How To Actually Get All Your Photos From Photobucket.

All Links are to free software that has no viruses and are useful. I get nothing for you downloading these. All images can be clicked on, opening in a new tab to enlarge it.

First thing you’ll need to know is that it takes time. But probably not the almost year it took for me trying to figure out a way that actually WORKS.

I was notified on June 3, 2020 that Photobucket has again made changes and they’ve put the way I tell you here behind a paywall. While that is true, there is still a work around so keep reading!

I have had a Photobucket account since August 4, 2004 to be exact. 16 years. Granted the last few I haven’t used it as much as I used to back in my LiveJournal days. Nonetheless I have 3652 photos in various folders on my account. Which is not only now over their new free limit, but apparently as of March 16, 2020 my account no longer includes hosting. This last month I have been getting emails saying my account is over it’s hosting limit and I guess because I didn’t go and buy a package from them, they’ve decided to not allow hosting for my account.

No problem Photobucket. I don’t care as I use Flickr now anyway. And I think the only thing still connected to my Photobucket is my LiveJournal accounts and a few forums.

But this got me looking again for a way to get all those photos onto my computer somewhat easily. A problem I’ve been looking to solve for quite a while now, perhaps almost a year. All I found was out of date rubbish that doesn’t work because Photobucket changed their platform to one that is really unfriendly. Or ways that should work, but for some reason I am not understanding that finial step well enough for it to actually work – and later finding out that method only works for MACs not PCs which isn’t mentioned ANYWHERE in the bloody article.

I found that last bit by reading the comments. Like thousands of comments. It was seriously buried and no one ever mentioned it when people were saying “This isn’t working for me! What am I doing wrong?” The answer was A- you’re on a PC and the solution is a MAC one – OR B – actually you’re trying to use the bash on a Windows 10 PC which doesn’t exactly work out of the box – meaning you need to do some settings tweeking for it to work – and trying to figure THAT out?

Shit, I have been using computers for most of my life and some of the stuff people are suggesting is either bullshit or is going so far over my head, 80’s me would miss it. Yeah I had big bangs in the 80s/90s almost ever female did!

But the answer is JDownloader2. Just download the application and use it to get your photos. Seriously. It was maybe an hour for me to get all the links loaded into the application and then another 30 minutes to an hour for all the photos to be downloaded into the folder of my choosing.

I had of course thanks to a guide I was trying to follow previously, collected all of my photos links, which actually didn’t take too long, despite the 3652 photos. Let me walk you through that little process as I am not familiar enough with JDownloader to offer other methods. Perhaps someone would be too kind to comment other methods that can be used (probably quicker and easier than the one I’m about to share) with JDownloader.

Getting Photo Links

Head over and log into your Photobucket account. Click on a folder in your Library. For this example, I’m just going to use my main folder, but as you can see from the screenshot, I have just a few folders.

When you are in the folder, click on the check mark in the lower right corner of any photo in this folder.

Next, click on every check mark of the photos in that album go to the top of the page and click on that Select All button. It will select every photo in that folder without you having to go through each page. If there are photos you don’t want to keep, you may wish to go through and delete them from your Photobucket before doing this.

Once the Select All button turns into the Deselect All button, you know you’re ready for the next step. And for me right now, that’s coffee…..

You should now see on the bottom a number. That’s how many photos that are currently selected. This normally will match how many photos you have in that folder. Which is listed in parentheses by the folder name in the left hand list.

Now click on the word Links located next to the number of images selected. If you are clicking on it and nothing happens, look for a floating X along the bottom.

You may have to move the mouse for it to show, but close it and you’ll be able to click on Links. No idea what it is as my AD blocker is off for this site (Photobucket makes you turn it off or buy a package) but it is in the way and took me a few minutes of refreshing and moving my mouse along the bottom of the screen until I saw that and clicked it away. Asshats.

A screen will pop up and you want to click in the Direct box and copy those links. Open a text editor like Notepad ++ and paste the links into that.

Here is where it’s changed. While you still get the Copy Links pop up, it now looks like this:

BUT! You see not all of the boxes have that ‘Please upgrade to access’ bullshit? Yeah, click on one and then jump over to Notepad++ and Ctrl + V that shit. You get what looks a bit like this (it’ll depend on which box you click in) and may be scary for some:

Yeah, but look. All the links ARE RIGHT THERE. They are just nestled into code. CODE THAT JDOWNLOADER 2 WILL IGNORE. Just copy the code, then continue on with this tutorial.

Now I have been informed that the Thumbnail code is all that is popping up for some as free, and if that is the case, JDownloader will grab the thumbnails and not the original image, which is denoted by ‘th’ in front of the image name. You can work around this, but it will take more work on your end. Sorry. But this is what you need to do.

Code in the raw

That is the raw code as it looks when you put it into your text application. If you look at it closely you see that there are two urls that are pretty identical for each image, but the second one has a different beginning: It shows a https://oimg instead of the standard https://smg. And the first url ends in html which is why JDownloader isn’t picking up the original image. Easiest thing to do is to highlight the .html, go into the Search menu and choose ‘Find’. You should have a few tabs in the pop up.

You see that Notepad++ automatically put in the part I had copied. Click on the Replace tab.

Make sure there is nothing in the Replace with section. Click in it and hit backspace until the cursor won’t go any further to the left. Then hit Replace All. This will remove the .html – make sure you have the period in there!

Now if you don’t want the thumbnails as well as the original sized image go through the same steps as you did to change .html to nothing, and simply put th_ in the ‘Find What’ section and then make sure there is absolutely nothing in the ‘Replace with’ section. Click into the Replace with section and hit backspace until it won’t go any further to the left.

Nice try Photobucket. But you may have to work quickly because I am sure they’ll hide everything behind a paywall. And if they do, it may be worth the $4 they charge a month just to get the photos. Small price to tell them to kiss your ass.

You will have to repeat these steps for each and every folder you have until you have links for every photo you want to download. Save the file, where ever and by any name you wish.

Using JDownloader

Now open up JDownloader. Click in that Notepad file and hit CTRL+A and then CTRL+C and JDownloader will automatically start imputing those links. Depending on the number of links you have will of course determine how long it takes. Like I said, for me it took almost an hour to have all the links populate in the program, then maybe an extra 30 minutes to actually download the photos.

There is a little window to the right that stays up unless you close it as you go about doing you to let you know where it is.

You can always see what image JDownloader will download if you open the + by the name of the image and then right click and select Open in Browser.

You will notice that there are two files for each name. Which is perfectly fine. You will only get one image as the other is acting as a mirror. Unless you removed the .html from the first url but not the th_ in the second url. In that case you will have two sets of images. If you did not remove the th_ as instructed then you will have one set of images with the original names and another set with th before the names. Again the th is thumbnail.

Now before you go any further, you’re going to want to head over to the settings tab in JDownloader and tell it where to download your photos. As you can see, I sent mine to a folder called photobucket.

Once it is done populating the links, and you have set the settings to your liking click on Start all downloads and sit back and let it download the images.

You may or may not get a few of these popups- I got a ton of them as I had many mood folders for LiveJournal (which unless you ever used and customized LiveJournal you probably don’t know what I am talking about) and JDownloader doesn’t know the folder structure that you had on Photobucket.

Each image gets it’s own folder named for what the image is named, but if you get one of these, just click Rename file, and make sure Remember selection for this package is ticked then hit OK.

Once it is finished you should have a folder filled with folders that have an image (or more) in them. You can check the number of files in the lower left corner. Mine doesn’t match the number I have as many files had the same name so are in the same folder. BUT I am redoing the link upload to see which files are offline or show an Error so I can go get the images myself and download them.

