#i try not to use religious documents in poetry

[marbleheavy]

Books That Rocked My Shit and Should Be Added to Your 2024 TBR

i love love talking about the books i’ve read and as the year approaches it’s close, here is a list, in no particular order, of books that really did numbers on me and should be added to a new year tbr!! it’s a mix of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction/memoir

1. Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History RF Kuang

Robin Swift, a Cantonese orphan, is adopted by an Oxford professor and trained for years in linguistics and languages so he can become a student at Oxford University at the Royal Institute of Translation (Babel). Babel handles all of the British empires linguistic concerns and, most importantly, it’s magic. Silver bars are inscribed with words that mean the same thing in different languages and the meaning lost between the translation enchants the bad. At Babel, Robin befriends his class, three other non-traditional Oxford students, and starts to see how Babel is used to serve the empire. He gets involved with the Hermes society, an anti-imperialist secret society, and gets caught between them and Babel as Britain declares war on China.

You know this book was gonna be on this list. It’s actually kind of cheating because I read it for the first time last year but I did a reread this September and my god, it’s so stellar. It’s a very fresh concept that revolves around the classical and the tension between those two is just delicious. My post structuralist heart that believes our world is composed of language was just beating out of my chest this entire book. Oh!! And don’t even get my started on the alternate/sub/second title!!!!

2. Why Religion? by Elaine Pagels

Elaine Pagels is a scholar of religion who has done extensive research into early Christianity and Gnosticism, and is known for her involvement and study with the Nag Hammadi documents, a collection of texts discovered that are thought to be early Christian and gnostic gospels. Using her robust academic background, Pagels explores her personal relationship to religion through a series of essays in this memoir-esque book. She writes about her time being religions and non-religious as well as the profound hardship and grief that she experienced throughout her life that led her to ask “Why religion?” and find her own answer.

This book is phenomenal. I was introduced to it in a religion course I took this semester and it has fundamentally changed my relationship to religion, even as someone who considered themself to be more or less an atheist. Pagels’ writing is intelligent and poignant but not difficult to understand. This isn’t a scholarly work and I would call it more of a rumination than an argument. The main note I have for potential readers is that it is very Christo-centric and also doesn’t spend much time with biblical canon, but considering this is a memoir and not an attempt to rationalize religion for anyone other than Pagels herself, I was not put off by it.

3. Bad Fruit by Ella King

Chronicling Lily’s life after graduating high school and starting at Oxford, the book revolves around her relationship with her mother. Her mother, from Singapore and with a troubled past that Lily begins to understand, becomes increasingly erratic and unhinged. As she does, Lily follows in her footsteps as she seeks to appease her mother while also trying to break free from her control. The central mage in the book is a cup of spoilt orange juice that Lily always tastes first to make sure it’s right for her mother.

First off, fruit. You know I’m always down bad for a book with fruit is the main motif! This is such a fantastic book exploring mother-daughter relationships, inherited trauma, and cyclical abuse. It’s devastating but never heavy handed and the writing is really fantastic. I think about this book all the time and how every character is so well written and so intensely fallible but never denied humanity.

4. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

A fictionalized retelling of the Hongwu Emperor, the story follows a young girl who assumes the identity of her brother, Zhu Chongba, after he dies. The original Zhu was promised greatness and in the wake of his death and to survive alone, the new (and perhaps real) Zhu joins a monastery. The story is set during Red Turban Rebellions against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty and after many years at the monastery, Zhu joins the Red Turbans and rises among the ranks all while she attempts to conceal her deception. The story also follows General Ouyang, a Mongolia general, as he struggles with his own status among the Mongols and his hatred for Zhu. The book follows the interpersonal struggles of the characters while the overarching war between the Red Turbans and the Mongols rages on and, often, intersects with the personal.

I read this book in two days and was just beside myself. My synopsis can’t even begin to cover the complexities of this book, it is trusty one of my favorites I’ve ever read. It is SO good. There were moments where I was left gaping at the page, I was so enthralled!! I’ve heard some people didn’t vibe with the pacing of the book because it spans so many years, but I read it’s o quickly that it wasn’t an issue for me. The way that gender and sexuality are handled in this book was so well done and very much a reminder that queerness and the experiences that come with it aren’t always able to be articulated, especially by contemporary language and labels. And the parallels between characters!! Zhu and Ouyang!!! I really don’t think anything I can say can do this book justice because it’s just fab. Really spectacular!!

5. Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón

Ada Limón is the current poet laureate of the United States and this is an earlier collection of hers. This poetry collection explores identity, place, and loss with an overarching feminist oomph. The books is in four sections, each embodying a different experience or theme but all interconnected. Limón’s writing is clear and vivid and her command of language is incredible.

This collection is fabulous! Although not my usual pick, Limón’s style radiates off the page and her skill is so obvious in every poem. She is so aware of space in all her poems and every word is picked with precision. Even in the moments of loss and grief that Limón writes about, her optimism is tangible and infectious. “How to Triumph Like a Girl” is one of my favorite poems ever and seeing it in context with the rest of the collection gives it so much more life. If you’re new to poetry, I would definitely check this out!! If you’re a regular poetry reader, you should also check this out!!

I have a million more books I want to talk about but this feels sufficient!! If you end up reading any of these or already have, PLEASE talk to me about it!! wishing you all a joyous and well read new year <3

#book rec #book rec list #poetry #nonfiction #fiction #babel an arcane history #why religion #bad fruit #she who became the sun #bright dead things #ada limón #rf kuang #ella king #elaine pagels #shelley parker chan #marble woes

[handelplayssims]

How many days has it been in this household? Five? Well we definitely haven’t finished the aspiration yet so let’s continue onwards with Gunther! And it’s Spring Day!

Spring Day is basically Easter. I was basically trying to think up of major holidays around where I live and it is a culturally Christian one where Easter is a day off of work. Or a bank holiday around that time, at the very least. So Sims get a day off for today, convenient for those who actually work this holiday.

I always feel like I should have four traditions but the only thing I can think of is visiting a Holiday ceremony and I feel awkward because with most Sims I play with, I feel they are not very religious. The only real big thing is that, outside of the religious aspects growing up, was that my extended family had a meet up to eat and have that egg hunt. And I don’t think that’s quite universal. Anyway, in Gunther’s case, this isn’t really a big holiday in his mind. Nothing particularly outstanding and all that business. We could at least make a big breakfast! ...but we don’t really have anyone to share it with.

Not feeling up for a grand breakfast so we’ll go with a normal omlet. Gunther’s whim is to go and cloudgaze with Arun Bheeda, which, eh, sure but it’s rainy here in Windenburg. Let’s go see if it’s any bit sunnier in San Myshuno.

...it’s raining there as well. HA-RUMPH. Time to pull up my location proxmity document for any ideas on hopefully partially sunny weather. Yes I am that big of a stickler on my cloudgazing.

...Evergreen Harbor is windy. Close enough! Anyway, I did some light chatting with Arun about whom he was and what he did for a living before gazing at those clouds. Or rather, glancing up at the clear sky but meh. Anyway, cloudgazing is a passive way to gain friendship with others and a popular one for gaining friendship quick, since you just pop yourself down and gain those friendship points. Though the best way to gain friendship? Challenge someone to chess and let them casually talk. The near cheaty way though, is via just taking pictures together, as each one gives a nice relationship boost. I don’t like using it much, personally.

Anyway, we’re at the maker space in Evergreen Harbor so I figured, hey, why not actually take a look at the local crafting stations and see if any of them appeal to Gunther. We have woodworking, candle-making, a recycler and a fabrication station. Perhaps I would fabricate more but when I think about making your own furniture, I think about woodworking first. ...plus I’m not that big of a fan of the fabricated style.

Juice making does actually feel like it’d be something Gunther would be interested in. So real quick, I have him purchase some apples from the general gifts section and have him have at it! You just load the ingredients and then it’ll take some time for it to finish so I just let Gunther wander off and chat with whomever he wished. Soon he enjoyed the fruits of his labor! Quite literally!

And soon I actually had people swarm Gunther and realize...oh yeah he’s moderately famous. He has fans. I signed an autograph for one. It was also bugging me that Gunther had done nothing whatsoever for the holiday so I sent him egg hunting in the local bushes to fulfil that holiday requirement. And then I sent him out for a jog because...his stomach was getting a bit pudgy. Gotta look lean and trim and not slobbish! And then a chat with the Flower Bunny that was on this lot to fulfil that holiday requirement a little.

A return home to take a bath and to purchase a brand new personal juice fizzer! We’ll see if Gunther continues making his artisanal juice drinks. For now, he wants to write another book! I’m going for more poetry. It’s titled, ‘Fizzy Fizz Fuzz.’ And just as I set down, Guidry pops on up. Welp. Ghosties time!

I see angry specter’s pop up when someone wanted to drop in...and it was the spectres scaring off a vampire! They do that. Prevent those vampires from making housecalls...for YOUR BLOOD. If they actually sucked your blood in the first place, grumble. So while the spectres are scaring off the vampire, might as well have Gunther get to know Guidry some more...and he’s a foodie! Gunther likes making food so hey! Now he’s a lot more interested in this weirdly romantic ghost.

Also I tried giving an apple fizz juice to a spectre, and it still didn’t like it. Welp. We’re going to have to actually do a séance or something at this point. Anyway, I had Gunther get a late-night dinner and he dropped to chat with Guidry so I had him ask for advice on being scared and got recommended the Sacred Candles. They’re a thing you can get either by getting wax from specters or directly from the reward store. And so I decided to pick some up for Gunther’s bedroom and shed where the séance table is. For the mood. Because they will extinguish after awhile!

And with that I finally send Gunther off to bed, after trying to calm down just a little bit.

Neighborhood Watch!

Laurie Watt in the Watt household has died. Laurie thought she could conquer a mountian, but the mountain conquered her.

Frances Kerns in the Kerns household has died. Frances blushed so much she exploded.

Newcrest: The Rios household has moved in.

#sims 4 #liveblogging #gunther munch #eco lifestyle pack #paranormal pack #seasons pack

[eric-the-bmo]

Tell me more about Ven pls!!

Oh!!!!!! Oh Ven my beloved!!! He’s so awful okay where do I start oh goodness-

{warnings for mentions of cannibalism, manipulation, memory loss, and suicide ideation}

Also all of this is from memory, I haven’t checked his character document in like half a year-

So! Mechanically speaking, Ven is a dnd character I have yet to play (im so sorry, ive got you intrigued by my dnd oc), but I’ve planned out events in my head and he essentially functions as a whump oc, my funky little pathetic magician who will be covered in blood. In regards to Dungeons and Dragons, he’s an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer with the Haunted One background <3

He likes poetry, peppermint tea, the color green, and would really just prefer to live peacefully in Meadowvale with his wife. He’s quiet and a bit nervous, and is reluctant to admit he has magic and has a habit of talking to himself. He dislikes being pushed on certain topics and will erupt in anger if continued to be pushed, and will often stalk off to read poetry to calm down (nerd). He also likes cooking, and carries around a journal that functions as both a poetry book and diary. He has very long fingers, a sign that his body has already begun to change from delayed ceremorphosis. I’m uh, I’m not the best at describing personalities? Maybe I’ll ramble more but here’s his backstory:

Ven showed up to Meadowvale around 8 years ago and bought an empty bookshop to use as his own. He was very religious and never spoke much about his past, even to Ophelia, the captain of the guard who would eventually become his wife. The two of them got married, and it rained, but that was okay. A little over a year ago in the current timeline, he suddenly disappeared. Search parties were sent out but to no avail, and eventually Ophelia hired a passing adventuring party (who called themselves the Dice Crew, and might lowkey be wanted by the law) to go find him. They did in fact find him, in the woods, and while he was a bit apprehensive they managed to bring him back to her. Unfortunately what they didn’t realize was that during his time being missing, he was being held captive in a mind flayer lair (hooray!). He had fit the requirements for the ceremorphosis process, and so an illthid tadpole was inserted into his brain via his eye. Before it was inserted, however, he prayed to every deity he could think of, begging for them to come save him. None of them did, of course, and in his last moments before the parasite ate away at him he vowed to never worship them again. Anyway he has Extreme Memory Loss, and one of the only things he remembers is that the gods did not help him (help him with what, exactly, he doesn’t remember). (Also fun fact it’s implied there are other people like him who got implanted with parasites, hooray)

He eventually get reaccustomed to everything, but due to so many townspeople worrying over him he eventually felt,,, guilty? He dislikes being pitied, and perhaps if I had the words I could explain it better. This is around the time he starts to develop some sort of PTSD from what happened- disliking things going near his eyes, panicking whenever he sees a tadpole or some kind of multi-legged bug, nightmares he can’t quite remember. Ophelia tries her best to help him (genuinely let’s acknowledge how she’s also going through a lot atm, we love Ophelia in this household) This is also when the parasite residing in his brain starts to act up. More migraines, sleepwalking (*cough* it’s possession *cough*), things like that. The parasite also communicates with Ven, although since he doesn’t know of its existence, he merely thinks it’s his own thoughts, and often speaks out loud “with himself” to try and figure out his thoughts. Cere essentially functions as intrusive thoughts, self-hatred and anxiety for Ven. One day in the summer a man enters the shop with a dagger and threatens to kill Ven, implying he knows the poet. Ven, having no recollection of this man, tries to deesculate the situation. The stranger lunges at him, and in this moment of stress- Well, his body’s psionic magics have slowly been building up for a long time. With all of it suddenly being unlocked, well... the man was torn apart, and Ven entered a panic attack. Unbeknownst to himself, he used his magic to make Ophelia hide the body, and he was afraid of this newfound sorcery. His guilt over being a supposed burden to his wife, as well as all of his guilt over murdering a stranger/ his anxiety over being found out, his fears of hurting Ophelia with his magic... There were a lot of factors, one of them being Cere’s manipulation, of course, that pushed him to leave. He reasoned that if he became an adventurer, he could find a way to get rid of his horrible magic. He secretly gathered up everything he felt he needed to become an adventurer, and on his and Ophelia’s wedding anniversary they spent the entire day together. It was nice. He left in the middle of the night, with a letter on the counter explaining why he had gone. He promises her he will write to her (there will be no address listed, to prevent her from tracking him down. He wants to do this himself.), and that he will come home eventually.

