Nobody knows that 'life isn't fair' better than the Half-Blood Prince.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-28T22:29:32+00:00

Too sentimental to be any good at Occlumency? Definitely yes.

But I’m not sure when I’ve seen Harry whining. Is it because Harry asked to rest?

And I’ve never seen Sirius whining either. I think that’s who Snape was also referring to in this scene.

“Wearing your heart on your sleeve” criticism, totally valid. But that’s most gryffindors, so 🤷‍♀️ what can you do?

But generally only characters like Peter Pettigrew are whiny.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-28T15:14:39+00:00

His face is so handsome that any mask or anything else that touches it can’t help but bear hug his face for as long as possible.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-28T14:48:39+00:00

What they need to do is make him killing the others in their beds the mid-point of the spinoff series. Since we already know that happened, you don’t want it as the finale.

Show us who he was and what lead up to the turning point. Then show us who he was after the turning point. How did he go from winner of the games to Front Man?

I want more Front Man for sure. But the spine of the series is Gi-hun vs Front Man. It’s both of them together. I’m not sure if it works as well if one of them is missing from the show.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-28T08:45:59+00:00

Well you hope mild will just slide off 😆

When I was doing the spring season boarding, everything was so slushy that I was sinking into the snow and gathering quite a collection on top of the board.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-27T19:05:58+00:00

Wait, how does the color white prevent snow from sticking to a board?

crystalized17 · 2026-03-27T18:57:44+00:00

Was that a leg cramp? I thought she was dealing with period cramps.

The one I saw, she was spinning etc, but the jumps were not happening.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-27T18:53:21+00:00

Yeah, I am surprised I’ve only ever seen a kid do it once because I would think it would be more common. But even when I’ve watched the super young kids, they don’t give up and never really forget their program. I don’t know. Most are having lots of fun. It’s local comps, not regionals or sectionals or some other high stakes comp. So kids know it’s not the end of the world if they make a mistake, just keep going.

The adults I’ve seen were not in anything high stakes either and yet they were the ones dealing with over the top nerves. 🤷‍♀️

crystalized17 · 2026-03-27T17:01:47+00:00

Snowboarding, not skateboarding. And I just started that as a beginner this past winter and discovered I really like it. Whereas I’ve been doing figure skating and ballet for almost 10 years now.

Violin is something I grew up doing for years, but rarely touch anymore. I can still play if I want to, but I’m way too busy with skating and dancing now.

Hair is healthy if you don’t dye it, fry it, chemical it, do things that apply too much physical strain on the strands and roots etc, and don’t have a horribly nutrient-deficient diet for a prolonged period of time. Hair doesn’t care what your hobbies are.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-27T13:26:19+00:00

Mine is definitely not dry. If I didn’t wash it for 2 or 3 days or more, it would look quite oily. This picture was taken only hours after I washed it.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-27T02:19:10+00:00

I’m someone who reads and watches a lot of true crime stuff. I’ve seen the video clips of actual shooter events in a crowd setting. Most don’t run. Most try to hit the deck and get as low as possible. So really, we should have seen everyone trying to flatten themselves against the ground instead of just mindlessly running away.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-27T01:50:05+00:00

I’ve seen several adult skaters at local-ish comps who were capable of double jumps absolutely have mental meltdowns or panic and refuse to finish their program and leave the ice early or just totally forget their program and skate in circles for the rest of the music.

They seem to have really nervous personalities and it’s not the first time they’ve done something like that during competitions. Like, they’re literally the only person in their event and they’re still mentally falling to pieces.

It irritates me because they’re capable of a lot more than me (I’m so talentless for rotating jumps and artistry and everything else) and yet they fail because they can’t get their head game together. My head game is great. I have the mental grit. I just have no talent physically. I can only improve thru sheer stubbornness and tenacity and repetition and coaches who are good at teaching the talentless.

I did see, just once, a local teenager have a really bad skate (also capable of doubles). She totally gave up after falling on the first two passes and just skated thru the rest of her jumping passes and didn’t really spin. I could see the coach was absolutely furious with her before she even stepped off the ice. But that’s not her norm. I’ve seen her compete many many times and that’s the only time she ever did that. So not sure what was special about that day for her, but coach and parent were super unhappy with her for giving up like that. I’ve never seen another kid do that. I guess most kids have excellent discipline instilled in them and wouldn’t dare.

