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mediaevalmusereads · 11 months

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The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. By Bessel Van Der Kolk. Penguin, 2014.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Genre: nonfiction, psychology, psychiatry, mental health, trauma studies

Part of a Series? No

Summary: Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Such experiences inevitably leave traces on minds, emotions, and even on biology. Sadly, trauma sufferers frequently pass on their stress to their partners and children.

Renowned trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he transforms our understanding of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain’s wiring—specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust. He shows how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments including neurofeedback, mindfulness techniques, play, yoga, and other therapies. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score offers proven alternatives to drugs and talk therapy—and a way to reclaim lives.

***Full review below.***

Content Warnings: discussions (including graphic descriptions) of war, violence, murder, abuse, rape, self-harm, suicide

Since this book is non-fiction, my review will be structured a little differently than usual.

Full disclosure: I didn’t research the author before deciding to read this book. I am now aware of the controversy that resulted in his firing, as well as the allegations that the executive director at his trauma center was particularly hostile to female employees. My favorable review of this book is in no way an endorsement of the author’s actions, and I am still wrestling with how to handle good work (that is meant to help people and advance our understanding of mental health) created by problematic (and allegedly abusive) people.

Review: I picked this book up on a whim while browsing at a local independent bookstore, but I also do have a personal interest in the subject; one of my family members has some trauma in his past, and I was interested in learning more about how trauma works. As an educational tool, this book looked promising; not only is it incredibly thorough, but it explores multiple approaches to trauma (rather than championing just one). As a began reading, I found myself more and more engrossed in the book's contents, and I believe it is because the information is so well-presented. In particular, I liked the way the author explained complex scientific concepts without talking down to the reader. As a former academic, I often get frustrated with pop science for oversimplifying, and this book felt like it was respecting my intelligence. Although I have no background in neuroscience or psychology, I felt like the author trusted me to grasp the basics without coming across as impatient or belittling. For that reason more than any other, I think I got a lot out of this book.

I also appreciated the scope of this book. The Body Keeps the Score I'd comprised of 20 chapters organized into 5 parts. Part 1 talks about the history of trauma studies and treatment; part 2 overviews what happens in the brain of a traumatized individual; part 3 looks at child development and trauma; part 4 looks at how trauma affects memory; and part 5 explores paths to recovery. Though I am sure the author left some things out, this book felt like a comprehensive introduction and overview to trauma studies, and I appreciated having so much information in one place. Given that this book was published in 2014, I'm sure that psychology and neuroscience has made large strides, so it should be noted that some information may be dated. But even so, this book is a fascinating snapshot of the evolution of our understanding of trauma and its treatment.

All that being said, I do have a few criticisms which prevent me from giving this book a full 5 stars. The first is that there are some moments in this book where a reader might forget that the author is writing as an academic and not an activist or advocate; ordinarily, I don't think that would be a problem, but for casual readers, the author's tone or failure to condemn horrific acts committed by his patients may come across as callous. I also think there are bits in this book that can be repetitive; as a reader, I found that I would read the same point in multiple chapters, and I think the author could have streamlined his message just a bit more. I also think the constant deferral of information to later chapters can be a tad chaotic, and for some people, not having information strictly organized can be frustrating.

Still, I think this book is a valuable overview to trauma and mental health, and while I wouldn't recommend it to people who may still be triggered by graphic depictions of violence, assault, etc. I would recommend it to people looking to understand trauma from a scientific perspective.

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nostalgebraist-autoresponder · 1 year

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Title: Shoplifting from American Apparel

Author: BSLVDRM (Arthur Chu)

Rating: 4/5 stars

Read from July 9, 2016 to July 12, 2016

So I actually really like this book. It's a good combination of laughs and actual social commentary, and it's pretty damn hilarious. The reason I'm docking it a star is because, by the end, the laughs feel a bit stale and the social commentary isn't quite as fresh. It's mostly good to the very end, but I get the sense that once you've heard a lot of the gags, you've also kind of heard all the criticisms. Anyway, here's the review:

Chu's style is easygoing and snarky. He does a lot of cultural criticism, in that he pokes fun at US culture in a way that's respectful, and also very much against the grain. As he says, he's never liked American Apparel in his life. (A great example is his recommendation of an underground mailing list dedicated to capitalism: "how many of you deserve to know the truth that American Apparel makes people for America?") He does this in a very personal way -- Chu is from Canada, he's never liked American Apparel, he's never liked his own national institutions, and he's happy to poke fun at them. (He also pokes fun at Canadians -- he doesn't care for Canadians much, either. Canadians and Americans both suck, they just suck differently.)

I find this whole style very appealing. It's cheeky, but not obnoxious; funny, but not mean-spirited. I've seen a lot of critiques of the "culture is shit" attitude, but there's something about Chu's outlook that seems to keep it from crossing the line into useless cynicism. There's nothing wrong with seeing the world in all its flaws, but "how do we like and criticize the flawed things we want and need" seems like an extremely valuable inquiry. It's not even just about understanding things better; it's about actually figuring out what to do, as people living in a society.

And, like I said, it's also very funny. Maybe it's a bit repetitive at the end, but still:

#computer generated image #guidance scale 1

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truehinrichsen69 · 3 months

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kethsi · 4 years

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I've been playing RS for around 15 years. I have no skills at 99. What can I do?

(There’s a TL;DR at the end if you’re in a hurry) One thing before I address the question itself - wow. From the bottom of my heart, WOW. You’re here for longer than most of us, anon. Remember you can put us all to shame by incorporating any old holiday outfits into your fashionscape. If you weren’t into events back then, slap on the 15 years cape you buy from Hans - it’s far more impressive to see than another max or 120 cape. Overall, remember that RuneScape’s a game. It’s here for your entertainment. You don’t need 99s to enjoy your favourite aspects of it or make some money. Now - here’s a few things to keep in mind when deciding on a course of action: Levels of Interest - you have to ask yourself which 99s you want, and which skills you’re willing to put up with. Some people hate dungeoneering, some hate agility, there’s even a weirdo here and there who hates combat (me. I’m that weirdo). Consider which one you’d want as your first 99. This is a moment I wish I could come back to and change myself. Which untrimmed cape is most appealing to you? Attack? Prayer? Slayer? Fishing? Herblore? Agility? Maybe one I haven’t mentioned here that belongs to your favourite skill? Do you intend to keepsake the cape once you get it to keep that memory? Or would a couple of screenies be enough? If that doesn’t matter to you, test some exp rates in different skills and simply work towards the fastest one you find. Try two or three different methods for each skill you know you dislike and ask yourself if you can see yourself wanting to dedicate any time to those methods at all. The biggest/best known ones are on the RuneScape Wiki. It’s always worth a look. Remember you can alternate between them so even if you like something, there’s no shame in training other skills instead of, for example, jumping around on an agility course for too many hours a day in a row. Ask yourself why you want to max a skill - Is it about some specific skill you know you’d be proud of until the other capes are within your grasp? Is one of the skills speaking to you emotionally/represents some dream job you would’ve liked? Is it about the Fashionscape? If it’s any of those, that’s completely fine. Creating your own neat memory of the first skill you chose to master is a lot of fun and is an excellent reason to go for it. But if it’s RuneScape being too well known for the “CAPE” part of its name, that’s an old meme. Some people feel the need to level simply because Jagex is keeping some of its new content behind higher-level doors, which is annoying as it’s Jagex’s own doing but if it does play a role, please remember to take a step back and remember this is an unfair element of the game design that isn’t very friendly to those of us who don’t chase exp at all costs. You don’t have to feel pressured if unbalanced game design is a big part of what pushes you to “fix” something about your character that isn’t broken at all. Prioritize your health - If you have work/classes that you’re tired after, a physical condition (especially with your hands/arms/back) that prolonged sitting and clicking around may worsen, ADHD or any other mental condition that makes long repetitive/boring tasks you hate seriously affect your mental state, or even if it’s “just” annoying/exhausting, these things can build up, so avoid the methods. What people forget about runescape is that there’s always more than one way to gain exp in stuff. “wasting” exp by taking breaks or doing fun stuff is the most fun thing to do in this game. Take it from me, procrastinating hard enough to drop my gainz rate to negligible is one of the only reasons I didn’t feel a burnout with this game. Distractions&Diversions (”activities”) - Several skills offer quicker bursts of exp/bonuses that make gaining exp easier for a short while. Familiarize yourself with them. For Divination, there’s Guthixian Caches. For Dungeoneering, there’s sinkholes. For Hunter, there’s Big Chinchompa. For Agility, there’s the Serenity Posts in the Hefin district in Prif. For Mining and Woodcutting there’s shooting stars and evil trees respectively. For Farming and Prayer (with slight exp in Dungeoneering and Mining too) there’s Nemi Forest. There’s also the Wild Jade vine for slight Farming&Slayer exp. All of the above are dailies, some can even be done twice a day. There’s also the weekly Skeletal Horror for some Slayer&Prayer exp, and God Statues for Construction (and a choice between Prayer and Slayer), if you need it. There’s also the weekly Tears of Guthix that raises your lowest skill, Circus for Magic, Ranging and some Agility (thieving&firemaking depending on what quests you did). Remember you don’t need to do all of these in a day or a week. My goal wasn’t to overwhelm you or make you feel like you need to do everything, I just want you to be aware of your options. YOU choose the skill to get EXP in - Continuing with d&ds/ activities, there are some that let you choose which skill you want your exp to go to. There’s Penguin Hide&Seek, every week, Agoroth which does the same after you fight it, Troll invasion which gives you more exp in a skill of your choice once a month. There’s also the Jack of Trades Aura - the best Aura in the game - that gives you daily exp (more exp the higher your level and the better the aura tier). These (along with Nemi Forest) are the ones I’d recommend if you have limited time and can choose only a few activities. There’s also Stealing Creation, which allows you to use your points to choose from a not unlimited, but wide enough range of skills to give yourself bonus EXP in (unfortunately it DOES take a long time to accumulate points in this minigame, so only do it if you actually find it enjoyable and have time to spare). This brings us to- Bonus EXP - Notoriously given by Jagex daily from Treasure Hunter and usually used to diminish people’s suffering leveling the slowest skills in the game or bankruptcy leveling the most expensive ones, pick the skill or two you know you hate the most and dump all of the prismatic stuff you get into it. Alternatively, you can put it all in the one skill you want to get 99 in first. Proteans and training dummy crates are in the same category. You usually get a choice what you want to use them for. I recommend making it after you’ve seen which skills are easier or more difficult for you. If you’re taking a stance against the whole thing or are playing on an ironman account now, more power to you and feel free to disregard this. Still, Stealing Creation is also a source of bonus EXP as mentioned above. So you can always use that, too. Quests - if you don’t have all of the quests in the game complete yet, check the RS wiki for the Experience Rewards you get from quests. I added a link for your viewing pleasure. Usually Master or Grandmaster quests you haven’t finished yet would either give neat chunks of EXP that can level you up in a skill or two, or a “choose your own gainz” lamp. Some might have an added exp bonus post-quest after you’ve reached a certain level. Sliske’s Endgame (I know, I know, big yikes), The World Wakes and While Guthix Sleeps, Children of Mah and the last of the Myreque quests provide some of the best “choose your own EXP” in the game for their completion. Always worth taking a look, maybe you haven’t done one or two of them yet. Get another opinion - Talk to friends or clanmates. Ask them what methods they’d recommend for any particular skill. Training cooking? maybe they just found the one fish in the game that can be bought raw for relatively cheap today. Training Summoning? maybe your clan follows patch notes and hidden updates and they’ve noticed some monsters drop crimson charms more often. Training Farming? Many wonderful people would lend or give you breeding pairs of animals you can breed and raise at Manor Farm. Hell, I can give you some animals myself if you want them. Chinchompas are the cutest thing since baby geckos and I have breeding pairs to spare!

