#Head of Strategy

[davidleavittofelmtreefunds]

David Leavitt of ElmTree Funds holds a Bachelor of Arts from New School University as well as his Juris Doctor from Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he graduated with high honors.  He began his career as an attorney for Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom LLP. Mr. Leavitt is General Counsel and Head of Strategy for the private equity real estate firm which has executed $20+ billion of commercial real estate assets.

[agendercryptidlev]

Torchwood gets massive props from me for using the "character gets tricked into thinking they did something terrible and confesses it to their loved one" trope with the loved one instead of freaking out just going "no you fucking didn't. We're going to figure out what's actually going on here"

[izzystizzys]

Half the jobs Fox is sent on are not within his jurisdiction. This certainly isn’t.

Planetary protection unit, they said. Military police. Orbital security force.

And now Fox is being pointed at Count Dooku on some backwater planet and told to fetch. How the mighty have fallen.

He’s pretty sure Kenobi, Skywalker and their units could’ve karked this all up perfectly fine on their lonesome; they don’t need three Guardsmen there to watch them do it. But the Chancellor says jump and Fox surpressed the urge to bash his head in with a durasteel chair. So it goes.

Which is when things start going terribly, terribly wrong, of course.

“Is that Spinder?!”, Skywalker exclaims, arms wheeling out in the air wildly to try and catch his balance. “The Count fucks?!”

Across the room, Cody rips his helmet off, several shades redder than a baseline human should be. “The Count fucks my brother?!”

Two lightsticks hover uselessly in the air, Skywalker’s zig-zagging in a relentless hum with his gesturing. Fox stands stock-still, in the hope that maybe he’ll spontaneously turn invisible if he does. Around them, 501st and 212th troopers gape through helmets. Behind him, Nuisance gasps for air amidst screaming laughter.

Ping, went Fox’s comm unit, in that unmistakeable lascivious jingle sound. Ping, answered Count Dooku’s within a split second. Match found close by.

For a moment, Fox considers what it would be like to run at the Count’s lightsaber at full speed.

…not like that.

“Count”, Kenobi says, with a face like he’s bitten into a rotten fruit. Not that Fox knows what fruit tastes like. “This is a highly… unexpected development.” He fwoosh-es his lightsaber shut, obviously having given up on fighting. “I’d call it a conflict of interest, but I’m not sure that applies?”

“Oh, it’s gonna be a conflict of something, for sure”, Cody hisses, fists clenched at his sides. He looks about ready to boil over, with Crys and Waxer inching closer in preparation. “What have you done to my brother, you monster?!”

“I don’t think you want to know that, Commander”, Nuisance gasps out between barks of laughter, proving why he’s eternally Fox’s least favourite. Cody’s splotchy red complexion slowly fades into ghostly white as a sheen of horror settles over the room. “Thanks for the fancy chocolate bouquet last week, Count!”

Dooku, who has been thus far staring at the floor with an empty thousand-klick stare, looks up at that. Fox has seldom seen a man that defeated outside of the mirror, he has to admit - but shudders when he remembers exactly what the chocolates were for.

Oh Force, he’s sexted Count Dooku into buying him gifts. Does that make him a Seppie spy? Traitor by proxy?

“I feel”, says the Count, gravely, still holding his long red laserknife in a white-knuckled death-grip, “that I have been taken for a fool.”

“Uh”, says Fox, nervously. All eyes snap to him. Oh Force, oh Force, oh Force. They’re going to invent a whole new kind of decommissioning for this and name it after Fox.

“Is it really scamming if you actually get what you pay for?”, asks Grids, considering. Fox slowly pulls off his helmet just for the comforting feeling of burying his head in his gloved palms. The sounds of a struggle ensue, and Kenobi makes a choked-off noise. Maybe if he’s embarrassed enough he’ll give himself an aneurysm.

“Grandmaster, why are you paying people for naked pictures of themselves on the holonet?!” Kenobi asks, despairingly. “Aren’t you a little old for that?”

