#Nursing Career in Ireland

[brian-in-finance]

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WHAT THE STARS ARE SAYING

Check out why so many famed actors use Backstage

Trusted since 1960

Founded in 1960, Backstage has a storied history of serving the entertainment industry. For over 60 years Backstage has served as a casting resource and news source for actors, performers, directors, producers, agents, and casting directors.

Over that time, Backstage Magazine has also appeared on numerous TV shows, such as “Mad Men,” “Entourage,” “Glee,” “Oprah,” NBC's “Today” show, Comedy Central's “@Midnight”, NY1's “On Stage,” and “Saturday Night Live,” as well as multiple mentions on shows like “Inside the Actor’s Studio,” “Girls,” and appearances in films such as “13 Going on 30,” the Farrelly brothers' “Stuck on You” and Spike Lee's “Girl 6,” and even a mention in Woody Allen's short-story collection “Mere Anarchy” and Augusten Burroughs' novel “Sellevision” – and Backstage has received accolades from multiple Academy Award-, Emmy-, and Tony-winning actors and directors. (Plus, the hit musical “The Last Five Years” even includes Backstage in its lyrics: “Here's a headshot guy and a new Backstage / Where you're right for something on every page.”)

CAITRÍONA BALFE

ACTRESS

"I still get Backstage emails 'cause I still subscribe to Backstage. [Backstage is) kind of the Bible in the beginning, which is amazing. Samuel French and Backstage go hand in hand, you know? You go there for your plays when you're in classes, and then you get your Backstage."

Backstage 1

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Brian’s Note: The following story originally appeared in April 2015. Most recent update is December 2020.

The Gorgeous Determination of Caitríona Balfe

Caitríona Balfe is on the move. That's been true most of her adult life— especially the 10 years she was modeling for Victoria's Secret, Dolce & Gabbana, and others—but as she sits on the rooftop patio of a West Hollywood hotel in mid-March, she mentions that she's pulling up stakes from Los Angeles.

"It just feels silly to have an empty place for 10 months until I figure out what I'm doing with my life," the Irish-born actor says. "I've rented the same place for the last four years and now I have to give it up." Her apartment is being razed to put in condos, but her departure from L.A. is extra poignant considering this is the city where Balfe journeyed when she decided to put aside that successful modeling career and focus on the vocation she'd always wanted: acting.

Photo: Luc-Richard Elie

"I've moved so much since I was 18," she says. "I mean, l've lived so many places. New York, I lived in for almost eight years [while modeling], and that's been the longest of anywhere since I left Ireland. But L.A. is where I came and said, 'OK, this is what I wanna do with my life.' "

She refuses to think of her move as a permanent one, though. "I'll be back," she declares, "but it feels really sad. My little apartment, it's got so many memories."

Balfe's sadness is no doubt mitigated by the fact that part of her need to move is due to the precipitous rise in her fortunes. She'll soon be flying to Scotland to shoot the second season of "Outlander," which returns to Starz April 4 to conclude Season 1.

When last we saw Balfe's Claire, the resourceful British nurse who comes home after World War |I only to be inexplicably teleported into the 18th-century Highlands, she was half-naked with a knife to her breast. Don't worry: Claire will get out of that scrape, but more perils await-to say nothing of the emerging multi-era romantic triangle developing between her, the Scottish warrior Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), and her 20th-century husband, Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies), who wonders where she's gone.

Based on the much-beloved Diana Gabaldon novels and developed for television by "Battlestar Galactica" rebooter Ronald D. Moore, "Outlander" is an ostensibly lush period-piece-within-a-period-piece drama that's consistently richer and thornier than its romance-novel trappings suggest. And much of the credit goes to Balfe, who had managed small parts in films such as “Super 8” and “Now You See Me” before landing the central role in this adaptation.

In person, Balfe is far less imposing than the steely Claire, who has to weather the dangers of being a woman in sexist, violent Scotland in the 1740s. Cast late in the preproduction of “Outlander”—Moore has mentioned in interviews how hard it was to find the right Claire—she didn’t have time to consider what the role would do to her life. “I’m so bad on social media," she confesses on this warm afternoon, nestled underneath a cabana. "I had set up an account on Twitter maybe a year or so before I got this job and had, I thought, a lot of followers — 250 or something, and most of them are my friends. Within about a month or two, it was thousands of people — and my phone, I didn't know how to turn off the alerts, so it was just going all the time. That was the beginning of the awareness."

Growing up in the small Irish community of Monaghan, Balfe had considered acting from an early age. ("I was devastated that I wasn't a child actor," she says, smiling. But after traveling to Dublin to study theater, she changed course once she received an offer to model. It wasn't a secret passion of hers, but who turns down a trip to Paris? "My parents felt that I should finish college," Balfe recalls, "but l'm slightly headstrong, so l took their advice and I completely ignored it."

Over the next decade, she lived in France, Italy, Germany, and Japan, her modeling inexperience hardly a detriment. "You'd be amazed how little information or training goes into it," she says. "When I first arrived in Paris, I was told to take a bus to the office. I left my suitcase — I barely spoke any French — and someone took me across the street, helped me buy a Carte Orange. They printed out five addresses that I had to go to that day, and then they sent me off." She still remembers at 18 riding the subway alongside 16-year-old aspiring Russian models, who knew no French or English, homesick and sobbing their eyes out. "That was just the way it was," says Balfe. "You become pretty tough. When I went to Japan, it was similar: They would drive you to their castings, but the minute you got a job, it would be like, 'Here's an address, here's a map. Good luck.' They don't have signposts in English in Japan, so the map and the address are not always very helpful."

Hear Balfe recount her early misadventures in modeling and you can't help but think of Claire, who's equally thrown to the wolves once she arrives in the 18th century amid people wary of the English in general and assertive women in particular. "Honestly, l've been in so many situations in my life where you just are completely displaced," Balfe says. “You have to adapt very quickly and figure it out. I definitely think that informs Claire a lot. It helped me understand her."

Did moving to Paris at such a young age teach Balfe that she can cope in any circumstance? "I think I didn't really realize that until many years later," she replies. "I have a great knack of not thinking about things and just going for it. You learn the hard way sometimes that you're able to get through, but sometimes it's quite tough when you're in a situation where you don't know anyone and you're trying to find your way around cities. But if an opportunity presents itself and it seems like a good idea, l'm just like, 'OK, let's do it, then I'll figure it out.'”

The decision to reconnect with her acting ambitions was conducted just as boldly. Ready to quit modeling, she moved to Los Angeles because a writer she was dating lived there. He was the only person she knew, but she had read a Vanity Fair interview with Amy Adams in which she said she trained with Warner Loughlin. "I could walk to that place from my ex-boyfriend's house," she says, "so l was like, 'Well, I'm gonna go there because I can't really drive. I started from scratch. I didn't have any managers, I didn't know any agents, I hadn't acted in almost a decade." But she just kept taking classes, moving from Loughlin to the studios of Sanford Meisner and Judith Weston. "I think when I first got here, I had a nice little air of delusion: 'It's gonna work out,'" she says with a laugh. “You just don't know how."

And then came "Outlander." By email, Moore admits that he didn't know Balfe's work until her audition tape came unsolicited to his office from her agent. Once she was chosen for Claire, he made it clear how demanding the job would be. “I told her in our first meeting that this was going to be an even bigger responsibility and workload than the normal TV lead," he writes. "Because the story was being told from Claire's point of view, Cait was going to be in every scene, every day for months, which is an extraordinary amount of work, far beyond what most actors are ever asked to do."

Moore's warning didn't faze Balfe. Writes Moore, "After she met with the president of Starz... and it was clear that she was going to land the role, I walked her to the elevator and just before the doors closed on her, I said 'Your life is about to change forever,' and she gave me a grin that was both thrilled and slightly nervous. I never saw her hesitate after that."

She's never hesitated before. As Balfe prepares to say goodbye to L.A. (for now, she thinks back to her early days in the city, trying to convince casting directors that she was more than just a model. "I went on many, many, many, many auditions that were Hot Girl No. 2 — you wanna shoot yourself," she says, laughing. "But, you know, I'm very lucky that l was even getting those auditions in the beginning. And it toughens you up. At least for me, to have that fuel to prove people wrong—it definitely spurs me on and makes me wanna work harder." Then she smiles conspiratorially. "And shove it to them."

Backstage 2

Remember… I told her in our first meeting that this was going to be an even bigger responsibility and workload than the normal TV lead. — Ronald D Moore

[tremendouscreationperson]

So are there any fics where people just assume Arthur is batshit crazy?

