there’s in general a very slight off-note in the first episode where julia in particular feels like she has a bit of a case of Pilotitis most notably in the extremely bizarre unicorn shirt girl convo where she starts out seemingly maybe kind of sardonic but is then very clearly sincere in her suggestion that quentin get out of bed and join the party so it’s like, wait are we to assume that julia has so successfully normified herself that she really thinks unicorn tank = fantasy is like a reasonable selling point? or is she being goofy there? when she calls fillory obscure fantasy which seems in the universe of the magicians to be transparently untrue given the extent to which it is an obvious narnia analogue and also definitely written for children, is that like a joke or has the power of her pleasantly handsome college boyfriend really scrambled her brain there? or again is it a pilot and some things are still being hammered out and julia is the character who most obviously winds up saying things because the show needs her to say them so we know what kind of television is happening. but, anyway, what i do like about that convo is the implication that julia knows that her smart and kind perpetually single best friend is objectively a hot person who would in fact find it very easy to have sex if he could calm down for five minutes and maybe let her pick out a shirt, but also knows on some possibly unarticulated level that she just can’t come right out and TELL him he’s a hot person because of how she’s spent like 7 years at this point trying extremely not to think about his poorly concealed attraction to her, so that would make things weird and possibly make him feel even worse, but like she really thinks that maybe if he got laid things would turn around for him because of the potential for reconceptualizing himself as a person other people want to have sex with, so she just keeps trying to nudge him in the general direction of getting naked with someone else in the hopes that one day he’ll figure it out.
you’re so valid. thinking back on that episode, julia was so different in the pilot when she refers to fillory that i think she did have a case of the pilotitis. but it feels good to think about her talking to quentin about sex with the intention of caring for him (and some actual thought behind it that the writers probably did not intend). and the idea of “you should get laid” being about more than having a good time!! not that that’s accurate for everyone but i see what you mean about quentin. signed, a lurker on the internet
(As always, I am willing to provide receipts for expenses if anyone wants them. PayPal and CashApp come to me immediately, and GoFundMe takes a day or two.)
Hey, guys.
So some of you have probably been paying attention, and know about this already, but I’m gonna post it anyway.
In 2018, my sister Ashley fucked up. She was working as a sports book manager for William Hill, a multinational, multi-million dollar company that manages sports books around the world. She’s a single mother with a shitheel of an ex-husband, and she and my mom live together. But things were desperate. They were behind on everything, and my mom was at the time working a job she hated, and things were just….bad.
So a customer at the sports book befriended her and convinced her to place bets “out of her drawer.” That is, place bets for him and repay the original bet out of his winnings. He gave her huge tips for this.
This is a gross misdemeanor, but is also considered embezzlement (a felony), because the company lost money on a bet that didn’t technically exist.
But I understand why she did it. She has a kid. She has a household to take care of. We’ve been poor our entire lives. The idea of being able to scratch her way out of that and maybe even own a home? I understand the draw. I wouldn’t have made the same choice, I don’t think, but I also don’t have a kid relying on me.
Anyway, Ashley felt guilty and gave him back the money after this had happened several times. But while she had money - and it was a decent amount - she did things like…pay rent for us. I was stranded in LA because of a missed flight, and she got me a hotel room and a ticket back home the next day. She was able to get new clothes for my six-year-old niece, and she took care of rent at their place for two months in a row. But the rest of it… she couldn’t. She gave it back to the guy. In the meantime, he’d convinced another employee to be in on this as well, so it was officially a scheme with three people involved.
But then she got busted.
She knows that she fucked up. She admitted that right away and has been cooperating with authorities. She started nursing school so that she can get into a career that doesn’t involve the temptation of money, because that temptation will never go away as long as my niece is alive.
She and the other two are going to have to pay William Hill back (which honestly kinda pisses me off. They took a grand total of 200k, between three people, but like…that’s not even a quarter of a percentage point of William Hill’s worth. An eighth. A sixteenth. It’s a multi-million dollar gambling company. But whatever, I get it), and so she wanted to get a job that would both provide for her and Madison (and my mom), and give her enough money to pay back the company.
William Hill doesn’t want her in prison, because she can’t pay them back from prison. The State of Nevada has recommended probation and repayment, based on the fact that she’s making active progress in becoming a productive member of society and to get her shit together. The gambling board recommended the same thing (and in fact has stated that they understand why Ash did what she did, because she was probably the lowest-paid book manager in the state). Her lawyer, of course (an AMAZING woman who does pro-bono public defense work in addition to her normal legal work) recommended probation. Ashley already doesn’t do drugs or drink, so it wouldn’t have been a huge imposition, but would have been true justice – allowing her to work towards something better and also repay the money that was embezzled.
Literally no one involved in this case believed Ashley belongs in prison. She didn’t hurt anyone. This is basically the first bad thing she’s ever done in her life.