If you click to the left of the name of the image, it should open the folder and show you which image had problems.

Best way to see what the URL of the error or offline image is to right click on it then Properties and Show Download URLs.

That opens up a box that shows what URL the image is and this way you can go into the correct folder on Photobucket.

Now I can try and get the image through the link, but there’s a good possibility that won’t work so I just use the link to see what the picture looks like (as it has been awhile since I’ve looked at them) and then go see what folder I have it in on Photobucket, in this case one called Gifs and go to that folder and download it from Photobucket.

A little trick to highlighting a row in Notepad++; if you click to the left of the number, it will highlight that entire row then all you have to do is CTRL+C and paste it in your browser.

And if for some reason the image doesn’t show itself because Photobucket is going to Photobucket, you can always go into the folder and click on the first image, then scroll through them keeping an eye on the tab for the name of the image. Like this Wedgie gif.

From here you can do what you want. I may or may not go through and organize these back into folders as they were on Photobucket, but the point is I have them all and now I can close my Photobucket account and tell them to kiss it.

If only they didn’t get money hungry. I had always championed for Photobucket until they started making things difficult long before they did money grabs. Now I use Flickr like I mentioned but haven’t used them long enough to know all the ins and outs.

Also doesn’t help that the images don’t always pop up upon command which is why you’ll want to check for errors. Took me forever to get a single folder to open with all the images. It would open but show nothing.

This took me a good part of my day, but I was also taking screetshots and playing with JDownloader to find the best way to do things, like finding out what tired gif didn’t download from which folder as I had six different images with that name.

I can guarantee that this is NOT the fastest and simplest solution with JDownloader. BUT AT LEAST IT WORKS!

Feel free to blow up the comments with ways it can be done easier or faster than my method. With or without JDownloader. And they had better work or I will troll your pathetic ass.

Until Next Time: Self isolation is actually pretty fun. Sort of been trying to do it for years. Thankfully where I am in Mexico people haven’t lost their fucking minds and bought up all the tp. In reality, you’ll be quarantined for two months max. If you are using 4,000 rolls of tp in a two month time, you have something besides COVID-19 to worry about.

LOL It’s June now. Still in quarantine. Although with what’s going on in the world right now, it’s the last thing anyone is thinking about. Although it’s just as deadly as those cops were to George Floyd. Be careful out there people, please!

Also, I still have not run out of TP from the two 36 packs I bought back in March. So the tp hording was still insane.

No More eBay For You!

If you’re expecting this to be a humorous account of something that I bought on eBay, you’re going to be disappointed.

Instead this is a serious tale of betrayal and a warning to anyone who sells on eBay, even if you have 100% positive and no complaints. Read and be warned. All images with the exception of the receipt scans and anything that can clearly be seen without having to look closer, can be clicked on and seen in their original size in a new tab.

It all started with a silly doll. The Dia de Muertos Barbie doll. I remember seeing an article about Mattel selling a doll for Dia de los Muertos. I was excited over it as it has to do with Halloween and Day of the Dead, my favorite of holidays. But I saw how much it was going to sell for and I immediately said nope. $75 was a steep price to pay. That was September 10, 2019

Posting about Mattel’s New Barbie.

I forgot all about it until October 2, 2019 when I found her locally – which is a big deal seeing as I am in Cuernavaca, Morelos Mexico. But there she was, at La Comer (a grocery store much like Walmart. There are Walmarts here as well). I took a picture and posted it on Facebook.

Finding her in the wilds of Mexico.

For some reason I looked her up on eBay out of boredom I guess, I don’t really remember. I was startled to see them auctioning off at $200 a Barbie! WTF? So I did a bit of research. They were sold out in the US – like COMPLETELY. From stores and from Mattel’s own website.

No Barbies For You!

That’s when I turned to my husband and told him that they were sold out. They were going for over $200 a doll on eBay. There were at least five at La Comer the other day.

We went back to La Comer and after a little searching as she wasn’t in the front of the store anymore we found her and we bought two of them. With cash.

Scan of the Receipt.

It’s important to note, that we pay everything in cash in Mexico. It’s easier and we usually pay less in conversion fees and stores charge less when we use cash. So everything is done in cash. This is quite important for what is coming up.

Of course we placed them on eBay to sell.

The listing as it looked on eBay

And they both did. Quite well. So we started looking around to see where else we could buy Barbies. Of course our local Walmart had them. We bought a few from them. At three different times.

Once we exhausted the local supply – and honestly we didn’t really go far and wide to look for them, it wasn’t necessary. We could get them delivered to us from Mercado Libre , basically Mexico’s version of eBay. This is also important.

As is the fact that unlike eBay, Mercado allows you to pay in many different ways, you’re not stuck just using PayPal. Which means you can pay cash at payment points or directly into a seller’s bank account. Yes, those links are in Spanish, but Chrome has the translate extension and will translate it for you.

Things were going lovely. We got 12 more Barbies and sold them on eBay. We sold 27 of them on eBay before our account was suspended. Someone, somewhere was not happy that we had the ability to buy and sell these sought after Barbies.

eBay contacting us about our now restricted seller account.

Next important item to note, is the fact that we bought all the shipping through eBay. We told them that the packages were shipped using eBay shipping, so the tracking numbers are already on the accounts. We also pointed out that our listing states in two different areas when the item would arrive to the buyers. There were a total of four people who did not read the listing and had contacted eBay about the items not arriving by eBay’s estimated delivery time. A date I will point out, even eBay says is an estimate and that the item may not arrive by that time. When we talked to a customer service representative on the phone, he acknowledged that we were in the right since we did put those details in the actual listing – twice. eBay has a policy that states we can do this.

The second email telling us we need to provide tracking numbers and proof of shipping.

Once this was pointed out to the four complainers, only two apologized and ended the complaint. The other two were freaking nightmares and would not let it go. In the end however, eBay came down on our side.

And then things got….weird.

They want proof of purchase – FROM US

They now wanted proof that we bought these dolls. Okay, it’s a little strange, but we went ahead and provided them with the receipts from Mercado Libre. Important note, we used a friend’s account to purchase on Mercado Libre as we do not have an account and we don’t read Spanish well enough (translate isn’t always the best as I am sure you are aware). We also rent while our friend actually owns a house.

Meanwhile, we’re getting “Good news – Your buyer’s item arrived!” emails from eBay starting the same day we got that last email from them. October 30, 2019. One of the buyers put a request to have the doll returned and an refund issued claiming they no longer wanted the item. Our listing did say no returns were allowed so we denied it and eBay upheld our decision.

I honestly believe that the problem on November 2, 2019 (Officially Day of the Dead btw) is that no one knew how to read Spanish.

Manufacturing Invoices or Receipts are acceptable ways to prove we bought the Barbies. Please remember this. It’s important.

I am sure you can imagine the confusion and annoyance this has caused so far, but now people are getting their damn Barbies and are leaving POSITIVE feedback about them. None of them are suddenly saying that the Barbies are not real or they were shipped something else entirely.

It took them a little bit of time to realized that it wasn’t our Mercado Libre account we used to purchase the dolls and we got our friend’s permission to provide to eBay the next things they requested. Note how the requirements of proof have changed and that they pulled a name of a website out of thin air.

DeRemate.com?

I guess we missed the DeRemate the first go around as they asked for it again. Fun fact: DeRemate.com was bought by Mercado Libre, which a simple Google search told me.

Sorry we must have missed that.

We had no idea who DeRemate was or where in the world they got it. Thankfully they did clear that up.

Assumed huh?

