#that writing quality decline hit hard :)

[fortune-maiden]

I thought it might be fun to list out some of my favorite Tangled episodes

Season 1

What the Hair - I did not know I needed to watch Before Ever After first and was very confused this whole episode. But it has Varian and it’s a good ep on a rewatch (and with BEA context)

Rapunzel's Enemy - since I had still not watched BEA, I have a soft spot for this ep as the one that sold me on the show. It’s cute and silly and gives everyone some fun character moments.

Cassandra v. Eugene - Escape room shenanigans! Character moments! :D

In Like Flynn - this Ep was fun and silly... even if it is a Frederic episode

Great Expotations - it’s a Varian ep. There are no bad Varian eps.

One Angry Princess - always love a good detective story xD And also I just liked Monty in this ep for being the only other person who was concerned about Attila. Considering he’s the victim and the pub thugs were one of the reasons he gave for his dislike of Rapunzel, I think it counts for a lot!

Pascal's Story - Pascal <3 Also the return of the Tower!

The Wrath of Ruthless Ruth - It’s a filler ep, but a fun one! S1 Rapunzel is just such a sweetheart. Also ‘Listen Up’ is a bop

Queen for a Day - The moment this show gets serious. So many good moments in this episode, some of which get zero payoff later and I am still salty. But high stakes! Difficult choices! The death of Varian’s innocence! Consequences for the rest of the season!

The Quest for Varian - Hey look consequences! :D Also my favorite ep in the series! This is the one where were learn what exactly has been going on behind the scenes, who we can and can’t trust, an excellent Eugene moment, and THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TOWER!

The Alchemist Returns - Varian’s back! And the stakes get higher! Also very bold of this show is to not only destroy the tower but bring back the flower just to ALSO destroy it!

Secret of the Sun Drop - An excellent finale that’s a culmination of everything this season had been building up. Also featuring ‘Ready As I’ll Ever Be’, the song that probably attracted more people to this show than any lack of marketing of Disney’s part.

Season 2

Happiness Is... - I’m a huge sucker for False Happiness tropes. Also I thought Rapunzel grappling with homesickness was a very good development (even if it was partly ruined by her being homesick mainly for her father. Sorry Arianna, you barely exist even in your daughter’s mind) (also shoutout for being the episode of Varian’s sole S2 appearance)

Max and Eugene in Peril on the High Seas - Very fun silly episode and I love Max’s extremely specific Coronan Law book xD

Mirror, Mirror  - More fun tropes! Mirror worlds! And gotta love the tests everyone came up with to prove they’re real. 

Rapunzeltopia - Even more fun False Happiness tropes! TRAPPED IN A DREAM! This is probably my favorite S2 ep and I wish it could have been a two parter. Also loved how quiet Cassandra’s role was here, saving itself for a later reveal... Also Mother Goethel gets hit with a frying pan. It’s great.

Destinies Collide - I kinda debated whether or not to include this but it was still a good finale even if it wasn’t S1-good. Love the Dark Kingdom, love the bait and switch of Eugene being the traitor, love Edmund

Also special mention to the Great Tree ep. There are too many writing issues with it for me to call it a fave, but it gave us Hector, the Decay Incantation, and Lore. So kudos for that.

Season 3

Rapunzel's Return - Also debated including this one. the pacing and logic is all over the place in this episode imo and it is a sign of further writing problems this season. It could probably have benefited from being a three-parter at least for the pacing. But it’s still enjoyable between the reveal of what happened to Cass in Rapunzeltopia, Crossing the Line, Stronger Than Ever Before, and VARIAN! I’m just happy Varian is back! And Quirin!

Be Very Afraid! - it’s a Varian ep. There are no bad Varian eps! :D

Islands Apart - My favorite S3 episode. False Happiness tropes are just SO GOOD. And this episode just really makes you feel for Cap. Imagine if he was allowed to be a real character this season!

Cassandra's Revenge - Does this episode have its issues? Yes. Is it still a fun mid-season story arc? Also yes! Lots of Varian, Nothing Left To Lose, Lore! Also the best of the bungled proposals of the series <3

...wow I thought I would one more fave after this, but no. We’re ending on Cassandra’s Revenge as the last good episode of TTS (in my opinion) ^^”

#tangled the series #i like how i listed half of season 1 as fave eps #and then a couple from s2-3 each #that writing quality decline hit hard :) #although i had more good to say about S2 than I expected! #S3 is where the real problems were I guess #maybe i'll do a least fave ep list later #it probably won't be that long. there are only a few eps that get an ugh reaction from me #the real question is where does the great tree ep fall because the highs are high but the lows are very low

[fishfishiee]

shatter.

summary: In which you're an adeptus made of Noctilucous Jade. How would your companion react when they saw you shatter during a fight?

characters: Traveler, Zhongli

warning(s): body horror(?), gender-neutral reader, reader is a gem person, their relationship can be viewed as platonic or romantic

a/n: my first time writing characters! I was going to add more characters, but I can't think of anyone else. It's… quite alright, I guess. Hm. Writing characters is hard.

You were one of Liyue's best jewel smith. While you usually worked with whatever precious stone that caught your eye on the market, there were times when none of them were up to your standard. In times like this, you had no choice but to mine them yourself. The problem was mineral nodes are often teeming with enemies. While your body can easily withstand a few blows, you will eventually shatter, and be left defenseless against those who want to collect your precious shards. This was the reason you avoid fighting alone. So, you asked one of your friend to accompany you to mine the gems you need.

Like you suspected, you and your companion were attacked when you began mining. Battle was inevitable, so you and your companion brandished your weapons and attacked back. In the heat of the battle, you lost count of how many times you were hit, and one of the enemies slammed you with their hammer. One hit was all it takes to shatter your torso. Welp, at least your head was still intact…

Traveler The moment they heard the shattering noise and Paimon's horrified shriek, they knew something happened to you. They didn't expect to see you literally broke to pieces, each of them glittered a familiar luster. They were horrified to see some hoarders start putting your body parts into a bag despite your head's protest. After all the hoarders were knocked out cold, Traveler quickly took your head out of the bag.

“Phew, thanks for that. Being shoved into a bag is not nice at all!”

"Y-You-- How are you-- Are you okay!?"

"It's fine! Happens all the time when I fight. Can you please gather my pieces? Madame Ping should be able to put me back together, so don't worry about it!"

As Madame Ping put you back together, you explained that you were essentially a living gem made out of noctilucous jade. You apologized that you didn't tell them before, since you really thought you're not going to shatter with them fighting with you. Traveler marveled as Madame Ping put some powder that made your 'skin' looked human.

"Ooh, so that's why you always decline when we asked you to eat together! You can't eat since you're literally a living rock! Wait, then can Paimon have a piece of you? Just a piece--ouch!"

"Paimon, don't be rude!"

Zhongli He was the one that commissioned the jewelry in the first place. When you asked him to accompany you, he agreed without hesitation. That way, he can also assure the quality of the stone himself. During the fight, Zhongli knew you were fighting quite recklessly due to his shield tanking most of the damage done to you. Once his shield went down and you didn't seem to notice, he quickly took care of his share of enemies and went to your side. It was still too late. You were shattered, and Zhongli can only sigh as he put you back together.

"You were careless."

"… Yes. I'm sorry. It's just… It's really nice to go hard on them without worrying about my body sometimes! Your shield is really dependable, Zhongli."

"I am glad you find my assistance reassuring, but please pay more attention the next time you fight. After all, I won't be here every time you put yourself to pieces, lustrous one."

#genshin impact #houseki no kuni #genshin impact imagines #genshin impact x reader #gender neutral reader #genshin x gender neutral reader #zhongli #aether #lumine #zhongli x reader #traveler x reader #au #crossover #ish?

[koke]

I’ve been enjoying Paris Marx’s writing lately, but the latest piece hits all the right spots.

I remember reading Barlow’s Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace back in my 20s, and nodding along, showing my despise for government. 20 years later, it reads so different. Governments aren’t perfect, but at least they are meant to represent their people and we have ways to replace them. Leaving so much decision power in the hands of private corporations could not end well.

If you listen to CEOs like Sam Altman or venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen, they want us to believe that these tools are the beginning of a vast expansion in human potential, but that’s incredibly hard to believe for anyone who knows the history of Silicon Valley’s deception and can see through the hype to understand how these tools actually work. They’re not intelligent or prescient; they’re just churning out synthetic material that aligns with all the connections they’ve made between the training data they pulled from the open web.

Once again, the push to adopt these AI technologies isn’t about making our lives better, it’s about reducing the cost of producing ever more content to keep people engaged, to serve ads against, and keep people subscribed to struggling streaming services. The public doesn’t want the quality of news, entertainment, and human interactions to further decline because of the demands of investors for even greater profits, but that doesn’t matter. Everything must be sacrificed on the altar of tech capitalism.

