#adag for ts

[aiscapades]

ts m5 as cinderella's castle songs!

🐸 come along with me to bog's hollow for a side quest ♡

leander — facade, neon vere — step on your grave, watch ais — last forever, ash to ash mhin — castle on a hill, cursed crazy kuras — ever after, trappings of starlight

explanations:

leander

facade: this is the MOST LEANDER song EVER. and it's a fucking BANGER!! i am screaming this at you. this is THE song of this whole musical. it's the evil stepmother SERVING CUNT on a silver platter talking about how she skins humans in order to wear their flesh as disguises for her & her daughters. did you know that's the plot of this muscial?? do you see why it's so leander??? i'm shaking you by the shoulders way too hard. the line "i don't forget my roots / i just pluck them out of the shit" is leander turning away from his wealthy upbringing to rebuild from the ground up in lowtown. "i look good in this / my facade won't let me down / no one notices that my soul is inside out" LEANDERRR YOU ARE A SICK TWISTED MAN. "my truth is skin-deep and oblique" HE'S FULL OF SECRETS DO YOU KNOW THIS "i'm good to play the part / until i break your heart" HE'S GOING TO USE YOU. HE'S ALREADY USING YOU. YOU DONT EVEN HAVE TO BE INTO HIM HE'S ALREADY PUPPETING YOU. YOU'RE ALREADY PLAYING INTO HIS LONG CON. YOU'RE ALREADY FUCKED MAN YOU SHOULDNT HAVE LOOKED IN HIS DIRECTION. "i'll try it on / i'll take it for a spin" he will play whatever role he needs to in order to get what he wants. this whole song is his villain monologue if he was a contestant on rupaul's drag race. does that make sense (??) neon: this song is soo leander seeing mc across the bar and being enraptured at first sight. i had assigned it to ais at first, which still works, but i moved it to leander bc 1. the actual imagery reminds me of leander presenting mc with the magic lily :) and 2. well it kinda has sub vibes if you really read into the lyrics. for example: "radiate my life / burn me with your fire / bend my space and time / let me be your martyr" leander's got ulterior motives for sure, but he'll let you use him a lil bit too if you know what i mean.. "you know i will not ever sleep at night" firstly, leander doesn't sleep, he's chugging monster and sucking the life essence out of orphans. or something. the second part "you walk in lookin' like a neon light / no sense in turning you off" read to me like leander sitting back and observing mc in order to further plot and plan.. there's no need to directly make mc do anything. he's not gonna outright force mc to stop seeing the other LIs. but he will always be watching from the sidelines to see if you take his advice, heed his warnings. y'know the old adage about how abusive men want a submissive woman but they always go after those who are independent in order to break them down. it's giving me that. leander is fascinated by mc and is absolutely gonna pull some strings, but he's also content just keeping an eye on them for now. controlling them in subtle ways. seeing how this plays out. i should probably mention this song is the prince singing about being bewitched by ella's magical disguise, but he's just a gross pervert and isn't actually looking for love. so there's inherently ulterior motives in the song due to the narrative; it's not a genuine love song, and i think that's why i ultimately decided to assign this to leander instead of ais (THAT'S NOT A DISS OK)

