#...did i really need to make this? no. the aforementioned absurdity may lead this to become one of my top posts on tumblr

[esepoimipullula]

So, there’s this reply to that “do you ever read you friend’s writing and you wonder why they even put up with you” post, about how that’s an unhealthy attitude that will only hurt both you and your friend, even if you pass it off as a joke. About how you should try to better your writing because you love writing and it gives you joy and improving makes you feel proud, not because you keep comparing yourselves to others or because you’ve been told you can’t be too confident in your achievements and now think hating everything you create is the way to improve when it’s really just a way to both destroy your self-esteem and make creating unnecessarily difficult. And the thing is, I agree with it. The wording feels a bit harsh to me, but I’m kind of an oversensitive softie, and I suppose people do need a good kick in the pants once in a while. And I really do agree.

I think love is fundamental, and if you don’t love writing or what you write, you should either stop or take a good, long pause to figure out if you can love it, again or at all. I write because I love it. Or at least, I feel something close to love for it. I don’t really think about it. Sometimes a sentence, a description or a line of dialogue or a simile or anything else, pops into my mind out of the blue and I’m like either, “Oh, what is that? Who or what is it about? Where do is it lead me?” or “Yes, that’s it, hold that until a less ungodly hour/a moment when I’m free to try and do something with it or at the very least write it down.” Sometimes I’m watching or reading or doing something and my brain says, “Yeah, but you know what would be cool? If this thing happened to these characters!”, and the thing that should totally happen to the characters may or may not be related in any way to the thing I’m watching or reading or doing. And sometimes I have a sudden craving for a certain story or character or scene, or a want that has built up through years, but of course I know I won’t find any piece of fiction that fits my tastes exactly and precisely and because I don’t know any writers who happen to be mindreaders and I’m not about to become the kind of prompter who feeds the plot almost line by line to the unlucky writer their asking for a story, so in the end I go, “You know what? This is actually a very good idea and it’s a shame no one has written it yet so I’ll just do it myself!” And sometimes I feel frustrated or unsatisfied or irritated or even just a little too frantic and in too deep to actually feel any love or joy or anything else while I’m writing rather than when I take a step back to reread and edit what I’ve written, but I wouldn’t trade all those other “sometimes” I’ve just mentioned for anything in the world. And honestly, I wouldn’t do it even with these less pleasant “sometimes,” as much as I like to complain or joke or jokingly complain about them. Because they are all part of what makes me me and the idea of ever giving them up, even for some relative peace of mind, feels as absurd and unnecessary as the idea of consciously trying to change my tastes in food or music or fiction or jokes or pets --- I can only guess at where some things come from, so how would I even go about upturning or taking away things that feel almost more like instinct than anything else? And why would I ever wish to? And I don’t think I’ve never been in romantic love, I’m not even sure if I know how that’s really supposed to feel like or work out, but this is kind of love I know. The kind of love I feel for my family and my friends, who all have annoying, stupid habits because that’s what people do and I’m sure they find my habits annoying and stupid, too, and that’s fine, and the kind of love I feel for our cat, who yells at me when he’s hungry and scratches me when we play and bullies the neighbour’s overly friendly, peace-loving dog and does a lot other things that made me fear and wonder, “Oh, god, what if the novelty of having a cute little cat all for ourselves wears off after a while and we don’t want him anymore and we become one of those families that take in a pet and change its whole life only to immediately give it back and give it trust issues in the process because they’re not actually fit to have a pet” before we’d actually gotten him but now they’re just part of him and you’ll have to fistfight each and every one of us in a parking lot if you try and take him away from us. That’s the kind of love I have for writing, and even if it’s not always joy, and sometimes it’s annyoing or irritating or no more pleasant than merely, simply breathing, what does the unpleasantness or the lack of enthusiasm really matter? Nothing, or at least, very little. It’s my love, I can only guess where it really comes from, it’s always with me and I can’t imagine it ever going away, and you can fight me in the aforementioned parking lot.

And I think it’s this love that allows me to... not quite be carefree about my writing, but something a bit like that. What do comments and reviews and kudos matter, if my love expresses itself through fandoms most people don’t even think can be considered as fandoms or themes nobody but me thinks or cares about? Sure, validation and compliments and people genuinely enjoying what I create make me feel great and may even warm my heart, depending on how much thought and effort I put into a particular work or how long I’ve wished to be able to find other people interested in a certain fandom, but they’re not my reason for writing or even something I really need -- I’ll keep doing my thing whether I get a hundred kudos and fifty comments or only three views. I did use to compare myself unfavorably to other writers and despair over all the ways I found myself inferior and lacking, but then I realized... what good is wishing I could be as good as someone else, or even someone else altogether, if my writing is part of me, stems from who I am? What influence on me could another writer’s success and the methods and techniques used to reach that success even have? I should strive to satify myself while doing what I want, to become as good as I can be according to my standards and through the methods and techniques that work for me. I can take what I like and analyse it and try to make it mine and incorporate it in my style and my ideas, there’s nothing wrong with that and it’s a good way to broaden my horizons and challenge myself and improve my work and love writing even more, but in the end, I can’t be anyone but myself --- and I may have lots of flaws, but in the end, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with that. Actually, there is some joy, and even pride, in that. And so, I reread my old works and see them with new, more charitable eyes, remembering the fun and the satisfaction and the need to write precisely that specific thing, pushing aside the old doubts that gave me nothing but endless nitpicking and rewriting and saying, “You know? Maybe my use of em dashes wasn’t actually as overbearing and cringy as I thought, maybe I should start using them a bit more freely again.” I reread my new works and tell myself, “Fuck it, of course I enjoy this and I am actually a bit proud of it, I wrote it for myself, according to my own tastes and following my own inspiration and putting as much effort and care into it as I thought it needed!”

I still have doubts and fears like everyone else, but they’re more along the lines of, “I know I can write better than this, so why am I not doing it right now? What is the problem here?!” or “I love and care and believe so much in this idea and I want to be good enough to do it justice and make sure it’ll make me feel perfectly satisifed and proud with the final result”, than “Everybody is doing the thing I feel is my thing better than me” or “I’ll never be this other writer I admire.” My writing blocks are usually more about getting stuck in the middle of a work while struggling to find the right words to put the exact feelings and actions I have in my mind on the page precisely as I’ve imagined them (”No, thats not it! There’s something missing and I can’t go on until I find out what it is! The words here don’t sound right!”), or struggling to find the Right Words to start a new project at all because I still have to work on internalizing that perfectionism is the enemy and a first draft is meant to be changed and corrected and maybe even kind of suck even if rationally I understand both concepts, or having Something Big in mind but knowing I usually just follow the flow of my ideas until it dries up and feeling my best works really come from truly getting lost into it and then worrying about how difficult Building An Actual Plot Like A Rational Person will be, or having scenes or even whole stories feels just so complete in my head that laboring to get them out of it feels like doing the same exact work twice for nothing (which isn’t true, but tell it to my brain), or just... not being able to start or go on or even end even if I have everything from ideas to motivation ro the right, relaxed but willing and driven state of mind, for some reason. Or, like, utterly dumb stuff like, “This paragraph will only make me feel good if I manage to get the lines to align in this specific way without changing the meaning or ruining the tone and atmosphere, so I will now modify it four or five times until I get it right even if I know this doesn’t make any sense.”

Except... there’s this friend. Her writing is the kind that uses a scant amount of sharp, essential words to tell whole worlds made of unsaid things, so soft they make you feel like you’re inside a dream or so harsh they're like a punch in the gut but always so clever and full that you always feel you’re always missing somthing, you just aren’t smart enough to figure it out. I have to make a conscious effort not to compare them to my works, because then mine feel overwrought and overdramatic, childish and naive.

And I know, believe me I know, that despite how much of yourself ends up in your writing, despite how much your writing can be a part of yourself, skill as a writer is not synonymous with worth as a person. You can be a good and/or succesful writer and be a complete shithead, and thinks like kindness and open-mindedness will always be fundamentally more important than the ability to string words together in a pleasing manner. But she’s kind (perhaps kinder than I deserve, because I know sometimes I can be a real dick), and open-minded, and sweet in her own way, and brave, and confident, and so smart and cultured, and sharp, and funny, and interesting, and she seems to understand people a lot better than I do. And even when we’re just chatting, I’m not always sure I understand every layer to everything she says, I’m not sure I can keep up with her wit and her mind. The confidence I feel while writing evaporates and I feel slow and shallow and boring and dumb and wonder why she puts up with me, how she hasn’t realised she could be talking to her people more like her yet.

The worst thing is, it’s not even her doing anything to make me feel like this and I know it too well. I don’t even think she knows, and I hope she never finds out. She’s not just kind to me, but affectionate and supportive, and in a honest and genuine way, and I know it’s irrational and stupid to think I might have tricked her into behaving like that with me, or that she’s not being sincere, or that she just doesn’t care enough to  take a good look at me and find out what my brain thinks is the truth. I know it would be hurtful and ungrateful to tell her. 

I also know she’s not perfect, because no one is. She has her flaws, too, and sometimes she says things that make me roll my eyes or sigh in frustration. There are some things I know more about than her, too. And we don’t even live near each other so I’ve never even met her in person, so I know if that happened at one point, I’d probably find out a bunch of annoying things about her.

But when she compliments my writing, sometimes my brain either shortcircuits for a moment or starts coming up with all kinds of bullshit like, “She’s just saying that because you’re friends and she’s a very supportive person. You’re pretty much the only one writing for this ship, so this is more like when you’re desperate enough to run fics in Russian and Chinese through Google Translate and you still leave kudos even though half of it came out as gibberish. It’s like when you read something you know is actually not well-written or well-plotted at all just for a certain specific character or trope in it, she’s just the type who doesn’t believe in guilty pleasures. She’s using a very happy and pleased tone but that doesn’t mean anything on the internet, almost everything here is hyperbole anyway so her actual reaction must have been a lot more lukewarm.” And when she writes to me or says she enjoys talking to me, sometimes my brain will go, “That’s great and I appreciate it! ... but seriously, why.”

*sigh* I guess that’s another thing I’ll have to try and work on this year. Being more open about what I feel -- at least on a sideblog read by only *checks* fourteen people, none of whom are the friend in question or any friends we have in common or any of my regular internet friends at all -- instead of keeping everything bottled up inside at all times is another one, apparently. Let’s see if it’ll really make me feel lighter.

[roseisread]

My Year in Movies: Favorite Non-2018 Feature Films (Part 3)

In case you missed it, check out part 1 and part 2! Now picking up where we left off...

28. My Cousin Vinny (1992, directed by Jonathan Lynn, country of origin: US)

I know, I know. I can’t believe it either. But I really hadn’t seen this one til just a few short months ago. Marisa Tomei is, of course, a megababe in it; and Joe Pesci wears the hell out of some ridiculous outfits as he portrays a very unconventional defense attorney trying to help his cousin and a friend beat a murder charge. I laughed and laughed and cheered and laughed some more. Best courtroom scenes I watched all year, (and I watched A Few Good Men this year so that’s saying something). If this is still a blind spot for you, or you just want to revisit it, you can rent it on Amazon for 99 cents right now. 

27. After Hours (1985, directed by Martin Scorsese, country of origin: US)

Talk about things that escalate quickly: In this movie, Griffin Dunne’s character Paul meets a fellow book lover/manic pixie dream girl type (Rosanna Arquette). However, when he accepts her invitation for a late night rendezvous at her place, she quickly turns into a manic pixie nightmare girl. By morning, Paul finds himself a fugitive on suspicion of burglary, sex crimes, and murder in a neighborhood it’s safe to say he will never visit again. It’s a more heightened, comedic take on the classic “wrongfully accused” genre, and Dunne plays every note of desperation perfectly. You can watch this for free on Vudu, or rent on other streaming platforms. 

26. The Big Clock (1948, directed by John Farrow, country of origin: US)

The Big Clock actually has a few things in common with the aforementioned After Hours--hardworking New York City guy agrees to drinks with possibly sketchy woman and winds up the prime suspect in a murder. The whole thing takes place over a 36-hour period, and as you might guess the Clock of the title is ticking. The cast is great--Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Sullivan--and the film balances humor and suspense with ease. Fun fact, the movie is directed by John Farrow, father of Mia. The movie is available for online rental through Amazon, Vudu, and iTunes.

25. The Doll (1919, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, country of origin: Germany)

I adore Ernst Lubitsch, who directed The Shop Around The Corner, To Be or Not To Be, Trouble in Paradise, and Design for Living. Before his English-language talkies, however, he got his start in Germany with silent films like Die Puppe (The Doll). Starring the effervescent Ossi Oswalda (basically the silent era’s Greta Gerwig), this comic fantasy skewers romantic conventions. 

Lancelot is a young prince who must marry in order to receive his inheritance; but he’s afraid of women (or possibly gay... it’s easy to read it that way). He buys what he think is a life-like doll to deceive his family and avoid marriage to a real girl; but little does he know Ossi is actually a real girl pretending to be a doll. It’s all very silly and over the top and winking, and also one of the most hilarious and charming rom-coms this side of the Hallmark channel. The physical comedy is outstanding, the social commentary is scathing, and Ossi is the hero we didn’t know we needed. There are a few versions floating around on YouTube or you can rent it for a few bucks on Amazon. I caught it on Filmstruck during a Lubitsch spotlight, and my life has never been the same.

24. Talk To Her (2002, directed by Pedro Almodovar, country of origin: Spain)

Pedro Almodovar can take the most seemingly absurd situation or plot contrivance and draw out something truly human and moving. He excels at shining a light on damaged but compelling characters, and doing everything with such style and panache that you let your guard down completely and before you know it you’re rooting for someone you ordinarily would scoff at from a distance. This movie’s story focuses on two comatose women and their caretakers, and delves into the limits of love and consent in fascinating, disturbing ways. I had no idea where this film was going but I was with it every second. Available for rent on most online platforms.

23. Crash (1996, directed by David Cronenberg, country of origin: Canada)

From the king of body horror, David Cronenberg, comes a movie about people who find eroticism where most people would find repulsion. Based on the controversial book by J.G. Ballard, this film follows a group of people who are aroused by car accidents and the injuries that result from metal and flesh colliding. It sounds macabre and at times it is, but under the surface are deeper themes that question what is considered “normal” versus “fetish” and why bodies that are whole and untarnished are worshiped while those that have distinguishing marks are tossed aside. There’s also certainly a critique of consumerism and cars as status symbols, and probably a lot more I missed on first viewing. Who better to portray a sexual deviant than James Spader? He’s joined by Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas (you’ll never think of Casey Jones the same way again), Deborah Kara Unger, and Rosanna Arquette. This is a tough one to track down--nowhere online right now, and it’s out of print on physical media; but if you see it at a thrift store or your local library, check it out. 

22. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, directed by Robert Wiene, country of origin: Germany)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of those movies that gets referenced a lot but I still wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from this silent German Expressionist film. Sometimes watching such a revered classic can be a little daunting--will I like as much as I’m “supposed to”? Thankfully, I did. Basically all of goth culture could probably trace its lineage back to this weird, creepy, twisty film. The elaborate, off-kilter set design and mind-bending story got under my skin in the best way. I won’t say much about the plot--just watch it (on YouTube unofficially or rentable on various streaming services).

21. Duck Soup (1933, directed by Leo McCarey, country of origin: US)

My introduction to the Marx Brothers was A Night at the Opera, and I went gaga for their rapid-fire verbal gymnastics and their gonzo physical comedy. This film takes it to the next level and throws in some political satire for good measure. So many incredible, iconic routines; song and dance sequences; and dialogue that you have to watch at least 4 times to catch all the jokes. I’m officially a fan of the Marx Brothers after this. You can rent it on most streaming sources, but I’m guessing if you have a male relative over the age of 50 you could probably borrow it from their collection. It’s very popular with Dad/Uncle demographic, and I can see why.

20. They Live by Night (1948, directed by Nicholas Ray, country of origin: US)

Nicholas Ray is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite directors. Rebel Without a Cause, In a Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar, The Racket, and now They Live By Night--just stunning movies about troubled souls who don’t quite fit in with the rest of the world. This film lays the template for so many that would come after it: Young couple, good girl falls for bad boy, they go on the run from the law, love is not all you need.

When things are good, they’re really good and lead characters Keechie (Cathy O’Donnell) and Bowie (Farley Grainger) are rapturously crazy in love. But they also bicker believably when the past begins to bleed into the present, leading to one of my favorite exchanges in the film. Bowie confronts Keechie about her whereabouts, and when she informs him she’s been to the doctor “about the baby we’re gonna have,” he bursts out, “That’s all I need!” She fires back, “You don’t see me knittin’ anything, do ya?”

This is a Criterion film, so you may have to get it from the library or catch it on TCM until the Criterion streaming service launches later this spring. Either way, it’s a must-watch, especially if you love movies like Badlands and Bonnie and Clyde.

19. Paprika (2006, directed by Satoshi Kon, country of origin: Japan)

Look, I love Inception as much as the next person, but now that I’ve seen Paprika I must admit Christopher Nolan owes a major debt to Satoshi Kon for the way he portrays dreams and reality intersecting in uncanny ways. The difference is Satoshi Kon did it with much more weirdness and color and unsettling body horror. Don’t ask me to explain this movie, I’m not even 100% sure it can be unraveled all the way into a linear structure; but it is zany and wonderful in the best way. There’s no Tom Hardy but there is a girl who turns into a butterfly and a band of frogs and a creepy clown and a really fat guy who’s in love with the smart scientist lady... I’m telling you, you gotta see this thing. You can stream it for free on Crackle; otherwise it’s a $2.99 rental from Amazon and Vudu.

18. Good Time (2017, directed by the Safdie Brothers, country of origin: US)

If you missed this in 2017, PLEASE watch it now. Robert Pattinson gives his career best performance as a fast talking petty criminal trying to get his mentally handicapped brother out of jail after making him an accomplice to his own crimes. The soundtrack by Oneohtrix Point Never combined with the Safdie Brothers mesmerizing cinematography make for a hypnotic, propulsive viewing experience. Newcomer Taliah Webster delivers an excellent supporting performance as an unwitting sidekick partway through the film. Watch for free on Amazon Prime or rent on Vudu or YouTube.

17. Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962, directed by Agnes Varda, country of origin: France)

My first foray into the filmography of Agnes Varda, and I loved it. Cleo, a French pop singer, spends a couple hours trying to distract herself from anxiety and dread as she awaits the results of a biopsy. She buys a hat, plays with her kittens, and argues with her male collaborators over song choices. 

Eventually she meets a stranger and they walk around Paris in a vignette that almost certainly influenced Richard Linklater’s entire milieu. Cleo mulls her possible fate and concludes “as long as I’m beautiful, I’m alive”--a notion Blondie would later reference in their tongue in cheek tune “Die Young, Stay Pretty.” But as much as she is fixated on her appearance, she finds herself struggling to be taken seriously by men who dismiss her because of her beauty. 

Special shout out to Michel Legrand, who we learned today has left the mortal plane: He composed the lovely score for this film and also appears in it as Cleo’s pianist.

I watched this on the now-defunct Filmstruck, but it’s part of the Criterion Collection so your best bet is probably getting it from the library or waiting for it to show up when Criterion’s streaming service launches later this spring.

16. Happy Together (1997, directed by Wong Kar-Wai, country of origin: Hong Kong)

Wong Kar-Wai captures unfulfilled romantic longing on film better than just about anyone. If you’ve seen In the Mood for Love or Chungking Express you already know this. Happy Together turns the director’s eye once again toward people on a collision course of love, lust, and disfunction. Leslie Cheung (RIP) and Tony Leung portray a couple hoping their toxic relationship will hit the reset button with a change of scenery when they relocate from Hong Kong to Argentina. At times their passion manifests as tenderness, as in a moving dance sequence; other times, volatility erupts into violence. When one of them meets someone new, the possibility of a simpler, sweeter kind of love  offers an alternative to the cycle of codependency and betrayal. This one is out of print right now on DVD, but check your local library or used movie store and you may get lucky.

15. La Dolce Vita (1960, directed by Federico Fellini, country of origin: Italy)

You’ve got sumptuous Italian vistas, Marcello Mastroianni being gorgeous, Anita Ekberg dancing in the fountain, and a bunch of hedonism that leads down a path of inevitable emptiness and/or destruction. Personally, I prefer this one to Fellini’s 8 1/2--it’s filled with  so many scenes that could work as stand alone short films; and there’s more humor and exuberance here than in his better known, meta film experience. The 174 minute runtime may seem intimidating but for me it flew by. Available with Filmbox on Amazon right now, also part of the Criterion Collection.

14. Cooley High (1975, directed by Michael Schultz, country of origin: US)

If you’ve enjoyed movies like Dazed and Confused, American Graffiti, Boyz N the Hood, or even Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, you should really watch Cooley High. Filmed in Chicago, it follows a group of friends in high school as they skip class in favor of visiting the Lincoln Park zoo, recite poetry, go to parties, make out with girls, get into fights, and navigate the tenuous border between youth and adulthood. Full of laughs, heart, and clear-eyed realism in place of the occasional sentimentality that seeps into movies about “young folks,” this must-see of Black cinema influenced independent filmmakers like Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino. You can rent it on Vudu, or pick up a physical copy on Blu-ray or DVD.

13. Poltergeist (1982, directed by Tobe Hooper, country of origin: US)

Out of all the major blindspots I caught up with in 2018, this is the one that both impressed me the most and made me wonder why it took me this long to see it. I think I just assumed that it would be super cheesy or super scary or somehow both? Needless to say, I was wrong. It’s a blast! Funny, scary (but in a way I loved), original, and one of the best portrayals of family I’ve seen on screen. I now plan to watch this at least once a year to celebrate Halloween the same way that I watch Independence Day on July 4th, Elf/Jingle All the Way/Christmas Vacation at Christmas, and Nightmare Before Christmas/Donnie Darko for Halloween. I’m sure that everyone else in the world has seen it, but if you by some chance have not, go watch it right now! It’s available for rent on YouTube, Amazon, and GooglePlay.

