What's happening behind the scenes to bring new GHAWG content? The GHAWG Diaries is my recap of what I've been doing.
Base image came in another form from PublicDomainPictures.Net. Edits made using MS Paint.
Complete quote and GIF files showing scenes from Gladiator can be found at Imgur.
Introduction
There's more to #GHAWG than just daily zapfic entries and the spreadsheet I use to track them. There's research. There's review. There's also thought and inspiration. Then there are the tools involved in doing any of those tasks.
Just to keep things from getting scrambled in my head, and also to document for myself what I've been considering, I began keeping a diary of my activities as they concern #GHAWG. With posts in the GHAWG, Uninterrupted series on hold at Act 6 while Interlude 3 remains in progress, I decided to share these diary entries with everyone on Hive blockchain.
On Mondays which don't feature a GHAWG, Uninterrupted post-- GHAWG-U-- I'll post diary entries from the previous 7 days or between GHAWG-U posts if the time between them is short. For Part 15, there are 21 days' worth of diary entries. The first entry starts on 2024-January-15.
Before anyone scratches their heads at a few terms, here are 3 I began using since the previous post:
| Term | Meaning |
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Rat Bike | Code name for #GHAWG (the first and current zapfic serial) |
Blue Lion | Code name for the middle zapfic serial in the GHAWG Universe |
The Bronze | Code name for the final zapfic serial in the GHAWG Universe |
| Monday, 2024-January-15 |
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📓 I have a lot of cleanup to do with GHAWG. Besides keeping the GHAWGnav sticky post updated with new links, I need to go back to earlier posts to clean them up and add additional navigation such as links to Previous and Next posts. I'll also need to change the format of earlier posts to reflect the format used now. The published posts need to appear as intended for InLeo but degrade gracefully for viewing in all other front-ends. It's the reason I decided to use mini-tables-- in HTML, not Markdown-- for the zapfic entries and related commentaries and HTML inside those mini-tables (even for italics and bold text). |
| Tuesday, 2024-January-16 |
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📓 Tomorrow is Phase 3 for the accelerated posting schedule for the Weekly Summary posts. While reviewing the entries featured in that post, I may have encountered a plot hole. David Guardia and Rhonda Bella get married on the spot at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, US. Harry Hoqualogue is best man for David. Lindsay Etxeberria is maid of honor for Rhonda. Who gets to give away the bride? Ring bearers could be anyone from The Kids (in this case, foreign exchange students Sanjay Rampersad from India and Lionel Odunsi from Nigeria) to the Brothers Marchenko (Hank & Frank) to anyone from the fellowship. The hole comes when it's time to give away the bride, Rhonda. Harry is old enough to do that, but he's David's best man. The other men riding with Our Heroes don't fit the role. The Pastor can't do it because of his role in the ceremony. So the honor of being the "father" who gives away the bride to the groom falls to one of the members of the fellowship. This detail escaped me when I was considering this zapfic entry. I'll be sure to plug that hole when I port Rat Bike to long form content.
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| Wednesday, 2024-January-17 |
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📓 During the day I was going to post a slightly shortened Weekly Summary post. Instead, I ended up publishing a hockey-related post which was itself prompted by a thread I saw earlier in the week. That post needed to be published much earlier, so I went ahead and published it in the morening. So late this evening I will publish the Weekly Summary post. 📓 The Bronze remains very much in flux in my mind. The first half is set, but the second half is open to debate in my mind. The Bronze was going to end up being a pale derivative of The Exorcist, but I couldn't wrap my mind around that level of drama and horror. Instead, it will be closer to Resident Evil: Apocalypse in the way the characters interact.In many ways, The Bronze will be the opposite of Rat Bike. David Guardia begins The Bronze as a convicted felon. Instead of having his body renewed, he ends up a physical wreck. Instead of the friendly person we see in Rat Bike, we see him in The Bronze as a stone-cold brute with a short fuse, much more ornery than Harry was when they met at STURGIS in Rat Bike. Although he accepts his inprisonment with the stoicism of Marcus Aureluis or Mister Spock, it's his memories of Rhonda Bella before and after they get married and form a combined life together which get him through each day of incarceration.I already decided that Harry Hoqualogue would play a major role in The Bronze. I'm still trying to figure out who many of the new supporting characters will be; at least two need to be fellow inmates. One will be a prison guard who sets him of on Day 1 but eventually becomes an ally. The governor of the state will be some generic person. Miranda Bermudo remains David's lawyer trying to get him freed, although how they relate to each other changed from what I had envisioned originally. There are a few details I need to get clarified for the later part of the story, but I have plenty of time to find the answers I need before I begin to at least commit ideas to digital record.