While he doesn’t have a good grasp on his magic yet (sometimes accidentally using it), he has a good enough grasp that he can manipulate it enough to avoid killing anyone with it. AKA, his spellcasting primarily focuses on Utility, Enchantments, Area of Effect, anything besides violence, although he does have a few small-damage spells. Despite having a green color palette, his magic is purple, a color that’s primarly used for Ceremorph. When using his Metamagic or using extra Spell Slots (AKA when he uses too much magic ig), it will result in a nosebleed.

Eventually Ven will discover the parasite in his brain, as well as the fact he’s becoming a mind flayer, and it just overall won’t be a very fun time for him (he has a horrible mental breakdown and temporarily goes insane, because the way he finds out is that he blacks out and wakes up in the middle of eating a man’s brain). I’ve a few scenes in mind, such as him considering bashing his head against the wall. My personal favorite is where he considers staking himself with the tools from his monster hunting kit, because isnt he a monster? Isnt it better to destroy himself now, rather than watch himself become worse? He’ll decide against it, saying he promised Ophelia he’d come home. (It’s also because even I don’t want him to die like that, that’s too dark for me. I want this poet to get better.)

he has such low self esteem, he doesn’t want to bother people and so he doesnt bring up his trauma at all and feels bad when he needs to be comforted. He has religious trauma and an avoidance coping mechanism and it’s so terribly bad, bestie u cant run from the parasite in ur brain. He wants to help others to try and prove he’s not a bad person, that he’s not a monster, and despite making bad decisions he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He likes cooking, eventually he’ll only be able to be a cannibal. He’s a bit of an asshole. He’s against murder and will try to find another way to apprehend enemies, but hates the Gods and will in fact try to stab one (with the Stranger’s Dagger, mind you, because I love parallels), deep down he’s worried he did something that caused him to lose the Gods’ favor. He’s got PTSD from two fucking events, I want him to hallucinate. Ophelia deserves to be really pissed at him. He’s gonna have a horrible time, I want him to have a happy ending after everything he’s gone though.

He’s my pathetic little poet and I adore him, he’s in a psychological horror movie <3

#thank you for sending this ask it was so fun #ven vibes #eric finally speaks #bestie im also focusing on two other ocs if u wanna ask baout them /hj /lh

[iloveyouphillipmorris]

new york city punk facts that will never leave me list ok let’s go

richard in a pensive moment.

i think this is danny from electra records’ review of television live one of at least three reviews of television live where the author is just thirsting over them. i adore “he’s the one most likely to get beat up in a parking lot,” while tom verlaine is standing RIGHT THERE.

johnny thunders styling david johansen’s hair for the first time and kind of decorating everyone and when david bowie went to new york for the first time he asked johansen who did his hair and he said “johnny thunders.” and then we all know what happened

richard lloyd and tom verlaine sharing clothes but particularly the floral button up i’ve documented religiously here

this screenshot of johnny thunders from one of the movies he was in

richard hell and tom verlaine form television together originally called the neon boys. they don’t work out bcoz tom verlaine is a whiny bitch and richard hell is, also. so richard leaves and he joins up with john (what i’ll mostly be calling johnny thunders in this post) and jerry nolan (who i hate), who had just split from the new york dolls against john’s will to form the heartbreakers.

richard hell decided Hey I Should Have All The Creative Control In The Heartbreakers. john was mostly fine with how things were, but jerry convinced him via heroin and false promises that they deserved the control. so jerry/john are like Hey I Should Have All The Creative Control In The Heartbreakers. so they meet up and they both say “I Should Have All The Creative Control In The Heartbreakers” and they go Oh.

no one is mad they peacefully split up and both release amazing records separately they’re just all fucking idiots

stiv bators dying by hanging at least twice in public

richard hell being extremely easy to get into bed and he would go down on girls in public for the price of 1 alcohol.

this ridiculous “IM WEIRD” monologue tom verlaine gave:

john & jerry stealing “chinese rocks” from dee dee ramone’s bag and recording it for LAMF behind his backs hence why it sounds nothing like a thunders penned track and has all the stylistic elements of a ramones song

joey ramone saying he used to wait all day glued to the radio listening to “bad music until something good comes on” and that thing was the beatles

richard hell staring as “the rawhide kid” in nick zedd’s “geek maggot bingo” and speaking in a horrible southern accent and dressed like a cowboy the entire time

tom verlaine is a cryptid

tom verlaine and patti smith’s poetry zine. it’s fun to try and figure out who wrote what. it’s also very beautiful.

johnny blitz (the dead boys) getting stabbed 17 times in a complete mistake incident

john saying “wayne may have tits now but he’s still an awesome guy” referring to jayne county. the original trans ally.

tom verlaine anxiously but jovially telling an interviewer that he’s skipped out on rent all year so far and that he “doesn’t know when the land lord is coming but he may have forgotten about me” and thinking about how he was just living off unemployment bcoz he deemed HIMSELF incompetent to work

richard lloyd not participating in rehearsals and tom yelling at him in this video “LLOYD!!!! LLOYD!!!!!” + richard hell bring entirely incompetent and useless “HUH? HUH? HA? NO?” + tom being the only useful member of this band. thank god for terry ork.

I Have to stop somewhere im sorry this all is mostly about television i have a lot to say about television

#music talk #you’re just being a spoiled bastard…….

[trippsgotlips]

Hey there to all my lovely friends here on the mighty Tumb. I wanted to inform the masses that I am finally live and rolling on Patreon.com and my creator name is listed as, Tried That Tripp. I wanted to be found in one of most well known titles and am playing around with my Tripp title in most of my most popular accounts so I summed them all up to be listed as Tried That Tripp. So if you are fan of Raylyn69, Raylyn69 Officials, triedthattripp, trippsgotlips, Blazetulip, Blaze Tulip, Rooroothompson, RaylynLuv, Calilovetheforeverpuppy, TrippsSouth, Razzybum, RazzyBumCams, and finally Mistress Courtney Rowdy, then you will want to find all accounts III n this one Patreon. I also have a awesome announcement to share with you too. I have decided to open my first retail-ecommerce shop in the near future. I created the concept for my first business, Trials and Trippulations *A Spiritual Journey Supplies Shop, to be a never before seen collection of all the tools and products that will be personal and intimate to the the journeyman as the pathway to discover tranquility, peace, higher understanding, and sharpen the skills of one's most prestigious practices, hobbies or crafts chosen to be key to there own spiritual journeys to discover ultimate understanding and powerful forces of natural energy that will help gain higher levels increasing chances to complete transcendence.

So hopefully you understand what I am trying to offer the consumer with the above explanation of what Trials and Trippulations is offering and what you can expect to find at the shop. I will be inclusive to all the different directions a spiritual journey might be engineered with, and it won't be limited to only one way paths such as , magic-spell casting, fortune readings, artistic forms of expression, food and drink crafting, written documentation and written fictional hobbies, color and hue experiments, chakras, numerology, astrology, astronomy, historical research, witchcraft, herbal medicine and potion crafting, scrapbooking, reading, religious beliefs, old time skill crafting, candle making, perfume and aromatic science and scentology, massage therapy, hygienist and personal care crafts, music and therapeutic sounds for therapeutic sciences, poetry, journaling, botanical gardens, mystical beings and folk lore research, jewelry, painting, reading books, photography, outdoor activities supplies, one of a kind revamped vintage clothing items, sex and tantric tools, mastering one or all the human body senses, meditation, medieval era rediscoveries, and prayer logging are to name some of the practices that could be used to influence someone's personal spiritual journey.

So please tell me, *what you think of my concept for my shop? *Do you have any specific and special practices that you would be shopping for to elevate your own personal spiritual journey? *What is reason why you you would be drawn to check out what Trials and Trippulations is about for the first time ever? *What special community service groups, classes, meetings, or reoccurring events that would be successful and enjoyable to participate in, that could be hosted, sponsored, offered or exclusive to public communities you feel should be available by Trials and Trippulations? And as a frequently visited customer appreciation or rewards program, what is your ideas to how Trials and Trippulations should show our dedicated shoppers are being valued and appreciated by offering exclusive gestures with a rewards program model?

So that's it for now. I hope you are planning to visit me at Patreon.com and I would be even more overjoyed if you was to pay for premium subscription fee to enjoy my content Starting at $5 a month for digital engagement, or the forever fans, join the $40 tier And receive year round merch designed by me, that you can show off our club to the world. Let's all wear a Tried That Tripp Hoodie or Tee shirt to public ventures, or how about the shopping tote bag III designed to catch all the passerbys.

Show me your style and send me a selfie with the hashtag #TriedThatTrippandLovedit

I will be choosing 5 fans selfies to be featured on my Patreon page and one winner will be given a prize FOR THE BEST COMMENTED ENTRY telling why you wanted to be a supporting follower or fan club member or what was your top reason for becoming paid premium subscriber.

Please include proof of your monetary commitment if you are a premium subscriber and /or your screenshot or receipt proof of your gifted monetary donation.

Prize will be depending on the number of entries SUBMITTED. The contest will end September 16th, 2023

I will be posting the responses to the question of the the contest throughout the time length of contests running, so if you do not want your profile info included with your entry, please be sure to note you want personal details to be excluded from publication. This will not disqualify you from the contest. As a bonus for the fans who share and refer my Patreon's page the top recruiter of new visitors that include #tippedoffaboutTripp and #[your user name]recruit either donated to the page or subscribed to a premium tier. The fan with the most recruits will also be the Winner of my most prestigious prize contest yet, and will receive a one of a kind prize package that will be determined by the success of the contest and will be featured on a post on Patreon and be featured on the future platforms of my most largest outreach (Instagram and Snapchat).

***Please Inquire in DM's or email me at [email protected] and include in the headline: {Investment inquiry for Trials& Trippulations shop} Then please tell me what you think your $[amount offered] will be most likely to get the most success if utilized wherever you see it going towards. And please include all the details of your expectations Of the contribution of gifted or loaned out funds. Include any stipulations and expectations for return. Also if interested in becoming a share holding partner, Percentage owner of company, interest of loaned funds, any included access to more funds in future as needed to keep the store stocked and cash flow positive. I'm trying to raise $350,000 USD to be invested in the store. I need inventory, a brick and mortar location, payroll funds for employees, contractors, supplies and site planner, blueprints, website, e-commerce store and advertising and marketing. Shop is thought out to be a small and whimsical design that gives the customer a realistic escape to a new worldly felt atmosphere that is actually instilling the vibes of traveling through to a enlightened sense of we existing. I want to influence and inspire a idea of what their spiritual journey would actually look as nd feel like if it were a tangible traveling experience instead of the practices used to feel the desired effects from all their spiritual molding arts they have in mind for future purchases and purposes.

#Trials and Trippulations #A Spiritual Journey Supplies Shop #Tried That Tripp Brand #trippsgotlips #Blazetulip #Blaze Tulip #Rooroothompson #Specialty retail shop and e-commerce store #Patreon #Tried That Tripp and Liked It #Tried That Tripp and Loved It #Trying That Tripp For The First Time #Tasting That Tripp #Trading With Tripp #Tripp And Thompson TagTeam #Tripp And Thompson Take Over #Tripping Thompson Today #Thompson Tripping Terribly #Spotify

[subtletruamadumping]

We're Family

______________________________________________________________

I am still struggling with accepting that certain family members will never treat me with respect. No matter how many times they claim they love me, they will always act the opposite. I'm still holding out hope, even if it's foolish.

TW: Homophobia, Religious Imagery

Date Written: January 16, 2022

______________________________________________________________

I still had hope for my sister. She hadn’t said anything when mom and I were having our big fight. Sure, she hadn’t jumped in to defend me, but she also hadn’t taken mom’s side to damn me to hell the instant the words were out of my mouth. The part of my heart that still likes to see the best in people believed that her silence might be her mulling things over, noticing how awfully and hurtfully mom had reacted. Sure, she hadn’t texted me in a few months, but we hadn’t texted very often before the fight. I was delighted to receive an email from her. She loves to write poetry and she’s always asking me to read them over. That’s what I thought the document she had attached to the email she had sent to me and her college friends was going to be. As my phone loaded in her words typed in her latest favorite curly font, my heart sank. “Why Does God Allow Suffering if He’s Good?” the title read. I scrolled further to find her explanation in the first paragraph.

She had decided to change her major from music theory, the thing she had been working towards since 4th grade, to Theology. My fears of mom’s influence completely taking over had finally come true. She didn’t want me to read over her poetry; she wanted me to read her practice of Catholic Apologetics. She wanted me to help her get better at converting people to the same religion that mom used as an excuse to throw her terrible words at me. I read further into her author’s note. It was clear to me she assumed I’d agree with her point of view, that she’d have a friend on her side defending her deranged beliefs. Another Catholic forcing their way into people’s minds to shame them into joining the cult.

That wasn’t going to be me. I texted her privately, not in the group chat that my mom likes to continuously harass me though. I explained to her I was not going to be on her side for these kinds of conversations. I was no longer brainwashed into believing Sky Daddy only ever did good things and everyone suffering had done it to themselves. I told her I’d be willing to have these discussions with her, but that I would be arguing against her, not with her. She seemed quite taken aback by this. I’m not sure why it came as a shock. Why would I continue to believe that God is good when I’ve seen what he does to people? I told her I didn’t want the reason we stopped talking to be her religious views. I was still doing my best to see the best in her. She said she agreed and I was ecstatic. She removed my name from her emailing list so I wouldn’t get these documents in the future and I thought things had ended well.

She hasn’t spoken to me sense. It’s funny how “we’re family” only applies when you're trying to change my beliefs. The minute I question yours, you disappear. Around the same time, mom begins to blow up my phone. Text after text, day after day. I work the night shift. I have for years, yet she always sends her cryptic texts at noon, or one, or two. Always when I’m dead asleep. They’re pointless.

“Hello?”

“Are you alive?”

“Call me.”

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“I am your mother.”

“We’re family.”

