Perpetually Untitled

this is CRITICAL to my ilya thesis. ilya consistently tries to care for his father and brother, but he's not making his life choices primarily to please them, because he knows he never will (probably has also benefitted from always having svetlana's voice in his ear saying "your father is an asshole who would have punished you either way"). my headcanon is that the post-draft gala scene is him finalizing this realization, actually: he has literally just been declared the #1 hockey player in the whole world and it's not enough for his father not to humiliate him in front of a whole room full of people and his new boss! it's painful but he's also just like "oh, yeah, wow, fuck this, i'm gonna live my new life. boston's nice, right?"

As a past closeted queer woman, I always felt a weird sort of apprehension towards straight men - specifically straight men who experienced attraction towards me. Because, as a closeted queer woman, I didn't want to actually engage with how my attraction towards men who were attracted to ME was not reciprocal. These men were a threat to my own delusion about my sexuality because they forced me to confront my feelings in a way closeted-me found deeply uncomfortable.

So then who are the men you feel the safest around as a closeted queer woman? Gay men! Because their lack of attraction to me was non-threatening and didn't force me to confront my own sexual orientation.

I think Rose is experiencing a similar sort of self delusion. She jokes about how being in theatre school meant most of her boyfriends turned out gay, but come on. That's a cop out - a beautiful woman like Rose? She was definitely being approached by men who were actually attracted to her - too bad she was Always oh so conveniently already dating a different (gay) man!!

Another reason for my gay rose theory: you can be a great ally, but come on - having someone lie to you about reciprocating your attraction towards them has gotta sting, or at least bruise your ego a little. You're well within your rights to feel at least slightly butt-hurt about having your attraction used like a shield to throw off suspicion about the object of your affections sexuality.

Unless of course you were never ACTUALLY attracted to the person supposedly 'using' you in the first place 👀👀👀 unless you too were 'using' them in a similar way, to feed your own self-delusion and to project a certain image about your sexuality 👀👀👀 then I think you'd be able to bounce back from the experience quite quickly - even emerge from it as closer friends.

And the thing about ALL OF THIS is that it can definitely be an unintentional, subconscious deception on Rose's part too. She's got a hundred built in excuses: "I don't go for guys who are obviously looking for a hookup cause I'm just not that kind of girl!! I look for a deeper connection with a guy!!! Maybe even one that is sans sex entirely!!! And hey, being the clean cut girl next door is part of my image - I can't be running around picking up guys, it would be bad for my PR."

The only other thing is that not all USB-C cables are created equally. The form factor is standardized, the insides are not, some shitty, cheap, cables are only rated for data not power, or for low power needs. You can search for charging cable to make sure you get one intended for power transfer.

As you may have seen, I have been using this frog-themed birdbath as a feed bowl to attract birds for my latest photography project.

It was working well and it added a fun element to my photos.

But the other morning I went to refill the bowl with bird food and it had been knocked over and frog heads were gone.

Then I saw this.

Clearly, the groundhog was the culprit.

Lock him up.

He's guilty.

The monster even returned to the scene of the crime to admire his murderous vandalism.

Case closed.

OR IS IT?

A new suspect appears!

One of the fox teenagers has been snacking on spilled bird food.

Could he have jumped up to the bowl? Could he have knocked it over to claim more unsalted peanuts for himself?

DID HE FRAME THE GROUNDHOG?

This case is a mess. All I have is circumstantial evidence and speculation. No confession. No eyewitness to the frogicide.

What would Columbo do?

Perhaps he would set a trap so that the culprit would incriminate themselves. He might leave the birdbath filled with tasty bird chow overnight, set up a camera, and see if the groundhog or the fox take the bait and expose themselves as the villain.

JUST ONE MORE THING...

The outlaw gang of raccoon vandals returned last night.

Their ringleader had no shame.

I'm calling him Jesse James.

And I made this cool poster.

I will be locking up the food at night from now on, but I had to capture as much raccoon shenanigans as possible before then.

"After they overheard that ICE was at the courthouse to arrest someone, they improperly accessed court databases to determine who was not born in the United States," a DOJ detention filing says. "They then snuck every suspected illegal alien who was at the courthouse out a back door, where ICE, who was waiting in the parking lot for their target to leave the building, could not see them."