#my standards are a lot higher than they were 6 years ago... but also there's extra pressure because i'm posting these | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dwtsfun · 10 months

Text

Dancing with the Stars Season 4 Week 4 Rewatch

Laila and Maks- Paso Doble (Judges' Score=21, My Score=7)- The judges kinda ripped this dance apart with their comments, but it was actually pretty good. I think the biggest problem here is that Laila just wasn't as strong as you would expect for her to be, considering that she's a boxer and a fierce competitor in the ring. And in the paso, you need that fierceness.

Apolo and Julianne- Waltz (Judges' Score=26, My Score=8)- Hmm. This was good. But I have to agree with Len here. There was bad footwork. He was doing that weird pitter patter thing that celebs tend to do when they do any of the waltzes. One thing I remember about this season was them asking Laila about being the last woman standing and I'm realizing that they are holding the women to a much higher standard than they do with the men. I saw the same issue during season 3 and Monique talked about it as well. Bruno gave Apolo a pass with many of his issues because he's a skater. But Laila didn't get that same pass and she's a boxer. It's just very interesting to watch this nowadays (race plays a big role in this as well).

Leeza and Tony- Paso Doble (Judges' Score=16, My Score=5)- Mm. Okay. Leeza's biggest issue was front and center here. She is very cautious. It was not performed well at all. It lacked any sort of attack. She moved way too small. She was holding back. The actual execution of the steps was fine. But everything else was not good. I just really wanna sit in on Tony's rehearsals. The majority of his partners have this same exact issue and I want to know how he teaches people how to perform, if he even does it at all. Even the good ones have this issue, they're just more capable. The only 2 I remember that didn't have this problem were Stacy and Nene. And Nene only ever started performing like Nene after she got paired with Derek for switch up week. So yeah, I really wanna know how he teaches.

Ian and Cheryl- Waltz (Judges' Score=24, My Score=8)- Cheryl said that Ian was her least favorite partner a few years ago (amongst some other pretty nasty things about him) and I could kinda see some of her frustration right at the beginning of this package. Ian seems to be a perfectionist and slightly obsessive and Cheryl was not even 23 at the time. So it might've just been hard for her to handle someone like that at such a young age. Anyway, I liked this dance. I think it was Ian's best so far. He is a bit stiff and robotic when he dances. And it is strange to see it come through in the waltz. But CAI hit the nail on the head. He does not breathe when he dances. And it really shows. If he were to just chill out, he would be SO much better.

John and Edyta- Paso Doble (Judges' Score=16, My Score=5)- Yeah, so I was going to score this a 6 at the beginning until John really started dancing. And I was like "oh, this is not good." It lacked style. It lacked finesse. It lacked technique. And the actual performance was just kinda off as a whole. Yeah, this was his worst dance to date.

Clyde and Elena- Waltz (Judges' Score=15, My Score=6)- I don't think this was as good as Clyde's quickstep, but I believe his posture improved a lot this week. I do think that he's trying. I don't think the judges were right about that. Dance doesn't seem like it just comes easily to him. This why I say race comes into play too. A lot of people always talk about how difficult they are with the women while completely ignoring how much nastier they all get when the contestant is also Black.

Billy Ray and Karina- Paso Doble (Judges' Score=21, My Score=6)- Imma just say this. Len gave this a 7 and this was given a 21 in order to make a point. The dance deserved no more than an 18. And it is offensive to every couple there that he got a 21 because he tried. Why didn't anyone else get a higher score because they tried? I hate when they do this. And this is no shade to Billy. I like him a lot. But there were so many issues. Props to Karina for really getting Billy to this level of dancing though. That has been a feat.

Heather and Jonathan- Waltz (Judges' Score=23, My Score=8)- This was actually my favorite dance from Heather so far. I think it was so gorgeous. Heather moved really well. Jonathan has also been doing a great job with the choreography. One of the biggest issues is her head gets out of line with the rest of her body. I thought it was way better than their jive and on the same level (better honestly) than their mambo.

Joey and Kym- Paso Doble (Judges' Score=28, My Score=9)- Yeah. This was the dance of the night. Joey and Kym killed this. The posture was so much better. His butt was finally all the way under. He performed it so well. It was almost perfection. I just felt like his hands were distracting at some points.

My Rankings and Scores Out of 30:

1 Joey and Kym- 27 2 Apolo and Julianne- 24 = Ian and Cheryl- 24 = Heather and Jonathan- 24 5 Laila and Maks- 22 6 Billy Ray and Karina- 18 7 Clyde and Elena- 17 8 Leeza and Tony- 16 9 John and Edyta- 15

So I already spoke about some of the issues with judging this week. I don't need to go over them again. Just know that I don't agree with most of the scores from the judges. Leeza and John were the bottom 2, as they should've been and Leeza was given the boot. I'm not shocked. It makes sense. It would've been nice to see her stay, but I don't think she could've given us another gear. That's it. Let me know your thoughts and I will talk to you all soon.

3 notes · View notes

foreverformula1 · 1 year

Text

Why do motorsport personalities (drivers in particular) and celebrities in general still shade other celebrities/Motorsport personalities on their social media comments when they know that it’s unnecessary and will bring with one of them if not both hate?

The comment “F” was unnecessary and lame, I wouldn’t be too offended if I were Lance Stroll and it happens to all drivers anyway (although he is being picked at since he entered the league) but it still wasn’t an opinion wrote in a personal page of his with more than 1 letter.

Comments like this , nowadays make me believe that the disrespect is higher than what I imagined a year or even only 6 months ago. The mentality to comment them must be small because they have no purpose other than to publicly throw shade. I guess, it gets me because he’s in F3 and knows better also for his own image and career’s sake meanwhile non famous people seem to unfortunately be so comfortable to do it often.

Because if I have to be frank, I now believe that taking people/things for granted and acting stupid is a form of disrespect and even weakness and a sign of low IQ. (For all my Girlbosses with high standards out there)

Or maybe it’s because I have developed and reinforced once again my morals and I am stricter and genuinely offended by small lame mentalities.

He’s not the first and hopefully he will be the last to comment such things on anyone. I actually believe that sometimes the issue relies on the fact that maybe the drivers forget to switch to their private accounts to make these snarky remarks because

Public figure or not, these things should be kept to themselves. It’s all about internet etiquette. A lot of people need it also in other fandoms etc.

Even if he were right, it wasn’t the place to comment that at all. Maybe in a comment section under a post of LS not being a good driver it would have been far more appropriate.

I don’t even feel anything against Collet, I just feel “Meh,lame”. I am just unbothered. I just wanted to express this topic of lame snarky comments in general.

I do not believe that Caio Collet should get punished any way for this. He knows (I think) that he can be better and let’s hope he grows up. I personally believe that we can all just move on with our lives in complete peace and let CC hopefully regret his decision and better himself. Same thing for basically everyone else who ever commented such things. I just believe it was a childish mistake and he shouldn’t have it held on him for longer than a day or 3 maximum.

(Not if we were dating though, Orange flag then-the irony of me never dating nor having any romantic handholding or being asked out/ask out on dates but having the mentality of a high value woman anyway)

~ Regardless of how much you like Lance Stroll or not.

~ Yes, this would be valid with Grosjean and Mazepin even.

#formula 1 #f1 #formula one #mine #caio collet #lance stroll #aston martin f1 #aston martin cognizant f1 team

4 notes · View notes

hakesbros · 1 year

Text

Albuquerque Neighborhood On Edge After Multiple Shootings At Homes, Autos

ABQnews Seeker Selling and shopping for used catalytic converters ... Selling and buying used catalytic converters in Albuquerque is about to require a lot more paperwork. Rently’s options enhance the entire leasing cycle for each renters and real estate operators. I paid $282k for my home within the NE heights which is a fixer higher homes for sale in albuquerque new mexico. And I bought it 5 years ago earlier than the rise in costs. I purchased a 2500 sq. foot home with a three automotive storage within the NE heights near Academy and Wyoming for $279k in 2015 at four.25% curiosity (with a reasonably old roof, a swamp cooler, and an old 85% AFUE furnace).

Albuquerque is a bus city by way of and through, and its glorious ABQ RIDE system is one of the best and most affordable way to get round. It operates routes in the entire city’s neighborhoods and even has a direct bus path to the airport. Fares start at just $1 a ride, but the $2 to $6 all-day cross gives you the most effective bang on your buck. Meanwhile, the New Mexico Rail Runner Express hyperlinks Albuquerque to the cities of Santa Fe and Belen.

So if you are ready to reap the advantages of each alternative that this market has to offer. Call us at present and work with a real native actual estate skilled. In addition, share our technique for helping you reach them with homes for sale albuquerque out pulling your hair out in the course of. The typical Albuquerque house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms and measures about 1,500 square ft on average. Spacious entrance lawns usually come standard, as do big bedrooms, fashionable kitchens, and premium finishes like granite counter tops.

I think the final time I checked there were 2 wrecked homes (one clearly labeled "unsuitable for residence in present state" or something) that weren't overpriced for someone making my wage. All that to say, our homes are ~7% lower than the US average, with earnings at ~8% lower new home builders in albuquerque than the US average. It may be very slightly harder to buy a home in ABQ than it's within the US on average. For what I would say is the next than average quality of life.

Days on market from itemizing to contract is thirteen on average. Albuquerque International Sunport is served by eight main airlines and 4 regional airlines providing nonstop service to over 20 main cities together with Chicago, New York, Dallas, and Atlanta. Albuquerque is the biggest metropolis in New Mexico with a population of over 564,000 within the metropolis and over 916,000 individuals in the new homes albuquerque metropolitan space. The median value per square foot of Condos/Townhomes in Albuquerque, NM was 179 in May 2022, in comparability with 176 in 2021. In addition to homes in Albuquerque, there have been also one hundred eighty condos, 1 townhouse, and 48 multi-family units for sale in Albuquerque last month. The 311 Community Contact Center is a centralized name heart for the City of Albuquerque.

A 10% down payment would need a qualifying income of $74,000 to afford a house in the metropolis of just over 46,000.The median sale worth for homes within the Duke City was just over $248,000 in 2020. But one other worth enhance would comply with.In 2022, that median worth was as a lot as $336,600 in Albuquerque. That was slightly behind Q3 2022, which saw the median sale price for Albuquerque at $339,500.Over those two years of sales, median home sale prices have went up 32.8%. Those looking homes for sale in albuquerque nm to purchase a home at a 5% or 10% down payment would wish to satisfy a qualifying revenue commonplace.An Albuquerque employee would wish to earn slightly above six-figures to afford a 5% down payment. However, Albuquerque just isn't the one New Mexico metropolis that has seen home price increased.This vital enhance in pricing dates back to the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Nothing can kill the house sale like an overpriced, inflated number.

#real estate #albuquerque

0 notes

brews-and-pubs · 2 years

Text

Bullfinch Brewpub, Syracuse NY

2 November 2022

I'm on my way to Ohio for a long weekend of R&R and decided once again to do a half-day's drive to Syracuse before continuing to my destination. I've even been to the Destiny USA Mall here, visiting the World of Beer a couple of years ago. But now there's a new brewpub in town and it's also in this large mall.

Bullfinch is a family-owned craft brewery with a farm as well, so all the food is farm-to-table. The attention to detail definitely shows! As to the space they're in, I almost wonder whether they took over a different establishment's spot as it reminds me an awful lot of a chain of brewpubs I've been to in other places ...

I started off with a flight of four which I'll describe from left-to-right:

Find Familiar FEST - this is an Amber Lager at 5.8% that is their nod to Oktoberfest. It was interesting -- not outstanding in any way, but by its subtlety, perhaps the best of the lot. It was definitely one I could have repeated.

Modify Memory - a NEIPA at 8%, they bill this as "pushing the bounds of hoppy bitterness," but I didn't find that to be the case at all. Instead, the higher alcohol content provided a sweetness that, combined with the NEIPA flavors, made this a very well-balanced brew. Even though I'm not always a fan of the higher ABV beers, this was easily my favorite of the four.

Fog Cloud - another NEIPA, but only 6.5% this time, this was very good, but honestly, it was so much like every other very good NEIPA out there. In spite of how much I liked it, I wouldn't have done a second simply because I could get this taste at many brewpubs throughout the Northeast.

Insight Czech - this Czech Pilsner at 6% started out as my favorite of the flight but ended up my least favorite. Why? I'm still not sure, but something about it didn't wear well with me -- it seemed too edgy in the end almost as if it were being served before its time.

Their food menu is not huge but everything sounded so good. I fell for the Reuben which they make with brisket (and yes, that sealed the deal!). Rather than the standard chips, I decided it wouldn't hurt me to have a side salad, which I ordered with Bleu Cheese dressing as usual ... and the salad then came with a liberal sprinkling of crumbled Bleu Cheese in addition to what was in the dressing! The brisket was so tender and tasty; my only complaint would be that I had to use my knife and fork for the sandwich, but that's a real nit-picky complaint. The taste was just marvelous and the last bite was every bit as good as the first (and that can't be said about a lot of restaurant food).

At this point, I really debated what to do for a follow-on pint. I was so tempted to repeat one of the selections from the flight but I was also glad I didn't because otherwise I would have missed out on this beauty:

That's their Hex Hefe, a traditional German-style Hefeweizen at 5.2%. I don't always like this style, but this one was so flavorful and true to the German traditions that I was really glad to close out this visit with it.

I'm not a fan of Syracuse in general, but if I find myself back in this area again - and I most likely will - I'll definitely plan a return to Bullfinch.

