#prepare for more 900s in the future

[yougavemeyourheartyouknow]

Miguel’s and reader’s meet cute (baby daddy AU: College days prequels)

Baby Daddy Masterlist

Not proofread.

Word count: 900

Taglist is closed!!

—

Miguel had always been told from his elders that college was going to be a fresh start. A new school, a new roommate, new possible friends, new opportunities, a new path to his future. He had been preparing and planning how his freshmen year would go the second he finished walking the stage at his high school.

So far, things were going to plan, he made it to his first set of classes early to get a good seat, although not in the front due to his height (he didn’t want to be an ass to the people behind him), was able to get up early in the morning to go to the gym, his relationship with his roommate Peter was even going well. Although he was a bit more of an extrovert then himself, they still got along fairly fine. So far everything has worked out for him.

His third day of classes was going just like the first two did, waking up around eight a.m, working out till ten, getting a protein shake and some breakfast, then be at his first class by twelve. To his surprise though, the lecture hall was already almost filled despite him being ten minutes early. Making sure to take a mental note to try arriving a bit early as he took one of the few lingering seats in the back row between a girl and another guy.

The girl next to him shot him a quick smile when she saw him sitting in the empty seat to her right, one to which he returned before going to quietly set up his laptop for note taking. She was quite pretty, her hair clipped up into a ponytail, long-sleeve cream top and some flared leggings, a black backpack hanging off her chair and a metal water bottle covered in stickers next to her laptop, also covered in stickers. But despite her warm and welcoming presence, Miguel decided to pay her no mind as he idly waited for class to start.

After another few minutes, the professor finally began. Droning on mostly about the course expectations and grade requirements, before he starts his actual lesson. The room was mostly quiet except the professor and the occasional murmur from other students talking between one another about the subject. Miguel was so sucked into the lecture, he barely noticed the quiet tapping of a finger on his desk.

“Hey. Excuse me.” The quiet whisper pulled him back to present time, turning to the source of the voice, the pretty girl who’s sitting next to him. “Hey sorry, I didn’t pick up the last thing he said, it’s kinda hard to hear him from up here. Can I…” you trailed off, pointing towards his laptop. Usually, Miguel would scoff at the implication of someone asking him to take a glance at his notes, telling them to ask someone else or maybe pay better attention. But for the pretty girl in his statistics class…

“Yeah here.” He whispered back, turning his laptop to his side so she could see better, giving her a moment to write it down before turning it back to its original spot.

“Thanks.”

“Course.”

That’s were the conversation should have ended, he should have left that be and just focused back on the last twenty minutes of class before walking out to his next one. Leaving this be a passing moment, a barely acquaintance that he’d nodded at when you’d cross paths in the courtyard until he simply didn’t anymore. Instead though.

“I like your water bottle.”

“Hmm?”

“I like your water bottle. It’s cute.”

“Oh.” God that sweet, sweet smile, made his heart melt a bit. “Thank you, I was hoping it doesn’t come across as childish or anything.”

“Oh no it’s fun, I just have one of those plastic Gatorade ones.”

He didn’t even notice that he ended up making conversation till the lesson was over, finally realizing when he saw the guy to his left get up.

“Guess class is over, huh?”

“Oh-yeah, looks like it is.”

Miguel set his laptop back in his bag, and got up, waiting till you did the same before walking out of the lecture hall.

“Thanks again for letting me glance at your notes.”

“Of course, if you ever need help with notes, just let me know.”

“Yeah totally, I’ll try to catch you after class or something if we don’t sit next to each other next time.” Oh, he was definitely planning on sitting next to you next time. But he wasn’t going to admit that, instead he shook his head and waved his hand to play it cool.

“No, that's too much of a hassle, let me give you my number, so you can just shoot me a text.” Wait till his younger brother found out he already gave a girl his number during his third day of class.

You both took a second to exchange numbers, Miguel was about to create the contact when he realized he never got your name.

“I’m sorry , I don’t think I ever actually introduced myself. I’m Miguel.” He said as he stuck his hand out towards you.

“I’m (Y/N).” Pretty name for a pretty girl. You quickly took his hand in yours, shaking it before putting it back to your side.

“Well I hope to see you around, (Y/N).”

If only he knew his faith with the pretty girl from his statics class.

—

Taglist is closed!!

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#miguel o hara fanfic #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o'hara #miguel o’hara au #spiderman 2099 x reader #astv spiderman 2099 #astv miguel #miguel spiderverse #spiderman 2099 fanfic #bd!miguel #baby daddy!miguel #miguel fanfic #miguel o hara x reader #miguel ohara x reader #miguel ohara spiderman #spiderman 2099 #college days prequels

[skzstannie]

"We Fell in Love in October"

SKZ -> Seungmin x reader

This is a song fic inspired by "We Fell in Love in October" by girl in red. Song lyrics are italicized!

genre: fluff cw: none, just Seungmin being a soft boy :) wc: ~900

Happy scrolling!

"It's been a long week; I've missed my girl." Seungmin's voice echoes through the stairwell, his soft tone travelling to floors below you.

Walking up the stairwell towards the rooftop of your apartment complex is you and Seungmin. It was your turn to pick what to do for date night, and you decided on stargazing, because what's more romantic than laying on a candlelit rooftop while looking at the stars.

You reach the door to the rooftop, and you walk through the opened door, courtesy of Seungmin. It's an absolutely beautiful scene, the night sky scattered with thousands of stars. One seems to stick out to you, looking significantly brighter than the rest, and Seungmin points out that it's a planet, probably Jupiter.

He grabs your hand, leading you over to the plush blanket you set up earlier. Alongside the blanket are numerous throw pillows off your couch and your small Bluetooth speaker. Your things rest in the middle of the roof, a spot void of the nice outdoor furniture that litters the rest of the space. Seungmin compliments your choice of drink for the night, immediately reaching for the chocolate milk upon sitting. He pours it into the mugs sitting beside you guys and hands you one, offering up the bigger mug knowing the beverage is your favorite.

You two sip on your drinks for awhile, and you bask in the comfort that is your boyfriend. You gently grasp Seungmin's arm and pull him down next to you. He stretches his arm out to you, allowing your head a comfortable place to rest.

"If the night sky was my life, you'd be Jupiter," he comments, glancing over at you with a teasing smirk on his face.

"That is entirely too cheesy, but you know I love it," you chuckle back, leaning into him to give a light peck to his cheek. He blushes slightly, and you find it endlessly precious how he still gets flustered from the smallest amounts of affection.

You sit in silence for a few moments, admiring the beauty of the clear night sky. It's a beautiful evening late in November, one of the warmest days you've experienced since the early days of September. You can hear the sounds of cars rushing below, the occasional horns beeping when people become too impatient.

"Ya know, we fell in love in October, which really wasn't that long ago. I don't know how I survived my whole life without knowing you." Seungmin apparently came prepared with the loving compliments tonight, throwing them out left and right.

"You wanna know something else?" you ask, your gaze sweeping over to him. "I can't imagine my future without you either," you counter back.

Having only been dating for around two months, you were both still relatively new to each other. The other's mannerisms were slowly being learned, the vocabulary becoming shared as the days go on. You learn new things about Seungmin everyday, all his cute quirks and habits that you didn't recognize the day before. You do know, however, that you're slowly falling more and more in love everyday.

"It truly is a beautiful night, thank you for setting all this up."

"I've been wanting to do this for awhile, but I wanted to wait until we were a little more comfortable with each other. It's pretty romantic, so I didn't want to scare you away," you explain.

"You know, honestly, I never thought I'd be here, with you. And I don't just mean here on this roof, stargazing, I mean, like, in this relationship at all." You look at him, your eyebrows knitting together. In your mind, it's the other way around. He is perfect in every way imaginable. Way too perfect to settle with someone like yourself, not that you are complaining.

"What do you mean? We clicked right away, I thought," you question.

"I watched you for so long before we talked, admiring [you] from afar. I'd see you walking down the street, thumbing through your favorite book at the coffee shop, at the grocery store. I was always too nervous to talk to you," he confesses, his eyes roaming the sky until they finally meet yours. "I'd always hoped, 'her, that girl right there, she's gonna be my girl one day', but I never had the guts to make the move."

"I never knew that," your voice fades away, thinking back to remember whether you'd ever noticed Seungmin the day before you first met him.

"And now look at us, you're my world, my everything," his arm tightens around you, pulling you in closer.

Your heart bursts with love for the man next to you, enjoying the way he's finally starting to open up to you more. He's had a hard time expressing himself to you, so hearing such heartfelt compliments from him enamors you.

The rest of your night goes exactly how you imagined it- perfect. You know, in your heart, it doesn't matter what you two are doing, this is how it always feels, how it will always feel. You truly complete each other.

"I told you earlier that you'd be my Jupiter in a sky full of stars," he pauses, his face softening. "I take it back, in a sky full of stars, you're my galaxy. You are the stars, the planets, all of it combined. If there's no galaxy, there is only nothingness." You look to him, expecting to see another teasing smirk plastered across his face. However, you notice the way his eyes stare at you with bliss, all signs of teasing seemingly melted from his features since you're earlier conversation. "Yea, I like the sound of that. You're more than the stars in the sky, you're my galaxy, my own personal Milky Way."

#skz #stray kids #seungmin #skz drabbles #skz oneshots #skz x reader #kim seungmin #skz fluff #stray kids x reader #stray kids fluff #stray kids imagines #seungmin x reader #Spotify

[skyeslittlecorner]

Horns Cleaning Manual | Andrealphus

I miss him. And I want to experiment with form. And I miss him.