We were quite floored with the fact they just assumed where we got them, as if we hadn’t already told them where we bought them. The receipts all say we paid in cash. And when we finally got back to our place in Mexico (where the physical receipts actually where all this time we’re in the US) I went ahead and uploaded them all, even the physical ones we got from the buyer at Mercado Libre.

What?

Remember how I mentioned earlier that receipts were acceptable proof of payment? It’s a caption for one of the emails. Now they want our bank statements that shows we paid for these Barbies. Remember how I mentioned we deal in cash here in Mexico and how the actual receipts say we paid with cash? That no longer matters to them. Now it really feels like they are looking for any excuse they can find to keep our account restricted. And once they realized they weren’t getting our bank statements and we were more than done with dealing with this for THREE STRAIGHT MONTHS, they decided that we may NEVER EVER EVER sell on eBay again and that we were a threat to the eBay community. Such a big threat that we can still BUY on the platform. In fact, they may not even read any emails we sent to them from now on. Which means they will not reply either. So even if we sent them our bank statements, which would make no sense as most of the ATM withdraws are not going to be exactly the same amount as what we bought the Barbies for except for perhaps two, it won’t matter. The decision is apparently finial.

eBay is built on trust. Yeah, and you’ve lost ours completely forever.

Keep in mind that all through this, we are also dealing with the same two nightmare women filing claims through PayPal, making outrageous claims and demanding their money back and so even more of our money gets hijacked. Although those claims too fall to our favor we are still fighting people on eBay besides eBay themselves. As well as car problems which turned a week trip into almost a month!

I have never reported so many people before on eBay in my life. I had reported a no pay; she won the auction but decided she wasn’t going to pay the price she won it at and DEMANDED that we give her a discount. She claimed that she set the auto-bid to $128 and that’s all she’ll pay. The auction ended at $265. It was mentioned that this is a way to get other auctions to get more bids. I don’t know, I just know it was annoying because I could not relist the item until a certain date had past, despite the fact I contacted eBay and told them that this lady refuses to pay. But to be fair to her, in case she changes her mind, I had to wait. She didn’t, I reported her and she’s still banging around on eBay.

Also had a person say they deserved a shipping refund since the item didn’t arrive by eBay’s estimated time. I had to remind them that they didn’t pay for shipping. They came back with not only should we refund for shipping, but we should take a percentage off of the payment or they wouldn’t leave feedback. Reported them because this is against eBay’s policies. Never refunded them anything, never got feedback and they’re still banging around eBay.

One of the nightmare women decided, after loosing the eBay and then PayPal complaint and request for refund (without returning the doll I may add – even though on PayPal she first claimed she didn’t want it any more, then said it wasn’t what was listed and then that it never arrived. Quite an amusing read seeing as PayPal had the tracking information.) she was going to leave negative feedback saying that I was a scammer and never delivered the doll. Notified eBay about the feedback as it was false, and she turned around and AGAIN tried to put a complaint through eBay. Feedback is still there, eBay said they wouldn’t remove it even though it was a lie and they could see that. She too is still banging around eBay making people’s lives hell I am sure. She also lost that complaint as well.

If you have never had complaints brought against you as a seller, you are lucky but this is what happens: whatever amount that item sold for is suddenly put on hold for however long it takes to work the complaint out. If you do not have that amount currently in your PayPal account, they will take it from your bank account or however they can that’s connected to your PayPal account. If they can’t get anything, your PayPal is in the negative by that amount. The complaints can last WEEKS at a time, especially when you are dealing with insane collectors who for some reason believe that because THEY can’t read a listing fully, they deserve a complete refund – and in some cases get to keep the doll.

Now if you go ahead and look at the actual listings, which you can still see as eBay hasn’t removed them yet, there are two different ones, with the main difference being when the doll will be shipped out are here and here.

You can see without reading them there are slight differences. The color of the text is the big one. The first one says that the dolls will arrive by October 28, 2019 and the second one says that they will be shipped after October 28, 2019. You can also see that these were included with the original auction and not added at a later time (how you can see that is that once you get a bid on an auction and you go to make a change to the listing, you CANNOT change the original listing at all, you can only add to it). Also you’ll note on the second one where I have put “If you win this auction you will be getting a doll. We do not auction what we do not have in our hands.” I added this after being told by some of the nice collectors who won our auctions (and some won multiple auctions from us I may add) that some of the sellers are selling dolls they do not have. That they had ordered one through Mattel and the order was cancelled, but the person had already won the auction but did get a refund from that seller.

Both auctions have pictures of multiple dolls to show we were not in fact scammers, that yes, we do have the doll in our hands. These were added to the auctions when the auction was created, with the exception of the first few auctions as I didn’t think about scammers saying they have multiple dolls and actually don’t. So those are added after the auction was live for a bit, and the auction does show this. The second set however have the pictures with the original auction release.

We followed eBay’s policies as we had known of them. There were changes we weren’t aware of when we went and auctioned off the Barbies, mainly how much money eBay gets once the auction ended. 27 Barbies cost us $547.50 in fees.

eBay Invoice for 27 sold Barbies

By now you may or may not have been keeping count of Barbies, but when our account got suspended we still had Barbies to sell. We ended up dong so via a Facebook Barbie Collector group and on an app I happened to see a commercial for while watching live tv (which I don’t ever do as I have streaming services I watch instead btw); Mercari.

Mercari for anyone interested is not a bad app. It’s not auctions, just flat out selling and you don’t actually get paid until the buyer receives the item and has let Mercari know and do feedback. You do have to pay fees upfront before the item is active which for us was $17. Once the person told Mercari they have gotten the time and was content with it we got our money quickly, within hours. so it’s a good alternative to eBay.

Funny enough, PayPal actually gave me suggestions of other selling platforms other than eBay, to which I was surprised and have looked at but not yet used. Bonanza.com which is quite similar to eBay and will also give you results from eBay when you do a search, but from what I can tell is not related in any way to eBay and Swappa.com where you can sell and buy gently used electronics.
You can find these if you have a PayPal account under All Tools in the Tools drop-down menu when logged into your PayPal account.

Marketplaces to sell on

I did not check out the last one as I have no interest in male clothes, either buying or selling. Husband likes to go to the store to buy clothes.

And lastly, something that any eBay seller would love to see (unless you happen to make much more than this amount then you probably would freak – LOL)

Of that lovely amount, we’ve only seen $‭352.43‬ of it after fees and shipping costs. Oh yeah, they are holding the rest of the money ($4,400) until our account is no longer restricted. NO LONGER RESTRICTED.

Seeing as we’re not millionaires, not even thousandaires we can’t just take eBay to court outside of Small Claims court and fight for our seller’s account or more importantly our money. We have heard nothing about if we will get our money since technically the account is still now and forever it seems restricted. Without having deep pockets or being part of a class action suite we probably will never see it.

After all, they won’t take our calls anymore. They have said they won’t talk to us so, what else can we do?

The Long Night

ONLY WARNING YOU ARE GOING TO GET. THIS POST WILL TALK ABOUT GAME OF THRONES SEASON EIGHT EPISODE 3 THE LONG NIGHT. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN IT AND DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED, PLEASE DON’T READ. ALL OTHERS ENTER AND ENJOY.

HOLY MOTHER OF SEVEN!!!

“The night is dark and full of dangers.” Why yes, yes it is.

So much happened last Sunday that it’s a bit difficult to keep track of. So many emotions! Terror, joy, excitement, sadness. And as of now there are only two episodes left.

TWO EPISODES LEFT YOU GOONS!

Thankfully they are long episodes, but…*sniff*

If you’re still with me, this is your very last chance to get out of wonderland. Seriously. Next line the spoilers hit the eyes.

