#respond to your own facebook rants with more ranting

[where-fading-princesses-live]

eBay Rant

Boy, oh, boy do I have a juicy eBay rant coming your way.

 So, I’ve been buying on eBay since 2016 and never run into major issues with sellers.

 The stupidest seller I ever came across was one such person who thought it smart to ship me a *porcelain* doll in a cardboard box with no outer protection, and of course, she broke into a million pieces and I basically got her for free, lol. I never thought anyone could be more stupid than that.

 But this one takes the cake.   🎂

 So, I’m looking at this from two sides—as a buyer and a seller. I’m also a part-time seller myself. I don’t sell very often because I don’t have too much to sell; but if I want to downgrade and need the money, I’ll part with a few items in my own collection. I usually sell occasional doll items and have never had a major issue with buyers (I’ve had more issues with Facebook Marketplace than eBay), but naturally, if a customer had a complaint, I would not have responded in the way this bloke did.

Well, there’s a first for everything, right?

I’ve been buying and collecting high quality photos of old Hollywood stars for some time now and I purchased a Don Knotts photo on Sunday, January 1 (Don Knotts is one of my faves and I have quite a collection on him). The photo finally arrived on Monday, January 9 but unfortunately, it was not the high quality I expected. The seller claimed in the item description that the photo was from an original negative from a film print of a Steve Allen show episode (which are hard to find; only a few episodes exist on DVD). But naturally, the old Steve Allen shows (as most old tv shows back in the 50s) were not on film. They typically ‘’filmed’’ live using a process called kinescope, which is not tape or film, and the quality tends to be very low (you’ll notice any Steve Allen show episodes uploaded to YouTube are very poor quality, because that was the low, cheap quality they processed the show to be shown on the very small tv screens; there is no high definition version that exists, even with restoration. The quality looks worse on our big flat screens, something that was not very noticeable back then on small tube television sets in the 50s). But judging by the seller photo, it looked like it might be a higher quality glossy that I’m used to. I’ve also purchased some photos from the Red Skelton Hour that also used the same process of The Steve Allen Plymouth Show, but they were actual stills used to advertise the show in the newspapers at the time, so the quality was better. So, that’s what I was expecting, more or less.

 But I get a photo that looks like this:

And to be fair, that is the quality of the videos you will see, but the seller photo just made me think otherwise.  Normally, I don’t buy items from sellers who are too cheap to afford a basic scanner to scan their items, because it’s hard to rely on crappy cell phone pictures that don’t determine what the photo will look like in person, but I decided to take a chance, because you know… I’m a simple man. If I see Don Knotts, I click, lol. And I’m a big fan of The Steve Allen Show.

 The seller, despite only being on eBay since January 2022, also had good reviews from buyers (I always review their profile and reviews before buying, if I haven’t bought from them before just to make sure they’re okay). He was at 100% when I bought the photo but more on that later.

So, to make a long story longer, I requested a refund on the day of delivery (January 9). I stated why I was returning the item when I opened the refund request. The seller responded on Tuesday, January 10. First red flag was that he did not use pleasantries. ‘’Hi, how are you? May I ask why you are returning the photo?’’ That’s how I would respond.

 No, here was his abrupt response. And terrible grammar to boot (no punctuation at the end of his sentence, but I’m not here to be a Grammar Nazi).

 ‘’What is wrong with the photo?’’

  (And I’ve blocked my name but really this seller does not deserve to be protected for privacy reasons; he is a cautionary tale for anyone on eBay.)

But another thing that was strange, too, was that I have returned some photos before in the past or requested refunds for photos that were not to my standards, and the sellers were always polite and very rarely ever asked questions about my returns. They always refunded me promptly. There’s really no reason for a seller to ask, ‘’What’s wrong with the photo?’’ Buyers don’t necessarily need a reason for a refund; sometimes they change their mind. Yes, I’m aware of buyer scams, but I’ve cancelled orders before for buyers who just had their own reasons for no longer wanting the item. It isn’t my business to ask. For instance, someone wanted to buy an American Girl Doll from me and changed their mind at the last minute because they had a surgery coming up. Understandable. I moved on to the next interested buyer. The less you ask of your buyers, the better. They don’t need to explain themselves. If they don’t like it or it doesn’t match the item description, they have a right to return it.

 I wanted a refund for an item I thought was going to be higher quality, but I got a very fuzzy, blurry photo. It wasn’t the seller’s fault; it just wasn’t what I expected.

 Well, this guy has only been on eBay since January 2022 (and he’s not just a seller, but also a buyer; in fact, he has more reviews as a buyer than a seller, five pages worth, and he only had seven reviews as a seller at the time I bought the photo), so I should’ve known right off the bat he’s a newbie who isn’t familiar with the standard eBay procedure in how to deal with customers.

 But in my experience, the sellers NEVER directly message me to ask me questions about why I’m returning the item or requesting a refund. I always state why when I make the request.

 I always maintain cordiality no matter how rude the person I’m dealing with (I’ve worked customer service for years, so I’m used to it), so I just responded with an honest answer. I always try to treat sellers the way I would want my buyers to treat me. Most buyers would just yell at the seller for no apparent reason.

 The seller seemed to soften after I kindly explained the issue and only then, did he start to use pleasantries. Because see? Niceness goes a long way. Usually if you’re nice about it, they’ll be nice right back. Usually.

 Well, he clearly stated that I did not need to return the photo and that he would give me a full refund on Wednesday evening (January 11). Good. I thought the matter was solved and I wouldn’t have to worry about it. I received a notification via email that the seller accepted my return. eBay did send me a shipping label to return the item, but again, the seller told me to keep it, and I did not want to waste more money sending it back anyway (the item was $10, and shipping was $10. With tax, the total came to be $20.84, for a photo that was not very good to begin with), so I hoped the seller would keep his promise and refund me ASAP.

 Come Wednesday evening, there’s no refund. I waited a few days and heard no response from the seller, so I reached out again on Monday, January 16. Most buyers wouldn’t even wait this long.

 The seller did not respond so I reached out again the following Wednesday, January 18. I never heard a response. Again, the seller promised he would refund me LAST Wednesday. It had been over a week now. I think I gave him more than enough time to issue me that refund. I also saw him listing new items on his store between the time I messaged him three times, so he was clearly more preoccupied with his own business than actually assisting a customer. He was ignoring all my messages. I was not a priority to him.

 I wasn’t sure if I should wait for his response, but I was starting to think I was never going to see that $20 again. My first mistake was not asking eBay Customer Support to step in, but they gave me a message on the 9th when I opened the case that they would only be available to help until January 13, so it was already past the window for me to contact them, and I couldn’t figure out how to contact them through the website directly anyway (there was a number to call which I should have tried, and their live chat wasn’t very useful either). In all my years buying on eBay, I never had to escalate a return case to eBay Customer Support because the sellers always resolved the issue in a timely manner and never ignored my inquiries. Frankly, I just wasn’t sure what to do next. This seller was purposely giving me a hard time.

 So, I was admittedly losing patience now and reached out to PayPal directly on Wednesday, January 18 (PayPal always refunds me for merchants who refuse to do so). I gave them all my documentation. I explained the issue and provided them with screenshots of my eBay order, the conversation I had with the seller showing that he clearly promised me a refund, and an Account Statement that detailed my credit (showing date of purchase, the order ID, and the card I used to pay for the item).

 On Thursday, January 19, I left a negative review for the seller because he ignored all my messages and I think I waited long enough for him to respond, and if he just issued me a refund in the first place like he said he would, I wouldn’t have to be going through all this. This is also the first negative review I've ever had to write up simply because I never had to before. I prefer not to write them if I can avoid it, but this experience has been very trying. Most buyers would just go straight to the reviews and start lashing out at the seller before contacting the seller first, but I think I followed all the steps. I contacted the seller first, chatted politely with him in private, and agreed to settle the issue, so there was no reason for me to write a negative review, and that’s usually how I go about it. I’ve only written maybe two neutral reviews (which one seller had eBay remove and another asked me to change to positive after he refunded me the difference for overcharged shipping), but otherwise, I try to avoid it. I’m not out to ruin a seller’s perfect 100% rating on purpose. But this seller did not handle the issue properly and I think I gave him a fair chance. I also worded my review as kindly as possible despite my frustration. His rating is now down to 99.1% (not counting the false positives he’s received as a buyer from other sellers but more on that later).

 After reviewing the details of my case, on Tuesday, January 24, PayPal denied my case because I accidentally deleted the PayPal receipt, and I wasn’t able to recover the file from my email because it was more than 7 days ago. PayPal did give me from Tuesday, January 24 to Friday, January 27 to provide them the additional documentation of my receipt, but there was no way to recover it. All I had was the Account Statement to show proof of credit. They said ‘’because we never received documentation that proves you are due a credit’’ they unfortunately had to deny me. Because I reached out to PayPal, the Return was automatically closed on eBay on the 18th. Well, I was a little disappointed they didn’t see my side. It was the first time PayPal denied me.

 It’s mostly my fault because it’s the first time I’ve failed to save the PayPal receipt. I usually always archive them in my emails when I place the order and save the receipt until the order arrives in case I need a refund, but I guess I just wasn’t thinking. Oh well. I had 10 days to appeal my case to PayPal, but since I can’t recover the receipt, I decided not to pursue the refund further and let it go. Sure, I’m short $20 now but I know for the future to just save the receipts and ask eBay to step in first. It’s not really a big deal, just a lesson to be learned.

 I thought about disputing the charge directly through my bank or credit card company, but it’s such a hassle to go through all that for $20. If the charge was more, I would consider it, but I also don’t want the bank to think I’m attempting to commit ‘’friendly fraud’’ so again, I just decided to let it go. Life’s too short to worry about stuff like that. It’s not worth the aggravation and I have more important things to worry about.

 On the same day PayPal closed my case, I did manage to reach out to eBay Customer Service via Facebook messenger (which I should have done in the first place) to just to double check if there wasn’t anything more they could do. They were very sympathetic to my case, but they explained because ‘’a dispute was opened with PayPal. Once this happens, it would take precedence over our claims process, and we would no longer have the ability to issue a refund on the order. It definitely isn't that we don't want to help, our hands are just tied. If you haven't already, I would encourage you to reach out to PayPal and see if the case can be appealed, or what other options they may have to help. We hope this is resolved soon.’’

 So, that was that, and I just decided to let it go because there was nothing else to be done, and I didn’t think more of it. That was four days ago.

 BUT WAIT... THERE’S MORE 

So, this morning, I see the seller messaged me at 11 AM, practically harassing me over the negative review I left for him. Like I need more stress in my life, lol.

Sorry, I’m lmfao right now, this is so rich.

  🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

And, oh the awful grammar. Dude, please do yourself a favor and go back to school. I’m losing brain cells trying to make sense of this.

 Something’s wrong with me? Mmkay. No, I think something is wrong with you. I asked you three times for a refund, and you chose to ignore me. You do realize it’s been three weeks, right? Or can’t you tell time?

  First off, I did not ‘’keep the photo free of charge.’’ lol what? 🤣 I paid appx. $20.84 for the photo that you NEVER REFUNDED, so you basically kept my $20 for yourself. Even if I printed out the return label to ship it back to you, you probably STILL would not have refunded me, and I would have been short even more money than I already am right now. (I’d return it now, but I no longer have the shipping label, and I doubt anyone would want this crummy photo. The 2 bids you see were both placed by the Gixen Mirror service on my behalf. There was no other competition.)

 Also, sorry I wasted YOUR precious time sending you three messages, two of which you ignored, and having to go through PayPal and having them review my case for an additional week. Yes, I clearly wasted YOUR time. 🤣 Dude, really. It’s been 20 days since I opened the return on the 9th, and it’s been 18 days since I last heard from you. I gave you more than enough time to refund me, which you failed to do.

 I’m sorry, I just can’t right now. XD I honestly think this guy is brain damaged. Ngl

(Also, a funny thing happened when he shipped me the item. He assumed I was married (for some reason???) and addressed me on the envelope as ‘’Mrs. So-and-So.’’ Like… you *never ever* assume a woman’s marital status, or *anyone’s* marital status for that matter, like for real… I didn’t let it bother me, but still, it was hilarious. I don’t think he’s very smart.)

  🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

In all seriousness, I did not think my review was unfair. I only stated I'd been waiting for a refund the seller promised since January 11. I understand, of course, if he was busy filling other orders, but I gave him more than enough time to refund me and sent him two additional follow-up messages, one on January 16 and another on the 18th and he never responded to my inquiries. He's just now responding.

 I just think it’s ridiculous that I’d been waiting for him to refund me since January 11, and, even if he was busy, he could have temporarily set aside his orders for a measly minute. I’m sure it doesn’t take nearly as long to send a refund. It took him six days to ship my order, so he’s clearly in no rush to fill orders. There was no reason for him not to take two minutes out of his day to issue me a refund. Most sellers I’ve dealt with in the past issued me a refund in no more than three days at most. He intended to drag this out longer than necessary. Also, the cordial thing for him to do, if he was so busy, was to reply to my messages explaining he would get back to me as soon as possible, and I would’ve understood. I’m aware sellers have lives outside of eBay, but usually if there’s a delay for whatever reason, a *good* seller will always keep me informed.

 A *good* seller cares about customer satisfaction, as in responding to customer inquiries at your earliest convenience. If it were me filling a refund request, I would not wait weeks and weeks to get them their money. I would do so right away. And if life happens, just reach out. I basically did all the work messaging the seller regarding the issue. He did not have the common courtesy to reach out to me and explain why it was taking him so long.

One time, I messaged a seller to ask when they would ship an item after a week had gone by since placing the order, and they responded by saying their wife had suddenly passed away and there would be a slight delay in shipping, and of course I understood, and wished them sympathy and simply told them to take all the time they needed. Another time, a seller informed me they were out-of-town on vacation and would ship my item as soon as they returned, and I wished them a good trip and there was no rush. I received both items as promised from these sellers who were kind enough to take the time to explain the delay. This seller, however, did not bother telling me he was busy filling other orders, so how was I to know? Also, a few more reviews were left for him from other buyers a few weeks AFTER I opened my return case, so he should have refunded me first before he filled other orders. Why keep me waiting? And he only had until January 31st before eBay closed the Return. Why wait until the last minute? I feel like he was doing so on purpose, lol. There was absolutely no communication with him. Most sellers will ghost you if you agree on a refund. Sometimes, they say they will refund you and never follow through, and just keep your money, so naturally I assumed I’d been ghosted.

 Again, he just didn’t go about this the right way. If you say you will issue me a refund on January 11, but there’s a delay for whatever reason, he should have reached out to me. Again, I waited several days before reaching out to him, trying to give him time to respond. I tried to follow up with two additional messages which went completely ignored, so at that point, there was no more excuse. The fact that he’s just NOW responding to me on Saturday, January 28, 11 days after the Return was closed by eBay and four days after PayPal closed my case, it just says enough about this seller in general. Obviously, a procrastinator. It shouldn’t take you nearly a whole month to give a customer’s money back. JMO

 I always maintained cordiality and never resorted to threats, so I'm not sure why he feels the need to threaten me now. I have since blocked him, but I did reach back out to eBay Customer Support on Messenger and showed them this seller is going out of his way to harass me. I've been buying on eBay since 2016 and never encountered a character quite like this one. No buyer has ever left me a negative review either because I always try to be reasonable and understanding. I don't want to cause any more trouble, I'm just letting them know this eBay seller is prone to harassing his customers and I just hope he doesn't treat other customers in similar fashion in the future.

 So, eBay did respond and said, ‘’Thank you! You're completely entitled to your feedback, and you don't have to delete it. We'll go ahead and report the seller on our end so our Trust team can take appropriate action based on their findings. On your end, I recommend not engaging with this user further. Please keep us in the loop and let us know if you run into any other issues, we're here to help.’’

 So, I hope nothing more comes of this and this guys just quietly goes away.

 BUT WAIT... THE PLOT THICKENS

I did investigate him further and found out, as a buyer, he has several false positives from other sellers. He’s had at least four complaints from four different sellers for failing to pay for items, despite their constant notices and reminders. I wish I looked into him further before buying from him, because obviously, if he has an issue paying sellers, then he surely has an issue refunding his customers. But I probably wouldn’t have taken that into account, since I rarely request refunds and rarely experience issues with my items. I’m not sure if anything was done about it, apart from the orders being cancelled, or if these sellers tried to contact eBay’s Trust team to report him, but I’m just putting it out there. Unfortunately, sellers cannot leave negative feedback for buyers, so if a seller experiences an issue with buyers, and they leave a review, it will just be counted as a false positive. I wish I’d read all the reviews thoroughly. So, despite his generally positive reviews from other buyers, I wouldn’t let this deter you. He clearly has issues when it comes to money, whether it’s paying on time or issuing a refund.

