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emocheol · 4 days

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first kiss with seventeen

seungcheol

gets all nervous

has been planning this for weeks

wants it to be so good so bad that he ends up colliding his forehead with yours when he’s going in

gets all red from embarrassment and makes you swear to never tell anyone about it (so of course you tell everyone)

“please tell me that wasn’t the worst first kiss you’ve had”

“well if that’s what you want to hear…”

jeonghan

makes you make the first move

can tell that you’ve been wanting to kiss him since you’re always looking at his lips, just wants to make you work for it

will spend the entire day teasing you by getting close and then pulling away

you have to grab his face and hold him there to finally kiss him

he won’t ever let you live down the fact that technically you made the first move

“you’re obsessed with me, huh?”

“you’ve been teasing me all day!”

“doesn’t change the fact”

joshua

extremely confident

just makes out with you when he feels the timing is right

can’t get enough and will not stop kissing you

becomes a norm in your relationship for him to kiss you every second he gets

“why are you always kissing me?”

“why? can’t i show my partner how much i love them?”

jun

shy shy shy

makes a whole romantic date and at the end he asks if it’s okay to kiss you

is soooo nervous that you’re going to say no, but of course you say yes

swears that fireworks explode when your lips touch

he is so whipped for you

“i think im in love with you”

“what was that?”

“uhhh i think we need more glue!”

soonyoung

gives it no thought

just spontaneously kisses you when he gets extra happy one day

“babe! look our song is number 1!” and presses a bunch of kisses on your lips

all he remembers is how nice it feels to kiss you

continues to kiss you whenever he feels like it and loves it twice as much whenever you initiate it

“soonyoung! you just kissed me!”

“yeah! did you not like it? :(”

“no it’s okay, do it again”

wonwoo

quite simple about it

will pucker his lips at you and wait for you to kiss him

won’t get embarrassed over it either

he’s in love with you! he’s not scared to show his affection

“wonwoo what are you doing?”

“waiting for you to kiss me, angel”

jihoon

heat of the moment kiss

everything feels so right

feels like he’d be doing you a disservice if he didn’t kiss you

is the most gentle man on the planet and holds your face in his hands

will let you take control of the kiss, just this one time

you’ll be grinning like an idiot

“what was that for?”

“just felt right”

minghao

encourages you to kiss him first

you just got promoted at your job and you’re over the moon about it, so you’re celebrating with minghao

“you can kiss me if you want” he’ll say as if it’s the most casual sentence ever

you get all shy and press a sweet kiss to his lips

he’ll take the lead

“don’t be shy, sweetheart”

“you’re just too handsome :(”

mingyu

he’ll be sick and sulking because he wants to go on your planned date but he can’t get out of bed

profusely apologizes but you won’t accept them because it’s not his fault!

when he won’t stop rambling you’ll lean down and kiss him to shut up him

when you pull away he has a dopey smile on his face

“do that again!”

“i can’t risk getting sick…”

“i’ll nurse you back to health”

pulls you down to him, and pecks your lips a bunch of times

seokmin

#1 gentleman

wine and dine

“i totally understand if you’re not ready but, can i kiss you?” SWOON

makes you feel like the most special person on the planet

will still ask you if he can kiss you multiple times after that

“can i kiss you?”

“seokmin we’ve been together for a year”

“doesn’t hurt to ask!”

seungkwan

smooth so so smooth

you’ll be playing a game and the prize is the winner gets to make the loser do whatever they want

seungkwan wins (of course)

pretends to think about what he wants even though he knows

“kiss me”

“what?!”

“i won so i want you to kiss me”

cue you being a blushing mess and giving seungkwan a light kiss

vernon

gets home from work one day and kisses you when he walks through the door

you’re shocked and he’s acting like it’s an every day occurrence

doesn’t want to make a big deal out of it

(he’s secretly been wanting to kiss you for weeks)

“what was that for?”

“just missed you, baby”

this becomes a regular occurrence when he gets home from work now

chan

nervous as hell

wants to be smooth and he is!

until he’s not

accidentally bites your tongue (a/n: i have had a man bite my tongue before and it hurt for a week)

profusely apologies but he’s such a cutie, how can you be mad?

“i’m so sorry, do you want me to get ice?”

“no, chan, just kiss me again”

does it right this time

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izzyliker · 1 year

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let me recommend a different less tumblr famous the mountain goats song to you based on your fav song from tallahassee

01 tallahassee

* there will be no divorce (x)

* then the letting go (x)

* going to queens (x)

* going to port washington (x)

02 first few desperate hours

* damn these vampires (x)

* you or your memory (x)

* cry for judas (x)

* pale green things (x)

* going to scotland (x)

* tahitian ambrosia maker (x)

* aulon raid (x)

* birth of serpents (x)

03 southwood plantation road

* going to kansas (x)

* orange ball of love (x)

* dance music (x)

* alpha incipiens (x)

04 game shows touch our lives

* fault lines (x)

* the mess inside (x)

* riches and wonders (x)

* minnesota (x)

* baboon (x)

* mark on you (x)

05 the house that dripped blood

* new chevrolet in flames (x)

* twin human highway flares (x)

* onions (x)

* broom people (x)

* hast thou considered the tetrapod (x)

* the autopsy garland (x)

06 idylls of the king

* sax rohmer #1 (x)

* training montage (x)

* against pollution (x)

* how to embrace a swamp creature (x)

07 no children

* going to georgia (x)

* family happiness (x)

08 see america right

* dilaudid (x)

* going to hungary (x)

* alpha omega (x)

* going to maine (x)

09 peacocks

* wild sage (x)

* deianara crush (x)

* sept 16 triple x love! love! (x)

* the last place i saw you alive (x)

* beautiful gas mask (x)

10 international small arms traffic blues

* your belgian things (x)

* flashing lights (x)

* love love love (x)

* snow crush killing song (x)

* chinese rifle song (x)

11 have to explode

* orange ball of pain (x)

* downtown seoul (x)

* omega blaster (x)

* seeing daylight (x)

12 old college try

* up the wolves (x)

* in the craters on the moon (x)

* standard bitter love song #8 (x)

* waving at you (x)

* going to maryland (x)

* jenny (x)

* chinese house flowers (x)

13 oceanographers choice

* psalms 40:2 (x)

* alpha desperation march (x)

* resonant bell world (x)

14 alpha rats nest

* standard bitter love song #7 (x)

* insurance fraud #2 (x)

#i spent way too much time on this #the mountain goats #best wishes gargoyle king #i hope they make… some sense at least #also no children is just super unique it’s hard to find songs like it… it’s special LOL

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onesonghastogo · 5 months

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tallahassee by the mountain goats

- Old College Try

- Oceanographers Choice

- Alpha Rats Nest

#one song has to go #thanks for the submission!#tallahassee #the mountain goats

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kaboomthepossum · 25 days

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Random 3 AM thoughts from last night: What if someone made Tallahassee into a musical?

