#and doing ALL the writeup except the conclusion

[verystressedcollegestudent]

my ei partner will be like "oh im so sorry i didn't expect you to do 90% of the project i was going to start the day before it was due" like GIRL IT'S A 10+ PAGE WRITEUP YOU CAN'T START MONDAY WHEN IT'S DUE TUESDAY NIGHT

[crystalelemental]

I may have a full writeup opinion thing later on, but for now, a general gist for Mob Psycho 100 now that we’ve finished.

Holy shit this show is fantastic.  Legitimately one of the best anime I’ve seen.

Shigeo is my boy.  I think this is a pretty common response but that is baby.

Ritsu’s great too, and I adore that conclusion in the final episodes.  He had been repeating that phrase a lot throughout the series, and I had noticed it as a thing where he’s constantly offering to talk, but Shigeo refuses to really tell him what’s up, and the payoff to that is fantastic.

Teru’s the fucking man.  Rival characters are great broadly, but this dude is the shit.  His piece in the final episodes is legitimately my favorite; he cannot match Shigeo by power, and cannot truly stop him raging out of control.  So instead, he goes out of his way to protect what he knows Shigeo would care about.  I can’t stop your powers.  But I can stop you from betraying your own ideals.  You are my rival, and I am here for you so hard that I will protect you from yourself.  Fucking love this kid.

I wound up really liking Reigen too.  He’s such an interesting character.  Kind of a shithead, but at the same time...he legitimately does help people, even if he lies about what the help is, and has a pretty solid sense of ethical action and what’s right to do.

To avoid going on about all the characters, I’ll just say no one missed.  Everyone’s solid.  Body Improvement Club are fantastic bros, Dimple’s a bro, telepathy club are great when they get serious, it’s nice to see literally every antagonist come around.

Okay I lied one more: Boss.  Like, not a huge fan of him broadly, but I adore how they wrapped him up.  It was so set to be an attempted self-sacrifice for Shigeo, who had done similar without the sacrifice bit, but it mirrors the student council president bit.  Just stepping out of it isn’t atonement.  You have to work hard and be there to make things right.  And when making that final choice...he does choose to stay, to put in that hard work for his son and his estranged wife.  And it’s so goddamn good.

With that, I think I can start gushing about themes.  Human connection being the biggest.  I love how this show handles connection, because I feel like it’s a fairly simple premise?  Like a lot of shows go for that as a major facet.  How often is your shonen protag’s thing “magical ability to be friends with anyone?”  But I think what works for this show is two things.  One, that they never back down from it.  In most stories, there’s the inevitable exception.  Someone you can’t reach out to and change.  And the notion is that you’re supposed to know when to draw that line, and when it’s okay to avoid “going soft” to protect everyone else.  That doesn’t really happen.  Shigeo will fight anyone who is a legitimate threat and not seriously hold back, but at no point is it fully malicious “you have to be destroyed,” which is something for later.  The other is...it’s not friendship.  Like, he has a very clear group of friends.  But there are plenty of people who aren’t strictly friends with him.  They’ve reformed, but not in a way where they’re integral to his life and all about staying close.  Rather, it’s more about what some stranger has done to really change your life, and what you in turn can do for others.

The other big one is that sense of special vs. average, and that what’s important is self-improvement.  Shigeo’s is really interesting as a protagonist, in that he’s...well, a lot like most shonen protags that never lose, but specifically my comparison was always Saitama.  There is never, at any point, a question of whether or not Shigeo’s gonna win.  He isn’t just strong, he’s virtually untouchable.  He is, by the standards of psychic powers, the most specialest ever.  And while Saitama’s power is played for comedic anti-climax, Shigeo’s is both to showcase a theme, and to a degree to set up for the final battle that’s ultimately against himself.  But his power, and him being the strongest, would usually be a huge deal, and the thing to focus on as he meets other people who test those limits and he has to refine that one major focus.  That’s really what shonen focuses on: what makes you special, and that being the area to refine as you become the best.  But...not here.  Shigeo is, from the start, very focused on the idea of being nothing without his powers.  If he didn’t have this, what would be left?  A lot of characters seem to have this history of wanting to be someone important; of wanting to leave a mark.  And that aspect that makes you special becomes the focus, only to be revealed that it’s either not really want you wanted, or you’re not actually the best at it, or that being so successful has gone to your head and poisoned your relationships with others.  It’s why I loved the Body Improvement Club so much.  They’re complete bros, and are super supportive.  Yeah, Shigeo passes out like every time.   But one time, he passes out a little later than he used to, and that’s a celebration.  You’re getting better.  You’re improving yourself.  The critical focus is on the idea that getting better as a person, and being well-rounded, is far more important than being “special.”  It’s Reigen’s first real teaching.  Take pride in what you can do, but don’t let it convince you you’re better than anyone.

The best bit for this was near the end of season 2, when Shigeo confronts the Claw underlings about what they’re destroying, and pressing “Could you make these things?  Can you do all the things that these people you claim are beneath you have done?  No one lives alone; everyone relies on the kindness of others.”  That’s honestly one of my favorite scenes in...anything?  It’s so strong.

But really, the biggest angle is just in that sense of Shigeo’s conflict always being with himself.  Don’t use your powers on others.  Don’t lose control.  Maintain.  And that’s important, but then to some degree he’s not honest with himself, and that repression manifests directly as the final conflict, as he loses control, something others have alluded to throughout the series.  It’s so good.

What that I want to talk about an aspect I was the most concerned about: Tsubomi.  She doesn’t get a ton of play.  Most of what we know of her is flashbacks, or other characters’ descriptions.  It makes her kinda hard to read, but the final episodes do handle this really, really well.  The first part of the final arc hammers in that Shigeo...doesn’t even entirely know why it is he likes her so much.  He comes to an answer, and it’s very sweet, but you realize that they haven’t interacted once.  It’s all memories, and nothing in the present moment.  So when they started teasing stuff like she’s thinking of cheering for him at the rally, it’s like oh, are they really setting up that this is reciprocal?  And I think the absolute best way to finish off the series?  Was the rejection.  There...really wasn’t a strong sense of romance there.  And Shigeo shouldn’t be with her just because he’s the protagonist, and we’re all rooting for him.  There’s more to it than that.  I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that conclusion.

This...is absolutely one of my favorites.  This show is incredible.  Looking back, I can’t think of a single thing that really missed its mark.  Even in episodes where it can feel a bit slow, it trains you quick to understand, this is buildup.  And the payoff at the end is gonna be something incredible.

[aemiron-main]

i talk about this in a metric fuckton of detail in that huge gay mike anon ask response im working on, but: the big thing about gay mike for me is that it doesn’t exist in SPITE of the other elements of the show that need to be resolved such as mike and el’s relationship, and it definitely does NOT make those things harder to resolve: it’s actually the way that they’re resolved, gay mike is instrumental and key to resolving mike and el’s relationship in an amicable way/amicable milkvan breakup, it’s instrumental and key to resolving el’s arc about feeling unlovable in a happy and satisfying way and for her independence arc to being in a way thats satisfying both for el and the audience, it’s instrumental and key to setting up Byler endgame, especially setting it up in a way where Will and El aren’t pitted against eachother narratively. Gay Mike doesn’t take more time: it SAVES time. Mike being any sexuality except for confirmed gay is what takes more time.  and imo, none of these things can be resolved/be resolved as effectively if mike is anything but explictly gay. i have 100% read differing analysis and wracked my brain while writing that anon response for how any other sexuality for mike (including bi mike and unlabelled mike) could possibly a.) resolve those things or at the very least b.) not actively get in the way of resolving those things effectively/make it more difficult to resolve those things, and I absolutely cannot see it & feel strongly that the text of the show doesn’t support it. 

  I’m going to explain How I came to these conclusions in that big writeup but im just dumping thoughts here for now. I’m not hating on people who think mike is something else/have your headcanons but I do disagree from an analysis standpoint & I’m going to present why I disagree & presenting that isn’t any sort of personal attack. I especially disagree with the idea that gay Mike would make the cinematography/costuming/set design/acting/directing/writing choices make less sense, because imo gay Mike is actually the only sexuality for mike that makes those things make sense. If mike isn’t gay then things like the constant mike and el familial parallels (which are meant to indicate a platonic bond from the start), and all of the ‘mike doesn’t like girls’ imagery makes zero sense.  like if you can’t see it then perhaps re-evaluate your viewpoint on gay men and what they ‘should’ be like. i mean this in the most genuine non snarky way because mike’s character is LITERALLY a character who’s meant to serve this purpose of making people reconsider their biases in multiple regards. like be fr. do you just think that all of the ‘mike doesn’t like girls’ imagery doesn’t exist? that they just put in mike looking disgusted about phoebe cates for shits and giggles? that finn ‘micro expressions king’ wolfhard just couldn’t control his face muscles in that moment and they didn’t reshoot it and then the same thing happened in multiple other scenes where people talk to mike about girls and mike reacts with an identical expression? if you think that mike’s expressions indicate him being romantically attracted to el (which imo doesn’t hold up and can be explained by heteronormativity and internalized homophobia & the duffers pulling the straightbait and mike trying to figure himself out), then how do you explain the other expressions that clearly indicate that mike isn’t into girls? 

[nomanwalksalone]

ARNYS ET MOI AND ME

by Réginald-Jérôme de Mans

How do you remember something you never knew? The orphaned opening words of Arnys et moi, journalist Philippe Trétiack’s memoir of the late and legendary Paris shop Arnys, raise that question: “I never stepped in. I never bought anything there. And now, it’s too late.” This ellipse adds romance to Trétiack’s incomparable book, which contrasts the rise of the family behind Arnys with Trétiack’s own. Like the Grimberts of Arnys, Trétiack’s ancestors were Jews from Eastern Europe who immigrated to Paris at the beginning of the 20th century and ended up the garment trade.  But where the Grimberts’ boutique became, to some, synonymous with a neighborhood, an attitude, a philosophy, and even Paris itself, the boutique tended by Trétiack’s mother stayed a neighborhood mediocrity, a sinkhole of time, money and, in Trétiack’s telling, of lifeforce itself as he describes how his mother kept shop despite the hate she had for the shop, for the clothes she sold and for their potential customers.  A far cry from the supposed intellectual and political salon that was Arnys.

