Recently Spider-Man writer JM DeMatteis posted on his blog about the new Spectacular Spider-Man omnibus coming out and I decided I would leave a comment about how much his take on Harry Osborn improved my life. He actually replied!
Today I ticked an item off my bucket list and went to Alton Towers, the most popular (I think?) theme park in Britain!
I am a big fan of theme parks! I love learning everything possible about them and I follow many theme park vlogging channels on YouTube. (Theme Park Worldwide is my favourite.) Trouble is… I don’t actually like rides very much. I don’t like being too high up or too fast. And I used up all my thrill ride mojo when I rode Thor and Gold Rush on a rainy trip to Drayton Manor last week.
So I mostly stuck with the down-to-earth attractions at Alton, notably the aquarium!
My favourite thing here was the starfish (not actually fish, as it turns out). You could watch them very slowly feeding and you could touch them.
Honestly the aquarium was worth the price of admission on its own.
Forbidden Valley looks amazing! I would never have the courage to go on Nemesis Reborn but it’s STUNNING.
Toxicator is the ride that famously had a sewage pipe burst under it on its first day. It’s another one that’s a stunning feat of ride creation but I would never in a million years go on it.
In the gardens we found a mole! Just a mole casually digging holes in the daytime! I had literally never seen a living mole before!
The only thrill ride I went on (unless the Runaway Mine Train counts? It was very fun) was Hex. It’s based on the legend of the Chained Oak which I’ve always been fascinated by.
X-Sector is another part of the park that just blows the mind with its aesthetic. Here’s the Smiler and Oblivion, neither of which I would ever ride.
I did sort of want to ride Wicker Man. I’d read a lot about it and psyched myself up for it throughout the day. But unfortunately, the park closed at 4 (we thought it was 5) so it was closed by the time we got to it. It’s great to photograph though.
When I was younger everyone cared about Talk Like a Pirate Day. Every September 19th it’d be yars and shivers me timber all the way down, and people took delight in it. Now nobody ever talks like a pirate, on that day or any other. So few of us cling to the old ways. This is where our society went wrong. People not talking about pirates once a year, everything else about society is fine, probably
Next year we are so back
Together we can revive the pirate-talker ecosystem
Talk Like A Pirate Day was the pioneer of Silly Meme Holidays, the standard-bearer for many years. But now, in a fast world of Ides of March, MAR10s, and Pi Days, nobody stops to talk like a pirate anymore.
But we can change this. This September 19th, stop being a scurvy landlubber and “walk the plank” of fun! Set a reminder now, possibly on a clock you put inside a crocodile, to save the struggling pirate ecoysystem, yarr. We lost the ninjas. We lost the epic bacons, narwhals, and Flying Spaghetti Monsters. But you can help save a pirate today (if it’s September 19th)
(This reminder would be more timely if it was in April, like I always think it is for some reason)
as much fun as posting is PLEASE be sensible about what you say online
There is quite literally a database being compiled of full names, social media handles, and in some cases employers of people who have made fun of him or celebrated his death. Some of the submissions are screenshots of DMs or close friends stories, I’m sure many are also from private accounts, meaning whoever submitted it was not assumed by the poster to be someone who would literally doxx them in a searchable online database
This is a great time to consider setting any social media profiles attached to your real life, name, and/or face to private and remove anyone you don’t trust from your followers. Review your digital footprint and work backwards. How easy would it be, based on things you’ve said online, for someone to find your real identity and location?
I have seen totally normal people on reddit asking for advice because they posted a meme on Instagram, someone reported them to this website, and now they, their families, and their workplaces are being inundated with harassment and death threats. They are confused and terrified because nothing like this has ever happened to them and they never thought it would. They’re not influencers, they’re not activists, they’re not chronic posters in niche online communities.
The goal of this campaign is not just to drive people to delete their posts or profiles, it’s to ruin their lives. As one person put it in the replies of a video game dev who was fired from Sony put it, “She’s been fired. When she finds work somewhere else, we will get her fired again, and again, and again.”
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t speak publicly about our opinions or refuse to participate in this whitewashing of kirk and his work. But we should do so intentionally and remain aware of the risks. Most of these posts people are being targeted over are not thoughtful statements, they’re off the cuff reactions or memes. We are in a state of unprecedented online surveillance at a time when many people’s real lives are also virtually inseparable from their online lives
I thought it was important to talk about Palestine because it’s an issue that’s very dear to my heart. I have friends in Gaza who are working as frontline workers, as doctors right now in the north of Gaza, to provide care for pregnant women and for school children to create schools in the refugee camps. And it’s an issue that’s really close to my heart for many reasons.
Hannah Einbinder on her speech at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards
yeah actually we removed the big bad wolf from the little red riding hood story because portraying violence against minors is really messed up. yeah. yeah also the wolf narrative was really predatory and had had some icky grooming vibes and a fable meant for literal children shouldn’t have implied p*do shit and grape so now little red riding hood goes into the woods and nothing happens and she goes to grandma’s house. don’t worry our kids will still stick to the path and know not to follow to wolves implicitly because we told them to and children should always do as their told. just like little red riding hood does now.
the charlie kirk news is currently competing for coverage with news about a school shooting in colorado, by the way. don’t allow that dickhead to overshadow this.
additional article from the Colorado Sun at least one of the kids reported injured is currently in stable condition. two are still fighting for their lives (6:20pmMST)
update, same Sun article, one of the children has died. (7:00pmMST)
Today’s highlights in my ongoing project to read through and transcribe the letters of Rachel (a wealthy Victorian girl at boarding school on the East Coast in the 1890s) include…
Rachel’s cousin Will and his Yale roommate Allen both have the measles. Rachel shows limited sympathy (”Poor boy!”), before immediately mocking them and calling them “childish” for getting a disease only little kids get.
Rachel and her roommate “B” (It stands for Bertha!) attempted to steal a sign (what sort idk) from a fair they went to but found they “were carefully guarded”. She wishes Will could have been there to help.
Will has a crush on a girl named Jenny, who Rachel knows, and is constantly asking Rachel if Jenny has mentioned him.
“B” often sits next to Rachel as she writes and suggests things to add to the letter or just generally distracts her.
Will and Jack, who are brothers, don’t write to each other. They write to Rachel and tell her to write to the other and pass on a message for them. Rachel keeps asking why they do this, but goes along with it anyways.
Rachel always explains why there are ink blots or areas of sloppy writing in her letters. Explanations so far include such classics as: the dinner bell just rang, it’s after lights-out and I’m writing this in the dark, “B” is shaking my arm, “B” is kissing me, this pen is broken, the postman is almost here, and there was a bee.
For her 18th birthday Rachel received: a new Kodak camera, eighteen white rosebuds, silver manicure scissors, a pair of shell side combs, a silver pencil, and a vase of pink roses. However her favorite present was from her father who wrote to say she could just buy her own present and he would pay for it.
Rachel is always mentioning the pictures she takes with her Kodak. I wish I knew what happened to them.
Rachel likes to put question marks in the middle of sentences to denote sarcasm; i.e. “I am very ? sorry for you.” and “Men were not excluded and we had the pleasure ? of meeting several.”
Your 1890s slang word of the day: “squelch” (verb) – to be lectured or punished for something. Example: “I expect to be squelched unmercifully by mama and papa.” Can also be used as a noun as in: “This term we have had nothing but squelches.”
“Rachel is always mentioning the pictures she takes with her Kodak. I wish I knew what happened to them.”
Update: It took eight years, dozens of emails, an unbelievably kind invitation from Rachel’s granddaughter (also named Rachel) and 16 hours of travel but…
