumb concept. Agreed, right? Well what if it could've worked elsewhere? Now again the rules are dumb, the genesis behind it was dumb, everything about it from stem to stern is full of stupidity. Allow me to argue that it COULD have worked; just not in the WWF. When you see the roster the WWF was working with here, it's not going to blow you away on paper and we obviously have a mighty fine idea of how the execution went. What about a different Brawl For All roster? Saaay (in 1998 when this happened):

Rick or Scott Steiner- Decorated All American wrestlers for the University of Michigan Scott Norton- Legitimate tough guy bad ass professional arm wrestler, former bodyguard of Prince Jerry Flynn- Taekwando practitioner, former mixed martial artist Earnest Miller- Three time karate champion Glacier- Professional karate man dude prior to pro wrestling Brian Knobbs/Jerry Saggs- The JBL's of WCW in more ways than one seemingly Meng- All time legendary tough guy and bar room savage Barbarian- Genuine tough guy El Dandy- Jam Up Guy Serious Professional All Around Good Man

Plus the other litany of guys who were noted shooters or tough guys on the undercard. Let's also be fair and note that the South was a touch more receptive to the UFC at this point in time than say the East Coast as well. Perhaps it could've worked with a better roster and perhaps WCW, with its glut of shooters and tough guys respected in the industry, would've been better suited for a Brawl For All.

Or maybe it's just a stupid fucking idea with no merit. That too.

So who DIDN'T participate?

Well let's start with the very beginning and work our way back. Let's talk about some of the guys who just opted NOT to participate. For starters, the big stars were obviously not going to partake in this. Right off the jump you have to assume Undertaker, Austin, DX, The Rock, Kane, Mankind, Vader and the like are not going to be participating. This was about giving a bunch of guys they kind of didn't give a shit about something to do so that meant no sacrificing top stars. It was filler programming and obviously everybody doing important shit was busy doing important shit. Also of note was that the WWF did not want originally the likes of Dan Severn, Steve Blackman and Ken Shamrock in it. Ken apparently wasn't interested and made the argument that it didn't benefit him given the fact that he was a genuine UFC star still to take a pit stop in pro wrestling. At the same time, Dan Severn was asked not to participate at first and then had to be coerced into taking a spot when injuries happened. The same goes for Steve Blackman who was signed up after a few drop outs occurred, primarily due to the promise of Blackman being allowed to throw kicks in the tournament. The dropouts are hard to pinpoint but Tiger Ali Singh is one of the more notorious ones per Bob Holly. I've also read around that Ahmed Johnson was at one point supposed to be in it but I've never been able to confirm that (or remember the shoot interview that it was mentioned in). The point is that on its face, the Brawl For All was going to be a shoot fighting tournament without the two genuine proven shoot fighters in case you're curious about the true idea behind it.

Also as an MMA fan, I can't help but notice the # of "I was a last minute addition" stories these guys have. Lord knows that has to be a common thing said by guys like Sean Shelby and Mick Maynerd to get some of these fights done. I'd imagine that "We need a guy and you're going to help us out!" sweet talk happens to this day. My immediate thought is that they were either a) having a tough time filling spots in the Brawl For All and started telling people they were in need of last minute additions or b) most of these guys regret doing it and figure saying they were last minute replacements helps take the edge off.

So who WAS in?

We got sixteen names so buckle up and pour a drink or two.

8-Ball- Ron Harris aka 1/2 of The Blu Brothers aka Vince Russo's Creative Control. Vince Russo has never been a master of subtlety and so I suppose it's no surprise that one of his top angles was "Gang Warz" pitting an all white stable (The DOA) vs an all Puerto Rican tag team (Los Boricuas) vs a mostly all black tag team (the Nation Of Domination). Needless to say, Vince Russo makes it hard to defend him sometimes. To my knowledge neither Ron nor brother Don have any sort of proven fighting experience and the less said about them (and their tattoos), the better off we'll be. Ron (and Don) were rumored to have threatened Shawn Michaels on their last night in the WWF in the 90s, a rumor that seems to be corroborated by at least a few folks.

Steve Blackman- Most of the dudes who talk about the Brawl For All admit that this guy probably wins it all things being equal. Blackman had a legit karate background with some muay thai and amateur wrestling mixed in. Besides Blackman somehow overcame being bedridden for two years with malaria to become a legitimate pro wrestler so needless to say if it's a "Who wants it more?" shoot type deal, he's going to cover the grit and grind department well. Blackman is also rumored to have once taken down The Big Show and held him down until Show begged him to let him up which is akin to Bob Backlund apparently getting the Iron Sheik down and sitting on him until he either lost interest or was asked to let him up. Steve Blackman is by all intents and purposes a badass.

Bradshaw- Apparently the inspiration behind this atrocity depending upon who you ask. Bradshaw's reputation is marred now with incidents of bullying (real or fabricated), pro wrasslin' racism (goosestepping in Germany to get heat, some other old school heel shenanigans) and borderline dangerous behavior like blindsiding the Blue Meanie and beating the shit out of him when Meanie thought it was a working brawl. At this point though, none of that is really widespread and Bradshaw is just a fake Stan Hansen who looks tough and stiffs the hell out of people. He's about to eventually turn into a mute member of the Undertaker's industry before he comes a heel mercenary for hire before they turn into FUN beer drinking cigar smoking mercenaries for hire before turning into a Wall Street rich Texan chasing Mexicans "at the border" to get heat for a feud with Eddie Guerrero. I suppose you cant say Bradshaw didn't earn it at least.

Brakkus- Wooof. Brakkus was a massive German bodybuilder who apparently didn't quite understand that the Brawl For All wasn't worked. The WWF had big plans for Brakkus (if they send you to Memphis to work for Lawler in the USWA, it probably means they had a long term vision for him) but he sucked and no matter where they sent him, he continued to suck. He was bad in Memphis, was bad in ECW and ultimately this feels like an attempt to just do something with him. Again though, how good you are as a pro wrestler doesn't matter in the Brawl For All. It was about legit fighting----and Brakkus apparently according to Savio Vega had no idea he was in a real fight. Keep that in mind.

Mark Canterbury- I have NO idea why Henry O. Godwinn is listed on wikipedia by his real name but fuck it, here he is! So full blindspot up front, I LOVED Henry O' Godwinn as a kid. He carried around a slop bucket, poured what looked like puke on people, wrestled in overalls which helped him stand out and it sort of gets lost in the fact that he was given a dumb gimmick (In the mid 90s, it felt like the WWE was acknowledging how big of a slide it was in because every human being had a side hustle) that Godwinn could absolutely work. Here's Godwinn vs Bret Hart in a killer match btw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9vihPkNmLM. This was before Vince Russo and company turned them from a fun midcard act into a gross-ish play on Vince McMahon's distaste for southerners. Oh and also! Henry Godwin PROBABLY is doing this with a still kinda broken neck. He broke it in 1997, was told to take three months or more off (Godwinn gives numbers ranging from ten weeks to sixteen weeks) and he just showed back up in less than two months to work through it. Keep that in mind.

Droz- A tragic story all in all which we'll get to eventually. Droz at this point is basically coming out of a dead angle with the LOD where he was written in storyline to be feeding drugs (and whatever else) to Road Warrior Hawk in an attempt to take his place in the Legion Of Doom. If it sounds awful it's because it was and while MAYBE a good writer can make that work, we're talking about the WWF in 1998 trying to soap opera a drug pusher/drug abuse victim angle. It ultimately ended with Droz shoving Road Warrior Hawk off the titantron while Hawk was attempting to commit suicide. Again, it's as bad as you'd believe. Droz had a college football background but that's about it unless I missed some boxing or kickboxing background.

The Godfather- By all accounts the Godfather is a badass. He was hip to MMA before the UFC really caught on, was a freakishly devoted bodybuilder and he just looks like the sort of guy who would take very little shit from anybody. The Godfather is about to become THE Godfather as he's transitioning from Kama Mustafa and the Nation Of Domination's actually good muscle enforcer (Mark Henry is bad around this time and would continue to be such until about 2009 or so) but at this point I'd imagine the writing is on the wall for most of the NOD guys that the Rock is about to leave them in the dust and this group is going to theoretically die a death. The Godfather is about to take a seriously big turn but FIRST, the Brawl For All!

Bart Gunn- At this point, Bart Gunn is doing nothing. Basically nothing. One could even say less than nothing. Bart Gunn is in The New Midnight Express, an angle that Vince Russo has claimed was apparently a way to shut up Jim Cornette and prove to him that old style wrestling couldn't work in 1998. Bart Gunn was apart of the Smoking Gunns and according to him, he had toughman contest experience. Apparently Bart Gunn got brought into the Brawl For All because Kevin Kelly had seen him wear out big guys in Tampa and per Billy Gunn, Bart was the sort of dude who could wipe out a bar room full of people if need be. That said it's not like Bart had any boxing experience or what have you.

