#the adoption industry is terrible but adoption will probably always exist in some form
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Epilogues: Candy, chapters 6-13 [the rest of Epilogue 2]
I’m told that there are 40 chapters, and a postscript, in Candy - and also that it’s split into 8 individual ‘epilogues’ within that, of varying length. ‘Epilogue 2′ began with chapter 4, featuring Rose and Kanaya. So I kind of cut it off in exactly the wrong place. Oops!
Anyway I’m going to split these up by Epilogue section from now on. This one covers the rest of Epilogue 2, which mostly concerns shipping, and processing of feelings.
Here are the irons in the fire at the outset of chapter 6:
Gamzee is back! he claims to be setting out on a ‘redemption arc’
Terezi is in space somewhere looking for Vriska, but set to return at some point, and not all that happy that Gamzee’s back
Dirk has perceived some bad news. And briefly spoken about it with Jane, though without explaining anything.
But that’s all Epilogue 1 stuff - old hat!
Rose has suddenly recovered from her illness, and is patching things up with Kanaya
Jade has attempted to push Dave and Karkat to admit they’re into each other, but really just made things worse
Jane attempted to run for President of Earth C - to the trepidation of the Karkat, who hyperbolically suggested this would amount to troll genocide - but abandoned the idea
That’s all interesting but let’s talk about money! This is something I didn’t pick up on in the last post:
KARKAT: OK, SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT. YOUR PRIORITIES ARE: NUMBER ONE, THE ECONOMY, WHICH LET ME REMIND YOU IS BUILT ENTIRELY ON INFINITE, FAKE MONEY THAT WE CAN MAKE AS MUCH OF AS WE WANT.
Elsewhere, Jane’s megacorp and stocks are mentioned.
One wonders why, given the machinery to manufacture just about anything by means of alchemizer, the forms of money, stocks, and corporations are retained... what sort of productive and reproductive labour is regulated and mediated by these markets? Or are they merely acting out the vestigial forms of capitalism as a bizarre drama...
As for the consequences of an infinite money supply, let’s not get into the ‘modern monetary theory’ debate on a Homestuck post, maybe.
on to chapter 6+
This is a Jane chapter. It opens almost immediately with economic discussion; Dave apparently once accused Jane of ‘neoliberal corporate welfare’ for trying to bolster the ‘struggling locksmith industry’ rendered unnecessary on a planet without crime.
She’s visiting Jake, who’s probably my least favourite Homestuck character (who’s not an alpha troll). About Dirk... Jake (Jane says) seems to still have a bit of a thing for him, and Jane, meanwhile, still “has no idea why she can’t get [Jake] out of her system, even after all these years.”
The reason Jane cancelled her run was, it turns out, because Dirk said ‘cancel everything’. She gets drunk, very quickly... and hits on Jake, who is completely oblivious to her advances. She speaks of wanting to abandon business to raise a family, which Jake himself notes is something rather new for her (though the whole traditional gender thing she does isn’t lol)
Jake/Jane isn’t a ship I have any sort of opinion about, honestly. Dirk/Jake’s terrible collapsing relationship was kind of interesting but yeah, here’s a thing. What even are heterosexuals though? “I want to clean your giant house and have a lot of children”... incomprehensible!
One thing I will give credit for is the narration: it creates pretty strong images of like, these characters as fully embodied people, being intimate in like, subtle physical ways. that probably doesn’t make a lot of sense... whatever lol. it works
chapter 7
...brings us back to Gamzee. fittingly, i’m listening to the friendsim soundtrack as i read this, and i just hit ‘take me to clown church’.
anyway since this whole story basically seems to be an exercise in developing ships along the lines of ‘A is into B, B is obvious to their advances’... Roxy’s hot for John now I guess? or at least, so Callie thinks. she insists they’re all going to be ‘very, very happy’ despite her disappointment.
anyway, then we get Gamzee saying a bunch of casually misogynist stuff to John about Roxy. in this context, basically two interpretations are shown: a shallow ‘oh he’s redeemed now’ attitude from Roxy and Callie, and a ‘oh god i hate this person keep him away from me’ attitude from John. Gamzee’s repulsive qualities are underlined by the narration (from John’s perspective): he’s unhygienic, he’s casually misogynist (which seems like a new element, and rather out of keeping with the gendered-but-somehow-theoretically-not-patriarchal Alternia)...
chapter 8
Rose and Kanaya chapter. Jane’s possible presidency is once again the subject of discussion. Jane apparently wanted to apply some kind of anti-troll eugenics policy, and tried to bring Kanaya on board - and got told to fuck off for it. Our two good lesbians agree that, if Karkat were president (and Dave running the economy), things might have worked out ok...
We are briefly introduced to a new character, a jadeblood troll called Swifer Eggmop. Her character archetype, we are directly told, is ‘1920s newsboy’.
We bear witness to an egg hatching (in prose, anyway). This particular baby grub out closely resembling Vriska... which Kanaya says is because she comes from a slurry based on the original 12 trolls. Rose notes this would make Vriska the troll’s Ancestor, which raises an interesting question of whether Ancestors still exist as a social concept on Earth C. Anyway, Kanaya wants to adopt baby Vriska, which can only be a fantastic idea...
KANAYA: There Are Two Things Of Which I Have No Doubt
KANAYA: That You And I Are Going To Be Happy For The Rest Of Our Lives
KANAYA: And That We Are Never Ever Going To See Vriska Again
I think we can safely assume that neither of those things are true. The emphasis on ‘happiness forever’, voiced by multiple characters, is interesting... also the turn towards reproduction.
I went to uni with people who have kids now. Heck I have friends who have a child (who they are trying to spare from gender)... but for most of my social circle, which is to say almost entirely 20-to-30-something trans women, even the idea of adopting is incomprehensible? It’s somehow weird to think of ‘wanting kids’ as the narrative of 20-something year olds...
Kanaya is right. Vriska is dead, and despite everything, she died a hero. Vriska was a complicated figure of contrasting extremes; her heroic actions were matched in scale only by her monstrous ones, and since no one had actually witnessed her end, it was impossible to say which side the pendulum swung and judged her death—Heroic or Just.
It would be a fitting memorial for her and Kanaya to raise a version of Vriska who would be given every chance to make good on her noble characteristics. A true, symbolic redemption arc. Something about the thought appeals to Rose’s taste for the dramatic flourish. It would be proof that this was all worth it in the end: the destruction of multiple universes, the death of Kanaya’s friends, the circuitous rites of suffering experienced by the nearly infinite splintered versions of every being to inhabit Paradox Space...
Once again, the notion of a ‘redemption arc’ enters the narrative explicitly, directly echoing fandom discussion. Unlike Gamzee, this is studiously neutral on the Vriska Question: steering exactly between ‘Vriska did nothing wrong’, nor ‘Vriska is a monster’. Regardless... I think it’s probably safe to say that everyone’s prophecies are wrong and we haven’t seen the last of the ‘true’ Vriska.
chapter 9
More of Jade trying very hard to ship her friends, to the discomfort of everyone involved. Jade kisses Karkat, and Karkat explicitly names what she’s doing as sexual assault, a violation of boundaries and consent - Jade attempts to convince him that no, it was really Dave who kissed him!
This prompts a long monologue from Dave in which it’s obvious that he has put some thought into kissing Karkat. Point seems to be: they sure are into each other but Jade’s intervention is not at all welcome. At least I hope that’s the point. I would prefer not to see Jade vindicated by the narrative.
Anyway, other things of cultural note: grub spaghetti is apparently still eaten on Earth C. I always thought it was implied that ‘grubs’ in Troll food were like, actual troll babies, but maybe they’re just ordinary (for certain values thereof...) bugs bc I don’t think Kanaya would stand for that.
chapter 10
The ‘Jane running for president’ subplot has largely disappeared, because what we’re really here for is... shipping! This time, a John/Roxy chapter. I think they call it Roxygen or something? Terezi explains the ‘pair the spares’ logic of the ship (dequirkified):
TEREZI: Um, yeah John.
TEREZI: We are not idiots. We can all do the math on this.
TEREZI: It’s not like you were going to fuck your human mom or human sister.
TEREZI: And you are “not a homosexual,” which takes Strider dick out of the equation.
TEREZI: And Kanaya is the only girl troll left, and she lesbian married one of the two remaining eligible human females.
TEREZI: Oh and Jake is a double threat. A human dad with a human dick!
TEREZI: So by a process of elimination, of *course* you were going to “fall in love” with Roxy.
Equation of ‘dick’ with ‘male’ there terezi but whatever... (god is this fic going to get into the question of what a ‘nook’ and a ‘bulge’ is...)
(lol i’m calling it a fic...)
Anyway, my position on this one is: Roxy/Calliope was a fine ship worth upholding, and I do not see any reason why anyone would be into John. Though I may be biased on that front.
Terezi also brings up the Calliope question. John is trepidatious on that front.
There’s an interesting line from Roxy here, when John tries to assure her she doesn’t have to wear makeup:
ROXY: john...
ROXY: do u ever think about like
ROXY: gender???
JOHN: ???