12. Arthur (1981, directed by Steve Gordon, country of origin: US)

This one really surprised me. I became vaguely aware of its existence around the release of the terribly reviewed Russell Brand version; but no idea what to expect when I impulsively clicked the “watch now” button on Filmstruck. At first, Dudley Moore came across as an obnoxious drunken boor, but as I kept watching I realized the levels to his character went much deeper than it seemed at first. John Gielgud immediately won me over as Arthur’s butler Hobson, who loves Arthur like a son despite his many shenanigans. Then Liza Minnelli shows up on screen and isn’t she cute as a button! If you only know her as Lucille II from Arrested Development, you really owe it to yourself to see her in her heyday. You might not think Buster is so crazy for embracing “our nausea.” 

This movie became one of my favorite romantic comedies, in some ways a Cinderella story and in some ways a coming of age story and in most ways something wholly original. It’s a very special film, and deserves a wider audience among today’s movie fans. It’s a $1.99 rental on most platforms right now, so you have no excuse.

11. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, directed by Robert Altman, country of origin: US)

I knocked out a few Altman films last year, and they were all good but this one was my favorite. I’m not always a fan of Westerns, but this one, which finds Julie Christie’s Madam teaming up with Warren Beatty’s Gambler to open a brothel, well, it’s different. I have a feeling Altman (and maybe his cast) watched Johnny Guitar, an earlier entry on my list, because this is another case in which a powerful woman with a mind for business upends the natural order of things (aka men being in charge). 

The writing here is wonderful, especially the dialogue, which includes such gems as “You know how to square a circle? Shove a four by four up a mule’s ass!” but also some more gentle, sweet exchanges and voiceover. There are also some gorgeous shots in this film, unsurprising with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond on board (who also shot Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Deliverance, and Blow Out just to name a few). 

Watch it via rental on Amazon, GooglePlay, or iTunes.

Next up: The Top 10! Stay tuned! 

[pamphletstoinspire]

The Hell of Faith: ‘Dreadful Possibility’ and ‘Terrible Reality’ at Once

There is a sense of mounting intensity in the Church. Within the last ten days alone, the following has happened:

Pope Francis and Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, signed a “Document on Human Fraternity,” which says that “the diversity of religions” is “willed by God in His wisdom.”

Subsequently, many have reacted, directly or indirectly, to the serious theological questions this document raises. Included among those writing on the subject are Phil Lawler (“Not all religions are part of God’s plan”) and Bishop Athanasius Schneider (“The Gift of Filial Adoption”).

Four days after the joint statement of the Vicar of Christ and the Grand Imam, the former Prefect of the CDF, Gerhard Ludwig Cardinal Müller, published a “Manifesto of Faith” in seven different languages. This very powerful statement has been praised by Bishops (including the aforementioned Bishop Schneider), and by other clergy and laity. But it has also ruffled the feathers of another German Cardinal, the progressivist Walter Cardinal Kasper, whose inter-religious sensibilities appear to have been offended by his more doctrinaire countryman and brother cardinal. In a similitude bound to cause confusion among ecumenists, Cardinal Kasper compared Cardinal Müller to Martin Luther. Moreover, an unsurprising collection of progressivists has gathered to condemn the “Manifesto,” including the Rev. James Martin, who took to Twitter over it.

And only Tuesday, we learned of the publication of a new book by an ostensibly well informed French sociologist claiming that a full eighty percent of the clerics working in the Roman Curia are homosexual.

Difficult times.

Let us turn our attention to one section of Cardinal Müller’s “Manifesto of Faith,” wherein the eminent author considers the basic truths of the four last things. Having mentioned death, judgement, and Heaven, he goes on to state these hard truths concerning hell:

There is also the dreadful possibility that a person will remain opposed to God to the very end, and by definitely refusing His Love, “condemns himself immediately and forever” (CCC 1022). “God created us without us, but He did not want to save us without us” (CCC 1847). The eternity of the punishment of hell is a terrible reality, which — according to the testimony of Holy Scripture — attracts all who “die in the state of mortal sin” (CCC 1035). The Christian goes through the narrow gate, for “the gate is wide, and the way that leads to ruin is wide, and many are upon it” (Mt 7:13).

To keep silent about these and the other truths of the Faith and to teach people accordingly is the greatest deception against which the Catechism vigorously warns. It represents the last trial of the Church and leads man to a religious delusion, “the price of their apostasy” (CCC 675); it is the fraud of Antichrist. “He will deceive those who are lost by all means of injustice; for they have closed themselves to the love of the truth by which they should be saved” (2 Thess 2:10).

Earlier in his “Manifesto,” Cardinal Müller had written of the sad state of ignorance that exists among the faithful. Far from excusing them from their Christian obligations and giving them a free pass to Heaven, that state of ignorance is a danger to their immortal souls: “Today,” wrote His Eminence, “many Christians are no longer even aware of the basic teachings of the Faith, so there is a growing danger of missing the path to eternal life” (emphasis mine). This pastoral concern reminded me of what that great shepherd, Pope Saint Pius X, wrote in his Acerbo Nimis: “It is a common complaint, unfortunately too well founded, that there are large numbers of Christians in our own time who are entirely ignorant of those truths necessary for salvation. … And so Our Predecessor, Benedict XIV, had just cause to write: ‘We declare that a great number of those who are condemned to eternal punishment suffer that everlasting calamity because of ignorance of those mysteries of faith which must be known and believed in order to be numbered among the elect.’”

The “Manifesto” mentions salvation numerous times, and does so in a way that avoids the common errors of our day, errors like presumption, indifferentism (for he associates salvation with Christ and His “Mystical Body,” the Catholic Church), or the soft-core modernism that makes eternal life something natural to man. Evidently, as the above paragraphs on hell would indicate, His Eminence is no disciple of Hans Urs von Balthasar.

In the several paragraphs that follow, I am borrowing very heavily from a polemical piece that my beloved mentor and superior, Brother Francis, M.I.C.M., wrote many years ago. Both to shorten the text and to remove the not-presently-relevant particulars of the polemic, I am applying a very heavy editorial hand.

All the truths about hell belong to those mysteries which are not the proper object of reason. The best that we can do with hell rationally is to show that it is not absurd. The Rationalists make hell absurd to begin with, and then they try to make it empty — or to make believe that it is empty. In a book on Catholic Doctrine by the Very Rev. William Byrne, D.D., published in 1892, hell is defined as “the state or place of those condemned to eternal punishment.”

It is very hard for us to see from reason how any crime of man can ever deserve eternal punishment. “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” is reasonable. When a man kills another man, kill him, but why send him to eternal fire? Why send the unbaptized baby to an everlasting punishment of loss (soon to be explained) for a crime he did not personally commit?

But the hell of Faith is not a punishment for crime, but for sin; and sin adds to crime an entirely new aspect — the aspect of contempt or even hatred of God. It is because the everlasting God commanded “Thou shalt not kill” that murder becomes more than a crime — a sin.

The essence of hell consists in the loss of the Beatific Vision, a punishment common both to hell (proper) and to the Limbo of the unbaptized. The torments of hell (poena sensus) — those punishments for actual sin that are superadded to the pain of loss of heavenly beatitude (the poena damni) — belong to the accidental part of the eternal punishment. They are completely absent from Limbo. With regard to these, the same Father Byrne we have already quoted says:

“All the damned do not suffer alike. The punishment is proportioned to the malice and gravity of their sins. ‘Give unto her double according to her works.’ (Apoc. 18:6.)”

But even the guilt of original sin, by which we inherit a nature lacking the supernatural requirements (and even the supernatural desire) for the Beatific Vision, carries with it the loss of that infinite good. Naturally speaking, that good of heavenly Beatitude can neither be desired nor missed by any creature not reborn by grace.

The souls of unbaptized infants can be naturally happy. Part of their natural happiness consists in a connatural love of God, their Creator — a love and happiness not forfeited as a result of original sin. But these souls have not inherited the primordial state of grace which belonged to Adam before the fall, nor were they regenerated (born again) by the waters of Baptism.

We have, as we might say, an imperfect knowledge of hell which comes from the virtue of Faith. But, just as no man really knows darkness who has not seen the light, no man fully comprehends the doctrine of hell until he has the Beatific Vision. We cannot know hell now any more perfectly than we can know Heaven; and we know about Heaven merely because He Who came down from Heaven has deigned to reveal that truth to us.

If you ask the natural man to describe what to him would be Heaven, he can at best describe a hell, more or less comfortable. For Jesus, our Savior, revealed to us not merely the way to salvation, but the reality itself, and we have to take salvation on His entirely supernatural terms. “Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

And now, I would like to conclude these thoughts on hell with the exact words of Brother Francis, taken from his wonderful book of meditations, The Challenge of Faith:

1. It is possible to imagine a hell that would be incompatible with a merciful, or even with a just God; but that would not be the authentic hell of Scripture, of dogma, and of Faith. 2. The essence of hell is the loss of the Beatific Vision; therefore it is the loss of something whose very reality is known only through faith. 3. Even in hell, not only the justice and wisdom of God, but also His mercy and love must be in evidence. This we cannot see now, but we will see in eternity. No one is punished in hell beyond the measure due to his sins. 4. Where sufficient awareness exists of the danger of being separated from God for all eternity, no other punishment of hell need be emphasized; but the fires and worms of hell must be preached where weakness of faith or its complete absence make light of the loss of God. 5. Without the faith, the best that our nature would desire, would amount to nothing better than a comfortable hell. This is actually most peoples’ conception of a heaven. 6. The first effects of the action of grace is to give us holy desires: hungers and thirsts for things far above this world and all that it can offer. 7. The men of holy desires, alone, understand.

For more on the subject, I point the reader to a longer piece I wrote: “There Is a Hell, and It Makes Perfect Sense.”

Let us, in gratitude, pray for Gerhard Ludwig Cardinal Müller. And let us pray for the Church Universal. The confusion and scandal of these last ten days are nothing compared to what’s coming.

But remember, “he that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13).

FEB 13, 2019 Written by: BROTHER ANDRÉ MARIE

Shared by: www.pamphletstoinspire.com

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “The Most Dangerous Game...Night!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Francisco Angones

Storyboard by: Vince Aparo, Emmy Cicirega, Ben Holm

Directed by: Tanner Johnson

We’re back!

Season 1 ended with a war involving the full appearance of one of the most anticipated returning villains, and surprising revelations about a friend and the mother that just couldn’t be found. If you expected Season 2's opener to continue from that, you are mistaken. However, that's not a bad thing; we needed a break from the storm.

The episode starts off with Scrooge, the nephews, and Webby going into a temple with many traps. Right from the first minute, you can just tell by Louie’s expression that he’s not enjoying this as much as the rest of them. He accidentally walks into a cobweb, bumps into Scrooge which almost leads to him falling into a pit, and was too busy getting the webs out to help him out of it, unlike the other kids. This makes him the odd one out, starting a theme for this episode.

But, whoa, look at Dewey and Webby acting like a team to get past the aforementioned pit, harmonizing a song about how teamwork is the dreamwork. Dewey and Webby have teamed up quite a bit in Season 1, Webby being the only one in on Dewey's search for his mother, but they take it a lot further in this episode in their own subplot.

Huey gets to be involved as well, being the brains behind this operation. We learn that the best way to dodge arrow traps is to dodge and step in time with the opening of the DuckTales theme song. They even give it musical accompaniment the second time they do it, just in case you didn't get it the first time. They even end up facing backwards as soon as they're done with it, just like how they faced the camera in the original. A neat touch.

After Louie tries to do the same thing, but failing, we get to the practically obligatory Raiders of the Lost Ark reference. This comes complete with a golden idol to "borrow and then forget about". Specifically, the Idol of Cibola, which, legend has it, has some sort of legend that Louie doesn't even let Scrooge tell. He just wants to get the "whoa" over with.

He airs his laments on how all these adventures have been exactly the same. He even has a three step way of describing all of these adventures, and says that they've all been following this since the beginning. Not so coincidentally, this is a pretty good way to teach kids about three-act structures.

The setup - "Whoa! Some cool hidden city or treasure or whatever!"

The confrontation - "Wait, what? That cool thing is dangerous, cursed, or guarded by centaurs?!"

The resolution - "Ahhh! Louie almost dies, can we please move this along?"

Scrooge shrugs him off, saying that no two perilous scenarios are alike, and that they can be unpredictable. Of course, this is folllowed by Dewey taking the idol and the platform it was on lowering in an ominous way, even saying "whoa!" and "wait what?" at both of these. Louie even lifts his fingers up with each of these, though he doesn't get the chance to lift his third.

Instead, they're too busy running away from the boulder that closes out this cold open. Who could have seen that one coming, besides Louie? But see, it is a little less predictable: the boulder that chases after them happens to be wheel shaped. It's totally different from that other guy's perils with golden idols and boulders.

It's a new season, so I might as well talk about the opening theme song. Like Star Vs, it's mostly the same, with a few things changed for eagle-eyed viewers. The two that I can notice:

Gizmoduck is the one supplying the lasers this time.

More interestingly, Bouncer Beagle, who was kind of redundant since Ma Beagle is right next to him, is replaced with Magica De Spell. Maybe The Shadow War isn't the last we'll see of her? Well, it is not this episode.

While everyone else is excited about that adventure, Louie isn't, and he's especially not happy when he finds out that the Idol of Cibola only had a treasure map inside of it. Yay, more adventure. He's getting really tired of the "hunting" part of treasure hunting, he needs a break. Huey disagrees, and is absolutely excited.

The whole family is a perfect team, according to Huey. He's the brains, Webby is the fists, Dewey has the devil-may-care attitude, and Louie...is there too. Webby tends to be the brains and the one with the devil-may-care attitude occasionally, she has everything, but let's ignore that for now. Huey then starts to praise his own merits. Literally, he shows off his Junior Woodchuck merit badge sash. Louie sarcastically asks him if he's going to aim for getting his sewing badge. Huey says he already has it, but Louie points out a rip in the shirt.

Huey's Junior Woodchuck outfit happens to have a loose string, and he gets into a rut over it. He beats himself up over his "amateur hour" mistake. Another subplot, though one that shows up only occasionally, and anyone can guess where it will lead. Huey sees Louie's point and blames it on the constant adventuring; it must have torn this shirt apart! This gives Louie an idea.

Louie goes up to Scrooge and claims that all of this adventuring is tearing him and his brothers apart, bringing along the still stressed out Huey to point that out. Scrooge shrugs him off every step of the way. There's a callback to how Scrooge can't tell the nephews apart, which doesn't come up as much as one would think.

He says that they rarely have any quality, and suggests some things like Scrooge is walking out of the room. He suggests things like a Make Your Own Pizza Day, or a game night.

That make your own pizza day sure hit the spot for him, but as everyone knows, pizza always wins. Just kidding, it's the game night that piques his interest. How much does it pique his interest?

He's sure to let everyone know by joyfully exclaiming that it's game night to everyone. It's a side of Scrooge you don't see as often, though it definitely existed.

Everyone else isn't too happy, though. Mrs. Beakley explains that Scrooge really gets into this, everything becomes a war zone, and that, as Scrooge always bests his enemies by being smarter than the smarties, they are the enemies. Anyway, Scrooge tells everyone to team up. Scrooge gets Donald, Dewey gets his perfect partner and best friend Webby, and Mrs. Beakley gets Ghost Duckworth. It's a long story.

However, Ghost Duckworth pretends to notice that dark magic's afoot in the ethereal plane, making up an excuse to get out of this scene, and out of most of the episode. Instead, Mrs. Beakley has to make do with Launchpad. Louie tries to get Huey to join him, but...well...

...he has to relearn how to make that Krabby Patty after he messed up on those pickles. Again, much like Louie, I can see how this could end. Nothing can possibly ruin this game night and make this an adventure! ...now what "wait, what" is going to ruin this game night and make this an adventure?

Gyro shows up, with a new invention: a megaphone that listens in on microscopic things. Specifically, he calls it the a Micro Phone, and he's going to use it to find the so-tiny-they-can't-be-seen-by-even-the-viewer's-naked-eyes Gyropuddlians, a reference to the Lilliputians from Gulliver’s Travels, and become their God-King. How? It happens to have a shrink ray function, too. It seems like as long as a cartoon is on, an episode involving a ray that makes things bigger or smaller becomes more likely to happen.

Louie, exasperated by how they can't escape adventure even when they're staying at home, decides to do the sensible thing...

…aim the Micro Phone at Gyro and shoot! He doesn’t even have a single qualm that he just doomed one of Scrooge’s most important employees in a nightmarish terror of being among giants that nobody can see with the naked eye. Huey is noticeably upset, but Louie tries to calm him down in an also sensible way.

Louie: And we can't tell anybody! Because if you do tell anybody, things will only get worse, until you'll never be able to sew a merit badge onto a sash ever again, OK?!

Huey: (looks at his Junior Woodchuck shirt, mumbling with stress)

Also, he believes Gyro's too smart to be killed, and the "ahhh" part will end with him almost getting killed, but learning a lesson in the end. In fact, he even uses the Micro Phone to reveal that his "whoa" actually happened: he did become the God-King.

Meanwhile, we get to one of the Game Night portions of the episode, starting with a game of charades. Pick something out of the hat, act like it, and hope your teammate can guess it. Mrs. Beakley ends up being the timekeeper, as much as everyone would want to see how Launchpad would play charades. Donald is really good at Charades, since not wing understood verbally, non-verbal is easy for him. Nobody has to worry that they didn’t get that; this is all explained by Webby.

Next, it's the perfect team ever's turn. That is, Dewey and Webby, continuing the subplot. We essentially get the scene we would have gotten with Mrs. Beakley and Launchpad. Webby gets a really easy one: Scrooge McDuck. But, wait what? Dewey doesn't get the answer no matter what Webby does? They're sure it's just a fluke.

Eventually, it’s Huey and Louie’s turn, but they’re interrupted by Gyro, God of the Gyrolites, using the Micro Phone to announce his glory. The boys immediately. The others don’t seem to mind. In fact, they're unaware of Huey and Louie’s adventure throughout the entire episode.

They take the Micro Phone to the kitchen, where Gyro tells them what's been going on. Louie was slightly wrong on his initial guess: the tiny people are actually going to go to war against the giants. Why? Because the giants keep destroying their villages!

One notable example? The floating island of Toiletopolis. I mean, we had to go to toilet humor eventually, complete with Louie's disgusted reaction on realizing what that could possibly mean. Soon, a few ants show up, and Gyro the God-King tries his best to shrink them. He ends up accidentally shrinking a few other things, such as a refrigerator, a sink...

...and Launchpad, who happened to be walking in the door. Yeah, that last one’s a big deal. While Launchpad doesn't have the Micro Phone with him, he does have his cellphone to tell him what kind of horrors he's facing, like the giant spider that's slowly walking across Huey and Louie's feet. Wow, Scrooge's manor has a pest problem!

Mrs. Beakley shows up and wonders where her game partner is. Nothing really comes of that other than taking Mrs. Beakley out of the plot. I kind of forgot she was even there, to be honest. We almost didn’t need Duckworth, either, but it did lead to a funny line earlier, so that's okay.

The next game is the Generic Block Pushing Game. No, they don’t actually call it that, in fact, they don't call it anything. Well, someone else has a name for it, but it's clearly not it. Donald and Scrooge take a block out flawlessly, but Dewey and Webby have a harder time, especially when one of the pieces seems to be moving on its own. They, of course, blame each other over it.

Launchpad calls them and says they're just at the Infinity Tower, trying to conquer it by making it topple down. Huey and Louie take a moment to realize what exactly could be called an infinity tower by really tiny beings, as one of the blocks in that tower appears to be moving on its own. Dewey blames his teammate over it, continuing the Dewey and Webby plot.

We then see the toppling of the so-called "Infinity Tower". This is shown completely in slow motion until it zooms out to an unimpressive tumbling, a subtle way to show off the difference between their perspectives. Suddenly, the call goes out, and we get a commercial break.

Huey and Louie are now crying over how everyone was crushed, to everyone else's confusion. After a few seconds of this, they do get a phone call from Launchpad saying that he's okay, because the tiny people happen to be really fast. It's like a Goosebumps chapter break. "Suddenly, the tower collapses, and their friend isn't answering their calls! BUM BUM BUM! Nope, he's okay!"

We get this emotional moment that reveals that Louie is acting like this for more reasons than just "lovable laziness". We know it's emotional because they subtly play piano music over it. This is quickly shrugged off, but it does raise some good points.

The final challenge: Scroogeopoly, a game about money. All the pieces are top hats, and the oldest player goes first. Yeah, that’s not going to be rigged in favor of the duck that's on the box, and pretty much everyone knows it. Scrooge just shrugs them all off, and, of course, dominates the entire game. I sure say something like that a lot in this review; it's just what he does constantly in this episode.

However, a move that nobody expected: the Micro Phone happened to be aimed at them, because the mini people trained flies to be able to lift it. They get shrunken down. Louie shows up, and gets out his monocular that he just happened to have to see what he has done. It was interesting to not be able to see what these Gyropuddlians look like, but it looks like there's no choice but to end that gag.

For the first time in the episode, we get to see these tiny creatures, because these naked eyes are on ducks only slightly smaller than them now. They look like bears, possibly water bears. Anthropomorphic bears, too, not like the like-real-life bear that appeared in that Goldie episode. I don’t know if we’ll ever get to the bottom of that, alongside all of those regular birds that appear occasionally. Including in this episode during the “GAME NIIIGHT” scene.