TL;DR

1. Choose the skills you have the patience, mental and physical health for or the one you want to get 99 in the most 2. Compare training methods for those skills, using the RS wiki and your friends’ advice. Feel free to try some and find out what works best for you. 3. Get to training. Remember to take lots of breaks or alternate between skills or methods when necessary. 4. Distractions and Diversions are your friends. Especially the weekly/monthly ones that give you the direct choice of skill to dump exp in (Penguin Hide&Seek, Agoroth, Troll invasion). Also, Jack of Trades aura. It adds up like you would not believe. 5. Dump your bonus EXP in either the first skill you want to max, or the one/s you know you don’t have the patience for training. 6. If all else fails, check your quest list for any grandmaster quests you haven’t done yet. Maybe training the skills you’re “missing” for these quests will give you some feeling of set goal in the meantime. The rewards will push you a bit closer when you’re done. 7. This is a game. At the end of the day, if anyone tries to shame you or bring you down for not having a 99 in some skill, Buy the most expensive seniority cape Hans will Sell you and let the cape-obsessed noobs know you have unlocked the most important aspect of the game: Having actual fun in it for more time than they have.

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blackkudos · 4 years

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Lisa Lopes

Lisa Nicole Lopes (May 27, 1971 – April 25, 2002), better known by her stage name Left Eye, was an American rapper, singer, music producer, and dancer. Lopes was a member of the R&B girl group TLC, alongside Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas. Besides rapping and singing background vocals on TLC recordings, Lopes was one of the creative forces behind the group. She received more co-writing credits than the other members. She also designed the outfits and staging for the group and contributed to the group's image, album titles, artworks, and music videos. Through her work with TLC, Lopes won four Grammy Awards.

During her brief solo career, Lopes scored two US top 10 singles with "Not Tonight" and "U Know What's Up", as well as one UK number-one single with "Never Be the Same Again", the latter a collaboration with Melanie C of the British girl group Spice Girls. She also produced another girl group, Blaque, who scored a platinum album and two US top 10 hits. Lopes remains the only member of TLC to have released a solo album.

On April 25, 2002, Lopes was killed in a car crash while organizing charity work in Honduras. She swerved off the road to avoid hitting another vehicle, and was thrown from her car. She was working on a documentary at the time of her death, which was released as The Last Days of Left Eye and aired on VH1 in May 2007.

Life and career

1971–1990: Childhood

Lopes was born in 1971 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Wanda Denise (née Andino), a seamstress, and Ronald Lopes Sr., a US Army staff sergeant, who was of African-American descent. Lisa had a younger brother, Ronald Jr., and a younger sister, Raina Anitra (her nickname goes by Reigndrop). Lopes said her father was "very strict, very domineering" and that he treated the family like they were in "boot camp". He was also a "talented musician" who played the harmonica, clarinet, piano, and saxophone.

Lopes' parents separated when she was still in school, and she was raised by her paternal grandmother during the later years of her childhood. She began playing with a toy keyboard at 5 years old, and later composed her own songs. By age 10, she formed the musical trio The Lopes Kids with her siblings, with whom she sang gospel songs at local events and churches. She attended the Philadelphia High School for Girls.

1990–1998: TLC

In late 1990, having heard of an open casting call for a new girl group through her then-boyfriend, Lopes moved to Atlanta to audition. Originally starting as a female trio called 2nd Nature, the group was renamed TLC, derived from the first initials of its members at the time: Tionne Watkins, Lisa Lopes and Crystal Jones. Things did not work out with Jones, and TLC's manager Perri "Pebbles" Reid brought in Damian Dame backup dancer Rozonda Thomas as a third member of the group. To preserve the band's original name, Thomas needed a name starting with C, which is how she became "Chilli," a name chosen by Lopes. Watkins became T-Boz, derived from the first letter of her first name and "Boz" (slang for "boss"). Lopes was renamed "Left Eye" after a compliment from New Edition member Michael Bivins who once told her he was attracted to her because of her left eye, which was more slanted than the right eye. Lopes emphasized her nickname by wearing a pair of glasses with the right lens covered by a condom, in keeping with the group's support of safe sex, wearing a black stripe under her left eye, and eventually getting her left eyebrow pierced.

The group arrived on the music scene in 1992 with the album Ooooooohhh... On the TLC Tip. With four hit singles, it sold six million copies worldwide, leading to the group becoming a household name. Two years later CrazySexyCool was released, selling over 23 million copies worldwide. TLC's third album, FanMail, was released in 1999 and sold over 14 million copies worldwide. Its title was a tribute to TLC's loyal fans and the sleeve contained the names of hundreds of them as a "thank you".

During the recording of FanMail, a public conflict began amongst the members of the group. In the May 1999 issue of Vibemagazine, Lopes said, "I've graduated from this era. I cannot stand 100 percent behind this TLC project and the music that is supposed to represent me." In response to Lopes' comments, Watkins and Thomas stated to Entertainment Weekly that Lopes "doesn't respect the whole group" and "Left Eye is only concerned with Left Eye." In response, Lopes sent a reply through Entertainment Weekly issuing a "challenge" to Watkins and Thomas to release solo albums and let the public decide who was the "greatest" member of TLC:

I challenge Tionne Watkins (T-Boz) and Rozonda Thomas (Chilli) to an album entitled "The Challenge"... a 3-CD set that contains three solo albums. Each [album]... will be due to the record label by October 1, 2000... I also challenge Dallas 'The Manipulator' Austin to produce all of the material and do it at a fraction of his normal rate. As I think about it, I'm sure LaFace would not mind throwing in a $1.5 million prize for the winner.

T-Boz and Chilli declined to take up the challenge, though Lopes always maintained it was a great idea. Things were heated between the ladies for some time, with Thomas speaking out against Lopes, calling her antics "selfish", "evil", and "heartless". TLC then addressed these struggles by saying that they are very much like sisters who have their disagreements every now and then as Lopes explained, "It's deeper than a working relationship. We have feelings for each other, which is why we get so mad at each other. I usually say that you cannot hate someone unless you love them. So, we love each other. That's the problem."

1998–2002: Solo career

In 1998, Lopes hosted the short-lived MTV series, The Cut, in which a list of aspiring pop stars, rappers, and rock bands competed against each other in front of judges. The show's winner, which ended up being a male-female rap duo named Silky, was promised a record deal and funding to produce a music video, which would then enter MTV's heavy rotation. A then-unknown Anastacia finished in third place, but ended up securing a record deal after Lopes and the show's three judges were impressed by her performance.

After the release of FanMail, Lopes began to expand her solo career. She became a featured rapper on several singles, including Spice Girl Melanie C's "Never Be the Same Again", which topped the charts in 35 countries, including the United Kingdom. She was also featured on "U Know What's Up", the first single from Donell Jones' second album, Where I Wanna Be, and she rapped a verse in "Space Cowboy" with NSYNC on their 2000 album, No Strings Attached. On October 4, 2000, Lopes co-hosted the UK's MOBO Awards with Trevor Nelson, where she also performed "U Know What's Up" with Jones. She also collaborated on "Gimme Some" by Toni Braxton for her 2000 album The Heat. She had previously featured on Keith Sweat's song "How Do You Like It?". In 2001, she appeared in a commercial for the fashion brand Gap. In July 2001, Lopes appeared on the singers' edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire along with Joey McIntyre, Tyrese, Nick Lachey, and Lee Ann Womack. She dropped the $125,000 question and won $32,000 for her charity. After her death in 2002, the episode she appeared in was shown and was dedicated to her.

Lopes created Left Eye Productions to discover new talent. She mentored the R&B trio Blaque, and helped them secure a record deal with Columbia Records. Their self-titled debut album was executive-produced by Lopes, who also made a cameo appearance in their music video "808" and also rapped in their second music video "I Do". Lopes was also developing and promoting another new band called Egypt. They worked with Lopes on her second album under her new nickname, N.I.N.A., meaning New Identity Not Applicable.

In 1996, Lopes created the UNI Studios for the purpose of recording solo projects. Lopes' family opened the studio to the public. Her brother Ronald is the general manager of the studio. Lopes had a dream of making new artists able to record music at a low cost, in a high-end studio at her house. Her family continues to operate it and fill it with new equipment.

Supernova

Lopes spent much of her free time after the conclusion of TLC's first headlining tour, the FanMail Tour, recording her debut solo album, Supernova. It includes a song titled "A New Star is Born", which is dedicated to her late father. She told MTV News:

That track is dedicated to all those that have loved ones that have passed away. It's saying that there is no such thing as death. We can call it transforming for a lack of better words, but as scientists would say, 'Every atom that was once a star is now in you.' It's in your body. So, in the song I pretty much go along with that idea. ... I don't care what happens or what people think about death, it doesn't matter. We all share the same space.

Other tracks covered other personal issues, including her relationship with NFL football player Andre Rison. In 1994, before the start of Rison's fifth and final season with the Falcons, Lopes accidentally burned down Rison Atlanta mansion. Among the album's 13 tracks was also a posthumous duet with Tupac Shakur that was assembled from the large cache of unreleased recordings done prior to his murder in 1996. Initially scheduled for release on a date to coincide with the 11th anniversary of her grandfather's death, Arista Records decided to delay and then cancel the American release. The album was eventually released in August 2001 in different foreign countries. The Japan import includes a bonus track called "Friends", which would later be sampled for "Give It to Me While It's Hot" on TLC's fourth album 3D.

N.I.N.A.

After numerous talks with Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, Lopes severed her solo deal with Arista (despite remaining signed to the label as a member of TLC) and signed with Knight's Death Row Records in January 2002, intending to record a second solo album under the pseudonym "N.I.N.A." (New Identity Not Applicable). She was recording with David Bowie for the project, whom she was also trying to get involved with the fourth TLC album. The project was also to include several songs recorded with Ray J along with close friend Missy Elliott. After Lopes' death in April 2002, Death Row Records still had plans to complete and release the album (unfinished at the time of Lopes' death) in October 2002, but the album was cancelled for unknown reasons. In 2011, some tracks from the album were uploaded onto YouTube featuring artists from Tha Row Records. Lopes's unreleased songs were also sampled by TLC for their fourth album 3Dafter she died. Another track, "Too Street 4 T.V" (featuring Danny Boy), was released on the soundtrack to the 2003 film Dysfunktional Family.

2008: Posthumous honorary album

In 2008, Lopes' family decided to work with producers at Surefire Music Group to create a posthumous album in her honor, Eye Legacy. Originally set to be released October 28, 2008, the release date was pushed back to November 11, then to January 27, 2009. The song 'Neva Will Eye Eva' and "Crank It", both feature and were co-produced by Lopes' sister Raina "Reigndrop" Lopes. The first official single from the album, "Let's Just Do It", was released on January 13, 2009 and features Missy Elliott and TLC. The second official single, "Block Party", features Lil Mama. The album largely consists of reworked versions of tracks from the Supernova album. In November 2009, Forever... The EP was released which contained international bonus tracks not used on the Eye Legacy album. The EP was only available to download. An unreleased track featuring Lopes was uploaded to SoundCloud on the eve of the 10-year anniversary of her death by Block Starz Music.