JOHN: uh. not really, i guess?
JOHN: but i don’t think girls should feel like they HAVE to wear makeup just because they’re girls.
ROXY: lol
ROXY: thats not what im getting at
JOHN: what do you mean then?
JOHN: are you, like...
ROXY: like what
This is where I’m conscious of the ‘trans character’ tag on this one.
They talk about adulthood, as a performance that they do not feel ‘ready’ for. At that point Dave shows up, clearly aflustered after Jade’s intervention:
DAVE: anyone can be a dude if they really want thats part of the beauty of living in this brand new world with none of the baggage our old world had like gender and sexuality and relationships only involving a very specific number of people
chapter 11
So yeah now to pick up the torch on Dave starting to understand he’s gay. here for this
DAVE: theres a metric fucking ton of shit about to come down on me because i dragged my heels on doing some serious self reflection
JOHN: is this just some more stuff about...
JOHN: being gay?
DAVE: maybe yeah
DAVE: ok definitely yeah
DAVE: its 110% about being gay
JOHN: i thought you’d already worked all that stuff out?
DAVE: turns out it takes a long time to figure out your sexuality after a childhood filled with repression and abuse
nice to see it named as such i guess
the dialogue in the last couple of chapters has been really good. i’m getting properly drawn into this, the characters feel extremely well-realised. threads which were long latent are finally being made explicit.
Dave is struggling with very abrupt self-realisation: he definitely has feelings for Karkat, he has complicated feelings for Jade, but the ‘simple’ solution of just entering a non-mono relationship both is not feeling ‘right’ to him. John isn’t really able to help... he’s gonna talk to Dirk.
This chapter does a lot, I really like it, but at the same time I’ve not got a tremendous amount to add to it.
chapter 12
in our latest chapter of ‘homestuck but they fuck now’, Jake and Jane did that - while up on various substances, including at least alcohol and the trickster lollipop. Jake is having second thoughts but when he tries to back out, Jane looks sad, so he decides to go for it. This can only end well.
Also damn I guess someone on the team thought ‘what would it be like to fuck while high on the trickster lollipop’ so uh, that’s a thing now.
chapter 13
Back to the Strider boys. There’s a heavy intro...
Dave and Dirk don’t talk that much about the heavy stuff. They don’t need to. Dave can hear his brother’s voice in his head.
Not, like, literally. That would be insane. But Dave knows what his bro is like. Dirk, or a version of him, instilled in Dave a way of living and thinking that would, for better or worse, persist far beyond the first thirteen years of his upbringing.
Yeah huh.
Can’t believe Rose and Kanaya have the dubious honour of being the most ‘together’ characters in this.
Anyway in this case Dave still feels like he needs to talk to Dirk - who we know has gone awol, for some mysterious reason. He meets... Gamzee, who says some religious clown stuff, and offers Dave a redemption arc (really running this joke into the ground huh), but Dave brushes him off. Then he finds a fembot that Dirk was working on, with a note.
We don’t get to read the note yet. I would guess that’s the end of epilogue 2.
Sure enough it is.
Epilogue 2, taken as a whole
I quite enjoyed this, Gamzee sections notwithstanding. The prose is tight, the dialogue is hitting its flow, and a lot of relationships that were left vague in Homestuck proper are finally being given time to develop.
Obviously it’s kind of risky bringing in explicitly sexual themes, but I think they approach them in the ‘right’ way: focusing on the emotional meaning of relationships that now might - now we’re dealing with 23-year-olds - include sex, rather than just porn lol. It does slightly strain credibility that, in all their time on Earth C, none of them have made any meaningful friendships or relationships outside the core group of 8 kids and a handful of surviving trolls, but I can also understand the desire to focus on the already-developed characters. That’s a common problem for ‘endgame’ ships: in truth dating exclusively within a tiny friendship group is probably a recipe for disaster, but in fiction it makes a work manageable.
I am enjoying just how gay Homestuck has gotten. If Homestuck is the comic for Very Online kids who were around 13 in 2009 when the comic began, it’s somewhat fitting, because our cohort has, at least to a degree, done the same thing lol. Of course, that’s shaped by my personal experience of like, transitioning and moving to a friendship group that’s like 99% trans lesbians and bi women, but I suspect statistics would bear out the idea that more and more people are comfortable identifying ourselves as not-straight in some way. I could be wrong about that though lol.
Of course, it’s too much to hope that this trend - insofar as it exists! - is like, the beginning of the end for Gender as a system of social relations, violent exploitation and coercion - especially since periods of ‘more acceptance’ often seem to precede violent repression (c.f. Weimar Germany and then, the nazis; the period just before the AIDS crisis; much earlier, the construction of colonial/modern gender in the first place on the bones of less rigid gender systems...)
Anyway, let’s see what’s happened to old Dirk. I’m still wondering who the “trans character” is going to be, and how they’re going to handle that. It’s going to be tough to match fic like @rememberwhenyoutried‘s An Earth-Shattering Confession, but we shall see.
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it could be mostly because of the 2020, but i don’t handle it particularly well when someone has to cancel D&D, which happens more often than i’d like. to clarify, i mean i feel bad in various ways, but i don’t lash out or anything.
i know that part of it is because it’s one of only a few outlets for socialization i have, and because the world is uncertain enough as it is. but i’m beginning to think there’s a bit more to it than that.
storytelling is kind of a big deal for me. understanding and creating narratives is probably the only skill i’ve been really focusing on for the past handful of years, and the more i think about it the more that makes sense. the narrative i had of myself was ripped to shreds awhile back, and ever since then i’ve been somewhere in between clinging to familiar narratives as if i could absorb their integrity of continuity, and trying to write one myself as if that accomplishment would give me the missing piece needed to work on my own life story.
the collaborative nature of D&D comes with its share of challenges, but whether as GM or player, there’s something relaxing in the fact that in session, i don’t have to create that narrative all by myself. i only need to contribute, by setting up the board or playing my part. and a narrative happens. a story happens, even if i’m not doing everything. and it happens the way it does precisely *because* i’m not doing everything.
maybe i’m upgrading my understanding of isolation and loneliness, what they are and how they affect people, particularly me. yet another chunk of the “(re)learning how to process emotions and recovering from numbness” thing. it’s amazing how many feelings are out there, which at some point early on i deemed i didn’t have the luxury of accepting. bewildering or overwhelming might be a more true adjective.
i kept something like a journal in the first year after julien died, and i’ve read through it here and there recently, in addition to finding the first and only letter i ever wrote my dad, shortly after he went to jail for trying to kill my mom. the letter reads like something a lawyer wrote. completely dispassionate and rational. the motivation was to demonstrate to his family that he was the one out of control, not us. a defense against dismissal and invalidation.
but even i’m surprised at how cold the whole thing is. i was so angry at what had happened i had to cut myself off from emotions or else i’d have done something completely crazy. and clearly i wasn’t fully aware i was doing it, and won’t be so long as i continue to downplay and minimize how hard it is to recover from that.
in regards to the journal, i was surprised to remember at some point i’d started breaking down the meaning of Japanese haiku, and Czech idioms, because i’m not particularly good at learning languages. at the time, i just thought i missed learning and wanted to occupy my mind with something, and didn’t bother thinking about why that in particular. it was as good a pastime as any, and that was the extent of my concern.
in hindsight, i was struggling with an absolute collapse of meaning. i understood human interaction and social realities through the lens of English, and neither of those things made sense to me anymore. so it makes a sort of sense i’d jump into the deep end of linguistic unfamiliarity. out there, it was impossible to take anything for granted. i had no choice, no risk of cutting corners on interpreting the meaning of every single word being said.
In English, i had the luxury of negligence, of carelessness. these were great sins of mine. that’s how i felt about it. but it was slow work. slow was reassuring, because i wouldn’t crash into anything, or anyone, or miss a turn i needed to make.
but so long as i associate slowness with safety, and speed with danger, i will struggle with the motivation to believe and act in a way that allows me to keep up with the pace of modern life. i think some people resolve this conundrum by adopting a simple living kind of lifestyle, and i definitely see the appeal in that sense.
but i’m pretty invested in the more normal speed of things, regardless of my current ability to keep pace with it. another way of looking at it, is that there’s a force opposing my natural desire to speed up. i’m not the most patient guy. when i’m snowboarding, i like going pretty fast. there are plenty of avenues in which i enjoy acceleration and velocity. i don’t lack the desire to accelerate my life. it’s just that trauma is a blockade. a series of spike strips. i’m so busy trying to figure out what’s wrong with my engine, i didn’t notice my tires were shredded.
one of my textbooks mentioned that in folk/pop psychology, “trauma” is a term used in such a way that conflates (A) the event which results in the traumatic experience, with (B) the negative lasting effects on a person as a result of exposure to that event. And it seems i’m making that same conflation now.