But, whoa, this Micro Phone does have an unshrink function! Wait, what, it works on the tiny water bears, too, as we accidentally aimed at them instead of the ducks? Ahhh! He’s giant, even though nobody else ends up being giant in this episode during the necessarily predictable conclusion of this plot. Maybe he held the button for too long?

Louie, now all alone, has to figure out how to get out of this situation. Louie’s whole plot in this episode is essentially him trying to figure out how he could fit into this plot, and he’s not fitting into the “lovably lazy schemer” part that he usually fits into. Suddenly, he figures it out: he has to be a schemer in a different way.

We get the fight scene, with all of them fighting the Gyropuddlians in their own way, all under the guidance of the giant-to-them Louie. But, ahhh, Dewey and Webby aren't follow along because they seemingly can't trust each other! This suddenly ends with Scrooge telling them that they don't have to get along as him and Donald don't. This references the charades scene from earlier. They're not friends, they're family. That apparently was all they needed to get over it, subplot over.

Even Huey gets over his fear of failing to sew, in a move that is a little expected. This is all due to Louie's new planning skills! Will they manage to get out of...yes. The answer is yes. I don't even need to finish that question. How did they do it? They do it in an entertaining way. This is a review, not a summary.

Since they obviously get out of this situation, we get to the also obvious "I'm sorry" scene with a not-so-obvious conclusion. He comes into the room, with 15 different apologies, and Scrooge has this angry look on his face. Turns out, it ends up very well for Louie.

So well, we suddenly end on this shot of Louie getting his own room and even his own LLC. Will this be the start of a story arc focused on Louie, since Dewey managed to have all the "fun" in Season 1? Only time will tell.

How does it stack up?

This episode is a great opener, even if it's not as epic as the first episode of the whole series. I mean, did anyone expect that? Sure, the subplots can be a bit forced, mostly to force that three-act-structure gag, but it's still enjoyable.

Next, the animated debut of Donald Duck’s screwy cousin from the comics, Fethry Duck!

← The Shadow War! 🦆 The Depths of Cousin Fethry! →

[carnivalhome]

A Definitive Guide To Creative Thinking Plus Bonus Tips

CREATIVE THINKING

Creative believing is really a possibility people all have been born with. In the event you really don't utilize that possibility, it's probably as you never understand and utilize the easy fundamentals for growing it. We are able to cure that right today.

Both Standard Fundamentals of creative thinking are:

1. You'll find techniques and methods for innovative thinking.

2. Generating these techniques and methods part of one's emotional customs will probably make resourceful believing automatic and easy.

An entrepreneur finds that exactly the possible benefit at a circumstance, as his thoughts are still trained because of this. An attorney finds the possible issues, as that's how his thoughts are well trained. How exactly we think gets a custom, and that's how you educate yourself. Learn the methods of inventive thinking, utilize them until eventually, they're custom, and also inventive thinking is going to be natural to you personally as lying really is really for a politician.

The Methods Of Creative-thinking

Now, there are scores of imaginative problem-solving processes you may learn how to make use of. "Concept-combination," as an instance, could have you ever blending clocks and roses to produce the very first alarm clock which wakes you with a mild discharge or odor. Make use of the procedure of"random-presentation" and also a cellular phone may grant the idea to get your dictation having a pocket recorder at the same time you stroll so you will have enough time to get exercise but get work performed.

Creative-thinking goes past simply solving unique difficulties or inventing new matters. Really creative thoughts would be inventing all the questions also, but perhaps not only the remedies. To Become creative all of the Moment, concentrate on 3 matters:

1. Challenge your premises. What if your restaurant did not possess staff members? Customers will purchase a server since they input and nourish on their own in a buffet. When that which was automated as possible, possibly 1 owner-operator can conduct a huge restaurant. Hurry what. Can you need to go to do the job? Do pools want h2o? Is instruction consistently a fantastic matter?

2. Alter your own perspective. Asking your pet dog's notions on your busy-ness might guide you into the unnecessary matters you're doing. Believing dollars-per-day rather than per-hour can provide you a strategy to permit staff goes home whenever they conclude a specific quota. Greater efficacy is nearly sure, and also you might fix daily fork out and quotas consequently both employees and you got an extra income. Consider all out of several viewpoints.

3. Allow your thoughts to run crazy. Flying household furniture appears to be absurd, however, nevertheless, it may possibly lead to this notion of the hover-lifter. Twist the apparatus under it and furniture elevates it using a pillow of atmosphere, producing for simple relocating. Do not stifle your imagination. Hurry, allow thoughts to arrive, and also be aware you always have the option to shed them afterward.

Growing Creative-thinking Outcomes

To make the aforementioned methods in an automatic portion of one's believing, simply utilize these. Ordinarily, it requires a few months to come up with a custom, which means you necessitate an easy method to remind your self daily at this moment; point. Consider producing a couple of one's favorite methods over the card and carrying it out together with you personally. Tug out it through the duration of your daytime and then implement the methods to any such thing. So on, far more resourceful thinking is going to soon be described as a normal portion of one's own life.

CONNECT WITH YOUR BODY

After we are at the flower will often overlook we have even a human body, as our heads really are bursting color, appears words and graphics. However, if damaging customs calms the human body of its own energy and potency, your imagination and endurance are going to undoubtedly be sapped too.

What is more bothersome in relation to the disruption of one's creative stream with an abysmal hassle back pain, dullness of the"shakes"?

I heard that the saying like a beginner guitarist, I am a"modest muscle mass athlete" -- significance I want to heat up the muscles and also heal them. Most likely as performers all of us are muscle athletes that are small. After we all really do want a fantastic step of endurance to make it via our resourceful activities.

Be it sitting over an easel, the insistent motions of actively playing with a musical tool, the endurance to endure and then walk stage all through a whole show or sitting down in a keyboard for nearly all of your evening, our imaginative instruments require using their human anatomy.

To continue to keep that human body powerful and resilient normally takes daily care.

Day today self-care techniques like getting adequate rest, eating about three balanced and healthy meals which are equally aerated through daily (and healthful snacks for those who want them), going the human own body knowingly and ingesting water really are typically crucial for the care of the physique.

Looking after this human body also influences your head. Illness, malnutrition, alcoholism, and melancholy may have undesirable impacts on your head and also the capability to problem solve, focus and relate thoughts.

The Deadly Cycle and Self-Care

Touring using a ring, seeking to get a show or burning the midnight oil to complete a painting in front of a gang launching, are typical cases of the exceptional situation at which we all could curl up our self-care field and embrace a completely new pair of policies.

Afterward, the moment the show or excursion is either the item has been finished sink to an anti-climactic"no" or some stage of changeover until we return into the inventive stream back again.

The everyday methods that you maintain in case of matters really are"ordinary" will establish resilience for those changing times when these exceptional circumstances produce up. They likewise establish customs and healthier living capabilities you are able to draw when life becoming harder.

Set it to drama

Among those greatest methods for a nutritious human body, mind and soul is always to find enough rest and sleep. To-night, stop your daily tasks a half-hour and expend the point twisting down again. Publish the pressures of this afternoon by speaking or writing concerning these. Calm your self using a tub, massage, tea, songs or some fantastic read which will not remind one of one's workout.

We could come up with explanations about why people can not operate, we cannot make various food decisions plus also we can not target more about our own wellness.

You might get a one of a kind creative present to talk about the Earth, however, also your imagination is determined by a solid body and mind.

Which your good reasons for not care for your self are far somewhat more crucial than that?

THE 7 KEYS TO YOUR CREATIVE GENIUS

Listed here are seven means by which you're able to immediately get into your normal imagination and make what you prefer.

1. Think as a Kid. As grown-ups, we have a tendency to consider ways targeted toward showing how smart people have been. But as kids, we're only impulsive and a lot more resourceful in our believing. To recapture your youth fascination, let yourself merely wonder things, to become completely contained from the right here and today, and also to detach oneself by what you've imagined was actual.

2. To become sophisticated does not take a school diploma; nonetheless, it only necessitates building a matchup amongst existing thoughts. For example, were you aware ice cream has been devised from 2000 B-C nonetheless it required the following 3900 several years to get somebody to think of the thought of the cone? It truly is whenever you just take two apparently immaterial goods and make use of the flicker of imagination which genius transpires.

3. Be Somewhat Illogical. It's a strangely Western attribute to desire to tie up things in neat packages. We desire methods to issues, and also replies to concerns. To be more innovative, you have to become familiar with matters which do not in shape. Even the Eastern heritage is a lot more in song with incongruence. As inside this Zen koan, or difficulty: what's the sound of one hand clapping?

4. Laugh Additional. Tom Peters claims the imagination of an office might be quantified by means of a laughometer, ie how far it strikes. Humour is still among the most significant devices that are creative. Additionally, it jolts us outside of the regular routines and places thoughts together which willn't proceed with each other. It's been discovered that soon after hearing humor tapes, college students' capacity to fix issues climbs by 60 percent.

5. Think Out Your Boundaries. Several of these services and products we neglect now will be the consequence of folks presuming beyond their own limits. John Lynn remembers attending a computer meeting from the 1980s in a lodge when someone realizing the following thing they would be considering is computerized doorways. After he moved to the exact same hotel twenty decades after, most of the doors utilized computer-programmed important cards.

6. To become creative will not need BlueSky contemplating. You may continue to be imaginative by adjusting exactly what works everywhere. An American airline that wished quicker turn arounds in the flights embraced the methods for method 1 pit teams. The following supply of thoughts is how nature. Georges de Mestral accommodated how specified seeds adhere on outfits and devised Velcro.

7. Understand Your Desires. Dreaming and daydreaming may cause a rich seam of thoughts, as that is if we curl up and permit the subconscious thoughts to work through itself. Even the Roffey Park Management Institute requires for this"washing up imagination" due to the fact many flashes of inspiration arrived if we have been walking your dogsitting Archimedes-like from the tub, or carrying out up the washing.

Employ those 7 creative-thinking processes and also make sure they are a part of one's day-to-day believing and that I ensure that fresh methods into your issues will probably start-up to you personally with speed and ease.

[junker-town]

Chris Jones made 3 big plays to help the Chiefs win Super Bowl 54

Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones batted down two passes in Super Bowl 54.

Retired defensive end Stephen White breaks down the three big plays free agent-to-be Chris Jones made in Super Bowl 54.

There were several heroes for the Kansas City Chiefs defense during Super Bowl 54.

Bashaud Breeland was fantastic both in coverage (he picked off 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo early on) and in run support as their leading tackler. Edge rusher Frank Clark cashed the check that his mouth wrote by putting a ton of pressure on Garoppolo late when it mattered most, and he also got home with a fourth-down sack that effectively ended the game.

Comparatively, Chris Jones’ stat sheet doesn’t look nearly as impressive. However, the big plays Jones did make may have had just as much of an impact on the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl.

Some folks might say it had even more.

3 plays Jones made that helped the Chiefs win Super Bowl 54

The stat sheet might not have shown it, but the film told a different story. I said in my Super Bowl preview I didn’t think the Chiefs would have much of a chance if Jones was only in sparingly, and sure enough he was back to full-time duty and in there on early downs. Once again, it was on several passing plays where Jones truly left his mark.

1. Jones’ almost-sack forced Garoppolo into a terrible decision

The first play came early in the second quarter, just after the Chiefs had scored their first touchdown of the game to go up 7-3. After one of Breeland’s tackles for a loss threw the 49ers’ offense off schedule, Jones knew they would probably have to throw. He then unleashed the rarely seen, and even more rarely successful, forklift-to-an-arm-over move on San Francisco right guard Mike Person to blow by him and get almost immediate pressure on Garoppolo.

Although he missed the sack, Jones’ pressure forced the quarterback up into more pressure from fellow Chiefs defensive lineman Mike Pennel. That directly led to Garoppolo making one of the worst decisions of the game, an absolute duck down the field in Emmanuel Sanders’ general direction that Breeland easily picked off:

Stonecold and Big Mike with the pressure, Breezy with the pick pic.twitter.com/9G79wL3jyV

— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) February 3, 2020

Hell, he probably could’ve fair caught it.

Sanders wasn’t open at any point in his route and, had he had time to notice, I highly doubt Garoppolo would’ve even attempted that throw. Thanks to Jones’ quick manhandling and discarding of Person, Jimmy G did not have that time, though. After that interception, the Chiefs’ offense marched right down the field and scored a field goal to take a 10-3 lead.

That was huge, but maybe not as huge as Jones’ second big play against the pass on Sunday.

2. Jones batted down a pass, and it might’ve been the turning point of the game

With 5:26 left in the game, 49ers were trying to protect a 20-17 lead.

San Francisco elected to pass on second-and-5 after 49ers running back Raheem Mostert had rushed for a 5-yard gain. Not what I would’ve done, but the reality is the play did have a great chance of success.

The 49ers had rookie wide receiver Deebo Samuel — who had been an early star on end-arounds and jet sweeps — motion away, with all-world tight end George Kittle in between the numbers and the hash marks to that side. When the ball was snapped, Samuel went out wide as if waiting for a screen pass. Kittle went upfield kinda looking like a blocker, but then he curled inside a couple of yards beyond the sticks. It should have been a relatively easy completion, especially since KC’s defense blitzed on the play and had the 37-year-old edge rusher Terrell Suggs in coverage on Kittle.

Yeah ...

They probably would have succeeded, too, if it weren’t for that meddling Jones. Him jumping up and knocking the pass down may well have changed both teams’ fortunes that night.

On the one hand, if Kittle catches that ball, he is probably getting the ball at least to the 49ers’ 35-yard line, in the middle of the field with the clock still running. That also would’ve meant a new set of downs and more plays to run the clock. Maybe, just maybe, after picking up that first down, 49ers head coach/playcaller Kyle Shanahan would’ve come to his senses and gotten back to running the ball, including giving Samuel another opportunity on an end-around or jet sweep.

(Side note: This is exactly why the criticism of Shanahan not running the football late is more than fair. Even when you call a “good” pass play, there are just so many more variables that go into whether its actually successful than if you run the ball. That is especially true when running the ball is what you do well and best.)

But Jones did knock the pass down and that not only stopped the clock, it also forced the 49ers into trying to throw the ball again on third down. That throw was also incomplete.

In a situation where they were, at least in theory, attempting to salt the clock away, the 49ers ended up punting the ball back to the Chiefs after their drive lasted only a minute. The Chiefs didn’t use a single timeout, which is f’n absurd.

You can at least partially thank Jones for that.

3. Jones’ other batted down pass killed what could’ve been a large 49ers gain

The third big play of the night was another pass that Jones knocked down at the line of scrimmage. Now it was the Chiefs trying to defend their four-point lead with less than two minutes left in the game. This time, it was on a ball meant to go to Samuel in the middle of the field on a route where he broke outside, then back inside. It, also, should’ve been a relatively easy completion.

I don’t know if you’d seen Samuel running with the ball in his hands a lot before the Super Bowl, but if he catches that pass with that much space to run, there really is no telling just how many yards he might’ve picked up. He already had cornerback Charvarius Ward in his rear view, and it appears that Tyrann Mathieu could’ve been shielded off by Kittle up the seam, giving Samuel at least a small lane to turn up field.

That could’ve made things really interesting, considering the 49ers were already at the Chiefs’ 49-yard line. But, once again, they were foiled by one of Jones’ mitts.

He also got his right pinky finger on the second down play as well, but I’m not sure that pass wouldn’t have been picked off if he hadn’t, so I will just mention it and move on, lol. The aforementioned Clark sack came two plays after that.

Game over.

Mind you, back when I played, many moons ago, we actually made fun of guys who knocked down a lot of passes because we thought it was a sign they couldn’t rush the passer. But I have come to appreciate those batted down passes a lot more after I finished playing, especially when a player like Jones is the one doing it.

Jones earned himself a big payday in free agency

I’ve been a Jones fan since back when I was working on his pre-draft breakdown in the spring of 2016. At 6’5 and over 300 pounds, the fact that Jones was as quick as a cat really stood out, and his athleticism was readily apparent on film. The only question I ever had about him was whether he would play hard enough, consistently enough, to be the dominant player he should be.

Four years into his career, I think it’s safe to say he has answered all those questions about his hustle, though.

I knew he was playing his ass off this year, but I admit to being shocked at seeing this graph on my Twitter timeline:

Double team rate as a defensive tackle (x) by pass rush win rate as a defensive tackle (y) for the 2019 regular season. PRWR = rate pass rusher beats blocker in 2.5 seconds. ESPN metrics, NFL Next Gen Stats data. pic.twitter.com/sUCFwARoJi

— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) December 30, 2019

Jones was one of the most double-teamed interior pass rushers this season but still managed to have more success than just about any interior rusher not named Aaron Donald or Grady Jarrett — and Jarrett was double-teamed way less. For him to be playing at a similar level to Donald goes to show how just far Jones has come in maximizing his ridiculous amount of talent.

Jones one-upped himself with how he played in the Super Bowl, which was good timing because he’s set to be a free agent this offseason.

I am not a “cap guy,” so I don’t know what the Chiefs can afford to pay Jones, or if he would be willing to take a “discount” to stay with a team that looks to be built to win, or if cash rules everything around him, cream get the money. What I will say, however, is that whatever amount of money you thought a young Ndamukong Suh was worth in free agency? Go ahead and apply that to Jones if he decides he wants to go to the highest bidder.

Because that should be his value.

In fact, Jones is the pass rusher people always seemed to think Suh was. They both are hellafied power rushers, but Jones has the edge when it comes to quick finesse moves and changeups.

Oh and, stats wise, the sack numbers in their first four years aren’t even close. Suh has only had nine or more sacks once in his career, ever. Jones has already done it twice, including a ridiculous 15.5 sacks he notched last season.

All a young Suh has over Jones is a better motor, but few people have ever had the kind of motor Suh had, and Jones has certainly closed that gap since becoming a pro. I’m just telling you that with his skill level and versatility, any team could build their defense around this Jones guy and be set for many years to come.

Not that he needed an exclamation mark after the start to his career that he’s had, but Chris Jones’ performance this year has certainly provided him with one. His play against the 49ers not only secured his legacy as a Super Bowl champion, but he also likely helped to secure an even bigger bag this spring, as well.

Not bad for one evening’s work, even if his impact did fly a little under the radar for some people.

That’s that I’m here for.

[reactingtosomething]

Reacting to The Good Place: “Dance Dance Resolution”

Eleanor’s Moral Continuity

The Setup: Find our reaction to the season 2 premiere of The Good Place here.

SPOILERS for episode 203 below!

KRIS: 

Well, that escalated quickly. (Said the guy who’s never seen Anchorman.) In The Good Place’s Chapter 16 — written by noted pun enthusiast Megan Amram (also on Tumblr) and directed by executive producer Drew Goddard (a Lost alum and excellent writer in his own right, who ran the first half of the first season of Daredevil and wrote the screen adaptation of The Martian) — Adam’s prediction about an alliance proves largely correct, Liz’s and my theory that Eleanor was actually retaining her ethical/spiritual growth proves (sadly) incorrect, and Eleanor and Chidi are confirmed as soulmates, even if Michael didn’t know it. PLUS: the returns of lava demon Todd, the Medium Place, and — thank you, universe — Janet’s reset button!

“Is that possible, Janet? Can you just chill out a little?”

“Dance Dance Resolution” goes Groundhog Day (I haven’t seen that, either, but I have seen the terrific Edge of Tomorrow) with an accelerated/abbreviated chronicling of Michael’s hundreds of attempts to engineer a perpetual torture machine that Eleanor won’t far-too-quickly outsmart. He hits rock bottom when the epically stupid Jason solves it first (“Yeah, this one hurts”). Eventually, when all the other demons go on strike and Vicky (f.k.a. Real Eleanor) brings him a list of their demands, Michael finds himself reduced to seeking advice from a man who died because he locked himself in a safe and thought he could still breathe because he brought a snorkel.

Meanwhile, in what might actually be the episode’s B-story (how did the rest of you read it?), Eleanor and Chidi overhear the truth from some of the striking demons on a smoke break, and flee to the Medium Place, where Mindy St. Claire is really tired of Eleanor and Janet showing up on her doorstep with various combinations of the other doomed souls. We get good gags out of Mindy being the only one who remembers any of the 14 previous visits, and hear a few of Eleanor and Co.’s failed plans to outmaneuver Michael. But this episode’s emotional power comes from Mindy’s revelation that Eleanor and Chidi have not only slept together several times, but once even confessed their love to each other. (“It’s like anti-porn.”) Shaken, Eleanor — who has just been really mean to Chidi, even for her — rallies the team for the 700-somethingth time (we see some versions where Michael gives up after just a few seconds) and delivers an ultimatum to Michael… but thanks to that aforementioned advice from Jason, he’s (still) one step ahead of them. He wants to team up. This seems to mean that Tiya Sircar’s Vicky has just become our season villain, which is a pretty glorious reversal of the dynamic she originally had with “Fake Eleanor.”

Surprising no one, I’m now even more invested in learning more about Janet, who is clearly so essential to the operation of afterlife neighborhoods that even through 801 resets Michael could never fully control her. (Does this mean that in “Tahani Al-Jamil,” Janet’s wild personality swings were also to some degree unintentional? I’d love that. They weren’t essential to making Chidi despair over the awfulness of his book and pushing him out of his comfort zone.)

Anyone have hopes, fears, favorite moments (I think I can guess one of Liz’s), or a lead on some coke for poor Mindy St. Claire? As a former fledgling Nietzsche scholar, I’m pretty happy that William Jackson Harper delivers what I’m convinced is only the third or fourth time an American TV show has correctly pronounced “Nietzsche.”

