#<- this is for classification reasons okay? I'm not writing it okay?!

[hms-tardimpala]

@hurdygurdywizard you asked me to say more, and it got out of hand and way too big for the comment section so here's what I wrote:

But Wiz, if I say more it's going to become tangible and I'm scared I'll write it! I have a thing for sad gay stories set in the trenches of WW1, that's a fact. I've read and written some stuff, and I am not entirely devoid of knowledge, it's true. So, just for the fun of kicking the ball around:

the front of WW1 is perfect for exploring several themes. I can subtitute class divide (private/officer) for the angel/human dynamic, for ex

the trenches are a place where (gay) men are taken away from the heterosexual society and expectations that weighed on them (such as marriage) and at the same time driven to the human extremes in a homosociety where everything hinges on repression (of the self, of trauma, of pain, of FREE WILL)

Cas can be landed gentry escaping a marriage of convenience and given an officer rank because of his social rank/his father's status (his father is of course a very intimidating and god-like figure) despite not having the skills (Dean despises him)

Dean can be a lower-class man enlisting for a steady pay/to escape an abusive father/to protect his absolutist little brother. He throws himself into the war with skill and rage to stop himself from thinking too much about ~things~ but it only make him more Not Okay. His superiors take advantage of his skill to use him for increasingly dangerous missions (a parallel between one officer in particular and John Winchester could be made here) but his constant covering for his brother/the rule violation he has to engage in to protect him keep him well in the lower ranks.

this is as close to fitting in Dean has ever been, and yet he could be shot at the first sign of desire for another man. He happens to be surrounded by men, bonding with them, and goig through the most harrowing things possible with them.

thanks to his brother being the breadwinner before the war, Sam was able to stay in school and educate himself longer. He has political beliefs, refuses to die in a war for his government and tries to convince other soldiers they don't have to. His letters home (to Jess? Eileen?) are systematically censored.

queer desire everywhere, slow burn possible and even mandatory

I can be as french about it as I bloody want!!!

the only issue is the female characters, but I can use what little there are to give a perspective on how things are at home, and the role women have to take on during the war, with burgeonning women's rights ideas.

preliminary inspiration sources: Maurice, How Many Miles to Babylon, the Absolutist, the british poets of the Lost Generation.

Shit! I REFUSE to write it! I'm good at concepts, but not at writing, and I would never finish it! AFDHMJKHKhji

[just-b-wilde]

What do you think of Elly's orientation? Do you think she's bisexual or transsexual?

To be honest, this is a topic I didn't want to get into. But okay, I'll write my opinion.

I don't see it that way. But... I don't have enough information, because what was in the movie can be interpreted in many ways. I really don't want to second-guess anyone's orientation. The only thing I'm sure of is that Rachel had a close relationship with Aidan and that's all I care about.

For those who want to read more, I'll add a few of my observations.

The story gave us a few pieces, but far from the whole picture.

First thing: Spies lie. Spies pretend. Could she have faked a flirtation with Saba Al-Badr or another woman in the past for her own purposes? Yeah, I have absolutely no doubt about that. Did I get the feeling she cared? Actually, no.

Okay, she may be bisexual, but she also has a partner. Or I don't know that the definition of bisexuality would be that a person cheats on their partner and has a relationship with everyone around them. I think Elly has shown us that she's a very faithful person.

Second thing: Yes, she wrote about her life and used the male character Argylle to do so. She also saw Aidan as Argylle. What does it mean? Literally anything or nothing.

Her mind was very confused and manipulated. I will definitely not take this as evidence of any orientation or gender classification. She had no idea it was about her. Her life as Elly was made up just as they needed and Vogler did the groundwork for her book. She just added bits and pieces of her memories. I think a lot of things were edited (for the needs of the book, what she felt was right to put in the story). Which was also said and shown in the movie, that it could have looked completely different.

And yes, Rachel had a job that is not typical for women. She could kick a lot of asses. And I think that proves she's a real badass.

And one last thing: Why were Argylle and Wyatt portrayed as friends even though Elly and Aidan were lovers? Well, that's pretty easy for me too. I think Aidan and Rachel tried to keep their relationship a secret because they knew it was dangerous to have someone close to them at their work. And while probably Division suspected about their relationship, I don't think they wanted her to remember her close relationship with him (for many reasons).

Also, I think Vogler was the main creator of the idea that a woman would not be able to be as strong as a man and therefore it is impossible for "Agrylle" to be portrayed as a woman. Again, it could be risky for their plans. She wanted Elly to feel weak because she knew how strong she really was.

Besides, it would have spoiled the main surprise of the movie. So, that's it. There are just so many interpretations. And this is mine.

[broodingheroine]

tmagp thoughts (this will be pure nonsense I just need to write it down)

alice is so tim coded

obviously there's a connection anyone can make to the multiple statements abt urban exploration/spelunking in tma and the redcanary forum thread.... it invites the horrors (connection to danny?)

gwen is a ✨️bouchard✨️ (implication that while its a parallel universe the same ppl still exist? supports possibility of spelunking forum thread connecting to danny somehow (not actually super sold on that but seen a lot of ppl mention it so))

colin is definitely going to succumb to the horrors :/ (either first to die OR..... this universes version of an avatar?)

CHESTER AND NORRIS!!!