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| Thursday, 2024-January-18 |
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📓 It was time to add more entries into the zapfic queue. Thanks to the discovery of the Coin Cloud Bitcoin ATM near Lupton, Arizona, US, I have enough entries for at least one complete Weekly Summary. In terms of long form content, this would be just one short scene, but such is the nature of zapfic. However, it's an opportunity to get all the characters involved and to give a few quick lessonson cryptocurrency. I also needed to rewrite the zapfic entries which were set at or near Lupton. Since lodging was sparse in the vicinity of Lupton, Our Heroes were going to spend the night camped near the Rest Area. Although the digital map showing driving directions didn't show it, it turns out that more lodging opportunities exist in Gallup, New Mexico, US. Gallup is about 21 miles northeast of Lupton, and it was also notable enough to be included in the song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66". So Our Heroes will make a pit stop in Lupton to refuel and check out the Bitcoin ATM before they finish a long day of riding in Gallup. |
| Friday, 2024-January-19 |
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📓 After reviewing the spreadsheet I use to track all the zapfic entries I made for GHAWG, I realized that In had finished Interlude 3 and moved the serial into Act 7. This meant I needed to prepare the next installment of GHAWG, Uninterrupted for Monday 2024-January-22. 42 entries are included in Interlude 4, so that's not a big deal. However, 20 of these entries revolve around 2 stories which need to be told side-by-side: the honeymoon taken by David Guardia and Rhonda Bella (now Rhonda Bella Guardia, or Rhonda Guardia), and what everyone else is doing on their own. Each story takes up 10 zapfic entries, so there are 20 zapfic entries between these 2 stories. It took me a while to figure out how to present these 2 stories, so I ended using 2-column tables to highlight their side-by-side nature. All other zapfic entries appear as usual in their 1-column tables. Interlude 3 ends and Act 7 begins when The Newlyweds are reunited with The Kids (Sanjay Rampersad, Lionel Odunsi, and Lindsay Etxeberria) and The Twins Hank & Frank, the Brothers Marchenko).📓 Since the Weekly Summary posts are being published on an accelerated schedule, the next post is scheduled for Tuesday 2024-January-23. This Weekly Summary just happens to include the 2 side-by-side stories inlcuded in Interlude 3. Because of the nature of the Weekly Summary posts, I needed to modify the 2-column table structure I used for Monday's GHAUW-U post. So today I began work on both posts. |
| Saturday, 2024-January-20 |
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| 📓 Nearly all my time online was spent working on the 2 upcoming posts for this upcoming week: GHAWG-U for Interlude 3 and the "Weekly" Summary post featuring 2 side-by-side stories at 10 zapfic entries each. It was a challenge to write commentary for the zapfic entries I posted for the near-NSFW honeymoon taken by newlyweds David and Rhonda Bella Guardia. Commentary for the 2nd story entries was what I had expected it would be. Today I finished preparing the "Weekly" Summary post (20 entries) for Tuesday; all that remains is the cover image. Tomorrow I work on the GHAWG-U post for Interlude 3. |
| Sunday, 2024-January-21 |
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📓 Much of my time online today was spent preparing Monday's post for GHAWG, Uninterrupted: Interlude 3. Instead of the normal post format, entries 286 through 305 needed to be presented in 2-column tables because each day for 10 days there were 2 stories taking place at the same time. After some trial and error, I settled on a way to present these stories both for GHAWG-U and for the Weekly Summary post for Tuesday. Once these 2 stories were sented, the rest of the GHAWG-U post was presented as usual, as a 1-column table for each entry.
