Splinters in Time

My Monster High Spelldon and Valentine two-pack finally arrived, so they get to join my dolly Pride Parade!

From left to right:

My custom trans 'Lady Lovely Locks' prince.

The notorious Lammily dolls! I never planned to own these but I found them at a car boot sale and they're pleasingly sturdy dolls. AA Lammily looks great in a custom dress, and Original Lammily feels 100% less preachy wearing Action Man clothes. Yes, they're a couple.

Bratz Nevra and Roxxi, sorry Mattel but this was the original fashion doll Pride couple!

Spell and Val of course! I love them so much. Spell was perfect straightout of the box; Val just needed the gel washed out of his hair to make it fluffy.

The Doctor: canonically genderfluid, always amazing.

A couple of Mattel's non-binary Creatable World dolls.

Dolls representing Ryan and Chad from High School Musical, whom I ship non-ironically. (Seriously, check out their 'I Don't Dance' number from HSM2 and tell me they aren't pining for each other!)

AR-1 enjoying the sun on a day off!

In that AU the city is permanently submerged, except every other Sunday when they need to replenish the oxygen tanks.

I'm having so much fun with Ronon and Teyla in mer!form.

Bugs Bunny and Lola Bunny reinterpret this cartoon first published in German magazine Lustige Blätter in 1932:

Centaur Watching Fish by Arnold Böcklin (1878).

My own favorite paintings of centaurs in mundane situations include "The Centaur Playing with Her Child" by Otto Soltau and "A Centaur Playing with His Son" by Otto Bache

The Clash - London Calling 1979

"London Calling" is a song by the English punk rock band the Clash. It was released as a single from the band's 1979 double album of the same name. This apocalyptic, politically charged rant features the band's post-punk sound, electric guitar and vocals. It was written by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones. The title alludes to the BBC World Service's station identification: "This is London calling…" which was used during World War II, often in broadcasts to occupied countries. The lyrics reflect the concern felt by Strummer about world events with the reference to "a nuclear error" – the incident at Three Mile Island, which occurred earlier in 1979. Joe Strummer has said: "We felt that we were struggling about to slip down a slope or something, grasping with our fingernails. And there was no one there to help us." The line "London is drowning and I live by the river" comes from concerns that if the River Thames flooded, most of central London would drown, something that led to the construction of the Thames Barrier which came into operation three years after the song. "London Calling" fades out with a Morse code signal spelling S-O-S, reiterating the earlier urgent sense of emergency, and further alluding to drowning in the river.

"London Calling" was released as the only single from the album in the UK and reached number 11 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1980, becoming at once the band's highest-charting single until "Should I Stay or Should I Go" hit number 1 ten years later. It was the first Clash song to chart elsewhere in the world, reaching the top 40 in Australia. Over the years, "London Calling" has become regarded by various critics as the band's finest song. It is one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In 2007, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

"London Calling" received a total of 84,6% yes votes!

Bastille - Pompeii 2013

"Pompeii" is a song by British indie pop band Bastille. It is the fourth single from their debut studio album Bad Blood and was released on 11 January 2013. The song's title and lyrics refer to the Roman town of the same name that was destroyed and buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. "Pompeii" became the band's breakthrough hit, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart and became the eleventh best-selling song that year and, until June 2014, was the country's most streamed single of all time. It was also successful worldwide, reaching the top ten in fifteen countries, including number one in Scotland and Ireland, number two in Italy, and number five on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was nominated for British Single of the Year at the 2014 BRIT Awards.

According to lead singer Dan Smith, the song is written as a conversation between two victims of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, stating in an interview, "I was reading a book that had some picture of the people who got caught up in the volcanic eruption. And it's just such a kind of dark powerful image, and it got me thinking about how boring it must have been emotionally after the event. To be sort of stuck in that same position for hundreds and hundreds of years. So, the song is sort of an imaginary conversation between these two people who are stuck next to each other in their sort of tragic death pose."

Belgian singer Heleen Uytterhoeven recorded a cover version in Latin. Bustle magazine noted that the Youtube video contained commenters arguing in Latin over the accuracy of her translation. The "eheu" chanted throughout the song is a Latin interjection commonly used by ancient Roman authors to express sorrow, grief, pain, or fear. It translates to "alas" or "oh no", or in the words of the Youtube commenters, "oh shit".

The lyrics are referenced in an in-game achievement for the video game Civilization VI, as part of the Gathering Storm DLC. The achievement requires the player to lose a city's population from Vesuvius' eruption while playing as the Romans. In August 2020, the song's chorus became an Internet meme involving a before and after shot of countries, states or provinces viewed on a map, usually disappearing or changing after the line "But if you close your eyes" is sung, as well as a major meme in the NASCAR and Formula One community over similar events that look almost exactly the same, such as finishes or crashes. The cast of Glee performs "Pompeii" as the closing number of the season 5 finale.

"Pompeii" received a total of 84,7% yes votes!

Me? I had some really spectacular bruises and a lil friction burn on my nose from where Mr. Airbag and Ms. Glasses had a disagreement. That's it. That's it.

I was driving a little tiny coupe and went more or less head-on with a pickup truck. The entire engine and hood of my car was twisted rubble that was not connected to the rest of the car afterward. I sat down on the verge, about twenty or thirty feet from the accident, while I waited for the cops and EMTs to work their way through the traffic backup to get to us, and found that I was sitting beside one of the headlights of my car. The whole entire headlight, bulb and reflector and cover and frame and all.

All I had were bruises and that little friction burn. That's it.

Crumple zones save lives. So do seatbelts and airbags; half the bruising was the exact shape of my seatbelt in livid crimson and black on my torso. It was and remains the most insanely intense bruising I have ever experienced in my life. BUT IT WAS JUST BRUISING!! Unpleasant, sure, but eminently survivable and didn't even require much treatment beyond not wearing a bra for a few days. But all the force that created that spectacular bruising was force that wasn't flinging me through the windshield or impaling me on the steering column. My car crumpled and crushed and dissolved but it held me safe and secure and protected.

I don't think I ever posted pictures of my Les Mis skirt on tumblr! And what better day than barricade day!