I'm of the firm opinion that they're jmart BUT! but but but! I do believe they're echoes of who they were, this just so happens to be Somewhere Else.

also! yes I understand that we most likely will Not get any tma characters in any meaningful way in tmagp, however I also believe that alex and jonny couldve very easily.... not...... voiced the text to speeches....... like yeah I dont think we're getting jmart as we knew them but..... come on

also also. the text to speeches got less robot sounding the longer they were reading and it really reminded me of how ppl reading statements would slowly get invested as they were reading and emote as if it were happening to them.

sam is on the archivist (or tmagp equivalent) pipeline already yikes

the turpentine line was raw as fuck. so was the canary one obviously. don't want to beat a dead horse by talking abt that bc so many others have already said it. but! the institute is deadly stay away!!

the sound engineering is god tier I love all the bleeps and bloops

colin knows smth is Watching. inadvertently feeding the eye by being paranoid? does the eye even exist the same way it did in tma?

theres definitely smth to be said abt whether or not robert smirke did his thing the way he did in tma and if anyone in the know uses the same classification or if the oiar is the only group categorizing. the fears always kind of blurred together at certain points so maybe without the human interpretation of it being 14 distinct entities it's more of an..... amalgam?

magnus institute is in a different place which is interesting. if it was built for the same reasons (outside of just research) is there another panopticon esque structure underneath? (brings us back to if smirke was doing his thing)

very curious to see if theres gonna be a leitner books equivalent.

I deeply deeply deeply desire a michaela salesa cameo at some point. he's one of my fav side characters.

sam and gwen using classic horror characters to help him try and memorize the classification categories was very cute

another thing I'm sure everyone has talked abt already but the whole world wide WEB thing and possible jmart in the computers and omg they're in the web and the oiar is part of the web and blah blah blah u get the image.

lena is intriguing to me. my guess is she's going to be a gertrude esque character who knows at least the basics of what's really happening and is trying to put a stop to it.

I havent seen anyone talk abt like...... what IS the magnus protocol. like tma was the archives in the magnus institute. the magnus archives. self explanatory from like ep 1. what the hell is the magnus protocol. is it smth fr3-d1 will run? or the text to speeches? is it tmagp's version of a ritual? using protocol to reference the updated tech from tma? is it smth the actual organization has to run in the event of Something Happening? WHAT THE PROTOCOL WHATS IT FORRRRR

I know nothing abt the ARG shit, just to note that

okay I think that's it for now..... feel free to discuss in the notes lol

[pinkpenguin12401]

・┆✦ʚ♡ɞ✦ ┆・

「 ✦ April 29th, 2024 ✦ 」

Today I got hired! I start my job in a few weeks, and I am really happy about it, I can't go into much detail about it, but I am just happy to have some sort of income. It's a temporary job, but that's better than nothing.

I slept a lot today, due to the heat outside. My bedroom is the attic, so no matter what I do, my room will get unbearably hot. There are no trees around the side where my bedroom is, so I can't even have shade from them.

I also started writing headcanons about my "crack-ship" (America/Alfred x Rose Quartz from SU). I was shut down by some friends about it, which bothered me. (｡•́︿•̀｡) So, I'm probably going to bother you guys about it here. Maybe I'll draw some fanart soon (if anyone has ideas- PLEASE send it my way!!! Please!). (*ᴗ͈ˬᴗ͈)ꕤ*.ﾟ

I had pancakes and sausage for dinner since none of us knew what to make. The pancakes were delicious, the sausage was okay, and I have no complaints about it. ୧ ‧₊˚ 🥞 ⋅ ☆

I don't have much to talk about today. ໒꒰ྀིᵔ ᵕ ᵔ ꒱ྀི১

I did some notes for a reading from something I found on the overall UU website. Based on what I learned, I made some journal prompts for me to reflect on in my paper diary, if anyone wants those, let me know (they're not spiritual-based). ˚˖𓍢ִ໋🦢˚

I've noticed that I have become a lot more involved in my faith. ☽𖤓 The last time I was this involved in my faith was when I was 8 years old and I loved being Roman Catholic. Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I left Catholicism and went on a long and very wild spiritual journey. And now I'm a Universalist. I embrace this wholeheartedly. Will it change one day? Maybe. But for now, I'm happy where I am at. ⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

Part of my sketchbook fell off, the edge where the binding is held together. So now I'm using that as a bookmark.

I did do some review math today, that was fun. For some reason, math has become a hobby for me. Maybe it is because in the last few years, I have had math professors that want to work with me and help me grow as an individual, and they helped me strengthen a lot of my weak spots. I'm happy with that. ˎˊ˗⋆｡°✩📄

I think I'm also inspired by the women I did one volunteer project on. I got to label and categorize notes of the women in Harvard who were "computers" that helped astronomers so much, that their research is still helpful today. Man, I sound like I am boasting. I loved that project, it taught me so much and consumed a lot of my summer last year. I should apply to other volunteer projects like it. I did over 1,000 classifications.

৻( •̀ ᗜ •́ ৻)

I love classifying things. (*´▽`*)

I'm getting sleepy, I'm going to play the Sims (I don't know which one yet), and then go to bed. I hope you all had a good day too! ( > 〰 < )♡

・┆✦ʚ♡ɞ✦ ┆・

[indepth-mbti]

Hi there! Firstly I want to thank you for your account! is a great approach to MBTI in an ocean of misinformation; I like how the concepts of Jung are portrayed in your posts, because you show his work how it is, but at the same time, there is space to elaborate and develop new ideas. I came here because I'm quite confused with my MBTI type. I've read and discussed the thing for a while, understanding a bit more the cognitive functions and all; but the thing is, even when I can see myself as a certain type, there is a bunch of things that I can't see at all.