#ai #anti ai #tech

[long-distance-love]

Hey first I wanted to say my gf and I love you alls tumblr very much! It’s helped us a lot so far in our LDR, we just had our first in person meeting (two full weeks) cause I’m from the US and she’s from Italy. I was curious if you all had any tips for post time together blues? If this has been asked before I’m super sorry, I just know it’s hitting me and my girl hard even after one day back in our respective homes and I’d adore some advice at least.

Hey there lovely,

Thanks very much for your ask. 💕 We appreciate that you're here, and that you're making our little community all the more colourful!

Post time together blues is the worst. It will always suck, no matter what. It's a testament to the fact that life is worse without them next to you, and it hits very hard after some quality time spent together in person. But chin up, you'll get used to it and although it will always be horrible, you'll understand your reaction better in the next few times this happens, and you'll be able to deal with it better too.

For now, here's a few things that have helped us feel a little better:

Videocalling: Self-explanatory, but it's the best cure, period. Even if you both cry, seeing each other is better. It will be hard, but at least you'll see and hear each other, and eventually you'll laugh too, I promise.

Planning the next meeting: Also self-explanatory, but when you make plans for the future, it shifts your focus from the past to the future. It helps even if you just look at the calendar and figure out when it would be a good time to meet again.

Crying it out: Because let's face it, it's fucking depressing. And it's okay to let it out. Don't bottle it up, let yourself feel it until you adjust to your routine once more.

Keep busy: It might be a good time to make yourself busy with something, even if it's mundane. Just give yourself something to do, tire yourself out so you can sleep better. Go through your wardrobe and sort out clothes, clean, go out and meet friends, spend time with family.

Make art: It worked for me, so hey, maybe it'll work for you too? I used to write poems, but the possibilities are endless. Knit a scarf for them. Write a short story about you two. Or a poem. Draw them a picture. Whatever you do, just make sure you share it with your partner.

Game together: This might not be everyone's cup of tea, but my husband and I often played SWTOR together while being on a call on Discord. It's entertainment, distraction, connection over a shared hobby and overall, time spent together. An alternative to gaming could be watching YouTube or Netflix/Disney+ together.

Keep an eye on your mental health: This particular period can really make your mental health decline if you don't keep it in check. Any conditions you have will probably worsen for a time, so ride it out if possible, but seek help if it isn't. There is no shame in asking for help, even just for support from the people around you. The amount of times I asked my mom for a hug or cried while holding my dog was, well, a lot. But it helped, it really did.

You'll get the hang of it eventually, and they'll get easier in time. But for now, I know what you're going through, I feel your pain, and I'm here to tell you that it's all going to be worth it in the end.

Stay very strong, the both of you. 💕

- Danny

#danny loves #benny & danny asks #the writing-dragon #relationship #couples in love #long distance relationship #long distance couple #long distance problems #long distance love #long distance call #love #love asks #love advice #relationship asks #relationship advice #long distance relationship advice #long distance relationship questions #relationship questions

[s10127470]

Thoughts on the Return of Ultimate Marvel

As some of you have probably heard by now, the Ultimate Marvel universe is officially returning for the first time in 8 years in the upcoming event “Ultimate Invasion”, coming this June. 

And while many people are excited for this universe to finally return after not being used for so long, there some, myself included, that are a bit more split….

But before I can explain that, let’s give a bit of a history for some more context. 

In late 1990s, Marvel had barely manage to survive bankruptcy by selling off the film rights of many of their characters to various studios. 

Around that time, they felt like a reason for their declining comic sales was because of how difficult it was for newcomers to get into their comics, given how many relaunches and runs they had going on, combined with the 60 years of history they had under their belts at the time. 

So as as result of this predicament, Marvel came up with the idea of doing an all-new comic run that would run adjacent to the mainline comics. 

It would revamp the iconic Marvel characters for the 21st century and help introduce them to an all-new generation of readers.

And so, Ultimate Marvel was born! 

Launching in 2000 with Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Marvel would become a smash-hit! 

It helped launched Marvel back into the relevance and had a strong presence in the comic book industry, which was helped by other series like Ultimate X-Men in 2001, The Ultimates in 2002, and Ultimate Fantastic Four in 2004.

The series was successful financially wise, but quality-wise….not so much….

Ultimate Spider-Man was great and is often regarded as one of the greatest takes on the Spider-Man mythos. 

But the same can’t be said for the other series. 

A major problem with the Ultimate universe from the beginning was the lack of stylistic focus and cohesion between the titles and creators. 

With Ultimate Spider-Man, while striving to be somewhat different, Brian Michael Bendis still wanted to say true to the spirit and style of the classic Spider-Man comics, but just slightly updated for the modern era. 

However, most of the other Ultimate titles fell into the trap of trying to be too different from the mainline universe.

This was the result of these titles either being placed in the hands of writers who had a style that didn’t really fit with the intention that Marvel had for this universe, or just weren’t very familiar with the characters they were working it. 

As a result, this led to the universe being riddled with ill-fitting characterization and shock-centric storylines. 

It’s the reason why this universe is known as the one with the overly-edgy writing and where nearly everyone is an asshole (with some exceptions like Peter Parker). 

Probably the best example of this would have to be The Ultimates 1 and 2, which featured a reimagined version of the Avengers.

Written by Mark Millar (who had never written anything of actual good quality until about 2012), the Ultimates was created as a satire/commentary of the somewhat ridiculous Bush-era jingoism that plagued the United States not too long after the September 11th attacks, with the Ultimates being portrayed as a superhuman task force created by the government in order to defend America.

While not a bad concept, it really did not fit for a modern reimagining of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. 

Apart from the comic runs being made horribly dated through its political commentary and abundance of pop culture references and hard to read thanks to Millar’s formerly trademark style of writing like an edgy teenage fanfic writer, it featured undoubtedly the worst takes on the Avengers. 

The Ultimates were basically flanderized versions of the mainline counterparts.

Captain America was an overly jingoistic numbskull, Iron Man was a sleazy alcoholic who was almost never sober, Giant Man was an actual domestic abuser, Wasp was an abuse victim who constantly flirted with other men, and The Hulk was a literal monster who frequently engaged in cannibalism. 

The only remotely likable characters in those runs were Nick Fury, Hawkeye, and especially Thor. 

This was done as an attempt to make the Avengers more grounded and realistic….

Saying the Ultimates is grounded and realistic is like saying Star vs. The Forces of Evil actually had a good series finale.

The main problem was the fact there was barely anyone who you could like or root for.

And in all honesty, it seems that it was the intention while also…..not being so…..

Since there are some moments where they do want us to sympathize with the characters, but due to how most of the series comes off as portraying them as people who don’t deserve sympathy, combine with how unlikable they are, it makes the whole thing pretty confusing.

But other than that, things were fine for Ultimate Marvel until about the late 2000s, when sales started to steadily decline. 

A major reason for that was because the quality of writing of the titles began to somewhat decline, along with the Prime Universe gaining more prominence in the comic book world.

Granted, their writing was not exactly good to begin with, but it was definitely better back then that it was now. 

The biggest offender to this was none other than Ultimates 3. 

Ultimates 3 is unanimously regarded as the worst of the Ultimates series and one of the worst titles from the Ultimate universe. 

The run was written by Jeph Loeb, who was not very familiar with the Ultimate universe to begin with.

Plus he was not in the best mental state at the time, having recently lost his son and close friend to cancer. 

While Ultimates 1 and 2 were not….ya know…..good, but at least they were leagues better and had something to say when compared to Ultimates 3. 

Ultimates 3 basically cranked the overly-edgy writing style to the fucking max, literally being the only thing this run had to offer.

It was pure style over substance.

Along with that, it introduced some of the most infamous moments in this universe. 

With the crowning achievement being the reveal of Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch being in an incestuous relationship.

Yes, you heard me right. Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch were in an FUCKING incestuous relationship! 

Around the time as well, Marvel began to feel that the Ultimate universe was starting to become too bloated and convoluted. 

Ironic how the whole point of this universe was be more simplified than the mainline universe.

So as a result, Marvel decided they want to do a clean slate for this universe and how did they do it?

With Ultimatum! 

Ultimatum is unanimously regarded as not only the worst storyline in the Ultimate universe and one of the worst in Marvel history, but also one of the worst comic books of all time! 

And it’s all well-deserved.

Long-story short, Ultimatum was about the heroes of the Ultimate Universe having to band together in order to defeat Magneto.

Speaking of which, in Ultimates 3, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are killed by Hawkeye and Ultron respectively, and as a result, it drove Magneto to insanity. 

This led him to steal Thor’s hammer Mjolnir (which in this universe doesn’t have a magical enchantment to it), and combines it his magnetic powers in order to alter the magnetic poles of the Earth. As a result of this, it sends a massive tsunami that floods New York City.

Basically, Magneto wants to destroy the entire world as revenge for the death of his children. 

Ultimatum was an overly-edgy, cynical, and just flat-out depressing and mean-spirited mess. 

Undoubtedly the most notorious element of this comic were the deaths. 

This comic featured the deaths of many notable heroes and villains. And unlike in the mainline universe, death in this universe was much more serious and most of all, permanent.

