#and he was shown more back during the pilot days during ADDICT | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

katiesharms · 1 year

Note

15 (my lucky number!!!) with hangster

cruel summer - taylor swift i don't want to keep secrets just to keep you

people look at rooster and hangman and assume a lot of things.

first, they assume that the two of them are some of the best pilots the navy has to offer. this one's pretty much right on the money, and has been since the two of them first started circling each other during flight training.

the second thing people assume is that they hate each other. this one's mostly untrue, at least from hangman's perspective. sure, at the beginning, there was a good deal of animosity building between the two of them. but, over the years, jake's come to see their relationship as more one of friendly ribbing, of pushing each other to be better.

because rooster knows jake in a way no one else ever will, understands him intuitively in the air, and can anticipate this moves on the ground. and jake knows bradley just the same. they're not stationed together often, and they're never on the same squadron, but they gravitate towards each other like magnets. an inescapable pull that bounces them against one another.

the third thing people assume is that there's a lot of unresolved sexual tension between the two of them.

this one's outright false. maybe it used to be true, for the first few years of their acquaintance. hell, it was probably true all the way up until this summer, when they finally fell into bed together, fueled by the impossible to ignore attraction crackling between them and the unbearable heat of summertime in Lemoore. now, that tension is resolved. or, resolved as it can be, because every time rooster slips out of his bed, jake can feel the need start to mount in his bones, under his skin. like an addiction he can't kick.

it started casually. in a way, it still is casual. nights spent burning off the residual adrenaline and making up for nearly a decade of tension boiling between the two of them. it's not jake's fault that the tension never seems to go away.

the fourth thing people assume is that between the two of them, it's jake with the commitment issues.

this one isn't only false, but the opposite is true. maybe, once upon a time, jake would've flinched away from something consequential, something real and true. but now, when he spends his nights watching the steady way bradley's chest rises and falls, jake finds he wants that more than he ever has before.

he's pretty sure rooster would rather get his hand stuck in a rotary blade than do anything of consequence, though. their relationship exists in the cover of night, hidden from prying eyes and curious friends. jake hasn't even told javy, sworn to secrecy by rooster. it makes him feel almost dirty, like he's not someone bradley would ever want to be associated with.

jake tries not to think about it too much. he has bradley for now, and that's enough. they'll ride out this deployment together for as long as it lasts.

it turns out, that's a lot less time than jake thought they had.

"so, i'll see you tomorrow?" he asks, trying to keep the hope out of his voice as bradley slides out of jake's bed.

"i leave for oceana tomorrow," bradley says casually, pulling his pants up.

jake feels something akin to a stone drop in his stomach. "i didn't know you got reassigned." why didn't you tell me? sits at the back of his throat, unsaid.

rooster shrugs. "didn't seem like a big deal. i mean, it's not like we're going steady or anything." rooster shoots jake a smirk, and it curdles in jake's belly.

because yeah, technically, they weren't going steady or exclusive or anything like that. but jake hasn't slept with anyone else since bradley first crawled into his bed, that heady day in june. and he knows more about bradley than he's ever known about any of his relationships, the story behind every scar, how he snorts when he laughs hard enough, the way his knee always feels sore when it's going to rain. in turn, he's shown parts of himself to rooster that he's never shown anyone before, except maybe javy.

but yeah. they're not dating. and bradley's just made it very clear that that was never the plan.

"right," jake says coldly, keeping his voice level. "well, don't die, i guess."

rooster snorts. "what warm wishes; i'll try my best. same to you."

he gives jake a mock salute and then leaves, slamming the door shut on the way out. it's here, in his messy sheets, the smell of rooster's cologne lingering in the air, that jake realizes the terrible truth: he's in love with bradley bradshaw.

#thanks for the prompt!!!#top gun fanfiction #top gun maverick #jake hangman seresin #hangster #bradley rooster bradshaw #prompts

100 notes · View notes

talesofafangirlwithadvr · 4 years

Text

JULY PICKS!

You heard me correctly, I said JULY! Whoosh, this year is going by fast-but not in a good way if you know what I mean. This will be my last monthly wrap up where I am strictly staying home in quarantine as this upcoming week I’m heading back to work in person. Wish me luck!

We had quite the range this month from newly released, reality, musical and then some favorites from last month that I’ve continued watching. Without further ado here we go....

There’s going to be PLENTY of SPOILERS this go round. ESPECIALLY with my first pick of Stargirl. You’ve been warned!!!

DC’S STARGIRL

I need to talk about 1x10 or I’m going to burst!!! As stated above there will be A LOT of SPOILERS IN THIS POST!! So scroll down to the next picture if you don’t want it to be spoiled.

You’ve been warned...again.

IT CANNOT END LIKE THAT!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? Henry! Wow! 1) Epic fighting 2) The backstory and how he wasn’t going to give up on his dad AND THEN how he wouldn’t give into his dad. 3) HE DIED RATHER THAN JOIN HIS SIDE OR PRETEND (which I honestly felt was going to happen). His character arc and I can’t believe it’s over!!! 4) His speech at the end: *weeping.* I knew Brainwave was going to say he killed his mother. It just felt like the build up. Brainwave Jr. would have been a GREAT ADDITION TO THE JSA! AND OMG THE WAY THE REST OF THEM FOUGHT FOR HIM! I loved how they framed it so you could still see them in the back when Henry spoke to his father. Super heartbreaking. Man, it feels like a lot of people have been killed off this first season (or am I just still thinking about Joey?)

Side note: Check out the Instagram Live between father and son Brainwave on Stargirl’s CW page. Jake Austin Walker did an AWESOME interview in his take over.

This was one of the strongest episodes overall and definitely one of my favorites so far. I agree with many others that while it is SOO GOOD and I want to rewatch it again, I don’t know if I can emotionally yet. I can’t remember the last time I felt that way about a show.

Some other thoughts this episode: WAY TO GO BARBARA! Way to record them to translate later (such an awesome app btw, how do I get it?). I’m glad her and Pat came more to an understanding because I love them especially with that glimpse into how they met. Jordan’s parents give me the creeps, like the couple from The Visit vibes. I feel like Mike’s got to find out ASAP, especially because he’s spent time in the garage. Something’s got to show him the truth; because I’m really feeling he figures it out rather than being told. Very curious to see what his reaction will be. SOLOMON GRUNDY. Thank God Beth talked Rick down. She really is like Chuck in being the voice of reason. She did really well in the cafeteria too. While I still don’t believe Starman is Courtney’s dad, how cute was it when she put together her and Henry were cousins? Speaking of Court’s dad, who else didn’t feel like Starman was her dad until they saw that upcoming promo? I don’t know who that impostor is but he is not her dad. Something’s fishy.

Loving this show. So happy it’s renewed for a second season!!

THE 100

From a show I can’t get enough of to one whose final season is a disappointment. I’m not going to spend too much time talking about The 100 because I feel I’ll just be repeating myself from previous posts. However, I did want to include it because I haven’t spoken much about the previous 2 episodes that I wound up watching back to back and I didn’t overly dislike them.

As many have complained, when you have a final season you shouldn’t introduce SO MANY new characters and just push aside your originals (or the ones who are left). You also shouldn’t include so many confusing plots that are making it look like were the main points overall (like this many world concept was around since the first grounders) and playing with time in so many episodes is hard to keep up with too. Having so many people separated makes it difficult to remember what just happened to this specific group because I haven’t seen them in forever. ANYWAY, I did promise some positives. I didn’t except to like 7x08 because of it being a flashback episode with brand new people that was just going to feel like a potential spin-off pilot. Well...I actually really enjoyed it and the concept that the bunker was used before One Crew. The characters were easy to like and it was cool seeing Allie again (and this time not as the villain). While it felt forced including the orb (is that what it’s called? If not that’s what I’m calling it), but I liked how all the other pieces fit together (ex: the flame, the grounders’ language). Honestly, I surprise myself to say this, but I’d watch another episode. For 7x09, I liked being on Bardo and watching Octavia, Echo, Diyoza and Hope slowly get “brainwashed” I mean trained. We all knew it wouldn’t work for Hope and if I was them I would rather be on Sky Ring than Bardo (but then I guess I’d go crazy, so...) I enjoy the Octavia and Levitt relationship and would love them to work out, but if this show taught you anything it’s to be skeptical. I also want to shift to the Primes plot, just to showcase John Murphy for a second. THAT MAN! What a character development he’s had on this show. From the first season where I was like come on Murphy to now me awaiting his scenes. From cockroach to someone who won’t view himself as a hero. So good and something that is fantastic about this final season. They might have forgotten about other characters, but they’re doing it right by Murphy.

Well, that was more than I was expecting. ;)

THE CIRCLE

It feels like I haven’t watched a lot of reality TV this year, which makes sense because of our quarantine situation (but then again I’m watching World of Dance, but that’s a different because it’s more of a competition/dance show. I’ll stop rambling). The Circle is a reality ‘game’ show that could be easily completed during quarantine and social distancing because the contestants do not see each other in person. They each have an apartment in this complex and only communicate with each other on a social media platform called the Circle. The objective is to become the most popular and an influencer who gets power over who stays and who goes in the competition. There’s some side contests throughout, but most of the show is just people chatting through an insta messenger and trying to learn as much as they can. Alliances are formed and cat fishes try to thrive all for the grand prize of $100,000. (Wow, that’s a lot!) It is SUPER addicting and very funny. Having a voice-over narrator really makes it even funnier because she says what we’re all thinking. Just about every episode a contestant leaves and then is able to meet one other person in their apartment. It’s been cool seeing their reactions as oftentimes it’s someone they did not expect AT ALL. I can’t wait to finish it. If you’re a fan of Big Brother than this is definitely for you. Looks like there will be a second season, which I am excited about.

THE BABYSITTERS CLUB

Jumping from one Netflix show to another. Released on Netflix on July 3rd, I tried not to binge it all in one day because then it would be over (and we still don’t know if there will be a second season yet). This is definitely my feel good watch for July. If you want something that’s a quick watch and just wholesome and fun to escape our current world than this is for you. I always felt so happy after watching and couldn’t wait to watch another. While I was familiar with the franchise--the 90s movie and of course the books (although I was more of a Babysitter Little Sister fan, so I was very excited to see Karen), you don’t have to have any knowledge of the Babysitters Club to enjoy this show. I was hooked just about right away by this new series shown by me watching the first three episodes back to back. I really like how they set up each episode with one girl as the main focus (just like in the books) where she takes over the voice-over narration. Great representation and made modern to fit in with our current times. The first example that comes to mind is when Mary Ann babysits Bailey who is transgender. I liked how Bailey says those are her old clothes while they’re playing. It’s shown in a way that explains the situation without feeling like a lecture. It fits so naturally into the episode. And then Mary Ann’s speech at the hospital is super powerful for both Bailey and herself. This is just one example of how well represented this show is. Extremely strong cast and actresses who are the proper ages. I also love the adult casting and how they threw in a Clueless reference from Alicia Sliverstone (who plays Kristy’s Mom). As someone who is writing for this age group, I really liked hearing and seeing how authentic this show is.

FEEL THE BEAT

A Netflix original movie that has been on my list for a while that I just got around to watching. It didn’t come out too long ago. In the film, Sofia Carson’s character is a dancer who is a perfectionist. She gets on the bad side of a big NYC producer when she not only leaves her in the rain as she steals her taxi, but also knocks her, accidentally, off stage and becomes a viral video-this basically blackmails her in Broadway. This all happens within about the first 10 minutes of the film and the majority takes place back in her small home town (very Hallmark-like) in Wisconsin. While there her old dancing teacher wants her to share her Broadway wisdom with her young students. Meanwhile Carson has only been a chorus girl, so she doesn’t really have any. What draws her to helping the young girls is the chance to perform in front of a big choreographer that could get her to be the star she always dreamed of. The catch is that it’s the teacher dance in the childrens dance competition. While this might sound like a movie you’ve watched many times before, it was still worth it and a really fun watch. I think the kids really make the movie. They are adorable, funny and super talented. You feel connected with them really fast and want to see them succeed. I loved Dickie and how he joined the group. I think he was my favorite overall. I loved how inclusive the cast was here too (just like BSC) from a mixed race family, to single parents and even a student who was Deaf. It was great seeing the other actors sign to her. Carson’s character, April, can be annoying at times, but you understand it’s her character and something she needs to overcome. As I said before the plot may seem familiar, but the ending was something I didn’t see coming. Overall, wholesome, feel good and fun for the whole family. You can consider to watch while babysitting. (See what I did there??)

VIOLETTA SEASON 2

She’s back! I know last month when I included Violetta it was mainly me being excited to see the second season FINALLY streaming on Disney Plus. I had watched a few episodes (remember there’s 80 altogether, so even if I watched 20 that’s still very early on and just a dent in the season) and was still getting used to this season. Well, now I’m happy to report I am in the 40s and more than half way. For a bit I was watching many of these episodes a day, which told me that I was loving it again. Recently, I feel I need a little more of a push to watch, but it’s mainly because of certain story-lines that feel like they’re dragging. (For example: Violetta’s voice. One minute it’s fine and the next she’s like dying). For this section I have two words: LOVE TRIANGLES. And I’m not just talking about Violetta, Diego and Leon. For a bit it felt like each character had their own love triangle, which honestly I was loving. These characters have definitely developed a lot from last season, which allows this to happen. Olga was in a love triangle, which just recently got resolved. I think German is still in one because of his alter ego Jeremias. Jackie was “kind of” in one. For her it was more of a misunderstanding, which is very classic on this show. Lots more secrets have been uncovered in these episodes as well as songs! You know how excited I am for those. Overall, I think I’m still enjoying season 1 songs more (which get referenced enough in this season), but some of the season 2 ones are really growing on me. Specifically Leon’s Entre dos mundos and when he sings with Diego Euphoria in English. Also, Yo Soy Asi has been real catchy. I know Frederico will be coming back soon and I can’t wait to see him again!