Is trauma the blockade and the spike strips? or is trauma the shredded tires of the car? Technically, it’s the latter. the former is the event. a monster truck would crash through that event, and it’s jumbo-sized tires would probably be unaffected by spike strips. an event produces trauma, but trauma is not distributed evenly among individuals.
bolts of lightning are never straight lines, or regular shapes. lighting is branched, and jagged, and crooked. electrons burrowing through the past of least resistance across the gaseous molecules of a furious sky.
i say “path of least resistance,” but “conductivity” is another way to describe this property, particularly in the context of metals. There is a vast connotational gulf between the two, and yet both are true.
i forgot i was talking about D&D originally. i doubt this was the original intent, but there’s something i’ve always found fascinating about listening to horror stories about awkward and bewildering and fucked up games of D&D, whether due to bizarre player or GM behavior. certain themes emerge though, when you read through enough of them. they all involve forms of acting out, of people reacting to emotional flashbacks and demonstrating the effects of poor differentiation.
and it makes sense that wacky countertransferential-type dynamics could emerge, since D&D creates an intersubjective container not dissimilar to the holding space of a therapeutic alliance, freeing people up from the constraints of normal social reality. but GMs aren’t therapists. i mean in a year or so, i might be both, but the point is that there’s no signing and briefing on informed consent forms, and no process of licensure for GMs, and of course group therapy differs from individual or couples therapy in a number of ways.
the point is, i’m not surprised that RPG horror stories exist, any more than i’m surprised that there will always be stories about terrible dates. expectations are rarely openly shared. everyone comes in with a set of assumptions and often do very little to share, compare and contrast. talking these things through is a skill, one which i don’t know the word for, and one which isn’t taught in school.
i consider this rambling, what i’m doing right now. i don’t do it all that often, but it’s good to have another recorded example. i have conversations with people who are more prone to it than me, and at times i found myself wondering about their internal processes and motivations, what needs are met in doing so.
part of it’s because more often than not, i only share or speak up if i have a particular point to make. it’s a lingering influence from my background in Communication. but there’s something a bit mechanical. in contrast, this whole bit of writing feels extremely organic, by my standards anyways.
rambling came to mind because when it comes to the people who tend to ramble, i often find myself questioning to what extent they need someone to serve as a wall to bounce their thoughts and feelings off of. whether or not someone like that confuses this for true, two-way interaction.
naturally, that’s not actually an issue here, considering i’m just shouting into the void. but there is a sense of freedom and fluidity in engaging in this form of mental meandering. a soothing, relaxing quality even in the process of engaging with potentially distressing subject matter. i think i can see why they do it. of course, in a true interaction, there’s the potential that the distressing effects of the content is transmitted to the listener.
a repeated theme in some of my class readings this quarter is the idea that many of us are missing a permission, a sense of safety to feel certain ways, express things, to accept and share openly. and there’s a common tendency to try to replace this with something stringent, to impose a rigid structure or procedure as if this externalized integrity can function as substitution for something meant to freely flow. it’s a tendency that has us focusing on execution, and results, instead of on actual human connection.
and it’s probably one of the most prosaic and insidious forms of dehumanization out there in the world today. this part, too, feels similar to the rambling people i talk to sometimes. this arrival at some grandiose conclusion, this habitual seeking to state some truth about the world not directly attached to my own concerns--or presented as such.
at these points in those conversations where i am the listener, i feel the most like a sounding board. because those moments of conclusion tend to feature ideas that i find to be personally copasetic, but not particularly profound in relation to the amount of time and words it takes for the other person to arrive at: Misogyny sucks. Masculinity is toxic. A person i described as inconsiderate is inconsiderate. the movie industry sucks at casting Asians. it’s bad that people in my life made me feel bad for having feelings and opinions.
i get the feeling i’m meant to respond like some sort of cheerleader. give them the ‘you go girl’ treatment. and i suppose biggest reason i don’t feel like doing that, is because these are people who have many conflictual relationships. both have diagnoses for borderline personality disorder, but the main reservation from my point of view is that i find myself skeptical that they are working on their shortcomings, because of how often they act out or violate personal boundaries or demonstrate a lack of self-awareness or otherwise don’t seem to recognize or acknowledge the consequences of their actions. direct and indirect past experiences have left me feeling as though i can’t take it for granted that they’ve learned from past mistakes.
but then i wonder about my own shortcomings. how i rarely feel like i’m overcoming the worst parts of myself. my own capacity and willingness to change for the better is still in question. and here’s the part where i sympathize with those people the most: my natural instinct is to heap blame and guilt on myself with the implicit expectation that this will motivate change.
but the cumulative toll of that tendency is not only counterproductive, but devastating. you can’t actually build yourself up much if you’re constantly demolishing your own foundations. but as far as internalized oppressive-abusive tendencies go, that one’s a real pain to excise once it gets under your skin.
if there’s one thing i can say on my own behalf here, aside from the fact that i’m blogging this instead of talking about it with someone, is that as i write this, i don’t feel frantic, or despondent, or otherwise overwhelmingly negative. part of it is because i’m pretty darned high, but i feel like if i’ve been emotionally activated at certain points in writing this, it hasn’t been to an overwhelming extreme. ii’ve been feeling mostly chill throughout this increasingly long bit of journaling.
i know it’s questionable to frame things in terms of “at least i’m not talking about this with someone directly”, but i think part of that has to do with the fact that if i tried talking to someone about this, my capacity to really think through and feel though all this would be constrained by the constant consideration of keeping up some sort of appearance, or being overly concerned with the other person’s experience of the conversation.
it’s one of those balance things. one of those instances of being so caught up in the imperative of being considerate to the other person, that the imperative gets in the way of actually being considerate to that person.
if i tried to read all this back just now, i imagine i’d have two distinct conclusions: (1) wow, that’s a lot to think about, and (2) why is this taking me so long to process, an is this actually productive or am i just faffing about? And then a part of me wants to go on a tangent where i think about whether or not i’ve ever used the term “faffing about” out loud, and where i got it from.
one thing i’ve done before in poetry, if not in blogging, is learned to write within a certain freedom of restriction, something learned by figuring out how to clear away all expectations concerning form and slant rhyme or slam judge scores, and freely do what i set out to do. it’s quite liberating, but an experience i’ve seldom experienced outside of poetry. to write and perform without undue concerns about winning the slam, or getting published, because of the reaction and feedback received from the audience in front of me.
and i suppose if there’s another avenue i have for that rare thing, it’s when i’m playing tabletop RPGs with friends. on the one hand, i’m absolutely invested in meeting a standard of excellence. it’s just that the standard of excellence exists on my terms, and is shaped in a manner not affected by intrusive imperatives from invalid sources, but rather by what i truly hope is a more authentic connection with my friends.
anyways so that’s why playing D&D is fun, and why suddenly not getting to play D&D sucks.
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Was the European Union a Good Idea or Should all take the GB path?
This is the question nowadays, and part of the reason is that some people feel strongly disconnected to the E.U, while others praise its achievements. All things considered. Is its existence good or bad for Europeans?.
Remember that the U.K is leaving the E.U, so I think we better treat it like if it's no longer part of the club (well, I think it was always like that, remember that they kept the Pound as national currency). The E.U is the combination of 27 countries and has a population of a little more than 508 million people, making it the third most populous country in the world and in case that you wonder, followed by the United States in 4th place (327 million people). It's the world's second-largest economy by GDP (approx. 17 trillion dollars) and has the biggest single market in the world. But this was not the original idea of the creation of the E.U, the original purpose was "peace". Europeans are really good at war, so they have been involved in bloody conflicts for basically all their history (the list is huge but, click this link to check out the most important since 1450). From all that hate, it is remarkable the one-century long rivalry between Germany and France that has cost millions of lives and ran so deeply that the Germans invented a word for that, that is "Erbfeindschaft" which can be translated as "enmity". So, after WWII, Europeans decided that they wanted lasting peace that is not based on a balance of military power, instead, the economies, the politics and all the people of Europe should become so closely integrated and interconnected, that war would become unthinkable and unpractical, and it worked, between Euro members we'd had over seventy years of peace.
Yeah, peace is great but, is that all? is peace the only achievement of the European Union?, clearly not, look, today, many citizens benefit from several individual freedoms, treaties, and regulations to ensure easy traveling between countries, cheap phone communications, an awesome variety of food and services, as well as very strong health and safety standards.
Europe is not afraid to pick a fight with any industrial giant, (Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, and much more) in regards tax evasion, data protection or fair competition.
Talking about the E.U science program, the European Union became a collaborative engine that works as a hub of science in the wider world, unrestricted travel and the possibility to work anywhere in the continent, makes it easy to apply for funds and to set up an international team of experts with the best equipment possible. In turn, the European Union became the world's leader in terms of its global share of science, that makes more than 34% of the world's research output, that is very impressive especially if you think that all that knowledge comes from only 5% of its population.
Despite all of the above, more than a few citizens feel distrust toward the E.U, Brussels seems far away, untransparent and technocratic and somehow difficult to understand. To make things even worse, the E.U is terrible at outreach and explaining what it actually does. This is leading to an ever-shrinking voter turnout over the decades. The E.U is in desperate need of more transparency and accountability, that is if it wants more institutional trust on behalf of their citizens.
