Emma Watson for Elle Spain (2015)
tomfoolery at an all time high
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Everytime I see posts like this I get filled with such profound sadness
Cause you know who has the same brainrot as you? The same unhinged feelings as you after you've read the fic? The person who always wants to scream about the fic with you?
THE PERSON WHO WROTE IT
I never used to leave comments but since I got into the habit of commenting on everything i enjoy it's been incredible. Especially when the author gets back to me about it and we get to have a discussion of what other ideas they had. One writer replied to my comment with a 5 paragraph essay detailing the Floorplan of the building the characters lived in and it was incredible
Anyways this is all to say that if you find a fic that just makes you want to scream from the rooftops, leave a comment saying that to the author and maybe they will join you and you can scream incoherently together
despite staff's recent changes, we're... winning??????
yo thats steven bradbury, winner of the short track 1000 metres at the 2002 winter olympics! yooo!! he’s the first man from THE ENTIRE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE to win a gold medal in the winter olympics!!!
hold on, lemme tell you about steven bradbury because the man’s olympic career is WILD. not to be an annoying australian but the whole “purely out of the luck of everyone else crashing, i unexpectedly won!” thing is like 50% myth. lemme explain
so the man actually won gold in the world championships as part of the australian relay team in 1991, but when the team went to the winter olympics the next year, they dropped from third to fourth in the semi-finals and failed to make the finals. get this: the reason is, his teammate lost his footing and crashed. (bradbury was a reserve at the time)
so in the 1994 winter olympics, the australian relay team (with bradbury as an active racer) decided to take a safe and conservative approach. they prioritised staying safe on their feet and hoping other teams would crash. sure enough, the canadian team had a crash, and while they got back up again it lost them significant time and allowed australia to eke out a bronze--this bronze was also the first medal australia EVER won at the winter. in fact, australia could have gone for the silver, but richard nizielski (the same teammate who crashed at 1992) decided to cede the silver to the american he was racing against in order to avoid risking another crash. safe, steady, conservative.
bradbury didn’t just compete in the relay team at the ‘94 winter, though. he was also in the 500m and 1000m short track, and he was INCREDIBLE, but also had insanely bad luck. for the 500m, he came second in his heat and then WON his qtrfinal. he ultimately came fourth in the semi, losing his shot at the finals, after he was suffered a crash from being knocked down by another competitor, and ended up limping over the finish line. for the 1000m, he was ILLEGALLY SHOVED OVER by another competitor, dropped his position, and was elimated.
but his worst luck came at the montreal world cup of the same year when, during a collision, another competitors blade sliced through his thigh. he was in the middle of competing, his heart rate was high because of the adrenaline, blood was pumping like crazy through his body--right out his wound as a result. he lost four litres of blood. all four quadriceps had been sliced through by the blade. he almost died. he later recounted that he was fighting to stay conscious because he thought if he lost consciousness he would definitely die (he probably would have). he ended up with ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN STITCHES in his leg, which he could not move afterward for three months. he ended up needing 18 months to get his leg back to full strength.
not only did the man almost DIE short tracking, he almost got a death sentence on his career at the time. his leg was almost disabled, and even though it healed, he was out of training for over a year because of the injury.
but he didnt die, and his career didnt end. bradbury kept training, and remained on the australian team. the man almost died and he still went, yeah nah, i’ve got a few good years left in me.
so bradbury comes back in the ‘98 winter olympics, both on the relay team and in the 500m and 1000m. the relay team unfortunately fails to qualify. devo. for the solos, bradbury was actually considered a real contender, he was still top of his game, but in the end he didn’t qualify for the quarterfinals. the reason for this was that his time had dropped due to collissions with other competitors. so he went home with nothing but a relay bronze. but bradbury was determined to see a short track win.
too bad fate fucking hates him apparently.
now, if you think almost dying because a skate blade sliced through your thigh and you almost bled out was bad, bradbury’s career was really threatened in 2000. during an exercise one of the other skaters fell in front of him. bradbury tried to jump, instead not only did he clip the other skater, but it caused him to lose his balance and he stacked it straight into the barrier, fracturing his vertebrae.