Picture the scene: the audience have all sat down, they’re chatting away and then the lights go dark. And Tallahassee (song) plays. You can hear the singers but they aren’t visible by this point. The audience believe this to be a beautiful love story. Then the actors come on stage, and they sing first few desperate hours, beautifully, in perfect unison. This is when the couple arrives at the house for the first time. The house is falling apart, and gives the audience the impression that this is a tale of recovery, making the best of a bad situation, which is further implied by southwood plantation road; “I am not gonna lose you, we are gonna stay married” - it’s evident that their relationship is far from perfect, but hope still remains for them. Between this and game shows touch our lives, they each open a bottle of beer and drink it. In silence. Then they each smoke a cigarette. Again in complete silence. They walk inside and game shows touch our lives plays. It becomes clear to the audience how bad the situation really is once, after a short period of conversation, which slowly becomes less and less coherent, the house that dripped blood plays. There is no break between this and Idylls of the King. The couple sing this quietly, in seperate rooms. Again, there is only a few seconds break between the end of this and the beginning of No Children. The audience note the sudden aggressive shift to pure anger and hatred. On one half of the stage, the husband sings loudly, a bottle in his hand. On the other side of the stage, the wife packs a bag, and by the end of the song, she has left. The lights fade, and the interval begins.

The second half begins loudly and suddenly, with the husband singing See America Right. At this point, only half the stage is lit, with the husband visible. The wife cannot be seen. The side of the stage which is lit switches for Peacocks and International Small Arms Traffic Blues are performed by the wife. The switch happens again and the husband performs Have to Explode. Shortly after this, underneath a beautiful, clearly, starry night sky, the couple perform Old College Try. The singer alternates between lines, with them both performing the final lines “I will walk down to the end with you, if you will come all the way down with me”. This is when the audience become truly hopeful. They prepare themselves for the reunion they had always secretly expected. As morning comes, Oceanographers choice begins to play. The stage is clouded with smoke, and the wife walks into the house. They fight, and then embrace. As this is happening, the light outside the window is darkening, (to indicate time passing, and the hatred slowly returning). Finally, as the couple are staring into each other’s eyes, Alpha Rats Nest begins. Flames begin to appear at the front of the stage, and by the end of the song, the couple are completely hidden behind them. The last time they are visible, they are staring away from one another. As the music fades out, so do the flames. But the couple are gone. So is the house. And the lights on the stage all go dark. And the show is over.

Thank you for reading

#the mountain goats #tmg #tmg posting #tallahassee #no children #alpha couple #john darnielle #i love this album #I hope someone else sees the vision #see America right #old college try #oceanographer’s choice #southwood plantation road #alpha rats nest #musicals

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divine-donna · 1 year

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manners maketh man

i think everyone knows which pedro pascal edit went viral on tik tok. and consequently, i got kingsman edits. and then i rewatched the movies. so in the end, we get this post.

have fun with these headcanons! we can even call this a spy au since the kingsman franchise falls under that genre of films.

ser criston cole

a man on an exchange assignment from the dornish red wine company, criston is a suave man that you get paired with for the assignment. your goal is to show him the ropes. but the dornish tend to do things a little differently and the two of you clash heads because of your different way of doing things. despite the differences, you have immense respect for criston. he even saves your life when you let your guard down.

“it wouldn’t do me any good if my partner was dead. i would be an awful dornishman if you died on my watch.”

daemon targaryen

a more senior member of the seven kings trading company, the man has been out of the game for quite some time. he’s very particular about his safety due to his work experience. and daemon is very shocked to find you at his doorstep, a new member of the seven kings trading company. something has happened to his brother and viserys told you to go to daemon in case anything went wrong. of course his brother was able to figure out how to locate him long ago. begrudingly, he becomes your partner to teach you his own tricks. and maybe he even learns a few from you.

“now (y/n), the secret here is to- no! please do not do that! not unless you want us to get caught and for the whole building to explode! geez. what do they even teach you guys now?”

rhaenyra targaryen

it was expected of rhaenyra to step up as a member of the seven kings trading company. after all, her father had led them and she must prove her worth as a trainee. she had no issues completing it and becoming a formidable spy. but the woman lacked...restraint. she was impulsive and went into things head on. you were assigned as her partner to get her to stop being impulsive and think about decisions. you both did not mesh well and it wasn’t until you get kidnapped did rhaenyra finally learn to think things through first. and you? you learned to blow shit up more.

“listen the reason why you suck at talking to people is because you are more concerned with how you are perceived and the way you look. here, look at me. loosen your posture. unbutton the top buttons of your shirt for gods’ sake!”

alicent hightower

alicent hightower is a notable member of tech support. she’s created a variety of new weapons for the seven kings trading company and you just happen to be her favorite agent to work with. you’re quite oblivious to the looks of longing she has towards you, how she always keeps a stash of gadgets and parts for you specifically that no one else can touch, the fact that she clears her schedule just for you. she’s a busy woman after all. however, you’re too caught up in fieldwork to notice her affections. or even pick up on them.

“oh nyra what do i do?! i have done everything and (y/n) still does not notice me!....what? no! i can’t just loosen up and tell them! it’s a lot more complicated than that and you know it! i’m not you or (y/n). i’m just...alicent!”

aegon targaryen

you loved your boyfriend. you really did! were you a little frustrated that he never really talked about his family and you knew nothing of his background? yes. but you decided not to pry. you both were happy and content. that was all that mattered. but when aegon came home after grocery shopping, he found the apartment in disarray and a single message: (y/n) for sunfyre. he hated seeing that name and it led him back to the seven kings trading company. aegon left the life of espionage when he was able to. it was too much pressure to perform. but now you were on the line and he had no choice but to go back in.

“why don’t we just give them the goddamn usb! i don’t have to do anything, (y/n) is safe and unharmed, and we all go about our lives! i don’t even want to be here but i have to be because of you guys. and my partner was kidnapped because of me!”

aemond targaryen

when you were younger, you were a trainee alongside aemond targaryen. he showed a lot of promise and he beat you out of becoming a field agent. but you were approached by his father for something else. your skills could serve off the field. so you became a medic and a researcher. aemond came to you often since the two of you were relatively close during your training days. plus you had to measure his eye so you can make him a new prosthetic that fits accordingly. what you don’t notice is how he comes in with small injuries just to see you or even his flirtations. he’s pretty obvious about it but you brush it aside, thinking you were just imagining things.