If you ever deal with him, proceed with caution.

 I will say this whole experience has given me weeks long headaches and an upset stomach, but I also won’t say it wasn’t at least remotely entertaining. Shakespeare would’ve loved this kind of drama.

#personal shit

[drshaneclements]

How To Support Your Favorite Creators

Most of the time your friends, family, and followers aren’t trying to build a business of their own, grow their social media presence, or be the next viral sensations, so, they have no idea how the algorithms work. So, I wrote this guide to help them have a better understanding. If they value your content and want to keep you growing and putting out more, you may want to share this with them.

Most friends, family, and followers have never tried to build or grow a business(brick and mortar or online), so it's not their fault they may not really know how to show love and support for your business and entrepreneurial endeavors...

I have immediate family that has never even acknowledged I've had a business for the last 5 years, much less offered to share or support it... This is not a post to rant about that though... (they just won't get the friends and family discount )

Let's focus on those that do want to show support. I have friends with Twitter (X) accounts devoted completely to college football. I have never watched a single football game in person or on TV, but I still like, comment, engage, and share their content...

I have friends who have written books on subjects that I have no interest in and may never read, but I still buy a copy because they are my friends and I want to support them...

I have friends with TikTok, Instagram, YouTube channels, and many more that aren't my cup of tea (or coffee), but I still go to their pages, channels, and spots online each day to help them grow...

It doesn't cost you a dime to show some love and support, but unfortunately, most people suck at it. So, I wrote this guide to maybe help us all suck a little less...

How to Support Content Creators on Social Media: A Comprehensive Guide

In the ever-evolving landscape of social media, understanding how to effectively support content creators is vital. Each platform has its unique ecosystem and algorithms, which can be mystifying. However, with a few strategic moves, you can significantly help your favorite creators grow. Here’s a detailed guide for each platform.

X(Twitter): The Pulse of Real-Time Conversation

X is a platform where immediacy and interaction are key. Here’s how to best support content creators on X(Twitter):

Repost and Like: When you repost, you amplify the creator’s voice to your followers, significantly extending the reach of their content. Liking tweets also boosts their visibility.

Engage with Comments: Respond to tweets with meaningful comments. This not only encourages the creator but also sparks conversations, making the tweets more visible in the algorithm.

Follow and Turn on Notifications: Follow your favorite creators and turn on notifications to stay updated with their latest tweets. This ensures that you’re one of the first to engage, which is crucial on a fast-moving platform like X.

Use Hashtags Wisely: When sharing a creator’s content, use relevant hashtags to increase the reach. However, be mindful not to spam or misuse hashtags.

Share with Quotes: Instead of just retweeting, consider quoting the tweet with your input. This adds value and personal perspective, making the share more engaging for your followers.

Participate in Chats and Threads: Engage in conversations initiated by the creator, like Twitter chats or thread discussions. This shows support and also helps in networking within the community.

By incorporating these strategies into your X(Twitter) usage, you can significantly support and contribute to the growth of content creators on the platform.

X’s fast-paced environment means that timely and consistent engagement can make a substantial difference in a creator’s social media presence.

Facebook: The Community Connector

Facebook’s algorithm favors active interaction. Here’s how to support:

Engage Authentically: Likes, comments, and shares are gold. Don’t just scroll; engage with the content meaningfully. Comments that spark conversations are particularly valuable.

Notifications and Following: Ensure you’re following the page and turn on notifications. This way, you won’t miss any updates.

Video Content: Watch videos fully. Facebook values watch time. Sharing these videos can exponentially increase a creator’s reach.

Active Participation: Engage in polls, live videos, and discussions. Your interaction contributes to the content’s visibility.

Word of Mouth: Recommend pages to friends. Personal recommendations can be a powerful tool.

Instagram: The Visual Storyteller

Instagram’s algorithm is all about engagement and timeliness.

Immediate Interaction: Quickly interacting with new posts boosts their visibility. Likes, comments, and saving posts are key.

Stories and Reels: Engaging with Stories and Reels shows the algorithm that the creator’s content is worth pushing forward.

Direct Messaging: Responding to stories or initiating conversations through DMs can significantly help.

Post Notifications: Turning on notifications ensures you never miss content from your favorite creators.

Hashtags and Mentions: Use relevant hashtags and mention the creator in your posts to increase their discoverability.

YouTube: The Video Giant

On YouTube, engagement and watch time are crucial metrics.

Complete Views: Watch the videos from start to finish. Watch time heavily

influences a video’s ranking and visibility.

Engage with the Content: Like, comment, and subscribe. These actions are essential signals to YouTube’s algorithm.

Sharing is Caring: Share videos on other social media platforms. This not only increases visibility but also introduces the content to a new audience.

Community Engagement: Participate in polls, community posts, and comment sections. This shows YouTube that the creator has an active, engaged community.

Support Through Ads: Watching ads without skipping provides financial support to the creators.

Tumblr: The Unique Microblogging Platform

Tumblr thrives on community engagement and content sharing.

Reblog to Spread the Word: Reblogging is the most powerful tool on Tumblr. It shares the content with your followers and increases its reach.

Likes and Follows: Regularly like posts and follow creators to stay updated with their content.

Engage with Asks and Fan Mail: Personal interactions like asks or fan mail can boost a creator’s morale and visibility.

Create Response Posts: Generate your content in response to theirs, creating a network of interconnected posts.

TikTok: The Short-Form Video Hub

TikTok’s algorithm is driven by user interaction and watch time.

Complete Views: Watch videos from start to end. The algorithm favors videos that are watched in their entirety.

Active Engagement: Like, comment, and share. These actions are signals to TikTok that the content is engaging and should be shown to more users.

Creative Interaction: Utilize features like Duet and Stitch to engage with content creatively.

Cross-Platform Sharing: Share TikTok videos on other social media platforms to help creators reach a broader audience.

Threads: The Niche Network

For platforms like Threads, engagement is key.

Active Participation: Engage in threads by contributing to discussions and responding to posts.

Content Sharing: Share content that you find valuable. This not only supports the creator but also enriches the platform.

Invite Engagement: Bring in new users by inviting friends. This helps in growing the platform’s community.

Constructive Feedback: Offer feedback to creators. Constructive criticism can help them refine their content and strategies.

Supporting content creators on social media is more than just a passive scroll. It’s about actively engaging with their work, participating in their community, and helping them grow their presence across various platforms. By understanding the nuances of each platform’s algorithm and community culture, you can turn your likes, comments, and shares into powerful tools of support.

Whether it’s watching an entire YouTube video to boost watch time, engaging with Instagram stories to enhance visibility, or reblogging content on Tumblr to reach a wider audience, your actions have a significant impact. Remember, the key is to be genuine in your interactions. Creators appreciate authentic engagement, and this can lead to more meaningful connections and a stronger online community.

So, take that extra minute to leave a thoughtful comment, share that intriguing post with your friends, or simply watch a video to the end. These small acts contribute greatly to the success and growth of content creators in the digital world. Your support can make a world of difference to those who are working hard to share their passion, creativity, and knowledge through social media. Let’s all play our part in nurturing and supporting the digital creators who make our online experience richer and more diverse.

#tumblr writers #tumblr #facebook #twitter #x #instagram #youtube #creators #content creation #value #threads #social media #social networks

[rafawriter]

Want to understand what is happening on Twitter?

Let me tell you a story of a bygone age, of the age of: 

Imagine if you will it is the mid 2000s. The Invasion of Iraq is in full swing and blogging was the new hotness. So was #Mozilla's open source web browser: Firefox.  Now Firefox either introduced or popularized a lot of features, like multi-tab browsing and addons. One of those addons was Clipmarks. It allowed anyone to use a snipping tool to "clip" parts of any website (including videos from YT) and share them on their blogs. It also had its own website, just like Twitter, Facebook, or more relevant, Tumblr. You could share your clips there and people could comment on them. Except that the site had no moderation: no mods and no moderation tools.

If you are thinking to yourself, "OMG" then you are right. The devs/owners claimed the reason for this was because they were, "Free Speech Absolutists", but the trolls called it Paradise. Specifically one troll who we will call Willy.  Now Willy was a wily troll (hehehe), not very smart, but then stupid people are stupid because they don't know how stupid they are. So Willy would come to your clips comment section and drop paragraph long diatribes that boiled down to, "Marx is bad evil, ummkay?  Of course he was very much into "feigning intelligence" and wanted to come out as erudite and smarter than anyone else so he used the word, "Materialism". But he was a hardcore  one-note right-wing libertarian. Naturally, two things happened:

1. He attracted cruder cohorts. Think Shapiro/Walsh/Fuentes line of trolldom.

 2. There was push back from the left-side of Clipmarks.

Remember this is in the mid 00s. The country was sharply divided around the War on Terror and many of the clips in clipmarks were about the subject. Back then we thought G.W. Bush was the record holder for dumbest President. How naïve we were.

Then as all successful tech startups, the owners started shopping clipmarks around, but no one would buy a clear example of the Internet Wild West. So they implemented self-mod options, like blocking unwanted commentators from clips.  This made Olde Willy apoplectic. He ranted and raved at the owners in ever long diatribes. It was all about his "Free Peach" and so on. You know the drill. In response the owners tried to explain to him that this was not, in fact, a violation of his rights. 

But you see a troll doesn't want to simply express themselves. They want to dominate a space. They want to stand on the bridge and demand a toll mainly whatever shibboleth marks you as being part of their tribe.  So Willy fanned the flames, invaded other people's clips and posted longer and longer rants. The owners responded by giving certain users secret mod powers which of course let to shadow banning.  As the conflagration spread  all the folks that simply wanted to share kitty videos or recipes left in droves, as did the targets of the trolls. So the trolls won, right?  

 Nope. The owners had already sold the company to Forbes who simply neglected it. It withered on the vine with the echoes of repeated and rancid political arguments. A flash in the pan of the internet's wild west days and an object lesson for today.

Trolls will always burn the house down to get what they want and what they crave is attention + control. If a troll has enough money he can buy the most popular social media site and burn it to the ground himself only to prove that he can. Thus endeth the lesson.

#trolls #social media #twitter #00s #the internet #history

[arrowdibble49]

Life today will be more exciting than ever. It's hard to think about where it might bring you.

I would like to say hello. Tanisha I'm Tanisha. I'm a divorcee who recently got married. I had to go through a difficult divorce. cc clip converter Although it wasn't a long process, it was quite painful. One night I've come home to early to find my husband with another woman. It's quite shocking. My beloved husband of 12+ years abandoned me and began searching for the most perfect for other women. After much thought I finally decided to let it all go. I've tried a variety of ways. My girlfriends invited me out for drinks and my boyfriend took me out for dinner and we went out together to paint and drink. It was a never-ending cycle of self-deprecation and self-loathing. But I have found ways to stop hateing myself. And, I started hating the ex-husband.

It was his the fault of his. He destroyed my tranquil, happy, and idyllic life filled with daily pleasures and late-night tea party. The relationship we had was not one of family, and she ate our dog and attempted to keep it even though she wasn't a fan. I had to figure out how to get back at the guy after weeks of stalking her fake accounts on social media. It's very useful. You can track your ex on social media. You can also change your name and hit the"friend" button. Most people don't refuse hot girls who are trying to make friends. After a while, I started to notice his new passion. He started to respond to different rap songs. It's an occupation, a pastime, but he declared that this would be his occupation. He started to become too attached to his dreams and started to gain only a handful of Youtube followers. Years went by and nothing was ever successful except for these hilarious reactions videos. He would swear, laugh, scream, fall on the floor and even lay on his stomach but it's just another unproductive rant that is useless. You have no other words. Here are two strategies I came across to indulge in his latest obsession. In the beginning, I reported his YouTube channel's videos to copyrights. He was using legitimate videos and tracks made by commercial artists to film his sloppy reactions and then release them. Youtube removed 12 of his YouTube videos. That's an excellent beginning. Move over to Facebook. After being removed from Youtube, he copies those videos. Now, I just claim that the video belongs to me and Facebook removes it from his account and blocks him for 2 weeks. Nice, I say that! Twitter was finally accessible however they were unable to remove his videos no matter how many attempts I made. It didn't matter. I was able to remove 34 videos. The second part of my revenge consisted of to take down the videos and uploading them under my own name. Here's where things get tricky First, I had to claim my ownership. Facebook didn't care that I was a young director. I downloaded the videos on Youtube as well as Facebook and altered them using the Adobe video editor. It was hilarious. Videos remained online for more than four months, before being taken down. I have about several of the videos that I haven't edited and put on reshare but I'm hoping to do it in the near future.. My revenge is out of control and takes months to finish however, at the same time I'm not having any other issues going on, so why not?

#converte youtube mp4

[hooman4ever]

For the trans visibility requests, RZ micheal with an AFAB trans nonbinary (they/them pronouns) reader who was misgendered, and told that they'll never be 'non binary' because it's not real, that they'll always be a girl, by like a family member and they're upset?

I tried to add a little humor into this so hopefully that works out for me.

Felt this one though, I had lovely grandparents who absolutely adore ranting on facebook about trans people. Now I’m disowned by them and I couldn’t be happier about it!

Contains: Misgendering, Murder, Murder Implied To, Shopping with Michael Myers, Non-Binary Reader

“Behave,”

That was what you had said to Michael before the both of you left your shared home in the direction of the nearest shopping center on a mission to finally get Michael some new clothing. As the both of you made your way into the shopping district of town you hoped for the mall to be empty since Michael’s track record with strangers was less than favorable.

Happily, you pulled up to the mall to see an almost desolate parking lot save for the few vehicles owned by employees and a handful of customers. Parking you were quick to grab Michael’s hand and drag him out of the vehicle, his blond hair shielding his face as you guided him into the building.

Eerily silence was a wonderful sound as bored workers lazed around enjoying the unprompted break they were getting. You were almost in the clear, the store you desired to go to was only a few steps ahead.

“[Deadname]?” you froze where you stood. Michael’s head turns in the direction of the stranger approaching both of you– well a stranger to Michael at least, you knew them all too well. “This is crazy!” your family member exclaimed as they outstretched their arms for a hug, not having any of it Michael pulled you back just as they closed their arms. Saving you from the embrace.

“Wha-” Looking to Michael your family member finally acknowledged the tall man lurking behind you. “Is this your boyfriend?” they inquired, moving much too close to the both of you to be comfortable. “I sure hope so, wouldn’t want you to end up like all the other single women around here.”

Michael’s hand in yours tightened, his eyes slanting as he glared. “Not she,” was all you had to say for your family member’s face to sour before waving their hand dismissively “Your still not seriously faking that they/them bullshit are you?” they questioned before laughing as if they had just talked about a funny childhood memory. After only getting radio silence in response however everything became tense, “No I’m not faking anything, I am still non-binary.” you responded your heart tightening in your chest and face flushing with embarrassment and rage.

“That’s not even a real-” before your family member could continue on their bigoted tirade, Michael was tugging you away into the shop. Leaving them gaping like a fish and fuming in the dust.

You were proud of Michael, truly. He had controlled himself so well. As soon as your family member had opened their mouth, spewing garbage you were sure Michael would have lost it. “How about we get a treat on the way home, Michael. Since you handled that asshole so well,” you said not missing the small upward tilt of Michael’s lips from under his hair before he nodded his head in agreement.

Not long into the search for clothing that not only fit Michael but he would wear the man had disappeared from your side. Turning around your eyes widened the graphic tee in your hands long forgotten. You hadn't let go of his hand for more than a moment and already, you had lost your imposing boyfriend to the sea of clothing racks.

Frantically you searched the store before coming up with nothing. Panicked you ran out of the department only to come face to long blond hair with Michael– “Aha, fuck,” a bloody Michael.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, you had thought all while turning Michael around towards the store entrance. With you pushing his back Michael let you lead him out of the stores towards the vehicle you had come in again.

As you drove home with a satisfied Michael you couldn’t help but think of how naive you were thinking that the Michael Myers would just suddenly not default to murder when presented with conflict and let them live. Pulled from your stupor Michael’s hand rested on your shoulder, “They hurt you,” he signed “That’s unforgivable.”

You couldn’t help but forgive Michael as strange as it sounded. While his methods may be unethical he was only trying to make you feel better in his own way, and how you smiled at him and nodded his attempts to cheer you up seemed to have worked… this time.

