life is tough, and so are you

James Gurney, "Dinosaur Boulevard"

Step 1: Remove filters in Reflecting Pool because Obama put them in.

Step 2: Give your criminal neighbor who runs "Greenwater Services" a $20 million no-bid contract to paint the pool.

Step 3: Fill the pool with water from the Potomac River, the phosphates from which cause algae blooms.

Step 4: Freshly sealed pool and extreme heat result in a super scum event

Step 5: Direct National Park Service to dump hydrogen peroxide into the pool which causes the paint to peel.

I wanted to use what ‘reach’ I may have here to share the Carolina Wildlife Center’s urgent plea for donations. If they are unable to raise $75,000 to cover ongoing and future care of their wildlife patients, the center will have to close July 20th, 2026. The services provided by CWC to the community are incredibly valuable, and without them, many wild animals will suffer without the care they need.

Original post

the daemon/nettles riverlands roadtrip is one of the only beats from fire & blood i found myself genuinely moved by in any way. i have a character ask meme ask for nettles i want to do so i'll leave her aside for now. in the book i think whether nettles is daemon's daughter, lover, both, or just some unrelated girl he takes a wholesome interest in for once is ambiguous, but on my first read i definitely assumed she was NOT his daughter and they WERE fucking. their journey together is this sort of apocalyptic desperate cleaving between an old tired man who has committed so much violence in his long life and a brave frightened girl who has seen too much in her short one, something very disturbing but also perhaps a warped spot of tenderness at the end of everything - it just hits. it’s troubling and sexy and miserable. nettles has been made into a warrior as a child for the cause daemon has dedicated and will lose his life to and then he fucks her and finishes the wrecking the taking of king's landing started, and also for the first time in his whole life he has a transformative bond outside his family and the dynastic principle and the dedication to propagation of targaryen power that has made such an astonishing failure of his own life. he dies to save the life of this orphan bastard girl, and he dies to remove what seems to be the last threat to rhaenyra's claim and to put her on his brother's throne and redeem his entire sorry life and that is a failure too. he sees everything maybe, too late, and also cannot do anything else, live any other life, have any other death. play your cards to the end. nettles is left to survive her role as culmination and transcendence because he put his altering hand on her life then died so she might survive it. it unifies everything that is most noble and most horrifying in daemon's character.

and then...if you substitute rhaena for nettles...you lose. literally. all of that. (maybe. if they are bold enough to have him fuck his daughter. you'd still lose something but that's the only way you get close. unfortunately i don't think they are bold enough.)

Rest in peace Sam