“(y/n)! talk to me for a little bit. ignore your work. i’m sure the files can wait....okay maybe not, but this is important because i was wondering if you and i could go get dinner sometime? you rarely leave this place and your home. it would do you some good to get some fresh air.”

helaena targaryen

you loved using a variety of poisons and nonlethal weapons in the field. it made getting information out so much easier, as well as sneaking around. of course, you always took a visit to your favorite toxicologist: helaena. she tended to work in isolation as one of the very few toxicologists at the seven kings trading company but she was the best. her mother was alicent hightower after all, so brilliance ran in the family. you have been enamored with helaena since you first met her after completing training. but you’ve never had the courage to make a move and helaena doesn’t seem to notice how you’re always flustered around her whether it’s awkwardly laughing, your cheeks feeling hot, or your very specific compliments about her outfits, hair, or the product she’s giving you.

“(y/n), have you met dayron? i hear he’s an interesting fellow. i’m mostly asking because he put in a request for something. oh and i got this for you. it’s nonlethal. in case you want to get high after a job.”

jacaerys velaryon

the job interview took a long time and was very vigorous. you were excited to be a new member of the seven kings trading company’s tech team. one of the more experienced members of the group that you started working with was jacaerys. a lot of people were surprised he went into tech considering his parents’ reputation as field agents. but he enjoyed a life that was a little more peaceful and meant he wouldn’t die getting shot at. you liked jace but you failed to notice how his feelings grew stronger than friendship. and after working in tech for so long, you began to ask him if he wanted to do more than tech. jace loved you. he was ready to support you in whatever endeavor you wanted.

“i never really wanted to go into the field. most people found it stranger that i became tech support instead since my mother is a skillful field agent. but if you want to go into fieldwork, know i am behind you one hundred percent.”

#hotd #house of the dragon #hotd headcanons #hotd au #hotd x reader #aegon the usurper #rhaenyra targaryen #alicent hightower #daemon targaryen #aemond targaryen #helaena targaryen #jacaerys velaryon #ser criston #x reader #male reader #female reader #gender neutral reader

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utilitycaster · 1 year

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Love can save people. It can redeem.

It can also damn you and others.

If anything, Delilah is a cautionary tale on how you could love someone so much, you never think twice about damning the entire world in the name of it, and that it can be so easy to never stop.

As you say, many others could have gone down the same road as Delilah and Sylas. And yet they didn't. Because they chose to stop and reflect before it was too late.

But because she never did, all that waited Delilah was perpetual defeat. It doesn't matter if she's got all the time in the world. Because no matter what, she will never win.

It's a lesson that she will never learn.

I mean…one can I suppose take that message from the story of Delilah, but that’s not really what I was getting at. I am not personally saying “oh how sad for her!”; I am saying this:

As you say, she’s a dark mirror - a living example of how it would have been so very easy for so many heroic characters to be just a touch less scrupulous. She serves to show just how easy it would have been for Percy to say “well, I guess what’s done is done” re: guns; for Vex to give into Saundor or for her justified hunger and self preservation to calcify into avarice; for Fjord to have Jester take them and theirs to the Feywild and leave the Menagerie Coast to drown; for Caleb to go on his Assembly Murder Spree and use the T-Dock; or, a millennium before Delilah existed, for the Ring of Brass to have cut line and teleported or flown out rather than mitigating their damage. And yet none of them did, because they not only loved their partners and friends; they loved their homes and the world. So our post-Divergence era heroes are happy, and even amidst the Calamity the Ring of Brass endures...and Delilah was deservedly hoisted by her own petard into the mind palace of a weird girl who likes rats.

Delilah is compelling not because others would do what she did - in fact, everyone I mentioned demonstrably did not. She is compelling because she didn’t know when to stop, and it’s her own fault. It’s fitting and, at least to me, pretty hilarious, that Delilah never wins; with any luck she’s been swept under whatever cosmic rug Laudna’s resurrection achieved and we never hear from her again. She played stupid games and she won stupid prizes. In the same way that I am most interested in heroic characters who were asked who they were in the dark and in doing so realized they were, at heart, not the monsters they could have been, and dragged themselves out, I am bored stiff by the “oh the villain just needed LOVE and they would have been good” school of thought.

I want a villain (like Delilah, or Avantika, or Lucien) who was shown an off-ramp, and each time slammed down on the gas, and then crashed into a wall, and then exploded. And I especially want a villain like Delilah who had love, and who didn’t need to choose between love and power, and who managed to still take truly the most garbage third option possible.

(Relatedly: this is also why all concepts of Imogen making even the tiniest deal with Delilah to save Laudna, let alone this become a full corruption arc for her, absolutely suck. Why on Exandria would one ever willingly make a deal with the tattered, miserable, widowed cringe fail patron of Love Isn’t Enough, Actually? This is D&D: there are far better fiends and horrors available.)

#answered #tiamat-zx #in reality evil is usually banal #in heroic fantasy evil is usually cringe #anyway kids now that i've made you read delilah meta let's talk about how the tragic evil wizard queen to stan is vess derogna #this also made me realize I could make a very silly d20 crossover post. doing that now.#critical role #delilah briarwood

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citrinekay · 1 year

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Han Joo-won/ Lee Dong-sik + my favorite lyrics from the album Tallahassee by The Mountain Goats

#beyond evil #jwds

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celiastjamesoscar · 4 months

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Milf heaven sounds so amazing 😭 I'd gladly live there. Please take me now! I hope she's a cool boss. She gotta liven up her boring and generic name. Do you know the Nina meme originally from YouTube with the kid who's aggressively saying Nina?? That's what I always think about when I hear my name. https://www.tiktok.com/@zero_gravxty/video/6929277035231595782 OKAY GRACE THAT WAS THE ENCOURAGEMENT I NEEDED!! I will suffer through this pain for 9 hours if it means having the hot artist touch me again...

Go on, keep your eye on me. You won't find anything but pure innocence and angelic traits 😌 2 ½ hours?? Damn, look at you being a model student! Very well done! I hope you're prepared now for your final. YOU GOT THIS GRACE I BELIEVE IN YOU

What a beautiful next step in our relationship. The full names came out. Now nothing can stand between us. Not Ruby Rose 😭 The hype people had for her was both fascinating and annoying. But yes, that's definitely a big, important part of the plot. Because it's you, I will dial back my disappointment and accept that you just have a slightly different taste in TV 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yasss, I shall get the people waving then! It fits a bit better, you're right! I knew I could trust you with some amazing advice. Ghosty and Mikey were done in March or April, shortly after Scream 6 and before my knee was done!

I have to write a report with max 5 pages and I only have bullet points, so I'm letting ChatGPT formulate a full text for me. That's how I'm spending my time at work. Plus tiktok, writing applications and re-reading your stories!