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| Monday, 2024-January-22 |
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📓 For much of today I was away from a computer, which is why I was working on the GHAWG-U post over the ast couple of days. Once I returned to a computer all I needed to get done was the graphic showing that the post is for Interlude 3. Then I published this post. 📓 While walking around in my neighborhood I was thinking of new characters. I came up with enough details for one character who will appear for sure in the 3rd zapfic serial, The Bronze and maybe in the 2nd zapfic serial, Blue Lion. This character is named Eiji Yamaguchi, but inmates know him as "A. G. Goldberg"; he describes himself as a Japanese Jew. While this particular combination is certainly out of the ordinary, it's no more so than an Anglo-American Hindu or a Swedish Muslim; so Japanese Jew he remains. Goldberg will be one of two inmates who become closely associated with David Guardia.The other inmate is a pale imitation of Malik eh-Hajj Shabazz, the man Malcom X became after he made his life-changing pilgrimage to Mecca. I haven't determined a name for this character yet. Together with David, these 3 people represent Sons of Abraham, the root of the 3 Abrahamic Faiths (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). They won't spend much time talking actual religion in these zapfic serials, but they will serve as a model for mutual aid and cooperation in time of need. A 3rd character is actually already in The GHAWG Universe: Li Jun Fan, better known to GHAWG readers as "Slim," the motorcycle courier to whom David had passed down his business before he began his Epic Ride. Although Slim is done for Rat Bike, he will return briefly either in Blue Lion or The Bronze (or maybe both). If the name "Li Jun Fan" looks familiar to some readers, that's because it's the birth name of the man better known to the world as Bruce Lee. As far as The GHAWG Universe is concerned, Li Jun Fan is just some guy; but for us as readers, the name is used to pay homage to a near-mythic figure on par with Pelé and Muhammad Ali.
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| Tuesday, 2024-January-23 |
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📓 The big week for GHAWG ended when I published the Weekly Summary post scheduled for today. Now that this post has been published, I can refer to David Guardia and Rhonda Bella in any of several ways: The Guardias; Mr. & Mrs. Guardia; David and Rhonda Guardia; David and Rhonda Bella Guardia; The Newlyweds; pilot and co-pilot; The Templar and The Shieldmaiden. As much as I want to focus on their story going forward, the remaining members of Our Heroes are just as important; they deserve attention, too. 📓 I went back to my spreadsheet to see what I had written regarding the 2 sequel zapfic serials, Blue Lion and The Bronze. I added more details, shifted a few details, and deleted other details. For Blue Lion, I need to set up the beginning as a speech David gives on his public speeaking tour. Although it's the same speech he gives, pieces of it are delivered to various audiences, from corporations to schools to civic organizations to convicts in prison. Each of these would be paired with scenes from his business and personal life: his own business, his service to Rhonda Bella Logistics, and other scenes. This is the general plan for this initial section of Blue Lion. The first half of Blue Lionwill cover ten years, so I need to get through that decade quickly.
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| Wednesday, 2024-January-24 |
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📓 The zapfic queue is a few days into March 2024. After a few cryptocurrency-related zapfic entries taking place near Lupton, Arizona, Our Heroes need to go into New Mexico. After that, I'm anticipating some action in Gallup, New Mexico; this is the only place in New Mexico named in the song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66". There may be action before then, since Old Route 66 has other notable places, but at the moment I'm not anticipating anything other than just riding to Gallup. 📓 An important moment of not just Blue Lion but The GHAWG Saga is Peak GHAWG. This is the moment when everything for David Guardia is firing on all cylinders in all aspects of his life. Peak GHAWG is the greatest moment of his life, especially after having put his personal life on hold on multiple occasions.What happens at Peak GHAWG?
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| Thursday, 2024-January-25 |
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📓 What was David Guardia doing in the years before we meet him in GHAWG? This is what his character dossier will include:
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| Friday, 2024-January-26 |
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📓 While working on the Weekly Summary post to be published on Monday, a few questions came to me which hadn't occurred to me at the time I created these characters:
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| Saturday, 2024-January-27 |
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📓 Today I was all over the place regarding GHAWG. I modified earlier posts as I encountered them. I updated GHAWGnav. I went back to digital maps to pick up where I left off with the "Fun with Maps" subseries of GHAWG Behind the Scenes. I modified zapfic entries in the queue. That's all apart from the daily zapfic entry.
