#ang does memes

[windandwater]

in this town we roast ourselves

hyperspecific poll: mishaps edition

you've broken 3 or more bones in the same incident

you dumped a pitcher of water over a lady on your first day at your first job

"can you come to the 3rd floor south restroom? there's a sandwich in the toilet"

"give me 10 minutes, someone spread packing peanuts all over the 9th floor"

you've run out of water at the top of a mountain in Norway

you can never tell your best friend that your first concert was a band you hate

you once traversed New York City in search of underwear, and failed to find any

you lost your sunglasses in the wrong restroom in Budapest*

you've fallen into 2 or more bodies of water at the same time

you got lost up a mountain in Greece but guided a Dutch family to the right path

on 3% battery after 12 hours of travel you got locked out and it started raining

Voting ended onMar 19, 2024

*meaning, opposite-gender of the one you would typically use, or, the one you would be embarrassed to look up and find yourself in if you were in Budapest

if you're none of these or more than one, no option for you, you have to reblog and tell me which ones, or tell your story that's close but not quite.

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I was bullied tagged by @jessreallywantsitall. added an extra option because I physically couldn't leave Pippin off this list but didn't want to waste two regular slots on Tolkien characters. don't worry about it, my logic is impeccable.

Which of my favorite characters do you like the most?

Morwen (Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede)

Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit/LotR, J.R.R. Tolkien)

Granny Weatherwax (Discworld, Terry Pratchett)

Toph Beifong (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Fisher/The Voidfish (The Adventure Zone: Balance)

Gonzo (the Muppets)

Peregrin "Pippin" Took (Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien)

Voting ended onJul 23, 2024

[windandwater]

was tagged by @hurricaneoflies whose new url is going to throw me off for the rest of my life, we are both fellow ancient ones from the olden times when you had to pay to change a username and it’s even weirder when one of us does it. yeesh. (fully understand though! and it’s good one!) (although between this and @lies it’s starting to feel like all my tumblr friends are full of lies. who even are you people.)

Instructions are to tag people you want to get to know better or catch up with. I never follow rules. However I did end up I tagging a few people in this post while talking about my answers and they’re welcome to do this if they want, otherwise, as always, do this if you feel like it.

I’m not cutting this because I’m in a particularly rebellious mood idk.

Favorite color: a fact about me is that I don’t like picking favorites of pretty much anything even though I’m pretty solidly in the blue camp for color--still, I’ll go with what I’m into right now, which is that I’m kind of digging bright orange & yellow flowers for summer. I just got some for my main room and I love the way they brighten everything up and just feel kind of glowy.

Currently reading: Oh boy. I just finished a string of books and I’m at a loose end. So here’s some recs: Peter Darling, by Austin Chang, a trans & gay Peter Pan remix, The True Queen, by Zen Cho, a gay followup to Sorcerer to the Crown which has POC main characters and is very good (the plots are exciting and unpredictable in a very refreshing way), Ash by Malinda Lo (bisexual Cinderella), and then I reread the Tiffany Aching Discworld series which I loved even more this time--I was thinking last night that in the Witches books he drew the world of the Witches, and in the Tiffany books he made it sing.

Last song: Rod Stewart - Rhythm of my Heart. Make fun of me all you want but while walking home last light night from visiting @truncated-symphony, it was a nice listen in the dark. (Never will I roam / For I know my place is home / Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be sailin’)

Last movie: I haven’t been able to focus on many movies since the pandemic started so I think the last time I watched a movie was spontaneously watching Winter Soldier again with @brightontheoutside because she was talking about it as she watched and I was like fuck I love that movie I’m watching it with you. I know it’s a boring answer but I really really haven’t been able to watch a movie in any real way for over a year. Also it was so nice to watch it with her even digitally and without seeing her face or hearing her voice. I miss my frieeeeends.