Milf Heaven does sound amazing; you and I are definitely sharing a room there together. Nina is a cool boss, except whenever she brings her ‘therapy dog’ into work with her. He’s supposed to help her clients with their sessions, but all he does is judge them 😭I see pics of that girl all the time and I’ve never known what it’s from until now 😭 I WILL ALWAYS ENCOURAGE YOU TO GET MORE TATTOOS!!! YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS BY NOW! AND YOULL BE WITH THE HOT ARTIST FOR 9 HOURS TOO

I will definitely keep an eye on you, since you are so innocent 🤨 my brain felt like it was going to explode, and it still feels like that. So I’m just going to play Skyrim until it feels like it’s ready to study again 😌

We are making great progress in our relationship, soon we will be getting tattoos together. I heard Ruby Rose was kind of a bitch in the show too, so BOOOOO for her. Hey now, there’s nothing wrong with my tv taste!! I only watch Game of thrones, South Park, and Peaky Blinders…

you’ll have to send me a picture of the filler tattoo once you get it!! I really love the Ghostface tattoo, and the Michael one as well!! I want to get a Ghostface one, but my mother still has me on lockdown from getting them 🙄 I have my next tattoo picked out though, and im hoping to get it before August

What’s your paper on? And 5 pages is awful for a school paper. I can crank out a 5 page fanfic within an hour, but it will take me weeks to write one for school. Good luck on your paper though, and don’t get caught using ChatGPT!

#bender chats #clexa is forever ♾️

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regallibellbright · 1 year

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Welp, it’s been a few weeks, brain says it’s time to talk about Birdie Wing again! Today, I want us all to take a moment to think about the ending sequence. Which I have listened to quite a lot, it’s a lovely song, if a bit of an odd choice for a show as unabashedly camp as Birdie Wing. (For those who aren’t aware, it’d be Tsukuyomi and Yurrycanon’s Nightjar. Heads up, I’d be willing to class the first verse as “kind of suicidal ideation”, though the full song is at least somewhat less heavily depressed.) The ending, for reference!

youtube

I don’t have it in me to describe the entire video, but its opening visual shows mannequins in a golf store window, dressed in very marketable golf apparel, with wigs making them resemble our protagonists, Eve and Aoi. In the shots later where we see Eve and Aoi, they’re dressed in these same outfits. The tension of the verse builds until exploding into a burst of feathers at the chorus, cutting to images of birds flying through the sky playing over the silhouettes of Eve and Aoi, lying in opposite directions so that their heads are next to each other, nearly touching. The ending closes on a shot of Eve’s golf ball on the green, showing the pink wing mark on her balls, morphing into a bird flying in front of the full moon, shining above a sea.

The chorus has different lyrics both times it appears in the full song. Given the bird imagery, you’d expect they’d be using the version of the chorus that gives the song its title, talking directly about a bird flying freely in the sky.

It actually uses the second rendition of the chorus, the one that goes “If I’d never met you, I’d have lived in a cage deceiving the world.” (Translation courtesy of the official music video’s English captions.)

This can apply to Eve as well as Aoi, of course - she was adrift in the world and just getting by supporting her adoptive family before she encountered Aoi, who showed her what playing golf could really be like. But between the mannequin imagery and the lyrics, I tend to read this one as more about Aoi and the expectations of her mother and grandparents for her to be a perfect golf princess so that she can be a vehicle for marketing their products. Meeting Eve, who defies every convention of the game of golf, respects no authority whatsoever save “whether or not you can kick her ass at golf,” is generally brash, aggressive, and unmarketable, and also is the first person to match Aoi in golf skills and histrionics opens her eyes to a whole new world of what golf can be. That world includes getting a bogey because you hit your ball directly into a tree branch, sure, but it ALSO includes the very next day managing to hit your ball into the same exact spot where that tree branch was so that you can bypass the entire trap of the hole and go straight for the win. Eve is ridiculous and we love that for her. And seeing this inspires Aoi to go off-script and behave in ways that aren’t designed to be perfectly palatable and marketable, breaking free of her cage.

What I’m saying is, if the show DOES pull the rug out from under us and reveal they’re sisters, it’s obviously going to weaken the story because then Athena just has TWO golf prodigies to try and market as they resist these attempts (newcomer Eve being even less agreeable than Aoi), but also the ending sequence is contextually gay as hell and if it gets walked back they are cowards.

#long post #video #Birdie Wing #Birdie Wing: Golf Girls' Story #LET! AOI! HAVE! HER! GIRLFRIEND!#GIVE US THE GOLF LESBIANS BAMCO #Evangeline f Kimishima #Eve Birdie Wing #Amawashi Aoi #Aoi Amawashi

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thegamecollection · 1 year

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THE LAST OF US (TV) - REVIEW ROUNDUP!

We’re all a bit anxious about Joel and Ellie being on our telly, aren’t we? At least in a very human, non-video-game capacity. This fan-favourite of truly pandemic proportion has delivered so much to us as gamers over the years, with multiple remasters dropping on top of the two parts to this tale of heartbreak.

There’s been an element of faith from our side when it comes to Pedro Pascal’s involvement. What with his “whatever I touch turns to gold” effect that he’s mastered in recent years... But what are the critics saying about The Last Of Us ahead of its TV debut in less than a week? We’ve compiled a mix of the big names for you below:

EMPIRE - 5/5

“Comfortably the best adaptation of a video-game ever made: one that deepens the game’s dystopian lore, while staying true to its emotional core. Like the game, it’s a masterpiece, too.”

Read the full review here.

IGN - 9/10

“HBO’s The Last of Us is a breathtaking adaptation of one of the most impactful stories told in video games and brilliantly brings Joel and Ellie’s journey to a whole new audience. Taking the essence of what made the original tale so enduring, it builds out the world of the game while also switching up some aspects to almost entirely stunning effect.”

Read the full review here.

RADIO TIMES - 5/5

“So, we'll say it again: The Last of Us is the best video game adaptation of all time, and it's also a fantastic TV drama in its own right. If you're on the fence about watching it, do yourself a favour and get involved as soon as possible. Trust us, you'll be infected in no time... infected, that is, with a hunger to watch the next episode.”

Read the full review here.

NME - 4/5

“When The Last Of Us was announced, a vocal corner of the internet exploded into anxious anticipation, some sniping that Ramsey didn’t look enough like Ellie. Gamers have been burned before by poorly conceived adaptations of their favourite titles, so they were naturally skeptical. But they needn’t have been. The Last Of Us might lack novel ideas, but when it’s this good it can get away with it.”

Read the full review here.