Currently, the EU is still shaking from the refugee crisis of 2015, some countries have accepted far greater numbers of asylum seekers than others, while the border countries are overwhelmed and feel like they were left alone in this terrible situation. Other countries a shocked by the initially unregulated mass migration, therefore closing their borders, effectively shutting down the largest route into Europe.
Due to E.U's freedom and wealth, people think of it as an attractive destination and this is not about to change, but the population is split on how to react to that. Some people argue that Europe is letting in too many immigrants with different culture without strictly demanding integration, while others think that immigration is not the problem, but the racism and discrimination of immigrants are preventing integration.
To strike a balance between helping refugees turning illegal immigrants away and integrating the ones that stay is nowadays the most difficult challenge that the Union faces.
Immigration aside, several more challenges lie in the future, such as defense. It is a tradition that the European countries had relied strongly on the protection of the United States of America through NATO. But in today's political climate, Europe has to ask itself if it really wants to depend in such a great manner on the USA for its safety.
If combined today, militaries of the European Union could form an effective defensive force and be the third largest military in the world. I know this is a sexy topic, let's take a moment to check the E.U military forces and the top 4 most powerful military forces on the planet.
What About Money?
Well, as you could probably think, this is a very complicated issue. The E.U created the largest single market in the world, inside of it, you can trade border and customs free, countries that entered the European Union got a massive boost on their economies, even between neighbors, trade increased by one hundred percent, and there was a steady creation of new jobs. Research has suggested that joining the European Union has left most of its members with an average of a 12% higher GDP than if they had remained outside and for those regions with weaker economies and poor infrastructure, E.E institutions provide billions of Euros every year helping economic investments, infrastructure, and social development.
But there is a negative side, that is because the E.U tries to hold together countries that with vastly different economies and laws regarding labor, social security, taxes, etc. The cost of one hour work in an E.U country ranges from 4 Euros to 40 Euros, some countries have large industries and strong exports, while others focus on services, tourism, or natural resources. On top of this, the Euro is the common currency of most but not all these countries.
As the Greek crisis shows, this can be a recipe for disaster because you can't unify vastly different economies under one currency, but keep their economy policies separated, that is because if something really bad happens (2008 world economic crisis) weaker economies cannot depreciate their currencies and make their products and services be perceived as cheaper to the eyes of other stronger countries (potential buyers), this way, getting their economies into the path of economic recovery. This among other irresponsible decisions got the Greek economy broke in a few months.
I think the question is: Should all European Union countries unite under the common currency, or not?. Should the weakest links of the chain be thrown out of the Euro, or should countries be made to adopt common policies on taxes, healthcare, and social security?. This question has been brewing for years now and it is nowhere near a suitable solution.
So all things considered. Is the European Union a good idea, or should every country follow the UK path?. Well, I think that the E.U is very flawed, and still needs a lot of work and refinement, but it is very fair to say that the E.U makes Europeans a solid and powerful figure in the world, remember that they lead the path of science, through extensive investments in research and development, plus they are one of the strongest economic and military power in the world, but more importantly, the European Union gives Europeans peace, security, and a sense of shared identity, and something very important to humans in theses turbulent times, stability. I think that if Europeans want to protect the values that they are so proud of, a strong European Union is the way to go so they can make sure that their voices are heard throughout the world. If the E.U breaks apart, all its countries as small states will hardly stand a chance in a world of shifting superpowers (USA, China, Russia or even India).
If you don't agree with me, that's fine, you just have a different opinion, in the words of Evelyn Beatrice Hall (English writer-Voltaire's Biographer, Known as S. G. Tallentyre): "I do not agree with what you have said, but I'd defend to the death your right to say it"
Cheers Friends,
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#What If-Nowadays Interesting Facts#https://whatifinteresting.blogspot.com/2018/04/was-european-unio
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There ARE people out there who find YOU attractive!!
Yeah, I know, you’ve heard it before. People who say this to you tend to be the ones who are already secure in who they are, what they look like, and they’re usually in a relationship too. You want to shout “F*CK OFF!!” and smash them over the head with something heavy.
How would they know what it’s like when you’re terminally single, and haven’t had even the whiff of any interest in years?! And it can also come across as a metaphorical, rather patronising pat-on-the-head. Urgh!! Yeah, thanks mate, now I REALLY feel good about myself.
But most of them mean well, most of them just want you to feel better about yourself because they can see your worth and your beauty. So, put down that that baseball bat, hold off from committing assault, because I am just like you, but I have faith in the title of this article.
THE PATH THAT'S LED ME HERE....
I know what chronic low-self esteem is like, I’m best friends with self-loathing, disgust and feeling repelled by the sight of yourself in the mirror. I spent the best part of a decade wishing I was someone else, or wishing I just didn’t exist at all.
It’s a lonely place to be. And the longer you’re there, the more convinced you become that this is the truth; the world of attraction, sex, desire, relationships is for everyone else but not for you. You may even come to accept it after a while, and pretend that none of it exists, or adopt the cynic’s position of “I don’t need anyone else in my life” or “There’s no such thing as love”. Sometimes that’s just easier.
But I promise you, there ARE people out there who see your worth, who see the beauty in your quirkiness, who love your unconventional nature, who think you are gorgeous. Yes, I said it, GORGEOUS!!
I am quite a large woman, a UK size 18/20 (US 16/18), and I’ve always been made to feel fat (even when I wasn’t). That was always the main source of my disgust with myself. Looks-wise, even now, I put myself at unremarkable, plain, not someone who people ever really notice.
Before my thirties, I’d look in the mirror and only ever see my flaws, which made me feel ugly (as terrible as that sounds). The thing is, it’s a part of me that I’m highly self-critical, a perfectionist, and my vulnerable nature together with the negative bias in my thinking has meant that I’ve stored up any and every bad thing anyone has ever said about me.
Those things were so well rehearsed, so well integrated into my sense of self that I came to believe them. They went from opinion to truth right under my nose and buried themselves in my psyche to re-surface whenever they liked. It’s only years of therapy that has saved me from whole-heartedly buying into this reality.
SO, HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT CHANGING?
You want to be someone who is alright with who they are, you’d like to be comfortable in your own skin. I don’t know if the process is the same for everyone, and I can’t claim to be the finished article (is there any such thing??), but I know some things have improved. The following is some of what I believe has made the difference:
Step One; be open to the possibility that you’re wrong about yourself. Basically, don’t trust your mind. The thoughts you have appear to you as fact, they just pop in there and you don’t question them. Your mind lies to you though. It goes on experience, it goes on whatever you’ve been feeding it.
Think about a situation you’ve been in with another person where you find out that there’s been a misunderstanding; you’ve ended up saying “Oh sorry, I thought you meant.....”. It’s easily done. Your mind has probably given you the wrong interpretation of what the other person said. Even if you’re someone who blames themself for everything (yes, I’ve been that person too), if you’re honest you can find at least one example of a genuine misunderstanding where your mind presented yourself with an alternative reality to the one that was intended, and you weren’t aware that it had happened until you were corrected.
So, if you can accept the statement that your mind lies, you can start to entertain the possibility that your opinion of yourself does not necessarily reflect the truth.
Step Two; challenge your ideas about beauty. You don’t need to accept the images of what’s considered attractive as gospel.
A lot of the ideals we’re presented with are constructed the way they are in order to make money. The best way to make money is to make people feel that it’s vital they get their hands on your product, and how do you do this? You create a need for it, and you do this by making people feel they are lacking something.
In the beauty industry, if you want to sell the maximum number of products and keep on selling them, you have to keep pushing home the message that you haven’t quite attained what you need. You narrow the ideal of beauty to something that’s almost unattainable for most people, but reinforce the idea that it’s possible to get it if you spend enough money on it. People want to believe it’s as easy as buying a product, and they can be everything they want to be.
Advertising is so good at this that we don’t even know it’s happening most of the time. It’s also all around us nowadays, so we often don’t have a choice about consuming it. Just keep this is mind.
At a very basic level, the beauty in your body is in its incredible design. You’re ALIVE, you’re conscious, you are a thinking, feeling, creating, inquisitive being. It took an amazing set of coincidences for you to be here, and so many interconnected, complex systems make it possible for you to live and breathe.
Your body is so miraculous that even the greatest minds haven’t been able to understand how everything in your body works. Even the process of thinking is astounding; electrical signals whizzing around networks of neurons which your brain seamlessly translates into thoughts in fractions of a second. Your consciousness, your personality, your experiences, your knowledge; they all live in this place, but no one quite knows how.
But that’s just mechanics. There is a beauty in WHO you are as well. The interaction of your personality and your experiences make up a unique individual; no one like you has existed before and will exist again. Sure, there’ll be similar people, but no one exactly like you. That uniqueness means everyone has something to contribute to the world, and more importantly, the right to do so. No one sees the world as you do, so no one can tell you that your viewpoint isn’t valuable.
So, let’s tackle the hardest part of it; physical attractiveness. Different cultures and time periods have different ideas about what’s attractive, and that changes, which shows that it’s not an absolute. Plus, there are always exceptions to the rule, I mean, there have to be, otherwise change would never happen.
