Author: kirkwallhellmouth

impressioniste:

I never, ever do this… but I’m making an exception.

A personal friend of mine is battling cancer, and is in a very tough spot.

In August of 2011 Mike was diagnosed with stage two, metastatic testicular cancer. And although we were able to finish three rounds of chemotherapy, we were unable to get a life-saving surgery before our insurance ran out.

He is an amazingly, wonderfully sweet and caring person that’s being fucked over by the current healthcare system. Last month, while I was suffering from my nervous breakdown, he called _me_ to check on me and make sure I was okay or see if I needed anything. While he was battling cancer.

I try so hard not to ever ask for anything for myself and to give to people when I can, so even if you can’t help, possibly just signal boost? All the details about his condition, exactly what he’s been diagnosed with, the treatments he’s had, all the options he and his wife have exhausted, and how people can help are detailed in the link provided.

He and his wife just got married, recently. They shouldn’t be facing this kind of finality already. I hate making posts like this, but he’s always been there for me, and I can’t just sit and do nothing.

Signal boosting.

WHEN we don’t get the results we want in our military endeavors, we don’t blame the soldiers. We don’t say, “It’s these lazy soldiers and their bloated benefits plans! That’s why we haven’t done better in Afghanistan!” No, if the results aren’t there, we blame the planners. We blame the generals, the secretary of defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No one contemplates blaming the men and women fighting every day in the trenches for little pay and scant recognition.

And yet in education we do just that. When we don’t like the way our students score on international standardized tests, we blame the teachers. When we don’t like the way particular schools perform, we blame the teachers and restrict their resources.

The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries  (via thenewwomensmovement)

allegra means happy—and is also my name: I want to make another FemShep

subitoallegra:

downwithempires:

subitoallegra:

rinjirenee:

subitoallegra:

adreameroftheday:

subitoallegra:

rinjirenee:

subitoallegra:

Not do another ME1 run with her, but just start her out at 2 and see where she takes me.

I kind of want to make her a lonely FShep à la rinjirenee’s Lonely Gay Manshep, except no Kelly because I like her, but don’t really want to Fake Romance her. Also no Liara parce que les Asari ne…

But in one month she’ll be able to have a proper s/s romance!

But what if it just ends up being Jessica Chobot? I am NOT holding out for Jessica Chobot.

Second Lieutenant Ashley Williams.

Surprisingly, I wouldn’t. I’ve already got an Ash-mance rolling right now, and I want to play through different romances with ME3 rather than doing the same one twice (at least at first).

Maybe Matt could pursue Miri, freeing up Ash for my new FemShep? Hm, maybe I won’t play Matt past ME1 until romances are confirmed….

This is assuming that Ash is going to be available for Femshep, and given the recent press?  I highly doubt it.

I honestly don’t know what to expect at this point—you’d think they’d reinstate the VS s/s romance since it was supposed to be there in the first place, but given everything else I’ve seen so far, I don’t have my hopes up….

I think I’m going to play it safe and stop Matt after ME1 in case Ash does open up for FemShep. That way, if she doesn’t, I won’t have to cheat on her with Matt if I don’t need to.

There is supposedly a new female s/s option who is neither Ash nor the reporter, and who is only romanceable by femShep (just as there is supposedly an mShep only male character) which means my own “Forever Alone” femShep might still have a shot at romance if Ash isn’t an s/s option. Third time is hopefully the charm.

WHOA, SERIOUSLY?

OH MAN, I AM DEFINITELY LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING MORE ABOUT THAT

I don’t know if there’ll be that much about the potential only!s/s option until the game comes out, but they both had enough lines in the ~leaked~ script that I’m sure they’ll be around in some capacity and I am very interested in this new possibility for femShep (which means if Ash is an option for femShep, I’ll probably end up doing a play through with each).

But on the reporter-voiced-by-Chobot front…yeah, not really interested. I don’t have a single Shepard who would find Diana remotely attractive. And most of them don’t trust reporters who are not Emily Wong. Who I wish we could see again, actually.

allegra means happy—and is also my name: I want to make another FemShep

allegra means happy—and is also my name: I want to make another FemShep

subitoallegra:

rinjirenee:

subitoallegra:

adreameroftheday:

subitoallegra:

rinjirenee:

subitoallegra:

Not do another ME1 run with her, but just start her out at 2 and see where she takes me.