Bradley who isn't called Arthur in this timeline was always a promising young lad, his parents helped him with his somewhat odd hobbies of archery and fencing and even just playing strategist games with him

He is fascinated by the Greek and Roman Gods, Ancient Egypt and Camelot

His dad takes him to book stores and he becomes somewhat of a history buff

One day (idk say he's like 22-25) he gets these odd dreams and at first it's just the odd comment "no Gwen was black not white" he has no proof, no evidence, but he knows his dreams aren't wrong

They become more vivid and eventually lead to a breakdown because he is confused about his place in this modern world

He doesn't know why but he drives to Wales, he has to, something is calling him there

Merlin had decided this time around he was going to be a doctor, he had studied when he lived in Ireland (even picking up the accent again) but had stayed too long there and people weren't believing he was 40

Moving to South Wales wasn't the worst idea because he got to visit his lake

The lake

It wasn't his

It hasn't been his for longer than he dare think

Merlin had settled his way into a medicinal career, having been a hacker of sorts to not exactly falsify information

He WAS trained, just under a different name

Merlin hated being back in Wales

He missed everyone

Even Uther

Even Morgana, even after the turn

He just felt so hopeless

Lonely

Just plodding through the new world, learning new skills to distract himself from that

He was perhaps overqualified for the entry level job but who would believe a 20 year old had 30+ years of experience?

The younger he pretended, the longer he could stay in one area

He had made a few friends but always stuck to himself, what was the point in friends these days?

Fingerprints on an abandoned rail

He trudged into work receiving a few "hello Colin"s

He was a carer

Essentially a glorified Merlin

But he'd take it for a few years before he could start mental and physical therapies

Was this a stupid idea

No

He had just plonked his bag into his locker and placed his lunch in the fridge before he was officially late on the ward

"Col' there's a new patient coming in today." Becky told him between scribbling notes "a fighter, from what I've been told, be careful"

"okay, any other information?"

"no, just a breakdown, probably a few months in here with some meds and he'll be gone." She looked up. "He's not actively hurting himself, but he wanders, he was found just walking into some lake. Obsessive behaviour with history too."

Merlin nodded, it wasn't unusual

He'd seen worse

The patient in question did arrive when Merlin was dealing with Mrs Davies, she had had an episode and needed sedation

He didn't like manhandling a 70 year old but she could punch when needed

He just exited her room when he heard a familiar voice

Becky was informing the new patient of the rules and that number 12 was his room

Merlin thought it only right to say hi whilst he's standing right there

She introduced him to the man, who actually had his back to them and was staring out the window

"Bradley, this is Colin."

"Hello, I'm one of the nurses in charge of your health, be careful of your neighbour in number 13. She's a handful." Queue the awkward chuckle

Merlin had spoke as his brain processed what his eyes were seeing

The man was so familiar

The shoulders

The hair

Even the posture

Curse him for standing Infront of the window because when he turned he was haloed by the golden sun

Merlin's heart stopped

"Merlin?"

The recognition in Arthur's eyes broke Merlin's heart

He was quick to stop himself from running up to the King as Becky was examining the patient's reactions

"hello." Merlin nodded to Arthur "Becky I'm just gonna ask some questions," before mouthing "he thinks I'm part of it"

She gave a look but there was always so much to do so if Colin was offering to finish Bradley's orientation so be it

Once she had left and the door was closed Merlin smiled so widely at Arthur

"you took your time, clotpole"

Tears pooled in Arthur's eyes, "I knew I wasn't crazy. Merlin where have you been?"

Merlin sat on the neatly made bed, Arthur following suit, and explained the past thousand years

He ended it with "had to wait for my King."

Arthur placed a hand in Merlin's knee, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for how I acted back then, I'm sorry that you had to hide yourself, why are you here? You're a warlock?!"

Merlin did chuckle at that. "Doesn't exactly pay the bills. I mean it helps but there's also boredom."

Arthur smiled back, the visible ease he had with Merlin vs Becky was comforting

"I'll help you survive this place, you'll be out soon."

"thank you, I don't know why but I kept having these memories, I drove from London to Wales, went to the lake and then I was being pulled out by strangers. I don't remember getting into the water."

"has anything happened like that before or since?"

"no."

"then that's fine."

"why am I back? Why did you stay?"

"Our lives were never our own. Destiny was woven through us. I don't know what we do but we are needed." Merlin hoped Arthur didn't read that as the cop out it was

"you'll stay with me? Even after this place?"

"of course."

"good."

[themalhambird]

UK ELECTION 2024: WHO'S LEADING THE FOUR MAJOR PARTIES?

The Conservatives currently have a majority in Parliament and form the Government. The Labour Party, with the second highest number of seats, leads the opposition. The SNP (Scottish National Party) are the second largest opposition party, and the Liberal Democrats are the third. Who's leading them?

This is, as far as possible, a non-partisan guide. The information is chiefly summarised or otherwise pulled directly from the candidate's respective Wikipedia pages. Any other sources will also be linked.

Click below to keep reading, and all that jazz.

Rishi Sunak, Leader of the Conservative Party. Current Prime Minister; Member for Richmond.

Rishi Sunak was born in Hampshire in 1980. His father is a GP for the NHS and his mother was a pharmacist who owned her own pharmacy. Sunak became head boy during his time as a day pupil at Winchester College, and worked as a waiter in a restaurant during summer holiday. He read philosophy, politics and business at Lincoln College, Oxford, and during the course of his degree undertook an internship at Conservative Campaign Headquarters. 

Sunak’s pre-Westminster career was in banking. He worked as an analyst for Goldman-Sachs before moving to work for a hedgefund management firm. He later became a partner in this firm, , and spent a couple of years as Director of an Investment firm owned by his father in law: In 2009 he married Akshata Murthy, an heiress; business woman; fashion designer; and venture capitalist in her own right. The couple have two daughters, aged 13 and 11. 

Sunak first became an MP in 2015. He campaigned in favour of Brexit in 2016. He became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2020  whilst Boris Johnson was Prime Minister, and shot to popularity after the COVID furlough scheme was implemented. His Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which was designed to boost the hospitality sector during COVID  by offering a 50% discount on eligible meals, is thought to have contributed massively to the need for a second COVID lockdown. In April 2022 Sunak was issued with a fixed penalty notice by Police as part of the investigation into Downing Street breaches of their own COVID rules (this is commonly referred to as The Party Gate Scandal). 

Sunak became Prime Minister in October 2022 after his predecessor, Liz Truss, crashed and burned rather spectacularly. 

Kier Starmer K.C., Leader of the Labour Party. Current Leader of the Opposition. Member for Holbourn and St. Pancress.

Kier Starmer was born in Southwark, 1962, and raised in Surrey- the second of four children. His father was a tool maker; his mother was a nurse. Both were active in the Labour Party and Starmer was named after Labour’s first leader, Keir Hardie. As a teenager, Starmer was a member of the Labour Party Young Socialists. Starmer was the first member of his family to attend university, studying Law at the University of Leeds and graduating with first class honours. He completed his Post-Graduate studies at Oxford, during which time he served as the editor of a Trotskyiest radical magazine, Socialist Alternatives. 

Starmer’s  pre-Westminster career was in law. He became a barrister in 1987, undertaking legal aid work, including pro bono cases: he was instructed by Arthur Scargill during the Miners’ Strike of the Thatcher years.

Starmer worked primarily on Human Rights issues, including defending people facing the death penalty. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2002 and became joint head of the Doughty Street Chambers that same year. He was Human Rights Advisor to the Northern Ireland Policing Board, and he marched and wrote legal opinions against the Iraq War. 

Starmer became head of the Crown Prosecution Service and Director of Public Prosecutions in 2008 and served in the position until 2013. Noteworthy incidents during his tenure include:

In 2009, Conservative MP David Davies calling for Starmer to be dismissed after Starmer  vocally opposed the Conservative Government’s proposal to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 

In 2010, Starmer prosecuting MPs and a Member of the House of Lords for false accounting in the aftermath of the Parliamentary Expenses Scandal. 

In 2013, Starmer published a study demonstrating that false reports of rape are rare, and started an enquiry into the reduction of rape and domestic violence reports being made to the police. 

Starmer was knighted for services to law and criminal justice in 2014 and became a Labour MP in 2015. He was opposed to Brexit and  advocated for a second referendum. He replaced Jeremy Corbyn as leader of Labour Party in 2019, when Corbyn stepped down after Labour suffered their worst electoral defeat in roughly 80 years. 

In 2007 Starmer married Victoria Alexander, who was previously a solicitor and is now an Occupational Health Worker for the NHS. The pair have a 15 year old son and a 13 year old daughter. 

Stephen Flynn, Leader of the Scottish National Party* in the House of Commons. Member for Aberdeen South.

*Perhaps obviously, The Scottish National Party only stands candidates in Scotland. Flynn is therefore unlikely to be the next Leader of the Opposition, though the SNP will probably remain a major voting bloc in Westminster.

Stephen Flynn was born in Dundee in 1988. He studied History and Politics at the University of Dundee. He was elected to Aberdeen City Council in 2015, leading the SNP group in the Council. He was elected to Parliament in 2019. He replaced Ian Blackford as Leader of the Scottish National Party in the House of Commons in December 2023. 

Ed Davey, Leader of the Liberal Democrats. Member for Kingston and Surbiton.

Ed Davey was born in Nottingham  in 1965. By the time he was fifteen he had lost both his parents and was being raised by his maternal grandparents. He studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Oxford. In 1989 he became an economics researcher for the Liberal Democrats, and was elected to Parliament in 1997. During the coalition Government he served as Undersecretary of State for Business (2010-2012), and Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change (2012-2015). He lost his seat in 2015, a disastrous election in general for the Lib Dems, but was knighted the same year for political and public services. He regained his seat in 2017 and became leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2019. He married Emily Gasson, also a Liberal Democrat Politician, in 2007. The couple have one son. 