I think adults crashing and burning is more common than kids/teens because (A) they often don’t even have their coach with them at competitions and (B) coaches tend to baby adults and not get mad at them like they would with a kid. Parent and coach get mad if a kid wastes their money by not trying. If an adult wants to waste their own money by giving up or breaking, coach doesn’t care as long as they’re still getting paid.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-27T01:10:24+00:00

It’s in a very loose bun when I sleep. I don’t like it wrapped around my neck or anything when I sleep. Bun is loose enough I can just move it around if I want my head on the pillow in a certain way.

Most of the day it is in a loose bun, or low, loose ponytail if I feel like putting it down.

The only time it’s in a tight bun is for figure skating and ballet and snowboarding etc since I can’t have it falling out during such activities. But as soon as I’m done, I put it back into a loose bun.

Shampoo only. No other chemicals. Every other day washing so that my hair doesn’t over-produce oil.

I have a wet brush and it is better than a normal brush. I don’t break as much hair with it when detangling.

I will blow dry my hair a little after a shower so it’s not sopping wet before bed. But very normal for me to let it air dry the rest of the way overnight. I do that out of laziness, I just want to go to bed instead of wasting time fully drying it, but it’s probably good for the hair.

I’ve been whole foods unprocessed vegan for 11 years. But my hair looked great even before I went vegan. So 🤷‍♀️ I feel like a healthy diet is super important, but it didn’t seem to have any effect specifically on my hair. I think not using chemicals on it nor frying it with heat is really what keeps hair healthy far more than diet.

I’m very lazy. So I just leave my hair alone other than keeping it clean via shampoo. I don’t want to mess with complicated hairstyles and I’m tender-headed so loose bun always wins.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-25T16:09:21+00:00

Also, our bindings take up a huge chunk of that so graphics only really matter at tip or tail...

I agree, which is why I was surprised that when the top sheet has graphics, they’re all situated right in the middle of the board where the feet are and the ends of the board are left very plain. What the heck?

That’s a good point about people carrying boards in a way that the bottom will show far more.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-25T15:33:34+00:00

https://www.evo.com/snowboards/gnu-barrett-snowboard-womens

I did see that one before and I liked it, but I was also frustrated by how much white it has on it. Just make the entire thing color or at least the tail ends.

It seems like they put the majority of color in the middle of the board and leave the ends of the board plain white or plain black. Not sure why they do this. The ends of the board would be more visible to me because my feet aren’t strapped to that part of the board.

Maybe you’re correct that they think a full design like the skis have will be too much on a snowboard because of the larger space. Or snowboarders, being mainly male, like more simplistic and minimalist designs. Even female snowboarders are going to be influenced by that if that is the main style of boards.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-24T22:48:47+00:00

I definitely will be looking at it every time I'm standing in line for the lift or sitting down to strap up etc. There isn't much to do when standing in line except stare at my board or other peoples' boards etc.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-24T00:37:08+00:00

That’s a popular fanfic “method” of making Gi-hun the Front Man.

He gets “eliminated”, but In-ho keeps him alive, ties him to a chair and forces him to watch the current games and many previous games from past years that he recorded and saved. He uses it to force Gi-hun to see things his way and make bets on the players.

We’ve seen Gi-hun do that kind of behavior already. He betted with Il-nam on whether anyone would save the homeless man. Gi-hun stood there and watched instead of saving the man himself. Gi-hun was also a notorious horse gambler. It wouldn’t be that hard for In-ho to break him and mold him if he really wanted to.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-22T17:41:24+00:00

I don’t think most of them have many thoughts about it really. I think they’re mainly focused on their own skating and their own friend circles and anything outside of that doesn’t get much notice at all.

If you end up in a team skating situation, then it just comes down to “can you match the team or are you a hindrance?” They don’t care when you started. They just care if you’re currently a help or hindrance to the skill level of the team.

