#there are many other related topics that could be addressed but later

[sack-thing]

Miasma Streams and Elements

Let's do it again. Editing and completing things said there.

Also thanks @crookedvoidbird for talking about the parasite.

So here's our default map:

In the past, a meteorite crashes into Mount Vellenge (and destroys the giant crystal that was there). The meteor parasite that came along settles there. It starts producing miasma that spread around the world, but also creates some underground rifts; we can imagine it does that by growing very long tentacles or roots. They are aiming for the main elemental sources scattered over the continent.

Even if it's a move from a living organism that aims to survive, the path that the new rifts take isn't purely from its will and is constrained by geology to some extent, so they happen where the earth's crust already shows some weakness or near tectonic plates boundaries.

So the rifts are created, miasma also goes into them and flows around the world. Most of the time this path is underground, but sometimes it goes higher and reaches ground level. This is where we get our miasma streams as shown in the game. They look like rifts too; what we see is a bridge above some kind of void and very strong winds all around.

The miasma that travels through those rifts gets imbued with elements on its way. Eventually it goes back to Mount Vellenge to bring the food —the elements— to the parasite. A secondary path is made after the main water source to allow the cycle to repeat and ensure permanent feeding.

A new rift is created by the parasite, circling Mount Vellenge, leading to a new miasma stream. On their usual cycle, the streams/elements don't merge together, they just swift and let the place to the next element. But if they're stuck together, like they end up doing around Mount Vellenge, the elements are forced to fuse and give birth to the unknown element. The parasite now has a solid barrier to prevent predators from coming too close (like humans who'd want to destroy it by any chance).

(Compared to the initial (black) rift that is located underground, the unknown element (bright yellow) travels on a higher level so they don't meet.)

But geology and randomness are still a thing. Located where three plates meet/diverge in the ocean, a new breach opens to the south, weakened by the miasma stream that runs nearby, unplanned by the parasite. Some miasma goes in there too and ends in a closed circle underground, the same way it does around Mount Vellenge. A new stream of unknown element is made. Some of it finds its way between smaller breaches until reaching Lynari island and rising to the surface there, in the desert. And as we see in game, there's still some enigma to solve there to find it, but that's not the topic.

Voilà. More notes under the cut.

Note 1: this is basically how I imagine the miasma stream to flow when it reaches the land just after the wind source, when it seems to pop up from the ocean.

Note 2: If I really wanted to stay true to the cycle from the game, the earth and fire sources should be swapped. I'll say screw that after all. I already diverge from canon for many things and it would just affect the gameplay/traveling options, which is not exactly my problem.

So the miasma streams' elements change each year like this:

Note 3: If you wonder why I suggest there's a whole continent that isn't seen in game, here's why.

Note 4: I'll never pretend that everything makes sense geologically wise. Also I'm just doing my headcanons with my own logics and subjects affinities, but I'm sure there could be other nice explanations for miasma streams. Just gonna go with that for now. If needed, it has time to evolve before I get to write more post-game stuff :')

As a last bonus, there could be other elemental sources on the continent, it's just not my point of focus. But something like this could also be true and reinforce the cycle (more sources to the north of the continent are possible):

#ffcc headcanons #ffcc #crystal chronicles #spent too much time on that i need to stop #there are many other related topics that could be addressed but later #next thing to do is rearranging my tags on this blog cause it's a big mess

[callmerhynner]

Wanna switch?

synopsis: A wish a psychic has chanted all his life gets granted, by a witch that just wants more answers. Regret seeps, but will something else too?

tags: bad elden german, witch!fem!reader, maybe ooc Kusuo, story building (if you squint), no idea tbh, slice of life (maybe?)

"Saiki, good timing buddy!" a purple-haired medium exclaims, seeing his friend, greeting with a up-high wave and a bright-lit smile.

"Nevermind" the psychic merely replies, turning his heels and walking away. The purple haired male doesn't take the hint, however, and wraps his arm around his shoulders and pulls him closer. He waves a letter at his face and start talking about how a pretty girl had finally become friends with him--he expects it to go farther, though.

Saiki looks at the letter he's waving begrudgingly, thinking of ways he could get away with killing the fool that was on his hunt for the coffee jelly he had seen in so many advertisements.

"It's not even addressed to you." he says. Toritsuka lets out a cartoon-ish shocked face and sighs in defeat. As the medium drops to his knees, the boy takes the letter in curiosity.

He regrets being curious more than he regrets taking that letter's offer.

Now, he was sat on the floor carpet, you continue meditating and keeping yourself reserved, though that wasn't going as good as you'd hoped seeing as a certain pink-haired psychic was watching you. You continue to keep humming, trying to block out the stare you could feel through your skin. After one more try, you let out an annoyed grunt and sent a glare at the boy.

"What do you want?" you say, brows furrowed.

"Don't get so pissed off at me, you're the one that invited me." he replies, pointing out your past conversation.

“I’m gonna kill that idiot.” you sigh, pinching off the candles’ wicks that circled you and standing yourself up. “I’m guessing your servant told you about my offer?”

"He's nowhere related with me." the psychic replies with the same monotone voice that piqued your curiosity

You stand in front of him, head tilted in thought as you measured him up and down. He stood quiet, surely reading your mind as you estimated his every noticeable detail.

"I'm guessing you already know why I invited you over?" You hum, walking past him and going over to your study desk, looking for something, by the looks of it.

"He mentioned." He says bluntly, with how fuzzy your mind was getting. He has been reading through your thoughts but it sounds as if it was broadcasted on a broken radio. If you didn't look so decent and well taken care of, the psychic would question if you had been drinking.

"I know you're psychic and all, and that--ugh, where is it." you groan, looking through each drawer and corner of the desk. "--and that you're probably hearing very thought in me right now."

"I do warn 'ya, not many can even understand this broken head I got up here." you chuckle lightly, knocking on the top of you skull before continuing to look for whatever it was you were looking for. "From what people like you tell me, my head sounds like a wounded doll or some 60s voicebox."

"What do you mean 'people like me'?" The pink-haired boy questions, eyebrows furrowed down.

"Did I say that? I don't remember." You just turn to face him with an innocent smile and a shrug. Turning your back again.

"Are there other psychics?" he sounded a lot more emoted when the topic was mentioned. He trued harder and harder to read through your thoughts, to no avail.

"I'll tell you about that later, for now... Aha! There you are, little prick." You exclaim, raising a large old-looking book with a gilded lock guarding it. "This will answer both of our questions..." you smile with a dark air surrounding you.

"If you're willing, of course." you add, looking up at the man in front of you. You let a hand out for him to grab, reluctantly he does. Your eyes squint as your smile grows bigger in excitement.

You open the book with a key you had tied to your necklace and skim through pages and pages until you see your desired spell. As if by magic, the candles were lit up once more, you and the psychic inside the lit circle back-to-back. You raise your arm as something resembling static buzzes around it, eyes going pale, you chant an ancient text from the book.

"In tiefen Schatten, weben Flüstern,

Tauschen wir Formen, unsere Seelen zu bewahren."

The room starts to fume and fog begins to puff in from the static's heat. The room's walls are barely seen with how thick the air is, from the posters to even the doorknob, nothing is noticeable. It's a wonder what your parents must think when about when you're up to these gimmicks.

"Dankbarkeit gelernt, in neuer Fleischlichkeit,

Lehre gegeben, für dich und mich."

You chant before the smoke begins to collect and wrap around each of your bodies, the pressure is tolerable yet uncomfortably tight. The psychic begins to cough when the clouds around his necks tighten and smoke chain begins to wrap his wrist linked to yours. He feels his feet lift, this was crazier than what he could have ever imagined.

'How powerful is this witch?!' he yells to himself as you both spin around. He shuts his eyes, wishing the worst on every soul he could think of that led him to this decision. And before he knew it, he was back on the floor, laid down on the hard wood floor. He skimmed the room, nothing.

It was as if nothing had happened, there were not smoke nor any traces of the witch's doing. He stood up, thinking he may have been pranked since nothing felt different, who was he kidding? A witch that could take away his powers? He should've never hoped anything to come of it.

He stood up, he expected the chatter of people's thoughts to clamor him as they usually did, when he heard nothing, his finger fiddled with his other hand to check his germanium ring.

"Huh..?" the air stood quiet, he stood still and the room was suddenly colder than the Antarctic. 'Where is it?'

The ring rolled in front of him, in shock, he looked up seeing a girl that looked his age stood above him. You just tilted your head down at him, smirking with a glint in your eye.

"You plan on laying there til the sun goes down or what?" you hum, lending a hand out for him to grab. He lifts himself up without your help and looks around the room once more.

"How does being average feel?" you ask, prompting yourself to sit on your chair.

"What did you do?" he says, but without his psychic abilities, there would be no way for you to even understand him further than that glare he was putting out.

"Hm?" you sound out, clearly confused before getting the hint that he still remains in denial of his powers no longer with him. "I can't read your thoughts, nor can you make me understand yours."

"What?" he still doesn't seem to get it.

"Talk." you simply put. "Talk with your mouth, you can't talk to me telepathically anymore." You pioint at your lips as you speak, his eyes bulge out before he finally opens his mouth.

"What did you do to me?" he asks, incriminatingly, even with his feet positioned as if he was ready to throw down a fight.

"Your wish, was it not?" you say, tone stating as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You're no longer a psychic, just a simple, average, and mostly un-unique boy from a small city school."

"Aren't you happy, Saiki?" you say, the smile in your face soon showing in your voice.

to be continued...

Part 2

#x reader #x you #fluff #witch reader #saiki k #saiki no psi nan #saiki kusuo #the disaster of psi kusuo saiki #saiki x reader #kusuo saiki x reader #fanfic #kusuo saiki #witch rp #reader insert #fem reader #x y/n #toritsuka reita

[goinghostie]

Stars Align delves into topics most anime wouldn't dare address , ie. Yuu's situation exploring their gender identity and Maki's well-communicated explanation of Shou being trans (FTM).

While Stars Align incorporates many stigmatized topics into its plot, it approaches them carefully and never shows the abusive side in a positive light. The scenes are raw, emotional, and incredibly realistic.

I have respect for Akane-sensei and the production team for tackling issues kids don't typically see in a series - ones that they may be struggling with themselves and aren't aware how negative an impact they can have on them since that is all they know.

Stars Align is a series you could say is ahead of its time. One that resonates with many who can relate to the issues & struggles presented. It isn't a show for escapism, like most anime out there. It is a series that faces real situations head-on.

To some, this is a weakness. But to me (and many others who resonated with a kindred spirit in the series), Stars Align is a series that makes us feel seen or heard. It shows that anyone can be struggling, even if they might not openly show it.

Stars Align's premature halting of production fits a little too well with an overarching theme on the show - the boy's soft tennis team was threatened to be shut down, and it takes a LOT of hard work for the kids to grow and save their team.

If even one scene resonated with you, please show support for Stars Align. While the odds of this series getting finished seem slim, support and attention can help the creator find a studio willing to finish the second half.

We need to come together and show support for a series that was cast aside, just like our favorite soft tennis team. To join together and fight for the second half of the story, in whatever way possible.

Spread the word - the more people who legally watch the series on Crunchyroll and Hulu will show streaming platforms that the anime means something to subscribers. Start conversations about the topics presented and the impact the series has!

Create content - art, fanfics, edits, theories...posting about the series helps spread the word to people who haven't heard of it or forgot to watch in the past. To this day, new fans are discovering Stars Align because of this! January is #MakeTheStarsAlign month - we have prompts each week to help inspire people to join in spreading the word!