Click through for sports analogies from Adam, a philosophy digression from Kris, and a quality Twitter recommendation from Miri:

MIRI:

Well I’m officially done trying to predict The Good Place. (This is a lie, and I’m not even sorry. Feel free to mock me for how wrong I am in future.) We knew they would twist us again soon, but not this big this quickly. Damn, Schur & co. Just damn.

I have questions about Janet’s level of self-awareness. Or I guess accumulation/memory of previous resets? Her conversation with Michael as he’s about to reset her suggests she knows somewhat what has happened in the past. That may be due to him explaining it to her over the course of that attempt, but I’m not sure. Does Janet have the capacity to retain change even if she loses memories? Clearly Eleanor and co can, but Janet is not human. But is she a being? Does she have the ability to grow? (Sidebar: Perpetually in love with D’Arcy Carden’s performance. That sequence of falls!)

I genuinely love The Good Place’s relationship to absurdity. When you run 800+ scenarios, you’re going to get to some weird places and a two second farm reality joke is exactly what I never knew I needed from a tv show. They have a damn clam chowder fountain, which is insane but they play it as if it isn’t and that is what works so beautifully. Everything they’re doing is bonkers, but if enough people do the same bonkers thing with a straight face, it’s very hard to question it. That’s what worked in the demons’ favor in the first season, and I think what will work in Eleanor, Michael, etc.’s favor this time around. (I told you I was lying about the no predictions thing.)

Jumping back to the chowder fountain for a moment: Manhattan clam chowder would be more demonic to have around than New England clam chowder in general, but a (proper) dairy based chowder is more horrifying to have in a public fountain, so I believe they made the right call on that.

A few smaller thoughts to wrap up:

JUST realized that Mike Schur and Michael the demon have the same name and I don’t know what that says about Schur or about what Shur thinks of himself. It’s a good name in general, though.

I’m quite excited to see more from Vicky. She’s a really volatile mixture of blind enthusiasm and legitimate shrewdness, plus Sircar is just a joy to watch. 

How high is the demon to bad person ratio, y’all? Is it really this skewed or is this a gross misallocation of resources?

Highly recommend this delightful twitter

ADAM: 

A slight disclaimer: I have been a little busy with the move and without internet living like some early 90s sap. I'm currently at my local Starbucks writing this (Spectrum hooks everything up later today). Now back to the show.

It's hard God Damn work being this right all the time! I mean I figured that the team up storyline would happen later, but well played Mike Schur for just getting to the point (more on that in a minute). I watched the episode at a Holiday Inn Express in Kingman, AZ and I'm pretty sure Kris could hear me patting myself on the back from his apartment in Hollywood. It is a good feeling when you just nail a plot development or future storyline. I mean some could liken my figuring out the plot twist to Jason figuring out that everyone is was in the bad place. Okay, enough of the gloating time for more serious talks because I've got great news for everyone, especially Mindy St. Claire, I didn't forget the cocaine!

I will say that even though I called the team up angle, I did not expect it to happen at the end of episode two. The Michael storyline of nothing working and being blackmailed by fake Eleanor (or whatever you want to call her) did have a mid-season or end of the season storyline to it. After letting everything settle in now, however, it makes sense that Schur would pull something like this-this early on. If you look back to the end of season 6, and all of season 7, of Parks and Recreation he takes massive time jumps. Leslie had triplets and we never saw them except for short moments. He essentially did the same thing with “Dance Dance Resolution.” He showed that we can keep doing the same thing over and over again (ala case of the week) seeing how everyone figures it out. In a recent podcast interview he did with Andy Greenwald, he explained how he likes to dig himself a hole and figure a way out. This episode shows that he's crazy like a fox and like "The Good/Bad Place" anything is possible to happen. I like the fact that with this Groundhog Day kind of episode that Schur and Co. are saying that no matter the different variables that the outcome is the same. Ergo, even though these might be bad people they can still learn and grow to be good. Which then leads to the question of: What really makes a bad/good person? Kris, since you are the philosopher I look to you to answer that question. I will say that with the team up now happening that Eleanor and Co. will grow attached to Michael and vice versa (a bit of a stretch).  

Disclaimer: This portion is going to be heavy with sports analogies.

Eleanor, Chidi, and Janet have some very funny moments in this episode showing that they are getting more freedom to handle more of the comedy on their own (I touched on this last episode). The episode, however, truly belonged to Michael. “Dance Dance Resolution” felt like Ted Danson was playing iso ball. We never really truly got to see him shine, except only during last season's finale. This was his moment and he did not disappoint. He was essentially LeBron barreling down the lane where no one is going to stop him. His ability to set others up (his interactions with Janet and then Jason in particular) so they get their moment is great. How he can work in the scene is great and his comedic timing is on point that it just seems so effortless. I am curious to know how much direction is given to Ted Danson or if it's just give him the ball and get the hell out of his way.

I would say to Kris and Liz that you are both correct that Eleanor keeps her ethical and spiritual growth. The reason is that even though yes she does lose her memory every time there is a reset, if you look at every reset she still does the same thing. She seeks out Chidi for spiritual/ethical growth. While she may not remember what happens she always tries to do the responsible or ethical thing. The question may be that instead of wondering what Janet retains with every reset, we might want to start asking what Eleanor and Co. retain with every reset. The characters’ memories are wiped, but how much are they truly retaining? Even when Eleanor and Chidi visit Mindy St. Claire for the 50th or whatever time, she explains to Eleanor that that is the first time Eleanor has told Chidi that she loves him. Even though they have had sex dozens of times before she never said told Chidi that she loved him. That would mean that even though their memories keep being erased their connection continues to grow stronger. This is going to be a storyline that Eleanor and Chidi are going to continue to grapple with throughout the show because with them trying to fool everyone Eleanor and/or Chidi is going to get jealous (or try to make the other jealous) while they are with their "soulmates." I mean let's be real it will be Eleanor trying to make Chidi jealous by hooking up with her "soulmate" and Chidi trying to get back at her, but failing in a miserable yet funny way. I really hope they stay away from a Will They Won't They sexual tension between Chidi and Eleanor.

Finally, I would have to disagree with the notion of Janet knowing and or retaining information. I think that Janet is just an actual computer trying to understand how the world works. I think that with every reboot I would compare it to a hard reset if someone formatted their computer. In the season one finale Michael says they stole a good Janet and reprogrammed her. She may have a backup drive that Michael does not even know about, which then, said backup drive will eventually be used against him by Shawn to retire Michael. I would also like to see Tahani get some more run. She hasn't had as much space to play as the rest of the co-stars. She has mainly just been involved in the B, sometimes C plot or the occasional runner.

KRIS: 

Since now two of you have asked, my leanings as a former-almost-philosopher are Aristotelian, which is to say that A) I’m generally more interested in character traits — virtues and vices — than in hard universal rules or in what you could call the “moral math” of utilitarianism/consequentialism; and B) I tend to think one’s character is shaped by one’s actions (as Chidi has explained to Eleanor), and that therefore one’s moral sense can be — indeed, must be — trained. As my existentialism professor Iain Thomson once phrased this view, “Aretē is a technē. Virtue is a skill.” (The Greek root of the word “technology” is “technē,” which can translate roughly to “skill,” but also to “science,” or even to “art” in the sense that (an) art is a practice. Which is why the website name Ars Technica is a little strange.)

Virtue ethics, then, may be the main ethic of The Good Place as a show. It’s worth nothing, though, that in “Dance Dance Resolution,” Chidi for the first time identifies himself as a specialist not in virtue ethics but in deontology, i.e., ethics based on rules and duties. (This explains his interest in contractualism and Scanlon’s What We Owe to Each Other, and also why he was so excited to have meals with Immanuel Kant.)

Appropriate response to a Kant superfan I’M KIDDING (mostly)

I’m not yet totally sold on Adam’s read of what I’m going to call Eleanor’s moral continuity, but I like it. (I literally applauded alone in my studio apartment when Adam’s prediction came true.) This brings me to my biggest… I don’t know if “concern” is the right word? But like I said last week, I’ll miss watching Eleanor grapple with her past dirtbaggery, which wasn’t just hilarious but often moving, and often a mirror. Think of when Eleanor’s boyfriend wanted to boycott that coffee shop. Dirtbag-Eleanor decided that because perfectly aligning all of one’s actions with one’s principles is impossible, we shouldn’t bother trying. As a specific scenario, this is something we all struggle with. And in general, the theme of “How Do I Be(come) a Good Person?” is creepy-targeted-Facebook-ads-level Pandering to Kris.

Vox’s Caroline Framke observed that this season reminds her of how Community changed a lot in its second season, shifting from a show “about college” to something supremely strange and toweringly ambitious, all for the better. I definitely don’t object to The Good Place undergoing a similar change, as seems to be the case not only in this episode’s structural ambition but in the increased focus on Danson/Michael. But while I do love Danson (who is everything Adam says he is), maybe because this is actually the first thing I’ve seen him in, I’m less invested in TGP as a Danson Delivery Mechanism than I was in its being — by circumstance if not by design — a show about women and people of color trying to find (or make) their place in the universe.

More importantly, the increased Michael focus is also what signals that TGP is no longer primarily about being a good person — though the team-up suggests it may still be about building a good community. And that’s a Schurian theme I love, partly because it’s an antidote to the distinctly American ethos of radical individualism: Americans like to believe in superheroes, in the Great Man theory of history, in “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” as the answer to everything, in the power of a single person to change the world through sheer will. But that’s not how the world works. It takes a village. This is indeed the point of Aristotle’s ethics, and of Aristotle’s Ethics, by which I mean the book Nicomachean Ethics, whose last chapter all but explicitly sets up his Politics, a work about how we organize communities to serve the ends of human happiness. An old classmate thought it was insane that political theory students read the Politics without necessarily reading the Ethics, and something like the reverse is also true: the goals established in the Ethics cannot be achieved without politics.

In The Good Place, Eleanor can’t become better if the world around her doesn’t provide conditions that make striving for goodness feasible. A key idea in philosophical ethics is that “ought implies can.” If a moral framework is going to make sense as a human project, and as something that can be enforced, following it has to actually be possible. In life this is what discouraged Eleanor from even trying to be conscientious about how she spent her money, and in afterlife it’s what Chidi agonizes over when Mindy reveals they’ve all been here before: “We are experiencing karma, but we can't learn from our mistakes, because our memories keep getting erased. It’s an epistemological nightmare!”

(For a much cleaner, sharper take on where this may all be going in a larger thematic sense, read Todd VanDerWerff on how he sees The Good Place as a self-conscious repudiation of Parks and Recreation’s optimism.)

ADAM: 

I think TGP is still about being a good person though. While yes there is a team up there still is the suggestion about what characters, mainly Eleanor, will do to figure out how they are good. Everything Schur has created deals with the optimism within not just people, but a community as a whole. This optimism is then brought forth by a conduit (Leslie Knope in Parks and Rec, Terry Jeffords in Brooklyn Nine-Nine) that shows everyone around them that they can either make a difference or can learn to be less selfish. 

Do you think that because Eleanor might retain some sort of "Goodness" that she then tries to make the neighborhood good? Do you think the Eleanor does retain some of the goodness that she has learned from all the resets (hence my theory on her telling Chidi that she loves him for the first time) that she, in fact, will help both Michael and the rest of the neighborhood become good? I don't see TGP as a repudiation to Parks and Rec's optimism, I see it as the optimism shining through the chaos within. Not to belabor the point, but even after all the 800+ resets Eleanor always seeks Chidi out to learn ethics/morality, as she feels guilty that she is not supposed to be in the "Good Place." She never deviates or goes down a different path. Couldn't you say that even in the chaos as a whole Eleanor and Co. still show resolve and that good can still shine through all through the chaos?

KRIS:

I'd like Lemon and/or Miri to take a crack at these questions, and I'll maybe come back to Eleanor when I close this out tomorrow morning, but I'll venture briefly that there's a distinction between the optimism of Parks -- Change for the better is inevitable, we're on the winning side of history -- and the specific, America-in-2017 brand of hope (or maybe that's not even the right word, but something hope-adjacent) that can be read into TGP, in which you try to change things for the better without assuming that you're going to succeed. In the case of Eleanor and Co., it's not like it can get any worse; there's nowhere to go but up, and thus nothing to lose by fighting even an unwinnable battle, but there is a toll on the conscience for giving up.

MIRI:

Point of clarification (because it matters to the questions Adam brought up, not just because I'm a pedantic ass)—I'm pretty sure this was not the time Eleanor said she loved Chidi. Mindy was showing her tape of another time. They overheard the striking demons only a few days into this reset, so they barely know each other this time. Which is why Eleanor was horrified to learn of the love—she doesn't feel that way about Chidi. Yet. And I think that goes to an important point—Eleanor's progress is not a straight line. She's evolved as a person overall, but she's still somewhat who she used to be and has her old memories. The circumstances of each reboot affect how she reacts somewhat. And that's realistic—no path to self improvement is simple or linear. She's going to have backslides and incremental progress. (Also I'd argue that she goes to Janet for help staying under the radar for her own safety and Janet brings her to Chidi. Eleanor doesn't go directly to him out of love or guilt. BUT she does find her way to him and is willing to learn from him over and over and over, which is what matters to me.)

I think that Eleanor's character has improved and that she retains some of that, but that the job is far from done—and that is the most important part. Each time she must choose to do better (not for the best reason to start, but still) and then work at it. Being good in a vacuum is easy and not particularly worthy of commendation. Eleanor is still on her climb out of dirtbaggery, she's just a bit farther along than in the first season.

Also: IT DID NOT OCCUR TO ME until Kris pointed it out that literally none of the non-demon protagonists are white dudes. That's amazing. I have come to expect Fremulon shows to actually look like the world (women, people of color, many things are garbage but not ALL things, etc). But damn, that is worth taking a moment to appreciate.

Also also, I would like to [again] direct you all to the twitter @nocontexttgp because it is a damn delight on my twitter feed and we all deserve that.

KRIS:

I wonder how much we should consider the question of Eleanor's moral continuity in the light of the sitcom "law" that your characters can't really change. Mike Schur and his collaborators (Dan Goor on B99, Greg Daniels on Parks) have pushed this law to its limits, but have they ever really broken it? Jake Peralta has grown up enough to be a worthy partner to Amy Santiago, but he's still definitely recognizably the Peralta of the pilot. Even the increasingly Woke Peralta is seen in season 1, when he punches out guest star Stacy Keach's old school detective for being homophobic. Leslie Knope started out kind of as a hapless Michael Scott clone, but she was never as outright awful a human being, and Poehler's sunniness lent itself to a different direction, so that Leslie became a hypercompetent moral authority, but she also retained her Too Much-ness and her blind love for and faith in her friends.

From the beginning Schur has been clear that The Good Place is intended as a heavily serialized show, so Miri's observation that Eleanor and Chidi seem to flee to the Medium Place relatively early into version 802 gets at a big question I have that this week's inevitable twist will probably prove I'm overthinking BUT STILL: Are we supposed to assume that Eleanor v802 has had roughly the same amount of moral maturation as version 1, that she’s had roughly similar experiences to what we saw last year? It seems like we have to say no, right? And if that's the case, this is on one level a pretty interesting commentary about network sitcoms: in a way it really doesn’t matter what happens to these people week-to-week, as it really didn't matter exactly who Joey was dating or exactly what Monica was yelling about on any given episode of Friends. But more specifically to the serialization of The Good Place, who/what exactly are we rooting for, if not for the Eleanor whose trials we followed last season? This reminds me, weirdly, of one of the big problems of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, in which the lead character was a repeatedly reset blank slate and we spent far too long knowing much more about her world than she did. (Echo actually figured out the truth by the end of the original pilot, but Fox wanted more weekly sexploitation, and forced the show into a procedural rut which eventually saw Eliza Dushku in bondage gear for like 30 seconds, apparently just for the hell of it.)

If Adam is right, then Eleanor's situation is something like "10 steps forward, 9 steps back" in every reset, and maybe last season did "matter" in-universe. But if Adam is wrong, then I guess what we're rooting for has to be in Eleanor's nature rather in her nurture -- maybe her fierce insistence on setting her own course, driven home as a fundamental drive with last season's revelation that Eleanor emancipated herself from her parents as a teenager -- and/or the very notion of moral perfectibility itself. Not perfection, but the potential for it. That is, we're rooting for Eleanor not because she becomes better but because deep down she wants to. I could live with that.

This isn’t relevant to my point, I just really wanted to include it

Lastly: I mentioned last week that I’m a little down on twist-driven storytelling as a concept or approach, but part of the reason it works so well here is that by going to the team-up so early — despite, as Adam said, having the feel of mid-season significance — the show is telling us it’s not “really” about the twist. Whereas something like Westworld builds really slowly and deliberately to a revelation that’s supposed to be earth-shattering, here the twist seems to be a means to a character-driven end, rather than the end in itself.

We’ll try to keep this up all season!

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[dnghn-relocated]

143+144 together if possible? With Donghun please 😊 he's your older sibling's friend maybe?

prompt

143 | “Ew, your hand is sweaty.”144 | “Get out of my face before I hit you.”

scenario: 

the summer heat has a way of making your thoughts and actions a bit more jumbled than normal 

words: 2,787genre: fluff, au

It seemed as if the sun had just emitted the hottest solar flares of the season with how boiling hot the air was outside. The porch was actually sizzling and the heat alone sent a haze over the top of every surface the rays touched, creating a wobbly screen that was a sign in itself to not go anywhere that wasn’t inside. Well, at least those who didn’t particularly feel like acquiring 3rd degree burns on every inch of their body.

Among those who were smart enough to stay far from the blaze that had taken over the planet beyond the confines of their home, was you, now blissfully sat in front of the air conditioner with your eyes cast on the TV across the room. It was an awfully uncomfortable position and your eyes were squinting at the screen due to the distance between yourself and the box, but there was no way you would be separated from the air sending chills over your skin. There wasn’t a single bead of sweat on you and until the sun decided to disappear over the horizon, it was sure as hell going to stay like that.

Water bottles surrounded your feet, some empty and some half full, but it was the container of ice cream haphazardly balancing on the edge of the small table beside that was truly making this day bearable. While other people may have chose to go run in sprinklers and douse themselves at the local waterpark, namely your brother and some of his friends, the company of Park Hyung Sik was all the people you needed to stay sane.

“If only people like you actually existed,” you pouted at the screen as the two leads teased each other, the scene ending with a soft kiss that had your heart fluttering.

No sooner and the credits began to roll across the TV as the show came to a close with previews of next week playing in the background. You let out a huff as your legs fell from the back of the couch, hand clasping the now empty ice cream container and shaking the spoon inside as you stood to move to the kitchen. It didn’t seem possible, but the second you were further than five feet from the air conditioner it felt as if the room had drastically gone up in temperature.

In an almost quizzical manner, you spun around on your heel to face the machine with the intention of yelling at it, but at the sight of the front door swung wide open, you screeched.

“Are you god damn crazy?” You shouted, tossing the empty container onto the counter as your brother and his friend walked in with a cooler between them. “Shut the door!”

“Oh calm down,” Minhyuk, the aforementioned older brother, scoffed as him and his friend set the cooler down, his foot stretching to kick the door closed. “A little bit of heat isn’t going to melt you.”

The tip of your nose scrunched as you looked at him distastefully while he stuck his tongue childishly back at you. It was a fleeting moment, however, as your eyes were quick to cast onto the lean man beside him who was wiping his hands across his board shorts as if to get rid of any lingering dirt. His smile was small as he looked at you quietly, Minhyuk moving around him to pull the lid from the cooler, but the man let his gaze linger for a moment longer until your brother hit him.

“Aw, ew,” his face twisted as Minhyuk’s hand connected with his calf. “Your hand is sweaty.”

“And? You’re just as gross as I am,” Minhyuk countered with a bewildered look at his friend.

A laugh escaped your lips as the duo bickered, but your mouth no sooner turned downward as their combined disgusting body odor hit your nose and stung your eyes. Your hand clasped over your mouth and nose as you stepped away from them with a whine, complaints no sooner meeting the air as you waved for the pair to leave.

“Please, just go take a shower already, Min,” you groaned from behind the kitchen counter.

“What about him? He smells just as gross.” His brows met as he frowned at you, but with a stern glare and another wave for him to leave, he rolled his eyes and stepped away from the cooler. “Fine, but don’t scare Donghun off like you do with the rest of my friends.”

“I don’t scare you friends off,” you sighed.

“Try telling that to Jooheon and the burn on his cheek which is, oh, courtesy of you.” With that and another appearance of his tongue, he dodged the balled up napkin thrown at him and disappeared down the hall with only the sound of the bathroom door shutting ringing in the air.

A beat of silence fell over the pair of you, Donghun staring precariously at you, and if you didn’t think any better you wouldn’t be surprised if he was thinking of waiting in the car. Yet, he only shuffled awkwardly and shoved his hands in his pockets, eyes casting everywhere but you as he swayed back and forth.

“I know what you’re thinking,” you piped up with a sheepish smile as you leaned forward onto the counter. “And I did not purposely burn Jooheon. He scared me when I was curling my hair and, well, you can piece together what happened with the rest of that story.”

“You hit him with your curling iron?” Donghun’s eyes widened as he spoke.

“No!” You exclaimed and smacked a hand to your forehead. “Well, yes? Look, I can’t control what my body does when I’m surprised.”

“So you don’t have control over yourself?” He rose a brow this time, and much to your own distress, a grin began to peek at the corner of his mouth.

You could only manage a guttural groan and collapse your face into your arms as you folded across the counter and pouted to yourself. Only Minhyuk could convince his friends of something as absurd as intentional burning, and it only made sense that you were on the receiving end of skeptical looks such as the one the man now approaching the counter was giving you.

“I’m just joking with you,” he said with a quiet laugh, hand pressing to the counter as you lifted your head just enough to look at him.