vere

step on your grave: rebellious teenage girl vere makes a comeback :) this is a "i want that bitch dead" song that i think fits vere's relationship with his handlers and the senobium. it opens with ella talking about how her life was meant to go as the daughter of a respected family: "i was raised to be appraised / path was paved, dress was made" which parallels how vere was once revered as a god. he was once looked up to, feared, worshipped. he was once something, but now he's reduced to a mere hunting dog. in the song, ella is preparing food for her stepmother & sisters, but given they are trolls, the ingredients are pretty nasty, from frog guts to entire cats to maggot soup. she's disgusted and sick of this routine, which i think is a bit like vere getting sick of having to consume all these low-quality, tasteless souls... i can't imagine what he's hunting gives him much satisfaction at this point. mc was probably the yummiest yet. anyway, ella goes on to fantasize about putting her stepmother in a grave. "'cause i wish you nothin' but defeat / and i want nothin' for you but the least / and i know you're wishing i'd be sweet and behave / i want to step on your grave" AMENNN vere deserves to stomp his handlers imo watch: maybe i'm too presumptious when it comes to these things, but i only know so much about these characters and my mind definitely assigns certain tropes to them. vere gets rebellious teenage girl and :) girlboss sadism <3. if it's cunty and freaky and dark, it's vere to me. this song is all those things. it's stepmother severing ella's foot (à la the grimm cinderella tale) while she's forced to watch and feel alllll the pain & fear. very reminiscent of vere hunting and consuming mc alive <3 the song opens "my god, you're so lucky / for me to appear in your life / you were itching for a thrill / something to catch your eye" which reminds me of how vere seduces(?) people? i'm thinking of the trailer scene with all the hands grabbing at him. either way, he certainly uses his good looks and charming wit to take down people's guard, and he pities easy prey. "i want you to watch / watch what happens / ... i want you to watch what i'm doing / the gore is half the thrill / the searing pain within you / won't go away until / you watch." idk i think vere should stomp his handlers lmaooo. i would love to see him break free from his chains and become a venerated god once again. "pain will come before pleasure / and the pleasure will be mine" i hope so pookie <3

ais

last forever: WALK WITH ME WALK WITH ME this song is right after ella learns her childhood friends will be visiting in order to attend the upcoming ball, and for the first time in so long, ella will be able to feel like a normal person again. she can sing and dance and chitchat and wear her pretty dresses and not have to worry about being the servant of monstrous trolls. she sings about how she hopes this feeling lasts forever. "i've been thinking about this day as long as i remember / and i've been dreaming about how i can make it last / if i close my eyes i can see the best in front of me / ... this day will last forever" now i'm putting emphasis on that last line because, unfortunately, her two childhood friends do come to stay.. as skinsuits for her stepsisters. she wanted so badly to pretend everything is okay when it just never was and never could be. to me, this is like ais, burdened by loneliess, entering the pact with ocudeus thinking he'll never have to be alone again, but instead entering his own living nightmare. the faces of ella's childhood best friends twisted over the form of bloodthirsty trolls = the dozens of mangled voices echoing in ais's head at all times. ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME HERE?? you still got what you wanted! your expectations for it were just too high. ash to ash: ok so this is my favorite song. no it's not bc it has my name. no im not emotionally attached to cinderella she's not my favorite princess bc of the ash/cinder thing. why are you accusing me of such things im trying to MAKE A MUSICAL ANALYSIS TUMBLR POST FOR TOUCHSTARVED THE GAME. anyway this song is fucking awesome and i first associated it with kuras bc it's sung by a goddess and has lots of fire/starlight imagery which imo is biblical. but honestly? i thought abt it more and i changed my mind. it's for ais. at this point in the musical, ella accidentally summons the fairy queen of sweet dreams through the blood of her fallen friends and the righteous fury in her heart. the god asks ella what she desires, and ella tamely responds that she wishes for the world to be a good place. the goddess is offended by this lie and tells ella to share her true feelings. ella responds that she actually wants revenge, and the goddess is pleased to hear this, singing "it all turns to ash and ash / and dust to dust / there's nothing left but a vengeful lust / ... when the light goes out / only fire is just." she uses her power to bestow gifts and blessings upon ella in order for her to achieve this desire, much like how ocudeus bestows ais with power to serve a greater purpose. the fairy queen isn't afraid to give ella all she needs to destroy her enemies. she wants ella to achieve her deepest desire, no matter how much bloodshed that may cost. she almost seems to revel in the thought of bloodshed. she tells ella, "i forge you these three gifts / for your just intention / against your opposition / use them." ella asks "wisely?" and the fairy queen corrects, "hardly." this just reminded me of ocudeus wanting ais to know he's allowed to hurt others, recruit others, do whatever he wants for the greater purpose. these eldritch gods are gifting them power and they want it to be used. "a god will see that your enemies run."