***

Additions to this post are welcome, but please stick to facts and not personal opinion. Provide sources where possible. Do NOT attack or otherwise insult anybody mentioned in this post based on physical appearance or other similar traits. The UK election will be on July 4th 2024. You can register to vote here.

[earth-18104]

Earth-18104 - 1950

List of events happening in 1950 on Earth-18104! This is shorter than the last one. There's some births dates randomly out here, not all of them are important.

The (N) represent the births and the numbers the ages of characters. There's some of my OCs here, but not as much as the last lists. Not all events follow the Marvel comics time-line.

List of events of Earth-18104 (Resume)

1950 -

• Amélia Voght (16) was a mutant born with the ability to transubstantiate solid matter into vapor. After her mutation manifested, she left her home and family to escape their hatred for her mutant gifts and became a nurse.

• June 25 - The Fatherland Liberation War / Korean War begins.

• Since he was a child, Adam Brashear (24) showed himself to be very intelligent.

• He was a former quarterback at Cornell University, where he graduated with a doctorate in electrical engineering and theoretical physics.

• October 10 - The mutant Janos Quested, known as Riptide, is born. (N)

1951 -

• (The Juggernaut)

• Cain Marko (20) was drafted and sent to Korea, however, he defected and ended up finding a mystical ruby ​​in the Temple of Cyttorak that transformed him into the Unstoppable Juggernaut.

• Just then, enemy high-explosive bombardment caused a cave-in and Marko was buried under several thousand tons of rock.

• His younger brother, Charles Xavier (14), receives news of his apparent death and mourns the loss of his brother, despite their terrible relationship.

• Logan (66) resurfaced as a mercenary; operated mostly out of Ottawa and Calgary, with few exceptions in South America and Madrid, working for government agencies, mainly the CIA, and became one of the intelligence field's deadliest free agents.

1952 -

• January 16 - The mutant Sean Cassidy is born, heir to the castle and property of Cassidy Keep, in Ireland. (N)

• Adam Brashear (26) fought in the Korean War as a member of the U.S. Marine Corps, receiving two Silver Stars. While in the Marine Corps, he met Conner Sims, the friend he would later know as Anti Man.

• After graduating from biology college, Phillip Masters (25) met and befriended Jacob Reiss and Marcia Deaton, who graduated from the same college.

1953 -

• Jacques Duquesne, Swordsman, is born. (N)

• Master of the Mystic Arts, Sara Wolfe, is born. (N)

• Peggy Carter (31) is interviewed about the Strategic Scientific Reserve and the early days of the SHIELD organization.

• A brilliant student, throughout his educational career, Charles Xavier attended Bard College in his early teens, graduating when he was sixteen.

• Max Eisenhardt (20) is reunited with his former childhood love Magda.

• Captain Maria Rambeu is born. (N)

• Peggy Carter is interviewed about her experiences with Captain America during World War II.

• The Korean Armistice Agreement is signed, ending the fighting of the Korean War.

1954 -

• Magda and Max Eisenhardt (21) move to the Ukrainian town of Vinnytsia, and he adopts the name "Magnus". There, the two have a daughter named Anya and they lived happily for a while.

• (Kree infiltration on Earth)

• Mari-Ell was a Kree raised in Hala. She was a champion of the Kree from a young age, becoming the youngest captain of the Elite Guard.

• As part of the Kree's war efforts, Mari-Ell was personally appointed by Empress Pam'a on a mission to assimilate Earth's humans and give birth to a Kree/human hybrid. To this end, she received the Amulet of Pam'a, a cloaking device that would allow Mari-Ell to hide her identity.

• When she arrived on Earth, she was diverted from her target and landed in the waters off Boston, Massachusetts.

• She was rescued from drowning by Joe Danvers, a local boater.

• Mari-Ell fell in love with Joe's kindness and assumed the identity of "Marie" to date him, originally intending to use him only for her disguise.

1955 -

• February 15 - Suzanne Chan, later known as Sway, is born, a member of the first formation of the X-Men. (N)

• Norman Osborn, Green Goblin, is born. (N)

• As a child, Norman did well at school, his teachers noticed how his brilliance surpassed that of other children and he managed to skip a few grades.

• However, his home life was not so good. His father, a failed business inventor who claimed to have been cheated out of his inventions and personal fortune, took out his anger on Norman.

• Norman would not allow himself to be a failure like his father, he realized he could not depend on him for financial security so he began working after school.

• Months after her arrival on Earth, Marie finally decided to reveal her true nature to Joe Danvers and he accepted her, the two remained together and Marie became the mother of two children that Joe had with his late previous wife, Joe Jr. and Stevie .

• The two later got married and she became pregnant with a child, as she liked the peaceful life on Earth.

• The baby was born later, on March 7, named Carol Danvers, adapted from the Kree name Car-Ell, which means "champion." (N)

• (Sister Margaret / House of Cavalcante - OC)

• Francine Cavalcante (148) found the Mercs for Money alongside her husband Antônio Cavalcante (155).

• They build a mansion in New York, near the former Sister Margaret's School for Wayward Girls, which would be been renovated to be a secret base where mercenaries and mutants can accept and profit from private jobs.

• To cement her new life on Earth, Marie turned off a Kree tracking device she carried, isolating her from the Kree.

• Marie decided to raise Carol by the values ​​she had not learned, that is, to use her heart and not her fists.

• However, she also kept her ties to the Kree a secret and did everything she could to keep Carol's eyes on Earth, which wasn't easy due to Carol's devotion to becoming an astronaut.

• SHIELD agent Melinda May, the Calgary, is born. (N)

• The synthezoid Torch died on an unknown mission.

• Afterwards his partner Toro, Thomas Raymond (25), retired from fighting crime, married a girl called Ann and led a normal life in relative obscurity.

• Victor Creed (136) was sent to Vietnam to conduct illegal covert operations for a secret government organization.

• November 1 - The Vietnam's Resistance War begins.

1956 -

• Wilson Fisk, New York's crime lord, is born. (N)

• Charles Xavier (19) won a scholarship to the University of Oxford in England to obtain his PhD in Genetics and Biophysics.

• August 21 - Mutant Vienna Adamsen, member of the first formation of the X-Men, known as Petra, is born. (N)

• Vienna was the first in her family to be born in the United States. Her parents and older brother immigrated from Denmark while her mother was pregnant.

• October 29 - The mutant Armando Muñoz is born. (N)

• The first signs of Armando's mutation appeared right at his birth: he was albino, his arms were longer than normal and his eyes seemed to change with the light. Because of this, his father abandoned him and his mother blamed Armando for his mutation.

• November 15 - Francis Castiglione is born, later called Frank Castle, the vigilante Punisher. (N)

• Lord Shingen Harada, future head of the Yashida Clan and crime lord of Japan, is born. (N)

• At the age of nine, Akihiro (now called Daken) fell under the influence of Romulus. He was told lies that his father despised him and abandoned him, filling Daken with hatred.

1957 -

• (Blue Marvel)

• Adam Brashear (31) became the project leader in a scientific attempt to harness Antimatter through the creation of a Negative Reactor that created a bridge between the Negative Zone and the positive matter universe itself.

• This reactor would enable a nearly unlimited source of clean energy, allowing devices to tap into the energy generated by a stable event horizon balanced between these positive and negative universes.

• Due to the unexpected reactor explosion, Adam and Conner Sims were subjected to mutagenic radiation generated by the then-unstable event horizon.

• As Sims' body transformed into energy, Brashear became a stable antimatter reactor and developed a set of superhuman abilities.

• After that he became the hero Blue Marvel.

• (The birth of the prince of Hell)

• The Hell-Lords had long wanted to sire a child with a human woman to use as a gateway to the physical world to gain more power, so a demon ascended to Earth and pretended to be human to trick young Victoria Wingate, whose family sold her to the Dresden Chapel and branded her as the mother of a half-human, half-demon child.

• Almost a year after the demon's arrival on Earth, Victoria gave birth to the desired child that her father named Daimon Hellstrom. (N)

1958 -

• Dr. Curtis Connors was born in Coral Gables, Florida. (N)

• Soon after his marriage to Marcia Deaton, Jacob Reiss partnered with Phillip Masters (31) to try to market the special clay that Philip brought from his homeland.

• The two started a business in the town of Watershed Lake using clay that Phillip had been using for years, which he had found on the outskirts of Wundagore Mountain.

• (Yondu)

• Yondu Udonta (9) is sold into slavery as a child, before he could learn how to whistle, a well and importat ability for his species, that allows them to control the Yaka arrows. Through the years he was a slave, Yondu had crest cut off of his head.

1959 -

• Logan (74) meets Silverfox. At some point he meets Victor Creed in a bar. Upon seeing the two together, Creed becomes jealous and attacks Logan again.

• (Erik Lehnsherr)

• One night, a mob surrounded Magnus's house (26) and set it on fire, with his daughter and wife inside. Enraged, Magnus's powers manifested uncontrollably; killing the crowd and destroying a part of the city.

