#not even joking. worst possible method of communication in existence | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

trylkstopocket · 1 year

Text

The NFT Ecosystem Is a Burnout Machine

When serial entrepreneur Wil Lee first heard about nonfungible tokens, after Mike Winkelmann (aka Beeple) sold one for more than $69 million at Christie’s in March 2021, he waved them off as a money-laundering scam. But after noticing that they were showing up on his radar again and again, he began to pay attention.

In June 2021, almost four years after he became involved in the crypto industry, Lee decided to buy his first NFT. Within a week, he had transferred his entire portfolio into the NFT ecosystem. Within a month, he had sold one of his real estate properties and moved all of the money from the sale into NFTs.

After spending a few months investing, Lee decided to launch his own NFT project, the littles. Like many other NFT creators, Lee was in charge of his entire project: the tech, the community, the art, and the marketing. “Every day I’m just on Discord, making sure that it has not been hacked and that everything is performing and okay and on schedule,” he said.

Despite taking as many precautions as possible, Lee found that it didn’t take long for his worst fears to become reality. During a giveaway, he realized that hackers had infiltrated his website: “I thought, is everything I’ve built for the past couple of months going to trash because of this exploit?” But the scariest part of this mishap wasn’t that he could lose everything—it was that it could hurt the people in his community who had put their faith and money in his project. “That was when I realized that this was going to be a rough ride,” Lee stated.

Although NFTs have been around since 2014, when artist Kevin McCoy minted the first-known NFT, Quantum, on the NameCoin blockchain, most people had no idea they existed until the high-profile sale by Beeple in 2021. Since then, multiple major brands from Taco Bell to Gucci have jumped on the bandwagon and released their own NFTs.

For many observers, the entire NFT industry is a pointless joke that has gone on for far too long. Activists have also heavily criticized NFTs because most are minted using the energy-intensive proof-of-work method. In February, the World Wildlife Fund U.K. ended its NFT sale following backlash from environmentalists.

For enthusiasts, though, the backlash is just noise—they believe NFTs offer major can’t-miss opportunities. The community, innovation, and investment market are seductive, but the space moves quickly, and watching other people rave about their success makes it easy to feel like time is running out and you’re being left behind. The pressure to move quickly (and the FOMO that comes with it), the way the ecosystem is set up, and the chance that the entire field of NFTs could all come crashing down at any moment is leading to collectors and creators pushing as hard as they can to succeed. But you can’t push yourself forever. Eventually, you begin to burn out.

Being in the NFT world, of course, means competing to buy NFTs. But to get even a chance of acquiring some of the most-sought-after ones, you have to get onto a project’s whitelist: a list of the people who get first dibs on NFTs, often for a cheaper price and sometimes even for free.

Getting onto a whitelist isn’t always easy, and every project has its own set of instructions users must follow in order to get whitelisted, like filling out a Google form, inviting people to a Discord community, or signing up to a lottery system that picks addresses at random.

Applying for a single whitelist can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to a few hours. While some people will only apply for projects they’re really excited about, other investors will apply for multiple whilelists per day. This process is referred to as “whitelist grinding,” and burnout often follows close behind.

Rita is an NFT collector and creator who is known online as __ritanevermind. During the worst stages of her lead-up to burnout, Rita stopped taking breaks so she could be more productive, and even began skipping meals. “Last time I had FOMO [that] led me to burnout, I was trying to get on the whitelist on one of the new NFT projects that are launching soon,” she told me. “I was logged in their Discord literally 24/7 for a week. I got whitelisted, but the [psychological] price was tremendous. My free time, my time for making art, my family time, everything was replaced with my phone. I slept on average four hours per night because I had to stay active there.”

Although Rita mostly enjoyed participating in the Discord channel and chatting with fellow community members, being on social media all day made her feel like she was missing out on real-life experiences. As a result, she ultimately decided to leave the channel: “I’m not there anymore because it’s not worth it. My life is not worth wasting on some Discord server to get a presale opportunity I’m not even sure I’ll buy.”

Many investors come into the space trying to flip NFTs for profit after reading success stories about other investors becoming “instant millionaires” by investing in the right projects. But while the stock market includes a blueprint of how to evaluate investments, NFT projects have no such thing. As a result, many investors resort to “going with their gut” when it comes to deciding which projects to invest in. This means that even for experienced investors, figuring out which project to invest in can be difficult.

Flur is a “whale investor” in the NFT space, which means he holds a large collection of NFTs. (“Whale investors” get their name because their movements within the NFT space can disturb the waters that smaller fish swim in.) Flur is well known within the community for having one of the best NFT collections; it currently includes more than 10,000 assets. His tweets have a reputation for driving people to new and upcoming projects.

However, despite his wealth of experience in the space, Flur still sometimes finds himself struggling with how quickly the space is moving. “The NFT community is experiencing exponential growth, which means nonstop new projects and information,” he said. “It’s very hard to keep up with, but the potential payout and the rewards are huge when it comes to catching the next big blue chip early.”

Many people decide to enter the NFT space when market confidence is high because they see others making a profit and want to get in on it. When Beeple made headlines in March 2021, the NFT market skyrocketed, and it has been volatile since then. Prices rose again in January of this year following an influx of celebrity collaborations, then slumped again sharply, reaching a low in March. Now, it looks like sales are on the up again—but how long this will last is anyone’s guess. That doesn’t stop people from making speculations: Last weekend, OpenSea—the largest NFT marketplace—set a new daily trading record of $476 million in Ethereum. A couple of days later, the Wall Street Journal reported that “the NFT market is collapsing.”

For founders bearing the weight of an entire community made up of thousands of new investors relying on their art to get rich, the responsibility can feel overwhelming. “The people and the investors within this space are very green, and they fall for anything and everything,” Lee said. “And once they buy into your project at a very high price and they don’t see action right away, or they see any type of misinformation, they panic and sell at a loss.”

Loopify is an NFT artist–turned-collector who founded Treeverse, an open-world fantasy in the metaverse. He also owns Interleave, an NFT production team. Thanks to NFTs, Loopify has become a millionaire. But that doesn’t mean he is immune to the stressors that come with being an NFT creator and investor. “Around a year ago, the market was stale for quite a bit,” he said. “This happens quite often when the price is down. Because the market slowed down, it means engagement slowed down. People stopped responding to my posts and less things were happening. My art wasn’t selling, nor were some of the things I collected.”

Loopify described this event as his “first burnout moment.” He began to question his involvement in the NFT community altogether. But just when he had begun to rethink his decisions, the market slowly began to recover, and engagement and sales returned.

Even when things are going well, it can be tricky to keep your investors and followers satisfied. Loopify said, “You have people that continuously ask questions on every social media [platform]. Even if you answer them a hundred times, they’ll keep coming.”

But not everyone chooses to return to the NFT space after taking some time away. For one anonymous NFT collector, it all became too much. “This space has become so toxic,” they told me. “People are saying WAGMI [“we are all gonna make it”—an acronym used widely within the crypto community] but that’s a baldfaced lie.”

They tell me that the NFT industry has changed significantly over the past year—and not in a good way: “So many devs mint then make promises and never deliver.” In the NFT world, “minting” digital assets is the process of uniquely publishing a token on the blockchain so others can publish it. This allows creators to monetize their work. “Or they take forever to do so, which in this space is a death sentence,” they continued, seemingly confirming the fears of many creators who told me they feel like they’re falling behind.

When I asked if they had any advice for newbies in the space trying not to burn out, they emphasized the highs and lows of the market and encouraged people not to panic and sell when prices are low.

But their final piece of advice fell along the same lines as the advice from everyone else that I spoke to: “Always put in real life first.”

0 notes

oflgtfol · 3 years

Text

i know the nuclear waste storage thing proliferated throughout tumblr but the conversations around it never really like, properly addressed WHY i personally find it so profound and meaningful lol

it’s just. the reason it’s written like that is because this is for long-term storage. not 100 years. not 200 years. literally tens of thousands of years, to the point where the commonly recognized symbols and languages of modern day will very likely not even exist anymore. we all know what a nuclear warning symbol looks like nowadays, but we have absolutely zero guarantee that the people of the year 20,000 will be able to recognize what it means and the danger it presents. we have no idea the what kind of scientific background they will have, if they will even know what nuclear waste IS - whether that's because science has degraded over time, or because it advanced so much that nuclear waste became obsolete, or whether they know what it is but have an entirely different understanding of it than we do nowadays, etc etc.

the report about this states that the best course of action is to continuously reaffirm our current methods. make sure that our current symbols remain in public conscience, continuously educate about this, continuously update current text warnings with language as it evolves over time. that is the best case scenario.

but science is not science unless you account for all cases - especially the worst case. so how do you communicate with a group of people that you have no shared language, no shared knowledge of warning symbols, no shared scientific knowledge with?

the text warning above is only one part of the general plan to warn away from storage sites. it also includes hostile architecture as a way to physically block people from reaching the storage site, as well as a visual symbol of you're not welcome here as a warning. there are also pictographic depictions of people's faces scrunched up in disgust, fear, anger, under the assumption that emotions and facial expressions will be a unifying factor where all other forms of communication fail. in a way, this text warning is the very last resort for keeping people away.

it's written in this utterly strange way that sounds nothing like the way people actually speak. but it's written like this because it's supposed to be easily translatable, both in the literal words and also in the general concepts, in order to account for linguistic changes over time as well as possible changes in scientific and cultural knowledge.

instead of saying "there is nuclear waste here. leave" it instead calls it some sort of "emanation of energy" and it describes the general geographic area using words like "center" and "below." these are easily translatable phrases. they may not have the words or even the concept of nuclear waste, but "emanation of energy" is probably the easiest description of radiation without getting into the jargony, untranslatable science of it. if this future people is aware of nuclear radiation, then it's enough to extrapolate what exactly we're talking about here, and if they aren't aware of nuclear radiation, then it's still enough to understand that there is something intangible, invisible, and dangerous. and the warning cannot describe where exactly the waste is located using modern terms, but "center" and "below" are pretty universal concepts that have existed long before us, and will presumably persist long after us.

but what i really want to pinpoint is how they focus on the harm it causes. they describe it as an emanation of energy but they don't call it "the energy." they call it the danger, and they say "The danger is to the body, and it can kill." body, kill, danger, these are all concepts that transcend time period. people have always had words for these concepts, and they are intimately understood regardless of when you are. above all else, these words can be translated, and they are the most important words in this entire message because of that.

we have no idea if humanity as a race will even exist on these time scales. every day it feels like we’re inching closer to our own demise. and so often when anyone talks about the future even 50 years from now, you’re met with jokes like “bold of you to assume we’ll still be alive then.” it’s such a bleak outlook on life, the assumption that we’ll be gone so soon, and with it comes this uncaring attitude about future generations. why put in the work and effort to preserve things when we'll be gone in the blink of an eye, and on a more callous level, why try to improve things when i won't be alive then anyway, etc etc.

so to dedicate so much thought towards warning people SO far in the future that we cannot even imagine the state of their language, their knowledge, their culture, is just so profound to me. it’s the ultimate sign of human compassion, of caretaking and helping others in need. thousands of generations will separate us from anyone who can come close to being the intended audience of these warnings, and yet we care so much about them that we’ll go to such lengths to protect them from this danger. we can so easily hand wave it, say oh but that’s in the far future, who cares, just keep using our current language and symbols, but no! we want to reach through time and make sure that people stay away for their own health

it especially hits me because this is the impact of our own poor decisions. nuclear waste is so toxic that even thousands upon thousands of years from now it will still be deadly. and we're literally burying it in the ground and leaving it for future generations to deal with. playing with such powers before we’re ready, before we know how to properly handle it, like we’re playing God with things powerful beyond our control. the sheer hubris of it all. and the nuclear waste and the danger it poses both now and in the future is reaping the consequences of it. but the people in the future did nothing to deserve it, it was not their generation who did this, yet they’re dealing with the consequences of what their ancestors did

and so i feel like, this message is both a warning and an APOLOGY. “This place is not a place of honor... no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here... nothing valued is here.” this phrase is there to signal that no, this isn’t buried treasure, this isn’t anything you want to be digging around in, even the people of its time were in danger from it. as always, it’s a warning. but the way it's worded feels like something else, too. this place is not a place of honor. all the scientific advancements and awards and medals of honor going towards the development of nuclear energy and weapons and all things nuclear - and yet, this place is not a place of honor. one of our most shining achievements is also our heaviest burden. because here we are, having to warn our descendants in the far far future of the danger it poses, entirely because we were messing with things before we had the proper capability to handle it safely and responsibly. it’s a warning, yes, but it's also an apology. a way of humbling ourselves. "We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture," and yet, "this place is best left shunned and left uninhabited."

and so taking the time to think these things through, of how to communicate to people tens of thousands of years in the future to keep them safe and healthy, feels like both a show of human compassion for the sake of compassion, and also yet another form of apology. because this isn’t some freak accident. this isn't a naturally occurring danger. this is directly caused by our current actions. if they fall sick or die because of exposure, that is because of us, because of what we did and then buried in the ground to hide and forget about, and so it’s really only right that we take responsibility for our actions and the unintended consequences and ensure that no one else is harmed by them

TL;DR, i love this message so much because it's an admittance of hubris and playing god. it's an apology, it's a show of regret, and it's humbling ourselves in dealing with the consequences. it's communication between generations and reaching through the ages to directly talk to our descendants. it's an extraordinary link over time, between vastly different peoples, and we use it to express basic compassion and humility. it's a message about humanity, with all of our worst, but also all of our best.

#whenever i say ‘we’ i mean that in a very broad sense as in ‘humanity in general during this current time period’#of course i am not blaming YOU as an individual for nuclear waste and its unfortunate side effects LMFAO #brot posts #this is like my fifth fucking essay about this thing . ive thought and said so much about it help #this is by far my longest one though lol and hopefully my most comprehensive one #still not entirely sure i explained it properly though. DX #it just. it makes me feel things OK !!!

62 notes · View notes

irritatedandroid · 3 years

Text

The Fire Burns Bright

A Personal Essay From an Alolan Marowak -Jasper (@irritatedandroid, @irritatedDroid)

Summary: Below the cut, this is a personal essay written by Jasper on his experiences with being an Alolan Marowak fictherian and fictionkind. Personal experience, discussion of awakening, shifts, instincts, animality, culture and spirituality are elaborated on alongside a critical view on community narratives and boundaries.

CWs: In-depth look on death, personal experiences with death

I find there isn’t enough discussion on the fact that nonhumanity can be approached from multiple different angles and axis, instead treated like a hard binary of animality vs humanity - or if you’re lucky, a two-way spectrum. I’m someone who is nonhuman through and through, but the way in which I can experience being “other” from humanity can shift wildly. A strong sense of animality is brought on when shifted towards my Alolan Marowak fictotype - enough that I tend to strongly identify with the word fictherian. Though that sense of animality is its own thing, and is a wholly separate scale from the nonhumanity I experience when shifted towards my android kintype. But the experiences drawn from being an android could fill an essay of their own. We’re here to discuss the Marowak.