How do we remember Arnys? Despite Trétiack’s professed unfamiliarity with the shop, readers may never encounter a more knowledgeable and measured historical account of the Arnys shop: the implantation in Paris of educated left-wing garment dealer Jankel Grünberg, whose successes across multiple shops allowed him to settle on the very established avenue Foch in the 16 arrondissement; the immigrant’s cultural emphasis on education that led his sons Léon and Albert to pursue studies on the at once more aristocratic and artistic Left Bank; the polio that derailed one son’s medical career and drove both to enter the family trade, this time in a Left Bank shop space close by the colleges and medical schools he had been attending; the burgeoning family success; the horrors of the Second World War, which saw Jankel and his wife die in Auschwitz; the evolution of Arnys the shop and the brand from a neighborhood corner in a sleepy part of Paris to the epicenter of a certain hip bohemia, of a self-conscious rebellion, of a subversively elegant set of limousine liberals (the loose equivalent of the French gauche caviar), and finally of a dated, sated establishment… before communion with luxury conglomerate LVMH forced Arnys’ transubstantiation into the nominal custom tailoring and shirtmaking arm of LVMH-owned brand Berluti. Even the mysterious name “Arnys” itself is finally explicated: the Grimberts (name eventually Frenchified) had moved into the space vacated by a shop named Loris; by coining a similar-sounding name for their new shop Léon and Albert hoped to attract, through confusion, some of the old shop’s former customers. 

Trétiack writes that it was the recent humiliating scandal of former French presidential candidate François Fillon that had sparked his interest in Arnys. Years after the Arnys shop had actually closed, Fillon made the papers for having accepted thousands of dollars in custom Arnys clothing paid for by Robert Bourgi.  Bourgi is a lawyer whose involvement in a shadowy-world of influence and intrigue between France and its former sub-Saharan colonies known as Françafrique has led members of the French political establishment to call him “radioactive.” According to the very entertaining French Vanity Fair writeup of the debacle, Bourgi would periodically drive Fillon over to the Berluti bespoke shop –  at Arnys’ old address -- when Fillon was feeling down and order him clothing, paid for in cold hard cash.  As a result, Trétiack writes, that shop now limits cash purchases to 1000 euros, or less than 20% of the price of a custom Arnys-by-Berluti suit.  Interestingly, Trétiack also suggests that the papers had referred to Fillon’s scandal at Arnys, rather than Berluti, not because they appreciated the academic distinction that Berluti custom clothing was created by the putative Arnys tailors, but because they feared losing LVMH’s enormous ad spend if they impugned an existing brand in the LVMH portfolio, Berluti, rather than the old brand Berluti had absorbed.

As Trétiack writes at the conclusion of his memoir, this exploration of Arnys allowed him to remember things from his own past that he had almost forgotten, yet felt so deeply.  In fact, ironically, Trétiack’s discussions of his own family’s trajectory are far cloudier (and shorter) than his descriptions of Arnys, no doubt because the latter involved researching and interviewing many of the people historically involved with the shop. Certainly, as Arnys et moi progresses, the personal memoir of Trétiack’s family comes to seem more and more exiguous compared to the gusto with which Trétiack describes not only the arrival of the Grimberts and Arnys, but the development of the garments and the ethos that made the shop an avatar of a sort of French exception, a prerevolutionary throwback, a haven for a certain set of the Parisian bourgeoisie as it wanted to see itself: deeply rooted in a timelessly elegant France of Enlightenment thought and local craft; intellectual without being sterile; a cosmopolitan of the fleshpots of the Sixth and Seventh Arrondissements, which at one time were famous bookstores, discreet art galleries and philosophers’ cafés. But today, Trétiack points out, former customers of Arnys also rue the passing of a certain clientele of the Café Flore, too.

How do I remember Arnys? Unlike Trétiack, I was a regular, if only occasionally profligate, customer of Arnys for the last decade of its existence, and knew it well for years before that, having been like Léon and Albert Grimbert a student in that neighborhood.  Like many of the habitués he describes, I used to stop in nearly every weekend. But those were not sufficient credentials to become part of the salon of intellectuals, esthetes and political figures Trétiack is only the most recent to describe. And as a guilty customer of the Flore for well over 20 years, I can attest that the shift in that café’s clientele to wealthy tourists and Eurotrash is by no means a recent phenomenon.  All that time ago, when as a student I would amble from my home on rue de Sevres past Arnys and its lovely windows to a rare treat at the Flore, it was already evident that the cultural landmarks of that area, those that Arnys claimed to be part of, had mostly disappeared in place of the boutiques of international luxury brands. There was very little left of the intellectual or countercultural long before Arnys itself ceased to be.

As a member of another diaspora, I know it is always my lot to be, in some way, an outsider wherever I am. Outsider that I am, I was shocked to find how closely Trétiack’s and my conclusions tracked: I am writing a book on vanished and vanishing French #steez, and occasionally wondered if a mutual friend like rag trader Ammar Marni, whom Trétiack interviewed for this book, had passed him my manuscript.  Like Trétiack, I concluded that Arnys incarnated a sort of French exception, a parallel universe where Beau Brummell had never imposed his modern English clothing style of simplicity of cut and restraint of color on the world. Arnys was a sort of escapism too lovely for we the uncertainly welcome to resist, a France as it would like to see itself, invented by an immigrant family.  

Arnys et moi laudably and interestingly lays out how Arnys constructed its myth, but occasionally strays into too eagerly believing some parts of that myth.  Trétiack spends a chapter or two lauding the 1940s invention of Arnys’ signature garment, the smocklike Forestière, and the cultural inspirations that led Arnys, in the wake of the Forestière, to create dozens of other garments inspired by the workwear and countrywear of France, as well as by classic French and Italian films of the 1950s and 1960s.  It’s only much later, towards the end of the book, that Trétiack mentions that that Arnys actually had remained a staid, Anglophile haberdasher until the 1990s, when the third Grimbert generation, brothers Jean and Michel, realized that ersatz Englishness was on the way out and that a contrived Frenchness (rich linings, beautiful and exotic materials, grandiosely theatrical designs, and a special notch in the lapel inspired by those created by the 1950s new wave of French tailors) could set the house apart. In other words, Arnys’ performative Frenchness, the thing that set it apart, is of quite recent vintage.  Trétiack also expounds in impressive detail on the magnificence and quality of every object Arnys sold, right down to the rarity of its handmade knives and the lushness of its pashmina scarves handwoven in Srinagar.  As something of a collector of artifacts of the places I write about, I’ve actually had the occasion to own and use items by these makers, including a Sauveterre knife and a scarf from Arnys’ supplier Kashmir Loom.  What Trétiack may not have realized is that the Arnys items were not just exquisite and luxurious, but were often incredibly delicate.  In the case of their handmade, hand-rolled seven-fold ties, they seemed to be deliberately more delicately and clumsily made than they needed to be in order to seem more handmade.  This seemed the case with a number of Arnys items.  Like Trétiack, I never became a bespoke customer of Arnys.  But here he and I diverge, as his words praising the current Arnys-Berluti cutter suggest he had not heard the pervasive and insistent words across the rest of the Paris bespoke population about the custom makers at Arnys. I’ll only note that the longtime Arnys cutter had actually left Arnys around the time it became part of Arnys, and is now retired, while their longtime custom shirtmaker died recently. 

Things change. Like Trétiack, I’ve wondered about the futility of writing about places like Arnys, about what it matters to remember. Then I remember that so many of us, so many different individuals with so many different individual histories, have conferred on this place, on this meaningless pair of syllables, so many different meanings, each with its own reverberations. How much can we know about what we remember?

[theouijagirl]

The Warren Curse: Detailing the harm caused to the supernatural community by the Warrens. Part 4: The Enfield Poltergeist

On the night of August 31st, 1977, Peggy Hodgson called the police. Two of her four children, Janet and John, had heard some strange noises in their room. Peggy rushed in, and witnessed a large chest of drawers slide across the room. Peggy was a single mother, alone with the children in the house, so they rushed over to their neighbors for help. The neighbors came over, and also heard strange knocking sounds in the children’s room... and every other room that they entered. When the police arrived, they witnessed a chair slide across the room. And so began the two year saga of the Enfield Poltergeist.

The story became so notorious that it went down in history as one of the best archived hauntings, with lots of video evidence and photos of various incidents. It also had multiple witnesses, from neighbors to journalists to paranormal investigators, which is really unlike most haunting stories. It became so notorious that it was used as the plot of the film The Conjuring 2, in which the two main characters were Ed and Lorraine Warren. The fictional Ed and Lorraine save the family and expel the demon haunting the home, thus becoming the heroes of the story. The real Ed and Lorraine insisted that the Enfield case was one of the definitive hauntings that prove demonic possession is real, and swore up and down that the haunting was completely true.

Except that it wasn’t. Basically all of the major activity was debunked as a prank. Almost all of the paranormal investigators involved with the case agree to this, and even Janet admitted to faking most of the haunting. Only two people held tight to their belief that there was a demon haunting the house: Ed and Lorraine Warren.

Most of the activity centered around eleven-year-old Janet, and her sister, twelve-year-old Margaret. Small items, like Legos, would fly across the room. Doors opened and closed on their own. Footsteps, knocks, and bangs echoed through the home. Which was very standard poltergeist behavior. Peggy wanted as many witnesses to this activity as possible, and invited over pretty much everyone in her neighborhood in Enfield, a small borough of North London. There are a long list of witnesses, including people who were just passing by and saw things flying past the windows. Peggy was desperate for help, and wasn’t able to get any from local clergy and city council members, so she contacted the media. And that’s when stuff started to get weird.

The activity changed from basic poltergeist phenomena to the stuff you only see in movies. Janet was captured in photos being thrown out of her bed. She started speaking in a gruff, low voice that swore a lot, and referred to itself by a man’s name. Spoons were found bent. The increase in activity brought in all kinds of investigators, from the paranormal to scientists to regular journalists eager for a scoop, and soon plenty of articles in gossip newspapers like The Daily Mail appeared. Photographs of Janet being tossed across her bedroom were published, and many TV news journalists were able to interview “The Voice” through Janet, and have it on film.

Two paranormal investigators stayed in the Enfield home to chronicle everything: Guy Lyon Playfair and Maurice Grosse. They are considered the foremost experts on the case, along with a few other paranormal investigators who came by, via invitation, to check out the home. They also invited a slew of other professionals to investigate, such as magicians, ventriloquists, mediums, psychologists, and plenty of scientists to analyze everything from the house to Janet’s vocal chords. It was clear that, while the haunting activity was hot, Playfair and Grosse wanted as much proof and analysis of the haunting as they could. Which is what a good investigator does.

