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Latest Posts by twaeggy - Page 4
This happened this morning and I have been thinking about it and laughing to myself all day.
Jurassic World, Mad Max Fury Road, and Little Girls
For her birthday, we took my soon-to-be six year-old to Jurassic World. Prior to that, she had watched a bootleg copy of Fury Road with me after I had confirmed that it fit the levels of violence I consider acceptable based on what I know of my daughter.
The most interesting thing to me was her reactions after each film.
After watching MMFR, she talked incessantly about it. (She had talked during the film as well, making observations, etc.) Her name was suddenly changed to Angry Cereal, mirroring two of her favorite characters. She made a new Sims game, spending more time than she ever had before perfecting the characters - and giving them all pets. A Lego car set was turned into a crazy car that could fit into the Mad Max world. Barbies were now the Wives and her dad’s Diablo figurine was now Immortan Joe. It’s been a little over two weeks and she still talks about it.
When the credits rolled on Jurassic World, she said, ‘Can we go see another movie?’ –And that was it. The only other comment vaguely related to the movie was her assertion she liked dinosaurs. Nothing else. No elaborate recreations, nothing.
I had thought with MMFR that my excitement had rubbed off on her but that doesn’t seem to be the case. After Jurassic World, I was excited, encouraging her to talk about her favorite parts. She asked for a Happy Meal. When we went to spend a gift card at Toys-R-Us the next day, I pointed out all the Jurassic World toys. They had Blue! She barely gave them a second glance.
It didn’t jive. She had tons of dinosaur books. Why was she infinitely more interested in an adult movie that was pretty much one big car chase rather than a movie about dinosaurs? Was it because despite the differences in ratings, Jurassic World had frightened her more? Maybe. But when she picked out a new stuffed animal to buy with her gift card, she informed us the little owl’s name was Splendid.
And that was it.
She had watched Fury Road in almost complete silence until the first shot of all the Wives. Then she turned to me and said, “There’s so many girls!” That was her takeaway from MMFR: there were lots of girls! All the girls were fighting together against the bad guy! The girls were the heroes! That was important to her, seemingly even more important than it was to me. Maybe because she’s just getting her first taste of playground culture where boys and girls are separate and the two don’t mix often and it’s been confusing. Maybe because she just really liked seeing girls on the screen. When I ask her, she just shrugs and says, “I don’t know, mommy, I liked all the girls. I liked Toast.”
As an adult, I’m aware of issues with representation. I don’t remember consciously noticing it as a child but I remember Leia and Uhura and Janeway being my favorites. I remember dressing up as Dana Scully. As a mom, I watch my daughter gravitate to girls and women on screen. A movie I thought would a sure thing because DINOSAURS! became a total miss because for her, there was no one on screen that she left the theater wanting to dress up as. There was no incentive for her to change her name to mimic favorite characters. I left grinning because holy shit, raptor squad! She left wanting a cheeseburger.
i wonder if my pets have like a proper language and when i try to speak back to them im just speaking jargon
like for example my cat always speaks to me when I come home and i meow back to her and she’ll meow again & even though i don’t think twice about it to her it’s probably a situation where it’s like
her, meowing: “im glad you’re home”
me, meowing back: “tax benefits”
her, meowing: “why do u always do this”
Favorite writing trope
Adding “as you do” after describing something that nobody does.
“So he went to hell to pick up his dead wife’s soul, as you do.”
“So she climbed up the tower with her robot hands, as you do.”
Even given potential foreign influences, however, the fact that boars and herds of swine became memorialized in both narrative and placenames in Iceland undoubtedly reflects the sacrality of pigs as symbols of successful pioneering behaviours and reproduction. The Vanic associations of pigs extended both to nomenclature and to myths. In poetic diction, boars could be called vaningi (sons of the Vanir), while an epithet of Freyja was sýrr (sow).