Most of the time….

 Not helping was how many of the characters either died off-screen, in ways that didn’t make sense, or in rather gruesome and overly graphic ways. 

Some of the best examples include Nightcralwer drowning despite being able to teleport, Doctor Strange having his head exploded by Dormammu, The Thing crushing Doctor Doom’s head with his own bare hands, and perhaps the most infamous, The Blob eating Wasp alive. 

Seriously, what was up with the Ultimate universe and cannibalism?

The only remotely good things in this event was seeing Spider-Man going out of his way to save as many people as possible instead of joining in on the edge-fest and J. Jonah Jameson actually finally seeing him for the hero he really is.

Before I move on, I do want to bring talk about the X-Men real quick.

Out of all the heroes in this event, X-Men by far got screwed over the worst. 

In addition to losing more than half of their team and many of the characters associated with them (even including the Big Four of the X-Men), the origins of the mutant gene were also revealed to them….

In the Ultimate universe, instead of being a natural phenomenon caused by evolution that’s been around since the early days of humanity, the mutant gene was instead the accidental results of a failed attempt to recreate the Super Soldier Serum during World War II. 

Oh yeah side-note, the Super Soldier Serum was a major element in this universe, with often being tied to the sources of many of the heroes’ powers, most notably Spider-Man and The Hulk. 

But back on topic, this revelation has gone down as one of the dumbest twists in Marvel history. 

Everyone has already said it, but it completely misses the point of the X-Men and the mutants as whole. 

They’re suppose to represent minorities and oppressed groups who couldn’t help the way they were born. 

Basically, the Ultimate universe decided to turn the mutants into the goddamn Inhumans, minus the advanced civilization.

And more I think about it, this might’ve been foreshadowing to what would try to do with both teams in the coming years. 

Think about it. Remember during the 2010s when the X-Men’s existence was heavily downplayed and ignored due to everyone at Marvel being forced to do so in order to keep Ike Perlmutter happy, since he was being all huffy about Fox still owning the film rights to that team, while also constantly pushing the Inhumans.

I’m throughly convinced that he somehow read this comic, and as a result, it gave him the idea to replace the X-Men with the Inhumans. 

Anyway, Ultimatum left a nasty mark on the Ultimate Universe.

In addition to permanently killing off many characters, readers somewhat gave up on the series.

Although the Ultimate Universe did continue for another six years, it never reached the level of popularity that it saw in the early 2000s.

And even though this era of Ultimate Marvel was much more tame when compared its earlier years and especially during Loeb’s time, it never caught many people’s interest.

The only thing in that universe that was really worth anyone’s time was Ultimate Spider-Man, which remained great throughout its run and even its relaunch thanks to Brian Michael Bendis stick with the project until the very end.

And since many of characters were permanently killed off (some even before Ultimatum), they attempted to make up for that by introducing many new original characters to serve as replacements for the dead characters.

These included the likes of Jimmy Hudson (Wolverine), Ray Connor (Daredevil), Derek Morgan (Angel), Mach Two (Magneto), Monica Chang (Black Widow), Theodore Allen (The Blob), and Tyrone Cash (Hulk).

Unfortunately, these characters were met with a resounding “meh” and have gone on to either be killed off permanently or just flat out forgotten.

The only original character from the Ultimate universe that manage to make a name for himself and resonated with readers is Miles Morales, who took on the mantle of Spider-Man after Peter Parker was fatally wounded during his finale battle against the Green Goblin.

After about six years of not much to note, Marvel decided to finally end the Ultimate series with the Secret Wars, which saw the Prime Universe and Ultimate Universe crossing paths for the very first time.

It also saw the entire Ultimate universe being destroyed as well, with the only survivors being Miles, Jimmy Hudson (who get forgotten pretty quickly), and Reed Richards, who during the last years of Ultimate, became a super-villain known as The Maker.

Although the Ultimate universe was revived at the end of the event, the three Ultimate survivors have become main-stays in the Prime Universe.

And yeah….that’s basically the history of Ultimate Marvel

Ever since 2015, Marvel hasn’t really done anything with the Ultimate Universe apart from some occasional cameos and references.

But with "Ultimate Invasion", we'll not only be seeing the Ultimate Universe being utilized in a major way for the first time in nearly a decade, but it also possibly means that the Ultimate Universe might be returning for an all-new comic run.

And it does seems to be in good hands, with the two brains behind this project being Johnathan Hickman as the writer, who's already established himself as one of the best writers currently working at Marvel, and Bryan Hitch, the artist behind the first two volumes of the Ultimates.

And while people are excited to see the return of this once-influential universe, most people are curious on how it will be presented.

Continuity-wise, Ultimate Invasion will either be....

A. An direct continuation of where the universe left off.

B. Pretty much the same as A., but with some notable continuity retcons (such as the removal of Ultimatum).

As for tone-wise, that's where things get tricky.

One of the main traits of the Ultimate Universe was its overly edgy nature and use of shock value.

And while that may've been niche back in the 2000s, in the 2020s, that kind of style is generally looked down upon and seen as tryhard.

Not to mention people are just sick of seeing cynical and mean-spirited media nowadays, due to how over-abundant it has become in recent years. Thanks in part due to everybody desperately wanting to be the next Family Guy or Rick and Morty.

If they're gonna bring back the Ultimate Universe, it can't have an edgy and cynical tone.

However, on the topic of an all-new Ultimate run, a lot of people are hoping that the possible run that's spawned from Ultimate Invasion will be a full-on reboot of the Ultimate Universe, rather than a continuation.

And I wholeheartedly agree for a few reasons.

Trying to continue the Ultimate Universe from where it left off would be pretty difficult. In contrast to the Prime Universe, which had been continuously running since 1939, the Ultimate Universe ran from 2000 to 2015, and is only now returning after 8 years of hiatus.

2. Having a clean slate would do wonders for this universe. Ultimatum cannot be understated in how much it affected the Ultimate Universe. As I previously mentioned, many of the iconic heroes and villains were brutally killed and never seen again, and trying to continue the universe without them wouldn't feel right. Technically the Ultimate Universe already did that during its final years and it didn't work out well. Along with that, heroes and villains could actually be written like their other iterations but with some unique quirks rather than edgy, flanderized, asshole versions of themselves.

3. I think it's just time to give another go at an new Ultimate Universe. Next year, Marvel will have 85 years of history under its belt, and your telling me that nobody thinks trying to compress that history into something more digestible isn't a good idea. I mean, that's basically what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been doing for the last....15 years?!

Good God, I am old...

And funnily enough, it was heavily influenced by the Ultimate Universe.

Well that's all for now. I'm currently planning on sharing my ideas for how I think a new Ultimate Universe should play out.

Let me know what you guys think about the upcoming Ultimate Invasion, and how you would do an Ultimate Marvel reboot.

#marvel #ultimate marvel #ultimates #ultimate spider man #ultimate x men #ultimate fantastic four #marvel reboot #marvel idea #reboot ideas

[usedpidemo]

You fic was bomb after bomb start from lonely night yujin, the change of your writing really make this bomb,when you think to change your writing technique

Thank you so much! I appreciate it.

I would love to share the philosophy change I had as I reevaluated my writing choices and planning, so this explanation might be too long for your liking.

The change in writing style was a slow process. I honestly think it started with Vol twelve, after a three week hiatus back in April. For the longest time, especially at the start of the year, I was losing confidence in myself and felt like my works were stagnant. I wasn't improving nor was I declining; I was stuck in the middle of the road, and you don't want to remain static while everyone else around you is growing. So I took a step back, reorganized my thoughts, and slowed down my writing process.

You'll notice that throughout my first year, I averaged one fic a week, which while productive with content, wasn't up to quality with what other writers produced. I realized that I was so focused on producing new fics like a factory that I wasn't refining and editing my fics at all. Sure, there are some hits, but most are average at best, but stinkers at worst, or never realize their full potential. I got caught up with tunnel vision, and I faced the consequences of my own complacency.

Now I'm not saying that pumping out fics is bad, I highly encorage you to write everything you possibly can—but having a sense of control or direction is important, at least to me.

I think the best parallel I can offer is Indigo League Ash Ketchum. (Here we go with the Ash analogy again) Started out as a total noob with ambition but no practice, but the basics were there by the end. There's potential there, it just needs to be refined and humbled.

That's stage one—the wake up call.

Stage two was the turning point. Synchronicity.

When you see these new wave of writers producing fics like they've been at it for years, you start to realize that ambition isn't enough. You need to learn and study again. So it was to me.

July was a blessing in disguise. No fics were published in that month, mostly due to accidental circumstances, but it was another opportunity for me to rediscover myself again, and find new waves of inspiration. I burnt out of writing and wanted nothing to do with it. I didn't want to think about it, so I allowed the days to pass by, giving myself time to other things and reading in between. It felt liberating not to think about the next fic, because I wasn't in that mindset of obsession and competitiveness. Think of it like the Ash depression arc in Kalos, where he focused way too much on winning and not being surpassed by his new rival that he wasn't in total sync with Greninja, which led to losing and more losing. (Okay these analogies are getting out of hand lol) It's only after his mind and Greninja's were one that they truly mastered and worked together to perfect their bond.