There was a sudden fluttering in your stomach as he took a seat at one of the chairs, the broadness of his shoulders filling his shirt as his forearms came down to rest on the counter before his clasped hands. He was still grinning at you but it was not nearly as malicious as you had thought it to be, and instead he seemed almost endearing despite the teasing. If you hadn’t started to sweat from the heatwave now flourishing through the house, then under Donghun’s gaze you sure as hell would.

“I swear Minhyuk is going to be the literal death of me,” you hummed to yourself as you slowly stood up straight before turning to open the fridge. With a polite smile pressed to your lips, you glanced at the raven-haired man at the counter. “Do you want a glass of water?”

“That’d be great, thank you,” he nodded.

“My name’s y/n by the way. I’m surprised this hasn’t fazed you,” you commented as you placed a cup in front of him before swiftly pouring him and yourself some water.

“I’m Donghun.” He smiled, immediately taking a sip before going on. “Should I be fazed though? He told me you were a little feisty.”

You blanked as the word ‘feisty’ fell from his tongue but a scoff was quick to meet the air as you took your cup into your hand. “I’m not feisty.”

“Could have fooled me.” The glare you sent him made no effect, instead a childish smile playing on the corners of his lips as he diverted his gaze to the side.

His sudden interest in the TV now playing a rerun of your show had you rolling your eyes for the umpteenth time that day, but you made no move to make a retort and settled on carrying yourself back to the chair in front of the air conditioner. The rush of cold air was a welcomed embrace as you propped your legs onto the back of the couch once again, sparing but a single glance at Donghun who had since shifted in his own seat.

“Do you really hate the heat that much?” He queried only to laugh softly as your head nodded near to instantaneously. “I think you would have had a lot of fun at the waterpark today.”

“More like I would have burned,” you frowned, glancing him over and noticing the red tint to his arms. “Speaking of, it looks like you did. Did you even apply sunscreen?”

He wasn’t listening though, his eyes having lingered onto his arms until he was pouting and pressing a finger to the red, his skin returning to its color before bouncing back to the rosy blush. It was almost pathetically adorable to watch him sadly realize that he ruined at least a week of summer that was sure to be nothing but pain filled.

“How did you not feel that?” You asked, holding back a smile.

His shoulders rose in a shrug as he brought his attention back to you with a disgruntled downturn of his lips. “I was having too good of a time.”

“Not so much anymore, huh?” The purse of your lips didn’t go unnoticed to him but the flicker of your gaze did as you pulled yourself from your chair and walked toward him.

He froze as your fingers lightly grabbed his wrist, turning his arm from side to side as if inspecting the damage the sun had done to him, then with a soft laugh, you turned and disappeared down the hallway. His eyes watched you as a door was pulled open and your body became hidden behind it, the sound of bottles clanking together echoing to his ears until the door was kicked shut and you came waltzing back toward him.

There was a blue bottle of aloe in one hand and a plush towel in another, which you swiftly set down on the counter before flicking the aloe cap open and glopping it into your hand. His mouth bobbed open in protest, but you were already gently running your hand across his arm, sending cold shivers down his spine.

“You know, I could have done this myself,” he mumbled at the sudden intimacy of your situation. His cheeks were flushed pink and his head turned away from you to hide the embarrassment that was his own enjoyment of you caring for him.

“Yeah, but it’s always nicer when someone else does it,” you hummed, glancing at him and smiling. “Plus, this way I can hold you hostage to how cold I know this is on your skin.”

“What? Hey!” He exclaimed, moving to swat your hand away at your intended torture. However, it was more of a trap to be in your presence than the cold, which had honestly felt amazing the second your hand made contact with his boiling skin.

Nonetheless, he pushed himself up from the chair and attempted to move away from you but the slick grip you had on his arm made him whine in pain. His tactic quickly shifted and without a second to spare he was walking you back until you were caged behind the couch, back arched away from him but hand still locked on his arm.

“Let me go,” he deadpanned, but wiggled his arm like a child, pulling a giggle from you as you shook your head and leaned further away. “Y/N, you’re hurting me!”

“Oh hush up, you big baby,” you laughed and used your other hand to push at his chest so you could stand up straight. But he wouldn’t budge, brows tucked together as he frowned at you in slimming patience for his arm to be released. Upon another shove at his chest, he only leaned in closer with another stern glare on his face, as if his body being so close was supposed to be commanding, yet it only made you increasingly flustered.

“All you have to do is let me go.” His facade broke again to reveal a pout and feeble plead for help, showing off just how soft and sweet this boy really was. And yet he still only inched closer, free hand now gripping onto the back of the couch to keep his body from pressing to yours but the heat from not just him but his sunburn was bringing an uncomfortable warmth to your body.

“Get out of my face before I hit you,” you warned, tilting your head to the side to glance at the bright red coating his free arm. “I’ll do it.”

“No you wouldn’t,” he countered, but there was a weary, unbelieving look in his eyes.

In a slow move, you leant yourself closer to him, in turn making him back away, a grin on your face as you were now only inches from his face. “Try me, Donghun.”

Time stilled as his breath fanned over your face and your grin faded with each glance his eyes took over your features, studying the details and unconsciously moving closer. The curl of your fingers loosened from his arm, a hand coming between the pair of you to press gently against his chest but the distance between you only lessened. You could almost feel the soft pillow of his top lip on your own and all it would take was a single sway toward him to let yourself indulge in him completely, but the moment shattered with the sound of a door swinging in the hall.

The two of you jumped from each other as Minhyuk clambered out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist and his eyes latched onto his phone. “Hey, Hun, there’s a party at Jennie’s tonight if you want to go?”

However, the second he looked up a subtle sense of confusion fell over him at the sight of both your heaving chests and the wide-eyed look you were giving him. His mouth opened to comment, but Donghun swiftly beat him to it. “Sounds good, let me go to the bathroom and we can go.”

“Don’t you want to take a shower too? You smell like shit,” Minhyuk commented as Donghun rushed past him and further from you.

“Oh, um,” he paused at the bathroom door, hand clasped around the frame as he stared at your brother, eyes momentarily casting toward you. “I’ll take one at my house. I need to change my clothes anyways.”

“Whatever you say,” Minhyuk waved his hand absently, collapsing onto the couch and returning his attention to his phone.

The bathroom door shut and a breath you had been holding in slipped past your lips. In a rush, you pushed yourself from the couch and made your way down the hallway with the full intention of locking yourself in your room until the boys left.

Your heart was still beating erratically at the mere thought of what you had almost done with Minhyuk’s friend, something that was by all standards wrong. He was a stranger to you, someone you had only met maybe fifteen minutes ago and yet you had almost let yourself kiss. At this point you were beginning to mumble under your breath, gaze cast at the floor while you lost yourself to the fantasy of what could have happened.

As you walked by the bathroom door, you failed to notice the crack of it and how it widened with your passing until it was open just enough for an arm to catch yours. In an instant, you were tugged to your side until you collided with Donghun who didn’t waste a second to cradle your head in his hands and press his lips to yours.

All of your thoughts fell from you as your body reacted to his, hands winding around his neck and pulling him closer as you kissed him back in a short-lived fever. He pulled away from you with one last short peck, hand retreating back to his sides as he bit at the pink of his bottom lip. Although this time his eyes remained on you in a way that sent a blush over your cheeks and pulled a smile to your lips that matched his own.

“I would have regretted not doing that.”

[taesthetes]

usha [ jin ]

verb : to enjoy looking at the opposite other ; appreciate their beauty by staring.

knock knock. who’s there? two idiots who are in love with each other.

pairing: kim seokjin x reader genre: fluff type: hogwarts au word count: 2,380 words warnings: none author’s note: it’s been over two months since i had last written anything, and last night, i was reminded again of how intrinsically rewarding and absolutely wonderful writing is after talking to @jheartseok, so thank you again, ave ♡ this is based on bits of my own dreams and how i see #seokfie aka @syubits and jin in a hogwarts au ily elfie even though i know you love jimin most but you refuse to admit it still

❁ ❁ ❁ ❁ ❁ ❁ ❁

As one of the Hufflepuff prefects, you are making your rounds around the basement floor in the hallway opposite from your house’s entrance. You had passed the barrel fifteen minutes ago, now strolling down the kitchens corridor. It is quiet, which is the usual noise level down here. Hufflepuff students tend to stick to curfew hours more so than other houses, so you rarely find them sneaking out. Any clamor made by the house elves in the kitchens is sealed away behind the massive painting of the fruit bowl. You have not seen The Gray Lady floating by, so you assume she is haunting a place elsewhere tonight.

 A soft melody stuck in your head, you hum quietly and loosely hold your wand in hand, rhythmically tapping the tip of it against the side of your thigh as you continue your stroll. Suddenly, the edge of a heavy metal painting frame makes its way into your peripheral vision, and you quickly scamper away before you can suffer from a possible concussion, or a future visible bump on the forehead at the very least. 

Your eyes are met with the outer corner portion of an ebony cloak first, then the golden lining stitched inside of it, and finally, the rather handsome side profile of the perpetrator is brought into view. Moments later, you can clearly see the man you caught red handed, who is still hastily attempting to shove something beneath his robe—Merlin’s beard, is that a two layer, frosted, decadent chocolate fudge cake with all the works?

“Seokjin, what the heck?”

The resident Hufflepuff heartthrob jumps in surprise with a high pitched yelp, and he whips his head towards you, eyes squinting to make out who was standing there in the dark. He protectively clutches the sugary sweet to his chest, but in a way that will not damage it, of course, and you have to hold back a snort.

“Shh, you didn’t see me!” He gestures wildly in the direction where he assumes you are standing, and then scrambles off towards the Hufflepuff common room. You almost laugh out loud at the complete absurdity of the situation, especially when he nearly runs gobsmacked into a wall but catches himself mere inches from the layer of stone. His eyes apparently have not quite yet adjusted to the darkness, you slyly observe with a slight grin on your face.

However, mid-sprint, Jin halts abruptly, and you tilt your head in confusion as he turns back towards you—or where he assumes you are standing. “Oh my god, please don’t tell _______ I was out after curfew. I can’t get into more trouble.”

The corners of your lips quirk up in amusement. “Don’t worry, there’s no need to tell her because I am _______.”

“Shoot.” He can only stand there, wide-eyed like a deer in the headlights, as you saunter over to him with a smirk. 

“And what are you even doing with bottles of whipped cream and chocolate syrup in your pockets?” You give him a feigned suspicious look as you poke the aforementioned items with your wand.

Jin’s face may now rival the color of his favorite champagne pink sweater as he stutters over a poorly constructed excuse, “Okay, I swear to god—this isn’t for some secret fantasy kinky foreplay or whatever—”

You show him the most judgmental expression you can muster, and he shuts up straightaway, shrinking under your gaze. “Once again. Jin, what the heck? I was just going to ask if you’re gonna make ice cream sundaes.” You shiver slightly, “Please get your mind out of the gutter.”

“… If I give you half the cake I’m holding, will you forget this conversation ever happened?”

“Are you really trying to bribe a prefect?”

“What about half the cake and an ice cream sundae?”

“… Okay, fine, deal. And, Jin?”

“Yes, my wonderful and favorite prefect?”

“Twenty points from Hufflepuff for staying out after curfew.”

“But _______!”

“Hey, you’re lucky I didn’t give you detention.”

“Bu—”

“Would you like to try and push your luck?”

“… No.”

❁ ❁ ❁ ❁ ❁ ❁ ❁

You sit at the small wooden table hidden away in the History of the Trolls section: an area that no one ever goes to as evidence of the pile of dust gathering on the bookshelves and tottering book towers. A few months ago, you had traced “CLEAN ME” on one of the shelves’ surfaces, and the message is still present.

Various scrolls and books lay open in front of you as you attempt to find enough research to write a paper on the development of the medical use of shrivelfigs. This is such a frustrating topic since there is nearly no research available on shrivelfig treatment advancements. You are almost positive that your herbology professor was still hungover from a rough night of firewhisky that morning when he assigned it.

Rubbing your temples, you scan over the book in front of you before jotting down some quick notes. You only have another three feet of parchment to fill in, compared to the original nine. You can do this.

“_______! Look what I found!” Jin runs over to you and plops down in the seat next to you, chair legs making a screeching noise as it scraps across the tile floor, and you wince. The librarian strolling past your vicinity does not even bat an eyelash towards the ruckus Jin just made, simply sending a small, adoring smile towards him. The amount of charm Jin effortlessly holds over even the staff is unbelievable (and no, he does not use any banned love potions from Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes).

He grins widely at you, and you tiredly return the expression, which he then returns tenfold before exclaiming, “Yoongi was wrong! There are more joke books from the Muggle section! Although I’m not sure why I found them hidden behind some books in the restricted section… But anyway, listen to this!”

You suppose you can take a quick break. Pushing away your paper, you stifle a laugh as you turn towards Jin to give him your fullest attention. You can already feel the onslaught of dad jokes coming. In your mind, you can already picture a certain Slytherin making his signature unamused face when he will be forced to listen to Jin’s new jokes. You are pretty sure he is going to try to burn those books next since hiding them only worked for a few weeks.

“Okay, so,” He clears his throat for emphasis. “What color are hamburgers?”

“Hm, I don’t know, Jin, what’s the answer?”

“Burger-dy! Burgundy, get it?” Jin is in absolute hysterics over the joke, guffawing and shaking in his chair, and you can’t help, but also laugh. He smiles at you, his gaze on you is soft, and you can feel the heat rushing to your cheeks before you look away from the beautiful boy sitting next to you, shoulders brushing against yours.

“Okay, okay, here’s another one.” He calms himself down. “What is it called when a cow sings?”

You prop your head on your hand, elbow resting on the edge of the table, as you gaze at him for a quick second. But just a millisecond is enough to knock your breath out of your lungs. He looks so effortlessly stunning, bright eyes wide with excitement, plump lips pulled into one of those smiles that tugs at your heartstrings in the pleasantest of ways.

Wriggling around in his chair with giddiness, Jin is already chuckling to himself before he even says the answer, but ever the gentlemen, he waits for you to respond first.

Tapping your finger against your cheek, you at last let out a feigned sigh of defeat. “Ah, I don’t know. Tell me.”

“Moo-sic! And wait, the next one is even better! Did you hear about the witch who won the lottery? She went completely knuts!” Jin laughs loudly at his own joke, slapping the table, and he almost keels over. His laughter is contagious, and you chuckle along with him. That one was pretty funny, you have to admit.

“And this one is my favorite! How does the seeker get rid of a rash?”

“I—I honestly have no idea.”

“With quit-itch!”

You burst into a fit of giggles, and Jin beams proudly, perfect set of teeth on display and eyes crinkling in the corners. He is absolutely delighted with your reaction, grinning happily at you: the absolutely gorgeous girl sitting next to him, the only one to ever appreciate his jokes despite you sometimes calling him a dork, but that is just out of affection. Probably. Most likely. He hopes so.

❁ ❁ ❁ ❁ ❁ ❁ ❁

You are a simple girl. You do not ask for a gourmet five-star buffet or specially made takoyaki (although you would not say no to either of those things). You have more than enough food because one of the perks of being a Hufflepuff is being twenty steps away from food heaven, also known as the kitchens where the house elves are absolute angels every time you visit. But sometimes, a girl just wants her chocolate. And you just really want to eat some of the fudge you got from Honeydukes last weekend. But you can’t. Because of a certain person. Standing on the tip of your toes, you stretch upwards, your fingertips barely reaching the seventh shelf. Jumping up and down, you only manage to knock down a couple dusty books, which leads to a hacking fit.

Frowning, you dust yourself off and settle down in a chair, waiting for one particular Hufflepuff to show up with an explanation. When he does arrive, you fix him with a steely glare.

“Jin.”

“_______.”

“Why did you move my snacks to a spot behind the books on the top shelf?”

“No, I didn’t.” Jin looks away from you, guilt already written all over his face.

“Oh, really?” You raise your eyebrows at him. “Then why can I see a corner of the Cauldron Cake packaging from here? And who else, besides you, knows that I hide snacks in the bookshelves of Trolls section?”

Jin takes a small step towards where you are sitting before hastily sliding into the seat across from you. “Well, you see—”

You place your hand on your hips and tilt your head at him, and he stops talking. Biting his bottom lip, he already knows that by the stance you are taking, the way your glare intensifies, you know what he did. But he also can’t help himself from secretly admiring your tiny figure, looking up at him angrily. God, you look so cute when you are mad. It is like seeing a tiny pygmy puff get angry. Too adorable.

“You ate all the fudge, didn’t you?”

“I did not!” Jin denies.

“You do realize I can just use an accio charm to get my snacks, right? And then I’ll see if my fudge is still there or if someone ate it all.”

Well, shoot. Jin quickly backtracks, tugging at his gold and ebony striped tie and making himself look even more attractive with the loosened silk around his neck, unbuttoned ivory shirt, and tousled hair, which is just so unnecessary of him to do, you huff silently, but anyway, that is not the point you are currently trying to make— “Okay, so maybe I did.”

“I knew it! Jin, I was really looking forward to eating that today!”

 "I’m sorry! I’ll buy you more next weekend!“ 

You let out a sigh and then decide to rest your head face down in disappointment, mourning over the loss of your chocolate. Quietly gauging your reaction for a minute, Jin scoots over next to you before poking your arm. “Would a joke make you feel better?”

Your answer comes out muffled. “No.”

“Well, too bad because I’m going to say it anyway. How does a cow laugh?”

You roll your head to the side to look at Jin, your face expressionless as you reply flatly, “Moo-ha ha ha.”

Immediately, Jin’s gleeful look crumples into a disgruntled one, and you almost laugh at the sudden facial change, a smile dancing on your lips. As you sit upright, Jin whines, “You were supposed to let me finish the joke! You always let me finish the joke!" 

You shake your head slightly at him, giggling, and he can’t help but stop pouting and just admire the way you look. Your eyes, framed by long dark lashes, form the prettiest crescents and sparkle in a delightfully pleasing way as you look at him adoringly, small tendrils of your hair framing your face and pink lips shaped into the loveliest smile that he has had the chance of seeing in all the years of his life.

"Oh gosh, I can’t believe I’ve been dating an overgrown child for the past three years,” you poke his arm good naturedly, and he grins at you, wiggling his shoulders around playfully.

“Yep, you’re stuck with me.”

“Why am I even dating you again?” you sigh as the chuckles between the two of you subside, and you gently flick his nose. His nose scrunches up adorably, almost like a bunny, and you smile at the endearing sight. 

“Because of my good looks. You should consider yourself lucky to be dating the most handsome man here.” He puffs his chest out proudly as he gives you a wink and an exaggerated flying hand kiss. In return, you give him a deadpanned look, and Jin swiftly retracts his answer.

“Actually, it’s because you’re so smart and wonderful and kind and beautiful, and together, we make the best looking couple here at Hogwarts, and I am the lucky one to be dating you.”

You let out a laugh, and your teeth peek out as you smile at your boyfriend. “Nice save there.”

“And because you love me.” He looks at you hesitantly with that answer, reaching out to slide his fingers between the spaces of yours.

“And because I love you,” you agree, squeezing his hand gently, and he beams so brightly. Admiring you with the softest look on his face, Jin tenderly wraps an arm around your waist, tugging you closer and pressing a delicate kiss to your temple before breathing out quietly: 

“And because I love you most.”

[infraredpenguin]

Review - Darksiders: Warmastered Edition

[Platform: Steam] [Control Scheme: PS4 Gamepad]

So Darksiders 3 is a thing apparently. It’s looking... like a game, I guess, but I did quite enjoy its predecessors a fair bit when I played them ages ago. The problem is that I never quite finished Darksiders 2, getting myself sidetracked as I am wont to do, so what better time than with a new entry on the horizon to finally go back and finish up Death’s perilous journey?

As it just so happened, I actually had the Darksiders games in my Steam library, along with upgrades to their remastered editions. In light of this bounty of Darksiders goodness (and the ability to ignore the frankly absurd DLC policies for the original DS2) I figured I may as well check out these “improved” versions and start my journey out at the very beginning, with Darksiders: Warmastered Edition.

Back when Darksiders first came out I played it on the PS3 and very nearly got the platinum trophy for it (missing the trophies for playing on the highest difficulty and that aggravating griffon trophy, which I will get to in a bit). I loved it. It felt like a perfect blend of some of my favorite franchises. Okay, more like a great blend of one of my favorite franchises and another franchise that I think is pretty good. Now that I’ve played through it once again, and in an enhanced form that has largely left the gameplay as it was, I can say that Darksiders is a satisfactory blend of what is still one of my favorite franchises in gaming (Zelda), a franchise that I still like but haven’t touched in ages (God of War), and a bunch of half-baked contributions from other game types I don’t really care about (namely, rail shooters).

Why has my impression of this game cooled somewhat? Well, for one thing, I think I’ve just gotten better at analyzing games over the years and also have less patience for clunky game design and shoddy controls. But if I were to pin down what constituted a majority of my frustration with this title, it would be due to my experience playing games in the Soulsborne series over the past several months.

I actually saw more than a few people trying to compare the Darksiders franchise with that of Dark Souls over the past week, so apparently I’m not alone in making this connection. But for me, the biggest point of contention I have with Darksiders against Souls is just how sloppy the controls feel and how poorly realized the combat is.

You see, Dark Souls and Bloodborne have kind of ruined for me a lot of action games, I think. With rare few exceptions, any failure I experience in those games is clearly my fault. It gives me a very robust set of tools to make my way through their world and its up to me to utilize that toolkit effectively. Every movement has purpose, every action a clear intent, and failing to exercise due diligence in feeling out the situation will more often than not lead to my character bleeding out on the floor. The Souls games are, in a word: fair.