I finally have a day off and reply back, explaining that I was asleep when she was texting me. She goes off on me for ignoring her, saying how awful of a daughter I am. She demands to know why I won’t call her, why I have no desire to talk to her. I blink at the words on my phone screen. How could she not know? Surely, she was trying to get a rise out of me. I still take the bait. After all these years, I haven’t learned my lesson. I remind her of the fight, of how she'd rather me die alone or be in a miserable marriage than be able to actually be with someone I loved. I don’t even get the chance to bring up how many times she belittled, bullied, and berated me. She cuts me off, doubling down. She tells me the minute she can vote for someone who will repeal gay marraige, she will. She tells me I shouldn’t have rights because I’m dirty and that I deserve to burn in hell. Somehow, she still expects me to want to talk to her, to call her up out of the blue. She expects me to wreck my sleeping schedule, bend over backwards, and listen to her shout awful things at me through the phone. Just like my coming out, this conversation did not end well. I received an angry text when I didn’t wish her a happy birthday. That was the last time she spoke to me.

I’m not sure which one, but someone snitched on me to my grandma. In a similar vein to mom, she started sending me text after text. After I ignored them all, I received a letter in the mail. She clearly outlined in this letter how stupid I was. How I was such a dimwitted, hateful, sheep that was only doing what the crowd told me to do. It was clear to her I needed to go back to church, clearly the only brainwashing she approves of. She demanded I call her, expressly telling me that she was going to debate me on my sexuality. As if she knew better than I did who I get horny for. She demanded why I would do such a selfish thing by choosing such a sinful lifestyle. She wanted to know how I could possibly put my own feelings before those of the rest of the families.

I never answered her letter or called her like she wanted. Despite what my family thinks, I am strong enough in my sexuality that I don’t feel the need to debate them on it. I know my mother and grandmother will not change their minds and will only use any contact they have as an excuse to continue their beratement of me. My grandma continues to text me daily, demanding I pray for her, sending me pictures of prayers she takes with her shitty phone camera. She demands I pay attention to her, listen to her judging and condemning me. She sends me old pictures of when I was anorexic, begging to know why I had changed.

“Didn’t you look so much better when you were a good Catholic girl?”

“Why can’t I get this version of you back?”

“Six years ago was such a different time.”

“Don’t you miss this? I do.”

“Don’t shut us out of your life just because you’re mad at your mom.”

“You’re being immature.”

“All kids fight with their mom.”

“You’ll regret turning your back on God.”

“And us.”

“We’re family, after all.”

#word vomit #my writing #poetry #spilled thoughts #writers on tumblr #possibly triggering #mommy issues #religious trauma

[reallybadblackoutpoems]

human sexuality position paper (2017) - the 37th general assembly of the epc

“homosexual conduct is fun”

okay i dont want to attack anyones religion but yeah i do because the epc classifies a bunch of things (including lgbt people, sexuality, abortion, etc) as sinful. i know this looks bad lmao but i love religion its so fun except when you use religion to attack others’ existences. with all due respect stfu

#not tagging this with anything #except for #i hate this #i hate it here #do not attack me #if you want me to take this down i will #i try not to use religious documents in poetry #but what the hell guys #this is so stupid #anwyay #blackout poetry #blackout poem #author #book #poetry

[frobin]

Analysis: Do Franky and Robin count as married?

Okay let’s get this started! And how? With looking up the definition of marriage! 

marriage (noun) mar·​riage | \ ˈmer-ij, ˈma-rij \

Definition of marriage

1a: the state of being united as spouses in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law

1b: the mutual relation of married persons: WEDLOCK

1c: the institution whereby individuals are joined in a marriage

2: an act of marrying or the rite by which the married status is effected especially : the wedding ceremony and attendant festivities or formalities

3: an intimate or close union // the marriage of painting and poetry— J. T. Shawcross

So, marriage is a consensual and contractual union/relationship between spouses. 

Webster also adds, that marriage is a very controversial word. 

And while they point out some very interesting facts, we will concentrate on only this part (because we don’t care for American law right now): 

The definition of the word marriage—or, more accurately, the understanding of what the institution of marriage properly consists of—continues to be highly controversial. (...) Ultimately, the controversy involves cultural traditions, religious beliefs, legal rulings, and ideas about fairness and basic human rights.

 So, when we call something a marriage we always have to consider the culture, traditions, religious beliefs, legal rulings, ideas about fairness and basic human rights. Which can become difficult, since we are talking about a fictional world. In the end we will have to consider our own cultural background and in my case it is very euro-centric but I’ll try my best to not make it too much about that.

In the next step we should answer the question... (after the read more)

Why should anyone marry? 

Nowadays there are three main reasons for marriage: 

religious reason 

legal reason

love 

But let’s be honest, the deeper we dig, the more we can put together religious and legal reason, because in the end, many religions were the original background to legal texts. What more are the 10 commandments than a rulebook for living as a group? 

That does not change that it’s still important for many to have a religious wedding. Being married by a priest in a church, in a temple, with the customs of they grew up with. For some it means to be with their partner even after death. 

The legal reason is becoming more important in many “modern” countries. Being married can mean that there are tax benefits, security in ownership, security with child paternity and adoption and many more. Often only legal family members are allowed to visit a patient in hospitals and are allowed to make decisions for the spouse. 

(Sometimes it’s already enough to just be engaged.) 

The last reason does not need any explaining I guess: Love. If you love and know your spouse and want to stay together forever and make it clear to everyone, marry them! Celebrate with your friends and family and tell everyone “we stick together through good and bad until death do us part”.

Now then let’s ask 

Why should Franky and Robin marry?  

Religious reasons: 

We don’t know much about religion in One Piece. We see symbolism of Christianity, Satanism and Buddhism. Alabasta is inspired by old Egypt and the three weapons are named after planets or Roman god, while Big Mom named her homies after Greek gods. 

Anyway, neither Franky nor Robin seem to be very religious. Robin met a “god” they both have seen how a following named Usopp a god. The celestial dragons are referred to as almost god-like. They’ve been to Thriller Bark and met Brook who is undead. Do they believe in a higher power? We don’t know but either way they don’t seem bothered by it. 

So it does not seem like there is a need to marry because of religious reasons. 

So what about legal reasons? 

Both Franky and Robin are wanted criminals, not only in one country but in the whole world. As of now there is no reason for them to make their marriage legal because there is no law they abide to. 

Officially they only exist as pirates within the Marine documentation. I don’t think either of them have their birth certificate. Robins place of birth is destroyed. Franky was probably born at sea. I think the only place where they would really sign themselves as citizens is Water Seven and - depending on what is going to happen - even that is highly unlikely. 

They also don’t really seem to have anything in their possession of value. They basically live in an almost commune-like environment on Sunny where people probably do have their own things but also seem to share everything. So there is also no need to clear that up in the case of a divorce or of the death of one spouses. And again both being pirates, if they have children there won’t be any issue with child support or paternity. Because let’s be real, as long as they are part of the crew, Robin and Franky might be the parents by blood but kids will be raised by everyone. 

There is no need to register with a government and no need for a contract. So no legal reason to be married. 

So, love it is? 

Yes. Yes it is. That is their pure reason to get “married”. But then again, what does marriage mean? Nowadays it’s always accredited by law or religion. Both seems unlikely and unnecessary for Franky and Robin. 

So even if they love each other, can we claim that they are married? For whom should they clarify their relationship? 

They are living within a small group of people so as long as they are openly in love it does not really matter if they are married or not. 

BUT! Let’s take a look at the definition once more and more closely to point 2. 

2: an act of marrying or the rite by which the married status is effected especially : the wedding ceremony and attendant festivities or formalities

If Franky and Robin decided to have a wedding ceremony of any kind just for the party, then there is no reason to do so in front of an entity or a government. And it will still be of the same value as any other marriage. 

Now you may ask “Who is going to perform the marriage? And why?” 

Good question! What about the captain? Well, there is no real evidence that pirate captains were allowed to or had the power to perform a wedding. We do know that Matelotage was a practice within pirate crews, comparable to a gay marriage and a contract. But I couldn’t find any fast information of how it was ‘legalized’. Female pirates were a rarity but maybe hetero Matelotage was a thing too? As for modern times, it really depends under which flag the ship is sailing, if the captain is allowed to perform marriage. 

But again, we’re talking about a (fictional) pirate crew so they sail under their own flag and who is to say that Luffy is not able to do it as a captain? Heck, if Luffy does not want to do it, Brook used to be a captain, Jinbe too. 

So, if Franky and Robin decide to celebrate a wedding of any kind and promise in front of witnesses whatever they feel like that means to be married, then yes. These two will be married. 

So, are Franky and Robin married?  

Sadly, no. Because we didn’t see the wedding ceremony. 

By the pure definition of it, as our modern understanding goes, Franky and Robin are not married. 

But... 

Can I still call them married?  

Heck yeah! Because we all know what we mean by it: that they are in a consensual and committed relationship. 

And so it does not matter if you think it’s an asexual or sexual relationship. It does not matter if they are also polyamorous or monogamous. It does not matter which gender or sexuality you headcanon. 

You can also headcanon that they indeed had the party that made it all “official”. You can imagine it in any way you want because that is what is so beautiful about your own mind. No one can take that from you. 

In conclusion...   

Canon? No. Fanon? You know it ;)  

After all Robin already has her wedding dress: 

Happy June, that is both pride month and apparently the best month to marry! ... Isn’t that an interesting coincidence? 

PS. Feel free to use the exact same logic for any Strawhat Ship! Or any Pirate Ship for that matter. 

#Frobin #One Piece #OP Meta #OP Analysis #Are Franky and Robin married? #Wedding in June #Headcanon #Analysis #pride month #canon #This took me way too long #huge shout out to Bones who did some beta reading #Also look at that dress #kon #Sorry for any remaining mistakes #they are my fault alone

[queerstakezine]

Admissions Guidelines!

“I’d like to bear my testimony” is a pg-13, digital, non-profit, queer+religious zine about the experiences of LGBT+ Mormons, presided by Harvey (A trans/queer ex-mo) based on the theme of “That Sunday”, and whatever that means to the contributor. Alternately if a more specific theme is wanted, “Fast/Testimony Sunday”.

If this sounds like something you’d be into contributing to, Read More

Schedule and link to submittal form will be provided in another post! (Tumbr is weird about links)

NON-PROFIT! There will be no exchange of money here. By extension, this is a DIGITAL ZINE.

ANY TYPE OF SUBMISSION IS GOOD! -- poetry, essay, photography, memes, tweets, diary entries, art, writing, multimedia, comic, song, collages   Rants/vents etc -- You’re only restriction is it’s gotta be stationary (so no audio or video) and in digital format, anywhere between 1-4 PAGES.

Size will be scale-able to 6″ x 9″ for if anyone wanted to end up printing it themselves (I probably will haha), please allow for a .75″ bleed+gutter and 1″ bleed+gutter for the inside of the page (either the left or the right). @ 300 dpi. Landscape is OK! Just be aware if it were printed there would be the middle fold. CMYK is preferred but not necessary.

I’ll try to take as many submissions as I can, but 30 CONTRIBUTORS seems to be industry standard. If there’s more interest I’ll probably expand that number. You need to be older than 13 for legal reasons, and preferably older than 18.

You don’t have to be mormon, whether it be ex-Mormon, active, investigating, or questioning Mormonism, or lgbt+, but your submission is required to EXPRESS YOUR RELATIONSHIP OF IDENTITY TO MORMONISM AND QUEERNESS. Your entry doesn’t have to be English, but please provide with an (accurate) translation if you do.

For copyrights make sure you own the content of the work, NO FAN-ART! don’t want to get slapped with a lawsuit. I’m pretty sure there’s protection for critique/parody of certain content, so if you wanted to put an excerpt in from an official church document that should be okay.

Even though this is a pretty INFORMAL zine. I’m looking for people who will take the project seriously, give contact information which is checked regularly or who will check the this zine blog regularly for updates, who do their best not to procrastinate and are honest if they fall behind please. I deal with people like that at work and It’s not fun. I’m going to do my upmost to produce something that values the time and effort that the contributors put in, I ask that you as a contributor do the same.

Let the congregation know I’m NOT CENSORING/rejecting a lot of works that paint the mormon church in a negative light. If that bothers you, I ask you pass or BE POLITE OF OTHER PEOPLE’S WORKS (even if it does not sit well with your opinion of the Mormon faith), whether you like or dislike the church.

I want to include as many perspectives/experiences as possible here, that will include some things that are hard for active members and excommunicated/non-active members to view or read.

If you feel like your submittal is too heavy and you’d be comfortable flagging it, please send me a trigger warning with your submittal, which will be included in the final zine.

As this is a queer+religious zine, criticism, anger, mourning, and any stereo-typically negative emotion are going to be welcome and encouraged.

This will be a PG-13 zine! Nudity is permitted as long as it’s tasteful and non-sexual, if possible, please exclude genitals. Try to keep swearing minimal. No slurs. No racist or hateful speech. No gore/explicit violence. Use your head with this stuff please.Your project/submittal will be banned if you violate this. I also reserve the right to turn down your submittal for any reason not listed here, but I will try to let you know why if such an event happens.

#queerstake #queerstake zine #harvey mod tag #zine #zine 2020 #call for submissions #I'd like to bear my testimony #QueerTesimonyZine

[transrevolutions]

TAGLIST:

I've finally decided to go through and catalog all the tags I use for my content, for ease of navigation. I do want to make an effort to start tagging things more consistently. List is under the cut!

#discourse- posts involving debates or arguments. General warning for rudeness and offensive/potentially triggering material. I prefer to keep discourse in the comments for the most part nowadays, so much of this content is older.

#nbw/#noodle boi war- posts dating from the meme war of August-October 2020. Usually long. I would purge this tag, but the amount of posts are just too vast to do so effectively.

#pigeon.txt- original posts that don't involve artwork/images. I may not use this tag if the subject matter of a post is very serious.

#shitpost- funny, lighthearted, sarcastic, or random posts.

#meme- usually shitposts involving images or popular memes.

#personal/personal thread- posts or threads that consist of interactions between me and my mutuals (rather than content).

#asks- what it says on the tin.

#anon- see above.

#politics- catchall tag for anything socioeconomic or political in nature. Usually serious.

#us politics- politics pertaining specifically to the US.

#psa- personal posts that may be relevant to my followers (such as when I'm going to be gone for a period of time).

#exvangelical/#ex religious/#apostate- posts discussing poor experiences with Christianity, particularly the evangelical denomination. This is not meant to be a condemnation of Christianity as a whole, simply documentation of my negative experiences within it and my positive experiences leaving it.