HAMILTON

Like many I watched Hamilton this month-actually on the day it came out. It’s been a musical that I’ve been intrigued by, but never thought I’d get a chance to watch because of how popular and expensive it is to see on Broadway. So, I was very excited to hear I’d get the chance when it was to be released in theaters for a special event. Then because of Corona it was released to Disney Plus, which was EVEN more convenient and exciting. I really enjoyed it and watched it twice within the same week. I immediately downloaded the playlist and started singing it around the house. I do this a lot with many of the plays I see, but depending how good they are is shown by how long I listen to the soundtrack. (Some of my top ones are Bandstand, Once, Newsies and Anastasia.) Because there are so many songs in Hamilton it is taking me a little longer to know all the words, but I feel pretty confident with the first act. It was the perfect timing for this to be released on Disney Plus. Not only because it was July 3rd, but also because of the world we are living in. Lin’s diverse cast brings to life the world of 1776 and the revolutionary war (as well as the time after it), but it’s such a strong commentary on our world today. This is something I am continually noticing with historical dramas/pieces being released within the last 5-10 years. It feels like there’s more we can say in this genre than in a commentary piece. I also like all the analysis videos I’ve seen popping up, which just make it even more powerful. (Like it being Eliza’s story and her putting herself back in the narrative. That the play Hamilton is named for both her and Alexander.) I don’t know if all of what I see were intentional, but either way well done. I hope it doesn’t leave Disney Plus soon.

1917

And lastly, 1917. I promised quite the range this month and you can see that’s definitely the case. I always enjoy watching war films and with 1917 there was so much hype (both before it came out and after) that I was interested to give it a watch. Giving the movie to my dad for father’s day felt like the perfect excuse to be able to watch it. Even though our DVD stuck in a few places (still don’t know if it was the player or the DVD itself), the film was very entertaining and I would suggest it to anyone who is a history/film buff. Taking place in WWI, we follow two British soldiers as they attempt to deliver a message about an upcoming ambush that could take countless lives. I feel that I often watch more films revolving around WWII, so it was very interesting to be immersed in the first great war. After watching I am not surprised that the film was up for so many Oscars. While cinematography is the first thing everyone discusses when it comes to this movie (and it should be because the one shot/long shot is sooo impressive and beautiful to watch. It really brings you into the scene and has a way of making you feel like you’re there too. There’s a realness to it that’s raw and new compared to other war films I’ve watched in the past), there’s so much more to this film too. First, I like how it connects back to Sam Mendes’ grandfather, so while it’s not a true story it has real facts in it. I LOVE the score and music to this film. In the scene where George Mackay runs at night through those ruined buildings I could really hear how well the music worked with the action. Because of this I made sure to listen to some of the soundtrack and now I’ve added some of the songs into my writing playlist. I have chills just thinking about it. The other point I want to bring up is the cast! While there are SO MANY big names in this film from Colin Firth to Benedict Cumberbatch, the two main characters are played by George Mackay and Dean Charles Chapman and they are the ones with the most screen time. If their chemistry and acting wasn’t so great then the movie wouldn’t be as successful as it is. Because of this I have been watching non-stop YouTube interviews of the two of them for this film.

They are so well-spoken, stand-up guys and I can’t get enough of their dialogues with each other and others. (You should watch these interviews too). While familiar with Chapman’s time on Game of Thrones, I haven’t seen him in much else, so I’m excited to see what he’ll have in the future (as well as checking out his IMDB page). For Mckay, I’ve seen him before when I just watched Ophelia earlier this summer so that was my first time watching him act. After that film I was curious what else he was in, but it was only after 1917 that I started doing more research. So far, I’ve only been able to watch the short film he was in called Infinite. While only 17 minutes it was very strong and deep. I highly recommend. As I’ve shared on this page already, in another post, the more I hear him talk the more of a crush I am developing. It’s been a long time since I’ve experienced a celebrity crush this strong so soon. This quarantine has to end so I can make it to England to just casually bump into him like one does. :)

20 notes · View notes

multiverseforger · 3 years

Text

Chris Powell was the teenage son of Mike Powell, a cop, and Grace Powell, a District Attorney. Following his younger twin brothers, Jon and Jason, to the abandoned amusement park across from his home, Chris discovered his father taking a bribe from mob boss Phillipe Bazin.[5][6]

While trying to escape with his brothers from Bazin's henchmen, Chris discovered an amulet that transposed him into the Darkhawk armor. When his father disappeared after Chris saw him, he swore to use the Darkhawk armor as an "edge against crime". Darkhawk's powers included a force blast which emanated from the amulet on his chest, a force shield from the same amulet, a claw cable which could serve as both a Wolverine-like claw, and a grapple cable, glider wings and later flight capability, enhanced vision and strength, and an image underneath the Darkhawk helmet which served to frighten and distract his enemies.[citation needed]

He often teamed up with Spider-Man. As a sometime member of the New Warriors, he befriended Speedball, Nova, and later, Turbo.[citation needed] During his tenure as a crime fighter, he was often trying to rescue his father, mother, or other family members.[citation needed]

He developed quite a roster of enemies: he would fight villains such as Hobgoblin and Tombstone, who were seeking to take his amulet, with the latter succeeding. He was extremely weakened and even dying from having the amulet removed, but still able to use all of his powers except for turning back into human form to heal. Once he retrieved the amulet he was able to put it back in his chest and fully heal. Darkhawk had 2 separate encounters with Venom, who felt that Chris was good natured and held back whereas Darkhawk was greatly opposed to Venom's ideals and way of handling crime, and swore to bring him to justice, despite Venom offering to be his ally. Lodestone: a magnetically-powered villain developed by Bazin, was often pitted against Darkhawk. He also fought against some who would later ally with him, such as Portal, a teleporting mutant who killed another Darkhawk and stole parts of his armor, Savage Steel, which had been created by the secret police cabal that Chris' dad had been a member of, and Damek, a mercenary sent from the future to kill Darkhawk.[citation needed]

Chris learned that his armor was actually an autonomously existing android armor, one of five commissioned by an alien mob lord named Dargin Bokk, being held in a sentient spaceship, Ocsh, in Null Space. When Chris grasped the amulet, it actually caused his body to switch places with that of the Darkhawk body, although his mind remained in control of the 'replacement' body.[citation needed]

After helping them several times, Darkhawk was brought aboard the Avengers West Coast as a reserve member, but saw little action with them after becoming a member, because they were dissolved shortly thereafter. Nonetheless, he did at least start a lasting friendship with Spider-Woman.[citation needed]

Darkhawk 2.0

Later, Chris and Darkhawk actually split into two separate entities, with the armor being updated into the "2.0" form, as it was informally known. This advanced form of armor gave Darkhawk new powers, such as the ability to form a force shield encasing his body, an actual "Hawk" construct (a gigantic force-field shaped like a hawk), and the ability to summon weapons from Osch. Darkhawk 2.0 and Chris re-merged, with the prospect of no longer needing to use the amulet in order to switch bodies.[citation needed]

Loners

Chris joined a self-help group of ex-teenage-super-heroes, the Loners, who admitted to being addicted to their powers. Members included: Turbo, Green Goblin IV (Phil Urich), Ricochet, Lightspeed and later Spider-Woman III (Mattie Franklin). The group was hired by a mysterious benefactor, later revealed to be Rick Jones, to track down the Runaways in Los Angeles.

Powell displayed trouble controlling his anger in his Darkhawk persona, leading to a short skirmish with Turbo. Dismayed with himself, Powell admitted to his teammates that he suffered a nervous breakdown.[7] Powell decided to never turn into Darkhawk again, but this decision did not last long, as shortly thereafter the group battled the notorious Avengers villain, Ultron. Darkhawk delivered the final blow, using a darkforce blast at point blank range to blow Ultron to pieces.[8]

The Loners continued their meetings and Chris was drawn back into heroics by Spider-Woman and made an enemy of MGH manufacturers who had abused Mattie Franklin and the woman running them as well as Nekra, a woman who was getting rich by selling her bodily fluids to them. Chris then got his Darkhawk amulet stolen from him temporarily by an unbalanced Phil Urich but was able to regain it with help from the group.[9]

Secret Invasion

Having registered with the government, Darkhawk was assigned to the position of security chief at Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.. During the Skrull invasion, he worked alongside his old teammate Nova against the Deviant Skrulls.[10]

Fraternity of Raptors

The being known as Talon came to Earth, and offered to teach Chris how to control his amulet. They went to the Negative Zone to fight Annihilus. There, Chris bonded fully with his amulet. This allowed him to learn that the Fraternity of Raptors that Talon represented was evil and that the Fraternity had created the amulets. Evilhawk had been a hallucination caused by his mind, which had been unable to process all the information the Amulet gave him. The Raptor, known as Razor, took over Chris' body and assassinated Lilandra.[citation needed]

Later he fought Gyre another member of the Fraternity of Raptors that had been recruited as a pawn of the Sphinx. Darkhawk, Nova, Black Bolt, Mr. Fantastic and Namorita defeated the Sphinx and his pawns. Darkhawk was able to separate Gyre from his Kree host by using the same technique Talon used to separate Chris from Darkhawk and bring back Razor.[citation needed]

Avengers Arena

Arcade kidnapped Chris and fifteen teenage heroes and brought them to Murderworld, a secluded island where no one could find them, and forced them to fight each other to the death, and only the last man standing within thirty days would be allowed to leave.[11] One night, he was attacked and had his amulet removed, leaving his fate unknown.[12] His amulet would get passed around by others locked in Murderworld.[13]

Chris was later shown in a coma-like state in a strange tank along with the deceased heroes, where Arcade appeared to be healing him. Waking up, he located Arcade and knocked him out. He later reclaimed his amulet and was among the survivors of the battle.[14]

Marvel Legacy

Powell eventually resurfaced back in New York, set to marry a new fiancée by the name of Miranda Cruz. With whom he'd shared all of his exploits while piloting the sentient automaton known Darkhawk. Nowadays his Amulet has become inert, not so much as even changing when he focuses his thoughts on becoming his alter ego again; but lately has been suffering from nightmares of the Tree of Shadows every time he slept. Following in his father's footsteps, he eventually became an officer of the law at the NYPD. Taking to the same beat Micheal Powell used to back when he was one of the police, he reminisced about how his father would listen to people and remember their names while trying to keep the peace on the streets.

Trying to be the every bit as big a man and a better cop than he was by holding the values he once thought Mike stood for before, Chris found out his father was a corrupt cop. All the while ruminating on whether the world needed him as Christopher Powell, police officer or as the cybernetic hero he once was. While on patrol, dispatch sent out notice of a disturbance at Wonderland Amusement Park, where he first found the Raptor Amulet.

While investigating the derelict establishment, Powell was approached by two shady cops right near the area where he first became Darkhawk. Officer Hal Fingeroth and Sergeant Harold Conrad came to Powell offering certain opportunities while on the force which Chris quickly denied, when the latter opted to be a bit more forceful in his persuasion; Conrad was quickly eviscerated by members of the Fraternity of Raptors who were after the young officer's depowered amulet. Canorus and Aceptar created the odd circumstances which led to Christopher retracing his origin as a superhero in order to kill him and take what they believed was theirs by right, but the former raptor didn't go without a fight; discovering that these new raptors were in actuality just armored Shi'ar thugs given how easily Aceptar was stunned by a shock baton.

Though Christopher was eventually subdued by Canorus and his gem taken from him. Canorus was able to activate it again with a damaged Razor taking his place, whom nearly beat Powell's other would be assassin to death until Chris got his attention. The badly broken android grabbed hold of Powell and ported him to a portion of the Datasong he called the "Perch," where memories of previous host pilots were stored within a Raptor's own motherboard.

Razor, now calling itself Darkhawk after the recombinant persona imprinted on itself due to their shared escapades as a hero. Chris learned from his other half that a whole new Fraternity has sprung up in the wake of Novas' decimation, eager to bring the universe to heel under their thrall and had been searching for a means of acquiring the Raptor androids from the Null Space void to cement their dominance. Horrified by this development the now empathetic Razor sought to defy this mandate by said cabal of zealot pretenders by escaping his pod and severing his link to the Tree of Shadows, which was the reason why Powell couldn't become Darkhawk anymore. Severing his brethren's connection to their amulets earned Raptor their ire, however. They nearly hunted it down and executed until he was summoned to Earth by Canorus. Seeing the opportunity to heal itself, and hoping to enlist aid in stopping the renegade Raptor sect, Darkhawk sought union with Chris Powell once again in order to recover and grow in power.

Seeing as the whole of the universe was at stake, including his own homeworld in the long run. Chris knew in spite of his misgivings about space travel and the new life he has on Earth, that since his android had grown a conscience since the War of Kings. That he could not just sit by and pretend what effects the galaxy has no consequences for everybody involved, himself included. Donning the name Darkhawk once more, he took to the skies after blasting the other raptor back to his enclave in space before taking off, wondering how Miranda will react to the change of pace.[15]

Infinity Countdown

After learning from Richard Rider that the Fraternity of Raptors were after the Infinity Stones, Chris wanted to find a way to stop them, but he was stuck on Earth. He was later attacked by the bounty hunter Death's Head who was hired by the Raptors to capture Chris and bring him back to them alive. After learning that Death's Head had a spaceship, Chris was able to convince Death's Head to take him to the Raptors. After saying goodbye to Miranda, Chris and Death's Head traveled to where Death's Head was to meet the Raptors, the planet Arcturus IV; however, the Raptors betrayed Death's Head and destroyed his ship. Chris survived the ship's destruction and confronted the Raptors, but he was quickly overwhelmed by their numbers.