• Wanted by authorities for the deaths and destruction in Vinnytsia, Magnus escapes and creates a false identity as "Erik Lehnsherr".

• Flint Marko, later known as the thief Sandman, is born. (N)

• Flint was the son of Floyd Baker and his wife, Mrs. Marko. Floyd left when his son was still a baby, and when he grew up, the boy learned to steal from his mother.

• Princess Malika (29) OC becomes queen of the Kingdom of Okkara. Etana of Okkara takes the oath of loyalty before the throne.

• When Stephen Strange (15) went on holiday with his family, he went swimming in a lake with his sister Donna (13) when she suffered a cramp and sank.

• After a frantic search, Stephen found her already drowned. The experience left him with a sense of personal failure and made him want to become a doctor.

• Colonel Nicholas Fury Sr. (51) approaches Victor Creed (140) and Tereza Márquez (144) and invites them to join his secret project, the Avengers Initiative.

[readerbookclub]

Hello everyone! This month I'm bringing back the "A Trip To..." series. Last time we went on a trip to Ireland, and this time we're going to Brazil! This is a list full of novels that take place in Brazil, and are written by Brazilian writers. Thank you so much to someone who suggested this to me in our last survey.

As always, don't forget to vote for our next book using the link at the bottom of the post. Onto the books!

Blood-Drenched Beard, by Daniel Galera and translated by Alison Entrekin

—So why did they kill him? —I’m getting there. Patience, tchê. I wanted to give you the context. Because it’s a good story, isn’t it?

A young man’s father, close to death, reveals to his son the true story of his grandfather’s death, or at least the truth as he knows it. The mean old gaucho was murdered by some fellow villagers in Garopaba, a sleepy town on the Atlantic now famous for its surfing and fishing. It was almost an execution, vigilante style. Or so the story goes.

It is almost as if his father has given the young man a deathbed challenge. He has no strong ties to home, he is ready for a change, and he loves the seaside and is a great ocean swimmer, so he strikes out for Garopaba, without even being quite sure why. He finds an apartment by the water and builds a simple new life, taking his father’s old dog as a companion. He swims in the sea every day, makes a few friends, enters into a relationship, begins to make inquiries.

But information doesn’t come easily. A rare neurological condition means that he doesn’t recognize the faces of people he’s met, leading frequently to awkwardness and occasionally to hostility. And the people who know about his grandfather seem fearful, even haunted. Life becomes complicated in Garopaba until it becomes downright dangerous.

Spilt Milk, by Chico Buarque and translated by Alison Entrekin

As Eulalio Assumpcao lies dying in a Brazilian public hospital, his daughter and the attending nurses are treated--whether they like it or not--to his last, rambling monologue. Ribald, hectoring, and occasionally delusional, Eulalio reflects on his past, present, and future--on his privileged, plantation-owning family; his father's philandering with beautiful French whores; his own half-hearted career as a weapons dealer; the eventual decline of the family fortune; and his passionate courtship of the wife who would later abandon him. As Eulalio wanders the sinuous twists and turns of his own fragmented memories, Buarque conjures up a brilliantly evocative portrait of a man's life and love, set in the broad sweep of vivid Brazilian history.

The Hour of the Star, by Clarice Lispector translated by Benjamin Moser

Narrated by the cosmopolitan Rodrigo S.M., this brief, strange, and haunting tale is the story of Macabéa, one of life's unfortunates. Living in the slums of Rio and eking out a poor living as a typist, Macabéa loves movies, Coca-Colas, and her rat of a boyfriend; she would like to be like Marilyn Monroe, but she is ugly, underfed, sickly and unloved. Rodrigo recoils from her wretchedness, and yet he cannot avoid the realization that for all her outward misery, Macabéa is inwardly free/She doesn't seem to know how unhappy she should be. Lispector employs her pathetic heroine against her urbane, empty narrator—edge of despair to edge of despair—and, working them like a pair of scissors, she cuts away the reader's preconceived notions about poverty, identity, love and the art of fiction. 

Captains of the Sand, by Jorge Amado translated by Gregory Rabassa

They call themselves “Captains of the Sands,” a gang of orphans and runaways who live by their wits and daring in the torrid slums and sleazy back alleys of Bahia. Led by fifteen-year-old “Bullet,” the band—including a crafty liar named “Legless,” the intellectual “Professor,” and the sexually precocious “Cat”—pulls off heists and escapades against the right and privileged of Brazil. But when a public outcry demands the capture of the “little criminals,” the fate of these children becomes a poignant, intensely moving drama of love and freedom in a shackled land.

The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, by Machado De Assis and translated by Flora Thompson-DeVeaux

The ghost of a decadent and disagreeable aristocrat decides to write his memoir. He dedicates it to the worms gnawing at his corpse and tells of his failed romances and halfhearted political ambitions, serves up harebrained philosophies, and complains with gusto from the depths of his grave. Wildly imaginative, wickedly witty, and ahead of its time, the novel has been compared to the work of everyone from Cervantes to Sterne to Joyce to Nabokov to Borges to Calvino, and has influenced generations of writers around the world.

Please vote for our next book here.

[coochiequeens]

By Rachel May

Rachel May, English professor and author, came upon Elizabeth Wagner Reed’s book about a decade ago, on Reed’s daughter’s website.

Published April 22, 2023Updated April 24, 2023, 10:50 a.m. ET

This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.

In 1992, the geneticist Elizabeth Wagner Reed self-published “American Women in Science Before the Civil War,” a book highlighting 22 19th-century scientists. One of them was Eunice Newton Foote, who wrote a paper on her remarkable discovery about greenhouse gases, “a phenomenon which is of concern to us even now,” Reed wrote.

Foote was forgotten soon after the paper was read aloud by a male scientist at a conference in 1856 and published the following year. A male scientist was eventually credited with the discovery.

Like Foote, Reed herself fell into obscurity, a victim of the erasure of female scientists that the historian Margaret Rossiter coined the Matilda Effect — named for the sociologist Matilda Joslyn Gage, whose 1870 pamphlet, “Woman as Inventor,” condemned the idea that women did not have the skills to succeed in the field.

Reed, however, made significant contributions to the sciences.

She wrote a landmark study about intellectual disability genetics, helped found a field of population genetics and wrote many more papers on botany, the biology of women and sexism in science.

Reed persisted in her research even when she found herself a widow with a toddler during World War II. By the time of her death, in 1996, in spite of publishing more than 34 scholarly papers, public school curriculums and two books, the record didn’t bend in her favor. It wasn’t until 2020, when the scientist and scholar Marta Velasco Martín published a paper on Reed, that her legacy was resurrected.

Reed was born Elizabeth Wagner on Aug. 27, 1912, in Baguio, in what was then called the Philippine Islands, to Catherine (Cleland) and John Ovid Wagner. John was from Ohio and worked in construction there at the time; Catherine, from Northern Ireland, was working in the Philippines as a nurse.

The family later settled on a farm in Ohio, where Elizabeth grew up picking raspberries “from dawn to dusk,” her son William Reed said in a phone interview.

“She learned how to work really hard,” he added. “I remember her saying how much she loved school, partly because it wasn’t doing farm work.”

At the end of one summer, he said, she used some of her earnings to buy a book about wildflowers in Ohio — “her first purchase was a scientific book.”

She would go on to cultivate wildflowers in her backyard as an adult, volunteer at a wildflower arboretum in Minnesota and write about botany in scientific articles and in educational materials for children. Reed’s daughter, Catherine Reed, told Martín that her mother “loved nature, especially plants, and, wanted to be a scientist from a very early age.”

In 1933, Reed earned her bachelor’s degree at Ohio State University, where she also earned a master’s in 1934 and a Ph.D. in plant physiology in 1936. She put herself through school with a scholarship and by washing dishes and working in the cafeteria. In 1939 and 1940, she published her first two papers, one about the effects of insecticides on bean plants and the other about how various types of dusts affect the rate of water loss in yellow coleus plants by night and day.

In 1940, she married a fellow scientist, James Otis Beasley, and had a son, John, with him just after James left to fight in World War II in 1942. When her husband was killed in the war the next year, she supported herself and her son by teaching at five different universities. “The first part of her life,” William Reed said, “was sheer determination.”

She began working with the geneticist Sheldon C. Reed, whom she married in 1946, and together they helped found the field of Drosophila population genetics, which uses fruit flies as a simple and economical method of studying genetics in a laboratory while offering important insights into similar species.

Soon after, the couple moved to Minnesota, where Sheldon was hired as the director of the Dight Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Elizabeth was denied a job at the university, which cited rules against nepotism.

The Reeds went on to write a book about intellectual disabilities that analyzed data from 80,000 people and their families; the study, they said, was “one of the largest genetic investigations so far completed.”

They found that disabilities could be caused by genetic or environmental factors and could therefore be heritable. They also proposed — to controversy that still exists today — that such disabilities were preventable through education of the general public and voluntary sterilization or birth control of potential parents with low I.Q.s.

Though Elizabeth’s name was listed first as author, a letter of acknowledgment calling the couple’s work “truly magnificent” referred to them as “Dr. and Mrs. Reed.” 