#michael myers x non binary reader #michael myers x reader #michael myers x NB reader #I ate the pronouns for Reader #Sorry #slasher x reader #slasher x s/o #slasher x y/n #slasher x non binary reader #rob zombie michael myers #blond boy #rz michael myers x non binary reader #rz michael myers x nb reader #trans visibility day 💙💜🤍💜💙 #non binary reader

[footballfanfictions]

The thrill of the chase - Chapter Three

Pairings: Mason Mount/OC, Ben Chilwell/OC

Authors Note: Apologies again for how long this has taken to write, life has been absolutely manic the last couple of weeks. As always, I hope you enjoy this and feedback is gratefully received.

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 He’s pinning me down against the bed, leaning over me. His hands are everywhere, touching and caressing me wherever he can reach and his mouth is on my neck, sucking a patch of skin to mark me.

My hands are in his hair and I’m tugging at it to get him to look at me, so that I can connect our mouths again, but when I pull his face to mine, it isn’t Ben anymore. It’s Rory.

I wake up from the fantasy in a cold sweat, my bed sheet stuck to my slick back and my pyjama top crumpled. I put my head into my hands and sob quietly. I’m not crying because I’ve had some sex dream about a footballer that snogged me. I’m crying because once again, I*’m thinking about my ex boyfriend and it’s becoming obsessive.

I sit up in bed and find myself checking his social media. His facebook has him check in to some fancy hotel in the Cotswolds with his girlfriend. They had met not long after we broke up. In fact, the gap between us breaking up and them supposedly meeting was so slim that it made me wonder if he had been talking to her before we called it quits. I had no proof of that of course, but that didn’t make me feel any better about any of it. I imagined the two of them sharing a bed together in their hotel room, enjoying the comfort of sleeping next to someone. It had been so long that I barely remembered what that felt like. 

I almost texted Bri, she would have been happy to talk even if I woke her, but I wasn’t quite ready to share what I had been thinking about recently. It would be hypocritical of Bri to judge me for thinking about Rory when all she went on about at the moment was making her ex jealous. That made me think of Billy and how much he liked her. I had this awful feeling that if he did ask Bri out that she would use it as an opportunity and not give him a fair chance. Billy did not deserve to be used like that. 

I ran my fingers through my damp hair and collected it into a ponytail, tying it with the band that I had kept around my wrist since letting my hair down before bed. I had this weird habit that whenever I was feeling stressed, needed to really concentrate on something or make a decision, I would always tie my hair up. Rory had always thought it was nuts. I had noticed from their instagram pictures that his girlfriend never really wore her hair up. I always called her that, his girlfriend because giving her a name would make her feel real, and maybe there was a part of me that didn’t want her to be real and still clung onto the idea that we were just on a break, exploring our careers and travelling only to come back together again, get married and have three kids and a dog. 

My parents had tried really hard to hide their devastation when I told them about the break up, telling me that there were plenty more fish in the sea and that the timing just wasn’t right for me to meet someone. They had then of course both reminisced about their university partners which had led to a row when my dad spoke about his university girlfriend Mandy a little bit too fondly. 

I stared down at my phone, deciding that I needed a distraction, and the best distraction was work. I logged out of my own instagram account and clicked on the first saved profile in my list. It was the player that I had been posting for the other day before Billy had his accident. I checked his recent posts and likes and nothing seemed to be out of place, except perhaps for the fact that it was around 3am and he was getting regular messages, the name Sam appearing on my screen once again.  By this point in my maddened, ex-stalking state I will admit that I was curious. I clicked the icon that took me to his inbox and began to read. 

They were conversing about his impending separation from his wife and about how they couldn’t wait to be together. I felt like throwing up in my mouth that one of the players that I worked with would behave like that, although I hadn’t really met this player in particular. His name was Jorginho and he was known as somewhat of a joker.  I kept out of his way for that very reason, not being a big fan of practical jokes and pranks.

I was about to close his inbox when another message came in.

What do we do about Ben?

I blinked and re-read the message several times. Ben? 

What on earth could Ben have to do with Jorginho cheating on his wife and leaving her for this woman, I wondered.

I clicked on her profile then and scrolled back through her pictures. She was a stunning brunette and her posts were mainly bikini pictures with the odd paid promotion thrown in here and there. I scrolled until a picture stopped me dead in my tracks. It was a picture of her with Ben, both smiling into the camera, their arms around each other and a caption that read ‘my everything’.

There were a few more pictures of them together and it was very evident that she had once been Ben’s girlfriend. At first I felt a bit numb, then I felt a pang of jealousy, and then I felt angry that she was conducting an affair with one of his team mates right under his nose and probably planning on lying to him about it.

I didn’t know what to do with this information.

He never has to know. I’m spending one more season here then my contract expires and we can go anywhere. 

I read his response, that confirmed what I feared. They were going to sneak around and hide this from Ben, probably until the divorce was finalised and then they would disappear off to another country and Ben would be left to read about it in the press. Unless i did something about it. 

 --------------------------------------------------------------

I had a meeting with Marina this morning. She commented that I seemed really distracted and I commented that I needed content other than Mason Mount to post onto social media. Marina had laughed and said that he was increasing our social media engagement and that we had new fans and shirt sales as a result of his appeal. I muttered something rude under my breath about what I thought about his appeal.

Marina and I had a really good working relationship and could banter with each other whilst still acting professionally and having a great deal of respect.

We had decided that I could capture my own content for our social media whenever I liked and would be provided with equipment such as a camera to enable me to. I had agreed to this to get me out of just posting Mason, but it did mean extra work for me, doubling up on the job of the club photographer and that I would need to spend more time outside on the pitches with the players, something I wasn’t sure I particularly fancied doing.

I hadn’t spoken to Ben since he kissed me, and now I felt even worse about it because I had been thinking about Rory, and had discovered that his ex and his team mate were sleeping together.

It was only the first of September, but I had started thinking about content for Halloween and maybe even thanks giving as we now had an American player at the club. 

I was just messing around with different shades of orange in photoshop when there was a knock on my office door. 

I got up from my desk slowly, silently praying that it wouldn’t be Ben because I couldn’t face him without blurting out the secret. 

Instead I had the displeasure of opening the door to find Mason Mount stood there.

“What do you want?” I sighed. 

“God you are sunshine and rainbows this morning. You look like you haven’t slept.” he said grinning. He was trying to make me laugh by jokingly insulting me and then cupped my face with his hands and started to stroke beneath my eyes with his thumbs. I was about to ask him what the bloody hell he was doing when he said “just smoothing out the wrinkles”. 

I shook him off and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Sorry.” he mumbled. 

I let him in then rather than the two of us just standing in the door way. He walked over to my desk and perched on the end exactly like Ben had done before he had kissed me. Except surely Mason wasn’t going to do that.

“What can I help you with?” I asked, trying my best to be polite to him. He had tried after all to make me laugh. It wasn’t his fault that I was so worried about everyone and everything else going on around here.

“I have a bit of a problem. My girlfriend is in this girl band and they are doing a music video next week that she wants me to be in so that they can get more views. The thing is, I’m not sure it really fits with my brand.” he explained, looking down at his shoes and the carpet, his eyes darting back up to me every few seconds while I considered a response. 

“Well footballers have been in music videos before without it affecting any of their sponsorship or brand deals.” I responded, thinking about the music video Fernando Torres had been in for a spanish band years ago. 

“Maybe it’s not my image i’m necessarily worried about. I feel a bit used but don’t know how to tell her.” as he spoke he looked vulnerable for the first time and the cheekiness was all gone. 

“So if I’m getting this right, they’re a band kind of breaking through and you being in the video would get them a lot of views and might get them really famous. Don’t you want your girlfriend to be successful?” as I asked him, he looked thoughtful, and then sad.

“I don’t really want to be with someone that now only wants me because I’m famous, and wants to leech fame from me.” he shrugged. 

I remembered the rant I had at him about how privileged he was for being rich and famous at such a young age, but I now started to consider that it must come with some drawbacks like not knowing if the people closest to you actually like you for who you are or if they want to use you for fame and fortune. 

“Well if you like, if they ask us for permission I will say no and that i need you for one of our campaigns whenever it is scheduled for and that it’s non negotiable because the club pays your wages.” He grinned and hopped off the edge of the desk. 

He made to step towards me but I held out my hand to stop him.

“No need to thank me.” 

He nodded and proceeded to head towards my office door. I stopped him just before he grabbed the handle by saying “Can I give you some advice? I don’ think that you should be with someone like that either.”

Without turning back to me, he sighed and responded “I don’t think that you should be with someone like Ben Chilwell”.

Before I could say anything else in response he opened the door and left

 ------------------------------------------------------

By lunchtime my brain was completely scrambled. I had busied myself with my idea for a thanksgiving tribute to Christian Pulisic the American player and planned special catering for the day to include a full turkey dinner in the canteen for him. That would of course give me the perfect opportunity for a post about how we are so thankful for him and want to make him feel at home. Marina would love it. 

I thought about hiding in my office until everyone returned to their jobs or their training and then going to the canteen, but I knew if I did that there would surely be no food left.

I was just loading my tray up with small items from the tapas menu when someone tapped me on the shoulder. Looking over it, I saw that it was Billy. His smile was 50-watt and could light up any room.

“Hey Billy, are you okay?” I asked him.

“Oh yes.” he nodded. “I’ve got a plan to ask ye friend out. Wanted to run it by you if you’re free?” 

I looked around and most of the tables were free so I agreed and said we could sit together and talk about it over lunch and that maybe Bri would join us if there wasn’t some kit emergency keeping her away. He smiled at that.

We sat down at a table by the window, a nice amount of sunshine came through it which warmed my back and the back of my neck nicely.

Billy went off immediately into explaining his plan to ask Bri out. He was going to have one of the lads accidentally rip his training shirt during the morning session so that he would have an excuse to go and see her.

“Hang on - tell me what day you’re planning this and I can distract her dad for a bit.” I interjected.

“Already got that covered sweetheart. He’s on a conference all of next week!” he grinned.

I looked puzzled and he laughed at the expression I was pulling. What kind of conference would a kit man need to go to? Were they brining out a new range or under armor or something like that?

“I know it sounds mad.” 

“It doesn’t just sound mad, it sounds like a good opportunity, go on.”I encouraged him.

He was going to fill one of the old unused offices with flowers and somehow convince Bri that she needed to follow him there so that he could ask her. It was so sweet and completely something that Bri would go for so I told him that his plan sounded brilliant and that I would help him in any way possible.

“I’m going to get her thinking about you in preparation you know.” I said, showing Billy a freshly edited picture of him on my phone screen that I was planning on posting that afternoon when I got back to my desk. “This beauty is going on all our social media pages. By the way, why did you never tell me that you used to model?”

He blushed bright scarlet when I brought up his modelling career and then we both descended into fits of laughter over it.

“You’re a really good friend, you know” he smiled. “If I can call you that.”

“Of course I’m your friend Billy.” I agreed.

“Well seeing as we are now best pals, do ye want to tell me what’s on your mind?” he asked.

I gulped, my mouth and throat suddenly feeling dry and uncomfortable. I couldn’t tell him what I had learnt about Jorginho, but maybe I could at least be honest about Rory.

“I had a really bad break up about a year ago and it’s still bothering me. Just you know, seeing other people happy and wondering what could have been.” I shrugged, trying to seem not fussed. I was bothered though and talking about it made the pain in my chest when I thought about him that little bit worse. I felt tears threatening to form.

Billy put his hand over mine and squeezed it.

“If you’re still following him or still friends on facebook, you need to delete him so that you can move on. Do you want me to do it for you?” he offered, holding his hand out to me for my phone.

Billy was right, I needed to let go of the part of me that still missed Rory, the part that felt jealous every time I saw what he was up to, and I could never get over that while it was accessible to me. 

I gave Billy my phone and told him Rory’s social media names even though he was the top person in all of my search history.

“Oh Katie, I’m sorry. It can’t have been nice to see him announce his engagement on here.” he said sympathetically.

It took a second for my brain and heart to catch up with each other and I felt sick to my stomach as I ask him to repeat himself.

I hadn’t heard him wrong and he showed me the post. I must have missed it by being so preoccupied with Ben’s situation. He had taken her to that fancy hotel in the Cotswolds to propose to her. Their grinning faces staring back at me from the picture didn’t feel like people I knew anymore.

“That’s that then. The end of that chapter of my life, officially.” I scraped my hair back and tied it up quickly.

“He’s gone from your virtual life too now.” Billy said, passing the phone back to me. 

“Thank you.” I said quietly. 

It’s hard to describe how you feel the second your hope for something shatters. The reality was that Rory was never going to realise that he had made a mistake and come back to me, because the reality was that we weren’t the same people we had been when we had first met at university and we had genuinely drifted apart. I could point the finger and blame him for possibly cheating, sure, but what good would that do me? Truth is we weren’t meant to be together and he hadn’t made a mistake. He had done the right thing to lead him to the person that he was supposed to be with. I just wished that I didn’t feel this way. I was sure that if I had moved on and met someone else my reaction would have been different. I might even have congratulated him. 

That evening I went home and cracked open a bottle of wine, and once I reached the bottom of it I cried myself to sleep.

#the thrill of the chase #mason mount #ben chilwell #ben chilwell fanfiction #mason mount fanfiction #football fanfiction

[storiesforallfandoms]

proud ~ cillian murphy

word count: 2015

request?: yes!

@shady80smusicsingercolor​ “The reader was always tried to get them proud,but nothing,one day the reader remembers their parents how they were never supportive or proud,the reader cried, cillian was passing by their dressing room,he stop cuz he heard the faithful tears,he came in,he ask what's wrong,and the reader explain how their parents never were proud of them but their siblings yeah,and ask him"what's wrong with me"and cillian reassures the reader nothing wrong with them but with their parents yeah,he told the reader he was Damm proud of them”

description: when you’re reminded of your rough childhood, your co-star is there to lift you up when you’re feeling down

pairing: cillian murphy x female!reader

warnings: swearing, angst

masterlist

You were in the middle of taking a picture of yourself in your costume when your phone buzzed. A notification at the top of the screen read that you had you were tagged in a post on Facebook, by your mum.

You cringed, immediately knowing what it would be.

A picture of your mum, dad, and sister sat around a table at a restaurant popped up on your screen. The caption for it read, “A special dinner for our beautiful daughter, who just scored another win on a case!” As per usual, she had tagged your dad, your sister, and you. Not because they wished you were there, but to remind you of your sister’s accomplishments and their pride in them.

Your parents made it very clear at a young age that your sister was the favourite child. They had a vision for the future of their kids, one that included a high paying job and eventually a family, and your sister was the one to follow this vision, in their eyes anyways.

Your sister was a straight A student all throughout her school years, and was accepted into law school with a full scholarship right out of high school. You, on the other hand, found yourself falling in love with acting. You were in drama club all through school and often starred in the school plays and musicals. When you graduated high school you were accepted into one of the biggest art schools, and of course you went.

Your parents were less than enthusiastic about your path, even after your acting career took off. They viewed acting as not being  a “real job” and often ridiculed you, comparing you to your sister or reminding you of your sister’s accomplishments at every opportunity.

You took a deep breath to calm yourself. You had to remind yourself that just because your parents weren’t proud of you didn’t mean you should be so hard on yourself. You had a successful career, you were happy as an actress. You weren’t going to let them bring you down.

You went to the family group chat to send a congratulatory message to your sister, one that your parents would see and realize they weren’t going to get to you this time.

“Congrats on your case win sis!”

Your sister responded a moment later, “Thanks sis! you're fantastic on Peaky Blinders! I can’t wait until the next season!”

The text gave you a brief moment of happiness. You and your sister never had bad blood. You both understood that you took your own paths and there was no reason to give in to your parents patronizing.

The happiness faded when another message came, this time from your mum, “Did your sister tell you she was seeing someone? It’s pretty serious, we might have our first son in law soon.”

You tossed your phone to the floor and buried your head in your hands. Of course they were going to start taking jabs at your love life now. Now that your sister had a serious boyfriend they had something else to belittle you about.

You were trying to hold back your tear when a knock came at your dressing room door. You sighed and swallowed the lump in your throat. “Come in!”

Your co-star, Cillian, opened the door. You looked at him through your vanity mirror. “We’re about to start filming soon, are you ready?”

You nodded. “Yeah, just give me a minute and I’ll be out.”

“Are you okay?”

Being asked if you were okay when you were on the verge of tears was always the worst question. You had to look down so Cillian didn’t see the tears forming in your eyes.

“I’m fine,” you replied. “Tell everyone I’ll be out soon.”

Cillian crossed the room to sit next to you. You kept looking down at the vanity’s desk.

“For an actress, you’re not the best at acting like you’re okay,” he teased, causing you to laugh. “What’s wrong? And don’t say it’s nothing because you know I’ll force you to tell me.”

