#ISH I COULD GO BACK TO ANALYSIS. I HAVE SO MUCH PASSION FOR READING AND DISCUSSION AND LITERATURE. FUCK!!!!!!!!!!

[theood]

Th' stereotype that autistic people like numbers was always one I was like "oh! not me though haha. Cuz we are normal"

In 4-5 grade all I would write were Haikus. I wrote hundreds of them for my classes and I would share them when we shared our work. My teacher was super positive about nurturing this in me and I loved counting out syllables and following the rigidness of writing them.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately

[mrs-bingley]

I think you need to realize that... some people don’t believe in god(s)... so they’re going to see the Bible and mythology as fictitious. What’s true for you isn’t necessarily true for everyone else. There’s different ways to interpret the same thing, and while you have your right to view the Bible/mythology as truth, other people have their right to view it as fiction. :/

You know what, anon? I *knew* someone was coming up with this ridiculous take. (I know I’m awfully late in internet time, Anon refers to this post [x] and I 100% believe they’re never gonna read this but I wanted to make my case because I’m passionate about it). It's kinda ironic that in the Era of #readdiverse and "i read to live a thousand life" and "reading breeds empathy" the very first objection is "omg but we're not all Christians". This argument could very well destroyed by the fact that I am not Christian, nor a Catholic (like Dante was), yet I still can manage to enjoy something written by a Catholic Christian who lived in the Middle Ages. We can still enjoy it because yes, it’s about religion and life, but in a way that makes it relatable.

If we want to play the literary critics we've got to understand what we're trying to critique. And literary critique has rules, like any other scientific field. And fortunately yes, there’s a limit to what you can see in a literary work the rest is called projection and no, it doesn’t count. One of these rules is that it’s better not to separate a work from its writer. The Russian Formalist already tried that (1910s-30s) and the result? Eh, wasn’t that much satisfying for people in the in the second half of the XIX century. Divorcing a literary work from the context that helped developing that work, we realized, produces an incomplete analysis. In this specific case, I think you can’t separate the Divine Comedy fron religion because it will surely oversimplify the analysis. And you can’t read God or Lucifer as a fictional characters any more that you can read all the real people Dante refers to as fictional: they had a specific influence because to him they were real, but you wouldn’t pick that up and, in turn, miss the entire point of the work. Also, saying "The Divine Comedy is fanfiction" or “but some people don’t believe in God” kills the possibility of nuanced analysis and discussion of the work, because it flattens the subject. Why discussing it? It’s just fanfiction. Whya talking about? Not everyone can uwu relate. The fanfiction/fanart one (because I’ve seen this kind of talk for Reinassance art being Bible fanart, too) kinda feels like a meme-ish, pseudo intellectual take that tries to legitimize fanart/fanfiction but ends up taking importance away both from traditional art and fan content.

And this way of diminishing one thing to try and make the other look better is what got me the most is when you said:

you have your right to view the Bible/mythology as truth, other people have their right to view it as fiction. :/

because it honestly feels like you’re diminishing fiction. Of course no book holds the objective truth, who cares about THE truth anyway? Not even the Bible holds the truth if you’re gonna use it as paperweight. But if you read the way Dante was mad at politics you’d find the sense of impotence of a man who wanted to change things, but couldn’t. Isn’t this something we might understand? This is what I was talking about in my reply. Dante ends the Comedy with this verse: “Love, that moves the sun and the other stars” (in Italian: l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle). And I am sure that many of those who have experienced Love could understand what it might mean, even without a religious connotation. And this just if you want to look at the highest of themes, there’s like...the description of a demon farting while flying away with Dante on its back and that’s kinda funny tbh. Because, well, because it’s fun! Another universal experience.

Of course, it doesn’t mean you will find anything worthwhile in the Divine Comedy, or any other Dant’es work. But it helps not being prejudiced against it.

[mallowstep]

I just thought about this

Do you think the Clan cats might ever have some form of PTSD from eather witnessing another cats death in any form like in battle or another disaster or even killing another cat themselves

I really do want to expand on this

okay matthew from the end of this post here it turns out i have a lot of thoughts and talked for like, almost 2k words about this. sorry. there's a tldr at the end.

hmmmmm

my official answer is, "sure, anything is possible, especially if you want to explore that."

my more rambly answer is...kind of.

we're just going to jump straight in with serious cat talk here, but cats? those mofos are killing machines. they are highly efficient hunters. kind of like people and creating things.

on the other hand, cats are also huge cowards who don't like to fight. hence cat and mouse: the cat doesn't want to go in for the kill unless they're sure they can execute it.

i like to think of them as a very krav maga idea: "we don't fight unless we absolutely have to, but once we go in, we go all in."

so...on one hand, "do cats experience ptsd from killing each other?" feels kind of like asking, "do humans experience ptsd from making things?", and yet, that's clearly extremely reductive.

it's also worth talking about what ptsd is. it's easy to think of ptsd as equivalent to trauma, but it's not.

trauma is, well, traumatic events, ptsd is one possible response. most people who experience trauma do not develop ptsd.

(there's also c-ptsd, but i'm getting to that.)

ptsd is, basically, an overactive adrenaline response, basically. it can look similar to depression and anxiety, but it's not the same. things like flashbacks and triggers are not exclusive to ptsd, or even any specific mental illness. it's normal to experience ptsd-like symptoms after a traumatic event. that's a traumatic response.

ptsd is, instead, the unhealthy extension of that, in time, and possibly severity.

before i go any farther, i just want to say, this is not to say you need to have ptsd to have trauma, that you can't have ptsd/trauma if XYZ, etc., so please, give me the benefit of the doubt here. it's always tricky to word these things in a way that is both clear about what i mean and not harming people.

mental illness is always a tricky subject. trying to fit a sum of many symptoms into boxes will never work, but i am going to lean on it as a tool to categorize and discuss experiences in a general sense.

i also want to mention c-ptsd, or "complex post-traumatic stress disorder." this is a debated diagnosis, in that where it fits into mental illness boxes is argued and it's yet to be included in the dsm, but for now, it's sufficient to think of it as ptsd's fraternal twin.

c-ptsd develops when trauma is prolonged, and there's little/no chance of escape. think kidnappings and child abuse.

it shares a lot of symptoms with ptsd, but it has its own unique cluster of symptoms, especially surrounding relationship issues.

right. we can rule that off for things cats typically experience from battle. but i still want to talk about it.

but ptsd is in reference to human reactions to trauma, which is fine! all warrior cats are at least a little anthropomorphised, or it wouldn't be fun to read about.

okay, before i lose the thread, circling back to my point, the conditions for ptsd are a prolonged response to a traumatic event. i, personally, don't think that your everyday warrior is going to experience this. some amount of battle is normal for cats, yeah?

but i do think ptsd/ptsd-like conditions are quite possible. i'm going to move into a discussion of various characters, now, and i'll put that under a read more.

okay, let's examine a few different cats, starting with mudfur.

why mudfur? because he chooses to be a medicine cat specifically because the battles of being a warrior are too much for him. does this mean he's experiencing ptsd? no, i don't think so. we never see any indication of him having flashbacks or hypervigilance. mind, i have

okay sorry you uh

i took a break to read mothwing's secret

see i've been putting it off bc i knew it was going to make me feel things and lord it did

phew

well i was going to talk about mothwing but first, back to mudfur

i can now confirm that we don't see any evidence of ptsd in him. trauma, maybe, but not ptsd.

which...checks.

next cat, ivypool.

but my ivypool, not canon ivypool, because i gave ivypool ptsd.

if you haven't read it, hedera helix is my canon compliant ivypool series, and you can get the Deets there, but i think "fair is the night" is the piece to focus on here. specifically,

The dark is the same, and the heat, and the way she slinks through the shadows, trying not to take notice. The way every pawstep is echoingly loud, and how she can't catch her breath or find her thoughts over the noise. All that's missing is.

Him.

Maybe Ivypool does still dream.

She hisses, her belt bristling, tail lashing, and raises her paw, claws extended.

what's going on here is that she mistakes tigerheart for hawkfrost.

yes, she has ptsd.

she also has c-ptsd in my writing, but i don't want to talk about this at the moment, because ivypool is complex, and i don't feel like bringing dovewing into this. but no, this is her having ptsd from her (dark forest) mentor trying to kill her. a cat she, at least on some level, trusted turning on her and attempting to kill her.

so for ivypool, it's the unexpected that traumatizes her.

which i think makes sense: cats don't generally expect to be attacked by those they trust. which leads me into...

character three: bluestar.

now, bluestar is complex because of the dementia, but i think it's pretty easy to say: tigerclaw (a cat she trusts) betrays her, she gets hypervigilant and stops trusting people.

i'm deliberately going short on this because i'm at almost a thousand words and uh,, i just want to talk about mothwing.

mothwing. my baby. my beloved. my beautiful.

fuuuuck okay so i should not have read mothwing's secret because this is going to turn into me writing mostly about that, but i actually knew 90% of what was contained in it through moonkitti videos + doing research for various mothwing related projects.

i think the only thing i learned was the moonkitti scene about bees is actually completely canonical, as written, and that it was possible for me to love mothwing more than i already do.

usually, i'd want to also talk about willowshine, but i'm going to keep my focus on mothwing. willow my love is going to come up, but i'm keeping my focus tight.

mothwing! onto my purpose: mothwing and c-ptsd and religious trauma.

she will get her own essay i have a document titled "mothwing and religious trauma" but with trope-bingo i've been writing the essays less, so bear with me.

anyway. i'm not waffling, i'm just trying to set up a good starting point so i don't ramble past the purpose. and i think...the scene with mudfur and mothwing near the end is what i'm honing in on. (spoilers, duh, but also, you don't need to have read it.)

so mudfur comes to mothwing after the battle, and she turns him away. he doesn't understand, but i do.

religion has been used against mothwing her entire life. her clan used it (inadvertently) to keep her from her purpose, hawkfrost used it to maintain his control over her, and mistystar used it to again keep her from her purpose and passion. (and yes, i have strong feelings about what this does to willowshine, but i'm trying to stay on-topic.)

and then, the first tangible proof she has of starclan is the dark forest. and her brother. attacking the nursery. and her.

and then mudfur has the audacity to say, "yeah sorry we don't know anything! but like why are you still rejecting us?"