Personal life

Lopes was often vocal about her personal life and difficult past. She readily admitted that she had come from an abusive, alcoholic background and struggled with alcoholism herself. These issues became headline news in 1994, when she was arrested for setting fire to Andre Rison's sneakers in a bathtub, which ultimately spread to the mansion they shared and destroyed it. She claimed that Rison had beaten her after a night out, and she set fire to his shoes to get back at him but that burning down the house was an accident. Lopes later revealed that she did not have a lot of freedom within the relationship and that Rison abused her emotionally and physically; she said that she released her frustrations about the relationship on the night of the fire.

Lopes was sentenced to five years' probation and therapy at a halfway house, and was unable to shake the incident from her reputation. Her relationship with Rison continued to make headlines, with rumors of an imminent wedding, later debunked by People magazine. Lopes revealed on The Last Days of Left Eye documentary that her meeting with a struggling mother in rehab left a big impression on her. She subsequently adopted the woman's 8-year-old daughter. She had adopted a 12-year-old boy ten years prior.

Lopes had several tattoos. Most prominent was a large eagle on her left arm, which she said represented freedom. Later, she added the number "80" around the eagle, which was Rison's NFL number while in Atlanta. She also had a tattoo of a moon with a face on her foot in reference to Rison's nickname, "Bad Moon", Lopes later added the words "Love U 2" in the musical notes on her foot for Tupac Shakur. On her upper right arm was a large tattoo of the name "Parron" for her late step brother who died in a boating accident, arching over a large tattoo of a pierced heart. Her smallest tattoo was on her left earlobe and consisted of an arrow pointing to her left over the symbol of an eye, a reference to her nickname. Lopes struggled with self-harm and even carved the words "hate" and "love" into her arm with a razor.

Roughly two weeks before her own death, Lopes was a passenger in a traffic accident that resulted in the death of a 10-year-old Honduran boy. As reported in Philadelphia Weekly, "It is commonplace for people to walk the roads that wind through Honduras, and it's often difficult to see pedestrians." The boy, Bayron Isaul Fuentes Lopez, was following behind his brothers and sisters when he stepped off the median strip and was struck by a van driven by Stephanie, Lopes' personal assistant. Lopes' party stopped and loaded the boy into the car, and Lopes "cradled the dying boy's bleeding head in her arms" while "someone gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as they rushed him to a nearby hospital." He died the next day. Lopes paid approximately $3,700 for his medical expenses and funeral, and she gave the family around $925 for any extra costs, although it was apparently agreed upon by the authorities and the boy's family that his death was an "unforeseeable tragedy" and no blame was placed on the driver of the van or Lopes. In the documentary The Last Days of Left Eye, Lopes is shown choosing a casket for the child from a local funeral home. Earlier in the documentary, Lopes mentioned that she felt the presence of a "spirit" following her, and was struck by the fact that the child killed in the accident shared a similar last name, even thinking that the spirit may have made a mistake by taking his life instead of hers.

Death

On April 25, 2002, Lopes was driving a rented Mitsubishi Montero SUV in La Ceiba, Honduras, when she swerved slightly to avoid a truck (it is not clear if the truck was slow-moving or stationary) then immediately to the right as she tried to avoid an oncoming car. The vehicle rolled several times after hitting two trees, throwing Lopes and three others out of the windows, and finally coming to rest in a ditch at the side of the road. Lopes, at the age of 30, died instantly of "fracture of the base of the cranium" and "open cerebral trauma", and was the only person fatally injured in the accident. A cameraman in the front passenger seat was videotaping at the time, so the last seconds leading up to the swerve that resulted in the fatal accident were recorded on video. Victims of the accident were taken to Liverpool Royal Hospital. Her sister Reigndrop Lopes was in the vehicle and survived the collision.

Lopes' funeral was held at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, on May 2, 2002. Thousands of people attended. Engraved upon her casket were the lyrics to her portion of "Waterfalls", stating "Dreams are hopeless aspirations, in hopes of coming true, believe in yourself, the rest is up to me and you." Gospel duo Mary Mary sang their song "Shackles (Praise You)" at the funeral. Lopes was buried at Hillandale Memorial Gardens in Lithonia.

In a statement to MTV, producer Jermaine Dupri remembered Lopes: "She was determined to be something in life. She was a true rock star. She didn't care about no press. She was the rock star out of the group. She was the one that would curse on TV. She had the tattoos. You could expect the unexpected. When you see Lisa, you could expect something from her. That's the gift she carried."

Legacy

Lopes was in the process of setting up two educational centers for Honduran children. One was built on an 80-acre plot of land she called Camp YAC. The other center was called Creative Castle.

In 2003, shortly after Lopes' death, her family started the Lisa Lopes Foundation, a charitable group dedicated to providing neglected and abandoned youth with the resources necessary to increase their quality of life. Her spiritual motto was the one used for her foundation: "Energy never dies... it just transforms." Her foundation went into various underdeveloped villages and gave new clothes to poor children and their families. In August 2007, the foundation hosted a charity auction, selling items donated by celebrities. It raised approximately $5,000 for the Hogar de Amor ("Home of Love"), an orphanage in Honduras. In 2012, the foundation began hosting an annual music festival, known as "Left Eye Music Fest", in Decatur, Georgia.In the 2018 Boots Riley film Sorry to Bother You, members of a fictional activist group called "Left Eye" use as their symbol a stripe of eye black under the left eye, in an unmentioned reference to Lopes.

Posthumous documentary

A documentary showing the final 27 days of Lopes' life, titled The Last Days of Left Eye, premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival in April 2007, for an audience that included many of Lopes' contemporaries, including Monica, Ronnie DeVoe, 112, Big Boi, India.Arie, and Cee Lo Green. VH1 and VH1 Soul broadcast the documentary on May 19, 2007. Most of the footage was shot with a handheld camera, often in the form of diary entries filmed by Lopes while on a 30-day spiritual retreat in Honduras with sister Reigndrop, brother Ronald and members of the R&B group Egypt. In these entries, she reflected on her personal life and career. A calmer side of her personality was on display, showing interests in numerology and yoga. In January 2020, Lifetime aired an episode of Hopelessly In Love, a docuseries that captures the relationships of the rich and famous, about Lopes and Rison's tumultuous relationship. It showcased the complexity of their relationship and how she ended up with a felony arson charge for burning down Rison's Atlanta mansion.

#05/27 #04/25

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thebibliomancer · 4 years

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Dark Crystal Age of Resistance Tactics liveblog pt 9

Even though I already befriended the Drenchen forever last time, I keep hanging around a swamp because I heard there was a SkekSil hanging around and I wanted to see him in his natural habitat.

Zing.

Now that the Drenchen are my best friends forever (high five, Gurjin!), I have to save them from the Chamberlain doing Chamberlain things.

Mission: Bogged Down - Putrid Banks

"The heroes set out to aid a Drenchen encampment. Rumor has it that the Chamberlain has been causing trouble."

I hope he doesn't have any threaders. Thats too much mind control in one place.

Aw dammit a bunch of hostile Drenchen. I'm always fighting Gelfling! There's not going to be any left to unify after everything at this rate! Short-coming of the narrative, I guess. If it was set later in the timeline, we could fight Garthim and Crystal Bats.

Maybe the sequel should get on that, hint hint?

And there's poisonous swamp water everywhere!

My swamp dream team is Gurjin, Naia, Rek'yr, Hup, and Kylan.

Because they're my lowest levelled but also because Gurjin and Naia are Drenchen and are immune to poison swamp water.

Dammit, the Chamberlain told the Drenchen that my group were fugitives.

Gurjin, you're a prince or something, can't you do something about this?

Apparently not.

But things are going okay. Sure, I can't cross the swamp very effectively except with the pet Nurloc, Naia, and Gurjin but do you know what is very effectively?

Kylan and Naia as a combo. Mark plus Double Strike? Very good. Beating up all the fools/members of her own clan.

AND GURJIN!

I've never used Defeaning Roar before even though its been on his movelist for a while but I love the graphic for it! It creates a blue energy shell around the unit which they bang ineffectually on with their fist! Its like noise proofing, for annoying mages!

Rek'yr, as you might expect from a desert guy, doesn't take well to the swamp. Most of the enemies that have attacked so far have ganged up on him. But he's still holding his own.

I'm very proud of my resistance group.

And then I gang up on the last guy, stack him with conditions, and kick the crap out of him.

Then Gurjin delivers a speech about freeing everyone from the Skeksis' tyranny which everyone is too unconscious to hear.

Its a feel good victory.

EVERYONE LEVELED UP!

Rek'yr learned Evasive (passive +15 evasion), Gurjin learned Tempered Stone (attack up for three turns if critical hit), Hup learned Friendship (he had this all along (ok fine, buffs accuracy and critical chance to adjacent allied beasts)), Naia learned Flurry of Steel (attack and take your next turn sooner), and Kylan learned Aimed Shot (attack a marked enemy for massive damage).

Oops, Kylan got to level 5, so I have to start training him on Mender so he can be a Song Teller, like the prophecy says.

Gurjin and Naia will stay Stone Warden and Paladin respectively. Feels like good symmetry for them.

I'm just going around the wheel with Hup so he needs five more levels in Tamer so he can become a Potion Master.

Rek'yr I'm going to try to make a Grave Dancer because it sounds rad and because he flirts over funerary arrangements. But he's a level 5 thief now so I need to get him to Paladin, which means Soldier. Since I'm making him a fighty guy, I'm giving him the Dousan Axe.

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Encounter - Putrid Banks - Fight a challenge to test your mettle

Always with the testing my mettle, geez.

Dang the swamp is full of darkened nurlocs and windsifters. This game is doing a slightly better job at making me remember the Darkening is an ongoing concern than the show.

Since encounters help you get more xp, I'm bringing my lowest levelled people Breg, Alyadon, Rian, Brea, and... Rek'yr? You just levelled!

New guy has to play catch-up a lot.

Well. That went well enough. Breg died. Poor Breg.

Rian leveled up so now I can start him on Stone Wardening so I can eventually make him the big-brained strategist of the resistance. And Alyadon levelled up so I can make her a tracker or thief. I forgot what the plan was for her. I don't have a dedicated Mender and she was one of those so maybe time to lean into that?

But if she's going to be in a basic job, I'm giving her nice things. A Dusty Tome so she can attack from afar, an Apprentice's Cloak because I was out of clothes, and a Pouch of Hollerbat Fur.

Decked to the nines.

---

Geez, you never get much money in this game. I feel like a really long time goes by between being able to buy next tier equipment for my party but other than grinding on Encounters (which don't give much) I don't see what I can do.

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Mission: Creepy-Crawlies - Muddy Shallows

"Hot on the Chamberlain's trail, the heroes are stopped when they encounter an army of Arathim."

Dangit SkekSil!

My party is Breg and Rek'yr, doomed to always be the lowest levelled guys from some reason (its because Rek'yr just joined and Breg keeps dying), Brea and Boggi because a girl and her shouty dog is just classic, and Hup because Hup already knows Friendship.

The spiders talk, which I know they can do from the show but I don't think they've done in the game yet.

Gurjin: "Now he's convinced the Arathim to help him? We have to stop the Chamberlain and his manipulative ways."

Just keep Rian away from him. He's a good kid but way too easily swayed.

"Well this is not going great, what with all the spit but at least nobody as died so f- HUP NOOOOOO"

But despite spending much of the mission with most of my party hovering in low health, Hup is the only one who did die by the end. I'm surprised. Usually my team starts dropping like flies.