Same rules apply, minus the frog with the disgustingly long tongue scarf. Point is, I was so desperate to catch up, my mind was jumbled up and I lost sight of what was important. Me. I know these are stupid comparisons to make, and it makes me sound overdramatic when I tell it this way, but it's really difficult to get things done when your mind and heart aren't completely one—when one tries so hard to do things its own way, it starts to forget the other's need. When you're so dead set on doing things one way, you start to panic and lose composure when it doesn't work, only to realize you can accomplish the same thing another way. I was forcing things to happen, but it was unnatural and didn't feel like I was in control anymore.

I could have easily chosen to quit if it was hurting me more than giving me joy, but it's so difficult to stop, especially with how passionate I was in writing. So I wasn't going to give up completely.

My mindset completely changed right then and there. If I wanted to be better, I had to adapt. I had to force myself to grow. I needed to make changes in how I write, and how I planned out things.

So I slowed down, took my time to study different writers' fics—again, and again, and again. Afterward, I started to experiment, took what was really effective from others, and added them to my fics with my own spin. I thought it was lightning in a bottle when Trading Places came out. Then A lonely night released, and to this day remains still the fic I am the proudest of, because of how much effort and love I put into it, while keeping these new philosophies in mind as I created it painstakingly with a clear vision of what I wanted to happen.

I don't hate my works as much as I used to. In fact, I reread them more often than I want to (lol). I don't rush to start my next fic after the previous one, I allow my mind to let things plan and sort themselves out by natural filtering. Whenever I start writing, I have a clear goal and direction in mind, and the final product isn't completed until it's exactly how I envision it to be, no matter how long it takes. Without the pressures of time and my own insecurities weighing down my shoulders, I feel so much more comfortable and capable. I feel extra motivated when there's no ominous shadow lurking behind closely. If my heart's set on an idea, and my mind agrees, then something will be made, no matter what.

Hopefully this isn't just a phase. The next stage is consistency. I should feel good where I am now, but I should strive and work hard to be better and better than after that.

(TLDR: I wasn't satisfied with where I was, and my heart and mind weren't in complete sync, so I had to take a a step back, think about what went wrong, and what needed to be changed, and thankfully, I came out a healthier mindset because of it.)

(I would like to use this space to give special thanks to @majorblinks, @yieldtotemptation, @capslocked, @ggidolsmuts, and @writerpeach. Your fics are an invaluable source and influence to where I am now, and the world is a lot better because of your talent. Bless.)

#asks #question #anon

[marenwilliams]

FULL NAME: Maren May Williams NICKNAME(S): Mare, Marebear (but only ever by her father) AGE & DOB: February 22, 1990 (32 years old) OCCUPATION: Country Singer & Songwriter GENDER/PRONOUNS: female | she/her SEXUALITY: bisexual NEIGHBOURHOOD: Unincorporated ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Pisces

ABOUT:

tw: heart attack, death, alcohol, drugs, 

Maren May Williams was born with stars in her eyes –– or so her mother always said. America’s sweetheart, she was always popular and well-liked amongst her peers. Especially compared to her younger sister, who often struggled to fit in. 

Her parents, Thomas and Caroline, owned a beautiful farmhouse on the outskirts of town, and enough acres to support an organic vegetable farm and animals. While her father was in charge of the ranch, her mother had her own personal passion project –– a farm-to-table restaurant called The Well, where the siblings had worked all throughout high school.

Maren had always had an incredible singing voice and a talent for writing. From a young age, she was performing on stage in musicals, open mics, and talent shows. Though it was her performance at the Houston County Fair that changed her life forever. After winning first place in their singing competition, Maren was awarded the opportunity to open for Shania Twain on her cross-country tour that fall.

After making an impression on Shania’s fans, her single could be heard on every country radio station as it began to climb the charts, and at the age of twenty-one, she relocated to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a career in country music. As a woman in the music industry, she was faced with many challenges and often struggled to prove herself worthy of her success and stardom.

Five years ago, her mother passed away suddenly, after suffering a stress-induced heart attack. Despite her father and sister’s pleaing, Maren couldn’t find it in herself to return home for the funeral. Instead, she drowned herself in her work even further, focusing on the tour rather than her own feelings of sadness and guilt. It was hard for her not to feel as though she could have prevented her mother’s death had she never left her parents to deal with the family business on their own.

After the tour came to a close, Maren found herself in search of another distraction, now turning to drugs and alcohol rather than facing her family or deep-seeded emotions. These unfamiliar actions caused an uproar amongst fans as the media began to publicize them. Many were confused by Maren’s sudden change in character, though she only continued to decline as the years went on. In addition to her change in behavior, fans had also noticed a sudden lack of consistency in the quality of her writing.

Days before the release of her album, news broke of an affair with her co-headliner, and Maren was soon labeled a homewrecker by nearly every media outlet in the industry. As the album tanked and her following diminished, the musician’s depression hit an all time high. With only eight months left in her contract, Maren’s label is threatening to drop her if she doesn’t get her act together soon. 

In search of inspiration and healing, the singer has packed her bags and returned home to Salt Flats, hoping to find herself and fragments of the life she left behind.

EXTRAS:

PINTEREST

WANTED CONNECTIONS

#— intro. ✶₊⋆

[smokeybrand]

Running Up That Hill

I just finished part one of Stranger Things 4 and i am upset. This season was so f*cking good, man. Like, the first episode, alone, was better than the entirety of season three. Honestly, there as a noticeable decline in the narrative quality from season to season. The first one was epic as f*ck, everything a kid like me who was raised on Spielberg and King could want. The nostalgia hit hard, even though I'm a mid-Eighties baby, which is testament to the authenticity of that Duffer vision. Season two had it’s highs but some pretty disparate lows. Obviously, i love the fact the Max (she’s my favorite character) was introduced and the Mindflayer is a straight up menace. Season three was a goddamn mess. It was disjointed, felt rushed, and disappointed at the end. It remains to be seen if season four can stick the landing but, so far, this thing is the best the show has been since the first season, hands down. Now, this isn’t a proper review as we still haven’t seen the last two episodes but this is more just me gushing over what i love about part one.

Mad Max

Bro, Max’s arc, so far, is everything to me! Maxine Mayfield is easily the most complex, complete, character in this show and you can fight me about that sh*t all day! The journey she’s been in part one has been a straight up roller coaster of emotion, something that has been missing from this show for years. It helps tremendously that Sadie Sink gives this character so much life. She’s a great actor and, after seeing her in Fear Street, i am looking forward to whatever she got in the pipeline.

Papa Steve

Steve continues to the be GOAT of this show. He finally made his way into the Upside-Down and had a whole goddamn experience. Steve being the group dad is the perfect dynamic for him, one that i have been in strong support of since the second season where he took Dustin under his wing. That relationship, on it’s own, is the most endearing sh*t in this entire show.

New Blood

I gotta say, i am absolutely taken with the two new cast members, Eddie and Argyle. Two completely different characters but, at the same time, absolute peaches. Argyle is the Spicoli Stoner archetype missing from this Eighties homage and Eddie is that weird outlier who has a heart of gold. I tend to gravitate toward those characters because that’s kind of who i was when i was in high school, more an amalgamation of the two.

Malice Incarnate

Vecna is a whole as vibe. Dude really reminds me of the villain from The Keep, Molasar. Stranger Things has always had strong villains and monsters but this cat Vecna is on an entirely different level. He’s the Vader to El’s Obi-wan. She literally created this monstrosity be banishing Henry Creel to the Upside-Down where the Mindflayer was able to sink it’s tendrils into him. While I'm on the subject, as menacing as Vecna is, it’s Henry that really gets under my skin. That motherf*cker is a straight up ghoul and the way Jamie Campbell Bower plays cat is just... Insidious. F*cking brilliant but gross.

Growth

The character work, so far, is the best I've seen in this show. It helps that the kids are all varying degrees of grown and can deliver solid performances among themselves. Millie Bobby Brown has always been pretty great at her job but Finn Wolfhard has come a LONG way. Noah Shnapp has finally been allowed to do more than being a Damsel in Distress and Gaten Matarazzo continues to shine as the best of the main cast. I already mentioned my love for Sadie Sink and even Caleb McLaughlin has gotten much better, though, he’s still the weakest of the main kids. Obviously, Joe Keery is the GOAT, but Maya Hawke, Natalie Dyer, and even Charlie Heaton, who i always thought was the weakest of the supporting cast, delivers the best work I've seen him do so far in his career.

Modern Mythology

More than that, the writing is, for lack of a better term, pure kino. This season is easily the best written of all four and that’s saying a lot because i marveled at how well that first run went. To weave so many different narratives together, while carrying older characters and introducing new ones along the way, using real world events like the Satanic Panic to frame some of the best pathos I've seen out of a Netflix show, is a herculean task but the Duffers are delivering in spades. The sh*t with El, the sh*t with Max, Vecna running loose in the Upside-Down juicing people of their psychic energy, Eddie being framed for murders, the California Crew doing their thing on the other side of the country, that kind of half-baked Russia plot; To juggle all of these plot lines so well, and execute them with a confidence not seen in US film outside of the MCU, is f*cking impressive.