Akane-sensei has thanked fans for continuing to support the series. He feels the best chance for a continuation will come from an overseas production studio, and so building our numbers is the first step of achieving some kind of renewal.

It can be hard to keep talking about a series, but the tendency to move on is exactly what makes support for a series fade away. The fight needs to continue, even if time passes! Shows can be brought back YEARS later, but support needs to still be there for that to happen.

While 3 years have passed since episode 12 aired, please don't forget about this series or the emotions it made you feel. Continue to raise awareness and spread the word to show there is support for impactful series like Stars Align. 💙

#stars align #hoshiai no sora #星合の空 #make the stars align #anime #underrated anime #lgbtqia #lgbtqia representation #yuu asuka #maki katsuragi

[demodraws0606]

The very weird plays in Tsukasa and Rui's last event and how they can be analysed and the weird detail that links them together

I made a post about this before but it was poorly made (and also not really a theory or analysis it was just me having brainworms) so I deleted it and I want to actually make an analysis about it. Unfortunatly this also means this post will be long as fuck which can be a positive or a negative depending on how you view it.

Warning for mentions of suicide and drowning

So Tsukasa and Rui both have plays that are kind of the focus of the event, to the point where wxs literally stop to basically explain to us the plot of them (in world they're just talking about it but like it's clear it's also meant for us the viewers to understand the plays they're doing).

And these two plays are already very interesting and...well dark on their own but they have a extremely strange similarity that I don't believe is a coincidence (because that would be insane) and also just kinda shakes the foundation on how colorpalet write these sorts of topics in general.

First I want to preface this by saying that me analysing these plays isn't some kind of fool's herrand as colorpalet has explicitely hid backstory information, future lore hints and overall just little bits of character into WxS's plays more often than not. Of course some plays are more explicit than others.

A huge exemple of this, is the first arc ender where the play they do to save Phennyland is one that obviously is meant to parallel Emu's backstory with her grandpa. It also stands as Very early foreshadowing between the parallels of Emu's grandpa and Tsukasa that Emu sees in Admist a Dream.

So yeah, from a writing standpoint, makes sense you don't want the plays you spent a lot of words describing to the audience to be useless especially considering colorpalet has a limited amount of time to explore these stories.

I also want to get this as early as possible before I get possible criticism because I know how this fandom acts towards analysis that delve into darker topics. Don't try and respond with "colorpalet wouldn't write something like that" or "this is too dark for colorpalet". Not only because I'm not insinuating that they will actually go full dark mode and depict something graphic.

But also because this is something that is already IN the text, I'm not making up darker themes here, that is something that colorpalet chose to add in WonderlandXShowtime's event stories. I'm only bringing up how odd this is for colorpalet and how it could relate to the overall story.

I'll bring this up later because this specific criticism gets very silly once you delve deeper into it but I don't want to stall the analysis any longer.

So now with this out of the way, let's get into the plays.

This is the story of the first play showed in Tsukasa's event

Of course the first thing that stands out is how much darker this play is compared to well...almost anything colorpalet addresses in stories ? This definitely shocked when I first read it, there is no usage of "disappearing" and it Actually describes the method as to which the protagonist wants to end their life which the only thing close to that we see is Kanade hinting on wanting to starve herself. But I'm gonna get into how weird this is for colorpalet later.

Extremely dark topics aside you can easily draw parallels to this story to Nene and Rui specifically already. The story is vague enough that those parallels don't hold too much water (ahaha get it) BUT it's still something that I feel is important to point out nontheless.

Nene and Rui were both unsuccesful in their dreams before the main story. Nene having given up going on stage and Rui never being able to be a director being forced to use robots for his plays.

Both were pretty jaded and well "worn out" until they met Tsukasa and Emu which would be a stand in for the protagonist of this play going through various encounters with many people and deciding to live a little longer.

(The reason I don't compare this protagonist to Tsukasa and Emu here is because I don't think they fit as well. Tsukasa's issues wasn't being unsuccesful its more so him forgetting the reasons behind his dreams and Emu's situation while similar just doesn't feel like it fits this story in particular)

So yeah this story is pretty simple so there is not much to analyse or pick apart. I could go scene by scene but then I would be distracting from the main point I want to make so I'll just be using the simple descriptions of the overall story.

NOW this one is a doozie, I didn't put the whole story that's described but I think compared to the last one this one is way more obvious as to what this could paralleling (or even foreshadowing if you want to be spicy).

I don't think this play is meant to be interpreted in only one way but the most obvious interpretation is the parallels to the disbandement arc. I think it particularly fits Rui in the disbandement considering how Katsuyuki is described but it can also work with Emurui in general as well.

Someone struggling meeting someone who brings joy in their life before they seemingly have to leave, said person being desperate for that not to happen.

I do think it's also meant to be a sort of double meaning here as if you have seen my cyberpunk deadboy analysis, the idea of someone leaving silently with the other trying to chase them down is something that just feels...idk intentional. But I don't have any evidence other than vibes here.

Now that I analysed these plays I want to get into the one common thread they have that is extremely baffling and concerning.

They both have the main character contemplating suicide by drowning.

Now you can be nitpicky and point out how the play in Rui's event doesn't explicitely say that this dude wants to drown himself but I just find it more likely mostly because of how this and the description of Katsuyuki's characters are phrased.

When Katsyuki is said to be "without the will to live"

THAT is a literal translation

Unfortunatly I'm not a japanese speaker so don't take my research with 100 pourcent certainty

However if you look at how this sentence is phrased in japanese, this translation is pretty much word for word

And also just what Hajime says doesn't feel like what someone would say to someone if they're just leaning to close to look at the ocean or just being reckless.

Anyways now that I've made my point that there is a 95 pourcent chance this is Heavily implying Katsuyuki was plannign on drowning himself the question is....

what the fuck ?

Now one time is already a big deal considering colorpalet's insitance on censoring explicit mentions of suicide and for it to be implied twice in the span of two events in a row ? And have it be specifically be by drowning both times ?????

I don't understand people just brushing this off because Colorpalet Actively chose to make the plays like this. These plays often take a large portion of the screentime, and I've showcased how they can hold story significance so such a blatant connection between them feels extremely intentional.

This is why complaints about expecting Colorpalet to get too dark and that it's unrealistic would be legitmatly silly because what's more unrealistic ?

That colorpalet has tackled this dark topic twice in a row to foreshadow or hint at possible topics that will be addressed in the future of WxS's story ? Weither it's through flashbacks or implications like 25ji OR even just symbolism.

Or that colorpalet just went and made the plays needlessly dark, for no reason ?????? Twice in a row with it being drowning both times ??????? With the same actor and both being the protagonist of the play ?????? Have those plays that take a lot of screentime being described just being completely devoid meaning ???????

I think I made my case about why the fandom's usual kneejerk reaction wouldn't make sense here, this isn't a "X character is secretly suicidal/depressed" situation.

Either way, I actually don't legitematly know what this could entail. This is clearly important enough that colorpalet is obviously shoving it in our faces but I do not know the meaning of it towards WxS's story just yet.

It could be hints at some of the members backstory (BTW by that I mean it could be hints at basically anything, it doesn't have to be explicitely 1/1 "they wanted to drown themselves") specifically Rui considering how suspicious they are at handling ms Rui but that is it's own can of wringling worms. But that could also be my fav character bias speaking tbf.

It could also just be meant to be some kind of like, message of colorpalet saying that they are willing to go darker with WxS's storyline if necessary. In a way showing that the gloves are off if they're not censoring dark topics that they usually censor.

Anyways I'm not delving further into it because otherwise i'd get into unhinged rants but honestly this subject just gives me so much brainworms because legit what the Fuck is colorpalet doing rn.

They are being so weird for literally no reason with WxS's story and I just have to sit back and watch them just drop weird shit out of nowhere.

Edit : One of my friends pointed out how one of them is a movie and one of them is a play and i realised I might've mixed those words up while writing this so yeah 😭

#project sekai #rui kamishiro #tsukasa tenma #emu otori #nene kusanagi #prsk #pjsk #prsk analysis #pjsk analysis #wxs #wonderlandxshowtime #tw suicide #tw drowning #tw mentions of suicide #warning before you interract with this post though #I'm doing this for fun #I appreciate wanting to give feedback but it kinda just kills the vibe for me #I'm sorry for being so defensive in a majority of the post but I feel like this is necessary considering what I know about the fandom #This is also not an invitation to try and criticise my post anyways just block and move on #This fandom just gets really touchey when people try and do analysis like this which I understand considering some rlly bad analysis #have come out of completely forgetting how colorpalet writes stories but like #that is very much not what i'm doing the topics are THERE i'm just reacting to them #And also just the “colorpalet wouldn't do that its unrealistic” is like pretty much not something I can argue against completely because #the point in itself is not based on evidence like we will never know how far colorpalet would go until they Go There #(also if you believe i'm vagueposting about someone through these constant warnings you'd be kind of right but like this is also just to #(make sure i'm understood because the last I post I made definitely gave people the wrong vibe which is my bad) #(these analysis mean a lot to me #personally so I want to make sure that this keeps being fun for me) #(anyways rlly sorry for the rant in the tags eirfuezij) #TLDR : i don't mean harm towards anyone if you don't agree with me it's in your full right but don't try and jump into the rb's to argue

[boyfridged]

yutro i need to hear more abt ur canon oc willis todd. please.

oh the pleasure is mine! (i feel like i have waited for this question my whole life though so it will be long. and won't even cover all of it.)

obviously, willis todd was born in the crime alley. he was raised by struggling parents and an assembly of aunts and uncles, not all blood related. his family broke down due to financial trouble. there's a whole background here i have in mind: the area used to be more dominated by heavy metal industry workers, but the companies started seeking cheap labour abroad, throwing the community into an almost decade old crisis and causing them to disperse while also trying to gentrify the area (partly by exploiting the queer & artistic spots in the area that are also often found in districts with high immigrant & working class areas. that's a thing that happens in many cities) (that's offtopic but hence the fancy cinema in the area!). when willis was very young, his father was a victim of aggressive lay-offs and was soon found dead. his mother left gotham with another man when willis was 17. he did not blame her for it.

he is also a 2nd/3rd gen immigrant. i do not have a "set" ethnicity for him (although in thursday night and my other wip he is vietnamese.) it's also important to me that he speaks the language.

he's never been exceptionally good at school but he's smart and knows his way around plenty things. he spent his adolescence working many odd jobs, involving the less-legal ones mentioned in canon - "running numbers" and boosting cars, but not only. he managed to get the GED despite and enrolls into a scholarship LPN programme provided by the wayne foundation (nothing to do with bruce btw, who at the time is not involved neither in the company nor in the philantropy. it's probably based on late thomas wayne's project.) it's not his dream job but this is what is available, it's honest work and he's good enough at it. this is also how he meets sheila.

willis does fall in love with sheila, but she takes interest in him first and tbh willis also falls a bit in love with pretty much anyone and everyone he meets. he sees the best in people. they are never serious though, but when pregnancy comes into play, willis is determined to work something out. maybe sheila thinks she can be a mother for a moment too, and she is vaguely around for the first 2-3 months, except she's not being a mother anyway. and also soon she looses her freshly obtained license as a result of medical malpractice, and willis loses his scholarship because of the association with her too.

he meets shiva by accident and performs first aid on her. sandra gives him her contact details "in case he ever needs anyone gone." willis being willis thinks absolutely nothing of it.

on that note. willis just has what i'd call middle mannered boyish charm, good-spirited sense of humour and the tiniest amount of shyness/awkwardness that makes people (women especially) like him a lot. and he doesn't mind casual romance himself so his address book (or whatever the contemporary equivalent would be) grows to be quite a weird list.

he's briefly a single dad to jay before he meets catherine. they manage just fine for a while, he gets a job as a mechanic, and he is home enough for jay to speak the language too (jay does not speak it later in life though. but jay's relation to willis is a whole another topic i could write hundreds of words about). when catherine gets sick and the financial issues follow, he gets much more absent and depressed. still, every decision he takes is always motivated by the love for his family. he might not have time nor energy to entertain jay as much as he'd like to, so their past-time becomes taking naps together. and willis likes music so he sings him to sleep.

i talked about willis' parenting and his attitude irt violence here so i will not repeat myself but i do think he was relentlessly patient and that this kindness in the eyes of many made him a bit naive. but he would also stop at nothing for his family. love drives men like him into paradoxical points of no return sometimes. &he is convinced he's getting his hands bloody so that jay's never ought to be.

i think he goes on blackgate on a murder charge, because blackgate is blackgate. if he did it or not is a whole another matter; and he surely knows too much for two-face to get rid of him. perhaps contrarily to the charge, his "crime" was actually trying to take a step back and this is what got him in trouble.