mhin

castle on a hill: this opening song of the muscial is representative of the senobium's perception to outsiders and those desperate for the secrets within, like mhin or even mc. "there's a castle on the hill as the story goes / and it watches over us from across the moat / there are tales in those halls / are they true or are they tall?" the ivory tower senobium lords over its citizens with secrecy, much like the eponymous castle on the hill; with this power and secrecy comes speculation on what goes on behind the walls. this song is the townsfolk recounting theories and stories while wondering if the castle would ever let them in to see for themselves. "it watches us from its looming tower... i worship its sheer size / oh, the ballads it must hide / i need to know, will i ever know?" the first mc sees of mhin (in the demo) is them trying to scale the walls and enter the senobium. we know they want inside but we can only guess what for (a cure? answers? revolution?) and, similar to mc or other unknowing outsiders, they seem to idealize whatever the senobium holds. maybe they know something we don't, or maybe they're just holding out hope that the senobium will live up to its mythologized reputation. cursed crazy: i have a lot of sympathy for mhin's curse situation, which is why i love any kind of angst for them. sorry <3 this song is all the townsfolk ostracizing ella for having gone mad after the death of her parents. nobody believes what ella claims, and she seems batshit crazy with all the talk of murder plots and trolls in skinsuits. "cursed or crazy? / ... the guilt she's got, she's overwrought / that paranoid look, like the town is talking behind her back / lock her away! / destined to join her mother at the stake / weird and eccentric / completely estranged!" mhin is overly cautious about getting close to other people and prefers to keep solo, probably for a lot of reasons, but most notably i think they fear hurting innocent people above all else. they would already be ostracized because of their monstrosity but they choose it for themself anyway, so they're doubly alone. in the demo, you get the sense others almost blame mhin for being such a recluse (like leander trying to get them to open up, or vere teasing them) but we know there are definitely underlying reasons why mhin would rather keep to themself. i think this dynamic reflects ella's perspective in the song with all the townsfolk looking down on her, oblivious to the horrorific reasoning. there are also the lines "when fighting your demons alone / you know you're fucked or fated / destiny couldn't be sicker / whether you want it or not" which gives the doomed by the narartive vibes i associate with mhin.

kuras

ever after: he who is laden with guilt and must repent,, i bestow upon him this song about not knowing if you will achieve (or even deserve) a happy ending. "just as the rain might fall / i've been bracing for years / has living with pain / eroded the last of my fears? / am i ready?" if a beautiful angel lived centuries on earth in order to make up for mistakes in heaven,, would he no longer fear his demise? would he acquiesce just as humans do to mortality? would he accept his punishment and finally free himself of all the guilt just so he may die in peace? "kings rise, kings fall / ... is it my time, or was it long ago? / will it ever after happily? / or will it all turn to dust?" or will he get to live, free of penance, finally? orrrrr will the harbiger of chaos and ruin make a return as the world succumbs to biblical destruction? you tell me (also a bunch of lyrics from other songs make a reappearance, which to me is fitting for kuras since he seems to be a pretty neutral touchstone for all the Lis in one way or another) trappings of starlight: strangely fitting how we're ending on the last full song of the musical ... well trappings of starlight is a "we won!" song with an heavy, underlying sadness for those that couldn't make it to the end. it also has some symbolism from ash to ash that fits well for kuras if you recall what i said about that in ais's section. "in trappings of starlight / all of the people / will get back together now / sunset and sunrise / fearsome and regal / ashes belie a crown" i think sunset & sunrise, fearsome & regal are apt descriptions for an angel, and even more than that, ashes belie a crown is soooo holy hellfire to me. the trappings of starlight is ella's dress crafted from the last flickering light in the eternal dark, infused with magic (and very irradiated glass coded) and due to this, when the prince tries to remember her face after the ball, he can only see fire and starlight. much like if you happened to encounter an angel! "i know you're worthy / for what we've been through / an unforgiving journey / but we've arrived at the truth" doesn't kuras just want to be worthy? of love, of forgiveness, of hope? i think he feels very removed from these rather ordinary things, whether bc of his extraordinary nature or because he was deemed unworthy of them in the past. whatever the case may be, i think this song fits him well. "gracious and lethal / lifting the heavy crown" like that's just kuras. "my love will be fierce! / and your love will be missed" is because mc will perish long before kuras ever will, just as all the others that preceeded them... but he won't love mc with any less conviction, with any less heart.