Last series: I think this means TV? It’s been even longer since I’ve been able to watch TV, since before the pandemic. Somewhere along the way my attention span for it just snapped in half. I’ve really just been watching youtube. So! I’ve been watching a playthrough of Resident Evil: Village which is wild if you know me, I hate the horror genre, but for some reason this doesn’t apply to games? Especially when men play them? I like male fear. And when people are making sarcastic jokes while bad shit happens. I also have a soft spot for fantasy horor. So it’s extremely fucked up but I get why y’all are gay for the tall vampire lady. mad respect.

Sweet, spicy, or flavory: uh, all of the above. I have a hell of a sweet tooth but I wouldn’t say no to any of those. Spicy food has to be flavorful though and not just pure pain.

Tea or coffee: Do these surveys ever come up with more interesting questions? As usual: I don’t drink coffee, so yes, this is the only time I’ll pick. I drink herbal teas because I can’t have caffeine, it fucks with my anxiety and the anxiety drugs I’m on. I prefer fruity teas & hibiscus but I’ll try just about anything.

Currently working on: I’ll answer this like Jess did! Professionally, I am working on making some ebooks that I can’t tell you about because it would reveal exactly where I work but they’re both going to be beautiful when they’re done. I really wish I could say because I would love to tell people to buy at least one of them, I cried really hard while making it (because it’s so complicated, design-wise, I ended up basically reading it) for multiple reasons. If that makes you curious and you know me in real life, feel free to message me and ask--I just don’t want to say publicly!!

Personally, for fandom/the internet I am STILL working on my beast of a Legolas/Gimli fic. I had wind under my sails when I was still reading LotR (part of the reason I dragged my feet reading it was so I could keep writing) but when I finished I got a little stuck. I’m at the part where they’re reunited with Merry & Pippin and I’m working on Gimli’s POV of that scene but I haven’t cracked how I’m going to approach it. I need to think on a bit and I just haven’t yet.

For my real life, I’m also working on a long-term project (that wasn’t meant to be long-term! argh!) of removing the stain and re-staining a table that I’ve had since I was a kid. It was stained white because I wanted white furniture in my pink room but I’m A Grownup Now and the table was all dinged and dented and needs to be a new, less dingy color, that brings out the wood grain better. (White stain does not look good--if you want white, use paint. imo.) Also going to put a polyurethane protective coat on there so it doesn’t dent so bad in the future, the wood seems to be very soft and this table is definitely a working table that holds my internet router among other things. I finally got all or most of the stain off (after probably 2 years, I refuse to look up how long it actually took) (removing stain is REALLY hard) and I’m moving on to finer grain sandpaper at last. I’m both terrified and excited to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and get to actually stain this thing--part of me definitely wants to be like “well there’s a spot of white stain here in the crevice of this joint no one will see better get it out and take another week” just to avoid making any permanent changes I can’t undo.

[windandwater]

Last line tag

Last line tag

Rules: Write the latest line from your WIP and tag as many people as there are words in the line. Make a new post, don’t reblog.

@minutia-r tagged me.

But his hand did not move from Gimli’s shoulder until the company began to ride again.

I mean. We’re deep in the “slow” part of slow burn. And disclaimer that this may change, I’m just getting words down on the page right now and they all need editing.

Anyway. I usually don’t tag anyone in these and I don’t know that I even know sixteen writers who follow me and might want to do this but I will hit up @gayvictorians (or whichever sideblog you want to use for this) and @truncated-symphony 

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Was tagged. I guess y’all STILL haven’t learned that I’m always going to be a snarky asshole no matter how much I like the person who tagged me.


Do you make your bed? Here comes the snark! What on earth does this mean. Do you mean daily? Weekly? Periodically? Only when I change my sheets? Why am I being asked to reveal my bed-making habits to the internet?? Anyway the answer is that when I wake up I pull everything up and make it look reasonably un-disastrous, but I re-do the whole thing periodically whenever my mattress topper goes completely wonky. This is the most boring and practical answer possible and I still don’t understand the point.

What’s your favorite number? 3. I was raised on fairy tales and I’m boring and also fuck numbers.

What’s your job? I make ebooks.

Can you parallel park? I can’t drive, so no.