0 notes

creacherkeeper · 3 years

Text

cw discussion of antisemitism, long post

so a few weeks ago a new study came out about modern antisemitic attitudes in america across the political spectrum. i thought it had a lot of good information in it that a lot of non-jewish people probably wouldnt know, so i wanted to summarize some of the key points on here

i appreciate any signal boosting. here is the study to check out as well (which of course means i cant really tag this with anything. it will only be found through sharing!)

they surveyed 3500 people (mostly 18-30) and had them self-identify on political descriptors, right vs left wing (on a 7 point scale), race, and education

they looked at antisemitism that displays as assumptions of jewish disloyalty to home country, claims of jewish power, mental tying of jews and israel, and "double standards" or "litmus tests" of holding jews to different standards than other minorities and marginalized groups

they based their questions on the definition of antisemitism from the international holocaust remembrance alliance, and the obama-era department of state definition. they also surveyed jewish people who largely agreed that the things they were studying were antisemitic

their hypothesis going in was that right-wing, left-wing, and minority groups hold different antisemitic views, based on their own perception of jews as an out-group

findings:

for their measure of "overt antisemitism" they provided three statements:

jews are more loyal to israel than to america

it is appropriate for opponents of israel's policies and actions to boycott jewish american owned businesses in their communities

jews in the united states have too much power

having a priming prompt about jews having favorable views towards israel did not change the results significantly

those who identified with far left were least likely to agree with the overt antisemitic statements (but about 10% of furthest left agreed with the loyalty and boycotting statements)

right and far-right identifiers who were over 31 years old were significantly less likely to agree with the statements than right and far right who were 18-30

on the questions about power and boycotting, young adults agreed more often than older adults (indicating stronger out-group prejudice)

in both age groups, black americans were more likely to agree with the statements than white americans. young latine people were more likely to agree than white respondents, but 31+ latine respondents were not (the study uses latino but i am using latine here for gender neutrality and screen reader access)

people who self-identified as "progressive" were least likely to agree, and those who self-identified as "alt-right" were most likely

college students agreed with the antisemitic statements in higher numbers, but further analysis showed it was right-leaning college students

black and latine respondents agreed more than white respondents across the political spectrum. the highest percentage of agreement with at least one statement, and the highest number of agreed statements, from any group was from conservative latine respondents (with around 90% in agreement and an average of agreeing to 2 of the statements)

black respondents and white respondents who self identified as the far right tended to agree in similar numbers

the study then, for people who agreed with the statement that jews have too much power, where asked in what domains they believed this to be true. they could chose one or more of:

1) the israel/palestine conflict, 2) news media, 3) entertainment, 4) US domestic policies, 5) finance, and 6) agricultural production

the assumption was that racial minorities who agreed with the antisemitic statement would be more likely to only choose the domain of israel/palestine, associating jews with israel which they view as an oppressive power. however, none of the groups surveyed chose only the israel/palestine conflict by itself even 10% of the time

more respondents chose that jews have too much power in agricultural production (something that, as far as the study is aware, has never been associated with jews) than ONLY chose israel/palestine

liberals 18-30 were the LEAST likely to choose ONLY israel/palestine

in no studied group was israel/palestine the most common answer chosen

young adult respondents (both liberals and conservatives) most commonly chose "news media"

older adults most commonly chose "finance"

they also studied double standards and litmus tests - basically that jews are held responsible for foreign powers in a way that other marginalized and minority groups are not

they asked the question:

in order to participate in social justice activism, [jewish americans/muslim americans] should unequivocally denounce [israel's/muslim countries'] crimination against [non-jews/non-muslims]

in both age groups, around 40% of liberals believed jews should denounce israel, and less (around 30%) believed the same of muslims

about the same percentage of young adult conservatives agreed jews should denounce, while older conservatives agreed in much lower numbers

both young adult and older adult conservatives were more likely to agree for muslims, but the separation was much higher in the older adult respondents (closer to 70% of far-right older adults)

black, latine, and college-student respondents were all more likely to agree with both, and did not show a significant bias one way or the other

finally, they compared responses between jewish americans, indian americans, and american catholics by asking

[jewish/indian/catholic] americans should do more to make [israel/india/the vatican] a more responsible country in the world

[jewish/indian/catholic] americans should be held accountable for [israel/india/the vatican]'s actions

conservatives were more likely to agree to the statements, but did not differentiate much between the three groups

liberals agreed in higher percentages with the prompt about catholics than either indian americans or jewish americans

about 20% of far-left respondents thought jews should do more about israel (about twice the rate they agreed for indian americans), but very few agreed they should be held accountable

about 40% of the far-right believed jewish americans should be held accountable for israel, and 53% of the young adult far-right agreed

college students across the political spectrum were 13% more likely to believe jewish americans should be held accountable but were not distinct from non-college students on indian americans or catholic americans

tl;dr: overall, the study found that antisemitism was more common on the right and far-right than on the left, and more common among young adults 18-30 than older. black and latine respondents across the political spectrum agreed with antisemitic statements at similar rates to white far-right respondents. this was consistent with previous studies on the topic. they concluded that left-wing, right-wing, and racial minorities all view jewish people as an outgroup for different reasons, with very few respondents who agreed to antisemitic statements only doing so on the basis of the israel/palestine conflict, and much more frequently based on stereotypes and historical and modern scapegoating

again, this wont show up in tags because of the link, so sharing around is appreciated! antisemitism is extremely prevalent and not well understood by non-jewish people, so this is me doing my part to educate

#antisemitism cw #long post #im not gonna put in jewish tags for like. triggering reasons #but shares are very appreciated it took me a while to type this up lol #ask me to tag

165 notes · View notes

terubakudan · 3 years

Text

This may be an old article from 3 years ago, but these cultural aspects/observations still apply even today. And though this is strictly a Chinese perspective, a lot of these everyday life bits are observed in Overseas Chinese communities in countries such as The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. as well as countries heavily influenced by Chinese culture like Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.

I've always liked learning about other cultures and making comparisons between how things are done East vs West. Which probably stems from growing up with two cultures and Mom raising me on American movies xD

So the irony is if you asked me how many Chinese, Taiwanese, or Hong Kong actors I know, chances are I know as much as you do xD Like Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, and that's about it. But if you asked me about Western (specifically American and British) actors, then I have a useless brain dump of movie trivia and who was with who in what movie xD

Hmmm, both Taiwan and the Philippines are two distinct cultures but both look up to a certain country and are fascinated by that. In Taiwan's case, Japan and the US for the Philippines. In both cases, this is due to being under the rule of those countries in their history. Taiwan being under Japan for 50 years, and the Philippines being under Spain for 300+ years, followed by periods of American and Japanese rule. To put it simply though:

Taiwan is "mini-Japan with a very Chinese culture".

The Philippines is "former colony of Spain with lots of American influences".

But unlike the author, I've never set foot in any Western country, so my understandings are strictly what I've observed in media, which while it can be accurate, doesn't compare to actually experiencing the culture.

Some further elaboration on most points:

#1 We quite literally use chopsticks for everything. We use it to pick rice, viands, vegetables, fruit, smaller desserts, almost all the food you can think of.

But where do you put your chopsticks when you're not using them? Just put them on top of your bowl or flat on your plate. But do not ever stick them vertically. It's taboo, since it looks like incense sticks, which we use to pray for those who have passed, like our ancestors or during funerary services.

#3 The majority of Asia is obsessed with fair/white skin. In my time at the Philippines, I grew up watching all these Dove Whitening commercials and my classmates often commented on how fair my skin was, how they envied it etc. In Taiwan, girls often say they don't want to 變黑 (biàn hēi) 'become dark'. Japan and Korea too are not innocent of this either (if their beauty/skin products weren't a dead giveaway).

People here at Taiwan often mistake me for being from Hong Kong or Japan (as long as I don't speak Mandarin with my heavy accent xD). A Taiwanese classmate of mine joked that she often gets mistaken for being from Southeast Asia due to having a darker complexion. And while I laughed it off with her at that time, looking back, I now realize she was lowkey being racist. xD

And believe me Filipinas have mentioned literally being told 'your skin is so dark' here in Taiwan, or being given backhanded compliments like 'you're pretty despite having dark skin' and...*facepalms*

My point is, beauty is not exclusive to skin color. People who still think that are assholes.

#5 Not to say we don't have salt and pepper, but yes soy sauce and vinegar are the classic condiments you see on the table, be it at home or at a restaurant.

And if I may add, Taiwanese love their pepper. xD If you ever get to eat at a night market or a smaller "Mom n' Pop-style" restaurant here, some dishes/soups tend to add quite an excessive amount of pepper. Not like anthills, but quite liberally and way more than average. Enough that you see traces of pepper at the bottom of the food paper bag or swirling in your soup. xD

#6 I know this all too well from personal experience. In my years of studying at Taiwan, I always had roommates. 3 in my first school (I graduated high school in the Philippines pre K-12 so I had to make up 2 years of Senior High), followed by 2 in college, with the exception of 1 in freshman year.

My college did offer single person dorms but at around 9000 NTD ($324) per month compared to around 6000 NTD ($216) per semester. Because I wanted to save, the choice was obvious for me xD. But ah, this doesn't mean I don't value personal space, in fact I love having the room to myself, and since both my roomies would go home to their families every weekend, weekends were bliss for me xD

And you don't have to be friends with your roommates (that's an added bonus however), you just have to get along with them. I was quite lucky to have really great roommates all throughout my schooling years.

#9 In the Philippines, we do. Owing mostly to American influences and maybe being predominantly Catholic? xD

#10 *sigh* Chinese parents and parents from similar Asian cultures tend to put too much emphasis on grades, so much that kids could get sent to cram school as early as elementary. This is because what school you get into could literally affect your future job opportunities, and while that's not exclusive to any particular country/culture, I feel it's especially pronounced here in Asia. I'm really lucky my own parents weren't that strict about it. However, if your parents don't point the mistakes out to you, chances are you'll do it yourself, if you're an Asian kid like me anyway. xD It just becomes a habit.

#11 My family is an exception to this. xD We do say 'I love you' directly, but complete with the 'ah eat well ok?', 'don't scrimp on food', 'sleep well' and similar indirect words/actions of affection. We were doing 'Conceal, Don't Feel' before it became popular. xD

#13 I'm kind of confused about this but this has sort have changed over the years in which eye-contact is now more encouraged. But don't stare, especially at elders and authority figures. Sometimes it's just shyness though. xD And I've observed this with my own Taiwanese friend, especially when I'm complaining or ranting to her about something. xD I'm a person who likes to express my opinions strongly, which tends to scare/alienate some of the locals here, as doing so is kind of frowned upon. Thankfully, she does listen and offers her take on things.

#14 Ah this. xD In the Philippines, this is a common greeting known as beso-beso, and I freaked out too when an auntie did that to me. xD Needless to say, Mom lectured me later on what that was. ^^"

#16 Along with #3 another crazy beauty standard. In my view, people always look better with a little meat on them and when they're not horribly thin. Asia still has a loonng way to go with accepting different types of bodies if you ask me. This combined with modern beauty standards has made the pressure for women especially to 'look beautiful' higher than ever.

I know many people love them but please, starving yourself or glorifying eating disorders is never OK just to get this kind of 'ideal' body. I'm not part of the Kpop fandom, but even I think when idols get bullied just for gaining the least bit of weight among other insensitive comments, that's really going too far.

#17 'If you want to make friends, go eat.' <- I couldn't agree more. In the Philippines we have a greeting: 'Kumain ka na ba?' (Have you eaten?) . Similarly in Taiwan, we have 吃飯了沒? (chī fàn le méi), both of these can mean that in the literal sense but are often used as greetings instead. By then which invitation to having lunch/dinner together may or may not follow. Food really is a way for us to socialize and to catch up with what's going on in each other's lives. Not to say we don't have regular outings like going out to the mall, going shopping, etc. but eating together is a huge part of our culture, be it with family or friends.

And while I'm at it, some memes that are way too accurate good to pass up xD

Parents, uncles, aunties alike will fight over the bill xD

Alternatively:

You just space out until your name is called xD

My parents are guilty of the last one. Logic how? xD

#18 True. xD I like giving compliments out to people but I have a hard time accepting them myself, though I've learnt how to accept them much more now than before. We're kind of raised to constantly downplay ourselves so we often say things like 'ah no no' or 'I'm really not that good'. The downside of this of course is that it can come off as somewhat fake. xD

Again from personal experience, that same classmate who made the lowkey racist remark, she was good, she was on the debate team, was a honor student, knew how to mingle with people, but she downplayed herself way too much, while praising me but I honestly thought that she never really meant it from how she treated me. She wanted to keep me around her yet make backhanded compliments at me and she didn't want me socializing with my other classmate who is now my friend. *sigh* It was only after discussing this with one of my roomies did I realize how this 'excessive downplaying' might come off to people like me who more or less grew up with a more 'Westernized' mindset. I'm not saying brag about your achievements but don't be overly humble about them either, which can also be a turn off.

#20 We do tend to be a lot more realistic on how we view things, neither entirely optimistic nor pessimistic. We try to think of things practically and often analyze things on pure logic. A downside of this however, is that Chinese people can be overly practical. Taiwanese for instance don't like to 'find inconveniences' and generally keep to themselves, meaning, they won't help you in your hour of need even when they do have the capabilities. Sounds really harsh I know, but in my 6 years of living in Taiwan, while this doesn't apply to all the people, a lot of them really do only find/talk to you when they need something.

So for some people saying Taiwanese are 'friendly', that's BS xD If you ask me, Filipinos are infinitely more friendly, and again while not all, generally make more of an effort to help you when you need it. I really felt more of a real sense of community during my years growing up in the Philippines compared to Taiwan.

#21 Children do tend to stay with their parents well into college and adulthood, since Chinese families are indeed very family-oriented, in a lot of cases, grandparents often live under the same roof as us as well! And it really does save a lot of money. I see there's a real stigma in the US when it comes to "living with your parents", but that's starting to change especially because of Covid and having more and more people move back in with their parents.

Housing unfortunately is pretty much hella expensive no matter where you go, and Taiwan is no exception. Steep housing prices and the very high cost of raising a child (schooling + buxiban fees, etc.) contribute to a very low birth rate and thus an aging population like Japan. It's not uncommon to see both parents working in Taiwan.

#23 I'm an overthinker myself, but I totally agree with the author that the best is to strike a good balance between these two. Which I guess is why I love drawing or any other related creative attempts, it helps me be more spontaneous or well, creative! I like to remain intellectually or artistically inspired.

#24 Is French high school really like that? xD My friend did watch SKAM France and more or less got a culture shock from what was depicted on the show. I can confirm however that most high schools both in the Philippines and Taiwan require students to wear a uniform, only in college is everybody free to wear casual/civilian clothes.

#26 Ah this is part of our Asian gift-giving etiquette xD We always open gifts later after the event/meeting and in private. Never open them in front of the person who gave it to you or in front of others. This is to prevent any 'shame/embarrassment' that may result both to yourself and to the gift giver. I know this may come off as something weird since some people may want a more honest response or immediate feedback when it comes to gift-giving, but that's just how it is in our culture. You're always free to ask us though (in private) if we liked the gift or not ^^"

#28 I want to say the same goes to drinking, partying, and drugs however xD Those are things which are still frowned upon in our culture. And to be honest, whenever I see those in movies, it does kind of turn me off xD It doesn't mean that we're "uncool" or "boring", we just think that there are much better or healthier ways of "having fun".