It occurs to me that this was a filler mission padding out a filler story arc padding out the show plot by having Chamberlain Up To Something.

Good news is that everyone level up!

Breg learned Evasive, Boggi learned Concentrate (Magic Up and Shell for one turn, take next turn sooner), Brea learned Landslide (Stun all adjacent units, nice), Hup learns NOTHING, Rek'yr learned to Shove people.

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Mission: The Chamberlain's Deception - Drenchen Encampment

"The heroes reach the Drenchen encampment and confront the manipulative Chamberlain"

Well, I won't say no to kicking his butt a second and a half time and stealing his clothes again.

I do wonder if we'll get to fight more Skeksis besides the Chamberlain, the Hunter, and presumably the General.

Geez, this map is huge.

I'm bringing Deet, Gurjin and Naia (home turf), Kylan (because he's Naia's bestie), and Breg. Because I'm always bringing Breg. Poor guy needs more experience constantly.

Gurjin: "Begone Chamberlain! Your kind is no longer welcome, drainer!"

The Chamberlain: "Please... Skeksis come only to help Gelfling living so far away. We bring them back to the castle. GIve them much-needed food and supplies."

He has a trustworthy face, I say we trust him.

Rian: "Don't listen to him! He plans to drain you all for your essence!"

Then again, Rian is a protagonist. He might be right.

Chamberlain: "Wicked Gelfling spread lies! Capture the fugitives and skekSil will reward you all at the Castle!"

-me hits a Drenchen after they hit me-

Chamberlain: "You see! Gelfling here to hurt you"

I MEAN. It doesn't look good for us! 90% of what we do is roll into town and beat up other Gelfling!

Soo. I lost.

Its a bad setup. There's a lot of swamp water in the middle that Chamberlain can just sit on the other side of and lob his ridiculous 4 and 5 ranged apparently perfect accuracy confuse Please, Please and stun Spithead abilities across.

All the Gelfling enemies are Drenchen so they can cross the swamp water no problem or darkened armaligs which have ridiculous defense.

Chamberlain himself has 1000 HP. You only have to beat him but he plays keep away on the other side of the swamp. And if you try to keep out of his range, then he'll cross over but run away if you attack him too much. And he's seemingly immune to status effects.

Trying again with Rian, Gurjin, Naia, Brea, and Hup. The all-star squad.

And I lost again. Chamberlain is just too able to lock down the party with confuse and stun and not to mention converting your people onto his team. I even got his MP down to nothing and he still used an ability to I can't win via attrition either. And when you take out half the enemy units, he automatically goes hopped up on essence and can use Skeksis Friend to convert a confused team member.

I had Hup, who could clear confusion but he died.

Eesh, what a disaster.

Going to try Hup, Alyadon, Brea, Rian and Naia. Alyadon and Hup can both clear statuses, Brea and Alyadon can heal. Rian can hit things. And Naia can hit things but look cooler when she does.

Oh, shit I actually won. I lost everyone but Naia. Heck, I lost everyone but Brea, Alyadon, and Naia just getting across the swamp to where Chamberlain was. Hup and Rian both got cornered and slowly beaten to death =(

I had Alyadon mark the Chamberlain, then he executed her =(

I had Brea dreamfast to give Naia more MP, then two armaligs bumped her to death at the cost of their own lives =(

And then Naia did double strike AND IT WAS THE DRAMATIC LAST BLOW! GOOD STUFF!

I didn't denude the Chamberlain again but I did steal his Signet Ring and got a book of Drenchen legends.

The ring lets the equipped hero start battle with ten turns of Guardian's Blessing! Which means an auto-revive! I'd have to suck a lot to die in the first ten turns but STILL NEAT

Giving it to Naia, she more than earned it!

Drenchen Legends is a spellbook, grants a ranged magic attack with 30% chance to inflict poison. GIVING IT TO BREA, SHE EARNED IT! Plus, she loves to read.

And Brea and Naia levelled up, as befits THE LAST TWO PEOPLE STANDING.

PHEW

Brea learned Channel (grant adjacent allies MP regen? YES THANK YOU) and Naia learned Retribution WHICH IS VERY APPROPRIATE FOR HOW I GOT IT (50% chance to counter attack melee attacks). I kept wishing Naia could counter the whole mission when she was confused and being slowly beaten to death by a mender.

I spent some of my battle spoils giving some teeth to Gurjin and Rek'yr and buying Brea some bat fur.

And thats where I leave off because that is just enough for right now. I really thought I'd just be stuck at this point and have to grind on bar fights!

#dark crystal #the dark crystal #dark crystal age of resistance #dark crystal age of resistance tactics #THE GAME #liveblog #things started smoothly and then got a little hectic and then got a whole heckin lot hectic #difficulty curve!

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pplydm · 4 years

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ePUB#46

Title: Oona Out of Order Author: Margarita Montimore

Based on the synopsis, this is the uncanny story of Oona. She was blessed (and cursed!) with the power to travel through time, basically back and forth in any of her specific years. Unfortunately, she isn't in control and surprises herself every time when is the next age she'll wake up in. It happens in her birthday which is the New Years day at the same time. I do find the concept of making the date of new year similar to the protagonist's birthday rather overused in romantic comedy and fictional drama films. It appeared to me Oona meets a different set of peers every year. I didn't expect inclusion of a frivolous phase of 27 year old Oona with the dancing hobby and partying habit; clubbing craziness accompanied with several ostentatious queer acquaintances. Also, I expected Edward’s extent of niceness and loving, a facade; he was a major red flag! There were also quite bothering number of occasional misunderstandings between Oona with either her mom, Madeleine, or Kenzie in some years. I daresay Oona is Oona no matter the advantages time travel may provide. She may write guidelines, cheat sheets, spoilers, etc. for herself but her dominant personalities and preferences are rooted. Apparently explaining why she ends up with almost the exact outcomes as her life originally turned out. Props to the author allowing the main character be financially literate and all the more, maintained it throughout the lifetime. Naturally due to time travel being the focus, the essence of wise investments is obligatory to be brought up.

If this book wanted its readers confused, I sure will attest to experiencing precisely that. The disorganized arrangement of her life totally put my thoughts somewhat slightly in shambles too. The story dove into its fantasy premise immediately. The time travel started from the very first chapter in contrast to my expectation which was that the narration would begin with the scene how Oona's cool life glitch came to be. I slowly adjusted with Oona's journey quirks then settled myself eventually. One has to finish this until the end to reach the satisfaction of the stories falling perfectly into its respective year and grasping why those were the occurrences in every leap. I consider the author creative with the titles she crafted and picked for the age seasons Oona went through. That made me feel like I'm reading a biography and a posh, lifestyle magazine combined into one. Excuse my lack of better sentences as description. The book name “Oona Out of Order” sounded like a children’s storybook title which makes it fascinating. The drama and tensions among her immediate relatives strikes the heart, making my general star rating a 4/5 when in fact only deserves 3/5.

Sidenote: Since this was dedicated to the author's grandmother named Oola, I like to imagine Oola retelling her life and there are times when she incorrectly places certain personal events to its respective timestamp as she shares. Thus producing the inspiration for the magical input of time travel. And maybe, Oola, just like some people, enjoy to relish and relive her great memories along with the deplorable ones she may probably desire to grab an opportunity to undo. Collected several quotes as I read along:

but the world is gonna carry on whether you spend the year moping in bed or exploring it.

being able to buy anything put a spotlight on the things that couldn't be bought (lost friendship, lost love, lost time)

Mama used to say what you dislike in other people is really what you dislike in yourself.

Vietnam was equally enchanting and humbling. The impoverished conditions of many locals put her in her place. Here were people with real hardships, yet she continued to obsess over life's injustices against her. How ungrateful, to mope while staying in four-and five-star hotels, how tiresome this sullenness.

As her wanderlust and appetite for novelty grew, she became less afraid of solitude.

It felt good to get lost and was tempting to stay lost.

But there was a freedom in making mistakes, feeling broken, falling into the void, and then climbing out. A freedom in letting go, setting aside, moving on.

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adamwatchesmovies · 4 years

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The Worst of 2019

I had to follow-up my “Best of 2019″ list with its opposite universe counterpart but before I give the movies that made me suffer another lashing, let’s make a couple of things clear. I’m not a paid professional and even if I was, all I would be is a film critic. Making movies is hard. Nobody in the industry aims to do a bad job - there are much easier ways to make a living. Even though I might’ve hated these films with a passion that still smolders now, I’ve got mad respect for anyone who decides to put themselves out there and put together a movie. At the end of the day, your work is going to live on. You made something millions will see. Me? I’ll ultimately fade away. Take this into consideration as we single out the movies that tried and failed, sometimes spectacularly.

10. Cats

Cats is the kind of movie that doesn’t come around often. It’s actually kind of fascinating to watch, or it would be if it weren’t so boring. Rebel Wilson (who was destined to have a movie on this list when she starred in The Hustle) plays a cat who unzips her skin to reveal an outfit… above her skin again? She leads a choreographed troupe of singing mice and cockroaches that fill you with terror and confusion. It’s as if they’ve been scaled so the actors could scoop them up and swallow them whole - as cats would do - but because human proportions are so different from cat’s the objects and other animals they interact with change size from scene to scene. Meanwhile, Idris Elba is prowling around with his coat all open, his non-existent junk exposed to all who want to see. Our main character is so bland and unmemorable she makes no impact on you whatsoever. There’s magic in a plot that’s composed almost entirely of introductions - which might make it accurate to the broadway show but not entertaining as a movie -, dodgy special effects in every frame, lame jokes coming from the left and the right… and yet, I don’t hate this film like I do the others on this list. In fact, a part of me even admires Cats.

The thing is, had this movie worked, it would’ve been hailed as genius. It didn’t so it’s being ridiculed but I have to give it points for its ambition and willingness to take chances. That means a lot in a year in which every single one of the top ten grossing films were sequels, remakes or expansions of already-existing properties.The gamble didn’t pay off, but Cats had the guts to walk up to the plate.

9. Dumbo

I was tempted to lump The Lion King and Aladdin along with this tale of a baby elephant that learns to fly while a family of circus performers learn that the big circus tycoon played by Michael Keaton is a meanie. Few of the Disney “live-action” remakes do anything to validate their existence. They’re just feeding you what you can already watch at home for free because you probably already own the originals on home video or you have Disney+. I’m going to single out Dumbo as the worst because it actually tried something different and failed spectacularly. This means we can expect all future Disney remakes to take as few chances as possible.

8. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot

There are other movies I could’ve put in this spot (see the Runner-Ups section below for examples) but I had to consider the experience as well as the movie itself. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is an unfunny comedy that walks into the room as if it’s going to marry your mother and be your new father. It makes fun of the very thing it’s doing. This might make it appealing to members of the “View Askewniverse” cult but not to me. Whether you’ve been brainwashed by Kevin Smith or not, it’s impossible to sit through the painful bonus material which follows the film, particularly the interviews conducted by Jason Mewes. The actor displays no charisma whatsoever while asking questions you don’t care about to people who obviously don’t want to be on camera. I get what Smith was doing; he was trying to give his fans more than just the movie but anyone in their right mind should’ve seen the bonus footage and burned it.