Very randomly, one night, Ed and Lorraine Warren showed up at the home. They had not been invited, and asked to interview Janet and check out the home. Playfair says that the Warrens were there for less than a day, and that at one point Ed had pulled him aside to explain how he could make a lot of money off of the haunting. Playfair quickly dismissed him. Janet would later say that she has no memory of meeting them.

Over time, a lot of the evidence of the haunting fell through. Motion cameras were set up around the home to detect any activity, and it picked up videos of Janet bending spoons. Everyone who analyzed the photos of Janet being tossed out of her bed clearly stated that they just looked like a girl jumping off the bed. The voice that came from Janet had a lot of her habits and manners of speech, and sometimes Janet would mean to say something in the voice and accidentally used hers, and sometimes vice versa. Activity most often happened off camera, or when nobody was around to witness it besides Janet and Margaret. Eventually, Janet and Margaret came clean about faking evidence, and many investigators (and me) came to the conclusion that while the activity could have started with actual paranormal activity, it turned into a sideshow for these girls to show off.

The Enfield Poltergeist reminds me of another famous hoax, created by teenage girls just for attention. The Cottingley Fairies were a series of photographs taken by two young cousins, which shows them hanging around in their garden with a bunch of fairies. At the time, people were baffled, and many (including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) believed they were genuine. It later came out that these girls had just cut out pictures of fairies from their storybooks and placed them just so, in order to make them look real. It was basically the first ever photoshop. Teenagers wanting and gaining attention is nothing new, and in this day and age it’s easier than ever, thanks to Instagram and YouTube. So for us now, it’s a little hard to imagine why some girls would fake something like this, whether it be photos or demonic possession, but at the time it was definitely addicting.

Only two paranormal investigators have never said that the Enfield Poltergeist wasn’t a hoax: Ed and Lorraine Warren. They added the story to their official case files, stating that Janet was clearly demonically possessed and that she even was levitating out of her bed while sound asleep, something that nobody else claims ever happened. The Warrens were the least educated about the haunting, and yet, when the Hollywood movie comes out about it, they are the main characters. Thanks to The Conjuring 2, the Warrens are synonymous with the Enfield Poltergeist, even though they have nothing to do with it.

My blog series is called The Warren Curse because, in my eyes, these two placed a curse on the paranormal community, bamboozling people into believing their lies, from regular people with little interest in the paranormal, to very serious figures in the community who have their own TV shows and movie deals. It’s why the angry messages I get about this series only come from people who have studied the Warren’s case files and nothing else, and consider themselves novice demonologists. The Enfield Poltergeist case just shows how deep the Warren’s fraud goes. In Playfair’s own words, “...they just wanted to make money off it.” Playfair, at the end of the day, truly wanted to believe in the haunting, even though he actually caught Janet in the middle of her setting up numerous pranks. Until his death, he truly believed there was a poltergeist in the home. So the fact that he still considered Ed Warren to be a money-hungry liar, who definitely fabricated stories about the haunting, should be proof enough that the Warrens are frauds.

There are a lot of sources out there about this case. There are a huge number of gossip magazine articles about the haunting as it was going on, and plenty more describing how it was all a hoax, so these are just the most interesting sources I’ll pull for you, and the rest you can Google. Here is Playfair’s interview about the Warren’s involvement in the haunting case. Here is a Skeptical Inquirer article about the case, which includes some nice tidbits about how the Warrens are notorious liars. Here’s an America’s Most Haunted article comparing the plot of The Conjuring 2 to the actual haunting. And here’s the writeup from the organization that Playfair and Grosse belonged to, The Society For Psychical Research, with lots of details about the haunting. Their writeup, along with many other articles I read about the facts of the haunting, have no mention of the Warrens, and doesn’t mention any of their claims. Because they weren’t involved, and they lied about what they saw.

Next I’ll be diving in the Perron family haunting, which was the source material for the first Conjuring movie, where Ed and Lorraine not only appear as characters, but actually cameo in the movie. You can check out my other articles in this series by following the hashtag #thewarrencurse, and if you learned something, or are grateful that I didn’t link you to the horrendous audio clips of The Voice, as I sat through them so you don’t have to, you can buy me a coffee.

And like every stupid horror trope, Janet claimed that she played a Ouija board before all this haunting stuff happened. My blog deals primarily with Ouija related content, so feel free to check it out and see for yourself why blaming the Enfield Poltergeist on a Ouija board is the dumbest.

[terramythos]

Review: The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth #2)

Length: 391 pages. 

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Apocalyptic, Post-post-post Apocalyptic, Female Protagonist, Antagonist POV, First-Person, Second-Person, Third-Person, Gray Morality, Dark, Great Worldbuilding, Great Character Development, LGBT Characters, Diverse Cast, Trilogy

Warning(s): Like before, this is not a happy book. Child death, abuse/torture, graphic violence and gore, major body horror, and a whole lot of murder. References to slavery. Pretty par for the course at this point.

My Rating: 4.5/5

**WARNING: THIS REVIEW (INCLUDING THE SUMMARY) CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE FIFTH SEASON. IF YOU WANT A SPOILER FREE REVIEW, PLEASE READ MY FIFTH SEASON REVIEW (X), OR, BETTER YET, JUST READ THE BOOK.** 

My Summary:

A Fifth Season is well and truly underway, but unlike the dozens of others humanity has weathered through the ages, this one threatens to cast the world into ash and darkness for a million years, ending life as we know it. Essun’s search for her missing daughter has gone cold as she discovers Castrima, a strange underground city built into a geode, led by— bizarrely— a feral orogene. It is here she finds Alabaster— once her friend, mentor, not-quite-lover, and most powerful orogene alive— on his deathbed. He tore open the giant Rift in the center of the continent, kicking off all the death and destruction since the Season began. His actions and goals seem incomprehensible. Then, he tasks Essun with the impossible: use the power of the obelisks--the ancient, floating relics of a bygone era--to return Father Earth’s missing child. 

But stranger forces are at work. The stone-eaters— immortal, statue-like humanoid creatures--have taken a sudden interest in humanity, and orogenes in particular. Essun herself is trailed by Hoa, the story’s narrator, a stone-eater wearing the disguise of a human child. He assures her that not all of his kind want the same thing, that he is on her side, but what does that really mean? 

Meanwhile, Essun’s daughter Nassun grapples with the reality of her life— one in which the world is ending and everyone thinks of her as a monster. She will soon come to realize that love comes cloaked in pain— with dire implications for those around her.

There is a thing you will not see happening, yet that is going to impact the rest of your life. Imagine it. Imagine me. You know what I am, you think, both with your thinking mind and the animal, instinctive part of you. You see a stone body clothed in flesh, and even though you never really believed I was human, you did think of me as a child. You still think it, though Alabaster has told you the truth— that I haven’t been a child since before your language existed. Perhaps I was never a child. 

You should imagine me as what I truly am among my kind, then: old, and powerful, and greatly feared. A legend. A monster.

Minor spoilers and my thoughts follow. 

As I mentioned in my Fifth Season writeup (x), this is a hard series to summarize and review. By their nature, these books are full of unexpected and strange twists, and half the joy of reading them is discovering new things about the world and characters. So, it’s difficult to get specific without spoiling a lot. At the same time, it’s impossible to describe any context for this book without spoiling some of The Fifth Season, so… fuck it.

Did I like this one as much as The Fifth Season? I don’t think so— it’s still great, and much better than most of what I’ve read— but I tend to struggle with second books. The Obelisk Gate is very heavy on characterization and worldbuilding, and it definitely feels like setup for the third book, which might explain part of my reaction. That being said, as middle books go, this one has plenty going on and a lot of interesting drama. The writing itself is exquisite and very entertaining to read. There’s all sorts of lore details that shed a new light on the events and characters of the first book. And, well, there’s a very good chance I’ll look at this one in a new light based on book 3. I’m willing to bet these are very interesting to reread when one knows all the little twists and turns.

(As an aside, I randomly guessed a Big Twist in this one while reading The Fifth Season. So… go me, I guess).

Like The Fifth Season, this book follows three central characters. There’s Essun, of course, who once more serves as the main protagonist. But joining her now are Nassun— her missing daughter— and (of all characters), Schaffa, the main antagonistic figure from the previous book. These latter two offer a very different and interesting perspective on things. For example, early on you learn Nassun HATES her mother, which seems totally at odds with what we know to this point. Schaffa is also an interesting choice— we don’t see his perspective much, but we learn a lot about him and the Guardians in general. Why the fuck are they so creepy? Why do they smile all the time? Boy, you’re about to find out, and it’s not gonna be great.

One thing that continues from The Fifth Season which I really dig is the narrative style. I didn’t want to mention it in my previous review, but the whole story is technically in first-person, narrated by Hoa. He shifts into second-person when describing Essun’s life, whereas Nassun/Schaffa are both third-person. In The Fifth Season, Hoa seems like an odd choice of narrator, as he’s a fairly minor character, but that changes big time in The Obelisk Gate. There’s also small interludes from his perspective (my quote is one of them). Toward the end of this entry, he occasionally lapses out of second-person entirely for the Essun passages. This never felt jarring— in fact, in context it made sense. Or maybe Zero Escape numbed me to that type of thing.

And I super don’t want to spoil why, but Hoa’s an unreliable narrator. Which is great. I love unreliable narrators so, so much. You can probably pick it up in the first book, but this one really gets into the nitty gritty of it.

The stone-eaters in general are super interesting. They’re certainly not par for the course compared to typical fantasy races. In The Fifth Season they’re just sort of bizarre background characters, except at one or two key points. But you learn quite a bit about them in this one. Something I find especially interesting is that they don’t fall into the trap of “X fantasy race wants Y thing”. In fact, Hoa’s quite direct when he says his kind have many differing goals, much like the humans they follow around. I don’t think we get the full implications of that in this entry, but I bet it’s going to be an interesting thing to explore in the next book.

As for the characters, The Obelisk Gate doesn’t introduce very many new ones. I think Nassun is the only one who really qualifies outside of the very minor. Instead, the story focuses on active character development, or glimpses how certain characters have changed over the years. And everyone does (or HAS done) some real questionable shit. There’s certainly a sense of gray morality in the previous book, but this one drives it home. EVERYONE is morally gray. Fucking everyone.