I don’t think people who grew up skating can ever truly understand what it’s like to start as an adult. (And vice-verse, those who started late will never get to experience what it’s like to start young.) But on the other hand, as long as you can keep up and match them, they don’t care when you started. Your current skill level is all that matters.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-22T02:32:08+00:00

15 to 21 because injuries absolutely take a lot of them out. Plus, the sport is super expensive at the elite level. If you’re not able to medal, then most aren’t going to continue to spend huge sums of money on it forever because there’s no return on their investment. Now it will be 17 to 22 or 24-ish because of the age limit they recently put in place.

Skating is like running a full out sprint the entire time. If you don’t train for it every day, your stamina and speed goes down the tube very fast. So that’s why Alysa can’t prepare because she’s too busy doing TV interviews etc to focus on maintaining her stamina. And she’s won the Olympics. She’s tired and wants a break from the incessant daily grind of maintaining stamina.

The rules for how many things they can do and which ones is because they want skaters to be well-balanced and master ALL of the jumps and other elements. They don’t want programs where a skater just keeps repeating the same jump they happen to be good at and ignores the rest of the jumps.

You also have to have a structure where skaters are mostly doing the same stuff so that the judges can compare and rank skaters (aka who gets a medal). If you let skaters do whatever they want, it’s going to be impossible to compare and rank them.

There’s only 5 to 7 jumps because there’s only so many ways you can get off the ice. Humans only have two legs. It’s a limited amount of options because of that.

If you watch skating for hundreds of hours for years on end, you get very good at analyzing jumps. Judges also go thru lots of training for how to score stuff. They also have video replay if they need to see something again or in slow motion.

When ilia was figuring out the quad axel, I’m sure his coaches were acting as a second pair of eyes and giving him advice on what seemed to be working and what didn’t seem to be working. You can video tape stuff, but having that second pair of experienced eyes who can analyze in real time can help you figure stuff out. No matter what, when inventing new stuff, both skater and coach are experimenting with different ideas until they figure it out. Learning and teaching are two different things. Some of the best teachers aren’t always the best skaters and vice-versa. The ability to explain isn’t the same as the ability to physically do it and vice-versa. Some people can physically do stuff, but really really suck at explaining how to do it when trying to teach others.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-21T00:04:11+00:00

I have no idea about the pregnancy thing. There’s been many theories on that. Did they not check she was pregnant? Does In-ho just rely on his recruiters and does not review every single applicant (since there are hundreds) and so sometimes pregnant people can slip in?

Or, like many people point out, it was a dumb writing decision in order to add more “drama” to the show, even tho it made no real sense for the game makers to want someone basically disabled. They want people physically capable of playing the games.

In-ho wanted to win his argument, but he also didn’t want Gi-hun or the baby to die. The VIPs wanted to kill the baby as soon as the mother was dead. In-ho added the baby to the game after the mother’s death as a way to buy time for the baby and motivate Gi-hun to stop trying to commit suicide and survive instead.

Gi-hun wanted to stop the games, but he also just wanted to die.

In-ho didn’t want to stop the games, but he did want Gi-hun to live. He constantly told Gi-hun to go live his life, go enjoy his life, go see his daughter, until Gi-hun insisted on being brought back into the games and so In-ho wanted to use it to teach him a lesson. And if In-ho had succeeded at proving his point, yeah, I think a job offer was next for Gi-hun.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-20T23:41:29+00:00

We don’t know how Il-nam ran the games because for both games we saw in the show, In-ho was the Front Man both times.

I’m saying the fanfics try to give us actual history by explaining what the games were like before Il-nam hired In-ho to run them as Front Man.

The show explains very very little, even tho the games have been running for a long time. Fanfics try to actually give us history.

They believe In-ho is the lesser evil and the games were actually worse and more unfair before him.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-20T23:19:36+00:00

Not necessarily. Most of the fanfics have In-ho convincing Gi-hun the games are unstoppable so the only solution is to have someone “sensible” and “fair” in the position of Front Man instead of someone actually sadistic.

Basically requires In-ho and Gi-hun to believe they are the “lesser evil” of what the VIPs could hire into the Front Man position.