Hawk- Another noted tough dude and one of pro wrestling's weirdest mysteries. Every old school dude be it Kevin Sullivan, Jim Cornette or Paul Heyman raves about Hawk as a talent and claims he could've been a major marquee attraction as a singles wrestler. Kevin Sullivan in particular claims that had he had the opportunity to work with Hawk and freshen him up as a singles wrestler, he could've been an Undertaker-esque attraction who drew money across multiple character iterations. Hawk is coming off his personal demons storyline which I mentioned before that sucked. At this point, he and Animal have broken down and are in serious need of repairs from a physical and character standpoint.

Bob Holly- Bradshaw and Bob Holly in the same tournament and somehow they didn't face off? In 2019, I imagine people would be rooting for a double KO (although Bob's image has softened with fans since leaving the WWE) but at this point Bob Holly is just trying to figure shit out in his career. He's teaming with Bart Gunn in the New Midnight Express after sputtering out (HA HA) as a race car driver. Bob Holly is another dude who by in large is just known as a tough guy with a bit of a bully streak tendency behind that reputation. Owner of the wrestling world famous "YOU GOT TWENTY FOUR HOURS TO LEARN HOW TO FIGHT, BITCH!" threat to Rene Dupree before he kicked the shit out of him over parking tickets.

Marc Mero- The story of Marc Mero is a rough one with a happy ending. Marc Mero was really over in WCW as Johnny B. Badd, a Little Richard knock off with a Badd Blaster that shot confetti. Johnny B. Badd was so over that Vince paid him big money to be Johnny B. Badd----only for someone to smarten him up that Johnny B. Badd was a WCW trademark so he had paid for a guy who was trained from jump to do ONE role his whole career. Marc Mero was pretty over and underrated as a wrestler (I SWEAR BY THIS) before his knees gave in. Making matters worse for him was that his wife, Rena, was the women's face of the Attitude Era as Sable. According to Jim Cornette, Marc Mero was trying to be a good husband and help get his super over wife even MORE over---so he took a powerbomb from her on TV. Mero's future big money opponent was Stone Cold who happened to be watching the show at the time from home. Apparently Austin called up Vince McMahon and immediately asked who he would be working with on next week's Raw since he wasn't going to do any business with Mero after eating a powerbomb on TV from his wife. I don't know if this was before or after the Brawl For All though so take that for what it's worth. Either way, Mero is doing a boxing gimmick now (he is apparently a reputable legit golden gloves champion) and so it makes sense he'd be in the Brawl For All.

Pierre- This is a real shootfight tournament. Actual punches are being thrown and takedowns are implemented. This is, again, a legitimate shoot fight----and so of course one of the dudes involved in the shoot fight is missing an eye. Quebeccer Pierre/Pierre Carl Oulette/Jon Pierre Lefitte is missing an eye and was competing in a shoot tournament WITH one eye. We're not talking Michael Bisping fighting with a damaged eye for years on end, we're talking about an actual lack of an eye. This happened, people. We'll talk more about Pierre (and his amazing story in 2019) but right now in 1998, he's JAG who is bouncing between WCW and WWF looking for something to do. He's also at this point known as the guy who refused to put Kevin Nash over in 1995 despite Nash being the face of the company. PCO is the original Bret Hart, refusing to job in Canada.

Scorpio- I gotta admit I have no idea what Scorpio is doing here. I bet he doesn't know either if we're being truthful. Scorpio is one of those guys who was ahead of his time but seemed incapable of staying on the right path (whatever that means in wrestling) to get what he was due. He had come into the WWF in 1997 as Flash Funk and so I imagine Flash Funk was over and he's just killing time until the Job Squad angle. Scorpio is apparently a legit tough guy (or madman depending on who you ask) and held a 1-0 unofficial record over Hawk after he beat the shit out of him in WCW.

Dan Severn- Dan Severn was told he wouldn't even be allowed to participate and then was told the day OF the taping that he was needed to take a spot. Severn is not too far removed from being a UFC everything (champion, tournament winner etc etc) and so he's for the most part a prospective favorite. That's probably why he wasn't asked to compete at first I'd imagine since the plan was PERHAPS to get somebody else over. Another rumor is that Severn is such a boring plain dude with a boring plain style (Severn admits his plan was to never throw a punch and just grapple people) that if he had won, there would've been no payoff in it.

Savio Vega- I have NO idea if Savio Vegas has a professional sports background or what the deal was. Apparently Savio Vegas asked to be in it and was also the unofficial official matchmaker (he drew the names out of a hat) and he's Puerto Rican so he's got my rooting interest right away. I think Los Boricuas at this point were in full swing and Savio was obviously the head of said stable. Gang Warz was dumb as hell.

Steve Williams- And we reach the FINAL name. "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. Steve Williams was a former football player at the University of Oklahoma and one of the more decorated wrestlers in Oklahoma history. He had carved out a niche in Japan by this point after establishing himself as a star in Mid South with the occasional stop off in the NWA/Jim Crockett Promotions/various regional feds and start ups. Williams didn't have any official fighting background but he was a crazy good wrestler and by all accounts a ridiculous bad ass. Jim Cornette tells stories of Dr. Death fighting fans and laying bodies to waste with little to no effort. He was also extremely popular with people in the WWF office, namely Jim Ross and Jim Cornette. Bruce Prichard doesn't QUITE say that the WWF thought Dr. Death would win the Brawl For All but he does a damn good enough impression of Jim Ross advocating for Steve Williams that I have to believe it. Vince Russo has spoken in the past about Steve Williams being Jim Ross' "boy" and how this was basically his way of seeing whether Jim Ross was right. Bob Holly has said that they were already doing vignettes with Barry Switzer and interviews as if Dr. Death won the Brawl For All. Dr. Death claims that the Triple H push of 1999 was the one Vince had promised him before the Brawl For All.

All of this brings me to my final point.....

Dr. Death was never going to be a big star in the WWF

I truly hate to speak ill of the dead and I'm trying hard no to either. Let's just speak from a more realistic pragmatic grounded stance. The kind of talent that was getting over in 1999 falls into three distinct categories. The first were talkers, guys and gals who could rap so to speak and had tremendous presence. Promo guys could carry the day and even IF you gave Dr. Death a Jim Ross to do the talking for him, let's not forget that by 1998 at this point in July there's basically just one manager actually doing anything as a talker and that's Paul Bearer. "Dr. Death" Steve Williams was not a talker and even if he was, he's certainly not the kind of talker who would fit in Vince McMahon's WWF. The second were guys who were big with "the look" according to Vince McMahon. Pull up a picture of every top star in 1998 for the WWF and then slide Dr. Death in there and ask if he fits the mold. He's unique for sure and there's the Mick Foley outlier----but imagine how long it took Mick Foley to be seen as legitimate by Vince McMahon. Even if Dr. Death is the definition of a Jim Ross style Hoss, he looks woefully out of date by 1998 standards. He in many ways, like a lot of guys who frequently toured Japan and basically were behind on the times, looked like he had been left in 1988. Lastly there were the gimmick guys; the Undertaker, Kane, The Rock, DX, Austin etc etc. Dr. Death's gimmick was that he was an ass kicker which is great but AGAIN we are to believe every human being in the WWF at this time is an ass kicker. Maybe Vince and company would've found a way to get something out of him but the chances are that Dr. Death would've never been a big star. Could he have feuded with Stone Cold? Surely! A big money draw? A multi million dollar hit? I just don't see it. Can't imagine it. Also let's be fair here, how toned down would his style have been for the WWF at the time as well? Is he going to suplex Steve Austin around after Stone Cold broke his neck? I'm not quite buying that either.

So there's your sixteen. You got a few amateur wrestlers ten years beyond their competitive days, a boxer or two, a toughman contest guy, a few dudes who dabbled in kickboxing and a man with legitimately one eye. You've got the guy who the company thinks SHOULD win it. So who won the fuckin' thing? How did they win it?

That's for next time.

#WWF #WWE #Brawl For All #Scorpio #Dr. Death #Steve Williams #Bart Gunn #Bob Holly

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bugheadfamily · 6 years

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Bughead Family Discord Member Spotlight

This week the spotlight is on Mari ( @writeraquamarinara )! Click the read more link below to get to know our member!

Spotlight by Mila, @jughead-jones | Graphic by Katie, @betty-cooper

Mari | @writeraquamarinara

Name: Mari

Age: 18

Location: Montreal, QC.

Any other languages aside from English people can contact you in?: Italian.

Favourite Riverdale characters and ships?: Betty, Jughead, Pop, Fred, Mary, Kevin, Joaquin, Bughead, Joavin, and Choni.