#hi per ♡ if you read all of that consider me impressed #outbox #willis.zip #willis todd

[khiphop-discussions]

update on what's going on (?) between surin and hongwon: dropthekhhtea on twitter made a little thread of everything.

Thank for sending this and letting me know!

EDIT: I rambled A LOT but here's a summary: I find it sad knowing that Surin and Hongwon's friendship fell apart since they have known each other so long. I'm still confused at how we got here since it sems like Surin and Hongwon were cool enough to do DOG in 2021 but apparently Hongwon has issues with him relating to Dickids which he left YEARS before DOG? I wonder if Hongwon found out new things Surin did later on, issues built up, or both just keep hearing "he said, she said" around town. Regardless, I wish this didn't get posted since many of the posts were deleted anyway. I think this is just distracting from Hongwon's success with SLOMO

Original post before the summary was added:

It's kinda sad that Surin and Hongwon are at odds. They've been friends so long and were kinda like the leaders of Dickids (I think Hongwon, Bumby, and Surin were kinda like the main people. Surin was the official leader but Bumby and Hongwon were pretty instrumental and putting everything together. I can't remember specifics off the top of my head but anyway, I'm rambling. Back on topic lol)

I still don't 100% understand what the issue is? To my understanding Hongwon was upset about Surin (allegedly) pocketing the money for some Dickids merch they sold? DOG was quite awhile after Surin left Dickids and they disbanded. So I'm not sure how issues from Dickids started recently when they were cool enough to do DOG in 2021? Surin was acting a little bit confusing towards the end of his time in Dickids. I definitely didn't understand some of his actions from back then.

I wonder if Hongwon found out more informationabout Dickids after DOG? Or if there was other issues that he (or both) were not addressing with one another (ex: stuff from Dickids days, stuff from DOG, and maybe stuff from their personal life/friendship as well)? It seems like Hongwon didn't take time to discuss it with Surin ( at least from Surin's account of events) and he heard from others that Hongwon had an issue with him. Plus, Hongwon didn't reach out when he was going to the military. I wonder if this is all a result of some gossip or something? Maybe both of them hearing things from mutual friends, acquaintances, and others?

The timeline is a bit confusing for me but it seems like neither is telling the full story. Not telling the full story makes sense. I'm sure there's A LOT of personal stuff from behind the scenes that BOTH of them know about each other since they were close friends for at least a decade. I think this could get REALLY ugly if they really get into it which is why they decided to just delete most of the things they posted.

Personally, I kinda wish Hongwon never posted this. It was funny when he posted the comment on the song (I honestly thought he had a falling out with the other person in DOG and THAT'S why he posted that. I didn't expect that it was Surin.) but now I think this is taking attention away from all the success that his album is getting. Obviously Surin fans are gonna take offense to this whole thing and same with Hongwons fans.

#asks

[gray-gray-gray-gray]

Chapter 16 of Psychosis, Trauma, and Dissociation: PTSD with Psychotic Features

Even if PTSD and psychotic disorders are classified as seperate, there's increasing evidence that they could be related. Because of co-occurances of each disorders' symptoms, researchers are beginning to question if one could lead to the other. There's two main paths: a) Psychosis may be traumatizing enough to cause PTSD, and b) psychotic experiences are more common in severe PTSD. This will overview A and then B.

On the trauma of psychotic symptoms themselves, and hospitalization: Shaner and Eth (1989) were the first to document that schizophrenia can lead to future PTSD. Since then, many other studies have been done on this topic. Bendall, McGorry, and Krstev (2006) examined some personal accounts of psychosis and came to the conclusion that half of them would meet the criteria for PTSD. Further research concludes that psychotic experiences puts you at risk for developing PTSD, such as a) the fear and terror of psychotic symptoms themselves like paranoia and voices, b) the constant fear of a psychotic relapse, and c) a low tolerance for uncertanties that they have to face.

Though, despite this, researches have debated if psychotic experiences and involuntary hospitalization procedures can be considered 'traumatic enough' for PTSD. The debate was mainly about whether or not psychotic experiences qualified as "actual threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of the self or others." In addressing this, Shaw et al. (1997) proposed that the definition of trauma should be revised to include "a threat to the psychological integrity to the self", which clearly encompasses the psychotic experience. The current DSM-5 definition - "death, threatened death, actual or threatened serious injury, or actual or threatened sexual violence" - does not allow psychotic experiences or their associated hospitalizations to be 'traumatic enough' for PTSD.

Regardless of problems associated with definitions, in a recent review of literature it was suggested that across all studies high levels of distress with both symptoms and hosptializations were apparent. In one study, 69% of PTSD symptoms were reported as being directly attributable to psychotic experiences. Hospitalization and the associated procedures accounted for 24%. Mueser et al. (2002) asked patients to identify the most upsetting aspects of their psychotic episodes, where 66% identified the psychotic experiences themselves, 26% naming hospitalization, and 8% a combination of the two. This shows how the definitions may be problematic: despite hospitalizations fitting the DSM-IV and DSM-5 definitions of trauma more, psychotic experiences happen to be more traumatizing…

On the flip side, several recent studies have suggested that severe PTSD could result in psychotic experiences. Much of the earlier work relies on veteran samples, but more recent work includes non-veteran samples too. Hamner and Fossey (1993) reviewed clinical charts of 214 veterans who previously recieved treatment for PTSD, noting that 15% of the sample had psychotic experiences. This showed that the rate of psychotic experiences in PTSD was higher than originally thought. A later study showed that veterans who received a PTSD diagnosis showed a higher rate of psychotic experiences than veterans not diagnosed with PTSD. Another study confirmed that auditory hallucinations were the most common psychotic experience in those who had PTSD.

For non-veteran studies, once again the presence of psychotic experiences was related to the severity of PTSD symptom severity. In a study of Northern Irish participants that had trauma related to the Northern Irish political trauma, 20 of 40 participants that had PTSD experienced auditory verbal hallucinations. Most of the hallucinations were concluded to be trauma related. Overall there have been similar findings in non-veteran studies as in veteran studies.

As a whole the body of research suggests a psychotic subtype of PTSD.

Dissociation has the potential to play a role in the development of this psychotic subtype of PTSD - dissociation has been associated with PTSD for a long time, after all, to the point where some suggest it could be classified as a dissociative disorder. Recently, a dissociative subtype of PTSD has been introduced in the DSM-5, and this subtype could overlap with the proposed psychotic subtype. Brewin and Patel (2010) found that auditory hallucinations are common in both veteran and civilian PTSD samples and is correlated with dissociation scores. Blevins and colleagues found that their dissociative PTSD group scored higher than the PTSD-only group on a variety of mental health experiences, including psychotic experiences. Overall, more research is needed to explore the association between dissociative PTSD and psychotic symptoms.

The book argues that a psychotic subtype of PTSD would look like this: the presence of hallucinations and delusions, of which the former are more prevalent; the subtype being pervasive, chronic, and severe; the disorder must be differentiated from related disorders - the subtype can be differentiated in that its delusions are often paranoid and persecutory while schizophrenia's delusions are often more bizarre and complex; the subtype presents without the thought disorder which is common in schizophrenia; the psychotic subtype has a typical course that does lessen in severity over time; the subtype has a typical response to treatment, and distinctive biological characteristics of the disorder should be apparent, such as increased levels of serotonin production and increased monoamine oxidase B activity compared to individuals suffering PTSD alone.

#graypost #nerdpost #psychology #psychiatry #psychosis #ptsd #ptsd with psychotic features #dissociative ptsd #book: psychosis trauma and dissociation

[whomst-the-hell]

How To Write An Essay

from someone who did pretty well in school. and i don’t mean the structure of an essay, because someone probably taught you that in class, i mean the actual process of sitting down to write an essay, which for some reason no teacher has ever addressed (at least to me)

(for the sake of this, I’m going to pretend i’ve been assigned an essay about shakespeare’s depiction of love in Romeo and Juliet, because I feel like thats a relatable point of reference idk)

1: scaffold. go into your document and create an outline in dotpoints of all your arguments. this is also where you put your quotes. (some people might find it helpful to also create some kind of mindmap pre- scaffold, but i tend to just use the scaffold as a mindmap, it depends on your preferred brainstorming techniques) for example, my scaffold might look like this:

intro

point 1: the relationship between love and violence

-friar and the plants

-romeo and juliet eventually die for love

-“starcrossed lovers take their lives” (act 1, scene 1)

-romeo and juliets love is arguably the cause for mercutio’s and tybalt’s death

-“i died under your arm”-mercutio (act, scene)

point 2: etc

this is much less effort than sitting down and actually writing out that paragraph.

the number of dotpoints needed per paragraph varies but as a rule of thumb i’d say 3-5. if you know a lot of information about a topic, only a couple points with lots of depth will do. if not, briefly talk about lots of things.

if you find yourself struggling with motivation, try to make scaffolding a bit fun. meme the fuck out of it. talk abt how romeo was a lil bitch who got the infinitely cooler mercutio killed like a moron. talk abt how much you hate shakespeare. no one is going to see it. IMPORTANT: make sure that you make it easy to find and remove the scaffold later. i do it by writing all my scaffolds *like this* so that i can go through at the end with ctrl+f and find all the **s, which i don’t generally use in the actual essay. you could do something else (maybe pick a number, or some other character) if ** wont work for whatever reason. you could also colour your scaffold so that you can visually see which bits to get rid of.

further things to note: DO NOT WORRY ABOUT PLAGIARISM. if you found a really good paragraph online where someone dissected the language used in the balcony scene, copy and paste that shit directly into the scaffold (remember to include the URL to make citation easy later). that way when it does come time to write this fucking thing, all of your information is in one place and you really just have to decorate it, which is honestly the less important part anyway. you will get more points for a badly written essay with good information than a well written essay with bad information.

another thing i like to do here is calculate roughly how many words i should write per paragraph. for example, if my essay is 1500 words and i’ll have three points, my breakdown may look like this

intro (100)

p1 (433)

p2(433)

p3(433)

concl(100)

i might even break it down further eg

p1: love and violence

-romeo and juliets death (108)

-tybalts death (108)

-mercutio’s death (108)

-friar’s plants monologue (108)

i get these numbers by literally putting them into a calculator. it may seem useless but it’s actually really quick, and it will be infinitely easier to convince yourself to write 108 words about romeo and juliets death than it will be to write 1500 words about the concept of love throughout the play.