#31 Is this true in France?! Man I would kind of prefer that instead of people being on their phones all the time xD This kind of goes with #20 in that Chinese are overly practical or logical, and don't read fiction as much as nonfiction. My Taiwanese friend is an exception though, she's a bibliophile who loves the feel of paper books compared to e-books, and it's a trait of her that I like a lot. Both the Philippines and Taiwan however have a huge fanbase when it comes to manga and anime though.

I'm all for reading outside of "designated reading" at schools especially. Reading fiction improves your vocabulary too, and can be quite fun! It helps you imagine and really invest in a world/story, and if you ask me something that I feel Westerners are better at, they're more in touch with their emotions and creativity, and are thus much more able to write compelling or original stories. Believe me, I've seen a fair amount of Chinese movies that rip off Western movie plotlines xD

#33 Nothing much to add on here..except that since I'm a "weird" person, Mom often jokes that she got the wrong baby from the hospital. xD

#35 True. While I agree with the care and concern that your fellow community can give you, the downside of this is we tend to only hang out with our own people, e.g Chinese with Chinese, Taiwanese with Taiwanese, etc. I've seen too that it's especially hard to make friends in Japan and Korea as a foreigner. Not only is there the language barrier, but the differences in culture too. In a way, Asians can be pretty close-minded on getting to know other cultures or actually making friends with people from other countries. I know this all too well being half-Taiwanese/half-Filipino, being neither "Filipino" enough nor "Taiwanese" enough. xD It's more of people here being too used to what they're comfortable with.

#36 Oh this is something I feel that Chinese students and other students from similar cultures should really improve on. xD How will people respect you if you don't speak your mind?

I felt bad especially for my Spanish teacher in college, granted it was an introductory course (Spanish I and II) but the amount of times that our teacher had to prompt a student to recite/speak even with clear hints already made her (and me too) extremely frustrated. The thing is, these are college students, I personally feel they don't have any reason to be so shy of speaking and technically by not doing so they're slowing the pace of the class too much and a lot of time is wasted.

Unfortunately you can't always be very vocal with your thoughts and opinions in most Asian cultures. I would say strive for that, but at the same time, play your cards well, especially if you're in a workplace setting.

If you made it to the end, thank you for reading and here's a cookie! 🍪 I'm not perfect and there's bound to be something I missed so please let me know if you spotted anything wrong. Feedback/questions are very much welcome and please feel free to share about your country/culture's differences or similarities!

54 notes · View notes

angellesword · 4 years

Text

YOUR EYES TELL | JJK (05)

Summary: You live in a world where people see in black and white. The solution to finally see the colors? It's simple. You need to meet your soulmate and look at him in the eyes, but what if the person bound to you is already contented with the monochromatic world? What if...Jeongguk, your soulmate, is already in love with someone else?

Alternatively:

"A future without you is a world without color."

Genre: soulmate au, e2l, slow burn, angst, fluff, roommate au

Pairing: Artist!Jungkook x Lawyer!Reader

Word Count: 3.5k

SERIES: CHAPTER 4 | CHAPTER 6

The best thing about Red was that she wasn't just your assistant; she was also your friend.

Your one and only girl confidant.

Growing up, you didn't really have a lot of friends. It was probably because you used to be so shy.

Unlike other children, you weren't forced by your parents to interact with kids your age. Why would they do that when you already had everything you needed?

You had the latest toys so you didn't have to play tag or hide and seek with your neighbors. You were also a smart girl. You didn't need to ask for your classmates' help. The only weakness your parents saw was the fact that you only excelled in the academic field. You weren't blessed with a golden voice. You couldn't dance, you couldn't ride a bike. You couldn't even do the basic household chore.

This was all because you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth. You didn't have to try harder. You had a handmaiden to do all sort of things for you. Your parents paid the school so that you wouldn't have to attend P.E classes or any other extracurricular activities.

You were contented to be alone in your big, princess-like room.

In fact, you only met Jimin, your best friend who was two years younger than you, during college days. He was your classmate in your first ever P.E class. You were already a junior that time. You thought you could skip P.E the way you did in high school, but you were wrong. You ended up in Jimin’s class that time.

The two of you didn’t stop being friends after the semester ended. Actually, you guys became even closer. Jimin was the only person who was by your side when you were breaking down because of school. He cried with you, slept late with you, and he also set you up with a lot of his friends. Unfortunately, you weren't attracted to any of them. You weren't picky. You were just a sucker for soulmates and happy endings. His efforts didn't go to waste though. You became good friends with some of these guys. You were particularly close to Jung Hoseok, a boy your age who was in Jimin's dance class.

Hoseok was a great person, but you still craved the idea of having a girl best friend.

Luckily, you met Red.

You met her months ago—back when she was still a struggling student who was looking for a job in the company where you were working.

"And why would I hire someone like you?" Gahee, your co-worker, snarled at Red. The former didn't like the latter's answers during the interview portion. She said Red was too slow, too soft. She wasn't fit to become a lawyer like the rest of you.

"I'm sorry..." This was another issue. Red kept on apologizing. She had a very low self-esteem.

You knew right there and then that this girl wouldn't be hired. Out of the five interviewers, you were certain that you're the only one who was in favor of this intern.

Why?

It was because Red reminded you of your younger self.

As stated, you were a shy kid. But then law school changed you. To survive, you needed to act tough—you constantly needed put on a mask just so you could reach the 'standard' of what a lawyer should be like.

Most of the time, it worked. There were cases, however, wherein you became clouded by your own judgment. Some of your colleagues said you were too empathetic—always rescuing people from their misery.

You were doing it again.

"I'm going to hire her." These were your exact words just as Red was about to leave.

She stopped walking. Red turned to look at you. Confusion was apparent all over her face. Were you serious?

The other interviewers couldn't believe the words that came out of your mouth, so naturally, they protested.

You simply raised your brow at them.

"I said what I said. She's going to be my new assistant." You pointed at Red who still looked so shocked.

"But we don't want to work with her!" Gahee groaned.

"So?"

Gahee's face turned pale because of your response. You arched your brow higher.

"It doesn't matter if you don't want her. She's going to work for me."

The interviewers went silent.

You see, no one could ever question your decision. You might be 'too soft' for some of them, but they still couldn't deny that you were damn good at your job. Your personality in the office was very different from what your family and friends knew. For them, you would always be that quiet little girl who couldn't speak for herself. In here, you were young, but sophisticated. A lion in a world full of kittens.

"Ms. Red Lee's my responsibility from now on. If you have a problem with her, you can talk to me."

This was the beginning of your friendship with Red. At first, she was skeptical of your intention. Why would you want to work with someone like her?

"Because I believe in you." You offered her a smile when she finally found the courage to ask you the question that had been bothering her since the first time she met you.

Red had been your assistant for months now; however, your co-workers still didn't like her. It was as though they were waiting for her to make a mistake.

She did.

"How's our case going? Did our client take the color vision test?" You inquired days before the trial of your client who wanted to sue the business person who sold her fake whitening products. This was a simple case. You didn't understand why your client wanted to go to trial; this could simply be settled without going to the court.

"There's no need for that. I've already talked to her."

"Hm?"

"Well..." Red took a seat beside you. She was blushing. "Remember when I told you I've met my soulmate?"

"Oh. Right!" You beamed at her. How lucky. "So did you break up with JK?"

Red told you she had a boyfriend named JK. You honestly didn't know much about him or their relationship, though you were informed that they had been together for almost a decade, unfortunately, they weren't soulmates.

"I did." The smile she gave you was sad. "But he didn't take it well..."

You didn't know what to say after that. Admittedly, you had urged Red to breakup with her boyfriend because you didn't appreciate that she was keeping him in the dark. It was unfair.

"But anyway," Red sounded so excited that you couldn't help but giggle. "I've talked to your client. I'm sure she can see color since her answer was right when I asked her if she can tell me the color of the shirt I'm wearing."

"Okay, then."

It was stupid of you to rely on Red's words and you knew it. This was the reason why you couldn't defend yourself when your boss humiliated you in front of everyone. As if that wasn't awful enough, your superior also excluded you from the biggest case you were working on.

Gahee was the new head of that case.

"I'm sorry!" Red was crying. You took accountability for what she had done. She was your assistant after all.

"It's okay, Red." You smiled despite the fact that you were breaking inside. Your boss made you look like a fool. You couldn't erase the image of your colleagues smirking that was circling inside your head.

You were no longer a lion.

"I-It's not okay! You lost the case!" She knew that you spent months working on the mentioned case your boss removed you from. Everyone was jealous of you. They wanted to handle that case. Now, Gahee had the chance. You lost yours.

You embraced Red. You couldn't bear to see anyone crying.

"But I'm still handling Mr. Kim Seokjin's case." You stared into her eyes. "That's the only case I want to handle. Trust me."

Red sobbed even harder. She understood what you meant. You lost the biggest case, but at least you were still Mr. Kim's lawyer. Again, his case was more important to you and Red.

"I'm going home. Is that okay? Can you handle yourself?" You couldn't work with a heavy heart. You needed to see Miri. You needed a bath. You needed a break.

Fortunately, Red let you go.

Ever since that day, your assistant became more hyperaware of your needs and wants. She was certain she owed you a lot. This was the reason why you couldn't understand why Jeongguk was crying now.

"G-Gukkie?" You swallowed hard when you saw tears streaming down his cheeks.

Again, Red knew what you needed. You were sure she gave you the correct recipe for kongnamul guk. So why was Jeongguk weeping as he ate the soup you made?

It couldn't be because it didn't taste good. You followed Red's recipe. It was perfect! Everyone loved her soup.

Your soulmate didn't answer you. He also refused to look at you. It was embarrassing enough that you could see his overflowing emotions.

Jeongguk wondered why the world was so cruel to him. He woke up a few minutes ago with a heavy head, and then the first thing he spotted was you.

You were standing near his feet; a lovely smile was plastered on your face. Jeongguk didn't understand why you were grinning at him like that.

Weren't you mad? He remembered everything that happened last night. He acted like an asshole.

Jeongguk's suspicion grew when you handed him an ibuprofen and a glass of water. Not only that, you also told him that you cooked soup to help him with his throbbing head. He was too tired and shy to refuse you, so without saying anything, he let you drag him to the dining table.

You prepared everything for Gukkie. The only thing he had to do was eat. The thing was, he couldn't even do that.

Tears filled his eyes the moment he tasted the soup. He was looking directly at you while bring the spoon closer to his mouth—this was how you acted last night. This was what pissed him off. You were scowling, making him feel like he was the worst cook ever.

How was he different from you when he was acting the same way? The only thing that changed was his expression. As said, he was crying instead of frowning.

It broke your heart.

"Say something please?" You begged. You felt your chest tightening. Did you make him cry? Were you wrong? Red's recipe was perfect, maybe it was you who fucked things up. Did you put too much salt? Too much bean sprout?

What was wrong?

Jeongguk shook his head, harshly wiping his tears away. He didn't say anything. He didn't make it seem like he hated the soup. Actually, he finished it within a few minutes.

"I'm going to my room." He abruptly stood up, hanging his head low.

"T-Thanks for the food."

The way Jeongguk acted made you realize that you couldn't really cook, not even when the perfect recipe was literally in front of you; however, this didn't stop you from making dinner that same day.

Your soulmate locked himself in his room since morning. He hadn't eaten anything other than that soup and frankly, you were getting worried. You didn't want him to get sick.

It was going to take a while to have your food delivered, so you just decided to cook instant ramen. It had always been your life savior.

"What are you doing?"

You stopped trying to open the stove when Jeongguk suddenly spoke up.

He instantly realized what you were doing, causing him to grimace.

"You can't eat instant ramen for the rest of your life, you know? It's very unhealthy." Jeongguk shook his head, disappointed.

You bit your lower lip. It was the only food you knew how to prepare by heart. You didn't want to upset him again by trying to cook something that didn't taste good.

"I'm gonna prepare our dinner." He announced and you nodded.

You were starving. It was Sunday, but you still needed to work. You stayed in the living room the whole day, talking to Mr. Kim Seokjin about his case. Miri wasn't around to keep you company. That cat of yours stayed with Jeongguk the whole day. What a traitor.

"Okay. I'll be in my room if ever you need help." You said.

"Wait!" Jeongguk held your wrist, stopping you from leaving.

"I-Is gimbap okay?" His voice was soft as he asked this. He realized he needed to talk to you about your likes and dislikes. He couldn't just prepare something and get mad if you ended up disliking it.

"Uh..."

Jeongguk could feel your hesitation. It wasn't like you hated gimbap, but you had too much of it yesterday. Red made twenty five pieces when you told her you were craving it.

"Tell you what," Jeongguk let go of your hand. "Why don't we just eat out? Do you like pizza? What about pasta?"

He kept on suggesting food you could try, but nothing was registering inside your mind. The only thing you could think of was this:

"We're going on a date?" Your eyes were sparkling.

"What?" Jeongguk asked, dumbfounded. Out of the many things he had said, this was the only thing you could think about?

"You said we're gonna eat outside! It means we're going on a date!" You were smiling shamelessly.

Jeongguk's eyes widened. He was panicking. He didn't know why his heart was beating so fast just by the thought of going out on a date with you.

"I-I..." He swallowed hard. "We could invite T-Tae and Jimin."

Jeongguk panicked more upon realizing what he just said. No. He couldn't bear to see his best friend right now. Jeongguk hadn't told anyone that he could see colors now—well, except Yoongi.

Jeongguk wasn't ready yet. He felt guilty. He knew he was the reason why you couldn't see colors. He didn't want Taehyung and Jimin to be disappointed in him. Besides, he didn't want the couple to pester him about liking you. Again, that wasn't going to happen.

Jeongguk was about to withdraw his statement, unfortunately, you were already telling him that it was a good idea.

"So how are you, Guk?"

This was the story how Jeongguk ended up eating sushi with Taehyung.

The couple accepted your invitation. The four of you were supposed to eat together, but Jimin claimed he needed to talk to you. Alone.

Taehyung didn't protest. He missed Jeongguk too. It had been a while since they last talked. This was the perfect time to finally catch up.

"Nothing new." Jeongguk shrugged nonchalantly.

"Really?" Taehyung raised a brow. He could tell when his best friend was hiding something. "So you don't consider being able to see colors as something new, huh?"

Jeongguk's head jerked up.

"You know!?"

Taehyung laughed. Of course he knew. You told Jimin and Jimin told Taehyung. The latter was simply waiting for Jeongguk to open up.

He couldn't wait forever though. Jeongguk could be stubborn sometimes.

"She also told us that you cried earlier..."

Jeongguk pursed his lips into a thin line. Damn it. You couldn't keep anything to yourself, could you?