Favourite moments from S1 & S2?: The scene that got me hooked to the show was when Reggie questioned Jughead about killing Jason, and he replied with a snarky little “It’s called necrophilia, Reggie. Can you spell it?” Other favorite moments are pretty much any Bughead scene from S1, but especially their first kiss. I had been shipping them together since the Blue and Gold scene in 1x03, but 1x06 really hit me hard. They’re both two broken kids who find solace in each other. As someone whose mother is all too similar to Alice Cooper, hearing Jughead tell Betty that they aren’t their parents made me so emotional. I rewatched that scene on repeat when the clip came out on Youtube the next day. To this day I can’t listen to Emily Afton’s Lost without crying. I also really love the hug from 1x13 after Betty, Veronica, and Archie go to Southside High for Juggie. S2 favorite moments are also only Bughead scenes, but not all Bughead scenes, if you catch my drift.

What are your hopes for S3?: Are a coherent plotline and consistent characterization too much to ask for? Also maybe have the parents on the show (other than Archie’s) actually respect their children and treat them well, but that’s never going to happen. On a more realistic note, I’m hoping to watch some fun interactions between Josie and Kevin now that they’re going to be step-siblings.

Other fandoms you’re into?: I don’t really have an online presence in other fandoms, but I do love to geek out over Percy Jackson, That 70s Show (specifically JackiexHyde), The Office, Parks and Rec, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and nearly all of the Marvel movies.

What are some of your favourite movies/TV?: As I mentioned: That 70s Show, The Office, Parks and Rec, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and Marvel. I’m currently bingeing The Good Place and The Mindy Project. I also went to watch Crazy Rich Asians in theaters and loved it. So basically I’m trash for rom and com. Sue me. (Or don’t. I’m a broke college student who can’t afford that ish.)

Favourite books?: The Book Thief, The Color Purple, Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women, Pride and Prejudice, and, most of all, The Glass Castle.

Favourite bands/musicians?: Nina Simone, Alicia Keys, ABBA, Of Monsters and Men, Christina Perri, and Imagine Dragons.

If you could live in any fictional world which one would you choose and why?: I thought a lot about this question. The obvious answer would be “one with magic, or mermaids, or superheroes”. But then I thought that I’d rather live in a world like ours, more realistic, but where women are equal to men, diversity is celebrated, people accept each other for who they are. That’s a very idealistic world, I realize, and (if my preteen love of dystopian novels has taught me anything) one that’s most definitely unattainable, but it’s still nice to think about it. If anyone knows of a fictional world like that, sign me up.

Favourite food?: Gosh, that’s a hard one. Probably my grandma’s lasagna.

Favourite season?: Fall, definitely. It’s my birthday season, and I love the colorful leaves and breezy weather and going apple-picking with my family and friends. Unfortunately, Canada’s fall doesn’t last much more than a day, so I missed out on all that this year.

Favourite plant?: Nelumbo nucifera, aka the Lotus Flower.

Favourite scent?: Aftershave? Weird, I know, but it reminds me of my childhood and my father.

Favourite colour?: Periwinkle.

Favourite animal?: Hummingbird.

Are you a night owl, an early bird, or a vampire?: Night owl, definitely.

Place you want to visit?: The Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, the Jameh Mosque of Isfahan in Iran, and Ryoanji in Japan.

Do you have pets? If you do, tell us a little about them: I don’t have any pets that live with me currently, but I’ve got a pet back home with my parents. She’s a rescued pup from Mississippi, probably some kind of mix between a Pointer and a Labrador Retriever. Her name’s Sassy and she’s super energetic. If you had asked me this question a week ago I would’ve also said I had a cat named Puma but he was twelve and had cancer, so…yeah.

Tell us a little about yourself?: Um, I never really know what to say to that question. Like, what do you really want to know? I’m Mari (the name comes from my AO3/tumblr username, and not my real name). I was born in New Jersey, grew up in New York and Italy, now go to university in Montreal. I’m super passionate about art history, women’s rights, and politics. I hope to be a dermatologist, but honestly, who knows where life will take me. I’m the oldest of four and the first in my family to go through the American school system, so my parents have always referred to me as their “guinea pig”, and that totally hasn’t given me a weird obsession with being the perfect child, perfect student, perfect daughter. For some very obvious reasons, I relate way too much to Betty Cooper.

Fun or weird fact about you?: I fenced competitively for eight years of my life, traveling all around the US and to Europe for training and national competitions, including the Junior Olympics.

Asks for fanfic authors:

How long have you been writing?: I’ve been writing since I was little, but they were always stories with original characters. I didn’t start writing fic until I was sixteen, nearly seventeen, so it’s been a little over a year.

Which is your favourite of the fics you’ve written?: Geez, that’s a tough one. As much as I love my little one shots, I’d have to say Little Talks. It’s largely based on my own high school experience, and therefore my own way of coming to terms with the end of that chapter of my life.

Favourite fic/chapter/plot-point/character you’ve ever written?: Oof. Another tough one. Um, I’d have to say that I really love my characterization of Alice in Blue Sunshine and Golden Rain. She’s a villainess, but hopefully one you love to hate.

Which was the hardest to write, and why?: Again, Blue Sunshine and Golden Rain. I have a bit of a plot twist planned for the story, but I’m really not sure what kind of reception it’s going to get from readers, so I’ve had the chapter half-finished for months. I just need to get the motivation to finish it, and the courage to say “I don’t care if people hate this, or think it’s weird.” I’ll get there eventually.

How do you come up with the ideas for you fic(s)? (examples: Do you draw inspiration from real life? Listen to music? Get inspired by TV/movies?) Do you have an process to your writing?: I’ve answered this in a tumblr ask before, but I get inspiration from anywhere and everywhere. Mainly from real life, because I like to observe and speculate and ask a bunch of “what if”s and go from there. So, like I mentioned, Little Talks is largely based on my life. But there are definitely some plot points in the story that are a result of me going “well, what if I had done this? Or he had done that?” Another example of a real life-inspired fic is my oneshot I <3 You, which was inspired by that instastory (Cole or Lili’s? I can’t remember) of a cake with bright orange frosting that spelled out I <3 You. I also take inspiration from other creative works, such as books or movies. One of my many upcoming fics is based on How To Train Your Dragon, and another is a crackfic based on the Suite Life. Other times, fic ideas come to me out of nowhere. I was in the lab last summer, waiting for my breast cancer tumor slides to go through antigen retrieval, when I came up with the idea for Blue Sunshine and Golden Rain. My brain works in very strange ways.

Idea that you always wanted to write?: I’ve always wanted to write a lot of fics (I have a whole list of them), but they’re in the works so I won’t spoil any more than I already have. The main fic that I don’t even have an idea for but just want to write is a heartbreakingly angsty fic. One that makes me cry while I write it. Here’s hoping it comes to me soon, because I feel like that could be a really interesting experience as a writer.

Favourite character to write?: Alice. Which is strange, because I don’t like her in the show, but there are so many different directions you could take her character that she’s always so interesting to me.

Best comment/review you’ve ever received?: Oh, well, all of them? Is that an answer? Because all comments and reviews make me super happy. But if I had to choose one then I’d say any comment from @earthlaughsinflowers, @mothermaple, @dottie-wan-kenobi, or @notanotherotherone. I kind of cheated by not picking one, exactly, but oh well.

Best and worst parts of being a writer?: The best part of being a writer is putting a story that you put a lot of your soul into and getting support and love for it. Because I only put stories out there that I’m happy to write, happy to read, but to see that they make other people happy, too? That’s an amazing feeling. The worst part is the amount of time it takes to do absolutely anything, especially when you’re not in the right headspace to write. When I’ve had the worst week ever, and I have to physically push myself to spend time that should be spent resting to write because an update needs to come out soon, it goes from being a fun hobby to being a stress-inducing chore.

Do you have any advice to offer?: I haven’t been a fic writer for a long time, so I wouldn’t say that I’m going to offer up the wisest advice, but here’s what I’ve garnered so far: Do what makes you happy. That goes for all of life, not just writing, and is often hard to follow, but here’s how I see it: If you want to write a story because it makes you happy, write it. If you want to quit your WIP to start something else because that makes you happy, do it. If you need to take a break from writing altogether because it’ll make you happier, take it. Write what you want to write, at the pace you want to write it, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

This is the twelfth instalment of Bughead Family’s Member Spotlight series. Each week, a member’s url is selected through a randomizer and they will be featured in a spotlight post. In order to participate, please join the Bughead Discord (more information found here). Thank you.

#bughead #riverdale #bughead fanfiction #member spotlight #bughead family discord

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nerddface · 6 years

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Skill and Ponies

(gif’s not mine!)

Characters: Legolas, female!Reader (racially ambiguous)

Warnings: none :)

Word Count: 1,735

Notes: Apologies for the crazy absence. Based off of anon's request following Still Space.