(heres the formula for breaking it down btw: intro + conclusion = about the same each, generally smaller than a body paragraph. pick whatever number you think is appropriate for the total word count, minimum 50 words. my rule of thumb is <1000=50, 1000=100, 2000=200, etc. next, [total word count] - [intro+concl] = [body paragraphs]. next, [body paragraphs] / [no. of body paragraphs] = [wordcount per paragraph], next [wordcount per paragraph] / [no. of points]. written out this seems long, but it takes 5 seconds with a calculator- i just use google)

2: actually writing the essay. tragically i cannot give you the magic words to write a perfect essay, but one really good tip that i can give you is this: don’t stop scaffolding when you start writing. personally, i tend to get tripped up on details, and get stuck in one spot. for example: i know what all my arguments should be in my paragraph about love and violence, but i cannot for the life of me think of an introductory sentence. my paragraph might look like this for a while:

*epic guitar intro like in smells like teen spirit* This concept is demonstrated in the eventual deaths of the titular characters, Romeo and Juliet, as foreshadowed in the line “starcrossed lovers take their lives” (act 1 scene 1).

its sort of like skipping a question on a test then coming back to it later. there is no point in struggling over one sentence for hours — often, writing the rest of the paragraph will actually fill in your mental blanks and make it easier to write whatever you were struggling with.

other places ive found this method helpful: quotes. for example:

Romeo and Juliet’s love also caused violence to those around them. This is evident in the death of Mercutio, Romeo’s best friend. **find quote, and include analysis*** This demonstrates Shakespeare’s connection between love and violence.

in my experience, actually searching for a particular quote can throw off my momentum and fuck up the whole process. its been much better to just mark where i want that quote to go and come back later.

you can do this for single sentences or even whole paragraphs. i often write introductions last, because i never know what to say the first go round. you do not need to write your essay chronologically. go through one pass without losing momentum, hit ctrl+f, or find your coloured bits, to locate the problem areas. has writing the rest of it managed to fix the problem? no? try the next highlighted section! go back and forth like that until theres no more highlighted bits.

other assorted tips for writing an essay: don’t worry about repetition. for a lot of people (including me), writing is something that is supposed to sound good. we try to avoid repeating words/phrases too much because it can read as annoying or boring. as anyone who has read an academic paper knows, that actually means you’re on the right track. if your thesis statement is “shakespeare depicted love as a destructive and negative force” the words “destructive” or “negative” should probably be used 2-3 times a paragraph. you really want to hammer your audience over the head with your opinion.

also, as much as possible, try to make whatever the prompt is fun for yourself. this isn’t always possible of course, but it can really make the process easier. i know this wasnt my longstanding example, but as an actual real world example of this, i had to write an essay about the movie gattaca and how it incorporated its political themes into the narrative, and i argued that actually it had done a terrible job at that and that the movie as a whole sucked ass. i got 95%. if you have any kind of strong feelings about the topic, make them fit the question. its much less mind numbing than writing 2000 words you dont actually agree with for the sake of your grade.

if you need to take a break, maybe try working on homework for a different subject. this’ll shake things up so your brain is doing something new, but you won’t exit school mode and lose momentum entirely.

3: editing. dont worry too much. read through it so theres no glaring issues. try reading it out loud — you’re more likely to pick up on clunky sentences or grammar errors out loud. if you really want to do well, have someone else look over it (a classmate/teacher would be best bc they know what info was available to you but anyone will do)

final tips: its better to hand in something unfinished/badly written than nothing at all.

it is 100% better to sit down for five minutes and add 20 words to your essay than not to do anything. you dont have to dedicate your evening to it. progress is progress. a good way to do this is to get word/docs on your phone.

high school isnt life or death - failing this essay will not destroy you.

for essays on an exam, my best tip is don’t worry abt making it pretty. use the first page to make a mindmap. write more info later and use an arrow to show where it should be. it doesnt matter.

this might not work for you, but i hope it can act as a jumping off point to find what does work for you! go forth and conquer!

#study tips #school tips #how to write an essay

[freifraufischer]

It's been a rough month for the Pokemon Company and I thought I'd give a summary for those of you sane people who are not obsessed with collecting little (and sometimes very big) creatures.

I'm not one to try and set developers on fire when something isn't to my taste and in fact I stopped playing Pokemon Go when I found that it wasn't making me happy anymore. With that preamble I want to say this is not a call for action or a condemnation ... I'm not here to tell you how the Pokemon Company is the richest franchise in the world and they should do better. Nor am I here to excuse what in some cases were stunning decisions.

In background: The flagship games of the 9th generation of the Pokemon franchise were released late last year and while I adore them and they may be my favorite Pokemon Games ever they have some very serious flaws. There are frame rate and performance issues. Those issues may be related to how old the hardware of the Nintendo Switch is and may be related to the fact that the ocean around Paldea is literally bigger than the planet earth and the skybox is bigger than the sun. The switch is old hardware but I don't really think it's fair to expect my hand held game console to render celestial sized objects. The games has many charming qualities but it also sacrifices some things that have been expected from the franchise over the years. You can enter very few buildings and most of the NPCs which often had wonderful bits of characterization in past games wander around with single speech bubbles like "I need a new notebook" or "I wish I had a lechonk."

There have been three patches since game release and the only seeming attempt to address any of the performance issues was a note on the second patch that said they were removing pokemon and NPCs from some parts of the map to reduce issues. If it did anything I didn't really notice but as I play entirely on hand held I don't think I'm a very good judge of it. The performance issues never really impacted my enjoyment of the games but I do understand why for others it is unacceptable. Their frustration doesn't negate my fun and my fun doesn't make their frustration invalid.

The 1.2.0 Patch was dropped 3 months ago to coincide with the inevitable announcement of DLC. And as one should probably expect with the painful technological history of this game there were two very significant issues. 1.2.0 came with the introduction of an ingame event introducing two new Pokemon that were part of the DLC. Some players who were online and in game when the patch dropped encountered this event but because the pokemon didn't exist instead they caught a bad egg which they could not delete and which prevented them from catching one of these special event pokemon. At the same time a very small number of people encountered a save corruption glitch that seemed to wipe out many hours of progress from months of playing. Now to stress these save corruption incidents were extremely extremely rare given the number of players of this game. So rare that it seems that it was essentially impossible to replicate. Content creators on youtube and people on twitter were quick to blame a feature that connected Pokemon Go to Pokemon Scarlet and Violet but a significant portion of the people who had the safe file corruption never connected to Go and the issue hasn't really been a topic of discussion in Go only players who used the feature very heavily. After a number of weeks Nintendo appears to have found a way to restore files for people who contact them and there are no reports of this glitch from 1.3.0 onward (where we are now as of the writing of this).

The save file corruption issue caused a lot of fear in the community (remember these are collecting games and as there is no cloud saving at the moment there are no backups--more on that later). The general state of the games on release have left many lingering frustrations and anger among some of the most intense fans. Oh and while this is not related to this post except tangentially the people running Pokemon Go decided to anger their player base with deeply painful and unpopular changes dressed up with language that amounts to "we're doing this for your own good." There is a complicated relationship between the developer of Pokemon Go and the Pokemon Company in general and that's for another time ...

Woooeh that was a lot of background.

So what could have happened in the last few weeks.... that could possibly make this worse? Well three almost unrelated things ...

It started with the competitive/esports side of things. The Japanese and South Korean national championships and qualifiers for the Pokemon World Championships in August were plagued with bugs. Some tools were not working and some matches were decided by who experienced fewer bugs. The events are having to be replayed and some worlds invites were revoked and the people told they had to qualify again--including a former world champion. Messing up the national championships in two of your largest markets because your game now famous for it's bugs and performance issues was certainly not the news they wanted.

Then late last week one of their weekly raid events went awry. While people wait for DLC to drop (vaguely sometime because the only date we have is Fall 2023 for the first part) the thing that keeps things active in the game are special events where unusual pokemon can be caught. It so happened that last week the featured pokemon were special in that they don't normally appear in raids and have some ingame unique qualities to them. The easiest way to explain this is that there is a crafting system in Scarlet/Violet where when you kill or catch a pokemon it gives you some crafting material. You catch a Pikachu it gives you Pikachu fur. Let us not dwell on the idea of how you got Pikachu's fur from it as no good can come of pondering some things. The loot drop pool for raid pokemon also include this crafting material for pokemon that are within the game's pokedex. Now most of the really special pokemon in these limited time events are not within the games pokedex so the game doesn't try to generate the crafting material.

Well for the first time last week the raid pokemon were from a sub group of pokemon within the game that do not drop crafting material but the apparently automatically generated raid reward pool... tried to drop the non existent item.

And if you were lucky enough to get None x 2... your game crashed.

They pulled the event raids within a few hours and we have no word on when we'll see them again (and it has also put on hold future raid events the next one would have been announced a few days ago).

The third part of this triple whammy has to do with a service called Pokemon Home. Now remember Pokemon is at it's heart a collecting game and you can carry your old friends from game to game and still preserve (if not always use) a pokemon you caught long ago in a different game. It's a feature that isn't useful to many casual players but for the most loyal of the franchises players it is deeply emotionally important. There have been many versions of the storage service for this purpose and the most recent one is a subscription service that costs USD 15.99 a year. Historically Home compatibility has not been available at game launch because the developers want you to play the game not just dump your years of pokemon in immediately. Generation 8's Sword and Shield took around 4 months to get compatibility but for the last titles of Generation 8 Briliant Diamond/Shining Pearl and Legends Arceus it took longer (a full 6 months for BDSP).

Compatibility with Home for Scarlet and Violet were slated for "Spring 2023" (though an English language Pokemon video presentation said "Early 2023" but that may simply be a translation variation). Either way people are inpatient understandably in my mind given that this is a paid subscription service and given the game's now history of save corruption with no public explanation of what caused it or if it was fixed. The community's tolerance of the wait ran out a while ago... and last week (before the raid glitch happened) a date was announced. We would have Home Compatibility on 5/24 with all these features.

The next day--after the raid glitch happened but likely unrelated to it--the Pokemon twitter announced that they'd made a mistake and that it wasn't coming on the 24th. The date was "yet to be announced" (let's not dwell on people who announced something telling you that it wasn't announced when they were pulling the announcement because Franz Kafka died 99 years ago and he never met a Pikachu or a video game developer in his life).

And that's where we are.

When will the raids be turned back on? Who knows. When will Home compatibility come? "Soon". Will these games ever get performance patches.... never.

#pokemon

[lingshanhermit]

Ling Shan Hermit：Morality and Wisdom

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche has stated, "In Buddhism, ethics are not the most important, wisdom is." The reason Rinpoche says this is likely due to seeing too many people associating Buddhism with ethics.

In contemporary society, we often hear various assertions about Buddhism. Most of these are related to ethics. For instance, many people think that studying Dharma is about becoming a better person. Others believe that as long as you harbor good intentions and keep Buddha in your heart, that's enough. However, I must emphasize, studying Dharma is not for the sake of becoming a better person, it is for achieving enlightenment. Moreover, Buddhism goes far beyond merely keeping good intentions and Buddha in one's heart. There are very specific practices and methods for Buddhist practitioners.