I've always liked (and cared) for my aesthetic (I don't mind if it is trending or not tho), leadership is natural in me, my moral compass has been evident since little and it has an important role when I take decisions. My close relationship with arts is one of my prominent characteristics and I think I can't function well without them (painting, crafting, music, writing...). Being on my own, having one-to-one interactions, discussing possibilities and theories without a personal attachment to them (I really enjoy doing that) and being aware of the "vibe" in a room is like breathing to me. I've thought that I'm an ISFJ, but I kinda see Se and Fi in my way of reasoning, so I would appreciate if you could guide me to understand it. Sorry for the grammar mistakes, English is not my first language, and thanks for your time.

Hi, thanks for your words.

"but the thing is, even when I can see myself as a certain type, there is a bunch of things that I can't see at all."

That's okay. You are a unique example of your type and you should understand cognitive functions as patterns, and not as a list of traits in which you have to score 10/10 to be that type. Jung said: "Classification does not explain the individual psyche. Nevertheless, an understanding of psychological types opens the way to a better understanding of human psychology in general."

What you say just shows to me a preference for feeling over thinking. I see more Fi than Fe and I see more Ne than Se (I actually don't see Se at all in what you say haha). My take would be INFP, ENFP orrrr xSFJ; even your first paragraph shows poor Si: you are so lost in the details of the parts of a type in which you don't "fit in" that you lose track of the essence and factual proof of that certain type = NeSi > SeNi.

[wheelie-butch]

Heya, your talk of wheelchair sports seems so so cool, do you think ambulatory users or folks with energy limiting disabilities (me/cfs etc) would be able to participate? I can't exert myself for super long but would love the community

Hey! Glad you enjoy hearing about it ^-^ I got halfway through writing this and realised I couldn't tell if you meant 'able to participate' as in 'allowed' or 'physically capable of it' so I'll try address both :)

It ended up kinda long so I'm putting it below the cut:

In terms of 'allowed' - I'm no expert but in most cases the short answer is yes! Most clubs just want to get people in and playing. It gets a bit more complicated when you look at competitive tournaments etc. (more on this in a minute) but if you just want to go along for a bit of exercise and meeting people then yeah there'll most likely be others in a similar way there already :)

I'm just going to focus on what I've seen in my time at wheelchair rugby but I will add I know there are sports that are definitely mixed abled and disabled (sitting volleyball, wheelchair rugby league, wheelchair basketball in SOME countries, probably more) so presumably those would definitely be open to everyone.

Okay so at wheelchair rugby aka murderball yeah you'd definitely be allowed to join :) I'm ambulatory myself and have chronic fatigue. There's a really big range of reasons my teammates are there also. I don't actually know many of my teammates diagnoses/conditions but just off the top of my head to give you an idea of the range of ability:

Several people walk seemingly 'normally' when not in a rugby chair

Other people walk with mobility aids or a limp but are still ambulatory (me included, though I usually bring my day chair to practice because the building is kinda big)

Some people walk with lower limp prosthetics

Some people have dwarfism (and don't use a day chair)

I've actually been asked by other players if I'm there because of POTS or ME/CFS so I'm guessing it's not an uncommon reason for people to go?

and then of people who are full time wheelchair users it's still a huge spectrum of difference

BUT (only really important if you want to play competitively)

I don't know much about other wheelchair sports but if you're interested in wheelchair rugby / murderball specifically then it's a little bit more complicated in terms of if you can join a league team or not depending on your disability.

Basically wheelchair rugby is designed as an alternative for basketball for people who have upper-body impairment. There's a classification system to give players points based on their level of impairment which is how teams are built for competitive 4-a-side play (the version they play in the paralympics).

I found rugby way more fun than basketball looked so I chose that to play even though I don't have any upper-body impairment. I'm a 'non classifiable' player, so I can't play in official 4s games, but I can play in 5-a-side games which is its own league and slightly different rules. Most clubs just take everyone who wants to play and will only separate out 4s and 5s players as needed for tournaments.

I'm in no way an expert about classification since it's quite complicated. It's quite a touchy subject often because the tests they do to classify you can be invasive and people often find the system unfair is my understanding. But if you don't have any upper-body impairment then you'll probably be a non-classifiable 5s player like me. However, I have heard mentioned that the classification system is at least supposed to take into account things like fatigue and if you have something that impacts your mental processing. It's basically something you'd end up discussing with your coach after a few months of attending if they felt like you could be classified. I'm probably making it sound a way bigger deal than it would be I just get excited trying to explain rugby haha.

In terms of physically able to play - obviously I don't know your situation but if you have the strength to be ambulatory then I think yeah it's mostly likely you will be able to.