~900 words

꧁:･ ✡ ･:꧂

Hello, [insert_your_name]! We wanted to extend our gratitude for your recent purchase of our polishing kit. Your support is invaluable to us. In addition, with the choice of a premium set, we send additional instructional materials to help you properly use the product. The set includes instructions along with a visual presentation prepared thanks to courtesy of Descendant of Solomon. If you have any questions or require further assistance, please feel free to contact us. We're here to help. Once again, thank you for choosing our product. We look forward to serving you again in the future. [This message was automatically generated with the promotional code used on our website. Please, do not reply.]

꧁:･ ✡ ･:꧂

You stare at the printed draft of generative commercial email, already regretting getting tricked into this. Bimet will pay you for it, and not in money.

You don't really know what to do, but okay, you'll figure it out as you go. You were supposed to choose a devil to work with. Preferably, one with big horns. There was only one reasonable option in your head.

🧡 Step one - preparations. A hard, strong chair that won't break. It can also be a bed or a sofa. You sit Andrealphus there and straddle his lap. Dress casually, preferably loosely. In your case, it's only underwear and Andrea's shirt.

🧡 He looks quite amused and places his hands on your hips. His thumbs rubs circles on your body, as he is tilting his head so you have full access to his horns.

🧡The box you have next to you doesn't have many devices. A pair of silk cloths, a polishing spray, anti-slip ointment, a finger-sized polisher with replaceable heads. But what you do first is push back his long hair and massage the base of those horns.

🧡He hums contentedly, and you feel him tilt his head even more towards you. When you grab one of the horns you feel that they are strong, thick and slightly rough to the touch. You pet him to get him ready. They must be handled gently.

🧡 It doesn't help that you feel your movements on the horns in your body… Be strong.

🧡 Well, Andrea doesn't even try to be strong. Being hard is another thing. With every stroke you make, you feel his breathing quicken. The hands that were previously on your waist moved to your back and ass.

🧡 You start applying anti-slip ointment. Don't know how it works, but apparently it retains milk. As you put it on, Andrea mews about how slippery and hot it is. You are not a monster. Don't apply it to the ends. You want to see him writhing in pleasure, all dirty.

🧡 He tries to be collected, but can't even see you. Only feel how your skin getting hotter and your smell changes. You squirm in his lap. And you expect him to stand still. Do you want to drive him crazy?

🧡 Screw this. He'll help you later, he has other things to do now. When you lift yourself up and down on his lap again to reach for polisher, he wraps his arms around your waist tightly and pulls you closer. You started polishing the rough edges of his horns, so you're kneeling higher than him, so he has perfect access to your chest. Why are you wearing a T-shirt? Take it off. It won't be needed.

🧡 He knows you want it too. He felt you deliberately sitting on his bulge. Your clothes are already wet. Off with them!

🧡 Andrea is way too stimulated to tease you. When you want to sit on his lap, he grabs you by the hips and impales you hard on him. Loud moan escape your lips.

🧡 He's so hard. You feel him inside, better than usually. Hot, throbbing veins, tight, slippery sensation. Your head is spinning. He keeps you from getting used to him and lifts you higher, only to lower you again. Strong. Very strong.

🧡 His arms are all over your body, his lips licking and nibbling your neck and chest. He is quiet, you are not. Especially when the strongest pleasure hits you.

🧡 You hold his horns like a handrail to keep him under control. One of them is warmer, slippery, but not wet. The second one has already sprayed milk on your face and his. The scent is sweet and earthy. His.

🧡 He comes deep inside you. Shivering in his arms, you lean on the muscular chest, hardly catching breath yourself.

🧡 He lies down and purrs, and that's the loudest sound you hear from him. Keeps stroking your body like he can't get enough of it. Runs his fingers over every scar and mole. He knows your body by heart, but he wants to remember it anyway.

🧡 You kiss him deeply. He did a great job, you praise him quietly and shower his face with kisses. With each word, his hands became more gentle. He only responds to you with one sentence. "I love you."

Last step. You stare at the video with a beet red face and then at the sample email Bimet showed you. Screw him. He won't get anything. It's only yours. If he wants, you can smile at the camera in the normal ad. Later. Now you're going to cuddle the handsome devil who's waiting for you in the bed.

#whb #what in hell is bad #whb andrealphus

[slut4thebroken]

forced my hand

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Pairing | Jason Todd x reader

Summary | Jason’s been begging to fuck your ass and you keep saying no so he decides to take matters into his own hands

Warnings | HARD KINKS 18+, vaginal sex, anal sex, rape, coercion, dubious consent (not even that. it’s just straight up non consensual)

Words | 900

Notes | I’m going through a dark!jason phase. If anyone wants to send me money for therapy, feel free to do so

Ao3 link | <3

Masterlist

This is NON consensual sex !!! Please don’t read if this will be triggering- this is the last warning.

He’s always wanted to try anal with you and he was never shy about voicing that want. One time you made a joke about agreeing, asking when he wanted to go shopping for a strap, and he was not even slightly amused. 

So that’s how most of your sex life has been going for the past few months. He’d always ask, you’d always deny. 

“C’mon, babe, just let me stick a finger in.” His thrusts slowed and his hand on your ass cheek was moving closer and closer to your hole. 

“No, Jason.” You warned, preparing to grab his hand. 

“It’s just one fuckin finger what’s so bad about that?”

“You can finger my ass after I finger yours.” You snapped, shutting him up. 

One time he stuck a finger in anyway, so you pushed him off of you and went to the bathroom, locking yourself inside. 

“Seriously?” He scoffed through the door. “C’mon, babe, I won’t do it again, just let me fuck you.” 

“Jason, I’ve told you time and time again.” You sighed. 

“So you’re just gonna fuckin leave me like this?” When you didn’t respond, he continued. “Fine!” Then, under his breath as he walked away, “Fuckin bitch.” 

It was only a couple weeks after that incident that he finally decided he’d had enough. You were laying face down, ass up, as he slammed his hips into you, keeping up the brutal pace. You reached a hand down to your clit, trying to have a little more stimulation than just his relentless pounding. And you could feel yourself getting close too. But he suddenly pulled out, making you whine and push your hips back. Then hot come was hitting your asshole, dripping down until it met your fingers. 

You sighed, knowing you were going to have to finish yourself off again- you should’ve started touching yourself earlier, but you thought he’d last longer. 

Jason eyed your fluttering holes, knowing it’d be now or never. Well, not never, but not in the near future. It didn’t take much convincing for him to press the blunt head of his cock against your asshole and start to push in. 

“Ow- ow! Jason, what the fuck?!” You yelled, trying to move away from him. He just pressed on your upper back, holding you down. He lined himself up again and pushed, this time breaching your hole, making you let out a shrill scream. Reaching a hand down, he swiped through some of his come that had fallen down your cunt and rubbed it over the rest of his cock, making it easier to slide in. Once his hips met your ass, he let out a loud moan, savoring the feeling. 

“Does it hurt?” He asked, casually. He could tell you were crying. You were letting out these whimpers that went straight to his cock and clawing at the sheets, still trying to get away from him. Patience wearing thin, he finally started to move. He dragged his length out slowly, then slammed back in, making you release a loud sob. You started babbling out pleas for him to stop, but all of it was just making him harder. 

He didn’t keep the slow speed for long. As his pace got faster, he could already feel himself nearing his second orgasm. Your virgin ass was so much tighter than your used cunt and he mentally decided to fuck your ass from now on, at least until your pussy tightened up again. 

He suddenly pulled out, grabbing both of your ass cheeks and pulling them open to get a better view of your gaping holes. Fuck- should’ve done this so much sooner, he thought. He slid back in, paying no mind to your cries of pain, and focused on his orgasm. 

“Fuck yeah,” He groaned, “fuckin slut. This could’ve been enjoyable for both of us, but you just had to be a stubborn bitch. You forced my hand, babe. This is your own fault.” He all but shrugged. His thrusts grew erratic and frenzied as he neared his orgasm until finally he let out a loud moan and pushed completely inside you. As you fell forward onto your stomach, he followed you, now pinning your body to the bed. His hips rutted into you, trying to get the most out of his orgasm, as he let out curses and stifled moans. Finally, he stilled, catching his breath and not moving from his position yet. 

The sound of your soft cries finally registered and he pushed your hair behind your ear to see your face, then kissed the tears on your cheeks. You flinched away from him, sobbing harder, and he could feel his cock fattening up again. 

Leaning up, he pulled your ass cheeks apart, then slowly dragged his cock out. Your gaping hole fluttered around nothing as his come slowly trickled out, down to your cunt. He cursed under his breath at the sight and gave one last slap on your ass, then stood up, going to the bathroom.

“Maybe don’t be such a fucking bitch and I’ll actually prep you next time.” He knew that wasn’t true though. He wasn’t going to waste his time making your fuck hole looser. Especially not when you sound so fucking hot crying and begging him to stop. 

#jason todd x reader #jason todd #smut #Jason needs professional help #blurb #jason todd smut

[mariacallous]

As Israelis reel from the shock of the gruesome assault by Hamas militants over the weekend, Palestinians are bracing for a retaliatory ground invasion of the Gaza Strip that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Monday would reverberate for generations.

More than 1,000 Israelis have been killed, infants and elderly among them, while more than 100 people have been taken as hostages, complicating Israel’s pursuit of Hamas. Some 900 people have been killed in Gaza as the territory, one of the most densely populated on Earth, has been pounded by Israeli airstrikes that have hit mosques and a crowded market.