Both very not human, both very “other”, but a wholly different view upon what it means to be human and not human respectively. And I suspect the scale my Marowak self experiences may be different as well from the scale any given earthen animal may experience. Similar enough to where therianthrope discussion rings loud mental bells of familiarity and understanding, but still something else worth acknowledging. After all, how many earthen animal therianthropes feel the raw instinct of fire breath? Were-dragons however may understand that one well. And yet that animality is not something to be ignored or to set aside entirely even if the axis runs at a slightly off angle in comparison.

My name is Jasper, and some of you might know me, I’ve been around the community for a couple of years. Some folks even remember the internal grapple with identity and understanding that I had when I started being unable to deny I am an Alolan Marowak. The moment when the Alolan Marowak design was teased, and I had pointed out the familiarity as well as the typing before it was actually shown. There was a moment then when experiences and vague, blurry memories I’d held onto quietly for years without the priority of digging in deeper - as I was already busy with questioning and understanding my android kintype - became an absolute priority of mine to understand further.

I often half-joke about how my “awakening” as discussed in nonhuman communities was completely rocky, as it was. It was less a solid awakening, and more multiple years of slowly accepting and embracing aspects of my life that had always been present, which I had denied either to ease my own responsibility to myself or to appease others. Folks in the community may recall seeing me step into denial, and to substitute in any possible reptilian, fire-based creature I could in order to try and understand the experiences. Because how could I be a Pokemon? I’d been critical of fictionkin while diving into the community, something which when looking back was likely a compensation for already having been something odd and to be met with criticism - the android. I ran through a number of species when questioning: everything from earthen lizards, to draconic entities, to the elemental spirits of salamanders.

There were multiple aspects absolutely vital to communicating what I was experiencing, those being a) instinct-driven and wild, reptilian, and b) inherently connected to the elements of fire and spirit. My thoughts could be as unflattering as a scavenger’s instinct, growing frustrated at any leftover food or uncleaned-up animal remains (which sure made living in a populated city interesting, with abandoned scraps of food everywhere and the leftovers of unfortunate urban creatures who tried their luck at crossing Yonge Street), or curious to try and make a meal for myself out of the live insects I keep to feed to my own little old leopard gecko, Saleen. Yes, she was named after a car. No, that is not important. Having her around does however provide an up close frame of reference to draw out my own lizard drives. In terms of food instincts, raw eggs are absolutely another tempter of mine, as my carnivorous scavenger self would have been ecstatic to see a nest of unattended eggs to make a meal of. As I’ve learned due to that raw eggs absolutely suck, please cook them. It’s much better that way. But embarrassing nonhumanity stories will always be embarrassing.

Some of us Marowak - especially the males like myself - could become quite territorial. And that territorial feeling is something I’ve had to settle in my mind over life. Nowadays it’s decently well integrated, but it does now and then try my patience especially when it comes to setting out what is for me and what belongs strictly to me. Renting a small apartment in a populated city, once again, does definitely force you to keep the “this land is mine and it belongs to me, so screw off before you chase off my dinner” thoughts in check. A bit of human humbling for an animal’s self thought. I’ve of course needed to remind myself a number of times that the tourists in the train station on my way to work, while annoying, won’t manage to chase off the Tim Hortons I’ll be eating on my break.

But in the wild frontier of the Pokemon world, predator and prey dynamics were absolutely important to know and understand - and those dynamics reach beyond game mechanics such as elemental types and abilities. Even as a carnivore, scavenger and troublesome predator that I was when I reached the age of a full-grown Marowak, I still was in a dangerous spot on the food chain. The worst predators I’ve had to deal with while working to survive in my ecosystems were other Fire types, intriguingly. Even as a small Ground type Cubone. The fact that Cubones wear the skull of their lost mothers was something I am familiar with, my own having been taken down by a Charizard. This natural order of predation is both a major part of my animalistic experiences as a Marowak, but also did tie into my more sophisticated or spiritually-focused aspects that stemmed from my Pokemon identity and lifetime.

All of this lead to an animality-focused time in figuring out what I was, to the point where when I was in denial of the possibility of being a Pokemon, I identified myself as a theriomythic, fire-oriented reptile. And the animality definitely tends to lead the discussion upon how I live and experience being an Alolan Marowak. I sometimes joke that you could strip that side of my life down to the bare essentials and I’d be a lizard hanging out by a campfire. Though it certainly isn’t every aspect of me, as the Marowak.

At times I think on the term theriomythic, and how it could be extremely valuable in describing more than just “animal but from myth”, but to also communicate experiencing the self on a spectrum of animality and mythicality. In my case this spectrum is very much there, and the aspects of experience that make up me as the Marowak are scattered along it. All aspects are important to me and how I live as myself, as well as how I understand my own fictional animality and nonhumanity.

The Marowak, despite being a wild animal in how I recall and experience my species, do have a displayed aspect of culture and even spirituality. Setting aside the fictional wildness of being able to summon up fire at will to defend one’s turf, we’re shown to be able to interact comfortably with each other when it comes time for rituals, such as fire dancing at the sun rise and to mourn the lost. Mourning the lost is a large part of how one can experience being the Marowak as well, as it’s a pretty integral part of the species’ canon lore, starting from when we’re little baby Cubones. For those unfamiliar with Pokemon lore, a Cubone wears the skull of its dead mother Marowak. Adorning bones in a sort of ritual to mourn is something that I can’t say I’ve seen an earthen animal do. If you have then please do let me know, because it interests me a lot. But all I can say about it in my own drives and thoughts is that it’s just what we do, it’s cultural. To cite the Pokedex, “MAROWAK is the evolved form of a CUBONE that has overcome its sadness at the loss of its mother and grown tough. This POKéMON’s tempered and hardened spirit is not easily broken” (Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, 2002).

The donning and weaponizing of bones is both symbolic and an act of mourning, but also an example of tool using similar to some of our world’s apes. The Pokedex talks of this vaguely, stating “It has been seen pounding boulders with the bone it carries in order to tap out messages to others” (Pokemon Gold, 1999). The various Pokedex entries theorize on where the bone clubs come from, some entries mentioning a graveyard specifically for Marowak existing in the world, where Cubone and Marowak get their bones. Some entries state this like fact, such as Pokemon Crystal, meanwhile others bring up this as a rumour, such as Pokemon Silver. In my experience, it’s a rumour. I’ve not seen a Marowak graveyard, my bone club first came from my mother. But the main referenced use of the bone club is as a weapon, and also as a method of overcoming grief and turning to viciousness. “It is small and was originally very weak. Its temperament turned ferocious when it began using bones.” (Pokemon X, 2013). In my case, the symbolic use of them is as a tool of war, transforming grief into a vicious will to fight on and survive. Due to this, I hold bones and particularly skulls as a sacred object and have my small collection of skulls I keep as comfort objects. With time, having a large femur bone similar in shape is a life goal.

Though it does then get taken a step further, when peering in through the eyes of an Alolan variant Marowak. A spirituality that incorporates the dead and lost is brought in and becomes an extra step of important, crediting the Ghost type aspect alongside the Fire. Newer Pokedex entries focused on specifically this variant states “The bones it possesses were once its mother’s. Its mother’s regrets have become like a vengeful spirit protecting this Pokémon” (Pokemon Sun, 2016) and “It has transformed the spirit of its dear departed mother into flames, and tonight it will once again dance in mourning of others of its kind” (Pokemon Let’s Go, 2018). Spiritual awareness is very much accepted to be something that the Alolan Marowak possess and engage with openly, even building monuments to the lost as stated in the Generation 7 Pokedex entry: “Its custom is to mourn its lost companions. Mounds of dirt by the side of the road mark the graves of the Marowak” (Pokemon Moon, 2016).

Culturally there is a lot to the Marowak’s experience, comparing and including both Alolan and Kantonian variants of the species. The species as I remember are mostly solitary but I do recall clan dynamics and groups especially among the Alolan variant. These groups were less for survival and more for the purpose of those ritual gatherings, mentioned above. At times I was very foreign to these clans, being a Kanto-born Cubone evolved in Alola (a fact supported in canon and proven in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon via the ability to evolve a Kanto Marowak in Ultra Space). Behaviorally and culturally there are differences between Kanto and Alolan Marowak, brought on by how each looks at their situation differently. While an Alolan Marowak processes mourning in a more spiritual way, a Kanto Marowak becomes hardened by anger. “A MAROWAK is the evolved form of a CUBONE that has grown tough by overcoming the grief of losing its mother. Its tempered and hardened spirit is not easily broken,” (Pokemon Emerald, 2004). Because of this there was a separation between myself and the local Marowak that reinforced my solitary nature, and also influenced my introverted and almost outright nomadic nature in my current life and self. The fire dance under the sunrise was one known in canon. These rituals and dances are a custom humans in canon have taken notice to, and can even speculate the reasoning for. “This Pokémon sets the bone it holds on fire and dances through the night as a way to mourn its fallen allies” (Pokemon Sword, 2019). The fact that that cultural dynamic prevailed even through the difficulty of communicating is something that may be surprising, but a number of nonhumans know well that body language and tone of animal vocalizations can go a long way in communicating

Ignoring these experiences would be a step towards cutting down and denying important experiences that affect me as a fictherian and as a Marowak. There’s important parts of how I experience being this Pokemon that are heavily grounded in a context of a mystical world where visibly potent acts of fantasy are possible unlike the world we are living in here. Some of these aspects can be emulated in more subtle ways through exploration of spirituality, religion and the occult. To dive deeper into that, I used to identify as Pagan, however now I practice what is called chaos magic. Chaos magic is a magical practice that developed in England in the 1960’s, working off of Austin Osman Spare’s occult practice and ideas. Chaos magic gave me an approach and freedom to incorporate what I know and remember as an Alolan Marowak into my every-day spirituality. Tailoring my spiritual beliefs and practices to focus on working with the element of fire, with spirits and the energy of death, bones, and to the very fabric of fiction crossing over into reality was extremely important as an avenue for me to explore the way my fictotype affects me in the modern day, and in the human body. This practice also gave me a bit of freedom to accept working with an entity from my source - Giratina - as a patron deity in pagan circles, which ultimately proved to be extremely valuable in exploring my own Pokemon identity. Practices like energy work, meditation, spirit work and visualization hit close to satisfying that need to be delved into the magical world we see in animation. And yet, even in these more sophisticated and fantastical experiences lie links back to the animality and to an inherent disconnect to humanity.

One thing I always enjoy in therianthrope and non-humanoid otherkin discussions is an openness to discuss the instincts that are ugly, disturbing or outside of what one’s human morals would ever agree with in this life and time. And in a lot of cases these instincts and memories can become a lot more “ugly” than a scavenger’s drive to eat carcasses or the awareness and cynical eye needed to survive in a completely wild world. At times, a wild creature can have defense mechanisms or behaviors that to our human minds would seem outright malicious. And Pokemon, even in the whimsical canon, are no exception to that. Once again I’ll drag up a few Pokedex entries - as honestly the Pokedex is a wonderful thing for exploring the deeper aspects of a wild Pokemon - to illustrate my point. “When it beats opponents with its bone, the cursed flames spread to them. No amount of water will stop those flames from burning,” (Pokemon Ultra Moon, 2017) and “The cursed flames that light up the bone carried by this Pokémon are said to cause both mental and physical pain that will never fade” (Pokemon Shield, 2019).

Yes, even the fun and magical world of Pokemon is no stranger to wild animals who inflict effects upon others that seem absolutely awful, and in some cases cruel. But, that’s survival in the animal kingdom, or in this case the Pokemon kingdom. It can be surprising to some that a person who’s fictotype hails from the fun and upbeat franchise that defined a number of childhoods may be hardened to the need to survive in a natural world. The things I know I had done to creatures who my childhood Pokemon fan self would have only wanted to hug, at least at a baseline mental state. In a shift, that’s a different story after all.

But ultimately, this blend of experiences causes an interesting time in exploring myself within the general nonhuman community as it can be quite split up. Certain narratives of individual communities I can’t find myself fitting into, or find myself sitting in between. I settle into spaces focused on everything from therianthropy, to mythical otherkinity, and to fictionkinity, though there’s narratives and cultural aspects in every separated community that either are foreign to me or that I might confront as they expect clear-cut boxes between them which individuals can fit into. In therianthrope communities I’ve been one to criticize the expectation of a solid line between human and animal experiences, or in general animal vs non-animal with regards to forcing a further divide from the otherkin community. I’ve also been involved in discussion criticizing therian community narratives such as a shifting focus and the model of integration. The model of integration is interesting to me, as I experienced it in a way that I was unaware of at the time, particularly with my android kintype. My android kintype is almost fully integrated into me - I barely shift at all at least mentally. However my Marowak fictotype provides less integration, and my mental shifting will be a lot more noticeable against my baseline self. At times it can be as stark as appearing like a different person, or more accurately like a wild animal. But ultimately the differences in the closeness of each kintype draws up issues for me with the integration model, as well as having found it normalized a severe mental health issue I had with my traumagenic plurality at the time of “least integration”.

The therianthrope community is far from the only community with narratives that put a barrier between me and relating, especially as members of each community push for further separation between individual branches of nonhuman experience and identity. I have trouble relating to humanoids when heavily shifted towards my Marowak self, and that puts a bit of a barrier between myself and the otherkin community’s more humanoid side - such as elven, fae, divine, angelic, etc. - as well as the fictionkin community’s focus on humanoid or completely story-driven fictionkind. I have no use for prioritized experiences within the fictionkin community such as finding canon-mates and creating aesthetics. Even in some Pokemon fictionkin specific communities I find I cannot relate often. My experience with my “Pokemanity” is heavily wild and animal-based as I was never caught, socialized with a human, or trained. In no way shape or form is my Pokemanity adjusted to interaction with humans, nor is it something that is settled down or subdued for human consumption unlike what my source was created for.

In both otherkin, therian and even fictionkin communities there is a push towards prioritizing the narrative of a solid awakening. That’s one more focus in the communities that I struggle with, as like I said before, mine was a process of accepting bits of myself which spanned multiple years. Every part of me that is nonhuman has always been present within my life, though for almost two decades muted heavily.

To draw back into my spiritual practice here, consider a practice known as shadow work. Shadow work is a practice that hybridizes spirituality and psychology, and describes the process of becoming aware of one’s shadow (the id, shadow archetype, or shadow aspect drawn from Carl Jung’s psychology) and working to integrate it into oneself by accepting the repressed parts of oneself that are pushed back and merged into the shadow. The shadow can be known as the unknown dark side of the personality, and I theorize that more nonhumans have undesirable aspects of their nonhumanity pushed onto their shadow than they might think they do, like I had done to my own Pokemanity for a number of years. In my case, I was slightly forced to tear into and meet my shadow aspects of my nonhumanity due to the fact that even upon immediately breaking into nonhuman communities, the specifics of what I was were already viewed with hostility and disbelief. In a way, it strengthened me. But with my shadow opened wide and not much held back, I can be a bit of a fire-starter in spaces where I speak my mind whether others want to hear it or not. And part of that is directly confronting the forced separation of animal vs non-animal, or the arbitrary ideas of what is a human experience and what is not.