Things to keep in mind:

the chairs are much heavier than a day chair. You might have trouble moving them at first but if you're able to build muscle in your arms it will get easier

obviously it'll differ by club but training at mine is quite long, 2 hours on Tuesday and 3 on Saturday. It might take a bit of trial and error to work out how much you're able to handle but they should be understanding if you can't make it to every session or have to leave early or sit out etc.

rugby is a very high contact sport, you will get bashed into a lot and you will go over at some point. I've never been hurt worse than some bumps and bruises and I don't know anyone who has sustained worse either but just be aware of that

you'll need thick gloves (I use gardening gloves) and tape to keep them on or you will get blisters

it's mixed gender but still mostly men

it's a really technical sport there's so much going on and you have to be thinking all the time! It's taken me about a year to start being able to actually understand what's going on in games rather than be in blind panic, but it gets so much more fun once you do. It also makes it tricky with fatigue though if it gives you brain fog.

games are 4 quarters of something like 8 minutes long I think BUT they end up longer because the clock stops often but you're still playing during that time. It's quite a lot to play on court for one whole game but usually people get subbed in and out a lot

I feel like those are all the things I can think of to say about rugby it took me like 2 hours to write I hope that answered your question alright! Please DM me or send another ask if there's anything else I can talk about that would be useful for you. I really hope you give a sport a go, it's helped me so much beyond just the exercise and I really love it :) let me know if you do I'd love to hear about it!

[venusiancarbondioxide]

for fic meme! 45, 23, 50!

hell yeah!!

the fic meme, for curious and inquiring minds

45. If you had to call yourself an author of a single genre (besides fanfic) what label would you give yourself?

oh geez. genre is kind of hard for me because like, a lot of genre classification is arbitrary once you remove obvious elements like magic (fantasy) or changing the time period drastically from your own (historical, sci fi) and stuff like that. or you get situations where, for example, i'd say that i write stories that contain romance, but i'm not a romance writer, you know? which means it's a good question, because it makes me think!! ultimately, i'd say contemporary because i usually keep myself relatively grounded in the world of canon (or the here-and-now when i'm writing original stuff) and the focus is less on big plot or world-building elements and more on internal and character drama.

23. What’s the nicest review you’ve ever gotten?

i've been very lucky and received a lot of super kind comments over the years, but i think the cake has to go to one i received on reduviidae, which was a longer comment overall (and great bc i loveee long comments), but the part i think about the most is "Opening your fic with one main character dead AND with another main character having committed the murder AND playing it deadly straight so that this set-up isn't even taking place in an AU scenario AND making the events unnervingly canon compliant AND making every single detail of characterisation exactly pitch-perfect = A STRING OF SEAMLESS POWER MOVES, FAULTLESSLY EXECUTED. I know I've already said it a million times but I seriously love how confident your writing feels; everything about it is like I'm being reassured that you've got everything under perfect control so I can just sit back and relax and enjoy myself, knowing that I'm in very safe hands." bc it's just a shockingly nice thing to say.

50. Has writing fanfic had a significant impact on your life? Would you say it’s entirely positive?

oh, absolutely! i've made several friends through fanfic, who i adore and wouldn't be here without. i fell in actual genuine love with someone who i first discovered existed bc of their fanfic which, okay, that didn't go well for me, but it certainly changed my life. writing fanfic is also a big part of my writing overall, and i'm just not me if i'm not writing. as for if it's entirely positive...uh, no. i think i'd care less about other's opinions on me if i wasn't so entrenched in the world of fanfic, where the feedback plays a huge role, but also fanfic is far from the only reason that's a problem. i'd say it's a contributing factor, though. also fanfic is how i'm part of fandom, and my experiences with that have been a pretty mixed bag, lmao. but! i wouldn't change what i do. there are drawbacks, but writing fic is worth it.

[kindlythevoid]

1 and 2 for the ask game perhaps?

Oooh, okay!!

I kind of just went off, so in the interest of space:

1. What story (stories?) are you writing rn that you’ll most likely publish next? ∩(´∀`∩)

Hopefully? One of two stories.

The one that I started earlier is my Fallout 4 fic called The Stapinski's, which is my take on a Fallout 4 Minutemen runthrough with Nate and Nora surviving. I know that traditionally in the story Nate was in the military and Nora was a lawyer, so I'm keeping that, except Nate is, like, a surgeon/doctor/medic and Nora has ASPD. It'll mostly be written in a series of snapshots, with one longer intro story and then parts of the main Fallout story that I think would be interesting/changed with these versions of Nate and Nora. However, I'm unlikely to post it until I do another runthrough of Fallout 4 which... idk when it's gonna happen, ha ha!

The second story is my Baby Driver x Fast and Furious crossover fic. There is a chronic lack of Baby Driver fics in general, but especially ones in this crossover, which is devastating. But this one fic had Brian and Debora as siblings and I really just sunk my claws into that concept and started typing away. I don't really have a solid plot, per se?? It's super self-indulgent and takes place after Baby gets out of prison and... at some point in the F&F franchise (probably after the 4th or 5th movie, there are just so many, ha ha!!)... but I'm having fun with a more Debora-centric fic and the interactions between the everyone!! (I also may or may not have stayed up reading an official handbook on classifying prisoners for this fic?? I sincerely doubt it'll affect the plot in any way, but I did and if anyone is curious, it's thought that Baby went to Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison.)

Realistically? The next installment of Rewind, which as of right now is called In Every Stitch and Seam. I am technically still on break, but it wasn't meant to be an indefinite break, oops!! It's just. So Ridiculously Long. This one I am more or less sure of the direction and have a vague notion of what I want each chapter to look like, but writing it has gone... slowly. I'm still working on chapter 6 (out of possibly 21) and I want to be farther in before I start posting so that they don't have too many loose ends if I accidentally drop the ball later on. (Sorry, y'all!!)