Alabaster, my fave from last book, isn’t doing so great in this one, but he’s still the snarky asshole I liked in The Fifth Season. Schaffa gets some real unexpected development. Ykka, the rogue orogene leader of Castrima, is pretty interesting as well; she’s introduced in the previous book but you really don’t see much of her until this one. I continue to find Tonkee fucking hilarious (thanks for making the weird feral scientist trans, by the way). Nassun was absolutely not who I expected her to be at all, and she’s definitely set up to play an interesting role in the future.

Of them all, though, I think Hoa’s my fave this time around. As I’ve mentioned, he has a much more prominent role in this one and is just super intriguing. Definitely looking forward to his role in the conclusion. 

I’ll state for the record that The Fifth Season put me on an emotional rollercoaster. The Obelisk Gate is no different. I feel so invested in these characters, flaws and all, and I’m interested to see where each of them ends up as we reach for the conclusion. 

So where does that leave us? Well, kind of in the awkward place of a middle book. I really enjoyed this one, even if not as much as The Fifth Season. I think it’s a crime that this trilogy has practically no fan following, because it’s excellent. Maybe one of the best fantasy series I’ve read? I guess we’ll see with the next book. Either way, please read these books.  I need more people to talk to about them! 

[petskisswer]

^^ ^ Purchase NCAA Wisconsin Badgers Mesh Jersey - L How Much Check Price Now http://petskanwert.blogspot.com/2021/07/purchase-ncaa-wisconsin-badgers-mesh.html

Order NCAA Wisconsin Badgers Mesh Compare

NCAA Wisconsin Badgers Mesh Jersey : Your pet will be a #1 fan with this officially licensed college jersey! Great for everyday wear to show off your team spirit or for that perfect look on game-day. Made with the same durable materials just like the official college players wear, recreate the look of your favorite team. Your furry friend will be comfortable and stylish and everyone will know who they are rooting for! Pattern: Solid.

Check price

NCAA Wisconsin Could you love to try new stuff? Would you like to gain a few exciting experience via new product which is the beginners to the market? Yet no matter how you answer all this question, yes or no. We recommend you to try our new product which often can change your attitude to the new product absolutely. Your new product is the result from effective manufacturing line and the consequence of our experts who work hard to discover this excellent supplement that we proud to give it to the current market right now. Nothing regarding the safety you have to matter because our NCAA Wisconsin Badgers Mesh Jersey - L currently gets the approval regarding safety from the reputation institution. Our purpose is not to encourage you to believe on our speech but advocate you to try this awesome product by yourself. And then it's job to make the conclusion about the outcome after using that you are content with it or not. There is no-one to force you and it's impossible to force the real consumers who review with this new product several times on the internet. But you should try it by yourself to obtain the exceptional experience directly. Added product information and also details are available on our own official website which you can use for examine the particular deep details about merchandise for fast as well as 24 hours per day which usually comfort you additional convenience to access. NCAA Wisconsin Badgers Mesh Jersey NCAA Wisconsin Badgers Mesh Jersey - L is definitely guaranteed by great deal of reviews from actual users. Why don't you have considered trying it by yourself? We propose you to do so. Mainly because just reading using experience will not as good as knowing from demo by yourself. In the future, you may be one of user that done the writeup on how good of NCAA Wisconsin Badgers Mesh Jersey - L .

Click Here NCAA Wisconsin Badgers Mesh Today

Tag NCAA Wisconsin Badgers Mesh Jersey : NCAA Wisconsin Badgers Mesh ,Buy , This Instant ,Price , Comparison ,Where Can I Buy , Now Is The Time ,Buying , Undisputed , NCAA Wisconsin Badgers Mesh Jersey - L ,Price Compare , Don'T Miss ,Where Can You Buy , Opinion ,Check Price , Unparalleled ,Price Comparisons , Expert

[t-baba]

A way to look up JavaScript operators

#514 — November 13, 2020

Unsubscribe  |  Read on the Web

JavaScript Weekly

10 Insights From Adopting TypeScript At Scale — A fantastic writeup (from a TC39 member, no less) of how Bloomberg (the financial media company) adopted TypeScript and now has 2,000 full-time JavaScript engineers. Curiously we also learn that Bloomberg also have their own JavaScript runtime built around the V8 engine.

Rob Palmer (TC39 and Bloomberg)

A Way to Look Up JavaScript Operators — Quick, name as many operators as you can! Got to about ten or so? This site covers about fifty with a quick explanation of each (well, except the bitwise ones).

Josh W Comeau

The Most Complete Spreadsheet Solution for JavaScript Apps — New Release: Fast enterprise JavaScript spreadsheet for delivering true spreadsheet experiences. Learn more about SpreadJS v14 including native Excel I/O, Calc Engine with 450+ functions and more. Download a free trial or view the online demos.

SpreadJS by GrapeCity, Inc. sponsor

Angular 11 Released — Are you one of the allegedly 1.7 million developers using Angular? Maybe experimental webpack 5 support, faster builds, improved hot module replacement support, and automatic inlining of fonts can tempt you onto the latest version.

Mark Techson (Google)

Babylon.js 4.2 Released: Powerful 3D Rendering Engine — Babylon.js is a particularly powerful 3D rendering engine aimed at artists, game developers, and anyone with 3D ideas to explore. New to 4.2 is a new particle editor, sprite editor, texture inspector, and more. See the playground if you want a quick play.

Babylon.js

'No More Free Work from Marak' — The creator of faker.js (a library for creating dummy data) pushing back against supporting businesses for free with his open source work has become a cause célèbre in the past week. “Pay me or fork this,” he says. Whatever your take, the topic of work vs reward in open source will remain both important and divisive.

Marak X

⚡️ Quick bytes:

We've not had time to go through them yet, but VueConf Toronto has released a lot of talk videos from their recent online conference.

Replay is a React-inspired JavaScript game engine and they're having a game jam starting today and running for a week.

Windows user? The Windows Terminal Preview 1.5 release may interest you.

The TypeScript team have written up some notes on TypeScript's release process.

📚 Tutorials, Opinions and Stories

Rethinking the JavaScript Pipeline Operator — Dan concludes “I hope that TC39 decides to reject this proposal” but it’s interesting to see how he reaches that conclusion.

Dan Shappir

Understanding Modules and import and export Statements — Modular programming demands, well, modules, and JavaScript now has built-in support for these and here’s the basics of their operation.

Tania Rascia

Is Your JavaScript Testing Stack Holding You Back? — Learn how to boost your productivity with the ultimate development workflow.

Wallaby.js sponsor

Things I Don’t Like About Vue.js (as a React Engineer) — Well, we love Vue, but to be fair to Harry, he did write What Vue.js Does Better Than React recently too ;-)

Harry Wolff

Back to Basics: Event Delegation — Events don’t just occur on the element you apply them to. Instead they go all the way down the DOM tree to the event and back up again. Christian demonstrates where this can help you out.

Christian Heilmann

How to Detect When a Sticky Element Gets Pinned — …thanks to the IntersectionObserver API.

David Walsh

Live Workshop: Getting Started with OpenTelemetry in Node.js

Lightstep sponsor

▶  How to Recreate Tic Tac Toe with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript James Q Quick

You're Probably Not Using Promise.All Enough Sam Jarman

How to Create a Commenting Engine with Next.js and Sanity Bryan Robinson

▶  My VS Code Setup: Must Have Configurations and Shortcuts James Q Quick

🛠 Code & Tools

Mermaid: Markdown-'ish' Syntax for Generating Flowcharts, Sequence Diagrams, and More — Being able to ‘draw’ diagrams in a structured, text-based and have them render into something presentable is pretty appealing.

Knut Sveidqvist

jsdiff: A JavaScript Text Diffing Implementation — Can compare strings for differences in various ways including creating patches for the changes. The library is quite mature but just reached version 5.0. There’s an online demo too.

Kevin Decker

core-js 3.7.0: A Modular Standard Library and Polyfills for JS — A popular collection of polyfills covering ECMAScript features up to ES2021 level. The project has had some interesting problems recently, but releases are now flowing again.

Denis Pushkarev

CodeFix - Automatically Clean Up Technical Debt

CodeFix sponsor

React Frontload 2.0: Simple Full-Stack Data Loading for React — Do full stack data loading and state management inline in React components by writing a data loader in your component (with a hook) and it ‘just works’ with SSR and in the browser.

David Nicholas Williams

Running Vue.js in a Web Worker? — A promising prototype of running Vue.js in a Web Worker so that work is offloaded to a background thread with updates being sent back to the main thread asynchronously.

Jerzy Głowacki

Dexie.js: A Minimalistic IndexedDB Wrapper — IndexedDB is a widely supported browser API for data storage and Dexie aims to make it simpler to use (and will offer an approach for server syncing too.)

David Fahlander

Microsoft Edge Tools for VS Code — Use the Microsoft Edge Tools from within VS Code to see your site’s runtime HTML structure, alter its layout, fix styling issues as well as see your site’s network requests.

Visual Studio Marketplace

ShareDB 1.5: Realtime Database Backend Based on Operational Transformation — For when you need real time synchronization of JSON documents (such as for behind a real time collaboration app).

ShareJS

💻 Jobs

Senior / Intermediate Full Stack Developers (Sydney or Brisbane) — A SaaS business with phenomenal growth. True flexible working. You’ll have 5+ years in JavaScript / TypeScript, as well as production experience with AWS/Serverless.

Compono

JavaScript Developer at X-Team (Remote) — Join the most energizing community for developers and work on projects for Riot Games, FOX, Sony, Coinbase, and more.

X-Team

Find Your Next Job Through Vettery — Create a profile on Vettery to connect with hiring managers at startups and Fortune 500 companies. It's free for job-seekers.

Vettery

👀 A Correction

The File System Access API: Simplifying Access to Local Files — Several issues ago we mistakenly referred to this API’s spec as an ‘open standard’ when it's just a spec. It's Chrome only (for now), not a W3C standard, though it remains an interesting idea. (Thanks to reader Šime Vidas for noting our mistake and noting that the path from the WICG to a W3C standard is a long one indeed!)

Pete LePage and Thomas Steiner

by via JavaScript Weekly https://ift.tt/2IzXSPs

[marymosley]

TTI v. IBG: Federal Circuit clarifies meaning of “technical solution to a technical problem”

Trading Technologies International, Inc. v. IBG LLC, Interactive Brokers, LLC (Fed. Cir. April 19, 2019).  Panel: Moore (author), Mayer, and Linn  Download TTI v IBG (April 18, 2019)

Trading Technologies International, Inc. v. IBG LLC, Interactive Brokers, LLC (Fed. Cir. April 30, 2019), Panel: Moore (author), Clevenger and Wallach.  Download TTI v. IBG (April 30, 2019)

This is a long post since it covers two opinions addressing Covered Business Method (CBM) review for business method claims, plus discussion of two related opinions for good measure.  tl;dr: The Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB that the claims are subject to CBM review and are directed to ineligible subject matter.  Along the way it clarified some its jurisprudence interpreting the threshold CBM review regulation.