You knew there was no use in lying. Cillian knew you better than most people, he’d know you weren’t telling the truth.

You picked up your phone and passed it to Cillian, allowing him to read the most recent messages. His eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. “I don’t get it, what does her love life have to do with either of your jobs? And why would your mum make a comment about him being a future son in law? Your sister even told her that she’s only been seeing the guy for six months.”

“Exactly!” you snapped. “It has nothing to do with the conversation, my mum just wants to tell me she has a new reason to ridicule me. I don’t have a real job, I haven’t had a serious relationship, I’m nowhere near having a kid or being married. But my sister, oh she’s the star child - a lawyer, has a boyfriend now, will probably give my parents their first grandchild.”

You buried your head in your hands again, finally allowing the tears to start flowing freely. You knew the makeup artist was going to be pissed, but you could care less at that moment. You couldn’t leave this frustration to build up while you were filming, it would just guarantee that you'd fuck up the scene and feel even worse.

Cillian took you into his arms, resting his head against yours as he ran a hand soothingly over your body.

“It’s alright,” he said. “It’s alright, let it all out.”

You felt comfortable in his arms, like it was the best place to be, and honestly, it was. Cillian was your closest friend on set of Peaky Blinders, probably your closest friend all together. There were many a times when he would hold you like this, whether it was a friendly hug, a scene on set, an idle gesture when the two of you were hanging out together. Being in Cillian’s arms was so soothing, it was exactly what you needed.

You finally pulled away and looked at yourself in the mirror. Luckily enough, since you were filming a show that was taking place in the early 1900s you didn’t have to wear too much makeup, mainly mascara and enough foundation that you didn’t look shiny on screen. The makeup artist on set had given you waterproof mascara, which again was lucky for you, but your foundation, however, was ruined from water streaks running down your cheeks.

You grabbed a makeup wipe from your vanity and began wiping the foundation from your face. You had foundation in your dressing room for moments like this, so that you could fix your makeup before scenes so no one would realize you were so upset.

“I get that they may not have viewed acting as a possible job back when I was in high school,” you said as you fixed your makeup, “but I’ve made an actual career from it. I’ve been in countless shows and movies, I’ve been nominated for awards and even won countless ones, and they can’t accept that. They can’t be proud of me for making a name for myself in my own way. They’ve never been proud of me. What’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing!” Cillian told you. “Nothing is wrong with you. You’re an absolutely amazing person, and you’re so talented and amazing. Just because you chose a different path from your sister and because you’re not following in their footsteps or the path that your parents wanted you to take doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with you. There’s something wrong with your parents, they’re the assholes here.”

You sighed and shook your head, putting the foundation away. “This thing with my sister having a boyfriend is what’s really gonna start getting to me, I already know that. Being an actress I don't really have the time for a relationship, and I haven’t found a genuine guy that I want to be with because so many Hollywood guys are fake assholes who want to date you for their own professional gain. By the time I find someone to be with, my sister will probably be engaged with a child along the way and my parents will never let me live that down.”

As you spoke, Cillian was listening intently, until you got to the end of your rant. That’s when he cupped your face in his hands and pulled you towards him, pressing his lips to you. The gesture shocked you at first and you almost jerked your head away, but, just like being in his arms, kissing Cillian just felt so right. You relaxed into the kiss, cupping his face as well to hold him close.

He pulled away after a brief moment, smiling at you as he did so. “Am I one of those asshole famous people do you think?”

You giggled. “Oh God no, you’re the nicest person I’ve ever met.”

“Well then, this nice person thinks you’re the most amazing person he has ever met, and that your parents couldn’t be more wrong in the way that they treat you. And this nice person wants to take you out on a date when we’re finished with filming today.”

You smiled brightly. “I would love to go out after filming today. But to do that, we should get to filming.”

Realization passed Cillian’s face. “Shit, you’re right. Let’s go.”

“I’ll be there in a minute,” you said as Cillian stood. “You go and tell them I’m sorry I’m late but it’s family issues.”

Cillian nodded, leaning down to kiss you once more, before leaving the room.

You took your phone in your hand and checked the family chat to see that the last message was from your sister, explaining to you that her and her boyfriend hadn’t even been together for long and chastising your mother for her message. You took a deep breath and began to type out one final text message.

“I’m really happy for your relationship, sis, and I’d love to meet him, but this is my final message in this groupchat. I’ll be leaving the chat and taking mom and dad off of Facebook. I also probably won’t even tell you guys when I’m visiting home since you’ve made it clear that you don’t even want to see me. I know that I haven’t conformed to your beliefs of “success”, but I love where I’ve gone in life and I’m happy with my career. I’ve been in countless TV shows and movies and I’ve won awards for those things. I love my job, and I wouldn’t change that for the world. As for my love life, if either of you ever cared enough to check in on me instead of flaunting (Y/S/N)’s accomplishments in my face you’d know that I too am seeing someone. Too bad you’ve officially burned all bridges and won’t be meeting him now, but what can you do? Feel free to call if you ever decide to be proud of your youngest daughter for where she is in life and not just for your oldest because she followed the life that you tried to force upon us (I love you sis, don’t take this as an insult)”

After hitting send, you left the chat and promptly blocked both of your parents on Facebook. You took a deep breath and sighed heavily. It felt like a weight had been taken off of your shoulders then.

You inspected your makeup in the mirror to make sure it looked fine before getting up and finally walking to set. The rest of your co-stars were gathered, waiting, when you finally arrived.

“Sorry I’m late,” you told them. “Family stuff. I’m ready to go if you guys are.”

Everyone started getting in place. As the camera was being set up, Cillian looked at you with a little concern on his face. “Everything alright?”

You smiled at him, suddenly feeling more confident than you ever had. “I feel great. Let’s kill this scene.”

#cillian murphy #cillian murphy imagine #cillian murphy x reader #peaky blinders #imagine #one shot #request

[xspaceprincess]

If you don’t mind the ask, what exactly happened with your ex?~

I’ve been following you for a long time and I’ve seen your previous posts + hints about what happened in the end. I think I’m going through something similar and I’m just looking for hope that it gets easier! <3~

Ah, i never get on here anymore except to vent so I totally missed this!! So sorry, love! (And oh gosh, I’m sorry you’ve had to be subjected to my rantings and ravings for so long lol 😂).

I’m sorry that you’re possibly going through something similar because honestly, it was the absolute worst. My ex boyfriend was not very emotional in our relationship. In fact, he can’t feel empathy, so that always made things a little hard. Honestly, there were a bunch of issues leading up to the main cause. Lots of little things that broke me down and wore me out (such as he refused to wish me a happy birthday or what seemed like silly little things like that).

Last year, he started spending more and more time on discord. He started ignoring me. Eventually, it came to a breaking point where I told him flat out that how I felt. He apologized and said he would spend more time with me and was sorry I had felt that way. Spoiler alert, it didn’t get better. While he “spent time” with me, he was ALWAYS on his phone. I mean, constantly. I was starting to break mentally again. And then… I got pregnant and decided on having an abortion because neither of us wanted to have kids and we weren’t ready for that anyway. And things were even harder. He wasn’t there for me when I needed him the most. He was on discord, chatting up this girl all the time. He would talk to her well into the night (like, five am and keeping me up all night doing so). And he claimed it was because he was in a bad place mentally and his friends made him feel better. Well, if that wasn’t a sucker punch to my already wounded emotions. Because I did love him. I loved him a lot.

Well, he went on vacation to meet this friend and her brother. Was going to stay the week there. He broke up with me while he was there (and spoiler alert, they got together and their “get together” date on Facebook is two days before we broke up 🙃). I don’t think he really physically cheated on me, but he 110% emotionally cheated on me. And not just with her, but with other women. And I’m petty and wonder if she knows he was still thinking of getting back together with me the week he had come back 🤔

In any case, I had brushed a lot of my feelings under the rug because I didn’t want to be the kind of girlfriend who got jealous or who clung to hard or who did anything of that sort. I shouldn’t have done that. I should have put my own feelings first. It would have saved me a world of trouble.

I don’t know exactly what you’re going through, but if you think you’re seeing red flags, please don’t brush them off. Oftentimes, your gut is right. If you think you should leave, do it. For me, I didn’t leave even though I had thought of it a few times in our almost four years together because I didn’t think anyone would love me like he did. But guess what? Someone does. Actually, scratch that, they treat me a hell of a lot better than he ever did. He treats the people around me a lot better than my ex ever did. My ex drove me from the people I loved because none of them wanted to be around him. Because he was an asshole. There is hope. It gets better. And yeah, sometimes you have to go through hell first. Doesn’t mean we have to appreciate the experience or anything tho.

When I was worried he was going to break up with me before he did, I had commented my worries on a Patreon post of my idol (who had asked how everyone was doing) and she responded, ending her post with “Let the boyfriend go if you gotta. and remember that everything changes.” So, I pass those words along to you. Everything changes, but sometimes, it’s for the better.

Also, I’ll try and keep an eye out here. So if you need anyone to talk to, please reach out.

Just know, I see you, anon. I send my love to you for whatever your situation is. Good luck! You got this!

xoxo Alix

[questionthebox]

Although I’ve processed out of most of my masochistic inclinations

Because I feel alone and hopeless at times

Like last week I spent basically 3 hundred dollars

On DoorDash and buying candles and cleaning products for my house,

Last week, or for two weeks I would buy DoorDash everyday because of a latent masochism

That is due to loneliness and feeling hopeless

Buying myself and others breakfast

Or lunch or dinner,

Buying boba teas or Gatorade from 7-11

The lingering hatred I’m trying to expunge from myself

Is the fact I’m alone, I have no one to guide or help me,

And I don’t mean this in a sappy loser Incel way

I’m talking about how none of the people or mechanisms out here and what I have work,

So when those Mormons came to my house last week I legitimately thought about joining just to have some people to lean on, and receive help from.

But help is conditional. No one can help me or anyone for one, and that mentally blows and that’s what makes me write violent and hateful poetry and rants on this blog, that’s what feeds the anger,

Because not only can’t people help you, for one they don’t have any money either, and 2 they will not understand what your saying or going through,

But if help is offered it’s on conditions,

Those Mormons will help me only if I believe their make believe bullshit

College only works if your an asexual pussy,

But I have to go back to college,

But when I go back, I’m going in as a

Heterosexual Grown Man,

And that isn’t me being reactionary

What I’m saying is, the more you go in higher education the more you experience people who are amorphous asexual bland people who conform and who submit themselves,

I can’t be that, I’m intimate, I’m straight, I like women, and I’m funny,

I’m not going to exist in these boxes life throws at you,

FUCK why didn’t I get with and marry Lindsay when I was 22 !

Why the fuck did I have to be so crazy and full of mental health issues at that time,

Not marrying her is the fucking mistake of these past 7 years,

Because if I would’ve married her,

We would now have our own place, with friends

We’d be a hip interracial alternative couple

And I fucking blew it because I was unhealthy and crazy as fuck

In 2017 or 18 ? When I was on campus I hit her up on Facebook with an apology,

She gave it a heart, then responded back with a fuck off im married now,

Then around 2019 she hit me up on Instagram

But didn’t say a word, it was just weird symbols like :.’

And my sister said that was her way of telling me I blew it and I just blew it, I fucking blew it

And it’s unnerving because I’m 29 fucking years old,

Where the fuck is my life going ?

Unlike friends and peers who wanna deny this shit

I can’t deny it anymore

I’m 29 years old and I’m single

I don’t know where my life is going

And life is HARD it’s tasking and humiliating

My ex girlfriend Chelsea who I dated in the last few years

A photographer just like me, is now doing Nursing

She was defeated by her material circumstances

My last steady girlfriend Julia,

Who I wish I could reconnect with

Was adamant to me that her career came first

She’s an anthropologist,

Where am I going in this shit

Because I’m suicidal,

Not suicidal as in actually dying

I’m talking about I’m scared I’ll just be

An anonymous 35 year old man

Who’s a fucking failure

Talking to bitches online,

I don’t fucking want that

And that shit right there makes me wanna go

Get a fucking Gun,

And if it comes to that

Where a man must survive by being a legitimate

Criminal

In these late Capitalism Hellscape years

So be it

And I’ll tell you this

In terms of becoming a criminal

There’s no compassion in me at that point

It’s all hate towards this world

This world that leaves you stranded

That left my entire fucking generation stranded

POETS DIARY

#poets on tumblr #diary #personal diary #writers of tumblr #existential questions #existential nihilism

[hoseokutie]

Best Friends Baby 10

Previous Parts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

Words: 3.7K

Warnings: Angst, Namjoon confessing his feelings, minor swearing, Namjoon crying, reader crying. 

                                                ******************** 

After you and Namjoon’s encounter, seeing each other tonight was all both of you had on your minds. When your lunch break was over you went back to work until your shift was over. 

You anxiously made your way home and rehearsed what you wanted to tell Namjoon.

“So, how have things been going for you and her? No that sounds way too damn hostile.” You pretended to ask, rolling your eyes as you came to a stoplight.

“How about... so why exactly did you avoid me for weeks?” You groaned loudly and rested your head in your hands. 

“What do you think I should say, grapefruit?” You looked down at your growing stomach and smiled at the nickname.

Jimin gave you the idea for the nickname because your stomach was the size of a grapefruit. You smiled at the thought of Jimin and rubbed your stomach.

An aggressive horn from behind you pulled you out of your mini daydream, you jumped in your seat and continued driving again.

You finally pulled into your driveway, cursing at yourself when you looked at the clock and saw that you had returned home later than you planned. You stopped by the gas station and grabbed some snacks and a large sugary drink. 

Your blood sugar was going to rise, but to be fair your hormones overpowered most of your decision making. 

You grabbed your items and quickly shuffled into the house and got settled in, you walked to your bathroom, and started running the water to take a shower. You pulled off your scrubs and exhaled as your body relaxed. 

You stepped into the shower and let out a relaxed sigh as the hot water fell down your body, you grabbed your body wash and started scrubbing off the remnants of the day off of your body.

You looked at yourself in the mirror and smiled at your appearance, you pulled your shirt down over your stomach and rubbed the prominent bump happily. 

You checked your phone when it chimed and alerted you that you had received a text message. It was from Namjoon and he was letting you know that he had just pulled into your driveway. 

Your nerves returned to your body and you could feel your palms become sweaty. 

“We can get through this, we absolutely will get through this” You said to yourself as you looked in your mirror.

You made your way to the front door and opened it up, you smiled as Namjoon walked towards you. You raised an eyebrow in confusion when you saw him carrying two large bags in his hands.

“Do you need help?” You asked, ready to take one of the bags he was carrying.

“Nope, you do not need to be lifting heavy items so don’t.” He responded, walking into the house and placing the bags down in the living room.

You closed the front door after he entered the house and locked it, you followed him into your living room and sat down on the couch. 

You looked at Namjoon in curiosity as he stood in the middle of your living room looking down awkwardly.

“Would you like to have a seat?” You asked, smiling as he nodded his head in response.

“Yeah, sorry. I don’t know why I was just standing there. I’m just a bit anxious I guess.” He sat down next to you on the couch and fidgeted with his hands.

A few seconds of awkward silence passed since neither of you knew what you wanted to say, let alone start a conversation. 

“It’s funny, when we used to talk daily, we always had something to talk about and now we barely know how to even start a conversation.” Namjoon chuckled and you gave him a small smile and a nod.

“You are correct about that Mr. Kim. Wait speaking of that, how is teaching at the new university going?” You asked, trying to start a conversation. 

“It’s going well actually. Wait a minute, how did you know I switched schools?” He asked.

“Your mom posted about it on her Facebook, she even asked if I wanted to stop by and bring you lunch or something.” You replied and he nodded in understanding.

“That wouldn’t be such a terrible thing to do though.” He pointed out and you shrugged your shoulders.

“Yeah I suppose, but that would also be strange. Imagine being a student and seeing your teachers girlfriend and pregnant best friend in the same week.” You shook your head at the idea.

Namjoon frowned at your words and let his hands rest in his lap as he looked down at the carpet. You looked over at Namjoon and sighed out, realizing how harsh your words may have sounded.

“Look, I didn’t mean for it to sound so bad. I just don’t think it’s best if I were to come around your students, with the possibility of Naomi being around as well.” You explained.

“You meant what you said and that’s fine. You can feel how you want to feel.” He said and you rolled your eyes.

“Okay now I know you’re upset.” You stood up from your spot on the couch and made your way to the kitchen.

“Not once in my statement did I say I was mad, did I?” He stood up and followed you into the kitchen.