Decide to have your own definition of beauty. For me, this was done by stopping reading women’s magazines, watching lots of documentaries about people who challenge traditional ideals, training myself to question all the messages I was being bombarded with every day.
Thank whichever deity you believe in that there are alternative ideas out there, you just have to look. I’ve seen documentaries about plus-size models and bloggers, about men's attitudes to their penises, about eating disorders, about people going through plastic surgery, about self-harm, about people of all sizes, races, genders, states of mind. They all showed me a universal truth; people are beautiful. Not just collectively, but individually too.
There’s another note that could help here too. My therapist used to say something to me which I use when I’m feeling terrible about how I look. There’s a TV show in the UK called Jeremy Kyle on which people air their personal problems and argue it out (think very low-grade Jerry Springer). These people tend to be physically and personality-wise not the most appealing people, they tend not to be very intelligent, and the show tends to make them look as bad as possible.
I don’t watch the show, and I don’t like to judge, but my therapist used to say to me that I should have faith that there’s someone out there for me because even the people on Jeremy Kyle have had sex & relationships. Her implication was that if they can be found attractive by someone else, I definitely can.
At this stage, I think you need to have achieved a level of self-acceptance before you can go onto the next stage. Other people pick up on your confidence, or lack of it. It’s often in everything you do or say, in the way you carry yourself and the way you talk about yourself. I think you have to have some respect for yourself and your body before you let someone else in, otherwise you could end up letting someone in who doesn’t deserve you and could treat you badly.
Find a way to find at least something about you beautiful, even if you’re not 100% sold on it. We all have good days & bad days, but you need a minimal secure base to operate from in order to protect yourself from further harm. If nothing else, this base can be a sense of self-worth, and hopefully more can follow from this.
People enjoy being around someone who is self-assured but not cocky, confident but not proud. I think it gives them a sense of stability and allows them to feel similarly about themselves.
Step three; form connections with other people. Yeah, I know. For a lot of people reading this, this one is the biggest, scariest step of all, and I’ve just gone and bunged it in there casually like it’s a thing you just go out & do, like the weekly food shop. That’s why I’m not just going to do a paragraph on it and leave it there. I’m going to follow up this article with one entirely devoted to it, because that’s how important I think it is.
I must also tell you that without other people, I would never have got as far as I have on my journey to being a happier, better-balanced person. I always thought people were the problem, and that I was better staying away from them; the irony is that they’re exactly what I needed.
It was only through forming connections with other people that I learned how to see myself in a better light, to see what was reflected back at me from what I gave to others. It was only through experiences of meeting other people that I learned where my own beauty lies.
AN ENDING?
I can’t easily conclude this article, as I can never really prove the truth of the title. The main aim, therefore, is just to plant the seed of the idea, of the possibility. I want anyone who believes themself to be unattractive or who feels unworthy of love to just start to entertain the possibility that they might be wrong; that other people don’t see the same flaws you do when they look at you.
Even the most outgoing, confident people suffer self-doubt, don’t always feel attractive, and feel inferior in comparison to others sometimes. It seems to be an unfortunate part of human nature, but it doesn’t have to rule your life.
It’s also the case that we are all imperfect, every single person on this planet, but not everyone beats themselves up over it. So, I say to you; accept that you are human, and as such, accept that you have flaws and you have strengths, and it is all of these that make you beautiful.
#you are worthy#you are beautiful#you deserve love#beauty in everyone#self acceptance#real beauty#we all need connection#find your tribe#confidence is sexy#we are social animals#you are amazing#love is out there#everyone deserves love#love is the answer#be your best self#embrace life
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Lemniscate
The convoy of 18 wheelers racing along the road were nestled between armored humvees. Painted across the black metallic doors in bold font colored a steel blue was the name Hawkwood. Gunners stood half emerged from their steel-plated watching ahead with vigilant eyes tightly gripped the handles of their mounted .50 cals. UAVs hovered silently overhead stalking the ground below for any pray that might scurry into its panoramic field of vision. They drove west towards the receding night sky. The red and orange hues of dawn reflected brightly in rear view mirror. The lonely two-lane road was surrounded by dense forests. Every now and again they passed a boarded-up building. Usually, a gas station or a rest stop derelict buildings that had been abandoned long ago. Token reminders of a sprawling, interconnected civilization that had been carved and dismembered.
LT Col Levinson formerly of the marines was the commanding officer of the convoy. He spent his extensive military career on the receding boundaries of a crumbling empire. He’d retired from the military to pursue a career with Hawkwood. It was similar work, with more than three times the pay, and with the added perk of being closer to home.
His eyes were covered by a translucent visor attached to his helmet where he could view, in real time the flow of intelligence being fed into the battlenet either through radio chatter, electronic messaging or through the electric eyes of the drones scouting ahead.
The majority of Levinson’s military career had been counterinsurgency work. He fought against guerillas in deserts, jungles, and cities. He had high confidence in his men and the automated systems, but one thing he knew about insurgents is no matter how tight you made the net they always found a way to slip through there was always a hole. There had been a few casualties in the no-mans land far outside the woods and from the city’s borders. Most of these were officially written off as “accidents.” Everything had been relatively calm though and from what Levinson understood about fighting that could be very ominous.
“Sir there’s no response from checkpoint alpha,” the driver informed Levinson.
“Shit, their comm equipment probably just fucked up again,” Levinson shrugged.
“What the hell?” Levinson muttered
A heavy layer of thick black smoke obscured the road ahead. A warning message in bold red letters flashed across his visor, and he was connected to the drones live feed. Less than two kilometers up the road was a barrier of burning cars.
“Oh, fuck,” said Levinson. “All units, all units we have a roadblock up ahead-”
He was interrupted by a rocket streaking out from the trees and striking one of the drones. The flying robot burst into flames and showered the area with jagged shrapnel. The gunners started laying down fire into the forests as they continued to drive head-on into the burning blockade.
“Fuck we’re stuck we gotta turn this motherfucker around!” Levinson shouted.
The forest was lit up by muzzle flashes. The automatic fire made a high-pitched clinking sound as the bullets struck the armor plating. The gunner fell back into the vehicle with his neck spraying blood.
Robert laid his yoga mat across the grass and inhaled the crisp morning air. It was a mild morning. The temperature was in the mid-fifties, but the bountiful sun combined with the slight chill in the air evened it out nicely. Billowy white clouds lazily drifted across the sky being carried by the wind as they slowly dispersed across the blue canopy.
Robert’s wife Rachel was already sitting cross-legged on her mat and well into her breathing exercises. His eight-year-old daughter Theresa was busying herself organizing irregularly shaped blades of grass on her mat. The only noticeable absence from the daily family ritual was Robert’s 15 son Chester.
Salutations to the sun was an integral part of the morning routine in the Pak household. Lemniscate sustained itself on the energy provided by the ever-abiding orb of fire. The city was built on the principle that settled society should be able to function on the resources nature provided. Exceeding these limits could only lead to destruction and thanks to some breakthroughs in engineering they had done quite well for themselves. Lemniscate had all the trappings of modern life and still even managed to provide the little extras the generation that built the burgeoning solar utopia were hopelessly addicted to.
There was no industrial agriculture in Lemniscate, in fact, most people didn’t even eat meat besides the occasional grass-fed beef. What could be grown in the vast greenhouses was distributed along with some perfectly safe nutrient-rich food substitutes boasting to taste just like the dishes they were imitating. They weren’t bad, but they usually fell just a little short on delivering the promised flavors.
People in Lemniscate had no use for markets like previous generations. They saw this system of food distribution as wasteful and inhumane. Instead, the nutritional requirements of a family were carefully calculated by an artificial intelligence that then delivered the food via a system of solar-powered drones.
Chester Pak was the fifteen-year-old son of Robert and Rachel Pak two of Lemniscate’s two most respected citizens and two of engineers behind the revolutionary solar technology that was the foundation of the high-tech bastion. Without their contributions, a self-sustained city that offered all the amenities of modern life would never have evolved into anything beyond a quaint idea. Their combined life’s work was the very existence Chester had grown accustomed to and in his adolescence had come to take for granted.
Thanks to the machinations of genetics Chester’s intellectual potential was a far sight more impressive than most of his peers. For the time being, however, the only way Chester could think to rebel against his brilliant goal driven yet very liberal and open-minded parents was to adopt an attitude of apathy. His ambivalence to the world around him was considerably exacerbated by the numbing lifestyle his parent's life's work had managed to keep going in their little corner of the country.
Robert knocked on Chester’s bedroom door. Robert was very conscious about respecting his son’s space and tried to remember this was just a phase. Afterall rejection of the way of life of his parent's generation was what lead him and Rachel to take such an active role in building Lemniscate. Despite this though he was irritated at having his authority as a parent willfully ignored. He knocked again more firmly.
“Chester,” he said in a stern tone.
“What?” the boy replied sleepily.
Robert rolled his eyes and opened the door. Chester was laying face down in bed with the shades drawn. The only light in the room was the LED light of the tv mounted on the wall.
“What, what’s up?” Chester asked not even bothering to turn his head on his pillow.