Based off of this (x)

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Magnificent creatures, horses. Y/N had been mesmerized by them for as long as she could remember. Her father had taken her on some trail ride when she was no older than seven; it was an old, weathered mare on a dirt path that didn’t lose cell service, with a guide holding the rein for the entirety for the half hour journey, but ever since she’d been undeniably hooked. Her room had exploded in a burst of equines, and soon they covered her bedsheets, her walls, her notebook covers, her shirts. She would draw horses in the margins of her notebooks in the absentminded moments of class (terrible drawings, might she add, but heartfelt nonetheless), and asked for Breyer collections for her birthday.

She thought she would collapse when her parents started her in riding lessons when she was ten. Soon the feeling of being in the saddle had her addicted, and she continued her riding career into high school, and only dropped it when paying for American college sucked all her resources dry.

Being in Middle Earth, though, it became a different situation. There was no other form of transportation aside from walking—certainly no five-hour plane trips that took her across the map, no cars that shaved a five-day walk into a two-hour drive. If not ridden, horses pulled carts, carriages. They were a part of life, and not a luxury, or a hobby she desperately wanted to be a way of life.

Though they had walked for most of the journey thus far, running into Éomer and the Riddermark had gained them three horses—Aragorn on the bay Hasufel, Legolas and Gimli on the grey Arod, and herself on a spotted mare whose name she was informed to be Mōna. Aragorn seemed more than comfortable in the saddle (Lord knew she was), but when it came to the elves (more specifically, her elf) and horses is where it got a little interesting.

Legolas rarely traveled; he was still relatively young for his kind, and as the Prince there was little reason to. Trips through the Mirkwood were on foot—tracking and fighting the massive, disgusting arachnids through the tangle of roots, branches, and vines was too time-consuming and dangerous for any non-bipedal creature larger than a rabbit or the occasional deer—but those were not ridden, and they were rare now.

So, Y/N was graced every day with the amusement that was Legolas on a horse. Mounting and dismounting were particularly funny—lithe though he was, he was also light, and sometimes his mount wouldn’t notice it had a rider until he would move to urge it forward and it would spook at the unexpected pressure, flinch violently or, on one hilarious occasion, try to unseat him with one set of hooves off the ground. Though the elf had managed to stay in the saddle, he was thoroughly red-faced when the animal settled down, and she was sure he heard the stifled laughter from the rest of the Fellowship.

He’d been petulant and hadn’t let her kiss him that evening, but she decided it was well worth seeing the graceful blond creature trip up, if only once.

Legolas was in the stall beside her now, double-checking Arod’s girth. The slim rope that separated them would have made Y/N’s instructor back home do flips—she was extremely safety cautious; Y/N could hardly cross-tie next to another horse for bathing, let alone replace stall walls and doors with rope.

Y/N stifled a yawn behind her hand, her forehead falling to Mōna’s shoulder and eyes closing. She knew well enough that the caravan had to leave with as much light the day had to offer, and she was pretty damn used to getting up at the crack of dawn (she had Legolas, aka I don’t sleep, and Aragorn, aka I don’t need sleep, to blame for that), but that didn’t mean she didn’t still hate it.. Her free hand stilled on the horn of Mōna’s saddle, and her other rested on the animal’s neck once the yawn had forced its way from her mouth. The familiar warmth and aura of the barn lulled her into calm, contented stillness.

Suddenly Mōna shook her chestnut mane, startling Y/N out of her little moment of peace. Legolas was grinning at her from over her mount’s withers.

“Not sleep well enough, mela?” he questioned, his voice sounding like pure honey in Y/N’s sleepy ears.

“Oh, shut up, Mr. What-is-sleep-even.”

Legolas chuckled, and Y/N pursed her lips to hide a smile, and ruffled Mōna’s mane. She tucked her fingers under the leather strap of her saddle’s girth and tugged on a stirrup. She heard from over Mōna’s back a shuffling, then a jerk that jangled some piece of tack. Arod snorted and Y/N looked up to see him toss his grey head and step back. She peered under her mount’s jaw to see Legolas eyeing the bridle, turning it in his hands and gazing at its many straps and metal pieces in what she would readily describe as bewilderment.

As he held it up by the bit, she left Mōna to duck under the rope separating the horses and gaze at her fiancé.

“Trouble?”

Legolas tilted his chin up. “No,” he responded indignantly, but Y/N noticed a flush dust his flawless cheeks. She crossed her arms over her chest and shifted her weight, watching him expectantly.

The elf set his jaw and studied the bridle some more, shifting his grip on it to raise it to Arod’s head. He had it almost right, but there were some misplaced straps that seemed obvious to Y/N, but she tried to take pity on her poor fiancé, who was far less versed in this than she. The horse knew as well, and clamped his jaw shut when Legolas moved to give him the bit.

Y/N stifled a chuckle and slid her arms around Legolas’s middle, standing on her toes to place her head on his shoulder. “Need a little help?”

He said nothing but lowered his hands and huffed. Y/N released him to take the tack in one hand and step around him, rearranging the straps as she did so, and draped the reins over Arod’s neck. Legolas took a step back to allow her room to bring the bridle up to the horse’s face and separate his teeth with her thumb and forefinger. Arod accepted the bit calmly and Y/N took care in sliding his ears comfortably between the browband and headpiece. The throat-lash and cheek piece were a setting loose, but she left them for Arod’s sake. She pulled his grey forelock from beneath the browband and ran her fingers through the small tangles, hearing him huff deeply.

“Good boy,” she praised, and turned back to Legolas. His arms were crossed over his chest, shoulders drawn in rather indignantly. She cocked her head and grinned at him, laughing when he pouted to avoid her gaze.

“I could have done that.”

She nodded. “Of course.”

He looked as though he wanted to say something, but hesitated. She quirked an eyebrow and he went even more red-faced.

“May I—is—is it—perhaps…”

Y/N waited as he drew in a breath to continue. “I admit that perhaps you may be more skilled at this than I. Perhaps sometime I might take something from that knowledge?”

“Of course, babe,” Y/N soothed, reaching her hands before her. He took them tenderly, and looked as though he was to say more when a horn sounded outside. Both their heads turned to the sound for a moment and she felt Legolas steal a kiss to her cheek.

“Time to depart.”

She nodded, the gravity of the situation seeming to settle around her head. This was war. And not war in cyberspace. This was war with swords and fists, this was killing up close and personal, this was getting blood on her hands and smelling it in the air. Legolas released her hands and she returned to Mōna in something of a daze, unlatching the rope gate and mounting. She had plenty of experience in the saddle and enough by now with a sword, but she had no idea what was going to happen now that she had been incorporated into this story. Deaths could be mistakenly caused or prevented because of the new factor she brought to the universe. Already she had changed the Fellowship, and although it may be slight, she knew damn well how a feather could tip the scale.

Mōna fell into step with Arod when he sauntered past, and the elf atop him noticed his fiancée’s troubled gaze.

“What plagues your mind, Y/N?”

Snapped from her thoughts by his smooth voice, she glanced up briefly before settling her gaze on Mōna’s withers.

“Nothing worth voicing,” she excused.

“What troubles you does so to me as well, a’melamin,” Legolas informed her as the blinding morning light of the plains of Rohan suddenly warmed Y/N’s body and pained her eyes briefly as her pupils acclimated to the change. She sighed heavily.

“I’m worried about what’s gonna happen. God knows what I change by simply being here, let alone getting engaged to you, or fighting with the Fellowship. I don’t want to be the reason someone dies when they weren’t supposed to.”

Mōna and Arod shuffled into the front of the line beside Aragorn.

“I will see you safe, mela,” Legolas said to her, his voice solid and unwavering. “We have good men by our side and at our back.”

She nodded and straightened her back. He was right. No one was any less strong than before with her here, and the men around them knew what they were doing. Aragorn was no less valiant, Legolas no less lithe, Gimli no less lethal. Even Mōna knew her way—she was a warhorse, and Y/N trusted she would be carried well enough to do her duty.

Offering her lover a smile and seeing it returned lifted her heart. The war would be won, the ring destroyed, and she would marry Legolas.

They would have their happy ending.

#legolas x reader #legolas greenleaf #legolas

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todokori-kun · 7 years

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WELCOME BACK!

<3 I really missed you, and it’s so great to hear you had fun! (and omg yes so ready to see all those beautiful pics)

Yaaayyyy join me in MCU feels hell. And oooh, you have a ship for the fandom now! Like, Stoki’s still my favorite Steve pairing but Stony’s really cool too…you know I ship almost everything XD (also am I the only person who sorta hated almost everyone by the end of CW? Like, of course they’re still my favs and there are still some cinnamon rolls, but, come on. Why couldn’t you all just get along ;-;)

Speaking of Illumi, do you know that Hisoka/Illumi is an incredibly popular ship in the HxH fandom? Probably because both of them are so horrible that they have like 0 friends other than each other. Nobody else wants to hang out with these losers. (Chrollo tolerates Hisoka and the adults in Illumi’s family seem to spend enough time with him to give him orders, but that’s about it.) It’s a trash ship with two trashy people and tbh I love it XD

So continuing with the eye jokes, imagine. Hisoillu version of Helpless. Hisoillu version of Satisfied.

