I Love How Soft And Whimsical This Art Is; It Feels Subtle And Minimalistic And Yet Still Very Pretty.

I must say, it's pretty poetic that I've gotten to season 6 of Vampire Diaries right before another solar eclipse happens in America. I certainly didn't plan it, but it does feel like my timing is very appropriate with this one. I do have questions about the accuracy of the eclipse portrayal in the show, though. I mean, a solar eclipse did in fact happen on May 10, 1994, and it was visible across much of the country, so that much is accurate. But I don't think Mystic Falls would've had quite as good of a view as they show it having. For reference, here's a map of the May 1994 eclipse path (credit: timeanddate.com):

And, if you'll remember, Mystic Falls is like two hours from my old hometown just a stone's throw north of Lynchburg, Virginia, as seen on the locator spell map (this one's all over tumblr, forgive me for not remembering what blog I grabbed it from):

So if you zoom in on the timeanddate map and pick somewhere closeish to there:

It looks like Mystic Falls would be getting a little over 77% coverage or so. It's also worth noting that the '94 eclipse was an annular eclipse, not a total eclipse like tomorrow's eclipse. That still means that the moon went directly in front of the sun, but it does mean that it was small enough/far enough from earth that you didn't quite get full coverage of the sun (thanks to weather.gov for the nifty graphic):

So, I'm not positive whether it would've looked quite as dark as was shown in the show:

Although, I must admit, in this video I found on youtube of the '94 eclipse, (part of me is shocked to find footage from then but I know I shouldn't be like yes they had cameras in the 90s) it actually looks more similar than I expected it to look, but I imagine it was most likely filmed within the path of totality:

But also, when Kai takes Bonnie to Portland, don't they see the eclipse again there? I couldn't find that clip on youtube just now, but Portland barely had any eclipse--only 42-43% coverage, so it would've been way milder of a visual effect, barely any dimming in the sky noticeable without eclipse glasses.

The funny thing is, the area where I live is going to be sitting right around 80% coverage tomorrow. I was lucky enough to get to travel to Missouri for the 2017 eclipse to get into the path of totality, but I'm afraid that it hasn't worked out for me to do so this year, which is immensely disappointing to me as an astronomy enjoyer, but I do still plan to go to an eclipse party and I'm going to start saving to try and get to Spain for the next total eclipse in 2026, which is going to be right around my 30th birthday (screaming). Anyways, it isn't great, but here's my best picture from the '17 eclipse:

I didn't even have a smartphone yet then, because despite it being 2017, I was somewhat of a luddite, so I had the purple flip phone I so stubbornly clung to and a point-and-click Nikon, but I still think this picture is pretty cool for what it is. Here's the zoom in so you can really see that ring of fire (and my shaking hands doubling the image):

Obviously you can find thousands of better eclipse pictures online, but that one's still special to me because it's mine. Anyways, I'll report back with smart phone pictures from whatever I see of the 80% total eclipse tomorrow to compare and contrast with Mystic Falls's 70% annular eclipse of the 90s, because from what I've heard it's going to be much less impressive than full totality was, but I've yet to watch a partial solar eclipse, so I'll just have to find out. Also, if you happen to have any vampiric loved ones trapped in a magical prison dimension who you need help freeing during the eclipse tomorrow, let me know and I'll see what I can do! ;) Hahaha. Anyways, happy eclipse everyone, and may we all possess sufficient self restraint to avoid eye damage (says the woman who has looked at the sun unprotected so many times and is probably going to go blind because of it some day. I know what I've done lol. Don't be me.)

I’ve been using this as a phone background for a few months now and it still makes me so happy whenever I look at it :) Os and Ed are just so sweet and happy and adorable in it, plus it’s such a lovely purple. I have a deep fondness for purple, in case you hadn’t noticed ;) 

(It occurs to me that that last bit might not make sense if you aren’t looking at this on my actual blog, but it’s 99% purple, like most things in my life. It’s very convenient for me that my favorite Gotham character has the same favorite color as me.)

♥ lovebirds ♥

[please don’t repost anywhere]

Me, believing every word of this: Wow, this is fascinating!

Me, who knows almost nothing about music: I wonder what a high C sounds like. Maybe I should look up songs in the key of high C so I can hear--

Me, finally getting it: Oh...  Oh. Ooooooh! Ha. 

Me, a little disappointed: So... none of that was real then. But... but... pirate shanties...

Me, still not sure how music works: But I still want to know what the key of high C sounds like, though. 

hey did anyone hear the news that scientists have actually been able to figure out the most common key that old pirate shanties were sang in

“I will love you as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture.... I will love you as a dagger loves a certain person’s back.” ~Lemony Snicket

I was just rereading the Beatrice Letters and I must say, taken out of context especially, some of Mr. Snicket’s love poetry is really dark and intense. 

Also, as a southerner, 

“I will love you as kudzu loves trees”

 is similarly ominous. 