Robert pulled the shade up and sunlight flooded into the room striking Chester’s squinting eyes.
“Ah close that up,” Chester said turning away from the light.
“Why aren’t you up for salutations to the sun?” Robert asked.
“I don’t know I just feel like we’ve already said hello to the sun plenty of times already I don’t think it’ll take it personally,” Chester replied dismissively.
“Hey we didn’t raise you to be an ingrate,” Rachel retorted. Robert hadn’t even noticed her standing in the doorway. She arrived just in time and seemed to be in good parental form. Just from the tone of her opening line, she made it apparent she wasn’t in the mood for angsty teenage nonsense.
“We pay our respects because if it weren’t for the sun none of this, and certainly not you would be here now,” she said.
“The sun didn’t build the solar cells,” Chester mumbled.
“That’s not the point,” Robert said with frustration.
Rachel sighed. “Look I know you’re going through that phase where it’s cool to think everyone else is an idiot but believe me there is a fine line between being rebellious and independent and just being a jackass.”
“What does that mean?” Chester said defensively
“If you had any idea what it’s like out there you would never question why we express gratitude to the natural world,” said Robert. “You have no idea how good we have it.”
“Yeah? And what is it like out there? Why is it so terrible compared to here?” Chester asked.
Robert’s ringtone interrupted the conversation. Robert knew it wasn’t the best time to take a call, but it was from a number designated strictly for emergency purposes.
“Shit, I gotta take this,” said Robert. He didn’t see his son rolling his eyes.
“This is Robert Pak,” he answered as he stepped out of the room.
“Robert this is Greg you have to get here quick. Hawkwood packed up and left this morning. We don’t know what to do. We need you down here now!”
Greg was an anxiety-ridden individual, but his voice conveyed genuine panic.
“Just hang on. I’m heading over,” Robert replied authoritatively.
A driverless car was pulling up in front of the house just as Robert was walking out the front door. The car greeted him with a friendly female voice.
“Hello, Robert,”
“Hi,” he replied.
“I have calculated the shortest route to your destination. Is this ok or do you have a preferred route?” Asked the computer.
“That’s fine,” replied Robert reaching for his phone to dial back Greg. The phone rang one and a half times before Greg answered sounding even more terrified than before.
“Robert are you almost here??”
“I’m on my way now.”
“You have to get here fast none of us know what to do,” Greg wailed.
“Greg, what’s happening over there?”
“There's some kind of army heading this way. Apparently really well armed and they’re almost here.” Greg explained in a shaky fluctuating voice.
“What about Hawkwood what are they doing about this?” Robert asked calmly but firmly.
“They left Rob! the assholes fucking left,” Greg sobbed.
Rob shook his head. “They can’t just leave we have a contract this is the kind of thing they’re supposed to deal with.”
“I know that’s what I told them,” Greg’ wined. “I guess they got attacked this morning. They said it wasn’t worth what they’re getting! “We’re so fucked, we’re so fucked!” Greg said as he broke down into full on sobs.
“Greg calm down. We can’t panic. Remember there are always solutions it’s just a matter of finding them.”
Rob ended the call and looked around with confusion when he saw they hadn't moved.
“What’s going on how come we aren’t going anywhere?” He asked visibly frustrated.
“Sorry I didn’t want to interrupt your call,” the car apologized. “I noticed your phone only has fifty-six percent battery life. Would you like to plug into my power source?”
“What the fuck? Just drive this is an emergency!” Rob snapped. The car pulled away from the curb and sped down the road. Robert pulled out a tablet from his shoulder bag and started going through his messages hoping to get some better idea of what was happening. Through the windshield, he could see the sleek metallic body of a small jet gleaming in the sunlight as it ascended into the sky. Another followed in the wake of its exhaust trail, and another closely tailed that one. The exodus was underway.
Robert’s presence only provided momentary relief. The brain trust got down to the business of thinking about how they could save their city from the wave of marauders and morale quickly plummeted. Despite the robust, cutting-edge security systems and protocols they put in place they never had any idea the dangering forming out in the wastelands. Now all they could do was watch helplessly as an army of barbarians marched towards Lemniscate.The rats were quick to desert the ship. After every break, they took one or two fewer of them came back. Soon word came the city’s airfield was going to be out of aircraft before the day was through. Robert had dedicated his life to Lemniscate but now the time had come where the safety of his own family superseded the much-lauded greater good. Now it was time to break the news to his wife. He didn’t know how such a willful woman would react to the idea of abandoning her home. So he made sure to make all the arrangements beforehand.
“I arranged passage for you and the kids on a plane out of here,” he whispered into the phone.
“Just leave? Where would we even go, Robert?” She asked in a tone that was a combination of fear and anger.
“North to Vancouver,” Robert replied calmly.
“This is our home!” Rachel fired back. “I’m not just going to let a bunch of militia assholes tack it form us!
“We can’t stop,” Robert sighed. “The security forces left already. We don’t have the weapons or the expertise. There’s nothing we can do.”
She was silent for a moment. “Robert how are they moving?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” Robert asked.
“Are they marching single file or are they moving as a large huddled mass.”
Robert thought about it for a second. “I suppose they’re pretty close together,” he said.
“Well if there are no guns we can still use explosives,” she suggested.
“How?” asked Robert. “We don’t have any bombs, and even if we did, we have no way to use them.”
“The food delivery drones,” Rachel said. “We can fly them right into the middle of those assholes and blow them the fuck up. I bet they’ll disperse and run off if they had suicide robots coming down on them.”
Robert was skeptical, but it was the best suggestion he had heard so far. He brought the plan back to the rest of the committee, and by default, it went forward. Instead of food, the drones were loaded with makeshift bombs. They launched the fleet of suicide machines and watched from the basement of the office complex as the flying bombs headed east to find their target. They had a bird's eye view of the morbid pyrotechnics display. The drones flew over the mass of people hovered for a second before plummeting to the earth and exploding.
It was just like Rachel said. The fiery explosions broke the enemy’s cohesion and sent them scurrying in all directions. Robert and his colleagues cheered as they watched the fire destroy the horde, but the celebration was short lived. The fires didn’t stop burning. The flames began to consume the surrounding forests, and soon the landscape was set ablaze, and the wall of flames began its own march towards Lemniscate.
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Tim Goodman: 'Twin Peaks,' 22-Episode Seasons, Nielsen and More Reader Questions Answered
http://styleveryday.com/2017/07/10/tim-goodman-twin-peaks-22-episode-seasons-nielsen-and-more-reader-questions-answered/
Tim Goodman: 'Twin Peaks,' 22-Episode Seasons, Nielsen and More Reader Questions Answered
Lots of people apologize before asking me questions about television shows, which I would be able to understand better if I were, say, a pediatrician. It’s television. I’m a television critic. We’re at a party or some other gathering and you want to talk TV, I’m good with it.
Of course, I already do this a lot on a podcast, on Twitter and – here’s a diminished means of communication – over email, but not as often as I used to in an actual column here at THR. So maybe I’ll do this more often given that I’ve significantly cut back on my Twitter time, lots of people don’t listen to podcasts at all and apparently nobody uses email anymore. Here’s a collection of reader questions I pulled from some of those outlets, plus a few that pop up all the time that don’t need to be traced back to one individual and a few from people in the industry who proffered up some intriguing ones, though I will keep their identities hidden so that I don’t accidentally get them in trouble with some fiery rant that will later look like me taking up a torch they lit (when, for the most part, they hadn’t).
OK, here goes:
Q: From Ryan Acheson via Twitter (and trust me, there were similar emails on this topic): “Looks like you underestimated David Lynch’s ability to be creative and frighteningly weird. Gotta light?”
A: Ah, yes, a reference to Ep. 8 of Twin Peaks and, more directly to this critic’s notebook I wrote about how FX’s Legion could have stolen the thunder of Twin Peaks because lots of shows learned how to be weird in the 26-year absence of Twin Peaks, and Legion, of all shows, was particularly deft at it. But yes, Ryan, I did underestimate Lynch’s ability to bring the weirdness – by an order of magnitude. That said, not all of what Lynch is putting on the screen is creepy and creative at the same time. Sometimes it’s just, well, weirdness as affectation. Or eye-rolling (the use of a little person with what appears to be an awl, going on a murderous rampage), etc. I’m finding Lynch’s many indulgences trying at this point but will keep watching to the end even though it has rather aggressively been a show I find a chore to watch.
Q: From @MyVogonPoetry via Twitter: “What is on your ‘I want to watch but can’t right now’ list?”
A: Well, for starters, read this critic’s notebook I wrote on that very thing. The short answer is “pretty much everything.” But the medium, semi-thoughtful answer that includes “I started but haven’t finished” series is this list: The Handmaid’s Tale, GLOW, Preacher, Halt and Catch Fire, The Crown, Casual, Orphan Black, Orange Is the New Black, I’m Dying Up Here, American Gods and, uh, should I go on?
Q: From someone inside the industry: “13 million over-49’s stream now. How many in 10 years?”