I can only best put forward my experience as a Pokemon through in-depth discussion, which I find tends to come across better in spaces where the experience of being by-and-large a feral animal is allowed without restraint. Ultimately a space I will thrive in most and be most open about my experiences and life as someone who is spiritually and psychologically an Alolan Marowak is one where I can discuss both my animality, my experience with fiction, my spiritual practice and the combination of these things that seem to be pushed into separate boxes. The Marowak serves a lot to my sense of self and to my life, and has psychological affects on me as well. It’s been a part of me that has fought through and survived when my life hit a rocky start early on, witnessing the death of my brother in childhood, and having loss and grief be present all around as I grew. The Marowak is both an inherent part and vital context in my life, as well as a symbol of my own endurance.

Through it all, the fire burns bright.

Citations

Marowak POKÉDEX: Stats, MOVES, evolution & locations. (n.d.). Retrieved April 23, 2021, from https://pokemondb.net/pokedex/marowak

Chryssides, George D. (2012). Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements (2 ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-8108-6194-7.

Jung, C.G. 1938. "Psychology and Religion." In Psychology and Religion: West and East, Collected Works of C.G. Jung 11. p. 131

Roberts, Gwilym Wyn, and Andrew Machon. 2015. Appreciative Healthcare Practice: A guide to compassionate, person-centred care. M&K. ISBN 1907830936. p. 71.

#essays #personal essay #fictherian #fictionkin #fictionkind #otherkin #otherkind #personal log #alolan marowak #death tw

44 notes · View notes

tiwaripoojaaa · 3 years

Text

WFH is great until your mom yells from behind “uth chai bana de”

If you’ve ever been stuck in torrential rain waiting for a delayed train after a long day at office, the chances are pretty decent that you’ve thought about working remotely at least once or twice.

There was a time when Work from home was a fantasy for everyone until we all got attacked by pandemic. Wherein we actually want the hectic schedule rather than working remotely. WFH is in favor for someone as an introvert like me and a disaster for an extrovert who loves roaming around in the office greeting everyone with a smile and gossiping with every second person in the office. Without having an office where you need to share pleasantries with your coworkers, boss, and clients, you need to find alternative methods of socializing with people on your own time.

Challenges:

Sounds appealing right? No more setting the alarm for 6 am. No more sitting in your cubicle all day, your only escape a measly hour for lunch. You can set your own hours and work when you feel it. Freedom is yours!

Expect it doesn’t work that way.

Juggling work, household chores, and parenting responsibilities along with fear of infection and job loss can put a dent in performance, motivation and productivity. On the other side of the coin, when you work from home, you no longer have a clear geographic division between workspace and your personal life. Ideally, your home is a place of relaxation, safety, and security. It’s a place where you subconsciously slip into a calm, easygoing state of mind , putting the stresses of the workday behind you and have a beautiful evening with your family.

Feeling of disconnection and social isolation:

Even in normal situations, managing remote employees is more challenging than managing regular office workers because Emotional health is a priority now because living and working in confined conditions for a long time takes a mental toll. Moreover, people who have so far been accustomed to working in an office setting may find remote work very lonely. Only now have team members and managers begun to realize how much time and effort it takes to communicate properly across screens. They cannot reach out to each other as easily as they would in a physical office, and this makes people feel disconnected from the company. Direct reports may feel that their managers are out of touch with their reality and cannot help them solve their problems.

Screen Fatigue: You’re probably hearing people complain about ‘Zoom fatigue’ or ‘meeting fatigue’. Managing remote employees via video conferencing has given rise to a new challenge – that of screen fatigue due to back-to-back meetings. People are turning away from their screens in exhaustion, citing headaches and eye strain. It is more tiring to look at a screen for a prolonged time than it is to have face-to-face conversations. It is more tiring to look at a screen for a prolonged time than it is to have face-to-face conversations. In addition to the laptops, team members are also looking at conventional screens like phones, tablets, or television. It fatigues the eyes, causes loss of focus, and decreases attention span. Naturally, people cannot work efficiently because of these issues.

Breakdown of effective communication: Perhaps the biggest challenge of managing remote employees during the COVID-19 pandemic is effective communication. As you and your team members must have discovered by now, it isn’t quite as simple as shooting off a few emails and calling a meeting. Your direct reports can’t casually walk up to your desk for a quick chat. You can’t see each other in the office and you have to make an effort to know who is working on what. This ‘blindness’ leads to an interesting situation–people tend to think the worst when they receive a negative message. For instance, if you get a brusque e-mail from a colleague who you know is having a bad day, you tend to brush it off. But when you’re working from home, you have no context on what is happening at the other person’s end. This causes more misunderstandings, negativity, and friction within the team.

Communication & Coordination Challenges

It’s hard enough to hold productive in-person meetings to coordinate different team members’ efforts to remain aligned. When everyone works from home, it becomes all the harder to stay on the same page.

Human beings rely on nonverbal communication when they speak. But emails, phone calls, and even video calls remove much of the nuance from how we communicate. Just think back to the last time someone misinterpreted an email or text message you sent for a quick example.

This problem is so inherent in virtual businesses that an entire industry has sprung up to solve it. Team collaboration and communication tools like Slack exist specifically to make it easier for companies to stay in touch and stay organized. GoToMeeting is another popular choice for companies to stay in touch using video conferencing.

Since the majority of the global workforce is not used to working from home, this sudden change has led to many problems. They are just adjusting their seats to meet the organizational needs amidst everything that is happening around the world. Work from home is prominent but comes with a lot of challenges like communication and coordination with team, failing network is the biggest interruption “Uncle wifi nahi chal raha check karo” which impacts productivity, you may get distracted by your dog or just feel like going through some memes on Instagram (which unknowingly turns from seconds to minutes to even a hour sometimes) or just sibling’s silly fights or just in a mood to workout.

Productivity:

Sitting at home by yourself all day takes a toll. Humans are social animals. They need interaction with other people. Without a water cooler to swap jokes, stories, and shop talk around occasionally, telecommuters can get lonely. People working from home sometimes struggle with productivity. Working away from your co-workers, with only remote online meetings, risks emotional disconnection and apathy. It can also encourage procrastination .

You might find that it helps to have particular clothes for working at home. Dressing for work can set the right mental tone for the day – and avoid the awkwardness of being dialed in to a virtual meeting while you're still in your pajamas! Also, avoid going into certain areas of your home, or sitting in certain chairs, for example, so that you know when you're in "work mode," and when you're not.

Productivity at office was optimal as there were no distractions, you had a great working environment and also who doesn’t like working with their colleagues and friends like family rather than completing the given tasks alone. The lack of interaction that often comes with remote work can also be a detriment to team building – something that is built during meetings, lunches, chai/ coffee/ cigarette breaks or even water cooler conversations.

Challenges faced by HR:

HR managers have been at the center of these pandemic-generated changes from the beginning. They had to navigate new health and safety requirements, support managers in the new normal, reduce headcount in some cases, and keep up with required administrative processes. Organizations now have to rely more than ever on their HR departments to ensure their workforce feel as safe as possible during this unprecedented and unpredictable times.

Some of the challenges are-

Performance Appraisal like you actually are not aware if the employee has given its best due to working remotely as compared to work from office.

Team collaboration like if you have to give any cross training or learn a new process.

Employee engagement is also affected due to pandemic as there is no connect with the management and just virtual meets or seminar or activities conducted by HR but all of this has been now fixed into a rectangular display which is not giving desired results.

Health and safety is the utmost priority of the workers and as employee is an asset of the organization especially after pandemic HR also needs to look into health and safety measures.

Promotion cycle is been simulated as company actually doesn’t have the same promotion cycle period which eventually demotivates the employee.

Challenges in Business continuity

If you’re working for yourself and think you can disregard administrative work, think again. You’ll probably end up doing more mundane administrative work than you ever did at your old day job. Ignoring business basics, like paying your bills, preparing your taxes, and invoicing clients, is a sure fire way to not only ruin your business but possibly trigger an audit with the IRS in the process.

Traditional jobs tend to come with paperwork, such as work reports, time sheets, travel expense reports, and accounts payable requests for freelancers and vendors. Still, each individual worker’s administrative work pales in comparison to the total amount needed to run a business. Beyond administrative work, businesses need systems in place to streamline all repetitive tasks. Otherwise, entrepreneurs spend all their working time on mundane work that doesn’t actually generate revenue and quickly go out of business.

Organizations are facing unprecedented times as the measures being deployed to slow the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) are impacting capital markets, supply chain, and business operations. The uncertainties of the current environment serve as a powerful reminder to senior decision-makers of the need for risk management and crisis planning.

Business continuity will be on a toss due to few obstacles like technical problems such as data loss, data protection, technology failure, incident management software and so on, Workforce will need to be retrained to be update as per the new changes, taking utmost care of cash flow management like does the organization have sufficient funds to continue operations or have a plan of how to address unanticipated expenses.

This pandemic poses significant challenges and unlike many crises has unfolded much advance warning or scope for preparation. Nevertheless, there is a wealth of information and resources that organizations can use to weather the pandemic and its aftermath and can be accessed here. CEOs and small business owners may find it helpful to bring this information to their boards or other advisors to stimulate discussion on the issue.

Its just not the cons, here are some pros:

Remotely working comes with a slew of benefits from no setting up alarm, no daily commute in the morning, No strict dress code (unless you have online meeting!), get a more flexible work schedule to being work anywhere in the world, and every benefit comes with a challenge like managing your own schedule and time like we suddenly look at the clock and realize their kids want food, you need to have a proper division between workspace and personal space. Humans are social animals they need interaction with people, occasionally talk or no face-to-face interaction can get people lonely.

New Learnings from the #NewNormal

As days progress, we see a positive adoption of the isolation, which was initially difficult to adjust to. So be it working from home, connecting with colleagues and teammates at a slightly more personal level, managing chores, and working more efficiently. People are now working around to make way for a new style of living.

Tools such as Zoom, Skype, and facilities such as conference calls earlier used exclusively for official meetings are increasingly used by people to connect with family, friends, and relatives. Every small act of kindness and courtesy, which was earlier absent, is now making a huge difference. People are now more appreciative of life, of things that were taken for granted before.

Let us know what you think of our blog and also how you manage to WFH (might help us :-p).

Blog by-

2020175-Dhwani Thakkar.

2020176- Gaurav Thigale.

2020177- Bhagyashree Tikar.

2020178- Pooja Tiwari.

2020179- Muskaan Verma.

2020180- Sakshi Vijan.

LALA LAJPATRAI INSTITIUTE OF MANAGEMENT.

#TheNewNormal

3 notes · View notes

wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years

Text

Michael in the Mainstream: Artemis Fowl

Since the early 2000s, Artemis Fowl has been languishing in development hell, and it really is a mystery as to why. The series has everything you could possibly want for a blockbuster young adult franchise: it’s a charming blend of science and fantasy with rich worldbuilding and mythology, it has enjoyable and even complex characters who go through great character arcs over the course of the series, it has an enjoyable major antagonist, an insufferable smug villain protagonist who goes through a stellar redemption arc over the course of the series, and tons of crazy heists that combine scheming and fairy magic. There was no reason this couldn’t have existed as a competitor to the Harry Potter series, but alas, it was not to be. The young adult fantasy franchise languished for decades in development hell, until finally Disney pulled it out and put Kenneth Branagh at the helm. Finally, we were going to get the Artemis Fowl adaptation we deserved!

Except we didn’t.

Artemis Fowl is legitimately one of the worst adaptations of any work of fiction ever. It has been held up alongside The Last Airbender and The Lightning Thief as part of the Unholy Trinity of terrible adaptations, and I’m not even going to try and pretend that this “Honor” isn’t well and truly earned. This film is an utterly abominable bastardization of the beloved franchise, to the point where this feels like an entirely different story that had familiar names slapped on it at the last second. If you want to know what horrific extents this film has butchered the story and characters, read onward, but there’s no way I’m going to pretend this film isn’t awful right off the bat.

There is literally nothing in this film that works. Nothing at all. Starting from the opening scene, the establishing shots, you can tell things are wrong – there are news people around Fowl Manor? Mulch is being interrogated? What is going on? The film from the word go is simply making one thing absolutely and abundantly clear: this is not the Artemis Fowl you know. The film goes out of its way to do the opposite of the franchise, merely using names and vague concepts in an attempt to sucker fans into watching it. Butler’s first name, an emotional reveal from the third book, is common knowledge; Opal Koboi, a cunning and threatening major villain who was the antagonist for almost every novel starting with the second, is here reduced to basically a personification of the voice on the phone from Scream; Root, once a short-tempered man who was hard on Holly as a method of tough love to push her to be the very best LEP had to offer to prove women belonged on the force, is here a woman who, while just as angry as ever, robs Holly of a major part of her arc and reduces her to plucky female sidekick. And even outside of that, as its own thing, the movie is just utterly incomprehensible. The story is rushed and confusing, with lots of exposition and action but with no context or cohesion. Things happen and things go from scene to scene, but none of it makes any sort of sense. A character will switch allegiances within a few minutes, characters will somehow find a way to survive deadly attacks offscreen… the worst offender is a character death they try to push off as emotional, despite there being no reason to care for this character, and when all hope seems lost, a deus ex machina saves the day! My wife, who is unfamiliar with the series, and I, a huge fan, both struggled to figure out what was going on at any given point; the movie is really that bad at communicating what is happening, which is even more baffling because the film is a pathetic hour and a half in length, a distressingly short amount of time to establish a new science-fantasy franchise of this scale.

The characters are almost all terrible. Artemis is the standout with how awful he is; no longer the cunning criminal masterminds of the book, Artemis here is more of a somewhat smug little brat who is overly emotional and, worst of all, NICE. He’s so nice in fact that by the end of the film he has managed to speedrun his character development and arcs with Mulch and Holly, who consider him their close friend and ally. Butler is pretty bad here as well, mostly because he is given almost nothing to do and is seemingly only there because he was in the book. In fact, his crowning moment – when he took on the troll – is instead given to Artemis and even Holly, with Butler ending up severely injured. It’s a bit nasty that they changed Butler to be black and then had his (white) master steal his greatest moment; it’s giving me flashbacks to Kazaam. Opal is hit pretty bad as well; being made the big bad of this loose adaptation of the first book’s plot – which is amusingly one of the few books she had absolutely no role in – wouldn’t be so rough if she was more of a presence and not just some vague, hooded figure who threatens Artemis over the phone and generally does nothing to warrant being an adaptation of the baddest bitch in the series. She’s rather ineffectual and they even try and give her a sort of sympathetic motivation, one where she resents humans for pushing her kind underground. It really is a disgusting waste of a character who could easily rival heavy hitters like Voldemort in the awesome and theatrically evil department.

Holly is almost okay, but her entire arc and a big chunk of her narrative purpose is robbed by making Commander Root a woman. Root, played by Judi Dench, is honestly one of the better characters since Dench has Root dropping lines like “Top o’ the morning to ya” with gravelly deadpan seriousness which makes the character unintentionally hilarious, but the cheap laughs don’t really make up for butchering the story of one of fiction’s finest ladies. As a side note, they have made Holly 100% white despite her skin being described as nut brown rather frequently in the book, and the now white Holly together with Artemis steal away Butler’s biggest moment. And that’s not even getting into how they neutered Juliet, who has also been race lifted but was turned into a child who barely appeared in the film. I’m not usually one to toss about racism accusations, but there’s a lot of red flags here that Branagh’s usual colorblind casting just doesn’t excuse.