“Look into his eyes and the sky’s the limit”

“Intelligent eyes in a hunger-pang frame”

(I know you did thise one before but still) “But when I fantasize at night, it’s Illumi’s eyes”

just, I’m imagining animatics for this with the ��camera’ zooming in on Illumi’s dead fish eyes every time the lyrics mention them. It’s hilarious and also mildly terrifying

(though I guess if we’re actually making a Hamilton AU Hisoka’s way more likely to do something like Say No To This…)

idk if I’d want to be a parent either really LOL. Kids are adorable but I don’t think I’ll ever be responsible enough to raise one…

If Ishida makes a plot twist or something about it being someone else pretending to be Hide I'm actually gonna get mad. Dude. Not only would that bring the Hide feels right back it’d just make absolutely no sense omg

(also you read the new chapter, right? So, let’s talk about Juuzou and that huge death flag)

I’ve heard of Soul Eater and considered reading it but it’s not really the kind of thing I’m into…artwork’s cute, though, and Death the Kid seems like an interesting guy so maybe someday XD

AGH I’M ACTUALLY SORTA JEALOUS BECAUSE WOW I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA HOW TO WATCH THAT LEGALLY HERE IN KOREA. (unless I ask my dad for help but he doesn’t like manga/anime at all, so…) But yes, I’m really happy Lizzy finally got her moment this time! Now anime-only fans can’t complain about her being a ‘shallow’ character so hopefully there’ll be less fighting over Lizzy in the Kuro fandom :D

FINALLY. Fellow Death Note fan <3333 Who’s your fav? Do you have any ships? Are you done with the anime??? :D (also do you know…you picked a really interesting time to join the DN fandom. The American live-action movie just came out and it sucks so freaking bad, like I haven’t even watched it yet and just from the reviews/clips, here’s what I got:

-They turned Misa into this Harley Quinn-type character. Only without any depth.

-Light/Misa is an actual canon ship, like, it’s not abusive or one-sided like it is in the anime/manga, it’s just…a thing. Light loves Misa. Misa loves Light. It’s like every cringey high school romance movie ever, only with more murder

-They freaking bent the Death Note rules just so Light could get away with all sorts of ridiculous stuff

-L cries, L rants, L is overly emotional

-Light tells L where he hid a page from his Death Note. Light doesn’t deny being Kira. Light shows Misa his Death Note when they like barely know each other and she’s still a complete stranger to him. Light acts like an idiot.

-Oh sure, he’s Kira, God of the New World, but he still cares about going to prom with his girlfriend and making stupid faces as they pose for pictures

-So much unnecessary gore. Heart attacks are Kira’s thing, Light isn’t that emotional about his kills, he doesn’t care as long as the 'villains’ are dead, so why???

-Apparently Rem does not exist. Sayu doesn't exist either. Light’s mom is dead (probably so he can angst over her)

-Light Turner. Light TURNER. Out of all the surnames they could have chosen…

-And now, for the most unforgivable sin:

How dare they not include the Potato Chip scene)

And then random things: JJ and Light have the same voice actor. Yurio and Mello (imo…have you met Mello yet?) could be long-lost twins.

Also:

I’ve fallen into Steven Universe hell and now I’m imagining so. Many. Gem AUs. Have you ever heard of SU?

(look:

1- don’t stress about the messages, and come on, I’d never get mad at you over something like this! You’re way too awesome.

2- I don’t really know what to say 'cause I’m bad at comforting people, but ugh, it sucks to hear that school’s tiring you out! Queen Luna’s gonna get through this, though. I mean, you’re great at so many things and you’re freaking smart and…this is awkward but maybe you understand Evans Language by now? XD Guess I’m just trying to say that I’m sure you’ll do great, and if you ever need someone to talk to I’m (almost) always free *hugs*

3- Um. So, other than tumblr, I think the only way I can talk with you right now is if we email each other? The email address I used this time is my real one (or rather, my dad’s, since I don’t have one of my own yet…) so maybe we can talk about this more through email and find a better way to contact each other? If that’s ok with you can you send me a message there?)

P.S:

I’ve started college and have no idea what I’m doing

*slams head against keyboard* guess who managed to get sick. It’s only been a week since school started. Whatever, I’m still going to school, but I woke up breathing like a fish on land, bc asthma. Yay.

I’m definitely gonna upload the pics today!!

Okay, but one thing I’m wondering about, is How? Not in a malicious way or anything, I’m genuinely curious to why you ship Stoki (and where it began). Was it that redemption fic you told me about or did you ship it before?

Tbh, I didn’t hate the characters in CW, I hated the situation. Because there’s so so much pointless conflict that could easily be solved if everyone sat down and talked like normal people. But nooo we have to go around attacking each other. ((ALSO CAP’S LETTER TO TONY, I AM DEAD))

I’ve already learned (and experienced) that shipping is a very weird and unusual thing, so I’ll be honest and say I’m not even surprised that ship exists. At least it has some basis XD

I’m actually tempted to go through the lyrics of the whole musical and find every single eye line there is, only to replace it w Illumi’s eyes.

Not only zooming in on the eyes, the word itself is louder than the rest XD man if only I could draw…

Tbh I’d say I’m responsible enough (HA, that’s more or less a lie), but I’m honestly way too irritated with the little ones to be able to have one of my own. My cousin recently celebrated her 3rd bday and I was stuck looking after her during the party, bc all the adults were talking among themselves and I swear to god, I haven’t moved that much since I had to run 2km for PE. Where do they get their energy. Not to mention the adults thought it would be a good idea to leave me w her, because I’d already drunk 3 glasses of wine (i was bored and not allowed to do anything other than stare at emptiness or look after a 3yo). Turns out my tolerance isn’t that bad after all.

Lol let’s be honest, Ishida would totally do that. He knows the fandom would riot and that’s the whole point.

All the death flags. Tbh I don’t know how I feel about it. It’s obvious that either Touka or Juuzou are probably gonna die and I wan’t neither (If I have to choose tho, I’d rather Juuzou survives.) Also Naki. HNNNNNNGH

I think you’d actually like the manga? It takes a pretty dark turn compared to the anime and deals with lots of mental issues (the whole theme of the later volumes is Madness). Also, lots of death XD Well, the artwork changes drastically, so which one are you talking about XD

The girl in the coat (left first pic, middle 2nd) is the same person for reference. Death the Kid was one of my first anime crushes. The guy has OCD and is a total badass.

MUHAHAHAHA I think someone uploaded the Lizzy fight to youtube so you can probably find it there, but I am in love. The animation is beautiful, so that’s also a huge plus. All in all, it was handled really well.

Death Note

So last I’ve watched is ep 25, aka the one WHERE L DIES. And i am not okay. I am nowhere near okay. Nope. Not at all.

Oh i’ve heard all about the adaptation. Tbh I find the whitewashing hilarious. Setting the movie in America removes so much of the series’s logic, so why? L being the way he is is probably my favourite mistake. They took the best character and ruined him completely. POTATO CHIP SCENE NOOOO But my question is: did everything go just according to the keikaku?

Have fun w SU! I’ve watched it for a while, but gave up at some point. I might pick it up again if I have the time ^^ Word of advice, watch out for the fandom, they’re among the most toxic ones I’ve ever encountered. One time, they almost drove an artist to suicide because she didn’t draw Rose ‘thick enough’. So yeah.

What did I do to deserve you as my friend TT^TT Thank you so so much, those words mean more than you can imagine.

Um. Looks like we’ll be staying here, because I never, ever check my mail, despite getting school assignments there, so yeah. If we used mail, you’d probably get a response every leap year.

How does the education system work in Korea? Like, at what age do you start going to which school?

Also, I’ve told you about Mystic Messenger? I think you’d like the newest update, because damn, it’s creeping me out. Also, it’s in Korean, so + ((My thoughts during the prologue of the new route: Nani the fuck))

#evans #submission

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227snewfacebookfries · 6 years

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227's™ TRAGEDY ALERT! WSU QB Suicide! Tyler Chili' Hilinski Found Dead in Apartment! News #Nike'Spicy' NBA Mix! -- Jamaal Al-Din's Hoops 227, Inc. | PRLog

227's™ TRAGEDY ALERT! WSU QB Suicide! Tyler Chili' Hilinski Found Dead in Apartment! News #Nike'Spicy' NBA Mix! Washington State QB Tyler Chili' Hilinski, 21, found dead in apparent suicide! An apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to head! News.