A potential conflict disclosure at the outset: MBHB, which represented Trading Technologies on these appeals, is the primary financial sponsor of PatentlyO.

On to the writeup…

***

Background

Both April opinions in��TTI v. IBG involve the same procedural posture, the same general subject matter (displaying market information to traders), and the same issues on appeal: whether the claimed inventions are subject to the “technological inventions” exception to CBM review and whether they claim patent eligible subject matter.  In both cases, the PTAB concluded that the patents were subject to CBM review and held the patents directed to patent ineligible subject matter.  Of the two opinions, the court’s April 18, 2019 opinion is meatier on both issues, so I’ll mainly focus that one.

The two April opinions also provide a counterpoint to the court’s February nonprecedential opinion involving the same parties, the same area of technology, the same procedural posture (appeal from Covered Business Method review decisions by the PTAB), and for some of the patents, the same outcome at the PTAB: lack of subject matter eligibility.   See TTI v. IBG (Fed. Cir. Feb 13, 2019) (nonprecedential).  Writing per curiam, the panel in the February opinion (Judges Lourie, Moore and Reyna) held the patents were for “technological inventions,” and thus were not properly subject to CBM review.  In the two April opinions, overlapping panels (Judges Moore, Mayer and Linn in one and Judges Moore, Clevenger and Wallach in the other) reached the opposite conclusion on different sets of GUI patents.

“Patents for Technological Inventions”

A threshold question for CBM review is whether the patents-in-suit are “patents for technological inventions.   Generally, CBM review is available “a patent that claims a method or corresponding apparatus for performing data processing or other operations used in the practice, administration, or management of a financial product or service…”  America Invents Act, § 18(a)(1)(E).  However, this mechanism comes with an important caveat: “…except that this term does not include patents for technological inventions.”  Id.

The USPTO regulation implementing the “technological invention” exception states that:

In determining whether a patent is for a technological invention solely for purposes of the Transitional Program for Covered Business Methods (section 42.301(a)), the following will be considered on a case-by-case basis: whether the claimed subject matter as a whole recites a technological feature that is novel and unobvious over the prior art; and solves a technical problem using a technical solution.

37 C.F.R. § 42.301(b). In Versata v. SAP, 793 F.3d 1306 (Fed. Cir. 2015), the Federal Circuit criticized the regulation while offering a sliver of guidance.  “In short, neither the statute’s punt to the USPTO nor the agency’s lateral of the ball offer anything very useful in understanding the meaning of the term ‘technological invention,'” the court wrote, concluding that “we agree with the PTAB that this is not a technical solution but more akin to creating organizational management charts.”  Id. at 1326, 1327.  

In a subsequent opinion, the court clarified the regulation as involving a “prong”-type analysis: that is, if a patent fails to meet either the “technological feature” or the “solves a technical problem using a technical solution,” it is not a “technological invention.”  See Apple v. Ameranth, 842 F.3d 1229, 1240 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (���We need not address this argument regarding whether the first prong of 37 C.F.R. § 42.301(b) was met, as we affirm the Board’s determination on the second prong of the regulation—that the claimed subject matter as a whole does not solve a technical problem using a technical solution.”)  The court did not elaborate on the meaning of the “solves a technical problem using a technical solution” language.

Meaning of “solves a technical problem using a technical solution”

The two April TTI v. IBG decisions shed additional light on the meaning of the “technical problem” and “technical solution” prong, drawing a distinction between the practice of a financial product as opposed to a technological invention:

“TT argues the inventions addressed technical problems in the way prior art GUI tools were constructed and operated. It claims the ’999 patent addressed problems related to speed, efficiency, and usability, and the ’056 patent. It claims the ’999 patent addressed problems related to speed, efficiency, and usability, and the ’056 patent addressed problems related to intuitiveness, visualization, and efficiency.”

April 18, 2019 Slip Op. at 8-9.  The Federal Circuit held that this is not a technical solution to a technical problem:

“We agree with the Board that the patents relate to the practice of a financial product, not a technological invention.  The specification states that a successful trader anticipates the market to gain an advantage, ’999 patent at 1:20–26, but doing so is difficult because it requires assembling data from various sources and processing that data effectively, id. at 1:51–54. The invention solves this problem by displaying trading information “in an easy to see and interpret graphical format.” Id. at 2:3–6. The specification makes clear that the invention simply displays information that allows a trader to process information more quickly.”

Ultimately, “This invention makes the trader faster and more efficient, not the computer.  This is not a technical solution to a technical problem.”  April 18, 2019 Slip Op. at 9 (emphasis in original).

Additional language in the opinion reinforces this line between business problems and solutions and technological problems and solutions.  In rejecting a challenge to the PTAB’s decision not to consider the testimony of TTI’s expert, the court wrote “Nothing in his declaration asserts that the claimed interface did anything other than present information in a new and more efficient way to traders. Even if the Board had considered this testimony, it could not have reached a different conclusion.”  April 18, 2019 Slip Op. at 10.  Analyzing another GUI patent, the court stated that providing the trader with information in the claimed manner “is focused on improving the trader, not the functioning of the computer.”

“Indeed, the specification acknowledges that the invention ‘can be implemented on any existing or future terminal with the processing capability to perform the functions described,’ id. at 4:4–6, and ‘is not limited by the method used to map the data to the screen display,’ which ‘can be done by any technique known to those skilled in the art,’ id. at 4:64–67.”

The court’s April 30 opinion, reached the same conclusion on a different patent using similar reasoning.  “Merely providing a trader with new or different information in an existing trading screen is not a technical solution to a technical problem,” the court wrote, before repeating the language about the method focusing on “improving the trader, not the functioning of the computer.”   Apr. 30, 2019 Slip Op. at 7.

One final notable aspect of this set of the opinions: By affirming the PTAB on the second prong of the “technological inventions” regulation, the Federal Circuit avoided needing to address TTI’s argument that “Versata set aside the novelty and nonobviousness language of the first prong of the regulation….”  Apr. 18, 2019 Slip Op. at 8.  That issue remains unsettled.

Patent Eligible Subject Matter

The Federal Circuit affirmed the PTAB on the issue of lack of patent eligible subject matter for all the patents-in-suit in a fairly routine review.  The court conducted the Alice two-stage analysis, concluding that the claims were directed to abstract ideas and did not include an inventive concept.  The most interesting aspect of this component of the court’s analysis is the relationship with the 2017 TTI v. CQG nonprecedential opinion discussed below.

Constitutional Challenges: Not preserved by four sentences

The court declined to address TTI’s constitutional challenges, which consisted of “a total of four sentences in each of its opening briefs” based on “a right to a jury under the Seventh Amendment, separation of powers under Article III, the Due Process Clause, and the Taking Clause.”  “Such a conclusory assertion with no analysis to the underlying challenge is insufficient to preserve the issue for appeal.”  Id.

***

Relationship with Prior Decisions

As I noted at the outset, these opinions represent a counterpoint to the court’s February nonprecedential opinion, although since the April decisions are precedential and the February one was not, there isn’t direct legal tension.

The February opinion involved a review of a set of CBM review PTAB decisions finding that the both the two patents involved an even earlier opinion, Trading Technologies International, Inc. v. CQG, Inc., 675 F. Appx 1001 (Fed. Cir. 2017) (nonprecedential), and two other patents were not “technological inventions” and therefore were subject to CBM; in the subsequent CBM review, the PTAB held that the two patents from TTI v. CQG were directed to patent eligible subject matter but the other two patents were not.  As with the April decisions, all the patents involved GUI claims.

The Federal Circuit reversed as to the institution decision on all four patents.  For the two patents involved in TTI v. CQG, the Federal Circuit reasoned that because the two patents were directed to patent eligible subject matter, they must be “technological inventions.”  For the other two patents, the Federal Circuit reasoned that “because we see no meaningful difference between the claimed subject matter [of the two sets of patents] for purposes of the technological invention question, the same conclusion applies in those cases as well.  (This is puzzling to me, since the PTAB held that the first set of patents were directed to patent eligible subject matter but the second set were not.)

There’s also the tension between the subject matter eligibility determination in TTI v. CQG and the lack of subject matter eligibility determinations in the two April 2019 TTI v. IBG decisions, but I’ll leave that for others to opine on.  The Federal Circuit itself declined TTI’s invitation to get into the specifics of how its April 2019 decisions relate to the earlier decisions:

“TT argues that because nonprecedential decisions of this court held that other TT patents were for technological inventions or claimed eligible subject matter, we should too. We are not bound by non-precedential decisions at all, much less ones to different patents, different specifications, or different claims. Each panel must evaluate the claims presented to it. Eligibility depends on what is claimed, not all that is disclosed in the specification.”

April 18, 2019 Slip Op. at 19.

TTI v. IBG: Federal Circuit clarifies meaning of “technical solution to a technical problem” published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

[thoughtprovoke]

Kroo Ba Nanta was one of the great Lanna Masters of Olden Days, with little known aout his trajectory, except for his great Wicha Phra Rahu, and Mastery of rgw Grimoires of Thai Lanna Sorcery. His Phra Rahu is considered number one Phra Rahu of all time, especially in his hand carved one eyed coconut shell versions (see below picture for classic example). The sale price is to compare what the true price would be on the internet, but because i sometimes hunt things down for bargain prices, i can offer them at Thai People’s local market Price, on the International Scene. This benefits you, if you are of those who trust me and my trajectory, knowledge and judgement in Thai Buddhist Amulets.

The designs and forms and shapes were so many-fold and undocumented, that it is a matter of recognizing the inscriptions or the Muan Sarn powder admixtures, and age, which one has to use in authenticating the Phra Rahu of Kruba Nanta, for example by comparing it with the Pantheon of Phra Rahu from Luang Por Noi

Below; Phra Rahu Long Rak Chart Daeng Kruba Nanta

Below; Phra Rahu Nuea Kala TYa Diaw Gae Luang Por Noi (2 kinds)

  Phra Rahu Luang Por Noi Wat Sri Sa Tong

Below is the famous Pim Sema Glab, which had many forms depending on which artisan made it (various artisans were used), and which was also continued by LP Noi’s apprentice Luang Por Pin, who holds almost equal status in the Wicha Pra Rahu as his Mentor LP Noi

Above; Rahu LP Noi Pim Sema Glab Version 1 the design is highly influenced by Lao Buddhist Artistic influence, dues to most artisans in the area of Wat Sri Sra Tong being Lao Immigrants.