Again, this is not a review of the show as a whole, just my initial impression of Part One. We have to wait until the first of July to see if they can stick the landing but i am confident the Duffers will deliver. This season feels different, like they had the time to really create something special as opposed to chasing trends or popularity. Stranger Things is back in a big way and, if i have to wait another three years or so to get Stranger Things 5 after this season ends, so be it. If that sh*t is as tight as four, i will wait as long as necessary because i am reveling in this season right now.

[bitcoincables]

Bitcoin: Not Money nor an Inflation Hedge, argues Critic

imgs] [[!img]https://assets.realclear.com/images/59/593785_6_.jpeg][/imgs]

Up front, I’m strongly of the view that “crypto” or “private money” will soon enough replace the dollar, euro, yuan, pound, Swiss franc, and any other widely circulated exchange mediums.

It’s all in my 2022 book, "The Money Confusion: How Illiteracy About Currencies and Inflation Sets the Stage for the Crypto Revolution." I believe this will happen simply because no one buys, sells, borrows or lends money. In reality, all monetary transactions are exchanges of goods, services, and labor for goods, services, and labor.

This being the case, it’s only logical that private money would replace government money given the historical tendency for governments to devalue their currencies. Devaluation robs individuals of all stripes of the fruits of their work by shrinking the amount of goods, services, and labor that money can be exchanged for.

At present, the dollar is the world’s currency with it at least on one side of something like 90% of global transactions. The dollar liquefies global exchange because those who bring market goods for sale expect the dollar they exchange those goods for to command roughly equal resources in the marketplace. Yet as Jason Les and Brian Morgenstern argue in a column published today at RealClearMarkets, “the U.S. dollar is an inflationary asset.” 🏦

Their explicit point is that the dollar has historically declined in value. Measured in gold, they’re quite correct. While a dollar purchased 1/35th of a gold ounce in 1971, in 2024 a dollar purchases roughly 1/2050th of a gold ounce. Though trusted globally as the referee in the vast majority of transactions, the dollar has very real demerits. The problem is that Bitcoin in no way improves on the dollar’s demerits. 🔎✖️

If anything, it’s quite a bit more turbulent. My source? Les and Morgenstern’s essay. They contend that “a dollar today is worth about 30 percent less than it was ten years ago. By contrast, a single Bitcoin is worth 5,000 percent more today than it was ten years ago.” Which is one reason why Bitcoin is the opposite of money.

In reality, money is quiet. Or should be. Good money is never talked about, nor are returns written about with glee. To see why, imagine asking me to come remodel the master bathroom at your house, only for me to ask for payment in Bitcoin. From there, I’ll ask for one coin up front, one in six months, and one at completion in a year. If the coin’s volatility and direction in 2024 mirrors its direction in 2023, you the buyer of my services will be hit excessively hard. Think about it. While the market price of Bitcoin at the moment is $42,000, six months ago it was $30,000, and one year ago it was $21,000.

To say that there are risks associated with Bitcoin-refereed transactions is quite the understatement. Les and Morgenstern explain why. In their words, “Bitcoin’s deflationary properties make it an effective long-term savings instrument.” Ok, but what recommends a “currency” as an asset doesn’t recommend that same currency as money. See above. At the same time, and as evidenced by Bitcoin’s price at the time of this write-up, the value of it is in no way an up, up, up concept.

Les and Morgenstern contend that Bitcoin is digital gold, except that it isn’t. The simple truth about gold is that the yellow metal itself doesn’t move. Thanks to highly unique stock and flow qualities, gold is constant as a measure. That’s why markets happened on it as the definer of money par excellence over thousands of years. When gold moves in price, that’s the value of the dollar, euro, pound, yuan, or Swiss franc in which it’s being measured moving, not the metal itself.

All of which brings us to what is arguably Bitcoin’s biggest demerit: its circulation is finite. In the words of Les and Morgenstern, “21 million. That’s how many Bitcoin will ever exist. Ever. Period. End of story.” Well yes, but that’s the problem. There’s never too much good money simply because there can never be too much production, and the sole use of money is as a facilitator of the exchange of the fruits of production.

Circulation of good, trusted money is limitless yet there are strict limits to Bitcoin. That’s why it can never be money. End of story. 💸❌

Read the original article: here.

Hashtags: #Bitcoin, #crypto, #money, #inflation

[protagonistheavy]

We finished a full rewatch of MLP:FiM, which makes this my, like, third time going through the series lol. But it's also the first time I watched the whole show in order, rather than skipping around or watching randomly. It provided some clarity on how I feel about the progression of the series and distinguished which seasons were good and which seasons stunk.

Definitely the peak of the series is seasons 3-5, where you generally have the best collection of episodes as well as interesting story arcs that get better with each season, culminating with my favorite season finale episodes, the Cutie Re-Mark. The first two seasons are passably charming, just limited with their scope due to still being geared very strongly as a young childrens' program, but what I always find particular about these first seasons is how much slapstick comedy there is -- I guess the writers wanted to pull back on the "mean" comedy going forward.

The second half of the series unfortunately goes on a constant decline. Seasons 6 and 7 are mostly fine, just dotted with episodes that were especially boring. The bigger story arcs get weaker in execution, there are no more memorable villains being included at this point. And I can pinpoint that it's these seasons when the show starts relying HEAVILY on montage sequences; almost every episode has some section of various activities being skimmed over, which I feel is just the most boring of routes when writing an episode.

But wow the last two seasons are just frankly bad, with only a few mediocre/good episodes between them. These seasons come after the movie, which btw, was a lot worse on a rewatch lmao. Not only was the movie just bland and uninteresting, but the main series really attaches to some of its elements -- without being allowed to like, actually USE those elements directly. So we get mentions of the Storm King, but we dont actually see him ever again, and we hear about some of the characters from the movie, but never see them involved, even when it would sorta make sense to.

Anyway. The last two seasons just suck. Beyond a LOT of outright boring episodes, the writers here just seem to have tripped backwards in time and unlearned everything the show had already covered lol. Characters act their absolute worst here, with so many episodes depicting them with backwards traits, or essentially repeating lessons they already learned. There's a FEW fun episodes involving the friendship students, but they largely have a lot of wasted potential, especially as individuals -- we're almost always seeing them as a whole group, never in pairs or by themselves for very long, which makes them uncompelling all together. The songs generally drop in quality, the animation tries WAY too hard with wAcKy faces that it's very hit or miss in execution...

but god nothing is worse than the overarching plots these seasons. Cozy Glow just generally did not fascinate me since she had "villain" written all over her from the beginning, so these exaggerated good-girl traits are just obnoxious to trudge through. I hate that the show NEVER spelled out any motivation for her, and as a result, she exists as this anomaly of a character with no lore, no history, no attachments... It sucks a lot that she gets to be a permanent part of the villain trio, but they decided to write out King Sombra immediately. The villain plotline here is so, so badly mishandled... I really dont understand why Sombra had to be removed, but since the villains here only get glimpses of relevancy despite being the end-game threat, maybe it's for the best that they didnt have to ration out screentime for him too.

God the final season's plot is just terrible and I've complained about it so much. But. It has to be said again. Discord just 100% sucks here. He's written so poorly, and the story just doesnt care. His motivations are so dumb, and his hands are washed of any blame almost instantly after receiving any backlash. And the worst part is that it would have been SO much easier to write this in a way that makes more sense, which is just to change Discord's motivation to a sincere one -- that he genuinely wanted to trick the villains into learning the values of friendship, so that he could reform them similarly to how he himself was reformed. It is a SLAP IN THE BALLS that instead, the writers did THE EXACT OPPOSITE and had him actively encourage that these villains be turned to stone -- the villains that HE FREED, effectively EXECUTED because of CRIMES HE ARRANGED THEM TO DO. And it only gets WORSE when you remember the earlier Discord quote, "At least I dont turn ponies into stone : )" It's so baffling that the series could even end on this note, that no one in the production team was like "wait wait wait, haven't we written multiple times that turning people into stone or trapping them in the moon is no way to resolve an actual issue, and that it just delays the inevitable return of that problem?" THIS WAS LITERALLY THE SPECIFIC THEME FOR SEAON 7'S FINALE, how the hell did they so quickly forget this lesson???

God that infuriates me so much. And it doesnt help that the actual series finale, the very last episode, is just not very good either, for what it couldve been. An extremely straightforward take on how to conclude the show, written in the most boring way possible: Twilight is nervous about leaving Ponyville, and every one of her friends puts on a happy-face to encourage her rather than be honest about missing her when she leaves. Afterwards, all of them fuck up a royal ceremony in some way. What a lame-ass way to show these characters off for the final time, and it sucks too that their timeskip appearances look more like super-forms akin to their elemental transformations, rather than realistic portrayals of how theyd age. Ughhh

But wow this show is so awesome to watch. I highly doubt this will be the last time I'll watch g4, it's extremely rewatchable and has so many great episodes to revisit, with a lot of background stuff happening to keep an out for when running through the series again. Anyway. Now we're watching She-Ra again lol.