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| Sunday, 2024-January-28 |
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📓 On Monday 2024-January-22 I noted that one of the inmate characters joining David Guardia as one of the Sons of Abraham had no name. At this time, he still has no name, but I have a backstory for him: He was a corrupt undercover detective whose corruption was too much for his city to handle. This corrupt cop converted to Islam during his prison sentence, years before David arrived. I noted that he is a very pale imitation of Malik el-Hajj Shabazz (the man Malcome Little, better known to the world as Malcom X, would become after his life-changing to Mecca). Actor Denzel Washington played Malcom X in the 1992 Spike Lee movie of the same name, and he also won a Academy Award for his performance as a corrupt cop in the 2001 movie Training Day directed by Antoine Fuqua. Nothing specific from either movie will be used for this character, but I may include references from The Autobiography of Malcom X. This character may be inspired by these 2 roles played by Denzel Washington, but he won't be anything like those roles. Speaking of Denzel Washington, another of his roles inspired a zapfic entry back in October 2023: this time, it was from the 2010 movie The Book of Eli. In that zapfic entry, David tells Rhonda Bella why he didn't fear the bear which approached them in Myers Flat, California, US. |
| Monday, 2024-January-29 |
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📓 Last Monday I said I was still looking for a name for one of the 3 Sons of Abraham. By default, David Guardia is one of them as a representative of Christianity. Representing Judaism is Eiji Yamaguchi (known by inmates as "A. G. Goldberg"). Representing Islam is a character meant to be a very pale imitation of Malik el-Hajj Shabazz (better known to us as Malcom X). Today I came up with this character's names: Ahmad Medina (originally Eli Murphy). When he was known as Eli Murphy, he was a corrupt police undercover detective. He was so corrupt that the so-called Thin Blue Line made an exception to let him face justice. Just as Malcom Little became a Muslim during his incarceration and changed his name to Malcom X, Eli Murphy converted to Islam to become Ahmad Medina. Unlike Malcom X, who joined the Nation of Islam before he converted to the Islam of The Prophet, Ahmad's conversion to the Islam of The Prophet was more direct. What will these Sons of Abraham do? At this time I will not say. However, David will continuously lose Go games to Goldberg, and he will continuously lose chess games to Medina. David's pardonning will be signaled by beating Goldberg at Go and Medina at chess on the same day. |
| Tuesday, 2024-January-30 |
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📓 On 2024-October-24 I published a GHAWG Behind the Scenes post featuring the Guardia Courier Services logo I had created using Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). David Guardia had designed it for the company he founded years before we meet him in GHAWG. One version of this logo appears on his safety yellow jacket, which he uses as a sleeveless vest throughout Rat Bike. After he buys similar jackets for the crew riding with him post-STRUGIS, they have the overall look in common with David; however, they don't have any designs.In recent days I had been considering the idea letting David's crew at least look like an MC (a Motorcycle Club). Originally I was going to call this MC "The Templars: Felix Legion"; it turns out that there are MCs called The Templars (both association clubs and outlaw clubs). Although I can't name David's crew "The Templars," I will call it "Felix Legion". Why Felix Legion?   My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius. Commander of the Armies of the North. General of the Felix Legions. Loyal servant to the true Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife - and I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.(Emphasis added) Sometime in March 2024 (probably just after the start of Spring) I will incorporate this addition into the zapfic queue of entries. |
| Wednesday, 2024-January-31 |
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📓 I just realized that the zapfic queue is running low on entries. Thursday is the start of February, and the zapfic queue only goes to 2024-March-06. Thanks to yesterday's idea to turn Our Heroes into an outlaw motorcycle club (of just 7 members, but still), I'll be able to add a few entries. That still advances the zapfic serial by at most one week. This will take place after the Cryptocurrency 101 series of entries is done; I just don't know where it will happen or when. As the day progressed, I took the MC idea further: a zapfic entry or two can be used to explain the concept of the outlaw motorcycle club. This term doesn't mean that members of such clubs are criminals; it only means that the club isn't registered with the governing body overseeing motorcycle clubs nationwide. So technically, David Guardia has been an outlaw motorcycle club with a membership of one, an outlaw biker. While criminals can be outlaw bikers, outlaw bikers aren't necessarily criminals. |
| Thursday, 2024-February-1 |
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📓 Believe it or not, there is more to Old Route 66 than Gallup, New Mexico. Including Gallup, there are 15 notable destinations along Old Route 66-- actually, Interstate 40, which overlays most of the older path:
Now that I know about these places, I should be able to find more stories as Felix Legion continues its ride east. 📓 Today I extended the zapfic queue into 2024-March-14. The entries I added can be considered Cryptocurrency 101: first and foremost is not your keys, not your crypto; then cryptocurrencies such as $DOGE, $ETH, $BTC, and $HIVE/$HBD were introduced; then a brief comment on decentralization was made. I don't know if these zapfic entries would survive the port from zapfic to long form content, but I thought it made sense to include them in a daily zapfic serial hosted by the LeoThreads microblogging platform at inleo.io.
