blarg

Step two: dig out stash of old seed catalogues saved for this purpose. Get super crabby because you can't find the Mod Podge anywhere. Give up, then have daughter find it immediately, in the "glue box" you forgot you created.

Step three: decide on a color scheme, and start cutting. I asked @phantomtheraccoon if we should coordinate or contrast and she cleverly said both.

Step four: collect your flowers and fiddle with layout.

Step five: paint item with Mod Podge, place your images, and paint them again. Leave to dry, which honestly doesn't take long.

Step six: trim edges add cut out holes. I didn't actually cut out the screw holes; I just cut little X's there for the screws to go through. Worked fine to put it up, we'll see someday how it survives taking it apart again.

Step seven: coat everything with Mod Podge at least one more time, paying special attention to edges. Dry elevated on something (say, the top of the Mod Podge bottle) so it doesn't stick down.

Step eight: okay, wow, that's awesomer than expected!

🎶whiiiiiiiite gluuuuuuuuue aaaaaand waaaaaaateeerrrrr and aaaaaaaaaastrobrights!🎵

Learning about flyovers and pyrotechnics at American games being a thing

Non-americans discovering the size of American football stadiums....for high schools in texas. Also the size of our stadiums in general.

Going to baseball games as a side treat! Lmao.

Non-americans losing their minds over "like, 100 petrol pumps," at buc-ees.

Related: Americans often forget how huge target and Walmart is.

People discovering American BBQ

Non-americans being obsessed with mid American restaurant chains like Golden Corral and Taco Bell

A lot of them really did feel god in this chile's apparently

The rightful obsession with waffle house

New understanding of American Big Drink With Ice supremacy as summer creeps in

Begrudging acceptance of mandatory water breaks during games

Americans realizing we have a Team USA and we are not, in fact, just "hosting our friends" from around the world — mostly because we won our first match and our team is decent??? Not amazing but not the worst.

Side rant: us women's football team is legendary good and we should care about that more like. Hello???

Admitting Americans are right about air conditioning

Related: the english team did warm ups in Florida RIP, and also the there's a video of the French team just being like fuck the heat, fuck the sun, this is so hot...

Americans who do not normally care about international football but fucking love a sport and cheering so we're just hyping whatever team is nearby, like we see a party and just show up and learn the chant. Like sorry many of us don't know shit about soccer but if we see a bunch of people in viking helmets or kilts or holding a bunch of flags and cheering we're game.

TAILGATING!!!!

I already said this but American yellow school bus is an international celebrity

The Scottish drank Boston dry of beer apparently, like they quadrupled what Boston normally sells for fourth of July weekend. SAM ADAMS HAD TO GET AN EMERGENCY BEER DELIVERY.

Also the English team fans got kicked out of The Londoner pub in Dallas after drinking 5,000 beers and going over max capacity lmao

Free refill drinks, tortilla chips & salsa.

So many non-americans are going to be here for the 4th of July for our 250th anniversary which is going to be great and hilarious

Non-americans discovering ranch as a beloved condiment

Non-americans understanding American obsession with hamburger now

Japan's homebase is in Texas and the cultural differences are frankly great and also the Japanese fans are SO NICE and helped clean up the stadium after a match???

Inusannon

Mass Effect Trilogy Week 2026 Day 6- Lore - Leviathans/Reapers/Citadel/Protheans/...

And they played practically the same role in the Prothean cycle as the Protheans later played in ours!

I love Illos, I think it is my favorite world in ME1.

That eerie feeling, the music that evokes thoughts of a heartbeat deep underground, that from the very first moment gave me the feeling of stepping on a grave and, of course, those ominous statues...

And I swear, those bloody things follow you with their "eyes". If you move from side do side in front of them, they always seem to face you directly.

As a footnote for ME Trilogy Week, a spotlight: One of the saddest lines in Mass Effect 2 is hiding in a throwaway dialogue that almost everyone ignores because the Council's in the middle of pissing you off (again) and there are 50,000 other things happening in Shepard's first trip back to the Citadel.

The Ilos Hologram is no longer functional.

...Vigil was the Protheans' last chance. Aside from Javik who they don't yet know exists, and any remaining hidden data caches, it was the last link to their culture and history.

Two years earlier, talking to Shepard, it can barely form a visual matrix and its audio is slightly distorted. But it's held on for 50,000 years. Since being programmed during the last centuries of the last cycle.

Vigil is the reason Shepard had the info they needed to succeed against Saren and against Sovereign. The reason that the Normandy crew understood the true nature of the threat.

And Shepard just made it, a couple of years before it stopped working forever. 50,000 years active and Shepard only got there in time by less than two years.

And now, that last link to everything the Protheans were...is gone. And that's utterly heartbreaking - but presented in a way that you're never asked to sit with. Because there are bigger problems.