OMG! ARYA STARK FOR THE MOTHER FUCKING WIN! Who DIDN’T gasp loudly when you saw her coming out of the damn dark (like a cat falling out of a tree). Then squeak because you thought she was done for as the Night King grabbed her around the throat and then gasp again as you watched the very dagger that was used in the initial assassination attempt against Bran in Season 1 – the dagger that eventually makes its way to Littlefinger – the dagger Littlefinger returns to Bran, and Bran gifts to Arya in Season 7, Episode 4 drop to her other hand and rejoiced like your favorite quarterbacker just scored the winning touchdown in the Super bowl when she stabbed him in the gut?

*deep breath* Yeah that of course was the highlight. But let’s start at the beginning.

First off this episode is a great one to test your blacks on your device. If you can, you may want to adjust them or you’re not going to see anything. Watching in a dark room also helps.

I didn’t think Sam was going to fight. I honestly thought he’d be with Gilly and the baby. Part of me is proud of him, but I was also quiet upset as the poor thing is not a fighter. Never has been and just because he’s the first to ever kill a walker doesn’t mean he’s going to be any good at killing a horde of them. Which in case you couldn’t see, he really wasn’t and we got our first loss of a major character (LMC).

But before that, we see the almost complete destruction of the Dothraki army. I say almost complete because if you watch carefully, some of them do come running back both on and off their horses. And of course many horses come back with no riders at all. So while the numbers have gone down drastically, they are not all gone. And let’s not forget that Ser Jorah comes riding back as well.

I am curious to know how Melisandre managed to come out of the dark and not get shot. I mean you are going to tell me not a single archer was shaking with fear and the thought to shoot at the first thing to come out of the darkness? I guess that shows the training, although I’m sure not all of them are as well trained, but she does some fire magic creating some GORGEOUS
and at the same time SCARY visuals.

Back to our first LMC; Edd Tollett. He dies saving Sam’s unqualified ass. While I am thankful to him for that, I am sad that he’s gone. And with that we are left with, I believe, two of the Night’s Watch still alive. Sam and Jon.

Speaking of Jon, he’s off on a mountain with Daenerys watching all the Dothraki lights go out and Daenerys is none to happy about this saying that the dead is already here when Jon tries to stop her from going away from the plan and helping out by reminding her the Night King is coming.

It looks promising until said Night King creates a ice storm cloud that covers EVERYTHING and makes kicking ass a bit harder to do. By this time, down on the ground the forecast is stressful with dead army bearing down in a literal wall of dead.

Drogon and Rhaegal were not made to see through this icy crap of conditions. Doesn’t take long before they are crashing into each other scaring the audience to think maybe it is our lost Viserion – I still shed tears over his death and change.

Every fighting scene has me looking closely to see who is still kicking dead ass and quite a few are doing quite well. Sansa has been sent to the crypt which does NOTHING for morale down there and we can see that on Tyrion’s face as he takes another hearty swig from his bag. Although Sansa being told to “stick them with the pointy end” when she confesses to Arya that she does not know how to use the knife her sister thrusts into her hand made me smile. Some people have scoffed at this saying that Sansa should know how to use a knife by now since she’s eaten with one and they really miss the whole errm…point that she doesn’t know how to FIGHT properly with one. I mean who does really?

Everyone is busy trying to retreat through the ONE cleared area in front of the gates and Gray Worm commands his Unsullied to protect the retreat. Which they do in a way that was actually wonderful to watch. I’m talking about how each section closed ranks after the last of their comrades got through. We are loosing a LOT of Unsullied. Is this the end of Gray Worm?

Ser Davos tries to set the next part of the plan into action by having the trench around Winterfell lit, but it’s hard when the breathers of fire can’t see your signal through the storm. And of course the archers’ flaming arrows aren’t strong enough to light it. But Gray Worm looks like he’s got a plan to help and at this point I reached for the tissues thinking that this is how he’ll die.

Melisandre steps up again to lend a hand with fire and man does she cut it damn close! You can see she’s feeling it as well as she watches a flying undead come right at her before they are being eaten by the flames.

Is it just me or was the whole part that the Army of the Dead stopped fighting and just stood there for a bit staring beyond the fire unnerving?

Theon and his Iron Born are standing around Bran and the Godswood just nervously waiting. Or am I the one that’s nervous? I love that Bran tells Theon that everything he’s done has led him back home. We are going to loose Theon. *sniff*

To say the Army of the Dead was coming up with a plan to get across the fire may be giving them too many brains. As soon as I saw one then another toss themselves on the fire I knew what their plan was. Just like when one climbs the hill of dead to get to the top of a wall. Which I was their next hurdle.

Still nothing on the Bran/Theon front except Bran goes for a flight. And now we see the Night King and Viserion. He plays a few games with Jon and
Daenerys and there are a few shots of Viserion and his brothers clawing the crap out of each other.

So. Many. Emotions. Gasps, groans and held breath. So the Army of the Dead can hear blood drop? Shhhiiii…..oh. Of course Arya is going to disappear….*whew* And I jump at the sudden face to face Arya has with a dead woman. Of course my mind went to ‘Eww, she just bled down the back of Arya’s shirt.’ Cause that’s what matters here folks! LMAO!

The Hound is properly freaked out due to all the fire. Remember that his brother The Mountain burned the crap out of him when they were kids. Which is why the Hound is so handsome. I am glad he survives as I want him to be the one to take his brother down. He snaps out of it when he sees Arya is in trouble so he and Beric go searching.

And we loose Beric. Melisandre comes out of the darkness with a ‘he has fulfilled his destiny crap’ and Arya gives her a look. Yep, they’re meeting again and Melisandre agrees that Arya has closed many eyes for good. Brown eyes, green eyes, BLUE EYES.

What do we say to the god of death?

Oh Lyanna! Both a no and a yes. She was one fiery badass young lady that’s for damn sure! I think that was Wun Wun she took down yes?

Jon managed to get the Night King off of Viserion and he falls but of course not to his death. I knew that Drogon’s fire wasn’t going to take him out as that would be too easy and would suck causing a LOT of upset. What is upsetting for me now is how Rhaegal is doing as he just had one hell of a hard landing.

Oh. Shit. Crypt isn’t safe any more. Apparently someone on Twitter saw this coming. And who couldn’t see it? And now Daenerys is on the ground with the dead standing up all around her. Jorah comes to her rescue and proceeds to fight for and at some moments with the Khaleesi he has always loved. *sniffle*

All the soft mournful music that plays as we watch our characters fight and it looks like they are loosing really sets the mood. Bran comes back from doing what feels like absolutely nothing helpful at all (although I am sure we’ll find out what he really was doing in the next couple of episodes), and no words are spoken after Bran tells Theon he’s a good man. Yes, even Theon knows this is the end of the series for him. With all the shit he’s been through, at least he dies at home, protecting his brother. *sniff*

Night King says nothing. We don’t get much out of him except the smile (was that a smile?) he had when he raised the dead, which of course includes all of our fallen coming back. Thankfully we don’t have to see them fighting their comrades.

And like a cat falling out of a tree it’s ARYA! *gasp!* *groan* No! she was SOOOO CLOSE!! *gasp*

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And we are treated to explosions of the White Walkers shortly after their Night King bites the ice dust and then to all of the Army of the Dead just falling over and that’s it!

Melisandre, as promised and watched by Ser Davos, walks out of the gates of Winterfell into the snowy plain surprisingly devoid of bodies or any other signs of the battle that just took place, takes off her amulet necklace that we remember is used by her to look young and beautiful and the stone stops glowing once it’s on the ground so I’m guessing the magic is gone from it. She strips herself of her cloak and as she ages, the rest of her clothes slide off until she stumbles to the ground and is no more.