Reed was quite aware that her husband was receiving more credit, her son William said, but she never let it embitter her. In 1950, however, she published a paper on sexism in the sciences based on her study of 70 women working in the field. It found that marriage and childbirth decreased their productivity and sometimes even dissuaded them from continuing their careers. It led her to mentor women in the field through the advocacy group Graduate Women in Science.

“She was a scientist before it was popular for women to become scientists,” Nancy Segal, a psychologist at California State University known for her study of twins, said in an interview, “and she was a great role model for so many of us women postdocs at the time.”

In writing “American Women in Science Before the Civil War,”Reed corresponded with archivists and scoured card catalogs, journals and proceedings of associations and societies. In addition to recognizing Eunice Foote’s work almost two decades before other scientists did, the book included biographies of, among others, the astronomer Maria Mitchell; Ellen Smith Tupper, who was known as the “Queen Bee of Iowa” for her study of that insect; and the entomologist Mary Townsend.

Reed wrote that it was a testimony to the strengths of these women that they pursued science despite the fact that they were “often denied entry to colleges and unable to attain professional status.”

Reed also supported teaching children about science so that they would have the tools to solve what she called the “current crises of exploding populations and deteriorating environments.” She published papers about teaching proper scientific methods in schools and created curriculums with the University of Minnesota.

“Classrooms always house some living organisms,” she wrote, tongue-in-cheek, in the Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science in 1969. “In many, unfortunately, all are of a single species, Homo sapiens. The population consists of many immature species (children) and a few adults, usually female (teachers). This makes for a certain homogeneity, but it can be alleviated by introduction of other living species, animal or plant.”

The fact that Reed was, like so many of her predecessors, lost to history is indicative of the pervasive sexism of her era. But women today continue to face hurdles in entering scientific fields. A report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this year found that “the underrepresentation of women in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields continues to persist,” with women making up only 28 percent of the STEM work force.

Like Reed, her daughter, Catherine, was a scientist, having earned a Ph.D. in ecology, but she ultimately became so disillusioned that she held a ceremonial burning of her degree and instead turned to artwork and championing her mother’s legacy. She published her mother’s book on American women in science on her website in about 2010. She died in 2021 at 73.

Elizabeth Wagner Reed died at 83 on July 14, 1996, most likely of cancer. She recognized her symptoms, but, knowing what the treatments would be like and, to her mind, the probable outcome, she never sought a diagnosis. (Sheldon Reed died in 2003.)

William Reed said there was no joy like taking a walk with his mother, who could describe every plant and animal they passed. She and Sheldon were avid bird-watchers (and occasional polka dancers), and the family spent many vacations at Lake Itasca, Minn., relaxing under old-growth Norway Pines.

Reed’s favorite flower was the showy lady’s slipper, the state flower of Minnesota, an orchid notoriously difficult to cultivate, like the careers of many of the women she wrote about. Its Latin name is Cypripedium reginae, with reginae meaning queen.

[faofinn]

Hi! Kind of new to your blog and I got a little lost with the characters 😅 Would you mind explaining the main plot or the characters’ background a bit so I can understand the stories a little better? Thank you and sorry for the trouble!

Hey!

Don't apologise at all! It is quite confusing - especially as we have different AUs for our characters!

We're going to do a full intro post for each of our characters, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, a quick rundown of the mains.

Fred and Sheila Daniels, adoptive parents to both Fao and Finn. Fostered Harrison on respite. Sheila works as a nurse when Finn and Fao are old enough (in her eyes) to fend for themselves. Fred, on the other hand, stays the furthest away from medicine as he can get, and works as a history professor, writing books in his spare time.

Fao Daniels, the eldest Daniels son, and very independent. Served in the army until an accident ended his career and he returned to the UK as a surgeon. Family: Amelia and James Blackwood (parents), Friend and Sheila Daniels (Adopted Parents), Tomas (Uncle and former 'guardian'), Finn (brother), Luke, Beth, Arthur (kids). Partners: Alex, Ollie, Harrison, Elyana Lozier.

Finn Daniels, the youngest son. Fred's nephew, suffered a TBI when he was ten thanks to #apollothecat. The accident caused his epilepsy and added to his chronic pain. Followed in Fao's footsteps and went to medschool, though he found his place in the ED. Family: Fred and Sheila (adopted parents), Partners: Jessica Weston.

Steve Cunningham. Neurosurgeon by trade, now Harrison's adoptive father. Needs to be protected at all costs, would do anything for Harrison. Mentored Fao while Finn was recovering from his TBI. Family: Bella (wife), Jonathan (son), Amy (daughter), Harrison (adopted son).

Harrison Cunningham-Cole, Steve's son and the reputation of troublemaker. Bounced around the care system after his parents (the Tanners) were arrested for abuse. Has his fair share of crappy partners, but finally found the love of his life in Tai. Works as an ED cons. Family: Steve (adoptive father), Kieran, Alfie, and Levi (adopted sons). Partners: Marcus, Conor, Taidgh Cole.

Taidgh Cunningham-Cole. Harrison's husband and dad to the three kids. Works as a physio, and has a diagnosis of late onset T1DM. Originally from Ireland, he moved to London to train, and met Harrison when he broke his ankle and was hopped up on pain meds.

Elyana Lozier - owned by @epochandeons , Shiv and Ev's best friend IRL! Ely works as an anaesthetist, and somehow fell in love with the idiot that is Fao. Also has seizures from a car crash. Adoptive mother to Luke, and bio to Beth and Arthur

Jessica Weston, another long-suffering partner. Has been Finn's girlfriend since they were nine, much to everyone's amusement (and Finn's denial). Works as a lawyer and has way too many brains to be with Finn, but family game nights prove why the pair are together. They have a daughter, Amelia, who was bit of a surprise to the pair.

[spctlights]

(—) ★ spotted!! JAMES "JIMMY"  DELANEY on the cover of this week’s most recent tabloid! many say that the 35 year old looks like SAM CLAFLIN, but i don’t really see it. while  the SINGER is known for being VISIONARY my inside sources say that they have a tendency to be IMPULSIVE i swear, every time i think of them, i hear the song ONE DAY AT A TIME –– JOE WALSH

BASIC INFORMATION:

name: james ‘jimmy’ gabriel delaney.

nicknames: jim.

pronouns: he / him.

gender: cis male.

age: thirty-five.

date of birth: august 22nd , ‘87.

place of birth: wicklow , ireland.

astrological sign: leo.

orientation: bisexual.

APPEARANCE:

height: 6 foot 1.

hair colour: light brown , reddish undertones.

eye colour: green.

wardrobe style: think boho 70s aesthetic.

tattoos: various.

piercings: none.

HEALTH:

physical ailments: celiac allergy.

mental ailments: depression , anxiety.

alcohol use: alcoholic.

drug use: uses drugs ( specifically cocaine ) regularly.

addictions: alcohol.

PERSONALITY:

positive traits: visionary , creative , calming.

negative traits: stubborn , self - absorbed , grumpy.

ACTIVITIES & SKILLS:

skills: singing , guitar , songwriting.

weaknesses: impulse control.

languages spoken: english ( fluent ) , irish gaelic ( proficient ).

FAMILY:

father: adam delaney ( deceased , sixty - two  )

mother: unknown ( unknown )

wife: leah delaney nee jones ( deceased , twenty - eight )

pets: collin , border collie ( alive , two )

CAREER/LIFE DETAILS ( tw: cancer , alcoholism , abortion ) :

jimmy was born to ... he doesn’t know. he was born in wicklow , ireland and was raised by his father adam delaney after being placed on his doorstep. his father was an author and columnist , always working from home , and jimmy was never alone. despite not knowing who his mother was , a sore topic for his father and the only subject that he ever avoided , they had a happy life. jimmy was good at school , took guitar and piano lessons , and was overall a pretty happy kid.

when he turned 16 , the interest in who his mother was piqued. he requested his birth records from the county and tracked down a name he found on his records , but when he stood in front of the flat door in dublin , the person that opened the door could not possibly be his mother. grey - haired , walking stick , in her late sixties. however , seeing him at her doorstep didn’t seem to be a surprise. she invited him in and explained.

his mother , someone who had been a close friend of hers but who she was no longer in contact with , had gotten pregnant by his father on accident. she’d panicked. she didn’t want to be a mother , and didn’t want to be found. when he was born , on the side of the road in a car , she’d made the friend promise to help her out. the lady had taken him to the hospital , said she’d found the baby with a note that said adam was the father , but nothing else. no matter how much he pressed , she would not reveal anything more.

some answers but more questions. he returned to his home in wicklow with his dad , and began writing. first journals , to write away his frustration and grief at how it seemed he would never find out who his mother was –– this being long before the time where testing dna and ancestry was easily available. once he’d processed some of the issues , he began writing poetry and putting them over melodies.

however , music always remained a hobby to him. he trained to become an accountant , and met leah on a night out with friends. she was studying to be a nurse , and they hit it off straight away. every minute they had to spare was spent with each other , often even seeking each other out just to sit next to each other and study when exams were coming up. he didn’t mind. as long as he could be near her , he was happy. when they finished school , they moved in together and were engaged soon after.

jimmy was offered a job in the states , and they relocated to san francisco. they bought a house and on the day they got the keys , he leaned down on one knee in their empty living room and proposed. the first few months , the evenings were spent with windows open to the late summer breeze , trying to air out the paint fumes. candles lit despite the electric work being done weeks before , and jimmy playing her every new song he wrote.

three months later , and they got the worst news after leah had been experiencing a cough that wouldn’t go away. stage 4 lung cancer. not only that , but when they found it , she was 8 weeks pregnant. in order to treat the cancer and give her a chance at survival , they decided to terminate the pregnancy. adam moved from ireland to the us to help support them. five months later , he’d lost both of them. his father , first , out of the blue. in the morning , instead of in the kitchen , making them some breakfast , he hadn’t been there. they’d found him cold in the guest room. peaceful , but long gone. three weeks later , he lost leah. on her death bed , she asked him to never give up music , as that was theirs , and that was where she would always be.

he sold the house. it was tained with death. he found a part time job as an accountant and used the sales from the san francisco house to buy a small apartment in pasadena. he drank to drown out the pain. worked on his music. drank more. recorded demos. worked on his music again. recorded his record , got a deal.

his first record , from eden , released in september 2022 , dedicated to leah , and his name has been everywhere ever since , labelling him as the newest ‘up - and - comer ‘.