Foreign Policy spoke to Khaled Elgindy, director of the program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli affairs at the Middle East Institute, about the timing of the attack, life in Gaza today, and the need for the international community to lay down guardrails as Israel prepares its response.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Foreign Policy: Why did Hamas decide that now was the time to launch these attacks in southern Israel? Do you see any kind of particular external factors that may have prompted this moment?

Khaled Elgindy: The triggers for this were many. Obviously, the whole context is 56 years of Israeli occupation with no end in sight. And this suffocating 16-year blockade on Gaza, which, as you know, has been the source of many rounds, many different eruptions over the years. Now you have the most extremist government in Israel’s history. Violence in the West Bank has ratcheted up. It’s been the deadliest year in the West Bank in two decades. You have a dramatic spike in terrorism by settlers. Various rampages through different Palestinian villages mostly in the north, and with more or less impunity from the Israeli army, sometimes even with the assistance of the army. And on top of it, there are these regular and increasing encroachments at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. It’s not a coincidence that Hamas named this operation the Al-Aqsa typhoon.

In the midst of all of that, the Arab world is moving on. The new game in town is Saudi-Israel normalization. The two-state solution is off the table. Palestinian freedom is off the table. Washington is distracted with other issues; it’s not a priority. So I think all of those are the context in which they’re saying, “Look, right now, Palestinians are the only people paying the price for the status quo.” The status quo is extremely comfortable for Israel, and the rest of the international community is complacent, because most of the costs are borne by the Palestinians. So at its core, Hamas’s calculation is to radically overturn that calculation.

FP: What came to my mind over the weekend was that the response to these attacks is only going to make life for people living in Gaza more intolerable. So what was their endgame here?

KE: That’s the million-dollar question. I mean, I’ve been struggling with what exactly is their endgame. They knew that was going to produce a much bigger response than anything they’ve seen before. But then that ought to tell us something about the mindset that goes into that. If you are prepared to launch something as outrageous and audacious as this, knowing full well what the consequences will be, then that tells us something about the sense of despair and the sense of desperation that exists. What does it take to push people to that sort of an act, not just in terms of killing other people, but also knowing the cost that you yourself will pay?

Look at Gaza, especially; suicide rates are going up. It’s not only that they’re living in miserable conditions, but it’s that there’s no end in sight. The Palestinians live in this state of despair, and we should be very, very afraid of despair, because people will do just about anything. That’s not in any way to justify, but it’s not a little thing to get to a point where you do something that ultimately is totally self-defeating.

FP: How do you think this is going to impact support for Hamas among Palestinians?

KE: At a superficial level, they will get a boost in their popularity. Anyone who is seen as inflicting damage on Israel is going to win points among the Palestinian public—especially in contrast to the leadership in the West Bank, where the contrast couldn’t be more stark. Here are the guys—[the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs parts of the West Bank] Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas] and his people—they play by all the rules, they’re against violence, they’re for negotiations, they want to do things the right way. They jumped through all the hoops of the international community about institution building and finances and all of these things. Yes, they’re corrupt, but the corruption comes from the stagnation of Palestinian politics, the fact that there’s no parliament, there’s no oversight, which itself is a condition of the occupation. The U.S. and Israel don’t want elections; they don’t want a genuinely representative government that probably won’t be committed to things like security coordination with Israel.

So they do all the right things. They coordinate our security. And what did they get? Well, it’s a lose-lose, because they’re seen as collaborators by the people. That they’re subcontractors for Israeli security. But what did they get? Are they rewarded for their compliance and jumping through all the right hoops? Have they gotten the state? No, they haven’t.

It doesn’t matter if Palestinians play by the rules because it doesn’t get them anywhere. And so the Hamas option looks much more appealing. Because, even if there’s a cost, well, we’re paying costs anyway. Every day, we’re losing land. Every day, we’re losing people, homes—villages are being evacuated, depopulated in the Jordan Valley—and so we’re losing anyway. At least they’re doing something. So I think that’s the mindset if you’re a Palestinian. The choice between the two, Hamas will pay a price for sure, but maybe they’re calculating that that price will be offset by being seen as the new vanguards of Palestinian liberation and maybe the future of Palestinian leadership.

FP: How would the PA feel about seeing Hamas brought down?

KE: What does it mean to bring it down? You can kill all the leaders, which Israel has done. Remember back in the early 2000s, they killed the no. 1, 2, and 3 in succession, and there will always be someone to replace them. I don’t think you can just erase a political movement or political idea, whatever you may think about it.

This is another reason why I’m frustrated: There are no grown-ups in the diplomatic world who are calling for some reasonable, measured response and not falling into emotional reactions to everything.

FP: But if I may push back there, the nature of these attacks feels like it was designed to provoke an emotional response.

KE: Yes, of course. And that’s normal. We’re human beings. My hope is that once cooler heads have prevailed, after that initial shock has worn off, you need to sit down and think about rational responses.

There needs to be pushback, to say 2.3 million people—civilians in Gaza—did not have responsibility. They’re not responsible for the carnage that happened over the weekend in Israel. Otherwise, we’re just kind of buying into the same logic as the terrorists.

FP: What are you hearing from your contacts in Gaza right now about what the situation has been like there over the past 48 hours?

KE: The situation is horrific. Most people I know in Gaza are fleeing their homes to relatives’ homes where they think there’s less likelihood of being attacked. But there’s really nowhere to go, because nobody knows what the targets are. The targets are very malleable. And we’ve seen apartment buildings, all kinds of civilian infrastructure—anything and everything can be a target.

Israel doesn’t have a very good track record of protecting civilians. And now, given the rage in Israel, it has much less appetite to think about any red lines. They are still human beings. When you hear the Israeli defense minister refer to 2 million Palestinians in Gaza as human animals, we should be afraid of that. We should be concerned by that. Because they will act on it. When you dehumanize your enemy, then anything and everything is possible.

[pochiperpe90]

THE 8 MOUNTAINS OF BORGHI AND MARINELLI

THE TWO ACTORS, FRIENDS IN FICTION AND IN LIFE, TELL US THE INCREDIBLE HUMAN JOURNEY, LIVED AT THE SIDE OF THE WRITER PAOLO COGNETTI AND THE DIRECTORS OF ALABAMA MONROE, ACCOMPLISHED TO FILM THE THRILLING MOVIE BASED ON THE NOVEL, WINNER OF THE “PREMIO STREGA”. WHICH ARRIVES IN THEATERS AT CHRISTMAS,  AFTER THE AWARD WON AT CANNES

Two friends and many paths to travel together. Indeed, three. Alessandro Borghi, Luca Marinelli and Paolo Cognetti, author of the novel “The eight mountains”, winner of the Strega Prize in 2017. A love song for high altitudes, forests, streams and the great outdoors, tells the story of the friendship between Pietro and Bruno, who met in the mountains as boys and again as adults, identical and very different, to build a small hut together, building it on the ruins of a hut that Pietro's father left him in inheritance. That project will renew their relationship while giving direction to the future. Cognetti's novel has now become a film directed by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, the directors of the moving Alabama Monroe. After winning the Prize of Jury at the last Cannes Film Festival, now it arrives in theaters on December 22nd thanks to Vision Distribution, just in time for the Christmas holidays. In the movie. Pietro and Bruno are precisely them, Borghi and Marinelli, great friends even in life, who met on the set seven years after the film that brought them together, “Non essere cattivo”. And here they spent a lot of time with Cognetti himself, during the long months of preparation for the shooting that they themselves tell us about. 

What relationship did you have with mountains before this movie? 

Alessandro Borghi: I had started an approach to the mountains three years ago: I was bored, in the summer, ending up in the crowd, by the sea, so I tried to change. And I fell in love, I found a right way for me to enjoy the mountain, almost meditative. But also the fact that in the mountains you can do a lot of sports, it amuses me. Let's say that, through the film, I closed a cycle to start another. I exhausted my "tourist love" and started a different path, favored by the people we worked with. I learned how to milk cows, to graze, to make cheese, to experience the mountain pastures... Now I see it from another point of view, even more "earthly". And so now I can consider my love "complete and official".

Luca Marinelli: I can also say that I'm officially in love with the mountain. But in a more similar way to Pietro, who already had an imprint, because part of my family comes from a small mountain village. But it’s a small village that is 900 meters above sea level. That kind of mountain I loved and knew, but it's very different from what we did for the film. We lived it completely, we went from 1500 meters to 3500... And we shot up to 4000 meters, for the scenes with the glacier. We walked a lot with Paolo (Cognetti, ed.), he was our first "mountain instructor", then we found others, mostly his friends.

What contribution did he make to the film? 

AB: Paolo was with us all the time, always on tiptoe and with great sensitivity. He was very good at not making us feel responsible for having to 'give back’ something that he had put in the book. He could have said “look, when I wrote this I was thinking about this”, and he never did. We rather asked in some moments. From a practical point of view, instead, he tried to kill me... (laughs, ed.). He took me on crazy walks. Every time he told me "It’s an hour's walk, nothing much…” then it became six hours and you reached 3500 meters. But through his way of experiencing the mountains I discovered a different approach: he is a great teacher of "lonely mountain". Someone who says: “Now you're happy that I'm here with you, but think if you do it alone”. And then he's a special human being, someone who is very careful about the words he uses and who uses them uncommonly.

LM: Yes, we spent months with him. I asked Felix and Charlotte if it would be possible to meet and have some time to prepare before shooting, it's a phase of the work that I really enjoy. For “Non essere cattivo” think that I had moved to Ostia. At first I was afraid to annoy him, then he became our teacher and eventually we became friends.

How complicated was to shoot following the rhythms of the mountain?

