#definitely overthinking this

[retiredibex]

If you needed any more proof the crew behind Heated Rivalry went all out…

Notice the hotel wall art behind Ilya in episode 5.

That's 1000% a photo of the public housing Choi Hung Estate (彩虹邨) in Hong Kong 🇭🇰 , shot from one side of the rooftop tennis courts.

Which means -

Choi Hung/彩虹 means "rainbow" in Cantonese, so yes they literally snuck a rainbow pride flag into Shane's coming out, "I think I'm gay" scene. 🏳️‍🌈

2. The courts pictured are encircled on all sides by apartment buildings, which leads to it feeling like a little oasis of calm in a bustling Hong Kong, with the palm trees helping that feeling (how both view the All-star game).

Also there has been lingering tension between residents who just want to play sports with their neighbors vs instagramers/influences who interfere while photo-taking (2018 NY Times article about it here) mirroring how the boys view hockey and each other vs the manufactured rivalry.

3. Speaking of which, Ilya physically moves away from the courts & rainbows (so surface level talk about sports & sexuality which have been looming over him/at the forefront of conversation so far) when he crosses the room to sit next to Shane and discuss their relationship.

4. The closer you look, the more evident it is that the buildings pictured are old public housing (they were built in the 1960s) that have been hanging in there through constant upkeep. So an attractive facade that the public sees with lot of hidden depth and history that peaks through despite best efforts to keep it concealed - remind you of anyone?

5. Also (this is really stretching the metaphor now), but Ilya's complex, uncertain feelings about Russia and his future are mirrored by many HK-ers (like myself) sometimes uneasy feelings about HK identity, which are encapsulated by places like the public housing estate.

If you've ever heard of Hong Kong's can-do Lion Rock spirit, the estate literally sits in the shadow of that titular mountain and (like many similar places) was initially built to house people fleeing the Chinese Civil War, or had nowhere to turn to following the Shek Kip Mei fire. Over 43,000 people call one of the eight 20-story estate buildings home (which was the world’s tallest and densest of it's kind at the time it was built) .

The estate is set to be demolished and redeveloped soon to make way for more urgently needed public housing, so you have this uneasy conflict between hanging on to a familiar past and being confronted with the messy present reality.

You can see more photos of daily life in the estate here , or read more about it's history here, but this video below is a great oral history/short film of the estate that I highly recommend.

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Now I know Heated Rivalry team most likely didn't have all this background knowledge in mind when picking wall art.

But the fact they went out of their way to find something that truly "fit" the scene (and nailed it!) rather than leave the wall blank or put up generic "Tampa Florida photos" is a testament to their care and love of their craft.

Well done! 💕

[gay--dog]

i never know what to do when i see a post i relate to but its worded to be specifically about A Character that acts that way and not like. a real life person. cause like it feels weird to just #me tag that because its about a character . and Im A Real Boy . so idk

[quietlypoetic]

Bruh

Why does my anxiety have to be so annoying?

TLDR: passport stress

I applied to get a new passport cause I'm planning on going out of the country for a few weeks and my old passport looked nothing like me and was expiring a few months after my trip so I figured why not get a new one? Didn't want to risk it.

Sent out my passport... estimated turnaround 8-10 weeks. No problem. I'd still have like 2 ish weeks before my trip.

Kept an eye on the tracking to make sure it made it to them. It did. But now it said turnaround was 10-13 weeks. Ok. It would be cutting it very close but it should be ok.

I've been trying to not obsessively check on the status cause it won't do me any good if it's still like 2 months out from being done.

I check on the status today and it said it was mailed? And it gave me a tracking number? And it'll get here tomorrow??

That's less than 8 weeks.

What if something is wrong? What if it got rejected for some reason? It seems like it should be ok but... what if?

This trip means way too much to me to miss and I don't have enough time to apply for another new passport... please just have been a really quick turnaround and everything is ok.

There's someone on the other side of the world I really want to see and this stress isn't making the wait any easier...

[sepp-gw]

So apparently in the Ant-Man movie the book The Fault in Our Stars makes a brief appearance. Therefore John Green exists in the MCU and by extension, his brother Hank as well.

My Twitter profile was once mentioned by name on Hank Green’s podcast Delete This.

So the logical conclusion here is that, despite never having seen any of the films myself, I canonically exist in the MCU.

Idk what to do with this information

[frenziedslashers]

So I got this guy at works number but really only asked for it so in case one of us couldn't come in we would know(we are partners at work) I like him- but like- would it be weird if I messaged him??? I really wanna message him, but idk. I might just ask him Wednesday when I go back to work if he wants to hang out but idk. I don't wanna be annoying or seem needy 😭 last time I seemed needy I got used really bad

[darknightfrombeyond]

So, a little-known fact about me is that I actually don’t have a grandfather. My maternal granddad passed away when I was little, and my paternal granddad left when my dad was still a kid. So . . .

Because of that I think I may be having a hard time coming up with what Amelia would call her grandfather. They’re close. She loves him, he means a lot to her.

But calling him “grandfather” or “granddad” sounds formal. Very impersonal. Like calling someone “Sir”.

I’ve been thinking of what I call my grandmother but it doesn’t work. I call her “grandmama”. Which is the French word.

I doubt my English/German/Russian oc would call her grandfather the French “grandpapa”. lol

Am I overthinking this? Is “grandpa” alright?

I considered “Papi” but I’m not sure that works either.

What do you all call your grandfathers?

[justkeeptrekkin]

Angels as messengers

As a Classics nerd and also a Good Omens nerd, I can’t help but think about the fact that the etymological route of ‘angel’ is the Greek word άγγελος, which translates (largely speaking) as messenger.

I may be the only one to find this interesting. But I think it’s worth pointing out that angels are, in the simplest terms, messengers of God- they’re God’s postmen. They deliver messages and bring kind words. (Not unlike the actual postman in Good Omens, who’s a really fascinating when you think about it) ‘Messenger’- that’s what the Greek word means, and that’s a very loose idea of what an angel is for.

The angels in Good Omens are just that. God’s employees, Her messengers who go about and deliver both news and Armageddon like they’re both roughly the same thing. Like one isn’t much worse than the other.

Angels in GO are cold and beaurocratic- they’re glorified postmen who deliver miracles and pain and cathartic floods like they’re simply divine parcels.

[technogeist1890]

Every time Sam Winchester kisses someone, it either looks like he's trying desperately not to break them, or he's straight-up trying to eat them 😂

I don't know which I like better, they're both a mood. Like, on the one hand, I would love someone to cradle my face and just brush their lips against mine, but at the same time j ust fcukinv d e v o u r me.