[taffe]

Val and Cly, and lore relating to valero💞

Valero Salasar Cole is a guy of many jobs, some simple as robbing a store, some more challenging such as killing a man in silence. He's been hired by numerous people throughout his career as a criminal.

He is well acquainted with Clyde, they're kinda like best friends to him. They were pals during his boarding school time... Until he was expelled and had to finish school somewhere else. Umm, he was born near the ocean in Spain, many boats come in and out, his dad being one of them. Valero grew up with his mother and little sister, they weren't poor or anything... His mother is a nurse and a “secret” surgeon... Doing operations in her basement for cheap. Val has seen blood and guts from this secret job... So he's not completely bothered by that. Hell even help out sometimes, learning important stuff like stitching skin and stopping blood from bleeding... A few years passed, and he was now around 14-15 and his father came to pick him up suddenly. He was taken to Ireland and a small village town called Tafford. He's in this new country, this new language. He was already feeling homesick. He was put into a religious boarding school and a new student. Having no clue what his life was about to turn into. Val ended up becoming a troubled teen, constantly getting into fight because of his terrible English and his bullies. He would often get into detention after school... But Clyde was also in detention, they spoke to each other and immediately became friends.

[macapacaalpaca]

Hey there! In honor of Thanksgiving in the states, can you tell us three things your MC is grateful for this year? What about their LI?

And if you want to tell us three things your thankful for too, go for it!

Hi! Happy thanksgiving! We don’t celebrate it in Ireland (I wish we did!) but I think it’s such a lovely holiday and hope that everyone who does celebrate has a great day 🧡

My MC is grateful for:

Love. As generic it may seem, she is so grateful for Ethan. He makes her life better just by being in it and there’s nobody else she’d rather have by her side. As well as Ethan, she’s so grateful for the gang and of course her family. They’re a tight knit group and she wouldn’t want it any other way

Jenner! Her favourite golden ball of fur and joy. In my hc he lives with Alan in Providence but they visit often. Ethan always says that Jenner gets even more excited to see MC than him another reason he should be marrying her asap

Coffee. It is what keeps her alive and alert every day after all 😅 But as well as that, it’s one of the first things her and Ethan bonded over. Their first date to the coffee shop was one of the factors that changed their relationship from mentor and mentee to lovers. Now coffee is not only her favourite drink, it’s a chance for her to spend some quiet time with her man whenever they get the chance

Ethan is grateful for:

MC. Of course. The light of his life, the love he never knew he needed until it practically hit him in the face. She changed his entire world, opened his eyes and gave him a new perspective. He’ll always be so grateful for that. And as much as his past self would never have admitted, there is no greater joy in his life than being in love.

The hospital staff. The nurses, doctors, surgeons, physical therapists, cleaners. Everyone who plays a part in such a selfless, difficult career. Edenbrook prides itself in providing the best care for its patients and that would never be possible without wonderful people. Ethan acknowledges and appreciates every single member of staff in the hospital because it could never function without their hard work.

Naveen. His father like figure, his mentor, his best friend. How could he have survived all those years in Edenbrook without him. Much to Naveen’s denial, Ethan knows that he wouldn’t be half the man or doctor he is today without his guidance. Even if he’s retired now, Ethan still admires him as a doctor and I like to think Naveen still calls in sometimes to check on the chief. As well as that, him and MC visit him regularly. Including today to celebrate thanksgiving!

I’m grateful for:

Life, in general, and health. This year has been challenging in terms of my health and although it’s one of the hardest things I’ve had to go through I’m grateful to be alive and to still have the chance to live life to the fullest.

My friends and family. Where would I be without them, I don’t know! Through the hard times and the good ones it’s made me realise just how lucky I am to have the most amazing people in my corner. With my family, when we all come together there’s nothing more special. And of course I’m so grateful for my tumblr family! Everyone who interacts, posts and messages, you keep this community thriving and bring me so much joy. Grateful for every single one of you 🤍

Opportunities. Life is full of them and I’ve really seen that this year. The most important thing is to take them! The opportunities I’ve been given have been one in a million - I mean seriously, who would’ve thought little old me would get the chances to become a published author, work with the department of justice and be invited to join my county’s women’s assembly? Madness, but the best kind!

Thank you so much for this lovely ask! 🥰

[brian-in-finance]

J Vespa / Getty Images

The Stunning Transformation Of Caitríona Balfe

Few shows have had as big a cultural impact as "Outlander." Based on the novels by Diana Gabaldon, the show follows a World War II nurse who finds herself transported to 17th-century Scotland when she finds magical stones in the Highlands. The show was Caitríona Balfe's big break — previously, the Irish actor had worked as a model and appeared in only a few small productions. However, since playing "Outlander's" Claire, she has become one of TV's most recognizable faces. She has also landed roles in films like "Ford v Ferrari" alongside Matt Damon and Christian Bale and Kenneth Branagh's Oscar-winning "Belfast."

With "Outlander" nearing its series finale in 2023, Balfe is looking ahead to new projects such as the upcoming "The Amateur," as the era draws to a close. It's the perfect time to reflect on her career so far. So, without further ado, here is the stunning transformation of Caitríona Balfe.

Caitríona Balfe’s upbringing in Northern Ireland colored the rest of her life

J Vespa / Getty Images

Caitríona Balfe was born in 1979 in the rural village of Tydavnet (1) near the Northern Irish border. Her upbringing in Ireland has colored her entire life. "It's such a part of the fabric of your life when you live in those areas," she told Vanity Fair in 2022. "It's really not until you get older that you look back and you realize the craziness of it, or the strangeness of it."

And by the sounds of things, it was certainly an abnormal place to grow up. Growing up so close to the border, Balfe was used to being surrounded by British soldiers and once even found herself in the middle of a bomb scare. 

Her father was a garda, the national name for the Irish police force, and she was sometimes bullied for it. "Let's say being the daughter of a garda in 1980s borderland counties was not the easiest thing," she later told The Irish Times.

Caitríona Balfe was a voracious reader as a child

As a young girl, Caitríona Balfe filled most of her time with reading. In fact, when she was young, her father took away the family's TV, so instead, she looked to literature for stories and entertainment. As she told The Irish Times, she raced through the classics, including Emily Brontë, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, and Robert Pirsig — she also was a fan of modern writers like Ian McEwan. 

When Balfe reached adulthood, her love of literature continued to be a big part of her life. "You always find her on set with a book," her co-star Maria Doyle Kennedy said. "She's a ferocious reader." And, in 2019, Balfe told Stylist, "I could just lock myself away and just read for a month, which would be so lovely."

She even started her own book club on Instagram where she posts videos about what she's reading for her fans. "First rule of book club.... We read ! Then we talk..!" she wrote in one of the first posts in 2020.

Caitríona Balfe grew up wanting to act

J Vespa / Getty Images

From a very young age, Caitríona Balfe knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life: acting. "It's in you, right?" she said to Backstage when asked about her first inspirations. "Like it's something you're either cursed with, you know, this need for attention and need to perform and all those things," she added, laughing.

Not only was she the fourth of seven children and therefore used to seeking out attention, she also had acting in her blood. After all, her father was something of an amateur actor himself, having appeared in a comedy troupe. "If my dad has some inclination towards it, there is probably something passed down," she mused to The Irish Times. Plus, she added, acting offered a much-needed form of escapism. "[T]here wasn't an awful lot of things to do," she said.

When she got older, Balfe pursued her passion for acting taking a course at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Caitríona Balfe moved to Paris and began working as a model

Jesse Grant / Getty Images

Before Caitríona Balfe finished her course at drama school, she was scouted by a modeling agent. "I took what I thought was going to be a year out," she told Backstage, "and I never went back. Very, very bold of me."

Balfe dove into her unexpected modeling career, setting off for Paris. "I always just wanted to travel," she explained to Vanity Fair. "Growing up, we never did that — there were too many of us. We didn't have the money."