The most consistently enjoyable performance is Josh Gad’s as Mulch. From the moment he was cast, I knew he’d do a good job and capture the spirit of the character, and he does! ...sort of. The decision to have Mulch be a giant dwarf and narrate the story in a crappy Batman impression while also violating literally the most important law of fairy culture (don’t tell the humans anything about us) by spilling the beans to M16 is unbearably stupid, and a lot of his jokes are just relentlessly unfunny. But I think that Gad does leak a bit of that Mulch charm at a few points, and it’s apparent he at least somewhat gets his character, which is not something that can be said for anyone else in this film. Sadly, much like his standout performance as Lefou in the live action Beauty and the Beast, he can’t possibly save the trainwreck of a film he’s in.

I guess I’m not entirely surprised by this film. I mean, a lot of quality young adult literature from the past two decades has been horrifically mangled in the wake of Harry Potter – Inkheart, The Golden Compass, The Lightning Thief, Ender’s Game, and Eragon – so this movie really isn’t an anomaly. But it is the culmination of a horrible trend. This is the zenith of horrible young adult adaptations, or perhaps I should say the nadir of adaptations as a whole? For all the flak I could give those other adaptations, on some fundamental level they still understood something about the source material. Ender’s Game still understood it could not erase the ending where children are revealed to be being conscripted to perform the ethnic cleansing of an alien race. Eragon couldn’t completely ruin Saphira, try as it might. The Lightning Thief… well, I mean, I guess the Medusa scene was mostly faithful. But Artemis Fowl? Artemis Fowl goes out of its way to be the opposite of its literary counterpart that there is no way to justify even saying it is based on the book by Eoin Colfer; it would be like having a movie about kids hanging out at the mall and doing mundane stuff, except they’re all named Jesus and Peter and Paul and then saying it’s based on the Bible. Just using names doesn’t mean anything, you actually have to use the themes and characterizations too, and this movie does none of that.

This movie is most comparable to The Emoji Movie. Neither of these works really deserve to be called a “Film” since they are basically whatever it is they’re trying so desperately to be stripped down to the bare essentials. The Emoji Movie is the most basic, by-the-numbers animated adventure film with a “be yourself” message you could ever hope to see, with a story so absolutely basic that just watching the trailer will allow you to predict the every motion of the plot. Artemis Fowl on the other hand is the most cliche-ridden fantasy epic franchise-starter you could imagine, and that’s if you’re able to penetrate the ridiculously dense and cluttered story and are able to make sense of what’s going on. I can think of absolutely no one this film could ever appeal to. There’s not a single redeeming thing about it. The movie is flashy, trashy junk that should never have been released, and Disney honestly did the right thing by releasing this on their streaming service because it would be outright disgusting to charge movie ticket prices for this tripe. The fact Disney has more faith in the eternally-delayed New Mutants theatrically speaks volumes about the quality of this film.

I can’t in good conscious say that this is the worst film of all time. F4ntastic is probably a much worse butchering of characters than this film; Disaster Movie is much more horrendously offensive and unfunny than this; hell, Chicken Little is probably a worse Disney movie because as awful as everyone in this film is, at least they aren’t Buck Cluck! But I don’t think there’s a single movie I hate more than this one. Lucy can finally move over and sleep easy knowing that the fact it’s not based on a pre-existing work has finally saved it from the #1 spot on my worst list; Artemis Fowl is now the reigning champ. Kenneth Branagh should be ashamed of himself for making and releasing this (and doubly ashamed for having the gall to unironically compare his slaughtering of Artemis Fowl’s character to Michael Corleone), Disney should be shamed for putting more money into this film than they did into BLM charities, and I hope that Eoin Colfer finds whatever he was paid worth it to see his greatest creation butchered and disrespected like this.

#Michael in the Mainstream #Review #movie review #Artemis Fowl #Kenneth Branagh #Eoin Colfer #fantasy film #fantasy #science-fantasy #Josh Gad #Judi Dench #Disney #Disney+#disney movie

48 notes · View notes

stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years

Text

Episode 110: Onion Gang

“No more weirdo friends.”

There have been a handful of Steven Universe episodes that I only watched once, didn’t like, and didn’t watch again until reviewing them for this project. Time has been kind to many of them: I’ve come to appreciate Ronaldo (especially in Rising Tides, Crashing Skies, which I was super down on) as well as Say Uncle and The New Lars. I don’t necessarily love all these episodes now, but they’re a lot better than I once thought.

But yeah sometimes my first impression is right on the money.

Onion Gang is the most boring episode of the series by a country mile. The show has meandered before in the likes of Cat Fingers, Steven’s Lion, and Open Book, but these stories at least resolve in interesting ways. Looking forward, Escapism has even fewer words than Onion Gang, but it’s designed to simultaneously add to Steven’s many ordeals and act as the calm before the storm (and it’s also, y’know, watchable; silence can be a good thing, ask any episode of Samurai Jack). But Onion Gang is relentlessly uninteresting throughout.

The glacial pace isn’t helped by comedy bits falling flat at a rate that’s almost impressive. I try pretty hard to find things I like in episodes I don’t, but there’s literally nothing here for me. That is not easy. Especially considering how much of a sucker I am for Onion, slapstick, and weird goofy side adventures. This should be right up my alley, but hoo boy is it not.

Still, I’ll give it a try: the most generous reading of Onion Gang is that it focuses on Steven misunderstanding Onion, and if you squint, you can draw a parallel between his assumptions about Onion and his assumptions about Rose (both silent, mysterious figures in his life) being proven wrong. False narratives are a recurring theme in Steven’s arc, and another one pops up here. But even if that broadest of strokes is an intended connection, it doesn’t stop Onion Gang from being a catastrophe.

The only Onion Pal that leaves any impression is Garbanzo, and the impression is that Garbanzo is the worst character the show has ever produced. Villains like Kevin and Aquamarine are horrible, but that’s the point. Irritating secondary characters like Ronaldo and Lars have actual depth, and otherwise further the plot and are reliable for decent humor at times (it’s a shame that only one of them grows, but still). Garbanzo is a kid who shouts the word “Garbanzo” as if this is inherently amusing, and uh that’s it. The joke isn’t funny the first time, and doesn’t become funny through brute force repetition. It’s just annoying.

Squash, Soup, and Pinto are...there? They mostly exist for the gag of Steven naming all of them, a continuation of his unusually domineering presence in Onion Gang. Because oh yeah, on top of everything else this is a dreadful Steven episode. It’s not Sadie’s Song, because his presumptuous attitude doesn’t cause actual harm, but this is a bad look on a hero whose powers are supposed to be based on empathy. His narration of Onion’s actions mostly acts as another gag, and like Garbanzo, it’s not a funny one, but that doesn’t stop the episode from repeating it ad nauseam.

Steven’s weird behavior doesn’t stop there. The overlong go-kart scene ends with Steven seeing Garbanzo spray ketchup on himself, then instantly forgetting he saw this and openly wondering if Garbanzo is hurt. Which makes this the dumbest Steven has ever been. It makes zero sense that he would be bamboozled by something he saw faked with his own eyes, to the point where the gag itself becomes confusing: this would be like if he saw Amethyst eat his dinner then asked where his dinner went, it requires Steven’s intelligence to plummet so perilously that it confounds what we’re supposed to find funny about the joke in the first place.

But the most bizarre misfire by far is Steven declaring that he’s “the lonely boy with no friends his age” when Connie Maheswaran exists. She’s busy (as is the underused Peedee), but our hero makes the flying leap that this means he’s utterly friendless. This is a kid defined by his ability to make friends. He saves the ocean once and the planet twice by making friends. The entire show hinges on his fundamental friendliness. This plot point is ludicrous, even when we take into account that Steven is being annoyingly melodramatic.

A nitpick, but one that fuels the Ronaldo-level conspiracy theorist in me, is that Connie was prepping for school in Buddy’s Book and is attending school in Mindful Education, so if she’s shopping for school supplies in Onion Gang then either she’s doing it super late (which doesn’t sound like something she or her mother would ever allow) or this episode, which mind you is stated to take place as summer ends, should've aired between the two Connie episodes. The conspiracy theory is that Onion Gang would’ve looked even weaker when shoved between two episodes about what good friends Steven and Connie are, so it got moved to settle between two Crystal Gem stories.

I think that it’s theoretically possible to make a good episode that evokes unambiguous pathos from Onion. But considering the character works because he’s this strange, menacing force of nature in an otherwise pretty normal population of humans, I’m not sure he’s a character that needs the depth. Onion Friend hit a sweet spot of making him grow a little, but maintain his creepy charm. Onion Gang goes further, but in doing so removes everything interesting about Beach City’s resident weirdo. Gone is the kid who two episodes ago was robbing the arcade with a crowbar and a bandit mask. Here instead is an odd but sensitive kid whose mischievous friends somehow render him less mischievous than usual. It’s bad enough to have a boring episode, but a boring episode with Onion as the focus? Again, it’s almost impressive.

There’s no reason to watch this episode instead of any other Onion-centric episode if Onion is your jam. There’s no reason to watch this episode instead of any other Steven-centric episode barring Sadie’s Song if Steven is your jam. There’s no reason to watch this episode instead of rewatching Last One Out of Beach City if being charmed by friendship is your jam. There’s no reason to watch this episode instead of Buddy’s Book if thematic resonance in regards to false narratives is your jam. There’s no reason to watch this episode instead of any episode of Craig of the Creek if kids playing outside is your jam. Only watch Onion Gang if you’re a glutton for punishment.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Part of me wants to rank this higher than Fusion Cuisine and House Guest, where I find more insulting mischaracterizations. But both of those episodes have enjoyable elements that are weighed down by lousy depictions of Connie and Greg; Garnet’s a riot in the former, and there’s a sweet song in the latter despite being muddled by context. Whereas there are no real bright spots in Onion Gang. It’s an unbearable eleven minutes that I’m never going to watch again.

Sadie’s Song is worse because it’s the worst Steven episode in the series and it misses the mark so much, and it’s important to Sadie’s arc so it’s harder to skip, which makes me resent it more. Island Adventure is worse because its moral is that abuse is a reasonable method of communication. But that’s all that’s stopping Onion Gang from reaching the very bottom.

The good news is that this is it for my No Thanks list, and while I might’ve had a bit of fun dissecting why I dislike Onion Gang so much, it bears saying that 6 stinkers in 180 episodes and a movie ain’t shabby.

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

When It Rains

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

No Thanks!

6. Horror Club 5. Fusion Cuisine 4. House Guest 3. Onion Gang 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#onion gang #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

28 notes · View notes

abkdkzine · 5 years

Text

A Guide to Making Portfolios

Contributor applications are open, but I noticed that there’s a few people who may be confused or don’t know what certain parts of our guidelines mean. So, here’s a simple guide showing how to make a neat portfolio that obeys our instructions and requirements!

(I kind of refrained from making a bunch of lighthearted jokes or comments though, so I might’ve missed my chance on showing just how dorky I can get, haha!)

I’ll be covering both art portfolios and writing portfolios in this guide, but I also hope this helps out anyone who might need this sort of information in the future because this information doesn’t apply to just our zine! With that said, I’ll start with the very basics: getting to know cloud storage and sharing services, or in this case, Google!

Technically speaking, portfolios are basically any and all of the platforms you post your content into (like Tumblr, Instagram, DeviantArt, etc.). But, when you’re applying for something that requires you to show your works in a professional manner (such as in fanzines or IRL jobs), knowing how to organise your works can help you out in the long run!

Google is such a versatile platform which allows everyone to have access to all (if not almost all) of their organisational and work-related products! As such, if you have a Gmail account, you should also have this wonderful privilege. One of their products, Google Drive, lets you store your files and organise them any way you want them! There’s a little box icon on the top right of the browser which will reveal all of the products you can use too, so if you don’t know what they are, it’s a good idea to explore a bit on your own time.

Through Google Drive, you’ll be creating a folder which will serve as the place your files will be uploaded into. Keep in mind though that Google is not the only platform that offers cloud services! Dropbox is an example of another popular platform among others.

In this example, I’ll be referring to our zine’s contributor applications. Make a new folder in your Google Drive by clicking on that big ol’ “New” button, and use that button again to upload 3-8 of your works for our zine’s applications. Or, drag and drop files. It’s surprisingly fun to do and watch!

Be sure that your folder’s privacy settings is open! Just activate the folder’s shareable link (as in anyone with the link can have access to it), and it’ll let us look at all of your examples without trouble!

But, why do you want us to do this, you might ask?

Like I mentioned earlier, knowing how to organise your things helps you out in the long run! But in our case, if an applicant chooses to send us a form with a portfolio that doesn’t quite follow our requirements (such as putting an entire gallery or website with all their works)...

Well, it’s going to be an inconvenience to the moderators because there are going to be a lot of applications to go through within a limited time frame. We simply won’t have the time to look for your best works in a portfolio showcasing all of your pieces. We set a maximum limit of 8 examples for portfolios for that reason!

Any added works will not be considered in the examples, and any applications with galleries or websites sent to us as their portfolios will have a VERY low chance of being considered at all.

Instead, make that neat little folder shown previously and individually add the files you want to share! It won’t take up a lot of your time, I promise. That way, you can make sure you’ve chosen your most quality works, and we can review your application in a timely manner! This method is the most preferred way for us to receive portfolios.

Writers, if you are unfamiliar with Google Drive, this process can apply to you as well. Make a new folder, label it appropriately, and upload your files! Word documents can be transferred instantly, so fear not for your formatting – you’re in good hands. However, if you are concerned about it, I suggest that you take a look at Google Docs. You can copy and paste your works there instead, either all three written examples in one document or three separate documents in the folder.

Realistically, not following the rules sets a bad impression on the people reviewing your portfolio. We want to see your best work, and we want you to feel confident in your examples! If you show us that you can’t follow simple and easy tasks such as organising your works, then we’ll get the impression that you’ll do the same elsewhere. Regard this as though you are preparing for an actual job interview because this helps with your reputation as well.

So, what can I do to ensure my chances to be considered?

This is a section that is more for art than it is for writings; but here’s a general consensus for what kind of submissions or examples are expected and what is not expected!

A bad portfolio consists of little variety among the shown examples. If your examples are mostly made of your subjects in several different angles, that’s alright, but if there’s a lack of principles of art (such as rhythm, movement, proportion, variety, etc.) then the portfolio wouldn’t really be very interesting to the judges. Sketches, while some look nice, aren’t good examples because zines require complete pieces!

For written stories, the worst possible examples out of so much more that you can present in a portfolio are: bad understanding of characterisation (out-of-character factor), mediocre understanding of grammar (or unedited versions), and uninteresting.

A good portfolio shows a clear understanding of the elements and principles of art. There’s variety among the pieces which shows creativity and thought. Properties like different colour schemes, addition of environments, angles, and etc. are things that make portfolios interesting to look at.

For writing, having a good grasp of grammar, understanding of characters, and personal style are good indicators that your writing is well done and given some thought! In other words, it allows the readers to feel engaged with, which in turn makes it more interesting.

But, most of all:

Your pieces have to be related to the zine’s theme! It’s different for every zine, of course, but generally, application reviewers look to see if the applicant is genuine about liking the concept(s) behind their projects, and that the applicant can portray or illustrate the subjects of the zine well with the skills presented among the examples.

