A good costume needs details, so I ramble about details.
These are the musings of a 30 something Trekkie with a thing for Garashir, StormPilot and interests in Doctor Who, Torchwood, Big Finish, Archaeology, Steampunk and her 2679 crushes... Marxist feminist with a pretty morbid humour!
This is a sanctuary for deranged sparrows.
Official spokesperson of Swiss Clann McGann.
Names are first and foremost sounds, it’s the people that give them meaning. Gladiators are stripped of everything connected to their former life, especially of names. So they have to make their own.
So, not only did I colour this sketch, I also wrote a ficlet for it . Thank you so much to @mssr-cellophane and @nikaranikita for the love.
Shoutout to @natthemess for giving me Spartacus feels, which totally is to blame for this thing. And @waywaychuck who wrote me a beautiful Ancient Roman AU sometime ago. I love you guys so much!
There is a second part, you guys. I drew another picture and then I had to write more. No worries, no one dies, just fluff.
Some idiot is writing an ATLA AU for The Bangkok Boy called the Ba Sing Se Boy. The same idiot has been drawing some stuff, nothing of which that has happened in the fic yet. And nobody knows if it ever will. Peace has gotten some Zuko and Sun some Sokka smashed in and it somehow works. Now we just need to write it. No biggie…
Official title: A firebender‘s strength is fuelled by the Sun. Unofficial title: Your future firelady is a fistbender. The pose was inspired by this wonderful art.
“It’s funny,” I told Flewin. “We have an old Nintendo Game Boy floating around the house, and Tetris is the only game we own. My wife will sometimes dig it out to play on airplanes and long car rides. She’s weirdly good at it. She can get 500 or 600 lines, no problem.”
What Flewin said next I will never forget.
“Oh, my!”
/end id]
TL;DR on the article
The husband was writing an article on classic video game records, was surprised to find out that holding the Tetris record is a bit of a big deal, and mentions how good his wife is at it.
The guy he’s talking to mentions that the record is 327, way lower than his wifes usual scores of 500-600.
They travel to a tournament, and she goes to do her attempt. Just after she beats 327, and is climbing higher, a judge brings up to the husband that the specific version she’s playing actually has a different record of 545.
She overhears that she needs to beat 500-something, and keeps going, setting the record at 841.
which, they later find out, is her second-best record
There was a decent but ultimately forgettable fantasy novel I read a long time ago that had a single moment that stuck with me.
The protagonist has just won the world famous sword fighting competition in the big, rich capital and is talking to his mentor, and says something about being the best swordsman in the world. The mentor frowns and tells him that no, he isn’t. He is the best swordsman out of the people that could afford to show up to this tournament. There could be a mercenary way out in the mountains, patrolling a snow encrusted fort’s walls that could kick his ass and there was no way to know until he was already losing to the guy.
I think about that a lot, and how for every apparently dominant competitor, there might be a fucking ronin out there somewhere capable of destroying them.
I have to say Goddess Bless You From Death is in one aspect extremely relatable: The true dangers of office work!
As someone who just started physiotherapy because the whole arm hurts, I felt seen in a way I have never before. But my recommendation would be thermacare or tiger balm patches.
Sometimes things align so well, that you get to do your favourite thing while also being able to visit some of your favourite people you never see at the same time.
Just so happy I needed to scream it into the void…
I’m wondering where do you get all this info from?? You must do an insane amount of research. Especially with like, clothing influences - do you just google “dress that looks vaguely like this” and see what pops up? Haha
Aww, thank you! Funnily enough, the clothing posts are actually the easiest for me because the pictures do most of the work of explaining why something is cool or interesting. Less typing for me, haha.
The amount of research I do really varies; it could be anywhere from a quick skim of a Wikipedia article to face in hands while mumbling “This is insane. Why am I doing this? I’m insane.”
Generally speaking, anything Chinese, Japanese, or Korean is pretty easy to research. All three countries have really strong global presences and thriving tourism industries, so you can find a lot of English-language websites describing their traditional clothing and customs. The tumblr users nannaia, ziseviolet, and guzhuangheaven are great resources for learning about traditional Chinese clothing and culture. Wikipedia is actually really thorough about documenting Japanese and Korean culture; probably because Korean dramas and anime are both wildly popular in the West. Tanuki-Kimono is also a great resource for traditional Japanese fashion and arts.
Southeast Asia is a lot harder to research. Mostly, I can spot SE Asian things in Avatar because I grew up around SE Asian culture. But finding proper terminology for it on the internet is still pretty difficult, so I mostly just rely on pictures from cultural festivals and performances and clothing catalogs to get across my observations. Nannaia is also a pretty great resource for Vietnamese clothing, specifically.
Tibetan and other Himalayan cultures are about on the same level of research difficulty as Southeast Asia. Nonetheless, I still really enjoy researching them because Tibetan clothing is so colorful and intricate, and their lifestyles are very distinct from East and Southeast Asia. At the same time, when I come across certain practices of their’s that I can relate to, it makes me realize, “Oh, I guess that must be a Buddhist thing.” Himalayan Art is a great resource for identifying Tibetan art and clothing. Mongolian culture is also similarly interesting to me, combined with them having some of my favorite folk music.
Asian-Folk-Wardrobe is an overall fantastic archive of various traditional Asian dress.
Finally, looking into Indigenous anything definitely falls under “insane amounts of research”. I try to be very, very careful when researching indigenous cultures because it’s so outside of my cultural wheelhouse. Mostly I try to stick to information from museum websites, online textbooks, various translation dictionaries, and academic journals. Mostly-Mundane-ATLA is of Inupiat descent and is very knowledgeable about Alaska’s arctic cultures.
The biggest hurdle I face when researching Indigenous cultures is there is such a strong financial incentive for people to outright lie. There are countless websites out there that claim to sell “Authentic Native Weapons/Jewelry/Clothing” and will literally just makeup a “cultural” backstory for whatever they’re trying to sell. You can usually distinguish these websites by their tendency to namedrop only the most well-known Native peoples and treat those people groups like they’re a monolith, such as Navajo or Cherokee. They’re the online equivalent to the traveling snake oil salesmen.
Like what I’m doing? Tips always appreciated, never expected. ^_^
Before 2026 starts I want to thank the Bangkok Boy for not only introducing me to my new blorbos and giving me top tier entertainment with a gripping and spicy story, but also inducing a deep craving for korean barbecue into me. Because of that we found an amazing korean restaurant in our city where we now are to eat our way into the new year…
despite the fact that jud’s form and view of christianity is a very pleasant one, i appreciate that no part of benoit blanc is converted. it’s not like i expected benoit to become a christian obviously, but i expected him to potentially stay for a service at the end, when invited. or to show appreciation for what jud is building at his church. even just appreciation that he’s welcome.
after the whole movie, when benoit is given the invite, he stillsays there’s nothing he wants less than to stay in that church. it’s very, very reasonable and realistic of a traumatized atheist, but i almost never see it depicted in this way. usually they come around to “see the beauty” in one way or another. i just really appreciate that they didn’t do that.