Chris' Darkhawk Amulet was removed from his body by the Raptors' leader Gyre and used in a ceremony to transform Richard Rider's brother Robbie Rider into the being called Dark Darkhawk by fusing him with Ratha'kon, a being supposedly more powerful than the Phoenix Force. The Raptors then left a dying Chris where he was set off to destroy Earth. As Chris dragged himself across the ground, he encountered his other half Razor who revealed to him the origins of the Tree of Shadows and of the first Raptor. After some coaxing from Razor, Chris tapped into his hidden strength and emerged with a new Darkhawk body after fully fusing his mind with the armor. Chris then flew after the Raptors to stop them.[16]

Chris battled the Raptors with help from Death's Head and Nova Prime. Nova made it difficult to fight Dark Darkhawk as he preferred to reason with his brother Robbie than fight him. Dark Darkhawk then shockingly turned on Gyre and destroyed him while stating that he would bring order to the universe, not Gyre. The Raptors were eventually stopped when Death's Head rigged the power core of the Kree ship the Raptors stole to explode. Only Dark Starhawk survived the explosion, though stunned, allowing Chris to reclaim his Darkhawk Amulet. Dark Starhawk then disappeared in a flash of light after striking his Nega-Bands together. Grieving over the loss of Robbie, Nova angrily told Chris to stay on Earth or he would have him locked up. After Chris returned to Earth, he decided stay out of space for a while. Later that night, he was met by Sleepwalker while he dreamed, telling him that the influence of the Infinity Stones threatened the Mindscape and that the only way he could protect it was to become a Sleepwalker.[17]

Young Again

Darkhawk attended Thanos' funeral along with prominent cosmic figures where it was revealed that Thanos had transferred his mind into a new body. However, the Black Order came and stole Thanos' corpse, while opening a rip in space in order to trap them.[18] While trapped there, Darkhawk's atoms began to break apart, affecting his link to the suit. After being captured by the Universal Church of Truth from a possible future, Chris found out that his body was merged with the armor and that he had become younger than when he first found the amulet.[19] Under the control of the Church, Darkhawk and the other prisoners attacked the Guardians of the Galaxy, but Rocket Raccoon was able to free them from the Church's control and sent the church back to their timeline.[20]

After the Void was leading the forces of the Cancerverse into invading the Negative Zone, Darkhawk was among the heroes summoned by Mister Fantastic using his Dimensional Anchor in order to defeat the Scourge. Once the Silver Surfer managed to merge Bob Reynolds with Void back, Nova sacrificed himself in order to defeat the Scourge, ending the threat.[21]

Powers and Abilities

Power Grid [24]Intelligence 2Strength4 Speed*5 3Durability4 Energy Projection*6 3Fighting Skills 2* Armor Transformations

Abilities

Skilled Combatant: Chris is skilled in Kendo and an unidentified branch of Karate.[citation needed]

Strength level

25+ Tons.[15]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Darkhawk Amulet:

Consciousness Transfer: Chris can transfer his consciousness into the Darkhawk's alien android while at the same time, switch the robotic body's place with that of his own body wherever he is at any time.[citation needed]

Darkhawk Android: The Darkhawk Armor is advanced Shi'ar technology meshed with magic, allowing the host numerous superhuman capabilities:

Superhuman Strength: The Armor allows Chris to lift in the excess of 25+ tons. Able to knock out Venom.[citation needed]

Superhuman Speed

Superhuman Durability: Darkhawk is superhumanly durable; he is capable of shrugging off physical impacts, energy blasts, and most artillery fire.

Superhuman Agility

Superhuman Reflexes

Armament Conjuration: The Android can summon weapons from the extra-dimensional expanse from whence they came, or manifest desired munitions from its own body at will.[citation needed]

Flight: The retractable glider wings under his arms allow him to glide on air currents. Darkhawk can also fly at speeds that let him fly from New York to California in only a matter of hours. After the Darkhawk armor attained a new form, Chris is able to fly interstellar distances.[22]

Self Repair: Even major injuries to his Darkhawk body can be repaired by switching back to his human form.[citation needed]

Superhuman Vision: Darkhawk has telescopic and infra-red vision. He can see through most camouflage.[citation needed]

Force Field: Chris can utilize a circular wafer-thin force field.[citation needed]

Concussion Blasts: He can fire blasts of destructive dark energy from the amulet on his chest.[citation needed]

Mode Shifting: Talons can morph their bodies into a host of augmentative forms. Becoming transparent, doubling body armor, projecting greater weaponry, etc.[citation needed]

Formerly *Avengers Identicard

Transportation

Formerly Avengers Quinjet

Trivia

Darkhawk's armor and appearance has been a continued source of debate amongst Marvel "True-Believers." After his series was canceled, his new appearances often reverted back to the original Darkhawk armor. As of his Loners appearances, he is in "DH 1.0" form, although he had appeared a few times as DH 2.0 prior to this.[citation needed]

It has been a misunderstanding amongst many readers and fans of Darkhawk that he was aware of his status as a hero within the Marvel 2099 universe, in which he is known as "The Powell," one of the "most powerful, and feared, heroes in the universe." This wasn't Earth-928 (or Marvel 2099), it was a similar cyberpunk dystopia world within Chronopolis. This was resolved by DeFalco himself within the letter columns in one of the final issues of the ongoing series.[citation needed]

Links and References

185 Appearances of Christopher Powell (Earth-616)

15 Minor Appearances of Christopher Powell (Earth-616)

Media Christopher Powell (Earth-616) was Mentioned in

123 Images featuring Christopher Powell (Earth-616)

13 Quotations by or about Christopher Powell (Earth-616)

Character Gallery: Christopher Powell (Earth-616)

Christopher Powell (Earth-616) on Wikipedia.org

Darkhawk Zone: The Ultimate Darkhawk Fansite

Darkhawk @ New Warriors Continuity Conundrum

New Warriors Message Board

Categories

Other Languages

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.

2 notes · View notes

jayne-hecate-writer · 4 years

Text

The Mandalorian... In Lego form

What can I add to the praise about the Disney Plus series, The Mandalorian, that has not already been said?

Yes, it is really very good, I was captivated within the first minute and was heart broken during the third episode, entitled The Sin, when the Mandalorian handed over the child to the Imperial officer, played so beautifully by Werner Herzog. Of them all, it is probably episodes three and four that are my favourites, showing the more gentle side to the character. But let us be honest, when choosing favourite episodes of this series, we the viewer have been rather spoilt because there is not a dud among them. Not even the sixth episode, which was a heist story and could easily have been done rather badly, but wasn’t and even included a fabulously dry Dave Filoni cameo as a New Republic pilot. No, not a single missed beat, bad line or failed joke throughout series one.

This is not to say that it does not have its cold brutal moments though, the Quarren being bisected in the first episode was utterly shocking, you even hear his legs heit the floor! Encasing the good natured Mythol in carbonite was really mean. Yet, they saved the humour of child abuse right up until the end and the speeder scouts indifference in violently handling the child. These moments of suffering are balanced so perfectly with real heart and leave a lump in the throat, even when dealing with an assassin droid walking into a lava flow. Terminator eat your heart out!

So, it must be time to combine some of the biggest loves of my rather childish, adult life into one hobby, namely my love of Star Wars and my love of Lego. With every new franchise released under the Star Wars banner, Lego get good dibs on making tie in sets. With the release of the Mandalorian, the Lego sets have been exceptional and if you have not yet seen them, you should go and have a look at the Brickset page.

The first set, number 75254 or AT-ST Raider is a glorious reworking of the beloved Imperial walker, as seen during the Battle of Endor, but here it comes with loose wiring and scratched paint. The colours are indicative of rust, repainting of old worn out parts and some battle damage, all achieved with coloured bricks and several stickers. The effect is really very pleasing and the walker stands at just over twenty five centimetres tall. All that it is missing is the red glow in the cocpit. The minfigs that come with this set just wonderful. Cara Dune, played so effortlessly well by Gina Carono in the show, is a really lovely minifig, although having a globally available minifig of your character must be exciting even for a movie star. Along with the walker come two raider pilots and then even Mando himself, in his dirty and mismatched armour, which is a little odd. By this point in the show, when he meets and briefly fights with Cara Dune, he already has his new Beskar cuirass of armour, complete in shining silver. So one has to ask why he is presented to us in the older colours of his armour that was destroyed by the Mudhorn in the second episode? Over all though, 75254 is a lovely set, even with the annoyance of having to apply stickers (which is a topic that takes on the additional needs of disability issues for me and my manky old lady fingers), rather than using printed pieces.

Set 75267, the Mandalorian Battle Pack is simple, cheap and rather pretty. This is a basic set with four minifigs, all in various colours of Mandalorian armour which may be different clans, with a small gun emplacement and speeder bike. The warriors are split equally male and female, but I have no idea which is which, due to the lack of lipstick, floral tops and flowing long hair, the usual key indicators used by Lego to show the gender split (stories of my subverting this by placing the ‘male’ bodies with the ‘female’ heads, are very likely true!). Removing the helmets reveals an unprinted black head, which is slightly disturbing, but this is something that Lego had done for several years now.

The big set of this theme for 2020 has to be the fabulous ship used by the Mandalorian, the beautifully named Mandalorian Bounty Hunter Transport Ship… Oops yeah, it seems that somebody fucked up. Set number 75292, Razor Crest has in some cases been renamed following claims of trademark usage by another company, who just happen to make Lego compatible sets and some may claim have been guilty of cloning Lego sets without license. Oh dear.

I pre-ordered my set a good three months prior to release and thank the heavens that I did, because it was hopelessly delayed and finally cancelled three days after release and so I had to deal with Lego directly... during a pandemic outbreak... when every anguished parent with a Star Wars addicted child was no doubt screaming for their Mandalorian set too. Lego were hellishly busy and no doubt there were many like me, disappointed Amazon customers scrabbling to find the sets they had ordered weeks before. How many of those adults with debit cards were buying the toy for themselves though, remains a closely guarded industry secret.

When the set arrived, I was impressed by the actual size of the box which was huge and which my cat now uses for a bed! This was just the outer packaging used by Lego to ship the set, but the actual set box was still quite large and also beautifully printed, if surprisingly heavy.

Building the model was fun, even if there is a fair amount of repetition due to the chirality of the ship and the usual struggles with yet more bloody stickers! The engine nacelles are probably the least screen accurate feature, given the rough tooth like arrangement on the front intakes bares little resemblence to the smooth circular versions on the screen rendered ship. This is a tiny little complaint about an otherwise awesome model though. (I am just going to pause here for a moment. Are they really air intakes? Given that this is a spacecraft and it can travel at ‘light-speed’, why does it have these large open front intakes that resemble the compressor fan of a jet engine? Actually, that is a stream of thought that can only lead to sadness, especially with the roar of said engine as it flies across screen, supposedly in space, you know space. The place where NO ONE can hear you scream! But can hear if you miss a gear on your spaceship!)

Minfigs with this set are thoroughly cool, with our classic Mando himself, Din Djarin. He does of course have the child with him and the fidure of the child is adorable. This set also includes Greef Karga, a Scout Trooper and IG11… Um. Once again, this is a potentially confused set. Is this from the first episode or the last two? I don’t recall seeing the Scout troopers in the first episode so much, but they are present and a large part of the finale. Mando does of course have some serious issues with droids, having been orphaned during the Clone Wars, by a B2 Super Battle Droid (Speaking of droids and the Clone Wars, this does explain to me why when Luke and Obi Wan visit Mos Eisley, the cantina owner tells Luke that the droids are not welcome. It was a glaringly obvious issue that I never gave thought to, of course people would mistrust droids, the Clone Wars were a political tool used by a member of the elite, to secure their own power while creating political turmoil in which they could thrive and in which many thousands of innocent people lost their lives. I wonder if this was written to parallel real life, not that we have many examples of this in the real world), which is shown in heart breaking visceral detail during the several flashbacks we see. Again, this is just another element in this series that goes to such great depth to give the characters real heart. Anyway, back to my point, a part of his redemption was Mando coming to accept and even trust a droid, which he does with IG11, despite it being Mando himself who terminated the IG unit to begin with. So with a Scout trooper, IG11 and Greef Karga, would it be fair to say that with the child in hand, Mando should be in his silver Beskar armour? It would appear not and thus Mando is still in his dirty, rusted and damaged armour with this set. At some point they simply must release a set with him in shiny new Beskar, but maybe that will come with the release of Series two.

Over all, the sets released in this theme for 2020 have all been excellent and to an adult child like myself, well worthy of collecting, building and displaying… Because these are not toys! They are valuable collectors pieces, future antiques and actually rather pretty. Which leads me onto my next section, how to display the models while making them look like something interesting and not just a pile of bricks. I had a space that you could have called a bookshelf, not a great space for books if I am honest, being slightly awkward and on top of my Lego desk. So I decided to fill this space with a Lego Diorama that measures one hundred and six studs wide and twenty four studs deep. It was a crap bookcase and my Lego books kept falling over or worse, falling off altogether to land on whatever I was working on at the time. The gloss painted finish proved to be be sticky, which damaged a couple of my instructions booklets and well, these are the issues you get when you design and build your own furniture, out of scrap wood and offcuts. Yes, the furniture is a bit mismatched in my office, but I made nearly all of it. Maybe one day I will do a show and tell.

The display started as a simple thing, a couple of enclosed boxes in which I could build a pair of scenes. My first scene was the Rebel Alliance looking at a hologram of the Death Star, while planning an attack on the technological terror. It is half based on Episode four with a dash of episode six. I added flickering lights and a large Death Star shell from the planets sets and stood back to admire my work. It was… OK-ish and sat like that for several months as I planned the next box and then what was to go above it.

With the release of the Mandalorian, I knew that the remaining box had to be the Covert, with the Armourer and her forge. I also knew that with the Razor Crest, I wanted some kind of scene above the covert to place both the ship and the AT-ST together, which while technically mixing a couple of episodes set on different worlds, could be seen in the soul of the show, rather than an accurate depiction of the Mandalorian itself. With the addition of some more lights it was all going so well and then I had to re-home Vader's castle, a task of Sisyphean proportions.

Humour aside, I need a larger office. With my Solo, Rebels, Rogue One, Clone Wars, New Hope and final trilogy themes to my Star Wars Lego display, plus the collection of Technic lego so large it required specialist furniture to be built, I have run out of room. Vader’s castle is thankfully taller than it is wide and it fitted onto the shelf fairly well. It also took lighting effects really nicely and I was pleased with the results, in particular, the glowing hologram of the Emperor that appears in miniature in front of Vader's desk. However, it now looks like I have a nice castle, built on the edge of a run down city slum, with the sewers taken over by rogue blacksmiths and a group of noisy political activists. If any of you can spot the social commentary in here, well done you. Poor old Vader however can barely get any sleep, no wonder his mouse droid keeps leaping off the model and onto my carpet, it wants to escape for some peace!

So now that the office shelves are filled, what should I do next? Well actually, there are some things on the Razor Crest that I am not happy with, aspects that need some work to make it look a little better. First to go is that hideous hole in the top. Yes, it allows you to claw the pod out, but for display, rather than play, the hole is unacceptable. I made my own Moff Gideon (Using Winstone from Ghostbusters for the head and an Imperial Pilot body) and equipped him with a Darksabre. I added a pair of speeder bikes too, one for the scout that came with the Razor Crest and one for a scout that I added later.