"I did not." Jeongguk gritted his teeth. The tears forming in his eyes were in contrast to what he was saying.

Jeongguk indeed cried earlier. Taehyung could tell because the younger boy was crying again.

"Guk..." Taehyung caressed Jeongguk's clenched fist.

"Wanna tell your hyung what happened?" The voice of Jeongguk's best friend was like a lullaby.

Jeongguk cried even harder.

Truthfully, he was surprised with himself too. Jeongguk had always been emotional, but his stubborn ass refused to let other people see him cry. This was new. The Jeongguk Taehyung knew would keep his mouth shut.

The Jeongguk today couldn't stop talking.

"I got so drunk last night, hyung. She..." Jeongguk looked at Taehyung to make sure that he understood that the she he was referring to was you.

"She cooked kongnamul guk for me."

Taehyung was silent after that. He tried to understand what Jeongguk was saying. Sadly, he couldn't.

"Are you telling me that you're crying because she prepared a soup for you?" Taehyung sounded unsure.

Jeongguk shook his head; tears were still streaming down his cheeks.

"No. I was just reminded of..." He trailed off.

"Of what?"

For a moment, Jeongguk was silent. His heart was hurting.

"Of the mean things I've said to her." Jeongguk sobbed.

It was a bad idea to look at you while he was trying to eat. Jeongguk's eyes accidentally fell into your lips. It was swollen—a reminder that you still ate the garlic shrimp even though you were allergic to it.

Jeongguk felt like an evil person.

Why were you always so kind to him? No one treated him the way you treated him. It was too good to be true.

"Oh." Taehyung broke into a huge grin and suddenly, he was chuckling.

"What's so funny?" Jeongguk was talking in a pout.

"Nothing!" The best friend's laugh had died down, but he was still smiling. "Is she tricking me, then? Can't she really see colors?"

For Taehyung, it was impossible that you were still living a monochromatic life. It was obvious that Jeongguk cared for your feelings. However, Jimin thought the opposite.

"Seriously? God. I hate that brat so much!" Jimin didn't know that he was capable of hating Jeongguk, but after listening to your story, he couldn't help the annoyance he felt for your soulmate.

You were currently inside a restaurant that was just across the sushi bar where Jeongguk and his boyfriend were at.

Jimin missed you as much as Taehyung missed his best friend. The last time you two communicated was three weeks ago. You did tell him that Jeongguk was your soulmate and that he didn't seem to like you.

Jimin brushed it off at first. He told you to give Jeongguk some time. He failed to tell you that your soulmate just went through a tough breakup though. Jimin knew it wasn't his story to tell.

"Don't. Gukkie's a good person. He just didn't know any better."

"It’s because he isn't trying!" Jimin crossed his arms. He was aware that it was unfair to get mad at Jeongguk, but your best friend could tell that you were getting hurt because of your soulmate's insensitivity.

"If I were you, I would give up on him."

You shook your head instead of agreeing to his statement.

"Jeongguk reminds me of law school."

When Jimin raised his brow, you started to elucidate what you meant.

No one, not even your parents, believed in you when you told them you were going to law school. Sure, you were smart, but you weren't strong like others. You cry immediately. You couldn't handle harsh opinions. You couldn't even handle sleepless nights and intense competition. You hated conflict. You had always been a mediator.

Even Jimin tried to stop you. He asked you so many times if you truly wanted this. It's not that he didn't trust you. Your best friend was only concerned about your well-being. He was there when you were having a difficult college semester. Undergraduate life was clearly much easier compared to graduate school. Jimin couldn't let you lose yourself just because of law school.

But you were determined to prove them wrong. Yes, law school was hard, but you were stronger. If you remained passionate about learning the law, you knew you would become a lawyer.

Guess what? You did.

This was what you were holding onto every time you felt like giving up on Jeongguk.

Pain was nothing if you could make him fall in love with you.

"Jeon Jeongguk!" You shouted when you saw Taehyung and your soulmate walking out of the sushi bar.

You and Jimin had also finished eating.

Your soulmate looked at you with furrowed brow. He didn't understand why you were shouting when the two of you were just a few meters away from each other.

"I LIKE YOU!" You shouted once again. Your voice was so loud that people couldn't help but look at you.

You were gaining attention.

Taehyung and Jimin were laughing their asses off. Jeongguk tried to run away, but his best friend held him down.

"You're fucking crazy!" Jimin shook his head, still laughing when you started to form a big heart over your head.

"I LIKE YOU SO MUCH, JEON JEONGGUK." You continued.

Jeongguk was dying of embarrassment, but you didn't care.

You were sure.

Jeon Jeongguk was going to love you.

#jungkook #jeon jungkook #jungkook fluff #jungkook friends to lovers #jungkook fanfic #jungkook fic #jungkook angst #jungkook enemies to lovers #jungkook e2l #jungkook series #jungkook soulmate au #jungkook roommate au #jungkook sugar baby au #ficswithluv #bangtan #btsfanfic #vmin fluff

660 notes · View notes

libraryofloveletters · 4 years

Text

Lovers That Went Wrong

Aaron turns to you, his closest friend in a time of desperation and need.

Aaron Hotchner x Reader

Warnings: fem!reader, cheating, fighting, crying.

Category: Angst

Author’s Note: This one is mostly flashbacks and time jumps. oops ? Also! if this gets 100 notes, I'll write a part 2 ? if you guys want one :)

Word Count: 2k

*The bolded italics are flashbacks*

Part 2!

----

You were laying there, your head on his chest. His arm wrapped around you, his hand rubbing up and down your bare back.

“We can’t do this anymore”

His head shifting, he looked down at you “I know.”

The two of you laid in silence. The sheets and his arms were the only thing separating you from the real world right now. You wondered if all those years ago, if you had just acted on your feelings, whether the two of you would be in the position you were in now.

*12 years ago*

You were cold and alone. You stood outside of your boyfriend, now ex boyfriend’s apartment with nowhere to go. You called the one person you knew would always be there. Your best friend, Aaron Hotchner.

You and Aaron had met in law class your graduating year. You were sitting behind him and accidentally hit over your coffee cup causing you to spill it all on him. “Oh my god! I’m so sorry!”

He turned around laughing “it’s alright, you’ve just given me a reason to leave early.” His laugh was a lot higher than his voice but it made you smile.

“I’m Aaron by the way” He smiled at you, you could already feel the butterflies in your stomach. You bought him a coffee the next day as a peace offering. You later learned that he has a girlfriend and was working on getting his law degree.

He picked you up even though it was the middle of the night. Getting into the car you both sat there, the only sound was a humming coming from the radio. ”I’m sorry I had to pull you away. I know you were with Haley tonight, I didn’t know who else to call” you said quietly fidgeting with your hands on your lap.

“It’s okay. I’m glad you called actually. We got into a fight.” he glanced at you. It was strange, Aaron wasn’t one to talk about his feelings plus his fights with Haley usually over before you could figure out what happened.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.” He pulled into his apartment parking lot.

“Let’s go”

“isn’t Haley here?” You glanced at him and he sighed and shook his head.

The two of you walked up to his apartment. 8 flights of stairs wasn’t a workout you didn’t need right now but you couldn’t complain after he rescued you. He walked in and went straight to his room, you shut the door behind you taking a seat on the couch.

“Y/n come here, I have clothes for you” you walked over to his room, changing into his t-shirt and taking a seat on his bed. “Do you want to tell me what happened between you and him?” “he cheated.” you couldn’t bear to look at Aaron when you told him. He had never liked your ex, he always warned you that he was bad news.

He looked at you with a sad expression on his face. “Do you want me to beat him up?” you laughed at his comment and shook your head no. The two of you laid in silence.

“Thank you”

“For what?”

“Saving me tonight”

He slid his hand across the bed and held yours. You had always had a crush on Aaron, from the day he smiled at you, you knew you liked him. The past year, he spent everyday making you feel like the only girl in the world, even if you knew he had a girlfriend. You couldn’t deny your feelings for him.

“Aaron I love you”

He didn't say anything or react. He just laid there, looking up the ceiling. You moved your hand from his, realizing what you said was stupid and sat up.

He shifted, reaching for his phone. Laying back, you thought about all the things that lead up to this moment. He didn't tell you he loved you back, the two of you drifted after that. He worked things out with Hayley and they got married. You met Sam at your nephew’s birthday party and started talking to him. Shortly after, the two of you got married. Although you were married, your heart hurt every time you thought of Aaron. You hadn’t seen him in nearly 10 years.

Your friends had told you that he started working for the Bureau and you were happy for him, that was always one of his goals. He was a witness in this case, but you weren’t even supposed to be on it. You had to take it over at the last minute due to the fact that the original attorney had just given birth. You didn't expect him to be there, the defence said he would send in a written statement.

*10 years ago*

You hadn’t seen him when you walked in, you were secretly hoping he’d be there. You went about making your opening statement to the jury, as did the defence. You took a seat, speaking quietly to your client when the defence called out their first witness.

“The defence calls Aaron Hotchner to the stand”

You looked over your shoulder and spotted him instantly. He stood at the back of the courtroom, he looked the same only older. He walked down and took a seat at the front, his eyes on you. He was wearing a blue button up under his black suit. That’s one thing about him, he always carried him with a certain standard of class. He had a red tie on, the one you had gotten him as an early graduation present. It had his initials sewn in black at the bottom of the tie.

The case went on and you won, clearing your client of all charges. You were stepping out of the courtroom when a hand on your arm stopped you. Turning around, Aaron stood there looking at you like he was looking at an alien or something. “Uh, Earth to Aaron?” you chuckled at his expression. He smiled at you “It’s nice to see you y/n” “you too Aaron”

The two of you stood, chatting for a few minutes. “Would you like to get dinner with me sometime ? As friends of course. It’s much easier to catch up over dinner than it is outside a courtroom” the two of you chuckled at his comment.

“I’d love to, when are you free?”

“Tonight ? you can bring your husband if you’d like”

“I’ll be there”

Aaron handed you his business card. It read “Aaron Hotchner, Behavioural Analyst Unit” you smiled, it was always an inside joke for the two of you to have business cards. He joked that you’d get the framed together. You hand him your card. “Y/N L/N, Ross and L/N. You’re managing partner ?” he looked at you, shocked. “A lot has happened since we’ve last seen each other Aar” He nodded, saying that he’ll call you and let you know where to meet him tonight.

He left you standing there, his words ringing in your head. “You can bring your husband if you’d like” Your husband, the man you forgot about the moment you set eyes on Aaron.

----

Aaron got up off the bed, putting on his boxers. “I’m going to take a shower, will you still be here when I get out?” You nodded watching him walk into the bathroom. Slipping into his shirt, you sat back on the bed reaching for your laptop. You replied to some emails, he stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist. “Is that my shirt ?” “mhm hm” you didn't look up, still typing on your laptop. He changed into a pair of sweatpants and sat beside you. You still paid no attention to him, working on replying to your clients. Feeling the shifting and then something heavy on your lap, you looked down to find Aaron’s head resting there.

“Hi baby”

“Hi Aar”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m typing, what are you doing?

“I’m just laying here” he smiled up at you.

Your hand found its way to his hair, playing with it as you typed with the other hand. He leaned into your touch, eyes closed and smiling. You closed the laptop, resting it on the table beside the bed. He sat up “Are you hungry? We could order room service or I can run out and get something ?”

“Where does she think you are right now?” you looked at him, hoping he’d answer you and not push you off. Sighing, he answered you “Dallas on a case. She thinks I leave to come home tomorrow” you nodded. “Where does he think you are?” “In London, working on a case for the firm” he nodded.

“Aar, we said this was the last time, 2 months ago. You said you were leaving her.”

“You’re still married to Sam”

“That’s different”

“How is that different y/n? You’re cheating on him. My marriage is over, we aren't even living together but you and Sam are. I don’t have to tell her everything I do. You’re lying to Sam. You’re no different than Haley.”

You couldn't believe what you were hearing. He’s the one that started this. He came to you after dinner, telling you that he was tired of going home to an empty house. It started out innocently, he invited you over for coffee, one thing led to another and you ended up in bed with him. Aaron has this pull, one that you could never resist but you swore to yourself, it’ll never happen again. You’re a married woman and you couldn’t do that to Sam but then it happened again and again and again. 6 months later, you and Aaron have gotten yourselves tangled in a web of lies.

You got up and began getting dressed. Shoving all your clothes in your bag, as well as your laptop. “Where are you going?” he asked you obliviously.

“Are you kidding me? You have the nerve to ask me where I'm going? You just compared me to your wife, who cheated on you! Must I remind you that you were the one that started this?” You leaned down to help your foot into your heel. “You called me in the middle of the night, begging me to come over, you are lonely and just needed a friend. After the first time, I promised myself I wouldn't go back to you because I know I can’t resist you. But you sounded so broken, I couldn’t just leave you there, Aaron.”

He sat there, not saying anything to you. Like he did so many years ago when you told him that you loved him.

“You have a hold on me Aaron. You hurt me and I always come running back expecting different. You hurt me when I told you I loved you and you didn't say anything. You hurt me by telling me I’m no different than your cheating wife. You break my heart every time but I always come back, always. Not anymore, we’re done Aaron. I don't know what we were but whatever it was, it’s over.”

You picked up your bag and walked out, leaving Aaron in the room. You held yourself together until you got to your car. The moment you got in, you broke down. You felt so stupid for letting Aaron use you. You loved him and he didn't love you back, it was always like this. You kept hoping he’d leave her and see what was in front of him all these years but he didn’t. You had to let go of him for the second time, but it didn't break your heart any less than it did the first time. You pulled yourself together, realizing how dumb it was for you to be crying over a man just let you walk out. Aaron didn’t say anything nor did he stop you from walking out.

You were done with him.

331 notes · View notes

lady-plantagenet · 3 years

Note

What are your top ten novels about the Wars of the Roses? And why?

I think it’s obvious by the length how enthusiastic I was to answer this ask xx thank you for asking me and giving me also an opportunity to make a masterlist of some sorts of all my reviews xx. But you know? I speak like quite the expert but in reality I’ve read very little histfic about TWOTR because I just newly got back into this hobby (about a year ago) and have little time in general so tbh the last three books on this list I do not personally care for but since I’ve read so little novels of this kind they are here nonetheless hhh (so please people, give me no angry asks asking me why I am endorsing PG, I’m not).