My Conclusion; This amulet is made from one eyed coconut powders with black lacquer, and comes from a top Olden Days Lanna Master of the Caliber of Kroo Ba Noi, Pra Ajarn Pin, Kroo Ba Wang, Kroo Ba Nanta, ‘Kroo Ba Chum, Kroo Ba Nanto….

Which of these Masters one any individual ‘expert’ would allocate this amulet to, would depend on the association and the Gammmagarn Judge in question, making the matter one of opinion based on personal knowledge of the line of amulets.

I myself have given enough time and more than most competition judges, to perform daily study (many hours a day for 25 years), and hence, i make my own conclusions based on my 25 years of study collection and authorship on Thai Buddhist Amulets, in preference to the opinion of another person. I also own a pantheon of amulet catalogues and reference material ranging into the hundreds of books on hundreds of Master Monks and their amulets, and a collection of 15000 amulets in my possession to study, many dozens of which are Ongk Kroo first prize trophy winners. I  believe i do not need to ride on the shoulders of associations to increase or create credibility in my knowledge of amulets, for those who know me and use my services need no convincing.

You decide, just like me, if the amulet appeals to you, and that’s that! As a collector of personal museum of ancient Lanna Artefacts, for me, any item like this is a wonderful addition to my museum and adds sacred protection to my ashram and household.

I am too lazy (actually i am too busy, not lazy), to put in the weights and sizes in the product details, as you can see from the photos how big the amulet is and i send free registered air parcel worldwide so weights don’t matter either with this amulet.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

  A top amulet is a top amulet, and this is visibly such an item, even to the untrained eye. Please read on below the image for my synopsis and philosophy regarding this and other amulets about to begin to populate my personal ‘fair price honest explanation’ amulet shop. In Thailand, there is a large faction of collectors and devotees who collect ancient amulets of authenticity and sacred power, from the category ‘Mai Saap Tee’ (Don’t know maker/origin). Considering nobody knows who made amulets over years old, i find it strange how modern devotees who collect modern era amulets before discovering the love of the study of the truly antique Old Amulet (where the maker is known and published), seem to need to know how made the amulet. in order to revere or apapre4ciate its sacred value and rarity as a collectors item, and cultural value.

I myself am not a type of collector/devotee who needs to know precisely which master made an amulet, rather, am much more interested in its age, authenticity, and sacred power, as well as its historical aspects in magical legendry. and the sacred muan sarn used to make and empower the amulets, as we as the intensive study in close up macro of sacred powders, leaden and metallic amulets, and carved wood, ivory, bone, skin, stone, tooth and horn substances.

I hence consider this amulet to be comparable to those amulets which we revere off the benjapakee family, who nobody knows how made them, for they were made 700 – 1000 years ago, and the only thing that masters is that it is an ancient sacred artifact truly blessed by a Buddhist master of forgotten times. This is what museums find interesting, but what a true devotee of Thai Magical amulets considers to be a highly sacred and collectible item, and which has no need to define its maker. This is a fine ancient amulet of Lanna Origin from what can only be a top Lanna Master Kruba Ajarn, for only such masters could produce an amulet of this quality and power, with such rare authentic Muan Sarn that only the True Tudong Masters can obtain in their jungle wanderings.

Kroo Ba Nanta;

Many people believe that Kroo ba Nanta was the Kroo Ba Ajarn of Luang Por Noi, but this is in fact a myth. Each of these Masters had their own personal Trajectories and their amulets differ in style and empowerment methods.

It would be more accurate to not compare the two, and to see that Kroo Ba Nanta, and Luang Por Noi are equally Meritorious in their Mastery, and were perhaps the greatest Adepts of Wicha Pra Rahu in living memory.

My Guess and Estimation is that the amulet is from Luang Por Noi, using powders from Kroo Ba Nanta, due to the deisgn being influenced by both the Lanna style, the Lao style from which LP Noi’s family ethnicity was derived from, and the style of Phra Rahu design found in nakorn Pathom, which was where Luang Por Noi spent his time as abbot of Wat Sri Sa Tong, desppite being of Lao Lanna Origin. Either way, i myself am proud and happy to keep and study it, and revere it, unntil somebody decides to take ot off my hands as new owner.

The price would be triple on any of my other websites, and i would go certificate it, which i find unecessary after seeing various associations certificate amulets with the name of the wrong maker/monk, and trust my own sturdy and jsudgement much more after my experience with amulet associations.

Below and above;; close up of the easily recognisabele as old naturally aged sacred powders of one eyed coconut powders mixed with black lacquer (Nuea Pong Kluk Rak), which insinuate about 100 years or more since its making.

My customers and followers trust me, and this shop is for them, and the orices are set much lower, for those who do not need all the palaver that is seen in the modern international amulet scene. here is where i post my favourits antique and powerful amulets, at my best prices, for you who know me, and who know to come here, to get the best a,mulets and other Thai magical curios and antiques, at the best price, with less to read, but a much more closer approach to offering amulets in the honest way that i like to express myself with.

To Be honest, i know i can go and have this amulet defined and certificated, and allow its value to multiply tenfold even on the Thai Marketplace, and the greed with all human hearts, even mine makes me want to put this amulet in my other stores, but i promised i would make a special store on my personal Ajarn Spencer HQ website for my friends and trusted customers and followers who have jknown and used my services for yearsm, and have confidence, to be able to obtain some of the best stuff, at the best price i can, and by writing less (tyhan this article) uin each uitem, will be able to offer the amulets cheaper thn any other websites i allow my amulets to be sold on, such as thailand amulets, buddhist amulet and ancient amulet, which require me to spend hours and hours preparing eaqch write-up. This styore will have shorter writeups, but a more direct and straight approach, and eplxain the amulet exactly as i understand it, with no frills.

Phra Rahu Nuea Pong Kala Kluk Rak Old Lanna Amulet Unknown Kruba of Lanna Origin Kroo Ba Nanta was one of the great Lanna Masters of Olden Days, with little known aout his trajectory, except for his great Wicha Phra Rahu, and Mastery of rgw Grimoires of…

[harryandmeghan0-blog]

Techniques for how-to Relax While Panic Moves

New Post has been published on https://harryandmeghan.xyz/techniques-for-how-to-relax-while-panic-moves/

Techniques for how-to Relax While Panic Moves

On-line composition tutors deliver considerable essay examples alongside article format ideas to aid students write an excellent essay. The tips given via the article has to be accurate. You must be clear regarding the purpose of your own essay, suppose you’re writing an essay which has funny components then your essay should contain comical components. In case you are ready to compose an essay for a student, you are able to follow a check list so as to make sure that your article is entirely worth the attempt. Writing a great article is a really dull job for pupils from quite a while, but having the right guidance you are able to accentuate his writeup very easily. Before I finish this record, I need to draw your attention to another vital things which you should have in the rear of your own head whenever you’re composing your article. Today Colleges all around the globe focus vastly on assisting learners to enrich their writing potential. A very easy checklist for writers.

Not everyone has the opportunity for learning that is higher.

When you observe an illustration of the complaint notice that’s just negativism and plenty of four- letter phrases, it is necessary that you question more regarding the letter writer when compared with the authentic problem. Properly, https://www.paper-help.us/ the very best advice should be to compose a superb cover letter. Here are a number of examples of the grievance correspondence which gets outcomes. Exactly the same holds true for the official correspondence. Do not decrease your also probabilities of getting an internship as you neglected to just take some moment to create reduced quality notice. The facilitators of the college come through countless applications for a quite few places and to be able to obtain a exceptional favorable reply, one ought to undergo a Teacher Resume Cover Letter Example to assemble a notice that’s different from the others. Write each notice as in case that it is the lone internship that you’d like instead of being very common.

This may build your tutoring resume and help you get a paying job later.

Your accomplishments must be thoroughly clarified in an approach that will immediately capture the attention of your own company. Composing essays is really a skill several us have overlooked. After you’ve shortened your Subject, you happen to be heading to desire to set an intention for your own essay. Utilize the precise guidelines and syntax that you simply’d if you had been writing an internet article. No matter your objective, only carry on writing. The moment you’ve this article, you should begin creating your loveletter. As this writeup is only about how you can begin writing great English compositions, let’s today dive directly into that. Studying a correspondence is similar to seeing your self through the opinion of the others. Utilize the appropriate format of notice writing.

Notices are supplied and work is separated for every single time.

For instance the sayings used within a friendly letter should differ from that utilized in an established correspondence because both letters are actually maybe not the quite same. If you’re an adult and require to enrich your hand writing, it may possibly be done. Your recommender will likely appreciate the followup, and you may rest easy knowing your words are becoming completed. This may definitely assist provide a good voice in your composing. Though the conclusion is clear-cut and can really be reached in two or three sentences, it is an extremely vital facet of your article which you ought not to ignore. The guidelines are only one facet of the use with no term limit, so care must certanly be given to guarantee you make the upper limit of this precious possibility. There are just three principal strategies to write a compound word. Moreover, training creating some easy phrases.

[timmynthnblg]

How to Find a Powerful Online Therapy For Anorexia

You can employ our composing solutions to learn more regarding any of it. There are just a few good controversial issues that might be published readily on. Furthermore, they will want to be adept in modes of on-line communication because so most careers utilize and call for comprehension of their web and social media marketing.

There isn’t any way to spell out the feelings you go through whenever you eliminate your residence. Remember, the types of keys that you share ought to be determined by the form of man or woman that you are sharing it with. One particular other important problem is always to prepare well once you realize a lot about the subject.

If in the decision of this time you’re still unwilling to create a go of itayouare fireda (172-173). Eventually, everyone is happy. Make certain anybody that you meet now is going to obtain the feeling that you’re ordinarily excellent.

Gossip, Lies and Child Abuse Essay

The further you educate us regarding your requirements, the more greater essay help we’ll be in a posture to offer. This is a awful choice in topic. In every paragraph of the individual anatomy of the essay, you may begin by writing an issue sentence.

How to Write an Essay

The thesis outlines the principal idea of the entire essay. Just like any students, the perfect essay subjects will be the https://grademiners.com/blog/how-to-prepare-an-annotated-bibliography ones that are related solely to the children. The essay is just a succinct article with 150-250 phrases.