I dread to think how much I have spent on this project, there is easily three hundred pounds in sets on my shelf alone, consisting of three large ships, one walker and a castle. There are also the various minifigs I bought from else where, such as the Rebel Alliance leadership and spare Mandalorian warriors. There are all of the lights, the wire and the switches, which cost about twenty pounds. It all adds up rather quickly and luckily for me, most of the Lego consists of bricks that I have collected over the years and a lot of those bricks were second hand.

Was it worth it? Yes it was. Not only was it a lot of fun to plan and build, but as a disabled person, it is nice to have a hobby that I can still manage and do fairly well. It is nothing like climbing a mountain, or wild camping with my mountain bike, but it stopped me going insane with boredom, especially during lockdown. Who knows what I can do next, but it is nice to be back on the technic and building actual gear boxes again.

#lego star wars #the mandalorian #star wars #lego moc #Custom Lighting #Disability #Lockdown #Scout Trooper #the razor crest #Darth Vader #Vader's Castle #AT-ST Walker #Scout Walker #Chicken Walker #The Armourer #Beskar #IG11 #The Child #baby yoda

1 note · View note

samheughanfansite · 4 years

Text

New Post has been published on Sam Heughan Fan

New Update has been published on https://sam-heughan.com/2020/05/01/press-photos-sam-for-gio-journal/

Press/Photos: Sam for Gio Journal

Over the last year, I had so many friends tell me about this great show Outlander that I needed to see. I finally started watching it and instantly became addicted. I can see why the show has such a cult following. It drew me into this ancient world and I became fascinated with the characters. I was so excited when I heard I was going to be photographing Sam. I was a huge fan of his work on the show. I had a feeling he was going to be an amazing guy, and I was 100% correct. Then, when the mag asked me if I also wanted to interview him, I was like hell yeah!

Q: I must say I’m crazy about Outlander. I love the storyline, the cast is brilliant and the production value is of the highest quality. When you were first presented with this project, did you know in your heart that this part was so well suited for you?

A: I was unaware of the book series but something in the writing really stuck a chord. Diana Gabaldon had captured a character in her dialogue that I felt I knew. I had just returned from the US for an extended pilot season and really struggled after getting close on a number of roles, but not landed a job. I was out of funds and confidence and starting to question if I could continue to pursue a career as an actor. Timing is everything and I feel very lucky it came along when it did. It’s changed my life.

Q: What are some of the things you like about your character Jamie Fraser? A: The character for me has changed. Each episode and season he grows and develops. I’ve been playing hi for 6 years now. He’s aged 20 plus years. He’s gone from young Highland warrior to husband, father, General, and now is almost a clan Chief. With age comes experience and each season Jamie has really been through the wringer. He’s a character that I live with every day.

Q: If there was one thing you could change about your character what would it be? A:Sometimes I wish he’d take a day off. Shooting is very intense, and he’s always involved in some way. Haha, maybe he could take a vacation once in a while. But honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Q: The sex scenes are pretty intense. Early on was this uncomfortable? A: I’d been nude in some theatre productions before but wasn’t really looking forward to these scenes. They were challenging, but me and my costar have a good understanding. We try to use every intimate scene to show a little more of their relationship or how they relate to each other. Over time this has deepened and their love for each other just gets better and better.

Q: Knowing what you know about life in that time period, if you had the ability thru some time machine, to travel back to that period and experience life, if even for a short time, would you go? A: Maybe to take a quick look. But really wasn’t much fun at that time I’m sure!

Q: Are you surprised by the overwhelming acceptance, support and cult following of Outlander across the Globe? You not only provide a source of entertainment, but an escape from the trials of everyday, sometimes mundane life for viewers across the globe. Your work has such a positive impact on millions of people. I think that’s absolutely beautiful. How does it make you feel? A: Sometimes you forget how much people embrace the characters. At times some take it too far however as a performer, especially in these unsettled and dark times, it’s good that we can bring some levity and light to a situation. We do what we can. We are not saving lives but hopefully we can provide some escapism and make people smile occasionally.

Q: It is obvious you take great pride in your Scottish heritage. Was that pride a driving force behind the creation of your whiskey brand, “Sassenach?” A: Yes, I was approached by several whisky companies but always wanted to make something myself. It represents my love and passion for Scotland, my heritage. Also, I wanted to update the way whisky is sold and the approach to it. This whisky is a double gold medal winning spirit but should be accessible and to everyone’s taste. We can’t wait to release more!

Q: Do you plan on expanding the brand to include a variety of different spirits? A: You’re the first to know this but yes, we are working on a few ideas. All our projects celebrate Scotland and its connection or heritage, but we have some fun ideas brewing (or should I say distilling!?)

Q: Tell me what you love about your life? A: I have been given a lot of opportunity and freedom to explore projects that I love. Current movie projects (Bloodshot, An Unquiet Life etc.) plus producing my own projects (Clanlands etc). However, there also comes a great responsibility and at times a heavy expectation from fans. It’s a balancing act.

Q: How are you coping with the current pandemic? A: I’m doing the best I can, trying to stay safe whilst lending my voice and support to charities etc. Also want to entertain people and give them something else to think about. Bloodshot was released during the pandemic. I guess no one knew the level and extent of how this would affect us. Hopefully everyone can stay safe and positive at this time. It affects us all.

Q: What have you been doing to occupy your time at home? A: I’ve been working on the post-production of a TV show I produced/financed and directed last year. We hope to have it air this year and it’s been a lot of fun. Also, a book deal, so I’m writing A LOT!

Q: Has this time allowed you to focus on things that you have just been too busy to do? A: Yes, it gives us time to reflect. It can be stressful at times, trapped with your own thoughts, maybe I’m always too busy to sit with them. But there is still a lot going on and I like to remain busy.

Q: What lessons do you think this virus will teach us about humanity? A: Life will continue but will probably never be like it was. We have a lot of lessons to learn. The thing I find comfort in is seeing nature reclaim and heal. The greenhouse emissions reduction, wildlife taking back it land, it shown us there is another way to operate. Working from home is possible. I’d just like to thank everyone who is working to protect us, those who don’t have time to reflect and have to go fight this every day. I hope we can support them and appreciate the sacrifice they make for us. I feel very fortunate, every day. – Source

2020: Gio Journal

#SamHeughan #Outlander

#Magazine Scans #Photo Sessions #Photos #Press

3 notes · View notes

helenarlett-rex · 4 years

Text

Goosebumps Review #9

Wow... After reading the last two crap books, it’s nice to find a good one again. Let’s just get right into this.

(Spoilers... as always...)

The Werewolf of Fever Swamp

Goosebumps (original series) #14

Yeah, so... I’ve heard people complain before about this book being slow. And I guess when you are writing pulp horror for children, you need to keep up with the shorter attention span of your audience... But honestly, I think it’s a good thing that this book was slow. Or rather, instead of calling it slow, let’s call it a slow burn instead. Because the book isn’t slow as in it’s boring. It wasn’t boring at all... It was slow in that it takes its time setting up the story and bringing you to its ultimate conclusion. But I felt that it was worth it. It was very atmospheric and managed to craft a story where you are never quite sure who the werewolf is right up until the very end.

The very end is the only time you actually see the werewolf, but that was fine too. The werewolf didn’t need to be the centerpiece of the story. Fever Swamp and all the weird mysteries it holds was the real centerpiece of the story. In fact, you could have just shortened this book’s title down to just “Fever Swamp” and it would have been perfect. And now that I’m thinking about it... why did this book not get any sequels? Of all the many mysteries Fever Swamp holds that are shown to us over the course of this book, the only one we actually solve is who the werewolf is. But there at the very least three, maybe four other mysteries in this book we never got answers too. How come something as awful as Monster Blood got four books in the original series and this only got one? You could have very easily made Fever Swamp into a full series... Solving one of the various mysteries each book. The werewolf was really only the start of the story. This was like... a pilot episode for some kind of Eerie Indiana/Gravity Falls type series set in the swamps of Florida. Hell... I’m already pondering fan-fiction. If Stine isn’t going to give me the rest of the story I may just do it myself.

But anyways, moving on... The story centers on a boy named Grady, who’s family moves to Florida right during Shark Week. That detail has nothing to do with the story, but the book does make it a point of mentioning that they were watching Shark Week on TV during the first week. I’m just drawing attention to it because, Florida... and Shark Week? This book was written for me!

Lesser known fact. I grew up in Florida. I lived in a coastal town, nowhere near the swamps, which is where Grady’s family moved to... but the book still sounded very reminiscent of my childhood home. I had acres and acres of woods behind my house the same way Grady has acres and acres of swamp behind his house.

But anyways, Grady moves with his parents, who are both scientists, and his sister, Emily, who starts out as an okay character for the first few chapters, before Stine realizes he doesn’t want to use her as a main character, and then she becomes one of the worst, most annoying side characters I’ve ever seen. After chapter 7 her character is reduced to just an annoying sister who sits in front of the TV all day and makes snotty comments from the other room. It’s like, Jesus Christ, girl... Your brother got attacked by a wild animal in the swamp was was brought back to the house unconscious, and all you can say is, “It was probably a squirrel”? The fuck is wrong with you?

But I have to ask that question about Grady’s parents too. So... The reason they moved to Florida, and pulled their kids away from their home and their school and their friends, is because Grady’s dad just got his hands on some South American Swamp Deer, and he wants to release them into the swamps of Florida to... see if they will survive... And suddenly I’m wondering, what kind of scientist are you?

First of all... South American Swamp Deer? I’m not even a scientist, like this guy is claiming to be, and I can tell you that there’s no such thing. Did you mean South American Marsh Deer by any chance? That’s a thing... A threatened thing that is close to being endangered... Who gave you six of these things just so you could take them to Florida to see if they will survive or not? According to the book he went to South American and trapped them and brought them back himself. So... is Grady’s dad a poacher?! And what kind of experiment is, I wonder if they can live in Florida supposed to be anyways?! Is he like, trying to find a new habitat to repopulate the species? I’ve got a tip for him... NOT FLORIDA! Those deer are all going to be alligator food in less than a week. That or become meth addicts...

But he’s not just a bad scientist. He’s also a bad father. Yeah, that swamp behind their house is the home of a man known only as The Swamp Hermit. A man who seems to enjoy chasing children through the swamp while screaming “I’m the werewolf!” (Good times... We had a guy like that in the wood behind my house too.) And not only does Grady’s dad let his kids play in the swamp unsupervised, which would be kind of dangerous even if there wasn’t a crazy hermit living out there, but when Grady tells him the hermit chased him through the swamp not once, but twice, Grady’s dad only replies with, “Some guy at the hardware store told me he was harmless.”

Wow... Did some guy at the hardware store also tell you that setting an invasive species lose in the Florida swamps would be a good science experiment? Is this the same hardware store where you bought your permit to trap a near endangered species and transport it into the country?

Anyways, the point I’m getting at is that Grady’s parents are just as awful as his sister turns out to be. Although now that I think about it... My parents let me play in the woods unsupervised... and they never took me seriously when I told them about the crazy guy chasing me through the woods... Oh my god... R.L. Stine actually captured what living in Florida is really like...

Thankfully Grady makes friends with two kids on his street. Will, a boy his age who doesn’t believe in werewolves, and Cassie, a girl his age who is obsessed with werewolves. He also finds a mysterious giant black dog who looks like he may be part wolf, who Grady decides to name Wolf. Wolf is pretty friendly, as well as far smarter than what I would expect of a dog, and his parents allow him to keep him.

Most of the story is split between Grady, Will, Cassie, and Wolf exploring the swamp during the day, and the mystery of the strange howling and animal mutilations going on at night. As I said before, the book is a slow burn as it builds up tension around the night time activities until Grady finally decides he can’t take it anymore. The howling thing, which Cassie insists is a werewolf, kills one of his dad’s deer, and his dad blames Wolf and is going to take him to the pound to have him put down. So Grady decides the only thing to do is sneak out of the house and find whatever is actually killing all the animals... and that neighbor that went missing a few days ago...

Yeah, one of their neighbors went missing in the swamp, and never did get found. So the stakes are kind of high.

This is when we finally get our werewolf, all the way on the second to last chapter... I wish I could say I was surprised by who it was, but sadly I’d already seen the TV episode of this one years ago, so I knew who it was. Although if I hadn’t seen that episode I totally would’ve been stuck between two of the other characters. Spoiler alert... It was Will. The werewolf who doesn’t believe in werewolves.

Wolf somehow manages to kill Will, because we all know the legends, right? A werewolf can only be killed by a silver bullet, or a silver knife, or a stick with a silver handle... or a stray dog you found. But this doesn’t happen until after Grady gets bit and the book ends with Grady not just becoming a werewolf, but embracing it as he and Wolf stalk the swamps at night.

Which should totally be the setup for an entire series about Grady using his new werewolf powers to solve all the other mysteries of Fever Swamp if you ask me. I can’t be the only person who thinks so. In fact, I know I’m not the only one who thinks so. And the book also mentions that Grady is still friends with Cassie even after he becomes a werewolf. The girl who is obsessed with werewolves... I’d love to see how that affects the development of their relationship.

But no... Why waste time on an interesting setting with lots of unsolved mysteries still left to solve? Stine had to write four Monster Blood books... And a whole series about Horrorland... and another whole series about Slappy, the only monster in Goosebumps more pathetic than the haunted car...

Oh well, at least this book was creepy, interesting, and didn’t make me feel like I was wasting my time.

4 notes · View notes

ask-the-infiltrators · 4 years

Text

The real Main protagonist of Hazbin Hotel is Angel Dust...

Okay, hear me out. I do actually have a reason for saying something as crazy as this. While everyone introduced at the Hotel is a main character in their own right, a lot of the scenes that Angel Dust was in showed a lot of nuance that the other characters lacked. Aside from him, the only other really deep characters are the mysterious Alastor and the Princess of hell Charlie. We followed Charlie for most of the pilot, so we got to see most of her motivations and actions at face value. Alastor is mysterious for the sake of being mysterious and dangerous. But Angel Dust... Things about him are everywhere and a lot of the pilot happens because of his actions. Sure the Extermination wasn't his fault, but without him a lot of other things might not have happened!

Angel Dust didn't get involved with the turf war? The interview would have ended very differently as her first patron wouldn't have made her a complete joke in the eyes of the viewers. Cherry Bomb might have actually had serious issues taking Sir Pentious on alone, but that is yet to be seen really. She did manage to bring him to the ground the first time, but caught up with the gun Angel saved her from would have spelled disaster. Angel, Charlie, and Vaggie wouldn't have had a arguement in the limo. If a fight never broke out at the news station, Alastor may never have taken an interest in the Hotel and he wouldn't have came by. And lastly, Sir Pentious wouldn't have attacked the Hotel if he never had a beef with Angel Dust to begin with.