GAMESPOT - 9/10

“It stands proudly as one of the best video game adaptations ever, and a clear signal that PlayStation is right to pursue a future where its already reputable video games are reborn on TV. The show is brought to life by a cast and crew that seems hellbent on living up to its name and their own already-glowing reputations.”

Read the full review here.

DIGITAL SPY - 5/5

“While diehard purists might balk at some of these changes, that silence you can hear is us not caring because this show will transcend all that. Like Joel and Ellie themselves, The Last of Us is gloriously defiant and strong-willed, always taking the path that makes the most sense for it rather than the path others might want it to go on. And the story is all the better for it.”

Read the full review here.

Yeah, looks like we’ll be alright...

The Last Of Us finally hits our screens next Monday 16th January!

-Jack

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dk-thrive · 2 years

Text

Crisis? Go watch the rain for 10 minutes.

It rained one morning this week. I moved back to Texas last year, in part for the rainstorms. Here, it rains decisively, gloriously, like it really means it. It explodes, pounds, roars, thunders and then, suddenly, moves on. I stepped on my back porch, not wanting to miss the show.

I sat, silent, smelling that indescribable rain scent and stretching out my hands, palms open in supplication, the same position I use in church to receive communion. The physicality of the experience, the sensual joy of sounds, smells, touch and sight, was profoundly humanizing. In a very real way, I am made for that. I am made to notice the rain. I’m made to love it.

But digitization is changing our relationship with materiality — both the world of nature and of human relationships. We are trained through technology (and technology corporations) to spend more time on screens and less time noticing and interacting with this touchable, smellable, feelable world. Social media in particular trains us to notice that which is large, loud, urgent, trending and distant, and to therefore miss the small, quiet importance of our proximate and limited, embodied lives...

Just as people have worked to revive slow, unprocessed and traditional food, we need to fight for the tangible world, for enduring ways of interacting with others, for holism. We need to reconnect with material things: nature, soil, our bodies and other people in real life. This doesn’t necessarily have to be big and dramatic. We don’t have to hurl our computers into the sea en masse.

But we do have to intentionally resist the siren song of digitization, which by and large promises far more than it can deliver. We have to be cautious and wise about introducing devices into our lives that fundamentally change how humans have interacted since time immemorial. We have to plunge ourselves primarily into the natural world and embodied human relationships, with all the complexity, challenges, inconvenience and pain that entails.

Go watch the rain for 10 minutes. Go on a walk with a friend. Get off social media and meet one neighbor. Keep your kids offline. Put your hands in the dirt. Play an instrument instead of a video game. Turn off your smartphone and have dinner with people around a table. Search for beauty and goodness in the material world, and there, find joy. The way back to ourselves, as individuals and a society, runs through old, earthy things.

— Tish Harrison Warren, from "We're in a Loneliness Crisis: Another Reason to Get Off Our Phones" (NY Times, May 1, 2022). Warren is an Anglican priest reflects on matters of faith in private life and public discourse.

#Tish Harrison Warren #rain #nature #outdoor #social media #internet

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turtlethon · 2 years

Text

“Raphael Versus the Volcano”

Season 5, Episode 11 First US Airdate: October 5, 1991

Raphael mistakenly believes he only has 24 hours left to live.

Season five of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continues with “Raphael Versus the Volcano”. This is the first episode of the series written by Carole Mendelsohn, spouse of TMNT’s Story Editor Jack Mendelsohn.

In his workshop, Donatello applies the finishing touches to his latest invention, a Healthometer. He outlines to Splinter how the contraption can identify the current physical status of anyone who uses it, providing an indicator of their well-being on a scale ranging from “A-1 SPECIMEN” to “ADIOS, AMIGO”. Supposedly the machine’s accuracy is as good as an actual medical exam, “and a whole lot less embarrassing”. Splinter is impressed, but cautions his student that no machine can take the place of a trusted physician; Donnie counters that he’s working to change that.

At Channel 6, a heavier-looking than usual Burne Thompson hands out assignments. Vernon is tasked with travelling to the island of Poppalua, where the famous “Toppa-Poppalua” volcano is about to erupt. April is given the job of reporting from the Botanical Gardens, where a new species of lily has been found by well-known botanist Wilhelm Vanilli. April and Vernon are both unhappy about their assignments, each feeling they’d be more suited to the other job. Burne, being a garbage human being with terrible judgment, tells his employees that he’s paying them to work, not to be happy, and angrily orders them to hop to it.

Leonardo, Michaelangelo and Raphael are playing some strange video game where a biplane fires laser beams at a little guy – I'm not sure how this is a three-player operation – when Splinter yanks the power cord, declaring that recreation time is over. He extols the virtues of having both a healthy mind and a healthy body, and asks his students to each get a reading from the Healthometer. As with Donatello, Leonardo turns out to be in optimal condition. To my astonishment, even Michaelangelo somehow gets a perfect reading. Raphael is extremely reluctant to participate, declaring that if something is wrong with him, he’d rather not know about it. Finally giving in, he places his finger in the machine and gets the worst possible reading, suggesting that physically he’s on the way out; in fact, the Healthometer's readings are so ominous that the mechanical arrow showing the readout pops off. Donnie is baffled as to how this could be, and before he can have Raph try again, the invention explodes.

At the Botanical Gardens, April bemoans being stuck covering a dull story about flowers while Vernon is seeing action reporting on the imminent eruption of the volcano. It seems like this was supposed to finally be a chance for our favourite cameraman Stan to get a proper line of dialogue, his first go-around being way back in “The Turtle Terminator” when MW Dublin managed to have his words come out of Vernon’s mouth. Someone in the recording sessions clearly half-remembered he had a vaguely rural voice as we hear it consoling April here; the problem is the animators didn’t get the memo, and draw an entirely new cameraman instead. Denied!

April is greeted by LaVerne Portside, Chairperson of the Flower Lover Society, and can barely disguise her contempt for the organisation’s ceremony. Meanwhile Vernon arrives with his own camera on Poppalua and films his report. The volcano is approaching the point of eruption as he speaks, with a stray blast of lava destroying his umbrella.

Back at the Botanical Gardens, April grumbles as a ceremony unfolds. LaVerne announces to a small but appreciative crowd that the new lily will be named “the Lady LaVerne Lily”. This draws the ire of a diminutive bald man who turns out to be Professor Wilhelm Vanilli. He angrily declares that he was the one who spent years cultivating this new flower and expects to get the credit for it. Laverne explains that the name “Willy Vanilli lily” simply sounds too silly. Furious, the well-dressed dandy storms off, vowing revenge on the whole world.