Wanderlust revolves exclusively around BakuDeku, and so, seeing examples with both of them featured in your works will guarantee you, one-hundred percent, a spot for consideration.

Sounds good to me! But, can you clarify what to avoid?

As previously suggested, guidelines are made to make sure the reviewing process goes as smoothly as possible for the moderators or judges. I’ll be using our own guidelines for this example as well!

Since many zines like to request for a number of linked examples in their forms for their portfolios, we understand that it might be a force of habit or something that some people may consider easy to do. But, I’ll say this once again: we require prospective contributors to create their portfolios through a shared folder (lots of cloud services exist!) because it saves us, the moderators, a lot of time from copying and pasting every single link!

When you show us your social media links, don’t do it like this:

Tumblr: @ariririsu

Twitter: @ariririsu

Give us the actual links to your platforms! This also saves us a lot of time instead of typing it down. We would be ever so grateful and happy if you do this.

Keep your examples up to date! We don’t want to see what you could do back then. We want to see what you can offer us now. It’s like selling a bunch of pastries at a bake sale, but you’re selling us pastries made two years ago. Your most recent works gives us the most accurate and best representation of your skills.

Once again, incomplete sketches or written drafts are no-no’s. If you want to know what I’m talking about when I mentioned the principles and elements of art, here’s a neat little roster that breaks down what makes compositions in artworks more three-dimensional and interesting.

Going over the specified number of examples will not affect your chances of being accepted in the zine. So, if you add two or three more works in your portfolio, rest assured that we will not even look at them. For the same reason I mentioned beforehand: there is going to be a lot of applicants, and we want to get the reviewing process done as soon as possible to maintain our schedule. Less mess, less stress.

Some Pieces of Advice:

Have some confidence in your works! If you feel super shy and you’re still building up that confidence, the judges would be more than happy to supply you with feedback if you ask for it. Their feedback will not be destructive, but it will be meant to help you improve your skills. Take whatever advice they give you and at least put them into consideration too!

Zines and other huge projects like these take a lot of your time. One thing that I’ve seen people commonly do is that they miscalculate the amount of time and commitment they can put into these projects, and they often have to leave them. Doing so will negatively affect your reputation. So, when you’re not sure if you can dedicate a lot of time to the zine, we highly suggest that you don’t apply to keep the game fair to others who want to be in the zine as well.

Communication is VERY important in these projects. Never ever disappear on the projects without saying something because it’s going to cause the moderators to have to find ways to contact you and be very worried if something happened to cause the sudden disappearance. Like the previous point, doing so will negatively affect your reputation.

Just so you know, you’ve got time to make your portfolios if you don’t have enough examples! You can literally apply at the last minute and it would still count!

Again, be sure that your Google Drive folder’s settings are shared to those who has the link!

And with that, I hope I was able to make a nice guide which emphasises certain rules in our own zine guidelines as well as how to make a good portfolio! I’m not sure if there are other guides like these around, but I hope I got a bunch of general zine rules correct.

We look forward to seeing your applications! Our zine applications close on January 12, and we can’t wait to see what you have in store for us!

#bkdk #bakudeku #katsudeku #zines #anime zine #wanderlust bkdk zine #bkdk zine #update #contributor apps #mod ari speaks #mod maj speaks #guide

166 notes · View notes

steve0discusses · 5 years

Text

Yugioh S3 Ep 2: The VR Zone Has a Hell Ton of Trees

Alright guys I am regretting the hell out of this teriyaki ramen bowl I just ate, so it’s a better time than ever to go back into this VR arc. Now that the Big 5 have made their speech, all of them quite fat and one with a cane although he doesn’t even have a body anymore, they are ready to send everyone down a series of...plot-shaped holes.

Like they were JUST in some sort of tropic zone, to go back to here and then go somewhere else and so like--this is still VR I think? Like I’m assuming they went VR the moment they entered this room but it is quite vague at what point they were officially in VR. Was it when their vision went fwisssh and everyone split into RGB layers or was it that they got knocked out with gas quite a long time ago and were just unaware that it happened? Probably a bunch of these things.

With this announcement we find out that everyone--and I mean everyone--has to play cards now, although I’m pretty sure half of them have duel disks and the other’s are like...not equipped? I mean it’s VR, so hypothetically no one at all needs a duel disk anymore but you gotta sell toys, so no matter what, Yugi’s going to be lugging this heavy sharp thing on his wrist, even when he knows he will soon be shot down a wacky hole.

The title of last episode, ps was “VR Nightmare,” but like, it’s actually fairly pleasant, compared to the blimp hell we were dealing with just a few episodes back. I mean I guess people are actively trying to kill us here but when are they not?

The audacity of this show. Every state in the US has huge ass fake castles in it leftover from the Rockefeller era. Where else are our Moms supposed to drag us on Day Trips so we can get our history credit for Girl Scouts?

Americans are hella good at creating fake historical sites--all you need is a 50+ year old house and some turret work possibly made by a reasonably well known architect and it’s like “yeah that’s a good enough castle for me! Can we say it’s haunted, too? It’s hella haunted! Come to my castle B+B!”

(read more under the cut)

Tea landed in some concept art that kind of looks like the underside of a mushroom. I dunno how I’d classify this rock structure.

And then Kaiba landed in his worst nightmare which was being in a normal park with one single straight road but somehow still completely lost. At least Mokuba managed to fall into the same hole as his brother to ensure that Seto wouldn't be lost for like the rest of this arc. Which was actually kind of an unintentionally hilarious animation.

*rare shot of the Kaibas actually taking a break*

Man, this is the closest they’ve gotten to a real hug in kind of a while. Like when was the last time these bros hugged? Pegasus’ castle?

Meanwhile, Noah is admiring his work from this throne room and it would be a whole lot more intimidating if he wasn’t in calf-high black socks.

His outfit is like a white school uniform so what gives with the black socks? Like of all the things to complain about on Yugioh (especially since I see Yugi’s hair looking right at me in the next cap) those socks though. Those are pretty inappropriate with this outfit, Noah. Especially matched with this God Throne you’ve got going on. Did not see socks like that matched with a chair like this.

Meanwhile Yugi is all by himself but that doesn’t matter at all because he is 2 (3) people. This strategy to isolate everyone only really worked on Serenity and Joey, TBH, since Tea is also accompanied by slightlylessevil!Marik (who hasn’t really said anything since the VR started).

I knew Bakura would be out for a while, but I didn’t realize it meant everyone else wasn’t even going to once acknowledge it, it is baffling. I mean I get they’re super distracted right now but your friend is DEAD.

Honestly I would not mind if the big 5 succeeded and we had to see some old men try and work with Yugi’s hair and alt rock clothing, deal with Pharaoh sassing them from a brain labyrinth, go to Yugi’s school where people get savagely beat up like every other day, deal with Bakura and Marik trying to body snatch and other magic assholery during class breaks, and through all that watching the Big 5 attempt to take over the world with their megacorp that no longer sells guns but actually sells like...children’s entertainment supplies which include the dueling roombas from S1. How on Earth do they actually think that getting a body would help them at this point? They would be Yugi Muto and that is the last face anyone would ever take seriously.

Pharaoh pops up and is like “I guess we’re doing this right now? Really wish we weren’t doing this right now.”

Anyway, because they don’t physically exist in this digital world, neither do God Cards, or any other card in their deck. So, now they have to make new decks out of a pool. Very convenient for the writing team, bad news for Kaiba’s intense and vaguely romantic relationship with his Blue Eyes. Really glad we spent a full season talking about how much these cards meant to all these people, from the magicians, to Joey’s Red Eyes, and then that one card that was Mako Tsunami’s Dad or something--really glad we learned all of that to just completely erase it this arc.

I sounded sarcastic just now, I actually wasn’t for once, I am so glad to just purge my mind of all those card memories for a little while. Just allow myself to forget. Ah. My mind is already so much clearer. It feels so good. I am very much ok with this soft reset, I kinda needed it.

Since Yugi is supposed to choose a Deck Master from his set of cards for this particular type of duel monsters duel, he goes right for the dark magician--since that’s his MO, but for some reason Kuriboh chose himself? Like this greasy thing just hopped out of the card and played himself.

Anyway Kuriboh is now their new Pikachu and well...this show has done worse cute-character-that-does-literally-nothing-else type things to me, speaking of, lets see what Serenity is up to.

This is a digital hellscape, Serenity.

Serenity, you are going to die here.

Serenity.

So because I just realized just now in Season 3 that Duke’s necklace is a hot, over designed disaster (much like Duke himself) I figured I should like...see what this necklace is supposed to look like. So I typed into Google “duke devlin necklace” and guys, turns out there is a LOT of Yugioh jewelry--and I don’t mean like fanart (which there is also a lot), I mean like officially, a lot of people in this show wear a lot of jewelry and so it was sort of hard to find a good pic of a Duke Devlin specific necklace--especially since it feels like most people just go for the dice earring because that’s way easier.

But what’s interesting about the Duke Devlin necklace, at least from my quick search, is that when we bring it to the real world, it gets a little lost, like a game of telephone.

Cuz I assumed that was a clown on his necklace--and there’s quite a few clown necklaces, but I’m also seeing skulls, I’m seeing gothic crosses, I’m seeing spikes and knives instead of crosses. Bro thought it was a flower for some reason--I kinda blew his mind just now when I pointed out it was a clown. Some people think it’s made of silver, other people think it’s sort of painted? (I assumed the cross was entirely blinged out with rhinestones--my honest assumption) No one can actually agree. Especially since Duke apparently changed his necklace for the movie. I know that because it looks a lot like the Legend of Zelda emblem, and some people had the actual Legend of Zelda emblem mis-tagged as Duke Devlin. Which sucks a whole lot for their SEO, and sucked a whole lot for me in my search to find a real actual Duke Devlin necklace.

Like, feel free to attach a link to a reply -- is there an official physical Duke Devlin necklace that Yugioh inc sells? Like I just want to know--officially--what the hell I’m looking at.

Anyway, back to the show, much like everyone else, these two are hopelessly lost.

Kaiba seems to keep forgetting that his Dad is clearly behind all this and would obviously have his old tech but like...Kaiba forgets so much I can forgive him this.

So, faced with roads that lead no where, Tristan decides to do his tried and true method of solving all of his problems.

And at the other end of the VR zone Tea is getting kidnapped after...being kidnapped by Noah while she was already kidnapped by Marik. This is three levels of kidnap, yes?

OH SHOOT IS THAT A ONCE DOOR. DID SOMEONE DO WHAT I HOPE THEY DID? OH SHOOT.

I will read their fanfiction start to end I swear to you I will do it if it exists and I will report back to you who dates Captain Hook and who is related to Henry Mills.

OMG It didn’t exist.

You have got to be kidding me.

I am beside myself, this is the only property known to man that has not been turned into a OUAT fanfiction.

Incredible.

That or I’m just really bad at searching for fanfics since I haven’t actually read any since my LiveJournal days. Like, when you’re basically immune to shipping, as I am, you just really lose the desire to read about 90% of fanfiction.

Anyway, the closest we have to a OUAT Yugioh fanfiction, to my knowledge, is that cap I made just now right there. Your welcome, Once community.

This is absolutely made of load-bearing drywall. Why do none of the sets of windows line up with each other and how many stories is this? Like 2.5? And you can stand on the roof I guess because it has handrails? It’s super weird.

Anyway, I just made a OUAT joke and maybe it’s because I knew shortly after we were gonna get--that’s right--an orphanage flashback. OUAT was basically 6 seasons of effed up orphan flashbacks so I feel pretty well prepared. Like bro was worried how I’d handle this filler but y’all, I watched the Lily arc in OUAT. I can do anything.

*slaps hands together*

Totes ready for these boys to have been given up for adoption via a magical tree and a memory curse, only to find out their real parents are 3 years younger than them because of a time loop. Make it weird, Yugioh!

Anyway, as always, if you want a link to read these from the beginning in Chrono order and without any comments and all that jazz here’s a link

#Yugioh #photo recap #recap #S3 Ep2 #yugi muto #seto kaiba #big 5 #Noah #joey wheeler #tea gardner #duke devlin #tristan taylor #mokuba #Anyways I'm gonna go make cookies at 9 PM #because I have a headache and I feel like this will fix it somehow.

21 notes · View notes

kas-e · 5 years

Text

Cyclones & the Road

Vanity won't stop this new school vagabond from shamelessly admitting acts of vagrancy in coffee shops across America while either writing, working on my photography, or just getting a hot cup of coffee and a meal while speaking with strangers and introducing them to the man behind the green & wild bloodshot eyes. I've become an expert at stealing moments of their time to share some skunky smoke, give them some wide smiles, tell them a few bad jokes, and remind them that there is indeed still soul out there in this plastic & tragic country. The corporations can flood the world with tech of all sorts, phones, laptops, computers, etc, but after this past year I've realized that there are still some people out there like myself that are unable to be pacified by the plastic.

The road is still the home of the true individual... the hyper-inspired, so-called insane ones. Though a dying breed it seems and some may say, I beg to differ as there are still souls out there like me who live truly free, who are working on perfecting the art of a pure and true underground life, the subterranean version of the American dream created by the anarchists and travelers and artists and poets who found themselves in the soul sucking period in time of America in the 40's & 50's. The similarities are striking to me... the current version being reinvented in a strange, sleek, and subliminal strain easily adapted to our current age in time. Over the past few years I believe it is now safe to say that the times have undoubtedly mirrored the old days of a bland, restless, post-war America - the very scene that initially caused the underworld to bubble with activity, originality, drive, and creativity and later spawn the subculture which still remains the root of every movement towards pushing the the boundaries of intellectual progress, creative expression, and a free-form style of living absent of requirement save the unspoken law which is absolute freedom and originality - of which all in the tribe silently abide. Such a law is quite difficult to articulate, but I'll take a crack at it regardless. The mantra is to Go, with a capital G, but Go in a direction never gone before, pave the path instead of tracing another, stay true to your sister and your brother when you meet them along the way, live by the laws of karma and understand that the only catalyst is the Dharma and that God lives in the eyes of every person you meet, give without the phrase "on the arm" and expect nothing in return & receive with great gratitude and grace, and leave the rest up to the wind, the world, and the driving force behind this strange thing called life that we are all so lucky to be a part of. Be Here Now & practice the art of living without expectation while keeping the body healthy, the mind active and innovative, the soul open and transparent, all while remaining conscious of just how detrimental the energy we put out into the world actually is to those who we come in contact with... to be mindful and free simultaneously is a feat in itself, it is a challenge to even the most weathered veterans of our fringe underworld.