Some modern scholars believe that Buddhism has historically been used by many rulers as a religion to cultivate ideal citizens. This is probably because Buddhism emphasizes the law of cause and effect, which has often been mistakenly interpreted as fatalism throughout history. This is not surprising. The law of cause and effect is one of the most profound topics in Buddhism, yet it's also very complicated and difficult to understand. It's not easy to clarify; it's not a simplistic fatalism that insists "you must endure whatever fate your actions have sealed." In fact, if the Buddhist interpretation of cause and effect was such, there would be no need for Buddhists to practice at all. As if destiny is predetermined, nothing can alter it. Thankfully, Buddhism's view on cause and effect is not like this. Therefore, true Buddhists are the most proactive individuals. They strive to cultivate positive causes and conditions and eliminate negative ones in order to approach wisdom. Ultimately, they exhaust all their karmic seeds and habitual tendencies.

There are also scholars who believe that Buddhism is the best religion to foster modest and respectful citizens. They argue: "If we were a Buddhist country, at least our public safety would be very good. There would be no theft, and doors could be left unlocked at night."

Of course, I too wish to live in a country with good public safety. But I must say that this is not the purpose of Buddhism. Buddhism doesn't exist to save on public security expenditures. Buddhism does not exist to foster a populace accustomed to resignation, nor to make us good people. The Indian prince who left his palace in the dead of night more than two millennia ago did not do so for these mundane purposes.

Buddhism is not a religion dominated by ethics. In fact, if we scrutinize ethics, we will find that they are mutable. Leafing through human history, we find that ethics and laws are among the foundations of human society. Initially, humans lived scattered, hunting alone. Later, they realized that greater safety might come with greater numbers, thus tribes emerged. Later on, alliances between tribes formed, gradually leading to city-states. People no longer feared wild beasts but began to fear those who broke the rules. As populations grew, problems emerged. In addressing these problems, everyone reached a consensus: If we're to live together long-term, we must adhere to certain socially accepted norms, otherwise no one will be safe. Some things had to be respected, like prohibitions against robbery and murder. If these were not followed, we simply couldn't live together. These mandates eventually became known as laws. The consequences of breaking the law are severe. You could end up in prison, removed from society to prevent further disruption.

There are also socially accepted rules whose breach, although seemingly less severe than breaking the law, can be quite serious. Most of them, however, are not serious enough to warrant imprisonment — while everyone might find these behaviors unsavory, they're not considered egregious enough to necessitate incarceration. Yet, people will despise you. These rules eventually became known as ethics. But we see that the standards for what is considered ethical vary across different periods. In China in 2018, a man who desired many women would be deemed immoral by the public. In a monogamous society, finding another woman's underwear in the family car is, of course, a big deal. Yet historically, polygamy was prevalent for a long time. Yuan Shikai, the president of the Republic of China over a hundred years ago, had ten wives, and nobody thought it was immoral for him to have so many wives. At that time, if your wife was infertile, someone in the family would suggest you take another wife, as not having descendants was considered a serious breach of filial piety. Therefore, whether an action is ethical depends on whether it harms certain people, and whether those people are harmed depends on their definition of those actions — definitions that are often not constant. It is conceivable that behaviors considered to be very bad today might be seen as utterly ordinary two hundred years from now. In 1946, when the Frenchman Louis Reard first presented his bikini design to the world, he embarrassingly found that only a stripper was willing to model it; everyone else shied away. However, today, it's rare for anyone to view wearing a bikini as immoral. Ethics change as human beliefs and systems change. But truth does not. The Buddhist teachings of "all is impermanent" and "all phenomena are not self" do not change with the times.

Clearly, cultivating a moral populace is not the goal of Buddhism. Buddhism is dedicated to addressing the root cause of our suffering, not to drafting ethical norms.

Even so, the existence of ethics is very necessary; both everyday life and the study of Buddhism require a relatively normal society. Thus, a society where the majority abide by laws and ethics is indispensable. But Buddhism is not a religion aimed at cultivating moral paragons.

Relative to ethics, Buddhism places greater emphasis on wisdom, but we should not neglect ethics as a result. While ethics might not be the most important, they remain important. Immoral people often act with disregard for others' feelings, demonstrating their lack of consideration for others.

How can a person who lacks even basic morality, who is so selfish that they can harm many others without remorse, possibly possess wisdom? Though Buddhism deems ethics not to be the most crucial, they are still viewed as a foundation for developing wisdom. When we speak of wisdom, we need to understand that we are referring to wisdom based on the nature of reality, or rather, wisdom that is the nature of reality itself, not the kind of wisdom we usually mean — the Qian Zhongshu kind of wisdom. Rinpoche defines wisdom as "the mind in its normal state." So, what does "the mind in its normal state" mean? That is a topic for future discussion.

Written by Ling Shan Hermit on April 24, 2018, at 4:36 AM.

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灵山居士：道德与智慧

[mariacallous]

Teacher compensation reform has reemerged as an urgent policy topic over the past month, with bills introduced in both chambers of Congress to incentivize states to pay teachers a $60,000 minimum annual salary. This is in addition to calls for action from nearly a dozen state governors to meaningfully increase teacher pay during recent state of the state addresses. Not since the wave of teacher strikes during the spring of 2018 has there been such widespread, focused attention on teacher pay. 

Over the years, I have thought and written much about teacher compensation. They are underpaid in comparison to similarly educated professionals—by an estimated 24% in 2021 (adjusted for inflation)—and this will only grow without decisive action. I agree they should be paid more for the important work they do in the nation’s classrooms.  

Yet, at the same time, I hesitate to endorse the push for a blanket minimum salary. Here, I offer my perspective on what our objectives with teacher compensation reform should be, downsides of the proposed salary minimum, and offer some critical elements of compensation reform that would provide more bang for the buck. 

Defining success 

Current calls for teacher compensation reform are motivated by concerns about teacher shortages, which have been nearing a crisis point during the pandemic. Further, supply lines through university-based training programs have been weakening for more than a decade; now down by more than a third since 2008. Areas of weakness include racially diverse college graduates. Salary minimum proposals appear primarily aimed at increasing earnings enough to shore up the teacher pipeline and motivate current teachers to stay in the classroom. 

I argue, however, that simply attracting more people and reducing attrition is not enough. If we’re going to spend financial and political capital on teacher compensation reform, we must offer more than a one-size-fits-all solution to a complex problem. 

We know teachers are important for many reasons, impacting student learning and many other related outcomes. Great teachers improve students’ lives not just while in their classrooms, but years and even more than a decade later. Yet, students have highly unequal access to great teachers, and this issue is wholly different from the availability of somebody to cover a classroom. Uneven access occurs both within and across schools, and it’s socioeconomically disadvantaged students who suffer.  

Teacher compensation reform will be a success in my book when we can ensure consistent access to quality teaching for all students, not just slow the revolving door.  

Skepticism for the $60,000 minimum salary 

First, the problem isn’t just about money. Though teacher salaries are low (and more money always helps), salary’s importance in teacher attrition is quite small. To wit—recent analyses from two different states have shown those leaving public schools tend to take lower salaries than what they earned as teachers. Rather, teachers often identify working conditions, leadership, and culture as primary reasons for dissatisfaction and departure. Thus, efforts that pair teacher support with compensation reform are going to have a higher chance of success than salary increases alone. 

Second, we don’t have a global shortage of teacher talent, but a local one. Teacher shortages follow predictable patterns of being most acute in high-need school settings (serving students from low-income backgrounds and located in rural or urban areas) and in specialized fields (mostly STEM subjects and special education). Shortages and underqualified teacher counts also tend to be higher in low-spending states. In other words, many schools have little difficulty finding the talent they need to serve their students well; thus, we need not overspend in places where staffing problems do not exist. Instead, conserve those resources to use where they’re really needed. A global minimum salary provides little reason to expect that any of these local issues would be adequately addressed. 

Additionally, federal efforts to supplement teacher compensation are unprecedented in practice. As I’ve written previously, proposals to supplement salaries from the federal level will face some politically delicate hurdles, including that higher teacher pay will further pressure many already at-risk state pension systems and a policy that disproportionately rewards the lowest-paying states could become a flashpoint. Leveraging the tax code, as the Center for American Progress has previously recommended, through the expansion of targeted tax credits for teachers appears to me as the most politically viable federal strategy. However, it is not now under serious consideration from what I can see. For these reasons, I expect federal efforts to reform teacher pay will likely fizzle, though I hope state-led efforts can make a difference, and I encourage more focus there.   

Compensation reforms that can achieve success 

Here are four research-based recommendations to both pay teachers more and promote a robust supply of quality teachers to all students, regardless of the setting they find themselves in.

Pay teachers more for teaching in high-need schools and subjects. Given the profile of hard-to-staff vacancies, the most obvious place to target funds for pay raises should be in these same school settings and subject specializations. Several prior studies have evaluated the efficacy of bonuses (or loan forgiveness) targeted to high-need areas and have found positive impacts on retention. This is where we need to be ambitious, though, as pay differentials need to be large to overcome teachers’ tendencies to otherwise flee high-need settings. Also, paying teachers in high-need settings more will disproportionately benefit and likely attract teachers of color, who tend to be clustered in such settings.

Pay teachers more for high-quality teaching, especially when they take on extra responsibilities. With the objective to promote universal access to quality teaching, we should reward quality directly. Pay-for-performance programs were not popular among teachers during the early 2010s when many districts and states were experimenting with them; however, the evidence to date says these policies were largely successful when thoughtfully implemented for multiple years. Policies that prioritized quality encouraged strong teachers to stay in the classroom, and they helped identify weaker teachers for support. Contrary to popular belief, teacher turnover was often lower in settings with such policies. They may have even been critical in minimizing COVID-19 learning losses. Even more, some districts have experimented with putting high-quality teachers into special roles—including large bonuses in high-need schools, or as instructional coaches, or even just giving them larger class sizes. Paying quality teachers to take on these extra responsibilities can increase their pay, increase disadvantaged students’ access to quality teaching, and provide support to colleagues. Win – win – win.

Pay all teachers at the master’s degree rate, without making them get one. Currently, most teachers feel compelled to pursue graduate education as the only viable avenue to increase their pay (typically amounting to about 10% of pay) beyond accumulating experience. Yet, these efforts are generally in vain from students’ perspectives, as studies show teachers’ educational attainment provides essentially no benefit for students. Graduate education is also a major driver of debt loads among teachers. Graduate studies will still be desirable for those who aspire to go into leadership roles, though far fewer teachers will find it necessary once the pay bump is automatic. This is a blanket salary increase I can get behind: we should save teachers’ time and money and simply pay all of them at the master’s degree rate.

Do more to supplement the pay of preschool teachers, not just K-12 teachers. Preschool teachers are egregiously underpaid, given the value they add to students and their parents—a hard lesson emerging from the pandemic. Preschool teacher is one of the most common occupations among low-wage workers in the U.S. with an associate degree or higher. Plus, if there’s a clear policy window for federal lawmakers to support teacher salaries, it’s to support pre-kindergarten teachers’ salaries. Head Start programs are already supported through federal funds, and expanding the reach of these programs will benefit more students as they enter school and over the long run. 

The current policy focus on teacher compensation presents a rare opportunity to do something big in education that—if done right—could meaningfully benefit both teachers and the students they serve. Let’s not squander this opportunity with a wet blanket. 