AB: The mountain commands, so from a production point of view it was a huge operation. And it was the longest film I've made to shoot, five months. We started in May and finished in December, with breaks in between, and in the meantime Luca also went to Nepal, with a reduced crew and in the midst of the pandemic. The hardest part was the winter one. Unfortunately, with the climatic situation we live in, things never "returned": when we needed the snow, it wasn't there, when we didn't need it, there was... The summer part, on the other hand, was more regular. It makes me laugh that we went to the set by all imaginable transports, with the snowmobile, with the van, with the motorcycle, with the helicopter, on foot... Depending on how the situation was when we woke up, we had to change. One evening we almost got stuck on the set because a heavy snow came and we couldn't go back. 

And how did it go in Nepal?

LM: Nepal was crazy. A great gift. We reached the places that can be seen on foot. We stayed in Katmandu for a week and then for two weeks we walked in the mountains: from Katmandu we reached 4300 meters, in a village where we found fields cultivated with yak-pulled plows, something I really didn’t expect at that height. At 4000 meters we have glaciers. There were days in which we just walked, even ten hours, to get to the next stage, where we then had to acclimatise, because in any case the body has to get used to it. I remember times when I felt the altitude a lot, it's powerful. We have to go back there together (he tells Alessandro Borghi, ed), it's the next thing we do together.

What kind of directors are Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch?

AB: When I saw Alabama Monroe, it seemed unbelievable that I was going to make a film with them. I find it extraordinary. I was curious to see if their approach would be similar, just in terms of language. But the incredible thing is that if you see their films they all seem to be made by a different director. Metrics, narration, use of the machine…The choice of format, 4:3, is incredible. Their idea was not to show as much as a larger format would allow, so the audience would have to imagine the rest of the frame. I find them two immensely talented directors and two very special human beings, at this point I could not imagine this film made by someone else.

LM: They fell deeply in love with this story. They had great courage to say "We want to tell this story and we want to tell it where it was written”, and then come here, learn Italian very well in a few months... I spoke Italian with them on the set because I knew they understood it very well. 

Can you give me a special memory of this very particular experience? 

AB: Obviously I have many incredible memories, but not to tell you one too obvious, here, I thought of these lunches, which were the classic lunches with baskets that are made on the set, on white plastic tables. At one point, the first few days, I took a picture of what Luca and I saw: baskets, plastic tables and... the infinite in front of us. The feeling of being very small. And the one that there would still be so much to do, so much time to live that situation. It gave me great joy. Usually when you get to the end of the shoot you feel that a path has run out, it didn't happen to me here: I would have shot for another nine months.

LM: A memory, linked to our friendship, was when I first saw Alessandro sitting at the makeup, and I was there too. I thought 'Wow…what is this? A hallucination?”. Working together again was very nice. In addition to all this, I remember a moment in Nepal when Pietro looks around him. They had asked me to show the happiness of the character. So I thought about all the way to get to that scene in Nepal and I got really excited. That image, those mountains, the bird that flew over us, I will never forget it. “Look how far we've come, all together”, I thought.

Cr: Best Movie

Like always, sorry for my English

#luca marinelli #tog cast #the old guard cast #alessandro borghi #interview #best movie #the eight mountains #le otto montagne #eng translation #mine #english translation #actor

[queen-scribbles]

@haledamage *cracks knuckles* ALRGHT THEN, can't wait to see the Kira ramble

I've already talked a little about how their different reactions in The Scene make me wanna chew drywall, but I'll refresh on that as I go. I think a lot of the differences and what makes them so DELICIOUS comes from the fact AJ and Adam are v different and Mallory and Adam are so, so very similar(the number of times Nate compares Mallory to Adam in their romance AU makes me laugh)

AJ, ofc, did the "what if we don't break?" response bc she's very much a "you'll never know if you never try" kind of person. Sure, maybe there's a 2% chance of success/no pain if they go for it(she personally thinks it's much higher), but there's a 0% chance if they deny something they both clearly feel and want to happen. She gets that Adam is trying to spare them both future pain of loss(a level of loss he's experienced before, which she can glean from the "again" even if he hasn't gone into detail about what happened to his family yet). She does. BUT his solution to avoiding potential future pain is to cause definite current pain. That doesn't make sense to her. Especially bc if something were to happen to him; seriously injured yet again or GOD FORBID killed, IT'S STILL GOING TO HURT. She still loves him even if he's not willing to let them be together. Can't speak for him, but suspects it would be the same. :) Just bc they're not acting on it doesn't make the feelings go away.

Her "going forward" is gonna be more of what's in the ficlet, not hiding that she loves him, not pushing too hard, just unobtrusively but relentlessly making him aware that whenever he's ready so is she. She doesn't want to pry for what happened to his family, what made him feel like this, worry about being broken bc he cares deeply about someone(spoilers, Adam, you care about Bravo. You care about Rebecca. You're still fucked even if you don't let yourself fall in love :)))) ), but even without details she understands it was Bad and she gets the desire to flinch away from a potential repeat of a pain you've experienced. Burn your hand, you don't touch the stove. Fall through ice, you don't walk on frozen rivers. etc etc. But she also feels that no matter how valid that fear might be, he needs to work through it(that feels like wrong phrasing >.>) bc not letting yourself get close to people for fear of how much losing them will hurt is no way to live. Especially when you're immortal. And maybe that's naïve bc she is mortal instead of being a 900 year old vampire. Maybe she'll feel differently after she's watched her mother and Tina and Verda's kids all age and die. But maybe she won't. Maybe loving people is worth enduring the chance/certainty of their loss.(Might do something in this AU with the fact she had a cat who died of old age a couple months before book 1. Much smaller scale, but she does have a little experience with loss of something beloved. And she wouldn't trade the years she had and loved her cat to avoid the pain of losing her, that would be silly.)

And Mallory. haha prepare for Mallory's Bold stat to SKYROCKET.

She's been trying to ignore, deny, and explain away the fact she's falling for Adam since late book 1, juuuuuust ignore she got worse PTSD from Murphy stabbing him than anything the asshole did to her. :) She still has nightmares about it. :))) Trapper fight too :))) The truth almost managed to escape after book 2 combat training, but she shoved it away, only to have TU OMNIA smash the walls down into little teeny tiny pieces she'd never put back together. (Love having a language nerd romance Adam "mutter in Latin so people don't know what I'm saying" du Mortain :). She DOES, buddy boy. It's fun) she still kept it kinda buried bc he was so clearly trying to deny/get rid of his feelings, and she already got her heart broken once by Bobby, she doesn't want a repeat of that. But the STUFF in book 3, man. And that my proud, cynical, STUBBORN AF, "I'm not fragile, Adam"// "I can handle myself" girl deliberately let herself be vulnerable enough to say "Too late" when he says he can't let her fall in love with him makes me SCREAM. She knew it was going to hurt. She knew it was going to break her heart. She did it anyway. She loves him enough to let him hurt her like that. Bc she had to tell him. She's honest, outspoken, reckless and so in love with him she can barely breathe, OFC she had to tell him even if he refuses to do anything about it.

But now, ohoho, he's admitted he loves her, and knows she loves him. The dam is finally, FINALLY broken, the river is raging, and good luck stopping her. She's gonna be way more open and blunt and vocal about how stupid she think it is to deny their feelings for each other. example: I DID NOT FINALLY GET OVER YEARS OF BLOODY BOBBY MARKS CRIPPLING MY LOVE LIFE TO ROLL OVER AND BE RESIGNED BC YOU'RE AFRAID OF GETTING HURT DU MORTAIN. DOES THAT SOUND LIKE ME?!?!?!?! (Do you know how long it took me to admit to MYSELF and sort-of kind-of to SOMEONE ELSE that I love you??? I can't back down NOW)

Mallory loves a challenge. She is encouraged and inspired when given a challenge. She also HATES IT when people tell her what to do, especially "for her safety". And Adam's whole "I will not allow you to fall in love with me" hits BOTH of those buttons. He literally could not have made her more interested in pursing him if he'd confessed his love and asked her on a date. xD Telling her "You can't do this, you'll get hurt" and thinking that would stop her???? Instead of make her chase it more stubbornly and blatantly????? Do you know her at all, Adam????? (Mason's gonna have a ball watching/abetting her in book 4 and I"m here for it)

tl;dr, AJ's a gentle stream, Mallory's a raging river, but they WILL both wear down the rock that is Adam du Mortain's obstinate refusal to pursue their mutual attraction, and it's gonna be delicious to watch.

#queen rambles #OH MY GOD THIS IS OVER 1K lmaooooooooo #muhahahaha book 4 will be so much fun guys >:3 #i can't wait #aj/adam au #mallory/adam #i hav SO MANY FEEEELLLLIINNNGGGGGSSSSSSs

[ready-steady-freddie]

Nothing breaks like a heart

Robert Bob Floyd x AFAB wife reader

Warnings: A piece on family life, miscarriages, infant death (nothing graphic), grief and mentions of being suicidal.

Word count: 900

Notes: This was inspired by something that happened in real life to me and my husband. I find many similarities between my husband and how I imagine Bob to be and what he would be like as a dad (which makes total sense) and how he would react in the situation that is touched upon in this drabble. It was also inspired by @a-reader-and-a-writer s drabble about Rhett Abbott called 'Sleep'.

I listened to Annie Lennox singing Into The West while writing this. The lyrics make perfect sense in this context.

This is my first time writing something from the reader's POV. This small piece ties in with Swim until you can't see land, which is more Bob-centric.