227's™ TRAGEDY ALERT! WSU QB Suicide! Tyler Chili' Hilinski! News! Spread the Word:News By Tag:* Tyler Hilinski WSU Suicide* YouTube Washington State* 227's YouTube Chili NBA By Industry:* Sports BOISE, Idaho - Jan. 17, 2018 - PRLog -- 227's™ TRAGEDY ALERT! WSU QB Suicide! Tyler Chili' Hilinski Found Dead in Apartment! News #Nike'Spicy' NBA Mix! Washington State QB Tyler Chili' Hilinski, 21, found dead in apparent suicide! An apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to head! News. #Nike'Spicy' NBA Mix! "I am deeply saddened by this kind of news in sports and society in general," said Al-Din. "Especially coming off the heels of our 227's #WhoaNellie'Spicy' sports tribute press release for the legendary Washington State alum, and sportscaster, Keith Chili' Jackson; sad news. Condolences to Hilinki's family and friends." A rifle and suicide note were found next to him, according to Pullman police. Officers responded to Hilinski's apartment to conduct a welfare check after he "did not show up for practice earlier in the day," police said. Tyler Hilinski From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Tyler Hilinski No. 3 Position: Quarterback Career history College• Washington State (2015−2018) Bowl games• 2017 Holiday Bowl High school: Notre Dame Upland Personal information Born: May 26, 1996 Claremont, California Died: January 16, 2018 (aged 21) Pullman, Washington Height: 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) Weight: 215 lb (98 kg)• Stats at ESPN.com Tyler Hilinski (May 26, 1996 – January 16, 2018) was an American footballquarterback who played for the Washington State Cougars of Washington State University. Career Hilinski attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California, before he transferred to Upland High School in Upland, California, prior to his junior year. He played as a quarterback on the American football team. In his junior year, Hilinski passed for 3,053 yards and 34 touchdowns.Hilinski enrolled at Washington State University and took a redshirt year in 2015. He became the backup quarterback for the Washington State Cougars in 2016. As a sophomore, Hilinski came off the bench to relieve starting quarterback Luke Falk against the Boise State Broncos, overcoming a deficit to win the game, and Arizona Wildcats in a loss. Due to an injury to Falk, Hilinski received his first start for the Cougars in the 2017 Holiday Bowl, completing 39 of 50 passes for 272 yards with two touchdowns. He finished the 2017 season completing 130 of 179 passes attempted for 1,176 yards, with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. He was expected to succeed Falk as the Cougars' starting quarterback in 2018. Personal life Hilinksi's older brother, Kelly, played as a quarterback for Notre Dame High School, Columbia University, Riverside City College, and Weber State University.[6] His younger brother, Ryan, also a quarterback, plays for Orange Lutheran High School and accepted a football scholarship from Washington State. On January 16, 2018, after not showing up for practice earlier that day, Hilinski was found dead in his apartment of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 21 years old. References• Jump up^ "Football: QB Tyler Hilinski commits to Washington State". LA Times. April 25, 2014. Retrieved January 17, 2018.• Jump up^ "Tyler Hilinski ready to step into backup quarterback role for WSU Cougars". The Seattle Times. Retrieved January 17, 2018.• Jump up^ Lawson, Theo (October 28, 2017). "Leach rides with Tyler Hilinski through the thick and thin of Washington State's loss at Arizona". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved January 17, 2018.• Jump up^ chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-washington-state-tyler-hilinski-suicide-20180116-story.html• Jump up^ Lawson, Theo (September 14, 2017). "Oh, brother! Washington State backup QB Tyler Hilinski had family far and wide watching his epic comeback". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved January 17, 2018.• Jump up^ Lawson, Theo (September 18, 2017). "Younger brother of Washington State's Tyler Hilinski earns scholarship offer from Cougars". The Spokesman-Review. Retrieved January 17, 2018.• Jump up^ "Washington State QB Tyler Hilinski found dead in apparent suicide, police say". Espn.com. Retrieved January 17, 2018.Categories:• 1996 births• 2018 deaths• American football quarterbacks• Players of American football from California• Washington State Cougars football players• People from Claremont, California• Suicides by firearm in Washington (state) 227's™ YouTube Chili' #NBA'Spicy' #Nike'Spicy'FRIES and NBA Spicy' Chili' Videos (1/17/2018): Best Of Anthony Davis' BACK TO BACK 45+ point 15+ rebound Games * Top 5 Plays of the Night | January 16, 2018 * Best Plays From Tuesday Night's NBA Action! | Jayson Tatum Crossover and More! * Damian Lillard and Devin Booker Duel it Out In Portland * Nikola Jokic Shows Out vs The Mavs * Anthony Davis Records SECOND STRAIGHT 45 Point Game Jamaal Al-Din's Hoops 227, Inc. (227's™ Facebook Fries!¡' [aka YouTube Chili' NBA] 227's™ TRAGEDY ALERT! WSU QB Suicide! Tyler Chili' Hilinski Found Dead in Apartment! News #Nike'Spicy' NBA Mix! Video: WSU QB Chili' Hilinski found dead in apparent suicide Spicy' NBA Mix! 227's #Nike'Spicy' NBA Mix)

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https://www.facebook.com/227sYouTubeChili.Nike.Basketball.NBA.Mix *** Graduate of the ZIONS Bank (Boise, ID) Business Success Academy *** Thank-you to Karen Appelgren - Assistant Director, Sheila Spangler - Vice President & Director, and Utah Jazz (NBA) Basketball Sponsor & Boise State University Athletics Sponsor - ZIONS Bank Jamaal Al-Din's Hoops 227, Inc. (227's™ YouTube Chili' NBA 2017 - 2018 NBA Playoffs ESPN Spicy' Mix)-cooks da' spiciest Wikipedia information (like dat' POPEYE's FRIED CHICKEN), YouTube NBA & NFL: Atlanta Hawks / Boston Celtics / Charlotte Bobcats / Chicago Bulls / Cleveland Cavaliers / Dallas Mavericks / Denver Nuggets / Detroit Pistons / Golden State Warriors / Houston Rockets / Indiana Pacers / Los Angeles Clippers / Los Angeles Lakers / Memphis Grizzlies / Miami Heat / Milwaukee Bucks / Minnesota Timberwolves / New Jersey Nets / New Orleans Hornets / New York Knicks / Orlando Magic / Philadelphia 76ers / Phoenix Suns / Portland Trail Blazers / Sacramento Kings / San Antonio Spurs / Oklahoma City Thunder (OKC) / Toronto Raptors / Utah Jazz / Washington Wizards Contact Jamaal Al-Din's Hoops 227, Inc.***@jamaalaldinshoops227.company.com

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227's™ TRAGEDY ALERT! WSU QB Suicide! Tyler Chili' Hilinski Found Dead in Apartment! News #Nike'Spicy' NBA Mix! -- Jamaal Al-Din's Hoops 227, Inc. | PRLog

from Jamaal Al-Din's blog 227's™ YouTube Chili' NBA Mix! http://hoops227.typepad.com/blog/2018/01/227s-tragedy-alert-wsu-qb-suicide-tyler-chili-hilinski-found-dead-in-apartment-news-nikespicy-nba-mix-jamaal-a.html via http://hoops227.typepad.com/blog/

#Jamaal Al-Din's blog 227's™ YouTube Chili' NBA Mix!

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mcdouglecompany-blog · 5 years

Text

Debunking Howard Zinn- Exposing Fake History That Turned a Generation Against America

Debunking Howard Zinn- Exposing Fake History That Turned a Generation Against America.

Howard Zinn & Dennis Prager Discuss Native Americans.

Ben Shapiro DEBUNKS the Democrats' perspective of the founding fathers.

Audiobook introduction. 8 minutes.

Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing Fake History That Turned a Generation Against America | Mary Grabar

The Sin of Howard Zinn’s Teaching | Dr. Jake Jacobs

Howard Zinn & Dennis Prager Discuss Native Americans.

https://youtu.be/2ufQlRxW0Rc

Sean Giordano

Dennis Prager speaks with Howard Zinn, leading leftist, professor emeritus at Boston University and college campus icon discusses American Indian history. In this gracious interview excerpted herein, some real numbers emerge of what killed most of the Native American population: __________________ ➤ From the 16th century through the early 20th century, no fewer than 93 confirmed epidemics and pandemics — all of which can be attributed to European contagions — decimated the American Indian population. Native American populations in the American Southwest plummeted by a staggering 90 percent or more. (See more here: https://vimeo.com/198163636) __________________ The entire interview can be found at American Conservative University (http://tinyurl.com/jqrvhno). Some of these numbers are discussed more in-depth on my site (http://tinyurl.com/jztzf4x).

Ben Shapiro DEBUNKS the Democrats' perspective of the founding fathers.

https://youtu.be/qtKCd6hkq1o

Gray Matter Matters

Ben Shapiro debunks the Democrats' Howard Zinn view of the founders of the US.