Jorah of course dies in Daenerys’ arms and Drogon whimpers as he curls up around the two. It’s a debate if Drogon is mourning Jorah or if it’s because Daenerys is heartbroken. Either way, it’s touching.

I am still wondering about Rhaegal as we haven’t seen him for a bit. And we know that Viserion is truly gone. Hey, a girl had hope!

Phew. That was a lot of emotional crap right there. And all in darkness as well. But they made it as we knew they would! There are currently some we are not sure about: Ghost, Gilly and Little Sam, that adorable little girl from the previous episode who said she’d protect the crypt, did Sam get his family sword back and my faith in keeping the dragons brothers alive.

Death Count

Some generous assumptions:
9,980 Dothraki (not the full army) +
8,000 Unsullied (more than half their full number) +
7,000 Westerosi knights and infantry (more than half their full number) +
200 assorted other unfortunate people in the crypts and in battle +
1 Edd Tollett +
1 Lyanna Mormont +
1 Beric Dondarrion +
1 Jorah Mormont +
1 Theon Greyjoy +
1 Melisandre of Asshai +
0 wights (what’s dead may never die, remember?) =
25,186 dearly departed souls. R.I.P.

---

Until next time, did you notice the face lift this blog got last week? Last night’s GoT episode was emotional and not just for the viewers. I have thoughts on that I do. But we will see when I get that one out.

Oh and one spoiler that’s not a spoiler. Last night’s episode featured a Starbucks cup sitting on the table by Daenerys. It’s all over the internet by now so I’m sure you’ve seen it. Need to go back and watch it to actually SEE it. Guess my Starbucks radar only works on Earth and not on Westeros.

Crazy Roller Coaster Sunday!

Sunday proved to be one heck of a roller coaster of emotions. All thanks to HBO. I promise I will not do any spoilers for Game of Thrones, but anyone who has been watching this show knows already that tonight’s episode, like just about every single episode ever, is an emotional roller coaster ride!

First will start with the frustration which only has a little to do with the episode and more with trying to watch the episode. We have HBO Now, plain old Now not attached to anything like Hulu or cable or satellite. We pay a monthly fee to be able to watch our favorite shows live. No risk of spoilers if you’ve watched it with everyone else right?

Except.

We have never actually been able to watch Game of Thrones live. Like ever. We can usually go back and watch it perhaps an hour or so after it goes live, but never at that magical moment. We have tried and I can only say thank the gods we didn’t do a premier party like we did a couple years back! The very minute it was to go live, HBO Now wouldn’t load.

At all.

I couldn’t get the actual site to load at all. Just kept getting errors. In any browser. Just like tonight.

Although the difference is that up until the magic time of 8 pm (for us) I was watching Pitch Perfect 3. I didn’t think it was as good as the others to be honest. It started to get that “Let’s do anything to keep this shit going” feel you know? But once I saw it was 8 I switched it over to GoT and saw that episode three was there so I happily clicked on it.

Only to be faced with the message “This video can’t play right now. Check your Internet or try again later.” Wha? So I clicked on it again and the site wouldn’t load and I got errors.

What the hell HBO?!

Last week we didn’t even try as we found it on torrent before the normal live airing time so we downloaded and watched that. We downloaded a torrent for the premier and tonight as well.

When I went to check it two hours later I STILL got the video cannot be played message, but I got to finish Pitch Perfect 3.

I decided to vent/rant about this on one of the Facebook groups I like that would understand my pain and one of the gang reminded me that you can add HBO to your Hulu for about the same price so I decided why the fuck not? Can’t hurt, I’m already paying for both of them separately. I also get a week free so I’ll be able to test it next Sunday. Although I was about to cancel my Hulu account due to the fact that it too has been temperamental at times, which if HBO Now didn’t work every other time I’ve ever wanted it to I’d seriously look at my internet. But it’s fiber and I have top of the line equipment again.

But when I poked around in Hulu HBO, at 11:30 pm, they showed the episode as to still have 51 minutes remaining and it was indeed playing live, but I couldn’t actually stream it from the beginning. Which would mean since it was a 90 minute episode it started at around 10 something, which is two hours after going live. I’m not sure I can wait that long, especially since I can download the episode only a couple of minutes into it for most cases from a torrent.

Picky picky I know. I’m just so used to getting good service from companies, and never had this problem when I was paying over $200 a month for my DIRECTV and HBO package! Entitled privilege I know.

But I’m paying the same price for HBO Now as I would if I had DIRECTV with the HBO package so why can’t I expect the same service? Especially since they say you can actually watch a show live. I’ll admit I have yet to test this with any other show. I may have to find one, Chernobyl perhaps? That looks good. Starts in May on Mondays at that magic eastern time of 9 pm. Which means 8 pm my time.

Once we downloaded the episode I had another epic roller coaster ride that I will not spoil for you. It was just epic and I may need to monitor my husband’s right hand to make sure I didn’t break any metacarpals or proximal phalanges . Thankfully he’s a lefty. I shrieked at the end and cannot wait until next Sunday!! OF course I have to as even torrents aren’t THAT good. Sometimes they are though. Sometimes.

I have A LOT of questions though. Questions I won’t ask right now as that would spoil it for some. Maybe if I remember for Wednesday I will ask as I am sure I’m not the only one with the same questions!

The Long Night indeed!!

Until next time, I may actually remember my tag line and not have to go back and edit the post to put it in. But EMOTIONS PEOPLE!

Hello. Remember me?

I’ll give you a minute or two to try to place me and remember. No worries. Still waiting. Anthropology? Cheshire Cat? Forensics? Any of that ring a bell? I’ll refrain from singing Anita Ward’s song Ring My Bell as I really don’t want you to ring my bell – if you have any knowledge of the song you’ll know why and if not, youtube – and you’d probably just leave without trying to remember upon hearing my singing voice.

Ah, you’ve got it. Good. Right? That’s good? Well anyway.

I don’t even remember what the last thing I wrote about was…probably about trolls. Pause to check.

Yeah, trolls. Before that pets and before THAT Wolfenoot. Which I never did celebrate. Glad you asked why.

Quick updates so you know where I am at mentally if not physically.

This past Thanksgiving we celebrated at a friend’s house and had a wonderful time and enjoyed ourselves. Came home that evening to heartache.

Someone thought that we had too many nice things and decided to rid us of them. A quick look found all the cats okay but hiding and the dogs with no injuries as well, which made looking around the rest of the house not easier as it’s never easy to look around and know that someone has been there and gone through your things.

As you can imagine anything electronic was gone; Xbox One, Nintendo Retro NES, laptops, Desktop, gaming headphones, cameras tablets, all gone. Jewelry as in all of mine and as many of hubby’s watches they could find along with my three jewelry boxes. They ripped the safe out of it’s hidden cabinet which had nothing but the animals medical records in it and three months worth of rent money and then the little lock box kept in the master bedroom that had our passports and other papers.

They missed a few things which sort of surprised me but I’m guessing they hadn’t a clue what they were looking at so thought nothing of it. They didn’t smash any of the collectibles or break anything, which was nice but we still had one hell of a mess to clean up, especially in the master bedroom where all the cats happened to be hiding.

While stuff can and has some what been replaced – obviously we probably are never going to replace all of it since it took us a few years to get what we had in the first place – that feeling never goes away. We didn’t have a lot, and everything we did have we found ways to buy them. Usually by waiting for clearance sales or people selling them on Craigslist. Yes, a few things we had were high end stuff, hard to do what we do for work without having it but even those were pieced together a little at a time when we could.