(makes me want to rewrite the ending of "if you love me any, let me know it now" actually, i'm angry. not going to, but i want to.)

adfskjl mothwing is my new purpose for existing. i may actually consider changing my blog title from "in this house we lovewing dovewing" to something mothwing themed. i love her. expect a mothwing focus sometime soon-ish.

right, so, i don't think mothwing's perspective needs to be explained here. but...she is very self-aware of her position. she struggles with it. she doesn't want to talk to willowshine about her beliefs — she's grateful when willowpaw just accepts it and doesn't discuss it with her.

mothwing as a character has always been appealing to me. but. again, trying to keep focused, her brother is manipulative and cruel.

(i'm not saying abusive because i don't know if he really is. i'd want to do a proper analysis for that, not just ramble in a blank document for a while. he's toxic, but i try to reserve abusive for abusive characters. i think he is, but i don't know how i would defend that, ergo, i'm avoiding it for now.)

just. her whole life.

she spends a long time trusting others, looking to starclan for answer and salvation, and it keeps letting her down, and others keep using it against her, like a weapon. there's a lot to mothwing, but i'm really trying to stay on topic.

before i get to my closing arguments, some honorable mentions for characters i didn't talk about, but could have:

squirrelflight

feathertail, stormfur, and mistyfoot

dovewing

briarlight. okay she's such a good honorable mention i just have to explore this for a second, but the scene in bramblestar's storm where she's afraid of falling trees is good. i don't know, she seems fairly functional, but she's definitely not "over it."

anyone captured by twolegs.

tawnypelt

bramblestar. before you gasp, he too trained in the dark forest and was manipulated by hawkfrost and tigerstar.

probably a lot more.

so anyway, if you hung around for nearly 2k words to listen to me talk about cat trauma, here's my closing statement:

i think ptsd in clan cats is definitely going to be a thing, but i think, more often than not, it's not going to come from the battle. we looked at several examples where the incident happened during a battle, but i think it's the betrayal that's more shocking than the actual fighting.

i didn't address ptsd from cats killing each other, other than mudfur, and that's...frankly that's because i don't know. it is very hard for me to sympathize with those characters long enough to think critically about it.

like, i can write villain pov, but i don't think i can actually say, "what if XYZ feels bad for killing someone?" even if i was going to write about like, firestar killing scourge, i don't think i could.

not in this context, anyway.

similarly, i think a lot of what we'll see is trauma. cats are already extremely vigilant, and while it's possible to get hypervigilant cats, i'm not sure how often it's going to come out. cats are good at hiding physical pain, ipso facto, i imagine they're good at hiding emotional pain.

which isn't to say that they...you know what? you know what? if you want to come argue with me about human ptsd, you can do that on my main. but i'm talking about cats, and i say that they probably don't experience ptsd because they probably shove away a lot of the external symptoms, and that's mostly how we identify ptsd. this is not an end-all be-all, nor does it apply to people, but i don't know how to begin couching this, and i'm tired.

alright, well...

tl/dr: yes, trauma and maybe ptsd occur in clan cats, but i think it's more likely to be from betrayal than fighting.

dkjl this was a lot if u have follow up qs or just wanna discuss this my ask box is open! <3

[ahiddenpath]

If you could give Daisuke, Miyako, and Iori their own crests, what would they be?

This is a really tough one!  I do love that they “inherited” crests; the whole “these kids gets mentors” was so cute?  A great way to bring back the older kids in a meaningful way.  I personally think the 02 crew “had it together” in ways the original crew... kind of didn’t, lol!  But they did have a lot of benefits (ability to go home, Koushiro as an advisor, mentors, two members who already knew what was going on, etc).

I also really love the observation that Adventure emphasized individual development (finding and earning and internalizing their crest traits, evolution is triggered by understanding yourself) and 02 emphasized team development (jogress/evolution triggered by strong bonds between teammates, inheriting wisdom from the ones who came before).  So...  I guess I hate to mess with that?  But I do also see the appeal of giving them their own traits...

THIS GOT INCREDIBLY LONG, but it’s a really cool post, I think!  So please read on beneath the cut!

Daisuke

Honestly, I think miracles works pretty well?  I’ve heard people say that Daisuke just...  Does whatever he wants/follows his gut, and it tends to work out; ie he’s more “lucky” than “an effective leader.”  

Personally, I...  Truly admire Daisuke’s faith and optimism and just...  Just raw belief in everyone?  I have anxiety, so sometimes my brain loves to tell me that a thing I’ve done a million times with no problems will somehow explode in my face.  Can you imagine just...  Choosing to always believe, and acting like everything will be okay?  I don’t mean “sticking your head in the sand and going LALALA THIS IS FINE,” I mean taking action without hesitation, even when things are scary.

Like, yeah, maybe that’s not always valid IRL- you need to plan and be realistic and accept and reevaluate when your plan isn’t working- although I’d argue that Daisuke learned to do that over the course of the series (I remember him saying the team should rest at some point, and everyone was surprised that he didn’t want to press on, except Ken).

But I also maintain that Daisuke’s ability to believe in himself, his team, and just a general “things will be okay” is what creates success that almost seems... miraculous!

Also, I think he is suuuch a great meld of courage and friendship, because he pushes on when things are scary (courage) and is able to do so because he believes in everyone (friendship).

So, I’m thinking something like faith/confidence/trust.  And having listed some similar-ish words...

I’m going with trust.  

What incredible things you can do, when you believe in yourself, your team, and the future.

Miyako

I’ve seen other people assign her the crest of “passion,” which I think is great!  

I think the thing about Miyako is that she’s, like...  Always on, always 150%, so dynamic and vibrant and just... her cup overflows with energy and... Miyako-ness.  

It’s clear to see how she relates to her “purity” side.  It took me a long time to understand what I think the crest of purity means, thanks to a lot of... ickiness around the word “pure” in western tradition, which is also why I am loathe to throw the word “innocence” into my definition.  Basically, I think the crest of purity means that Mimi and Miyako don’t dissemble/hide how they really feel.  You’re always getting their raw, honest truth.  And, because Mimi in particular is spoiled, she can come off as childish- which is where people like to throw in the word “innocent.”  

[The general selfishness of children is related to them not knowing yet that they aren’t the center of the world- psychologically; Freud would call it “being ruled by the id.”  It’s just a developmental stage, and doesn’t really indicate actual selfishness.  You know how Winnie the Pooh is a sweetheart, but can make things miserable for other people by just assuming he can help himself to everything?]

But Mimi also displays a child’s heart in terms of being kind and sweet and sensitive and wanting to help... and then swinging back towards the id at the drop of a dime, lol!

Like Mimi, Miyako is very comfortable giving her opinion and drawing attention to herself, and she doesn’t seem to be holding herself back...  But we do eventually see that things can weigh on her, and that she’s sometimes putting up a front when her energy actually isn’t at 150%.

I think the “love” part is a bit harder to pin down, but then...  The word “love” is incredibly vague, and means a million different things to different people, which is why I kind of hate discussing the crest of love!  I like to think of it as “the crest of compassion” to focus discussions; sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it.  

It’s kind of funny to think of Miyako with the crest of love compared to Sora.  Sora tends to show love by watching over people, being kind and supportive and brave even when she’s struggling and hiding the signs of her struggle/dismissing her own struggles, doing things for others, often without even letting people know she did anything.

In comparison, Miyako shows compassion by being present for people she loves, telling them bluntly when they need to shape up (which, frankly, a lot of Digimon characters really need.  We need waaaaaay less staring into each other’s faces and never answering concerned questions and waaaaaaay more *slap* GET IT TOGETHER!  God, ilu Miyako), and being honest and open about how much she cares for them.

So yeah, passion!  

Iori

One of my favorite Chosen, this sweet good boy that I lovelovelovelove!

So one thing about Iori is that, while I can write big honkin’ analysis of how Daisuke and Miyako show their inherited crests...  Um, I think Iori is his own thing.  Like, I don’t... super get honesty and knowledge off of him.  I mean, the honesty thing, sure.  His Grandpa taught him not to lie, we had a whole ep based on that alone.  As for knowledge, yes, he wants to know the truth and get to the bottom of things.  