A downtrodden, sulking Raphael wanders around the sewers, grousing about the reading from Donatello’s invention. Hypochondria begins to set in as he mistakes drops of water that land on him from an overhead pipe for a cold sweat, and steam from a vent beneath his feet for the first signs of a fever. Now convinced he’s rapidly becoming unwell, Raph stumbles back in the direction of the Lair.

vimeo

In what must be the funniest scene of the season thus far, Raphael stands outside the kitchen and happens to catch part of a conversation between Michaelangelo and Donatello. The pizza oven is on its way out, and Mikey is inconsolable, weeping as Donnie suggests the amount of time left will be twenty-four hours. (This is the most confusing part of the exchange – why would a failing oven work for approximately one more day? Does he mean it’ll take that long to get the parts he needs to fix it?) Not having the whole picture, Raphael assumes the conversation was about him, and wanders off to figure out how best to spend his last day on Earth.

Heading to the surface, Raphael decides that if he’s about to die anyway, he has nothing left to lose, and should spend his remaining time helping as many people as possible. To find the appropriate attire for his new role, he visits an all-night costume store, where he picks up a discounted superhero outfit.

In the Lair, Donatello finishes re-assembling the Healthometer. Now convinced that he’s identified the issue that led to Raphael’s poor reading, he heads off to tell him, instead encountering Leonardo. Both are mid-conversation when Michaelangelo walks in, clutching a note from Raph that to our eyes is visually indecipherable. Helpfully, Mikey decodes the message for us: “I’ve decided to devote what’s left of my short life to do-gooding. Goodbye awesome foursome, hello fearsome threesome!” The trio wonder where their friend could have ended up. Michaelangelo picks up one of Raphael’s distinctive red bands, and suggests that wherever he is, “he’s practically naked!”

Wilhelm Vanilli continues to gripe about his snub to nobody in particular as he pours the contents of a test tube into a cannister. Testing out his formula, he sprays all the plants surrounding him, which die within a matter of seconds. Satisfied with this outcome, he prepares to enact the next stage of his plan for revenge.

Raphael wanders the streets in a green hat and cape with red tunic as he happens to witness a crime unfolding at an unconventional looking bank. He quizzes “Sarge” - the same cop who April addressed as “Chief” that was oblivious to an entirely different bank robbery in “Michelangelo Meets Mondo Gecko” - and learns that some gunmen are holding the employees of the bank hostage. Charging in, Raph shows no fear as the generic criminals fire their laser guns at him. Our hero uses a sai to drop a light fixture on top of the villains. Astonished by this new do-gooder's effectiveness, Sarge asks his name. Raphael responds that he’s “The Green Defender”, backflipping his way out of the bank.

vimeo

April rolls up in the news van and asks the Sergeant to recount the events that just unfolded for the viewers at home. This leads to a drawn-out bit about how the mysterious hero’s name isn’t The Green Defender, it’s The Green Defender. Donatello checks in via Turtlecom, and learns of what just happened, providing the Turtles with a lead on Raph’s location.

In the Turtlethon entry for “Muckman Messes Up”, I mentioned how odd it was to see the un-named Channel 6 news anchor – who I’ve taken to calling Walter Cronk-like – out and about filming news reports instead of behind a desk. Today he’s at it again, reporting in front of some trippy-looking curving tower blocks about a kitten that’s stuck on the ledge of a historic building’s thirtieth floor. The reporter speculates that only some “self-destructive idiot” could possibly save the feline, and right on cue, The Green Defender arrives. Raphael scales the building, swooping in with a grappling hook to catch the animal before safely landing back on the ground. After again making a point to remind everyone what his new moniker is, the heroic Turtle makes his exit.

April again arrives on the scene moments after the event in her van, this time with the Turtles as her passengers. What happens next raises a lot of questions, as she addresses “Walter” by declaring that she’s from Channel 6, the inference being that he isn’t. He responds that as usual, April is “a day late and a dollar short”. Is he supposed to work for a rival station now? Did he get fired after his expose of the Turtles raiding the lab turned out to be unfounded in his last appearance? If so, he should probably remove that “6” badge he’s still wearing. (The mostly likely explanation is the animators needed a news guy and pulled him out of the model sheet pack, thinking he could pass for someone from a competing channel despite every prior episode contradicting this.)

Via a hand-held video link Vernon checks in with Burne, who’s furious that the volcano hasn’t erupted yet. In a move that’s low even for him, the news boss demands that his reporter find a way to speed things up; when Vernon suggests it might require “human sacrifice”, Burne angrily hisses “well what are you waiting for?” I would remind you that this isn’t even the first time something like this has happened, and that when the prospect of April filming while a skyscraper collapsed last season was discussed, he thought it would be fantastic for ratings. Burne Thompson is truly a despicable man.

Toppa-Poppalua finally begins to erupt, with Burne demanding that his employee get to work filming the event. Rightly seeing that his life is in danger, Vernon flees the scene, leaving a livid Burne to vow he’ll punish the reporter for his “insubordination”. Vernon is not a nice guy, but even he doesn’t deserve to be treated like this.

Back in New York, a dynamite factory becomes the site of a major fire, thought to be due to the ill-advised decision to hold the firm’s annual barbecue party there. A Fire Chief warns Raphael to keep his distance as over a ton of explosives are stored in the building. Nevertheless, Raph charges in, ready to perform his next benevolent act as The Green Defender.

April is still driving around when she receives a video call from Burne informing her of the news. (Oddly, for all the venom the station boss has been dispensing in this episode, he doesn’t seem fazed by the Turtles being in the van and joining the conversation.) By the time the group arrive at the location, they learn that The Green Defender has long since dealt with the situation, and subsequently left again.

Wilhelm Vanilli is seen flying to Poppalua in his own personal helicopter, adorned with a dollar sign on the side because... he’s a rich guy I guess, though we haven’t really seen anything to indicate that up to this point beyond the fact that he wears a fancy suit. He re-iterates his grudge again for the benefit of any viewers at home who may have forgotten what he’s up to, before making a point of dropping the cannister containing his special formula into the volcano. Vanilli declares that when Toppa-Poppalua erupts, the people of the world “won’t be able to say it with flowers any more”.

Vernon is having another go at filming the unfolding events when Vanilli touches down, emerging from his helicopter and grabbing the microphone out of the reporter’s hand. He declares that when the volcano blows, the poison gas will spread across the entire world, killing plant life everywhere. Raphael sees these events on – yes – a TV in the window of an electronics store with the sound up that he just happens to be passing by. When Vernon speculates that anyone willing to step in and fish the cannister out of the volcano would be staring death in the face, the forlorn Turtle realises this is a job for The Green Defender.

April returns to the offices of Channel 6, where she winds up getting assigned to cover the volcano story after all, on the basis that Vernon can’t handle it. Huh? We just saw that, against all odds and common sense, he was still broadcasting! April is thrilled at the prospect of seeing some action, but is told that “this counts as [her] vacation”, because apparently Burne just hasn’t been nasty enough today.