Diet and Deities Contrastive Livelihoods and Animal Symbolism in Nordic Pre-Christian Religions by Thomas A. DuBois (via hyacinth-halcyon)
give me someone surprising their primary partner with brunch in bed and snuggling up to their side as they share all the details about the night they spent with their secondary partner
give me a married couple struggling to handle their new open arrangement and dealing with all the jealousy and possessiveness that they never expected themselves to feel
give me a life-long straight dude starting to question his sexuality seemingly out of nowhere and nervously asking in his long-term girlfriend if he can explore those feelings on the side and work out what’s going on (or vice versa)
give me a quad going out for dinner acting like it’s a double date and confusing everyone around them by switching “partners” halfway through for shits and giggles
give me two points of a vee becoming besties and having sleepovers where they get drunk and share embarrassing stories about their mutual partner
give me a monogamous person inviting their poly partner’s other partners over for a birthday dinner and enjoying their company far more than they expected
give me a little kid telling their friends about their mommies and daddies and their friends thinking their family is the coolest freaking thing no matter how much their parents frantically try to trick them into thinking that the kid just meant that they lived with their uncles and aunts
give me an unplanned but welcomed pregnancy and the frantic “is it mine is it his who looks after it whose name goes on the birth certificate how does this work holy shit” that follows
give me a tacky YA love triangle all crushing on each other like crazy and realising one day that it doesn’t have to end with one of them getting hurt when they can all just love on each other instead
give me a couple that married for money and reputation striking up this unexpected friendship and encouraging each other’s so-called “affairs” with their respective high school sweethearts
giVE ME POLYAMORY
Hey, I'm writing a fight scene at a fancy restaurant. If my character had a choice of weapon between grabbing a fork or a butter knife (rounded point), which should they choose?
The fork.
It has pointy ends and it’s better for stabbing.
However, in a fight scene at a restaurant, it’s worth remembering all the other available pieces that will allow a character to smoothly transition between weapons. Most of the time, thought stops at the cutlery but a restaurant is full of makeshift weapons that will aid the characters in their fight if they’re clever enough to see them.
Plates.
Heavy duty, ceramic plates are good for bashing, throwing if necessary. It’s usually a stage gag, but it works really well.
Wine. Water. Coffee.
Hot soup also works. Grab it off the table, throw it in their eyes to blind them to create opportunity for an attack.
Wine Bottles
If left at the table, the solid glass of the wine bottle can be useful for hitting. It’s not as heavy duty as a Jack Daniel’s bottle, but it’ll get the job done. This is even more true if the wine bottle has not yet been uncorked and is still full. Then, it functions as a makeshift club holding up against a great deal more abuse than an empty wine bottle which will break apart in your hands.
Chairs.
When dealing with multiple opponents, but if they’re light enough to be picked up and wielded then the chair’s legs can be used to deflect attackers and maintain distance while backing toward an exit.
If they are sitting at the table, a good basic combination would be:
-grab wine glass, throw wine into attackers face
-grab hold of their wrist, take fork, stab hand
-pick up plate, smash plate into face
-if it survives then possibly edge into throat or sharpened edge of now broken ceramic.
-exit hastily if enemy is no longer capable of fighting to avoid confrontation with local law enforcement.
Restaurants really are full of weapons, plenty of weapons, including many objects that the average person won’t regard as a weapon. You just have to sit down, adjust your perspective, think about it, and start getting creative.
This is all just in the main dining area, long before we move to even better areas like the food preparation and the kitchen. Remember, a lit cigarette can be a weapon. It’s all about how you think and how rough you’re willing to get.
The Ambush vs. The Preparation
Another thing to consider is whether or not this scene is planned out in advance by the characters rather than it being spur of the moment (such as them being ambushed or suddenly decide to attack). A character who is preparing to make their move can set themselves up with better options than a character who has to hit the “go!” button.
