hed-isidro

[hed-isidro]

You were born with the unique power to see the most interesting "stat" of a person floating over their head. For most, it's stuff like "TIMES WON GAMES OF POKER: 43," or "PROMISES BROKEN: 105." Today, you glance up at someone sitting nearby to see "EXTRATERRESTRIALS KILLED: 27."

[hed-isidro]

The psychic races of the galaxy thought humans would be easy prey. That is, until they abducted you, an unmedicated ADHD college student.

[hed-isidro]

[hed-isidro]

the scarlet witch yearns for multibabies

You and your partner can’t conceive a baby, so you go to the local MultiBabies, where the staff trawl the multiverse for one where you did have a baby but was somehow orphaned, so they are plucked from that universe and brought to you to raise as your own.

[hed-isidro]

a list of 100+ buildings to put in your fantasy town

academy

adventurer's guild

alchemist

apiary

apothecary

aquarium

armory

art gallery

bakery

bank

barber

barracks

bathhouse

blacksmith

boathouse

book store

bookbinder

botanical garden

brothel

butcher

carpenter

cartographer

casino

castle

cobbler

coffee shop

council chamber

court house

crypt for the noble family

dentist

distillery

docks

dovecot

dyer

embassy

farmer's market

fighting pit

fishmonger

fortune teller

gallows

gatehouse

general store

graveyard

greenhouses

guard post

guildhall

gymnasium

haberdashery

haunted house

hedge maze

herbalist

hospice

hospital

house for sale

inn

jail

jeweller

kindergarten

leatherworker

library

locksmith

mail courier

manor house

market

mayor's house

monastery

morgue

museum

music shop

observatory

orchard

orphanage

outhouse

paper maker

pawnshop

pet shop

potion shop

potter

printmaker

quest board

residence

restricted zone

sawmill

school

scribe

sewer entrance

sheriff's office

shrine

silversmith

spa

speakeasy

spice merchant

sports stadium

stables

street market

tailor

tannery

tavern

tax collector

tea house

temple

textile shop

theatre

thieves guild

thrift store

tinker's workshop

town crier post

town square

townhall

toy store

trinket shop

warehouse

watchtower

water mill

weaver

well

windmill

wishing well

wizard tower

[hed-isidro]

Basically Haplos

You're the healer of the group. The rest of the party has always treated you like you're made of glass. You were content to stay out of their way and let them do their thing. Until they all got downed leaving you the only one standing. That's when you show them how deadly healing magic can be.

[hed-isidro]

Somehow, some way, a human managed to acquire both a pomegranate from the underworld and fruit from the realm of the Fae, then made a smoothie out of them. Now, Hades and the Fae are in a fierce argument regarding who the human belongs to.

[hed-isidro]

[hed-isidro]

Talking about Belgians like how people talk about bisexuals.

[hed-isidro]

fuck

[hed-isidro]

saket sa ulo

[hed-isidro]

ayoko na po

[hed-isidro]

[hed-isidro]

The Obscure Ecosystem of Social Media

by Hedrian Isidro

Technology, if not used responsibly, can turn out to be a paradox by making life easier at a cost. In this sense, social media’s purpose is to facilitate communication and information access, but this does not exclude the inaccurate and misleading ones, which can be extremely perilous. This leads us to the terms fake news, misinformation, and disinformation, all of which are part of social media’s malicious side effects that are currently on the horizon. Fake news is false information made to appear as true according to the publisher’s intent. It is known to be associated with the two more terms: misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation refers to information that is implicitly misleading yet unintentional while disinformation is deliberate and therefore more straightforward.

Fake news has become a global concern, and this has been highlighted during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, when misinformation carried on along with the public health crisis, spreading as the coronavirus did. It was a time when information was critical, but otherwise went out of hand. This can confuse citizens; moreover, the dangers that await can go as far as physical affliction. There are several factors in play that could affect someone’s vulnerability to the trap of false information. Aside from instances when facts get overpowered by unsupported falsehoods, personal biases can get in the way because the effectiveness of deceptive data relies on the emotional response that it evokes. Consequently, information that agrees with the person’s presumptions, beliefs, values, and anything familiar to them is a lot less likely to be questioned, embracing it as a result, and making it almost irreversible at that. Another stimulus that contributes to this problem is the lack of awareness, which is the reason why most individuals could not distinguish fake news from those that are credible. Clues typically lie within the news piece itself, but when analyzing either fake news, misinformation, or disinformation, the focus is ideally on the publisher, hence why fake news is made to satisfy their objective.