“Oi, no one said I was naked!”, Fox exclaims, head whipping up.

“So naked”, Nuisance laughs, palm thumping against the floor. He might be crying.

“I’m not decrepit”, the Count blusters, and Skywalker makes a gagging noise. “I have - there are needs, and they are perfectly natural!” It takes three troopers to restrain Cody from launching himself at the Count.

[chaiichait]

Jude in TCP was something else. Imagine poisoning yourself on the daily, still doing physically challenging missions while balancing the mental load of being bullied and harboring a secret life, sleep depriving yourself and STILL attending daily family dinners and classes.

[likealittleheartbeat]

I try to generally be constructive and engaged with the show I love on here, so on this day, I’ll just say that one of the most thematically important aspects for me from the original ATLA is Aang’s emotional core of real shame for running away when he was hurt by the monk’s decision to send him away. People who feel the kind of deep-seated shame that Aang feels from this decision can understand how that kind of all-encompassing shame is not built around a simple failure or a lie they tell themselves; it’s constructed from real misbehaviors and transgressions of their own sense of ethics—lashing out, telling lies, attempting to hurt others intentionally—that then have consequences (abuses, abandonments, or deaths) which seem to far exceed their expectations or even basic logic.

The combination of the misbehavior with exaggerated existential punishments (along with a lack of support and amend-making in the immediate wake of the events) is what transforms a sense of guilt (I fucked up) into shame (I am a forever fuck-up). Then shame, that sense of being a secret monster ‘no matter what I do or how good everyone thinks I am,’ invites all the avoidance strategies (Aang puts on big smiles, makes lots of jokes, constantly tries to make everyone happy, hops from town to town without building deeper connections). One doesn’t want to acknowledge one’s true feelings or let others in to see those feelings and experiences because it’s too painful to face the grief at the same time that you have to look at yourself for being responsible—even when you recognize it wasn’t totally your fault. It’s just that if you had just been good, less emotional, less human, then maybe the world wouldn’t be so messed up. Of course, in a zen view of things, the world will always be messed up in the same way it will always be beautiful. These are constant facts that always coexist in balance, and this is the truth that Aang learns and that undergirds the whole series.

So I always loved that Aang ran away. It was his sin and his salvation. And it becomes this constant tension for the series—he gets hurt in Bato of the Water Tribe and starts to run away from Katara and Sokka, he runs away to the Guru in the Crossroads of Destiny and his best friend is attacked, he and the gaang retreat after the Day of the Black Sun failure, he runs away to meditation in Sozin’s Comet when everyone wants him preparing for war. Aang’s reluctance to be a hero and the attachments and petulance for which he gets criticized are what metamorphasize to become his most noble attributes. They allow him to empathize with others shame and, ultimately, wield the kind of compassion that can deconstruct the power and perfectionism of imperialism.

So yes, Aang ran away from his temple 100 years ago. It wasn’t the mentally healthy choice. It wasn’t the ethical choice. It wasn’t the wise choice. It was human and emotional and shameful and real. Aang is a better character for it. ATLA is a better show because of it. And we are better people when we understand these kind of tragic emotional experiences that people are trying so hard to grow through.

[paging-possum]

Secunits from family game night :]

[lorelune]

jing yuan would be such a particular flavor of yandere, he really would stack every card against you. he'd destabilize you from a distance. some horrible circumstantial loss of your home, job, a hemorrhaging of a social circle you relied on. it is easier to pick up a stray when its both friendly and hungry.

jing yuan waits to swoop into your life. he orchestrates a number of interviews that fail, stressful night's out which end with you flinching at every shadow you see. once you're frayed and losing hope? then he will offer a hand. barely. he's the general, only what he could write off as proper. perhaps an afternoon cup of tea? he does like to know about the wellbeing of the denizens of the luofu. he has a garden he keeps, full of fat sparrows, he'd be happy to show you if you have time.

it's comfort he means to provide. he has stripped you of what little you had before. what remains is all fragments, hardly there, but good building blocks for what he'd like you to be. jing yuan knows this is cruel. he knows the game he is playing is at your expense, and he does not lie to himself about this fact.

jing yuan does hope, however, that perhaps you will be more content under his thumb. not as a card in his hand, a piece on a board, but a lover at his side when circumstance has left him alone and old. he thinks you'll like it, maybe. that you could if you only trusted him and never thought to hard about the events that led you to be perched so close to him, ensnared.