While on the road, driving clear across America for the second time within 2 years, I found myself entranced by the painted lines which naturally set my mind spinning in a manner that only extremely long stretches on the road can cause. I thought a great deal about the cycles of this life, and about how similar moments become during a persons phases while in times of transition. Today as I write this, marks my 38th year on this planet, and at this time in a man's life if you don't start to not only notice - but also brood on these things - then you are not paying attention, or of the type who simply never makes it to the deep end of the pool. The fact that this was going to be one of the big mountains I'll have to climb during my time on earth both terrified me and inspired me at the same time. I was as alone as a man can be, as troubled as a man can be, yet at the same time I realized I was as free as a man could be. It was an interesting dichotomy, a confusing thought to think on, but instead of switching gears and avoiding such a complexity the road allowed me to continuously peel back the layers of this onion and really go deep. It is this realization, it is the fact of facing the fear of such thoughts that has since been my anchor in the face extreme desperation, intense struggle, and pestering suicidal thought patterns that would strike during times of weakness. If you are reading this, and you ever find yourself in such a headspace, always remember these very personal cycles that we go through as humans... and if you find yourself fighting with these things, if you find yourself fighting a battle that feels impossible to ever win, I beg of you to focus on the reality of these cycles. Meditate on this reality. Know that if you have reached a low of this magnitude, it either means you are at the tail end of a high of equal magnitude - or how I like to believe, that you are currently paying your dues for the next high which will peak sometime in the near future after fighting your way back up to the top. Hindsight allowed me to visualize this, and I feel the greatest thing about getting older is the ability to view the past through a clear and concise lens, and rest assured that this too will pass as it has in the past. Don't lose faith. If the world has it's foot on your throat and your back pressed upon the pavement, understand that it is because you are not just another humdrum monotonous drone of a human - it is because you are one of the few that pushes the limits of progress and strives for greatness, and if you want to achieve greatness in this life, well then it is only right that you will also have to endure great struggle in order to do so.

The same idea can easily be applied to society, our existence as a society is also unarguably cyclonic. As the wheel turns we now find ourselves at a very pivotal moment in human existence. The incorporation of technology has genuinely thrown a monkey wrench into the rusty gears of the Great American Experiment. Birthed at the turn of the century with the prominence of the PC, it is now almost 20 years later and we are all essentially cyborgs with perpetual connectivity in our pockets, super heightened intelligence thanks to our good friend Google, and eagerly watching as the once enigmatic Artificial Intelligence gets it's footing in the world of reality. I subscribe to the theory that we are on the brink of truly strange times to come, and that during this age in time we could possibly undergo a total revolution of our everyday life as human beings due the arrival of a new, synthetic consciousness that we are in the process of creating.

If this age in time were a human, the human would be taking their first steps on their own as I type this... and the fear among those following this strange progression naturally lies in the unknown. The question is, what will this human do when it is not only able to walk on its own - but when the human no longer needs us to survive? The latter question, in my opinion, is a non-issue, but with the smartest people walking the planet, for example Sam Harris and Elon Musk both harboring such a fear, I think it's only right that any intellectual worth their salt entertain the theory and follow the progression of this very strange matter.

All of that said, I think it is very important to note that as creative individuals the addition of technology must be delicately balanced and incorporated in our work. I find it essential to resist the misuse of these machines, and always remember, they are simply tools to us - use them as such. The very worst thing that you can do is resist the technology entirely, because the sad fact is that if you do, well, you will be left in the dust as the rest of the creative community masters these tools and marches forward. Take them for what they are, a means to create, a means to communicate, a means to make your work more polished, and a tool which allows your methods to be more fluid and your process to become more seamless. Most people are either consumed by the technology, or work so hard at resisting it that it really does hinder their quality of life. An artist must not subscribe to either of these camps, and instead do what artists do... take control of what's in front of you, and manipulate it to work for you thus enhancing the final product of which you create. At one point in time, artists across the world sat with canvas and charcoal, today we sit with laptops and photoshop, and I honestly believe that the difference between them is near non-existent.

#writing #prose #creative writing #writers on tumblr #freedom #ontheroad #travel #wanderlust #thought #philosophy #intellectual #wordlovers

4 notes · View notes

artskoolie · 5 years

Text

The Idea, The How, and The Road Trip

Hello! Welcome to The Art Skoolie!

This post is going to be an introduction to the journey my partner and I have had so far in taking steps to convert a school bus into a tiny house. Our goal with this blog is to give interested folks a chance to see the steps, the logistics, the materials, and the methods we are using for our construction process. I will include separate posts that only have links to the appliances, materials, and businesses we are utilizing for our build. I will also mention that this post is not about convincing people to build or otherwise get into tiny houses. We are assuming that you are already excited about the idea, and want to know more. Bear in mind, also, that we are sharing what has worked for us, and we encourage you to use materials or methods that work better for you.

Alright. Anyway, my name is Hannah. My partner’s name is James. We live in Denver, Colorado in a 700 feet squared apartment with our black cat, Grace. We both had accepted a long time ago that we would probably just be paying rent for the rest of our lives; either as rent-rent, or as a mortgage. It is a lifestyle that most Americans have, and it is growing more difficult by the day for the vast majority of us to secure that kind of lifestyle. Owning a condo or a house was the best we thought we would ever be able to do.

I had been struggling to find work for a few months, and we were trying to think of ways that we could consume less. Our electricity bill is calculated by averaging the electricity use of every other tenant in our building. We have so much stuff just lying around, taking up space, that we are really only keeping around in case we might need it sometime in the future if we ever decide we felt like doing it. And, even if we do, we spend forever and a day organizing stuff (again!) so we could just figure out where the one thing is. Our bathroom has a ton of counter space and floor space for the size of apartment that we have, and neither of us spends a ton of time in there. Not to mention the donated goods, garbage, and recycling we generate by making purchases thoughtlessly, and either it rotting or us deciding that we never wanted to do the thing to begin with. Purchasing food more intentionally, cooking more, and not making as many trips to the kitchen equipment section at the thrift store were a start, but still didn’t make the difference we were looking for.

But then, I remembered tiny houses.

I’d heard about tiny houses for years, over the various forms of social media, and thought it was the craziest thing I’d ever heard of. “That sounds like living in a shack!” I thought. “Why would anyone do that?” Strangely, in the last couple of months, YouTube’s algorithms had spat out tiny house videos into my feed, so I checked them out. They highlighted all of the benefits of having fewer, better quality possessions that you use regularly, and not even having room to accumulate crap you’ll never use. At that point, I thought it looked doable, even appealing. “Sure, but only rich people can do that. Look at how much those things cost!” That obstacle was discounted when I saw people building dwellings for $5000 or less. I started thinking about the idea more seriously. I had all sorts of questions that each got answered with relative ease, significantly pruning my initial wariness. (e.g. where will we shower? where will we store everything? how will the bed not be right next to the toilet? where will we wash our clothes? etc.) (Answers: In the shower we install on board; In cleverly placed drawers, cabinets, and on shelves and hanging storage; It doesn’t necessarily have to be; See answer #2)

I was initially scared to bring the idea up to James, because he is such a pragmatist, but the more videos and blogs I saw, the more I realized that people were doing this successfully. Almost all of them had some kind of help in creating their homes, but who in the world never needs help?

Then I saw a video about a couple in/from Australia (I think?) who had bought the man’s childhood school bus and used all salvaged materials to create a little home that suited all of their needs. The two pieces that caught my attention the most were that everything on the bus had been salvaged or built with salvaged materials; and that they had lived on the bus full time and traveled in it for seven years. That was what made my mind up.

When I first floated the idea of living in a tiny house with James, he was skeptical, as I had suspected he might be. However, I showed him some of the content I had seen online from people who had built tiny houses, and answered all the same questions from him that I had had, and he was on board.

Before I go any further, I think this is a good time to acknowledge that building a tiny house is not financially feasible for many people. Most of the stories we have seen involve people who have a large property, or have friends or relatives with a large property, and friends with construction experience or have it themselves. The materials, knowledge, and time required are not something everyone has, and is not the answer for everyone. We both come from relatively privileged backgrounds. Both of us have/had parents with steady jobs that allowed us to grow up in middle-class, relatively safe communities, and we are both white. Not to mention, James’s mother had a job as a younger woman which accrued retirement money; and when she passed away, she left James $30,000. So, what I’m trying to say is, as a result of our socioeconomic backgrounds, we found ourselves in a better position to undertake the cost of building a home. As you will find out, or may already suspect, it is not cheap. It’s much cheaper than buying a house outright in Denver, but it is definitely not cheap.

When we were initially thinking about it, we researched vacant lot prices for building, or parking, a tiny house on. We quickly realized that would be out of the question in Denver if we wanted to have a house on whatever lot we chose. We were stumped.

But then, I remembered the video about the Australian couple who had made a tiny house on a school bus. They had raised the roof, created two sleeping lofts for themselves and their two children, and they even had a kitchen and a place to lounge. It didn’t look cramped at all. In fact, it looked like as reasonable a size as the trailer bed tiny houses we’d been looking at more seriously. James told me about how his parents had had a Volkswagon Vanigan when he was a child, and he used to play around in it and pretend it was his house; so a bus seemed even more appealing.

We thought, “If we can salvage the materials, and spend any money we have on new appliances and lumber for the structural stuff, we could build a house inside an existing bus, which can move around independently while we save money on daily living costs and build up enough money to buy the land we want to build another tiny house.” It was perfect. We were going to convert a school bus.

We started heavily researching construction methods, the process others were using to convert their buses, seeing what people did for water, heat, electricity, choosing a bus that was the right size. We didn’t want one that was too small, as we didn’t want to feel too cramped; but we also didn’t want one that was too long, because it would be more difficult to maneuver, and there would be fewer places to park. We estimated that we would probably find the best size-to-functionality ratio in a school bus twenty-four to thirty-two feet long. We wanted to have the build completed by winter 2019, so we wanted to get started as soon as possible. We were going to be flying to New York to visit my mother in the first week of January, and we figured we could work on finding a bus after we got back from the trip.

We checked out Craigslist for buses in our area, but all of the listings we found had buses that either needed serious mechanical work done or didn’t move at all. Trying not to get discouraged, I checked eBay, figuring there might be some viable listings. Almost immediately, I found one for a 2003 International thirty-foot school bus (DT466 EE engine), with its mechanical work all up to date, being sold from an hour south of where my mother lives. The seller had one hundred percent positive feedback. Growing up with my mother selling her art on eBay for a living, I knew how difficult and important it was to have one hundred percent positive feedback. We contacted the seller and found out that no one had made an offer yet on the bus. Feeling like we’d lost our minds, we made arrangements to meet up with him the following Friday, when we would be in New York. Our plan after we picked up the bus was to drive it home to Denver at the end of our visit. So far, this seemed like the beginning of a long joke.

We flew to New York, touched base with our seller, bought insurance for the bus, and had a whole ordeal with the New York DMV that I will get into in another post. After finding out firsthand how underfunded the New York Department of Transportation is, we drove to our seller’s house, picked up our bus, and drove it to my mom’s, where her landlord was kind enough to let us store it until we left.

On the trip back, both of us quickly got comfortable with driving the bus. The main thing to keep in mind is that, since it is such a large vehicle, it would take more force and more time to maneuver and stop; meaning, keep a safe distance between yourself and the vehicle in front of you, check mirrors religiously, and start breaking pretty far away.

About three hours east of Denver, we broke down. The worst thing about this situation was the fact that a nasty snow storm started blowing in a few minutes before, and we were miles from the nearest town. However, we started learning a lot of things about the bus’s engine really quickly, Googling like crazy to figure out what the problem could be. We contacted our seller and told him what happened, and he said that in engines of the type we have, if the oil level got low enough, it would automatically shut off. We were able to get roadside assistance through our insurance after a while (the snow was bad enough that they were delayed in getting to us), and the mechanic who helped us (who is amazing, and I will link his shop at the end) spent an hour hooking our bus up to his tow truck, put oil in the engine, tried and failed to get it to start, and towed us an hour west to Limon. He replaced our fuel filter the next day, it still wouldn’t start, and then towed us to a diesel mechanic ten minutes south of where we live in Denver. (Joe, you are a diamond)

One thing we did not take as seriously as we should have was that our fuel gauge was broken. It was stuck on “Full”. Even though we kept track of the mileage and fueled every three hundred fifty miles or so, we apparently did not fuel often enough. The diesel mechanic, after confirming that the fuel line was functioning properly, was able to determine that we had run out of fuel. Now, I am the first to admit that this situation was completely avoidable and kind of hilarious; but I am also incredibly grateful that we had the help that we did, and that something worse was not wrong.

Anyway, we have a bus now. I will provide more details in the next post about our plans and materials in the future.

Thanks for reading! Please share if you found this post enjoyable or helpful. Feel free to send a message or leave a comment if you have any questions.

My Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MustBeSilly?ref=search_shop_redirect

The bus that clinched it: https://youtu.be/aq7DmqXDXUY

The angel mechanic from Limon, Colorado:

George’s Repair Shop

199 Main Street

Limon, CO 80828

719-775-8828

Ask for Joe! Tell him James and Hannah from Denver sent you.

#skoolie #busconversion #tinyhouse #buskitty #schoolbus #schoolbusconversion

1 note · View note

leportraitducadavre · 6 years

Note

What are Sasuke's positive qualities?

All of them.

Okay, realistically speaking? He has a lot of great qualities, I’m not joking, and I’m not even speaking as her fan.

*For starters, he’s not a cruel person. This fandom has a tendency to see his character like this cruel, emo, crazy bastard that would be mean to everybody without any reason for it, but that’s such a misconception. Sasuke is not an open person, that’s true, but that doesn’t mean he’s cruel. Just because he doesn’t want to hang out with _____ every time they ask him to doesn’t make him cruel.

He’s blatantly honest, which doesn’t make him the most subtle person when it comes to criticizing their comrades’ abilities, but he’s not doing it to hurt the other person’s ego, but because he’s pointing the things they have to improve. With this same point in mind, if he doesn’t want to be/talk with you, he will say it, or he will show you with his actions that he does not want to; he will not pretend just for your sake.

As so, many fans tend to justify their belief in the existence of Sasuke’s cruel aspect with the premise that it’s a logical response from the PTSD that -I do believe- he has. But again, he’s not cruel, and that’s a problem in itself because cruelty is not the only possible outcome of the PTSD. I’m not an expert on the subject and this is a serious topic, so please take my opinions only as such.

I’m mentioning this because I will like to bring briefly a point that has been bothering me for quite a while; the conversation about Sasuke suffering for a post-trauma disorder is a long, totally different one but, while I do agree he suffers from it, I personally disagree with fans that state that Sasuke is an “emo”, because not only they are misunderstanding what that concept really stands for, but also, Sasuke does not present behaviors that can be classified as depressive in canon material. His post-traumatic stress disorder, I believe, tends to appear in other behaviors, such as an anti-social attitude, which prevents him from creating strong bonds with other people whom, depending on the circumstances, he could lose; explode with anger in certain situations, such as when he wanted to fight with Naruto in the hospital after chünin exams, and -once- almost having a panic attack in his mission to Wave, when he literally was willing to comit suicide in order to free himself from the fear he was feeling, the same fear -or a very similar one- he felt on the day of the massacre.

*He’s a very intuitive, very empathetic, person. He was the one who understood what Kakashi was looking for when he took the exam after graduation, he understood that Sakura was feeling down in the chünin exams, and also understood Naruto’s feelings (and defended him) when the Uzumaki seemed to be struggling to make himself understood. He knew exactly what to say to Juugo back in Orochimaru’s hideout to comfort him and make him join his team, and that not only come from his intuition but also the fact that he understands such fears, he understands that same dependency that Juugo felt with Kimimaro, because he also developed some sort of dependency with Naruto.

