SarcasticSmiler's Randomness

You'll find mainly Hobbit things here, interspersed with The Almighty Johnsons, and the actors within both, with a dash of Being Human, and a generous sprinkling of Disney. There are other things that pop up that amuse or interest me enough to hit reblog. Also various bits and bobs on things I'm writing. Apparently there'll also be a bit of Star Wars here too, considering I did the stupid thing of getting curious about Kylux and got myself dragged into that blackhole of despair. So welcome and have a wander through the posts if you so wish. I should probably add that I'm gods-awful at responding to things, so if you answer something, I promise I'm not ignoring you, I'm just panicking slightly and probably allowing myself to be sidetracked.

[nefastidies]

General Hux’s new routine

[sarcasticsmilerrandomness]

Note to self: Don’t agree to do a craft fair till you know when it actually is.

...I have eight days to build up enough stock for it. Three of those days I’m at work, one of them I’m running errands and dropping mum off at the hairdressers, so really I have just over four-ish days.

I think it’s time to dust off my ‘doing an essay the night before’ mentality. This is gunna be an interesting week.

[sarcasticsmilerrandomness]

...my great-great-great uncle has his own Wikipedia page.

In the modern age nothing hits home quite so much as a wiki page.

[sarcasticsmilerrandomness]

I’ve learnt some new acronyms today, similar to SWALK, after reading some letters my grandparents wrote to each other while he was away.

And on the one hand I feel a little mentally scarred because they’re my grandparents.

And on the other, I kept thinking ‘I reckon Bilbo and Thorin would use things like this’

These new acronyms are BURMA (Be Upstairs Ready My Angel), NORWICH ((k)Nickers Off Ready When I Come Home), and ITALY (I Trust And Love You or I’m Thinking About Loving You)

Do you see where I’m coming from with the whole ‘this is my grandparents, I’m a little weirded out’ and ‘this could be kinda cute between Bilbo and Thorin, maybe it’s a hobbit custom?’

[sarcasticsmilerrandomness]

Fanfiction: A strange phenomenon in which obsessive readers quit caring about physical books only to become even more obsessive readers.

[domhnallgleesonbrasil]

Domhnall Gleeson photographed by Benedict Evans (Jan/2018)

[sarcasticsmilerrandomness]

So a little while ago I posted about the fact that my great-great-great- grandmother’s name was Mary Jones, and that she was born in Flintshire, Wales, which makes it pretty much impossible to track her.

In my attempt to shed some light on this elusive woman I ordered her marriage certificate, hoping that knowing who her father was would help pin her down.

The certificate arrived today.

Her father’s name is John.

John Jones.

That is just as bad as flipping Mary Jones!

It would seem that even though they’ve been dead for over a hundred years, my family enjoys fucking with me.

Luckily, I’ve studied history for long enough that the concept, and reality, of me loudly arguing with dead people isn’t seen as strange.

[sarcasticsmilerrandomness]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Finally figured out what to write for prompt 23 - “You broke what?!?”

[sarcasticsmilerrandomness]

Finally found out that my great-great-great-grandmother’s maiden name was Jones.

This discovery was promptly followed by the desire to just give up.

Why?

She was born in Wales. Do you have any idea how common the surname ‘Jones’ is in Wales?

And to top it all off her first name is Mary.

All I know about this woman is she married John Thomas in Essex, but she was born in Flintshire, possibly Holywell.

Do you know how many babies called Mary Jones were born in Holywell in 1839?

Nineteen!

And I’m only assuming she was born in Holywell, I’ve not even dared to venture into the other districts of Flintshire.

[sarcasticsmilerrandomness]

I picked up my new glasses today. It’s been about four years since I had new ones. I hadn’t realised how scratched up and filthy my old ones were till I put these new ones on and suddenly everything’s in HD. It almost feels like I don’t even have lenses in the frames, it seems that clear.

[sarcasticsmilerrandomness]

Ok, two things.

First, I’m pretty sure I turned that off earlier, why is it suddenly back on?

Second, why is that image ‘not safe’ when I’ve already scrolled past an image of a half naked Kylo Ren with cum on his face that was apparently considered ‘safe’. Where the hell is the logic in that?

[sarcasticsmilerrandomness]

Most people when they look up their family history find fascinating stories, interesting jobs, and unexpected connections.

Me?

I find a line of dick jokes.

I’m, unfortunately, serious.

This is all from my maternal grandfather’s side.

If you go up his mother’s line then her maiden name was ‘Head’, there are rather a lot of males in that line called Richard. So it has now been christened the ‘Dick Head Line’.

Go up his father’s line and there seems to be a fair few chaps called ‘John Thomas’...and it is at this point I sat at the computer with an ‘are you fucking kidding me’ expression on my face, before frantically opening google and hoping ‘John Thomas’ didn’t mean what I thought it meant. But, nope, it’s definitely a slang term for a penis.

I’m fairly certain that my granddad, in whatever spirit world he currently resides, is laughing at me.

[leepacey]

I say, jolly good show, chaps. And did I panic? I think not.