[hauntingsunshine14]

summer olympics 2028 in a universe with no exy we have:

star gymnast neil josten

heavyweight champion andrew minyard

tennis pro kevin day

rugby goddess allison reynolds

d pole laxer matt boyd

marathon swimmer renee walker

volleyball libero aaron minyard

hockey forward dan wilds

synchronized diver nicky hemmick

[bonefall]

I’m rereading Po3 and despite its flaws I really enjoyed the introduction to the three. Jaykit isn’t mentioned to be blind in the first few chapters and instead they chose to show how much MORE capable he is compared to his littermates; until at the end of chapter 3, he brings up his blindness on his own. It makes forcing him to be a medicine cat SO much more frustrating because it really feels like they’re setting him up to be a warrior and choose his own fate (note i haven’t finished the reread this is just my first impression)

I like how you seem to take that path in BB regardless! It makes his arc so much more enjoyable

His arc in canon is super frustrating because he's such an independent character who clearly wants to make his own decisions in life, but then he just gets shoved into the medcat den. I LIKE that he ultimately goes there and that he enjoys it; but it was still really fucked up that they stripped away his autonomy in the process.

Re: they are not real, they are writing choices. Taking away the choices a disabled character can make over their own life, forcing them into a celibate nun role, and then going "awwwww dont worry see? he likes it! This was the best thing for him :)" was fucked up.

And imo it didn't have to be that way! You wouldn't have to go the FULL route I did with big changes, he could just be more involved in the descision to stop being a warrior apprentice and it would be fine. Minor change that would make a world of difference.

I do also have to interject to say though... blindness should really not be an extremely severe impairment for a ThunderClan cat.

I'm dead serious.

Whiskers are built-in sensors that tell you the exact position of everything within several inches of your head, ears swerve to pick up sound, and the jacobson's organ provides a sense of smell so keen that I have an entire Clanmew expansion draft because I needed to make WORDS describing the power of this sense that humans do not have. I cannot stress enough how delicate their other senses are, felines do not rely on their sight like primates do

ThunderClan lives in a mixed-oak woodland, where sight is already often obscured by foliage, objects are close together (for whiskers to feel), and nearly every movement makes noise against the leaf litter. RiverClan and (moor-running) WindClan cats would have a harder time with this disability than Thunder or Shadow.

Cat sight SUCKS to begin with. It sucks BADDD. They don't have color vision, they're significantly nearsighted, and they can't track up-and-down movements well. WC doesn't write realistic cats (more like small fuzzy people really) and I also work with more humanesque eyesight, but the only thing Jay should really lose is an ability to rapidly track a small animal swerving fast. Blind cats are often still excellent hunters in spite of that!

So it's an extra big waste that they railroaded him into a position he didn't choose, saying he couldn't be a warrior. This is the perfect disability to write, if you want to explore how ableism can impact the characters in this society who ARE legitimately still capable of nearly full independence, but still need to find accommodations for what they can't do.

In the same arc they're doing the dumb Cinder Reincarnation Plotline, no less!! Where SHE is also feeling like she has no choice over her "destiny," and gets a conflict over a potentially disabling injury

"Oh nooo if cinderpaw breaks her leg she wont be a warrior!"

"What the f-- Im Jaypaw and im reporting live from the scene where a Category 1 Idiot Moment is taking place. Woman breaks leg, suddenly everyone believes she is a horse, more at 11."

