Ramblings from a different island

Daily Dose of Thunderbirds

Happy Gerry Anderson Day everyone

Virgil :"don't!"

Gordon:" Ba-Na-na-Naaaaa!"

Virgil : "ugh, get out!"

Virgil : "don't you start with the 'hey Virg', I don't want to hear it"

Gordon : "but, don't you want to know what you ca a pod of musical whales?"

Virgil :*indistinct mutterings*

Gordon : "an orca-stra!"

Virgil:"Gordon I swear-"

Gordon:"WHY Did the pirate buy a Pavarotti album?"

Virgil:"The hell Gor-"

Gordon:"Because he loved the high Cs!"

Virgil:*screams into the pillow*

Scott: no.

Gordon: the sand said to the ocean 'what are you dune tonight?'

Scott: Virgil. what is this.

Virgil: I'm not shore

Scott: *facepalm*

Gordon: I'm afraid for the calendar. its days are numbered.

AKA How to Enjoy Writing for the Sake of it

Get off social media! I know it’s tempting to blabber on about a WIP to get those hella cool notes, but doing so only reinforces that writing’s only fun if it gets you attention. We all need that boost now and again, but too much of it will whittle away your self-reliance. Close your laptop, leave your phone in a different room, and sit down with a notebook if possible and if you need to. You’ll get to know what enthralls you personally about your story.

Don’t write for an audience for now. Tumblr likes to do this thing where it says “blah blah blah X is problematic in media” and while it’s well-intentioned, internalizing too much of this can make you feel like you’re trying to write through a maze and constantly failing at it. Forget about your audience–you can flag and catch problematic stuff in edits after tossing it to the betas.

Remember what made thirteen-year-old you lose their mind? Yeah, write that. Once you’ve let go of writing for an audience, you won’t worry about being “cringey” anymore, and that’s when things start to get real good and real fun. You don’t have to show your writing to anyone, or even tell them you wrote it, so just go buckwild! Trust me, it’s so liberating.

Your inner critic is useful–but not now. Shut that bitch up! Your job when drafting is to make something. If you did that, you win, so your critic’s opinion is worth squat here. However, if you try to fight her {I always envision mine as some bitchy middle-aged woman lol} she’s just gonna get louder. So tell yourself you can be as critical of your writing as you want during edits. You’re not working for perfect, or even good right now. You’re working for existing.

I've watched the Fellowship like 9 times since December and I'm really coming to understand Boromir in a way I never had before. I always considered him to be selfish and weak, but I'm starting to see that I was really wrong about him.

Until recently, I never understood the scene between Boromir and Aragorn in Rivendell, when they talk about Narsil. I couldn't figure out why he was so embarrassed that it cut him. But I've started to see that it's really about him being embarrassed that someone (not even knowing that it was Isildur's heir) witnessed him getting caught up in the story that ultimately de-legitimizes his father's claim to the throne of Gondor as steward. He's just a boy stuck between what he knows is right and what his dad wants from him.

When I first watched the movie at like 12 or 13, I was also really upset at how weak he was when it came to the Ring. But again, I wasn't seeing the whole picture. Boromir isn't weak. He displays bravery and loyalty by pledging himself to the Fellowship, and sticking through to the end. He shows love to the hobbits, even to the end when he chooses to protect them long after his life is forfeit. And he also comes to find humility, recognizing Aragorn as king.

I think Boromir's weak spot for the Ring is just one example of how Tolkien wrote his characters to be deep and complex. Each of them is allowed to be flawed in his own way, and each of them has an objective that he always keeps in mind. Boromir is so taken by the Ring because he wants so badly for Gondor to succeed--and I think for his father to have what he wants.

I'm frequently stricken by sadness that Tolkien will never know the depths of joy he has brought to me, and to the other people who love his work. I've been reading and watching since I was an early teen, and for over 15 years, I have found myself falling more and more in love with it. There is so much more for me to see in each read-through and even in each viewing. Every time I return to Middle Earth, I get the very distinct and comfortable feeling of coming home and seeing my friends, even if I didn't understand them fully to begin with.

The Tracy family are more than generous with their money. They buy what they need to live plus the occasional treat, but if they can put the money to good use then they would much rather do that.

Jeff and Lucille made their money while the boys were still young (and while only two of them actually existed) so they’ve never known any different, they’ve never wanted for anything in their lives, but they weren’t spoiled, they were taught not to be reckless.

‘Not everybody has what we have, so we need to help those we can.’ A mothers words that five boys live by.

The charitable donations are frequent, sizeable, and varied. And while the family as a whole supports many institutions the boys all have their own, niche as it were.