Audiobook introduction. 8 minutes.

Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing Fake History That Turned a Generation Against America | Mary Grabar

https://youtu.be/9TJtWO1PV8M

Oh Hale YEAH!

Are we a nation of AOCs? Thank Howard Zinn for the seeds he planted 40 years ago. At some point, Howard may have his Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, Jeff Epstein moment. We will come to grips with the fact that we bestowed praise, honor, prestige, and societal reverence on a human dumpster fire. This book is a step in the right direction. Enjoy this chat with Mary Grabar and go purcase twp copies of Debunking Howard Zinn. One for you and one for that special educator or student in your life who fawns over Howard with the kind of incurious faith that would make him blush. Some tidbits: —“This country was founded on white supremacy”—BETO (aka Robert Francis) O’ROURKE at a Nashville campaign event, July 2019 —“We are living in visible fascism ascendant. (I say visible, because those paying attention watched it survive and thrive under the protection of the state for decades (see Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States.)”—ARMED ATTACKER who tried to bomb an ICE detention center, July 2019 —“White America needs to face the roots of inequities and the fact of systemic racism all around us. It’s the air we breathe.”—PETE BUTTIGIEGE in an NPR interview, July 2019 —Since September 2018, 84,000 teachers have downloaded lessons from the Zinn Education Project and since 1980 2.5 million copies of A People’s History of the United States have been sold We discuss how this man was able to do so much with so little... Truth + Character + Wisdom = Prosperity. ******************************************************************* WHERE YOU CAN WATCH/LISTEN/READ MY CONTENT: ► SPOTIFY - bit.ly/ohyspotify ► iTUNES - bit.ly/ohyitunes ► YOUTUBE - bit.ly/ohyyoutube ► GOOGLE PODCASTS - bit.ly/ohygoogle ► SPREAKER - bit.ly/ohyspreaker ► MEDIUM - bit.ly/ohymedium ► QUORA - bit.ly/ohyquora ► INSTAGRAM- @Oohaleyeah ► FACEBOOK - https://goo.gl/7tA4N6 ► TWITTER- https://goo.gl/85RFf2 ► PAYPAL- www.paypal.me/OHHALEYEAH ► TruthSeeker Newsletter- bit.ly/ohytruthseeker PLAYLISTS ► THE CLIMATE SCAM► https://goo.gl/nndfC4 ► THE EDUCATION SCAM ► https://goo.gl/THvGvn ► THE ABORTION SCAM► https://goo.gl/8HbBGx ► THE MEDIA SCAM ► https://goo.gl/113Rts ►THE GENDER SCAM► https://goo.gl/CSDHvG ► THE SCIENCE SCAM► https://goo.gl/JuATSE ► MUSLIM JIHAD & THE ISLAMIC CALIPHATE ► https://goo.gl/HzRTy4 ► FEMINISM IS CANCER► https://goo.gl/nsnGJN ► COMMUNISM, FASCISM, SOCIALISM, PROGRESSIVISM ► https://goo.gl/kZGSAA ► SUNDAY SCHOOL ► ►THAT'S RACIST!► https://goo.gl/nDSuFn ►LIVESTREAMS► PLEASE SUBSCRIBE to support this channel. ******************************************************************** Youtube DE-MONETIZES ALMOST ALL OF MY CONTENT. Apparently, advertisers prefer buyers that watch cat videos and "woke" Buzzfeed content and not mature, educated, sentient adults. If you enjoy this content, please support my channel: ➜Patreon Page has just been launched. I post all of my preparation notes on this page & would love your support: https://www.patreon.com/OhHaleYeah PAYPAL ONE TIME DONATION: paypal.me/OHHALEYEAH ********************************************************************

The Sin of Howard Zinn’s Teaching | Dr. Jake Jacobs

https://youtu.be/QlL7UWasoK4

FreedomProject Media

While attending the University of Brighton, studying American and European History, I was introduced to a textbook titled "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn a self-proclaimed Communist-Socialist Professor at Boston University. Zinn considered himself a social justice warrior who used his teaching platform, books and plays as a tool to influence his students into transforming the United States of America into a socialistic state. "A People's History" has been assigned as reading in many high schools and colleges across the United States and has sold over two million copies since 1980. The problem with Zinn's very popular work, besides it's failure to footnote his research, is the twisted history that is anti-capitalistic, anti-Christian, and anti-republic, designed to fit his socialistic aims. 💰 Watch. Share. SUPPORT Our Educational Videos: http://bit.ly/2pKb71x ✅ SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube Channel: http://bit.ly/2oexOOj 👍 LIKE our Facebook Page: http://bit.ly/2obW5nL 👉 FOLLOW us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2oC93Ij 🇺🇸 SUBSCRIBE to our Weekly Email: http://eepurl.com/cLro6n 🌏 WEBSITE: https://www.freedomproject.com/

Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America by Mary Grabar (Author)

Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States has sold more than 2.5 million copies. It is pushed by Hollywood celebrities, defended by university professors who know better, and assigned in high school and college classrooms to teach students that American history is nothing more than a litany of oppression, slavery, and exploitation. Zinn’s history is popular, but it is also massively wrong. Scholar Mary Grabar exposes just how wrong in her stunning new book Debunking Howard Zinn, which demolishes Zinn’s Marxist talking points that now dominate American education. In Debunking Howard Zinn, you’ll learn, contra Zinn:

How Columbus was not a genocidal maniac, and was, in fact, a defender of Indians

Why the American Indians were not feminist-communist sexual revolutionaries ahead of their time

How the United States was founded to protect liberty, not white males’ ill-gotten wealth

Why Americans of the “Greatest Generation” were not the equivalent of Nazi war criminals

How the Viet Cong were not well-meaning community leaders advocating for local self-rule

Why the Black Panthers were not civil rights leaders

Grabar also reveals Zinn’s bag of dishonest rhetorical tricks: his slavish reliance on partisan history, explicit rejection of historical balance, and selective quotation of sources to make them say the exact opposite of what their authors intended. If you care about America’s past—and our future—you need this book.

Click here to download the episode

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dear-ilenas-friends-blog · 7 years

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Dear My Sister’s Friends,

Hi! Whats up? We’ve never met, but I’m _____’s sister, Allison. I’ve heard more about you than I’d care to admit, and honestly I’ve got some issues with all of you, but that’s not what I’m writing this for. You all for the most part seem to be a very Pro-Trump group of people. I wish I felt okay brushing that off, being like “oh whatever they have their beliefs I have mine.” But the country has progressed too far into the abyss, and we are only 11 days into the presidency. So we need to talk. This is going to get rough. I don’t really care about your feelings, just FYI.

#1. The ban on citizens from muslim-majority countries is unconstitutional, as is the complete freeze on the Syrian refugee program. Allow me to remind you of WWII and the Holocaust (do not deny it happened, if you do we have a bigger problem on our hands). While the Nazis of Germany and the Fascists of Italy and the Communists of Japan slaughtered millions of people they felt were a threat to society, the United States refused to take in refugees, citing our need to stay out of the war. The US allowed MILLIONS of people to die while we sat back and watched. WE CANNOT LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN. Oh what's up maybe you were never taught the poem on the statue of liberty? I had to sing it in third grade, and it goes like this: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”. Yeah we don’t turn people away. This whole fucking country was started by people escaping religious persecution in England. And DO NOT EVEN GET ME STARTED on the fact that we slaughtered indigenous people in order for the immigrants to live here (unnecessary).

#2. Let’s chat about women’s rights. Okay let’s assume that most of you don’t want to get pregnant at the moment, but one of you does. You don’t want that baby? TOO FUCKING BAD BECAUSE THE MEN IN THIS COUNTRY THINK YOU WANT THAT BABY. Some one them think that if you got pregnant from rape (god forbid) your body could just shut down and boom no pregnancy. Oh do you want an abortion? HAHA GOOD FUCKING LUCK. The way your precious president is going, women will not only have limited access to abortions, they may not be able to get them in time. There is a proposed ban on abortions past 6 weeks currently sitting in the senate and let me tell you something, most women do not know they’re pregnant until at least 8 weeks. THAT MEANS YOU WILL BE WAAAAYYYY MORE LIKELY TO HAVE TO CARRY THE CHILD. Oh and, on a related note, they are not children at conception. Fuck that. It’s a fucking zygote until brain waves are present at 25 weeks. And if the woman wants an abortion, her life is ALWAYS more important than the child’s. Yes, in case you forgot, zygotes are what happens when a sperm fertilizes an egg and it begins to grow into a fetus. FETUS. NOT CHILD. Mmmm want some free birth control? Of course you do! I get my pills for free, so does Ilena, so do you. Condoms are pretty free at the health center (or your RA has them - they’re always there just FYI). Bros, the new administration does not want your pills (or IUD or implant or whatever form of contraception you used) to be free. Actually, they don’t want them there at all. Besides the fact that men are running the government and are fundamentally stupid about how women’s bodies work (ask a guy what hole women pee out of- just do it), they also seem to forget about separation of church and state (you know jesus doesn’t believe in birth control blah blah blah see 19 kids and counting for more explanation). I will get more into separation of church and state later. Don’t worry. It’s coming. Anyway, birth control. Remember that. It’s a big deal.