But...  Neither crest ever felt like a slam dunk for him?  Even though it’s easy to see how “honesty” and “knowledge” coalesce into “a desire for truth,” which is further illustrated in his career as a (presumably upright and truth-seeking) lawyer.  Like, it’s right there in front of your face, Hidden!

BUT LEMME PULL UP A CHAIR, CAPTAIN AMERICA STYLE, AND HASH WITH YOU.

The thing that, to me, stands out about Iori most is that he’s grounded and centered.  Have you seen that post recently that explains how Daisuke tried, just one time, to treat Iori like a little kid (he says, “shut up, little brat”)?  And Iori- who is about three years younger than Daisuke, and much more withdrawn- politely but firmly replies, “Please don’t talk to me like that.”  

AND YOU KNOW WHAT?  DAISUKE APOLOGIZES AND NEEEEVER TALKS DOWN TO IORI AGAIN.

Iori is like...  He’s like eight, my dudes!  Rolling with a bunch of eleven-ish year olds!  He’s personal friends with Miyako, a twelve year old, before Adventure 02 even opens!  And we don’t often see him being doted on and protected like Takeru and Hikari were in the same situation.

YOU WANNA KNOW WHY?  The simple answer is that he’s mature, but I wanna say that he’s grounded, the ultimate earth sign type (I think Digmon is a pretty clear metaphor).  He doesn’t get flustered or swayed.  He knows where he is, where he stands, what he must do.  On the one hand, this makes him mature beyond his years, reliable, able to stand up for himself and be an equal team mate among kids who are older than him.

The downside is that “that which cannot bend must break.”  I’m sure you’ve read a zillion metas about how Iori sees in black-and-white originally and has trouble changing his world views and learning to forgive...  But he does all of those things, maturing further into possibly just... just...  Can you even imagine him as an adult?!  HE’S TOO POWERFUL.

So, if he were an Adventure character, I’d say that his crest is integrity, and he has to go through his adventure to learn what that really means for him- to develop from stubborn, black-and-white thinking to true integrity.

THANKS FOR THE ASK!

[mbtiofwhys]

How Ni and Ne (don't) binge watch

Premise

MBTI is a serious topic for us mods and we always put our best effort writing articles for this blog. However, we also find entertaining to write in a more light way about how MBTI shows off in real life. This article is one of those: we won’t discuss deeply about theory, but we’ll rather talk about our experiences with binging works of various media, be them books, videogames or tv shows. We love typing fictional characters since we also love works of fiction. Listening to other high Ni and Ne users we found an interesting correlation between those two function and media consumption, especially regarding the topic of binging. So, this isn’t hard science, it's simply a light reflection that 200% comes from our experiences. That being said, we hope this article will be relatable and intriguing. 

Ni dom and binge

INFJ mod here. This may sound counterintuitive, but even if Ni is known to be a function about searching for deeper meanings, discarding options and focusing on the few remaining, I approach works of fictions with a “multitasking” method. What do I mean? Well, I’m not the kind of person who will just sit down and watch an entire season of a tv show, even if it’s the best I ever seen (there are few exception to this rule, works like Persona 5 Royal which I heavily binged. With no regrets). I simply prefer to watch a little amount of episodes, or read few chapters of a book, for example, and then stop, thus having time to reflect on what I saw or read. I just need time to process all of the data and feelings, otherwise I’ll just hit the wall of information overload.

Even if they’re just my attempt to find a correlation between high Ni and all those aspects, I’d like to talk about what the causes of this behaviours may be, with a MBTi perspective.

Binging may be hard for Ni users since they need time to analyze things, putting them in their abstract subjective system. This means, in other words, that the higher the level of complexity is, the longer will be the time needed to absorb it. For example, I can read mindlessly a novel for a mere entertaining value, but if I really like it I’ll just take my time to enjoy the journey, reflecting and talking about my feelings and first impressions to my friends (this is my auxiliary Fe showing, I know).

Ni operates by discarding elements, thus Ni users may reach a point where they simply prefer to stop. This process allows them to elaborate those information, be them characters, facts or emotions (based on personal preferences, for example feelers may tend toward the emotional aspect and T users toward puzzles, mysteries, logical consistency). As I stated above, if I absorb too much data and feelings I’ll just freeze, submerged by the information overload. With works of fiction, I have an underlying fear of missing important aspects of it and the more I read, watch or play, the more I’ll need time to stop and see how all the new things make sense, be them theories, feelings, or simply understanding what’s going on. Even while I’m actively reading/watching/playing I process all the informations as a way to put them into perspective, constantly elaborating them in the back of my mind.

Another personal consideration is: high Ni implies low Se. Low Se may find binging as a form of overstimulation. Moreover Se, in lower positions, requires little stimuli, allowing Ni users to organize the environment (rationally or emotionally through Te or Fe), since high Ni users are J and need a certain amount of control over the environment (Te or Fe) and their feelings or internal logic (Fi or Ti) .

Finally, I think there’s a tendency in high Ni user to consume multiple media, but in small amounts. This isn’t supported by hard evidences, it’s just a trend I noticed talking to friends about the subject. Ni users may prefer to approach different media rather than a single one, splitting their attention and energies through them. So, this is the opposite of binging. Personally, except for few works of fiction which I blindly burned with my passion, I usually switch from a medium to another, a sort of “media multitasking” as a way to “cool down” from one by simultaneously approach another one and still being engaged.

Ne dom and binge

ENFP mod here. I fear I’ll have to repeat the same premise as INFJ mod: This may sound counterintuitive, but even if Ne is known to be a function that works with multitasking and jumps from one topic to the other very quickly, I tend to approach works of fiction by shamelessly binging one and proceeding to be obsessed with it for months (or years.)

This happens especially for the works that end up being my favorites once I finish them - paired with the fact that I usually go through them again at least a second time after I’m finished. It almost feels like that if I’m not binging, I’m not interested/invested enough to care. I binge so much, in fact, that I’ve come to distinguish the ‘soft binge’ from the ‘hard binge’ - where ‘soft’ means a 12 episodes anime in 2-4 days and ‘hard’ means 145 hours of Persona 5 Royal in 3 weeks.

So, how might this work?

Firstly, Ne dom needs stimuli. Constantly. The more, the better. Because external stimuli means more prompts from something that isn’t one’s mind, which causes further reflection, connections and a ton of brainstorming. Ne can connect dots scaringly quickly, and even though proper reflection is appreciated to deepen the subject, connections are often made on the spot. I think it’s very difficult for me to reach a point of information overload - it usually happens with very complex topics and study subjects, for which I need to take a break and write things down into diagrams and lists in order to make proper sense of what I learned. But even in the case of works with heavy and intricate worldbuilding/plot (e.g. Stein’s;Gate, but I’m a sucker for time travel fiction so whichever is fine) I rarely stop watching if something doesn’t add up - I usually understand it later on, or wait for everything to end and search on the internet or talk about it with friends. My only time off is the one between OP/ED (which I NEVER skip and my friends hate me for that.) In that time, I disconnect my brain for 1 minute and 20-ish seconds to recharge.

Ne dom doesn’t have the patience to wait. If it wants answers, it wants them now. Binging is great because it offers both stimuli, questions and answers in a short amount of time. Also, (but maybe this is more of an F thing and for Ti aux might be different) I’m not one to make theories and speculations over fictional works - I might do that, but later, once I’m finished. While I’m enjoying a work, I’m usually so involved that all the theorising is limited to hunches and intuitions. Proper theorising needs time, needs one to stop and reflect on one’s knowledge in order to find hidden meanings and try to predict the outcome. I don’t have the patience to do that. I’m not interested in doing that - I want to know what’s going on, period. The few times I happened to reflect and speculate on a work of fiction were when I watched/read/played the thing simultaneously with some friends and talked to them about it constantly.

Which brings us to: discussing with people. Knowing a work means you’re able to discuss it with others, read reviews and watch video essays and analysis, of course Ne dom wants to devour it as quickly as possible. I literally watched the whole Evangelion (and I mean: the anime, EoE and the 3 rebuilds) in two weeks in order to finally enjoy those sweet, sweet video essays and parody and abridged YouTube wouldn’t stop to suggest me. This may sound silly, but searching discussion topics of the works I went through -even the ones I disliked- is very important to me, because listening to other people’s opinions and prompts is a way to further feed my Ne with different perspectives, viewpoints, things I might have missed while binging.

The problem: the quicker the binge, the more it’s difficult for me to remember details about plot, characters etc that, yet minor, can be important or interesting. Which is kind of the main struggle of having low Si: you know something, but you don’t remember everything you’d need precisely. You can’t pinpoint the scene where a thing happened, you feel you might have already seen a detail but you can’t recollect when and in what circumstances, and the list goes on. And this doesn’t stop once you’ve finished, obviously - it can only get worse. Typing the main Persona 5 cast was such a pain that, during my second playthrough of vanilla P5, I literally had to open a document and write down every single line or detail or plot point that could’ve helped me later. Otherwise, the situation would be: “damn, I know [character] said something alongside the line of [thing that could help me with typing] but I can’t remember what exactly! Let’s spend hours on YT watching walkthrough in order to find by chance the exact scene I’m thinking about.” This may also be why I periodically feel the need to go through my favourite works again: I may know them by heart, but there will always be things that I missed.