But yeah, probably not anything soon. I'd love to keep posting, but, unfortunately for me, nothing is finished, ha ha!

2. What story (stories?) are you writing rn that will most likely linger in your head for an undetermined period of time? (*´▽｀*)

Soooo many stories. I really really want to get around to posting soooo many stories that I have in my docs and my notes app and what-have-you. I really do have so many fics that I haven't posted, it's devastating. (Each one being unashamedly self-indulgent and written so many years ago definitely is not contributed to that, no, not at all.)

I'll focus on written stories instead of just story ideas... I have a few Assassin's Creed ficlets that may never see the light of day. One's, like, a Hallmark AU fic?? With light undertones of mafia?? It's soooo olddd, smhhhh. (∩∀`)/ There's also, like, a genuine songfic that I wrote forever ago. That I could absolutely be persuaded to post, but it's part of a series and the rest of the series wasn't finished and at this rate probably never will be.

This really just descended into early cringe me, but back in the day when I first started reading fanfics, I would notice the billion and one fandoms tagged in a single fic, never read them, but assume that somehow?? they were including each of them in a coherent story??? or something?? (Tbf, I think some of them were, and kudos to everyone who was able to do it, but for the most part I'm pretty sure they were just requests or something) Anyway, so lil ol' me decided to do something like that, too. And the best way I could think of this, for some reason, was to put all my fandoms, each and every one, in a single neighborhood. Each fandom had a house, everyone had a backstory, there were multiple stories detailing the history of each house and one story about my "latest" fandom moving in. I kept track of literal hundreds of characters as people in every day jobs in the town. It was insane. I still pass by it in my docs sometimes and smh. In conclusion, no, this will never see the light of day.

Okay, that was a lot, but absolutely why I made this game, so thank you so much for asking!!

Kindly,

The Void

[abomination-catboy]

FINAL FANTASY XIV: STORMBLOOD The Abomination Review, Part 1

Okay, so here's something entirely unnecessary; a review of an MMORPG expansion that came out six years ago. Hooray!

A little bit of background; I've been slowly making my way through the FFXIV expansions, in fact very VERY slowly because my attention is being pulled in 20 different directions at any given time and this game is so very, very long. I share a Discord server with some good friends and there's a section for all things FFXIV, and opinions on Stormblood are probably some of the most divisive I have encountered so far. One friend, who we'll refer to as J, really didn't fancy it at all, whereas another friend, S, enjoyed it and thought it would be, I quote 'exactly your kind of bullshit'.

So now that I've finished Stormblood and have started engaging in horrors such as 'cartoon chocobo drags party to Computer Hell Fightclub' and 'a raid with FREAKIN' MATH in it' everyone wants to know what I thought of Stormblood. So naturally, I did the normal person thing and created a blog to write the review up on in detail. LET'S GO~

It's been ages since I actually started Stormblood, so some of my recollections will likely be off. Hopefully this will just add humour, as I don't really mind myself and will not be making corrective edits :^)

I am not American, so neither is my spelling.

Spoilers for FFXIV ARR, HW and SB and related patch content, obviously.

Introduction: Welcome to Ala Mhigo

After briefly being reminded of the overarching plot of the whole game and following the trauma of watching Papalymo explode, we're thrown into another 40-hour long sidequest as Omega Weapon ker-chunks over the wall into Ala Mhigo and Lyse-Not-Yda-in-Fact suggests this is the perfect opportunity to help her people fight back against the Garlean Empire and end the war. Cool. Cool cool cool.

This is your Warrior of Light for the trip, Yhen'a Astolya. Both he and his sparrowhawk are a little unimpressed that 'get the Weapon' has turned into 'save entire nation from a 10+ year imperial occupation', but at this point that's just #WarriorofLightThings so he's resigned to his fate. At least he's cute. None of his outfits suit his personality because the character I re-made him from liked to show off his assets if you catch my drift and I'm yet to change many of the glams but. You'll see.

So anyway, Gyr Abania. What a shithole. NO REALLY SSHH The fist map is really kinda boring, and I get why; it's hard to make a desert map too interesting while still retaining the classification of desert. And here we have a whole nation that is in mostly desert. For what it's worth I think Square did a great job with their concept, but I can't help but wonder what Garlemald saw in taking this land over. I know, I know, they think they're doing us all a favour by bringing enlightenment to the savage heathens, blablabla, like any ol' antagonistic empire. Sure. But usually that's a leading reason with other factors, you know, and things like resources and land position are taken into account. I guess it's a great and easy way to send invasion forces through to the rest of Eorzea, but what else was there?

See, other people on google wanted to know too!

The internet didn't tell me, it just kept trying to give me timelines and essays, but I'm sure I missed the answer in a section of dialogue I skipped or something.

UPDATE: I said I wouldn't do these but to avoid Experts coming in to school me, another friend of mine we'll call A has said the Garleans went through Gyr Abania cause it was the only way to get to Eorzea. And their aerial invasion failed pre 1.0, which is not content I've played. They don't have a navy, b/c they're landlocked, but they made this amazing big 'unsinkable' airship that was supposed to be able to single-handedly conquer the whole world, then Midgardsormr (or as A refers to him, Dragon Daddy) said no, and destroyed it.