#my writing- what it says on the tin, old content may not be a good reflection of my writing skills today. YMMV. (Will be putting in quotes in the future due to the iOS debacle.)

#poetry- mostly my original poetry, see above.

#my art- what it says on the tin. I don't recommend scrolling too far down this tag, because my early art was really, really bad. (Will be putting in quotes in the future, much like #my writing.)

#french revolution- posts about the French Revolution, as the name would suggest. Used to be tagged with #(un)usual content, this has since changed.

#pigeon/#pigeons/#pigeons!- posts about pigeons, my favorite bird.

#ask game- ask games/questionnaires.

#moodboard/#aesthetic- aesthetic boards, usually for characters or media.

#incorrect quotes- funny incorrect quote memes, will often be tagged with the fandom, e.g. #incorrect heathers quotes.

#teresaposting- posts involving Teresa Agnes from TMR. Sometimes I inexplicably start spam-posting about her (beloved), the tag is for blocking purposes.

#actually autistic- posts about being autistic/neurodivergent.

#do not reblog/#don't reblog- what it says on the tin. Reblogs may or may not be deleted.

#rant- angry posting that might not make logical sense.

#vent- sad or angsty posting that might not make logical sense and may be triggering. Currently going through this tag and purging some content.

I try to always trigger tag COVID-19 (#tw covid ment), racism (#tw racism), queerphobia (#tw homophobia/#tw transphobia/#tw queerphobia), ableism (#tw ableism/#tw extreme ableism), mentions of suicide (#tw sui ment), gun violence (#cw gun violence), police brutality (#tw police brutality), and mentions of Nazis (#tw nazi ment). Other trigger tags will be added upon request, and I may start putting quotes around trigger tags depending on how the iOS issue shakes out.

(I also tag unreality/existential jokes with #unreality tw.)

Fandom posts will be tagged with the name of the fandom, a common abbreviation, or both.

Stay safe!

#psa #taglist #for reference

[ask-the-clergy-bc]

what kind of hobbies do the papas and copia have?

(Trying to get into bullet point format rather than JUST paragraphs for multiple points- let me know how this reads! Feedback always appreciated!)

Papa Nihil: 

~One of the biggest hobbies we have seen Nihil do is dip into jazz, especially with his saxophone! He has been playing for years, and is well versed in a few different instruments; but the saxophone is his indisputable favorite. He’s always bemoaned he never made a Jazz album. Even with his lungs, Nihil refuses to put down the instrument. Yes, he loved to sing, but Nihil feels so much more personal connection when playing an instrument. There is something very fulfilling about it! 

~ Nihil absolutely loves anything to do with horror movies or vintage films! Believe it or not, he’s always had a taste with analyzing horror films no matter how b-rated or cheesy. It’s something he has always done with Imperator since the 70′s. Ever since VHSes were invented, he has started a VERY big collection of horror movies. Chances are he has seen every single one of them at least twice. Nihil’s favorites are the Omen and other Satanist based films. 

~The Grand Papa has a small bit of a gambling streak, namely with dice or cards. If there is one way to get Nihil to play ANYTHING with you, it’s having a fresh deck of cards just waiting to be split! Nihil is always down for ‘sweetening the deal’ and playing for actual money (or hard candies.) Loves poker, Texas hold em, and anything you can win a pot in! Honestly, he’s so good you might as well not count on winning a giant pile of werther’s originals. Nihil wins EVERY time! Will also DESTROY anyone in Uno.

Papa I:

~No one is surprised by this, but his religious studies are his #1 hobby. Papa never gets sick of learning about his own religion, or that of others. The man eats, breathes, thinks, and LIVES Lucifer. It’s a way of life. Find a job you love and you never work a day in your life- that’s what Papa gets to live! He has thousands of papers of notes and has even published his own journal articles and books! 

~Calligraphy is his special hidden talent, and he is DAMN good at it! It was something he picked up when he was younger and really nurtured during his Seminary times. A lot of the newer official Clergy documents are actually penned by Papa himself! He has a very steady hand the undying patience to do some very intricate work. If you look in his office he has tons of the old fashioned pens and ink wells. Chances are, if you get a document written in such fine cursive it was probably made by Papa! 

~ Papa has a green thumb and love of gardening. You typically won’t see him in the Ministry gardens, but he has his own little make shift green house. As a magic and witch craft practitioner, you need a lot of good ingredients. Lots of herbs and other banes as well. So Papa had to learn how to husband specialty plants with very specific needs. He has time tables and measuring cups for all his individually potted plants! 

Papa II: 

~Besides partying and hooking up, if you count those? This usually surprises a lot of people, but he enjoys cooking! He’s actually a very accomplished chef! Granted, Papa is SUPER picky about which recipes, ingredients, AND equipment he will use- but he loves getting to cook. Papa’s favorite meals are a lot of traditional Italian dishes but with modern twists. If he so desired, he’d make himself an eight course meal and it would be flawless to the last bite! 

~ Along with his cooking he likes to do anything with wine. Mainly quality vintages and sampling them to pair with meals. He has traveled to MANY vineyards in his free time and has a HUGE collection that’s only rivaled by Papa III! It’s actually something they have done together growing up! Papa has even helped make his own, but very few know about it. He’s waiting for the bottles to age before he even samples his own creation.

~The man bare knuckle boxes. He has since he was a boy, and is actually a formidable opponent! As he has aged he doesn’t partake as MUCH and rather view professional matches. But don’t let him being out of practice fool you. He was known for breaking noses and a killer knock out punch! 

Papa III:

~ Papa actually has a real love of reading and poetry when the mood strikes him. Not a lot of people peg him to be super into anything quiet and deep, but he has a fondness for both! Papa is actually very talented in poem writing and prose of all sorts (I mentioned before he actually helped write a LOT of songs.) His favorite novels are an odd lot, but he enjoys the classics like everyone else. The more engaging and interesting the better.

~I mentioned in the pet post how Papa horse back rides, but that’s not his only favorite sport. He’s a sucker for fencing! Back in his 20′s he actually met a fencing instructor that taught him a few moves and tricks of the trade, and he’s been hooked ever since! He’s not a power house like Papa II, so it was a good sport to help him learn to fight in a different way. Papa will also gladly admit he feels like a fantasy prince in a story book when he wields his blade! 

~Say what you want about his suit in ‘He Is’ but Papa is a self proclaimed fashionista! Papa has always been a lover of all types of art, but fashion has a special place in his heart. It’s why he was so adamant about his dead astaire suit! If you catch him out of his regalia or suit, he usually has something very stylish on. Picks everything out from his socks, watch, shirt, and even sun glasses. It’s very fun to make yourself a walking piece of art with such fine looks! 

Cardinal Copia: 

~You get a glimpse of two of his favorite hobbies in the ‘Rats’ video- ballet/dancing and horse back riding! Copia doesn’t really dance as much on stage, but he has been classically trained since he was a young man. Copia never did anything with it besides keeping in shape and doing it for fun. He jokes he could probably do the entirety of ‘Swan Lake’ if he so wished. But who has time for that when you’re only head lining YOUR OWN TOUR?

~Horseback riding is his other favorite, and one he has been trained in for YEARS. Copia doesn’t have as much time to practice or head to the stable these days. It used to be a more active hobby for him, thanks to the opportunities given to him by his rank and pay. Sometimes he yearns to go back to it. Never considered himself a competitive rider and just really enjoyed the thrill of it. 

 ~Since he’s so busy Copia sticks to his intellectual hobbies. Namely reading, puzzles, and languages. He’s particularly fond of studying dead or difficult languages, and prides in how many he knows! Right now his biggest study is in Ghoulish, though with slow progress. IT definitely helps he’s stuck on tour with SEVEN ghouls! Copia can now say a few words and phrases in Ghoulsih (though his ghouls laugh at his ‘human accent’.)

#the band ghost #ghost bc #Ghost headcanon #papa nihil #papa emeritus i #Papa Emeritus II #papa emeritus iii #cardinal copia

[deathghost8]