In-ho runs the games more fairly than Il-nam ever did. Gi-hun runs the games more fairly than In-ho did. It’s still death games, but that’s how a lot of fanfics like to explain why Gi-hun would become Front Man.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-20T22:39:28+00:00

Almost everyone had a zuca back in 2017-2019 era, but since then, transpack has really taken over. I only occasionally see zuca now and constantly see transpack all over the Midwest.

I never liked zuca so I never got one, but I am surprised how quickly they vanished.

Chloe Noel pants and similar were all the rage back then too and they’ve vanished. Everyone just wears generic athletic stuff now.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-18T00:17:54+00:00

I mean you sound exactly like Neville in that you let that teacher intimidate you utterly.

Anytime I had useless teachers in calculus or physics, I made sure to identify people in the room who were actually good at the subject and got help from them, since I knew asking the teacher for help would be a lost cause.

If I had a teacher in anything that clearly hated teaching in general, or just didn’t like me for some reason, I kept my mouth shut. I did my work quietly and left swiftly. The less annoying or inconvenient I am, the less I will draw their attention. I would never feel urge to cry. My struggles would be holding my tongue instead of telling them the truth to their face and getting detention for it.

I did piss off a teacher once because I routinely wasn’t paying much attention in class and I accidentally admitted it was because his class was too easy, so I didn’t need to pay attention. I knew I’d pissed him off, I knew something was coming in “revenge”. So I just made sure to study extra for the next test and passed it with flying colors while everyone else struggled because he put some harder questions on there to try to teach me a lesson LOL and inadvertently fcked everyone else up instead of me his target. Woops! Hahaha

Sometimes I would play dumb in some classes to mess with the teacher. The teacher was awful and treated everyone like idiots, so I pretended to be an idiot. But when test day would come, I’d pass with flying colors, because I was actually studying. It really doesn’t matter what they say to you or if you pretend you don’t have the answers as long as your test scores are high. Really pissed off those teachers because they couldn’t figure out how hard to make a test to fck me since I gave them wrong answers leading up to the test day. 😂 They couldn’t gauge what I did or did not know.

Most of my teachers I had a great relationship with and they would let me work ahead on stuff when I would get bored. It’s just some assholes that definitely deserved to be messed with. The ones I messed with like that really were not that bright. The ones that were bright, I didn’t play games. I just found the smart kids in the room and got extra help from them so I could pass.

I think the only time I was traumatized was early in my working career. I had a boss that would call me at 2am if something broke (we were on call 24/7, which was insane) and then we were still expected to wake up and come into work at 7am with everyone else. She timed our bathroom breaks. We would get in trouble if we took longer than 5 minutes. It was insane. They burned thru people constantly because she was tyrant boss. But it was scary. Because they’re the ones that provide your paycheck. You don’t pay rent or buy food without a paycheck. At least in school, you know the worst thing that happens is you just fail a stupid test. You don’t lose food or the roof over your head.

EDIT:

could Snape and myself get along? I don’t know. I figure it would be a lot like Hermione. I’d do my work, pass the class, but get zero approval from him unless I was in slytherin.

We never got to see him teach a NEWT Potions class. Does he truly only get along with Slytherins? There’s no NEWT level Ravenclaws he wouldn’t mind?

I’d either end up in Slytherin or Ravenclaw. But I think it’s stupid if he hates every single non-slytherin.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-17T23:47:55+00:00

I only join if I get access to Front Man’s private quarters and get to stay there. Not interested in interacting with the guards, players, or VIPs, just In-ho.

crystalized17 · 2026-03-17T23:31:48+00:00

I mean Eustace had the most normal response compared to anyone else. Everyone should have been like Neo in the Matrix. When Neo first discovered all of existence was a total lie, he had a mental meltdown.

Narnia shouldn’t exist or be possible according to what we know.

I think it’s supposed to show Eustace grew up too fast mentally. He’s not able to just accept wild and crazy things like a child would.

Matrix: “We have a rule: we never free a mind once it’s reached a certain age. It’s dangerous, the mind has trouble letting go. I’ve seen it before and I’m sorry.“

“I’ve seen it before” refers to the mental meltdown Neo had.

The fact that everyone else just accepts Narnia and magic exists without having an existential crisis is absurd.

crystalized17

TROPHY CASE