What surprised me greatly is how the little community we’re part of came together quickly to help us where ever they could. Whether that meant slipping us a few bucks here and there, paying for us to get our passports replaced or just cooking us one hell of a dinner, everyone did something. We got loaner equipment until we could get enough to get a replacement and sometimes people just gave us stuff they no longer use.

I’ve personally never seen this before. I have heard how communities come together in disasters – Notre Dame for example, which triggered outpouring of help for other churches recently burned and destroyed because of racism – but never for a single entity.

Now you know where my head is at and even after five months things still needle me.

We started a gofundme page a few days after it happened in hopes to get some charitable people willing to help, and while we did get a few donations, mainly from people we knew but live in other places in the country, apparently everyone wanted to throw their hard earned money towards a gofundme for trump’s fucking wall – a few MILLION in only hours? What the actual fuck??? – and when we talked about it online there were people who liked to tell us that we deserved to be robbed. People confuse and annoy me.

But lately it’s been reminders that come out of no where. I’m still trying to get used to things not being there. Thinking I’ll wear a ring but having it hit me that I don’t have that ring any more. Or getting an email from Xbox reminding me about the free games I get with my gold membership that I had just renewed. We haven’t replaced the Xbox or cameras and I’m slowly rebuilding my jewelry. The little stings make me sad and withdrawn.

I vetoed getting a new safe or lock box. What freaking good did it do us? They still took them, nothing was actually safe, so now I put important things in non-important looking places. Why fucking advertise? I refuse to get a new jewelry box, again, why fucking advertise?

We’ve moved back into a gated community where there is security 24/7 and they patrol often. It’s never the same amount of time between patrols which is comforting. There have only been four robberies in the community in the last 10 years and we’ve made damn sure the security knows us and our car.

It’s only been recently that I’ve stopped taking my tablet and laptop with me when we went places for any length of time. The robbery hasn’t stopped me from doing the things I did and like. It hasn’t totally taken my life or security away, it just makes me more pissed off and less trusting of anyone I don’t have sex with. And since you probably aren’t real clear on my personal life, I have sex with one person who I happen to have married in 2011.

But the little things that pop up do make me sad. Do make me pull back for a few and keep me from replacing a few things. ‘I barely used them to begin with so why replace them?’ is my most used reason for big ticket items. But when I do want to use them, I am sad they’re not there. Would replacing them remove the sadness? I don’t honestly know. On some level of my brain conscious or not I’ll know it’s not the original. It’s a replacement.

And since you’ve probably have the question bouncing around in your intelligent mind; no. Insurance didn’t help. Why? Because it was due to renew the day BEFORE Thanksgiving, but because of the holiday didn’t renew until a few DAYS AFTER. We battled them for two months before being told officially to fuck off. So we officially cancelled them and did a smear campaign on social media. But like with many things, that got old quickly and got us no where. But if you are curious, they currently have god awful commercials that make NO sense whatsoever. Whoever thought to dress an ostrich in yellow and give it sunglasses should be raked over sharp, hot coals.

And while it is meant to be nice, telling us that at least we and the animals are alive isn’t the pick me up you think it is. We’d be alive the day after Thanksgiving anyway, there would be no change in that. What we weren’t the day after Thanksgiving is trustful, employed, stressless, healthy or happy. And it only got worse for the longest time. Dust hasn’t settled, but we are at least back in business, our health is improving and we are starting to be happier now that we’ve gotten past dealing with the bullshit that always goes with a robbery.

Yes, there are things to be thankful for. There always will be. The planet hasn’t blown itself up to get rid of the parasites that is the human race, trump hasn’t managed to get North America nuked out of exsistance, Notre Dame isn’t lost – and I am so tired of people whining about how it’s gone. Bitch it’s literally RIGHT THE FUCK THERE, sad as the inferno was, no one was killed, relics are fine and an art historian took 3D images of the cathedral back in 2014 and they really do not need any more donations, no really they don’t -, and our security cameras – which were stolen – caught everything and sent it up to the cloud.

Yes. There are things to be thankful for. But there are also things that cannot be ignored just because it isn’t pleasant.

Until next time, don’t let the security camera thing get you exited. We were too at first, but we still haven’t gotten any of our stuff back, nor has the people been identified much less found.

The art of the troll

We have all had them, been them and have in many cases laughed our asses off at their pathetic attempts. Some people I will freely admit are really good at the art of the troll, and then there are some people who shouldn’t even try.

Case in point; today a user called yikesgirl (quite appropriate to be honest) decided to try their hand at trolling me on one of my posts. Happened to be the post about Amazon and Prime. You may remember it, unless you haven’t gone back in my blog history as this post is from 2015.

They rag on me for not reading the fine print, complaining/pointing out that I put way too much time into the post and apparently their first thought being how a student has so much time on their hands to do such a post and then rags on my degree in anthropology as the apparent answer. With a not-so-grand finale of “please find something more productive with your time.”

I’m sorry, is this like 2009 or something? I haven’t seen this level of pathetic trolling since a Harry Potter forum in 2009.

I am more than sure I don’t have to point out the obvious to anyone who follows this blog. I did in fact approve of the comment and replied to it pointing out the errors of their troll.

1. Blog post was from 2015. It is now 2019 and no one cares.
2. There is no such thing as putting too much effort into anything. Why the fuck would you not put effort into doing something?
3. The blog literally has the word Anthropology in it.
4. Obviously doesn’t know enough about anthropology to ‘have all the answers’ they need just from knowing I’m in anthropology.
5. Just saying “Please do something more productive with your time” smacks of a troll n00b

You can of course go back to the original post from 2015; Why I am Cancelling my Amazon Student Prime Membership and Leaving Amazon Completely and see for yourself the post in question and the troll attempt as well as my reply. I wouldn’t count on any conversation from yikesgirl. Also go have a little fun yourself if you think you’re up to it:

yikesgirl notreallllllle@gmail.com No website 107.15.189.105

ETA January 18: Apparently the troll yikesgirl can’t keep their trolling accounts straight! Got a reply from a whole new account. You really should go check them out. Might just make your day as it did mine! I didn’t get a screenshot of my reply to the top one about taking a class, but you can read it yourself.

Lance redhulk@yahoo.com No website 209.33.202.166

Troll fail take two.

Until next time, know what you are good at and what you are not good at. Feel free to sharpen the not so good at skills and make yourself better, but never ever forget what you are good at needs honing as well.

Bless Their Hearts….

You’ve seen the articles, you’ve read and heard about all the studies done. And you smile to yourself and agree with their findings. They’re known facts. You have seen it with your own eyes. 

Pets help us lower our blood pressure and help us live longer lives. I know it. You know it. But…do they?

I have currently four cats, three dogs and two turtles.

I have been blessed enough with cats who do not feel the need to carelessly knock things off onto the floor and thereby breaking things. They in fact try their hardest NOT to knock things off to the floor. Unless said things are table cloths, all bets are off when it comes to those devils. Of course every once in a while a careless tail flip or trying to get to another place quickly causes something to go tumbling to the floor.

The animals get along with each other more often than not and the dogs have learned that only one of our cats isn’t fully loaded — meaning we adopted our Bombay after some heartless person had his front claws removed. Not that you’d know it by watching him. And he is the only one who is the sweetest to the dogs.

Our youngest pup we got when she was four months old and she was well trained — if I do say so myself — and was an only pup, so she grew up thinking she was a cat. Seriously, I have pictures. The other two dogs we inherited when a close friend passed away over a year ago and they are older gals.