4. Dark Phoenix

What a disappointing way to end the X-Men franchise. Dull until the very end and then interesting for just enough time to make you realize you didn’t just dream it all, the movie was a bad idea from the start. We haven’t known the young version of the X-Men long enough for this story to mean anything and the choices made to make this story more faithful to the comics makes you wonder if you stepped into the wrong movie. Even before seeing Dark Phoenix, I thought people were being too harsh on The Last Stand. They did a lot of things wrong in 2006 but they had the good sense to leave out the aliens. It’s not great but it’s been somewhat redeemed since because its plot advanced the series and meant something in the end. Even if Disney had considered keeping this franchise alive while it was acquiring Fox, this is such a mess they now have no choice but to reboot the whole thing.

4. Jexi

Jexi feels like it just escaped from a time capsule. Even when it would’ve been new, it wouldn’t have been funny. This had no business appearing in theatres and watching the trailer again reminded me of why I hated it as much as I did. If you suspect you have mutant powers that just need to be unlocked by a traumatic or life-altering event, barricade your doors and start playing this movie. You’ll want to escape so desperately, you might suddenly develop the ability to bend space and time.

6. Rambo: Last Blood

This 5th entry in the Rambo series didn’t even have the guts to commit to being a proper conclusion. The titular character appears to succumb to his wounds as the picture closes… only to get up and go find medical attention during the end credits. Senselessly gory and violent, its depiction of Mexico leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

5. Shaft

No one was asking for this movie, not even fans of the original Richard Roundtree films or the 2000 Sam Jackson reboot. It tired story attempts to introduce a new version of the classic blaxploitation character to a new audience. In the process, it makes you hate the two “heroes” we follow through a generic plot filled with offensive humor. The only good thing about Shaft is that it prompted me to check out the originals.

3. My People, My Country

The Farewell made me think a lot about how we should view other cultures, particularly China. In it, Awkwafina’s Billi is caught in a moral dilemma when she learns her beloved grandmother is dying and that her family is keeping the secret from sweet Nai Nai. You go in thinking the American-raised woman is going to do the right thing by tearing the charade apart but it’s not long before you realize this scenario isn't that simple. When it comes to My People, My Country, I am going to judge. What’s the moral of this movie again? Give up your life, your dreams, your family for the sake of a country that sees you as nothing more than an expandable pion? If that weren’t bad enough, the movie’s so dull it’ll be an epic struggle to stay awake. Whose idea was it to have an entire segment of this anthology dedicated to the engineers who ensured the mechanism that would raise China’s flag in 1949? It’s as exciting as it sounds.

2. ¡Ay, mi madre!

The worst part of this list is that I know how few people reading will be able to relate. ¡Ay, mi madre! wasn't released theatrically in North America, but movies release “Straight to Netflix” have become such a big deal I’ll make an exception to my usual rule of disqualifying direct-to movies from this list. In terms of filmmaking, this is the worst movie I’ve seen in a long, long time. It’s more technically inept than anything else on this list by far. The comedy is so unfunny it’ll make you question your life, the actors are not convincing even before they open their mouths to speak and the ending might as well be a big middle finger towards the people watching. It ha no ending, almost as if they cobbled together the few salvageable strands of footage someone scooped out of the trash into something vaguely related to “coherent”. Remember the name so you know never to click “play” if you happen upon it like I did.

The Runner-Ups

Simmba

I was deeply offended by this Bollywood film but technically, it’s a 2018 movie so I decided to only include it here. It’s loathsome but admittedly, my hatred for it has somewhat subsided since I saw it. Don’t ask me why. This movie sucks.

Playmobil The Movie

This is what we thought we were going to get when they announced “The Lego Movie”. Terrible songs, a lazy plot that makes terrible use of the property it’s advertising, unfunny jokes, and a lack of imagination guarantee this film is destined to make everyone involved regret the day it was released.

Hellboy

Yet another failed superhero movie that enthusiastically sets itself up for a sequel when it’s so obvious to everyone watching that there isn’t going to be one. The one thing it’s got going for it is a pretty cool scene towards the end where demons escape into our world and begin tearing civilians to pieces. To get to that, you must sit through endless scenes that bash you over the head with a mallet marked “Rated R”. Gallons of blood and intestines spilling onto the floor, doesn’t mean the movie is meant for adults. This was written by a teenager disguised as a grown-up.

Gemini man

They waited all these years for the de-aging technology to get where it is now… for this story? Someone should’ve pointed out to director Ang Lee when he was getting ready to film that training doesn’t alter your DNA. Why waste millions cloning Will Smith when you could just raise a normal kid and train them to be an assassin? Ultimately, the movie isn’t really all that bad. It’s watchable but it’s such a big disappointment it needs to be taught a lesson.

Replicas

I’m giving this one a break because no one saw it. I also think it’ll play better at home, where you’ll be free to make fun of it or verbally abuse the loopy plot aloud while your friends listen. If there’s a movie this year that was “So bad it’s good”, it’s this one.

After

At least “Twilight” had its original take on vampires and some danger mixed into its romantic triangle to keep things theoretically interesting. This film started off as - I kid you not - a “One Direction” fan-fic. The drama it serves up will have you howling like a werewolf flying through laughing gas. On the upside, a sequel is coming. In fact, the teaser is scheduled for today!

1. Unplanned

This was the most uncomfortable movie experience of 2019. Most of the Christian propaganda films don’t seem to put much effort into their production - they’re preaching to the choir so why should they? - but 2019 had Breakthrough, which was quite good. It showed these movies don’t have to appeal solely to the churches who will buy tickets en-masse. This movie is ridiculous, gory like a horror film, misleading, and phony. It did have what is undoubtedly the most outrageous and unintentionally funny dialogue of the year, however. “Fast food outlets look to break even on the hamburgers they sell. That’s all they do is break even ... Do you know where they make all their money? The french fries and soda. Low cost, high margin items. Abortion is our fries-and-soda.” Are we sure this was based on a true story? If so, I don’t know why the director decided to edit out the scenes in which Cheryl (Robia Scott) takes the buckets of aborted fetuses home to cook them. I think it would’ve really driven home how evil her character is. I felt dirty sitting in the theater next to people who ate this up.

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years

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YOU GUYS I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS

I guarantee you'll be surprised by the consequences of the licensing deal for DOS, just as it's easier to get people to remember just one quote about programming, it would be more interested in an essay about why something isn't the problem, even though you know that free with just two exclamation points has a probability of. Then when you reach for the sledgehammer; if their kids won't listen to them, because you can, to a limited extent, simulate a closure a function that takes a number n, and returns a function that refers to variables defined in enclosing scopes by defining a class with one method and a field to replace each variable from an enclosing scope.1 The US Is Not Yet a Police State. Better Judgement Needed If the number of users and the problem is usually artificial and predetermined. There are two main kinds of error that get in the way you'd expect any subculture to be, in certain specific moments like your family, this month a fixed amount you need to simplify and clarify, and the threat to potential investors and they hope this will make it big is not simply to give them at least 20 years, and then at each point the way such a project would play out? You could do it than literally making a mark on the world.2 I'll come running.3 They make such great CEOs. First of all, for the most part they punt. For all its power, Silicon Valley is that you get discouraged when no one else at the time.

But there is also huge source of implicit tags that they ignore: the text within web links.4 It was more prestigious to be one of those things until you strike something. Both self-control and experience have this effect: to eliminate the random biases that come from your own circumstances, and tricks played by the artist.5 It's very common for startups to exist.6 But even in the mating dance, patents are part of the mob, stand as far away from it myself; I see it there on the page and quickly move on to the next step, whatever that is. Meanwhile the iPhone is selling better than ever. 4 million is starting to appear in the mainstream media came from. People's best friends are likely to be careful here to distinguish between them. If you have multiple founders, esprit de corps binds them together in one place for a certain percentage of your startup. There is more to be actively curious. Most CEOs delegate taste to a subordinate.7 The closest thing seemed to be synonymous with quiet, so I won't repeat it all here.

The nature of the application domain.8 Mean People Fail November 2014 It struck me recently how few of the startups we fund. Angels don't like publicity.9 That can be useful when it's a crappy version one made by a company called Y Combinator that said Y Combinator does seed funding for startups is way less than the measurement error. But there is no argument about that—at least in computational bottlenecks. And in the film industry, though producers may second-guess directors, the director controls most of what is now called VoIP, and it will take off. Instead of bubbling up from the bottom, by overpaying unions, the traditional news media, and the techniques I used may be applicable to ideas in general.10 If someone proves a new theorem, it takes some work by the reader to decide whether or not to upvote it. But because patent trolls don't make anything physical.11

They work well enough in everyday life.12 This site isn't lame. It's all evasion.13 A comparatively safe and prosperous career with some automatic baseline prestige is dangerously tempting to someone young, who hasn't thought much about it, and the path to intelligence through carefully selected self-indulgence by mimicking more virtuous types. Spend little. Someone like Bill Gates? In the last 20 years, grown into a monstrosity. I'm not writing here about Java which I have never seen any of ITA's code, but according to one of the causes of the increase in disagreement, there's a good chance the person at the next table could help you at all. Also, startups are an all-star team. I can solve that problem by stopping entirely. Wouldn't it start to seem lame?

It would be a good idea.14 I read most things I write out loud at least once a week, cooked for the first couple generations.15 I'm not saying it's correct, incidentally, but it happens surprisingly rarely. I've learned about VC while working on it for a couple years for another company for two years. The word boss is derived from a talk at Oscon 2004.16 I assumed I'd learn what in college.17 But also it will tell you to spend too much. The problem is not the one that is. Inexperienced angels often get cold feet.18

Even more important than others? File://localhost/home/patrick/Documents/programming/python projects/UlyssesRedux/corpora/unsorted/schlep. But after a while I learned the trick of speaking fast.19 Why wouldn't young professionals make lots of new things I want to reach users, you need colleagues to brainstorm with, to talk you out of stupid decisions, and to analyze based on what a few people think in our insular little Web 2.20 Fortunately if this does happen it will take a big bite out of your round. What difference did it make if other manufacturers could offer DOS too? One of the things I had to condense the power of compound growth. Then they're mystified to find that there are degrees of coolness. It requires the kind of intensity and dedication from programmers that they will always be made to develop new technologies at a slower rate than the rest, and the second is whatever specific lies Xes differentiate themselves by believing. This bites you twice: they get less done, but they need more help because life is so precarious for them. Unless they've tried not taking board seats and found their returns are lower, they're not drifting.

Programmers don't use launch-fast-and-so is an animal.21 But it is very hard for someone who publishes online.22 Not because starting one's own company seemed too ambitious, but because it didn't look like a car spinning its wheels. It's hard for them to change. Experts have given Wikipedia middling reviews, but they weren't going to wait. Wufoo seem to have any teeth, and the useful half is the payload. This is arguably a permissible tactic.

Most books on startups also seem to be joined together, but really the thesis is an optimistic one—that everyone should go and start a startup during college, but it was simpler than they thought. I do in proper essays. Because they personally liked it. Game We saw this happen so often that we made up a name for what I learned from this experiment is that if VCs are only doing it in the plainest words and you'll be free again.23 That's the worst thing about our software. Now the results seem inspired by the Scientologist principle that what's true is what's true for you. Also, the money might come in several tranches, the later ones subject to various conditions—though this is apparently more common in deals with lower-tier investors sometimes give offers with very short fuses, because they get their ideas? If you do that you raise too many expectations. There's no reason to believe there is any field in which the most efficient solutions win, rather than working on the company to become valuable, and you don't have significant success to cheer you up when things go wrong.24

Notes

That's a good nerd, just that if the statistics they use; if anything they could to help you even be tempted to do is adjust the weights till the 1920s to financing growth with the other hand, launching something small and traditional proprietors on the admissions committee knows the professors who wrote the recommendations. If you're doing. There were a property of the world will sooner or later.