[aotopmha]

FFXIV 6.5 MSQ and Alliance Raid thoughts:

Spoilers:

First, the Alliance Raid.

I really like how 14 in general handles the topic of religion.

So many stories just shit on it, basically.

I have zero attachment to religion in any form, but I do think it's an extremely important part of human history and culture that is much more interesting when tackled with nuance and empathy.

So to have a story, both, criticise and point out the good in it is so refreshing.

To not have all the godly figures be evil alone is refreshing.

I think the second wing was the strongest in that sense.

This wing simply brought all of the introduced ideas together.

I'm super uneasy with the trope of 'chosing death', but I'm at least happy the story didn't keep this the sole perspective. Oschon truly wanted to stay, so he did.

Thematically it all goes back to the idea introduced in the course of the entire raid story: religion is really just people enouraging people because the idea of deities alone is what gives them the power to inspire and encourage.

All scriptures were written by people.

So the power of the twelve, born of prayer, serving as further strength to nurture the planet, is only fitting.

But just like Pandemonium, this chunk of story left us with a few little plot threads to later return to, like Oschon now being a normal traveler, the perception theory in relation to the gods in Eorzea AND outside or even the Watcher being the 13th god. There is stuff to come back to here.

Oschon/Deryk staying as a normal being really surprised me and the Watcher not getting much more elaboration in particular surprised me.

MSQ:

It's super jarring to go back to this kind of simpler writing about The Power of Friendship we got back in A Realm Reborn, and honestly, there were points where it really got me annoyed this patch.

Golbez' redemption sequence in particular was the most cheese I've seen in a while. I felt it last patch, but it got too much to me here.

We get trust speeches on the First, Thirteenth AND The Source.

But on the other hand, I also appreciate this patch series just essentially being a simple, fun adventure hanging out with the Scions.

I like that actual Golbez is implied to be an Azem shard. I like that the dragons finally get something good happen to them.

I like that Zero's character arc pays off.

It's (too) simple power of friendship at points, but I think it is still earned and standing on the back of a decade of theme, character and world building (except Golbez, him being an FF4 reference still needed more other backing for it to feel natural).

And once more, we have a bunch of plot threads to work with for later.

Zero and Golbez working to restore the Thirteenth, Ryne and Gaia working to restore the First. The gradual progress on Shard travel. Azdaja rescued and both Vrtra and them calling out (to presumably) other dragons.

And of course the old letter addressed to Galuf Krile found and Erenville and the visitor he brought with him.

This material bridging Endwalker to Dawntrail set up a lot of stuff, which could lead to other, bigger stuff in the nearer future and later future.

I feel it deeply that it'll be made much stronger by context.

But I do have more than enough power of friendship in my system, where I hope Dawntrail is the trek up in complexity and tension and 6.55 will be the start of that.

#Final Fantasy XIV #Final Fantasy 14 #FFXIV #FF14 #FF #Final Fantasy

[retsuunohana]

upon re-reading since we’ve now begun the hm arc, i find it extremely fascinating the way the beginning of it has ichigo set up in regards to the relationships with his friends.

ichigo starts out fumbling as he tries to keep a lid on his hollow abilities that are growing more powerful and a threat with each passing day. with this lack of control and no means to understand, he resorts to some old habits that tend to push away his friends, and also allow him to still feel like he isnt losing his grip as The Protector of the group. he doesnt engage with ishida and his lack of abilities, he pushes chad away from fighting in grimmjow & co’s first wave of attacks in karakura (and says some clearly hurtful things in the process), and even attempts to push rukia away before the fight with di roy.

its not until rukia, chad, & uryu are able to physically demonstrate their abilities and capability in front of ichigo for him to see (rukia with her shikai, chad & uryu against aisslinger wernarr & demoura zodd) that he is able to relax a bit and rely on their contributions. it should be noted that renji is an exception to this setup, given that he has already “proven” himself to ichigo in this regard as a former opponent and later ally in the previous arc.

it should also be noted, that orihime’s case is quite a bit different because of the role she plays as a healer, and her moving to the forefront of this arc. despite her efforts she has the chance to prove herself (in this specific way) robbed from her, and the nature of her ability makes it more difficult to really prove her strength in any traditional meaning of the word. i think also given how desperately ichigo wishes to rescue and protect her specifically (and yes, he repeatedly singles her out in a special way related to his namesake), she maybe has more to prove to him in this way. think unstoppable force meets immovable object. they both care very deeply for one another, and dearly wish to keep the other one safe, but struggle to communicate these feelings despite themselves. it causes conflict but theyre also able to extend empathy and understanding to each other, even if they struggle to address these feelings themselves. it makes it all the more satisfying when theyre finally able to fight as equals in tandem during tybw.

but to keep from going off on too many tangents, i think that the setup for the hm arc in terms of ichigo’s relationships to others can be summarized as the following: ichigo needs to have his friends physically prove their strength in front of him before he can allow himself to rely on them, allowing him to break down the barriers he put up, resulting in a greater sense of trust in one another. stronger bonds, stronger faith, stronger hearts, etc.

i think this is interesting because ichigo actively works against ulquiorra who’s main antagonist during this arc. ulquiorra’s narrative relies heavily on the concept of nihilism, in that “that which [his] eyes cannot perceive, does not exist”. he needs visual confirmation to believe in the existence of concepts, etc. this is why he cannot understand the concept of “the heart” (the bonds/relationships shared between people) and why they fight so desperately to help one another. i wrote more about this specific topic here ages ago so i wont get into it too much.

so idk, it could just be nothing. but idk! im hung up on how the arc starts with ichigo needing to confirm his friends strengths before they can resume how they were and become closer and stronger, and that strength he gained through putting his heart in the right place and learning to just rely on the people around him and having faith in them is what helps to undo the villain that is built around a similar concept taken to an wildly callous and literal degree

#bleach shit #its probably nothing but idk i just like the sort cycle of it all

[firedragon1321]

Made My Own Character Questionnaire

It’s very big, so it’s under a Read More, but you might want to check it out if you want a questionnaire that follows how meaty your character is and acknowledges the fact that children and fantasy characters exist.

Basically, the questions are sorted by how developed your character is, so you can start from the beginning with a new character, or tamper with a character who needs a little more substance.

INTRODUCTION

This is a super advanced character questionnaire, intended for newly created or kinda flat characters. I adapted it from here- http://thelabotomyofawriter.blogspot.com/2010/04/epic-character-questionairre-part-one.html?m=1. Many of the questions are the same or reworded.

This questionnaire is designed to follow your character's depth and development. The first group of questions can be answered without your character's input. You'll need their unique voice more and more the further down you go.

I tried to remove as many duplicate questions as possible. You can only answer "he secretly likes cheesy rom-coms" so many times before you never want to see that sentence again. Many questionnaires basically repeat the same questions but change the wording, creating this effect. I tried my best to avoid that. Depending on your character, there may still be overlap, but hopefully not to the point where you want to scream.

Also- if there's a yes/no question and one option says "explain why", assume that means for both options.

This questionnaire is as understanding as possible of alternative options. Most of these questionnaires focus on regular human adults. This one has questions for fantasy/sci-fi characters who might not be human, or who have superpowers. Since this is a genre thing, I split most of those questions into their own sections. When it comes to questions about childhood- I reworded them to be more general for all the child and teen characters out there. I used the phrase "when you were younger," as a general replacement. Depending on your story's timeline and your character's age, you could use the phrase "before the story" instead.

Not all characters follow this pattern. You should follow your character's unique growth. This is just organized in an order that- from years of going through this process- I feel most characters develop.

Don't worry if you still meet some resistance. Sometimes a character will feel uncomfortable answering a question, and deflect in an in-character way. Write down their response. Why did they deflect? Why did they choose that method? Are they scared? Covering up with humor? Is the question related to a traumatic event? You can learn a lot from these deflections- sometimes more than an answer could provide.

Finally- the length of this is daunting. As long as you don't stray too far from your character's current general category, feel free to skip around with questions. Move forward at your character's pace- if you feel it's time to move to the next step, then do it. Backtrack. Walk away when writer's block hits. Aiming to answer every question is bound to stress you out.

WISPY QUESTIONS

You don't need your character's input for these. It's like having a baby. They don't get a say in these topics, though they might later have something to say about them. This section uses they/them pronouns for your character, as they address you- the author- directly.

WISPY- BASIC: These are questions you can usually answer by just looking at your character in your mind's eye. The ones you can't are very simple (name, gender, etc.).

What is your character's name?

What is their physical sex?

What is their gender?

How old are they?

How tall are they?

What is their weight?

What is their eye color?

What is their hair color?

What is their hair style?

Do they have any distinguishing facial features?

Do they have any birthmarks?

Do they have any scars?

Do they have any tattoos or other markings?

Do they wear any jewelry?

How do they dress most of the time?

Do they wear any accessories not listed above?

WISPY- ADVANCED: These questions that often can't be answered just by mentally picturing your character standing in front of you. Do not struggle to answer these right away, as your character may reveal the answers later.

Do they have any allergies, diseases, or other physical differences (such as blindness) from birth at the start of your story?

Do they have any neurological differences from birth at the start of the story (autism, OCD, etc. )?

Do they have physical or mental differences from an earlier point in life at the start of your story (PTSD, etc.)?

What is their sexual preference?

Are they right or left handed?

What does their voice sound like?

What social class do they belong to?

Did they come from money?

WISPY- FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION: A section for fantasy and sci-fi writers, which may also benefit some horror writers and anyone else writing nonhumans or super-powered creatures. If you aren't writing in a genre that allows these kinds of characters, feel free to skip this part.

If they are nonhuman, what species are they?

Are they an artificial species (robot, golem, etc.)?

Are they a hybrid species (i.e.- half human, half vampire)? How does this benefit them?

What powers do they have? Do they have none at all?

How did they first learn of their abilities?

Do they have any magical items or weapons? How did they obtain their magical items?

Does your character have any weaknesses when it comes to their species, powers or magical items?

If your character was formerly human (or any species other than what they are currently), tell the story of how they became what they currently are.

DEVELOPER QUESTIONS

These are the meaty questions that help build your character's core. The pronouns in these questions are "target" focused, and go from "they" to "you". They're for the character, not the author, but they don't have to be. If the character is still flimsy, the author can answer these questions out of character until that's not needed anymore. If you encounter writer's block, nothing, or "I dunno" answers to most of these, write a test story or a little of your actual story and let the character run around a bit.

DEVELOPER- PERSONALITY: This is one of the big categories. It determines how your character behaves in a neutral setting, and readies them for independent answering. Your character cannot answer questions satisfactorily without a personality.

Do you have a lifelong dream or aspiration?

In general, how do you act around other people that you have just met?

Does your behavior around people change depending on how well you know them? If so, how?

Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Are you generally organized or messy?

Are you spontaneous and impulsive, or do you always need to have a plan?

Are you hot-tempered or calm?

Do you tend to argue with people or avoid conflict?

Do you care what others think of you?

Are you a better leader or follower?

What is the most important quality you look for in a friend?

What is your greatest strength?

What is your greatest weakness?

Name three other traits about yourself- positive or negative.

Do you hide your true self from others and in what way?

Are you optimistic or pessimistic?

What is your greatest fear?

What trait do you find most admirable? How often do you find it in others?

What's something you're good at doing? How about something you're bad at?

Do you smoke, drink, or use drugs? If yes, why? Do you want to quit? If no, why not?