#3. Okay. Separation of Church and State. Hotly debated. Basically it means that we are not a Theocracy, or a government governed by the rules of the bible (a la the Vatican or...Spain in the 1500s). For some unknown reason, peeps in the government (read: men) think that we aRe kind of a theocracy?!? And love to use the bible to back up research. Okay. There’s a whole lot of shit wrong with that, starting with the fact that the Bible is...kinda not real, and ending with the whole Separation of Church and State clause in our GODDAMN CONSTITUTION. I would also like to take this moment to inform you of a very interesting concept called the American Civil Religion, which is basically the overlying tone of religion that weaves its way through our principles and governmental officials. Why do we always have to say “God Bless America”? Which god? Whose god are we talking about anyway? It doesn’t matter. That’s American Civil Religion. The belief that America is bLeSsEd by God in any way (this is also American Exceptionalism, which is the thing where Americans think they’re better than everybody else and ugh). Google “white savior complex” if you really want to get more into this topic.

#4. Shall we chat about people being nominated by Trump? IDK are you familiar with your currently president’s newest pick for the Supreme Court? Gorsuch? Yeah that guy is literally the worst. He sides with corporations over workers’ unions, has fought for domestic violence to be decriminalized, and would like to appeal Roe v. Wade (that’s the abortion one, in case you didn’t know). Let’s see, who else. Oh yes, his entire cabinet is...well...a clusterfuck. He chose a former CEO of ExxonMobil (oil giant, biggest oil spill in history, ruined the environment NBD) as his Secretary of State. Do you know what the secretary of state does? They go country to country, negotiating and meeting with heads of state, furthering our relationships with allies and creating new relationships with countries. The secretary of state is the most important job in the government next to the president. The most accomplished people have held the position (Madeline Albright, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Thomas Jefferson). I just realized you probably don’t know who Madeleine Albright is. She was the first woman to be Secretary of State, and she’s a badass. Look her up. Tillerson has no governmental experience (unless you count testifying in congress to save his ass) How can he be expected to be the country’s top diplomat? Let’s see, who else? Oh, let’s hit Betsy DeVos. You’ve heard of her right? She’s just a casual multi-billionaire nominated for Secretary of Education. She’s the one who said schools need guns because of bears. She’s also the one who has no experience with public education, and would like to take funding out of public institutions (cough cough University of Massachusetts Amherst cough cough) and give it to private schools and charter schools. Most of you had to take out loans for school right? Yeah good luck paying those off with her in charge. Bernie wanted to make college free? DeVos has no idea how to set interest rates for loans, and the way she’s planning on allocating Education Department funds makes it look like those rates will only increase. So good luck getting out of debt. Department of the Treasury? Steven Mnuchin, former Goldman Sachs executive. If you spent any time being angry at Hillary for taking money from Goldman Sachs, thank you new Secretary of the Treasury, who by the way, has zero governmental experience. Secretary of Defense? General James Mattis, a retired Military commander who (thankfully) knows that torture does not work (looking at you Trump). Department of Justice? Jeff Sessions, who famously criticized the NAACP and ACLU while seemingly praising the KKK. Figure that one out. Health and Human Services? Tom Price, and ultra-conservative who has fervent opposition to Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) (aka the whole reason you can stay on your parent's health plan until you’re 26). Who else who else...oh yeah Ben Carson, Mr. “I’m not experienced enough to be in the white house bye”, or better yet, Trevor Noah’s best impression to-date. Bro has zero experience in Housing and Urban Development, minus being poor in Detroit. He’s a pediatric brain surgeon….so yeah. Housing. No. Ah the Department of Energy and Rick Perry. The guy who famously said he’d want to eliminate the...department of energy. AWKWARD. Yeah, not a scientist. Climate change denier (though he’s recanted that recently) and oh did you know that the Department of Energy is in charge of our nuclear weapons? Yeah neither did he. The Department of Labor? Andrew Puzder, the one-time chief executive of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. (fast food chains). He’s a constant critic of minimum-wage laws (aka why should we pay people a lot of money so that they can live instead of struggle - let them struggle!) aaannnnddddd shockingly he has no governing experience whatsoever. Only a few left, stay with me! Secretary of the Interior nominee Ryan Zinke was a Navy Seal (that’s cool). He firmly supports mining and drilling on federal lands - which is big no no for environmental preservation. The Department of Commerce’s nominee is Wilbur Ross (shockingly another rich white guy) who...has no experience in government and doesn’t care about workers rights. Honestly no one cares, but the Department of Agriculture’s nominee is Sonny Perdue and he’s pretty whatever, and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs pick is David Shulkin who is from the Obama Administration so...that’s cool. I know what I just laid out is a lot. If you want to know more about the good the bad and the (mostly) ugly, check out this article: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/02/trump-cabinet-tracker/510527/ - it’ll give you all the info you need. It’s important to note that there are two women vying for seat on the cabinet. Elaine Chao (who has already been confirmed as the Secretary of Transportation) and Betsy DeVos (who may not be confirmed for so so many reasons). There is one black man (Dr. Ben Carson...who’s special) and the rest of the guys are old, white, and rich #DrainTheSwamp.

#5. Presidential decorum. For those of you wondering, Trump has none. 0/10. Watch, I’ll put it on a scale against other presidents. Barack Obama was a 10. Bill Clinton was a 6. Reagan was a 7. Nixon was also a 0. See what I’m getting at here? Trump tweets. Oh does he tweet. SAD! He bullies people. He bullies DISABLED PEOPLE. He...can’t read? We don’t know. Our current presidents is...I don’t even know how to describe him. He believe Fox News. But he thinks CNN is fake news. No, wait, is all news fake news? The screenshot I took of his inauguration (which I watched on CNN.com) was that fake news? Did i imagine giant swaths of people missing? And then, after seeing that picture everywhere, why did Sean Spicer (ugh I’m not even going there) get up and lie to the entire press corp and country about it? We’re not all stupid. I have eyes. I’m college-educated. I know there were less people at Trump’s inauguration than there were at Obama’s. And both of those had less people than Reagan had! I wouldn’t really care if not for...alternative facts. Ah, alternative facts. The line spewed by the ever-terrible Kellyanne Conway. Alternative facts. Lies. They are the same thing. We cannot allow our government to dictate what is true and false. They will choose what makes them look good. And that will be detrimental for our country.

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I won’t lie to you guys. I got distracted a bunch of times while writing this. I’m at work, after all. But I got distracted because I had to stop to read articles that were coming out AS I WROTE about what’s going on. So I’d like to share what I read every day. Here are some of the things that distracted me:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/02/us/milo-yiannopoulos-ivory-tower/index.html?adkey=bn

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/30/politics/trump-travel-ban-live-blog/index.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-defends-troll-milo-yiannopoulos_us_589315e9e4b0af07cb6b992f?8mapjo6cymohia4i&

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/us/politics/donald-trump-islam.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/us/politics/trump-supreme-court-gorsuch-senate-democrats.html?ref=politics

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/02/tillerson-diplomats-must-be-team-despite-personal-beliefs.html

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_IMMIGRATION_SANCTUARY_STATES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-02-02-10-52-37

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MOBILIZING_MUSLIMS_MAOL-?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-02-02-09-49-14

Please read these (and others) and educate yourselves. You can have an opinion if you’re not educated, but your opinion will be thin (and possibly uninformed) if you don’t back it up with FACTS. ACTUAL FUCKING FACTS. I DON’T DO THIS ALTERNATIVE FACTS BULLSHIT.

Anyway I’ll probably have to write more eventually, but I hope this at least maybe made you think? Or laugh? IDK I’m pretty funny sometimes. Or if you now hate me, well that’s fine too I guess…? Actually no it’s not. I’m pretty cool.

Oh! My next rant will be on Anti-Semitism and Racism and the intersectionality of Racism and Sexism in our country! YAAAAYYYYY

Peace out bitches

Wait no I’m not done I forgot! Going all the way back to the ban on people coming to the country, there are exactly 0 people from any of those countries who have attacked up. Peeps who have attacked us come from countries we didn’t ban (but trump has business ties to so ). ALSO. WHITE SUPREMACIST MEN DO MOST OF THE TERROR ATTACKS IN THE COUNTRY GET IT THROUGH YOUR GODDAMN THICK SKULLS. IT’S NOT MUSLIMS. IT’S THE WHITE MALE RACISTS. Okay the end.

#rant #politics #i'm with her #dear my sister's friends #here we go

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