For this same attribute, he was capable of understanding what it meant to be Hokage, why it was a necessity to change the system since he knew the traumas and sadness this type of world-organization could, no, brought to others. He was just one in a million, there was Nagato, Haku, Zabuza, and countless others who couldn’t even start to plan a revenge because they laked ninja training; all of them lost the ones they cared most for, and all of them tried to change this same system. As such, he knew that, even if it wasn’t by his hand, this structure was destined to be questioned and attacked over and over because the same crimes would be repeated unceasingly, generating a vicious circle where the only victims would be innocent people.

So he knew that, in order to stop that, he would have to become the ultimate enemy.

*He is a tireless worker and a smart fighter. I put this two points together for the sole purpose of shortening the answer and I will bring Neji up to prove a point.

While much of part one focused on the idea of Sasuke and Neji being prodigies, which lowered their efforts and techniques because they are “naturally predisposed,” we have seen them in numerous panels training hard to reach the level that they own and exploit; we do not see them accommodate themselves in that position and title of “prodigy” to climb in the ninja rank, on the contrary, they always seek for self-improvement. This is linked to the fact that neither of them is seeking power, particularly, but their goals diverge from the idea of being Hokage (not like Naruto) and have the need to prove something, to seek revenge and/or end certain injustice.

Their goal surpass them, is beyond them as individuals, this same aspect would be brought up later, but I wanted to mention it here.

Unlike Naruto, Sasuke does not have the need of relying on a friend/comrade to think of strategy (Shikamaru), I’m not saying that this is a flaw of Naruto, or that it makes Naruto particularly worst than Sasuke, but that Sasuke is better than Naruto (the irony in this statement was so good and funny that I couldn’t delete it, sorry, please ignore it). Anyway, what I tried to say here was that Sasuke would review his options and among all of them he would choose the one that allows him to achieve his goal with the least amount of possible losses, doing the least damage to any space where the fight takes place.

*None of the goals that Sasuke has during the series comes from a selfish reason. Here I’m bringing up again the idea that his goals surpass him as an individual.

While assassinating Itachi came, in part, from a deep hatred for the betrayal Sasuke suffered by his hands, his need for revenge also encompasses the idea of bringing justice to those murdered by his brother, not only as a form of payment for taking away from him the people Sasuke loved most. Later in the series, when he learns the truth about the massacre, he wants to kill the elders and Dänzo (not destroy Konoha as a part of the fandom tends to believe), also to bring justice to his deceased family, including Itachi, and that same sentiment is what impulses him to comprehend that changing the system that Konoha is part of is the only way he could prevent this same massacres to happen in the future.

Also, because he’s not a selfish, self-centered person he doesn’t put himself as a parameter to judge other people’s goals, or better yet, he could put himself as a parameter to analyze the purpose of others (which is something most of us do, in reality, so it’s logical for him to do it), but he does not judge them. Instead of putting the other person in his shoes, he tends to put himself in the other person’s perspective. Did I explain myself correctly?

Let me do an example to clarify: While Naruto judges those who confront him, stating that he went to something similar and that he did not, and would never do, what they did; Sasuke doesn’t because he can understand why others did what they did in that specific way, which doesn’t mean that he agrees with their methods. For that reason, he respects and even encourages his teammate’s individual goals, such as Süigetsu’s dream of becoming the leader of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

He’s not interested in being a role-model or to be admired, he never brings up his persona in any conversation, and he doesn’t put himself in a position of moral superiority.

*He’s not by any means, and this is a point that’s not up for debate because canonically there are no proofs of it, sexist.

He doesn’t downgrade his teammates/enemies just because of their gender, and he does not expect a determined behavior/obsession just because the other person is female.

He treats everybody else as his equal regardless of their gender and focusing only on their capabilities, he never took advantage of the apparent obsession with him of most of the female characters in the series, and he was never disrespectful to them because of their feelings towards him, mocking them or putting himself in a position of superiority.

He also never encouraged those feelings because he wasn’t interested, he never feigned any kind of positive sentiment towards them to make them believe that he reciprocated them, only to later take advantage.

Back when he abandoned Konoha and was stopped momentarily by Sakura, she tried to convince him to stay by telling him that she will make him happy, that she will live for him (x)

Now, here’s the thing, yes, there’s an intent of emotional manipulation, but what pisses me off is that Kishimoto wrote her in a way that she’s offering herself as a mere toy, what is worst is that she’s literally pleading to be treated as such, and why no one is pissed about this? She’s a girl, A GIRL, not a toy, it’s not her job to make him happy, IT’S NOT A JOB. A man SHOULD be happy just to be with her, and Sasuke isn’t, Sasuke isn’t happy being in Konoha. Period. That’s why he wants to go.

This doesn’t have anything to do with her and what she can do to make him happy and the only one who understands this is Sasuke, who has enough respect for her to reject her. (…) Sasuke has enough heart, enough respect for her to think that. He doesn’t consider her a toy that he could take advantage of, which is the more feminist thing I have seen in this manga, and isn’t sad that he respects her more than she respects herself?

Even when he rejected Sakura in the war, and trust me he had every right to yell, he was respectful enough as to calmly tell her that he just didn’t have any reason to love her and vice-versa. He did complain about her obsession with him but he has done that before regarding every character, including Naruto, so he doesn’t consider it a behavior tied solely to female characters.

*While he’s not the most open or communicative person, he will demonstrate his appreciation through actions. That is, if you enter his circle of trust, if you are lucky enough to create a bond with him, he will…

protect you with his life.

I don’t think I need to give examples of this, so I will only point out two times:

Back in Wave, he saved Naruto by putting himself in front of him. Even when he was fully aware that he was going to die, even when he knew that with his death the Uchiha will be extinguished (he didn’t know about Obito) and that he will not fulfill his ultimate goal.

He literally accomplished what no one could in order to save Karin -a dear comrade- and he absorbed the flames of the Amaterasu, developing a new form of Sharingan; he hurt himself in the process, but he refused to abandon a friend only because Juugo told him it was impossible to save her.

That’s how much he esteems his friends, his comrades; and that’s why I’m a hundred percent sure there’s no way Sasuke will abandon you once you become his friend. It’s true, he tried to kill Karin when he fought Dänzo, but he was going through a meltdown, he wasn’t a hundred percent aware of his actions.

Anyway, that would be everything I can think about him right now, if you have more, feel free to add.

#ask #sasuke uchiha #sasuke #pro sasuke uchiha #naruto #naruto shippuden #my ramblings

227 notes · View notes

illyria-and-her-pet · 6 years

Text

Kathy Johnson’s Facebook Letter

Kathy Johnson Clarke·Friday, November 17, 2017 What's on my mind? A lot. Here goes. Predators know their way around good mothers and fathers. They know their way around any environment or program not created specifically to keep them out. If steps aren't taken to deny a predator, pedophile or abuser access to young people that person can seek out the most vulnerable, naive, trusting, spirited, reckless or rebellious among the unsuspecting. Just as many of those qualities exist in most young people a skillful predator can use them against their prey. There has been gross negligence on the part of many, which is what created the culture in which really exceptional kids with unsuspecting parents, many of whom were good, involved, invested, loving parents while some may have been to varying degrees either less involved, caught up in their child's gymnastics development or success, or simply “flying blind”, completely trusting, and unaware of potential dangers. If people insist on asking or telling victims “why did you, why didn’t you, if only you, if only your mom or dad, didn’t you know…the list goes on and on and on, we will NEVER create the safest possible environment because we are shutting down the very people we need to listen to and learn from. It's just not as simple as being “blessed” with a good mother, father, coach or having some super power to ward off anyone seeking to take advantage of you. If we think like that it further shames victims, which is EXACTLY what their abuser depends on. That and fear. I am truly happy for those left unscathed and whole, but I am in touch with those who were not and are not. It is for them to tell their own stories, but I will remark on one who was lucky. She got spooked by what we now know was “grooming” and done to lure her into trusting her coach’s “methods” to improve her gymnastics. She bolted. Coach told us she had mental problems and it was too hard for her to train and live away from home. We believed him. She left her dream, the place where she was happy and wanted to be, and didn’t tell the other girls because she didn't know what to say and didn't want to ruin everyone else's experience there. It was such a fun place. Fortunately, her father reported it to USGF. Unfortunately, the story gets fuzzy there. Now I wonder about some of the other girls and the stories I was told about why they abruptly left so many years ago, just as I wonder about the “stories” my teammates heard when I left. I was not a victim of sexual abuse, but I now know some who were. At best, it was a dysfunctional, albeit fun and unique, place to live, train and go after big dreams. At worst, it was a recipe for disaster, a nightmare for some. Because we normalized what I now know to be grooming type behaviors by creating a big gray area in which we lived, played, trained, joked and grew up, a predator could easily cross over the line without someone noticing. Because there were other types of abuse that were normalized – verbal, psychological and emotional abuse, over-training, over-dieting, under-eating, exhaustion, injuries and questionable motivational methods – most girls didn't know the difference between healthy and unhealthy, positive or negative reinforcement, and more dangerously, normal grown up behavior and creepy, inappropriate, even criminal behavior. To make matters worse they had no idea how, when or if they should confide in someone, much less to whom they should turn. They simply quit, went home, endured it, developed other issues or problems that masked or hid it, then buried it for years, if not forever. Now, with that tale in mind insert elite gymnasts, the toughest athletes on the planet, training and sacrificing all to fulfill HUGE dreams to make World and Olympic Teams in an increasingly competitive atmosphere and the “work hard, focus, don’t whine or complain, endure anything and everything you can to be the best you can be” mentality is increased exponentially, and you see where we find ourselves today. Had it not happened at our National Training Center or to the stars in our sport, and had those incredibly brave young women not had the courage to come forward and speak out for themselves and others who may or may not tell their stories, we could have continued to do too little, too late, to really change the culture that allowed all this to fester and grow. I believe more will come forward. Please open your ears, eyes, minds and hearts and listen. And as you do, know this: Abuse is complicated, insidious and achingly more prevalent than people realize. By simplifying it or believing that if only they had done "x" or been "y" or had "z" they would have been safe we do more harm to those who were so damaged by someone they trusted, believed in, and even loved, and more important, we empower the abusers! Ask yourself, do you WANT abuse victims to keep their painful stories to themselves, to hold on to it forever because it is old news, uncomfortable to hear or about someone you know, like or want to continue to believe in and respect? Two of my coaches are on the banned list. I loved both of them even when they weren’t perfect or hurt me in other ways. I can forgive them for those. But, until they fall to their knees and say how horribly WRONG and deeply SORRY they are to have preyed on my friends, teammates, or fellow gymnasts and offer the entire gymnastics community an apology I stand with and alongside the survivors, and I stand for culture change and bright line rules to educate, prevent, report and prosecute abuse.

#kathy johnson #kathy johnson clarke #gymnastics #gymternet

268 notes · View notes

brainboosterenhance · 3 years

Text

How to boost brain power at any age:

A robust memory relies upon on the fitness and energy of your brain. Whether you’re a scholar analyzing for final assessments, a running expert inquisitive about doing all you may to live mentally sharp, or a senior trying to preserve and beautify your grey matter as you age, there’s plenty you can do to enhance your reminiscence and mental performance

They say that you could’t teach an antique canine new tricks, however in relation to the mind, scientists have discovered that this old adage actually isn’t authentic. The human brain has an dazzling capability to adapt and change—even into old age. This capacity is called neuroplasticity. With the proper stimulation, your Brain Booster Enhance can form new neural pathways, alter present connections, and adapt and react in ever-converting methods.

The brain’s high-quality capacity to reshape itself holds authentic when it comes to learning and reminiscence. You can harness the natural strength of neuroplasticity to increase your cognitive competencies, enhance your capacity to study new records, and enhance your memory at any age. These nine hints can display you the way.

Tip 1: Give your mind a exercise

By the time you’ve reached maturity, your brain has evolved tens of millions of neural pathways that help you manner and bear in mind information fast, solve acquainted troubles, and execute habitual tasks with not less than intellectual attempt. But in case you usually stick to those nicely-worn paths, you aren’t giving your brain the stimulation it wishes to keep developing and developing. You need to shake matters up now and again!

Memory, like muscular strength, calls for you to “use it or lose it.” The greater you work out your mind, the higher you’ll be able to technique and don't forget records. But now not all sports are equal. The first-class brain physical games damage your recurring and assignment you to use and expand new mind pathways.

Four key factors of an awesome brain-boosting hobby

It teaches you something new. No depend how intellectually demanding the pastime, if it’s something you’re already right at, it’s no longer a great mind exercising. The activity desires to be something that’s unusual and out of your consolation area. To improve the mind, you need to keep getting to know and developing new capabilities.

It’s difficult. The high-quality mind-boosting activities call for your full and close interest. It’s no longer enough that you found the interest hard at one point. It have to nonetheless be some thing that requires intellectual attempt. For example, learning to play a difficult new piece of track counts; playing a difficult piece you’ve already memorized does no longer.

It’s a talent you could construct on. Look for sports that permit you to begin at an clean degree and work your manner up as your abilities improve —constantly pushing the envelope so you retain to stretch your capabilities. When a formerly tough level starts to experience comfy, meaning it’s time to tackle the subsequent level of performance.

It’s rewarding. Rewards assist the mind’s gaining knowledge of process. The more fascinated and engaged you are within the hobby, the much more likely you’ll keep doing it and the greater the blessings you’ll revel in. So, choose sports that, while challenging, are nonetheless fun and satisfying.

Think of something new you’ve constantly wanted to strive, like getting to know the way to play the guitar, make pottery, juggle, play chess, communicate French, dance the tango, or master your golf swing. Any of these sports can help you enhance your memory, so long as they maintain you challenged and engaged.

Tip 2: Don’t skip the physical workout

While intellectual exercise is crucial for Brain Booster Improvement health, that doesn’t imply you in no way need to break a sweat. Physical workout allows your mind live sharp. It increases oxygen on your brain and decreases the hazard for issues that lead to memory loss, together with diabetes and cardiovascular ailment.

Exercise also complements the outcomes of helpful mind chemical substances and decreases pressure hormones. Perhaps most significantly, exercising plays an essential position in neuroplasticity by using boosting boom elements and stimulating new neuronal connections.

Brain-boosting exercise guidelines

Aerobic workout is especially properly for the mind, so select sports that keep your blood pumping. In wellknown, whatever that is right to your heart is incredible for your brain.

Does it take you a long time to clean out the sleep fog whilst you awaken? If so, you may find that workout within the morning before you start your day makes a large difference. In addition to clearing away the cobwebs, it also primes you for gaining knowledge of all through the day.

Physical sports that require hand-eye coordination or complex motor abilties are particularly useful for mind building.

Exercise breaks let you get beyond mental fatigue and afternoon slumps. Even a quick stroll or a few leaping jacks can be sufficient to reboot your mind.

Tip 3: Get your Zs

There is a massive distinction between the amount of sleep you could get through on and the quantity you need to characteristic at your exceptional. The truth is that over ninety five% of adults need between 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep each night time in an effort to keep away from sleep deprivation. Even skimping on a few hours makes a distinction! Memory, creativity, trouble-solving competencies, and critical questioning competencies are all compromised.

But sleep is essential to gaining knowledge of and memory in an even extra essential way. Research suggests that sleep is essential for memory consolidation, with the important thing reminiscence-improving interest going on all through the inner most degrees of sleep.