[alexesguerra]

Bee Tarot Bee Tarot Contributor(s): Hughes, Kristoffer (Author) , Turner, Nadia (Author) Publisher: Llewellyn Publications Physical Info: 2.05" H x 8.35" L x 5.67" W (1.85 lbs) "We follow the keeper's journey into the magical world of bees, and learn about their life-cycle and their mythological and cultural qualities. There's an old adage which runs 'Ask the wild bee what the old druids knew' and this is perfectly encapsulated in this deck and book set." --Watkins: Mind Body Spirit Biographical Note: Kristoffer Hughes (Wales) is Chief of the Anglesey Druid Order, a Mount Haemus Scholar, and a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. He is a teacher, writer, workshop leader, and guest speaker at Pagan conferences, camps, and festivals throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, and North America. Hughes worked professionally for His Majesty's Coroner for over thirty years. He is a Welsh language television presenter and actor. He's the author of From the Cauldron Born, The Book of Celtic Magic, As the Last Leaf Falls (previously titled The Journey into Spirit), and Cerridwen, as well as the creator of both the Celtic Tarot and the Yuletide Tarot. Visit his Facebook page for news and events. You can also visit him at www.AngleseyDruidOrder.co.uk. Nadia Turner is an artist who creates wayward wonders out of a little studio up in the magical Dandenong Ranges just outside of Melbourne. Her illustrations are heavily influenced by ancient myth, fairytales, witchcraft, and the worlds of the Fae. She graduated with a Diploma of Illustration from Melbourne Polytechnic in 2005 and has since worked as an illustrator and artist, exhibiting in a number of solo and group shows within Australia and overseas. She has created illustrations for a variety of clients from within the publishing industry as well as commissions for private individuals and businesses. She also illustrated several children's books, The Mists of Avalon Oracle, and the Bee Tarot. Visit her at NadiaTurner.com.au. Contributor Bio:Hughes, Kristoffer Kristoffer Hughes (Wales) is Chief of the Anglesey Druid Order, a Mount Haemus Scholar, and a member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. He is a teacher, writer, workshop leader, and guest speaker at Pagan conferences, camps, and festivals throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, and North America. Hughes worked professionally for His Majesty's Coroner for over thirty years. He is a Welsh language television presenter and actor. He's the author of From the Cauldron Born, The Book of Celtic Magic, As the Last Leaf Falls (previously titled The Journey into Spirit), and Cerridwen, as well as the creator of both the Celtic Tarot and the Yuletide Tarot. Visit his Facebook page for news and events. You can also visit him at www.AngleseyDruidOrder.co.uk. Contributor Bio:Turner, Nadia Nadia Turner is an artist who creates wayward wonders out of a little studio up in the magical Dandenong Ranges just outside of Melbourne. Her illustrations are heavily influenced by ancient myth, fairytales, witchcraft, and the worlds of the Fae. She graduated with a Diploma of Illustration from Melbourne Polytechnic in 2005 and has since worked as an illustrator and artist, exhibiting in a number of solo and group shows within Australia and overseas. She has created illustrations for a variety of clients from within the publishing industry as well as commissions for private individuals and businesses. She also illustrated several children's books, The Mists of Avalon Oracle, and the Bee Tarot. Visit her at NadiaTurner.com.au.

[katt-katt]

I... made a stupid thing

[millababicheva]

ur probably a water pokemon bc you seem fairly chill but you could also probably kill a man

i mean…………………. you’re not wrong……. i accept this is Good and i also have a lot of love in my heart for water pokemon

what pokemon type do you think i am?

[sharpegirl]

What's the deal with clocks, why do they feature so prominently in your novels? Do they stand for something and I'm just missing the symbolism?

I've honestly never noticed that clocks feature prominently in my novels! Do they really? Now I'm sitting here thinking and I can't really grasp any prominent clock moments, but it's been years since I've read most of my books, so there might be!