Darksiders is not fair. But I may not have noticed this had I not played on Apocalyptic difficulty. A big part of Souls appeal lies in its (initially) obscene difficulty. Without the game forcing the player to carefully consider their actions and master the systems inherent to the experience, your typical erstwhile adventurer will just throw themselves willy-nilly at any and all threats, powering through on sheer brute force thanks to a lack of consequence for making mistakes. With each Soulsborne game, you don’t have that wiggle room, forcing you to *ahem* git gud (I hate myself for that) if you want to progress. But key to this requirement is the fact that these games give you every possible opportunity to do just that.

I’ve been talking a lot about Dark Souls in this Darksiders review, but I just want to impress upon you the magnitude of how frustrating combat can be in a game that doesn’t finely tune itself like a Souls game does while still having prohibitive difficulty. Because Apocalyptic difficulty in Darksiders is most definitely very punishing; even if it doesn’t present a challenge as intimidating as that of Dark Souls, it still punishes mistakes without mercy, but it doesn’t actually give you the same ability to overcome those mistakes without feeling kind of boring.

The reasons for this are threefold:

1. You take an obscene amount of damage on this difficulty. There are minibosses in the final dungeon that can take out upwards of 5 full health bars with a single hit, and you can only have 10 health bars! This in and of itself isn’t a bad thing, but combine it with the other 2 points and you have a problem that can only be overcome by playing it safe or keeping a lot of healing items on hand.

2. Hit-boxes are way too big. The amount of times that I could clearly see an attack land miles away from me yet still inflict damage was absurd. This is an even bigger problem when you consider how often you get swarmed by enemies, especially when you can’t keep track of them because this God of War-style action game keeps the camera right on War’s ass for some inexplicable reason. But this wouldn’t be that big of an issue if it weren’t for the fact that...

3. There are NO invincibility frames on War’s dodge! This is by far the biggest issue for a frenetic action game like this because it limits aggressive play by an astounding degree. Being able to dodge through attacks with precise timing is a big differentiator for higher levels of play because it allows you to maintain a steady offensive rhythm, allowing for faster resolutions and more engaging interactions in general.

Due to a lack of iframes, fights against more imposing enemies with long strings of powerful attacks just boil down to keeping your distance and popping in for quick hits when there’s an opening. It’s not exactly thrilling, especially when War’s dodge isn’t very satisfying to begin with. 

It gets worse with enemies like the aforementioned minibosses where you need to bait out a specific attack in a specific area to accomplish anything. For those fights, you need to wait until the very last moment for an attack that comes way too fast (for the enemy’s size) and has a hit box seemingly 50% larger than its effect animation that you can’t dodge through, which will hit you for massive damage. It’s frustrating as hell, and the best way to deal with it is to bait the attack at an awkward angle so you can just pre-dodge directly away from it and wait ages for it to bring the attack down. Boring.

I hate that I’m harping on this so much, but the lack of iframes really did kill a lot of my enjoyment. So much so that I feel confident saying that Apocalyptic difficulty just doesn’t really work in Darksiders. It’s not even like I had an extremely difficult time beating the game; it just felt unfair, despite also being kind of easy at the core of it.

But enough about how this game fails at being Dark Souls (and God of War, ‘cause I’m pretty sure that game had iframes), now it’s time to talk about how it fails at being a Zelda clone!

On the face of it, Darksiders does a lot of things right. It has some fun dungeons to traverse with interesting (if simple) puzzles to solve, and some pretty solid major boss fights at the end. It kind of misses the mark everywhere but the critical path though, missing the spirit of what makes Zelda games so beloved.

For one thing, the combat arena rooms get old extremely fast. There’s just too many of them and it’s much too transparent that they exist primarily as filler. I get that they’re trying to ape God of War at the same time as Zelda, but one of the biggest problems is that they never really do anything interesting with these arenas. It’s just, “Here’s a bunch of enemies you have to fight ‘cause magical barriers won’t let you leave. Have fun!” I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect that many of these encounters could have involved puzzle solving of their own, such as requiring use of the environment to overcome the challenge, or even using the fight itself to overcome the environment in some way.

But outside of those arenas, there is an excellent illusion of non-linearity in some areas, even if there isn’t any real opportunity for branching. The worst that can be said for these dungeons is that they’re as straightforward as some of the lesser Zelda dungeons, which isn’t actually that bad.

But outside of the dungeons things don’t hold up so well, with the exception of the Ashlands, which could be thought of as a dungeon itself, in some ways. The biggest issue for me is the means in which you accumulate strength.

In Zelda games, you will find Heart Pieces and the like in simple chests, to be sure. But, many of those upgrades will require a more roundabout series of tasks to uncover or unlock, in a way that helps to more fully immerse the player into the world of Hyrule (or Termina or whatever). In Darksiders, every single upgrade is found in one of those simple chests, usually requiring a specific piece of gear to access, but never really requiring much thought beyond “Lock Meet Key”. I think a big part of this is due to how barren the world is, which makes sense considering it’s a post-apocalyptic setting, but still feels like a missed opportunity.

However, the biggest problem with the Darksiders progression scheme is the weapon experience. Put simply, girinding out XP for each weapon type is pointless busywork that adds absolutely to nothing to the game. Worse than nothing when it comes to one weapon, which, near the end of the game, just automatically levels up fully, rendering all your hard work up until that point completely fruitless. The only meaningful reason for this grinding is to allow the player to unlock new moves in combat, but these moves cost money (souls) to get anyways, so why bother with an extra gate, especially when enhanced moves don’t feel markedly different to begin with!

Actually, both weapon XP and grinding souls feel like some of the worst filler I’ve seen in a game like this. It just costs too much to buy stuff, which means you probably won’t use everything, and it takes way too long to get XP which means you have to go well out of your way to bring your weapons up to par which means you feel obligated to switch instead of actually wanting to. These systems exist purely as grinds for trophies/achievements, which is never a good thing. I don’t think I ever used/upgraded any of War’s Wrath Abilities besides Blade Geyser, which is kind of sad for a highest difficulty playthrough, normally encouraging players to make use of every tool at their disposal

I’ve been shitting on Darksiders a lot, but here’s thing... I still really like this game. I just wish I hadn’t subjected myself to Apocalyptic difficulty. It also shouldn’t come as any surprise that it fails to be quite as magical as a Zelda game nor should it be shocking that tacking on gratuitous progression mechanics does anything other than drag things down. That being said, there is so much to like about this game.

For one thing, it is absolutely gorgeous. Post-apocalyptic Earth has never looked so good (except perhaps in Enslaved: Odyssey to the West). The art direction is stellar, and with the HD facelift for Warmastered, it doesn’t look even remotely dated. Despite being set in barren wastelands and the dilapidated ruins of a bog-standard metropolis, everything somehow manages to pop. It is vibrantly muted in its aesthetic, and some areas (Twilight Cathedral especially) are truly breathtaking.

While it isn’t going to win any awards for storytelling, the plot is perfectly serviceable and the lore underneath it all is extremely compelling. Even if I didn’t care about War’s redemption arc, I still wanted to uncover more and more about this ravaged world.

The characters help here, each of them being clearly motivated (or just as clearly unmotivated, Ulthane) and distinct, with visually striking designs. You’re dealing with demons for the most part and one of the biggest twists in the game is that there is no twist involved with one of your “business relationships”. The voice acting ranges from perfectly serviceable to delightfully camp. War is laughably dour and stone-faced, almost to the point of absurdity, while Mark Hamill’s turn as the Watcher is, unsurprisingly, great fun.

While there are some pacing issues with the cutscenes, especially later on when things start moving along at an extremely brisk clip, the cutscene direction is excellent and makes use of some legitimately inspired cinematic techniques that feel as though they were ripped straight off a comic book page. The only real downside to these scenes is thanks to the Warmastered Edition. For some reason, the audio channels in cutscenes are completely unbalanced, with voices being extremely clear and loud, while everything else (music, effects, grunting voice effects) is almost inaudible. I tried my best to get around this issue, but couldn’t come to any real solution in the end.

And yeah, it does have good gameplay, despite all my griping. The flaws are just that: flaws. They aren’t game breaking or anything, they’re just all the more frustrating because they highlight how much better the game could have been with just a little tweaking. The weapons and movesets are all extremely satisfying to use, with the additional tools mixing things up in fun (if straightforward) ways. The controls aren’t perfect, and War does occasionally fail to grapple correctly at times, but they do the job more than well enough, for the most part.

The boss encounters are all very well done (if you can ignore the iframe issue) and excellent examples of class Zelda puzzle bosses. It’s also just fun exploring everything in your quest to tackle those bosses. Hell, Darksiders probably has my favorite fast-travel system in any game, ever. You don’t just pop into existence at some arbitrary map point, you actually have to travel on paths between worlds, and there are even a few important items hidden away on these paths. I can’t tell you how badly I want to see another game flesh out this fast travel system!

See, I wanted to get through all of those negatives right up front because I wanted to end on a high note. Darksiders is a great experience if you lov-- wait... ah crap, I did forget one thing to hate on...

That goddamn griffon rail shooter experience you encounter early on is the worst fucking shit ever. It control like shit. It throws shit at you with no impact. It’s just absolute chaos and has a bullshit achievement tied to it. It’s just shit. This game does not have good targeting controls, and thankfully you dont have to be too precise with them outside of this segment.

Anyways...

Darksiders is great. Play it if you haven’t. Play it if you have. Spoiler alert: Darksiders 2 is also great (in different ways). Just don’t play on Apocalyptic difficulty if you’re used to games with iframe dodging.

Final Score:

6/10 if you play Apocalyptic

7/10 otherwise

[lodelss]

Rebecca McCarthy | Longreads | Month 2018 | 10 minutes (2,519 words)

In May of 2017, Mayor de Blasio unveiled Jimmy Breslin Way, a street sign dedicating the stretch of 42nd Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue to the late reporter. It was a strange press conference — half eulogy, half lecture — a chance for the mayor to laud Breslin and scold members of today’s media by whom he often feels unfairly maligned. “Think about what Jimmy Breslin did. Think about how he saw the world,” said de Blasio. He left without taking questions. What was he talking about? Did he imagine he and Jimmy Breslin would get along? In 1969 Breslin wrote a cover story about Mayor Lindsay for New York Magazine, “Is Lindsay Too Tall to Be Mayor?” was the title. Lindsay was an inch shorter than de Blasio.

In 2010, Heike Geissler took a temporary position at an Amazon warehouse in Leipzig. Geissler was a freelance writer and a translator but, more pressingly, she was the mother of two children and money was not coming in. Seasonal Associate, which was translated by Katy Derbyshire and released by Semiotext(e) this month, is the product of that job. (Read an excerpt on Longreads.) It’s an oppressive, unsettling book, mainly because the work is too familiar. The book is written almost entirely in the second person, a style that might’ve come off as an irritating affectation with a lesser writer or a different subject. Here, it’s terrifying — you feel yourself slipping along with Geissler, thoughts of your own unpaid bills and the cold at the back of your throat weaving their way through the narrative. It’s not just that this unnamed protagonist could be you, it’s the certainty that someday she will be you. “You’ll soon know something about life that you didn’t know before, and it won’t just have to do with work,” Geissler writes. “But also with the fact that you’re getting older, that two children cry after you every morning, that you don’t want to go to work, and that something about this job and many other kinds of jobs is essentially rotten.”

*

The question of who killed New York used to be up for debate. Was it John Lindsay, who couldn’t face reality, who covered the city’s debts with short-term, high interest loans he knew were impossible to repay? His successor, Abe Beame, who bent to the demands of the bankers and gutted the social safety net during the fiscal crisis of the 70’s? Ed Koch, who embraced Beame’s cuts wholeheartedly and mocked past mayors as men who wanted New York “to be the No. 1 welfare city in America”? Giuliani, who launched the deregulation of rent controlled apartments and the quality of life campaign that gave us Broken Windows and COMPSTAT? (I’m not mentioning David Dinkins, because I really don’t think David Dinkins brought us here.) Was it Hipsters and their attendant paraphernalia? Was it the McKibbin Lofts? Union Pool? Was it Shred Stuy?

Inventory work provides Geissler with a granular view of consumerism. Stripped of the marketing and storefronts that make it palatable it quickly begins to look like a form of mental illness. Who is buying these mugs, stamped with George Clooney’s face?

All New York City mayors are venal, but some are more venal than others. A few months ago, I would have told you Bloomberg was to blame, our bloodless, billionaire mayor, who rezoned the city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods and openly courted real estate investment from foreign billionaires. Rents rose at neat clip alongside the homeless population. To his credit, Bloomberg — a very short man — was always transparent about where his priorities lay. The city, he said, was a “luxury product” and it should behave that way.

De Blasio was supposed to be the antidote to the Bloomberg years, a progressive underdog who ran on universal pre-k and affordable housing. But that affordable housing has largely failed to materialize — where it’s been built, it’s often still pretty unaffordable — and his administration has been marked by disappointing half-measures and an ill-conceived plan for a ridiculous four billion dollar streetcar no one wants.

On Black Friday, Amazon workers staged mass walkouts across Europe. On Cyber Monday, led by community groups Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change (NYCC), protestors stormed Amazon’s Midtown bookstore to protest the planned headquarters in Long Island City and later gathered in front of the LIC Civil Courthouse chanting “I stand in the rain, I stand in the snow, Amazon has got to go!” City Council members Jimmy Van Bremer, Jumanne Williams, and Melissa Mark-Vitero were all in attendance — Williams and Mark-Vitero, it should be noted, are both running for Public Advocate. All of them decried the incentives offered to Amazon, which total about 3 billion. Williams claimed they were steamrolled by the Mayor and Governor Cuomo and that while Cuomo’s betrayal was no surprise, the de Blasio administration was “the biggest waste of progressive capital [Williams had] ever seen.”

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It might’ve been a good show of force, had not all of the aforementioned politicians signed the letter urging Amazon to build its headquarters in New York. What did they think was going to happen? A New York Times investigation released earlier this year showed that the city had lost 152,000 rent-regulated apartments since 1993. The subway system is crumbling, the state leads the nation in income inequality, and the homeless population is at an all time high. No reasonable human being could look around and conclude that the answer to all these problems is to give the most avaricious company in the world the keys to the city. Amazon swallows everything it touches, it isn’t interested in civic health. Only half of the jobs being brought in are in tech and many of the low level positions will likely be replaced by robots fairly soon, but for now, these are the jobs for which the Mayor sold the city. “At any rate,” Geissler writes, early on in Seasonal Associate, “it’s almost impossible not to be forced to your knees and into defiance by this job you’re about to have.”

*

Geissler was hired in the warehouse to handle the Christmas rush, hence the title, and the cold is so omnipresent it seems to be a feature of the company rather than simply the reality of winter. A gate that will not latch properly becomes a major antagonist and everyone is either ill or on the verge of falling ill, although they have been warned specifically against this. “Sick days hurt Amazon,” Geissler is told at her orientation. Precarity manifests as a constant, low-grade fever. You’re the protagonist but her voice leads you through the job, a tired Virgil navigating a new circle of hell. The work is inventory — entering items into the system so they can be purchased online and performing at least a cursory check to make sure they’re undamaged. “Everything exists, in case you were going to ask,” says Geissler. “Absolutely everything exists, and people can buy it all.” Despite the scale of the warehouse, inventory work provides Geissler with a granular view of consumerism. Stripped of the marketing and storefronts that make it palatable it quickly begins to look like a form of mental illness. Who is buying these mugs, stamped with George Clooney’s face? Who needs these pre-distressed Iron Maiden hats, already rags at point of purchase? Amazon customers, which is to say, all of us.

Geissler tried to sell the book as straightforward journalism initially and was turned down by five publishers, likely because book is largely boring. It’s a propulsive, weaponized banality though — something unnatural is going on here and it’s hard to see a way out.

Geissler isn’t the typical warehouse employee and as a temporary contractor she’s something of a tourist at Amazon. She’s well-educated, she’s white, she lives with the father of her children, and she’s normally able to make a living — however precarious — as a writer. There’s significant privilege there. Many people spend their entire lives working shitty, unforgiving jobs with arbitrary, infantilizing rules and part of the reason Geissler is so attuned to the myriad indignities of Amazon is because she’s unused to them. She’s aware of this position though. “It has to be said right away,” she writes, “that no one is suited for unhappiness, yet this fact doesn’t get enough recognition.” Seasonal Associate is a book about slippage and a sudden fall into the working class, but it’s a document of anxiety and futility rather than stunt journalism. The central rallying point in the warehouse is a desk made out of a door — a replica of Jeff Bezos’ desk when he founded Amazon; an absurd symbol of frugality and the company’s dedication to customer satisfaction over employees’ personal comfort. As if every warehouse worker has the potential to become the richest man in the world, if only they would stop buying such expensive desks. The idea that if you work hard enough you will inevitably rise out of poverty has always been a sham and Amazon has taken it to it’s logical endpoint. You work hard and nothing happens. You will never be good enough at your job, because you’re a human being, not a machine. As long as you’re alive you’re a potential problem for the company.

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In order to maintain some sense of agency Geissler stages tiny acts of rebellion — refusing to hold a handrail despite the signs instructing her to hold the handrail, keeping her safety vest in her pocket until she absolutely has to put it on. The gestures are adolescent and effectively meaningless, but every time she’s snide it’s a relief — a sign of life. Much later, after her contract is finished, she recognizes a man in a parking lot who she described as Amazon’s “only hipster.” The last time she’d seen him he was docking people’s pay for what’s commonly known as time theft. They had lined up a few minutes early to leave work, rather than waiting, unpaid, to go through security. “Unable to think of anything better,” says Geissler. “Or because it seemed like the most appropriate idea, I called out the name of a book I’d just read, by Mark Greif and others. I yelled at him: What Was the Hipster! I called it twice and I thought then he might know he was over.”

Geissler tried to sell the book as straightforward journalism initially and was turned down by five publishers, likely because book is largely boring. It’s a propulsive, weaponized banality though — something unnatural is going on here and it’s hard to see a way out. “You’ve completely forgotten that you have a profession and are only here to alleviate momentary poverty,” Geissler writes, just after her interview at Amazon. “Something inside you is essentially unsettled and will never calm down again, even though you do get the job. From this point on, you are beside yourself with worry.”

My own mother raised two kids by herself as a high school English teacher and she took a number of side jobs to supplement her income. Tutoring, working at a bakery, working at a strange, luxury gardening store that sold copper birdhouses and rocks that said things like “LOVE” and “CREATE” for people who couldn’t. None of them were bad jobs, none as oppressive as warehouse work, but they did not pay very well. Her desk (worse than Jeff Bezos’) was just a slab of wood, perched atop two filing cabinets. She never made a big deal out of that though, because she is not an asshole. She’d wake up at four or five in the morning to grade the lousy papers of teenage Republicans and shovel the walkway, but she still tried to read to me and my brother before putting us to bed. Oftentimes she’d fall asleep mid-sentence and start mumbling about the electricity bill or replacing the boiler. Eventually, a doctor told her she had to relax — her blood pressure was dangerously high, her muscles so tense that when she breathed, her ribs barely moved.

If you think you’re immune to this — if you went to college, if you believe you’re upwardly mobile, if you imagine you will comfortably survive the inevitable spike in rent once Amazon’s headquarters settles into Queens — unless you have vast familial wealth to draw on, I’m sorry but you’re wrong.

My mom was thrown into financial uncertainty (and my dad wasn’t even a deadbeat) by an early divorce and the responsibility for two small children, but at this point that choking feeling is basically just the lived experience of the average American. In a conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist in 2003 J.G. Ballard said that “the totalitarian systems of the future will be subservient and ingratiating, the false smile of the bored waiter rather than the jackboot.” This is it, the future is here now. It’s because Geissler doesn’t fit the typical profile of an Amazon warehouse worker that her book is such a well-timed warning shot. If you think you’re immune to this — if you went to college, if you believe you’re upwardly mobile, if you imagine you will comfortably survive the inevitable spike in rent once Amazon’s headquarters settles into Queens — unless you have vast familial wealth to draw on, I’m sorry but you’re wrong. Without immediate collective action, this is coming for all of us.

*

“Too tall,” Breslin clarified, about Mayor Lindsay, “means too Manhattanish, too removed from the problems of the street corners.” He wrote “Is Lindsay Too Tall to Be Mayor?” shortly after his own failed mayoral bid with Norman Mailer, a campaign that left him “nervous and depressed.”

“I saw a sprawling, disjointed place which did not understand itself and was decaying physically and spiritually, decaying with these terrible little fires of rage flickering in the decay…On top of the city was an almost unworkable form of government and a set of casually unknowing, unfeeling, uncaring men and institutions. The absence of communications in a city which is the communications center of the world is so bad that you are almost forced to believe the condition of the city is terminal.”

  If that doesn’t sound familiar, it will soon. On December 12, the New York City Council held the first of a series of hearings on the new Amazon headquarters. Protestors covered the balcony and unfurled a No HQ2 Banner. “It’s all smoke and mirrors!” a man yelled. “Don’t let them monopolize the city! Don’t let them near the subways, don’t let them near the schools — these guys are lying creeps!” He was escorted out.

Amazon has become so large that it can have the same pacifying effect as the threat of climate change, but despair isn’t helpful right now. As Hamilton Nolan and Dave Colon have already pointed out over at Splinter, Amazon’s New York headquarters represents the best chance at effectively unionizing the company and the resistance to HQ2 is broad and growing. Still, it was difficult to watch the City Council hearing without a paralyzing sense of dread. Amazon is a contractor with ICE, they have a horrific labor record, and they’re accountable to no one. That guy was right, these people are lying creeps, as are many of the people we’ve elected. There’s such a long and rich tradition of grift in this city that it’s rare to be able to definitively level blame, but here we are. De Blasio was too tall to be mayor and we didn’t see it. “Is this all a matter of life and death?” Geissler writes, at the very beginning of Seasonal Associate. “I’ll say no for the moment and come back to the question later. At that point, I’ll say: Not directly, but in a way yes. It’s a matter of how far death is allowed into our lives.”