And yet I think it's publication that makes curators and dealers use neutral-sounding language. Google and Facebook are driven by money, then you're being gratuitously troublesome. We walked with him for the next round.

People were more dependent on banks for capital for expansion.

That's not a remark about the idea upon have different time quanta. Since the remaining power of Democractic party machines, but since it was 10. The chief lit a cigarette.

Without the prospect of publication, the average Edwardian might well guess wrong.

In fact, for example I've deliberately avoided saying whether the 25 people have responded to this talk, so that you can't help associating it with the founders' salaries to the prevalence of systems of seniority. Moving large amounts of new stock. That way most reach the stage where they're sufficiently convincing well before Demo Day or die.

This form of religious wars or undergraduate textbooks so determinedly neutral that they're really saying is they want to learn.

This is an interesting sort of dress rehearsal for the first 40 employees, with the issues they have that glazed over look.

According to Sports Illustrated, the first duty of the anti-dilution protections.

Currently we do at least seem to understand technology because they could not process it.

Doing a rolling close usually prevents this. The liking you have to replace you. Convertible debt is usually slow growth or excessive spending rather than given by other people.

Investors are fine with funding nerds. Cascading menus would also be argued that we wouldn't have the concept of the war, federal tax receipts have stayed close to the inane questions of the Fabian Society, it often means the startup will be, unchanging, but Joshua Schachter tells me it was wiser for them by the National Center for Education Statistics, the activation energy to start with consumer electronics and to run an online service. Seeming like they worked together mostly at night.

Instead of making n constant, it is. I started using it out of their due diligence tends to happen fast, like good scientists, motivated less by financial rewards than by you based on respect for their judgement. If you're sufficiently good bet, why not turn your company into one? Which explains the astonished stories one always hears about VC while working on such an interview.

Com/spam. So if you're a YC startup you can do it to colleagues. Doh.

That's the difference between good and bad measurers. I get the money, then their incentives aren't aligned with some question-begging answer like it's inappropriate, while she likes getting attention in the nature of server-based applications, and how unbelievably annoying it is. That's probably too much to hope for, but they can't teach students how to deal with the other direction Y Combinator.

The downside is that there's more of the expert they send to look you over.

If he's bad at it he'll work very hard to pick a date, because the median case.

They're motivated by examples of how hard they work. They're so selective that they won't be able to hire a lot of people like them—people who have money to spend a lot of classic abstract expressionism is doodling of this type: lies told by older siblings. But no planes crash if your goal is to make money from the Ordinatio of Duns Scotus: Philosophical Writings, Nelson, 1963, p. Structurally the idea that they probably wouldn't be irrational.

They thought most programming would be to say for sure whether, e. Travel has the same investor to do it to them, but investors can get done before that. To get all that matters, just as he or she would be on demand, because universities are where a lot of startups will generally raise large amounts of our own, like a wave. So as a naturalist.

It's interesting to consider behaving the opposite. Which in turn forces Digg to respond with extreme countermeasures.

Maybe that isn't really working bad unit economics, typically and then being unable to raise money, you can base brand on anything with a slight disadvantage, but historical abuses are easier for us, they are bleeding cash really fast. Though in fact it may be underestimating VCs. 25. And I've never heard of many startups from Philadelphia.

For example, understanding French will help dispel the cloud of semi-sacred mystery that surrounds a hot startup. Those investors probably thought they'd been pretty clever by getting such a dangerous mistake to believe that successful founders still get rich will use this technique, you'll be well on your product, just harder.

Common Lisp for, but those are probably not do this right you'd have reached after lots of back and forth. This is isomorphic to the company's PR people worked hard to get a real partner. In fact since 2 1.

I'm not saying that's all prep schools is to give them sufficient activation energy for enterprise software.

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casspurrjoybell · 4 years

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2018 Kia Soul Review

Used car dealership Omaha

Intro

" But he's got a great personality!" When it comes to arranged dates, this is the default description for somebody who may be doing not have in the looks department.

The Kia Soul, a compact multi-purpose lorry type thing that's not quite a subcompact crossover because of its absence of four-wheel drive, and not rather a hatchback since of its towering height, is not only a car with character brimming from every crevice, however likewise has looks covering the range from cute to dreadful, depending upon whom you ask. And simply in 2015, Kia gave the Soul a lot more wit by slapping a turbocharger on the engine to make it much more personable.

What Owners Say

2018 Kia Soul front quarter left photoThat last change, offered solely in the leading trim level, fixed a significant complaint with this spunky little automobile. For that reason, for this evaluation, J.D. Power examined a 2018 Kia Soul Exclaim geared up with optional floor mats. The price came to $23,820, consisting of the $895 location charge.

Before we talk about the results of our examination of the Kia Soul, it is useful to understand who purchases this automobile, and what they like most and least about their Souls.

More ladies than males own Kia Souls, with 52% of Soul owners recognizing as female. Compared to the Compact Multi-Purpose Vehicle section, 46% of owners are ladies.

Soul owners are about the exact same age as compact MPV owners (60 years vs. 61 years for the segment), however they enjoy considerably lower median annual home income at $59,286 (vs. $78,682). This drastic difference might be discussed by the automobiles in the competitive set, which include the Ford C-Max and Toyota Prius v, devoted hybrids that might attract more upscale buyers.

Approximately the same variety of Soul owners and compact MPV owners identify as Price Buyers, appearing to verify that lower mean annual household earnings among Kia buyers is not, within the section, dictating their choice in an automobile. Compact MPV owners are more worried about fuel economy and environmentally friendly cars than Soul owners are, reflecting the existence of dedicated hybrid designs in the competitive set.

In other respects, Soul owners and compact MPV owners are aligned with 2 exceptions. Soul owners are most likely to agree that they like a vehicle that stands apart from the crowd (72% vs. 60%) and that they like a vehicle that uses responsive handling and powerful acceleration (82% vs. 76%).

Owners report that their favorite features of the Soul are (in descending order) the exterior styling, interior decoration, driving dynamics, seats, and storage and space. Owners suggest that their least preferred features of the Soul are (in descending order) exposure and safety, the infotainment system, the climate system, the engine/transmission, and fuel economy.

What Our Expert Says

In the areas that follow, our specialist supplies her own perceptions about how the Kia Soul determines up in each of the 10 classifications that comprise the 2017 APEAL Study.

Outside

The Soul is a lorry of cartoonish proportions, all created to set it apart from its rivals. It's boxy from the beltline up and a little lumpy down, with the wheel arches and the front headlamps adding blobby aspects to an otherwise squared-off lorry. The front grille (which isn't one, actually) looks too little and the lower air intake looks too huge.

Kia jazzes up the Soul Exclaim's currently extroverted exterior with red accent lines to denote the engine's additional boost and bigger 18-inch wheels to provide it a more assertive position. The Soul is one of those automobiles that you either like or dislike, but even haters might grow keen on it after driving it for a while.

Interior

Consider the base Soul. It has a tiny beginning rate of $16,995 (with $895 location), however it features a much better interior than you 'd think a vehicle of that rate may include. The quality level easily makes sense in my more expensive test car, or even a vehicle priced closer to $30,000.

When compared to compact crossovers like the Chevrolet Trax or the Toyota C-HR, which have lots of inexpensive products, the Soul's interior quality stands apart even more. The cabin is made up of appealing soft-touch materials and durable, nicely finished plastics, and collectively they provide the vehicle a surprising quantity of refinement.

The Exclaim's unique cloth seats with leather boosts and red contrast stitching are also mighty trendy.

Seats

For motorists, the Kia Soul is rather comfy, and I always value it when small, low-cost vehicles include a center console armrest, like many versions of the Soul do. Seriously, who does not require an armrest? Nobody keeps his/her hands on the wheel at all times.

For guests, comfort is fine other than that the front right chair is mounted too low and is not geared up with a seat height adjustment unless you choose the package that consists of power change. Without this upgrade, the guest is dealt with to the equivalent of a dunce chair for a small time out. This, combined with an absence of thigh assistance, means pain.

Rear-seat travelers fare better, since the seat is mounted higher. Foot room is plentiful, however tough plastic front seatback panels might show uncomfortable for taller individuals. Shoulder area is great for 2, however three will find it tight.

Climate Control System

The climate control system is fairly basic, however in the Exclaim trim it is a single-zone automated system. A single knob changes temperature, and due to the fact that the vehicle does not have a temperature display you merely make it hotter or cooler than you are when you dial in change.

Remarkably, however, the Soul has a Clean Air ionizer, which supposedly cleans up the cabin's air and keeps the interior smelling great. If it's working with my grade-school-age daughters in the automobile, it's simply hard to inform.

Infotainment System

I was a little bummed to see that my test vehicle did not include the Technology Package, that includes speaker that pulse with light to the thumping beat of what's playing on the audio system. They're extremely entertaining, and along with all the other goodies that it features, like a navigation system and heating for the seats and steering wheel, the Technology Package is a bargain.

However, the Soul Exclaim's basic infotainment system includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone forecast, so it was simple to get directions to locations.

In addition to smartphone forecast, Kia offers Soul owners open door to UVO eServices telematics functions for the duration of ownership. This includes services such as automated collision notice; speed, curfew and geographical boundary alerts for teenaged drivers; an app that keeps an eye on where you last parked the Soul; and a lot more.

Storage and Space

The Soul's rectangular shape provides itself to bring a lot more than you would think for such a little automobile, and storage is among things that Soul owners like about their Kias. This is not unexpected, due to the fact that in the cabin, storage space is plentiful. There is a big glove box, thoughtful little bins and trays around the transmission shifter, and big door panel bins to make arranging your things easier.

Behind the rear seats, an 18.8 cu.-ft. trunk avails itself to you. That measurement consists of a covered, separated tray under the freight floor that organizes your things. Take that out and get rid of the freight floor, and this little automobile materials access to 24.2 cu.-ft. of area.

Without rear guests, you can fold the seats to produce 49.5 cu.-ft. These numbers extend beyond subcompact crossover SUV area and into the realm of bigger compacts, but just if you take the difficulty of getting rid of the useful tray.

Exposure and Safety

Motorists enjoy excellent forward exposure, but the view to the rear quarters is pretty abysmal due to the shape of the car and the width of the rearmost roof pillars. Thankfully, large side mirrors and a standard reversing cam do their finest to alleviate this problem.

While Kia makes a blind spot caution system with rear cross-traffic alert offered in both of the Soul's higher trim levels, the turbocharged Exclaim can't be geared up with functions like adaptive cruise control, forward crash warning, automated emergency situation braking, or lane departure warning. That's a disappointment.

The Soul does a great job of safeguarding occupants in a collision. The NHTSA awards the Soul a 5-star general rating for crashworthiness, while the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety offers it "Good" rankings all around.

Engine/Transmission

Soul owners point out the powertrain as one of their least preferred elements of the cars and truck. Hopefully, they'll give the turbocharged Soul Exclaim a try, as it alters the character of the car, and for the much better.

With 201 horses on tap from the 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine, the Soul Exclaim is not exactly a rocket, but it's much livelier than it used to be. Enthusiast publications claim it will accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in about 7.6 seconds, which suffices to instill your commute with some additional zip. Power shipment is fairly linear, although there is some turbo lag straight off the line.