Anyway.

So Lyse leads us to Rhalgr's Reach after a pretty harrowing side-quest concerning an abandoned town that was used by the Garleans to experiment with some kind of magical plant plague, which was honestly kind of interesting. The Garleans suck, man.

Rhalgr's Reach is gorgeous, a nice breathe from the drab map between Baelsar's Wall and it, but first a note on the music so far.

I enjoy the new battle music well enough; it's a mix between cowboy movie rifts and traditional eastern music that somehow really works, and also makes me feel a bit like Indiana Jones, but I'm not a fan of the national anthem of Ala Mhigo following me everywhere in different forms on the map. It's okay if it's a quiet refrain version, but when the bombastic brass comes into it, it just turns me off the flavour of the game entirely. I don't think this was intentional, its just a very nationalistic approach, which is all well and good for a story about a resistance who are clearly very patriotic trying to fight off invaders and its absolutely being used in good faith, but any band of patriotism is always a bit much for me so I played a lot of this expansion in Ala Mhihgo areas with the music turned down.

So we're trying to form an alliance, and getting resistance from the usual suspects. We get re-introduced to Arenvald around this time too, who is one of my favourite tropes of 'strong man softboi' so I take to him instantly. There's a few little battles and skirmishes, and Lyse is feeling pretty g about our ragtag little Alliance before things, as they do, go pear-shaped.

Enter Imperial Viceroy Zenos yae Galvus, otherwise known as 'golf douche'.

I cannot take credit for this amazing and hilariously accurate nickname. That would go to J. Leading up to this moment they were all 'have you met him yet, have you met golf-douche?' which honestly gave him an air of mystery he entirely did not deserve.

(seriously, I'm a cat-dad and Zenos has maybe two facial expressions, this one being his 'head empty no thoughts (but murder)' one, but the fangirls think he has a rich inner world. Nobody who owns a cat sees this face and thinks that.)

People seem to love Zenos online, and I can only assume it's because he's both pretty and disturbed; that Discount-Sephiroth face and hair, with hips and thighs so thick he probably cracks Ala Mhigan skulls between them, plus he waxes poetical about murder. You know, all the things the straight whyte girls who write yaoi love in a top.

Anyway, he's a bit of a fuckwit, and he has a fuckwit golf-caddy that he carries his extra swords in (sword-caddy?) thus the nickname, so it was a little embarrassing getting absolutely reamed by him. I was on Dark Knight too, so like, let's be real Squeenix, I would have won on sheer endurance AND edge if it hadn't been one of your fun 'you can't win this battle but have it anyway for dramatic storytelling purposes' moments that we all k̙n̘̝̻o͖̙̺̣w̷̫̞̤ ̮̙̤̝a̡̤̠ͅn͓̲̩̱͕d̷ ̦ͅͅl̶̺̪̟͚̼̣̞o̶͖̪v̘̜͎ͅè̥̮͎̘.

Our party decides that because golf-douche almost murderised all of us in one fell swoop and Lyse is still feeling pretty sensitive about the whole Papalymo thing, the best option is to travel to an entirely different and very far away nation, and help them defeat the Garlean occupation there so that a) the Garlean's and hopefully golf-douche will be distracted fighting a war on two fronts, and b) the other nation will then feel indebted to us and obligated (or strong-armed? They never quite clarify) to come help fight the Garleans in Ala Mhigo.

I am instantly a bit uncomfortable about this. It's presented both in a way that makes it seem like we're trying to do good by two nations rather than just one, but also very coldly as if we're playing war to suite our own overarching agenda, which will then force these people who have been terrorised and occupied for over a decade, to come fight another war they have less (if no) stake in.

I suppose 'the fate of the entire world and the Crystal Mother Lady' is a pretty good excuse when it comes down to it, but there's still a vibe of 'end justifies the means, and because our quest is an honorable one we'll make these tough decisions for people' vibe that just doesn't sit too right with me. These nations being freed from Garlean rule isn't the goal here, it's just a favourable side-effect of our actual plan. This feeling does lessen a little later when it's made more obvious that the whole team is very invested in helping out Ala Mhigo and Doma and it's more that we have to prove to the Alliance that it's a worth-while investment in a colder way. But towards the start, yea, felt weird.

Oh, and we met the Angy One! She's a great character, one of my fav antagonists in the expansion actually. But you don't know that yet at this point of the game, she's just a nation-traitor everyone hates, and for good reason. Actually, nobody really likes her, not even on her team, but she keeps going on ahead anyway.

Gaslight gatekeep girlboss~

I do also feel like we're leaving Ala Mhigo way too soon, before I really had a chance to become invested in it, you don't even get to finish the first map (The Fringes) and this isn't helped by the Doman leg of the game being by far more visually interesting and narratively compelling, but we'll get to that next time, in part two.

So far, a little underwhelming. Pros:

Learning more about Lyse's character, actually quite like getting to know her.

The battle music

Rhalgr's Reach design is pretty stunning

Good location names

The Hidden truth > Drawing a Blank questline

And a bit of a longer list, Cons:

The 'national anthem-esque' music

The Fringes is a boring map in visual and mechanics design

The story is slow to move

Golf-douche archetype is two-dimensional and ugh

Are we playing games with entire nations just to get to our shiney Omega Boi

Barely in Gyr Abania before being whisked away to a far more interesting area and narrative, as if the game devs didn't believe in it either.