“You didn’t have to, your tone of voice said it all.” You grabbed a bottle of water and took a few sips.

Namjoon pressed his tongue against his cheek and chuckled sarcastically while throwing his head back. 

Everything in you wanted to be mad at him, but it was the small things like him throwing his head back that made you forget why you were upset, to begin with. 

“What happened to us?” 

When the question left his mouth the silence between the two of you seemed to have intensified. The tension was so strong that someone could cut it with a knife, you always feared that something like this would happen one day. 

All you could do was stare at Namjoon, trying not to avoid eye contact with him. But when Namjoon was upset about something, the look in his eyes made sure that you knew how he truly felt. 

“We promised that we wouldn’t let anything change us, and now look at how everything is. This fucking sucks, I miss the way things used to be, before all of this shit hit the fan.” His voice lowered towards the end of his mini-rant, he sat down on the stool in the kitchen. 

“I got pregnant.” You answered silently.

Namjoon’s face softened at your answer and slowly made his way over to you. You closed your eyes and regained your composure before walking over to where he was standing. You let your hands rest on his arms and looked up at him.

“I don’t regret getting pregnant by you, I’m glad it was you of all people, but I also wish that we handled things a lot better. We can barely have a conversation without something going wrong. I hate that.” 

Namjoon gently pulled you into his arms and held you close to him, you wrapped your arms around his waist, squeezing a bit more when you heard sniffles coming from his mouth.

“Namjoon-” You started.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for hurting you, I’m sorry for putting you through all of this. I never meant to hurt you.” Namjoon looked down at you and held your face in his hands.

“I know, I know. It isn’t your fault, please don’t beat yourself up about this. You’re here now and that’s what matters.” You smiled up at him and he returned the gesture.

You closed your eyes at the feeling of his thumb rubbing small circles on your cheeks, you leaned into his touch and your hand’s trailed over up his arms and towards his hands. 

You placed your hands over his and opened your eyes to see him staring down at you.

Your eyes made their way over his lips and you imagined what they would feel like against your own.

“I want to feel your lips against mine.” Namjoon whispered as he continued to rub your cheek with his thumb.

You closed your eyes and sighed sadly, kissing his thumb before moving away from his embrace.

“Namjoon we can’t. This is wrong, you’re with Naomi and I’m seeing someone.” You wiped the few tears from your face and made your way  into the living room again.

“Wait, you’re seeing someone?” Namjoon asked.

You bit your lip nervously and looked up at him, slowly nodding your head as a reply. He slowly sat down next to you and cleared his throat.

“Can I, do I know who it is?” He asked.

You looked over at him and simply nodded in response, fiddling with your fingers to avoid eye contact with him.

“Well uh, I’m happy for you. I really am, you deserve happiness.” He smiled at you and patted your hand.

You grinned at the gesture and leaned over to hug him, this time it was innocent and you felt at ease with the fact that a small part of your truth was out.

“So who is this lucky man of yours?” Your eyes widened as you continued hugging him before you pulled away to clear your throat.

“Well he uh, I want it to be a surprise.” You mentally cursed at yourself for not having an answer sooner.

Namjoon raised an eyebrow at your response and smirked, shaking his head in protest.

“No way, you just don’t want to tell me. You hate keeping secrets. Come on just tell me, it’s not like it’s one of the guys is it?” He laughed at his question and you chuckled nervously. 

“Yeah no of course not.” You shifted your body the opposite way and stared at the wall in front of you.

“Wait a minute, is it actually one of the boys?” He sat up and looked at you, his face held a serious expression. 

You turned to face him and let out an exhausted sigh nodding your head, answering his burning question.

“Well who the hell is it?” His voice raised an octave and you pressed your tongue to the side of your cheek.

“It’s Jimin.” You mumbled, trying to avoid eye contact and talking to him. 

Namjoon sat on your couch in shock, a low chuckle left his mouth and he stood up from his spot on the couch quickly.

You followed behind him and held onto your stomach to help your balance. You grabbed his wrist to keep him in place and he snatched his arm back from you.   

“Namjoon wait a minute! I know it’s sudden and you guys are close but I’m not doing this to spite you! You don’t get to act like this, you can’t shut me out again!” You exclaimed and he stopped in his tracks.

He turned around slowly before walking over to you, he was so close that you were nearly backed into the couch.

“Namjoon…” You whispered, your voice shook as you two stood closer together.

He glared at you and you forced yourself to meet his eyes, you wish you didn’t. Looking into his eyes you didn’t see the man you could call your best friend. You saw someone who was hurt and felt betrayed by not one, but both of his best friends. 

“I’m sorry.” You whispered sadly, now you were the one with your hand pressed onto his cheek.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you.” You explained and he looked down while chuckling sadly, wiping his face in the process. 

“I’m not going to stop you from being happy, that’s not my place.” He finally spoke after what felt like the longest silence you could ever experience. 

“Joon-” 

“I just wish that I was the one making you happy.” He confessed, your eyes softened when he turned around and walked to the front door.

“Namjoon please! Don’t leave like this, we were supposed to fix our relationship.” You walked after him and held his hand again, wrapping your arms around his waist.

He stood by the door and reluctantly wrapped his arms around you, basking in the feeling of having you in his arms, where he felt that you truly belonged. 

He pulled back a bit and held your cheeks in his hand, a small smile appearing on his face as he saw just how beautiful you looked, even when you’re crying. 

“I love you Y/N, and I’m always going to love you. Whether it’s platonic or romantic, my love for you will never die, but we can’t keep chasing after each other like this. It’s wrong and not fair to everyone else. I’m always gonna be here for you and the baby no matter what. Trust and believe that, you are always going to have me.” You sniffled more and more as each word left his mouth.

Pulling away from his embrace, you wiped your face and cleared your throat. You smile sadly and finally take a step back from him, it was time for you to let him go.

“I love you Namjoon.” You said and your heart warmed up when a smile appeared on his face.

“I’ll see you soon, this isn’t the last time we’ll talk. I mean it.” He slid his shoes back on and you nodded quickly. 

“You better text me when you get home. I mean it.” You playfully pointed a finger at him and he laughed.

“Yes ma’am I will. You let me know if our angel has any sudden changes or movements.” He crouched down and kissed your covered stomach.

“Be good for mommy.” He left one more kiss on your stomach before he stood up, groaning as his body relaxed.

“Old ass.” You playfully mumbled and he pouted cutely. 

“You aren’t getting any younger either” He crossed his arms and smirked looking down at you.

“You’re lucky I’m pregnant.” You gently hit his arm and roll your eyes.

“Are you hungry? I don't want you to be on the road hungry. You make bad decisions and complain when your stomach is on fire the next day ” You grabbed your phone and began scrolling through your apps looking for food delivery.

“I always am, is that even a question?” He took your phone from your hands and threw himself on the couch.

“Well that wasn’t very nice.” You sat at the end of the couch and moved his feet so that you could sit comfortably.

“It be like that sometimes.” He shrugged and you pinched his legs,

“You’re the worst.” 

                                                 **************** 

After your meal, you and Namjoon sat in the kitchen and finally caught up. You wiped your mouth with a napkin and shook your head as he told you another crazy story from work.

“I’m trying to tell you, students will do what they can for a good grade. And you are attractive so it makes sense.” You sipped your glass of water and Namjoon shuddered at your comment. 

“Yeah I refuse to go to jail simply because a student wants to pass the class, no thank you.” He put more food in his mouth.

The sound of your doorbell ringing caused both you and Namjoon’s heads to shoot up.

“Do you have more food coming?” He asked and you stood up from your seat.

“No, do you?” You questioned, walking to the front door slowly.

You used your toes to see who it was through the peephole, an eyebrow raised in confusion when you saw Jimin on the other side. 

“Who is it?” He stood up and walked over, standing behind you.

“Nobody, go away.” You tried to push him back to his seat, he gently moved you to the side and opened the door. 

Jimin and Namjoon froze as they locked eyes with one another, Jimin nervously ran a hand through his black hair and Namjoon cleared his throat.

“Jimin, hey.” Namjoon spoke first, you felt as though the room had suddenly gotten smaller as the awkwardness rose. 

“Hey! I was uh, I just dropped Jungkook off and decided to check on Vanessa. See how she’s feeling and if she liked the food from earlier today.” Jimin was punching the air in his head at how shitty of an excuse that was.

“You wanted to drive over here and get her answer in person?” Namjoon leaned against the door.

“Alright that’s enough.” You successfully moved Namjoon from the front door and pulled Jimin inside. 

“Jimin, Namjoon knows about us, we can stop pretending now, please.” You told him quickly and pressed a hand to your forehead after barely breathing through that sentence.

“O-oh.” He stuttered lowly and looked over at the older man who hadn’t stopped staring at him since he walked into your living room. 

“Namjoon, I’m sorry you had to find out like that. I should’ve been honest and told you how I was feeling from the beginning. I can totally understand if you want to never speak to me again or want to punch me in the face.” Jimin told him and Namjoon’s eyes widened. 

“Jimin what! No, I am not going to punch you. Am I upset? Of course I am, but I also can’t be mad.” Namjoon shrugged and sat back down on the stool.

Jimin looked over at you and you looked back at him, shrugging in confusion. You walked into the kitchen and sat back on your chair across from Namjoon.

Jimin followed and wrapped an arm around your shoulder, Namjoon looked at the two people in front of him and watched as the two of them interacted.

“You two are cute.” He blurted out, you and Jimin stopped giggling and pulled  away from one another.

“Namjoon, you don’t have to pretend, you can be real with us. If it makes you uncomfortable we will stop.” You told him and he waved you off. 

“No I mean it, I can see how happy he makes you and that's all I could ask for.” He confessed and you smiled.

You moved from Jimin’s embrace and walked over to Namjoon, hugging him as he sat in the chair. He returned the favor and rubbed his hand up and down your back before pulling away.

“I do need to get going quite soon, but before I forget, I got you something.” He stood up and grabbed those two bags that he came with earlier.

“Oh lord, more gifts I see.” You smiled and placed a hand on your stomach as he set the bags on the kitchen island. 

“First, I got you some stretch mark cream, Your mom recommended it, so I bought it. I got some chewable heartburn tablets, also recommended  by your mom.” He handed you the small containers and you sat them on the counter.

“Namjoon, you didn’t have to do all of this.” You smiled as he handed you a box of herbal teas as well.

“Since you can’t have coffee and sodas anymore I got the next best thing, and it makes you sleepy when you’re tired and is safe for the baby.” He said proudly. 

“And then I got a journal for you to track everything, a water bottle so you can watch your intake, and a teddy bear. You can use it whenever you need a cuddle or something.” He emptied the bag and you and Jimin stared at the island in awe. 

“Namjoon thank you so much for all of this, I love everything. I really do.” You moved down from your spot and hugged your best friend tightly.

Jimin watched as you two hugged and felt at ease that his best friends were talking again. 

“I’m glad, I’m gonna head out now but if you need anything do not hesitate to call me. No matter what time it is, just let me know and I’ll be on my way.” He kissed you on your forehead before he gave Jimin a quick hug. 

“Goodnight Namjoon.” Jimin said, patting his best friend on the back. Namjoon did the same before he pulled away and began walking to the front door.

“‘I’ll see you in a few weeks for her next appointment.” You told him, holding the front door open for him.

“You definitely will, and I’m gonna try to see you before that.” He leaned on the door and looked down at you.

“Sounds like a plan, until next time my friend.” You stood up fully and he followed your actions nodding his head.

“Until next time, tiny human.” He did a fake salute, and walked in the direction of his car.

You watched him walk to his car and stood outside until he drove off and he was no longer within your sight.

You closed the front door and locked it, Jimin opened a box of tea and started making it the way you liked.

“So how was it before I got here?” He asked, waiting for the water on the stove to boil.

Flashbacks from your emotional conversation appeared in your mind and you blinked them away, not wanting to be reminded of earlier.

“It was alright, we cried a little, but we finally figured things out. And he knows about you and I so I say there’s some progress.” You walked up to him and he wrapped his arms around you securely.

“I guess that is a great thing, now it’s time to tell everyone else about our situation.” He looked down at you and you groaned at the thought of telling more people.

“Baby steps Jimin, baby steps.” 

#bts #bts series #bts reactions #bts smut #bts scenarios #bts rm #bts namjoon #bts namjoon scenario #bts namjoon imagine #bts imagine #bts imagines #RM #rm scenarios #namjoon #namjoon smut #namjoon scenario #kim namjoon #bts kim namjoon

[theartofimaginaryfriends]

Chapter 7 - Movie Night

Fic series: The Final Straw (HP/PJO Crossover Fic)

Premise: Weekly movie night is kicked off with a classic: Mean Girls.

Masterlist

Taglist: @ilvermornymascot, @lukecastellandeservedbetter, @eva-blog-p

word count: 1,343

A/N: We're back to posting at weird hours of the night! It's currently nearly 2AM and that's on having to rewatch Mean Girls for this and ALSO doing that at a weird hour. My staying up throuh the night thing is going to bite me in the ass on Tuesday where I'll likely sleep through the whole day and then deal with around 50 happy birthday facebook messages from family I never talk to. Which, by the way, I'm 20??? On Tuesday??? What??? On that note, I hope y'all enjoy the chapter XD

By Friday evening, the fighting had subsided enough that Nova wasn't meditating every five minutes, and she didn't feel as tired by the end of History of Magic. For once, she didn't feel the need to nap while the Professor droned on about the Salem Witch Trials. Besides, the amusement she got watching her Ilvermorny peers' jaws drop as Hermione raised her hand after every question was enough entertainment to keep the class interesting. She wasn't surprised to see her friend had done research on North American history.  

The only thing on her mind at the moment was the movie night. Instead of the usual downtime spent in the Pukwudgie common room, she was in The Great Hall organizing the space and setting up the seating areas. "Are you sure this is going to work?" 

"Lucas, for the millionth time this week, yes," Nova answered her friend, exasperated.  

"If we can do this on a laptop, we can easily utilize the projector," Cree added, looking up from the muggle technology. "And no I'm still not going to tell you how we managed to get this here."  

Lucas rolled his eyes and proceeded to help with the set up by moving the tables to the sides of the room. The three students fell silent as they did their tasks, and listened to the music playing on Cree's laptop through the aux cord. "This is looking great!" 

"Thanks, Professor!" Nova smiled at the Headmaster as he admired their handy work.  

"Have you picked out the movie, yet?" 

"Mean Girls," Cree held up the DVD. "It's a classic." 

"Ah, yes," Tahamente chuckled and made his way to the podium. "I hear students reference that film often." 

Soon after the set-up was fully finished, the student body began to pile in. Percy, Harry, Ron, and Hermione joined Nova in the section she claimed. "Should we be concerned about monsters?" 

"Annabeth didn't tell you?" Nova questioned. She explained how technology actually worked within both the wizard and demigod worlds. Her friends all looked at her like she was insane, especially Hermione who was insistent on arguing.  

"But in Hogwarts: A History, it's stated that it goes haywire around magic!" She went off on a tangent about the experiments that wizards have done to test the theory.  

"How often does this happen?" Percy leaned over and whispered to Harry and Ron.  

"All the time," Ron answered. "It's hard to get her to stop."  

"Almost impossible, really," Harry added.  

Hermione ignored her friends and continued on the rant as students continued finding spots with their friends. Once everyone was settled, the Headmaster addressed the school. "As you may have seen on the bulletin boards in your common rooms, tonight will be a bit different than usual."

"A bit?" Nova heard from a student nearby.  

"To help us all get used to each other's company, our Head Boy and Girl organized a no-Maj movie night," he explained. "In a moment, pizza and snacks will appear on the tables and everyone will be free to grab their dinner." 

The student began to whisper amongst themselves, most sounding excited. Nova glanced over at Draco, who had a bewildered look on his face. "What the hell is a movie?" 

"It's like the magical portraits, except there's a plot," Nova explained.  

"What?" 

"Draco, don't worry about it," Harry said, quickly. "You'll find out soon enough."  

"Until then, I have an announcement to make." Nova's attention was brought away from Harry and Draco, and back to the Headmaster as he continued his speech. "Professor McGonagall, Professor Chiron, and I have decided to host a championship." 

"If this is anything like-" Harry whispered to himself.  

"It will be modelled after the legendary Triwizard Tournament," Tahamente hushed the crowd again as the students continued talking amongst each other. Harry and Nova shared looks of disdain. "We have decided to name it The Chimera Games. The rules are simple: twenty teams of two, and it must consist of one wizard and one demigod. There will be no age restriction for the competitors." 

"Is that safe?" Hermione seemed worried.  

"No, but neither is the life of a demigod," Annabeth said. "A tournament is nothing to us." 