The Turtles head into the hangar where the Turtle Blimp is stored – the first time I believe that we’ve actually seen this area of the Lair in the series – and find their vehicle is no longer there. Instead, Raphael has left a note, which this time is legible: “I’m off to save the world’s vegetation. If I don’t return you’ll find the blimp on the island of Poppalua. This is my very last final note.” The team learn that April is also heading for the island, and ask to travel there with her.

The group arrive on the island in the Channel 6 news copter and use the Turtle Blimp to lower Donatello into the volcano via a rope, where he finds Raphael. Donnie explains that his Healthometer was faulty the entire time, which leads Raph to realise the predicament he’s wound up in right as the ridge beneath him crumbles. A grappling hook deployed by Michaelangelo narrowly prevents Raphael from winding up in the lava, and the Turtles, having retrieved Vanilli’s cannister, make a quick escape before a giant blast of lava fires out of the volcano.

We wrap up today’s adventure in the Lair, where the Turtles watch April report on today’s events. We see footage of Professor Vanilli running from the lava – it's not clear why, surely he could have just gotten in his helicopter and left – before he happens to run into the Police Sergeant from earlier. Splinter asks Raphael if he’s learned not to jump to conclusions. Raph quips that he’s learned not to jump into volcanoes, before Donatello wheels in the Healthometer for him to destroy.

“Raphael Versus the Volcano” is one of the strongest episodes of TMNT I’ve seen from a comedic perspective in some time. When the show entered its fourth season, I speculated that the humour on Turtles was benefitting from the change to living in a post-Simpsons world, where the bar for writing in animation had been raised and everyone else in the industry had to produce more compelling television as a result. Truthfully the show has never quite managed to reach that level, but this is as close as we’ve gotten, with some biting one-liners and genuinely funny character interactions.

On the action-adventure side of things, this episode is a true oddity, introducing a villain who really is just some weird little fellow with a grudge about not having a flower named after him, then having him not do an awful lot throughout beyond re-iterating that he wants revenge. Most of the excitement in this story is derived from Raphael’s reckless behaviour as The Green Defender. I can’t remember another episode of the series where a villain debuted and was captured without having any direct interaction with any of the Turtles at all. Willhelm Vanilli might not be the most thrilling enemy to appear in the series, but Rob Paulsen at least provides some sparkling voice acting to bring some entertainment value to the character.

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For the benefit of anyone reading who wasn’t around when TMNT ‘87 was originally broadcast, I should probably point out that this episode’s title and the most basic elements of its premise are a play on the mildly successful but now largely forgotten 1990 Tom Hanks film Joe Versus the Volcano, about a man who’s led to believe he’s terminally ill and agrees to be offered as a sacrifice to a volcano in the South Pacific in order to appease an island’s superstitious natives. Similarly, this episode’s villain’s name is a play on the briefly popular but ultimately disgraced musical duo Milli Vanilli. So much of the culture of that era is just dust in the wind now, yet the Turtles themselves live on. We’ll re-join them next time as we continue to explore season five with our now-annual Baxter Stockman episode, “Landlord of the Flies”.

#Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #TMNT #TMNT 1987 #1991 #TMNT Raphael #TMNT Raph #Raphael TMNT #Raph TMNT #Raphael Versus the Volcano #The Green Defender #Ninja Turtles #Turtlethon

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jewfrogs · 2 years

Note

Can you do Dark In Here and/or Songs for Pierre Chuvin and/or Tallahasse?

oh boy i sure can!

dark in here

parisian enclave

collect the brine from the rain gutters, let the devil take the rest

the destruction of the kola superdeep borehole tower

retain a sense of grace when it's time to cut the cord / crack through the crust, fall to your knees, and praise the lord

mobile

lord, if you won't / keep me safe and warm / then send down the storm

dark in here

you who stood so proud once / i can taste your fear / you blazed like torches / it's dark in here

lizard suit

wait for my cue / search for one clue / i have to trust that my compass stays true

when a powerful animal comes

sleep in short shifts and then rise up to our feet / life is hard and life is short and life is sweet

to the headless horseman

g-d keep the bounty hunter who shows mercy to his prey

the new hydra collection

dream of the day when the calm waters break / and something rises from the lake

the slow parts on death metal albums

mark my time on the wall / answer the call / and listen to the slow parts

before i got there

and the tapestry above / torn down, trampled, then re-hung / now illegible forever / an oracle with no tongue

arguing with the ghost of peter laughner about his coney island baby review

systems closing down on several fronts / you will always have been here once

let me bathe in demonic light

someday the old flesh will give way to the new / find a functioning mirror inside and slip right through

[other two under the cut]

songs for pierre chuvin

aulon raid

your reputation precedes you / something must be done / here in the heat of the onslaught / i am the one

until olympius returns

is it not a stately beacon / for the whole world to see? / we will be right here / on the day it finally burns

last gasp at calama

but carthage may rise again one day / with the measure that you used, so shall it be measured to you / so you say, and it's true

for the snakes

all your abandoned things / once fine vestments, statues with wings / they have their uses, every one / let me slither across them in the sun

the wooded hills along the black sea

serve who we serve / enshrouded in moonlight / bucking the curve

january 31, 438

when the hunger turns in on itself / it begins to devour its host / who do you turn to for help? / who do you love the most?

hopeful assassins of zeno

be nice to the guys who wear necklaces with crosses / they will stab you in the back / you gotta turn the other cheek / you gotta learn to love jesus, so to speak

their gods do not have surgeons

you who come demanding proof / let your god rebuild this roof

going to lebanon 2

pick up the faint faint scent / of the faith of our fathers / their names were known once to me / i hear them sometimes on the song of the sea

exegetic chains

headed somewhere better / if i have to crawl there on all fours

tallahassee

moon stuttering in the sky like film stuck in a projector

southwood plantation road

i got you / you got whatever's left of me to get / our conversations are like minefields / no one's found a safe way through one yet

game shows touch our lives

people say friends don't destroy one another / what do they know about friends?

the house that dripped blood

still waters go stagnant / bodies bloat / and the cellar door / is an open throat

idylls of the king

our shared paths / unraveling behind us like ribbons

no children

i am drowning / there is no sign of land / you are coming down with me / hand in unlovable hand

see america right

if we never make it back to california / i want you to know i love you / but my love is like a dark cloud full of rain / always right there up above you

peacocks

the sky will fall / we will rise

international small arms traffic blues

there is a shortage in the blood supply / but there is no shortage of blood

have to explode

name one thing about us two anyone could love

old college try

i will walk down to the end with you / if you will come all the way down with me

oceanographer's choice

look at that, would you look at that? / the way the ceiling starts to swerve / what will i do when i don't have you? / when i finally get what i deserve?

alpha rat's nest

sing for the damage we've done / and the worse things that we'll do / open your mouth up and sing for me now / and i will sing for you

#ask #anonymous #tmg

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gleefullypolin · 4 days

Note

You're very right, even the reaction to Penelope standing near Obi Wan had people writing huge rants and throwing fits and that was a promo where they didn't even touch. That's not even including the stills of him touching her, the tag near exploded in anger.