Where the fuck are my aether currents let me fly you asshats

Entirely not ghey enough

I'll give this first length of the game a 2½/5. Until next time folks, unless the hyperfocus whisks me off forever.

[uboat53]

The news of the last week regarding former President Trump's possession of classified and sensitive national security documents really struck home for me, as I'm sure you've noticed from all I've been posting about it, and I thought I'd write up a bit of context for everyone as to why that is.

As some of you may know, I worked for the first three years of my career as a defense contractor developing documents and doing training for operations and maintenance on an army radar system at one of the largest defense companies in the country. In that capacity I never held a security clearance, but I did work with documents that were considered sensitive for national security.

While I was there, the video of a 2007 helicopter strike in Iraq that had killed several civilians including two Reuters journalists was leaked through Wikileaks. It was a major event for us and a good deal of changes were made to tighten up control of sensitive and classified information in the company including a good deal of additional training in properly handling such information.

(I should briefly mention my personal opinion which is that, though I agree with the things that certain leakers like Mr. Snowden and Ms. Manning leaked, the government's response is also correct legally. In my opinion, what they did was morally correct and legally incorrect, which is exactly the situation for a presidential pardon if we could ever get a President with the courage to do so.)

That's how I can tell you with absolute certainty that, had I chosen to take any of the information I worked with there home with me, I would probably have been arrested and served many years in jail and rightly so. I was very aware of this the entire time I worked there as was everyone else I worked with and we were very careful to ensure that we did not do anything that would have risked revealing the information we worked with. We would travel for work quite often, and when we did we would be given fresh laptops with only the minimum required stuff installed on it. They would then be encrypted and we would be given the access codes which we were only to use when in a secure environment such as an army base.

I also recall that we had a contractor come by for a site visit. He stayed for about a week and had not been fully cleared even for sensitive information, so our information security was extremely strict during that time. If he entered a room or cubicle, we had to immediately power off any screens so that he couldn't see any information. While he was on site, one of our employees was assigned to shadow him, basically be attached at the hip. If the guy went somewhere, our guy went with him, if he went to the bathroom, our guy went too.

So I'm not sure exactly how clear it is from the outside, but the government really does not mess around with national security documents. And from the outside I'm sure all of that sounds crazy, but you have to understand the kind of information we're dealing with. The radar system I worked on was capable of tracking and plotting the trajectory of artillery shells (this information is public, don't worry that I'm giving away things here, I wouldn't do that). To the best of my knowledge, no other country has such a system and it's definitely something we don't want Russia or China getting a hold of.

As you can see, when I heard that former President Trump had not only had possession of documents with the top classification in the United States government but had, for some reason, kept those stored in a poolside supply room without so much as a lock on the door for well over a year… well… yeah… my eyebrows literally raised when I heard that.

There's been a bunch of excuses offered for why he did it and why it's okay that he did it, but they're so far from covering all the bases that it's truly shocking. I mean, even if he had somehow declassified the documents while he was still in office (though there's no record that he did) it wouldn't matter. These are clearly marked documents and, even if the markings had been updated, they contain sensitive national security information.

As President, sure, he absolutely had the authority to do whatever he wanted with them, but he hasn't been President for over a year and a half now. President Biden hasn't even seen fit to extend him a security clearance as former President, so his ability to view and possess such information is literally the same as yours and mine. If a private citizen has marked classified documents (regardless of whether they were declassified, a document must be treated as classified until the markings are updated) and especially if they store them in an insecure location, there are severe penalties for that, usually involving multiple years in jail per document.

I watched it happen with Sandy Berger, again with Chelsea Manning, again with Edward Snowden, and again with Reality Winner, just to name a few. The government does not mess around when it comes to national security and there's far less ambiguity with regard to the handling of sensitive and classified information than there is with most of the other crimes that former President Trump is suspected of.

That's why my eyebrows raised when I heard about this. It may seem like a small thing if you've never worked in the national security field, but this is easily the most dangerous legal issue that Mr. Trump faces and, if they're at the point of publicly searching his personal residence, the investigation is pretty far along.

Hope you enjoyed this or at least found it interesting.

[adhd-informative]

I think you're really missing the point of that post about hearing NDs. (And tbf I think it was written very off-the-cuff in a way that makes that easy to do.)

The issue with the quotes shared is not that the hearing NDs are saying "I need this." The issue is that they're dismissing the OPs needs. "Facial expressions are meaningless, everyone should have neutral faces" is not saying "don't rely on facial expressions alone to convey things" it's saying "[thing another disabled group needs] are useless and bad and they shouldn't exist." It's "punching up" but oops you're just hitting sideways, bc "reliance on being able to read facial expressions" isn't the problem, it's "being shitty when people don't perform facial expressions in normative ways".

And the part where they go on to talk about the expenses isn't scapegoating ND people for that expense, I'm pretty sure. I think that's more just OP being very frustrated in general and mad that this group that they're a part of is just constantly shitting on things they personally need and they don't wanna try to be "the bigger person" about how that makes them feel.

Thank you for this ask. I appreciate the open and honest consideration here. I don’t think this defends the post, especially as written, but the prospective gives me hope.