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| Friday, 2024-February-2 |
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| 📓 After adding zapfic entries for the Cryptocurrency 101 and Felix Legion stories, the zapfic queue is now at 2024-March-26. Part of this advance was just getting everyone in Felix Legion-- David Guardia, Rhonda Bella Guardia, Hank Marchenko, Frank Marchenko, Sanjay Rampersad, Lionel Odunsi, and Lindsay Etxeberria-- involved in the stories. New Mexico has more places than I had expected where the serial can advance, so I should be able to come up with new situations for Our Heroes of Felix Legion. Most likely I can do this when they reach Albuquerque, New Mexico, US, but it would be great if it happens at some earlier stop. |
| Saturday, 2024-February-3 |
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📓 One way to advance a story is to present obstacles to be overcome. GHAWG is no exception to this. Today I was considering the relationship developing between Lindsay Etxeberria and Sanjay Rampersad. Despite her adult life as a far-flung far-left activist, Lindsay is at heart a Midwest girl. Meanwhile, Sanjay is a foreign exchange student from India. Given this detail about Sanjay, an obstacle occurred to me: By custom and tradition in India, Sanjay is engaged to be married as a result of an arranged marriage. Lindsay will find herself conflicted and confused once Sanjay reveals this detail to her. She will find herself sore at Sanjay for a while, yet she knows she still has feelings for him; she also discovers that he has feelings for her. I know how this obstacle will be overcome, and I think I will include that resolution as part of Rat Bike. While this is a situation between Lindsay and Sanjay, expect to see not only David and Rhonda Bella Guardia but also Lionel Odunsi involved as minor characters in this storyline. Most likely Lindsay will seek counsel from big sister figure Rhonda, and Sanjay consults with David about what he should do. As Sanjay's close friend, Lionel keeps things real for Sanjay. While Sanjay knows what he must do, he may also discover that the situation resolves itself in his favor.
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| Sunday, 2024-February-4 |
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📓 Although I had been listening to the Depeche Mode version of the song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" incessantly for a couple of months, during December 2023 and January 2024 my musical interest shifted toward the already-iconic theme for Wonder Woman. I had been listening to various versions of the Wonder Woman theme to see what I can come up with for Rhonda Bella (now Rhonda Bella Guardia). There is no doubt in my mind that she will have some a moment or two worthy of "Diana of Themyscira, daughter of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons"; for now, I let my subconscious mind sift through ideas until I strike gold. 📓 Much of the day was spent getting both the Weekly Summary post for today and The GHAWG Diaries post for tomorrow ready. Regarding Monday's TGD post, it weighs in at 21 entries; normally it's 7 entries during weeks which don't feature a GHAWG, Uninterrupted post. If I publish a GHAWG-U post, then TGD should contain 14 entries. How did I end up with 21 entries this time? The accelerated posting schedule for Weekly Summaries rolled onto a Monday the week after I published a GHAWG-U post. It wasn't easy tracking entries for 21 days, but here they are-- in this post.
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When (and Where) To Catch #GHAWG
When
This is the normal schedule for the posting of content for #GHAWG:
● Daily -- Each zapfic entry is posted shortly after midnight, from New York
● Weekends -- Weekly Summaries (with modified screen capture from LeoThreads as cover image) are usually on Saturday, sometimes Sunday
● Monday -- Either GHAWG, Uninterrupted if present, or The GHAWG Diaries
● Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday -- GHAWG Behind the Scenes -- The goal is to publish these posts on all days not dedicated to the Weekly Sumamry, GHAWH-U, or The GHAWG Diaries (TGD). There may be days with no post, so I'll minimize those occasions as best as I can.
(Plese note that the Weekly Summary posts will be posted on an accelerated schedule-- every 6 days rather than every Saturday-- in order to bring those posts in synch with the daily zapfic entries. Synchronization should be finished by Spring 2024.)
Where
● Daily zapfic entries drop at LeoThreads, usually posted shortly after midnight from New York (sometimes around noon)
● All long form posts-- Weekly Summaries, GHAWG-U, and TGD-- can be accessed using the #GHAWGnav sticky post or from my LeoFinance profile page
This week I hope to have more content published and recorded to Hive blockchain.
That's it for this edition of The GHAWG Diaries. I'm 
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Thanks for your time. Give the post an upvote or a reblog if you liked it. Feedback is welcome. Until next time!
[!!] -- Graphic signature was designed by @ahmadmanga