Imagine if they did more than that? They would simply burn it all down. The double standard of it all is very clear and I think part of the worst reactions are really people who have built some big expectations in their head and are having to deal with the possibility of the fact that they themselves didn't write the show.

A regency show that has often (always so far) shown the leading man having experience. Benedict will probably have the same. It's lazy writing to be sure but it's to be expected. Without context it's just a guessing game that will keep people spiraling when the reality is, none of it matters and it's made clear in the book that he realizes none of those experiences even compare to being with Penelope.

It's very possible that's what they're going for with him. She makes him totally undone in a way that he couldn't even begin to imagine, especially after traveling the world. The man is going to lose his mind with wanting a simple touch from her and staring at her with the worst kind of want and people are focused on something even Colin himself most likely won't remember 10 minutes after it's done.

Watching a show with a guaranteed HEA is the biggest breath of fresh air for me, how we get there may not be 100% to my taste but it's a lot better than being jerked around the way media has been going for the last few years.

Oh, my dearest anon you are my daily breath of fresh air! Everything you just said is so on point. The double standard, the freak out, the added layer of stress that gets added to our day because of the head cannons already created for ourselves before the season has even aired. All of it…we need to cleanse it from our day.

I wish I could blame all of this on it being a regency show but alas this has happened in every fandom I’ve been a part of. Guys usually get some sort of pass in writing and women get stoned in a corner in writing. I do think because everyone was waiting on Nerds in Romance, no one wanted the “whore angle” and threesomes didn’t fit the narrative. I get that. But also, I don’t have enough time in the day to express all the things that can disappoint Stacy, so this is probably the complete bottom of my list.

I do love that one kiss from her woke his spirit. He has always gone through life looking for something. I have always seen Colin as a wanderer. He was always searching. (Ie: travels, the tea, standing in the corners gossiping with Pen, his disappointment at not having a purpose) Colin looks for things in all the wrong places and it’s a kiss that awakens him. He finds it in the last place he expects to find purpose, he traveled around the world and what he was looking for was just across the street!

I find it best to ignore the media when it comes to a show. Honestly, when I was entrenched and I truly mean entrenched during Glee’s heyday, the media was the enemy. There was so much going on back then and the fandom was at war and the media fed into that and it was the most toxic place I have ever lived. Bridgerton is a beautiful show and the best way to enjoy it is to just sit back and breathe it in.

#my asks #wonderful people

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selflessanatta · 4 months

Text

I’m Proud to be A Nigger, https://selflessanatta.com/im-proud-to-be-a-nigger/

New Post has been published on https://selflessanatta.com/im-proud-to-be-a-nigger/

I’m Proud to be A Nigger

It’s a long story, but I have a close friend who lives in Nigeria, one of those places where slavers raided when taking free men and enslaving them.

Many African Americans (note the need for ongoing political correctness) descend from free men enslaved out of Nigeria.

My friend, Samuel, feels a kinship toward them.

One day, we were discussing Chattel Slavery, the Heart Stain of the Confederacy, and he said to me:

I understand why my brothers react so strongly to the word “Nigger” since it embodies all the pain of Chattel Slavery, but why don’t they just wear that as a badge of honor?

They are the Strong ones.

They Endured.

That idea absolutely floored me. It resonated with me because it was a great example of turning Darkness into Light.

He went on:

The stains of Chattel Slavery are on the Confederacy and anyone Lording over another.

But if we Niggers allow their stains to justify Hating them, then their stains becomes our stains, and our hearts are poisoned too.

Hatred never ceases by Hatred.

His wisdom was undeniable. Despite the fact Samuel is 25 years my junior, he was 25,000 years ahead of me in seeing into people’s hearts.

But he wasn’t done:

I admire my brothers in America.

I invite my brothers to join me in celebration of being a Nigger.

Nigeria has a long and glorious history of creating communities and doing good. That was Nigeria until it became a colonial pen, an open-air prison like Gaza, only larger.

He really had me excited at this point, but the pain of colonialism hit home. It’s just another form of slavery, just a bit better disguised, dressed up for the public so that we don’t see it for what it is.

I felt his voice rising, passion welling up in him:

If my brothers stood up, together, united, and bellowed at the top of their lungs, “I AM A NIGGER!” And wore that label as a badge of honor, the Haters and the Masters would be defeated. Beaten at their own game!

I felt I needed to share his wisdom.

I hope it touches your heart.

I’ve asked Samuel if I can share his picture. If you see it below, he agreed.

(A humble man, he seeks no fame. The Picture will need to wait.)

Wisdom is NOT Determined by Age

Samuel is 25 years younger than I am, a second son, really (I’m working toward his immigration if he wants to leave). Surprisingly, he’s torn about leaving Nigeria.

He loves his country, but it’s a low-grade prison where corrupt leaders must deal with grinding poverty and ever-present unrest that explodes every so often in a flash of bloodshed.

It’s a difficult place to raise a family. Can you imagine living where there is no 911? No police to save you if thugs pound on the door of your home? I understand why he’s ready to leave now.

But why would he ever have wanted to be there?

The story that changed everything for me

When he was in college, and still single, he demonstrated to me that he is a true spiritual master.

He showed me my own weaknesses and shortcomings.

The Worst of the Worst of the Worst

When Samual graduated college, he volunteered to teach at rural schools for a year, living on whatever pay was offered.

Most people who put themselves into this lottery (something I never would have done) hope for a plumb assignment in a safe and comfortable area (my bare minimum requirement).

By chance, he was assigned to one of the worst schools in a dangerous area run by a woman who didn’t like him, and the pay was barely enough to buy food.

Most people would have recoiled at this.

I certainly would have cried victim tears, which is why his decision and reasoning shocked me and made me realize just how far ahead of me he was.

He said:

If I had not taken that job, it either would have been filled by someone less skilled and caring than me, or it wouldn’t be filled at all, probably the latter. Either way, the young children, innocent and pure, they would have a poor education, or no education at all.

I couldn’t live with that, so I stayed.

Twelve months in hell — by choice.

My Master

Samuel,

With deepest and sincerest thanks, I honor you, my Master. Your wisdom, your choices, and your actions showed me my weaknesses. There is no greater gift.

~~wink~~

Anatta

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