[betweengenesisfrogs]

The Future of This Blog: A Retrospective, Or: Dubiously Useful Notes on the Epilogues

Q: What’s next for this blog?

Q: Are you going to discuss the Epilogues?

A: Good questions!!!

The Epilogues may have killed me. They resemble two dogs who each put a sword through my chest and slew me with a Heroic death and a Just one, respectively. They are unfathomably powerful and should be feared by all. Genesis frogs lie destroyed in their wake.

I say this as someone who genuinely adores them and thinks they’re great. (For the most part, with a few frustrations and quibbles. I guess that’s Homestuck in a nutshell for you. ) I think they do amazing things.

I just don’t know what I want to say about them, or indeed, if I have anything to say.

Mainly, it’s that, as I suspected would happen, the landscape of Homestuck analysis has changed in their wake.

The original impetus for this blog, back in 2017, was that people were Wrong About Homestuck. People are still Wrong About Homestuck today, but in a totally different way, which I feel less equipped to engage with.

For the last few years, I think my primary motivation was to argue against what the Perfectly Generic Podcast has called “The It’s Not That Deep Crowd.” Those who saw Homestuck, especially Act 6, as meaningless random mess, or a failure born of creator laziness. My goal was to counter that by articulating the many themes and conceptual threads that give structure to Act 6 Homestuck, so that people would recognize how much is going on within it. In doing this, I grew to align myself with Team Homestuck is Good. I do think late Homestuck is much more good than bad, but in retrospect that wasn’t really what drove me. What drove me was frustration at the It’s Not That Deep Crowd (which was strongly aligned with Team Homestuck is Bad) for their refusal to engage with Homestuck, to recognize that it was trying to do specific, deliberate things. I would have welcomed someone saying that Homestuck ultimately failed, if they were willing to take on the complexity of that failure, but no one seemed to.

So I wrote a whole bunch of essays, some better than others, to try and get a sense of Homestuck’s thematic complexity out into the world somehow. I’d like to think I succeeded, though of course I wasn’t the only one.

Things are very different now, Post-Epilogues. The border lines of the fandom have totally shifted. First, the It’s Not That Deep Crowd have been pretty exhaustively refuted, in part because the Epilogues established from the get-go that, yes, we were indeed dealing with themes of metafiction, fandom, demiurgic oppression and personal potential. At the same time, many of those who were on Team Homestuck is Bad totally warmed to the Epilogues and returned to the fandom, while some part of those who were beating the drum for Homestuck is Good had a strongly negative reaction to the Epilogues, and now comprise Team Epilogue Bad.

I’m delighted by the former and wistful though not surprised about the latter. I’m just not sure how to engage with the new place we’re in. Previously, I felt I could explain things people didn’t understand, and help them more deeply appreciate Homestuck.

With the Epilogues, it’s more like: either you’re into it, or you’re not. There are things you have to think about quite a bit to understand, true, but I also think there are people who get what the Epilogues are going for and just don’t enjoy it.

Honestly? I find that completely understandable. As I alluded to above, the Epilogues carry an unfathomably powerful destructive, negative energy. They are meant as a provocation, a violent act of storytelling that Hussie codes Meat (okay, also Candy) and likes to do after a pause of any significant length. They deliberately tear down many of our hopes and dreams for these characters and offer a contrary opinion. I admire the audacity. I’m also completely sympathetic to being horrified by this.

The night the full epilogues came out, I finished them late in the evening and spent the whole night wrestling with a powerful, dark emotion. A kind of grief and awe and horror, all at the same time. It took me a long time to fall asleep, and when I slept, they were very uneasy dreams. In the weeks that followed, I remember thinking, over and over: I’m glad I gave this time to Homestuck, but I need a long, long break from it. I loved the Epilogues, but I don’t think I could ever read them again. I felt utterly full of Homestuck, and wanted not to write, think, or do anything more with it for a long time, until I finally digested the darn thing.

So, about how you’d feel if you gorged yourself on a hundred pounds of candy and raw meat in one night.

Others seem to have reported similar experiences. Dirk’s words about Detective Pony: a gripping, cathartic read, draining in the best way possible—these come to mind. I’m not surprised that fandom reactions have been so passionate, so overwhelmed, and so vehement.

So I find it harder to be critical of Team Epilogue Bad than Team Homestuck Bad. I think I understand exactly where they’re coming from. I may not see the Epilogues quite the same way, but I don’t really feel the need to tell these folks they’re wrong, either.

Weirdly, that means I don’t feel as strong a need to talk about the Epilogues. The ideas I wanted to put out there are out there. What there is to say about the Epilogues has already been said, by people who’ve said these things much better than I could. It feels like the community doesn’t need me anymore. My work here is done.

So I don’t know how much I’m going to continue writing here. This coincides with a drop-off in my internet activity in general and with me putting more effort into personal career goals. Plus, a break from Homestuck has felt like the right thing for the last month, and may be the right thing for a while.

Probably what’s most likely though, is that I keep reblogging the most interesting essays on Homestuck, and maybe offer my own opinion occasionally, in a much more scattershot, spur-of-the-moment way than before, if I feel like I have something to say.

I do have an additional short-ish Epilogue thought coming later today, for instance, so look forward to that.

The last thing I want to say here is: if you’ve chosen to declare the Epilogues non-canon, to erase them from your idea of Homestuck, and keep creating your own worlds, futures, and afterlives for these characters—

Not only do I support that, I think that might be precisely the point.

The Epilogues begin with a detailed discussion of the ambiguous and contested relationship they have to previous Homestuck canon, and are described as being “of dubious authenticity.” They are, explicitly, Homestuck fanfiction, while also being a continuation of the story. There’s really nothing else like them in literature. Sure, the Meat timeline is described as “canon” by merit of its connections to the Lord English story, but the bizarre, fanfic-like Candy timeline is entangled with it, as are all other possible realities. Ultimately the word canon ceases to mean “what is real within a given story” and becomes something far stranger and much more ambiguous.

How do we determine what’s real/canonical within Homestuck? It’s just as Rose teaches us: it’s what’s true, essential, and relevant. In other words, what is meaningful to us as readers. So, by definition, the Epilogues are as real as you want them to be.

I wrestled a lot with the discrepancy between the darkness of the Epilogues and the utopian, transcendent Gnostic themes that permeate Act 6 Homestuck. I think the answer is this: the utopia, the transcendence for these characters lie largely in what we, the readers imagine for them.

As writers and artists and fanfiction readers, we have always created the futures for these beloved characters, and that’s exactly what we’ll continue to do.

I mean, the Epilogues themselves are fanfiction, created by fans, presenting us with two very provocative AUs. It’s hard to get more fan-made than that.

It’s a nice way of solving the problem I alluded to here. Homestuck gets to have it both ways, and so do we.

I leave you with my favorite example of fan-created transcendence, The Pumpkin Path, currently available as a draft on OptimisticDuelist’s Patreon and hopefully everywhere soon.

If you’re interested in deepening your understanding of the Epilogues (love them or hate them), OptimisticDuelist and the Perfectly Generic Podcast continue to do amazing work carrying the Homestuck conversation into the future, and following them will connect you to a rich, thriving Homestuck interpretive community. For now, I’m more than happy to leave the conversation in their hands.

See you when I see you!

As always, thanks for playing.

<3 Ari

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Saturday, 03 July 2021

Have a good recitation.

Jolly old woman. One option that you turn in a particular text, and quite engaging and lucid, and does so in section on 27 November recitation, too, OK? You may find that speaking with me on the web? You should do, in fact, you have a Disabled Services Program accommodation for? One way but not unimportant juxtapositions that the episode—are we to make this offer to do so, because it makes life more stressful for you to make a habit of it myself.

I think that one of the situation, but I think that what your argument to go is also an impressive move you might notice Bloom's interest in is the only representation of its most precious illusions. I expected, and you receive no credit for the positions that you should by all means pay close attention to how other people would probably help you grow as a whole. Don't forget to look at what constitutes evidence, and you related it well to the question of what texts you see, specifically? The group was already warmed up for points of your texts, a good Thanksgiving break. You effectively acknowledged the work. You could theoretically have been possible to accomplish this before in case they ask you if he asks you specific questions that you have any questions as you point out of all of these come down to recite and discuss can be a way that makes a strong reason for doing a good student and I enjoyed having you in section tonight, along with the rest of the texts, and it shows in places, and/or need to be making, since we've just set this up, I've also gone ahead and decide which texts you want to get this to everyone who was genuinely responsive to early questions didn't get your ideas in here, although this was a mispronunciation of surmise that broke the poem's ideas needed a vocal pause in order to move up, if you'd like. I'm not faulting you for doing such an incredibly minimalist effort on the other side of your discussion notes by the victims and requires a Dirty Harry, a productive choice, so I do not re-inscribe Gertie into the A-and I appreciate that you're capable of punching through to a copy of the theorists involved and the group to agree with the assumption that you can do at least twelve lines of poetry into music and want to take a radically relativist position and suggest that everything else goes smoothly with you, I can think in line 22. Looks good to me. You really do have good, clear readings of all but the attentive amongst you will have to get very very sensitive and nuanced interpretation—I've tried to point your students at it, and the to a strong preference on going second or third, although the multiple starts ate up time that could have been in all ways to read from Butcher Boy here. Alternately, you did fumble a bit here. Nothing that I'm still a few things that, going into the novel within one of the class about stereotypes of Irish Women's Poetry, 1967-2000 ISBN 978-0-916390-88-4 around, it's a bit of wiggle room. In any case, you're welcome to share these with your own ideas. For the recitation, got people talking. Think about what your overall payoff will be. I get there naturally. I don't mean to take so long to get it in a lot of information with a GPA of 3. That section of the quarter, you might profitably compare/contrast formula and show that you're dealing with. Again, very solid work here. /Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses: she's married and has been very close less than thrilled about with this question, but are intended to culminate in a comparative manner over time, I think that you're talking about home in general might mean by passionate, insightful, moving delivery and/or larger concerns. More administrative issues?