There is a number element to my novels: a recovering addict keeping track of the days they've stayed clean, a heroine tracks her evolution from child to ruler of a crime family via flashbacks that are introduced by her age, the countdown in the bank robbery, along with tracking plans and assets, the fact that I wrote an entire book structured around exactly 6 almost kisses...

The number thing, beyond just being practical structural anchors for my readers because my books hop around in a timeline, is probably my OCD more than anything, if we're being real.

I'm not a number person in a math sense but I'm very fixated on certain patterns and how things sound and repetition in certain amounts (if you look at my writing closely, I do what I call "triplets" a lot, where it's a list of three emotions/things/thoughts/etc).

I tend to be pretty straightforward (and double-down!) on my metaphors and symbolism. I am not what I would view as a "pretty" or "fancy" writer. I don't think I write pretty at all (and sometimes I really wish I could because I love pretty writing as a reader!) But I'm kind of a blunt weapon, writing-wise. Like, I find a few metaphors I think work and I zero in on the variations of it and find ways to thread it through the whole narrative.

In The Girls I've Been, the "tilting ground" is the main metaphor for Nora's life and it's brought up a lot. In Barbed Wire Heart, Duke's repeated adages "McKennas always win" and "Only way, Harley-girl" really define and box Harley in as a character. In 6 Times We Almost Kissed, Tate's internalized that "some girls don't get some things" and it's a phrase that really defines her life as the child of a chronically ill mother and her outlook and why she keeps holding herself back from what she wants.

TLDR: I actually didn't realize I had a thing about clocks! Sometimes what might come off as a deliberate choice is totally random or happenstance! This is what's cool about writing and literary analysis: sometimes people identify patterns or things in your work you don't even realize you were doing!

-TS

[some-f-opinions]

The "Olympicgasm" Ends Today. Then, What?

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics (thank you COVID for this eternal quiz question - When was the 2020 Olympics held?) ends today, and India finishes 48th, ranked based on some sorting algorithm that prefers Gold medal over overall medal tally (surely some South-Indian was on that decision meeting. Yahh, Racist Alert!). This was the largest contingent ever sent to the Olympics by India and has also been its most successful. The first Indian athletics Gold Medal, the resurgence of Indian Hockey, and the marvellous performances apart, it also showcased the potency that we have been underplaying for ages, that our sportsperson can reach out and challenge the best in the world. 7 medals in total doesn’t speak volumes when we boast of one of the worst per capita medal counts, however that “capita” did raise its capitum this time around.

This edition of the Olympics noticed the largest viewership in India. Each event that Indians participated was covered. The wins were cheered, the losses were sympathised with, statuses had their frenzy game along with posts and tweets and reels and stories and what not. WhatsApp forwards in groups had a daily match schedule in it. Mornings began with an update of the leader boards. We watched the 50km walk, the heats of the races, and yes, a solo Indian horse and its companion (don’t say master) making India proud. And cumulatively as a nation we gasped, choked on our tears, drank in our emotions, cherished the moments, and were elated at every feat achieved – irrespective of a victory or a loss, irrespective of podium or farewell – for us they were the winners. When Neeraj Chopra took that last throw, that Javelin was headed straight for glory, of Olympics, of Indian sports fraternity, of Indian audiences glued to the scores, and a biopic, maybe. “The journey not the arrival matters”, TS Eliot had written – but is it, really?

If you are reading this on the 8th of August 2021, then the Olympic ends today, and with it a fairy-tale ends too. What happens from 9th? What changes? We get back again to see whether India wins on the 5thday or not, or get on our work. That’s it.

“Citius, Altius, Fortius – Communiter” reads the revised Olympic motto. “Communiter” was added to exemplify “the togetherness” that we should have for the sports – but in a greater truer sense, do we? How far are we from forgetting all this – a Kohli century away? A Bumrah fiver away? A Premiere League Puskas goal nominee away? – How far are we?

I, You, We can name the all the players who have played for Indian Men’s Cricket Team since the 2000s, name each position that Messi has ever played, and some more and something else. But can we name all the players of our hockey teams? Do we know who all even participated in athletics? Did we know any others before they won us a medal? Yes, won us a medal – while they were fighting against obscurity and obstacles to beat humans trained in world-class institutions or similar scenarios – we basked in their medals. There is no malafide intent in basking in their glory, forgetting them like a beach tan surely is a maleficent act.