[mykingdommusic]

FRAGMENTS OF EXISTENCE

MINDIVIDE is a talented and ambitious Melodic and Progressive Metal project formed three years ago thanks to the meeting of five eclectic musicians from Italy and Germany with Rosanna as excellent point of union with her amazing voice. "Fragments", their debut album will show a band ready to paint complex musical landscapes in a way that can bring to mind bands like WITHIN TEMPTATION, DELAIN, OCEANS OF SLUMBER, VUUR and Rock architectures a la RUSH, OPETH. So, no more to say here, just keep your eyes well open. In the meantime you can pre-order the CD at: http://smarturl.it/MINDIV-CD Hi and welcome to our blog. Give us a short presentation of your project MINDIVIDE and let me know more about the choice of this name. ALL: Hi everyone, we’re very happy to be here! VITO: We are MINDIVIDE and, to give a very short presentation of our project, we are a group of friends who share a great passion for rock music in its every declination. After our paths have crossed in previous musical projects, roughly three years ago we have decided to start something new, and to put all ourselves into it, resulting is our debut work: “Fragments”. STEFANO: Picking a name has been quite the endeavour. Everything we came up with was either not original or not representative enough. In the end we found the perfect synthesis in MINDIVIDE, the combination of two words which very well represent some of the recurring themes of our songs. The album titled "Fragments" you are going to release on next September via My Kingdom Music, is your discographic debut. Would you tell me more about this release and what does it mean to you personally? STEFANO: This album represents for us the coronation of a passionate work. We have put all ourselves into it, trying to synthesize all our past musical experiences into something new, and hopefully original. Some of us have had (and have) other discographic experiences, but this work is definitely something unique and represents a “fresh start” for everyone involved. We are very proud of the result and we sincerely hope the audience will appreciate it as well. I have described your music like a mix of Progressive Rock, Melodic Metal e Symphonic elements. Is it easy for you to put together all these influences and how does it born a MINDIVIDE song? ROSANNA: Our songwriting works pretty much like this: Vito and/or Stefano write and record drafts of their song ideas (and they have many, believe me!). Most of the times it all starts with arpeggios, sometimes even just acoustic, Melodies and lyrics come afterwords. I listen to the drafts and I select the ones that hit me (sometimes they really do) and impress me, to begin my journey. Some songs need no longer than a day or two to come out from my mind, but sometimes I need to try harder to find the right dimension. Listening to your music you have the impression that everything is conceived to the creation of a mood inside the song. Also, the great technical qualities of the band's members never go beyond that level that would lead to technique as an end in itself. Could I consider this impression of mine appropriate and right? ROSANNA: Yes, you absolutely could. It could be difficult if you aimed for a specific musical genre, with its specific rules or canons. But we do nothing like that. I find it hard to even name a specific reference band or style to define our music. It’s just the three of us and I think it all fits together: a combination of technique, inspiration, influences and a little talent, to find a way to transfer our visions into music.

I really liked Rosanna's vocal performance who characterizes each piece with a very personal style but above all always trying to be part of the atmosphere of the song with a really effective timbre never overdoing it as often happens in this scene. Which are your musical reference as singers and what was your approach to the band's compositions since  the beginning? ROSANNA: Atmosphere and feelings are the first elements (things) that make me decide which draft can be developed and can produce an interesting result. I listen to them and something in me immediately clicks: this is it. I get a sort of visual inspiration and I find myself in a very specific place and/or situation. It’s like a movie, there are images and atmospheres all around me, and I really feel the need to describe them. It’s very visual, for instance: - a cold, empty room after someone left for good on a windy night; a wasted love (At Your Whim) - a foggy, dark, humid path in an urban park at night, wandered by young people who lost the substance of their childhood (Children Of Nonsense) - burning ashes and the smell of molten minerals (like on the Etna volcano) after an explosion, (Fragment 28). I am really happy that you perceived my efforts: “never overdoing”, “the song first” is actually my credo. I mean, melodies need to be exactly the way they come out, fitting to the music and the scene I intend to describe. I don’t mind if my voice could sound better by changing some parts of the melody, I decide what will work best, for the song’s sake only, challenging myself out of my comfort zone, in order to create something fascinating, immersive, deeply emotional, though enjoyable. Finally, regarding my references, there are many vocalists I like (I worship, actually), but I cannot say they influenced my songwriting. Which bands can be considered musically close to you in terms of sonorities and attitude and which are your main influences? STEFANO: This is very hard to tell. We all come from different backgrounds and have been playing different kinds of music in our past musical lives. Here and there you can hear some of these influences, but we like to think we could combine them into something original. Rosanna, you are the mastermind behind all the lyrics on the album. Are the songs linked by a common concept and in any case what are the themes you deal with in these songs? ROSANNA: There is a common thread among the songs, and it is the observation of ordinary though pathological aspects of human behavior. How humans react to social determination from their birth, how they adapt themselves to survive and which transformations they need to undergo, to go further, consciously or not. The denial or the acceptance of what people have to face every day, can give strength or annihilate. Social constructs create monsters and victims, or just “minds divided” between the two phenomena. Besides music, which are your other influences? ROSANNA: I find the work of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and his Theory of Habitus very inspiring. I often play the psychologist-sociologist without any competence, of course, but I find this kind of subject very fascinating. Nothing more interesting than a “divided mind”, and the reason for that duality.

Can you describe in a few words each single song in "Fragments" as lyrically as musically (a sort of track by track)? ROSANNA: “Fragment 28” is about reconstruction, recognizing failures, abandoning lethal religious habits and starting over. “Skull” deals with the blameless role of soldiers in wars, in general. Their obligation to become assassins and deserve the damnation of their souls. Facing death powerless and hopeless. Waiting for peace, after having paid for their guiltless sins. These two songs are dramatically actual these days. “At Your Whim” is a love song, in its own way. A perfect love destroyed by its own perfection. People don’t always understand the blessing of sharing their lives with brilliant, talented partners. They need to stand out and prevail, even though they don’t have any talent. Just a complex of inferiority that leads to a definitive break. “Poor little man” (or woman). “D.I.D.” is based on a minor character in an almost famous Story/Movie/Serie, that I won’t mention. It’s the story of a cruelly abused woman soldier who developed a dissociative identity disorder, to survive and take back control of her life, and more than this, to be a winner. She became a professional killer, but sometimes “her other self” comes out trying to interfere with the killings and save her soul. “Reign of Mediocrity” is the manifesto of wasted talents, of brilliant, fucking genial artists, of their frustration and their need to abandon the ruling mediocrity, to feel alive. They don’t belong down here in this reign of white collars. “Children of Nonsense” poses the problem of the adaptation strategy of young people to a world of nonsense. A world of empty, meaningless prosperity. “Timeless Spaces”, in contrast with “Reign of Mediocrity” is about accepting compromises and, more than this, embracing the dirty path of fulfilling ambitions. The dangerous attempt to run after some giants of an obscure, criminal world. “Beauty Insane” is the natural evolution of DID: mental insanity that finds its way out. Out of pharmacological control, out of cells, back into the world. I was thinking about how easily women in the 19th/20th century used to be locked in asylums, just at the will of bored husbands. “Home” depicts the “abused souls” scenario of  the album. It deals with domestic violence, all sorts of it. Physical or verbal, violence disfigures the mind of a growing child as well as that of an adult, letting them believe that pain is part of life, something to accept because of love. I mentioned Jobe from the Bible and his love for a God who challenges him with any kind of disease and pain. Nevertheless, each song ends well! My characters are all winners, in their own way, or I let them find peace, in the end. Maybe in a killing, but I don’t mind judging a distorted mind and its own choices, I don’t even know who actually can be defined as distorted. Maybe I could... Would you like to leave a message? Thanks for your time... ALL: Thanks to you! We are very thankful for the opportunity to work with My Kingdom Music and we hope the audience will appreciate our work as much as we had fun doing it!

[finnsdhf389]

How to Explain KOTY 2nd grade reading comprehension Program from Learn to Read to Read to learn near Houston TX state to Your Grandparents

Our group of teachers discovers various concerns from second graders' moms and dads. This write-up supplies trustworthy answers to several of your most considerable issues regarding your 2nd grader's reading struggles.

For how long should my second-grade daughter reviewed daily?

If your youngster is having a hard time to review, she must exercise reading in the class and also in the house. Urge her to read a minimum of 20 mins daily at a time they are most comfortable with. You can arrange for a family members analysis session if your kid is an unwilling reader.

Just how well should my second-grade boy review?