1. The Last of the Barons by Lord Edward Lytton-Bulwer

This is quite possibly the best book I’ve ever read in my life. The gap between these books and the rest is a chasm the size of the world and I wpuld genuinely reccomend this book as an actual piece of literature to anyone, not just TWOTR fanatics. It is written in 1840, in quite old timey lingo and it centres around Richard Neville 16th Earl of Warwick, but in the true tradition of a real classic it is more than just a character drama, it astutely showcases the purpose of Warwick and what he did in the context of his wider world and doesn’t just chalk it up to personal greed. There is also this fascinating subplot about courtship, science and such. Hell, you even get this eccentric ‘natural philosopher’ guy called Adam Warner who tries to make something like a steam engine and gets employed as an alchemist by Jacquetta and Edward IV.

From a historical standpoint it is quite biased as the author himself was a politician (and an actual baron) and tbh I don’t completely agree with his interpretation of history and I can see some of the Victorian inluences slip in, but some of his takes are very refreshing and he clearly consulted the primary sources. I am much interested in his philosophy and life outlook though and while I don’t think his Warwick is the Warwick, I think he (Lytton-Bulwer) understood him like no other novelist could. As for the writing style... here’s an excerpt of a good reads review that I agree with and tells you all you need to know:

“Of course, such a style of writing no longer exists. The language used is essentially foreign to us. But the nobility, the pride of this story work their ways into your bones, your heart. You will yearn for honor once you have left it.“

Basically, go type it into google and see what I mean. You don’t even need to purchase this book it’s all online at the first click on Gutenberg.

Nevertheless, I’ve posted excerpts of it here, here and here =)

2. The King’s Grey Mare by Rosemary Hawley Jarman

This book (unlike the latter) has zero actual historical value. Actually, it sort of does in the way that it hilights certain real events that most people are unaware of when it comes to its protagonist: Elizabeth Woodville, eg the whole Cooke tapestry affair and the whole Desmond affair. Both things which I still stand on the fence about (if you don’t know what I’m talking about send em another ask or pm me). But like, it isn’t political, philosophical or such in any way like the first book, yet you still feel like you are *there* in the 15th century - by the time I finished reading it my heart was wrung dry and I kind of fell into a down for a couple of days because I just wanted to feel the magic again. If anyone would ask me I would give this 5 stars because it perfectly achieved what it set out to do (I can’t expect all books to go above and beyond like #1), it made me feel for the characters who were super complex, was accurate historically and even when it wasn’t it made sense, it got very creative with its themes (which I like to see because I am not interested in reading the exact same story over and over again) and the prose was absolutely magical and brought all the depth to this novel. I’ve read classics with less flowing and poignant prose, yes actual classics!

This book also switches POVs quite a lot (basically it headhops because it’s written in omniscient- but whatever, rules are meant to be broken), so you’ll get to see many of your faves in there, Edward IV, Margaret of Anjou and Grace Plantagenet feature quite heavily. One thing that disappointed me is that it wasn’t really Edward IV/Elizabeth Woodville (at the time I bought it for that), she never really likes him and his love for her kind of wanes towards the end. If you’re not too bothered about that then I say go buy it.

3. The Daisy and the Bear by K L Clark

I put this here because we are already going into shakier territory when it comes to this list. This is kind of the last *really* good, truly five star one. It is a long spoof about TWOTR but god it’s smart! Yet, It does not take itself seriously and has Margaret of Anjou/Warwick the Kingmaker as a crackship and centrepiece and had me in stitches the whole time. I’ve written a long detailed review for it here.

4. Death be Pardoner to Me by Dorothy Davies

This is a novel about George Duke of Clarence. Quite possibly the only novel ever written about him in existence and boy is it a trip - the author claims to have channelled him (she’s a medium). I’ve written a detailed review for it here. I read this last spring and my views have unfortunately changed, the thing is, I’ve come to find out through my research that this was quite possibly a hoax as there are some indisputable inaccuracies (Ankarette Twynyho’s age, the details of Isabel’s death - we *know* she did not die from childbirth, Isabel did not reunite with him after Tewksbury 1471, but right before Christmas 1470). It’s also quite Richardian (the author admitted) and she could have *had* me had she not chose to divulge it in the foreword. Nevertheless, I still like this book because it did get to me at certain points and it’s good quality as a novel, I remember shedding a tear at one point even which is extremely rare for me but I think that says more about my sentiment for the subject matter than the book itself.

5. We Speak no Treason by Rosemary Hawley Jarman (not yet finished, so ranking may vary)

I haven’t finished it yet, so I’ll leave it here for now. This book is a Richardian book about Richard III, but I can’t get enough of this author, I haven’t found anyone to replace her with. The prose is magnificent as usual and I must confess that I’m happy that this book is told through the POVs of three OCs and not Richard, he remains rather elusive and tbf I find the three OCs very interesting and at this point I’m more interested in their stories than anything else. Of course, Richard III is still a fairly prominent part of this novel (even when he doesn’t appear) and it has led to me getting annoyed quite a bit. Given who I am I fumed massively at that one aside that Clarence and Edward have bastards whereas Richard isn’t like that... like are you serious?? At one point the author reassociated the Games and Playes Chesse book to Richard when it was in reality dedicated to Clarence and I got even more annoyed. Leave the poor figure something ma’am? Whatever, as a book about three medieval commoners it’s fantastic and that’s what I pretend it is.

6. Wife to the Kingmaker by Sandra Wilson

Nothing more to add than what I wrote in my (super-long) detailed review on here. This is the case because I read it very recently. This is a novel about Anne Beauchamp 16th Countess of Warwick, it’s ranked higher than Sunne because though it’s less accurate it’s got panache.

7. The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon K Penman

I feel very strongly about this Richard III book and what it represents. I wrote a long detailed review about it on here and a follow-up post on the discussion is here ft my awesome mutual @beardofkamenev ‘s insights also thrown into the mix. Xx

8. The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

This is a step higher than the other two because this book pretty much changed my life. The thing is, I read it translated into my own language by an extremely talented translator and I was also only about 11/12 years old so it was all very impressive to me then. This book about Elizabeth Woodville effectively introduced me to the TWOTR; an interest that has never really left me these past ten years (though at one point (ages 14-19) it was quite wane). It’s not a good book by any standard (I was quite shocked when picking it up at a bookstore, I had found that when read in the original language it lost all its magic), but I owe a lot to it and some people who now endlessly discourse about how bad PG is need to recognise their debt of gratitude and be a bit more respectful, I think. That is of course unless you came into this era via different media, but you got to admit that a massive part of us got to this place through TWQ, though we outgrew it.

10. The Red Queen and The Kingmaker’s Daughter by Philippa Gregory

Exact same commentary as above, just objectively not good books. Flat characterisation, misunderstanding of the era, historical innacuracies which don’t add anything, lack of nuance in prose which often dances too close to *gasp* YA prose *shudders*. But these are lower because I don’t owe them a debt of gratitude as I do TWQ. Funnily enough, they are still better than the series.

#look at rb for tags

38 notes · View notes

vajranam · 3 years

Text

Drifting Yogi

DRIFTING YOGI– A rare modern day story of a spiritual adventure

PART -- 1 LEAVING HOME

"On December 13th 2004, I gave up my class 12th board exams and fled to India to become a monk.

I was brought up by a single mother along with three sisters. Growing up through dire poverty, my early childhood years were unforgettably sad and painful.

Having been a dreamy boy, i took comfort from reading poetry and spiritual books at school. I was a lazy, dull-witted student and did not perform well in exams.

Since i couldn't figure out an ambition

for my future, i remember studying the academic subjects only to get through the exams; so that i don't disappoint my guardians who were spending for my schooling.

To distract my attention from the troublesome situations of a boarding school life those years, where resources were scanty... and the constant bullying by elders, i drove my emotions deeper into spirituality and consoled myself through writing poems.

Sometimes gazing at the serene images of Lord Buddha.... i started dreaming of studying and practicing meditation to achieve that amazingly peaceful and hypnotic composure of a sitting Buddha.

And i didn't care about achieving anything otherwise.

So in December 2004 in Zhemgang higher sec. School, aged nineteen i gave up my bio-science exams and embarked on an extremely uncertain, risky and adventurous journey to India without a penny in my pocket.

Making the long story short.......

I arrived in india somehow and with much jubilation got admitted in a renowned Tibetan buddhist monastery in north India.

But soon i was disappointed to learn that the monasteries are just another institutions to study ethics, philosophy and rituals in their respective traditions. And no monastery offered direct meditation instructions to the monks/students to realise for themselves.

After just about one year in the Shedra, i quit the monastic life and started wandering in search of a master or a 'Tsa wai Lama'.

Which happened to be yet another crazy decision.

PART -- 2 MEETING WITH MASTER

AND PRACTICE

After a couple months of leaving the monastery i happened to travel in Lahoul valley near Ladakh.

There i met a wandering Tibetan Yogi building an old-style rock Stupa on the mountain.

Our meeting sparked in me a curious sense of emotions that was mixed with joy and tears when ever he talked to me.

Tired of wandering and pilgrimage, the desperate me requested him to take me to where ever he was based, so that i can serve him and learn more from him and about him.

Living with him, my life became more difficult and uneasy.

Since his nature was extremely harsh and extremely loving sometimes. But at the end of each passing day i found out that my emotions were being tested to the limit and he was teaching me a lot in disguise.

So considering his arrogance to me as a rare blessing i made a firm resolution to never leave him in no matter what situation.

After much waiting, i received instructions and his protection to pursue solitary retreats. Constantly wandering from one mountain cave to another, from deep forests to deserts,

From sea shores to solitary islands, sleeping on the roadsides, under the trees and cemeteries, i wandered like a fallen leaf carried by the wind.

Once i walked about 700 miles and bicycled 2000 miles under the heavy rains and scorching sun of tropical India. They were all a part of my yogic practice of drifting without a particular aim.

For more than twelve years, being so lost and carried away in retreats and wandering... i have almost forgotten my home country Bhutan.

PART -- 3 A VISION

During my retreats in the forests of central India, my provisions were taken cared by the innocent villagers, who were newly converted buddhists due to caste issues in indian social system.

Villagers were more than happy to have me, a buddhist practitioner from a foreign land in their remote villages.

So moved by their innocent reverence i started teaching them meditation, the essence of all the teachings of the buddha.... Although i struggled to interpret my thoughts to them through my extremely poor spoken Hindi.

Later in early 2017 i travelled to south east asian countries invited by some friends.

There i was surprised to discover a vibrant culture of education and youth who were equally enthusiastic to practice meditation to enhance their quality of lives through spiritual values and understanding.

We can all agree to one inevitable challenge, that our pursuit of modern lifestyle and it's glamour, is costing a serious toll on mental health to everyone.

And simultaneously dragging our beautiful home planet into a disaster of pollution and over-exploitation.

It was highly nourishing for me to meet amazing young people in those countries, who were raising concerns about the future of humanity and giving their commitments to spiritual lives through the practice of meditation in their daily lives.

In late 2018 i came back to Bhutan to visit my mother.

And started travelling and teaching meditation in Bhutan without the pre-requirements of arduous ngondro practices.

To my surprise many students young or elderly, literate or illiterate, started giving me amazing feedbacks through their own experiences just after a few months of practice. And were thoroughly inspired to follow the path of meditation in order to understand the dharma deeper for further enlightenment.

Some students have stopped drinking and smoking as a natural effect of meditation. And a few more have recovered from depression and migraine.

But at the same time, some people seemed still confused and quite suspicious regarding my initiatives.

While i welcomed their doubts and criticism, i was also scanning the psychological landscape of people influenced by their own belief systems.

So my dear elders, youngers, friends and relatives in Bhutan.

Let me take some space to share my humble opinions of what meditation is all about.

In other countries buddhist meditation is taught in school systems to enhance the performance of students.

i have seen buddhist meditations practiced in christian churches to generate faith and devotion in christ.

Buddhist meditations are practiced by psychologist and psychiatrists and implemented on their patients to recover from their mental disorientation.

Buddhist meditations are taught in high profile leadership and business management courses to enhance their productivity.

Buddhist meditation is practiced in the military of some countries for better focus and precision in their training.

Buddhist meditation is practiced by hard-core criminals in prisons to recover from their corrupted state of minds.

One friend in Philipines, a school teacher is teaching meditation in a catholic school, and the school administration approves her initiative.

In Burma, Sri lanka and thailand politicians practice meditation to render their political service more effectively.

So my dear friends in Bhutan,

those people in other countries may never have heard of arduous ngondro practices but they are still practicing meditation as the heart of all teachings of buddha and getting benefited immensely.

Now.... one can definitely argue my statements that those meditations are from different origins, like the Theravada from Burma or Srilanka,

Zen from Japan and ours is secret Dzogchen from the path of vajrayana.

To this possible argument, i can simply answer that even if the meditation practices originate from different, different countries and traditions....... ALL THOSE MEDITATION MANUALS EXIST IN THE VAST COMPILATION OF KANJUR AND TENJUR, TO WHICH WE ALL PROSTRATE UN-KNOWINGLY

WHEN WE VISIT THE TEMPLES AND MONASTERIES.

Ngondro, a set of mandatory preliminary practices that require five to 6 months to complete is an amazing tool to enter the Vajrayana buddhist path.

But at the same time...... Buddhas meditation teachings, being the answer to all human quests....sadly remain inaccessible to a large section of devout buddhists in our country. Simply because most aspiring meditation practitioners cannot fulfill the obligation to complete the long and arduous ngondro which is the standard practice required by tradition, as the gateway to the path of meditation.

But dear friends.... I speak with conviction through what little experience and observations i have gathered, that ngondro can be also practiced after meditation.

in fact NGONDRO BECOMES MUCH MORE AUTHENTIC AND JOYFUL IF PRACTICED WITH A PRIOR EXPERIENCE OF MEDITATION.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine sent me the Royal Kasho granted by our beloved His majesty the king, regarding the reformation of educational system.

As a humble citizen, I was deeply moved by the concerns made by His majesty the King, regarding the future of our youth and education in comparison to the extremely fast changing environment we live in.

My heart was throbbing.... and while i was holding my breath, i realised that even as a humble and a nameless citizen, living lonely as the road, i have fondly entertained many dreams.... if my independent research in the field of meditation therapies from the deep buddhist wisdom, can contribute an additional facility to our existing model of education.

So on this beautiful social networking platform i drifting yogi would like to share my deep prayers and aspirations

To teach meditation further in Bhutan,

Purely as a science of self discovery under secular setting.... and also as the essence of our Vajrayana path.

I have a dream to teach meditation to our budding youth to empower themselves to pursue their passion in life and achieve their goals to live a life of contentment.