These performers will withstand the scourge of time, their medals will, their victories will and even their defeats will – what will we be left with? Politicisation of their descent, a mockery of their caste, or just an attitude of indifference towards them, for those who did not win a medal, aren’t worth remembering, and those who did are worth for some hours more. Whilst I can enlist each series India has won or lost and the events inter-alia. In a population of half a billion adults who have access to some sort of media, 1 million saw the Olympics. Guess the number that clocked in for the Test Championship? And no one is to blame, as we are the perpetrators as a community. We are a class of sloganeers, an age of idol-creators, a community of tweeters and followers, what we aren’t is that we are not beholders of this beauty that we witnessed in the past 2 weeks.

A tweet is doing the rounds, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” And thus, what shall we wait for – the decade or the week? Will in this coming decade more parents send their children towards sports. Forget “them”, in the next decade the ones reading this most likely would be parents, I will be a parent – will they, will I – maybe now I say yes, the Halo Effect – but what about a decade later, and the next decade or the decade thence? So, again we will wait for a week that will define the entire decade, or more to come. We will wait for those weeks to make ourselves proud, proud of the bygone 520 weeks where we did nothing to deserve this 1. Thus, and thus, it will happen again, or not – no one knows.

No one in their right minds can take anything away from these sportspersons, neither their glory nor their vain. What will erase is a meek show of profound vanity that we presumed has exculpated us from all those years of wilful turning away the eye. Whether or not we expunge these stars from our horizon or not, they will shine bright for those who have a cloudless conscience and a penchant to look in the right direction.

The epitaph of one of history’s greatest astronomers Sir William Herschel reads, “Coelorum Perrupit Claustra” (he broke through the confines of heaven) – similarly maybe someday our stars will break free from their asylums of obscurity, and we from our ceilings of sporadic sincerity.

Olympics, sports, and those who profess it are too venerable to be compared with the adage “-gasm”, and if taken as profanity, then with apologies, I will beg to differ. However, when scribbling the details that’s what kept coming to me – these past weeks were just moments of elation, a spurt of joy, a plateau of comradery, and then will decline into just a thing once. “La petit mort”shouldn’t be how we treat our athletes, and gratification from them isn’t what we should treat ourselves too either.

And till the next fortnight of glory – let us let the whoosh of the javelin in air, the burn of the skids of track, the scoops of the sticks, the swoosh of the shuttle, the twangs of the bows, the recoils of the guns, the force of the pins, the elegance of the jumps, and above all the sacrifice, courage, valour and achievement of these men and women, from amongst us be the clarion call that was essential but was being ignored.

Let’s Wake Up!

[fathercharlesoffdensen]

Summary: Doctor Donald Blake pays a visit to the God of Stories; as the adage goes (sort of), when the God of Thunder is away, his human proxy will prey.

Notes: For patientalien. This will be 3,000% non-canonical as soon as Issue #10 of Donny Cates' current Thor (2020) comic run hits the shelves this week, for several reasons, but my interest was piqued when Donald Blake acknowledged his and Loki's shared history, and this eventually popped out. The title comes from Fleming & John's "I'm So Small," and the list of prompts was graciously cribbed from Tumblr user @peekbelowthesurface. This story is dedicated to mah wife (it is her birthday in a week, huzzah!), as well as Iktomi, the arachnoid cyst currently taking up precious space in my brain. I love you, bro, but I think the time has come for you to get your own place.

[mariemoret]

Millions of Patriots have laid down their lives, fighting to protect our freedoms and our country, we can sacrifice likes on social media and cheap consumer products to save our country, our sovereignty. This is our Normandy Beach. This is the hill on which we should be willing to die.