A job you’ve had which would surprise people? My job history is buck wild but I think the most out of character one is that I briefly worked at my college’s fundraising office calling people for donations. I had horrible phone fear at the time (way worse than now) and it was exactly as terrible as it sounds, but it was one of the few jobs I could get without doing work study. I quit after a semester (my classes were getting really demanding and also, it sucked) but the next year I went back and did data entry for them for the rest of my time there, so it worked out.

Do you think aliens are real? Probably, but I don’t think they’ve visited our planet. I also think any that do exist are so far away that it’s doubtful we’ll ever meet them, at least in any of our lifetimes. I think it’s more likely we’ll go extinct first. Or only discover alien races that are already extinct.

Can you drive a manual? I! don’t! drive! It sucks! Cars are terrible! Someday there will be self-driving ones and I’ll be an old lady in the front seat like “haha suckers I knew if I waited long enough I wouldn’t have to do this terrible thing” and that’s my entire life plan!

What’s your guilty pleasure? Classic novels that are actually terrible, and internet/fandom drama that involves people being comically shitty. The former because I fully enjoy my own suffering, and the latter because the feeling of “well, at least I’m not involved in THAT SHIT, dAMN” never gets old even though I do feel like it’s probably not very healthy to spend too much time on it.

Tattoos? What about them?

Favorite color? WHY CAN’T I BELONG TO THE WHOLE WORLD

Things people do that drive you crazy? Force me to pick one thing or the other!!! Honestly I’m over it! You can like lots of things at once! Also I hate when people withhold important information from me that I need to know. And when they form opinions that aren’t based on data and refuse to hear otherwise, aka, vaccinate your fucking kids. Also if you stop at the top of the stairs I should be allowed to push you down them, and don’t you DARE do that on an escalator, that is how people get seriously injured, you absolute fucking monsters. Oh and also while we’re here, some BITCH ASS MOTHERFUCKER at work just asked me a question that I have answered approximately 892304902384 times and I have email receipts for it and I’m ready to walk my ass to Union Square and strangle her in person. I’m writing this while taking a whole ass breather so I don’t 1) do that, 2) attach every email I’ve ever sent her to my response, or 3) take a train to Battery Park and walk into the sea and not come out. So yeah that drives me crazy too. I hate being ignored! Repeatedly!

Any phobias? I don’t love crowds but I’m working on it. I have pretty severe driving anxiety (as I’ve alluded to) but I maintain that that’s completely rational and cars are terrible.

Favourite childhood sport? I played soccer for a while and that was awesome. I’ve also always loved swimming. But I do that shit for fun, I barely think of it as a sport.

Do you talk to yourself? Absolutely. I live alone and that’s one of the best parts.

What movies do you adore? How the fuck am I supposed to answer this in a really quick way when there is no one on earth who’s ever seen a movie who doesn’t have a really long list. What the fuck. Anyway I recently re-watched Ocean’s 8 because it was Valentine’s Day and I was really fucking cranky about being asked a lot of invasive questions and it really hit the spot. The next one I’m gonna watch is Detective Pikachu and I’m fully expecting to love it.

Do you like puzzles? What kind of puzzles? You’re gonna have to be more specific here. In general yes, and I especially like puzzle-based video games. I like things that are context, word or pattern-based and don’t involve like. math.

Favourite kind of music? WHY CAN’T I BELONG TO THE WHOLE WORLD

Tea or coffee? You’re only getting an answer on this one b/c I actively avoid coffee. I like herbal tea, coffee is strange and stupid to me, also I can’t have caffeine because it fucks up my anxiety. But just this once. And I’m watching you.

What’s the first thing you remember you wanted to be when you grew up?  An artist/lighthouse keeper.  I maintain that this would be an amazing job.