It wasn't easy trying to slip unnoticed into the house with the dark hallway filled with tricycles and Lego. After kicking off your shoes you managed to step onto a hard plastic block and hold back a loud curse word, only to bang your ankle into the pedal of the child-sized bike to your left. You didn't know which foot to clutch, so you whimpered faintly and hobbled to the kitchen. Even at 11pm the lights were still on and the kitchen was a mess. It usually was when Bob had the kids alone in the evening. It wasn't always possible to cook dinner, do the dishes, prepare their packed lunches, change diapers, help with toothbrushing, read an insurmountable amount of books, keep the kids inside the bed, wrap them in their duvets like little burritos, feeding them bananas and fetching glasses of water more times than possible to remember - all before falling asleep yourself while trying to put the children to bed. It just wasn't, and that was okay. You would clean it up together tomorrow morning.

You tiptoed upstairs, carefully avoiding the two creaking steps at the top. The door to the kids' bedroom was slightly ajar, lights off. You frowned. You opened it enough to stick your head inside and listen. You couldn't hear their breathing. You panicked and turned on the ceiling lights. Their beds were empty. You sighed, relief washing over you.

You walked further down the hall, opening the door to you and Bob's bedroom as quietly as possible. You heard heavy, sleepy breathing and smiled. There was a single electric candle alight on your nightstand, and in the dim lighting it cast across the otherwise pitch black room, you saw your husband asleep in your bed with your two children. His upper body was bare apart from his dog tags, ever present around his neck, his lower half covered by a duvet. Your youngest child lay on Bob's chest, sleeping on her stomach, her little head resting on his collarbone. One of his hands was on her back while the other held very lightly onto a book by his side. Your eldest child lay with his entire body spread across your pillows, his right foot resting on his father's forehead, arms stretched out from his body. You laughed a little to yourself. This was the best sight to come home to after a long evening shift.

You swallowed thickly, tears pressing on. You were happy. You had the life you had dreamed of for so many years. But it hadn't come to you easily. There had been many pregnancies, many would-be children, before and in-between the two living ones who were now glued to their beloved dad. Many miscarriages in your panties, in the toilet, in the supermarket, some while Bob had been away for weeks and months. Every single one of those with dreams and wishes of a loving future - but those you didn't get to meet. There was the child you did get to meet but only with his eyes closed, ten fingers and ten toes, rosy cheeks, no crying as he entered the world outside your womb and no taking him home with you afterwards. You had never seen Bob cry before and it filled your already broken heart with so much guilt that you weren't able to fulfill his greatest wish of becoming a father. Seeing him silently weeping while he held your lifeless son in his arms. Your only job had been to grow, nurture and protect this little being. And you failed at it. You were supposed to give him life. Instead your body became a cemetery.

That was the time when your usually calm and efficient husband found himself out on a limb. He was trained to handle whatever was thrown at him at random and at high velocity - but this time he simply didn't know what to act on. The grief of losing your firstborn child was all-fulfilling, so all-consuming that you and Bob forgot to eat, sleep and communicate. Sometimes it felt like you even forgot to breathe and live. You relied on Bob for the simplest of things, like opening a window and letting in some fresh air. If it were up to you, you would have shrouded yourself in darkness and despair, content to stay there forever. You were at that point not able to help Bob in his grief. He picked you up when it seemed he had no strength to pick himself up any longer. He saved you.

Bob had clearly distanced himself from you by accepting - even actively looking for - missions that came with high risks, missions that required him to be away from you. Missions that you had agreed on before your wedding that he would not go on if he could avoid it. You sometimes wondered if he had a deathwish. If he was actually suicidal. It wouldn't have surprised you. You had been there yourself. That nearly cost you your relationship.

You were since blessed with two living children and they were perfect. You smiled. Forever sad about the child you had in your heart but no longer in your arms. No amount of love that you had for him, or indeed any of your would-be children, would ever mend your broken heart. But this place - inside your broken heart - is where you would keep him deep within you for the rest of your life. You now accepted that this was your life. And right now you were exactly where you needed to be. You would see him again one day.

#robert bob floyd #everyone's favourite bob #lieutenant bob floyd #robert floyd #bob floyd fanfiction #bob floyd #bob floyd top gun

[ncisfranchise-source]

The inevitable M&A question came toward the end of Paramount Global‘s hourlong conference call with Wall Street analysts on Wednesday — a session that undoubtedly would have been more contentious for Paramount leaders if they hadn’t started out by serving up sacrifices for the greater good of free cash flow and profit.

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish waved off the inquiry from Bank of America Merrill Lynch media analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich about the tidal wave of media speculation about suitors coming (and going) for the company with a breezy “We’re always looking for ways to create shareholder value.” But it was clear from the earlier commentary and business updates from Bakish and chief financial officer Naveen Chopra that they are charting a course for this year and next to take streamer Paramount+ to the promised land of profitability and keeps the company entact as a standalone entity.

Indeed, Bakish nodded in his prepared remarks to the endless chatter on the Street and in media about Paramount’s long-term fate. “Regardless of current market sentiment, we’re convinced that the value of our assets today, combined with the execution of our strategy as we move forward represents a significant value creation opportunity, and we are dedicated to unlocking that value,” Bakish said.

The unlocking process will include a $1 billion write-down to be taken in the current quarter. Bakish and Chopra promised Wall Streeters that the company will spend less to make and market movies and TV shows and they will get more bang for those bucks with more aggressive windowing of streaming content across linear assets and vice versa. Moves forced by necessity during the programming drought of last year’s strike months — “Yellowstone” reruns airing on CBS, for one — are helping to guide its future. Most of the write-down ($700 million to $900 million) will stem from existing TV shows and movies that will be yanked from Paramount’s various digital and linear platforms and development projects that will be scrapped.

After recording a $1.6 billion loss on streaming operations in 2023, Paramount+ will reach profitability in the U.S. in 2025, Bakish vowed. Paramount Global will deliver free cash flow and growth in the second half of ths year, Chopra added.

Bakish emphasized that the company will also significantly cut back its efforts to produce local-language content in overseas markets. Instead the company will focus on generating hot prospects at home that have global resonance.

“Internationally, it’s become unquestionably clear that Hollywood hits are the biggest draw for our audiences and partners around the world,” Bakish said. “Which means there’s a clear opportunity to lean into our CBS slate, Paramount+ originals and Paramount films while slowing spend on local content and associated marketing.”

Chopra said the decision was influenced by analysis of what most non-U.S. subscribers watch on the streamer. “We’ve learned the Paramount+ subscribers outside the United States spend nearly 90% of their time with our global Hollywood hits — meaning we can keep them engaged while right-sizing our investment in content that does not travel around the world,” he said.

However, in the hunt for what the executives called “efficiencies,” Paramount will look to produce more TV programs and films overseas, where the cost of everything from hiring extras to an espresso at Starbucks is lower than in Los Angeles or New York.

“You will see us leaning even further into offshore production for our global franchises, including the upcoming London installment of ‘Billions,’ the new ‘Ray Donovan’ origin story as well as new series like ‘The Department’ from George Clooney,” Bakish said of three series on deck for Paramount+ with Showtime.

On the film side, Bakish pointed to Paramount Pictures’ success so far this year with modestly budgeted theatrical films “Mean Girls” and “Bob Marley: One Love,” the biopic that has lead the U.S. box office for the past two weekends. “We’re improving ROI by lowering the average cost per title,” Bakish said, noting the film studio’s refined focus on “balancing high-budget tentpoles with more modest cost titles.”

Paramount Global spent about $16.5 billion on content in 2023, a number that was lower than 2022’s content bill because of the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Chopra said. He expects that 2024 spending will be higher but not by too much. “We contemplate spending really only about 50% of what we’ll call the strike savings. That’s a critical ingredient in our ability to drive healthy growth in free cash flow,” Chopra said.

Other topics addressed on the call:

The Disney/Warner Bros. Discovery/Fox streaming sports venture announced earlier this month has been a de rigueur question for CEOs during the Q4 earnings reporting cycle. Bakish is not impressed with the offering that is rumored to be priced at $40 to $50 a month. “For a true sports fan, this package only has a subset of sports,” he said. “It’s missing half the NFL, a lot of college [events] and has virtually no soccer or golf. So it’s hard to believe that’s ideal, especially at the price points that have been speculated.”

Speaking of game theory, sports is an important subscriber funnel for Paramount+, which offers CBS’ AFC NFL package as well as acquired rights to soccer and golf tournaments. Prospective subscribers come in for a game or two but stay for the entertainment. “For people that come in [to Paramount+] for sports, 90% of their engagement is with non-sports” content, Bakish said.

CBS has been a bright spot for the company. The network got its strike-delayed season off to a strong start with freshman drama “Tracker,” thanks in part to a big circulation boost from large crowds turning out for the Golden Globe Awards, Grammy Awards and the record-setting Super Bowl telecast. But the Eye is also becoming more budget-conscious when it comes to content spending. “We have an increasingly efficient and targeted development process,” Bakish said. “We prioritize lower cost formats, like unscripted and those shot abroad while maintaining our strength and franchises.” He cited the success of last year of “NCIS: Sydney,” the latest interation of the drama franchise that was shot Down Under “at a much more efficient price point.”

In 2023, Paramount+ nabbed a total of 4.1 million new subscribers. Expectations for 2024 are lower in part because Paramount+ will be detached from bundled packages in some overseas markets “where the economics just weren’t that compelling,” Chopra said. “We do still expect very healthy Paramount+ revenue growth and of course, revenue is the more important metric than subs.”

#ncis sydney #cbs #ncis

[shortpirateking]

Midnight Musings

(A/n: This takes place in the ‘Hawk of Masyaf’ universe which is just a giant self-insert that has been spinning in my head for too many years... so yeah! Also this is protocreed)

None of them truly belonged.