[zombeesknees]

#the comic relief who is genuinely comic  #and who makes the ‘incompetent bufoon’ trope actually work as an endearing quality as originally intended  #well played movie - well played  #john hannah  #WHAT A FOX

[antivillain]

#but! BUT!!!#THE GREAT THING ABOUT JONATHAN#IS HE’S NOT INCOMPETENT#he can read ancient Egyptian albeit not as well as his baby sister#he clearly has an interest in archaeology if only for treasure-related reasons#he had to go through intensive schooling to get the sort of permit required#to even have digs of his own#WHICH HE CLEARLY DOES#on a dig down in Thebes#he says and Evie believes him#Jonathan reads from the Book of the Living and he’s an excellent shot with a rifle and is clearly a boxer#Jonathan is SO COMPETENT and SO IMPORTANT#while simultaneously being plucky comic relief without JUST being plucky comic relief#u get me?

[star-anise]

Jonathan, like Phryne Fisher, clearly hasn’t taken anything seriously since 1918.

[jkthinkythoughts]

And, I would suspect, for similar reasons.

[thebluemeany]

^^^This. Jonathan being in World War I makes total sense. It’s almost impossible for him not to have been. Given his age and background, he probably volunteered in 1914.  

Of course he’s going to not take anything seriously. Of course he can shoot. The drinking, the skittishness, the recklessness, the sense of ‘keeping your head down’, the scepticism about traditional heroism….

The one with more actual experience of death, carnage and fighting is Jonathan. Not Rick. Not Ardeth Bey. Jonathan.

When Rick says ‘I’ve had worse (situation/odds)’ and Jonathan replies “ Me too”. That’s probably true. 

Drop The Mummy into the real world context and that’s a character who’s going to have seen a lot of his school friends die, along with the myths and tales of heroism they were raised on. Sort of makes the line where Evie’s scolding him for drinking/messing about a lot darker…

Evie: Have you no respect for the dead? Jonathan: Of course I do, but sometimes I’d rather like to join them.

[gingersnapwolves]

I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS RIGHT NOW

[deadcatwithaflamethrower]

*record scratch*

Wait a minute. Why is it being assumed that Rick and Ardeth wouldn’t have fought in WWI, as well? Johnathan isn’t that much older than any of them–in fact, there is a good chance that he, Rick, and Ardeth are all of an age. Just because Johnathan’s hair is thinning doesn’t mean he’s a decade older.

It was a LOT easier to lie about your age back in the day. So much easier.

Johnathan is the soldier who fought in WWI and became disillusionsed with pretty much everything except wanting to live (most of the time) and live well–and where is the shame in that? He would have seen some of the darkest shit humanity has to offer, and he kept going. And the thing is, though, archaeological digs at that time were DANGEROUS. Not from curses (usually) but from assholes who would turn up with guns to try and steal anything you discovered. Johnathan never really STOPPED having to deal with dangerous pricks, it was just less dangerous than death raining down from the sky in bomb, bullet, and mustard gas form all the time.

Rick grew up in Egypt as an orphan. What paperwork? He joined the French Foreign Legion, which fought in World War I in some seriously critical battles on the Western Front in Europe. Rick is the soldier who quickly grew disillusioned with everything, but he didn’t know how to stop being a soldier. Johnathan had a career and schooling to fall back on. Rick had guns, the talent of not dying easily, and not much else. When the army finally left him behind because he was literally the only survivor of his last FFL battle, he literally didn’t know what to do. At all. “Looking for a good time” was code for “Please someone give me a fucking purpose.”

Ardeth grew up in the desert. He probably never enlisted…but if you think his people didn’t fight against invading forces during WWI, think again: that region of North Africa was swarming with soldiers on both sides, and they alll tried to claim everything they stumbled over even while in the midst of fighting each other. Ardeth spent his entire life fighting to protect what belonged to him, what belonged to his people, and trying to keep assholes from stealing things that didn’t belong to anyone (for good reason). By the time the war was over, Ardeth was disillisioned in everyone except his own people, and seriously fucking done with stupid idiots who stole in the name of archaeology. He is completely (justifiably) resigned to the worst when Rick the Magic Survivalist returns to Hamunaptra.

[serpentine-sorceror-deactivated]

This has been another episode of “Actual History adding context and depth to character behavior”

[filthybonnet]

I love when “The Mummy” fandom comes out to play. But it’s even better when the history side of tumblr is also in “The Mummy” fandom.

[knottingthewind]

Every time this post comes around I am compelled to watch The Mummy again.

[sarcasticsmilerrandomness]

An actual conversation I had with one of the managers today while discussing the new cigarette cupboards:

Me: They’ve moved the cigars where the tobacco used to be, and now the tobacco is up that end with all its accoutrements next to it.

Him: Accoutrements?

Me: Yes.

Him: Is that a word?

Me:....yes, it means all the various things that go with it.

Him: Where did you learn that?

Me: (a bit puzzled over his reaction) Reading, mother, and such.

Him: Reading your mother?!

Me: What? No! There’s a comma there! Reading comma mother. Two separate things!

He proceeded to look at me strangely and just leave after that, muttering ‘reading your mother’ to himself.

But seriously though, why would I use a fake word when discussing something with a manager of all people, and secondly, where else would I have learnt it? Do general people not realise that you can pick up various words by reading?

[sarcasticsmilerrandomness]

Got Darwyn a new jumper today, I just couldn’t resist.

It was a toss up, though, between this one, a red Darth Vader one, and a white Stormtrooper one. But considering Darwyn’s a girl who doesn’t take any shit I thought Leia would suit her better.

[ondolindiel]

[tularyn]