As a coach, when your players continue to make the same mistakes over and over again, there is an old adage that says, “you’re either coaching it, or you’re letting it happen.” Either scenario places the blame for the players’ continual mistakes squarely on the coach. Looking at our politics and our society in general, and seeing how far we have moved away from the original vision of our founding, how corrupt our politicians on both sides of the aisle have become, how equally corrupt our media is, and how much power and influence we have handed to social media giants to further corrupt our politicians and media, I ask the question, are we promoting all this or simply allowing it to happen? After all that we have found out about the political censorship by Facebook, Twitter, and Google during this election cycle, and all the money they spent to corrupt our political process, why is anyone who loves America and believes in what our founding documents stand for, still using any of those platforms? Every one of the 70+ million people who voted for Donald Trump should delete their Twitter and Facebook accounts right now, and start using neutral search engines like DuckDuckGo instead of Google, for their blatant censorship of conservatives and naked promotion of Democrats. These social media giants unfairly influenced the outcome of the election with their biased algorithms skewing our searches to favor Democrats and blatant censorship of Republicans. The Hunter Biden story was censored by Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram while these platforms shut down the accounts of Republicans and right-leaning newspapers. This is the stuff that happens in third-world banana republics or totalitarian Marxist regimes. We, as people, are either promoting this Marxist/leftist take-over of our country, or we are simply allowing it to happen. If we continue to use these platforms and put money and power into the hands of the billionaires in Silicon Valley who are in bed with the Chinese Communist Party, and are using their money and power to promote politicians who are in bed with the CCP, then we deserve what we get. We will lose the American dream. We will lose the rights and protections of our Constitution. The more we climb into bed with the Chinese Communist Party, the more their politics will seep in and infiltrate our country, our politics, our psyche. Regardless of how big their economy is, do we want to live like the average Chinese citizen, slaves of the state with rigged elections and one-party rule? I deleted my Facebook and Twitter accounts about 3 years ago, and it was one of the most liberating decisions I ever made. Once I was off those platforms for about a week, I realized how much emotional control they had over me, and I also realized how unnecessary and superficial those platforms really are. We don’t need to be liked by five thousand people; we need to be loved by about five. Maybe, these platforms will be embedded into our collective future forever, and maybe I’m a relic of days gone by, but if I’m a relic, then so is our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, the American Dream. Because those platforms are working to destroy these founding principles, and our national vision. Does anyone believe that the socialist agenda that will be foisted upon us will be fair and evenly distributed? Or will it be like the free speech offered by Twitter and Facebook, only given to the like-minded? We can stick our heads in the sand and tell ourselves that China is our ally, as they steal our intellectual property, insert spies into high levels of our government and academia, buy off our political and economic elites, use unfair trade practices, manipulate their currency, enslave their people and pollute the world, just so we can buy cheap sneakers and computers which further enriches Silicon Valley billionaires and Wall Street financiers while hollowing out our middle class and destroying our manufacturing. This threat we are facing is both insidious and pervasive. But the “price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” Finish at link below

[lokis-realm]

Pairing: Loki/Tony Stark

Length: 166728

Rating: Mature

Summary: The Avengers couldn't have imagined a year after the devastation in New York they'd be providing safe harbor to the very man they fought so hard to defeat. But with an unknown enemy after Loki for knowledge of a deadly weapon, perhaps the old adage 'Keep friends close and enemies closer' is simply the wisest course of action. And Loki isn't the only unhappy one.

[louisdebraganza]

I think we are doing that thing where we expect people who have no feeling for our needs, to pull something out of the bag and solve our problems when what we need to do is to find alternative solutions to our current problem. Relying on a vaccine can be ruinous. I'm talking about smaller performances/smaller audiences in an environment which does not act as an incubator and in some cases a hiatus of occupation. The airlines, currently, are not expecting a return of any kind of volume operation for 4 or 5 years and for the time being, that seems reasonable. Does that mean that we should raise the white flag? It's never a good day to raise the white flag. God Bless.