But the judge disagreed and this last Monday he sentenced her to up to four years in prison. Her lawyer immediately filed a motion to reconsider, but it’s a re-election year and I suppose he wants to be considered tough in order to get re-elected. The other two co-conspirators didn’t get this harsh a sentence, but Ashley was up first in the docket so she got a massive sentence. It’s actually something of a record in this state, a sentence like this for such a minor crime (to the company in question).
Ashley’s abusive ex-husband now has my niece (I don’t think he would EVER hurt Madison, but he’s a racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic pig, and we don’t want her picking that shit up). My mom is living alone and cannot afford to pay for the house on her own. Ashley was doing DoorDash and Instacart, and also trying to get a part-time job, so she was kicking in cash, but they’re almost $3,000 behind on all of their bills and payments. Mom paid all of her rent today and has $40 left to last two weeks.
Meanwhile, my search for work continues. Raven got an Indeed profile set up as well and we’ve both been trying to apply to ten to thirty places every day. I have a little bit of money but most of it has to go towards my phone bill. Ashley needs money on her books and we need money on our phone account so that she can call us collect on our cell phones. Mom and I both need gas in the car and food.
I’m gonna admit: I’m scared. Everything went to shit in about twelve hours while I was sleeping. I don’t know what to do, so I’m posting here so that everyone knows the full story with full disclosure. Ashley is in jail, currently awaiting the judge’s motion to reconsider. That’s not our only hope, but it’s our first hope. The prisons are overcrowded and she’s a non-violent offender so the prison already has paperwork in place to release her to house arrest, but that will severely restrict her ability to work and go too school, as her work timetable will probably vary greatly.
We’re scared. Ash could be imprisoned for up to four years, and a minimum of another week. Mom is scared. I’m scared. Raven is at the very least nervous and upset (my sister is her sister, as far as she’s concerned, and she calls my mom Mom - or KK, depending on context). Cally, who I am not on super-awesome terms with right now but is still my sister, is upset. None of us have the funds to make this work right now.
So. That’s what’s happening. If you can help, I really appreciate it. I know all of you have been more than generous and I wouldn’t ask for more, but… This happened.
Please share if you can’t help out. I really need the support, even if it’s just kind messages.
hey. You and your family deserve better. That sucks to have so much going on at once, and I hope the judge reconsiders his dumb decision. Good luck.
We have to understand that no matter what we do with our lives we will never be as awesome as Christopher Lee is.
I will never get over how he corrected Peter Jackson on the proper sound a man makes when he’s been stabbed in the back because he actually worked in the British clandestine services.
Or how he volunteered to fight in one of the most brutal fronts of WWII (the Finnish-Russian Winter War).
Or how he was fucking NAZI HUNTER.
Basically, Christopher Lee is the real Most Interesting Man in the world and I honestly don’t know why we tell Chuck Norris jokes when this badass is walking around.
And then I see him rambling on about how Saruman and Gandalf are actually Istari, which are one of the Maia in the LotR commentaries and I realize he literally cannot become more awesome.
I just read up on that and now I regret I didn’t include it! The man is 90 years old and he’s releasing a metal album next year. ACTUAL MOST INTERESTING MAN IN THE WORLD CHRISTOPHER LEE.
[swoons]
OH GOD I FORGOT ABOUT HIS METAL
GOD HE’S HARDCORE AS FUCK
He’s also played Dracula like 5 billion times and in the first one he refused to use the terrible dialogue and wasn’t fired.
He was also bros with Vincent Price and Peter Cushing, but unlike them was able to get away from the horror genre and forged a well-rounded career.
He can speak 8 languages and will sometimes do his own dubbing for foreign versions of his films.
His family carries the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire.
Dajerria Becton, the 15-year-old black girl physically and verbally accosted by a white police officer during the McKinney, Texas, altercation at a dispersed pool party, spoke out during an interview with Fox 4 News on Sunday. In the video, she explained what happened that day in her own words.
Hold on to your butts, JSTOR is celebrating all things dinosaur this week in gleeful anticipation of Jurassic World.* We’re collecting articles from the JSTOR archive, JSTOR Daily, and around the web on dinosaurs, fossils, and science, and using it as an excuse to look at pictures of shirtless Jeff Goldblum. We have priorities.
Anywho, here’s what we have so far! Follow us here and we’ll keep posting through the end of the week!
In 1993, DNA research topped the scientific Nobel Prizes
Finding bird fossils that date to the Jurassic period
*I am a failure who has been posting all of these things to Facebook and Twitter, and not here, so I have some catching up to do because oh hey, it’s Wednesday. How did that happen?
I loved this movie so hard. Jurassic Park and JSTOR, two great tastes that taste great together!
Trees, like animals, can also experience albinism, though it is extremely rare.
the reason it’s rare is because without chlorophyll, the plant can’t get energy, and dies shortly after sprouting unless it has some other source of food. so if you see a plant as big as the one in the picture that doesn’t have any green in its leaves, it’s getting its nutrition from the roots of a neighboring plant of the same species, feeding on the sugars created by the other plant’s photosynthesis.