Forget what I said before tonight’s episode about possibly wanting Isaac’s betrayal to stand for the sake of emotional intensity, by the way. Identity part 2 handled things beautifully and I couldn’t’ve hoped for better. While it might’ve been interesting to have all of Isaac’s past interactions so profoundly undermined by the realization that he was simply a genocidal Cyberman playing his role all along, it’ll be more fun in the long term to have an artificial intelligence who believed he was incapable of emotions realizing he has them and figuring out what to do with them amidst being cut off and isolated from his people, all the while having to heal the wounds his betrayal caused.

Also, human!Isaac was great and I love how his expressions are so level and robotic yet vaguely bemused with hints of wonderment. They’re just so on point for a human manifestation of an intellectually curious robot. I’m glad I can go back to enjoying him properly. 

I’d like to do more than that.

I love the way seemingly unrelated, random things connect on tumblr. A couple of weeks ago, a Series of Unfortunate Events blog I follow reblogged a cat meme regarding a cat named Snicket from Cat Suggest. I wound up scrolling through the Cat Suggest tumblr until I happened upon a lovely sampler pattern which this tumblr had made from one of their posts, and now I’m considering getting back into cross-stitch (”back into” I say as though I’ve ever finished anything) just because I went on a funky tumblr walkabout. It has its pros and cons, but it’s a pretty neat site that way :) 

5k GIVEAWAY?!

We genuinely can’t believe it. You guys are so amazing and we’re so happy to be on this journey with all of you, absurd blue hellsite and all. The folks who have told us that they rekindled a hobby, or those that have started new, the wild submissions, and the sheer quantity of people who have made the absurd electrical impulses from our brains into a thing you can hold in your hand brings us joy on a daily basis. 

So what are we giving away?

1. A pattern commission from us. It will be around our standard size and complexity, in .pdf form

2. A mystery needle minder! Prism has been practicing construction in anticipation of the Nat 20′s we’re going to get in, so she’s got a small array of tests that came out very nicely. 

3. A mystery kit! So many mysteries. We’re just getting started creating kits, so you can get your hands on one before they become available. 

4. A gorgeous pattern from @mathysphere. If you haven’t taken a look at their patterns, you should! Right here! The entire pride planet series is amazing. We went with the first of the series for our giveaway:

Fun Fact: Mathy was the very first blog that ever followed us. We were mildly intimidated because their stuff is so dang cool. 

What are the rules?

Current followers and folks who follow us before April 5th (12:00PM Central US time) will be automatically entered into the contest.

For other entries like or reblog this post. Multiple reblogs are allowed within reason and our discretion. Don’t annoy your spacemates. Giveaway specific blogs will be disqualified. We’ll post updates if we think of any. Good luck!

I love reading all the stories here; I’ve been up and down the notes and I have several versions saved to my drafts, one of which I’ve begun writing out my own Fae story on. However, this post has actually had an influence on how I interpret the play I’m currently in, so it seems only appropriate to reblog a version of it on the eve of our play opening as well. 

The play is called Almost, Maine, and it’s a subtly surrealist series of small town romances. The blurb on the back of the script describes it as “a midwinter night’s dream”. Basically, weird, seemingly mystical things are happening in the lives of people in this town as they fall in and out of love, and at the end of the night, everyone sees the northern lights. You could read it just abstractly as ‘the northern lights make weird (or should I say wyrd) things happen’, or you could even rationalize most of the things away, but I’ve decided that it makes sense that Almost (that’s the name of the town) just has a very heavy Fae presence and the Fae--likely excited by the northern lights--are meddling in everyone’s affairs--much like in Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

I even decided that one of the characters I play, Ginette, actually is a Fae who left the Fae realm because she’s in love with a human, Pete. That explains, for me, how she *SPOILERS* walks all the way around the Earth in about 10 minutes for him--it’s done with the Fae magic she has, but in my interpretation, she has literally travelled all that distance for him. Then, when the northern lights appear at the end, it’s even deeper for me, because I’ve decided that for Ginette that’s a sign that the Fae have finally approved of her romance with Pete. 

Pete would be incredibly overwhelmed by all this. He freaks out when she says “I love you” for the first time. It’s best he doesn’t know all this. 

Anyways, I know this is a digression from the main subject matter of this post, but I just wanted to share how considering the Fae has been useful to me in deepening my acting and my character backstories. Thanks for all the great stories!

Irish people; The faeries aren’t real

Irish people; No fucking way will I go in that faerie ring

My main ship for this show, or for Ed at least, is probably Kelly and Ed, but I must admit, I love that cross-warring-species dynamic of Ed and his Krill girlfriend Teleya :) Actually, I was really hoping their relationship would come into play in tonight's episode in their temporary alliance with the Krill, but it was a well-handled plot point nonetheless, and perhaps this tenuous alliance will lead them to meet once again. 

oh yeah by the way here’s some awful memes i made wen i was reading the crucible in class

Maple is looking at ME!

Willa is looking at Everyone (with disdain)!

cats LOVE to look at things