MoralityThroughout the story, it seems that Hassan had an ingrained understanding of astronomy. To me peace is an excellent thing to need for.

How to Find the Most Out of Your Education

Sadly, there are way too many women and men who may be in a position to put the topic of household bond to rest before it starts. Inch debate that’s current from the U S A could be the rate lodging is going up from the USA. So in case you have a address coming up on your class and care to communicate on several fascinating topics, you have come to the correct place.

Kids and Animal Care

Such a thing inside this world can be recovered by means of the Internet today. It’s no real surprise then it really is among those themes that’s massively debated by persons across the globe. From time to time, individuals act irrational when that occurs.

It really is the fact which makes in conclusion of Toy Story 3, at which in fact the toys behave as the belongings of a different child, ” a ahappya ending. It is essential a youngster learns ancient which the planet doesn’t revolve round him and additionally aids the little one learn that individuals reside in a cosmopolitan society full of numerous exceptional types of individuals. When kids start visiting school, enjoy at nursery school, it’s the ideal time to receive started teaching them to the optimal/optimally method to care for his or her possessions.

How to Make an Effective Speech

Having said this, here are quite a couple of topics on mathematics it is potential to extract information around, and offer your address on… Health may be your secret to delight in life, and each of that comprises it. Psychological research also has aided in drug development and also the capacity to diagnose numerous conditions ( like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s). Currently talking about Cause and Impact Issues Once you write on such issues, it’s not mandatory to go over the causes and effects at 1 writeup.

There’s no dispute about the good use of the internet. It’s often regarded that gender education isn’t taken seriously. Prevention and efficient assistance when abuse is seen is also very important for your own little one’s health.

It’s possible to become based around the allow you to get. When armed with birth control goods, persons however involve instruction how best to make use of them accurately. Usually, the individual actions in learning how to write and read have to get educated instead of trusting that the kid simply to choose up them, like the vast majority of other kiddies to.

The Key to Successful Child Abuse Essay

By way of illustration, look at how the subsequent statement impacts a listener. Immediate consequences have mental illnesses in a reaction to any or all sorts of aggression, especially sexual. It might speculate impacts in the future, or provide your private opinion of one of the absolute most essential influence.

Loads of research has obtained and also can be occurring about the basis for dyslexia and it appears that mental performance of some people that have dyslexia functions differently to those without. Mind mapping makes it feasible to receive all your ideas down on paper within a typical page visual that helps you grasp all the various connections in perspective. The fundamental element of such a speech is advice, also this also highlights the significance of an exhaustive study concerning this issue that’s been decided on to be exhibited in the address.

Practice our counsel and you’re going to have a few of the maximum essays on child-abuse really shortly. Hence no youngster suffers in silence. It’s not expected you are very likely to address the matter of child abuse in your article, therefore bear that in mind when arranging your leadership.

Black men want to become ready to learn they will have only 1 mum, and if they become adult, then it’s not possible for them to depend on a woman to be always a nanny, but a help-mate. Defending yourself by simply attacking fundamentally means you’re trying to injure the other man the precise same way that they’re trying to injure you. In case you’ve discovered that nothing appears to do the job foryou as well as your child then do not hesitate to obtain external aid.

Exactly What Are the Benefits of Working?

Henry Ford detected this in the start of twentieth century if his staff couldn’t afford to get the item they ended up making. It truly is reasonable to indicate that a single drunken pedestrian on the avenue, could ultimately cause the passing of a whole minibus cab or bus packed with guests. On visiting only one business of the item, kiddies have an impulse to own it.

It’s the viewer and also even the reader that must be given the capability of earning the last conclusion on such theme. The essential portion of this a language would be information, and this also highlights the significance of a thorough study regarding this issue that is chosen to be exhibited from the address. In a exploratory paper, you are requested to check past the obvious answers so as to discover different points of opinion that you could at times support in solving the issue.

Source:http://alivecanada.com/the-honest-to-goodness-truth-on-childabuseessay/

from Brian Greathouse Alive Canada https://briangreathousealivecanada.wordpress.com/2018/01/13/the-honest-to-goodness-truth-on-childabuseessay/

[cinnamona-blog1]

Tesla Code Secrets Review System Plan - Rip off or reputable

Underneath you will identify our accomplish writeup on the ReviewsMagz Tesla Code Secrets Reviews. As always, we are going to commence with a quick overview of the Tesla Code Secrets Video by Alex West, continue explanations about its main pluses and minuses, and throughout the last sentences summarize every little thing you should bear in mind when making your selection when it comes to Alex West’s personal-guidance procedure. Generic Overview Of The Tesla Code Secrets Review Created by Alex West, who would an in-range investigate what helps make successful persons successful and why most people crash, Tesla Code Secrets Video is truly an informative e-book made up of information about how to find whatever you want in your life more beneficial job opportunity, far more powerful romantic relationships, success, great health, and so forth - with the help of your mindful care gain access to the “core.” The total strategy requires just ten minutes each and every day for 18 weeks. The Way It Works Alex states Nikola Tesla , a Serbian-Us citizen physicist and inventor, believes there’s a key on the World during which we receive boundless reason, knowledge, and strength. We could transfer our hopes to the essential having our aware care, and so the center creates it for individuals and post it time for us. Alex proceeded to describe the Two times Slit Test by Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D. From the research, physicists blaze electrons at two openings within the hurdle. Responsible for the boundary with two slits is yet another buffer, which reports where electrons slammed. tesla code pdf theoretically shows which the mere observing of electrons, without any subsequent presumptions of the things the end result must really be, transformations the world. However when they recorded the play with it, the electrons acted just how the physicists assumed them to act. What Alex West wished to say is this : our conscious thoughts are attached to the world. It could actually have an effect on, as well as have power over, the earth around the quantum point. This allows us to twist reality to show itself our needs. How can the Tesla Code Secrets eBook guide? The what is tesla code consists of 18 sessions. Within the, you’ll discover ways to imagine what you would like with purpose and expand your concerned thoughts if you want to concentrate on the final result. These will allegedly get the key create your demands available for you. In keeping with Alex, a number of the advantages of using the Tesla Code Secrets Experiences encompass: Better visualizing Photo memory space Make sure it is easy for you to concentrate on your goal Cover by yourself from your influence of many people Stop mild health conditions along with system pains Have the capability to control other people Additionally, it is vital to point out that these bonuses are built into every buying of the free tesla code secrets: 1. The Success Compendium that has Napoleon Hill’s Success Philosophies, Assume and Improve High, additionally, the Guidelines of Success. 2. The strength of Understanding review, the place you will understand how to replace your perspective in order to get get rid of self-reducing belief systems, which interfere with the Tesla Code… The Main Pros And Cons Of Tesla Code Secrets Download by Alex West The Points We Liked Strengthens the correct Way of thinking for Success Switching our idea functions will never be as simple as it appears. The way you believe is relying on our experiences from childhood as high as the current. And also as all advisors know, any person must have the ideal way of thinking to quickly attain success in regardless of element of his or her life. Thanks to the tesla code secrets pdf free download, priming your head for success does not needs to be very difficult. Simple to grasp and Convenient Alex West outlined everything in his advice in more detail by using straight forward tongue. You do not do you need a magnitude in science and other research-connected trainings to make sure you comprehend the aspects of his training course and use them for everything you are interested in: more effective spending duty, more potent working relationships, a lot better physical health, a higher price, and the like. Doesn’t Consume A Lot Of Time If you’re a timely visitor, you’d perhaps wrap up looking through everything in one hour or a reduced amount of. Imagining your goals and objectives or expectations would likely have around 2 to a few minutes. That’s not a lot of time, best suited? Despite the fact that you’re a lively man, we’re of course you are able to devote that time period, in particular when this in essence means possessing what you have without exception wished for Nikola Tesla. Seems to Deliver the results Depending on the attainable client testimonials from the internet, apparently the Tesla Code Secrets Protocol by Alex West does help many folks, especially in regards to responsibilities and finances. Needless to say, the only way to be sure if it genuinely matches your needs is generally to check it out personally.

Sixty-Period Return Assure Alex West means you can check out is tesla code secrets pdf free download for 2 weeks. As soon as you do not get even each of your simple and easy dreams after only that period, or you will just don’t love this particular instruction for reasons unknown, Alex declares he is prepared to give back once again every single dime you committed. This is certainly an excellent appeal, making the Tesla Code Secrets Download a risk-cost-free idea. Capability Disadvantages Will take Your 100% Resolve Don’t waste your cash with this if you happen to don’t wish to follow-through. The most crucial information just needs all over 20 to 25 a matter of minutes to learn and the other 3 a few minutes to visualize what you are looking. If you feel that is a lot of time for you, it is wise to omit this. Complicated-Imitate Model is not really Out there We think eBooks are sensible, given that you can obtain them locally to your touch screen phone or home pc and browse the content everywhere, everytime. However, if you happen to even so want a physiological reserve, you will possess no variety but to make the full instruction you. A conclusion And Ultimate Thinkings So, is going to be tesla code secrets pdf free download seriously worth investigating? To tell the truth, the method of Tesla Code Secrets Benefits by Alex West personal-benefit training course is not specific, at the least for people. Alex just shown it in a different way and put in new things. The manifestation tactic differs from the rest, nevertheless. We have to concede we love that it is simple to realize and apply almost everything suggested in this particular handbook. You only need 3 to 5 minutes every single day to visualize just what you need, and then we never assume anyone’s so hard-working that he or she doesn’t have a few minutes to devote. Of course, it’s imperative to continue to keep a wide open spirit if you are planning to use this out. Place your reservations concerning the to return burner in avoiding sabotaging your prospects. Remember that there is next to nothing supernatural to the tesl code secrets download, and what you are looking will not just show up due to thin oxygen. In most cases, we feel the most unfortunate product which could transpire shortly after utilizing this tips guide is you’ll end up with a much better state of mind. Tesla Code Secrets Guide will enable you to enjoy a clearer perception on what you ought to do in order to have your goals and objectives, and you will sense a great deal more dynamic, also. Altogether, if you have utilized other manifestation e-books and did not get what you need, or if perhaps you only desire to modify your way of thinking to realize success in every factor of your lifestyle, then an tesla code free download is utterly actually worth looking into. Nevertheless, Alex will refund your finances given that it’s however in the two-calendar month reimburse time frame when it doesn’t live up to your anticipations, so there is no financial risk in delivering his regimen a go. Efficiently, that is all for right away. Hopefully this ReviewsMagz Tesla Code Secrets Reviews was beneficial to you, and therefore we intend you with a improved wellbeing, money, and connections.