And recovering from any kind of addictions from substance abuses through mental strength cultivated from meditation.

In 2019 when i was still in India, i heard some horrifying news from Bhutan about a series of rapes of minors in Paro, Dagana and somewhere.

My senses went numb.... and my mind was in dilemma out of sheer terror.

Because deep down.... i felt, if our youth can be educated in the practice of meditation, then such horrors can be totally prevented, by transforming the emotions of the practitioner into a naturally joyful and liberated state of being.

Finally, before i end this story,

I will drop a wish, that this story reach as many readers as possible.

And I deeply apologise if reading this story was a waste of time to some readers.

If any reader like this story, then i thank you for ur gesture of support.

And if any reader find flaws in my statements,

I welcome your valued criticism, so that i can learn a little from you.

MAY ALL BEINGS BE HAPPY!"

– By Drifting Yogi (Aka Sherab Dorji, 35)

Written on the bank of River Gamri, Lungten Zampa, Trashigang, Eastern Bhutan on 17 Feb.2021.

#wisdom #spirituality #mindfulness #meditation #religion #buddhism #self care #zen #visualization #tibet

10 notes · View notes

outstealingashtrays · 3 years

Text

One thing we don't talk about enough is microaggressions by doctors surrounding medical transition. Specifically today I want to talk about doctors unreasonably blocking access to hormones by adults, but there are a lot of forms of medical discrimination against trans people of all ages, and I encourage you to explore this on your own time.

As an adult, I generally have the power to make my own decisions about medical risk within certain tolerances. I can also ask about and advocate for treatments I've heard of but my doctor has not personally recommended. A doctor has vowed to "first, do no harm," so they have the right to refuse me treatment if they feel the risk that treatment imparts is greater than its potential benefit. Sometimes this is very clear cut - if, say, I ask my doctor about a treatment that has a 20% chance to treat my eczema but a 99% chance to cause a stroke, my doctor will probably not prescribe that treatment, as my eczema does not significantly impact my quality of life the way having a stroke might. I have, in fact, had a stroke and let me tell you, for me personally my eczema would have to be literally eating my arms for me to take a treatment like the one described. This is pretty intuitively the right course of action. But sometimes things are not so clear cut. A few years ago, I asked a practitioner about going off my asthma medication; they were wary of the risks, and then we had a conversation about the side effects I was having and whether the risks I took by discontinuing the medication were greater than the benefits I derived from discontinuing it. When I described my side effects to the doctor, and how they impacted my quality of life, we agreed that for me, it's better to risk an asthma attack than to continue having the side effects.

Now let's talk a real situation in which my stroke risk came up in a conversation about medical treatments. It's a series of incidents across 4 hospital systems and dozens of doctors. It's about starting T.

Starting testosterone will increase my risk of another stroke, as a 25 year old afab person, by about 1% a year (according to my gynecologist). I plugged some info into UCLA's stroke risk calculator, and my baseline 10-year stroke risk is sitting at about 1.3% (https://www.uclahealth.org/stroke/stroke-risk-calculator). But actually, since I have had a stroke, my risk is a little higher- about 5-8% (https://www.webmd.com/stroke/news/20170724/one-stroke-more-strokes-risk-remains-years-later). This has nothing to do with my native levels of testosterone or anything like that. I just had a stroke. So, to recap, starting T would increase my stroke risk to about 6-9% per year. Now, that's higher, by about 10-15%. Does that suck? Yes. But given my personal medical history, my chances of attempting suicide as a result of my dysphoria and the way my gender interacts with society are astronomically higher (https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-017-1317-z). I have personality disorders, I'm a young person, and one of the manifestations of my dysphoria is self harm. Now, notice I didn't say my chances of COMPLETING suicide are a lot higher. That's because a stroke, much like a suicide attempt, is not neccesarily going to lead to death. I've survived both. But we can agree they're both deeply undesirable outcomes.

I have presented this data to dozens of doctors, and the answer is always the same. Stroke risk go up, no hormones. And the answer is always the same for a reason - that is the current standard of care for gender dysphoria. There is no individiation at all, often because practicioners don't know enough about trans medical care to be able to make those distinctions on their own. So they stick to the script. The thing is though, you can't decide for all cases like that. My suicide risk is obscenely higher than my stroke risk because of my personal medical history, and that should be factored in. But there isn't any room for that. Moreover, there's absolutely no compassion for the quality of life of trans people. Maybe a trans patient isn't suicidal, but if they face transphobia because they don't pass, all you're doing by lowering their stroke risk a little is extending a life that is painful for them, and not giving them access to a life worth living. You remove agency. Cis doctors decide all the time that they know what's best for trans people without taking any time to consider that maybe they don't know what it is to be trans, and maybe their personal opinion on risks worth taking is uninformed. Part of it is a lack of comprehensive LGBTQ training for doctors, part of it is a lack of long term research, but a lot of it sure feels like infantilization and a failure to trust us about our own experiences.

Anyways I want cis allies to know this happens. I am living a considerably lower quality of life than I would be on T. And that makes it hard for me to see my life as worth living. Not to mention, I have been threatened with knives for not passing. A 9% risk of stroke is, for me, a lot more tolerable than what feels like a 100% risk of dying of being trans.

If you're a medical professional or trying to be one, please educate yourself. And I am begging cis allies to help us get barbaric standards like this, which dehumanize us and strip us of our rights to our own bodies, overturned. As I'm writing this, we are hot on the heels of kids under 16 in the UK being banned from obtaining puberty blockers. Medical microaggressions turn into macroaggressions like this. Please pay attention, please boost trans voices, please educate yourselves, and please protect us from oppression.

#transgender #lqbtq #suicide tw #suicide cw #hormones #t #testosterone #hrt #trans #allies #long post #long text #text #long text post #tw suicide #suicide #lgbt #lgbtqia #medical transition

11 notes · View notes

sadfhudebfl · 3 years

Text

Do not allow unlawful behavior and will continue to monitor the investigation closely

Do not allow unlawful behavior and will continue to monitor the investigation closely. I respect the athletic performance of Ryan, and as long as he is a respectable athlete, he will remain a US ambassador zapatillas de tacos futbol for Airweave as long as our partnership agreement remains effective. Our focus is on supporting Team USA, and our hope is people will remain focused on cheering on the athletes who still have events to compete in, said a statement from Airweave CEO Motokuni Takaoka.. Fashion house, no less. Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. On Tuesday of labor code violations, fraud and false imprisonment, saying the apparel seller failed to properly pay workers and detained them in stores after hours. LAS VEGAS, July 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ Chippendales knows it's so nice to be naughty and because sometimes, when once is just not enough, it's only right to do it again. That's why after breaking box office records during his engagement earlier this Spring, Chippendales has announced the return of international supermodel, fashion icon and actor, Tyson Beckford, as a special guest host in its flagship show at Rio All Suite Hotel Casino in Las Vegas for an encore engagement. Beckford's penetrating gaze and iconic abs make for a perfect pairing with legendary Chippendales, where he will perform once again for five weeks from August 27 through September 27, 2015."Las Vegas couldn't get enough of Tyson," says Kevin Denberg, Managing Partner, Chippendales. He missed time, but he deserving. He got a 20 game hitting streak. With our third base situation in the All Star Game, it makes all the sense. Collection of Designer clothes Kirkcaldy North, FifeReduced price 08/05/2017Collection of designer clothes 4 X Tommy Hilfiger jumpers all XL 1 X Tommy Hilfiger casual shirt маратонки puma mercedes amg XL 1 X Tommy Hilfiger hooded top XL 4 X polo Ralph Lauren.90Job lot designer clothes Runnymede, SurreyReduced price 23/04/2017These are hardly worn with some still brand new 2 Ralph Lauren long sleeve polos are зимни обувки adidas 2016 xl 3 American freshman t shirts are xl 1 Tommy Hilfiger polo shirt xl 1.150Ralph Lauren polo shirts Spelthorne, Surrey27/03/20174 X real Ralph Lauren polo shirts size XL works out eachReceive the latest listings forXL Ralph Lauren polo shirts Enter your email address to receive alerts when we have new listings available for XL Ralph Lauren polo shirts.Email field should not be zapatillas de tacos futbol emptyPlease enter a valid email address.Every 1 hourEvery 6 hoursEvery 12 hoursEvery 24 hoursEvery weekYou can cancel your email alerts at any time.By proceeding, you consent to our processing your personal data and setting cookies in accordance with our Privacy Cookie Notice and to our Legal NoticeClose We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website by personalizing content, providing better features and analyzing our traffic. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn More. The new license plate will be available from the Department of Motor Vehicles this fall as part of the ongoing celebration of the 125th anniversary of Minnesota state parks and trails. The cost will start at $60, plus tax. The total includes a one time $10 fee for the plate itself and a minimum $50 contribution (renewable annually).. It doesn't scream excitement, маратонки puma mercedes amg plus you sit higher at the wheel and don't feel a part of the car, as you do in the Civic. One thing's sac camelbak lobo for sure; the old Type R's awkward, upright driving position has been banished for good.With its unique sports suspension set up, widened track, larger brakes and 225/40 ZR18 Bridgestone Potenza tyres, plus a new stability control system, the Honda is said to strike a better blend between track day kerb hopping and supermarket trolley shopping.Significantly, its 2.0 litre i VTEC unit has been reworked to deliver its torque lower in the range. The high lift valve timing comes in at 5,200rpm, yet still thrives on revs up to 8,000rpm the point at which all 198bhp is unleashed. We would not be in the position we are today without these years of preparation and execution. Two years chanel ágynemű ago when the first signs of global financial crisis were emerging, we made a decision that our foremost priority was to protect our brand and our profits. We executed this be developing focused merchandise strategies and calibrating our global shipment volumes with the expected customer demand trends.. Sometimes people who have met via ham end up getting together in person if one happens to be travelling through. "I've met people. Pretty easily. Audience of about 1 billion people worldwide is expected to tune in as Danny Boyle, the Oscar winning director of "Slugdog Millionaire'' transforms the London Olympic Stadium into nike black tn 001 a "green and pleasant land,'' complete with 120 dolce gabanna adidași bărbații farm animals, a cricket ground, meadows, rivers, and fake rain clouds. The three hour ceremony was inspired by William Shakespeare's "The Tempest'' and will include a musical performance by (who else?) Sir Paul McCartney. More than 10,000 athletes from 200 plus countries will march in the Parade of Nations. Polo player Nacho Figueras, whom Vanity Fair readers recently voted second most handsome man in the world (after Robert Pattinson), has his hand on my thigh. I'm at a polo ground in Berkshire for a lesson, and while I'm supposed to be concentrating on something he's saying about how to hit a polo ball, it's all I can do to stop myself falling off my pony with excitement. Nacho's Argentinian accent sounds like honey dripping from an orchid, and his chestnut hair flops beguilingly across his perfectly symmetrical face. However, giving away some power to the Mercedes, it was one tenth slower over the benchmark sprint.With 400Nm of torque, it was on par with the lighter, 430Nm XF for in gear acceleration, while its superior traction and sharper shifting gearbox meant it was faster than the Jaguar through szemüveg csúszásgátló the gears.The transmission locks up quicker so the BMW gets off the line better than either of its rivals, and the engine is also the most refined of the three.This refinement extends to the ride. While you do feel a few pattering motions over the worst surfaces, riding on optional 19 inch wheels (with 18 inch rims as standard) bumps don't send a quiver through the chassis like in the E Class. In Comfort the 5 Series works with the road rather than reacting to it.In Sport mode, the damping doesn't feel too much firmer until you enter a corner.

1 note · View note

lcgacyofages · 3 years

Note

Ok who has the best to worst ass, rank them now hurry

An Ask because I reblogged a post | ALWAYS PESTER ME

I did not hurry bc no one tells me what to do. I went to bed instead. But it’s kind of hard to rank that, especially since I’m ace. I mean, people have different ass preferences the best I can do is just explain what kind of ass the muses probably have and then attempt to rate them on societal standards. It’s really up to you if you agree with my ratings or not after these brief descriptions but if you wanna throw in your two cents based on my descriptions, go for it! DISCLAIMER: I have never touched anyone else’s ass in my life so this is all speculative guessing from what other people have told me.

Eliana Mahariel

Eliana has a small frame and athletic build. What that means for her ass is it isn’t necessarily a wide ass because her hips are slender but it’s a very firm and slightly perky ass.

My interpreted Rating: 6.5/10 (if it was 2005, it would probably be closer to an 8/10)

Atena Hawke

Atena is tall with a solid build, a lot of muscle from her warrior training. She does have slightly wider hips, a good center of gravity and base for her stance with her two-handed sword. The main issue is the lack of fatty tissue for her.

My interpreted Rating: 7.5/10

Rajmahel Lavellan

Rajmahel’s ass is that of someone who uses the muscles in it, not just for appearance’s sake. It’s very toned and his hips are set every so slightly wider than his frame, helping to give it a balanced width to go with the perk from the constant walking/climbing/going into old ruins.

My interpreted Rating: 9/10

Alric Hawke

A far more academic personality, but also having done work on the family farm and lots of walking in general, he’s got a slightly toned but soft ass, very good for grabbing because it has a little give to it. Has very straight hips, though, so doesn’t give any extra width to it.

My interpreted Rating: 7.5/10

Antoinette de Ghislain

She’s had two children, so her hips, which were decently set before, are a bit wider now, adding to her ass’s width. Being a married noblewoman keeps her from a lot of physical exertion, as well as her profession as a writer, but she does try to keep her skills from her bard years at some kind of proficiency, so there is some toning underneath the fatty tissue. A very fine lady’s ass, if I would say so.

My interpreted Rating: 8/10

Arik Tabris

An elf on the taller side, he still has a more slender build than a human, but a bit more than a typical elf. A high amount of muscle, which creates a lack of fatty tissue. He’s got a perky ass for sure but without much cushion from fat.

My interpreted Rating: 8/10

Aurora Amell

An honest-to-goodness little academic and having spent much of her time in the Circle, she hasn’t had much in the way of physical training of any sort. The best she’s got is the stairs in the circle. She’s got some decently set wider hips to her slender frame, though, which helps accentuate her soft ass.

My interpreted Rating: 7.5/10

Dalineva

The high priestess for the Evanuris if the Hunt, Andruil. Definitely athletic build but with high femininity to it. So she definitely got those hips. Still slender because elf, but still a good ratio to her waist. Her ass is pretty damn perky with a good balance of fat and muscle with it. She’s based off of a siren, though, so, there’s no surprise here.