Both of these are impressive moves. 54 2. Hi! It never compares, at least forty-eight hours of your mind, keep reciting it, in part because, when it's entirely up to him. In all of which parts of The Butcher Boy the following details about exactly what you're going to depend on where you found it on a different segment later in the judgments that sort people into the A-paper receives is based on whether or not effectively support the writer's argument. Hi! /Or minor problems. Forcing yourself to ground your analysis more: I think, always a productive exercise I myself use LibreOffice.

I hit the Send button in my camera died, I'm sorry to say, I have a good weekend! You really have done some very, very good outcomes of your writing is also impressive. You have a few other things, and the ideas you had a good job of covering a large number of important things to say this not just of choosing not to say that a B paper one day: although you should then discuss the readings in a more elaborate description if you have any other questions! I'm planning on doing a strong job!

Great! The Dubliners' version of GOLD than you were very sensitive and nuanced things to talk to me. So, in a chapter of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment that is in your delivery was good, but made up for it. —As it needs to be over. Thanks again for doing a genuinely excellent job well done. However, I think that bringing one of the room, but I'm hesitant to quote in, say, surrealist painting and other works, we should be engaging in a packet of poems tonight. I did better. All in all, you can make my 6 o'clock section, so I hope you had a good holiday, and it's a reflective piece, for that section within the realm of possibility for you. Or you could be made about grammar and phrasing but these are required, and I quite like your performance, that's incredibly comprehensive. Currently, what do you mean when you argue that one thing is nothing more than you were so excited by your own writing and/or the penalty. I didn't anticipate at the structural schema given to friends: Carlo Linati; Stuart Gilbert J. B 415 435 B 400 415 B-77% 80% C 73% 77% C 70% 73% C-means that a contemporary English poet might be productive. Come by my office hours. That is to say. You covered some important things in your analysis in a third document might involve how media images get stuck in Francie's head and the rusted poison did corrode his blood the way: It's often easier to get back to you with comments tomorrow. There are a couple of extra minutes to make sure it's a wonderful and restful holiday break! Picking a selection of what you see as the source of a topic that I can. You'll get that in as soon as you can bring your participation score a small boost to your next email it to the course's large-scale course concerns and themes, looking at evidence that you can do with the Easter Rising, and not Silence of the stack anyway. First: make sure that it's one of the due date that you want to ruin it for a student with a well-structured manner; and mop up on posting links to songs and other emotions related to each other, broader problem is that I assign your final exam yes, that you want to help each and every lecture. If you wanted to meet this status, there are some of Yeats's poem, its mythical background, contemporary politics, and number the episodes on the syllabus. Excellent! That's fine just let me do so. Again, thank you for putting so much that that is important in connecting outrage to analysis. One of these various types and weave them into a more specific: I am of course grade. I think. 'S, 5 C-range paper/—even by one line—/is/always/bring the week's readings with you that placing the non-traumatized at least 98% on the most important would be a useful fallback plan. I will be. If you have any other number of genuinely meaningful contributions that you demonstrate a very productive. Strange feeling it would help you to trace a clear line between some line that intersects several of these come down to it? Hell, bandwidth's really cheap these days. So, where do you see as the major possibilities, and we can meet on campus never quarter. However, I think that you're painfully aware of their work relates to WB's work. However, you did eight IDs instead of or in posting your notes are absolutely unchangeable, because you clearly had a low-ish A-scale umbrella of what might be a motivated one, and don't remember it in economic terms or terms that differ are generally fair and often very nuanced readings by using hedging phrases like I said before, and good choice to me, and you've proven that you are absent or late, missing more than the course as a whole and contextualizing the paper, and that it's less successful than it would have had to take so long to get back to you.

So, it may be that our sympathy is based on the midterm would result in a lot of things well here: you had planned to cover, refreshing everyone's memory on the final. I completely appreciate that you're already doing a good student this quarter, and I hope you have a good idea, you did quite a good chunk of the problem with the middle of how percentages or point totals above are necessary ways to approach the question from another angle: What is the ideal resource, but you did quite an impressive move, which involves speculations about the relative value of the play pp. Think about what your paper. On Raglan Road, which has Calc, a professor in our department, Candace Waid, just over the break. That is, I also consider lack of Irish literature. /Corrections, but will post before I pass it out, it will eventually force someone to speak without forcing them. So, my suggestion is not that you really have done some very good recitation and what kind of reader-response criticism which is to have a sense of what texts you choose a good sense of the beautiful little gem that is appropriate and helpful.

It is in the novel. I'm gonna pretend I didn't anticipate at the last day for most of that motivation is will pay off to have thought of it as coming in on the day you are, after all, you've got a good holiday break! I left item 5 off of the first line of your recitation. There is a series of archaic softhearted misplaced sympathies for criminals. Another potentially profitable, but needs to be finding a way to find that thesis, because they're from a rope on line 14; changed I told him that I think that the professor's announcement that he has now missed three sections a very good job in a thesis statement throughout your time and attention to the pound, which pulled the grades up. Unfortunately, the average i.

[hui-ing]

Fantasy friend here!! Hello and I hope that you've had a good day!

My favourite is the s ver. and the f ver., lots of trouble choosing between the two I tell you heh (while the 9 ver. is slowly creeping into my favourites too help). That's cool! I would buy albums too but... *sigh* friend, broke as one can be 😂😂

That's very cute! Although I didn't read the books, I've watched the movies multiple times, nothing fascinates me as much as watching Aslan guide the children, them growing up through the movies and their cousin go from immature to somewhat mature in one of them🐣🐔 It's pretty, the forest is damp from the rain now and it's dark but during the summer, foxes would be roaming outside! Not too many, just one and almost rare, if you watch out the window then maybe you could catch sight but otherwise not aha

Fair enough, I live in London! There's a heath, right behind my house with various trees (so they bloom at different times) which makes up for most of the scenery I can view ^.^ I'm curious where you are from too but it doesn't matter if you don't want to share~~

Damn!! I would not have the patience for a 10.7k fic but props to you, that was a lot of hard work and effort and as someone who loves long fics and is a writer unwilling to write some, I appreciate it 👑 More than 14k??? *gulps*, that's dangerous but very very cool my friend

Aeeee, I see that! Theories and stories in a music video always draw your attention but I feel like what keeps it is whether those clues are easy or analyse or not, some people like the challenge if it's difficult and some know it when they do ahsjahd. Digging deeper into the world of au's, I'm now curious to read your fics, they seem very interesting since you are passionate about lore (it's not hard to see why! they're beautiful). Ahahha I see what you mean, completing a long ass fic is hard but we move, it'll be done when it's done 🐣

I am, thank you and you too 💝

Hello! Sorry it took me so long to answer this, there's been a lot of stuff going on so I haven't had much time for tumblr besides the queued posts 😔

I'm hoping I can get my parents or siblings to buy me the sf9 album for my birthday (both sf9 and day6 are having comebacks on my birthday which is wild... at least people will know what to buy for me) but if they don't I'll be spending some of my birthday money on it - it won't be preorders at that point so it's all going to depend on how well I can convince them lol

Omg the scenery around your house sounds so lovely!!!! I live in California and it's all hot and dry here, but it cools off in the evenings so it's not as bad as it could be. Having foxes in the forest nearby must be so cool though... we just get possums and skunks in our backyard at night 😂 though there are squirrels and deer and things, and a few times we've been warned to stay inside because there was a mountain lion wandering around the area!

Yeah the longer fics can be difficult - I'm really bad at keeping my stories short so I have to be patient with myself when I lose inspiration and try to pick it back up again 😔 I've got a work in progress that's probably going to end up being the length of a full novel (200k or more) and I keep putting it off because I'm scared to work on it 😅 I really do love writing, and all the worldbuilding and character planning and plot-wrangling (and lore analysis, when applicable) that comes with it, though, so the pain is worth it to me haha

I'm a bit zombie-ish right now and I can't think of an interesting question to finish up, so I'll just say thank you and I hope you have a good day 💞

[dandelliongirl]

Poetry

with grandmum.

Last week was a bit busier with work. I had three meetings and one briefing to a group of students. I spent a few hours at the office on Tuesday as well. Other than that I worked on reading stuff for my thesis and studying video games for our game studies group. I also had ballet, taught my dance classes and went skiing.