Like all dogs, ours bark when something has caught their attention. They all know that when the words “That’s enough” are uttered — usually yelled gruffly –they are to cease the noise. And they do. I usually let them get out a couple of barks — or a line of hound dog barks in the case of our youngest gal — before calling for a cease and desist. 

But the middle child doesn’t always cease and desist upon command and has a bark that always grate on my early morning nerves. It’s always the same, never changes it and it’s like someone is steadily hammering.

BARK. *pause* BARK. *pause* BARK. *pause* BARK.

And it comes out almost like a tiger chuffing. I hardly ever hear the other two, unless they get excited which always happens when we get home, people they like have arrived or someone knocks on the gate. Any other time it is blessedly quiet.

What the studies and articles don’t ever talk about are the times when they are in face RAISING our blood pressures, creating stress and feel like they are trying to kill us.

Animals under the same roof are like siblings. And they fight, taunt, tease and tattle just like siblings. And like toddlers they will get into things. Things you try your best to keep them from.

Our youngest is a beagle mix so she’s got a nose on her that you CANNOT hide anything from. I don’t care how many bags you wrap it in, how much Febreze you use, she knows when there are chicken bones in the garbage. Thankfully she doesn’t get into the garbage to get them, but she does plant her nose on the side and give you puppy dog eyes. But she will find that stray goldfish cracker and she will get to it by any means possible. If that means working her way under a entertainment room chair, so be it. Does she get stuck? Sometimes. Do we have to move so she can get at said treasure so she doesn’t upset the coffee table? Sometimes.

The youngest was taught not to beg and we do not give the dogs human food while we are eating. At all. Ever. If they get human food, it is given to them when no one is eating. The other two were allowed to beg and were given food at the human table while humans are eating and will in fact beg.

I hate it. Middle child breathes on you sometimes while you are eating and it takes a few loud “Go lay down” before she’ll get the hint. But when my mom is there, she has a chihuahua mix that is an honest to god emotional support dog — meaning we don’t just call him one because she wants and does take him everywhere — that she will feed while she’s eating and is always passing human food to.

Problem being that when she does this at our house, middle child is trying to crowd in. I don’t like people giving my dogs people food, and yet sometimes they ignore me and slip them some. When this happens and they don’t do it correctly, there is a dog fight. Thankfully no one has drawn any blood and no vet visits are ever needed — YET.

Our eldest little lady is a full bred Scottish Terrier. And she is stubborn. And sometimes bounces. Like a stiff legged rabbit. For the most part, she’s well behaved, quiet and causes little ruckus. Unless she is trying to put our youngest in line because she has upset her Scottish values. Old ladies will be old ladies. With old bladders that are used to schedules and the freedom to come and go as it’s owner pleases. Which doesn’t happen anymore due to…

The cats are not allowed outside, but our bombay loves the outdoors and will sneak out with the dogs — since he thinks he’s one of them. I am clueless to where he got that idea except perhaps from my in-laws who have dogs and briefly owned him after finding him in the street with no front claws.

When someone carelessly leaves the door open, I get a panic attack if I cannot find one of the cats. It’s almost always the bombay or our blonde boy. Our blonde boy has earned the brat prince title in his name. Lestat barely has one up on him. He’s also the one who will pick on the others every now and again to change things up and raise blood pressure.

His sister by blood is almost a diva. Her and her brother like to get into it at the foot of the bed, usually in the evening when the humans are winding down for a nights rest. But they can usually be found curled up together. They are the youngest. Our bombay is the middle child and our orange tabby is the eldest, of all animals at a whopping 18 years.

I recently lost our 10 year old black and white to kidney disease that struck quickly and left a trail of tears and heartbreak. Our eldest is on a diet to help prevent any kidney problems but I get anxiety when I look over at her sleeping and cannot for the life of me see the fur rise and fall.

The red-eared sliders — the before mentioned turtles — don’t cause much problems. They have free reign of the yard and pool and only cause worry when they can’t be found when they need to be brought in at night. Turtles are really good at hiding. And just keeping them in a tank wasn’t really cutting it. And they learned how to get out of the tank. No matter what.

For all of the studies that tell us that our pets do our health good, remember that there is ALWAYS the other side of that coin. While their actions hopefully won’t ever actually kill us, they raise our blood pressure only to lower it, they stress us out and then calm our nerves. The sight of them creates happy endorphins and fill us with love and joy.

Even when they are trying to eat the flower arrangement. Which will probably make them sick and create some sort of mess on the floor.

Until next time, animals will always be a healing factor to any life. The good does in fact out weigh the bad and we certainly are better off when we share our home and lives with a four legged domesticated creature.

Have you heard of Wolfenoot?

Yes, hello, I know, it’s been awhile. But I come baring gifts of knowledge! Entertainment! A new tradition!

It is called Wolfenoot – say “wolf-uh-noot”. Rhymes with suit.

Quite awhile ago I came across a posting on Facebook that made me smile and decide, yep! I’m doing that. Here’s what I read:

My son has invented a holiday called Wolfenoot.

It is when the Spirit of the Wolf brings and hides small gifts around the house for everyone. People who have, have had, or are kind to dogs get better gifts than anyone else.

You eat roast meat (because wolves eat meat) and cake decorated like a full moon.

A holiday to the spirit of wolves that celebrates people who are kind to dogs? I can 100% get behind this. So we will be celebrating Wolfenoot. It’s on the 23rd November if anyone else is moved to celebrate it. 😉 If you do, please post pics, so he can see how his idea has spread.

If you’re posting publicly about it, use #wolfenoot.

This is a 7 year old boy who created a holiday pretty much out of thin air, all because he believed a holiday was needed that celebrates the kindness people have towards dogs. It is ALWAYS on the 23rd of November as and I quote:

…that is the anniversary of “The Great Wolf’s Death”.

There is a whole story there that will be told at a later time by the creator’s mom. And that would be Jax Goss.

Guess what the #Wolfenoot Kid and I have been up to this evening. 😉 pic.twitter.com/kTFmAm865W

— wolfenoot (@realwolfenoot) October 18, 2018

While, possibly like you I saw this and thought it was a much better alternative to the US holiday ‘Black Friday’ — which apparently started last Friday? — this year and on the 23rd of November in the future (unless creator decides otherwise in which I am sure the world will be notified). I didn’t really think that it would become a ‘thing.’

It most certainly has become A THING.

Host a Wolfenoot Part With These Tasty Treats for You and Your Pup! via BuzzFeed (which I have bookmarked for later copying of many of the recipes found there).

Wolfenoot, a 7-tear-old’s made-up holiday, goes viral, launches movement to benefit dogs and wolves via Chicago Tribune. Some tasty recipes there as well.

Seven-Year-Old Boy Invents Wolf Holiday and People Are Already Onboard via Time

Wolfenoot: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know via heavy

Celebrate Wolfenoot, the new wolf holiday via Boing Boing — I know nothing of this site, but they managed to NAIL the image for this article. The wolf’s face says “Wolf-what-now?” as if he’s as surprised and confused as anyone hearing about this for the first time is bound to be. And yes, I did pilfer it to use above.

Little boy creates new dog holiday called Wolfenoot. People can’t wait to celebrate via Kansas City Star

Let’s just say it’s not every day your kid creates a new thing, much less a holiday, that thousands if not millions have embraced and placed on their calendars as a must do.

That moment when your 7 year old makes up a holiday, and people start wanting to actually celebrate it. ❤ #wolfenoot pic.twitter.com/VPg7FGWy7Y

— Jax Goss (@belgatherial) September 27, 2018

Perhaps someday, Wolfenoot will actually be printed on calendars as an observed holiday and there will be a book about the Great Wolf, it’s death and how Wolfenoot came to be…in the fairy tale sense, although one could certainly call it’s creation and phenomenon just that.