Let's take your point about facial expressions. Tic disorders come to mind instantly, and those are neuro developmental disorders, the same classification as ADHD and Autism. Those people are just as ND as ADHDers and autistic people. The judgement ND people get for their facial expressions and how that impacts their lives is very real. So your point about people being shitty about those who don’t perform facial expressions in a normative way is a point about the harms in discrimination against ND. It’s one of the reasons I was so upset by the post. There is no reading of “ND people piss me off” and elaboration into facial expressions that supports those with disabilities that impact their facial expressions. This is a dismissal of other people’s experiences in a big way. So if the root of the problem is distress OP’s needs feel dismissed when one ND person talked about wishing facial expressions weren’t a thing then this isn’t fixing anything. Okay so the way it was stated wasn’t to OP’s sensibility, OP can set boundaries with that person. Or be blunt about their own differing needs and have a conversation. Whichever feels right for them. But not blast all ND people on Tumblr, when this topic directly effects NDs in a huge way. Because neuro diversity is a thing and not all ND are the same, as OP oughta know.

And by writing it out on this platform it makes ADHD and ASD people feel like posting about their experiences with their symptoms on their blog harms others. Because remember we just get the quotes as what’s bothering OP on the post. And those are things people blog about. And that’s a great thing. And as a community of people who receive constant criticism, are regularly told they’re annoying, or too much and carry that with them to their detriment it could be really hard to read this and not feel silenced.

And in the day to day real life conversations it’s great that if someone with delays processing information impulsively says that they wish they had captions to read in their regular conversations and that comment is held onto forever and used to fuel anger toward ND people. It’s not like an abled person like “wouldn’t we all love accommodations for fun?” (which like with certain things I say if it makes the world a more accessible place and helps makes life in our society easier to navigate for everyone, especially by giving disabled people more widespread access, then why not?) I can’t figure this one out. Is it that it doesn’t exist for anyone, and so why should it exist for an ND? Does the ND not need it bad enough in OP’s opinion? Does OP think accommodations can be trivialized by disabled people that would genuinely benefit from them? It feels like a lot of bad faith assumptions would have to be made in order to interpret this as shitting on things OP needs. Honestly? It comes across as not taking ND seriously. ND people use communication devices. Every ND is different, but this could be life changing for many ND people too.

And the very things OP is angry about in general when it comes to living with a disability aren't unfamiliar to NDs. It's a different experience from person to person to be sure. I’m not here to make sweeping claims or draw comparison, we all deserve the dignity of being taken seriously. But this is so much of what should unify the disabled experience: issues of healthcare and access. These are the things that motivate me to be the most inclusive advocate I can be. I can’t see using it to defend very targeted anger at nuerodivergent people. Or any other disability. The feelings surrounding these topics are real and they matter. Directing those feelings at other disabled people for existing is harmful.

[bigprincess-energy]

This is a random question, but how did you know you wanted to be a lawyer? I'm considering becoming one, but I'm not sure. Help...?

Okay so my story with the law is actually really dorky and stupid. I’ve always loved mysteries, like ALWAYS. I was reading Nancy Drew as a kid, I loved crime shows, I love solving puzzles, and I love true crime. There was something about looking at all of the evidence in front of me and putting things together. I love having that ahah! moment when the pieces finally come together and you can see how all things connect. Now this may sound like I wanted to be a member of the police force or a detective but that never really interested me.

So in college I took a library science class and we learned about classification systems and citations and I weirdly loved it. (I still write all my citations by hand.) Then I followed that class up with a class focused on the 13th amendment and the prison industrial system, and I had a mentor who worked as a public defender for 26 years, argued in front of the Supreme Court (and won), and was a former law school professor. Taking his courses helped me develop a familiarity with the law both as a theoretical concept and as a practice that made the law accessible. Part of the class was doing legal research and becoming familiar with the legal citation system, The Bluebook. Everyone in the class HATED our Bluebook workshops but I loved them, and the development of my confidence with understanding the legal citation system made me feel like okay maybe the law isn’t as scary as I first thought.

I want to add a point that I NEVER thought someone like me could be a lawyer. I thought I would never be “smart” enough to be an attorney, it seemed like something smart, well off, Ivy League kids did, not screw ups like me who attended drop out school and hippie college. I had only seen court on TV, lawyers in expensive three piece suits arguing with such grace, poise, and articulation and it imposed a stereotype that If youre not that polished, you’ll never make it. THIS ISNT TRUE. Real court is boring as hell as an observer, there are pauses, there are ums and uhhhs, there are moments of backtracking, someone dramatically shouting OBJECTION doesn’t really happen. The drama is not there, and like of course film court needs to be dramatic to be interesting, but if you listen to any recording of court, even Supreme Court, it isn’t that intense.

I also did two legal internships that helped me solidify my choice to pursue this career because my learning wasn’t just in the classroom. Of course I couldn’t practice the law, but watching the law being practiced, seeing how much of the law is filing through paperwork, experiencing the daily ins and outs and still wanting to be an attorney was really the thing that made me feel confident in my choice.

Law school is a gruelling and super expensive endeavour, and I don’t think people should go just because they: a) want to make money b) don’t know what else to do c) don’t have a passion for the work. I think the best way to make the choice if a career in law is right for you is to gain some exposure. Lots of public defenders and district attorneys take on undergrad, and sometimes high school interns as well as law students, take a legal studies class, also if you love civics that’s probably a good sign, and honestly? Go watch court. Galleries are open for a reason, go, take a notebook, take notes on what you see, and see how it feels.