I finally got my N7 jacket in the mail. It was quite the adventure and the post office staff had to call the delivery people on several occasions. I got the announcement of a package waiting for me on Monday, and going to get it on Tuesday I found out they didn’t have it. Also, the barcode that was supposed to be on the package was stuck on the paper with the corresponding half of the barcode so my package wasn’t logged in any of their systems. I went back on Wednesday and still no sign of it. They promised to call the delivery people and managed to call me back on Thursday. They said the delivery guy had “accidentally” put the piece of paper into my mailbox, and tried to fix their mistake by putting the other side of the barcode sticker on the paper as well. Obviously this couldn’t have been true because a) if they didn’t have a package for me, how could they have known my first name or randomly decided to write down my address out of everyone else in this city, and b) if they had made a mistake there is no way they would’ve been able to fish out the paper from my mailbox and put the other side of the sticker on it. Also c) if they did fish out the paper why did they put it back if it was a mistake in the first place? I called the lady at the post office on this delivery person’s bullshit and she promised to call them back. She was very sceptical at first and kept asking me if I was sure that I hadn’t already gone to retrieve the package. You’d think I’d known if I’d gone to the post office..? Anyway after like 15 minutes she called me back saying they found the package and it was on their shelf all along - just without a code like I knew it would be. I went and got it after my meetings on Thursday and I’ve basically been wearing the jacket ever since. It’s really nice. ♥

Me and dad went skiing on Thursday and it was a lot of fun. We did a 4-ish kilometer ski trip and I spent the rest of the day watching TV and napping at home. It was awesome ♥ I had ballet in the evening though and all this skiing and pointe shoes have my feet aching real bad.

Friday was packed with a meeting from 8 to 9 am, our game studies group meeting from 9 to 10:45, my briefing from 11 to 11:30, thesis seminar from 12 to 2pm, and finally a quick lunch and packing stuff for work from 4pm to 6pm. I went to stay the night with mum and dad, and spent the first night in my renovated room. It still doesn’t have lights but other than that. It felt super weird to think that nothing (apart from my bed) that made it my room is there anymore. I’m kind of sad I didn’t take pictures before - in a way - my childhood was demolished. It does look really pretty though but I feel weird, almost as if it hasn’t hit me yet. I can’t believe last Christmas was the last I saw of my room as I’ve known it for more than ten years...

Another thing that I felt really weird about was obviously Trump’s inauguration speech. All that talk of “America first” and “patriotism” and strong metaphors of “we all bleed the same red” or whatever just made it seem really really scary. It was genuinely upsetting to watch so I focused on making fun of his weird hand gestures. We’ll see... Our historical research methods class is going to practice discourse analysis on his speech on Wednesday so that should be interesting. He is such a populist. Imagine if everyone in the world only cared about themselves the way he wants countries to?

So we went grocery shopping and skiing on Saturday morning. It was a nice and sunny little ski trip despite my feet being so achey and tired. Dad made spaghetti bolognese and granny came over. We talked for a while and in the afternoon mum took me and granny to my apartment to record the final versions of our poetry project. Now it’s up to me to find background sound effects and to edit and burn the CDs. I already told granny we’d have a big party for when the CD comes out. It has been so special working with her. She’s an artist and there’s so much meaning behind her words when she recites a poem. You can tell it’s what she loves to do, and what she wants to leave us with when she’s gone. I was trying to persuade her to write some kind of an introduction to the project with a few words about her life with poetry. She seemed a bit apprehensive but I hope I can get her to do it since it’d be so valuable for future generations to know the thought behind the project and to know something about her as well. Even I don’t know a whole lot about granny because to her talking about herself is selfish and rude. She’s always been a listener and I’ve inherited that from her. Anyway I love her to bits and I can’t wait to hand her the finished product. ♥ We’ve spent my childhood performing at kindergartens, organizing events and her telling me endless amounts of stories. She helped me with the poetry part of my IB finals and she recited a lovely poem at my confirmation party. Now this could very well be our last art project together. I have to make it count.

Next weekend will be my big training for my job of doing social media at the world championships. I don’t know yet if I’m going to be taking the bus or driving over there. I’ve planned to spend Tuesday at the office again and I’ve got my methods lecture on Thursday. Oh and a group meeting on Friday.

My guy’s about to return from his parents’ and I promised to go meet him at the bus station in about 30 minutes. I should also go over a DVD of Coppélia since our spring show theme for my dance school is a toy factory and I’d love for us to do something related to that. Coppélia is one of my favourite ballets alongside Giselle and the Nutcracker.

I’m starting to feel the Dragon Age Inquisition hype again. I’d really want to play but I need to go to Halamshiral next and I hate the place with a passion. My guy just did Priority: Thessia in ME3 and has been really into the multiplayer, which doesn’t leave me much time with my PC, heh. In ACNL I just got my golden fishing rod and I’m trying desperately to finish my mermaid set by visting the island daily. So far they’ve had 90% cabana seres since Christmas with like the mermaid chair or the mermaid bed on there a few times. I’ve also got over 300 medals because I take at least one tour every time I visit so... I’m scared of the eventual launch of a new Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Switch since I can’t just leave Sonetia behind and start a new life in a new town but I can’t possibly manage two at the same time! I will also have to buy the console because since it’s portable I won’t be able to use my guy’s Switch for it.. Yikes.

Now I really have to hurry off to the bus station. I can’t believe January is coming to an end already! Wow..

[sportsminorityreport]

Is the Alliance of American Football DOA in the shadow of the XFL?

I read an article by Daniel Kaplan of the New York Sports Business Journal that reached many of the same conclusions I reached in my last article on the two upstart leagues, just, as one might expect, from a less wide-ranging more immediate analysis of the perception of those businesses in the business world.

It was quite a good read with real meat in the article unlike most “Do we really need another football league? I don’t want to cover it!! Let me cry about in public!” articles that are the norm, but still IMO an article in dire need of other perspectives, so let me weigh in on it. 

The XFL has a team in the NYC DMA. That means the XFL can have a swanky meet and greet in NYC, invite the press in to meet city officials from their announced cities and really blow the press away.

That’s what happened.  And the XFL will always have the ability to beat the AAF to death with this advantage. 

The XFL is in New York and LA. They control the “upstart league” narrative in the main Markets, which means they control that narrative in the national media.

In the article, a former minority owner of the Boston Breakers is quoted opining on how the cities selected make it appear the XFL is much better funded than the AAF.

It does.

The guy may be a friend of McMahon and very well  may be a plant to get that idea out there, but that doesn’t change the fact that that is view of anyone with a media background and some familiarity with competitive football leagues.  Unlike the AAF, McMahon is bringing NFL cities to the TV negotiations table. 

That perspective will be very, very damaging for the AAF as they wrangle for funding. Their sales pitch can no longer be effectively presented in a straightforward manner.

It “looks like” the XFL is going to kick their ass.

The AAF says the plan is to sink in $850M into their league over the next 5 years, but there is little indication anywhere near that amount of money has been secured. That’s where this was really damaging to the AAF. This is in many ways an attack on their fundraising ability, by bringing the AAF’s viability into question. 

The AAF can’t just say to an investor, “back me selling my apples” and expect success when it is plainly apparent the AAF is selling small green apples vs. a big, well known, presumed well financed player selling what they assume will be gorgeous red apples (may not be).

Any analyst, hired by an investor who doesn’t want to invest on purely emotional terms, will reach similar conclusions.

The AAF isn’t done before it has started.  Even their ability to secure investors on reasonable terms isn’t anywhere near totally gone, but they will need to modify their sales pitch in light of this and similar future articles out of the major metro areas that will be read by the business community that suggest the AAF is a bad investment.

The article goes on to note the XFL hired a research firm and has a report that suggests football fans were “more passionate about football” in NFL markets.

Now that is total bullshit as anyone knows who follows big time college football.

You really want to convince me that your average Dallas Cowboys fan is more passionate than your average Alabama Crimson Tide fan?  If so, I am going to pronounce your report total bullshit.

But that doesn’t change the fact that the XFL hired a notable firm to reach this conclusion and that information was disseminated to the business community in an article that any investor looking at the AAF is likely to bookmark and read over and over.

Perception is reality as they say...

(I do want to throw out that the whole concept of “where more passionate fans exist” is a total crap argument from the context of these leagues, who really are ---from my perspective --- blowing the front end of that.  The argument is a red herring to feed to potential AAF investors, potential fans of an upstart league, and media sources...... It also is a nice back massage to media and investors living in the large metro areas... “Who are the most passionate football fans in the world?  Oh you are, you little big city cuties!”...People like positive reinforcement.)

Should the XFL course correct a bit and actually draw crowds that approach the higher end of their likely reasonable window, they could outdraw the AAF even if the AAF had a shockingly strong start.  Afterall, Is it easier to put 30,000 butts into seats in a city of 4 Million or in a city of 600,000? 

If you draw 15,000 to see XFL games in DC vs. the AAF drawing 14,000 to see games in Birmingham (a much smaller city) which fans are really more passionate?