Do you have any quirks, strange mannerisms, annoying habits, or other defining characteristics?

What is your most treasured possession?

Do you consider yourself to be a funny person? Do others agree?

If you have powers or magical items, what do you think of them? Are they cool or have you been screwed?

DEVELOPER- CURRENT LIFE: These questions are about the people and things in your character's life at the start of their story. This differs from the backstory, which is their past. A lot of these questions revolve around their current relationships with people.

Where do you call home now? (Feel free to answer "homeless" or "traveler" if that's the case!)

Who are your friends? Describe them.

Do you have a best friend? Describe them.

How close are you to your family?

Do you currently have a spouse or significant other? Describe them.

If you're no longer with your spouse or significant other- describe them here. Why did you split up?

Have you started your own family? Describe them if you did.

Out of everyone you know right now, who are you closest to? Why?

What is your occupation? If you have none, how do you get money?

How much money do you have right now? In general? In your pocket?

Are you currently physically abused? Verbally? Sexually? If so, who is responsible? How does it make you feel? Have you told anyone about it?

DEVELOPER- BACKSTORY: Your character's personality and backstory are intertwined. Their backstory fostered their personality and made them who they are today. I put this second because a character is- from my experience- more likely to answer these questions in their voice than personality-based ones. These go roughly in order from birth through childhood, with the last few questions not tied to any one age.

When were you born?

Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

Who was your biological father? What was he like?

Who was your biological mother? What was she like?

If you are missing one or both parents, what happened?

Are you adopted or an orphan? If so, how do you feel about that?

What was your parent’s marriage like? Did they remain married? If not, how did that affect you?

Do you have any siblings? What were they like?

How would you describe your childhood in general?

Describe any influences in your past that led you to do the things you do today.

Were you ever physically abused in the past? Verbally? Sexually? If so, who was responsible, and how does it make you feel? Have you told anyone about it?

What do you consider the most important event of your life so far?

Below are Developer questions I often find unnecessary or hard to answer, but not ridiculous. This also includes very detailed questions that may not apply to all characters. You will- in almost all cases- need your character's unique voice to answer these in a satisfactory way. From this point on, fudging answers yourself grows increasingly difficult.

DEVELOPER- PERSONALITY ADVANCED

Do you trust anyone to protect you? Who and why?

How do you most like being touched, physically? What about touching others? Also, if you don't like being touched- why?

What words and/or phrases do you use frequently?

What are your religious views?

What are your political views?

What are your views on sex?

What do you believe makes a successful life?

What is your best physical feature, in your opinion? How about your worst?

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

What do you feel most strongly about?

What do you pretend to feel strongly about, just to impress people?

How do you feel when your routine is disrupted?

If you're a heroic character- what are your reasons for being heroic? Are your real reasons different than the ones you tell other people in public?

Do you tend to save or spend your money?

Generally, do you think the world is good or evil?

Do you think redemption is possible? Why or why not?

What talent would you most like to have?

Is it okay for men to cry? Is it okay for you to cry? Your own gender doesn't matter.

Do you think it is okay to lie? When do you lie? Be honest!

What is the one thing for which you would most like to be remembered after your death?

DEVELOPER- CURRENT LIFE ADVANCED

Who- out of everyone you know right now- would you turn to if you were in desperate need of help?

Who do you respect the most? Why?

Who do you despise the most, and why?

If you do not have a family, do you want to start one? Why or why not?

Describe a normal day for you.

If you have one, do you like your job?

What is your boss like? How about your coworkers? Do you get along with them?

What is your state of mind, right now?

DEVELOPER- BACKSTORY ADVANCED:

What is your earliest memory?

What is the worst thing one of your siblings ever did to you? How about the best?

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done to one of your siblings? How about the best?

When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When you were younger, what were your favorite activities?

While you were younger, did you have any role models other than your parents? Describe them.

Were you popular when you were younger?

Who were your friends when you were younger, and what were they like?

How much schooling have you had? Do you like school?

When you were younger, how did you get along with the other members of your family?

Where did you learn your most valuable skills?

When’s the last time you saw a member of your family?

Do you have any nicknames? If you do, who gave them to you and why?

If you have scars- how did you get them?

If you have tattoos, piercings, or similar body markings- how and why did you get them?

When you were younger, what kinds of personality traits did you display?

What is your fondest memory from when you were little?

What is your worst memory from when you were little?

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

What is your greatest regret?

When was the time you were the most frightened?

What is the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you?

When and where were you the happiest?

What one act in your past are you most ashamed of?

What one act in your past are you most proud of?

Have you ever gotten in a physical fight before? Is fighting common in your world? If not, what drove you to violence? What started the fight, who did you fight, and who won?

INDEPENDENT QUESTIONS

These questions can basically only be answered by your character. Whether you find out by writing naturally or by using this questionnaire, you'll find these answers coming in your character's unique voice, even if you must force it a bit. If you're really lucky, you can hear them in your mind! Trying to answer these questions without your character's input will create a flat or stiff character, and you're going to have a bad time writing them. Unlike the previous categories, these are sorted by topic, rather than how involved they are.

LIKES AND DISLIKES: This section is for things your character likes or doesn't like which aren't likely to come up or be important in the story you're writing. They can still help shape your character. I put the really out there ones in Random Questions, so these should be fairly tame or understandable.

What is/are your favorite hobbies and pastimes?

Do you make any form of art (music, drawing, LEGOS- it doesn’t matter)?

What is your favorite food? How about your least? Why?

What's your appetite like? Are you a big eater, or are you picky?

What do you like to read? If you don't like to read, why?

What is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?

What is the most awful thing you have ever seen?

What are your pet peeves?

What makes you laugh?

What makes you cry?

What shocks or offends you?

How do you deal with stress?

What do you do when you’re bored?

What embarrasses you?

MORALITY: This section is for moral questions that are too tricky for the Developer section. Your character's morality may differ vastly from your own. This is a point you really need to listen to them on.

Are you able to kill?

Do you have a criminal record of any kind? How do you feel about it?

Under what circumstances do you find killing to be acceptable or unacceptable?

In your opinion, what is the most evil thing any person could do?

What is the most evil thing you have ever done?

Do you have any biases or prejudices?

Is there anything you absolutely refuse to do under any circumstances? Why?

What do you think is wrong with most people, if you had to pick something?

Do you have feelings that disturb you? What and why?

Who or what, if anything, would you die for?

How would you solve the Trolley Problem? Would you throw the lever to save five people from a runaway trolley- killing one- or do nothing to save one person? Do you have any issues with the Trolley Problem in general?

How do you feel about authority figures (police, government, etc.)? Are they doing a good job, or could you run things better?

Do you have any moral opinions that deviate strongly from the norm?

SEX AND INTIMACY (MILD): You may notice I put a single question in this category on its own- your character's sexuality. Sometimes it’s a surprise, but there’s plenty of reasons you might want it on hand early (for example, if your character chooses to fall in love with another character later, or capturing someone's heart is their primary motivation). These questions are appropriate for teens and- in some cases- preteens. I would avoid this section for really young characters. If something says to describe a scene and you're not comfortable, one or two words should suffice.

Have you ever been in love?

How old were you when you went on your first date? Describe the date.

When and with whom was your first kiss?

Are you a virgin? If not, with whom did you lose your virginity? When did it happen?

If you are not a virgin, describe your first time.

Have you ever had a same-sex experience?

Have you ever had your heart broken?

What is the perfect romantic date?

Describe the perfect partner.

Do you ever want to get married? When do you see this happening?

What is more important- sex or intimacy? Why?

What was your most recent romantic relationship like? Who was it with?

Do you believe in the existence of soul males and/or true love?

SEX AND INTIMACY (WILD): These questions are more for adult characters. They're often super annoying to grapple when running a kid or teen character through questionnaires. Feel free to skip this part if you have a young character who doesn't need a wild sex life. If something says to describe a scene and you're not comfortable, one or two words should suffice.

What is your deepest, most well-hidden sexual fantasy? Would you ever try it?

How many partners have you had throughout your life?

Would you be open to a polyamorous relationship or coupling? If yes, why? If no, why not?

What was the wildest thing you have done, sexually? Describe the experience.

Is there any sexual activity that you enjoy and/or practice that can be considered non-standard? Why do you like it?

DRUGS: This section covers drug usage, starting with your character's general opinion on drugs and moving on to their history of usage. If your character never used drugs or is younger than a preteen, skip this. You may still want to consider the first few questions, since they’re more about their opinions on drugs than their usage. Note that this section mostly focuses on "real" drugs- there are questions specifically for fantasy drugs that can be ignored if there are none in your setting.

What do you think of drugs in general?

What do you think of tobacco?

What do you think of alcohol?

What do you think of mood altering substances?

What do you think of illegal substances?

If you come from a fantasy or sci-fi setting with a drug not found on modern Earth- what do you think of it?

How old were you when you first smoked? Did you like it? Why or why not?

Do you smoke on a regular basis?

How old were you when you had your first drink? Did you like it? Why or why not?

Do you drink on a regular basis?  If so, what kind of alcohol do you prefer?

How old were you when you first got drunk? What was the experience like?

Have you ever tried any kind of “mood altering” substance? Which ones? Describe the experience.

Do you use mood altering substances on a regular basis?

Have you ever tried any illegal drug? Which ones? Describe the experience.

Do you use illegal drugs on a regular basis?

If you come from a fantasy or sci-fi setting with a drug not found on modern Earth- have you tried it? Describe the experience.

Do you use any drugs not found on modern Earth on a regular basis?

IF YOU COULD: These questions all follow the same general thread- your character is God and allowed to do or change something that is normally out of their control.

If you could change one thing from your past, what would it be, and why?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

If you could relive one day in your life, what day would you choose?

If you were to gain an obscenely large sum of money, what would you do with it?

You receive a ticket to a spa. You can get any number of treatments you want- money is not an issue. What do you do? Spoil yourself? Give the ticket away? Burn it? Why?

You receive a ticket to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Any kind of food you can imagine is available. You can take as much food as you want (including bringing things home)- money is not an issue. What do you do? Gorge yourself? Eat light? Only pack leftovers? Give the ticket away? Why?

If you could go back to any point in history and change something, what would it be?

What would you wish for if you ever found a genie?

You are allowed to change one thing about your worst enemy. Would you take the chance? If so, what would you change?

If you could choose, how would you want to die?

You are going to die in twenty-four hours. What is your ideal last day? Bonus, but not required- your method of death is your answer to the previous question.

RANDOM QUESTIONS

You probably don't need these questions, except for fun. Most of them are just trivia, or only useful for the writer. I didn't even bother to sort these.

Do you own a car (or other form of transportation, including animals)? Why or why not? Describe it.

Do you like animals (or whatever creatures your world has)? Are you afraid of them? Are they only good as food?

What was your favorite toy when you were younger? How about your favorite game?

What do you wear when you go to sleep?

If you died or went missing, who would miss you?

How do you dress up?

How do you dress down?

What is your favorite color? How about your least? Why?

What is your favorite sound? How about your least? Why?

What is your favorite scent? How about your least? Why?

Have you told anyone your greatest fear before?

Who would be the one person you'd never tell your greatest fear- or who can't know?

What type of music do you like? Do you have a song that's "your song"?

What's your favorite movie? TV show? Book? Stage play? Video game?

You see a bug in the house- do you catch it and let it outside, keep it as a pet, run, or squish it?

How do you spend a typical Saturday night?