One of these days I should really make "herb guides" just covering how various sensory disabilities impact the lives of Clan cats and some tips for writing them as warriors, especially between Clans. Stuff you wouldn't usually consider, like how much noise deaf cats tend to make, how RiverClan would get a ton of sinus infections and lose their sense of smell, being blind in Sky vs Thunder, etc.

[wowchilli]

I have some thoughts after the Italian gp about McLaren. Shocking, I know! Anyway, for the past couple of days since the race I have been reading and looking at comments (on Instagram) to see what people thought about the race, and the first thing that was obvious to me from the first post that the F1 page made about the start of the race was that a lot of commenters were upset and that Oscar should NOT have overtaken Lando like that. Shock! Horror!

I personally saw no problem with the overtake that Oscar did, it was absolutely great wheel-to-wheel racing from the both of them and made me scream in the middle of the night cause I was not expecting it!

This was probably the most excited and hyped I’ve been watching an F1 race this year (I fear I have cursed the races that I watch to not get safety cars cause I have yet to see one 👀). ANYWAY, back to my original point about the commenters on Instagram, amidst all of the unnecessary hate and vitriol against Oscar doing that incredible overtake I read one persons comment that really got to me and thought I’d share it on here cause I haven’t seen as much discussion and discourse about the move on here as much :) and wanted to see what you guys thought!

This was off of a post on the F1 Instagram page that shows a video of Zak Brown being interviewed about how Oscar and Lando went during the race.

The first part really got to me cause it makes sense why McLaren are making those seemingly weird and terrible calls when it comes to which driver should be favoured more and get the better strategy. We all remember how much drama surrounded Oscar signing with McLaren back in ‘22! He was the biggest talent that the F1 grid had yet to see since Lewis and the teams all knew this and wanted to get a piece of him. Now I’m not trying to bark up Oscar’s tree here when I say all of this, but it really is the truth, because when you look back at statistics throughout his Junior career you can see how absolutely crazy it was!

This has only continued to grow throughout his short time at the ‘pinnacle of motor racing’! Just this year everyone seemed to collectively agree that his first win was in sight after Lando won in Miami, and that it was only the start of the McLaren boys’ domination with their fast as fuck car.

Ok, this is all to say that for all of the commenters crying about Oscar not being as good of a teammate to Lando, that he was selfish to pull off such a move at the start of the race, that he should have given the second place position to Lando, that he should just stop trying to compete with Lando and help him win instead like a ‘good 2nd driver’…. That’s just not what he was brought into F1 for.

Every single driver that gets into F1 wants to WIN, and their closest competitors and rivals are their teammates who have the same car. Neither Oscar nor Lando want to be 2nd driver, and I believe that they understand that about each other. They want to win at all costs and right now, these two are only going to get more and more competitive with each other because they know that the other can usually keep up and will keep pushing each other to their limits.

[murasaki-cha]

Cale: I've got an idea

Calefam: Does it involve braking the law and you coughing up blood?

Cale: By now don't you think that's a given?

Calefam: We were just trying to be optimistic

Cale: Don't bother

[davidleavittofelmtreefunds]

David Leavitt of ElmTree Funds | Worked in Fund Management

David Leavitt of ElmTree Funds holds a Bachelor of Arts from New School University as well as his Juris Doctor from Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he graduated with high honors.  He began his career as an attorney for Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom LLP. Mr. Leavitt is General Counsel and Head of Strategy for the private equity real estate firm which has executed $20+ billion of commercial real estate assets.

[markscherz]

why is he so fuckin itty bitty

Toads are very much R strategists: they can sometimes lay tens of thousands of eggs in a single clutch. The tadpoles are very small, and metamorphose quite quickly; the froglets that emerge from the water are often very small indeed. It takes some species years to attain adult body size. This individual has probably been out of the water for about a year, I'd guess. Still got some growing to do!

[space-spring-art]

I just think they'd be really really funny about it

[loregoddess]

has this been done before or...?

[viserya-firstofhername]

Hear me out, I am not saying anything in particular, yet I am saying some matters which I may elaborate upon in times to come.