Studying Watts to replay his message

So it turns out all that I'm doing here is trying to get the message out, the message that was already crafted by the greatest word technologist to ever live. The polarity message. The nature message. The money and class and wealth message. The message about being a civilized social unit of people, not individual nomadic clans at war with one another. My Narration stream idea was only abstract at first, but now I have done several streams and studied some of the messages about declining the social status game in order to fully embrace our inseparability from nature. The message about Society, Nature/Mankind unity, Trust/Love, Money/economy and class / the social game as pertains to Zen as the full exit from that version of the game of life is what I need to replay to my friends and followers, and to a society whose authority I refuse, in search of educational sovereignty. I have clarified the opening module to be directly focused on my GRIPE with a society that demands we subscribe to the king-grandfather obsession of social structure with Authority coercion built in to the minimum transaction. Here I am gathering transcripting so that the totality of that message in his words can be brought together in a single post that I can share with my friends who I am not able to go directly to and live share the hours of content that this comprises, with my own commentary and interaction with them. The talk titles as they exist in my youtube playlists is as follows 1- The spectrum of love https://www.alanwatts.org/1-5-7-spectrum-of-love/ - Trust (Life is willingness to die) https://www.organism.earth/library/document/trust Interlude / tangent - Zen tales and legends -- zen poetry / interlude with some musical aspects, helps establish the ground for the conclusion items. filler info. 2- Words and emptiness talk - if you don't use words, you don't have any problems. the big problem here is that we are bewitched by words, there is actually only one Thing. one ultimate suchness, which is nature. The reality that is nature. all religious/philosophical problems are problems created by words. 3- the talk that goes into man's inseparability from nature and the defuse of aggression as the way of conveying manliness. "And the great symbols of our culture are the rocket and the bulldozer. The rocket--you know, compensation for the sexually inadequate male. So we're going to conquer space. You know we're in space already, way out. If anybody cared to be sensitive and let outside space come to you, you can, if your eyes are clear enough. Aided by telescopes, aided by radio astronomy, aided by all the kinds of sensitive instruments we can devise. We're as far out in space as we're ever going to get. But, y'know, sensitivity isn't the pitch. Especially in the WASP culture of the United States. We define manliness in terms of aggression, you see, because we're a little bit frightened as to whether or not we're really men. And so we put on this great show of being a tough guy. It's completely unnecessary. If you have what it takes, you don't need to put on that show. And you don't need to beat nature into submission. Why be hostile to nature? Because after all, you ARE a symptom of nature. You, as a human being, you grow out of this physical universe in exactly the same way an apple grows off an apple tree. So let's say the tree which grows apples is a tree which apples, using 'apple' as a verb. And a world in which human beings arrive is a world that peoples. And so the existence of people is symptomatic of the kind of universe we live in. Just as spots on somebody's skin is symptomatic of chicken pox. Just as hair on a head is symptomatic of what's going on in the organism. But we have been brought up by reason of our two great myths--the ceramic and the automatic--not to feel that we belong in the world. So our popular speech reflects it. You say 'I came into this world.' You didn't. You came out of it. You say 'Face facts.' We talk about 'encounters' with reality, as if it was a head-on meeting of completely alien agencies. And the average person has the sensation that he is a someone that exists inside a bag of skin. The center of consciousness that looks out at this thing, and what the hell's it going to do to me? You see? 'I recognize you, you kind of look like me, and I've seen myself in a mirror, and you look like you might be people.' So maybe you're intelligent and maybe you can love, too. Perhaps you're all right, some of you are, anyway. You've got the right color of skin, or you have the right religion, or whatever it is, you're OK. But there are all those people over in Asia, and Africa, and they may not really be people. When you want to destroy someone, you always define them as 'unpeople.' Not really human. Monkeys, maybe. Idiots, maybe. Machines, maybe, but not people. So we have this hostility to the external world because of the superstition, the myth, the absolutely unfounded theory that you, yourself, exist only inside your skin." ~Alan Watts. 4- the hypocrisy around money - the invention of system "economic utopia" is not wishful thinking - the system to distribute money for work done by machinery on the humans behalf is THE ONLY REAL ALTERNATIVE to self-destruction -- Finally I said, "The trouble with you gentlemen is you still think money is real.” And they looked at me and sort of said, "Oh ha ha ha, someone who doesn't think money is real. Cause everybody knows money is money and it's very important." But it just isn't real at all because it has the same relationship to real wealth, that is to say to actual goods and services, that words have to meaning - that words have to the physical world. And as words are not the physical world, money is not wealth. It only is an accounting of available energy - economic energy. Now what happens then when you introduce technology into production? You produce enormous quantities of goods by technological methods but at the same time you put people out of work. You can say, "Oh but it always creates more jobs. There will always be more jobs." Yes, but lots of them will be futile jobs. They will be jobs making every kind of frippery and unnecessary contraption, and one will also at the same time have to beguile the public into feeling that they need and want these completely unnecessary things that aren't even beautiful. And therefore an enormous amount of nonsense employment and busy work, bureaucratic and otherwise, has to be created in order to keep people working, because we believe as good Protestants that the devil finds work for idle hands to do. But the basic principle of the whole thing has been completely overlooked, that the purpose of the machine is to make drudgery unnecessary. And if we don't allow it to achieve its purpose we live in a constant state of self-frustration. So then if a given manufacturer automates his plant and dismisses his labor force and they have to operate on a very much diminished income, (say some sort of dole), the manufacturer suddenly finds that the public does not have the wherewithal to buy his products. And therefore he has invested in this expensive automative machinery to no purpose. And therefore obviously the public has to be provided with the means of purchasing what the machines produce. People say, "That's not fair. Where's the money going to come from? Who's gonna pay for it?" The answer is the machine. The machine pays for it, because the machine works for the manufacturer and for the community. This is not saying you see that a... this is not the statist or communist idea that you expropriate the manufacture and say you can't own and run this factory anymore, it is owned by the government. It is only saying that the government or the people have to be responsible for issuing to themselves sufficient credit to circulate the goods they are producing and have to balance the measuring standard of money with the gross national product. That means that taxation is obsolete - completely obsolete. It ought to go the other way. Theobald points out that every individual should be assured of a minimum income. Now you see that absolutely horrifies most people. “Say all these wastrels, these people who are out of a job because they're really lazy see... ah giving them money?” Yeah, because otherwise the machines can't work. They come to a blockage. This was the situation of the Great Depression when here we were still, in a material sense, a very rich country, with plenty of fields and farms and mines and factories...everything going. But suddenly because of a psychological hang-up, because of a mysterious mumbo-jumbo about the economy, about the banking, we were all miserable and poor - starving in the midst of plenty. Just because of a psychological hang-up. And that hang-up is that money is real, and that people ought to suffer in order to get it. But the whole point of the machine is to relieve you of that suffering. It is ingenuity. You see we are psychologically back in the 17th century and technically in the 20th. And here comes the problem. So what we have to find out how to do is to change the psychological attitude to money and to wealth and further more to pleasure and further more to the nature of work. And this is a formidable problem. It requires the best brains in public relations, in propaganda, in all that kind of thing, in all the media: television, radio, newspapers, everything...to try to get across a message to the vast general public about what money is. You see the difficulty is this. When the public suspects that the money that is being issued, the dollar bills being issued by the government are only paper, and stand only for paper, they start putting up prices so you get an inflationary situation where the more paper money there is, the higher and higher and higher the prices go… which is a very stupid psychological maneuver. And people have to be persuaded. The least effective way of persuading people is passing laws, but they have to be persuaded somehow not to put up the prices, but to play fair with each other and keep some sort of standard correspondence between how much is produced and how much credit is issued. - 5- escaping societies brainwashing the function of a Zen teacher is to put his students in all kinds of situations we're in the normal course of social relations they would get stuck by asking nonsensical questions by making absurd remarks by or always of unhinging things and above all keeping them stirred up with impossible demands: to hear the sound of one hand to without moving stop a ship sailing out on the water or to stop the sound of a train whistle in the distance magic- to touch the ceiling without getting up to amongst chair -to take the four divisions of Tokyo out of your sleeve -to take Mount Fuji out of the Kobach's all these impossible questions are asked and in the ordinary way of interpreting these questions we think well now be how could we do that? see that's the very difficult question that's been asked and you have to think what would I do to do that because we are caught up in a certain way of discourse which the language game that we play and the social game the production gains and the survival games that we play are good games but we take them so seriously that we think that that is the only important thing and this is to unstick us from that notion and realize that it would be just as good a game to drop dead now as to go on living is a lightning flash bad because it lives for a second as compared with the Sun that goes on for billions of years you can't make that sort of comparison because the world is like mingoes also with the world rebels of son and vice versa so long-lived creatures and shortness creatures go together that's the meaning of that saying flowering branches grow naturally some short some long so this n is a scene in in a zen community where the spontaneous behavior is encouraged within certain limits and as the student becomes more and more used to it those limits are expanded until eventually he can be trusted to go out on the street and behave like a true Zen character and get by perfectly well you know what occasionally happens on the street when two people are walking down the sidewalk straight at each other and they both decide to move to the right together and then to the left together and they somehow get stuck and they can't pass each other then teachers will pull just exactly that sort of stunt when going down a path and meet one of their students to see if they can get him in a tangle and can you escape from it and you will find in everyday life that there is a very clear distinction between people who always seem to be self possessed and people who are desiring and nervous and don't quite know how to react in any given situation always getting embarrassed because they have their life to strongly programmed you said I mean this is a common marriage argument you said you would do such and such a thing at such and such a time and now you've changed your plans not that they really the change of plans really caused any inconvenience just the feeling that when you say you will do something at a certain time you ought to do it at that time come hell or high water well that's being very unadaptable that's being a stone kind of sticky thing if it after all doesn't matter when we do it and as if somebody is offended because the time instant chase that's simply because they are attached to punctuality as a fetish and this is one of the great problems this is causes many automobile accidents men rushing home to be on time for dinner when they stayed late either working or they had to stop for a drink of some bar or when the girl feels that she has to if she has a fussy husband and she feels she has to have the dinner ready at exactly a certain moment she ruins the cooking he'd rather have a faithful wife and a bad cook how about not riding on your toes so you see we spend an awful lot of energy trying to make our lives fit images of what life is or should be which they could never possibly sit so then practice is in getting rid of these images but it's it's so explosive socially to do that and it's so various people they get vertigo they get dizzy they don't know which end is up and this happens you know if you've ever been in one of those blab blab sessions where they call them tea groups I think it's all something like that where the people gather together without any clear idea of what this gathering is about they know it's somehow self-exploration but just how do you begin on that and so somebody starts to push his idea and then somebody else says well why you tried to push your idea on us and then they all get into an argument about the argument and the most amazing confusion come about that sometimes they all see what idiots they're being and then they learn to live together in a they open and spontaneous way there was a very interesting dinner party once where the Zen master was present and there was a geisha girl who served so beautifully and had such style that he suspected she must have some Zen training and after a while he when she paused the silly sake cup he bowed to her and said I'd like to give you a present and she said I would be most honored and he took the iron chopsticks that are used for the hibachi with charcoal brazier moving the charcoal around he picked up a piece of red hot charcoal and gave it slip well she instantly she had very long sleeves on her kimono she weld the sleeves round her hands and took the hot charcoal withdrew to the kitchen dump it and changed her kimono because it was thought through then she came back into the room and after a suitable interval she stopped before the Zen master and bowed to him and said I would like to give you sir present I would be very much honored of course he was wearing a kimono or something like this and so she picked up a piece of coal I've offered it to him he immediately produced a cigarette and said thank you that's just what I need it now you know in the same way that we have this in our culture certain people who are communal who know how to make jokes and gags in a completely unprepared situation face them with anything and they somehow come through so that is exactly the same thing in a special domain as then only it will be master of them does this in every life situation but the important thing is to be able to do this this is the secret you must remember you can't make a mistake now that's a very difficult thing to do because from childhood up we have had to conform to a certain social game and if you'll go to conform to this game you can make mistakes or not make mistakes so this thing is gone into it all the time you must do the right thing there's certain conduct appropriate here a certain context appropriate there and that sticks in us and gives us a double self all our lives long because we never grow up! - --- you realize that the whole of life plays a game - which is a childhood game - **There are three kinds of people top people middle people of bottom people and there can't be any middle people and let's to the bottom people and top people accompany any top people unless to the middle and bottom people and so it goes and everybody's trying to be in a top set well if they're going to be there has got to be someone on the bottom set and the people who do the right thing and people do the wrong thing you hear in Sausalito we have this very very plainly there are the right people nice people who live up on the hill then there are the nasty people who live down here on the waterfront and they grow beards and they wear blue jeans and they smoke marijuana and whether the other people on the top of Hill Drive Cadillacs and have wall-to-wall carpeting and nicely mowed lawn and their particular kind of poison is alcohol now the people who live on the top of the hill know that they're nice people but they wouldn't know they were nice people unless they had some nasty people to compare themselves with every in-group requires an output whereas the nasty people think they are the real far-out people whereas those people those Hillbillies the squares and they wouldn't be able to feel far out unless there were squares see these things simply go together but when that is not seen we play the game of getting on top of things all the time and so we're in a constant state of competition as to if it's not I'm stronger than you it's I'm wiser than you I'm more loving than you I'm more tolerant than you I'm more sophisticated than you it doesn't matter what it is that this constant competition is going on in terms of that competition we can of course lose place and in that sense make mistakes but what a Zen student is is a person who is not involved in the status game that's the real meaning of a monk he is not keeping up with the Joneses and to be a master he must get to the point where he's not trying to be a master the whole idea of your your being better than anybody else simply doesn't make any sense at all it is totally meaningless because you see everybody manifesting the Marvel of the universe in the same way as the Stars do and the water and the wind and the animals and you see them all as being in their right places and not being able really to make mistakes although they may think they're making mistakes or not making mistakes and playing all these competitive games but that's their game now I only say if that game begins to boil and it begins to trouble you and give you alphas and all kinds of things then you raise the problem of getting out of it and therefore you start to become interested in things like then that is simply a symptom of your growing in a certain direction where you are tired of playing a certain kind of game you are as naturally flowing in another direction as if a tree were putting out a new branch so because you say oh well we people are interested in higher things you see that depends still on the differentiation of rank between the superior and the inferior people but when you begin to see through that and grow out of that you don't think anymore of this superior and inferior classification you don't think we are spiritual people who attend to higher things as distinct from these morons are only interested in beer and television this is simply our particular form of life like there are crabs and there are spiders and there are sharks and there are sparrows and so on the trouble with the human being is like the trouble with certain animals like the dinosaur who evolved to the point where he was so big did he have to have two brains a higher self in the head and a lower self in the rump and the difficulty was to get these two brains coordinated but we have exactly the same trouble and we are suffering from a kind of jitters that comes from being two brained now you see I'm not saying that that jitters is bad it's a potential step in evolution and an opportunity of growth but remember in the process of growth the oak is not better than the Acorn because what does it do it produces acorns or you could say just I like I sometimes enough to say that a chicken is one eggs way of becoming others so an oak is an acorn way of becoming other acorns where is the point of superiority the first verse of that time I just quoted the flowering branches grow naturally some short some long the first verse is in the landscape of spring there is nothing superior and nothing inferior the flowering branches are naturally some short some long so that's the point of view of being an outcast in the sense of being outside the taking seriously of being involved in the social game and therefore being threatened by making mistakes of doing the wrong thing that is to say of carrying into adult life one's childhood conditioning where somebody is constantly yammering at you to play the game so therefore the preachers and the teachers take the same attitude towards their adult congregation the parents take two children and lecture them and tell them what they should do and judges in courts feel also entitled to give people lectures because they say those criminal types haven't grown up but neither have the judges it takes two to make a quarrel so one can begin to think in a new way in the polarity thinking instead of being stuck with the competitive thinking of the good guys and the bad guys the cops of the robbers the capitalists and the Communists the all these things which are simply childishness now of course you recognize that if I at the moment I say that it's like talking in English in order to show that the English language has limitations and I am talking in a language that seems competitive to show that the competitive game has limitations if I was saying to all you cats here look I have something to tell you that if you get this you will be at a better position than you were before you heard it but I cannot speak to this group or the society or this language speaking culture without using the language the gestures the customs etc that you have the Zen masters try to get around this by doing things suddenly that people just don't get well what is this therefore that is the reason why this is a real reason why then cannot be explained you have to make as it were they jump from the valuation game of better people and worse people in-groups and out-groups and you can only make it by seeing that they all are mutually interdependent so if we take this situation let's say I would be talking to you and saying look I have some very special thing that you've got to take notice of therefore I am the in-group and I'm the teacher and you are the out-group I know perfectly well that I cannot be the teacher unless you come in and so that my estate is in my position is totally dependent on you it isn't something you see therefore I have first and then you get these things arise mutually so if you wouldn't come I wouldn't talk I wouldn't know what the same hahaha because I borrowed your language so that that is the insight that things go together then when you see that and aren't in competition then you don't make a mistake because you don't do this when I first learned the piano and played these wretched scales the teacher beside me had a pencil in my hand and she hit my fingers every time I made a lot wrong note consequent was I never learned to read music because I hesitated too long to play the note on time because I was always business if his pencil gonna land see that gets built into your psyche and so people are always although they're adults and nobody is clubbing them around and screaming at them any longer they hear the echoes of that screaming mama all that bum been aiding Papa in the back of their heads all their life long and so they adopt the same attitudes to their own children and the fast continues because there is no I mean I don't say that you shouldn't lay down the law to children if you want them to play the social game but you if you lay down the law to your children you must make provision later in life for them to be liberated to go through a process of curing them from the bad effects of Education but you can't do that unless you two grow up you see as we grow up as I including myself so that is the fig now therefore in the Zen scene you would think that the master as we know even as we read about him is an extremely authoritarian figure that's the way he deliberately comes on at the beginning he puts up a terrific show of being an awful dragon and this screams out all sorts of people who don't have somehow the nerve to get into the work but once you are in a very strange change takes place the master becomes the brother he becomes the affectionate helper of all those students and they love him as they would a brother rather than respect him as they would have father and therefore the students and masters they make jokes about each other they have a very curious kind of social relationship which has all the outward trappings of the authoritarian but everybody knows on the insides of that to joke liberated people have to be very cool otherwise in a society which doesn't believe in equality and cannot possibly practice it they would be considered extremely subversive therefore great their masters were purple and gold and carries scepters and fitted Thrones and all this carried on to cool it the outside world knows are there all right this has been their order they're perfectly fine

[gayasinstupidpodcast]

What’s up gamers!!! Our fourth episode plowed through the chaos of thanksgiving holidays and is Here w/ some Facts and Opinions about creating shit and being LGBT and how being LGBT influences creating shit. HEADS UP we recorded this while I had a cold so my voice is probably a little off, but ik Isaac put SO much work into the editing so it would be ready on time and we have recorded statements from some amazing artists (transcriptions under the cut below!) & this is honestly one of my favorite episodes we’ve done so far, so give her a listen if you’re gay or enjoy fun things!

BIG thank you once again to everyone who participated in this month’s episode!! Your contributions are so valued and so beautiful!!

You can find us on the Itunes Podcast App/Webpage at Gay As In Stupid Podcast! You can also find our episodes uploaded to Youtube and Soundcloud!

You can also follow us on twitter at gayasinstupid!

Further Reading on LGBT Artists

Montage of a Queering Deferred: Memory, Ownership, and Archival Silencing in the Rhetorical Biography of Langston Hughes

The Political Provocations of Keith Haring 

Pop art politics: Activism of Keith Haring 

E M Forster’s Gay Fiction

Alok Vaid-Menon Tells Us What It’s Like To Be Femme In Public

Shea Diamond Speaks Her Truth

Aaron’s 2018 November Recs!

Alok Alok Vaid-Menon is one of my favorite poet/activist/performance artists out there! Their writing and stage presence is gorgeous and witty in a way that’s SO clever and still feels like you’re in a room trading jokes you don’t need to explain with your closest trans friends. The way they balance their art creates a real, deeply touching experience that feels very essential to our world.

Miles (2016) Miles is set in 1999 and is a coming of age story about a gay teenager trying to get a volleyball scholarship for college in Chicago. It’s not revolutionary and it’s not over the top dramatic, but it’s funny and honest and it makes me feel nice. Definitely the movie to watch when you’ve just been through something emotionally taxing and need a light crying session and some mediocre pastries.