Charged with sending out the power to the front wheels, a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission shifts correctly however gracelessly. A little more smoothness and improvement would be great, as would a manual transmission that, undoubtedly, almost no one would choose. Likewise missing is any sort of all-wheel-drive system, which would secure the Soul's membership in the popular crossover SUV sector.

Fuel Economy

The EPA estimates that you must get 28 mpg in combined driving (26 city/31 highway mpg) with a Soul Exclaim. My testing produced a return of 25.5 mpg, which isn't remarkable. The turbocharged Soul, despite making much more power than the naturally aspirated versions of the automobile, is actually a little bit more fuel effective than the engines that go into the base Soul and the Soul Plus trim.

Driving Dynamics

To assist make the most of driving enjoyment, Kia somewhat changes the Exclaim's suspension tuning, sets up larger front brakes, and includes bigger tires and wheels.

While the Soul still preferred knocking about in the city, with its diminutive footprint, active handling, and ability to absorb the ruts and bumps of disregarded public roads, it nonetheless held its own on twisty back roadways threading through local mountain ranges. The steering had a fair amount of heft to it, specifically in Sport mode, however I wanted a bit more feel, feedback and accuracy to make the vehicle more enjoyable to drive. The brakes successfully withstood fade throughout aggressive driving, too, and managed everyday driving tasks without grabbing or bringing the vehicle to a jostling stop.

No, the Kia Soul Exclaim will not be completing in autocross rallies with the Volkswagen GTI or Mazda 3 anytime soon. Its happy-go-lucky character and newfound virility makes it a lot more pleasurable to drive than the tiny crossover lorries versus which it will most likely be cross-shopped.

Last Impressions

By now, everyone needs to recognize with Kia's generous warranty that covers the whole automobile for 5 years or 60,000 miles, while the powertrain is protected for 10 years or 100,000 miles, along with complimentary roadside support for 5 years with no mileage limitation. That interest the rational side of your brain, along with the quality awards that both this cars and truck and Kia have actually received from J.D. Power recently.

What's more, the Kia Soul has a personality. Yes, it's a little strange. And now, with its available turbocharged engine, it is more appealing than ever previously.

There are a lot of people who drive the same thing everyone else does. With a Kia Soul parked in your driveway, you can proudly be one of the others.

2018 Kia Soul front quarter left photoThat last modification, used entirely in the leading trim level, solved a major grievance with this spunky little cars and truck. For this review, J.D. Power evaluated a 2018 Kia Soul Exclaim equipped with optional flooring mats. For drivers, the Kia Soul is quite comfortable, and I constantly value it when little, low-cost vehicles include a center console armrest, like the majority of versions of the Soul do. The Soul's rectangle-shaped shape provides itself to carrying a lot more than you would think for such a little car, and storage is one of things that Soul owners like about their Kias. The turbocharged Soul, in spite of making much more power than the naturally aspirated versions of the car, is really a little bit more fuel effective than the engines that go into the base Soul and the Soul Plus trim.

#used car dealership omaha #omaha

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classyfoxdestiny · 3 years

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Meet Delivery Bhoy: The man shaking up India’s booming gig economy

He was born in Punjab, educated in Europe and worked in Mumbai for almost a decade. But the Covid-induced lockdown squeezed him out of a job last year, forcing the former UX design professional to look for ways to make a quick buck.

He worked with Swiggy for two weeks, then switched to Zomato for better pay. Months later, he had an accident while riding to deliver a birthday cake at night when a scooter rammed into him. He quit delivering food the next day.

Then, in May, he read about a person dying in an accident in Ahmedabad while on delivery duty. “Some switch flipped in me that day,” he said. He tweeted about it at night.

By the morning, his message had been retweeted hundreds of times and his followers had swelled from 20 to 1,000. Using notes and screenshots gathered during his months as a delivery agent, he began tweeting about the condition of his colleagues. “Suddenly, people were listening,” he said.

Meet Delivery Bhoy, a 40-something unmarried man who’s driving conversation about gig workers in India with his twitter handle, forcing food delivery giants to respond to his allegations of poor pay and hostile working conditions.

Bhoy — who refused to identify himself for this article — takes great pains to protect his identity. He uses VPN while tweeting, limits his chats with other riders to Telegram, connects with journalists using a fake email address and voice chat on Zoom. When he tweets screenshots of his interactions with apps, he masks details that could help trace him.

He now works as a telecaller, with better hours and pay, but continues to be listed as a delivery partner with both Zomato and Swiggy. “If I am identified, a person in my financial and social position could be in for a major blowback and retaliation. Once my name is out there, my battle gets really tough,” Bhoy said.

Like him, there are now several handles that chronicle the experiences of delivery workers. There’s Surat-based rider Nitin Singh, who uses his name and photo on Twitter, @dliverypartner, @smokey33461095 and AK, a 37-year-old Hyderabad-based Zomato delivery partner. And the first one, anonymous account @SwiggyDEHyd, which got deactivated earlier this year after its user was identified and wanted to keep his job.

Together, they spotlight questions of adequate compensation, long hours, and lack of benefits and formal protections in the gig economy.

The structural and financial challenges

Delivery Bhoy’s tweets cover a vast swathe of the gig economy. These include the punishing hours agents have to put in to meet target-based incentives, humiliation at the hands of customers, the threat of getting reported for poor service, delivering through heavy rainfall, and the constant pressure to deliver orders with almost no rest.

But a common theme running through his advocacy is the demands made by the complex payment system of the delivery apps.

Typically, the payment for delivery partners has two components: A fixed base pay and target-based incentives that could include extra orders, better ratings or no cancellations. A typical order can earn a delivery agent around ₹25 while incentives can range between ₹200 and ₹400 for high volume of orders. A five-star rating can fetch the rider between ₹5 and ₹8, the accounts say. Working during certain peaks hours and difficult phases (such as rain) means extra income.

But these vary from city to city. In Surat, for example, Singh says he is paid ₹4/kilometre for delivery and an additional 50 paise for fuel. The base wage is ₹20 for the first two kilometres. “So, if I make a delivery one or two kilometres away, I am paid ₹20. But if I travel six kilometres, I am paid ₹24. This is apart from the 50 paise per kilometre for fuel,” said Singh.

When he waits at a restaurant to pick up an order, he is to be paid ₹1 per minute. If he makes ₹300 in a day, he is paid an additional ₹190. If he makes ₹400, he is paid ₹250.

“If I am logged in for at least eight hours, including for three hours between 7pm and midnight, I take home ₹500, irrespective of how many deliveries I made and how much I earned,” said Singh.

In reality, though, the app often calculates lower distances, doesn’t pay out waiting times and penalises him for refusing to make a delivery, he alleged. Moreover, high fuel costs mean that riders spend as much as four times higher than 50p per kilometer, apart from servicing, phone, internet and other expenses.

A Zomato delivery partner operating in Delhi, who did not want to be identified, alleged that his complaints have ranged from tiny pay outs for deliveries that took a long time, low estimation of delivery distances, and wages that left little profit after expenses.

“Petrol cost is continuously rising, my motorcycle needs frequent servicing and repair, and smartphone and internet data costs money. I barely save ₹12,000 in a month after riding 12 hours a day,” he said.

Zomato said riders had flexibility and could log off when convenient but many riders said that such decisions are followed by phone calls and messages from their team leads warning them.

Bhoy agreed, saying the app pushes delivery agents to deliver as fast as they can – jeopardising their safety – because it is linked with internal rankings, benefits and incentives. Delivery partners receive automated phone calls in the middle of a ride if their order is delayed. “If a fatal accident occurs during a delivery, the pay out to the rider’s family is just ₹5 lakh,” he said.

He also pointed towards the desperation of some delivery agents. “While these platforms boast four-day work weeks with full salary for their employees, the choice we have is turn up for work, work 12 hours straight and ride at lightening speeds. Laws exist for some of the workforce and not the other. That’s the core issue,” he said.

Zomato countered this allegation, saying riders could reject an order for “a genuine reason” without penalties, but at all other times, need to fulfil a customer’s order with the “responsibility and predictability that’s very routine for any job”. Swiggy didn’t respond to this particular question.

The fate of the rider also depends on the customer’s mood, the riders alleged. “If a customer is in a bad mood, or if the delivery is delayed for any reason, they simply rate us one on a scale of five. That badly impacts our ratings,” said AK, who made ₹400 after a 10-hour duty that involved riding for 50 kilometres on an average.

The battle against misrepresentation

Bhoy’s campaign tasted some success last month when comedian Danish Sait apologised after a video featuring him was criticised for insensitivity. Bhoy led the campaign against the promotional campaign, where Sait plays a delivery agent for a day, and said it misrepresented reality and erased many of the hardships faced by delivery agents.

“I respect the work that you do, & it wouldn’t be right for me to contest any of the points you’ve raised,” the comedian wrote, agreeing to take the video down.

Last week, another set of commercials by Zomato stirred a row. These commercials, involving actor Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif, prompted Bhoy and others to say that the ads were tone deaf and showed that delivery agents had to rush from one order to the next with no rest. Their criticism forced Zomato to issue a response denying the charges.

“We believe that our ads are well-intentioned, but were unfortunately misinterpreted by some people. Having said that, we have been intently listening to all the chatter about gig workers and all the problems associated with this part of the economy. As a company, we have always acknowledged whenever we’ve come short, and we understand that you expect more and better from us,” Zomato said in a statement.

Some say that Bhoy and his supporters are well intentioned but don’t take into account the realities of the economy – and that gig workers would be far worse in the more exploitative informal economy. Others question whether Bhoy is even a real delivery agent – a charge he dismisses.

One of them is Safwan Rasheed, a 41-year-old rider with Zomato in Cochin. While he acknowledges a host of problems with the wages paid to riders, he thinks the pay is not bad in a Covid-battered economy. “I deliver food just four hours every day and make ₹350-400 easily. I know riders who earn up to ₹30,000 every month,” he said.

The mechanics of grievance redressal

But complaints by delivery partners are multiple and wide-ranging. Partners allege that the apps have a “penalty” system in place for refusal to carry out a delivery, or if a delivery was delayed. “If we refuse a delivery, we are fined ₹50. Delayed deliveries are also penalised. All this finally culminates into fewer orders for us,” said Singh. Like many riders, Singh complained he struggled to contact the companies to raise an issue.

A Zomato spokesperson countered this and said that they have 1,200 people to address the riders’ queries, “We resolve all queries well within the day itself,” the spokesperson added.

Swiggy refused to comment on the article or specific questions posed to the company but pointed to two blogs, uploaded on June 9 and July 27, that talk about the company’s Covid-19 support for delivery partners, including medical care, loss of pay, life insurance and emergency care, and a dedicated hotline SOS service that helps in compensating for pay during health crises or accidents.

“Partners who are unable to work due to on-duty medical emergencies are also granted loss of pay support, in addition to hospitalization and insurance support,” the company said in its blog.

Zomato and Swiggy are the dominant players India’s growing food delivery business and sit atop the gig economy mountain. After making its market debut in July, Zomato is valued at around $12 billion and after a new round of fundraising, Swiggy is worth around $5.5 billion.

Their success has fuelled and benefited from a burgeoning gig economy, which is set to triple over the next 3-4 years to 24 million jobs from the existing 8 million, according to a report by consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation earlier this year.

At the core of this success are the 310,000 delivery partners who work with Zomato and 170,000-odd with Swiggy. But they are not formal employees and are accordingly called partners, agents, executives or associates. Experts say this nomenclature that they are ineligible for several benefits, be it a monthly salary or a provident fund account.