And xkcd agrees with me:

[windandwater]

was tagged for the first time in a while lol y’all learned your lesson about making me do surveys, huh

anyways

top 3 ships:

I’m forcing myself not to go on a whole spiel about what a ship even is conceptually and what criteria I should use to come up with a top 3? liking it a lot? reading a lot of fic of it? writing fic of it? longevity? it’s 2020 and I even have favorite canon ships now!

still, lest this list get 20 miles long, I’m going to narrow it down to the two I’ve actually written fic of, and one I wish I could write about because I need more of them in my life. and just know that this list is WILDLY incomplete.

Sirius Black/Remus Lupin Legolas/Gimli Angie Cartinelli/Peggy Carter

also I’m going to give you a runner-up b/c this list needs more ladies and it’s Korra/Asami because I quite literally only watched that show in its entirety once I found out they got together (I thought they had hella chemistry from the very beginning) so I think that counts.

…but yeah there are more (anyone want book recs? I got book recs) (what if I just go off on a tangent about Shakespeare) (what about a list of pairings from fandoms I’m not in and whose original works I have never consumed that would be pretty hilarious) (lmk if you want an annotated list of pairings I like I’ll fuckin do it) but we clearly don’t have time.

lipstick or chapstick:

uhhh. why is this an either/or question? why do people always try make me choose between 2 things? it’s not that simple, you need a 2 page explanation of my lip habits or this is all pointless! fuck off!

so basically I rarely wear makeup b/c I can’t have any of it around my eyes (allergic reactions suck also fuck off with that “wear it every day” bullshit hey world? this is my face. deal with it.) BUT I do sometimes wear lipstick and a bit of foundation (applied far away from my eyes) for (very, VERY) special occasions. and as for chapstick, I wear it during times when my lips are super dry or prone to chapping, you know, like a normal person. I still don’t understand this question.

last song:

idk, whatever came up on my shuffle as I was coming in to work. I ran into a coworker on the way so I wasn’t really listening.

but my first song this morning was The Grateful Dead - Bertha. A+ way to start the day, it’s a good walk-to-the-subway song.

last movie:

I re-watched Magic Mike XXL to make myself feel better about the world and it worked. that movie really just chugs “loving women” juice the whole way through, it’s delightful.

I meant to use it to get myself into a movie-watching mood and watch something I hadn’t seen before b/c it’s been months since I watched anything but youtube, but it didn’t work. oh well.

reading:

any time I get this question at the end or beginning of the year it’s going to be the same goddamn answer: I’m reading Lord of the Ring again. as usual. I’m at the part where Sam and Frodo wake up in Ithilien and everyone bows to them and I’m just weeping all the way through because I love Samwise Gamgee so much.

anyway next on my list is either The Starless Sea by Eric Morgenstern, which I have a copy of but am less excited about than Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell, which I will read instead if I get an ebook of it by the time I finish LotR.

[windandwater]

Reading meme! I actually have a lot to say about how I read so I won’t snark at @crocordile for tagging me :D

1) Do you have a certain place at home for reading?

Not really. I sort of cart my book/tablet around with me while I’m doing things, so it travels with me to the bathroom, the kitchen, my desk to be propped up on my computer. But the best place to relax and read at home is lying down on either the couch or the bed.

2) Bookmark or random piece of paper?

I have a whole drawer of magnetic bookmarks that are amazing and useful but I never pull them out. I swear to god I’ll do anything to avoid using an actual bookmark. The most recent thing I used was a hair tie, and before that, the envelope for a bill. But I read mostly on a tablet these days so it’s not as much of a Problem as it used to be.

3) Can you just stop reading or do you have to stop after a chapter/a certain amount of pages?

It depends. I read while I ride the subway a lot and I gotta stop when it’s time to get off, so I’ve gotten better about being able to stop and come back. If it’s a REALLY good book I’ll sometimes keep reading it while walking but not usually. And on the flipside, if the book is really upsetting or intense I’ll put it down in the middle. But if I’m sitting and focusing, I will keep reading to the end of a chapter or section.

4) Do you eat or drink while reading?

Yep. Other way around, actually--I read while eating. While I’m doing everything, actually. Specifically while eating I have this compulsion to pull out a book or just read SOMETHING, because there is always something I could be reading. There are also some books I associate with certain food, because I have vivid memories of reading while eating that food.