Below are a number of standout examples of Angel showing his character. But before I get to that, I would like to say first and foremost I am not going to be mentioning outside sources such as comics or live-streams or Q and A sessions unless absolutely necessary and allowing the Pilot to stand on its own.

During Charlie's first song at the very beginning a number of demons are shown to be falling. Some of them are known, such as Sir Pentious, I believe Cherry Bomb, and Angel Dust in the center of it all. What is strange about the framing of the scene is how everyone there is placed. Most of the characters there are unknown, nobodies at the present time, so why have a main character, a potentially recurring villain, and the main character's one friend be there? Either it is familiarity before meeting them, or some show of importance going on. Both are likely, but will be touched on later. Another brief note is this is all seen before Charlie herself or her representation of her in song appears.

Before the song ends or even meet Charlie herself, we see key things about Angel Dust here as well. When 'The Studio' is shown we see one character known as Valentino (a comic reference for the full name) on the phone texting Angel Dust. While it may be easy to miss, this is Angel Dust on the other end, being 'affectionately' called Angie. Cherry bomb also calls him this and he works in the industry, so it’s safe to assume it’s him. Val questions Angel if he got the money from a guy named John and Angel says he is working on it and questions why this job is being done so soon after the extermination. Val shushes him and tells him to finish his job without any sass. Angel Dust begrudgingly agrees. His punctuation is rather clear on this. Rather than a simple, "Yes, Boss." Like one might expect, he instead says "Yes. Boss." The tone of that is drastically different. This blink and you will miss it scene adds context to what Angel is doing at the start of the pilot.

When the first song ends, we meet Angel Dust and John for the first time with Angel dismissing the affair as a quick cash grab, leaving the audience and John in the dark as to what he was really doing. Despite the rude remarks thrown at Angel, he does break the sass rule from before and sasses John so hard into the ground he is grumbling about it even as he drives off. Angel clearly has handled his type before and knows his way around the business long before we know his infamous celeb status.

When he is done with this job, rather than report back to Val with the money he spends it on drugs. Typical Addict move right? Wrong. If he were simply an addict, he likely would have had a breakdown when his drugs was destroyed moments later. Instead he has a moment of anger before moving on. Seems more like he does it for fun and recreation than anything else. Habit? Perhaps, but certainly nowhere near losing his mind over it. He then sees Ser Pentius' zeppelin destroying the city and rather than run, he later is shown to have stepped in to aid Cherry Bomb.

Later on, during the interview scene, Charlie notes that Angel Dust, the infamous adult star, has been clean for two weeks under her program, a fact supported when Angel Dust is explaining his situation to Cherry Bomb. Unlike the other sinners, he was honestly closer to rehabilitation than the others, at least for the time being... Because he is hardly clean afterward. In her mind, he was doing well.

During his explanation he actually states the name of his preferred drug. Not by its nicknames or anything, but by what it is, where it’s from, and how much he uses. This shows that he knows his drugs a lot more than any simple user.

His choice of weapon is also telling about him. He has a Tommy Gun, a weapon commonly associated with Mobsters. He doesn't just use it as well, he shows great skill with it as he dispatches Sir Pentious' egg minions. A Tommy gun is typically used as a spray and prey weapon but he has demonstrated he can fire accurately with it both as such and handle firing individual bullets from it. While anyone can pick up a gun and fire, the skill in which he uses it suggests he had great experience with it before. How would a simple adult star know how to use a gun like this and know his drugs? It would be easy if he was a mobster at some point.

I will admit, there is a counter argument to this here, as Homosexuality does not fit into the code of conduct for the American mafia so it is possible he did not join or was not allowed to join, but having a mob family does change the way one lives in one way or another... He does have the knowhow. But I digress here as this is about the pilot.

He is shown during the battle to make wisecracks and immature jokes a lot and enjoys doing them. He also relishes in the reactions he gets from others doing them, whether it be indifference or outright disgust. In the case of Sir Pentious, he make a ton of them and they seem to fall on deaf ears, at which point Angel breaks his joking persona briefly to say that he is missing the point of them and should watch what he says around him. This also stands as a joke in of itself with it being the punchline and all the jokes thus far were just build up.

During the battle he also takes the time to push Cherry Bomb out of harms way at his own detriment and has her back multiple times. This shows that he does care for her in some regard.

During the limo ride, he is shown fidgeting with the driver/passenger window thing until he is left little other option but to talk with Charlie and Vaggie about the incident. He tries to justify this as 'owing' a friend a favor, yet it’s obvious by the previous points he not only cared about Cherry and the battle, he was kind of itching for combat anyway. When pressed he said his reputation was on the line and it would be dangerous to his persona if people knew he wanted to go clean. What reputation? A thug? An Adult Star? How many people know him as a thug like he was in the turf war? People associate him with adult films far more than that. If it was just about his public persona, he would have just made another film or had some sort of scandal and be done with it.

He then proceeds to throw insults to those around him, both towards Vaggie, Charlie, and the general public with the latter being about appearances. He then shows his vanity by showing off one of his creepy fan letters which he strangely has on his person... nope! Skipping this one XD

Beyond that, he asks for something to drink, likely to distract himself from the situation and pleads indifference when there is none and towards the prospects of not having a free room anymore. Unlike his previous drug thing, he does seem far more antsy about something to drink.

When the arrive at the Hotel he tries to throw some more bad humor at Charlie regarding food, but when he sees how truly hurt she was regarding the incident at the news station and during the limo ride, Angel breaks from his persona for just a moment to reach out and comfort her, but before he could reach her however he stopped and walked away. Why bother comforting her if he is the cause of it all? Despite this however it does show one key thing. Charlie's rehabilitation was working as for a moment as Angel broke character and showed a genuine moment of remorse before slipping his facade back on.

When the Radio Demon arrived he showed his lack of knowledge in Demon politics by asking Vaggie whom he was. She questioned how he doesn't know the Radio demon, as Angel is a lot older in hell than Vaggie is. This is a guess, but considering his status as an adult film star and known devious streak, having him not know about the big scary demon that can tear him six days to Sunday is a good thing on Val's part... He then proceeded to do his usual thing and throw a joke out there. That’s the thing right there. Despite the danger, he is still willing to get close and throw out his usual humor. That would be a nightmare for Val for sure as Alastor is a known danger.

To Angel's credit, when Alastor is gauging the staff to see what is needed for the Hotel to run properly, he actually stopped throwing them at Alastor directly after the guy shut him down with a simple laugh and a no. Either he didn't have the time for another joke in the pilot, which isn't true as he threw out more later at Husker, or he knows it won't go anywhere with Alastor much like it did with Sir Pentious a bit ago. Unlike Sir Pentious, Alastor is a credible danger to his health...

When Nifty arrived and questioned why everyone were girls that Alastor was introducing her too, he refrained from correcting her and just let her do her thing.

When Husker arrived he stood up for the Bar being added to the front desk, once again referencing how much he wanted a drink.

He then proceeds to shamelessly flirt with Husker and enjoys the reaction he gets. Who needs to flirt with death when he has a guy at the counter that gets mad easily?

Angel seems to enjoy himself and his new duds during Alastor's reprisal of Charlie’s song he heard from the news report. He knows what he likes and approves of Alastor's style and choice of drinks.

When Sir Pentious comes around again, he isn't there for Alastor or Cherry Bomb. He is there for Angel Dust, why? While unclear, it would seem that until Alastor was noticed the snake clearly had it out for Angel in particular.

Am right about this? Who knows? Am I over analyzing this? Certainly. Honestly, I just wanted to put this out here because I have seen a lot of people hate Angel Dust for being a bland one dimensional character when that simply isn't true. I am willing to bet my 13+ years of writing experience and my novel in the works that there is far more to him than meets the eye. Everyone of the characters in Hazbin have stories they can tell, I just want it to be clear that even Angel has much more depth to him than he some would give him credit for and look forward to them all being explored some time in the future.

1 note · View note

brain-garden-blog · 7 years

Photo

Stop Taking Adderall, Start Playing Video Games

Doctors could soon prescribe screen time for children with ADHD.

In the video game Project: EVO, you navigate roiling river rapids while dodging rapidly shifting obstacles and connecting with friendly flying characters. To earn stars and advance to the next level, you have to demonstrate multitasking mastery. Unlike other games that reward these kinds of skills, in this one you must prove to the game’s algorithm that you have made a leap in neurological function.

This is no ordinary entertainment — it’s a video game designed to lessen the symptoms of ADHD. And one day soon, it may be available by prescription and reimbursed by your insurance company.

The creator of Project: EVO, a Boston-based tech company called Akili Interactive, is betting that video games, often blamed for exacerbating behavioral and mental conditions, could actually provide successful treatments for ADHD. And it won’t just be kids playing on doctors’ orders. People on the autism spectrum, seniors with Alzheimer’s, and patients recovering from brain injuries may also benefit from playing games targeted to their specific neurological deficiencies.

Akili is working with the University of California, San Francisco’s Neuroscape Lab to build on the success of a game called Neuroracer, developed by UCSF neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley, which was shown to be a powerful tool for cognitive enhancement in adults aged 60 to 85.

In a 2013 study featured on the cover of Nature, Neuroracer’s multitasking features were shown to lead to improvements in real-life tasks that required working memory and sustained attention. In that game, players steer a virtual car while carrying out other actions that challenge their executive functioning. After 12 hours of this training, seniors were able to consistently beat 20-year-old novice players. The results were so astonishing that Gazzaley, a strikingly fit and even-keeled 40-something, became a darling of the Silicon Valley self-optimization set, a sort of med-tech celebrity who regularly speaks at tech conferences and dazzles the media with his plain-spoken charisma.

Over the past 12 years, Gazzaley and his team have collaborated with designers and artists to develop a range of video games that might be able to treat a wide range of brain disorders. Now with investment backing from PureTech Health, an R&D and venture creation firm, Gazzaley and the Akili team are charging into unknown terrain: securing approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a video game.

It’s a slow, deliberate process that’s at odds with the shoot-first way tech is usually developed. The FDA requires any kind of drug or medical device to go through multiple phases of large-scale, randomized, double-blind clinical trials that must all succeed. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of legal and procedural details that must be airtight, so Akili has 11 full-time employees working in its compliance department. Now in the final Phase 3 trial, the Project: EVO game is close to becoming the first prescription-based video game.

If it gets approved, the implications are big. Prescription video games could become an enormous market even though they face the perception that screen time is generally not beneficial. And they could give children with ADHD an intriguing alternative to the stimulants that are prescribed for them with astonishing regularity.

Safeguards

Matt Omernick heads up product development for Akili, and was recruited by Gazzaley while he was executive art director at LucasArts. Omernick says the rigorous FDA approval process will assure medical professionals that the game is beneficial. “Get to market fast is not the strategy, and our investors know that,” he says. “Hopefully we will be the first to define a very new industry — digital medicine.”

Aside from a company called Posit Science, which is in talks with the FDA about using video games to treat various cognitive disorders, competition is virtually non-existent. However, persuading doctors and regulators is a steep uphill climb because several companies, including Lumosity and Neurocore — which counts Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as chief investor — have come under attack for making false claims about their benefits. Gazzaley himself has been among the critics.

The very idea of using video games therapeutically goes against the “you’ll rot your brain” conventional wisdom that is in fact validated by numerous studies. While some research has shown that playing video games consistently can lead to significant improvements in vision and attentiveness, even more studies demonstrate the negative effects of screen time, including serious addiction — particularly for those with ADHD, attention problems, and anti-social tendencies.

It’s a slow, deliberate process that’s at odds with the shoot-first way tech is usually developed.

Omernick says that Project: EVO has built-in safeguards to ensure that it’s only used for one 30-minute session per day, so kids can’t get addicted to it. It stops functioning entirely after the daily session. He stays away from the swirl of controversy surrounding kids and screen time by taking a very pragmatic approach: “No matter what, video games are not going away, and this is one that is actually beneficial for your brain,” he says.

Kids who are prescribed the game will go through behavioral and neurological assessments first. Then, they’ll play the game on an iPad for half an hour a day, five days a week, for four weeks. The game is entertaining and visually immersive, offering up the kind of rewards that kids are familiar with from other video games. At the start of the training, a cartoon character in a lab coat explains the session’s objectives. Players learn to position and tilt the tablet to control an avatar traveling through outdoor environments while hitting targets and avoiding distractors. Even for me, a neurotypical 39-year-old, the game is fun, challenging, and hard to put down.

Unlike an over-the-counter game, in which all players have to do the same things to advance to higher levels or earn rewards, Project: EVO is a completely individualized tool for each player. It measures neurological skills such as perceptual discrimination, visuomotor tracking, and multitasking ability, says Omernick, and players move on only “once you demonstrate that you’ve actually changed something neurologically. So the game pushes you to improve a part of your brain, like a personal trainer.”

After the four weeks of gaming, the players are once again thoroughly assessed for attention, processing speed, and reaction times. The clinical team asks parents to report kids’ symptoms, observes how the children behave during the month, and interviews the kids themselves about how they are feeling and how they believe they might have progressed. The Project: EVO pilot study results released last April showed significant improvement in attention abilities for all participants, and sustained effects for up to nine months.

Other possibilities

The Akili team is also setting up similar studies with autism spectrum disorder, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and traumatic brain injury. Last December, Akili announced promising results in a study of a digital screening platform that detects biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. The device, called AD Screen, is also in late-stage clinical trials.

But unlike with ADHD, this space is a bit more well-traveled. Posit Science has offered a cognitive enhancement game, BrainHQ, for five years. The Southern California branch of AAA offers older drivers a chance to complete 10 hours of training in the game in exchange for a discount on their auto insurance, says Posit Science CEO Henry Mahncke; he believes that health insurance discounts for patients who complete brain training will soon follow. Some of the exercises in BrainHQ, when combined with other treatments, have been shown to reduce the risk for dementia and even to help people with early Alzheimer’s.

Gazzaley says that most of the Akili games in development offer preventive potential as well, possibly protecting kids from developing ADHD, or lessening cognitive decline in adults. In fact, he maintains that the games could enhance cognitive abilities in everyone. The Neuroscape team is now working with school systems in the San Francisco Bay Area to train students to perform better academically using its video games.