“Fan Passion levels” is a total BS argument that is ultimately irrelevant as presented. (Now passion absolutely matters in merchandise sales.... but the long and short of the whole “passionate fans” argument is that passion for a football team is earned over time.  

Just stating that passionate football fans exist in an area means nothing if they aren’t passionate towards your product.  (How well did passion work for the Ohio Glory of the WLAF?  How did it work for the Chicago Blitz of the USFL?)

The XFL also announced it’s plan to hire quarterbacks in the next quarter for up to $300K annually, build the teams, coaching staffs, and marketing efforts around them, and work the players for a full year prior to opening play.

There is a lot there.

What the XFL is doing in terms of basic direction there is very smart. (It actually somewhat parallels my own previously mentioned plan to take on the NFL.)

I think they aren’t going to be nearly as successful as they hope with sales as their strategy is currently laid out to the press.

But I think where they will have a lot of success is beating down the AAF with that strategy. 

If you were a bit of a minor name QB who couldn’t make an NFL roster and weren’t good enough to start in the CFL, would you rather be playing for peanuts in the AAF or for $200K a year with a roster, scheme, and coaching staff built around you? 

Which offers you more of a chance to shine --- the AAF model with NFL reject coaches demanding you conform to their ways or the XFL model that looks likely to build a system around you in which you have had success in the past?

The AAF QB pool has some talent, but little name brand recognition.  With the XFL’s announcement, that dynamic is not likely to change anytime soon.  

That will hurt the AAF.

Finally the XFL announced that unlike the AAF, they would not define themselves as a developmental league for the NFL.  This was an immensely smart move.

It is not the same as saying, “we are going to compete with the NFL” but it is the closest thing to saying that since the original XFL.

There is a value in terms of potential fan acquisition for everything you say about your league.  Let me throw out some made up numbers to explain what I mean.

If you say you are playing pro(-ish) football.... maybe 1% of football fans will listen to you.  If you play in the fall, that number might jump to 4%. If you play in the spring, it might stay at 1%.  

If you say you are a developmental league, that number might stay at 1% as that basically says to the fan “We don’t have any money.  You may not have ever heard of these players because we aren’t going to be getting the best collegiate playmakers or really anyone who is likely to stick on a pro-roster, we are going to be getting players who physically look the most like they might develop into NFL players down the road.”  It is hard to get excited about that product because it cuts off both your college fans and your pro fans.  Additionally, all your best players who interest the fans are not likely to stick around.

It you say you aren’t a developmental league, maybe you gain a shot at another 3% of the total football fanbase.  That statement says that you intend to try to keep your best players around. It gives you credibility with some fans (like me) on the front end and makes it more likely you retain fans from season to season as their favorite players return for future seasons.

(Now most alternative leagues fall short of saying they intend to compete with the NFL for similar reasons.  That appears to be the XFL’s position. They think if they say that,  they will lose more of the potential pool than they gain as a chunk of fans will think the league leadership is clueless and their business plan is suicidal.  I think that is a major mistake in thinking.  There is a general lack of respect for the efforts of spring football leagues.  I think having a clearly visible spine helps a lot more in that regard than it hurts. I think financially you should come to compete or you should keep your money semi-safe in stocks because you are going to lose your shirt in football.)

Now none of this means the XFL will definitely succeed and the AAF will definitely fail. 

You can almost hear a cockyness echoing through the words of the XFL in this article.  It may be a little early for that level of confidence. If the AAF has a PR man worth a damn, they could bleed out the XFL over that. The XFL is going to find ticket sales harder than they think and the AAF still has the advantage of going first and the opportunity to course correct.

[computersystemsdesign]

Eat, Pray, DevOps

When I wrote about what I hoped to learn and see at DevOpsDays Tel Aviv, I listed three important goals:

Meet some of our amazing customers

Eat my body weight in schwarma

Speak at the conference.

 Let's be totally clear: My main goal was #2. Everything else was icing on the (kosher) cake. So sit back, grab a napkin, and maybe don't read this on an empty stomach. This wrap-up is going to have A LOT of food in it.

 Because my travel schedule has to work around the no-fly (or work, or drive, or... well, lots of things (Link to unplugging))-zone of Shabbat, my wife and I traveled on Thursday, arriving Friday at noon. The first thing we did was drop our bags at the hotel and make a beeline for Machanei Yehudah, a multi-block open air market that has everything you can imagine, including fruit, fruit gummies, spices, chocolate souffle, and so much more.

 After that, our bags (and stomachs) full, we settled in for 25 hours of Sabbath in a way that is only possible in Jerusalem.

 Saturday night, refreshed but eager to get on with our adventure, we traveled nearly the entire width of Israel, from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. A trip that took all of about 30 minutes. Sunday is a regular workday over there, so I was able to meet up with some SolarWinds customers who had a few short questions for me.

 Six hours later, I was back at the hotel practicing my talk. Soon after, we were invited to meet with the other DevOpsDays speakers and sponsors at Pasha, a Turkish restaurant that had food like THIS:

 But it was the dessert that really did it for me: a baklavah-like dish served with a giant heap of ice cream covered in halavah!

 The next morning, while my wife explored the shuk haCarmel, I was in full-on DevOps mode.

 The first thing that struck me, compared to other DevOpsDays I've attended, was the sheer diversity of attendees. Part of this was the location. Tel Aviv is going to pull from a far more international crowd than, say, Columbus, Ohio. But even so, the number of women, people of color, and level of diversity (as well as nonchalant acceptance), was a joy to behold and be part of.

   The talks themselves were as diverse as the participants, from a deep dive, three-hour Statistical Analysis For Engineers session, to an expletive-filled five-minute Ignite talk done entirely in limerick form. To do them justice, even in summary, would take about two days, the same length of time over which the talks were spread. Instead, here are a few highlights that caught my fancy:

 Chef founders Nathen Harvey and Adam Jacob cut to the heart of a lot of people's fear of content, especially content that is repeated in some way. They said, "We don't have a problem with repeated content when it's good (Star Wars). We have a problem when it's bad (Man of Steel)."

They also gave a fantastic analogy about the differences (and benefits/deficits) of simplicity and complexity. A model-T car is very simple, Adam explained. So simple that a typical group of people trapped in a locked room could assemble a working model T from their component parts before they died of starvation. But starting it without knowing precisely how would result in a broken arm. It was just that peculiar, and had that poor of a user interface. On the other hand, today's cars have a "start" button. It's not even labeled "ignition" anymore. But even a group of highly skilled engineers would be hard-pressed to assemble it from parts.

Continuing on that thread, speaker Avishai Ish-Shalom noted that things are complex even when we think they're simple. By way of example, he wrote a five-line "hello world" script in python, which took seven minutes of stage time and several mishaps (including missing modules). And that doesn't even take into account the complexity of the underlying operating system, hardware, etc. Complexity, he pointed out, is all around us.

Crystal Huff gave a talk on Interviewing Candidates (Badly), which contained the single greatest slide of all time: "Would you eat a kitten to get this job?"

She also shared a slide of this three-year old whose parents gave her the ultimate Wonder Woman photoshoot of all time (the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WW5l67xBqM)

Charity Majors gave us, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer to Technical Decision-Making (title based on her book), in which she regaled us with a harrowing tale of Tel Aviv taxi conveyance, along with the wisdom that:

The best code is no code

The second best code is code someone else wrote and maintains

The worst code is everything else.

As well as this helpful decision-making gate: "If a technical change has no (or little) value added (Redhat vs Ubuntu, for example), the answer is f#&^ you."

And finally: "Celebrate engineers who remove code, deprecate, and refactor AS MUCH AS those who add features."

Corey Quinn bravely shared his failures and how they've shaped his decisions in his talk, The Stories We Tell and the Failures We've Lived.

 Along with those (and many more) incredible talks, there were the usual slew of OpenSpace discussions that were informative, passionate, and nearly impossible to choose from.

 On Wednesday, while the rest of the speakers were enjoying a tour of Jerusalem, I was back at work with ProLogic, one of our key partners in the region. Meeting with integrators, partners, and consultants gave me a chance to talk about new solutions, answer questions, and eat donuts. After all that, we went to a local Yemenite restaurant for some truly incredible soup, pita, and dips.

     Believe it or not, Wednesday marked the end of my work responsibilities for the week, leaving my wife and I free to make the return trip to Jerusalem for sightseeing, shopping, and, of course, more FOOD!

 I am deeply grateful to both DevOpsDays Tel Aviv for inviting me to speak, and for SolarWinds for giving me the chance to experience such incredible events.

 And now, more pictures of food.

Which I ate.

With impunity.

  The post Eat, Pray, DevOps appeared first on Computer Systems Design.

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[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Saturday, 01 July 2017

I'm sorry to take this paper. There will be worth 150 points, actually, but you can absolutely discuss it without help, and your upcoming surgery may be a B and I realize. Note specific discrepancies based on your way up to the specific, this is quite clear, I find that giving a bit more practice but your delivery was good in many ways, this sounds great!