They can:
If there is a bar, they might order hot alcohol like a hot tottie which is a hot mixture of water, lemon juice, whiskey, and honey. The alcohol will burn when thrown into the face, the honey (or any kind of sugar) will ensure it sticks thus prolonging the burning. This is surprising thick for a beverage. Excellent for creating openings or tying up one attacker while moving in on their friend. (This is not an approach for kindly characters.)
Order any kind of red meat or food type that will ensure they have a steak knife. They may have come without weapons or been forced to leave their weapons at the door, but they can have some of them back with clever dinner pick.
-Michi
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Interview: Finding Hope and Healing in Tranquil Forests with David Anthony Hall
Steve Rogers did, in fact, realize that something was off when he saw the outline of the woman’s odd bra (a push-up bra, he would later learn), but being an officer and a gentleman, he said that it was the game that gave the future away.
I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten — happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.
Brenda Ueland (via thetinhouse)
You have already left kudos here. :)
YES FUCK YOU, I LIKE THIS CHAPTER TOO!!! (via carmillasleatherpants)
When reading books at night
Me: Just one more chapter I swear.
Me: *ends up finishing book*
Me: *checks time and it's 4am*
*Oops I Did it Again plays in the distance*
Rest stops on highways are liminal spaces where the veil is thin and nobody can tell me differently
Pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) sometimes rotate themselves in a counterclockwise fashion in order to hypnotize predators or prey. So confused by the perfect upright circles, animals are quickly distracted and are unable to focus on anything else.
01. the king’s arrival - ramin djawadi 02. goddysey - two steps from hell 03. streets of rabanastre - hitoshi sakimoto 04. touring the city - james newton howard 05. the burrow - jeremy soule 06. meikyuu toshi orario - jin aketagawa 07. the shop of curiosities - david and ben stanton 08. diagon alley and gringotts vault - john williams 09. ding dong dell - joe hisaishi 10. the moreska (saltarello) - city of prague philharmonic orchestra 11. the blitzers - nobuo uematsu 12. play after play - thomas wander 13. queen of the gaels - adrian von ziegler 14. the launch - james newton howard
(listen)
My favorite products for PR
Tracking
Blendle Blendle is actually a tool designed to help newspapers generate more revenue through paid articles. But Blendle has an outstanding collection of print editions from the largest newspapers and magazines in Germany and it makes it super easy to search for keywords (e.g. FinTech) and find out how wrote an article in what magazine. Give it a few minutes and you have a powerful list of journalists to talk to in no time.
Alert.io Alert is my go-to tool for tracking things on the web. No matter if it’s topics, keywords, companies or competitors, Alert.io got you covered.
Project Management
Asana I have tried Asana a couple of times in the past, but was never really happy with it – until their redesign in October. Now I’m transitioning all my personal and work related projects and tasks from Todoist, which I’m still very fond of.
Todoist If you are looking for a very reliable, fast and minimalistic ToDo app, then Todoist would be my personal recommendation. I’ve been happily paying for a pro account for the last two years and organized all of my personal and most of my work related things in it. Now, that I’m working in a bigger team at Ballou PR, I transitioned to Asana, to keep everyone on the same page.
Writing
Ulysses III Ulysses is my favorite writing app by far. It’s really beautiful, fast and has many handy features including markdown support and a powerful export feature. As a hobby writer (who writes far too little), this is definitely my biggest discovery over the last five
Desk PM I came across this little gem just a few days ago and what I love the most about it, is the instant publishing feature for platforms like Tumblr, Blogger, Wordpress, Squarespace, Medium and a few others. Even though it lacks a few features that would be nice to have and has a few bugs, I was happy to pay the 19,99€ for the full version for one simple reason: I didn’t have to copy and paste written articles to the website. That was the single biggest issue that I had with publishing articles online.
Other stuff
Producthunt Whenever I can’t remember the name of an app that I wanted to try, I head over to Producthunt instead of searching for it on Google. It’s easily the best resource on the web to find apps and services that are useful.