* * *

Rebecca McCarthy is a freelance writer and a bookseller.

Editor: Dana Snitzky

[shogetsus]

Stripes of Auburn, Eye of Sapphire

Prologue Pt. II

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Summary:  “Mitsuhide?” Nobunaga doesn’t sound gladly surprised. “What are you doing here?”

Yet at the mere mention of that name, Mai’s eyes shoot straight to him. Wait, what? Does he mean Mitsuhide Akechi? That’s the person who betrayed Nobunaga and started this whole incident! And she may not have the best recollections of history, but that fact alone is just one of the few impossible to forget.

Mai

The fierce man before her who’d just proclaimed himself to be the very Devil King of the 6th Heaven, Nobunaga Oda, flashes a more wicked grin at the mention of her name, looking all but incredibly pleased—with whom, though, hell if she knows.

“Mai Mizusaki,” He rolls her name on his tongue, fiery gaze roaming all over her, and for a moment it seems as if he’s looking for something hidden in it, chanting as if the words alone would unlock a sort of secret. “I see. A good name…”

It doesn’t take long at all for Mai to find his approach hardly welcoming at all, grimacing. “I’m glad you approve. Now let go of me,” Without waiting for him to comply, she brushes his dirty hand off her and procures some safe distance between them.

For the bare bits she’s gathered about him, Nobunaga’s grin vanishes in an instant, clearly not used to be rejected in any way whatsoever, yet that’s far from Mai’s concerns for the current moment. What she truly, desperately needs as of then is to figure out what’s going on there, everything else can be put aside. Her head begins to spin, limbs still slightly shaking as the remains of her previous adrenaline die out, not preparing her for a large group then going on their way to them.

“Nobunaga, my lord!” A man in light-colored clothes—still authentic and matching the ancient Japanese style too well to Mai’s further panic—arrives at the front of a unit of soldiers, rushing towards them. “You’re safe!”

He regards the newcomer with a curious look. “Mitsunari?” Nobunaga tilts his head, “Why are you here? And where is Hideyoshi?”

“Lord Hideyoshi sent me ahead. He should be here shortly,” The aforementioned Mitsunari nods sharply, all but respectful. A moment later, he takes on the sight of the burning temple before them, a frown crossing his soft features—a stark contrast from the man beside Mai, in appearance and demeanor alike. “We received information about an assassination attempt. It appears to have been true…” He says grimly, lips pursed tight, “I had my men search the grounds but whoever it was already fled, I’m afraid.”

Not a longer moment goes by before he takes notice of her, wariness in his eyes. “If I may ask, who is this? I saw the two of you leaving the temple together.”

Nobunaga takes a sharp step aside, “Mai, introduce yourself to my subordinates.” He demands once again, pointing at the man called Mitsunari with a nod and waiting for her to comply.

Mai glances sideways at Nobunaga, his attitude already getting on her nerves. She can’t even bring herself to care if that man almost unified Japan or what. “I’m sorry, did I miss the part where I became a subordinate or whatever is it to you guys too?” She knows she’s being petulant, but in her defense, he’d quite earned it. “Why should I follow your orders?”

“Are you choosing to disobey me?” His glare is sharp as a knife, testing her resolve, and Mai feels her body growing ten degrees colder. Yikes, he really is intimidating!

Nobunaga’s subordinate doesn’t seem to mind, though. “Please, this is on me. It was rude of me to not introduce myself first,” He excuses for the both of them, a compelling smile on his lips as he approaches her, “My name is Mitsunari Ishida. I serve at the side of Lord Hideyoshi, Lord Nobunaga’s right-hand man,”

His polite and easygoing manners are like a refreshing wave of clear air, prompting Mai to lower her guard a bit—at least with that particular man, that is. “Very nice to meet you. Mai Mizusaki.”

He seems very kind already, which is a much-needed change of pace, and his name sounds quite familiar as well. He’s also gorgeous, like the true picture of a model, and Mai’s mind drifts a little, imagining how nice it’d be to design an outfit for him.

“I don’t know who she is,” Sure enough, Nobunaga takes mind of bringing her away from her reverie. “But admittedly, I would not be here if not for her. She woke me up while the temple was being engulfed in flames and saw me to safety.” His addition is quite solemn, though, hitting Mai in some odd places.

Mitsunari beams up further, even the more grateful. “Oh, she did!” Without any advice, he reaches out to take her hands in his, not seeming to mind dirtying his clothes. “I can’t thank you enough for protecting our Lord’s life!”

An apologetic smile makes way across Mai’s lips. “Oh, I just did it without thinking, actually.”

“But, if I may ask, what brought you here tonight?” It doesn’t take long for Mitsunari to give her a real once-over, “You don’t appear to be a nun. And your dress is very… unusual, to say the least.” He can’t seem to help with pointing out, more curious than truly concerned though. “Are you from abroad?”

Right, so he’s not technically wrong. “Well, how to phrase it…” Mai tries her best to gather something acceptable, coming up with next than nothing, “To be completely honest, I’m from a different time of yours altogether.”

The two men before her just blink. “What?”

She’s very aware of how implausible she must sound, but nonetheless, Mai doesn’t feel up to making up a lie—not adding up to the fact she’s terrible at lying—and most likely letting everything out in the open may be for the best. “Well, yeah. I come from 500 years in the future.” She just says, holding their eyes, with as much honesty she can muster.

A full minute goes by in which they stare at her in shock, then disbelief. Naturally.

… And just as naturally as before, Nobunaga’s the first to cut down the silence. “She’s a storyteller too!” He guffaws, bursting into a short laughter. “Although I’ve never heard such an absurd tale before,”

Mitsunari seems to be opting for the second most plausible thought. “Oh, you poor thing! The smoke from the fire must have disoriented you, I’m sure.” Why, really? None of them are even considering it? Not for a second? But truth be told, she’s willing to admit she would have trouble believing it too. “Alright, alright,” Mitsunari stops her before she tries to insist further, “Say, why don’t you sit over here and get some fresh air? I’ll get someone to bring you a change of clothes. Once you’ve freshened out, you’ll surely feel much better.”

It’s actually thoughtful of the man to notice, but indeed it’s true, and her clothes are a wreck—her shirt looking stained to the elbows with soot, and the hem of her skirt even burned out in some spots. Not to mention some shallow cuts and bruises she keeps finding here and there.

Mai kind of gives up for the time being and gives him a quick bow in thanks, accepting Mitsunari’s little comfort of taking her hands in his once again, holding them tenderly until a soldier arrives with a bundle. All but polite and reliable, she agrees to walk beside Mitsunari to what looks like an improvised camp nearby, with the ever demanding and imposing Nobunaga right behind their toes—and keeping quiet for once.

Mitsunari leads her to an empty tent and she’s too easy to comply, bringing the bundle of fresh clothes with her. Sure thing, she can tell the set looks out to be the real deal, using a small basin nearby to get herself a tad bit cleaner before putting on that lovely fresh kimono—simple and basic, but authentic all the same, doing her best for that small fact not to get on her nerves.

Her wounds, if not truly deep but still several nonetheless, begin to sting, but there’s no source of anything close to disinfectant inside the small tent. Do these guys actually have something like that in this time period? Mai wonders for a moment, worrying her lip. However, figuring out there’s no real use to keep mulling over that irrelevant thought, she considers better to make it quick and finish changing, lest she overextends her staying.

Opening the flap of the tent, she hums softly at noticing Mitsunari seeming to guard the entrance, his easygoing smile reappearing, nodding in approval. “Come, and wait there with the rest,” He guides her along to the center of the hastily assembled camp. “I’ll bring you a fresh cup of water to help you clear your throat.”

The man is too good for her, yet all good things always seem to come to an end, and once he’s gone she’s left alone with no other than Nobunaga. Ugh. Why did I even consider coming over, again? Right, these clothes…

His head tilts a little, chin lifting up, “You clean up well,” He appears satisfied, although clearly not good at complimenting people, or rather out of practice. Not like she’s surprised, however, and very much less so when she notices his fiery eyes lingering on her—prideful to the point of arrogant, and with a certain hunger she can’t quite place where it’s coming from.

Too troubled with other pressing matters to bring herself to care, Mai opts out for waiting for Mitsunari, keeping her eyes on the entrance, noticing far ahead how the smoke from the temple seems to start to clear. Surely that must be work of Mitsunari’s troops, but she’s all the more thankful for it, certainly making it easier to breathe then.

As she takes on the cool night air, someone else parts the curtains and makes way inside the camp. “My lord, I see you are well.” He first acknowledges Nobunaga, a mysterious aura all over him.

“Mitsuhide?” Nobunaga doesn’t sound gladly surprised. “What are you doing here?”

Yet at the mere mention of that name, Mai’s eyes shoot straight to him. Wait, what? Does he mean Mitsuhide Akechi? That’s the person who betrayed Nobunaga and started this whole incident! And she may not have the best recollections of history, but that fact alone is just one of the few impossible to forget.

He looks out to be pretty much collected, thin lips briefly parting in a smile. “I hurried here when I heard about the attack, but it seems I had nothing to worry about.” His voice is low and even secretive as it drifts through the night sky, a ruffle of light silver hair fluttering with the breeze.

“You, worried? Don’t make me laugh. I’ve never even seen you sweat,” Nobunaga scoffs, genuinely smiling for the first time—and oddly so, considering he’s actually facing the very man Mai knows as his betrayer.

Out of sheer instinct and already having all sorts of bad vibes about him, she takes mind of procuring herself some safe distance from the newcomer, staying close to the table near when Nobunaga stands.

Should I warn him of this guy?

But before she can give that any more thoughts, another person bursts through the curtain in a frantic. “Lord Nobunaga, are you injured?” That one seems the more worried from the very odd group Mai so far encountered, giving him a quick once over.

“Hideyoshi,” Nobunaga nods in greeting, flicking his wrist as if placating him, “The only injury I suffered is to my pride in letting my assailant escape,”

Oh, right. Of course.  “And now Hideyoshi Toyotomi shows up!” Mai snorts, rolling her eyes in exasperation. She knows she should be already starting to get used to such figures strolling over, but that’s naturally looking forward to being impossible.

However, it’s as Hideyoshi faces her with a suspicious quirk of his brow when she then notices she’s been speaking aloud. “Um, have we met?”

In her defense, it’s not like she expected to meet two out of three of Japan’s unifiers in one single night. But then again, the whole situation is incredibly crazy to begin with.

“Let her be.” For once, Nobunaga unexpectedly steps in for her, prompting her attention. “Her name is Mai and, before you begin, she did save my life.”

Her mind begins racing, trying to come up with a quick saying in her defense before most likely returning to be accused of some weird scheming. But for the matter, when Mai had anticipated Hideyoshi to be as baffled as the rest, the one who clearly looks more surprised among them all is, curiously so, Mitsuhide Akechi.

“You saved Nobunaga’s life…?” He stares at her wide-eyed, but it doesn’t take too long before he switches over into a knowing smirk, his strange and secretive aura making its return. “Well, look at you, but you’re such a slender thing. It appears your courage makes up for it, however.” Yikes! And that’s a very scary smile.

“Mitsuhide, what are you doing here?” Hideyoshi seems to turn his palpable suspicion onto him.

For some reason—yet quickly enough to making Mai assume to be just the kitsune’s natural demeanor—he makes it all the more awkward. “I could ask you the same thing. I didn’t know you were in Kyoto.” Mitsuhide narrows his eyes, a smirk cold as ice quirking up his thin lips, “What about the campaign?”

Hideyoshi blinks twice, clearly baffled. “When I heard about the threat on Lord Nobunaga’s life, I dropped everything to come here,” Hideyoshi says as if it’s obvious—to everyone but Mai, that is. “But I never heard anything about you being in Kyoto.”

Their back and forth seems to be just about enough for Mitsuhide, his roguish smirk all but vanishing. “Are you implying something?”

Hideyoshi’s eyes narrow into crinkled slits, “Can you swear before our lord you weren’t plotting anything… as you always do?” Mitsuhide doesn’t answer him straight away, and the tension grows higher and thicker around them all.

Hideyoshi is already suspicious of the man—apparently being all the same schemer as Mai has known him to be from history—and the fact of Mitsuhide Akechi also being infamously known for nothing else than betraying that very same warlord who’s been attacked mere minutes ago, that’s something that doesn’t escape her either.

“All men have secrets in these chaotic times. Are you saying you act with no ambition of your own?”

“Stop being evasive. Confess.” Hideyoshi cuts him right away, growing the more upset within each second passing, eyes flaring and hand going straight for his sword. He most certainly looked like another nice one at a first glance, but that reaction just changed Mai’s mind about him, apparently not as friendly as his looks suggest. “If I find you played any part on this attack on our lord, Mitsuhide, I’ll show you no mercy!”

Out of sheer instinct, Mai feels complied to finally make an intervention. “I don’t think it was him!” She doesn’t really want to get in the way of what obviously seems like trouble, but as both heads turn to her, blinking in confusion, she’s surer she doesn’t want any bloodshed either. Besides, it’s only fair, right? “I caught a glimpse of the man who attacked Nobu—Lord Nobunaga,” She’s quick in correcting herself, “But the drape of his clothes was all wrong.”

Not adding up to the fact Mitsuhide looks pretty much spotless, that is. As much as she can’t really say who that man truly was, it’s almost certain it wasn’t him.

Hideyoshi, however, hardly seems to care for her opinion, glaring at her, “Mai, was it? Please, stay out of this.” He says coldly, “We’ll settle things with you later, and learn why you’ve schemed to get so close to Lord Nobunaga…”

Mai can’t help but cast an abashed look at that one, growing offended. “Excuse me? I was there by chance!” She snaps out, “I’m not the schemer here!” Regardless of anybody believing her story—and then again, understandably so—that statement is just very rude.

“Enough, Hideyoshi.” Nobunaga scoffs at the bickering couple, staying true to his imposing nature, “Regardless of what brings Mitsuhide here, I am alive and well.” Fortunately, that seems to do the job, bringing Hideyoshi to lower his guard and stay put, immediately letting go of his sword.

And looks about right, considering Hideyoshi Toyotomi as one of Nobunaga’s most trusted vassals, from what Mai can quickly gather about him. I guess I can start to trust these people are the real thing, then. But the admission doesn’t really help in the slightest.

“Now, you two, move along.” Nobunaga continues without further ado, turning that very intimidating gaze over her. “I have something to discuss with Mai.”

Mai’s heart skips a beat—what could he possibly want now? Isn’t it enough she’d saved his life, as he just had been practically boasting about for the past hour?  

The men step aside for their lord to pass, slowly approaching Mai. “Your bold lies about coming from the future aside, there is one truth, and that one is that you saved my life.” He says solemnly, his fiery gaze giving way to a partially pleased smirk. “I’m intrigued by you. You’re a woman who carries fortune’s favor, of that I’m certain.”

Doing her best not to look as intimidated as she is, she scoffs. “I could argue that…” And oh, boy, I do have the past eight years of my life to elaborate.

But he doesn’t seem to bother hearing her retorts, Mai’s eyes widening as all in a sudden, Nobunaga slips one arm around her waist, possessively drawing her towards him. Whoa, personal space alert!

Her breath hitches, tension climbing up to a point her body doesn’t seem to dare to breathe. What’s with the guy and that preposterous manner of believing he has everyone wrapped around his finger and eager to eat from the palm of his hand?

“Tell me, how would you like to rule the world at my side?” 

[dragons-in-bowties-blog]

What it's like to be a woman leading TV development at Hulu

What it's like to be a woman leading TV development at Hulu

In our Working Girl Diaries series, accomplished women with fascinating careers give us a peek into three days of their lives.

Have you ever watched an episode of The Handmaid's Tale, gripped by the horrors of Gilead? Did you laugh hysterically at Dr. Lahiri's antics on The Mindy Project? Are you breathlessly waiting to watch Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington in the television adaptation of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere? You can thank Beatrice Springborn for all of that and more.

As the Vice President of Content Development at Hulu, Beatrice plays a vital role in the development and greenlighting of Hulu's original series. That includes the aforementioned and award-winning The Handmaid's Tale, as well as Difficult People, Castle Rock, The Mindy Project, Future Man and The Looming Tower. She led development efforts for the comedy series Casual, which resulted in Hulu receiving its first Golden Globe nomination. Next, her team is working on Catch-22 from George Clooney and Grant Heslov's Smoke House Pictures, as well as the previously mentioned Little Fires Everywhere.

Before Beatrice joined Hulu in 2015, she was the head of television and development at several production companies, including Storyline Entertainment, where she developed and produced upcoming MTV series, Happyland, and Pixar. As the Manager of Development at Pixar, she worked on Ratatouille and Finding Nemo.

Curious to know how one woman helps get all of your favorite shows on your TV (or laptop) screen? Read on for three days in her life.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

Day 1:

6:oo a.m.: I wake up to my alarm clock-also known as my 6-year-old daughter, Poppy. We just moved into a new house with a grassy backyard and a view. We eat breakfast together before she goes to camp. I try not to look at my phone until 7:30 or 8 just to have quiet time together.

8:30 a.m.: It's time to start the grand commute from East L.A. to West L.A. after saying goodbye to Poppy at her science-themed summer camp.

9:00 a.m.: My day starts in the most glamorous of places-my car! I call my amazing assistant, Blake. We go over work and upcoming calls as I drive to a table read for a project that's about to go into production.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

9:45 a.m.:  I get to the studio, and as cheesy as it sounds, I know how lucky I am to start my week with such a funny, talented group of people. We read through the first three scripts with the actors, showrunners, producers, and other Hulu execs, and discuss notes since the project starts shooting next week.

12:30 p.m.: I get back to the office. Today is our monthly “team packaging” lunch. Each month, our team gets together for a brainstorm to discuss creative ideas and share noteworthy projects we have been tracking. When we spend our day to day reading and developing creative work, sometimes it's nice to think about things outside of what we do every day that inspire us. A lot of times, outside passions give us the best ideas for the work that we do.

Today, I led an exercise where we divided our team of 25 people into five groups. We then reviewed a list of questions that prompted us to recall memorable books from our lives. Prompts ranged from, “Name the last book that made you cry” and “Name a book already on your bookshelf,” to “Name a book that you have been meaning to read but haven't gotten to.” We shared our answers at the end of the exercise and got a great range of responses; there were a decent number of overlaps, some forgotten favorites, and some new titles. All of it prompted us to remember the work that has inspired and moved us, and helped us look to new titles we may now try to develop into future series.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

2:oo p.m.: As I head into my next meeting, I feel invigorated after spending time away from the phone and computer just to talk about books. We thought about some of the bigger titles we want to pursue and how they fit into Hulu's development slate. Books have proven to be a great source of development material for our team (The Handmaid's Tale, 11/22/63, Catch 22), and we plan to continue aggressively pursuing relevant, thought-provoking stories.

4:00 p.m.: I head into my daily meeting with my boss, SVP of Original Content, Craig Erwich. We usually spend 30 minutes a day catching up on current production and development, and talking about long-term goals and progress towards creating these shows. One of the best parts of working at Hulu is that the company really encourages collaborative environments. We don't have offices. That way, we can have open conversations and bounce ideas off of each other, across different teams and different levels.

6:15 p.m.: Tonight, I'm catching a play in Silver Lake that one of my friends produced with Hulu's head of PR and Marketing. I try to leave the office at a decent hour to make the long commute. On the road, Blake gives me a call with updates on who else I need to call back from the day. She gets to hear me complain about traffic a lot because of our phone calls, so I tease her that she should get hazard pay for my complaining. 

8:00 p.m.: I make it right on time to catch the play: Cry it Out by Molly Smith Metzier. The play is about the struggles and honest absurdities of new motherhood. To say I can relate is an understatement. I don't get to see theater that often, and going to the show tonight reminds me how nice it is to sit in a dark room, turn off your brain, and enjoy hearing a good story. The last play I went to was Angels in America-one of my favorite plays-with another exec at Hulu. It was so inspiring that I bought a book of the play right after and reread it in two nights.

11:00 p.m.: After the play, I catch up with old friends who were also at the theater, then head home to eat a late dinner and read.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

Day 2:

7:00 a.m.: My day is already off to a good start, seeing as I successfully make it to a Bar Method class! I try to go to this class often, but mornings are a wild card. The women who own this location in Silver Lake are fantastic, and the studio is attended by a supportive group of people I've known since my daughter was born. I am thankful to have some personal time this morning, even if it's just to space out during the thigh exercises.

12:30 p.m.: We have three pitches today. We are really excited about one of them and decide to make an offer; it fits in well with the rest of our slate. Since we're working across genres like comedy, drama, and docs, we sometimes hear up to 15-20 pitches a week.

1:45 p.m.: Blake and I share lunch in a nearby conference room and go over my schedule and emails to answer. We spend a lot of time debating what to order for lunch and usually end up ordering the same thing. Hulu brings in restaurants for lunch options, which is convenient, and I usually order some version of a vegetarian bowl every day (as much as I'd like to pretend that I'm adventurous).

3:00 p.m.: I meet with a writer/director from one of my favorite shows. He is in town for one day and I have been dying to work with him. He wants to direct more, so we talk about pilots and episodes of ongoing series that might be a fit. Before he leaves, he gives me some book recommendations for pleasure reading, unrelated to work, which I mark down in Goodreads-an app that I spend a lot of time on.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

4:00 p.m.: Today is our department's weekly team meeting to discuss all things Hulu Originals. I usually come with an agenda of housekeeping items to discuss with the team, but I like to keep it conversational. We make sure that our priorities are aligned, go through project updates, and talk cross-organizational Hulu business. These meetings typically get derailed with jokes and banter, reminding me that we have the best team in the world.