A: All of them? OK, fine, not everybody catches up with technology even if you give them 15 years or so, but I would venture that, instead of measured in millions, more than 50 percent. It should be second nature by then. Affording cable will be an issue. But I’m a believer in elder tech adoption.
Q: From @Lynn_in_Atlanta via Twitter: “Do you think the 22-episode network procedural is on its way out? Also do you think cable/streaming will play with that genre, e.g. The Night Of?”
A: For the first one, no, because network television is slow to change and when a series works, particularly a procedural, the more episodes you make the more money you make. But episode orders are slowly decreasing. I hardly watch any network dramas willingly anymore and for those that I do watch I absolutely never watch all 22 episodes. A series has to be pretty great to keep me coming back for more than the manageable model of 13. Because – choices. As for the second part, yes, I think people who stream most of their series tend to have at least a partial inclination to binge, and few people want to binge 22 episodes of anything. It’s a terrible model that taxes writing staffs and cuts into creativity.
Q: From @Ossie_Awesome via Twitter: “Will you ever attempt to rank TV shows again?”
A: I see what you’ve done there, Ossie. Or at least I think I have. This appears to be yet another mocking reference to the fact that I stopped doing “The Power Rankings” some time ago. I started “The Power Rankings” in September of 2009 at The San Francisco Chronicle (and if any critic was doing it before then I haven’t seen it), which became a very fun weekly exercise that got very popular and then, rather quickly, became a more difficult chore. Finally, somewhere in the shadows of the looming Peak TV movement, it became crippling, so I stopped. Now that it’s impossible to watch every top-tier scripted series – much less every episode every week – it can’t be resuscitated in its original form. However, I’ve been kicking around some ideas on how to bring back variations on the original, prompted as ever by podcasting mate Jason Snell, who created the HTML for the rankings in under 30 minutes all those years ago.
Q: From Felice Gollotti via email: “I’ve always wondered — when the last episode of one season ends and first episode of next season begins in the same time frame — does the filming continue? Or is the scene reconstructed months later when new season shoots?”
A: If it’s a cliffhanger-type situation, especially outdoors where getting the right season or background exactly right is necessary, they probably shot extra footage. But mostly the time frame can be restarted later when the new season picks up again.
Q: From Mauricio Mota via email: “Peak TV but Death Valley metrics: Why can’t we have an updated way of measuring success in TV?”
A: That’s been the plea of pretty much every network or cable channel that uses ratings. They all wanted Nielsen to do better. They all believed the system was outdated. But it was a little bit of the devil you know for a while. In Nielsen’s defense, they did get better. And rival companies haven’t inspired much trust in the industry. That said, I wonder if it really matters that much anymore in the way that there was an urgency over numbers in the past. Yes, those who use ratings want all the demo numbers and the total viewers, but overnight ratings are a thing of the past and even live+3 and live+7 ratings don’t tell the whole story (or even a large part of it). Time-shifting and too much choice pretty much devalued ratings in the old-school sense of them. Advanced metrics are here, and they help networks, channels and advertisers set prices, but the story they ultimately tell is that viewing patterns are forever changed.
Q: From @Dean_Min_Travel via Twitter: “Over the next five years, will more people get into, or out of, scripted series production?”
A: Is this a trick question, Dean? Well, I will say that I’m sticking with my claim that the Peak TV bubble is leaking air. But my qualifier, which I wrote about here when Apple recently jumped into the content game, is that it’s mostly going to leak from the bottom. More channels will probably either cut down or get out. But their departure will be more than covered by the bigger platforms, particularly if Apple ramps up as expected and seriously changes the industry.
Q: From @LisaMBeudry via Twitter: “What’s it like for creators to work in such a saturated market? How do they try to make their show stand out in that ocean?”
A: This is one of my favorite topics, Lisa, because it’s one of the most pressing issues in the industry right now. The feedback I’m getting from series creators is that there’s no better time to be making television – and no more challenging time. The money is great, the opportunities are plentiful and there are more outlets interested in artistic vision over big-tent ratings. Plus a vibrant creative environment benefits everyone – it makes quality rise. At the same time, it’s painfully hard to get noticed. And for a lot of creators, the complaint isn’t just lack of advertising promotion – it’s how hard it is to get found on the site of the streaming service that just paid you all that money and let you make something special. To them it doesn’t make sense (to me, either), and it’s frustrating. I’m wondering if the end result of this will be some creators wanting a more intimate, curated existence (like the kind FX touts), or if that kind of thinking will ultimately just be adorable once Apple opens its vaults. In either case, I’m curious enough to keep following this little side effect of the content explosion.
Source
#22Episode #Answered #Goodman #Nielsen #Peaks #Questions #Reader #Seasons #Tim #Twin
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How To Increase Curiosity About Your Online Business
Discover The Ways To Increase Your SEO Work
The Web is pretty much a giant maze. There are lots of paths to adopt to arrive at the goal, but eventually you will get there. This article has some very nice ideas.
It is essential to accomplish is understand what search engine marketing does and why the system functions. There are various sorts of media that can assist you with learning about seo. Spend two or three days researching it and taking notes, and you may discover why it is recommended. Make the essential changes in your blog or site.
Getting your site well-ranked with search engines like yahoo is extremely achievable. The targeting key words must be found in the H1 tag as this is how the various search engines will discover you, and categorize your web site. The most effective way for you to improve your site's ranking is to try using the H1 tag effectively.
When the content articles are relevant, you should still submit your website to numerous search engines so that they're finding exactly what you need those to see, although search engine listings will discover your web site alone. Manual submission gives you a lot additional control during this process, and that's what you want being a marketer.
Make sure to submit your site to find engines for ranking after you visit the effort of optimizing it. The search engine can't rank something it doesn't know about. If the major search engines doesn't know your web site exists, all that effort will be wasted. Submitting the site yourself will increase the ranking process, although most search engines like yahoo today use spiders.
Will not clutter your site with useless items which use up valuable revenue space. While many of these things can add some flare or decoration, in addition they set you back money. Yes they might be free, however, it is just wasted space if this space could possibly be generating income through an ad or link.
Websites that will get the most from search engine optimization are rarely constructed with frames. They can be tough for search engine listings to index properly, although frames may be convenient for specific forms of websites. Ultimately, framed websites also contain less content than non-framed ones, which means framed websites simply cannot include as numerous search-relevant keywords.
To indicate the necessity of a keyword to search engines, bold it on its first use. Search engines have the ability to recognize when text is bolder, and rate bolder words as being more essential to the page. Using a bold word will assist search engine listings to locate your keyword and to search for additional appearances of it in your page.
When attempting to fully optimize your search engine placement, it may be beneficial never to publish a similar article or post under several different URLs on the site. Search engines like yahoo look especially for this strategy and penalize heavily for doing it, so do your favor and maintain all URLs, totally original.
Choose the right keywords to list your site with Google. You can use the Google Keyword Tool for your. You need to use a keyword that gets more than a thousand searches a month, and therefore correspond to websites that do not get just as much traffic as you do. In this way, your site can look on the top of the search results.
While looking to improve search engine marketing, it may be beneficial to start out your blog. Search engines like google like Yahoo and Google love blogs because of the structured data and fresh content. Additionally, having a blog enables you to enter on the latest conversations about your industry and trade ideas along with other bloggers.
Come up with a Pay Per Click Advertising account. It will provide you with immediate results by means of increased visibility in your site, though you will need to pay up front for the service. It does this by creating actual search volume for that keywords that you choose.
When optimizing your blog, think about google search being a matchmaker. The search algorithms look for sites with the most similarities to or cohesion with all the most reputable and popular sites. When it comes to quality and links, how well does your blog content align using that of sites that are considered successful?
If you want to possess the name of your respective website or company inside your title tag, which could certainly not become a case of NEED, then use it by the end. Let the keywords you've chosen for the site stand at the front and become counted, because they are much more important to SEO than your business.
You may use search engine marketing to create additional visitors to your personal or commercial blog. Among the finest ways to do so is by selecting a blog theme or template that may be optimized for SEO and site relevancy factors. You will recoup your investment site traffic, even if this may need using a paid template.
Ensure you have a call to action on every page inside your website. If no person bought your product or service, in the end the search optimization work you've done, wouldn't it be terrible? Don't do so much search engine marketing work that you ignore the reason you're doing it. In the event you remind those to, customers will probably buy.
One surefire approach to identify one of the most relevant keywords for your website is to purchase pay-per-click (PPC) ads. These ads, which can be purchased from the search engine itself, offer understanding of which specific keywords generate one of the most traffic, as well as which keywords may be dragging your web site down.
Try to make your website dynamic. You should utilize a content management system to construct and manage your internet site if you website has a huge amount of content. These systems work with a database-driven architecture to call pieces of content from the website to make a webpage about the fly since the web user requests it. This ensures that your internet pages are always updated when you change a sheet of information.
As you now have a great idea of what you need to do in relation to seo, you would like to implement all that you may have learned, to the very best of your capability. The details you learned should work as a great starting place, but take into account that there is a great deal of information to learn, so you should always be on the lookout for brand new things one can learn.