"To enter, you will write your name onto a slip of paper, and drop it into the Fountain of Fate." The murmurs started up again, much to the headmaster's dismay. "When it is time for the choosing ceremony, the fountain will reveal two names for each team. The fountain will be in the Entrance Hall tomorrow morning, and everyone will be free to enter until dinner on Sunday. Once the teams have been chosen, I will give out further information. For now, please enjoy tonight's festivities."  

Nova attempted to mask her worry, not wanting to talk about what had happened in fourth year. Harry shifted so he sat next to her. "Did you know about this?" 

"I had no idea," Nova shook her head. "Do you also have a bad feeling about this?" 

"I have a feeling that if I don't willingly enter my own name, someone will do it for me," he scowled.  

"I'm sorry, Harry." 

"You have nothing to apologize for." Harry gave his friend a small smile and squeezed her shoulder. "We'll talk about this tomorrow, now is not a good time." 

"Okay," Nova agreed and smiled back. As worried as she was about the prospect of a tournament, Harry was right. The movie nights were meant to be fun. Dwelling on the news wouldn't benefit anyone.  

"Are you okay, Nova?" Cree asked, taking a seat next to her.  

"Yeah," she nodded, taking a plate he held out to her. "Just zoned out."

"You better not do that during the movie," he joked. "I'm not about to quote it on my own." 

"I would never do that to you," Nova feigned offence. The movie began playing when everyone was settled back in their seats. The two tried to be as quiet as possible as they talked through it, failing at their favourite scenes.   

The Head Girl was mostly entertained by Malfoy watching the movie, and Harry quietly explaining to him that shouting at it would do no good since they don't respond. "That makes no sense." 

"A movie is pre-recorded," Harry couldn't contain his grin, clearly enjoying Draco be clueless for once. "Which means the characters on screen are played by actors, and they can't hear or talk to you." 

"But, how?"  

"We might want to save the full explanation for later, boys," Nova teased.  

"Says the one saying almost every line," Harry shot back, good-naturedly.  

"That's different!" Cree and Nova chorused.  

"Do the two of you ever shut up?" One of Lou Ellen's friends, Macie, glared at them.  

"No, they don't," Lou Ellen answered her friend and winked at her sister.  

Over the course of the movie, the group teased Draco as he kept yelling at the screen and expected a response. Cree and Nova noticed other students quoting the movie as well, making the experience more fun. Movie Night seemed to work in bringing everyone together. Even the wizards that had just been introduced to a movie were enjoying themselves.  

"All I'm saying is Cady giving out the crown is unrealistic!" Malfoy ranted as they walked to the campfire. "I mean, you can't just break it in half, that's not how royalty works!" 

"How would you know?" 

"Do you really think that breaking a crown into pieces and handing it to others is going to make them royalty?" He continued. "No! Because that wasn't accurate."  

"Why do I have a feeling he's got his own throne at home?" Percy whispered to Nova.  

"That wouldn't surprise me." Nova laughed.  

When they arrived at the fire, Nova noticed the whole school was there. It was quite the change from the small groups they've had all week. The flames glowed a bright gold as the Apollo cabin led the activity. The witch enjoyed the moment while it lasted, knowing very well that the fighting would start again the next morning.

#harry potter #percy jackson #pjo #harry potter/percy jackson crossover fic #harry potter/percy jackson crossover

[mysterious-foxes]

TW: Death, Drugs, Emotional manipulation/gaslighting

I don’t want to go back and edit anything, but this took way longer than I thought it would while trying to write it out. This is for documentation purposes and some entertainment if you want to hear about a psychotic woman that came into my life. Here ya go:

Okay, now that I’m home, I’ve eaten, given both dogs love (and bf took them on a walk), and I have New Girl on in the background, I’m ready to write out this crazy rant. Feel free to skip if you don’t want to read this LONG story or for whatever other reason you wouldn’t want to read it. I’ll add a ‘read more’ so that this doesn’t take up everyone’s timeline. I will say this though, if someone had told me this was going to happen a year ago, I never would have believed them, but everything I’m writing is 100% true.

If you are here to read my crazy rant about this fucking insane lady, welcome! I hope you find this as funny/interesting as I am currently. This is also a very emotional subject for me so while I might be thinking it’s funny now before I write it, I may go through a range of emotions while writing this. Such as anger, sadness, bewilderment, confusion, etc. 

A little bit of a background. I am the youngest of 6 kids. I have 2 sisters and 3 brothers. I’m going to give them all code names using the color of the rainbow. Oldest to youngest is Red (f), Orange (f), Yellow (m), Green (m), Blue (m). Red and all 3 brothers are married (Yellow has been with her girlfriend for 3+ years).  Blue only just got married a couple of months ago. I have 4 nephews (2 from Yellow and his wife, 2 from Green and his wife) and 2 nieces (both from Red and her husband). My mom and dad were married for over 30 years. They would never show much (if any) form of PDA in front of us kids and I never once saw them fight. My dad has always been quiet and never talked much. And he never really built a good relationship with us kids, especially those of us who have left the religion he believes in which is 4 1/2 out of 6 (I’m still unsure of Blue’s complete views and I don’t think he even knows. I wouldn’t be surprised if him and his wife left the religion within the next few years, even if it’s just secretly). My mom passed away a year and just a few days ago (on Green’s birthday). I miss her more than anything.

A little about my mom (again, for background). She was a great lady. She was also religious. She was extremely involved in the community, her church community, volunteered a ton (served on the local softball board for 17 years and did anything and everything for my high school’s theatre even after I was gone). She put everyone ahead of herself (especially us kids). She also pushed through any pain she had. About 2 years ago, she realized she was really sick and needed help. Doctors could not figure out for the life of them what was wrong with her. They took out her gall bladder. They put her on diets. I honestly don’t even know what else. About 6 months later, they found the problem and delivered the news. She had pancreatic cancer and it was severe. They gave her 6 months to live. We made the most of those 6 months. I was going out to my family’s a lot more than I had in a while. Red flew out and stayed for a few months. All of my siblings were there when she passed. Oof, I got a lot more into that than I meant to, but I feel like it gives a pretty good background about her. I told you this would be long.

Okay, so now we’re to where I can start talking about this insane lady. So for obvious reasons, my dad was very lonely. In May, my dad gives me a call and tells me he’s been talking to a woman (we’ll call her Ethel). Well, it felt soon, but I was happy my dad was finding comfort. He met her (get this) on an LDS widow and widowers facebook page. She lived in Oregon and he was going out to meet her in person and spend time with her for a week or 2. Awesome! Way to go Dad! Live your best life and make yourself happy!

He comes back and we start talking about when she’ll come to visit. Well Ethel has a sister (who lives in a city about an hour from my dad’s house) needs to have heart surgery Ethel needs to watch her cat. So Ethel comes to Utah and stays at my dad’s house for a couple of days. A few of us kids go out and have dinner with them to meet her. I was the first one there. Upon first meeting her, she talked, A LOT. She talked the majority of the time. It didn’t take long to realize that she had something to say about EVERYTHING and she seemed like she though she was the expert in EVERYTHING. For example one of the most recent times I talked to her, she was talking to me about the theatre I work at (which is a $31 billion theatre, super high tech and honestly they do pretty well). When I mean she was talking to me, I mean SHE was talking (she doesn’t let other people talk very much if at all. Only for “I’m sorry, that must be hard” or “I agree with you”). Well, she hasn’t been to the theatre I work at, but she’s been to their location in another nearby city which puts on a lot smaller productions and doesn’t have even 1/10th the amount of tech. They don’t put on nearly as good of productions. Well, Ethel tells me, “I’ve never been to a Broadway show, but I think that they’re as good as Broadway.” Like what?! HAHAHAHA. How can you even say that? You know absolutely nothing about it and you’re saying that!

Now, we’ve all met her, but she doesn’t really know the first thing about any of us kids. She asked me one question and then took over the conversation as soon as I got 2 words in. She did ask us all in a group about my mom (which was super awkward). We mentioned my mom was very charitable and she goes, “Oh I’m charitable person!” Who the fuck says that? And comparing herself to my deceased mother (who both her and my dad have “reassured” us time and time again that she’s not trying to replace). She constantly says how much like my mom she is or what she’s done better than my mom. HUGE RED FLAG. How desperate do you have to be to try to one up a dead person?! 

In Ethel’s constant talking, she talks about her children and family members a lot. She talks a lot about how her husband passed and her brother passed and someone else passed all pretty quickly. She talks about her brother passing basically every time I talk to her. Now you might think it’s sweet she talks about her family, but it’s not. She doesn’t talk good things about any of her family. She talks about all the mental illnesses they all have. Her children refuse to meet my dad (or so she claims). And she doesn’t talk to any of her 3 children at this point. Another huge red flag.

So Ethel was here to take care of her sister and her sister’s cat while she was in the hospital. Well, turns out her doctor couldn’t do it the day they had planned, so it got pushed back. Then her sister desperately needed to go shopping so she had to push back her HEART surgery again. And I think one time she couldn’t go because her feet hurt from diabetes? There were a few different things. So Ethel is staying at my dad’s house this entire time. My dad’s very religious and so they’re not having sex, sleeping in the same bed, or even sleeping on the same floor. My dad is staying downstairs while she sleeps in his room. Finally, a month later, her sister goes in for surgery. Ethel is gone from my dad’s house for 2 days. To be fair, my dad wasn’t feeling good and had an infection in his tooth so was in a lot of pain. So yes, I get why she wanted to come support her new boyfriend, but also, my dad had plenty of children close enough to take care of him and she was supposed to be taking care of her sister’s cat. She stays at my dad’s house for another 3-4 days before going back to her sister’s. She gets back and to her surprise (but nobody else’s), the cat is missing. I also would have ran away if I thought I was abandoned and needed to scavenge for my own food since I haven’t been fed in days. 

Finally, Ethel is going back to Oregon. Orange and my dad take her to the airport. On the way home, my dad mentions to Orange that they’re talking about getting married. Wow! Less than 9 months since my dad’s wife of 30+ years passed and he’s already ready to get married to another woman. What the fuck?! How is he over my mom already? I get wanting companionship, but holy fuck that’s quick! So I call my dad. My Aunt J had already chewed out my dad telling him that he’s moving too quick and not thinking about us kids (which is not wrong). And I guess she told him just to have sex and get it over with. I know my sisters also called my dad just before me. I called my dad and told him I was uncomfortable with how quick they were moving and I didn’t understand why they felt the need to move so quick. He just kept saying that it’s different when you’re older....I told him the 2 reasons that I could think that they were moving so quick is that she’s a gold digger or that they wanted to have sex (which come to find out that she claims she never had sex with her deceased husband and hated sex when she had it with her ex but I don’t know if she ever told my dad that because some of the things he has said to her is questionable). He assured me that was neither. Sure Dad...

I know I’m kinda all over the place here, but bear with me. So my Aunt J reached out to Ethel’s children. Only the oldest daughter responded (which Ethel claims is a liar and manipulative and basically the worst person on earth). So at this point, for I feel like pretty obvious reasons, I don’t trust much of what Ethel says and will most likely take her daughter’s word over hers. My aunt didn’t want to say everything and wanted us to reach out to the daughter personally, but she did tell us that the first thing that Ethel told her children when she met my dad was that she met a guy with a 401k. Who the fuck talks about that first?! Not even his name or where he’s from, but that he has money...So Orange ends up reaching out to Ethel’s oldest daughter. Ethel has said that her oldest daughter is a liar and manipulator and is basically the worst person in the world. I don’t know how someone can say that about their own child that they claim to love so much. Anyways, so Orange is pretty level headed and took everything that the daughter said with a grain of salt. But the daughter said some nice things and honestly made us feel better about Ethel all around. One of the things that Ethel has said on multiple occasions is that her children refuse to meet my dad. Well, when Orange talked to the daughter, she said that she was more than happy to meet my dad and talk to him about Ethel. But again, overall, she did make us feel better and that Ethel actually had feelings for my dad and wasn’t going to gaslight him (turns out that wasn’t accurate). We wanted to be upfront with my dad so Orange told him about the conversation and told him that it made her feel better. My dad told Ethel (including that Orange took what the daughter had to say with a grain of salt and that the daughter made her feel better) that Orange talked to her daughter and Ethel says, “I can’t believe that Orange would believe her lies!” First of all, I trust anything that her daughter says over her in the first place, but that just reaffirmed that. Second, that’s extreme gaslighting and my dad believes it.

Okay, so this has been a lot to write out and a lot more exhausting than I thought it would be. I’ve taken week long breaks (if not more) at a time, so I don’t know if I’ll forget to say something or if I’ll go in a different direction than I was originally planning for the next paragraphs but hopefully this is all entertaining enough. It won’t be all in chronological order, but I’m doing my best.

So after all of this, my dad tells us that we should go through my mom’s stuff that’s in the house that we want. Until you’ve done that shortly after the death of a loved one, you don’t know how exhausting it is. The first time was on a weekend that almost all of my siblings were able to be there. We video chatted my sister who couldn’t be there since she lives across the country. So we split up all of the big stuff. There’s some big furniture that people couldn’t currently take. Like I live in a tiny 1 bed apt and I couldn’t fit a piano, dresser, and vanity all in my apartment (let alone just one of them). So those are staying there until I can buy a house (which hopefully will be across the country). I was going out every Sunday to go through everything. I was a little petty and at one point was going through a box that had a bunch of church stuff in it right in front of my dad and kept asking him if he wanted the church things. My dad said we had plenty of time to go through things and take what we wanted so we were only doing what we felt was necessary and then would take our time from there.

One of the things that my dad and Ethel claimed was that their deceased spouses were trying to get them together...if anyone knows my mom, that’s definitely not true. I don’t know how my dad doesn’t see my mom would have hated Ethel. Her, Green’s wife, and myself would be gossiping so much about Ethel. Plus, one of my mom’s wishes when she passed was that if my dad got remarried then all of us kids would like his new wife. Not a single one of us like her. So not only is my dad completely oblivious to the fact my mom wouldn’t like her, he doesn’t uphold to one of her dying wishes.

So Ethel comes back to Utah. I don’t remember quite why. But she stayed at my dad’s. It was supposed to be temporary and she was supposed to stay somewhere else for most of the time she was here. Then she kept making excuses as to why she wasn’t leaving Utah and not staying somewhere else. There was one point where she was supposed to drive back to Oregon, but her car “broke down” about 7 (I think) hours from my dad’s house, but probably somewhere in the middle of the drive. So my dad being the good guy that he is drove out to pick her up and brought her back to his house. Where she has stayed ever since. The only time she’s left since was for their honeymoon. She had come back a couple of months before they were even technically engaged. 

Oh my god! I just remembered something I forgot to mention earlier! Ethel and my dad do a LOT of PDA. My parents rarely showed affection in front of us. They rarely kissed in front of us. The most they would do was hold hands. Well Ethel and my dad are full on cuddling in front of us. Which wouldn’t be a big deal if that wasn’t the first thing I ever saw of her when we first met and if they didn’t do it so much in front of us at the beginning and if my parents showed any form of PDA. They also called each other pet names which my parents never did. All in all, it was really weird. AND my dad made a dirty joke which he has never done so to his kids in the 34 years he’s had any of us. I was very taken aback. So they ended up getting officially engaged and wanting to get married ASAP. Blue had been engaged for several months before. We told my dad to not even get engaged before Blue got married...well, they were talking about having a small ceremony in Oregon and inviting only a couple of her friends. No....my dad is not getting married without a single one of his friends or family members. I think enough of us spoke up about that so the idea was quickly shot down. But my dad was talking about getting married within maybe even weeks. We all knew Blue didn’t want him to and that would be taking away from him. So we convinced my dad not to get married before Blue’s wedding. He was unhappy about it, but he waited.

So leading up to their wedding, Ethel kept pushing us to get things out of the house. When we talked to my dad, he would always say that we could take as much time as we need and Ethel would say she never pushed us at all. And whenever I’d come out, I hated being around Ethel and would always go hide in the basement “doing things” until the rest of my siblings came. When I was forced to talk to her by myself, she would just keep talking and talking and not letting me get a word in. I live with my boyfriend and I’m not married so she thinks I just live in sin. She asked me about him once just so that she could say that she has family in the city he grew up in and so on and so forth. She also won’t talk about my sister’s girlfriend. Probably because they live in sin too...anyway, Orange, Green’s wife and myself planned a bridal shower for Blue’s (at the time) fiancée. She didn’t want Ethel there, but it was being hosted at my dad’s and Ethel never left so we couldn’t get around it. Speaking of Blue and his wedding, Blue was supposed to have brunch with his fiancée’s parents and my dad. Before my dad was actually engaged, he brought Ethel along. And Ethel doesn’t even ask, but tells them all that she’ll take care of the ties. Then she goes out and buys some samples before even knowing what the wedding colors are! Blue didn’t want her going to the wedding, let alone doing anything for the wedding. When I get married, Ethel will not be doing anything for my wedding. 