But it’s not yet clear what the overall experience would be like for people who just pick up the game on their own, without a prescription for a certain condition. Among the details that haven’t been nailed down: Would non-prescription users have access to Akili’s clinical team as well? Would it be prohibitively expensive?

Cutting back on meds

It’s clear that parents and medical professionals are looking for an alternative way to treat ADHD. Diagnoses of hyperactivity disorder have skyrocketed in the past decade, affecting an estimated 11 percent of kids ages 4–17. About half of these kids take powerful drugs to lessen their symptoms and make them more amenable to classroom learning, following rules, and staying still.

Prescriptions of Adderall, Ritalin, and related drugs are up 28 percent since 2007. These drugs often present side effects, ranging from loss of appetite and weight to cardiac irregularities and slowed growth. They’re also widely used illegally off-label for their stimulant effects among the college set. It’s not yet fully understood how these drugs affect the developing brain, making each child a walking experiment. Adding to this, concern is growing that the ADHD diagnosis — which has criteria that are subjectively determined by clinicians — is incorrect about a third of the time, leading millions of kids to take drugs that they don’t really need. So Project: EVO offers a completely new framework for helping ADHD kids.

The idea that a video game could replace or reduce pharmaceutical treatments makes more sense when you consider that social, rather than behavioral and neurodevelopmental factors, frequently influence diagnosis. It’s the youngest kids in a classroom cohort who are more likely to be labeled hyperactive. Black and brown kids are diagnosed more often than their white classmates. To put it in historical perspective, hyperactivity wasn’t even acknowledged before compulsory schooling began in the 19th century. In many respects, children have become the target of modification because — let’s face it — fundamentally changing the social and environmental structures that negatively influence their behavior is more than a bit daunting. It’s widely acknowledged that in less rigid environments, children appear to evidence ADHD symptoms much less.

It’s clear that parents and medical professionals are looking for an alternative way to treat ADHD.

Emory University physician and anthropologist Mel Konner has proposed that ADHD is a matter of what’s known as evolutionary mismatch. The trait of short attention may have once provided survival advantages, but in the modern context it has become maladaptive because our environment is so different from the context in which Homo sapiens evolved, and our genes haven’t caught up. “These kids have hunter-gatherer brains in the modern context,” he says. “The testing regime in schools, coupled with the cutbacks in outdoor recess and art programs means that we are making the mismatch worse.”

Some solid research has found that kids with ADHD show significant improvement after getting regular outdoor play in natural settings, essentially recreating the hunter-gatherer lifestyle in small doses. And adventure sports disproportionately attract people who can successfully channel their ADHD energies into mountain climbing or paragliding. Similarly, Posit Science CEO Mahncke says that cognitive decline in seniors could be caused by lifestyle factors. Most people in the developed world are now sedentary, and our professional lives involve becoming narrowly focused on one type of task, in one place. Even if that task is intellectually demanding, that intensity is not what keeps our brains sharp. “Humans are one of the most adaptable animals — we can live anywhere — and what sustains us and maintains our brain health is constant new learning and adapting to environments,” Mahncke says.

But health professionals find it hard to write a prescription for an environment or a lifestyle. Take the idea of outdoor play — how much is effective? What kind of play is best? Are some spaces more beneficial than others? And what about the majority of people who don’t have easy access to wilderness?

That’s why Gazzaley thinks a video game prescription will likely be the most reliable treatment alternative for ADHD — and eventually for other disorders. “With almost 100% of newly diagnosed cases of ADHD, parents are asking: ‘Is there anything else I can do for my child besides drugs?’” Gazzaley says. “Our goal is to be on the pharmacy shelf next to Adderall. Any doctor will have the ability to prescribe our video game, which has a delivery system that is better than any drug.”

- by Jessica Carew Kraft

#adhd #Neuroscience #neurology #video games #brain

188 notes · View notes

whereareroo · 4 years

Text

YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THIS

WF THOUGHTS (10/21/20).

The presidency is a complex, multifaceted, job. What type of person makes a good president? That's one of the biggest political questions of all time.

Why does God allow suffering in the world? That's one of the biggest religious questions of all time?

Have you ever thought about the relationship between those two big questions? I have.

Suffering changes people. Nobody endures suffering without undergoing change.

Some people experience negative changes. Depression. Anger. Self-isolation.

Some people experience positive changes. The trauma, and the related suffering, makes them stronger. They become interested in making the world a better place. They look for ways to minimize the suffering of others. When they come upon a person who is suffering, or who is down on their luck, they respond with empathy and compassion.

What does any of this have to do with the presidency? Let's take a look at a few presidents and see if we can draw any conclusions.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt endured trauma and suffering. Shortly before his 30th birthday, his third child died as a young infant. Shortly before his 40th birthday, and approximately 12 years before he became president, he was diagnosed with polio. He became permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Unbeknownst to most of America, he was confined to a wheelchair. He was able to walk short distances by wearing iron leg braces and using canes. FDR, who created a multitude of important social programs, was one of our greatest presidents.

Despite his family wealth, John F. Kennedy was no stranger to trauma and suffering. As a teenager and young adult, he had serious gastrointestinal issues that required long hospital stays. He also suffered chronic back problems. In 1940, after his graduation from Harvard, he attempted to become an officer in the Army. Because of his bad back, he was rejected. A year later, after considerable effort by his influential father, he landed a spot in the Navy Reserves. After a series of desk jobs, he volunteered for the PT Boat fleet. By early 1943, he was in the Pacific and in the middle of WWII. You've probably heard about PT-109. In August of 1943, JFK was commanding that boat when it was sunk by the Japanese. Kennedy lost two of his crew members during the initial strike. Kennedy reinjured his back during the attack. For seven days after the attack, searching for safety and supplies, Kennedy and his surviving crew swam from island to island. Each swim was two or three miles. On the swims, Kennedy towed an injured man by clenching the injured man's life jacket strap in his teeth. After he was rescued, despite his back injury, Kennedy returned to battle. By the end of 1943, ongoing back problems forced Kennedy to end his active duty. Upon returning home, he was hospitalized for ten months. Soon after his release from the hospital, his older brother was killed in action. Death followed Kennedy into the U.S. Senate. Jackie, his young wife, had a miscarriage in 1955 and and a stillborn child in 1956. In 1963, a few months before the assassination, a newborn son died a few days after birth. All of this trauma, all of this suffering, had a significant impact on this charismatic and visionary president.

While Kennedy was fighting in the Pacific, a young kid from Connecticut turned 18 and on his birthday he enlisted in the Navy. George H.W. Bush soon became one of the youngest pilots in Navy history. By the middle of 1944, Bush was flying in WWII hot zones. Early in his deployment, Bush's plane was shot down by the Japanese. The two other men on the plane were killed. Bush was rescued, and for the rest of his life he would frequently ask himself: "Why had I been spared and what did God have for me?" Bush continued to fly combat missions. In his career, he flew 58 mission. In early 1945, when he was home on leave, Bush married a wonderful woman named Barbara. The couple faced a major crisis in 1953. Their four year old daughter, Robin, died of leukemia.

Barack Obama did not serve in the military. He did not have health issues, and he did not suffer the loss of a child. Obama faced other challenges. It is impossible for a White person to understand Obama's challenges. In 1961, in a racially divided America, Obama was born to a White mother and a Black father. His parents divorced when he was three, and his father returned to Kenya. Except for a single visit when he was 10, Obama never saw his father again. (The father died in an accident when Obama was 21.) From ages 6 through 10, Obama lived in Indonesia. Due to visa problems, his new step father had been forced to return to Jakarta. After more than a year of separation, Obama's mother followed with her young boy. Even though she divorced her Indonesian husband, Obama's mother stayed in Indonesia for almost all of her life. When he was 10, for many unhappy reasons, Obama was relocated to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. The young Black boy was raised by his White grandparents. As a teenager, Obama struggled with life and "medicated" himself with alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. He would get high to "push questions of who I was out of my mind." Thankfully, he defeated his demons and became our first Black president.

Should I tell you about more presidents? I could tell you about George W. Bush's struggles with alcohol (not to mention the ongoing family pain arising from the fact that Laura, his future wife, ran a stop sign when she was 17 and killed a former boyfriend who was driving across her path.) Are you interested in hearing about Bill Clinton's tragic childhood? ( It involved bigamy, the death of his biological father before he was born, abandonment by his mother for a few years when he was very young, and growing up in a household with a stepfather-- with the last name "Clinton" -- who abused his mother and brother.) I think I hear all of you shouting: "Stop." "No more!"

What's my point? All of the men discussed above were good, or very good, presidents. I don't think it's a coincidence that each of them had direct, personal, experience with trauma and suffering. Consciously or not, certain people use their pain as a catalyst for personal growth. Suffering gives rise to an enhanced capacity to empathize with the struggles of others. After enduring their own personal ordeals, these "survivors" are naturally drawn to public service and seek to make the world a better place. Their compassion gives rise to a desire to help others.

Based on the above, I think that Joe Biden will be a good or very good president. He has run the gauntlet of pain and suffering. In 1972, when he was 30, Biden was forced to face a major tragedy. His wife and their one year old daughter were killed in a traffic accident. Biden didn't have the luxury of collapsing into grief. He was suddenly the single parent of two young boys, both injured in the fatal accident, and he had just been elected to the U.S. Senate. Although Biden "felt that God had played a horrible trick" on him, he rose from the ashes and became a wonderful father and an outstanding public servant. Even after his boys reached adulthood, Biden was forced to confront pain and suffering. As an adult, his younger son struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction. In 2015, Biden's older son died of brain cancer. What do Joe's close friends say about him? They say that he is the most optimistic, and the most compassionate, man that they know.

The trademark of President Trump, Biden's opponent in the 2020 election, is a total lack of compassion. Time and time again, on the campaign trail and in the White House, Trump has shown that he is absolutely unable to exhibit empathy. He is deeply flawed. It's quite obvious that Trump does not care about people. Even his "friends" say that Trump only cares about himself. Trump has never experienced the personal growth that comes from experiencing trauma and enduring pain. Before becoming president, Trump had no record of public service. He's never had any interest in serving others. Trump only serves one master --- himself.

If you haven't voted yet, please ponder these points. These points help explain why Trump's first term has increased suffering and division in America. In my view, these points also explain why Trump should not be reelected. Isn't it time for another president who cares about people? Wouldn't that be nice? Don't you want a president who really cares about you, and who really wants to make America a better place for all of us?

0 notes

recalibr8 · 7 years

Text

Dr. Booze

I’d better talk about alcohol, right? I’m doing this resilience thing, its Sober October…I’ll do one of those drinking apps. That’ll be fun and informative. Something to write about without too much personal risk. I’m queen of blogs! Here we go...

So I download the UCH research app ‘Drink Less’ (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/drink-less-help-reducing-your-alcohol-consumption/id1020579244?mt=8).

It has a units recorder (3 pints of cider and regret on weekends, that’s within limits), do I get hangovers (twice a year, tops) and those ‘do you drink in the morning’ questions (no!). I’m acing this. And then my results are in and am I happy to share them with the researchers. Sure! I’ve got nothing to worry about. I click.... Wait. I drink more than 92% of the women my age and I’m at physical and psychological harm? This isn’t non threatening fun any more...

I then spend half an hour arguing with an app. I’ve never justified behavior to a piece of software for so long before. They can’t have had a reliable reference group.? They haven’t taken into account I don’t drink during the week (much)? Then I panic. I messaged friends and put up a Facebook post. A load of people made me feel better. Phew. “You’re not so bad, you don’t drink as much as me”, “who are their reference group? Who are these non drinking women, I don’t know any!” “you know that no UCH researchers is ever based in reality, right?”. I felt a bit better. Then later there were the people who messaged to say what fun we’d all had and remember this and what happened when. Then I got quite uncomfortable. I’ve not done anything too daft, I’ve always been safe getting home but I might not have been. My behavior towards others has been a bit ropey on a few occasions and I’ve said a few disinhibited things I’m not completely proud of. Although calling out a creep with “you have eyes like a haunted Victorian doll’ still makes me smile . But I hate hangovers with a passion. I don’t want to be known as the ‘cheap pink fizz girl’ . I’m going to have to make changes.

I then asked friends why they drink. It all came down to escaping reality one way or another. We know doctors are particularly vulnerable to this. In addition, medical culture has always been one based a lot around booze. I went to the Union bar last week after seeing a tutee’s revue show. It was filthy and brilliant and I was very proud. The cider afterwards was very cheap and there was beer pong and pitchers of lager going on around. I left soon as I was clearly 40 times older than everyone but it brought back memories of hours in the basement of St Mary’s on the sticky floor drinking ‘Whip’. The medical student population has thankfully diversified considerably than in my day when if you didn’t have a ‘European name’ or you were a woman you were excluded from interview and points given against you (I kid you not, it was a wretched scandal http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2923.1986.tb01052.x/abstract https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2545288/pdf/bmj00275-0003.pdf ) and so there are more students that won’t be drinking for cultural reasons. However, it was Friday and booze o’clock.

We know addictive drinking among doctors is a problem. This from the Royal College of Psychiatrists

There have been no large-scale studies investigating the prevalence of addiction among doctors in the UK however in 1998, a British Medical Association Working Group report estimated that as many as ‘one doctor in fifteen may be affected by drug or alcohol problems at some point during their careers’. The consensus of the report was that these doctors were mainly male, beyond the mid-point in their careers and more likely to be in general practice than in hospital practice (British Medical Association, 1998). More than 10 years on, younger doctors and medical students, increasingly female, are exposed to a wider range of recreational psychoactive drugs, which are frequently combined with heavy alcohol consumption. This occurs against a background of culturally sanctioned heavy drinking and substance use.

I’d highlight the young woman bit in this; woman doctors have similar behaviours to their male colleagues across the board as I’ve talked about before which sets them apart from the general population. Men on the whole find it hard to ask for help with their health, but women doctors are almost as bad at this. We have to look after ourselves.

This picture makes me laugh because the lady doctor in the picture is giving the advice but I’m wondering how much she drinks....

So why are we at risk?

· Addiction problems in doctors usually occur in the context of a number of difficulties including anxiety, depression, psychological difficulties, stress at work, family stress, bereavement, an injury or accident at work, pain or a non-specific drift into drinking (Brooke et al, 1993).