not only did the man spend months in a halo brace, not only did the man need to get pins skull and plates and screws bolted to his back and chest, but he was told explicitly by doctors he would never, ever be able to get back onto the ice again. that was it. he survives almost dying in the 94 world cup only to have his world crash and burn in a training exercise six years later.
anyway, fuck that, bradbury got back onto the ice. clearly. because goddamnit, he wanted that winter gold on a solo win.
look, not only did the man have a near death experience and metal bolted to his bones, but he was also aging up past the prime of an olympic athlete. he was, what some may say, not in his prime. it was a longshot. he admitted this. but he also wanted that fucking medal, and i guess everyone really liked him or felt incredibly bad for all the bad luck he’d had, so come the 2002 winter olympics, he’s on the team.
bradbury won his 1000m heat.
too bad in the qtrfinals he was racing against the gold medal pick of the host nation (ohno), and also the defending world champion (gagnon). only top two finishers could proceed to the semis.
bradbury came third. that was it. he was out. his olympic career was ov-
BUT WAIT, WHAT’S THAT! ON THE HORIZON! IS IT... A DISQUALIFICATION??? YES FOLKS, GAGNON WAS DISQUALIFIED FOR OBSTRUCTING ANOTHER RACER!! BRADBURY WAS IN!
he was in, but he still had the semis and the finals to get through. bradbury had, it was fair to say, an indomitable will, but his body was not in the same shape as his competitors. it had been through some shit. he knew he was slower than his rivals. so he took the same strategy as the australian relay team did all the way back in ‘94: conservative, steady, safe.
so here’s the thing. bradbury had a whole career, and body, full of proof that falls happen in short track. may as well call it short stack. it was a question of when, not if. people fall down, people collide, people trip, and medal chances are missed due to lost time. isn’t that what happened to him over and over again? so this is where i say that the whole “oh golly gosh who’da thunk everyone would fall down and i would just win!” thing is 50% a myth.
because that was his whole strategy.
you can’t be 100% certain the favourites are gonna fall, so of course there’s an element of chance, which is why i say only 50%, but bradbury’s plan for the semis and the finals was always to cruise along behind the other competitors, concentrate on skating safe and staying on his feet, avoiding collissions and trips, and just hoping (expecting) the other competitors to eat ice. he just wasn’t faster than his competitors, he was older, he had injuries, and he had to do (if things went well) four races in one night. it was a good strategy.
during the semis, bradbury’s “cruise behind the other races” strategy put him firmly in last place for most of the race. but then the other competitors all crashed, including a defending champion. bradbury cruised right into first place and went on to the finals. which is not the events of the picture above.
yep, that’s right. come the finals, bradbury repeats the exact same strategy. crusing behind the four other competitors, he kept a firm hold of last place and just concentrated on safety and steadiness. and then it happened. it wasn’t just a crash. it was the crash. a four-skater pile up. li (china) took the fall on the last turn of the race, just short of the finish, and triggered a chain crash that took all three other favourites down. bradbury was trailing 15m behind, putting him well clear of the collission.
bradbury hoped to get a bronze. he skated away with the first gold ever taken by an australian, by any man in the southern hemisphere, at the winter olympics.
he had over a decade of crashes and bashes. he almost died, twice. he almost had his career permanently destroyed, twice. he almost grabbed medals countless times, only to lose them to trips and shoves. he was the second oldest competitor, and the oldest of the finals. he was slower than everyone else. he was past his best. but let’s allow bradbury to say it best himself:
"Obviously I wasn't the fastest skater. I don't think I'll take the medal as the minute-and-a-half of the race I actually won. I'll take it as the last decade of the hard slog I put in."
and what a goddamn slog. i want to say, firmly and proudly as an australian, the man didn’t win the gold at the 2002 winter olympics because he got lucky when seven competitors all tripped and fell. he won the gold at the 2002 winter olympics because he survived a ten year olympic career despite all the odds, never gave up despite the long shot, and used what he knew.