Blue’s wedding happens. This is the first time Ethel meets my boyfriend. I don’t think they even said one word. This is also the first time that Yellow and his wife have met Ethel. Now Yellow’s wife got her degree in psychology and is a therapist. She said that Ethel crossed off almost all of the signs of a narcissist. Ethel still hasn’t even met Red and her husband in person (even to this day). Now we’re a month away from my dad’s and Ethel’s wedding...unfortunately. My dad asks me to put together a playlist for their wedding. No thanks, but I’ll do it for my dad. He specifically requested a song by Chicago for her walking down the aisle. Chicago was my mom and dad’s band so I was very upset that my dad would have a song with another woman from the band that him and my mom loved so much. I begrudgingly put together the playlist and added that. However, I didn’t add any other Chicago songs (even though he suggested that). And I made sure any songs I used didn’t mention forever or only love or anything like that. I might be a little petty.

Day of their wedding, I find out that all the decorations Ethel asked for from Green’s wife were from Blue’s rehearsal dinner. She didn’t even ask Blue or his (now) wife if she could use them. She asked Green’s wife...and then when she told Ethel she would have to ask Blue, Ethel said something along the lines “Well his dad paid for them so I can use them.” I don’t think it was quite as snarky as I put it, but that was the message she was trying to get across. My siblings are all hanging out at the dining table before the ceremony. Even though they’re both religious, they were just having a civil wedding in the backyard because if they were to marry in their temple, she would have to divorce her deceased husband (but my dad would be able to be married to multiple women for eternity...not misogynistic at all right? /sarcasm). My dad’s bishop comes in all bright and cheery. He knows quite a bit of my family so he comes and says hi. I don’t think it took long for him to realize we weren’t happy about the wedding. Ethel claims she invited her children (I really don’t think she did). She had a few of her family and friends come to the wedding, but none of her children. We’re pretty sure one of the couples that came was her daughter’s ex husband and his new wife (whom she has said she is closer with her daughter’s ex than her actual daughter).

Okay, so I’m now at the point where I’m going to give information that I don’t 100% remember fits where. Some of it was before their wedding, some of it before they even got engaged, some of it after their wedding. This may just be a bunch of word vomit, so I hope it all makes sense and anyone who happens to still be reading this doesn’t get lost. BTW, if you happen to still be reading this, congratulations on making it this far! I told you this would be a long post.

One of the first times we met Ethel when she was out here the first time we were doing a family dinner. I don’t remember everything we did for the dinner. Green’s wife cooked the main meal. Orange was supposed to be in charge of the Au Gratin Potatoes and something else. Well, I had asked what I could do and had the choice of rolls or salad. In our family group chat, my dad said Ethel wanted to contribute and asked what she could do. I told him I would do the salad and asked if she could do the rolls. Apparently that wasn’t good enough and she wanted to do more so she ended up doing the au gratin potatoes. We specifically wanted our family recipe for the potatoes and Orange had already bought the ingredients for it so she let Ethel know where to find the ingredients. Before I get into what actually happened, one of the things that Ethel boasts about all the time is that she grew up helping her mom with catering and so she knows how to cook really well (I have liked very few of the things she’s cooked). So Ethel doesn’t use our recipe and uses her own for the potatoes...they weren’t very good. And the rolls she brought were terrible store bought rolls. Like, if she doesn’t want to make rolls, whatever, but at least buy decent rolls. Also, rolls are a really easy thing to make to show off to a family you’re trying to impress. I seriously just get the frozen Rhode’s Rolls and then after cooking them melt butter on top of them. Super easy and people are always super impressed with how good they are. So not only does she not use the recipe for potatoes we wanted, her recipe is meh, AND she gets shitty store bought rolls.

At one point, Green’s wife and I were going through the small room upstairs cleaning it out and trying to make sure my sibling’s belongings got in a box for each of them. This is the room that my mom died in. All of my siblings were in this room with her. It is painted dark blue and along the middle of the wall around the room is a trim of wallpaper covered in whales. Ethel and my dad are wanting to turn this room into his home office (especially with how much he’s been working at home due to Covid-19). Which is whatever, they can do what they want. While Green’s wife and I are in there cleaning out the room, Ethel comes in and starts using some sort of tool on the wallpaper that tore small holes in it. She said it was so they could take down the wallpaper easier.  I don’t know why she had to do that while we were in there cleaning. It has been a few months since then and she hasn’t done anything else to that room (including taking down the wallpaper). Green’s wife believes she did that while we were in there just to be mean. She actually believes Ethel just likes being mean and does things just to be mean. It’s hard to disagree with that considering everything else.

I don’t know why I didn’t say something about this earlier when I was writing about how Orange and my Aunt J had spoken to Ethel’s daughter. There were some things that they talked about that were huge red flags. Ethel’s daughter said that Ethel was a gold digger and just looking for someone to take care of her. Also that from Ethel’s first marriage, she got $60,000 from her ex husband and she blew it all within just a few months. Ethel has been filed for bankruptcy multiple times and just overall isn’t great with money. All of her children have tried to help her and she has burned every bridge because she just sells the cars they would buy for her or do other stupid things because she never had any money. I mentioned before that Ethel’s children refused to meet my dad. They said that it was way too soon after her last husband passed (their step dad) for them to meet my dad (yes, it had been like 7 months). So since they refused to meet my dad right away, Ethel told them that they wouldn’t be a part of her life anymore. Of course my dad doesn’t believe any of this, but like I said earlier, I trust Ethel’s daughter way more than I trust her.

When my dad was talking about getting married to Ethel, one of the things we pushed for was a prenup. My dad reluctantly agreed that he would look into it. It turns out that in my state, if they hadn’t gotten a prenup stating otherwise, when my dad died (if Ethel was still alive) then everything would go to her and then once she died everything would go to her children and nothing would go to my dad’s kids. So he did go through with the prenup (which also covered if they got a divorce he wouldn’t have to give her money or anything). His lawyer actually gave him some really good advice and I hope that my dad was more open to his lawyer about those things than he was with us even though we said the same things. And luckily, control of the trust and everything else is still in the hands of my oldest siblings when my dad passes (even if Ethel is still alive).

So Green has 2 kids. One that they’re fostering and hoping to adopt, the other has some cognitive disabilities. Even so, he is the smartest kid I know. At 3 years old he could name all of the planets in the solar system. I’m 24 and I can’t do that. He just retains knowledge really really well. Well, Ethel likes to call him her “special little buddy”...which is extremely ableist to say the least. He doesn’t really like her and he can tell that we all don’t like her (he’s 6 and he can see that better than my dad). Green’s wife absolutely hates it when Ethel calls him that too. Green’s wife is probably the one that stands up for all of us the most. But she’s also super nervous of the inevitable time that she pisses Ethel off. Ethel has called CPS on her own daughter because her preteen grandson was moody and didn’t talk to her while she was at lunch with him. If she calls CPS on Green and his wife, then they take their foster child out of the home immediately and who knows what that’ll do to their chances of adopting him. When Ethel calls CPS on any of my siblings, if I haven’t already done it for other reasons, I will tell my dad that I want to be a part of his life, but our relationship can’t include Ethel. I know my siblings and they do not do a single thing that would concern CPS.

So when Blue got married, I’m not sure exactly when it was, but I know that Ethel talked to Blue’s new sister-in-law for a bit. And she was talking about Blue’s wife’s anxiety, which Blue’s wife has never said a thing to Ethel about. And Ethel just went on and on about Blue’s wife’s anxiety and how hard it must be and that’s why Blue’s wife is like this and so on and so forth....I’m curious to know what Ethel thinks my mental illness is and tells people about.

I’m writing this one right now because it just happened and I don’t want to forget the details. So my dad’s house has 6 bedrooms and 2 family rooms. It was a good size for my family while we were growing up, but now it’s just the two of them in a 6 bedroom home. They’re planning on redoing a lot of things and we’ve been doing a lot to clean out the house and split up my mom’s stuff. So in the smallest bedroom in the house, there was a lot of baby stuff and when we didn’t know where to put things, a lot of it would go in there. Well, on multiple occasions, they’ve told us that we can take as much time as we need to go through the house and that there was no rush. Ethel has been pushing to get everything out when my dad isn’t around, but now even my dad has pushed to get things out a little bit. They decide that anything we haven’t gone through and they’re not sure what we want, they’ll put in a storage unit for us to go through when we can. I thought that was a great compromise. Well, Ethel ended up taking a picture of the small room and posting it on Facebook talking about how messy we are and how terrible of step children we are. How we were supposed to get it out by the time they got back from their honeymoon so on and so forth. Yellow and his wife see this before Ethel ends up deleting it off of Facebook. Yellow calls my dad (which I’m so grateful because so far it’s just been the girls making any sort of fuss) and is really upset about it while talking to my dad. My dad puts him on speaker and talks to Yellow and Ethel together. Ethel says she accidentally posted it on Facebook and it was supposed to be just for her aunt. How do you accidentally post something on Facebook? And if you’re talking shit and posting it to a private audience, you sure as hell aren’t going to make the mistake of posting it publicly. But also, she was talking shit about my dad’s kids and he defended her. How can he take her side on that one?

The anniversary of my mom’s death is on the same day as Green’s birthday. Well, the day was coming up and in our family group chat Ethel asks how we want to celebrate the birthday and remember my mom. Not my dad, ETHEL asks...that is not her place in the slightest. If my dad had asked, then I would have been more than happy to talk about it, but Ethel doesn’t get to be the one to try to see how we want to celebrate. Green’s family, Yellow’s family, and myself and my boyfriend ended up going to an amusement park for that day. Then we went out to my dad’s that night for pizza (hawaiian especially to remember my mom) and to watch a destructo show (because my mom LOVED those). Yellow and his family were staying at my dad’s. Well, Ethel told Yellow and his wife to make themselves at home and to eat whatever and drink whatever. When Yellow was telling me about this, I thought it was so funny because 1 he said he felt like “yeah, of course I’ll make myself at home, this is my house, not yours! and 2 my mom would get so annoyed with him for when he visited opening up a bag of chips without asking for permission or things like that. Like small things that didn’t matter in the scheme of things, but he would do with my mom, of course he’s not going to care what Ethel thinks about it. The other thing that Ethel talked to Yellow and his wife about was getting rid of all the sippy cups and only keeping one in the house per grandchild with their name on it. She said that she would always find 5 sippy cups full of milk laying around the house, but she wasn’t saying that because of Yellow’s family. So that means she was saying it because of Green’s family. Which, the younger one never leaves his sippy cup behind and the older one doesn’t drink milk (he used to be allergic and now just doesn’t like it).

One of the things that bugs Green’s wife a lot is that Ethel will always message her and say passive aggressive shit or ask her to tell my family about something or talking to her about getting everything cleaned out of the house, etc. At one point she asked Green’s wife to choose what toys they wanted to keep in the house. My mom bought way too many toys for the grandchildren, but she loved them. She would end up putting a bunch in storage and rotating them out when the kids stopped playing with some toys because they were bored of them (genius really). But it sounded like Ethel was wanting to get rid of basically all of the toys, which the point of having them there and not at my siblings’ house was so that the kids had toys to play with there and only got to play with them at my dad’s house. I think one of the reasons for getting rid of them or at least downsizing is that she always claims that the toys don’t get put away. They do though. I have been there when my siblings are putting their kids mess away. I’ve helped clean the toys up. They always get cleaned up.

Oh my god!! I can’t believe it has taken me this long to mention this one. So while my dad and Ethel were on their honeymoon, we were going through the house and trying to clean out as much as possible. Well, while doing so, we found a TON of different medications. Some were for her, some her deceased husband, and some were for somebody named “Gale Friend”. But there were probably at least 40 different bottles of pills (if not more). And at one point, Green’s wife was downstairs cleaning out of of the bedrooms. In one of the vanities (that is either mine or Orange’s, not even my dad’s let alone Ethel’s), there were some more bottles of pills and LOOSE PILLS in the drawer. This is an area that my nephews are unsupervised a LOT. Imagine if one of them opened the drawer and ate one of them! Yellow’s wife thinks that it’s too sloppy for an addict and that Ethel was trying to get us to say something to my dad so that she could play the innocent victim and that his kids just hate her and it’s her and him against the world.

Speaking of playing the victim, she does that with my dad a lot. She has literally told him before that it’s him and her against the world. She has talked bad to him about every single one of his kids (except my oldest sister that I know of). She has been trying to cut him off from his family. He can’t talk to anyone of us or even his sister alone. Also, when we’re around, she talks to my dad in a baby voice. I’m sure she does it when we’re not there too, but just trying to act like she’s this innocent helpless little girl and my dad has fallen for it. I’m sooo scared that he is finding himself to be miserable and feels like he has nobody there to help him. I hope he knows that any one of his kids would help him if he said anything. He’s such a good guy and deserves happiness. I hope that soon, he is able to realize that she’s not happiness.

Wow, this was incredibly long. I’m 100% sure there are things that I missed/forgot about. And I’m 100% sure there are things that will happen later and I will be back here writing it down to keep record and if anyone actually was interested in knowing. If you are here reading this, you seriously deserve a medal for being able to get through this entire thing. Thanks for bearing with my scattered brain and I hope it at least made you laugh at the insanity if nothing else.

#long post #tw death #death #tw gaslighting #tw emotional manipulation #tw drugs #psychopath #insane #insanity #i miss my mom #i hate this woman #why did you do this dad?

[gaiapaia]

Kermit and Friends: Alexander Octopus Cortez

Since Kermit and Friends Sunday Church Services began, Elisa has shared her story a few times about how she was chastised by the Christian church she was attending before bringing back KAF.

KAF Church had a new attendee this week, a lovely Christian woman by the name of Marie. When Marie heard how Elisa had been treated by her church, she was disgusted, as am I every time I hear it. 

Here’s where I might sound a little judgmental and conspiratorial, but it doesn’t surprise me that Los Angeles churches are the type to turn people off from God like that. I’m from the south, Marie is from the mid-west... and the churches we’re familiar with would NEVER treat Elisa with such condescension. 

But finally, yes, FINALLY Los Angeles has a church that can be trusted. It’s name?

THE KERMITARIAN CHURCH!

That’s right baby, we have an official name for our church now, and man... is it ever so beautiful and perfect.

Oddly enough, Elisa still remains to get judged in her very own church! This time by Muslims, not Christians. What happened? Well let’s review the show...

Church kicked off with an awesome introduction video Elisa made. I really loved it and I look forward to seeing more stuff like that in the future. Very fun!

Elisa then talked about chance encounters and how God places each person in our lives for a reason. I agree to an extent but I also don’t think it’s too wise to hop in the car with strangers just because you’re invited somewhere. So please be careful with that in the future, Elisa! God blessed us with free will and there are evil humans out there who take advantage of that amazing gift. We shouldn’t judge people but we also can’t trust everyone we come across.

As mentioned above, Kermit got a new friend this week in the wonderful Marie. She was a little shy on the show but I can tell she will become more comfortable over time. Hopefully she returns next week!

We got our weekly call from Barry Boss next where he asked if the audience would enjoy seeing a sex tape between he and Elisa, and he also claims he’s working to get Elisa a TV talk show in Miami. I would have to vote no on the sex tape, but here’s hoping he gets that TV deal for her!

After the call, Elisa opens up about how she became smitten with the animated octopus from last week’s show, Alexander Octopus Cortez. Elisa has this quirk of falling hard for voices she’s attracted to combined with personalities she deems humorous. It’s very cute but it has never led to anything good romantically... unfortunately, AOC did not turn out to be an exception.

Elisa wrote this unbelievably creative song for AOC. I’m not exaggerating or kissing butt when I say the lyrics were truly brilliant and hilarious. I was amazed by the song, but AOC? Not so much. 

Turns out AOC is not just an animated octopus, but a gay animated octopus well into his 60′s or 70′s. He has zero interest in Elisa, leaving her heartbroken yet again. Hopefully though AOC continues to visit the show, as he will be a good personality for Elisa to have fun with.

Moving on... DJ Smooth made his immaculate return to Kermit and Friends this week with a handsome new haircut. He was less troll-ish and actually participated in the show in a very entertaining way. He has potential to be a great addition to the church and I hope he attends every Sunday!