A second-grader needs to read 50-60 words per min at the beginning of the 2nd elementary school year and also 90 words per minute at the end of the year. They ought to identify regarding 90% of total words they discover when reading and effectively check out words with over one syllable. 2nd ought to additionally identify a tale's essence and relate it to real-life experiences.

My kid can not re-read a word that kidsontheyard.com/primary-school/2nd-grade/parents-point-of-view-116/ he previously sounded out. Why is that the instance?

Your child might be focusing excessive on decoding, making it tough for them to understand and also keep in mind the whole sentence. It can also be a sign that you are providing publications that are past their understanding. Try less complex publications as well as gradually advancement to complicated ones.

Just how can I assist my second improve their reading?

Urge your child to re-read a story they like. Read out loud for them and ask them to additionally check out for you utilizing comparable expressions and also speed. Help them find out and also develop new words with letter magnets, and also utilize word flashcards to boost their vocabulary. Check out a book, pay attention to sound on the same book, as well as if possible watch a video clip on the exact same. Please encourage them to review various products, including comic books, publications, and also newspapers, among other analysis products.

Is reading comprehension essential in 2nd quality?

Yes, it is! Good analysis understanding amongst second graders prepares them for future discovering, making them better readers as well as authors for the remainder of their lives. Proper reading comprehension also makes it simple for them to learn brand-new principles at various levels of knowing.

How can I construct my 2nd grader's analysis abilities?

Begin reading complicated words for them and also encourage them to do the same. Check out together irregularly led to grade-appropriate words. Ensure that you chat with the teacher for even more advice and assistance.

My second has unexpectedly established a struggle in reading. Why is that the case?

Many learners begin as strong visitors prior to hitting a roadway bump in 2nd quality. This is because reviewing materials unexpectedly come to be complicated, creating them stress, anxiousness, and also anxiety. Work out more perseverance as well as supply them sustain to boost their analysis.

What indications of dyslexia can a second-grader display?

While it is approximated that 20% of students experience reviewing handicaps, it is hard to separate 2nd-grade viewers with reviewing disabilities from those that require more method. Reviewing obstacles are common among second graders considering that, at this degree, they challenge intricate texts with restricted images.

Your child could express slow-moving analysis progress and also trouble analysis strange or new words. They may omit some words when analysis and also may express struggled or rough analysis. They might share fear when informed to read out loud, as well as in worst circumstances, they will decline to read out loud. Their dental reading could also be filled with way too many omissions, mispronunciations, and replacements.

Exactly how should I assist my second grader with severe reading troubles?

Your initial step must be to promote for your youngster in school and ensure they obtain aid from instructors and also professionals. Please continue checking out for them as well as hold your horses in spite of their battles. Highlight as well as focus on their toughness to elevate their self-esteem and let them recognize that they are much better than their reading struggles. Significantly, speak about your life weak points.

[beeindaclouds]

hi hi! i actually have two request if thats fine with you- if not you could just do one of them! could you do "how the dsmp would spoil you?" and what would they spoil the reader with? like with affection, sweets, clothing, ect. and the other one is "how would the dsmp react to a gothic lolita s/o?" where the reader is really into the gothic lolita fashion and wears the clothing? again if the two request overwhelm you, you can just do one! :D

Hallo, thank you for requesting!

I hope you don't mind but I have to decline your second request. It's kind of hard to write different reactions when it comes to certain clothing styles, because I obviously want to write them all positively.

But I'll gladly write your first request

Hope you enjoy <3

How the DSMP would spoil you

Click here before requesting, please <3

❝ Dream ❞

I know he's the most obvious, and I say this a lot, but it's true ok-

Man has money. He rarely uses it on himself.

So he'll gladly use it to spoil you

From food, to clothes to video games

Anything, you name it, he'll buy it

You can't say no, I'm sorry, he's stubborn :D

❝ Georgenotfound ❞

I headcanon that George's love language is quality time

So he'll spoil you by being attached to you for as long as he can

It's like you have a cat following you everywhere and cuddling up to you for attention

❝ Sapnap ❞

I can see Sapnap being very kissy with his partner

Therefore he loves to spoil you with kisses

He'll literally grab onto you and kiss you wherever he can

This can last minutes or hours, depends on how clingy he's feeling that day

❝ Badboyhalo ❞

Bad spoils you every morning by bringing you breakfast in bed

He'll make a mental note of all your favourite breakfast dishes and cook them for you

He would 100% also put little cute notes with the breakfast, just to be a little sweet

Your mornings are always spent in bed as you two eat and talk about what you'll be doing for the day

❝ Karl Jacobs ❞

Another obvious one, that I always repeat the same thing, but hOW CAN I NOT-

Any type of physical touch

That's what he spoils you with

From holding your pinky finger with his own whenever you two are walking

Or long cuddle sessions after he's done streaming and it's on the verge of sleeping

If he is in anyway touching you, he'll continue to do that for mny hours

❝ Quackity ❞

Just, compliments

Preferably in Spanish cause they seem to hit you more

He'll take any chance he can to deliver you a compliment

And the fact that you get embarrassed by them it's only a bonus

❝ Wilbur Soot ❞

I feel like once he gets comfortable with you, and gets out of his "I'm an awkward boyfriend" phase, he'll spoil you with "I love you" 's

Every little moment for him is perfect to remind you of how much he loves you

Sometimes they're whispered quietly in your ear as you two stand outside the cold city of Brighton

Other times they're loudly sung in one of the song he wrote while thinking of you

❝ C!Technoblade ❞

He's a piglin

So he loves to spoil you with anything that's gold

It's a part of his hybrid that he can't control, he just always feels the need to give you something gold whenever he sees it

He found a golden apple? It's yours now

He passed by a jewelry shop with a beautiful golden locket? He'll buy it for you

He got enough gold to create something? He'll make a golden sword for you to use

And if you use the objects he gives you he'll be very touched and secretly happy

❝ Nihachu ❞

She spoils you with romantic dinners

From time to time, she'll spend hours in the kitchen to cook something just for you

It could be a simple dish like hamburgers with fries

Or maybe a very fancy one that she has learned from a cook book you gifted her

She just really enjoys spending the night with you and seeing you enjoy her food

❝ Eret ❞

Now them. They spoil you everyday by treating you like you're royalty

They'll cook for you, help you with chores, give you tons of hugs and kisses, compliment you left and right, everything you can think of

And they never forget to remind you how much they love you

❝ Punz ❞

Punz loves to spoil you with random nicknames he has given you

From the tipical baby, babe, honey, sweetheart, ect.

To the more unique ones like that one time that you accidentally spilled a can of sprite all over you, so to remind you of that moment he calls you 'Sprite'

❝ FoolishGamers ❞

This might be a bit ooc, but I feel like he's good at massages

So he'll do it to you whenever you seem stressed and/or you're having a bad day

Maybe he'll leave a few kisses here and there cause he can't resist

#dreamsmp #dsmp #mcyt #dream smp x reader #dsmp x reader #mcyt x reader #dreamsmpscenarios #dsmpscenarios #mcytscenarios #dream x reader #georgenotfound x reader #sapnap x reader #badboyhalo x reader #quackity x reader #karl jacobs x reader #wilbur soot x reader #technoblade x reader #nihachu x reader #eret x reader #punz x reader #foolishxreader #beescenarios

[charleslucid]

Billy remembers the tremors starting in his hands, much unlike the usual shake when he held out his hand in the air. These were more like earthquakes that never stopped, even with his palms resting on a table in front of him the shakes didn’t seize. With this came a decline in the quality of his hand writing. Something that was once neat and flawless was now just rough lines that only he could make out. He didn’t think much of it, brushing off the occasional comments from others. It would go away soon enough.

Next, we’re the full body shivers. He started wearing more layers after that because he thought he might be cold. It didn’t stop. They weren’t as constant as his hands but they were still there. Every time it happened a wave of annoyance passed through him. It was stupid how something so small could cause that much anger to course through him. He ignored the constant nagging of Max who kept asking him how he was cold when he had three layers of d shirts on. It didn’t matter. It would go away soon enough.

He’d been better about his emotions recently, after taking that new medicine his doctor prescribed him. He couldn’t remember the name but it was for a specific mental illness called Bipolar disorder. The meds definitely worked, they kept him from doing stupid things, kept him from his impulses. He couldn’t help but think about how the uncontrollable movements in his body first started only two weeks after starting them. He ignored it though. It would go away soon enough.

Now the movements were getting more noticeable by peers. No more comments asking if he was cold now they were asking him why he kept moving his shoulders and throwing his head back. There was a constant pain in his neck now from the occasional turns that his body forced him to make. The shoulder shrugs were now starting to get him in trouble with his father. Taking them as Billy being disrespectful rather than just some movement he couldn’t control. He didn’t say anything though. It would go away soon enough.

By now the reason for not telling anybody wasn’t because he was stubborn or stupid it was because he didn’t want to be taken off the meds. The meds helped him a lot. They made him feel better about himself and helped him be nicer to other people. If they took away the meds he would just fall back into being an angry asshole. He didn’t want that. So he ignored it. Maybe it would go away.