· The relationship between perceived stress at work and substance misuse appears to be mediated by individual psychological vulnerability factors. Difficulties in childhood can affect perceived stress in adults and this has been shown to hold true for junior doctors (Brewin et al, 1992; Firth-Cozens, 1992).

· Psychological risk factors include goal-directed and perfectionist traits, poor self-esteem, undue sensitivity, difficulty confiding in others and a low tolerance for frustration. Anxiety and depression are frequent antecedents to alcohol and drug problems in all age groups, and suicide is an ever-present risk. Women doctors with alcohol problems often have a family history of addiction, have been high achievers at medical school, have undetected depression and are at a high risk of suicide (Bissell & Skorina, 1987).

I instinctively know that last bit; my dad was an alcoholic. He brewed his own super strong beer and being an airline pilot (history of depression, high stress job, alcoholic father and grandfather) his risk was huge. Plus I’m a playwright and don’t get me started on drinking in the arts.

However, the news is good once you’ve gone that step forward doctors are usually good patients, highly motivated and there is an increasing desire to support struggling medics.

Once in treatment the outlook for the addicted doctor is excellent. Doctors are usually motivated to return to work. This motivation and the fear of sanctions are key factors to good outcomes, as are supervision and monitoring. The figures in North America suggest that 80–90% of doctors in treatment do well over 1–5 years (Galanter et al, 1990; Bohigan et al, 1996)

Support is available now in lots of places;

NHS Practioner Health Programme http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/workinpsychiatry/psychiatristssupportservice/drugandalcoholproblems.aspx

Sick Doctors Trust http://sick-doctors-trust.co.uk/page/addiction

DocHealth http://www.dochealth.org.uk/who-we-are

Alcoholics Anonymous - everywhere

As I’ve said here before, I sought support from MedNet which is now DocHealth for PTSD/anxiety/depression 5 years back and they were fantastically supportive. I’m not saying is easy, but it’s the right thing to do.

So do I have an alcohol problem? I don’t think I do but I have some alcohol use behaviors I have been historically not happy about and I need to be watchful. I’m off the sauce completely right now whilst I reset and I’m trying some dreadful alcohol free drinks so you don’t have to. There’s one gin substitute that suggests mixing with a handful of peas. Peas.

But I don’t want to be permanently on the wagon. I have friends that are and its hard work socially as they have to give an explanation every time. My hat is off to them. There are groups to join such as the Soberistas (https://soberistas.com/ ) and This Naked Mind (https://thisnakedmind.com/stopdrinking/) for anyone ready to take that plunge. In the meantime I’m looking more at when I drink with the aim of never having a hangover again (and when I write that, it doesn’t actually sound mad, it sounds sensible). I love a cold beer on a hot day, a mulled wine in winter and a cider in a squishy glass at a festival. That’s all possible.

Meanwhile, I might turn off the push notifications. A banner with the words ‘Drink Less. Have you done your alcohol diary?’ keeps popping up on my phone which is raising eyebrows in MDT meetings. Keep well everyone.

1 note · View note

ebaeschnbliah · 7 years

Text

SAVING JOHN WATSON

________________________________________________________________

ONCE AGAIN PLAYING WITH MIRRORS ON THE BASIS OF SYMBOLISM

GOING TO DINNER TO CATCH A KILLER

PILOT: Sherlock already knows 'what' the killer is. A cabbie.

SHERLOCK: There are cars that pass like ghosts, unseen, unremembered. There are people we trust, always, when we’re alone, when we’re lost, when we’re drunk. We never see their faces, but every day we disappear into their cars and let the trap close around us.

And when a black cab pulls up at the other side of the steet Sherlock knows exactly what's going on.

SHERLOCK: I give you the perfect murder weapon of the modern age, the invisible car. The London cab.

Sherlock reacts immediately. With a little help of Angelo (code word 'headless nun') he acts like a drunk and approaches the taxi. The plan goes wrong though. Serial killer Jeff Hope is able to drug Sherlock. After bundling the half conscious man into his cab, where he quickly passes out, Hope drives away. John notices that something isn't right and starts running after the cab .... without his cane.

__________________________________________________

ASIP: Sherlock hasn't the 'faintest idea' who would be hunting in the middle of a crowd.

A black cab parks at the side of the road across Angelo's which raises Sherock's suspicion.

SHERLOCK: Look across the street. Taxi. SHERLOCK: Stopped. Nobody getting in, and nobody getting out. SHERLOCK: Why a taxi? Oh, that’s clever. Is it clever? Why is it clever

On the off chance that the serial killer could be inside the cab Sherlock and John (without his cane) chase the taxi through the streets of London . Sherlock is right and wrong at the same time. He suspects the passenger to be the murderer when in fact - as it turns out a little later - it is the cabbie. Sherlock and John return to 221b without having achieved what they set out for. After a while the cabbie arrives here as well and lures Sherlock into his car with the promise to explain how he was able to talk people into suicide.

________________________________________________________________

THE MAIN-DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THESE SCENES:

PILOT: It is Sherlock who phones and approaches Jeff Hope

Sherlock knows already the cabbie is the murderer. John and Angelo are in on the plan and observe from afar. Sherlock gets druged, abducted and is then completely helpless at the mercy of the serial killer. John chases the taxi on foot back to Baker Street (a five minute walk between 221b and Angelo's)

________________________________________________________________

ASIP: It is Jeff Hope who phones and approaches Sherlock

Sherlock follows him willingly and with full knowledge that this is the murderer. Sherlock doesn't tell anyone about it. He gets never druged in this version. John is able to trace Sherlock to Roland-Kerr Further Education College because the serial killer neglected to get rid of the treacherous pink phone.

__________________________________________________

HOW DOES THIS STORY START ?

John Watson the soldier, the doctor, comes invalided back from the war - unable to work in his job anymore. He doesn't get on with his sister Harry. Because John can't afford London on his army pension he is looking for a flatshare. His therapist tells John that writing down in a blog everything that happens to him would be very helpful. Problem is ... nothing happens to him. And John keeps a gun in his nightstand.

THINGS THAT HAPPEN BOTH IN THE PILOT & ASIP

John (with his cane) meets Sherlock at 221b.

Sherlock reacts enthusiastically when he finally gets summoned by DI Lestrade on the case of the serial suicide murders. 'Oh, it's Christmas!' Sherlock exclaims and full of excitement he rushes out of the door.

A frustrated John stays behind who damns his bad leg, his disability, for being the reason he has lost a life full of action, adventure and meaning.

Unexpectedly Sherlock comes back to invite John on the case.

After having investigated the crime scene Sherlock rushes off again, leaving John behind a second time.

Unexpectedly Sherlock calls John back to Baker Street to discuss the case. Then he invites him on the hunt for the serial killer and ... to dinner.

AND WHAT HAPPENS AT THE BEGINNING OF TLD

Faith Smith (with a cane) comes to Baker Street seeking the help of Sherlock Holmes.

It's about murder. Later it turns out that a serial killer is involved.

Sherlock notices certain things about Faith. Her isolation, her limited funds, that she left her job.

But he isn't interested in her case and sends her away.

Unexpectedly Sherlock calls her back because suddenly he realizes somthing very important: Faith is on the verge of killing herself.

Sherlock invites her to dinner and takes her case.

In these scenes Faith Smith serves as a mirror for John Watson. For one second Sherlock even sees John in his mind ... walking with his cane down a dimly lit street (ASIP). There is the memory of a damp coat (lady in pink) and there is a handbag too.

PILOT & ASIP - a smallish suitcase without the weight of a pink phone

TLD - a handbag with the revealing weight of a heavy gun

Sherlock reads the symptoms of depression and suicidal tendencies correctlly and is aware of the dangerous condition Faith is in.

SHERLOCK: It’s too heavy. You said I was your last hope and now you’re going out into the night with no plan on how you’re getting home ... and a gun.

And Sherlock reacts really sweet. He invites Faith on a stroll through the nightly streets of London and later to dinner with fish and chips. He explains patiently and in great detail how he deduces certain things and how he draws his conclusions from them. They walk and talk the whole night. When the new morning dawns Sherlock demands Faith's gun as payment for taking her case and throws it into the Thames.

SHERLOCK: “Taking your own life.” Interesting expression. Taking it from who? Oh, once it’s over, it’s not you who’ll miss it. SHERLOCK: Your own death is something that happens to everybody else. SHERLOCK: Your life is not your own. Keep your hands off it.

John's gun gets thrown into the Thames as well. It happens at the end of the PILOT.

SHERLOCK: Where is it? JOHN: Where’s what? SHERLOCK: Don’t. Just don’t. What did you do with the gun? JOHN: Oh, er, bottom of the Thames.

________________________________________________________________

AND WHO WOULD BE THE VICTIM OF A SERIAL KILLER ?

SHERLOCK: He wants to kill anyone. He’s a serial killer! SMITH: Anyone.

FAITH’s VOICE: Anyone. MOLLY’s VOICE: Anyone. MARY’s VOICE: Anyone

SMITH (multiple times): Anyone

(In total 'anyone' is mentioned by different characters 28 times in TLD)

_______________________________________________________________

SERIAL KILLER JEFF HOPE FROM THE PILOT:

CABBIE: Anyone who didn’t know where they were going, ’cause they were drunk or lost or new in town. CABBIE: Anyone I could walk through the wrong door

__________________________________________________

Interestingly the term 'anyone' is at no time uttered by serial killer Jeff Hope in ASIP.

- SAVING JOHN WATSON -

In the PILOT as well as in ASIP Sherlock deduces a lot of things about John which he tells him right away - first in Bart's lab and on the next day during the taxi ride to the crime scene. But Sherlock is not the only one who notices certain things. The audience gets included in the deduction process as well. We are the ones who are able to watch an isolated and depressed John Watson in his sparsely furnished flat. His nightmares are the very first thing the story starts with. It is clear from the beginning that this man is in a really bad condition. This is a man who has lost his joy for life ... who has lost his meaning of life. The way John looks and moves when he is alone in his dim little room ... how he eyes the gun he's keeping in his nightstand ... tells that he is very near the mark of using it on himself.

But what the audience doesn't see is, if Sherlock Holmes notices the same things as well. Does he deduce about John in the PILOT and in ASIP what he deduces about Faith in TLD?

Looking at John ... does Sherlock see 'suicidal, alone, strapped for cash, good cook and isolation' ?

Does he notice that John is in great danger? That he is in dire need to be saved? If so ... how does Sherlock react? Well, he invites John on the case and to dinner ... very similar to how he reacts with Faith. Therefore Sherlock might very well have deduced the same things about Joh Watson. Just Sherlock's reaction isn't shown to the audience. Or ist it?

________________________________________________________________

AND ONCE AGAIN THE LYING DETECTIVE

This episode is woven of several story threads (in fact, the whole show is). If I had to name the two main threads in TLD I would call them:

'THE EVOLUTION OF SHERLOCK: CHAPTER 'DRUG ADDICTION'

'SAVE JOHN WATSON: CHAPTER 'GET THE HELL ON WITH IT'

Actually, the second title could be used for the whole of S4 (or more?):

'Save John Watson' - The first episode TST - ends with this request

The whole second episode TLD - is about this request.

The third episode TFP - seems to bring the story in the perfect position for achieving this request.

Hopefully S5 will present the successfull outcome of this request.

((As mentioned in several previous posts (X X X X X X) I think that Mary isn't a real person but a character 'casted' (invented) by Sherlock to serve as an avatar for himself on his 'Mind Stage'. 'It's for an experiment'. Additional information regarding this idea can be found here and here and also in 'Why Mary?' by @loveismyrevolution. In that case the 'insturction' how to save John Watson actually comes from Sherlock himself - it is the result of his own deductions.))

THERE IS A CASE SHERLOCK ..... YOU NEED TO DO SOMETHING ..... SAVE JOHN WATSON ..... SAVE HIM SHERLOCK ..... SAVE HIM

This is how TST ends. And TLD starts with a case that mirrors the PILOT as well as ASIP in a lot of things. Probably to drive home the point as clear as possible - right after Faith 'vanishes' mysteriously by daybreak near the Thames and Sherlock starts wandering aimlessly through the streets - the audience as well as Sherlock is reminded of the main purpose of this episode again:

Don’t think anyone else is going to save John, because there isn’t anyone

And then later, near the climax of this story, the audience gets in detail Sherlock's instructions from the DVD which has already been given to him in the prior episode (TST). What he has to do to achieve the very important task of saving John Watson:

Don’t think anyone else is going to save him, because there isn’t anyone. It’s up to you. Save him. But I do think you’re gonna need a little bit of help with that, because you’re not exactly good with people, so here’s a few things you need to know about the man we both love – and more importantly what you’re going to need to do to save him.

You can’t save John because he won’t let you. He won’t allow himself to be saved. The only way to save John ... is to make him save you. Go to Hell, Sherlock. Go right into Hell, and make it look like you mean it.

Go and pick a fight with a bad guy. Put yourself in harm’s way. If he thinks you need him, I swear ... he will be there.

And exactly this is what Sherlock is doing in 'The Lying Detective'. He picks a fight with a really bad guy. He puts himself into mortal danger. He bets his own life by playing an insanely risky game. Druged and completely helpless Sherlock submerges himself to be at the mercy of a extremely dangerous serial killer. And John starts running to help him. Well .... he starts driving .....

Oh .... but hasn't all this happened before? It's on the tip of my tongue .....

ONCE AGAIN - BACK TO THE BEGINNING - TO THE PILOT

Sherlock invites John on their fist case. He invites him to dinner at Angelo's. Sherlock picks a fight with a bad guy (and he doesn't inform the police ... really nothing new under the sun).

Sherlock puts himself into harm's way. He gets druged, bundled into a cab and is kidnapped by a serial killer.

JOHN: Something’s gone wrong. ANGELO: No, no, no. All part of the plan. ANGELO: Sherlock always has a plan. JOHN: Yes, and it’s gone wrong.

And John Watson immediately starts running .... chasing the cab ... attempting to save Sherlock Holmes. First part of the plan achieved? It seems ....

THE FINAL PROBLEM MIGHT BE A THREE PATCH PART PROBLEM

GOING TO HELL

AVOIDING SAMARRA

STAYING ALIVE

Hoping John arives in time. Because the only way to save John ... is to make him save Sherlock. Either they both survive or neither of them. Because #Sherlock Holmes lives means #John Watson lives. This show runs in circles!