Information has been an everyday necessity through and through, it’s influence is powerful and far-reaching. But now we are facing a lethal crisis regarding it, which even escalated to such an extent that it has been identified by the World Economic Forum as one of human society’s major threats. The bigger solution would require radical approaches coming from various disciplines such as behavioral science, linguistics, computer science, and mathematics. But even so, it all comes down to how intelligently and critically we perceive the information we encounter, and once we learn how to filter out lies and delusions, getting misled is going to be the last thing we would fear to happen.

[hed-isidro]

Sinigang: A Fate as Sour as the Dish

Photo by ph.phonebooky.com

"I'm sorry." those were the last words that Liza's father uttered before Sinigang by Marie Aubrey J. Villaceran ends, it may only look like two words, but imagine everything it took him to realize the consequences of his choice to commit adultery.

Liza surely wasn't the only one, there have been so many Lizas in this world, or better yet, Liza is the representative of everyone whose parents left them for somebody else.

Just like how the song by Dua Lipa goes, "Am I falling in love with the one that could break my heart?" Well, if you could only peek into the future between you and your date. But that, my friends is impossible, that's the truth and only time will tell.

Going back to Sinigang, Liza suffered from the crumbled relationship between her and her Dad which made a huge impact on her. As for her Dad, he then had to shoulder the regret, guilt, and shame, and it wouldn't have to happen if it weren't for the adultery he committed.

Sinigang is not just a short story, it's a life lesson. And it does the thing for us, it shows us the sour fate Liza’s Dad met that we may hopefully never see it unfold in our own lives. Instead, why don’t you take a slurp of the nice and hot sinigang soup? I mean, it’s better than adultery, isn’t it? But please, please, please never leave your lover for someone who’s better at cooking sinigang, I beg you.

[hed-isidro]

The Marvelous Aesthetic brought to you by Literary Visuals

Photo by Josefina Miranda from Pexels

Yeah, reading sure is cool; for some reason, it transports you to a whole new dimension and leaves you lost in your imagination, that is until you get lowkey sad after finishing the whole book or whatever you fancy. But sometimes, our imagination gets into its faulty and cranky phase and it just wouldn’t work, we fail to picture or fathom what the text is saying, that sometimes leaves us with “I wish there was a way to know what’s on the author’s mind.” Well thanks to illustrations, you now can.

Just lemme introduce to you the HOLY TRINITY of picture-smothered literature; Manga, Doodle Fiction, and Graphic Novels have been the most game-changing breakthroughs of literature, times came for these to reach their peak and move the masses due to popularity. Why? because they have images! Such element really adds some flavor and life to what you’re reading, the experience is somewhat similar to watching a film as long as you back it up with your imagination.

Each of these have suited the taste of different people, those who still like to read novels but want to get a peek at the scene without seeing too much images are after Doodle Fiction which is still text-based but shows doodles every 3-6 pages. Another similar approach are the Graphic Novels; as vibrant as comic books and as long as novels, these have become favorites of many especially when all kids had were toys and TV’s, the pages are totally comprised of comic strips, ditching the long narrative text and focuses on visuals and the characters’ dialogues. And for the weebs out there... well, you know what I’m talking about -Manga! This is where the enthusiasm of you guys started, most of the anime that you have dedicated hours for originated from Manga. Though it’s no different from the Graphic Novels, its versatility when it comes to genres has brought up fanatic domains and cultures that ignited movements from many parts of the globe.

Whichever we prefer among these three, we can all agree with the fact that the incorporation of images to literature was a world-changing feat and became an equally essential element to the content as well, so if a mere piece of text could make us joyfully dazed, I’m sure that illustrations can amplify the experience a hundred times more.