Even though Balfe had always dreamed of acting, modeling also appealed to her innate desire to perform. As she put it, "There was something about the theatricality of the runway shows — and the event of it — that I really loved." And she was pretty good at it. She appeared in shows for all of the big designers, including Chanel, Alexander McQueen, and Valentino, and even walked the runway as a Victoria's Secret Angel. And so, for a while at least, she committed herself to a career in the modeling industry.

Caitríona Balfe moved to New York City as her relationship with modeling soured

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

Throughout her 20s, Caitríona Balfe's modeling career careened from success to success. She modeled all over the world but eventually found herself settled down in New York City. "That's been the longest of anywhere since I left Ireland," she told Backstage in 2020. After a decade of modeling, Balfe began to crave something new. "For the last couple of years [of modeling] I was miserable, really," she confessed to Vanity Fair. "It's not exactly the nicest industry or the healthiest industry."

So, discontented with modeling, she revisited her passion for acting, first taking a few classes and later landing a tiny role as one of the "clackers" in the 2006 film "The Devil Wears Prada." "I think they just came to modeling agencies and were like, 'We need a bunch of women who can walk in heels,'" she recalled of the lucky break during an appearance on "The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter" podcast. "My agency knew I wanted to act and if people would come looking for stuff, they were sending me out to a few auditions." 

Caitríona Balfe moved to LA to start an acting career

Frederick M Brown / Getty Images

When Caitríona Balfe had finally had enough of modeling, she decided to take a leap of faith into the world of acting — so, she left New York behind and set off for Los Angeles. "LA is where I came and said, 'OK, this is what I wanna do with my life,'" she said to Backstage of her first impressions. She continued taking classes — one was even a $5 class. As she told The Irish Times, "These are the weird things I did when I was wanting to be an actor in LA when I first got here."

In fact, it sounds like Balfe's early years in L.A. were filled with bold, "weird" decisions. For one thing, she only knew one person in the city when she moved. Balfe knew that moving to LA was a bit crazy — but she committed to living in a "bubble of delusion." As she put it, "I guess ultimately I was like: 'I can make this work.'"

At first, following her dream of acting wasn't easy

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Life in L.A. was anything but easy for Caitríona Balfe when she first arrived. Initially, she faced rejection after rejection. "I started from scratch. I didn't have any managers, I didn't know any agents, I hadn't acted in almost a decade," she told Backstage of her initial struggles to land work.

But even though Balfe dealt with lots of rejection, she persevered. Luckily, modeling had given her a thick skin that served her well. "In an audition, if it didn't work out, it wasn't always because you didn't do a good job, or you weren't good," she explained to The Guardian. "It was other arbitrary things like your name's not big enough. Which can also be soul-destroying, but I don't know, it's different."

Balfe did land a few roles, but they were few and far between. In 2011, she had a small role in the film "Super 8." In 2012, she landed a guest role on "The Beauty Inside" and the show "H+." In 2013, there were several films: "Crush," "Now You See Me," and "Escape Plan." Slowly, she was building a stronger CV.

Caitríona Balfe landed her big break with Outlander in 2014

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Everything changed for Caitríona Balfe in 2014 when she landed the lead role on the much-hyped Starz show "Outlander." "It was a total crapshoot," Balfe later recalled of the audition for the show while speaking to The Guardian. "I had done a few jobs, nothing of note really. I was living in LA and I was really struggling, actually, it was about four or five months since I'd had a job." 

At the time, she didn't realize how big the book series was. "I wasn't even aware of the book series when I got the first audition," she said to Vogue. "Apparently, they had been searching for [Claire] for a very long time."

Balfe landed the role when she was about to head off on a holiday in India. Because her career was going slowly in LA, she decided to leap headfirst into a new life, filming in Scotland. "I didn't realize I'd still be there almost eight and a half years later," she later admitted to The Guardian. 

Caitríona Balfe shot to fame almost instantly afterward

Almost as soon as "Outlander" came out, Caitríona Balfe became one of TV's biggest names. Ronald D. Moore, who developed "Outlander," had warned Balfe about just how life-changing the role would be. "I walked her to the elevator, and just before the doors closed on her, I said, 'Your life is about to change forever,'" he said to Backstage, recalling the day she was cast. "And she gave me a grin that was both thrilled and slightly nervous. I never saw her hesitate after that."

The first episode premiered at Comic Con. "It was insane," she told Vogue. Soon enough, she began to notice her fame growing. As she told Backstage, she had only a few hundred followers on Twitter before playing Claire. "Within about a month or two, it was thousands of people — and my phone, I didn't know how to turn off the alerts, so it was just going all the time," she said. That's when she realized just how big she was becoming.

Caitríona Balfe became lifelong friends with her co-star Sam Heughan

Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Fame wasn't the only life-changing thing to come from her role in "Outlander" — Caitríona Balfe also gained a lifelong friend in Sam Heughan, her co-star. As Balfe explained to Parade, the pair made a conscious decision to become friends before filming even began. "We were just talking about it and we were like, 'Who knows what this is going to be?'" she recalled. The pair agreed to "have each other's backs." She added, "[W]e've done that from day one."

Since then, the pair have only become closer. In fact, during ATX TV's Women of "Outlander" panel, Balfe explained that she and Heughan have never even argued — although they have bickered. Heughan chimed in: "As our lives have gotten more complicated and busy, we may not see each other as much as we used to, but that core and that friendship and that base that we have has never changed." How adorable is that?

Caitríona Balfe landed a number of big roles in the 2010s

As Caitríona Balfe's fame grew in the wake of "Outlander," she landed more big roles in Hollywood — and worked with bigger and bigger stars. 

In 2016, she landed a role in Jodie Foster's all-star film "Money Monster" — her co-stars included George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Dominic West, and Giancarlo Esposito. Sadly, Balfe didn't get to work with them too much as most of her scenes were filmed in front of a green screen. Nevertheless, she was starstruck to be working with Roberts. "I couldn't stop staring at her during our first read-through," she told W Magazine. 

In 2019, she played Mollie Miles, the wife of Christian Bale's character, in "Ford v Ferrari." Matt Damon also starred in the film. "I walked into that film with the idea that I was gonna be very intimidated by both him and Matt [Damon]," she told Collider. But she was pleasantly surprised. "Immediately, when you meet both of them [and] the first thing that struck me about both of them is that they're just these great, humble family men. There was no ego or bravado. It was lovely."

Caitríona Balfe starred in Kenneth Branagh's Belfast in 2021

Caitríona Balfe landed a huge role in Kenneth Branagh's "Belfast" in 2021, playing Ma, the mother figure in Branagh's semi-autobiographical tale about the Troubles in Ireland. For Balfe, the role was particularly meaningful — after years of acting in Scotland, "Belfast" was much closer to home for the Irish actor. "As an Irish person, you read so many of these scripts about the Troubles, and they all have this romantic version of the violence," Balfe told Vanity Fair. "Belfast," she explained, was different.

In fact, Balfe even saw her own family in the script. "Even though this is very much Ken's story, there's a universality to it that allows you to see your own," she told The Scotsman. "I definitely thought of my own mother in playing Ma."

Clearly, Balfe was extremely proud of the film. It was a huge hit and quickly generated awards buzz. However, Balfe remained characteristically humble. "I'm just happy that it's turned out as beautifully as it has and that it's getting the recognition it deserves because it's shot so beautifully and the hard work and heart and soul that went into making it are second to none," she said.

Caitríona Balfe had her first child in 2021

Caitríona Balfe began dating music producer (2) Tony McGill in 2015 (3). The pair married in 2019, and in 2021, they had their first child. Naturally, having a child gave Balfe a new set of priorities. Even though rumors circulated that she'd be nominated for an Oscar for her role in "Belfast," she found her self preoccupied with her new son. "Luckily, I'm doing a lot of that [changing nappies], so I'm actually not thinking about the awards too much: It's more, 'Stop peeing on me!'" she joked to The Guardian.

However, having a child also brought out Balfe's protective side — especially when she found out that a small group of fans online were convinced that her child was actually the product of an imagined affair with her "Outlander" co-star Sam Heughan. "I don't want those crazies — because that's what they are — I just don't want them talking about [my son]," she told Vanity Fair. Apparently, that's why she and McGill have kept their son's name private.

Caitríona Balfe is preparing to say goodbye to Outlander

Mike Marsland / Getty Images

In 2023, Starz announced that "Outlander" would be coming to an end after its eighth season. After the WGA and SAG-AFTRA writer/actor strikes, filming for the final season was delayed. However, Balfe has already begun to mourn the end of the show that gave her her big break.

"Sam and I were doing a video for this season and I started to get emotional already," she told the Express. "It's going to be so weird. It's been such an amazing ride that it's nice to wrap it up while we all still love each other and we are all still feeling like we're making a good show."

Even though "Outlander" may be ending, we can't help but feel that Balfe's career is only just beginning. In fact, she's already set to appear in the film "Amateur" (4) in 2024 alongside Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, and Laurence Fishburne. We can't wait to see what else she does next.