Scott donates large chunks of money to the Rescue Scouts every month, giving back all he can to the organisation he loved as a kid. Making sure they have all of the latest technology, all of the latest information and knowledge. He’d love to donate his time too, but he just doesn’t have it.

John sponsors a full ride scholarship for astrophysics at his old college, and another in the engineering programs trying his best to encourage bright young minds who otherwise may not have the opportunity due to financial factors to follow their dreams (he’s been known to hand out more than one should there prove to be more suitable candidates).

Virgil has made it his mission to donate to every underfunded arts program he can find, all over the world. Be it music, drama, dance, or creating art to one day stand or hang in museums he thinks the world could benefit from more good, and if providing people with a safe place for free expression can help with that, then he’ll help provide it.

Gordon supports every single charitable organisation he finds that has something to do with the ocean. All of the sea life sanctuaries he knows of, especially those specialising in rehabilitation and release get a more than generous share. At one of them they even named a particularly mischievous octopus who was known for escaping his tank after him, and Gordon was so honoured that he cried while telling Virgil about it.

Alan is a little less specialised, but he is still a teenager after all. His donations vary from month to month, but they’re usually something to do with making the world safer and more fun for kids. An entirely new playground here, a youth centre there, an observatory with open access to be booked by anyone, and he’s constantly open to suggestions.

I feel like rule #7 in the Big Book of Rescues would look something like this

Don’t panic. Unless you see Virgil running. Now the first thing to do is check the whereabouts of Scott. If Scott’s safe then panic like hell and run for the hills, boys

If you see Virgil running, run twice as fast as him

Never assume the worst. Unless Virgil is running

The okay-ness of the situation depends on the speed which Virgil is moving

::takes a full minute for the button to be actually pressed and even then there is surprise when Virgil disappears and there is mad scrabbling to find the image again::

Now, the reason why Amazon is able to undercut the prices of Pharmacies is because basically, they are going directly from the manufacturer to the patient, which allows them to bypass the standard issues that we at retail have to deal with with insurance (basically in the US when your insurance pays for your drugs they pay a certain amount to the manufacturer, a certain amount to the vendor, a certain amount to the Pharmacy, and then the rest is usually your copay.) Since they are the vendor and pharmacy, they can just go directly from price of purchase from manufacturer to patient. But there’s another issue I see here. Amazon is probably sourcing their drugs from a cheap market. And let me tell you something, I have had to deal with a lot of Class I and Class II drug recalls this past year that my pharmacy was unaffected by because we didn’t use the “cheap” suppliers.

Amazon WILL cut corners to maximize their profits on this, they WILL use the lowest bid supplier for their drugs and there WILL be class I recalls on their medication, and at that point the users will have to what? Mail it back to Amazon and have them send a replacement?

I also know how much of an issue prescriptions can be when a Doctor sends in ambiguous scripts, but Amazon isn’t going to care about clear instructions. Hell, I doubt they’re really going to actually have someone go through and type up the clear instructions, it will probably just take the escript data and type it up exactly as it came in and send it to billing and filling. So be prepared to get a shipment from Amazon containing a single insulin pen that’s supposed to last a month because the doctor put a dispense quantity of 1 box, but the escript said 1 pckge and the computer interpreted a package to be a single pen.

Now technically PHI law states that Amazon is legally not allowed to use your health profile to market items to you. Practically that doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. I already have had one person tell me that they abandoned setting up an Amazon profile because they were worried about the personal questions being asked.

However one of the biggest concerns is that they’ll offer a system “for conveniences’ sake” where if your credit card is attached to your Amazon profile that they’ll just automatically fill, bill, and send your medications to you. And that this system will bypass all insurance and DUR issues. Doctor sent a $300 rx for eyedrops? Yup, that comes to you no chance to say “can we call my doctor for a cheaper alternative?” You have a peanut allergy and they sent in a prescription for Progesterone? Sure, here you go. Patient is on Suboxone and the doctor sent in an RX for Norco? Have at it buddy!

But as a previous post said, could Amazon provide the customer service that they need, you get a lady collecting meds for her husband with dementia, is the delivery driver going to explain about the new tablet? Are Amazon going to check if a customer is on blood pressure meds before letting them buy a decongestant cold and flu remedy?

The first is the usual ‘aw man feels like its that time of the month again no prob I can soldier through’ cramps.

The second is the 'okay this is getting kinda heavy here lemme lay down for a bit and wait for it to pass’ kind of cramps.

The third is the 'GREAT BALLS OF ZEUS SOMETHING IS SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY KILLING OFF MY INTERNAL ORGANS PLEASE LET ME DIE’ kind of cramps.