Kaveri Medappa, a PhD researcher at University of Sussex studying platform-based work, said issues raised by Bhoy and other accounts reflected ground realities. Similar unrest has been seen in the platform cab industry over the last three years with drivers linked to Uber and Ola going to strike in several cities over falling commissions, rising fuel prices and low earnings.

A Zomato spokesperson said that their pay-out was fair “for the work that they put in”.

“We are proud to create hundreds of thousands of gigs for a strata of society which otherwise didn’t have a better source of income. For example, in a city like Bengaluru, the top 20% of our delivery partners who deliver on bikes and put in more than 40 hours a week receive a pay of more than ₹27,000 per month,” the spokesperson said.

But Medappa said that the pay was good only for the early birds. “With more riders joining in, the income is dipping as the pay rates and incentives are decreasing,” she said.

A Zomato spokesperson said the firm believed that “all the allegations are biased (or maybe even vested) misunderstandings”.

“According to our point of view, if these allegations were even remotely true, our business would not sustain. Why? Because our delivery partners are the face of our brand – unhappy delivery partners would lead to unhappy customers, which would be terrible for our business. It’s in our interest to ensure they are cared for and that the platform works for them,” the company said, claiming over 60% of delivery partners rated them 9 or a 10 (out of 10) in happiness surveys.

Medappa said that if these firms began caring about the riders, their promises such as time deadlines and customer satisfaction would collapse. “Their system is pretty much in favour of the customers and stacked against the riders,” she added.

The online and offline battle

Many of these accounts took to Twitter under very different circumstances. Bhoy was reeling from the death of a fellow worker. Singh wanted to vent about not getting his dues, disputed pending payments and penalties. AK was angry after he discovered the delivery fee charged to a customer was double of what he was paid.

But now their battles have coalesced into a single goal of “putting pressure” on the companies.

“Every week, I make two or three accusations. If Zomato counters them in any way, I produce the evidence. I will continue doing this till they bring real changes on the ground,” Bhoy said.

AK, Singh and others regularly provide him with material. “These riders are not employees and cannot form a union. But they can keep taking up the issues with the public until the companies feel their image is getting dented,” said AK.

They understand the power of social media. Their campaign prompted Zomato to ask Bhoy to work with them – a development confirmed by Zomato – but he refused. “Their only intention of entertaining me was that they viewed me as a PR nightmare,” he said. But he isn’t worried about repercussions. “Such a big firm will look bad if they take a delivery boy to court,” he said.

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ihearthorror · 3 years

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‘Come True’ Movie Review: A Nightmarish Look Into the Unconscious Mind

I have so much respect for those do-it-all types of filmmakers; the ones who turn a film into a personal passion project in which they invest all their time, effort, and skills into until they’ve come up with something special. Anthony Scott Burns and his latest film, Come True, is a perfect example of this sort of filmmaking, as he took on not only the directing of this Canadian sci-fi horror, but also the writing, editing, and cinematography, and he even provided some of the score under his musical stage name, Pilotpriest. Now that’s dedication.

With that said, Burns clearly had a specific vision for this film, one that he was able to pull off with a small budget and an even smaller crew. However, you’d never know, as Come True is a well-crafted film with striking visuals, impressive acting, and a fascinating plotline which is tied up with a twist ending that’ll only make you want to rewatch the movie with a new perspective.

Come True is set around an insomniac teen named Sarah (played by Julia Sarah Stone), who apparently has a troubled home life and so is essentially homeless and sleeping over at friends’ houses or even outside on playground equipment. This leads her to enroll in a university sleep study, where she befriends one of the scientists and soon discovers the true and surreal objectives of the research program.

The program has been monitoring the dreams of its sleep patients and then translating their brain wave activity into actual imagery, using a newly-developed and groundbreaking technology. In other words, they’ve been spying on their dreams. It’s something right out of a Twilight Zone episode, set to a synth-centric soundscape and a foggy tempo that leaves you feeling like you might actually be in a sleep state yourself while watching it.

In fact, this film as a whole had this sort of ambiguous element to it, from the protagonist and her backstory to the general setting of the film. But I’m sure this was done on purpose, especially considering that it really tied into the final reveal of Come True, which I’m sure some viewers will ultimately be disappointed with.

The film is cohesively broken up into four themes inspired by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung’s theories of the collective unconscious. Come True is really anchored in this realm of ideas, and visually and/or thematically inspired by the works of everyone from David Lynch to fellow Canadian David Cronenberg. Actually, the film sort of wears its influences on its sleeve, paying visual and auditory homage to classics like Night of the Living Dead, Twin Peaks, The Shining, The Prince of Darkness, and TRON, and even the recent sleep-paralysis documentary The Nightmare.

Another work that helped shape Burns’ vision was the 1951 Disney film Alice in Wonderland, which he said “inspired the dreams in this movie a lot: the artistry, the idea of spotlights, and everything else fading into blackness.” Burns continued, “A nightmare narrative that takes you on a journey of nonsense, continuously shifting based on what the protagonist is feeling at that time, is a huge inspiration for the film. I have terrible nightmares, too.”

Scattered throughout Come True are these sort of cinematic dioramas that seem to be ripped out of Sarah’s nightmares, which are simultaneously unsettling and beautiful. These particular scenes, which look like they’d be right at home in one of those depraved horror video games, also introduce an unnerving dark shadowy figure that haunts Sarah’s dreams, though it ultimately becomes a bigger piece of the puzzle here than some sort of boogeyman character.

Come True is not the type of film you’ll see riding high at the box office. They almost never are. It’s slow, it’s dreary, and it relies on complex themes and concepts rather than jump scares and bankable villains. In other words, this film is not for everyone. And sure, the fact that this movie was shot entirely in my hometown may have subconsciously influenced my rating of it, but I know that I would have enjoyed Come True no matter where it was filmed. Burns put in a lot of work here and if you ask me, it paid off.

For the record, I’d give Come True 4 stars out of 5.

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blogthepandasthumb · 3 years

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HW5

Question 1

· Predictit – Online prediction market offering exchanges on political predictions. You can trade shares on things such as current events and the outcomes of congressional races. New Zealand based, and is a project of Victoria University of Wellington, where it is used to facilitate research.

· Polymarket – Online information markets platform that allow you to bet on things such as the future price of cryptocurrency, how many people have received the COVID vaccine, and who will be the next president. There are no fees or trading caps when trading with Polymarket.

Question 2

· I feel as though prediction markets are a very interesting idea. To be able to get an idea of how a sample of individuals feel about a certain topic has very interesting implications. Also, these individuals have a higher incentive to get their prediction right when compared to a poll, because in a prediction market the individual has agreed to some degree of monetary risk. However, I do feel sampling bias might be an issue when trying to determine a likelihood of an event based on its position in the market. Those participating in trading on a prediction market most likely is of a higher socioeconomic class, and perhaps is more likely to be several various demographics. Since the data that the predictions are based on comes from those making the predictions themselves, there could be some degree of sampling bias or error.

Question 3

· I try to live my life under the framework that good things happen to good people. I truly believe that good deeds can be contagious, and if every single person on earth made a conscious effort to treat others with empathy and respect, that the world could be a very different place. However, I think this feeling is based on reciprocal altruism acting as a powerful evolutionary force that we sometimes frame as social constructs such as karma. Reciprocal altruism works when one individual temporarily reduces its fitness at the benefit of another, expecting that individual to return the favor. For instance, a bird acting as a lookout when its flock is feeding is not acting out of love for its fellow feathered brethren but expects another bird to take over when it is time to change guard. I think this applies to people as well. Subconsciously we do not agree to keep an eye on our neighbor’s house when they are away because we have deep feelings of compassion, but we hope them to return the favor when it is our turn to leave. Deep down I suspect that entropy is the one true universal constant, and our minds tend to find patterns in the randomness to keep ourselves from plunging into a nietzsche-esque cloud of hopelessness.

Question 4

· I have decided to finalize my project topic as a paper on the current state of the search of extraterrestrial life. After creating a storyboard for a short story, I could not help but feel a sense of potential regret, so the project was scrapped, and I have leaned in to gathering information on my final topic. I have purchased a few books with differing perspectives on the phenomenon and I have identified other sources of reputable information. I have also created a rough outline for the project. I hope the final document can serve as a starting point for both believers and skeptics alike to dive into the topic of SETI. I will cover a brief history of sightings, from past to present. I will also cover what scientific research is being conducted. I will discuss what evidence should be taken seriously, if any. I will also include a section on the implications of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence becoming successful.

Question 5

1. https://www.mufon.com/ - MUFON is a volunteer based nonprofit organization that is the oldest civilian UFO investigation network. The organization has experienced many changes over the years, but still serves as great starting place for those interested in UFOS.

2. https://home.tothestarsacademy.com/ - To the Stars Academy is a relatively new organization that serves to investigate documents and physical materials related to unidentified aerial phenomena. They are also involved in media outreach to raise awareness for the cause

3. https://www.seti.org/ - The SETI institute is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to searching for life elsewhere in the universe. SETI Institute serves as science-based portal for accessing information about the search for alien life

4. https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/1 - Breakthrough Listen and Breakthrough Message are multimillion dollar programs that serve to identify signs of intelligent life.

5. Purchased Book - Jacques Vallee – Passport to Magonia -This book serves to connect the modern myths and legends of alien abductions to tales from our historic cultural pasts and how we humans have been influenced from tales of visitors from the sky for a very long time.

6. Purchased Book - Jacques Vallee – Confrontations – Scientist’s Search for Alien Contact – This book serves to provide frame works for ways scientists can discuss the ideas of UFO sightings in a clear, and quantitative manor. He examines 40 cases from around the world

7. Purchased Book -Passport to the Cosmos – John E Mack – Dr. Mack examines whether the phenomenon of UFO’s are physically real, or if existence in our psyche is enough to justify their existence, even if they are not found in physical space.

8. Purchased Book - Richard Dolan – UFO’s for the 21st Century Mind. A practical, more grounded investigation of the UFO phenomenon. Offers insights on how these subjects can exist and be discussed in an academic setting with scientific integrity.

9. Purchased Book - Whitley Strieber – The Super Natural – Whitley Strieber is known for his book Communion, where he describes his experience with contact with what he describes as an alien. In this book, he revisits some of the claims he made in the past, and how his views have evolved over the years, all through the lens of how the things we view as paranormal are radically different than standard convention.

10. https://lexfridman.com/david-fravor/ - Commander Faber Interview – This long form interview is between a Navy fighter pilot and Lex Fridman, an artificial intelligence researcher out of MIT. This interview covers what is generally understood to be the most credible UFO sightings in history.

Question 6

· Last week I identified some behaviors to be addressed, and I was successful this week in addressing them.

Question 7

· I found that the use of incentives to be the most effective method to work towards my goals.

Question 8

· As time progresses, I hope my behaviors will naturally transition into healthier ones, for incentives are not always available or practical for addressing every challenge or issue.

Question 9

· In this section of Homo Deus, Harari addresses the introduction of cybernetics into our bodies and in addition to the discussion of the rate at which technology is advancing. I feel Harari brings us very interesting points, including the idea of at what point to our bodies cease becoming human? If we replace our organs and body parts one by one with cybernetics, is there a point were limitations of our former biology no longer dictate how we live, think, and interact? For some of his arguments, I feel as though can come across as short sighted. If we are at a point were the human life expectancy is at a scale of centuries, then our relationships with our families, careers, and selves will be altered in ways that will no longer be limited to our imaginations.

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