Right from the beginning of the story? It almost seems so ....

Using the same filmset for PILOT and TLD X

I leave you to your own deduchtions. Thank you for the scripts @callie-ariane

@gosherlocked @isitandwonder @monikakrasnorada @tjlcisthenewsexy @longsnowsmoon5 @yan-yae @the-7-percent-solution @tendergingergirl @may-shepard @moffat-rocks @sarahthecoat @marchinaugusta @impatient14 @camillo1978 @shylockgnomes

#saving john watson #the Pilot - asip - tld #mirrors #symbolism

289 notes · View notes

marvhagedorn · 7 years

Photo

Last Week in the Idaho Senate.... We had the honor of hosting a memorial service for previous State Senators who had passed last year. It took place on the Senate Floor where we honored the lives and work of Grant R. Ipsen, Claude J. Burtenshaw, Mark G. Ricks, Kenneth L. Robison, Robert W. Saxvik, John D. Hansen. Many heartfelt and humorous stories were shared about each individual and we thanked their families who were in attendance for their service as well. It’s humbling to follow in such great footsteps… Bill Highlights: House Bill 20 passed the Senate Floor with 30 Ayes and 2 nays, then returned to the House. This legislation is to remove the additional registration fee for all gasoline hybrid vehicles while continuing to charge the fee for plug-in hybrids. This legislation exempts neighborhood electric vehicles from the electric vehicle fee. In the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee the Department of Health and Welfare requested $128,600.00 for a continued FDA approved pilot program cannabid oil based medication to treat epilepsy. This medication does not carry any side effects of an altered state nor does it have any street value, but controlled tests so far are showing positive results in using it for these treatments. In the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee the Department of Agriculture requested $1,010,000.00 for the Quagga Muscles abatement program. They have now been found in the Montana, too close for comfort so we need to step up protection of our waterways and lakes. The Department of Agriculture would like to open up three additional inspection stations to monitor traffic coming from Montana. The joint committee studying this issue that would like to have up to six stations on a 24x7 hour boat inspection operation. In Senate Transportation, Senate Bill 1052 which would have removed dyed diesel fuel was held in committee. After a great deal of discussion Senate Bill 1072 (Dyed diesel fuel enforcement program) was sent to the Senate Floor. Off highway dyed diesel isn’t taxed like road fuel is and is intended for use in off road production equipment. Periodic boarder inspections by our boarder states have shown that there are users that are running it in their vehicles driving on the roadways where taxed fuel is designed to maintain. Improper use of dyed diesel is considered an evasion of Idaho State tax laws and would be subject to a civil penalty and Idaho doesn’t have an inspection program. The intent of S1072 is to set that up to make sure all highway users are paying the taxes needed for that infrastructure maintenance. In the State Affairs Committee Senate Bill 1106 was sent to print, it's purpose is to raise the age in which tobacco products can be purchased from 18 to 21. The reasoning would be to lower the percentage of addiction and alleviate the health risks that result from such an addiction. There will most likely be a lively discussion from both sides of the issue when/if the printed bill is heard in committee. On Friday, with help of many experts informing committee members in the weeks leading up to the hearing, I was able to pass to the floor SCR108 what calls on Congress for an Article V Convention of States to review and draft a balanced budget amendment to our US Constitution. Once Congress receives 34 of the same, or VERY similar petitions, they are then required to call a convention where the states draft and have to approve language for that proposed amendment. That language would then be sent to all 50 states where it won’t become effective until 38 (3/4 of the states) ratify it. For those who follow me closely, you will know that my work with the Assembly of State Legislatures has been working on the process of notification, setting up the convention and rules of the convention, should one ever be called, for over 4 years now. Over 100 elected legislators from more than 33 States have been involved in this process to insure there is a system in place that the states have put together should an eventual call be made sometime in our future. The Senate Education Committee held a hearing to listen to concerns regarding (Rule 08.0203.1701) mandatory minimum requirements for the science curriculum, relating to climate change facts being taught. After many testimonies the Committee decided it best to discuss it further and revisit the issue on Monday. The Senate Education Committee heard from the National Conference of Sate Legislatures. They feel that the United States Education System is falling behind in comparison to many other countries education system. They are studying education in Finland, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, Poland, China, Singapore, and Taiwan. They will be reporting back to update us on what they believe we could implement to improve education in the United States. The Senate Health and Welfare committee held a hearing to hear various testimonies regarding Senate Bill 1050 (Immunization exemption forms) This legislation relates to an exemption form for parents or legal guardians to sign regarding certain immunizations before starting school. The law would clarify that a parent or guardian need only sign a statement of objection and present it to the school. Many were concerned that a statement of objection was being sent to and that it might have some privacy concerns. It is still under discussion and a decision will be made this upcoming week. I proposed an RS that would have fixed the PERSI Legislator pension system, eliminating the effect of spiking a legislator’s retirement should he/she find or be appointed to a full time job that had PERSI benefits. Unfortunately, I could not get the bill printed so that we could have a hearing on it. I will bring it back again next year along with the help of Rep. Harris and Rep. Packard in the House. Secretary of State Lawrence Denny thinks a federal agency may have tried to hack the state’s election website around November 8th. Apparently the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s IP address tried to access the state elections site. Department of Homeland Security does conduct cyber security scans however only after receiving consent of system owner. DHS has agreed to work with the Secretary of States Office and address his concerns and determine just what was going on at the time of the attempt to break into the system. I sponsored a table at the Ada county Lincoln Day this last week where we were blessed with Andy Card as our Guest Speaker. He was Chief of Staff for Former President George W. Bush during September 11th attacks where he shared a detailed account of that day as well as the following days of the attacks. He was a facinating speaker who had worked on President Reagan and President H. Bush’s staffs as well. It was an event few will forget! It was a fast paced, energy absorbing week… please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have either by social media or phone at 208-332-1417. Thank you for letting me represent you in the Idaho Senate! file/ma/marvhagedorn.20170227T050403.z4vtb55.jpeg

1 note · View note

celebritylive · 4 years

Link

WARNING: This post contains spoilers from Monday’s episode of The Bachelor.

Welcome back, Bachelor Nation. Hannah Brown is officially out of the picture (at least for now), but Peter Weber‘s ladies were busy stirring up plenty of their own drama this week.

Monday’s episode kicked off with a one-on-one date for Victoria P. After taking her on a tour of his hometown — the pilot is from Westlake Village, California, just around the corner from the Bachelor mansion — Peter and the nurse from Louisiana went line dancing at his favorite local bar, where both agreed they were “a little smitten.”

That night, Victoria P. confided in Peter about her difficult childhood: Her dad died when she was young, and then her mom fell into addiction. She and her sister grew up in and out shelters as their mom struggled, with Victoria P. recalling through tears how she “had to be the rock” for her family.

“I dreamed a lot of dreams and one of my dreams was just to get out of that place and to have a healthy and happy life,” she said. “And I think it’s affected my relationships at times, because I didn’t feel deserving of someone. I just feel so grateful, because I feel like you’ve shown me the kind of love that I deserve.”

Peter thanked her for opening up as he offered her a rose. “I have never been inspired by someone so much in my entire life,” he told her. “And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.”

Back at the mansion, tensions were still simmering between Kelsey and Hannah Ann, an early frontrunner, over a now-infamous champagne bottle mix-up. And Alayah, meanwhile, had started to show her more “wild” side.

“Everybody sees me, because of pageants and what I do, as the sweet little elegant proper thing,” said the former Miss Texas USA, sipping red wine in Peter’s pilot hat. “But I’m very good at putting on face when I need to.”

Her behavior clearly irked another fellow contestant, Sydney. “All I go off of is what I see in people, and with Alayah, I can tell something is off about that girl,” Sydney said. “Her actions, since we’ve been here, kind of just make you go sideways a little bit. She is not the type of girl I surround myself with, she’s the type of girl that I’ve always avoided. She is just all fake, and I hope that Peter will be able to weed that out.”

Naturally, with a feud brewing between the two women, they both landed this week’s group date, along with Kiarra, Sarah, Tammy, Kelly, Shiann and Savannah. Bright and early the next morning, they slipped into their assigned lingerie (yes, really) and headed out on the date — an Extreme Pillow Fight Club, orchestrated by none other than fan-favorite franchise alum Demi Burnett. Host Chris Harrison and Bachelor regular Fred Willard served as judges.

RELATED: New Bachelor Teaser Suggests Peter Weber May Have Sex with Someone Before Fantasy Suites

“I know that there’s a lot of tension in the mansion,” Demi told the women. “So I wanted to give you ladies the opportunity to let out that aggression.”

After duking it out with Sydney in an aggressive championship round, Alayah was crowned “queen of the bedroom.” Things only got more tense between the two during the evening portion of the group date, resulting in a rather hostile conversation about Alayah’s pageant past.

“You sound so rehearsed, you know what I mean?” Sydney told her. “With cameras, you’re just on. But if you come in here worrying about how you’re perceived, then you’re not going to be your real self to people. And that’s what Peter is here to find. A real person.”

Later, Sydney brought up her concerns with Peter about certain women in the house “putting on a facade,” without naming Alayah.

“When I’m in the house with some girls, and when the cameras show up and the lights are on, it’s a whole different person,” she explained. “It’s just so artificial. And I don’t want you to get blinded by that.”

“That’s such a fear of mine, that I could fall for someone and they’re fake,” Peter said. “I mean, I saw it with Hannah last season, seeing her fall for someone that wasn’t there for the right reasons.”

When he rejoined the group, he addressed the issue and asked Sydney to explain herself — this time in front of everyone.

“Sorry to kind of put you on the spot, but you had mentioned that there were people that maybe are different off-camera or different in the house when I’m not there … and I trust you,” he said. “I want to just squash this now.”

Turning to Alayah, Sydney said she felt that she “maybe on a little bit for the imagery of things.”

“I mean, does anybody else feel that way?” Alayah bristled. “We’re all living together at this point, so everybody’s gotten to see me day in, day out.”

RELATED: Chris Harrison Says Peter Weber’s Bachelor Finale Will Be Surprising in a ‘Gut-Wrenching Way’

Of course, no one wanted to speak up and get involved, and Peter walked off. The confrontation between the two women continued without him, with Sydney pointing out that Alayah’s reactions were “a little bit dramatic.” Alayah insisted that was just her personality, but Sydney stood her ground. “When the cameras are on, you do react a little too much,” she said. “And it looks a little bit fabricated.”

Alayah pulled Peter aside to defend herself, saying she was “blindsided” by Sydney’s accusations. Poor Peter, looking absolutely exasperated, had no idea who to believe.

“I just feel really confused,” he said. “I believe Sydney when she brought up those concerns, but Alayah came over and talked with me and I believe what she was telling me, and I like her a lot. I also respect Sydney a lot, she spoke it like she saw it. I’m looking for that honesty and for someone that’s unafraid to put me first. … I just hope that I’m not getting fooled.”

Ultimately, he chose to give the group date rose to Sydney, thanking her for “being honest” and “essentially putting me before everyone else.”

The next day, Chris Harrison arrived at the mansion to announce that Peter would be coming over for a pool party in lieu of a cocktail party that night. During the pool party, Peter made a point to get each woman’s take on the situation — and it wasn’t looking good for Alayah, with several contestants in agreement that she seemed to be putting on a front whenever the cameras were on.

“Maybe it’s just the background that she has with pageants,” said Lexi. “But we’ll be hanging out and then all of a sudden the cameras come on and her voice goes up like, five octaves.”

Peter and Alayah also had a conversation, where she reassured him that she “can’t fake” feelings or emotions, calling herself “the world’s worst liar.” He said he believed her, but it was obvious he wasn’t 100 percent certain. “With Alayah, what I think I’m seeing is the truth,” he said. “But my logical brain says that yes, there are flags.”

He decided to ask Victoria P. for her opinion, given her experience in the pageant world as Miss Louisiana USA 2019. And much to his surprise, Victoria P. revealed that Alayah had asked her to lie about knowing each other before going on the show.

“She asked that I not tell producers that we knew one another,” she said. “I didn’t really understand why, because I don’t really want to lie, I can’t lie. I didn’t think of it much then, but looking back now … coming into this, she was really open to all the opportunities that will come after this, even if you weren’t her husband. So maybe she’s not the one for you.”

RELATED VIDEO: Jake Owen Writes ‘Diss’ Song Inspired by The Bachelorette‘s Hannah Brown — and She Responds!

That seemed to seal the deal for Peter, who pulled Alayah aside once again and confronted her about the lie.

“I’m not trying to throw you under the bus, but maybe you’ve been a little manipulative towards some of the women,” he said. “Did you tell Victoria to tell the producers you guys didn’t know each other before you came on the show?”

Alayah, looking shaken, said her “biggest fear was that I would get disqualified and she would get disqualified because we knew the other person was coming.”

“I didn’t want that for her, I didn’t want that for me, and I was scared for both of us that that was going to be an issue,” she said. “That’s all it was. It wasn’t me being manipulative.”

With that, Peter said he had “a lot to think about” and abruptly left, cutting the pool party short. Heading into the rose ceremony that night, everyone was on edge — including Peter himself, who stopped mid-rose handout to mull over his decision with Chris Harrison in the next room.

“I want to give it to her so bad,” he said. “But I just do not want to regret this.”

RELATED: Bachelor Peter Weber Promises a ‘Spoiler-Free’ Finale, Says ‘There’s No Way’ to Find Out the Winner

When he headed back into the ceremony, two roses were still up for grabs on the table — but Chris pointedly removed one. The final rose went to Mykenna, officially sending Alayah home, as well as Jasmine, Sarah and Alexa.

“I’m disappointed,” Alayah said. “It just sucks that I am going out because of other people’s opinions and not what he saw directly from me.”

Peter made a toast to the remaining contestants, then headed out. But he was still torn over his decision, admitting to a producer that he wasn’t sure he wanted to let Alayah leave.

“I don’t feel good right now. I thought I would, but I don’t feel good,” he said. “I think I just gave in to listening to everyone else, to be completely honest. I feel like I’m going to regret this like crazy.”

She won’t be gone for too long, though — a sneak peek at next week’s episode already teased her return.

The Bachelor airs Mondays (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.

from PEOPLE.com https://ift.tt/2RzasiJ

#Celebrity

0 notes