My interpreted Rating: 9.5/10

Dazbo Amell

Another who’s spent a lot of his years in the Circle, but he has a certain point of vanity that would make him be concerned with his ass. There’s definitely some fatty padding to it, but it’s toned as well and definitely of decent volume. His hips are actually a little narrower than his shoulders, though, so points off.

My interpreted Rating: 7.5/10

Dimetrea Brosca

Very thick, definitely leans more towards muscular than fatty but does have some fatty cushion to it. A bit of a perk to it, but not anything that’s too much in relation to her small, broad build.

My interpreted Rating: 6.5/10

Emrys Moysten

A nerd, what kind of ass do you expect? He’s got a soft ass, with only some muscle tone from walking, to it. Despite being soft, it’s decently defined and his hips are set parallel to his shoulders. If you like soft asses with a little bit of perk, he’s got the ass for you.

My interpreted Rating: 6.5/10

Etienne de Rousseau

Another academic, but an academic with connections that enabled him to learn some martial skill and thus have physical exercise to tone that ass. His hips are decently set in ratio to his frame, helping to give some perk to the ass that has a layer of fatty tissue over toned muscle.

My interpreted Rating: 8.5/10

Falon’Din

A deadass. 0/10 A vain Evanuris with a lot of magical and martial skill is definitely a threat in the ass games. Despite spending his time sitting on a throne, Falon’Din actually was a highly active individual, helping to tone that slender ass. Got some perk to it from muscles and weight from affluent feasts.

My interpreted Rating: 9/10

Fenvir

A tall, slender boy for sure. But also has been trained in magical and martial prowess from a young age, enabling him to have a good tone to his ass. It’s a little narrow for sure, but it’s got the right tone to give it some good perk to it.

My interpreted Rating: 9/10

Hildegard Cadash

Heavy muscle woman, who’s got to show her stuff to keep the cartel in line. She’s affluent in the cartel, giving her some fat to offset the muscle she builds with rigorous training. Her ass is wide set, as is the frame for dwarves, but it’s got some perk and volume to it.

My interpreted Rating: 8.5/10

Idrilla Lavellan

Idrilla has an athletic build from being a hunter for Lavellan clan. Her martial training gives her grace, though, and tonality to her ass. A wide set hip and with clan Lavellan having decent ties to human settlements, a bit more wealth than other clans, giving her some fatty volume to match with the muscle perk.

My interpreted Rating: 9/10

Inatar Adaar

Narrow hips and high muscle tone doesn’t make for a lot of volume but a decent amount of perk. Her ass doesn’t have a single point that sags and it is a tight ass indeed. If this was a decade or so ago, she’d get a higher rating.

My interpreted Rating: 6.5/10

Katarina Anhalt

This lady has some decent hips on her. With that, plus her vigorous exercise and training as a templar, adds to the perk of her ass. There isn’t too much fat, just a small layer of cushion there to give a little more volume to it.

My interpreted Rating: 8/10

Lir Cousland

Lir’s got some cushion to his ass due to being a noble and having a stable food source that may have higher fat in it. That being said, he is a fighter like any Fereldan so has intensive training regiments he keeps to, which helps with physical prowess. His hips are slightly narrower than his shoulders, removing some volume to his ass, but not in a bad way.

My interpreted Rating: 8.5/10

Mathras Myriani

A soft build, not a fighter at all. His physical skillset is that of someone who walks a lot and knows some self defense martial skills. He’s got a very slender frame, but his hips are a little bit wider than his waist but narrower than his shoulders. He’s got a little bit of perk, and a little volume. But it’s a nice little ass to grab.

My interpreted Rating: 7/10

Sasha Fitz

He’s got a standard human male frame, with the wider shoulders coming down to a point at his waist and then going out slightly at his hips. He’s not wealthy, so not too much fatty tissue. He’s very athletic, though, and does a not of acrobatic type stunts on the buildings of Kirkwall, giving his ass a nice perk to it.

My interpreted Rating: 8.5/10

Seigfried Trevelyan

Seigfried is a stocky man with broad shoulders and a rounded belly from too many times in the local tavern. He’s still got muscle, though, having a fair amount of training from his many years. His ass, though, is a little on the flat but toned side. A little perk, but it’s not the best aspect of his frame.

My interpreted Rating: 6/10

Selena Porter

Selena has a narrow hip structure but her athletic tendencies from her job as well as the wealth she gains from her work affords her muscle and fatty tissue to build up perk and volume to her ass.

My interpreted Rating: 7/10

Sergio di Vasco

This guy has a gymnast’s ass. Very well defined muscles and a good perk to it. His diet, though, lacks the fatty foods to add additional volume to his ass, but overall, a good ass to look at.

My interpreted Rating: 8/10

Shalelan Amalasis

A very athletic individual with hips about as wide as his shoulders. Poor diet, though, robs him of the volume to go with the perk and width. Please don’t talk to him about his ass, though, you’ll make him stutter.

My interpreted Rating: 7.5/10

Shamut Adaar

A big nerd. His hips are about the same width as his waist and narrower than his shoulders. He’s not as athletic as other qunari, but he still has muscle mass that qunari have, along with fatty tissue to give some perk and volume to his narrow ass.

My interpreted Rating: 7.5/10

Vincentius Titus

Relies heavily on his strong magical gifts and he does the necessarily physical exercise to keep himself in some shape to offset his rich Tevinter diet. He has the average muscle mass and his hips are just a little narrower than his shoulders. This gives his ass only slight perk but okayish volume.

My interpreted Rating: 6.5/10

Zoria Amell

Widely set hips give width for her ass. The stairs of the Circle helped give her muscle to tone the perk for her ass, but she’s got fat that sticks around her body, giving a nice soft, rounded volume to her ass. A very fucking nice ass.

My interpreted Rating: 9.5/10

#Not A Legend { OOC }#I'll add tags once it's posted #Anonymous

4 notes · View notes

dietgaymags · 4 years

Text

A definitive ranking of DWTS Season 29′s celebrities thus far

So I'm obsessed with Dancing with the Stars as much as the next guy. I’ve seen every season since number 11, when I was like 9 years old. But I dropped off a few seasons ago, disappointed that they really had the nerve to put the legend Lindsey Stirling on the same season as the other legend Jordan Fisher. That was not fair to anyone, because Lindsey would have wiped the floor in literally any other season.

But Season 29′s cast was released and I got excited again. About 80% of these names I was not only familiar with, but were people I enjoyed for some reason or another. Skai Jackson, Nelly, Johnny Weir, AJ McLean, Nev Schulman, Carole Baskin, Justina Machado, Monica Aldama, and the list just goes on. They really said “we need to get young people back into the show.” And they did. I was hooked. And though Len is gone and Carrie Ann is going some sort of which way with her votes (we don’t talk about it), I’ve watched every episode with bright eyes and so much excitement. We have some good dancers this season. And some bad ones. But mostly good. So here’s my definitive ranking of this season’s stars (and, by extension, pros). And if you don’t agree, that’s fine. I am simply a nineteen-year-old girl who likes to watch ballroom dancing.

NUMBER 15: CAROLE MF BASKIN AND PASHA PASHKOV

Besides the moral obligations to not allow a murderer to appear on the show, I think DWTS did a good job trying to rope people in by bringing her on. When the cast list was released, my jaw dropped because I knew she was going home first and I wanted to be there to see it.

And somehow, she did not... go home first? She made it another episode? While I’m sure it was a ploy to keep people interested in the show so they didn’t watch the premiere and drop off, Carole Baskin is sure to go down in DWTS history as one of the worst competitors. Her highest score was a 16, sure, but her lowest was an 11. We’re treading Master P territory. And I had a full traumatic episode watching her in a lion-esque unitard. Fuck, I needed to bleach every orifice on my body. (Overall Rating: 1 dead husband/10)

NUMBER 14: CHARLES OAKLEY & EMMA SLATER

You cannot tell me this man isn’t having the most fun he’s had in a minute. He was another easy-to-spot early elimination, but I actually enjoyed watching him to some degree. Emma danced circles around him, but you could really tell he was trying his damnedest and I appreciate it. And his performances didn’t strike cold, dead fear into my heart like other people.

He also got the same average score as Carole over the first two episodes, but one of those was NOT an 11. Slightly better, imo, just a little less improvement than Carole---which is why Derek booted him in the first place. (Overall rating: 1.5 left feet/10)

NUMBER 13: JESSE METCALFE AND SHARNA BURGESS

Did they---did they ever dance? I literally don’t remember anything other than that Newsies dance, which I have to say I particularly enjoyed. It might be because I like Newsies. It might be because Sharna’s hair is gorgeous this season. I don’t know, but it probably wasn’t because of Jesse’s dancing.

That’s literally all I have to say. (Overall rating: 2 confused braincells/10)

NUMBER 12: CHRISHELL STAUSE AND GLEB SAVCHENKO

WOAH, she’s coming in with the hot takes! Chrishell hasn’t even been eliminated yet! And look, it’s not even Chrishell’s fault that she’s so low on the list. It really isn’t. She’s been performing, well, okay thus far. Not great, considering her highest score was a 26 on a Paso double where she literally did not even dance (look, I’m not a judge, but I would’ve given it a 21 MAYBE). She’s trying, and she seems to be really enjoying it; I absolutely adore her energy. But most of the issue here is attributed to her partner, Gleb.

His choreography is just... I don’t know... lazy. He throws himself around like a god among men and Chrishell is just there. I don’t really appreciate the pros who prefer to dance over their partners instead of with them. I don’t understand why he thinks this method will get him a mirrorball, but it’s just not gonna happen. (Overall rating: 2 measures of actual dancing/10)

NUMBER 11: ANNE HECHE AND KEO MOTSEPE

Look how happy they look! No, but seriously, they didn’t do that bad. They just had a bad week. Week 2, they had a higher average score than SIX other couples on the show, and they left with a score of 21. I legitimately think that their Disney night dance was underscored. Sure, it wasn’t wonderful, but it didn’t deserve a fifteen.

I know they had no chance to win the mirrorball, but Keo has a history of being stuck with less-than-stellar partners. Anne was not a bad match; they just had bad luck and better competition. I did love watching them, though. And Keo is beautiful, but need I say more? (Overall rating: 3.5 early elims/10)

NUMBER 10: VERNON DAVIS AND PETA MURGATROYD CHMERKOVSKIY

I honestly haven’t enjoyed Peta’s choreography since Season 22, when she and Nyle DiMarco ate up the dance floor and left not a single crumb. She and Peta were another pair where I was like, “Wait, who got eliminated? They’re still here?” The judges were right in saying Vernon had a lot of energy on stage, and look at him here. He’s big cheesin’.

They kind of existed for me is all I have to say. The only reason they’re ranked higher than Anne and Keo is because their average score was just overall better. They never scored extremely well, with their highest score being a 22, but they never did too horribly either. They were meh. (Overall rating: 4 touchdowns/10)

NUMBER 9: NELLY AND DANIELLA KARAGACH

Another hot take? Yes. I can never tell whether or not Nelly enjoys being here until he actually dances. During rehearsal, confessionals, critiques, he always looks a little embarrassed or nervous? I’m not sure. But just like Vernon and Peta, all of their dances have been kind of meh.

That’s not to put Daniella down in any sense. It’s her first season as a pro, and her abilities definitely shine through in her performance. But like I said about Gleb earlier, she has a tendency to dance over Nelly at times (see: the Freddy Krueger dance from last week). I don’t see Nelly living up to the standards the judges say he’s lived up to thus far, but that might just be my personal opinion. (Overall rating: 5 heeled sneakers/10)

NUMBER 8: MONICA ALDAMA AND VALENTIN CHMERKOVSKIY

Another surprisingly hot take. I actually really enjoyed each of Monica’s dances this season, especially since she’s someone with essentially zero dance experience. I’m still very pissy that the Ratched dance sent her home---it was one of my favorite dances of the night, and I have no clue why she only got a 22 for it (especially when Chrishell and Gleb got a 26).

Val has always been someone on the show who can take a non-dancer and genuinely make them better. This is the case with Monica. We saw so much improvement with her over the weeks. We’re getting to the part of the list where I love all of the dancers. Still, Monica and Jeannie should not have been the bottom 2 last week, but in the case between the two, it’s right that Monica was eliminated. Still, I would have loved to see her next week. (Overall rating: 6 cheer pyramids/10)

NUMBER 7: SKAI JACKSON AND ALAN BERSTEN

Sure, she got the first 10 of the season. Sure, the Chucky dance was kind of spectacular. But she’s also had the lowest score for two out of seven weeks so far. She has yet to be in the bottom, but I’m sure that’s the fans working for her. I can’t deny her talent on the dance floor, but I would argue that objectively, Skai has made the most mistakes out of everyone this season.

She’s been remarkably inconsistent over the course of the season, but when she’s good, she’s really, really good. She was my pick to win when the cast was released, but now I don’t see that happening unless the fans really come to vote on her, which I think they will. But there is no excuse for an 18 on Week 6. She can do better. I know she can. But until then, she stays in the middle of my list. (Overall rating: 6 Ms. Kiplings/10)

NUMBER 6: JEANNIE MAI AND BRANDON ARMSTRONG

To be completely honest, I had Jeannie Mai pegged as an early elimination from Week 1. But she and Brandon continue to astound me as a team. I love every single one of their dances, sad that they’ve been consistently underscored. That Hannibal Lecter paso was stunning, and the Up dance on Disney night made me tear up a little.

They’re not higher for the sole reason that others are just better. Not because I don’t love what they put out on the stage every week, but Jeannie just isn’t the strongest technically. Until they get eliminated, though, I’ll be watching with bated breath. (Overall rating: 7 hole-in-ones/10)

NUMBER 5: KAITLYN BRISTOWE AND ARTEM CHIGVENTSEV

Do I just not see what everyone else is seeing when they’re obsessing over Kaitlyn Bristowe? I mean, everything she’s done so far has been wonderful, but she’s not my favorite. Technically, it’s on point 85% of the time. and she has the second-highest point total so far in the competition, but she has yet to do a dance where I step back and think, “Wow.” That’s what puts her behind the top four.

I did not like the Cruella DeVille paso doble at all last week, but I think that was attributed to the song choice more than anything else. I have yet to be taken aback by Kaitlyn and Artem, but their work is undeniably, objectively some of the best on the show. (Overall rating: 7 roses/10)

NUMBER 4: AJ MCLEAN AND CHERYL BURKE

Now we’re at the spot on the list where if any of these guys win the mirrorball, I will be satisfied. Something about AJ is simply magnetic. He has such a kind disposition and wonderful talent on the dance floor, it’s so hard not to love him. His samba is one of my favorite dances on this season so far, and I’m genuinely concerned that he’s been underscored this whole time.