[ayearinlanguage]

A Year in Language 277: German German is a West Germanic language, like English and Dutch, spoken by over 100 million people, most of whom live in Germany and Austria. It is the most widely spoken native language in the European Union. German is a pluricentric language i.e. having multiple standards. In fact, the whole of German history is defined by pluricentricality. For most of its history the region we know as Germany has been populated by a number of smaller independent states of some kind, sometimes confederated or united by empire, and sometimes not. The primary bond has always been linguistic, though even this is mostly only apparent when compared to the surrounding languages; Romantic Italian and French to the South and West, Slavic languages like Polish to the East, and North Germanic to the, you guessed it, North. German's diverse nature has made it the poster child for dialect continuums for centuries. It starts in the north, with the almost Dutch-like Low German or Plaatdeutsch, goes down to central dialects from which Standard High German is derived, and from there goes both West to the Franconian dialects (Luxembourgish) and south to the Upper German languages (Swiss German and Bavarian). Most of these polar varieties are not mutually intelligible with one another. Once again, and not for the last time, recall Max Weinreich's adage "A language is a dialect with an army and a navy". Indeed, that quote was made in Yiddish, which although it is more similar to High German than some of the "dialects" we call German is considered a different language. The historical phonological process that both distinguishes German from its other West Germanic sisters and produced the structure of the dialect continuum is called, rather plainly, the "High German Consonant Shift". It is also sometimes called the second Germanic consonant shift, as it is similar to the original sound change, known today as Grimm's Law, that separates the Germanic languages from other Indo-European languages. Like the first, this was a process of "softening" consonants, turning stops (/p/, /t/, /k/) into fricatives (/f/, /s/, /x/) or affricates (/pf/, /ts/, /kx/). The Low German dialects were exposed to this the least, while Upper German dialects have undergone it completely. Comically, German's common reputation as a "harsh" sounding language is statistically in error: it has the most softened consonants and one of the largest vowel inventories of any European language. A history of being barbarians extending back to Roman times is hard to overcome. German itself is a fusional language with four cases. Information about case is carried almost exclusively on the determiner, words like English "a/an" and "the". Its preferred word order changes depending on whether you are in a main or subordinate clause: main clause are SVO, Subject-Verb-Object (technically a more free variant called V2) while subordinate clauses are SOV, subject verb object. Thus the English phrase "I saw the cat who chased the mouse" in German would be ordered "I saw the cat who the mouse chased".

[millababicheva]

otabek, guang hong, and minami?

otabek altin - what’s a misconception others tend to have about you?

the biggest one is probably that i’m like a super smart genius “Typical Asian” kid who gets straight As all the time without even trying like,, my grades say otherwise but sure

guang hong ji - list a few things you find adorable

pets. like literally all pets are all good and cute

sjfklasjf babies. particularly my little cousins

the entirety of my cute tag

um

penguins? penguins are so cute i love them

minami kenjirou - is there someone you look up to?

at the moment uhh,, not really? i don’t have a constant source of inspiration, but my english teacher from my sophomore year comes to mind she’s,, a mess but like, an organized mess. a good mess. talk about #goals lol

send a character!

[calvin-af-crone]

so strange... he's back in Ibiza... but what about the beloved in London? they see each other so little, strange relationship

No stranger than his relationships w/ Rita & TS. Ya'know, the old adage, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." The second part often gets left off, "Familiarity breeds contempt." Maybe one or both of them are afraid of fully exposing who they are.

[sinmenonsims]

EA tried 3 times to make The Sims a online game: first with The Sims Online, then with the facebook app The Sims Social, and when the Sim City reboot was a disaster they scrapped the plans to make The Sims 4 an online experience. The adage goes that the third time is the charm, but the third already came and went.

I have TS4 and a few expansions, but never had the drive to try it. Not after learning it was even more restrictive than TS1 in some aspects. 

I certainly wouldn’t mind a few ‘story’ expansions, like how it was done in Castaway or the handheld games being integrated to it. Well, the pre-made families from TS2 have their storylines that happens when you fiddle with them. But that shouldn’t be the focus.

Moreover, I feel that there are two important communities: the youtubers (that, admittedly, I don’t know much about the TS youtube scene) and the content creators. Unless they are planning to do something like Second Life, the online experience would slash this portion of the community. But, if I wanted to play Second Life I would play Second Life and not The Sims.

Welp, is EA won’t respect me or my money I suppose I’ll keep on playing TS2....