Isaac’s 2018 November Recs!

The Adventure Zone I know half of you already kin the Mcelroys while the other half either don’t know or don’t care, but the Adventure Zone is one of my most favorite things in the world. It’s a DND podcast (yes, all episodes are transcribed, and they have a graphic novel for the first arc of Balance with a second one on the way!) by three brothers plus their dad, and not only does it have the most amazing story and is ungodly funny, but TONS of gays (Griffin went ape with those Lesbian NPCS)! And just because they can! Same with trans characters. It’s a story where they just exist, and that’s really important to me because in a lot of media LGBT have to almost prove why they deserve to take up space. And it’s not just something that goes on in their first campaign, Amnesty also has those sweet sweet gay! I could talk about this podcast for hours, so if you needed that final push to give it a listen, THIS IS IT!

Stardew Valley You get to farm and be gay. And if THAT hasn’t sold you on this charming video game, then maybe the super cute graphics, beautiful soundtrack and a handful of interesting characters will! TBH I spend so much time playing this game it’s concerning. It’s just such a fun way to relax, and I just really REALLY like video games were I can chose to be gay. Like. God Tier. YOU CAN HAVE CROPS AND CHICKENS AND BE GAY C’MON YALL!!

The Amazing Quotes And Artists Featured!

Meg | instagram | esty

“My identity as a bisexual woman influences my art in many ways. As a woman, i create art about the issues that effect me, such as abortion and gender equality, in order to resonate with the people that matter most to me. As a bisexual individual, my subjects often appear from a gaze that falls outside of the stereotypical eye. My figure drawings and portraits all come from a place of admiration, and don’t fall into the stereotype of the male gaze or womanly care- they are the space inbetween, equally sexualized and normalized. I feel lucky to be a bi gal in the art world because it is a place that is my own to create in. There are so many queer artists that i look up to such as Mapplethorpe and Warhol, and many female artists i can cite as influence (Jenny Holzer, Kiki Smith, and Louise Bourgeois to name a few). My identity gives me a whole new world of content to draw from and allows my work to resonate with a wider audience, and I really think that any artists goal is to reach and touch as many people as possible.“  

Cameron | twitter | instagram 

“I don’t think that it influences the form really, but it definitely influences the subject matter! (Much as I hate to admit it, my identity influences the majority of choices I make in life.) I write a lot of poems about lgbtq related things and religion, as well as other stuff too. I was raised catholic, so realizing that I was “different” at more than one point in my teen years was scary AF. Being a member of the lgbtq+ community and also trying to still feel like I belong, or wanting to, in a religious community is hard, the two things are usually at a crossroads in my life so writing about them makes it easier for me to get through. My hope is that someday someone reads what I wrote and finds some peace in their own life/experience.” 

Vince | art instagram

“Well, being transgender I feel like I’m constantly aware of the lack of representation of my community, and I feel like it might be because of that I tend to experiment with showing all sorts of different type of people in my work. Because there’s so much diversity in the world, why not showcase that?”

Fox | art instagram  

“Oof…I’m gay so my characters always be gay. Gotta Fill the void in media w my own bullshit so I don’t have to rely on straight showrunners who will inevitably discard the character since they themselves seem to have no personal attachment and treat lgbt characters as disposable extras. Bc if I don’t at least attempt to create representation in the field I’m going into then I can’t rlly complain about the lack of it right? If I don’t try and change it I can’t complain about the lack of change so being an lgbt artist is lowkey Big Pressure to be revolutionary in your work but sometime…..I just wanna draw funkey animeal and that’s aight too”

Jen | twitter | instagram

“As a female bisexual poet, I worry often that my poetry and art will be too niche to be appreciated. I’ve spent years editing my poetry down to its barest bones in hopes that someone will relate to it. Changing pronouns back and forth because I worry that if I do talk about a woman, the poem will be stripped of its context and suddenly be about my queerness when in reality it never was. When I write about love and people I have dated and have crushed on, I want the poem to exist outside of the gender of who I love. I fear my authorial death will result in a complete misinterpretation of what I mean. When I write, it truly does not matter to me if I am writing about a woman or a man. If I feel what I write and I can make someone else feel it too does it matter that I also love women? I write what matters to me overall, regardless of gender, I try to make my poetry as true as possible. Sometimes, when I catch myself over editing I try to take myself back to the moment, to the person, what I loved about him or her. “

Lain | art instagram

“My LGBT Identity has significantly impacted almost all of my art, especially my work over the last two years. Ever since I have allowed myself to accept that I am trans and began my transition (6 months on T!), the impact that my Roman Catholic upbringing has had on my bisexual trans identity has bled into my artwork. Because of the way I was raised, accepting and allowing myself to be authentic has been an upward struggle. And what better way to process and document struggle than art?  

Much of my recent work has had a focus on the trans body, particularly the “sanctity” of self-actualization and the god-like power that comes with accepting and creating yourself in the unique and exceptional way that LGBT people must in order to live authentically. Two of my pieces on this topic were actually recently exhibited at UWM in the Trans-lucent exhibition, and will remain there until December 15th (I think). I got sick and tired of never seeing trans representation, so now I am creating that space that I crave in my own work.”

Kobe | instagram | soundcloud

“My art from is very influenced by my LGBT identity. It is very influenced by my LGBT black Identity. I think that whenever an artist makes their art (in my case writing music, singing, dancing) they should incorporate as much of themselves as possible. I think my LGBT identity definitely adds a sense of representation as well. I want people like me to listen to my music to know they aren’t alone. So it influences my work a lot. “

Nat | art instagram

“I think the fact that I am part of the LGBT+ community influences my art directly. Even though I don’t draw as often as I wish, I believe both my drawings and college projects (I am a 3d art/animation student), and my creativity in general is inspired by my personal experiences as a gay woman and common things experienced by the community. I try as often as I can to bring representation of some kind in the things I do, mainly personal projects. I also feel that it influences me on my motivation to keep creating; whenever I listen to, see drawings, watch movies or see whatever form of artistic expression from LGBT+ artists it gives me the energy to keep going, to keep creating.”

#gay as in stupid podcast #lgbt podcast #lgbt artists #gay art #trans art

[prevodioci-blog]

Niehime To Kemono No Ou

Sunda offers secure and high-quality machine translation tools and services that help you translate between Finnish and English. The dispersed Jews had forgotten Hebrew, their ancestral language, and needed the Bible to be translated into Greek to be able to read it. This translation is known as the Septuagint”, a name that refers to the seventy translators who were commissioned to translate the Hebrew Bible in Alexandria, Egypt. Patricia Travers, 82, American violinist, died of cancer. Ron Fimrite, 79, American sports journalist (Sports Illustrated), pancreatic died of cancer. Users from different backgrounds translate and retrieve English to Spanish information by simply clicking on any document on their computers using Babylon software; Babylon has been voted by millions as the most convenient and user-friendly English to Spanish translation tool available on Blue Universe the market today. In English, some readers prefer the Authorized King James Version of the Bible to modern translations, and Shakespeare in the original of c. 1600 to modern translations. You pick your set of languages and you do a quick online test, proof of your capabilities. Thanks to our unique platform, English translators from all over the world come together. Like their ancestors, contemporary translators have substantially helped to shape the languages into which they have translated. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Toledo School of Translators (Escuela de Traductores de Toledo) became a meeting point for European scholars who - attracted by the high wages they were offered - traveled and settled down in Toledo, Spain, to translate major philosophical, religious, scientific and medical works from Arabic, Greek and Hebrew into Latin and Castilian.

Some common Spanish loanwords in English include albino, aficionado, alligator - an Anglicisation of el lagarto, ‘the lizard' - and avocado. Another great source is the website by Nancy Thuleen She is a German professor who published a large quantity of grammar exercises from A-Z as well as activities, vocabulary exercises, videos, reading and writing exercises, lyrics and exercises on German history and culture. According to Rushkoff, Gary Henderson Radzik, an engineer came about with this Gaia hypothesis when he pondered that: "Nature just decided, 'Okay, if I want to get conscious, I'm gonna need technology to do it because these people don't have clear Blue Universe prevodilacka agenicja enough minds to use telepathy. I actually removed the first translation I had for the haiku on morning glories, and ended up cobbling together my own "translation" from the work of others, because on reading the literal meaning I decided that he had added too much. I've tried many other online translators but none come close to Google's convenience and auto-language detection. Cons: When translating longer pieces of text, Google Translate cannot be trusted for accuracy. Having spent time learning Chinese, Spanish, German, Hebrew, and French, this has been the most helpful for easily learning Italian, and a similar approach would be for other languages.

SYSTRAN English translation software is dependable and used by millions of people worldwide. We've gotten about 1,500 words translated on a daily basis through their services. Translators who work remotely receive and submit their work electronically, and must sometimes deal with the pressure of deadlines and tight schedules. The purpose of translation apps is to provide you with fast and convenient translations-not to elaborate on the mechanics of the Japanese language. Gengo ensures quality English to Spanish translation at scale. I did this for Italy and found it a great help as not much English is spoken in Southern Italy so I went prepared for it. There's nothing worse than expecting the locals to speak your language Blue Universe in their own country, you need to make some effort. You can only translate from English do the other 3 languages, you do not yet have tasks to translate from other native language to English. At one time I was learning Spanish and loved to exercise my questionable skills on ham radio day to speak with South America, Mexico and even Spain. Well connected with the best translators through the European Union of Associations of Translation Companies. Betty Lou Keim, 71, American actress, died of lung cancer. Once Google tool bar is downloaded on your pc, then go to any foreign language site and put your mouse pointer on any word, you will see a small pop-up window will show the translation of that word in your own language.

In our translation courses, students work with Google Translator Toolkit, Memsource, and SDL Trados Studio as learning computer-assisted tools in their translation practice. Much dies and changes as we progress through time, but slang adds much to language and in the way people communicate. Times of Contempt (official English translation, literal translation: The Time of Disdain, early title was annouced as Times of Anger, original Polish Czas pogardy), written by Andrzej Sapkowski, first published in Poland in 1995, is the fourth book in the Witcher series and the second novel in the Witcher saga. Please use the comment section here as much as you want for questions, suggestions, or letting folks know about your personal experiences learning Spanish or dealing with English to Spanish translations. People in every country (including your own) are becoming "Westernized" like Americans because of the global communication methods such as satellite TV and international magazines where Americanism is prominently displayed as a rich lifestyle to desire when it is actually a starved and malnourished lifestyle of trying to fill one's life with material possessions and a party atmosphere to escape the reality that most Americans lack true love and true friendships.

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Demand also should be strong for translators of Arabic and other Middle Eastern languages; for the principal Asian languages including Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, and Korean; and for the indigenous languages from Mexico and Central America such as Mixtec, Zapotec, and Mayan languages. If some tourists were to visit South Africa, they must try and visit Santa Hospital next or the present hospitals that deal with TB to get a better picture of what I am talking about, as the reader is now informed, came around the time when Gold was found and Crown Mines and other mines were opened on the fringes of Johannesburg-and these man-made yellow mountains blueuniverse.rs of the extracted gold(which can still be recycled from that soil, although the government has stopped that practice)- today in South Africa. We specialize in high-volume and complex professional Italian translations, allowing us to have faster turnaround times and more competitive rates for large projects. Laura Chapman Hruska, 74, was an American lawyer, novelist, and co-founder and editor in chief of the Soho Press, died of cancer. The Spanish language is originated from the Vulgar Latin which was brought by the Romans during Punic Second War which started in 210 BC. Now, Spanish is spoken in almost 20 countries worldwide.

Knows not just Portuguese and Spanish, but 93 other languages as well. For professional , human translations in German get an instant free quote from our expert translators. But at this point and time we've been thoroughly enslaved by technology's technique, and made to self-iincacerate ourselves with, onto and within these techniques and technologies from what these companies offering these invisible Technologies and Techniques that they use to make people obey and then controlling them for gainful ends which we will be discussing specifically below, and generally throughout this hub. The elite class is responsible for the state Blue Universe agenicja za prevođenje of the African nation that we find ourselves in. Our children learn and copy from the habits we display and carry-on-when in their presence, and we send them to schools that do not reflect their people's values, cultures, customs, traditions, history and languages. The ‘official' (or for want of a less bureaucratic word, ‘recommended') Arabic translation of the Passport by Walid Nabhan is also on its way; the Arabic translation distributed in Zagreb was done by hand, spontaneously, by the mother of a student who came to the poetry workshops I gave in Saint-Claude, in the French Jura mountains, during the second week of May.

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Chaucer translated the Roman de la Rose” from French, and Boethius's works from Latin. Sheldon Gilgore, 77, American physician, President of Pfizer (1971-1986) and Searle (1986-1995), died of pancreatic cancer. When McLuhan, who coined the term "Global Village," talks of"The Extensions Of Man," he is referring to how n individual or society creates or makes use something that extends the human body or mind in an innovative way. It is estimated that native English speakers can recognise around 3,000 Spanish words. 1) In this example, I am going to ask my device to help me translate French words to English. Bonus Feature - Learn and Master the pronunciation as English Arabic Translator has in built audio feature. Now you can learn Arabic or English language at your convenience, while driving, playing games, in class, while on travel, while commuting to work, with friends, etc. It would be a pleasure for me to teach you Persian,Dari , Pushtu and English languages Via Skype. She personally translates or reviews all translations done by Gaucha Translations. Friends, I recommend your to use to translate any numbers to Russian and English languages. Thanks for reading my list of translations, commenting in my article, and pinning and sharing my Hub. They provide a cheap translation for clients while giving a fair pay rate to its translators.

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It's a fast-paced Italian world, and sometimes all you need is a quick English translation to get you up to speed. I know that for studying Ancient Near Eastern studies, eventually you would have to have a good command of French and German because a lot of the scholarly material is written in those languages. It is as funny as Mark Twain's translation and retranslation of his Jumping Frog, from English to French and back to English. Today, thousands of people from western countries such as USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and from most of European countries have already some Japanese Kanji symbols tattooed into their skin. As the mother tongue of 480 million people, Spanish is one of the world's most widely-spoken native languages. I have heard foreign-language speaking people talk about thinking in their native language before they translate. Veritas Language Solutions is going insolvent and I doubt any of the translators will receive money once higher ranking creditors have been paid. What I'm saying is, instead of trying to figure out which existing translation is most accurate, one can learn the languages, and of course the history, and do their own translation. Another thing, translating English to Arabic may have "corny" results i.e. the sentence may sound poetic with a deep meaning in English but very silly & childish in Arabic.