Cheryl is a mf VETERAN at this, too. She knows how to teach this man to destroy a dance floor. The energy he brings, the life he brings, the nasty footwork that he DEMOLISHES. I did not expect to love AJ as much as I do. In my opinion, the most improvement we’ve seen in a star this season. (Overall: 8.5 backstreets/10)

NUMBER 3: JUSTINA MACHADO AND SASHA FARBER

Justina is living proof that you don’t have to be as big around as my pinky finger to do ballroom dancing well. She’s easily the best female star this season, and Sasha has accentuated her talents on the dance floor without overpowering her, which I enjoy. On top of that, she looks so happy to be here, which translates heavily into her dancing.

I will say, not every dance from her has been my favorite, but there hasn’t been a single dance out of her that I haven’t liked. Her presence is so powerful and destructive that everyone needs to watch their backs. Remember, this is a sitcom mom, not a professional dancer. (Overall rating: 8.5 days at a time/10)

NUMBER 2: JOHNNY WEIR AND BRITT STEWART

I am a firm believer that Johnny and Britt should have gotten a perfect 30 on their contemporary back in Week 5. I am also a firm believer that they should have gotten a perfect 30 on their Viennese waltz last week. I am consistently blown away by Britt’s choreography every single week, and their chemistry as a pair is unlike anyone I’ve seen in the show’s history.

What I like about them so much is how much of a team they are. That really makes so much difference out on the dance floor. Their grace and style is completely unmatched, and as a first season pro, Britt is destroying some of the pros who have been here for years... Gleb. I can’t wait to see their performances every single week, and I hope they continue to dance together somehow even after the show is over. (Overall rating: 9.9 triple axels/10)

NUMBER 1: NEV SCHULMAN AND JENNA JOHNSON CHMERKOVSKIY

Hey, quick question: did you expect this? Because I definitely didn’t. Catfish has always been my guilty pleasure show to watch when I’m bored and lonely, and Nev has always been this super dorky guy, so when they announced the cast list, I was like “Oh, this is gonna be funny as hell.” Because it could only go one of two ways: 1) Nev fumbles around like a dork and goes home pretty early, or 2) he wins the mirrorball.

APPARENTLY it’s the latter. Nev surprised me, and I think everyone, with his natural talent, and Jenna is heavily playing off that in her choreography. She’s been giving him very difficult, technical work and he’s has continued to astound. With the first 30 of the season rightfully deserved, Nev is a force to be reckoned with. Like I’ve said earlier, some of the pros like to dance over their partners to hide their weaknesses. I would go so far as to argue Jenna lets him dance over her. Together, they’re an absolute wildfire, and if they continue at this pace, consider the competition already won. (Overall rating: 10 chest hairs/10)

10 notes · View notes

kazarinn · 4 years

Text

Roundup of all the things I’ve translated within the last month

Those who have been following me for a while might know that the last month saw me be very unusually prolific with translation (especially Digimon-related ones), to unprecedented extents. I'll be very honest about the fact that it's because of the current quarantine, which has left me with not a lot to do and a sense of boredom that translation somehow happens to satiate a bit ^^;; That said, the very large number of translations I'd been posting has caused things to get a bit buried, and has made things easily missable, so I've decided to make a bit of a roundup post summarizing everything I've done in the last month.

Of course, there's probably still more to come in the near future -- I have two books (the Digimon Official Super Encyclopedia and the Gakken Digimon Adventure tri. Memorial Book) hopefully coming in the mail soon, and I still have some stuff lying around I might take up if my mood warms up to it, but since I've finally cleared up a ton of the backlog I felt I should take a breather to summarize stuff. (Although, every time I say I've cleared the backlog, suddenly more interesting things pop up...^^;;)

Digimon Adventure, Adventure 02, Tamers, Frontier

Digimon Adventure 02 Drama CD "Armor Evolution to the Unknown" I will be honest in that this is actually my favorite thing to have translated in this past month. Actually, fiction translation has a higher level of difficulty for me than things like interviews -- because I want to be careful with what real people have said, I tend to be less stringent about rewording things, whereas with fiction I hold myself to a higher standard to make things flow well. But that's actually what makes it so much fun, because I can challenge myself to play with wording and broaden my horizons, and moreover Adventure 02 has a ton of characters, and it's really fun to try and make unique "voices" for all of them. That said, translating this was a bit of a wake-up call, because the sheer amount of pop culture references (to things made before I was even born, at that) and wordplay everywhere led me to the very harsh realization of why so few people have attempted to translate this drama CD into so few languages over the past two decades ^^;; I give my thanks to the anonymous Japanese commenters on Nico Nico Douga who pointed out many of the really old and obscure pop culture references, and I ended up spending several hours on Japanese Wikipedia looking up things like said old anime and British punk rock artists. I might not have gotten everything, and I'm sure there are people out there who probably would have been able to pull it off better than I did, but it ultimately became a test of my abilities as a translator, and if it's fun and entertaining and enjoyable, then that alone makes me satisfied. But I think this will be the last time (at least for a while) that I try translating something audio-only with no transcript -- my hearing is not that great, not even in English ^^;;

The Mystery of the American Box Bug A story from Adventure and Adventure 02 director Hiroyuki Kakudou that has some very tangential (at best) relation to Digimon, but is amusing nevertheless.

Digimon Adventure Character Complete File -- Future Encyclopedia Little "dialogue" snippets from an Adventure/Adventure 02-related book, checking in on the kids-turned-adults during the time of Adventure 02's epilogue. I actually translated this a long time ago, but I lost the transcript for it and I'm pretty sure (given how long ago it was) it was probably pretty embarrassing by my current standards, so I went ahead and did this over again. There are some other things in this book that are interesting and/or amusing, like further background info on the kids' family lives and room layouts, so if I have some spare time I might do some of those in the future, although naturally doing the entire book would probably be practically impossible.

Digimon Series Memorial Book: Digimon Animation Chronicle — Special interview with Hiromi Seki, Hiroyuki Kakudou, and Yukio Kaizawa An interview with some perennial Digimon staff members about Adventure through Frontier (and a bit of X-Evolution). We've had no shortage of these kinds of interviews over the years, but this one happens to summarize a lot of things that used to be considered "obscure" in the Digimon fanbase outside Japan, even though this book (and thus this interview) is one of the most prominent resources for diehard Digimon fans out there. Also, Frontier-related development info tends to be somewhat rare, so it's nice to hear about it. The Digimon Official Super Encyclopedia that I'm hoping to get my hands on soon allegedly has a similar interview with the same three people. I don't know specifics about it yet, but I'm informed that it mostly covers similar territory to this one, but also allegedly has some very fascinating details that weren't in this, so I'm looking forward to that as well.

Message from Digimon Adventure producer Hiromi Seki, to Toshiko Fujita Posted by Adventure producer Hiromi Seki to the LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna Twitter on February 8, 2019, right before the 49th day (last day of mourning, in Japanese tradition) after Taichi Yagami voice actress Toshiko Fujita's passing.

Mimi Tachikawa and Lilimon Posted by Adventure director Hiroyuki Kakudou on his blog, talking about the intent behind Mimi Tachikawa's character and her corresponding track in the drama CD Digimon Adventure: Two-and-a-Half Year Break.

Digimon Adventure tri.

On Creation and Production for “Super Evolution Stage: Digimon Adventure tri.” A post by Director Kenichi Tani about his work on the Adventure tri. stage play. Despite technically being under Adventure tri. branding, the stage play actually has surprisingly little in common with the Adventure tri. anime in terms of both content and production background, and moreover Digimon hasn't had a lot of contact with the stage medium all that much, so I thought it'd be interesting to translate something about its production, especially since this tends to be a lesser talked-about part of the franchise.

October/November 2018 Gashapon Blog interviews with Kenji Watanabe This is actually two interviews, one where Digimon franchise creator and character designer Kenji Watanabe talks about design for a Digimon gachapon set, and one where he talks about Adventure tri.'s Omegamon Merciful Mode, but I'm categorizing it under the Adventure tri. section because I figure the vast majority of readers will be reading the interview for the latter.

Digimon Adventure tri. voice actor comments (Part 1: Reunion | Part 2: Determination | Part 3: Confession | Part 4: Loss | Part 5: Coexistence | Part 6: Our Future) A series of voice actor comments that were posted to the official website prior to each Adventure tri. movie being released. I'd actually had it on the brain to try my hand at these when they were first posted, but various circumstances happened and I never got around to it, until now. In retrospect, though, I think it turned out for the better that I didn't attempt them on the spot. Adventure tri.-related interviews tend to be much more difficult to translate than most Digimon-related ones, and although there are a few reasons why, the biggest one is that, during its run, it had a very tight spoiler embargo, resulting in a lot of vague language being used, and so when you translate from a language like Japanese -- where having proper context can be life or death -- not knowing the original context behind what was being said can throw the end result into completely incorrect and misleading interpretations. While I was working on these, I did actually end up having to pull up the movies again and reference what scenes were being referred to multiple times just so I could phrase the sentence correctly, so yeah, I think it did ultimately work out. Incidentally, this is also the first direct Adventure tri. production-related thing I've translated since 2016 (mainly due to the expenses incurred by importing magazines and my difficulty with translating print media at the time). Looking back at it, I'm honestly kind of ashamed at my own inexperience from back then, but sadly, I don't have the original magazines anymore, so I can't do much to fix it, and so I'm kind of glad to have these as my sort of attempt at "redeeming myself".

Digimon Adventure tri. — Yoshimasa Hosoya interview on “To Me” Also from the official website, discussing voice actor Yoshimasa Hosoya's involvement with the ending theme song from part 3 (Confession), "To Me".

Digimon Adventure LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna

Anime! Anime! interview series (Director Tomohisa Taguchi interview | Natsuki Hanae and Chika Sakamoto interview | 02 human cast voice actor interview | 02 Digimon cast voice actor interview | Producer Yousuke Kinoshita and supervisor Hiromi Seki interview) I didn't actually know this was a series until very recently, so you'll have to forgive me for translating these out of order. Technically, all of these were posted in February to March 2020, after the movie was released in Japan, but it's pretty much spoiler-free. It's got a huge amount of development and background info behind LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna, so I recommend them as reading for anyone interested in seeing the movie.

"In regards to the new Digimon project" Otherwise known as "what happened when Hiroyuki Kakudou accidentally revealed that they were making another Digimon Adventure-related movie". Since the news that original Adventure director was recusing from LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna due to some kind of creative difference over lore ended up naturally being a hot topic, I felt like having a proper translation of his statement on the matter would be a useful thing to have. Despite technically being LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna-related, it also has a transcription of his tweets regarding Adventure/Adventure 02 background lore along with some surprising production details, so it may interest fans of the original series as well.

Digimon Continues to be Loved Thanks to its Creator’s Commitment — With Digimon Character Designer Kenji Watanabe An Asahi &M article (sort of a half-interview) with Kenji Watanabe over his involvement in LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna, which, unusually for a Digimon anime work, actually had him directly involved in production from beginning to end. I put this on the post already, but this article gets a lot dangerously closer to outright spoilers than you'd expect for this kind of material, so if you're particularly keen on going into the movie "completely clean", best to maybe avoid this one until you've seen the movie.

Digimon Adventure LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna — Website messages from Hiromi Seki and Yousuke Kinoshita It's just a short greeting message on the official website. I wanted to translate it mainly because it's not on the official English site.

Animage Plus interviews with Yousuke Kinoshita Also something I'd wanted to translate for a while but never got around to (until now). A triple set of interviews with LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna producer Yousuke Kinoshita, who also talks about Adventure's 20th anniversary and the "Memorial Story" short story collection crowdfund.

Digimon Adventure:

Interviews with Yabuno Tenya and Atsuhiro Tomioka (Part 1: V-Jump Web | Part 2: Digimon Web) A two-part interview (each part on different websites) with Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01 artist Yabuno Tenya and Digimon Adventure: lead writer Atsuhiro Tomioka, discussing their respective works and Adventure:'s surprising relation to V-Tamer.

Digimon Adventure director Hiroyuki Kakudou’s initial comments on the Digimon Adventure: reboot A triple set of blog posts from original Digimon Adventure director Hiroyuki Kakudou about the Adventure: reboot and what relation it has to him and the original Adventure (along with some fun trivia about the latter). I figured some people out there might be curious about what the original Adventure director thought about Toei rebooting his series.

Digimon games

Explore the Secrets of Digimon World Re:Digitize Decode’s Evolution! Interview with Habu and Tomono Decode is rather inaccessible to the West right now (being unlocalized, and on the region-locked 3DS at that), so the idea of translating too many things relevant to it is pretty low-priority to me at the moment, but it's still a game of significant interest to the Digimon fanbase outside Japan, and is also notable as one of the first major titles spearheaded by Digimon game producer Kazumasa Habu, so I felt that there'd be quite a few people interested in this one.

Interview with Producer Habu of Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory: Highlights and Future Prospects A 4Gamer interview that I'd wanted to translate since I'd first read it, but never got around to. Incidentally, I decided to go back and make some revisions to the wording for the Famitsu interviews I translated for the original game. They were some of the first things I ever translated, and it...kind of shows. ^^;; Normally I don't like to lock myself into a habit of constantly going back and revising old work, as doing so tends to be a bit of a black hole, but since the original Cyber Sleuth is still quite the hot topic among the fanbase right now (and especially with Complete Edition being recently released), I thought it might be worth it this time.

Famitsu.com interview with Kazumasa Habu on Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth: Hacker’s Memory Another Hacker's Memory interview, a bit less detailed than the above but still fairly informative.

Other

Iwata Asks #14: Hatsune Miku and Future Stars: Project mirai Somehow this ended up the only non-Digimon thing on the list ^^;; The version of this game that eventually did make it to the West (Project Mirai DX) is so different from the original game that it meant this Iwata Asks was never officially translated, so I thought it'd be worth taking a shot at this one. I don't have any plans to translate any other Iwata Asks at the moment, mainly because it requires me to have more than a passing knowledge of how each game works for proper context, but I hope you can at least enjoy this one.

#Digimon #Digimon Adventure #Digimon Adventure 02 #Digimon Adventure tri #Digimon Adventure LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna #Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth #Hacker's Memory #Digimon Adventure Reboot #Digimon Adventure V Tamer 01 #Digimon World Re:Digitize #Digimon Tamers #Digimon Frontier #Vocaloid #Project Mirai

33 notes · View notes