[smoothshift]

A review no one cares about: 18 months and 20k miles in a boosted BMW via /r/cars

A review no one cares about: 18 months and 20k miles in a boosted BMW

To skip the preamble and get straight to my ownership impressions, please scroll to the break below.

About a year and a half ago, I found myself on the hunt for a new (and my first "serious") vehicle. Now, I'm sure most of us on this sub are in some sort of perpetual state of window shopping for their next set of wheels and I am no different, but this time I was shopping with the intent to purchase. As such, I had doubled my research efforts trying to find the "perfect" car.

Being a younger man, I opted to sacrifice practicality for fun; my previous cars included an incredibly sporty B5.5 VW Passat with a 1.8 liter turbo'd 4-banger. While it wasn't fast per se, it was plenty quick to get me in trouble (it never happened, knock on wood). It also provided me with a platform that was ripe for tuning, and would prove to be my first exposure to car modification. With a mild tune (APR), the car really livened up and sparked something in me; I wanted every car from this point forward to be modified to reach its full potential.

After a number of years, my circumstances changed and I found having a vehicle to be impractical, so I let the Passat go. Fortunately, after only a very brief time spent as a carless shell of a human being, I found myself in a B6 Audi A4. Similar deal, mild tune, slightly lowered, etc. (I still maintain that this body style and interior was timeless, it really held up well over the years). After several more years of happy ownership, I finally landed a proper "adult" job with a paycheck to match. Naturally, my thoughts turned to the Audi which, at this point, had accumulated in excess of 190k miles. So I started to do what I did best: Window shop.

Initially, I wanted to stay in an Audi. I really liked their interiors, and I was familiar with the company as a whole. I started to look at the S4 (B8, with the 3.0 supercharged 6) but quickly found that they held their value well, even at higher mileage. Couple this with the fact that finding a manual was impossible and the fact that early DSG units had issues, I had to scratch the idea.

M-cars and P-cars were out of budget unless I wanted one that had been treated poorly, so I started to broaden my search. I was acutely aware of the fact that Asian makes had a huge aftermarket support, but having been spoiled by the Audi I couldn't overlook the plastic interiors. So I turned to the American manufacturers in the hopes that the cheap power offered by their cars could sway me over. I really liked the new Mustang that had just come out, and the Camaro has looked good to me since I first saw it in the Transformers movie. And yet, there was a problem: having lived near military bases my whole life, I couldn't shake the feeling that these cars were more common than Honda Civics, mostly because they were. You can certainly customize it to your heart's desire, but at the end of the day, you still have the same car as 50 other people in as many miles.

So the hunt was on for something unique, something that very few people had heard of. Ironically enough, I found it in the parking lot of the local Hyundai dealer as I drove by; a flash of blue from the back corner of the used car lot caught my eye, so I turned around and laid eyes on my car. It had a short wheelbase, aggressive camber and a snout that only a mother would love; it was the 135i. From the moment I sat behind the wheel, I was in love. Everything was where it should be, the seats were comfortably bolstered, the steering wheel felt great, and perhaps best of all, there was no stupid in-dash screen. It was a sports car, as simple as it could get.

Taking it for a test drive was a blast. The car had incredible road feel and the steering response and feedback blew my old German tugboat out of the water. And the power...! 3 liters of twin-turbo'd goodness was enough to make me cackle like a fool. It was at this moment I fully understood where the BMW-driver stereotype came from; the car made me feel like anything was possible, I had only to plant my foot and I could feel myself elevate to immortal status. Okay, that's a bit dramatic, but doubling the power of my daily felt incredible.

So I bought it. Mileage on the odometer: 37k. Price out the door: Just shy of $18k. Not bad for a car that retailed at $52k.

So after 20k miles, how have things held up? Simply put, remarkably. For being the hallmark of unreliability, the N54 engine has been absolutely stalwart for me. After owning the car for a bit, that old spark pushed me to mess with things a bit, so I started with an intake and JB4 piggyback tuner. That led itself to downpipes, charge pipe, blow off valve and a backend ECU flash which is how the car sits now. All said and done, I've been running nearly double the factory boost for a year now. Certainly, parts are more expensive that others, but if you shop smart there are deals a-plenty. When I bought the car, I told myself that I would use it as a vehicle to teach myself how to wrench, and I've stayed true to that as much as possible. With the exception of tires, I've done all the work myself in my home garage and have accumulated quite the collection of tools in the process all while keeping expenses down. Coming up on 60k, there are some weak points in the engine, namely the water pump/thermostat. I'm planning on preemptively replacing both shortly. Additionally, the valve train is due for a walnut blasting (one of the curses of direct injection), something that I'll probably have to have done.

For those that argue that BMW ownership is expensive, my classic case is when I redid the valve cover gasket. Just for grins, I got a price quote from the dealership to the tune of $1k. The gasket itself was $50 and required 3 hours of sweat on my end. So, yes, owning a higher mileage BMW can be expensive if you make it that way. Granted, this approach isn't for everyone, and I understand the limitations that different situations place on owners. I'm very fortunate in that I'm able to pursue my passion in my own garage.

This writeup wouldn't be complete without a word to ownership culture, and what I mean by that is how people treat me when they see a young guy in a fast eurocar. There is no denying that I catch a LOT of flak for this. The number of times I've heard something to the extent of "parents must love you" or some other implication that I didn't work my ass off to get the car is astronomically absurd. People see the Roundel and automatically assume that the car is expensive, and to be fair it was when it was new. I've had conversations with friends who dropped nearly $30k for a loaded econobox who still think I paid double that for my car. They simply cannot believe that my car cost less than theirs.

Now, the ultimate thing, do I let it bother me? Mostly no. I'm able to shrug or laugh off most stuff, but there are times it really wears on me. I don't make it a point to be a douche and I don't go out of my way to tell people I drive a Bimmer, but people love to rag on the car even after I've explained exactly what it is that I love about my car. The conclusion I've come to: Dicks will be dicks, and there is nothing I or anyone else can do about it, so I don't let it bother me.

Conversely, those who know what the 1-er is generally get excited when they see my car. In my current city, there are only 3 other 135is that I know of. I can count all of them that I have seen total on two hands, so it really fit the "unique car" bill. The styling isn't for everyone, but it has really grown on me. Plenty of people have asked me what exactly I drive, as they haven't ever heard of the 1-series. Sure, there are some rock chips and scrapes here and there, but she still cleans up really nicely.

Moving forward, my plan is to continue to full bolt-on status and then look at aftermarket turbos. The goal is to have a reliable 500 horsepower daily driver that I can take to the track and tour the country.

I can almost guarantee that nobody cares about the opinions of a stranger on the internet (and I can guarantee less will have read this far), but this is beyond question the best car that I have ever driven and I love sharing my enthusiasm with others. Thanks for reading!

http://ift.tt/2va4etw

[junker-town]

One potential NCAA transfer rule could be great. The other ... we'll see

Some of these ideas would help athletes. Some of them might hurt them.

The web of NCAA rules that governs athletic transfers is complicated, but the basics are simple.

A football player who wants to transfer from one school to another needs his previous school to release him from his scholarship, or he can’t get an athletic scholarship at his new school. (For many, that’s a de-facto restriction on transferring at all.) If a player gets that release, he needs to sit out one season before resuming his eligibility clock and playing career — unless he’s finished with his undergraduate degree, in which case he can play immediately.

There are exceptions piled on exemptions piled on loopholes, because that’s how the NCAA’s bureaucracy works. But some changes might be on the horizon.

The good: An NCAA working group might take some power from schools.

NCAA decision-makers tend to make decisions that benefit themselves more than the athletes. The biggest example is that players don’t get paid. And colleges have the power to deny transferring players scholarships anywhere else.

Most teams don’t. Restrictions on specific transfer destinations are common, though, like when teams tell departing athletes they can go anywhere except to a conference rival or a team on the schedule in the next two years.

Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder recently tried to block 35 schools from a player’s transfer list, and that was extraordinary enough that Snyder took public heat and relented. Blocking a player altogether would be a PR nightmare, and schools usually decide that such an approach isn’t worthwhile.

On Wednesday, the NCAA’s Division I Council Transfer Working Group said it doesn’t think schools should be able to hit players with a scholarship stick:

One of the ideas posed is to modify permission to contact rules. Currently, Division I college athletes who wish to transfer to another school must first receive permission from their current school to talk with other schools about opportunities for transferring. If the school denies permission, the student-athlete can’t receive athletics aid after transferring.

Group members believe financial aid should not be tied to whether a school grants permission to contact. They want to know if others in the membership feel the same way. The group also agreed that enhancements should be made to the formal process students use to notify a school of their desire to transfer. The group will seek input from the membership on appropriate enhancements.

If the rest of the DI Council gets behind the idea, your program might not be able to tell a player where he can’t get a scholarship.

The panel also supports the “ongoing review” of conference transfer rules. Leagues often have their own policies, and they can sometimes be excuses for athletic departments to treat athletes in ways that don’t serve athletes.

The potentially bad: Graduate transfers becoming more complicated.

The NCAA’s grad transfer exception is a good thing. When players graduate, they don’t need to sit out a season before transferring.

Some athletic directors and coaches don’t like this rule, because it makes it harder for them to retain players.

It doesn’t sound, according to the NCAA’s writeup of the panel’s conclusions, like that policy will change — at least not at the moment. The committee “generally agreed that immediate eligibility for students competing after graduation is appropriate now,” the NCAA said. Read whatever you will into the word “now.”

But the committee does seem receptive to other changes. It wants to “identify additional methods” to hold schools “accountable” for the academic progress of players who come onboard as graduate transfers.

That sounds terrific, in theory. If you want college athletes to be students, too, policies that force them to go to class and pass their credits are good.

But these rules can be messy. Ex-Notre Dame quarterback Malik Zaire will play for Florida this season as a grad transfer, but he almost wasn’t able to because of an SEC rule that punished Florida for two previous grad transfers not doing well in classes. (UF wasn’t supposed to be allowed to have graduate transfers this season as a result.)

On the one hand, maybe Florida deserved punishment for not getting its players through school. But on the other, Zaire didn’t deserve to be punished, too.

We don’t know what “accountability” mechanisms would look like. But it’s impossible not to worry that they’d come down on athletes as much as schools.

A few other possible reforms are in play, including one idea to make transfer rules uniform across all sports. (They’re currently not.) The timetables for these possible changes are not yet clear.