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His argument, in a nutshell, is that technology forms a mass of people, and conditions their essential humanity by restricting their freedom and displacing their responsibility. Anthony is a French translator who is also fluent in Arabic. Start applying it to your everyday life like change your all devices language setting from English to Spanish, start watching Spanish TV shows and serials, start reading or listening news in Spanish language, start learning about your favorite topic or subject in Spanish it will be fun to learn your favorite subject in Spanish language and it will your added advantage to know your favorite topic in two languages. For exceptional Spanish translation services, look no further than TransPerfect Blue Universe prevodilacka agenicja Translations. Let us say this is not true, it is mentioned in the bible that "the book is given to him who is not learned saying read this, and he says i am not learned." Not in those exact words but in the same meaning, mohamed is the only prophet in history to not be learned after the prophecy was revealed, and anyone who reads the story of prophet muhammad pbuh will know that this is him who is prophesized. I fell in love with them all over again and its all because of you translators. When we received the copy, there was no context at all, just the slogan and this sentence: Is it possible to have a few words translated into Spanish by Monday?,” followed by a request that we also translate the word small.

To support my argument, I will present several examples of the current media environments and personal experience, particularly in relation to music and music industries since music is one of the important mass cultural forms, representing current trends of peoples' mind and thinking. Without his work in the 1950s and '60s, there would be no field of study that sought to explain how the nuances and great sweeps of human history are made possible by media of communication—how media determine the thoughts and actions of people and society, in a soft” way. We know about it because we were at least, up to the coming of the Social Networks, reading books, listen to all types of different genre and good music and that has kept us as a "Sane Society' in this day and age. Then, tickled by curiosity, he read it and at the same time compared it with the previous translations. So long as Man Mind has existed, from the crude forms of mass mobilization to contemporary Meida technological mind control, it has always been the desire and aim of those who are rich, and have time to fine-tune and fine-chissel their distorted and concocted strategy of mass control to set and determine the final outcome, social arrangements and reality. John Carl Warnecke, 91, American architect (John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame), died of complications of pancreatic cancer.

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Groups: the Avvi’da Vina

here’s jost a rambly little post with some random information about a vampiric organization of scholars that seeks to gain recognition in broader elven society due to their history, a bit about one of the main speakers of that group, and some elaboration on their ideas and the complications of their politics and etc.  

~ General ~

The Avvi’da Vina (which literally translates to ‘children of ancient elves’ in avirrekava) are a small group of vampires/avirre’thel who wholly embrace the fact that they’re the most direct currently living ancestors of ancient elves (unlike most avirre’thel, who usually have a complicated, slightly negative view of their elven heritage, given that shortly after their deal with the demon they were exiled from the other elves and harassed by them for thousands of years so like.. of course they don’t tend to be.. very fond lol).  Members of the Avvi’da Vina firmly believe that the avirre’thel should still have a place within elven society, sometimes even moreso than any modern day elves. Their main reasoning for this is... (continued under the read more)

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1.  Despite species changes and cultural isolation, they really could just be considered.. a group of elves with a few species altering enchantments tacked onto them. At the end of the day, even with their modified anatomy and physical traits, they do still have elven blood and ancestry.

2. They are immortal, and thus many living vampires have more extensive knowledge/memory about the customs, culture, and lives of the ancient elven people than any modern elven society does (a few of the oldest living vampires even remember being in Fanyin before it was Fanyin, like 20,000 years ago when the first avirre’thel hadn’t even been kicked out of the area yet lol),  

3. Many ancient elven customs that have been lost to modern elves (especially those in the elven alliance that conform to the rules set by the organization) are still present in avirre’thel society today. Remnants of ancient elven culture are stronger in their society than in any other group, despite them widely not even being considered related to elves (though this is mostly due to misinformation)

and 4. Modern avirre’thel even look more similar to ancient elves and overall seem to have retained some of their most prominent features, which most modern elves have lost. Due to many factors (low fertility rates, immortality skewing the perception of time, etc.), the Avvire’thel mate and evolve much slower as a species (elves are born and then die off in a fairly stable and quick life cycle, usually only living a few hundred years, and traits can be passed on to new generations and promote an ever-changing and evolving species. The process of this for vampires is much much slower, though there are obviously new avirre’thel born every once in a while and they have been able to change some (though most of their species alterations have been deliberate through use of external magic, rather than natural change over time lol), relatively speaking they still have some pretty ancient blood, as they’re a rather stagnant population, and evolve on a much more drawn out time scale, if at all.) 

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The Avvi’da Vina don’t necessarily look up to ancient elven society (if anything, they’re one of it’s largest critics, as one of the only groups that at least remembers it (and it’s bad sides) somewhat accurately, unaffected by the propaganda and altered visions spread by the elven alliance), but they do still take a heavy interest in all elven culture and history, since they see it as their history as well, and feel they have an obligation to document information about their people, especially since they’re in a unique position to do so with their  rare historical connections. Many of them work as scholars and historians, traveling to ancient ruins, trying to preserve the old elven customs that still exist in vampiric society, locating historical texts, learning ancient elvish as a second or third language, etc. They also keep up extensively with modern elven societies and traditions, mostly to track how things have changed over time and look at how cultural customs have evolved (especially the dramatic transformation of the elven religion), as another one of their main goals is just to keep, as accurately as possible, a record of all of elven history.

  Which is kind of odd to consider, that a group of avirre’thel/vampires, literally the species MOST widely hated by elves (at least elves in the alliance/under the influence of the Fanyiniri) are also like.. arguably the foremost experts on elven society and it’s customs, traditions, architecture, language, etc. etc. (and also the other way around like, the Fanyiniri literally almost wiped out their entire species during the many wars they had but.. Avvi’da Vina are still, just bigg ole elf nerds (which is of course because they see themselves as elves rather than anything different but still lol)).

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Though they’ve made many attempts to gain influence in elven society and take what they see as their rightful position as members of the elven alliance or some other influential elven group**, the Avvi’da Vina haven’t made much progress in this area. They did manage once to get invited to speak briefly at an annual meeting of the alliance (despite extreme efforts by the Fanyiniri to keep them out entirely), to make a public case explaining why they should be allowed to join, but it soon became clear they were invited mostly as a joke amongst some of the higher ups, and pretty much just got mocked and threatened by the crowd, then escorted out by guards once the royals had gotten tired of trying to tease them (like it was intended to be a ‘yeah lmao lets invite them and just make fun of them until they cry and make them look really stupid and embarrass themselves while we publicly degrade them as punishment for their audacity to even think they could have a presence among us’ sort of thing, but after like.. fifteen minutes of them handling it fairly well despite being only two people standing alone in the center of a room being heckled by like hundreds of elves, staying composed and dodging trick questions and etc,  the leaders of the alliance just got agitated and had them sent away, since they were mostly failing to get the reaction they wanted out of them lol.. ).

** (despite them strongly disagreeing with like.. almost all current political ideals of countries and groups within the elven alliance, they still feel they should be a part of it, if anything especially so, to kind of reign them in and remind them of what their ancestors, which they claim to idolize so much, would have actually wanted. They still don’t support or condone the alliance at all, but do see themselves as in a unique position to appeal to them, as many elven societies (almost to an annoyingly obsessive degree) speak about the glory of the past, constantly praise and idealize elven history, etc. So they thought the alliance would be thrilled at the idea of welcoming a group with actual extensive knowledge and deeper connections to the ancient elves, but soon realized it was more complicated than that (that it may actually put them at a DISadvantage, as the alliance see them as a threat to the false version of history they’ve created, having people who can be like ‘No actually it didn’t happen like that, I was there’ is generally.. bad for their image lol) , despite these setbacks though, they still think they have some ground to stand on if they could convince the right people. Likewise, the Avvi’da Vina feel all elves should have a place at the alliance as well, not just themselves, and they usually believe that it could be reformed if an actual variety of elven voices were heard in the decisions made by the alliance (similar to the system of the vampiric council) , rather an only a select few. They feel either reforming or disbanding the alliance is absolutely necessary for the future of the elven people, and would like to be at the forefront of the efforts either way, though both options are...nearly impossibly difficult lmao)    

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The Avvi’da Vina are most well known for their work with ancient elven texts (or, mostly their bickering with the Elven Alliance just to get their hands on them in the first place lol), and deciphering of the old language. It’s a lot of detail to go into so I’ll be brief about it here, but there were multiple forms of ancient elven writing, primarily a Fancy method, used only for important documentations (poetry, religious texts, often historical records of anything considered too significant to be written ‘simply’), and then a ‘simple’ script that was in everyday use among the people (and a few others but those were the main two). The Fancy method came first and was kind of the original writing system, the ‘simple’ form only came into use later once more of the population became literate.  For a majority of elven history, things were ONLY written down if they were really important (everything else was conveyed through song, stories, using rhymes to help remember things, etc.), and you had to ask special religious leaders/scribes to do it for you. 

( “Fancy” ancient elven is also kind of like, logographs, or more detailed lines and pictures which represent whole words/phrases/concepts, whereas the ‘simple’ writing system developed later by scribes for broader use is more of a syllabary (with characters only representing sounds), similar to what’s used in modern elven, and Avirrekava. Because it was so detailed though, it took a LOT longer to write and was kind of like an artistic labor rather than just something you could scratch down quickly.)

Additionally, the ancient elven writing system and language are, at least by modern standards, pretty vague. Much of it is context or ‘current’ culture dependent, usually possible to interpret in many different ways with various implications, where it’s kind of one of those “you just had to be there at the time” sort of things (like someone who doesn’t use tumblr looking at a vaguely phrased internet meme, and since they weren’t steeped in that culture for whatever thing is being referenced, they take the wording literally, or misunderstand it, since the underlying implications go over their heads). You just sort of had to live within the culture at the time to understand how certain words were combined and why, the tone conveyed by choosing one word over another, etc. Especially since it was often quite flowery and artistic language, as it was just as much a form of art as it was record keeping.

( Like for example, a sentence could, in a literal sense, be: ‘(word for a grouping of living beings, typically people not animals) (word for sickness/illness) (word for rain) (word for sun)’ - but then that could be translated as “Everyone was sick but then they weren’t anymore after the passing of time (as implied by rain turning to sun)”, “Everyone is sick with an illness CAUSED by the cycle of rain and sun”, “Everyone gets sick sometimes, but this will pass, as all things do, just like all rain turns to sun”, “People are sick and the way to treat it is related to weather/rain/sun”, “Everyone, if you feel sick, you should take a warm bath (water (rain) which is hot (like the sun)” , + like 10 other possible meanings lol.. )

ANYWAY, all this background to say, SINCE there are a handful of Avirre’thel still living that either were actually alive during the time that  ancient elven was still prominently used (the later end of the era at least), or their parents/grandparents were (and could teach them), older Avirre’thel are thought to have much better insight on ancient elven translation than any other group. Of course, especially with even older VERY ancient texts, the Avirre’thel don’t know everything and since stuff is so vague it can still be hard to know the true meaning, but they at least have an advantage and more personal experience with the language than others would have. While the language is.. reasonably accessible (in the sense of info about it being decently documented) and any scholar with a few years of study could translate it literally from a book or something, much of the true meanings or more subtle implications have been lost. There’s often a lot of room for misinterpretation (especially if interpreting something a certain way would suit someone’s political agenda *cough* elven alliance *cough*), or lack of general context, even if the very literal simple knowledge of it is there...

SO, part of the work the Avvi’da Vina really spend a lot of resources focusing on (as Avirre’thel who fully embrace their ancient elven ancestry and wish to engage with the old culture, share it, etc. as much as possible) is tracking down old elven texts, creating and spreading their own personal translations (using the Avirre’thel’s unique cultural knowledge of the era), attempting to interpret documents that are thought to be too vague/too old/indecipherable, etc. 

Especially since the Alliance wants to be The Number One Source Of All Things Elven, and will kind of gatekeep old texts and artifacts, hiding them away in secret libraries and only giving their own public interpretations of info, and the Avvi’da Vina are kind of focused on uniting all elves and wanting to share an accurate honest open history with everyone, they also sort of see it as a mission to steal documents from the Alliance (or just beat them to it, if some new ruin is discovered or something), translate them themselves with better background knowledge, and then publish that version for free to the people and any elf who’d like to read it (even allowing them to see the original writing for comparison), rather than them having to jump through hoops with the Alliance just to so much as gain access to their Officially Declared Interpretations, which likely are not even very accurate.

(this is part of why the Alliance has lowkey beef with them, even though the Avvi’da Vina are such a small niche group that a massive multinational organization like the Elven Alliance wouldn’t bother with them, the Avvi’da Vina do essentially just follow them around like ‘Actually, You Are Wrong! : )’. Like, the alliance will make some announcement like “New ancient religious texts have been discovered, come to your local shrine and pay a small sum of money to gain access to our Official Translations of what they say!”,  etc.. then like a week and a half later the Avvi’da Vina are like “what’s up everyone, we hired a shapeshifting jhevona spy to steal the documents and have translated them ourselves, as usual the alliance are WRONG as hellll lmaooooo, here’s what it actually says and we’re going to mass print our translations, give them out for free, go to local elven cities and spread the word, and also just hmu if you want to see the original texts in person because we have them now LOL” . 

So though the Alliance has a policy to (at least publicly) ignore their existence, you can still tell the Avvi’da Vina have gotten under their skin, since they keep putting new measures in place to prevent them from sharing information with the public, ban suspected Avvi’da Vina members from openly traveling to Alliance countries (not directly of course, since they won’t openly acknowledge the group, but the guards of cities have certain ~~suspicious things~~ to look for (like arresting any Avirre’thel seen distributing pamphlets, or speaking anything that sounds like  ancient elvish, or talking to groups of interested looking elves as if they’re explaining something to them, etc..  but then they’d tell them like “Oh, we just arrested you for uh.. like.. um... you know.. loitering? yeah... anyway please get out of the city.”) , etc. etc.

