Hey! Absolutely, I’m happy to talk about it!

A while back, I unlisted all my explicit fics. I was fine with it when I wrote them, but I’ve come over all uncomfortable lately (about sex in fic), and I felt that I had to private them in order to stop my squicky feelings from pushing me to do something more drastic (like editing or orphaning). It feels better knowing they’re not out there on the internet for just anybody to read.

I assumed it would pass and that I eventually would unlock them again, but it hasn’t yet, so I don’t know if or when I might. I don’t mind sharing the files with anyone who wants them, though, and oh! I think I have a couple of invites to AO3 so if anyone wants one, let me know!

Um, yeah, I don’t know! This isn’t a thing that makes a whole lot of sense, I’m afraid. But I really don’t mind talking about it : )

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh, i know all about uni quidditch

you SHOULD be proud and that is the Dream and so cool

sports normally = death so im so proud of you for sticking with this!!

celebrate by knocking that damn snitch to the ground

Oh Mandy. I don’t know. She’s definitely one of those characters from this shitshow that had a lot of things dumped on her, and then never given any time/opportunity/arch to deal with any of it. There’s a certain attitude embedded in the concept of Shameless that I find very uncomfortable at times and, as a non-Gallagher side character, Mandy was frequently made to suffer from the writers’ flippant misery-roulette. She is a survivor of horrible things, and all I really want for her is a chance to heal and take care of herself.

But she also did try to kill someone. She hit Karen with her car, not to threaten or scare or rough her up, but with the clear intention to kill. It’s a very dramatic part of the show, and a significant part of her character, and it’s never really adressed again except for Lip calling her a jealous demented cunt and breaking up with her. 

In an ideal world I would like to see Mandy deal with this, to see her being given the time and space to feel remorse and shame and realise that trying to kill someone over a boy isn’t something she should feel ok about? I’m not saying I want to see her locked up over it, or that I want her to have to deal with all the traumatic things she’s already been forced to live through because I think she deserves more pain. That’s not it, at all. I just want the show to be the kind of show to deal with the shit they decide to dump on their characters, you know? Which they demonstratively aren’t, but still. I can’t help wanting it.

I was mildly interested in season 6 for about 2 seconds when she came back. Ian could have had his friend back, she could have been a catalyst for him to maybe express any (or all) of his otherwise contextual or unspoken feelings. When Mickey wasn’t ready to be emotionally vulnerable with Ian, in the early seasons, Ian always had Mandy and it’s my unshakeable belief that they sincerely talked to each other. Not that we ever got to see it, but we did see them together all the time and we had a couple of references to off-screen conversations that seemed very deep (about their mothers, about Ian’s “mystery man” etc). They both deserved to keep that friendship and support through the later seasons.

I’m going to stop now before this gets way out of hand : ) ♥

oh yes, she’s a joy to watch!

you can see what i’ve been reading here @ my goodreads; as for listening, i’m not a podcast person (yet), but i do treat many, if not most of my fave youtube channels as podcasts: i listen to critical role (love of my life, saviour of my serotonin), as well as iiluminaughtii, sideways, any of simon whistler’s channels such as business blaze, biographics or geographics, plainly difficult, stephanie harlowe’s true crime stuff, caitlin doughty from ask a mortician, and fascinating horror, plus an assortment of media analysis content creators that pop up in my recommended. and, of course, asmr (can’t fall asleep without it).

stuff that i don’t treat as a podcast because i want to watch the video: doll repaint channels like dollightful/midnight jewel, the vintage/historical costuming gang (bernadette banner, karolina żebrowska, rachel maksy, morgan donner, cathy hay, etc), lindsay ellis, contrapoints, jacob geller, bbc 2 wartime farm and victorian farm, cozy home vlogs, overly sarcastic productions, animatics of my favourite musicals, royal opera house ballet videos, uploads of tchaikovsky ballets in general... yeah, i watch a lot of youtube.

there are a couple of topics that i will fall in huge rabbit holes with, including but not limited to: fashion history, linguistics, nuclear disasters and radioactivity, music theory... i’ll watch pretty much anything on those topics if i see them in my recommended.

ooh boy. i have many Opinions & Feelings™️ on the beauty industry, and i’m dedicating a post to ‘green beauty’ myths in the future where i explain why these are incorrect assumptions that irk me so much.

“sulfates bad”/”parabens bad”/”alcohol bad”/”chemical sunscreens bad”/pretty much anything along these lines

“this product has no chemicals!”/“chemicals in general B A D” like??? aren’t we past that at this point? why are there people in this year of 2019 still saying this like everything’s not made of chemicals?

drawing unsupported claims from superfood trends to skincare applications

sunscreen & coral bleaching panic

diy beauty recipes, 99.9% of these are either dangerous or plain ineffective (and don’t get me started on the sheer concept of diy sunscreen!)

promoting essential oils, whether it’s one of those predatory MLMs or just a ‘natural beauty’ brand who doesn’t know or care about how risky they are for the skin

greenwashing in general used as a marketing ploy to exploit legitimate environmental causes and concerns to generate more unsustainable consumption

the popularity of skin whitening cosmetics especially in asian countries

conversely the popularity of tanning in the west! why is this a thing in 2019! people! we know better than this now!

more expensive = more effective, i feel like this is starting to change but i’m looking at you, la mer, dr. barbara sturm, etc…

the sheer idea ‘glass skin’ / ‘cloudless skin’ / being poreless and entirely perfect is attainable and something we should strive for at all; my goodness is this a toxic mentality to have! perfectionism is seldom good! the value is the journey and the health & quality of life improvement, not becoming flawless!