5) Music or TV while reading?

Music yes, TV no. I can’t focus on the book and listen to conversation/dialogue. And I typically only listen to music while I’m reading on the train (the train without music is a Special Hell for me), at home I prefer to do it in silence.

6) Reading at home or everywhere?

E V E R Y W H E R E

And honestly I spend so much time on trains and waiting for trains and being in line forever that life would be excruciatingly boring without a book.

7) Do you read ahead or even skip pages?

I’ve tried reading ahead and it never works out for me. Sometimes if a book is making me really anxious I’ll look up spoilers so I can get through it without panicking but reading ahead with no context does nothing.

I’d never skip pages. I’ll skim sometimes if it’s really boring or dry (reading classics: fun for the whole family!) but I wouldn’t just skip over anything.

8) Breaking the spine or keeping it like new?

As a kid and during the time when I only read print books, I would break the spine just to make it easier to keep it open while I was brushing my teeth, wandering around the house, etc. Now if it’s a new book I try to keep it intact, because it’s more of a physical/tangible possession that I have bought and now own and try to take care of. And I usually have a digital copy as well that holds up to my weird habits a bit better.

9) Do you write in your books?

This is where the tablet/hard copy difference is the most pronounced, and a big  reason I LOVE ebooks! I can. not. write in physical books. I’ve tried it and I just end up unable to read the book later because all I can focus on is my dumb notes and underlines--I always think they’re stupid and terrible in retrospect. However, in a tablet it doesn’t bother me at all, and you can delete stuff! So I highlight and take notes and bookmark stuff and color-code and do whatever I damn well please, it’s amazing. The Moby Dick liveblog of yore would never have happened without an ebook--for many reasons, but that was the thing that allowed me to remember what I wanted to say and therefore post all the time!

[windandwater]

Tagged by @megiusa-agliusa​. I've done a version of this before, but my library has changed a lot since then, so why the hell not. 

Rules: we're snooping on your playlist. Set your entire music library to shuffle and report the first ten tracks that pop up! Then choose ten additional people! (because I'm not doing that, sorry not sorry)

(also I fully reserve the right to cheat, because honestly my library has a lot of weird random shit that I only have because it's part of a soundtrack, or an album that has a ~history with me, or whatever. so. deal with it.)

Flogging Molly - Queen Anne's Revenge

Dropkick Murphys - Burn (okay I know I just said about cheating but I swear to you this was a coincidence and I skipped nothing. we off to a Celtic Punk start!! no regrets.)

Rick Astley - Can't Help Falling in Love With You (....okay so listen. it’s very hard to find good covers of this song and I despise Elvis. this was one that came up. it’s still not The Perfect Cover but it’s close enough.)

The Who - I'm Free / Pinball Wizard (also a coincidence, and I jammed these together because honestly we don’t need this whole list to be “Tommy.” but Tommy is a dope album, obviously.) (however: Won’t Get Fooled Again is my jam right now. go listen to that instead.)

Straight No Chaser - Dock of the Bay/Proud Mary (hi yes I’m acapella trash)

Hercules Soundtrack - I Won't Say (I'm In Love) (hi yes I’m also Disney trash)

Little Feat - Fat Man in the Bathtub (this song is probably as offensive as the title makes it sound but hell if I know what the lyrics even mean, and the song itself rocks so NO REGRETS HONESTLY) (WITH THE BLUUUUUEEEESSSS)

Hamilton Soundtrack - Guns and Ships (AND SO THE BALANCE SHIFTS. WE RENDEZVOUS WITH ROCHAMBEAU, CONSOLIDATE OUR GIFTS. WE CAN END THIS WAR AT YORKTOWN, CUT THEM OFF AT SEA BUT--*Ang is forcibly dragged away*)

Twin Forks - Back to You (this song is doooope) (whistle past the graveyard! even the dead deserve a song!)

Mumford and Sons - Hopeless Wanderer (and if you ever forget how great this song is, watch the music video again. you’re welcome.)