At least, that was how Clay thought of the dynamic between him and his.. lovers? Honestly, no matter how often they all spoke to him it felt like he shouldn’t even be here- be with them. A living Virus, an immortal, and the man who was a messiah in his own right...and what about him? Compared to them he was little more than a failed subject like the rest of them. Hell, he should have been dead!

At least... he should have- all of them should have by then... but for some odd reason each one of them continued on in some way that defied what logic should entail. Alex should have been some unconscious virus with no sense of self, Ariel should have died over 900 years before(and in the future too, had the Isu not thrown them back), and Desmond should have been like him; Insane, suicidal, possibly braindead from all bleeding he had endured...but unlike himself...he persevered. He lived when he should have died- because of Clay- because of them.. And it was because of them that he was still here too... 

At least... sort of. The ‘real’ Clay had died many months before. He was little more than a computer AI of him, but still....feeling the outside world had done wonders for him despite is guilt of the fact that he wasn’t the same man who had died before. Which... he supposed would put him with the other three around him. He didn’t truly belong either, did he? An Ai of a man brought to insanity with little to do besides make way for the savior.

“Clay?” 

The groggy voice of Ariel brought the man out of their stupor and bringing them back to the present- in bed between their smallest lover and Desmond with Alex on the far end.. Clay almost wanted to look away from the concerned grey-green of the smaller man’s eyes, assure them that he was fine... but he knew well enough that Ariel could see past that, past his walls. 

A sigh, and Clay shakes his head in preparation to speak... and tensing in surprise when a much smaller hand grasped his own in a gentle embrace. Clay turned, and once more he met the same understanding and loving gaze that he fell for long before this- when he was a simple college student and her a cashier at the local store he often stopped by for snacks. Before he knew about the assassins and templars, of Desmond or a bioengineered supervirus.

“It is too early in the morning for worries” Ariel finally spoke once more with the same look she had given Desmond when she had accompanied him onto animus island(with the help of Alex, apparently)- when she had looked in the mirror for the first time and allowed him to touch and feel, when Alex would hold them close and lose form when the world was too loud for him... and now she directed that same gaze to him once more.. as if this wasn’t a nightly occurrence, as if none of them truly had a full nights rest because of their pasts. Even them, during the nights they sobbed silently about long lost lovers and brothers lost to time.

Arms wrapped around him- Desmond this time, groggy and certainly not at all awake. “c’mon Clay... you can be thinking later... we need to sleep” the man’s voice brought shivers against his pale skin where his breath ghosted over it, and Clay halfway expected to be pinned down by Alex... but he relented with a sigh. Despite his worried and fears, his doubts and insecurities... he loved them all- like they loved him. Because none of them belonged

None of them belonged anywhere but in each other’s arms... and that was enough for the man.

#clay kaczmarek #Alex Mercer #Assassin's Creed #Prototype #Protocreed #Self-insert #Desmond Miles #It isn't the best but I want to get back into writing so yeah #but yeah! #writing for writings sake #Hawk of Masyaf verse

[greenoperator]

Microsoft Azure Fundamentals AI-900 (Part 5)

Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals: Explore visual studio tools for machine learning

What is machine learning? A technique that uses math and statistics to create models that predict unknown values

Types of Machine learning

Regression - predict a continuous value, like a price, a sales total, a measure, etc

Classification - determine a class label.

Clustering - determine labels by grouping similar information into label groups

x = features

y = label

Azure Machine Learning Studio

You can use the workspace to develop solutions with the Azure ML service on the web portal or with developer tools

Web portal for ML solutions in Sure

Capabilities for preparing data, training models, publishing and monitoring a service.

First step assign a workspace to a studio.

Compute targets are cloud-based resources which can run model training and data exploration processes

Compute Instances - Development workstations that data scientists can use to work with data and models

Compute Clusters - Scalable clusters of VMs for on demand processing of experiment code

Inference Clusters - Deployment targets for predictive services that use your trained models

Attached Compute - Links to existing Azure compute resources like VMs or Azure data brick clusters

What is Azure Automated Machine Learning

Jobs have multiple settings

Provide information needed to specify your training scripts, compute target and Azure ML environment and run a training job

Understand the AutoML Process

ML model must be trained with existing data

Data scientists spend lots of time pre-processing and selecting data

This is time consuming and often makes inefficient use of expensive compute hardware

In Azure ML data for model training and other operations are encapsulated in a data set.

You create your own dataset.

Classification (predicting categories or classes)

Regression (predicting numeric values)

Time series forecasting (predicting numeric values at a future point in time)

After part of the data is used to train a model, then the rest of the data is used to iteratively test or cross validate the model

The metric is calculated by comparing the actual known label or value with the predicted one

Difference between the actual known and predicted is known as residuals; they indicate amount of error in the model.

Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) is a performance metric. The smaller the value, the more accurate the model’s prediction is

Normalized root mean squared error (NRMSE) standardizes the metric to be used between models which have different scales.

Shows the frequency of residual value ranges.

Residuals represents variance between predicted and true values that can’t be explained by the model, errors

Most frequently occurring residual values (errors) should be clustered around zero.

You want small errors with fewer errors at the extreme ends of the sale

Should show a diagonal trend where the predicted value correlates closely with the true value

Dotted line shows a perfect model’s performance

The closer to the line of your model’s average predicted value to the dotted, the better.

Services can be deployed as an Azure Container Instance (ACI) or to a Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) cluster

For production AKS is recommended.

Identify regression machine learning scenarios

Regression is a form of ML

Understands the relationships between variables to predict a desired outcome

Predicts a numeric label or outcome base on variables (features)

Regression is an example of supervised ML

What is Azure Machine Learning designer

Allow you to organize, manage, and reuse complex ML workflows across projects and users

Pipelines start with the dataset you want to use to train the model

Each time you run a pipelines, the context(history) is stored as a pipeline job

Encapsulates one step in a machine learning pipeline.

Like a function in programming

In a pipeline project, you access data assets and components from the Asset Library tab

You can create data assets on the data tab from local files, web files, open at a sets, and a datastore

Data assets appear in the Asset Library

Azure ML job executes a task against a specified compute  target.

Jobs allow systematic tracking of your ML experiments and workflows.

Understand steps for regression

To train a regression model, your data set needs to include historic features and known label values.

Use the designer’s Score Model component to generate the predicted class label value

Connect all the components that will run in the experiment

Average difference between predicted and true values

It is based on the same unit as the label

The lower the value is the better the model is predicting

The square root of the mean squared difference between predicted and true values

Metric based on the same unit as the label.

A larger difference indicates greater variance in the individual  label errors

Relative metric between 0 and 1 on the square based on the square of the differences between predicted and true values

Closer to 0 means the better the model is performing.

Since the value is relative, it can compare different models with different label units

Relative metric between 0 and 1 on the square based on the absolute of the differences between predicted and true values

Closer to 0 means the better the model is performing.

Can be used to compare models where the labels are in different units

Also known as R-squared

Summarizes how much variance exists between predicted and true values

Closer to 1 means the model is performing better

Remove training components form your data and replace it with a web service inputs and outputs to handle the web requests

It does the same data transformations as the first pipeline for new data

It then uses trained model to infer/predict label values based on the features.

Create a classification model with Azure ML designer

Classification is a form of ML used to predict which category an item belongs to

Like regression this is a supervised ML technique.

Understand steps for classification

True Positive - Model predicts the label and the label is correct

False Positive - Model predicts wrong label and the data has the label

False Negative - Model predicts the wrong label, and the data does have the label

True Negative - Model predicts the label correctly and the data has the label

For multi-class classification, same approach is used. A model with 3 possible results would have a 3x3 matrix.

Diagonal lien of cells were the predicted and actual labels match

Number of cases classified as positive that are actually positive

True positives divided by (true positives + false positives)

Fraction of positive cases correctly identified

Number of true positives divided by (true positives + false negatives)

Overall metric that essentially combines precision and recall

Classification models predict probability for each possible class

For binary classification models, the probability is between 0 and 1

Setting the threshold can define when a value is interpreted as 0 or 1.  If its set to 0.5 then 0.5-1.0 is 1 and 0.0-0.4 is 0

Recall also known as True Positive Rate

Has a corresponding False Positive Rate

Plotting these two metrics on a graph for all values between 0 and 1 provides information.

Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) is the curve.

In a perfect model, this curve would be high to the top left

Area under the curve (AUC).

Remove training components form your data and replace it with a web service inputs and outputs to handle the web requests

It does the same data transformations as the first pipeline for new data

It then uses trained model to infer/predict label values based on the features.

Create a Clustering model with Azure ML designer

Clustering is used to group similar objects together based on features.

Clustering is an example of unsupervised learning, you train a model to just separate items based on their features.

Understanding steps for clustering

Prebuilt components exist that allow you to clean the data, normalize it, join tables and more

Requires a dataset that includes multiple observations of the items you want to cluster

Requires numeric features that can be used to determine similarities between individual cases

Initializing K coordinates as randomly selected points called centroids in an n-dimensional space (n is the number of dimensions in the feature vectors)

Plotting feature vectors as points in the same space and assigns a value how close they are to the closes centroid

Moving the centroids to the middle points allocated to it (mean distance)

Reassigning to the closes centroids after the move

Repeating the last two steps until tone.

Maximum distances between each point and the centroid of that point’s cluster.

If the value is high it can mean that cluster is widely dispersed.