Laurie the Muslim also returned to the show this week for the first time in a while. She brought a couple of Muslim friends with her (Mohammad and Boahan) and there was a nice conversation about what inspired them to be Muslim and how it’s benefited their lives.

We also got to meet a new friend of Kermit by the name of Pete. Elisa met Pete on Facebook where he was ranting about masks being used as a political agenda. Pete seemed very sensible and may become a voice of reason on the show if he continues to attend Kermitarian Church every Sunday, as he made rational points any time Elisa went to him for his opinion. Same goes for Darron the Pharmacist, who also had a nice little appearance on this week’s broadcast.

Elisa also received a couple of pleasant phone calls this week from her old KAF love interest Gonzo and also from KAF legend, Kleenex. Hopefully in the future those two will click the Streamyard link to attend church rather than call in so they can speak with other members instead of just Elisa. Remember, Streamyard works just as well on a smart phone as it does on a computer. It was great hearing from them though!

Next up is Corey and all hell breaks loose.

Corey admittedly has done a lot of naughty things in the past. He’s received nothing but coal from Santa Claus for years now. However, at Kermitarian Church, the slate gets wiped clean and EVERYONE is welcomed to attend and hopefully to repent. Including, yes, ThyCorester. And for two weeks straight, Corey has done nothing wrong. 

The fact of the matter is, once Corey cammed up, it was Laurie who rehashed the drama. It was DJ Smooth who went on the attack. It was Johnny B who criticized. All it takes is a smile from Corey for people to lose their minds. Why? Why allow this man have so much power over your emotions, especially when he’s not doing anything? Forgive him and move on. If you say nothing negative towards the guy, there’s a chance he won’t start in with his nonsense. It takes two people to be cordial, and so far Corey is the only one willing to try to be cordial. 

So yeah, most of the rest of the show was bickering between Corey, Laurie, Smooth, and Johnny B. Was it entertaining? Absolutely, but did Corey start it? No!

Because Elisa allowed Corey and Laurie to trade insults and accusations toward one another, Laurie’s friend Boahan became very critical of Elisa for the way she was running the show. She blamed Elisa for Corey and the chat’s words, she said Elisa was milking for drama instead of trying to have a loving church, and she basically stormed off afterward, not giving Elisa a chance to respond to her. Laurie then pretended to be offended by Elisa calling her ‘Laurie the Muslim’ just because her friend was offended by it. Of course Laurie takes the side of her new Muslim friend over the woman who has loved and supported her for nearly 5 years straight. Makes complete sense, right?

From the very beginning, Elisa has said Kermit and Friends will welcome ANYONE. She wants ALL walks of life to come together on this show and be friends. Is that possible? Logic says no, but Elisa is a dreamer and optimist, you can’t tell her anything is impossible. That said, I’m sure she understands having such different personalities will raise conflict. The good thing about conflict is that while it does lead to entertainment, it also leads to resolutions. However, the people arguing have to be open to resolutions. If they’re not... that’s not Elisa’s fault. 

Forgiveness is the key. Forgive Corey. That doesn’t mean you must forget, but forgiveness and being cordial is the best way to deal with him. It will also help with your mental stability since your mind will no longer burst into flames whenever you see his face. Seriously, to the Corey haters... just let it go already.

Anyway, besides that, the show also featured the return of Jason Deeh Pitre, and Johnny B. Jason looked awesome as always and gave us a nice little tune, while Johnny B did a beautiful karaoke performance of the song Peace in the Valley. DJ Smooth also got creative this week with a funny little poem about Corey, and William Quigley cammed up while in the shower and did a hilarious dance number for the audience during an argument between Smooth and Corey.

As you can tell, it was a crazy episode, even crazier than last week. I loved it. KAF continues to be my favorite podcast with my favorite characters and my favorite host... I can’t wait for next week! :)

[robotgirlomatic]

Mother

Yesterday I tried to vent to my mom about how alone I feel in the household tasks. I am very pregnant and moving has been difficult and sometimes painful. My mom grew up with the mindset that household chores are solely women’s work and she has not been employed in almost 20yrs. She feels indebted to my step dad for his financial support and so even after she had knee replacement surgery she was doing the grocery shopping, cooking and laundry. In the past she has claimed that I am a nag and come off matronly towards my significant others the few times I’ve expected them to clean up after themselves.

So of course when I vented to her that due to pregnancy I was dreading all the things around the house that will need to be kept up with and needing Michael to step up to doing them - to which she felt it appropriate to question how sweetly, kindly and gentlly I was asking this of him.. (“Not exasperated or aggitated at all right?”) this is not a new issue I’ve asked him to do his part a few times and part of it is depression and I get that and most of the time decide my love for him overrides my irritation and do the silly tasks but in this one moment I wanted to be able to come home and not be expected to micromanage the mental load of having to ask him to do the dishes or laundry or garbage.

He’s an adult just like I am, it’s his apartment too and I will be in pain post labor. I told her I didn’t appreciate her tone and that I was trying to vent and didn’t like it being twisted into blaming me for how delicately I need to beg my partner to help me when I’m this pregnant - I shouldn’t have to ask he has eyeballs to see a full sink of dishes or an overflowing trash can. She then gave the most petty half hearted apology “Sorry you decided to take it that way”. I replied “sorry you don’t ever look at what you write and see how it comes off and instead blame me some more”. She then proceeded to ignore me.

This morning I got a call from my OB advising that she’d like to induce next week - I posted to fb and messaged my mother who proceeded to intentionally ignore it for hours. I went to my morning stress test and my high risk doctor was not happy with the low amount of movement baby girl was showing so she sent me to OB Triage (pregnant woman ER) for observation. They put me on multiple monitors which is when my mother finally graced me with her presence all she decided to write was that she was ignoring my comments and used a wow reaction face to my induction comment. I told her not to worry about it and that I wouldn’t message her anymore to which she responded by going off on a rant asking me to stop “Sticking Marxist terror campaigns” in her face and letting me know that she and my step dad had acquired a fire arm to protect them from the perceived Marxist terror that is Black Lives Matter... she told me I constantly posted thing that trigger her and that I was clearly easily offended and liked to play the victim by pointing out that I had just as much free speech as she did and that I’ve never voiced opposition to anything she’s posted even if I disagree since we are both adults and because I respect her. She persisted in berating me while I was on blood pressure monitoring which resulted in the highest readings I have ever given in my entire life. Doctors rushed in to hook me to IV and administer medication and I’ve since been admitted and have started the induction process.. all because her pride about apologizing and political view are more important to her than I am. I ended up blocking her entirely on Facebook for my own health and have spent most of today fighting back tears of anger that in the moment of child birth when I should have her support this is what I got instead. When my grandmother died I mourned hard because to me she was my mother and I wished more than anything that she would’ve been alive long enough to meet my children and that has been solidified completely today by the actions of my birth mother who acts like a fucking child.

I will not be telling her when this child is born. I tried to tell her I was at the ER but her screaming at me was far more important to her than my health. At this point she can keep grandmas house and I hope my cousin steps up to help her when my step dad dies because I want no contact anymore. I have been more than accommodating and silenced myself for 32yrs of my life, she has never cared about my real triggers and brings up rape everytime we talk even when there’s absolutely no context. I do not have a mother and it has been the longest day of my life. Keep me in your thoughts and if you have a good mom please hug her - what I wouldn’t give to hug grandma right now :(

#personal

[pennswoodsman]

I'm starting to feel the pang of loneliness again. I asked Sue to help me out by looking at my tinder profile. I don't know why I ask anyone. It really makes no difference. She told me I had "way too many selfies. Some of my grammar was incorrect and she didn't like my joke about "looking for a woman who was looking for a man just like me". I had my dad take a few pics of me on the stoop. I showed them to her and she said I looked drunk in one and the other was "alright". Her other suggestions were to say exactly what I was looking for...in other words, what I had already been trying with no success. No matter what I put as a bio, it's wrong. It's not funny enough, it's not direct enough, it's too direct, my language is too aggressive, it's not interesting, it's too weird, it doesn't say enough, it says too much... JESUS EFFIN' CHRISTOWITZ LADIES!! Why is this so fucking hard?! And of course, the rules of photos. No selfies even though that's the only time anyone takes pictures of me. I look so unnatural in all pics. Like the kind of smile you give when someone jams a pistol against your back and says "smile". I swear I'm a good guy...who are the guys who are getting a ton of responses?!?! What the fuck is their secret?! I have read like a million suggestions to get women to respond and NONE of them work for me. Dude... I'm so sick of this.

Anyway, Angela has totally disappeared. I haven't heard hyde nor hair from her in almost a month. She told me she was house sitting and the people don't have wifi. She and I aren't going to be match made in heaven but it is a little disappointing to be ghosted AGAIN. And it felt really good to be loved. To be appreciated for just being me.

Heh...so ummm...I've been texting with Bridget from high school and I have become pretty close friends in the past few weeks. It's weird. She and I were really only acquaintances back then. And she looked like a freakin' movie star so every time we talked I was all like "ehhh huh huh huh" (Butthead laugh). But the more we talked the more I remembered we actually did hang out a few times out of school. All thanks to Levin, really. She is so nice and easy to talk to. Plus she loves the Dead more than anyone I know. I still am a little hazy on why she and Bets got a divorce. He mentioned one time on Facebook on a conversation I started on my page about if addiction was a disease or not that she was a drug addict and is now doing time on prison on a drug charge. I found out recently through my own sleuthing via "truthfinder.com" it was on a meth dealing charge. (I paid for it to find out more about Juliana... specifically to see if she's real or not. But once that was done I was all like "ok, now to look up everyone I know to see if they have a criminal record"). The other day Bridget straight up asked me if Bets and I were like BFFs or something. I was all like "ummm...not really. I always liked the guy but we haven't actually had a conversation since that house party you guys had all those years ago." She then went into a rant about what a dick he is. That he told their daughter lies about her and he is still is so pissed at her for breaking his heart. Of course all I did was listen. I admitted to her that in my heart I would never forgive Dawn for destroying our family, treating the boys and me like an after thought so she could go fuck other men. But, I never got the boys involved and I don't pick fights with her anymore. We get along well enough. Their divorce was 14 years ago and he is still picking fights with her all the time (according to her) and is still trying to get their daughter to take sides. I don't blame him for being super pissed. I definitely would have felt the same way. But after 14 years AND he's remarried (to another woman who looks like a movie star! It's good to be tall, confident and rich) and has 2 more kids with her. He really needs to try to heal...for their daughter's sake. Oy.

[tanstaaflaos]

A rant from Trump supporters

The following is a cut and paste from someone I know on Facebook.  In short, they don’t particularly like Trump but like liberals and progressive ideas even less.  They justify their vote for Trump as giving a finger to liberals and the media, rather than supporting Trump.  In short, a very selfish and short-sighted mentality that is unfortunately prevalent in today’s world.  These folks will continue to vote against their own interests if it means they can “win” while sticking it to the liberals.  Here’s the rant:

🛑 STOP! 🛑 EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS ⬇️ If you are a liberal who can’t stand Trump, and cannot possibly fathom why anyone would ever vote for him, let me fill you in. It’s not that we love Donald Trump so much. It’s that we can’t stand you. And we will do whatever it takes — even if that means electing a rude, obnoxious, unpredictable, narcissist (your words not ours) to the office of President of the United States — because the thing we find more dangerous to this nation than Donald Trump is YOU. How is that possible you might ask? Well, you have done everything in your power to destroy our country. From tearing down the police, to tearing down our history, to tearing down our borders. From systematically destroying our schools and brainwashing our kids into believing socialism is the answer to anything (despite being an unmitigated failure everywhere), while demonizing religion and faith, and glorifying abortion, violence, and thug culture. From calling us racists every time we expect everyone of any skin color to follow our laws equally, to telling us that our “tolerance” of lifestyles we don’t agree with isn’t nearly enough — no we must “celebrate” any lifestyle choice or gender option (forget science) you throw our direction or you think it’s fine to calls us homophobic or some other degrading slur you decide is okay to call us — ironically all while lecturing us on hate speech. While you gaslight us about 52 genders, polyamory, grown men in dresses sharing public locker rooms with little girls, and normalize the sexualization of young children, you simultaneously ridicule us for having the audacity to wish someone a “Merry Christmas” or hang a flag on the 4th of July, stand for the national anthem, or (horror of horrors) don a MAGA hat in public. So much for your “tolerance.” (See why we think you are just hypocrites??) We’re also not interested in the fact that you think you can unilaterally decide that 250 years of the right-to-bear-arms against a tyrannical or ineffective government should be abolished because you can’t get the violence in the cities you manage under control. That free-speech should be tossed out the window, and that those who disagree with your opinions are fair game for public harassment or doxing. That spoiled children with nose-rings and tats who still live off their parent’s dime should be allowed to destroy cities and peoples livelihoods without repercussions. That chaos, and lawlessness, and disrespect for authority should be the norm. This is your agenda. And you wonder why we find you more dangerous than Donald Trump? Your narrative is a constant drone of oppressor/oppressed race-baiting intended to divide the country in as many ways as you possibly can. You love to sell “victim-hood” to people of color every chance you get because it’s such an easy sell, compared to actually teaching people to stand on their own two feet and take personal responsibility for their own lives and their own communities and their own futures. But you won’t do that, you will never do that, because then you will lose control over people of color. They might actually start thinking for themselves, God forbid! This is why we will vote for Donald Trump. Not because he is the most charming character on the block. Not because he is the most polite politician to have ever graced the oval office. Not because he is the most palatable choice, or because we love his moral character or because the man never lies, but because we are sick to death of you and all of the destructive crap you are doing to this once beautiful and relatively safe country. Your ineffective and completely dysfunctional liberal “leadership”(?) has literally destroyed our most beautiful cities, our public education system, and done it’s damndest to rip faith out of people’s lives. However bad Donald Trump may be, and he is far from perfect, every day we look at you and feel that no matter what Donald Trump says or does there is no possible way he could be any worse for our country than you people are. We are sick to death of your stupid, destructive, ignorant, and intolerant behavior and beliefs — parading as “wokeness.” We are beyond sick of your hypocrisy and B.S. We are fed up with your disrespectful divisiveness and constant unrelenting harping and whining and complaining (while you live in the most privileged nation in the world), while making literally zero contributions of anything positive to our society. Your entire focus is on ripping things down, never ever building anything up. Think about that as there is something fundamentally very wrong in the psychology of people who choose destruction as their primary modus operandi. When Donald J Trump is reelected, don’t blame us, look in the mirror and blame yourselves. Because you are the ones that are responsible for the rise of Donald Trump. You are the ones who have created this "monster" that you so despise, by your very actions. By your refusal to respect your fellow Americans, and the things that are important to us. You have made fun of the “fly-over states,” the people who “cling to their guns and religion,” the middle class factory workers and coal miners and underprivileged rural populations that you dismissively call “yahoos” and “deplorables.” You have mocked our faith and our religion. You have mocked our values and our patriotism. You have trampled our flag and insulted our veterans and treated our first responders with contempt and hatred. You have made environmentalism your religion, while trashing every city you have taken responsibility for. You scream from the rooftops about “global warming” and a “green new deal” while allowing tens of thousands of homeless people to cover your streets in literal sh!t and garbage and needles and plastic waste without doing a single thing to help them or solve the environmental crisis your failed social policies are creating. But we’re supposed to put YOU in charge of the environment while gutting our entire economy to institute this plan when you can’t even clean up a single city?? You complain — endlessly — yet have failed to solve a single social problem anywhere. In fact, all you have done is create more of them. We’ve had enough. We are tired of quietly sitting by and being the “silent” majority. So don’t be surprised when the day comes when we finally respond. And trust me it’s coming, sooner than you might think. And also trust me when I say it won’t be pretty. Get ready. When Donald Trump is reelected it will be because you and your “comrades” have chosen to trash the police, harass law-abiding citizens, and go on rampages destroying public property that we have all paid for and you have zero respect for. When Donald Trump is reelected it will be because we are sick of your complete and utter nonsense and destruction. How does it feel to know that half of this country finds you FAR more despicable than Donald J. Trump, the man you consider to be the anti-Christ? Let that sink in. We consider you to be more despicable, more dangerous, more stupid, and more narcissistic than Donald Trump. Maybe allow yourself a few seconds of self-reflection to let that sink in. This election isn’t about Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden. This is about Donald Trump vs YOU. So if on the morning of November 4 (or more likely January 19, by the time the Supreme Court will weigh in on the mail-in ballot fiasco that we are headed towards), and Donald J. Trump is reelected? The only people you have to blame is the left-wing media drones and yourselves. You did this. Yep you. I copied and shared this and if you give a shit about your country then you should too.