What You Need To Find Out About Reputation Management
Do you need to realize how to manage your business' reputation? the top washington dc seo You want to expand to new clients in that case. Use the tips below to get started, and manage your reputation using websites.
Remove it if you find negative content regarding your brand online. It it is actually on the Web property you control, such as a discuss your blog, just delete it. If you wish to, send a request for the Webmaster in which the content is. Whenever they do take it off, make certain it not any longer turns up by using the Google URL removal tool.
If any, before putting a lot of effort in reputation management online, determine simply how much you need. Search your organization with Google and Bing. Do negative results come up? Perform the blogs and websites your small business runs only show up on a few hits or none at all? Answering yes to either question means that you have work eliminate.
Establishing a powerful presence in social media will help increase the reputation of your organization. Creating a Twitter account, blog or Facebook page can help your interaction with prospects and customers. Nowadays, most people expect companies to possess a social networking presence. This really is the best way to post relevant contents concerning your company and monitor what it's being said.
An effective offense is obviously the very best defense when you're considering your brand's online image. Make sure you're getting a great deal of reactions and feedback that are positive, as well as the negative feedback will fall back. Also, ensure that your positive content articles are fresh.
Show the entire world that you will be mature and apologize if one makes a public snafu. It will take a huge person to acknowledge that, although everyone makes mistakes. It is going to make it more inclined that they may deal with you in the foreseeable future if people see that you will be truly apologetic to the wrongs you possess done.
Private promotions and sales have to stay exactly that: private. This can be important for situations when you are offering a large discount to handle a complaint. Because other people will want in in the deal, too, you don't want those "freebies" getting around.
You need to pre-plan your small business moves online. You can't just start replying randomly to all of your current customer's posts. You need to take the time to organize out how you're gonna approach them and what you're going to say. Not accomplishing this could cause some problems for you.
Bring individuals who are looking for your site directly to your site. This can be achieved by using your organization name along with other identifying words as much on your website as possible without having to be annoying. This will bring searchers for you as opposed to websites with possible and negative untruthful reviews.
Tend not to overreact in case your company features a negative review online. One of many worst things a business can perform is respond to a poor comment or complaint with anger. Also, do not try to retaliate against whoever posted the complaint. These kinds of reaction are not likely to solve the problem and will only draw more focus on each of the negativity.
Provide a guarantee in your service or product. This is why excellent customer satisfaction begins. Whenever a customer makes a return, you could not be able to resell it, and that means you will lose money. But, your reputation will continue to be positive.
Ensure you welcome complaints. Customers may wish to leave bad reviews because of no apologies or follow-ups to issues. Try together with a complaint form that may be highly simple and easy , visible to utilize on your website. Reply to all of them. They are going to know that you've heard them which you're coping with the difficulties. It will help you decrease or eliminate negative reviews.
Possess a plan available to manage people who post numerous poor reviews together with the intent of harming your business. It is better to get a plan and never need it rather than to find yourself the victim of such an attack and also be unaware of your rights without any idea concerning how to manage the circumstance.
Search for the opportunity good in almost any online conflict. It really is far easier to understand from the own experiences instead of simply listen and look at about resolving online conflicts. Following a conflict has ended, seek out the learning opportunities it presented. Utilize it as a springboard to boost your own personal online social and business circles when the conflict caught the attention of folks you would like to know.
Execute a survey to gauge the level of satisfaction that your clients are feeling relating to your business. When the satisfaction is average or lower, you need to learn the reason why it is not higher. Study from this making your small business better. This is how your enterprise could possibly get a better reputation.
When confronted with criticism online, take the time to analyze it. Have a look at complaints carefully and isolate the actual issues you must address. Determine regardless of whether the issue lies with you, the complainer or both. Think about the source. In case the person complaining has a record of complaining in other settings, there is probably not much that can be done regarding this complaint.
Use familiarity to grow your small business. The attention will keep them coming back again. Tune in to them for approaches to perfect your small business approach. This will boost your reputation immensely.
To keep in addition to your online reputation, setup a Google alert. You simply specify the keywords for the search engine to observe, like "Bob's Store" and you may receive an email alert whenever it really is discussed. If appropriate and necessary, you may follow the trail of speak to the origin and introduce yourself.
Join it in case your niche has an organization. A lot of people use trade organizations to discover leads. Your organization gains credibility whenever it has membership in industry related trade organizations. The rewards are worth the price tag on joining.
Do not overlook cultivating your business relationship together with your suppliers and sub-contractors. They may affect your business reputation also. Always deal with these with the highest measure of professionalism and fairness. Always honor your commitments. You will want good reputation among your colleagues in the market hence they would like to do business with you.
After looking at the aforementioned article, you will be now capable of maintain a positive reputation in the business community. Don't ever let your reputation go bad, remember the following tips and use them to assist you reach your goals in business. Keep in mind that your reputation is everything, and doing this will help you be very successful in running a business. Marketing online could have many benefits with this age and day. From improving the scope of your respective business, to finding new demographics, marketing your company online could have people from worldwide considering the services or products you're marketing. By following some tips you can get started with your website marketing today!
Study your competition and select the right of the sales and advertising tactics to further improve your own. If you can see yourself looking to buy, they may be doing it right, picture yourself as a customer on his or her site, and. Utilize the best ideas and fold it to your own strategy.
It is possible to get in touch with your audience when needed thanks to a message list. Create an e-mail list in regards to a specific topic and send newsletters with quality content. Once you build up your subscriber list, you can mail out information regarding your merchandise, in the context of your respective newsletter or usual format.
Use actual models or at a minimum a mannequin to showcase those items, rather than simply getting a photo of the item alone, should you be marketing clothing online. For online fit, finish and shoppers are tough to quantify, especially given that they can't try on the clothing. Using models or even a mannequin allows the viewer to find out just how the clothing hangs and fits, helping alleviate the chance of online purchasing.
Ensure you spend some time to pick the best advertisements. You should try to find advertisements that you think suit your audience. Additionally, you should find ads that appear to be good as they may attract attention from the visitors. Choosing the right ads will make the main difference inside your business venture.
Never think too highly of the website you created, as it will skew your general business perspective. Everyone takes pride in something they've accomplished as well as in something they've built, but what you need are impartial parties to see your blog as a way to inform you if it's a good-looking site or otherwise not.
Before you start out on your online marketing journey. You ought to spend some time researching. Decide what market you are trying to interrupt into. Prior to do anything whatsoever else, know your strategy. The greater investment you are prepared to dedicated to making things right from the start, the smoother the sailing will probably be as soon as you start.
Highlight the different types of aspects that separate your company from the competition in your site. These represent the things that your customer has to know, otherwise, they are going to think you happen to be just another company. Ensure that this can be noticeable entirely on your homepage in the event you offer low shipping costs.
Tracking your potential customers is a wonderful way to see when they're coming, when they're going, and how they're arriving at your blog. Find resources to help you uncover this data and practice reading the information to help you efficiently and quickly spot trends and follow these to improve your business.
Advertising plays a huge role in web marketing. Be sure to market your business in any respect possible. You can buy banner ads, advertisements or use ezine advertising. Investing cash in advertising is a terrific way to generate temporary business that may help you over time.
Your online marketing messages should create incentives for customers to put their order without delay. This is a effective and common strategy that produces a short-term window of opportunity that many consumers view being a blink-and-you'll-miss-it affair. The incentive may be free freight, free gift wrapping, or a free product for your first 500 people who make an order.
Offer something free if you would like increase the visits to the site. People like to get something in turn, so offer free e-books or reductions in price for logging on your site. This may not merely help the traffic in your site, but will raise the loyalty and credibility towards your page.
One of the most appealing elements of your personality that one could teach your internet site is humor. Ensure that you keep things business professional, but together with a joke in some places will never hurt. Inserting humor to your communication with customers results in a really light and fun level of dialogue.
An incredible internet marketing tip for any green company is to mix green information with health information. Incorporate specifics ofphysical fitness and health, or funds on your green site, so you will likely find that you are establishing a great lot of return visitors together with the information that you are currently providing.
Add high ticket things to your listing of stuff you sell. It requires the equivalent amount of effort to sell a high priced product because it does to promote a low priced one. You could be pleasantly impressed with the individuals who will purchase a item that is higher priced.
Be sure that you use a great-looking site, all up and running before starting seeking to attract new users. The worst reaction you can have is have users go to a site containing "coming soon" on many of the tons and pages of inactive links.
You would be surprised at the amount of people who forget that good customer care is vital to the survival of any business, even though this may seem like sound judgment. Treat all customers like you would like to be treated and they can keep coming back for you.
Be sure to include the first name in the subject brand of your sales message in case your primary e-mail list includes the 1st name and last initial for each recipient. This personal touch separates your brand's marketing communications from your impersonal spam that many consumers find highly invasive and irritating.
The world wide web is an incredible tool, and anyone marketing asite and repair, or product should use it to the fullest advantage. Now that you've read through this article, you realize a variety of tips and tricks to get great results from your online marketing. Don't underestimate the web. You'll be blown away at what it can perform for yourself.
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