I kind of want to make her a lonely FShep à la rinjirenee’s Lonely Gay Manshep, except no Kelly because I like her, but don’t really want to Fake Romance her. Also no Liara parce que les Asari ne…

But in one month she’ll be able to have a proper s/s romance!

But what if it just ends up being Jessica Chobot? I am NOT holding out for Jessica Chobot.

Second Lieutenant Ashley Williams.

Surprisingly, I wouldn’t. I’ve already got an Ash-mance rolling right now, and I want to play through different romances with ME3 rather than doing the same one twice (at least at first).

Maybe Matt could pursue Miri, freeing up Ash for my new FemShep? Hm, maybe I won’t play Matt past ME1 until romances are confirmed….

This is assuming that Ash is going to be available for Femshep, and given the recent press?  I highly doubt it.

I honestly don’t know what to expect at this point—you’d think they’d reinstate the VS s/s romance since it was supposed to be there in the first place, but given everything else I’ve seen so far, I don’t have my hopes up….

I think I’m going to play it safe and stop Matt after ME1 in case Ash does open up for FemShep. That way, if she doesn’t, I won’t have to cheat on her with Matt if I don’t need to.

There is supposedly a new female s/s option who is neither Ash nor the reporter, and who is only romanceable by femShep (just as there is supposedly an mShep only male character) which means my own “Forever Alone” femShep might still have a shot at romance if Ash isn’t an s/s option. Third time is hopefully the charm.

allegra means happy—and is also my name: I want to make another FemShep

Finished LotSB with Jen Shepard. Who mostly saw taking down the Shadow Broker as a way to get her mind off losing a crew member. Only she went and read Miranda’s file.

And I just about cried. Jen’s response to getting to know a different side of Miranda has been added to my list of things I need to address in short fics.

Because Tumblr’s photoset thing is NOT my friend tonight, click the little grey box, plzthx.

Jen Shepard – Colonist, Sole Survivor, Infiltrator, Paragade.

I really like the shadows on this. And the way her eyes are narrowed just slightly, and the slight frowning indentations between her eyes.

This is the first Shepard I’ve finished the game with who lost anyone on the suicide mission. This is the Shepard I ship with Jack in fics, the Shepard I hope will be able to romance Ash in ME3. In this run, Miranda died. Because there was no way this Shepard wasn’t going to tell Miranda to back the hell off when it came to Jack, and there was no way this Shepard would say some really rather horribly condescending things about Jack to get back in Miranda’s good graces. And because of things I will eventually do with my femShep/Jack drabbles, this Shepard and Jack, for my narrative purposes, needed to hear Miranda resign, needed to hear her realize that, yes, you could not blame TIM wanting to keep the human Reaper on a “rogue cell.” These two choices meant, because of game mechanics, Miranda died in this run.

So instead of a moment alone in an empty cabin, Jen Shepard got a moment alone with an empty casket, a moment to promise herself this will never happen again, that she’ll do better next time, that she won’t leave anyone behind next time. It’s a promise she makes herself, even though she knows it may be a promise she can’t keep.

Because all the Warden options in Origins totally presented being drafted by Duncan as an honor. Not as, you know, a choice between joining the Wardens or certain death/imprisonment or some other sentence with the high likelihood of death. Because that’s pretty much what it is in Origins. It’s not an honor; it’s a “get out of jail with some pretty pesky side-effects” card.

No doubt Deen has made some enemies. You can’t create a Krispy Kreme bread pudding without infuriating a few healthy eating scolds. But their smug sense of vindication could even end up making people like her more. The U.S. is a strange and conflicted country when it comes to food. We love our tacos, hate our scales and live in a state of perpetual shame. Paula Deen, after cooking all the wrong things so well and for so long, doesn’t seem to feel any guitl at all. And there’s something in us, I suspect, that can’t help but like her for it, even though we know it’s wrong.

Josh Ozersky, “Grease Under Fire” in the January 30, 2012 edition of TIME.