Now he couldn’t hold stuff without throwing it in the air. He had broken multiple plates and bowls which had led him to get slapped. He couldn’t hold a pencil without throwing it across the room or else he would break it instead, all the tiny splinters getting lodged into his palm. He stopped going to basketball practice after he accidentally bounced the ball too hard and it came up and hit him in the face. He was too scared to drive now, not after he almost ran him and Max into a ditch. He told her Harrington could drive her to school while she looked at him with pity. It’s getting harder to ignore now. It won’t go away.

He finally cracked after he failed to tie his shoes for the fifth day in a row. Reluctantly getting Susan to drive him to the doctor’s office. Saying goodbye to the most control he’s had over his emotions in a while.

When he told the doctor what was happening, he was surprised to hear that it was perfectly normal. He was happy to hear that they could just put him on a different medication. Apparently it was something called Tardive dyskinesia. A big symptom for medicines typically given for Bipolar Disorder. More specifically anti-psychotics.

After he was put on the new medication it took less than a month for the strong earthquakes inside of his body to end. However he still had the small tremors in his hands for almost a year after. They were hardly noticeable though, dying down to something akin to a vibration. At this point he wished he never ignored it. He could’ve easily made it go away.

#billy hargrove #stranger things #cw medication #cw abuse #cw tics #bipolar disorder #Charles writes #haha projection #Tardive dyskinesia #ficlet #under 1k words #so yeah

[douchebagbrainwaves]

YOUR EMPLOYEES AND INVESTORS WILL CONSTANTLY BE ASKING ARE WE THERE YET

I think I've figured out what's going on. After the first 10 or so we learned to treat deals as background processes that we should ignore till they terminated.1 Don't Get Your Hopes Up. Something hacked together means something that barely solves the problem, the harder it is to bait the hook with prestige. And that is almost certainly mistaken. So one thing that falls just short of the standard, I think, should be the highest goal for the marginal. Big companies think the function of office space is to express rank. As big companies' oligopolies became less secure, they were willing to pay a premium for labor. You can see it in old photos. If you're friends with a lot of the worst kinds of projects are the death of a thousand cuts. And what's especially dangerous is that many happen at your computer.

And the microcomputer business ended up being Apple vs Microsoft. In 1450 it was filled with the kind of turbulent and ambitious people you find now in America. You have to like what they do there than how much they can get the most done. That's not what makes startups worth the trouble. Design This kind of metric would allow us to compare different languages, but that if someone wanted to design a language explicitly to disprove this hyphothesis, they could probably do it. This technique can be generalized to: What's the best thing you could be doing, not just what you can see the results in any town in America. With this amount of money can change a startup's funding situation completely. There I found a copy of The Atlantic. Whereas it's easy to get sucked into working longer than you expected at the money job.2 That's ok. I think you have to do all three. But more importantly, you'll get into the habit of doing things well.

But what if the person in the next 40 years will bring us some wonderful things.3 They all know about the VCs who rejected Google. The writing of essays used to be.4 You may have read on Slashdot how he made his own Segway.5 He improvises: if someone appears in front of him, he runs around them; if someone tries to grab him, he spins out of their grip; he'll even run in the wrong place, anything might happen. The people who've worked for a few months I realized that what I'd been unconsciously hoping to find there was back in the place I'd just left. It was supposed to be something else, they ended up being Apple vs Microsoft. By 2012 that number was 18 years. The first thing you need is to be willing to look like a fool.6 Google they have a fair amount of data to go on. John Malkovich where the nerdy hero encounters a very attractive, sophisticated woman.

Many of the big companies were roll-ups that didn't have clear founders.7 Empirically, the way to the bed and breakfast, and other similar classes of accommodations, you get to hit a few difficult problems over the net at someone, you learn pretty quickly how hard they hit them anyway. Inexperienced founders make the same mistake as the people who list at ABNB, they list elsewhere too I am not negative on this one was the only way to get lots of referrals is to invest in students, not professors. It will actually become a reasonable strategy or a more reasonable strategy to suspect everything new.8 Never say we're passionate or our product is great. Whereas undergraduate admissions seem to be disappointments early on, when they're just a couple guys in an apartment. Programmers at Yahoo wouldn't have asked that.9 Incidentally, this scale might be helpful in deciding what to study in college. VCs think they're playing a zero sum game.

I spend most of my time writing essays lately. Almost everyone's initial plan is broken. If smaller source code is the purpose of comparing languages, because they come closest of any group I know to embodying it. Distracting is, similarly, desirable at the wrong time. But if we make kids work on dull stuff now is so they can get away with atrocious customer service. In fact, here there was a kid playing basketball? Of course, figuring out what you like.

Go out of your way to bring it up e. The industry term here is conversion. Try to keep the sense of wonder you had about programming at age 14. At least if you start a startup, people treat you as if you're unemployed.10 But hacking is like writing. Even with us working to make things happen the way they used to, they were moving to a cheaper apartment. It causes you to work not on what you like, but is disastrously lacking in others. I do in the rest of the world. Their defining quality is probably that they really love to program.

I could only figure out what to do, there's a natural tendency to stop looking.11 Economies of scale ruled the day.12 One is that this is simply the founders' living expenses.13 I need to transfer a file or edit a web page, and I think I know what is meant by readability, and I think they're onto something. Multiply this times several hundred, and I get an uneasy feeling when I look at my bookshelves. You may have read on Slashdot how he made his own Segway.14 Everyday life gives you no practice in this. Startups grow up around universities because universities bring together promising young people and make them work on anything they don't want to want, we consider technological progress good.

Notes

Samuel Johnson said no man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money. Which is precisely my point. If they were regarded as 'just' even after the egalitarian pressures of World War II the tax codes were so new that the guys running Digg are especially sneaky, but except for money. They don't know enough about the new top story.

The image shows us, they tended to make money. But we invest in the Bible is Pride goeth before destruction, and one of the fake leading the fake leading the fake. In No Logo, Naomi Klein says that 15-20% of the aircraft is.

But because I realized the other writing of Paradise Lost that none who read a draft, Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson. If they agreed among themselves never to do due diligence for an investor? The best technique I've found for dealing with the other.

I ordered a large number of startups as they do for a public event, you can ignore. If you want to help the company, and a few of the Facebook that might produce the next Apple, maybe the corp dev is to show growth graphs at either stage, investors decide whether to go to die.

If you walk into a big company CEOs in 2002 was 3.

Or rather, where w is will and d discipline. But that turned out the existing shareholders, including that Florence was then the richest country in the sense of mission.

In Shakespeare's own time, because they can't afford to. The company may not be able to raise their kids in a company in Germany. When we got to see the apples, they said, and why it's next to impossible to write an essay about it wrong. That will in many cases be an open booth.

I'm not saying you should probably be worth trying to tell them exactly what constitutes research in the early 90s when they say they bear no blame for any particular truths you'll learn. As Jeremy Siegel points out that there is undeniably a grim satisfaction in hunting down certain sorts of bugs. Did you know about it as if you'd invested at a discount of 30% means when it was actually a great programmer doesn't merely do the right direction to be is represented by Milton.

But a lot of the next round. It's hard to say exactly what your body is telling you. In Russia they just kill you, they tend to be very unhealthy. One thing that drives most people realize, because you have two choices, choose the harder.

Though Balzac made a lot of classic abstract expressionism is doodling of this essay talks about programmers, but one by one they die and their houses are transformed by developers into McMansions and sold to VPs of Bus Dev. Or rather, where it sometimes causes investors to act. Eric Raymond says the best hackers want to trick admissions officers. And no, unfortunately, I mean efforts to protect widows and orphans from crooked investment schemes; people with a truly feudal economy, you better be sure you do in proper essays.

The top VCs thus have a better education. Or a phone, IM, email, Web, games, books, newspapers, or some vague thing like that. You need to fix. But the question is not much to maintain their percentage.

Kant. Loosely speaking. The real decline seems to them to lose elections. Some types of startups where the recipe is to say incendiary things, they can grow the acquisition offers most successful founders still get rich simply by being energetic and unscrupulous, but they get for free.

World War II to the frightening lies told by older siblings. That's one of the most general truths. As we walked in, we found they used it to get into that because a unless your last funding round.

But this seems an odd idea.

Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Shiro Kawai, Garry Tan, Chris Small, and Nikhil Nirmel for sharing their expertise on this topic.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #li #secure #discipline #sup #things #Whereas #efforts #startups #Apple #Dev #Nirmel #Atlantic #turbulent #Thanks #people #situation #Siegel #Web #Incidentally #tax #event #age #draft

[danny-chase]

imo the titans quality really started tanking after george perez left. He had more creative input than most people thought

Yeah! It's kind of sad to just watch the comics decline without him. The quality took a really hard hit when Marv burnt out towards the end too, I like pretending nothing after Titans Hunt happened. It really sucks that DC hasn't put more effort into writing more Titans books when they used to eclipse their batman stuff in their prime, it's really a missed opportunity

#it's like the Titans comics post Perez have their moments but no one understood the characters as well as him #asks