With the Average Distance to Closer Center, we can determine how spread out the cluster is

Remove training components form your data and replace it with a web service inputs and outputs to handle the web requests

It does the same data transformations as the first pipeline for new data

It then uses trained model to infer/predict label values based on the features.

#microsoft #AI-900 #AI Fundamentals #AI/ML

[pcttrailsidereader]

I Thought It Would Never Happen

The spring of 2017 was the beginning of the end in terms of my quest to complete the PCT. I had recently left my teaching job, retiring after forty years in the classroom. My career had afforded me a fair amount of flexibility with summers pretty open to go after sections of the PCT with my long time hiking partners Jim ('Pierre') and Rees ('Boris'). The desert sections had alluded me since they were best attempted in the spring. Not an easy time to leave the classroom! With 're-wiring' the next phase of my life beginning to finish the PCT was at the top of my 'to do' list.

Of course I was nervous about my grand undertaking. This was THE DESERT! So many questions...could I do it? How hard was it going to be? How hot was it going to be? And the list went on and on in my head... mostly. Sometimes I would share my fears/anxieties with my family and friends. They were very reassuring. It really helped my psyche when Rees agreed to accompany me for part of my hike and another friend agreed to join me for a another stretch. I would, however, finish the hike between I-10 to Cajon Pass on my own.

I said goodbye to my wife as I caught a bus to Seattle so I could fly to San Diego where I was met by a couple I had known from college days. The next day Rees arrived and the day after that we headed out to Campo. I really couldn't believe I was finally doing this. Giddy is the word that comes to mind.

Rees had previously walked from Campo so he gave me an insider's edge. His prior experience shaped how we approached this new undertaking. Honestly that prior knowledge was extremely reassuring for me. As we prepared to launch ourselves from the southern terminus marker the imposing border wall stretched out behind us. It felt surreal to say the least. And with a hearty farewell to our friend Jack who got us there we were off. Wow!

The next few weeks left me with many profound memories and experiences I will always hold close. First of all the cherished time walking with Rees and my friend Billie were precious. The time by my self was scary at first and soon became inspiring not to mention very empowering. The trail was hard in places. The trail was hot in places too. My pack was heavy at times. The trail was my home away from home. I embraced it more and more the longer I was hiking.

Apple pie in Julian

My days started early and sleep times began before the darkness had fully enveloped my surroundings. I had some big mileage days, for me, walking in the high teens to even the low twenties a few times. When I arrived at Cajon my feelings were all over the place. I was elated, enthused for the future, and a little sad too. I knew I would be back next spring and that would leave a couple of pieces left to put in the puzzle that was my PCT experience. I put those last parts of the puzzle in place in 2019.

There were many times when I thought this would never happen. Going to the desert to hike the PCT...no way! Hiking those last 900 miles or so...I wasn't so sure. There were just too many 'what ifs'. In thinking about starting out in 2017 and revisiting those experiences reminds me of the staying power walking all or part of the Pacific Crest Trail can have on a person. Thinking something will happen is the first obstacle to get past. Believe it can happen and any obstacle will shrink in your shadow.

#Campo #Goals #Confidence #Cajon Pass

[cassianus]

Saint Junipero

In 1776, when the American Revolution was beginning in the east, another part of the future United States was being born in California. That year a gray-robed Franciscan founded Mission San Juan Capistrano, now famous for its annually returning swallows. San Juan was the seventh of nine missions established under the direction of this indomitable Spaniard.

Born on Spain’s island of Mallorca, Serra entered the Franciscan Order taking the name of Saint Francis’ childlike companion, Brother Juniper. Until he was 35, he spent most of his time in the classroom—first as a student of theology and then as a professor. He also became famous for his preaching. Suddenly he gave it all up and followed the yearning that had begun years before when he heard about the missionary work of Saint Francis Solano in South America. Junipero’s desire was to convert native peoples in the New World.

Arriving by ship at Vera Cruz, Mexico, he and a companion walked the 250 miles to Mexico City. On the way Junipero’s left leg became infected by an insect bite and would remain a cross—sometimes life-threatening—for the rest of his life. For 18 years, he worked in central Mexico and in the Baja Peninsula. He became president of the missions there.

Enter politics: the threat of a Russian invasion south from Alaska. Charles III of Spain ordered an expedition to beat Russia to the territory. So the last two conquistadors—one military, one spiritual—began their quest. José de Galvez persuaded Junipero to set out with him for present-day Monterey, California. The first mission founded after the 900-mile journey north was San Diego in 1769. That year a shortage of food almost canceled the expedition. Vowing to stay with the local people, Junipero and another friar began a novena in preparation for St. Joseph’s day, March 19, the scheduled day of departure. On that day, the relief ship arrived.

Other missions followed: Monterey/Carmel (1770); San Antonio and San Gabriel (1771); San Luís Obispo (1772); San Francisco and San Juan Capistrano (1776); Santa Clara (1777); San Buenaventura (1782). Twelve more were founded after Serra’s death.

Junipero made the long trip to Mexico City to settle great differences with the military commander. He arrived at the point of death. The outcome was substantially what Junipero sought: the famous “Regulation” protecting the Indians and the missions. It was the basis for the first significant legislation in California, a “Bill of Rights” for Native Americans.

Because the Native Americans were living a nonhuman life from the Spanish point of view, the friars were made their legal guardians. The Native Americans were kept at the mission after baptism lest they be corrupted in their former haunts—a move that has brought cries of “injustice” from some moderns.

Junipero’s missionary life was a long battle with cold and hunger, with unsympathetic military commanders and even with danger of death from non-Christian native peoples. Through it all his unquenchable zeal was fed by prayer each night, often from midnight till dawn. He baptized over 6,000 people and confirmed 5,000. His travels would have circled the globe. He brought the Native Americans not only the gift of faith but also a decent standard of living. He won their love, as witnessed especially by their grief at his death. He is buried at Mission San Carlo Borromeo, Carmel, and was beatified in 1988. Pope Francis canonized him in Washington, D.C., on September 23, 2015.

[usafphantom2]

What a NATO offer from Finland can mean for USAF cooperation in the Arctic

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 05/07/22 - 11:57 PM in Military

While the Nordic nation contemplates an offer from NATO, Finland fears that it may be set aside if Russia attacks before possible protection of Article 5 of the Alliance is triggered.

Finnish fighter pilots take off, land and fly routinely in the harsh Arctic conditions - all within the reach of Russian air defenses. They usually share these specialized resources with the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to improve the concepts of Arctic combat agile employment (ACE).

"We have to be ready to defend ourselves against Russia," a Finnish defense officer said at an April 26 briefing at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where more than 40 nations met to discuss how to better support Ukraine's war effort against Russia.

"There are no guarantees of security 'in the meantime,'" the official added, speaking to journalists on condition of anonymity.

Two Finnish F/A-18 Hornet aircraft fly alongside a U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft over the Finnish region during an air refueling mission with the 351st Air Refueling Squadron during Finland, January 24, 2022. (Photo: U.S. Air Force / Airman 1st Class Viviam Chiu)

Finnish defense officials said Finland's accession to NATO would lead to deeper U.S. cooperation in the Arctic and the integration of the U.S. Air Force, a necessity in a world where Arctic air power is growing in importance.

"There is absolutely room for integration," said the Finnish defense officer.

The official cited Finland's decision to buy the F-35 as a centerpiece in a strengthening partnership between the United States and Finnish air forces.

"You could say that the F-35 is a Nordic fighter and has a great meaning for the future," said the officer, referring to the selection of the Joint Strike Fighter by Finland, Norway and Denmark.

The official said Finland's "suspects" about Russia were confirmed when Russia invaded Ukraine, bringing popular support for NATO membership to almost 70 percent, the highest of all time. The official said that the Finnish parliament was reviewing the defense material provided in April and that the parties were formulating their positions. But Russia can still thwart a NATO offer with an attack.

Sharing a 900-mile border with Russia and with close proximity to Russian air and naval means near St. Petersburg, Finland has been developing the means to defend itself for decades, creating an experience in the Arctic that can benefit the United States.

"We know the Arctic. We know our neighbors. Therefore, we have many understanding skills about these areas that would be an easy benefit for the U.S. armed forces to cooperate with us," Finland's defense and air attaché Colonel Petteri Seppala said in an interview at the Finnish Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Agile Combat Employment (ACE) in the Arctic

Finnish combat pilots must hone skills to operate in severe winter conditions as a basic operational need, including taking off in snowstorms, flying in clouds and landing on icy runways. In recent years, the Department of Defense and most military services have received new Arctic strategies. This change of focus is bringing the U.S. Air Force closer together and a small but capable Finnish Air Force, said the Finnish air attaché in the United States.

"Cold weather and high technology are not always a good combination," said the attaché. "There are ways to do this. It's not as easy as if you were flying under the California sun all the time."

The challenge of flying in winter conditions in the Arctic is one that Finnish pilots know well. Because of the preparation of the Finnish aviator, its air force is able to use a third of the maintainers required by the U.S. Air Force, Seppala said.

As the Russian threat increases and combat skills in the Arctic become more urgent, the Finnish Air Force has experience and tactics that it shares with the U.S. Air Force in exchange for help filling its own capacity gaps.

The new ACE concept of the U.S. Air Force, which features multi-capable aviators who can arrive quickly and operate in austere locations, “has been the basic ideology of operating the Finnish Air Force,” Seppala said, describing the Finnish version of the ACE itself, which is complicated by Finland's geographical proximity to Russian anti-access/area denial In fact, almost all air bases in Finland are inside the A2/AD bubble created by Russia.