if there is a lesson in this as it relates to the original picture, it’s that while other social media platforms like twitter and reddit are jostling and shoving each other in competition to take first, tumblr has been slowly and steadily trailing behind, just focusing on keeping itself afloat, because it knows the simple truth that taking a fall is a matter of when, not if. and now everyone else is caught in a pile up and all it needs to do is keep cruising.
also, raise a glass to steven bradbury. man earned his medal.
ps5 brain monday
Oh so THIS is the ps5 post. I can see why you all imprinted on it now that’s hilarious
happy 1 year ps5 brain monday
So these tourists came to a city with a bunch of “tourists go home” “tourists not welcome” graffiti and instead of idk maybe looking into why locals want tourists gone they film the grafiti, post it on tiktok with a caption “wow i feel so welcome” and like comments like these
And then they’re suprised when locals tell them to fuck off
I’m pretty sure the the video was filmed in barcelona (not 100 % because i can’t find it atm) but there are countless people in the comments explaining to this person that locals literally cannot live in their houses because of airbnb and other stupid shit made for tourists. Did the creator acknowledge these comments? No.
exactly! @minglana
The funny thing is that they don’t want to grasp that people can’t live in the majority of Barcelona and surrounding cities and towns LITERALLY.
In the really touristy parts of Barcelona (half the city) there is no housing market because there are no homes in the market because everything is fucking Airbnb. If you don’t live in Barcelona, but you live in the surrounding areas the little housing options there are inaccessible if you are a resident because it can cost over 300k-400k in places like Hospitalet del Llobregat (5-6 years ago the majority of housing in the city was 200k or less unless you went to specific parts with luxury flats).
People can’t live in Barcelona because there are no grocery shops or essential shops to have a normal life. When I was young and up to my teenage years (I’m only 25 btw) Barcelona was known by the small multi-generational business and artisans. If you needed something you went to X store that was in X place, and you knew it was good because your grandma used to go there when she was young (the thing being food, clothes, furniture, anything you could imagine). Nowadays all these small business have disappeared (I know some of them are barely surviving but when I talk to them all of them are saying that they don’t know how much longer they can stay) and in their place a bunch of souvenir shops that sell sevillanas (from Andalusia), tango (from Argentina), mariachi hats (from Mexico) and Son Goku T-shirts have opened thus making that the few people who lived there unable to subside (you need food and this type of things).
Starting in May and up till October you can barely go to the city centre and surrounding areas (where all the official buildings are, the majority of offices, etc) because of the tourists. They are literally EVERYWHERE. You can’t catch the metro because it is full of tourists, you can’t catch the bus because it’s full of tourists, you need to add 10-15min (or more) to your commute because tourists will be in the streets and are going to block the fucking way and won’t let you walk.
Tourists are simply rude and uncivil. You can’t grasp how rude they are. I haven’t been treated worse than how tourists treated me. They pee on the streets in the middle of the day, they drink and vomit everywhere they are, they go nude in the street even by schools playgrounds, they do drugs, they are in the way. ALWAYS. They have 0 spacial awareness or something because they will stop in the middle of a busy street and cars will try to go around them. You will lose your train because a tourist was in the tall and didn’t let you walk by or let you help them. You will be late to work/school because tourists will stop in the middle of the street and didn’t let you pass (and if you dare to tell them something or even worse, touch them, be ready for an altercation). Be ready to be treated like garbage, be ready to be treated as if you are barely human, be ready for tourist trashing your shop/restaurant/place because “españa.sangria.fiesta” and because they are too lazy to parent they children. Be ready to have the laws of your city changed because tourists can’t act in public and now hotels don’t have balconies, windows don’t open or there are no pools. If they are renting a flat (Airbnb type of thing) be ready for constant fights, police calls, not being able to sleep, garbage “falling from the sky” (the tourists flat)…
What some people don’t seem to grasp is that the tourist issue is not a new thing, maybe the tourists are finding out NOW because for them we were like the monkey exhibit at the zoo but in 2015, Barcelona mayor was elected because her opposition to what the tourism have done to the city. People have been done with tourists destroying the city for so long that 10 years ago it was what made political parties win elections. Maybe those tourists should reflect in the way the act or how they treat someone else’s home instead of crying because people are fed up with them.