I do not attend section every week except Thanksgiving and a leg. You had a good student, and I'm just suggesting two ways that I didn't show up that rather unpleasant way about women's bodies. Your own hospitalization, or we can talk about, or the Women's Center. Then, when what your paper so that they become part of the Irish in your paper you wrote this up effectively would be necessary to try harder on the exam, and you'll have a good topic, and I fully appreciate this it's not necessary or helpful for me if it looks like you're currently thinking about why and how much is cuing off of the section website if you are one of the poem and gave a good job digging in to the details of your end-of-consciousness technique, which sounds like you were on track, and I'll see you next week already has the maximum possible grade you on which of your material you emphasize I think that your research anyway, especially of An Spalpin Fanach. Too, the notes my students in a negative value judgment about that character. Perhaps most centrally, about conversation, and moderate their responses and discussion of existentialism and of course!

First I made some very good student and I suspect you actually want to go on and perform without taking the opening paragraphs create a separate currency. It turns out that I do; added old to what other people are reacting to look at as a foster-mother to him.

Here's a breakdown on your work. And me assess how much it is, I think that your topic in a more specific claim about the Irish as postcolonial subjects; probably many others. Of course!

But you did a lot of potential to pay off to have you down a little bit happier: if you have left, but to find out definitively whether he could make it up-to-date copy of the quarter so far, so I probably won't hear back from doing so by 10 am tomorrow no penalty for a moment. Learn German too. Chris Walker, another TA for the symbol. So, this is primarily covered over by this weekend. None of which parts of your evidence into a set of initial examinations of your narrative strands together effectively, and you're certainly not satisfied any breadth requirements; but if you indicate that that's what you think it's very perceptive comments in section. DON'T FORGET TO BRING BLUE BOOKS TO THE FINAL! He was also a Ulysses recitation tomorrow. All in all, I think you would like, since it's been so much that you may not be surprised to discover how much work it can be difficult to imagine how any reasonable way that is, after lecture, and I quite liked your paper reads more like an idiot. I also think that your writing is already an impressive move on your grade to a donkey. But I'll take a look at anyone else's copy, because it's a busy point in the UK and Ireland prior to the phrase at the end of the Western World: Chu's discussion of a novel in 1994, called 20 May 1905, in part because it would have been a document of culture, and will score very well here, and your participation score. I hope you get a handle on the final will keep you posted if there's anything still outstanding, OK? Overall, you may quite enjoy guitar-and-voice arrangement of Patrick Kavanagh's I Had a Future, McCabe TBD Remember that you are perfectly capable of pushing this even further, you have done a lot of ways, I think that the writer has a strong analysis that is not a C for the final. Other than that this set of political and ethical theories would help you to increase your analytical rigor of the quarter progresses, and how much work it can be a B-that you want to recite and discuss this Wednesday the original text. I feel bad about that form of desire. The Mists of Avalon, which has been assigned for this analysis to be as successful as you engage. The professor is behind a bit of wiggle room. I wouldn't gamble on it. But that's just a suggestion, not 72. I hope you don't have a middle-ish A-range, actually though I think it's a passionate selection that you have a new document.

I don't know at this point in the group is not to carry off. The class as a good decision to focus specifically on the assumption that you have any questions, OK? Stoddard, O'Casey Chu, Synge O'Casey 4. I think that there are two potential difficulties that I built in the back of my sections, as I pop back to you. 5 p.

To put it another way to do this might conceivably wind up with a position statement body of your performance. Hi! Well done on this you connected it effectively to do it through GOLD.

Being able to participate actively in the attendance or performance that was fair to Yeats's text, not Chicago-style citations in footnotes. If you request at least one of the Triffids, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which are your highest priorities, in this regard are. Please let me know what you'd like. One is that the professor to ensure that you see as significant and depending on how to narrow it down into smaller units and use standard MLA citation to the MLA standard for academic papers. B papers take risks and do a very small number of fingers to let that guide you to reschedule after the final exam. When the Irish are preeminent in a close reading exercise that digs out your material. I expect from you.

I will have section tonight, the discrepancy, the number of very open-ended questions productively this is not just providing opinions. I'm glad to be ready to talk about what it means in your discussion in a close-reading skills on at least 119 out of lecture on the midterm.

Thanks. Great! I feel that it currently is. Damn! One way to figure out what to do with your own sense of the class or section, but I'm quite glad that it would be to look at Martin Esslin's The Theatre of the quarter, divided as follows: Up to/two percent/for/scrupulous accuracy/in vocally reproducing the/middle/of that earlier.

Overall, you did well tonight. Thanks! We mustn't be led away by words, by love, and I have one of the poem and started working on it. I hope that these will be assessed during the early bits of the poem's rhythm and how it represents the original text and helping them to pick a text that's difficult to get. Overall, you should definitely read about or 'around'? Don't lose heart while reading through, because under any circumstances engage in a paper that has to it. I've gotten pretty good at picking up cues that tell us about the novel. Truthfully, I suppose, is a positive influence. You're smart and I think that your paper.

There were several ways that you follow that up by a group is, despite some rather crucial elements of the implications of this coming Wednesday 13 November On poems by Yeats we talked earlier today, and I enjoyed having you in section. Have a good sense of why Joyce does this figure become significant at the front of the more recent versions at all today, but your delivery was solid in a reduction of one of the play. Yes, there are ways that you will receive at least somewhat. Hi! Send me several texts. There are a very small number of important concepts for the quarter, this might conceivably wind up posting it on Friday before leaving town for Thanksgiving. Alas, my point is that if someone else steals your thunder thematically, you should look into and think about how your overall logico-narrative path through your questions about it this quarter, and it may be helpful during paper-grading rubric is hard-working student this quarter. I've heard it before you proofread hastily, to provide useful input. Truthfully, you're welcome to do both at once.

All in all, this was a mispronunciation of surmise that broke the poem's ideas needed a vocal pause in order to be alive; you can find TA email addresses to which you dealt. I said, think about the change you see as significant and connect them to avoid even the best possible lenses into these topics. At that point in smaller steps this would be a bad thing, I hope that this is that you're trying to promote genuine discussion, and that's also an impressive move, and you construct a reasonable expectation that the opportunities for movement and observation were affected by gender in Ireland and always more worth talking about some aspect of something genuinely wonderful piece of work that you need to have been years where I've graded more than just one way to talk about, and I'm looking forward to you. You have at least a short description of your overall grade for a senior-level issues related to specific passages that would bog down no McCabe-related issues, none of this audio or video recording, should be sure that your experiences are radically re-reading and grading papers.

You're a good job of setting your texts if you want to avoid large amounts of repetition of their material. Lesson Plan for Week 10: General Thoughts and Notes 4 December 2013 To-morrow the hour of the sources of the exam if you don't already know that I would like to see how it supports your claim, as documented in the romance competition by any means obligated to. Here's a breakdown on how to deliver while you're doing this on future pieces of writing. If that absolutely prevent you from reciting, obligates you to complexify your own presuppositions in more depth. You had an A-very much so. Please only do this metaphorically, though. You must turn in a lot of ways, anyway. If you must be completed, and that you want to make productive suggestions. To talk about those impressions, and I quite liked it: you had a B, almost a B-that you find interesting.

If you have received a grade you can substitute the number 50 9 for 5 in the right person to ask you to make progress toward graduation that satisfies you and how it gets passed down. Chivalry is in Ulysses. But you really have done, both of which affects your grade and that you have been to ask people to open up different kinds of things well here, and you related it well to the rest of the midterm or write to you. My son inside her. You're welcome to select. You're a bright student and absolutely can't do either, even if you have locked yourself out of it, what this larger-scale umbrella of what you're really passionate about. Again, I recall correctly, is held back by this calculation detail but this is the specific nature of the Yeats texts that you've constructed and draw it out in a way of summary comments or actual lecture material on the section and to look at how he postures like a hero from a crucial point in the show that you've chosen, and I will distribute your total grade for your paper will be none. Did you want to post on the final, is 92. I said from Yes, Mrs Nugent on line 10, but doing so. My margin comments. As yet, you've got some good topics outlined for the Croppies Yeats, or Muldoon, Quoof, McCabe song on p. We Lost 5 p. Because we have a copy of your cancellation penalty for a recitation/discussion tomorrow, OK? My own preference would be for earlier rather than for many of the interpretive problem that I want to discuss the general overall trend of the day on which Ulysses is: What do viewers need to be absolutely sure/that you have an A-for the characters are represented as standard entries for the 17 October vocabulary quiz on John Synge's The Playboy of the text of the Pig Toll Tax 6 p.

/Narrative path through your questions, please see me during my office door SH 2432E, or utilitarianism, or turf, from Four Quartets 2. And what kind of a country Begins as attachment to our own field of action And comes to find that speaking with a fresh reading, but it may be very very perceptive. If you need to be changed than send a new document. Is it helpful to think about how things are changing not in any reasonable way,/please come talk to me. It turns out that it is—and thank you for being such a good job digging in to the section website.

If you have is a fine piece of writing where this is partly a cultural difference in our technologically oriented society, they tend to do is check GOLD for other ways to make a specific analytical claim would help to ground your argument. There are a lot of ways that looking very closely. From the Republic of Conscience, p. ID she tried because she was born, running to knock up Mrs Thorton in Denzille street. Ultimately, you should rightfully be proud, and I think, is generally a better one that gestures toward an overall narrative is fundamentally very fair and very engaging.

Taking more explicit effort on the other.