The List

Errors that caught Brian’s attention: (1) Dublin (2) artist/band manager (3) 2014 (4) First paragraph says “The Amateur,” as Malek has and IMDb did. Who knows? 🤷🏻‍♂️ The first promo art will tell us. 🍿

Remember…  I walked her to the elevator, and just before the doors closed on her, I said, “Your life is about to change forever.” — Ronald D Moore

Cut & Paste journalism 🤦🏻‍♂️

[clublzr]

⏃⠀⠀⠀ˑ⠀⠀⠀ HARLEY KWON ▬▬ ⠀ basics.

BIRTH NAME: Harley Kwon

KOREAN NAME: Kwon Jimin [권지민]

DATE OF BIRTH: June 15th, 2002

ZODIAC SIGN: Gemini

PLACE OF BIRTH: Derry, Ireland

ETHNICITY: Korean

NATIONALITY: Irish

LANGUAGES: English, Korean, French

RELIGION: Buddhist

EDUCATION: High School Diploma ( 2020 )

⏃⠀⠀⠀ˑ⠀⠀⠀ HARLEY KWON ▬▬ ⠀ career.

STAGE NAME: Harley [ 할리 ]

OCCUPATION: Idol, Singer, Performer

TRAINING PERIOD: 2 years

YEARS ACTIVE: 2021 - present

LABEL: Chérie Devil Records

GROUP: Luzrclb ( Present- )

POSITION: Main Dancer, Sub-Vocalist

⏃⠀⠀⠀ˑ⠀⠀⠀ HARLEY KWON ▬▬ ⠀ appearance .

HEIGHT: 5’10”

WEIGHT: N/A

PIERCING(S): 4 piercings on each ear

FACE CLAIM: Jay Park [ Enhypen ]

⏃⠀⠀⠀ˑ⠀⠀⠀ HARLEY KWON ▬▬ ⠀ the prologue .

Harley Kwon was born June 15th, 2002 to a nurse and a technology specialist for the court system.

He never truly felt a pull towards the arts until he was 12, and started appearing in productions of plays and musicals throughout his school life. Harley felt like this was calling until last year in school when he suddenly stopped showing up for rehearsals and wasn’t seen anywhere besides his house and his school.

In 2020, his grandma pushed him to audition for different companies as she could tell he enjoyed singing, and towards the end of March of that year, he got into Chérie Devil Records.

[icecoldwilliams]

|| 𝒀𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒐𝒏𝒔   💜   ✲・*:･ﾟ✲･ﾟ:*  ˚ₓ  

|| my brain has been gaslighting tf out of me with these making me think I posted this collection already but? I can't find it on the blog so I don't??? Think??? I did??? Feel free to call me out if I actually did lol, but anyway!

Nina's disconnection with her own emotions usually allows her to see the bigger picture with a rational outlook. Thus she is actually quite excellent with advice. And by that I mean her advice can range anywhere between deep metaphysical and vague statements that'll drive your muse insane for weeks, possibly longer, to simply bluntly telling your muse that they're a moron. 🙃 She typically saves the deeper more meaningful words for those that manage to interest her. If she doesn't like your muse she will tell them to their face, and then some.

If I didn't already make this clear in my last headcanons post, thanks to a long family line of successful assassins via her fathers side of the family and her own extensive successful career, Nina is richy rich rich. Rich af. She never necessarily feels the need to show off or brag, but assume all her money comes from her work with the Zaibatsu or that she only worked at the Zaibatsu for the pay, and she will absolutely flex on your muse to prove them wrong. c:

She's very detail oriented and curious. She's the type to fix the tiniest of details when she notices them, especially with those she cares about. From smoothing their lapel / dress, straightening their tie etc. to noticing something of theirs broke and almost immediately buying them a new one. Usually without herself even acknowledging that she did. – She doesn't do it looking for appreciation, in her mind she simply notices a potential problem and fixes it.

 Her favorite holiday is Halloween. Not only bc Ireland's Halloween parades seem like the stuff of dreams omg, mostly bc scaring people???? Her wheelhouse??????? Hello????? — Thus it should go without saying that she is an absolute nightmare to anyone that knows her on Halloween. Leaving a decapitated robot head of an Alisa clone for Lars to find is the least she can do, be-fucking-ware 💜

 Canonically Nina is a big fan of Tom from Tom & Jerry. On some rare days off she can be found nursing a cup of tea from a novelty mug, in Tom pajama pants, with the old cartoons on for background noise as she reads a book on her tablet. – Tom is #1, but also you can bet sass master Bugs Bunny is a close second for her.

 Outside of keeping her Aikido and Koppojutsu skills sharp, one of Nina's favorite ways to stay fit is aerial yoga. She will just casually hang upside down in front of you if you interrupt her chill time. Do not.

And finally I recently realized I never mentioned this one here outside of a lil dash com thing so! Yes the blonde bomb does occasionally don full on disguises on her missions, though it is kinda rare for her to. Her own stealth typically suffices for her usual quick hits, but for more complicated jobs that require her to go a little undercover, she may wear a wig, and switch up her contour a bit. Maybe even contacts. — One thing she does more frequently however, she uses pseudonyms almost on a daily basis. A favorite of hers being Diana 🤭💜

[healthaide]

The Challenges and Rewards of Nursing in Rural Areas of Ireland

Nursing in rural areas of Ireland presents a unique set of challenges and rewards, making it both a demanding and deeply fulfilling career path. Rural nurses often play a pivotal role in the health and well-being of isolated communities, providing essential healthcare services in areas where access to medical resources can be limited. For nurses considering a move to a rural setting or those who have a passion for community health, understanding both the challenges and rewards of this profession can help in making an informed career decision.

Challenges of Nursing in Rural Ireland

1. Limited Resources and Infrastructure

One of the primary challenges for rural nurses in Ireland is working with limited healthcare infrastructure. Many rural areas may not have large hospitals or specialized medical facilities, which means nurses must often handle a broad range of medical conditions without immediate access to the same resources available in urban centers. For instance, emergency services may be further away, requiring nurses to stabilize patients for longer periods or manage care independently until help arrives.

2. Isolation and Distance

Rural nursing can sometimes feel isolating, particularly for those used to the fast-paced environment of city hospitals. Nurses in rural areas may work in small teams, or in some cases, be the only healthcare professional available for miles. Traveling long distances to reach patients, especially in more remote areas, is a common part of the job. This isolation can also make it challenging to access ongoing professional development or peer support.

3. Broad Scope of Practice

In rural areas, nurses are often required to take on a broader scope of practice than their counterparts in urban settings. They may find themselves acting as general practitioners, emergency responders, and public health educators all at once. While this can be rewarding, it also means nurses need to be highly adaptable, confident in a variety of medical procedures, and able to make decisions without the immediate support of specialists.

4. Patient Access and Transportation

Patients in rural areas often face barriers to accessing healthcare, such as lack of transportation, poor roads, or long distances from clinics or hospitals. Rural nurses must be prepared to travel to patients’ homes for care or offer telehealth services where available. Moreover, they may encounter patients who delay seeking care due to these obstacles, leading to more complex health conditions by the time they are treated.

Rewards of Nursing in Rural Ireland

1. Building Strong Community Bonds

One of the most rewarding aspects of rural nursing is the opportunity to build strong, meaningful relationships with patients and the local community. Nurses in rural areas are often viewed as key figures in the community, providing not just medical care but also emotional and social support. Over time, rural nurses get to know their patients on a personal level, fostering a deep sense of trust and connection.

2. Autonomy and Professional Growth

Working in a rural setting often provides nurses with greater autonomy in their practice. With fewer healthcare professionals on-site, rural nurses take on greater responsibility, which can lead to faster professional growth. This environment can be ideal for nurses who are self-reliant, eager to broaden their skill set, and interested in learning how to manage a wide range of patient care scenarios.

3. Diverse Patient Care

Nursing in rural areas offers the chance to work with a diverse range of health conditions, from managing chronic illnesses to handling emergency situations. Rural nurses often care for patients across all age groups, providing a variety of services such as maternal and child health, elder care, mental health support, and palliative care. This diversity keeps the job dynamic and ensures that nurses are continually learning and adapting.

4. A Deep Sense of Fulfillment

For many rural nurses, the greatest reward is the deep sense of fulfillment that comes from serving a community where they can make a visible difference. The personal connections, the gratitude of patients, and the ability to provide care in areas that might otherwise struggle to access healthcare create a profound sense of purpose. Many rural nurses find that their work has a lasting impact on the health outcomes of their patients and the overall well-being of the community.

5. Work-Life Balance

Rural settings often offer a quieter pace of life, which can contribute to better work-life balance. With smaller populations and fewer cases of high-pressure, high-volume environments like those found in urban hospitals, rural nurses may find more time to relax and enjoy the natural beauty of the Irish countryside. For those who value a lifestyle that combines meaningful work with peaceful living, rural nursing offers an attractive option.

Nursing in rural areas of Ireland comes with its own set of challenges, from limited resources to the need for greater autonomy. However, these challenges are balanced by the rewards of building close community ties, experiencing professional growth, and making a significant impact on the health of rural populations. For nurses who are adaptable, compassionate, and motivated by the opportunity to serve communities in need, rural nursing offers a uniquely fulfilling career path.

[lishsblog]

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