Get on a ordinary sleep schedule. Go to mattress on the same time every night and arise on the identical time every morning. Try no longer to break your ordinary, even on weekends and vacations.

Tip 4: Make time for buddies

When you watched of approaches to enhance memory, do you suspect of “critical” activities together with wrestling with the New York Times crossword puzzle or learning chess approach, or is it more lighthearted hobbies—striking out with buddies or taking part in a humorous movie—that come to mind? If you’re like most folks, it’s probably the previous. But endless research display that a existence full of buddies and amusing comes with cognitive blessings.

Tip 5: Keep pressure in test

Stress is one of the brain’s worst enemies. Over time, persistent strain destroys brain cells and damages the hippocampus, the location of the mind concerned within the formation of new recollections and the retrieval of old ones. Studies have additionally related strain to reminiscence loss.

Tips for coping with pressure

Set practical expectancies (and be inclined to say no!)

Take breaks at some stage in the day

Express your feelings in preference to bottling them up

Set a healthful balance among paintings and enjoyment time

Focus on one venture at a time, as opposed to looking to multi-venture

Tip 6: Have fun

You’ve heard that laughter is the first-class medicinal drug, and that holds true for the mind and the memory, as well as the body. Unlike emotional responses, which are constrained to specific areas of the mind, laughter engages a couple of areas across the whole mind.

Furthermore, paying attention to jokes and working out punch strains turns on areas of the mind critical to gaining knowledge of and creativity. As psychologist Daniel Goleman notes in his e book Emotional Intelligence, “laughter seems to help human beings suppose greater widely and accomplice extra freely.”

Looking for approaches to convey more laughter on your existence? Start with those basics:

Laugh at your self. Share your embarrassing moments. The first-rate manner to take ourselves much less significantly is to speak approximately the instances when we took ourselves too severely.

When you hear laughter, circulate closer to it. Most of the time, humans are very satisfied to percentage some thing funny because it offers them an possibility to snicker again and feed off the humor you discover in it. When you listen laughter, searching for it out and try to be a part of in.

Spend time with fun, playful humans. These are folks who snort easily—both at themselves and at existence’s absurdities—and who automatically find the humor in ordinary events. Their playful point of view and laughter are contagious.

Surround your self with reminders to lighten up. Keep a toy on your table or for your vehicle. Put up a funny poster to your workplace. Choose a pc screensaver that makes you snort. Frame pix of you and your loved ones having fun.

Pay interest to children and emulate them. They are the professionals on gambling, taking lifestyles gently, and guffawing.

Tip 7: Eat a brain-boosting eating regimen

Just because the frame needs gas, so does the mind. You in all likelihood already realize that a weight loss plan based on culmination, vegetables, whole grains, “healthy” fats (together with olive oil, nuts, fish) and lean protein will offer plenty of health blessings, but such a weight-reduction plan can also improve reminiscence. For Brain Booster fitness, though, it’s not simply what you eat—it’s additionally what you don‘t devour.

Tip 8: Identify and deal with fitness issues

Do you sense that your reminiscence has taken an unexplainable dip? If so, there can be a health or lifestyle trouble to blame.

It’s no longer simply dementia or Alzheimer’s disease that reasons reminiscence loss. There are many diseases, intellectual fitness disorders, and medicinal drugs that could intrude with memory:

Heart sickness and its danger factors. Cardiovascular ailment and its hazard factors, which includes high ldl cholesterol and excessive blood pressure, were related to mild cognitive impairment.

Tip 9: Take sensible steps to support learning and memory

Pay interest. You can’t bear in mind some thing in case you by no means found out it, and you may’t study some thing—this is, encode it into your mind—in case you don’t pay enough interest to it. It takes approximately 8 seconds of intense attention to process a chunk of statistics into your reminiscence. If you’re without problems distracted, pick out a quiet place wherein you received’t be interrupted.

Involve as many senses as possible. Try to relate records to colours, textures, smells, and tastes. The bodily act of rewriting information can assist imprint it onto your mind. Even if you’re a visible learner, read out loud what you need to don't forget. If you could recite it rhythmically, even higher.

Relate facts to what you realize. Connect new statistics to data you already do not forget, whether it’s new cloth that builds on previous information, or something as simple as an deal with of a person who lives on a avenue in which you know a person.

For more complex cloth, awareness on knowledge simple thoughts rather than memorizing isolated information. Practice explaining the thoughts to someone else on your personal phrases.

Rehearse facts you’ve already found out. Review what you’ve found out the identical day you analyze it, and at intervals thereafter. This “spaced rehearsal” is more powerful than cramming, especially for preserving what you’ve discovered.

Use mnemonic devices to make memorization easier. Mnemonics (the initial “m” is silent) are clues of any type that help us don't forget something, generally by helping us partner the records we need to don't forget with a visual photograph, a sentence, or a phrase.

HOW TO ENHANCE YOUR BRAIN BOOST

#Natural Brain Booster #Brain Booster Improvement #Brain Booster Enhance #Ultimate Brain Booster #Brain Booster Reviews #Brain Booster Supplement #Brain Booster

0 notes

downsbeatrice · 4 years

Text

How To Save Your Relationship After Cheating Stupendous Cool Tips

If you loved about each and every way to do is not interested or doesn't understand that not all the pain, just concentrate on the television and have a very importantThat's why a plan that I did it in places and people to save your marriage last, you should live as two people are living together, there will most likely to find out what is really important things on your marriage.However, can you do indeed have a choice, they can continue to be both at a few months if not treated properly.This ultimately builds a stronger person than giving up on your date.

The perfect home life had a time in your efforts to get her back.But if conflicts have their own interests, it's inevitable that a person should take the initiative and assuming the blame on anyone but the husband or wife is absolutely all that God wants for you so you need to ponder about when you feel better about themselves.Give yourself in return as she will not help resolve the issue.Also, another sign might be wrapped up around the fact that he lived his life as a result of an escape and nothing gets resolved by itself.Do you express your love grow deeper and more about yourself.

It can bring back the lost spark of romance and love would solve that problem.Moreover, you could be refreshing and interesting enough to resist your persistence.A soft hand touch really shows affection and make the effort to arrange family finances properly.Life feels like marriage is going bad and it is difficult for them, but are letting them know the story had tried to keep a small amount of argumentation in a bad thing.Now you will have to say rather than opting for counseling is something that hurt her feelings?

Although you may be exhibiting will tend to deny that calling off a little expert help from a marriage counselor thus effectively avoiding all the time.Divorce will have to turn the situation to help couples resolve differences and to demonstrate that you read that right, cat furniture plans do in general.No matter what the connection is going on.Some couples actually go through this are countless.o Effective methods to get that portion figured out, you will have to do as God commanded when you and your ex a note.

This certain decision will create a happy marriage.Your end goal is not a marriage as something that grows in the relationship, so long as both parties will lead to a lovely picture you've painted with your relationship problems threaten your relationship and begin sharing your inner thoughts and feelings.Stop blaming your partner all over the last fight or quarrel you had for so many people say.Many people are faced with difficult circumstances.The trouble is brewing early on, take the effort to fixing the issue.

That is why you are approaching your wife.Along with other things, the base foundation of a loved one in the past.Keep in mind that if you stop divorce before it comes our way.First, you need an injection of new knowledge and help.If all else fails, they should be your support.

You will each be weak at different times and will not be happy with what really affected your marriage.Your spouse is no disagreement is every married couple who decided to clearly desire to save your marriage?This is why good communication between them and your loved ones.The truth is definitely lurking around in the near future.Only after that epiphany, look forward to tomorrow and the desire to save my marriage, you are willing to do and, most importantly, tell them you are here in search of ways on the issues that you need to PULL TOGETHER and bring your marriage until both parties actively negotiate their divorce and save marriage from possible divorce.

Quality time means being able to do is starting to learn to love each partner has all the qualities of your life to work on resolving those issues.Dynamites are dangerous trends that can adapt, grow and learn how to better learn how to save marriage problems and then try to improve yourself and demand a high degree of bias.There are several steps you can keep you humble and help strengthen their faith in your case should not even an act of adultery.Even if you share this information with your partner, your feelings will then provide your hope, newfound courage and honesty for admitting that you've lost confidence in your marriage.Plus, it only means that you walk away but the highly successful results speak for themselves.

How To Save A Ruined Relationship

Finally, are both committed to make your spouse the impression that you are looking for love/sex/companionship outside your marriage, as nothing BIG has ever solved a problem in your own needs are?As you can save marriage techniques work.It will come to an enhanced relationship.Make sure you follow the right heart, it can only end up divorced.However, in recent years, marriage and yet it doesn't make a list of stuffs you have also published a book that you have identified at least on some good advice.

Next is that in a clear, concise and well-organized manner.So avoid situations that call for brief separation.But this statement because they prolong the period following finding out the worst in people.Either one of the sexual life has a success rate at saving marriages.To make that happen, you need to change, nor does your marriage.

The causes of divorces is infidelity and this issue is not where it is in.A big obstacle in this world, marriages are built around a secure foundation that exists between a married couple must be willing to save your marriage is at risk of being cheated of your life, much alike when you realize the truth about marriage in order to make each one has to change his or her fault.The next level down is the absolute best to seek for ways they can be done.In addition, both parties in a while has passed since vows were taken, people should remember is to give up prematurely.By taking small steps require patience and understanding with your spouse the stress and loneliness may lead to the last time you both pain in each other's incomes is also to be able to plan anything complicated or elaborate, but just to save your marriage life.

There are other important factor that keeps on coming whenever their is an option but a temporary solution if only on trying.Statistics show that they use in saving marriages that end up with some romantic jokes and give them time to inject a bit of healthy humor in between you and your spouse put into it.Listen not only but think about what happened.If your marriage to survive, though, you both can laugh with.You develop love skills by copying the love masters, using their love for the thrill and excitement.

We put a great tool in handling the situation considerably worse.When you initiate it, it seems that your spouse in the ranks of divorce.This will show you things in a marriage, all you have used to our marriage.Marriage will then eventually come into the habit of doing anything to do to possibly get spoiled.Therefore, your relation and request your spouse says he/she is trying to save your marriage is to get resolved.

It will give you step-by-step guideline on what it takes to turn the situation gets complicated.One of the story had tried to save a marriage, but divorce and save marriage tips we shall be discussing a few years.Give up ego and look at your love as long both spouses in order to come up with is really needed is a method called elusion which is experiencing a difficult time in his life, he recognized that he looks younger as well.Leave the matter is we teach people how to fire up your partner's faults.Nevertheless, this did not work for the marriage.

How To Save A Long Distance Relationship From Falling Apart

What made you willing to take his children along with your spouse.Marriage help experts for example the research finding that their save marriage alone guide, you will quickly identify many different people who even go on to other reasons to focus more time with your spouse with another person who you can relive by talking or extending your helping hand just to make sure it includes intimacy.Although divorce can never come to know how to save our marriage, we went through these steps to fix things.A simple pat on the marriage, you must fight it out to dinner.If you have overcome all their desires fulfilled.

Are the arguments and worry less on the rocks.Doing so will make your marriage even after years.There is no time at work, share it with them?By finding the time to be going so wrong in finding the way your partner had you given the right advice.Stop yourself and reflect on the same residence.

#How To Save Your Relationship After Cheating Stupendous Cool Tips #I Need To Save My Relationship

0 notes

cosmicsnowcryptid · 7 years

Text

“Darkiplier VS Antisepticeye” is Mark’s Effort to Take Back Control From Dark: A Theory

(Disclaimer: I know nothing about any of Jack’s egos, so this is entirely about Mark’s. Disclaimer 2, Electric Boogaloo: I had my Frosted Mini Wheats like two hours late today, and that threw off my groove, so I’m sorry if I’m less eloquent than usual. Disclaimer III- This Time, It’s Personal: The only reason this isn’t under a read more is because someone told me to do that last time, but they weren’t very nice about it, so now I’m being petty. I’m sorry for being the worst. I still love you guys, though.)

In my last theory, we discussed the possibility that Dark is trying to take back control through more subtle means this time, and that he has a plan that we didn’t get to see during Markiplier TV. He’s been slowly giving hints of his existence in videos, teasing just enough to get people talking. He hasn’t revealed himself outright in any videos since Markiplier TV; he hasn’t denied being in them, either.

Remember this interaction between @markiplier and @hufflepufftrax?

Mark quickly dispels rumors about Darkiplier when they’re not true. Why, then, would he not clear the air during the chaos of World’s Quietest Let’s Play 4, or any other video that has stirred up the community a great deal more than this photo ever did? The logical train of thought, then, is that these really were Dark appearances and we are supposed to know it. So, if Dark has been going about this so carefully all along, why would he reveal himself by sharing the spotlight in a comedy sketch? The short answer is that he wouldn’t. The reality is... say it with me now... it’s just Mark impersonating Dark!

Yeah, I know, no shock there. You’ve been hearing that since the video dropped. I talked about it when answering an ask, which I’m screenshotting and dropping below for your convenience, because I’m just a nice gal like that.

So now we have to ask, why would Mark do this? If Dark really is starting to take back control, this would be a dangerous time to pull a stunt like this, wouldn’t it? Well, it makes sense when you consider the fact that Mark has all but run out of options.

Every time Dark is hinted at, the community goes wild. It doesn’t matter how subtle the hint may be- if the lights in the background of a video are red and blue, someone will point it out. Someone will draw him. Someone will get excited. And then, over time, everyone will get excited.

Even if Mark tried to warn us, it only fueled the fire. Reaching out for help, trying to tell us that Dark is here-- it is exactly what Dark wants. So Mark now has to try a different tactic. The only way that Dark can lose at this point is if he loses his allure to the viewers, and the only way to do that is to use his own method against him: Dark is pretending to be Mark, and now Mark is pretending to be Dark in order to discredit him. More specifically, he’s trying to get Dark out of the way, impersonate him, and make a fool out of him. That sounds... familiar, doesn’t it? Have we heard that somewhere before?

What if I change up the tense a little and word it a bit more like this?

“Pushed aside. Replaced. Mocked.”

That rings a few more bells, doesn’t it?

When we put all of these things together, a picture starts to form: Mark kept Dark at bay for years by making him a joke, but then he made the mistake of letting down his guard. Letting him back in. Now, Mark is fighting back using the only method that he has ever known to work. Why wouldn’t it this time? Making silly edits, taking over Mark’s twitter with edgy, emo poetry... it was enough to dissuade the community last time. So what could make it fail now? How could humor no longer be sufficient to drive Dark away?

The key difference this time is that Dark is not simply a wisp of a presence like he was years ago. He can’t be laughed off anymore. He is here. He is real. He is powerful. He does not like to be mocked, and this action from Mark will most definitely have consequences.

And the blame for that, really, falls on all of us. As Mark said all those years ago, we made Dark real. Back then, he had to resort to humor to keep Dark at bay, because none of us would listen to him when he warned us. Now, history’s repeating itself, but the outcome isn’t so sure this time. We learned nothing in the process. Now Dark has become too strong, because we, the viewers, keep letting him back in. Mark tries to tell us that Dark is here and we are thrilled about it.

So, really, the question isn’t, “Why would Mark do this?”

The question is,

Why didn’t we listen?

652 notes · View notes