"So we have to be able to be agile. We have to be quick. We have to be able to do all possible methods and tools to be able to operate within this bubble," Seppala said. "That's the reason why the U.S. Air Force was really interested in cooperating with us, because we did it all the time. And we're still doing that."

A Finnish Air Force F-18 and a U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle from the 173rd Fighter Wing, Oregon National Air Guard, return to Rissala Air Base, Finland, after a sortie during a training exercise. (Photo: U.S. Air National Guard / Tech. Sgt. Jefferson Thompson)

The U.S. Air Force in Europe (USAFE), based in Ramstein, coordinates cooperation with Finland and has seen a number of benefits in recent years.

“Finland's air forces have a lot of knowledge and innovation that they share with the U.S. Air Force about dispersion operations and other concepts related to agile combat employment,” said an USAFE spokesman, noting that Finnish defense and air attachés in Washington also delivered briefings to U.S. Air Force personnel.

Finland is a "key contributor" to the Arctic Challenge exercise series and to the trilateral training aimed at improving interoperability with the U.S. and Swedish Air Force. The first biennial exercise in the Arctic of Finland is its own version of Red Flag with partners Norway and Sweden, and the participation of Denmark and USAFE, scheduled to be held again in 2023.

The northernmost mud and forest region of Finland is similar to parts of Canada and Alaska, with vast airspaces for maneuvering, but a challenging environment with extreme climates.

The Finnish Air Force has been flying since 1918. A small but "really efficient" 2,000-aircraft service operates 62 F/A-18 fighter jets, command and control aircraft and air transport over a vast and sparsely populated territory that reaches the Arctic and along the border with Russia, Seppala explained. Finland plans to upgrade its Air Force with 64 F-35s by 2028. The aircraft will begin to arrive in 2025 with full operational capacity scheduled for 2031.

“The Finnish Defense Forces, and if we talk about the air forces, especially, are they even more interoperable ?? with NATO than some of the member air forces," Seppala said.

Finland's adoption of the F-35 is considered by both sides as a way to deepen the opportunities for interoperability, joint training and refinement of Arctic skills.

"We gain a lot of knowledge every time we have the chance to train with Finland," said the USAFE spokesman. “Given the importance of the Finnish Air Force in the efforts of the U.S. Air Force to increase our knowledge and experience in Arctic operations, we expect many opportunities for combined exercises between Finnish and American F-35 aircraft.”

As soon as Finland enters the phase of its F-35 fleet, Seppala expects a series of integrated exercises, including virtual exercises and F-35 flights from Alaska. This will complement the existing exercises in which Finnish F/A-18 practice refueling with USAF KC-135.

The Russian threat

The Nordic country is particularly concerned that Russia may attack its territory as a way to prevent the 30 NATO members from agreeing to admit Finland.

"We don't have bombers. We don't have tanks. We don't have AWACS. Therefore, we lack many capabilities," Seppala said. “This is the reason why we really need to have good, close and deep cooperation with some of our main partners.”

While observing defense exercises in Finland on May 4, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace said the United Kingdom would help defend Finland if it were attacked by Russia while awaiting NATO membership. Wallace made a similar guarantee in April for Sweden, which must jointly submit an application for NATO membership alongside Finland.

The United States did not make such a guarantee publicly, but the Department of Defense said it would "find ways" to help Finland.

“Both Finland and Sweden are close and valuable defense partners of the United States and NATO,” said Department of Defense Marine Corps spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Anton T. Semelroth, in a statement.

"Our military personnel have worked together for many years," he added. “We are confident that we can find ways to address any concerns any country may have about the period of time between an application for NATO membership and its potential membership of the Alliance.”

Even defense assistance comes with limitations, as Ukraine is learning. Russia is already using hybrid warfare techniques against Finland, including cybernetics, information and other measures, Seppala said.

"We are prepared for them. We are prepared to stop them and we are prepared to fight back," Seppala said. "But of course, the deterrence would be much better if there were some friends supporting us."

Source: Air Force Magazine

Tags: Military AviationF-35 Lightning IIF/A-18 HornetIlmavoimat/Finland Air ForceUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in a specialized aviation magazine in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation

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[onlineprofessionalcourse]

Top 10 Artificial Intelligence Courses for Beginners in 2024

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming various industries, making it one of the most sought-after skills in today’s job market. As a beginner, choosing the right Artificial intelligence courses is crucial to kickstart your career in this field. This article explores the top 10 AI courses for beginners in 2024, offering comprehensive learning opportunities and valuable insights into the world of AI.

What is AI?

AI refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think and act like humans. It encompasses various subfields such as machine learning, natural language processing, and robotics, among others.

Importance of AI

AI has revolutionized industries such as healthcare, finance, and automotive by streamlining processes, improving efficiency, and driving innovation. Companies are increasingly adopting AI technologies to gain a competitive edge, creating a high demand for skilled AI professionals.

Why take AI courses?

Taking AI courses can equip you with the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in this dynamic field. These courses provide a comprehensive understanding of AI concepts, tools, and technologies, preparing you for a successful career in AI.

Factors to consider

Before enrolling in an AI course, consider factors such as course content, instructor expertise, hands-on projects, and industry recognition. Choose a course that aligns with your career goals and offers practical, real-world learning experiences.

Top 10 AI courses

AI for Everyone: Master the Basics — AI for Everyone: In this course, you will learn basics of what AI is and understand its applications and use cases and how AI is transforming our lives.

Deep Learning Fundamentals — Deep Learning Fundamentals — Master the basics of deep learning and get to grips with the concepts of machine learning with the Fundamentals of Deep Learning Course by SkillUp Online.

Deep Learning with TensorFlow: Deep Learning with Tensorflow course will introduce you to the basic concepts of TensorFlow, covering fundamental operations and the execution pipeline. You will be taught how to implement common predictive models in TensorFlow.

Python for AI and Development Project — Unleash the Power of Python for AI and Development Projects! Learn the Skills Needed to Excel in AI. Join Now!

AI-050: Develop Generative AI Solutions with Azure OpenAI Service — Build skills in Azure OpenAI Service and enhance your understanding of Azure OpenAI’s language, code, image capabilities, responsible AI practices, and much more.

AI-102: Designing and Implementing a Microsoft Azure AI Solution — This course is designed to teach software developers how to create AI solutions that leverage Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Cognitive Search, and Microsoft Bot Framework to build computer vision, language analysis, knowledge mining, intelligent search and conversational AI solutions on Azure.

AI-900: Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals — Explore key concepts in Azure AI, including prediction/forecasting workloads, computer vision workloads, and knowledge mining workloads.

Foundation of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning — Leap ahead in your learning and dive into the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). Set yourself up for future success in these fast-growing, cutting edge technologies.

AI Ethics: Global Perspectives by The University of Melbourne — This course explores ethical issues related to AI, offering insights into responsible AI development and deployment.

TensorFlow for Deep Learning by Imperial College London — This course teaches deep learning using TensorFlow, a popular AI framework.

Conclusion

Choosing the right AI course is essential for beginners looking to start a career in this field. The top 10 AI courses mentioned in this article offer comprehensive learning opportunities and practical skills to help you succeed in the world of AI.

#Artificial intelligence courses

[arseniy-bykov]

CAS Project Final Post

For my CAS project, a group of my friends created a Raszmageddon team, whose objective was to complete a Runmageddon OCR Race. The race took place on the 27th of May 2023 and encompassed a distance of 6km with many obstacles, which included ice baths, carrying immense weights, flipping tires, climbing walls, and many more. Through training sessions and individual preparation, we were able to all successfully complete the race.

Stages:

Planning - in the planning stage for our project we formed a team of motivated students and divided ourselves into different roles. My role in the team was pacemaking. Therefore, I focused on the quality of the group running sessions by measuring and controlling the pace with which we were running. In the planning stage, we also created our social media page (https://www.instagram.com/raszmageddon/), where we promoted ourselves, training sessions, and our cas project in general.

Preparation - the OCR race is not only about being able to run a distance of 6km but also overcoming distinct physical challenges. For that reason, our group sessions encompassed not only collaborative running but also exercising. Even though we had a lot of scheduled meetings, each of the group members also prepared individually, as each of us possessed different physical abilities. For some, the race might have been much more challenging than for others but overall the training sessions ensured that everyone was prepared for the race. In addition, we increased the engagement of our social media platform. Thanks to the group members whose roles were assigned to focus on social media, we conducted a photo shooting session making a mug shot for each of the members. As a result, through promotion videos and collaboration with followers, we were able to gather over 900 followers.

Race completion - on the 27th of May I completed the Runmageddon OCR race. I managed to finish in the top 600 out of more than 3000 competitors. Even though I was not the fastest in our group I was more than satisfied with my result as it really required a lot of sacrifice for me. It was probably the most demanding physical activity I had done and it genuinely required a lot of stamina from me. Additionally, I was positively surprised by the fact that I managed to overcome each of the obstacles during the race. Overall, it was an interesting experience and I am glad that with our preparation we all were able to successfully complete it I am looking forward to trying another more challenging one in the future.

Reflection - as I have completed the race I feel that I definitely developed a lot of skills without which I would not be able to complete the race. The obstacle that I would highlight that was the most challenging was carrying the 25kg chain for more than 700m. Furthermore, this obstacle happened to be in the middle of the race, after I had gone through a lot of challenges which made this even harder. In conclusion, I can say that the preparation and training were definitely worth it as the joy and the feeling of relief in the end are not comparable. Through collaborative efforts in the CAS project, I successfully undertook and conquered a truly demanding and challenging task. This experience not only enhanced my physical skills but also fortified my bonds with friends, making our relationships more robust.