A complete list of Wolfenoot related linkage.

Official website: www.wolfenoot.com
Official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/wolfenootmom
Official Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/2133001853619644/
Official Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/wolfenootcentral
Official Twitter: @realwolfenoot

Wolfeloot (Sanctioned merch) complete list.
Wolfenati Wares  is also legit, and run by someone they trust. (If you want to create wolfenoot stuff for sale/charity fundraising, that’s the place to start, please.)

If you want to support them in turning this into a non-profit, you can do so at www.patreon.com/wolfenootmom (This is still very much a work in progress, but there will be some nifty patron rewards eventually.)

If you need/want to get hold of Jax, please use wolfenootofficial@gmail.com or the contact form on their website. Anything else is very likely to be missed.

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Starbucks is love.

Unless you are a white privilege racist. How many did you discover on Tuesday?

Personally I stayed away from anything that would put me “face to face” with any so not to annoy myself. I do believe my Facebook is pretty cleared out of those types of people, although there are a few who have learned not to show their racist white privilege side.

I suppose the last year has been a double edge sword. On one side we have discovered the true sides of friends and family when it comes to white privilege and racism (although we did get a glimpse of this with Obama- it’s just been turned up a few notches since trump). On the other side trump and everything that has to do with this idiot.

Many of the changes Starbucks has been making recently are good changes. Changes that may other businesses should think about making themselves (then just doing it because it’s the right thing to do, but this is the US after all). Changing the rule about needing to buy something just to sit in the cafe or use the bathrooms is brilliant. I get why the rule existed in the first place, but to be honest, I have spent many hours in Starbucks after buying the cheapest thing on the menu (and then whatever coffee I was jonesing for at the time), and sometimes not even then. It used to be you had to have a code to use their Internet, and it is how the Starbucks in Cuernavaca do it. The password is always on the receipt.

I think they should close the stores more often to talk about pressing issues at the moment whether it be just refreshing the training on how not to be a complete cunt to people to venting the air the baristas have about things. How could that go wrong (yeah, okay so this would have to come with that anything shared, unless against store policy will not get anyone fired because cunts manifest themselves in many different ways)?

I also love the changes they have been making in regards to supporting and helping out their partners (which everyone else knows as employees). Uneducated people still love to rag on the chain for employee themed issues, but usually it’s because they are ignorant to the change and are relying on their memories or rumors they have heard.

And I love the christmas cup outrage that hits every damn year no matter what is on the cup. This year, my suggestion is to have a cup that features the tolerance of EVERY human on the planet. LGBT, race, class, origin, and religion– I mean we already mingle with all types in the cafe whether we know it or not.

Changes I really don’t like that Starbucks has made deal more with their Rewards program. The changes they made now make it where you HAVE to do something RIGHT NOW or you won’t be able to do it at all.

Take the birthday drink/food. I don’t always get to Starbucks on my birthday. In fact I actually cannot remember a time where I did go to Starbucks on my birthday, but now that is the ONLY day I can use my birthday reward. It was until the end of your birthday month, then I think it was until the end of the week. Originally I think you had a year, but I did mange for the most part to get in at least by June to use it, so I’m not 100% sure.

Same goes for any free drinks you earn with stars; although if I’m honest I haven’t dealt with this for awhile now that my stars EXPIRE if I don’t use them or collect them fast enough. I have a gold card which they sent out to me when I became a gold member for the first time by collecting enough stars. Stars that didn’t expire so even as infrequently as I made purchases (or forgot to use my card to do so) I could still collect enough to become a member for those special rewards the gold level gave you. Yes you had to collect a certain number of stars within a given time to be or stay in gold level, but they never expired. They’d disappear once you “use” them.

And any rewards I did manage to earn would stay on the card (or you could print out a ticket) until they were used. Now everything expires so if you don’t use it, you loose it. And with that I ask what is the point for those of us who are not popping in daily to buy Starbucks? I mean I *could* but I don’t think I get anything for popping into International Starbucks. Also the US economy makes it that I really cannot do this, even on a weekly/monthly basis for the most part.

Also the desire to do so just isn’t there anymore. I do still have my Starbucks radar however. I think anyone born in Seattle Washington is born with one.

Until next time, remember that a real patriot is someone who loves their country enough to speak up when they see something that needs to be changed; not someone who blindly assumes that their government knows best and is always right no matter what. Since the US currently disgusts me to the core I consider myself a European born in the US. Because honestly, all my blood is from Europe, I have no native American blood or anything that would firmly tie me to the United States beyond my birth.

Ready Player None.

I saw Ready Player One yesterday. I finished the book a couple of days before I found out there was a movie coming out later that month.
My first gut reaction to people? Skip the movie. Read the book. They are not the same stories. The book is a better story than the movie and is more exciting. If you want to see the movie, I’d read the book first. I wouldn’t want you to ruin the book with the movie.
This really isn’t a simple case of “The book is *always* better than the movie.” this is a case of “The book is a different story than the movie but with the same underlining theme.” It’s like the movie is a fan-fiction of the book. I think that is a good way to explain it.
Movie was entertaining, but a lot of the things that made the book marvelous wasn’t even mentioned in the movie. Movie had it’s moments, not as much nostalgia as Rock of Ages but a few things if you know your 80’s, (you could tell who the 80’s kids were in the audience…mainly hubby and myself) and it’s always interesting to see how the characters look on screen compared to how you saw them in your mind. None of the on-screen characters will be replacing the ones I created in my head like Daniel and Co did for Harry Potter.

The more I think on it, the more I am confident to say that the movie is fan-fiction. Same characters, same theme just a different author. Which is sad since the author of the book, Ernest Cline was part of the script writing team and was a great part of the film production. I guess he was so fanboyish over Spielberg that he forgot what his own story was about.

As it’s very own entity the movie is okay. Needless to say I am quite disappointed in the movie.

The book is fantastic. You could see the movie then go and read the book and never have a “This is was in the movie, I know what happens next.” moment. Seriously they are that different. There are plenty of “I remember an event similar to this, but this isn’t how it happened.” and “This was in the movie, but that’s not who was doing it.” and so forth.  I will say one thing; the book and the movie have different challenges for the keys.

But that’s pretty much my thoughts on it. If you’re a book  person, grab a copy, it’s been out for quite a while now and I’ve had a copy of my own for almost the same amount of time, but just kept it on the shelf, until the end of February when I was looking for something to read. An actual ink and paper book. Not eInk. And so I grabbed this and read it. Couldn’t/wouldn’t put it down and encouraged my hubby to read it (although he did the eInk version) and he loved it as much as I did. So we both were excited about the movie.

Yes, I watched the trailers. They went quite quickly so I wasn’t quite sure, beyond Wade who I was looking at. And the race scene made me think as well. As a talking point, it can be really fun. I’d defiantly have a Back to the Future DeLorean. There is no question about that. And a Firefly class ship. Probably a few Star Wars class ships as well. I’d also have an Eleanor. This could go on for quite awhile, and that’s not getting to armor or weapons! Or clothes. Or what I’d look, sound and act like.

Don’t let me make any decisions for you. Read the book. Watch the movie. Have your own opinions. It’s really great to be an individual who doesn’t follow any crowd. Try it if you haven’t.

Until next time, I did some staining of the wooden chest of drawers I purchased yesterday and I look like I have been two knuckle deep in some serious gore and forgot to wash my hands. I just love the curious looks from people upon seeing my hands. I could probably say anything to them while gesturing and they’d not hear a word. Unless blood, murder or autopsy come up.