  Luckily, they are received much better by their own government.  The council of Navyete sees them as very useful and various higher ranking (which really just means they’ve studied more) members of the Avvi’da Vina regularly serve as advisors to council members any time a law or issue relevant to the elves is being discussed, due to their expertise in the area, and especially their ability to translate both ancient and modern elvish texts. In return for assisting the council, they often just ask for.. nerd stuff.. like access to connections in foreign governments so they can gain passage into old ruins, or allowances of money they’ll put towards research, etc. Which of course, the council is happy to oblige. Though most avirre’thel are less enthusiastic about their connections to the elves, they at least are genuinely curious about history, and politically often promote the pursuit of any new knowledge, since it’s something that is generally valued in their culture, even if it’s knowledge that happens to be about something most people wouldn’t be invested in lol. 

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~ Idanya ~ 

Idanya Vashesi (person in all the images above since.. I needed something to draw so this isn’t just a plain wall of text, so I thought a minor focus on a prominent member of the Avvi’da Vina would be something quick to sketch lol) isn’t the leader of the group, nor the one who originally founded it, but she is currently seen kind of as the face of the organization. On top of being a high ranking expert in a broad range of elven studies, she specializes in communication, and serves as their primary representative and speaker (she’s one of the two members who had the pleasure of standing in front of the elven alliance and getting mocked that one time). She overall has the most outside interactions with alliance elves, and is quite persistent in always trying to get them to hear her out or have her group invited to things, even if 99.9% of the time she’s just rudely refused or harassed. 

She has however made many strong connections with the scattered groups of elves that exist outside of the alliance, and is one of the Avvi’da Vina members that most regularly travels to speak with them about elven things. Though sometimes she faces hostilities from them (usually over them having different sets of information, like her telling them something about ancient elves that they refuse could ever be true, etc.), most elven cities and groups outside of the alliance find it refreshing to have a source of more accurate information about their history and culture that hasn’t been tainted by the influence of the alliance (though they obviously may be initially skeptical about what they perceive as an outsider coming in claiming to have information about them, after a while of speaking they usually can tell it’s legit and not just some random weirdo showing up who doesn’t know what they’re talking about lol) . Many non-allied elves are somewhat separated from broader elven society and have had certain  information hidden from them by the Main Alliance Elves Who Try To Control All Elven Stuff, so they usually welcome Idanya and the other Avvi’da Vina as allies. There have even been many discussions about the Avvi’da Vina and other various non-alliance elven groups starting an alliance of their own, rather than merely trying to gain recognition from the main alliance to reform them from within, but currently the main elven alliance holds too much power and many fear this would be immediately seen as a threat, which would likely start wars and other conflicts that none of them would be prepared to handle. 

Thus, she’s still never going to give up trying to get into the main elven alliance and have her people recognized officially as fellow elves lol.. it’s like.. her life’s challenge at this point. She’s such a good speaker she could convince just about anyone of anything, so the fact that the alliance elves just dismiss her and never listen to her is like.. One Day.. It Will Be Over For You Silly Bastards.. she WILL continue nagging you until she meets her goals and has her opinions heard and respected.. she is immortal.. she will outlive all of you.. generations of elven royalty will come and go and there she will be.. showing up to the same damn place for the 6,000th time, as perky and suave and well spoken as ever like “Hey! Ready to let me in yet? ; ) " lmao

--

~ Controversy among their fellow Avirre’thel ~

Like mentioned, most Avirre’thel don’t see themselves as elven, and have developed a strong sense of pride as a distinct species ( if your own people cast you out and reject you, one common response is ‘allright fuck you then, we’ll do our own thing.. die mad about it bitch’, which is certainly the position that the avirre’thel took in their early days as a newly formed society lol) , but they also don’t make much attempt to refute the efforts of the Avvi’da Vina, since like.. everything they claim is still.. technically factually valid so... Most avirre’thel’s view of the organizations’ philosophy is basically just:  “Well... you’re not WRONG.. I guess.. I personally wouldn’t interpret it that way though, but like.. do your thing I suppose, you funky little elf nerds”. 

The main arguments that other avirre’thel raise against the Avvi’da Vina’s views are probably - 

1. Obviously the Avirre’thel, despite maybe technically yes being the closest living descendants to the ancient elves, can’t actually BE elves, since they can’t mate with elves and are very obviously and scientifically classified as a separate species, and thus don’t need to be a part of broader elven society.

(which the Avvi’da Vina counter with  the fact that there are some subspecies of elves that are considered elves but have evolved to no longer be able to mate with certain types of elves, yet they haven’t had their classification as elves revoked. Their species is going to be a bit more complicated, since avirre’thel were created by magical interference by an ancient jhevona rather than evolving naturally, of course they’re going to be in a unique situation genetically, but in every other sense (culturally, etc.) should be considered elven. (and also: maybe they can’t mate with CURRENT evolution of elves, but could the mate with ANCIENT elves if they were still around?? Because of how genetically similar they still are to them? Perhaps. Maybe they could still mate with certain types of elves, it’s just that currently they’re the only “ancient elven blood” still around))

and 2.  The Avvire’thel are a historically extremely isolated species (mostly due to becoming more reclusive after aggression from the elves),  their societies have developed so separately, it doesn’t make any sense to attempt to “rejoin” them now, after 20,000 years of little contact and both becoming extremely different groups, even if they share the same origins. 

( which the Avvi’da Vina counter with the position that,  if anything, the fact that both cultures have evolved so separately is more of a reason to be welcome amongst elves, as with their immortality,  vampiric society is basically an ancient elven society almost frozen in time, and that it would be best to cooperate and learn from each other, and for elves to be able to connect with parts of their history and tradition which were assumed lost but have been preserved within the small isolated species of the Avirre’thel. )

They face some other points of opposition, but those are the main issues people usually take. But again, generally most people view them as strange and a bit odd for being so interested in elven stuff, but not harmful. The only groups of  avirre’thel that have ever been aggressive towards the Avvi’da Vina are like.. small fringe anti-elf groups, mostly the occasional older vampires who lived way back when avirre’thel would still traditionally cut the points of their ears off just to remove association with the elves and etc., which usually is a pretty rare viewpoint in modern day, even for elders. 

Though Avirre’thel society has made a lot of efforts to have a nuanced view on elves (especially in situations like with the Fanyniri, where it’s largely the government committing terrible acts and not the population (who mostly live in prisons and have no rights so like.. not much say at all in what their government does), thus the people themselves shouldn’t be hated/punished), due to the history of mistreatment and the sheer amount of anti-vampiric propaganda that’s pervasively spread throughout allied elves (and reached even some groups outside of the main alliance), many Avirre’thel are  understandably skeptical about attempting to forge any sort of relationship with broader elven society, especially those in the alliance. But the Avvi’da Vina have very strongly assured the council that the organization’s efforts to be accepted as elven and have a say in elven politics won’t interfere with the Avvire’thel species as a whole. They basically just want to have a seat on the alliance, and enough respect to share their knowledge and have their ideas heard, but they’re not attempting to literally integrate their societies together or speak on behalf of the citizens of Navyete and make huge international deals with elven nations or anything like that.  They really just want to represent themselves and have their species be respected for what they are. So for now at least, their group is seen as harmless to most avirre’thel and they’re allowed to continue seeking alliance with the elves and etc., since the people of Navyete and the council don’t see their actions as really bringing any risk or consequences against the species**. (and again, even if other Avirre’thel disagree with their overall philosophy, they are still widely respected as historical experts and etc., so the public’s view of them  isn’t that negative).

(** however, if the Avvi’da Vina did ever like.. follow through with some of the talk about allying with non-alliance elves and starting an alliance of their own that stands in opposition to the main elven alliance, the vampiric council and citizens of Navyete may have to sever ties with them, or even actively step in to try to stop them, because that would very very likely start some type of war, and with Fanyin (one of the overall most powerful elven countries in the alliance) being right next to Navyete, they would absolutely not be comfortable with possibly having a repeat of the old conflicts with the elves. Especially if their own people were involved in starting this alliance (thus provoking the main allied elves), it’s almost certain that even if the non-alliance elven groups were the main ones leading the idea, the avirre’thel would get the brunt of the damage and would immediately become the main target, at least of the Fanyiniri, since they.. would never miss a chance to randomly scapegoat the avirre’thel and find any reason to try to wipe them out again. So depending on their next moves, the Avvi’da Vina do have the potential to be significantly more controversial, and possibly lose all support they’ve had from their own species, but for now, it still stands that most avirre’thel are cool with the little group of elf nerds lol

Also idk where to fit this into the text so I’ll just put it here lol. There are about 250 members of the Avvi’da Vina currently. They are a reasonably well known group and there would probably be more members, if it weren’t for the contentious nature of the idea that the Avirre’thel should be recognized as elves. Because of their culture’s focus on stuff like history and education, there are probably a lot of fellow Nerds out there in the general vampiric population that would love to join the group and get to do stuff like visit old elven ruins and learn alongside experts of ancient elven knowledge and etc., but most probably can’t reconcile the organization’s broader goals, and reject it respectfully on principle. If they ever dropped the whole ‘we believe we should be recognized as elves and are actually elves not our own distinct species’ thing though and just became like, an elven historical and modern cultural studies society, their member numbers would dramatically rise lmao. Most avirre’thel just aren’t comfortable calling themselves elven though. 

-

and that’s all for this.. random topic I woke up at like 5am to write about. I tried to organize this so it’s not as rambly stream of consciousness but bhbbb.. hopefully it’s comprehensible 

#worldbuilding #avirre'thel #elves #also I guess.. though idk if I should use irithoas instead.. since i always just call them elves #I like to have my own names for species (hence moving away from 'vampires' and into just using 'avvire'thel) but also I don't want #to introduce TOO many random new names and words to the point thay nobody reading has any idea who or what I'm referring to #without first having 5 layers of brackground knowledge so i like.. try to use common terms like 'elf' instead too ...hmm'st #anyhow.. a new post.. finally.. I write like 2 new world information posts a day but ... i hardly ever actually finish them and polish them #off to the point of being able to post lol.. it takes forever to organize and proofread everything

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHERE TO LEARN

Some will be justified and some bogus, but unless you know the relative proportion of each, you don't get told what to do. The secret to finding other press hits from a given pitch is to realize that they all started from the same document back at the PR firm to get her some interviews. In a good startup founder down to two words: relentlessly resourceful. That's a completely different kind of selling. The least ambitious way of approaching the problem is usually artificial and predetermined. Easy, compared to college, but boring. There's something that needs to happen first.

Better journalism is actually slightly cheaper. There's plenty of empirical evidence: armies, religious cults, and so are slack about reaching profitability, which further decreases their chances of raising more money. I realized these tests existed after meeting Sam Altman, actually. Then they'll pay big time. You never have to pretend to. They all just did the right thing. Don't worry if something you want to do.

Another way to make a lot of people think we get thousands of applications for each funding cycle. So the best thing you can do to drive prices down. It was not so easy 25 years ago for an ambitious person to choose to be judged directly by the market? In the real world: they're small; you get to start from the other side by VCs who'd invested at high valuations, leaving an IPO as the only way forward is through doing what you love. If our competitor had done that, the default way to make a weak-willed person stronger-willed. That's actually much harder than it sounds—almost impossibly hard in fact—because business guys can't tell which are the good programmers. At the bottom of the heap are the trade press, who make most of their money from advertising and would give the magazines away for free if advertisers would let them.

Then you can measure what credentials merely predict. 6 percent more productive. But even failure will get you the most revenue the soonest. In 1997 I got a call from another startup founder considering hiring them to promote his company. I don't think there's much you can do, if you want to get into grad school, you'll find a lot of people think we get thousands of applications for each funding cycle. A good flatterer doesn't lie, but tells his victim selective truths what a nice color your eyes are. If you don't understand her, you don't have a good idea in the first place; if we could handle the detail, we could quote it to other publications, and claim that with 1000 users we had 20% of the online store market, and 5000 was our best guess at its size. I'm inclined to think there isn't—that good design requires a dictator. And the pages don't have the monopoly on power they once did, precisely because they operate without any conscious choice.

Of course, what shows up on the fly. The problem with VC funds is that they're funds. I realize it sounds preposterously ambitious for a startup to try to do it mean she tends to get written out of YC's history. This was particularly true in consulting, law, and finance, where it led to the phenomenon of yuppies. Though they may have useful insights. If anyone is dishonest, it's the classic villain: alternately cowardly, greedy, sneaky, and overbearing. In the best case, this consultingish work may not be determined enough to make things go your way except in a few mostly uninteresting domains. But what this means, as everyone who's had a regular job, and they all said they'd prefer to hire someone who'd tried to start a startup, is start a consulting business you can then gradually turn into a product business. This lets them do a kind of axiom from which most of the holes are. There was no reason you couldn't have done that in the back of their minds, they know it. Being lead developer of a popular open source project counts almost as much. Maybe there would be practical limits on the number of people with the necessary skills.

There are other 19 year olds who are 12 inside. Why is it that research can be done by bad programmers is choosing the wrong platform. You don't pitch stories to them. You may be able to test in an hour, then spend a week cranking up the resolution. In retrospect that seems ridiculous, and we were paying the piper. A sinecure is, in effect, is leaks in a seal. Poetry is as much music as text, so you should a consciously shift gears, instead of assuming you can rely on your intuitions as you ordinarily would, and b Microsoft's agenda consisted of stuff they weren't good at. In this case the instruments are the users. Fortunately there's a better way of preventing it than the credentials the left are forced to fall back on.

Then you'll have to write code to close a certain deal, go ahead; that follows from everyone working on selling. And yet when I describe these ideas you may notice you find yourself shrinking away from them. And one of the most important things you can understand about startups. But you never have to exert anything like that much force in the course of working honestly on hard problems is not, by itself, enough. Now that we know what we're looking for in metaphors. Europeans didn't introduce formal civil service exams till the nineteenth century, and even then you don't make much from it, because that is at this point the default outcome. A lot of the professors believed or at least wished that computer science was a branch of math. They want to be spending all your time talking to investors while your competitors are spending theirs building things. Now it's possible to be too disciplined.

Thanks to Jackie McDonough, Robert Morris, Eric Raymond, Sam Altman, and Daniel Giffin for the lulz.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #Altman #problem #instruments #villain #someone #armies #people