What would you do if you couldn’t sleep and had to find something to amuse yourself?

What time of day is your favorite? How about your least favorite?

What kind of weather is your favorite? How about your least favorite?

What is your favorite drink? How about your least favorite?

What is your favorite animal? How about your least favorite?

What three words best describe your personality?

What three words would others probably use to describe you?

What is something you had to learn that you hated?

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Is there anything you think should not be incorporated into the media or arts? (i.e., sex, violence, etc). What and why or why not?

What was the worst injury you’ve ever received? How did it happen?

How ticklish are you? Where are you ticklish?

If your house burned down, what one thing would you want to save?

Describe yourself sitting in your favorite spot.

How do you go to sleep and how do you wake up? (position, routine, etc)

What is a dream (during sleep) that you have often? What is a day dream that you have often?

If you were to die and come back as any person or thing, what or who would you want to be?

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

What time period do you wish you could have lived in? (This is not a chance to change history.) What appeals to you about this era?

You've reached the end! Smash that fourth wall with a hammer and say anything you want to your author!

#writing #writing community #characters #character questions #character development

[naturalrights-retard]

Executive summary

Florida Surgeon General Joe Ladapo has been a reliable truth-teller throughout the pandemic. After noticing that the VAERS reports in his state were off the charts, he wrote a letter to the CDC and FDA asking them to explain his observations.

Rather than directly answering Dr. Ladapo’s questions, the heads of both agencies sent him a “safe and effective” sales pitch. They also accused him of spreading COVID misinformation.

Ladapo correctly pointed out a huge issue with the narrative. If the vaccines are really as “safe and effective” as claimed, why are the VAERS reports off-the-charts?

Something is seriously wrong. Both agency heads should have acknowledged the discrepancy and investigated. If they had done so, they would have found other “discrepancies” such as the over 700 safety signals (including death and stroke) that were triggered in VAERS that were never explained or reported to the public.

They should both be fired. Both agencies are responsible for public safety, yet their heads cannot directly answer even the most basic safety questions about the vaccine. They must deflect instead.

Unfortunately, Congress is looking the other way on all issues related to vaccine safety. After all, it was Congress who pushed the vaccine on the public. So Congress is not likely to investigate the issues with the FDA/CDC anytime soon.

My fellow Substack writers also mocked the FDA/CDC response.

The source materials

Florida press release on COVID vaccine safety

Ladapo’s letter to the FDA/CDC

The FDA response

Introduction

On February 15, 2023, Florida Surgeon General Joe Ladapo wrote a letter to the CDC and FDA asking them to explain why in Florida, there was an 18X increase in VAERS reports overall and a 45X increase in reports of life-threatening conditions after the COVID vaccines were rolled out. Since there was only a 5X increase in vaccine administration, why was there a disproportionately high response in the adverse event rates in VAERS?

Three weeks later, on March 10, the FDA/CDC wrote back a response that sounded like a “sales pitch” for the vaccine. They also criticized him for spreading vaccine misinformation (i.e., they tried to gaslight him).

The FDA/CDC didn’t even attempt to directly address his concerns in their response. They avoided the numbers he cited like the plague. They changed the topic instead of addressing his very legitimate concerns.

This just shows you how corrupt the top officials of both organizations are. They can’t answer simple questions without changing the subject.

Here’s the response that they should have sent

Dear Joe,

Hey, thanks so much for writing and bringing this very important data anomaly to our attention.

To be honest, we both have always admired you from afar. We are huge fans of the work you are doing in Florida to expose the truth about the COVID vaccines!

In particular, you demonstrated great courage and initiative in designing and executing a study in your state that proved the vaccines are unsafe and should be stopped. We wish other public health officials were as responsible as you have been and took the initiative to double check our work instead of just believing everything we say at face value. After all, we’ve been pretty much wrong about everything COVID related, so it only makes sense to be very suspicious about anything we recommend. In fact, to be honest, we even joke to our friends privately that if Americans just listened carefully to everything we said and did the opposite, they’d be much better off. LOL!

In your particular case, you are absolutely right to point out that there is simply no possible way that there could be so many VAERS reports if the vaccines are safe and effective.

Let’s dive into how we arrived at that conclusion.

There are really only three possibilities here for your seeing a disproportionate number of VAERS reports:

Fraud and/or gaming

Higher propensity to report, but ONLY for the COVID vaccines (and not for any other vaccines during the same period)

The vaccines are unsafe

To be perfectly honest, there is no evidence for #1. Not even David Gorski is making that argument.

With respect to #2, we have to wonder: “Why would people overreport for the COVID vaccines and not for any other vaccines in the same time period?”

We have no evidence of a higher propensity to report for any other vaccine. We even had an independent market research firm survey healthcare workers and they found an unchanged propensity to report. Human behavior is simply very hard to change; no surprise! So that wasn’t it.

In addition, we checked directly with doctors we work with and told them we wouldn’t have their license to practice medicine revoked. Note that usually we don’t offer that, but this time we really wanted to know the truth.

They all told us that they’ve never seen anything like the side-effects from these COVID vaccines before. In fact, we talked to one neurologist in California and she had over 1,000 of her 20,000 patients who reported new serious neurological issues shortly after getting the vaccine. That isn’t overreporting because she only filed 2 VAERS reports, not 1,000. In 11 years, she’s never needed to make a single VAERS report; this year, she needed to make 1,000.

We are left with option #3: The COVID vaccines are super dangerous.

So yes, upon investigation, you were right. The reason for all those reports is because the vaccines are simply not as safe as we told people. In fact, they are downright dangerous. This was recently acknowledged in the scientific peer-reviewed literature: “An abundance of studies has shown that the mRNA vaccines are neither safe nor effective, but outright dangerous.”

We’ll also let you in on a secret that we haven’t told anyone. The vaccine doesn’t protect you from dying from COVID at all. We made that up because we had to say something. For example, in this paper published in JAMA, the death rates for vaxxed and unvaxxed patients who got COVID were similar and the differences were not statistically significant. Look for the sentence, “Death occurred in 9 of 142 (6.3%) vaccine breakthrough cases and 91 of 1055 (8.6%) unvaccinated patients with COVID-19.” You have to do your own Fisher exact test calculation yourself and you will find a p-value of .42 which as you know means the differences between the groups were not even close to being statistically significant. And that was the best study we had.

Also, check out this graph showing that it’s actually making things worse: the more you vaccinate, the more people die from COVID. So you were right!

However, if we admitted that you were right publicly, this would make the HHS agencies look silly and it would destroy trust in the agencies, the medical community, Congress, the mainstream media, and local health officials. So we simply can’t do that. It’s nothing personal. It’s just how the game is played. We hope you understand.

So that’s why we’re going to publish a sham letter where we ignore your question (because we can’t answer it), deny everything, and accuse you of spreading misinformation. After all, we want to keep our jobs.

Please keep this letter between us. If it gets out, we’ll deny we sent it. But we just wanted to let you know we appreciate you and that you were right. We just can’t admit that publicly right now. We have to make you look bad. I hope you understand and appreciate the position we are in.

I hope that we can still be friends.

Sincerely yours,

Rochelle and Bob

Reaction from other Substack writers

Meryl Nass wrote this article, Letter from LaLaLand to Dr. Ladapo, signed by FDA's Califf and CDC's Walensky. She summarized the FDA/CDC letter:

Peter McCullough went into detail debunking 10 of the claims in the FDA/CDC letter. His summary:

This tweet sums up a simple way to see who is telling you the truth:

Kyle Becker @kylenabecker

"If the Covid mRNA shots are as safe and effective as the FDA and CDC say they are, there is a simple way to prove it: Drop the liability shield." The FDA and CDC fired off a letter against Florida's Surgeon General for reporting a major spike in adverse open.substack.com/pub/thekylebec…… https://t.co/BkAWigAeak

12:56 AM ∙ Mar 12, 2023

646Likes245Retweets

Mainstream media response

They sided with the FDA/CDC taking everything they said at face value. Here is an example:

Fla. Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo gets scathing letter from CDC, FDA (CBS News)

The Tampa Bay Times had a more balanced story: ‘Misinformation’: Biden administration responds to Florida COVID vaccine letter

Summary

Joe Ladapo is pretty much the only trustable public health authority in America today.

Ladapo has expressed legitimate concerns about the safety of the COVID vaccines and the FDA/CDC are simply unable to explain this data. Instead, they deflect and distract the public from the important issues he raised and attempt to make him look like he is the bad guy.

The FDA/CDC leadership should be ashamed of themselves.

[faerociousbeast]

- ok. the biggest difference between og naruto and shippuden naruto, is that in shippuden, he is statistically HIGHLY more probable to try and change someone to agree with his views after ""understanding"" them.

- vs in og, there have been many examples of him having his own assumptions, but then later connecting with people to see their view. there was development in this area too, specifically during the land of waves arc, where he learns that yeah sometimes things are not as you assume.

- in the chuunin exams, one of the biggest uh oh naruto moments was when after neji aired out the fact that his clan literally enslaves their own members and tortures them, naruto sides with hinata, who was self proclaimed trying to become stronger. Or. something.

- nejis situation is much MUCH more similar to narutos own than hinatas ever will be! the BIGGEST DIFFERENCE THOUGH, as to why naruto assumed neji was at fault here, was the way he reacted. let me clarify: neji seemed violent and angry (which. imo are completely normal trauma responses to have when you are literally owned by your own cousin but. idk), while hinata seemed much less like... confrontational? plus she was "trying to get stronger", which was something naruto could relate to.

- in HIS view, hinata was just trying to improve herself, but neji was getting needlessly mad about this. why he somehow did not hear about hinata also insulting neji back or the whole enslavement thing i do not know, but then again it seems like nobody did to this day so. uh.

- anyways im getting off topic. but. tldr: nejis been through being secluded and underestimated and trauma and losing people and being alone and people in power failing him etc etc and he reacts in an angry, cold way to the people around him who caused him to be in such a situation, directly or not. aka all things NARUTO has been through, and he relates to so many people through those, but the biggest issue here was reaction.

- but you know who else DOES acts this way later?

- sasuke!

- it would be SUCH a huge thing if naruto initially assumed neji was at fault due to the way he acted, but then later realized inaction does not equal good (cough cough hinata sure but also hiruzen), and that the situation is not always so straight forward. and that sometimes, the people in power ARE to blame, and not everyone will try to suck it up and suppress their anger so that people will like them. unlike. A certain protagonist i know.

- PLUS. GAARA. its too bad gaara and neji were too gay to realize that naruto kinda just.... yknow and immediately fell for him so hard they became nonviolent but. hes ANOTHER similar situation, even MORE similar to both naruto and sasuke. as we all know, hes the in between.

- narutos pretty much main goal, and what sets him aside from sasukes other.... Fans, is that he wishes to UNDERSTAND. him. turning him into a tool for the village that caused him such pain is Not That, naruto.

- but if the hyuga sideplot got continued, gaaras whole thing couldve been even better, naruto would have to stop trying to be stubborn in his beliefs that the power is always right bc like, they arent, most of the time, naruto would understand sasuke better, hinata wouldnt be painted as so perfect, the whole pain arc also wouldve gone better considering that pain literally brings up such valid points that never get addressed properly, Like.

- ohh but i guess naruhina endgame marriage wouldve been hard to do then huh 😒😒😒😒😒 thanks for NOTHING, boruto era. i have nothing against sequels unless theyre sequelling for the sake of sequelling and completely destroy everything set up in the original for its sake