5:15 p.m.: I pop by for the first 20 minutes of a monthly meeting with our Acquisitions team. Because Hulu has both original and acquired content and these teams work together so closely, it's important to keep everyone in the loop about our upcoming deals. I run through a series of updates on our Originals development slate, preview a couple of larger deals in the works, and answer questions about our strategy.

6:30 p.m.: I leave the office to head to a networking mixer for an organization that's starting a new initiative around executive recruiting. This organization serves to increase the presence of underrepresented people from a variety of economic and cultural backgrounds in production and the executive ranks of the entertainment industry. The organization is looking for financial and time commitments, and Hulu is interested in doing both. At the mixer, which is held in the host's beautiful backyard, I see executives from my earlier career in independent film and other colleagues from TV. I stay until 11 p.m., catching up and eating tacos.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

Day 3:

7:00 a.m.: It's Castle Rock launch day! This has been one of our most ambitious shows to date, and one of our favorite shows to work on. It combines all of the coolest characters from Stephen King's universe.

10:00 a.m.: I make my commute from the eastside and head into our weekly currents meeting. This is where we run through all of our current Hulu Originals-either in pre-production, currently shooting, or in post production-and the entire team (comedy, drama, docs, production) gives updates.

11:00 a.m.: I join two of our executives for a note call on one of our upcoming projects. It won't launch until 2020, but we are already looking over scripts. This is the first time we have seen a script for this particular project and it's phenomenal. We give thoughtful notes when needed, but first and foremost we want to foster the creator's vision.

12:45 p.m.: Our production group ordered pizza and dessert for a Castle Rock launch celebration and now we are all in a food coma. Productivity has gone out the window.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

2:00 p.m.: I meet with our Head of Business affairs to discuss the status of a few of our various outstanding deals on projects. These conversations and updates are important since the deals are frequently changing.

3:47 p.m.: I hop on a note call to discuss final notes on one of our pilots. The pilot has already gone through a couple rounds of notes and are looking to lock the final cut this week. This specific discussion revolves around how to achieve the right tone through different music cues.

7:00 p.m.: I wrap up at the office and head off to a group dinner in West Hollywood organized by a friend. Yet again traffic is bad and many of us get there an hour late. While I'm stuck on Sunset Blvd., I actually see the writer of one of our shows on the sidewalk. We have a full conversation while traffic doesn't move-a fun and nice surprise.

11:00 p.m.: Dinner is fantastic, and this is a great crew of people for unwinding and catching up on life in general. We talk about work a little bit, but mostly I end up laughing for three hours so hysterically that my face hurts.

12 a.m.: Back at home, I hop into bed, still feeling amped from the day. I do some non-work-related magazine reading to help me relax, and then pass out with the lights on.

For more Working Girl Diaries, check out:

What it's like to be a personal stylist to some of the most powerful women in Hollywood, including Shonda Rhimes

What it's like to bring foreign language lessons to the masses at Duolingo

What it's like to be a bestselling author and body image advocate

And see more here…

The post What it's like to be a woman leading TV development at Hulu appeared first on HelloGiggles.

[fuckyeahslightlyamusing-blog]

What it's like to be a woman leading TV development at Hulu

What it's like to be a woman leading TV development at Hulu

In our Working Girl Diaries series, accomplished women with fascinating careers give us a peek into three days of their lives.

Have you ever watched an episode of The Handmaid's Tale, gripped by the horrors of Gilead? Did you laugh hysterically at Dr. Lahiri's antics on The Mindy Project? Are you breathlessly waiting to watch Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington in the television adaptation of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere? You can thank Beatrice Springborn for all of that and more.

As the Vice President of Content Development at Hulu, Beatrice plays a vital role in the development and greenlighting of Hulu's original series. That includes the aforementioned and award-winning The Handmaid's Tale, as well as Difficult People, Castle Rock, The Mindy Project, Future Man and The Looming Tower. She led development efforts for the comedy series Casual, which resulted in Hulu receiving its first Golden Globe nomination. Next, her team is working on Catch-22 from George Clooney and Grant Heslov's Smoke House Pictures, as well as the previously mentioned Little Fires Everywhere.

Before Beatrice joined Hulu in 2015, she was the head of television and development at several production companies, including Storyline Entertainment, where she developed and produced upcoming MTV series, Happyland, and Pixar. As the Manager of Development at Pixar, she worked on Ratatouille and Finding Nemo.

Curious to know how one woman helps get all of your favorite shows on your TV (or laptop) screen? Read on for three days in her life.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

Day 1:

6:oo a.m.: I wake up to my alarm clock-also known as my 6-year-old daughter, Poppy. We just moved into a new house with a grassy backyard and a view. We eat breakfast together before she goes to camp. I try not to look at my phone until 7:30 or 8 just to have quiet time together.

8:30 a.m.: It's time to start the grand commute from East L.A. to West L.A. after saying goodbye to Poppy at her science-themed summer camp.

9:00 a.m.: My day starts in the most glamorous of places-my car! I call my amazing assistant, Blake. We go over work and upcoming calls as I drive to a table read for a project that's about to go into production.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

9:45 a.m.:  I get to the studio, and as cheesy as it sounds, I know how lucky I am to start my week with such a funny, talented group of people. We read through the first three scripts with the actors, showrunners, producers, and other Hulu execs, and discuss notes since the project starts shooting next week.

12:30 p.m.: I get back to the office. Today is our monthly “team packaging” lunch. Each month, our team gets together for a brainstorm to discuss creative ideas and share noteworthy projects we have been tracking. When we spend our day to day reading and developing creative work, sometimes it's nice to think about things outside of what we do every day that inspire us. A lot of times, outside passions give us the best ideas for the work that we do.

Today, I led an exercise where we divided our team of 25 people into five groups. We then reviewed a list of questions that prompted us to recall memorable books from our lives. Prompts ranged from, “Name the last book that made you cry” and “Name a book already on your bookshelf,” to “Name a book that you have been meaning to read but haven't gotten to.” We shared our answers at the end of the exercise and got a great range of responses; there were a decent number of overlaps, some forgotten favorites, and some new titles. All of it prompted us to remember the work that has inspired and moved us, and helped us look to new titles we may now try to develop into future series.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

2:oo p.m.: As I head into my next meeting, I feel invigorated after spending time away from the phone and computer just to talk about books. We thought about some of the bigger titles we want to pursue and how they fit into Hulu's development slate. Books have proven to be a great source of development material for our team (The Handmaid's Tale, 11/22/63, Catch 22), and we plan to continue aggressively pursuing relevant, thought-provoking stories.

4:00 p.m.: I head into my daily meeting with my boss, SVP of Original Content, Craig Erwich. We usually spend 30 minutes a day catching up on current production and development, and talking about long-term goals and progress towards creating these shows. One of the best parts of working at Hulu is that the company really encourages collaborative environments. We don't have offices. That way, we can have open conversations and bounce ideas off of each other, across different teams and different levels.

6:15 p.m.: Tonight, I'm catching a play in Silver Lake that one of my friends produced with Hulu's head of PR and Marketing. I try to leave the office at a decent hour to make the long commute. On the road, Blake gives me a call with updates on who else I need to call back from the day. She gets to hear me complain about traffic a lot because of our phone calls, so I tease her that she should get hazard pay for my complaining. 

8:00 p.m.: I make it right on time to catch the play: Cry it Out by Molly Smith Metzier. The play is about the struggles and honest absurdities of new motherhood. To say I can relate is an understatement. I don't get to see theater that often, and going to the show tonight reminds me how nice it is to sit in a dark room, turn off your brain, and enjoy hearing a good story. The last play I went to was Angels in America-one of my favorite plays-with another exec at Hulu. It was so inspiring that I bought a book of the play right after and reread it in two nights.

11:00 p.m.: After the play, I catch up with old friends who were also at the theater, then head home to eat a late dinner and read.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

Day 2:

7:00 a.m.: My day is already off to a good start, seeing as I successfully make it to a Bar Method class! I try to go to this class often, but mornings are a wild card. The women who own this location in Silver Lake are fantastic, and the studio is attended by a supportive group of people I've known since my daughter was born. I am thankful to have some personal time this morning, even if it's just to space out during the thigh exercises.

12:30 p.m.: We have three pitches today. We are really excited about one of them and decide to make an offer; it fits in well with the rest of our slate. Since we're working across genres like comedy, drama, and docs, we sometimes hear up to 15-20 pitches a week.

1:45 p.m.: Blake and I share lunch in a nearby conference room and go over my schedule and emails to answer. We spend a lot of time debating what to order for lunch and usually end up ordering the same thing. Hulu brings in restaurants for lunch options, which is convenient, and I usually order some version of a vegetarian bowl every day (as much as I'd like to pretend that I'm adventurous).

3:00 p.m.: I meet with a writer/director from one of my favorite shows. He is in town for one day and I have been dying to work with him. He wants to direct more, so we talk about pilots and episodes of ongoing series that might be a fit. Before he leaves, he gives me some book recommendations for pleasure reading, unrelated to work, which I mark down in Goodreads-an app that I spend a lot of time on.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

4:00 p.m.: Today is our department's weekly team meeting to discuss all things Hulu Originals. I usually come with an agenda of housekeeping items to discuss with the team, but I like to keep it conversational. We make sure that our priorities are aligned, go through project updates, and talk cross-organizational Hulu business. These meetings typically get derailed with jokes and banter, reminding me that we have the best team in the world.

5:15 p.m.: I pop by for the first 20 minutes of a monthly meeting with our Acquisitions team. Because Hulu has both original and acquired content and these teams work together so closely, it's important to keep everyone in the loop about our upcoming deals. I run through a series of updates on our Originals development slate, preview a couple of larger deals in the works, and answer questions about our strategy.

6:30 p.m.: I leave the office to head to a networking mixer for an organization that's starting a new initiative around executive recruiting. This organization serves to increase the presence of underrepresented people from a variety of economic and cultural backgrounds in production and the executive ranks of the entertainment industry. The organization is looking for financial and time commitments, and Hulu is interested in doing both. At the mixer, which is held in the host's beautiful backyard, I see executives from my earlier career in independent film and other colleagues from TV. I stay until 11 p.m., catching up and eating tacos.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

Day 3:

7:00 a.m.: It's Castle Rock launch day! This has been one of our most ambitious shows to date, and one of our favorite shows to work on. It combines all of the coolest characters from Stephen King's universe.

10:00 a.m.: I make my commute from the eastside and head into our weekly currents meeting. This is where we run through all of our current Hulu Originals-either in pre-production, currently shooting, or in post production-and the entire team (comedy, drama, docs, production) gives updates.

11:00 a.m.: I join two of our executives for a note call on one of our upcoming projects. It won't launch until 2020, but we are already looking over scripts. This is the first time we have seen a script for this particular project and it's phenomenal. We give thoughtful notes when needed, but first and foremost we want to foster the creator's vision.

12:45 p.m.: Our production group ordered pizza and dessert for a Castle Rock launch celebration and now we are all in a food coma. Productivity has gone out the window.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

2:00 p.m.: I meet with our Head of Business affairs to discuss the status of a few of our various outstanding deals on projects. These conversations and updates are important since the deals are frequently changing.

3:47 p.m.: I hop on a note call to discuss final notes on one of our pilots. The pilot has already gone through a couple rounds of notes and are looking to lock the final cut this week. This specific discussion revolves around how to achieve the right tone through different music cues.

7:00 p.m.: I wrap up at the office and head off to a group dinner in West Hollywood organized by a friend. Yet again traffic is bad and many of us get there an hour late. While I'm stuck on Sunset Blvd., I actually see the writer of one of our shows on the sidewalk. We have a full conversation while traffic doesn't move-a fun and nice surprise.

11:00 p.m.: Dinner is fantastic, and this is a great crew of people for unwinding and catching up on life in general. We talk about work a little bit, but mostly I end up laughing for three hours so hysterically that my face hurts.

12 a.m.: Back at home, I hop into bed, still feeling amped from the day. I do some non-work-related magazine reading to help me relax, and then pass out with the lights on.

For more Working Girl Diaries, check out:

What it's like to be a personal stylist to some of the most powerful women in Hollywood, including Shonda Rhimes

What it's like to bring foreign language lessons to the masses at Duolingo

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The post What it's like to be a woman leading TV development at Hulu appeared first on HelloGiggles.

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What it's like to be a woman leading TV development at Hulu

What it's like to be a woman leading TV development at Hulu

In our Working Girl Diaries series, accomplished women with fascinating careers give us a peek into three days of their lives.

Have you ever watched an episode of The Handmaid's Tale, gripped by the horrors of Gilead? Did you laugh hysterically at Dr. Lahiri's antics on The Mindy Project? Are you breathlessly waiting to watch Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington in the television adaptation of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere? You can thank Beatrice Springborn for all of that and more.

As the Vice President of Content Development at Hulu, Beatrice plays a vital role in the development and greenlighting of Hulu's original series. That includes the aforementioned and award-winning The Handmaid's Tale, as well as Difficult People, Castle Rock, The Mindy Project, Future Man and The Looming Tower. She led development efforts for the comedy series Casual, which resulted in Hulu receiving its first Golden Globe nomination. Next, her team is working on Catch-22 from George Clooney and Grant Heslov's Smoke House Pictures, as well as the previously mentioned Little Fires Everywhere.

Before Beatrice joined Hulu in 2015, she was the head of television and development at several production companies, including Storyline Entertainment, where she developed and produced upcoming MTV series, Happyland, and Pixar. As the Manager of Development at Pixar, she worked on Ratatouille and Finding Nemo.

Curious to know how one woman helps get all of your favorite shows on your TV (or laptop) screen? Read on for three days in her life.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

Day 1:

6:oo a.m.: I wake up to my alarm clock-also known as my 6-year-old daughter, Poppy. We just moved into a new house with a grassy backyard and a view. We eat breakfast together before she goes to camp. I try not to look at my phone until 7:30 or 8 just to have quiet time together.

8:30 a.m.: It's time to start the grand commute from East L.A. to West L.A. after saying goodbye to Poppy at her science-themed summer camp.

9:00 a.m.: My day starts in the most glamorous of places-my car! I call my amazing assistant, Blake. We go over work and upcoming calls as I drive to a table read for a project that's about to go into production.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

9:45 a.m.:  I get to the studio, and as cheesy as it sounds, I know how lucky I am to start my week with such a funny, talented group of people. We read through the first three scripts with the actors, showrunners, producers, and other Hulu execs, and discuss notes since the project starts shooting next week.

12:30 p.m.: I get back to the office. Today is our monthly “team packaging” lunch. Each month, our team gets together for a brainstorm to discuss creative ideas and share noteworthy projects we have been tracking. When we spend our day to day reading and developing creative work, sometimes it's nice to think about things outside of what we do every day that inspire us. A lot of times, outside passions give us the best ideas for the work that we do.

Today, I led an exercise where we divided our team of 25 people into five groups. We then reviewed a list of questions that prompted us to recall memorable books from our lives. Prompts ranged from, “Name the last book that made you cry” and “Name a book already on your bookshelf,” to “Name a book that you have been meaning to read but haven't gotten to.” We shared our answers at the end of the exercise and got a great range of responses; there were a decent number of overlaps, some forgotten favorites, and some new titles. All of it prompted us to remember the work that has inspired and moved us, and helped us look to new titles we may now try to develop into future series.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

2:oo p.m.: As I head into my next meeting, I feel invigorated after spending time away from the phone and computer just to talk about books. We thought about some of the bigger titles we want to pursue and how they fit into Hulu's development slate. Books have proven to be a great source of development material for our team (The Handmaid's Tale, 11/22/63, Catch 22), and we plan to continue aggressively pursuing relevant, thought-provoking stories.

4:00 p.m.: I head into my daily meeting with my boss, SVP of Original Content, Craig Erwich. We usually spend 30 minutes a day catching up on current production and development, and talking about long-term goals and progress towards creating these shows. One of the best parts of working at Hulu is that the company really encourages collaborative environments. We don't have offices. That way, we can have open conversations and bounce ideas off of each other, across different teams and different levels.

6:15 p.m.: Tonight, I'm catching a play in Silver Lake that one of my friends produced with Hulu's head of PR and Marketing. I try to leave the office at a decent hour to make the long commute. On the road, Blake gives me a call with updates on who else I need to call back from the day. She gets to hear me complain about traffic a lot because of our phone calls, so I tease her that she should get hazard pay for my complaining. 

8:00 p.m.: I make it right on time to catch the play: Cry it Out by Molly Smith Metzier. The play is about the struggles and honest absurdities of new motherhood. To say I can relate is an understatement. I don't get to see theater that often, and going to the show tonight reminds me how nice it is to sit in a dark room, turn off your brain, and enjoy hearing a good story. The last play I went to was Angels in America-one of my favorite plays-with another exec at Hulu. It was so inspiring that I bought a book of the play right after and reread it in two nights.

11:00 p.m.: After the play, I catch up with old friends who were also at the theater, then head home to eat a late dinner and read.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

Day 2:

7:00 a.m.: My day is already off to a good start, seeing as I successfully make it to a Bar Method class! I try to go to this class often, but mornings are a wild card. The women who own this location in Silver Lake are fantastic, and the studio is attended by a supportive group of people I've known since my daughter was born. I am thankful to have some personal time this morning, even if it's just to space out during the thigh exercises.

12:30 p.m.: We have three pitches today. We are really excited about one of them and decide to make an offer; it fits in well with the rest of our slate. Since we're working across genres like comedy, drama, and docs, we sometimes hear up to 15-20 pitches a week.

1:45 p.m.: Blake and I share lunch in a nearby conference room and go over my schedule and emails to answer. We spend a lot of time debating what to order for lunch and usually end up ordering the same thing. Hulu brings in restaurants for lunch options, which is convenient, and I usually order some version of a vegetarian bowl every day (as much as I'd like to pretend that I'm adventurous).

3:00 p.m.: I meet with a writer/director from one of my favorite shows. He is in town for one day and I have been dying to work with him. He wants to direct more, so we talk about pilots and episodes of ongoing series that might be a fit. Before he leaves, he gives me some book recommendations for pleasure reading, unrelated to work, which I mark down in Goodreads-an app that I spend a lot of time on.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

4:00 p.m.: Today is our department's weekly team meeting to discuss all things Hulu Originals. I usually come with an agenda of housekeeping items to discuss with the team, but I like to keep it conversational. We make sure that our priorities are aligned, go through project updates, and talk cross-organizational Hulu business. These meetings typically get derailed with jokes and banter, reminding me that we have the best team in the world.

5:15 p.m.: I pop by for the first 20 minutes of a monthly meeting with our Acquisitions team. Because Hulu has both original and acquired content and these teams work together so closely, it's important to keep everyone in the loop about our upcoming deals. I run through a series of updates on our Originals development slate, preview a couple of larger deals in the works, and answer questions about our strategy.

6:30 p.m.: I leave the office to head to a networking mixer for an organization that's starting a new initiative around executive recruiting. This organization serves to increase the presence of underrepresented people from a variety of economic and cultural backgrounds in production and the executive ranks of the entertainment industry. The organization is looking for financial and time commitments, and Hulu is interested in doing both. At the mixer, which is held in the host's beautiful backyard, I see executives from my earlier career in independent film and other colleagues from TV. I stay until 11 p.m., catching up and eating tacos.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

Day 3:

7:00 a.m.: It's Castle Rock launch day! This has been one of our most ambitious shows to date, and one of our favorite shows to work on. It combines all of the coolest characters from Stephen King's universe.

10:00 a.m.: I make my commute from the eastside and head into our weekly currents meeting. This is where we run through all of our current Hulu Originals-either in pre-production, currently shooting, or in post production-and the entire team (comedy, drama, docs, production) gives updates.

11:00 a.m.: I join two of our executives for a note call on one of our upcoming projects. It won't launch until 2020, but we are already looking over scripts. This is the first time we have seen a script for this particular project and it's phenomenal. We give thoughtful notes when needed, but first and foremost we want to foster the creator's vision.

12:45 p.m.: Our production group ordered pizza and dessert for a Castle Rock launch celebration and now we are all in a food coma. Productivity has gone out the window.

Courtesy of Beatrice Springborn

2:00 p.m.: I meet with our Head of Business affairs to discuss the status of a few of our various outstanding deals on projects. These conversations and updates are important since the deals are frequently changing.

3:47 p.m.: I hop on a note call to discuss final notes on one of our pilots. The pilot has already gone through a couple rounds of notes and are looking to lock the final cut this week. This specific discussion revolves around how to achieve the right tone through different music cues.

7:00 p.m.: I wrap up at the office and head off to a group dinner in West Hollywood organized by a friend. Yet again traffic is bad and many of us get there an hour late. While I'm stuck on Sunset Blvd., I actually see the writer of one of our shows on the sidewalk. We have a full conversation while traffic doesn't move-a fun and nice surprise.

11:00 p.m.: Dinner is fantastic, and this is a great crew of people for unwinding and catching up on life in general. We talk about work a little bit, but mostly I end up laughing for three hours so hysterically that my face hurts.

12 a.m.: Back at home, I hop into bed, still feeling amped from the day. I do some non-work-related magazine reading to help me relax, and then pass out with the lights on.

For more Working Girl Diaries, check out:

What it's like to be a personal stylist to some of the most powerful women in Hollywood, including Shonda Rhimes

What it's like to bring foreign language lessons to the masses at Duolingo

What it's like to be a bestselling author and body image advocate

And see more here…

The post What it's like to be a woman leading TV development at Hulu appeared first on HelloGiggles.